USA > Minnesota > Cottonwood County > History of Cottonwood and Watonwan counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume I > Part 53
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Only ten years prior to this early period the Sioux Indians had stealth- ily gone over these prairies, on murder bent, but it was now being settled by immigrants, mostly from Germany, Scandinavia and the Green Isle, and a large number of Civil War veterans, commonly known as Yankees. Then it was a common occurrence to see those neighbors as they stood together, the Yankees doing most of the talking, while the Swedes and the Germans would assent with "Ay tank so," and "Ja, Ja; dad is mine ida!"
Well, they not only talked. They had homesteads, but there were no houses, no stables, no fields, no groves, no roads, no churches, no school houses and no money, or at least very, very little of it. He was rich who had a team of oxen, a cow, a hog, a wagon and a breaking plow and no debts. But these men, and women too, had a strong will and strong arms. They went about looking for a hillside on which to build a house, often
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COTTONWOOD AND WATONWAN COUNTIES, MINN.
made of rough lumber with sod piled against it; a foot thick for walls, one window with four eight-by-ten-inch panes of glass and one door. This constituted the pioneer's palace, which was usually about ten by twelve by six. In the fall a stable was built of sod with a hay roof only.
The younger generation may smile, but it is nevertheless true that the pioneer children were never happier than when they were sitting with their parents in those huts, around the stove in which a fire of green wood and hay twists kept them warm. Then the father would teach them to read and write Deutsch (German), hoping that by the next winter the district would organize, build a school house and hire a teacher to teach them English, while the mother mended the clothes, knit stockings and mittens or made a cap of muskrat skins.
THE CHILDREN HELPED.
In the summer the children watched the cattle, day in and day out. Sundays and week days, in cold and rain, heat or hail, with no shelter but their clothing, which was often "absent" at the knees and elbows. Mother had no time for mending them. She was with the elder children, helping the father in the field, breaking prairie, which was not an easy task, with ox teams, for if the lead team took a notion to go home or to take a bath in a nearby slough, they did it, as there were no lines with which to hokl them. Besides the mother helped at haying but not with mowers, hay rakes, loaders and stackers. No, they had a scythe, a hand rake and hand forks, or they had to wait for the neighbor who was hicky enough to own a mower- reaper to do the cutting. The first machine that cut the grain was a mower- dropper, which dropped the bundle at the driver's will, right behind the sickle-bar, and they had to be bound before the team came around again. There are very few of the present generation who can bind a hand-bundle tie correctly. Then the shocking was done at night, when all helped along.
But these were not the greatest trials. They had the grasshoppers for five years in succession. This plague ate and destroyed all cultivated crops except potatoes. They tried to catch them when small in open ditches made around the field, into which they would jump, to be burned or pounded to (leath, or in a large bag with a stick across the top, which was carried rap- idly over the fields to catch them. At one time the state offered a bonus of ten cents per bushel for dead grasshoppers. This did not check them how- ever. In one instance a farmer sowed sixty bushels of wheat and threshed out four, and had a family of seven to provide for.
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COTTONWOOD AND WATONWAN COUNTIES, MINN.
TRIBUTE TO PIONEER HEROES.
In the early days prayers were offered up more fervently than they are today. Those were the days when the weeping mothers were thankful when they had a crushed potato with some milk to give their little ones, and the fathers, hoping, yet fearful, held onto that patch of land which is now referred to as the old farm, little thinking what heroes they were, who made it what it is today. Look about you and behold these venerable men and women, now adorned with the snow of years-years spent in wresting the beautiful homes we now see from adverse circumstances. Fewer will there be each year and many there are who have gone to their final resting place and reward. The, pioneers are entitled to the name hero and deserve as much reverent consideration as the boys in blue of the First Minnesota who checked Picket's division at Gettysburg, although their deeds are not now described in such brilliant language nor commemorated by monuments.
Those days of trial went by. Bridges, roads, churches and school houses were built, teachers were hired and a new epoch began. But just a few words about the school house and the first days of school. The house was a wooden structure with lap siding and building paper for walls. No plaster, a tin stove and flax straw for fuel. But strange as it may seem, no scholar ever became seriously ill or ever complained. Going to school was their recreation, their greatest joy, their chance to learn. And then there was the schoot ma'am. She seemed like a fairy from some distant land. filling the heads of the little ones with wisdom and those of the bigger boys with lovely dreams. In this respect there has not been a decided change. In the evenings, when the weather was not too unfavorable and the chil- dren had their lessons for the following day, the family would walk for miles over the snow or prairie for a visit, but it is not so now. Times have changed from ox teams to automobiles, yet people seem less contented now than forty-four years ago.
