History of Freeborn County, Minnesota, Part 8

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

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HISTORY OF FREEBORN COUNTY

THE PIONEER HOME.

The first proposition that met the pioneer on his arrival was a dwelling, which was hastily erected out of rough logs with but one room not over sixteen feet square. This one room an- swered in most cases for years as kitchen, pantry, parlor, bed . and sitting room, until prosperity smiled on him sufficiently to build a new and commodious home. The reader should not infer that there was no happiness in such a home. Far from such an idea.

In recent years there was enacted a beautiful tableau that fully illustrates such a home. In 1857 there located in our midst a family from Wisconsin. Time only allowed the hasty con- struction of the rudest cabin which for years was the ideal home. By years of toil and saving, in later years a beautiful and com- modious dwelling was built but a few rods from the old cabin.

The first Sabbath after moving into the new home, the husband returns to find the good wife gone. Hunting, he soon finds her seated in her old rocking chair in the old Territorial Cabin. Doubtless she was living over again the happy days spent in that old home. Above the roaring blizzards and the howling wolf, she hears the happy voices of her young children at play, all now married and gone. She hears the crow of the prairie- chicken and the call of the wild goose, while the crack of the Indian's rifle she hears from the nearby lake.

She sees the beautiful Indian summer as of old, and hears the sweet tinkle of the old cow bell that is sweet music to her ear today. She visits with kind neighbors, many of whom have passed to that Undiscovered Country, and awakening from her revery, finds only her husband is with her in the dear old cabin. Think you she would give that old cabin, with all its dear memo- ries, for an English castle ? Never !!

While the pioneers met with many hardships and discourage- ments, they could see the silvery lining on every cloud. They . were not looking for the Almighty Dollar, as today, but content to make a living as best they could. They were a kindhearted, social, generous, accommodating folk, every man your neighbor, and the latchstring hung out at every door as a glad welcome to every stranger. From your modern farm mansion or the palace of your city you must come today to this old pioneer cabin to learn true happiness and contentment, and the enjoyment of those social and neighborly qualities so prominent in Freeborn county fifty years ago, but today found only in history.

PIONEER WOMEN.

In writing up the events of over half a century ago there is one who is so apt to be forgotten. "The Pioneer Woman."

HISTORY OF FREEBORN COUNTY

She comes not in a palatial railway coach or the family auto- mobile, but was seen at the rear of every emigrant train on the old Blue Earth road, cheerfully driving the loose stock, clad in coarse and ofttimes shabby attire. No woman walked from the plains of Sinai with more courage, or stronger faith of a Promised Land, than this noble woman who comes to help lay the corner-stone of civilization and refinement in Freeborn county. She little knew the trials and hardships before her, or the dangers of a frontier life. She had given up home, relatives, friends, church and society, all so dear to woman, to begin a life of toil and anxiety, buoyed on with the hope of a home of re- finement, beauty and plenty, but, alas! to close her earthly labors when just in view of her long-sought prize. No painted word or gilded sentence.will ever do adequate justice to this noble heroine, but her memory should be indelibly stamped on the brightest page of our local history.

FIRST RELIGIOUS MEETINGS.

There is one, though never a resident of the county, that should be especially mentioned, Rev. Sylvester N. Phelps, of the Methodist Episcopal church, for it was he who first carried the lamp of Christianity within her borders. This good man first saw the light of day in Potter county, Pennsylvania, September 17, 1833. At the age of twenty-two he was sent by his church to open up the work of this denomination on the headwaters of the Cedar river and was temporarily located at Austin, then a village just rising from the prairie. He first entered the county and preached the first Gospel sermon ever heard within our borders at the home of Rufus K. Crum, on Section twenty-eight, Moscow township, August 31, 1856. He continued to hold serv- ices in that vicinity until July, 1857, and organized the first Christian church within the county, with George Bolton as class leader and Alvia B. Sizer, steward.

On May 3, 1857, he appeared at the home of William Kellar, one mile southeast of the Court House, and preached the first Gospel sermon ever heard in the vicinity of Albert Lea. On the following Sabbath, at 10 a. m., lre preached at the home of Walter Stott, two miles northeast of Glenville, and at the home of George S. Ruble, 522 Bridge street, Albert Lea, at 2 p. m. the same day. This event was duly celebrated by the First Methodist Episcopal church of Albert Lea on May 10, 1907, it being the fiftieth anniversary of this occasion. Services were held at 2 p. m. on the old Kellar place, and at the church in the city in the evening, when Mr. Phelps was present, preaching a beautiful sermon from the same text he had used just fifty years before.

