History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume II, Part 108

Author: Mitchell, William Bell, 1843-
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : H. S. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1110


USA > Minnesota > Stearns County > History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume II > Part 108


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).


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Sauk Rapids Cemetery-Robert W. Ley- erly, James S. Wood, Charles Hemmen- way, John Reinard, Lieut. George V. May- hew, Josiah A. Kellum, Nathaniel G. Grant, Bnjamin G. Rushton, Nathan Lease, Her- man Schneider, A. C. Johnson, R. Burn- ham, Henry M. Orcutt, Thos. Van Etten.


The "Boom" of 1887 .- The "boom" epi- demic struck St. Cloud as it did almost all the towns and cities throughout the length


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and breadth of the country in 1886-88. The symptoms were rather mild in 1886, reach- ing their most serious aspect the year fol- lowing, andpractically passing away by the close of 1888, A wild scramble was made for real property in the immediate vicinity, and even for several miles out. The most reckless prices were paid, and enough acreage was platted into city lots to provide homes for a population of fifty to a hundred thousand souls. Syndicates were frmed and farms that under ordinary circumstances would not have had a mar- ket value of over a hundred dollars an acre were scrambled for by eager buyers at from three hundred to a thousand dol- lars per acre. For one tract, when the "boom" was at its crux, the owner was of- fered fifteen hundred dollars per acre, which he refused, and the syndicate of would-be purchasers afterwards regarded his refusal as the best streak of luck they had had during the entire season. Every- body was eager to buy lots, prices fairly doubled over night and real estate agents were knee-deep in clover.


The immediate cause of this speculative fever in St. Cloud was the improvement of the water power in the Mississippi river and the location of the Great Northern Shops at this place. But aside from these, the microbe was in the air, and our citi- zens were simply in a fit mental condition for it to get in its deadly work. As is al- most invariably the case when prices of real estate are unduly inflated, the bot- tom dropped out of the boom, many were disappointed and not a few were finan- cially seriously embarrassed. For a time the effect was to retard the natural de- velopment of the city, but the recovery, while gradual, was substantial and the growth which followed has been healthful, the demand for lots for improvement and occupancy reaching past the city proper out into the multitude of additions platted trom farm acres.


It may be worth while to note some of the syndicates formed during the boom days-practically all in 1887-and the prop- erty purchased to be platted as additions:


Southside Park-40 acres, consideration $13,000; J. E. West, W. B. Mitchell, D. B. Searle and F. E. Searle equally, and F. M. Morgan and D. A. Hoyt, one-tenth each.


D. B. Searle soon afterwards sold his one- fifth interest to Dr. Price of St. Paul for $10,000. McClure & Whitney's Addition, 40 acres, west of Southside Park, consid- eration $16,000; C. P. McClure and A. G. Whitney. An offer of $56,000 for the plat soon afterwards was reported. Central Park, 192 acres, at from $200 to $500 per acre; H. C. Waite, 15-54; D. B. Searle, 12-54; Clara C. McClure, 10-54; F. E. Searle, 9-54; L. W. Collins and W. B. Mit- chell, 8-54. Syndicate Addition, 40 acres, $11,000; D. B. Searle, F. E. Searle, J. E. West, W. B. Mitchell, N. P. Clarke, D. A. Hoyt. Normal Park, 30 acres, $30,000; J. E. West, D. B. Searle, F. E. Searle, W. B. Mitchell, L. W. Collins, F. M. Morgan. West Side Addition, 35 acres, $13,655; D. B. and F. E. Searle, F. M. Morgan, W. B. Mitchell, Baldwin & Troutman, L. W. Col- lins. Cottage Place Addition, 60 acres, $16,000; D. B. Searle, F. E. Searle, O. W. Baldwin, Tolman & Troutman, W. B. Mit- chell, C. S. Mitchell, McClure & Whitney. Waite Park-Comprising the Carter, Becker and Hollenhorst farms, about 350 acres, $36,000; H. C. Waite, John Cooper and D. E. Myers of St. Cloud, H. P. Upham and Howard James, St. Paul. Collins Ad- dition, 40 lots, $7,600; F. E. Searle, Bald- win, Tolman & Troutman, W. B. Mitchell, C. W. Kingsbury, C. S. Mitchell. Water Power Co. land, East St. Cloud, 80 acres, $10,000; C. D. Kerr, T. P. Wilson, St. Paul. Prospect Park, 20 acres, $5,000; O. W. Baldwin, F. Tolman, L. T. Troutman. John Rengel, Sr., farm, 130 acres, $10,400; W. L. Rosenberger and H. C. Metzl. From this, 20 acres was sold to E. J. Myers, St. Paul, for $6,000 and 20 acres for $6,000 to C. F. Macdonald, M. J. Nugent, F. Fandel, J. A. Donahue and Wm. Russell. J. W. Metzroth purchased of Jos. Hall for $10,- 000 ten acres of land a short distance west of Lake George, which afterwards be- came Metzroth's Addition. L. W. Collins bought of J. W. Tenvoorde, eight acres just west of the city liimts, comprising all of the Tenvoorde homestead, except two acres surrounding the house, for $600 per acre. This was platted as Collins' Second Addition. A tract of 113 acres on the east side, belonging to Governor Alex. Ramsey, J. P. Wilson, N. P. Clarke and others was platted as St. Cloud Park. Another east side tract, south of the dam, owned by


