History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 53

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

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Our streets have been engineered and profiled and if our grades are not established they ought to be. and our principal streets are graded-more or less-and numerous culverts and drains make us healthy : if you don't think so just pick a small quarrel with us and try our muscle.

Two substantial bridges (over Union avenue and Cascade street) span the swift and beautiful Red river and three substantial dams vex its waters to the pecuniary benefit of the people of America.

A large, two-story school house with a bell and a $4.000 bond on top of it. stands on block 6. and small boys look up to it as if it were the veritable Temple of Fame. that used to illuminate the frontispiece of Webster's spelling book in days agone.

Two pretty churches, with clean white walls and spires ( Presbyterian and Congre- gational). adorn two pleasant eminences, and another (Methodist Episcopal) is now being built. Three other church organizations have yet no buildings. A national bank with a paid up capital of $50.000 (authorized to increase to $200,000) is doing a safe and successful business, and it is rumored that the stockholders intend to double the capital at an early day. We have nine stores of general merchandise: two of hardware exclusively. each connecting with it tin manufacture: one harness manufacturer: two boot and shoe shops: one jeweler: two drug stores: two saloons; six hotels: two mil- linery and one furniture store: one consolidated meat market: two blacksmiths and one wagon shop: one livery stable and stage line; one brick yard; one physician: five lawyers, and a barber to shave those who escape the sharp ones; one telegraph office: a lodge of Free Masons and Royal Arch Chapter; two newspapers and job printing offices. the Journal and Advocate. the first named being entirely printed at home, and the latter supplied with ready-made "Cheap John Intestines" (inside printed abroad). And when I state that we have three railroads, neither one of which is completed. I name the ground of our present unhappiness. And I suppose when we have sixteen railroads and a population of 50.000, that we shall no more be happy then than now. The St. Paul & Pacific (a land grant road) mostly graded and probably to be completed in 1874: the Minneapolis & St. Louis (special charter) from Minneapolis via Fergus to the Northern Pacific railroad; and the Duluth. Fergus Falls & Breckenridge (organized under general law), which has been located.

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FERGUS FALLS IN 1871.

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The sublime virtue of patience is no part of the composition of the Yankee. Unless we can realize on our speculations in fifteen minutes by the watch, business is voted "slowly." But an "Old Settler" who has lived through the dark year from 1858 to 1863 in Minnesota can afford to take the ups and downs with a reasonable degree of philo- sophy. He looks back and sees what a few years have done for Illinois and Iowa, and he knows that Minnesota and especially our beautiful Park Region for which Nature has done so much, cannot fail in a few years to be rich and populous as any portion of Illinois, and that a town with such rare natural advantages, supplemented by so much public spirit, intelligence and business energy as Fergus can show, must inevitably become the leading city of an extensive and prosperous region, and like the interior cities of Illinois, speedily run up a population of five, ten or twenty thousand. Where is the man who dares tread ou the tail of my coat when I advance the confident asser- tion that ten years hence Fergus will be by far the largest town in Minnesota north of Minneapolis.

PIONEER ADVERTISERS.

A glance at the first number of the Fergus Falls Advocate furnishes the best evidence of the growth of the village, in a little more than six months, by the business enterprises that are represented in the Advocate's advertising columns. The following were represented in the first number of that paper; the pioneer advertisers and business men of Fergus Falls :

Fergus Falls Business Directory, April, 1871.

Cowing & Company, dealers in dry goods, groceries, etc.

Buse & Henning, manufacturers and dealers in furniture.

E. W. Sims, Pioneer store, apothecary, drugs, groceries, etc. Ernest Buse, dealer in agricultural implements.

James Chambers, dry goods, groceries and general merchandise. D. M. McPherson, watches, clocks and jewelry sold and repaired.

Hunter, Dewey & Company, contractors and builders; John Vickrey conducted a meat market ; W. H. Smith, saloon and billiards. The lawyers were Bert Melville. Newton H. Chittenden and E. E. Corliss. J. W. Mason appeared on June 7, 1871.

FERGUS FALLS IN 1871.

