Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota, Part 11

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H., ed
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Minneapolis, W. H. Bingham & co.
Number of Pages: 646

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DISASTER TO TUDAL'S DUG-OUT.

My neighbor on section eight, cornering on my homestead, had a cabin of a different make, one whiel was not considered as well up in fashion as mine, but which he insisted was of much older architectural design ; and unless he could be convinced, he said, that my more modern structure proved of some special superior fitness, he would consider his the better of the two, not to mention the fact that he had a larger structure than I, which he continually reminded me of especially in the presence of a friend of ours, who had several marriageable daughters.

I must not forget to give my neighbor's name and to describe how his cabin was constructed. His name was Jorgen Jorgenson Tudal. His cabin was sixteen by twenty-four feet in size and was dug four feet down into the ground, and the dirt piled two feet high on one side of it and three feet on the other; a rather small log was placed on top of the dirt on the lower side and a big one on the higher side, thus giv- ing sufficient slant for a roof. In the center was placed a good strong log, and across the whole were plaeed split poles, and on top of that was put a layer of hay, then a lot of loose dirt, next a layer of turf ; there were a door and window in the front end.

Jorgen would always insist that I should stay with him, as there was so much more room in his house, and I frequently aeeeded to his wishes, and I had to admit that my quarters were rather eramped. An opportunity eame, however, that proved that my cabin was superior in fitness. At one time, while we were attending a stag danee at a bachelor friend's house, on a sultry summer evening, he insisted I should stay with him after the danee was over, and I consented. It was well on in the wee small hours when we retired and we were quite drowsy and soon fell asleep. Jorgen was a very heavy sleeper and was snoring away in great shape-snoring so that the reverberation fairly shook the roofing. We had not been sleeping very long until a big rain storm set in and the rain eame down in torrents. I finally awoke and found the water coming in on all sides and standing two feet

deep on the floor; the bread box was floating around ; the ham and yeast eakes eame tumbling from their moorings, and dirt was continually sliding off the wall as the rain washed it down. I shook Jorgen by the arm and called out to him, but he slept on. I could not arouse him. Finally I took him by the legs and pulled his bare feet down into the water and thus got him awake. I called out to him then, "Jorgen, your house is not fit to live in ; let us go down to my place." "Oh, you seoundrel," he said, "how ean you sit there and langh at this? See my bread and bacon in the water!"

PIONEERS WHO CAME PRIOR TO 1879.

Besides those I have already named as the earliest pioneers I will give a list of names of others who eame to the county previous to the period of rail- roads, say up to 1879, and the towns in which they settled.

Hubbard Town: Andrew Thompson, Peter Jaeob- son, Henry Smith, Lars Helgeland, Ole Spokley, Jens Syverson, Nels Paulsrud, John Bjorenstad, Jens Vigen, Böre Kolstad, Carl Olson, Halvor Kravik, El- ling Ellingson, John Ellingson, Ole Fossos, Gunder Veum, Jorgen Jorgenson, Thor A. Berland, Frank Hanson, Halvor, Gunder, Kittel and Ole Dale, Ole Thostenson, Knute S. Aker, Elias Steenerson.

Town of Vineland: Steener Knutson, Chris and Andrew Steenerson, Ole and Andrew Bremseth, Tom Knutson, Andrew P. Elseth, S. P. Elseth, Iner II. M. Joen, Sven P. Svenson, M. C. Roholt, Iver Bjorge, Ole and Eriek Stortroem, Anthon E. Hanson, Simon Ban- gen, Ole Simonson, IIans Bangen, Hans and Lars Berg, Swenming and Eriek Linden, Peter, Edward and Amon Moen, John and Peter Thompson, John J. Borsevald, Ingeret Stubson, Nels Thune, Nels Glaback, Hans Glasrud.

