USA > Minnesota > Wabasha County > History of Wabasha County : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc. : gathered from matter furnished by interviews with old settlers, county, township, and other records, and extracts from files of papers, pamphlets, and such other sources > Part 26
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111
Mr. Haddock assumed that the reason why Minnesota City was not made å landing-place for the steamboats was because the man- agement of the boats was in the hands of men interested in rival town sites. This was believed by the settlers, because repeated ap- plications had been made to have the boats land passengers at the colony during the high water, but without success ; none would make the attempt.
When the flood in the river had subsided and the water was con- fined to its ordinary channels, and about the time that the report of the committee which had been sent to explore the back country was received, it was considered important that a landing should be estab- lished on Straight slough. The matter was freely discussed in the meetings of the association, and referred to a committee for investi- gation.
299
REFLECTIONS.
This committee, with other members equally interested in estab- lishing the fact that navigation was practicable, made, as they sup- posed, a thorough survey of Straight sloughi, from its head, above Minnesota City, to its mouth, a short distance above Johnson's landing. A chart was drawn showing soundings, etc. The com- mittee reported that there were no serious obstacles in the way, and that the slough was navigable for the largest boats running on the upper Mississippi.
At the time of this survey the slough next to the bluff, which empties into Straight slough nearly opposite Minnesota City, was given the name of Haddock slough, the name by which it is now known. Mr. Haddock had selected the shore next to the bluffs, above where Mr. Burley now lives, as a proper landing-place for immediate purposes. A landing-place on the slough below was selected for future improvement.
The committee were instructed to present the matter before the proprietors of the steamboat lines at Galena, by whom it was re- ferred to Capt. Smith. Notwithstanding their chart demonstrated the feasibility of a free passage through Straight slongh, Capt. Smith considered the route impracticable ; and, as it was charged against him that his opposition to it was because of his holding an interest on Wabasha prairie, he consented to allow his own boat, the Nominee, to make a trial trip under the pilotage of the com- mittee.
The success of the committee thus far was duly reported to the to the Association. So confident were the colonists of the arrival of the steamboat that many of them went down to the landing at Wabasha prairie to meet the boat, while the whole settlement pre- pared to give it a joyful welcome. For this trip the Nominee was given in charge of the first clerk, with instructions to go through the slough, if possible, without delay. The boat, with Mr. Brook as captain, arrived at Johnson's about noon on Sunday. As the trip was a holiday excursion the settlers on the prairie were invited to make a social visit to the colony.
The Nominee started up Straight slough under the guidance of the committee. After ascending for a mile or so the boat struck a bar and came to a sudden stop. By some oversight this obstruction had not been noted on the chart. After repeated attempts to pass this barrier without success, the officers of the boat decided that Straight slough was not navigable by the Nominee at that stage of water.
300
HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
This failure was a great disappointment to the settlers, both at Minnesota City and at Wabasha prairie. The boat swung around and steamed back to Wabasha prairie, and, after discharging the excursionists, started up the river under the guidance of her own pilot.
The failure of the Nominee to go through Straight slough was a serious blow to the colony. The ideal maritime port of Mr. Had- dock was unfortunately at least six miles from any practicable steamboat landing. Still the colonists were not wholly disheart- ened. Many of them believed that the slough might be made practicably navigable by opening a passage over the bar, the only obstruction that was supposed to exist. During the following winter the colonists built a large log building on the bank of the slough opposite Minnesota City, which they designed for a warehouse and landing-place. A road was surveyed across the bottom, but never improved. No passengers or freight were ever landed there. No attempt was ever made to improve the navigation of Straight slough.
The extreme high water was followed by an extreme low stage of water in the river. The summer of 1852 was hot and dry, and the miasma eliminated from the sloughs and large marshes in the im- mediate vicinity of Minnesota City rendered that locality particu- larly unhealthy. Serious bilious diseases afflicted the settlers in the colony. They were mostly from the Eastern States, unacclima- ted, unprotected by suitable dwellings, and a large majority of them incompetent and unsuited for pioneer life. A few deaths occurred early in the season, and exaggerated accounts of the sickness and mortality at Minnesota City were put in circulation and prevented many from locating there. The most common disease was inter- mittent and remittent fevers.
