USA > Minnesota > Houston County > History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota > Part 57
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The Judges of the District Court from the Ter- ritorial days to the present time have been, Wm. H. Welch, N. M. Donaldson, Thomas Wilson, David Barber, C. N. Waterman, Judge Mitchell held a special term, Sherman Page; H. R. Brill presided at the May term in 1878, and John Q. Farmer is the present official.
The Clerks of the District Court since its organ- ization have been James A. McCan from 1855 to 1856; James J. Belden, from 1856 to 1866; John Dorsch, from 1866 to 1870; Joseph Vossen, from 1870 to 1878; G. J. Lomen, from 1878, his term ex- pires in 1886. The judicial districts of Minnesota embrace several counties, with a clerk in each county.
POST-OFFICES IN THE COUNTY.
There are eighteen post-offices in Houston county, as follows:
Black Hammer, Brownsville, Caledonia, Eitzen, Freeburgh, Houston, Hokah, La Crescent, New- house, Money Creek, Mound Prairie, Riceford, Sheldon, Reno, Spring Grove, Wilmington, Win- nebago Valley, Yucatan.
NEWSPAPERS.
THE SOUTHERN MINNESOTA HERALD .- Num- ber one, volume one, was dated June 23d, 1865, at
Brownsville. William Frazier Ross was the edi- tor. It was owned by a joint stock company, which was organized the previous April. J. H. Mckinney and J. R. Bennett, the land officers, Job Brown, Charles Brown, and - E. A. Goodell, were the members. W. F. Ross was employed as editor, and he went to Cincinnati and procured the outfit. In politics the paper was to have been neutral, but at the fall election in 1855, Mr. H. M. Rice was running for Congress, and the land officers being the principal stockholders, and per- sonal friends of Mr. Rice, the paper not unnatur- ally supported him, but toward the close of the canvass, the editor having been a whig, turned around in favor of the other candidate. At the end of the first volume the name of Mark Percival was associated as one of the editors. And with the issue of the seventh number, Charles Brown assumed the editorial chair. The paper was published until June 1859, when it suspended.
THE FREE PRESS. On the 15th of Decem- ber, 1865, Charles Brown, solitary and alone start- ed the Free Press, and run it with credit to him- self and honor to the town up to May 21, 1869, Volume 4, No. 21, when its subscription list was transferred to
THE WESTERN PROGRESS .- A newspaper with a decided literary turn, published by Mrs. Bella French and Richard O. Thomas. This was a neat, well printed sheet, that worked hard in the interest of Brownsville and Southern Minnesota. In April, 1870, Mr. Thomas with- drew and went to La Crosse, and the next month, a more promising field having opened in Spring Valley, Fillmore county, the whole establishment was removed there.
Mrs. French afterwards published a magazine "The Busy West," in St. Paul, and subsequently did some excellent historical work in Wisconsin. She is now a resident of Austin, Texas, and the editor of the "American Sketch Book," a pioneer magazine of the " Lone Star " State.
THE LA CRESCENT BANNER .- While this village was.on the flood tide of prosperity, a newspaper was started called the "La Crescent Banner," but it was hung on the outer walls for only a limited time. The publisher was A. P. Swinford, and the office was in the old double store of the Kentucky company. It was a six column folio, issued from a small press, and a not very well furnished office. In a short time the whole concern was removed to
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La Crosse, Mr. Swinford going into business with Brick Pomeroy.
THE LA CRESCENT PLAINDEALER .- The next candidate for public favor, which also proved to be a victim for sacrifice on the altar of public spirited devotion, was the "La Crescent Plaindealer." This newspaper bantling was ushered into a cold and unsympathizing world in 1860, by E. H. Purdy, of Minneapolis. It was a well edited and strongly democratic sheet, a seven column folio. In about two years it was sold to J. T. Ferguson, and was finally closed out in September, 1862, the editor having enlisted. This paper did one remarkable good piece of work, in teaching George B. Win- slip, the editor of the "Grand Forks Herald," the printing business.
THE HOKAH CHIEF. - This paper was star- ted in 1856 or '57, but no files have been found. After a time it was suspended, but on the 26th of April, 1859, it was revived by Mr. H. Ostrander, a practical printer from New York State, who was, in early life, associated with Thurlow Weed, who is the almost solitary re- maining link betwen the journalism that fought for Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, and that of to-day.
