The history of Mower County, Minnesota : illustrated, Part 19

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co.
Number of Pages: 1246

USA > Minnesota > Mower County > The history of Mower County, Minnesota : illustrated > Part 19

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spirit of the deep. Into the soil she scattered with a prodigal hand the seed of a thousand flowers and grasses that the land might flow with milk and honey. After they who spied out the land had returned with the grapes of Eschol, others came to this goodly land. The pioneer followed the trail of the trapper. The lowing of the kine was heard where the wolf's long howl had echoed down the flights of years. The preacher came to plant the cross where the Indian had pitched his wigwam. The teacher came and the schoolhouse was set like a lamp upon a hill. The railroad supplanted the trail itself and the electric spark told that Austin was born on the spot where Chauncey Leverich stood when he declared to his trappers fifty-three years ago, "Here will I build a city."

That was over half a century ago. The old ford is no more. The rapids above it are harnessed and the wheels they turn grind the grain that grows where the hunter lay in wait for the buffalo and deer. The trapper comes no more to the stream, for he has passed on with the Indian, the mink and the otter. The terri- torial trail has become a legend with which the old settlers love to beguile an hour with the newcomer. Its windings were long ago made straight, and brick paving covers the soil once trod by trooper and emigrant. Automobiles rush along the city streets where the covered wagon caravan creaked over the prairie trail. The cottonwoods are no more. They were patricians in those days but plebeians in this. The places they occupied are now filled with graceful elms. fragrant catalpa and handsome maples, spirea how their wreaths in the boulevards over a car- pet of deepest green. The sky line, once formed by the trees of the virgin forest, is now marked by the spires and crosses of a half a seore of churches and by the smokestacks of factories and the roofs of happy homes .- John H. Skinner.

Leverich bought ont Austin Nichols and settled on the original village of Austin, Davidson's, Berry's, Brown's and Parker's and a forty of railroad additions; D. J. Tubbs built a saw mill for Leverich; Robert Dobbins settled on the Balcom quarter; Benedict J. Brown on Yates & Lewis' and Brown's additions. In September, C. H. Huntington, A. S. Lott, Calvin Powers and Moses Rolfe took claims east of the Cedar in the southern part of the town, and D. L. Chandler began the Cedar City settlement. The Averys, father and two sons, settled the Strever farm and other land near. David L. and Willard Smith came in October, 1854. Francis Stuhfell and Winfield Lovel, or Loveland, a blacksmith, came later, perhaps early in 1855. The first made shingles and for a time ran a saloon; the last loved fast horses and, so the old settlers allege, made counterfeit money. Game was abundant and a principal means of subsistence. In 1855

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George and Oliver Bemis, shoemakers; J. B. Yates, V. P. Lewis, Sylvester Smith, Levi Watrous, Abe Haling, A. B. Vaughn, G. W. Mason, Black Hayes and Wild Cat Brown and others were added to the city population. There settled in the town Robert Autis, on section 10; Alexander Nigus, on the Ellis farm; Reuben Wat- rous, Widow Lockwood, George and Thomas Phelps, Clem Smith, Daniel McPherson and M. J. Woodson. In 1856 there came early J. H. McKinley, and built the first hotel, which he sold to Sol Snow and G. E. Wilbour, arriving later, and Charles Ferris, carpenter ; R. L. and W. S. Kimball, hardware; four attorneys, Ormanzo Allen, Aaron S. Everest, D. B. Johnson, Jr., and G. M. Cameron; three doctors, Orlenzer Allen, H. L. Coon and J. N. Wheat, and G. B. Hayes, Hanchett and Sprague, merchants; J. L. Davidson, John F. Cook, Luther S. Morgan, James C. Aek- ley and L. N. Griffith, town proprietors; Rev. Stephen Cook, Albert Galloway, S. W. Rice, Samuel Little, H. M. Allen and J. M. Berry, afterwards judge of the supreme court. That year there settled in the township, among others, Jacob S. Decker, W. A. Woodson, John Chandler, H. Van Winkle. John Watkins, Caleb Stock, Alfred Cressey, Thomas Bonnallie, John Rose, H. E. Case, Thomas Varco, H. G. Prouty and Wel- come Osborne.

