USA > Minnesota > Rice County > History of Rice County, including explorers and pioneers of Minnesota and outline history of the state of Minnesota > Part 84
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108
J. M. STRUNK, one of the pioneers of this county, was born in Chautauqua county, New York, on the 21st of November, 1829. His younger days were spent at school and since that time he has been engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1854,
470
HISTORY OF RICE COUNTY.
Lydia Williams became his wife. She was also a native of the latter county. In 1855, they started west; came to Wisconsin by rail and from thence to Rice county with a few others, with ox teams. Mr. Strunk staked out a claim in Richland on section seven, and now has a farm of three hundred and forty acres of prairie land, besides forty acres of timber. He first built a bark shanty, then a log house, and in 1872, his present frame house, and in 1874, a barn 45x50 feet. He is the father of five children, three of whom are living.
GEORGE H. WHEELER, one of the pioneers of Richland, is a native of Orange county, New York, born on the 18th of May, 1835. He attended school at Amity, and when fifteen years old re- moved with his parents to Delaware, Ohio, where
they lived three years, then moved to St. Charles, Illinois. In 1856, he and his father, Nathan S. Wheeler, came to Minnesota, Richland township, the father taking land in section twelve and the son in section thirteen. In the fall they returned to Illinois where, in 1857, Celia M. Howard became his wife. The following October they removed to Minnesota, coming on a boat as far as Red Wing then drove to their claim. He erected a house with the help of a carpenter who came with him, but in 1870, sold his farm and purchased in sec- tion twenty-one where he still resides. His father returned here in 1858, and spent the summer, then went back to Illinois where he lives at present. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have been blessed with nine children.
WALCOTT.
CHAPTER LVII.
LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION - EARLY SETTLEMENT -EVENTS OF INTEREST- MANUFACTURING-TOWN ORGANIZATION-SCHOOLS-BIOGRAPHICAL.
The location of this town may be thus de- scribed. It is the second from the eastern boun- dary of the county, on the south tier of townships. Its contiguous surroundings are, Richland on the east, Cannon City and Faribault on the north, Warsaw on the west, and Steele county on the south.
The principal river is Straight River, which flows quite faithfully toward the north, a little west of the center. Mud Creek and Rush Creek with several other branches join it in its course. The river leaves the town from section four, and a quarter of a mile west it returns, moving directly south to turn west and again get beyond the town limits on the line between sections five and six, passing through Faribault. As a rule, the creeks and rivers carry a belt of timber that is quite heavy for a mile or two wide, making about one-third of the town covered with timber.
On the east side is the noted East Prairie, with its black loam from eighteen inches to two feet in depth, with a blue clay subsoil, and laying so low that artificial drainage has to be resorted to. On the west side the soil is sandy, with a gravel sub-
soil on what is known as the low prairie, which extends west three-fourths of a mile, and north from the southern line about three and one-half miles. The rest of the town is known as High Prairie, which is a sort of table land with a black loam and clay subsoil, making the richest kind of soil for any crops suitable to this latitude.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
The first actual settler in this town was Edward H. Cutts, who came from Vermont, having stopped a while at the head of Lake Pepin, in the year 1853. His first visit here was in December of that year, and he selected a claim in sections twenty and twenty-one. Late in February, 1854, he returned with Jacob Chesrown, who was a young man, and another by the name of Rouse, who were hired by Mr. Cutts. They started from Hastings with a yoke of oxen, a cow, and a pony, with supplies on a sled, and for the first day had a good many snowbanks to shovel through. When twelve miles out they lost the trail, and while looking right and left for it one of the men was sent on ahead to a piece of timher to build a fire and prepare supper. It was getting dark and they heard a pack of wolves coming. One of them seized the axe and the other got his pistol ready, but they crossed at a little distance, evi- dently on the track of a deer. The next day the
471
WALCOTT TOWNSHIP.
ground got bare and it was literally "hard sled- ding." "The next night the camp was on the prai- rie, and by picking up every stick they could find and using what they could spare of the ends of the sled stakes, got up quite a good fire. They got out of hay, and in the night the cattle took the back track and Mr. Cutts had to gallop back on the pony after them for five or six miles. They mixed up some meal in a handkerchief and baked a cake in the ashes. Before they reached Fari- bault the sled had to be abandoned and a wagon secured, with which he finally got his things on his place and began to build. In a few days his cow had a calf, and one night a timber wolf un- dertook to carry it off, but he drove the brute away and took the calf inside. There came up a firghtful snow storm, and as he had no shelter, ex- cept the lee side of the cabin, he had to take the cow in also until the storm had subsided. Mr. Cutts built the first log cabin in town, and the first frame house; the first house was burned in the winter of 1855-56. The next winter he went to get married, and brought his wife as far as Illinois and re- turned, having a serious time in getting through. Traveling in those days was not the pastime it is now. When at last Mrs. Cutts came on he went to meet her in an ox cart, and she had to make a part of the journey on foot, stopping at that noted sod tavern, where they met Dr. Jewett, who had also been to meet bis family.
