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 74
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HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY.
bank, and contains but one street of any consequence. So abrupt is the ascent of the high bluffs which at this point rise almost from the river shore and tower over the village at an altitude of five hundred feet, that it was impossible to do otherwise than confine the limits of the village to this narrow compass. During the winter months the sun, shortly after noon, hides her face behind these steep bluffs, not to appear again until she peeps over the Wisconsin hills on the following morning, while during other seasons of the year she is lost to Minneiska at a correspondingly early hour, and it may therefore be truthfully said that in this village "the sun never sets."
Following is a list of the first officers of the town of which there is any official record. They were chosen at a town meeting held at the house of S C. Brown, on April 5, 1859: A. Z. Putnam, chair- man of supervisors ; G. E. Kaeding and James M. Douglass, super- visors ; Linus Bascom, town clerk ; Linus Bascom, assessor ; Aaron Fox, collector ; Peter Wurstlein, overseer of poor. The present town officers are : Benjamin Jacobson, chairman of supervisors ; J. P. Nepper and A. Roselock, supervisors ; D. H. Ingalls, town clerk : William McKenney, treasurer ; W. E. Wright, assessor ; D. H. Ingalls and S. P. Jones, justices of the peace ; William Fitzgerald and J. C. Gentzkow, constables.
On the morning of January 6, 1884, at 2:30 o'clock, occurred a disastrous fire in the quiet little village of Minneiska, which resulted in the loss of considerable property. The fire was discovered by Nick Rouck, dealer in dry goods and notions, between his store on Main street, known as the Agnes building, and the large elevator of Brooks Bros., the belief being that it originated in the former building, which, besides being occupied as a store and dwelling by Nick Rouck, was also occupied as a dwelling by the Bowman and Agnes families.
The night was clear and extremely cold, the thermometer regis- tering 30° below zero, with a light wind blowing from the bluffs, and both the Agnes building and the large elevator were soon envel- oped by the fiery element ; the flames then crossed the street, and, despite every effort of the people, caught on the large three and a half story hotel, owned by Joseph E. Becker, of St. Charles, and managed by John W. Short, and this structure was soon reduced to ashes. Luckily, the fire spread no farther than this on the main street ; two other buildings, one a warehouse, owned by Brooks Bros., lying northeast of their elevator, and the other an icehouse, lying north of that, were also razed to the ground.
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THE PIONEERS OF WABASHA COUNTY.
Twenty-five thousand bushels of grain were destroyed in the elevator, besides all the machinery, which was very valuable, and other appurtenances. Dr. D. F. Brooks, who, in partnership with Dr. Jas. B. Cole, had an office in the elevator building, lost a valua- ble medical library, while Dr. Cole lost all his surgical instruments, valued at $250, on which there was no insurance.
Brooks Bros. were insured as follows : Elevator building, $3,500 ; machinery, $500; grain in building, $12,500; Dr. D. F. Brooks, library, $1,500 ; Nick Rouck, on stock, was insured for $2,500. Mrs. Agnes, on building, was insured for $1,000, and Joseph E. Becker, on the hotel, had insurance to the amount of $1,000.
Mr. Short, the hotel proprietor, carried no insurance on his household goods, and, together with the Agnes and Bowman fami- lies, lost nearly everything in this kind of property. Edwin Zim- merman, an employé of Brooks Bros., lost all his clothes.
CHAPTER XCI.
THE PIONEERS OF WABASHA COUNTY.
ONE of the pioneers of the northwest was Duncan Graham, who was born in Scotland. He came to this country in the carly part of the century, and to Wabasha about 1834. He was engaged for a num- ber of years in carrying the mails between Prairie du Chien and the Red River of the North. His travels extended throughout most of the northwestern states, and one of the islands in Devil's Lake bears his name. The occasion of his final location at Wabasha was the residence of a daughter at that place, who had married Joseph Buis- son, an Indian trader and voyager, who had established a trading post at the place as early as 1832.
An interesting item in the history of Wabasha is the naming of the town by Mr. Graham, who wrote the name of the future city and an account of some of the transactions that had taken place here, sealed them up in a glass bottle and buried the same in the ground near the bank of the river. Over the spot he planted a post, which has been seen by some of the early settlers now living, but it is now gone and the exact location is not known. It is supposed, however,
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HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY.
to be near the river bank and just back of the First National Bank building. Mr. Graham was an educated gentleman and kept detailed diaries, in one of which he describes the occasion of the burying of the record, as above stated. He resided here until about 1847, when he removed to Mendota, where he died December 5, of above date, at the age of seventy-five years.
