USA > Minnesota > Wright County > History of Wright County, Minnesota > Part 45
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Washington Rader, of Delano, a veteran of the Civil war, and a venerable citizen, was born in Rush county, Indiana, June 17. 1832, son of Jacob and Eve (Treese) Rader. He was reared in Indiana and Illinois and came to Minnesota in 1856. In Inde- pendence, Hennepin county, he found a claim to his liking, and there settled on 160 aeres covered with wood. Fortunately a road led by the claim, but there were seasons of the year when it was hardly possible to make use of the thoroughfares as they then existed. Mr. Rader erected a log cabin and with a team of horses and a pair of mules started to clear the land. Thus for several years he continued to improve the place. February 24, 1864, he enlisted in Company 1, Second Minnesota Volunteer Infantry,
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and was sent south to join the Army of the Cumberland. He saw mueh active service, was with Sherman on his March to the Sea, and participated in the Grand Review at Washington. Ile was mustered out at Louisville, Ky., and returned to his farm. He retired about 1893 and moved to Delano, where they have sinee continued to live. He joined the Masons in 1866, when he became a member of Watertown Lodge, No. 50, A. F. & A. M. Ile is now a member of Roekford Lodge, No. 62, of the same order. Mr. Rader was married in Illinois, in 1854, to Ann Burnett, a native of England, and they had five children : Winfield, Thomas, Abbie, John and Bell. In February, ISS2, Mr. Rader married Harriett C. MeKinley, an early school teacher in distriet 41, Rockford township. She was born in Beaver, Pa., January 10, 1852, daughter of William and Ruth (Powers) MeKinley. By this marriage Mr. Rader had one ehild, Blanche, who died at the age of twenty-four. She had married Mark Williams, a Minne- apolis druggist, and left one ehild, Emerson, born in 1905. By a previous marriage, Mrs. Harriett C. (MeKinley) Rader had three children : Mattie B., Guy D. and Allie. Her first husband was John Murphy, who was born in Wright county, son of James and Hannah Murphy, who came from Illinois and settled in Frank- lin township in the early days. John Murphy was married in 1872 to Harriett C. MeKinley. He died in 1879 at the age of thirty-three. Mattie B. Murphy is the wife of Thomas Rader, and they have two children, Vera and Clarenee MeKinley. Guy D. Murphy lives in Murdoek, Minn. Allie Murphy is dead. She married Charles McDonnell, and left two bright boys, Russell and Gordon.
William Mckinley, veteran and pioneer, was born in Ireland. At the age of nine years he started out for himself, and without a penny in his poeket worked his way aeross the ocean to join his brother, Thomas, in Pennsylvania. Here he grew to manhood, and in time married his brother's wife's sister. In April, 1857. he arrived in Minnesota with his wife and his four children, Matilda, Malissa Isabelle, Ilarriett C. and Emma. They located on 160 acres of wild woodland a mile north of what is now Delano, in Franklin township. Mr. Mckinley erected a log house and with an ox team started to elear the land. When supplies were needed a four-day trip to Minneapolis was necessary. Sometimes, however, goods eould be purchased at the little store of Adam Korn, at Greenwood. When the second of the two Indian panies eame the family was just ready to harvest the first wheat erop. The mother tied up the bedding, and the oxen stood at the door ready to bear the family to one of the settlements. But the mother then said : "This little eabin and clearing, these few goods, are all we have. God ean keep us here as well as anywhere." So they did not flee that day, though they were
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afraid to stay in the eabin and slept that night in the willows. The next day a neighbor came with news of the Dustin massacre. Then Mr. MeKinley placed his wife and the three children in the boat, and as they did not dare paddle or make a noise of any kind, they floated down the river to Greenwood, while he walked along the bank on the lookout for hostile Indians. Two days later the family returned. At one time Emma and Harriett C. were at home with the mother when at sunrise she started out looking for the cows. At sundown she had not returned. Having lost her way, she had wandered around and around in a circle and was en- tirely bewildered. Finally, after dark, she erawled out on a log which overhung the river, and eried for help. Sylvester Frederick heard her eries and came to her resene with a boat. Often the family were without flour. Sometimes they were glad to even get some corn to grate up for meal. As the years passed, however, times improved. In August, 1864, William MeKinley enlisted in the Eleventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, serving until the close of the war. Then he returned and resumed his work on the farm. He was one of the early members of Rockford Lodge, No. 62, A. F. & A. M. After a long and useful life he died in 1897 at the age of seventy-six. Mr. MeKinley married Ruth Powers, born in Pennsylvania, September 13, 1826, daughter of James and Ruth Powers. The other children in the family were Thornton, Fletcher, Harriett, Malissa and Caroline.
