USA > Minnesota > Stearns County > History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 21
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A special meeting was held June 2, under instructions from the office of the attorney general, to revoke the liquor licenses of Jacob Weber and Nick Ganzer & Co. in the townsite of Roscoe, for the reason that their saloons were less than 1,500 feet (actually less than 800 feet) from the schoolhouse. The licenses were revoked and the license fees refunded. A special session was held June 18, at which ditch No. 30 was established and the plat of Pelican Lake Park in the township of Avon was accepted and approved.
The regular July session opened the twelfth, adjourning the fourteenth. Road and bridge appropriations were made as follows: Ashley, North Fork, Sauk Centre and Zion, $300 each; Grove, $109.84; Holding, $435.28; Paynes- ville, $377.50; St. Augusta, Le Sauk and St. Wendel, $250 each; village of St. Joseph, $100. A levy of $60,000 for county expenses and one mill for road and bridge purposes was made. The public examiner having reported that overcharges had been made by several of the county officials, the county attorney was instructed to investigate the matter and take such action as the case might require. The plat of Park addition to Holding was accepted. Board of equalization in session July 19-28. Special session July 19, routine business.
At a special session August 21, a loan of $15,789.96 to pay for judicial ditch No. 1 of Stearns and Pope counties was made from John Zapp at six per cent interest. Appropriations of $150 to Lynden, $350 to the city of
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Melrose and $230 to the city of Sauk Centre for road and bridge purposes were made. Road and bridge appropriations were made to Grove, $200; Krain, $400, and St. Wendel, $886.80, at a special session October 5. At a special session held December 14-17, the state highway from St. Joseph to Avon, which had been known as No. 1, was changed to No. 3 to conform to the number adopted by the State Highway Commission. Applications for loans from the state of Minnesota for county ditches Nos. 14 and 27 were accepted. The following road and bridge appropriations were made: Avon, $100; Brockway, $150; Luxemburg, $262.72; St. Joseph, $394.06; Spring Hill, $325; Zion, $200.
1910. The board met in regular session January 4 for one day, with Commissioners J. D. Kowalkowski, Ignatius Kremer, Jacob Weber and J. H. Canfield present, Commissioner Val. Herman being absent. J. D. Kowalkowski was elected chairman and J. H. Canfield vice-chairman. Theodore Schmitz was elected court house janitor, and an appropriation of $147.91 was made to Munson for roads and bridges. At a special session January 25, the sum of $15,000 was transferred from the county ditch fund, which had a large sur- plus, to the county reserve fund. An appropriation of $280 was made to the town of St. Martin for road and bridge purposes.
A special session was held March 4, at which road and bridge appropria- tions were made to Grove, $175; Oak, $379.50; Lynden, $100; and an appro- priation of $25 was made to the county agricultural society to be used in making an exhibit during the month of March in St. Paul. April 12, session for routine business.
A special session was held May 6, at which the road committees of the several commissioner districts were re-appointed for the coming year. Road and bridge appropriations were made as follows: City of St. Cloud, $4,700; town of Albany, $250; Ashley, Collegeville, Crow River, Eden Lake, Fair Haven, Getty, Holding, Krain, Lake George, Lake Henry, Le Sauk, Luxem- burg, Millwood, St. Cloud, St. Joseph, St. Wendel, St. Martin, Spring Hill, Wakefield and Zion, $300 each; Crow Lake, $200; Fair Haven, $388.50; Maine Prairie, $400; Raymond, $500; Rockville, $150. Dr. M. J. Kern was appointed county physician at a salary of $200 per year.
The following additional road and bridge appropriations were made at a special session June 7: Brockway, Lynden, Munson and St. Augusta, $300 each ; Oak, $250; Paynesville, $500. The regular July session was held from the eleventh to the thirteenth. For county purposes a tax levy of $60,000 was made, with one and a half mills for roads and bridges. Appropriations from this fund were made to Holding, $750; Grove, $125; North Fork, $300. Board of equalization in session, July 18-28.
A special session was held August 16, at which the road extending from the city of St. Cloud to the village of Kimball was made state highway No. 6. Road and bridge appropriations were made to Avon, Kimball and the village of Brooten, $300 each; Paynesville, $764.50. A special session was held August 26, at which the only item of business transacted was the grant- ing to W. J. Weyrauch, of Raymond, license to sell intoxicating liquors. Special sessions were held October 4 and November 29 for routine business.
