History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume II, Part 52

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 52


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Charles T. Stearns. This early pioneer, for whom Stearns county was


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named, was born at Pittsfield, Mass., January 9, 1907. In 1835 he moved to what was then the territory of Michigan and later to the territory of Wis- consin, locating in that part which is now included in the state of Iowa. In 1847 he came to Minnesota to assist in the construction of Fort Ripley, and the following year made his home at St. Anthony Falls, where he established a machine shop and planing mill. He was a member of the territorial legis- lature, being the only Whig in the council, all the others being Democrats. In 1856 he came to St. Cloud, where he lived until February, 1864, when he removed to New Orleans, where George F. Brott, his son-in-law, was living and where he engaged in business until 1867, when he went to Mobile. For two years he was in the hardware business, afterwards for ten years being register of the Mobile land office, until this was consolidated with the land office at Montgomery, when Mr. Stearns retired from business life, and in 1880 went to New Orleans to make his home with his son Henry, who was engaged in business in that city. His death occurred May 22, 1898, when he was in the 92d year of his age.


Louis A. Evans was born near Philadelphia, Pa., November 2, 1822. After attending school he learned the piano trade, at which he found employment in various cities until 1856, when he came from New Orleans to St. Cloud, arriving here December 15. He at once engaged in business and in 1862 when the town was incorporated as a city was elected its first mayor. He served in the legislature in 1864-65, and in 1867 was elected to the state senate. For nearly twenty years he filled the office of judge of probate of Stearns county. In 1871 he married Mrs. Elizabeth W. Libby. His death occurred at his home in St. Cloud, June 18, 1897.


Sylvanus B. Lowry was born in Tennessee, the son of the Rev. David Lowry, who first settled in Iowa as a missionary to the Winnebago Indians. Sylvanus, who was then a boy of seven years, became during this time fa- miliar with the habits of the Indians and acquired their language. The father having been appointed United States Indian agent for the tribe the son was made interpreter. The tribe was afterward removed to Long Prairie in this state, and the Rev. Mr. Lowry lost his position as agent but retained the post of superintendent of the manual labor schools. S. B. Lowry, through the influence of Henry M. Rice, was appointed Indian trader with the Amer- can Fur Company in 1849, having his principal office at Watab with a branch at Winnebago Prairie, in this county. He received from Governor Gorman the appointment of adjutant general (from this deriving the title by which he was afterwards known) but as a result of personal political quarrels was soon removed and Isaac Van Etten appointed in his place. He was the Demo- cratic candidate for lieutenant governor in 1859 but was defeated by Ig- natius Donnelly. After his removal to St. Cloud he engaged in the for- warding and commission business for several years. During these years he was the ruling factor in the Democratic councils of this part of the territory and state. His death occurred in this city December 21, 1865. General Lowry married Josephine Wood, daughter of David T. Wood, of Woodstock, a townsite located on Sauk river. Several children were born to them. The widow is now a resident of Michigan.


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Henry Clay Burbank was born at Lewis, N. Y., May 4, 1835. In 1853 he came to St. Paul and with his brother, James C. Burbank, engaged in the forwarding and commission business. He came to St. Cloud in 1861 to take personal charge of the business of J. C. & H. C. Burbank & Co., which had largely increased and in the succeeding years assumed great proportions, in- cluding transportation and government contracts for supplies, besides an extensive mercantile business at this place. In 1872 he was elected to the state senate from this district, then the 31st, serving in the sessions of 1873 and 1874.


In 1866 the name of the firm was changed to Burbank Bros., which was later dissolved, and Mr. Burbank removed to St. Paul becoming a member of the clothing manufacturing firm of Campbell, Burbank & Co. He after- wards went to Rochester and engaged in the mercantile business, his death occurring at that place February 23, 1905. At St. Cloud September 3, 1868, he married Mary C. Mitchell, who survives him.


Joseph P. Wilson, a veteran of the Mexican war and for half a century a resident of Minnesota, Joseph P. Wilson died at his home in St. Cloud Feb- ruary 18, 1900, at the age of 77 years. Born at Columbia Falls, Maine, March 16, 1823, his young manhood was spent in the east until 1841, when he emi- grated to Geneva, Ill., where he studied law and was admitted to the bar, but enlisted for the Mexican War in 1846, serving in the commissary de- partment of an Illinois regiment. On his return he located at Oswego, Ill., removing in 1850 to St. Anthony Falls, Minnesota, where he engaged in the mercantile business, and in 1858 was a member of the constitutional con- vention. While residing in Minneapolis, in company with George F. Brott, C. T. Stearns and others he purchased the land below the ravine which was platted as St. Cloud City, better known as Lower town. He removed to St. Cloud in 1863, returning to Minneapolis in 1876, but in 1888 built a hand- some house in East St. Cloud, where he had platted a large acreage into city lots, and made this his home until his death.


