USA > Minnesota > Lyon County > An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota > Part 38
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About noon on Wednesday a part of the strikers arrived at Tracy. They bore aloft on a rude frame a sheet on which was inscribed: "Railroad Strik- ers. $3.50 per day and $1.50 per day." A council between the strikers and con- tractors was held, at which the latter agreed to have the money on the next train from Marshall with which to pay the men their wages. The train did not stop at Tracy but went through at full speed. This incensed the strikers and threats of violence were made.
The strike was brought to a sudden close. Within a half hour after the - train from Marshall went through, a special train bearing the New Ulm militia company arrived in Tracy. On the train was also Superintendent San- born with money to pay the strikers. Only about thirty of them applied for their wages; the others returned to work and the strike was over. Governor John S. Pillsbury made a trip to Tracy early on the morning of Thursday to inves- tigate conditions, but the men had re- turned to work and the governor remained only a couple of hours.
COUNTY IN STRAITENED CIRCUMSTANCES.
In the early days Lyon county was frequently "hard up" and not in position to meet its bills. Times were exceeding bad, there was little taxable property, and often the county authorities were obliged to take humiliating means to satisfy creditors.
On August 20, 1872. Sheriff James Cummins presented a bill for $552.40 for expenses incident to the arrest and imprisonment of E. C. Langdon, John Terrill, Emerson Hull and Egbert Hull. charged with horse thievery. The bill was allowed, but the county was without funds to meet it. Proceedings of the County Board that day were in the following language:
Board authorized Mr. A. R. Cummins, county treasurer, to raise three hundred dollars to apply on above sheriff's bill; said money to be borrowed on six months' time at interest not to execed twenty-five per cent per annum.
During the grasshopper days debts were contracted which caused much trouble and expense to county officials. Several judgments were secured and drastic steps had to be taken to keep the county solvent. The following resolu- tion appears on the journal of the Board of County Commissioners for March 23, 1878:
Whereas one H. D. Witness holds county orders to a large amount and holds over us judgments and suits to our mortal terror and excessive fear, demanding money and costs and general distress to the good people of Lyon eounty, therefore we, the County Board of said county so distressed, do hereby resolve that in consideration that said H. D. Witness withhold such suits and judgments from further progress and does not start more suits to so distress and mortally worry said good people aforesaid, that on the first day of July next, we, the County Board, will issue bonds to the extent of the law, viz .: $4900. Signed. O. C. Gregg, county auditor; H. T. Oakland, chairman County Board; D. F. Weymouth, eounty attorney.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
Indicative of the times, there are found in the files of the county papers
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many interesting items. Under exist- ing conditions the events recorded below could hardly happen. In many re- spects the people of Lyon county of thirty and forty years ago lived in a different world; not one of the little items quoted was considered out of the ordinary at the time, but they would be if published as news in the same papers today. "The world do move."
Salary Increased .- The postmaster of Marshal has had his salary increased from $45 to $200 a year, to date from January last .- Prairie Schooner, November 1, 1873.
Marshall an Island .- The high water of last week has disappeared and left the river within reasonable bounds. It brought out the fact that several residence lots within the town plat ought to be deeded with a boat to get on to and off from in high water. Either the business part of town is in the wrong place or a little work ought to be put in on the river bank above, in the shape of a levee, or still farther up, in the shape of a cut to turn high water off Lake Marshall way. The business part of town was mostly out of water but was on an island that cut the larger part of town off from connection with it .- Prairie Schooner, April 16, 1875.
Gold Discovery .- We don't wish to excite the country with statements that will not properly pan out on examination, but there is gold in Lyon county. Some years ago an old miner was struck by the peculiar bluffs around Cam- den, nine miles above Marshall, and in Mr. Rouse's company did some prospecting and found gold in small quantities. The search was abandoned, but within the past few days Mr. P. I. Pierce, who is an old gold miner, has been turning up the sand in that neighborhood and yesterday showed us some specimens which he found there of undoubted genuineness. He is sanguine that gold in paying quantities will be found. Nearly every pan shows color .- Marshall Messenger, May 11, 1877.