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A special session was held December 15-17, at which, besides the transacting of routine business, the following road and bridge appropriations were made : Maine Prairie, $100; Melrose, $300; Oak, $400; Sauk Centre, $247; Wakefield, $640; village of Sartell, $106.87.
1911. The regular January session met on the third, adjourning the fol- lowing day; present, Commissioners J. D. Kowalkowski, V. Herman, Jacob Weber, Nicholas Thomey and J. H. Canfield. J. D. Kowalkowski was unani- mously elected chairman and J. H. Canfield vice-chairman. The St. Cloud Times was elected the official paper for the ensuing year and was also desig- nated as the paper in which the delinquent tax list should be published. An appropriation of $500 was made as a contingent fund for the county attorney. Dr. M. J. Kern, J. D. Kowalkowski and N. Thomey were appointed members of the county board of health, with a compensation of $5 per day. Salaries were fixed as follows: County superintendent of schools, $1,800; deputy, $720; clerk hire for county auditor's office, $4,260; treasurer's office, $1,450; janitor of the court house (Theodore Schmitz), $45 per month and house rent. A communication having been received from the attorney general regarding the distance between John Lutgen's saloon at St. Nicholas and the school- house, the county surveyor was instructed to make the necessary survey and report to the board at its next meeting. The compensation of the county surveyor was fixed at $5 per day for all county work performed. An appro- priation of $25 was made to the St. Cloud Humane Society, for outside work by the agent.
A special session was held February 7-8, with commissioners Kowalkow- ski, Weber, Thomey and Canfield present. The report of the county sur- veyor showing that John Lutgen's saloon was within the legally prohibited distance from the school house, his license was revoked and the license money ordered to be refunded. A petition having been received for an elec- tion to vote on the incorporation of the village of Roscoe, comprising territory in the townships of Munson and Zion, March 3, 1911, was designated as the day for holding such election at Clemens Kost's store, with Clemens Kost, Thomas Sauer and Joseph Wais inspectors. At a special session held March 3, the application of P. F. Dudley and others for the establishing of ditch No. 31 in the township of Lynden was granted, and Benjamin Kost, Michael Loso and Peter Sojka were appointed viewers, with M. J. Cleveland engineer.
Another one-day special session was held March 7. The result of the election at Roscoe having been in favor of incorporation, commissioner Jacob Weber with the inspectors originally designated were appointed a commit- tee to give notice of an election for village organization. Road and bridge appropriations were made as follows: Avon, $100; Eden Lake, $250; Fair Haven, $547.25; Grove, $120; Holding, Krain and Raymond, $500 each; Lake George, $150; Le Sauk, $125; Luxemburg, $342.89; Rockville, $106.65; St. Cloud, $300.
A special session was held May 2, adjourning that day, with all mem- bers present. A petition for the incorporation of the village of St. Anthony, in the township of Krain, was granted, and May 26th, at Joe Maders' ma- chine shed, was designated as the time and place for holding the election,
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with Ben Blume, Julius Bachel and Casper Ricker inspectors. A delega- tion of citizens and representatives of the St. Cloud Commercial Club, con- sisting of Theodore Bruener, J. D. Sullivan, C. D. Grinols, Alvah Eastman, C. F. MacDonald, P. R. Thielman and M. Nueremberg, appeared before the board and urged the necessity for the purchase of a site and the erection of a new court house thereon. Nicholas Thomey, J. H. Canfield and J. D. Kowalkowski were appointed a committee to investigate the matter of secur- ing a site. Road and bridge appropriations were made as follows: Albany, $264; Avon, Collegeville, Crow River, Getty and Lake George, $300 each; Brockway, Eden Lake, Luxemburg and St. Joseph, $400 each; Crow Lake, $125; Farming, $350; Grove and Maine Prairie, $500 each; Holding, $325; Lynden, $270; North Fork, $113.10; city of Melrose, $1,347.32; city of St. Cloud, $4,500. The proceedings in the matter of ditch No. 31 were approved at a special session, May 26.
At a special session June 22, a petition was received from B. W. Veede and others, asking that an examination of the affairs and accounts of the township of Getty be made by the state public examiner. It was voted that the town of Getty be required to give a bond to the county of Stearns pro- viding for the payment of the costs of the examination in case no discrepan- cies or irregularities were found, the costs otherwise to be paid by the county. A petition for a county ditch in the town of Raymond, Getty, North Fork and Lake George, signed by K. N. Dunham and others, was received and notice of hearing ordered to be given. Road appropriations were made to the fol- lowing townships: Lake Henry and Wakefield, $400 each; Lynden, Melrose, Rockville, St. Augusta and Sauk Centre, $300 each; St. Cloud, $200; St. Martin, $350; Zion, $595.
