History of Olmsted County, Minnesota, Part 23

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

USA > Minnesota > Olmsted County > History of Olmsted County, Minnesota > Part 23

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The Salem church of the Evangelical Association, German, was organized in 1868, in a mission with Kasson, Pleasant Grove and Mantorville. The first pastor was Rev. G. H. Knebel, who staid one year. He was succeeded by Rev. E. H. Bauman, and he by Rev. L. von Walt, each staying one year. Rev. G. Simon came in 1871 and staid till 1873. Rev. E. J. Hilscher staid from 1873 to 1875, when Rev. C. W. Sydow came and staid till 1878, when Rev. Conrad Ordlie came and staid till 1881, when Rev. M. Knopf came and staid till 1883. Rev. J. L. Stegner staid from 1883 to 1885; Rev. W. Lenz from 1885 to 1886; Rev. J. Gougall from 1886 to 1887, and Rev. F. Mode from 1887 to 1890, after which the church was unsupplied till 1892, when Rev. E. J. Hilscher was again ap- pointed and staid till 1895. Rev. A. Reeck came in 1895 and staid till 1898, when Rev. H. Hensel came and staid till 1902, and was succeeded by Rev. C. W. Walthausen, who was succeeded in 1905 by Rev. A. G. Sahr, and he in 1906 by Rev. S. R. Twig, who is now the pastor. The church has a comfortable small church building and has thirty-six members.

Joseph H. Wagoner came with his father's family from Penn- sylvania, where he was born in 1844. They located in Haverhill in 1856 and soon after moved into Rochester. He was engaged several years in the pump well drilling and house moving business. He enlisted in the Fifth Minnesota Regiment. In 1868 he began dealing in sewing machines and organs and later in pianos. in which he developed a large business extending throughout the surround- ing country. He has been prominent in city affairs and was four

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times elected alderman and once mayor and was a trustee of the insane hospital. He was appointed postmaster in 1883 and filled the office very satisfactorily one term. He died in March, 1898. His son, Carl Wagoner, is successor to the business.

Dennis H. Williams came to Rochester in 1868 and engaged in the agricultural machinery business in partnership with J. Franklin Van Dooser. After a short partnership he carried on the business alone and is still in it, having a very large establishment. He was born in Ohio in 1832 and served in an Ohio regiment, advancing from first lieutenant to colonel, and served about a year in the regu- lar army at the close of the War of the Rebellion. He was three times elected mayor of Rochester and was on the board of education continuously from 1886 to 1896.

George Leonard came from Massachusetts in 1868. He was a native of that state, born in 1816. He established a shoe store and started a tannery, which was discontinued. He was a highly re- spected business man. He died in 1893. His son, George E. Leonard, who was born in Massachusetts in 1849, came in 1885 and followed the same business. He was an alderman one term and died in 1897.

Cook's Hotel, when built in 1869, the only four-story building in the place, and costing about $80,000, was so much greater than the town that it was a few years before a satisfactory landlord could be found for it. Carlos A. Merrill, from Indiana, opened it in 1874. In 1879 C. A. Linsley became the landlord, and D. C. Miller, from Ann Arbor, ran it from 1881 to 1896, when Henry Kahler and son took it. Eight months later John H. Kahler suc- ceeded his father and has ever since conducted it. Under his man- agement the business of the hotel has grown greatly, at first as the stopping place of commercial travelers and later as a refuge for patients and their friends coming to St. Mary's Hospital. The influx of that class of guests has been so great that they were turned away almost nightly from all the hotels and lodged in private houses. Cook's Hotel was enlarged and remodeled in 1901 at a cost of $30,000 and its capacity has been increased a third, till now it can accommodate 120 guests.

Mr. Kahler has further added to the hotel capacity of the city by building the Kahler, a large brick sanitarium of three stories, ac- commodating seventy-five guests. It was made by enlarging and changing the commodious residence of E. A. Knowlton to a three- story brick building of imposing size and most thorough and elabor- ate finish. It was opened in May, 1907.

John H. Kahler is a native of Canada, reared in Michigan and came to Rochester from Northfield. He has shown remarkable enterprise as a hotel manager.