The town received a few settlers in 1853. Nathaniel Meyers, with his family, came and lo- cated on section twenty-eight. He was from New York, but has passed on to the great majority. His son, John M., remains on the old homestead.
John Luther Cabot, a single man, also from New York, came at the same time. He was born in 1831, and remained here a few years, removing to Goodhue county.
The spring of 1854 brought a few more venture- some individuals, among whom should be noted, Richmond Jones, of New York, whose life has been spared to the present time.
Joseph Richard, also a New Yorker, came that year, but several years ago he was called to the great hereafter.
George W. Marks secured a place in section eleven from whence he was transferred to "the other shore" on the 27th of November, 1875. His widow is still iu town.
George Dorrance, another native of the Empire
State, is still in section twenty-three, where he transplanted himself some time that year.
In 1855, attention having been called to this region, the town was well filled up. Some of the claims having been entered the fall before.
The town was named in honor of Samuel Wal- cott from Masschusetts, who was a very able, energetic, and talented man, making everything lively around his vicinity, but after a time his mind became distraught, and he found an abiding place in an insane retreat in his native State. He was public spirited, liberal minded, and with un- bounded enthusiasm, and had he remained, who can tell what projects for the improvement of his adopted town he might have carried out.
EVENTS OF INTEREST.
The first religious exercises were by Elder Crist, a Methodist minister, in 1855, in the spring, at a private house owned by Mr. Richardson, on section thirty-two.
An early birth was Laura E., daughter of George and Hannah M. Dorrance, on the 3d of February, 1855, on section twenty-two in a log cabin. She was married on the 14th of December, 1878, and the following spring removed to Yellow Medicine county.
The first marriage remembered was on the 25th of December, 1856, when Edward Beach and Elizabeth Beardsley were united in the bonds of wedlock; they have since been united in death.
The first death was that of Mrs. Axta Jones, wife of Richmond Jones, who was struck by light- ning on the 4th of July, 1854, while in their tent in section twenty-nine, in the presence of her hus- band, two children, her brother, and John Luther Cabot. It was most remarkable that she alone of the whole number should have been stricken down.
The following paragraph appeared in the local papers in November, 1878: "Intelligence has just reached here that a farmer, whose name could not be learned, residing near Walcott, a little station situated between Faribault and Medford, on the Iowa division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad, had administered a lesson to two tramps, that by reason of its severity will never be appreciated by them in this world, but will have a wholesome effect in deterring others from attempting similar crimes The two tramps above mentioned, under cover of the darkness, entered a wheat field where a self-binding harvester had
472
HISTORY OF RICE COUNTY.
been at work during the day, and deliberately piling the newly cut grain about the machine pre- pared to cremate both grain and harvester. Un- fortunately for the success of their plans, the owner, whose suspicions had been aroused during the day, happened with a double-barreled shot- gun just as they applied the torch, and with an impartiality which did him credit, gave each the contents of a barrel. Result, two dead tramps and a little damage to the grain. The farmer hur- ried to Faribault after the deed and gave himself up to the authorities, but instead of being detained was told to go back to his farm, and if another such attempt to destroy his property was made to serve the perpetrators in a like manner."
The first railroad survey was made through the town in 1858, and grading began in 1859, but it was not until 1868, that the rumbling of the cars was first heard. The road runs through the southwest quarter of the town between the middle of the southern boundary of section thirty-two and the middle of the western boundary of section eigh- teen. In 1877, a preliminary survey was made through the northern part of the town for an east and west line.
The first blacksmith shop was erected in 1860, on section thirty-six, by Mr. Mclaughlin, who wrought the plastic iron and steel for two years, when he packed up his "kit" and went "West." From the time when that fire went out, the town had no son of Vulcan within its borders until 1881, when Hans Floom, a Norsk, started a forge in section twenty-four, and he is still making the sparks fly.