Rollando M. Walter, veterinary surgeon of Delano, was born in Belleplaine, Seott county, September 2, 1855, a son of A. B. and Hannah (Rolf) Walter. Hle was the first child born in that township. A. B. Walter was one of the founders of Minnesota. He was born in Indiana, and there married Hannah Rolf, a native of New Jersey. In 1852 he brought his wife and his two children, Nora C. and Costello, to Minnesota, and secured 160 aeres of prairie land embraeing the present village of Belleplaine. He was a physician by profession, but from his early youth he had wished to own land, and when Minnesota was opened to settle- ment he saw his opportunity for realizing his long-eherished dream. When he arrived, Minnesota had already been admitted as a territory and several settlements had sprung up, but the part of the state in which he settled was still overrun with Indians, and the few whites there were Frenehmen from Canada, or half- breed descendants of the early traders. IIe erected a log house, broke the land, and began farming operations. He still continued his praetice as a physician, and often he rode to his patients fifty miles away, going on horseback and pieking his way along Indian trails, through swamps, and over ereeks and rivers. He helped to organize the township and was one of its first officers. He also helped to organize the Christian church at Belleplaine. After a long and useful life filled with good works he died at the age
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R. M. WALTER
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of seventy-four. His wife died at the age of seventy-three. The children born in Minnesota were Rollando M., Aliee and Dora. Rollando M. Walter was the only boy in the family. Ile attended the schools of Belleplaine, and also the Minneapolis high school. Later he graduated from the Kansas City Veterinary School. In order to perfect himself more thoroughly in chemistry, he elerked for a while in a drugstore in Minneapolis. Then he prac- ticed his profession in southwestern Kansas, Colorado and Okla- homa. For five years he raised and dealt in high-grade horses. In 1882 he came to Delano and opened an office, and has sinee remained in practice here. A thorough master of his profession, a lover of animals, and a man of the most humane instincts, he has made himself popular for many miles around. lle has done good work as health officer, and as a justice of the peace for the past twenty-two years he has been noted for his fairness and sound judgment. For several terms he has been a member of the schoolboard. Ile belongs both to the Masons and the Odd Fellows. Mr. Walter was married in 1882 to Minnie B. Knott, a native of Carver county, and daughter of Thomas and Eunice (Sweet) Knott. Mr. and Mrs. Walter have four children: Rol- lando B., a mining engineer, and a graduate from the University of Minnesota ; Leslie Earl, who is a foreman in the smelting works at Butte, Mont .; Clyde, who is employed by the Great Northern, and Claire A., a teacher and a graduate from the Mankato State Normal School. Thomas Knott was born in Ireland and his wife in Canada. They were married in Canada and came to Minnesota in the fifties. He died in 1906 at the age of seventy- eight. The children in the family were: George, Henry, Walter, Minnie, Lillie, William, John and Elizabeth.
Peter Welker, the pioneer, was born in Ohio, August 18, 1818, son of John Welker, who had moved from Pennsylvania and settled in Clark county, Ohio. The family is of German descent, the American branch dating baek previous to the Revolution. Peter Welker was reared in Clark county, Ohio, and was there married in 1840 to Eleanor Creamer, a native of New York. They moved from Ohio to Cumberland county, Illinois, and there he followed his trade as a blacksmith and also did considerable farming. In the spring of 1857 the family consisted of Peter Welker and his wife, with their six children, Judson, Atwood, Clarine, Darwin, Eliza and Harvey. This little party set out for the Northwest with the household goods and a few cattle, their wagons being drawn by oxen and mules. After a long, hazardous trip of eight weeks they eamped on the edge of Carver county, Minnesota, on the night of July 6. July 11 they reached Wright county. Following the trail through the wild woods along the seetion line, they reached a elaim in seetion 25, Franklin town- ship. This elaim, consisting of 160 aeres, they purchased for
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$2.50 an aere. They ereeted a log eabin, and started their life in the wilderness, surrounded by trees, brush and mosquitoes. Sup- plies were obtained by going to St. Paul, a journey not at all easy to make in those days when the country was first being opened. Peter Welker had left his blacksmith tools in Illinois, and he had some difficulty in getting any in St. Paul. But in the spring of 1858 he managed to get a shop set up, and in this he made the first plow ever manufactured in Wright county. He made ginseng hooks for all the early settlers, and even dug a considerable quan- tity of that root for himself. He made the first pair of "bobs" in the county. Previous to that the pioneers had used log sleds. He purchased the first kettles moulded in Minneapolis. They had a eapaeity of thirty-two gallons each and were for the purpose of boiling maple sap. Later he seeured a potash kettle having a eapaeity of 120 gallons. This kettle and the first plow made are still in the possession of the family. After a time Mr. Welker sold part of his 160 aeres. In 1872 he built a frame house. In 1883, after the death of his wife on August 23, at the age of sixty-four, he returned to Illinois. He then divided his time between Minnesota and Illinois until October, 1895, when he settled permanently in the latter state. He died at Wheeler, Ill., February 7, 1906. For his second wife he had married, in 1884, Elizabeth Davis, by whom he had three children, Clarence, George and Frank, born in Minnesota, and Hattie, born in Illinois. Mr. Welker was a prominent man, and held the office of supervisor in Franklin township for many years.