There were no regular medical practitioners belonging to the association or living on the west side of the river ; domestic treat- ment and patent medicines were generally depended on. Quinine was quite extensively relied upon in these malarious diseases. One of the colonists was attacked with intermittent fever, for which a neighbor recommended quinine. He sent for a pound or two of quinine by a friend who had business at St. Paul. From insuffi- cient funds only four ounces were procured. When the bill of $20 was presented the exorbitant charges of the St. Paul druggist was strongly condemned. The neighbor who had prescribed the article
301
REFLECTIONS.
was called in to dose out the medicine, and he explained that it was a dram or two he had recommended him to send for instead of a pound or two. "The Squire " said, in relating the incident, "I knew nothing about the stuff- any way, it was no serious mistake, because it was needed in the settlement, and the neighbors took it off my hands without any pecuniary loss."
It was said that not a settler in the colony escaped an attack of fever and ague. Robert Pike, Jr., in a letter published in 1854, says, "Although most were prostrated by sickness, only fourteen deaths occurred (in 1852) and a majority of these were young children. The wonder is that the mortality was not greater."
Among the deaths which occurred was that of Mrs. Haddock, the wife of the president of the association. Mr. Haddock went down to New York city and brought her here to make her a home in the colony he had labored so hard to build up. She arrived on the 13th of July and died on the 24th of August.
After the death of his wife Mr. Haddock became disheartened and completely discouraged. Many of the settlers were compelled to leave because they could find nothing to do by which to earn a living. The most of them were mechanics from the city of New York, and they went down the river to find employment. Although the association maintained its organization, it was no longer attract- ive to Mr. Haddock. It had apparently accomplished all that could be expected from it. With a large party of his friends Mr. Haddock, left the colony on the 11th of September and went down the river. He stopped for awhile at Dubuque, and moved from there to Ana- mosa, Jones county, Iowa, where he engaged in publishing a news- paper, using the press and material designed for a printing-office in Minnesota City.
Although the organization was kept up in the colony during the next year, but comparatively few members of the association re- mained to become citizens of this county.
Quite a number of the members of the association lived on their village lots in Minnesota City until after the survey of public lands in this part of the territory. Several of them then made claims of the locality they were occupying according to the divisions made by the government surveyors, without regard to the previous divisions made by Mr. Haddock.
The town site of the Western Farm and Village Association was never made a matter of record. The whole village plot was ab-
302
HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
sorbed by claims which were pre-empted as homesteads by their resident claimants. The plot of the original village of Minnesota City was thus wiped out- swept entirely away. The name has been preserved for the locality, and a more diminutive and modern village has grown up under it, on what was originally the claim of Israel M. Noracong.
The original village plot was pre-empted by T. K. Allen, A. A. Gilbert, H. B. Waterman, Robert Pike, Jr., James Wright, O. M. Lord, Hiram Campbell, S. E. Cotton and D. Q. Burley, all mem- bers of the association. Each of them had held claims in other localities, which were abandoned to enable them to share in the spoils of the dead metropolis of the colony.
H. B. Waterman and family have continuously occupied the same locality he settled upon in 1852, when he first came into the colony. When Mr. Waterman came to Minnesota City he built a very comfortable house, a part of it of logs and a part of frame and boards. This he inhabited for several years. After the gov- ernment survey was made he selected this locality as a homestead, and claimed a quarter-section of land in the vicinity, which he pre- empted after the land-office was opened at Winona.
With the exception of a large and comfortable dwelling-house and a good barn, which stand in a beautiful grove on a sightly eleva- tion, with a small field of cultivation, but little improvement was made on this claim until within a few years past. The table on which it lies was covered with groves of oak. As this timber is cut away and the clearing enlarged a fine farm is becoming developed.
Mr. Waterman was a lawyer by profession when he joined the colony, but he never practiced his profession in Minnesota. He had but little taste for agricultural pursuits, and but little inclination to make it an occupation. He made the farm his home without making the cultivation of the soil his business.
