USA > Minnesota > Olmsted County > History of Olmsted County, Minnesota > Part 17
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railroad near Dover. The contents of twenty-three cars loaded with grain from Dakota were scattered on the ground. and some of it gathered up by farmers and the flax sowed for the next crop. When it grew it was found to be full of the pestiferous weed. For a couple of seasons it was a threatening annoyance, but was checked before it became generally prevalent, and is now only a memory.
The new county officers elected in November, 1894, were: Auditor, S. O. Sanderson, of Rock Dell; treasurer. Gustavus Hargesheimer, of Rochester; register of deeds. James F. Spencer, of High Forest; clerk of court, John C. Crabb, of Byron; sur- veyor, William C. Fraser, of Rochester; court commissioner, C. E. Callaghan, of Rochester; coroner, A. S. Adams, of Rochester; county commissioners, M. J. Merrick, of Dover, and Andrew C. McCoy, of Salem-all Republicans.
Surveyor Fraser served four terms, Clerk of the Court Crabb three terms of four years each, and Register Spencer and Auditor Sanderson two terms.
Sander O. Sanderson was born in Rock Dell township in 1868. He worked on a farm and in the blacksmith shop at that place till 1885, when he entered the store of Nels Magneson, at Rock Dell, as clerk. He graduated at Darling's Business College in Rochester and became bookkeeper and salesman in the Boston Clothing House in the same city. He next became a partner with Mr. Magneson and afterward sole proprietor of the store. He served as town treasurer and treasurer of the Zumbro Creamery Company and the Rock Dell Butter and Cheese Company. He was elected auditor by four majority. He was of very social manners and exceedingly popular. He has removed to Minneapolis, where he is now treas- urer of the Northwestern School Supply Company.
Gustavus Hargesheimer was born in Germany in 1845. He
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came to America in 1857 and located in Chicago, where he went to school and entered a college of pharmacy, and on the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion enlisted in the Union army, being then only eighteen years old. He served in the Twenty-fourth Illinois Regiment till August, 1864. He came to Rochester in 1865 and entered the drug store of Woodard & Ells and, a year later, started a store of his own, securing a large trade. He was very popular and a representative member of the German-Ameri- can community, being prominent in their societies on all public occa- sions. He was several terms commander of Custer Post, Grand Army of the Republic. Rochester had no better citizen. He was re-elected treasurer and served till March, 1898, when he died while in office. The county commissioners appointed his son Max treasurer for the unfinished term.
Two of his sons, Paul and Max, are prominent druggists in Rochester.
John C. Crabb is the son of James Crabb, who was one of the pioneer settlers of Rochester, having made a claim on the townsite in 1855. Mr. Crabb removed to a farm in Cascade township a year later, and there John C. was born in 1860. His father died when he was but four years old. He obtained his education in the district school and at the Union Normal School. He adopted the profession of teacher and followed it eleven years. In 1862 he engaged in merchandising in Byron, in partnership with S. E. Tompkins, and was so engaged when elected clerk of the court. In 1907 he opened a real-estate office in Rochester, in partnership with James Kelly. He enjoys a very extensive acquaintance throughout the county, and is very popular.
William C. Fraser is a son of John Fraser, a pioneer farmer of Dover township, and a brother of Thomas Fraser, of Rochester. He was born in Dover township in 1869. He attended the public schools of St. Charles and graduated at Darling's Business College in Rochester. He is of a family of surveyors, his father haying been county surveyor of Olmsted county, from whom the two sons, Thomas and William, inherited that profession. William has been very successful as surveyor and civil engineer, having been city engineer of Rochester several years, during which he built a large number of sewers. He is a contracting engineer, making a specialty of building sewers for cities throughout the State, and has taken much interest in the agitation for good roads. He has been president of the Minnesota Surveyors' and Engineers' Society. He was representative in the legislature in the sessions of 1903 and 1904.
Charles E. Callaghan was born in the State of New York in 1863. In 1865 he, with his parents, came to Rochester. He got his education in the schools of Rochester and Darling's Business
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College, read law with H. A. Eckholdt, Esq., and was admitted to the bar in 1889. He served two terms as city attorney of Roch- ester. Besides being a member of the law firm of Callaghan & Granger, he has been since 1898 postmaster of Rochester, and is now filling his second term in that office. He is a popular speaker and in great demand in that capacity for public occasions in the surrounding country.
