History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 109

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Minnesota > Fillmore County > History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota > Part 109

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Hamilton, in the year 1858, was metropolitan, so far as a gang of organized thieves were con- cerned, who were bound together by an oath that they would support, stand by, and defend each other. They would steal anything that could be carried off, but made horses a specialty. The gang was made up almost entirely of home talent, and it was with the utmost difficulty that the hon- est members of the community ridded themselves of the pest, by organizing what was termed a "vigilance committee." Upon one occasion this last mentioned association turned out, and after collecting the population of the village together, made the announcement that as they had received sufficient evidence as to those who had been com- mitting depredations, they were now prepared to "lynch" those who had been implicated! At this one hundred shooting arms were brought into

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view! Imagine their surprise when a number of the most influential citizens broke from among the crowd and made for the woods as fast as boots and hair standing on end would take them. But this matter, as it involved not only Hamilton and the town of Sumner, but also this entire portion of the country, is dealt with in the county article.

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH .- The first service held for this denomination was held at an early day by Rev. Crist. The organization was effected in 1860, and in 1871, the church edifice was erected at a cost of about $2,700, being an excel- lent frame building in the eastern part of the village.

WASHINGTON VILLAGE.

This has not the necessary concomitants requi- site for a village, and therefore must be designated as a hamlet. It is situated in the northern part of section thirty-six, a few rods north of the middle branch of Root River. Of the villages of Sumner, this comes second in importance. The early set- tlement of the village was commenced in 1855, Rider & Wolfe, of Indiana, putting up the first building. The village was laid out and recorded in 1856, by John H. Maine. In 1858, the first store building was erected by Joseph Bongardner, and he placed a stock of goods on the shelves. A Post-office was established about this time. It is now kept in the store in the village.

WASHINGTON CEMETERY .- The burial ground known under this caption was laid out by Mr. Rider in 1857, on section twenty-five. It now contains the remains of about sixty-five persons.

The village of Washington now contains ten buildings; one general merchandise store, Post- office, two blacksmith shops, schoolhouse and dwellings. The Post-office at this point was estab- lished in 1859, J. H. Tedman being first ap- pointed Post-master.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

HENRY AMBROSIO was born in Italy, on the 2d of June, 1824, and came to America in March, 1852. For three years he was a clerk in the dry goods house of A. T. Stewart in New York City, and then went to the California gold mines. He en- listed in the army in 1860, and served fourteen years as Quartermaster Sergeant. In 1874, he came to Sumner and bought a farm of sixty acres, on section twenty-four, on which he built a fine residence, and has made other valuable improve ments.

GULIELMUS CARTER was born in Becket, Berk- shire county, Massachusetts, on the 1st of Decem- ber, 1799. In 1813, he went to New York, in 1834, to Michigan, and in the fall of 1853, came to Sumner, where he has since resided. He was united in marriage, on the 15th of September, 1827, with Miss Letsey Thompson, who was born on the 3d of December, 1804, and has borne him two children, only one of whom is living. Mr. Carter is quite aged but is very active, and has the full use of his senses. He is the oldest man in the town of Sumner. His grandmother was thrown from a carriage and instantly killed, while his grandfather died a natural death, being ninety years old.

DANIEL DAVIS was born in Vermont on the 2d of January, 1805. In 1853, he emigrated to America, coming directly to Sumner, Fillmore county, where he has a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in section twenty-nine. He was united in marriage with Miss Catherine Keck, who bore him one son, Alfred. He was on picket duty while serving in the Twenty-ninth Ohio Regiment, aged twenty-two years.

JOHN D. GREGORY was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 17th of May, 1830, and two years later re- moved with his parents to Pennsylvania, and in 1849, to Iowa. On the 1st of April, 1855, he mar- ried Miss Olivia Robb, who has borne him ten children, six of whom are living, four at home and two married. In the same month of his marriage he removed to this county and settled in Sumner township, section eight, where he engaged in farming until 1876, then removed to Hamilton and purchased the Hamilton House, of which he has since been the proprietor. In 1881, he opened a dry goods and grocery store, which he also carries on.

