MANDAN Historical Society

Working to Preserve & Promote Mandan's Heritage since 2004

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Ag Stn Centennial

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Book: "Mantani"

The 1880s

Mandan Rodeo / Fair

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The 1890s

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1901 Pan Am Expo

1903 TR Visit to NDak

The 1910s

1910 Spring Flood

1911 Fair & Airplane Demo

1912 TR Whistle-Stop

The 1920s

Prohibition in Mandan

Mail Order Kit Homes

The 1930s

FDR Visit August 1936

The 1940s

The 1950s

1958 Lincoln Stamp FDC

Custer Drama / Trail West

The 1960s

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1st of the 21st

2010-Present

Area Landmarks

Cary Bldg - Mandan Drug

CCC Camp Chimney

Christ the King Church

Collins Av Civic Bldg

First Lutheran Church

First National Bank Bldg

First Presbyterian Church

Great Plains Academy

Great Plains Expermt Stn

Lewis & Clark Hotel

Mandan Hill

Mandan Theatre

MV Produce Warehouse

Methodist Church

NP Beanery

NP "Colonial" RR Depot

NPRR Freighthouse

NP Rail High Bridge

Roughrider Statue

St Joseph Church

WWar Memorial Bldg

Youth Correctional Center

Gone Forever

Central School

Collins Ave Courthouse

Cummins Building

Deaconess Hospital

Eielson Field

Emerson Inst/Opera House

First St Federal Building

Havana Club

Hotel Nigey

InterOcean Hotel

Liberty Memorial Bridge

Mandan Creamery & Produce

Mandan Flour Mill

Merchants Hotel

NP "Queen Anne" Depot

Original Passenger Depot

Palace Theatre

Peoples' Hotel

Rock Haven

Topic Theatre

Young's Tavern

Heritage Homes

Altnow-Smith Home

Dunlap-Harris Home

Ellis-Uden Home

Freeburg-Esser Home

Lyon-Weigel Home

McGillic Home

Olson-Brick Home

Parkins-Cooley Home

Stutsman-Wyatt Home

Swanson-Reichman Home

Welch-Ness Home

Endowment Fund

Genealogy Links

Biographies A-C

J D Allen

Franklin Anders

Richard Baron

James Bellows

George Bingenheimer

Margaret Bingenheimer

Philip Blumenthal

Elijah Boley

Frank Briggs

Leo Broderick

William Broderick

Frank Bunting

Lyman Cary

James Clark

Henry Coe

Viola Boley Coe

Daniel Collins

Elizabeth Custer

George Custer

Biographies D-L

Alice Dahners

Henry Dahners

C E V (Charles) Draper

Esther Davis

Tony Dean

Joseph Devine

Ronald Erhardt

John Forbes

Palma Fristad

Gilbert Furness

Aloysius Galowitsch

Frederic Gerard

Zalmon Gilbert

Charles Grantier

James Hanley Jr

James Hanley Sr

Mary Harris

C Edgar Haupt

Michael Lang

William Langer

Albert Lanterman

William Lanterman

Richard Longfellow

Rolland Lutz

Hiram Lyon

Biographies M-R

George Marback

Gary Miller

Lee Mohr

Margaret Naylor

John Newton

Anton Ness

John Osterhouse

George Peoples

Arthur Peterson

Nels Romer

Hoy Russell

Walton Russell

Antonie Rybnicek

Ervin Rybnicek

Hynek Rybnicek

Biographies S-Z

Margaret Schaaf

George Shafer

Benjamin Shaw

William Simpson

Anna Knox Stark

Mary Stark

Benjamin Stephenson

J O Sullivan

John Sullivan

Era Bell Thompson

Andrew E Thorberg

Ida Thorberg

C L Timmerman

George Toman

Earle Tostevin

Edwin A Tostevin Sr

Edwin D Tostevin Jr

Walter Tostevin

Felix Vinatieri

A B Welch

Levon West

Frank Wetzstein

Harry Wheeler

Philomena Yunck

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What's New

Lyman Northrop Cary (1856-1929)
Lyman Cary was born on April 10, 1856 and grew up in Flanders, New Jersey.  He attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York and graduated with a degree in civil engineering. 

