History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 96

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 96

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LEVI OBER was born in 1826, in Pennsylvania, where he was brought up in the mining districts and engaged in furnace work. He moved to Illinois in the spring of 1854, and came to Chat- field the following September. He immediately established his wagon works and blacksmith shop, being the pioneer in his business in Chatfield, and perhaps in the county. In June, 1861, Mr. Ober enlisted in the Second Minnesota Volunteer In- fantry, was made a Sergeant when the regiment organized, soon promoted to Lieutenant, and in 1862, made Captain. He commanded a company during the balance of the war, participating in all the battles in which his regiment was engaged, including Chattanooga and Chicamanga, in both of which he was wounded. Captain Ober was a good soldier and served his country faithfully till the close of the war. His wife was Miss Elizabeth Williams, a native of Maryland, and a danghter of Charles Williams, who now lives with them at the advanced age of ninty-three years. Mr. and Mrs. Ober have five children, four sons and one daughter.

JAMES POWERS was born in Ireland on the 27th of July, 1835, and left his native country for America in 1856. He resided in Quebec until June, 1858, when he came to Fillmore county and pre-empted his present farm in section four- teen. He was married on the 12th of December, 1859, to Miss Julia Brennan, who has borne him seven children, six of whom are living. Mr. Powers was Postmaster in 1879 and 1880, since which time he has given his whole attention to farming. He built a new frame house in 1878, and has a comfortable home.

WILLIAM A. PEASE, one of the most successful farmers of this township, was born in Windsor county, Vermont, on the 23d of November, 1822. He was joined in marriage with Miss Harriet E. Wheeler, who was born in his native county, in

the town of Weathersfield, in March, 1828. They came to this place in 1857, where Mr. Pease has accumulated over six hundred acres of land. His farm is well watered and adapted to the raising of stock, to which industry he devotes considerable attention, and in the spirit of a New England farmer, has numerous well arranged barns and sheds for the protection and care of his stock. Mr. and Mrs. Pease have had three sons, only one of whom is living, Thad. W., born in Chatfield, on the 18th of February, 1867. Their two eldest died when young.

M. W. ROONEY was born in Canada East on the 27th of December, 1839, and removed to Illinois in 1851. He came to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1855, and there married Miss Martha B. Reteg, the cere- mony taking place on the 4th of April, 1861. The same spring they moved to this place and bought land in section thirty-one and have since made it their home, having a well improved farm and a fine orchard. Mr. and Mrs. Rooney have had eight children, five of whom are living.

JAMES SANDERSON is a uative of Lockport, New York, born in 1825. He afterward lived in Buffalo, and in May, 1849, moved to Galena, Illi- nois, where he resided for several years. Since 1857, he has been a resident of Chatfield, working at the carpenter and joiner trade for many years. He took charge of the humber yard of Laird & Norton in 1874, and was succeeded by his son, James D., in 1881. Mr. Sanderson has been twice married, first to Miss Ann Porter, a native of England, who bore him three children, two of whom are living, James D., and Anna M. His present wife was formerly Nancy M. Rand.

WILLIAM STRAFFORD, one of early residents of Chatfield, was born in England in 1833. He came to America in 1853, with his father who settled in Jackson county, Iowa, where he still lives. Wil- liam came bere in June, 1856, and settled with his family the following September. He engaged in brickmaking, and his was the first yard in this part of the State, at which he still continues and is also interested in mercantile business, having started the latter in January, 1881. His wife was formerly Miss H. C. Sims, a native of Pennsyl- vania. They have one child, Mary R.

OLE JACOBSON TANGER, one of the early settlers of this place, was born in Norway on the 30th of September, 1832. He emigrated to America in

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1853, resided in Illinois one year then in Rock county, Wisconsin, and in 1855, took government land in this township and built a log house in which he lived several years. On the 9th of Oc- . tober, 1857, Miss Emeline Engleberg became his wife. They have had eight children, four of whom are living. In 1865, Mr. Tanger built his present house, has choice farming land and a pleasant home.

