An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota, Part 6

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

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But the human habit of adaptability to environment and the hope of future competence from the fertile farms to be secured under the homestead law carried the pioneers through the dark days. Wild game furnished a part of the bill of fare and the timber furnished fuel and material for the homes. The houses were of logs, the roofs of shakes split from oak trees, the floors of rough plank hewn from the timber.

In 1868 the population of Lyon county was increased. To Lynd town- ship eame Levi S. Kiel, who has ever sinee had his home in the county; James Cummins, A. R. Cummins and George Cummins, who became prominent in the early affairs of the county; Lambert Mareyes, George Marcyes and Hiram Marcyes, who became well-known resi- dents; A. D. Morgan, who became the county's first store keeper and post- master; Jacob Rouse, who still resides in the county; Ralph Holland and Arthur Ransom, who purchased elaims from half-breeds; Rev. C. F. Wright, who was the first minister; Andrew

7The first white settlers in Nobles county arrived July 4, 1867; only two families had their homes in Rock county during the winter of 1867-68; in Pipestone

To the timber tract along the Cotton- wood river, in the present townships of Custer and Amiret, also came a few settlers in 1868. Charles Grover, La- fayette Grover and Clark Goodrich settled in Amiret, and H. C. Masters, John Avery, Horace Randall, Walter S. Clayson, Edward Horton and G. S. Robinson took claims in Custer. These settlements were all made in the vicinity of the old townsite of Saratoga and for several years the community bore that name.

Nearly all these arrivals of 1868 brought families and builded themselves homes. Until after 1868 the population of Lyon county was confined to two settlements (excepting the T. W. Castor family): the one on the Redwood river occupying the timber lands in Lynd and Lyons townships, and the other on the Cottonwood in Custer and Amiret town- ships. Of these the Lynd settlement was the larger and for several years dominated the affairs of the county.

Several important events occurred in the Lynd community during 1868 that tended to establish the permanency of the settlement and to make for the con- venience of those who had east their fortunes on the frontier. One was the

county were no whites until 1874; the first settlement in the county of Lineoln was made in 1868.

HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.

establishment of a postoffice in June with D. M. Taylor as postmaster. It was located on section 34, Lynd town- ship,-the site of what later became known as Lower Lynd. A weekly mail was received by way of Redwood Falls. 8 Mr. Taylor also put in a small stock of groceries and other goods-in a room said to have been almost large enough for a bed room-and conducted a store for a short time.

The same season Luman Ticknor opened a hotel for the convenience of the few people who visited the settle- ment.9 In the summer of 1868 Jacob Rouse and James Cummins dammed the Redwood river at the point which later became known as Upper Lynd and put in a small sawmill, which proved to be quite a convenience to the settlers. It was changed to a gristmill in 1872. The same year C. H. Hildreth com- menced building a mill at a point on the Redwood about two miles below the present village of Russell, but the place was destroyed by fire the same fall and the project was abandoned. 10

While a few conveniences had been established in the settlement, they fell far short of meeting the demands. The sawmill was not in operation until 1869 and before that time it was the

custom to haul logs to Redwood Falls, fifty miles distant, have them sawed, and then haul the lumber back, several settlers generally making the trip to- gether. Excepting the little store of Mr. Taylor, Redwood Falls was the nearest trading point. That village had only two stores, run on the trading post style, and they catered but little to the white trade.11 The nearest flouring mill was at New Ulm and there a part of the trading was done.

There were a few additions in 1869 and others came to the county, took claims, made improvements, and pre- pared to make permanent settlement the following spring. To the Saratoga settlement, in Amiret township, came James Mitchell; to the township of Vallers, which had not before had a settler, came Johannes Anderson; to Lyons came W. C. Adams; to Lake Marshall, L. W. Langdon and E. B. Langdon; to Lynd, T. T. Pierce, H. L. Pierce, George W. Pierce, Parker I. Pierce, Warren S. Eastman, T. S. East- man and V. Eastman. Besides those mentioned, C. H. Whitney, C. H. Upton and E. G. Bascomb took claims in Lake Marshall, O. A. Hawes and R. Water- man in Lynd, and Moses Fifield and Mendell Fifield in Lyons. All made

SThe first mail brought to the office was carried by William Jackson, the first white male child born in St. Paul. He sold the contract to one Castle, of Yellow Medicine, and the latter in turn to Peter Ortt. of Redwood Falls. H. J. Tripp carried the mail for Ortt for a time and later seeured the contract. The Lynd postoffice was under the management of D. M. Taylor four years. ..

