USA > Minnesota > Mower County > The history of Mower County, Minnesota : illustrated > Part 12
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On the assembling of the legislature in 1860 the interest on the state bonds having been defaulted, an amendment to the eon- stitution was adopted and submitted to the people expunging the section sanctioned and approved by them, April 15, 1858, reserv- ing only the state's rights. The electors of the state at the general election of November 6, 1860, with unanimity, by a vote of 27.023 to 733, approved of the amendment. For two years thereafter railroad matters in the state laid dormant.
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CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY.
The Minneapolis & Cedar Valley Railroad Company was char- tered March 1, 1856, with a capital stock of $3,000,000 to construct a railroad from Minneapolis to a point of junction with the Root River Valley & Southern Minnesota Railroad in Dakota county, from one to six miles from Mendota, and thenee in a sontherly direction via Faribault, through the valley of the Straight river, to the southern boundary line of the territory at the Cedar river. They were also to have the right to build at any time a line from the Mendota Junction to St. Paul; also a like road to Hastings. After the passage of the amendment to the constitution in 1858 a mortgage was executed and bonds issued and deposited with the state, for which the company received $600,000 state bonds. The company defaulted in the payments. September 1, 1859, the foreclosure was demanded. The trustees advertised and sold the property August 16, 1860, and bid it in for the state. The prop- erty, franchise, etc., were conferred March 10, 1862, upon the Minneapolis, Faribault & Cedar Valley Railroad Company. Quite an amount of grading had been done, but no track had been laid.
The Minneapolis, Faribault & Cedar Valley Railroad Company was incorporated by the legislature of Minnesota March 10, 1862. Under this name the state transferred to Alexander James, Syl- vester Smith, William H. Dike, Charles A. Wheaton, Franklin Steele, Henry Chapin, Thomas A. Harrington, Eli B. Ames, John M. Gilman, William G. LeDue and Rufus J. Baldwin all the prop- erty. franchises. etc., of the Minneapolis & Cedar Valley Company acquired by foreclosure August 16, 1860, and authorized a re- organization under the original charter. The same rights had been conferred npon Erastus Corning and associates in March, 1861, and upon N. D. Barney et al. in March, 1863, but they failed to comply with the conditions and forfeited them. By an act of the legislature which was approved February 1, 1864, the name was changed to the Minnesota Central Railway Company.
The Minnesota Central Railway Company was named in an act of the legislature, approved February 1, 1864, to take over the franchise and rights of the Minneapolis, Faribault & Cedar Vailey Railroad Company. Aets were passed at different times extend- ing the time of completion of the road. also an act anthorizing the connection with the Iowa road at the state line. The road was completed from Minneapolis via Mendota to Owatonna, a distance of seventy-one miles, in 1866, and the branch was built from Men- dota to St. Paul. September 18, 1866, the capital stock of the road was sold to the MeGregor & Western Railroad Company for $2,000,000, payable in a like amount of the latter company's
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stock. All the property except the land grant lands was con- veyed June 26, 1867. This sale was practically a consolidation. The corporate existence of the company was continued by virtue of its land stock, and no interest in its lands ever passed to the McGregor & Western Company or its successors. The company was required by the land grant to build from Austin to the state line, but had not done so when it was transferred to the McGregor company. The Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company (which later on, February 7, 1874, became the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul), after acquiring the line of the consolidated company, Angust 5, 1867, reconveyed to the Minnesota Central Company in April, 1868, that part of the line between Austin and Mona, a dis- tance of eleven miles, to enable it to earn the land grant.
As before stated, the first regular passenger train reached Le Roy from Cresco September 9, 1867. This was an important day for Mower county, and on that day, for the first time, the county had connection by rail with the Atlantic seaboard. In October. 1867, the line was completed from Owatonna to Austin, and for a short time the lines ending at Austin and Le Roy were con- nected by the stage route of Nichols & Cotter. Later in the month the line was completed from Austin to Le Roy. In the same month a through freight car passed through Austin from New York to Minneapolis, thus bridging by rail the distance from the Atlantic ocean to the head of Mississippi navigation.
