1916 City Map 1916 Township Map

The first settlement was about 1-1 1/2 miles east of the present townsite. Moved to the Northern Pacific Railroad siding station in 1913. Located in Section 26, Township T145, Range R94 and named to note its location in the center of Dunn County at the time. The Melby post office was relocated here on 7 May 1914 with Gustave B. "Bert" Nyhagen as Postmaster. The elevation is 2191, the Zip Code is 58626, and the village, which incorporated in 1916, reached a peak population of 276 in 1930. The railroad tracks were later dismantled in the mid 1980's. HISTORY OF DUNN CENTER -- “THE CITY BEAUTIFUL” Digested/Edited from the Dauntless Dunn History 1970 Originally compiled by Mertis Fritz with the aid of several Dunn Center ladies. Immigrants to the prairies of western North Dakota were representations from most all of the countries of western Europe. Not only did they want to establish new homes for themselves and their families, but they wanted to develop communities to which could come the better things of life. One of these was a pretty little town in a valley with a miniature stream called Spring Creek. Dunn Center was the name given to this town, due to its central location in the Dunn County. Dunn Center was first established one mile and a half east of its present site, directly west of Pelton's Folly in 1913. This site was chosen because it was believed this would be very close to the roadbed of the greatly anticipated railroad. Among the first families to settle there were the John Thompson’s and Bert Nyhagen’s who came from Taylor, North Dakota. John Thompson managed the Thompson and Howe Grocery Store. Nyhagen managed the Nyhagen and Johnson Hardware Store. Two livery stables were operated by Lee Paul and Christ Madson. A man by the name of Posey opened the first barber shop. A school was built and the first teacher was Alice Ross. The railroad finally arrived the fall of 1914 and the newly built town had to pull stakes and move to the present site, as this was the location chosen by the Northern Pacific Railroad for its station. A. C. Diehl was the first residential agent. In 1916, the present school was built and D. A. Bucanon was the first superintendnt. The following year the community hall was erected. There were two hotels, Taylors and Philips. Mrs. Taylor, who still resides in Dickinson with her husband relates, "We built our hotel in 1914. We hauled all the lumber from Richardton and carpenters Ed Rustin and Ellingson built it for us.” The first children born in Dunn Center were Ruth Taylor and Raymond Holt, children of the William Taylor’s and the Dude Holt’s. The first postmaster was Bert Nyhagen and later his sister Clara took over. Sometime later Lena Diehl (Lena Hintz) became postmaster and served in that capacity until the Democrats replaced her with William Moede. The first mail carriers were Charles Fuller, C. W. Kempf, and Bill Dehn. The town grew up by leaps and bounds. There were three lumber yards; Kilzer, Dunham and Mandan. The only one of these remaining is the Mandan Building which was recently [1970] purchased by the Occident Company and moved to the lots adjacent to the Occident Elevator. Occident, Powers and Farmers Elevators Companies built elevators. The Farmers Elevator and the original Occident building were destroyed by fire and the only one rebuilt was Occident. The town boasted two banks. The First State Bank with Charley Hein as cashier and the Farmers Bank with Thomas Ahern as cashier. The drug store was owned and operated by Wm. Moede. A clothing store was owned and operated by the Skude Bros. The first newspaper published in Dunn Center was called The Spring Valley Times. It was edited by R. W. Robertson. Later the Dunn County Journal was edited by Charles Doherty. There were two hardware stores, Boyd and Peterson on the south side of main street and the Rosendahl and Nyhagen Hardware on the north side of main street. The latter was destroyed by fire and then Rosendahl and Nyhagen bought out the Boyd and Peterson Hardware which is the present Huber Hardware. (Before Mr. Huber and Mr. Mike Olson had the hardware). John Pockert, a man by the name of Tyler and Godfred Bjorge operated harness and shoe shops. The Hart Restaurant and Bakery was operated behind the Taylor Hotel. The town also had other restaurants operated by Mrs. Philips, Mrs. Jacobs, and Signe Larsen. Stores were as follows: Thompson and Howe Grocery Store, Robinson and Mellow Department Store, Lundeens Dry Good, and Hat Shop, and Genye Grocery and Meat. M. A. Davis and Oscar Boe were the town’s blacksmiths. Ebeltoft and Biewer became the standby carpenters of the community. The first garage was owned and operated by Oscar Ebeltoft. Early attorneys were A. S. Boe, William A. Carns, Jr., Alf. O. Nelson and T. H. H. Thoresen. Chapin was a barber, set up the first barber