History of Olmsted County, Minnesota, Part 16

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

USA > Minnesota > Olmsted County > History of Olmsted County, Minnesota > Part 16

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Thomas Fraser is a son of John Fraser, an early settler in Dover township. He was born on the farm and reared as a farmer though educated in the schools of St. Charles. He learned surveying with his father and followed that profession, being county and city sur- veyor for four years. He read law in the office of H. A. Eckholdt, was admitted to the bar in 1892 and entered upon the practice in Rochester. He was elected judge of probate in 1893 and served two terms. after which he was for two terms county attorney, and is now engaged in a successful practice of his profession.

Joseph Underleak is a native of Bohemia, born in 1854. His parents emigrated to Wisconsin when he was eight weeks old and came to Chatfield in 1856. Mr. Underleak became a school teacher, after which he engaged successively in the grocery, lumber and hardware business, succeeding in all. He was admitted to the bar in 1893 and has a large practice. He was town clerk ten years and was elected a representative in the legislative session of 1893 and served three terms and one term as state senator. He was a leading member of the judiciary and other important committees. He is a highly respected and influential citizen of Chatfield.

Adam Brin came as an infant with the family of his father, who settled in High Forest township in 1855. He was born in Germany in 1852. He was brought up on the farm and, with the exception of three years as a school teacher, has been a farmer. He has held several township offices such as clerk and treasurer, and is popular with his fellow townsmen.

As a result of the development in this region of the stock and dairy industries there were in December, 1888, seven mills in Roch- ester at which feed was ground.

A meteoric stone weighing 203 pounds fell on the ground of A. W. Sears, in Rochester city, about the first of June, 1888. It fell on a bed of sand stone, into which it had sunk nearly two feet. It was dark colored, looking like iron and as smooth as if varnished.

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ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL.

T HE Sisters of St. Francis, a charitable order of the Catholic church, who had been successfully conducting a convent and the Academy of Our Lady of Lourdes in Rochester since 1877, were impressed with the suitableness of the city as a location for a hospital under the patronage of the order. The mother superior, Mary Alford, consulted with Dr. William W. Mayo. The enterprise was undertaken and St. Mary's Hospital was founded in 1889, with Dr. Mayo as surgeon in charge, and opened October I of that year with a capacity of forty-five beds and about a dozen patients. During the first year over 300 patients were admitted and the number increased so rapidly that additions were made to the building in 1893, again in 1898 and again in 1903, and in 1908 the building was commenced of a wing costing $100,- 000. The hospital was dedicated April 6, 1894. Its present capacity is 180 beds. It consists of five connected buildings of brick, four stories in height with a frontage of 250 feet, and is surrounded by grounds of thirty acres kept in beautiful order. The structure and all appliances for surgery and for the care of patients are of the latest and most perfect kind.

Dr. Mayo. Sr., associated with him his sons, Drs. William J. and Charles H. Mayo, and gradually withdrew from the personal man- agement, leaving them as surgeons in charge, but is still on the staff as consulting surgeon.

The success and growth of the hospital, which is open only to surgical cases, has been phenomenal. It is recognized as one of the very best in the United States, and we have the statements of lead- ing surgeons that the Drs. Mayo are among the most skillful opera- tors in the world. An average of from fifteen to twenty important operations are performed daily, and the successful outcome and the small percentage of deaths is wonderful. There were 5.523 patients treated at the hospital in the year 1907. Miss Alice Magaw, now Mrs. Dr. Kessler, who was the anaesthesian for sev- eral years, administered unconsciousness to more than 17,000 sub- jects of operations.

Though the hospital is a Catholic institution, it is an interesting fact that of the religious beliefs of the patients in 1907 only 704 were Catholics. All creeds and beliefs were represented, and the most numerous was the Lutheran, 916 in number.

Several grateful cured patients have furnished rooms for the hospital.

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Academy of Our Lady of Lourdes, Rochester, Minn.

BETHEL LUTHERAN CHURCH, ROCHESTER Erected 1858.

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The hospital has become a great clinical post-graduate school for surgeons, and nearly every day a number of the profession, many themselves distinguished surgeons, come to Rochester to witness the operations performed, most of them staying from one to several weeks. Not only American, but celebrated foreign surgeons from different countries of Europe and from far Japan are among the visitors. St. Mary's has been called a surgeon's hospital from the fact that surgeons in need of surgery are more likely to submit to the Mayos than to any other of the profession. From sixty to eighty physicians are operated on there in the year.