In 1850, while at Oswego, he married Mary Corbett, who survived him, as did five children born to them. Mr. Wilson was very active in business affairs and was prominently identified with a number of important railroad undertakings.


Theodore H. Barrett was born at Orangeville, N. Y., August 27, 1834. When he had scarcely attained his majority, young Barrett came to St. Cloud in 1856, to make his way as a civil engineer. During the subsequent years he filled many government contracts, both in this state and in the Indian terri- tory, which were very profitable. He enlisted in the Ninth Minnesota Volun- teers in 1862, and at the close of the war had gained the rank of brigadier general, having the distinction of fighting the last battle of the war near Brazos, Texas. He was a member of the state reformatory board. Purchas- ing a large tract of land in Grant and Stevens counties he engaged in farm- ing on a large scale, and was at Herman when his death occurred July 20, 1900, from a stroke of paralysis.


Francis Talcott, the Pioneer jeweler of St. Cloud, was born at Glaston- bury, Conn., March 4, 1822. He came to St. Cloud in May, 1856, and engaged


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in the jewelry business, a trade learned in the east, his first location being near the western end of the Tenth street bridge and afterwards on Fifth avenue. He retired from active business about the year 1887. He first mar- ried, November 14, 1871, Rhoda W. Dewey, of Minneapolis, and some years after her death, Elizabeth A. Mosely, at Glastonbury, Conn., in October, 1886. His death occurred April 28, 1897, his widow surviving him.


Bernard Overbeck was a native of Hanover, Germany, where he was born December 6, 1829. He came to the United States in 1842, stopping first at Pittsburgh and then at Cincinnati, he came to St. Cloud in 1857. He started a hotel, the "Farmer's Home," in a small log building on Sixth avenue, after- wards moved to the rear of the lot where it still stands. He was the first tax collector in the town of St. Cloud, for twenty years was coroner of Stearns county, and in 1866 was a member of the legislature from this district. At Cincinnati, in 1851, he married Gesina Dirkis, who died in St. Cloud in 1891, his own death occurring March 4, 1898. A son and two daughters survive him.


Powell Brothers "C F .. & W. Powell, Hardware," was for many years, a familiar sign in front of a store building in St. Cloud, and the firm was well known not only in the city, but in the adjacent farming community. The Powell brothers were born in Penn Yan, Yates county, N. Y., Charles in 1828, and William in 1834. They remained there until their young manhood, when C. F. went west to Chicago, to further pursue his trade of tin and metal worker. In 1855 they decided to enter into the hardware business, and with favorable reports of the then young and growing town of St. Cloud, selected that as the one in which to risk their modest means. In 1860 they established a branch in St. Anthony Falls, which Charles managed until 1866, when the whole business was again united in St. Cloud. Here they remained in the same location on St. Germain street, (where they removed early from lower town,) C. F. retiring from the firm in 1890, and William continuing the business until his death.


In 1861 Charles married Juliet Alden, of St. Anthony Falls. They had two daughters, Mary and Florence. In 1884 he built a home in Minneapolis, where he spent most of his time, and was not actively engaged in any business. He died suddenly, of heart failure, in 1895. William had married Annette L. Marvin, in 1858. They also had two daughters, Jane and Gertrude. For many years he was a member and president of the city council, also a vestry- man and senior warden of St. John's Episcopal church until his death, which occurred in March, 1898. Both were men of sterling integrity and worth, respected in the community, helpers in the early struggles of the young town, and later in its prosperity as a growing city.


Becker Brothers, candy manufacturers and retailers, soda dispensers and cigar dealers, conducting the leading and best-patronized establishment of its kind in St. Cloud, was established at 706 St. Germain street, in 1912, by Phillip J. and H. T. A. Becker, both popular young men, and both natives of this city. The ice cream parlors are inviting, the soda fountain is most attractive to all who enter the place, while the confectionery supplies present so immaculate and dainty an appearance that their toothsomeness is at once


HI. T. A. AND PHILLIP J. BECKER.


