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 63
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Section 11 of chapter S of the charter authorized and empowered Asa B. Doughty, Merrell Dwelle and Carlos Clement to appoint three discreet and judicious persons in each ward to act as judges of the election to be held on the first Tuesday of April, 1872; and also
821
LAKE CITY.
to locate and provide a place in each ward for holding the election. March 30, 1872, under call previously published, a union caucus for the nomination of city officers, irrespective of political parties, was held at the opera house, and a ticket put in nomination. The ward caucuses were held after the general caucus, one at the opera house and one at the Washington street school building. The cancus was numerously attended, and the proceedings were of a character to show a deep interest on the part of the best citizens that a city government of approved ability should be chosen. The nomi- nations were made, and on the following Tuesday, April 2, 1872, the polls were opened for the first charter election for the city of Lake City. The official returns are as follows :
CANDIDATES AND TERM OF OFFICE.
First Ward.
Second Ward.
Total Vote.
Majori- ties.
Mayor
Elijah Stout.
56
134
190
Recorder
M. R. Merrell.
225
301
525
525
Treasurer
W. A. Doe.
224
303
527
527
[ J. C. Bartlett, two years
174
174
125
G. D. Post, two years. .
49
49
M. A. Baldwin, one year
132
132
Aldermen
H. K. Terrell, one year.
90
90
G. M. Dwelle, two years.
296
296
296
J. Manning, one year
190
190
80
Ed. Wise, one year
110
110
Geo. F. Hatch.
167
167
117
J. C. Lawrence.
35
35
Justices of the peace.
J. E. Favrow
15
15
W. J. Jacobs.
302
302
302
L. E. Thorp.
114
114
4
J. W. Matthews
110
110
Constables
Oliver Young
206
206
119
H. M. Powers.
87
87
ยง Joel Fletcher
169
170
339
149
The total vote cast was five hundred and twenty-nine. The vote in the town of Lake (the election in March having gone by default, that the city and town elections might be held on the same day and all conflictions avoided) was seventy-six, making a total vote in city and town of six hundred and five, an increase of ninety-seven over the vote polled at the presidential election in 1868, and an increase of sixty-six over the state election of the previous fall. The ratio of five inhabitants to one vote would thus give Lake City at the time of incorporation a population of twenty-six hundred and forty-five. It was generally conceded that the city officers-elect were as good timber for the new city government as could have been selected, and the result was hailed by the citizens as an omen of a
822
HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY.
good administration of city affairs. The first informal meeting of the officers-elect was held on April 6, and an adjournment made to the evening of the 9th, at which time the members of the council were all present and took their respective oaths of office. Treas- urer's bond was fixed at twenty thousand dollars ; constables at one thousand dollars each ; a copy of the city charter (official) was received. The city printing was awarded to Messrs. McMasters & Spaulding, and a committee of two appointed to complete contract for printing. F. M. Wilson, Esq., was elected city attorney, and J. W. Matthews street commissioner. The city attorney-elect, with aldermen Dwelle, Bartlett and Manning, were appointed a committee to draft ordinances and report as early as practicable. Messrs. Man- ning and Bartlett were appointed a committee to secure valuation ot taxable property in city and town, for the purpose of an understand- ing settlement between the city and the town of Lake. At the meeting of council held on the 28th inst., Elijah Stout was chosen assessor by a unanimous vote, street commissioner's bond was fixed at one thousand dollars for the current year, and the committee on settlement between the city and the town of Lake reported, and they were instructed to draw np an agreement to be signed by the proper officers, to perfect settlement. This was accordingly done, and the settlement made. By the terms of this agreement all moneys on hand, whether in hands of town or city treasurer, were to be divided between the city and town, according to the assessed valuation of property in each, and all unpaid accounts were to be paid by each in the same proportion. The assessed valuation of city property was found to be $536,787 ; of town property, $102,000 ; the money standing to the credit of the former town of Lake City, after all out- standing orders were paid, amounted to $1,932.60. Of this sum the town received $337.13 and the city $1,595.47. The committee on city ordinances performed their work as expeditionsly as possible, and presented the results of their work to the council before the close of the month. The ordinances as reported, and adopted by the council during this month, were by title as follows : Restraining the running at large of horses, cattle, swine and other animals ; licensing shows, caravans, circuses, theatrical performances, billiard tables, bowling-saloons, auctioneers, ordinaries, hawkers, pawn- brokers, money-changers and other persons ; licensing and regula- ting the sale of spirituous liquors and the keeping of billiard tables, pigeon-hole tables, shooting-galleries and ten-pin or bowling alleys
823
LAKE CITY.
