USA > Minnesota > Otter Tail County > History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 9
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"The small lake on which we again embarked in our canoe is about ten feet deep, the water very clear. No doubt it contains abundance of fish. A
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second portage, over another dam of the same character, brought us to another lake about the same size; a third portage of about half a mile through dwarf oaks found us at the western extremity of Leaf lake, the source of Leaf river, which is a tributary of Crow Wing river. We had thus, in two hours, passed with our boat and baggage from the waters of the Red river of the North, which flows into Hudson bay, to the waters flowing into the Gulf of Mexico."
Thus closes the first description of Otter Tail county which has been found in any printed account. Sixty-seven years have elapsed since Captain Pope passed through the country and, could he return to the scene which he so well described at that time, he would see no less than fifty thousand people within a radius of forty miles of Otter Tail lake. Truly has this territory fulfilled all that its first explorer claimed for it; it is the "garden spot of the Northwest."
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CHAPTER III. OTTER TAIL COUNTY IN 1860
The accompanying map of Otter Tail county is a photographic repro- duction of that part of Sewall's map of Minnesota, published in 1860, which contains Otter Tail county. It was made by J. S. Sewall from plats in the government surveyor-general's office at 'St. Paul and published by Sewall & Iddings, of St. Paul. At that time only nine congressional townships in the county had been surveyed and made ready for sale and settlement. Several tracts had been entered and some improvements had been made by the settlers.
Other Tail RI.
Buffalo Path Lakes
120
Pelican L
0
LZizzie
NR ID GE
Loon 9 416
10
38
37
36
Prairie LU
Long L.
L Anna
MC Donald L
Pelican Rapidss
Silent L.
Star L.
Leafs
the Dead
ahier vail city
Dear
Echota
Bluff
Laphamd
OTTE RA
Bear zot
Fergus Falls
30 ( Braille L
0
Lockports
Lilitherall
03
I Wascata
0
L. Christin
Lightning;
OTTER TAIL COUNTY IN 1860.
At that time the county had the same boundaries as at the present time, with the exception of the western boundary. The act of March 18. 1858, defined the western boundary as follows: Beginning where the line dividing townships 137 and 138 cross the Pelican river (in range 42) ; "thence down the Pelican river. through Pelican lake and Lizzie and Prairie lakes, to the
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Deer Cr
0
Otter Tail F
Pine Lakes
Devil Lo
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OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
mouth of said rivers; thence south to the township line between townships 130 and 131." The acts of March 10, 1860, March 8, 1861, and March 6, 1862, placed the western boundary on the line dividing ranges 43 and 44. The act of February 28, 1872, added range 44.
The light lines extending through the county represent trails between ! Crow Wing, St. Cloud and other points south and east, and l'embina, Ft. Abercrombie, St. Vincent and other points north and west. There were no regularly established roadways in 1860 and the trails were mere paths through the forests, around the lakes, over the hills and across the prairies. The villages shown on the map were such only in name; the present generation recognizes only two of the villages on the map-Fergus Falls and Otter Tail City-and the latter has long since disappeared. Concerning Waseata, Lock- port, Lapham, Echota, Leaf City and Bonita, other places on the Otter Tail county map of 1860, history has nothing to record other than their names. Otter Tail City and Waseata were postoffices in 1860, and Echota was actually incorporated by the legislature in 1858 ( House Journal, 1852, page 656), but its history seems to have stopped with its incorporation. Nothing is known of the other places on the map.
The history of Otter Tail county during the decade 1858-68 presents many peculiarities. Organized by the legislative act of March 18, 1858, with a population which must have been very sparse and not to exceed a few score of souls, the county attracted quite a number of people to its con- fines within the next two years. The United States census of 1860 returned a population of two hundred forty for the county, but it is absolutely impos- sible at the present time to determine whether all of these people actually lived within the limits of the county. They were classed in the census as whites and mixed-blood Indians, "who had adopted the manners and cus- toms of civilization." Many of the white men had. by common-law mar- riages and otherwise, obtained Indian wives/ and most of these mixed mar- riages fully accorded with the late President's views concerning race suicide. The progeny resulting from these marriages helped to swell the census returns. if they served no other purpose. It should be said, however, in justice to these first settlers, that they lived on the whole, reputable lives. The Indian mothers had Christian names, as did their children, and many of them had been baptized in the Christian faith. And it must be remembered that they were considered citizens of the United States and of the state of Minnesota.