May 17, 1869, marked the completion of the Minnesota Valley railroad as far east as Mankato. Therefore, when this point was reached by rail there was no other way for the early settler to get to his destination except to walk. However, in 1871, the same road continued the construction of their line from St. James to Sioux City. The railroad was given a land grant of every other section as I. 3. 5, etc. Then the rest was open to homestead and every settler was to own all the land inside of the local grants, except sections 16 and 36, which were known as school lands. Ac-
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COTTONWOOD AND WATONWAN COUNTIES, MINN.
cording to the terms of the old land grant to the Minnesota Valley railroad, their property was to be free of taxation so long as it remained in their hands. During this time no attempts were made to sell any of the land. Not many years passed until the road changed ownership and became known as the St. Paul & Sioux City road. Immediately the state Legislature passed a law requiring this same road to pay taxes which meant that the railroad company at once opened up its land to settlers and homesteaders. The first land sold at from five to eight dollars per acre.
THE GRASSHOPPER PLAGUE.
The grasshopper plague lasted from 1873 to 1877. Coming at a time when the early settlers were just beginning to make a start meant undue hardships for them. Nothing escaped the pests and as a result the settlers made a bare subsistence for a period of five long years. This plague was not confined to southwestern Minnesota, but to other states as well. From Fargo Falls on the north they swept the western part of Iowa, finally taking in the whole state as well as parts of Illinois and Wisconsin.
The early prairie fires had completely destroyed the forests so that with the coming of the early settlers the average tree was no larger than the usual walking cane. From St. James to Madelia there was not a tree standing sufficient to make a cord of wood, with the possible exception of those around the Long and Kansas lakes, where they had been protected. Therefore, the trees that are now seen have been planted during the last forty years.
Continuing the story of the railroad construction from St. James to Sioux City, they hired six hundred men who were grouped into nine camps two miles apart. A day's work was ten hours, for which the laborer received one dollar and seventy-five cents. Board cost him four dollars per week. In all other work the average working day was eleven hours. Every camp contained three gangs and three foremen. Colonel Allen, of St. Paul, was the head contractor, and General Bishop was chief surveyor and engi- neer.
All the provisions were hauled from St. Paul and Mankato. The meals all had a kind of a sameness, consisting of pork and beans, black coffee and brown sugar and, occasionally, dried apples and rice. No vegetables of any kind were ever served and not a drop of milk nor an egg was ever seen in camp. The cooking was all done by men. Strange as it may seem, during
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COTTONWOOD AND WATONWAN COUNTIES, MINN.
a period of six months only three or four men were sent from work on account of sickness. Drinking water was secured from shallow wells and wet weather springs and dry as some of the men became not a drop of whis- key was drunk.
In August the track was laid as far as St. James and it was hoped that Worthington might be reached by the time winter set in. At that time the place was just a village situated near Okobena Lake. However, in Novem- ber winter set in with an old-fashioned blizzard and the track was laid only as far as Heron Lake, which was ten miles from Worthington. During this blizzard and snow storm Worthington became isolated from the outer world, without fuel and necessary provisions. The next spring the track was laid to Worthington and on to Sioux City.
EXIT THE GRASSHOPPER.
In 1877 or about the time the grasshoppers were leaving, the question arose among the settlers as to how they should continue to hold out under such circumstances. Then in the fall came the prairie fire which swept everything clean. Some idea of how fast the fire traveled may be gained from the fact that a distance of seventy-five miles was burned over in twenty-four hours. With few provisions at hand and the horrors of another winter staring the settlers in the face, the future appeared dark, indeed. But they were all young people, healthy and courageous, able and willing to endure hardships for the sake of a home. With the coming of spring the men songht work on the farms in the eastern part of the state, leaving their wives and children behind to look after their homestead and lay up pro- visions for winter. Wages during summer were not more than twelve dollars per month, with board and washing included. When the fall work was over the homesteader returned to his family.
AMUSEMENTS NIL.
