History of Rice County, including explorers and pioneers of Minnesota and outline history of the state of Minnesota, Part 64

Author: Neill, Edward D. (Edward Duffield), 1823-1893. 1n; Bryant, Charles S., 1808-1885. cn
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Minneapolis : Minnesota Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 626

USA > Minnesota > Rice County > History of Rice County, including explorers and pioneers of Minnesota and outline history of the state of Minnesota > Part 64

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The present officers are: J. R. Parshall, E. C .; B. F. Straub, Gen .; G. B. Whipple, Pre .; C. L. Lowell, R.

The meeting are the first Tuesday in each month.

The following is a list of the members of the commandery: C. N. Daniels, G. B. Whipple, J. Mullin, N. M. Bemis, A. B. Rogers, L. Z. Rogers, C. E. Rogers, W. N. Cosgrove, B. F. Straub, J. B. Harper, G. M. Phillip, J. R. Parshall, S. Rauvin, T. H. Loyhed, Donald Grant, Thomas Mee, G. N. Baxter, B. A. Van Horn, G. A. Blair, M. H. War- ner, M. G. Kimball, A. W. Henkle, A. E. Haven, A. Philman, R. W. Jacklin, L. Converse, E. H. Smith, C. H. Whipple, A. W. Stockton, G. Wes- ton Wood, C. M. Thompson, H. E. Whitney, J. N. Porter, C. L. Lowell, G. H. Davis, Carl Richel, J. L. Blackman.

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CITY OF FARIBAULT.

INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS.

RAINBOW LODGE, No. 36 .- Instituted on the 8th day of August, 1872. The charter members were: Dr. F. A. Davis, N. G .; Dr. N. M. Bemis, V. G .; J. S. Fuller, R. S .; C. Newcomb, Treas .; William Campbell, James Faskanis, C. N. Carrier, and F. C. Beck.

Meetings were held in Batchelder's building on Wednesday evenings, now in Odd Fellow's Hall, on Main street between Second and Third. There are fifty-seven members. There is a Rebecca Lodge connected with it, and both are in a pros- perous condition.

LADY WASHINGTON LODGE NO. 44 .- GERMAN .- This lodge was instituted on the 16th of July, 1874. The charter members were as follows: D. Berkert, M. Engelmein, J. Richert, E. Flecken- stein, H. Kaperneck, H. Boge, William Haas, Lewis Fisher, and William Geiger. There are twenty- four members, and the meetings are held weekly on Thursday night.

ANCIENT ORDER OF UNITED WORKINGMEN.

UNITY LODGE No. 45 .- Instituted on the 7th of February, 1878, with the following officers: O. F. Brand, P. M. W .; C. L. Lowell, M. W .; C. T. Palmer, G. T .; C. W. Fitch, O .; J. E. Bingham, R .; O. Du Reitz, F .; M. B. Haskell, W .; O. F. Brand, Rep. There are fifteen members and the nights of meeting are the first and third Thursday in each month.

KNIGHTS OF HONOR.

FARIBAULT LODGE No. 597 .- Instituted on the 26th of April, 1877, with the following charter members: Charles Numbers, A. W. Henker, B. L. Vanttom, S. L. Crocker, Lyman Tuttle, O. S. Beake, M. F. Potter, J. C. N. Cottrell, S. I. Pettitt, George W. Wood, C. N. Daniel, I. G. Beaumont, H. N. Crossett, C. L. Lowell, G. H. Palmer, D. P. Baldwin, C. T. Palmer, P. S. Kelly, John Grant, D. E. Potter. The meetings are held in Knights of Pythias Hall on the first and third Tuesdays in each month, There are thirty-three members.

AMERICAN LEGION OF HONOR.

FARIBAULT COUNCIL NO. 275 .- Was instituted on the 26th of August, 1880. The first officers were; Charles D. McKellif, C .; T. B. Clement, V. C .; Ara Barton, D .; C. L. Lowell, P. C .; M. H. Cole, Sec .; L. R. Weld, T. It has a membership in town of thirty-three.

GRAND TEMPLE OF HONOR.

