USA > Minnesota > Houston County > History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota > Part 49
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WELLS IN HOUSTON COUNTY.
A few wells situated in the valley of the Root River have disclosed vegetable remains at about the level of the flood-plain, and probably the ter- races generally cover a layer of vegetable remains that was caused by the decay and burial of pre- glacial plants. This has only been detected, so far as known, at Hokah, and at La Crescent. At the former place the well of Isaac West was filled again because the "muck-bed" rendered the water unfit for use. The same is true of William Wykoff's and W. F. Weber's, and a number of others. Prob- ably the characters of Mr. Pidge's, as given be- low, are those common to most of them.
B. F. PIDGE'S WELL AT HOKAH.
It is situated on the lower terrace.
Feet. 50 or 55
Loam and sand.
Vegetation, leaves, stick, muck, etc .. 5
Sand, with some coarse pebbles, "literally filled with snail shells" 4
White sand, yielding water .. 5
The water of this well tastes rather peculiar, and at first it was not fit for use. Sometimes still it comes up black like dye, but by use it be- comes clearer, and is used for all domestic purpo- ses, without injurious effects. Sugar of lead causes it to become milky white. Acetate of po- tassa produces no change; sulphate of zinc, no change. When it rises in the bucket it is not clear, but somewhat cloudy, as if with clay.
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GEOLOGICAL.
The well of Mr. Thomas Fairbanks, at Mound Prairie, disclosed a bone, now said to be in the pos- sesiion of Dr. Armstrong, at Hokah. Efforts that have been made to secure facts in reference to this discovery, and further account of the bone, have been unsuccessful.
Throughout the county are numerous springs, some of which are very large, and gush out along the valleys. They seem to be the outlets of sub- terranean streams. Those above Riceford furnish the water for the flouring mills at that place. There is also a large one on section seventeen, Caledonia, three miles south of Sheldon. They seem to frequent the horizon of about eighty feet below the top of the St. Lawrence limestone, and indicate a shaly, or otherwise impervious layer there in that formation.
MATERIAL RESOURCES.
The rocks of the county do not contain any valuable minerals. They are everywhere abun- dantly exposed, and are quarried at many places for ordinary building-stone and quicklime.
BUILDING STONE.
At Spring Grove, the Lutheran society have built a large church of brick, the basement being from the Lower Trenton, in layers of four to six inches, taken from quarries near the village. The heavy trimmings are from the St. Lawrence lime- stone. The quarries are owned by George Timan- son and Ole Tostenson.
The Toledo Woolen Mill, of Fletcher & Wil- liams, section five, La Crescent, is built of the St. Lawrence, quarried near.
At Caledonia, the St. Lawrence is extensively used for building, quarried about a mile east of the village. The German Catholic church is the principal building made of it, being also the largest building in the place. The county jail is a fine building of the same, the courses being about ten inches thick, rubble dressed, with trim- mings of the same. The business blocks of Nicholas Koob, J. J. Belden, John Krantz, Joseph Vossen, Jacob Bouquet, and Nix Erstine are also constructed of the same stone. The quarries are owned by John Molitor, John Dorsh, Anton Molitor, Widow Cunningham, and John Aiken.
On section twenty-four, Spring Grove, Mr. K. Gilbertson has a two-story stone residence on his farm, quarried from the Trenton.
At Money Creek, Harvey Chapel has a quarry
that furnishes good stone for building, though much of that which is used is taken from the sur- face near the tops of the bluffs, having been loosened and broken up by the weather.
On the north-east quarter, section eleven, Cale- donia, is Mrs. M. Brown's stone house, built of the Lower Magnesian. .
Mr. J. Kline has a fine farm-house of stone taken from the St. Lawrence, on section nineteen, Union. Near Mr. Kline's quarry is another owned by Henry Snure. There is another on section twenty- nine, Union, owned by Michael Wilhelm. L. Svenson's is on section two, (southeast ) Houston.
The principal quarries at Hokah, now worked, are those of Nath. Whiteman, in the St. Croix sandstone, and Widow Prindle. The stone of Mr. Whiteman's quarry is a harsh, argillaceous sand- rock, in layers a few inches thick, which becomes firmer on exposure. The best building stone lies higher up in the bluffs, and was opened in Mt. Tom by the Southern Minnesota railroad, for the construction of their shops. It is from the St. Lawrence.
