USA > Minnesota > Morrison County > History of Morrison and Todd counties, Minnesota, their people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 18
USA > Minnesota > Todd County > History of Morrison and Todd counties, Minnesota, their people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 18
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DISCOVERY OF IRON ORE.
In 1913 there were shipped a million tons of ore from the mines that had but recently been discovered. This was from an extension of the famous Cuyuna iron range which extends at least as far as the northwestern portion of Morrison county. The first drilling was done on this the south extension of the Cuyuna, in section 31, township 131, range 30, in 1905. Drilling here and at other points in the vicinity continued two years, by parties sent out as explorers from Duluth. In 1907 the first explored mineral property was (leeded to Marshall H. Alworth, of Duluth. In 1912 mineral land leases were executed to parties in St. Cloud and drilling was continued with happy results. At Randall, Morrison county, in 1913, there were companies drill- ing, and near there many lands changed hands and speculation was rife. Among the largest owners and holders of mineral land leases in Morrison county were John Vertin, Little Falls; Congressman Lindbergh and Judge J. T. Hale.
In Belle Prairie township. on another entirely different iron ore range, known as the Mille Lacs range, other discoveries were made a year or two ago. Some of the points where drilling was carried on were in section S. township 41, range 31, on Mr. Moran's land, and in section Io, township 41,
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range 31, and at other points. Among the men of Little Falls interested especially in these mines (prospective fortunes) are S. J. Vasaly, the jeweler, and C. B. Buckman. Just what these explorations will finally bring forth remains to be seen by a further development.
A WORTHY PIONEER.
Nathan Richardson, a most worthy, capable inan, was born in Wayne county, New York, in 1829. He was reared on the farm and obtained a common-school education at Romeo, Michigan, coming to Little Falls, Min- nesota, in 1855. He served as register of deeds for Morrison county eight years and was postinaster at Little Falls eleven years. He also served as county surveyor and county attorney, having been admitted to the bar in 1877. For a quarter of a century he was a notary public. From 1867 to 1878 he was states representative. During his first term he represented nine- teen counties, nearly half of the territory of Minnesota. For two years he was judge of the probate court. At the request of the county commissioners in the eighties he collected and published in the local newspapers a history of Morrison county, which has come to be of great historic value. He married Mary A. Roof by whom were born three sons and two daughters. He passed from earth about 1907.
LITTLE FALLS GRANITE QUARRIES.
Fourteen miles to the east of the city of Little Falls are located the famous granite quarries known as the "Vermont Quarries." This granite is a dark gray, dark red and tinted color which is susceptible of a high polish, and is equal to the best on the continent. The only thing in the way of fur- ther developing these wonderful quarries of granite is the lack of railroad facilities. This stone is in great demand for monuments and other beauti- ful works in building and the finer arts. A line of railway has been pro- jected from Little Falls to Pierz which would easily connect with the Soo line and give an excellent outlet for this valuable granite.
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TODD COUNTY COURT HOUSE, LONG PRAIRIE
HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING. LONG PRAIRIE
OSAKIS STREET, LONG PRAIRIE
HISTORY OF TODD COUNTY
CHAPTER I.
GEOLOGY AND SURFACE FEATURES.
The author is indebted largely to Warren Upham, secretary of the Minnesota Historical Society, for much contained in this chapter, as he made a survey and had to do with the latest investigations regarding the geological formation, topography and other matters which entered into his report, which was made a section in the large volume issued by the state in 1888, which included the surveys of 1881.
Long Prairie, the county seat of Todd county and in 1888 the largest town within its borders, is one hundred and fifteen miles from St. Paul. The county's area is 1,008.34 square miles, or 645.336.72 acres, of which 27, III.58 acres are covered with water.
SURFACE FEATURES.
The natural drainage of the county is wholly within the Mississippi basin. From Todd county the Crow Wing river receives its largest tributary, the Long Prairie river, which drains about one-half of the county of Todd, besides one-quarter of Douglas county. Red Eye river from the north and Wing river from the south are large tributaries of Leaf river; and Long Prairie river receives Moran brook and Eagle creek from the west, and Fish Trap brook and Turtle creek from the east side, besides numerous lesser streams.