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Baldwin, Tolman, Troutman and Mitchell, was platted and called Riverside Park.


The Everett Schoolhouse .- This build- ing, the first schoolhouse erected in Stearns county, has been torn down and removed, says the St. Cloud Journal-Press of October 27, 1887. It was built in 1856 by citizens of St. Cloud, the site being selected for its convenience, but there was no title to the lot save that of occupancy. It was not until the winter of 1857 that the building was lathed, plastered and made properly habitable. It was named for the Hon. Edward Everett, of Boston, the well- known author and orator, who in 1858, in recognition of the compliment, sent to the school a carefully selected library of 130 volumes, which for years did good service to young and old, and the remains of which are now in the city library. The dis- trict in these early days, we are told by C. Bridgman, one of the first directors, ex- tended to the township limits, and out- side of "lower town" was a howling wil- derness with hardly half a dozen families in it. It is about twenty years since the building has been used at all for school purposes. In the early days it was used for church meetings and party gatherings, and afterwards for all First ward caucuses and the polling place for that ward for all elections.


Some Old Landmarks .- The original Cen- tral House building has been torn down (says the St. Cloud Journal-Press of March 22, 1883,) and has passed into history. It was one of the first frame houses built in St. Cloud, having been commenced in July, 1855, and finished that season, Wolfgang Eich doing the work for Anton Edelbrock. The frame was made of tamarack poles, some of the sills being single pieces a foot square and over forty feet long and all per- fectly sound. At the time it was built there were only two other frame buildings in town. John L. Wilson had a small dwelling built in 1854, on the property that is now in the city park, which was moved a year or so ago and is now occupied by R .. A. Armstrong; and Joseph Edelbrock had a small dwelling on the lot opposite the Central, which was finished about the time the Central was begun. Besides these houses a few log cabins were all there then was of the present city of St. Cloud. That was twenty-eight years ago, and last


week $150 a front foot was refused for a vacant lot in the same block. The first landlord of the Central was Anton Edel- brock, who used a half bushel measure as a cash box and put it under his bed for safe keeping. County Commissioner Pierz says that he has often seen that measure in early days nearly full of gold pieces. The second landlord was James Lusky, the third Willis, the fourth Silsby, the fifth the present proprietor, J. E. Hayward, who on the twelfth of the month will have been host almost uninterruptedly for twenty years, and it is to be hoped that he may be host in his handsome new hotel for twice twenty years to come. The old building has been on fire on an average of once or twice a year since it was built, but it seemed impossible to burn it down. Peter Smith has purchased the old tim- bers and will rebuild the house in the same form on a lot in block 32, near the old Washington House, for rent as a tene- ment.


Almost the only landmark of St. Cloud's earliest days still left standing is a log building located at No .. 20 Sixth avenue south, at the rear of the business building of that number. It is a low, one-story structure of logs and with the exception of a porch at the south side is exactly as it was when originally built in 1855 by Jo- seph Niehaus. There is a small loft, en- trance to which was gained by means of a, ladder placed against the gable end. Low, old-fashioned windows of small panes of glass gave light to the interior. In 1857 the building was sold by its owner to B. Rosenberger, who in turn in May of the following year sold it to Bernard Overbeck, by whom for several years it was used as a hotel. Besides being used as a hotel and saloon, one corner was utilized as a courtroom and men were tried for offenses against the law within its log walls. Charles Ketcham was a justice in those days and stories are told of how he would fine a witness or an attorney "the drinks" for the crowd for some infractions of the rules of practise as laid down by the court. The loft was the general sleeping place and it was not an uncommon thing for twenty men to find lodging between the roof and the ceiling of the first floor. The building is still in a good state of preserva- tion.