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apparent. All the show-cases are new and large and sanitary The sodas are the best sold in the city, while the home made chocolates and cream taffy in which the brothers specialize, have won a place for themselves in the estimation of St. Cloud consumers. All the goods are of the highest class, absolutely fresh, and sold in good measure. No one makes a purchase there who does not return and become a regular customer. The young men are rapidly forging ahead, their quiet business methods, their honest dealings, and their natural social inclinations having obtained for them an enviable position in this town where they have spent their entire lives, and where they are widely known. They have made many improvements in their place, and the business is constantly growing. Mrs. H. T. A. Becker who assists her husband in looking after the details of the business is very popular among the young peoples' set in St. Cloud, and among the clubs and societies, and her personality has been an important factor in the success of the business.


Phillip J. Becker, of the firm of Becker Brothers, is a native-born son, having first seen the light of day in St. Cloud, January 8, 1881. He was reared in this city and attended the Cathedral Parochial schools. As a youth he became interested in candy making, and upon reaching a suitable age entered the employ of W. C. Jones, expert candy-maker, with whom he remained for fourteen years. During this period he made a close study of the art, and became thoroughly proficient. So highly were his candies thought of, and so well was he himself regarded, that in 1912 he was urged by his friends to start an establishment of his own. Accordingly, he formed a partnership with his brother, Henry T. A. and started in business. The success of the venture has more than justified their most sanguine hopes. Mr. Becker is a member of the Cathedral church, the Knights of Columbus, also of the Commercial club.


Mr. Becker has made a hobby of out-door recreation. He is one of the owners of the picturesque "Shady Nook" Cottage and Grove on the banks of the beautiful Big Spunk lake, and here he spends his vacations, and his leisure hours, most of the time exercising his skill in luring the members of the finny tribe from their watery homes. He is considered one of the best fishermen in Stearns county, and on his return from his trips he never fails to have some splendid catches to pass around among his friends. In recognition of his enthusiasm as a sportsman, Mr. Becker has been made president of the Shady Nook (Winter Quarters) club, and under his careful guidance, the club is maintained in accordance with its ritual, the command of the president being its supreme authority.


Henry T. A. Becker, of the firm of Becker brothers, manufacturing and retail confectioners, was born in St. Cloud, March 31, 1882, and attended the Cathedral Parochial schools. Even as a youth he became interested in the confectionery business and was employed for a year as a clerk in a candy store. However, his attention was soon turned to other lines. He entered the dental laboratory of Dr. T. A. Pattison, of St. Cloud, and there fully mastered the technique of dental laboratory work, remaining until Dr. Pattison's death. Then Mr. Becker was employed in a similar capacity with Drs. Henneman, Leonard, Cook and Hoyt. It was in 1913 that he opened his


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present laboratory in the Julius Adams block. It is fully equipped with all the latest appliances for the most modern dental work, and he has a large output, turning out dental work, not only for St. Cloud, but for the dentists in many other places. He is thoroughly competent and skilled, and his products are highly valued in the profession. While the laboratory occupies the greater part of his time, he is also actively engaged in the confectionery business as noted above, his interests in the store being looked after by his wife. Mr. Becker is a member of the Catholic church, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the Commercial club.


Mr. Becker was married October 17, 1905, to Matilda H. Gehrenbeck, of St. Cloud, who was born in Monticello, Minn., January 28, 1880, a daughter of Gottleib and Hattie J. Barnett Gehrenbeck, now residents of St. Cloud. In the Gehrenbeck family there are four children: Gottleib C., Bernard, Matilda and Mabel. Gottleib C. lives in Canada, and is employed by the Des Moines Bridge and Iron works. Matilda is the wife of Henry T. A. Becker, as noted. Mabel is the wife of Warren C. Young, of St. Cloud. Before her marriage, Mrs. Becker was for several years a proficient book- keeper, and she now looks after the store of the Becker Brothers in a most capable manner. She is past chief of honor in the Degree of Honor, and for the past three years has been its financier.


Mathias Becker, a veteran of the Civil war, was born in Germany, January 26, 1837, and upon coming to America in 1855 located in Chicago. In 1856 he came to St. Paul and worked at his trade as a shoemaker. In 1861 he enlisted in Co. E, 6th Minn. Vol. Inf., and served three years until honorably discharged at St. Paul. In 1866 he came to St. Cloud. After working three years as a shoemaker, he added a retail department. He continued in business until failing health caused him to retire. He now lives at 701 Sixth avenue and Seventh street, north. Mr. Becker was married in 1867 to Mary Horner, and they had four children : Charles, Joseph, Mathew and Ida. Mrs. Mary (Horner) Becker died in 1874. In 1875, he married Elizabeth Gerturde Trout and to this union have been born six children : William, Phillip J., Henry T. A., Josephine, Frank and Andrew (deceased).