Even before 1860, it appears from some authorities, religious services had been held in Otter Tail City. According to one account there was an Episcopal mission there in charge of Rev. James L. Breck, who labored hard. if unsuccessfully, to make converts of the heathen Chippewas, and, it
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might be said, of the white people who were in many cases as much in need of his missionary efforts as their Indian brothers. The Otter Tail City mis- sion was connected with that at Gull lake, and Reverend Breck divided his time between the two stations. He had formerly been stationed at Leech lake, but in 1859 was driven from that post by some drunken Indians, who plundered the stores, destroyed the mission house and menaced the lives of the missionary and his assistants. He then went to Gull lake and Otter Tail City, and as far as is known, continued to labor in these two missions until the massacre of 1862. At that time the mission at Gull lake was destroyed by other drunken and malevolent Indians, Chippewas, not_Sioux. (See Andreas's Atlas, 1874), "Protestant Missions" in Minnesota Historical Society Collections, Vol. 6.)
There was also a United States land office at Otter Tail City, with George B. Clitherall, of Alabama, as register, and William Sawyer, of Ohio, as receiver. It might be mentioned in this connection that both men were appointees of President Buchanan, and left the county at the opening of the Civil War. Clitherall did not serve in the Confederate army, as has been asserted by some, but did drill some soldiers for his state. He died in Mobile, Alabama, in October, 1890.
By the summer of 1860 nine congressional townships had been surveyed in Otter Tail county and several claims and entries made thereon. At that time ( 1860) there was no homestead law, which meant that many of these settlers must have been squatters. The homestead act was passed by con- gress in 1862, and until that time settlers had to buy their land direct from the government at rates varying from one dollar twenty-five cents to two dollars fifty cents an acre.
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A study of the 1860 census return for the county gives a good view of the various industries of the county seat. There were three stores, or what were then commonly called trading houses, in the village. Donald McDonald was the first trader to locate in the place and he was followed by Duncan McDougall and Francois Belleair. McDonald was an old man at this time and fitted in well with life on the frontier. He had been trading up and down the Red river as early as 1837 and had come to what is now Otter Tail county some years before 1858. But just when he first settled in Otter Tail City will probably never be known, although there are still many people living in the county to remember the quaint old character. No one seems to have ever heard him say when he came to this county and practically all the definite information preserved regarding this pioneer merchant of the county is summed up in the census of 1860. He was one of the very few white men to stay in the county during the Civil War and he continued to reside here for many years afterwards. He had a mixed-blood wife. just
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what the mixture was history does not record, but she was "Aunt Genevieve" to every one who knew her, which may show that she was held in affection by them. She was a Red Lake Chippewa in part, and was evidently, if tradition reports correctly, an Indian of high birth.
A history of Becker county says that, in 1854, "Donald McDonald, of Otter Tail lake, built a log house on the northeast shore of Detroit lake (in Becker county ), on the little prairie a few rods west of where the Pelican river enters the lake. After trading there with the Indians for about two years he returned to Otter Tail."
Concerning the other two storekeepers still less is known. McDougall was a young man of thirty-two, a native of upper Canada, with an Indian wife and five children, all of whom were, according to the census, born in Minnesota. The third trader, Francois Belleair, was a half-breed, as was his wife, Betsy.
In addition to the three merchants there were other occupations repre- sented in the village. William R. Atkinson, a native of New York, was the proprietor of the village caravansary, and since his personal property was listed at one thousand dollars he appears to have had a well-ordered hostelry. Strange as it may seem, there was returned a ship carpenter, one George Simpson, native of Maine, who gave his occupation as such to the enumer- ator. Whether he followed his vocation on the banks of the lake is not known. Among the other occupations represented in the census return may be mentioned surveyors, blacksmiths, farmers, laborers, teamsters, nurses, mail carriers, servants, housekeepers, lumbermen, coopers, carpenters and stage drivers. The great majority of these were listed either as farmers or laborers.
