An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota, Part 56

Author: Rose, Arthur P., 1875-1970
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Luverne, Minn. : Northern History Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 924

USA > Minnesota > Rock County > An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota > Part 56
USA > Minnesota > Pipestone County > An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota > Part 56

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

393

HISTORY OF PIPESTONE COUNTY.

been surveyed in 1882, was put on record by Samnel H. Graves, representing Close Bros. & Co. A school house was con- structed in the fall of 1886.

A serious fire did much to hold Airlie in check. The fire fiend attacked the lit- tle village on the night of May 11, 1899, and wrought irreparable damage and near- ty wiped out the town. The conflagration originated in the elevator of W. W. Car- gill & Co., and, despite the heroic efforts of the citizens, the progress of the flames. fanned hy a strong south wind, could not be stayed until several buildings were destroyed. The Cargill elevator, contain- ing 12,000 bushels of wheat; the elevator of Walter Parks, containing 2500 bushels of grain : Mr. Park's barn, a blacksmith shop, a flat house and several sheds and storehouses were totally destroyed.

CRESSON.

Another place we have to consider is Cresson, a flag station on the Rock Is- land road in Altona township, which until a few years ago was known as Altoona. Cresson's only distinction lies in the fact that a grain elevator is maintained there.

Located five miles above Cazenovia, on the Rock Island line a short distance from the Dakota line, the beginnings of Altoona were made in the fall of 1885.11 The Ce- dar Rapids, Towa Falls & Northwestern Land & Town Lot company, the firm con- Irolling the townsite privileges on the line of the Burlington extension at that time, bought a portion of the farm of Dan Thompson on the southwest quarter of section 36. of the fraction of Altona town- ship, for townsite purposes in August,

""And now Pipestone county is to have an- other new town. It is located on the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 36. township 108. range 47, and is to he called Al- toona. It is about five miles from Cazenovia. Dan Thompson is already putting in a side track and the Burlington railroad will build a

depot before the snow tlies. We have not learned how many stores and saloons will be opened there this winter, but if the hantling pro- poses to keep pace with its neighbors, between

1885. On September 15 the survey was made by LeRoy Grant, an engineer in the company's employ, and the dedication of the plat was made September 28 by S. L. Dows and W. G. Dows, president and secretary, respectively, of the townsite com- pany. A town of large proportions was planned, and to accommodate immediate expansion fourteen blocks were included in the plat.

The first, and for a number of years the sole, enterprise of Altoona was a grain warehouse, erected by Ezra Rice late in the fall of 1885. The first general store was established in February, 1894. One year later. in February. 1895, Altoona postoffice was established with Alex Mc- Naughton in charge. In later years both the store and postoffice were discontinued. At the present time an elevator is the only building that marks the site of Al- toona. or Cresson, as the site and station is now named.

LUCTOR.

In southern Fountain Prairie township. five miles northwest of Holland, is a little inland hamlet, the center of a prosperous settlement of Hollanders. Luctor is the name of the place, which boasts a Dutch Reformed church and a store. Church- ville was the name bestowed upon the lit- tle place, which first became known in April. 1889. The chief motive for the establishment of this community was the desire of the settlers to form a closer union in the practice of their religion. "The Dutch Reformed Church of Churchville." was organized at that time.12 T'en acres of land were secured, upon which a house

now and spring it will be a flourishing business point."-Pipestone County Star, October 6, 1885.

"""There are very few of our people, possibly. Who are aware that a new village has just been organized in this county, but such is a fact, nevertheless. The organization was effected on Monday last. The new village is located in Fountain Prairie township and its name is Churchville. Its residents are mostly Holland- ers, consisting of about twenty-two families

394

HISTORY OF PIPESTONE COUNTY.

of worship and a parsonage were erected. The board of the Reformed church in New York contributed $500 to the build- ing fund, and a like amount was donated by Close Bros. & Co. The house of wor- ship was dedicated July 21, 1889. by Rev. W. Warrenhouse, of Alton, lowa. The church developed into a strong organiza- tion and is still maintained.

Twelve years after the founding of the church, in the spring of 1001, a store was established across the road and at the same time a doctor settled in "New Chi- cago," as the hamlet became known after the addition of a business enterprise. Mr. Hoffkamp, formerly of Leota, Nobles county, was one of the early proprietors of the store. At the final christening. Lnc- tor was the name adopted for the place A postoffice was maintained at Enctor for a number of years. but it was discon- tinned November 30. 1905, and the for- mer patrons have since received their mail by rural route.