In southeastern Todd county the Swan river gathers its head waters in Burnhamville and portions of adjoining townships, flowing east thence through Morrison county to the Mississippi river.
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LAKES.
The largest lake in Todd county is Osakis, which is seven miles long and from one-half to two or three miles wide. North and west of Long Prairie river Todd county has only a few small lakes, the greatest being Staples lake, in section 9. The half of the county south and east of the river, however, has many lakes, the largest of which, after Osakis, are Henry (Maple), Little Sauk and Fairy lakes toward the southwest, and the Birch Bark lakes, Swan, Latimer, Charlotte, Cold, Two Island, Thunder, Rice, Long and Fawn lakes toward the east.
TOPOGRAPHY.
The topography of Todd county is more diversified than that in Wadena county. Such modified drift occupies only a small portion of its area, being confined chiefly to belts one to two miles wide next to the line between this and Wadena county, on the Crow Wing river, on Long Prairie river, and through the western third of Round Prairie. The remainder of this county., excepting several other smaller tracts of modified drift, is covered by the unmodified glacial drift, called till or boulder-clay. For the greater part this has a smoothly undulating or rolling surface, with elevations twenty to forty feet above the depressions; but on considerable tracts it is more prominently rolling and hilly, constituting terminal moraines. To the latter class belong, the drift hills fifty to one hundred feet high north and east of Osakis lake and reaching thence southeast to Sauk and Birch Bark lakes; hills one hun- dred to even two hundred feet high, occupying most of Gray Eagle and. Burnhamville townships; and their continuation northward, fifty to one hundred feet high along the east border of the county to the cast part of Fawn Lake township. Mt. Nebo is also a culminating point in this series of hills.
Along the greater part of its course northward from Long Prairie village, the valley of Long Prairie river has a width of about one mile and is bounded by moderate slopes which rise gradually to an average of fifty-five feet-in cases seventy-five feet-above the stream, seldom forming the steep bluffs which indicate undermining erosion by the river ; but in the west edge, of Long Prairie and through Reynolds this valley is only one-fourth to one- third of a mile wide and is enclosed by bluffs from sixty to seventy-five feet
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high, with steep slopes, while in Leslie it is bordered by irregular morainic hills.
ELEVATIONS.
Motley is 1,227 feet above sea level; Dower Lake Station, 1,293 feet ; Staples Mills, 1,276 feet, while Wadena is 1,350 feet. At Eagle Bend the altitude reaches 1,383-the highest point in the county. At Long Prairie the altitude from sea-level reaches 1,274 feet, while at Birch Bark lake it is only 1,175. The highest point of land in Todd county in the morainic hill. sections is 1,500 feet, near Stowe Prairie.
SOIL AND TIMBER.
For the most part Todd county has a very productive clayey soil, which, bears a heavy growth of timber, usually with much underbrush, the list of. trees being about the same as found in adjoining counties and will be found in the Morrison county section of this work. In Stowe township prairies are found, and on the south side of Shell river a prairie extends eight miles northward from Shell river township into Hubbard county. Long Prairie and Round Prairie are valuable possessions of Todd county. The northeast boundary of the great prairie region of southwestern Minnesota crosses the southwest corner of Todd county, and includes sections 31 and 32 and parts of adjoining sections in Gordon, nearly all of West Union, and the south edge of Kandota.
GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.
At only two points in Todd county is the bed-rock exposed. The places: are in Ward and Moran townships. The average thickness of the drift in Todd county is about one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet. From twenty to thirty per cent. of this drift deposit is gravel. Many petrifactions are found within Todd county-beautiful and large specimens.
The alluvium-the first tract of gravel, sand and fine silt or clay --- borders on Long Prairie river most of the way from the village of Long Prairie to its mouth, with a width varying from half a mile to one mile. Out- side the alluvial tract, a considerable part of the belt called the Long Prairie is modified drift, undulating ten to twenty feet in long smooth slopes as high as forty feet above the river bed.
Good wells are to be had at from fifteen to sixty feet all over Todd county,
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and the quality of water is excellent. Most all the thousands of wells are pro- ductive of fine water found in either sand or gravel-Nature's own perfect filtering system.
MATERIAL RESOURCES.
Agriculture is the leading industry of this section of Minnesota. Its good supply of timber places the production of lumber and wooden manufac- tories next in rank to farming industries. Water power is found at many points within this county.
