USA > Minnesota > Jackson County > An illustrated history of Jackson County, Minnesota > Part 43
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grew worse, and when night came on you could see nothing for the whirlpool of snow that filled the air. The building proved to be a straw stable, partly drifted under. Knowing that a house must be near, father rubbed the snow from his eyes again and waited for a momentary abate- ment of the wind, to see if he could dis- cover the outline of a building. He soon saw it standing a short distance away. Here he found a woman with three small children and scarcely anything to eat or burn. The husband had gone to town in the morning for provisions and fuel and had failed to return. Father stayed with them and cared for the dumb animals m- til the second day of the storm, when he left his team and started home, a distance of three miles, on foot.
"As soon as father had warmed him- self he went to see if he could find mother, and with what an agony of suspense we awaited his return! Our hearts stood still when we heard him at the door, but as soon as we saw his face our fears were all removed. yet no one could find words to ask him if he had found mother all right. Not waiting long for us to ask, he told us she was safe and well, and that Mr. G. would bring her home the next day if the storm were then over.
"By the next morning the wind had en- tirely abated. and now that the storm was over everybody was astir. Those that had been kept away during the storm were going home, while others were leav- ing home to search for friends that had not returned. Not one in our neighbor- hood perished, though nearly all the men and some of the women were away. But throughout the whole frontier many lives were lost, for the storm was one of the worst we ever know. Nearly every week brought to ns the accounts of some newly found bodies, though most of them that perished were not found until the snow
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melted. Considerable stock was lost. Teams were found frozen not far from their drivers.
"Mother's home-coming was awaited with much impatience by myself. I ran to the window every time I heard it sleigh, but in spite of my vigilance Mr. G.'s sleigh was at the door before I saw it. Mother came in with face radiant with gladness, and I know our faces re- flected back that gladness if they were faithful mirrors of our hearts."
A NIGHT IN A SNOW BANK. ( By Robert Muir) .?
Thirty years ago this March | 1869] I was in Jackson with oxen after a load of wood. I started home just at night. when suddenly one of those storms which the country is noted for came up. and by the time I got out of Les's place you could not see ten feet ahead. I had faith in the team and believed that they would keep the road. but the storm grew, worse. and soon it became impossible not only to see but even to feel. Hunhitched the oxen and we started to find the road, but I had to give that up. so 1 fell in behind the oxen and trusted to luck to bring up somewhere.
After we had traveled until I began to give out. I stopped and tried to fasten the oxen with the chain to a snow crust. Then I dug a hole in the bank and turn- ed in. Soon I heard a movement. and. crawling out, discovered the oxen were gone, but as I could not tell which way they had gone. I again sought my downy conch. I lay on my back and worked both legs, striving to keep my feet from freez- ing. until 1 was nearly used up. When I got outside again the storm was still doing business, but I could see the moon was just up. so it must have been three o'clock, and back I went under the
2As published in the Jackson Republle of April 14, 1599.
snow. At daylight I started on again and soon ran into a stake: then I knew where I was. and. starting straight west. I struck the little log house in just a mile. That day. after rest and a good breakfast. 1 struck out and found the team coming home. They were about two miles southeast of where we camped.
That same night my brother, who had a claim adjoining mine, came over in this evening to see how the family fared and in going home missed the house and wan- dered all night in the slough just cast of where Pearson now lives. When we found him in the morning his mouth and beard were solid ice, and he had hardly room to breathe.
A WEDDING JOURNEY. ( By Alex Fiddes).
Having made up my mind lo go to St. Paul, the next thing was to get there. The nearest railway station was Mankato, ser- enty-five miles from here, and there was not a bridge across any of the rivers or Stream- between here and Mankato, and no regular traveled road. only a trail across the prairie. I sometimes think when I hear some of the people finding fault with the roads we have at the pre -- 'ent time that if they had been here in those days they might have had good rea- son to complain. At that time B. W. Ashley was mail carrier between here and Madelia, and a Mr. Vogt. of Madelia, car- ried the mail from Madelia to Mankato. Having made arrangements with Mr. Ashley to leave here at six delock in the morning of September to. 1869, and hav- ing some very important business to al- tend to that morning before leaving (viz: getting married ). I got out of bed very carly. When my wife and I got down to the river we found a boat ready to take us across. as. on account of the heavy rains, the river was high and teams were
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unable to cross at the ford. On crossing the river we found two teams awaiting us-B. W. Ashley, who took the five pas- sengers, with one team; Menzo Ashley, who carried the baggage, mail and a boat, with the other.
