Editing Linton, North Dakota (section)

==History==
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 | header = '''The 4th of July Celebration in Linton, 1907''' 
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 | caption1 = Parade down Broadway, the year after the community was incorporated as a village
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 | caption2 = Item from "The City" column of ''The Bismarck Tribune'' describing the day's festivities.<ref>{{cite journal |title= THE CITY - The Fourth at Linton|journal=The Bismarck Tribune|date=July 7, 1907|pages=5}}</ref>
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In August 1898, land located in the geographic center of Emmons County in Section 7 of Township 132 North, Range 76 West, of the [[Fifth Principal Meridian]], was surveyed and platted by W.E. Petrie into lots, streets and alleys<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ndemmons/mapstownhistorywilliamsport.htm|title=Emmons County, North Dakota - History and Stories of Williamsport|publisher=The USGenWeb Project|access-date=August 31, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703074134/http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ndemmons/mapstownhistorywilliamsport.htm|archive-date=July 3, 2014}}</ref> explicitly for the purpose of creating a seat for Emmons County.  The site was named Linton, after George W. Lynn, who had settled in Emmons County in 1885. He was a farmer, lawyer, Emmons County's first States Attorney and for a while was the publisher of the Emmons County ''Free Press''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lintonnd.org/history.htm|title=Linton North Dakota|access-date=November 4, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091227083213/http://lintonnd.org/history.htm|archive-date=December 27, 2009}}. Linton, North Dakota History - Linton's History by Historian, Ellen Woods. Centennial July 2–4, 1999. Retrieved October 2, 2009</ref> The plat was filed with the register of deeds on December 30, 1898.  Linton was incorporated as a [[village]] on April 26, 1906; and incorporated as a [[city]] on April 6, 1914. Charles Patterson, editor of the ''Emmons County Republican'', was Linton's first postmaster, having received his commission for the post in March 1899.<ref>{{cite journal|last=UPI|title=THE CITY|journal=The Bismarck Tribune|date=March 18, 1899|pages=3}}</ref>

Linton received its first connection via long-distance telephone in 1905 when the Northwestern Telephone Exchange Company established a line from Fargo to Bismarck and created a branch line to Linton. At the same time Bismarck was connected to the line of the South Dakota system so that each of the communities could communicate with each other in this way.<ref>{{cite journal|last=UPI|title=Long Distance Phones|journal=The Bismarck Tribune|date=July 5, 1905|pages=3}}</ref>

===Notable persons from Linton===
Roman Catholic bishop [[Austin Anthony Vetter]] was born in Linton.<ref>[http://www.usccb.org/news/2019/19-171.cfm Pope Francis Appoints Reverend Austin A. Vetter as Bishop of the Diocese of Bismarck]</ref>

