USA > Minnesota > Olmsted County > History of Olmsted County, Minnesota > Part 13
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The new county officers elected in November, 1877, were: Treas- urer. A. F. Keyes, of Dover, Independent ; sheriff, W. H. White, of Farmington, Democrat ; county attorney. H. A. Eckholdt, of Rochester, Republican; judge of probate. H. H. Richardson, of Viola, Republican : court commissioner. Walter S. Booth, of Roch- ester, Republican : coroner, Fred R. Mosse, of Rochester, Repub- lican. Mr. Richardson dying before the time for him to take the office, Governor Pillsbury appointed D. S. Hebbard, of Rochester,
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judge of probate, and Mr. Booth failing to qualify, O. O. Baldwin, the incumbent, held over as court commissioner. Sheriff White served two terms.
A. F. Keyes was a farmer in Dover township, coming there in 1868. He was a native of Connecticut; a thrifty and very success- ful farmer and prominent in the township. He moved to California in 1886, and died there in 1901.
Halftan A. Eckholdt was born in Norway in 1845 and came to America when only five years old with his mother, who was a widow. He lived a few years in New York City and in Pennsyl- vania, where he was for a while in the Norwegian colony, founded by Ole Bull. The family came to Minnesota in 1857 and lived first at Berlin, Steele county, and afterwards on a farm at New Richland, Waseca county; from there he enlisted in the Third Min- nesota Light Artillery, and saw three years hard service in the cam- paigns against the Sioux, reaching the rank of sergeant. At the close of the war he came to Rochester and was employed in the grocery store of S. H. Daniels. He acquired his education by his own exertions and while working for a bare support. He graduated from the law department of Michigan University in 1874. Opening a law office in Rochester, he has obtained a large practice. He has served two terms as city attorney and is now commander of Custer Post, Grand Army of the Republic.
His son, Frank Eckholdt is reporter for the tenth judicial dis- trict, with his residence at Austin, and his son, Walter, is register of deeds of Olmsted county.
Walter S. Booth was a native of Connecticut, born in 1827. He was educated at Newton Academy and Trinity College. He taught classical schools, fitting young men for college, till 1855, when his health failing, he came to Minnesota, locating at Hamilton, Fill- more county, and engaging in surveying and dealing in land. He read law and was admitted to the bar at Austin in 1861. He removed to Rochester in 1862 and edited the Rochester City Post, then owned by David Blakely, till the close of the war of the rebel- lion. In 1865 he formed a partnership with J. A. Leonard, and the firm of Leonard & Booth purchased the Post, and afterwards added the Rochester Republican, and built up one of the best local standard for the use of officers throughout the state and authority papers in the state. During the partnership of eleven years he wrote the Justices' Manual and the Township Manual, which became the in the courts. In 1876 he sold his interest in the Post to Mr. Leonard and engaged exclusively in the publication of his books and law blanks and removed to Minneapolis, where, in partnership with his son, Walter S., Jr., he developed the largest business of the kind in the state. He. from time to time, added to the Justice and Township Manuals a Constable's Manual, a Highway Manual,
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a Village Manual and a Form Book, all of which have become the standard authorities in Minnesota and the Dakotas, and his blanks reached the number of 1,200 different forms. He was a man of thorough education, of great intellectual ability, a finished writer and a first class business man. He died in June, 1901.
Dr. Fred. R. Mosse was born at Madison, Wisconsin, in 1851, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1874. He is a graduate of the Chicago Homeopathic College. He came to Roch- ester in 1877 and entered into partnership with Dr. W. A. Allen, but has been for several years practicing alone. He has a large practice, and has been a member of the board of pension examiners, health officer of Rochester and for several years, and at this time, coroner.
H. H. Richardson was a highly esteemed farmer of Viola town- ship, where he settled in 1865. He was taken ill about the time of the election and died before taking the office to which he was elected.
In the legislative session of 1878, Daniel A. Morrison, of Roch- ester, Republican, was a senator, and John Hyslop, of Marion, Inde- pendent ; A. Burnap, of Elmira, Republican ; C. E. Stacy, of Farm- ington, Republican, and James Button, of Rochester, Democrat, were representatives. Senator Morrison served four terms, and Representative Stacy two terms.
