History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 10

Author: John W. Mason
Publication date: 1916
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 765

USA > Minnesota > Otter Tail County > History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 10

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Future investigations may reveal other families resident at Dayton in 1862, but in the light of all the evidence now at hand it appears that the Wrights were the only family living there at the time. In the census return for 1860 there are forty listed with Waseata as their postoffice, but these might have lived, and undoubtedly did, in a radius of a score or more of miles of the postoffice. At this distance from the scene of action it is pract- ically impossible to tell where they lived. The census itself gives no clue, farther than stating that they received their mail at Waseata. The complete list is here given :

Matthew Wright, age 50: farmer: real estate. $1.500; personal property. $1.000; born in Upper Canada. His wife. Mary Ann. age 47. born in New York. Their children. Caroline. age 20 (Inter the wife of Oscar Taylor, of St. Cloud) : John W .. age 15 (killed by the Indians in Dakota in 1876) ; Albert M., age 12 (now located in the west). born in Upper Canada; Martha E .. age 10. born in Wisconsin (now married and living in Spokane. Washington). Edi- torial note: Matthew Wright was one of the very few of those listed in this census schedule to return to the county after the Civil War. Mention is made of him and other members of his family elsewhere in this volume.

Edwin M. Wright, age 24 (a son of Matthew Wright) ; farmer; real, $1.000; personal. $500; born in Upper Canada. ( Edwin M. Wright later became a lawyer and was a partner of Hon. J. W. Mason, who has written a sketch of him which appears elsewhere in this volume.)

Edward J. Wright, age 22 (a son of Matthew Wright) : laborer: personal. $500; horn in Upper Canada.

Peter Schmidt (or Smith). age 24; farm laborer; personal. $400; born in Nassau. Germany. (Some authorities say that a Smith was killed at Dayton in 1862. and that his mangled remains were found there two weeks after his death by Captain Freeman.)

Ebenezer Briggs, age 28; blacksmith ; personal, $250: born in Vermont. His wife. Jane. age 24. was born in Vermont, and their child. Andrew. age 5, born in Minne- sota.

Andrew Jones. age 24; stage driver: born in New York.

Samuel Munn, age 41; laborer: personal. $400; born in New York. His wife. Jane. age 28, was born in Maine, and their children. Silas. 8. Henry. 7. Francis. 5. and Stewart. 3. were born in Minnesota.

Henry A. Bon. age 30; surveyor: real. $1.000; personal. $500; born in New Hampshire. Margaret Little, age 14; born in Maine.

James Ryerson. age 38: farmer: real, $200: born in Pennsylvania. His wife, Bridget.

Digitized by Google

OTTER TAIL COUNTY. MINNESOTA.

31, born in Ireland. Their children. John, 5. Stephen. 3. George. 2. and Mary, 6 months, born in Minnesota.

John Dau (or Dow), age 24; laborer; personal, $100; born in Baden.

Christopher Kohl (or Cole). age 32; farmer; real. $200; born in Prussia. His wife. Mary. age 27, was born in Pennsylvania. and their child. Jane E., age 5. born in Minnesota.

George Fowleston, age 44; farmer: born in England, as also his wife, Jane, age 34. and one child. Harriet. age 7; other children, John, 4. and George. 2. born in Minnesota.

Joseph Whitford, age 35; farmer; real, $500; personal, $500; born in Vermont. Note- He was reported insane at the time of the census, but recovered and wax killed later by the Indians. A letter of James Fergus to the Fergus Fallx Advocate printed in its issue of June 29, 1872, is authority for the statement that Whitford was killed by the Indians near Fort Abercromble in 1862.

John Smith, age 38; laborer : personal, $3.000; born in Scotland. Note-It appears that Smith was living with Whitford in 1860, at the time of the census. He is reported to have been at Dayton in 1862 and to have been killed by the Indians at that place. The Adjutant-General's Report for 1862-63 (p. 187) says that as Captain Freeman was returning from Fort Abercrombie to St. Cloud on September 30, 1862, they found at Dayton the body of one Smith. who had been murdered two weeks previously. and buried it. Whether this was the John Smith listed in 1860. or some other Smith (or Schmidt), is a matter of conjecture. It may have been the Peter Schmidt listed above.

William Carey, age 27: laborer: personal. $250; born in Ireland.