REUBEN GASPER, & native of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was born on the 22d of July, 1836. He traveled in different States and territories until 1860, when he came from Illinois to Chat- field, Minnesota. He enlisted in the Ninth Min- nesota Volunteer Infantry, Company A, and served one year and a half. In the fall of 1866, he returned to Minnesota and purchased forty acres of land in section twenty-six in Sumner, where he now lives. He was married in 1863, to Miss Jennie Steel.

D. E. GREEN was born in Vermont, on the 27th of April, 1852, and three years later his parents,

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John S. and Mary A. Green, came to Sumner, Minnesota, and located on section thirty. His father died in July, 1877. On the 28th of Jan- uary, 1878, D. E. was united in marriage with Miss Rose E. Babcock.

M. L. HARWOOD was born in New York, on the 1st of February, 1832, and ten years later removed to Michigan, where he remained until the fall of 1853, when he came to Pleasant Grove, and in the spring of 1854, to the town of Jordan. In 1855, he married Miss Mary Ann Winans, who has borne him three children, one girl and two boys. In 1860, he came to Sumner township and bought a farm on section thirteen, on which he has made valuable improvements. He was a member of the board of Supervisors in 1872 and '73. Mr. Harwood is director of school district No. 123. He is a member of the Masonic order and takes a deep interest in public affairs.

H. S. H. HAYES was born in Barrington, Strafford county, New Hampshire, on the 22d of February, 1824, in the same house where four gen- erations of the family were born. In December, 1852, he came to Illinois, and the next May landed in Brownsville, Minnesota, and walked to Elliota with a company of immigrants and parties looking for land. In the same month, he with D. D. Fraser and David Allen, started on a voyage of discovery to the headwaters of Root River. They found a country that suited them but no traces of white men, the land not having been surveyed. On the 28th of May, 1853, Mr. Hayes staked out a claim where he now lives, and it happened to be in Sumner, section twenty-seven. He lived in a tent during the summer, and in the fall built a log house sixteen and one-half feet square, in which he lived four years, then erected the house he now occupies. He was united in marriage, on the 28th of June, 1854, with Miss Clara J. Fernald, of his native place. He has never raised wheat as ex- clusively as his neighbors, but has devoted more attention to stock, especially during the last four years, taking no little pride in his high grade of short horn cattle, Norman Percheron colts, and Poland China hogs. In 1854, he was elected Justice of the Peace and County Commissioner, in 1861, was town Superintendent of Schools, and has also served five years as Assessor. In June, 1860, he united with the Congregational Church of Hamilton at its organization. Mrs. Hayes died on the 3d of September, 1871, leaving one child, a boy, who now lives with his father.

JOHN KELLY, a native of Ireland, was born on the 2d of April, 1830, emigrated to America in 1846, and settled in Wayne county, Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1851, then went to work on the railroad. On the 23d of August, 1854, he married Miss Mary Kelley. In 1856, he came to Olmsted county, Minnesota, where he pre-empted land, and in 1862, purchased his present farm in Sumner, section six. In November, 1874, he moved his family to their new home, and his time has since been devoted to its improvement. Mr. and Mrs. Kelly have had nine children, seven of whom are living. The oldest daughter, Mar- garet is teaching school.

JOHN NEILL is a native of Ireland, born in 1812. In 1847, he emigrated to America, remained in New York until 1865, when he purchased his present farm in Sumner, section nineteen. He was married on the 15th of July, 1844, to Miss Jane McGunnis, who bore him eight children, six of whom are living. She died in 1869, and Mr. Neill was again married in 1877, to Miss Nancy Cocken.

J. F. NEWELL was born near Dubuque, Iowa, on the 21st of September, 1847. In 1851, he came with his parents to Wisconsin, and in three years they returned to Iowa where his father died. In 1858, his mother came to Fillmore county, and in 1869, Mr. Newell purchased his farm on section twenty-seven. On the 16th of October, 1870, he married Miss Eliza Thresher, who has borne him two children.

