USA > Minnesota > Waseca County > Child's history of Waseca County, Minnesota : from its first settlement in 1854 to the close of the year 1904, a record of fifty years : the story of the pioneers > Part 20
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MARCH MEETING OF COUNTY BOARD.
At the March meeting of the board, very little aside from rou- tine business was done. Seventy-five dollars was appropriated for the grading of the hill at MeDougall Creek on the Wilton and Waseca road. The old court house lots in Wilton, belonging to the county, were deeded to the village of Wilton. The sum of $156 was appropriated to build a fence and a walk around the new court house grounds.
The annual report made at this session showed the balance of cash on hand to have been $473.48, with uncollected. taxes amounting to $8,645.87.
THE $5,000,000 RAILROAD BOND SWINDLE.
In territorial days, 1857-8. when the times were hard and peo- ple were very much depressed, the territorial legislature. with- out any lawful authority, submitted a so-called constitutional amendment to the constitution that had been submitted and adopted the fall before but that was then held up by congress. The so-called amendment was submitted to the people April 15th and adopted, but Minnesota was not admitted as a state until May 11, 1858. As soon as the people realized what a flood of fraud and corruption and deception had deluged the young com- munity, they denounced and repudiated the whole thing. The legislature of 1859-60 submitted an amendment providing that no more bonds should be issued-$2,500,000 having been already issued-and that no part of those issued should ever be paid without first submitting the question of payment to the voters of the state. Thus matters stood until the winter of 1871, when
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the legislature was prevailed upon to provide for paying the bonds and submitting a proposition to the people authorizing the same.
As showing that bribery and corruption are not confined alone to the present day, an extract from the Waseca News of April 5, 1871, will be appropriate. On that date it said :
"We were aroused to a realizing sense of the iniquities of the scheme, last week, by a contemptible offer of the sum of $100, provided we would abandon our honest convictions regarding this bond measure and advo- cate its adoption hy the people. And we were further awakened to a realizing sense of the danger of this proposition by the assurance, on the part of the tempter, that the proposition would surely carry, as nearly all the leading papers of the state had found it to their interest to advance the measure, either directly or indirectly. In a word, those interested in the scheme are prepared to spend a large amount of money to corrupt the people-or, rather, those who discuss public topics through the newspapers and on the stump.
"As the bondholders have the temerity to send their agents about the country with offers of brihery to editors, publishers and lawyers, they certainly will not scruple to use all the appliances that brains and money can command to corrupt the governor, the commissioners, and the attorneys that are, under the proposed law, to present and pass upon their claims.
"This offer of hribery is, of itself, sufficient evidence upon which to condemn the bill."
After a hot fight the bill was defeated by a fair majority.
LOREN G. WOOD SHOT.
April 13th Loren G. Wood, and Allen Scott, son and nephew respectively of the late Eri G. Wood, started on a duck hunt across Clear lake. They secured a boat belonging to a Mr. Green and crossed the lake. Shortly afterward, Mr. Green desiring to use the boat, went and got it, leaving the boys to return afoot. While on their way home, traveling single file over a narrow path, on the east shore of the lake, with Scott in the rear carry- ing a loaded gun, Scott stumbled and fell, bringing the muzzle of his gun to the front, on a line with Wood's right foot. While in this position the gun was accidentally discharged, and Loren received the whole charge of the gun in the hollow of his foot. Mr. Green, who was within hailing distance on the lake, hasten- ed to the scene of the accident, and assisted in conveying the wounded boy home. Some of the shot passed entirely through
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the foot, but Dr. Young, who dressed the wound, took from it some shot and a quantity of wadding. Loren never fully re- covered the use of his foot. ,
FOURTH OF JULY.
The day was formally celebrated at Janesville, Hon. Amos Coggswell, of Owatonna, being the orator of the day. Waseca also had a celebration of all home talent. There was a baseball game between Waterville and Blooming Grove, and a boat race on Clear lake.
DESTRUCTIVE STORMS.
The Waseca News of July contained the following :
"The pleasures and festivities of the Fourth of July were not ended when, over a large portion of southwestern Minnesota, the Storm God wheeled his chariots into line and devastated a large extent of country along the rich valley of the Minnesota river. The storm swept across a large region of country between Madelia and New Ulm, crossing into Nicollet county, sweeping in great fury down the Minnesota valley, and thence through Mankato, Le Ray and Jamestown.
