USA > Minnesota > Lyon County > An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota > Part 15
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"Previous to the thaw between forty and fifty boats had been constructed, and on Friday every boat and every apology for one were brought into requisition to ferry people to and from their homes and business places. A regular ferry was established between the Merchants Exchange and the bridge as long as the
threshed and marketed in the spring and summer following, and some of it was of good quality. Owing to the floods, the late season and blight, the wheat erop of 1881 was a failure. The local papers reported it as a half crop and estimated the yield at ten bushels per acre. Some of the other erops were fair and there was a good market for all produce.
In April, 1881, came the first Belgians and Hollanders to the Catholic colony of northwestern Lyon county. With these first arrivals, about seventy-five in number, came Father Cornelius, who did much toward the rapid settlement of the county. The new arrivals, who settled for the most part in Grandview township and the village of Ghent, were attracted by the advertising matter of the Catholic society and the report of one of their number who visited the county in 1880.37
The matter of the building of the Minneapolis & St. Louis railroad through Lyon county was a live issue in 1881. Surveys were made in the summer and bonds to aid in its construction were voted in several precincts of Redwood county. Late in September the railroad authorities submitted a proposition. by the terms of which they agreed to build through Lyon county provided the right of way was given and about $30,000 in
bridge remained, and afterwards from the Exchange to the opposite shore. The water at this point formed a double eurrent in the regular channel of the river and past the corner of the hotel, running at a speed of about a dozen miles an hour and making it difficult and dangerous to cross, and not a few narrow eseapes from disaster occurred."
37In 1880 Angelus Van IIee and his son, Aime Van Hee, eame from Belgium to loeate a home for a colony in the New World. They came upon the request of Bishop Ireland and were accompanied by Peter Van Hee, of Liverpool, England. Angelus Van Ilee and his son visited many parts of the country and found no place they liked better than Lyon county. They bought land on section 17, Grandview township, made some improvements thereon, and then returned to Belgium and reported favorably on the country.
As a result of this visit, the colony came in 1881, and there were many additions during several sue- eeeding years. Among those who purehased farms in 1881 were David Van Ilee, Mrs. Modest Van Hee, Messrs. De Rutter, Vandewoestyne, Deeoek, Vergote and Foulon.
98
HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.
bonds were voted to aid in the con- struction.
The people of Lyon county were eager to secure the road and at once made arrangements to vote the bonds. It was arranged that township bonds
should be issued and not all the town- ships were asked to contribute. Fol- lowing is the list of townships that voted on the bond issue, the date of the election, the amount of bonds asked. and the result :
PRECINCTS
Date
Amount
For Bonds
Against Bonds
Lake Marshall
Oct. 1S
$13,900
176
2
Clifton.
Oct. 21
1,800
21
Fairview
Oct. 25
3,800
18
5
Lynd.
Oct. 29
4,200
28
3
Island Lake.
Nov.
1,200
18
1
Grandview
Nov. 12
2,400
24
18
Stanley
Dec. 31
1,800
11
21
Nordland 38
Dec. 31
1,200
Lyons
Mch. 21
2,400
28
19
Although enough bonds were voted. the road was not built, and in May, 1882, it was announced that the pro- 28Voted against the bonds.
posed road had passed into other hands and that the line would not be con- structed through Lyon county.
CHAPTER VII.
THE AGE OF PROSPERITY-1SS2-1912.
F ACTS supplying the context of preceding chapters lead to the conclusion that the people of Lyon county had passed through many years of hardships and bitter dis- appointments before a permanent con- dition of prosperity was reached. This long period of travail was punctuated by an occasional year that promised better times. In the earliest days the settlers contended with obstacles in- cident to the settlement of any new country, being far from railroads, mar- kets, schools, churches, and the many institutions that in our present day civilization are considered necessary to the enjoyment of life.
The community had hardly emerged from its frontier state when the grass- hopper scourge came with its terrifying inflictions, and the county received a setback which took years to overcome. Following the departure of the plague came several years devoted to the pay- ment of debts contracted during the dark days and making a new start. During this reconstruction period were several years of partial crop failures because of weather conditions, and the age of prosperity did not begin until the year 1882.
several years that was secured and marketed without some discouraging feature. The result was a rise in the value of Lyon county farming lands and an influx of new settlers, who came to share in the prosperous times. During the fall months every train from the cast brought landseekers, most of whom invested in railroad lands and remained as permanent settlers. "With no effort to force a boom," said the Marshall News in August, "one has fairly started. The railroad land office is daily dis- posing of land in the county and much deeded property is changing hands."
