USA > Minnesota > Otter Tail County > History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 75
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The office of register, to which Cowing was appointed in the fall of 1895, continued to be filled by him as long as the office remained in Fergus Falls. But the other office, that of receiver, was destined to be the cause of no little contention and dissension before the land office left Fergus Falls in 1889. Aune, the man with the "imperceptible" following. was more of an expert in political manoeuvers than in the transaction of such business as fell to the lot of the receiver of the land office. In fact, within less than a couple of years from the time of his appointment Aune had his reputation
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as a man and his accounts as receiver hopelessly jumbled. His friends, "Me and Mike," had called upon him to furnish a delegation from Otter Tail county which would be amenable to their dictation, and the furnishing of such a hand-picked delegation by Aune was said to have cost him the sum of seven hundred dollars. Whether this amount had anything to do with his land office accounts is not known, but the upshot of his political manoeuvering and poor bookkeeping was his summary dismissal from the office of receiver.
Aune's deposition on June 23, 1887, was followed by the appointment of J. G. Nelson, of Parkers Prairie, who, strange to say, had been one of the most active Republicans of the county. The selection of Nelson by the Democratic machine was another stunning blow for the Simon-pure Demo- crats of the county, and it is even said that Aune himself was stricken dumbfounded. The situation was not clarified when Nelson announced a month later that he did not want the office. Aune, of course, had been filling the office during this time, waiting until his successor should qualify. Aune had in some mysterious way secured an appointment elsewhere and was anxious to relinquish the receivership in Fergus Falls, but months were to pass before he was to be relieved. There was no dearth of candidates, but the manipulators of the state machinery did not seem to be able to agree on a successor. As 1887 drew toward a close Aune became too convivial to conduct the office in a sober manner and the result was that his bondsmen, on November 24, 1887, telegraphed to Washington that he was neglecting the office, embezzling the money of the government and, furthermore, that he had been discharged for drunkenness by the firm which had employed him. A little more than two months were to elapse before a successor to Aune was ready to take the office. On February 2, 1888, K. O. Harris was selected from a large field of candidates, including such worthy citizens of the county as Capt. John Hay, J. P. Kennedy, H. S. Cole, George Waters, M. R. Lowry and a few others. Harris managed to hold the office until it was removed to Crookston the following year. The appointment of Harris did not cover all the seas of Democracy in the county with oil, as is evi- clenced by the report of an interview which M. R. Lowry, one of the aspir- ants for the office, had with the Journal. Apropos of Harris's appointment, Lowry, when questioned as to what claim Harris had on the administra- tion, replied "Not one single damn claim." With the appointment of Harris, Otter Tail county politics and the land office disappear from local history. The office was moved to Crookston in February, 1889, and Cowing and Harris were transferred with it at the time.
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REMINISCENCES OF FERGUS FALLS.
(An extremely interesting article with the above heading appeared in the Journal of December 14, 1882, but without signature. It is very evi- dent that the author was personally acquainted with all the persons and incidents which he mentions. )
E. W. Sims located in Fergus Falls in 1870 and selected his gift busi- ness lot "on the hill," as it was then designated, but not styled, "corner of Lincoln avenue and Mill street." A chronicler of these days tells that his log cabin, with its sod roof, was "looked up to as the best house in Fergus Falls." And when a little later Justus Pickit, and his partner, Abbott, came up from St. Cloud and built the building later occupied by Wright & Crock- roft, directly across the street from Sims' "pioneer store," as he delighted to call his hovel, it was a great day for the "coming city." Sims served his day and passed on to newer fields, while Justus held the fort against competitors, and lived to reap the reward of well doing. But it is worth noting that these pioneers in business chose their locations on what has proved to this day to be the most valuable lots in Fergus Falls, and that while the city has grown and spread over the hills and through the groves, up the river and down the river, with the addition of mills and railroads, still the spot where they located remains the business center of the city and it is a little singular that the business center has never varied a half block from where these pioneers stuck their stakes.