R. W. TWITCHELL, M. D., the pioneer physician of Chatfield, is a native of Weybridge, Addison county, Vermont, born in 1823. He removed with his parents to Michigan in 1831, and in 1845, be- gan the study of medicine at Dexter, graduating from the medical department of the Michigan State University in 1852. He practiced in Jackson county two years and then came to Chatfield. In August, 1862, he entered the army as assistant Surgeon in the Ninth Minnesota Regiment, was mustered into the army as Surgeon in July, 1864, and served in the department of Ohio until 1866. Dr. Twitchell then returned to Chatfield and re- sumed his practice, though his health was so shat- tered while in the service as to unfit him, to a great extent, for duties required of a physician. The maiden name of his wife was Martha J. Carpenter, who was born in Albany, New York. They have had five children, four of whom are living; S. Edna, a teacher at Flandreau, Dakota; Herbert E., who graduated in March, 1882, at the Miami Medical College of Cincinnati; Carpie C., and Martha A. They lost one son, Stephen, an infant, born in August, 1857. Herbert E. was the first white child born in the village of Chatfield.

JOHN N. WILSON was born in Wisconsin in 1846. His mother came to Fillmore county with her three children in 1854, and settled in the township of Newburg. John resided there until 1871, since which time he has been connected with the sale of farm machinery and also deals in groceries in this place. He was married in 1874, to Carrie E. Wall, daughter of Gilbert W. Wall. They have three children; Carrie M., Hattie M., and Bayard J.

MILO WHITE is a direct descendant of Peregrine White, the first white child born in the Plymouth colony. Milo was born in Fletcher, Franklin county, Vermont, on the 17th of August, 1830. In 1853, he went to New York City and engaged in clerking, a business which he had followed for some time in his native State. He came to Chat- field in 1855, and the autumn of the following year

opened a store and has since been continuously in business here, being the oldest merchant in the place. He was married in June, 1858, to Miss Hanna A. Ellis, of Fairfax, Vermont. They have had five children, three of whom are living. Mr. White has done as much to build up trade and ad- vance the interests of the town as ary other man bere, and has a wide circle of friends in this and Olmsted counties, in the latter of which he has his residence. He was elected State Senator in 1871, and filled the office five consecutive years, and now (1882) again represents his district in the Senate. He is a republican, but lets noth- ing interfere with his business. Is liberal in his views, and pays tribute to churches and schools- Was Chairman of the committee on Normal Schools in the State Senate, and assisted in putting them on an effective basis. He has also been Chairman of the committee on claims, and was on the finance committee one session. Mr. White is well versed in the workings of all departments of the State government, and is well known all over the State.

JOSEPH T. WARRINER was born near Richmond, in Henrico county, Virginia, on the 27th of De- cember, 1806. When eight years old he removed with his parents to Kentucky, where he was reared and learned the tanner and currier trade. He married a wife there, who bore him six children, four of whom are living. She died on the 27th of April, 1854. Nr. Warriner came to Illinois in 1836, and resided in Sangamon and Fulton coun- ties until coming here in September, 1864. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Illinois, and continued in the business several years after moving to this place, but since 1868, has led a re- tired life. His present wife was Miss M. Brown a native of Malone, Franklin county, New York They have had three children, only one of whom is living. A daughter, Ida Eva, met with a most tragic death while with a party of young people visiting the lower mill in Chatfield; she was caught by a revolving shaft and most terribly injured, dying twenty-seven days after the accident.

THOMAS P. GERE, son of George M. and Sarah C. Gere, was born on the 10th of September, 1842, in Wellsburg, Chemung county, New York. When ten years old he came with his parents to Minne- sota, settling in Winona, which was then known as Wabasha Prairie. They afterwards moved to Chatfield and Thomas entered the academy where he remained until the age of nineteen, when he en-

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listed in the Fifth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. He served on the frontier and also in the South; was at the siege and assault of Fort Ridgely, and in nearly all the engagements in which the Army of the Tennessee participated. At the battle of Nashville, Tennessee, where he was slightly wounded in the right wrist while capturing a flag from the enemy, he attained the rank of Brigade Adjutant and also received a gold medal from the Secretary of War for his gallant service. He was honorably discharged at the close of the war, re- turned to Minnesota and commenced civil engineer- ing. On the 1st of May, 1867, he was made Assistant Engineer on the St. Paul & Sioux City, and afterwards the Minnesota Valley Railroad.

