USA > Minnesota > Goodhue County > History of Goodhue County, Minnesota > Part 28
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There were six months of school in two terms of twelve weeks each in 1862-63, and seven months in 1863-64. The appointment of school money from the county in 1862-63 was but $117.70. In the spring of 1863 a movement was started by a petition signed by T. F. Kellett. George Sammel Person and E. L. Kings- bury for the building of a school house. Favorable action was taken and a levy agreed to of 5 mills on all taxable property, to begin the necessary funds. In 1864-65, 2 mills more were voted for schools and 7 mills for school house fund. In 1865-66, 8 mills was voted toward the fund. In March, 1867, it was voted to have three terms of school of twelve weeks each. In March, 1866, definite steps were taken to build a two-story school house, 24 feet high. width 30 feet. length 50 feet. Two lots were first bought and later two more adjoining, in block 40, the cost of the building not to exeeed $3,000. The district received from the county treasurer in 1865, $537. The money to build the school house was loaned to the district by private individuals, chief among them being I. C. Stearns, H. H. Palmer, J. A. Thacher, Ezra Wilder and the Ladies' Sewing Society, with a few gentle- men loaning minor sums. E. L. Kingsbury was the contractor and builder, and received for the job $2.000.
In Mareh, 1868, the district voted to have three terms of school per year of thirteen weeks each. This year the county treasurer paid to the distriet $717. In Mareh, 1870, on motion of Ezra Wilder, it was voted to build- another school house and the board was authorized to select a site and proceed with the work.
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They accordingly decided upon a site adjoining the public square and commenced excavation for the cellar when, serious opposi- tion to that site developing, a special meeting of the district was called in July of that year to decide the matter. By a majority of four votes the site north of the Baptist church was decided upon, the land being donated for that purpose. It has been claimed that the majority was not one of all the voters in the district, but only of those present and voting. a majority of all preferring the much more elevated site, though some of them failed to be on hand at the pinch. In consequence the present fine building is located where it is instead of on a spot where its fine and im- posing proportions and aspect would be much more effective than is now possible. In March, 1871, it was voted that there should be three schools and three terms of thirteen weeks each, and that there should be two male teachers and one female teacher. In 1871 the amount received from the county treasurer was $1.850 and in 1872. $2.200. During this school year Mr. Savage taught the high school for ten weeks. Previously and after the first school house was built. the teachers were O. Il. Parker, Hattie Ward, Emma Barrett. now Mrs. James Farwell; Lettie Barrett, now Mrs. Harry Sergeant of California; Abby Moody, then of York, Maine, and Alice Kendall. At a district meeting held in October, 1872, on motion of J. A. Thacher. it was voted, with but two or three dissenting. to maintain the schools at the highest point of efficiency then attainable and that no backward steps be taken.
Recurring briefly to the early beginnings of the work of the schools, of which, unfortunately, for the first years no trace of records can be found. it may be said that the persons to whom were committed the responsibilities of inangurating and carrying forward the educational interests of the incipient community were men not only deeply interested in the work, but especially qualified to condnet it in such a way as not only to enlist hearty cooperation but also to fix and intensify the publie sentiment in favor of unremitting devotion to the cause of sound, practical and thorough mental and moral training of the young people. Each member of the school board had learned the art of teaching by experience in New England. They were J. A. Thacher, I. C. Stearns and C. C. Webster. During all the years that have fol- lowed, the board has never been without members who were leading citizens. interested in their duties and competent to per- form them so as to carry forward the cause which. to the honer of our village can be said, has been always near her heart. The first school house being on an elevated site and in itself a hand- some building, having a fine front and crowned with a tasteful
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cupola, was, with the church, the conspicuous objects, arresting the eye as one approaching the town reached the brow of the prairie, where it descends toward the valley. Its two school rooms, above and below, were approached from the south. In 1872, after only six years of use, it caught fire one evening, on the roof. from some unexplained cause and was burned to the ground. The desks in the lower room were saved and were used in one of the rooms of the upper floor of the house built in 1870. At the time of the fire a festival was being held in the second story open room of the building so recently destroyed by the same element, and the shock of sudden discovery of it brought the gathering to an abrupt close.
