USA > Minnesota > Rice County > History of Rice and Steele counties, Minnesota, Vol. I > Part 18
USA > Minnesota > Steele County > History of Rice and Steele counties, Minnesota, Vol. I > Part 18
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The earliest settlement in this town took place in 1853, and when started its settlement was rapid and constant until all the government land within its borders was taken. When the first exploration by white men took place, it is impossible to state, as this had been the pathway and trading land of the Faribaults for years before the advent of actual settlers. The town being resplendent with natural advantages and beautifying works of nature, when once started the settlement became irre- pressible.
Between 1826 and 1834 Alexander Faribault established a trading post at the foot of the lake now known as Cannon lake. In 1852 Faribault was in St. Paul on a trip for business pur- poses and met Peter Bush, a blacksmith, and hired him to go to Faribault and work. Mr. Bush was a Canadian Frenchman, and after considering the matter, decided to accept, and at once came to Faribault and became a resident of Rice county. He remained in Faribault the following winter, at work for Mr. Faribault. In the spring of the year following (1853) he de- cided to secure a claim and finally made his way into Warsaw and selected one of the finest farms in the county, on section 3, at the foot of Cannon lake. Here he remained for a number of years, and became prominent in the early settlement of the county. The same year as the above arrival, N. N. Graves made his appearance and secured a habitation one mile and a half west of Bush. This was the extent to which the town was settled this year, and the winter passed with but two settlers there.
The next year, however, the beauties and advantages of the Cannon river country began to be heralded abroad, and the prospective settlers began to file in slowly, it is true, at first. but still civilization took a perceptible stride, and this year
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(1854) chronicled the arrival of Edward Hollister and Henry Davis, who came and located near the lake. About the same time came Peter Dalcour and planted his stakes on section 4. Thomas Blackborn was another who availed himself of the op- portunity and secured himself a habitation. He, however, only remained a few years, when he pulled up stakes and replanted them in the town of Morristown.
In 1855 the arrivals were more numerous, and among them came J. B. Wait, to section 28. F. Weatherfield secured a claim in section 18, and was afterward one of the proprietors of War- saw village. Dr. Charles Jewett made his appearance and se- lected a claim on section 12, where he remained a few years and returned to New England, from whence he came. Thomas Sprague arrived in the town in 1854, and almost immediately retraced his steps to St. Paul for provisions, but taking sick on the road he died shortly after his arrival in the town. This occurred in the spring of 1855, and was the first death in War- saw. Others came in very rapidly, and a year from this time all the government land was taken.
The first birth in Warsaw took place on November 24, 1854, being a son of Thomas and Desire Blackborn, and the child was named William H. The first marriage solemnized was on August 26, 1855; the contracting parties were Alexander Mc- Kenzie and Sarah Ann, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Elias Gilhousen. The affair took place at the residence of the bride's parents on section 7, the knot being tied by Charles Crump. Another early marriage was that of Peter Dalcour to Miss Lucia Woolett, on December 7. 1857.
In 1858, at the organization, considerable difficulty was en- countered in naming the town. Dr. Charles Jewett, a prominent citizen, was present and insisted, and took the stump to declare, that he had a wealthy friend in Massachusetts by the name of Sargent, and if the citizens would name the town Sargent, he (Sargent) would move to the town and make it his future home, besides building a town hall and donating $500 to the public fund. As there was already a postoffice in the town named Warsaw, in honor of a town in New York, from whence a num- ber of the early settlers had come, it was but natural that a great many favored that name, but after listening to the appeals of Dr. Jewett, the feeling changed perceptibly, and upon the matter being put to a vote five ballots were found in favor of Warsaw and five times that number favoring the name of Sar- gent. It was accordingly declared to be Sargent township. This was the caption until 1864 when, as nothing had been seen or heard of the wealthy Sargent, the citizens of the town decided
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to re-name it, and accordingly had a bill passed by the legislature in 1864, changing the name from Sargent to Warsaw.
