History of Olmsted County, Minnesota, Part 15

Author: Joseph A. Leonard
Publication date: 1910
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 736

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In Quincy Mrs. S. Evans lost a barn and machine shop and con- tents. her house was damaged, her son injured and hired man re-

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ported dead. John Wragant's house was moved from the founda- tion, the wing torn off and the granary turned upside down. Samuel Tenney lost his house, barn and every building and five horses and a cow were killed in the barn. Alexander Farrier lost every build- ing. J. Browne's farm was destroyed.

The total number of deaths in the county was stated as thirty-one and the seriously wounded as fifty.

The property loss in Rochester was stated by Mayor Whitton as not less than a $100,000.

As soon as the storm passed over the city the citizens who were not injured went to work with a will to gather up the dead and care for the wounded. The hotels in the vicinity of the railroad were used as hospitals. The search among the ruins was continued all night. In the morning the families who could do so furnished food to the homeless and the bakeries were drawn upon. At half past eight in the morning a meeting was held in Rommell's hall, and systematic relief was organized. Mayor Whitton appointed the following committee : Hon. C. M. Start, Hon. H. C. Butler, Rev. J. W. Bradshaw, M. G. Spring, O. W. Durkee, Rev. D. Reed, T. H. Bliss, Rev. William Riordan, A. T. Stebbins, Supt. Fayette Cook, A. Harrington, S. B. Clark, G. Hargesheimer, M. R. Wood, Hon. D. A. Morrison, C. H. Heffron and Rev. W. C. Rice. Sub- committees were appointed and the relief work was pushed ener- getically. Rommell's hall was made a hospital and Dr. D. M. Berk- man was a most efficient hospital steward and had control of all nurses and hospital supplies. Many of the injured were taken care of by relatives or friends, but there were thirty-four patients in the hospital. There was a volunteer force of physicians and lady nurses. Tables were set in Olds & Fishback's store for feeding the destitute, and beds and cots were provided for the homeless.

Twenty-six persons were killed outright in the wreck of North Rochester. The names of those identified were John M. Cole, Mrs. McQuillen, Mrs. Steele, Mrs. Maria Zierath, August Zierath, Mr. Osborne and infant daughter, Mrs. Fred Clough, Mrs. D. Wetherby, Jacob Hetzel, William Higgins, Mrs. Quick and child, Miss Mahala McCormick, Mrs. Parker, Mrs. Schultz, Mrs. Charles Rothke. Four bodies were not identified, two persons were missing and three bodies were carried away by friends and the names not ascertained. John M. Cole was proprietor of the mill in Lower town; a man prominent in business and highly esteemed. His dead body was found in the street between the mill and his residence. He had apparently left the mill to go home and was killed by the wind.

Following are the names of forty-one known to have been in- jured and there were many others not reported: Mrs. Osborne, injured on chest, eye, legs and arm; Mrs. Ole H. Rudh, cut arm and face ; Ole H. Rudh, head cut, back hurt; Otto Rudh, head and arm badly hurt; Anna Zierath, head badly cut, body bruised; Nina

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Hanson, head cut, face cut, hip bruised; D. D. Wrought, head badly bruised; Nels Hanson, head and leg cut ; Mrs. Hanson, head, shoul- der, back and spine cut; Mrs. W. R. Wrought, back and shoulder and inwardly hurt; Mrs. C. Manley, arm, side, shoulder and head bruised; Lillie Osborne, head, back and spine hurt; M. Sweeney, legs and head cut ; Dan O'Brien, arm broken, shoulder and head cut ; George Hanson, spine, head and breast hurt; William Leach, head, legs and arm hurt; D. Wetherby, cut in side, head and arm and back hurt : O. H. Hawkins, head and shoulder hurt; Charles Quick, cut in leg; Gertie Quick, cut in head and side; Bernhart Quick, face and feet cut; Herman Quick, arms, leg and face cut; Armenia Quick, side hurt ; Arthur Quick, hips badly bruised; Frank Quick, head cut ; Willie Hanson, arm broken, eye and head cut; John Hong, shoulder and head cut; John Shanrock, shoulder hurt; Willie Reick, arm and leg broken and head cut; Frank Schultz, head cut and finger broken; Charles Hagadorn, cut in head; Fred Clough and child, Miss Sarah Johnston, Charles Jackson, Mrs. Young, hurt internally. Dr. Eaton, hurt in back; Lewis Posz, leg broken; Ed Chapman, wife and mother badly injured.