F. A. NEILL was born in Ireland on the 5th of February, 1847, and came with his parents to America, settling in Westfield, Chautauqua county, New York. In 1865, his family removed to this county, aud settled in Sumner township. When twenty-one years old he engaged to work for M. J. Hoag, and in 1870, for J. H. Hale, where he re- mained six years, during which time he saved $2,400. Mr. Neill was married on the 1st of April, 1876, to Miss Mary E. Parkinson, a native of this township. Hethen purchased his present farm in section twenty-nine. They have two chil- dren; Benjamin F., born the 1st of June, 1877; and Floyd P., born in 1881, and these two boys have nine grand-parents living.

WILLIAM W. PARKINSON was born in Madison county, Illinois, on the 14th of July, 1837, and removed with his parents to La Fayette county, Wisconsin, in 1841. In the fall of 1854, he came

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to Chatfield, Fillmore county, and drove team from there to Winona through the spring and summer of 1855. On the 15th of July, of the latter year he married Miss Augusta M. Freeman, the cere- mony being performed at her father's residence, on what is now known as "Easton's trout brook farm," by George M. Gere. They have been blessed with four children, two boys and two girls. The eldest, a son, lives in Crookston, and the next in age is a daughter, who is married and has two children, who boast of nine grandparents, one of whom is a great-great-grandfather, the ven- erable Martin Rowley, of Lewistown, Illinois. Mr. Parkinson has always been an active worker in the Sunday Schools, and for many years a Su- perintendent. He has also held important posi- tions on different committees in the democratic party, and was once elected to represent his party in the State Convention. He located on his pres- ent farm in 1857, and has since devoted his time to its improvement and to raising stock. He has an extensive farmer's library, which cost about $300.

E. D. PERRIN was born in Vermont on the 5th of October, 1817. In 1839, he removed to Illi- nois, where he remained three years, then came to Wisconsin, and in 1857, to Minnesota. He pur- chased his farm in Sumner, one hundred and sixty acres, in section twenty-one, where he still resides. He was united in marriage with Miss Renia Tucker, who has borne him three children, one liv- ing in Kansas, one in Texas, and one at home.

W. PERRIN was born in Vermont on the 26th of December, 1815, and remained in his native State until 1859, then went to Wisconsin. In 1867, he came to this county and purchased his present farm in Sumner, in sections thirty and nineteen. In March, 1870, he was united in marriage with Mrs. Susan Brown, who has borne him two chil- dren.

DR. A. PLUMMER was born in Cheshire county, New Hampshire, on the 7th of September, 1840. He was assistant surgeon during the war, had & private practice afterwards, and graduated at Bow- doin College, Maine. In 1867, he came to Sum- ner township and settled in Hamilton, where he still resides as a practicing physician. On the 10th of October, 1872, he married Miss Isabelle Steer. They have had three children, but one of whom is living.

WILLIAM RUCKER was born in Virginia on the

14th of February, 1803. In March, 1828, Miss Catherine Bowyer became his wife. In 1834, he emigrated to Indiana, where he remained until 1854, then came to Minnesota and located in Jor- dan. Mr. and Mrs. Rucker were blessed with two children, but one of whom is living. His wife died in July, 1856, and four years later he mar- ried Mrs. Mary S. Friend, who had four children. He purchased his present farm in Sumner, section thirty-four, on the 11th of January, 1881.

J. L. ROBINSON was born in New York on the 15th of May, 1846, and remained there until 1865, when he came to Minnesota and located in Pilot Mound. On the 3d of January, 1868, Miss Mary Augusta Gould became his wife, and a year later they moved to Jordan, this county, and in 1875, to Sumner, where he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land in section twenty. He has improved the farm and still makes it his home. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson have had seven chil- dren, six of whom are living, five at home, and the oldest at school in Pennsylvania.

