USA > Minnesota > Faribault County > The history of Faribault County, Minnesota : from its first settlement to the close of the year 1879 : the story of the pioneers > Part 14
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But even this was not all. The question of disunion and its probable results, expanded into still vaster proportions.
In the slow passage of the centuries in the world's history, men had struggled with but an uncertain hope, yet slowly moving upward and onward from political oppression and despotic rule, until out of the storms and blood and sufferings of the American revolution, arose the great republic, in which was embodied and illustrated the best forms of self government, citizen sovereignty, civil and relig- ious liberty and material national prosperity, the world had yet known. And it was soon conceived at home, and realized everywhere abroad, that, bound up with the success, or failure, of disunion, were the fate of free government and popular institutions, and that the results were not a matter of awful interest to this country alone, or to this generation alone, but to all mankind and to all the genera- tions to come.
To say nothing of the motives and objects of the southern lead- ers, the rebellion itself was the most enormous political crime of all the ages.
And no grander, or holier cause-the maintenance of the Union, with all that it implied, ever sanctioned a resort to arms, or warranted men in laying down their lives in its defense, than this. In the emergency, there was nothing left but to maintain the Union, the constitution and the laws, and this and this only, was the pri- mary object of the government and loyal people. The abolition of slavery, was but an incident of the war, yet one of the grandest achievements of any age or country.
Such being the situation and such the necessity, the general government and the loyal people of the North, believing in the jus- tice of their cause, and invoking the favor of Almighty God, entered with an enthusiasm never before witnessed among the nations of the earth, upon the gigantic task of crushing the rebellion. And they crushed it.
Let us now turn to home affairs.
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THE COMMISSIONER'S COURT.
The County Commissioners assembled on New Year's day and elected J. H. Dunham, chairman, when after a few hour's work, they adjourned, in view of the fact, it is to be presumed, that it was a holiday. They had sessions again on the 20th day of February, March 20th, June 24th and September 3d. The action of the board, during the whole year, was singularly devoid of historic interest.
THE LAW MAKERS.
The third State Legislature assembled at the Capital. January 8th, and held a session of sixty days. Only two aets were passed at this session of special interest to the people of this county. One of which was an act fixing the time of holding the term of the District Court, setting the same for "the first Wednesday after the first Tuesday of April in each year." The other and much more im. portant one, was an act relating to the county seat of this county. approved March first, which enacted "That the county seat of the county of Fairbault be and the same is hereby removed from the town of Blue Earth City, its present location, to the incorporated town of Winnebago City, in said county" and that "This act shall not take effect until the same has been adopted by the electors of said county." It is hardly necessary to say that this latter act created quite a commotion in the south half of the county, the results of which we shall see hereafter. Our members' of the legis- lature at this session, were Guy K. Cleveland, in the Senate, and A. Strecker, in the House.
THE LAND OFFICE.
About the first of February great expectations existed that the United States Land Office, then located at Chatfield, Fillmore county, would soon be removed further west, and that Blue Earth City would be the lucky point of location. In fact all arrangements had been definitely made, and nothing remained to do, but to wait the event, now supposed to be near at hand. But alas!
The best laid schemes o' mice and men Gang off a-gloy, An' lea'e us nought but grief and pain, For promis'd joy .- Burns.
The project failed to the great disappointment of the people of Blue Earth City. Yet the county secured the office. In October of this year, it was removed to Winnebago City, and was opened for business about the 4th day of November. For a number of years previous, it was currently understood that the office should soon have to be brought further west, and both of the villages in this county made great exertions to secure it, with finally the above re-
ISAAC BOTSFORD. The First Editor.
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FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
sult. It was in those days a boon worth contending for. It was a great accession to the business of the town where located, as per- sons taking up lands over a very large territory, attended at the office, to enter or prove up their lands, who expended more or less money, during their stay. It stimulated enterprise and improvement at home, and gave the town where located, a name and prestige, which attracted immigration and capital from abroad.