Mrs McMasters, Mrs. Wetherby, Mr. Hanson, Mrs. Seth Gordy and Charles Quick died at the hospital.

On Thursday afternoon there was a public funeral of ten bodies. A cortege proceeded from Cook's Hotel to Oakwood cemetery, and Fifth street from Broadway to the cemetery was literally jammed with people and teams. The interment ceremonies were very sim- ple. All day Thursday people from abroad poured into the city to view the ghastly sights.

The relief committee, assisted 233 families and 101 men. They built fifty-one houses and fifteen were built by individuals. The committee assisted 106 families in rebuilding; seventy-two in Roch- ester and thirty-one in the country, and aided sixty-nine in repairing houses. More than two hundred and twenty-five families were furnished with more or less bedding and 570 persons were clothed.

Relief from every direction, far and near, was prompt and abundant. The citizens of Rochester and of all parts of the county contributed liberally in cash, food and articles of necessity, and from hundreds of communities and individuals in this and other states amounts ranging from $10,000 by Chicago, to 25 cents and 50 cents each by individuals, were sent in. It is impracticable to specify the separate benefactions, but among the largest were $5,000 each by St. Paul and Minneapolis ; the latter city sent fourteen carloads of lumber : Winona sent $3,000, St. Cloud $3.400 and Stillwater $1.000. The largest individual contributions were $1.000 by Hon. W. D. Washburn, of Minneapolis, and $300 by G. W. Steuke. of St. Peter. The relief committee, in their report made after three months' service, stated the total amount received in cash as $69.577.25, and lumber, furniture, coal and provisions, $5,716.60;

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in all $75.293.85. There were, besides, liberal responses throughout the country to the appeals of the churches and various societies for contributions, which were dispensed by them among their own people. It was a grand outpouring of benevolence.

There were many wonderful freaks of the wind in the scattering of property : wagons were lodged in trees yards away ; buildings were torn to pieces and scattered in every way, and in many cases blown clear out of sight ; persons were blown rods away and killed. An oak board two and a half inches wide was driven through a poplar tree four and a half inches in diameter. A book belonging to J. G. Van Frank. from Kasson, was picked up a mile beyond Elgin, a distance of about thirty miles. A hundred-dollar certificate of deposit from the house of Ole H. Rudh in North Rochester, was picked up more than three months later at Humbird. Wisconsin, II0 miles away, on an air line. It had been enclosed in a leather pocketbook, which was in a locked tin box, but when found the certificate was by itself and unmutilated, having apparently been blown out of the box and out of the pocketbook.

Of the contributions for relief the most liberal in proportion to the size and circumstances of the community was probably that of St. Cloud, $3.700. Three years later, in April. 1886, St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids were struck by a cyclone, and Rochester, with a com- mendably good memory, contributed to their relief $3,626.

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EVENTS FROM 1883 TO 1888.

I N the fall of 1883 the new county officers elected were: Treas- urer, L. W. Lull, of Marion township, Republican; register of deeds, H. R. Smith, of Rochester township, Republican; county commissioner, W. H. White, of Farmington, Democrat. Treasurer Lull served three years and Register Smith five years. Legrand W. Lull was born in New York state in 1832, and was a farmer and carpenter. He came to Minnesota in 1856 and worked two years at his trade. He returned to the East in 1858 and came back in 1861 and settled in Marion township, where he developed a model farm. He was elected county commissioner in 1892, and was several years chairman of the board. He moved to Rochester in 1900 and engaged with his son, Howard A. Lull, in a foundry and machine shop. The county never had a more faithful officer. He died in February, 1908.

Holden R. Smith was born in the state of New York and gradu- ated in an academy in that state. He moved to Wisconsin and enlisted in the First Wisconsin Cavalry in 1861, served three years and came to Olmsted county at the close of his term of service. He established a fine dairy farm in Rochester township, was interested in the Rochester creamery and was an enterprising farmer. He was a commander of Custer Post, Grand Army of the Republic. He died in February, 1906, aged about seventy years.

In the fall of 1884 Marcus Wing, of Rock Dell, Republican, was elected county commissioner. S. W. Eaton, of Rochester, was nominated by the Republicans for judge of probate, but losing his sight from cataract he withdrew his name and H. C. Butler was re-elected without opposition.

Ole Seeverts Sattre, Republican, of Rock Dell, was a representa- tive in the legislative session of 1885.