"Last Friday afternoon, July 7, 1871, while the people were talking and lamenting over the news of the destructive storm of July 4th, in adjoin- ing counties, dark clouds appeared in the southwest and the north- west and apparently joined in battle array some miles west of here. The storm came on rapidly, the wind blew a gale, some hail fell, but no serious damage resulted in this village. - North and west of this place, however, in the towns of Janesville, Iosco, and Blooming Grove, the destruction of crops was total over a large extent of country. Mr. Mc- Dermott, of Blooming Grove, informs us that the crops in his neighbor- hood are almost totally destroyed-that the trees, even, are stripped of their foliage. From Mr. J. E. Jones, of Iosco, we learn that the crops are wholly destroyed for several miles north of his place, his own with the rest. The house of Mr. Larsen, in the Riley neighborhood, was blown down, and the fences generally were prostrated."
Thousands of acres in this county were laid waste, and the people were left in very distressing circumstances. The course of the storm was from west to east and laid waste a strip of country from two to four miles wide across the northern tier of townships. Many of the hailstones were as large as hen's eggs. and, in many places, the ground was covered with them. The destruction to crops in the state, that year, by wind and hail, was so far-reaching, that the legislature, at its next session, made provision to furnish a loan of seed grain to the suffering farm-
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ers the next spring. Some of our farmers of the stricken town- ships were aided in that way.
At Janesville, on the 7th, lightning struck the barn of Darling Welsh, setting it on fire and killing one of his horses.
RELIEF FOR THE STORM STRICKEN.
Hon. Warren Smith was appointed by Gov. Austin as state commissioner to ascertain and report in regard to damages by storm or prairie fire to settlers of this county during the season, and about Dec. 20th, he received $425.00 from the state to be distributed equally among seventeen of the most destitute fam- ilies. In addition to this amount, the citizens of Waseca had eon- tributed $100, and the county commissioners had received $200 in state funds, making in all $725.00, besides some clothing, which was distributed among the needy.
YEAR OF TERRIBLE FIRES.
The year 1871 was one of very destructive fires in several lo- calities in this country, the most noted being the great Chicago fire of October 8, 9 and 10. The fire originated in a cow-stable at 9.30 o'clock, Sunday evening. A strong west wind drove it rapidly through seventy-three miles of streets till it covered three and a half square miles of the doomed eity, destroyed 200 lives, 17,450 buildings, and property valued at $200,000,000-the number rendered homeless being 98,500 people.
At the same time a devastating sheet of fire, ten miles wide, swept over the country bordering Green Bay, Wis., causing the death of one thousand people and destroying property to the value of $3,000,000.
In the same month many lives were lost and much property destroyed by fire in Michigan.
The first week in October, a great prairie fire originated near Breckenridge, Minn., and was driven eastward by strong winds a distance of about one hundred and sixty miles. It left in its track a seene of desolation unparalleled in the history of the state. Buildings, fencing, grain and hay stacks, and cornfields, were swept away by this roaring, erackling, consuming monster of the prairie. Fortunately no lives were lost though a number of people had narrow eseapes.
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October 4 and 5, a prairie fire swept the towns of Vivian, By- ron, and Wilton. In Byron, Wm. Smith's house, stable, reaper, wagon, and household goods were consumed. His two dogs were so frightened that they fled to the cellar where both were burned to death. Alex. Brisbane's stable, seeder, and much of his feneing were destroyed. One of the Messrs. McGrath had his one hundred-acre crop all destroyed, but saved his house. Mr. Quinn lost his house and some other property. Granville Barnes, John C. Hunter, and others lost considerable property. Almost every farmer in the line of the fire lost more or less fencing.
The losers in Vivian were Messrs. Poland, Banker, Randall, Hadley, Merrill and Hanks.
September and October were extremely dry months, and when once a fire was started it spread with great rapidity.
FIRST LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.
The first library association was organized by adopting ar- ticles of incorporation Dee. 1, 1871. The incorporators were G. P. Johnson, Rev. E. C. Starr, James E. Child, Fred Kittreder, J. F. Murphy, B. S. Lewis, H. A. Mosher, Rev. F. A. Riggin, A. E. Dearborn, Edgar Cronkhite, E. P. Latham, Hiram Lan- pher, Warren Smith, D. E. Priest and Edward Bennett. The as- sociation started out with one hundred volumes of standard works, and soon after added about fifty volumes more, mostly by donation. The originators of the organization were largely ae- tuated by altruistic motives, hoping thereby to benefit the com- munity at large. The library from the start was only partially successful. The demand for history, biography and standard literature was slight compared with the demand for trashy stuff of a romantic character. In a few years the stockholders dissoly- ed the corporation and divided the books among themselves.