The new school building of two stories, high posted. dimen- sions 40 by 60 feet. built in 1870. costing $4,000 not including furnishings, had the two lower rooms at once finished and put to use. Teachers employed during the earlier years were Mr. Parker. Emma Barrett. Persis Scofield and Jessie Hall, who later becoming the wife. of Charles A. Ward, and L. D. Henry, the principal for one year. All these teachers gave satisfaction. Later Mr. Henry acted as clerk in the store of II. II. Palmer and subsequently married one of his pupils. Jennie Weatherhead. For several years four teachers were employed, including the head master. The resources of the district steadily increased. as well as the number of the pupils. The salaries of the teachers also were gradually increased. With Mr. Henry the school rose to the grade of a high school, though not, of course, of the first class, at that time. Benjamin Darby was principal in 1872, a success- ful instructor and a man of powerful physique. It is said that when the fire which consumed the earlier school house was dis- covered. Prof. Darby and E. L. Mellus, then in trade here and afterwards a physician of good standing, were among the first to enter the burning building. seeking to save whatever of value could be snatched from the flames. The egress by the stairway being cut off, they descended by a ladder, Mr. Darby with the big heating stove in his arms, while Mr. Mellus bore off something less weighty. M. B. Green. an esteemed teacher, was principal in 1873-74, one year. Then Miss Wood for a short time was princi- pal. In the fall of 1876 A. B. Guptill of Red Wing, a former resi- dent of Lubec, Maine, became principal and remained till the spring following. In 1876 district No. 68 became independent, the school board assuming the duties and responsibilities that ordinarily rest upon a majority of the legal voters of school dis- tricts. The number of pupils in the primary department. tanght by Miss Seofield, was 62; in the intermediate, taught by Miss
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Hall, 48; in the high school, taught by Mr. Guptill, 36; the num- ber of Mr. Parker's room is not given.
Mr. Fletcher succeeded Mr. Guptill for a short time in the spring of 1877, a worthy man, fond of music and excelling as a Hutist. In the fall of 1877 Mr. Mooney, also a native of Lubec, recommended by Dr. Tupper, who had known him there, took charge of the school for one term. Later he became a practicing lawyer in his native town.' In the fall of 1878 W. A. Snook succeeded to the principalship. He was a rigid disciplinarian, possessing both moral and physical courage for all emergencies. The modern history of Zumbrota schools is found elsewhere in this history.
PUBLIC LIBRARY.
(By Mrs. Gilbert P. Murphy.)
The Zumbrota Public Library .- There are in Goodhue county two free public libraries, one at Red Wing, the other at Zum- brota. While the Red Wing library takes precedence as regards size, it must yield the palm as regards age to the Zumbrota library, which can trace its beginning to a period forty years ago. For some years during the early history of Zumbrota one of the most popular organizations in town was the Zumbrota Literary Society, at whose weekly meetings old and young, both men and women, gathered. finding therein much mental stimulus as well as recreation. Several prominent members of this or- ganization, notable among them being Joseph A. Thacher, be- came, during the winter of 1868 and 1869, much interested in the matter of a town library. The few books which the early settlers had brought from their eastern homes had been circu- lated through the neighborhood until everybody had read them. Periodicals were few and expensive. The literary society was cramped in preparing its programs by dearth of material, and individuals were hungry for good literature. After considerable agitation of the question, a new organization superseded the literary society. called the Zumbrota Literary Society and Li- brary Association. By paying the sum of fifteen dollars, any individual could become a life member of the association, he and his family being thereby entitled to the use of the library for life. About twenty were found who became life members at this time, the following being a necessarily imperfect list of the names : J. A. Thacher, J. C. Stearns, E. L. Halbert, H. II. Palmer, Henry Blanchard. John Mitchell. Charles A. Ward, Sr., Charles Ward, Jr., O. H. Parker, J. B. Locke, Henry Shedd. Mathias P. Ringdahl. William Wells, B. C. Grover, James Cram, D. B. Scofield, T. D. Rowell and T. P. Kellett. The first actual con-
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tribution toward the library fund was a cord of wood, con- tributed by Mathias P. Ringdahl. To the money obtained from life membership fees and voluntary contributions was added the proceeds of an oyster supper, given to celebrate the organization of the new association. and with these funds about 275 books were purchased and placed in a room over the store building owned by Mr. Thacher and located where the Great Western station now stands. O. H. Parker being appointed librarian. Many of us who now take pride and pleasure in our beautiful library building can distinetly remember, as children, walking the length of the store, climbing the narrow, dusty stairway at the back. traversing a dark lane formed by piles of packing boxes, to the front of the store again, where we selected a library book from one of the two cases stationed by the window, then through the lane and down again to have the book charged to our name at the desk in the rear of the store. Sometimes we made the charge ourselves, for, since the librarian's labors were gratuitous, they must be as light as possible.