At the same session James F. Spencer, of High Forest township, Republican, was assistant sergeant-at-arms of the senate.

Ole Seeverts Sattre was born in Norway in 1827 and emigrated to America in 1844, coming to Chicago. From there he went to Wisconsin, and in 1856 moved to Salem township, where he is now . one of the most prosperous farmers. He has served several terms as supervisor and justice of the peace.

James F. Spencer is a native of Wisconsin, born in 1848. He at- tended Wayland University and came with his parents to High Forest township in 1864. He taught school several terms and has farmed on a large scale. He has been for twenty-one years a mem-

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bers of the school board of his district. At the session of 1887 he was clerk of the enrollment committee of the House of Repre- sentatives. In 1894 he was elected register of deeds and was a representative in the legislative session of 1907. He is active in agricultural affairs in the county and popular with the people. He has been seven years president of the Zumbro Creamery Company.

A census of the county, under the state, was taken in 1885, and was a disappointment. It showed a shrinkage of 990 in the popu- lation of the county since the census of 1880. The only increases in population were 210 in the city of Rochester, III in Orion town- ship and 39 in the village of Byron. All the other townships and villages had decreased. The decrease was chiefly in the farming population. Immigration to the county had ceased and Olmsted had become essentially an old county. There were but few farms for sale, but as a result of the uncertainties of grain raising farmers felt poor and the young men and some older ones were pushing out to the new lands in Dakota. It was a transition period which has been recovered from.

In July. 1885, Fayette L. Cook resigned as county superintendent of schools and the commissioners appointed Percy L. Lord to fill the vacancy. Mr. Lord had been for several years a teacher in various schools in the county and was popular. He served one term as county superintendent, after which he removed to California, and went from there to the Sandwich Islands and was a teacher in the government school, after which he returned to California.

Memorial services in memory of General Grant were held at Rochester on the day of his funeral at New York, August 8, 1885. It was under the direction of Custer Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was participated in by the entire community and thou- sands of persons from outside the city. There was a procession of citizens headed by the post and the Rochester Independent Band. The Central Park had been handsomely decorated and the exercises were held in the bandstand.

Hon. Henry M. Richardson presided. There was prayer by Rev. C. A. Hampton, singing by a choir, music by the band and short speeches by Rev. W. K. Marshall, J. A. Leonard and Rev. S. W. Eaton, and benediction by Rev. A. H. Kerr. It was a grand testi- monial of reverence for the great American.

The Olmsted County Medical Society was organized at Rochester in December, 1885. The first officers were: President. W. W. Mayo; vice presidents, A. W. Stinchfield, of Eyota, and E. A. Holmes, of Oronoco; secretary and treasurer, Ida Clark, of Roch- ester. The other charter members were: Drs. W. W. and W. J. Mayo, E. C. and E. W. Cross and P. N. Kelly. of Rochester ; J. E. Bowers, Dr. Collins and Dr. Phelps, of the State Hospital ; C. Lane, Eyota; Dr. Trow, Chatfield ; W. T. Adams, Elgin; E. Stoddard, High Forest ; C. L. Keyes, Byron, and C. Hill. Pleasant Grove.

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The society has been well kept up and is still in existence.

The new county officers elected in November, 1886, were: Treas- urer, G. G. Coppersmith, of Rochester, Democrat ; county attorney, Burt W. Eaton, of Rochester, Democrat ; superintendent of schools, J. H. Chapman, of Rochester, Republican; county commissioners, Robert Starmer, of High Forest township, Republican; A. K. Bush, of Dover, Republican, and M. Kitzman of Farmington, Democrat.

Mr. Chapman had a lady as opponent for county superintendent, Mrs. M. A. Roberts, a competent and popular teacher, but he won out by eight majority.

Superintendent Chapman served six terms and Treasurer Cop- persmith three terms.

George G. Coppersmith is a native of New York state, born in 1839. He moved to Illinois when eighteen years old. and to the village of Dover in 1875, where he engaged in merchandising. From there he went to Eyota and was clerk for C. P. Russell, and after- wards for C. W. Cresap, and came to Rochester and was a clerk and bookkeeper. After his service as treasurer he acted as deputy treasurer at intervals for eight years and still acts in that capacity. He is now bookkeeper for the Rochester Water Works Company. His accuracy, reliability and sociability make him a court house favorite.