From the day Sims sold his first plug of tobacco or pound of salt pork, not a year has passed but the business of Fergus has increased. At the first there was but little trade. Settlers were few and poor, and of produce there was none. Eli Dewey often said that he should have starved if Providence had not sent a mink into the boys' traps about every time the family must have a sack of flour. Little by little the trade grew. Team- sters and farmers earned largely by hauling freight from Benson here, the nearest railroad point. Most of the substantial pioneers of Western town- ship made their living for many years by freighting, chiefly with oxen, from Campbell to Fergus, taking home a load of wood in return. Soon farmers began to have wheat, butter, beef, etc., to sell, and when, in 1873, the busi- ness of the town was divided about as follow: Two general stores, one drug store, two hardware stores, four stores handling groceries, confec- tions, cigars, etc., one barber who combined peanuts and lemonade with his lather, one harness-maker, one shoe-maker, one doctor, three clergymen (chiefly supported by the missionary societies), and seven or eight lawyers. Of the latter and most numerous class, at least two were farmers as well as lawyers, and one taught school.
At the time referred to in 1873, every store but one in town was on
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Lincoln between Court and Mill street and a single blacksmith shop was all that graced the south side of the avenue east of Mill. On the north side was the old Mathies mansion, a carpenter shop where Week & Wessburg was later located, a blacksmith shop, out of which Jay Near later built the kitchen to the Occidental, the Cataract House, the Scandinavian hotel and the old Journal building. There was nothing but log houses from Prinzl's corner west to Schultz's (then George Waters), and yet, as has been said, that block had all the stores but one-Sundahl's old store.
The stores were all small, low of ceiling, but up in the air in one sense, -elevated because there was a swampy piece of road in the spring time from Court street to Union avenue. The passage of the great slough from the last named avenue to where Lawyer Corliss had ventured to take up his residence, away over in Mclain's addition, was made by a grand detour, and even this was frequently impassable in wet weather.
But even in those days of small things everybody who gazed on Fer- gus liked it, liked its people, and readily believed there was a bright future in store for those who had the patience to sit down and wait for it. By degrees their number were reinforced. Otter Tail, the finest agricultural county in the state, was rapidly developing, and Fergus has ever been regarded as a leading trading point for a large circuit of country. Farmers came long distance here to mill, county business and land office business called them; and the First National Bank called a great many people here from a distance. It was the only bank of issue above St. Cloud for seven or eight years, and its transactions were always conducted so fairly, its delicate collection business was carried on so kindly and squarely, that the people always regarded the institution with that favor and pride that it deserved.
In 1872 the incorporators of the First National Bank took a bold step and established that institution; the same year Page & Scott built the first flour-mill on the second dam that vexed the channel of the Red. The United States land office was removed here from Alexandria in the fall of 1876. Walter C. Bacon, who came here as the agent of George B. Wright in 1870, was a valuable man to the young town for the next succeeding ten years. Nothing escaped his notice; watchful, thoughtful of the poor, guarding the moral and humane interest of the town, he made a strong impression for good on the young community.
GEORGE B. WRIGHT'S STORY.
In 1874 a small brochure appeared, bearing the legend, "Fergus Falls, the coming city of the Northwest, and the Park Region of Minnesota, the choicest tract in the Northwest. as seen in 1873, being off-hand sketches, by 'Old Settler.'" The "Old Settler" was George B. Wright and his brochure
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bearing the title just given contained thirty pages of interesting material, topographical, cartographical, geological, historical and reminiscent. In addition to the history of Fergus Falls, he embodied in the pamphlet a very illuminating reminiscent article which throws considerable light on the early history of the county. Inasmuch as Wright had more to do with the estab- lishment of Fergus Falls than any other man, it seems appropriate to give his article in its entirety, remembering that it was written in 1873. It fol- lows :
I have a dim suspicion that the "old settlers" who infest this western country, and who annually get up reunions, and have dinners and toasts and speeches and things to drink, are regarded by the modern people of fashion and business as old humbugs, who have told their yarns of pioneer adventures so many times that they really believe them to be true. The old settler's recollections are always of a race of men of large size. An old settler by the name of Homer (he didn't have any other name and I don't remember what his father's name was, for he died some time ago and I had no personal acquaint- ance with him), who used to write pompous poetry for the old settlers' annual meetings. mentions in regard to the early inhabitants that they were
"Not such as live in these degenerate days."