FABIBAULT No. 38 .- W. W. Regan, G. W. T .; J. L. Zietlam, G. W. R. The charter is dated on the 26th of September, 1881. The first officers were: Charles Buch, W. C. T .; William Frink, W. V. T .; A. J. Woolf, W. T. R .; H. Andrews, W. T .; J. G. Williams, W. R .; Rev. Mr. Sanders, C .; N. A. Coggswell, W. V .; Frank Chesroun, W. D. V .; Seth Peach, W. G .; George Chamberlain, W. S .; J. Staufer, Lodge Deputy. There are forty-seven members, and they meet on Monday nights in Fraternal Hall.

KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS.

FARIBAULT LODGE No. 16 .- Instituted on the 16th of January, 1878. The first officers were: N. R. Hurd, C. C .; E. Barnum, P. C .; E. Cooley, P .; Oliver Du Reitz, V. C .; Thomas Whitney, K. R. S. It has about seventy members, and meets in the Knights of Pythias Hall in Batchelder's block.

EQUITABLE AID UNION.

FARIBAULT No. 226 .- The headquarters of this order is in Columbus, Pennsylvania. The Union here was instituted on the 28th of January, 1881. The initial officers were: O. W. Stockton, C .; William Close, A .; N. M. Bemis, P .; C. H. Dickin- son, V. P .; G. W. Stafford, Aux .; E. D. Haskins, T .; R. H. S. Jewett, S .; L. B. Smith, A. C .; N. W. Blood, War .: John A. Sanders, Sen .; C. W. Hallock, Wat.

GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC.

JOHN C. WHIPPLE POST No. 11. - Was insti- tuted on the 2d of March, 1871, with the follow- ing veterans as officers: Major W. H. Lower, P. C .; J. C. Lower, S. V. C .; A. P. Bell, J. V. C .; , H. C. Whitney, Adjt .; John Cooper, Q. M .; C. S. Brown, C .; William Mulligan, O. of D .; Henry Roth, O. of G .; W. S. Wetherstone, Q. M. S .; Theodore A. Close, S. M.

SOME OTHER SOCIETIES.

LADIES LITERARY ASSOCIATION .- Organized on the 7th of February, 1878. The officers are: President, Mrs. H. A. Pratt; Vice-President, Mrs. T. S. Buckham; Recording Secretary, Miss Ada E. Hilton; Corresponding Secretary, Miss Nellie Mott; Treasurer, Mrs. Hudson Wilson; Executive Committee, Miss E. Whitney, Mrs. George B. Whipple, Mrs. A. E. Haven, Mrs. J. H. Winter.

FARIBAULT LIBRARY ASSOCIATION .- This estab-

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HISTORY OF RICE COUNTY.

lishment had a sort of a reorganization in 1879. The executive committee chosen then consisted of J. M. Berry, F. W. Frink, and J. J. Dow. G. E. Cole and R. A. Mott have since been placed on this committee in place of J. M. Berry and F. W. Frink resigned. The books are kept in the Court House, and the library is opened on Wednesday and Sat- urday afternoons.

FARIBAULT DRIVING PARK CLUB. - This was formed in 1882, with the avowed object of train- ing horses, having racing, trotting, and pacing meetings, but not to hold fairs. The following are officers of the Club: President, Col. James Hunter; Treasurer, S. S. Crocker; Secretary, William Mee. A series of meetings are announced for October, 1882. The grounds are readily accessible, a half mile west of the railway station.

FARIBAULT GUARDS .- This militia company was originally organized on the 19th of August, 1877, with James Hunter, Captain; B. F. Straub, First Lieutenant; and G. H. Palmer, Sccond Lieutenant. On the 20th of August, 1880, they were mustered ont by reason of the expiration of the term of offi- cers, and reorganized by the election of J. J. Van Sann, Captain; A. W. Henkle, First Lieutenant; and J. H. Ashley, Second Lieutenant. On the 5th of July, 1881, the company was again reorganized, this time under the new law, and elected as officers: James Hunter, Captain; J. J. Van Sann, First Lieutenant, and J. J. Ashley, Second Lieutenant; Lient. Henkle withdrawing from the company, J. J. Van Sann was subsequently elected Quarter- master of the Second Battalion, and J. J. Ashley resigned, and the present incumbents, John W. Snyder, First Lieutenant, and J. L. Buchann Second Lieutenant, were elected to fill their places. The first organization numbered thirty-one men, three commissioned and twelve non-commissioned officers. In the present organization there are three commissioned and eleven non-commissioned officers, two musicians, and thirty-three men. Headquarters at Armory Hall, Fleckenstein's block, where regular meetings are held the second and fourth Tuesday in each month.