We got along fairly well until we reach- ed Elm creek. Then we had to launch our boat. and Menzo took one passenger across at a time. When all were across Ben and he tied their wagon boxes down to the axles of the wagons and swam their teams across. It was a dangerous under- taking, as the water was running at the rate of at least ten miles an hour, but they got everything across safely. Alter we got to Long lake they thought they would have no more use for the boat, as there was a horse boat on the Watonwan, just this side of Madelia. When we reach- ed the river we learned that the water had carried the boat house away, so we drove to a farm house to see if we could stay there over night, as it was after sundown by this time. They informed us that they could find a place for the teams but not for the passengers. We were in a pretty fix. We could see the lights in Madelia, about a mile away, but no way to get there. In the meantime, Menzo had gone down the river, and, seeing a boat tied up at the sawmill on the opposite side, he swam across and brought the boat up to where we were waiting. Ile then took us across, and we walked to Madelia. The ground between the river and town was rather low and there was considerable wa- ter on the ground ; every little while you would hear some one say "oh !" when they stepped into a hole up to the knees in water. We all had wet feet before we got to town, about ten o'clock at night. So much for the first day of our wedding trip.
Next morning after breakfast we start- ed for Mankato. We were not troubled
with water, but from Lake Crystal to Mankato it was mud up to the axles near- ly all the way. Every few rods we would get stuck in a mud hole, and I would have to get out and help pry the wheels out with a fence rail. We carried two rails with us, and I walked nearly all the way from Lake Crystal to the river. When we reached the river we found that the horse boat was unsafe, so we left the team on this side and walked across the river on some plank that were laid on a bridge that was being built. The mail carrier told me it was only a short distance to town and that we could walk up, or if we would wait he would return with a team and take us to town. Seeing I had paid him to take us to Mankato, I told him we would wait until he returned with a team. He tried, as the saying is, to freeze us ont, but I got a good seat on the lee side of a brewery, and in that situa- tion my staying qualities were good in those days. In some two hours he re- turned with a team, and we arrived in Mankato all safe and in good time for supper. Next day we got on board the cars and arrived in St. Paul without any further difficulties.
WILD AND WOOLLY DAYS. (By W. C. Logue).3
Pluck was the chief capital of the peo- ple of that locality in the early times, and fur was the medium of exchange. Prime muskrats passed current at an un- disputed value of twenty-five cents, and it required eight of those pelts, deposited in advance, for one year's enrollment on the subscription list of the paper whose majority we celebrate today. The pelt of an adult skunk was worth forty cents, but would not be accepted at the Republic counting rooms unless thoroughly disin-
3Written in 1891 and published in the Jackson Republic of February 20. of that year. the nun- ber celebrating the 21st birthday of the pio- neer paper.
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fected ; in fact, Postmaster Strong would not receive them in exchange for stamps unless similarly treated. .
Yes, those were woolly days, and Judge Sandon-we called him Charlie then- will vouch for the fact that when Doc Edwards and Tommy George failed to connect, either as the result of foul weath- er or from what sometimes affect states- men as well as stage drivers, the supply of tobacco would become exhausted. It was then the boys were wont to raid Old Man Monson's sheep pen and pluck the fibre from his flock. which, rumor said. had been saturated with the narcotic to de- stroy insects peculiar to the sheep. In connection with those hard times and early struggles, J. J. Smith will inform inquiring tenderfeel why so many slip- pery chn trees yielded their bark to the needs of the first settlers, and why the wild onion became an alnost extinct plant along the head of Dunbar creek. M. Mil- ler. veterinary surgeon, will testify to the fact that a more healthy and more rigor- ous class of people never fell under the fostering care of a medical practitioner than the yeomanry who read the first number of the Republic.
