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 6
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They went to the premises and found Wm. Jaques, but John was not there. He had skipped out, no doubt thinking that
"He who fights, then runs away, May live to fight another day."
The posse then went to a neighbor's and got sight of him, but he did not purpose to be caught. He ran; the constable and posse pursued ; they chased him into the LeSueur river, in water shallow, constable on one side, posse on the other; the eonstable ordered him to surrender; he refused; the constable drew a pistol, and Jaques a club; Jaques threw his club at the constable; the constable shut his eyes and dodged; Jaques jumped past him, got into the woods and es- caped. After an unavailing search for John Jaques, the con- stable arrested Wm. Jaques and brought him before the court. Of course he was not the man and was discharged. They had some property with them and a suit was commenced against them for willful and malieious trespass upon the premises. A lawyer, named McCarthy, who had recently come to St. Mary, was employed to prosecute the cause. Wm. Jaques was arrested and required to plead to the charge of trespass. Jaques entered a plea of not guilty and plead his own eause. The prosecution made out a clear eause and judgment was rendered against the defendant for treble damages.
John Jaques spent considerable time skulking about the country to avoid arrest; William was being troubled with lawsuits; fin- ally the twain made up their minds that the people of Waseca county did not desire their company any longer. In a short time, they paeked their personal effects upon their wagons and traveled
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CHILD'S HISTORY OF WASECA COUNTY.
westward. They settled on the Minnesota river in Brown county, Minnesota, and soon became the terror of that section of country. It was reported more than twenty years ago, that at one time, they were mobbed by the citizens of that section for horse-stealing, and one of them was forced to leave the county for a long time. John Jaques, many years ago, made an incursion into the town of Blooming Grove and stole a span of horses from Patrick McCullough. A warrant was issued for his arrest, but he was never found. His brother, William, was arrested on the same charge and brought to Wilton, where he finally settled with Mccullough for the horses.
What finally became of them is not known, but their exit from this county, after so brief a stay, was highly satisfactory to the whole settlement.
Early in the spring of 1856, Messrs. Waters and Chamberlain bought the claims made the year before by George and William Robbins, on the east side of the Le Sueur river over against Wilton. They put in a small country store, and made believe that they would start a village in opposition to Wilton, and even went so far as to name their place Waterlynn. They supplied the set- tlers with groceries and other goods during the summer, but for want of either money or enterprise, or both, they failed to ac- complish anything of importance.
The village of Empire-a more extended notice of which is else- where given in this work -- was started in the summer of 1856, and a number of its prominent citizens took an active part in the local politics of that year.
St. Mary also received its name that summer, and preparations were made by Chamberlain, Bailey & Co. to start a city the next spring. These men had bought out Patrick MeCarthy, the original claimant, who gave the locality its name.
CHAPTER XIX, 1856.
LOCAL POLITICS-COUNTY DIVISION CONTEST-CORNELL DE- FEATED-REV. THOMAS NO GOOD-THE COUNTY DIVIDED AND . WASECA COUNTY ORGANIZED.
In 1856 the animosity growing out of claim jumping, which was instigated by Mr. Cornell and other Wilton town-site proprietors, and the evident intention of what was then known as the Cor- nell ring to divide Steele county and make two small counties, to- gether with other rivalries, brought into existence what was known as the Cornell and anti-Cornell parties. It was well un- derstood that Mr. Cornell and his adherents wanted to elect a legislative ticket favorable to the division of Dodge and Steele counties and the organization of three counties, giving to each of the three twelve townships, as at present, and making Man- torville, Owatonna and Wilton county seats of their respective counties.
In order to forestall the opposition of the farming population, Mr. Cornell and friends called a people's convention in early au- tumn, at Owatonna, thereby giving the Cornell party a powerful local advantage. However, a large proportion of the then settlers of Waseca county went to the convention to find themselves out- voted by traveling immigrants who had been hired by the Cornell men, so some of them said, to camp in the vicinity for a few days and vote on that special occasion. To say that some of the old settlers were hot that day, expresses the condition of the public mind at that time in very feeble phrase.