CHAPTER LI. BIOGRAPHICAL.

H. B. ANDREWS, a native of Genesee county, Michigan, was born on the 30th of September, 1839. He moved with his parents to Grant county, Wisconsin, when five years old, and after reaching

the age of manhood learned the carriage maker's trade. In 1862, he enlisted in the Thirty-third Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, Company D, and served three years and three days. After his dis- charge, Mr. Andrews returned to his home in Grant county and the same year came to Faribault. He afterwards moved to Ohio and worked at his trade for five years, carrying on a shop of his own dur- ing the latter part of his residence there. He was joined in wedlock on the 10th of March, 1867, his bride being Miss Alice Earnhart. The result of the union is four children, three of whom are liv- ing. Mr. Andrews moved with his family to this place in 1872, and in company with Mr. Frink opened a carriage and wagon manufactory. He is now doing a prosperous business, having recently purchased his partner's interest.

CHARLES ANTOINE, a pioneer of Minnesota, was born in Masquilange, province of Quebec, Canada, on the 3d of November, 1794. He was brought up by his brother on a farm, and when eighteen years old came to the States, and in Detroit, Michi- gan, joined the English army, serving only six mouths. He then went to Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he was employed by an Indian trader; worked there three years and then went to Mil- waukee, where he spent the winter, there being no white men in the place at that time. From there he went to Mackinaw, and again engaged in trad- ing. His time expiring at this point, he entered the employ of another trader, Louis Provansalle, whose daughter he afterward married. He re- mained during the winter where St. Peter now stands, and in the spring went to Prairie du Chien, where he was employed by the Shatto & Roulette Fur Company of St. Louis. In 1820, he went to the Red River country in company with an Eng- lish lord, Duncan Graham, and Laidlow, carrying with them the first wheat to that section, and sell- ing it at a profit of $12 per bushel on three hundred bushels. Mr. Antoine returned to Prairie du Chien after three months, and worked in dif- ferent parts of the country several years. In Sep- tember, 1824, he married Margaret Provansalle, who was educated in Illinois and a daughter of a French trader. Her mother was a full-blooded Sioux. In October of the same year he engaged as scout to an Infantry company under command of Major Alexander, which was soon ordered from Fort Crawford to Fort Snelling. He then returned to Prairie du Chien and purchased a farm which was his home several years; thence to Dubuque,

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CITY OF FARIBAULT.

and a year later returned to the former place. In 1847, they came to Minnesota, stopped in Mendota three weeks and then to Faribault, where he was engaged by Alexander Faribault to take charge of his farm, his wife teaching the Sioux children in the mean time. A year later he returned to Men- dota, bought a tract of land which he improved, giving his two sons a farm from the same. His wife died in 1871, at the age of sixty-six years. Mr. Antoine now makes his home with his daugh- ter, Mrs. Johnville. Of five sons and three daughters, but one son and two daughters are liv- ing; Margaret, the eldest, married Fred. Faribault, youngest son of Jean Baptist Faribault, by whom she had four children; Agnes, Steme, Libbie, and Antoinette. Her husband died in 1867, and she married, three years later, Jean Baptist Johnville. The result of this union is one child, Freddie, now living in this city. The second daughter, Frezine, married George Faribault, a son of Alexander Faribault, and now lives at Fort Yates, Dakota. Antoine, the son, married Adelle Johnville, and has five children.

W. R. BALDWIN was born in Elyria, Ohio, on the 12th of September, 1841, and when five years old removed with his parents to Connecticut, and lo- cated in Meriden, where he received his education. His father was a merchant, and W. R. followed the same employment. In 1856, the family returned to Ohio, and in 1864, Mr. Baldwin married Miss Lyda Irvin, the ceremony taking place on the 12th of September. The issue of the union was one son, who is now dead. In 1868, they came to Minnesota on account of the poor health of Mr. Baldwin and located on a fine farm just west of Faribault, on which he remained until 1881, then moved into the city, and retired from active busi- ness. In 1880, he was elected to the State Legis- lature for one term.

