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 99
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parties, and is among our influential citizens. He was married in 1880, to Anna M. Powell, of Wabasha county. They have one child.
ELNATHAN COOK, Chester, was born in the town of Maria, Essex county, New York, October 1, 1844. His father, Chester K., was born in New York, and married Harriet Dutton, of Vermont birth. Young Cook was taken at nine years of age to St. Lawrence county, where he was reared on a farm and received a common-school educa- tion. At twenty-two he settled in Minnesota, being employed three years to manage a stock-farm near Dodge Center. He subsequently rented land in that vicinity, and engaged in general farming. Mr. Cook is a good judge of horseflesh, and has raised some good horses. In 1878 he bought one hundred acres of land on section 31, about a mile from Mazeppa, and took up his residence thereon in 1880. March 16, 1872, he was wedded to Miss Lovina Arnold, daughter of Charles and Lovina Arnold, all of New York. Mrs. Cook is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, while her husband's sympathies are with the faith of his parents, Baptist. He is an enthusiastic republican. Their children were given them at following dates: William, December 12, 1872 ; Mande, September 5, 1877 ; Mary, July 30, 1882.
Q. A. Low, M.D., office corner Main and Alleghaney streets, over Jewell's hardware store. Practice was established in this city ten years since. Dr. Low is a native of Vermont. He came west with his parents in 1860, the family settling in Wiscoy township, Winona county, Minnesota. Dr. Low spent his early years on the farm, and at eighteen enlisted in 2d Minn. Cav., and was with his regiment, from the fall of 1864, on duty at the frontier until he was mustered out of service at the close of the war. Returning home, he soon afterward entered Hamlin University, Redwing, Minne- sota, where he pursued his studies four years. He then studied for his profession, reading for three years in the office of Drs. Richardson & Staples, of Winona, during which time he attended two courses of lectures at the University of Michigan. His concluding course was taken at Long Island College Hospital, from which institution he took his degree of M.D., class of 1873. During that time he also took a special course of operative surgery, for which he received a diploma on the same year. Returning to this state, the doctor located for practice in this city, December, 1873. Dr. Low is a member of the county, state and American medical associations, the latter a national body, and has been
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treasurer of the Wabasha County Medical Society since 1877. Janu- ary 24, 1875, Dr. Low married Miss C. E. Finch, of Hennepin county, Minnesota.
HENRY HALLAWAY, Mazeppa, is a son of John and Ruth Halla- way, who now reside in Pine Island township, three miles from Mazeppa. All these people were born in the parish of Ticehurst, Sussex, England, this subject, March 1, 1846. He attended the common schools of his native land till fifteen years old, when his parents removed to the United States, arriving in Pine Island in July, 1861. He assisted his father in farming operations several years. In 1873 he was united in marriage to Miss Jane Austin, a native of New York. He is at present in possession of a quarter- section of land near the village, in Pine Island, which he tills. In the spring of 1874 he built a residence at the head of Chestnut street, in this village, and has dwelt here since June of that year. He is a member of the Masonic order, being treasurer of Tyrian Lodge here. He is an Episcopalian and a republican.
AXEL E. EDHOLM, merchant, Lake City, became established in business here in 1873. In the city of Orebro, Sweden, July 4, 1847, he was born. Until he was thirteen years old he attended the schools of the city, and then went to Stockholm, and entered a store as clerk. He came thence to Lake City in 1870, and was here employed in the same way three years. In the great fire of 1882 his stock was destroyed, inflicting a loss of some thousands of dollars. He immediately secured a new stock, and is still doing a fine business, his annual sales exceeding twenty-five thousand dol- lars. Mr. Edholm was married in Sweden, in 1876, to Hildegarde Liliander, who was born and reared in Stockholm. Two daughters have been given to this union, and christened Bertha and Edith. All are members of the Lutheran church. Mr. Edholm is an ad- herent of the republican party. His father, Gustafus, came to this city with eight children in 1869. The youngest son died while a student at St. Peter. Edward, another son, is employed in his brother's store here, and W. F. is in Minneapolis. Five daughters are married and living in this state, and the widow, Christina, still resides here. Gustafus Edholm died here September 11, 1875.
