A Man Named Hallock
by Gloria Swanson
April 4, 1979
The
City of Hallock, County Seat of Kittson County, was not named after
an influential farmer or businessman who had come to the city to
settle. It was named after Charles Hallock, a man from New York City
who for many years came to the Northwest corner of Minnesota to
hunt.
Charles Hallock was a descendant of Peter Hallock, one of the
pilgrims who came to the new land of America from England in 1640.
Peter was one of the first settlers to homestead on the Long Island
Sound near what is new the city of Southold. Families of Hallocks
still live in that area. A bay, a beach and a section of town of
Long Island, New York has been named "Hallock", after that family.
Charles Hallock, for whom Hallock is named, was born in New York
City on March 13, 1843, the son of Gerard and Elizabeth Hallock.
Charles received a bachelor's and a master's degree from Amherst
college in Massachusetts. He was married in 1855. He serviced as
editor for several newspapers in Connecticut and in New York. In
1868, he became the financial editor of "Harpers Weekly." In 1873,
he founded the sportsmen's magazine, "Forest and Stream." It was
during this time, before railroads had come to Northwest Minnesota,
that Charles Hallock first visited what was to become the city of
Hallock. As a journalist and as a hunter, Hallock came looking for a
"sportsmen's paradise."
He thought he had found this paradise, for in his autobiography, AN
ANGLER'S REMINISCENCE, he wrote of this area, "bands of elk came
within a few miles to town; once a moose ran directly through the
village, past the post office; a black bear came up out of the
bottoms to play with the school children at recess; a couple of pet
bears were always kept on hand for the Swedes to practice boxing on;
wolves would tree settlers in zero days when food was scarce, one
winter I had an empty store building full of pelts of timber wolves
and coyotes; prairie chickens nested on the edge of town."
A few years after Mr. Hallock had first come to hunt, James J. Hill
built his railroad along the Minnesota-North Dakota border. From
then on, when Hallock came to hunt, he brought friends from the
Eastern states with him. The Roseau River was a favorite spot for
these hunter. Mr Hallock wrote, "Out on the Roseau there was a
famous nesting place among the reeds for wild geese, mallards and
teal. The party from Pennsylvania went out and at the end of two
weeks they brought in seven moose, two elk, five deer and seven
wolves."
When the city's namesake came to Hallock in about 1875, he came to
a new townsite named "Alice," which was located in the section of
the present Hallock High School. A few stores, a saloon, a post
office and other offices had been built there. Then in the late fall
of 1878, the railroad went through a few blocks west of Alice. To be
closer to the railroad, it was decided to move the town south, to
land part of which was owned by Charles Hallock. The new site, in
the area of the present business district, was named Hallock. It was
on the block of the present junction of Highways 75 and 175, that
Charles Hallock built hi Hotel Hallock with money furnished by
wealthy Easter sportsmen friends.
Hallock wrote, "Judge John Swainson, of Upsala, Sweden, (who worked
for the railroad and whose wife or daughter, Alice, has been the
namesake for the first site,) and I laid out a stock company for a
sportsmen's hotel and game preserve and got a few thousand dollars
subscribed, chiefly from St Louis people and a hunter from Michigan.
Also A.W. Hubbard of Philadelphia who came up and shot over the
ground and so did Jim Hill several times. Andrew Carnegie made me
call in his private car. But the prospective millionaire declined to
help."
In 1880, Hallock hired Bengt Sundberg, a building contractor from
Red Wing, Minnesota, to build his hotel. The wooden structure, built
in an "L" shape, was 85 feet long with an addition 25 by 25 feet on
the north end. It was three stories high with wide double verandas
and enclosed promenade on the roof. Four stores were located on the
lower floor. Advertising, which Charles Hallock sent out for hotel
business, stated "The hotel had water on every floor, bathroom, set
water sinks, speaking tubes, barber shop, kennel rooms, gun room,
and is replete with every needed convenience for sportsmen and the
traveling public." It is remembered that the hotel was cold, drafty
and not as splendid as the ads claimed.
"Hotel Hallock had its ups and downs and was so expensive to operate
that none of the hotel keepers lasted long. At 4:00 am Christmas
morning of 1892, fire was discovered in the hotel cellar. The blaze
was put out, but at 11:00 am, another alarm was sounded. The flames
reached the attic and although the fire was put under control, the
hotel was seriously damaged and it was razed the following summer,"
Alex Lindegard wrote.
Continuing from his autobiography, Hallock wrote, "The hotel had a
precarious record for 12 years and was destroyed by fire one
Christmas eve. I had no insurance.
Apparently the end of the hotel was also the end of Charles
Hallock's coming to Hallock to hunt regularly each fall. But during
the 16 or more years that he did make Hallock his second home, he
was a vital force in helping the new town established itself. On
August 18, 1880, the firs town meeting to formally organize the
township of Hallock, was held in Hotel Hallock. Charles Hallock was
elected as one of the town officers.
On June 11, 1887, the village of Hallock was incorporated while
Charles Hallock was still coming to the town. His influence in the
East and his writing and publications brought sportsmen from all
over the country to Hotel Hallock to headquarter during hunting
trips. Many of Mr. Hallock's literary friends vacationed in the new
town.
When Hallock hired Bengt Sundberg to build his hotel, he brought to
the county a man who stayed on to become a successful farmer and to
eventually serve as a senator in the Minnesota State Legislature.
Charles Hallock was a pioneer in opening up frontier northern
Minnesota from Lake Superior to the North Dakota border as a place
to hunt and to live. He collected for the Smithsonian Institute and
was a member of many historical organizations, including the
Minnesota Historical Society. Along with his autobiography, he wrote
books, pamphlets and articles dealing with hunting and fishing in
the wilderness areas of the United States.
As Peter Hallock's Pilgrimage from England in 1640, helped to
establish Long Island, New York, Charles Hallock's pilgrimage from
New York to Northwest Minnesota in the late 1800's, helped to
establish the city of Hallock. Charles Hallock, writer, explorer,
hunter, naturalist, and businessman, died in 1919, in New York.