Joliette

First among the settlements made after the Pembina River Valley had become settled, was Joliette on the Red River. In the year 1878, seven young men left Quebec to homestead in the Red River Valley. They had heard that tools and equipment plus good wages were given to railroad workers. They traveled to Minnesota via the Great Lakes waterway and found jobs on the railroad being built to St. Vincent, Minnesota. Crossing into Dakota Territory at Pembina they traveled about ten miles southward and took up claims along the  river.

Frank LaRose was the first settler and ran a ferry across the Red River. His farmhouse was a stopping place for stagecoaches as well as a refueling stop for steamboats. For quick shelter the first houses were made of  prairie sod. The four Pariseau brothers: Ernest, Joe, Frank, and John sent for  their parents and sister, Permelia. The orphaned sister of Joseph, Euclid and Dolphus Riopelle and others came with them. This was the nucleus of a thriving  French Canadian settlement. They named the Post Office, which was established August 7, 1879, for Joliette, Quebec, Canada. John B. Rivett was appointed postmaster.

Others settled in the Joliette area from 1880 to 1882. The Emersons, Barrons, Storms, Dietrichs and Shannons began farming. On December 18, 1882 the Joliette area was designated one of 19 townships in Pembina County.

In 1897, John Hart came with a team and buggy from Castlewood, South Dakota. He drove back and the next year he and his brother, Arthur Hart, arrived by immigrant car, coming on the railroad into Bathgate. Belgian settlers in great numbers came beginning with Charles Demestre and Aldoph Von Leberge in 1890.

Because of river flooding the settlement of Joliette was moved inland about 1900 to a site along the Northern Pacific Railroad. The town site was platted on Section 27 and 34 and became a railroad station. A thriving town built up a bank, Hart and Asseltine's general store, a lumberyard, a farm machinery business, a hotel, town hall, two churches, a new school and grain elevator.

A rural post office of short duration was established Oct. 15, 1912, along the railroad at a settlement six miles south of Joliette. The settlement was named Fleece, a family of the Postmaster, Walter F. Moody.

McArthur was a settlement located four miles north of Joliette.  It was also was moved from the river when the railroad was established. A grain elevator moved on greased skids from the river across the prairie to the  town site. The Northern Pacific Railroad located a stockyard and loading station. A post office was established on Section 9, 162.51, August 4, 1904 with Charles H. Hunt as Postmaster. McArthur also had a school and a general store.

The entire Joliette community now consists of farmers and the community of Joliette is a grain elevator, fertilizer plant, Methodist Church, town hall and post office.

Charles Hart, December 20, 1987

LOCATION : Joliette, N.D. is an unincorporated community in Pembina County, about halfway between Pembina and Drayton. Just off Interstate 29, Joliette is about 70 miles north of Grand Forks. The town is served by a branch line of the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway. Joliette reached a peak population of 319 in 1930. That was followed by a sharp decline 36 in 1960. According to an informal count, there are now just ten people living in the town.

What's big in Joliette? The former Joliette Farmers Grain Co., now known as Cargill Ag Horizons, was acquired by Cargill Inc, a major Minnetonka, Minnesota based grain-trading company April 1, 1997. It is a major grain shipper for the region.

NAME Frank LaRose, the first settler in the Joliette area, named the pioneer community for his home town of Joliette, Quebec. That French-Canadian town had been founded in 1823 by a sawmill operator, Barthelemy Joliette.

What some people say about the community - The Rev. Linda Baldock, pastor of the Joliette Methodist Church, whose husband Gerry, is employed at the Pembina State Museum: "I really enjoy the people in the  community and in our congregation as well as living in a rural community. The people are so involved in the church."

Joleen Holter, who lives outside of Joliette and who has been employed for a year at the Joliette Express Truck Stop, serving as the past three months as manager: "You know a lot of people in a small community such  as Joliette. The people are really friendly; I enjoy living near a small  town."

Cory Tryan, manager of Cargill Ag Horizons elevator in Joliette:"It's always nice and green and there are trees. I grew up near Plentywood in northeastern Montana, and that area is often parched and  dry."

From the Grand Forks Herald Newspaper - summer 2000

Submitted by Mildred Hart