The Town Well .- "We never miss the water until the well runs dry." But we rise to a point of order on the internal improvement question. The well on the corner is the subject of this harangue, fellow citizens. It ought to be a well-spring of joy, for in it has been sunk the public wealth to the amount of $150, more or less. We hope somebody has made something out of it, for the public has not, and in all the desirable qualifieations of a well it is a lament- able failure. It is simply a hole in the ground, over which the council has spent much money and many hopes. If the structure only ran up instead of down it would do to leave as a mon- ument of hope deferred, but as it does not the question still rages: "What shall we do to be saved."-Marshall Messenger, April 25, 1879.
Better Railroad Facilities .- One can now leave Marshall at half past twelve o'clock in the afternoon and be in Chicago at four o'clock the next afternoon, making a ride of twenty- seven and one-half hours. This is an improve- ment on the time card we once had, when it took from six at night until six in the morning to ride from here to New Ulm, and that on a freight train with an oak plank to sit on and a dirty old red lantern for an illuminator .- Lyon County News, June 4, 1879.
No First Bounce Goes .- The base ball regu- lations for 1879 are changed so that a foul ball must be caught on the fly to make the striker out. Also the ball must be caught on the fly on the third strike to insure a strike .- Lyon County News, June 4, 1879.
Electric Lights a Success .- Edison has finally made a success of his electric light. Now what? -Lyon County News, December 31, 1879.
The First Telephone .- Professor Gregg has a telephone in successful operation between his residence and the court house. It attracts a great deal of attention from the curious. Will Gregg manufactured the machine .- Lyon County News, October 21, 1881.
An Automobile !- The Olds automobile for D. H. Evans arrived on Monday and the great chauffeur has been the envy of all as he "autoed" about the city. The machine is a daisy and the first one to be owned by a Tracy citizen .- Tracy Herald, April, 1902.
CHARLES C. WHITNEY
Former Superintendent of State Printing and for Thirty-two Years Publisher of the Marshall News-Messenger.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
AUTOR, LENOX AND 1,LDEN FOCADA FIONA.
CHAPTER XX.
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
C HARLES C. WHITNEY (1880),* ex- president of the Minnesota Editors and Publishers Association, ex-super- intendent of state printing for Minnesota, and for thirty-two years publisher of the Marshall News-Messenger, is a man who has taken a most active and important part in the af- fairs of his county and state. Perhaps no man in Lyon county is better known within the county and throughout the state than is Mr. Whitney. For nearly a third of a cen- tury has he labored in the promotion of every worthy undertaking that tended to the betterment of his city and county and he has .. wrought well. The life story of such a man is indeed entitled to a place in the History of Lyon County.
Charles Colby Whitney is a product of New England. He was born at Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, March 20, 1846, and resided in New England until he came to Lyon county at the age of thirty-four years. His father was overseer in the cotton mills at Salmon Falls and later held similar posi- tions at Lawrence, Haydenville, and Wal- tham, Massachusetts. It was while our sub- ject was quite young that the family moved to Lawrence, and it was there that his life- work began. After securing a public school education young Whitney entered the office of the Lawrence American, at the age of fifteen years, and served a most thorough mechanical apprenticeship. Ever since that date, fifty-one years ago, he has been en- gaged in the printing business. So expert did he become as a printer that he was made foreman of the job department when only seventeen years old.
Upon the outbreak of the Civil War Mr. Whitney was too young to enlist but when he reached the age of eighteen years he left the office and went to the front. He enlisted for three months as a private in Company I, Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, and when his term expired he joined Company D, First Battalion, Twenty-sixth New York Cav- alry, in which he remained until the conclu- sion of the war.
The war over, Mr. Whitney returned to his work in the American office, where he remained until coming to Lyon county in 1880. During the last ten years of his serv- ice' on that paper he was employed in the editorial department, first as a reporter, later as city .editor, and during the latter part of his stay he was one of the proprietors of the paper upon which he had begun to work as a young boy. While thus engaged he was also for many years a special correspondent for the Boston Herald. His parents moved to Waltham soon after he began his appren- ticeship, but with the persistence which has characterized his later years he remained at his post and secured a mechanical, business and editorial education. During his resi- dence in Lawrence Mr. Whitney became actively interested in politics and public af- fairs and for two years served as a member of the City Council.
