History Hotdish Ep. 43 - The Fortune Family

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to History Hot Dish, a casual conversation about the
historic people and events that give Bismarket's unique flavor. History
Hot Dish is brought to you by the Bismarck Historical Society,
a local nonprofit whose mission is to learn, preserve, and
promote the history of Bismarck. Sit back, turn up the
volume and enjoy another helping of History Hot Dish.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome to another episode of History Hot Dish. I'm your
host Kate Waldera, a member of the Bismarck Historical Society's
Board of Directors. Today's episode is a special version of
History Hot Dish where we feature another important project of
the Bismarck Historical Society, the Prairie Pioneers Early Families of

(00:44):
Bismarck Programs. The Prairie Pioneers Project is a video collection
of twenty interviews with current family members from some of
Bismarck's early and influential families and residents. The Prairie Pioneer's
Early Family Only's a Bismarck project was funded through a
donation by Chad and Stacy Walker of Bismarck, a Cultural

(01:07):
Heritage grant through the State Historical Society of North Dakota
and donations from local history enthusiasts. The project was done
in collaboration with Matt Fern and his team at the
Creative Treatment. Matt is joining me today in the studio
to help bring you another tasty helping of history hot dish,

(01:29):
and of course, another wonderful partner in this project has
been the Dakota Media Access, where you can find each
of The Prairie Pioneer's original ten episodes, along with ten
new families and their stories of Bismarck that began airing
on Community Access in December. Matt, thank you for joining

(01:49):
me today to share some of your work with our audience.
For your listeners, please take a moment to introduce yourself
from the role that you played in this wonderful collection
of interviews and videos.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Thanks for having me, Kate. I'm Matt Fern. I'm born
and raised here in Bismarck. It's my favorite city in
the whole world, and I've been running the Creative Treatment
for about fifteen years here in Bismarck. We do a
lot of ads across the state and across the country,
as well as podcasts and documentaries. My main my main

(02:24):
passion has always been telling the stories of North Dakota.
I did a docuseries called Daily to Codin that kind
of started out my whole my whole filmmaking career, and
so when the opportunity to do Prey Pioneers came up,
I jumped on it. A lot of these names Walked
or Woodman, See, they have been around, you know, the

(02:46):
Bismarck community, my whole life, and so to put a
face to the name, to humanize and to actually hear
the story behind those names was really exciting, and so
I'm very grateful to be part of the project.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
And it wasn't just me.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
I have a great team working with me as well
as the Bismarck Historical Society and Dakota Media Access. But
this has been just a really awesome project where the
Bismarck community has come together and some of the histories.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Of these families have just been very unique, very interesting,
and as always, everyone learns a lot of about the
families and their important part that they played. Today's episode
of History Hot Dish will feature the Fortune family. Early
residents of Bismarck. Tom and Bridget Fortune established a shipping

(03:40):
company they helped build many of the first roads in
Bismarck and where the first couple married at Saint Mary's
pro Cathedral on Broadway Avenue in downtown Bismarck. We'll hear
from doctor Tim Seaworth and Nancy Deets as they share
their memories of their ancestors. What special things do you

(04:02):
recall from this particular episode on the Fortune family.

Speaker 4 (04:06):
Yeah, this is a really fun episode. I remember filming
with my old English teacher, Nancy Deets, so that was interesting,
but also hearing the story from her and Tom of
their childhood growing up in Bismarck and the impact that
their family had. I believe the father was involved as
with the police and other areas of community service. And

(04:32):
again a name that people have heard in Bismarck, and
this is a great chance to kind of put a
face and humanize these stories.

Speaker 5 (04:41):
Yes, and I believe too that Tom Fortune he started
a freight service that ran between Bismarck and South Dakota,
and that he was one of the early chiefs of
police and the only thing that he carried with him
was a billy club. And that's so, Like I said,
there's the little snippets of information about these families that

(05:03):
are just intriguing, little known and just fun to learn about.
And on that note we will begin our Prairie Pioneers
episode of the Fortune family.

Speaker 6 (05:51):
There's an account written in a in a article from Boston.
Actually and a saloon owner ended up getting shot and
they had the funeral for him in what was then
the Boothill Cemetery where the Governor's mansion is currently located.

(06:15):
And Tom Fortune and some of the other city leaders
had the funeral for him and they buried him standing up.