THE ELECTION OF 1871.
The local result of the election was a queer mixture-showing a preponderance of local and personal feeling superior to politi- cal considerations. While the republicans carried the state tiek- et by majorities ranging from two hundred to two hundred and sixty-three, many of the local candidates on the republican
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ticket were "left by the wayside." The local candidates reeviv- od the following votes:
SENATOR.
James E. Child, republican ×5,6
Wm. Brisbane, democrat 514
REPRESENTATIVES.
John Thompson, republican ×50
John S. MeKune. republican 622
Kelsey Curtis, democrat 739
ES. P. Latham, democrat 579
REGISTER OF DEEDS.
Il. A. Mosher, republican 7×0)
Geo. Hofeld, democrat 603
TREASURER.
Gro. R. Buckman, republican 694
R. O. Craig. democrat 697
CORONER.
L. D. MeIntosh, republican 677
COUNTY ATTORNEY.
F. A. Newell, republican 677
B. S. Lewis, democrat 724
JUDGE OF PROBATE.
J. A. Canfield, republican 742
Wm. Huse, democrat 645
CLERK OF COURT.
S. J. Willis, republican 674
Jas. B. Jayden, democrat. .. 696
SHERIFF.
M. B. Dolson, republican 511
S. W. Long, democrat ×78
SURVEYOR.
C. E. Crane, republican 817
For the office of county treasurer, Mr. Buckman instituted a contest that resulted in his favor by a very small margin.
CLOSE OF THE YEAR.
The old year, with its crimes and its follies, its virtues and its
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happinesses, its successes and its disappointments, had passed into history and eternity. The terrible conflagrations that swept many places in the West, nearly destroying Chicago and some other places, formed a heart-rending chapter in the his- tory of America. In Minnesota, many localities suffered from fire and storm, although the state at large enjoyed general pros- perity. The noble generosity of the American people, however, was displayed as never before. Throughout the length and breadth of the land, a noble impulse of generous charity furnish- ed the means to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and furnish homes for the homeless. The afflictions of the year stirred the noblest impulses of the American heart, and, for a time, at least, drove mean selfishness out of sight, and made us more charitable toward all mankind.
NOTES OF THE YEAR 1871.
Ozias Baker, one of the very early boy-settlers of the county, son of Wm. S. Baker, died of consumption, Feb. 10. 1871, aged twenty-seven years. He was one of the heroes of Company (, First Minnesota Regiment; he served three years therein and then enlisted and served in the First Minnesota Heavy Artillery until the close of the Rebellion.
Mr. Asa G. Sutlief, the first white man to make a home in Wa- seea county, after a lingering illness of some weeks, died Oct. 13, 1871. At the time of his death he was considered one of the wealthiest men in the county. A biographical sketch of him appears elsewhere in this work.
The price of wheat during the year 1871 ranged from 95 cents to $1.15 per bushel.
CHAPTER XL, 1872.
THE NEW YEAR-COUNTY AND STATE LEGISLATION-DON- NELLY'S TRIBUTE TO AUSTIN-RAILROADS AND SALOONS VICTORIOUS-COURT HOUSE FIRE-WESTERN HOUSE BURN- ED-"GREELEY WAVE" IN WASECA-THOROUGHBRED CATTLE -HANGING OF EASTON-STORM OF AUGUST 6-THE "DOLLY VARDEN"-DRAINING CLEAR LAKE-THE "EPIZOOT"-DECEM- BER COLD.
The year 1872 opened on Monday with the usual happy greet- ings and family reunions. "Josh Billings" once commanded as follows :
"Git out your brand new cutter, And git your gal's consent,
Hitch up Dobbin or some other kritter,
And let the animal went."
The wheat market opened favorably the first of the year, the price ranging from $1 to $1.05.
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.
The county board for this year was made up as follows: O. Powell of Woodville, H. G. Mosher of Otisco, Wm. Byron of St. Mary, Wm. Lee of Iosco, and S. K. Odell of Vivian. Mr Powell was reelected chairman.
The board fixed the bond of the incoming county treasurer at $20,000. Saloon license was fixed at $100 per year, the ap- plicant to pay pro rata for the number of months the license should run. Dr. R. O. Craig, of Janesville, resigned the office of county superintendent of schools, and the board appointed in
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his place Mr. H. G. Mosher, of Otisco, to serve out the remain- der of the term. Dr. M. S. Gove was chosen by the board to be superintendent for the term commencing the first Tuesday in April. Nothing further of especial interest was done by the board at its January session.
THE FOURTEENTH LEGISLATURE.