CHARLES SANDTE was born in Germany on the 21st of July, 1828. In 1856, he came to America and settled in New York. On the 15th of July, 1857, he married Miss Catherine Seibdt, and the same year purchased his farm in Sumner, section eight. They removed there in 1863, and it is still their home. Mr. and Mrs. Sandte have had four children, three of whom are living.

HENRY SHRODER was born in Hanover, Germany, on the 3d of January, 1858, and in 1869, emi- grated to America, coming to Minnesota and loca- ting in Sumner. He purchased one hundred and eighty acres of land in sections twenty-seven and twenty-eight. On the 22d of July, 1877, he mar- ried Miss Catherine Keffer, who has borne him two children, one of whom is living, a daughter. His son died in February, 1882, and is buried at Spring Grove. In the fall of 1877, much of his property was destroyed by a fire which caught from a steam thresher.

D. N. ST. JOHN, a native of New York, was born on the 15th of October, 1837, and removed to Wisconsin in 1844. He was married on the 23d of December, 1860, to Miss Laura Brown. In 1868, he purchased his present farm in Sumner township, section thirty-two, and has since de- voted his time to improving it. Mr. and Mrs. St. John have had eight children, six of whom are living.

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CHRONOLOGY.

J. A. STOUT was born in Michigan, on the 24th of May, 1830. In 1852, he married Miss Mary Gove, who died in Iowa on the 14th of November, 1864. In 1854, he came to Minnesota and settled in Sumner, where he engaged in building mills, being a millwright by trade. In 1866, he was

married to Miss Sarah Morrill. He has located in section thirty-four. In 1858, he was a member of the board of Supervisors and served five years, in 1865, he was again elected and served two years, and still another two years beginning with 1872.

CHRONOLOGY.

CHAPTER LXXIII.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED.

1659. Groselliers (Gro-zay-yay) and Radisson visit Minnesota.

1661. Menard, a Jesuit missionary, ascends the Mississippi, according to Herrot, twelve years before Marquette saw this river.

1665. Allouez, a Jesuit, visited the Minnesota shore of Lake Superior.

1679. Du Luth planted the arms of France, one hundred and twenty leagues beyond Mille Lacs.

1680. Du Luth, the first to travel in a canoe from Lake Superior, by way of the St. Croix river, to the Mississippi. Descending the Mississippi, he writes to Signelay, 1683: "I proceeded in a canoe two days and two nights, and the next day, at ten o'clock in the morning, found Accouit, Augelle, and Father Hennepin, with a hunting party of Sioux." He writes: "The want of respect which they showed to the said Reverend Father provoked me, and this I showed them, telling them he was my brother, and I had placed him in my canoe to come with me into the villages of said Nadouecioux." In September, Du Luth and Hen- nepin were at the Falls of St. Anthony on their way to Mackinaw.

1683. Perrot and Le Sueur visit Lake Pepin. Perrot, with twenty men, builds a stockade at the base of a bluff, upon the east bank, just above the entrance of Lake Pepin.

1688. Perrot re-occupies the post on Lake Pepin.

1689. Perrot, at Green Bay, makes a formal record of taking possession of the Sioux country in the name of the king of France.

1693. Le Sueur at the extremity of Lake Su- perior.

1694. Le Sueur builds a post, on a prairie island in the Mississippi, about nine miles below Hastings.

1695. Le Sueur brings the first Sioux chiefs who visit Canada.

1700. Le Sueur ascends the Minnesota River. Fort L'Huillier built on a tributary of the Blue Earth River.

1702. Fort L'Huillier abandoned.

1727. Fort Beauharnois, in the fall of this year, erected in sight of Maiden's Rock, Lake Pepin, by La Perriere du Boucher.

