USA > Minnesota > Morrison County > History of Morrison and Todd counties, Minnesota, their people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 17
USA > Minnesota > Todd County > History of Morrison and Todd counties, Minnesota, their people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25
LITTLE FALLS IRON WORKS.
The Little Falls Iron Works is another industry of goodly proportions in Little Falls. It is the property of John Denis and S. B. Brick, both prac- tical machinists. The shops are built of solid brick masonry, fifty by one hundred feet floor space, and additional warehouse rooms. It is modern in its equipment and produces all grades of castings and machine work. From ten to thirty men were employed there in 1914. They ship work to the far-away Pacific coast region, showing the superiority of workmanship.
JACOB KIEWEL BREWING COMPANY.
The Jacob Kiewel Brewing Company owes its establishment and suc- cessful operation to Jacob Kiewel, who arrived here in 1894 from Fergus Falls, Minnesota. He purchased a small brewing concern that had been established in 1880. He soon removed the shacks of buildings and erected modern structures and rapidly forged to the front as among the foremost brewers of the state. He has made an independent fortune in the brew- ing business in this city. The brewery, malt and bottling houses occupy a whole block of ground in the extreme northeast part of the city. Here the annual output in 1913 was placed at fifteen thousand barrels of lager beer and three thousand barrels of bottled goods, each bottle bearing the label "White Rose," this being the trademark of the company. In the malt- ing department there is a capacity of fifteen thousand bushels of barley malt. About twenty skilled men find steady employment in this brewery.
THE BRICK INDUSTRY.
Little Falls has become quite well known through her excellent and superior brick. Two miles to the west of the city may be found the extensive brick-making plant of P. O. Duclos. Here thirty men find employment during the brick-making season, which is about seven months out of each year. The new plant is a wonder in the art of making builders' brick. It
197
MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
is operated by means of electricity, which current cost the owner more than twenty-two thousand dollars. The brick-making building is eighty-seven by one hundred and fifty-seven feet, with two floors, each chamber holding three hundred thousand cream, wire-cut bricks. The daily capacity is about forty-five thousand. It employs the Klose continuous kiln process. The output in 1914 was not far from eight million brick. They are mostly used for facing brick in expensive structures.
MANUFACTURING FIGURES-1913.
The following will show the business derived at Little Falls from the various manufacturing plants in 1913-a twelve months' record :
No. Men. 400
Wages Paid. Value Prod.
Pine Tree Manufacturing Company.
$240,000
$1,000,000
Northwestern Milling Company
26
32,864
1,000,000
Little Falls Milling Company
IO
12,640
300,000
Hennepin Paper Company
90
85,360
300,000
Kiewel Brewing Company
16
20,000
150,000
Sylvester & Nichols
13
16,432
100,000
P. O. Duclos Brick Manufacturing
30
16,000
100,000
Little Falls Iron Works
IO
9,480
100,000
Little Falls Creamery
5
5,000
100,000
Little Falls Plumbing and Cycle Company_
8
10,000
75,000
Little Falls Power Company
I2
11,060
70,000
Cigar industry
4
4,800
14,000
Total
622
$463,648
$3.238.000
1
1
1
I
I
1
I
1
I
1
1
I
The above figures tell the story of Little Falls' industrial prosperity and why it is forging ahead so fast. All of these industries are money-mak- ers, proving that central Minnesota is the ideal location for establishing new industries. and that Little Falls is a chosen spot owing to its central position, free factory sites, cheap hydro-electric power and the best of railroad trans- portation facilities.
BUSINESS COLLEGE.
Since 1905 Little Falls has boasted of one of the best commercial schools in the great Northwest. It was founded that year by its present proprietor,
198
MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
R. B. Millard. It is well equipped with all modern appliances, with a full line of departments, headed by competent instructors in banking, bookkeep- ing, typewriting, shorthand, accounting, commercial law, penmanship, com- mercial arithmetic and general business office education. Here one finds five dictaphones, adding machines, twenty-five typewriters of one make and many other styles. The attendance is from one hundred to two hundred per term. This college is the pride of the city and is sending out into the walks of commercial life many scores of competent young men and women. It occupies the entire third floor of the Realty block, in the very heart and center of the city.
CATHOLIC HOSPITAL AND ORPHANAGE.
