USA > Minnesota > Lyon County > An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota > Part 35
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38W. T. Ellis was the first postmaster of Camden and served until 1875. He was succeeded by Jacob
buildings are expected to go up in the spring, which will give Camden the appearance of a right smart little burg.
The year of its founding was Cam- den's most progressive twelve-month. A church was erected nearby in 1875. At the beginning of the year 1876 the county paper described Camden as having "a large flouring mill, a store and plenty of timber and other desirable attractions." W. T. Ellis conducted the mill a few years and then sold to V. M. Smith. The latter operated the mill several years, and after several changes in management it passed into the hands of Jacob Rouse, who operated it many years and finally closed it. In the eighties W. R. Gregg conducted a store at Camden for about five years.
The final blow came to Camden when in 1SSS the Great Northern railroad was built and a station was refused the village. Because of the topography of the site and the extensive grading necessary in the vicinity, it was im- possible to establish a station there and the village of Lynd was built instead of Camden.
OTHER PLACES.
Rock Lake was the name of a country postoffice established in 1873. It was first located on section 28, Lyons town- ship, and Roland Weeks was the post- master. He was succeeded by A. C. Dann and the office was moved to Mr. Dann's home on section 20, Lyons town- ship. In November, 1874, J. A. Van Fleet received the appointment and moved the office to his home on section 4, Rock Lake township. He conducted the office until it was discontinued in 1881, after the establishment of the Balaton office. Mail was carried to the Roek Lake office from Marshall.
Rouse and the latter in the eighties by Louis Crane. The office was discontinued many years ago.
232
HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.
Sham Lake was a postoffice established on the southwest quarter of section 2, Lucas township, in 1873. R. H. Price was the first and only postmaster. He opened a store at his place in 1874 and conducted it a few years. The post- office was discontinued about 1880.
Blan Avon was the name of another country postoffice established about 1873, in Custer township. For a time it was in southern Sodus township. It was maintained only a few years.
On the Redwood river close to the Redwood county line-and part of the time in the other county-for about eleven years was conducted the Ceresco postoffice. It was established in 1872 and T. W. Castor was the first post- master. A store and blacksmith shop were also conducted at Ceresco for a time in the seventies. Several different persons were in charge of the postoffice, W. J. Simmons having been postmaster in 1882.
Hildrethsburg postoffice was estab- lished in June, 1874. It was first located on section 20, Lyons township, and Henry Mussler was the first postmaster. Charles Hildreth, also of Lyons town- ship, was appointed to the office in
39"The Brenner postoffice in the northern part of this county is discontinued on account of the rural mail route established last week from Cottonwood. The records will be turned over to the postmaster of Cottonwood. . .
"Brenner postoffice was established about 1875, with O. O. Brenna, Sr., as postmaster. The postoffice department evidently intended to give the office the name of the postmaster, but made the mistake of naming it Brenner. Mr. Brenna, Sr., held the office until 1889, when his son Ole became postmaster and held the position about two years. Then he resigned
February, 1875, and held it until it was discontinued in 1878 as the result of the burning of Mr. Hildreth's house.
Island Lake postoffice came into existence in June, 1874, with John R. King as postmaster. It was located at that gentleman's house on section 34. Island Lake township, and there Mr. King in the early days also kept a small stock of merchandise and conducted a "half-way" house for the travel between Marshall and Marshfield. In June, 1898, after the office had been operated at the same place for twenty-four years, it was moved to the home of C. A. Johnson and Mrs. Johnson became postmistress. The office has since been discontinued.
Brenner postoffice was established in Vallers township in December, 1875, with Ole O. Brenna as postmaster. It had an existence of twenty-eight years and was discontinued in November, 1903, as the result of the establishment of rural mail routes. 39
Leo postoffice was established in July, 1880, on section 14, Lyons township, with Mrs. Libbie Millard in charge. She was postmistress until the office was discontinued April 1, 1892.
and O. H. Sterk was appointed and has since held the office.
"The mail was first carried from Redwood Falls by way of the old town of Yellow Medicine, Vineland or Voldeys, Stavanger and Brenner to Marshall and back over the same route, making the offices once a week each way. Later the route was changed and mail was carried from Willmar by way of Granite Falls, Vineland, Stavanger, Brenner, Marshall and Redwood Falls, delivering once a week each way. Soon after the establishment of the Cottonwood office mail was carried to Brenner from Cottonwood."-Cottonwood Current, November, 1903.