Speaker 7 (07:05):
Tom Fortune came to Bismarck in eighteen seventy two from
Ireland and worked on the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
He met and married his wife, Bridget in eighteen seventy five,
and they were one of the first couples to be
married at Saint Mary's Catholic Church in Bismarck. Tom began
his own freight business between Bismarck and South Dakota with

(07:25):
around fifteen teams of horses and mules, then became a
general contractor and worked road construction as the city of
Bismarck was built. He was also one of the first
chiefs of police with only a bully club as a.

Speaker 6 (07:38):
Weapon, Thomas Fortune and bridget There's some uncertainly about her
what her actual last name was. In the Bismarck Tribune.
The first the report of them being married was in
the Bismarck Tribune, and her last name there was Lanaham,

(08:01):
but in her obituary it was Lenin, so we're not
sure exactly what it was. He had several different things
that he did after he After he got here the
railroad went broke, he stayed early on. He he got

(08:22):
involved in driving a stagecoach to the Black Hills during
the gold Rush, and they would leave from the corner
of Ninth and Sweet where Zarel's Jewelry is now. There
was a place there with horses, and so he he

(08:46):
knew people at Fort Lincoln and then of course all
the way out to Deadwood. And we had some things
in the family that he was given by some of
the soldiers. Had some vases and things like that that
were very old. They're still in the family, and so

(09:09):
there were stories about that. And then when he got
married in eighteen seventy five, there wasn't even a Saint
Mary's Church yet. The priest came to town father Glennon
and they had to wait till the priest came in

(09:30):
order to be married. And so that was one of
the early marriages in town eighteen seventy five. And then
they had a loghouse on the corner of First and
it was Meigs at the time, a Broadway where the
Mason Apartment building is now. Thomas Fortune was instrumental in

(09:54):
organizing a picnic which raised fourteen hundred dollars, a big
amount back in eighteen seventy five or whatever it was
that went towards the construction of the first Saint Mary's Church,
and that was very important to them, the Irish in

(10:17):
those days. My mom talked about they encountered the Irish
need not apply. So there was there was an anti Catholic,
anti Irish sentiment in the United States and it was
present here in early Bismarck at the beginning. And so
the Irish stuck together. And one of the things about

(10:37):
them being able to stick together was to get a
Catholic church, because that's that was the center of their community.

Speaker 8 (10:45):
Our great grandfather Thomas Fortune, in addition to raising the
fourteen hundred dollars for Saint Mary's Church, he and his
wife Bridget also donated the sanctuary light that is still
lit at Saint Mary whre He's pro Cathedral on Broadway
Avenue today.

Speaker 6 (11:04):
After running the stage, there was a period of time
where he was chief of police and actually had two stints.
He was chief of police, then they had a different mayor,
and then he wasn't chief, and then another election, and
then he came in as chief again. And he was
chief of police during the years of Bloody Forth. And

(11:28):
so there's accounts in the in the Tribune of him
having to enforce the law in some difficult situations. And
not only in Bismarck, but he also down at Painted
Woods or Whiskey Point, whatever you want to call it,

(11:49):
which was across from Fort Lincoln. There were some incidents
down there, and so his name would pop up there.
There's one story that there's an account written in a
article from Boston actually and a saloon owner ended up

(12:14):
getting shot and they had the funeral for him in
what was then the Boothill Cemetery where the Governor's mansion
is currently located. And Tom Fortune and some of the
other city leaders had the funeral for him and they
buried him standing up there. I think that I think

(12:45):
that time when he was chief of police, he made
a lot of connections and things which enabled him to
go into business for himself as a probably because he
ran that he drove the stage. He ended up acquiring

(13:06):
teams of horses, and he became a early contractor in Bismarck,
and he got i think because of his time as
with the police, he was able to get contracts for
grading some of the streets in Bismarck, also out at
Fort the new Fort Lincoln, and other contracts and things

(13:30):
like that. So he became eventually became a very successful
contractor in competition with the walkers, so they both had
lots of horses. Tom Fortunes moved up on Second Street,

(13:53):
up between Avenue D and Avenue E was the Fortune
House and behind there was his horse sparn and he
about where the Saint Mary's Academy the old Saint Mary's
High School now was a place where he would have
his horses. And they called that hill where the water

(14:15):
tower is Artesian Hill. There was some springs that came
out there and the water would run down And one
of the things that was in the Bismarck Tribune is
very early on he built a toboggan run from the
top of that hill that went all the way down
Mandan Street to Broadway for the early kids one winter.