In November, 1852, Mr. Waterman was appointed by Gov. Ramsey one of the justices of the peace for Wabasha county. He was subsequently elected to the same office, and held the official position of justice of the peace over twenty years for Winona county, in the town of Rolling Stone, where he resided. He was also elected judge of probate at the election in the fall of 1853.
The first case on his docket in 1852 was Jacob S. Denman vs. individual members of the association. This was a matter which
305
REFLECTIONS.
grew out of the claim difficulty already mentioned. These mem- bers of the association went on to Denman's claim, destroyed his fences and burned his rails, with the intent to.drive him off the claim. Denman refused to leave, and sued them for damages to his property. The matter had been commenced before Squire Allen, but when Squire Waterman received his commission the case was discontinued and again brought on before the new justice of the peace, where it was settled by the members of the association paying the costs of prosecution and the damages assessed.
Robert Pike, Jr., made a claim among the village lots of the colony on the same table on which the school-building now stands. He here used his pre-emption right and made a farm of part of the . original village. A part of this claim is still in possession of Mrs. Pike, his widow.
Mr. Pike came to Rolling Stone early in May, 1852, and at once became prominently active in the enterprises of the association to develop the resources of the country and build np the colony. His eccentric genius and zealous efforts made him popular in the settle- ment. Soon after his arrival he was appointed surveyor for the colony, explored a road to the Minnesota river. He was chosen as a proper person to be appointed postmaster. He was elected jus- tice of the peace, served as connty commissioner and as county surveyor. During his whole life he was active in all of his public duties.
Robert Pike, Jr., died about the middle of April, 1874. At the time of his death he was interested in an effort to' start a colony in the vicinity of Lake Kampeska, Dakota Territory. His widow is yet a resident of Minnesota City. One of the two children who came here with her in 1852 died many years ago. The other is the wife of Frank D. Stewart, living in the town of Rolling Stone.
Mr. Pike was in many respects a very remarkable man. Natu- rally ingenious, he made mechanical improvements a study. On most of the questions of the day, religious and political, he es- poused the radical side. Among his many friends, his special peculi- arities were overshadowed by the open-handed generosity of the man toward his fellow-man.
As a specimen of his eccentricity, his business card has been copied from the "Winona Republican," as regularly advertised in 1856, as follows :
18
306
HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
" ROBERT PIKE, who writes this ditty, Lives at Minnesota City ; Is Postmaster, Magistrate, Buys and sells Real Estate, Conveyancer and County Surveyor,
(The City's small and needs no Mayor). Sectarian rules he dares resist, And thinks Christ was a Socialist.
Loving mankind and needing dimes, He waits to serve them at all times."
When disaffected members of the association decided to aban- don the colony, O. M. Lord purchased their interest in such of the village lots as were in the vicinity of where he resided ; and after the government survey, when the village plot was comparatively abandoned, he made a claim of the quarter-section on which he was living and pre-empted it. The village lots surveyed by Mr. Had- dock for the association, that were included in this claim, are a part of the homestead on which the Hon. O. M. Lord now resides.
The first claim selected by Mr. Lord was before he joined the association, while on the first exploration made into the country back from the Mississippi. This he abandoned for another about three miles above Minnesota City, in what is now known as Deer- ing's Valley, where he then proposed to establish a stock-farm. On account of its isolated situation he did not move his family there, but located them in the settlement or village. Like many others, he also made other selections of good claims which were marked with his name.
From the time Mr. Lord came here in the spring of 1852 to the present time he has been prominently before the public, in very many instances intimately connected with events that make up the history of Winona county. Owing to his habitual modest reserve, no record of these instances has ever been compiled for reference. It is indeed questionable whether a connected biographical sketch of this pioneer settler has ever been given to the public. Advantage of a long-time acquaintance and personal friendship has been the source of the following memoranda of events in history with which he has been connected.
CHAPTER XXXI.
PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS.
HON. O. M. LORD was a native of the State of New York; born in Wyoming county in 1826. In 1837 he moved with his father's family to Michigan. He attended school winters until he was about sixteen, after which he attended a select school for about three months. His education has since that been acquired by private study in active life. His younger days were spent on a farm and in .sometimes assisting his father in his blacksmith shop.