In the fall of 1855, Leverich, with the services of A. B. Vaughn as surveyor, staked out a village, including the village of Austin and Davidson's addition, but did not properly survey and record the same. Yates and Lewis had bought the S34 of B. J. Brown's claim, NE14 of 3, and tried in vain to have Lever- ich make the principal street on the quarter line of three, now West Main street. Leverich platted the sides of his lots clear up to the line. Yates and Lewis, with Moses Armstrong as sur- veyor, laid out their addition and Brown's, but in the evening, learning of the movements of Vaughn and Mason, platted Austin, consisting of blocks 1 to 6 in their addition, so as to be entirely surrounded by their future addition and coming only within a block of West Main street. Vaughn and Mason had bought in with Leverich, and in his absence learned of Armstrong's sur- vey, completed their survey of the fall before and late in the evening, April 16, 1856, crossed the Cedar in a boat and started on foot for Frankford, the county seat, to file their plat. Yates, Lewis and Armstrong drew their plat, mounted horses, tried at various points to ford the swollen Cedar, gave it up, the night being very dark, staid all night at John Pettibone's in Lansing, crossed in his boat in the morning, swimming their horses behind, and passed Mason and Vaughn about four miles this side of Frankford. They found the justice absent, sent for Felch, pro- bate judge, and acknowledged and filed their plat. Vaughn and

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Mason arrived half an hour late, altered their plat by dropping the forty that became Davidson's addition, and christened the other forty "Village of Austin," and filed two hours later.

Leverich's saw mill was the first business established. A. B. Vaughn and son, P. D., opened the first store in the spring of 1855, and sold out to Aloysius Brown in 1856. Yates & Lewis opened the second store; Sprague & Hanchett and the Kimballs opened stores soon after.

The growth of the town was from the mill westward on Water street and the street south. Yates and Lewis moved the few buildings erected in their town to the village. The inerease in numbers was less in 1857 than in 1856. J. S. Lacy built the sec- ond hotel pretty well out of town, where the Fleck House stands. In 1858 was the first period of railroad construction. What is now the Milwaukee line from Minneapolis south was surveyed in 1857, and in 1858 graded for half the distance, not continu- ously, but in patches. Bank notes secured by bonds issued by the state for each ten miles of this grading, furnished circulating medium till they collapsed in the spring of 1859. The crops succumbed to the high water in the summer of 1858. A. Brown distributed the supply of flour and meal that kept the inhabitants alive. Most of it was drawn from Chatfield and Decorah, Iowa. The state of the roads was such that it often required many days to make the journey. When it was noised that teams were gone for a new supply, sacks and cash were deposited to make sure of a portion. The demand sometimes exceeded the supply, so that but ten or fifteen pounds could be allowed to a family. Gold would not buy more and everyone received in proportion to their family. Township and village together in 1860, 462; in 1865, 760; in 1870, 2,632, township being 592 and the village 2,040; in 1875, the village had 2,601; in 1880, 2,305; in 1885, 2,505; in 1890, 3,901 ; in 1895, 5,087; in 1900, 5,471; in 1905, 6,489 ; in 1910, 6,960.

LETTER FROM A. R. NICHOLS

In 1906, John H. Skinner wrote to A. R. Nichols, the first white settler on the present site of Austin, and asked his help in aseertaining certain facts. At that time Mr. Nichols was living at Nichols, Minn., of which he had previous to his resignation been postmaster for twenty years. In reply, Mr. Nichols gave the following interesting information: "I was born in the town of Hopkinton. St. Lawrence county, June 13, 1814. In 1817 T was taken to Livingston county, in the same state, and in 1818 went by sleigh through Canada to Detroit, Mich., which at that time contained a complement of United States soldiers quar-

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tered in the historic fort, and a few French settlers along the river. In the fall of that year we went back to Michigan and settled at the lakes on the Huron river. In 1841 we "set sail" in a prairie schooner for the West, crossing the Mississippi on Christmas day, 1841. Then I went to the lead mines in Galena, Ill., and worked five or six years, then came back to Iowa and spent a winter at Cedar Lake, hunting buffalo. The following summer I went to Cedar river at St. Ansgar. That summer the state line was located. That fall, 1852, and again the following fall, 1853, I hunted along the Cedar river, and possibly the first fall got as far north as Austin. When I reached Mower county in the late fall of 1853, there were only three settlers in this part of the county : Mr. Woodbury and his son-in-law, Mr. Pinkerton, at Woodbury creek, north of the Iowa state line, and O. P. Clark, in a shack to the north of what is now Austin. June 8, 1854, I drove the first elaim stake in Austin, and a short time afterward, O. P. Clark brought his family and several head of cattle to his claim, which was above mine. The next settlers were Robert Dobbin, Miller Clayton and Mr. Pinkham. I sold to Mr. Leverich. Then I left Austin and went to Blue Earth river in Faribault county and settled down to farming until after the close of the war. I then sold out and went to Minneapolis, stayed there sev- eral years, and then came to Mille Lacs lake, where I am at the present time."