(14:40):
They were active in the early Democratic Party in Bismarck.
So there was a brother of Tom Fortune who also
came to Bismarck early on Michael and he was the
first one that had anything to do with politics. He
ended up moving to Minnesota and then we lost contact

(15:02):
with him after that. But then the children of Thomas Fortune,
there was a a James Fortune and they were they
were active in early politics in Bismarck Burley County on
the Democrat side. One of one of Thomas Fortune's sons,

(15:26):
George Fortune, became chief of police at one point and
it was kind of kind of interesting. He uh he
ended up having to resign. There was a pedler who
came to town and uh he apparently or was accused anyway,

(15:50):
of shaking the peddler down and taking some of his
merchandise which was found in the in his home, so
some rugs and things like that. So he ended up resigning.
And the attorney that represented the peddler was Langer. When
he was before he was elected or whatever, he was

(16:14):
practicing attorney. So that was kind of a big scandal
that the family didn't always talk about it, but there was.
There's a lot of coverage in the Bismark Tribute about it.

Speaker 8 (16:27):
My grandmother Anne Weldon, came from Ireland from Dublin and
the family that she came to live with told her
her mother in law, her future mother in law told
her that there were all sorts of job opportunities for

(16:47):
young women in Bismarck. When Anne got here, what she
found out is that Bridget had in mind that she
would be a housekeeper for her, and Anne fell in
love with Bridget's eldest son, Hugh, and Hugh and Anne

(17:08):
eloped so much for the housekeeping duties for Bridget.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
Anyway, a reminder for our guests that have just joined us,
you're listening to a special serving of history Hot Dish
on Radio Access one oh two point five FM. I'm
your host Kate Waldera and today Matt Fern with the
Creative Treatment has joined me in the studio to discuss
the Bismarck Historical Society's Prairie Pioneer programs that Matt and

(17:38):
his team helped create. Each episode has been adapted as
an audio broadcast to help the Bismarck Historical Society fulfill
its mission to learn, preserve, and promote Bismarck's rich history.

Speaker 6 (17:53):
There was five children of Thomas and a Bridget Fortune,
and one of them that was the girl. There's only
one girl. Her name was Margaret and they called her Ella,

(18:13):
and she married Tim Flaherty, who was the Burley County
auditor for many years. And that's that's who I'm named after,
his uncle, my mom's uncle Tim. The others all ended
up leaving Bismarck, the other kids. One of mom's brothers,
John Fortune, was killed in World War Two, so he

(18:37):
was a His body was never recovered, but so we
have a marker over in the Veterans Cemetery for him
and the rest of the Fortunes. Most of them stayed here.
There was a few that one other places. Well, my grandfather,

(18:58):
Hugh Fortune was the oldest of the Fortune children of
Tomm and Bridget's children, and so I know the most
about him, of course, and he took over the family business,
the construction business. And so when my mother was born,

(19:25):
she remembers they would go to for several summers, they'd
go to Bally City, and stay in the Route Off
hotel there, and they were building the Highliner bridge in
Belly City, and there were other road contracts, So he's
mainly a road contractor, and my mom was always proud

(19:48):
of you said he was the first recognized road contractor
in North Dakota. I don't know if that's historically accurate
or not. But then during World War One, he had
a contract for Highway ten and the bid was at
pre war prices, and then just like today, there was

(20:10):
a rapid inflation and he ended up losing the business
with that, and some of his equipment then went to
Northern Improvement, the McCormick family of Fargo and so and
actually one of his brothers ended up working for the
mccormicks at Northern Improvement for many years, so there was

(20:31):
a connection there.

Speaker 8 (20:33):
My grandfather married German Gel from Mandan and they lived
in Mandan. He worked on the Northern Pacific Railroad. He
was in the yard and he and my grandmother lost
three children. They're all buried over at Mandan Union Cemetery together,

(20:56):
the five of them. But he had one sister who
was I was thirteen years older than he was. The
three babies in between and then my dad was a baby.
He lost his mother when he was about nine, I
believe it was, and Grandpa remarried. He married a woman,
a widow who had eight children. So it was a

(21:20):
little bit of a shock to him because by the
time Grandpa Leonardo remarried, my dad, at nine was the
only child in the family because his sister Clara had
married wasn't at home anymore. So he went from being

(21:40):
an only child to being one of nine and was
a little bit of a shock for him. They didn't
have a lot. They lived along the tracks in Mandan,
right by the bridge that on the end of town.
That house was later moved near Saint Joe's Church now.

