USA > Minnesota > Fillmore County > History of Fillmore County, Minnesota (Volume 1) > Part 54
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The soil is for the most part a deep, rich, warm loam with clay subsoil. Cultivation is easy and "irrigation and dry farm- ing" that one hears so much about to-day, and which is so neces- sary to secure a crop on much of the new lands that are being opened up in the West, at so great an expense, are not needed here. During the past few years a number of farms have been tiled and with such marked success that within a few years most of the farms will be improved in this respect. The lay of the land is such that almost every farmer gets good drainage without difficulty.
The first settlers found here a rich, unbroken virgin soil, a land that had none but nature's care from time immemorial. Cen- tury after century, year after year, the grasses grew in all their richness and the flowers bloomed to waste their fragrance on the summer air. No foot trod the unbroken stretches save that of wild beasts or bird, or the red warrior. No plowshare turned the green sod, nor was it torn by the iron tooth of the harrow, from the time an almighty power had unrolled it like a carpet until 1851, when a few settlers reached the southeast corner, and started raising a small crop for family use.
Fillmore county has no state highways of macadam. The roads, which are made of the soil of the county, on the whole are good, and some of them are kept in the best of condition. This county understood road-building in the earliest days, and the greatest volume of business done by the early county commis- sioners and supervisors was in establishing road districts and providing for the maintenance of highways.
There was a time in Fillmore county when, like all new lands, the first consideration was to build good barns for the housing of the flocks and herds, and the home was the most inconspicuous object in the landscape. As the farmers prospered the log house disappeared and now there are few log houses in the entire
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county. Now the farmer's house vies with the city residence, and has many of the modern conveniences. Where electric light and power cannot be secured, gasoline engines furnish power, and a number of farm houses are lighted by their own gas plants. By the use of elevated tanks in the house or barn, or pneumatic tanks in cellars, farm houses often have all the sanitary conven- iences of a house in town. Our farmers recognize the value of keeping their property in the best of shape. Houses and barns are well painted, lawns are carefully kept and flower gardens show that our people recognize that the things which beautify add a value to life as well as to property.
The first two problems which confronted the early settlers were sustenance and shelter. The wagon in which the settlers came, or the log cabin provided shelter. The ground must pro- vide the sustenance.
The settlers found here a wide diversity of soil and surface, prairie land, forests, oak openings, bottom lands along the streams, and many hillsides. To break the sod, a breaking plow drawn by four to six yoke of oxen was required, the neighbors pooling their interests and helping each other. By this method, about two acres of land could be broken a day. In this way, the settlers had a few acres broken, and started raising such food stuffs as were needed for their own tables. The hopes of crops in 1857 was blasted, and there ensued the hard winter of 1857-58, during which the people existed on little more than cornmeal.
In 1858 and 1859, the crops were better, and in 1860, when Gov. Alexander Ramsay issued his Thanksgiving proclama- tion, the soil of Fillmore county had brought forth its increase in abundant measure.
The Civil War caused a severe setback in the progress of Fill- more county agriculture. At the outbreak of the war, the county was on the road to success and prosperity. Improved land was worth from $5 to $10 an acre, and more land was being broken each year. The average cultivated field consisted of some twenty or thirty acres, upon which wheat was the principal crop; other vegetables and grains being raised practically for home use only. But the war called the able-bodied men to the front, and the old men, the invalids, and the women and children were left to operate the farms as best they could.
The insect pests were not strongly in evidence in the early days. The most serious of these pests, the Colorado beetle, better known as the potato bug, put in its appearance in 1865, and flour- ished until 1870, when the Paris green method of killing them was introduced, since which date they have been successfully fought. In the sixties, the rats also made their first appearance in the county, brought here by immigration. Snakes have always been
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plentiful, and in the early days the deadly rattlers were a serious menace to Fillmore county husbandmen. In 1873, the grass- hopper plague began to work its ravages in the state, but did little damage in Fillmore county. The chinch bugs made their appearance in 1879, and the next three or four years their rav- ages were so great and such great losses were sustained by the farmers that wheat ceased to be the staple crop from that time. The cultivation of corn, oats and barley was substituted for that of wheat, the live stock industry and dairying was introduced, and from this time a new era dawned for Fillmore county. Land rose in value from $15 or $20 to $100 and $150 per acre.