Dr. A. S. Adams was born in Ohio in 1850. He was educated in Oberlin College and Michigan University, and graduated in medicine at Wooster University. He practiced medicine ten years in Cleveland and came to Rochester in 1885 and has since practiced his profession here. He was coroner several years, and is now one of the Board of United States Pension Examiners.
Mathew J. Merrick was born in 1825, in Delaware. At the age of five years he moved, with his father's family, to Indiana. In 1856 Mr. Merrick removed to Burns Valley, near Winona, and in 1860 settled on a farm in Dover township. He was highly re- spected by his neighbors, and has served twenty years as township treasurer and four years as a supervisor. He served one term as county commissioner.
Andrew C. McCoy was born in Illinois in 1842 and, with his father's family, settled on a farm in Salem township in 1856. He went to the district school and to Hamline University at Red Wing, where, in 1862, he enlisted in the Ninth Minnesota Regiment. He was captured at Ripley, Mississippi, after the battle of Guntown. and was for six months a prisoner at Andersonville. After being paroled he returned to his regiment and served till the end of the war, at the close of which he returned to Salem, and has ever since been a farmer there, having a model farm. He is a man of sterling character, highly respected by his neighbors. He has been a town- ship supervisor, clerk of the township fifteen terms, and a member of the school board more than thirty years. He was elected repre- sentative in the legislature of 1903 and in that of 1907.
The legislators for the session of 1895 were: Senator, A. T. Stebbins, of Rochester; and representatives, Joseph Underleak, of Chatfield, and J. B. Kendall, of Byron-all Republicans. Rep- resentative Kendall served two terms.
Truman B. Horton, of Stewartville, was doorkeeper of the senate for the session of 1895.
Miss Cora Wing, daughter of Hon. Marcus Wing, of Rock Dell, was appointed stenographer and typewriter to the judiciary committee of the house of representatives.
Joseph B. Kendall is a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1838. At the age of eighteen years he came, as one of the family of his father, Dr. Stanton B. Kendall, to Minnesota. In 1861 he enlisted in the Fifth Wisconsin Regiment, saw hard service in the Army
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of the Potomac, and was severely wounded in the battle of Chan- cellorsville, and rendered lame for life. He was appointed a clerk in the quartermaster's department at Washington, where he served four years. He graduated from a commercial and law school. In 1868 he opened a store at Byron and did an extensive business, and later became proprietor of a large brick yard, which he is still con- ducting. He had served his locality as justice of the peace, notary public and postmaster, and is prominent in all public affairs, being honored with the fullest confidence of the community.
Truman B. Horton was elected doorkeeper of the State senate in the session of 1895. He was born in the State of New York in 1847 and came with his father, who settled on a farm in Yankee Ridge. High Forest township, in 1861. He moved to Stewartville in 1883. worked nine years in the mill, and has ever since been a resident of the village. He has served three years as a member of the village council. He was appointed postmaster in 1901, and is still filling the office, which is one of the best kept to be found anywhere.
The population of the county in 1895, according to the State census, classified as to occupations, was : Total population, 21, 141 ; males. 11,236; females, 9,905 ; legal voters, 5.961 ; ex-soldiers, 209, and I ex-sailor. The male population was divided as follows: 3,240 farmers, 966 laborers, 495 mechanics and engineers, 3 lum- ber and woodsmen, 125 professional men, 193 dealers and supply men, 96 clerks, 21 railway men, 23 cooks, porters and bartenders ; 269 merchants, 63 retired, 17 manufacturers, 221 unclassified.
The population has fluctuated with the different stages of the county's development. It had nearly 10,000 people in 1860. The number doubled in the next twenty years, reaching 21.543 by 1880, decreased about a thousand by 1885 and 700 more in the next five years: then a new growth started and about 2.500 was gained by 1895 and nearly another thousand by 1900, and more than 700 was lost by December, 1905.
The population of the county by the census of 1905 was 22,409.