W. S. WALTON, formerly proprietor and editor of the Wabasha "Herald," and during his seven years' conduct of that journal, largely instrumental in securing the construction of the Midland railroad, which has done so much to further the interests of Wabasha. Mr.
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Walton is a native of Ohio, received his academical training at Fairfield Seminary, Fairfield, Herkimer county, New York, and had completed one year of his course at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, when the war of the rebellion broke out. He enlisted that same month, April, 1861, at Little Falls, Herkimer county, New York, in Co. K, 34th regt. N. Y. Vol. Inf., which was mus- tered into the United States service for the term of two years. Mr. Walton was made orderly sergeant of his company, was subse- quently promoted second lieutenant, then first lieutenant of. his com- pany, then captain of Co. H, same regiment, and was mustered out as such at the close of the term for which the regiment took service. The regiment was in active duty upon the peninsula until just before the battle of Gettysburg, and during those years of active struggle Capt. Walton saw his share of hard fighting. He was wounded in the right side at Fair Oaks, and in the left thigh at the battle of Nelson's Farm, at which latter place he was taken prisoner and sent to Libby Prison Hospital, from which he was exchanged after weeks' confinement, and came north, recovering from his wounds so as to rejoin his command at Harper's Ferry. Returning home at the expiration of his two years' term of service, Capt. Wal- ton entered Wesley University, Middletown, Connecticut, completed a special course there, and subsequently as agent for Appleton's publishing house, visited the middle and western states, making his home for a season in Davenport, Iowa. The climate of that place not agreeing with the health of his wife, Anna née Loyd, of Gloversville, New York, whom he married, November 27, 1863, she came into Minnesota in 1870, and took up a temporary residence in this city. Two years later Mr. Walton removed to this city, and in September of that year, 1872, purchased the Wabasha "Herald," which he conducted for seven years and then sold. Since disposing of his newspaper property, Mr. Walton has been connected with permanent publishing houses east and west, visiting the Pacific slope, from lower California to Washington Territory, and making the voyage to the Sandwich Islands and Australia. He has a pleasant home on the bank of the river in the eastern part of the city, where he has a very unique and valuable collection of engravings, autographs, rare historical documents, letters from celebrated authors and statesmen, both of America and England, and some rare old editions of books that would delight the eye and arouse the envy of any bibliomanic.
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FRANK STUETZEL, wholesale and retail dealer in wines and liquors, north side Main street, one door west of National Bank. Mr. Stuetzel is a native of Bavaria, Europe, from which country he came to America in 1871. After spending two years in New York and Missouri, Mr. Stuetzel came to Wabasha, where he was engaged in clerking for John Duke, until the spring of 1876, when he left the county for the Black Hills. Returning to Wabasha the same fall, he entered the grain house of Laurence & Kriek, and was in their employ, purchasing grain, for three years. He then formed a partnership with Mr. J. G. Laurence, for the purpose of carrying on a grocery business, which was managed three years by Mr. Stuetzel, and then sold out to L. H. Whitmore. The same season, spring of 1883, Mr. Stuetzel opened his liquor house, where he carries a stock of about four thousand dollars' worth. October 2, 1879, Mr. Stuetzel married Barbara, daughter of Phillip and Phillippena Reck, born in this city July 20, 1856. They have two children, Phillip, born October 20, 1880, Phillippena, born Sep- tember 18, 1882.
T. J. WADLEIGH, the furniture man of Plainview, Wabasha county, was born in Unity, New Hampshire, March 4, 1821, of Henry T. and Hannah S., of old English stock. His father served in the war of 1812, through which his constitution was irreparably undermined. One of nine children, T. J., at the age of sixteen, was bound apprentice to learn the cabinet and joiner trade for three years, at Croydon, New Hampshire. His opportunities for early education were meagre, and at nineteen years he commenced as a jobber for others, in whichi line he continued until the fall of 1840. At this time, December 13, he was married to Fatima S. Powers, of Orange, Vermont, and for one year successfully ran a gristmill, returning to his trade until, in 1846, he built the hotel at Northfield, and for three years next succeeding worked as car builder for the Vermont Central railroad. In 1850, with his family, consisting of wife and three daughters, he emigrated to Hamilton, Canada West, and continued in the same line for the Great Western Railroad Company for four years. In 1855 he settled in Greenville, took a claim of one hundred and sixty acres, and changed, selling to T. A. Thompson, in 1856, and buying that now owned by David Messer. Selling this he bought and worked one of eighty acres, which he exchanged for another adjoining, Thos. Todd's, on the east. In the spring of 1865 he went to Rochester, Minnesota, where he remained
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until 1874 ; then to Eyota, where he commenced the furniture busi- ness and continued till 1877, when he removed to Plainview, and occupied what is now known as the old Wilcox store, and in 1878 built and removed to present site. Arthur, the only son, and now partner in the firm of T. J. Wadleigh & Son, was born April +, 1857. To the subject of this sketch, known universally as a good inan, six children were born, all but one of whom are now living and married.