M. B. Dunn could prove by the records of Petersburg thal originality is not a re- cent importation. but existed with the township board which laid out a road "from John Hoovel's house to the place where George Stone kicked Chauncey Cor- nish, and thence in a due line to the place where Tom Russell's mare died. and con- tinning in a northwest course to the spot where Jim Palmer camped when he stole Fred Lindsley's traps." He could tell you of the personal encounter between Thomson and Al. King: of the closing of the polls while the judges of election proceeded to "put a head" on each other before resuming the statutory duties of their office.
We cite Attorney Dunn as an intelli- gent witness to prove that an absolute similarity of sex is not conducive of the best results in stock raising, as shown by the signal failure of Jack Greer and his ten head of masculine cattle. .
But all is changed since the cars have come and scared away the game. The blizzard-cap has given way to the less comfortable derby. The fur coat has been retired in favor of some dudish garment worn in the interests of doctors. Dan's old fiddle has gone to join the musical instrument of the historic Ned. Judge Sandon has always got "tobacco in his old tobacco box:" the heartless stranger has plowed up our best hunting grounds; democrats have moved in and settled in the county: so-called social parties are held at neighboring villages and the peo- ple of Jackson are not present at the feast : the Jackson Protective society has long since abandoned its vigilant care of Eph's old brewery : wisdom no longer sits on the bench where Judge Mason held the scales of justice: the old thousand dollar bill has been retired from local polities : all tidings from the outside world no longer filter in as in the days of stage and pony lines: ox teams have disap- peared from the streets of Jackson: the prairie schooner is less known to the pres- ent population than its namesake in a "dry" town.
The present manager of the Republic would not know a prime pelt from a Sep- tember kit. But the subject is becoming painful: let the curtain drop.
OLE ANDERSON'S ORANGE.
The Jackson county settlers of the early sixties lived in an isolated community, so far as the world at large was concerned. For years their nearest trading point was Mankato, nearly one hundred miles away, and trips to that frontier town were events
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to be remembered. The children were brought up without much general knowl- edge of the world or its customs. They were given plentiful religious and meager educational instruction; the boys could iide, hunt, trap, drive oxen, fight Indians and do a man's work. but their knowledge of the minor things of life was not picked up until years later.
So it came about that Ex-Sheriff Ole Anderson, of Jackson, then a boy enter- ing his teens and residing with his wid- owed mother on the Belmont township homestead, learned many things that in more settled communities are known without being learned. Among the deli- cacies that did not come to the homes of the frontier Norwegian families was fruit, and Ole was quite a lad when he saw his first orange.
It was on a trip to Winnebago City. whither he had gone with his ox team, that he first became initiated to the deli- cacies of the southern-grown fruit. There he saw a man eating an orange with the greatest enjoyment. Ole was interested and watched the performance closely. He wondered if they were as good as the man's enjoyment would seem to indicate. He decided to find out from a personal trial and sought a store where he saw some of the fruit displayed. Not know- ing if he would like the fruit, he pur- chased only one. Then he ate it. He was disappointed with the flavor and wondered how the man whom he had seen cating could have developed such an ab- normal taste.
Ole Anderson had bought a lemon. But it would take a smart man to hand him any of that fruit now.
GOODBYE, HOPPERGRASS.
The following song of triumph upon the departure of the grasshoppers was
written by George C. Chamberlin and published in his paper, the Jackson Re- publie, August 18, 18:1:
"Fare thee well, and if forever, Still, forever fare thee well."
Ile's gone!
Gone for good, we hope.
They sometimes call him a lo-enst.
But the last we saw of him he was a high- cus.
And he was scooting for furrin' parts.
Let him scoot.
Hallelujah!
Four seasons he tarried with us and was healthy.
And the fifth did he linger, but he was siek.
Perhaps we ought to be pathetie over the departure of so numerons a family, but we can't be.
Good riddance, you pest!
Yon ate our wheat, you did.
Yon ate everything.
Von are small and insignificant, but you can cat more than fourteen elephants.
You will lay more eggs to the square inch than any carniverons, herbivorous, bug-ivorous bug we ever saw.
As a multiplier you are a success.