Corn harvesting machines were first used here in the harvest of 1895. The use of these new machines was followed by several ac- cidents resulting from unfamiliarity with their dangers, and occa- sionally an arm or a head was sacrificed to the innovation, but experience and changes in the machines are lessening such acci- dents.
In the fall of 1896 the newly elected county officers were J. A. Leonard. Republican, judge of probate, and Robert Hall, Repub- lican, of Rochester, and Fred Rucker. Democrat, of Oronoco town- ship, county commissioners.
Judge Leonard filled the office three terms and Commissioner Hall two terms.
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There being no court commissioners elected, R. H. Gove, of Rochester, was appointed to that office.
J. Fred Rucker was born in Germany in 1848, came to America with his parents and to Oronoco township in 1862. He acquired an education in English and became a farmer. He was successful and became prominent in the township. He has been a township supervisor and filled other town offices. He is highly respected and influential.
Royal H. Gove was a native of Vermont, born in 1830. He obtained an academic education and went to Illinois in 1851, taught school two years and returned to Vermont. In 1856 he went to Wisconsin and practiced law till 1864, when he came to Rochester, and was several years in the employment of Van Dusen & Co. He commenced the practice of law in Rochester in 1873 and afterwards became a partner with Richard A. Jones, which partnership lasted till Mr. Jones removed to Washington Territory. He was city assessor in 1869, city justice from 1870 to 1874 and city attorney in 1877 and 1889. He was prominent in Free Masonry and was grand master of the State. He was highly esteemed and respected. He died in 1903.
His son, Archie P. Gove, is city editor of the Rochester Bul- letin.
Edward Fanning, of Stewartville, Republican, was made assist- ant sergeant-at-arms of the house of representatives in the legis- lature of 1897. He was elected sergeant-at-arms of the house by the legislature of 1899 and for three subsequent sessions, and was a member of the house for the sessions of 1905 and 1907. He was born in 1862, and grew up on a farm in Wabasha county. At the age of twenty-one he came to Rochester and lived here till 1890, when Stewartville took on its new growth after the building of the railroad there. He then moved there. opened a barber shop, became prominent in the affairs of the village, engaged in different business enterprises and became one of the publishers of the Times. After living sixteen years in Stew- artville he moved in 1907 to Wyoming, where he is now in the real estate business.
The year 1897 was marked by an interesting change in the citi- zenship of the State. When the State constitution was framed in 1857 the need of settlers and the proportion of foreigners to the native born was so great that it was necessary to admit the foreigners to local citizenship. In many townships there were not enough American citizens to fill the township offices, so that State constitution gave the right of voting and holding office to all natives of other countries who had filed their first papers, declaring their intention to become citizens of the United States, and many foreign- ers after making such a declaration would take no further trouble to become American. For nearly forty years those half citizens
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had voted for not only state, but also United States officers, and occupied office in the State, and the foreign vote was and still is the most considered in making political nominations. The legis- lature of 1895 submitted to the vote of the people an amendment to the State constitution requiring full citizenship of the United States as a prerequisite of Minnesota citizenship. The amendment was advocated in the legislature by foreign-born members and re- ceived the votes of most such voters at the polls and became a part of the constitution at the election of November, 1896. The result was the naturalization of hundreds of men who had scarcely been known as of foreign birth. Foreigners had previously been nat- uralized at the rate of about a dozen a year, but within the three years following the change in the constitution 563 foreigners in the county became full citizens of the United States. It was the last act in the Americanization of the immigrants.
The new county officers elected in November, 1898, were: Auditor, E. H. Walden, of Rochester; treasurer, A. R. Haggerty, of Farmington; register of deeds, James Kelly, of Stewartville; sheriff, E. H. Vine, of Viola; county attorney, Thomas Fraser, of Rochester ; school superintendent, A. R. Dresbach, of New Haven; coroner, F. R. Mosse, of Rochester ; county commissioners, A. C. Aaby, of Rock Dell, and J. Preston, of Haven Hill. All Repub- licans.
Sheriff Vine and Coroner Mosse are still holding their offices in 1907; Register Kelly served four terms; Auditor Walden, Treas- urer Haggerty and Commissioner Preston three terms, and County Attorney Fraser and Superintendent Dresbach two terms.