OTHER PLACES.

Between Pipestone and Woodstock, on the Omaha railroad, six miles cast of the former place, is an elevator, a side track and a sign board bearing the inscription "Eton." On the time tables of the rail- road company the point is designated a station. The elevator and sido track were huilt on section 11. Gray township. in the fall of 1895. Gray Siding was the name originally given the place, and in time this was shortened to Gray. In November, 1906. Eton became the official name.13 The change was made because of the con- fusion arising from the similarity in the nanies Gray and ('ray, both stations on the

who have come to stay and are determined workers for the country in which they have made their new homes. They are a religious class of people and have already organized a church, which will be known as the Reformed church of Churchville." Pipestone County Star, April 26, 1889.

13In "Origin of Place Names," published by the Northwestern Railroad company, is this

Omaha, the latter near Mankato. It was decided that one or the other must forfeit its name, and Gray was the loser in the lot- tery.

Three miles northeast of Pipestone, on the Great Northern railroad, is a side track and grain elevator. The site is not officially named. The track and elevator were built in the summer of 1905 by the New London Milling company, of Will- mar.

The development of the pink quarries, three miles northeast of Jasper, in the early nineties brought about the founding of a village there. Late in 1890 a store building was put up, in which Archie True engaged in the general merchandise busi- ness. On January 21, 1891. a postoffice, named North Sioux Falls, was established with Mr. True as postmaster. Later in the same year the Burlington road was built from Trosky to the quarry, and about the same time the importance of the town was added to by the erection of a hotel building. Jasper suffered nothing lwy reason of this "rival town," whose existence in a few years was only a mem- OTV.

In the early days when towns and rail- roads were few and far between, many of the outlying communities of Pipestone county had inadequate mail facilities. To remedy this, a number of country post- offices, located on overland mail routes. wore put in operation at one time or another.

One such was Meadow postoffice, es- tablished in January, 1828. It was just within Pipestone county, close to the southern boundary. After a few years. by a change of postmasters, the office was

reference to the derivation of the name: "This place was at one time named Gray, but was changed to Eton, from a celebrated school in England, at which the Close brothers and Ben- son were educated. These gentlemen colon- ized many Englishmen in this county, and the people of this place wished to honor their memories by naming this place for their school."

395

HISTORY OF PIPESTONE COUNTY.

moved across the boundary and became a Rock county institution.

In the southwestern part of Elmer township, about eight miles from Pipe- stone, was Ridge postoffice. It was es- tablished in the fall of 1878 and Frank A. Bishop was the first postmaster. The office was discontinued in July, 1883.

Converse postoffice, ten miles southeast of Pipestone, was created in July, 1879, and was in operation for' a number of years.

Heath was the name of a country mail

distributory located in Fountain Prairie township, a short distance west of the present site of Luetor. The postoffice was transferred to Luctor during the nine- ties and was continued until the day of rural free delivery.

Near the north line of Pipestone coun- ty for many years a postoffice known as Me Vey was maintained. It was discon- tinned in May. 1896, the patrons there- after receiving their mail from the Lake Benton office.

CHAPTER XXX.

DESCRIPTIVE.

P IPESTONE county is situated in southwestern Minnesota, adjoining South Dakota and separated from Towa by only one county. It boundaries are Lincoln county on the north, Murray county on the east, Rock county on the south, and Moody county, South Dakota, . on the west. The county is rectangular in form, its dimensions being nineteen and one-quarter miles east and west by twenty- four miles north and south. It contains twelve congressional townships in addition to a strip of territory one and one-quarter miles wide by twenty-four miles long. The area is 463.21 square miles, or 296,493.51 acres, of which only 611.26 acres-less than one square mile-is water area.

Pipestone county lies on the western slope of the Coteau des Prairies, that great stretch of elevated prairie country which was the marvel of the explorers. A brief description of the Coteau may not be out of place here. Its length is about 200 miles, extending from the valley of the Red River of the North southeasterly to Spirit Lake, in Dickinson county, lowa. Its summit is indicated by the headwaters of streams which flow easterly or westerly therefrom. The higher elevations are oft- en marked by what might be called camel back hills. These elevations are not con- tinuous, but lift themselves occasionally

to show where the summit of the Coteau may be looked for, or where a spur thereof puts off. The width of the Cotean is from seventy-five to one hundred miles; the eastern slope from the summit is the short- er, the western the longer and more grace- ful and is composed of a finer, richer and more easily tilled soil. The eastern slope seems to have been more washed by its streams, and on its slope are many lakes ; its soil is gravel or black mud. The western slope is free from lakes, is dry, rich upland prairie, with a fine soil of several feet in depth, underlaid with a boulder gravel, which seems to drain the surface. The streams are not deep down : they run over gravelly beds and are rapid. The general slope of the western side is about ten or twelve feet to the mile, and the slope throughout is uniform.