Peter Dalcour, of whom mention has already been made, was not accustomed to frontier life, and could not get to understand the Indians. On one bright spring morning he discovered a number of the Indian ponies in the meadow destroying the hay and grass. He went down and tried to keep them off, but could not succeed, and getting excited he went to the house, got his rifle and coming back commenced blazing away at them. It was whiz, bang, and when he quit firing he had killed fifteen ponies and twenty-five dogs. The Indians did not resent this fearful slaughter, but the following spring one of them presented Dalcour with a huge butcher knife, and he said he supposed it was to pay for the destroyed hay, and as a token of future friend- ship and regard. This occurred on the farm of Peter Bush while Dalcour was working for him.
In the spring of 1874, Jacob Steckner, while out hunting ducks, found the body of his father, John Steckner, at the foot of Cannon lake, in a condition that proved undoubtedly that he had been murdered. The deceased was a Pennsylvania German, aged about fifty-five years, and it was proven that he had left the Lake hotel and driven across the ice in company with an- other man, having about $30 in his pockets. This was the last seen of him until he was found silent in the arms of grim death. The head was battered in a horrible manner, and a club lying near by covered with the gore of the victim, proving, beyond a doubt that there had been foul play, but as no testimony could be brought forward sufficient to convict, the matter still remains a mystery.
Dr. Charles Jewett, who is prominently mentioned in con- nection with the pioneer life in this county, died April 3, 1879, at Norwich, Conn., at the age of three score years and twelve. His nativity was in Lisbon. Conn., September 5, 1807. He was educated at Plainfield, studied medicine and graduated, and began the practice of his profession in East Greenwich at the age of twenty-two. In 1830 he was married to Lucy A. Tracy. He early went into the temperance work and was the agent of the Massachusetts Temperance Union, and was the best known total abstinence advocate in New England. He afterwards lo- cated in Millbury, Mass., on a farm paid for by his temperance friends. Here he resided for five years, doing temperance work when wanted. In 1853 he went to Batavia, Ill., where, in con- nection with other work, he lectured on physiology in a school. which did not prove to be a success, and, as himself and family suffered from chills and fever, he removed to Minnesota in the spring of 1855, locating in Warsaw, on section 12, and remained
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for three years, when he returned to Massachusetts, at the urgent invitation of the temperance people. A part of the time during the war he was a resident of Menasha, Wis., at work in the temperance cause. In 1873 he removed to Norwich, Conn. He left a widow, four sons and two daughters. He was an earnest, amiable, talented and true-hearted man, respected and beloved by all.
Pursuant to a notice issued by the register of deeds of Rice county, a town meeting was held at the Turner house in the village of Warsaw, on May 11, 1858, for the purpose of organiz- ing the township and electing officers to guard public matters. There were in all eighty-two votes cast and the following were the officers elected: Supervisors, Miles Hollister, chairman ; Att- gustus Johnson and D. W. Woodworth ; clerk, John McDonald : assessor, John Goldthwait ; collector, George W. Frink ; overseer of the poor, Philander Griffith; justices of the peace. J. F. Weatherhead and Charles Jewett, Jr : constables, James O. Lamb and J. II. Maine. The temporary officers of this preliminary inceting were : J. F. Weatherhead, chairman ; D. W. Woodworth, moderator, and Miles Hollister, clerk. The board, at their first meeting, voted the sum of $75 to defray town expenses during the ensuing year. Town matters in Warsaw have run along smoothly, the business of the public being in capable hands.
It is a matter of pride to the inhabitants of Warsaw, and justly so, that during the war of the rebellion their quota was always filled without the necessity of force. True, one draft was made out, but the volunteers were furnished before it was enforced, and the town in one instance raised $300 to pay Charles Hagstrom to voluntarily enlist. There were, in all, forty-one volunteers, of whom four never returned, but found graves in southern soil, as follows: S. G. Randall, Edward Rible, Clark Turner and Charles P. Hagstrom.
