History of Olmsted County, Minnesota, Part 24

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

USA > Minnesota > Olmsted County > History of Olmsted County, Minnesota > Part 24

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On the burglar's person were found, besides burglar's tools, a watch stolen in Owatonna, and other articles, a valuable diamond shirt stud, which had been stolen from the residence of Governor C. K. Davis at St. Paul. The governer sent the marshal a hand- some gold-mounted ebony cane.

Marshal Kalb, though quietly unassuming, was strict in the enforcement of the law, and with the tramp and toughs, who were numerous in those days, his word was law. They held him in the same reverence as did a couple of College street youngsters of that mischievous age when they had earned a neighborhood reputation for youthful naughtiness. Bob was heard to say to his comrade after a suggestion of some prank, "We could have a good time, couldn't we, Willie, if it wasn't for Marshal Kalb and God."

A thunder storm on June 23. 1882, caused a rise in the water of the Zumbro river the next day that was probably the greatest of that river's outbreaks. The stream rose for a while at the rate of four feet an hour and was an irresistible torrent. There was no loss of life or accident to persons, but there were bad washouts of the banks of the stream in the city and on nearby farms, and much loss of live stock and other property.

A man who did more in his way than any other to build up the city, was David Elliott, a carpenter and architect. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1843, was taken to Illinois when a child and came to Rochester in 1873. In 1883 he began planning and building residences for sale besides contracting for business houses. Since that time he. within twenty years, added 225 to the com- fortable and handsome homes in different parts of the town and

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found a sale for them about as fast as they could be finished. He died in July, 1908. It is estimated that the city has grown for a few years past, at the rate of fifty new homes a year.

The City Hall was built in 1884, Horace E. Horton, the archi- tect. It is a pretty brick building, of two stories, with rooms for the meeting of the common council, a court room for the city justice, an office for the recorder and a police station with a lock-up, and is, altogether, a convenient home for the city, though not as large as it ought to be.

During the wheat growing period of Olmsted county, which may be considered as lasting from 1856 to about 1885, Rochester was the greatest wheat market of southern Minnesota, which was the wheat region then, in fact. of the state. It was well designated the farming capital of the state. It was claimed that it was the greatest primary wheat market in the country. Such a claim as that is easier made than proven, but it is doubtful whether there was more wheat bought directly from the farmers, in those days, anywhere else. In August, 1865, in one day, 10,600 bushels were received at the elevators and 40,000 bushels in three days, and in November of the same year the receipts of one day were 11.500 bushels, estimated to be 287 wagon loads. Three hundred and forty thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight bushels were received at the elevators from September 2 to November 13, 1867, and in October of that year from $10,000 to $11,000 were paid out daily for wheat. The receipts in May, 1870, were 95,000 bushels. Dur- ing four days in July, 1870, John Shannon bought 78,084 bushels, paying from $1.08 to $1.10 a bushel.

At times, it was a common sight, near the elevators, to see from three to half a dozen buyers around a farmer's wagon inspecting his wheat and bidding against each other for it.

The growing of wheat has moved farther west with the tide of emigration, and it is now one of the least important crops raised here. None is bought at the elevators and but little from around here at the mills. There is probably not more than 90,000 bushels a year grown in the whole county. Wheat growing has been superseded by more profitable farm industries.

Wheat buying, which included dealing in other grains, was, at that time, the leading business, bringing more farmers to the towns and disbursing more money than any other. The firm of Van Dusen & Company did one of the largest businesses in that line in the state. Starting in Rochester they became proprietors of eleva- tors at the main points on the Chicago & Northwestern and other railroads in Minnesota and Dakota.