A Surgeons' Club has been established with an attendance of from twenty to fifty of the visiting surgeons every day.

Every train coming into the town brings patients, accompanying friends and visitors; every train leaving the town carries them away. The busiest place in the city is the office in the Masonic Temple, where every day not less than a hundred people of all classes are waiting to have their cases diagnosed; perhaps half of them to be admitted to the hospital and all of them to be carefully examined and advised. This influx of people, which is claimed to add a floating population of not less than 1,500, has taxed the boarding accommodations of the city. Cook's hotel, a large one for the size of the town, has been enlarged. The Kahler, a large addi- tional hotel owned by the landlord of Cook's, has been built. Sev- eral of the other hotels have been enlarged. Chute's Sanitarium, the West and several smaller hotels and boarding houses have been established. The hotel capacity of the town has been increased by 250 rooms in the past two years, and besides a number of houses convenient to the hospital are boarding the strangers.

There are now in the city of about 8,000 population fourteen hotels and thirty boarding houses. The hospital has converted the town into a camp.

Following is the hospital staff for 1907: Consulting surgeon. Dr. William W. Mayo: consulting physician, Dr. A. W. Stinchfield ; attending surgeons. Dr. William J. Mayo and Dr. Charles H. Mayo; junior surgeons, Dr. E. S. Judd and Dr. E. H. Beckman ; attending physicians. Dr. Christopher Graham, Dr. H. S. Plummer, Dr. W. F. Braasch and Dr. H. Z. Giffin; clinical assistants. Dr. Booker Granger, Dr. J. Matthews, Dr. M. S. Henderson and Dr. A. A. Collins ; director of laboratories and pathologist, Dr. L. B. Wilson; associate pathologist, Dr. W. C. MacCarty ; assistant pathologist, Dr. D. C. Balfour; photographer and radiographer, Mr. Henry G. Andrews; artist, Miss Florence Byrnes; anaesthetists, Miss Alice Magaw, Miss Florence F. Henderson and Miss Mary Hines : sister in charge, Sister Mary Joseph ; superintendent of nurses, Miss .Anna C. Jamine : internes, Dr. D. G. Guthrie and Dr. J. Murray.

The local popularity of the brothers Mayo is fully equal to their professional prominence. They are interested in all public enter-

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and came to Rochester with his father's family about 1863. He graduated in the medical department of the University of Michigan in 1883 and entered on the practice of his profession at Rochester. He is a member of the Olmsted County and the Minnesota State Medical associations, and president of the American Medical Asso- ciation. The degree of Doctor of Science was conferred on him by the University of Michigan in 1908.

At the meeting of the American Medical Association, held at Portland, Oregon, in July, 1905, Dr. William J. Mayo was unanimously elected president. This honor, placing him at the head of his profession in the United States, was fully appreciated by his neighbors and friends, and on his return home a banquet in his honor was given at Cook's hotel on the evening of July 24. He was accompanied from the convention by a number of the most eminent physicians and surgeons of the country. The banqueting rooms were profusely decorated with flowers and all available space was crowded with citizens of Rochester and guests from abroad. Hansner's Orchestra played and Hamlet Easton sang at intervals. Dr. Horace H. Witluratim presided. An opening address, very eloquent and highly eulogistic, was delivered by Thomas Spillam. He was followed with speeches by Dr. C. M. Rosser, of Austin, Texas; Frank B. Kellogg, of St. Paul; Dr. W. D. Haggard, of Nashville, Tennessee; Senator Moses E. Clapp, of St. Paul; Chief Justice Charles M. Start, Governor John A. Johnson and R. F. Edwards, of Oklahoma, who presented an elegant cut-glass vase to Dr. Charles H. Mayo. Last of all a loving cup of solid silver inscribed as from "His many Rochester friends" was presented to Dr. William J. Mayo by A. T. Stebbins and accepted in a speech in which the doctor claimed equal appreciation with himself for his brother Charles, saying that "Together they had labored side by side and the achievements of one were the achievements of the other."

Dr. W. W. Mayo, the father, was not neglected, but was called out and acknowledged the compliment in a few brief and feeling remarks.

It was stated at the meeting at which Dr. Mayo was elected to the presidency that he had been honored as one of the most dis- tinguished surgeons of America to have a degree conferred at a meeting of the University of Edinburgh, but had to decline the honor because unable to make the trip to the Scottish capital.

