An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota, Part 10

Author: Rose, Arthur P., 1875-1970
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Marshall, Minn. : Northern History Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 726

USA > Minnesota > Lyon County > An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota > Part 10

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.

of the county. It was still the most thickly settled part and in it were the county's capital, the only business houses, and the only place that could by any stretch of the imagination be termed a village.

One of the important events of 1871 was the establishment, at Upper Lynd, of the county's second store by Rev. W. . T. Ellis. The store was quite a pretentious affair, considering its dis- tance from the railroad and the sparsely settled country from which it drew trade. It was later moved to Lower Lynd, some two miles down the river. 3

Although the population of the county was still very small, the year 1871 wit- nessed the founding of two villages in the Lynd settlement, about two miles apart-Upper Lynd, on the south side of the Redwood river, on the southeast quarter of section 33, about one and one-half miles above the present village of Lynd; and Lower Lynd, also on the Redwood river, about one-half mile- northwest of the modern village of Lynd.

The village of Upper Lynd had been started earlier by A. W. Muzzy, already had a hotel and postoffice, was the county seat, and for a time had boasted a store. The plat of Lynd-commonly referred to as Upper Lynd-was platted by William T. Ellis and George C. Smith in the fall of 1871, the site having been surveyed by T. G. Morrill on August 22.

3"The older citizens of the county will remember Ellis as a character. Governed mostly by impulse, he was always ready to preach a sermon, run horses for the whisky, conduct a Sunday School, or beat his best friend in a trade. While here he was an energetic, fervid, effervescent citizen who did considerable to build up the church and secular interests of Lynd and develop its latent possibilities. He opened a store at Lynd and bought goods for it sufficient to stock several such settlements. His goods had to be brought in by team from New Ulm and were caught in a heavy rainstorm on the way. It is said the dried apples swelled so that all the other goods in that load were shoved overboard. llis load of codfish, bought at ton rates, probably on time, had to be spread over the hills of Lynd to dry till the air of that settlement, it is claimed, reached the Flandreau Indians and seventy bucks went on the warpath, thinking they smelled the camp of another tribe."-Case's History of Lyon County.

After a short career the village suc- cumbed to its more prosperous rival down the river, lost the county seat, postoffice and store, and in time became good farming land. Lower Lynd was laid out in June, 1871, by A. R. Cummins and A. D. Morgan. Levi S. Kiel and A. D. Morgan built a hotel on the site and the latter opened a store. After the fall of its up-river rival Lower Lynd became the leading town of Lyon county. 4

The first church building in the county was erected by the Methodists early in 1871. It was located on M. V. Davidson's claim, the northeast quarter of section 33, Lynd. The building was of logs, had a shake roof, and the floor was of earth. Rev. C. F. Wright preached the first sermon in the building.

Although a school, supported by sub- scription, had been conducted so early as 1869, school districts were not organ- ized or public schools conducted until 1871. Districts No. 1 and 2 were created by the Board of County Com- missioners on March 15, 1871. The former included sections 20 to 29, in- clusive, and 32 to 36, inclusive, in the township of Lynd; the latter included all of Lyons and Rock Lake townships. 5

An event of the greatest importance to Lyon county at the time and bearing directly on its whole future history was the building, in 1872, of the Winona & St. Peter railroad-now a branch of the

+For a more complete history of these villages the reader is referred to chapter 16.

5Other early day school distriets were as follows: No. 3 (created April 4, 1871)-Amiret, Sodus, Custer and Monroe townships. No. 4 (created May 16, 1871)-The eight northern townships of Lyon county. No. 5 (created May 16, 1871)-The six southern townships of Lincoln county.

No. 6 (created January 2, 1872)-In Lincoln county. No. 7 (created January 2, 1872)-The southern half of Lake Marshall township. No. S (created January 2, 1872)-The northern half of Lake Marshall township and the southern tier of townships of Fairview township.

No. 9 (created June 1, 1872)-Ten and one-half sections in northeastern Lynd and northwestern Lake Marshall townships.

IHISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.