Samuel Livingston, from 1860 to 1867, was known as the "Walcott Lime Burner." He se- cured his rock from the very bed of the Straight River. E. S. Lord succeeded him, and he took the stone from the bank of the river.
There are a few farmers on the east side, where the nature of the ground makes it impossible for a threshing machine to visit them, and they get out their grain with a flail, the good old fashioned way; of course this farming is not on a large scale.
Some excitement was once created by the mys- terious disappearance on one occasion of Jack Williams. Blood was found near the wood pile, and murder most foul wss suspected. In a few days he returned, still in the flesh.
A cheese factory was established in 1878 in
section one. . The establishment was procured in Richland and moved here by William Mathers and worked by his son. It is now owned and operated by Clifton Tucker.
This town has no public building of its own, and town meetings are held under a tent, in a barn, or under the lee side of a wood pile, as may be most convenient, somewhere on section six- teen.
Agricultural productions of the town for the year 1881, as returned to the County Auditor:
Acres.
Bushels-
Wheat
3,800
57,513
Oats.
803
31,180
Corn
699
26,785
Barley
62
1,790
Buckwheat :
6
110
Potatoes
47
4,941
Beans.
2 32
Sugar Cane
9 gals. 1,332
Cultivated hay
778 tons 1,128
Wild hay
1,382
Timothy seed
bush. 60
Clover
299
Apples
255
Sheep, 910.
.lbs. wool
5,632
Milch cows, 304
lbs. butter 24,950
Cheese
lbs. 5,600
Honey.
881
STRAIGHT RIVER GRANGE .- This was organized on the 5th of September, 1872, with seventy char- ter members. Its meetings were on Saturday evenings in schoolhouse No. 50, and the organiza- tion kept up until 1881, when it was finally dis- banded.
THE HUNTERS OF THE PRAIRIE .-- In 1860, a society with this romantic name was organized, and it was kept up for ten years. The first meet- ing was in the schoolhouse, when an organization was effected and officers chosen to lead in a war of extermination against the predatory animals in the vicinity, and a hunt was promptly instituted.
Two captains chose their respective followers, and the whole community was thus divided into two clans. Everything was game, from the tail of a mouse up to the fiercest denizen of the forest. The trophies of the chase were the caudle appen- dages, and each had a value according to a pre- established scale, and the losing party had to pay. certain prizes. In July, a regular picuic, which went by the name of a "Gopher Picnic" in honor
473
WALCOTT TOWNSHIP.
of the rodent that was most numerous here, was held, where men, women,and children gathered to participate in the sport, and after the contest was decided by counting the game, a dinner and other festivities were enjoyed. The number of animals taken would run up into the thousands, and these hunts were of great value in ridding the country of the swarming pests.
REDFIELD OLD SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION .- This society was organized in the schoolhouse of dis- trict No. 50, in 1858, meetings being held annually. All were admitted, men, women, and children, regardless of age, that bad come from the township of Redfield in New York State, and members were eligible from any portion of Rice county. In 1868, the last meeting of the society was held, the membership having dwindled down to teu. During their time of prosperity, meetings were held at the residence of M. S. Seymour, on section twenty-two, the fleeting hours being occu- pied in having a general good time.
POST-OFFICE,-The first and only Post-office in town was established in 1855. It was on the northwest quarter of section thirty-three, with M. Richardson as Postmaster. In 1858, William Babcock was appointed. The mail was brought by a stage which ruu between Faribault and Owatonna. In 1862, the office was discontinued.
In 1856, Samuel Walcott, having contracted the prevailing epidemic which inspired so many to lay out villages and cities, proceded to plat a village which was given the name of Walcott. The loca- tion involved parts of sections twenty, twenty-one, twenty-eight, and twenty-nine. There was noth- ing small about the plan, the proportions of which were magnificent, but it did not progress far enough to be recorded. But a single house was built, and that was for a hotel by Charles Smith. There was a steam saw-mill with a twenty-five horse-power engine ready to cut lumber to build the prospective city. This was owned by E. H. Auldon and run for a while, but was subsequently taken down and carried to Shieldsville where it still is.