CHESTER HALL (deceased) was a native of Massachusetts, born October 16, 1818. His parents were Benjamin and Polly Hall. His earliest years were spent with his parents on a farm in St. Law- rence county, New York, and at twelve years of age he entered a foundry, and became master of the moulders' trade. Subsequent to this, at various periods of his life, he followed blacksmithing, gun- smithing and cabinetmaking. When thirty-two years old he mar- ried Louisa Chase, of Jefferson county, New York. After two years' residence in Wisconsin, he came in 1864 to Dodge county, this state, and took np farming. In May, 1874, he became a resident of Zumbro township, and was some time employed at blacksmithing at South Troy. When his health gave out he took up his residence with his younger son, at whose residence he died, November 25, 1883. Mr. Hall was a Close Communion Baptist, and a republican, as are his sons. His wife passed away June 22, 1875, aged forty years. Their youngest child, Ida P., married Henry L. Weaver, and resides at Minneapolis. The eldest, Jerome, was born August 5, 1853, and was mostly reared in Minnesota. July 6, 1875, he married Miss Iona Howard, and since 1877 has resided on section 15, where he has eighty acres of land. His children were born as follows : Etta L., June 30, 1876; Hattie M., April 13, 1878; Charles A., December 3, 1881. Benjamin Austin, second son of Chester, was born February 14, 1857, and resides on section 22, where he has forty acres. He married Mattie Scrubey in January, 1878. Their children were given them as below: Chester F., November 4, 1878 ; Nina E., Christmas, 1881 ; Frances I., January 2, 1883.
CHARLES A. PEHL, mason, was born in Sweden, April 13, 1839, and remained in that country nineteen years. He received a fair education in his native tongue, and since his arrival here has fitted himself for business by private study. He first settled in America at Rock Island, Illinois, where he engaged as a laborer, and subse- quently learned his trade. In 1872 he went to Red Wing, and came
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thence to Mazeppa in 1875. Here he formed the acquaintance of Miss Eva Black, to whom he was married on June 20, 1875. They have two children, Josephine and Charles. Mrs. Pehl is the youngest daughter of Elam Black, elsewhere mentioned in this work. Mr. Pehl is an adherent of the republican party. IIe was reared in the Lutheran church, and now cherishes its faith.
OLE CHINBERG, blacksmith and wagonmaker, Lake City, was born in Sweden in 1848, and was reared to the trade of blacksmith by his father, who was a skilled worker in iron. In 1871 he left his native home and sailed for America, having in view the bettering his condition in life and a better remuneration for his labor. His first work in this country was on a farm, where he readily learned the customs and language of the American people. Later he worked with a construction company on a Minnesota railroad. In 1874 he went to California, and worked at his trade nearly two years in the Sierra Nevada mountains, after which he returned to Minnesota and permanently located in Lake City, and opened up business for him- self. In 1876, in this city, he was married to Miss Anna Coleman, also a native of Sweden. They have two children, Alfrida Axelin and Harry Sigfrid, living, and one deceased. Mr. Chinberg is a reliable, trustworthy business man, and a credit to Lake City.
M. JACOBY, general merchant, corner of Main and Pembroke strects, entrance on both, fronting seventy-five feet on Main and twenty-three feet on Pembroke. Business occupies one floor and basement and employs three persons. This house was started in 1877 by Lindem, Satori & Co. Mr. Jacobi bought out Sartori in 1879, subsequently purchased the other interests, and became sole proprietor in 1882. M. Jacoby is a native of Luxemburg, Ger- many ; was in school there until the family came to America in 1874, settling on sections 4 and 5, T. 110, R. 11 W., where his father died September 10, 1882, the old homestead remaining in possession of one of the sons. M. Jacoby entered the drygoods house of Lucas Kuehn, of this city, in the spring of 1875, and remained there until he purchased an interest in the store he now owns. December 31, 1878, he was married to Miss Rosa Funke, of Glasgow township. They have two children : Emma, born December 22, 1879 ; Lizzie, born September 5, 1881.