George W. Van Dusen is a native of the state of New York, born in 1826. He moved to Wisconsin in 1849, where he was a farmer and grain buyer. He came to Rochester in 1864 and was

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in the dry goods firm of Barden, Baldwin & Van Dusen, which went out of business after five years, when he was station agent and grain buyer for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company. He then formed a grain buying partnership with C. H. Chadbourn, of the Rochester National Bank. A. Gooding was later a partner. The headquarters of the firm were at Rochester till the increasing extent of the business lead to its removal to Minneapolis. The business was sold to a British syndicate for whom Mr. Van Dusen managed it several years, and a few years ago retired from active business. The syndicate has been succeeded by Van Dusen & Harrington, of Minneapolis. Frederick Van Dusen being a son of George W., and Charles M. Harrington, long connected with the old firm. George W. Van Dusen has been recognized as a business man of superior ability. When a resident of Rochester he served as alderman and mayor and since a resident of Minneapolis he has spent much of his time in Rochester, his old home.

Samuel Whitten was a prominent grain buyer. He was born in Ireland in 1834 and came to America in his childhood. He was employed six years in the Singer Sewing Machine Works in Jersey City and served as sergeant in a three months New Jersey regi- ment at the beginning of the War of the Rebellion. He came to Winona in the latter part of 1861 and to Rochester the following year and became a wheat buyer. In 1874 he built an elevator and did a large business in grain buying, part of the time in partnership with Edward F. Judd, from Connecticut, who came to Rochester in 1868 and who died in 1885. Mr. Whitten died in September, 1890. He was the alderman for North Rochester ten years and mayor four years. He was social, popular, public-spirited and very generous and benevolent. His death was a great loss to the very poor of Lower Town, of which he was the patron, though not a patron saint.

It is said that when Whitten and Judge McMahon first met, the judge, as was his wont with new comers, asked Sam as to his antecedents : When he was born and was answered "in Ireland"; what was his politics, and was answered "Republican"; what was his religion and was answered "Methodist." "The queerest combi- nation I ever heard of," said the judge; "an Irishman, a Republican and a Methodist."

N. John Shannon was a street buyer several years and one of the best known residents of Rochester. He became traveling inspector of Van Dusen & Company's elevators, and moved to Minneapolis, but was a frequent welcome visitor here, on his inspection tours. He died in 1907. While living here he was for three terms a mem- ber of the city board of education and four terms alderman.

Henry A. Merrill and Charles Rust were street buyers several

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years and went farther west with the tide of wheat growing. Mr. Merrill was twice elected alderman.

William Henry Lesuer was a son of David Lesuer, a pioneer merchant. He was a street buyer several years, went to Minne- apolis where he was employed in a elevator and came back to Rochester in 1902 and died here in December, 1906.

Anderson Whiting and T. A. Whiting, from Wisconsin, built an elevator in 1872. Anderson Whiting died a number of years ago and the business of grain buying and coal selling was carried on by T. A. Whiting till his retirement in 1905. He is still living in the city at an advanced age, highly respected. He was a California pioneer. He was member of the board of education nine years in succession.

Andrew Doig was elected an alderman in the spring of 1886, and served two terms. He is a native of Scotland, born in 1834, came to America in 1850 and to Minnesota in 1856 and a few years later to Rochester, where he has followed his trade of marble cutter. He was several years in partnership with J. J. Casseday, and after- wards with Henry Haskins, since whose death he has had no partner. As an alderman he was public spirited and practical.

By the year 1886 the necessity for the establishment of city waterworks had become thoroughly apparent, and the common council, after spending several months in discussion of the matter, advertised for bids and finally granted a franchise for the estab- lishment of a system by Moffit, Hodgins & Clark, of Watertown, New York. The system as adopted was supported by Mayor O. S. Porter and Aldermen A. Nelson, W. W. Mayo, J. H. Wag- oner, and A. Doig and opposed by Aldermen Tondro and Noah Wilkins, of North Rochester, who contended for a less expensive system. The system consists of wells on the bank of Bear creek on the eastern edge of the city, from which the water is forced by steam power to a stand pipe, sixty-five feet high on College Hill an elevation on the west limit of the city overlooking it, about seventy-five feet above the level of the business center, from which the water is distributed in mains, with hydrants in the streets for fire protection. It furnishes an ample supply for domestic uses and, with the very efficient fire department, is very satisfactory. The present manager, Mark G. Holmes, is a son of Frank Holmes, deceased, a pioneer settler of Kalmar, and later a pump manu- facturer in Rochester. Mark spent his boyhood in Rochester, was employed several years in the construction department of the North- ern Pacific railroad, and came back to Rochester.