Northwestern system. To aid in the construction of the road the government gave to the company the odd-numbered sections of land for a distance of twenty miles on each side of its line, so that one-half the lands of Lyon county were withdrawn from homestead entry and passed into the possession of the railroad company. 6

The line was run diagonally across the county from southeast to northwest. The rails were laid into the county in 1872, a construction train reached the site of Marshall on October 12, but the line was not operated until the spring of 1873.

The building of the railroad had a wonderful effect upon the settlement of Lyon county. A country into which a railroad is building is not destined long to remain a frontier region and during the whole of the year 1872 immigrants poured in and took claims in every precinct.7 Sod shanties and little frame shacks dotted the prairies in theretofore unsettled portions. 8 The village of Mar- shall was founded and rapidly grew into the most populous and important center of the county.

Because there was this big immigra- tion and the whole order of things was changed, it must not be imagined that the country was developed in a day.

: 6This land grant undoubtedly brought the railroad several years sooner than would have been the case otherwise and for the time being aided materially in the settlement of the county. But a little later, when all the government lands had been filed upon and settlers were passing through the county to locate upon the free lands in Dakota, it was found that the grant was a decided drawback to the settlement of the county. For several years the railroad lands were not placed on the market; when they were they sold for from six to fifteen dollars per acre.

7Among the arrivals of 1872 were Jacob A. II. Dahl, John Krog, Ole O. Brenna, Michael Knudson, A. Malde, Knud O. Dovre, T. O. Loftsgaarden, Ole O. Myrvik, Lars J. Jerpbak, Sam Hanson, Charles Ander- son, Sven H. Jeremiassen, Nils N. Myre, T. I. Trana, Nels Gregerson, Ole O. Nordby, T. J. Barber, Selden Coleman, James Butson, L. E. Bates, Jacob Thomas, James M. English, A. L. Baldwin, J. A. Brown, Il. G. Iloward, Thomas Lindsay, Frank D. Wasson, Duncan Mckinlay, S. B. Wheeler, J. A. Dillman, R. D. Barnes, C. A. Cook, G. P. Ladenburg, C. H. Richardson, Joseph Sanders, John Ward, S. Webster, W. M. Todd, J. W. Blake, S. V. Groesbeck, J. A. Hunter, J. K. Johnson, Mathew Steele, W. G. Hunter, Andrew

Almost without exception the early settlers of the county were poor in this world's goods; they came to secure free land and build themselves homes in the new country. Most of the arrivals of 1872 came too late in the season to break their lands and put in a crop, and consequently there was not a large harvest.

Only 676 acres of land-a little more than one section-were planted to crop in 1872 in the whole territory now embraced in the counties of Lyon and Lincoln. Of these 342 acres were in wheat, 98 in oats, 167 in corn, 6 in barley, 13 in buckwheat, 45 in potatoes and 5 in beans. From this acreage were produced 6690 bushels of wheat, 3889 of oats, 5274 of corn, 165 of barley. 3651 of potatoes, and 88 of beans. There were also put up 2574 tons of wild hay. The dairy products consisted of 7166 pounds of butter and 4850 pounds of cheese. There were less than 500 head of cattle and only ninety sheep in the county in 1872, according to the assess- ors' figures.

Except for the fact that the prairies became dotted with the homes of settlers. it was largely the same virgin territory it had always been. The game lover found himself in a paradise. Birds abounded. There were ducks, Hamm, Joshua Goodwin, E. B. Jewett, Walter Wake- man, J. W. Williams, W. Coleman, D. P. Billings, Stanley Addison, J. A. Coleman, Andrew Barrett, Thomas McNeil, W. W. Pierce, L. B. Nichols, Lyman Turner, N. Wilkins, C. Mehan, Daniel Farquhar, B. F. Link, George Link, H. P. Sanden, J. W. Hoag- land, M. M. Hoagland, Samuel W. Galbraith, Edson Weeks, Orval Persons, Noble Cuyle, H. Drake, J. L. Craig, Louis Rialson, Ole Rialson, E. L. Starr, Edward Glynn, Ole Andersen, Ole Helgeson, Andrew Chris- tensen, Kittle Christopherson, David Morgan, William H. Hamm, Emery Hamm, G. W. Linderman, C. Osborn, J. W. Lester, J. A. Van Fleet, J. T. Crouch, A. S. Town, Lucius Town, Lina Bishop, Loliff Olson, Ilenry G. Mead, Hugh Neill, William Neill, David Clark, H. O. Clark, John H. Clark, George R. Watkins and S. L. Wait.