Peter Clark, age 42: laborer: personal. $100; born in Maine.

PROPERTY STATISTICS IN 1860.

The only actual record of the industrial and agricultural life of Otter Tail county prior to 1870 is found in the census report of 1860. According to this report there were only fourteen land and live stock owners in the county at that time. There may have been more, but the records fail to dis- close any more than this number. The names of these fourteen landed pro- prietors, with the items of their personal property as connected with the operation and productions of their land, are shown below. This record is taken from the original record on file in the office of the secretary of state at St. Paul. Unfortunately, the records do not show where these pioneers . of industry lived, but they are all credited to Otter Tail county, and are given here in the order in which they appear on the original records :

William Fairbanks, 150 acres of unimproved land, valued at $150; also 1 cow. 2 work cattle and 5 hogs, value $200.

Edouard Belente. 5 acres of improved and 155 acres unimproved land, valued at $500; also 2 work cattle, value $100.

Jacob Sylvester, 5 acres improved and 155 acres unimproved land, valued at $500: also $500 worth of farm implements, 1 cow and 4 work oxen, value $200.

Peter Russell (or Rousselle), 0 acres unimproved land. valued at $400; also 1 cow. value $30.

John Bishop. 10 acres improved and 150 acres unimproved land, valued at $1,000; also farm implements valued at $100; also 1 cow, 2 oxen and 2 other cattle. value $200. Note-Hon. E. E. Curliss is of the opinion that Bishop returned to county after 1862.

Digitized by Google

OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.

Cornelius P. V. Lull, 160 acres improved land and 160 unimproved land, valued at $4,000; also 4 horses, 4 cows, 6 work cattle, 2 other cattle, 4 hogs-total value of $700; the previous year he had harvested 250 bushels of wheat, 100 bushels of rye, 1,500 bushels of corn, and 1,000 bushels of oats. Note: Lull was born in New York and came to St. Paul in 1847. He was a carpenter by trade. The first number of the Minnesotu Pioneer, the first newspaper printed in Minnesota, was issued from his shop in April, 1849. He was the first sheriff of Ramsey county and was otherwise prominent in the early affairs of Minnesota. He was badly wounded while a citizen soldier engaged in defending Fort Abercrombie against an Indian attack in the fall of 1862. He died in the St. Paul City hospital March 2, 1897. It is not known in what part of Otter Tail county he lived in 1860, and there seems to be reason to doubt whether he should be listed as a resident of the county. In the regu- lar population schedule his name is not given, being one of tive of the four- teen landowners whose name does not appear.

Matthew Wright, 25 acres improved and 295 acres unimproved land, valued at $3,000; also $250 worth of farming implements; also 4 cows, 6 oxen, 5 other cattle, and 3 hogs, all valued at $600; the previous year (1859) he had raised 180 bushels of oats. Wright and his family fled to Ft. Abercrombie in the fall of 1862, at the time of the Indian massacre, and they were one of the very few families to return to the county after the Civil War. The Wrights were located in section 17 of present Buse township, where the elder Wright had constructed a saw-mill in the latter part of the fifties.

John Kerr, 15 acres improved and 145 acres of unimproved land, valued at $800; also $200 worth of farming implements; also 4 cows, and 4 work cattle, value $250; raised 100 bushels of wheat, 220 bushels of corn and 50 bushels of oats in 1859. ( Kerr's name does not appear in the population schedule.)

William Kerr, 20 acres improved and 140 acres unimproved land, valued at $1,000; also $300 worth of farm implements; also 2 horses, 5 cows, 2 work cattle, 4 other cattle, 5 hogs, all valued at $400. (Kerr's name does not appear in the population schedule.)

John Kimble (or Kimball), 10 acres improved and 150 acres of unimproved land, valued at $800; also $200 worth of farm implements; also 1 horse, 1 cow, 2 work cattle, 2 other cattle, all valued at $300; had raised 100 bushels of rye and 300 bushels of corn in 1859. (Kimble's name does not appear in the popu- lation schedule.)

Samuel Donnell, 15 acres improved and 145 acres of unimproved land, valued at $800; also $150 worth of farm implements; 4 work cattle, value $200; had raised 200 bushels of corn and 100 bushels of oats in 1859.

