USA > Minnesota > Wright County > History of Wright County, Minnesota > Part 24
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
"Confronted by the moral and physical foree of organized order, the county officials and other prominent men promised that the offenders should be arrested and punished, a promise which was never kept, for to this day no one has been brought before a bar of justice for taking part in these outrages.
"To prove that they had the desire and the power to carry out their promise, the county officials and their backers agreed that if the state authorities would prepare to withdraw their forees that three of the real offenders would be arrested and delivered up to justice. Aecordingly the sheriff went into the
204
HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
woods and went through the form of arresting Aymer W. Moore, Hiram S. Angell and J. E. Jenks. At the justice court they waived examinations and were bound over to the October term of the district court under $500 bonds, which they easily obtained, and they were set at liberty. Thus the Wright County War was ended. The troops and police returned to their homes August 11. The troops had been under arms not more than seven days at most. But it was universally acknowledged that had there been less force the rioters would have shown real resistance and bloodshed might have resulted.
"The district court met at Monticello October 2, 1859. After taking their solemn oath of office, the grand jury went into session. They failed to take any action in regard to the recent disturbances. Two at least of the county officials were anxious that the jury should dissolve without finding indietments. Con- sequently, on the morning of October 4, the jury adjourned. Whether anyone appeared before it is not now known. But it is said that with the menaee of antagonistic prominent officials it would not have been safe for any of the friends of Jaekson to show themselves in the county, and probably no one appeared before the jury during the short time it was in session."
The grand jury was constituted as follows: A. C. Riggs (fore- man), L. C. Pickens, M. A. Taylor, J. W. Kirk, O. S. Boyd, Dana Hamlet, A. E. Oakes, O. H. Sheldon, H. F. Lillibridge, Benjamin Ward, H. W. Brookins, Samuel Houlton, F. Heyetter, W. H. Helm, Joseph Perkins, Edwin Grant, H. Nickerson, John Spauld- ing, Charles Wedgewood, A. Nickerson and W. Garcelon.
On October 4 the following order was issued :
"Ordered by the Court, that Aymer W. Moore, H. S. Angell and J. E. Jenks be discharged from their recognizance; for the said Aymer W. Moore, H. S. Angell and J. E. Jenks having appeared before the Grand Jury at the October term of the Court of the Fourth Judicial Distriet at Monticello, Wright county, Minnesota, 1859, and they having appeared before said Grand Jury during the entire sitting of said Grand Jury and until said Court was adjourned.
"Now, therefore, the said Aymer W. Moore, HI. S. Angell and J. E. Jenks are discharged according to law and their reeog- nizanees are hereby released."
Whether this action on the part of the officials and citizens was in accord with their solemn oath and promise to the state authorities is not for the historian to determine.
The cost of the expedition was necessarily considerable, but no law-abiding citizen, in Wright county or elsewhere, failed to heartily sustain Governor Sibley in his prompt and determined effort to uphold the dignity of the law. The effect long remained in the county in the enormous expense incurred, which, with other
205
HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
criminal cases of less magnitude, created an indebtedness almost resulting in bankruptey, and depreciating county orders to less than thirty-five cents on the dollar.
In the spring of 1877 August Roloff found a watch while clear- ing up an old fence near the place where dlaekson's house for- merly stood. In May, 1880, Frank Warner plowed up the remains of a rifle near the same place. It was declared that these were the long-missing possessions of Wallace.
Several other trials took place about this time. The trial of Casper Oehrlein for murder was a long and expensive one. But he was discharged, and though there was much testimony against him, the lynchers seemed to be satisfied with one victim, and Oehrlein was allowed to remain in the county.
CHAPTER XII.
PIONEER DEVELOPMENT.
Pioneer Discomforts-By Allen Reinmuth-Early Days at Rock- ford-By George W. Florida-Claim Seekers and Various Types of Early Arrivals-Ginseng-Grasshopper Plagues- The Famine of 1867.
The pioneer development of this part of Minnesota dates from 1852, but the real impetus came in 1856 and 1857, when land in many of the townships was entered at the United States land office. The pioneers who settled in this great wilderness had to face many hardships and nerve-testing ordeals, and the experi- ences and privations they underwent should be related for the benefit of the countless generations yet unborn who will reap the fruits of the work done by their frontier ancestors and predecessors.