8Sod houses were easily built and were the prevailing style of architecture in the days when lumber was searce and money more so. They were comfortable if properly built. Some of them had floors and others did not. The roof was usually constructed of poles and brush, covered with dirt and sod; some of them shed rain and some did not.

TRACY PUBLIC SCHOOL

TYPICAL SOD SHANTY

In Such Houses as This Hundreds of Lyon County Residents Had Their Homes.

HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.

wild geese, brant, curlew and prairie chickens. Occasionally glimpses were caught of some of the big game that formerly roamed the prairies in vast numbers. The summer was fine. The days and nights were frequently glorified by electrical storms of terrific and ineffable grandeur. At night the set- tlers often sat until midnight watching the frolic of sheet-lightning playing over miles of cloud banks, vividly suggesting the possible glories of another world. Vegetation grew rank. The newcomers rode along the river bottoms or on the edges of sloughs through seas of wild bluejoint grass up to the horses' backs.

It was the experience of a life time, this breaking up the virgin lands and building a community from the ground up, and many were the probable and improbable stories told of those days. Letters went back to the old homes in the East, telling how the homesteaders planted corn with an ax and caught fish with a pitchfork, and how the piano was set up in the shanty and the library stacked up under the bed.

During the season the county was visited by disastrous prairie fires and hail storms, and as a result aid for those who met with loss was furnished by the state. For the relief of those in strait- ened circumstances in Lyon county by reason of fire losses, $100 was distrib- uted. To supply seed grain the state authorities also sent to the county $SOS.25, all of which was reported dis- tributed by the Board of County Com- missioners on March 19, 1873.

The winter following the year of rapid settlement- the winter of 1872-73- must go down in history as a most severe one. It brought the most terrible blizzard in the county's history, before or since, in which the settlers received their first experience of real hardships.

Winter began November 12. The day had been fine, but toward nightfall those who knew the Northwest saw in- dications of a blizzard. At dark a gale from the northwest struck the houses with a whack as distinct as if it had been a board in the hands of Old Boreas. One of the famous northern blizzards was on, and there was a series of storms until the afternoon of the third day. Thenceforth it was winter. Snow fell to a great depth, probably not less than two feet, but it was so blown about and drifted by the wind that in some places there were drifts of twenty feet or more.

From the time winter so set in there was little let-up in the severity of the weather. One storm followed another, and when not storming the weather was cold and severe, while the deep snows, almost constantly drifting, made travel difficult and sometimes dangerous. Dur- ing that long winter the inhabitants of this part of the state were practically shut out from the world. For weeks at a time there were no mails. Many people were inconvenienced for want of necessary food, fuel and clothing. The sufferings and horrors of that long and dreadful winter will never be effaced from the memories of those who ex- perienced them.

The ill-fated year 1873 began with the most violent storm in the history of the state from the time of its first settlement to the present date. For three days, beginning January 7, the blizzard raged, extending over the whole Northwest. The temperature was from eighteen to forty degrees below zero during the whole period of the storm. The air was filled with snow as fine as flour. Through every crevice, keyhole and nailhole the fine snow penetrated, puffing into the houses like steam. Seventy human lives were lost in the

HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.

storm in Minnesota, and eight of this number were people who resided in Lyon county as then constituted.

The forenoon of Tuesday, January 7, was mild and pleasant; the sky was clear and there was no wind. It seemed as though a "January thaw" was imminent. The pleasant weather had induced many farmers to go to the woods for a supply of fuel or with their families to the neighbors to visit.

About eleven o'clock a. change was apparent. The sky lost its crystal clear- ness and became a trifle hazy. Just about noon a white wall was seen bear- ing down from the northwest. The front of the storm was distinct and almost as clearly defined as a great sheet. In a few minutes a gale, moving at the rate of thirty or forty miles an hour, was sweeping the country; a full- fledged blizzard had supplanted the bright sunshine in a few minutes. The air was so completely filled with flying snow that it was impossible to see objects a short distance away.

