MANDAN Historical Society

Working to Preserve & Promote Mandan's Heritage since 2004

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Ag Stn Centennial

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The 1880s

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The 1890s

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1901 Pan Am Expo

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The 1910s

1910 Spring Flood

1911 Fair & Airplane Demo

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The 1920s

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1958 Lincoln Stamp FDC

Custer Drama / Trail West

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1st of the 21st

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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

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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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Henry L. Dahners (1888-1971)
Henry L. Dahners was born in Hastings, Minnesota on April 23, 1888 to Hubert and Rosella (Ley) Dahners.  He received his education in St. Paul, Minnesota.  In 1909 he left St. Paul to join a boyhood friend in Bowbells, ND and to go with him to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. While in Bowbells he met and later married a young school teacher by the name of Alice Kennedy on April 8, 1912.  They were the parents to 3 children: Lucile, Gwen and Gregory. They lived in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for four years where he was hired to manage the Home Plate Cigar Store and keep the books for the professional baseball team whose headquarters were in the store.  
Henry and his wife Alice were given the opportunity to purchase the Edison Agency in Mandan from his father in law, C.G. Conyne who found that the phonograph music didn’t mix well with his watch repair business. They obtained the Columbia and Victor music companies and opened their music store in the fall of 1918 at the Nigey Hotel, later the McDonald Hotel.  Their store sold phonographs, records, sheet music and player pianos, and later other instruments. Their business grew to where they needed to move into a larger building.  It was then they moved into the Lewis and Clark Hotel.  In 1928 they moved to their last location at 306 West Main Street. They added gifts and novelties which were sold in the basement.  In 1934 they added women’s ready to wear and sold many wedding gowns.   Later it became known as Dahners Music and Department Store.

Mr. Dahners took an interest in music events, especially those of young people in the city schools.  Mandan High School can thank him for getting the first paid band instructor in the school in 1946.  Arnold Larson was paid $300 a year--$100 from the Elks Club, $100 from the American Legion Club and $100 from the Park Board.  In 1970 he was the only music store to sell instruments to school children without having the students finance the purchase.

(L to R) Henry Dahners, Wendell Saunders, Jerry Hunter, Ace Richardson, Al Hoerner, Christy Bjornson
Henry started the first radio station in Mandan in 1922. Mr. Bill Nordholm was the chief electrician and Henry did much of work to get the station operational. The station was named KGCU, with original studio in Dahners’ store.  Both Dahners and Walter Tostevin used to sing over KGCU.
 
Lawrence Welk bought his instruments from Dahners Music Shop.  First a banjo, then a saxophone, then the most popular-an accordion in 1936. For several years it was Saturday night band with Welk coming from Strasburg, North Dakota.  Welk on the accordion, Walt Tostevin on piano, Bill Steinbruck on trombone, Rolland Lutz on trumpet and Ernie Wilkinson on drums, all from Mandan.  They played for dances throughout the area.  Another highlight to the Dahners period of influence was by Charles Lindberg of a man standing on the wing of his plane.  The St. Paul Dispatch offered Lindberg’s appearance if 100 subscriptions to the newspaper could be sold.  Henry Dahners did the job.  After swooping down over the town, Lindbergh landed on the old half mile track on the south side of town, and then came to the store to visit with the attracted crowd.  The same challenge came along again, Dahners did the job again.  After this is when Lindberg took off on his famous flight to Paris, sending Henry a post card from there.

Advertising in those days meant paying a $1000 to a famous star to come to Mandan, in one case, Will Rogers. Several hundred invitations for the show were sent to prospective customers.  The old theatre was packed as he thrilled the audience with his gum chewing rope act while Baldwin pianos were being advertised.  This type of function was done once a year.

Henry L. Dahners was a well known, highly respected man.  His years of dedicated service to Mandan and the surrounding area are commendable.  He was a charter member of the Mandan Rotary Club and never missed a meeting in 50 years.  He was also a member of both the Elks Club, which he joined in 1919, and Mandan Chamber of Commerce.  Elected to the Mandan City Commission in 1934, he was in charge of the water department and supervised the building of the city water works plant during the Great Depression with the labor of WPA workers.

The business would eventually be sold in May 1972 to Bill and Mary Ann Eckroth.

Mr. Dahners passed away on Sunday, December 19, 1971 and is buried at the Mandan Union Cemetery.

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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