9"The travel through Lynd at that time couldn't have been very large or regular. Bands of Flandreau Indians eamped in the woods occasionally and a few travelers from Redwood Falls now and then stopped there on the way to settlements beyond. Between Lynd and Redwood Falls there was but one house." Case's History of Lyon County.

10The first marriage in the county occurred October 17, 1868, when Ida Marie Hildreth, at the age of fifteen years, became the wife of Henry B. Nichols. The second marriage was that of W. II. Langdon and Zilpha Cummins, which was'also in 1868.

The first Fourth of July celebration was held in 1868 at A. W. Muzzy's home.

Luman Tieknor plowed the first ground for crop in the spring of 1868. W. C. Adams and Arthur Ransom

sowed the first grain and the latter operated the first fanning mill. The first wheat was raised by A. R. Cummins in 1869. The first horses in the county were owned by E. B. Langdon, first mules by M. V. David- son, first ehiekens and turkeys by L. W. Langdon, first hogs by Luman Tieknor, and first dog by James Cummins.

A. R. Cummins made the first barrels that were in the county; James Cummins made the first chair; George Cummins and Charles E. Goodell split the first rails; T. T. Pierce and son burnt the first brick, a kiln of 40,000, brought in the first blacksmith's tools, and set out the first grove.

11"Perhaps you would like to know how people got along with no railroad nearer than Mankato, although boats were running to New Ulm when the water was high enough. We did a greater part of our trading at Redwood Falls, distant fifty miles, and no place to put up until we got to Mr. Castor's, twenty-five miles. If we had any blacksmithing to be done, it had to be taken to Redwood Falls. I have known our towns- man, A. D. Morgan, to walk that fifty miles in one day, with a plow lay on his back, and return the next day. Charles Goodell has done as well."-Correspondent in Marshall Messenger, June 30, ISS1.

HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.

slight improvements in 1869 and re- `turned to remain the following year. 12

Prior to this time the only claims taken had been in the timber; now selections were made on the prairie tracts and some at quite a distance from the older settlements of Lynd and Saratoga.

I can close this chapter no more fittingly than by reproducing an article written by Mrs. Fellows, of Lynd, and read before the old settlers' gathering in February, 1885. It gives a very true idea of conditions in 1869:

The time I first saw Lyon county, in the dark days of 1869, there were about a dozen in our settlement, scattered along the Redwood river in the timber. Another settlement, nearly as large as ours, was on the Cottonwood river, and another at Lake Benton. These constituted the entire population of our county. What was then one county has been divided into two, Lyon and Lincoln.

The settlers lived in small, low, miserable log houses; indeed, some of them were originally Indian tepees, remodeled to suit the emergency. Some were without floors, except the solid earth with a covering of prairie grass; after it became dry and broken it was raked off and fresh grass cut and spread down. Of course, the floors needed no sweeping, and that was something saved, as there was a chance to economize in brooms. Economy, rigid economy, was the rule.

A roof made of shingles was almost unknown. The houses were roofed, some with hay, some with earth, but the prevailing fashion was a shake roof. I fancy only the initiated have seen or heard of the shake roof. It consisted of flat, clumsy pieces of wood, all sizes and widths, and,

12The coming of these men had much to do with the future growth of Lyon county. On the first day of May, 1869, the following named ten men set out from Olmsted county, Minnesota, in search of new homes: C. H. Whitney, C. H. Upton, E. G. Bascomb, T. S. Eastman, V. Eastman, W. S. Eastman, O. A. Hawes, R. Waterman, Moses Fifield and Mendell Fifield. They traveled with four covered wagons and had besides a saddle horse. They spent several weeks viewing the country around St. Cloud, Benson and Hutchinson, and not liking the looks of the country turned to the southwest. They arrived in St. Peter and there Abner Tibbets, register of the United States land office, advised them to go to the country which is now Lyon county.

