History of Freeborn County, Minnesota, Part 19

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. 4n
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1220

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The Southern Minnesota Railway Company was organized March 3, 1877. The Southern Minnesota Railway Extension Com- pany was also organized. January 1, 1880, the Southern Minne- sota, after receiving a deed from the Extension company, deeded its road from the Mississippi river to Sioux Falls, and the branch from Wells and Mankato, to the Milwaukee & St. Paul Company, the latter issuing bonds and taking possession of the road May 1, 1880.

Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway Company. The original Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway Company was created March 3, 1853, by an act of legislature and named the Minnesota Western Railroad Company. By authority of the legislature, in 1870, it changed its name to the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway Com- pany. The next year, the Minneapolis & Duluth Railroad Com- pany was organized by certain stockholders of Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad Company. The Minnesota & Iowa Southern, and

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the Fort Dodge & Fort Ridgely Railroad companies were incor- porated under the general laws of Iowa: and these companies, April 20. 1881, were consolidated with the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway Company and the Minneapolis & Duluth Railway Company into one company by the name of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway Company. The latter company, on June 25, 1888, went into the hands of a receiver. Its property was sold under a decree of foreclosure, and on October 11, 1894, the Minne- apolis & St. Louis Railroad Company was organized, which con- sisted of the Minnesota lines. In order to preserve the corporate rights in the several states, the Towa lines were conveyed to a committee. who. on January 18. 1895, organized a corporation known as the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad & Telegraph Com- pany of Iowa, which was formerly consolidated with the Minne- apolis & St. Louis Railroad Company, February 1. 1895.

The line of the Minneapolis & St. Louis reached Albert Lea from Minneapolis on November 11, 1877, on which day the last spike was driven. The Albert Lea & Fort Dodge line of this road was put in operation on December. 1879. Plans are on foot, at the time this book is going to press, for the consolidation of the Iowa Central and the Minneapolis & St. Louis.

The Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway Company reached Albert Lea with a line from Burlington, in September, 1877. and on September 10. three loads of freight were brought into the village. a passenger service being inaugurated at once. The Germania branch was completed to Albert Lea from the south in the fall of 1900. and work at once started toward the north. In 1901. the tracks reached Owatonna and pushed on to Fari- bault. Early in 1902 the road was completed to St. Paul. In 1901. the Iowa Central started running into Albert Lea over the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern tracks.

The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, organ- ized under the laws of Illinois and Iowa dates its origin from a special charter granted by the state of Illinois. February 27. 1847, to the Rock Island & La Salle Railroad Company. By purchase, the corporation acquired. June 15, 1903. the Burlington. Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway Company.

Illinois Central Railroad. The Dubuque & Sioux City Rail- road, which is operated by the Illinois Central Railroad Company, is a reorganized company holding its franchises by charter granted by the state of Iowa, with the exception of the Albert Lea & Southern Railroad Company, incorporated September 20. 1899. under the general laws of Minnesota. This road, which extended from the Iowa state line to Glenville Junction, thus crossing Free- born county from Lyle westward. was consolidated with the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company, July 1, 1902. The Al-

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bert Lea & Southern was organized in 1899, those interested being W. A. Morin, W. E. Todd, B. J. Humphrey, C. W. Moore and H. B. Litchfield.

The Alphabet Line. In March, 1907, a line called the Duluth, St. Cloud, Glencoe & Mankato Railroad was completed from Al- bert Lea northwestwardly through Freeborn to Cream. Later it was pushed on to St. Clair. In 1911 the line was sold to the Chicago & Milwaukee company, which company it is supposed was back of the proposition from the beginning. The active manager in the promoting of the road was E. L. Tobie, who spent several years in the county during the time it was projected and built.

Railroad Bonds. In the early days, it was the custom of the railroads to ask bonds of the township through which their lines were to pass. But few such bonds were ever issued in Freeborn county. Albert Lea and Alden issued bonds for the Southern Minnesota; and Hartland, Albert Lea and Shell Rock, $10,000, $15,000 and $10,000, respectively, for the Minneapolis & St. Louis.

