USA > Minnesota > Martin County > History of Martin County, Minnesota > Part 12
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This year the post office was moved from what is now North Avenue to Main street and occupied a portion of the building in which the Martin County Review was printed, Geo. W. Tanner postmaster. This same year J. A. Armstrong built a residence on Lake Avenue, which is now occu- pied by Mrs. Peter Lund and family. A. Fancher built a house in town and moved to Fairmont. The fair this year was held on the 20th and 21st of September, and there was more interest manifested in the fair than at any previous time. There
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were good crops raised, and the farm- ers continued to enjoy prosperity.
The first cemetery association was formed on November 14th. There were six trustees, as follows: William H. Budd, E. S. Snow, T. S. Curtis, G. W. Tanner, A. D. Cadwell, and J. A. Armstrong. E. 8. Snow was president, J. A. Armstrong, secretary, and Wil- liam H. Budd, treasurer.
At the election the legislative district was changed, leaving out Faribault county. W. D. Rice, of St. James, Was elected senator and E. Berry, of Mar- tin county, representative. The com- missioners met on January 2d. 1872, and approved the bonds of the follow- ing officers: A. Bowen, register of deeds; Hiram Moorman, judge of pro- bate; and C. H. Viesselman, county treasurer. The other officers held for another term. There had been quite a close political contest in the fall of 1871 and the majority by which Mr. Viesselman was elected did not exceed three. Thomas Dodd, his opponent, entered a contest, and nearly all the fall was spent in taking testimony to show the illegality of certain votes. The case was carried iuto court, and Mr. Viesselman's title to the office was confirmed. Mr. Dodd was a worthy citizen of Nashville, and was previously the superintendent of schools. The expense of this contest is said to have crippled him financial- ly. At this meeting, the salary of the clerk of court was fixed at $300 in- cluding fees. A new town was set off including the town 103, ranges 32 and 33 and was called Bucephelia. M. A. Seymour. who got up the petition and who was a resident of the town had the naming of it and called it after the celebrated war horse of Alexander the Great. The name of the town was
afterwards changed to Fox Lake, and the first town meeting was held at the house of M. A. Seymour on January 18, 1872.
This year G. S. Livermore estab- lished trade in the building of Bird & Burdick on North Avenue, taking as a partner S. Hackett, of whom mention will be made later on. They con- tinued as partners until 1874 when Mr. Hackett established trade for himself in the building of E. S. Snow where the building of Neumann & Engelbert now stands.
At the January, 1872, meeting of the commissioners town 105, ranges 32 and 33 asked to be set off as a sparate town- ship. The petition was granted and the town called Cedar. The first election was held at the house of R. Crandall on the north side of Cedar Like. There was at that time quite a little settlement at the north end of the lake, there being two stores, hotel and a blacksmith shop. There was a term of court this winter commencing on the 3d of January. There was quite cold winter weather. Two men got lost in a storm east of Cedar Lake, they having gone to the luke for wood, and got lost coming home, and were frozen to death. Their names were Daniel O'Connor and Will- iam Garner. This year Charles Dana, who was a resident of Fairmont, and M. L. Pope, of Fox Lake, in coming from Jackson, got caught in the storm, but they were lucky to find a shanty in which they stayed until the storm was over, and it was the means of sav- ing their lives. At the March meet- ing of the commissioners & petition Was received from the inhabitants of town 101, range 33, asking to be de- tached from Lake Belt and consti- tuted a separate town. The petition
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was granted, and the town called Luke county learned that an English-Ameri. Fremont. First election was held at can, reported, to possess fabulous wealth was looking up locations on Elm Creek, with a view to settling a colony. Some of our people investi- gated and, found that a party had been there and had partially made ar- rangements for taking a large amount of land, but had gone from there. to St. Paul to confer with the railway, company in relation to their lands, the St. Paul & Sioux City railroad giant including the land on Elm Creek. Fairmont people took an interest in the matter with the result that H. F. Sherman was introduced to our people and induced to take land for his colony from the Southern Minne -. sota railway lands lying south of Fair- mont. One reason Mr. Sherman was selecting the Elm Creek location was, that it was then supposed that when the Southern Minnesota railway was built west from Winnebago City, it would follow the north side of that creek. the house of A. H. Anderson on the 30th of January. At the same meet- ing & petition was received from the people of town 102, range : 33, asking to be detached from the town of Man- yaska. The petition was granted and the new town called Richmond, but the name was afterwards changed to Jay. The first election was held at the house of J. F. Miner on the 30th of January, 1872. At this meeting the petition of A. Clendeuning and others was received asking that the town of 101, range 29, be set off as a new town and called Chain Lakes. The petition was granted and the first election was held at the house of Wm. Hoffman on the 30th of January, 1872. This meet- ing of the commissioners will go down in history as the "new town meeting." In March of this year an agent for a new kind of wheat visited this county, and made a great many sales. It was called Red Osaka. It was said to be raised in the Red River Valley and to yield an immense amount to the acre. The price paid for it was $3 per bushel. A great many oats of a new kind and called the Surprise were sold here, and those who bought them were surprised when it came to har- vesting.