A regular session was held July 10-12, with all members present. Appli- cations were received from the Co-operative Farmers' Club of St. Cloud for an appropriation of $500 to be used in making a display of Stearns county agricultural products at the state fair and from the Stearns County Fair As- sociation for an appropriation of $500 for the county fair to be held at Sauk Centre; both applications were denied. Road and bridge appropriations were made to Ashley, $300; Krain, $200; Fair Haven, $125; Le Sauk, $1,189.25; Millwood, $300; Munson, $325; Oak, $400; Spring Hill, $348.90. A tax levy of $60,000 was made for the year 1911, and in addition one mill for road and bridge purposes.
Upon request of the Commercial Club of the village of Richmond and a petition signed by twenty citizens, the so-called Wakefield and Luxemburg county road was designated as state highway No. 8. The county board of equalization was in session July 17-24. A special session was held July 28, for routine business. At a special session August 4, with all members present, on a petition from N. H. Dunham and others, M. J. Cleveland was appointed engineer to survey the line for a proposed county ditch, No. 32, and Ben Kost, Frank Wagner and Fred Borgmann were appointed viewers.
A special session was held September 5, at which the main traveled road from Cold Spring to Paynesville was designated as state road No. 9, and a certain section of county road in the township of Maine Prairie was designated
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as state road No. 10. A road and bridge appropriation of $545 was made to the township of Lynden. A special session was held October 13, at which three liquor licenses were granted, no other business being transacted.
A special session was held December 15-16, at which the county road from the city of Sauk Centre to the village of Brooten was designated as state highway No. 11. An application from the Northern Minnesota Devel- opment Association for an appropriation of $50 was laid over. Road and bridge apropriations were made to Paynesville, $100; Lake George, $110; North Fork, $150; Oak, $574.40; Paynesville, $250; St. Augusta, $200; St. Joseph, $372; St. Wendel, $640.35; village of Brooten, $150.
1912. The board convened in regular session, January 2, Commissioners J. D. Kowalkowski, Valentine Herman, Jacob Weber, Nicholas Thomey and J. H. Canfield being present. J. D. Kowalkowski and J. H. Canfield were elected chairman and vice-chairman respectively. The St. Cloud Times was elected the official paper of the county and the stationery printing was awarded to the Nordstern. Dr. M. J. Kern was appointed county physician at a salary of $200 per year. An appropriation of $132 was made to the township of Wake- field for road and bridge purposes. In accordance with the provisions of chapter 109 of the general laws of 1911 an appropriation of $175 was made to the city of St. Cloud and $125 to the city of Sauk Centre to be used in the observance of Memorial day by the G. A. R. posts in these cities. Adjourned January 3.
At a special session February 6, with all members present, appropriations of $125 for Avon; $200 to Farming and $282 to Zion were made for road and bridge purposes. The salary of the deputy register of deeds was fixed at $300 per year. An appropriation of $400 was made to the Stearns County Agricultural Society, of which $215 was to be used in purchasing seed, corn and potatoes to be distributed proportionately among the 210 schools, in the county, not to exceed $1 worth of seed to be given to any one school, and County Superintendent William A. Boerger to act as distributing agent of the seed.
A special session was held April 2, at which a road running from the city of Sauk Centre to an intersection with state road No. 11, in section 20, town- ship of North Fork, was designated as state highway No. 12; and a road run- ning from the village of Richmond to the south line of Stearns county in the town of Eden Lake was designated as state road No. 13.
State highway No. 14, being composed of a road running from the village of Cold Spring to the south line of the county in the town of Luxemburg, was designated at a special meeting held May 7. The following named towns received appropriation for road and bridge purposes: Ashley, Collegeville, Crow River, Fair Haven, Getty, Krain, Lake George, Luxemburg, St. Joseph and Zion, $300 each; Maine Prairie, $450; St. Cloud, $150; St. Martin, $600; city of Sauk Centre, $262.72. A large number of school petitions were acted on. At a special session June 18, further road and bridge appropriations were made, Brockway, Lake Henry, Lynden, Millwood, Raymond, Rockville and St. Augusta receiving $300 each. The plat of the townsite of St. Nicholas was approved.