The fraud was so outrageous and so self-evident that it was not seriously denied, even by the Cornell men. The anti-Cornell men
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CHILD'S HISTORY OF WASECA COUNTY.
withdrew in a body from the others and held a convention of their own, calling it a Republican convention, which it really was. Judge deo. W. Green, Dr. Finch, Elder Towne and others, of Steele county, eloquently denounced the other convention for following the tactics of the Missouri border ruffians in Kansas. The Republicans nominated a county ticket of their own. and elected four delegates to attend the Republican legislative eon- vention to be held at Traverse des Sioux, now St. Peter, to nominate candidates for the territorial council and house. These delegates were Dr. W. W. Finch and Judge Geo. W. Green, of what is now Steele county, and Mr. Simeon I. Ford and James E. Child, of what is now Waseca county. The Cornell party elected as dele- gates to the same legislative convention, H. M. Sheetz, A. B. Cor- nell, and a man from Steele county, whose name is forgotten by the writer, and M. S. Green, then of Empire. in Waseca county. The legislative district then comprised all of that portion of Minnesota west and south of Steele and Nicollet counties and in- cluded these two counties.
Each of these two sets of delegates claimed to represent the Simon-pure Republican party of the county. Judge Green, a very able man, was principal spokesman on one side, and H. M. Sheetz, a brilliant young editor, on the other. Both were cool, deliberate and able, and soon convinced the convention that our eounty possessed men of ability, at least, and that the contention was no trifling affair. The contest was referred to the committee on credentials, and two reports were made by the committee, one in favor of each. This brought the contest before the whole eon- vention and the battle raged fiercely during the whole night. Finally, about daylight in the morning, it was agreed to nominate a candidate for councillor and two for representatives, leaving one candidate for representative to be thereafter agreed upon by Steele county men.
As soon as this understanding had been reached, both faetions were admitted to participate in the convention.
It was one of the hardest fonght political battles in the history of our local politics, and the Cornell faction was defeated. Both parties returned home with blood in their eyes, as the saying is. resolved to fight it out until the polls closed and the ballots were counted on election night.
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CHILD'S HISTORY OF WASECA COUNTY.
Immediately after the return of the delegates from St. Peter Mr. Cornell was announced as a candidate for the legislature, and those opposed to Cornell and a division of the county very soon afterwards nominated Rev. O. A: Thomas, of Medford, Steele county, as the opposition candidate. Captain Lewis McKune, Mr. Chris. Remund and others, in the north part of what is now Wa- seca county, and Messrs. Lincoln, Waters, Chamberlain, Ford, John Jenkins, and others, in the south part, took an active part in favor of Mr. Thomas. In what is now Steele county, Dr. Finch, Judge Green, Elder Towne, and others were energetic in their efforts to defeat Mr. Cornell. Nearly the whole fight turned upon the candidates for the legislature and for register of deeds.
The canvass was very thorough throughout this section, every man having been talked with regarding the matter. It was the old story of private interests against the public welfare. Mr. Cor- nell represented the town-site speculators, who desired to make three counties out of two with three county seats. On the other hand, the farming settlers, few in number, desired larger counties under the belief that a large county would have no more expense than a smaller one, and that the larger the numbr of taxpayers the less tax each would have to pay. The campaign was very exciting, considering how few in number were the voters at that time.
Election day fell on the 14th of October, 1856, and a majority of twenty-five votes elected Mr. Thomas and protested against a division of the county. The majority was not large, apparently, but it was, in reality, much larger than it appeared to be, for it was well known that a number of transient men cast illegal votes for Mr. Cornell at Owatonna.
The people that opposed Mr. Cornell and his division scheme supposed they had won a victory, and that, for another year, at least, their interests would be safe in the hands of Mr. Thomas whom they elected, but they afterwards found out to their sorrow-
"How vain are all things here below,
How false and yet how fair."
No sooner was Mr. Cornell defeated at the polls than he took an entirely new tack and sailed in an unexpected direction. He sent his emissaries to those settlers in the Le Sueur (Wilton)
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CHILD'S HISTORY OF WASECA COUNTY.
settlement whom he had been trying for a year to plunder, and managed in one way and another, to compromise and settle with them on liberal terms to himself. He became so very kind ( ?) and good that he threw nearly all his old opponents off their guard. He succeeded in securing the co-operation of Col. J. C. Ide, then of Rice county, a very agreeable, obliging and quite an able man, who came to Wilton that fall and built a saw-mill, the first ereeted in the county. This mill was of great value to all the people of the settlement, and furnished lumber for mueh needed buildings and improvements. So successful were MIr. Cornell and his associates that they secured a division of the county by the legislature to which the people had elected a man, and a gospel minister at that, especially pledged to prevent just that very legislation. It was the worst case of politieal treason that ever came to my knowledge. No wonder the people lose con- fidence in human nature when even a clergyman will forget his solemn promises and turn traitor to his political friends and his neighbors.