PLATTING THE VILLAGE

In the fall of 1855, Chauncey Leverich and A. B. Vaughan staked out a village on the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 3, but did not properly survey and record the same. On April 16, 1856, J. B. Yates and V. P. Lewis procured the services of M. K. Armstrong, county surveyor, and com- menced to plat a village on the northwest quarter of section 3. The survey was not completed until late that evening. Vaughan & Mason (the latter having bought an interest in the plat) saw Yates and Lewis at work. Their suspicions were at once aroused, and thinking to checkmate them they also effected a regular sur- vey of the lands which they had staked off the previous autumn, and late in the evening Mason and Vaughan (Leverich being absent) crossed the Cedar river in a boat and started on foot to Frankford, the county seat, to file their plat ahead of Yates and Lewis. But the latter party, being fully equal to such an emer- gency, mounted their horses and rode up the river several miles, trying at various points to ford the swollen stream and get to the county seat in advance of them. The night being very dark, they finally stayed all night at John Pettibone's, in the township

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of Lansing. In the morning Mr. Pettibone took them across the river in his boat, while they swam their horses behind. When they came within about four miles of Frankford they overtook Mason and Vaughan, who had started the night before on foot, and had spent the night upon the prairie, and when first seen were hurrying along at a rapid gait for the county seat, in order to have their plat placed on file first. Neither party had had their papers acknowledged by a justice of the peace, as was required by law, and when Yates and Lewis, who arrived at Frankford first, found that the justice of the peace was not at home, they sent for Judge C. J. Feleh to come and aeknowledge their papers that they might place them on record at once.

Vaughan and Mason arrived a half hour later, but were too late, as Yates and Lewis had filed a plat of "Austin." Two or three hours later Mason and Vaughan filed their plat as the "Village of Austin."

Recorded Plats-The following describes the filing of each plat in what now comprises Austin: Austin, Yates & Lewis, filed April 17, 1856; M. K. Armstrong, surveyor. Village of Austin, April 17, 1856; A. B. Vaughan, surveyor; proprietors, Washing- ton Mason, Chauncey Leverich, A. B. Vaughan. Bolcom's Addi- tion, August 25, 1856; N. F. Hilbret, surveyor. John M. Berry's Addition, October 7, 1856; D. B. Johnson and A. W. Billings, surveyors. Davidson & Morgan's Addition, March 17, 1857; D. B. Johnson, surveyor. Brown's Addition, August 6, 1857; Charles E. Carter, surveyor. Yates & Lewis' Addition, August 3, 1857; Daniel B. Johnson, surveyor. Parker & Brown's Addition, August 19, 1867; C. J. Shortt, surveyor. Railroad Addition, January 1, 1868; James A. Case and A. B. Rodgers, surveyors. Palmer's Addition, December 22, 1869; James A. Case, surveyor. Yates' Addition to Austin, December 17, 1872; George W. Clough, surveyor. Fay R. Smith's Addition, November 1, 1883; E. B. Crane, surveyor. Galloway's First Addition, April 8, 1872; Galloway's Second Addition, May 5, 1887; Galloway's Third Addition, May 16, 1887; Lewis Park Addition, July 4, 1887; Slaven's Addition. July 2, 1887; Duggan's Addition, December 31, 1887; outlots, section 10, November 21, 1887; Lake Park Ad- dition, December 9, 1887; outlots, section 2, December 7, 1888; Oak Park addition, August 1, 1890; Ranney's Addition, June 6, 1891; West Park Addition, September 5, 1891; Woodlawn Park Addition, May 7, 1892; Hayes' Addition; May 31, 1892; outlots, section 11, June 13, 1893; outlots, section 26, June 13, 1893; out- lots, section 2. June 13, 1893; Elmwood Addition, August 9, 1893; outlots, section 11, August 2, 1894; outlots, section 2, Au- gust 10, 1895; Galloway's Addition to West Park Addition, Oc- tober 4, 1893; Varco's Addition to Austin, December 4, 1895;

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outlots, section 9, December 31, 1895; outlots, section 2, April 22, 1896; outlots, section 2, May 18, 1896; irregular survey, in sec- tion 4, December 31, 1896; outlot, section 2, May 21, 1898 ; Jacob's Addition to Austin, June 24, 1899.