The legislature opened its session on Tuesday, Jan. 2, and closed March 1. Waseca county was represented in the senate by James E. ('hild, and in the house by John Thompson, of New Richland, and Kelsey Curtis, of Alma City. The governor of the state was Horace Austin. By the way, he was one of the best governors the state has ever had. Hon. I. Donnelly once said of him :
"I do not desire to employ the language of adulation, but I feel justi- fied in saying that he has proved himself a great man-great in the language Tennyson applied to the Duke of Wellington:
"'Great in saving common sense;' great in honesty; great in fidelity; great in persistent devotion to the public welfare; great in that firm faculty of the mind which is able to look beyond the pressure of in- dividuals and combinations and all personal hopes and aspirations, and see in the far background only the great people who have placed their destinies in his hands. * * *
This is an age of vast, almost universal corruption. Gray-headed men tell us, with sad faces, that they doubt the perpetuity of our free and noble institutions. It some- times looks as if one universal sea of corruption would swallow up all we hold dear in government.
"When, therefore, in the midst of such a state of things, the people find one honest, truthful, earnest, incorruptible man, who, at his own political peril, does his whole duty, they should stand by him to the last extremity."
And yet, within a few short years, the people forgot their friend, and corporate greed destroyed him politically and injur- ed him financially.
The legislative session was a laborions one, although but little of general importance was accomplished. The lobby, as usual, was filled with the "picked, paid and skilled retainers" of the corporations who are "summoned by the messengers of elec- tricity and appear upon the wings of steam," and all proposed measures looking to the control of railroad rates and the pro- hibition of discrimination in such rates were defeated.
The saloon license question occupied much attention for a
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CHILD'S HISTORY OF WASECA COUNTY.
time, and the liquor laws were made a little more stringent by amendment.
One commendable act was that providing for the disposal of the 500,000 acres of internal improvement lands granted to the state by congress. It provided that the lands should be apprais- ed and sold the same as the school lands, with a proviso that the funds to be derived therefrom should not be expended by any act of the legislature until said aet should be ratified by the voters of the state.
PERSONAL.
The St. Paul Dispatch of February 29, near the close of the ses- sion, contained the following note:
"As you enter the senate chamher, the first gentleman on the left is Mr. Child, of Waseca, the author of the temperance hill that did not pass. He is an ordinary sized man, somewhat pale, and has spoken on more subjects and oftener, probably, than any other member of the senate, unless it be Mr. Haven. He has a strong individuality, is a ready dehater, fearless in presenting his views and, though somewhat eccentric, is a useful and valuable senator. His brief speech on the preservation of game for 'eastern sportsmen' was the finest specimen of irony delivered in the senate this session."
Winona Republican, March 6, 1872:
"Senator Child, father of the defeated temperance bill, was heard on almost every question. In many things he seemed to stand alone. He is a straightforward, upright man; despises the 'Heathen Chinee,' and all his tricks; speaks fluently and forcibly; has nothing to do with cliques or rings; votes an honest, loud 'no' whenever the case is not according to his convictions; knows nothing of the doctrine of ex- pediency. He would make a martyr for the truth. He was perhaps the hardest worker in the senate-always ready with amendments to hinder or check unwise legislation; he voted oftener than any other senator."
By act of this legislature, the 200,000 acres of land secured to the state by act of congress, through the efforts of Congressman Donnelly, to aid in making slack-water navigation on the Can- non River, was transferred to the Cannon River railroad to pro- mote its construction. The road is now owned and operated as a branch of the Great Western, and furnishes transportation for farmers along the northern portion of this eounty tributary to Morristown, Waterville and Elysian.
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CHILD'S HISTORY OF WASECA COUNTY.
COURT HOUSE ON FIRE.
On Sunday morning, March 10, Auditor Cronkhite discovered that the floor of the court room was on fire. He aroused the peo- ple and the fire was soon extinguished. The court room had been occupied the Saturday before and the fire originated from the stove. The damage amounted to about fifty dollars.
WESTERN HOUSE BURNED.
This hotel, belonging to Mr. Thomas Barden, of Waseca, was discovered to be afire about 5.30 o'clock a. m., April 12, and in a very short time the hotel and the barn belonging to it were entirely consumed. As at that time Waseca had no water sup- ply and no fire company, it was almost a miracle that the dwell- ing house of Mr. G. W. Watkins and the store and barn of Dr. Brubaker, near by, were saved from destruction, by the efforts of citizens. The wind was blowing a heavy gale at the time and had it not been for the drenching rain of the previous even- ing, no doubt the fire would have destroyed a large amount of property. The burned property was insured for $2.200.