The Olmsted County Democrat, a weekly newspaper, was estab- lished in May, 1886, by Cyrus Elliott, and his son, Charles H. Elliott, as a weekly paper and in June, 1891, a daily edition was started under the title of the Rochester Daily Bulletin. It was the

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ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL, ROCHESTER

MAYO LIBRARY, ROCHESTER

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first permanent daily in the city and its establishment was at that time quite a venture. Both the weekly and daily have been suc- cessfully conduced and rank well with the papers of the state. Rochester is probably the only town of its size in the state that has but two newspapers. Archie P. Gove is city editor of the Bulletin.

Cyrus Elliott was born in Pennsylvania in 1839 and moved to Illinois. where he was a merchant and was a newspaper publisher from 1875 to 1885, when he came to Rochester.

Charles H. Elliott was born in Illinois in 1868, and was brought up in the printing business.

Archie P. Gove is a son of Royal H. Gove, deceased. He was born in Rochester in 1874 and graduated from the Rochester High School. He has been with the Bulletin since 1895. He is a very popular young man. Is a member of the Library board and chancelor commander of the Pythian lodge.

Robert Elliott came to Rochester in 1864, became street com- missioner in 1887 and kept the thoroughfares in order thirteen years. He was born in the north of Ireland in 1844 and came to Minnesota from Canada. He is now a contractor.

The Rochester Benevolent Society was organized in October. 1887. and has been in operation ever since. Its object is the relief of the poor of the city and it is supported by contributions of many and of clothing, which is distributed once a week in the winter. There is very little absolute poverty in the city, but the society has done much good within its limited scope.

The Rochester Gas & Fuel Company was organized in 1888 and the city contracted with it for fifty street lights in the center of the city.

The use of the electric light was inaugurated in Rochester in January. 1888, by the Rochester Light & Power Company. Most of the business houses were made brilliant by the then novel in- candescent lights and some of the streets were illuminated by arc lights. The opinion became prevalent that the company was charging the city too much and the council determined to embark in the experiment of municipal ownership. As in the case of all proposed new public enterprises, there was much opposition to the venture. but a decided majority of the council was in favor of it and bids for the establishment of a plant advertised for and a contract awarded to the Western Electric Company, of Chicago, at $15.531. The work was completed and the lights turned on in March. 1894, the total cost being $21,000. 'The streets have been lighted and the people supplied by the city with electricity for light and for power. The general convenience of the light has been undoubted. but the economy to the city has been a debatable prop- osition, never satisfactorily settled, though the preponderance of

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opinion has been that private consumers have got their light and power cheaper than the city could afford to supply it, and that the city would better have bought its electricity. Rochester has not appeared to be adapted to municipal ownership.

Arthur L. Gove died October 20, 1888. He was a son of R. H. Gove, and was born in Vermont in 1854 and came with his father's family to Rochester in 1866. He was educated in the city schools, graduating in the high school, studied law with his father, was admitted to the bar, and practiced with C. M. Start till the latter was made judge, after which he practiced alone till his death, in the midst of a most promising career. He ranked high in both abil- ity and character, and his early death was a great loss to the community.

In 1888 Thomas Spillane was appointed city attorney, to suc- ceed W. Logan Brackenridge, who resigned, having been elected county attorney. He was born in Wales, in 1862, though of Irish parentage. He was brought to Rochester by his parents when three years old. He graduated from St. John's University in this State and taught school a few years and then read law, being ad- mitted to the bar in 1888. He was city clerk four years and was elected city attorney in 1893, serving two years. He is in the front rank of the bar of the county as a speaker on public occasions.

The most peculiar business in the city was that of Orson W. Estes, the snake merchant. For several years he followed the occu- pation of capturing, buying and selling snakes. He gathered the reptiles in from everywhere, kept a large stock on hand at all times, and sold them to showmen. It is a few years since the busi- ness was discontinued.

Rochester Lodge, No. 54, Knights of Pythias, was organized April 1, 1889, with fifteen charter members. It has now 150, and is growing and has a fine hall.