The Albert Lea bonds, which were issued to the Minneapolis & St. Louis, were voted by the town, in the seventies, before the incorporation of the city, the object being to provide a bonus for the first line which should reach Albert Lea from Iowa. The Central Railroad of Minnesota, in an endeavor to secure these bonds, started grading from Albert Lea, southward, and the evidence of the grading done can still be seen, near the "big mill" so called, south of the Minneapolis & St. Louis station. The bonds were issued and deposited with the Wisconsin Fire & Ma- rine Bank, of Milwaukee, in escrow, but as the road never pro- gressed beyond a few rods of grading, the bonds were recovered and burned. Interest on these bonds for part of a year was levied against the town to the amount of $632.00, and this money was used to grade Broadway from Clark street to the courthouse.

It is not the intention of this history to discuss the contro- versy between the town and city of Albert Lea over the payment of the bonds issued by the town before the incorporation of the city. In 1869, bonds to the amount of $40,000 were given to the Southern Minnesota, by the town of Albert Lea. In 1877, bonds to the amount of $15,000 were given to the Minneapolis & St. Louis, principally by vote of the people living in the village. Five months after this, the city was incorporated, and as no mention of the payment of the bonds was made, the whole bonded indebtedness of $55,000 stood against the town, unknown. how- ever, to the voters of the town, until the $15,000 was duc. In 1891 the $40,000 Southern Minnesota bonds were refunded, the division being made on the valuation of city and town at that time, the city assuming $32,000, and the town. $8,000. In 1907

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the matter of the payment of the $15,000 came up. and the people of the city declared themselves ready to settle the bonds on the rates which had been established for the division of town prop- erty and indebtedness in 1878, that of 38.55 per cent for the town and 61.45 per cent for the city. The people of the town, how- ever, insisted that the division should be made on the 1906 valuation of city and town property, making $12,491.59 from the city. and $2,508.41 from the town, alleging truly that since the incorporation of the city, the city had annexed large tracts of valuable town property. from which it was receiving the tax- income. In answer to this the people of the city alleged that the city had paid more than its share of the interest, the ratio of interest payments having been determined by the ratio of valuation in town and city property levied each year by the county auditor and by him paid. The matter was taken to the legislature, and it was feared would be dragged through the courts, but an agreement was finally reached, which the people of the town still assert was against their will, but which avoided expensive and extended litigation. The old ratio was accepted, and of the $15,000, the city assumed $9,217.50, and the town $5,782.50. Of the interest from the maturity of the bonds to July 15. 1910, the town paid $597.27, the city's total being $10.412.06.

MR. AND MRS. JOHN RUBLE

CHAPTER XVI.

CHRONOLOGICAL EVENTS.

Interesting Happenings in the Life of the County from 1859 to 1882-Political Incidents, Celebrations, Fires, Deaths, and Other Items Which Recall Days Long Since Past.

The items in this chapter are incidents culled from the life of the community from the year 1859 to 1910. This chapter does not purport to be a complete history of the events transpiring through these years, but is intended to give brief incidents in the progress of the county, many of which would long ago have been forgotten were it not for the files of the newspapers, and various historical publications. In dealing with the more recent years, this chapter is confined mainly to the deaths of the old settlers.

1859. On May 6 the first murder in the county was com- mitted by a man of weak mind, Henry Kreigler, causing the death of Nelson Boughton in the town of Nunda. The murderer was executed March 1, 1861. On February 12 A. L. Swineford having gone to LaCrescent, Isaac Botsford secured an interest in the "Star." In September an early frost caught many late crops. This was the season when the horse racing mania was upon the community, and one of the first recorded was between a horse owned by F. L. Cutler and one owned by F. Lamb, for $100 a side. Then came a race between Botsford's black gelding. Crazy Frank, and Dr. Wedge's horse, Selam, in which Crazy Frank won.

1860. The newspaper, which had become the "Eagle." was issued for the last time March 17, and the "Standard" was issued May 26 by Ruble and Hooker, with the latter as editor. In July the Webber house was leased to J. A. Robson, of Geneva. During this summer Morin, Wedge and Hall got a new steam saw-mill in motion. Another horse race was run between George S. Ruble's Sleepy Kate, and F. L. Cutler's Bay Lady. Sleepy Kate was declared the winner. The second fair of the Agricul- tural Society was held at Albert Lea on October 10 and 11. In the early fall of this year, a land sale had been ordered by the president, and the people, who were mostly living on govern- ment land, did not feel able to pay for it at that time, so a meet- ing was held at the Webber house. A. B. Webber was chairman,

