USA > Minnesota > Douglas County > History of Douglas and Grant counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume I > Part 5
USA > Minnesota > Grant County > History of Douglas and Grant counties, Minnesota : their people, industries, and institutions, Volume I > Part 5
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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
1863. General Sibley's expedition to the Missouri river; July 3, Little Crow killed; July 24, battle of Big Mound; July 26, battle of Dead Buffalo Lake; July 28, battle of Stony Lake.
1864. Large levies for troops. Expedition to Missouri river, under Sully. Inflation of money market. Occasional Indian raids.
I865. Peace returns. Minnesota regiments return and are disbanded. In all 22,016 troops furnished by the state. Census shows 250,099 inhabitants.
1866-72 Rapid railroad building everywhere; immigration heavy; "good times" prevail, and the real estate inflated.
1873. January 7, 8 and 9, polar wave sweeps over the state; seventy per- sons perish. September, the Jay Cook failure creates another panic. Grasshopper raid begins and continues five seasons.
ยท 1876. September 7, attack on bank at Northfield by a gang of armed outlaws from Missouri; three of the latter killed and three captured.
1877. Biennial session amendment adopted.
1878. May 2, three flouring-mills at Minneapolis explode; eighteen lives lost.
1 880. November 15, portion of the hospital for the insane at St. Peter destroyed by fire; eighteen inmates burned to death, seven
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died subsequently of injuries and fright, and six missing ; total loss, $150,000.
1881. March I, the state capitol destroyed by fire.
1884. January 25, state prison partially burned.
1886 April 14, a tornado strikes the cities of St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids, demolishing scores of buildings and killing about seventy people.
I887. Important legislation regarding the liquor traffic, common carriers, and elections.
I889. The Legislature enacts the Australian system of voting in cities of 10,000 and over. The first electric street railway started in the state at Stillwater.
I890. United States census shows a population of 1,301,826. July 13, an excursion steamboat returning from Lake City encampment foundered on Lake Pepin, and 100 people drowned. July 13, tornado swept across Lake Gervias, in Ramsey county, demolishing several buildings and killing six people.
1891 June 15, a series of tornadoes started in Jackson county, near the town of Jackson, traversing Martin, Faribault, Freeborn, . Mower and Fillmore counties, on a line nearly parallel with, but from five to fifteen miles north of, the Southern Minnesota division of the Milwaukee & St. Paul railway, doing a large amount of damage to farms and farm buildings, and causing the death to about fifty people along the track of the storm.
1892. June 7, Republican national convention held at Minneapolis. The Australian system of voting used at the November general election.
1893. The Legislature authorizes the appointment of a capitol commission to select a site for a new capitol, and providing a tax of two- tenths of a mill for ten years to pay for the site and the erection of a building. A great financial crisis causes the failure of several banks and many mercantile and manufactur- ing establishments in the larger cities of the state.
1894.
September I. forest fires start in the neighborhood of Hinckley, in Pine county, carrying death and destruction over nearly four hundred square miles of territory, destroying the towns of Hinckley and Sandstone, causing the death of 417 people, rendering homeless and destitute 2,200 men, women and chil- dren, and entailing a property loss of about $1,000,000.
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1895. A census of the state was taken during the month of June, and the total population of the state was found to be 1,574,619.
1896. The Red Lake Indian reservation was diminished to about a quarter part of its former area, and on May 15 a large tract of agri- cultural and timber lands formerly belonging to that reserva- tion was opened for settlement.
1897. July 2, the monument at Gettysburg to the First Minnesota Regi- ment was dedicated.
1898. July 27, the corner stone of the new capitol was laid. Minnesota supplied four regiments for service in the Spanish-American War, being the first state, May 7, to respond to the president's call. October 5, the Pillager Indians attacked United States troops near Sugar Point, Leech lake.
1899. Semi-centennial of the territory and state celebrated by the Old Set- tlers' Association, June 1, and by the Historical Society, November 15.
I900. Population of Minnesota, shown by the national census, 1,751,394. Death of Senator C. K. Davis, November 27.
1901. In the Pan-American Exposition, at Buffalo, New York, the superior exhibits of wheat, flour, and dairy products of Minnesota. caused her to be called "the Bread and Butter State."