The abandoned village of Lake City was the scene of the first settlement in the town, and played quite an important part in the early history of the county. It was the first village platted in the township. It had a beautiful location on section 3, at the foot of Cannon lake, in the northern part of the town. In 1853. early in the spring, Peter Bush came to the shores of Cannon lake and pre-empted 160 acres in section 3. He at once put up a log habitation, 18x20 feet, and commenced making it his actual home. He shortly after put up a small shop, 18x20 feet, and being a practical blacksmith commenced working at his trade. These were the first buildings erected in either village or town- ship. He hammered away at his anvil, and in 1856 conceived the idea, and at once platted the village on his farm in section 3, and recorded it the same year as Lake City. Selling his shop to
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Frederick Roth in 1857, he went back to his birthplace in Can- ada. He remained away one year and then returned to his place and again took up the hammer and blacksmith tools, continuing work at his trade until 1880. George Burns arrived in 1855 and put up a hotel, with a saloon in connection, near Bush's black- smith establishment. He managed this until 1866, when he sold to Henry D. Kopps, who, after running it for two years, sold to Patrick Cuskelly, and he in turn, in 1869, sold the establish- ment to M. F. Depati. This gentleman erected a brick addi- tion, the size of which was 28x33 feet, two stories, at a cost of $2,500, and in 1880 sold it to his son, Moses F. Depati, for $3,000. In 1856, at the time of laying out the village, Joseph Cadory put up a two-story building for a saloon, and run it as such until 1859, when he sold the building to Peter Bush, who, with his family, occupied it as a dwelling. In the fall of 1856, a saw-mill was put up in the "Village of the Lake," by J. Bow- man, with a circular saw and a power of forty horse, making the capacity 1,500 feet per day. In 1857, the mill was destroyed by fire, the supposition being that it was the incendiary work of Indians; and the ground was purchased by P. Melhorn and Enoch Woodman, who rebuilt the mill, and in connection with the saw they put in one run of stone, and commenced doing custom work for the surrounding neighborhood. In 1859, the mill became the property of P. Schuyler and Jared Patrick, who operated it until 1862, when it was sold to D. M. Lucris, and this gentleman removed it to Cordova.
CANNON CITY TOWNSHIP.
Cannon City township is one of the center towns of Rice county, lying in the second tier from the south and west county lines, and the smallest town in the county, Its immediate sur- roundings are, Bridgewater on the north; Wheeling on the east ; Walcott and Faribault on the south; and Wells and Faribault on the west. The city of Faribault takes from its southwest corner 3,200 acres, or sections 29, 30, 31, 32 and the southern halves of sections 19 and 20.
Here are found both timber and prairie land; the western portion abounding with timber, in places heavy and again light, and interspersed with meadow and timber openings. The eastern and northeastern parts, extending from the north to the south line of the town, is a rolling prairie, with here and there fine groves of timber. This is called East Prairie, for the reason that it lies east of the Cannon river timber. Little Prairie is a small prairie in and about section 4. The greater part of the town is under a high state of cultivation, and many of the oldest and
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finest farms in the county are located here. The soil is rich and well adapted to the crops and agricultural modes of to-day. A dark loam is the covering of the prairie, and as one approaches the timber a lighter nature of soil is visible, with a tendency to clay and sand. Along the Cannon river, which enters the town- ship from Faribault and crosses the western part in a northerly direction, the surface is more or less broken, and in some places enough so to be termed hilly. although there are few places so abrupt as to be detrimental to tillage. An abundance of excellent limestone is found in various localities in the western part of the town, and several have burned kilns with the most satisfactory results. It is also valuable for building purposes, for which it has been used quite extensively.
The town is well watered, but has not as many lakes as some of the surrounding townships. Chrystal lake is the only one of note, and is located in the central part. Prairie creek rises in sec- tion 23, and taking a northern course hastens its way to North- field township, from whence it enters the county of Goodhuc. The Cannon river has been mentioned as traversing the western part. Otto Falls creek, or, as it is generally known, Pond's creek, rises in Wheeling, and flowing westward, crosses the southern tier of towns and eventually becomes part of the Straight river. Several small streams traverse the northwestern part of the town- ship on their way to the Cannon river.
There has been considerable question as to the actual first settlers of Cannon City township. It is possible that there were some arrivals in the latter months of 1853, but the first settler of whom we have any actual knowledge is John Corsett, a native of Ohio, who arrived in the spring of 1854, and took a claim in sec- tion 35. He built a little shanty covered with what he called "shakes," and at once commenced harvesting hay, succeeding in securing about twenty tons. After he had been there a short time a number of others swelled the settlement in this part of the township. All who arrived in 1854 were from Dunkirk, Wis .. but most of them removed to other towns or counties.