According to Sewall's map of Minnesota for 1860, there were at that time four real or so-called villages in the county. These were as follow : Otter Tail City, on the eastern side of the lake of the same name; Echota, eight miles northeast of the present site of Fergus Falls, on Red river, in Friberg township; Bonita, at the southwest end of Otter Tail lake; Waseata, in section 17, township 132, range 43, about four miles southwest of Fergus Falls; Marion, on south side of Otter Tail lake. For some inexplicable reason the legislature of 1858 incorporated the "town of Echota" (House Journal, page 656; also chapter 163, Laws of 1858), but there its history stops. If any persons ever lived on that site while it was incorporated as a village, history fails to preserve their names. The incorporating act desig- nated John Mininger as president, Joseph B. Harm as recorder and Nathan Johnson, M. Groff and James K. Hoffman as justices of the village. Who these men were, where they came from and whence they departed not even tradition records. Another village in Otter Tail county incorporated in 1858,
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but not shown on the map of 1860, is Marion. Nothing further is known of it than is recorded in the act incorporating it.
The census of Otter Tail county in 1860 was taken under the direction of Hon. Oscar Taylor, of St. Cloud, a lawyer and a Democratic politician. Subsequently he was a captain in the Minnesota Mounted Rangers, a mem- ber of the Legislature, county attorney of Stearns county for many years, a man of more than ordinary ability. He died in Kansas in 1905. The work of enumeration in Otter Tail county was done by a deputy, but just who he was is not now known. A manuscript copy in the handwriting of the deputy is now in the custody of the secretary of state at St. Paul. It is from this manuscript that the data for this chapter has been compiled. For some reason the inhabitants were enumerated by their postoffices. Why this method of listing them was followed is not known and it is reasonable to suppose that there were some listed at one or the other of the two postoffices in the county who were not residents of Otter Tail county. The inhabitants of the county, whose postoffice is given as Otter Tail City, are copied verbatim from the original records, as follow :
Free Inhabitants in the County of Otter Tail, State of Minnesota, whose postoffice is Otter Tail City .- Enumerated June 3, 1860.
William Sawyer, age 57; occupation, receiver U. S. land office; value of real estate, $30,000, and of personal property, $500; born in Ohio. Blanche. his wife. age 62; born in Penna.
George B. Clitherall, age 45; register U. S. land office; value of real estate, $50,000, and of personal. $8,000: born in North Carolina. His wife, Sallie Ann Clitherall, age 44; born in North Carolina. Their daughter, Elizabeth F. B. Clitherall. age 21: born in Alabama.
John Battle, age 15; no occupation; born in Alabama. (Very probably a colored ser- vant of Clitherall's.)
Leon Hood, age 15; servant; born in Minnesota.
Donald McDonald, age 61; trader; ; real estate, $500; personal, $500; born in Lower Canada. His wife, Genevieve, age 50; mixed blood; born in Minnesota. Their children, Peggy age 15. John 13, William 10; all born in Minnesota. Albert Aubre. age 28; farmer; real estate, $500; personal. $100: born in Lower Canada. His wife, Katherine, age 18: mixed blood: born in Minnesota, as also their child. William, age one year.
Peter Bellanger, age 35: mixed blood: born in Minnesota, as also his son, Pierre, age 6. Samuel Donnell, age 35 :: farmer; real estate, $500; personal, $200; born in Maine. Charlotte Rabbee, age 16; servant: Indian; born in Minnesota.
Joseph Couverette. age 30: laborer. His wife, Mary, age 25, and their daughter, Mar- garet. age 7; all mixed bloods and born in Minnesota.