The illustrations on the opposite page comprise scenes in Fergus Falls in 1871 and are reproduced from rare old photographs in the possession of C. D. Wright. The picture in the upper left-hand corner was taken from about the middle of reserve 82. looking a little north of west. The build- ings in the foreground are on reserve 67. To the left is George B. Wright's stable. while the building to the immediate right was a large boarding house which Wright erected to accommodate the men who were building his mill and surveying the town site. In the upper right-hand corner is a view of the Red river in Fergus Falls in 1871. The picture was probably taken from the bridge on Union avenue, looking east and up the river, a little beyond Mill street. The central picture, a view of the South Side, Fergus

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Falls, in 1871, was taken from a point a little east and north of the north end of the Cascade street bridge and looking towards the southwest. The two-story building to the left was used for a court house from 1873 to 1877. The small log building with the shed in rear, standing on Mill street on the east side between Bismark and Junius avenue, was built by William Salvage. It appears in the picture to the right of the centre. The small house to the right of the Salvage house and further south, is standing on lot I, block 50, and is the same lot on which the house of the Hon. John W. Mason now stands. The building to the extreme right, standing on the banks of Red river, was the combined saw- and grist-mill built and owned by George B. Wright. It stood on reserve 80. The bridge is across Cascade street, the first permanent one to be built across Red river in Fergus Falls. The pole bridge was on Union avenue, built about a year before the Cascade street one. The lower left-hand view is of Cowing's store, which stood on lots 3 and 4. block 20, on Lincoln avenue, but, strange to say, nearly a hundred feet from the avenue. In front of it was the croquet ground which is described in the reminiscences of the editor. In the lower right-hand corner is the residence and office of Dr. R. M. Reynolds, the first physician in Fergus Falls. His residence, built in 1871 on lot 10, block 35, was one of the first buildings erected on the South Side.

FERGUS FALLS WATER POWER.

Nearly all great industrial centers have been located where nature, anticipating the wants of man, has created falls and rapids in her great water courses, and in no place has nature been more lavish with her gifts than here at Fergus Falls. This fact was readily recognized by that explor- ing party, sent out by James Fergus, in search of a townsite. When, by the advice and direction of the Indians, they came to this place and took a view of the situation, they at once decided that this was a most favorable location for a town. Those primitive pioneers may be credited with a wise foresight, although it was not possible for them to have realized to the full extent the great resources that were here waiting for development. nor to have foreseen that the selected town site was to become a flourishing city, by the application of the thrift and enterprise of a future generation.

The Red river of the North is a stream nearly a thousand miles in length, and yet, strange to say, its source and mouth are scarcely more than two hundred and fifty miles apart. The river finds its source in Elbow lake, some sixty or seventy miles northeast of Fergus Falls, and not more than a dozen miles from lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi. The course of the Red river to Fergus Falls is through numerous large lakes, which, with other lakes flowing in on either side, furnish a supply of water that has scarcely any variation from one year to another. This uniform stage of the

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river is of great advantage in affording uniform power for industrial pur- poses.

At Fergus Falls there is a fall in the river of eighty-five feet within the city limits, and within a short distance of the town, above and below, there is a fall of one hundred and fifty feet. The natural formation of the banks of the stream is such that mills and manufacturing industries may be placed in close proximity to each other, and dams can be constructed at a very moderate cost.

INCORPORATED AS A VILLAGE.

From that day in August, 1870, when that keen-eyed grasshopper might have signalled the approach of loaded wagons with the teams coming over the brow of the hill from the south, accompanied by a party of laborers and mechanics-from that day dates the beginning of Fergus Falls. New set- tlers began to come in and the population increased rapidly. In less than a year the village had a population of about six hundred and application was made to Legislature for a charter. In compliance with this request Fergus Falls was incorporated as a village by the Legislature, February 29, 1872. The act provided for annual elections on the first Tuesday of April, at which time there were to be chosen a president, recorder, treasurer, three trustees, assessor and one justice of the peace. The inspectors provided by the act for the first election were Jacob Austin, James Chambers and Ernest Buse. This incorporating act is a long, rambling ambiguous and wonderfully con- structed piece of municipal law. If the genius who drew the bill and the statesmen who voted for it were able to follow and comprehend its meaning, through all its meandering course. they were above the average. But the act served the purpose intended just as well as if it had been easily under- stood.