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and C. H. Bostwick, secretary. Col. G. W. Skinner, who had been appointed to secure cooperation in procuring the postpone- ment of the land sale, reported what had been accomplished. Stacy. Hoops. Rickard. Ash. Webber, with others, addressed the meeting, and Mr. Skinner was sent to Washington to use his influence in the matter, and a committee was appointed to secure funds to pay the expenses. A meeting had been previously held in' Porter, at the house of F. W. Calkins, and J. M. Drake pre- pared the resolutions. The county seat election was fixed for the day of the general election, on November 6. Colonel Skinner returned. and on October 25 another meeting took place at the Webber honse; S. G. Lowry in the chair, and E. C. Stacy as secretary. The colonel reported that although there was to be no postponement of the sale, he had obtained concessions which practically gave the settlers what they wanted, as it was provided that no speculators should bid or locate land warrants on lands actually occupied. and the following gentlemen were designated to see the idea carried out: A. B. Webber, of Albert Lea; J. Melder. Carlston; C. Fitzsimmons, Nunda; Eli Ash, Bancroft; J. C. Seeley, Hartland; J. W. Burdick, Geneva; E. Croy, Rice- land: A. M. Young, Shell Rock; George Callahan, London; C. Bullock, Oakland; and D. Gates, Moscow. In December of this year, the trial of Kreigler for murder, in Steele county, almost depopulated this region, so many were summoned as witnesses; even the mail carriers' duties were interrupted.

1861. Wheat was reported as selling in Milwaukee for seventy-nine cents a bushel. Henry Kreigler was executed on the first of March, at Albert Lea. Ruble's mill was wrecked and the dam washed away by a freshet in April. This was the only water privilege in Albert Lea. In May, the "Standard" came out with a new dress. In April a military company was formed at the county seat. On August 1. A. B. Webber, having bought the "Standard" issued his first number.

1862. An anti cattle and horse thief society was organized early in 1862, with the following officers: President, Joshua Dunbar ; vice-president, J. M. Drake ; secretary, William Morin ; treasurer. A. Armstrong; finance committee. George S. Ruble. F. P. Skinner and James F. Jones; vigilance committee, E. C. Stacy. A. B. Webber, John Brownsill and L. T. Scott.

1863. Little of vital interest, outside of the incidents con- nected with the Civil War. took place in the county this year.

1864. In February a dam was started at Shell Rock by Ruble and Tanner. The directors of the Southern Minnesota Railroad for this year were : E. B. Stoddard, C. D. Sherwood. Luke Miller, H. W. Holley. D. B. Sprague and William Morin. In April the contract for making the brick for the court house was let to

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H. M. Manley at six dollars per thousand. This was the first brick made north of the city of Albert Lea.

1865. This year the soldiers came home from the war, and a period of prosperity and contentment was started.

1866. On February 14 Mrs. Charles Anderson, living in the town of Bancroft, went out to the barn to milk in a blinding snow storm, and notwithstanding the house and barn were in an enclosure which she had to climb over, she lost her way and was found dead the next morning two miles away from home. This year a daily mail was ordered through from LaCrosse to Winnebago City. J. C. Burbank & Co. were contractors. The service commenced on July 1. During the summer there was an average of twenty wagons a day passing through Albert Lea with emigrants. In the summer of this year there was talk of organizing an agricultural society. Wheat in July was selling in Milwaukee for $2.041/2 per bushel. On July 10 the hotel barn in Albert Lea was burned. F. Hall started his flouring mill in August, with a single run of stones operated by water under a head of eighteen and one-half feet. In November two persons were drowned in Nunda : Willard Parshall and Thomas J. Stock- dale. On December 15, a cemetery association was formed in Albert Lea ; Luther Parker was chairman, and S. S. Sutton. H. D. Brown and D. G. Parker were trustees.

1867. The school fund for the county this year was $646.64. At the cemetery meeting in April, E. C. Stacy was chairman ; H. D. Brown, secretary; the trustees appointed were William Morin, S. S. Sutton, and S. Eaton. It was resolved to ask the town to subscribe $500. During this year there were a large number of railroad projects brought out, with Albert Lea as a local point. In May the Albert Lea Musical and Theatrical Association was organized. President and general manager, F. B. Fobes; vice-president, P. W. Dickinson ; secretary, S. S. Ed- wards; treasurer, A. W. St. John ; musical director, D. G. Parker. On June 18 the association gave its initial entertainment. The Fourth of July was celebrated with more than usual display. A basket picnic with a barbecued ox as an auxiliary was thrown in. Rev. S. G. Lowry was the president of the day. The declaration of independence was read by H. D. Brown. The orator of the day was Hon. A. Armstrong. In the evening there was a grand ball at the Webber house, and a performance at the Court house. Mr. Stage, on August 6, lost a tin and hardware shop in Albert Lea by fire, entailing a loss of $1,500. On September 8, William F. Stearns, Holley Springs, Miss., who was stopping at Albert Lea to transact some business, was seized with hallucinations that parties were on his track to torture him, and he committed suicide. He was an attorney, and a man highly respected. At

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Twin Lakes, on September 21, Peter Peterson fell from a stack of hay, so injuring him that he died within four hours.