1728. Verendrye stationed at Lake Nepigon.

1731. Verendrye's sons reach Rainy Lake. Fort St. Pierre erected at Rainy Lake.

1732. Fort St. Charles erected at the south- west corner of the Lake of the Woods.

1734. Fort Maurepas established on Winnipeg River.

1736. Verendrye's sons and others massacred by the Sioux on an isle in the Lake of the Woods.

1738. Lort La Reine on the Red River estab- lished.

1748. Verendrye's sons reach the Rocky Moun- tains.

1766. Jonathan Carver, on November 17th, reaches the Falls of St. Anthony.

1794. Sandy Lake occupied by the Northwest Company.

1802. William Morrison trades at Leach Lake.

1804. William Morrison trades at Elk Lake, now Itasca.

1805. Lieutenant Z. M. Pike purchases the site since occupied by Fort Snelling.

1817. Earl of Selkirk passes through Minne- sota for Lake Winnipeg.

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Major Stephen H. Long, U. S. A., visits Falls of St. Anthony.

1818. Dakotah war party under Black Dog attack Ojibways on the Pomme de Terre River.

1819. Col. Leavenworth arrives on the 24th of Angust, with troops at Mendota.

1820. J. B. Faribault brings up to Mendota, horses for Col. Leavenworth.

Laidlow, superintendent of farming for Earl Sel- kirk, passes from Pembina to Prairie du Chien to purchase seed wheat. Upon the 15th of April, left Prairie du Chien with Mackinaw boats and ascended the Minnesota to Big Stone Lake, where the boats were placed on rollers and dragged a short distance to Lake Traverse, and on the 3d of June reached l'embina.

On the 5th of May, Col. Leavenworth estab- lished summer quarters at Camp Coldwater, Hen- nepin county.

In July, Governor Cass, of Michigan, visits the camp.

In August, Col. Snelling succeeds Leavenworth. September 20th, corner-stone laid under com- mand of Col. Snelling.

First white marriage in Minnesota, Lieutenant Green to daughter of Captain Gooding.

First white child born in Minnesota, daughter to Col. Snelling; died following year.

1821. Fort St. Anthony was sufficiently com- pleted to be occupied by troops.

Mill at St. Anthony Falls constructed for the use of garrison, under the supervision of Lieuten- ant McCabe.

1822. Col. Dickson attempted to take a drove of cattle to Pembina.

1823. The first steamboat, the Virginia, on May 10th, arrived at the mouth of the Minnesota river.

Mill stones for grinding flour sent to St. An- thony Falls.

Major Long, U. S. A., visits the northern bound- ary by way of the Minnesota and Red River.

Beltrami, the Italian traveler, explores the northernmost source of the Mississippi.

1824. General Winfield Scott inspects Fort St. Anthony, and at his suggestion the War De- partment changed the name to Fort Snelling.

1825. April 5th, steamboat Rufus Putnam reaches the Fort. May, steamboat Rufus Putnam arrives again and delivers freight at Land's End trading post on the Minnesota, about a mile above the Fort.

1826. January 26th, first mail in five months received at the Fort.

Deep snow during February and March.

March 20th, snow from twelve to eighteen inches. April 5th, snow-storm with flashes of lightning. April 10th, thermometer four degrees above zero. April 21st, ice began to move in the river at the Fort, and with twenty feet above low water mark.

May 2d, first steamboat of the season, the Law- rence, Captain Reeder, took a pleasure party to within three miles of the Falls of St. Anthony.

1826. Dakotahs kill an Ojibway near Fort Snelling.

1827. Flat Mouth's party of Ojibways attacked at Fort Snelling, and Sioux delivered by Colonel Snelling to be killed by Ojibways, and their bodies thrown over the bluff into the river.

General Gaines inspects Fort Snelling.

Troops of the Fifth Regiment relieved by those of the First.

1828. Colonel Snelling dies in Washington.

1829. Rev. Alvin Coe and J. D. Stevens, Pres-

byterian missionaries, visit the Indians around Fort Snelling.

Major Taliaferro, Indian agent, establishes a farm for the benefit of the Indians at Lake Cal- houn, which he called Eatonville, after the Secre- tary of War.