(22:03):
But he quit high school actually and joined the Navy
during World War Two. He was in the Pacific. I
did not know that he was actually in Japan after
the war until we were going through some of his

(22:26):
old pictures that we as children had never seen, and
there was Japanese writing and whatnot in the background. But
he didn't talk a whole lot about it, as was
somewhat typical of many of our service men and women.
But he always said that he was the right hand

(22:48):
man to the admiral, and I always teased him that
the admiral was left handed, so we used to laugh
about that. That was one of our jokes. Dad worked
on the railroad at his father. He was started out
as a brakeman, ended up as conductor. Remember the phone
ringing all times of the day or night. He might

(23:11):
get a phone call at three in the morning to
report to duty over in Mandan. We lived in Bismarck here,
but anyway, mom and dad. My mom was Eileen Fortune.
Dad met her at they were in a wedding together.

(23:33):
They were paired up and it's kind of interesting. There
were three bridesmaids, three groomsmen. Those three ended up getting
the couples ended up getting married, and the bride and
groom for whom they were serving ended up getting divorced.
And the other three couples lasted until death do them part.

(23:55):
But that's how they met.

Speaker 6 (23:57):
I come from a family of seven children. My parents
were George and Margaret Seaworth. My mom was a Fortune
who grew up in Bismarck. My dad was born in
Illinois and they moved to North Dakota when he was
five years old, and he grew up in a small

(24:19):
town called Calvin, up near the Canadian border. There's only
a handful of people that still live there. He came
to Bismarck after graduating from und with a degree in
civil engineering, and there was some people who hooked him

(24:41):
up with that's probably not the right word to use
in today's but introduced him to my mom and so
they courted for several years because it was in the
midst of the Depression five and my mother was one

(25:02):
of the older ones in the family and she had
a job and so the family depended on her paycheck,
and so they My dad was willing to wait, and
they were married in nineteen forty one in San Francisco.
And then the World War II broke out of course
that year, and my dad was in the Army reserve,

(25:25):
so he was off to the European theater. My mom
was pregnant.

Speaker 8 (25:33):
Mom would talk about she was very, very proud of
being Irish, and I'm pleased that I am half Irish. Also,
we didn't know that much about the German side. Dad
didn't talk a whole lot about his stepmother when we
were growing up. I can remember there coming over to
the house and we lived in for the first nine

(25:57):
years of my life. We lived in the basement apartment
my Irish grandparents' home, and Dad worked on the railroad,
so he was gone a lot, and if Mom needed anything,
Grandma was upstairs and a variety of uncles and my aunt,
and she always had some sort of help if she

(26:18):
needed it. But we used to tease her that she
was a misfortune until she married Dad. But at any rate,
there was always a lot of laughter in the house,
a lot of silliness if you want to think of
it in those terms. She was proud of being Irish.

(26:40):
We would celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. In fact, I can
remember coming upstairs to where my grandmother and an aunt
were living and showing them that I had green in
my skirt for Saint Patrick's Day, and my aunt Rosalie
and said, you go downstairs and take that thing off.

(27:01):
It also has orange. You don't wear orange in Saint
Patrick's Day. I found out as about a third grader,
so I had to get a skirt that just had
green in it as opposed to one that had green
and orange in it.

Speaker 6 (27:17):
Tom and Bridget Fortune are are an example of what
we what we know is the American dream. I think
when they left Ireland, they left because life was very
hard there and so they came looking for opportunity and

(27:39):
I think they were able to find it in Bismarck.
I think that I think that you know, the different
jobs that Thomas Fortune did and I'm sure Bridget you know,
raising the kids and doing seamstress work or whatever. I
think they did what they had to do, and there

(28:02):
was opportunity here, and it'd be nice if they were
remembered as some of the early people who came with
not much and made something through hard work and the
opportunities that were here because it was a new place

(28:23):
and there was things that needed to be done and
they were able to find a way to do some
of those things. I think that the rest of the
family is very proud of the fact that they had
a role in getting things started here.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Matt, thank you again for joining me today. Please tell
our audience where they can find the video versions of
each of the Prairie Pioneer programs.

Speaker 4 (28:57):
Yeah, everyone can.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
The best place to go is get to be Bismarkhistory
dot org, the Bismark Historical Society's website.

Speaker 4 (29:04):
There you'll have a.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
Link to the YouTube page which is Bismarck Historical Society,
and there you can watch all the past episodes of
Prey Pioneers, as well as other programs produced by the
Bismarck Historical Society.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Thank you for listening to History Hot Dish if you
like what you heard. The Bismark Historical Society hosts programs
and events throughout the year. We welcome all those with
an interest in local history to join us. For more
information about programs or membership, visit our website Bismarkhistory dot
org or find us on Facebook. You can find History
Hot Dish on one o two point five FM, Radioaccess

(29:39):
dot org, and anywhere you find great podcasts. History Hot
Dish is produced by the Bismark Historical Society and partnership
with Dakota Media Access