News
Remembering the night Souris lost its most prize procession to its town
Scott Wagar
01/31/2012
This week marks the 40th anniversary of the fire at Monkman Cafe in Souris, which burned to the ground on Feb. 6, 1972, and nearly took the life of its owner, Claire “Muggy” Monkman.
The Monkman Cafe was an icon for over six decades in Souris and brought customers from all over the United States and Canada to have the experience of eating at one of the best cafes ever to be located in Bottineau County.
“Everybody loved Monkman’s,” said Wanda Gravseth, who graduated from Souris High School. “It was the cafe of Souris and it was a big thing to go to Muggy’s cafe.”
History
Monkman Cafe was originally established in the early part of the 1900s as a confectionary store and was known as Herb’s Place. Herb, or Herbert, was Muggy’s father, who was born in 1883 in Winnipeg, MB, and came to the United States with his parents and siblings in 1886. The family homesteaded land just northwest of Souris in Harmen Township of Bottineau County.
In 1901, Herb accepted a position with the Mouse River Valley Bank and in 1907 married his wife, Hilda Larson, who was raised on a farmstead in the Turtle Mountains which was nestled on the shore of Lake Metigoshe.
When the couple was married, Hilda was employed with “The Souris Messenger,” the town’s local newspaper. However, soon after their marriage, Herb and Hilda opened the confectionary store, which was located on the east side of Souris’ Main Street.
In 1925, the couple moved across the street on a lot directly north of today’s location of the State Bank of Souris.
Once on the east side of the street, the Monkmans began offering meals in their confectionary store, along with one item which became famous at the cafe, pies.
Herb and Hilda operated the store until 1942 when Muggy took over the business and operated it until 1972 when the business was lost to a fire.
The Fire
That terrible fire happened on a Sunday evening. Muggy and his wife, Betsy, where asleep above the store were their home was located, but were awakened by the smell of smoke. Muggy made his way down the inside, back stairs which led him to the back of the cafe. Once inside the restaurant, he discovered the eatery filling up with smoke.
Muggy made the attempt to find the source of smoke, but was overtaken by it and fell close to the front door. Betsy also tried to come into the cafe from the back entrance, but the desne and choking smoke forced her out before she could get into the heart of teh building.
She was left with no choice but to go back where she came from and leave the building through the other outside entrance.
The Souris Fire Department was called to the scene, but the flames were spreading through the building so quickly, they called on the Bottineau and Westhope fire departments to assist their firemen in saving the building, but failed in their attempt.
The firemen were successful in saving Muggy from the building, but he was pulled out of the cafe unconscious. He was immediately rushed to St. Andrew’s Hospital for treatment.
With the fire overtaking Monkman’s Cafe, the three fire departments focused on saving the State Bank of Souris, which they accomplished, but the bank was greatly damaged by smoke and water as the firemen made every attempt to keep the fire off the bank structure.
As the fire still burned, Muggy was brought into St. Andrew’s and wheeled to the hospital’s emergency room. However, as he was being taken to the ER, so much smoke was coming off his body from the fire that it set off the hospital’s fire alarms.
Muggy was saved by the doctors of the hospital, but he remained in St. Andrew’s for days after recovering from smoke inhalation.
After the fire, Muggy, who was 61 at the time, made the decision to retire and did not rebuild the cafe.
A year later, after Betsy retired as a teacher from the Souris Public School, the Monkmans moved to Bottineau where Muggy died three years later.
Monkmans Cafe was missed by all the residents of the county after the fire destroyed it, but it left great memories with everybody who experienced the restaurant.
“I remember when I was in school, we (the students) use to walk down to Muggy’s and wait for our parents to pick us up after school,” said Gravseth, who was in high school at the time of the fire. “It was the place to go and we had so much fun while we were there. I still remember the long counter top and stools they had in the place. It was a great place and everybody missed it after the fire.”
The Monkmans raised four children in their home above the store, which included Michael, Betty, Roberta and Maxine. It was a family business from the time Herb and Hilda opened their store and all the siblings from the two families worked one way or other in the establishment.
The Present
It might have been 40 years since the fire, but the bank building which the firemen saved that night still stands on the corner of the block. Monkman’s lot still to this day stands empty, but in an odd sense, one can still feel its presence, and, if one allows their senses to open their memory eyes, one will not smell the terrible smoke from that evening, but will catch the scent of pies which so often roamed down the streets of Souris and attracted its customers to the front door of Monkman Cafe.