Mr. Gere was married on the 1st of January, 1868, at Howardsville, Illinois, to Miss Florence J. How- ard, who died after three years of wedded life. The maiden name of his present wife was Mary E. Shepard, the ceremony taking place in Mankato on the 16th of September, 1874. His business en- gagements brought him to St. Paul in December, 1865, and since 1874, be has been a resident of Chatfield. In January, 1880, he was appointed Chief Engineer, and after the consolidation of the Omaha and St. Paul division was appointed Superintendent of the same. In January, 1882, he accepted the position of General Superinten- dent of the Eastern division of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad.

SPRING VALLEY.

CHAPTER LXVII.

TOPOGRAPHICAL - EARLY SETTLEMENT - EARLY EVENTS - SCHOOLS - BUSINESS ENTERPRISES - FRATERNAL AND INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATIONS-RE- LIGIOUS --- MANUFACTURING-BIOGRAPHICAL.

This township, on the western border of Fillmore county, is near the head waters of several branches of the Root River, and is a regular government township, lacking a section and a half on the north- west corner. Sumner is on the north, Fillmore on the east, Bloomfield on the south, and Mower county on the west.

Bear Creek worms around in and out of the northern tier of sections. Deer Creek meanders across the town from west to east, above the center. Middle Branch cuts diagonally through the south- western part of the town, and there are several other smaller creeks.

A strip of land, mostly south of the railroad, which runs through the southern tier of sections, is a fine rolling prairie, in some places quite level. North of this it is somewhat more uneven and was generally covered with a light timber growth, or brush land, as it was called, which had to be "grubbed" over by the first settlers, while near Deer Creek and north of it, a heavy growth of timber exists, from which numerous mills have

been supplied with lumber and which was most valuable for building at an early day. This re- gion is mostly divided into wood lots of from two to twenty acres each, and is owned by the farmers in the vicinity. It is well watered by springs and their resulting streams, and the scenery from many points of view is entertaining. One of the most attractive views is from a locality at Weis- beck's saw-mill, which has received the poetic name of "Hogsback." It is on Deer Creek, in section eleven; the stream winds around from the west and striking a perpendicular limestone ledge, one hundred feet high, is reflected toward the north and forms a loop, coming back to the rock and within seventy feet on the east side, where the bank of the river is a sheer rock-faced bluff, one hundred and thirty feet in height, thus counter marching or doubling on itself, with only this narrow but solid limestone, tree covered cliff be- tween. The circle made by the river is fully one and one-half miles in extent, and in this distance a descent of thirty feet has been made, and turning aside from the aesthetic view of the case, and look- ing at it in a utilitarian way, it will be seen that a tunnel through this spur would give a most ad- mirable water power, with thirty feet fall.

If people, as they do, travel thousands of miles to see the beanties of the Yellowstone Park, the

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valley of the Yosemite, or the Dells of Wisconsin, it will certainly be pardonable to recommend the people of Fillmore county to visit this charming place.

In the northwest part of the town, the timber and brush has been grubbed out, and there are many well improved farms with fine houses, barns, and good stock. The settlers have, however, left numerous groves, to relieve the landscape and add to the beauties of the location, as well as to en- hance the value of their farms.

The soil is of a clayish character and still pro- duces good wheat, and although corn and stock are receiving great attention, Spring Valley is yet one of the great wheat producing towns.

The population is of sundry nationalities, the Americans predominating largely. In the southeastern part there is a thriving German set- tlement, with a church, and services in their tongue. There are a few English and some Irish, with some other nationalities, especially from the Scandinavian range.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

The town received its first Caucasian intrusion in the year 1852, when four or five adventurers found their way to this unbroken region.

Simeon Phillips first staked off his claim on Spring Valley Creek, where Crawford Kellogg's place now is, and he also located another claim, but finally sold to the farmers when they arrived, and went to Bloomfield where he still lives. His shanty was supposed to be the first in town.

A Mr. Johnson claimed the north half of sec- tion twenty-six, but the following year disposed of it to the Lowe brothers. Little of him is known except that he was an American, that he came here from Iowa, and returned from whence he came.

Mr. Delling that year took the northeast quar- ter of section thirty-four, but soon sold to Mr. Cartlich and transferred himself on the section line of twenty-two and twenty-seven, now Mr. Charles Redman's farm. His family, it is not un- likely, was the first in Spring Valley; he was a man highly respected and esteemed. Afterwards he removed to Frankford, in Mower county.