Little Falls is the seat of one of the finest hospitals and Catholic orphan- ages to be seen in all the great Northwest. Its origin and present conditions are here related by one in authority :
"Rev. Mother Mary Ignatius was the youngest daughter of a noble English Protestant family by the name of Hayes, and was born in Guern- sey, an island belonging to Great Britain. Her conversion in the Catholic church was brought about by reading the 'Lives of the Saints.' She was admitted to the sacraments in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, in London. In 1847, Mother M. Ignatius entered the Order of St. Francis and soon afterward she joined Mother Veronica of the same order in open- ing a house in the West Indies. After some years of great fatigue and exhaustion under the tropical sun of the Indies, M. M. Ignatius obtained necessary letters of obedience, and was sent to the United States to make a foundation. In St. Paul, Minnesota, she was graciously received by Rt. Rev. Bishop Grace, and under his assistance and auspices, determined upon a work of an industrial school for poor French Canadian settlers at Belle Prairie, Minnesota.
"Three years later Mother Mary Ignatius opened an industrial school for poor Negro children in Augusta, Georgia. In 1880, Reverend Ignatius went to Rome, Italy, and in 1885, she returned to the United States to seek to be released from the burden of the government of her communities in America. In about 1887 the Sisters from the Negro mission returned to Belle Prairie. and in the same year the convent of Belle Prairie was completely destroyed by fire. The Rt. Rev. Bishop Seidenbush being dead, the Sisters were obliged to live three months in a barn, waiting and hoping that Rt. Rev. Bishop Zardetti would come to take charge of the diocese of St. Cloud,
199
MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
Minnesota. His Lordship not being willing that the Sisters should try to rebuild their convent without having obtained a separation from their Mother house in Rome, Italy, advised them to go to Rome for that purpose, Very Rev. Father Ferdinand, O. S. F., Provincial of Province of St. Louis, Mis- souri, having furnished the necessary documents, signed by Rt. Rev. Bishop Zardetti, St. Cloud. Two Sisters went to Rome in order to obtain the desired separation. Sixteen Sisters remained in America for the new foundation."
In 1891 the Sisters had erected St. Gabriels Hospital, costing fifty thousand dollars. In 1895 they built Otto's Orphanage, costing twenty-five thousand dollars. In 1897 they erected St. Francis Hospital, Breckenridge, costing sixty thousand dollars. In 1902 St. James Hospital was erected at a cost of thirty-five thousand dollars, at Perham, Minnesota. In 1913 a new hospital was built by them at Dodgeville, Wisconsin, costing forty thousand dollars. These worthy Sisters are now building another hospital in Little Falls, costing about seventy thousand dollars.
At present (1915) there are fifty-four professed Sisters in the com- munity, ten novices and five postulants. The work of these faithful Sisters is remarkable and far-reaching in its holy and benevolent influences.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE POLISH PEOPLE.
By A. F. Koslosky.
In writing the history of our Polish citizens in Morrison county it is imperative that we know something of their native land, whence they have emigrated, and of the freedom and privileges they have enjoyed there, so as to better enable us to judge the progress and achievements they have made since they landed here in this land of freedom and opportunities.
The Polish people came from the great Slavonic race: we hear about them as early as 550 A. D .; they inhabited the country surrounding the ancient Polish cities of Posen and Gnezen ( Prussian Poland), the latter city being their capital. Their first king was Mieczislav I, crowned in 962 A. D., under whose reign they became christianized. They weathered the politi- cal storms and numerous Asiatic raids. In the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- turies they reached a high stage of culture and civilization, with many fine schools and churches ; a fine constitutional government, as well as a literature not excelled by any other nation.
Between 1772 and 1795 their beautiful country of two hundred and eighty-two thousand square miles was divided between her three jealous neighbors-Russia, Prussia and Austria. Since then the Polish people have undergone untold sufferings. In Russian Poland they were permitted to use the Polish language, but the persecution of the religious and educational institutions was simply intolerable ; any display of Polish nationalism was dealt with severely, but since 1905 conditions have changed for the better, and, strange to say, the percentage of illiterates is very small. Economically, the Prussian Pole was more fortunate than his brother in Russian and Aus- trian Poland, but even there did the cruel grip of oppression tighten on the unfortunate Pole. The Polish language was barred from all schools, from public meetings, even from the streets. All literature with a semblance of a Polish national character was at once confiscated, and at last came the cruel Dispossession Bill, whereby the government official can at any time
201
MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
dispossess any Polish real estate owner on his making the slightest show of self-defense.