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The regular July session began on the eighth, adjourning the tenth, with all members present. A large number of applications for new roads and changes in established roads were acted on. M. J. Cleveland having resigned as engineer of ditch No. 32, S. S. Chute was appointed to complete the work. A levy of $59,000 was made for county purposes for the year 1912, and in addition $25,000 for road and bridge purposes. Appropriations from the road and bridge fund were made to Grove, $300; Paynesville, $2,883; St. Wendel, $500; village of Holding, $250. An appropriation of $500 was made to the Agricultural Society of Sauk Centre for use in the county fair to be held in September. The county board of equalization held a session July 15-25.
A committee, representing the Sunshine Society of St. Cloud, appeared before the board at a special session July 26 and asked that it appropriate a certain sum of money for the erection of a county sanitarium for tubercular patients. It was decided to take the matter under advisement for a later decision. Road and bridge appropriations were made to Avon, $300; Sauk Centre, $300; Holding, $500. An application of the St. Cloud Water Power company for the right to construct and maintain a line of poles and wires along the state and county roads of Stearns county for the transmission of electrical light and power to the different villages and other parts of the county, was granted for a period of twenty-five years, it being provided that such poles shall be erected so as not to interfere with ordinary travel, and that the company assumes all liability for any damages which may result from the construction or maintenance of such lines.
A special meeting held September 11, designated that part of the so-called "River road" along the west side of the Mississippi river to the line between Stearns and Morrison counties, excluding that part lying within the village of Sartell, as state road No. 15. A special session October 8, was devoted to road and routine business. J. H. Canfield was appointed to represent Stearns county at the annual meeting of the State Association of County Commis- sioners to be held at Austin, October 24-27.
At a special session December 17-18 resolutions from a number of societies and organizations favoring the establishing of a Stearns county tuberculosis sanatorium were read, and the matter was laid over. The plat of Pearl Lake Park was approved. An appropriation of $300 was made to the town of Wakefield for road and bridge purposes. Bonds of county officers were ap- proved as follows: Chris. Schmitt, county treasurer, $250,000; John P. Rau, county auditor, $10,000; John Lang, register of deeds, $5,000; B. E. Schoener, sheriff, $5,000; Paul Ahles, county attorney, $1,000; H. A. Pinault, coroner, $3.000; Cary Diehl, court commissioner, $2,000.
1913. The board met in regular session January 7, adjourning January 8, with J. D. Kowalkowski, Valentine Herman, Jacob Weber, Nicholas Thomey and J. H. Canfield present. J. D. Kowalkowski was unanimously elected chair- man and J. H. Canfield vice-chairman. County Auditor Rau presented the annual financial statement of the county, which was accepted and ordered to be published. The matter of the county printing coming up, the board first went into executive session, and afterwards proceeded to take action on the two bids received, the one being from the St. Cloud Times and the other from
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the Sauk Centre Herald; the latter was accepted as being the lowest. It provided for the publishing of all county official matters in the Sauk Centre Herald, Albany Enterprise, Belgrade Tribune, Brooten Review, Cold Spring Record, Freeport Informant, Holdingford Advertiser, Kimball Kodak, Mel- rose Beacon, Paynesville Press and Richmond Standard, at the rate of sixty cents per folio for the first insertion and thirty cents for each subsequent insertion ; also, to cause to be sent by mail copies of the financial statement to taxpayers as follows: St. Cloud, 500; Waite Park, 25; St. Joseph, 25; Avon, 25; Sartell, 25; Collegeville, 25. The publishing of the delinquent tax list at the rate of ten cents per description, was also let to the Sauk Centre Herald, on the same conditions as in the matter of county printing, that being declared to be the lowest offer received. The printing of all office stationery was awarded to the Nordstern Publishing Company. The sum of $500 was appro- priated as a contingent fund for the county attorney. The bounty of $2.50 each for full-grown and $2.00 for cub wolves, additional to the state bounty, was continued. An appropriation of $225 was made to enable the county treas- urer to prepare duplicate tax lists to be used in collecting taxes in various parts of the county, as provided by law. The following-named commissioners were appointed as committees for the several commissioner districts to super- vise the expenditure of moneys on roads: First district, Commissioners Kowal- kowski, Herman and Canfield ; Second district, Commissioners Herman, Canfield and Kowalkowski; Third district; Commissioners Weber, Thomey and Kowal- kowski; Fourth district, Commissioners Thomey, Weber and Kowalkowski; Fifth district, Commissioners Canfield, Kowalkowski and Herman. Dr. M. J. Kern was re-elected county physician at a salary of $200 per year; and Dr. M. J. Kern, J. D. Kowalkowski and Nicholas Thomey were appointed members of the county board of health. Ignatius Luckeroth was appointed custodian of the court house at a salary of $52.50 per month, and William Holucok, janitor at $42.50 per month. The salary of the county superintendent of schools was fixed at $2,200; assistant, $840; clerk hire for auditor's office, $4,320; treasurer's office, $1,440; register of deed's office, $300; extra help in treasurer's office, $200; county surveyor, $5.00 per day for county work.