At. La Crescenta the public school-house was built of stone from Potter & Taylor's quarry, like- wise in the St. Lawrence, north of La Crescent, in the edge of Winona county.
Lang's brewery, on section twenty-eight, Ho- kah, is a large stone building near the river built of limestone from near the top of the bluff.
There is also a fine stone farm-house owned by Wm. Splitter, on section twenty-one, La Crescent, in Root River valley. The Nunnery, on section twenty-eight, La Crescent, was constructed of stone got from the bluffs near, including also that used for quicklime. These are all from the St. Law- rence.
On Winnebago Creek, on section twenty-two, Winnebago, Mr. T. B. Barber, has a stone flour- ing mill.
O. T. West has a limestone quarry at Brows- ville, which supplied heavy stone for the railroad and for other uses. Mr. Job Brown's, at the same place, furnished the limestone foundation for the public school-house.
The foregoing are a few of the stone buildings in the county, but there are several others which, though noticed in the progress of the survey, were not carefully located, and cannot be referred to. The St. Lawrence supplies by far the greater portion of the building-stone used in the county.
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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY.
There is not a single known worka ble quarry in the Shakopee, though exposed as favorably as the St. Lawrence. It is uniformly ignored. It is harder to work, has cherty lumps and siliceous concretions which not only disturb the bedding but renders it difficult to cut into desired shapes, and is generally in thinner layers. The color is much the same as that of the St. Lawrence, being buff, or slightly salmon-colored, but the St. Law- rence is, where most used for building, also some- what open or vesicular in texture. Thus, mortar sets firmly upon it, and forms a sutured attach- ment. When the St. Lawrence stone is first taken out it cuts more easily than after exposure for a few weeks, a fact which seems to be true of nearly all good building stone.
STRENGTH OF MINNESOTA BUILDING-STONES.
A series of experiments have been carried on by Gen. Q. A. Gilmore, under the direction of Gen. A. A. Humphreys, Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., during several years, on the strength of various building-stones in the United States. The tests that have been made are conducted with great care and precision, and demonstrate the compres- sive strength, specific gravity, and ratio of ab- sorption, of the stone tested. In the report of the Chief of Engineers for 1875, is a general table giv- ing results, and in that table are named the fol- lowing building stones from Minnesota:
Dark syenite granite from Duluth. Light colored granite from St. Cloud. Pink limestone from Kasota. Light buff limestone from Frontenac. Which compared favorably with specimens from other States.
SAND.
The St. Peter formation is excavated for mortar- sand by Jesse Schofield, section fourteen, Caledo- nia, and by John Burns on section twenty-six. This white sand is delivered at Caledonia village for $1.25 per load, or occasionally for $1.50.
The St. Croix furnishes a similar sand near Mr. Kline's, section sixteen, Union. These formations will supply a similar sand in any part of the county where they are accessible, the layers in the St. Croix, however, are about 200 feet below the top of the formation.
At Mr. Schofield's sand quarry, about a mile west of Caledonia, is a large mass of "lamellar cal- cite," lying on the slope of the St. Peter, and
nearly covered by the loam. In that respect it is like a similar mass seen near St. Charles, in Wi- nona county, in 1872, but it seems more firm than that. This appears like a firm, very compact rock, consisting of almost pure carbonate of lime, but somewhat colored. It is mainly massive, and striated, or laminated, but shows some crystalline grains. It weathers into undulating, or wavy, smooth surfaces. There is another, much larger mass, weighing many tons, on the land of Mr. Willard, a short distance west. These masses can be burnt into a purely white quicklime of great strength.