Town of Tynsert: Ole and Jacob Johnson, Eriek Jordal, Panl Halverson, Isia Abrahamson (a Fin- lander), Hans Kopang, Helge Thoreson, Esten, Leet, Ole and Ingebret Fosbaek, Ole Brnenen, August Aas, Iver Lund, Peter Boukind, Halvor Lunos, Ingebret

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY

Vingelin, Elling Dokken, Gunder Harraldson, Arne Ness, Ole, John, Louis and Lars Larson, Andrew Elby, K. D. Gulseth, Lars Gulseth.

Town of Bygland : Torkel and Ole Danialson, Tar- grim Jorgenson, Jorgen Knute, Halvor and Ole Torg- rimson, Gunsten and Swenke Swenkenson, Torbjon Tollefson, Anton Lindem, Soren, Knute, Paul, and Ole Sorenson, Ole and Osmund, Isaacson and Osmund Osmundson, Knute K., Halvor K., and Osmund K. Knutson, Tom Benson, J. G. Anderson, Ole Anderson, Jens Halvorson, Ben Torkleson, Aslak Bjorenson, Ole Legvald.

Fisher : Ole and Jacob Jorgenson, Andrew, Halvor, Nels and Ole Stalemoe, Ole Williamson, Jon Peterson, Ole Vatendal, A. G. Anderson, T. G. Olson, Osmund and Gunder Thommason, Patrick Lealos, John Cown- eron, Henry Sweet, Fred and George Warden, Sam Tarreson, Theodore Helgeson, Jens Halvorson, John Hegg, Jens Wallerbeck, A. E. Bradish, Tom Erwin, Carl Widenhoefer, Mike Feleske, Julius Wagoner, Adam Burr, Julins Zaeho, C. U. Webster, Fred Radi, Hod, Frank and Will Haney, Ole and Jorgen Hanson, Louis Christienson, Gunder, Gudno and Knute Lee, James Brewster, Dave Greenlief, Thomas Moran, James, Roberts, and Dan Bain, Mike Burns, Ole Olson, J. B. Merrill, Even and Lars Olson, Hugh Thompson, Frank S. DeMers, Gunder Krostue, John Carter, Frank Zaraker, Capt. Russell Adam and Alex Thomp- son.

Town of Huntsville: Edwin and James Lealos, Ed Cookman, George, Charley, and Alex Conlter, D. B. Ferguson, James Shanks, Tom MaeVity, James Mc- Gregor, Paul Jones, Joe Jarves, Wilber Skinner, Richard Barrett, John Goodwin, James and Joseph Robertson, James Lee, James, Dan and John Mc- Donald, R. E. White, Ole Hanson, Adam Irvine, Rob- ert Anderson, Arne Higden, James Cummings, Dun- ean Bain, A. Boucher, Leon Surpanault, Halvor Thar- aldson, Ole Danielson, M. Boucher, M. Hunt, A. L. Steele, Jerry Enright, William Jackson, Garrett Mur- phy, C. J. Tollakson, John, Thomas and Pete McCoy. Crookston : Frank Bevins, J. O. Sargent, H. Sehribner, II. C. Schribner, B. Soper, Jacob Ide, Mart.

Leikness, Simon Skogness, Andrew Kleven, Ole Knut- son, J. B. Rome, Peter Berg, Chris Hansel, Sampson and Matt Hilde, Ole Jorgenson, L. Aspass, Knute A. Berget, Chas. Mattson, J. Knutson, Ole Engebritson, A. Anderson, J. B. Anderson, Rev. Bersnen Ander- son, John Gilbert, Jens Wallerbeck, O. O. Knudson, II. O. Gndvongen, S. C. Lytle, A. Arness, M. K. Valor, John Saugstad, T. A. Harris, O. J Volland, Ole Kro- ken, Oscar Johnson, John Sylvester and Joseph Syl- vester, O. P. Onstad, W. A. Marin, Mat Cornelius, E. E. Lomen, Mike Wentzel, Julius Wentzel, August Wentzel, Phil Capestran, Alfred Savory, Christ Han- son, Hans Jenson, M. LaPlant, Ole O. Hoven, N. T. Woodstrom, John Stoughten, O. K. Quamme, F. L. Robert, M. C. Hanson, T. H. Bjoin, P. J. McGuire, Rice Webb, William Watts, R. H. Cochran, E. F. Kel- ley, M. Langevin, Fred Fox, Joe Gonche.

