USA > Minnesota > Douglas County > History of Douglas and Grant counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume I > Part 19
USA > Minnesota > Grant County > History of Douglas and Grant counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume I > Part 19
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The present officers of La Grand township are as follow: P. M. Eng- lund, clerk: O. M. Englund, treasurer; S. M. Carlson, assessor ; Ole Satter- lund, S. J. Wedin and A. A. Magnuson, supervisors.
SPRUCE HILL TOWNSHIP.
Spruce Hill township was established on January 5, 1875. It com- prises congressional township 130, range 36. The first election was held at the school house in district No. 51, on March 9, 1875.
The odd sections in this township were part of the land grant of the St. Paul & Pacific Railway Company, and therefore were not available for
LAKE OSAKIS.
SPEARING FISH, LAKE OSAKIS.
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DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
homesteads. Some of the early settlers who located claims on the even numbered sections arrived here about the years given in the following list. Samuel Hasbrouck took land on section 2 in 1878, Stekan Slekicher on sec- tion 4 in 1876, Joseph Friet on section 6 in 1875, Michael Barta on section 8 in 1875, Ole Janson on section 10 in 1878, Tracy Bardwell on section 12 in 1878, Thomas Primrose on section 14 in 1875, Gilbert F. Sciven on section 18 in 1877, Louis Nilson on section 20 in 1875, Alvin Milligan on section 22 in 1879, Chester H. Bardwell on section 26 in 1878, Martin B. Hagblad on section 28 in 1875, Hans Matson on section 32 in 1875, and Andrew Lustig on section 34 in 1875.
The present officers of Spruce Hill township are as follow : Nels Nelson, clerk; Frans Anderson, treasurer; E. V. Larson, assessor; Axel Peterson, John Lindberg and Charles Hallock, supervisors.
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CHAPTER IX.
DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
In the days of the beginning of the settlement of this part of the state, the development of agriculture was probably as rapid as in any section of Minnesota. It already has been noted that the earliest settlers attracted to this region were of an energetic and thrifty type and little time was lost in bringing the wilderness under cultivation. In nearly all sections of the county there was a sufficient area of natural meadow to enable the settler to begin his farming operations at once, without the tedious and arduous labor of clearing a patch of land before he could get in his first crop and thus nearly all were enabled to make an immediate and effective start toward the tilling of the soil after the little log cabin had been erected as a temporary shelter for the family. Plenty of excellent timber was easily accessible for this latter purpose and with the expenditure of ordinary energy there was little to prevent the average family from becoming fairly comfortably settled within a year after taking up a location in the new country. Added to this abund- ance of good timber, the numerous running streams and the many lakes of good, pure water, together with the unbounded fertility of the virgin soil made this section an ideal one for settlement and it was not long after the tide of immigration had definitely settled in toward this part of the state that the most desirable lands were taken up by industrious and earnest home- steaders, who quickly brought their places under cultivation; by the time of the middle seventies it having been most effectually demonstrated that Douglas county was one of the garden spots of the state, a fact which the experience of the later years has served to accentuate.
LOCATION OF DOUGLAS COUNTY.
Douglas county is situated a little southwest of the central part of the state of Minnesota, in the division of the state known as the West Central Section, about one hundred and thirty miles northwest of the city of St. Paul, the state capital, and is nearly on the dividing ridge of that part of the state. Within a few miles of its north and west lines the waters flow north into the Red river, south into the Minnesota river and east into the Mississippi
195
DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
river. It lies in that part of the state which, from its beautiful lakes, streams - and prairies, dotted with groves of magnificent native trees, is appropriately named the "Park Region" of Minnesota. At Alexandria, nearly in the center of the county, the altitude is one thousand three hundred and ninety-one feet, and on the north line of the county it is somewhat over one thousand four hundred feet, being as high as any part of the state except the extreme northeast and southwest. The surface of the county is undulating, fine, level and rolling prairies, interspersed with living streams, beautiful lakes and magnificent woodland. An almost perfect drainage of the county is secured by several chains of lakes, flowing out through the Chippewa river in the western part of the county, into the Minnesota river, and through the Long Prairie river to the east into the Mississippi. There are about two hundred lakes in the county, many of them very deep, and most of which have high banks surrounded with beautiful timber extending close to the shores, with many fine sandy beaches. One of these, Lake Carlos, a few miles north of Alexandria, is said to be the deepest lake in the state, and has been sounded to a depth of one hundred and fifty feet. There is comparatively little marsh or wet land, and much of that has been, or can be, drained. An abundance of good, pure well water can always be found at an average depth of thirty feet.