The age and origin of this calcite involves an in- teresting problem. When that piece was found in Winona county, in 1872, if was referred, hypothet- ically, to the Trenton Green Shales, or to the worn-out Cretaceous that may have covered that country, making it of rock origin, either Lower Si- lurian or Mesozoic, but there is much reason to believe these calcite masses are not referable to the rock in situ, but are of atmospheric origin, being, in short, the remains of immense travertine depos- its from limy water running down the St. Peter slope from springs that once existed but are now dry. They lie on the slope of the outcropping edge of the St. Peter, just below the Green Shales which shed all the water that works downward through the Upper Trenton limestene; but they are also, so far as discovered, in regions where the Upper Trenton does not now exist, the only re- maining portion of the Trenton being that which lies below the Green Shales. This is strikingly the case near Caledonia, where the Trenton is re- duced to mounds and tables, capping the St. Peter sandstone, very far isolated from the main area of the Trenton. To suppose this calcite is due to springs caused by the Green Shales, a common phenomenon now in Fillmore county, is to require the former existence of the Upper Trenton, with a considerable thickness of strata, over all the re- gion of Caledonia, and extending far enough north and east to furnish drainage surface sufficient to maintain such springs. This is not inconsistent with the history of geological changes, nor with the lapse of time since the Trenton was elevated to the condition of dry land. The present exist- ence of isolated patches of the Lower Trenton, both in Minnesota and Wisconsin, can only be ex- plained on the theory that the whole formation was once more largely spread in horizontal strata over
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PRE-HISTORIC.
those States, than at present. Then an extension of the Lower Trenton so as to embrace in one sheet of layers these isolated patches, is no more than enough to bring also the Upper Trenton into the region of these calcite masses. The present outlines, shape and position of the areas of the Lower Trenton, demonstrate that they are only the relics of once greater areas which have been eroded and removed slowly, and left as they are because they have been better protected against destructive agents. While Root River has been excavating the gorge in which it runs, 500 feet deep and two miles wide, the Trenton limestone, which at first may have extended as far north-east as to Hokah, has been slowly receding under the operation of denudation and surface drainage. These calcite masses, then, are relics of pre-glacial time, and perhaps of early pre-glacial time, since the last glacial epoch did not operate in Houston county so as to disturb the older surface.
BRICK.
The loam everywhere is suitable for making brick, which are uniformly red.
LIME.
The Trenton and the St. Lawrence furnish all the quicklime made in Houston county. There are no extensive manufacturers, but the common pot-kiln is found at a number of points, by which enough is made to satisfy the local demands.
LEAD.
It is a common belief at La Crescent, held by Mr. Knapp, Mr. Day and others, that the lead en- terprise at Dresbach, mentioned by Dr. Owen in his final report on the geology of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, was a speculating job, got up for the purpose of creating an excitement and selling land. The reputed discoverers were men from Galena, Ill., and the lead found is believed to have been brought from that place. The excitement soon died out, and all operations ceased the same season they began, and have never been revived. Whether this be true or not, the rock, though not the same as that at Galena, is about the same as that in which are the lead mines in Missouri.
EARTHWORKS.
At La Crescent are a great many so-called In- dian Mounds. Many have been graded away, but a good many still exist. They are on the brow of the drift-terrace, or lower bench, and none are
known on the upper, loam terrace. They are, 88 usual, in rude rows, and about three feet high, some of them being four feet. When opened they have been found to contain human remains of men of large stature, and it is said that in grading for the railroad, a copper skillet and other trinkets were found at the depth of eighteen feet below the surface.
PRE-HISTORIO.
Houston county is not particularly rich in evi- dences of the existence of races previous to the In- dian. The extent of their civilization did not reach to the building of dwellings, or tepees, or struc- tures of any material more indestructible than wood; and as they did not mark the met- als, except perhaps copper to a limited extent, the relics they left of their presence have long since been resolved into their original elements. At La Crescent there is a chain of mounds which in- dicate the existence of a race with characteristics quite distinct from, and unlike the Indians. The conformation of the skulls which have been found reveals them as having more of an animal nature than their exterminators; one striking peculiarity being in the size of the jaws, the lower one espe- cially. It is true it was a human jaw and not an animal's, because it had a chin, which no mere an- imal has. If it is true, as is asserted by geolo- gists, that this continent is older than what is called the "old world" itself, there is no limit to the speculation that may be indulged in, as to the races that may have lived and passed away, to give place to another, to also vanish in its turn. In peering into the past our vision is limited to a comtemplation of the great cabinet of the rocks and fossils, and undestroyed works of art, scattered around by ancient races. We have no chronological telescope to assist in ex- tending or enlarging the view. That there have been pre-historic races, we all know, because they have left their foot-prints more or less distinct, and that they lived generation after generation, but what manner of people they were, whether they loved most to cultivate the arts of peace, or of war, must forever remain more or less of a mystery. What we do know is that:
"-The red man came,
The roaming hunter tribes, war-like and flerce,
And the mound-builders vanished from the earth. The solitude of centuries untold Has settted where they dwelt."