Mr. Ostrander was a most indomitable worker, and while he stood at the case and set more mat- ter every week than now is set up in most country offices, he wielded a battle ax for what he consid- ered the right, that became a terror to his enemies. He was not a man of policy or compromise, but seeing anything wrong, he cut and slashed away at it, regardless of its connections or associations. The paper was Republican, and in those trying times, he battled nobly for the Union.
On the 23d of May, 1865, the paper was discon- tinued for want of support and patronage.
THE CALEDONIA COURIER .- This newspaper was started in Caledonia, on the 8th of April, 1877, by George B. Winship, and was a seven column folio, published at $2.00 a year, and was a really good paper, well edited and well printed. After a little more than two years, Mr. Winship having grown restive under the restricted conditions of his field of labor, he went to Dakota and began the publi- cation of the "Grand Forks Herald, a first class daily.
HOUSTON COUNTY ARGUS .- This paper was started on the 28th of August, 1879, by E: S. Kilbourne, who printed it until May 12th, 1880,
when it was sold to H. D. Smalley & Co., who con- tinued the publication up to the 4th of November, 1880, when H. D. Smalley withdrew, leaving it in the hands of P. J. Smalley, who is now the editor and proprietor. In politics it is an independent republican. It has a circulation of 540 in the county, and of 600 all told. It is a seven column folio, and is printed and conducted in such a man- ner as to be a credit to the village and county.
THE HOUSTON COUNTY JOURNAL .- It first came to light in November, 1865. The editors and proprietors were James G. MoGrew and P. P, Wall, who issued it until the 1st of May, 1866.
The paper was then purchased by the Journal Printing Company, composed of the following persons: John Craig, Thomas Abbotts, James Smith, George T. Patten, A. D. Sprague, C. A. Coe, Eugene P. Dorival, and J. W. Cook. On December 4th, 1866, the names of Smith and Wall were run up as editors.
A. F. Booth took change as editor on the 18th of November, 1873.
In February, 1878, it was sold by Mr. Booth to O. E. Comstock.
On August 3d, 1881, Mr. J. Ostrander came in the firm, and it is now published under the firm name of Comstock & Ostrander. It is a republi- can sheet, is conducted on high toned principles, and is a reliable journal, managed by practical and thorough business men.
Several other papers, the "Hokah Herald" and the "Hokah Blade" among them, have had brief careers in the county, but they soon died of dis- ease incident to young newspapers.
MAPS, ATLASES, AND PLAT BOOKS.
In 1855, Mr. H. Halstein deposited with the County Clerk a copy of a Sectional Map of south- ern Minnesota from the U. S. survey.
An Illustrated Historical Atlas of the state of Minnesota, profusely illustrated, was published in Chicago, and quite extensively circulated in Hous- ton county. It made a large book with pages 14} by 17}, and was filled with maps of local and general interesl, together with numerous views and portraits of large numbers of its patrons, and brief sketches of local history. The price was $15.00, and it was sold by subscription, A. T. An- dreas being the publisher.
PLAT BOOK OF HOUSTON COUNTY .- This was published by Warner & Foote, of Minneapolis, in 1878. It contained a map of the county, and of
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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY.
each town, and the village plats, with the various roads, sections, and owner's names, and was de- livered for $10 per copy.
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES .- There have been several agricultural societies in the county, but for various reasons, the people have not heartily en- tered into the project. Several fairs have been held with good success.
In 1867, the leading officers of the society were: D. L. Buell, President; Isaac Thompson, Vice- President; N. E. Dorival, Secretary; D. N. Gates, Treasurer. This society having collapsed late in the seventies, another was organized and officered as follows:
President-D. L. Buell. Vice-President-Geo. Mitchell. Secretary-Wells E. Dunbar.
Treasurer-Walter Krick.
DIRECTORS.
La Crescent- John S. Harris.
Mound Prairie-J. A. Eberhard.
Houston Village S. B. McIntire. Houston town-Adam Coon. Money Creek-L. B. Morrison. Yucatan-Chas. Wilsey.
Black Hammer-Tosten Johnson. Sheldon-H. Knox. Union-Henry Snure, Jr. Hokah Village Ed. Thompson. Hokah Town -- Dr. Paxton.
Brownsville Village-J. P. Schaller. Brownsville Town-Walter Colleran. Mayville-Chas. Klein. Caledonia Village-Geo. Drowley. Caledonia Town-C. J. Wheaton. Spring Grove-Teman Gilbertson. Wilmington-John McNelly. Winnebago-T. B. Barber.
Jefferson-Peter McDonald.
