George Kimball Dike (descendant of Captain Anthony Dike who arrived in the United States from England in 1623) was born in Sebago, Maine in 1845.
He enlisted at 18 in Company I, 30th Maine Infantry and served to the end of the Civil War.
He became a school teacher and surveyor and then, like many young veterans, came west, locating in 1868 in southern Minnesota.
He taught school a few years at Eden Prairie, did some construction work for the St Louis and Minneapolis railroad and then joined a government survey party. He was an agent for the Great Northern Railway to protect their often raided timberlands and also worked as a carpenter at Fort Abraham Lincoln, before "Custer's Raid."
As an official surveyor for the Federal and local governments he had the first contract for surveying in Dakota Territory and the first, in 1889, in the new state participating in the establishment of the final state line between North and South Dakota. They were not allowed to survey mining land but drew a main line as a base across the Black Hills. He did extensive surveying in the North Dakota Badlands and Peace Garden area, and also in eastern counties, sometimes working locally with Karl J. Farup, a Park River Pioneer.
A six foot, two beared, rugges man, "Grandpa Dike," walked everywhere, on the survey - even when others tose, and on the homestead, thinking nothing of walking to Grand Forks.
Atracted by the rich lands of the Red River Valley he filed in 1879 - one of the first five in Farmington Township. His first home was a board shanty with a tar paper roof and his first crop, 10 acres of oats. In 1876 he married Harriet Sheldon in Excelsior, Minnesota. After her arrival she wrote to her family from "Sweden, Pembina Coutny, Dakota - May 8, 1881," telling of Grand Forks' muddy streets, the hustle and bustle of loading the steamer there, and of their good luck in getting a state room for the night, during which she was seasick. At Acton the next day they found a comfortable German hotel, "full of immigrants like ourselves." They traveled by lumber wagon through Grafton, spending thier first night with Mr and Mrs John Donnelly, prveious arrivals from canada. She died three years later, leaving two small children: Alice and George.
In 1886, he married Nancy Pease Douglas, a childhood friend, also from an old New England Family. Their two sons, Douglas, who died a young man in 1915 and Donald, were born in Grand Forks. She kept his surveying notes, typing them on a typewriter with special surveying symbols which, with his transit and other equipment and historical materials is in an exhibit in the Liberty Memorial Building in Bismarck.
The George Kimball Dikes retire to Northfield, Minnesota, but always spent summers on the farm. Their legal residence, arriving at the Nash Depot laden with trunks, bags and boxes, ready to occupy the "other house" until after harvest.
Having joned a Masonic Lodge in Maine in 1866 ( later becoming a Shriner in Grand Forks and a Knight Templar in Grafton) he had been, at the time of his death at the age of 93 in 1938, a Mason as long or longer than any other member in Minnesota and probably in North Dakota. He was both Northfield's and Walsh County's last Civil War Veteran.
The second generation of the Dike family are all deceased ( 1975).
Daughter Alice, (Mrs S.C. Wood) lived in North Dakota as a child. She had three daughters: Emily, Mamie and Alice.
Son George E. Dike, married June Edwards, sister of Ripley Edwards, an early Minto school teacher. She died after the birth of a daughter, Dorothy. His second wife, Jenny was the daughter of James and Mary Ann Barclay, Minto pioneers from Ontario, Canada. Their children were:
Ruth (died in 1973), Wilmer, Harriet, James, Marianne, Doris and Howard who lost his life on Iwo Jima in World War II. George farmed with his father in the early 1900's and later moved to Fairdale where he was a rural mail carrier for over 30 years until retirement to Grafton and later Jamestown.
Son, Donald K. Dike married Mary Oatoat, originally from Iowa. They had attended Carlton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Donald was a member of the 1939 North Dakota Legislature. Their children were: Margaret, Josephine, Malcolm, George and Mary Nancy ( Mrs Luther Williamson of Grafton, ND) were the only Dike descendants living in North Dakota.

This biography of George Kimball Dike, page 55-56 in the Walsh Heritage Centennial book, 1881-1981, Volume 1.