People of the present day, and especially those who have never lived on farms, have no idea of the hardships a farmer encounters in a new country. By the time he has cleared, paid for, and established a standard model farm, he has used a great deal of vitality, patience and energy.
Especially were difficulties encountered in the wooded por- tions, such as the "Big Woods," which included most of Wright county, where the timber had to be cleared off before a cabin could be built or a garden planted. The trees were so large and set so close together that a traveler eould scarcely see a rod ahead, and in the summer the foliage was so thick that the sky was obscured. Many varieties were represented, such as the red, white and burr oak, hard and soft maple, white and black ash, hickory, basswood, box-elder, red and white elm, ironwood,
206
HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
cottonwood and others. These trees varied in size, the white elm and the white oak being the largest and tallest. One old white oak measured six feet in diameter, and a white elm which is standing today is four feet in diameter and a hundred and twelve feet high. There were only a few maple trees then, but after the great cyelone ruined and tore up by the roots all the large trees, the maples took their place, so that today the oaks and elms are few and the maples predominate.
The clearing away of the forest was no easy task. Saws were unknown, so the work was done with axes. There was no market for wood, and it had to be disposed of. The trees were felled, cut eight or ten feet long, then rolled into large heaps. This was done with the help of oxen when such could be secured, but those that could not afford oxen used wooden hand spikes, a slower and more difficult process. These heaps were then lighted, and since the wood was green and did not burn very readily, the piles had to be re-lighted time and again. The old pioneers, recalling the early elearing of the forest, have regretted many times that timber like oak, maple and ash had to be wasted by burning in such a manner, where today it would demand a good market and a high price. The process of felling trees was hazardous as well as tedious, for many a tree when falling would become lodged in the branches of a nearby tree, which would then have to be ehopped also. This was a very dangerous task, for the tree above might shake loose any time and fall and erush the man working beneath. Two aeres was all that could be cleared by two men in one winter.
The mosquitoes were plentiful, for the shallow pools were kept from evaporating by the shading forest, and myriads of insects hatehed out daily. Sereens were unknown, henee very little rest did the pioneers have day or night during the sum- mers of the first few years. After the timber was somewhat cleared away, the pools dried out and the mosquitoes became fewer in number. Some of the early settlers did not have the endurance to keep up the task they had begun, so left, driven away by discomforts in which the mosquitoes were an important factor.
Railroads did not span this country until ten years later. The train service was not as convenient in the early days as it is at the present time. The ears were not ballasted and they often jumped from the track. The engines were small and the grades were steep, hence slow time was made both in passenger and freight service. There were no through freights, and fast mail trains and fliers were not put on until twenty-five years later.
The population at that time was small, about one family to four square miles. The only company the families had to break
207
HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
the monotony was the howl of the wolves and the hoot of the owls and nighthawks.
Industry was erude then, for the equipment was meagre. Labor was done mostly by hand. Horses were not to be had at that date. The oxen, though very strong, could not be handled like horses for several reasons. They had no bridles, so they could go wherever they pleased, and sometimes they would even run away from their owners. They had not the intelligence horses have, therefore they could not be trained to do all the work horses do.
The early pioners had erudely constructed shacks built out of logs, about twelve by twenty feet, on an average, in size. These log houses were covered with ehm bark for a roof, occa- sionally limbs and twigs were used. When the weather was dry the roofs did not leak, but when it rained the discomforts were intense. Everything got wet and the only thing to do was to wait until the rain stopped and then dry the clothes and bedding by the fire.
The chimneys were built of wood, plastered on the inside with clay to prevent them from burning, and like those of Lincoln's time, were small at the top and wide at the bottom. They were about six feet square at the bottom and three feet square at the top. Logs cut in suitable lengths were used as fuel, and as they were green a large fire had to be kept up.
There were few matches in those days, so fires were kindled by friction. To do this two dry sticks were rubbed together until they produced a spark, which would be dropped into a pile of sawdust and shavings to ignite them, and the glow induced would then have to be blown into a flame. When matches finally came into use on the farm this disagreeable task was done away with.