ARA BARTON, who has been Sheriff of Rice county, since 1876, was born in Charleston, Sulli- van county, New Hampshire, on the 12th of April 1824. His father and grandfather were natives of the same State. When Ara was seven years old his parents removed to western New York, where he assisted his father on a farm. In 1851, he was united in marriage with Miss Louisa Fish, the ceremony taking place in August. The union has been blessed with five children, four of whom are living. In 1857, Mr. Barton came to Minnesota and located in Dakota county, where he was one of the pioneers. He put in one huu-

dred acres of wheat, the first in that part of the State. In 1862, he enlisted in the Minnesota Mounted Rangers, and served one year as Lieu- tenant in Company F. He then formed and was Captain of Company D, Brackett's battalion, which was engaged in war with the Indians. After his discharge he located at Northfield, Rice county, where he has since made his home when not a county officer. In the fall of 1875, he was elected County Sheriff and still holds the office. In 1859 and '60, he was elected to the State Senate from Dakota county, and in the fall of 1870 and again in 1872, was in the Legislature from this district. In 1873, he was a candidate for Governor against Mr. Davis.

G. N. BAXTER was born in Onondaga county, New York, ou the 25th of February, 1845. Ten years later the family removed to Michigan, where G. N. learned the brick and stone mason trade of his father. In 1863, he came to Faribault and fol- lowed his trade, studying law at the same time with Batchelder & Buckham until 1866, when he was admitted to the bar; afterward formed a part- nership with Judge Lafayette Emitt, with whom he remained one year and has since been alone, having a large and profitable business, acquired through his energy and ability. He has an ex- tensive library which cost about $4,000, and con- tains many valuable law books, He was Justice of the Peace five years, elected in 1866; County Attorney six years, elected in 1871, and was County Superintendent of schools in 1870.

HORACE EVERETT BARRON belongs to the Bar- ron family who settled in New England in the early part of the eighteenth century. William Barron, the great-grandfather of Horace Everett Barron, was a scout during the French and Indian war, and commanded a company from Lyndeboro, New Hampshire, in the Revolutionary war. The roll of his company, who first used their flint- locks at Bunker Hill, is now in the archives of the State department at Concord, New Hampshire. He lived and died at Lyndeboro. His family originated from Chelmsford, Middlesex county, Massachussetts.

Micah Barron, his eldest son, born at Lynde- boro, Massachussetts, adjoining Chelmsford, in 1763, moved to Bradford, Orange county, Ver- in 1788; was an enterprising lumberman and far- mer, and for twenty-three years was Deputy Sheriff or Sheriff of Orange county. He was the man who was sent to Canada to arrest Stephen

HISTORY OF RICE COUNTY.

Burroughs, the notorious counterfeiter and des- perado. Micah Barron was at one time Colonel of a regiment of the State Militia, and rose to the rank of Brigadier-General. William Barron, son of Micah and father of Horace, was less than a year old when his parents moved to Bradford. The maiden name of his second wife, mother of Horace, was Hannah Davis Brooks, whose oldest brother, Samuel Brooks, died while member of the Canadian Parliament. His youngest son is now a member of the same Parliament. William Bar- ron, like his father, had a taste for military affairs, and rose to the rank of Colonel. He died in Hartford, Connecticut, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, as we gather from the "History of Brad- ford, Vermont," whence other facts are derived. President Harrison appointed Colonel Barron United States Marshal for the district of Vermont. Horace E. Barron was born in Bradford on the 21st of March, 1826, spending his boyhood on his father's farm, and completing his education at the Bradford Academy. When about eighteen years old he joined the engineer party who made the first survey of the railroad from White River Junction to Derby Line, and was thus engaged for four years, or till the road was completed and the cars run from White River to Wells River. In October, 1850, Mr. Barron pushed westward to Chicago, and for five years traveled for wholesale houses in that city, his trips extending over Illi- nois and portions of Michigan and Indiana. In October, 1855, he came to Faribault, then an em- bryotic village, with several log cabins and two or three frame houses. During the winter following he purchased the site on which his hotel subsequent- ly stood, and made preparations to build, which he did the next spring. His elder and only brother, William Trotter Barron, a graduate of the Univer- sity of Vermont, and a lawyer of Chicago for several years, and judge of Cook county one or two terms, was killed in 1862, by a collision on the railroad at Kenwood Station, near the southern line of Chicago. For two years our subject was engaged in looking after his property, returning to his hotel in 1864. In 1870, Mr. Barron built the stately stone addition to his hotel, 44x80 feet, and three stories above the basement, leaving the old frame building standing, using it for office, sample-rooms, wash-rooms, etc. It was one of the most spacious, airy, and inviting public houses in central Minnesota. This he leased in 1879, and in March, 1882, it was consumed by fire.