MURDER OF CHAUNCEY LEVERICH

In August, 1856, Chauncey Leverich, one of the first settlers of Austin, came to an untimely death at the hands of a crowd of drunken roughs. The affair has been generally believed to have happened in about the following manner: It took place at a saloon where the new Elk hotel now stands. The parties committing the crime were intoxicated and making loud noises and acting very boisterous about Mr. Leverich's place, and he finally put them out of doors and they began pounding the side of the building, whereupon Leverich went out determined to drive them away, but in the engagement he was struck by a bar of some kind, which fractured his skull. Ile lived about a week and was buried upon the corner of the same lot upon which his building stood. The parties charged with the crime of killing him were Horace Silver and William Oliver, who were tried for assault and battery, and fined respectively $20 and $10. Upon learning of Mr. Leverich's serious injury they both left the place.

S. D. Mead, a stepson of Horace Silver, one of the men who was convicted of the assault on Leverich, has the following to say of this tragie incident : "I was not in the saloon at the time of the affair which cost Leverich his life and my people their home, but I have my information from Autis, who was there and saw the trouble, as well as from my own people. This saloon row occurred, as most such affairs do, when the whiskey was flowing freely. Now this was a friendly gathering. Silver and Leverich were the best of friends, as were Oliver and Leverich. But this was the grand opening night of the saloon and free whiskey flowed plentifully. The crowd grew merry and was having all kinds of fun, but the fun, as is usual in such cases, soon turned into a row, which ended in a general fight, during which no one seemed to know or care who was hit or what they hit with. The consequence was that in the general melee Leverich received a blow which laid him out. I heard the trial of Silver and Oliver before Justice Smith, but there was no evidence pro- duced to show who struck the blow or with what it was struck. My father always said he had no enmity against Leverich and always mentioned that he did not strike the fatal blow. Ile always said that the first he knew that Leverich was hurt he heard someone cry out in the crowd: 'For God's sake, stop the

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row; Leverich is killed.' This was the story he still held to on his deathbed. After the trial he said that if Minnesota were a state and had state laws he would stay in Austin and stand trial. But it was a territory and he was told that he better get away or he might be lynched. So he and Oliver left on foot. My step-father walked all the way to Michigan, where his brother lived, and we neither saw nor heard from him for two years.

"After he had gone my mother was nearly insane with grief and anxiety. I worked and cared for mother and four children for nearly two years. I then disposed of our cattle and personal property and went back to Michigan. Our home in Austin was taken from us on an execution for a debt of $15. Father then took his family and was a good father and husband as long as he lived. The loss of everything he owned, however, broke him all up and he was never the same man after the unfortunate affair took place. He died in Michigan in 1874 and my mother lived until 1886."

Samuel Rice is an early settler whose veracity is absolutely relied upon. His story differs decidedly from the other versions of the affair, is as follows: "In the summer of 1856 Chauncey Leverich built a store on the southeast corner of Bridge and Chatham streets, where subsequently stood the buildings until recently owned by D. B. Smith, which, after his death, were sold. Hle planned to open a saloon on the north side of the store and a grocery department on the south side. Samuel Rice had hauled the first load of groceries from Wabash, arriving the very eve- ning of the murder. On the way to Anstin the rear spring of his democrat wagon broke, so he removed it, and arriving at his destination left the spring outside of the building by the door- way. The store was unfinished. A carpenter bench stood in the center of the floor and rubbish lay about the place, which as yet had not been opened for business. Leverich had suggested that he and Mr. Rice go to a dance at Ed Merry's when the inci- dent occurred which resulted instead in the death of Leverich. Horace Silver and William Oliver were lounging about. Lev- erich, smoking a cigar, seated himself on the carpenter bench near Silver, who carelessly picked up a chisel laying on the bench and deliberately knocked the cigar from Leverich's mouth, who exclaimed, 'Quit that!' bent down, picked up the cigar from the floor and resumed smoking. Silver knocked it out of his mouth a second time, at which Leverich became angry and swore that if he did it again he would liek him. Leverich put the cigar in his mouth again and Silver deliberately, when the opportunity presented itself, tapped the cigar with the tool again, sending it to the floor. Leverich swore violently, jumped up and struck Silver a blow which sent him staggering against the wall.

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Oliver then stepped forward and taking hold of Leverich by the arm, said, 'Hold on, Chauncey; you are too hasty.' Leverich swung around, saying, 'You take it up, will you, - you,' and struck him a hard blow. Silver and Oliver went out of the store by the front door. A few minutes later they told Leverich to come out and they would fix him. It was a very dark night. One of them picked up the spring with the heavy wood piece attached, laying near the door, and when Leverich came out threw it at him, point first. The wood hit him over the eyes and crushed his skull. He fell, uneonscious. Bystanders in the building lifted him up, carried him in and laid his senseless body on the buffalo robe spread on the carpenter bench. Dr. O. Allen was called, and under his direction Leverieh was taken home.