One who witnessed the storm said: "The air was filled with whirling frost, fine as flour, so thick that it was im- possible to see into it more than a rod or so, and no idea of direction could be kept. The snow would blow right through ordinary clothing, and it was impossible to face the wind because of intense cold." Another declared that there were twenty-four different currents of air to the cubic foot, each traveling in a different direction and each moving with the velocity of electricity.

All Tuesday night, Wednesday and Wednesday night the storm raged with unabated fury. Not until Thursday was there any let-up, and not until Friday was the storm over. Very few who were in places of safety when the storm struck braved the dangers of get-

ting anywhere else. The hotel at Mar- shall was filled with people as securely fastened within doors as though they had been in jail, and at Kiel's hotel in Lynd were other wayfarers awaiting the opportunity to get home. Besides those who perished, several Lyon county residents were caught on the prairie in the storm, and some were obliged to spend two or three days in deserted claim shanties or hay stacks.

Three of those who perished in the storm were residents of that part of the county which a year later was organized into Lincoln county. They were Wil- liam Taylor, who had settled at Lake Benton in 1868; James Robinson and a Mr. Ebersold.

William Taylor had started from Lake Benton to mill at Redwood Falls with a load of grain. The storm came upon him when he had reached a point about where the village of Russell now stands. There he unhitched his team, overturned the sleigh box, and spent the night and part of the next day. Realizing that he must freeze if he remained where he was, Mr. Taylor turned loose one of the horses and, mounting the other, set out in an attempt to find a place of safety.

After the storm a searching party found the trail of the unfortunate man. The horse he had ridden was found on the Redwood river in Lyons township, from which place Mr. Taylor had trav- eled afoot with the storm in a south- easterly direction about forty miles. The searching party lost the trail about twenty miles from where he had left the Redwood. At one place he passed within ten feet of a claim shanty and at another he passed between a shanty and a hay stack, but owing to the dense snow, and possibly to the fact that at that time he was blinded. he passed them by. The body was found the

HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.

following winter by settlers from near Worthington at a point in northern Nobles county not far from the present village of Fulda.

Three others that met death in the storm were members of the Fox family. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Fox, their six year old daughter and a nephew, a young man. They were on their way home to Lynd township from Redwood Falls, where they had been visiting. and became lost in the storm at a point on the east side of the Red- wood river, not far from the site of the Catholic church of Marshall.

Becoming lost and not knowing where they were, the unfortunate people un- hitched the oxen and overturned the wagon box to fix a shelter. It was of little value, however, and the family were soon drifted over with the snow. When the storm abated, on Saturday, the family was found. The young man and the little girl were dead and Mr. Fox was so severely frozen that he died on Monday. Mrs. Fox recovered.

The other deaths in Lyon county occurred not far from where Tracy is now situated. The victims were Asle Olson, who lived near Lake Sigel, and a man whose surname cannot be recalled but whose given name was Knute, who lived just over the line in Murray county. The men were returning from Lake Shetek with a load of wood when they lost their way and perished. When the storm subsided Olson's body was found a half mile from his home. The body of the other man was not found until March. It was discovered only a short distance south of Tracy, near the old fair grounds.

O. C. Gregg was one of those who had experience with the awful storm. In a speech delivered before the Old Settlers Society in February, 1885, he said:

On the morning of the seventh the wind completely fulled and ominous quiet prevailed. The speaker, in his tenderfooted innocence, thought winter had broken up. Without an overcoat he started down the river to visit Uncle Marcyes. While chatting there, all of a sudden came a wind from the northwest with a wailing sound such as he had never heard before-that terrible roar that precedes a genuine blizzard, but then new to him. Alarmed, fearful of some disturbance of the elements, he started home, accepting an overcoat from his host. He had hardly got started before the blizzard struck. A dense volume or sheet of blinding snow came upon him, crowded with terrible pressure by the northwest wind.

On reaching the timber he could barely see from tree to tree, so fiercely was the snow driven through the woods. As he merged from the timber to traverse the few rods to Kiel's hotel, he could not see his hand placed two feet from his eyes, but he managed to reach the house and gain entrance, where he found other way- farers.