HISTORY OF FREEBORN COUNTY

In 1862 he entlisted in Company H, Sixth Minnesota Vol. Inf., but was discharged the following May for disabilities. He was chaplain of the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1871. He was superannuated by his church some years ago, and closed his earthly labors at Windom, Minn., December 9, 1909. A beautiful picture of this faithful disciple of Wesley may be seen at the city library, Albert Lea.

FIRST EVENTS.

The first settlement was made by Ole C. Livdahlen, known to the first settlers as Ole Gulbrandson, one-half mile southeast of Gordonsville, in June, 1853.

The first white child born in the county was a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Ole C. Livdahlen in the spring of 1854.

The first death in the county was that of Mrs. William An- drews, two miles northeast of Glenville, September, 1855.

The first village platted was Saint Nicholas, on the northeast quarter of Section twenty-six, Albert Lea township, by Jacob Ly Brand and Samuel M. Thompson, in May, 1855.

The first mill was a sawmill operated by water power, built by George St. Ruble at 502 Bridge street, Albert Lea, and began sawing lumber October, 1856. In 1859 a small flouring mill was added to the plant. In the spring of 1861 high water under- mined the plant, which was damaged beyond repairs.

The first postoffice in the county was at St. Nicholas, with Jacob Ly Brand as postmaster. It was established in 1855 and discontinued in 1858.

The first hotel in the county was opened in 1856 at St. Nicholas by William Rice, proprietor.

The first blacksmith shop in the county was opened at St. Nicholas by William Eddy in 1856. The first blacksmith shop in the city of Albert Lea was opened at 425 Bridge street by David Crowfoot in the spring of 1857. He began work under a large oak tree but in a few weeks built a small shop. In the fall of the year he moved his shop three miles east of the city onto his claim.

The first physician in the county was Dr. Albert C. Wedge, who arrived May 10, 1857. He soon erected the first drug store in the county at 140 South Broadway, Albert Lea. He was the leading physician in the county for fifty years.

The first law office. Augustus Armstrong arrived in May, 1857, and opened the first law office in the county at Albert Lea.

The first hotel in Albert Lea was built by George Hoops at 201 West Clark street. This was opened to the public by James Kinyon, proprietor, in October, 1857.

The first brick yard was opened by G. W. Watrous in 1857,

HISTORY OF FREEBORN COUNTY

one-half mile below Luther Academy, Albert Lea, on the Glen- ville road.

The first shoe shop in the county was opened by Christian Fleck in his pre-emption shanty at 720 South Washington street, Albert Lea, in 1856. His health failing, he closed out his busi- ness late in the fall of this year and died in a Chicago hospital the following winter.

The first dentist in the county was G. W. Chesley, who in 1857 opened an office at a farm in Manchester, a mile west of Itasca.

The first frame house in Albert Lea was a dwelling built at 121 East Clark street, in the spring of 1857 by Daniel Hurd.

The first store in Albert Lea was opened by Julius Clark at 119 East Clark street in June, 1856. He closed out his business early in 1858 and returned to his Ohio home.

The first newspaper .- "The Southern Minnesota Star," of which the "Freeborn County Standard" is the legitimate off- spring, was the first newspaper published in the county, and made its appearance July 11, 1857, edited by Alf. P. Swineford, who in 1885 was appointed Governor of Alaska by President Cleveland. The birthplace of this journal was at 124 Elizabeth street, Albert Lea.

The first saloon in the county was opened at 137 South Broadway, Albert Lea, by William L. Gray in 1857. He closed out his business in 1861 and retired to Canada to avoid the war. He was a brother of N. T. Gray, who was associated with Alf. P. Swineford in the publication of the "Southern Minnesota Star," who left at the same time to join the Confederate army and wore the gray until the close of the war.

The first school house in the county was built at Glenville in 1857. It was finished in August of that year and school at once commenced with Emily Streeter as teacher.

The first school in Albert Lea began the first Monday of December, 1857, in a small log building at the northeast corner of William and Elizabeth streets, with Austin D. Clark as teacher. The first school house in Albert Lea was erected during the summer of 1861, and school at once began with John L. Gibbs as teacher.

