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 34
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Clarissa B. Mosher, at Marion, Ohio, Dec. 30, 1841. He became a member of the M. E. church in 1842, by conversion, and re- mained such during the remainder of his life. He moved with his family to Dodge county, Wisconsin, as early as 1844, and was among the first settlers of that locality. After ont-living the pioneer days of Wisconsin, the family came to this county in 1856, and settled in Otisco. At an early day in this county, he took quite an active part in public affairs, being the first treasurer of Waseca county.
Died, Oct. 10, 1887, Minnie Smith, elder daughter of Hon. Warren Smith, of this city, aged 28 years, of lingering consump- tion. She had been an invalid for some time, and everything that wealth and affection could do had been done to prolong her life; but the disease was incurable, and she finally passed from life unto death.
Capt. Robert Earl, of Alton, one of the early settlers of Free- dom, dropped suddenly dead while butchering hogs, at his farm, on Monday, Oct. 17, 1887, of apoplexy. Deceased was born in Jamestown, Pa., Ang. 10, 1832, and was a little over fifty-five years of age. (See biographical sketches.)
Died, Zabina Child, Nov. 5, 1887, at the residence of his son, S. P. Child, of Blue Earth City, Minn., of dropsy and inflamma- tion of his stomach. He was a contractor and builder by trade, and was a life-long pioneer. He was born in Windsor county Vt., November 22, 1808. At the age of twenty he went to St. Lawrence county, New York, working at his trade in the village of Canton and vicinity. He made his home with his father, Daniel Child, in De Kalb, St. Lawrence county, until his mar- riage to Orrilla Rice, of Jefferson county, N. Y., Feb. 14, 1833. In 1834 he removed to Ohio by horse team and wagon, with his young wife and one child, and settled near Medina, then a pio- neer settlement. He remained there until about 1837, when a failure of crops and the general hard times of that period induced him to return to his old home in the state of New York. There he settled on a small farm with his family, where he re- mained until 1843, when he again went to Ohio, remaining in Perry, Lake county, about a year. He then removed with his family to the territory of Wisconsin, stopping at Sheboygan a few weeks, and afterwards locating in Dodge county, Wis., near
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Waupun. He afterwards lived in Herman, Dodge county, and later settled in Outagamie county, near Appleton. Afterwards he spent some time with relatives in Pierce county, Wis., lived a while with his brother Simeon in Washington county, Iowa, and in later years resided in Blue Earth City, spending a por- tion of his time in Jackson county, Minn. He sleeps in the Blue Earth cemetery.
Hon. M. D. L. Collester, then of Mankato, died of pleuro-pneu- monia, Dec. 17, 1887. He was buried from the Episcopal church of that city under the auspices of the I. O. O. F., of which he was a member. He caught cold while taking testimony in the boiler inspection matter at Litchfield, about Nov. 22, and was confined to his bed one day while there. He returned to Man- kato, Nov. 25, and on the Sunday following was taken sick with pleuro-pneumonia, of which, after a very painful illness of near- ly three weeks, he died. Mr. Collester was born in Marlboro, N. H., Jan. 26, 1840. He graduated with high rank at Middlebury college in Vermont in 1865. He then read law at Newport, N. H., and came West and commenced the practice of law at Minne- apolis in 1867. Shortly afterward he accepted a professorship of Greek and Latin languages in Shattuck school, at Faribault, and continued in this position until 1872, when he came to Wa- seca and again entered upon the practice of his profession. While at Waseca he was five years county attorney; one year mayor of Waseca, and one year, 1885, respresented Waseca county in the state legislature, in which he was chairman of the judiciary com- mittee of the House. In the spring of 1885 he moved to Mankato, where he lived at the time of his death. He left surviving him, a wife and one child, a son. Mr. Collester, for many years a resi- dent of Waseca, had many warm friends. The writer certainly had opportunities equal to any to know the true character of the man. In his business affairs he was honorable, upright and prompt. In his intercourse with his fellowmen he was generous, and his gratitude for favors shown him had no end. Such a feeling as enmity or personal revenge was unknown to him. While his ambition led him at times to pander to the ignorant prejudices of class, he never failed to respect virtue and honest worth. Both on the rostrum and in the field of journalism we have met him in opposing argument, and yet his generous spirit
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never gave way to that vulgar enmity and personal animosity which too often result from differences of opinion on publie ques- tions. He was a ripe scholar and an able advocate. He believed in the universal brotherhood of man, and his charity for the frailties and faults of others command a like feeling of generos- ity in his own behalf.
