ELWYN B. ROBINSON DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
CHESTER FRITZ LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA 58202
COLLECTION: OGL#1082
DATES: 1835-1985
SIZE : .25 linear feet
ACQUISITION: The N.G. Larimore Papers were deposited in the Orin G. Libby Manuscript Collection by Bruce Gjovig, UND Center for Innovation & Business Development, in Fall 1986 (Acc.#90-1721), and December 16, 1986 (Acc.#87-1491).
ACCESS: Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Department of Special Collections.
Newell Green (N.G.) Larimore was born August 29, 1835, in Bourbon County, Kentucky. He grew up on a farm near St. Louis, Missouri, and graduated from Wymans High School in St. Louis.
He married Susan Ashbrook on September 2, 1855. They had two sons: Walter and Clay. Susan Larimore died in July 1862. Larimore remarried five years later to Mollie E. Jameson, and had two more children; a son, Jameson, and a daughter, Cora.
At the end of the Civil War, Larimore became a prominent business leader in St. Louis, starting up the St. Louis Warehouse Company and the Central Elevator Company. It was said that the first telephone lines in St. Louis were built to connect the Central Elevator Company's office with three of its elevators. Larimore also served one term on the St. Louis City Council.
In 1880, Larimore organized the Elk Valley Farming Company, which farmed more than 15,000 acres in rural Grand Forks County, beginning in 1881. The nearby city of Larimore was named in his honor that same year. The Elk Valley Farming Company proved to be one of the largest and most successful farming operations in the United States.
Larimore was a well known member of the Democratic party, and in 1893 declined an offer to run for Governor of North Dakota. He served as President of the North Dakota Chautauqua Association for eight years, and served one year as President of the Board of Regents of the University of North Dakota. He also was a regent of the Methodist University in Wahpeton, and a trustee of Wesley College at the University of North Dakota from 1895 until his death in 1913.
Although Larimore spent most of the later years of his life in North Dakota, he died in St. Louis in November 1913.
The N.G. Larimore Papers contain biographical material regarding his life, as well as information on the people and business he dealt with. Most notably there is material regarding the Elk Valley Farming Company, the controversy surrounding the African Americans who came to the area in 1882 to work on Larimore's farms, the city of Larimore, and his business dealings with O.M. Towner. The collection was created through research done by the North Dakota Chautauqua Association, an organization which Larimore served as President for eight years.
Box 1
Folder
Return to: Personal and Family Papers
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