USA > Minnesota > Martin County > History of Martin County, Minnesota > Part 11
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ney and L. F. Brainerd, surveyor. The weather was very changeable, snow and rain following in the winter with some quite cold weather. On December 6th Mr. H. C. Waterman buried his daughter, Carrie, this be- ing the first burial in the present cemetery. There being no cemetery, Mr. Tanner, who owned the land, gave permission to bary the child there .. On December 11th, Mr.Louis In Boute was also buried in. the same ground. He was s resident of Canada before coming to this county and at the time: of his das:he was 182 years of age .. Mr. He wall steo buried his isthat child . tuera shis year. At this time the land: was. a homestead, and, those . was . ao
A cemetery association was formed.in, 1891, of which mention will be made Inter. Tuin yoas she bridge was batis; across Rken .. Creek: wear whos was. known as. Allen's Ford. This year Luke Ward and family came bere. At the Maroh, 1869, meeting of the. com- missioners. it. was found thes the lia. bilities of the county was ML, 930. 4:' The . Martin County Atlas was by resolution .. created the official paper . of the county for the county-priming as legal rates. There was perfoos. unanimity ju. this. action, and no kicking on:the. part of other papers. On. March 25th , of this year the house of G. B .; Rum. ford in Rolling Greep wes baracdr.be. fall J. B. Wakefield of Blue Earth City, Fing .. the Arst occupied. homes.in .the. was elected senator and J. W. Hanter of Jackson; representative. The issue www points and no points on railway of which mention has before been made. The county officers elected were Jobn A. Handy commissioner from the first district, being a resident of Tenhassen. C. A. Lounsberry, auditor; C. H. Bul- lard, sheriff; A. L. Ward, county attor-
CINInty burned, most of the bonnehold gouda . were saved ... At theit .: Matole ... meeting, the commissioneme changed .. the location of the county road ruan ning from Garden City to Tenhassen ;. The spring was very cold and beek .. ward, and it was the last of April be- fore much wheat was sown .. This spring Aaron Andrews sold his claim
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to Webster & Johnson and Giles Bar- seeds were gathered, and after being tholemew sold his to Luke Ward. allowed to grow one year, were trans- Both of these places are now in the planted. This was kept up a number City of Fairmont limits, and platted. of years by the settlers, the state. later paying a bounty, so that to-day the county does not have so much the appearance of a prairie country, most of the farmers having groves. Mr. Andrews and Mr. Bartholomew left in the spring with Mr. H. Water- man and Mr. Lewellyn for Missourl, and as some of them had quite large families, it made quite a thinning out in the settlement. " Mr. Andrews had previously been county treasurer and had served one term in the legislature and held other positions of - impor- tance, and was a very useful man in the county. E. M. Hyatt and wife took charge of the hotel vacated by Mr. Andrews, which position they oc- cupied for a number of years until the hotel was abandoned. H. M. Blaisdell came here in the spring of 1869 and formed a partnership in the law busi- uess with A. L. Ward. Thomas Goff made some additions to his store building, and put in a large stock of goods, eto.
In the resurvey of the county road, there was a party of five consisting of L. F. Brainerd, county surveyor; J. A. Armstrong, Samuel Bacon, George Van Amber and the writer. They stayed all night with Col. Bullard, who was then sheriff, at his Rutland farm. He was not then running a hotel on the style of the present time,and not having room for so much company, we were obliged to camp on the floor. When we awoke in the morning the surueyor was missing. When found he was out on the prairie apparently running a line for the road, but he told Col. Bullard privately that it was on ae- count of being kicked out, sleeping so many in a bed.
There was a late harvest on account of the late spring, there was an immense growth of straw. It was a very wet harvest, and in some places the grain was looking very bad, and required a great deal of labor to gather it. There were very few reape,s in the county then, and a self-raking reaper was a very scarce article, Some used ma- chines where a man would sit and push the grain off with a fork, and some. ; used what was called a dropper. Wages were from $2 to$3 a day. A great many farmers used cradles. On August 6th there was a total eclipse of the sun in the afternoon. We remem- ber it very well, as it was quite dark, and being in the day time it was ob- served by all. Birds, chickens and other fowles went to their roosts. It was very hard work to get help this year, and the wet weather made us much extra work, as a great many stacks had to be taken down, the grain dried and then re-staked. The price of the grain afterwards was only 75c a bushel, hauled 50 to 75 miles to market. The nearest market was Mankato and the nearest railroad was Owatonna. It cost at least one-half of the grain to market it.
