USA > Minnesota > Redwood County > The history of Redwood County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 2
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Nationality. The German nationality predominates, with the Danish and the Norwegians as the next in numbers. The latest official returns are for 1910. There are eleven negroes, of whom five are black and six mulatto. There are 167 Indians. There are 5,361 native whites of native parentage. There are 9,428 of foreign and mixed parentage, of whom 5,981 are of foreign par- entage and 3,448 of mixed parentage. The foreign born whites number 3,457, or nearly nineteen per cent of the total population. The foreign born whites are divided as follows. Germany, 1,527; Denmark, 458; Norway, 449; Sweden, 268; Austria, 247; Canada (not French, mostly Scotch), 184; England, 85; Ireland, 62; Switzerland, 59; Scotland, 57; Russia, 21; Belgium, 13; Canada (French), 7; Holland, 2; other foreign countries, 14. The native whites with both parents born in the respective countries men- tioned are: Germany, 3,029; Norway, 694; Denmark, 577; Aus- tria, 363; Sweden, 307; Ireland, 178; Canada (not French), 118; England, 72; Scotland, 63; Switzerland, 62; Canada (French), 20; Russia, 14; France, 9; Wales, 7; Holland, 1; Hungary, 1; all others of foreign parentage (both parents born in countries other than above, and parents of foreign birth but of different countries), 466.
Townships. The townships of Redwood county are: Swedes Forest township 114, range 37 (fractional) ; Kintire, 113, 37; Delhi, 113, 36 (fractional, and 114, 36 fractional) ; Honner, 113, 35 (fractional), 113, 34 (fractional) ; Underwood, 112, 39; Vesta, 112, 38; Sheridan, 112, 37; Redwood Falls, 112, 36; Paxton, 112, 35; Sherman, 112, 34 (fractional) ; Westline, 111, 39; Granite Rock, 111, 38; Vail, 111, 37; New Avon, 111, 36; Three Lakes, 111, 35; Morgan, 111, 34; Gales, 110, 39; Johnsonville, 110, 38; Waterbury, 110, 37; Willow Lake, 110, 36; Sundown, 110, 35; Brookville, 110, 34; Springdale, 109, 39; North Hero, 109, 38; Lamberton, 109, 37; Charlestown, 109, 36.
Original Surveys. Brookville, Morgan, Sherman, Sundown, Three Lakes, Paxton, Honner, Charlestown, Willow Lake, New Avon, Redwood Falls and Delhi were surveyed by government officials in 1858. North Hero, Johnsonville, Vesta, Granite Rock, Lamberton, Waterbury and Vail were surveyed in 1859. Sheri- dan and Kintire were surveyed in 1864. Swedes Forest was sur- veyed in 1866. Springdale, Gales, Westline and Underwood were surveyed in 1867.
Original Timber. With the elimination of the prairie fires, the river courses have become quite heavily wooded, while groves have been planted on nearly every quarter section. Originally
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HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY
the valley of the Minnesota was timbered, as well as the valleys of the Minnesota and the Cottonwood. These trees on the Red- wood and Cottonwood gradually diminished as their sources were approached. The survey of 1858 found Charlestown plentifully supplied with timber, but further up the Cottonwood there were only isolated groups of trees with the exception of the walnut grove in Springdale.