LAND AND WATER AREA, TIMBER, SOIL AND CLIMATE.
Douglas county contains 722.6 square miles, divided into twenty town- ships, extending thirty miles from east to west and twenty-four miles from north to south. According to the United States government surveys it has an area of 462,500.62 acres, of which 401,014.74 acres are land and 61,485.88 acres water. The 1910 census report, however, increases the land area to 414.720 acres, a part of the increase being due to the drainage of shallow lakes and ponds within recent years.
Throughout the county of Douglas there is an abundant supply of choice timber. The northeastern side of the county has a heavy growth of native forest, while the central and western parts are dotted over with groves which furnish abundant fuel and shelter for stock. Much of the timber suitable for lumber has been cut, but there is still some remaining which can be used in building barns and other farm buildings. Much timber land has been cleared and converted into fine fields. Among the hardwoods native to the country are the maple, white, red and burr oak, ironwood, birch, ash and elm, while of the soft varieties the principal are the different varieties of poplar, basswood, soft maple, cottonwood, tamarack and spruce.
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DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
The soil, almost without exception, is of excellent quality. A heavy black loam, or a black sandy loam, from eight inches to six feet deep, with clay or hardpan subsoil, varying in depth from eighteen inches to several feet, prevails, forming a quality of land of a character best suited to bear the extremes either of wet or drought. There are several distinct classes of soil found in the county which may be termed-the black sandy loam prairie soil, the black loam prairie soil, the black sandy loam timber soil and the black loam timber soil, all of excellent quality and each having its special adaptability to particular crops. There is also the deep, rich black soil of the natural lowland meadows and of the lake bottoms which have been reclaimed by drainage, conditions thus described rendering the county ex- tremely well adapted to the demands of diversified farming.
The winters are generally cold and the summers generally warm, but this locality is not subject to those sudden and unexpected changes which are so fatal in their effects and which afflict seaboard and more southern regions. The atmosphere is clear, dry and pure and has a tonic property which braces and develops the energies and fits a man for great mental and physical exer- tion. It is declared by experienced travelers that a person will suffer far less bodily discomfort with the thermometer at twenty degrees below zero in this locality than he will in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio or Illinois with the thermometer indicating zero. Usually there is fine sleighing and no slush during the winter. In summer the nights are cool. Malarial diseases are unknown in this locality and the rating given to the state of Minnesota abreast of any other state in the Union for general health- fulness. Hail storms are not so frequent as in states further south and cyclones have seldom visited these parts. Hot winds, such as prevail in some sections, are practically unknown here.
TEMPERATURE, RAINFALL AND POPULATION.
The records of the United States weather department, kept at Alex- andria, show the mean annual temperature for the past twenty-one years to be 41.4 degrees. In 1914 the highest temperature was 95 degrees on August 8, and the lowest was 32 degrees below zero on February 8. According to an admirable review of crop conditions recently prepared under the direction of the Douglas County Agricultural Association, the average dates of the earliest and latest killing frosts for sixteen years up to 1908 are September 23 and May 18. The earliest frost in autumn during the sixteen years occurred on September 9 and the latest in the spring was on June 8. In 1914
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DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
the earliest frost was on September 22 and the latest in the spring was on May 10.
The mean annual rainfall for twenty years, 1888 to 1908, as kept by the weather station at Alexandria, was 24.23 inches, and for the six years, 1909 to 1914, it was 24.18 inches. In 1914 the total rainfall was 29.43 inches. The following figures show the mean rainfall at Alexandria, by months, for twenty years to 1908, and also for the five years, 1909 to 1913, during the months of April, May, June, July and August, which comprise practically the entire crop season, and show that the great bulk of the rainfall occurs during those months :
20 yrs.
5 yrs.
April
2.23
1.96
May
3.31
3.98
June
3.97
2.22
July
3.44
4.09
August
3.71
3.98
I
The foregoing figures show that the average growing season is one hun- dred and twenty-eight days, which compares favorably with southern Wiscon- sin, Iowa and northern Illinois, and is sufficiently long for the maturing of excellent crops of corn.
The population of the county in 1910 was 17,669, of which number 4,619 were foreign born, divided among the principal foreign countries as follow : Sweden, 1.998; Norway, 960; Germany, 753: Austria, 224; Denmark, 230; Canada, 116; Finland, 86; all other countries, 232. The different nationalities of the foreign-born population and their descendants are largely separated into distinct communities and settlements ; that is, there are Swedish, Norwegian, German, Bohemian, Danish and Finnish settlements.