Joseph Buisson, named above, married the daughter of Mr. Gra- ham, Nancy Lucy Graham, in 1832, and permanently located at Wabasha a few years later. Mr. Buisson was born in Montreal in 1797, and at the time of his location here was engaged in carrying goods from St. Louis to different trading posts on the Upper Miss- issippi. For a number of years after his location here he was engaged in the Indian trade and farming. He was one of the origi- nal proprietors and owned what is known as Lot No. 4.
They had seven children, six of whom are still living. Their names are Harriet Lariviere, Henry, Mary Louise, Antoine, Joseph, Cyprian and Mary Jane. Henry, Joseph and Cyprian still reside in Wabasha and are engaged in steamboating, all in the capacity of master and pilot. They run the best class of raftboats on the river between Stillwater and St. Louis.
Josephi married Mary Elizabeth Stevens, November 22, 1872. They have four children. The names of those living are Clara Louise, Angeline, Ethel and Daniel Shaw. Henry married Emily Lariviere. They have had two children, one of whom is dead, and the other, Hattie, is married.
Cyprian married Libbie Stone, daughter of Philo Stone.
The elder Joseph Buisson died in 1857, and was buried on the summit of Quarry Hill, just west of the city, where also lies the body of Augustine Rocque, a sketch of whom appears in another part of this work .* His widow, and mother of the family noted, is at this writing seventy-five years of age and enjoying good health, and is a resident of Fort Totten, Dakota.
The following extract from the Wabasha "Journal " of July, 1858, cannot but prove interesting :
Joseph Buisson, now deceased, settled at Wabasha in August, 1839. He was born at Prairie Madeleine, Lower Canada, about fifteen miles above Mont- real; he was of French parentage. In the many conversations I have had
* Since the writing of the above the remains of Joseph Buisson, Sr., have been removed by his sons, and reinterred January 17, 1884, in the Riverside cemetery.
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THE PIONEERS OF WABASHA COUNTY.
with him, I learned much of this country. He came to Minnesota at the age of seventeen, and was in the employ of the American Fur Company for eight years in succession. A man of strong natural sense, but uneducated; and it will readily be supposed the society in a country without the border of eivili- zation was not favorable to the formation of correet habits in a young man of the ardent temperament of Monsieur Buisson. He was possessed of an iron constitution : bold, courageous, quiek in his resentments, and ready to coneiliate in sincerity. He was social to a great degree, and as a neighbor ever ready to oblige ; hospitable to an extent that was injurious to his prosperity, as profli- gate and undeserving shared equally with their betters. The eredit of inviting emigration on the Half-breed Traet, and assisting to shelter the new comers, is well known to many of the early settlers, and is vouched for by the writer. Himself, in connection with Oliver Cratte, were the original proprietors of the town. His decease happened on the 10th day of October last-the day of our annual election-at the age of fifty-three years.
DAVID CRATTE, eity marshal since 1878. David Cratte is the son of Oliver Cratte and the grandson of Dunean Graham, both of whom were residents in this part of the northwest during the first quarter of the present century, and of whom frequent mention will be found in the earlier chapters of this history. David Cratte was born near Minnehaha Falls, in this state, March 15, 1837, and eame with his father to Cratte's Landing (now Wabasha) when he was between two and three years of age, and this place has been virtually his home for the past forty-four years. He was frequently absent from Wabasha when a child, there being no opportunities for instruction here, and spent some of his childhood years with the Prescotts at Fort Snelling, and also with Alex. Faribault, an uncle by marriage, at Mendota. He was also with James Wells, another unele, at what is now Frontenac. During these years until 1845, he was sent to school as opportunity offered. In 1846 he returned to Wabasha, and the same fall was sent to Knox College, at Galesburg, Illinois, where he remained four years, and then came home. In 1853 Mr. Cratte went upon the river as a raft pilot, which ocenpation he fol- lowed for twenty-six years,-until 1870 as pilot of floating rafts, from 1870 to 1877 piloting raftboats,-his first steamer down the Mississippi being the L. W. Bardin. He retired from the river in the fall of 1877, and the following spring was made marshal of the eity, and so continues. Mr. Cratte's prowess in all athletic sports, and his unusual fleetness of foot and great powers of physical endur- anee, were frequently evidenced in the early days of Wabasha, and mention of them will be found elsewhere. David Cratte married Eliza J. Harrell, February 5, 1858, at Hannibal, Missouri. Their
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HISTORY OF WABASIIA COUNTY.
children are : Ed. D., born January 29, 1859 ; Alfred H., born February 28, 1861 ; Oliver P., born February 17, 1863 ; Wm. T., March 29, 1865 ; Elizabeth F., born August 29, 1868; Naney J., born September 30, 1873 ; Harry D., born March 7, 1877.