Crooked Creek-Geo. Powlesland.
SCHOOLS .*
The schools of Houston county remained in the same condition which they enjoyed under the Ter- ritorial organization, until 1859. During that winter, an act of the Legislature resolved each township into a school district, each district or- ganizing as many sub-districts as was deemed necessary. The following winter, this law was re- pealed, and the present organization adopted.
*The following sketch is by D. C. Cameron, County Su- perintendent.
Until 1876 the Superintendent was appointed by the Board of County Commissioners, but in this year, in common with six other counties, the office was made elective.
The County Superintendents have been Rev. James Frothingham, D. P. Temple, Capt. W. H. Harries, Dr. J. B. Le Blond, and D. C. Cameron. In January, 1876, Prof. W. D. Belden was ap- pointed by the Commissioners, but it was ruled that the then incumbent should hold, under the new law, until his successor was elected and qualified.
In 1861, the Commissioners numbered the dis- tricts from northeast, and the then total was forty- nine. As succeeding districts were organized, by taking territory from those already in existence, they were numbered successively until now the number is ninety-six, containing one hundred and nine school-rooms. But Hokah and Brownsville graded schools, with four departments each, hold session in but three of their school-rooms, thus making one hundred and seven school-rooms in which school is held. District No. thirty, Browns- ville, is a special district; Nos. twelve, Hokah, and forty-two, Caledonia, are independent. The latter two were created independent to secure im- munity from the text-book law.
The villages of Hokah and Brownsville have school houses containing four departments each. These are well furnished, and more than adequate for their present wants. The one at Brownsville is the most costly and complete in the county.
La Crescent, Houston, Spring Grove, Caledonia, and Money Creek, have each a school house con- taining two rooms. The finest of these is the one at Money Creek, the worst one is at Caledonia. Caledonia has far outgrown her school house, and two departments are located in a rented building; but many improvements may be expected from the present liberal board. The experiment of a female teacher at the head of her schools has proved a success; certainly she is an improvement upon her immediate successors.
Of these ninety-six school houses, sixty-eight are frame, three brick, five stone, and twenty log. The prairie towns, as a rule, contain the best school houses, while the log houses are found in the valleys and upon the ridges.
Four new and substantial frame houses were built last year. But seven of these districts are in
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debt, notwithstanding several successive failures of crops in some parts of the county.
Thirty-one districts have wall maps, eleven reading charts, twenty-two have globes, seventeen have dictionaries, and seven have bells. Caledo- nia has the largest enrollment; two districts vie for the honor of the least. About forty districts hold no summer school. The enrollment is not as great as in former years; the decrease is principally in the village schools.
The total number enrolled in the schools for the year ending August 31, 1881, was 4,205. The average length of schools was nearly five months. The value of schoolhouses is $572,329. Paid ont for teachers' wages, $15,049. In addition to the above showing, twenty-four parochial schools were in session, with an enrollment of 360.
One hundred and nineteen teachers were licensed during the year. Of these, six hold first grade certificates; eighty-five, second grade, and twenty- eight, third grade certificates. Eighteen of these teachers have attended a Normal School, five have graduated. One certificate has been revoked.
As a body, a progressive spirit pervades the teachers, and they will compare favorably with any body of teachers in the State.
Institutes are held each year, the instructors be- ing furnished by the State. County institutes of one week are held at different times.
During school months, each Saturday in some part of the county, a teachers' meeting is held, the exercises of which are conducted on institute plans. These are a powerful educational factor and have been the means of developing many young teach- ers, and helping many older ones on to a higher plane. The superintendent makes it a rule to be present at these meetings. The struggles of the friends of popular education to inaugurate and maintain schools would furnish many an in- teresting chapter.
Matters of interest relating to particular schools will be treated in connection with the town or vil- lage where they are situated, as matters of local rather than general interest.
CHAPTER XLIX.
HOUSTON COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION -- NAMES OF SOLDIERS WHO PARTICIPATED.
It must be remembered that when the war broke
out, in April, 1861, Minnesota was but three years old as a State, and had but two congressional dis- tricts. Houston county was in the first, and it in- cluded the following counties: Houston, Fillmore, Mower, Freeborn, Faribault, Martin, Winona, Olmsted, Brown, Steele, Waseca, Blue Earth, Rice, Le Sueur, Nicollet, Scott, Sibley, and Dodge. The several calls by the President for troops were ap- portioned between these two districts.