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In making repairs on the Stearns House in 1869 for occupancy as a normal school the old log house which stood a few rods below it was torn down. It was built in 1855, and was said to be the first house in lower town and the third in St. Cloud. It was occupied first as a hotel, and sheltered beneath its roof many of those whose names are associated with the early days of the town-Brott, Stearns, Sisson, Curtis, Taylor and others. The first paper in St. Cloud, the Minnesota Advertiser, was printed in this log house in 1857. As the town grew this "old settler" degenerated into a shop, and finally into a lumber and storage room for the Stearns House. It is unfortunate that it could not have been preserved as a memento of the days of St. Cloud's beginnings, and a place on the Normal campus might have been provided.


The old Normal Home, formerly the Stearns House, is being torn down (May 17, 1895). In its day it was the largest and finest hotel building north of Minne- apolis. It was built (in 1855-56) and run by C. T. Stearns, one of the first settlers of St. Cloud and the man for whom Stearns county was named. Many of the old set- tlers in Northern Minnesota stopped there in the early days and it has a historic place in St. Cloud's annals. It was beautifully located on the highi bluffs of the Missis- sippi and when the old Burbank & Co.'s stages drawn by four big horses would each evening dash down the road with the horses on the gallop, the driver cracking his long whip and the warning toot of the horn was heard, every man, woman and child who could get there saw the grand entre and watched the passengers descend. In those days this house was the practical head of navigation, while later it was chosen as the location of the Third state Normal school and for years was used as the school building. Later it was made the first ladies' home in the state and now has been sold to A. G. Whitney for a few dollars, the material to be used in building farm houses.


An Indian Wedding .- The first Indian wedding ever performed in St. Cloud-and the last-was on November 16, 1862, when Elizah Tanner married Agnes McGillis, of Crow Wing, the ceremony being performed at the American House by L. A. Evans, justice of the peace. The father of the


groom was a civilized Chippewa Indian, who for many years had been an interpre- ter and had lectured on Indian affairs in the eastern cities. At the outbreak of the Sioux war both father and son had joined the state troops, going with Captain Ber- ger's command to the relief of Fort Aber- crombie.


A Young Recruit .- St. Cloud had the distinction of furnishing one of the young- est, if not the youngest, soldiers who en- tered the Union army during the Civil War. This youth was Lawrence Garlington (a nephew of Judge J. M. McKelvy) who en- listed as a drummer boy for Captain J. E. West's command, Company I of the Sev- enth Minnesota Volunteers, in November, 1862, when but a few weeks over thirteen years of age, and was discharged July 4, 1865, for disability. He lived some twenty years after the close of the war.


Freshets .- Fortunately the topography of Stearns county renders it immune from the floods which almost annually bring great losses-sometimes reaching the pro- portion of terrible disasters, involving not only destruction of property, but a terrible toll of human lives-in so many other parts of the country. The Mississippi river, which borders the county on the east and is the great drainage artery by which all surplus water is carried away, has high banks which are a sure protec- tion against anything in the nature of a flood. The stage of water in some of its tributaries at times has been sufficient to sweep away bridges and dams, to overflow meadows and fields, but the damage has been in the aggregate comparatively slight and there have been few if any lives lost. In the following paragraphs an account is given of the freshets which have been most noteworthy.


A freshet on the night of September 2, 1865, swept out the dam at J. L. Wilson's sawmill at St. Augusta; the boom at Sims & Arnold's sawmill at the mouth of Sauk river was broken and the logs carried down the Mississippi, many lodging in Tobey's boom; and the bridge across Sauk river at Cold Spring was swept away ..


The worst freshet known in the history of Stearns county, or of Minnesota, since 1850, occurred July 17 and 18, 1867. Heavy and continuous rains raised the Mississippi river and its tributaries far beyond their


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usual stage, with much resulting damage. In St. Cloud the sawmills were the chief sufferers. At Bridgman's mill 300,000 feet of logs were swept away and the entire machinery in the mill was under water. His loss amounted to about $5,000. Tobey & Co. lost 1,000,000 feet of logs, and their loss, including the damage to machinery, reached $16,000. The lower floor of J. H. Owen & Co.'s factory and planing mill was covered to the depth of three feet, but the machinery was not injured. The boiler in Dr. Hunter's shingle mill at the mouth of the ravine was carried away, but the frame of the mill was left standing. Wright's, Wilson's and Fowler's ferries all suffered, and for several days crossing of the Mississippi at this place was done in small boats.