The Coteau des Prairies ranks among the wonders of the agricultural world. It is of the same geologie formation as the Downs in the south of England, the rich plains of Hungary, and the range of hills which reach down through the center of India, famous in all times for wealth of soil, beauty of contour and salubrion- climate. The elevation of the Cotean is from 1500 to 2200 feet above sea level. It belongs to the cretaceous and semi-sili- cious formation, the marly soil of which

397

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HISTORY OF PIPESTONE COUNTY.

seems to have preserved it from denuda- tion.

The western slope of the Cotean, about fifty miles in width, comprises Os cela and Lyon counties. in Iowa, the western part of Nobles, all of Pipestone and Rock and the western part of Lincoln counties. in Minnesota, and the eastern part of Moody, Brookings and Coddington and all of Denel counties, in South Dakota.

The contour of the surface of Pipestone county is caused by the disposition of the drift, but in some parts it is dependent upon the underlying rock strata. The county is diversified in its eastern town- ships by long and broad swells, running about north and south. The central part is a level prairie. The broad valley of Flandreau creek, with an elevation . of about 1600 feet, diagonally crosses the northwest corner. The elevated erest of the Coteau des Prairies cuts off diagonally the northeastern corner. There, princi- pally in Aetna township, occurs the great- est uneveness of surface, as well as the greatest elevation, there being points on the ridge over 1900 feet above sea level.1 The range of high land extending north-

1Of the formation in northeastern Pipestone county. Hon. Warren Upham has written (Min- nesota Geological Survey, 1884): "The outer ter- minal moraine, formed at the horder of the ice sheet of the last glacial epoch, when it reached its maximum extent, lies in the north- eastern part of Pipestone county. which it enters from the southeast. in sections 12 and 13. Rock township, thence running northwest and passing into Lincoln county at the north side of sections 1 and 2. Fountain Prairie. The inoraine here varles from one to two miles in width and forms the crest of the broad area of highland called the Coteau des Prairies. In northeastern Rock township and from section 35 to section 28, Aetna, it consists of very rough- ly and prominently hilly till. diversified by many knolls and short ridges, of no well-marked uniformity In trend, much in contrast with the smooth surface of till, in long, gentle slopes and swells, lying 100 to 150 feet below this moralne on each side. The till or boulder elay constituting the moraine seems to differ from the same deposit in the smooth tracts only in containing a very much larger proportion of boulders and pebbles, which on the morainic hill and ridges are commonly at least twenty times and often evidently more than a hundred times as plentiful as they average upon the ordi- nary moderately undulating areas of till. Many of the knolls and hillocks of this moraine in Aetna are very stony with rock fragments of all sizes up to five or six feet in diameter. most. however, not exceeding half this size. The water courses on the flanks of this massive,

west from the mounds of Rock county en- ters the southwestern part of Pipestone county and attains an elevation of over 1200 feet, the same roek eausing it throughout. With exceptions noted, Pipe- stone county is emphatically and charac- teristically a prairie county, with no na- tural timber and few boulders .?

The average elevation of Pipestone county above sea level is 1:15 feet, the estimated mean elevations of the several townships in feet being as follows : Aetna, 1825: Rock, 1800: Burke, 1700; Osborne, 1625; Fountain Prairie, 1840; Grange, 1775; Gray, 1440; Elmer, 1650; Altona, 1:00; Troy, 1660; Sweet, 1660; Eden. 1650.3

The most wonderful of the works of nature in Pipestone county are the rock formations. Just north of the eity of Pipestone and adjacent to the famous Pipestone quarries is a ledge of rock which runs nearly north and south for a distance of three miles. The ledge consists of layers of red quartzite that have a very low dip toward the east. so that the rock soon disappears under the prairie in that direction, but presents a nearly perpendic-

knolly ridge are deep, steep-sided ravines; and sloughs and lakelets are rare. From the south- ern part of section 20. Aetna, the next three miles of this moraine northwesterly are less knolly than usual, but farther to the northwest it is as irregularly broken as in southern Artna and northwestern Rock townships."