The Galician (as the Austrian Pole is called), prior to 1860, was even more oppressed than the Pole of Russian or Prussian Poland. In 1860 Galicia was granted partial autonomy. This was not freedom as we Amer- icans understand freedom; still the Galician had a fighting chance, and he progressed with such rapidity that he even excelled his oppressors. Op- pressed at home, persecuted on the street, at school, at church, in the army, ruled by three monarchs, they still were sons of one mother-Poland. They wept for each other, yet suffered alike; even their very soul was not their own. Still the hardy Pole clung tenaciously to the Polish soil, and up to 1860 the Polish emigration was very light, but since 1870 and 1872 each succeeding year doubled or trebled the number of Polish emigrants. On they came, first from Silesia, West Prussia and Great Poland. On they came from Galicia and on they came from Russian Poland, some with money and others with just enough money to bring them over the ocean. Some came on passes furnished them by relatives or friends. Some came with families, others just the head of the family, or some single members of the house- hold, but on they came over the briny deep until now their number has almost reached the five million mark.
Each immigrant carries with him his own scars of hardship. None knew the language of Americans; none knew the customs of the country or its laws. The few who had money suffered but little inconvenience, but those who had only the price of a loaf of bread, with their family across the ocean, in poverty and misery, took the first job that Providence threw in their way and stuck to it and saved their earnings. After getting their family across to this country they at once commenced opening up homes, purchasing land on the installment plan. The Polish emigrant who settled in Morrison county was no exception; on him also are visible scars of hardship.
FIRST POLISH EMIGRANT.
The first and oldest Polish settlement in this county is North Prairie in Two Rivers township, and the first to face the Morrison county wilder- ness were John and Simon Schwintek, about 1868. Then John Mucha and Carl Thomalla in about 1870. John Kasparek, Sr., came about 1872. Leav- ing St. Cloud, they followed the Mississippi river, and rough roads and corduroy bridges were their only means of transportation. The slow, steady but sure ox-team and lumber wagon carried their earthly possessions.
202
MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
At last they landed on their little claim, and the only clear space was the sky above them. They were then in the midst of oaks, elms and basswood trees hundreds of year old. Here they built their log houses and with the courage of a Cæsar or a Napoleon, they started to clear up the land. Soon others of their kind came; family, kindred and friends were soon added to the little colonies, mostly from Silesia, Prussian Poland. Soon all avail- able land was taken up, forests and sloughs were transformed into produc- tive fields and meadows. Log houses disappeared and neat frame residences took their places. Straw sheds went down and fine, large barns went up. Spacious granaries were built and paths and trails were changed to graded highways.
What is true of North Prairie is also true of Swan River, Flensburg, Elm Dale, Bowlus, Holdingford, Little Falls and Platte. There is some doubt as to who really was the first Polish settler in the above named settle- ments, but whoever they were, they arrived about the year 1876, and each settlement bears evidence of the same energy and progress. The Polish immigrant is very successful at farming, but he has also liberally contrib- uted to the county, city and village population as well. He now has to his credit nine beautiful churches, and there is hardly an industry or business in which he is not well represented.
The Polish immigrant has prospered in Morrison county. Yes, he has prospered in spite of thousands of obstacles. God grant that he prosper in the future, ever mindful of his duties and obligations to this great American nation that has so kindly adopted him one of her sons.
If ever there was a time when the Americans had a prejudice as against the Pole, that day has long since passed, for they have proved themselves to be worthy the confidence and esteem of all other good citizens. While at times we hear people speak of their being "clannishi," it is an unjust asser- tion, for it will be remembered that all foreigners upon coming to our shores naturally mingle with those of their own fellow countrymen, those who speak the same language and attend the same church and school. The Yan- kees, should any considerable number of them form a colony in any one of the foreign countries, would do the same thing, as it is but human to do so. But today this line is not so marked as in former years. Today the Pole stands for all that is good and excellent in our government. and even more highly prizes and respects the flag of his adopted country than many native-born citizens, and if need be will fight for it as bravely.
CHAPTER XX.
MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.
POPULATION OF MORRISON COUNTY.
At certain periods the population of this county has been as follows: In 1860 its total population was six hundred and eighteen. Of this number all but about one hundred resided on the east side of the Mississippi river. In 1870 the population had increased to 1,681, and in 1875 had reached 2,375.
By townships, the population in 1875 ran as follows. Two Rivers township, 753; Pierz township, 404; Green Prairie township, 94; Belle Prairie township, 419; Little Falls township, 389; Culdrum township, 146; Swan River township, 332; Buckman township, 119; Bellevue township, 79. Total, 2,375. This showed an increase during the period from 1870 to 1875, of 1,054.
