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Richard Sykes was a representative for a syndicate based
out of Manchester, England looking to make land investments in the northwest
United States. He arrived in Dakota Territory in December of 1881 and
purchased 45,000 acres from the Northern Pacific Railway for about $1
an acre in Wells, Stutsman and LaMoure counties. His goal was to sell
or rent improved land to farmers for a profit.
During the first year, Sykes, his resident farm manager Walter J. Hughes
and 125 hired men, plowed 3,000 acres and hauled lumber from Jamestown
to construct houses and barns. Then over the next few years he advertised
the ready-to-cultivate land in newspapers across the country and even
in England. One advertisement listed farms from 100 to 700 acres with
good buildings on every farm. Land with a house and barn sold for $8 an
acre and additional prairie land at $5 an acre. His land purchase from
the railroad had included only odd-numbered sections. Even-numbered sections
were owned by the US Government. Thus it was possible to buy or rent land
from Sykes and then obtain additional land by homesteading or purchasing
an adjoining quarter.
Richard Sykes knew that the success of his farming community required
access to the mills in the east through a local railhead. The nearest
railroad in 1881 was sixty miles away in Jamestown. So he platted the
town of Sykeston in the center of his land purchase near the Pipestem
Creek. A large grain elevator was constructed and lots were opened up
for sale on the Fourth of July in 1883. The lowest priced residential
lots were sold for $35 and choice business lots went for $175.
But Sykes was not the only one to recognize the need for a railhead in
this area. Another English investor, John Gwynne Vaughan, saw a survey
conducted by the Northern Pacific and determined to sell lots on another
town site somewhere within Sykes bonanza community. On one of the even-numbered
sections which was public land, Vaughan platted the town of Gwynne City
only one mile northwest of Sykeston. He began promoting his town to Eastern
investors, describing it as the “Metropolis of Wells County.”
His brochures pictured a line of steamboats moving along the Pipestem
between Gwynne City and Jamestown. Fortunately for Richard Sykes, the
potential competition from Gwynne City was short-lived. The post-office
Vaughan had established closed by February of 1883 and Vaughan was later
extradited back to England to stand trial for previous crimes committed
there. That same summer, the Jamestown and Northern Railroad reached Sykeston.
The legacy Richard Sykes left behind extended beyond the town of Sykeston.
He also founded the Pacific Railway towns of Alfred, Bowdon, Chaseley
and Edgeley, ND. He is credited with introducing the game of rugby to
the United States and he established the Sykes Theological Education Fund
to encourage North Dakotans to enter the priesthood. In 1910 Richard Sykes
and his family moved to California where he was laid to rest on this day,
May 31, 1923.
Written by Christina Campbell
Sources:
Drache, Hiram M., The Day of the Bonanza (Fargo: ND Institute for Regional
Studies; 1964)
Eldredge, Mary, ed. Wells County, ND 1884-1984: A Centennial Souvenir
(Harvey: Eldredge Publishing Co.; 1984)
Hudson, John C., Plains County Towns (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press; 1985)
Sherman, William C. and Playford V. Thorson, ed. Plains Folk: North Dakota’s
Ethnic History (Fargo: ND Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU; 1988)
Sykeston Centennial Book Committee, ed. The First 100: Sykeston, ND Centennial
and All-School Reunion (1983)
http://www.edgeley.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B67C99C26-90F8-4544-A77A-13586D0B9AB3%7D
http://www.rugbyfootballhistory.com/timeline1850s.htm
http://www.webfamilytree.com/North_Dakota_Place_Names/gwynne_(wells_county).htm
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