THE FIRST VILLAGE ELECTION.

Under the provisions of this incorporating act the following notice of a village election was given by the inspectors named in the act :

"The legal voters of Fergus Falls are hereby notified that an election will be held at Jacob Austin's building, next to N. B. Warren's hardware store, on Tuesday. the 26th day of March, 1872, for the election of one president, one recorder, three trustees, one treasurer, one assessor and one justice of the peace. Said election to be held between nine and ten o'clock, a. m., and until five o'clock p. m.

"Dated, Village of Fergus Falls, March 11. 1872.

"JACOB AUSTIN. "JAMES CHAMBERS, "F. BUSE, "Inspectors of Flection."

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BOUNDARIES OF THE VILLAGE.

The act of incorporation fixed the following boundaries of the village of Fergus Falls, and only the legal voters residing within this boundary were entitled to vote at the election :

"The whole of sections two, three and four, and the north half of sec- tions nine, ten and eleven, in town one hundred and thirty-two north, range forty-three west. And the southwest quarter of section twenty-five; and the south half of sections twenty-six and twenty-seven; and the southeast quarter of section twenty-eight; and the east half of section thirty-three, and all of sections thirty-four and thirty-five; and the west half of section thirty-six, in town one hundred and thirty-three north, range forty-three west."

FIRST VILLAGE OFFICIALS.

Although the emoluments were not enticing, yet there was quite a spirited contest for some of the village offices, at the election, March 26, 1872. When the votes were counted, which was not a lengthy nor a labor- ious task, the following had a sufficient number of votes to entitle them to the distinction of being the first officials of the village of Fergus Falls: President, Ernest Buse; recorder, Justus Pickit; trustees, K. O. Harris, E. Robey and S. B. Miles; treasurer, W. C. Bacon; justice of the peace, John H. Harteau.

The following is a transcript from the record of the first meeting of the village council: "At a meeting held this the 30th day of March, 1872, the following officers having been notified of their election presented their acceptance of office: Ernest Buse, as president of the village of Fergus Falls, Minnesota; Justus Pickit, recorder; E. Roby, S. B. Miles and K. O. Harris, as trustees of said village. As members of the common council of the village of Fergus Falls, they proceeded to business, E. Buse acting as president.

"On motion a vote was taken that the bond of the treasurer be fixed at eight hundred dollars. Ayes: Robey, Miles, Harris and Pickit; noes, none.

"On motion a vote was taken that the bond of the recorder be fixed at six hundred dollars. Ayes: Miles, Harris and Robey; noes, Pickit.

"On motion the bond of the justice of the peace was fixed at five hun- dred dollars. Council adjourned.

"J. Pickit, Recorder.

"Dated this the 30th day of March, 1872."

OTHER COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS.

At a special meeting held April 1, 1872, all the members were present. The bonds of the recorder, treasurer and justice of the peace were presented

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and accepted. Newton H. Chittenden was appointed village attorney. Alonzo Brandenburg was appointed marshal, with a bond of four hundred dollars attached. John Harteau was instructed to prepare plans and esti- mated cost of a jail or lockup.

Among other business transacted at the meeting of the council, April 16, 1872, was the adoption of thirteen rules for government of that body. Some of these rules read very much like the rules of the old-time school- master, prepared and read to his scholars on the first day of school; the rules were usually solemnly impressive and wholly impossible of strict en- forcement. That the members of the first village council had a due regard for the dignity and the responsibility of their official position, and were determined to hold the members of that body down to a strict attention to business and to the observance of a proper decorum, is evidenced by the following among the rules adopted for their government :

"Rule 6-When the council adjourns the members shall keep their seats until the presiding officer announces the adjournment."