No special stone quarries for the production of building stone have ever been developed in this county. Boulders are, or rather were, much used for rough masonry in days gone by, but cement has come in to take the place of stone in most instances both in town and country.
In 1881, H. B. Morrison, of Motley, opened a brick-yard three-fourths of a mile east on the north side of the railroad near the middle of section 18, Moran township, five miles west of Motley, producing red bricks of bright color and of excellent quality as to strength and durability. His product in 1881 was about 450,000, selling at from eight to ten dollars per thousand loaded on cars. Wood fuel cost at that date two dollars per cord. In section 35, Eagle Valley township, brick-making commenced in 1880, and So,000 in 1880, and 125,000 in 1881 were produced. The maker, George G. Howe, also made curved brick for well curbing purposes which sold readily at ten dollars per thousand.
Other brick-kilns were established in this county, after modern methods, about 1878, and in a few years it had come to be a large, profitable industry.
CHAPTER II.
EARLY DAYS IN TODD COUNTY.
By John H. Sheets, in 1911.
Todd county is located in central Minnesota within what is known as the Park region of the state-a beautiful stretch of country comprising fertile prairies, noble forests, ranges of verdure covered hills, with hundreds of sky- tinted lakes and streams of limpid waters.
No country ever offered better advantages for home building than this section. The first settler could choose at his will from a vast environment, taking such land as he pleased. The prairies and brush openings made it easy for one to break and subdue the soil and farms could be opened with much less labor than the dense forests of middle-west sections afforded, such as had been the case in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Nor did the first set- tlers here suffer the exposure and endure the hardships encountered by those early pioneers in other sections. The forest gave them fuel and building materials and the maple trees provided them with plenty of sugar. Natural meadows abounded along the streams, and in the marshes there was an abundance of grass and other forage for stock; wild fruits grew in abundance and game of all kinds ranged in the forests, while the lakes and streams had plenty of excellent fish. It is true that many of the refinements of life were, for a time wanting, but all were healthy and happy and lived in a lively hope of a better near-at-hand future which soon crowned their efforts.
ATTRACTIVE SIDE OF FRONTIER LIFE.
The so-called poverty of the frontier settler is not the squalid poverty of the city slum; it does not dwarf the body and mind of the growing child, but stimulates to healthy effort and contributes to growth and independence. Nor must it be inferred that the life of the early settler was dull and unat- tractive. They had their social functions, their society meetings, their churches and schools, and on the whole, their life was as full and satisfying
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and useful-if not even more so-than the more developed and more elegant social circle of the present day.
But whether frontier life is more wholesome or attractive than that which comes later, like youth to the individual, it comes to the community but once. The conditions of that golden day are gone. The wild game of the forest is nearly a thing of the past. The deer and the elk and some other species of game are vanished, and the prairie chicken and the partridge are less plentiful than when the first settlers came upon the scene. But the clear bracing atmosphere. the bright sunshine and waters of crystal purity still give life and vigor to our people and the fertile soil yields abundant harvests to the industrious husbandman.
THE INDIAN PROBLEM.
During the early years of the nineteenth century this territory was the disputed ground between the Sioux and Chippewa Indians. It was at one time in possession of the Sioux, but they were gradually dispossessed by their more powerful foes and about 1840 the government established a boundary line between the two hostile tribes; aiming to confine the Sioux to the great plains from the forest lands of the Missouri river. while the Chippewas were given possession castward to Lake Superior. But this did not end the hostilities between them and roving bands of Sioux and Chippe- was often met in deadly battle. Among the Chippewas who came up the river to trade with the white settlers about sixty-five years ago, there was a tradition that at some time in the past a bloody and decisive battle was fought between these two tribes in the vicinity of Coal Lake. near the western edge of the town of Little Elk, in which the Chippewas were victorious.
Were it possible to write the history of these two powerful tribes, as they waged deadly warfare for possession of the land. it would rival in interest the most fascinating tales of chivalry. But this region was generally occupied by the Chippewa tribe when the first settlers came here and many citizens still resident frequently recall visits by old chief "Bad Boy" and his tribesmen to this section for several years after Todd county was organized. The chief and his followers were friendly to the white men during the Sioux outbreak in 1862, and they were not strictly confined to their reservation by the government and state authorities. As late as the early seventies these Indians came up the long Prairie river to trade the products of their indus- tries with the people of the white race and even in 1877 there were occasional Indian camps in the northern part of Todd county.