The Union flouring mills owned by Gor- ton & Burbank, and located on Sauk river, about three miles from St. Cloud, was saved by the building of a dike, the water having risen twelve feet. At the Sauk City saw and grist mills, located about one mile farther down Sauk river and owned by Sims & Arnold, the water completely cov- ered the dam and the lower part of the mills. A large quantity of logs and lumber were carried away, but the dam stood the strain. The loss was $1,000. The building in which C. W. Clark's carding mill, close to Sims & Arnold's mill, was wrecked by the flood, the machinery having been re- moved to a place of safety. A large quan- tity of wood was lost. The building was owned by F. Arnold.


At Sauk Centre the water in Sauk lake lose rapidly and notwithstanding the un- tiring efforts of the citizens swept away the dam built at the mouth of the lake where it empties into Sauk river, com- pletely submerging the grist mill, which in less than five minutes afterwards was a total wreck. The terrific force of the water rapidly wore away the banks, and soon afterwards the miller's house, occu- pied by A. J. Cannon, which stood ninety feet from the mill, was carried down the raging stream. During this time the water was rushing through and around the saw mill, which in the afternoon of Thursday gave way and went down the stream. For- tunately this relieved the pressure against the opposite bank, saving the new mill. The cooper shop, owned by Moore & Mc-


Clure, shared the fate of the other build- ings. With great difficulty the new brew- ery built by George Groover was saved. The residences of Dr. Palmer, Mr. Prender- gast and others, located on the island, must inevitably have been swept away had not the waters from the lake worn a channel back of them into the river. The direct loss, amounting to $30,000, fell almost en- tirely on Moore & McClure, owners of the mills.


The solid character of the dam at Cold Spring saved that mill, and doubtless saved the Union and Sauk City mills from being swept away by the immense volume of water from Sauk Centre, which was held back, spreading into the lakes between Richmond and Cold Spring through which the Sauk river runs.


Practically all the bridges between St. Cloud and Fort Abercrombie were carried away, as were also the bridges up the Mis- sissippi.


During these rains Webb's grist mill at Fair Haven was swept away, the large vol- ume of water bursting through the dam. The mill was owned by Linscot, Vye and Mayall. The saw mill was not injured.


The Clearwater mills dam on the Clear- water river, was carried out by high water on the night of May 25, 1868, together with the bridge below. The loss to the owners, Davis & Beal, was quite heavy, but they rebuilt the mill at once.


High water swept away the wagon bridge at the mouth of Sauk river on the night of April 10, 1873, and some of the earth- work near Arnold & Stanton's mill was carried away. The dam at J. E. Hayward's flouring mill, also on Sauk river, was par- tially destroyed, which decided Mr. Hay- ward to build a much more substantial dam. The most serious damage was to the Sauk Rapids dam, two sections of two hun- dred feet each of the wing dam being car- ried away by the ice.


Letter of P. Lamb .- The following letter, hitherto unpublished, was written several years ago by the late P. Lamb, of St. Cloud and Sauk Centre. It contains many interesting facts, given from personal knowledge, of the early days in Stearns county and other near-by parts of northern Minnesota.


""In October, 1851, I left my home in Ver- mont for Minnesota (at that time supposed


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to be the jumping off place in the West), and after a long and tedious journey ar- rived in St. Paul early in November. My destination being Watab, after a good deal of trouble I obtained transportation to that place. Watab at that time was an Indian trading post, being situated on the east side of the Mississippi river, just across from Winnebago Prairie, which was a sub- agency of the Winnebago Indians where there were about 500 of the tribe living in tepees. There were at Watab the trading . houses of S. B. Lowry and Nathan Myrick and at Winnebago Prairie those of Manes & White and George Culver. At Watab there was a hotel, at that time called a stopping place, kept by a family named Lauterdale; a bakery owned by George Humphry and the dwelling house of David Gilman, who had made a claim there and moved with his family in 1848 or 1849 and had opened quite a farm. There was an- other small farm at Little Rock creek oc- cupied by one Thomas Hardin. There was also another settlement on the bank of the river near what is now known as Rice station. John Depew kept a stopping place at the crossing of the Platt river and had opened quite a farm. George Stone (I think in 1852) lived on what is now the town-site of Little Falls. There was also quite a settlement at Belle Prairie and Baldwin Olmstead had opened a farm across the river from Fort Ripley. These are, as I remember, all of the settlements as early as 1852.