UNITED STATES CENSUS POPULATION REPORT.
1910
1900
1890
Agram township
292
300
22I
Belle Prairie township
686
765
605
Bellevue township
632
541
302
Bowlus village
164
164
Buckman township
848
1,623
679
Buckman village
I37
Buh township
713
699
Clough township
272
244
Culdrum township
868
868
675
Cushing township
313
253
Darling township
536
Elmdale township
1,574
1,425
932
1
I
1
1
I
I
I
1 I
1 I
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
-
204
MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
Granite township.
478
Green Prairie township
226
299
834
Hillman township
66
Lakin township
55
Leigh township
54
Little Falls township
356
427
217
Little Falls City :
Ward
1,941
Ward 2
1,340
Ward 3
1,59I
Ward 4.
1,206
Total in City
6,078
5,774
2,354
Morrill township
350
345
I32
Motley township
88
226
365
Motley village
428
404
525
Mount Morris township
54
13
Parker township
479
516
252
Pierz township
631
1,049
1,387
Pierz village
545
358
Pike Creek township
1,394
1,361
809
Platte township
209
206
Pulaski township
I29
I2I
Rails Prairie township
1
1
1
206
285
Randall village
195
Richardson township
60
Ripley township
610
716
614
Rosing township
143
Royalton village
676
664
Scandia Valley township
158
260
Swan River township
1,225
1,229
983
Swanville township
826
686
Swanville village
397
244
Two Rivers township
812
9II
857
Totals
24,053
22,891
13.325
I
1
1
1
-
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
I
1
1
I
1
I
1
I
1
1
1
I
I
I
1
I
1
I
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
I
I
1
1
I
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
I
--
J
1
---
The reports show that Morrison county had 616 inhabitants in 1860; in 1865 it had 796; in 1870 it had reached 1,681; in 1875 it was 2,722; in 1890 it was 13,325 ; in 1900 it was 22,891 ; in 1910 it had reached 24,053.
205
MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
INCORPORATED TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
In 1915 there are the following incorporated villages and cities within Morrison county : Buckman, incorporated in May, 1903. Little Falls (city), incorporated on February 7, 1902. Village of Pierz, incorporated on August 17, 1894. Village of Swanville, incorporated on May 24, 1893. Royalton was incorporated in October, 1887. Randall village was incorporated in July, 1900. Other incorporated villages are Bowlus, Genola ( formerly New Pierz), Flensberg and Motley.
POSTOFFICES IN 1915.
The postoffices in operation in this county in 1915 are as follow: Little Falls, Hillman, Motley, New Pierz (now Genola), Pierz, Ramey, Randall, Royalton, Rucker, Swanville, Lincoln, Cushing, Flensburg, Bowlus-a total of fourteen. Formerly there were many more, but on account of the many free rural delivery routes established in the last decade many have been dis- continued.
RECORDED VILLAGE PLATS.
Morrison county, like most Minnesota counties, had its full share of town sites. Twenty-four town plats were recorded in Little Falls, by the register of deeds, from 1855 to 1858, many of which, however, were not located within what is the present county, but were platted on unsurveyed government lands. Except Fergus Falls and Little Falls, none ever attained any considerable historic fame. Fergus Falls was so named for its founder, James Fergus, who was a pioneer at Little Falls and went with a company of men to Otter Tail county and there located Fergus Falls in the autumn of 1856. The same company also platted towns in many other western Minne- sota sections, none of which ever materialized to any extent ; in fact were only sprung on the public as "paper towns" for the purpose of exciting the spirit of speculation which was rife throughout all of the Western states at that period. In several cases lots were sold in the cities of Boston, New York and Philadelphia, to parties who had no idea of the wilderness condition of the country in which the towns were platted by their designing founders. Of such towns in Morrison county; none succeeded in keeping up any semblance of villages save possibly Swan River, Belle Prairie and Granite City. Of the lesser plattings may be recalled Lulo, Buckfield, Big Bend, Little Elk, Janes-
,
206
MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
ville and Olean, names only recalled by the memory of the very earliest set- tlers who chance now to have survived the storms of many decades and are still with us.
TOWN PLATS.
Of the town or village plattings within Morrison county, the register of deeds' office now has an account of the following :
Cushing, in the southwest quarter of section 21, township 131, range 31 ; platted December 18, 1907, by Oscar Carlson for an estate.
Bowlus, in the southwest quarter of section 127, range 30; by the Tri- State Land Company, July 7, 1907.