The most marked success of Mr. Whit. ney's career awaited his coming to Lyon county. The attraction of this region led him to leave Massachusetts in 1880 and locate in Marshall, where his home has ever since been. Upon his arrival he purchased the Lyon County News and in 1885 he
*The date in parentheses following the name of each subject is the year of arrival to Lyon county.
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
bought the Marshall Messenger, consolidated the two, and has ever since continued the publication under the name of News-Mes- senger. Of his success as a publisher an article in a history issued by the Minnesota Editors and Publishers Association said:
"The first thing which attracted the atten- tion of the newspaper fraternity to Mr. Whitney was the neat typographical appear- ance of his paper, the result of his thor- ough Massachusetts schooling. This at once led to the reading of its contents, and it was readily seen that a new editor had come to the state who was bound to make his mark. Mr. Whitney's paper at once took front rank in the politics of Southwestern Minnesota, and as he became more widely known, its influence has been extended far beyond his local bailiwick, and it is one of the influential Republican papers of the state."
Soon after his arrival Mr. Whitney became an active member of the State Editors and Publishers Association and in 1895 he was elected its president. He still participates in the management of that organization and for sixteen years has been chairman of its executive committee. In 1894 he organized the Republican Press Association, was elected its first president, and for many years was represented on its executive com- mittee. He is serving his twelfth year as a trustee of the Minnesota State Soldiers' Home.
In November, 1895, Mr. Whitney was ten- dered and accepted the office of superintend- ent of state printing, his selection being made by the board of printing commissioners composed of the secretary of state, state treasurer and state auditor. For ten years he held the office and his administration was highly successful.
Locally Mr. Whitney has also served in official capacities and his work as a mem- ber of the Board of Education was excep- tionally beneficial. He was secretary of the board twelve years and was one of its most valued members. In social life he has also been active, belonging to the Grand Army of the Republic, Masonic, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Royal Arcanum or- ders.
Charles C. Whitney was married in Law- rence, Massachusetts, in 1866 to Mattie M. Hogle. and there his eldest son, Frank C.
Whitney, was born. Mrs. Whitney died in 1877, and in 1879 Mr. Whitney was married to his present wife, Nellie A. Johnson, of Bethel, Maine. To this union have been born the following named children who are. living: Joseph W., Minne Sota (Mrs. Fred A. Hills), Dick and Jack.
CHARLES E. GOODELL (1866), deceased, was the first permanent settler of Lyon county and for over twenty years he was prominent in the affairs of Lyons and Lynd townships.
He was born in Buffalo, New York, August 4, 1843. When a boy he moved to Illinois and was living in that state when the Civil War began. He enlisted in Company D. Sev- enty-fifth Illinois Infantry, August 14, 1862, and served nearly three years, being dis- charged July 1, 1865.
In the spring of 1866 Charles Goodell came to Lyon county with a cousin, Will Stone, to trap and hunt. He did not make permanent settlement at that time, but the following spring he came again and took a claim on section 5, Lyons township, where the Lynd trading post had been established years before. He resided in Lyon county until 1888, when he moved to Tennessee and located in a community settled by Lyon county people. He died there June 10, 1908. Mr. Goodell was a prominent Mason and a member of Delta Lodge of Marshall. He was also one of the early members of D. F. Markham Post, G. A. R., having been ad- mitted to membership September 24, 1881.
Mr. Goodell's wife died in 1904. At the time of his death he had four sons living, as follows: George H., of Illinois; Ernest, of Sioux City, Iowa; Frank, of Tennessee; and Roy, who lived with his father.
OREN C. GREGG (1870) is one of Lyon county's earliest settlers and is today one of its most widely known citizens. His work as superintendent of State Farm Institutes took him all over the state and gave him a wide acquaintance, and for the last few years his work under the direction of the agricultural colleges in North Dakota, Mon- tana, Idaho, Utah and Colorado has made his name well known, especially in the farm- ing communities of those states. The farm
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in Lynd and Island Lake townships which Mr. Gregg owned and operated thirty-nine years was sold a few years ago when our subject took up his work in the West, but Mr. Gregg reserved a comfortable cottage on the place for the use of himself and wife, and they still make their home on the old farm.