At a special session held March 4, road and bridge appropriations were made as follows: Albany, $405; Brockway, $154; Lake George, $150; Le Sauk, $112; Maine Prairie, $309.55 ; Melrose, $344.75; Munson, $311.97; Oak, $102.85; St. Joseph, $247.50; St. Martin, $418; village of Eden Valley, $350, city of Sauk Centre, $240.22. An appropriation of $500 was made to the County Agricultural Society of Stearns county to aid in the conducting of a fair at Sauk Centre in September. An appropriation of $100 was made to the city of St. Cloud and $75 to the city of Sauk Centre for the observance of Memo- rial day. A contract was made with the Northwestern Telephone Company for the rent of ten telephones for the use of the different county officers at $2.00 each per month. The following reports of amounts of fees received during the year 1912 were made : J. P. Rau, county auditor, $3,620; Chris. Schmitt, treas- urer, $3,311.75; A. H. Klasen, probate judge, $2,747.70; J. B. Hemsl, attorney, $2,500; John Long, register of deeds, $3,201.50; H. J. Limperich, clerk of court, $3,590.42; B. J. Moritz, sheriff, $5,019.95; J. D. Morgan, surveyor,
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$165.51; H. A. Pinault, coroner, $60.30; county commissioners, J. D. Kowal- kowski, $1,115.70; Valentine Herman, $1,352.30; Jacob Weber, $926.80; N. Thomey, $990.80; J. H. Canfield, $1,172.69.
A special meeting was held April 8, at which Michael Loso was appointed appraiser of state lands. W. A. Boerger, county superintendent of schools, reported that fees amounting to $2,000 had been received by him during the year 1912. A communication was received from the State Highway Commis- sion advising the board that $5,000 had been alloted to Stearns county for the state road and bridge fund.
A petition of Frank Lippameyer and nine others for a drainage ditch in the town of Melrose was presented, as was a remonstrance signed by John Moening and twenty-three others, at a special meeting held April 15. After consideration the petition was granted, the ditch to be known as No. 33, with S. S. Chute engineer to make a survey, and W. E. Murphy, John Neutzling and Fred Borgmann to act as viewers.
Another special session was held May 6, at which a resolution was adopted authorizing the borrowing, from Zapp's state bank, St. Cloud, of the sum of $18,278.27, to defray the cost of the construction of judicial ditch No. 1 of Pope and Stearns counties, said loan to bear interest at the rate of six per cent and be payable in ten annual installments. A special session was held May 16, for the purpose of giving a new notice of hearing in the matter of ditch No. 32, the previous notice having been defective.
A number of appropriations were made from the road and bridge fund at a special meeting held June 10, as follows: Albany, Collegeville, Crow River, Getty, Grove, Holding, Krain, Lake George, Lake Henry, Luxemburg, Melrose, Millwood, Munson, North Fork, Raymond, Rockville, St. Cloud, St. Joseph, St. Martin, St. Wendel, Sauk Centre and Zion, $300 each ; Eden Lake, $600; Fair Haven, $500; Maine Prairie, $450; Wakefield, $500; village of Rockville, $700. A resolution was adopted providing for a half holiday on the Saturday afternoon of each week, for the county officers, deputies and clerks, from June 10 to October 11, 1913. The final hearing in the matter of ditch No. 32 was held at a special session June 21, when a resolution was adopted making a number of amendments to the viewers' report and fixing July 1, 1915, as the time for the completion of the ditch.
The regular July session opened the fourteenth, with all members present, adjourning the fifteenth. The tax levy for the year 1913 was fixed at $60,000 of which $23,000 was for salaries of county officers, $8,000 for district court expenses, $4,000 for jail and court house expenses, $3,000 for justice and municipal court expenses and $5,000 for salaries and mileage of county com- missioners. There was also levied $30,000 for road and bridge purposes, and in addition one mill for a Dragging fund, in each town outside of incorporated cities and villages, in accordance with section 41, chapter 235, general laws of 1913. The board having decided that the mileage of state roads in the county was too great for their proper care and maintenance by the county alone, adopted a resolution revoking all previous action designating state roads. Sub- sequently resolutions were adopted designating four state roads to be com- posed as follows :
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