Dr. Charles H. Mayo was born at Rochester in 1865. He grad- uated at the Rochester High School, graduated as a physician at the Chicago Medical College in 1888 and received the honorary degree of M. A. from the Northwestern University in 1903. He entered upon the practice of medicine at Rochester in 1888. He was elected president of the Minnesota State. Medical Association in 1905.

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Dr. Augustus W. Stinchfield was born in Maine in 1842. He was educated at Bowdoin College, taught school and served as a Union soldier in the war of the rebellion and graduated as a physi- cian at the Maine Medical College and the University of Michigan. He went to Missouri in 1868 and followed his profession there till 1872, when he came to Minnesota, and in 1873 located in Eyota. He removed to Rochester and in 1892 became a member of the firm of Mayos & Stinchfield. His specialty is diseases of the heart and lungs, in which he has the highest reputation. He retired from the firm in 1906 and has since done a limited private practice. He is a prominent member of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Christopher Graham was born in the State of New York and came to Kalmer with the family of his father, Joseph Graham, who was one of the earliest settlers of that township. He graduated at the University of Minnesota and the University of Pennsylvania, and became a member of the medical firm of Mayo, Graham & Co. He is a member of the State Board of Health and of several medical societies.

Dr. Edward Starr Judd is a native of the county, a son of Ed- ward F. Judd, deceased, who was a well-known grain buyer in Rochester when the doctor was born in 1878. He graduated at the Rochester High School and went to the University of Min- nesota, where he graduated as a physician in 1893. He then be- came an interne in St. Mary's Hospital and has ever since been connected with that institution. He has a high reputation as an operating surgeon.

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AMHERST W. BLAKELY

T. H. BLISS

A. T. STEBBINS

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EVENTS OF 1889 TO 1892.

M ARCUS WING, of Rock Dell, and A. T. Stebbins, of Rochester, were representatives in the legislative session of 1889.

Alonzo T. Stebbins was born in Massachusetts in 1847 and in 1857 came to Winona county with his father's family, who settled on a farm there. He attended the Winona high school and Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College in Boston. He was clerk in a hardware store in Winona and came from there to Rochester in 1871 and established a store of his own and has acquired a large business. He served one term as representative and was elected state senator in 1895 and served one term. He has been a promi- nent citizen of Rochester, active in all public affairs, and has held several local offices, having been alderman, president of the Board of Trade, and of the Southern Minnesota Fair Association, and a trustee of the State Hospital for the Insane. He is prominent in Free Masonry, being several years master of the Rochester Lodge and for two terms grand master of the State-in 1898 and 1899. He has been president of the Minnesota Hardware Association and is now president of the National Retail Hardware Association.

The centennial anniversary of the inauguration of Washington as president, which was celebrated in many of the large cities of the country, was also celebrated at Rochester, on Tuesday, April 30, 1889. Services were held in the churches in the morning, most of the business fronts on Broadway were decorated and a great meeting was held at Clark's Opera House in the afternoon, pre- ceded by a march on Broadway by the City Band and the Grand Army Drum Corps. The meeting was presided over by Mayor Porter. There was music by Lovejoy's Parlor Orchestra, com- prising George W. Lovejoy, Misses Minnie May. Maybel and Eva Lovejoy. E. D. Wilson and E. S. Crowell; singing by a quartet comprising Mrs. Knapp and Messrs. Knapp, Ainslie and King, and a choir comprising Mesdames Mosse and Knapp, Misses Crouch and Busian and Messrs. Knapp, Ainslie, King and Hopkins. There was Scripture reading by Rev. E. R. Pope, Baptist; prayer by Rev. Frank Doran, Methodist ; reading of Washington's inaugural address by Rev. W. H. McGlauflin. Universalist; addresses by Hon. J. A. Leonard and Hon. C. M. Start; singing of "America," and benediction by Rev. L. H. Mitchell, Presbyterian. Another meeting was held at night by the Knights of Labor, in the United Workmen Hall, which was presided over by J. W. Grainger and

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addressed by Rev. E. R. Pope and Rev. Frank Doran, and sing- ing by a club consisting of Messrs. King, Walden, Magaw and Seikert, accompanied by Miss Schuster. The German Library Association wound up the day by a ball at their hall at night.

