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Title: Belle Dietrich Byrne
Dates: 1887-1890
Collection Number: 2019-P-053
Quantity: 4 items
Abstract: Images of Governor Gilbert Pierce, David Barry and James McLaughlin, members of the 1889 Sioux Commission, and the Mercer ranch at Painted Woods (N.D.)
Provenance: The State Historical Society of North Dakota acquired this collection from Belle Byrne in June 1951.
Property Rights: The State Historical Society of North Dakota owns the property rights to this collection.
Copyrights: Copyrights to this collection remain with the donor, publisher, author, or author's heirs. Researchers should consult the 1976 Copyright Act, Public Law 94-553, Title 17, U.S. Code or an archivist at this repository if clarification of copyright requirements is needed.
Access: This collection is open under the rules and regulations of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
Citation: Researchers are requested to cite the collection title, collection number, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota in all footnote and bibliographic references.
Biographical Sketch
From the Bismarck Tribune Saturday May 4, 1974
Mrs. Patrick E. (Belle) Byrne, the oldest native-born resident of Burleigh County and a daughter of one of Bismarck’s first settlers, Joseph F. Dietrich, died Friday at St. Vincent’s Nursing Home at the age of 96.
The widow of the founder of Byrne Insurance Inc. here, she had been a St. Vincent’s resident for the past three months.
Her father had come to Dakota Territory from Cedarburg, Wis. In 1869, and he homesteaded here in about 1885 on the site now occupied by the First Presbyterian Church. His daughter, Roxie Belle Dietrich, was born in that house Dec. 23, 1878. Her mother was Honora (Crayne) Dietrich. At the age of 17, Mrs. Byrne left high school here to become a teacher.
“We weren’t supposed to teach unless we had a high school diploma, but the superintendent of schools allowed us to take the examinations. Every week I drove my own horse and buggy up the old Ward Road to Wogansport, 20 miles north of Bismarck. As I remember, there was no blackboard, but of course there must have been a little slate,” she said in an interview in the Bismarck Tribune in July 1972.
Mrs. Byrne later joined her parents in Chicago, Ill. where she attended Chicago Musical College. She remarked, “My teacher wanted me to study for concert performances, but I decided to get married instead.”
She married Patrick Edward Byrne in Chicago June 19, 1907, and they returned to Bismarck where Byrne worked in a bank. He established the Byrne Insurance Inc., now run by his son Joseph. He wrote a book published in 1926 titles, “Soldiers of the Plains.” Byrne died in 1935.
Mrs. Byrne was a fifty-year member of Catholic daughters, Fortnightly Club and Thursday Music Club, where she played the piano. She had been secretary at the State Capitol in the early years of this century and served as the U.S. Land Office registrar from 1936 to 1949 and as clerk of U.S. District Court in 1950. She was the oldest parishioner at Cathedral of the Holy Spirit.
In addition to her son Joseph, Mrs. Byrne leaves a daughter, Mrs. James O. (Jane) Guthrie, Bismarck, 10 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
Inventory
2019-P-053-00001 Governor Gilbert Pierce with four other men seated at table, Bismarck (D.T.) circa 1887
2019-P-053-00002 David F. Barry and Major James McLaughlin XX
2019-P-053-00003 Three men of the Sioux Commission sit in chairs outside a home 1889
2019-P-053-00004 W. H. H. Mercer’s ranch house, Painted Woods (N.D.) ca. 1890
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