Work was also pushed to the southward from Austin to the state line, and trains started running in January, 1870. April, 1870, the Milwaukee & St. Paul road took a deed to the line from Austin to Mona, paying 1,760 shares of common stock and a like amount of preferred stock. In January, 1870, the Illinois Central started running its trains from the state line south in Iowa.
November 3, 1870, the portion of the Iowa Central from the Minnesota state line to Mason City, now owned by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, was completed, and cars were put in oper- ation. In December, 1871, the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Min- nesota Railway tapped this line at Plymouth, in Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, and leased a right of way to Austin, thus practic- ally extending its line to Mower county. A year later the Central Railway of Iowa began running trains from Austin to St. Louis over the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota, via the Iowa Central.
The McGregor and Western Railway Company was organized January 19, 1863, and was authorized to construct a road from or from near MeGregor, westward and northwestward in Iowa. Later the charter was modified, allowing the company to con- struct a line from the state line to Austin, in Minnesota. In 1866 the company purchased the Minnesota Central Railway Company,
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and gave in return $2,000,000 of its bonds. The MeGregor com- pany was authorized March 7, 1867, by the Minnesota legislature, to construct a road via Austin, to Owatonna, and to exercise the franchise of the Minnesota Central Railway Company. Articles of incorporation were filed in Minnesota June 8, 1867, and later in the month a deed was taken of the Minnesota Central Com- pany, then built from Minneapolis to Owatonna. The line was immediately transferred to the Milwaukee & St. Paul Company, which February 7, 1874, became the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul. The building of the MeGregor line is recorded elsewhere in this chapter.
The Root River Valley & Southern Minnesota Railroad was chartered by the territory of Minnesota March 2, 1855. The act to incorporate was passed on the above date by the territorial legislature, and amended February 27, 1857. The charter granted the privilege of covering almost everything in the southern end of the state, provided the eastern terminus remained at Hokah, viz .: "from the village of Hokah, in the county of Houston, and terri- tory of Minnesota, westward by the most feasible and practicable route to some point between the south line of the territory and the point where the township line between 110 and 111 erosses the Minnesota river, thence west by the most direct and practi- eable route to the great bend of the Missouri river, with the priv- ilege of a branch starting from Hokah and running to the west. bank of the Mississippi, via Target Lake to Eagle Bluff in Winona county. Also the privilege of building a branch from some point on the main line east of range 12, west of the fifth principa! meridian, and westward through the counties of Mower, Free- born and Faribault, to the west line of the territory; also the privilege of constructing a ship canal from the main channel of the Mississippi river to Target Lake." May 22, 1857, the terri- tory of the road was extended, and all the land grants applicable to its route duly conferred. This was one of the original land grant roads bought in by the state of Minnesota, which later re- issued its charter and loaned the credit of the state.
The Southern Minnesota Railroad Company was the name taken by the Root River Valley and Southern Minnesota Railroad, May 23, 1857, the day after the land grant was conferred. The company executed a mortgage, issued bonds and deposited them with the state, receiving therefor $575,000 in state bonds. The company defaulted on the payments April 1, 1860, and the gov- ernor advertised and sold the property and conveyed the same to the state. The state conferred the property, ete., on divers occa- sions to various parties during the years 1861 and 1863, but they failed to comply with the conditions. The rights pertaining to the line through the southern tier of counties were conferred upon
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T. B. Stoddard and associates March 4, 1864, under the name of the Southern Minnesota Railroad Company, thus reviving the old title. The company received aid from various municipalities. The road was completed to Rushford in 1867; to Lanesboro in 1868; from Ramsey to Wells in 1869; Lanesboro to Ramsey and from Wells to Winnebago in 1870, making a total of 1671/2 miles. After various litigation the Southern Minnesota Railway Company was organized under chapter 50 of the laws of 1876.
The Southern Minnesota Railway Company was organized March 3, 1877. The Southern Minnesota Railway Extension Com- pany was also organized. January 1, 1880, the Southern Minne- sota, after receiving a deed from the Extension company, deeded its road from the Mississippi river to Sioux Falls, and the branch from Wells and Mankato, to the Milwaukee & St. Paul Company, the latter issuing bonds and taking possession of the road May 1, 1880.