In May of that year a Mr. Brown took the northeast quarter of section twenty-three, and without having made many improvements, sold to Mr. Kingsley the following year. Of his

previous or subsequent history nothing is known here.

Henry W. Perkins visited this place in May, 1852, and selected a place and drove his claim stakes in the south-east quarter of section twenty-three, and then returned to some rented land in Iowa. In September he came with a team, bringing his wife, put up a shanty, and cut some hay, but re- turned to Iowa in the fall. He came back the next spring and began to break up his land. He has since lived in town and is now on the line of sec- tions twenty-four and twenty-five, running a saw and feed-mill. He is a native of New York.

In 1853, there was quite an increment to the primitive infant colony, and some of them will be mentioned without much regard to the order of their arrival.

Norman W. Kingsley, of New York State, came from Wisconsin in June, and the available place that filled his desire was in the west part of sec- tion twenty-two. Here he made a farm and a home where he remained until called to his eternal home in 1875. There were three sons; Solomon, who has joined his father, Charles, and N. W., who are well known.

Henry Kibler came this spring from Virginia and got some "free soil" in sections twenty-four and twenty-five, on which he afterwards built a saw-mill. He was a noted man in his time, a rep- resentative in the legislature, and with metropoli- tan aspirations laid out a city and called it "Liberty," which was an odd Dominion idea for white men. He afterwards moved to Fillmore township where he has since been emancipated from the cares of this world.

Cal. Huntley, Sr., settled in the fall of 1853, and gathered a crop of hay, which he utilized by forming a shelter for the winter, so that he virtu- ally spent that inclement season in a hay stack. How he managed to have any fire without burn- ing up his house is an unanswered conundrum. His place was on sections twenty-three and twenty- four, and he is said to be living near Leroy.

A man by the name of Deering, came some time in 1853, and started a claim in section thirty- three, but did not remain many months.

Calvin E. Huntley, son of the pioneer, came with his father and is still about here, having been in the army.

Dr. J. Early, the father-in-law of Kibler, came with him, and drove his stakes east of where the

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other claim was. The Doctor had quite a reputa- tion as a medical man but did not make many im- provements, and after a time removed to Iowa where he afterwards died.

Zara A. Warner passed through this town in 1852, and deeming it a goodly land, resolved to make it his future home while he remained in this world, and so in 1853, he came back with his wife and five sons and daughters, and pre-empted 160 acres in sections twenty-seven and twenty-eight; some of the children afterwards secured land in their own right, and one son, George B., resides on his original claim. Part of Mr. Warner's claim is now within the city limits. He was found dead in December, 1854, by a hunter, he having hung himself.

Thomas Watson had a claim east of Warner's, which, two years afterwards he sold to the Kel- loggs. He had a store in Spring Valley at one time, but is now in Dakota. His brother, Josiah, was at the Big Spring in 1853, but soon sold out there.

T. F. Huntley, a native of New York, came from Allamakee county, Iowa, arrived in June, 1853, and took his claim where the village now is the same month. He bronght his family in July and fixed up a hay shanty at first. Along with Mr. Huntley came Simeon Phillips, from Wisconsin, and Mr. Warner; Huntley's land was in sections thirty- three and thirty-four, and Phillips got upon twenty-seven. Mr. Delling was also along, and they all claimed three or four quarter sections. Some time was spent in breaking up land that summer. Most of the party brought cattle, some of them as many as fifteen head, part of which took to the woods the first winter.

David Broxhelm and William Baker, two Eng- lishmen, drove through from Dodge county, Wis- consin, in 1853, and Baker surrounded some land in section thirty-four, but in a few months sold to F. Kummer who still owns the place and has been here since 1853. Broxholm's territory was in sec- tion twenty-five, which he still owns, but lives in town. Others may have come that year, but their names are unattainable. .

During the years 1854 and '55, they came, to use a military term in "platoons by divisions at half distance," and most of the best land was absorbed.

T. M. Chapman, from Burlington, came in No- vember, 1854, and got a place in section thirty. On the town site at that time was only Huntley's little log hut.

