USA > Minnesota > Goodhue County > History of Goodhue county, including a sketch of the territory and state of Minnesota > Part 30
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It was then voted that thereafter the county board should exercise jurisdiction in the matter and provide for the care of the unfortunate, the sick and the destitute. On motion of Mr. Stearns it was further " voted that all bills for poor charges be audited by the town auditors before being allowed by the board."
On motion by Mr. Hobert, it was also " voted that in addition to such bills being audited by the town auditors, they should be approved by the chairman of the board of supervisors of the respective towns, and when presented to the clerk of the county board so audited and approved, he (the clerk) should issue orders for the amount."
COUNTY AUDITOR.
In 1858, an act was passed creating the office of county auditor. Previous to that time the business now transacted by the county auditor was entrusted to an officer designated as county clerk, which office had been filled from the date of the organization of the county by Rev. J. W. Hancock. In October of that year Eric Norelius, of Vasa township, was elected to the office of county auditor, but he declined to qualify, the office was declared to be vacant, and J. Going was appointed to fill the vacancy. He continued to discharge the duties of that office until October, 1859, when H. Mattson was elected. In 1861, Mr. Mattson entered the service in defense of the cause of the Union, and Fred. Joss was appointed deputy county auditor, and entrusted with the entire management of the business of the office. On the 30th of July, 1862, Mr. Mattson tendered his resignation, which was dated July 10. The resignation was accepted, and Fred. Joss was appointed to fill the vacancy until the next election in November, 1861, when he was elected to fill out the unexpired term of Mr. Mattson, and in 1862 was re-elected for the term of two years. In 1864, the present incumbent, Mr. S. J. Willard, was elected. He was re-elected in 1866, 1868, 1870, 1872, 1874
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and 1876, and is a candidate for re-election in 1878. His chief clerk is Henry A. Willard, who commenced to work in the office in 1872.
GRANTING LIQUOR LICENSE.
December 29, 1858, the board of supervisors voted to elect two per- sons who, with the clerk or auditor, should serve as a committee to grant license for the sale of spirituous liquors. R. C. White and C. W. Gillet, were appointed such committee. The license for the sale of spirituous liquors was fixed at $100.00 ; for malt liquors, $50.00.
April 21, the board "voted that no license for retailing liquors be granted by this board unless in towns that have voted for license."
COUNTY BONDS.
In 1870, a special act was passed by the legislature, to enable Good- hue county to issue bonds to fund the floating indebtedness. Under this act, bonds to the amount of $13,000, payable in 1873, 1874 and 1875, were issued. These bonds were taken up as they became due.
In January, 1876, a similar act was passed, under which bonds were issued to the amount of $10,500, due in 1878, 1879 and 1880, for the purpose of building an iron bridge over Cannon River, on the Red Wing and Hastings road. Eight thousand dollars of these bonds are still outstanding, but the county is in condition to take them up as they mature.
COUNTY INFIRMARY.
PURCHASE OF A POOR FARM-ERECTION OF BUILDINGS, ETC.
At a called session of the board of commissiones, held on the 16th day of April, 1864, it was resolved to purchase a farm for poor purposes. On the 23d of April, a contract was concluded for the purchase of the Williams farm, about three miles from Red Wing, in Burnside township, for $3,000. On the 11th of July, 1867, a contract was made with Ole K. Simmons for the erection of the necesary buildings. The original con- tract price was $5,500; but extra work was found necessary, which involved an additional cost of $237.18, increasing the total cost of the building to $5,737.18. It was completed and ready for occupancy December 28, 1867.
At a session of the board of county commissioners, held on the 19th of March, 1874, a resolution was adopted, by which it was agreed to sell the poor farm to William A. Merriam, of Minneapolis, for educa-
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tional and mill purposes, for the sum of $10,000, payable as follows : One thousand dollars cash in hand, $4,000 payable July 1, 1874, and $5,000 payable April 1, 1875. The contract was drawn and properly acknowledged, the first payment of one thousand dollars was made, and for a time it seemed as if Merriam's scheme would be realized; but he failed to make the second payment of $4,000, on the first of July, 1874, as per contract agreement, and at a session of the board held on the 8th of January, 1875, a resolution was adopted instructing the county attorney to commence a suit to foreclose the mortgage given by Merriam to secure payment. Proceedings were commenced in the district court for Goodhue county, and the 29th day of March, 1875, and the 28th day of March, 1876, were fixed as the times when the amount due on the contract must be paid by Merriam. He failed to meet the payments as required by the ruling of the court, and the property reverted to the county on the 28th day of March, 1876.