It is. I believe, generally conceded that Homer was correct. Having a laudable ambition to "see Homer and go one better," the Old Settler desires to give you some incidents in regard to the early history of Fergus Falls and Otter Tail county. History is a good word. It subdivides itself naturally into ancient history and modern history. The ancient history of Fergus extends from the days of Chaos ( who was on old settler) down to June 1st. A. D. 1871 : modern history takes the balance of the time and discounts the ages. As I have no very distinct recollections of the earlier part of the ancient his- tory of Fergus. I shall confine myself to some reminiscences of the years immediately preceding the modern period.
Otter Tail county was established. I believe. by the last Territorial Legislature of Minnesota, in 1857. It derives its name from the beautiful river which flows through the county from northeast to southwest. The river was and is properly the Red river, and all the old maps have it so laid down. The Otter Tail is the name of the long, curved point of land lying between the river and lake at Otter Tail City. This singular point is nearly one and a half miles long and not more than three rods wide, and has been formed by the action of the ice and winds on the lake and the current of the river at its entrance to the lake, and has successively given its name to the lake, the county. the former county seat. and has almost supplanted the old and honored name of the river also. I would here remark that the noble red man is responsible for the elegant and euphonious name which distinguishes our county from all others. Let us learn to respect him for what he has done.
Otter Tail City was designated by the Legislature as the county seat. It was the "Metropolisville" of the Northwest. It was one of the rising cities of the townsite period of 1856. The United States land office was there, and a couple of high-toned proslavery gentlemen of the good old days of Jeems Buchanan held forth there as register and receiver. That circumstance accounts for the names ( Buchanan and (litherall) inflicted on two of the beautiful lakes of that region.
The Republican flood came in 1860 and swept away the Democratic patriarchs, and the heathen aboriginee came in 1862 and completed the ruin by chopping a hole in the safe and extracting thence all the postage stamps (articles of necessity with the children of the forest ) and distributing the office records to the winds. It is worthy of note that they were particularly severe in their treatment to printed blanks, while the unimportant
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books and papers which had merely been scribbled over by the foolish white man were left undisturbed. It is a pleasant thing to contemplate the sagacity of the untutored untive.
Except the few persons at Otter Tail City there was no settlement in the eastern part of the county until about 1865. In the western part of the county the first settlement was made probably in 1857. at Fergus Falls, by one Jo. Whitford. In the spring of that year James Fergus. of Little Falls, now resident of Montana, after the manner of the period sent a party out in search of a townsite. The Indians told them of the big swift water of the Red river. They found it and named it in honor of their employer. The same year Gen. T. H. Barrett. of St. Cloud, surveyed the townsite. The writer hereof remembers to have seen some of the stakes set by that pioneer surveyor, who in the same year surveyed for George F. Brott. then of St. Cloud and now of New Orleans, the town- site of Breckinridge. naming it after the Vice President of the United States.
Some time in 1857 also, the Burbanks (J. C. and H. C. Burbank & Co.) established the stage line from St. Cloud to Ft. Abercrombie, cutting out the old road. through the Alexandria woods (of infernal memory to every traveler), and for the doing of which may they in infinite mercy be forgiven. Douglas county, properly remembering their great crime. has ever since refused to reimburse them for the thousand dollars' worth of corduroy and stumps with which a suffering people have been inflicted by Burbank & Co. Douglas county never would have done it, never-for it cost money.
Burbank established a station at the crossing of Red river, and Matthew Wright became the station keeper. He is the "old settler" par excellence of this region. A deep-worn and grass-overgrown track crosses the prairie, and an occasional fragment of an old corduroy bridge or two, all that. now show where for years the red hacks of the stage company formed the only line of communication between the civilized world and the far-off military post of Abercrombie.
Matthew Wright called his place "Dayton," in honor, I believe, of the distinguished Jerseyman who was Fremont's second in the Presidential campaign of 1856, and here on the frontier, as in the political field, Breckinridge and Dayton became rivals.