The following winter was another severe one. For thirty-four days prior to March 4 the railroad was blockaded so completely that not a train ran in the county. Another of the death-dealing winter storms occurred February 15 and 16, 1883, in which two more lives were added to the list of those sacrificed to the Storm King.
During the afternoon of the fifteenth the weather was calm and foggy. At a quarter after nine in the evening was heard the roaring, rumbling sound that gives warning of the approach of all storms entitled to the name blizzard. At half past nine it struck, moving with a velocity of thirty-five miles an hour.
An excellent crop of small grain was produced in 1882, the first crop in The blizzard raged until half past seven
633249
100
HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.
the next evening, the thermometer during this time registering six to eight degrees below zero.
Luther C. Hildreth, thirty-five years of age, an early settler of Lyon county, lost his life in the terrible storm. He had been chopping wood at D. S. Burt's place, on the northwest - quarter of section 24, Coon Creek township, a mile and a half from his own home, which was on the southeast quarter of section 22, of the same precinct. At eleven o'clock on the night of the storm Mr. Hildreth started for home and within a short time was lost. As subsequently learned by tracing his tracks, he passed quite near his own house and continued west to Lone Tree lake. Then he turned east, came to the Redwood river, and followed up its channel two miles. While in the river bed Mr. Hildreth endeavored to dig a hole in the snow, but failed and lost his mittens there.
Still clinging to the ax he carried, Mr. Hildreth left the river and proceeded in a meandering course to within a short distance of Balaton. The last half mile was made on his hands and knees part of the way. the tracks showing that he staggered when walking. The body was found on the eighteenth. He was lying on his back with his legs doubled under.
The other death was that of Annie Cain, nineteen years of age, who lived with her parents near Amiret. On the day the storm began she was visiting at the home of F. A. Woodruff and early in the evening started home. She became lost in the fog before the blizzard started and when the storm came up she battled with it for some time, but
1The French colony came as a result of the reports of the county made by Messrs. Letourneau and Regnier, who came in the summer of 1882. After visiting many parts of Southwestern Minnesota, they decided to locate in the Ghent neighborhood. Their repre- sentations were responsible for the arrivals of 1883. Among the first of the French settlers were Messrs. Paradis and sons, Suprenant-Lord, Lord Paradis, Antony Paradis, Suprenant-Prairie, Metty, Carron, Lebeau, Padnaud, Duchene, Nevell and Emilien Suprenant.
finally succumbed. Miss Cain traveled six miles and sank down to her death about two hundred rods north of the house of Andrew Jackson. At one time in her travels she passed within thirty rods of that home. The young lady was thought to have remained at Wood- ruff's, and the fact that she had been lost in the storm was not known for two days. Her body was found on the eighteenth.
The year 1883 witnessed a large immigration to Lyon county. In March came a colony of fifty French settlers from Kankakee county, Illinois, who settled in the Ghent neighborhood. They came in a train of thirty-seven cars and brought farming implements and stock with them.1 There were also many arrivals from Belgium and Hol- land, who came as a result of a trip to the old country by Father Cornelius in January, 1883.2
Many new farm houses were erected during the year, the villages increased in population, and the country took on an air of prosperity. Good crops were the rule and nearly a million bushels of grain were harvested. The acreage sowil to the several cereals, the total vield and the average yield per acre for 1883 were as follows:
GRAIN
Acres Sown
Total Yield
Average Yield
Wheat.
26,307
437,371
16.51
Corn. .
3,541
20,820
5.86
Oats.
13,110
402,188
36.77
Barley
2,210
46,130
20.87
Total
45,168
906,509
2Among these arrivals from the old country were Father Y. Devos, who became pastor at Ghent ; Messrs. J. Lambert, Princen, Schreibers, Haerts, Maertens, Depuydt, Messine, Dieken, Sandy, Clayes. Peters, Van den Bogaerde, Crombez, Baumans, Delmeule, Hendrick, Riviere, DeReu, Van den Abeele, Van Prundel, Vrnkenlen, Engels, Dobbeldere, Blauwette, Browers and Maenhoudt.