Mr. Barron has held a few offices in the munici- pality of Faribault, and in 1874, was a member of the Legislature, being Chairman of the commit- tee of ways and means. He has been a Director of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, located at Faribault, for ten or eleven years; has been President of the Board most of the time, and since 1880, has been steward for the institutions.

In politics he was formerly a Whig; latterly he has been a Republican, occasionally attending congressional and State conventions-more to oblige others than to please himself. He is a strong partisan, more ready to work for the offi- cial elevation of his friends than of himself. Mr. Barron lived a single life till the 22d of February, 1876, when he became the husband of Miss Kate W. Gray, daughter of the late James L. Gray, many years a merchant on North Clark street, Chicago. They have had three children (one pair of twins), and lost all of them. They attend the Episcopal church.

NATHAN MARVIN BEMIS, M. D., the first physi- cian to permanently settle in Faribault, was born in Whitingham, Windham county, Vermont, on the 25th of March, 1821, his parents being James Gilbert and Stata (Smith) Bemis. His paternal great-grandfather came from England, and his grandfather, Edmund Bemis, was an officer in the continental army. James G. Bemis was a farmer, with whom the son remained until eighteen years of age. At this period in life, with his heart set on being a physician, and with his father's con- sent, he commenced reading medicine with Dr. Horace Smith, of Wilmington, a town adjoining Whitingham, in the same county ; attended lectures and received his education at the Vermont Medi- cal College of Woodstock; practiced three years at Shutesbury, Franklin county, Massachusetts; niue or ten at Cummington, Hampshire county, same State, and in May, 1855, settled in Faribault. At that date only one frame house-that of Alexan- der Faribault, for whom the town was named-was completed; others were rising, and a few log cabins had been up a short time. Indians were abundant, and Dr. Bemis was the physician of two chiefs of the Sioux nation, Papa and Red Legs. His rides, especially during the first ten or fifteen years, extended up and down the valley of the Cannon River and up the Straight (which here feeds the Cannon ) a long distance. Probably few men of his profession in the State have ridden

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CITY OF FARIBAULT.

more miles than he. In the territorial days of Minnesota, road or no road, regardless of the state of the weather, he promptly obeyed every sum- mons, near or remote, whether to a wigwam or a white man's cabin, facing the perils of swollen streams, blinding snow storms, or a fearfully de- pressed thermometer. Latterly his professional circuits have ordinarily been limited to the city and adjoining towns, younger men taking the longer rides. He has been successful pecuniarily as well as professionally, and fortunately can afford to curtail his business. Though quite elastic for a man past his three-score years, and though hav- ing no deep wrinkles in his face, yet his long, almost snow-white beard and rapidly whitening head, indicate that "sap-consuming winter's drizz- ling snows" are not only falling, but thickening in their fall. He does just enough business to afford him a healthful amount of exercise. His spirits are buoyant, and his social habits admirable. In early manhood Dr. Bemis was an abolitionist of the milder type, casting his first presidential vote in 1844, for James G. Birney. Of late years he has voted the republican ticket; has never been an office-seeker, and has strictly refused to accept any - thing of the kind of a political nature. Among the Freemasons he is a Knight Templar, and las been Master of the Blue Lodge twice, and a Noble Grand in Odd-Fellowship three times. Dr. Bemis has been married since the 10th of February, 1842, his wife being Miss Emeline H. Adams, a native of Barre, Massachusetts, living at the time of her marriage at Heath, in the same State. They have had five children, all living but George O., who died when only three years old. The four living are all married but Ella J. Augusta E. is the wife of William T. Kerr, a commercial agent, re- siding in Davenport, Iowa; Joseph G. is a physi- cian, educated in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, and practicing in Fari- bault; and Mary C. is the wife of Henry C. Pres- · cott, agent for Seymour, Sabin & Co., manufac- turers of the "Minnesota Chief" threshing machine at Stillwater, Minnesota, their home being at Fari- bault.