Implements of labor were also crude. Most of them were made of wood and progress with these tools was very slow and work could not be done either well or skillfully. The plows were made something like modern potato hillers with a beam, two handles and two braces to hold the handles in position. In the middle of this crude tool was a straight "four by four" with an iron plate one-half inch thick, fastened to the beam by old- fashioned screws. The harrow used was a brush taken from the top part of a maple tree. These harrows were drawn by two yoked oxen with a chain fastened to the yoke and the butt end of the harrow. This kind of a harrow was easily made and could well stand the jerks and jars it was exposed to while dragged over the stumps. The harrow was somewhat effective in smoothing the plowed ground. The cycle half-moon grain- cutter was the tool used to cut the grain. This was swung by one hand and the grain was caught in the other, which was very
208
HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
hard and slow work. As soon as seythes and eradles were invented and purchased the farmers made better time and raised more grain. The threshing in the early days was done by means of a flail. The method of seeding was most interesting, looked at from a present-day viewpoint. There were first placed three' sharpened poles ten feet long, a few inehes in the ground in a vertical position, and in a straight line with each other aeross the field. Each stiek had a red flag tied to the top of it as a sight to go by. The man had a few saeks of wheat placed conveniently here and there so he could get more seed whenever he needed it. To sow he earried a saek on his side, fastened over his right shoulder. One part of the saek was partly left open so he eould reach in and get a handful of wheat. This wheat was seattered to right and left and in front of him. He would never carry more than a peek of wheat in the saek at one time as more would be too heavy.
The early settlers were very poor. Many had been here but a short time. Land was cheap under the preemption law, only costing about $1.25 per aere. Later, under the homestead law, the United States gave homesteads to any who applied and ful- filled the conditions. All that was required for a man who took a homestead was that he live on it five years, after which he could receive a deed for same. Each homestead had a hundred and sixty aeres, exeept in certain eases (such as the immediate prospeet of an adjoining railroad) where conditions made the land of so much higher value that the elaims were limited to eighty aeres. No man could take more than one homestead. Al- though the land was cheap, tools and the other necessary artieles were so high prieed that farming was very expensive. The pio- neers paid their debts in two ways, first by digging ginseng and secondly by selling the produce they raised.
The elimatie conditions were more even and rains came at more regular periods than at present. The temperature was also more equitable, without the great and rapid changes known to the present time. The forest stopped the winds and kept the soil eool by shading it. Owing to those natural conditions the summers were not so extremely hot or the winters so extremely eold.
Aside from a little pork and beef, most of the meat was seeured by hunting wild game, which was plentiful in the forest. At that time anyone could shoot all the game that faney dietated. But now the big game has all departed, and even small game is not plentiful. Fish were also very numerous in the early days, but the number has now been so depleted that there would be little fishing in the county were it not for the thousands of fry supplied by the state and government hateheries.
But the days of the pioneer are gone. Modern conditions
209
HISTORY OF WRIGHIT COUNTY
have replaced the days when the early settler lived with his little family in a cabin, painfully cleared his land aere by acre, and often knew what it was to laek for provisions. Now the county is a settled, prosperous area, surrounded on all sides by a high civilization, and with all frontier conditions long since removed. -By Allen Reinmuth.
Pioneer Days in Rockford. Let us go back to the fifties of 1800 and join the procession of emigration moving from the East, from Maine to Minnesota. There were two means of trans- portation : one by the water route that led to the West, on the surface of which the birchbark canoe smoothly glided and the majestic steamboat plowed its way through the currents, to the Northwest ; the other route, over which the greater number came, by land. On this the prairie sehooner (the covered wagon), often propelled by the noble ox, gallantly sailed towards the setting sun. This mode of travel was used during the fifties, with the added assistance of the Burbank stage-coaches that fol- lowed the trail of the ox team. In this manner of travel the people of Wright county had the same experience as the people of other counties of the territory of Minnesota.
It has been a great satisfaction that our mother came from Maine to Illinois in the early forties in a covered wagon drawn by one span of horses, with her father, her mother, five sisters and one brother.