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MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
The history of the settlement of Todd county would be comprised almost wholly within the history of Long Prairie village, when the present site of the county seat was selected by the government as the location of the Indian agency. This agency was established in 1845 and the Winnebago Indians, brought here from somewhere in Illinois, made this their home. This tribe had joined with the Sacs and Foxes and Pottawattomies in the Black Hawk War in 1838, and when the outbreak was suppressed, the Winnebagos were sent to this agency. The expedition which brought these Indians to their new home came up the Mississippi by boats as far as St. Paul, and from there by pack train and on foot coming into the present limits of Todd county by way of Osakis and along the south shore of Osakis lake. There was then no trail by which to travel and the party had to cut a road as they moved through the primeval forests of that day.
OLD INDIAN AGENCY.
The establishment of the agency brought a large number of white people, many being government officials and other employees, while others came as Indian traders and adventurers. There were erected one hundred and fifty buildings and about a thousand acres of land was broken and fenced into forty-acre lots to be farmed by the Indians. The first residents of the present village can remember the marks of the plow and the hollows where the cellars of the houses had been along the old road down the prairie towards the north beyond the farm now owned by the Thiegs brothers, and as late as 1880 or 1881 the site of the old stockade could be traced in the western part of the village. The lumber used in building the town at that time was sawed by a' mill run by horse power somewhere in eastern Hartford or Little Elk. Some of these buildings were comparatively fine structures costing as much as three thousand dollars. The agency was maintained until about 1854 when disturbances between the Winnebagoes and the Chippewas became fre- quent and the former tribe was removed to a new agency not far from the present site of Mankato.
The government property, it seems, was purchased shortly after by Anson Northrup and sold by him to the Long Prairie Land Company. The headquarters of this company was at Cincinnati, Ohio, and all the town lots of the original site of Long Prairie village as well as many farms in the vicinity were purchased of this company. Major Clark, one of this com- pany, was the first resident agent and brought in cattle and ponies from the
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Red River country. General Van Cleve was afterward the resident agent and his wife, Charlotte Van Cleve, was prominent in charitable and public movements in the state until recent years. Lake Charlotte to the south of town, was named for her. But white settlers could not be drawn to this section in that early day and at the close of the year 1859, W. W. Tuttle, James Martin and General Van Cleve, with their families were the only inhabitants of the once populous and bustling town. Many of the inhabitants went to other parts of the state, while a few settled in other parts of the county. Among the later were H. C. Hewes, who settled on Round Prairie ; C. E. Buss, who went to West Union, and A. H. Gibson, who took land on Bear Head creek in what is now the town of Bruce. These three residents of the first town of Long Prairie later became permanent residents of the county, Mr. Gibson and Mr. Buss remaining until death called them hence, while Mr. Hewes occupied his farm until some twenty-five years ago when he removed with his family to the state of Washington. Mr. Buss was for many years county treasurer.
AN OLD-FASHIONED POLE RAISING.
In the spring of 1860 A. D. Brower came into the county along with a few others and on the 4th of July of that year, the total population of the county to the number of twenty-seven souls, gathered at Long Prairie to celebrate the nation's birthday. On that date a pole was erected on the present court house site, which was known for many years as "liberty polc." giving its name largely to the town. Many of the older settlers knew of the town under this name, rather than that of Long Prairie. This pole was damaged by fire and on the 4th of July. 1869, at a celebration in the village. a new "liberty pole" was raised and dedicated by Rev. John Jones to the memory of George Russell, Richard D. Brower and Abraham D. Brower, Jr .. who had given their lives in the War of the Rebellion. This pole remained standing until about the time the present court house was built in 1883.
In the summer of 1860, Samuel Lce, father of Wm. E. Lee, moved to Long Prairie with his family, from a few miles west of the Mississippi. He had started for West Union, where he expected to locate permanently. but on reaching Long Prairie, he was persuaded by General Van Cleve to stop here, as there were many houses empty which he could occupy and land in abundance for farming, free of rent. He remained in Long Prairie for about two years when he went back and located on the east bank of the Mississippi. From that place he enlisted in the army during the Civil War.