101
HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.
Early in 1884 came the promise of a new railroad for Lyon county. It was to be built by a company styled the Duluth, North Shore & Southwestern, of which Herman E. Long was president and Louis H. Greiser was secretary. The "proposition," which was the in- evitable forerunner of railroad building in the early days, was submitted to the people of Lyon county at a mass meeting held at Marshall on January 26. The company desired a bonus of county bonds to the amount of $40,000, to be delivered in case the road was com- pleted to Marshall not later than September 1, 1885.
Most of the people of Lyon county were enthusiastically in favor of bonding for the road, which was to traverse the county in a general north and south direction, and at another meeting on January 30 petitions for calling a special election to vote on the bonds were signed. The people of Marshall, par- ticularly, were active in canvassing the county for signatures to the petition and within a short time petitions favor- ing the calling of the election were presented to the county authorities from every township, each signed by at least two local officers and twelve other freeholders. The requested action was taken by the Board of County Com- missioners and a special election called for February 23.
Tracy was not on the line of the proposed road and. the people of that village were opposed to the granting of bonds. A lively campaign in opposition ensued, participated in largely by the Chicago & Northwestern interests. John Lind, later governor of Minnesota, was at the time a resident of Tracy and took a prominent part in the campaign against the bond issue, particularly to keep the matter from coming to a vote. An injunction, forbidding the county
auditor to post and publish the notices of election, was granted by Judge Webber, of the district court. When the injunction papers were served, how- ever, the notices had been posted and the call for the election had been turned over to the printers. The election was held in all precincts except Monroe, Eidsvold and Nordland, the election officers of those precincts refusing to open the polls upon advice of those opposing the bonds.
To carry the election it was necessary not only that a majority of the electors voting should favor the issue, but also that a majority of the townships should record a favorable vote. The bonds were carried by a vote of 724 to 156, and thirteen of the seventeen townships voting gave majorities in favor. The vote by precinets was as follows:
PRECINCTS
For Bonds
Against Bonds
Amiret.
15
3
Clifton ..
36
0
Coon Creek
15
0
Custer.
2
42
Fairview
48
0
Grandview
46
6
Island Lake
39
0
Lake Marshall
58
0
Lucas
27
1
Lynd
72
0
Lyons
51
0
Marshall
20S
0
Rock Lake.
15
36
Shelburne
20
3
Sodus. .
38
16
Stanley
25
5
Vallers .
6
15
Westerheim
3
29
Total.
724
156
After the election the people of Tracy again appealed to the court and secured a temporary restraining order, forbid- ding the county authorities to deliver the bonds and the railroad officials from applying for them. In district court on May 29 Judge Webber made the in-
102
HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.
junction permanent.3 Before this action was taken, however, it became known that the railroad would not be built. It failed for lack of capital.
The years 1884 and 1885 were among the most prosperous in Lyon county's early history. Excellent crops were raised and there was a big immigration. Landseekers came to the county in large numbers and indications of prosperity were apparent on all sides. New farms were opened, neat frame houses replaced the sod shanties of pioneer days, and real estate values increased. +
Exclusive wheat farming was given up and much flax and hay were raised. Farmers turned their attention also to stock raising and dairying more than formerly. The farmers were at last firmly upon their feet. and the high road to wealth was open. The recovery from the grasshopper scourge was at last complete.
The population of Lyon county in 1885 was 7978, an increase of 1721 in five years. By precincts the population was as follows:
Amiret .
406
Clifton
190
Coon Creek.
102
Custer. .
308
Eidsvold 5
622
Fairview
253
Grandview
430
Island Lake.
240
Lake Marshall.
205
Lucas.
244
Lynd
376
Lyons
243
Marshall.
986
Monroe. 290
Nordland . 417
329
Shelburne
196
Sodus.
246
Stanley
186
Tracy
1210
Vallers .
167
Westerheim
432
Total 7978
3The case was entitled: Gilbert H. Jessup, David H. Evans, Henry Pattridge, Nathan Beach and John Lind vs. James Lawrence as county auditor, Herman E. Long and Louis H. Greiser.
4"The amount of railroad land sold about this place
The year 1886 was not a particularly fruitful one. There was very little movement in real estate and times were dull. In the country some improve- ments were made, but in comparison with the two or three preceding years, the twelve-month was an uneventful one.