"Rule 9-The president, or any two members, may have a call of the council made and the names of the absentees shall be noted by the recorder. Every such absentee, not offering a reasonable excuse for his absence when called upon, or when summoned for that purpose, shall be fined one dollar; and all members leaving before the adjournment of the council without obtaining leave of the presiding officer shall be fined one dollar."

A careful examination of the proceedings of this and all the succeed- ing village councils does not disclose a record of any member of the council being reprimanded for not keeping his seat until the presiding officer told him the council was adjourned and that he might go home. Nor does the treasurer's books show the receipt of any fine imposed for absentees without proper excuse. The record of proceedings show that members were fre- quently absent but no excuses were called for, so far as the record shows.

FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS RAILROAD BONDS.

At a special meeting of the village council, May 3, 1872, a petition of twelve legal voters was presented asking for a special election to be called for the purpose of voting upon the proposition to issue bonds to the amount of fifty thousand dollars, to pay the increased cost of the construction of the Fergus Falls route, over that by way of Dayton, for the St. Cloud & St. Vincent, or the Pembina branch of the St. Paul & Pacific railroad. The council heard the petition and made an order for a special election to be held for a vote upon that proposition. June 3, 1872. That the people of the then little village wanted a railroad. and wanted it to make a donation of that amount, is evidenced by that fact that the vote on that proposition, at the

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election, June 3, was all but unanimous. Fortunately for the taxpayers the bonds were never issued.

MORE AMENDMENTS TO THE VILLAGE CHARTER.

The next Legislature passed an act (March 4, 1873), amending the original charter of Fergus Falls. If the genius who prepared the bill for this act had a desire to make it more ambiguous and more unintelligible than the original charter, he certainly accomplished his desire. This amendment was principally devoted to a change in the manner of voting at the village elections. The method evolved by the author of this bill was known as "the preference vote," a complicated problem in higher mathematics. That man- ner of voting was too complicated for the average mind. The people of Fergus Falls did not waste any time in trying to understand the "preference vote;" they threw the preference vote foolishness into the scrap heap and went on voting in the same old sensible way. At the next session of the Legislature this preference vote act was repealed.

The next amendment to the village charter was enacted by the Legisla- ture, February 14, 1879. This was of minor importance, merely making an exception to one of the articles in the original charter. Another amendment was added by the same Legislature and approved February 28, 1879. This gave the village council added power in opening, altering and vacating public streets, and giving them greater jurisdiction within the corporate limits.

FIRST SCHOOL DISTRICT.

Following is the official notice of the organization of the first school district ( No. 21 in Otter Tail county ) within the limits of Fergus Falls :

Fergus Falls, May 27th. 1872.

O. Jorgens, Esq.

Auditor Otter Tail County Minn.

Dr. Sir: Please take notice that at a meeting of the legal voters residing within the limits of the village of Fergua Falls, in said county & State. held May 24 "A. D. 1872, the territory embraced by said village was organized into a school District, agreebly to An Act of the legislature of said State passed during the session of 1871 & 1872. and that said District consists of the following described territory to wit: The whole of Sections two (2) three (3) four (4) and the north half of Sections nine (9) ten (10) and eleven (11) in Township One Hundred and thirty-two (132) North of Range forty three (43) west. and South west quarter of sections twenty five (25) and South half of Sections twenty six (26) and twenty seven (27) and southeast quarter of section twenty eight (28) and east half of section thirty three (33) and all of Sections thirty four (34) and thirty five (35) and west half of section thirty six (36) in township one hundred & thirty three (133) North of Range forty three (43) West.

J. W. MASON. Clerk of said Dist.

FERGUS FALLS BECOMES THE COUNTY SEAT.

The remarkable growth of Fergus Falls, through the energy and enter- prise of the progressive people who had located here during the years 1871

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and 1872, gave every assurance that this was the coming city of Otter Tail county, and was to become the industrial center of this part of the state. It was the ambition of its leading citizens to make it a county seat. The county seat had been located at Otter Tail City in 1868 by the Legislature in the act organization of the county. Various schemes were devised to accom- plish the desire of the Fergus Falls people. First it was proposed to organ- ize a new county to be known as Holcomb county, to be composed of certain parts of Otter Tail and Wilkin counties, making Fergus Falls the county seat. By an act of the Legislature this proposition was submitted to a vote of the people of Otter Tail county, at the general election, November 11, 1871. The proposition failed to carry, the vote being six hundred and eleven for, and seven hundred and sixty against a division of the county. The sentiment of Fergus Falls on this proposition was expressed by a vote of two hundred and one in favor and seven against it.