The year 1887 was an eventful one for Austin. The C., M. & St. Paul moved its shops here from Wells, and also built a "Y" from Ramsey so that the trains on the old Southern Minnesota line ran into Austin, thus doing away with the old stage coach that had hitherto done duty between Austin and Ramsey. As a bonus for locating the shops here Austin gave $10,000 and ten acres of land.
CHICAGO GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD.
The Chicago Great Western Railroad Company, operating what is known as the Corn Belt Route, in 1910 succeeded the Chi- cago Great Western Railway Company, which operated what was then known as the Maple Leaf Route. The latter company was organized in Illinois January 5, 1892, to effect the reorganization of the Chicago, St. Paul and Kansas City Railway Company, which was an Iowa corporation and had absorbed the Minnesota and Northwestern. The early construction of the route in Minnesota was commenced in 1884 and completed in the summer of 1885; when one hundred and ten miles were built from Minneapolis to the Iowa state line, passing through Mower county, touching points that are now Waltham, Mayville, Austin, Varco and Lyle, and connecting at the latter place with the Illinois Central. The station at Austin was opened July 24, 1885, with O. B. Johnson as first agent. A grand excursion to St. Paul took place August 20, 1885. In the fall of the same year a junction was made with the Iowa Central Railroad at Manley Junction, Iowa. In 1887 the line from Hayfield to Dubuque, Iowa, passing through Mower county and having stations at points that are now Sargeant, Renova, Elk- ton and Taopi, was completed, as was the line from Chicago to
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South Freeport, Illinois. The next year the missing link between Dubuque and South Freeport was completed, thus completing the line from Minneapolis and St. Paul to Chicago. On August 1, 1887, the first passenger train made the run between Chicago and St. Paul in thirteen and one-half hours. This was the inaugura- tion of the fast passenger train service in the West. Under an agreement with the Wisconsin, Minnesota and Pacific Railway Company, the Chicago Great Western operates their lines of 271 miles from Mankato to Red Wing and another from Red Wing to Osage, Iowa, with branches from Winona to Simpson and from Claybank Junction to Claybank. The line from Red Wing to Osage erosses the extreme eastern portion of Mower county, pass- ing into Fillmore county and then curving baek into Mower coun- ty. In this county it has stations at Racine and LeRoy. The Wis- consin, Minnesota & Pacific Railway Company is a reorganization of one of the early Minnesota companies and was incorporated in Minnesota in April, 1894. This line was started in 1890, the company at that time being the Winona & Southwestern.
ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD.
The Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad, which is operated by the Illinois Central Railroad Company is a reorganized company hold- ing its franchises by charter granted by the state of Iowa, with the exception of the Albert Lea & Southern Railroad Company, in- corporated September 20, 1899, under the general laws of Minne- sota. This road, which extended from the lowa state line to Glenville Junetion, thus crossing Mower county from Lyle west- ward, was consolidated with the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company, July 1, 1902.
Aside from the roads mentioned scores more have at various times been projected, in which Austin people have been inter- ested. But they have not yet reached Mower county, though even to the present day there is talk of another road being put through.
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CHAPTER XII.
AGRICULTURE.
Importance of the Farming Interests of Mower County-Char- acter of the Men Who First Came Here-Failure of Wheat Crop-Development of Diversified Farming-Advantages- Mail and Trading Facilities-Nature of the Soil-Sheep and Poultry Breeding-The Pork Industry-Registered Stock Predominant-Homes of the Farmers-Agricultural Societies -Grange Movement-Stormand Flood-Insurance Companies.