Joseph Dusette, 16 acres improved and 144 acres unimproved land. valued at $1,000; also $100 worth of farm implements; also 2 work cattle, value $100; had raised 50 bushels of corn in 1859.

James McDougall, 10 acres improved and 150 acres of unimproved land. valued at $1,000; also $75 worth farm implements; also 2 cows and 2 oxen, value $150; raised 100 bushels corn in 1859.

Francois Bellanger, 15 acres improved and 100 unimproved land, valued at $500: also farm implements worth $100; also 2 horses. 2 oxen, 2 hogs, total value $200; also had raised 150 bushels of Indian corn in 1859. (There are four Bel- langers in the population schedule, but not one by the name of Francois.)

A summary of the facts as set forth in the above tabulated statement reveals some very interesting things. It is seen that there was only three hundred six acres of improved land in the county, and of this total acreage

Digitized by Google

OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.

Lull, whoever he may have been, had one hundred sixty acres. No one at the present time seems able to identify his farm with any in the county. According to the best authority he was living at Breckinridge at this time, and, being a large landowner, it is possible he may have had some land in this county. There was a total of two thousand one hundred nineteen acres of improved land held by the fourteen landowners. In the way of live stock the totals for the county run as follows: Oxen. 40; cows, 24; other cattle, 15: hogs, 14: horses, 9. Of course, in the village of Otter Tail City there must have been a few cows and horses, and perhaps a pig or two, but no return was made of any live stock save that belonging to the fourteen men listed as land and live stock owners. It is interesting to note that there was considerable corn raised in the county at this time; the grain crops for 1859 stood as follow : Corn, 2.520 bushels ; oats, 2,320 bushels; wheat, 350; rye, 200. Over half of the wheat crop and nearly half of the oat crop was raised by Lull. The total value of the farming implements was returned at $2,425.

Digitized by Google

CHAPTER IV.

ORGANIZATION OF OTTER TAIL COUNTY.

The first mention of Otter Tail county in the history of Minnesota appears in an act of the state Legislature which was passed on March 18, 1858, which gave the county its first territorial limits. The Legislature of that year ( the last Territorial Legislature ) organized the whole state, hitherto unorganized, into counties of various sizes and shapes. One of these many counties so organized was Otter Tail and it is interesting to note the limits of the county as defined by this act :

"Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Minnesota: That so much territory as is embraced in the following described limits, be, and the same is hereby created into the county of Otter Tail: Commencing at the southwest corner of township No. 131, range 36 west ; thence north on the range line between ranges 35 and 36, thirty-six miles, to the northeast cor- ner of township 137, range 36; thence west to the Pelican river; thence down the Pelican river, through Pelican lake, and Lizzie and Prairie lakes, to the mouth of said river; thence south to the township line between town- ships 130 and 131 ; thence east to the place of beginning. The county seat is hereby temporarily established at Otter Tail City."

A glance at the map reveals the fact that the western limits of the county as defined by this act of 1858 did not follow section lines, not even from the mouth of the Pelican river to the southern boundary of the county. The greater part of the Pelican river is in range 43. although it enters the county at the extreme northeastern corner of present Dunn township. How- ever, before the county was formally organized in the fall of 1868, the Legislature altered the western limits and made the line dividing ranges 43 and 44 the boundary.

Before 1868 there were three acts passed by the state Legislature regarding the boundaries of the county. The first act ( March 10, 1860) provided for a change in the western boundary in case a favorable vote on the proposition should be carried, but if an election was held. there is no record of it extant. The next Legislature passed a second act ( March 8, 1861). which also failed of adoption because it was not voted upon. The third act ( March 6. 1862) merely affirmed the boundaries of the county as defined by the acts of March 10. 1860, and March 8, 1861. No change was made in the territorial limits of the county between 1862 and 1868, when the county was formally organized.

An "organized county," as the term is used in the Constitution of

Digitized by

Google

OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.

Minnesota, means a county which is organized in fact, and has its lawful officers, legal machinery and the means of carrying out the powers and per- forming the duties pertaining to it as a quasi-municipal corporation. An act of the Legislature declaring a county to be organized, and providing for the appointment of the necessary officers to institute a county government, does not make it an organized county. There must be people in the county, and the executive department of the state must act, before it is organized in fact. Whenever, by reason of war or other cause, there are no people in what was at one time an organized county, and there is no semblance of a county government within its limits, it is not. in the meaning of the Con- stitution, an organized county. In such a case there are no rights or inter- ests, public or private, which the restrictions of the Constitution were intended to protect. In the case of Otter Tail county, although in one sense it was organized by the act of 1858, yet, as a result of the Indian troubles of 1862, the county became practically depopulated and so few remained that it was in:possible to maintain the semblance of a county government.