It was an auspicious event for Winnebago City and a great con- venience and advantage to the people of the whole county. One of the citizens of the county, Mr. J. H. Welch, of Verona, was ap- pointed register and Mr. H. W. Holley, who thereafter became a permanent resident of the county, was appointed receiver.
THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
The meeting of the Agricultural Society was held at Blue Earth City, April 3d. As an indication of the scarcity of money at the time, it may be stated that at this meeting a motion was made, that county orders be received and paid by the society, as money, but the motion was lost. At this time the officers of the society were J. A. Latimar, president; J. H. Welch, secretary and H. T. Stoddard, treasurer. The fair was appointed to be held at Blue Earth City on the 2d and 3d of October, but was adjourned to the 9th. It was a failure. Rain fell most of the day. There were but ninety-eight entries.
THE COURT.
The District Court held its regular annual session April 3d. Hon. Lewis Branson presiding. The term lasted but one day. There was no business for the grand jury, and but one case for the petit jury. This speaks well for the people.
THE FIRST NEWSPAPER.
One of the most important events which had yet occurred in the county, happened on the 6th day of April of this year. This was the appearance of the first newspaper published in the county. On that day the first number of the Blue Earth City News was issued. It was a small, six column, four page sheet and bore the motto, . "Devoted to the interests of the people of Faribault County." It was to be issued on Saturday of each week. The typographical and general appearance of the paper was very good and gave general satisfaction. Isaac Botsford was the editor and proprietor as ap- pears from the first numbers of the paper, but Frank A. Blackmer was also interested in the paper and assisted in the publication. The subscription price was one dollar and fifty cents per annum, paya- ble in advance. The editor states that he will receive in payment for subscriptions anything that grows that he can use. or anything that is made except counterfeit money. The first number was well
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filled with advertisements of merchants, hotels, professional cards and notices. The subscription list was not a very long one. To en- courage the project quite a number of the leading men of Blue Earth City took as many as fifteen copies each and paid for them. The- editors salutatory was very lengthy and probably the most compre- hensive and exhaustive one ever written. It set forth in fair and frank language the editor's understanding of his duties and the diffi- culties of publishing a newspaper in the "back counties." The salutatory was entitled "Our Bow." We make the following extracts:
"A time honored custom compels us in this, the Initial number of the Blue Earth City News, to give the public an inkling of our principles and purposes. It is natural and right that a community should know something of the charac- ter of a paper just springing into life in their midst. When money is scaree as it is at the present time, every prudent man will look twice at his money before parting with it, and more especially will he do so if he knows nothing of the character or quality of the article he is purchasing and, therefore, it is but just to ourselves and the public from whom we expect to receive our support, that we should state distinctly at the outset what we intend to uphold and what we Intend to condemn."
"We shall have but very little to do with politics."
"But we do not propose to publish a neutral paper by any means, neither on this subject, nor any other. We shall feel at liberty to speak, write and pub- lish just what we please on all subjects."
"Our sympathies are with the republican party. * * Con- sequently none will be surprised to learn that we intend to publish a republican paper."
"We are, of course, opposed to slavery intoto and can never give our sanction to the further spread of the accursed evil."
"Our great alm shall be to publish a good country paper."
"An experience in newspaper publishing of two years has taught us the les- son that no man without the fortune of a Rothschild, can afford to publish a paper in any other manner than by requiring pay in advance."
Mr. Botsford did not fail in his aim of publishing "a good county paper." The News was always a clean, truthful and relia- ble sheet. Many larger and more pretentious papers have been published since, but there has never been, to this day, a better local paper published in this county than the Blue Earth City News. A copy of the first volume of the News is in the hands of the writer, and is the only one known to be now in existence in this county. It ·was kindly presented to the writer by John A. Dean, Esq., on condi- tion that it should be bound and preserved, which has been done.
The spring of this year was rather late. Heavy rains and high waters prevailed. Spring plowing, of which there was more in those days, in proportion to the acreage than there is now. com- menced about the 13th of April, and most of the seeding was done after the 20th of the month.
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FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
TRAPPING.