In the political campaign of 1890 a combination was made by which the Democratic party adopted legislative nominations made by members of the Farmers' Alliance and a vigorous and bitter campaign was waged between the Republican party and the com- bined opposition. The Alliance candidates were zealous in opposi- tion to the railroads and to the Mckinley tariff and succeeded in drawing off many Republican votes, and the result was a decided victory for the opposition on the legislative ticket. Most of the incumbent county officers were re-elected.

For the legislature, W. W. Mayo, of Rochester, was elected sen- ator, and, as representatives, Corwin French, of Quincy, and J. Lyman Wright, of Cascade-all Alliance candidates.

As county commissioners, Robert Hall, of Kalmar, Republican, and J. M. Duell, of Viola, Democrat, were elected.

Corwin French was born in Pennsylvania in 1850. He moved to Wisconsin and, in 1854. to Wabasha county, and in 1862 set- tled on a farm in Quincy township, where he prospered and was ten years town clerk and held other local offices. He has been for a few years past, a resident of the city of Rochester, and has moved to Idaho.

Robert Hall was born in the State of New York in 1835, went to Wisconsin in 1860, and came from there to Rochester in 1865. Two years later he located on a farm in Cascade and eight years later removed to a farm in Kalmar. He served two years as com- missioner from Kalmar, resigning in the middle of the term be- cause of his removal to Rochester in 1892, where he is still living. He was again elected commissioner, from Rochester, in 1896, and served two terms, and was chairman of the board. He has taken much interest in the good roads movement, and is now superin- tendent of highways for Olmsted county. He was a delegate to the National Highway Convention at St. Louis in 1903, and is a vice president of the State Board of Charities and Corrections.

John Michael Duell was born in Bavaria in 1847 and came to America in 1868, and in 1870 to Viola, where he engaged in farm- ing, and has developed a fine estate. He has been township asses- sor several terms, school treasurer twenty-five years, and has held other township offices. He was president of the Rochester Farm- ers' Fire Insurance Company from 1882 till his resignation in 1907. The company started with insurance amounting to $25,000 and now has $4.250,000. He is now vice president of the State Insurance Society. As agent of one of the great steamship companies he has brought more than a thousand immigrants from Germany, and

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more than half of them young women who have married in this county.

The change in farming in this county from the single-crop sys- tem to varied interests was illustrated by the fact that in two days in July, 1891, there were marketed in Rochester 10,300 pounds of wool, divided among eleven sellers; and there is no reason to believe that this included the bulk of the clip, as the main sheep-growing section was in the eastern part of the county. The price paid was from 16 to 21 cents a pound.

In 1892 the supreme court of the State appointed Charles C. Willson, of Rochester, official reporter of the decisions of that body. He edited twelve volumes, from Vol. XLVIII to Vol. LIX, inclusive. performing the duty with much ability, till the leg- islature, in 1896, in a paroxysm of ignorant economy, reduced his salary from $3,500 to $2,000, whereupon he asserted his self- respect by resigning. He is a native of the State of New York, born in 1829. He received an academic education, was admitted to the bar in that State, and practiced the profession seven years before removing to Rochester in 1858. He had come here two years previously, and invested in some lots on College street, which he helped clear of the brush that then covered most of the town- site. He is now the senior member of the Olmsted county bar, and has an extensive and high-class practice. He has avoided polit- ical office-holding, though serving one term as a member of the Rochester School Board. He was for a few years the owner of a large tract of land in Haverhill township, devoted to the raising of grain.

Thursday, October 6, 1892, was celebrated in Rochester as the two hundred and fifth anniversary of the first settlement of Ger- mans in America, at Germantown, Pennsylvania. The Germans of this vicinity were reinforced by hundreds from outside places, and the celebration was a very enthusiastic one. A grand parade was made by Uncle Sam, in person, followed by the St. Charles Band, after which was a large delegation of ex-soldiers of the Union and of the German armies, with a martial band. There were several large floats, one with Germania and Columbia with their retinues; a representation of the ship that brought over the first German immigrants; the Rochester Turners with the Roch- ester Band; an industrial parade of eight large floats, representing different avocations; ending with citizens on horseback and in carriages. It was one of the most elaborate displays ever paraded in the city. A crowded meeting was held in the opera house at night, followed by an exhibition by the Rochester Turners and a large dance in the German Library Hall.