Edward H. Walden was from an early age a resident of Roch- ester. His father, Myron Walden, who was a carpenter, fell from a building in 1868 and fractured his spine, depriving him of the use of his lower limbs. He lived in that condition for years. being wheeled about in a chair. He was a familiar figure on the streets, as was his little son Edward pushing the chair. The care of the fam- ily devolving to a great extent on the boy, he as soon as old enough kept a confectionery stand, then became a clerk in the store of J. D. Blake & Co. In the meanwhile, though his opportunities for schooling were limited, he managed to acquire a good education. He was city treasurer six years and city recorder one term, and four years deputy county auditor. After his service as auditor he was appointed assistant land clerk in the office of the State auditor at St. Paul, where he now is. He is an officer of unusual ability, of excellent personal character and very popular.
Andrew Reed Haggerty was born in 1864 on the farm of his father, Joseph R. Haggerty, who in 1855 preempted in Farmington township. He was reared on the farm, taught school and held township offices. Since being county treasurer he has resided in Rochester and has served two terms of city assessor.
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James Kelly was born in the State of New York in 1852 and came to Minnesota with the family of his father, Patrick Kelly, who located on a farm in High Forest township in 1856. He learned the trade of a blacksmith and worked as an apprentice and journeyman in Rochester three years and established a shop in Stewartville, where he followed the business till his election as register of deeds. He was elected clerk of High Forest township fifteen years in succession. He is now engaged in the real estate and insurance business in Rochester. He has been very popular, both as an official and an individual.
Elbert H. Vine is a son of Wandell Vine, an early settler of Viola township. He was born in New York city in 1858 and was brought with his father's family to Hadley valley in 1860. From there the family moved to Viola the next year and he was reared on the farm, and acquired a farm of his own in the same township where he was living when elected sheriff. He is now serving his fifth term in the office and has made friends of the whole county.
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Arthur R. Dresbach is a native of Olmsted county, being born in New Haven township in 1867. . His father, Anthony Dresbach, came from Wisconsin to New Haven in the early sixties. Arthur was educated in the district school and graduated at Carleton Col- lege in 1887. He taught in the district schools of the county and was for a number of terms principal of the graded schools at Pine Island and Byron. He had intellectual ability and popular manners. He moved to St. Louis and is now believed to be somewhere in the Southwest.
Andrew C. Aaby was born in Wisconsin in 1856, came with his parents to Rock Dell in 1864 and is a farmer. He had been one of the supervisors of Rock Dell township and was fourteen years a school commissioner. He served three years as county commis- sioner, and in 1901 was appointed a member of the State Board of Appeals and filled that office two terms, till 1905. He is now secre- tary of the Hayfield Lumber Company.
Joseph Preston was born in the state of New York in 1841. He enlisted in the Union army in 1862 and served three years. He set- tled on a farm in Haverhill township in 1868 and was a justice of the peace ten years. In 1904 he moved to Elgin, Wabasha county, where he is now living. He was held in the highest respect by the entire community.
The State senator elected for the session of 1899 was Joseph Underleak, of Chatfield, and the representatives Henry R. Hymes, of Rochester, and Avery K. Bush, of Dover. All Republicans.
Senator Underleck served one term and Representatives Hymes and Bush two terms.
Henry R. Hymes is a native of Illinois, born in 1846. His father, John Hymes, a farmer, came to Haverhill in 1856, where Henry grew up. He came to Rochester in 1870 and was employed in the
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business of selling agricultural machinery. He started the first McCormick binder that was run west of the Mississippi. In 1875 he went into the machinery business on his own account. He was three years in partnership with John Edgar and has since conducted the business alone and is still engaged in it. Besides his service as representative he was two terms an alderman of Rochester.
The steam thresher came into use in this county in 1898.
In the fall of 1900 all the Republican incumbents of county offices except commissioners were renominated without opposition and reelected, the auditor, treasurer, register, surveyor and coroner hav- ing no opposition at the polls. A competent lady teacher, Miss Helen B. Searles, of Viola, was nominated by the Democrats in opposition to School Superintendent Dresbach, but failed to win.
The following new county commissioners were elected : Lyman P. Case, of Orion, and A. O. Cowles, of Othello. Both Repub- licans.
Commissioner Case is still serving in 1908. Commissioner Cowles was elected to a second term.