Buckman, in sections 5, 8 and 9, township 39, range 30; July 18, 1903, by a townsite company with many local names attached.
Flensburg, in section 25, township 129, range 31; March 18. 1890, by Olaf O. and Dagmar Searle.
Hillman, in the west half of section 28, township 41, range 28; July 8, 1908, by the Tri-State Land Company.
Lincoln, in section 31, township 132, range 31; September 12, 1893, by Elizabeth Bauman.
Motley, in section 18, township 133, range 31; by the Lake Superior and Puget Sound Land Company, April 7, 1879.
North Prairie, in section 20, township 127, range 29; July 3. 1885, by George Gissel.
Mckinley, in section 30, township 132, range 31 : by William B. Hash and wife, Sarah, May 31, 1899.
Town of Pierz, in section 8, township 40, range 30, and in sections 34 and 35, township 41, range 30; October, 1887.
Village of Pierz, in 1891, by forty-three persons whose names are at- tached to the platting. It is situated in the north half of the south half of section 8, township 40, range 30, also in sections 34 and 35 of township 41, range 30. This was re-surveyed and corrected by R. J. Batzer, county sur- veyor, in 1903.
New Pierz, in the southeast quarter of section 18, township 40, range 30; August 29, 1908, by John Stumpf and wife.
Randall, in the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 7, township 30, range 30; March 10, 1890, by Daniel and Alice K. Merrill.
Royalton ( Bradford's addition ), in the northeast quarter of the north- west quarter of section 35, township 39, range 32; December, 1882, by Mary Bradford.
207
MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
Little Falls (original plat), surveyed in 1856, by S. M. Putnam, sur- veyor, in Minnesota Territory; by the Little Falls Manufacturing Company.
Swanville, in section 7, township 28, range 31; November, 1882; by John N. Williams, Jr., and Albert and Mathilda Rhoda.
Vawter, in parts of sections 6 and 31, in townships 39 and 40, range 31 ; July 3, 1908, by the Tri-State Land Company.
GRASSHOPPER RAVAGES.
While Morrison county has never suffered by grasshoppers to the extent that other portions of the country have, yet it has had its scourge by these winged pests. In the latter part of July, 1856, the grasshoppers made their appearance and sudden descent upon the county. They came in from the northwest. Their ravages extended to nearly all parts of the county. Grain was ripening and nearly ready for the harvest, yet about two-thirds of the crop was destroyed. That autumn they deposited large quantities of eggs, from which the following spring there appeared an immense army of grass- hoppers. These devoured almost every living, green bit of vegetable substance to be found on the surface of the land. But the settlers endured this loss without much complaint, for all the ablebodied men were busy at teaming and other paying labor by which they were enabled to care and supply their families with food.
Since the departing of grasshoppers, in 1857, no serious trouble has been met with on account of the pests. About 1873 a few appeared in the western part of this county, doing much damage to growing crops and gar- dens, but not since that year have farmers experienced much trouble on ac- count of grasshoppers, which in Iowa and Dakota caused so much distress and devastation in the later seventies.
ONLY LEGAL HANGING IN COUNTY.
Morrison county has never had but one legal execution, and that was for cold-blooded murder. It occurred in July, 1889, in the court house square, just to the north of the present brick jail, after midnight, as pre- scribed by law.
The circumstances were as follow: A man calling himself Albert Buelow had been stealing horses and running them from Wisconsin and Minnesota up into North Dakota. Several teams were thus stolen and in
208
MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
July, 1889, he stayed all night at a farm house nine miles out from Little Falls, and the following day just before dusk, he asked a farmer residing in Buckman township for permission to ride with him, which was granted, and after riding to a point about a mile and a half out of Royalton, in Bellevue township, he shot the farmer, whose name was Eich, in the head and killed him. He then hid the lifeless body in the brush and weeds alongside the road, after which he took the farmer's team and made his way from the vicinity.
He was pursued by the sheriff of Morrison county, Henry Rasicot, as far as Verndale, where he was captured, placed in jail and at the March term of court pleaded guilty to the murder of Eich. The judge sentenced him to be hanged. This was the first and last hanging within the limits of Morrison county. From later evidence it appears that had the plans of Buelow worked out he would have been liberated by the wife of a deputy sheriff, who secured the keys and liberated all the remaining prisoners in the county jail. Fear- ing something might happen, and having suspicions of the woman, Sheriff Rasicot did not leave the jail, but kept close watch the last few days prior to the execution. There was no question as to the man's guilt.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.