Burt W. Eaton is a native of New York state, born in 1854. He is the son of Lyman L. Eaton, who located on a farm in Cas- cade township in 1855. being one of the earliest settlers, and after- wards moved into Rochester. His son, Burt, was educated in the schools of Rochester, graduating in the high school. He studied law in the office of C. C. Willson and in 1880 opened an office in Rochester in partnership with Frank B. Kellogg, and entered upon a very successful practice. He has always been prominent in city affairs, having been city recorder six years, from 1881, city attor- ney, and mayor, in 1898. He has been prominent in the manage- ment of the Public Library, being president of the board of directors several years. As a lawyer he ranks high, being especially esteemed for his thorough knowledge of the law and his undoubted reliability.

James H. Chapman was born in Pennsylvania in 1854. He came with his parents to a farm in the neighborhood of Plainview in 1856. His father was a frontier millwright and his occupation re- quired him to live in localities remote from schools, and it was not till the age of thirteen years that the boy even learned to read. In 1866 the family settled in New Haven township, and James attended district school four years and then the Rochester public schools, graduating from the high school in 1876, having supported himself by working during vacations. He taught school, then was secretary of the Rochester Harvester Works and after they were destroyed by the cyclone of 1883. taught in the public schools. He was for the third year principal of the Marion schools when elected county

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superintendent. He displayed great energy and capacity as super- intendent and attained a high rank among the instructors of the state. In 1891 he was elected president of the State Association of Superintendents. He originated in Olmsted county the summer training schools for teachers, which have since become state insti- tutions and advocated free text books for the district schools. In 1893 he moved to California, where he is engaged in teaching.

Robert Starmer was born in England in 1830. He came to America with his parents in 1850, locating in Wisconsin. He came to Olmsted county in 1861, and settled on a farm in High Forest township. He served in Company C of the Ninth Regiment, enlist- ing in 1863. He became for several years a resident of Rochester, moving there in 1888, but returned to his farm, where he died in August, 1905. He was a man of the strictest integrity and filled several township offices.

Avery K. Bush is a native of Massachusetts. He came with his father's family to Quincy township in 1855, locating on a farm. He completed the English course of study at Carleton College and taught school several winters. He has been very successful as a cultivator of fruits and became a popular lecturer on that subject in the farmers' institutes of the state. He was for twenty-five years a member of the Dover school board. He was a representative in the legislative sessions of 1899 and 1901. He moved to Minne- apolis and is now living there.

Michael Kitzman was born in Prussia the first day of the year, 1838. He immigrated to America with his father and family in 1854. and engaged in farming in Wisconsin. He came to Olmsted county in 1863, locating first in Haverhill and afterwards in Farm- ington, where he established a large farm. He became one of the most influential men of his neighborhood, and served as township supervisor and in other local offices. His son, Michael Kitzman, is a clothing merchant and alderman of Rochester.

One of the most notable immigrations to this county took place in January, 1887. On a cold winter day, years after the stream of human immigration in prairie schooners had ceased to enliven the streets, a colony of English sparrows came in a freight car to Rochester; the first that were ever seen here. The car was opened and out they flew and settled upon the loose grain that was lying around. And they staid and "multiplied and increased" till they are now, perhaps, the most numerous class of residents throughout the county. The English sparrow is like any other English colonist. When he gains a foothold in a country he just stays there and spreads himself till he gets full possession.

In the legislative session of 1887, M. J. Daniels was senator and D. A. Morrison, D. D. Tompkins, of Byron, and J. W. Flathers, of Pleasant Grove, representatives. All Republicans.

Daniel D. Tompkins was born in the state of New York in 1827.

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He was reared on a farm and received a common school education. He resided in Wisconsin several years and moved to Olmsted county in 1862, settling on a farm in Kalmar. He served his township as supervisor and as assessor and stood well in the community. He died in January, 1899. His son, Samuel E. Tompkins, has been a merchant in Byron for a number of years.

The first rotary snow plow was used here on the Chicago & Northwestern railroad in January, 1888, throwing the snow drifted on the track clear of the road. It was a great improvement on the old shovel plow that only loosened and piled it up and dispensed with a great amount of human labor in breaking the blockades that occur nearly every winter.

At the annual meeting of the Olmsted County Horticultural Society, held at Rochester, January, 1888, it was reorganized as the Southern Minnesota Horticultural Society. A. W. Sias, of Roch- ester, the president of the association, one of the most enthusiastic fruit growers of the state and one of the originators of the society, stated in his annual address, that it had then been in existence fifteen years, was the first local horticultural society started in the state and had maintained its existence longer than any other. He also stated that Rochester was the birthplace of the State Horticultural Society. "Mr. Sias was elected president of the new organization.