The first wagon shop, the first manufacturing establishment in Albert Lea, was built on the site of the government post office in the spring of 1858, by John Brownsill, who continued the business until 1869.

The first meat shop in the county was opened by Dennis Mur- ray on the east side of Broadway, opposite the Masonic temple, Albert Lea, in 1866.

The first millinery shop in the county was opened on the south-

HISTORY OF FREEBORN COUNTY

east corner of Water and Washington streets, Albert Lea, by Mrs. C. E. Squires, in the spring of 1860.

The first marriage in the county was on October 5, 1856, when Hanibal Bickford and Maria Colby were united in holy wedlock by William Andrews, Esq. This wedding seemed to prove an epidemic in the Colby family, for on January 13, 1857, a double wedding-the second in the county-took place in this most estimable family, when the only son, Charles C. Colby, and Miss Ellen Frost, and Daniel Hurd and Mary A. Colby were united in the holy bonds before Julius Clark, Esq.

The first birth in the city of Albert Lea was a son born to Mr. and Mrs. Lorenzo Merry in the spring of 1857.

The first death in Albert Lea was that of Jacob Adrian in 1857, caused by alcohol.

The first jewelry store in the county was opened at 211 South Broadway in 1867, by a young man by the name of Ward, who sold out to Henry Schleuder the next year. He continued the business at the old stand for nineteen years, when he closed out in favor of his brother, Theodore, who with his nephew, Henry J. Harm, has continued the business at the same place ever since.

The first photographer in the county was C. G. Edwards, who opened parlors in the ballroom of the old Webber House in the fall of 1864. He remained in business but a short time when he removed to eastern Minnesota, but after many years came back, and for several years was publisher of the "Daily Tribune."

CHAPTER VIII.

EARLY DAYS.

Course of the Early Pioneers-First Settlement-Difficulty of Transportation-Story of the County Seat Wars as Told by One of the Principal Participants in the Contests-Appoint- ment of County Commissioners-Albert Lea Selected as the - Temporary Seat of Government-Albert Lea, St. Nicholas, Shell Rock City, Itasca, Fairfield and Bancroft Enter the Fight-Albert Lea Wins First Contest-Itasca Again Enters the Arena-Settlers About to Lose Their Claims-Albert Lea Citizens Ascertain Methods of Protecting the Claimants- Victory Again Comes to Albert Lea-Matter Settled Perma- nently .- By Dr. A. C. Wedge.

The first white people who came into Freeborn county for the purpose of settlement, came via the Iowa route. This is accounted for from the fact that Iowa is the older state. Emi- grants seeking new homes would naturally follow up the water courses that drained this part of the country. The valleys were , beautiful and fertile and the streams were usually skirted with timber. The valley of the Cedar was first settled and then came the Shell Rock. The course of both streams is south and they are about twenty miles apart at the state line, joining about 100 miles further south.

About the month of May, 1853, came Ole Colbjornson Livdahlen with his family and made the first settlement in Free- . born county, on Section thirty-three, town of Shell Rock, just north of the state line. Possibly this man did not know that he was in Minnesota when he located his claim. This was before county lines were established. Vegger Gulbrandson, one of our territorial pioneers who has made it his business to look up all the facts in connection with this first settlement, has stated them very clearly in a communication to the "Freeborn County Standard," and I quote his letter in full, as a very important document relating to our early history.

"About the middle of May, 1853, Gulbrand Mellem and his brother-in-law, Ole Colbjornson Livdahlen, moved from Rock Prairie, Wis., to St. Ansgar, Mitchell county, Iowa, on the Cedar river and came across the prairie to Shell Rock river. G. Mellem settled on the south half of the town site of what is now

WILLIAM KELLAR

HISTORY OF FREEBORN COUNTY

Northwood, in Iowa. Mr. Mellem was the first white man to settle in Worth county, Iowa. Ole Colbjornson Livdahlen moved four miles further north, just over the line into Minnesota, into Yankee Grove, later called the Beighley Grove, and that summer he built the old house, (now rebuilt on the Freeborn county fair grounds). Mr. Livdahlen sold his claim in 1856 and moved to Winneshiek county, Iowa, and bought 120 acres of land on the Waterloo ridge. There he lived with his wife and two sons, Ole and Colbjorn, four years, but sold in 1860 and settled on a quarter section in Kandiyohi county, Minnesota, and died there a well-to-do farmer. His wife, with her two sons, never went with her husband to Kandiyohi. Her brother, O. Mellem, gave her a quarter section of land four miles north of Lake Mills, Iowa, and she lived there until her death."

