USA > Minnesota > Douglas County > History of Douglas and Grant counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume I > Part 12
USA > Minnesota > Grant County > History of Douglas and Grant counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume I > Part 12
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
Gates, Rev. Horatio, A summary of the discovery and discussion, with numerous references supporting the genuineness of the inscriptions. Republican Gazette, Willmar, Minnesota, March 24, 1910.
Holand, H. R. "A Fourteenth-Century -Columbus," noting that a Norse expedition under the command of Paul Knutson sailed from Bergen to Greenland in 1355 and returned in 1364, and that probably they went into Hudson bay and thence advanced inland to the site of the Kensington stone. Harper's Weekly, March 26, 1910.
Hagen. Prof. O. E. "Ad Utrumque Simus." An interesting discussion of the cre- dentials of this Rune Stone, with the conclusion that the runes and the language of the inscription will yield "its own vindication or condemnation." Amerika, April 1, 1910. Huseby, Olaf. A defense of the language of the stone, particularly of the word from. Skandinaren, April 9, 1910.
Holand, H. R. A reply to Professor Flom's objections to the inscription, as pre- sented by him at the meeting, February 3, of the Chicago Historical Society. Skandi- naren, April 21, 1910.
Holand, H. R. "The Oldest Native Document in America ;" the address delivered before the Minnesota Historical Society as before noted, December 13, 1909, giving a narration of the finding of the Rune Stone, with affidavits relating thereto, and a full statement of the arguments, runic, and linguistic, on both sides of the controversy, showing the probable reliability of the inscription as a historical record. Journal of American History, Vol. IV. No. 2, pp. 165-184, April, 1910.
Bre:la, Prof. O. J. "Rundt Kensington-stenen." A satirical article. noting the improbabilities of an exploration so far inland, and reminding the reader of the adverse opinions uttered by Norse scholars when the stone was found. Symra. Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 65-80, May. 1910.
Dieserud, Juul. "Holand og Kensingtonspogen." Detailed objections against the language of the inscription. Skandinaren, May 4. and Amerika, May 13, 1910.
Winchell. Prof. N. H. News report entitled "I believe the Stone is Genuine." Norwegian American, Northfield, Minnesota, May 13, 1910. This article and others in the St. Paul and Minneapolis newspapers, May 10-12. contain extracts from the Report of the Museum Committee of the Minnesota Historical Society, read by Professor Win- chell at the society's monthly meeting, May 9.
Holand, H. R. "Kensington-stenen." Lengthy replies to Mr. Dieserud's objections stated in the foregoing article. Skandinaren, May 18 and 23, 1910.
Anderson, Prof. R. B. "The Kensington Rune Stone once more: Draw your own Conclusions." This article claims that one Andrew Anderson practically admitted to the writer that he and Olof Ohman, the finder of the stone, assisted a former preacher
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named Fogelblad in forging the inscription. Amerika, May 27, 1910; reprinted also in the Democrat, Madison, Wisconsin, of the same date.
Winchell, Prof. N. H. "Letters from Rune Suspects." Letters of Andrew Anderson and Olof Ohman, denying and disproving the preceding accusation, and showing the impossibility of any collusion between them. Voricegian American, June 10. 1910.
Anderson, Prof. R. B., and Prof. N. H. Winchell. "Opinions differ on Rune Stone." An interview with the former, accusing Rev. Sven Fogelblad of making inscription, and letters from the latter and from Andrew Anderson, refuting that statement. Minne- apolis Journal, June 10, 1910.
Iverslie, P. P. Rebuttal of the arguments against the inscription presented by Mr. Dieserud as before noted. Amerika, June 10, 17, and 24, 1910.
Daae. Dr. Anders. "Var Normandene i Amerika i 1362?" Review of recent develop- ments in the discussion, including a signed invitation from professors at Christiania University that the stone be brought there for renewed investigation. Aftenposten, Christiania, Norway, June 12, 1910.
Flom, Prof. George T. "The Kensington Rune Stone; a Modern Inscription from Douglas County, Minnesota." This address, delivered to the Illinois State Historical Society at its annual meeting, May 5-6, 1910, is a very elaborate array of arguments, from many points of view, against the genuineness of this rune inscription, with intima- tion that Mr. Fogelblad may have been its author. Publication with a large plate view of the rune stone, showing separately the records on its face and edge, and a plate of the runic alphabets used in the Scanian Law, the Lament of the Virgin, and this Ken- sington inscription.