The members of the legislature that winter, from this, the tenth, district, were P. P. Humphrey, in the couneil, and Joseph R. Brown, Francis Baasen, and O. A. Thomas, in the house.
Just how the Rev. Thomas was handled never came to public light, but it was quite evident that the "county seat combine" was too shrewd and too powerful for him to cope with. The legislation of those days, as at present, sometimes bore the sig- nifieant and euphonious name of skul-duggery.
The act organizing Waseca county became a law February 27, 1857. At that time there was not a postoffice in Waseca county and the most rapid method of communication was by means of a saddle horse. The fact that Steele county had been divided and Waseca county organized did not become generally known in the latter county until two or three weeks after the legislative enactment. At first the people of Waseca county could not be- lieve the report, and when the belief was forced upon them, language failed to describe the feelings of those who had con- tributed to the election of Rev. Thomas in the belief that he would protect their interests.
The principal fight in the campaign of 1856 was on Mr. Cornell for representative, and on Charles Ellison for register of deeds.
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CHILD'S HISTORY OF WASECA COUNTY.
Both of them were defeated. The Steele county people have pre- served a relie of the conflict of that day. Cornell had, at Owa- tonna, the only newspaper printed in the county, and his op- ponents had no way of publishing their side of the case, except the primitive one of writing and posting in public places. So they wrote out a jingle of verses and posted it on the side of the log house where the election was held. One of the verses is preserved in "An Album of History and Biography," published in 1887, by the Chicago Union Publishing Company, and runs as follows : "Mr. Ellison, Esquire. You ought to look higher
Than to think of registering deeds; The people up here Feel desperate queer To know your political creeds."
Mr. Ellison, like many another office seeking politician, was all things to all men-hence the verse.
Of the officers of Steele county appointed by the governor in 1856, the following resided in what is now Waseca county : John M. Bliven, district attorney ; Melmer P. Ide, county commissioner ; Luke B. Osgood, assessor ; John Jenkins, of the Le Sueur precinct (Wilton), Simeon Smith and Curtis Hatch, of Swavesey (Bloom- ing Grove), and J. A. Bassett and M. S. Green of Empire (Iosco), justices of the peace.
CHAPTER XX, 1856.
ANCIENT VILLAGES NOW DESERTED-WILTON BUILT UP-SOME CLAIM JUMPING-ST. MARY THRIVES-G. R. BUCKMAN'S SKETCH.
As stated in the last chapter, the Cornell, or old Wilton com- pany, with headquarters at Owatonna. had compromised and made financial peace with the men whose claims they had jumped, immediately after election, in the fall of 1856. About that time, Judge Lowell, late an emigrant from New England to Faribault, became interested in Wilton town property, and active operations were commeneed in October to build up the town. As before stated, Col. Ide eame on, started a steam saw mill, and built a house for his family. H. P. Norton, the pioneer blacksmith, ar- rived in Wilton in October, 1856, and erected the first permanent blacksmith shop in the county. He was not only the first. but one of the best blaeksmiths that ever swung a hammer in the county. No man could pound a breaking plow lay and make it do better work than he. Ilis old shop, at this writing, still stands there, but the ring of the anvil is no longer heard by the passersby.
Thomas J. Kerr, then a young, unmarried man, eame to Minne- sota in April, 1856, and worked all summer for Col. Robinson, who had taken a claim near Wilton. Ile was a prominent aetor in one of the stirring ineidents of that day. He had staked out a claim, but had made no improvements upon it, neither had he filed on it, when Col. John C. Ide came to Wilton and wanted that particular elaim. Hle offered Mr. Kerr $100.00 for his right. and the offer was accepted-Col. Ide paying $5,00 to bind the
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CHILD'S HISTORY OF WASECA COUNTY.
bargain. Col. Ide's family was still in Rice county, and thither Col. Ide went to settle up his matters and move his family. Scarcely was his back turned before along came our old and esteemed friends, E. B. Stearns and family, one Saturday after- noon, and camped very close to Ide's claim. Tom had a suspicion that the newcomer proposed to take that claim, and he set himself to work to find out. So he strolled along out to the camp of Mr. Stearns, and while there learned that one of the Robbins boys was getting Mr. Stearns on to that claim.