There were no amusements in the pioneer days. There were no dances, because there were no places to dance. There were no husking bees, be- cause the birds and small animals ate up all the corn that the grasshoppers left. There could be no spellings, because there were no schools. There was very little entertaining, as the little sod huts of one or possibly two rooms and with a clay floor about two feet below the surface of the ground,
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COTTONWOOD AND WATONWAN COUNTIES, MINN.
would not permit of large gatherings. In fact, the greatest amusement of all was work; just plain hard work and seeing things grow.
It can hardly be said that the pioneers received any mail service. They were fortunate if they received their mail such as it was once a month. Whenever a neighbor shoukl go to St. James, and that was very seldom, he would get the mail for the whole neighborhood. Occasionally, a man from the neighborhood woukl walk to St. Peter for the newspapers, whose pub- lications were few and quite irregular. It was in a Swedish settlement only that there were subscribers to a paper, which was one from Chicago. The number of subscribers were two.
EARLY MARKET.
Fresh, home-churned butter sold in St. James for five cents a pound in trade: no cash. Likewise, fresh eggs sold for five cents per dozen, but only in trade. As some of the settlers became more prosperous they would fatten a pig to sell. There was no sale for the animal on foot, so it had to be killed and dressed and then the owners were lucky to dispose of it at four cents per pound. Later on, when the settlers began to raise more stock, a stock buyer would come around to buy all the two-year-old steers, never a heifer, for which he would pay fifteen to seventeen dollars apiece.
TOOLS AND MACHINERY.
In the early pioneer days there were no tools and machinery to speak of for harvesting the crops. For instance, the grass had to be cut with the scythe and raked with a hand rake. But as time and improvement went on there was usually some man in a community who could afford to buy a mower or rake, perhaps both. Then he would cut and rake the crops of his neighbors for so much a day. Great advance was made in the harvesting of crops with the coming of the reaper. Farmers traded work. and when it came time to harvest the grain, all the men and women in a community would go from place to place doing the binding. Women bound just the same as men and quite often the best and most rapid binders were among their number. In some cases it was necessary to hire men, who were paid at the rate of two dollars per day in harvest.
CHAPTER XXI.
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.
MARKET QUOTATIONS.
No little interest is attached to the prices paid for various farm pro- ducts and retail store goods, at different times in the history of any com- munity, hence the following quotations are here given, the same being the prevailing prices at either St. James or Madelia since the settlement of the county, commencing in 1874. Those before cannot be established correctly, as no newspapers were published and files preserved before that date:
Wheat, 90 cents; corn, 40 cents; oats, 40 cents; potatoes, 95 cents; barley, 40 cents; flour, $2.75 per hundred ; butter, 15 cents ; eggs, 20 cents; lard. 10 cents. This obtained in the month of November, 1874, at Madelia.
September, 1892, at St. James : Wheat, 60 cents; oats, 23 cents : flax. 80 cents ; corn, 25 cents; butter, 15 cents ; eggs, 14 cents.
At St. James in 1913: Wheat. 76 cents. corn, 58 cents; barley, 50 cents; flax, $1.24; rye, 48 cents : hogs, $6.80 and $7.25 ; cows. $5.50; steers. $6 to $7: live turkeys, 12 cents; geese. 6 cents: eggs, 22 cents; butter, 22 to 30 cents; potatoes, 60 cents.
At St. James in July, 1916, these prices obtained : Wheat. No. I Northern, $1.07; corn. 77 cents; oats, 36 cents; barley, 67 cents: rye, 92 cents; flax, $1.80: draft horses, $125 to $215: feeding steers, $7 to $7.50: choice fed steers, $9.25 to $io: medium. $7 to $8; yearlings .. $8 to $10: cows. $6.75 to $8; hogs, $9.50 to $9.70; sheep, $5 to $8; butter, 27 cents; eggs, 22 cents; gasoline. 23 cents. Three and a half cents per pound was paid for old serap paper during 1916.
ANTI-HORSE TIHIEF ASSOCIATION.