This year the bridge, now be- ing replaced by a new one was built by O. P. Chubb across the outlet |between Lake George and Lake Sisseton, near the cemetery. The county fair was held on the 6th of
This year was the first in which set- tlers took a part in planting out groves, and a great many soft maple October. On October 26th Jehu Hay-
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worth and James Swearingen who were running a threshing machine, and were threshing at Orrin Bard- well's. just over the line in Silver Lake Township, had their machine, horses and harness burned up. Mı. Bardwell lost all his wheat and oats together with his barn and about 75 tons of hay. The fire occurred in the night and was caused by a prairie fire. The major- ity of the people thought the fire was intentional as it was started from one to rwo miles distant near the outlet of Lake Wilmot, and the wind carried it in almost a direct line to the barns and stacks of Mr. Bardwell. Before the Bre was discovered everything was on fire, and they were wuable to save any- thing. This was a serious how to Messrs.Bard well, Hayworthand Swear- ingen. Later the place was ; called haunted. A party living in the house after Mr. Bardwell left here, direnlated the report that in the night time they could plainly, Bear horses neighing and tearing around where the barn. stood. This is the first instance to our know- ledge of muy claim of ghosts in the shape of horses in the county. 'This your the U. S. land ofice was moved from Winnebago City to Jackson. At the election M. E. L. Shanks elected representative. . This fall Col. Lounsbnry built a building on the lots where the Ballard House now stands into which . he moved .his printing press, and bis family. lived overhead. This building was later used as post- office, the first bank and as a drug store. It was afterwards moved to lots near where the Ward Machine Co.'s block now is, and from there was moved to the north part of town where it is now used as a family residence, I made a trip to Jackson the 16th. of this month to prove up on . my home-
stead. It was my first visit to Jackson since my return from the army, and I found they were building up quite a little town, and there was consider- able settlement. Between here and Jackson we stopped ever night at the sod tavern kept by & Mr. Archer just south of where the village of Sherburn now is. This fall John H. Young, came here and bought the land in what is now Young's addition to Fair- mont, took it as a homestead and built a shanty on it. He also bought out John Ellsbury's blacksmith shop. and built a small addition where his family lived during the winter. Mr. Young was also a Methodha prencher, and took grest' interest fr church matters. This building was 'tused as a blacksmith shop from thể time it was built in 1806 until 1886. The fin fine this your, and people were able. to- prepare for winter in good shape. January 1670 was a pleasant-ssonth. The . commissioners met' this year, pressas: Wm. H. Budd, Joun' A. Bandy and J. A. Armstrong." Hiram Moorman was judge of profite; finess Bowen, register of dobar Thomas Dedd, superintendent of: 'reboots; E. B. Snow, treasurer; C. H. Bultard, therift; C. A. Lounsbary, county auditor. The weather up to March was ine winter weather. March was a binstering cold mouth. There 'came up # form. which while not very cold, very blustering, and the atr war atted with mow. A brother- of- Charles Snyder, who now 'lives north"of "Fair- mont, was lost in. going home and- buried himself in the snow near Where Mr. Bowen livad, and came out afright after the storm. Robert . Stevenson, now a resident of' the village, but at present on a visit to California, was also lost going home, and took shelter
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in: a, otram stuck, which, when the I wes then on a visit. At the March, storm abated, was found to be his own 1870, meeting of the commissioners, J. A. Armstrong resigned, and A. N. Faucher, of Center Creek, was ap- pointed to fill the vacancy. William H. Budd was absent, being at the time in New York. Col. Lounsbory resigned as county anditor and moved to Wells, and J. A. Armstrong was. appointed. to fill the vacancy oo- casioned by the resignation of Col. Lounsbury. F. M. Morse was appoint- ed superintendent of schools at a salary of $300 a year. The Martin County Atlas having been moved to Wells and called the Wells Atlas, having a numerous circulation in this county, was selected to print the delinquenttax lists. The petition of the residents of townships 162 Range 3%-38 to be set off as an election district was grauted and the first election of town officers was held in April at the house of Perry Munger, and the town was called Manyaska, and also included what is the township of Jay: and quite close te his house. T. S. Curtis also at that time got lost. There was also a couple of parties by the name of Coleman who lived in the town,of Lake Belt, who were found after the storm. They went from the house to the bern to attend to their cattle in the