The date of Mr. Gregg's birth was No- vember 2, 1845, and his birthplace is Enos- burg, Vermont. He is the son of Oren and Clarinda (Comstock) Gregg. The mother died when her son was six years of age and is buried in Vermont, her husband's native state. She was a native of New York State. Oren Gregg, Sr., was a clergyman, and for forty years he was a member of the Troy Conference of Vermont and New York. At the close of his active work in the pulpit he made his home for a few years with his son Oren in Lyon county, and later he went to California. He lived there with his son, Leslie A. Gregg, and died at the age of eighty-two years.
The subject of this sketch received his early education in Fort Edward Institute and Plattsburg Academy in the state of New York. After finishing school he was em- ployed in the enrollment office of the provost marshal, in the sixteenth district, New York, located at Plattsburg, a position he re- signed at the close of the Civil War. Mov- ing to Mower county, Minnesota, in 1865, he taught school and also filled the pulpits of the churches at Chatfield, High Forest and Eyota. Mr. Gregg came to Lyon county early in 1870, when the country was new and unsettled. At that time no clergyman had ventured into the field, excepting traveling missionaries. The community, however, was earnestly desirous of having church services, and Mr. Gregg. who was naturally a fluent speaker and well trained in the scripture on account of his environment as a boy, mod- estly offered his help and ably conducted worship in the villages several years, never asking any remuneration for his work.
The year 1870 marked Mr. Gregg's arrival to Lyon county, and he located on the north- west quarter of section 30, Lynd township, where he has since made his home and to which he has added adjoining land in Lynd and Island Lake townships, making a total acreage of about 400 acres. The place for years has been known as the Coteau Farm
and the State Farm. Mr. Gregg gave it the first name on account of the little range of hills which extends from southwestern Minnesota west into South Dakota.
Mr. Gregg was ever a farmer of advanced ideas. He was one of the first winter dairy men in the state, in the days before the cream separator and the silo. Early in his farm experience he began to study the laws which govern the selection of dairy stock and their improvement. It was his original investigation in this line which caused him to be called to aid in college extension work in nearly one-half the states of the union. Mr. Gregg also co-operated with H. W. Campbell in promoting dry farming ideas. To Mr. Campbell may be given the credit of the inception of the idea, but to Mr. Gregg must be given praise for taking hold of the scheme with all his enthusiasm, furnishing the implements and actually working out a good part of the system on his Lyon county farm.
Our subject was becoming well known throughout the state on account of his prac- tical experimenting and advanced theories in farming. In 1893 the State Experimental Station established a branch on Mr. Gregg's farm. They occupied at will the 400 acres and furnished a few scientific instruments, but our subject freely offered the use of his stock, machinery and buildings for the car- rying on of the work, met all expenses ex- cepting the hire and board of the experi- menting force, and ably assisted the repre- sentatives of the state farm school who ac- tively took charge of the experimental work.
It was about this time that Gov. Pillsbury created the state farmers institutes. For several months in every year several corps of experts in all branches of farming were sent out over the state, holding a several days' session in the important towns and talking advance methods to, the farmers. The system met the success it deserved, and the farmers were enthusiastic recipients of the idea. To Mr. Gregg was given the posi- tion of superintendent of the institutes by Gov. Pillsbury, and that office he held twen- ty-two years. This work and the compiling of the Farmers Annual, a publication in connection with the institute work, occupied our subject's time, and most of the active farm management was in the hands of a
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
tenant during the years of Mr. Gregg's in- cumbency of his office.
During Mr. Gregg's early residence in the county he was county auditor twelve years, and was during that time also on the Mar- shall Village Council and the Board of Edu- cation.
Oren C. Gregg was married in Plattsburg, New York, May 25, 1868, to Charlotte I. Carter. She was born December 19, 1840, and is the danghter of Samuel Carter, an old and highly respected citizen of Plattsburg.
Our subject is associate editor of the Northwestern Agriculturist. He is a stock- holder in the Dakota Telephone Company. He and his wife have for many years been prominent members of the Methodist church. Mr. Gregg's fraternal affiliations are with the I. O. O. F. lodge.
MAJOR JOHN WINSLOW BLAKE (1872), deceased. One of the leading men of Mar- shall and Lyon county in the early days was Major John W. Blake, who was one of the founders of Marshall and a man who played a most important part in the business, po- litical and social life of the community in pioneer days.