1902. August 23, the fortieth anniversary of the Sioux War celebrated at New Ulm. Monuments and tablets erected there and at other places in the Minnesota valley.
1903. Tide of immigration into Minnesota, particularly in northern and western sections. April 22, death of Alexander Ramsey, first territorial governor, later governor of the state, United States senator, and secretary of war.
1904. Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Minnesota exhibits win many first prizes for flour, butter, fruits, iron ores, work of pupils in schools, etc.
1905. January 3, Legislature convenes in the new capitol. The population, according to the state census, June I, was 1,979,912.
1906. September 3, live stock amphitheater on the state fair ground dedi- cated, with address by James J. Hill. Attendance at the fair on that day, 93,199; during the week, 295,000.
1907. Folwell Hall, the new main building for the College of Science, Literature and Arts, of the University of Minnesota, com- pleted at cost of $410,000 for the building and its equipment.
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The total number of students of this University enrolled in all departments for the year was 4,145.
1908. The fiftieth anniversary of the admission of Minnesota to statehood was celebrated in connection with the state fair, its attendance during the week being 326,753.
1909. Death of Gov. John A. Johnson as the result of an operation. at Rochester, Minnesota, September 21, 1909. Lieut .- Gov. Adolph O. Eberhart sworn in as governor by Chief Justice Start, in the Supreme Court retiring room, at II o'clock the same day.
1910. Population of Minnesota, shown by the national census, 2,075,708. Death of State Treasurer Clarence C. Dinehart, June 8. E. S. Pettijohn appointed to succeed, June II. Forest fires in northern Minnesota during the second and third week in Octo- ber, results in death to about thirty people and the destriic- tion of about $20,000,000 of property. Spooner and Baudette wiped out.
IQII. The Legislature ratified the proposed amendment to the United States Constitution for election of United States senators by popular vote. October 18, George E. Vincent was inaugurated presi- dent of the University of Minnesota.
1912. The Legislature in special session enacted a new primary election law and "corrupt practices" act. October 19, the statue of Governor Johnson on the capitol ground was unveiled.
1913. June 16-20, the American Medical Association held its sixty-fourth annual session in Minneapolis United States postal savings bank and parcel post inaugurated in Minnesota. Practical reforms in state road laws enacted. Work begun on the new building of the St. Paul Public Library and Hill Reference Library. New postoffice and new railroad depot building in Minneapolis. November 5. the historic Carver's cave, all trace of which had been lost for forty years or more, was definitely located.
1914. March, Minneapolis made the reserve city in the Northwest for the system of regional national banks. Remarkable impetus to building operations in Minnesota cities. April 4, Frederick Weyerhauser, extensive lumber operator, died in his winter home at Pasadena, California. April 15, plans adopted for St. Paul's new terminals and union depot. May 9, a bronze statue of Gen. James Shields, tendered by the Loyal Legion and the Grand Army
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of the Republic to the state of Minnesota, for a niche in the capitol. Unveiled in November; formally presented to the state by Commander Samuel Appleton, of the Loyal Legion; accepted by Governor A. O. Everhart; eloquent memorial address by Comrade and Companion John Ireland, archbishop. July 4-1I, the National Educational Association held its annual convention in St. Paul. November. Winfield Scott Hammond, Democrat, elected governor of Minnesota, defeating William E. Lee, Repub- lican nominee.
1915.
January 2, session of the thirty-ninth Legislature opened at the state capitol; Hon. J. A. A. Burnquist, lieutenant-governor, president of the Senate; H. H. Flower, speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives. January 3, Winfield Scott Hammond inaugurated governor of Minnesota. February 12, birthday of Abraham Lincoln observed by Minnesota Commandery of the Loyal Leg- ion by a banquet at the West hotel, Minneapolis. Oration by Bishop William A. Quayle, of the Methodist Episcopal church. February 19-20, forty-ninth annual convention of the Minnesota Editorial Association assembled at the St. Paul hotel, St. Paul, President H. C. Hotaling, presiding. December 30, death of Governor Hammond. December 31, Lieutenant-Governor Burn- quist assumed the office of governor.
1916. February, discovery of discrepancies in the office of Walter J. Smith treasurer of the state, and his subsequent resignation.
CHAPTER II.
GEOLOGY OF DOUGLAS COUNTY.