The story of the primitive tools used in the early days, the gradual introduction of modern machinery, and installation of the windmill, the gasoline engine, the silo, the milk separator and other improvements is a history which this county has in common with all the other counties of southern Minnesota. The almost exclusive use of oxen in the early days, the gradual introduction after the war of horses for farm work, and the still more gradual introduction of steam and motor power is also a tale that can be told of all the counties in this region, and is not peculiar to Fillmore county. However, an interesting article on this subject by William Willford appears in another chapter in this work.
The year 1868 marked an important epoch in the agricultural history of Fillmore county. It was this year that the Southern Minnesota R. R. came through, and provided an output for the Fillmore county wheat. Previous to this, grain had been carted to McGregor, Iowa, or Brownsville or Winona. Railroad facili- ties gave impetus to all farm pursuits, and thousands of acres of wild land were broken every year, from 1868 to 1877. The latter year marked the greatest wheat crop of the finest quality that the county has ever known. The next year the crop was much smaller, and wheat raising in the county has, since 1879, gradually decreased, corn raising and dairying and stock raising taking its place.
The farmers of Fillmore county have had many difficulties to overcome. The gophers, the blackbirds, the pigeon and the prairie chickens were deadly enemies to the crops from the earliest days. Then, too, the climate presented difficulties, for although most of the settlers had considerable experience as farmers, their experience had been in warmer sections, and the climate here, with its early frosts, was a new condition to which they must become accustomed.
The following report of Fillmore county issued in connection with the Thirteenth Census of the United States, speaks for itself in regard to the present day agricultural conditions in the county.
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Population, 25,680 (in 1900, 28,238).
Number of all farms, 3,213 (in 1900, 3,477).
Color and nativity of all farmers. Native whites, 2,142; for- eign born whites, 1,071.
Number of farm classified by size: Under three acres, 2; from three to nine acres, 64; from ten to nineteen acres, 68; from twenty to forty-nine acres, 248; from fifty to ninety-nine acres, 528; from 101 to 174 acres, 1,152; from 175 to 259 acres, 708; from 260 to 499 acres, 410; from 500 to 999 acres, 30; over 1,000 acres, 3.
Land and farm areas: Approximate land area, 555,520 acres. Land in farms, 518,814 acres. (Land in farms in 1900, 521,261 acres.) Improved land in farms, 391,336 acres. (Improved land in farms in 1900, 389,386 acres.) Woodland in farms, 87,917 acres. Other unimproved land in farms, 39,561 acres. Per cent of the whole county in farms, 93.4 per cent. Per cent of farm land improved, 75.4 per cent. Average acres to each farm, 1611/2. Average improved acres to each farm, 1211/2.
Value of farm property : All farm property, $36,250,145. (In 1900 the value was $20,358,108.) The percentage of increase in farm value in ten years was 78.1 per cent. Value of land alone, $24,236,255. (Value of land alone in 1900, $14,240,595.) Value of buildings alone, $6,481,481. (Value of buildings alone in 1900, $2,801,725.) Value of implements and machinery, $1,075,637. (Value of implements in 1900, $653,260.) Value of domestic animals, poultry and bees, $4,456,772. (Value of domestic ani- mals, poultry and bees in 1900, $2,662,528.) Per cent of value of all property in land, 66.9 per cent. Per cent of value of all property in buildings, 17.9 per cent. Per cent of value of all property in implements and machinery, 3 per cent. Per cent of value of all property in domestic animals, poultry and bees, 12.2 per cent.
Average values: Average value of all property per farm, $11,282. Average value of land and buildings per farm, $9,560. Average value of land per acre, $46.71. (The average value per acre in 1900 was $27.32.)
Domestic animals on farms and ranges: Farmers reporting domestic animals, 3,161. Value of domestic animals, $4,327,856.
Cattle: Total number, 61,713. Dairy cows, 21,937. Other cows, 6,958. Calves, 9,232. Yearling heifers, 9,157. Yearling steers and bulls, 8,323. Other steers and bulls, 6,106. Total value, $1,435,423.
Horses: Total number, 17,001. Mature horses, 14,971. Year- ling colts, 1,884. Spring colts, 146. Total value, $2,143,116.
Mules : Total number, 49. Mature mules, 47. Yearling colt, 1. Spring colt, 1. Value, $6,655.
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Asses and burros: Total number, 17. Total value, $365.
Swine: Total number, 56,381. Mature hogs, 32,808. Spring pigs, 23,573. Value, $568,675.
Sheep: Total number, 34,277. Rams, ewes and wethers, 25,024. Spring lambs, 9,253. Value, $173,483.