"There were, as there always are, a good many hangers-on around the agency. In 1851 a treaty was made with Sioux for the land on the west side of the river. In 1852 I was in the employ of S. B. Lowry, and in the spring of 1853 he had one of the trading houses on Winnebago Prairie taken down and rafted; and Chris Highhouse, an old lumberman, H. G. Fillmore and myself ran the raft over Sauk Rapids to a point just below, and took it out and put it up again on the bank of the river on the squat- ter's claim made by S. B. Lowry. (Mr. Lamb's recollection is evidently at fault. The Lowry house was built of logs, as is testified to by a number of the old settlers still living here, and as is distinctly re- membered by the editor of this history. The first frame house on the west side of the river above Minneapolis, was built at


St. Cloud by John L. Wilson in 1855, unless it be, as is claimed, that in 1852 a frame house was built at Otsego, Wright county, by John McDonald, of that place, and his son .- Note by Editor.) This was said at the time to be the first frame house on the west side of the river above what is now the city of Minneapolis. Mr. Fillmore kept bachelor's hall here during the summer and broke up quite a large farm on the claim.


"About this time a Swede named Ole Burgson squatted on the claim adjoining Lowry on the south, upon which is now the city of St. Cloud, but getting into trouble with some one was obliged to leave the country and sold his right to John L. Wil- son. There were several other claims made during the summer of 1853. This brings me up to the fall of 1853, when I left Minnesota and went to California, re- turning in 1857. I will not try to remember all the changes that have taken place since then, but will say, however, that on my return I found nearly all the land near St. Cloud claimed and occupied and on the old sub-agency ground at Winnebago Prairie were settled J. E. Hayward, Dr. Tolman and others whom I cannot recall."


Experiences of a Pastor's Wife .- Those early years brought some experiences which are very amusing to look back at, although they were not so amusing at the time. The pastor at the beginning, found it necessary to teach school as well as preach, in order to live, as the salary paid by the Board of Home Missions was only $400. The first two years we received only $20 from the people. Ten of these dollars came in a rather amusing way. The pas- tor had preached the Thanksgiving ser- mon. A day or two after, Mr. L. C. met him on the street and told him that it was the best Republican sermon he ever heard and then gave him $5. Later the minister met Mr. P. L., who told him that the same sermon was the best Democratic sermon he ever heard, and he gave the minister $5. There must have been some very shrewd straddling about that sermon.


When we came to St. Cloud, we found many things decidedly new and not all of them pleasant. At that time the railroad was built to Anoka only. The rest of the journey had to be made by stage. As there was not room on the stage for our trunks they were left at Anoka, where they


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remained for six weeks, and we had to get along with what we had in our grips. We took two rooms upstairs in a one and a half story house near the present Great Northern freight depot. People talk about high cost of living; that was a time when it certainly did cost more to live than it does now. We bought a No. 7 stove, with- out the necessary cooking utensils, and paid for it $47. A second-hand bedstead, with an old husk tick, but no springs, cost us $26. Three wooden-seat chairs and a kitchen table were the extent of our fur- niture. A bread tin was all we had to cook anything in, but as we lived mostly on bread and black-jack molasses, the cook- ing did not trouble us so very much. Com- ing from a country where fruit was plen- tiful and finding here only dried apples, they seemed pretty dry, until we got used to them. The first can of peaches, such as are now called pie-peaches, cost 65 cents, and everything else on a like scale. Find- ing the work too hard upstairs, we moved into a small house near the present Great Northern freight office. Here we had only two small rooms and a shed at the rear. The floor was made of broad, unplaned boards, and these had shrunk so that the cracks were about a half inch wide. It was in this little house that we got our first mis- sionary box, and this is the story of it. The Rev. Robert Sutton, pastor of the Cen- tral Presbyterian Church, St. Paul, sent us word that he would visit us and spend the Sabbath with us. It was good that he forewarned us. Then the question arose with terrible reality, "What shall we do with him?" We had no money to pay for him at the hotel, and we had but one bed. After considerable planning, we settled the matter by taking the boards that were laid down in the backyard for a walk and making a box, somewhat like a wagon box, then nailing bits of boards on the ends for feet. This we filled with hay which a kind neighbor furnished, and by letting the quilt hang over the ends and sides, it looked quite well. Then we had but one pair of pillows, which of course were given to him and we slept very well on the hay bed.




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