Lyman P. Case was born in Ohio in 1844. He came to Orion in 1854 with the family of his father, Stephen Case, who was one of the earliest settlers. Lyman P. has been a farmer in Orion for fifty years. He was several years chairman of the township super- visors and was four years and a half chairman of the county com- missioners, and four years president of the State Association of County Commissioners. He has filled every position with credit. In 1906 he moved from the farm to that portion of Chatfield in Elmira township.
Almeron O. Cowles was a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1832. He acquired a common school education and learned the trade of carpenter. He came to New Haven township and settled on a farm in 1856. also following his trade. He procured the establish- ment of the Othello postoffice in his neighborhood, named it and was postmaster ten years. He resided six years in Mantorville working at his trade, but with that exception has lived on his farm. Plum creek, one of the feeders of the Zumbro river, has its source in a large spring on his farm. He served as township supervisor and justice of the peace. was prominent in local affairs and had the high regard of his neighbors. He was five years secretary of the State Association of County Commissioners and last year president, and was also president of the Olmsted County Good Roads Association. He died April 7, 1908.
The United States census for 1900 gives the population of the county as 23.119, with 2.539 farms, an acreage of 405,889, and a valuation of $18,276,920.
Joseph W. Grainger, of Rochester, was appointed by Governor Van Sant in 1901 a member of the board of examiners in optometry and was reappointed at the end of the first term of three years for
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another term. He is a native of England, born in 1838. He learned watchmaking and jewelry and optics and came to America in 1868, locating in Wisconsin, and came to Rochester in 1883, where he has since followed the business of optician. He has been presi- dent of the Southern Minnesota Optical Association two terms and of the Northwestern Optical Association four terms, and is now president of the board of regents of that association. He has been presented by the association with a gold medal and a handsome silver cup as testimonials of his services.
The box elder bug [leptocoris vittatus], a black bug with lines of bright red on the edges of its wings, appeared in 1901 and threat- ened the destruction of that species of tree, but after disporting it- self on their leaves for a couple of years and in some localities invading dwellings, it disappeared.
The assassination of President Mckinley was publicly mourned by an immense demonstration at Rochester on the day of the funeral, Thursday, September 19, 1901. Rain prevented a parade that was to have included all the societies of the city. Places of business were all closed and the whole city was dressed in mourn- ing. The demonstration of love and reverence for the lamented President could not have been more general or sincere. A meet- ing that had been called to be held at the Opera House was so crowded that an overflow meeting was held in the Masonic hall. Both places were packed with auditors. In the Opera House Mayor E. L. Sinclair presided. Prayer was offered by Rev. William Riordon. and there was singing by a quartet comprising John Magaw. C. N. Ainslie, Harold J. Richardson and Rev. F. H. Whit- ney, with singing of solos by Hamlet Easton. Addresses in eulogy of the lamented President were made in. both halls, the speakers being J. A. Leonard, Thomas Spillane, W. Logan Brackenridge, Rev. W. B. Gantz and C. F. Callaghan. There was a band in both halls.
Memorial services were held at Byron the same day. The school children marched to the church and addresses were made by Revs. Utton and Simonds and Superintendent Cornwell.
The Olmsted County Merchants' Association, including the mer- chants throughout the county, was organized in April, 1902, with C. F. Massey, of Rochester, as president, and W. S. Davis as vice- president. It is still in existence.
At the fall election of 1902 the new county officers elected were : Judge of probate, Henry O. Christensen, of Rochester: county attorney, Harold J. Richardson. of Rochester; surveyor, C. H. Armstrong, of Rochester; superintendent of schools, George F. Howard, of Rochester; county commissioner, N. Magneson, of Rock Dell. All Republicans except the judge of probate.
There was no opposition to the reelection of Sheriff Vine or Coroner Mosse.
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Judge Christensen, County Attorney Richardson, Surveyor Arm- strong and Superintendent Howard were still holding their offices in 1907.
Henry O. Christensen is the son of John Christensen, a farmer of Kalmar. He was born there in 1872 and educated in the Roch- ester High School, in Dixon College, Illinois, and in the law de- partment of Drake University in that State. In 1891 he became a partner in the practice of law with Thomas Fraser, of Rochester.
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