CHAPTER LVII, 1888.
COUNTY PRINTING-CROOKED WORK-WINTER STORM-STORM REMINISCENCES BY FRANK A. NEWELL AND MIKE RYAN- FIRST FARMERS' INSTITUTE-TORNADO IN VIVIAN-ROAD AND BRIDGE FUNDS-DIED, S. FARRINGTON, MIKE ANDERSON, ALEX. JOHNSTON, MRS. WM. BRISBANE, J. S. G. HONNER, A. D. MONROE, A. J. AND MRS. WOODBURY, JACKSON TURNACLIFF, DENNIS SHEEHAN (KILLED)-POLITICS, DEFALCATION OF MC- KENNA IN THE SUM OF $6,694.64-RESULT OF THE ELECTION.
The board of county commissioners met in annual session, Jan. 3, 1888. Philip Purcell was again chosen chairman-the members present being Jonas O. Sunde, James Conway, Philip Purcell, Charles Deyling, and Oliver Peterson. The matter of county printing was again a subject of contention. The follow- ing history of the affair is from the Waseca County Herald :
"January 13, 1888 .- On Tuesday evening of last week we were in- formed that a portion of the county printing would be let on Thursday afternoon and that sealed bids for the same would be received by the board. There was no written or printed notice-simply an oral one. Neither does it appear on record that the board would receive bids-it was only a slip-shod, informal invitation for bids, the board in no way agreeing to let the county printing at all-either to the highest or low- est bidder.
"In response to the invitation, however, the Herald offered to do the publishing and advertising for the year as follows: Proceedings of tbe county board, 5 cents per folio; financial statement (three weeks) 20 cents per folio; proceedings of the board of equalization 5 cents per follo. All miscellaneous notices of the county board and of all the officers of the county to be paid for by the county, at 10 cents per folio, first publication, and 5 cents per follo each subsequent publication.
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"C. E. Graham, the only other bidder, offered to do the work for the following: Publish all the proceedings of the county board during the year for 1 cent; financial statement (three weeks) 45 cents per folio; proceedings of board of equalization 5 cents per folio. He did not bid on any other county work-evidently having an understanding in some way that the treasurer's notice and all other notices would be given out, from time to time, at full legal rates, 75 cents a folio for one inser- tion and 35 cents for each subsequent publication.
"Upon the opening and reading of the hids, silence reigned for a mo- ment, and then the chairman brought out some bids for forfeited lands and nervously asked what should be done with them. After some talk, the land bids were finally laid over to the March meeting, and then Mr. Sunde suggested that the printing bids ought to be considered. The chairman thought they would have to estimate as to which would be the lower bid, and, in reply to a question, said the estimate could be made from the last year's work. The other members seemed to agree to that, and then took an adjournment to 7 o'clock in the evening.
"At the evening session a representative of the Herald went before the board and stated that he had measured all the work of the last year and found that all the published proceedings of the county board, for the year, measured forty-eight thousand ems (192 folios) which at 5 cents a folio, (Herald bid) would be $9.60. The financial statement of last year measured twenty-one thousand five hundred ems (86 folios) which, at 25 cents a folio-Graham's bid being that much higher than ours-would amount to $21.50. That would be $21.50 minus $9.60, leav- ing the Herald bid $11.90 less than Mr. Graham's bid for the same work.
"The Herald man also asked the board, if any member of it had any doubts as to the measurement given, to employ an expert to measure the type.
"And yet the majority of the board, without measuring the type or giving the matter the least investigation, as we are credibly informed, awarded the printing to the ring organ of the county. * * *"
"In our last issue, we gave the substance of the proceedings of the board of county commissioners during their session last week, from Tuesday to Thursday afternoon, our time of closing the forms. Satur- day afternoon, a representative of the Herald called at the auditor's office for the purpose of obtaining from the public records the further proceedings of the board. Our readers may judge of his surprise and ours when informed that Mr. Purcell, chairman of the board, had taken possession of the records, and forbidden access to them, or their pub- lication, until after the adjourned meeting, which is to be held, as the auditor says, on Wednesday, the 25th inst.
"When asked the reason of such a strange proceeding, the auditor said he could not give any. It seemed to be as much of a surprise to the auditor as to others, and when asked if he did not consider himself
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the lawful custodian of the county records, he said he did not know, but had supposed heretofore that he was.