in saloons ; creating a board of health and defining its duties ; relating to misdemeanors ; relating to disorderly houses and houses of ill-fame ; establishing a city prison ; regulating the planting of shade and ornamental trees within the city and for protecting the same ; also to prevent the obstructing of streets, sidewalks and crossings of streets ; establishing the duties and powers of city mar- shal ; concerning streets, sidewalks and alleys ; relating to nuisances ; establishing a night police within the city ; to provide for the safe keeping of powder ; licensing dogs. An ordinance creating fire limits, and establishing regulations for the erection of buildings within such limits, was passed on May 4; and on December 21 following, an ordinance providing a market for the sale of hay, straw and wood within the city, and for weighing and measuring the same, was adopted. The fire limits included all of blocks one, two and three, blocks nine to sixteen inclusive, and twenty-three to twenty- six inclusive. All buildings within the limits were to be of fire-proof material, but some portions of this territory were exempted from a rigid construction of this ordinance, at the discretion of the council. This limit included practically that portion of the city enclosed be- tween Chestnut, Park, High and Dwelle streets. The portion in which this ordinance was to be strictly enforced without exception included the territory bounded by Franklin, Main, Pearl and Marion streets, the lots in the surrounding blocks facing these streets.
LAKE CITY FERRY.
The situation of Lake City, on the shore of the lake, at some dis- tance from its outlet or its inlet, has always had the effect of curtailing its trade, cutting off as it practically does almost all, or at least a great part, of the trade to the north and east and southeast. Repeated attempts have been made to overcome this disadvantage of location by establishing ferries or subsidizing them to a certain extent, with the view of drawing trade from the lake villages and the territory contiguous thereto on the Wisconsin shore. This attempt has not been very successful, and it is to be doubted if the maintenance of a ferry at this point will ever pay the expenses of its maintenance. The attempt to make successful bids for trade over ferry routes on the Mississippi, under much more favorable auspices, at other points has not as yet been very successful. The ferry at Winona, for instance, costing the city yearly considerable more than the cost of its maintenance, and that over a route less than one-
824
HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY.
fourth the distance across Lake Pepin at this point. Not only so, but the little coasting steamers plying upon the lake will always, and necessarily, become formidable rivals to any ferry company attempting to maintain regnlar communication across the river and return without making trips to the adjacent villages on either shore. The patronage of the one being confined to the direct travel across the lake, the other including all travel across and upon the lake for miles in every direction. The width of the lake and the character of the navigation, the water being at times very rough, require good substantial boats. The cost of navigating and maintaining these is too great for the patronage that can be secured, and loss is the inevitable result, or at least has been, of every attempt to maintain a ferry here. The first regular, or perhaps, more properly speaking, irregular, communication across the lake, for passengers only, was established in the closing years of the war by Capt. J. Hull, of Maiden Rock Village, Wisconsin, who ran a small sloop-rigged sailboat, the Daisy, from Maiden Rock to Lake City, a distance of about eight miles. In 1866 Capt. John Doughty, of this place, put a sloop-rigged sailboat, called the Union, upon the lake. This boat was capable of carrying seventy-five persons comfortably, and for three years it was sailed here by the captain, making trips across the lake and coasting its shores as pleasure-parties or the demands of business required. After doing duty for three years as a sailboat, the sails were taken out, a small engine put in, and the young pro- peller, christened the Winfred, navigated the lake one year, was a financial loss to the owner and discontinued. Two boats were upon this part of the lake that season, the May Queen being the name of the other, which was afterward taken to Bear lake, and burned there some years later. In the year 1870 Capt. Nelson put a regular ferry on the lake between this city and the village of Stockholm, directly opposite on the Wisconsin shore. This was a sailboat and was exclusively for passenger traffic. Matters were in this condition until 1872, when Wm. B. Lutz and W. W. Scott received a charter. conferring on them, for a period of ten years, the exclusive right of keeping and maintaining a ferry across the Mississippi river at the town of Lake City, in the county of Wabasha, and State of Minnesota, at any point within one and one-half miles northwesterly or southeasterly up and down said river, from a point where the center line of Center street in said town continued northeasterly will strike said river. The charter required the parties therein
h
JOS FLEMING
MAIDEN ROCK.