Daniel A. Morrison was born in Pennsylvania in 1842, and moved with his parents to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where he be- came a printer, and before reaching the age of eighteen he had charge of the Journal at Markesan, and was connected with that paper two years. He enlisted in the thirty-second Wisconsin Regi- ment, and served till the end of the War of the Rebellion. He came to Rochester in 1866 and established a bakery and restaurant, which has grown into a very large and popular establishment. He was mayor of Rochester from 1875 to 1878 and an alderman from 1895 to 1901, and is now chairman of the board of public utilities. He has been prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic, having been commander of Custer Post three terms, and one term senior vice commander of the state. He has also been prominently identified with Odd Fellowship, having been noble grand of Rochester Lodge and grand master of Minnesota, and twice representative to the sovereign grand lodge. The county has always had the greatest confidence in his judgment in public affairs.
Charles E. Stacy was a native of Vermont and settled in Farm- ington in 1867. He was a farmer and carpenter, was honored by his neighbors with several local offices and had a most excellent reputation for intelligence and integrity. He died in the summer of 1881, as the result of injuries received by being thrown from a horse.
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James Button was born in the state of New York and was a pioneer settler of New Haven township, taking a claim there in 1854. He acquired a great deal of real estate and built a saw mill and managed it for a number of years. He was a practical, ener- getic business man and held a leading position in the township. He moved to Rochester about 1876 and died in April, 1899.
In November, 1878, William Freeman, of High Forest township, Democrat, was elected county commissioner. He was one of the early settlers of the township, a prosperous and reputable farmer and active in local affairs.
In the legislative session of 1879 O. H. Page, of Pleasant Grove, anti-Monopolist, was a senator, and C. P. Russell, of Eyota, Demo- crat. Peter Burns, of High Forest, Democrat, and R. A. Jones, of Rochester, Democrat, were representatives.
Charles W. Cresap, of Eyota, Democrat, was enrolling clerk of the senate, and George W. Pugh, of Rochester, Republican, ser- geant at arms.
Orrin H. Page is a native of New York state. It is a fact that may be interesting, by way of contrast, to those who know him, that both his parents were mutes. He removed to Wisconsin in 1846 and located in Pleasant Grove in 1854. The village of Pleas- ant Grove was located on his preemption. He has been successful as a farmer and prominent in local affairs. He was assessor for the townships of Pleasant Grove. Elmira and Orion. He was deputy sheriff under Sheriff Philo S. Curtis about a year and a half, per- forming all the duties of the office. He was justice of the peace seventeen years and master of the Masonic lodge fifteen years. He is still living on his farm. He is a man of a great deal of general information, a ready speaker and of extensive acquaintance and in- Auence both in the county and the state.
Charles P. Russell was born in Vermont in 1837, came to Winona in 1856, and moved to Eyota in 1865, and was a pioneer in mer- chandising and grain buying. He has, in partnership with his son, Frederick H., built up an extensive business, including a fine bank. He is a leader in the community and highly appreciated by his neighbors.
Peter Burns was a native of Ireland, born in 1835, and came to High Forest township with his father's family in 1855, settling on a farm near which the village of Stewartville was subsequently located. He was very successful as a farmer and stood high in the estimation of everybody ; very intelligent and of thorough in- tegrity ; he was a truly representative man. He died in 1897.
Charles W. Cresap is a native of Ohio, born in 1835. The son of a blacksmith, he learned his father's trade. He came to Pleasant Grove in 1856, in 1858 moved to Marion, and in 1866 to Eyota village and dealt in agricultural machinery. He has held several township offices. In 1891 he became a resident of Rochester, where
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he followed the machinery business till about five years ago, when he resumed his trade of blacksmithing, which he is still following.
Previous to 1879 the legislature had met every year, but the session of that year, following the example of some other states, adopted the system of meeting only every other year, known as the biennial session system, electing senators for four years and repre- sentatives for two years, which has since been followed. It is not noticeable that the legislature is any better or worse for the change. but the expense is less.
In the fall of 1879 Charles M. Start, of Rochester, was elected attorney general of the state; M. R. Wood, of Eyota, register of deeds: G. A. Frizzell, of Byron, treasurer, and B. F. Bulen, of Haverhill, and F. L. Tesca, of Elmira, county commissioners-all Republicans. Register Wood served two terms.