morning. They reached the barn all right, for it was seen that they had done their chores, bat in go- ing back to the house they got lost, and wandered away in the storm. When the storm abated they were fgund, one about three miles from home, the other abont five miles, dead, but not frozen. . They had traveled in a circle for a long time, at first going within 20 feet of the barn, the circle growing larger. They were easi tracked ... The weather was not cold, the snow was moist and their tracks gere plainly discernible in the snow, and it was thought the fright of being lost or exhaustion caused their death, somne claimed suffocation. There was a story current here at the time which we will repeat but will not vouch for its truth. The story is, that some parties went to the house to do their chores, and on opening the door a cow that was loose, started out, and they grabbed it by the tail and the cow started and.ran around the barn and back inside. again, and they said the snow was so thick they did not see the cow from the time they started un- til they got back inside again. This may be an old settlers' yarn; it is not one of our telling. This wind was contrary to the general blizzard it being from the north mostly, and filled the road so that travel was stopped for a number of days. The storm ex- tended as far east as New York, where
Fairmont sustained quite a loss in the removal of Col. Louns- bury who was a public spir- ited, energetic worker, and who did all he could to assist in building up the town and county. He was in- terested in a number of schemes for the advancement of this place. His newspaper not receiving the support he thought it entitled to, and having an offer from the citizens of Wells, which was then the terminus of the railway, he moved. there. Col. C. A. Lounsbury was man of more than ordinary ability, and since his re- moval from here has occupied promi- nent positions, and was at one time a prominent candidate for congress from North Dakota, was postmaster at Bismark, and was connected with
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newspapers in Duluth. I think he is now living at Fargo, North Dakota. As a newspaper writer, he has but few equals in the Northwest. On the 11th of April of this year, I left New Jersey, my old home, there was no farming done there at that time, the weather being too cold. As I came through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois, not- iced there was no farming done there, on account of the cold weather; came by the way of Wells, and when I reached there, there was a heavy rain storm, and the wind changed inte the Northwest, and it was very cold. It took us a day to travel from Wells to Winnebago City. In coming from Winnebago City to Fairmont with the mail carrier, we frequently had to get out and break ice to get the team through creeks and runways. There was no seeding done until after the between then and now. This shows 20th of this month.
Tenhassen this year got a steam saw mill moved up from Shelbyville, and there was considerable lumber sawed from timber there. The mill was owned by Dillion, Chubb & Co. Ten- hassen at this time was getting to be quite a place. It had a blacksmith shop, hotel, three stores and steam mill. We remember one party who kept store there at that time. He was called "Deaf Bailey," and while he was pretty hard of hearing, he sometimes heard more than he was given credit for. At that time it was customary for merchants to distribute almanacs with full accounts of the weather, etc., and bearing the card of the. mer- chant. Bailey had some with his card. on them, and giving his address as 101 Main street, Tenhassen.
expenses, etc., refused to accept our orders at their face, brought suit and obtained judgement against this coun ty. This year a census of the county was taken, and we give the following, which may be of interest to our read- ers: Population, male, 2,078; female, 1,717; total population, 3,865. There were no colored and no Indians; deaf and dumb, 2; blind, 2; insane, none. Here is a chance for a conclusion to be drawn as to the state of mind of the early settlers as compared with those of the present, and to account for the cause of insanity. The population was made up as follows: Americans, 3,323; Canadians, 203; English, 97; Irish. 91; Scotch, 19; Swedes, 26; Norwegians, 8; Danes, 3; Germans, 66; Hollanders, 1; French, 2, and Swiss 2. This will show the chances as to nationalities an increase in population for five years of 2,495 for the entire county. The number of acres of wheat grown was 7,016; number of bushels raised, 94.773; yield per acre, 13} bushels. Total number of acres of land under cultiva- tion, 17,160, number of dwelling houses, 863; value of all land, including build- ings and structures, $1,073,755; value of farming implements, $76,455; num- ber of births, 96; deaths, 15; marriages, 35, and divorces 1; number of acres of oats sown, 2,871; number of bushels raised, 85,575; number of horses in the county, 1.088; cattle, 3,414; mules, 21; sheep, 746, and hogs, 936.