The scenes which were presented all over the North, as the call to arms was flashed to every town and hamlet, were duplicated here, and the facility with which men changed the implements of the mechanic and of husbandry for the instruments of death, was indeed remarkable. The response here will bear favorable comparison with other communities similarly situated. In the account here presented, it is not claimed that all the inci- dents which took place, or even, perhaps, the most interesting among them, will be related, but the attempt will be made to rescue from oblivion the salient points of the local struggle for the preser- vation of the Union. Two thirds of an allotted generation has already passed since the heat of that struggle was extant in the land, and many things which an earlier historian might have found fresh in the public memory, have already grown dim in the average recollection.
In February, 1861, while the southern States were endeavoring to carry out their programme of peaceable secession, Col. Samuel McPhail issued a call in Caledonia for the organization of a regi- ment. The Colonel had lived in the South; he ap- preciated the temper of the fire-eaters, and knew that if resisted they would fight.
The first war meeting recorded in the county, was held in the town of Houston, on the 28th of April, 1861. The meeting was addressed by Messrs. Kennedy, McSpadden, Pidge, Scott, and others. Resolutions were passed affirming the in- dissolubility of the Union. Much earnest feeling was manifested, and $255 in currency and $25 in gold and seventy bushels of wheat were subscribed to assist in raising a company, and thus was the Union ball set in motion.
On the 30th, two days afterwards, another rous- ing meeting was held. George W. Babcock was President, and Nathan Vance, Secretary. The committee on resolutions consisted of Rev. Ed. Wright, Hon. D. C. Case, and Hon. H. E. Ken- nedy. Dr. Wilson and others addressed the assem-
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bly, and $350 was raised to support the families of volunteers. This is an example of what was done in other places.
In May, 1861, a vigilance committee was formed in the county, to put the categorical question to the editor of the "Plain Dealer" in La Crosse, as to which side of the contest he was on ?
On the 13th of May, a war meeting was held in Wilmington. Among the speakers were Winfield Scott, David Temple, and Duty S. Paine.
The first company formed in Caledonia was officered as follows:
W. G. McSpadden, Captain; E. H. Kennedy, First Lieutenant; and Thomas Conniff, Second Lieutenant. This is supposed to have been the first company in the county.
In September, Winfield Scott addressed a war meeting in Hokah, and in November John M. Thompson opened a recruiting office at the same place. Until August, 1862, there had been en- listments from all parts of the county in Minne- Bota, Wisconsin and other State regiments.
In this month a mass meeting was called at the county seat, to help secure our part of the 300,000 more, called for by Mr. Lincoln.
As an idea of the number already in the field from the county, it was stated that there were at this time, nineteen from Union and thirty-one from Hokah.
At the time of the Indian massacre, Capt. Geo. W. Webber raised a company of Mounted Rang- ers, to act against the Indians and in that cam- paign Houston county had twenty commissioned officers.
The total enlistments up to October 1st, 1862, were reported at 333, and besides these there were enrolled as fit for duty 1,549.
In December, 1862, the county was divided into fifteen military districts. The town lines were the boundaries of these districts, except Hokah and Union, which formed one of them, and Jefferson and Crooked Creek were also together.
Orders for an election of company officers were given to take place on a given day, but some of the districts, on account of insufficient notice, failed to respond. This was a State measure, but was not a phenomenal success. The county officials as a rule, left the towns to manage military matters.
The war meeting, alluded to above, was held in Caledonia, and $2,000 pledged to help fill the
quota, but it was afterwards stated that some of this sum was never paid.
In May, 1863, Charles H. Lee was appointed provost marshal for this congressional district, and D. L. Clements, of Hokah, as enrolling clerk. In June of the same year there were several mus- ters of recruits in Hokah, where about 100 men at a time would be drilled by Lieutenant W. F. Webber.
In September, the patriotic ladies of La Cres- cent organized a Soldiers' Aid Society, as indeed was done in several other places in the county. Mrs. J. T. Foster was President; Mrs. M. Beards- lee, Vice-President; Mrs. Wm. Merrick, Treasurer; and Mrs. W. H. Lapham, Secretary, with a score of the other prominent ladies of the place as active members.
The impending draft in Minnesota, in the fall of 1863, was postponed to January 4, 1864. So many men from this county were enlisted in Wis- consin regiments, that early in January, 1864, David House, of Hokah, was sent to Madison to secure credits for them, as without these the county would have to furnish more than its share of the calls for so many hundred thousand more.