Schaefer, Rev. Francis J. "The Kensington Rune Stone." Narration of the dis- covery, description of the stone, with a plate from photographs, and discussion of the inscription, concluding that it probably is genuine. Acta et Dieta (published by the St. Paul Catholic Historical Society), Vol. II, No. 2, pp. 206-210, July. 1910.
Dieserud, Juul. Restatement of his arguments against the stone. Skandinaren, July 11. 1910.
Holand. H. R. Reply to the article last cited. Skandinaren. July 29, 1910.
Holand. H. R. Report of a thorough investigation of the rumor relating to Sven Fogelblad, entirely exonerating him from complicity in authorship of the inscription. Skandinaren. August 4, and the Minneapolis Journal. August 9, 1910; reprinted in the preceding pages 57-60.
Iverslie. P. P. "Comments on the Rune Stone," in support of its genuineness. Norwegian American, August 12, 1910.
Grevstad, N. A. Editorial review of Professor Flom's address, before noted, the reviewer's conclusion being that the arguments in favor of the stone are stronger than its opponents admit. Skandinaren, September 5, 1910.
Holand. H. R. "Mere om Kensington Stenen." Statement of the geological features of the stone, and notes of the opinions of experts concerning the antiquity of the inscrip- tion. Skandinaren, September 17, 1910.
Petterson. A. E. An interesting summary of Icelandic traditions of late voyages to Vinland, supporting the genuineness of the stone. Skandinaren, September 24, 1910.
Holand, H. R. "Are there English Words on the Kensington Rune Stone?" An investigation of the supposed English words (the most common objection), showing them to be of ancient Norse usage, exhibiting philological features practically impossible for a forger. Records of the Past, Vol. IX, Part V. pp. 240-245, September-October, 1910.
CHAPTER IV.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
An eloquent and observant writer who some years ago had occasion to pen his observation regarding that portion of the beautiful Park Region of Minnesota. comprised within the borders of Douglas county observed that "the first settlers who pushed their way thus far beyond the confines of civilization, found a land of great natural beauty ; a land selected as a home by the Sioux and Chippewa, with love for the beautiful which Nature made an instinct in the savage. The sun shone as brightly then as now, the flowers bloomed as freshly and carpeted the wide waste with the same variegated hues of beauty, while the woodland, with its network of undergrowth, almost defied penetration to all else but natives of its own depths. It was, indeed, a beauti- ful land. In summer, a perfect paradise of flowers; in winter, a dreary, barren desert, with no trace of civilization. But today, how changed the scene. Rich fields of golden grain, magnificent farms, villages and cities have sprung up where so recently was naught but waste and desolation. The wintry blast which in former years drove the deer, bear and wolf to their hiding places, now signals the herd of the husbandman to comfortable shelter ; while the iron horse, swifter than the nimble deer, treads the path- way so recently the trail of the red man. A wealthy and prosperous land has grown up, filled with a happy and contented people-a land dotted with schools and churches; while, as each milepost in the history of the county is- passed, it seems to mark an era of new and increased prosperity."
Upon seeking to arrive at a definite conclusion regarding the very first settlement of any county or locality, the historian immediately is confronted by a difficult task. Fact and tradition are so closely interwoven in all state- ments relating to the beginning of a social order in any given community that it often is wholly impossible to differentiate between the two and to say of any given set of narratives bearing upon the first settlement, this is fact and this is merely tradition. And the situation confronting the historian in Douglas county is no exception to the rule. In the absence of any definite record or memoir of the pioneer period preserved against such a time as this there is no means at hand of acquiring absolute proof of historical state-
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ments covering the period that marked the first settlement hereabout in the time preceding the Indian outbreak, for it is known that there was some settlement here in the latter fifties of the past century. At the time of the uprising, however, those scantily protected settlers were scattered and, seek- ing safety in flight to more populous centers, did not return; hence there was a period following the appearance of the white man as a settler in this region that the land reverted to the waste and was unsought by such as other- wise would have gladly occupied the beautiful park region hereabout.