The railroad was this year built from Wells to Winnebago City, which place was the terminus for a number of years, the company being embar- rassed, and had quite hard work to keep afloat.
In May of this year, Blue Earth county, to whom this county was in- There was an excitingelection this debted for board of prisoners, court fall. The Republican convention for
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hogy nation of candidates for Thompson and Patchen. This ended
the legislature for the counties of Martin Jackson, Pipestone,
Cottonwood, Rock, Faribault and Nobles was held at Fairmont. There was the strife caused by the railroad interests, and the conven- tion organized by the election of two chairmen and two sets of officers in the same room and held two conven- tions. Two tickets were made up. re- sui ing in the nomination on one side of George W. Whalen, of Blue Earth City for senator, and George O. Cham- berlain of Jackson for representative;
the railroad fight as to points and no points, aud left Blue Earth City off the line of the Southern Minnesota railrund. At the September meeting this year, the town 102 range #1 Was set off as a separate .town- ship and called Rolling Green. The first election was held at the house of L. W. Clark, September 27th. The county fair was held on the school grounds this year. In the fall of this year George W. Tanner and Lyman F. Lent started a paper called the Martin County Review. It was printed in the building we have before mentioned on the Bullard House lots. This year three young men from Faribault coun- ty came over here in the fall and stole a yoke of oxen from a farmer by the name of Mead, living on the west side of East Chain. They were tracked in- to lowa by the sheriff, who without any ceremony corralled them in &
and on the other side, Clark W. Thompson of Wells for senator, and A. L. Patchen of Martin county for rep- resentative. The contest was very warm and bitter. The county gave a majority for Thompson and Patchen on an honest election, as did some of the other cunuties. In Faribault a ulce amount of padding was done; the village of Blue Earth City at that Rough, and without any requisition
time porling nearly as many votes as papers marched them into town. As this county had no jail, and the ex- pense of keeping prisoners at Mankaio before had been very high, it was thought best to try the experiment of keeping them here. In the absence of Col. Bullard, the then sueriff, the deputy in charge allowed one of them on the excuse of going out of doors to get away. They had all been shackled but in some way they had been able to get the shackles so they could take them off their feet, and when the one started he gave a sigual, and the others thinking that the attention of the people in the house would be at- tracted from thein, they started to go down the stairs with their shackles off, when Mrs. Bullard confronted them it had inhabitants. The same could be said of the village of Wells. As Faribault was the senior county the election returns were made to that county, while the county auditors of all the counties constituted the can- wassing board. In some way Blue Earth City knew how many votes it was necessary to have and returned them. The returns showed Whalen and Chamberlain elected. The can- vassing board ended up in a wrangle, but a majority certified to the elec- tion of Whalen and Chamberlain. A contest was made by. Thompson and Patchen which convinced the legisla- ture that the population of some of the villages was not as much as claimed. Whalen and Chamberlain with a revolver, and held them in cus- were unseuted and the seats given to tody until help came from the out-
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side and their shackles were put on. They were tried and convicted of stealing, but the Judge said as they were young men he could not allow his feelings to be overcome by send- ing them to states prison, but that he would send them to any jail or reform- atory that the county attorney would ask. He was politely informed that if instead of the thieves being punished, this county was to be punished by having to pay for keeping these pris- oners in some county jail, he had- better allow his conscience to dis- charge them. What became of them we do not know further than they were kept for some at the Blue Earth City jail. On December 5th the cele- bration of the arrival of the railroad at Winnebago City was held. The market price of wheat was then 75 to 80c. On the 20th of December of this year, Lyman F. Lent, one of the pub- lishers of the paper heretofore men- tioned was buried.