The next year a splendid record in agricultural development was made. The acreage of crops was increased, many acres of prairie land were broken, many new farms were opened, a great amount of building was done, and the number of livestock greatly increased and the breed improved.
In the history of the Northwest there have been a few winter storms of such unnatural severity that they stand out as events of historical importance. The most severe of these awful storms was undoubtedly the blizzard of January 7, S and 9, 1873, an account of which has been given. Ranking second was the terrible blizzard of January 12, 1888, when over two hundred people lost their lives in different sections of the North- west. By a miraculous turn of fate, none of these was in Lyon county, although many were caught in the storm and some were severely frozen.
The conditions essential to such a disastrous storm as this proved to be had been filled by the weather during the week previous. On January 5 a storm of sleet had frozen on the surface of the deep snow to an icy smoothness. The day before the storm the intense cold weather that had prevailed mod- erated, the wind shifted to the south- west, and there was a heavy snowfall, which continued until the blizzard started the next day.
and Tracy this year exceeds by far the amount sold any previous year, and what is better, it is sold to men who will occupy and till it."-News-Messenger, July 17, 1885.
៛Including Minneota village.
Rock Lake.
103
HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.
On Thursday morning, the twelfth, the weather was mild and by noon it was thawing. A damp snow was falling and there was scarcely any wind. At a little before four o'clock in the after- noon what little wind there was subsided and there was a dead calm. At five minutes past four o'clock came the storm, with absolutely no warning.6 It has been described as coming "as quickly as one could look to the win- dow." In a moment a howling, shriek- ing blizzard was raging with blinding fury, rendering it hazardous to under- take a journey of even a few blocks in town and making it equivalent to almost certain death to be caught away from shelter on the prairie.
The terrors of the storm were aug- mented by a rapidly falling mercury, which soon reached the region of the thirties and rendered infinitely small the chance that any unfortunate being could survive who might be exposed to its perils. The storm rapidly increased in fury and continued unabated until eight o'clock Friday morning; then it lost much of its violence but continued until
6The coming of the storm was heralded in advance by telegraph in some places, but most of the people of Lyon county had no warning. It struck Gary, South Dakota, at 3:55, Canby at 4:00, and Marshall at 4:05. It has been estimated that the storm traveled at the rate of over one hundred miles an hour.
7The most thrilling experiences of the storm came to the fifty or more passengers on the east-bound Northwestern train, which for nearly six days was stalled in a cut one mile west of the siding then known as Kent, now the village of Garvin. The train was making its regular run from Huron to Tracy, due at the latter place about seven o'clock on Wednesday evening, the eleventh. There was a southwest wind and a light fall of snow during the day, with increasing wind toward evening. A snow-plow was running ahead, and the train following as the plow reached the station ahead. At Lake Benton the wind had so increased that a freight train was abandoned, its engine added to the passenger train, with its caboose in the rear, and the train ran on double-headed. At Balaton the passenger started east, on arrival of the plow at Tracy. When between four and five miles from Balaton, near Kent, the train beeame stalled in a long cut. This was at ten o'clock in the evening.
The engines, being unable to pull the train out, loosened from it and from each other and for two hours the trainmen made desperate efforts to break out of the cut. This was finally accomplished, but at about the same time a south blizzard of great force struek, whirled and piled the snow up in every diree- tion, and filled the track between the engines and the ears faster than the trainmen eould remove it. Finding all efforts to connect with the ears hopeless, and water and fuel fast being reduced, with the storm increasing,
Saturday night. Not until Tuesday did the conditions of the weather and roads permit many snow-bound people to reach their homes.
The storm came at a time when many were exposed to it. The mildness of the temperature that characterized the early part of the day resulted in farmers, who had long been weather-bound, going to the towns to trade, and a number of them were returning home; it came at an hour when schools all over the county were being dismissed, and child- ren were obliged to make their way home in the storm; it came also at the time of day when many farmers were in the habit of driving their stock to water, and they and their herds became lost in its blinding fury. A great many head of stock were frozen to death.
A number of Lyon county people had narrow escapes from death. A few were obliged to spend the night in snowdrifts and haystacks, and there were several severe cases of freezing. In the vicinity of Garvin a whole train load of people was imperiled.7
Lyon county's third railroad, the
both engines at midnight pulled out and made the run to Traey, arriving safely.