DISTRICT COURT.
CRIMINAL MENTION-A CLEAN RECORD, ETC.
The district court has jurisdiction in important civil and all criminal cases.
The first term of this court for Goodhue county was held in Red Wing, in 1854. Judge William H. Welch presided; P. Sandford was clerk, and P. S. Fish was sheriff. The session was held in Sandford's law office, a small frame structure heretofore described. Not a single case was tried, and no indictments were found by the grand jury. The petit jury was held two days and then discharged, after which the court sat in chambers four days.
There has never been a capital execution in the county, and, be it said to the credit of the population of the county, but few murder cases have ever been tried, and but very few murders committed, as compared with other counties.
SULLIVAN-TRUDELL CASE.
On the morning of the 20th of June, 1859, the dead body of a French half-breed, named Frank Trudell, was found in the yard in the rear of a house in the lower end of town occupied by a woman of bad reputation named Ann Sullivan. The killing had been done with a knife or some other sharp instrument, and the woman Sullivan was arrested for the murder. A first indictment was found against her at the October term
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(1859) of the district court ; but in consequence of some legal techni- cality, the indictment did not hold good, and a second indictment was found at the June term, 1860. The case was called for trial June 28, 1861, and was concluded on the 30th.
THE SHINNEMAN-JENNEN CASE.
On Monday, the 20th day of November, 1860, Henry Shinneman, a German, living on Wells Creek, gave himself into the hands of Sheriff Chandler, confessing at the time that he had shot and killed a neighbor named Jennen. As stated by Shinneman, a quarrel had occurred between himself and Jennen about some injuries the latter had inflicted on Shinneman's cattle by dogging them ; that during the quarrel Jennen made an assault on him with an ax, and that in self-defense he had shot and killed him. Shinneman was taken before Justice Smithers for a preliminary hearing, who admitted him to bail in the sum of five hun- dred dollars. The neighbors of the two men were not satisfied with the action of justice Smithers, and his bondsmen fearing he might leave them in the lurch, Shinneman was re-arrested by the sheriff on the fol- lowing Monday, and taken before Justice Post, of Wacoota, for a rehear- ing. Messrs. Wilder and Williston represented the State, and Messrs. McClure and Colville conducted the defense. The examination closed on Wednesday, the 29th of November, and resulted in committing Shinneman to jail to await the action of the grand jury.
On the 5th of January, 1861, the district court being in session, an indictment was found against Shinneman, and early in the night of Friday, the 18th of January, he broke jail and escaped to the country. On Monday night, the 21st, he was rearrested at the house of a man named Busche, in Florence township, where he had sought conceal- ment, and returned to jail. His case came on for trial on the 23d of June, when he was found guilty of murder in the second degree, and sentenced to the penitentiary for seven years, twenty days of the time to be spent in solitary confinement. After he entered the penitentiary, he managed to elude the vigilance of the officers, escaped from the prison and fled to Canada, and has never been brought back.
CONDON-CHURCHILL MURDER.
About nine o'clock, on the night of the sixth of April, 1875, William V. Churchill, of Cherry Grove township, was shot and killed while sit- ting in his own house. The neighbors were immediately alarmed, and arriving at the scene of the tragedy, sundry circumstances were devel- oped which directed suspicion against Thomas Condon, a neighbor, with
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whom Churchill had had a quarrel during the day. Condon was arrested and taken before Justice Fletcher Hagler for a preliminary hearing. His wife testified that Condon was at home and in bed when the mur- der was committed, and her testimony was corroborated by their daughter. Nevertheless, the circumstances were so strong against Condon that he was held to the higher court and committed to jail.
An adjourned term of the district court, Judge F. M. Crosby pre- siding, was held in July of that year. An indictment had been found against Condon, and on the 13th of that month the case was called for trial.