CHAPTER XVII.
DESCRIPTIVE.
L YON county is situated in the vicinity except that there are many Southwestern Minnesota, one lakes and watercourses and a network of railroads. The lithographed piece of paper does not convey much idea of the country; a personal inspection is re- quired to learn what it really is. county only being between it and the South Dakota line, while two counties lie between it and the Iowa line. It is bounded on the north by Yellow Medicine county, on the east by Redwood county, on the south by Mur- ray county, and on the west by Lincoln county. The county lies between the forty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of latitude, and the ninety-sixth degree of lodgitude west from Greenwich passes through the western edge of the county.
The shape of Lyon county is rectan- gular. It contains twenty townships and its dimensions are thirty miles, north and south, by twenty-four miles, east and west. Its area is 720.66 square miles-more than one-half the area of Rhode Island. Of the total area, 709.50 square miles are land, while only 11.16 square miles are covered by water. 1
A glance at the map of Minnesota and of the political division designated thereon as Lyon county will furnish the information above given. But there will be found nothing to distinguish Lyon county from the other divisions of
In general, the surface of Lyon county is a high, gently undulating plateau, though considerably diversified by rivers and lakes, some of which have bluffy shores and some natural timber. While this describes the general contour, it varies considerably in different parts of the county. The northeast portion- roughly, that northeast of the North- western railroad-is more gently un- dulating than the other parts. The ascent of the land to the southwest in that district is six to ten feet per mile.
The southwestern portion is higher land, being on the western edge of the Coteau des Prairies. It can be described in general as a long plateau or massive ridge, in parts smoothly undulating or rolling in contour, but having two belts (terminal moraines. the geologists term them) which are very irregularly broken by steep hills, knolls and small ridges, twenty-five to one hundred feet above the intervening hollows. 2
"The second terminal moraine of the last iee-sheet, which is the eastern or inner belt of knolly and hilly drift upon the Coteau des Prairies, extends north- westerly in a nearly straight course from the Blue Mounds near Windom, in southern Cottonwood county, to Gary, in the edge of Dakota. In Lyon county its northeast boundary passes through the center of
1Minnesota Geological Survey, 1884.
2Concerning the contour of Lyon county and creation of its physical features, I quote as length from the writings of Hon. Warren Upham in the Minnesota Geological and Natural History Survey of 1884, as ollows:
234
HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.
The mean elevation of Lyon county above sea level is about 1320 feet. The lowest point is 1100 feet, at the place where the Redwood river leaves the county. The highest point is in the
C'uster, Lyons and Island Lake townships. The most rough and hilly part of this moraine is from a half mile to one and a half miles wide at its northeast side, where it usually has many irregular knolls, short ridges and hills, which iise from twenty-five to fifty feet, and occasionally from seventy-five to one hundred feet, above the intervening depressions. Their con- spicuous appearance, as seen from the northeast, is due to the ascent westward of the country upon which they lie. From the specially hilly northeast margin of this morainie belt its width reaches five to fifteen miles, southwestward, with a rolling and in some places knolly or hilly surface, including the greater part of the distance to the parallel outer range of drift hills, but leaving next to that a smooth, slightly undulating tract, three to five miles wide.
"The southeastern continuation of this third moraine may be represented by the rocky drift knolls, ten to twenty feet high, which occur about the north end and at the northeast side of Lake Marshall, in a region which mainly has a very smooth contour. Again, twelve miles farther to the cast-southeast, a belt of typically morainie knolls, about twenty rods in width and a half mile or more in length, was noted close south of the Cottonwood river, on sections 14 and 15, Gales, in Redwood county.
"The Antelope valley. Between the third or Antelope moraine and the foot of the Coteau des Prairies on the west is the Antelope valley, so named by the Sioux. This is a broad shallow depression, or rather a part of an inclined plane with a slightly un- dulating surface of till, being three to ten miles wide and reputed to extend 125 miles, from Minneota, in the northwest township of Lyon county, to the south bend of the Sheyenne river in Dakota. The moraine of the Antelope hills and the smooth area of till on its east side average twenty-five to fifty feet higher than the adjoining eastern border of the Antelope valley, but have some lower portions, allowing streams to eross both the valley and the moraine in their north- eastward course from the coteau to the Minnesota river.