William R. Atkinson, age 28; inn keeper; real estate, $1,000; personal. $1,000; born in New York. His wife. Eliza S., age 28; born in Lower Canada. Their child, Fanny F., age 8; born in Illinois.
Peter Barhyte. age 28: farm laborer; personal, $400; born in Pennsylvania.
William Cosland, age 20; laborer; personal, $150: born in Wisconsin.
Charles A. Ruffee, age 21: mail carrier ; personal. $500; born in Nova Scotia (afterward . lived at Crow Wing, where he was Indian agent for many years).
Henry Baldwin, age 22: mail carrier: personal. $500: born in Massachusetts.
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William M. Dole, age 23: farmer: real estate. $500; personal. $100; born in Pennsyl- vania.
William R. King, age C5; farmer: real estate, $200; personal, $50; born in England. George Simpson, age 35: ship carpenter: personal. $200; born in Maine.
Leon Vanassee. age 31: laborer; real. $200; personal, $500: born in Lower Canada. His wife. Angelia, age 25: mixed blood; born in Minnesota.
Millie Dupee, age 15: mixed blood; born in Minnesota.
James McDougall, age 40: farmer: real, $250; personal. $150; born in Upper Canada. His wife, Betsy, age 23, and their children, Catherine age 5, Peter age 3. and Peggy age 10 months; all mixed bloods and born in Minnesota.
Duncan MeDougall. age 32: trader: personal. $1,000; born in Upper Canada. His wife. Mary, age 27. and their children. Peter W. age 9, Catherine age 7. Susan age 5. Donald age 3 and Mary age 1; all born in Minnesota and mixed bloods.
Maxine Vanasse. age 38; laborer; real. $500; personal, $500; born in Lower Canada. His wife. Nancy, age 24. and their children. Andrew 7. Antoine 5. Isabel 4 and Maxine 2: ali mixed bloods and born in Minnesota.
Francois Belleair, age 45: trader; real. $100; personal. $1.500. His wife. Betsy, age 30; both Minnesota mixed bloods.
Auguste Bellanger. age 56: farmer: real. $200; personal. $150. His wife. Charlotte. age 50. Their children. Francois, age 20. farm Inborer, and Charlotte, age 15; all mixed bloods and born in Minnesota.
Pierre Bellanger, age 30; day laborer. His wife. Jane, age 25. Their children. Henry. age 10. Nancy, age S. and Francois, age 6-all Minnesota mixed bloods.
Henry Bellanger, age 65: farm laborer. His wife, Nellie, age 20; Indian. Their chil- dren. Margaret, age 3. and Joseph, one year. All born in Minnesota ; chil- dren and father mixed bloods.
Joseph Courette, age 30; laborer. His wife. Madeline. age 25. and their child. C'har- lotte: all Minnesota mixed bloods.
Joseph Bellanger. age 43. Ilis wife. Nancy, age 35. Their children. Henry, age 17. laborer; Josette, age 12: Sarah, age 11; John, age 9; David, age 5: May. age 2. and Lonis, six months: all Minnesota mixed bloods.
Charles W. Iddings. age 27; surveyor; real. $2,000; personal. $500; born in Pennsyl- vania.
Charles Roch, age 30: farmer: born in Baden, Germany.
Jane Pingre. age 20; servant: Minnesota Indian.
Benjamin F. Densmore, age 28: civil engineer: personal. $1,000; born in Ohio. Served in the Third Minnesota Infantry. His widow is still (1916) living.
William Fairbanks, age 39; farmer: real. $1,000; ; personal. $600; born in Massachu- setts. His wife. Annette, age 26 and their children. Ludy, age 9: Nancy. age 7; Sylvia, age 5. and Ephraim, age 3; Minnesota mixed bloods.
Peter Gerard, age 20: day laborer: born in Lower Canada.
Pierre LaDuc, age 47: farmer: real, $250; born in Lower Canada. His wife. Margaret. age 35: born in Lower Canada. Their children. Peter, age 14: John, age 5. and Mary, age 2: born in Minnesota.