===The creation of Linton===
[[File:Township_135N_Range_76W_Emmons_County_1916.png|225px|thumb|left|Map of Township 135N, Range 76W, showing the location of the town of Williamsport in Section 15. Image from ''Standard Atlas of Emmons County, North Dakota, including a Plat Book of the Villages, Cities and Townships in the County, etc.'' by George A. Ogle & Co., Publishers & Engravers, Chicago, 1916]]
[[File:Linton Courhouse 1913 Smith Studios.png|225px|thumb|left|The first courthouse in Linton, built in 1901 and designed by Milton E. Beebe (1840–1922), architect, Fargo, North Dakota.<ref>{{cite journal |title= Proposals for Court House|journal=The Bismarck Tribune|date=November 30, 1900|pages=4}}</ref>]]
[[File:Stone Hotel.png|thumb|225px|left|The Stone Hotel c.1913, was owned and operated by Dr. Rolly Hogue and was considered to be "the most elaborately furnished" of the three in town and therefore "commanded the highest rates".<ref>{{cite journal |title= LINTON - The Town with a Splendid Past and a More Brilliant Future. A Place of Good Homes and Industrious People and Boosting Business Men|journal=The Bismarck Tribune|date=June 5, 1914|pages=5}}</ref> Dr. Hogue was also the owner of the local drug store and the physician of the family of the entertainer [[Lawrence Welk]]<ref>{{cite web| url=http://library.ndsu.edu/repository/bitstream/handle/10365/11863/WelkCollection002.pdf/| title=Finding Aid to the Rolly and Pat Hogue's Lawrence Welk Collection| publisher=NDSU - Institute for Regional Studies & University Archives - North Dakota State University Archives| access-date=2014-08-31}}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>]].
The creation of Linton was the result of a political dispute between residents in the northern half of [[Emmons County, North Dakota|Emmons County]] and those in the southern half. In 1885, two years after the county was officially organized, the county seat was in the town of Williamsport, which was located in the northern half of the county in Township 135N, Range 76W, Section 15 on the east side of what is today 9th Ave. SE between 62nd St. SE and the vacated 63rd St. SE,<ref>{{cite book |title=Standard Atlas of Emmons County North Dakota, INCLUDING A PLAT BOOK of the Villages, Cities and Townships of the County |year=1916 |publisher=Geo. A. Ogle & Company, Publishers and Engravers|location=Chicago |pages=not paginated - Map of Township 135 N., Range 76 W., Hazelton Township}}</ref>  two and a half miles northeast of Hazelton. The people in the southern half were upset because the county seat was so far away and most of the county leaders were from the north. Moreover, the northern part was more densely settled than the southern part, so this created problems when it came time to vote because the higher population numbers gave "Northerners" greater influence on issues. Eventually, it was decided to take a vote to see if residents favored dividing the county in two. If successful, the northern half would continue to be named Emmons—with Williamsport remaining the county seat—while the southern half would be named Winona with the town of [[Winona, North Dakota|Winona]] serving as the new county seat of government.
When the votes were tallied, residents had decided against splitting the county. However this did not end the dispute, and the effort to move the seat of government from Williamsport to Winona continued. Three votes were taken during the 1880s and 1890s. The first two failed completely. The third resulted in a decision to move the county seat to the center of the county and create a new town, which eventually become the city of Linton. People in the North still wanted to keep the seat at Williamsport, however, so they preferred charges claiming that the election was "fraudulent and illegal",<ref>{{cite journal |title= COUNTY SEAT MOVED - Some Emmons County People Reported to Have Forcibly Moved Records to Linton - Too Impatient to Brook Such Obstacles as the Formality of the Law - An Unexpected Development in the Fight Between Williamsport and Linton - Moved it Anyway |journal=The Bismarck Tribune|date=January 27, 1899|pages=3}}</ref> and obtained a court injunction to prevent the move. Southerners became so incensed by this action that they went to Williamsport in January 1899 to take possession of the county records and transfer them to the new county seat. The men were armed, and they met no resistance and took the records, including, according to an account by then-constable John Bartu, a two-ton safe (this safe is now in the collection of the Emmons County Museum in Linton<ref>{{cite web| url=http://lintonnd.org/ECHistSociety.pdf| title=Explore the Emmons County Museum| publisher=lintonnd.org| access-date=September 1, 2014}}</ref>). No charges were brought against the men, although the Williamsport interests succeeded in having the records brought back to their city and causing another election to be ordered which would require the approval of a majority of two-thirds of the voters to have Linton retain its position as county seat (this election was never held).<ref>{{cite journal |title= NEW ELECTION - New Election for the Location of the County Seat Ordered in Emmons County|journal=The Bismarck Tribune|date=November 2, 1899|pages=3}}</ref> Although the records were brought back to Linton,<ref>{{cite journal |title= COUNTY SEAT GOES TO LINTON|journal=The Bismarck Tribune|date=February 8, 1899|pages=3}}</ref> the case dragged on in the courts for several months, during which time it was expected that it would end up in the state supreme court.<ref>{{cite journal |title= COURT IN EMMONS - Judge Winchester Leaves to Hold the Regular June Term of Court |journal=The Bismarck Tribune|date=June 12, 1900|pages=3}}</ref> The matter was finally settled when E.S. Allen, the attorney for the people of Williamsport, moved that the case be dismissed,<ref>{{cite journal |title= COUNTY SEAT - CONTEST OVER THE COUNTY SEAT IN EMMONS COUNTY IS FINALLY SETTLED AND COUNTY SEAT REMAINS IN LINTON|journal=The Bismarck Tribune|date=June 14, 1900|pages=3}}</ref> whereby the city of Linton prevailed and the seat of Emmons County has remained there ever since. As a result of losing its position as the county seat, and because the [[Northern Pacific Railway]] preferred the Linton location when they built a branch to the area in about 1897, Williamsport ceased to exist as a community by the early years of the 20th century<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ndemmons/mapstownhistorywilliamsport.htm |title=Town History Williamsport - NDGenWeb Emmons County North Dakota |access-date=August 31, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703074134/http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ndemmons/mapstownhistorywilliamsport.htm |archive-date=July 3, 2014 }} Based on an interview with John A. Bartu by Leonard Jellema, extracted from The USGenWebProject, Emmons County North Dakota. Retrieved 11/3/2009</ref> and the site today is occupied by farmland. <br /> 
The community's oldest newspaper, ''The Emmons County Record'', began publication with 75 copies printed on June 10, 1884 <ref>{{cite book |title= EMMONS COUNTY HISTORY - Compiled for the Bicentennial - 1976|last= Woods |first= Ellen and Euvaugh Wenzel|year= 1976|publisher= The Emmons County Historical Society|pages=150}}</ref> in Williamsport but was relocated to Linton by Darwin R. Streeter, its founder,<ref>{{cite book |title= History of North Dakota, Embracing a Relation of the History of the State from the Earliest Times Down to the Present Day, Including Biographies of the Builders of the Commonwealth|last= Hennessy |first= W.B.|year= 1910|publisher= The Bismarck Tribune|location= Bismarck|pages=104–105}}</ref> in 1899. Streeter continued as the newspaper's publisher until January 1914, at which time full control of it passed into the hands of his son Frank.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Streeter |first=Darwin R. |title= Editor Streeter Says Goodbye - Hon. D.R. Streeter, Pioneer Editor, for Thirty Years Editor of the Emmons County Record Lays Down the Pen in Favor of His Son and Retires From Active Life |journal=The Bismarck Tribune|date=January 16, 1914|pages=4}}</ref>  The newspaper has been published continuously since the time of its founding.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://history.nd.gov/archives/cities/linton.html| title=Archives - Newspapers - Emmons County - Linton| publisher=State Historical Society of North Dakota| access-date=March 2, 2014}}</ref>