1868. In January, A. B. Davis, an early pioneer in the stag- ing business, bought an interest in the Austin & Winnebago City line. Some time in the month of January. James Buchanan. of Shell Rock. killed himself. He was about forty-five years of age and had been in Arizona. In August, Nathaniel Stacy, father of Judge E. C. Stacy. died. He had been a Mason for more than sixty years, and was buried with funeral rites, in accordance with the land-marks of that ancient order. Samuel Wedge, who was sixty-six years of age, died September 19. This season Albert Lea became a money order office. In the fall of this year, Clark W. Thompson, of the Southern Minnesota Railroad. pro- posed to have the towns issue bonds to assist in building the line.

1869. Early in 1869 the patrons of husbandry came into notice in Freeborn county. In April the hopes of the people were car- ried up several degrees by the statement that the railroad engi- neers were between Austin and Albert Lea. During April bonds were issued to the amount of $12,500 to assist in building a school- house in Albert Lea. The engineers reached Albert Lea April 17. In April Albert Lea was honored by the appointment of A. Arm- strong as United States marshal for Minnesota. In the town of Bath, May 7. a Dane by the name of Christen Rassmuson, dis- appointed in love, climbed into the branches of a tree, tied a cord around his neck and the other end to a limb, with a razor cut his throat in a ghastly manner and jumped from his perch, leaving his sanguinary looking corpse to horrify the first person who hap- pened near. The tide of emigration in May was at its flood. Prairie schooners by the score were passing through town and day after day their white canvas might be seen surrounded by herds of cattle as they wended their way westward. The sur- veyors of the railroad during May had their headquarters at Albert Lea. The contractors between Austin and Albert Lea were Allen & Stewart. The flag which, it will be remembered, was presented to Company F, of the Fourth regiment, and carried through nine battles (which were inscribed on it at a cost of $25). was kept by Sergt. Enoch Croy for several years, and then placed in the hands of the county treasurer, being still reverently kept at the courthouse in a glass case. The construction of the new school- house in Albert Lea was commenced in August. On September 22 and 23 a regular county fair was held. In September Col. Albert M. Lea suggested a grand trunk railroad from Galveston, Texas, to St. Paul, Minn., saying that the traffic between the North and South should be larger than between the East and West. The Southern Minnesota railroad reached Albert Lea on Saturday,

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October 16, and on Monday business began. In the summer of this year the first brass band was organized.

1870. Wheat in January was selling at from 43 to 46 cents a bushel. In the summer Mr. Ernst erected a building and started a boarding school in Alden. A violent tornado swept over the county on July 14; houses were unroofed and much other dam- age done. During the month of July a petrified duck was found on the shore of Pickerel lake by M. V. Kellar. A hook and ladder company was organized on November 22 at the courthouse. Col. S. Eaton was called to the chair and Capt. A. W. White was ap- pointed secretary. A great railroad excursion took place on October 17, to celebrate the completion of the through line to La Crosse. In the spring of this year a special act was passed enlarg- ing the powers of the officers of Albert Lea in relation to the village, giving authority as to ordinances and licenses. At the celebration of the independence of the United States at Albert Lea there were 5,000 people present. The oration was by Rev. R. B. Abbott.