There are now growing, on College Hill, in Rochester, on the farm of Mrs. Margaret Alseth, formerly the farm and nursery of Mr. Sias, two trees that were highly prized by him as of historic interest. When J. A. Leonard was United States Consul at Edin- burgh, he sent to Mr. Sias a few saplings of the mountain ash, known in Scotland as the rowan tree and celebrated in the poems of Burns. They were procured by Consul Leonard at Burns' farm home at Ellisland, where he wrote his immortal rollicking epic Tam O'Shanter. Two of the imported and naturalized Scotch-American trees have lived and grown into beautiful proportions, and one of them, especially. when laden with its wealth of scarlet berries, is one of the most beautiful of trees.

One of the early built county buildings was the jail, a cheaply built and ugly structure of stone, located on Main street, south of College. in Rochester, with a small yard enclosed by a high board fence. It was not only primitive, but soon grew dilapidated, and in a few years was not only an unsafe storehouse for prisoners, but a most shabby house for a sheriff and his family. For several years every grand jury had reported it as disreputable, but it was not till 1886 that the county commissioners decided to build a new one. After a great deal of doubt as to a proper location they fixed upon the court house block as the most convenient, and in December. 1888. the present jail was finished and ready for occu- pancy. It is a handsome two-story brick cottage, only a few rods from the court house, fitted up as a sheriff's residence in front and

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with one of the best steel celled jails in the state in the rear and capable of accommodating fourteen guests of the county, though there are seldom more than half a dozen of them. The county is remarkably free from criminality.

The new county officers elected in the fall of 1888 were: Treas- urer, J. Guderian, of Dover township, Republican; auditor, George B. Dotz, of Rochester, Democrat ; register of deeds, C. H. Burbank. of Haverhill. Democrat; county attorney, W. Logan Breckenridge, of Rochester, Democrat; surveyor, Thomas N. Fraser, of Dover, Republican; county commissioners, Joseph Underleak, of Chatfield, and Adam Brin, of High Forest, both Republicans. Auditor Doty and Register Burbank served three terms, and Surveyor Fraser two terms.

Robert Starmer, who had served only a year as county commis- sioner from High Forest, had removed to Rochester, making a vacancy which was filled by the nomination and election of Adam Brin, of the same township.

The candidates for county surveyor were John Fraser, Democrat. and his son, Thomas N. Fraser, Republican. The politically unfilial son beat his Democratic paternal ancestor by 281 votes.

Julius Guderian was born in Prussia in 1833. He came to Amer- ica in 1857, locating in Wisconsin. After spending two years in California he returned to Wisconsin and from there came to Olm- sted county in 1865 and settled on a farm in Dover township, where he has since resided. He has been prominent in the township and served several terms as assessor.

George B. Doty is a son of A. J. Doty, an early settler of Eyota township, and was born there in 1864. He was educated at Darl- ing's Business College in Rochester, and at the Winona Normal School. He became a bookkeeper for Ozman & Booth, hardware merchants of Rochester, being with them three years and a half. He is a superior accountant and business man with firm social qualities. He became a bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Rochester in 1896, and advanced to cashier in 1899. He is now filling the position of cashier in the First State Bank of Rochester.

Charles H. Burbank was born in New Hampshire in 1839. He served in the Union army and was captured and spent nine months in Libby prison, from which he never recovered. After the war he came to Olmsted county and was a farmer till elected register of deeds. He died in 1895. He was very popular throughout the county.

William Logan Brackenridge was born in Pennsylvania in 1856, and was an infant when he came to Rochester in the family of his father, Walter L. Brackenridge. He graduated from the Shattuck Military School at Faribault and at the law school of Michigan University, and became a partner in the law firm of Start & Gore, and afterwards practiced alone. He was very successful in his pro-

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fession and was a business man of unusual ability. He was city attorney of Rochester seven years and was also mayor. He was the Democratic candidate for attorney general of the state, and though not elected, polled the largest vote on the unsuccessful ticket of the minority party. He was prominent in most public enterprises of the city and very popular. He died in June, 1905, while in the midst of a promising career, at the age of forty-nine years.

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History of Olmsted County, Minnesota, Part 15

Author: Joseph A. Leonard Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Number of Pages: 736

Author: Joseph A. Leonard
Publication date: 1910
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 736