LAKE PEPIN.
826
HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY.
named to give bonds in the sum of one thousand dollars to perform the duties set forth in the act, which was specific as to the time of running, charges or tolls to be levied for ferriage, fines to be imposed for failure of the said Lutz & Scott to give prompt attendance upon all parties desiring to cross the ferry between the hours of 7 A. M. and 7 P.M. between the dates of May 15 and November 15 in each year, unless prevented by ice, high winds or other cause which would render the attempt to cross dangerous or imprudent.
By act of legislature of 1873 the time of franchise was extended to fifteen years, and the time of opening the ferry from twenty to thirty months, and of filing bond from eighteen to thirty months, from the passage of the act of March 4, 1872. A similar franchise was owned by parties on the Wisconsin shore, and this was pur- chased, together with a barge owned by said parties, by Messrs. Lutz & Scott, and preparations made for establishing a steam ferry ; but Mr. Lutz was stricken with partial paralysis, incapacitated from attending to any business for two years, and nothing was done with the franchise, which expired in due time by limitation. Pending the expiration of this charter in the fall of 1873, a proposition was made to the city to purchase the franchises on both sides of the river (or Lake), together with the two lots on the Wisconsin shore (at their actual cost to the owners of the charter), and give a bonus or loan to some responsible parties, who should undertake, under bonds, to establish and maintain a ferry for a given term of years. Antici- pating some necessity of this kind as likely to arise, the city council, in February, 1873, had secured the passage by the state legislature of the ferry-bond act, authorizing them to issue the bonds of the city to the amount of $2,500 in aid of a ferry, pro- vided the legal voters of the city so desired. The matter was sub- mitted to the electors at the charter election held April 1, 1873, and the proposition was snowed under by a vote of 295 against issue to 83 in favor of issue. This attempt having failed, the sum of $800, in shares of $25 each, was subscribed for the purchase of the charter held by Messrs. Lutz & Scott. This sum was raised in April, 1873, but no purchase of the charter was effected, and in the following September negotiations were entered into with Capt. Murphy, looking to the permanent establishment of a steam-ferry. Mr. Murphy's proposition was, that in consideration of the sum of 82,500, and the franchise for a term of fifteen years, he would put himself under approved bonds to maintain the ferry for that
827
LAKE CITY.
length of time. The sum of $2,500 was raised, but the matter had dragged, and before the result was announced to Mr. Murphy, he had made other arrangements, and the whole matter fell through. In the meantime Capt. Murray, of the little steamer Pepin, had been making regular trips around the lake, touching at Maiden Rock, Stockholm and Pepin, on the Wisconsin side, and at Frontenac and Lake City on the Minnesota shore, with occasional trips to Read's Landing. His little steamer was sometimes accompanied by a barge, on which merchandise and passengers were transported, but it was not suited to the purpose. Accordingly in the season of 1874, early in May, a subscription was started to procure money to build a barge or boat to be used in carrying teams and passengers between this city and the Wisconsin shore. Meetings were held, commit- tees appointed, funds raised, a boat built at an expense of about $500, and Messrs. Doe, J. G. Richardson, Farron, Baldwin and Murray were appointed a committee to make a written contract with Capt. O. N. Murray, of the steamer Pepin, to operate the ferry. On Thursday, July 16th, the first regular trip was made in the city's own boat ; the mayor and common council in attendance, and the landing made upon the other shore in seventeen minutes, according to the time given by a local reporter. The city barge had a capacity of six teams and as many passengers as could crowd on. Trips were made at 9 A. M. and at 4 P.M., for which the free use of the barge was granted Capt. Murray. The rest of his time was devoted to his regular coasting trips around the lakes.