Mr. Lord was married in 1848, and settled on a farm. He was elected town clerk, and was ex-officio school inspector for two years. In the spring of 1852 he sold his farm in Lapeer county, Michigan, and came to Minnesota, where he arrived May 2. He brought on his family, a wife and two children, on July 16. He brought with him all of his household goods, a span of horses and farming tools, intending to make farming his exclusive business. His horses were the first brought into the colony.
Instead of settling on a claim, as he had at first designed, Mr. Lord located himself in the village of the colony at Minnesota City. He bought several village lots and built a house. Having acquired some knowledge of blacksmithing when young, he bought the tools of a blacksmith and carried on the business for a year or two, his shop being the only blacksmith shop in the county during that time. In 1852 he shod the first span of horses ever brought into this county by a settler, and the first horses ever shod here. The shoes were brought from La Crosse. They belonged to Hon. William H. Stevens. In the spring of 1853 he shod fourteen horses for Wm. Ashley Jones, government surveyor.
July 2, 1853, Mr. Lord was appointed coroner for Fillmore county. This appointment, unsolicited, was conferred by Gov. Gorman, who had recently assumed his official position.
At the election held in the fall of 1853 Mr. Lord was elected as representative to the territorial legislature from this district. The session was held from January 4 to March 4, 1854.
Among the acts of which he secured the passage were the original
308
HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
charter for the Transit railroad, the division of Fillmore county and creating of Winona county, and the establishment of the county seat at what is now the city of Winona. The present boundaries of Winona county were defined by Mr. Lord, and submitted to Mr. Huff and other citizens of the village of Winona for their approval. He also secured the passage of a memorial for a post-route from Minnesota City to Traverse des Sioux.
In 1854 Mr. Lord built the first saw-mill in the county at Minne- sota city. In 1855 he was awarded a contract for carrying the mail from Minnesota city to Traverse des Sioux, and carried the mails for about two years -a part of the time semimonthly. This was the first post-route across the country.
In 1857 or 1858 Mr. Lord was appointed by Gov. Medavy com- missioner for selecting land for the Transit Railroad Company. He was also appointed by Gov. Medavy, October 12, 1857, as a notary public. These appointments were unsolicited by Mr. Lord. In 1859 he was a candidate for the legislature, but was defeated by Judge Orlando Stevens.
When questioned as to his war record, he replied, "I fought, bled and died for my country by able-bodied substitute during the war - price $600."
Mr. Lord moved back to Michigan, and lived near Kalamazoo from 1861 to 1864, when he returned to Minnesota, and again took up his residence at Minnesota City. He was a candidate for the legislature in 1871, and was defeated by seven votes by H. A. Covey. In 1873 lie was elected to the legislature, and served at the next session.
On September 28, 1875, Mr. Lord was appointed county superin- tendent of schools, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Rev. David Burt, who had been appointed state superintendent of public instruction. He has been elected continuously to the position of county superintendent of schools since that time, and is yet serving the people in that capacity. He was president of the last annual meeting of county superintendents, held at St. Paul about January 1, 1883.
Mr. Lord has always taken an active interest in popular educa- tion, and in addition to his other official positions has been almost continuously one of the school committee in Minnesota City since the first school was started there in 1852. He is at present director of the district. He has been a member of the town board of the
309
PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS.
town of Rolling Stone for the past twelve years, and is now chair- man of board of supervisors. Mr. Lord was made a Mason in 1862. He never uuited with any other organization. If circumstances per- mitted, he would take more pride and pleasure in stock-raising and cultivation of small fruit than in any other pursuit.
Hiram Campbell settled'on his village lot and built a house, which he' occupied with his family for several years. With this as his place of residence, he made a claim and pre-empted a homestead which included a portion of the village lots of the colony. This claim is now known as the "Campbell Farm." It joins the farms of O. M. Lord and James Kennedy. The present farm house is of brick.