E. M. WALSH'S REMINISCENCES OF PIONEER LIFE IN POLK COUNTY.

Edmund M. Walsh will always be fairly distin- guished for his prominent connection with the early history of Crookston and Polk County. He came here when but 20 years of age. Ilis personal sketch, which appears elsewhere, shows that he was born in New York State in 1851, and when six years of age was brought by his parents to Henderson, Sibley County, Minn., where he was reared to young manhood. In 1870 he took charge of his father's general store at Henderson, but elosed it the following year and set out for the Red River Valley, which became the future scene of his successful operations.

At the time Mr. Walsh left Henderson the old St. Paul & Pacific Railway Company was operating its line at that time from St. Panl to Willmar, and eon- structing the balance of the line to Breckenridge. A four-horse stage line was running from Willmar to Fort Garry and carrying passengers, express, and mail, and the freighting was done by Red River carts drawn by Indian ponies and oxen, one pony or ox being harnessed to each cart; sometimes there were

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY

as many as two hundred earts in a string. These ve- of Grand Forks, we had stopped at a creek to water hieles were made entirely of wood, and often, when in motion, their squeaking could be heard for a long distance. A large amount of freight was also hauled by American freighters, using, mostly, oxen and wagons, and hanling from one ton to one and one-half tons to the wagon, and making on an average of twenty miles a day ; but when the Northern Pacific Railway was completed and in operation to Moorhead, the Red River steamboats and barges superseded and put ont of business the ox earts and wagons as freighters.

Describing his pioneer experiences in the great Val- ley, Mr. Walsh writes :

I left St. Paul, the forepart of September, in the year 1871, and went as far as Willmar on the passen- ger train of the old St. Paul & Pacifie, now the Great Northern. At Willmar I boarded the construction train and rode to the end of the track, then walked thirty miles to Breckenridge, which was then com- posed of one shanty as a stopping place. I expected to overtake an ox train going to Fort Garry (which train was owned by friends of mine), and eontinne my trip with them as far as Grand Forks, North Dakota, where my father was in the lumber and mer- cantile business ; but unfortunately for me the ox train had left Breckenridge, the day before I had gotten there, and so there was nothing left for me to do but to start out on foot and alone and overtake my friends ; but this I aecomplished that same day, after they had struck eamp for the night. The next day we passed through Moorhead. This was a very busy place at that time, as the Northern Pacifie erossing had just been located at that point, and every one was either building or seemed to be getting ready to build. There were also a number of tent stores and saloons; the only building of any importanee was the Chapin Honse.

Georgetown was the next point of interest, being the Hudson's Bay trading post, having stores and buildings of good construction. Here we crossed the Red River to the Dakota side and continued our slow journey north. When we got to within twenty miles

the oxen ; then the stage came along, and also stopped to water the stage horses. I induced the stage driver to take me into Grand Forks, where we arrived after dark at the stage and hotel station, which was kept by John Stewart. I asked him if that was Grand Forks, and he said "Well, yes; part of it." I then asked him where the rest of it was, and he told me around the corner of the building, and said "Do you see that light over there, about a mile away?" I said "yes." "Well," said he, "that is the rest of Grand Forks. Good night."

The next morning I discovered that Old Uncle John was about right, as in the town there were only the saw mill owned and operated by Griggs, Walsh & Co., their general store, their bunk and boarding house, and a small building oeenpied as a saloon by Romeo Whitney. There were also several other buildings under construction and which were completed that Fall, one being a residence for Capt. Alex. Griggs and a boarding house by Unele John Fadden.