On Saturday, the 6th of February, 1864, the citizens of Spring Grove extended their hospitalities, and gave a complimentary din- ner to the veterans who were on a re-enlistment furlough. Among the veterans present were Ser- geant F. H. Brown, Ole Oleson, and John Amund- son, of Spring Grove; Mathew Halverson, of Wil- mington; Jesse and Smith Phillips, of Hokah; Sergt. James Tom, of Caledonia, and one hundred citizens. They met at the store of Mons Fladager, and with music marched to the Ridge House, where the dinner, the toasts, the cheers for the flag of the Union, for Grant, and for the soldiers, were hugely enjoyed. The address of welcome was by J. G. Prentiss, Esq., and speeches were made by Messrs. Rollins, Aiken, and others.
The impending draft, that terrible engine with its red jaws of destruction, ready to swallow up fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons, was again postponed to the 10th of March, 1864.
A list of most of the Houston county men who enlisted in Wisconsin regiments was obtained, and they will appear in the proper place.
There was much anxiety in relation to the draft, and the ever enterprising Col. McPhail, in Cale- donia, got up an insurance company, to insure
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against the draft, agreeing to stand between the policy holder and the government by the payment of the $300 commutation, in case he should be a victim. Knowing the number liable to draft from, and the number required, it was easy to get at a per cent. that would give a margin.
When the ominious 10th of March arrived the draft was indefinitely postponed, but on the 14th of that month, in addition to the February call for 500,000 men, 200,000 more were required, and this created quite a tlutter.
The account with the general government in the quota business at that time stood about as fol- lows in Houston county :
The quota was 687; men already enlisted, 319; leaving a balance of 369 due the government on previous calls. The new call added 234 more, making a grand total of 602 men to be enlisted, and to do this, only twenty days were allowed.
It may well be imagined that when the full force of the situation dawned upon those who were so much more anxious to fill the quota than to re- cruit our armies, that there was a subdued kind of consternation, and town meetings were called and bounties voted with the feeblest kind of opposi- tion.
The county was too far behind to save itself from the draft, and it took place, while the birds kept on singing, the sun rose and set at its ap- pointed time, and the shock was not so profound as the timid ones apprehended.
The names of those who were thus politely in- vited to serve their country in its hour of peril will not be given, for if they actually served, their names will appear elsewhere. The number from each town were as follows:
Mound Prairie 12
Sheldon .34
Spring Grove 29
Hamilton 11
Caledonia 50
Black Hammer 13
Wilmington 33
Houston 14
Yucatan
11 Brownsville 39
Winnebago
28
Jefferson 9
Mayville
28
Crooked Creek. 8
Union
14
Whether the other two towns in the county were drafted from is not recorded.
Up to the 21st of June, 1864, the amount paid in the First Congressional district for commuta- tions, was by 341 men who contributed an aggre- gate of $102,300.
The second draft ordered for Houston county called for 108 men.
On the 18th of July, 1864, President Lincoln called for 500,000 more troops.
On the 10th of August there was a war meet- ing in Hokah, to see what measures could be taken to fill the quota, and thus avoid the draft. The quota for the whole state of Minnesota for the draft of July, 1864, was 5,561, and the first district was 2,768.
Minnesota passed a law allowing soldiers in the field to vote, and commissioners were sent out to receive and bring home the returns, but out of the hundreds from this county who went to the front, not over fifty votes were received.
In September, 1864, W. H. Lapham was author- ized to recruit for a Heavy Artillery Regiment then being raised.
The "Hokah Chief," in September, 1864, de- clared that among the men who were drafted in June, sixty-five had, to use a word coined about that time, "Skedaddled.".
As men who had served their terms in the army, returned, they were handsomely received in the various towns where they had lived.
In December, 1864, President Lincoln called for "200,000 more" to make up the deficiency on pre- vious calls.
In January, 1865, Orlando J. Gardiner, of Shel- don, was appointed to raise volunteers for the Heavy Artillery Regiment.
In February, 1865, there was an election in Cal- edonia to raise a special tax of two and one-half per cent., to pay bounties, and the sum was made up to $250 apiece for the number required, twenty-six. Spring Grove paid $500 each to re- cruits, for eight more than were actually required.
The operations of the draft called forth much feeling, as there were great inequalities caused by improper exemptions. One town, with 181 votes, had six men only to draft from, another town, with forty-four votes, had forty-four to draft from. men in positions and out of them would trade on the necessities of the country and the anxieties of the citizens. The dissatisfaction became so out-
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