Abram S. White. age 36: upholstered; real. $200; personal, $100; born in Maine. Clark Swingle. age 24: laborer: personal. $100; born in Pennsylvania.
John La Porte. age 24: laborer; personal. $100; born in Lower Canada.
Edourd Belente, age 25; farmer; real, $500; personal. $150; born in Lower Canada. Fabian LeFevre. age 26; laborer; real. $400; born in Lower Canada.
Jacob Sylvester. age 26: farmer: real. $500; personal. $300; born in Lower Canada. Auguste Loon, age 21; laborer: personal. $150; born in Lower Canada.
Pierre Rouselle (or Peter Russell ), age 24; farmer: real. $500; personal. $400; born In Lower Canada.
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Frank Gonje, age 23; laborer; personal, $100; born in Lower Canada.
John Bishop, age 25; farmer; real, $1,000; personal, $300; born in Upper Canada. (Probably the same Bishop who returned to the county after the Civil War.) Reuben M. Mercer, age 24; laborer; born in Maine.
William Kilpatrick, age 24; blacksmith; personal, $1,000; born in Maine.
George Bancroft, age 17; apprentice; born in Wisconsin.
John Greely, age 19; laborer; personal, $100; born in Maine.
David Sutherland, age 45; lumberman; personal, $500; born in New Brunswick. His children, James Sutherland, age 18; laborer; personal, $100; William, age 15; Zebedee, age 11, and Lizzie, age 7; all born in Maine.
John Sutherland age 22; farmer; real, $300; personal, $100; born in Maine.
Charles W. Jones, age 18; farm laborer; personal, $50; born in Pennsylvania.
Patrick McElroy, age 33; laborer; personal, $100; born in Ireland. His wife, Margaret, age 27, born in Ireland, and their child, Patrick, Jr., age 3, born in Wisconsin. Joseph Dusette, age 24; farmer; real, $1,000; personal, $100; born in Lower Canada. William B. Gates, age 35; farmer; real, $2,300; personal, $4,000; born in Indiana. His wife, Emily R., 32, born in New York. Their children, William, 11, and Emily R., 7, born in Illinois, and George 5, Louis 3, and Charles R., six months, born in Minnesota.
Joshua R. Knight. age 20; laborer ; personal, $100; born in Ohio.
George Herbert, age 28; teamster; personal, $500; born in South Carolina. His wife, Mary Jane, age 22, born in Virginia, and their child, William S .. age 2, born in Minnesota.
Gustavus De Bois, age 26; laborer; personal, $200; born in Prussia. His wife. Sarah, age 23, born in Hanover, Germany, and their child, William S., born in Minnesota.
Karl Rochau, age 29; teamster; personal, $250; born in Hanover.
William G. Rochau, age 27; teamster; personal, $100; born in Hanover.
Joseph Einck, age 34; laborer; personal, $200; born in Hanover, Germany. His wife, Mary, age 30; born in Prussia. Their children, Karl 9, Mary 6. Joseph 4, born in Minnesota, and Elizabeth 7, born in Wisconsin.
Patrick McGinniss, age 39; farmer; real, $1,000; personal, $150; born in Ireland. His wife, Margaret, age 35; born in Ireland, as was their son, Thomas, 17, a laborer; William, 15, born in New York; Margaret, 11, in Illinois: Patrick, 9. in Wisconsin; James M., age 5, and Martin McLeod, age 3. born in Minnesota ..
Douglass Craigie, age 47; farmer ; real, $500; personal, $300; born in Scotland, as also his wife, Elizabeth, age 42, and their children, Catharine, 18, a teacher; William, 15; Wallace, 13; but Frank P., 11, was born in New York, and Mary E., S, and Jane, 5, in Minnesota.
Thomas Carter, age 47; cooper; personal, $500; born in Maine.
Andrew Henry, age 30; teamster; personal, $800; born in New York. His wife, Melissa, age 26, born in Connecticut. Of the children, Andrew J., 7. born in Wis- consin ; Mary Ann, 5, Charles A., 3, and Emma J., 4 months, born in Minne- sota.