The party made the trip by way of Redwood Falls and arrived at the Lynd settlement on June 9, where they were welcomed by A. W. Muzzy. The next day was spent in rest at D. M. Taylor's store. On the eleventh three parties were formed to visit as many different parts of the surrounding country: one to the Rock Lake country, one to the head of Three-Mile creek, west of Lynd, and the third down the Redwood. The next day other prospecting trips were made.

C. H. Whitney went out on a scout and covered the north part of the county. He followed an Indian trail down the Redwood to the point called by the

as nearly as I can remember, about three feet long, split and shaped and smoothed with a broad-ax, overlapping cach other shingle- fashion, serving as a mere covering, keeping out the sun, but affording little protection. The wind and snow and rain and flies and mosquitoes and gnats and all other nice things had full liberty to come and go at will. And of all these things there was no lack.

In those days there were blizzards, too, real genuine blizzards. The winds were not tem- pered to the shorn lamb, not by a good deal. After a blizzard what a picture our houses presented! Floors, beds, everything, were fanci- fully covered-decorations enough to have satisfied the most esthetic admirer of Oscar Wilde. Here and there and everywhere were festoons and wreaths and garlands and every imaginary thing of "the snow, the beautiful snow," filling the house, above and below. We didn't enjoy it a bit, however. With the mer- cury frolicking among the lower twenties, the poetry of our natures was entirely frozen out. Even a board to make a door or case a window was of inestimable value. Flooring, not the best quality by a number of grades, sold for $50 per thousand.

Thanks are due a Maine Yankee for intro- dueing an improvement in our architecture. Sod houses made an appearance, and they were much better, being more economical. Here we lived, deprived of every luxury and most of the comforts and necessaries of life, trying to be happy and keep homesickness away, which would occasionally trouble us notwithstanding all efforts to prevent it.

We were, so to speak, at the jumping-off place, as another leap would have landed us among the savages. We depended wholly upon Redwood Falls for everything we had, and that a poor trading place, indeed. A spool of thread, a sheet of note paper, a pound of tea or sugar, had to be hauled fifty miles. One of our great blessings was our postoffice with a weekly mail. By the way, the first postoffice in this county was a gigantic affair! It required but one box, fastened with a huge padlock, to pre- vent mail robbery.

Indians the Big Bend-the present site of the city of Marshall. There he struck the Lac qui Parle trail and followed it to about where Minneota is now situated. Thence he proceeded east until he came to another trail between Minnesota Falls and the Big Bend, followed that trail to the Big Bend, and then struck across country to Lake Marshall. At that point he found another Indian trail leading to the Cottonwood river and Lake Shetek.

After resting at Lynd on the thirteenth and can- vassing the situation, all members of the party decided to take claims and made their selections in Lake Marshall, Lynd and Lyons townships. The fourteenth was spent in breaking land on their claims, some of the party also breaking on the northwest quarter of section 4, Lake Marshall township, to hold the claim for Mrs. Ursula Stone, a soldier's widow and the son- in-law of C. Il. Upton.

The entire party set out on June 15 for the return home and made their filings at the land office on June 18. The Eastmans returned in the fall, erected a log cabin, and spent the winter in their new home; the others spent the winter in their old homes and all returned in 1870. Mr. Whitney did "missionary" work in Wisconsin that winter and as a result the population of Lyon county was added to in 1870.

CHAPTER III.

COUNTY AND TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION-1869-1883.

H AD a person been born in the territory now embraced within the boundaries of Lyon county in the year 1800 and lived in the place of his birth until seventy years of age, he would have lived successively under the governments of Spain, France and the United States; would have been a resident successively of the territories of Louisiana, Missouri, Michigan, Wiscon- sin, Iowa and Minnesota and of the state of Minnesota; and at one time and another would have been under the jurisdiction of the counties of Wauba- shaw, Blue Earth, Brown, Redwood and Lyon in Minnesota. In other words, + Lyon county has formed a part of those countries, territories and counties since first the flight of years began.

This mythical native of Lyon county would also have been decidedly under the jurisdiction of the Sioux Indians until a man grown, for white men had only nominal claim to the territory until the land was ceded to the United States by treaty in 1851. Before taking up the story of the creation of Lyon county, I shall here break into the chronological order of events long enough to trace this matter of sovereignty.