Winter, Spring and Summer very dry. One inch was the average monthly fall of rain or snow for ten months. Vegetation more backward than it had been for ten years.

1830. August 14th, a sentinel at Fort Snelling, just before daylight, discovered the Indian council house on fire. Wa-pa-sha's son-in-law was the incendiary.

1831. August 17th, an old trader Rocque, and his son arrived at Fort Snelling from Prairie du Chien, having been twenty-six days on the journey. Under the influence of whisky or stupidity, they ascended the St. Croix by mistake, and were lost for fifteen days.

1832. May 12th, steamboat Versailles arrives at Fort Snelling.

June 16th, William Carr arrives from Missouri at Fort Snelling, with a drove of cattle and horses.

Henry R. Schoolcraft explores the sources of the Mississippi.

1833, Rev. W. T. Boutwell establishes a mission among the Ojibways at Leech Lake.

E. F. Ely opens a mission school for Ojibways at Aitkin's trading post, Sandy Lake.

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1834. May. Samuel W. and Gideon H. Pond arrive at Lake Calhoun as missionaries among the Sioux.

November. Henry H. Sibley arrives at Mendota as agent of Fur Company.

1835. May. Rev. T. S. Williamson and J. D. Stevens arrive as Sioux missionaries, with Alex- ander G. Huggins as lay-assistant.

June. Presbyterian Church at Fort Snelling organized.

July 81st. A Red River train arrives at Fort Snelling with fifty or sixty head of cattle, and about twenty-five horses.

Major J. L. Bean surveys the Sioux and Chip- peway boundary line under treaty of 1825, as far as Otter Tail Lake.

November. Col. S. C. Stambaugh arrives; is sutler at Fort Snelling.

1836. May 6th, "Missouri Fulton," first steam- boat, arrives at Fort Snelling.

May 29th. "Frontier," Capt. Harris, arrives.

June 1st. "Palmyra" arrives.

July 2d. "Saint Peters" arrives with J. N. Nicollet as passenger.

July 30. Sacs and Foxes kill twenty-four Winnebagoes on Root River.

1837. Rev. Stephen R. Riggs and wife join Lake Harriet Mission.

Rev. A. Brunson and David King establish Kaposia Mission.

Commissioners Dodge and Smith at Fort Snel- ling make a treaty with the Chippeways to cede lands east of the Mississippi.

Franklin Steele and others make claims at Falls of St. Croix and St. Anthony.

September 29th. Sioux chiefs at Washington sign a treaty.

November 10th. Steamboat Rolla arrives at Fort Snelling with the Sioux on their return from Washington.

December 12th. Jeremiah Russell and L. W. Stratton make the first claim at Marine, in St. Croix valley. '

1838. April, Hole-in-the-Day and party kill thirteen of the Lac-qui-parle Sioux. Martin Mc- Leod from Pembina, after twenty-eight days of exposure to snow, reaches Lake Traverse.

May 25th, Steamboat Burlington arrives at Fort Snelling with J. N. Nicollet and J. C. Fremont on a scientific expedition.

June 14th, Marryat, the British novelist, Frank-

lin Steele and others rode from the Fort to view Falls of St. Anthony.

July 12th, steamboat Palmyra arrives at Fort Snelling with an official notice of the ratification of treaty. Men arrived to develop the St. Croix Valley.

August 2d, Hole-in the-Day encamped with a party of Chippeways near Fort Snelling, and was attacked by Sioux from Mud Lake, and one killed and another wounded.

August 27th, Steamboat Ariel arrives with com- missioners Pease and Ewing to examine half-breed claims.

September 30th, steamboat Ariel makes the first trip up the St. Croix river.

October 26th, steamboat Gypsy first to arrive at Falls of St. Croix with annuity goods for the Chippeways. In passing through Lake St. Croix grounded near the townsite laid out by S. C. Stambaugh and called Stambaughville.

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History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 109

Author: Edward D. Neill Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: