USA > Minnesota > Cottonwood County > History of Cottonwood and Watonwan counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume I > Part 7
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Medial Morainc. Across the Des Moines river, the land ascending from it east of Windom, opposite to the Blue mounds, has similar but less prominent morainic features. It consists of irregular knolls, hillocks. and low ridges of till, which enclose hollows and lakes, occupying a width of two or three miles, and gradually rising in this distance about one hundred feet above the Des Moines river. This tract seems to be part of a medial moraine (so called because formed between opposing ice-currents), con- nected with the second terminal moraine as a branch from its northeast side, and extending north through the two western ranges of sections in Lake- side and Carson. Its most broken portion is found in sections 17, 8 and 5, Carson, which have many small hills and ridges forty to seventy-five feet high, mostly trending from north to south, composed of till with abundant boulders. Ten miles north from these hills in Carson is the morainic tract through which Mound creek flows in Stately, but the interesting area, across which the quartzyte ridge extends from east to west. is destitute of such knolly drift deposits.
Beyond the knolly and broken ascent east from the Des Moines river in the vicinity of Windom, the contour changes to a smooth and nearly flat expanse of till, which thence extends seventy-five miles eastward, descend- ing with an imperceptible slope to the Blue Earth river, and beyond this rising in the same manner to the belts of drift hills at the sources of the LeSueur and Cannon rivers. The eastern two-thirds of Lakeside and Car-
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son, and all of Mountain Lake township, included in the vast area of intra- morainic till, are slightly undulating and differ only five to ten feet in broad swells and depressions from being a perfect plain. This expanse, stretching on all sides to the horizon, would be commonly called level, but the survey of the St. Paul & Sioux City railroad shows that its descent eastward is uniformly about twenty feet per mile through these townships, or some two hundred feet in the ten miles from the railroad summit, a mile west of Bing- ham Lake to the east line of this county. If the same slope were continued westward it would pass over the summit of the Blue mounds; hence they cannot be seen east of Bingham Lake. Mountain Lake, which has given its name to a railroad station and township, is so called because it contains an island that rises about thirty-five or forty feet in steep bluffs, attaining the same height with the bluffs that surround the lake, even with the average surface of its vicinity.
An exception to the generally smooth contour of the drift-sheet north of the quartzyte ridge is found in a quite roughly hilly morainic area, apparently isolated, which lies mainly in the north half of Stately, the most southwest township of Brown county, and extends into Germantown to the west side of section 12. Its abrupt mounds and ridges of stony till are twenty-five to seventy-five feet high, having their greatest prominence in Stately along the lower part of Mound creek. This tract appears to belong to a third terminal moraine. Through the middle of Germantown a notable valley, having a flat bottom of stratified gravel and sand, enclosed by mod- erately steep slopes which rise about forty feet to the undulating surface of the till on each side. was observed, extending five or six miles in an east- southeast course from near Dry creek at the north side of section 17 in this township, to Mound creek at the east side of section 30. Stately. Another valley of similar character was noted three-fourths of a mile farther south. running parallel with the last through the north part of sections 25 and 26. Germantown township. These deserted water-courses were probably formed during the departure of the last ice-sheet. Upon this region its border, doubtless. retreated to the north and northeast, and while it still lay as a barrier upon the north part of Germantown and was accumulating the morainic hills that lie a few miles to the north-east in Stately, the drainage from its melting was carried by these valleys southeasterly. Farther north- west, the land for a considerable distance, along the probable course of the ice-margin in this stage of its retreat is lower than where these valleys occur. and therefore would be occupied by a lake, and again southeastward. from
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the south part of Stately to Silver Lake in Martin county, a narrow glacial lake probably extended along the border of the ice-sheet, having a height of about twelve hundred feet above the sea, and overflowing south of Iowa lake to the east fork of the Des Moines river.
Boulders and Pebbles. The boulders of the drift in this county are mainly granite, and syenite, crystalline schists, quartzyte and limestone. The quartzyte ridge in northern Cottonwood county has supplied from a tenth to a half of the large rock-fragments in the drift south of it. Among the large boulders, over one foot in diameter, in this county, it may be that a twentieth part are limestone. At Windom limestone containing recepta- culites was found in the drift in digging cellars.
Agriculture must be the chief industry and source of wealth in Cot- tonwood county. The soil, the narrow belts of timber beside rivers and lakes, the natural pasturage and plough-land of its broad expanses of prairie, are peculiarly fitted for farming operations.
The Potsdam quartzyte of northern Cottonwood county has been quar- ried to some extent, as already mentioned, in sections 23 and 25, Selma township, in section 8. Delton township, and in section 6, Dale township. Owing to the very hard and gritty nature of this rock and its tendency to rhomboidal fracture, it supplies only rough blocks, seldom of large dimen- sions, yet quite suitable for common foundations and walls, and for the masonry of culverts and small bridges.
Peut. An exploration of the peat of southern Minnesota was made in 1873 by Professor Winchell, whose descriptions embrace the following notes pertaining to Cottonwood county :
Mountain Lake. Near Mountain Lake station, a coarse turf-peat covers the surface of a dry slough to the depth of ten to eighteen inches. Near a spring, along the side of this slough, which is tributary to Mountain Lake, the surface quakes and the peat is thickest. Around Mountain Lake the land is low and is flooded in the wet season. This low land contains considerable peat for some distance out toward the lake. The surface shales under the tread. It is covered in summer with a tall grass, which much resembles the wild rice, yet the softest places, where the peat occurs purest, are furnished with a short grass. Peat here is two or more feet thick. This peat. taken two feet below the surface, was found to contain, when air-dried, 8.69 per cent. of hygrometric water; 31.90 of organic matter, and 59.41 of ash. A hundred pounds of it is estimated to be equivalent to forty-two pounds of oakwood.
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Lakeside. Section 24. In a dry slough, covering many acres. the surface consists of a turf-peat, to the depth of about a foot, passing into a black mud and sand. The very top is fibrous and even spongy. The analysis of this gave 10.80 per cent. of hygrometric water : 6.33 of organic matter, and 72.87 of ash ; a hundred pounds being equivalent to twenty-one pounds of oak-wood. Peat is again found farther west in the same town- ship, and also on land five miles east of Windom. In a narrow spring ravine, where water stands or slowly runs throughout the year, and near its head, a thickness of a foot or more of turf-peat may be taken out over a space of a few rods square. It is thicker and better near the head of the ravine than at any other point, owing to the more constant protection of the grass and roots from the prairie fires.
Great Bend. The northeast quarter of section 36, in Great Bend town- ship contains peat. In a turfed ravine. where water stands or oozes through the turf, sloping gently toward the Des Moines river, a turf-peat may be taken out to the depth of a foot or twenty inches. The belt containing peat is from ten to twenty feet wide, and similar in its situation to that in Lake- side township, but more extensive. It shakes under the feet for three or four feet about, but a horse can walk safely over it in most places in the dry season. Indeed, it is mown for hay each year. An irony seum lies on the ground and on the grass stalks. The peat itself is a turf, but contains shells and some grit. Another similar ravine is on the same claim. Numer- ous others might be located along the ravines that cross the Des Moines bluffs.
Amo. Section 12. A slough that shakes is in a valley that forms the prolongation of the Des Moines valley northwestward above the great bend a few miles above Windom, and has a spongy peat about two feet in thick- ness, with black mud below. It covers six or ten acres. This peat, taken two feet below the surface, was found to contain, when air-dried, 9.85 per cent. water; 42.63 of organic matter, and 47.52 of ash: a hundred pounds of it being equivalent to fifty-six pounds of oakwood. In the same pro- longation of the Des Moines valley, two miles above the bend of the Des Moines, is a thickness of two or three feet of peat. This valley seems to hold about two feet of peat along a considerable area through the middle, and would supply a great quantity. It is not of a superior quality, but might be very useful. An analysis of peat taken here shows 13.58 per cent. of hygrometric water; 53.28 of organic matter, and 33.14 of ash ; a hundred pounds of this air-dried peat being considered equal in value to seventy
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pounds of oakwood. Peat from this place three feet below the surface yielded 11.03 per cent. of water; 41.67 of organic matter, and 47.30 of ash ; a hundred pounds of it being equal to fifty-five pounds of oak-wood.
Springfield. In a dry slough in section 6, there is a peaty turf near the mouth of a ravine in considerable abundance.
South Brook. Section 2. Side-hill peat occurs on a gentle slope over the space of a few rods, having a thickness of a foot and a half or two feet. Such peaty patches appear also on the opposite side of the main valley, arising from the issuing of springs that keep the surface moist, while the lower land in the same slough is dry and hard. This peat is not free from sand. It also smells strongly of sulphuretted hydrogen.
CHAPTER III.
PIONEER SETTLEMENT OF COTTONWOOD COUNTY.
The following are stanzas from a lengthy poem written by Thomas Campbell, a resident of the county, and seem appropriate in introducing this chapter :
The dreamer was worn, old and gray, As he dozed in bis chair in the closing day. And the crimson sun sinking low. While his dreams went back to long ago.
And he slept on the porch of the homestead there.
The neat farm-bouse. on the landscape fair: On the blooming prairie spreading wide, And crossing the flow of the Des Moines tide.
By the loosened waves of imprisoned thought. The ways of Time's backward trail were sought : Then a mental vision soon appeared. Of Cottonwood baek some forty years.
Of a country fertile and fair to view. Only trod by the moccasined foot of the Sioux. Or the hoof of his pony in reckless Pace, In the onward rush of the buffalo chase.
But the scene is shifting to later years.
Progressive times and white men's ways. And the plain is dotted left and right With wagon tops of canvas white;
And later on, in the seasons' train, The yellow patches of waving grain. And the many pictures of peaceful toil. Of settled life on a grateful soil.
This county was surveyed in 1858-9; the surveyors found a few Ger- mans including Charles Zierke, known as "Dutch Charlie." No one knew where he came from here. It was reported that he was massacred in the Indian outbreak of 1862. He resided in the northwest part of Cottonwood county, where there is a creek named after his nickname, "Dutch Charlie Creek." About a dozen persons had effected settlement in what is Cotton- wood county now, prior to 1862, when the Indian troubles set in. the first actual settler in the county was a homesteader named Joseph F. Bean; the
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COTTONWOOD AND WATONWAN COUNTIES, MINN.
second was George B. Walker. Then a few families came to the West- brook settlement; early in 1868 came J. W. Benjamin, Simon Greenfield. and others locating in the present township of Lakeside. The settlement increased, but with no marked degree of rapidity until the railroad came through the county. The first settlers marketed their crops at New Ulm, where they also purchased their supplies. On June 1, 1871, the railroad grading was completed through Cottonwood county; this was the old St. Paul & Sioux City line, now the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha system. On June I that year the rails were completely laid as far as Win- dom on the Des Moines river.
STRUGGLES OF PIONEER SETTLERS.
The early settlers of this county had anything but a promising outlook. Prairie fires and terrible hail storms swept away much of the property of the settlers in their destructive pathways, but these hardy sons and daugh- ters felt determined to fight their way through these obstacles and advers- ities. The crop of 1872 was an average crop and the people felt encour- aged. In the spring of 1873 a large crop was planted, and the immigrants of previous years, not only of this but of adjoining counties, had expended every resource in preparing the ground and providing seed. A promising harvest was apparent; and all felt that the reward for their severe priva- tions would soon be at hand. But alas, early in June of that year the entire part of southwestern Minnesota was visited by grasshoppers, and nearly all of the growing crops were destroyed and grasshopper eggs laid and buried in the soil, only to curse the country the next season. Great desola- tion was among the farmers. Appeals made to the charitable throughout the better favored sections of the country brought considerable immediate relief. In the Legislature in January. 1874, an appropriation of five thou- sand dollars was made for relief of the devastated regions and, later, twenty- five thousand dollars was appropriated for the purchase of seed grain. Wheat was sown from this seed, it came up nicely, but the grasshopper eggs, likewise, hatched out in all their teeming millions. When old enough to eat, they set to work and destroyed all of the growing crops again. The hatching commenced in May and in June their wings had developed enough to enable them to fly frisky. After eating up much of the crops they migrated, filling the heavens at noon-day so as to almost darken the sun and give the sky the appearance of a snow-storm in winter season. They continued to fly and to leave for the south until in July, when having joined
COTTONWOOD AND WATONWAN COUNTIES, MINN.
the older grasshoppers. their venerable ancestors, they all disappeared from the county, leaving hundreds and thousands of aeres barren and desolate. Year after year they kept this up, aid coming from the state to tide over the brave. never-give-up kind of people found among the county's first pioneer band.