Our county formed a small part of the New World possessions claimed by France by right of discovery and ex-

ploration. In 1763, humbled by wars in Europe and America, France was forced to relinquish her province known as Louisiana, and all her possessions west of the Mississippi river were ceded to Spain in that year. Amid the exigencies of European wars Spain, in the year 1800, ceded Louisiana back to France, which was then under the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte. On April 30, 1803, negotiations were completed for the purchase of Louisiana by the United States for fifteen million dollars. On that date the future Lyon county became a part of the United States.

Soon after the United States secured possession, in 1805, that part of the mammoth territory of Louisiana which had been called Upper Louisiana was organized into Missouri Territory, and had our county then had inhabitants they would have been under the govern- ment of Missouri. Missouri was ad- mitted as a state in 1820, and for several years thereafter the country beyond its northern boundaries, comprising what is now Iowa and all of Minnesota west of the Mississippi river, was without organ- ized government. But in 1834 Congress attached this great expanse of territory to Michigan Territory. Two years later Wisconsin Territory was formed, com- prising all of Michigan west of Lake

IIISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.

Michigan, and for the next two years we were a part of that territory.

Congress did a lot of enacting and boundary changing before it got Lyon county where it belonged. We became a part of Iowa Territory when it was created in 1838, because we were in- cluded in "all that part of the [then] present Territory of Wisconsin which lies west of the Mississippi river and west of a line drawn due north from the headwaters or sources of the Mississippi to the territorial line." Lyon county was a part of Iowa Territory until Iowa became a state in 1846. During that time settlers began to locate in portions of what later became Minnesota, and they were put under the jurisdiction of Clayton county, Iowa.1 By the ad- mission of Iowa to the Union the country west of the Mississippi became a "no man's land"; it was a part of no territory or state. That condition ex- isted until Minnesota Territory was created in 1849.

When the first Legislature convened after the organization of Minnesota Territory in 1849 it divided Minnesota into nine counties, named as follows: Washington. Ramsey, Benton, Itaska, Pembina, Mahkahto, Wahnahia, Dahko- tah and Waubashaw.2 The last named occupied all of Southern Minnesota, ex- tended from the Mississippi river to the Missouri river, and its northern bound- ary was an east and west line that passed about through the center of the present Yellow Medicine county.

The future Lyon county remained a part of Waubashaw county until March 5, 1853, when there was a readjustment and Blue Earth county came into exist-

ence. The boundaries of the latter were described as follows: "So much of the territory lying south of the Minnesota river as remains of Waubashaw and Dahkotah counties undivided by this act." As the boundaries of the two older counties as defined by the act were very indefinite, it is impossible to state exactly what the dimensions of Blue Earth county were. It is known, how- ever, that it included all of Southwestern Minnesota and extended into the present state of South Dakota.

For two years the unknown Lyon county country remained a part of Blue Earth county, and then came another change. By an act approved February 20. 1855. the county of Blue Earth was reduced to its present boundaries, Fari- bault county was created with the boun- daries it now has (except that it ex- tended one township farther west than now), and the new county of Brown came into existence. Brown county in- cluded all of Minnesota south of the Minnesota river and west of a line drawn south from the western boundary of the present day Blue Earth county. It also included a vast stretch of country in what is now South Dakota but that was taken off when Minnesota's bound- aries were made as at present consti- tuted upon admission to the Union in 1858.

The next change we have to record affecting Lyon county3 was made in 1865, when Redwood county was formed, embracing (besides two townships in the present Brown county) the present counties of Redwood, Lyon, Lincoln, Yellow Medicine and Lac qui Parle. Redwood county was so constituted

3By act of March 23, 1857, there were severed from Brown county the following: Martin, Jackson, Cot- tonwood, Nobles, Murray, Rock and Pipestone, besides some in the South Dakota territory.

'Henry II. Sibley, who lived at Mendota, was a justice of the peace of that county. The county seat was two hundred fifty miles distant, and his juris- diction extended over a region of country "as large as the Empire of France."

2The boundaries of these counties are shown on the accompanying map.

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YAKESHIENALLAMANE

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MINNESOTA TERRITORY

From a Map Published in 1850. The Nine Original Counties of the Territory Are Shown.

dur Grand n'ate

HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.

until the present Lyon and Lincoln counties were formed into Lyon county in 1869.4

There was only a handful of residents in the proposed county in the early days of 1869, but they were an ambi- tious lot. They maintained that they had brought the star of empire west with them and that they ought to have the handling of its destinies. They asked the Legislature to take the neces- sary action to set off the western part of Redwood county into a new political division.