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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY.
CHAPTER XLV.
THE COUNTY NAME-VILLAGES IN THE COUNTY- EARLY SETTLEMENT-JOB BROWN-GENERAL RE- MARKS-SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES-OLD SETTLERS -PROMINENT COUNTY OFFICERS - MARRIAGES AMONG THE EARLY SETTLERS-ANECDOTES OF EARLY TIMES.
When the name of the county was suggested, it met with such general acceptance that to-day there are a score of men who insist upon it that they individually were the first to present the name. It is admitted that Mr. MoSpadden had, before the county was named, resolved to call the city he was founding up the Root River, Houston. And at some informal meeting where the name was under consideration, Job Brown suggested the name of Rice, in honor of his friend H. M. Rice, of St. Paul. But Mr. Brown, in St. Paul, afterwards presented the name of Houston to the authorities. To this, objection was made, and Mr. David House, of Union, suggested Houston, and this at once met the concurrence of Sam. McPhail and others who were present, and it was decided to call it Houston, in honor of Gen. Sam Houston, the hero of San Jacinto, and the first President of the Re- public of Texas, and after its annexation, a United States Senator from that State. Mr. McPhail, who had been in Texas himself, used his influence to have the county named as it finally was. In re- lation to the pronunciation of the General's name, he pronounced it with the full sound of u, leaving out the sound of o altogether, as though it was Hewston. It may not be improper here to state that General Sam Houston was not one of those fire-eaters so common in the south during his time, but a noble minded, patriotic gentleman. And when the southern people were ripe for secession, and were getting their States out of the Union by legislative enactment, General Houston, who was Governor of Texas at the time, positively refused to call an extra session for the purpose of voting on the question; and so Texas did not go out when the others did, on account of the noble stand taken by the General.
There are in the county five principal vil- lages:
CALEDONIA, the county seat, was platted in May, 1855, by Samuel McPhail.
HOKAH, so-called from the Indian name of Root River, and also an Indian chief who had his
village on the site. It was laid out by C. W. & E. Thompson, on the 27th of March, 1855.
HOUSTON. This is the village of the northwest- ern part of the county, and was laid out in July, 1854, by W. G. McSpadden and H. F. Stafford.
BROWNSVILLE. This is 150 miles north of Du- buque, 200 miles southeast of St. Paul, and really, on coming up the river, the first good landing in Minnesota. It was first occupied as above recorded, in 1849, and in December, 1854, the town site was surveyed, platted, and recorded. The first frame building was put up in 1850.
LA CRESCENT. It lies on the Mississippi, op- posite La Crosse, and was laid out in June, 1856, and about this time there was serious talk about its being a rival of its young Wisconsin neighbor.
There are a number of smaller villages.
SHELDON is nearly in the center of the county. The land was pre-empted by John Brown in 1854.
There is also Riceford and Spring Grove.
The county is quite well settled with a thriving population, but there is room for many more.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
This being the first county in Minnesota reached by way of the Mississippi, the great highway for early travel, it would be naturally settled, after the territory was opened up, without much delay, as the time and expense to reach it would be less than to go up to St. Paul, and besides it was quite con- venient to simply cross the river from Wisconsin. Separate streams of emigrants came into the county when it was opened up. Those that landed at Brownsville on steamers from below, those who landed at Lansing, and those who crossed the river.
The date of the first settlements in the county was before the territorial organization, but in this general account it is not proposed to fix the exact date of the first comers in all the various parts of the county, as these facts will appear in detail in the separate local township histories. The object here is to give a casual glance at the salient points, reserving a view of the particulars to assist in making the township or village sketches more complete.
The growth of the county has been normal, healthy and permanent, with no periods of spas- modic accumulation to be followed by seasons of inactivity.
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EARLY SETTLEMENT.