THE OLD RED RIVER TRAIL.
Though unpopulated by the white man until the period of the latter fifties, above mentioned, Douglas county was not unknown to civilization, for long before its actual settlement white men had been passing through on the old Red River trail which marked the passage to the Pembina colony and the rich trading posts of the farther Northwest, and the groaning creak of the ungreased axles of the Red river carts must have been familiar sounds to the savage denizens of the then wastes of this lake region long before the white man stopped to lay claim to one of the fairest spots on the globe. The old trail of the Red River Valley settlements passed through Douglas county, running about twelve miles south of the present line of the Great Northern railroad, and along the line of that famous trail there was carried on a con- siderable commerce many years before there were any actual settlements in this immediate vicinity.
Out of all the confusion relating to statements covering the period of pioneer days it may safely enough be declared that the first definite settle- ment made by whites within the boundaries now comprising Douglas county was during the summer of 1858, in August of which year Alexander and William Kinkaid made their historic settlement at the junction of the two lakes, Agnes and Winona, the present site of the beautiful city of Alexandria, the county seat, which bears its name in honor of Alexander Kinkaid. About that same time a settlement was made within the present limits of Holmes City township by one Holmes, Noah Grant and W. S. Sandford. Both parties arrived at their respective places of settlement at very nearly the same time, but which came first is a difficult matter to determine at this late date. By common consent the Kinkaids always have been accorded the honor of being regarded as the pioneers, but a brief historical sketch of Douglas county accompanying a plat-book of the county published in the middle eighties says that "some of the leading old settlers claim that the
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Holmes City party had been here some weeks before the Kinkaids arrived." However that may be, it is certain that in August, 1858, both parties were on the ground. Messrs. Holmes, Grant and Sandford came together from Shakopee. Mr. Holmes, who was regarded as the leader of the party, became the leader in that community during the short time he remained there and when the township came to be named it was given the name of Holmes City in his honor, while the little lake on which the settlement called Holmes City was established became known as Grant's lake, in honor of Noah Grant, an immediate contemporary of Holmes. Mr. Holmes only remained a year or two and then returned to Shakopee. Noah Grant enlisted in the army dur- ing the Civil War and upon the completion of his military service returned to Douglas county, but in 1867 went South, where he afterwards made his home. Sandford, it is said, left the county at or before the time of the Sioux rebellion.
THE KINKAID BROTHERS.
Alexander and William Kinkaid, bachelor brothers, were natives of Wilmington, Delaware, who, some years prior to 1858, the time of their settlement in Douglas county, had come West and had put in their fortunes with those early settlers who had come to Minnesota in territorial days. For some time they sojourned at St. Peter, which then had aspirations to become the capital of the state, and then pushed on northwest into Pope county, locating on White Bear lake, where they started a settlement which later developed into the thriving town of Glenwood. The following summer, the summer of 1858, they came on farther to the northwest on a prospecting expedition and upon arriving at the banks of Lake Agnes became so deeply impressed by the beauty of the spot that they determined there "to pitch their tent," and thus was the city of Alexandria brought into being. Returning to White Bear lake for their belongings the Kinkaid brothers soon made their way back to Lake Agnes and in August of that year made a perma- nent location on the site previously selected, being probably the first white men who had visited that particular spot. It was not long until other settlers were attracted to the spot and thus a thriving settlement presently sprang up on the attractive rise of ground to the south of Lake Agnes and on the east shore of Lake Winona, the site now covered by the city of Alexandria. The Kinkaid brothers built a log cabin on the knoll just south of where the Great Northern railway station now stands, and upon the arrival of other settlers almost immediately thereafter became instrumental in forming a townsite company, with a view of attracting others and thus establishing
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a city in the then wilderness. They secured the services of Gen. T. F. Bar- rett, of St. Cloud, a government surveyor, who surveyed and platted the townsite and the same was named Alexandria, in honor of the founder, Alexander Kinkaid. In order to promote the sale of lots and advertise the attractiveness of the new settlement, the Kinkaid brothers organized a town- site company, which included besides themselves Col. John Ball, of Winona; George F. Bratt, of St. Cloud; H. T. Welles, of Minneapolis, and A. . P. Wilson and P. L. Gregory, of St. Anthony. Though the township at that time had been run, it had not been sub-divided and the land hereabout had not been fully surveyed. It is narrated that through the agency of P. L. Gregory four hundred and forty acres of land' were located, the same being covered by Sioux half-breed script, obtained for this purpose by H. T. Welles from Franklin Steele, of Minneapolis, and to secure him for the advance made, the title to the town site was vested in Mr. Welles. William Kinkaid remained at the new settlement until 1861, in which year he received an appointment to a government clerkship and removed to Washington, D. C., where he died some time afterward. Alexander Kinkaid was made postmaster of the new town of Alexandria, when a station was established there late in 1858, the mail route at that time being from St. Cloud to Ft. Abercrombie, the mail then being carried, most of the time on foot, by one Evans, after whom the town of Evansville afterward came to be named. The postoffice at first was kept in the Kinkaid cabin, but when J. H. Van Dyke presently started a little store the office was removed to the same and later Van Dyke was made postmaster. Alexander Kinkaid continued to take a prominent part in the affairs of the new settlement, being one of the most active promoters of the growing village, but about 1868 went to Cali- fornia, where it is believed he spent the remainder of his life.