"The Minnesota Geological Survey has mapped Pipestone county as follows: One-half of Aetna and the northeastern corners of Rock and Foun- tain Prairie, hilly till; the rest of Aetna. Rock and Fountain Prairie. all of Altona. Burke and Osborne, one-half of Trov. nearly all of Grange. Grav and Elmer, smooth and undulating: all of Eden and Sweet. the southern part of Troy, and small parts of Grange. Gray and Elmer. Potsdam quartzite formation.

3The elevations of the several stations and other points along three of the lines of railway that traverse the county. as determined by the railway surveyors, are as follows:

Milwaukee-Chanarambie creek (water level. at last crossing west). 1521: Edgerton. 1550; Rock river, 1552: Hatfield, 1662; highest point on the road (three and one-half miles east of Pipestone). 1744: Pipestone. 1693. Pipestone ereek (water level), 1577: Airlie. 1629.

Omaha-Murray- Pipestone county line (grade). 1839: Woodstock. 1822; Rock river (water level). 1645; Summit. 1785: Pipestone. 1715.

Rock Island-Poplar creek, 1646; creek cross- ing (just north of Trosky). 1694; summit of grade. 1784; Nichols, 1799; Pipestone, 1740.

399

HISTORY OF PIPESTONE COUNTY.

ular escarpment toward the west, form- ed by the broken-off, heavy layers of the rock. The greatest height of the ledge is about twenty-five feet. The rock also gradually disappears under the prairie both toward the north and the south, the lower ground on the west of the csearpment slowly rising in those directions like the sides of a basin and coaleseing with that on the east of the ledge. Here, before its channel was diverted by direction of the government, Pipestone creek passed over the ledge to the lower level in a perpendic- ular fall of abont eighteen feet, forming Winnewissa falls. In the vicinity are a few dwarted bur oaks and shrubs, the only natural timber existing in the county.4 This point is not the top of the Coteau des Prairies, as many writers have assert- ed, among others, George Catlin, the first white man to visit the site. The crest of the Coteau is several miles northeast, pass- ing through Rock, Aetna and Fountain Prairie townships.

The rock of the ledge is exceedingly hard. It lies in layers of one, two and three feet thick and is separated by join- tage planes into huge blocks of rectangu- lar shape that lie often somewhat displac- ed or even thrown over entirely by the ac- tion'of the frost. The rock in places is pinkish in color ; in others it is blood-red. The pink rock is generally massive : when red it is more apt to be thin bedded.

Southward from the region of the quar- ry the land continues high. and in some instances there are ridges or long knolls of drift that are brond and evenly round- od over by a thin loam. In a few places in extern Eden township there are out- crops of the rock in small areas, and west- ward along the Split Rock and its eastern tributaries appear the same rocky out- crops, but nowhere do they present the

4There is a little natural timber on the north- east quarter of section 24, Osborne township. On the northeast quarter of section 27. Os- borne township. on the left bank of Chanar-

perpendicular bluffs as at the Pipestone quarry. Outerops of a continuation of the ledge appear frequently in northern Rock county and the ledge terminates in the wall of solid rock a little north of Lu- verne.

Close to the ledge near Pipestone is quarried the soft, red pipestone of his- tory-the stone which has made the spot famous throughout the North American continent. Centuries ago, before while men knew of a western world, the stone was dug by the natives for their pipes. Today the stone is manufactured by red and white men into trinkets of all kinds.

Until recently the Indian red pipe- stone has never been used in the me- chanie arts for any useful purpose. Now it is used in the manufacture of spark plugs for automobiles and is said to be the best material yet found for that pur- pose.

George Catlin, the first white man to visit the site and the first to have the stone analyzed, wrote of the substance and its location :

At the base of this wall, and running par- allel to it, there is a level prairie of halt a mile in width, in any and all parts of which the Indians procure the red stone for their pipes by digging through the soil and sev- eral slaty layers of the red stone to the depth of four or five feet. From the very numerous marks of ancient and modern dig- ging, or excavations, it would appear that this place has been for many centuries re- sorted to for the red stone.

The red pipestone will, I suppose, take its place amongst interesting minerals; and the Coteau will become hereafter an im- portant theme for geologists, not merely from the fact that it is the ouly known lo- cality of that mineral, but from other phe- nomena relating to it. The single fact of such a table of quartz resting in perfect horizontal strata on this elevated plateau is of itself, as 1 conceive, a very interesting subject for investigation, and one which calls upon the scientific world for a correct theory in regard to the time when, and the manner in which, this formation was pro- duced. That it is a secondary and sedimen-

ambie creek, at one time stood a cottonwood tree, twenty inches in diameter, which was cut down by beaver.