Joseph Mayer, a sturdy pioneer, was born in Switzerland in 1840, and in February, 1863, married Anna Katarina Rollfing, also a native of that country. On November 13, 1865, they started for America, reaching St. Cloud in Febru- ary, 1866, after many hardships and difficulties which neither of them ever afterward forgot. In the spring they started out for the Popplebusch, now Eden valley. On its edge they found a widow and five sons, each of whom had taken a claim of 160 acres. So they continued their way and after cross- ing a bad swamp, came to a desirable location containing a small prairie. There they settled and erected a log cabin. All their goods and provisions had to be carried through the swamp. There were no roads, even to the near- est neighbors. These neighbors, Arnold by name and German by birth, proved very helpful in many ways. Many adventures befell Mr. and Mrs. Mayer. One night when Mr. Mayer was away from home, nightfall overtook him and he was unable to reach the little cabin. He found shelter at the cabin of two Englishmen, whose language he did not understand, and to whom he com-


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municated his wants only with difficulty. All night long he worried about his wife. As soon as daylight came he found his way home and learned that his wife had spent the hours of the darkness on the roof of the cabin, listening to the cry of the wolves and the call of the night fowls, and ringing a bell to keep all intruding animals away. The years passed and the family pros- pered. Finally they started one day for St. Cloud to visit an old friend, Joseph Eten, of Le Sueur, also a native of Switzerland, with whom they hoped to talk over old times and dance some Swiss dances. But on the way Mrs. Mayer was taken ill and they could only reach Pleasant Lake, where her parents lived. The illness proved very serious, and she had to remain there for many months. Mr. Mayer sold his farm to stay at her bedside. Later he bought a farm two miles nearer St. Cloud, and there he took his wife when she had sufficiently recovered. After a year there they sold out and bought a farm on the Pleasant Lake road. There a baby boy was born and there they remained for some three years. But the grasshoppers came and devoured the crops. Mr. Mayer's health failed and the physicians advised him to go South. Accordingly he sold out, and took his family to Texas, where he rented a farm six miles from Dallas. But he had many difficulties there, and the climate in Texas did not agree with Mrs. Mayer and the child. So the family came back to St. Cloud. Then they bought a farm in Luxemberg, this county. But Mr. Mayer's health was still poor, and after three years he sold everything except a cow and a team of horses, and bought three lots in East St. Cloud. The vicinity was the brush land, and the Mayers were the first settlers in the vicinity. Soon, however, other people began to come to the neighborhood. The Mayers moved their home from its original location to a corner lot. They took an especial interest in the German Catholic church. Mr. Mayer, like the other members who had teams, helped to haul stones and other material for the building, while Mrs. Mayer was one of the first members of the Women's Societies and of the Rosary Sodality of the church. Mr. Mayer suffered during the cyclone of April 1886. He was work- ing with his team at the brewery near the hospital when he saw it coming. He hurried his horses until he reached the hospital, then let them run, and found shelter for himself near a fence. The fearful storm passed over him, partly covered him with sand and left him unconscious. As soon as he regained consciousness, feeble though he was, he assisted in getting the wounded into the hospital. Then he looked for his horses. He found them partly covered with dirt and sand and badly bruised. The wagon was scattered far and wide. This event still further wrecked Mr. Mayer's health, and during the summer he began to realize that his end was near. August 22, 1886, he died, attended by the consolation of the Church. The St. Joseph society attended the funeral with garlands and flags. This left Mrs. Mayer to look after the details of his business. He had been an industrions and economical man, had sheltered his wife from sorrow in every way possible, and left her to attend to her duties as wife and mother. Now she found herself facing business difficulties to which she was unaccustomed. But she trusted in the Lord and took up her burdens with courage. Her son was then but eleven years old. He was a dutiful son and a great help to his mother. At the