"Modified drift. No extensive areas of modified drift were observed in this district. In a few places, however, small deposits of gravel and sand, partly kame-like, form. the surface. A noteworthy cut in such beds was seen near Balaton, in southern Lyon county. A sixth of a mile southeast from this station, close southwest of the railroad, in a rounded hillock. an excavation has been made for ballast to a distance into the hilloek of 150 feet, the section exposed being twenty rods or more in length and about twenty feet high in its highest part. It consists of gravel, yellowish and in many portions ferruginous, mostly very coarse and containing abundant pebbles up to six or eight inches in diameter, nearly all of them plainly water- worn or rounded. At four to seven feet below the top, for a depth of a hundred feet or so at the highest part, the material is fine, sandy gravel, obliquely bedded in slopes of five degrees to twenty-five degrees
eastward. The central mass here is sand, while the enclosing strata are gravel, mostly with pebbles less than three inches in diameter, but in some places holding pebbles up to five or eight inches in diameter. The lenticular mass of sand occurring here shows two small faults at its center, each of three or four inches, the lower side being at the east. The stratification of this deposit is conformable with the slope of its surface, showing that it remains nearly or quite in the same form as it was left by the glacial floods.
"Only two fragments of rock that exceeded a foot in diameter were seen in this excavation. These were one and a half and three feet long. About one-third of the pebbles here, both large and small, are lime- stone; nearly all of the rest are granite and crystalline schists; only a few pebbles, as of shale, which could certainly be referred to the Cretaceous, were seen, and no quartzite or conglomerate. . Many of the limestone fragments are obscurely fossiliferous. The top of this cut is about thirty feet above Lake Yankton and perhaps five feet below the top of the mound in which it is made. Similar gravel forms the subsoil and
southwestern corner, about 1750 feet above the sea. The estimated mean elevations of the several townships are as follows: Lucas, 1125; Stanley, 1130; Clifton. 1160; Amiret. 1225; Monroe,
extends to a depth of thirty feet in wells at Balaton station, and reaches thence a half mile to the north- west, beside the lake, and two or three miles easterly along the railroad.
"Cretaceous beds. Sandstone, clay and shale, of Cretaceous age, are believed to underlie the glacial drift throughout the greater part of this district [Lyon. Yellow Medicine and Lincoln counties]; but their only natural exposures found during this survey are a few low outerops of sandstone in northwestern Lyon county and northeastern Lincoln county.
"The most eastern outerop of the Cretaceous sand- stone is near the center of section 7, Westerheim, in the west or left bank of the south branch of the Yellow Medicine river, about a half mile from its junction with the north branch. A hard, gray, somewhat calcareous sandstone is here exposed at several points along a distance of eight or ten rods, rising three to seven feet above this creek. So far as can be seen in these somewhat broken ledges the layers of this rock appear to be two or three feet or more in thickness and nearly level. In some parts their weathered surface shows concretionary structure, being dotted with roundish masses from an eighth to a quarter of an inch in diameter, which have resisted the disin- tegrating effects of frost and rain, so that they stand out slightly from the rest of the stone.
"About a mile northwest from this place numerous blocks of the same sindstone, up to six or eight feet in length, were seen in the channel of the north branch of Yellow Medicine river, on the southeast quarter of section 1, Eidsvold, but no ledge of it in place was observed here. One of these blocks, about five feet long, showing the concretionary character mentioned, contains numerous small flakes and partieles of lignite and soft peaty matter.
"Another has been sculptured by natural agencies, perhaps influenced by some massive concretionary structure, so that in form it resembles the trunk of a tree. Mr. Simon Hovland, who owns and lives on this quarter section, believing it to be a fossilized tree. has removed it to a location near his house. The length of this stone is six and one-half feet, and its diameter at one end is three and one-half feet and at the other two and one-half feet. Its stratification is plainly seen at the smaller end, being in layers from one to four and five inches thick. Iron-rusted lam- inæ, a twentieth of an inch thick, sometimes mark the planes of bedding. The weathered surface is in part perforated with holes from a quarter of an inch to one inch long and about a twentieth of an inch in diameter, similar to those of worm-eaten wood. Other portions exhibit a concretionary structure in small roundish masses and inosculated ridges, a fourth of an inch in diameter or width. Sulphuret of iron is seen in two or three places, in somewhat cylindrical masses, about one and a half inches long, consisting of straight fibers and surrounded by stains of iron- rust.