There not being much for me to do in Grank Forks, I boarded the stage November 1, 1871, and went to Fort Garry or Winnipeg where I found employment at my trade, as tinner, at good wages, and staying there until March 1, 1872, I then returned to Grand Forks. Winnipeg at that time had a population of about 1,000, mostly Seotch and French mixed bloods.

About that time there was considerable talk of a railroad being built through Northern Minnesota from Breckenridge to Pembina. From information that some of the leading men of Grand Forks had, it was said that the crossing of the Red Lake River by the railroad would be about ten or twelve miles east of Grand Forks, and that there would be a great city at that point some day ; consequently there was much interest manifested by many in trying to strike the right point where the road would cross. Myself with Jake Eshelman (known as "Stripes"), Harry Farmer ("the dude"), and Harry Sheppard ("Shepp"), were sent up the Red Lake River to set- tle on four elaims (the land not being surveyed at

FIRST DEPOT IN CROOKSTON-PICTURE TAKEN IN 1874

MAIN STREET, CROOKSTON, IN 1882

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY

that time), and to hold them for the town syndicate. We located our claims about two or three miles west of where Fisher is now located, and commenced to make improvements in the way of shanty building, etc.

Along about May 1, 1872, we were informed that the railroad had located the crossing at Crookston, so we then abandoned our claims and joined in the rush to the crossing, afterwards named Crookston, after the chief engineer of the railroad, Col. Wm. Crooks, of St. Paul. We were too late to secure any land on the town site, as it was all taken up or squatted on by parties following the railroad engineers. Bob Hons- ton was one of the first, with W. H. Stewart, Leo Peigonote, E. C. Davies, Joseph Barrett, B. Sampson, John Darkow, Dick Hussey close seconds. Soon a very lively little town was born, and it grew quite rapidly. Stewart started a saloon and hotel; Davis, who had a large grading contract, had supply stores, and other stores and saloons-principally saloons- grew up in a night. Among others of the first settlers whom I call to mind are J. R. Barb, Charles Wentzel, Frank Jerome, P. Gervais, Paschal and Mrs. Lacha- pelle, Jake Meyers, Jim Turner, and Henry Sheppard. There were a great many men employed in railroad work, in steel and grading gangs, and business was very brisk, gamblers and others of that ilk reaping part of the prosperity. During the summer of 1872 Bruns & Finkle, of Moorhead, put up a large store, which was managed by Wm. Ross. E. Lariviere also put up a large store and had a large Indian trade, and about that time I put up a frame tar-paper shack and started a tin shop and hardware store on a small scale. There were also a few settlers that came in and settled on land near Crookston. James Greenhalgh, Sr., Christ Sathre, Peter Cornelius, David Wilkins, and Sam Honeywell, with their families, were among the first to settle.

Prosperity was in the air all during the summer and up to the middle of October in the year 1872, when word came from railroad headquarters to stop all work at once; consequently several hundred men

were thrown out of work. As winter was coming on most of the mnen left and winter closed in on the few that remained. Fortunately the stores and others had large stocks of goods on hand. Money being plenty (apparently), everybody lived high, antici- pating the resumption of railroad work in the early spring of 1873; but we were doomed to disappoint- ment, and for four years it might be said we hung on by our eyelashes waiting for the operation of the railroad.

A part of this period is what we used to call "cat- fish-or-no-breakfast" times, and what the inhabitants didn't know about cooking cat-fish was not worth knowing. We had them stewed, fried, baked, boiled, scalloped, and in bouillon. The winter months con- stituted the social season of the year, and were spent in dancing, surprise parties, theatrical entertainments with all local talent, and other social doings. During these years, were added to our numbers K. D. Chase, John McLean, W. G. Woodruff, D. Jacobus, E. II. Shaw, H. G. Palmer, Munroe Palmer, and their fam- ilies. Mrs. Munroe Palmer was our first school mis- tress, and taught the few children in a small log cabin that was built by the railroad engineers.