In preparing Mr. Churchill's body for burial, a gun wad or two were found. One of the wads was found against his person by one of the attendants. On opening it out, it proved to be made from a piece of paper torn from an Indianapolis surgical institute circular. This fact was established on the trial, as also the fact that Congdon had, a short time before the murder, got some powder from one man, and some shot from another one in the neighborhood, and that he had wrapped each parcel in a circular, or piece of a circular, of that kind. This fact, taken together with threats that Congdon had made against the life of Church- hill and other corroborative circumstances, formed so strong a chain of evidence against Congdon, that he was found guilty and sentenced for life.
The following named citizens comprised the jury before whom he was tried :
A. Seeback, J. B. Dorman, H. B. Powers, G. G. McCoy, John Heath, W. S. Grow, Justin Chamberlin, August Peterson, Dudley C. Dow, Eric Ericson, Tilton Howard, John Bronson.
John C. McClure prosecuted, and Pierce and Larry defended.
WILSON, THE WIFE MURDERER.
On the night of the 11th of July, 1876, Milton Wilson, of Cherry Grove township, killed his wife by cutting her throat. The family were old residents of the township, and had a kind of cat-and-dog life for a long time previous to the murder. Wilson was about fifty years of age at the time of the murder, and it was shown that a few days previous to the terrible affair, he had whipped and abused his wife in a shocking manner, the trouble arising because of a disagreement between Mrs. Wilson and her step-daughter, and the tragedy seems to have originated from that quarrel. After he had killed his wife, he attempted to cut his own throat, but failed. At the December term of the district court, 1876, an indictment was found against Wilson, to which he plead guilty, and was sentenced to imprisonment for life.
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MINOR CONVICTIONS.
The State of Minnesota vs. Frank Burdett. Indicted for rape May 7, 1873. Tried May 15, 1873, found guilty, and sentenced to the peniten- tiary for twenty years. Pardoned by Governor C. K. Davis, February 25, 1875.
The State of Minnesota vs. Peter Nugent. Indicted for rape Dec. 12, 1877. Tried Dec. 21, 1877, found guilty, and sentenced in March, 1878, to the penitentiary for twelve years.
The above paragraphs embrace all the important convictions from Goodhue county. There have been a few other convictions and short sentences, but as compared with other counties, the criminal docket shows fewer cases than any other county of equal population in the State, a fact that speaks volumes for the morality and honesty of the people by whom it is settled.
EDUCATIONAL.
FIRST SCHOOLS-PRIMITIVE SCHOOL HOUSES-EARLY TEACHERS, ETC.
In no one interest of the county have twenty-six years worked such wonderful and gratifying changes as in the educational.
Fifty years ago a knowledge of the higher branches of education could only be obtained at the colleges of the older States-Yale, Harvard, Amherst, Dartmouth, and their cotemporaries. Now there is not a graded or union school in Goodhue county that does not furnish advantages almost equal to a majority of the colleges of that period. On all the prairies and along the hill sides neat and comfortable school houses are to be found, while the teachers are proficient and competent to impart instruction in any of the branches necessary to the ordinary, or even the higher pursuits of life. In reality they are the people's colleges, and no system is dearer to the people than the system that supports and maintains them. To make war upon that system would only be making war upon the nation's life.
The first school houses in Goodhue county were rude, primitive, make-shift concerns, that would hardly be used for stables now ; but as the population increased in towns and county, schools increased in like proportion. As the years increased, and the people increased in wealth, the old school houses, with their mud and stick chimneys, puncheon floors, greased paper windows, and other primitive accommodations, went down before those more in keeping with the progressive march of time. But the old school houses and the old teachers are kindly
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remembered. In them the foundations of usefulness were laid that will be as lasting as life.
The following historical sketch of the early schools and school teachers of Goodhue county was contributed to these pages by Rev. Joseph W. Hancock, who has been a resident of Red Wing since June 13, 1849, and superintendent of the schools of the county from April 1, 1864 to January 1, 1867, and from April 1, 1872, to the present.
