The Lee MacLellan Family Story
The Mystery Journey to North Dakota from Ontario
John MacLellan arrived in the Glasston area before the land had even been surveyed. He worked first with his mother's first cousin, Peter Smith. Then John's brother-in-law James McCabe joined John, and they claimed land near Glasston. By May 5 two additional McCabe brothers joined them, and they worked collectively to build houses on all four claims. The following year they were joined by John's wife Mary and her two children, James's wife Flora McLellan, and two children. The rest of the McCabes joined them in March 1882.
In the spring of 1884, the rest of the MacLellan family joined the others. Mother Catherine Smith MacLellan brought her younger children: Issac Jr., Catherine "Kit" Jr., Daniel, and my great grandfather Angus Dominion.
After their father's death in 1872, Issac Sr.'s children uprooted themselves from the Glencoe area in Ontario and moved 1000 miles to a cold western outpost called Glasston, in the Red River valley of North Dakota.
Why move so far?
Although we'll never know for sure, two likely reasons were there was plenty of free land in what was then called the Dakota Territory, and secondly, their friends the McCabes had already moved there.
The first MacLellan to arrive in the area was Issac's son John, who married Mary Ann McCabe. Like the Smiths, the McCabe family would also have a large impact on the MacLellans.
Glasston North Dakota is a small farming town with a post office, a general store, and a handful of houses. It's 18 miles north west of Crystal ND, where my grandfather Lee was born. It looks like a lonely place.