During the early years of the county a considerable trade was carried on in furs and peltries, which proved a great benefit to the people, in view of the low price of farm products and the great dis- tance of markets. Furs always brought cash, at some price, and were always ready sale. In the News we find a statement that dur- ing the winter and spring of 1860-61, "one merchant had purchased 5,000 muskrats, 300 minks, 100 foxes, 40 coons, 14 otters, 11 wolves, 5 badgers and 4 beavers at a cost of about $1,200. Other merchants also dealt in furs to a considerable extent, and there were many traveling buyers in the county. The News further says that "com- petent judges assure us that not less than $3,800 has been paid to citizens of this county during the past winter for this one commodity."
For some years quite a number of our citizens would engage every fall and winter in the business of trapping for furs. Usually two persons would go into partnership and fit out with numerous traps, several guns, ammunition, a small sheet iron stove, a few tin dishes, blankets for bedding, flour or meal, salt pork, tobacco, pipes and some other useful articles, and having sought out some suitable place on the prairies, on the margin of a slough, or on the borders of a lake, sometimes on the banks of a stream, or in the timber, they would erect a small shanty, eight or ten feet square and about six feet high, as their dwelling; these hovels were sometimes built of boards, but more frequently they were "dug-outs," that is, holes dug into the sides of a bank, and covered over with poles, grass and sods. Here some months would be spent in the interesting business of trapping, varied occasionally by a visit to the settle- ments for supplies. It was rather a hard, greasy and somewhat odoriferous life, but it had its attractions; it possessed a dash of romance and adventure, and usually paid well. The earnings averaged all the way from one hundred dollars to six hundred dol- lars a season, and the business covered a part of the year when little else could be done.
Many a slough with its village of muskrat houses, in the years past, yielded a more valuable crop and a good deal more amusement than some of the grain fields.
HUNTING.
In the first years of the county large game such as elk, deer, bears, wolves, foxes, coon and the smaller kinds also, were quite plenty. The buffalo had ceased to roam over these prairies, but a short time previous to the first settlement one of their herding or stamping grounds was yet, at the time of the first settlement, to be seen near the head waters of the west branch of the Blue Earth
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River. One of the first settlers of the county, soon after his arri- val here, discovered a buffalo following up his cattle when they came home one evening-a lone fellow that had strayed from his native herd.
The deer, elk and bear disappeared soon after the first settle- ment, but occasionally for some years after, they would be seen. Wolves and foxes, however, continued quite numerous down to the time of the close of this volume, and the former have been very de- structive to the sheep. A bounty of three dollars by the State, and three dollars by the county, was given for wolf scalps, in the later years, and many a man made good wages in catching them at odd times. One person received as much as fifty-six dollars for a day's work of this kind. Rabbits and feathered game have been plenty at all times, and hunting in the proper seasons is indulged in by many. We have always had sportsmen of considerable skill, who look upon hunting with gun and dog and the other accoutrements of the chase, as the best of recreations and who take a special pride in their achievements and boast of their deeds, as all hunters have done. from Nimrod to this day. Not only our own sportsmen engage in hunting, but of late years persons from the large cities and even from distant States come into the county during August and Sep- tember, sometimes bringing their families with them, and spend a couple of months in hunting, especially during the "chicken season" and find a period of enjoyment and recuperation better than the limited, expensive and formal watering places where fashion, frivol- ity and display hold their revels. These visitors usually hire their board and lodging at some comfortable farm house for a few weeks of quiet country life amid the pure airs of heaven, and luxuriate in the fresh rural scenes and glories of nature, or sometimes they take up their abode in the villages and spend the long summer days on the wide prairies with dog and gun. Frequently a company is formed, who take with them several tents, cooking utensils, and some bedding with all the necessary hunting equipments, and camp out, on the borders of some lake or stream for two or three weeks. during the "chicken season." There are State laws regulating the taking of the various kinds of game, but while they are well known, they are, unfortunately, not closely observed.