But the agitation of the question did not cease because of this adverse vote. At the next session of the Legislature a bill was presented by a representative in that body (E. E. Corliss), from Otter Tail county, pro- posing to detach six townships from the eastern part of Wilkin county and making them a part of Otter Tail county. Another bill provided that Fer- gus Falls should be the county seat of the enlarged county. The bills passed with the provision that they should be submitted to voters at the following general election. Both bills carried and the county seat was removed from Otter Tail City to Fergus Falls in the latter part of 1872. This was a serious blow to the little "city" by the lake. The town was practically dis- mantled within a year. People tore down their houses and loaded the lumber and other material on rafts and floated them down the river to rebuild again in the new county seat. This move put Fergus Falls on the map in large letters and gave a great impetus to its industrial development.

LACK OF RAILROAD FACILITIES.

Having secured the county seat. the ambition of Fergus Falls people was still unsatisfied. They needed a railroad as an outlet for the products of the factory and farm, and they needed it a long time before they secured it. The railroad question will be handled more in detail in another chapter. Merely as an illustration of the hopes and anxieties, the illusions and dis- appointments regarding prospective railroads coming to Fergus Falls in its early history, an editorial in the Fergus Falls Advocate. of March 2, 1872, is submitted. In that issue the editor devotes a column in startling black display type, announcing that the location of the St. Cloud & St. Vincent railroad through Fergus Falls is a certainty : that sub-contracts for grading had been let from St. Cloud to a point thirty miles northwest of Fergus

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Falls; that the cars would certainly be running by the last of November, 1872, and the first train ran into Fergus Falls December 2, 1879.

SOME ACTS OF THE VILLAGE COUNCIL.

In the beginning of their official career the members called their assem- bled body "The Common Council of Fergus Falls," but it occurred to them later that this was not the legal title as authorized by the charter. At a meeting. January 29, 1873. the council amended all the ordinances adopted under the title of "Common" council, and by resolution declared the official name to be. "The Village Council of the Village of Fergus Falls."

The council had some trouble in the adoption of satisfactory license fees. In one of their earlier meetings the following schedule was adopted : For retail liquor license, $250 per year; for wholesale liquor dealers, $150 per year; for billiard and pool tables, each, $5 per year; for bowling alleys, $10 per year. Druggists were required to pay fifty dollars a year for the privilege of selling liquors for medicinal purposes only.

This license legislation was incorporated in ordinance No. I. A suc- ceeding council, at their meeting, April 2, 1873, repealed this ordinance and enacted another reducing the liquor license fees about one-half and doubling the fees for billiard tables. The next council made a still further reduction in the retail liquor license fee.

The village marshal, at the council meeting, June 3, 1872, presented a bill of ten dollars for killing and burying five dogs, two dollars per dog. The council, after due deliberation, decided that this was too expensive a funeral for the average dog and cut the marshal's bill to five dollars.

At their meeting, June 2, 1873, the council instructed the street com- missioner to refund the poll tax to ministers of the Gospel who had paid said tax. On February 11, 1874, George B. Wright made a proposal to sell the village various plans and profiles of the original plat, as made by James Patterson, for sixty dollars, the amount to be used only in payment of Wright & Mendenhall's taxes. The proposition was accepted.

On March 2, 1874, George B. Wright presented a proposition to sell to the village the upper bridge for the sum of eight hundred dollars. After various motions and much discussion this proposition was rejected. April 20. 1874. an order was made for a sidewalk on each side of Lincoln avenue: "Said walk to be eight feet wide. constructed of good substantial plank, two inches thick : cost of walk to be charged to property owners." A num- ber of other walks of similar construction were ordered at this and subse- quent meetings.

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History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 53

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

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