He never before knew what a storm was. Here for three days and three nights they were compelled to remain, during which time two others joined their number, each at different times gaining the door and falling into the room nearly exhausted. At these times it required the united force of two or three men to close the door against the storm.

W. P. Durst, then a boy seventeen years old living in Lake Marshall town- ship, and his twelve year old brother were also caught in the storm and barely escaped with their lives. On the day of the great blizzard they had gone to the Lynd woods with an ox team for a load of fuel. They had secured their load and started home when the storm came upon them. The older boy placed his brother on the south side of the load and cautioned him to keep a hand con- stantly on the wood. He then took his place at the head of the team and literally felt his way through the blind- ing storm for six miles, arriving at last at the cabin of the Bellinghams. The smaller boy's toes were frozen, but he recovered.

Despite the ushering in of the year 1873 with the terrible January storm, the year opened auspiciously. The new railroad thawed out and regular train service was established to Marshall in

HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.

April.9 During the year the road was extended to Lake Kampeska and the transient population thus brought in made times lively. For two years train service was not maintained west of Marshall, except that every Saturday an engine and caboose made the trip to the western end of the line to hold the land grant.

With the opening of the railroad came hundreds of new settlers, and the settle-

9The first train to run within the limits of Lyon county on a regular schedule left New Ulm at nine o'eloek in the morning of April 14, made the run of eighty miles in seven hours, and arrived on time at Marshall at four o'elock in the afternoon. II. B. Gary was eonductor and Robert McConnell engineer. The train was made up of engine No. 26, a baggage car, coach, and twenty-five freight cars. John Ward, Marshall's first station agent, was on the platform to receive the first train.

10Those who were assessed for personal property in 1873 were as follows:

Lake Marshall-J. T. Bellingham, C. T. Bellingham, A. W. Bean, Samuel Benjamin, Charles Bellingham, Robert Bellingham, John W. Blake, David P. Billings, W. C. Bennett, J. Bagley, L. H. Cannon, Josiah Clark, Samuel Corliss, W. M. Coleman, John A. Coleman, Noble Cuyle, William Clemmens, Orson Drake, Michael Durst, M. V. Davidson, C. A. DeGraff, Everett & Co., Jennie Gates, J. C. Garnhart, J. Y. Hoffstot, A. J. Hamm, H. F. Hoyt, J. A. Hunter, W. A. Johnson, J. K. Johnson, W. R. Loveless, Alfred Loveless, E. B. Langdon, W. H. Langdon, L. W. Langdon, Langdon & Laythe, R. Monroe, M. B. Morse, C. F. Metealf, M. Melon, L. B. Niehols, George E. Niehols, G. W. Payne, Alexander Sanders, Joseph Sanders, James Smith, S. N. Taylor, W. M. Todd, Turner & Loope, H. J. Tripp, A. O. Underhill, C. H. Upton, Peter Van Zant, G. R. Weleh, M. E. Wilcox, C. H. Whitney, E. Woodbury, S. Webster, J. P. Watson, William Johnson & Co., J. W. Wilson.

Lynd-L. E. Bates, E. M. Barton, J. G. Bryan, E. P. Carlton, G. E. Cummins, W. A. Chapman, A. R. Cummins, James Cummins, L. H. Dunn, N. Davis, J. V. Eastman, T. S. Eastman, E. Fezler, O. C. Gregg, Osear Hawes, J. N. Johnson, C. S. Johnson, J. K. Kyes, L. S. Kiel, James M. Loekey, G. W. Link, A. D. Morgan, L. Mareyes, C. Nelson, Andrew Nelson, T. T. Pieree, A. Ransom, Jacob Rouse, J. E. Starks, Smith & Ellis, A. C. Tucker, Z. O. Titus, Samuel Van Alstyne, William Van Buren, J. W. F. Williams, H. G. Ward, R. Waterman, H. R. Mareyes.