The claim was entirely vacant. No improvements had been made and it had not been filed on. Just what to do Tom did not know, but he consulted Col. Robinson and together they concluded to get Uncle Fisk, who had settled on school section 36, in St. Mary, to go over and take the claim. So they went over to Fisk's a little late Sunday night and laid the matter before him. For- tunately they had no timepiece that night, and when good Mrs. Fisk remonstrated with them for trespassing upon the Lord's day, they assured her that it was after midnight, and therefore Monday. Unele Fisk entered heartily into the arrangement, and the three went that night and rolled up a shanty of logs, chinked the eracks with hay, made a roof of hay, and when Mr. Stearns came to run the lines Monday morning, he found Uuele Fisk in full possession, with a fixed and steadfast purpose to keep and preserve the same from all intruders. Mr. Stearns, being pre- eminently a man of peace, hitched his team to his wagon and went south, making a claim in Otisco.
But now our friend Kerr found himself in more of a dilemma than when Mr. Stearns eamped there. Unele Fisk made up his mind that, instead of holding that claim for Col. Ide, he would hold it for himself, and that nothing short of $1,000.00 would induce him to surrender his rights to it. However, Fisk continued to live on his school section, and Mr. Kerr was not long in finding a man to jump the old man's elaim. Mr. Tarrant Putnam hap- pened along just at that time and Mr. Kerr laid before him the burden on his mind. Putnam soon agreed to take the claim and pre-empt it, and then let Col. Ide have it in exchange for another claim nearby, which the colonel was to pre-empt. Putnam com- menced improvements at once by building a shanty and doing a small amount of breaking. As soon as Unele Fisk heard of Put-
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CHILD'S HISTORY OF WASECA COUNTY.
nam's intrusion, he came over and ordered him off, but the latter was armed and equipped for claim holding, and the old gentleman never returned with his old shotgun, as he threatened to do. Mr. Putnam afterwards became prominent as register of deeds for several years, and is, at this writing, a resident of California, while Mr. T. J. Kerr and family reside in Waseca.
A. J. Woodbury and sons built the first hotel in Wilton, the first in the county in faet,-during the winter of 1856-7. It stands there at the present writing, a decaying monument of pioneer enterprise.
During the same winter Messrs. Paige and Baker opened a small stoek of general merchandise. Thomas L. Paige was the first clerk of court in this county. He returned East in 1858, as did his partner, Nathan Duane Baker.
MeLaurin, who afterwards became somewhat romantically the husband of Miss Ottie Ide, opened a grocery and liquor store the same winter.
Hon. P. C. Bailey and H. P. West, co-partners as Bailey & West, opened the first hardware store in the county, at Wilton, early in 1857.
All through the winter of 1856-7, which was tediously cold, stores, shops, residences, and barns were erected, so that in early spring Wilton was a thriving village. It soon became the county seat and was the leading village of the county until the building of the Winona & St. Peter railroad and the location of the present city of Waseca. It then died out as rapidly as it well could; and to-day a stranger would never mistrust, upon visiting the spot, that it was, for a long time, a busy, thriving center of trade for a large extent of country. It died on account of a railroad too near and yet too far away.
ST. MARY.
The next spring (1857) St. Mary began to expand. The plat was laid off in February by Chamberlain, Bailey & Co. W. H. Chamberlain had settled there the season before and made ar- rangements for building and booming the town. The following statements are taken from an interview with Mr. G. R. Buck- man of Waseca.
Mr. Buckman came to Waseca county from Winona in January.
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CHILD'S HISTORY OF WASECA COUNTY.