"At another point near the foregoing, soft white matter fills a straight tube in this stone, one and one-half inches long and a quarter of an inch in diam- eter. These are believed to be in the places originally occupied by fragments of wood but are the only trace of organic remains seen in this block. Its surface is soft and easily eut with a knife to a depth of about a quarter of an inch, but farther within it is very hard. "This rock is exposed about five miles to the south- west, on the northeast quarter of section 20, Eidsvold, on land of Henry Jacobs, being visible along an extent of about four rods in the bed of a small ereek and rising one or two feet. It is a compact, hard sand- stone, blue inside, but brownish gray on the surface. The characteristic concretionary structure was seen here only in a detached block, which, however, was doubtless derived from the underlying ledge. Again. near the west line of this township and county, the same formation outerops along an extent of about twenty feet, with a height of one to two feet, in the. north bank of the north branch of Yellow Medicine river, on the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 7, Eidsvold.
235
IIISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.
1400; Vallers, 1150; Fairview, 1175; Lake Marshall, 1200; Sodus, 1300; Custer, 1460: Westerheim, 1175; Grand- view, 1200; Lynd. 1300; Lyons, 1450; Rock Lake, 1560: Eidsvold, 1200; Nord- land. 1350: Island Lake, 1500; Coon Creek, 1625; Shelburne, 1700.
The soil is what is termed drift deposit by the geologists. It has the same uniform fertility that character- izes all southern and western Minnesota. There is no outerop of the bed-rock, but in the two hilly belts are some boulders and increased portions of gravel and sand.
Vegetable decay has enriched the soil and colored it black to a depth that averages about two feet, but varied from one to four feet, being greatest in depressions and least upon swells or knoll .:. Beneath the black soil boulder- clay extends to a depth of fifty to two hundred feet. It is yellowish and soft to a depth of ten to twenty feet and below that is dark bluish and harder. This soil is made up of materials gathered during the Ice Age in regions to the north and spread over the country. It is principally clay, but also includes some sand and gravel and occasional boulders.
The great depth of soil contributes to its durability, and its fertile proper- ties appear almost inexhaustible. One of its peculiarities , is its remarkable ability to resist drought. In time of exceedingly dry weather, a thin crust forms on the surface and retards evapo- ration below without being firm enough to interfere seriously with the growth of
vegetation. The loam is free from surface water and ready for cultivation as soon as the frost leaves the ground in the spring.
Much of the water that falls as rain is absorbed by the soil and is gradually given up to growing crops. The surplus water of heavy rains and melting snow is soon drained away down the undula- ting slopes and through the water- courses. Nearly the whole county is prairie and was originally covered with wild grass.
Several scientific analyses of the soil have been made, and by all authorities it has been pronounced as containing elements of extraordinary fertility. But the magnificent crops which the soil of Lyon county produces speak more elo- quently than the scientist can. The testimony of farmers who have accumu- lated wealth and independence affords unquestionable proof of the richness of the soil.
Natural timber occurs only in narrow belts along the rivers and in groves of small area bordering the lakes. The largest tract of timber is in the deeply excavated valley of the upper Redwood river in Lynd and Lyons townships. There the wooded area is about 2000 acres. Along the Cottonwood is a tract of about 1000 acres, and on the Yellow Medicine a tract of about 600 acres. These timber tracts were quite heavy originally, but have been considerably cleared.
There is no section of country in the United States which has a smaller pro- portion of waste lands. Except for the
"On section 11, Custer, on land of James Morgan, much lignite in small fragments is found along the large southern branch of the Cottonwood river, which there and thence northeast to Amiret has eut a valley seventy-five to one hundred feet deep. A tunnel has been dug into the lower part of the bluff by Mr. Morgan, where springs oeeur at the top of a light bluish clay that is supposed to be of Cretaceous age, and in this tunnel pieces of lignite and of wood were found.