Hiram Campbell has been dead many years. His widow, witlı his family, owned and occupied the farm until about two years ago, when she sold out and moved west. Wiith other branches of farming Mr. and Mrs. Campbell took a great deal of interest in the cultivation of fruit, particularly of different varieties of apples, which they were very successful in growing.
When David Densmore and John Shaw came to Rolling Stone they brought with them a.large supply of apple-seeds which they procured from the State of Maine. These seeds were planted on their village lots. The lot of Mr. Densmore was on the land now owned by O. C. Tucker. The lot of Mr. Shaw was on the Campbell farm. Both Mr. Densmore and Mr. Shaw died early in the summer of 1852, and their lots passed into other hands. Mr. Densmore left his nursery for the general benefit of the colonists.
Mr. Campbell assumed charge of the lot of Mr. Shaw and started a nursery of fruit-trees from the seed sown on it. From this little nursery, started by Mr. Campbell on his own claim, sprang some of the finest varieties of apples that have ever been known in Min- nesota.
John Nicklin, with his family, settled on his lot selected by number in New York. His location was on the table above where Troust's mill recently stood. He built a log house, lived here two or three years and made a claim of forty acres among the village lots. He also had a farm claim in the valley about two miles above the village. To hold them both he pre-empted the farm claim, and his son pre-empted a part of the village property. He lived on his farm for a number of years, when he sold out and moved back to New York, where he died a few years ago. None of his family are now living in this county. A son resides in Dakota Territory.
310
HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
George Foster pre-empted a forty of village lots ; sold out and moved to Winona. He left there and moved south. None of his family are now living in this county.
Other members of the association besides Mr. Denman and W. H. Coryell made claims below Minnesota City. Nearly the whole upper prairie was at one time claimed by the colonists, although unimproved.
P. D. Follett made a claim adjoining the farm now occupied by Mr. Charles Vila. He built a log house and occupied it for two or three years, when he sold out aud left the county.
William T. Luark made a claim along the bluffs below Mr. Denman's, where Mr. Colman now lives. He improved this by building a log-house and making some cultivation, and held it for several years. He moved to Winona, where he opened the first wagon-shop started in the county. The first wagon was made by Mr. Luark in the spring of 1855. About ten years ago he moved to Milwaukee. where he died after a residence there of a year or two.
John Iams also made a claim along the bluffs, the next below that made by Mr. Luark. He built a log-house and occupied this locality two or three years, and then moved to Winona, and after a few years' residence there left the county and went into the western part of the state to reside. Mr. Iams was the first sheriff appointed or elected to serve in that office in this part of the territory. He was the first sheriff in Fillmore county in 1853.
John C. Laird came to Wabasha prairie about the last of August, 1852, to attend upon Abner S. Goddard during his last sickness. After the death of Mr. Goddard, which occurred on the 11th of Sep- tember, he decided to remain and make it his future home.
Mr. Laird was a citizen of La Crosse at the time he came up to help his sister in the care of her sick husband. It was on her ac- count that he changed his place of residence and came to Minnesota, where he has ever since resided. He was deputy register of deeds for La Crosse county. The register elected was a resident of a dis- tant part of the county, and, not wishing to change his location, Mr. Laird was deputized to act for him and receive the emoluments of the position.
In the winter and spring previous Mr. Laird had visited Waba- sha prairie, but never selected any special location as a claim. After he had decided to settle here he explored the country until in Octo- ber, when, observing that the east "eighty " of the original Stevens
311
PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS.
claim was nnoccupied, and without improvements of any kind, he was induced to take possession of it as an abandoned claim. Mr. Laird quietly procured the necessary material, and before the settlers were aware of his intention, they were surprised to see a snug and comfortable-looking shanty on "that lower eighty of Stevens's." This shanty stood about where Laird Norton & Co's stables now stand, -on the west side of Chestnut street, between Second and Third streets.
As soon as the circumstance became known, H. C. Gere made application to the members of the claim club for aid to remove the trespasser on the land relinquished to him by Silas Stevens. Some of the members of the club came together and called on Mr. Laird to learn why he had built the shanty and to ascertain if he really intended to jump Gere's claim.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.