Whitford built a log cabin at Fergus Falls. The writer remembers to have seen it once, looking dim, dilapidated, ghastly-suggestive of the dark, fearful days of 1862. when beneath the murderous tomahawk and knife of the savage, hundreds of dear, brave lives passed away. The cellar of his cabin may yet be seen near Whitford street, just inside the fence of Henry G. Page's block. The spot should be marked and carefully preserved. A hundred years hence the stranger may read on a tablet: "Ilere dwelt Jo. Whitford, the first white inhabitant of Fergus Falls; killed by Sioux Indians in the massacre of August. 1862," with much the same feeling that is inspired by the little iron disc in the pavement of State street. Boston. which marks the spot where fell the first martyr of the American Revolution.
Smith was an eccentric Scotchman, and a wild tale of his buried gold on the townsite of Fergus is the only mystery and romance of the place which tradition has given us. He was a very rich man and buried almost as much money as did that romantic party named Captain Kidd. Recently a solitary gold sovereign has been found near the site of the old cabin. It seems probable that this solitary coin constituted the entire capital of Smith. and that he lost it one day out of a hole in his breeches pocket, and couldn't find it again. Imagination has been letting out his money at more than five per cent. a month compound interest, ever since 1862, and will continue to do so. Who can compute the piled wealth of the eccentric person named Smith as it will be a hundred years hence? .
In 1859 and 1860 some of the lands of the county were first surveyed. Sixteen town- ships around Otter Tail lake. and five or six in the southwestern part of the county. Oscar Taylor, since mayor of St. Cloud; E. D. Atwater, now secretary of the land depart- ment of the St. Paul & Pacific railroad, and J. R. King (whom we hope has reformed and become a better surveyor than then) were among those who made these early surveys. Fergus Falls was designated on the plat of township 133, range 43, as embracing one
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hundred and twenty acres on the north side of the river, and extending from about where Union avenue now is up the stream for three-fourths of a mile. An old field of three or four acres occupied the land between Cascade street and the mill pond. The old corn rows can yet be traced.
In the fall of 1864, and before any new settlements had been made west of Alexan- dria (the old settlers of 1862 having been all killed or driven away by the Indians), the surveyed lands in this region were offered at public sale in the St. Cloud land office. Whitford had not perfected bis title. Fergus had gone off to Montana with Capt. Jim Fisk, and Fergus Falls remained without an owner a year or two. This whole region was out of the world, worthless, and would always remain so. Such was the popular idea. One day a surveyor named Wright, lounging around the land office at St. Cloud, concluded that the place might be worth a hundred dollars, and laid a piece of college scrip costing that amount on one quarter section of the land for a friend of his. The friend declined the investment at cost, and the surveyor finally paid him the one bun- dred dollars with interest. Hon. II. C. Wait, of St. Cloud. subsequently (thinking the surveyor might have got a good location ). invested forty dollars in the land where the mills and central part of the town now are, but becoming tired of his bargain in 1867, sold the land to Wright at cost (one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre) and interest. Before this time R. J. Mendenhall had entered the quarter section south of the river, and vari- ous other parties still later entered the other lands in the vicinity. Even down to the spring of 1870 there was good government land subject within half a mile of the falls.
As in the days of old, men sometimes even now "see visions and dream dreams," and in 1868 Ernest Buse had a vision of a "coming city," and traveled several months in this portion of the state in search of the picture which his dreams had placed before bim. One day (previous to four o'clock p. m.) his enraptured eyes beheld the beautiful valley of Red river and the "falls." It was a clear case of "love at first sight." The dream was fulfilled-Eureka ! or (in Dutch) words to that effect !
Long before that time, however, had the writer looked upon the scene without enthusiasm. Ile was alone-tired-hungry ( the mosquitoes were hungry also), and a long way from his mother. Whitford's deserted cabin and "deserted village" did not inspire lively thoughts. Hard tack and cold water are not as exhilarating as a champagne supper. But a blanket and knapsack, tired frame and the murmur of waters made a good combi- nation for sleep. So he slumbered quietly one dark night, and on the morrow went his way, not rejoicing to any alarming degree, but impressed with a profound conviction that here would be a town "in a hundred years, if nothing happened" to prevent. Rash predic- tion, no doubt, but true.