Goats: Number, 31. Value, $139.
Poultry and bees: Poultry of all kinds, 264,535. Value, $117,634. Number of colonies of bees, 3,094. Value, $11,282.
Farms operated by owners, 2,317. (Farms operated by owners in 1900, 2,652.) Per cent of all farms in the county operated by owners, 72.1. (In 1900, 76.3 of all the farms in the county were operated by their owners.)
Land in the farms operated by owners, 368,646 acres. Im- proved land in farms operated by owners, 274,077. Value of lands and buildings in farms operated by owners, $21,698,416.
Degree of ownership: Number of farms operated by owners consisting of owned lands only, 1,804. Number of farms operated by owners which also include with the owned land some hired land, 513. Of the men in the county owning and operating their own farms, 1,430 are native born and 887 foreign born.
Farms operated by tenants: Number of farms, 879. (Number of farms operated by tenants in 1900, 802.) Of all the farms in the county, 27.4 per cent are operated by tenants. In 1900 the per cent was 23.1.
Land in rented farms, 146,790 acres. Improved land in rented farms, 114,880 acres. Value of land and buildings in rented farms, 8,835,995.
Form of tenancy : Share tenants, 501. Share-cash tenants, 65. Cash tenants, 247. Tenure not specified, 66. Of the people rent- ing farms in the county, 697 are native born and 182 foreign born.
Farms operated by managers: Number of farms operated by managers, 17. (In 1900, there were twenty-three farms operated by managers.) Land in farms operated by managers, 3,378 acres. Improved land in farms operated by managers, 2,379 acres. Value of land and buildings in farms operated by man- agers, $183,325.
Mortgage debt reports of farms operated by their owners: Number free from mortgage debt, 1,427. Number with mortgage debt, 855. Number of which no mortgage report was made, 35.
For farms consisting of owned land only: Number reporting debt and amount, 594. Value of their land and buildings, $5,074,442. Amount of mortgage debt, $1,513,896. Per cent of value of land and buildings mortgaged, 29.8 per cent.
Farm expenses: For labor. Number of farms from which
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reports were obtained, 1,903. Cash expended for labor on these farms, $316,204. Rent and board furnished for labor, $106,597.
For feed: Number of farms reporting on this question, 907. Amount expended, $79,755.
For fertilizer: Number of farms reporting on this question, 18. Amount expended, $374.
Principal crops: Corn, 57,507 acres; bushels, 1,913,779. Oats, 70,775 acres; bushels, 2,198,157. Wheat-Common winter wheat, 190 acres; bushels, 3,273. Common spring wheat, 8,662 acres; bushels, 149,599. Durum or macaroni, 412 acres; bushels, 6,643. Barley, 53,171 acres; bushels, 1,352,663. Rye, 482 acres; bushels, 7,606. Flaxseed, 5,528 acres; bushels, 61,103. Timothy seed, 30,302 acres; bushels, 156,082. Potatoes, 1,549 acres; bushels, 172,405.
Hay and forage: Total, 63,141 acres; tons, 119,711. Timothy alone, 12,293 acres; tons, 21,147. Timothy and clover mixed, 42,437 acres; tons, 81,986. Other tame or cultivated grass, exclus- ive of clover alone and alfalfa, 1,683 acres; tons, 2,189. Wild or prairie grass, 2,179 acres; tons, 3,389. All other hay and forage, 4,549 acres; tons, 11,000.
The following live stock is taxed in Fillmore county, accord- ing to the list of 1911: Horses, mules and asses-One year old, 1,812; two years old, 1,598; three years old, 10,305; stallions, fine bred mares and race horses, 78. Cattle-One year old, 13,497; two years old, 8,692; cows, 18,450; all other cattle, three years and over, 8,382. Sheep, 20,771. Hogs, 18,062.
An interesting comparison may be made between these figures and the following report issued by the state for the year 1880:
Wheat, 167,198 acres, yielding 1,491,937 bushels 8.92 per acre. Oats, 33,476 acres, yielding 1,297,966 bushels 35.78 per acre. Corn, 24,420 acres, 909,729 bushels-37.25 per acre. Barley, 6,180 acres, 140,002 bushels-22.65 per acre. Rye, 126 acres, 1,708 bushels-13.55 per acre. Buckwheat, 554 acres, 2,736 bushels- 5.11 per acre. Potatoes, 1,400 acres, 143,185 bushels-102.28 per acre. Beans, 58 acres, 648 bushels-11.14 per acre. Sugar cane, 216 acres, 25,757 gallons of syrup, yielding 119.24 gallons per acre. Cultivated hay, 22,153 acres, 28,184 tons. Flaxseed, 14 acres, 149 bushels. Root crops, etc., 839 acres, making a total acreage under cultivation in the county for these crops, 259,634.