George W. Emery, age 34; carpenter; real, $200; personal, $250; born in New Hamp- shire. His wife, Ellen G., 29, born in Vermont. Of their children, Moses K., 12. born in New Hampshire; Samuel J., S, in Illinois: Francis J .. 5. Kimball, 3, and Louise. 7 months, born in Minnesota.
William Shattinell (Shottwell?), age 49; farmer; real, $2.500; personal. $400; born in Massachusetts. His wife, Hannah C., age 45, born in New Hampshire. Of their children, George W., 17, farm laborer, born in Massachusetts: Mary, .
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14, and William G., 11, born in New York; Jane, 7, born in Wisconsin ; Hannah J., 3. and Lizzie O., 2, born in Minnesota.
Thomas Higgins, age 38; laborer; personal, $400; born in Pennsylvania.
John Richards, age 28; laborer; personal, $100; born in New York.
William Richards, age 26; laborer; personal, $100; born in New York.
Bridget McMullin, age 28; housekeeper; born in Ireland.
Hugh MeAlpin, age 37; farmer; real, $500; personal. $300; born in Scotland. His wife, Clara, 36, born in England. Of their children, John, 16, laborer, and Caro- line, 13, born in Massachusetts; Hugh. 8. and Lizzie F., 5, born in Wisconsin ; Jenny, 3, and Charles W .. 7 months, born in Minnesota.
Michael Doran. age 42; laborer; personal, $50; born in Ireland. His wife, Susan, age 23; born in New York. Of their children, James. 4. born in Wisconsin ; Michael, 2, and Bridget, one month, born in Minnesota.
Bridget Austin, age 44; nurse; personal, $150; born in Ireland.
Thomas Humphrey, age 29; teamster; born in Ireland.
WASEATA POSTOFFICE
As stated previously, the census of Otter Tail county was taken in two groups, one group being of those whose postoffice was at Otter Tail City, the other group getting their mail at Waseata. This latter postoffice was at Matthew Wright's mill, on the Red river, about four miles south and west of Fergus Falls. The place was commonly called Dayton and is now known in that vicinity as Dayton Hollow. The Otter Tail Power Company's dam is located within less than a hundred rods of where the Waseata postoffice stood. There seems to be considerable diversity of opinions as to the extent of the settlement in this vicinity. Most of the local authorities assert that there were no dwellings at Dayton except that of Matthew Wright and that his saw-mill was the only other building there, except, of course, the usual outbuildings which a farmer would have. Others maintain that there were from twelve to fifteen houses at or near Dayton and that all of them were destroyed at the time of the Indian outbreak in 1862. In view of what all the authorities have to say, it seems that the various, buildings of Matthew Wright were the only buildings at or near Dayton/ Some of the children of Matthew Wright are still living, one of them, Edwin M., having practiced law with Hon. John W. Mason in Fergus Falls for two years. This son was twenty-four years of age at the time of the massacre, was living at Dayton, and certainly would have known something about the reported twelve or fifteen houses. He never made mention of any other buildings or any other persons living at or near Dayton other than his own family.
In this connection may be given all the information concerning the massacre of 1862 which has any bearing on Dayton and the Wrights. Vari- ous authorities state that Edward J. Wright was orderly sergeant of a citi- zens' company composed of refugees, at Ft. Abercrombie. On September 23, 1862, but in the light of all the evidence now at hand it appears that the and thirty others rode out of Ft. Abercrombie for several miles as an escort
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to a messenger who was being sent to St. Paul. On returning to the fort on this same day the company was fired upon and Wright and another soldier were killed. The next morning a party went out from the fort and buried the two bodies. Edward's body was horribly mutilated. His father. Matthew, was with the party and, at his request, Rev. Blain held services over the remains. All authorities give September 23, 1862, as the date of his death. (See Bryant's "Massacre in Minnesota, page 253; Adjutant Gen- eral's Report, 1862, page 106; North Dakota Historical Society Collections, Vol. I, page 418; Ibid., Vol. II, pages 17, 21, 92-93).
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