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
The first school among the whites in this county was a private school taught by Mrs. H. L. Bevans, in the summer of 1853. Mr. Bevans opened a store on Main street that year. His family occupied one of the old mission houses, and Mrs. Bevans taught school in the house where they lived. She had but few scholars, as there were not ten white children of school age in the place. A few Indian children attended this school, occasionally. There was no school the following winter. In the summer of 1854, Miss Morris, afterwards Mrs. William Bevans, taught a private school in the same building. In that year the first school district was organized in Red Wing under the provisions of the territorial school law. A board of trustees was elected under the name of "The trustees of school district No. 1, Goodhue county."
Rev. Jabez Brooks came to Red Wing in November, 1S54, and opened a school as the preparatory department of the Hamline Univer- sity, in a hall in a building that had been erected at the foot of Broadway, near the grounds now occupied by the R. R. depot. This school was supported by tuition fees, and was the only school in the place during the winter of 1854-5. The next summer a public school was opened and taught by Miss Emma Sorin, in a temporary building which had been erected by the Presbyterian society, and used as a house of worship.
During the summer and fall of 1855, the first public school house was erected. This building is still standing at the corner of Fourth street and East avenue, and is now occupied as a laundry. It was built and furnished entirely by individual subscriptions. During the winter of 1855-6 a school was. taught in this building by Miss Elizabeth Sorin. The following summer the school was taught by Miss Libbie J. Adams, now Mrs. C. J. F. Smith. The winter school of 1856-7 was taught by Mr. S. T. Sandford. The school was large, and his wife was engaged to assist him.
In the summer of 1857, the school was divided and two teachers employed. Miss Adams taught in the school house, and Miss Elizabeth
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Sorin taught in a small dwelling house in the east part of the town. This continued to be the only public school house in Red Wing until 1865, when the central school house was finished and occupied in December of that year.
As the population increased from 1855 to 1865, other rooms were rented for the accommodation of schools, and for some time before the central building was erected there were five teachers employed in as many different rooms, at convenient distances for the pupils attending.
Since the year 1865, three other school buildings have been erected to accommodate the schools of Red Wing. At present twenty teachers are employed besides the superintendent.
The current expenses of the Red Wing schools are now from $18,000 to $20,000 per annum. The number of scholars enrolled the last year 1,224.
District No. 2 of the county was organized at the head of the lake, in Wacoota township, in 1855; and Nos. 3 and 4, in Burnside, soon after.
A schoolhouse of considerable size was built at Cannon Falls as early . as 1860. In all the settled parts of the county, public schools were established as soon as practicable. But good schoolhouses were rare in the country districts until within a few years last past.
The following is a description of a few of these which were occupied by schools in 1864: At that time just one hundred districts had been organized, and schools were taught in eighty of them. One school was found in a large barn, the great doors being left open to afford light. Chickens, ducks and pigs were running in the yard, and a large portion of the teacher's time was spent in keeping out these intruders. The only seats for the scholars were two long benches, with no support for the back. In the basement, directly under the schoolroom, were stalls for horses and cattle.
Another school was taught in a deserted log shanty, without windows except openings between the logs, and one large opening in the roof. There was one door, but being without hinges or fastenings, was rather inconvenient.
A third school occupied a room of a dwelling, where a family was residing. The room was less than ten feet square, and in it were nine- teen scholars and their teacher.
Another school was kept in the attic of a log house. The wing or " lean up" to a log house, with seats extemporized by laying rough boards across large sticks of wood, and a sort of shelf fixed against the wall for the writing desk, constituted the more common kind of school houses in those days.
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THE HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY.
But the time for such school houses has gone by, and there are a large number of fine school buildings, both in village and country dis- tricts, that will compare favorably with any in the older states.
The following statistics from the report of the county superintendent for the school year ending August 31, 1878, show the present state of the public schools of Goodhue county:
SCHOOL STATISTICS.
The whole number of scholars enrolled in the schools of the county is 7,692. The entire number entitled to apportionment, 7,404.
Number enrolled in winter, 6,423 ; summer enrollment, 3,679.
Total number of schools in all the districts, 173.
Total number of days of school in winter, 9,057 ; summer, 5,399. £ Total daily attendance in winter, 4,207 4-10; summer, 2,906 6-10.
Average winter wages per month to teachers, $38.72; summer, $31.92.
Number of school-houses in the county, 149: brick, eight; stone, four; frame, 136, and one composed of logs.