FARMS AND PRINCIPAL CROPS.
According to the census of 1910 the number of farms in Douglas county in 1909 was 2,265, comprising 354,379 acres, the average size of the farm be- ing 156.5 as against 177 acres for the whole state. The percentage of all lands in farms was 85.4 and the percentage of improved land was 62, the average number of acres improved on each farm being 97. The value of farm lands was $10,694,213, and the value of all farm property was $16,- 312,224, the average value of farm land per acre being placed at $30.18. According to the 1914 report of the state tax commission the value of farm lands in that year had increased to $16,976.453, and the average value of land per acre to $42.84.
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DOUGLAS 'AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
Douglas county was long famous for raising the largest crops of wheat of any county in the state, holding the record for the highest average yield per acre for many years. In the earlier years of its history wheat and other cerals constituted its principal crops and little attention was given to the raising of corn, live stock or dairying. But the farmers have long since awakened to the fact that it does not pay to put all their eggs into one basket, and the methods of farming have for the past fifteen years been gradually changing. The acreage of wheat has been gradually decreased and that of corn increased, while more and more attention is being given to dairying and stock raising. The result has been better farming methods practiced in the raising of all crops, and increased prosperity.
The following gives the acreage and amounts of the principal crops raised in 1909, the latest date for which accurate statistics are available :
Acres.
Bushels.
Corn
8,927
308.805
Oats
23,385
820,913
Wheat
63,653
1,208,710
Barley
15,609
413,066
Rye
3,148
70,998
Flax seed
4,859
54.013
Timothy seed
401
2,135
Potatoes
1,532
178,466
Hay and forage
56,170
85.972
In 1915 corn increased to about twelve thousand acres, wheat decreased in acreage, while rye and potatoes largely increased. The following figures show the average yield per acre of Douglas county crops in 1909. compared with the average yield of the same crops in the state :
Average of Average of
State. Douglas County.
Corn
33.99 bu.
34.6 bu.
Oats
31.5
bu.
35.
bu.
Wheat, spring
17.4
bu
19.
bu.
Barley
22.2 bu.
26.5
bu.
Rye
16.6
bu
22.5
bu.
Flax seed
9.I
bu.
II.I
bu.
Hay and forage
1.53 tons
1.53 tons
Potatoes
119.8 bu.
116.5 bu.
1
1
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DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
Corn has been successfully grown in Douglas county for many years. In 1899 there were 6,593 acres; in 1909 the acreage had increased to 8,927; in 1915 there were at least 12,000 acres, which acreage was considerably in- creased in 1916. In the past few years, with the coming of farmers from southern Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois, who are skilled in its cultivation, the yield of corn has rapidly increased until it begins to rival the best yields of those states. Farmers also are raising more corn for fodder and, while in 1910 there was hardly a silo to be found in the county, there are now in the neighborhood of one hundred and fifty, there being at least twenty-five in one township alone. By the experiments of the State Agricultural College, a number of varieties of white and yellow dent corn have been produced that are well adapted to the county, mature early, yield well and are very successfully grown. Among these are Minnesota No. 23, Minnesota No. 13, Rustler White, Silver King, Reeves' Yellow Dent and others.
Douglas county farmers have taken a number of prizes at recent corn shows which are worthy of record here. At the corn contest of the Minne- sota Corn Growers Association held at Albert Lea, January 2 to 7, 1911, George McMahan was awarded the first prize for the northern section of the state for best ten ears of Minnesota No. 13. At the same contest Samuel Preston, of Carlos township, received the second prize for the best twenty- five ears of any variety, his corn being White Dent; and Eugene Korkowski, of Brandon township, received first prize for the entire state for the best ten ears of flint corn. And this flint corn was the best in the United States, for the second prize winner afterward entered his corn at the national corn show at Columbus, Ohio, and received first prize. In 1912 Mr. McMahan won first prize for the entire state for the best ten ears of white dent at the northwestern live-stock show at South St. Paul.
POTATO CULTURE, FRUITS, LIVE STOCK AND DAIRYING.