In February, 1877. Zumbrota became an incorporated village and not long after the library became the Free Public Library of Zumbrota, to be supported by a one-mill tax. Henceforth we find it in charge of a board appointed by the village council, and almost immediately the books were removed to Good Templars' hall. in the building owned by Charles Anderson. Mrs. James Cram was elected librarian, with Ida Weatherhead, Mrs. Cooper and Amanda Dam as assistants, and these ladies kept the reading room open two afternoons and one evening of each week, giving their own time to this for the good of the cause. After a year or two came another change. The library was moved into the building occupied by the Misses Walker's millinery establishment and Miss Walker became and was for many years librarian. Dr. O. Il. Hall. for twenty years chairman of the committee for selecting new books, in writing of this period said that much of the prosperity of the library during these years was due to Miss Walker's faithful and painstaking work in its behalf, for which the small sum paid her for rent and care was no adequate compensation.
When a change became necessary by reason of Miss Walker's retiring from the millinery business, the library was moved into the Security State Bank building, and for some time a great deal of the work of conducting and caring for it was done by George A. Thacher, who selected new books, catalogued those on hand. and was first to agitate the question of a Carnegie library, al- though it was some years before the building became a faet.
James Farwell, while mayor of Zumbrota, which position he
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held for three years, was deeply interested in the prosperity of the library, and it was largely through his efforts that the plans for a library building were successful, Andrew Carnegie fur- nishing the $6,500 which our building cost on the usual condition that a sum equal to 10 per cent of that amount be annually de- voted by the village to the library. At the time of its completion in May, 1908, the structure was the smallest library building in the state. It provides a well arranged one-room library on the ground floor, with wall shelves, reading tables and librarian's desk. It is lighted by electricity and doubtless in the near future will be furnished with an adequate heating plant. There is a rest room furnished by Zumbrota business men in the basement. The rest room is open all day. The library is open every evening except Sunday, and on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Hattie Marvin, who is a graduate of the state university and has also completed the library course at the University summer school, is librarian and, like many of her predecessors in that position. is profoundly interested in the advancements of the library, and gives much gratuitous time to the work. There is no institution which so thoroughly gives evidence of the real spirit of Zum- brota as does our library, established in the pioneer days of hardship, persistently supported and increased through the changing fortunes of forty years, its work done largely by volum- teers, with unwavering determination and unfailing enthusiasm, Zumbrota's citizens have loved and labored for their library and now, in its new home, with two thousand books upon its shelves and thirteen periodicals upon its reading tables, and with an able and enthusiastie librarian, there seems no reason why its future may not be of the brightest.
ZUMBROTA TOWNSHIP.
Zumbrota comprises township 110, range 15, and originally included Minneola, which was set off in June. 1860. It is bounded on the north by Goodhne, east by Wabasha county, south by Pine Island and west by Minneola. Through a larger part of the southern tier of seetions runs one of the branches of the Zumbro, and from this river the name of the township is derived. The surface is largely rolling prairie, with higher, un- dulating land in the northwestern portions.
The first settler was William Fiske, who came in 1854 and took a claim on Dry Run, in the southeastern part. Fiske was a man of strong personality. He was born in Maine and for some years was a sailor. Of hermit tendencies, he tried to get as far from civilization as possible. He died in 1878 and is buried in the cemetery at Mazeppa, Wabasha county. Aaron Doty and
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C. W. Smith were also early settlers, as was C. P. Bonney, who arrived May 26, 1856, and built a cabin. It is related that for the first six weeks Mrs. Bonney saw the face of no white man but her husband.