WINTER OF 1872-3.
The winter of 1872-3 was a long, cold one, never to be forgotten by those living in southwestern Minnesota and Towa. In January, 1872, soon after the building of the railroad through the county, a severe snow and wind storm-now called "blizzard" -- swept this county in all of its fury. The railroad was completely blocked from January until April Io, the next spring.
In a storm of three days duration in February, 1872, two sons of a Mr. Lader, of Mountain Lake perished in the snow. The next winter was as bad, and at times worse, and only a few trains of cars run to bring in supplies and fuel for the settlers. It was in the three days storm of 1873 that William Morris was frozen to death within eighty rods of his own house, in Springfield township.
George B. Walker was an early settler of Cottonwood county and was the first man to do any plowing in the county after the Indian massacre of 1862. He died April 13, 1887. On February 19, 1871, he was married to Sarah Greenfield, and this was the first marriage ceremony performed in Cottonwood county.
A more detailed account of the settlement of the county is found in the various township histories of the work. But the following gives quite a number of well-known citizens who made up the pioneer band :
Mr. A. A. Soule settled about one mile southeast of Mountain Lake in 1869. He purchased a pre-emption right of a trapper named Mason and his equity in an adjoining piece of land heavily timbered with oak and other forest trees, consisting of about forty acres. There was also forty acres of artificial timber which consisted of spruce, balsam fir, white cedar, American and Euro- pean larch, willow, hard and soft maple, ash, cottonwood, coffeenut, black walnut. basewood, whitewood, honey locust, elm, mountain ash, and other varieties.
During 1869 and 1870, Mr. Soule gave most of his time and energy to the planting and growing of trees. At that time he was vice-president of the State Forestry Association. Few men take as much interest in forestry as did
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this man. The attractiveness alone of Mr. Soule's farm was ample reward for his diligent work, as it was generally known throughout southern Minnesota that this farm was one of the most attractive in this section of the state.
Ira E. Pierce, Sr., came from New Bedford, Massachusetts, and settled on a farm near Clear lake in 1871. He died in February, 1908, at the age of eighty-seven.
Paul Pederson came from Jefferson county, Wisconsin, and settled in Amo township in 1873. He died on March 28, 1908.
Myron Barr was one of the first settlers in Cottonwood county, settling in Lakeside township in 1870 or 1871. He located on a small farm one mile from the station of Bingham lake. During the construction of the railroad Mr. and Mrs. Barr conducted the railroad boarding house, while the men were working between St. James and Sheldon. At various times they boarded as many as one hundred men at a time. With the coming of the grasshoppers Mr. Barr lost all that he had in the way of crops and finally left the country. Ile died in August, 1908.
J. N. McGregor was born in Belmont, Ohio, 1847, and came to Windom in 1871, where he formed a partnership with D. Patten in the general mer- chandising business. Later he became county treasurer and president of the First National Bank. He was a man interested in many public enterprises and one who added to the life and spirit of the community. He died on July 22, 1912.
J. A. Billings, an old soldier, settled in Mountain Lake in 1872. He died in May, 1909.
J. H. Reisdorph, known as "Uncle John," was born in New York in 1826 and came to Cottonwood county in 1870. Ile was an old soldier and died on February 18, 191I.
Thomas S. Brown was born in Scotland and imigrated to this country at an early age. He joined the ranks of the Union army and when the war was over came to Cottonwood county and settled in Springfield township. He was fairly well read in law and finally became judge of probate. He died in August, 19II.
William Barnes, born in Maine, 1801, settled in Mountain Lake township in 1872. He died on September 30, 1881.
B. W. May came to Windom in 1872 and for a time was the only imple- ment dealer in the village. He died in December. 1912.
Tabor C. Richmond was born in Vermont, 1844, and came to Lakeside township in 1871. Hle was an old soldier and died in March, 1913.
Aaron Schofield was born in England, 1831. He came to this country
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and settled in Carson township, section 28, on a tree claim. He died on February 14, 1916.