In August, 1870, work commenced. On the 19th day of that month a party of sur- veyors and laborers arrived, and pitched their tent on the north side of the river, near what is now the central part of the town. About sunset of that day these weary pioneers, looking across the river, saw on the south side a large, meditative black bear-a lineal descendant of the residents of Fergus in the olden time. that seemed to be musing upon the glorious past, and foreseeing evils for his race bruin in the future, "lit out" for a more secure retreat, and then and there bade a final adieu to one of his favorite haunts.
And now reader ( ungentle) good-bye. If you have come thus far you are ready to rejoice with me that this is-the end.
THE STORY OF KNUT O. HARRIS.
It was a matter of pure chance that brought me into Fergus Falls rather than to some other towns of the upper country as one of the early settlers. I started from Adams county, Wisconsin, the last of May, 1871, with eight other families and all bound for the Red river country, which was all we knew. It was a delightful trip, and my wife, who had been sick for a long
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time, picked up health amazingly. We got to the Pomme de Terre, cross- ing on the 6th of June, and nobody knew exactly what to do next or where to go. Some wanted to go to Fergus Falls, others wanted to take the road to Dayton, crossing and going up to Georgetown or farther. I wanted to go back and would, if any of the rest would have gone, for it was pretty late in the season and I did not know exactly what I was going to do after I got there. However, everybody else was going ahead.
Just a bit head the road forked, one way going left to Dayton and beyond, the other to Fergus Falls. I had an old pair of oxen, big fellows, that would go as far as a horse and keep it up. So I said to the others, "I'll tell you what I'll do, if you will agree to it, and follow. I'll give the oxen their head and go whichever way they'd decide to take." They all agreed, for nobody knew any more about the country than I did. I started the oxen and gave them their own way when they got to the fort. They did not hesitate at all, but struck straight into the Fergus Falls road.
So we came to Fergus Falls, and that is how I came here instead of somewhere down the Red river on the flats. We camped that night in the bend of the river near where Hanson's tannery later stood. The next day our first sight of the coming city was an awful one. It not only rained but it snowed. That is the truth, though it was the 7th of July. It was a chilly and unhappy beginning. That summer we sent to Morris and to Otter Tail City for lumber. I built the house E. J. Webber afterwards bought from me on Cavour avenue near the central school. After a time I bought into the firm of Couse & Hammer, taking the place of Couse. Afterwards I bought Mr. Hammer's share. Jake Austin and myself were mostly in rivalry in the buying of muskrat skins and Mr. Pickitt also bought furs. The first one I bought was a mink, so the man said, and wanted fifty cents for it. He said he had been offered twenty-five cents for it. I did not know a mink skin from a dog skin then, but I gave him his fifty cents just as an experiment and the next day the buyer came along and gave me four dollars and a half. So I concluded nobody could lose much on that sort of traffic whether he knew anything about the skin or not, and bought steadily. 'I remember I got so many at one time that the store would not hold them all, so I had to put a lot upstairs at my house, and how the family kicked at the smell. We used to have runners out on the street to capture the trappers as they came to town. Everybody had money and trade was brisk.
THE STORY OF G. O. DAHL.
I arrived in Alexander in 1869. About the first of April, that spring, I came to Otter Tail county, where my father, who had moved here in 1887, had a homestead on section 12, in Tumuli township. The next day I walked to Fergus Falls, but found it impossible to cross the river and went
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back to Tumuli. That was my first glimpse of the promised city. I looked the country over a bit and finally went back to Alexandria, where I worked at my trade until 1870, when I came again and took a homestead in St. Olaf. I sold the right after a few months and in the same year again came to Fergus Falls. I contracted for a lot from Mr. Bacon, at the corner of Bismark and Mill street, where Mr. Conklin's house afterwards stood, but again changed my mind and went back to Alexandria, where I remained in business from 1872 to 1874. Then I came here again, selling out my Alexandria business. Mr. Wick and myself rented the Buffalo house, which was a hotel, sixteen by twenty-one feet, standing on the present site of the old Fergus Falls National Bank building, from George Head, and went into business. After one year we bought the Jacob Austin stock and building. where Mr. Frankovitz's hardware now stands, paying six thousand and two hundred dollars for the buildings, and with Messrs. Hammer and Wick remained in business until 1881.
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