John Blake was born at Dover, Maine, Angust 29, 1839. He moved to Wisconsin in 1840 and to Lyon county, Minnesota, in 1872. He was educated in Milton Academy and in the University of Wisconsin and by profession was a civil engineer. In 1860 he established and published the Jefferson County Republican, at Jefferson, Wisconsin, and was conducting that journal when the war began.
Our subject enlisted for three months' service as a private soldier and afterwards re-enlisted for three years in Company E, Fourth Wisconsin Infantry. In October, 1862, he was made first lieutenant of H Company, Twenty-ninth Wisconsin Infantry, and was regimental adjutant from Decem- ber, 1862, to June, 1864. Then he was com- missioned captain of H Company and de- tailed on the staff of General Cameron, act- ing as A. A. Q. M. general of the Thirteenth Army Corps and later as A. A. C. S. of La Fourche district. Department of the Gulf. In October, 1864, he became major of the Forty-second Wisconsin Infantry. The next month he was made provost marshal on the
staff of General John Cook, in which position .he was serving at the close of the war.
The first active service of the young soi- dier was in 1861 in Maryland under Gen- erals Butler, Dix, Wool and Lockwood. He went to the Gulf Department with General Butler and participated in the capture of Fort Phillips, Jackson and New Orleans and the engagements at Red Church, Grand Gulf and the first attack on Vicksburg under Gen- eral Williams. He took part in the battle of Baton Rouge and was later with General McClernand in the expedition up White river and the capture of Arkansas Post. He was in the Vicksburg campaign under General Grant, took part in the battles of Fort Gibson. Fourteen-Mile Creek, Edward's Station, Raymond, the siege of Vicksburg, and was at the capture of Jackson under General Sherman. He was again in the Gulf Department under General Banks and par- ticipated in the battles of Carrion Crow Bayou, Opolusas, Sabine Cross Roads, Mans- field. Marksville Plains and the capture of Fort Esperanza.
After the war Major Blake returned to Jefferson, Wisconsin, and engaged in the lumber business in company with W. G. Ward. Later they built mills and conducted an extensive business at Wolf River, Wis- consin. In 1867 Major Blake built a foun- dry and a machine and agricultural imple- ment manufactory at Jefferson and conducted the same successfully for some years. In 1872 he engaged in the employ of the Chi- cago & Northwestern Railroad Company as a civil engineer and assisted in the location of and construction of the Winona & St. Peter railroad from New Ulm to Kampeska, and that year paid his first visit to Lyon county_
During the summer the railroad was built Major Blake bought the land upon which the city of Marshall now stands and in com- pany with others platted a town and founded Marshall. His home continued in the new village until January, 1891, when he located at Dalton, Georgia. He died at that place May 15, 1903, and was buried in the Marshall cemetery.
Major Blake was a guiding spirit in the affairs of the community for many years. He held the office of county surveyor many terms and represented his district in both houses of the Minnesota Legislature.
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
RUFUS H. PRICE (1870). A very few men have had a longer continuous residence in Lyon county than has the gentleman whose name heads this review. He came to Minnesota in Territorial days and he came to Lyon county when the prairie was broken only occasionally by the claim shacks of homesteaders. For forty-one years he has been a resident of Lucas township. He was the third settler to locate in that township and his house was the first erected there. He is deservedly given a place in this His- tory of Lyon County.
In Will county, Illinois, on February 3. 1846, Rufus H. Price was born. His father, Charles Price, was an Englishman by birth who located in Illinois in 1838. He was killed in Indiana in 1$54. The mother of our sub- ject, Abigail (Fuller) Price, was born in Ohio. She came with her son to Lyon county in 1871 and resided with him until her death in 1884.
Rufus Price left his native state and came to Minnesota when it was yet a territory, in 1857. He located near Rochester and resided there the next fourteen years of his life. purchasing land and engaging in farming after growing up. When he reached the age of eighteen years, on February 18, 1864, Mr. Price enlisted at Rochester in Company C, Ninth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and spent the next seventeen months in the serv- ice of his country, having been mustered out at St. Paul July 18, 1865. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
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