W. L. BENTLEY, a native of Franklin county, Vermont, was born on the 23d of March, 1833. When eighteen years old he moved to Massachu- setts and was employed in factories there for three years, then to Ohio and later to Kansas where he was connected with the Quartermaster's depart- ment, engaged in shipping through Colorado,

New Mexico, and the southwestern States. He has been a resident of Minnesota since 1868, first locating in Mower county, where he married Miss Annie Norton on the 28th of December, 1872. Four children is the result of this union. Mr. and Mrs. Bentley came here in 1872, and he was engaged in the ice business until 1879, when he opened his present feed store.

JOHN MCDONOGH BERRY, of the supreme bench of Minnesota, and a native of Pittsfield, New Hampshire, was born on the 18th of September, 1827; his parents being John Berry, merchant, and Mary Ann Brown nee Hogan. The Berry family settled in southeastern New Hampshire, nearly, and perhaps fully, two centuries ago. The maternal grandfather of our subject was from Ireland. The youth of Judge Berry was devoted to the securing of an education; he spent his last preparatory year at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts; entered Yale College in Septem- ber, 1843, when just sixteen years old, and grad- uated in his twentieth year. He begau to read law at Concord, New Hampshire, with Judge Perley, afterward chief justice of that State; continued his readings with Hon. Moses Norris; was ad- mitted to practice at a term of the supreme court held at Concord in July, 1850, practiced about two years at Alton, Belknap county, New Hampshire; came as far west as Janesville, Wisconsin, in the spring of 1853; was in practice there two years, and then settled in Faribault, his home since then, with the exception of something less than a year spent at Austin, Mower county, his business being the practice of law till he went on the bench. He is a thorough legal and general scholar, and ranks deservedly high among his profession in the State for his literary tastes and acquirements. He may be classed as a thinker as distinguished from a man of action. Judge Berry was a member of the territorial house in the session of 1856-57, and chairman of the judiciary committee; was a mem- ber of the State Senate in 1863 and 1864, and chairman of the judiciary committee in that body also, and went on the bench of the supreme court in January, 1865. He was re-elected in 1871, and his second term expired with the year 1878. He was elected to his present position before the legal practice in this State had become extensive, and without the opportunities for the practical work of his profession which some of his associates have enjoyed; but he brings to the exercise of the high duties of his position a knowledge of legal prin-

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HISTORY OF RICE COUNTY.

ciples acquired by careful and thoughtful reading, united to a broad and comprehensive judgment, and an inflexible integrity, which, disdaining petty technicalities and seeking for the intrinsic justice of the case, has placed him second to no judge who ever held the office in this State in popular estimation. His opinions are terse, crisp, and well written,and distingushed rather for the enunciation of some great general principle which disposes of the case, than for minute discussions of minor and technical points. Judge Berry is a republican of whig antecedents, but has never been very active in politics. On the 26th of May, 1853, Miss Alice A. Parker, then of Roscoe, Illinois, but a native of Centerville, Ohio, became the wife of Judge Berry, and they have four children.

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History of Rice County, including explorers and pioneers of Minnesota and outline history of the state of Minnesota, Part 64

Author: Neill, Edward D. (Edward Duffield), 1823-1893. 1n; Bryant, Charles S., 1808-1885. cn Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Minneapolis : Minnesota Historical Co. Number of Pages: 626

Author: Neill, Edward D. (Edward Duffield), 1823-1893. 1n; Bryant, Charles S., 1808-1885. cn
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Minneapolis : Minnesota Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 626