P. B. Crosby came to Windom in 1872 and erected one of the first tene- ment houses in the village. He died in February, 1874.
COTTONWOOD COUNTY OLD SETTLERS ASSOCIATION.
In every intelligent, thinking community the pioneer settlers have always organized Old Settlers' Reunion Societies of one sort or another, and Cotton- wood county is no exception to the rule. The idea obtains in a special degree in the counties west of the Alleghany mountains in states that have been settled a hundred years or less. These associations have done, and are still doing, much to preserve the local history and promote a friendly feeling among both the pioneers and their sons and daughters. The true fires of patriotism and love of country or of home are strengthened by a narration of such important events as tend to stir the blood and quicken to life those divine affections of man. The love of home and parents and kindred has thus been strengthened by oft-told tales of aged fathers or mothers, especially of those pioneer fathers and mothers who toiled early and late, hard and long, in order to give their descendants the priceless boon of a home and plenty ; of refinement and love of God and humanity.
The pioneers in gathering in these annual rennions, seem to live over again those early days and years. Their eyes sparkle and they grow young as the fading reminiscences of other days are recalled. As was well stated by a pioneer in a nearby community, at a meeting of the Old Settlers' Society : "You come together with varied emotions. Some of you, almost at the foot of life's hill, look back and upward at the path you have trod, while others who have just reached life's summit, gaze down into the valley of tears with many a hope and fear. You gray-headed fathers, have done your work ; you have done it well; and now as the sunset of life is closing around you, you are given the rare boon of enjoying the fruit of your labor. You can see the land won by your own right arm from its wilderness state and from a savage foe, passed to your children and your children's children, literally 'flowing with milk and honey;' a land over which hover the white-winged, white-robed angels of religion and peace ; a land fairer and brighter and more glorious than any other land beneath the blue arch of heaven. You have done your work well, and when the time of rest shall have come, you will sink to the dreamless repose with the calm consciousness of duty done.
"In this hour let memory take her strongest sway; tear aside the thin veil
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that shrouds the misty past in gloom ; call up before you the long-forgotten scenes of years ago; live over once again the toils and struggles, the hopes and fears of other days. Let this day be a day sacred to the memory of the olden time. In that olden time there are no doubt scenes of sadness as well as of joy. Perhaps you remember standing by the bedside of a loved and cherished dying wife-one who in the days of her youth and beauty when you proposed to her to seek a home in a new wild land, took your hand in hers and spoke words like these : 'Wither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge ; thy people shall be my people and thy God my God; when thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried; the Lord do so to me and also if aught but death part me and thee.' Or, perhaps, some brave boy stricken down in the pride of his young manhood ; or some gentle daughter fading away in her glorious beauty ; or some little prattling babe folding its weary eyes in the dreamless sleep. If there are memories like these, and the unbidden tears well up in the eye, let them come, and today one and all shed a tear or two to the memory of the loved and lost."
The pioneer comes to dig and delve, to plant and to sow, to hew and to build, the crooked path to make straight, the rough to make smooth. Neither the river, the lake nor the sea, nor the mountain-chain, nor the vast wilderness have obstacles for them.
Pursuant to a call issued for a meeting to be held on October 19, 1901, a large number of old settlers and their families met at the court house and proceeded to organize an old settlers association. Committees were appointed to perfect the organization and to prepare a constitution and set of by-laws, which were adopted on December 14. that year. The first set of officers was as follows: F. M. Dyer, president : Matt Miller, secretary; Mrs. George E. Le Tourneau, treasurer. The vice-presidents were as follow : First commis- sioner's district, H. A. Nelson, town of Ann: second commissioner's district, M. N. Caldwell, town of Amo; third commissioner's district, Orrin Nason, Windom : fourth commissioner's district, I. E. Pierce, town of Lakeside; fifth commissioner's district, L. P. Richardson, town of Selma. Jackson county territory to be represented by A. J. Frost, town of Delafield.
CONSTITUTION.
We. the old settlers of Cottonwood county, in order to preserve the traditions and history of its early settlers, to promote social intercourse between ourselves and our families, and to keep that acquaintance and friendship which was so dear to ns during the trying years of our early history, do ordain and establish this con- stitution for the Old Settlers' Association of Cottonwood County. Minnesota.
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