In the fall of 1855 Rev. HI. N. Gates, a missionary who had been laboring in Iowa, returned to Stafford, Connectient, where he had formerly lived, and proposed organizing an emigration company to establish a colony in the West. The first meeting was held in Stafford, at which time the company was organized. under the name of Stafford Western Emigration Company, with Albert Barrett, of Stafford. as president and Charles Ward, of Lowell, Mass., as secretary. The following members constituted the board: T. P. Kellett, Josiah Thompson, Joseph Bailey, D. B. Goddard, Dr. Ira Perry, James Elwell, Milton Bonner, Samuel Chaffee. Ruben A. Smith and C. C. Webster. At a meeting held in Palmer, Mass., January, 1856, they adjourned to meet at Lowell in February, 1856. ( One hundred and sixty persons joined the association at the time of the adjourned meeting in Lowell and the capital stock paid in at that time was $30,000. At this meeting Rev. H. N. Gates, Albert Barrett and Mr. Sher- wood were appointed a committee to go to lowa or Minnesota and purchase a township of land. The funds of the association were placed at the disposal of Rev. H. N. Gates, chairman of the com- mittee. Nothing was heard from the committee after their de- parture until the latter part of May, 1856. when a call for a meeting was issued by the secretary, Charles Ward, stating that the committee had returned and would report. Gates and Sher- wood both made reports but disagreed, and the company dis- banded. A smaller company was formed soon after. There were certain transportation concessions that had been made to the old company and the company wished to secure these and at the same time not have the name of the old company, a thing which was accomplished by the insertion of the letter "r" in the old name, the new designation being the Strafford Western Emigra- tion Company. The members were Josiah Thompson, Ira Perry. Joseph Bailey. D. B. Goddard, T. P. Kellett and Samuel Chaffee.
In the latter part of July or early part of Angust, 1856. some of the members of the company came to this part of Minnesota. and, after looking over the country in different localities, Samnel Chaffee, D. B. Goddard and Joseph Bailey came across the Zum- bro river valley with the intention of returning to New England via Red Wing. As they ascended the hill north of where the village of Zumbrota now stands, Samuel Chaffee discovered the beanties of the valley, and probably to him belongs the credit for the subsequent settlement of the colony at that point. The fol-
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lowing day the party arrived in Red Wing, where Mr. Chaffee, who had been taken ill on the journey, died, August 9, 1856. His remains still repose in the cemetery at Red Wing.
There was quite a tide of immigration to Zumbrota, chiefly among those who belonged to the company, in the fall of 1856 and spring of 1857. Frink and Walker's stage route from Du- buque to St. Paul had previously been established through the township. but in March, 1857, the route was changed so as to lead through the village. T. P. Kellett was the first postmaster. The first death was that of John Cameron, December, 1856. William E. Winter was married in May. 1857, his being the first marriage in the township.
An active participant in the settlement of Zumbrota is authority for the following items regarding the early days of the township: "Zumbrota was settled by a small fragment of a large company called the Stafford Western Emigration Company. The original company was organized in the winter of 1855-56. This company contained over 150 members, most of them heads of families. Its members were mainly from Massachusetts and Connectient. It had a paid up capital of $30.000. The plan con- templated the purchase of at least a township of land in one body, and laying out a village in the center of the tract. The aim of the projectors was to plant a distinctively New England colony in the West. At a meeting of the company at Lowell. Mass., in February, 1856, the organization was perfected and plans matured to transplant the colony in the early spring as soon as a suitable site could be selected by the committee of three chosen for the purpose. This committee started for the West soon after the meeting at Lowell and took with them about $30,000, with which to purchase land and make the needed improvements ready for the colonists, when they should arrive. It would be tedious to relate the details which followed the de- parture of the committee for the West. Suffice it to say that not one of the committee was a practical man. They had no ac- quaintance with western affairs. And at least two out of the three seem to have had separate schemes of their own by which each hoped to subserve his own interest, or that of his friends and backers. The result was such as might have been expected. There soon developed dissensions and divisions in the committee. After wasting some three months of time and $3,000 of the com- pany's funds, the company was called together again in May, at Lowell, to hear the report of the chairman of the committee. The outcome of this meeting was a dissolution of the original company and a repayment of the funds to the members. less the amount expended or squandered by the committee. This re-
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payment of the funds was obtained through the unflinching in- tegrity of Charles Ward.