Douglas county lies in the west part of central Minnesota, about half way between the Mississippi river and Lakes Traverse and Big Stone. Alexandria, the county seat and largest town, is about one hundred and twenty miles west-northwest from St. Paul and Minneapolis. The county has a length of five townships, or thirty miles, from east to west, and a width of four townships, or twenty-four miles, from north to south. Doug- las county contains about 722.66 square miles, or 462,500.62 acres, of which about sixty thousand acres are covered with water.
SURFACE FEATURES.
Natural Drainage. The county is included wholly within the basin of the Mississippi river; but about half of it sends its waters to the Mississippi river by way of the Minnesota river. The Long Prairie river, tributary to the Crow Wing, drains the northeastern and central portions of Douglas county, having its sources in lakes Miltona, Ida, Carlos, Le Homme Dieu, and others. Osakis lake, on the east line of Douglas county, is the head of the Sauk river. The west part of this county is drained by the Chippewa river, excepting its northwest corner, where Lake Christina lies within the basin of the Pomme de Terre river. Lakes of large and small size abound in the county, especially in the region within ten or fifteen miles around Alexandria. The most notable have been described as follows by Rev. C. M. Terry :
"The lakes of Douglas county are unsurpassed for the purity of their waters, the beauty of their scenery and general attractiveness. There is a large number of them, as a glance at the map will show, but it is not the number so much as it is their beauty and variety which impresses anyone who studies them in detail.
"In the eastern half of Douglas county there is a chain of lakes remark- able for their purity, depth and beauty. They are all connected and lie within a radius of a dozen miles from Alexandria. Beginning with the most northern and highest of the chain, they are Irene, Miltona. Ida. Louise,
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Mill. Andrews, Mary. Lobster. Fish, Latoka, Cowdrey, Darling, Union, Childs, Victoria, Geneva, Le Homme Dieu, Carlos.
"Lake Miltona is the largest of the chain. It has an area of about nine square miles. It is six to seven miles long from east to west, and about two miles wide. It has two inlets, one at the eastern extremity and another at the northwestern. Its outlet on the southeastern side discharges into Lake Ida. The lake has an elevation above the sea of a trifle over fourteen hundred feet. Its shores in many places are bold and rise abruptly twenty to forty feet above the water. They are covered with forests except in a few places. The Leaf hills to the north, dun and hazy in the distance, are seen from the center of the lake. There are large areas of the lake which are shallow, and the bottom is covered with a dense growth of aquatic plants. Although a number of soundings were taken in different parts of the lake, only one place of considerable depth was found where the line showed eighty feet of water; this was a little south of the center. Other parts showed thirty to fifty feet, but the majority of soundings gave fourteen to twenty-five feet. Owing to the amount of vegetation growing, the water is not as free from foreign matter as some lakes. It is, however, clear, sparkling, with no tinge of yellow. There are some fine springs on the shores of this lake; and some stately forest trees, sugar maple, elm and basswood, flourish.
"Next in size and order is I.ake Ida. It is four and one-half miles long and one to one and a half miles wide. It has an area of about five square miles. It lies east of the central drift ridge, which divides the waters of the county. The surrounding country is massively rolling drift, and on the eastern side is well timbered. The water is very pure and crystalline. The shores are strewn with pebbles and small sub-angular boulders. There are very few reeds and bushes. The temperature of this lake on the 16th of August was 73 degrees F., surface; and 81 degrees F., air. The inlet of Lake Ida is at the northern end, where it receives the surplus water of Lake Miltona. The outlet is at the southeast corner, whence it flows south.
"The charming little Lake Latoka is only two miles from Alexandria. It is about one and one-half miles long and half a mile wide. It lies in a deep and quite uniform basin. It has average depth of fifty feet, the great- est being eighty feet. The bluffs around the north end at the outlet are from two to thirty feet high. The soil is sand and gravel. including some boulders. The water is remarkably pure and of a deep bottle-green color. The surrounding country is covered with forest.
"Lake Cowdrey, a few rods north of Latoka, is smaller in area but a
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very pretty lake. Here the surplus waters from some twelve or fourteen other lakes combine and send a deep, strong current north to Lake Darling.