In addition to the above there was raised (in 1880) : Wild hay, 8,856 tons; Timothy seed, 9,597 bushels; clover seed, 2,377 bushels; apples, 7,912 bushels; grapes, 4,209 pounds; butter pro- duced, 689,076 pounds; cheese, 12,716 pounds; honey, 26,280 pounds; maple sugar, 100 pounds; maple syrup, 63 gallons; strawberries, 2,027 quarts; tobacco, 2,640 pounds; wool, 14,077 pounds. Apple trees: The number reported in county is 88,389,
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and of these there are in bearing, 20,166. Sheep, whole number, 7,704. Grape vines in bearing, 766.
Roads and Bridges. The first attention paid to road matters by the commissioners of Fillmore county was on July 9, 1853, at the Winona IIotel, Winona, when it was ordered that a road be laid out by the most feasible route from Minnesota City to Winona. This was outside the present limits of Fillmore county. The viewers were Harvey Hubbard and E. B. Drew.
The first road that the commissioners ordered laid out from a point within the present limits of the county was one from Winona on Wabasha Prairie, through Burns' Valley, thence to the town of Chatfield. This act was taken at the home of Robert Pike, Jr., in Minnesota City. The viewers appointed were James McClelland and William Hewett. When Winona county was set off, February 20, 1855, it left much of this route outside of Fill- more county. At the meeting of commissioners held in Chatfield, April 7, 1854, the part of the route left in Fillmore county, that is the part of the route that is now in Olmstead county, had been viewed and was ordered surveyed, while the commissioners recommended that the road from the boundary line of the county (that is, the present boundary line of Olmsted county) to Winona, should be constructed by the commissioners of the newly created Winona county.
The first road entirely within the present limits of Fillmore county ordered built by the county commissioners by one con- necting Elliota, section thirty-two, 101, nine, with Warpeton, section four, 102, eleven, thence to Chatfield. This action was taken by the commissioners April 7, 1854, and the viewers appointed were J. W. Elliott and J. C. Pickett.
October 2, 1854, the board of commissioners divided the county into three road districts as follows :
District one. Townships 101, 102, 103 and 104; ranges eight, nine and ten.
District two. Townships 101, 102, 103 and 104; ranges eleven, twelve and thirteen.
District three. Townships 105 and 106; ranges eleven, twelve and thirteen. This district was outside the limits of present limits of Fillmore county.
In January, 1856, L. M. Smith was appointed road supervisor in the First district, II. B. Morse in the Second, and John H. Main in the Third.
July 22, 1857, the first road tax in the county was laid. In Carimona, Preston and Chatfield precincts a tax of 3 mills was laid; in Elliota precinct a tax of 21/2 mills, and in Waterford precinct a tax of $100. The extent of these precincts at that time
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may be learned by studying the chapter on Organization and Boundary Lines in this work.
The first official action taken in regard to bridges in Fillmore county was at the meeting of January 6, 1857, when the com- missioners appropriated $500 for the completion of a bridge over the main branch of the Root river, on the county road from Preston to Chatfield; $200 for the completion of a bridge across the north branch of Root river, on the territorial road from Mankato to La Crosse; $200 for the completion of a bridge across the south branch of Root river at Preston, on the territorial road from Rochester to Iowa state line; $200 for the completion of a bridge across the middle branch of Root river, on the territorial road from Elliota to St. Paul.
At the present time the roads of Fillmore county are in excel- lent condition, and large appropriations are made each year for the construction and maintainance of roads and bridges.
The Freeborn County Agricultural Society will hold, in 1912, its fifty-third annual fair. All the fairs, with the exception of three at Lanesboro, have been held at Preston, on a plat laid out in 1872 by H. S. Bassett and others on land of Barbara Schweitzer, now owned by the village of Preston, and leased to the Agricultural Society for fifty years. The society and its fairs have done much to encourage agriculture in the county, and the grounds are well kept. It is now proposed that a large horse barn and a modern floral hall be built in the immediate future. This year the sum of nearly $5,000 is offered in prizes, premiums and purses. The officers are: President, James O'IIara; vice- president, A. W. Thompson ; treasurer, Thomas I. Garratt; secre- tary, Frank J. Ibach; board of managers, E. S. Holton, B. G. Duxbury, C. Boyer, D. D. Ayer, Charles Dunn, Charles Utley and A. H. Langum.