shop in the new town in the building that was later used as the residence of a pioneer woman, Mrs. Mary Dodd. In 1915, Stanley Beaton came to Dunn Center to start his barber shop and he is still [1970] operating his original shop on the south side of main street. Pool halls were operated by Dude Holt, Shorty Rasmussen and Simms. C. P. Rosendahl later purchased the Simms Pool Hall and moved it from its first location south of the present [1970] post office to the north side of main street. In the more recent years [prior to 1970] the same building was moved from main street to the southwest corner of the main block and converted into a blacksmith shop which is now [1970] operated by Sherman McConnell. At one time in the early days, a confectionary was operated by Mrs. Wm. Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong was one of the early cattle buyers of the community. Theo. G. Nelson opened a real estate office. Livery stables were operated by Lee Paul and David Sands. Jacob Jacobs was an early section foreman. Alfred Braaten became the section foreman for this area on the railroad and made his home in Dunn Center. Albert J. Thompson was a busy man in those early days drilling wells for Dunn Center. Two dray lines were kept busy. They were run by Jesse Whitaker and Harry Shephard. Jesse later took over the Standard Oil Service. Ole Finholt took over the dray line. The old Sands Livery Stable was purchased by Lewis Granfor and converted into a garage. Later it was dismantled and replaced by the present [1970] building which houses the Chevrolet Garage. A flour mill was erected in 1915 by George Schmidt Sr. It was located on the north side of the railroad tracks just east of the crossing. Besides milling flour and grinding feed, etc., it generated power and electricity for the homes and business places in town. The service was limited, but better than none. Mrs. Jesse Whitaker related how the women had to schedule their washing and ironing for the early morning hours as that was the only time power was available for those purposes. Then in the evening at sundown the power was built up again for the evenings light. After George Schmidt was no longer able to run the mill, a Fred Frails took over the operation. When it closed, the building was sold and dismantled. Part of the very fine material is still [1970] in use in Dunn Center in the lovely home of retired mail carrier, Charles W. Kempf. Dr. Linson was the first medical doctor, followed by Dr. Gibson and later came Dr. Barton. Still later Dr. Moreland took up practice. Mrs. Moreland was superintendent of the high school for sometime during their stay here. At one time, Edith Thompson practiced as optician. Dr. Kearnes was a veterinarian who first lived in the north county, but later moved to Dunn Center to continue his work. The Lutheran Church was built in 1915. Albert Langles was the contractor who took the bid. He was assisted by carpenters Elias Eliason and Ole Halvorsen and maybe others unknown to the writer. Rev. Th. H. Larsen from Taylor, North Dakota had served the parish for many years, but Rev. C. M. Horneland was the first resident pastor. The Latter Day Saint Church was built in 1917 and the Congregational Church basement was built in 1922. The first minister of the Congregational Church was Rev. Roberts and later Rev. Conrad was ordained in this church and served it for sometime. Telephone came to the area in 1915, Ole Kittilson, who still [1970] resides here, in their home on the shores of Lake Ilo was owner and manager of the exchange. Lines were built south of town, out toward the Renville community and a line to the Manning area as well as within the town. They were put into operation in August of that year. The first "Hello" girls were Marie McMahen, Signe Larsen (Odegard) and Mrs. Otto Chamberlain. In the early days, Dunn Center boasted a large band. This was under the very able directorship of A. J. Berdahl, who was one of the early depot agents. A homeguard was maintained for sometime with a membership of about forty members. In the early days, Dunn Center was in the county seat fight. It looked very favorable at one time as the town was centrally located. But, through some technical slip they lost the fight. Lake Ilo. The New Deal gave an assist to the unemployed in the area by starting a project of constructing an earth dam on Spring Creek. Work was done in the years 1936-38. The dam and area was then assumed by the Biological Survey to protect and propagate wildlife. The lake is stocked much work has been done to beautify the shores of this beautiful little man made lake which covers about 1200 acres. This lake is about a mile to the west of Dunn Center. Click on Pictures for Larger View From Dauntless Dunn 1980 (link above) and colorized by Michael Alden (Dino) Peterson Dunn Center Website Dunn Center Facebook Page