"Immediately upon the breaking up of the original com- pany, a few of its members proceeded to reorganize a new com- pany upon a much smaller scale. Several members of this com- pany immediately started for Minnesota in order to find a location for their little colony. Instead of a special committee, the members constituted themselves a committee of the whole, and upon their arrival in Minnesota started out in search of land. They had agreed upon Red Wing as a place of rendezvous, where they should meet and compare notes. A company of three of these explorers, who seem to have been a leading sub-com- mittee of the company, in the latter part of July, 1856, proceeded to the southwest of that point to a southerly portion of the then territory of Minnesota. This committee consisted of Joseph Bailey, Daniel B. Goddard and Samuel Chaffee. After several days of weary search for government land that could be had for their purpose, and finding nothing to their liking, they started on their return to Red Wing, weary. footsore and discouraged, fully resolved to return to New England.
"Let us now for a brief period leave our travelers making their melancholy journey to the Mississippi river, and give a few moments' attention to what has transpired in the valley of the north branch of the Zumbro. There was a beautiful valley, three miles in width, and perhaps four miles in length, through the center of which the Zumbro coursed like a serpentine band of silver. On account of this traet not being represented on the maps of the time as surveyed lands it was supposed by many to be on the 'Half Breed' traet, so called, consequently up to the midsummer of 1856 scarcely a settler had ventured into this beautiful valley. No road traversed it.' The trail of the red men and the old paths left by the buffalo were the only evidence re- maining that any living creature had ever traversed the valley. The old territorial road from St. Paul to Dubuque crossed the Zumbro about one and one-half miles below the lower end of this valley. In the spring of 1856 a backwoodsman by the name of Smith, who was a born pioneer and could no more endure civilization than a Sioux Indian, who, nevertheless, was shrewd and scheming, in one of his hunting trips for deer. ducks and prairie chickens. strolled over the divide from the big woods on the middle branches of the Zumbro, where he had settled the year before, into the above described valley. He found to his surprise that no settler had invaded its precincts. His interest was aroused. Hle traveled over its length and breadth, appre- ciated both its beauty and its advantages, though one may sup-
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pose that its beauties in his mind had more of a practical than an æsthetic value. Visiting the valley several times he discovered that near the center was an ideal site for a town; that the road from Red Wing to the southwest, if straightened, would cross the Zumbro in the center of his proposed townsite, and that there was a natural crossing at that point. He also discovered that by straightening the St. Paul and Dubuque road it would also cross the center of this valley. Keeping all this to himself. he found a man by the name of Aaron Doty, who would preempt a quarter- section in the valley and share the land with him after the title was obtained from the government. Meantime he had traced out the route for the change of the Red Wing and Mantorville road, and stationed himself somewhere near the center of the present town of Roscoe. in order to intercept some of the many teams which were passing from towns and points south toward Red Wing. lle was able. now and then, to persuade one to try the new route over the trackless prairie. In this way. after a while, there was a wagon track that could be followed in the direction he desired. straightening the former road. It was late in July or early in August of 1556. Smith and Doty had the walls of their shanty built to the height of some ten feet. It had as yet no roof. A few boards leaned against the inside wall furnished them a rude shelter during the rain and at night. Occasionally a way- farer would stop and share the hospitality of Smith, whose wife had come over from the woods to keep house for her husband. Doty, who was unmarried. boarded with Smith. The sun was approaching the horizon one afternoon when three weary travel- ers called at Smith's shanty and asked for a drink of water and some food. They were informed by Smith, who was delighted that his new road was beginning to be traveled, that he could accommodate them. Smith's wife soon spread before them on a rough board table snch viands as her larder afforded. consist- ing of wheat bread, molasses and cold boiled venison. some coffee, black as ink. without milk or sugar. and a refreshing drink of cold water from a spring near by. These three travelers were the sub-committee whom we left journeying toward Red Wing. They anxiously inquired the distance to Red Wing. and also the distance to the nearest stopping place on the road, Smith having no accommodation for them over night. They concluded to go on as far as Moer's, who had a log house where Luther Chap- man's house was later erected. Smith. with his shrewd in- quisitiveness. had drawn out of these men the objeet of their journey and the fact of their failure to find what they were seeking for. Learning that they were the representatives of a colony and had been upon an unsuccessful search for a suitable
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