That fall, 1874, the charter of the Messrs. Lutz & Scott expired, and in the following spring, by special act of legislature, the franchise for a ferry was granted to the city, with power to operate or lease at their discretion. This charter gave the city the exclusive right to maintain a ferry within the corporate limits of the city, and the territory extending one-half mile beyond said limits on the north and west. In case the city council should lease the ferry to be car- ried on by other parties, the duration of said lease was not to exceed ten years, and the city was also required to reserve such rights as would empower them to terminate the lease at any time by equitable payment to the lessce for outlay in construction of docks, levees, breakwater, etc. The city council were also empowered to regulate the charges for ferriage and control the place for the landing of boats, and provide such regulations as would insure the comfort and safety of passengers. And all grants or lease on the part of the city
828
HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY.
under the provisions of this charter were so by ordinance of the council duly passed and signed as in the case of all other ordinances, and the lessee under such ordinance was to file such bond, for the proper maintenance of the ferry according to the regulations pre- scribed, as the council should deem sufficient and equitable. During the years 1875 and 1876, the exclusive right to the ferry charter was granted to Capt. Murray, and during those years the communication between Lake City and the Wisconsin shore was maintained as it had been in 1874. Early in the spring of 1877 a joint stock company, with a capital of ten thousand dollars, was organized for the purpose of maintaining and operating a ferry at this point, such as would establish regular communications at all hours of the day with the Wisconsin shores, and not merely for a morning and evening trip. The company was named the Lake City Ferry and Transportation Company. This company purchased the franchises held by Milison, Sandburg & Co., of the ferry privileges on the Wisconsin shore, and secured a lease of the Minnesota franchise from the common council of this city, together with the barge or boat belonging to the city, for the term of ten years from and after April 3, 1877. The company, by the terms of the ordinance, was required to provide a good, safe steamboat for the transportation of teams and passengers ; that not less than six trips per day were to be made during the season of navigation, and the Wisconsin landings were designated "to or near the village of Stockholm, and to or near the mouth of Bogus creek in the county of Pepin." The city, by the terms of the ordinance, absolved itself from all responsibility in the matter of expenses incurred, which were to be met by the transportation company without claim upon the city, but the city was to furnish them the use of the barge and confer the rights of the franchise without charge. A rate of tolls or charges was established by the ordinance, as follows: Each team of two animals with vehicle, loaded or unloaded, together with driver, fifty cents ; single animal with carriage attached, fifty cents ; horse, cow, ox or mule, without carriage, twenty-five cents each ; each sheep or swine, ten cents ; wagon or carriage without team attached, twenty-five cents, and merchandise for the sum of twenty-five cents per hundred pounds. The ferry company were to keep the barge of the city in good repair and return it to the city at the expiration of their lease or use of it, in good condition as when received, except the usual and unavoid- able wear and tear. The company was also to own and continue
829
LAKE CITY.
to own the franchise on the Wisconsin shore as a condition precedent to the continuation by the city of the grant of its charter. The ferry company was composed of responsible business men in Lake City, who were desirous of maintaining more frequent communica- tion with the Wisconsin shore, believing the same would be bene- ficial to the trade of the city. The books of the company were bnrned in the disastrous fire of 1882, which almost wiped out the business houses of the city, and it is impossible to give a list of the stockholders. The first board of directors were : John J. Doughty, H. Gillett, J. C. Stout, Wm. Campbell, W. J. Hahn and H. D. Stocker. They immediately purchased the steamer Clipper, which had been sold under the hammer by the United States marshal, Capt. Raney, paying therefor the sum of fifteen hundred dollars.
The Clipper was a boat of about twenty-eight feet beam ; length over all about seventy feet. Her hull was new, having been built only the season before, and she was really a staunch built craft. Her engines, however, were old and comparatively worthless, and not at all adequate for the work required of her. The company expended about two thousand dollars on repairing the boat, building cabin, etc., and she was run during the season of 1877 with the old engines. During the winter of 1878 she was supplied with new engines, and some other improvements, upon which the company expended a further sum of three thousand dollars. This latter amount was refunded the company by special vote of the citizens, and this was the only subsidy ever received. The cost of maintain- ing the ferry was too great for the receipts derived from the freight and passenger and other transportation charges, and there was year by year a growing diminution of capital.