UNDERGROUND WATERS.
The water supply in Fillmore county is excellent. A report of these waters by C. W. Hall and M. L. Fuller has recently been issued by the United States Government. The following informa- tion culled from this report is of greatest interest to the people of the county :
Fillmore county lies on what was originally a broad plateau. In the western and southern portions of the county the plateau character is still preserved, but in the northern and eastern parts the surface is very rugged, consisting of deep, sharp valleys separated by ridges with flat or gently rolling crests, the latter representing remnants of the original surface. The elevation of the plateau in the western half of the county is more than 1,300 feet above sea level, but to the east it descends to 1,250 feet, or
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about 550 to 600 feet above the Mississippi. In the western part of the county, where the plateau has not been dissected, it is fairly level, the flatness being due in part to the mantle of glacial drift that rests upon it. Farther east there is little or no drift, but the upland surface is covered by a thin mantle of yellowish silt or loess, which, though it somewhat masks the inequalities of the rock surface, does not completely hide them, leaving a rather rolling surface. In the areas underlain by the Galena limestone and Decorah shale occasional basins or sink holes as well as mounds and low hills of the limestone occur.
The principal valleys are those carved by Root river and its tributaries. In the harder rocks the valleys are narrow and can- yon-like, but those in the softer rocks reach a width of a mile in places and contain extensive deposits of alluvium. The streams generally flow in rapids where they cross from harder to softer rocks, the change also being marked by terraces along the sides of the valleys. In some places bluffs and picturesque pinnacles border the valleys.
Surface Deposits. The surface deposits include alluvium, loess and glacial drift. The alluvium of Fillmore county includes the gravels and sands deposited by Root river and its tributaries. The thickness of these deposits in some places is not known, but perhaps reaches fifty feet or more, the average probably being be- tween twenty-five and thirty feet. They contain considerable water and usually yield ample supplies for domestic and farm purposes. The loess is a fine yellow loamy silt deposited over the uplands to a depth rarely exceeding ten feet. It is unimportant as a water-bearing bed, but is of value owing to the fact that it collects rainfall and feeds it to the underlying rock.
The glacial drift of Fillmore county consists chiefly of clay mixed with pebbles and bowlders, but locally it contains gravel and sand layers and in some places deposits of peat. It is found mainly in the western third of the county, where its greatest thickness is 100 feet. In the eastern part it is very thin, in many places occurring only in scattered patches. No water is found in these thin isolated deposits, but in the sand and gravel layers of the thick accumulations quantities sufficient for farm and domestic purposes occur. Certain dark clays, about 20 feet thick and underlain by several feet of waterbearing sandstone, have been thought to be cretaceous, but there is little ground for this assumption.
Paleozoic Formations. The Devonian rocks in Fillmore county consist of thin-beeded, even-grained, granular, yellow magnesian and arenaceous limestones. They outcrop on the hilltops in the southwestern townships and have a total thickness of about 100
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feet. They afford a small supply of water to shallow wells and give rise to occasional springs.
The Maquoketa shale consists of calcareous and sandy shales aggregating about eighty feet in thickness. It outcrops along a northwest-southeast line from a point near Hamilton on the western to Granger on the southern boundary. Because of their impervious character the shales contain practically no water, but intercept the water seeping through the overlying Devonian and residuary material, forming an important spring horizon.
The Galena limestone, Decorah shale, and Platteville limestone outcrop in a number of bluffs bordering the headwaters of Root river. On the uplands the Galena limestone yields moderate quantities of water, but near the valley edges the water is largely lost by leakage. The supplies from the Platteville limestone are very small, as the water either escapes into the adjacent valleys where the formation outcrops or sinks into the underlying St. Peter sandstone.
The St. Peter sandstone outcrops in the upper parts of the bluffs bordering the principal streams and constitutes the surface rock on the upland areas in the eastern third of the county. It yields large supplies except near the valleys, where leakage has removed most of the water.
The Shakopee dolomite is about 75 feet thick and is exposed in the bluffs bordering the principal streams in the eastern half of the county. Where it lies beneath the St. Peter sandstone it seems to hold up the water in that formation and makes shallow wells possible. It carries some water in its bedding planes and sandy layers, but rarely affords supplies to wells. It gives rise to some springs along the valleys.
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