The Uncle Sam who headed the procession was Richard V. Russell. He was a son of Richard S. Russell, a pioneer settler of

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Pleasant Grove township. He was born in the State of Pennsyl- vania in 1847 and came to Pleasant Grove with his father's family in 1856. He removed to Rochester in 1883 and was a barber there and a restaurant-keeper with the exception of about five years from 1896. which he spent in Stewartville. He died in 1906. His striking resemblance to the well-known pictures of Uncle Sam led him to dress, on occasion, in that character and he was in great demand as a leader of Fourth of July and other patriotic parades. He was a finely built man of over six feet in height and erect, and at the head of a procession, very dignified, slim and long-faced, with handsome features and the chin whisker and long hair of the historic character, wearing the tall white hat, long-tailed coat and striped trousers so familiar, he strode along, a most unique embodi- ment of the patron saint of the country.

The representatives in the legislative session of 1893 were Henry M. Richardson, of Rochester, and Joseph Underleak, of Chatfield -both Republicans. Representative U'nderleak served three terms.

The new county officers elected in November, 1892, were: Sher- iff. Charles N. Stewart, of Stewartville. Republican; judge of pro- bate, Thomas Fraser, of Rochester. Republican; county attorney, George W. Granger, of Rochester, Republican; surveyor, John Fraser, of Dover, Democrat; county commissioners, Patrick Nor- ton, of Rochester. Democrat ; B. A. Doherty, of Byron. Republi- can. and Charles A. Hoffman, of Farmington, Republican.

Sheriff Stewart and County Attorney Granger served three terms and Judge Fraser and Commissioner Doherty two terms.

Charles N. Stewart was the only son of Charles Stewart, who founded Stewartville, and represented Olmsted county twice in the legislature. Charles N. was born at Stewart in 1858. He was educated at Shattuck Academy, Faribault. He engaged in the milling business with his father, on whose death he became the owner of a large tract of real estate, including a portion of the site of Stewartville. He was greatly instrumental in securing the location of the railroad at that point and in developing the prosperous vil- lage. As sheriff he was very popular. After his official service he resided in Rochester, where he died in February, 1891. He was a gentleman of most genial manner and universally liked.

George W. Granger is a son of Abner Granger, who settled on a farm in Cascade township in 1867 and became a dairyman, doing a large business. George was born on the farm in 1869. He was educated in the Rochester High School, studied law with Burt W. Eaton, Esq., was admitted to the bar in 1890, and engaged in practice in Rochester. He is now a member of the firm of Calla- ghan & Granger, and is of high standing in the profession and in the community.

Charles A. Hoffman was born in Prussia and came to this coun-

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try in 1854, landing in New York. He lived in Wisconsin, work- ing in different places, till 1858, when he came to Wabasha county and worked as a farm hand till 1862, when he took a farm in Farm- ington township and became a leader in that community of Ger- man farmers. He held the offices of supervisor, town treasurer and school commissioner. He moved to Rochester in 1902, where he died in September, 1905.

Patrick Norton was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1826, and came to America in 1850, landing at Boston. He moved to Wisconsin the next year and from there to Rochester in 1856, entering the shop of Clark & Lockie and working at blacksmithing till 1873, when he opened the Norton House, which became the popular farmers' hotel of the city. He gave up hotel-keeping in 1894, and has since been a farmer in the vicinity of Rochester. He was a conscientious, practical officer, of unusually good judgment.

B. A. Doherty was a native of Ireland. born in 1833, and immi- grating with his parents to Canada while a child. He came to Massachusetts in 1850 and engaged in farming. He went back to Canada and bought a farm and then went to the Pennsylvania oil region and came from there to Kalmar, near Byron, in 1865, where he has been a successful farmer. He was a man of much intelligence, of positive convictions, and much interested in educa- tion, and was for several years clerk of his school district. He died in January, 1906.

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EVENTS OF 1893 TO 1907.

I N the spring of 1893 the farms of this vicinity were threat- ened with a great calamity. In localities in Dakota the Rus- sian thistle had so overrun some of the fields and so resisted all efforts at extermination, that farms had to be abandoned. Its seeds were believed to have been brought from Russia mixed with flax seed imported from that country for its superior quality. In appearance the thistle was much like the well-known tumble- weed, and when dead and dried was uprooted by the wind and driven everywhere, scattering its seed wherever it went. Its im- portation here was the result of the wreck of a freight train on the

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History of Olmsted County, Minnesota, Part 16

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

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