You can winter in a refrigerator in Mani- toba and come out fresh and hungry in the spring.
Or,
You can sit at the top of a spliced two-story thermometer and eat the mercury as serenely as if it was ice water.
But then you are no more in these parts. We've gone out of the hopper business.
And intend to keep out.
It is not profitable.
It is not pleasant.
We tackled him with fire, smoke and brim- stone, and they availed nothing.
But tar-dozers and Fast Day fetehed him!
The last hopper has crawled up our trow- sers' leg for the last time, we hope.
That is a peculiarity peculiar to hoppers, and they don't seem to care whether one is in company or in church.
But he is now beyond the confines of hop- perdom, and that's what makes us happy.
Sound the tom-tom.
Blow the hew-gag.
Or vice versa if you want to.
Locusts and wild honey may do for a diet in case of emergency, but no man hereabouts will of his own choice take locusts in his'n hereafter. We have no doubt he is a blessing in disguise, but there is no disguising the faet that our people privately prefer a different disguise.
But he is gone.
Fare ye well, you gluttonons, voracious gor- mandizer!
Warble the doxology.
CHAPTER XXV.
REMINISCENT (Continued).
MUSKRATS, POLITICS AND RELIGION. (By George C. Chamberlin).
Y OU know in those early days al- most everybody caught muskrats -ministers, lawyers, and if we had happened to have had doetors they would have been compelled to eatel mmuskrats in order to have made a living. Rev. Peter Baker may or may not have caught muskrats, but if he did it would have been regarded as honorable, legiti- mate, if not absolutely necessary.
It is said that on a certain Sunday an appointment had been given out for a meeting at his house, and the settlers had gathered from far and near until the lit- the house was completely filled. He was about to open the exercises when some of his family stepped up and quietly inform- ed him that there was a mink in his trap. Now, mink skins were worth three or four dollars at that time, and for onee the good elder halted between two opinions- whether to immediately supply spiritual food to that audience, or bread and butter to his family. He coneluded he could supply both, asked to be exeused for twen- ty minutes, and proceeded to his trap, not far away, dispatched the mink, reset the trap, and returned to his waiting audience. When he left he was about to give out the familiar hymn:
This is the day I long have sought, And mourned because I found it not. And he continued to turn the leaves to the hymn, but before he found it com- menced :
This is the day I long have sought, And now rejoice that mink is caught.
Yes, nearly all caught muskrats in those days. County officers eaught musk- rats, and it was almost necessary that they smell of muskrat in order to be elected. Why, I happened to be elected to the leg- islature one year, and when I got down to St. Paul they doubted whether I ought to be sworn in because my certificate of eleetion didn't smell of muskrat; and do you believe it, when the session was about half elapsed, Clark Thompson, who then owned the Southern Minnesota rail- road and about half the land in southern Minnesota and wanted to seoop in what there was left for the railroads, brought down a trapper from the southern part of Martin county, whose eredentials were perfectly saturated with muskrat, and they actually unseated me, sent me home, and gave him my seat. Of course he was plae- ed upon committees where I had served ; consequently the trapper was chairman of the committee on printing for the re- mainder of the session. The next year I
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took the precaution to make my ereden- tials solid, and I was permitted to remain the entire session.
AN EARLY MARRIAGE. (By Major H. S. Bailey.)
I want to relate one little incident to show how prompt our officers were in performing their official duties. At the first town meeting held in Des Moines, April 2. 1866, there was one Simon, whose surname was Olson, who was cleeled a justice of the peace. Upon the same evening of the election he took the oath of office and filed his official bond. and. being furnished with a copy of the stat- utes of Minnesota, he went home a full- fledged squire. Whether he slept any that night or whether he sat up all night to study law we are not informed; but the next Monday he ate his breakfast as usual. donned his best suit of store clothes, and, after looking in the glass to make sure that he was the right man, took the statute under his arm and started to find a job.