A year's round of hunting sports may be said to begin in the winter, with wolves, foxes, rabbits, etc. Then early in the spring come swarms of wild geese, ducks and brants about the streams and lakes, and cranes in great flocks in the fields everywhere. After a month or two, these take their leave, then through June and July we have the plovers, snipe, curlews, woodcock and wild pigeons. In August, begins the prairie chicken shooting, lasting over a month.
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Then in September and October again come the brants, ducks. geese and cranes, and quail, ruffled grouse or pheasants, and par- tridges. Where can a pleasanter or more heathful sport be found than in hunting over the fields and about the lakes and streams, in the hazy, balmy, Indian summer days ? As the winter closes in, soon after the first of November, and our cranes, ducks and geese leave again, the deer hunting practically begins. In the counties in Iowa, adjoining this on the south, numerous deer are taken every winter, and it is about the beginning of winter that our hunters fit out for these expeditions to the deer grounds, in the more northern and less settled portions of the State, where several months are spent profitably, as well as pleasantly.
But we should not forget the dogs, which do much of the hard work of all this sport, and manifest such an intelligent appreciation of it too. The hunter and his dog are inseparable companions. The trained dogs used in this country are pointers and setters, not those which are facetiously said to point for a bone and then "set" behind the stove and gnaw it, but dogs which possess a faculty for hunting and are specially trained for the business. The setters are trained as retrievers and will readily enter the water and bring out the dead game. Pointers will also retrieve, but are not so well adapted to this work. The intelligence sometimes exhibited by these dogs, in the execution of this work, is astonishing, and this fact, with the great use they are in the field, accounts for the great prices often paid for them. They are usually valued at from ten dollars to twenty-five dollars, but often sell for fifty to seventy-five dollars, and there is one instance in which the price paid for an extra dog was the sum of five hundred dollars !
But the great hunting season of this section of country, is the chicken season, when the game sought is prairie chickens, grouse and smaller birds. This season commences about the middle of August. The young chickens are then well grown and excellent eating. The hunters go out some times alone, but oftener in pairs, with their dogs. Frequently three or four men, with as many ladies, for they often take part in the sport, start out in an easy riding con- veyance, in the bright summer morning, supplied with guns and. ammunition, a couple of dogs and a well filled basket of provisions, for a day's hunt on the prairies. The excitement of the hunt is agreeable. The keen scent and intelligent working of the dogs, the starting of the covies, the skillful shooting of the game and the gath- ering up of the spoils of the chase, the counting and bragging and bluster, are all interesting.
But there is something more-that which gives tone and zest to all this-the bright skies, the fragrance laden breezes, the far reach- ing undulating prairies, carpeted with green grasses and innumerable
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wild flowers of every hue, the landscape dotted over with verdant groves, where nestle the quiet farm houses, the exhilirating air, fill- ing the soul with the beauty, variety and enchantment of the scene, the hearty dinner in the edge of some shady grove, during a couple of hour's nooning, the joke and song, the hap and mishap, the re turn to the field until nightfall, and then the brisk ride home, all unite to make up a day of pure enjoyment, long to be remembered. "Let others kneel at Pleasure's shrine, And boast the raptures of a 'spree'; But, ah! a hunter's joy be mine,- A hunter's merry life for me."-Holley.
FISHING.
But say the Izaak Waltons. what about fishing? It is not every- one who cares to travel the prairies for game. Some of us like better the pleasure of practicing the angler's art. All of the streams and lakes, of which there are many in the county. are stocked with fish. The pike, pickerel, red horse, bass, sunfish, bullheads, perch, muskalonge, catfish, chubbs, suckers, and some other varieties. in all sizes, from twenty five pounds weight to the tiny minnow. are found in our waters. The State fish commissioner has also placed in some of our lakes the salmon, white fish and some other varieties.
Seining is not permitted by law, but the hook and line. the spear and trolling hook are. The spring fishing is best about the time when the high waters of the spring freshet begin to go down, the high waters having enabled the larger fish to come up the streams. It is then the fisherman with the hook and line, or spear, cau get his string of fish in a very short time, and in this sport men and women, boys and girls, in small parties and large parties, with jolly laugh and joke, engage with great pleasure, ignoring all the old rules of fishing, about noise and telling fibs.