"As a matter of law, Mr. Purcell, as chairman of the board, or in any other capacity, has no more right or authority to take possession of the county auditor's records and secrete them from the public than the editors of the Herald have.
"The statute says: 'The county auditor shall, by virtue of his office, be clerk of the board of county commissioners of his county, and keep an accurate record of their official proceedings, and carefully preserve all the documents, books, records, maps and other papers required to be deposited or kept in his office.' Nowhere in the statute can be found any authority for the county board, as a body, or for any member of the board, even the chairman, to take possession of the county auditor's records, or any portion of them, and secrete them, or deprive the pub- lic of the right of access to them.
"The proceedings of the county commissioners, as recorded by the auditor, constitute a portion of the public records, from day to day, and every citizen has the right-the legal right-of access to them in ac- cordance with the statutes.
"We think the auditor erred in allowing Mr. Purcell to illegally take from his possession these records of the county and secrete them, al- though under the circumstances he may have a reasonable excuse. He says he was not certain that he had a right to refuse the chairman of the board.
"Of course, being a county commissioner, and especially chairman, in the eyes of some people, make a 'mighty mucky-muck' of very poor timber sometimes. But suppose that the chairman of any county board in the state should hecome suddenly insane, or drunk, and in such con- dition should come into the auditor's office to carry off the county com- missioners' record book? Would the auditor be justified in allowing him to do so?
"Can the people of Waseca county imagine what has caused the chair- man of the board to resort to this unlawful and, heretofore, unheard of act ?"
A WINTER STORM.
The terrible wind and snow storm which, on Jan. 12, 1888. swept the country from Manitoba to Texas seems to have been more destructive of life than any other in the history of the country. Nearly two hundred persons were reported frozen to death in Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas. Two deaths from freezing were reported in Minnesota. The storm seems to have been much worse west of Minnesota than within her bor- ders. In this locality it was not nearly so bad as the great storm of '73, though it was bad enough. The harrowing details of suf-
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fering and death would fill a whole paper. The thermometer in many places north and west of us registered sixty degrees be- low, while the government record in Minnesota says it was forty- seven degrees below. This storm set the old settlers to talking of old times. Asa Mosher, Frank A. Newell, Geo. Watkins, and others had gathered around "Bill" Johnson's comfortable gro- cery-store stove, and, among others, Mike Ryan, of Byron, one of the old settlers, dropped in. Said Newell :
"This reminds me of the great storm of '73, Jan. 7. Egad! I shall never forget it. I was over at Morristown that morning. The fore- noon was mild. As the day wore on, the increasing moisture made us think that the back bone of winter was broken. About 3 o'clock p. m., Sam Stevenson and I started for Waseca. Dark clouds began to gather in the west, and about the time we reached Blooming Grove, the wind was blowing a gale, producing a change in the atmosphere that chilled the marrow in one's bones. The air was filled with blinding snow, so dense that you couldn't see the horse-whip in your hand. The sun seemed to withdraw its light, and the earth seemed to tremble be- neath the terrific fury of the continuous, howling blast. An impene- trable darkness soon settled upon the earth like a funeral pall, bring- ing with it intense cold, made doubly so by the driving, penetrating, piercing force of the wind. I felt as though I were tied down and a thou- sand imps were shoveling snow into my ears and mouth. Sam drove for all that was out, but when I got home I was nearer dead than alive. Egad! I wouldn't take another such chance as that of a winter funeral for all the wealth of a Vanderbilt."