Milton R. Wood was born in New York state in 1836. At the age of eighteen years he moved to Michigan and followed school teaching: from there he went to Wisconsin, where he enlisted in the Twenty-fifth Wisconsin Regiment, and was in Sherman's march to the sea. He came to Olmsted county in 1867 and located a farm within a mile and a half of Eyota village. After being register he was employed in the abstract office of T. H. Bliss, in Rochester, most of the time till his death. His duties required his daily posting of the entries in the office of the register of deeds, and he became most conversant with all the real estate transfers of the county. and not only so, but his familiarity with all county business made him an authority on all county affairs. His thorough business habits and his courteous and cordial manners made him popular with the various county officers who came and went during his long service at the court house, and he was to all interests, as much a county officer as those who were elected to draw their salaries. He was a model of conscientious industry. He died on his farm in May. 1904.
Gilbert A. Frizzell was born in Vermont in 1836 and received an academic education. He came to Wisconsin in 1854, where he taught school. and came to Olmsted county in 1860. He taught school and engaged in merchandising in Byron. He removed to Minneapolis, where he is now a bookkeeper.
Benjamin F. Bulen was born in Wisconsin in 1844. His father, Orpheus W. Bulen, moved with his family to Haverhill in 1857, where the son, known as Frank Bulen, grew up a farmer. He en- listed in 1862 in the First Regiment of Minnesota Mounted Rangers and served in the Sioux campaigns. About 1880 he became a sales- man in the shoe store of Theodore B. Kellogg in Rochester, remain- ing there till the death of Mr. Kellogg. about two years. In 1900 he went to Redwood county and engaged in the hardware business. In 1906 he returned to his farm in Haverhill, and is now living in Rochester. He has been chairman of supervisors, assessor and clerk of Haverhill township.
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Frank L. Tesca is the son of Joseph Tesca, who came from Bo- hemia or Poland with his family and located a farm in Orion town- ship about 1856. The son was a small boy at that time. He grew up on the farm but moved into Chatfield and became a hardware mer- chant, prominent and respected, and is still living there.
.As a feature in the diversification of crops resulting from the fail- ure of wheat. the cultivation of sorghum cane and the manufacture of the syrup was engaged in by enterprising farmers throughout the county. Mills were set up in 1879 and 1880 by Harvey Watts, of Evota; John Bamber, of Rochester : E. B. Dodge, of Farming- ton: Alan K. Williams, L. Andrus, T. D. Swain, A. W. Sias and O. W. Musson, of Rochester; A. A. Lord, Y. P. Burgan, V. M. Sandborn and J. D. Parks, of Pleasant Grove; I .. L. McCoy. of Salem; T. F. and F. C. Whitcomb, of Byron ; M. L. Sawyer and A. Flyte, of Orion, and others. These mills ground the cane of many farmers and manufactured, respectively, from a few hundred to nearly 3,000 gallons of the syrup, and for a few years it looked as if it might become a common farm product, but it failed to com- mend itself to the popular taste and the industry has become almost a lost art.
In 1880 Dr. G. W. Nichols, who was coroner, removed to Da- kota, and the county commissioners appointed Dr. E. T. Sedgewick to fill the vacancy in that office.
In the fall of 1880 C. A. Whited, of Pleasant Grove township, was elected county auditor; John Fraser, of Dover, surveyor, and Levi B. Josselyn, of Cascade, county commissioner.
Clarence A. Whited was a native of Ohio. born in 1848, and came with the family of his father, John Whited, to Pleasant Grove township in 1861. He went in 1865 to Oberlin, Ohio, and acquired a business education in the business institute of that city, having previously obtained a high school education. He returned to Minne- sota and was employed more than five years in the store of C. W. Taylor at Spring Valley, after which he farmed four years in Pleasant Grove. After his services as auditor he was engaged in the insurance business in Rochester, where he died in 1895. He was a first rate business man and exceedingly popular.
John Fraser is one of the early settlers of Dover township, com- ing there in 1855. He is a farmer and surveyor and well known throughout the county. Two of his sons, Thomas, a lawyer, and William C., a surveyor, are well known citizens of Rochester.