William N. Owens and family were natives of New York. having left the place of their nativity carly in the forties and removed to Wisconsin. Here they remained for ten years, in Dunkirk, and in 1854, when the Minnesota fever first began to find root in the minds of the Eastern people, they decided to join the throng. Among others who came also were Isaac Ham- lin and his parents, George Marks and his family. John Pratt and family. Samuel Howe, John Ralier, .A. Renslow, and some who are mentioned elsewhere, who took claims in adjoining towns. These all started about the same time, and came strag- gling along on their way to the Cannon valley. When they
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reached the Root river, in Fillmore county, where Forestville now is, the typhoid fever attacked some members of Mr. Owens' family, and he was detained there some time, a child being born during this period. This, however, although it detained the family, did not hinder the balance of the party, and Mr. Owens with his oxen assisted the others to get into the country, his eldest coming up to drive one of the teams. The boy made an unfavorable report of the country to his parents, and they seri- ously entertained the thought of retracing their steps to the former home, but finally overcame their scruples and pushed on, arriving on East Prairie on October 1, 1854. They here found that those who had preceded them had failed in their agreement to select a good claim and cut hay for the detained party, and as they had four yoke of oxen, two cows, and one horse, they were obliged to secure hay or suffer severe loss. After looking about for a short time, Mr. Owens made Corsett, who is men- tioned above as having put up twenty tons of hay, an offer of $250 for his claim and hay, which offer was accepted, and MI. Owens moved his family into Corsett's doorless and floorless cabin. This was soon remedied by making a floor out of slippery elin bark, and a door of slabs. The roof of the cabin was very poor, as it was made of clapboards, and Mr. Owens in later years declared that when he heard the children in the night crying, "Ma, Ma, it's snowin' in my face!" he determined to fix it, so he went out on the prairie, and cut sod and packed it in layers on the roof of his house. This remedied the evil for the time and kept the snow out of the children's faces, but when the spring came and the drenching rain washed crevices through the sod. great haste was required in shoveling it off the roof to prevent the shanty from being transformed into a mud hole. During the fall Mr. Owens broke two acres of the prairie, and later in the fall and through the winter he fenced eighty acres, this being the first fence put up in the township, also making at the same time, by night work, with a draw-knife, shingles enough to cover the houses of Samnel Howe, John Ralier, and his own, which were each 16x24 feet. After Corsett had sold his farm, as mentioned above, he took a claim in Walcott township, and finally found his way to Redwood county, where he died many years ago.
About the time that Owens settled, a few more made their appearance, a party who were natives of Vermont having stopped for a time in Wisconsin, from whence they came direct. M. N. Pond and wife, and Prof. Ide, his father-in-law, with Mrs. Ide and her two daughters, made up the party. They came direct to Faribault, with a yoke of oxen and a team of horses. following the trail of Thomas Sprague, who had settled in Warsaw, and arrived at their destination in due time, having lost the single wagon
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trail. They then started to East Prairie in search of farms. There was not a track through the timber nor a sign of civiliza- tion, and they were forced to tediously cut a pathway through the heavy and tangled woods. When they got to the prairie they found signs of some one's having already been on time ground, for on a stake, conspicuously planted, appeared the warn- ing words : "6,000 AcrEs of this land is claimed by TriPP, Boss & Co." To this, however, the pioneers paid no heed. Prof. Ide took a claim in section 35, where the village was later platted, while Mr. Pond secured a place in section 36, where he at once erected a hewn log hut, making shingles therefor with a draw- knife. Here Pond remained until the survey was made, which discovered to him that he was upon a school section, and he at once sold for $200 and removed to the timber in section 33, in which he took the southwest quarter and at once put up a bark shanty, peeling the bark from saplings, unrolling and nailing it to the posts he had prepared. making a shanty sixteen feet square. He moved into this in the spring of 1855. The winter of 1855-56 was a very severe one, and as soon as the thermometer was put out the mercury would at once bob out of sight, while the anxious shiverer was still in doubt as to how cold it really was, and it became a standing joke that two thermometers must be tied together perpendicularly to find how cold it was; but it was an actual fact that for ninety days there was not a minute's thaw.