"Clay or shale, containing fossils characteristic of the Fort Pierre and Fox Hills groups, the upper divisions of the ('retaecous series, has been encountered
in numerous instanees by wells in Yellow Medieine and Lyon counties near the foot of the slope which forms the eastern boundary of the Coteau des Prairies. Doubtless some of these wells have reached Cretaceous strata in place; but others evidently have been wholly in the glacial drift, containing disrupted and trans- ported masses of Cretaceous shale with fossils. The frequency of these fossils in the drift indicates that the upper Cretaceous formations originally covered much of this district and supplied a large part of the drift, and that they probably underlie the drift here and in the Coteau des Prairies."
236
HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.
area actually taken up by the waters of lakes and creeks, all is tillable, even to the tops of the hills and knolls and in the bottom lands. Lyon county has not the rocky, untillable land of many of the eastern states; it has not the marshy, untillable land of other parts of the country.
The climate is healthful. Owing to the more perfeet drainage afforded by the many streams, Lyon county sur- passes neighboring, entirely prairie coun- ties in point of healthfulness as a result of the dryness of the atmosphere. The natural drainage not only prevents an accumulation of stagnant water, which breeds disease germs, but it purifies the air as only rapid streams can.
Lyon county has one of the most perfect and complete systems of drain- age of any section of Southwestern Min- nesota. With the exception of about fifteen or twenty square miles of terri- tory in Rock Lake and Custer town- ships, which is drained to Lake Shetek and the Des Moines river, all the area of Lyon county is drained by streams emptying into the Minnesota river. The principal streams are Yellow Medieine river, which drains the northern part; Redwood river and Three-Mile creek, which drain the central portions; and Cottonwood river, which drains the southern part. These and their numer- ous tributaries furnish excellent drain- age.
The basin of the Yellow Medicine3 includes about 600 square miles, of which 140 lie in Lyon county. The farthest source of the river is Lake Shaokatan, fifty miles southwest from the mouth. There are several small tributaries in Lyon county.
About 325 square miles of Lyon
3 Yellow Medicine is a translation of the Sioux word Pejut zizi, by which the stream was called by the Indians. Pejut zizi is the long, slender, bitter, yellow
county's area is drained by the Redwood river. The stream rises in Lake Benton and flows a northeasterly course sixty miles to the Minnesota. Its largest tributary is Three-Mile creek, which rises near the west line of Lyon county, flows northeast twenty miles, nearly parallel with the Redwood and from three to five miles northwest of it, and enters the latter stream in Stanley township. Valleys thirty to forty feet deep have been eroded by the Redwood in the vicinity of Marshall and thence to the east line of the county, and the same is true of Three-Mile creek from Ghent to the point where it enters the Red- wood.
The Cottonwood river, by many tribu- taries, drains about 240 square miles in southern and southeastern Lyon county. The northern and main branch of this stream flows eastward nearly through the center of Lake Marshall township, only two or three miles south of the Redwood. That branch flows through an eroded valley. Another important branch rises in Murray county, flows a northeasterly course between Rock and Yankton lakes, passes a little south of the village of Amiret, and joins the other branch close to the county line.
The seven thousand acres of Lyon county that are water surface are taken up by numerous small lakes. Many of these are beautiful bodies of water, clear and sparkling, abounding with fish.
One of the most beautiful lakes in the county is Cottonwood lake, on whose shores the village of Cottonwood is situated. It is a small body of water and has some timber on its shores. Another little body of water in Lucas township is Lone Tree lake, two miles northwest of Cottonwood. In the same
root of the moonseed and was used by the Indians as a medieine. The plant is common along the bluffs of streams in Minnesota.
Some Lyon County Lakes
Cottonw
Ke Yannfon
Lake Marshall
De C LIBRARY
WHO LE X AME TUSADATONI.
237
HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.
township are several other lake beds which contain water some seasons and are dry others. They are Sham lake on section 3, Lady Shoe lake on 20 and 21, Lady Slipper lake and School Grove lake in the southeastern part.
Swan and Goose lakes are on the line dividing Redwood and Lyon counties in Stanley township. Clifton and AAmiret townships have no lakes. Two miles south of Tracy is pretty little Lake Sigel, about three-fourths of a mile in diameter. In western Monroe and east- ern Custer townships are three little bodies of water which should have been called Triplet lakes, but which are called Twin lakes; one is now dry. Long lake is on the south line of Custer town- ship, and the bed of Lake of the Hills is a little north of it. There are no lakes in Sodus township and only one in Lake Marshall. The lake after which that township was named is one and one-half miles long; it lies in the south- east corner of the township at Heckman station.
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