In the fall of 1855 our father, with his brother-in-law, George F. Ames, visited Minnesota. On the way up the Mississippi river they met G. D. George, a gentleman from Boston, also visiting the territory. The three were congenial companions, and Mr. George joined them in prospeeting the territory for a location. They located the present town of Rockford, on the Crow river, twenty- one miles from its mouth and one and one-half miles from its north and south forks, at a place called by the Indians Big Rock, owing to the big roeks in the rapids at this place.
In the spring of 1856 our family party, consisting of our grandparents, uneles, eousins and aunts, came to Galena and took passage on the "War Eagle" to St. Paul. The trip up the Mis- sissippi was most interesting, its scenery comparing favorably with the Hudson or the Rhine. We were treated to an exciting steamboat raee through Lake Pepin, when our gallant War Eagle swung into the lake to pass a rival boat. All on board took a lively interest. The grates of the boilers were wide open and relays of firemen kept the furnace full of wood, and to increase the power, bacon, from a pile on deck, was thrown in. With the safety-valve tied down, we left our rival in the wake and cheered the War Eagle.
Arriving in St. Paul, we were driven to Minneapolis over the beautiful rolling prairie to St. Anthony. On the elevated ground
210
HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
near where the university stands was Cheaver Tower. Over the door to the stairway to its top was "Cheaver Tower. Pay your dime and elimb." From this tower one had a commanding view of the lakes and bluffs, with the smooth prairie stretehing to the Minnesota river on the west side, the high, gradually aseending table land on the east, with the falls in their original grandeur plunging between. This view made a pieture in my mind that fifty-nine years has not changed, though a teeming eity has oeeu- pied the place.
Our people brought a steam sawmill to Rockford in 1856, eutting the road from where Hamel now stands. This mill ent material for a number of houses built in 1856. Three are now standing. The mill burned in the winter. In 1857 the dam was built. A flour mill, a feed mill and a sawmill were put in opera- tion to aeeommodate the settlers that were then loeating near the village in the Big Woods, as the belt of hardwood timber between forty and fifty miles wide was ealled. This belt extended from the Mississippi on the north side of the county in a eireular form to the southeastern part of the territory, between Faribault and Mankato.
In 1857 the settlers were confronted with an unexpected set- baek. The wild land speeulation of the previous years had pre- eipitated what was known as the erash of 1857, a time when the bottom had dropped ont of the financial system and a general depression followed. The money in eireulation was largely issued by private banks and as this could not be redeemed, one after another fell in the financial whirlpool. Settlers who had means, as they supposed, to make improvements, found their money worthless, and it was given the name of wildeat eurreney. To add to their misfortunes, the grasshoppers appeared in July, so thiek that they darkened the sun, and when they had gone, the small fields of eorn, wheat and potatoes were nearly bare. Fortunately for the settlers, they had no means to return to the older settlements, and during 1857 and 1858 did the best they eould.
Fish and game were plentiful. Material for building log eabins and barns was at hand. The spirit of the people was good. May 11, 1858, the territory was admitted as a state. The Indians were indneed to remove to their ageney on the Minne- sota river, five miles below the Redwood river, and with their removal the game was more plentiful. The settlers had a never- failing supply of venison, geese, dneks, pheasants, pigeons, fish and all kinds of fur-bearing animals. The Children of Israel were not better provided with manna in the Wilderness than the first settlers of this seetion. Deer was so plentiful that at Monti- eello, while Senator Samuel Bennet was making his family prayer after breakfast, one of his little girls whispered that a deer was
211
HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
in the cabbage patch. Mr. Bennet rose with alacrity, took a rifle from over the door, shot the deer, returned to his kneeling posi- tion and devoutly finished the prayer.
From St. Anthony two small steamboats, "The Cutter" and the little "Time and Tide," plied between the falls and Crow Wing on the upper Mississippi, stopping at Dayton, Monticello and Clearwater. The landing in St. Anthony was at the head of Nicollet Island, opposite the old Tremont House. Louis Robare was the captain of the "Time and Tide." He would stand at the little wharf and eall the time of starting. Ile would shout : "Time and Tide starts at seven. Time and Tide waits for no man, but one-half hour for one woman." The Wright county ladies had plenty of time if they took passage with Captain Robare !