GRADUAL GROWTH OF THE NEW SETTLEMENT.
For some time after the establishment of the new settlement all the travel to and from Alexandria-what little there was-came from the south, along the edge of the prairie, following the line taken by the Kinkaids upon coming into this country. The old trail to the Red River settlements passed through the county, but there was very little travel upon that. A year or two after the Kinkaids came they opened a road north from the new town- site and in 1859 the government troops cut a road through the timber, east and west, establishing a military road, which afterward became a stage and state road and which, with a few changes in its course, is now one of the
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most extensively traveled highways in this part of the state, its course being through the towns of Osakis, Alexandria, Brandon and Evansville.
During the remainder of the year 1858 there was very little addition to the population of the county, though among those who came before the spring of 1859 were the families of P. L. Gregory, James Bedman, Charles Cook, J. A. James and Hugh O'Donnell. It was from St. Cloud that P. L. Gregory made his way to this section and he became a member of the Alexan- dria Town Site Company, and for several years took a prominent part in the work of developing the new settlement. The townsite company put up a log hotel near Kinkaid's building and Gregory moved his family from St. Cloud and occupied the hotel, the family making their way from St. Cloud, a distance of seventy miles, by ox-team. For several years the Gregory hotel was a favorite resort of the pioneers and is still often referred to in tales of the old days hereabout. Some years after locating at Alexandria Gregory was elected as a representative from this district to the state Legislature and returned to St. Cloud for residence. James Bedman, who also arrived in the fall of 1858, was an Englishman and a blacksmith by trade. He took a claim on the rise northwest of Lake Agnes and opened a little blacksmith . shop in which he followed his trade. Charles Cook, also a native of Eng- land, arrived with Bedman from Kandota, in Stearns county, but in 1867 he returned to his native land. Soon after the war broke out J. A. James, whose name is noted above, enlisted for service and did not return to Alex- andria. Hugh O'Donnell, who did good work for the townsite company; later took a claim nearby, but left in 1861 and years afterward was heard from as a resident of Pembina. Among others who came in the summer of 1858 were N. F. Barnes and Glendy King, the former of whom came from the state of Maine and the latter from Philadelphia. Barnes settled on a farm east of Lake Agnes, but in 1866 went to St. Cloud, whence he later went to California. King settled at the south end of Lake Winona, but in 1861 returned East, which section did not permanently claim him, however, for in the early eighties word was received that he had been killed in the Indian Territory.
As word of the new settlement over in the lake country became circu- lated others became attracted to the spot and during the year 1859 quite a number of settlers arrived in the county, the most of whom settled in Alexan- dria or in that immediate vicinity. Among these were J. H. Van Dyke, A. Darling and family, James F. Dicken, James Barr and family, Myron Col- oney and S. B. Cowdry. Van Dyke, who was a native of Pennsylvania, moved over from St. Cloud, arriving at Alexandria in the spring of 1859.