Job Brown was the very van-guard of the army of pioneers so soon to come into the goodly land of Southern Minnesota to possess it. Originally from Michigan, he early made his way west to Ga- lena, Illinois, the largest town in the West at that time. He was a natural adventurer; what he was finally to become, was, in his mind, vague and in- distinct. His love for the bold, the daring, and hazardous, was a passion with him, and when the Mexican war broke out, his passion for adventure carried him to the scene of the conflict. After his return from that campaign, where he obtained the sobriquet of "Wild Bill," he still retained the spirit of unrest, and soon' got on board a steam- boat and went up the Mississippi river as far as the mouth of the Chippewa, at the foot of Lake Pepin, where he secured a canoe and quietly floated down the river with a view of securing an eligible town site, on which to build the metropo- lis of the Northwest. What visions of wealth, grandeur, and magnificence must have filled his solitary soul as he silently sailed down the sombre stream ? Reaching La Crosse, he remained a week or two, and then resumed the journey. On reach- ing what was then called the "Thousand Islands," opposite the mouth of Root River, he found a shanty in which were two trappers, one was called Vunk and the other Phillips, a Gorman and an American, the latter having a copper colored na- tive for a wife. In connection with these new- found adventurers, Brown decided to locate his city at the foot of "Wild Cat Bluff." There were, at that time, sound reasons in favor of the location, among them the fact that this was neutral ground, 80 far as the Northwestern Fur Company was concerned, and no tribute would have to be paid to that monopoly, and besides there was no land- ing place on the west side of the river within thirty or forty miles. And, with Brown, to get an idea in his head was to begin at once to put it in execution, so the roof was taken from the shanty, a raft improvised, and the whole party, with their household goods, floated down to Wild Cat Bluff. A shanty was at once put up, utilizing the raft for this purpose, and thus was the first settlement made in Southern Minnesota, and the " Star of Empire " guided so much farther west. It was in June, 1848, and Brown having planted his colony, re- turned to Michigan for reinforcements, and to visit his father's family whom he had not seen for twelve years, and who supposed him dead from
the war reports. His glowing accounts of Min- nesota and the Father of Waters flowing by his prospective city, secured the co-operation of friends, and his brother Charles and his sister's husband, James Hiner, concluded to accompany him on his return.
From White Pigeon, Michigan, they started in the fall of the same year, and landing in Milwau- kee, purchased an outfit and supplies for the then untried experiment of making a journey with horses and a wagon across the state of Wisconsin. They had four hired men, "Jack Miller," from Michigan, "Jerry," a Frenchman, and a man who had chorea or St. Vitus's dance, who was called "Jangulation Bill." The other man's appellation is forgotten. They proceeded on the long and tedious journey, passing through where Madison now is, and when near Baraboo mountain, a furious snow storm was encountered, and the wagon had to be abandoned. A sled was built, and they pushed on up the Lemonweir River, striking across to Black River Falls, with the snow three feet deep. They had an enormous amount of labour to make even the progress of five miles a day, and they had to build as they went. To add to their misfortunes and burdens, Jack Miller cut his foot in a frightful manner, and he became a dead weight on their hands, as they not unfre- quently had to carry him on their backs up the steep hills. Their provisions also ran short, and they had to subsist on parched corn; and as they reflected on the slow progress they were making, it was feared that this would also fail. After leav- ing Black River Falls, John concluded to strike out alone on foot for LaCrosse, to make arrange- ments for the rest of the party. He had no over- coat, depending upon his rapid walking to keep warm. Toward night he became exhausted, and would set down and rest awhile, then resume his lonesome journey. He finally struck the LaCrosse River and the Mississippi bottoms, but night com- ing on he was afraid to proceed for fear of an in- voluntary ice-cold bath in an air-hole. He was in a desperate condition; there was plenty of grass and material for a fire, but no matches, and so the best he could do was to pull the marsh grass and make a bed between two logs, and there he would lay, until on the point of being benumbed with the cold, he would get up and spin around until warmed up, when he would gracefully retire, to repeat the exercise as the unwelcome frigidity
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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY.
would again creep over him. In the morning he succeeded in finding the house of "Sooots Miller," whoever he was, and to his dismay found his feet badly frozen, and this disabled him for the winter. The rest of the party finally reached LaCrosse, a woe-begone, cadaverous looking set. But having partaken of the hospitality of John M. Levy, one of the early settlers there, they were so far recu- perated that between Christmas and New Year's day they went down to Wild Cat Bluff, but found that the parties that were left to hold the fort had disappeared. Mr. Vunk, who was afflicted with a spirit of chronic restlessness, had moved to pas- tures new, while poor Phillips had met a watery grave beneath the turbid billows of the Missis- sippi, and surmises were made that the swarthy companion of his cabin assisted in his taking off.
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