Lyons-William C. Adams, Frank Bills, Mrs. M. L. Buel, John E. Buel, A. Crossley, Scott Carlisle, Thomas Downie, E. B. Downie, A. C. Dam, M. A. Fifield, S. W. Galbraith, C. E. Goodell, G. A. Gill, F. C. Hieks, J. W. Hoagland, Charles Hildreth, G. W. Hieks, L. C. Hildreth, J. N. Harvey, L. P. Knapp, E. Lamb, A. W. Magandy, H. Mussler, Hugh Neill, William Neill, Owen Owens, Mrs. B. Roberts, Henry Shafer, R. Tuper, C. L. Van Fleet, Roland Weeks, R. Wait, G. Watson, C. A. Wright, William Witson.

Fairview-C. C. Beach, Norton Billings, John Brown, Tyler Carpenter, C. A. Edward, J. W. Elliott, B. C. Emery, Benona Gibbs, H. P. Gibbs, John Hanlon, Reuben Henshaw, H. G. Howard, Seth Johnson, Cornish Johnson, Harmon Lovelace, Thomas Lindsay, Owen Marron, W. S. Reynolds, George Spaulding, Luman Tieknor, William Robinson, Zenas Rank, Abraham Williams, Frank Wasson.

Nordland-Neils Anderson, Ole Anderson, A. Chris- topherson, S. Esperbrick, C. Endrusen, C. K. Eiversen, T. H. Flom, O. O. Groff, W. K. Hovden, Gunder Hanson, J. H. Hyglen, A. Halvorsen, J. B. Johnson, B. Johnson, A. Johnson, S. Jeremiahson, C. H. Lee, T. O. Loftsgarden, N. H. Myre, A. L. Marken, N. B. Nielson, Ole Olson, Halvor Olson, Ole O. Rear, A. O.

ments of Lyon county were indeed in a flourishing condition. That the country was developing rapidly is shown by the fact that in 1873 there were 393 personal property assessments, a considerable larger number than there had been in- habitants three years before. 10

The iron horse brought many of the comforts of life-neighbors, markets, and other adjuncts of civilization. The hardships of pioneer life seemed passing

Strand, A. P. Strand, Jard Stenersen, Leif Stenersen, K. Tolefson, J. O. Tanjen, T. Helgosen, Ole Ledell.

Lake Benton (southern Lincoln county)-A. Ander- son, N. F. Berry, Edgar Bentley, C. H. Briffett, Jaines Briffett, James Cooley, C. W. Cooley, Hans Grand, James Gillman, Benjamin Hadley, J. A. Hutetrons, S. G. Janes, A. G. Leach, Thomas Lemon, John Moore, W. M. Ross, Alexander Ross, F. M. Randall, Thomas Robinson, John Snyder, William Taylor.

First Preeinet (Custer, Monroe, Amiret and Sodus)- Ole Anderson, Ole Amenson, John Avery, Ole Arnud- son, O. H. Brevig, Patrick Curtin, C. Christopherson, A. Christensen, William Coburn, G. W. Donaldson, H. Drake, Rees Davis, Theodore Diekenson, J. H. Eastman, David Griffith, Lafayette Grover, C. S. Grover, W. Hanison, Eleazer Hall, E. Hall, Thomas M. Harris, R. H. Hughes, Ole Johnson, Johnson, Ole Johnson, Margaret Johnson, John S. Jones, Ogan Johnson, Triston Knudson, Neamiah Leavett, James Mitchell, Jr., James Mitchell, L. S. Mason, L. Mason Charles Mason, James Morgan, S. E. Morgan, W. H Morgan, Nelson, Tolef Olson, Saulerious Olyn, Cornelius Olson, Robert Owens, Jaeob Plymouth, A. Purves, Rees Price, HI. Randall, Ole Rialson, Lewis Rialson, Horace Randall, Joseph Reese, G. S. Robinson, E. L. Starr, Martin See, D. Stafford, Landy Soward, William Shand, William Taylor, K. Trielson, S. S. Truax, B. B. Thomas, B. F. Thomas, George White, Enos Warn, S. E. Wallace, II. H. Williams, J. H. Williams, A. H. Wellman.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota, Part 10

Author: Rose, Arthur P., 1875-1970 Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Marshall, Minn. : Northern History Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 726

Author: Rose, Arthur P., 1875-1970
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Marshall, Minn. : Northern History Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 726