1857. He arrived at Owatonna about noon, and fell in with George Tremper, who was coming to Wilton with a team. They left Owatonna about 2 o'clock p. m., and met a regular blizzard before they had proceeded five miles. They did not reach Wilton until 9 o'clock in the evening, and Wilton then contained but one "stopping place," kept by Uncle Dave Jenkins. The next day Mr. Buckman arrived at St. Mary, an embryo village just spring- ing into life. A Mr. Crossman kept a boarding house. He died the next April. This was the first death in the settlement. The village proprietors then residing there were W. H. Chamberlain and wife, H. B. Morrison and wife, John Bailey and Harvey Bailey and wife. There were also the original settlers, John White, with his family, and a Mr. Clark and wife. There was also a character of local note, named McCarthy, who kept a saloon. He was his own customer nearly all the time, and frequently "painted the town red," sometimes exposing his person in the most obscene manner. He became so objectionable that a little pioneer justice seemed necessary for his instruction. Abont twenty-five men gathered at McCarthy's shanty, with James Plummer as leader, and after considerable search found two barrels of whisky stowed in a hole under the floor; they emptied out the whisky. The next day, armed with a warrant, Sheriff Garland "surrounded" twen- ty-five of the citizens and marched them to Wilton. That was really the first whisky war in Waseca county. It was an amusing sight to see twenty-five sober, quiet, industrious, honorable Amer- ican citizens put into the criminal dock at the instigation of a bloated, blear-eyed, drunken, obscene vender of rot-gut whisky! Nevertheless they had violated the laws of their country-they had destroyed this man's property unlawfully, and they must take the consequences. However, the case was adjourned from time to time, and finally they were all discharged, through the legal efforts of Ike Price, then a resident of Wilton, and the boys got off by paying seventy-five cents each. Poor McCarthy after- wards, as a result of his drinking habits, froze his feet severely and was crippled for life. At last accounts he was an object of pity and commiseration.
The winter of 1857-8 was one of much social enjoyment in St. Mary. The citizens organized a large literary society, held some rousing debates, and read a paper each week entitled the "St.
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CHILD'S HISTORY OF WASECA COUNTY.
Mary Literary Union," edited by G. R. Buckman. B. M. Morrill wrote the "machine poetry ;" J. W. Johnson was the Wilton cor- respondent, John A. Wheeler and Mr. Hale, both since deceased, were the principal contributors. The people from all the sur- rounding country came in to attend the meetings of the society, Its meetings were continued the next winter.
W. H. Chamberlain built the first frame dwelling house in St. Mary. It may be interesting to know that the same house is now a part of Waseca. It stands on the corner of Lake avenue and Fifth street, and is still in a state of good preservation.
The St. Mary town proprietors built a steam saw mill in the spring of 1857, which was of great benefit to the early settlers of the vicinity. Hon. Warren Smith deceased, C'apt Geo. T. White, who afterwards lost his life in the War of the Rebellion, and many others settled in St. Mary in the spring of 1857, making it an active, busy village. St. Mary was a lively competitor for the county seat in June, 1857, and reached its largest proportions that season. It remained a business center of considerable importance up to the time of the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861. Its best blood then enlisted in the army, and its business men, one after another, deserted it. The saw mill, flouring mill, and shingle factory, while great blessings to the surrounding country, did not bring large dividends to their owners. When the war broke out they were soon deserted and removed to other places. The Catholic church, at St. Mary, was one of the first church buildings ereeted in the county. The church society there is no doubt one of the oldest in the county; that in the Renmund neighborhood, Blooming Grove, being its only rival in age.
CHAPTER XXI, 1857.
FIRST COUNTY OFFICERS-VOTING PRECINCTS ORGANIZED- COUNTY SEAT CONTEST-WILTON, ST. MARY AND EMPIRE STRIVE FOR THE COUNTY SEAT-FIRST DISTRICT COURT SES- SION-MURDER OF HAGADORN AT EMPIRE-THE FIRST JURORS OF THE COUNTY-THREE INDICTMENTS FOUND-COUNTY FINANCES-INTEREST PAID BY COUNTY 72 PER CENT-COUNTY COMMISSIONERS GAVE PERSONAL NOTES.
ORGANIZATION OF COUNTY-COUNTY SEAT, ETC.
To the inhabitants of Waseea county in 1857, if not to the present generation, the public developments of the year were very exciting. The reader must remember that, up to the beginning of 1857, there was not even a post office in Waseca county, and that the most rapid means of communication was the saddle horse. The fact of the organization of the county by legislative enaet- ment was not generally known until two or three weeks after the act had passed and become a law. The bill creating the county of Waseca was passed by the territorial legislature, in 1857, and was certified to by John W. Furber, speaker of the house; John B. Brisbin, president of the senate, and signed and approved by Willis A. Gorman, governor, February 27, 1857. That aet pro- vided that on the first Monday of June following, the legal voters of said county should hold an especial election in their (to be) established precinets, for the purpose of locating a county seat, and for the proper election of county officers. Until that time, and for the purposes of carrying into effect the provisions of the law and setting in motion the machinery of county government, Governor Gorman appointed the following temporary county
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