For vegetables, it is declared that no soil in the state is better suited than that of Douglas county. Potatoes, beets, turnips, onions and all kinds of garden and field vegetables grow to fine size and give large yields. The growing of potatoes for outside markets has in the past few years become an assured success and many carloads are now shipped each year outside the state at a good profit. No finer potatoes are grown in the state, a fact attested at the scoring at the county exhibits at the Minnesota state fair during recent years, where Douglas county potatoes came into competition with a large number of the best counties of the state; in one year, out of a
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DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
possible score of 150 points, Douglas county scoring 149, the highest of the twenty-three counties exhibiting. The next year the score was 147 points, the highest of the thirty-four counties contesting.
The first potato warehouse in the county was built at Garfield in 191I by a farmers co-operative company, and was so much of a success that in 1912 a second warehouse was built at that point, since which time warehouses have been built at Alexandria, Osakis, Brandon, Carlos, Nelson, Forada and Melby. As a consequence of this success the acreage of potatoes has in- creased to above four thousand acres and the potato crop is now becoming one of the leading crops of the county.
On many of the older farms of the county apples of good size and fine quality and other cultivated fruits are successfully grown, and within the past few years many thousands of hardy apple, crab, plum and cherry trees have been set out and are doing well. Forty-five varieties of apples were shown at the Douglas county exhibit at the state fair recently and the fruit exhibits as a whole have scored as high as many counties one hundred miles farther south. Large numbers of grape vines and strawberries also have been planted and the strawberry crop is especially fine. As much as four hundred dollars has been realized from one acre of strawberries. Wild fruits are abundant in all parts of the county, grapes, plums, raspberries. gooseberries and juneberries are excellent in quality and large in quantity.
The soil, climate, pure water and timber all combine to make this sec- tion especially adapted to stock raising and dairy farming. The soil and climate being well adapted to growing corn, clover, timothy, alfalfa and nutritious grasses, all kinds of stock do well and cattle and hogs especially are increasing rapidly. There have been in the past no serious diseases among cattle, very little hog cholera and very few diseases among horses, while sheep do extra well here, besides being a great aid in clearing up timber and brush lands. According to the bulletin of the Douglas County Agricultural Association above referred to, the creameries are getting the very highest prices for butter in the Eastern markets and taking premiumis wherever they enter butter in competition. There are now fourteen cream- eries in the county, eleven co-operative, two independent, and one large cen- tral creamery, with the largest capacity, when built, of any creamery in the state, owned by the North American Storage Company at Alexandria. A breeders association was formed in 1909, the first one to be organized in the state, and it has been quite successful, having about sixty members, covering about half the county. A number of full-blood Holstein and Guernsey sires have been purchased and hundreds of grade calves have been raised by its
FARM SCENE NEAR ALEXANDRIA.
EVIDENCES OF PROSPERITY.
WHEAT HARVEST SCENE.
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DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
members. The association has also stimulated outside farmers to purchase full-blood sires and twenty-five or thirty such sires are now owned by indi- viduals. Recent statistics show that the fourteen creameries had 1,917 patrons owning 15,107 cows, made 2,215,819 pounds of butter and paid out during the year $573,686.02 to patrons for butter fat. To this must be added the large amounts received by farmers for cream shipped to central cream- eries in adjoining counties and the amounts received by farmers for butter made upon the farms, which probably amounts to nearly as much as the sum received from the creameries in the county. A recent report of the Minnesota tax commission gave the numbers and value of the live stock in Douglas county as follow :
Number.
Value.
Cattle
30,281
$ 870,516
Horses
10,352
1,045,737
Swine
10,203
95,064
Sheep
3,512
14,802
RURAL MAIL DELIVERY, TELEPHONES AND GOOD ROADS.
Douglas county has a complete county system of rural free delivery routes by which every farmer in the county is reached. There is also a complete system of rural telephones maintained by eight companies, connect- ing with each other and with exchanges in Alexandria, Osakis and other villages, and with long-distance lines, covering nearly every part of the county and giving good service. The county is noted for its good roads, having many miles of first class graveled roads, which are being added to each year. The National Parks Highway, known as "The Red Trail," extending from New York to Seattle, passes through the county nearly parallel to the Great Northern railway, following practically the route of the old Red River trail, which was the highway for the famous old Red River carts in the days of the fur traders. This road is practically all now graded and graveled, as a state road, throughout its forty-mile course in the county.
Farmers clubs for the discussion of farm problems and for social inter- course flourish in Douglas county, nine or ten such clubs doing splendid work along those lines. There are also a number of farmers co-operative associations for conducting elevators, potato warehouses, the shipping of live stock and other produce, the buying of farm machinery and other bulky merchandise at wholesale, besides the co-operative creameries above men- tioned, and largely attended farmers institutes for the study of scientific
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DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
agriculture and farm problems, conducted by state experts, are held in differ- ent parts of the county every winter. The prices at which improved farmis can be bought in Douglas county vary considerable, according to circum- stances, ranging from forty dollars to one hundred and twenty-five dollars an acre. A successful county fair is held each year at Alexandria by the Douglas County Agricultural Association, which also makes an annual county exhibit at the state fair.