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During that summer he put up a log house on the height overlooking the lake, south of where the Great Northern freight depot now stands, and in that building opened up a small store, the first general store in Douglas county, and there continued doing business until the time of the Indian out- break. when the building was torn down and the goods moved within the walls of the stockade which the government meanwhile had erected on the same height overlooking the lake nearby the store, which also had been used as a postoffice and was thus regarded as the center of the new com- munity. A. Darling, who had come over from the neighborhood of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, took a claim on the banks of Lake Darling, and there he and his family remained until the time of the Indian outbreak, when they left for Missouri, intending to return when things had quieted down in this section, but in August, 1864, Mr. Darling was slain by Southern bushwhackers and his family returned to the homestead farm on Lake Darling, and there estab- lished their home anew. It was in the spring of 1859 that James F. Dicken, who is still living in Douglas county, one of its best-known and most hon- ored residents, had his first sight of this favored region. He passed through the new settlement at Alexandria on his way West on a prospecting trip, but returned in the fall, accompanied by Burton Sparry and Henry Whitcomb, and established himself on the shores of Lake Ida for the purpose of trap- ping and trading with the Indians. In August, 1862, he enlisted in the First Minnesota Cavalry, under Colonel McPhail, and remained in the service for thirteen months, at the end of which term of service he went to Missouri, in which state he renewed the acquaintance of the family of A. Darling, mar- ried one of the daughters of the family and in 1864 returned to Douglas county, which has ever since been his place of residence, his home long hav- ing been at his pleasant place one mile east of Garfield.
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Among the other original settlers whose memories have been recalled was James Barr, who also arrived in 1859, having come West from Phila- delphia. He entered a claim near the Darling place and remained there for several years, later becoming a resident of Ida township and still later moving on farther west and settling in the Dakotas. Myron Coloney, another of the settlers of 1859, is referred to in contemporary accounts as having been quite a character among the early settlers. He had for some time been engaged in editorial work on one of the St. Louis newspapers, was a writer of much talent and took an active interest in the affairs of the new settlement. He took a claim on the shores of Lake Ida and there estab- lished his home, building a log cabin into which he moved his effects, among which was a fine piano, his wife having been an accomplished musician. It
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was in the neighborhood of James F. Dicken's place on Lake Ida that the Coloneys settled and Mr. Dicken found pleasant relief from his lonely bache- lor quarters in the agreeable companionship of his neighbors. When the settlers were warned to flee at the beginning of the Indian outbreak the Coloneys returned to St. Louis, leaving their domestic belongings behind, and not long afterward their house overlooking the lake was destroyed by fire, the first piano in Douglas county thus being reduced to ashes. S. B. Cowdry, a native of the state of New York, whose name is noted above as one of the arrivals in 1859, took as a claim a farm in La Grande township, afterward owned by G. C. Whitcomb, but a year later left his claim shanty and moved into the settlement at Alexandria, where he took charge of the hotel which Charles Cook, the Englishman, had just given up, the profits of the humble inn not having been sufficiently remunerative to prove attractive. When the outbreak occurred Cowdry joined the others in the general flight to St. Cloud and did not return.
THE FIRST COUNTY GOVERNMENT.
In the meantime there was beginning to be some form to the civic affairs of the new community and a county government, for certain local purposes, had been set up. For some years after the creation of Douglas county by the Legislature it had been attached to Stearns county for civil and judicial purposes, but in 1859, there then having come to be a consid- erable settlement in and about the center of the county, a move was started to organize Douglas for administrative purposes. In this movement P. L. Gregory is said to have been the active leader and an election was held-the first election in Douglas county-in Gregory's hotel. Not all of the settlers were willing thus to assume the responsibilities of government and it is narrated that only a few voted. The returns of the election therefore were not recognized by the authorities and the election was held to be void. How- ever, during the session of the Legislature in the winter of 1858-59, a bill had been passed authorizing the organization of Douglas county for certain local purposes essentially administrative in their character and it was not long after the failure of the first citizens to exercise their right to the fran- chise that the governor appointed J. H. Van Dyke, S. B. Cowdry and A. Darling as a board of commissioners to set on foot a local government here- about. This board convened at the Van Dyke store and appointed the fol- lowing county officers : Register of deeds, Alexander Kinkaid; sheriff, J. A.
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