Atwood Welker, a respected citizen now living in Delano, was born in Cumberland county, Illinois, October 7, 1843, son of Peter and Eleanor (Creamer) Welker, the pioneers. Ile at- tended the district schools in his native county, and was thirteen years old when his parents brought him to this county. Here he attended two terms of three months each, in an old log school- house in Franklin township. As he grew to manhood, he de- cided upon agriculture as his future occupation. August S, 1864, he enlisted at Ft. Snelling in Co. G, Second Mimesota Cavalry, and did service in the Northwest against the Indians. He was mustered out August 11, 1865. After the war he located on a farm and started on his own responsibility. This traet con- sisted of twenty acres of wild land which he cleared. In 1868 he seeured an adjoining tract of ninety-three acres of sehool land in section 36. He erected a frame house, eleared up the land, and as time passed developed a most excellent place. Here he and his good wife toiled for many years. In March, 1913, they retired and moved to Delano, where they now reside. Mr. Welker early became a prominent man in his township, and took part in many publie movements. He was on the town board for several terms. and president of the Lyndale Creamery Asso-
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ciation for eighteen years. He belongs to the Odd Fellows at Delano, and the G. A. R. at Maple Plain. In the days of the Grange he was a most enhusiastie worker in that cause.
January 1, 1872, Mr. Welker married Mary Alice Wright, born in Erie county, Penn., August 3, 1851, daughter of Clark A. and Myra (Woolsey) Wright. To this union have been born five children : Hittie E., Edwin A., Rolland J., Mary, and David E. Hlittie E., was born December 18, 1872, and died August 29, 1875. Edwin A. was born January 24, 1875, married Minnie Zieroth, and lives on the original farm of his grandfather, Peter Welker, the pioneer. Rolland J. was born August 24, 1877, mar- ried Mattie Low, and lives in Delano. Mary was born Deeem- ber 15, 1879, and married Edward Pickruhn, of Cokato. David was born January 5, 1883, married Clara Frank, and operates his father's farm.
Clark A. Wright was born in Unadilla, Otsego county, New York, July 6, 1827, son of Johnson and Mary (Bliss) Wright, who spent the span of their years in New York state. Johnson Wright was a farmer and tanner and also a shoe merchant. His father was Alphens Wright. Clark A. Wright was reared on the home place, became a tanner and farmer, and in due time married. Two children, Leroy Smith and Mary Alice, were born. May 3, 1857, Clark A. Wright, with his wife and two children, started for the West to establish for themselves a home in the wilderness. July 15, 1857, they reached the Crow river, three miles south of Delano, in Wright county. He chose for his loca- tion, sections 26 and 27, Franklin township, buying out the home- stead rights of Oswald Spoon, paying $300 in gold. On this place there had been built a crude log cabin. Around the eabin a small clearing had been made. With this beginning they established their home, and it was not many years before the place became one of the best farms in the vicinity. The land was cleared and broken, and from time to time suitable buildings were ereeted. He later added fifty aeres more, making 210 acres. Mr. Wright was a man of influence and served as supervisor of Franklin town- ship. He was one of the first school officers in his district and took an active part therein. In this distriet Eliza Woolsey, a sister of Mrs. Clark A. Wright, taught the first school, this being the first in Franklin township. Miss Woolsey married Fletcher W. Ingerson and now lives in Minneapolis. Mr. Wright, who was a Universalist in faith, founded the Union Sunday School and was its superintendent for many years. He was one of the charter members of the Masonic lodge at Watertown, in Carver county, this state. During all these years of activity, Mr. Wright had been studying medicine. In 1874 he went to Howard Lake and opened an office for the practice of that profession. Since 1886, when he left Howard Lake, he has made his home in several
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different places. Mr. Wright married Myra Woolsey, born Sep- tember 1, 1826, in Ohio, daughter of Joseph and Mehitable (Brown) Woolsey. Mrs. Wright died in 1896 at the age of seventy. The Woolsey family came of old New England stock, and some of the members have in their possession a mate to the wineglass deposited in the cornerstone of Trinity Church, of New York City.