DOUGLAS COUNTY AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION.
The efforts to hold county fairs and agricultural exhibits in Douglas county have passed through three successive stages of development. From the very beginning of agricultural development in this section of the state, the farmers and business men of Douglas county have exerted their energies in the direction of making a creditable showing of the resources of the county and the annual exhibits, together with a constant succession of the exhibits of the county's agricultural resources at the Minnesota state fair. have done much to establish the reputation of this section as a region of much productivity. Early in the seventies voluntary exhibits began to be made in the village of Alexandria after the passing of the harvest season and on January 18, 1874, the Douglas County Fair Ground Association was organized and incorporated for the purpose of holding annual fairs in the village of Alexandria, the county seat, the articles of incorporation of this association having been signed by Christ H. Raiter, L. G. Sims, Hiram Ship- pey, Thomas F. Cowing, Fred von Baumbach, Charles Shultz, Charles F. Sims, J. B. Cowing, Knute Nelson, C. Offel, Charles Sonday, John A. Flesch, George H. Roe, Thomas W. Sprague, James H. Van Dyke, Joseph Gilpin, J. M. Doudna, Godfrey Vivian and Frank E. Lewis.
The above association established fair grounds and conducted annual exhibits with a varying measure of success for some years and was presently reorganized and succeeded by the Douglas County Agricultural Society, which filed articles of incorporation on April 2, 1888. This society was organized with a capital stock of ten thousand dollars, with the following stockholders: Fred C. Meade, of Hudson; John Landeen, of Ida; B. W. Blakesley, of Lake Mary; N. N. Hardy, of Alexandria; Mathias Kline, of Belle River; Jacob Kohlhaas, of Carlos: J. F. Dicken, of La Grand; D. E. Robinson, of Lake Mary; Frank Reynolds, Fred von Baumbach, J. H. Let- son and G. W. Robards, of Alexandria, and the following directors: F. C. Meade, John Landeen, B. W. Blakesley, Mathias Kline, Jacob Kohlhaas, J. F.
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DOUGLAS AND GRANT COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
Dicken and N. N. Hardy. The Douglas County Agricultural Society con- tinued holding county fairs and some very creditable exhibits were made from year to year, but finally the direction of the society gradually passed into other hands, too much attention was paid to the sporting side of horse racing and the sporting element which attached itself to the enterprise eventu- ally brought the county fairs into such local disrepute that the people of the county generally paid little attention to the same, attendance and interest both dwindling to such proportions that the society finally was disbanded and the fair ground was bought by the city of Alexandria for eventual park purposes or such purposes as may eventually be found most advantageous to the city, and the annual, county fair exhibits ceased for a time. During the years 1907-10, annual fairs were held at Alexandria under the auspices of the Alexandria Commercial Club.
On August 25, 1911, the present Douglas County Agricultural Asso- ciation was organized and on September 5 of that year filed articles of incor- poration, under the above title, the names and addresses of the incorporators being as follow: Nels Bye, of Urness ; Ole J. Berg, of Moe ; B. E. Howe, of Osagis; C. H. Cooper, of Carlos; John H. O'Brien, of Alexandria ; Fred C. Meade, of Hudson; John A. Johnson, of Ida; Theo. A. Erickson, J. A. Wedum, G. A. Kortsch and A. H. Gregerson, of Alexandria, with the fol- lowing officers: President, Theo. A. Erickson; vice-president, Fred C. Meade; secretary, George L. Treat, and treasurer, G. A. Kortsch. . This association has not yet purchased fair grounds, but has done a fine work in making a concerted effort to promote the agricultural interests of Douglas county and to introduce the advantages of this section as an agricultural region by means of well-designed publications and other forms of publicity to persons seeking homes in the beautiful park region of which the associa- tion's base of operations is the virtual center. Attractive exhibits have been made in the city of Alexandria with a view to showing the advance that has been made in recent years in the methods and results of modern farming and as a further means of interesting all in the wonderful agricultural possibili- ties of the county. The association also makes an annual county exhibit at the state fair and through this latter means has done much to attract the attention of people from all parts of the state to Douglas county.
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