"Well," said Mike Ryan, standing with his overcoat on and his whip in hand, "I mind that storm, meself. I was in Waseca that day; and three others as was with me, and one o' them was 'Black Tom,' as we call 'im; an' we started nigh on to 3 o'clock, maybe, to git home. About the time we got to the LeSueur, the wind was a howlin' worse nor the prairie wolves, an' it wasn't long afore it was as black as a stack o' black cats. I drove a pretty good team o' them days, an' so I went ahead, but we hadn't got far on the prairie afore we was afther losin' the road. And, says I, one of us must be afther goin' ahead, so as not to lose the track. So one was afther goin' ahead, but divil the bit could we see of him, and so we told him to holler once in a while, which he did. Finally, when we came to a turn in the road, near a bridge over a slough, the man went straight on and we lost the track. Hole' on, says I, we're off the road. So we stopped, an' two staid with the horses, an' two of us looked for the road. I soon found the bridge an' shouted the others to come on. I got me horses over the bridge all right, but I soon got them down in a drift as high as their heads an' then I took them from the sleigh and said I would lead 'em. One of the men didn't come up, so we hollered and hollered, but we couldn't
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hear nothin'. He could hear ns, but the wind howled so we couldn't hear him. So I went back to the bridge an' found him. His team had got off the bridge an' couldn't get up, an' he couldn't get the tugs loose. So I let loose the hames, an' we got the horses ont, leavin' the sleigh. Then we went on afut, leadin' the horses. Once in a while it would lighten', an' once when it lightened, I seed that we were off the road. Then we stopped an' consulted what we would do. So two staid by the horses, and the other two of us went lookin' for the track; an' we were to holler once in a while so as not to lose each other; an' afther a time we found the road, an' then we knew we had got on to a cross road that led to Murphy's place. So then we went on again, an' afore long we were off the road again. We could hardly see at all- the snow an' ice covered our eyes two inches, more or less. But as I was afther sayin,' we had to hunt the road again; an' so we did as before, two spread out an' was to holler when they shud find the track. An' sure enough, the two fellers as found the track shout- ed an' we shouted, but divil the bit could they hear us. So we went toward them, and after a time we couldn't hear them again. How- sumever we struck the track, an' then we hollered, but divil the word could we hear, an' after listenin' awhile we thought to go on-so we went-an' would ye belave it now? afther goin' a mile or so we found we were going the wrong way, d'ye see? an' we had to get back over the same road again. Well, as I was afther sayin', we finally got to my house just as the wife and children were cryin' their eyes ont; for them other two fellers had got in ahead of ns. Faith, it was a terrible storum, sir. One of the men, the feller that got his team off the bridge, was nearly dead-in fact I think he never was as good a man again.
"The stable door was all drifted over and we had to shovel a hole through the drift to get the horses in. I've been more nor thirty years in Minnesota, an' never seed such anither storum as that, an' God grant I niver may."
FIRST FARMERS' INSTITUTE.
The first state farmners' institute ever held in the county was opened on Monday, March 12, 1888, at Ward's Opera House in Waseca. It was largely attended and highly satisfactory to all concerned. It was conducted by Superintendent Gregg and six or seven assistants.
A SMALL TORNADO IN VIVIAN.
A whirlwind visited the northern portion of the town of Vivian on May 4, 1888, destroying a school house, a dwelling house, and a barn. Mr. Abraham Abrahamson, living in the track of the storm, started out to save his hay which was being blown
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away. He had gone but a few steps when the storm struck him, carried him some rods and then placed him very gently on the ground. He was picked up later for dead, but in a few hours he recovered consciousness. It was found that his hip and shoulder were dislocated, together with other injuries. His friends tried to get a physician but the high water had swept away the bridges and they could not obtain medical aid till Friday night. The tornado gathered immediately after a shower of rain and seemed to come from all directions. It went sweep- ing aeross the prairie at a fearful rate. The machine house of Mr. Wm. Born was carried some rods away, and his machinery, plows, and wagon were badly injured. About the same time the newly built horse-barn of Mr. H. Long, 28x16 feet, was blown away, some parts of it being carried a mile distant. The lucky part of it all was that his horses got loose at the the same time and went out uninjured. Smaller damages were done to much other property. A door came flying through the air from the north- west, high up in the air, and landed in Mr. Ryan's field. People were alarmed and took refuge in eellars and groves, watehing the flying timbers until the storm passed over.
ROAD AND BRIDGE FUNDS FOR THE YEAR.
The following road and bridge appropriations were made by the county commissioners within the year. At the May meeting two hundred and fifty dollars was appropriated to each com- missioner district, to be expended under the personal supervision of the commissioner of each district, on roads and bridges. At the same meeting it was ordered that $120 be appropriated for bridges in the town of Vivian to be expended under the super- vision of Mr. Deyling. Also, that $100 be appropriated for bridges in the town of Janesville, to be expended under super- vision of Mr. Conway. Seventy-five dollars was appropriated to repair Boot ereek bridge between sections 13 and 14, town of Byron, to be expended under the supervision of Mr. Sunde.' Messrs. Purcell and Conway were appointed a committee to build a bridge and grade aeross the outlet of Lake Elysian, be- tween section 4, in Alton, and section 33, in Janesville, and $400 was appropriated therefor to be expended under their super- vision.