William Ziebarth, a leading citizen of Franklin township, is a splendid example of the intelligent, educated type of Germans, who songht their fortunes in this new world, and have become a part of the very spirit, backbone and sinew of the nation. IIe has been active in town and county, he numbers his friends by the hundred, and his voice has ever been raised in behalf of those measures which he believed to be for the best of the com- munity. Especially in the early days, when the other settlers were of mueh less education than himself, his advice was eagerly sought, and his intelligence and common sense, tempered with a genial vein of humor, made his opinions highly valued.
William Ziebarth was born February 1, 1838, in the Province of Posen, Prussia, Germany. His father, a small farmer, gave him a high school education, and at the age of fifteen he was employed as clerk or copyist in the District Court, of Samter, Posen, for two and a quarter years. In June, 1855, his parents with their eight children started for America, and after an ocean voyage of seven weeks on the sailing vessel "Hermine" arrived in New York. From there the family moved to Chieago, Ill., where the father died, January 4, 1856. In the spring of 1856 the mother moved to Minnesota with the three smallest children-William being the oldest and now eighteen years of age-for although William was offered a good position in a Chicago bank, he thought that he had had enough of office work in the old country, and wanted to be a farmer. Minnesota in 1856 could hardly be called an agricultural country. The rail- road line nearest to Minnesota was the line from Chicago to East Dubuque. From there or from Galena, Ill., steamboats were running to St. Paul. St. Paul at that time consisted of little more than some scattering buildings on Third street. St. Anthony at the Falls had nearly as many buildings. Minne- apolis was "non est." A baker shop near the corner of Hennepin and First streets, and a well with the celebrated wooden bueket were all that marked the site. A suspension bridge, however, had been recently built. In relating his pioneer experiences. Mr. Ziebarth says: "In St. Paul we were told that this country had plenty of government land open to settlement, and so we struck out for the Big Woods, as this part of the country was then called, and settled in what is now Wright eounty. Of the privations, tribulations and hardships of the first settlers the
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present generation has no idea. While it was hard enough for a native to get a start, it was ten times worse for a 'greenhorn'- as we were generally ealled-to get along. Even the language was strange, for though I had studied Latin six years and French four years, English in those days was not taught in the German schools. I had never done a day of manual labor in my life, and so for me the pioneer experiences were still worse. For me to go ont and ent down a tree was a 'sight for the gods,' but my first entting of grass for hay will illustrate just how well I was prepared for farming. In Chicago, when getting ready to farm in Minnesota, I went to a hardware store to buy a seythe to take along. The dealer offered me two kinds, one a regular grass seythe and the other a long wide blade, intended for a grain cradle as I afterward found out. Now as the price was the same for either I took the cradle blade, thinking it would last longer. And by George, it took me all the summer of 1856 to ent, yes, I say, regularly eut, the hay for two cows, and no one was around to tell me how to do it. Our neighbors the first year were: Jaeob Dietz and wife, Christian Barth and wife and family, Martin Luther and son, Frank Meier, Mathias Schaust, Peter Christian and Fred Ziebarth, my father's brother. all single men. The first potatoes were raised from potato eyes. which we prepared in Chicago and brought up from St. Anthony on our backs. The first wheat I ent with a buteher knife in about 1858. Before that we thought that wheat could not be raised, but for that matter we had no elearing to raise it on. So far, until 1858, we had no team. There were a few teams of oxen in the township, but horses were an unknown quantity. That year a man from Minneapolis came through the country posting large signs. It was the year of the gold discovery on Pike's Peak, and the poster started in 'Why Should You Want to Go to Pike's Peak When There is Gold in Minnesota?' Then it explained about ginsing digging and selling. We were not slow in grasping the opportunity, but while we received only four cents a pound, and later in the season could not sell any at all, nevertheless, even at four cents a pound, a diligent digger could make $2 a day. This brought us money to buy a team of oxen, and I felt as proud at the head of my oxen as a great ruler at the head of a conquering army. Ginseng also furnished ns the money with which to pay for our land. In 1859 or 1860, when President James Buchanan put the land on the market at $1.25 an aere, I had learned not to buy cradle blades for grass cutting, and had also learned a few other things, so I went down to St. Paul and from a bank there bought a land warrant at $1.00 an acre and thus seeured the land. In 1861 or 1862 I was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as postmaster at Cas- sell, in section 3, Franklin township, named in honor of some