T. B. Johnson came here on the 15th of Decem- ber, 1854, from Ohio via Iowa, and on the 9th of July, 1855, he brought his family, consisting of a wife and five children, and his land was on section thirty-five. He put up a hewn log house which was an unusual luxury in those days. He bought two hogs which weighed between two and three hundred pounds for $75, so that as long ago as that there were corners on pork. Mr. Johnson was the first mail carrier, bringing it up from Cari- mona. Winona was the most convenient market then.

Among the old settlers who halted here during these two years were: Jessie Cartlich and sons, Charles, Joseph, and D. C .; George Fesler, Deacon Orlan Root, William S. Hill, Charles A. Cady, Dr. W. P. Belden, John M. Smith, John Kleckler, Kellogg brothers, Henry Law, Henry Prosser, John Sample, W. T. Wilkins, Cordello Wilkins, and others. Meantime Spring Valley village be- gan to assume proportions and importance, and went on prospering until the fall of 1857, when the panic laid its icy hand upon it, and its fervency was temporarily cooled down several degrees.

To give an idea of the people who first came to this region, of how they came, and what they did on their arrival, with a view of some of their in- conveniences and troubles, not to say sufferings, an account of Mr. J. B. Thayer's party will be given, although they were not the earliest arrivals.

The company consisted of J. B. Thayer, Nelson Burdick, I. N. Cummings, H. A. Billings, and J. W. Strong. They came from Pennsylvania and arrived in the county on the 14th of May, 1855, and took dinner at Elliota, and that night they staid with Mr. Basset, in Forestville.

They arrived in Spring Valley on the 15th, and took dinner with Zara Warner. They at once organized the Spring Valley Association, and bought twenty acres of land of Mr. Warner, and 160 acres of Huntley, paying $200 in gold, and the next day started back for Iowa. The land bought of Huntley laid south of Jefferson street, and that of Warner was north of it. Mr. Thayer got back with his wife from Iowa on the 23d of May. Huntley and Warner both had their fami- lies here. On the 3d of June a Sunday-school was organized with a good attendance, and the first lesson was from the first chapter of John. "In the beginning was the word, and the word was God," etc. The Sunday-school had twenty young

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men, and embraced college graduates and men who have since become prominent. On their first ar- rival they had to sleep on the floor, and if it rained, the appearance inside of most of the dwel- lings would seem to indicate that it came down more copiously inside than out. Men were soon set to work to get up a shelter, and before this was finished, Mr. Warner's house had been blown down. The first cabins had no doors, or glass in the windows. On the 13th of June the first house on the town site was habitable.

The land was pre-empted at Brownsville ou the 16th of June, 1855. On the way to the land office, while fording the Root River, the team was stranded in mid-stream by the breaking of a singletree. The settlers used to keep a shot gun to hunt squatters who happened to be prowling around their claims.

There was a steady stream of emigrants point- ing toward the setting sun, and Mr. Thayer kept "open house" for years.

I. N. Cummings brought about $300 worth of goods when he came, and a store was opened in a rail pen covered with boards, but was finally moved into a house and kept under the bed, and packed up in the corner.

The cabins furnished such retreats and breeding places for bed bugs, that their nocturnal visitations were unendurable, and the most relentless warfare upon them, never proved to be a war of extermina- tion. Those who had the material and could afford the time to plaster up the internal interstices of their abode, might look for quiet repose.

In many of the most fashionable residences at that time there would not be room for both the men and women to eat at once, so the women would ent and then set the food on the table and go out doors while the men partook of their meal.

Many comical scenes were enacted as the result of the inseparable mixing and crowding into the rude shanties. "Old man Crane," as he was called, was a character who made no end of fun for the villages; he kept up a perpetual circus, to which all had a complimentary ticket, but he passed away in 1879.

In the fall of 1855, Mr. Cummings got up the best building in town up to that time, 20x40 feet, and his store was moved from its shed.

The first frame building erected in town, ex- clusively as a residence, was in the fall of 1855, by Cordello Wilkins, and it contained three rooms, a

living room, a bed room, and a pantry, the latter being such a novelty, and withal such a luxury, that the settlers for miles around visited the house to look it over. The building still stands, a few rods from the iron bridge, and is owned by D. C. Hendershott.

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History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 96

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

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