THE GREELEY CAMPAIGN.
This was the year of the noted Greeley campaign-one of the most unique in the history of the world. President Grant was a great military genius, but he was neither a great statesman nor a politician. He had ways of his own and a strong will, and during his first administration he offended many of the ablest men in his party-more especially on account of his appoint- ments to office, but also on account of his allowing the gold combine to influence the financial policy of the administration, thus bringing on a financial depression which cansed suffering and wide-spread dissatisfaction. But the rugged old hero stood by his friends, whether good or bad, and henee the organization known as "Liberal Republican"-although it was the most illiberal, politically, that was ever known in this country. The men who led the movement in this state were, most of them, able men-men of brains, some of them men of wealth. The more prominent were Judge Aaron Goodrich. Samuel Mayall, John X. Davidson and Theodore Heilscher. of St. Paul: Judge Thomas Wilson of Winona Dr. W. W. Mayo of Rochester, Ilon. Wm. G. Ward of Waseca. Hon. C. D. Sherwood of Fillmore eounty, ex-
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United States Senator M. S. Wilkinson, and d. R. Hubbell, of Mankato. The national convention of this new party was held at Cincinnati, May 4, 1872, and Horace Greeley was nominated on the sixth ballot and on the third day of the convention. B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, was nominated for vice president. Both had been republicans, and Mr. Greeley had been a life-long opponent of every principle of the democratic party from Van Buren to Buchanan. He was an ultra. high-tariff advocate, and one of the staunchest opponents of the slave oligarchy. Never- theless, the so-called democratie party of that day met at Balti- more. July 9th, and endorsed the nomination of both Greeley and Brown.
The whole affair was so politically grotesque and Indierons. not to say farcical, that the cartoonists and the people at large outside the Liberal Republicans themselves, enjoyed the cam- paign more than any other political struggle in the history of the nation.
But not so with Mr. Greeley. It sent him to the mad house where he died Nov. 29th-twenty-four days after his defeat.
It is the opinion of the writer that it was not his defeat at the polls which unbalanced his great mind, but the treachery and meanness of Whitelaw Reid. Mr. Greeley was so great a man that his defeat for the presidency was of small consequence. But he was the founder, and for more than a generation. the editor of the "New York Tribune." the greatest newspaper of its day in the world. His paper was the political bible of hun- treds of thousands of people. llis name was a household word throughout the land. Mr. Greeley had been for a life-time the king of journalism, the great advocate and fearless defender of temperance reform and democratie-republican institutions. lle was an American of Americans, believing in the Fatherhood of one God, and the true Brotherhood of All Mankind. While sometimes mistaken in judgment, he was, nevertheless, one of the greatest and grandest men of this or of any other age or na- tion. He could have survived his defeat with resignation, but. the New York Tribune was his idol, his heart and sonl, his very life-blood, and when it came to his knowledge that Whitelaw Reid had seenred financial control of his paper, and could ab-
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solutely exclude Mr. Greeley's editorials and was doing so, his great heart broke, his magnificent mind gave way, and he died a maniac. It was a foul, cruel, moral murder of a great and good man. Friend and foe alike mourned his pitiful death, bow- ed their heads in the most profound sorrow, and forgave and forgot what many thought the mistake of his life-his candidaey for the presidency in opposition to the great party of which he was one of the founders and builders.
THOROUGHBRED CATTLE.
The gentlemen who first gave the matter of thoroughbred cat- tle much attention in this county were Charles A. De Graff of Alton, near Janesville, and Hon. W. G. Ward, of Waseca. Mr. Ward's farm is situated just west of Waseca. a part of it in Woodville and a part in St. Mary. The De Graff farm was wholly in Alton. Their farms were both opened as early as 1870. In April, 1872. Mr. Ed. Bennett, of Waseca, visited Raeine, Wiscon- sin, in the interest of these gentlemen, as well as himself, and brought baek six grade Shorthorn cows for Mr. Ward, and ten grade cows and three calves for Mr. De Graff. For himself, he brought back a full-blood, Shorthorn bull, eleven months old. weight 1,000 lbs. At that time Mr. De Graff had a thoroughbred Shorthorn bull, two and a half years old, and five thoroughbred Shorthorn and Alderney cows, in addition to those brought on by Mr. Bennett. Mr. Ward had a thoroughbred Alderney bull and a thoroughbred heifer of the same breed, besides the Shorthorns. These gentlemen did much in those days to help improve the cat- tle of this county.
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