Charles A. Joslyn was elected alderman in 1890 and served two terms. He was also city engineer in 1905, by appointment of Mayor Heffron. He was from the State of New York and was agent for the Morgan reapers. The city is under obligation to him for the town clock that ornaments the tower of the central fire station, as he solicited the subscriptions for its purchase and superintended its erection.

Free mail delivery to the houses was established in the city in 1891.

E. E. Briggs started a glove factory about 1889, which is still running. Briggs sold to Mrs. L. Smith and her son, Frank Smith. In 1894 Smith and E. G. Arnold succeeded Mrs. Smith. After a few years Mr. Arnold withdrew and Mr. Smith has since been the sole proprietor.

The tedium of January, the dullest month of the year in this

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latitude, was relieved in 1892 by the inauguration of a series of winter sports. The whole community became interested, a public meeting was called, officers appointed, money raised, and a skating rink was made by flooding the lot formerly occupied by Stenger's brewery and now the city market ground, and a toboggan slide was erected on Zumbro street, between the Norton House and the river, three hundred feet long and twenty feet high, with a fall of forty feet in the first two hundred feet, and a return slide to the starting place. A number of toboggan clubs were organized, captained by Howard Van Campen, B. Clausen, H. M. Richardson, Edward F. Cook, Philip Heintz, Edward Sullivan, and Guy Jacks. Each club had its distinctive uniform of gay blanket cloth and each comprised a different class, from sedate married men down to little school boys. R. Milo Jacks was the presiding genius of the whole affair. There was also a bouncing club with blankets, whose duty it. was to toss high in the air numerous prominent personages.

The opening night was a brilliant and gorgeous occasion, with a grand procession of all the clubs, reinforced by about a hundred and fifty uniformed tobogganists from Austin, and cheered by a band and illuminated by the blaze of unstinted colored lights. An opening speech and welcome to the visitors was made by Mayor Darling, and responded to by Mayor Johnson, of Austin. The first toboggan to take the grand slide had as passengers Mayor Johnson, of Austin, and Miss Laura Leet, of Rochester, and Mayor Darling and Miss Cora Hathaway, of Austin.

It was decided to keep the sport's up one day every week with a three nights' carnival and the storming of an ice palace the first week in January to close the season. A. T. Stebbins was appointed Fire King and W. Logan Brackenridge Snow King, for that occa- sion. The weekly carnival drew great crowds from all the sur- rounding country and there were the highest anticipations of the jollity of the three final carnival days, but there was some disar- rangement of the machinery by which the Minnesota winter weather is regulated, and the last week in January was so spring- like that it rained for days, the ice in the river was broken up, the river end of the toboggan broken to pieces and the ice palace was discolored, and though the final carnival was postponed for a week it never came to pass. Rochester ceased to be jolly and passed the rest of the winter in attending strictly to business.

An attempt was made the next winter to revive the sports and carnival, but the enthusiasm had died beyond hope of resurrection.

Queen City Camp, No. 1645. of the Modern Woodmen of Amer- ica, was organized in April, 1892, and now has four hundred mem- bers. making it the largest of the beneficiary societies of the city.

After years of talk over the subject, public sewerage was inaug- urated by the construction, in 1895, of a sewer running the length

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of Broadway, from south to north, and emptying into the Zumbro, at a cost of between four thousand and five thousand dollars. Not- withstanding the laws prohibiting the pollution of streams, the filth of the city is dumped into the river, as is the case of most other towns in the State blessed with rivers.