The Bethel Lutheran Norwegian Church was organized May PI, 1869, at Morton Hall with nineteen members. Rev. N. E. Jensen,

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from Highland Prairie, was the pastor for a year. In 1871 the old Baptist church, the pioneer church of the city, was bought and moved to Fifth street. It was moved again in 1882 to the present location at Prospect and Third streets. It has been enlarged and improved and is a good-looking wooden church. Rev. Jensen was succeeded in a year by Rev. G. Amundson, who served four years, and was succeeded by Rev. D. Gjertsen, from St. Paul, a scholarly and eloquent preacher. He was followed in eight years by Rev. J. H. Blagen, who was succeeded in 1885 by Rev. R. Anderson, who was succeeded in 1896 by Rev. H. A. Urseth, who staid till 1899. Rev. O. J. Flagstad came in 1901 and staid till 1904, when he was fol- lowed by Rev. A. Oftedal, who is yet the popular pastor of the church. It has a membership of 150.

The cigar making industry has been a prominent one in the city. August Boetter was the first to start a factory in 1869, and con- ducted it several years. C. Neuseus was an early manufacturer and kept the business up a number of years. There are now four fac- tories conducted by Henry Ungemach. Ulrich Saxer, Paul Schulz and Oscar Paulson. Ungemach & Schroeder started a factory and Ungemach bought out Schroeder in 1885. Ulrich Saxer started a factory in 1892. Paul Schulz started a factory in partnership with John Stetor in 1896 and Schulz assumed the business in 1900. Oscar Paulson started a factory in 1904. The four factories employ thirty cigarmakers, who make 1,500,000 cigars a year.

Henry Ungemach is a native of Germany, born in 1855, and came to Rochester from Milwaukee in 1876. He was alderman-at- large in 1892 and 1893.

Ulrich Saxer was born in Switzerland in 1853. came to America in 1861, and from Milwaukee to Rochester in 1881.

Paul Schulz was born in Germany in 1873 and came to Rochester with his parents in 1882. He has served two terms as alderman and is now a member of the Board of Public Utilities.

Oscar Paulson was born in Rochester in 1879.

The Central Record was established in 1870 by C. R. Conway and purchased in January, 1873, by A. W. Blakely. In March, 1874, the Federal Union was purchased by Mr. Blakely, and the two papers consolidated under the name of the Record and Union. H. H. Young, S. D. Hillman and Rev. C. T. Coerr were, at times, interested with Mr. Blakely in the paper, but since 1880 Mr. Blakely has been sole proprietor with, lately, his son, Clarence W., as a partner. A daily issue of the Record and Union was established in January, 1893, and ran till July, 1894. when it was discontinued because of Mr. Blakely becoming postmaster. In 1899 the Record and Union was consolidated with the Post, and is now published daily and weekly as the Post and Record. It ranks as one of the leading papers of the state outside the large cities.

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Amherst Willoughby Blakely was born in the state of New York in 1842 and came to Rochester with his brother, David Blakely, in 1859, and learned the printing trade. He was a clerk in the post- office, under J. A. Leonard, in 1861, and clerk in the commissary department in Arkansas, under his brother, Capt. C. H. Blakely, in 1864, was reporter on the Chicago Post and returned to Rochester and purchased the Record. He was appointed postmaster in 1893, and served one term.

Clarence W. Blakely is a son of A. W. Blakely, born at Daven- port, Iowa, in 1867, and came to Rochester with his parents in 1872. He learned printing with his father and has been constantly associated with him in the business as manager and editor. He has served as alderman and is now a director of the Public Library.

The German Lutheran church was organized in 1868 by Rev. Krumsig with four members: Frederick Seikert and Theodore H. Adler, the well known clothing firm, and two brothers Bundemuhl. Rev. Krumsig remained about five years and was succeeded by Rev. Louis Schenk, who staid about three years and was suc- ceeded by Rev. G. Schaaf, who in about a year was succeeded by Rev. H. Schmidt in 1880 and he in 1881, by his brother, Rey. C. Schmidt, who in 1884 was succeeded by Rev. C. Nichels, from Lakefield. Jackson county, who is still in charge.

The church has a membership of 600 adults and has a parochial school with a regular attendance of from eighty to ninety scholars.

A handsome church building was erected at the corner of Fifth and Prospect streets in 1894; a frame building, of fine proportions and prettily finished.

R. Milo Jacks came from Wisconsin about 1870 and was road- master for the Chicago & Northwestern railroad. He established the first line of hacks in 1881 and sold, in 1891 to Alvah Van Campen, who is still in the business. The great number of strangers arriving in the city by every train has created a great demand for the vehicles and they are a prominent feature of the city. Thomas Kennedy has also a large line of hacks. There are now twenty hacks in this city.