There was quite an exciting presi- dental election this fall, and a great many Republicans and Democrats joined hands to support Horace Greely. Mr. Sherman had his first introduction to our people as an ora- tor at a political meeting held here in which he advocated the cause of Greely. He left here and went to New York where he assisted in the . Greely cause in connection with Chauncey M. Depewand others. We have occasion to speak of Mr. Sherman and the work he accomplished for this county later on. This year Dr. Chubb purchased the newspaper of Geo. W. Tanner, and ran it for a short time, and then re- sold it to Mr. Tanner who moved it to St. James, receiving a bonus from the
In this year Willie Snow built a part of what was known as the Fairmont House, which was at that time consid- ered first class in every respect. This building with its additions were taken down and moved away in 1894, being on the lots where the First National Bank, Smith & Viesselman's and Fan- cher & Donaldson's blocks now stand Byron St. John also came here this year and settled in Fraser township. In the summer of '72 the people of this | people of that place, as they required
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his aid in a county seat war Madelia.
In May of this year Henry C. Viessel- man, age 45 years, and John Viessel- man, age 22 years, relatives of William and Henry Viesselman were found dead in their house. It was as a great many other buildings here at that time, a sort of dug-out in the side of the hill, and covered with earth, and it being very wet, the weight caused the poles of the roof to give away and buried them, and when they were found they were dead.
At the 4th of July celebration held this year the ragamuffin show was first introduced in this county, and was a great success. The grain this year had a large growth of straw, but the grain yield was very light. This year Felix Lane moved away and M. E. L. Shanks was appointed county attor- ney to fill the vacancy. At the com- n issioner's meeting in September, town 103, range:31- was decached from Waverly and Fairmont, and consti- tuted a new town called Fraser. First election was held at the school house, known as the Sand school house.
There was a very early fall this year and some very cold weather; the ther- mometer standing at 30 below zero several times during the month of December. Jannary 7th, 1873, com- missioners met. The new officers were M. E. L. Sbanks, attorney; A. Fancher, surveyor; and J. A. Armstrong, aud- itor. On the 7th of this month there was ju few inches of snow on the ground. There had been some very mild weather, and a crust had formed which was quite hard It was warm and pleasant with a southernly wind until about three o'clock in the after- uoon, when it suddenly changed, and the wind came up so strong that one
with could not face it. The sky became dark and the air was filled with drift- ing snow. The wind wasstrong enough to break through the crust of snow, and in a short cime the ais was so filled ... with snow that one could see no dis- tance whatever. "A great many people were in town and were unable to get home. Some parties living at East Chain had gone to the lake for timber, and the storm caught tirem on the way home: Some of them were for-
tunate enough to reach shelter, but two men were frozen to death. They. were tracked for a long distance and were found across the line in Iowa, having become separated from their teams and from each other. One's name was Foster, and the other I have forgotten. These, to my recollection, are the last cases of parties freezing to death in this county. In March of this year-was formed the first organ- ization among the farmers called the Grange, which held regular monthly meetings and had a large membership. fhey also had what was called the Grange supply store in the E. S. Suow building. They also" had arrange- ments made by which a list of dealers .in different kinds of merchandise in the larger towns who would make special prices - to farmers was placed in the hands of the members. The store did a fair busi- ness for a short time, but the business gradually went to pieces on account of the jealousies and quarrels of the members. Then, as now, farmers' or- ganizations to work together, failed for the reasons we have given, while other branches of trade and employ- ment have organizations which are successful. The farmers seem to fail in that respect.