He had not far to go before he found a woman who seemed perfectly willing to sacrifice herself upon the hymencal altar. providing a suitable man could be secur- rd. After some difficulty, he found a man that, to all appearances, was eligi- ble to fill the responsible position of hus- band, and, after using some very per- suasive arguments, the man came to the conclusion that it was not best for man to live alone, and. accordingly. accompan- ied the squire to the residence of the lady aforesaid. Whether the squire read the constitution of the United States or the declaration of independence. or what the ceremony was. we are not informed, but it concluded by his pronouncing them husband and wife according to the form of the statute in such cases made and pro-
vided and against the peace and dignity of the state of Minnesota.
This was the first marriage celebrated after the organization of the county, on the ninth day of April, 1866.
TROUBLES OF A JUSTICE.
Many ludicrous, as well as distressing. events occurred in Jackson county during the hard times that occurred soon after the county was organized.
When the first town meeting was held in Petersburg, in April. 1866, two jus- tices of the peace were elected, one living in Petersburg township proper, the other living near Loon lake in what is now Minneota township. As everybody was peaceably inclined, there was not much for a justice to do that year. But about Christmas time the Loon lake justice was overwhelmed with work. Six people came to him desiring to be made into three. and such a wholesale order was not to be vast aside. He proceeded to perform the marriage ceremonies in his best style, and the newly married went away happy.
Three or four weeks later some one in- formed the justice that he had made him- self criminally liable for marrying peo- ple who had not first secured a license. fle became alaimed and sought advise as to the best way out of the scrape. Some one advised him that the best way would be for the parties to procure licenses and be married over and thus legalize the af- fair. This struck the justice as the prop- er way out of the dilema, and he proceed- od to notify the parties accordingly. The first couple thought so, too, and wanted the job done up strong. The second couple were satisfied and said they would risk the former marriage. The third couple lived just over the line in Iowa. and when the justice broke the situation to them. the man said: "Good: I am glad of it : I've had enough of married life; I'll quit
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and don't want to be married again." The matrimonial intentions; whereupon the woman chimed in: "All right; if you're Major suspended proceedings, and right then and there made two hearts beat as one inside of five minutes, and then went on with his court. sick of it, I am, and if you want to leave, leave, so now." And they separated. This is the only instance on record where a justice of the peace granted a divorce.
EARLY JUSTICE COURTS.
The duties of early day justices of the peace were not entirely taken up with performing marriage ceremonies, and sometimes the courts were attended with ludicrous scenes and results. George C. Chamberlin, in the Jackson Republic of January 21. 1888, tells of his recollec- tions of some of these events :
"I recall the first justice court held in Jackson, or on the original townsite. It was early in the spring of 1867, and was held in T. A. White's store. A Mr. Black- mer was buidling a mill up the river and refused to pay the farmers in the vicin- ity who had labored in the construction of the mill and dam, and naturally they commenced an action to recover. Mr. Blackmer brought M. E. L. Shanks from Fairmont to attend to his interests, and the boys here secured one of our citizens to prosecute the case, there not being at that time a lawyer in the county. Major Bailey was the justice, and he and the unlearned and unlicensed home attorney beat Blackmer and Shanks, but Black- mer beat on execution.
"That little building on the corner of Second and Ashley streets is replete with scenes and incidents of early days in Jackson. It was the first building lathed and plastered in the county. Commission- ers held sessions there; Rev. Peter Baker held services there, and during the win- ter of 1864-68 school was taught in the building. Major Bailey was holding court there on one occasion when Evan Her- brandson led up a smiling damsel, and, looking square in at the door, announced
"There were occasionally assault and battery cases in those days that never came to trial. I recall one case where the doctor who was called to attend one of the parties to a scrimmage reported hard- ly a strong enough case to warrant an ar- Iest. A slight wound was inflicted by one of the assaulters and a physician was called to dress it. The doctor was re- puted to be not particularly skillful in sur- gery, but he had stowed away in his mem- ory a few medical and anatomical phrases, to be used as occasion might arise. He re- turned from the scene of the fracas, and of course there was a rush to the buggy to learn the result. He made the affair out not a serious matter and remarked that there were 'but a few scratches by a knife about the diaphram and the epiglot -. tis.' A bystander turned to go, and an- swered further inquiries by stating that the doctor said there was no trouble, only that the 'diafrown was up and the epami- nondous was down.' The diagnosis was accepted, and that was the last of the case."
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