CHARLES R. READ, the pioneer independent white settler of Wabasha county, if not of that portion of the northwest now in- cluded in the territorial limits of Minnesota, was born in the parish of Farnsborough, Somersetshire, England, March 20, 1821. In 1832 lie came to Canada with his brother's family, spending his first winter in Little York (now Toronto), and the following season locat- ing in the old Niagara district, near the forks of the Chippewa, some forty or fifty miles from its entrance into the Niagara river. From there at sixteen years of age young Read came into the United States. Returned to Canada the following year, 1838, in the army of invasion that crossed the frontiers during the Canadian rebellion of 1837-8. Was taken prisoner, and narrowly escaped hanging. Experiencing the queen's clemency (on account of his youth), he came to the United States ; enlisted in the army for the defense of the southwestern frontier, and was in service in the Indian Territory and Texas until 1844, when he settled at Nelson's Landing, just opposite Read's Landing (named in his honor), and to which he came three years later, 1847. The after history of Mr. Read is closely interwoven with that of the locality named for him that it will be found incorporated. Mr. Read had a very early acquaint- ance with public affairs in this county. He was the first justice of the peace appointed in this section after the organization of the ter- ritory, receiving his commission from Gov. Ramsey in 1850. He was county commissioner upon the organization of the county in 1853, and held that position either by appointment or election until the year 1860, serving as the first chairman of the board of super- visors for Pepin township, and so by virtue of his office was county commissioner (virtually). He was major of the 6th Inf. regt. from 1861-3, and in that capacity was temporarily in command of the defenses on the frontier for some weeks. He was also elected colonel of the Sth regt., state militia, May 3, 1863, but the regiment was soon legislated ont of existence. He was married June 7, 1849, at Read's Landing, to Miss Sarah Williamson, by whom he had twelve children, eleven of whom are living. Mrs. Read died January 3, 1879, after a married life of thirty years, which Mr. Read declares to have been to him one of almost unalloyed happiness. The chil-
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THE PIONEERS OF WABASHA COUNTY.
dren now living are : Jane, born June 27, 1851 ; C. P. (the only one married), born November 7, 1853; Wm., born June 30, 1857 ; Geo. W., born March 12, 1859 ; Ed. M., born October 10, 1860 ; Emily O., born November 6, 1862 ; H. B., born April 26, 1564 ; Frank M., born October 14, 1865 ; Silas S., born April 13, 1867 ; Ralph R., born October 13, 1870 ; H. H., born June 20, 1872. Mr. Read resides on the old homestead, about one mile from the land- ing, on a beautiful elevation overlooking the entire prairie between the Minnesota bluffs and the Mississippi river, as far down as the Zumbrota river, taking in the swell of the bluffs on the Wisconsin shore, and affording a lovely view of Alma, twelve miles distant, at the foot of the twelve-mile bluffs, one of the grandest ranges of cliffs on the upper Mississippi river.
F. S. RICHARDS, postmaster. Mr. Richards was born in Weather- field, Genesse county, April 21, 1822, and came west with her father's family, who settled at Prairie du Chien as early as 1836. In their journey to the Mississippi they passed the present site of Chicago, then a growing village, and Mr. Richards recalls earning some money picking up the roots and chips of those who were grub- bing where the proudest city west of the Alleghenies now stands. In 1850 Mr. F. S. Richards, then twenty-eight years of age, came up the Mississippi river with a large stoek of general merchandise, having a United States license to open trade with the Indians, and settled at Read's Landing. His store was on what is now railway property, very near the northeast corner of Water and Richards streets. Business was successfully conducted until the financial crash of 1858 swept him off his feet and ruined him financially. Since then Mr. Richards was variously employed until 1870 in business - from 1860 to 1868 at Downsville, Wisconsin - since 1870 principally farming, cutting grass on the bottom lands, taking ont cordwood, etc., until he received his second appointment as post- master at Read's Landing. (See article on postoffice). He was the first village president upon the incorporation of Read's Landing in 1868, and at all times, during his residence of over a third of a century, has taken an intelligent interest in public affairs. Mr. Richards married Miss C. A. Moses, November 5, 1850, in Grant county, Wisconsin. They have six children, five of whom are residents of Read's Landing : Ida, born March 15, 1856 ; Walter B., born June 22, 1858; Lloyd S., born October 23, 1860; Emma May, born October 4, 1864 ; Ruth D., born April 5, 1867 ; Grace, born April 3, 1869.