Boat fishing either in the day time or at night with torches, is often embarked in and is an agreeable recreation. But it is not only in the spring and summer that fish are caught. They may be taken at all times, but certain seasons are better for this sport than others and the sport is more followed during these times. Probably the larger quantities of fish are taken in the winter. It has long been a custom with many to visit the lakes in the winter, when they are frozen over, when large quantities are caught, cleaned and salted down in barrels for the year's use. In such cases one method is to cut a hole in the ice, build a small house over it, so that it shall be dark inside, and then by various methods entice the fish to the hole, when they are taken with spear and hook. In the spring. also, when the ice on the waters begins to melt around the edges, the fish collect in great numbers about the outlets and inlets of the lakes and are easily taken in great quantities.
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FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
In all this, is briefly indicated how many a pleasant day or ex- pedition of a week, is enjoyed and made profitable in fishing. But this does not suffice. The true angler does not want wagon loads of fish, he despises the spear, he hates noise and bustle. These things are too coarse for his placid philosophic mind. The true disciple of old Izaak Walton, pensive, kindly old Izaak, with his“pla- cid and benevolent countenance, joined to gentle and unaffected man- ners," loves the poetry of fishing best. Full of quiet geneality and all the humanities, he is a lover of the pastoral life. He seeks the shady nooks along the still waters where he enjoys his quiet fancies, or serenely philosophises, while he watches his "sink and bobber," patiently waiting for a "bite." There is a fascination in the prac- tice of the piscatorial art, which cultured men of all professions ac- knowledge and love to enjoy. Yes, for the race of true anglers, which we are happy to say is not yet extinct, we have many a seclu- ded crystal stream and silvery lakelet, along whose quiet shady banks the angler may wander through the long summer day and fish and dream his fancies to his heart's content. And now, not to discourage, but to amuse, this article is closed with the following valuable table prepared by the Detroit Free Press, showing what chance a professional man has of catching anything, when he "goes a angling."
Doctors.
7 in 50
Merchants. 13 in 50
Lawyers
3 in 50
Professors.
1 in 50
Editors
10 in 50
Small boy with old
Artists
. 2 in 50
straw hat and broken
Architects
12 in 50
suspender 49 in 50
Bookkeepers.
8 in 50
TREASON! TREASON!
We have now reached in the order of time, the great event of 1861, in fact one of the most stupendous events in the history of the nation-the beginning of the Great Rebellion. The long con- test of words, the threats, the excited passions now broke forth in an overt act of treason on the part of the southern people.
On the 12th day of April, Fort Sumpter was attacked by the confederates and taken. The first blow was struck, and each side -the government and the rebels-both before hesitating to begin, now hastened preparations for the conflict. The States of the South one after another were seceding from the Union, and the rebels were continuing their work of taking possession of the forts, arsenals and navy yards in those States. The President issued a proclamation, calling for seventy five thousand volunteers to de- fend the Capital.
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The Governor of the State, Hon. Alex. Ramsey, issued a proc- lamation to the people of the State to organize volunteer military companies, arm and drill, so as to be prepared for any emergency. Great excitement'existed throughout the State and the whole North. The gallant Minnesota First was soon organized and ready to go to the front. Everywhere throughout the State, war meetings were held and companies formed. Our county was not asleep or behind while these great events were taking place.
On the evening of the 30th of April a large and enthusiastic meeting was held at Winnebago City. Eloquent and patriotic speeches were made by Geo. II. Goodnow, A. C. Dunn, G. K. Cleve- land and others. The Governor's proclamation was read and avolun- teer company organized. A number of resolutions were adopted with great enthusiasm the first and second of which read as follows:
"Resolred, That, the citizens of Faribault county are in favor of the Union, the Constitution and the enforcement of the laws.
" Resolred, That in this hour of peril to our glorious government, we tender to Abraham Lincoln, President of these United States, "Our lives, fortunes and sacred honor," to aid him in punishing rebels and traitors for assaulting the flag of our fathers.
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