A golden wedding, one of the rare occasions that so few may expect to experience in their own persons, took place in Walcott on the 19th of March, 1881. The groom and bride of half a hundred years were Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Sexton, Mr. Sexton being 76 years of age and Mrs. Sexton 74. They were married in central New York on the
19th of March, 1831. Six persons who were then present assembled at the golden wedding. Their names were Mr. and Mrs. Baker, of Tomah, Wis- consin, Mr. John Castle, Mrs. Nesbitt, the mother of Mrs. I. B. Spencer, and the bride and groom. Mrs. Anna, wife of Gaylord Sexton, made the bridal cake for her own wedding, for the weddings of each of her three sisters, and now for the semi- centennial of her father and mother's wedding. This notable gathering was one long to be re- membered by those who were fortunate enough to be present.
On the 21st of November, 1861, Judge Isaac Woodman had a burial ground surveyed on section eight, a single acre, and divided up into forty lots, seventeen of which have been taken. The first burial here was Helena, a daughter of Mr. J. S. and Mrs. S. A. House, who died on the 2d of March, 1860, at the age of two years and three months, a shocking and most horrible death. It seems that her mother was called out for a few moments in the performance of her domestic duties, leaving the little girl tied into a high chair, which she upset directly upon the stove and was burued in such a terrible way that she survived but a few hours.
Walcott, in the war of the rebellion, was well represented, there being twenty-four men who vol- unteered and who, strange to say, returned without a missing man. No draft in town was bad, but the citizens voted at different times recruit boun- ties amounting in the aggregate to $4,800.
In 1872, the town voted bonds to the amount of $2,000 to build a bridge across the Straight River at the Walcott mills. A bridge had existed at the mills partly constructed by the proprietors and partly by the town, but it washed away and the mill owners being disinclined to repair the damage so as to make it available for a road the town had to rebuild it, which was done about twenty rods north of its old position at the mill.
MANUFACTURING.
WALCOTT MILLS .- Early in the seventies this mill was constructed by Grant & La May as a feed and flouring mill. It embraced two stories and a basement and was 36x46 feet. Its situation is on Straight River, on section sixteen. At first there was ten feet fall, but it was afterwards increased to twelve. In 1874, it was bonght by M. B. Shef- field, George E. Skinner, and Henry Chaffee, un-
474
HISTORY OF RICE COUNTY.
der the firm name of Walcott Mill Company, and a ninety horse-power steam engine was put in and great improvements made, to the extent of $24,000. In 1881, Mr. Sheffield became sole proprietor, and since that time the mill has gone through a trans- formation. It is now, after an additional expense of $27,000, a first-class roller mill with five floors and a daily capacity of 250 barrels. It has been a merchant mill since 1874, and has a wide repu- tation as a Minnesota patent process mill.
EMERSON & COMPANY'S MILL .- In 1856, this firm commenced the erection of a saw-mill on the Straight River in Walcott township, on section three. It was completed and commenced running in the fall of 1857, with a Parker reaction water wheel, and an upright saw, with a capacity of about 3,000 feet of lumber per day. The com- pany became insolvent, the mill continued to run, however, until the dam joined arms with a freshet and went careering down the stream in the spring of 1858. A dam was again erected, but after the debts began to push in a short time, the boss of the company, in a colloquial phrase, "took his foot in his hand and crossed the river to Charlie," disappearing for good, and the mill from that day to this has been silent. The building was finally removed to East Prairieville for a barn.
A steam mill had been started before this one, by Samuel Walcott on section thirty-three. It was of twenty-five horse-power, and could cut 4,000 feet a day. It was on the land of Lewis Howard, but in about a year it went to Owatonna.
Thomas Harlow built a saw-mill on section four, on Straight River. This was a good mill, run by an overshot wheel, and could rip out 8,000 feet a day. It 1857, it was burned and again built up, but at the end of a year the dam accepted the urgent invitation of a flood to join its mad career down stream. The dam was reconstructed and the mill started, only to be again abruptly closed by the emigration of the dam at the end of another year.
TOWN ORGANIZATION.
Pursuant to notice, the first town meeting for the election of officers and organization of the town was held at the house of Jacob Chesrown,on the 11th of May, 1858. The moderator was Isaac Woodman, and the clerk was Isaac R. Pentz. An assessment of $200 was made for town expenses; what should constitute a lawful feuce was agreed
upon. It was voted that horses and cattle could run at large from November to the first of April, and that sheep and hogs be prohibited from being at large.
The second town meeting was held at the house of James Williams, and was an adjourned meeting to elect officers, which was not accomplished at the first meeting on account of the other business upon which so many had to ventilate their ideas.