"He died in about three days. In the meantime Oliver and Silver were arrested, arraigned before Justice Sylvester Smith, and fined $15 and $20, respectively. After the death of Leverich and before papers charging them with murder could be served, they escaped. Silver returned to town secretly some years later to settle his affairs. The body of Leverich was buried under the baek window of his store. His wife moved to the rooms npstairs and for years the kitchen slops were thrown on his grave. Later it was disinterred by his heirs and moved away. Leverich was an extensive land owner and a prosperous, progressive man. He owned several sections of land and also eity property, besides other interests. His wife, according to well authenticated reports, was deliberately robbed by several men of the town. The various pieces of land were auctioned off for but a fraction of their real value. Although Chauncey Leverieh was a man of rough exterior, he was at heart good, and his progressive spirit might have done mueh for the growing town."

IMPORTANT EVENTS

The following accounts of important events of the early days are worthy of preservation in this work, as they recall pictures of life in the sixties and seventies, long since forgotten by all except the oldest inhabitants.

January 2 the Lake building, after having twice caught fire the previous day, was entirely consumed before help could be obtained to extinguish it. In the lower room was the store of Mr. Keeny. The most of his goods were saved. Upstairs was the photograph gallery of A. B. Davidson and the drug store of Morse, Daily & Co. All the stock of both firms was entirely consumed. The insurance on the gallery was $150; on the drug store, $400.

January 27, 1865, a schoolhouse situated a few miles south of

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Austin, on Rose creek, was consumed by fire. The building was a small log structure. During the afternoon of the same day some timbers remaining from the fire were carried from the spot to Mr. Ames' house, near by, for fuel and placed in the woodshed, with the result that some smouldering embers caused the house to burn down. 4

On May 3, 1865, the residence of Jacob S. Decker, about two miles east of Austin, was destroyed by fire, together with nearly all its contents. The loss reached $1,000; insurance, $300. The fire originated in the roof.

On June 10, 1863, it is said by the Courier: "Horse thieves are getting very numerous in this section of the country and that portion of Iowa bordering on Fillmore, Mower and Free- born counties in partienlar. We have had calls during the past week from no less than seven persons on the lookout for horses stolen. Three horses were stolen on Wednesday evening last from C. H. Owen and Daniel Ames, residents of Lyle township. They will get $100 for the recovery of the horses and the thieves, or $25 apiece for each horse or thief."

October 20, 1868, the Democrat said: "The Austin Academy and Commercial Institute, for ladies and gentlemen, will open without fail on Monday, October 26, 1868, in the third story of Hunt & Basford's brick block, corner of Main and Bridge streets, with J. H. Johnson as principal."

Austin's Disastrous Fire. March 3, 1869, Austin was visited by its first big fire. There was a strong wind blowing from the north at the time and the thermometer stood 15 to 18 degrees below zero, which tended to prevent the citizens from collecting as soon as would otherwise have been the case. However, quite a number were promptly on the ground, but the fire had got under such headway that it was found impossible to extinguish it with the facilities at hand. In three hours from the time the fire was first discovered four two-story brick buildings on the east side of Main street were burned to the ground, nothing being left but the demolished walls. The fire was first discovered in the dry goods store of Case & Shepley, the north building of the four. the direction from which the, wind was blowing. How the fire originated was a mystery, but it was supposed it caught from the stove. Within a short time a crowd of three or four hundred persons were on the ground and it was decided as impossible to save the brick buildings, so the first thing to be done was to save the contents as far as possible and to prevent the fire from spreading. The major part of the dry goods and groceries of Messrs. Solner & Morgan were saved, and a few things from the second story over Paddock Bros.' store. Nearly all the contents

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of the First National Bank building, consisting of the fixtures belonging to the bank and to the law and land office of Page & Wheeler were saved. The contents of the postoffice and Griffith's book store, also a portion of the dry goods and groceries of Austin & Richardson, and the liquors from the billiard saloon of W. Simpson were removed. The small frame building belong- ing to J. F. Atherton, and occupied by him as a grocery store, standing next door north of the row of brick buildings was promptly torn down and removed. Soon the fire reached the corner building and it was found necessary to tear away the small frame building occupied as a meat market to prevent the spread of the fire to the east along Bridge street. This was promptly done and the fire was confined to the brick structures. At the time the entire loss was estimated at from $40,000 to $50,000.

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The history of Mower County, Minnesota : illustrated, Part 19

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co. Number of Pages: 1246

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co.
Number of Pages: 1246