Education. The number of school houses in use in Redwood county in 1915 and 1916 was 116, with 110 districts. There are four consolidated schools, in the villages of Wanda, Lamberton, Redwood Falls, Walnut Grove. Delhi has voted to be a consoli- dated school after Sept., 1917. School districts No. 91 and No. 41 consolidated with No. 31, now known as consolidated district No. 31 in the village of Lamberton; school district No. 93 con- solidated with No. 30, now known as consolidated district No. 30 in the village of Wanda. There are seven state graded schools, and two state high schools, the latter in Redwood Falls and Lamberton. The state graded schools are in Belview, Wabasso, Morgan, Sanborn, Walnut Grove, Delhi, and Wanda. School districts No. 109 in Morgan township, and No. 64 in Waterbury township, receive no state aid. Of the graded schools all except Wabasso, Delhi and Wanda do four years of high school work; Wanda and Wabasso do two years of high school work. The Lamberton and Redwood Falls schools have several special de- partments, including manual training, domestic art, domestic sci- ence, agricultural and commercial work. Walnut Grove, Wanda, Morgan and Belview do manual training work. Walnut Grove and Morgan do domestic science and agriculture. There were enrolled in the graded and high schools for 1915 and 1916, 2,313 pupils. There are 13 semi-graded schools in the county which means schools employing from 2 to 4 teachers. These are lo- cated in Clements, Revere, Milroy, Vesta, Seaforth, Lucan, dis- trict No. 7, New Avon township; district No. 19, North Hero township; district No. 27, Sundown township; district No. 49, Brookville township; district No. 67, Willow Lake township; district No. 70, Sheridan township, and district No. 78, Water- bury township. District No. 73, known as the Gilfillan school, will be a semi-graded school after Sept., 1917. There are 80 class A, one room rural schools and 10 class B one room rural schools. Four districts have seven months of school; none have less; all the rest have either eight or nine months. In the rural and semi-graded schools there were for 1915-1916, 3,239 pupils enrolled, making a total enrollment for that year of 5,552 pupils in the schools of the county. One hundred ninety-eight teachers were employed. The average wages for all the schools in the county, paid for men teachers was $88.75; for women, $60.09. The average number of days each pupil attended was 126.9.
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HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY
All districts loan the text books free. We find improved heat- ing and ventilating systems in every school building, except two. The highest price paid for rural school teachers in 1916 was $70 (in four schools), and the lowest price paid was $45 (in one school) ; the rest ranging from $50 to $65. There were 76 teach- ers, rural and semi-graded, in 1916, who were graduates of the Normal training department in high schools; there were seven State Normal school graduates of the advanced course, and one college graduate.
References. Vol. I, "The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota," 1872-1882.
Reports of the State and Federal Census, 1870-1910.
"Atlas of Redwood County," Webb Publishing Co., St. Paul, 1914.
CHAPTER II.
ERAS AND PERIODS.
For purposes of consistent study, the story of Redwood county has been divided into eras and periods.
I-Geologic Eras. During these Eras the world was made fit for human habitation. The study of this subject lies in the realm of the trained geologist, and will not be considered at length in this work. For the purposes of this history, however, it is necessary to study the effect that the physical conditions have had on the occupation of this region by man, the changes that mankind has wrought in the physical conditions of the county and the influence that the physical conditions of the county have had upon mankind. It must be borne in mind that the Geologic Eras have not passed, and that mankind is merely living in the latest, not the last of these Eras.
II-Prehistoric Era. During the Prehistoric Era, mankind in some form took up his habitation in Redwood county. Possi- bly this occupation took place in Interglacial times. There have been discovered no evidences of Interglacial man in Redwood county. The only pre-historic evidences left in the county are the mounds constructed by the Mound Builders, so-called. These Mound Builders are believed to have been the ancestors of the present day Indians, and differing from them in no important aspects.
III-Indian Era. The Indian Era is divided into four periods : (a) The Period of the Explorers; (b) The Period of the Agency ; (c) The Period of the Massacre; (d) The Post-Massacre and Mis- sion Period.
The Period of the Explorers. The testimony as to what
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HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY
Indians were living in Redwood county when the white explorers came to this region is somewhat vague, and the subject worthy of extended study far beyond the limits of this publication. In 1834, Pond describes the Minnesota river above Shakopee as Wapeton country. However, the Sissetons and Yanktons were not far to the westward, and the Sisseton country was not far to the southward, while Sleepy Eye's band of the Sissetons, ap- pear, for a time at least, to have ranged the region of the Cot- tonwood, and even to have located at the mouth of the Little Rock, in Nicollet county. Le Sueur, in 1700, reached the present site of Mankato. Carver, in 1766 camped not far from the pres- ent site of New Ulm, and possibly visited Redwood county. Fol- lowing him came a long list of explorers, trappers, fur traders, and missionaries. This period closed with the signing of the Indian treaties of 1851. During the period of the explorers the national and territorial sovereignty of Redwood county under- went many changes.