The Indians were very numerous during the early years of settlement. Particularly in the summer time they would come in, in large numbers, and they usually camped where the High School buildings now are. They were peaceable enough and we had very little trouble with them, except when they got liquor from some of the traders, and this happened often enough to cause the U. S. Government to send U. S. Marshal Nichols here to investigate. He evidently found evidence enough to convince himself that there was good cause for complaints, for a short time after his third visit here he returned with a squad of soldiers from Fort Pembina and seized the entire stock of goods of E. Lariviere's store and later sold the same . at public auction. Mr. W. D. Bailey was the success- ful bidder, and he continued the business until he sold out to Fontain & Anglim in 1876.

The Red River steam boats ran up here part of the

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY

seasons of 1874 and 1875, landing at the foot of Third Street, and carrying freight to Winnipeg which had been hauled in here by the branch line of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad. During 1875 the railroad was built into Fisher's Landing, which was made the head of navigation until the railroad was built on to Grand Forks.

In 1877 and 1878 the heavy settlement of Polk County began. Pierre Bottineau and his son, John B., brought in a large number of French Canadians from Ramsey and Hennepin Counties, Minnesota, and also quite a number from the East, loeating them along Red Lake River from Louisville to Red Lake Falls, and along Clearwater River from Red Lake Falls to Lambert. The Southern part of the State also furnished quite a number of settlers from Wabasha County and other points on the Mississippi River, and these newcomers settled around Crookston.

T. B. WALKER'S LUMBERING OPERATIONS IN POLK COUNTY.

(Contributed.)

In 1871 a firm of lumbermen, Jarvis & Berridge, of Winnipeg, purchased a lot of logs ent from Indian lands, under a permit from the Indian Department, for the sale of stumpage, the proceeds to go to the Indians. The logging was to be done just north of the White Earth Reservation, on the very upper waters of the Clearwater River, a tributary of Red Lake River, coming in at Red Lake Falls. The en- terprise was in large part a failure, in consequence of the extraordinary expense of driving the logs, and the proseentions by the Government of those who did the logging on the deal with the Indian Department, as not being authorized by Congress. This led to prosecutions by the Federal Department, and it was finally deelared an unwarranted prosecution, as the authorization of the cutting was done by the Indian Department and parties to the contract, as purchas- ers of the timber, were legally authorized ; therefore,

for any violation of law pertaining to the operations, the Government officials should be held responsible. In this case the cutting was not held to be a criminal offense, as it was done in the interest of the Indians. The work extended over two or three years, in efforts to get the logs over the difficult driving on Clear- water River.

These operations led the lumbermen of Winnipeg to investigating the timber on Rice River, which runs through the White Earth Reservation, and on the Red Lake and Clearwater Rivers, on the Red Lake Reservation. It was found that a considerable body of timber, belonging to the Pillsburys and to T. B. Walker, was lying around the northeast corner and easterly side of the White Earth Reservation. The most of this timber, by more or less of a long haul, could reach the Clearwater River (which, for the first ten or fifteen miles, runs eastward along the north boundary of the White Earth Reservation, and then farther east and north to Clearwater Lake), and made a considerable body of the pine mentioned, tributary to that river. The Winnipeg lumbermen, having found this timber available for driving to the Red River, undertook to purchase some of it for sup- plying their mills in Winnipeg, and their undertak- ing resulted in a contract to purchase logs of Mr. T. B. Walker, to be delivered at Winnipeg, at a rate which seemed to be sufficient to make the operations profitable, although at a large expense for hauling and driving the logs.