A word should be said in this connection concerning the origin of the name of the county. The name "Otter Tail" is applied not only to the county, but also to its largest lake, to a river, a township, and to a village. The first seat of justice of the county was called Otter Tail City, but this place is not to be confused with the present village of Ottertail. which is situated about two miles east of the head of Otter Tail lake in Otter Tail township. At the head of Otter Tail lake is a narrow ridge of land one mile and a half long by two or three rods in width, and curved to the con- tour of the head of the lake. This peculiar strip has been forced up by ages of expanding ice and year by year its length has been extended as teh inflowing river was forced across its point. It was this fantastical topo- graphical feature suggested to the Ojibways the name Otter Tail. and thus the name became first applied to the lake, then to the "city" that sprang up at the head, to the township which contained the city and part of the lake. and finally to the county which embraced the lake. river. township and vil- lage-and all of the same name.

Although Otter Tail county was first defined by the act of 1858. it was not until ten years later that the county was formally organized with a complete set of county officers. This decade however, is not devoid of historical incidents, but owing to the fact that there were no local news- papers and written accounts have been preserved of this period its annals depend largely upon tradition. It seems certain that Otter Tail lake was well known to the French explorers as early as 1800, but there is no con- clusive evidence that they ever effected a permanent settlement within the limits of the county. Tradition is also responsible for an account of a

Digitized by Google

OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.

sanguinary conflict between the Sioux and Chippewas off the shores of Battle lake, the name of the lake having been applied as result of this battle. How many canoes were in this naval conflict, how many dusky warriors fell before the arrows of the enemy, how long the contest lasted, and which side came out victorious are facts which will probably never be known.

Immediately after the territorial legislature of Minnesota organized all of the then unorganized territory into counties, parties of surveyors were sent to the northern part of the state to get the land ready for entry. To Otter Tail county came a number of southern Democrats, who followed on the heels of Major George B. Clitherall, the first register of the land office at Otter Tail City. William Sawyer was the first receiver, and from what can be learned it appears that Clitherall and Sawyer were the heads of a large land syndicate which was looking forward to populating Minnesota with southern sympathizers. It must be recalled that this was before the Civil War, and during the days when President Buchanan was using every effort within his power to give the south as much advantage as possible. That Otter Tail county for the first two or three years of its history was under the domination of the slave element is evidenced by the fact that as soon as the war was declared in 1861. Major Clitherall left Otter Tail county and returned to Alabama. How many others left the county to join the Southern forces will probably never be known.

Otter Tail county was not the only part of northern Minnesota where Southern influence was manifest during Buchanan's administration. The influence of Robert Toombs of Georgia, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and John C. Breckenridge is seen in the naming of counties in Minnesota dur- ing this period. It is certain that these men were interested in the sur- vey of lands in Otter Tail county and adjoining sections of the state. As soon as the surveyors plats were returned to the land office the lands were put in the market at private entry or cash at $1.25 per acre. Large tracts were entered by one C. F. Yowe as trustee for the southerners who were interested in the syndicate operating in Minnesota, and there seems to have been a concentrated effort on the part of the promoters of the syndicate to get settlers to locate in the county. By 1860 the population had increased to two hundred and forty as returned by Oscar Taylor, United States census enumerator for the district including Otter Tail county, and it is fair to presume that a great majority of these settlers were living around Otter Tail lake and in close proximity to the county seat.

Otter Tail City, the county seat provided by the act of 1858, boasted of five log houses in 1858, and Hon. E. E. Corliss, the first county attorney, states that these same five houses were still standing when he first saw the "City" in 1870. The authority for stating that five houses were in Otter

Digitized by Google

OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.

Tail City as early as 1858 is furnished by a sketch made by Manton Marvel, of the New York World, who at the head of a party of explorers passed through Otter Tail City in the summer of that year. This sketch was pub- lished in Harpers Magasine in 1860 (Vol. 22) and shows five log houses with various outbuildings. It is also definitely known that the Wrights had a house and saw-mill at Dayton in the township of Buse where the Otter Tail Power Company's lower dam is now located, but this could not have embraced more than a dozen persons, or more probably, a half dozen.