The Rest Room is an institution peculiar to Rochester, being the only one in the State. Attempts have been made at two other places to conduct one, but without success. A feature of the town from its earliest days has been the great number of farmers and their families attracted here to trade. Few of the women and children went to the hotels for the part of a day's stay, but when through with their shopping and waiting for the lord and master to go home, had to stand around, or occasionally sit, in the stores. The Woman's Club, at the suggestion of Miss Evans, of Carleton College, Northfield, undertook to provide a place for those women, especially those with children, to spend the weary hours of waiting. A subscription was raised among the merchants, pledging $40 a month, and in 1896 a room was procured in the business part of the town, and the women and children from the country were invited to enjoy it. The plan proved very satisfactory. The room was well patronized and was moved into larger quarters. The city contributed a small sum toward its support, and, after a few years, turned over to the ladies the Livermore Building, on Main street, that had come into its possession. It was conveniently fitted up, and a matron employed, and now a place of shelter is open every week day, and is availed of by many of those coming to town. It is one of the best institutions of the city, and should be supported entirely by the municipality and on a more liberal scale than it now is. The rooms have been under the superintendence of the presidents of the Woman's Club, first Mrs. W. N. Herrick, fol- lowed successively by Mrs. A. F. Faitoute, Mrs. T. W. Stebbins, Mrs. John Edgar, Mrs. W. W. Fowler, and now by Mrs. Martha J. Butler.

One of the public utilities, the want of which had been felt for years, was a commodious place of entertainment. Morton Hall, the old court house and Heaney's Hall had, when first built, been thought ample, but the town had outgrown them successively, and there had been much inconsequential talk of an opera house, with- out any result till, in 1894, Oscar Cobb, an architect who, after doing business for some years in Rochester, had gone to Chicago and become a successful builder of theaters, visited Rochester and proposed plans for the building of an opera house here. His plans were not carried out, but they started a public movement for the enterprise. Several schemes for building by the aid of loans or bonuses were proposed and partly carried out, but all came to naught, when J. E. Reid determined to build a suitable place of

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entertainment as a private enterprise. He bought the old Post Building, on the corner of Broadway and Fourth street, and ad- joining lots, and erected there the Metropolitan Theater, a three- story brick building, trimmed with stone, handsome exteriorly and beautiful interiorly. It was opened with the comic opera of "The Chaperones," February 10, 1902, and Rochester now has a com- modious and attractive place of amusement, fully up to the de- mands of the community. It has a seating capacity of eleven hun- dred, and has cost $45,000.

James E. Reid came to Wabasha county from Wisconsin when an infant, was educated in the schools of Rochester and Darling's Business College, engaged in the jewelry business in St. Paul, and removed to Rochester in 1894, and was a member of the jewelry firm of Reid & Orr, and now of Reid & Keller, and is now also manager of the theater. He is one of the most enterprising of the business men of the city.

The financial depression of 1893 was not without its manifesta- tion in Rochester. The hard times prevalent throughout the coun- try had rendered depositors in the three banks of the city-the First National, the Union National and the Rochester-suspicious of their absolute soundness; many depositors, especially in the country, had withdrawn their deposits, and in the case of the Union Bank a hundred thousand dollars was withdrawn within two months. Though the securities of the bank were ample, and its ultimate solvency undoubted, it was impossible to at once con- vert all its securities into cash, and on the 11th of August the bank suspended payment, and there was a run on both the other banks, and it seemed as if they, also, though perfectly sound. would have to suspend, but the business men of the city came to the help of the banks. A public meeting of the Board of Trade was called and the city hall was crowded with the citizens generally. A. T. Stebbins, president of the board, was chairman. Speeches were made by C. C. Willson, Mayor Witherstine, T. H. Titus, cashier of the Union Bank; C. M. Start, judge of the district court; Wal- ter L. Brackenridge, and J. A. Leonard. The speakers all ex- pressed perfect confidence in the banks, and assured the public of their solvency. A paper was signed by seventy-five individuals and firms. including all the leading business houses, in which they affirmed their confidence in the banks and their ability to pay their depositors in full. if given reasonable time, and their own willing- ness to take certificates of deposit of any of the banks in payment for goods. The leading business men went on the street and met and talked with farmers and others going to the banks to withdraw their money, and so thoroughly satisfied them that the run was stopped and the threatened panic averted. In a few weeks the

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Union Bank resumed payment as usual and all the banks have ever since done a prosperous business.

'A Fourth of July celebration was held in 1894 which was the greatest held up to that time. Broadway was devoted to sports. There was a large industrial parade, headed by Uncle Sam Russell. The address was delivered by Frank Randall, of Winona. There was a fine display of Japanese fireworks at night.

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History of Olmsted County, Minnesota, Part 24

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

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