The town officers elected at this meeting were: Supervisors, Isaac Woodman, Chairman, E. P. Jones, and D. C. Hunkins; Assessor, James Den- ison; Collector, Elijah Austin; Clerk, Isaac R. Pentz; Justices of the Peace, William Kester and George Dorrance; Overseer of the Poor, Isaac Woodman; Constables, Jacob Chesrown and Charles B. Kingsbury.
The first meeting of the Supervisors was on the 22d of May, at the house of the clerk, where the first division of road districts was made. The salary of the first clerk was $4.30 for the first year. At the first State election, in the fall of 1858, there were twenty-eight votes cast.
Town affairs have been managed in an honest and economical way.
The officers of the town for 1882, are: Super- visors, James Denison, Chairman, A. L. Austin, and A. M. Harris; Clerk and Assessor, J. H. Pet- teys; Treasurer, John D. Beardsley; Justices of the Peace, T. C. Adams and M. S. Seymour; Con- stables, T. J. Neil and John McNasney.
SHOOLS.
The following school districts are in the town of Walcott, and a few items in relation to each will be presented.
DISTRICT No. 35 .- The first school here was in the summer of 1857, in a blacksmith shop on sec- tion thirty-two. The district was organized in the spring of 1857, in the house of Jacob Chesrown on section twenty-nine. In 1858, Miss Francis taught in a house owned by Mr. Bird on section thirty-three. The same year a log house was hired on section twenty-one. The schoolhouse was built in 1875, Miss Emma Cabot being the first teacher.
DISTRICT NO. 50 .- In 1858, a part of the fore- going district was set off and a new one formed. A frame dwelling house was bought in Medford and moved to where the schoolhouse now stands, on section thirty-two, Miss S. Francis being the first teacher, with twenty scholars. The present house was built in 1876.
475
WALCOTT TOWNSHIP.
DISTRICT No. 12 was organized at the house of Edward Jones in 1856, in section twenty-four, and in the spring of 1857, a log house was got up on the same section, with two half windows for light, and Miss Arminta Newcomb called about twenty pupils to order. In 1872, a frame house was con- structed in section thirteen, near the town line and so it is a union district.
DISTRICT No. 38 came into existence on the 25th of June, 1858, in section nineteen. A tax of $150 was raised to build a log house, which was 18x20 feet with six windows, one door, and a cottage roof, located on section eighteen. James Denison was the first instructor. In 1862, the house was moved to section twenty. The schoolhouse now standing was constructed in 1878. Miss Mary Auldon had the honor of wielding the rod of au- thority. The school now has twenty-five scholars.
It is quite likely that a new district will be formed from the eastern part of No. 50, as it is so inconvenient for many to get across the river to school. In 1882, a private school with fourteen pupils was taught on this side in a granary owned by Bartlett Smith; Miss Maggie Foster was the teacher.
DISTRICT No. 17 .- This district was organized in 1856, in the house of Isaac Woodman. The house was built the same year, of logs or slabs, and was 16x24 feet and had four windows and one door and it was got ready for school purposes the next year when Susie Frisbegwith taught the first school. This building served until 1875, when the district constructed a frame edifice, 18x28 feet, in section eight, at a cost of $500. Miss Hattie Howard inaugurated the first classes in the new house.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
LAURITS ANDERSEN, a native of Denmark, was born on the 22d of October, 1845. He emigrated to Wisconsin in 1868, and one year later married Miss Anna C. Johnson, the ceremony taking place on the 9th of April. They have one child. In 1871, they removed to Steele county, Minnesota, and four years later to Rice county, where, in 1880, he purchased his present farm of one hun- dred acres in Walcott, in sections eight and nine.
JESSE C. CASTLE was born in Rome, Oneida county, New York, on the 21st of July, 1858, and removed to Minnesota in 1879. In 1881, he pur- chased his present farm of one hundred and twenty acres in Walcott, sections twenty and twenty-one.
He was married on the 24th of April, 1882, to Minina L. Reed, a native of Minnesota.
CHANDLER O. CASTLE was also born in Oneida county, New York, on the 3d of June, 1826. He was married in 1851, to Miss Elmira Knotgrass, the ceremony taking place on the 20th of Novem- ber. In 1878, he removed to this county where he has two hundred acres of land in Walcott, sec- tions twenty and twenty-one. Mr. and Mrs. Castle have had four children, three of whom are living.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.