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age of fourteen he started work for W. B. Mitchell, and learned the printer's trade. In spite of a serious illness, Mrs. Mayer worked hard, and she and her son prospered together. Mrs. Mayer erected two new houses. Then came the typhoid in the neighborhood. One man whom she nursed died and she herself took the dread disease. Later while visiting she had several bad falls down two flights of stairs, where one man had broken his neck and another had been badly injured. Still later she had a bad fall in her own home while doing some papering. This kept her from her favorite work of planting her garden. But now, after all these difficulties, peace and content- ment have come to this devoted woman. She has sold two of her houses, and lives in the other. At the age of seventy she looks back over a life of much hardship, which has been blessed nevertheless with the love of husband and son, and brightened by the consolation of religion. She is the true type of women who have helped to make the West what it is today. The son, after working at the printing trade several years, went to Canada and took up farming. He hopes, however, soon to purchase a farm in California, and there his mother will live with him in the afternoon of life, away from the cold winters and surrounded by the fruits and flowers that she loves so well.


William Pattison, deceased, came from Scotland to Canada in the year 1848, and after a few years there, located in Leroy, Genesee county, New York. In the fall of 1855 he came to St. Cloud and thence to St. Wendel, where he preempted 160 acres of meadow and wood land, where he lived long enough to legally hold it. During the summers of 1857 and 1858 he operated a ferry- boat on the Mississippi river. The boat was the property of Rev. Thomas Calhoun. In 1859 he returned to Leroy, where he married Mary Duncan, a native of Scotland, born on a farm, situated on the shores of Cluny lake, near Craigie. Mary Duncan was four years of age when she came to America with her parents. They first located in Monroe county, New York, and later pur- chased a farm in Leroy township, Genesse county, where her parents died. After her marriage to Mr. Pattison in 1859, they came to St. Cloud and pur- chased a farm in section 6, where Mr. Pattison engaged in farming, and be- came supervisor and justice of the peace of his township. He also operated a cable ferry across the Sauk river in 1867. Mr. Pattison took an active interest in the affairs of his township, was the pioneer member of the school board, and was treasurer of School District No. 2 for many years. In 1884 the family moved into St. Cloud, where Mr. Pattison died in 1907. Mr. Patti- son was a quiet, unostentatious man and is favorably remembered by all who knew him. The District School No. 2, in which he was so interested in his life time, a historical sketch, has been prepared for this work by Mrs. Patti- son, who is the only person living who is familiar with its story. Mr. and Mrs. William Pattison are the parents of five children : Estelle, living at home ; Edith S., a teacher in the William Penn School in Minneapolis; William T., who is superintendent of an asbestos manufacturing concern in Kansas City ; Thomas A., who died in 1902, aged 27 years. a graduate from the dental de- partment of University of Minnesota, class of 1897; and John B., of St. Cloud, a separate sketch of whom will be found in this work.


MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM PATTISON


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CHAPTER XLVI.


CHRONOLOGY.


Incidents in the Life of the County Gleaned from the Newspaper Files-Mar- riages and Deaths-Personal Items Regarding Hundreds of Early Pioneers and Later Residents-Industrial, Educational, Political, Social and Re- ligious Notes.


The newspaper of today is the history of tomorrow. The copies dis- tributed, it is true, soon pass from sight. Even in a month from the time a paper is issued it is sometimes difficult to obtain a single copy. But in the newspaper office itself it has been preserved and placed on file. The files become an asset of the office and increase in value as the papers become yellow with age. Here in the musty volumes is found the day by day history of the town, the county, the state. The State Historical Society recognizes the value of the newspaper history, and a complete file of every newspaper in the state is kept in its library. A newspaper is one of the most accurate of all historical sources. The editor of a newspaper not only means to get cor- rect information, but he also gets most of it at its original source, throwing sidelights upon events which are missing in the formal records. Each day, if he edits a daily, each week, if a weekly, his effort stands before the bar of public criticism. His critics are those most intimately interested in the articles published. They do not trust to memory, hearsay, legend or tradi- tion. They are eye or ear witnesses, or star actors in the passing drama. They surely are trustworthy critics. With them the newspaper must pass muster. If facts are not correctly stated they are corrected. The newspaper that is not substantially accurate cannot and does not live. Time gives au- thenticity. Criticism is forgotten, minor inaccuracies are overlooked, and the newspaper record stands as accepted history. A newspaper is not mere gossip. It is a record of passing events. Reports of buildings, new industries, biographies, social events, religious movements, births, deaths, politics, poli- cies, honors that come to people, crimes that blacken the records, onward and backward movements in progress, disasters, amusements, accidents, epi- demics-all make up the newspaper history of a community. It is a mirror of life as it is daily lived, here and now.




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