In the past years, though well settled, this and adjoining counties have suffered loss at the hands of horse thieves. In 1894 there was organized a society for the prevention of horse stealing in Watonwan county. A long constitution was adopted and many members paid a nominal fee and became
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COTTONWOOD AND WATONWAN COUNTIES, MINN.
active members of the society. The first officers were: Robert Rowland, president; E. A. Gibbs, vice-president; J. W. Somers, secretary; L. O. Ulvestad, treasurer, and "riders" as follow: Ernest Uhlhorn, Adrian town- ship: Frank Dewar and I. C. Lindley, Antrim township: C. Melheim, and J. Rempel, Butterfield township : William Gillispie and Ross Sargent, Fieldon township: Bernt Olson and L. Larson, Long Lake township; H. C. King and E. H. Bill, village of Madelia: P. J. Gjertson and W. W. Murphy, Madelia township: Nels Newberg, and John Olson, Nelson township: S. Nass and one more from Odin township; J. Grogan and Gustav Durheim, Riverdale township: W. N. Foote, and K. S. Thompson, Rosendale, town- ship: Otto Wenstrom and G. W. Forsythe, St. James village; Robert Row- land and J. W. Somers. St. James township: Bert Sharp and George Stradt- man, South Branch township.
This society was the means of stopping horse thieving in the county to a large extent. They also aided other counties in this and adjoining states in capturing stolen horses and cattle.
THE PROHIBITION QUESTION.
The matter of prohibiting the sale and use of intoxicating liquors in , this, as in all other counties, has been one that has engaged the minds of the voters and law-makers for many years. With the progress made by the temperance element. many counties have been placed in the "dry column" in recent years, and it is believed that before long the entire state will be free from the curse of the saloon. Local option, low license, high license and many other plans have been operated, but none have proven as satisfac- tory to the better element in communities as total prohibition. In 1915 Watonwan county went "dry." as the term goes now-a-days, when total prohibition is in effect. The village of Madelia went dry in March, 1910, and St. James in 1915. Concerning this question at Madelia it may be stated that four years after the village became entirely saloonless, seventeen good and tried citizens and business men of that village signed the following statement :
"During the dry period business has been good each year and has been the best in 1913. Many new dwellings have been built this year which are occupied soon as completed. Not a vacant house or store building is found in town. The village was never in better condition than now. Moral con- ditions are unsurpassed.
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COTTONWOOD AND WATONWAN COUNTIES, MINN.
"The majority against licenses increases each year, the majority in March. 1913. being the largest ever given against license in this village. We believe the licensed saloon to be a detriment. financially, morally and socially to any community and we are unalterably opposed to the saloon in any form. We propose to do as we have in the past. viz .. oppose the licensed saloon in this town with all our power. (Signed) George S. Hage, D. E. Peterson, W. A. Mullen, B. James. S. Larson, M. S. Dosset, M. Olson, E. A. Hagaman. C. T. Haugen, O. A. Crosby, N. Pederson, R. M. Sargent, T. Patterson. A. J. McLean, James N. McCarty."
LOCAL OPTION VOTE IN 1915.
The county of Watonwan voted at a special election held in March. 1915, on the question of whether or not saloons should be allowed a license in the county. The vote stood as follows:
Yes.
No.
Yes.
No.
Madelia
68
33
Madelia village
202
103
Fieldon
44
49
Lewisville village
24
49
Antrim
35
69
Ormsby village
12
II
South Branch
25
68
Odin village'
33
VG
Rosendale
48
50
Butterfield village
45
57
Riverdale
105
49
Darfur village
5
20
Nelson
I20
28
St. James City
( Ist
St. James
50
76
ward)
I37 183
Long Lake
100
33
St. James
City
2nd
Odin
1
1
1
I
78
32
ward)
128
142
Butterfield
56
37
Adrian
I
J
I
57
39
Majority for Prohibition
247
1
1
I
I
I
I
1
1
I
1
1
E I f 1
1
I I 1
"RUSSIAN THISTLE DAY."
Monday, July 7, 1895, was Russian Thistle Day in this county. The Russian thistle had come to be so thick that the farming community was being, greatly damaged. This obnoxious plant had been drifting in from the northwest, from the Dakotas and northern Minnesota until it seemed to have almost thwarted the plans of the best experts at annihilating it. The county commissioners resolved that July 7, 1895, shoukl be fixed as the day and date for the destruction of all Russian thistles standing or growing in Watonwan county, Minnesota.
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COTTONWOOD AND WATONWAN COUNTIES, MINN.
The record has the following: " All Russian thistles found standing or growing in said county after the said date will be destroyed by public author- ity at the expense of the owner or occupant of the lands upon which said Russian thistle may be found, and said owner or occupant failing to destroy said Russian thistle before the date fixed is liable to prosecution for misde- meanor and for maintaining a public nuisance."
The following year another "Thistle Day" was fixed by the county commissioners in September, 1896.
gu
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DEC 1 2 337
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