"A sheet of water two miles long and a mile wide, surrounded by forests of stately trees, dry and bold shores, divided by a bar near the northern end into two basins, almost two lakes, this is Lake Darling. The inlet at the southern extremity pours continually into this lake the surplus waters of a dozen others. The depth varies from sixteen to fifty feet. The water is clear and pure.
"Lake Victoria receives the drainage from half a dozen smaller lakes at the south. There are two arms, an eastern and western; both have inlets and combine to form the main body of the lake. The western arm is much the larger. In this basin the great mass of the water lies. Its depth, near the center, varies from forty to fifty feet. The east arm is thirty to forty feet deep. Near the outlet the water becomes shallow and reeds are numerous. In the center of the lowest part of the lake the depth varies from twenty-two to thirty-eight feet. The water is not very pure; it contains a considerable amount of decaying vegetable matter, brought down from swamps and shallow lakes above. The shores of the Victoria are generally high and wooded. The banks, where exposed, are clay. A very short out- let, crossed by the Great Northern railway, brings us to the next link in the chain.
"Lake Geneva is nearly two miles long and half a mile wide. Its waters are clearer than those of Victoria. In some parts it is also con- siderably deeper. Soundings varying from thirty to sixty feet were made in the south part of the lake. There is clay in the surrounding bluffs, which rise ten to twenty feet above the water. The railway has made a long, high 'fill' at the inlet. In consequence of these facts the water holds in suspension considerable earthy matter, giving it at times a faint yellowish tinge.
"One of the charms of this chain of lakes and the country adjacent is the presence of fine, large forest trees, which the ravages of the 'woodman' have not laid low. For this reason the shores of these lakes are particu- larly attractive as places of resort in summer.
"Lake Le Homme Dieu has a quite irregular shape and lies in two distinct depressions of unequal depth. The long point that runs out from the west side is continued under water by a bar extending more than half way across the lake. In the southern basin, not far from the inlet, the water is from sixty to seventy-five feet deep. In various parts of this basin
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depths varying from twenty-five to fifty-seven feet were found. The lower basin at the north end of the lake is larger and includes a deep bay on the west side, but on the whole this portion of the lake is shallower than the other.
"As a whole, it is one of the most beautiful sheets of water in Minne- sota. The shores are moderately high and well rounded. It is separated only by a narrow bar from Lake Carlos. The water is clear and pure. In this respect there is a gradual improvement as we proceed down the chain. Geneva is purer than Victoria, Le Homme Dieu is purer than Geneva, and Carlos is purest of them all.
"Lake Carlos is the gem of this group of lakes. It is the last and low- est of the series. It is the immediate source of Long Prairie river, which forms its outlet at the northeast corner. It has two inlets, one from lake Darling at the southern extremity, and the other from Lake Le Homme Dieu. It thus receives the surplus waters of all the other lakes north and south and the drainage of six townships. The lake in some places is one hundred and fifty feet deep, and there is a channel averaging fifty feet deep, extending the entire length of the lake. The deepest area is not far from the Le Homme Dieu inlet. There are shallow areas where the water is only five to ten feet deep, further down the lake. It is about five miles long and a mile wide. The water is perfectly pure, of a deep, bottle-green color. The color, however, varies with the sky and weather, and is sometimes a deep indigo and sometimes a light delicate blue. In this lake, as in many others, which have been explored with the sounding line and other appliances for discovering what lies at the bottom, it was found that there are, under the level surface of the water, a variety of hill and dale, plateaus, ravines, abrupt declivities and gradual slopes very similar to the irregularities of the county around. Vegetation, too, flourishes beneath the waves as vigor- ously as on the main land, while the waters are thronged with fish of many species and of delicious flavor.
"There are many indications about the shores of these lakes of former higher levels of water. There are old beaches and half-obscured terraces which show that the lakes were connected at no very remote date. The whole of the 'Alexandria prairie,' which lies between the two chains of lakes, is modified drift. The gravel, sands and clays are finely stratified and record the fact that at the close of the ice age some ancient river with gentle current flowed here, rearranging and depositing in their present posi- tions the materials which the glacier had brought down.