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HISTORY OF PIPESTONE COUNTY.

tary deposit, seems evident, and that it has withstood the force of the diluvial current, while the great valley of the Missouri from this very wall of roeks to the Rocky moun- tains has been excavated and its debris car- ried to the ocean, I confidently infer.

Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, who visited the site in 1838, opened a new quarry of the pipestone and examined the substance carefully. lle wrote of the stone:

This red pipestone, not more interesting to the Indian than it is to the man of seience, by its unique character, deserves a particular description. In the quarry of it which I had opened, the thickness of the bed is one foot and a half, the upper portion of which separates in thin slabs, whilst the. lower ones are more compact. As a miner- alogical species it may be described as fol- lows: Compact; structure, slaty; receiving a dull polish; having a red streak: color, hlood-red, with dots of a fainter shade of the same color; fracture, rough; sectile; feel, somewhat greasy; hardness, not yield- ing to the nail, not scratched by selenite, but easily by calcareous spar: specific grav- ity, 2.90. The acids have no action upon it; before the blowpipe it is infusible per se, but with borax gives a green glass.

Professor N. 11. Winchell, of the Min- uesota Geological Survey, had samples of the famous stone analyzed and described il from the standpoint of the geologist. Hle wrote in the publication of the Minne- sota Geological Survey, 1884, as follows :

'The real "pipestone quarry" is situated about a quarter of a mile west of this ledge and in the low land of the lower prairie. Earlier diggings seem to have been opened in the superficial outcroppings of the pipe- stone layer and to have followed along its strike north and south nearly a mile without penetrating very deeply into the roek. The layer which furnishes the pipestone is about eighteen inches thick and is embraced be- tween heavy layers of the same rock as the ledge already described, and they all dip together toward the east, and of course run under the main escarpment. The present quarrying is a little east of the line of the old diggings, but follows along the strike of the formation the same as the other, the only difference being in having greater depth (the pipestone layer is about six feet under the ground here) and in the difficul- ties encountered in removing about five feet of very firm pinkish quartzite in heavy beds.

The pipestone or catlinite of the Pipe- stone quarry is a fine elay, varying in color from blood-red to pale red or pinkish, or

even to a pale yellowish red. The lighter colors fade into the darker, but sometimes the ligh appears in the red as round spots, on a polished surface, but the red is not thus distributed through the lighter shades. It has, of course, suffered all the metamor- phic influences that the quartzite itself has, but it has not lost its distinctive bedded structure, which may be seen when examin- ed microscopically in polished thin see- tions. Indeed, it seems to have a laminated structure, and the different shades of color appear sometimes to be due to openings and fissures produced in the red clay be- coming filled with sediment of a lighter color. The following analyses have been made of this substance. It is not truly a mineral but an indurated clay, and its chem- ical composition varies in consequence. Analysis No. 1 shows the results obtained by Dr. C. T. Jackson from the sample pro- cured by George Catlin in 1837. Nos. 2 and 3 were obtained by the writer (N. H. Win- chell) in 1877 and were analyzed by S. F. Peekham. No. 2 was of a red color; No. 3 of a pinkish color:

No. 1

No. 2

No. 3

Water.

8.40

7.44

6.48

Silicia

48.20

57.43

58.25

Alumina

28.20

25.49

35.90

Magnesia.

6,00

Peroxide of iron

5.00

8,70

of manganese

,60

Lime.

2.60

99.00

99.51

100.63

Although this substance has usually a red color like that which prevails in the forma- tion to which it pertains, it should be add- ed that this redness suffers all the varia- tions that it does in the quartzite. It passes nearly to white, through pink; it is intensi- fied to brown, and in small patches it is deepened to lilac or lavender brown, becom- ing reddish purple. It is only with a loose application of the ferm that it can be styled gray, a color which is derived from a mix- ture of black and white, and which is appli- cable to the schists and quartzites of the northern part of the state pertaining to a lower geological horizon.

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An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota, Part 56

Author: Rose, Arthur P., 1875-1970 Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Luverne, Minn. : Northern History Publishing Company Number of Pages: 924

Author: Rose, Arthur P., 1875-1970
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Luverne, Minn. : Northern History Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 924