In April 1881, when the rail tracks extended only 40 miles west of town, he arrived in Mandan at the age of 25 to seek his fortune.  He was convinced, like others, that Mandan would become the "Omaha of the North" and was persuaded by investors out east to send for his surveying equipment.  He is credited with platted the town of Sterling and parks of both Mandan and Bismarck.  He was often paid for his work with lots from these developments.

Initially, living quarters were very scarce.  However the two young men found accommodations in a log rooming house which had a canvas roof, reportedly the first wood structure outside of the railyards.  According to the report this roof was as hospitable to the rain and snow as it was to is lodgers.  Undaunted by the inconvenience, the two men quickly dubbed their rooming house, "The Arlington" as the western counterpart of the fashionable Arlington Hotel in Washington, DC with which they were both familiar.

Cary initially partnered with Warren Carpenter and became the land agent for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Their territory extended from the Missouri River to the Montana line.  To compensate the railroad company for their risk in undertaking the construction of the line, the government had awarded the NPRR every odd numbered section of land for fifty miles on each side of the tracks.
Railroads, through land agents such as Lyman Cary, would subsequently resell the land to settlers to finance the construction of the railway. The Northern Pacific Railroad had recruiters in Europe encouraging immigration to the United States.  Cary sold thousands of acres at $2.60 to $3.00 per acre - an investment which could be recouped with just one good crop.
 
After completing the real estate transactions for the railroad, Cary moved on to become the land agent for "the Syndicate" area of town which comprized the majority of southwest Mandan in and around the present day Mary Stark Elementary School area. "The Boston Syndicate" was a group of eastern investors who owned an operated a significant portion of the southwest area of Mandan including a brickyard.

Mr. Cary also developed major portions of the downtown business district. Lyman Cary reportedly still holds the record for the most land sale transactions in the history of the state of North Dakota.

In the early 1900s, Mr. Cary would sponsor a $100 prize to be awarded to the farmer producing the best corn sample displayed at the Morton County Fair.
 
Lyman Cary married Anne Alison Clark, daughter of James Reed Clark a pharmacist and proprietor of Clark Drug Store in 1884.  Lyman and Anne had five children; Ethelind (Little), Willam, Anne, Alison and Colin.

The couple were very active in the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church in Mandan.  Lyman and Anne lived at 311 Third Ave NW.
 
The house, originally built at 201 Seventh Ave NW, was moved by Cary in 1894 to this new location across the street and facing the First Presbyterian Church.  The move was prompted by his wife's request, so she could be closer to their church and its activities.  Their son Colin and wife owned the adjacent house at 309 Third Ave NW.
 
The Cary home was torn down in May 1989.


Cary House circa 1906
Anne Cary is given credit for suggesting the State of ND preserve the famed historic site Chateau De Mores at Medora.  Her interest in the French nobleman's home stems from your recollections of 1885 when the grand jury met in Mandan to indict the Marquis for murder. Her father was the grand jury foreman.  Mrs. Cary is also credited as being the first woman to be elected as forman of a trial jury in North Dakota history.  She was active in a wide variety of civic organizations including Daughters of the American Revolution and the Pioneer Daughters.  She was also an authority on local history. 

Lyman Cary died on April 15, 1929.  He is buried in the family plot in Union Cemetery, Mandan, which Cary had selected when he had platted that area of town.
  

The Cary Real Estate office was operated by his son, Colin Cary, until the mid 1960s.

The MHSoc's museum and office is located at 3827 30th Avenue NW; PO Box 1001; Mandan, ND 58554
Contact us at info@mandanhistory.org


Last Updated 03/28
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