"On the eastern boundary of Douglas county, but lying chiefly in
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Todd county, is Lake Osakis. It is about seven miles long. The southern part is a mile and a half to two miles wide. The northern part is narrow and deep. The depths at the upper end of the lake varied from forty to seventy feet. In the broader part of the lake there are large areas of shallow water, varying from five to fifteen feet, the average depth being about twenty- five feet. Around the southern end of the lake, the prairie slopes down gradually to the water's edge. Some of the shores are low and wet. At other points they are from ten to twenty feet above the water. The water varies in purity. In the deep parts at the north end it was quite pure. In shallow places and where the wind stirs the whole volume to the bot- tom, it has the yellowish hue characteristic of the more alkaline lakes.
"Among the hills in the southern part of Douglas county are a multi- tude of small lakes, the largest of which is Lake Oscar. The surrounding country is rolling, and there are some abrupt declivities and massive hills of drift, whose summits are from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet above the lakes. There is a fringe of oaks about the lake, and a forest on the northeast stretches away to Alexandria and beyond. . Toward the west and south lies a prairie country. The outlet of Lake Oscar, in high water, is into the Chippewa river. Its only tributaries are other and smaller lakes. The basin is subdivided by various points and bars. The outlet is very irregular. This interlocking of the water gives the most charming scenery. The shores are bold, being in several places thirty to forty feet above the water. The lake is about thirty feet deep in its largest basin, growing shal- lower, of course, about the shore's points.
"In the extreme northwestern part of the county is Lake Christina, which has an area of about six square miles, but is very shallow. The water is decidedly yellow and muddy. It is full of reeds and rushes. Its shallow depth and the rills and rivulets pouring down from clay deposits keep it looking very much like the Missouri river. It is rather exceptional in this respect among the lakes of this region."
Maple lake, in the southern part of the county, and Smith lake, in the southeastern part, are both fine, deep lakes.
Topography. The south edge of the great terminal moraine called the Leaf hills extends into Lund along the north side of Lake Christina and into Millerville north of Lakes Moses and Aaron. Its elevations in these townships along the north line of Douglas county are one hundred to two hundred and fifty feet above the lakes, or thirteen hundred to sixteen hundred feet above the sea.
At the highest point of the Leaf hills in Otter Tail county, fifteen miles
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south of the Leaf lakes, a morainic belt branches off nearly at right angles from the range of the Leaf hills and extends southeast into Douglas county. In the first few miles this moraine decreases in height from two hundred to seventy-five feet. At the north line of Douglas county it divides into two divergent belts, both showing a rough and broken surface, though the hills of each are only seventy-five feet or less in height. One of these continues south- east and east through Spruce Hill township into Todd county; the other runs south-southwest to the northwest side of Lake Miltona, along the west side of Lake Ida, by Elk lake and the west part of Lake Lobster, to the con- spicuous hills, about one hundred and fifty feet high, at the southwest corner of Moe. Each of these belts averages about one mile wide. The latter in its farther extent, seems to leave by a continuous course from the prominent Leaf hills to the almost equally noteworthy morainic range which extends through a distance of forty miles in southern Pope and northern Kandiyohi counties.
From the hills in Moe and the northeast part of Solum, lying on the north and west sides of Lake Oscar, this terminal moraine, seldom much ele- vated above the adjacent country, but distinguished by its irregular hills and hollows, continues with an average width of about one mile, first southwest and south twelve miles to the bridge across the Chippewa river in section 32, Nora township, in Pope county; then southeast, east, and east-northeast eighteen miles, passing along the north side of Lake Whipple to Glenwood. It will probably be found traceable, also, by low knolls and ridges, from the bridge in Pope county to the hills in Blue Mounds township, in the same county. About three miles southwest from the course of this moraine, a roughly broken tract of morainic hillocks and ridges was noted.
Most of northwestern Douglas county, between the Leaf hills and lake Christina on the north and the moraine that extends from Lakes Miltona and Ida southwest to Lake Oscar, is prominently rolling till, rising with smooth slopes in swells thirty to fifty feet above the depressions and lakes. Tlie most rolling portion of this area is found in the west part of Ida township, and on a belt several miles wide southwest from the Great Northern railway. Northwest from Brandon station a tract of moderately undulating and partly level gravel and sand, belonging to the modified drift, extends to the Chip- pewa river; and in Millerville nearly level modified drift extends two or three miles south and east from Lake Moses, having a height of twenty to forty feet above this lake. The same formation of gravel and sand con- tintes northward on the east side of Lake Karon to the moraine, but in this portion it has a moderately undulating surface.
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