A number of others came about the same time and increased the settlement in the southern part of the town, and many pushed their way over the line and took farms in Walcott. Among these were George Marks and Mr. Emerson. The latter first took a claim on East Prairie, but afterwards removed to Walcott, where he engaged in a mill. Oliver Tripp, a native of the state of New York, came August 15, 1854, and took possession of some of the prairie land in section 36. W. L. Herriman was another who came in 1854, arriving from Ohio in the fall of the year named and secured a claim a short distance north of the farins occupied by the parties above mentioned. Ile was a blacksmith by trade and assisted in the early settlement of the village by starting the first blacksmith shop. Truman Boss came early in the fall of 1854, and secured a place in section 22. John Thompson, a native of Scotland, arrived in Cannon City township in 1855, and as- sisted in the settlement of East Prairie and the village, by aiding in the erection of a steam and grist mill. M. C. Sweat, a native of Vermont, after stopping in Wisconsin for a time, made his appearance in the year 1854, and took a claim north of the East Prairie settlement, in section 23. Mr. Sweat was joined the fol- lowing year by a New Yorker in the person of H. C. Tripp, who
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with his family located on an adjoining farm in the same section. About the same time another native of the Empire state put in an appearance and joined his fellow New Yorker by purchasing a claim in section 25. This was E. B. Orcutt, of Oneida county, who having stopped for a time in Wisconsin, made his arrival in 1855, with two yoke of oxen. Joseph Covert, of New York, came about the same time, and took a claim and lived over the line in the town of Wheeling. In 1868, he removed to section 25 of Cannon City, adjoining Mr. Orcutt's on the south.
Still another came into this section this year-1855-in the person of Roswell Bryant, of New England, who, with his family, after stopping for a time in Indiana, made their way to Minne- sota and became identified with Cannon City township pioneer- ing by securing prairie land adjoining the places above men- tioned. H. A. Swarthout, of Pennsylvania, came two years later, in 1857, and purchased a farm in sections 26 and 27.
In the meantime other parts of the township had begun evolu- tions toward civilization, although as yet the north and south portions were far apart in a social sense. Until the settlements grew so large as to merge together there was no intercourse between them.
About the first to commence a settlement in the north part of the township was what was known as the Closson party, of Wisconsin. They consisted of Caleb Closson and his sons, J. Clark, Joseph, Amasa and Schuyler, who all took farms adjoin- ing, in the northeastern corner of the town, arriving late in the year 1854. They at once erected log houses and stables, as they had considerable stock with them. These were the most promi- nent pioneers in the northern part of the town, and the "Closson Settlement" is still often spoken of by the old pioneers. Section 5, a few miles west of this settlement, received an initiating settler soon afterward in the person of John Dungay, a native of Eng- land, who came from Chicago, where he had been working at the carpenter trade for several years, and secured a good farm in Cannon City township. He at once erected a comfortable house, sawing the lumber therefore with a whipsaw, also prepar- ing lumber and making probably the first wagon made in Rice county.
Thomas Van Eaton, formerly of Wisconsin, made his appear- ance in the spring of 1855, and helped fill in the gap between the two settlers above mentioned by taking a farm in section three. He was afterward a preacher, and was finally murdered near Sauk Centre by the Indians during their outbreak, they cutting off his head and leaving his body lying in a slough. The ghastly, grinning skull rolled over the prairie for nine years before it was identified and buried. Messrs. Godfrey, father and
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son, secured farms in the northern part of the town in 1855, and moved on them the following year. Jesse Carr, a native of the Empire state, made his appearance the same spring, 1855, and preempted a farm in section four, where he began improvements at once. About the same time George A. Turner, of New York, arrived and took a place near Mr. Carr.
Thus it will be seen that by the fall of 1855 the town had become pretty well settled and all parts had representatives in the pioneer line. Sears brothers had arrived and the village of Cannon City brought into existence, while Prairieville in the south, had made a very noticeable stride. A few more of the most prominent arrivals can be noted. F. Van Eaton came from Indiana in 1856, and secured a place in the northern part of the town. C. H. Mulliner, a native of New York State, came to Minnesota in 1855, and in 1856 secured a place in Cannon City township. O. B. Hawley arrived from New York State in 1856, and settled in section twenty-six, which his father, E. Hawley, had preempted the year previous. Mr. Hawley was chairman of the board of supervisors which organized the township in 1858, which office he held for eight terms. John Jepson, one of the pioneers of Minnesota, arrived in 1856, and took a farm in section fourteen in Wheeling. He later moved to Cannon City and became prominently identified with the interests of the township.
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