Then commenced in earnest the long siege of the passengers. Fortunately, there was a good supply of coal in the cars, enough for nearly two days' use. The besieged train comprised the mail and express ears, smoking and passenger coaches and caboose. There were between fifty and sixty passengers, enough to make crowded coaches when sleeping accommoda- tions were provided. But little sleep was had that night. The storm increased in fury and no passenger ventured outside, even while the trainmen were making efforts to release the train. Thursday morning broke upon a doleful appearing set of snow-bound passengers. With two or three eranky exceptions, the passengers were' cheerful. The storm showed no abatement until ten o'clock, when it gradually lessened in force until noon.
The telegraph from Traey made known at Balaton the fact that the train was stalled. The section men at the last named place loaded handsleds with pro- visions, hauled them out to the train, and a cold meal was eaten. During the afternoon a telegram was received at Balaton announcing the approaching blizzard. Realizing the dangers to which the people on the train would be subjeeted in one of the dreaded winter storms, the people of Balaton sent out seven teams hauling sleds to bring in the passengers.
Twenty-three persons were hastily loaded into the sleds and at three o'clock the start for Balaton was made. The rest of the passengers remained on the train. When the party in the sleds had proceeded about half way to Balaton and were still about two . and one-half miles from the village, the memorable blizzard struck. At the time they were about twenty rods from the railroad track. The ladies were turned
104
HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.
Great Northern, was built in 1888. Its construction gave the county excellent railroad facilities, all except three of its twenty townships being then traversed.
The preliminary steps toward the building of the road were taken in the spring of 1886. The Willmar & Sioux Falls Railroad Company was organized March 3, 1886, by residents of South-
with their backs to the storm and covered with wraps and robes. In a moment the road was obseured from view. The men dismounted and bending to the ground sought for the road, knowing that to get out of it was most dangerous. It was found and a council of drivers and male passengers was held.
It was decided to keep the teams elose together and make a break from the road to the railroad and keep close to it for the remaining two miles to town. Although only twenty rods away, it required a full twenty minutes to reach the railroad, which was struck at a point recognized as Ham's crossing. Some of the drivers gave the lines to the passengers and walked, encouraging their restless and confused horses, leading them and breaking drifts in front. In this manner slow and tedious progress was made toward the village by the little caravan.
The roaring blizzard, the dense atmosphere, the cutting, freezing, damp snow, the fast falling tem- perature, the anxiety of the drivers and the uneasiness of the horses all combined to create anxiety in the minds of the party. To add to the evils, one of the loads was overturned, two or three of the party lost their heads, and one man became partially deranged, crying and howling, and in his wildness pulling the robes and wraps from ladies in front of him, saying that he had but a few minutes to live and that he must get warm before he died. The people from the overturned słed attempted to walk, but with one exception soon found places in other vehicles. The exception, in fur coat and silk hat, stumbled through the snow, and, becoming exhausted, sank upon the roadside to die. He was seen by occupants of the last sled, who stopped and pulled him into their sleigh. His ears and face were frozen terribly.
At half past six, after a ride of three and one-half hours-two and a half hours in the blizzard-the last load reached the village and put up at its one hotel. Citizens were at their doors discharging guns and the school bell was incessantly elanging its alarm to guide the storm-bound procession into the village, but these sounds could not be heard beyond the village in the direction of the travelers. Everything possible was done for the relief of the passengers, nearly all of whom had frozen faces and chilled limbs.
Some of the trainmen started to walk to Traey from the stalled train Thursday afternoon and were caught in the storm. They sought shelter in a grove and later found their way to a farm house. The next day they succeeded in reaching Tracy.
Those who remained on the train also had their troubles. A few of the passengers did a lot of grum- bling, made no effort to take care of themselves, and made life miserable for everybody. Three nights were spent on the stalled train. Saturday the railroad otheials at Tracy secured teams and sent a relief party, which brought off the imprisoned passengers. It took all day to drive from Tracy to the train and most of the next day to make the return trip. The baggage- man, L. S. Tyler, remained on the train until it was released on Tuesday. That day Dr. H. M. Workman headed a party which brought to Traey in sleds those of the passengers who had made the trip to Balaton. Other adventures were reported in different parts of the county, among others the following:
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