The value of the school-houses and the ground upon which they stand, is computed at $161,274.
Cash on hand in the various districts at the beginning of the year, $20,577.44.
Received from school fund, $15,039.24 ; one mill tax collected, $9,- 461.38; received from special taxes collected, $43,795.30.
Received from bonds, $2,008.50; from all other sources, $1,730.89.
Paid for teachers' wages, $46,390.42; for repairs and improving grounds, $2,386.56.
Paid for wood and supplies, $4,137.48.
Paid for new school houses and sites, $2,383.27.
Paid for rents, $108.95; bonds and interest, $5.470.98; for all other purposes, $3,717.97.
Cash on hand at this writing-Oct. 1, 1878-$22,997.08.
Whole amount paid out, $64,691. Number of grade certificates granted, two to males and one to females. Number of second grade certificates, sixty-three to females and thirty-eight to males. Number of third grade certificates, females forty-eight, males eight. Number of applicants rejected, twenty-six.
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WAR HISTORY.
PATRIOTISM AND LIBERALITY OF THE PEOPLE.
If there is any one thing more than another of which the people of the Northern States have reason to be proud, it is the record they made during the dark and bloody days of the war of the rebellion. When the war was forced upon the country the people were quietly pursuing the even tenor of their ways, doing whatever their hands found to do- making farms or cultivating those already made, erecting homes, founding cities and towns, building shops and manufactories-in short, the country was alive with industry and hopes for the future. The country was just recovering from the depression and losses incident to the financial panic of 1857.
The future looked bright and promising, and the industrious and patriotic sons and daughters of the Free States were buoyant with hope› and looking forward to the perfecting of new plans for the ensurement of comfort and competence in their declining years, they little heeded the mutterings and threatenings of treason's children in the Slave States of the South. True sons and descendants of the heroes of the " times that tried men's souls "-the struggle for American independence-they never dreamed that there was even one so base as to attempt the destruction of the Union of their fathers-a government baptized with the best blood the world ever knew. While immediately surrounded with peace and tranquility, they paid but little attention to rumored plots and plans of those who lived and grew rich from the sweat, and toil, and blood, and flesh, of others-aye, even by trafficking in the offspring of their own loins. Nevertheless the war came with all its attendant horrors.
April 12, 1861, Fort Sumter, at Charleston, South Carolina, Major Anderson, U. S. A. commandant, was fired upon by rebels in arms. Although basest treason, this first act in the bloody reality that followed was looked upon as mere bravado of a few hotheads-the act of a few fire-eaters, whose sectional bias and freedom hatred was crazed by excessive indulgence in intoxicating potations. When, a day later, the news was borne along the telegraph wires, that Major Anderson had been forced to surrender to what at first had been regarded as a drunken mob, the patriotic people of the North were startled from their dreams of the future-from undertakings half completed-and made to realize that behind that mob there was a dark, deep and well organ- ized purpose to destroy the government, rend the Union in twain, and
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out of its ruins erect a slave oligarchy, wherein no one would dare question their right to hold in bondage the sons and daughters of men whose skins were black, or who, perchance, through practices of lustful natures, were half or three-quarters removed from the color that God, for His own purpose, had given them. But they reckoned without their host. Their dreams of the future-their plans for the establishment of an independent confederacy, were doomed from inception to sad and bitter disappointment.
Immediately upon the surrender of Fort Sumter, Abraham Lincoln, America's martyr president, who, but a few short weeks before had taken the oath of office as the nation's chief executive, issued a proc- lamation calling for 75,000 volunteers for three months. The last word of that proclamation had scarcely been taken from the electric wires before the call was filled. Men and money were counted out by hundreds of thousands.
The people who loved their whole government could not give enough. Patriotism thrilled and vibrated and pulsated through every heart. The farm, the workshop, the office, the pulpit, the bar, the bench, the college, the school house-every calling offered its best men, their lives and fortunes in defense of the government's honor and unity. Party lines were, for the time, ignored. Bitter words spoken in moments of political heat, were forgotten and forgiven, and joining in a common cause, the masses of the people repeated the oath of America's soldier statesman, " By the great Eternal, the Union must and shall be pre- served."
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