Levi B. Joslyn was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1832. In 1855 he emigrated with his father's family to Illinois, where he worked for the Illinois Central railroad. In 1856 they came to Minnesota, locating on a farm in Cascade township. He was highly esteemed and served as township supervisor and justice of the peace. He moved to Rochester in 1885 and became a dealer in agricultural machinery, in which business he is still engaged with his son,
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George P. Joslyn. He ranks as a business man of the best repu- tation.
His son, Fred. L., is bookkeeper in the First National bank of Rochester, and his son, Frank S., is on the home farm in Cascade, and Charles A., on a farm in Marion.
In the legislative session of 1881, C. A. Butterfield, of Viola town- ship, Ole Juelson, of Rock Dell, and J. V. Daniels, of Rochester, were representatives.
C. A. Butterfield was a native of Maine, born in 1827. He received an academic education and taught school three winters before he was twenty years old and then went to Boston, and for six years was clerk in a West Indies goods store. He then became a machinist, and moved to Sandusky, Ohio, and worked at his trade. He came to Viola in 1868, settled on a farm and was very successful in that business. He became a leader in the township, and was town clerk for ten years, and filled other local positions. He was a man of much general information, a pleasant gentleman and well liked.
Ole Juelson was a native of Norway, born in 1829. He came to the United States in 1850, and after living in Wisconsin and in Monroe county, he located in Rock Dell township in 1859. He was several years chairman of supervisors of the town and clerk of the school board, and was for two years postmaster. He was a good farmer and a practical business man. He died in October, 1901.
The death of J. V. Daniels, which occurred in September, 1881, created a vacancy in the office of representative in the legislature, which was filled by the election of Juergen Frahm, of Farmington, Republican, who served, also, during the succeeding full term.
Mr. Frahm was born in Germany in 1853, and was brought to this country when two years old. His parents lived first in Iowa, coming from there to a farm in Farmington in 1865. He was edu- cated in the Rochester high school and became a farmer. He was several years town clerk. He afterwards moved to Rochester, where he was manager of a creamery and then a groceryman, after which he moved to Chicago, where he was an engineer, and died there in September, 1906.
In the fall of 1881 the following new county officers were elected: county attorney, Frank B. Kellogg, of Rochester, Republican; clerk of court, C. H. Heffron, of Kalmar, Democrat; sheriff, Henry M. Richardson, of Haverhill, Republican; county commissioner, An- drew Seeverts, of Salem, Republican. County Attorney Kellogg served three terms.
Frank B. Kellogg was born in the state of New York in 1856, a. son of Asa F. Kellogg, a farmer, who settled in Viola township in 1865. Frank B. got his education in the Rochester high school,
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graduated in law in 1877, and formed a partnership with Burt W. Eaton in the practice of the profession. He was city attorney of Rochester for three years from 1878. As a member of the firm of Kellogg & Eaton, he showed unusual ability in the case of Elgin and Plainview townships in Wabasha county, opposing the payment of bonds issued in favor of the Plainview & Eyota railroad, in which the firm was engaged in association with Hon. C. K. Davis, of St. Paul. In 1887 he became a partner with Senator Davis, and removed to St. Paul, where he has attained the highest rank in his profession. He is now special counsel for the United States against the Paper Trust, and in the case of the United States against the Standard Oil Trust and special counsel for the Interstate Com- merce Commission in the investigation of the Harriman railroads.
Christopher H. Heffron was born in the state of Maine, on Christ- mas. 1852. He came with his parents, who located on a farm in Kalmar. in 1863. He taught school in the county and served four years as deputy under H. T. Hannon, clerk of the court. And after his own election served thirteen years as clerk. He was an efficient and very popular officer. At the close of his service he was presented by the Olmsted county bar with a gold-headed ebony cane, the presentation speech being made by W. Logan Brecken- ridge, Esq. On ceasing to be clerk of the court he became a clerk in the United States review office, in St. Paul, which position he is now filling.
Henry M. Richardson was born in Vermont in 1844. At the age of eighteen he enlisted in a Vermont regiment. After the war he came to Haverhill and engaged in farming. in which he was un- usually prosperous. He was a representative in the legislative ses- sion of 1893. He has for several years been a resident of Roch- ester and was for a time engaged in the grocery business. He is the owner of farms and interested in their management. He is exceedingly popular and has, perhaps, the most extensive acquaint- ance throughout the county of any of our public men. He was for several terms commander of Custer Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and is now and has been for some years, its adjutant. County Attorney Harold J. Richardson, and his brother and partner, William B. Richardson, are his sons.