When four seasons had been passed in this way, the regular trade over the ferry line, continually cnt into by the coasting steamers plying along both shores of the lake, and the low rate of transportation keeping receipts at a minimum, the company called a halt. It was found that the original stock had been absorbed, as also the three thousand dollars bonus received from the city and the amount received for transportation during the four years the company had been operating the line. This latter sum aggregated about as much as the others, making a total sum of twenty-six thousand dollars expenses for four years' ferry maintenance. Under this condition of affairs the directors concluded to wind np the affairs of the company and dispose of the assets. This was done. The
830
HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY.
steamer was put up at anction and bid in by Messrs. Stout & Post, two of the stockholders, for an amount equal to the company's liabilities, - about eighteen hundred dollars. The franchise on the Wisconsin shore had been placed in the hands of the city council, and also a mortgage upon the boats of the company, as security to the city that the company would maintain the ferry a given number of years. This was done in 1878, when the bonus of three thousand dollars was given by the city. These franchises, thus the property of the city, were the property of Messrs. Post & Stout, so long as they fulfilled the obligations of the old ferry company. The city, retaining the franchises, released the mortgage upon the boat, at the request of the directors, npon showing how they had lost thousands of dollars in the attempt to maintain the ferry for the benefit of the city. Messrs. Post & Stout kept the ferry running during the season of 1881, and that fall closed out, having only added to their former losses by the attempt to continue the line in operation. They started their boat for Stillwater when the ferry season closed, intending to dispose of her to the trade there, but on the way up the river the pilot ran her on the government pier near Prescott, and there she remained during the winter. The following spring she was left to break up, her machinery taken out, and when high water came she floated off and the hull sunk some distance down stream. This was the last of the ferry steamer Clipper, and of the attempt to maintain a regular ferry at this point for the crossing of teams and passengers between Lake City and Stockholm.
In the spring of 1882, Murray & Lenhart resumed trips between the Wisconsin and Minnesota shores ; and Murray dying, the firm became Lenhart & Collins, who are now (1883) running the steamer Pepin and barge from Lake City to Maiden Rock, Pepin and Stock- hohn, on the Wisconsin shores, making semiweekly trips to Read's Landing, in this county. The attempt to maintain a regular ferry here has only proved disastrous to those engaged in it. Thousands of dollars were spent in the public-spirited attempt, from which the stockholders of the ferry company received no benefit, only such in- crease of trade, so many of them as were in business, that came to them from the Wisconsin shore. As related at the outset, the cost of maintaining the ferry over so wide a stream was too great to be met by the charges for transportation, and the majority of the citi- zens were nuwilling to subsidize the ferry to the extent of guarantee- ing the running expenses, not considering the returns in trade sufficient to justify the outlay.
831
LAKE CITY.
FIRES.
Down to the date of the incorporation of the city in 1872, Lake City had suffered comparatively little from fires. December 9, 1870, the old grain warehouse on the Point, technically known as the Armstrong warehouse, and at the time of its destruction owned by Bartlette & Smith, was burned. The fire occurred at about eleven o'clock. The warehouses of Atkinson & Kellogg and Angus Smith & Co. were in close proximity on either side, and the problem was the salvation of these buildings. The pails standing at the doors of the grocery houses were unceremoniously seized by the hurrying hundred who started on the run for the Point, there being at that time no fire company or engine of any kind in the city. The people present worked with a will. The water of the lake afforded an ample supply, and as fast as the adjacent ware- houses caught fire, they were extinguished by the crowds who swarmed upon the roofs and every available spot where an advan- tage could be taken of the situation and the contents of a water-pail be made effective. Burned hands, scorched faces and singed hair and clothing were the rule ; but the situation was fully understood, and had the fire gained headway, there would have been more to follow. Pluck and water gained the day. The adjacent warehouses were saved, and no further destruction of property than that of the old Armstrong warehouse and its contents ensued. There were about seven thousand bushels of wheat in the warehouse at the time, six thousand bushels of which were a total loss, one thousand bushels being saved in a damaged condition. There was an insur- ance on the building of abont thirteen hundred dollars. The grain in the warehouse was covered by about three thousand dollars insur- anee. There were some other warehouses, one stored full of tobacco, and an elevator at the depot burned prior to the incorporation of the city, but no very serious loss resulted in either case ; the tobacco was fully covered by insurance.
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