G. S. Livermore came here in the summer of 1870, he already having some property interests here ob- tained through previous contracts made by his nephew, F. S. Livermore. Mr. Liver more purchased the brick building where he now resides on Lake avenue, which was then occupied by Dr. Chubb and used as a hotel. Mr. Livermore continued in the hotel business, and was quite suc- cessful as a landlord, having a good trade. The Hyatt House and the Liv- ermore House were the only hotels here at that time. This building is the oldest residence in the town, still standing on its original site and is in good condition. We mention this as parties desiring to locate here say our soil is unfit to make good brick. These brick were burned here by Capt.
Cheney, and are apparently in as good condition as when laid in the build- ing. There is also a sample of this brick in the basement of the building on Blue Earth and North avenues, owned by Mrs. Colton. We would ad- vise parties contemplating starting a brick yard to look at these brick be- fore making the statement that our soil is unfit for that purpose. There was some plowing done in December of this year. This year Ward & Cad- well built the store building moved off last summer to make room for the big stone block of Houghtaling & Coult. This was a very fine building for that time; there was a hall over- head that was used for the purpose of holding court, entertainments, etc.
Jannary 3, 1871, the commissioners met in annual session. The officers were William H. "Budd, chairman; J. A. Handy and A. B. Colton, commis- sioners; C. H. Bullard, sheriff; J. A. Armstrong, county auditor; L. F. Brainerd, surveyor; E. S. Snow, treas- urer; Amasa Bowen, register of deeds; Felix Lane, county attorney; Hiram Moorman, judge of probate; T. S. Cur- tis, coroner, and F. M. Morse, super- intendent of schools.
The Masonic fraternity held their first public installation of offcers at this time. Wheat this winter brought a good price, about $1.10, and farmers began to feel very much encouraged with a market only 20 miles distant. They now began to talk about more and better machinery. The price then compared with now might be of inter- est. This was long before the time of self-binders. The man who had a self-rake reaper and mower combined had the best made then, and they cost about $200; a seeder cost from $75 to $80, and drills, small size and not
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force feed or shoes, cost the writer $128. Wagona cost from $85 to $100. There were no riding plows then and walking plows, cost $90 to $35. This year, Munger & Son, who had a nur- serj, near, where the village of Sher -. burn now is, began to sell nursery stock, and did quite a business. This winter was very mild; no bad storms and wheat was sown on Feb. 10. This was followed by quite a fall of snow with considerable, rain which kept seeding back for some time. The peo- ple began to agitate the question of having the railroad extended west from Winnebago City, and the pro- position of the company to vote bonds was considered, and in some town- ships special elections were held and bonds voted. The company became embarrassed, and could not get the funds to build west. There was a bill passed in the legislature dividing 300,- 000 acres of internal improvement land which E. F. Drake, of the St. Paul & Sonix City Railroad. discovered be- longing to the state under an old grant which the United States had certified to the state. This grant was for the purpose of internal improvement, and the legislature thought it could not be used to better advantage than assist- ing in building railroads in the fron- tier counties. The bill passed, giving to this county 40,000 acres to aid in building a railroad having connections with Fort Dodge, Iowa, and Mankato, and to run through Fairmont. It in- ourred opposition of the St. Paul and Minneapolis people who were not set- tiers of the country, and was vetoed by Governor Austin.
In April of this year, the residence of C. R. Bardwell in Fairmont town- ship, was burned, together with all of his household goods. Mr. Bardwell
was a nephew of the party who had his barns and horses burned at the time of the Hayworth-Swearingen thresh- ing machine fire, and it was thought at the time that they were rather un- fortunate. A new town was estab- lished this year out of town 104, range 30, and was called . Westford. The first election was held at
the house of C. W. Pigman. In July of this year Benj. Richard- son, who then owned the property where Taylor and Johnson now live, being a part of Taylor & Johnson's addition to Fairmont, became de- ranged over religion, but he was cou- sidered harmless and his friends were taking care of him. One morning, just as the sun was coming up, he started east with the cry, "There colors my father, I am going to meet him," and started only partially dressed and ran east in a direct line toward the sun, not turning out for sloughs or water. . He was at once followed; but he disappeared in the tall grass along the creek bottom near where Johu Schetfs now lives in Rutland township, and all search for him was of no avail, until some days afterwards bis body was found floating in the creek.
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