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pioneers from Hessen Cassell, who had settled in this vicinity. In 1860 I was elected town elerk of Franklin township. I also held the office of assessor in Franklin township and in Delano village in all a period of some twenty years. In 1872 and 1873 I taught publie school in our home distriet, No. 48, but if the honored and scholarly Noah Webster could have heard me pro- nounee some of the English words he would have turned around in his grave." In 1882, Mr. Ziebarth was elected county com- missioner, and held that office for six years. In 1884, while he was in office, the first iron bridges were built between Wright county and Hennepin county, and while the two Frankfort bridges with a total length of 345 feet cost $20,000, through his opposition to building the Rockford bridge at that time at any such price, the Rockford bridge in question, 300 feet in length, cost two years later just half that much. In 1885, Mr. Ziebarth took the agency for the Home Insurance Co. of New York, the St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co. and the North British and Mercantile Insurance Co. This ageney he has retained to the present time. When he took up this line of work he resigned his position as assessor, for, as he said, it was some- what contrary to his sense of fitness and too much for his sense of humor, to assess a house for $200 and then insure it for $1,200. From 1902 to 1911, a period of nine years and one month, he was manager of the Delano Creamery Association. At the age of seventy-seven Mr. Ziebarth is as young in mind and body as many men of half his years. He still works every day on the farm in sections 2 and 3, Franklin township, where he located in the fifties. In the fall of 1914 he broke up some elover soil. covering about forty acres. No stump baffled him, and he felt as he did so many years ago when he was first getting his land ready for cultivation. In addition to his many other duties. Mr. Ziebarth is justice of the peace, and also vice president of the State Bank of Delano, a safe and sound institution in which he has taken a deep interest. April 10, 1864, Mr. Ziebarth was married by Gust Burkholdt, a justice of the peace, to Sophia Boerner, and this union has been blessed with six children: William T., now a prosperous business man of Herman, Minn .; Albert W., clerk of the District Court at Chinook, Blaine county, Mont .; Sarah, wife of Joseph Rummel, of St. Paul; Alvina, wife of William Riepe, of Annandale, this county; Emil, engaged in the machinery business in Delano, Minn., and Fritz, who now lives with his father on the old farm. Mrs. Sophia (Boerner) Ziebarth died in 1894. In 1897 Mr. Ziebarth married Miene Tomnitz, nee Sabien, widow of Carl Tomnitz. Apirl 16, 1877, Mr. Ziebarth's honored mother died and is laid to rest in Frank- lin cemetery.
JAMES QUINN
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James Quinn, a substantial pioneer of Franklin township, was born in Ponghkeepsie, Dutehess county, New York, Febru- ary 28, 1834, son of John and Mary (lInghes) Quinn. The parents were born in County Down, Ireland, were there married, and with one child came to America. Only two of their chil- dren lived to adult years. They were: James and Margaret. James was reared in Poughkeepsie, and in addition to receiving a good common school edneation became an expert bookkeeper and accountant. In 1856 he eame west to Iowa, and two months later eame to Minnesota. Ile filed by mistake on a piece of land lying on the Wright and Hennepin county line. Soon afterward he came to the place where he has since resided. This place was composed of 160 aeres of wild land and no roads were near it. A squatter already claimed the traet, and Mr. Quinn paid him $100 to relinquish his alleged rights. He erected a log cabin, started to clear the land, raised crops among the stumps, and worked hard to win snecess. Sometimes he walked to St. Anthony and Minneapolis for supplies. Sometimes he borrowed oxen from his neighbor and carted lumber into Minne- apolis. Finally he borrowed enough money to buy a yoke of oxen, and with this help his circumstances improved, but it was several years before he had any ready money, When the Indians rose he enlisted in Company C, First Minnesota Mounted Rangers. After serving something more than a year on scout duty he returned home at the urgent solicitation of his parents. He put in his crops but before harvest time he enlisted in Com- pany F, Eleventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, leaving his parents in the care of two men whom he had hired. After the war he returned and resumed his work on the farm. Some years later he sold forty acres, and still later on the remaining por- tion, ereeted a frame dwelling house and from time to time suit- able barns and sheds. A progressive and useful man in every respeet, he has been chairman of the town board of supervisors, town elerk and assessor, as well as serving in minor positions. He has also been an official of the school board. For some years he was a member of the G. A. R. Mr. Quinn was married shortly after the war to Sarah Stewart, a native of Ohio, daughter of Calvin Stewart, pioneers who located in Franklin township. Mrs. Quinn died in 1901, at the age of sixty-eight. There are five children in the family: Anna Rachael, Florence, Mabel, Sherman Howard (deceased) and James Harris. The farm is now conducted by the son, James Harris Quinn.
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