CALEB C. EMERY, stock-dealer, has been a resident of Mazeppa .since 1874, during which year he built a meat-market on First street, above Walnut, and a residence west of the river. He now
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has a partner who manages the market, and Mr. Emery is con. stantly occupied in buying and shipping stock. The subject of this matter was one of the pioneers of Olmsted county, having taken up land in Oronoco in September, 1855. From that time he was engaged in farming there until his removal to Mazeppa. He was reared on a farm in New Hampshire, having been born in the town of Holderness, that state, on January 4, 1834. His parents, John Emery and Sarah Fifield, were natives of the same state. He received a common-school education, and on reaching his majority set out to make himself a home in the west. In February, 1865, Mr. Emery enlisted in the 1st Minn. Heavy Art., and was stationed at Chattanooga till the close of the war. He has always been a demo- crat ; served some time as assessor in Oronoco. On May 8, 1867, C. C. Emery and Helen M. George were united in marriage. Mrs. Emery is the only daughter of Col. James and Rhoda T. George, also pioneers of Oronoco. Col. George commanded the 2d regiment in the war of the rebellion, and was a well-known and popular man in Olmsted county and the state at large. Mr. and Mrs. Emery's five children were given to them as follows : Clara E., January 21, 1869 ; James George, April 25, 1870 ; Rhoda J., April 26, 1872 ; Mary E., September 10, 1876 ; Helen E., January 9, 1878.
ROBERT HENRY Foss, stock-dealer, Lake City, was born at Rye Beach, near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, January 29, 1849. His father, Joel N. Foss, is of Scotch descent, and was born in the same state, as was his wife, Adeline Locke, of Puritan stock. In July, 1857, our subject came to Minnesota with his parents, and was reared on a farm in West Florence, Goodline county. His education was furnished by a limited course in the log schoolhouse of that region. He became a resident of Lake City in 1874, and has ever since been engaged in the purchase and sale of horses and other stock. Has real estate in Minneapolis and Moorhead and in Pepin county, Wis- consin. In July, 1874, he was united in marriage to Miss Ellen A., daughter of Robert Gray, elsewhere sketched in this book. They have three children, christened respectively, Bernard, Clarence and Virginia. Mr. Foss is a thorough and consistent republican. He was five successive times elected constable of the town of West Florence.
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MR. MORRIS C. RUSSELL, editor "Sentinel," Lake City. After repeated solicitation on our part, Mr. Russell kindly consented to furnish us the following brief though very interesting account of his experience on the northwestern frontier, or early days in Minnesota, which at the same time illustrates the experiences of very many of our worthy pioneers, both living and dead, and is given as a sample of the brave spirits who redeemed this grand commonwealth from a state of nature, and spread out its fields of golden grain, bred cattle on its thousand hills, and reared its numerous cities, towns and vil- lages with their prosperous churches, colleges and schools. He says: " I was born in Venango county, Pennsylvania, February 22, 1840. My father was Samuel Russell, and my mother was a Miss Matilda Raymond, whose brother, A. W. Raymond, owned large iron mines and blast furnaces, over which my father, although own- ing a large farm in the vicinity, was, most of the years I was at home, the manager for my uncle Raymond. The Raymonds were from Connecticut stock, although the branch which were within my knowledge came from New York State into western Pennsylvania; and my uncle A. W. Raymond, and his large family of sons and daughters and their descendants, are all alive at this writing, and all live near each other in Venango county, the old gentleman at Frank- lin, the county seat. My father was one of a family of seven sons, all born in this country, although my grandparents on my father's side came from the north of Ireland. My father married twice, his second wife being a Miss Susan Smith, from Bangor, Maine, who came into western Pennsylvania as a school teacher. I am the youngest child of the first family, being the twelfth child and seventh son. My mother died when I was an infant, and I do not recollect her. I was raised, up to the time I left home at fourteen, by my stepmother, who is one of God's noble women, and who still lives in Jefferson, Iowa, with her youngest daughter, though very feeble and