The bill for the creation of Lyon county, embracing the present counties of Lyon and Lincoln, was introduced by Senator Charles T. Brown, passed the Legislature, and was approved by Gov- ernor William R. Marshall on March 2, 1869.5 It provided that the act should not become operative, however, until it had been approved by a majority vote of the electors of Redwood county at the general election of November, 1869. The vote was favorable and Lyon county was ready to take up the burdens of organization. The county was named in honor of General Nathaniel Lyon, of the United States army, who met death at the battle of Springfield in June, 1861.

Very soon after the act became operative as a result of the election, Governor Marshall appointed a few

4Redwood county lost Yellow Medicine and Lac qui Parle by act of March 6, 1871.

5The act reads as follows:

"An act to define the boundary lines of Lyon county and attach the same to Redwood county for judicial purposes.

"Section I. The boundary line of Lyon county is hereby established and hereafter shall be as follows: Beginning at the southeast corner of township one hundred and nine (109), range forty (40), thence duc north to the northeast corner of township one hundred and thirteen (113), range forty (40), west of the fifth principal meridian, thence west to the boundary line of the state of Minnesota, thence south on the boundary line of the state to the township line between townships one hundred and eight (108) and one hundred and ninc (109), thence east on said township line to the place of beginning.

"Sec. 2. At the time of giving notice of the next general election, it shall be the duty of the officers of the county of Redwood, as required by law, to give notice of sueh election, to give notice in like manner that at said election a vote will be taken on the question

county officers and vested them with power to begin county government. It was proposed to organize in December. 1869, but owing to the absence of two of the commissioners it had to be post- poned, and the machinery of county government was not set in motion until August 12, 1870.6 At that time the first meeting of the Board of County Commissioners was held at the home of Luman Ticknor, in Upper Lynd.

The first act of the board was the selection of a county seat, the first entry in the journal reading as follows:

State of Minnesota, County of Lyon-ss. Be it known that at a session of the Board of County Commissioners of Lyon county, held at the house of L. Ticknor, in said county, on the twelfth day of August, 1870, the seat of said county was settled and established on the southeast quarter of section thirty-three (33) in township one hundred and eleven (111) of range forty-two (42). [Signed] A. W. Muzzy, Levi S. Kiel, County Commissioners. Attest : E. Lamb, Auditor.

For nearly two years Upper Lynd was the seat of government of Lyon county. Then, although no official ac- tion was taken to that effect, the county business was transacted at Lower Lynd. That remained the seat of gov- ernment until it was moved to Marshall in January, 1874, as the result of the election of November, 1873.7

At the time of the organization of the county the population was small and

of changing the boundary lines of Redwood county in accordance with the provisions of this act. At said election the voters of said county of Redwood in favor of the change proposed by this act shall have distinctly written or printed or partly written or printed on their ballots, 'For change of boundary lines of Redwood county in favor of Lyon county,' and returns thereof shall be made to the same office by the judges of election of the several townships and by the auditor of said Redwood county as upon votes for state officers.

"See. 3. The county of Lyon is hereby attached for judicial purposes to the county of Redwood.

"Sec. 4. The foregoing provisions of this act shall take effeet and be in force from and after the ratifica- tion and adoption of the proposed change by a majority of the voters of Redwood county.

"Sec. 5. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed.

"Approved March 2, 1869."

BFor a more detailed account of the organization see chapter S.

7The meeting places of the Board of County Com-

HISTORY OF LYON COUNTY.

the law-making body did not see fit to provide for township government at once. Instead, the county was divided into five election precincts, in each of which were justices of the peace and constables, appointed by the County Board. These local officers officiated until the first township was organized early in 1872. The last township did not begin local government until 1883. The several townships were officially created in the following order, but the organization in all cases did not imme- diately follow: Lake Marshall, Lynd, Lyons, Fairview, Nordland, Grandview, Lucas, Eidsvold, Monroe, Amiret, West- erheim, Vallers, Custer, Clifton, Stanley, . Sodus, Rock Lake, Island Lake, Shel- burne and Coon Creek.

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An illustrated history of Lyon County, Minnesota, Part 6

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