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MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA.
THE SIOUX OUTBREAK.
Along in the latter part of the summer of 1860, a company of soldiers in command of Lieutenant Latimer, after whom Lake Latimer was named, was sent to Long Prairie to guard the few settlers against danger from the Indians. Roving bands of Sioux led by Winnebagos roamed through this section in their forays against the Chippewas, their hereditary enemies, and it was feared they might attack the whites. During the stay of this com- pany of soldiers, a young girl, the daughter of one of the officers, whose name is now unknown, died and was buried on the northern declivity of the hill east of town. All the older inhabitants of Long Prairie and vicinity well remember the old lichen-covered picket fence that for many years marked the grave. This company of soldiers must have been withdrawn before the year 1862 at the time of the Sioux Indian outbreak, as no one remained in the village at that time except James Martin and family and the resident agent, one Mr. Weakly -- General Van Cleve having gone to the front in command of the Second Regiment Minnesota Volunteer Infantry.
When the outbreak occurred and news of its horrors reached Long Prairie, the inhabitants of the county fled to protected points, and Todd county reverted to its former state of an uninhabited wilderness. A. D. Brower and family alone remained on his farm in the southwestern extremity of Round Prairie surrounded and guarded by a band of friendly Chippewas. Thus Mr. Brower took rank as the oldest continuous resident. After the Civil War, immigrants began to locate within the borders of Todd county and commenced to build up permanent homes. Many will remember Mr. Brower as a conspicuous figure at all public gatherings-a somewhat under- sized but well-built figure, erect as a soldier, clad in buckskin, with long, flowing white hair and beard and with keen, twinkling blue eyes. It was reported that the town was burned by the Indians after all the inhabitants had fled, but Mr. Brower always contended that in this matter the red man was slandered-that the buildings were torn down and carried away by white settlers to the south and west, the materials being used to build new houses. Among the buildings destroyed were a Catholic church near where the depot now stands and a convent near the present site of the Baptist church. This may be said to have ended the first twenty years of the history of Todd county.
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A COURAGEOUS PIONEER.
It is impossible now to chronicle much of the history of that period, but several interesting incidents have been handed down. General Van Cleve, who has been mentioned as a resident agent of the Long Prairie Land Com- pany, was a West Point graduate, but how he came to quit the army and enter civil life is not known. He was well qualified for military life, especi- - ally on the frontier, and it could not have been for lack of courage or love of ease, as he spent his early years on the frontier or in the Civil War. He entered the War of the Rebellion as a colonel and was breveted general for brave conduct at the battle of Wilson's Creek. He was a trained athelete and could jump nimbly over a pole held as high as his chin and he knew no such thing as fear. While agent here, at one time a party of Sioux Indians chased a Chippewa girl named Susie Roy, who was employed as a domestic, in his family-several of them following her into his house-where she sought his protection. He was alone, but by his boldness, cowed the Indians so they left the girl and family unmolested. The same party, on going down the prairie, met a lone Chippewa near the old school house site whom they shot, and placed his body in an upright position in a pile of rails. Van Cleve's boys noticed a gun protruding from the rails and on examination found the Indian's body decapitated and the head scalped.
A man named John Bailey opened a saloon outside the agency, across east of the hill near the present site of the Hilger farm house and whisky was sold to the Indians in violation of the law. Van Cleve, with others of the agency, went out to suppress the traffic by force-the only way possible at the time. In the fracas that occurred a Mr. Barnum, from Little Falls. was stabbed and the tradition is that the wound was inflicted by H. C. Hewes. It was not serious, however, and Barnum soon recovered. He was justice of the peace in Little Falls and was afterward mobbed by a party of toughs, who resented some decision of his as justice of the peace. A short time after the trouble here, Van Cleve was at a hotel in Little Falls and overheard a party upstairs planning to go to Long Prairie and mob the men who had interfered with the whisky deal. He was a stranger to the men and couk have escaped, but instead, he walked in among the crowd and told his name saying they could settle the trouble with him then and there without going to Long Prairie. He was able by his undaunted bearing to defy the whole crowd and they left off their proposed raid on Long Prairie.
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