Tons of dynamite were used in elearing the boul- ders which were thiekly strewn along the lower fifty miles of the Clearwater River, and expensive dams were built to hold the spring floods in Clearwater Lake and on the river above. Upon Mr. Walker's purchasing the timber owned by the Pillsburys, a number of years' logging was carried on and the logs driven to Winnipeg, where the diffienlties of hold- ing the logs, the high price which they had to pay for them, and the bad management of the lumber firm, made a practical failure of the enterprise, with the failure of the lumber company to meet their obliga-

CROOKSTON LUMBER MILL IN HEIGHT OF ITS ACTIVITIES

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY

tions and pay for the logs. When the logs were all delivered in the booms at Winnipeg, the banks eame to the rescue, took possession of the logs and paid for them, and ran the mills and received baek their ad- vanee, together with money already due them from the Winnipeg lumber firm.

The drive of logs that was delivered at Winnipeg that last season was one that had been hung up the year before on the Clearwater River, and which, by means of the spring floods, was brought down over the fal. and rapids and into Red Lake River, where there was plenty of water to drive the balance of the way. The logs of the previous winter were driven down to the rapids and had to be left (the same as they had been the year before), for the drive that was taken that year to Winnipeg.

As the Winnipeg firm was "all in" it was not in condition to purehase the logs, which were hung up on Clearwater River, and this led to the building of the lumber mills at Crookston. A site was selected opposite the eity, on the townsite of Carmen, which had only the river between it and the townsite of Crookston. The mill was built and expensive improve- men's put in for holding logs. These improvements consisted of expensive eut-offs or bins above Crooks- ton for the floods to pass through and leave the logs on the lagoons, with very expensive piers and booms ; this made quite a praetieal and satisfactory lumber- ing enterprise, exeepting as to its large eost. This was followed by attempts of certain parties in Crooks- ton to organize boom companies and secure the ripar- ian rights on the river to control the booming, making the lumber company pay tribute to the extent of about what there would be in the lumber business as a boom- ing charge for this unnecessary outside interferenee; but the courts intervened and decided against the interferenee, and for that reason, the mills were built at Crookston; otherwise they would have gone to Grand Forks, or the logs might have been taken again to Winnipeg, and no further lumbering would have been done at Crookston.

A first-elass milling plant was established at Crooks- 5

ton and it was in operation for many years; but as soon as the plant was located and the lumber in pile, the farmers of the township in which it was located, outside of the townsite of Crookston, began levying the most exeessive rate of taxation,-in exeess of that levied against any lumber plant in Minnesota, even in the cities, where vastly greater expenditures for local matters would be necessary. This became so burdensome that it became necessary to appeal to the Legislature of the State and to add the mill-site to the townsite of Crookston, where naturally there would be at least double or triple the amount of taxa- tion appropriately assessable for expenditures which were not in any manner necessary in a townsite of farmers.

Soon after the Crookston mills were in operation, the people of Grand Forks, finding how advantageous it was to Crookston to have the mills located there, made an especial effort and offered a millsite location and a portion of the necessary lumber yard, as an indueement for either Mr. Walker or the Red River Lumber Company to build mills at that point. They also were to furnish the riparian or shore rights for boom privileges for holding the logs for a consider- able length of the Red River, at Grand Forks, and also a considerable length of shore rights on the Red Lake River, some miles above Grand Forks, to hold larger drives of logs which could not be held down at the mill booms. Pursuant to this agreement, the mills were built at Grand Forks, just at the lower edge of what was then the town, and a thrifty lumber manufacturing business was established. After sev- eral years the mill burned down, and as the riparian rights had never been furnished, as agreed upon by some of the prominent citizens of Grand Forks, and as there was not sufficient room to hold the logs, and there was a likelihood of losing a large lot down the river, in ease of a flood, Mr. Walker undertook to loeate on the Minnesota side of the river. This loea- tion would have been fully as well, or better, for Grand Forks; but the people opposed it and some of the citizens bought up shore rights in the properties

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Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota, Part 11

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H., ed Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Minneapolis, W. H. Bingham & co. Number of Pages: 646

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H., ed
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Minneapolis, W. H. Bingham & co.
Number of Pages: 646