The Period of the Agency. In 1853, Ft. Ridgely was started, and in 1854 the Lower Sioux Agency, in what is now Sherman township, Redwood county was established. The various Sioux Indian tribes designated as the "Lower Tribes," settled about the Agency. There they lived in more or less discontent until the massacre. Many became reconciled, in a degree, to the ways of the white men, moved into log or brick houses erected by the government, and started farming under the supervision of the government farmers. The establishment of the Agency had an important economic influence on the future of Redwood county ; it kept the county from being settled before the massacre; it caused a sawmill to be built in 1855 at Redwood Falls, which was restored by the settlers in 1865 and used to finish lumber for many of the pioneer homes; it caused the military road to be built from Ft. Ridgely, via the Lower Agency to the Upper Agency, thus providing a route of travel for the pioneers who came after the massacre; it caused a considerable acreage of land to be broken, thus providing many of the pioneers after the massacre with wheat fields the first year they came, and it pro- vided many of the pioneers, after the massacre, with homes of brick and logs which the Indians had abandoned. Then too, the setting aside of the land as an Indian reservation kept it from entry by the pioneers under the homestead law, even after the Indians had departed. It was placed on sale at an appraised price in 1867, fell into the hands of speculators, and greatly re- tarded the growth of the county. In Redwood county this reser- vation embraced a strip ten miles wide, following the course of the Minnesota.
The Period of the Massacre. The Sioux Indians, suffering under the memory of many wrongs, arose on Aug. 18, 1862,
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HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY
slaughtered the whites at the Lower Agency, and spread their devastation up and down the Minnesota. During the campaign which followed, military headquarters for the punitive expedi- tion was established at Camp Pope, not far from the present vil- lage of North Redwood. For the next two years, Redwood county was deserted, except for the soldiers, scouts and trappers.
Period of the Mission. The Mission period overlaps the Agri- cultural Era. In Paxton township, just above the hill from Mor- ton, is a group of buildings, consisting of an Indian church and school, and here, in the center of a small Indian community, the descendants of the "Friendly Indians" of the massacre days, are given educational, religious and vocational instruction.
IV-The Agricultural Era. The Agricultural Era marks the time from 1864 to the present day, the era of white occupancy. This era may be divided into four periods: (a) The Pioneer Period, 1864-1872; (b) The Grasshopper Period, 1873-1877; (c) The Period of Rapid Growth, 1878-1905; and (d) The Modern Period, 1906-1916.
The Pioneer Period. Col. Sam. McPhail, an Indian fighter, erected a stockade at Redwood Falls in 1864, and attracted by the waterpower, fixed upon that location as the site of a village. A few families lived in the stockade that winter, and one fam- ily lived on the shores of Tiger lake. With the spring of 1865 settlers began to spread out along the Redwood and up and down the Minnesota. Not long afterward a settlement was made in the walnut grove, not far from the present village of that name, and along Dutch Charley creek in Lamberton and Charles- town. Gradually the settlers scattered southward on the prairie from Redwood Falls. However, the reservation was not subject to homestead entry, and vast tracts in the central part of the county were railroad, school and internal improvement lands, and were likewise not subject to entry. Thus the settlements of the county formed a shell, with unoccupied land in the center for many years. Times, however, with the exception of the year 1867, when the long cold winter, and the wet late spring caused much suffering, were prosperous until 1873. The Pioneer Period may therefore be considered as extending from 1864 to 1872. In 1872 the railroad was built through the southern part of the county.
The Grasshopper Period. In 1873 the crops were ravaged by the grasshoppers who continued their devastations until 1877. Redwood Falls was incorporated during this period, and stores established at Lamberton and Walnut Grove.
The Period of Rapid Growth. In 1878 the railroad came to Redwood Falls, and in 1884 one was built through the northern part of the county. Gradually farmers came in, and settled up the county, the population increased rapidly, more railroads were
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HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY
built in 1899 and 1902, modern inventions took the place of the crude appliances of pioneer days, and the county became one of the leading agricultural regions of the state. During this period the other villages of the county were established.
The Modern Period. The modern period begins with 1906, in which year modern ditching and tiling was extensively in- augurated, preliminary work having been done in 1905. This period, inaugurated by the wet years which caused a severe set- back to the county, has been characterized by the automobile which has made communication easier and quicker, by the ditch- ing which has drained the land to some extent, and by the mak- ing of state roads which now net-work the county in all direc- tions. It has also been characterized by the rapid rise in land values, and by the incoming of many intelligent farmers from Iowa and Illinois.
CHAPTER III.
PHYSICAL FEATURES.