The commissioners met in January,
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1878, present; William H. Budd, A. B. Colton, and George J. Tower. Dr. Chubb resigned his position as county physician and Dr. D. W. Hunt was ap- pointed to fill his place.
This year Mr. Shearman came with the first installment of his colony. He built the house on what was know as the two flag farm. The par- ties who came at this time were: Cecil Wray, E. Cole, and D. Mckay. Mr. MeKay's land was in Tenhassen and Sil- ver Lake, he had a section. Mr. Cole had a quarter section in Tenhassen and Mr. Wray took land in Bolling Green and Tenhassen. They at ouce began to break land for a crop and used a great many teams, and began to do business on a scale surprising to our people, from 50 to 100 teams being employed in breaking. Their inten- tion was to raise a crop of beans on the breaking. Mr. Shearman had pre- viously visited Brockport, New York, the bean center of the universe, and was well posted. They had a car load of beans shipped from Brockport, had men to follow the breaking teams and plant on every second furrow, some of it being done with little hand plant- ers, but mostly by little holes chopped through the dirt with an axe and the beans dropped through. It is esti- mated they had over one thousand acres put in in this way early in the season. They grew and looked very fine, and had it not been for what oc- curred afterwards, and through no | it was also their particular delight to eat this and then sit on the fences and squirt tobacco juice all over the coun- try. Some people had never before seen these animals. and they were a great curiosity. Many were the con- jectures and theories as to how long they would stay and how much dam- age they would do. They only scat- fault of the parties, they would, to use a slang term, have been a "howling success," and there would have been big money in them. These parties gave employment to a large force of men, and made times lively as they were able to pay cash for everything. Early in June reports began to be
circulated that the grasshoppers or Rocky Mountain locusts were working this way from the Dakotas, and were destroying everything. Our people placed little credence in the report, but on the 8th of June they had reached Jackson County, and then we learned that it was no fiction. They Were traveling with the wind, and if the wind was favorable, they would of course make about ten miles a day, but they adhered strictly to & partic- ular direction. On the tenth of June they had reached the western border of this county, and parties from Fair- mont drove out to see them, and as- certain if the reports were true as to numbers. They returned and cor- roborated what we had previously heard. The wind being in the south and southeast they remained on the western border of this county for sev eral days, but the first northwest wind brought them here. This was the 18th of June. About ten o clock of that day the advance guard began to drop down, and soon they came like a snow storm until the ground' was nearly covered. Like an army in a strange land without supplies, they lost no time in commencing business. Gar- dens were soon destroyed, but what they particularly sought after was the English colony's beans. In 24 hours it is estimated that there was not & bean stalk left. Some of the farmers had considerable tobacco growing and
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teringly covered a distance of 20 miles | they did was a serious drawback to east of here. They had previous to the prosperity of our people who were just beginning to get in good shape financially and get their land under cultivation. It was claimed at the time that the locusts would do us no damage the next year, as our climate was such that their eggs would not hatch, and that one winter's frost would settle them. Others who had read up on the matter said they would hatch in countless numbers, which was right, as next year's history will establish. Our English friends were far from discouraged over this mishap. Mr. Mckay, who was the chief capitalists, spent a great deal of money among our. people for labor. Mr. Shearman's ardor never cooled, he was here for business, and to make a success of the colony, and he made large preparations for the next year. All but Mr. Cole returned to England in the fall, and Mr. Shearman opened an office in London for the purpose of procuring additions to the colony. reaching here almost run their course of destruction, as experience shows that their term of life is limited. They began to lay their eggs, which was done by boring in the ground and depositing a cocoon of eggs, which was sealed up. Some of our learned men who investigated the matter said there were three classes of locusts, one class called borers, which bored the holes, one called layers, which layed the eggs and the other called sealers which sealed up the holes. One could take a spade or a knife and by digging in the ground in places a foot square, pro- duce a thousand eggs. Do not under- stand this as saying that the ground was all so full, as they appeared to select particular places. They ate off the leaves of the corn' stalks and off the grain, and in some instances ate the heads off the grain around the edges of some of the fields, and where the straw was young and tender, they ate it down, but did not fully destroy it. It was estimated that there was from one fourth to one half a crop of coru and grain, but the gardens were a total failure. They were here two or three weeks. When they left us, scientists claim they had fulfilled their mission, and they would disappear in the air, and some would die before alighting again.
