The town of
Hesper was located in Hesper township. It is now a ghost town.
In the summer of 1901 the Northern Pacific built its branch line
from Oberon to Esmond, and a village soon started at the end of
the line. The station was called Rhodes, but the post office was
named Esmond; later the name of the name of the railroad station
was changed to Esmond, too.
When the railroad was built through the Hesper area; it went
across the school section from east to west; about the middle of
the section. A side-track was installed about the center of the
section. Soon the Powers Elevator Company built an elevator and
a small house to the north of the elevator for the agent to live
in. The agent was a Mr. Moxley.
A little later Martin Misfelt acquired the school section. There
was a road built going south on the center line and Misfelt
built
a house and a large barn on the west died of that road. He left
a few lots east of his buildings. The next house to be built
was across the road, east of the farmhouse. This was built by
Fred Hanson, father of Lawrence Hanson.
In the spring of 1905 there were two general stores built in
Hesper; one by Leonard Nelson and the other by Frank Gibs.
His brother, Dave Gibbs built a hotel across the street from the
store. He ran the hotel until about 1908 when Charley Camp
bought it. Camp got a post office started in 1899 and was called Hesper; named after the tow in Iowa where so many of the
settlers about the village came from. Others who moved to Hesper
were Will Slater and his family, S.W. Hiatts, Mr.Christ, Mr. &
Mrs. Olvier Kaufman, and G.N. Hill and family.
In 1885 Chris Saabe took a homestead in Hesper Township. Peter
Vold came in 1886 and settled southwest of Maddock. Neighbors
near by were Albert Stromberg, Amund Warberg, Nicholas Halvorson
and Ola Wold. Ole Norteim arrived in 1889. Sever Warberg along
with a party of several others came in 1888 to live near
Maddock. Sever took land north west of Hesper.