This man, Livdahlen, appears to have moved away about the time he was likely to have some white neighbors. This disposi- tion "to move on" appeared to be quite a characteristic of some of the pioneers and this reminds me of Lorenzo Merry, who in 1856 owned a claim of 120 acres which is now the west portion of the city of Albert Lea. The east line of his land was what is now the center line of the paved street of Broadway. Before he moved here (in 1855) he had lived a year or two on the bank of the Cedar river in Iowa, not far from the state line near where the village of Lyle is now located, where he had a farm. The crossing of the Cedar at that point was then, and is to this day, known as Merry's Ford. Early in 1857, after the town site had been platted and just as there began to be a fair prospect of a good town springing up, he sold his property to Lucius P. Wedge for the sum of $2,500, and one year later, after the county seat had been located, moved out west twenty-five miles and built a hotel north of Walnut lake, on the prairie out of sight of timber or habitation. He remained there only a few years, when he sold out and settled northwest of Bismarck, North Dakota, where we lost track of him.

I remarked in the beginning that the valley of the Cedar river was settled first. A few days after my arrival at Albert Lea, in May, 1857, I found the good lady of the log cabin trying to feed the hungry young men who were her boarders, with nothing to cook but flour of which she made good bread, and starch gravy. After a few days of this kind of fare, I concluded that I would like a change of diet, so with the team I had driven from Wisconsin, I made a trip to Mitchell, Iowa, to see if I could find something better.

I found in Mitcheel county, Iowa, a well improved country, thriving villages, improved farms and plenty of farm produce for sale. This indeed was a surprise. We of Freeborn county

HISTORY OF FREEBORN COUNTY

were in a wilderness, yet here was a garden almost at our door. The state line appeared to divide a land of plenty from an unin- habitable waste. Iowa had long been open to settlement. The door to our part of Minnesota had been opened but a short time, the lands not having surveyed until 1854. Bands of Indians were still to be seen. Home seekers were a little cautious about entering this then-unknown country. Then, too, means of trans- portation has much to do with the development of a new coun- try. West of the Mississippi the only motive power was the ox and the horse, and but very few of the latter had been brought into the country. The population was largely composed of men who had come on foot, and it was nothing uncommon to see a party of men start for the land office at Chatfield on foot. We had no mail service, except that which was furnished by such volunteer pedestrians as were willing to ford rivers and sloughs to get the United States mail sack that was to bring us in con- nection with the civilized world. At that time the most natural outlet of this section was down through Iowa to McGregor on the Mississippi river opposite Prairie du Chien, which was the terminus of the railroad from the east.

As stated before, my route here, was via La Crosse, and I found this locality Sunday afternoon, May 10, 1857. I would not have recognized it as Albert Lea, had not the road led me through the water running over the dam, and brought me a little further to George S. Ruble's log house and the saw mill close by, with several hundred logs lying near, ready to be made into lumber. Driving upon the townsite proper, to a point where the Freeborn Hotel now stands, I saw Julius Clark's little log store and Lorenzo Merry's log house. There I met David Cheeney, and he told me what I had already suspected, namely that this was Albert Lea, the county seat of Freeborn county, Minnesota.

Much has been written, and many stories told, of the contest for the location of the county seat, and as I was one of the interested participants in the two battles which settled what to us was such a very important question, I am disposed to relate the facts as my memory recalls them after a lapse of half a century of time.

The historian of this volume has told you how the territory comprising this county came to be named Freeborn county. I will now try to inform you how Albert Lea came to be the county seat. Early in 1857 it was well known by the few actual resi- dents of the county that there would be an enactment by the territorial legislature resutling in the organization of the county. It was also known by an association of land speculators, residents of Hastings and St. Paul, Minn. The name of the association was the Dakota Land Company. I only remember the names

MARTIN V. KELLAR

HISTORY OF FREEBORN COUNTY

of a few of the members of this corporation. Among them were: Morton S. Wilkinson, John Brisbane, William S. Combs and Jesse Ramsey. The officers of this company were on the lookout for favorable points for starting young cities, and kept watch of the organization of new counties in which they could fix the location of the seat of government.