The English colony -replanted large portion of their beans, but it was late in the season, they were caught by an early frost and de- stroyed. Some of them were har- vested, but the expense of sorting the poor from the good was so great, and as they all had to be hand.picked, it Was about all they were worth. The advent of these locusts and the damage
At the September meeting of the commissioners the tax levy was made for this year, and the number of county commissioners increased . to five, as under the law when 800 votes were cast, we were entitled to five commissioners. The following was fixed as the commissioner districts : Towns 101, 102, 103 and 104, range 29, was the first district; towns 101, 102, 103 and 104, range 30, was the second district; towns 101, 102, 108 and 104, range 31, third distriot; towns 101, 102, 103 and 104, range 32, was the fourth district; and towns 101, 102, 103 and 104, range 33, was the fifth district. This gave the towns adjacent and in. the same range & district, which we . believe is preferable to the way it is now divided. At this meeting of the
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Commissioners $400 was Invented in 'a town board and ascertain if any aid Was needed. At this time the stat , surrendered its obligation against the county for aid furnished in 1867, and Are proof safe for the records, being The ttret safe in the county, and anch a cafe' conld now be bought for $75. This shows that competition in' bnsi-the commissioners l.y resolution re- pess among safe men during the last 25 years has reduced prices. In Sep- tember of this year, the Grange held picnic in the grove between Lake Budd and Lake Sisseton.
The county fair was held the 3d and th of October. There was quite . dittle interest in political watters this fall, as there were five new commiss- loners to be elected, and there was quite a contest for the county officers. J. F. Daniels, Master of Grange, was electert representative. C. P. And- ross, William Bird, T. S. Curtiss, John Strait and William B. Stedman were elected commissioners. J. A. Arm- strong, anditor. C. H. Viessetman, treasurer: Allison Fancher, clerk of conrt; 4. Bowen, register of deeds; the county attorney and sheriff hold- ing over.
Artemus E. Ball came here this year and established what was known as the Fairmont Chain. He kept. this paper running for about a year, when, like onr other newspaper men, "he quietly folded his tent and disap- peared. There was an early freeze-np in October but later it thawed and farmers had plenty of time to finish their plowing and work in November.
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At the Jan., 1874, meeting of the com- missioners the matter as to whether any seed grain would be necessary to be furnished to the people of this county on account of the destruction by grass-hoppers, was considered. A letter was received from Hon. J. F. Daniels, from the legislature inquir- ing into the matter. It was decided to confer with the chairman of each
scinded the obligations of the different towuships. and surrendered the bonds furnished by the different townships- for that purpose. The winter was cold, and it was generally considered that the eggs of our grass hopper friends were past redemption, but there were some warm days in Feb- ruary, and pur ties living on Elm Creek came in and reported that ou the banks of some of the lakes there they had found some young hoppers, but the report was not credited at the time. The spring was an early one, aud wheat was sown in the middle of March.