Mr. Jacks became manager of the gas works. He was elected al- derman in 1888 and served four years. He removed from Roch- ester and was engaged in railroading in Wisconsin, and now lives in the Isle of Pines in the West Indies.

Steuben Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was insti- tuted July, 1870, with twenty members. The officers were J. G. Zimmerman, J. Koonsmuller, Fred Pamperin, B. Schwartz, L. Har- ris, G. Hargesheimer, H. Schuster and M. Levy. It was conducted in the German language and was quite flourishing for some years. but the distinctive Germanism dwindled with the lapse of time and it was merged with the older American lodge.

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The Germans of Rochester showed their sympathy with the fatherland by a celebration in September, 1870, of the capture of the French army and emperor. A torch-light procession of about 100 men, with a band, led to a meeting at Morton Hall, where en- thusiastic speeches were made and more than $150 were raised for the relief of families of German soldiers.

The growth of the city, mostly of frame buildings, led, in Decem- ber, 1870, to the organization of a fire department. The reliance for protection had been till that time on the extemporized bucket brigade of all villages, and later a hose long enough for use in the center of Broadway and attached to the engine in the stone mill, but a real fire department was organized by the common council at this time, a steam fire engine purchased and named the Little Giant, and an engine house built for it over the race beside the mill, with a second story used as a hall for the council. It was torn down in 1901. The chief engineer was Stewart B. Clark, and the assistant Archibald B. Ellithorpe. Warren W. Doty was engineer in charge of the engine and Theodore H. Kellogg his assistant. The organi- zation was a good one and did efficient service till the installation of the present system of stationary hydrants, which was installed with the establishment of the waterworks in 1886.

A paid fire department on a small scale was established in 1902. The fire marshal, or chief, was allowed $300 a year and call men $48 a year. The system now consists of street hydrants well dis- tributed throughout the city, hose carts drawn by horses, with an ample supply of hose, a central fire station with accommodations for the firemen and one electric alarm system which was installed in 1900. The central station was built in 1898 from plans by John M. Doherty. It is a rather low two-story building of brick, with a tall, slim tower penetrating the atmosphere from the gable front and holding a clock and a flag staff, upholding an electric lamp, like a beacon light. It is well adapted to its uses and is a quaint foreign looking building, that might have been the town hall of some old European town picked up there and set down at the foot of Broadway.

A small and neat station for a hose company, with a tower and alarm bell, is maintained in North Rochester, near the Northwestern railroad station.

The department. as it now exists, is very efficient and has given the city a protection that is extraordinary for a town of its size. The chief, John Boylhart, is to be credited with much of this efficiency, though he is ably supported by the whole force. He is a Pennsylvanian and came to Rochester in 1875 and worked at blacksmithing several years. There has never been a widespread fire in the city. It is wonderful that a town of perhaps eight

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thousand population can be so thoroughly protected by a force of only twenty-seven men, only two of whom are paid a full salary.

The Vedder Block, a large two-story building, was erected by Albert D. Vedder on Broadway in 1870. He was born in New York state in 1832, moved to Wisconsin when seventeen years old and took a farm in High Forest township in 1858. In 1866 he moved to Rochester and went into the farm machinery business with Loren O. Dutton, a High Forest farmer, who afterwards moved to Mankato. Mr. Vedder was twice elected alderman. He died in September, 1892.

The most disastrous fire in the history of the city was in the night in January, 1870. It started in the shoe store of J. Koonsmuller on Broadway and destroyed that building and the grocery store of Crocker & Younglove, the hardware store of Ozmun & Son and the jewelry store of E. Damon. The total loss amounted to $50,000. Brick buildings replaced the wooden ones burned up. Nearly all new towns have clearing out fires, but Rochester has been fortunate in that respect.

In the original plat of the town, which was thought ample, pro- vision for a public square was made by reserving a block of about three acres on Main street for that purpose. It is quite centrally located and, under the name of Central Park, it has been made a pretty little place, with grass walks, trees, a few shrubs, a fountain and a band stand where the band plays about once a week in the summer. And in platting North Rochester, Franklin street was expanded into a large oval shaped reserved space named Cascade Park. but the town has not grown around it, it has been but little improved, and as a park is but little used. having the appear- ance of a neglected small common, and bears the nick name of Goose-egg Park.

The project of a large public park was agitated for years, gener- ally in connection with the improvement of the vacant land along the Zumbro river and Bear creek, which has not been built on because subject to overflow. in freshets.