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aged. By his second marriage my father had nine children- twenty-one in all. Up to my fourteenth year I went to the old log schoolhouse three months each winter, where I learned to read in the New Testament, and could spell most of the easy words in Cobb's spelling-book ; also gained a trifle of knowledge about geography, and could ' cipher ' a little before leaving home, but never 'learned grammar' any. This comprised all the book-learning I ever had in school, and constituted my collegiate course, if I except a year spent in the Franklin 'Spectator' office as a 'printer's devil.' From ten to fourteen I worked on the farm, in the ore mines, and about the iron furnace, one year as 'under clerk' in my uncle's large supply store, where the hundreds of miners, furnace men, wood- choppers, teamsters and charcoal artists, who carried on the colliery department, bought all the supplies of every kind for themselves and families. All labor was employed by my uncle for half cash and half out of the furnace store. I never knew, however, of very much cash changing hands, but the 'furnace store' was a big thing as a mart of trade; men who had large families, as nearly all of them had, to support by chopping white oakwood-as an illustra- tration-for forty cents per cord, never had much "cash" due them on settlement day. My business capacity and my education fitted me admirably for my part of the duties-i. e., drawing the endless jugs of molasses, fish-oil, measuring out tar, sweeping the store, re- placing broken glass in the gristmill and the many other buildings about the ironworks, and doing ten thousand things which the higher operators about the place could not do withont smearing their hands or their linen. About March 1, 1854, I succeeded in getting father's consent to go to Minnesota Territory, at that time a remote region, difficult of access, and of which but little was known in the east. Four years before, in 1850, my two eldest brothers, Aaron and Ed- ward, had gone to that territory, and in 1852 were followed by my brother Samuel, and brother-in-law, F. M. Ward. After two months of untold hardships, privations, suffering and adventure, a green and used-np youth landed in St. Paul from the steamer Hamburg, the boat having, during all her voyage, been but little less than a float- ing palace of death. She had several hundred passengers, who died off by scores with cholera, their remains being buried in greater or less numbers at every wood-pile and landing. Those not sick spent their time in gambling and carousing night and day. We buried half-a-dozen one dark rainy night in the lonely wilderness where
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we took on wood, placing them all in one shallow hole in the wet ground, by the weird light of tar torches. At another landing, I remember, among the dead carried ashore were eight members of one family. This was at La Crosse landing, where they were laid side by side on the ground, seven boys and the father, and we left the only surviving member, the wife and mother, sitting among the dead, wringing her hands in agony and despair. Most of the prin- cipal towns now on the river were located about this time, or not long previously, but were composed of only a few wooden structures, scattered about over their respective sites, with not enough in a line to indicate which way the streets ran. There were "prairie-seas " spread out on every hand, which, with the wild Indians and their · numerous villages, were sights emphatically new and picturesque in the eyes of a boy who had never seen either before, nor even a rail- road nor steamboat before starting on this long, tedious and event- ful journey, which alone would make an interesting volume if faith- fully written, with all its incidents, sights and experiences.
"St. Paul was a singular-looking, rough-and-tumble sort of a town. The central portion was reached by a set of rough, wooden stairs, leading from the steamboat landing up the side of the hill, upon reaching the summit of which one landed almost in the front yard of the Central House, one of the leading hotels of the town. The Merchant's was a frame affair, on its present site. The amusement center was the old People's Theatre, a square, ugly-looking structure, made of slabs set up endwise. The autocrats of the territory were the government officials first, the steamboat officers next, and the Indian traders and ' sample-room' proprietors third. In those days all the rivers were navigable. The Minnesota river was navigable for large boats some three or four hundred miles above its mouth most of the season, and as the Minnesota valley was just beginning to attract immigration, the steamboat business boomed for several years, when, about the time it began to permanently 'dry up," rail- roads came into the country and relieved the exhausted streams of the traffic they no longer could discharge by reason of the absorption and evaporation caused by settling and opening up the country and its surface. The first legal execution in the territory took place that year. The 'subject' was a Sioux Indian, who was hanged for shooting at a white man, and killing the woman who was seated beside him in the wagon. The murder took place in the woods in the Sand Creek bottom, Scott county, near where Jordan is now
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