Iu July, 1874, G. G. Livermore, who was in business on North Avenue, moved bis goods and store building to Main Street. The spring was a dry one, and farmers took advantage of same and got in their crops early. None of them believed that the grass- hopper eggs would hatch or do us any damage. Our English colony re- ceived large accessions this year. Mr. Shearman had worked to advant age in England during the winter, and in the spring returned with Mr. Wray. who had gone back with him in the fall, and the new members accom- panying them were Cecil Sharpe and George Clouting, who are now here. Others who came at that time but who hav + since moved away are: H. Atkin- ann. P. Sargentson. A. Biggs, F. Lloyd, G. Aldrich, T. C. Mckean, L. V. Arch- er-Burton, James Archer-Burton, P. Bowness and John Whittaker, all of whom were single men with the ex- ception of Lloyd, Wray, Sargentson
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and Whittaker. P. Sargentsor, A Biggs and F. Lloyd located at East Chain, Wray on Pierce Lake, C. Sharpe, G. Aldrich, T. C. Mckean, in Rolling Green and Tenhassen, and the Archer-Burton and Bowness in Silver Lake and Fairmont. Mr. Whittaker purchased the Dana farm just north of town, now owned by William Struckmeyer. They agreed with our people that there was nothing to fear from the locuste, and began active preparation for cropping the land broken the year previous, aud arrang- ed for a large amount of breaking to be done on new land to be planted to beans. They represented & large amount of capital, and gave employ. ment to a large number of men.
In Apzil the locnasa began to batch. They were little tiny. chaps, and the people said they could not stand the cold nights and the fross, but it did not appear to effect them in any way except, perhaps to wake them grow better, as when the ground was frozen they would be in a comatose condi- tion but as soon as the sun came out warm, they were lively enough. They were not old enough to do any partic- ular damage until about the last of May. They were busy moving back and forth, and on cold nights would gather together in great piles. In the warm sun they would spread out over the fields, and move around at a pretty lively iste, but always in a systematic manner. In June we bad two days of such hard rain that the ground was flooded, and it was pre- dicted that this would finish them, but when the storm subsided and the san came out, they were still ready for business. In June they com- menced on the grain fields, and by the last of June had cleaned them out.
They ate the corn, grain, potatoes, and in fact nearly everything. Timothy was their especial delight, but prairie grass was a little tough for them. They would invade the houses unless the doors were kept closed. As fast as the beans came up they were taken off, but still our English friends kept planting, and some beans were raised on plantings which had not come up at the time the locusts Jeft us. It is idle for us to try to tell the damage done by these pests. Many of our settlers were here then, and we refer our readers to them. There was a mass con vention held in Fairmont on June 27th to take into consideration means for the relief of citizens. The meeting appointed a committee, whose appeal for aid we publish. . Enoh township was represented at this con- vention, and a report was made from each township by the officers of the township. Among the members pres- ent who took active part were: Thomas Nicholls, of Pleasant Prairie; Judge Shanks of Fairmont; A. C. Hand of Silver Lake; H. Morman and L. F. Brainerd of Nashville; J. A. Armstrong and others. The relief committee consisted of John F. Daniels, I. F. Bickford, Rev. E. Berry and Rev. A. C. Hand. The report brought in at this meeting was that a large number of the citizens had temporarily aban- doued their farms, and were seeking employment in different parts of the state, but if relief was afforded and seed grain furnished, it was thought the most of these would return and make this county their home. Had it uut been for energetic action of our .tizens, great suffering must have en- sued.
BELIEF CALL. "A great calamity compels the people
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of Martin county, Minnesota, through wheat was also received which divided this committee chosen by them, to ap- among a small number of the most peal to their countrymen for sympathy and aid. Most of the disasters which befali communities, care might pre- vent, skill mitigate, or strength restat. The conflagration of cities, or the Bursting of levees, could be guarded against, and sanitary regulations would largely disarm pestilences; yet when these. occur, he sufferers find ready teltet from willing hands extended to help them.
The devastation of locusts is a thing ยท that no human agency can prevent or check. Compelled as our people are to look famine in the face, we under- stand perfectly why in all ages, the natde of' locust has been a word of terror.
" By experience we know the tacility with which those silent hosts trans- form fair provinces into deserts.
One year ago, vast clouds of the red legged locust, or hateful grasshopper of the plains, alighted down upon our fields and commenced ravaging. In a month they had destroyed all our ercps, save grain and corn, of which, owing to the lateness of the season, a small portion escaped, thus of wheat, about three bushels per acre, on an average.
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