As long ago as 1871 Dr. J. M. Williams, J. D. Blake and Allen K. Williams, formed a company for the damming of Bear creek at College street and the making of a substantial road and develop- ment of a water power. They asked the common council to ad- vance $9.000 for the purpose, to be reimbursed by the projectors. The proposition was strongly advocated, but failed to carry. The most zealous advocate of the scheme was Dr. W. W. Mayo. In 1882 when he was mayor, he urged the plans. His project was to make an artificial lake of Bear creek by damming it about College street and making a park of the surrounding sand lots. At several different times the plan was revived, but never secured the full approval of the council. At one time a landscape engineer was

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obtained from St. Paul, who reported, after investigation, that the expense of damming the creek would be so great as to be prohibitive because of quicksand. The idea of a lake was dropped, but the talk of a park was kept up. The council went so far as to vote to purchase land and to name the proposed park Mayo Park. So the matter stood when the Commercial Club invited M. C. Loring, of Minneapolis, who is known as the father of the park system of that city, to come here and look the ground over. He spoke very enthusiastically of the proposed location as having in it the making of a splendid park. A public meeting was called in the Metropoli- tan Theater June 25, 1904, and there it was announced the Drs. W. J. and C. H. Mayo had donated to the city $5,000 for public improvements, it being understood that it would be used for a park and Mr. John R. Cook added a donation of $1,000 for the same, purpose. A board of park commissioners was appointed, consist- ing of Philip G. Heintz, W. Logan Brackenridge, John M. Rowley and Bert Whiting, and a commission was appointed who con- demned the land wanted and Rochester had a park. The land taken consists chiefly of a flat on the west bank of the Zumbro river in the very heart of the city, used as a pasture by A. T. Stiltins and Ralph Bailey and that had lain unimproved because subject, at the occasional intervals when the Zumbro got on a rampage, to freshets, that swept everything off the surface. In addition to this flat the east bank of the river, which is high and dry on all occasions, was also taken for a boulevard and driveway. The whole park includes about eleven acres and extends from Fourth to Third streets and from Liberty street across the river.

A beginning was made by building a couple of bath houses, bridges and a band stand, buying boats, fitting up a tennis ground, and setting out trees, and the building of a park was fairly under way when, on June 23, 1908, there occured one of those freshets, in which the Zumbro revels. A thunder storm, extending for miles around Rochester and in which the rain came down all night in torrents, raised the river, flooding all low places, the water rising not less, than fifteen feet above the usual level, poured in an irresist- able flood, over the flat and the season's improvements, amounting to several thousand dollars, were swept down stream, only the band stand being spared, and the park left a total wreck. Those wise persons, the old settlers, who had shaken their heads when the improvements were begun and they recalled the former freshets that had careened over the flat and the time when three families had their houses carried away on a night and themselves lodged in trees, had their opportunity of saying, "I told you so."

The freshet extended as far as Stewartville, raising the Root river there and carrying out bridges in the vicinity and tore up the railroad between there and Rochester and damaged the Chicago

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and Northwestern railroad at several places between Rochester and Dover.

The Drs. Mayo gave orders for the work of reconstruction to begin at once and the morning after the flood men and teams were at work and the park was fully restored and is a most convenient and excellent pic-nic and recreation ground in the most central and accessible locality, and despite the probable necessity of rebuilding at future intervals of several years, it must be a great every day public convenience.

The Drs. Mayo, in 1906, made another donation to the city of a tract of land on College Hill, purchased by them from the owners. It comprises about two city blocks between College and Zumbro streets, is the highest point in the city, and commands a very picturesque view, for miles around, of the Zumbro and its tributary valleys and, when improved, will make a most beautiful park. The Mayos gave $1.000 in addition to the land, and John R. Cook $1,000. Improvement has also been commenced on this park. Ample land has been secured for the city and sometime in the far future, when it shall have become older and richer, it may have a beautiful park system.

In March, 1908, Drs. Mayo proposed to the city that if it would surrender to the park board the lot belonging to the city, opposite the Chicago Great Western depot, known as the Market Square, they would purchase the premises of Dr. Edward H. Kalb, adjoin- ing on the east, for which they paid $4,000, and give it to the city for an addition to the park, and would also donate $6,000 for park improvements. The offer was promptly and unanimously accepted, adding about half a block of high land to the park.