Andrew Seeverts was born in Norway in 1837, and emigrated with his parents when seven years old. They located in Wisconsin and came from there to Salem in 1856, where he has been a farmer and a very prosperous one, owning one of the best farms in the county. He is an enterprising business man and has filled several town offices.
The tragic death of President Garfield was recognized by holding a grand memorial service in Rochester, on Monday, September 26, 1881, the date of his burial. Heaney's and Horton's halls, which
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adjoined each other, were practically thrown into one. Both halls were crowded with the outpouring of the people. The exercises con- sisted of a dirge by the band, singing by a choir and addresses by Rev. William Riordan, Hon. S. W. Eaton, Hon. R. A. Jones, Rev. M. L. R. Gjertson, Col. James George, Rev. J. W. Bradshaw and Chief Justice C. M. Start. It was estimated that the audience numbered from eighteen hundred to two thousand people. Build- ings were drapped, flags were at half mast, bells tolled and there was every indication that the whole community was in mourning.
One of the most important and least appreciated of farming in- dustries is the poultry business, and it is the most difficult to reduce to any definite statement. The apparently trivial returns from the chicken yard on nearly every farm make an addition to the house- hold revenues that cannot be learned in detail and is incalculable in the aggregate, but they add greatly to the general prosperity of the community. Poultry and eggs are claimed to yield the greatest profit on the money and labor invested of anything on the farm. Eggs are dealt in by nearly every groceryman and chickens by every butcher everywhere, but there is in Olmsted county only one estab- lishment devoted entirely to traffic in them. W. J. Eaton engaged in the purchase of eggs, poultry and butter in Rochester in 1881, and the W. J. Eaton Egg Company was incorporated in 1889, and has branches at Stewartville, Spring Valley and Leroy. The first year that Mr. Eaton did business ten cars of eggs and poultry were shipped. and now fifty cars of eggs from Rochester and from the other points eighty cars a year are shipped, making more than 125 carloads handled in the year. They also ship about 300,000 pounds of dressed poultry and twenty-five carloads of live poultry a year. There are a dozen persons employed in the establishment at Rochester.
Add to these figures, if you can, an estimate of the other poultry products not ascertainable. and then try to imagine how much there has been contributed to the wealth of the community.
William J. Eaton was born in Connecticut in 1847, and at the age of ten years moved to Grinnell, Iowa, where he graduated at Iowa College. He engaged in the egg and poultry business there till he came to Rochester in 1881. He served in the Forty-sixth Iowa Regiment in the War of the Rebellion, enlisting at the age of seventeen years.
An unfortunate and disastrous immigration scheme was worked in this and some other counties of the state in the summer of 1882. The middle class parents of a number of English boys, ranging from fifteen to twenty-one years of age, were led to send their sons over here to become American farmers. About 100 of them were brought over by Rev. George Pridham, an Episcopal clergyman of Faribault, and distributed among farmers in this and adjoining counties. Rev. Charles T. Coers, the Episcopal clergyman of Roch-
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ester, had local supervision of the boys. They were hired to farm- ers, one at a place, for a year. The farmer was paid a bonus of $80 for taking them and paid them wages of $5 a month for the first four months, and $10 a month for the remaining eight months. They were educated boys, unaccustomed to manual labor and en- tirely unfitted for American farm laborers, which was the position they found themselves in. They were generally well treated, but few of them served out their terms of apprenticeship, some return- ing home and most of them drifting into the towns and into various easier or more congenial occupations. The scheme was a topic of general ridicule till the fate of one of the boys made it tragical. Ernest L. Chillcott, aged nineteen years, the son of a publisher and bookbinder at Bristol, had been bound out to Edward F. Dodge, a Haverhill farmer. He was well satisfied with his treatment, but he had heart disease and melancholia, and the work was too severe for him and he became a bell boy in the Cook Hotel. Letters from his father and mother refusing to send him money or to allow him to come home so depressed him that he committed suicide by cutting his throat at the hotel in October, 1882. A coroner's jury, in their verdict, said they "believed that his melancholia was induced and his death compassed by the very impractical and wild scheme by which this young man was led to leave his home in England and come to this state to learn farming, and that those who are the movers of this scheme are accountable and responsible."
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