1871. A town meeting was held at Albert Lea on January 4 and $15,000 voted in aid of the St. Louis railroad. Shell Rock voted $10,000 and Hartland voted $10,000. On January 7 the Orophilian Lyceum was organized. Minnie Ernst read an essay, on the occasion. A cheese factory was started in Albert Lea in March. On February 23 there was a great freshet in southern Minnesota. Andrew Larson, a Swede, hanged himself in the town of Hayward on March 14, at the house of Andrew Sanderson. He was an erratic and insane individual. On April 12 the citizens of Albert Lea had a meeting and resolved to secure six Babcock fire extinguishers. In April the citizens of Albert Lea contributed to pay for the instruments for the cornet band. The railroad bond question was submitted to a vote of the people, and this county was almost solid against it, the whole number of votes cast being 760; for the payment 80, against the payment 680. Hayward, Alden, Riceland, Bancroft, Manchester and Hartford had no votes for the payment, while Carlston and Newry had one each. The Albert Lea cheese factory, with its appointments, cost $6,000, and it was completed in June. William Peck was the foreman of the establishment, which had a six-horsepower engine. In October an elk was seen near the residence of Dr. Blackmer, and was shot at with a bird charge by the doctor's son. He ran across the rail- road track going south. Quite a cavalcade was soon in pursuit and he was followed as far as the Shell Rock. The animal was killed at Cresco, Iowa. When Chicago was burned, in October, the citizens of Albert Lea had relief meetings and sent what they could.

1872. James Fitzgerald, a resident of the town of Bath, fifty

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vears of age, was frozen to death on February 1. He was away with a team, and it is supposed had an attack of asthma, and did not survive the cold, which was intense; he was found a few miles from home. Gardiner Cottrell. an old settler of Shell Rock, died in May. Martin Sheehan, an old settler who located in Bath in 1857, passed away on August 7. On November 2 L. G. Pierce. of Alden, with his wife and four children, were struck by the engine of a passing train while on a wagon loaded with goods, but none of them were seriously injured. In November Hon. Charles Mc- Ilrath was appointed receiver of the Southern Minnesota railroad.

1873. In October there was quite an extensive conspiracy to obtain money by selling land not their own by parties from Cleve- land, Ohio. They had obtained descriptions of land owned by Cleveland men, and then came out here with forged deeds, and having had them recorded proceeded to sell the lots, but as they were on the point of leaving they were detected and their plans frustrated.

1874. Early in 1874 there was quite a spirited controversy as to the name, Albert Lea. Various suggestions were made. The objection to the name arose because it was unusual and unlike the name of any other place in the wide world, which ought to strike the majority of people as being a most admirable reason why it should be retained. In February a young man was frozen to death, near Albert Lea, when intoxicated, and a coroner's jury declared that the saloonkeeper who sold him the liquor was responsible. The Albert Lea Temperance Alliance was organized in February. Fifty-eight persons joined the society. The first officers were: President, Gilbert Gulbrandson; vice-president, Capt. A. W. White ; treasurer, H. O. Haukness ; secretary, August Peterson. In March A. A. Munn, a leading citizen of Freeborn, committed suicide. A library and reading room was organized on March 27 at the office of Ballard & Hibbs. Dr. Ballard presided at the first meeting. There was quite a gale swept across the county on July 25; in Bath, Manchester and Freeborn it was particularly fierce, unroofing houses, destroying crops and doing thousands of dollars' worth of damage. Grange hall, in Shell Rock, was dedi- cated on November 6. Among the concomitants of the occasion were a supper and a dance with sixty-two couples in attendance.

1875. At the March meeting in Albert Lea the No-License party carried their point by fifty majority. The spring term of the Albert Lea seminary was under the charge of Jennette Curtis, of Michigan. The Congregationalist church bell, weighing 616 pounds, was installed in early November.

1876. Joseph Schorbeck, fourteen years of age, was killed by a runaway accident early in January. His body was dragged three miles and mangled beyond all recognition. In Freeman Lea

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Hughes fatally shot himself. This was in the winter of this year. In the years 1874 and 1875 the opponents of license had carried the day at the polls, but in 1876 the order was reversed and the license party was triumphant. John H. Smith, a venerable man of eighty-six years and father-in-law of T. Walcott, on June 7, while fishing at Albert Lea, near the railroad, became bewildered and stepped in front of an engine and was instantly killed. He was a pensioner of the War of 1812. At Freeborn, in the early sum- mer of this year, Dora, a little daughter of Mr. Shoen, six years of age, was lost, and after eleven hours' search by the whole neighborhood was found near midnight on the prairie near a grove fast asleep and restored to her distracted parents. The centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by the United States of America was celebrated in Albert Lea in a way and manner befitting the occasion. The grasshoppers ap- peared in the county in August. September 6 the murder and attempted robbery at Northfield excited considerable interest in the chase and capture of the bandits and what assistance could be given was rendered.

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History of Freeborn County, Minnesota, Part 19

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. 4n Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper Number of Pages: 1220

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. 4n
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1220