Whatever the number may have been in 1862 it is certain that most of them, if not all, left the county during the Indian outbreak of that year. The Indians commenced hostilities in the valley of the Red river on August 23, 1862, and within a few days had so terrorized the settlers of that part of the state that they left their homes to the mercy of the savages and fled to the nearest forts. The governor issued a proclamation ordering the set- tlers in Otter Tail county to assemble at Fort Abercrombie which was then garrisoned by Company D, Fifth Regiment, Minnesota Infantry, under the command of Captain John Van der Horck. Early on the morning of the 23rd of August a band of five hundred Sissetons and Yanktons crossed the Red river about ten or twelve miles west of Fergus Falls, at what was after- wards called the Sibley ford on the eastern side of Wilkin county, with the intention of capturing a train of goods and cattle en route for Red lake, where a treaty was to be made with the Chippewas. The train was at once ordered to take refuge in Ft. Abercrombie and they were glad to avail them- selves of this opportunity of saving themselves and their property. Most of the settlers in Otter Tail and the surrounding counties managed to reach the fort unbarmed. and as far as is known none were killed by the Indians in Otter Tail county, although one of the sons of Matthew Wright was killed by the Indians before he reached the fort.

It will probably never be known how many settlers remained in the county during the Civil War. At least two courageous settlers, Scotchmen by birth, Macdonald and McDougle by name, did not leave the county at the time of the Indian uprising. This may be accounted for in large part by the fact that they had married Indian women. / As soon as the Indian uprising was quelled and the settlers had nothing to fear from a second invasion, they began to return to their old homes in the county and by 1868 the county was sufficiently populated to warrant its creation as a separate political organization. The census of 1870 gave the county a population of 1.968, and it is reasonable to presume that considerably more than half of this number had come into the county prior to the fall of 1868/

The legislative act formally organizing the county was passed March 16, (7)

Digitized by Google

OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.

1868, and this act changed the western boundary to the line dividing ranges 43 and 44. The act follows :

"The county of Otter Tail is established and bounded as follows : Beginning at the northwest corner of township 137. of range 43; thence eastwardly on the line between townships 137 and 138. to the northeast cor- ner of township 137, of range 36; thence southwardly on the line between ranges 35 and 36, to the southeast corner of township 131, of range 36; thence westwardly on the line between townships 130 and 131, to the south- west corner of township 131, of range 43; thence northwardly on the line between ranges 43 and 44, to the place of beginning."

This act gave the county its present limits, with the exception of the six congressional townships in range 44.

Pursuant to the act of 1868, the governor of the state appointed Mar- cus Shaw and Chancey Whiting as the first county commissioners. They met at the house of the former in Clitherall on September 12, 1868, and proceeded to effect the organization of the county. From this date until 1873 the county was endeavoring to get its county seat and territorial limits established. This period of five years witnessed no less than three legisla- tive acts, each providing for a vote on the changing of the limits of the county. During this same interval the question of a permanent location for the county seat added to the unrest generated by the bickering over boundary lines. The root of all the trouble lay in the fact that the county was too large for the scanty population. Six legislative acts were passed between 1870 and 1873 bearing on Otter Tail county, and it is necessary at this point to discuss these in their order.

ACT OF FEBRUARY 28, 1870.

The great majority of the people of the county were living in the neigh- borhood of Clitherall in 1868, and for a couple of years the commissioners met in the village of Clitherall for the transaction of business. This was done despite the fact that the county seat was supposed to be located at Otter Tail City by the legislative act organizing the county. By 1870 the population had greatly increased and it was felt that a permanent location should be found for the county seat. The citizens of the county at this juncture seemed to have decided that the seat of justice should be at Tor- denskjold, an embryonic urban center which did not boast of more than two houses at the time. The Legislature was appealed to and responded by passing an act on February 28, 1870, which established the county seat at the village of Tordenskjold. In view of the fact that very few people in the county are even aware of the existence of a village of this name in the early history of the county, the act making it the county seat is here given in full :

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 10

Author: John W. Mason Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Number of Pages: 765

Author: John W. Mason
Publication date: 1916
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 765