940
HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY.
FRANCIS TALBOT, dealer in hides, furs and peltries ; office on Alle- gheny street, south of Main. This business was established here in 1858, five years after Mr. Talbott came to this city as clerk for Mr. Alexis Bailly, in the Indian trade ; so that his residence here dates from 1853, a period of fully thirty years. Mr. Talbot was born in 1835, at Stonehall, County Westmeath, Ireland, where he received a good common English education, a tutor being employed in his instruction until his fourteenth year, when he came to America, arriving at New York in 1849. Coming to Chicago, he was engaged in clerking there for John H. Kinzie, son of the founder of that city, from whom, in 1853, he brought letters of introduction to Mr. Alexis Bailly, who was engaged in trade with the natives at this point. Three years later, in 1856, he bought ont Mr. Bailly's stock and engaged in general merchandise for himself, until, with thousands of others, he went under in the great financial crash of 1858. For some time Mr. Talbott was not engaged in business, and since 1858 has only been conducting general merchandising about six years, part of that time in company with Mr. B. Eddy, during his connection with general business here, other than furs, hides and peltries, in 1870. He owns one of the principal corners in the city, at the intersection of Main and Allegheny streets, fronting eighty feet on Main and one hundred and forty on Allegheny. Mr. Talbot has never married. His early association with the natives, in the conduct of trade, led him to take a very deep interest in all the his- torical legends and landmarks of the early French and aborigines occupants of this territory. For the past eight or ten years he has been quite constantly engaged in collecting data for some future his- torian who should attempt the narration of the early story of this region. This matter has been placed in the hands of the compilers of this HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY, who gratefully record their appreciation of the services thus rendered by Mr. Talbot.
F. H. MILLIGAN, M.D .; office and consulting rooms corner of Main and Pembroke streets .. Dr. F. H. Milligan was born in Phila- delphia, December 8, 1830, removed to St. Louis with his parents in 1835, completed his course in the high school of the latter city in 1846, and subsequently entered Jefferson Medical College, Phila- delphia, graduating M.D. in 1851. The class of that year contained many names that have become eminent in the medical profession ; among whom may be mentioned Dr. Thomas A. Turner, Dr. Fleet, surgeon U. S. N., and Dr. James A. Meigs, who has a national
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THE PIONEERS OF WABASHA COUNTY.
reputation as a medical author. Dr. Milligan immediately located for practice in St. Louis, was in that .city for two years, and then removed to this place September 1, 1853, where he has now been prac- tising his profession a little over thirty years. With the exception of Dr. John H. Murphy, of St. Paul, Dr. Milligan has practiced medicine more years in this state than any other physician now living. The doctor was the original president of the Wabasha County Medical Society, assisted at the organization of the State Medical Society in 1868, and was centennial president of the State Society, holding office from February, 1876, to June, 1877. As president of the society in 1877, Dr. Milligan urged upon that body the importance of securing the passage of a state pharmacy law, prohibiting all druggists and apothecaries, who could not pass a prescribed pharmaceutical examination, from dispensing medicines. The recommendation was acted upon by the State Medical Society, and a committee presented the matter to the state legislature only to have it slaughtered in committee-room. When the doctor located for practice in Wabasha his circuit rivaled that of the historic "Methodist circuit rider," extending southward to the Iowa line, eastward to Chippewa Falls, west to Faribault, and northward toward Red Wing. It was three years later before any other physician located within the present county limits. Dr. Milligan was commissioned assistant surgeon of the 3d Minn. Inf., October 15, 1861, and served until April of the following year, when he resigned and returned home. In December, 1864, he was again in the service, holding commission as assistant surgeon in the 10th Minn. Inf., and remained with that command until it was mustered out at the close of the war, when he returned home and resumed his active practice. Dr. F. H. Milligan in 1853 married Miss Lucy Ann, second daughter of Alexis Bailly, of this city, who died in 1865, leaving no children. May 1, 1866, the doctor married Miss S. D. Abrams, of Steubenville, Ohio. They have had four children, two only of whom are living, Dora B., born December 19, 1868, and Win. Francis, born October 15, 1870. The family residence is on the bank of the Mississippi, just above the city, within the corporate limits, in what is here known as the old Judge Van Dyke homestead.