While we were supplied with many comforts from the hand of Nature, there were other things necessary to complete the list of comforts formerly enjoyed by the settlers. Clothing and groceries required money, and this was so searce that many families were destitute- and in the spring of 1859 were diseour- aged. On the evening of May 18 two gentlemen from Richmond, Va., Colonel Blaine and Major Goshorn, drove into the village. They asked if ginseng grew in the woods. They thought, from the maple and basswood, it would be plentiful in this timbered country, and they had come from Virginia to buy it. They would prepare it for the Chinese market at this place by washing, clari- fying and drying, a process used at that time in preparing the roots for the Chinese trade.
On the morning of May 19 Mrs. Beebe, my cousin, Frank Ames, and I went into the woods in search of ginseng. It was the writer's good fortune to find the first plant. We dug it and carried it to Colonel Blaine. He pronounced it a fine specimen, and said they would pay gold for all that could be dug. We passed the top and root from one to another, that they might know it in the woods. The digging was done with a narrow hoe made for the purpose. Agencies were established at Buffalo, Watertown and Hassen, for the convenience of the diggers. In a few days the chief occupation was digging ginseng. The price paid in the spring was five cents per pound, and eight and ten cents in the fall, for green roots. Whole families dug. Some good diggers would dig five dollars worth in a day. We dug like a lot of miners, with the expectation of finding rich digging every moment. Many of the settlers paid for their land with the money that came with the ginseng.
The Fourth of July had been observed appropriately in 1857 and 1858, but Minnesota now being a state over a year old, it was decided that July 4, 1859, must be celebrated in a royal manner. Invitations were sent to the towns of the county to join with us.
212
HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY
We must have a band. Unele Cyrus Redlon and his two sons were musicians. They were from Boston. Uncle Redlon had a fife. Fred and Frank Redlon were good drummers, but we had no drums. Amos Denney made fine pork barrels of white oak. We asked him for a barrel to make a bass drum. We sawed off the ends to give it the right proportion, and covered them with heavy buekskin and strung it in such a way as to make it tight. The drum was a great success. It was a heavy bass. We then took a fish keg and made a snare or tenor drum in the same way. That proved a snecess. We were provided with drums.
When the war broke out in 1861, the Rockford drummers enlisted in the army, and each filled the same position in the military band that he had at the first celebration after the state was admitted to the Union.
D. R. Farnham was from Massachusetts and was well trained in military taeties. He had organized a company of young men known as the Roekford Militia or Home Guards These he trained in marehing and the manual of arms. The ladies of the village had made a fine flag for this occasion, to be carried at the head of the procession. We had also taken two widths of sheeting with which we made a banner by stitehing them together and tacking to two poles to be carried by two men. The banner was sixteen feet long. On this Frank Redlon, a good sign painter, painted a baekwoodsman earrying a ginseng hoe on his shoulder with a bag of ginseng attached; behind him a young man of twenty, carrying a hoe and bag; following him, a younger men- ber and a little boy and the baby, each earrying a hoe and bag. Over all, in good, large letters was, "Big pig, little pig, root hog or die." This was our motto. Our procession was headed by the flag and drum eorps, leading the militia. The Sunday school in marehing line followed the militia. The banner was carried at the head of the citizens' eolumn.
From all the country the people came to join this great eele- bration; from Montieello, Buffalo, Dayton, the Virginia settle- ment (now Montrose), Waverly, Marysville and Watertown, in Wright county ; Armstrong, Maple Plain, Long Lake, the Yankee settlement and Greenwood, in Hennepin county.
Our mother had brought a small melodeon from Illinois, which accompanied the chorus that sang patriotie songs. The Deelara- tion of Independence was read. An address was given. Then the dinner, that the oldest settlers have not forgotten! Roast pigs on china platters brought from former homes ; pyramid eakes, that to us small boys looked like haystacks! The long table in the shade of the majestie elms was a triumphal monument to the glory of ginseng, and our motto, "Root hog or die."
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.