Mower county is acknowledged as being among the best and most prosperous agricultural and stock raising counties in Minne- sota. Its people are wide awake and keep step with the pro- gressive march of the times in all that pertains to a civilization of happiness, industry and culture. Like all this portion of the Northwest, the agricultural history of Mower county must record some disastrous failures. The whole southern and southwestern portions of Minnesota, as well as the greater part of Iowa, have had serious disadvantages to contend with and obstacles to en- counter. The first settlers of the county were mostly farmers, and they were, with but few exceptions, poor men, as is the case in the history of every agricultural region. In fact, few had more than enough to barely get settled upon their lands; but they came with that which was in those days equal to it-training in agricultural pursuits, brawny hands that were able and not ashamed to work, and, in connection with industrious habits, the energy and determination to win success. The country was new, and there was no alternative but that success must be wrought from the soil, which was their only wealth and their only hope. And, in spite of all the obstacles and inconveniences, notwith- standing the fact that the whole aim of the farming community has changed, snecess has attended their efforts. Nor is the end yet reached, but the county has a mine of wealth yet undeveloped, which, as years roll on, will grow more and more valuable as the agricultural population become more and more able to utilize it.
Early in the development of this country wheat was the main product, and for a number of years excellent crops were raised with scarcely a failure. At the present time wheat has given up its former place to other cereals, and farmers find many other avenues in which- to devote their time and energy.
Mower county is in the most southern tier of the counties of Minnesota. Its southern boundary forms a portion of the state
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line between the great wheat state of Minnesota and the great corn state of Iowa. It lies in the grain belt and also in the corn belt. It is also the center of the great dairy belt.
Mower county occupies with but few exceptions, all of which are in northern Minnesota, the highest land in the Mississippi valley. The mean elevation above the sea is 1,300 feet, the highest point being in the central and southern portion where the eleva- tion rises to 1,360 feet. The lowest elevation of the county is 1,119 feet, which is 600 feet higher than the Union station at St. Paul. Owing to the gradual rise toward the center, Mower county has perfect drainage, it being one of the few counties of the state without a lake or large pond. Numerous small streams flow through the county, which is blessed with an abundance of good water. Beside the ereeks and rivulets, there are innumerable flow- ing springs, gushing from the earth, many flowing 300,000 gallons a day and some to exceed a million gallons in twenty-four hours.
The high altitude gives to Mower county an ideal climate. Its mean temperature for summer is 70 degrees, the same as middle Illinois, Ohio and southern Pennsylvania. The extreme heat that is felt in these states is here tempered by the breezes of the ele- vated plateau. Its higher latitude gives two hours more of sun- shine than at Cincinnati. This with an abundance of rainfall, 26.36 inches annually, on a rich soil, accounts for the rapid and vigorous growth of crops and their early maturity. There is a uniformity of temperature during the winter season in southern Minnesota, with bright sunshine, dry atmosphere, good sleighing and infrequent thaws that make life a pleasure in this bracing, healthy climate.
The soil is for the most part a deep, rich, warm loam with clay subsoil. There is but little gumbo soil in this county. Cultivation is easy and "irrigation and dry farming" that one hears so much about to-day, and which is so necessary to secure a crop on much of the new lands that are being opened up in the West, at so great an expense, are not needed here. During the past few years a number of farms have been tiled and with such marked success that within a few years most of the farms will be improved in this respect. The lay of the land is such that almost every farmer gets good drainage without difficulty. Two large factories, one manufacturing a cement tile and the other a clay tile, are located at Austin and have a tremendous total output.
Mower county has good roads and in several road districts its roads are as fine as a city's street, thanks to the efficient work of townships good road organizations and to the use of the King split-log drag.
Mower county was the first county in the United States to have a complete rural mail route system installed. This was done
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in 1904, and there is hardly a farm in the county that is above half a mile from a rural route. The entire population, aside from the county seat and the villages with postoffices, is served by this excellent system. Each route serves 110 families or an average of 600 people, and each route has an average length of twenty- seven miles. Mower county's rural routes center as follows : Aus- tin, Brownsdale, Dexter, Grand Meadow, Taopi, Rose Creek, Adams, Le Roy, Lyle, Racine, Elkton, Waltham, Sargeant.
Mower county's farms are all within easy access of a market, there not being a farm above seven miles from a village and not above a score are a greater distance from a village than six miles.