The homicide of a negro boy by a white boy occurred June 22, 1871. James Willis, about nineteen years old, a negro apprentice to H. W. Gray, a mulatto barber, undertook to collect pay from Henry Stevens, a white barber from Wabasha, of about the same age, working with Fred Pamperin. In the quarrel that resulted the negro struck the white boy over the head with the guitar and whipped him in a fight. They separated and soon afterward Ste- vens, angered at having been whipped by a negro, borrowed a revolver, on a pretext, from Ole Assleson, a bartender, and meeting Willis on the street. picked a quarrel with him, in which both were very abusive and Stevens shot Willis three times, killing him. Stevens was tried in the district court, Judge Waterman presiding. He was prosecuted by County Attorney Start and defended by Hon. E. A. McMahon, and C. Smith Andrews, of Rochester, and L. S. Campbell, of Wabasha. He was found guilty of man- slaughter in the second degree and served a sentence of four years and three months in the state penitentiary.

A steam flouring mill was built in 1874; a large veneered brick

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building, with six runs of stone, located near the present site of the Tollefson furniture store at the head of Broadway. It was under the management of Mr. Hulbert. who came from the East, was run a few years and discontinued. It stood vacant a few years longer and was burned down in 1889.

Noah Wilkins was elected alderman for the third ward in 1875, and was afterwards elected at different times serving Lower town altogether, eight terms. He was born in Vermont in 1836, and came to Salem township at an early day and moved to Rochester, where he was a carpenter. He died in 1902.

Thomas P. Hall came to Rochester in 1876, from Chicago, and established the carriage factory, which he is still conducting. He is a native of Canada, born in 1847. He worked at his trade three years in California and was four years foreman of a factory in Chicago. He is public spirited and popular and has been twice elected alderman.

Ashler Lodge, No. 23. Ancient Order of United Workmen, was organized August 25. 1878. The first officers were William Elliott, G. W. Nichols, S. A. Hickcox, L. W. Newberry, J. Elford, G. P. Johnson, W. J. Tolar, R. Dyson. R. L. Emerick, O. S. Thompson. The lodge grew rapidly, and in November. 1887, dedicated its own hall, a neat two-story brick building, costing about $4,000.

Secret benificiary societies for insurance in death, sickness or accident have been very popular in the city and throughout the county. Among them are. the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Knights of Columbus. Danish Brotherhood, Sons of Norway, Modern Woodmen of America, Modern Samaritans, Royal Arca- num, Knights of Maccabees, Mystic Toilers, Equitable Fraternal Union, Modern Brotherhood of America. Red Men. Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and Independent Order of Eagles. There seems to be, as yet, no abatement in the popularity of that sociable form of insurance.

A pop factory, for the manufacture of areated waters, was started by Theodore Schwartz and, in 1878, was bought by Mienard Fakler, who came from Winona. He has enlarged and improved the establishment, has an increasing business and now employs three persons in the summer and sells 600 cases of bottles in a month.

Henry Kalb, who came to Rochester in the spring of 1856, is one of the most conspicuous citizens. He was born in Germany in 1833, came to America in 1854 and located at Dixon, Illinois, coming from their to Rochester. where he kept a boot and shoe shop. He was elected city marshal in 1877 and served in that capacity continuously for twenty-three years to the perfect satis- faction of the community. In 1902 he was appointed city clerk and is now in that position.

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A notable event in the career of Marshal Kalb was his killing of Dan Ganey, a gambler and burglar. At 4 o'clock Sunday morn- ing, June 15, 1879, the marshal was called upon by Village Marshal Schwarg, of Kasson, who had followed Ganey from that place, where he had escaped arrest for a burglary committed at Owa- tonna. Ganey was at the Norton House, and Kalb arrested him there at breakfast and was taking him to the Winona House, at the corner of Fifth and Main streets, where Schwarg was waiting for him. At the corner of Fifth street and Broadway Ganey, who had been walking quietly beside the marshal, turned to run down Broadway, and pulling a revolver, said to the marshal "You go!" but Kalb stood his ground and Ganey fired, just missing his cheek; the marshal returned the fire, but missed his man. Ganey then ran behind Mullin's grocery store, on the corner, and fired again, missing the officer the second time, but the marshal's second shot was better aimed, penetrating Ganey's chest and killing him in- stantly. The public appreciation of Kalb's cool courage was shown by the presentation to him of a fine gold watch and chain from the citizens.

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History of Olmsted County, Minnesota, Part 23

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

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