This company, early in the winter of 1856-57, sent an agent into this county to select a half section of land for a townsite, expecting to make it the county seat. This agent selected and filed on a half section of land in section twenty-one, township 101, range twenty-one, and christened it Bancroft.

Previous to this, George S. Ruble came here in 1855, and se- lected a location for a town. His claim included the outlet of what is now Fountain lake. He procured an act of the territorial legislature, granting him the right to build a dam which would raise said Fountain lake seven feet. This created a good water power, and he soon put up a fine saw-mill and a few years later a grist mill. In 1856 he, in conjunction with Lorenzo Merry and Thomas Thorne, platted and recorded the town site and named it Albert Lea, from the name of the lake on which it was located, and which had been discovered some years before.

It will readily be seen that much depended on the character of the legislation relating to the organization of Freeborn county. It was evidently the purpose of the Bancroft proprietors to pro- cure the enactment of a law providing for the organization of Freeborn county, the incorporation of the city of Bancroft and the naming of that point as the county seat, although at that time their proposed site was a tract of land owned by the govern- ment and covered with snow on which there was not an in- habitant. About the time this well matured plan was ready to present to the legislature, George S. Ruble showed up in the lobby, and their scheme was checked. He found friends among the members, as the result of which a bill was introduced, and after something of a contest passed, authorizing the governor to appoint three commissioners, residents of the county, who should have authority to appoint county officers and select a place for the temporary county seat. It was also provided that at the next general election the legal voters should designate by ballot the location of the county seat; and the place receiving the most votes should be the permanent seat of county government. Among the many friends who came to the relief of Mr. Ruble were Hon. Wm. Freeborn (for whom the county was named) and Dr. W. W. Sweney, of Red Wing. It was well known at that time that the territorial legislature could do almost anything if they could get the votes. This is proved by the fact that five months after the act was passed, this same legislature was in-

HISTORY OF FREEBORN COUNTY

duced to pass what appeared to be a very innocent bill providing for the incorporation of the town of Bancroft. After the vote had been taken something in the manner of the supporters of the bill aroused the suspicions of some of our friends. This led to the examination of the bill and the discovery of a "rider" or "joker" providing that hereafter the said town should be the permanent county seat of Freeborn county. Of course the fraud was shown up, it was quickly reconsidered and the objectionable clause stricken out.

It will be seen by the provisions of the act that there was to be a free-for-all fight, both for the temporary and permanent locations. The legislation out of the way, the next thing for Mr. Ruble to do was to see Governor Gorman and do the best he could to secure the appointment of commissioners favorable to Albert Lea. The governor, to show fairness, proposed that Mr. Ruble select one and the Bancroft people one, while he (the govenor) would name the third. Mr. Ruble named Wm. Andrews a nice dignified old gentleman, then a farmer living east of the Shell Rock river in the township of that name. He was a justice of the peace for that section and a warm friend of Mr. Ruble. The Bancroft crowd named S. N. Frisbie, a farmer, living where the village of Oakland now stands. Mr. Ruble could not under- stand why they should choose Frisbie. But it was learned that the appointment was made at the suggestion of Morton S. Wilkin- son, the agent who visited the proposed site of Bancroft, and probably made the legal filing. On his way out he happened to stop with Mr. Frisbie over night, and it was probable then that Mr. Wilkinson talked over his project with his host At any rate he got the impression that Frisbie would be in their favor, which impression proved to be a mistake. The governor when it came to the point, did not like to take the responsibility of naming the third man, so he remarked that he would let a certain judge-I have forgotten his name-appoint him. In the meantime, "I saw the judge," remarks Ruble. It so happened that the judge knew Hon. E. C. Stacy, as a good Democrat, so he asked Mr. Ruble how Stacy would do. Stacy was perfectly satisfactory to Ruble, and it thus turned out that Albert Lea had all three of the commissioners in her favor. So Albert Lea "drove in the pickets" and won the first brush in the battle for the county seat. The commissioners met at the home of Geo. S. Ruble, March 3, 1857, and unanimously selected Albert Lea for the temporary county seat. This was two months and seven days after I met David Cheeney on the town site.

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History of Freeborn County, Minnesota, Part 8

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