Mower county is a great corn country, raising over a million and a half bushels yearly. Mower county is one of the big barley counties of the country, raising a million bushels yearly. Mower county's oat crop exceeds 4,000,000 bushels yearly. Mower county's other big crops are wheat. 200,000 bushels, and potatoes, 400,000 bushels. Mower county also raises the finest of hay on its 73,753 acres of meadow. Mower county is annually shipping thou- sands of dollars' worth of apples from its 100,000 apple trees. Mower county's plums, picked from 20,000 trees, are of excellent quality and find a ready market. Mower county has two large nurseries, selling home-grown fruit, ornamental and shade trees, guaranteed to be true to name and to grow. Mower county has two farmers' mutual insurance companies, the Mower County Farmers' Mutual Fire and Lightning Company, carrying $5,250,- 000 of insurance, and the Austin Mutual Hail Insurance Company of Minnesota, insuring crops from loss by hail all over the state. Mower county has a splendid system of bridge building, a ma- jority of the bridges being of iron and concrete. It is the policy of the county board to replace old bridges with those of iron and conerete. Mower county's all-grain farmers have been moving to the unbroken prairies, leaving their farms here to be taken by progressive diversified farmers of the older states. Mower county is one of the great thoroughbred cattle counties of the state. Mower county farmers find a ready market for their hogs with the HIormel Packing Company, located at Austin, which has a daily capacity of turning 5,000 milk-fed hogs into the famous Dairy Brand hams and bacon. Mower county farmers find a ready market for garden truek in the city of Austin and the villages of the county.
The farms of Mower county are similar to the farms of any other county having a rich soil. It has its good farms and its poor farms. Or better stated, it has its good farmers and its poor farmers. Agriculture, like every other trade or profession, his its successes and its failures, but perhaps not as many com- plete failures ..
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The first settlers found here a rich, unbroken virgin soil, a land that had had none but nature's care from time immemorial. Century after century, year after year, the grasses grew in all their richness and the prairie flowers bloomed to waste their fra- grance on the summer air. No foot trod the unbroken stretches save that of wild beast or bird, or the red warrior. No plow- share turned the green sod, nor was it torn by the iron tooth of the harrow, from the time an almighty power had unrolled it like a carpet until 1852, when Jacob MeQuillan and party drove to this land from Ohio in wagons and nailed their coffee mill to a tree in what is now Raeine township. They turned the first sod and sowed "wheat," and wheat was the crop that the land of Mower county raised in abundance until 1878. Then came the wheat failure. For over a quarter of a century the land had let man take crop after crop of the finest cereal from her without putting anything baek, and then it protested. Then the farmers tried the next year and the next and hardly got their seed back. Then those who could afford it went further north and west where there were other virgin lands. But some were too poor to go. Some of these turned their attention to other erops and a few to stock raising. But as late as 1884 Mower county had but four ereameries. In that year came the discussion of diversified farming for Mower county, but for several years but little was done along that line. Within the last few years the dairy farmer has come upon the seene. Some came from other states and have thriven and grown prosperous on the land which the wheat farmer thought was exhausted. The county has grown prosper- ous with this change of farming and during the last few years hundreds of up-to-date farmers from Illinois, Indiana, lowa and Wisconsin have taken up their abode on Mower county farms. Here they find a rich soil from two to five feet deep, ready for them, a land covered with rich grasses and ready to yield abun- dance in oats, barley and other small grains, and producing corn that vies with that of the states above mentioned. Here they find land as rich and yielding as heavy erops as the $150 land they had left and selling at from $50 to $80 an acre, because the owners were ready to retire or desired to go to the land of a single crop, wheat. With their coming there is a great increase in the valuation of farm property, farm products and live stock.
With the coming of these farmers from the older states has come farin tiling-open ditches have been used for years but hardly a rod of tile was laid by the all-grain farmers. Now there are thousands of rods being laid each year.
There is at present a strong movement toward sugar beet cul- ture. It has been found that the warm, deep loam of Mower county permits of large development of root. Two large sugar
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beet factories, one at Waterloo, Iowa, and the other at Chaska, Minnesota, take all the crop raised.
While Mower county is not a sheep raising county, it is the breeding place of thoroughbreds which are in demand in Mon- tana, Wyoming and Idaho, to which places many find their way. Following are the leading breeds in Mower county : Merinos, Cotswold, Shropshire, Southdowns, Lincoln, Oxfords, Hampshires and Horned Dorsets.
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