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The following appropriations were made by the board July 23: For Markham bridge, $434.00; for new bridge and repairing old, on section 24, New Richland, $220.00; repairing and grading St. Mary bridge, $94.00; rebuilding bridge on sections 16 and 21, St. Mary, $70.00; repair- ing bridge on Little Cobb, Freedom, $101.00; repairing Lamb bridge, $19.00; building Iver's bridge, Boot creek, $185.00; building B. Weed bridge, Otisco and Wilton, $251.00; building McDougall bridge, $207.00; repairing Wilton bridge, $62.75; repairing Krassin bridge, $32.25; build- ing bridge on Cobbee, Freedom, $75.00; repairing Carmody bridge, Wil- ton, $76.72.
NOTED DEATHS OF THE YEAR.
The first this year to eross the river Styx was Mr. Serenus Farrington, one of the early settlers of Otisco. He was born in Maine, September 30, 1799, and died at Minneapolis, January 31, 1888. He settled in Otisco in 1857, where he lived thirteen years. He then moved with his wife to Owatonna, where they lived till December, when they went to Minneapolis to live with his son Frank. Mr. Farrington was in comparatively good health, and said grace at the supper table the night of his death, which occurred at 1 o'clock a. m. He left a widow, eighty- eight years of age, six children, sixty grandchildren and great- grandchildren. He had been married about sixty-five years, and had been a member of the Baptist church for a much longer period.
Wednesday evening, March 14, at 10:05 o'clock, Michael An- derson, an old pioneer of Waseca county, died at his home in Norman county, Minn. He had been sick about two years prior to his death, of progressive muscular atrophy. For a year and a half he had been obliged to stay in bed and most of that time he suffered terribly. He was born November 29, 1828, in Nor- way, whence he emigrated in April, 1845, to Roek River, Dodge county, Wis. Within a year after arrival here, his father and grandfather both died, and the struggle with penury was a severe forming of the young boy's character. At the age of twenty-one years he was married to Elizabeth A. Stromme, who survives him. They had nine children, all boys, four of whom are living. In 1856 Mr. Anderson left Wisconsin with his wife, two sons, and his aged mother to seek a home farther west. He settled in Otisco early in the summer. It was two years before he raised a wheat erop of any account. His early thresh-
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ing was done by driving the oxen over the grain and cleaning it by dropping it from an elevated platform when the wind blew briskly.
Alexander Johnston, who died at St. Paul, May 9, was one of the very early settlers of the ancient village of Okaman, now ex- tinct. He came as a young lawyer and opened an office in that village in 1856. He was born in the year 1833, in Orange county, N. Y., and came to Minnesota with his father-in-law, Mr. John N. Buckhout, who built the Okaman flouring mills. Later, about 1859, Mr. Johnston took up his residence in Wilton, and, in 1861, drifted into the newspaper business. March 1, 1861, he and Mr. S. J. Willis issued the first copy of the Home Views, printed and published at Wilton. In less than a year after buying Mr. Willis' interest he removed the plant to Fari- bault and continued publishing the Home Views and the North- ern Statesman until about October 1863, when he disposed of the plant. From Faribault he removed to St. Paul and went to work in the office of the old Pioneer. In 1866 he started a Democratic paper at Hastings, calling it the Union. In 1868 he went to St. Paul again and worked as a reporter on the Pioneer. He was also at divers times connected with the Press, the Pioneer Press, the Dispatch, and the Globe. He was a man of much ability, and had it not been for the demon of intemper- ance, would have been useful to society. He was by nature gen- erous and honorable, and many of the old settlers felt a pang of sorrow when they heard of his premature death at the age of fifty-five.
The sudden death of Mrs. Janet Scott Brisbane, the estimable wife of Hon. Wm. Brisbane, of Wilton, startled the whole community. She expired, almost without a struggle, June 14, 1888. Mrs. Brisbane was born in the parish of Minto, Scotland, September 10, 1810, being in her seventy-eighth year at the time of her death. She married Mr. Brisbane January 2, 1832, and in 1839 came with him and their children to America, and set- tled in the state of New York. Ten years later they removed to Fond du Lac county, near Waupun, Wis., where they resided ten years. In 1859 they again moved, this time to Wilton, their home at the time of her death. She was the mother of twelve children, eleven of whom survived her. She was truly a helpmeet.
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