CHARLES J. STAUFF, clerk of the district court of the third judicial district of Minnesota, a position he has now held by successive re-election since 1869, is a native of Germany. Attended school there until he was eleven years of age, when he came to America
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HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY.
with his father's family, who settled in Greenfield township, in this county, on the farm now owned by George Albertson. The date of their arrival at Read's Landing, Wabasha county, was June 20, 1854. Charles was still living on the old home farm when the war broke out in 1861, and on the 13th of February of the following year he enlisted in the 5th Minn. Inf. regt., followed the fortunes of that command until the close of the war, and, having successively promoted through all the intermediate grades, was mustered out as first lieutenant September 27, 1865. Returning to the old homestead he remained one year, then came to Wabasha and was clerk in the general merchandising house of Prindle, Mullen & Co. until 1869, when he was nominated and elected clerk of the court, and still holds that office, his present term expiring in 1886. October 27, 1869, Mr. Stauff married Miss M. I. Durand, of Cook's valley, in this county. They have one son, Homer C., born December 25, 1874, and now attending school in this city.
G. H. AMERLAND, farmer, N.W. } of Sec. 10, R. 10 of T. 110. This farm was taken as a homestead May 22, 1854, the old log house, still standing in good repair, was erected that same season and did duty as the family residence twenty-two years, when the present comfortable brick structure was put up. The farm now embraces two hundred acres. Ilis barns were built in 1873, his granary and wagon-sheds in 1883. Mr. Amerland was born in Germany, eame to America in 1846 and settled in New Orleans, and was there until 1851 ; then came up the river to Illinois, and, after spending two years there, came to Minnesota, to Point Douglas, and made a claim which he did not perfect. That same fall, 1853, he went to New Orleans to meet his brother, who had just come over from Europe, and in the following spring they made their claims on the prairie just east of the present corporate limits of ' Wabasha. September 3, 1856, G. H. Amerland married Christine Frank. Their children are: Mary, born September 13, 1857; Emma, born November 20, 1858 ; Lucy, born September 22, 1861 ; Kate, born December 1, 1862 ; William H., born July 20, 1867, now attending high school at Wabasha.
OLIVER NELSON came to Wabasha county in 1854, and was probably the first settler in Highland township. He was born in Norway January 27, 1835. His parents were Nels and Anna (Oliverson) Olson ; Oliver, according to the custom of his native country, taking the given name of his father and appending thereto
LUGAS KUEHN.
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THE PIONEERS OF WABASHA COUNTY.
the suffix son for his surname. He was fifteen when he came with his parents to America. The family first settled near Madison, Wisconsin, and remained two years. In 1852 removed to Decorah, Iowa, coming from there to Wabasha county in 1854. The subject of this sketch was married to Isabella Hulgerson in 1856. She died October 28, 1868, and two years thereafter he again married, this time to Mary Ann Halverson, also a native of Norway. Mr. Nelson is the father of a numerous family ; of those born to the first wife only three survive, namely, Nicholas, Mary Christina and Anton C .; of the second marriage there are living, John Henry, Albert, Otis, Joseph, Alfred and Cyrus. In 1855 Mr. Nelson pre-empted the farm on which he now resides, one hundred and sixty acres on section 32, to which he has added, by purchase, forty acres. The first year of his sojourn in Wabasha county he went to mill twice, to Decorah, Iowa, a distance of one hundred miles, and the nearest neighbors were ten or twelve miles distant. Mr. Nelson is a mem- ber of the Methodist church and votes the republican ticket.
ABNER DWELLE, retired farmer, one of the founders and the pioneer settler of Lake City, was born in Greenwich, New York, January 2, 1805. His grandfather and father bore the same name-the former was a sea-captain-and both served through the revolutionary war. They were of Massachusetts birth. The mother of this subject was Miriam Martin, of New York birth. Her son, of whom we write, passed his youth on a farm, attending the primitive common schools about three months during the winter till eighteen years old. He then entered a woolen carding and spinning establishment, and continued in this kind of occupation sixteen years. January 8, 1829, he was united in marriage to Miss Electa C. Lawrence, a native of Onondaga county. In 1837 he went to Kalamazoo county, Michigan, and cleared a farm in Texas township. Here he remained until his removal to Wabasha county in 1854. Ten years after his location in Michigan, death took away his faithful helpmeet. She was the mother of nine children, of whom seven survived her and are still living, all save one in this state. The eldest and youngest, Carrie M. and Jennie, reside with their father. The eldest son, Elijah, is at Pittsbury, G. M., Henry and Thomas L. are in Lake City, and Albert A. in Chicago. February 17, 1849, Mr. Dwelle esponsed Zilpha Knapp, born in Chase, New York. Since the time of his settlement here he has dwelt on the same spot. He purchased half-breed scrip and secured
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