Geologic Eras. During the Geologic Eras, in one of which we are still living, the earth has assumed its present physical aspect. The study of these successive changes, except those which have been brought about by the occupation of modern man, and those which are still taking place and may thus exert an influence on the economic life of mankind, is beyond the scope of this work. A consideration of the physical characteristics and geologic phe- nomena observed in this county is, however, appropriate.
Topography. The surface of the county is, with the excep- tions of the valleys of the streams, a series of broad swells. The highest portions of the adjoining undulations vary from a few . rods to a half mile or more apart; and their elevation is some- times 5 to 15 feet, and again 20 to 30 feet, or rarely more, above the depressions, to which the descent is usually by very gentle slopes. These hollows have a form that is like that of the swells inverted, being mostly wide, and either in long and often crooked courses of unequal length, variously branched and connected one with another, or in basins from one to one hundred acres or more in extent, which have no outlet but are surrounded by land 5 feet or perhaps 10, 20 or 30 feet higher upon all sides. The small swamps, which often fill the depressions, are called sloughs or marshes, the former name being the most common in this prairie region, while the latter is applied to them in wooded parts of the state.
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HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY
Many others of these depressions contain bodies of water, which vary from a few rods or a hundred feet to five or ten miles in length. All these are called lakes, and the term pond, which would be applied to them in the northeastern United States, is here restricted to reservoirs made by dams. The lakes of this and surrounding counties usually lie in shallow basins, bounded by gently ascending shores, which, however, are here and there steep to the height of 10 to 15, and rarely 20 to 25 feet. These higher banks are mostly at projecting points of the shore, and they have been formed by the undermining action of the waves. The foot of such banks is plentifully strewn with boulders that had been contained in the till, all the fine parts of which have been thus washed away. Other parts of the lake shore, adjoining tracts of lowland or marsh, are frequently bor- dered by a flattened ridge of gravel and sand, often with inter- mixed boulders, heaped up by the action of ice in winters, in its ordinary freezing, thawing, and drifting, when broken up, before the wind. These ice-formed lake-ridges rise only from three to six feet above the line of high water of the lake, and are from two or three to five or six rods wide. They occur most frequently in situations where they separate the lake from a bordering marsh, whose area evidently was at first a part of the lake.
The most notable features of the topography of this region are the valleys or channels that have been 'eroded in its broadly smoothed and approximately flat expanse by creeks and rivers. The smaller streams generally flow 15 to 30 feet below the gen- eral level, with valleys from a few rods to a quarter of a mile wide. The valley of the Redwood river is of small depth, 25 to 50 feet, along its course above Redwood Falls. At and below this town, within a distance of one mile, this river descends a hundred feet in a succession of picturesque cascades and rapids, over granite and gneiss, decomposing portions of which form towering cliffs, 100 to 150 feet high, on each side, from an eighth to a quarter of a mile apart. This gorge, extending one and a half miles before it opens into the broader bottomland of the Minnesota river, is quite unique in its grand and beautiful scen- ery, with dense woods along its bottom through which the river flows, but crowned above by the verge of prairies whose vast expanse, slightly undulating but almost level in this extensive view, stretches away farther than the eye can reach.
In Redwood county the Cottonwood river lies in a depression from a third to a half of a mile wide, composed of level alluvial bottomland, 40 feet below the average surface.
The valley of the Minnesota river on the north side of this and Brown county is from 165 to 180, and in some portions 200 feet deep, having a bottom land of alluvium 5 to 20 feet above
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HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY
low water and from three-fourths of a mile to one and a half miles wide, bordered by steep bluffs which rise to the general level of the country. Within this valley at numerous places are jutting knobs and small ridges of gneiss and granite, exposures of Cretaceous strata, and terraces of modified drift, which are described farther on in treating of geological structure. From the top of the bluffs the vast prairie stretches away beyond the horizon, having a smoothly undulating surface of till, which ap- pears to be in general approximately level, though a considerable ascent, varying in amount from 75 to 150 feet, is made imper- ceptibly in a distance of twenty to twenty-five miles southwest- ward across these counties.
Here and there this sheet of unmodified glacial drift or boul- der-clay, the direct deposit of the ice-sheet, is sprinkled with knolls, small and short ridges, or mounds, of gravel and sand, which rise sometimes by steep, but again by moderate or gentle slopes, 10 to 15 or 20 feet above the general level. The distribu- tion and origin of these kame-like deposits of modified drift are more fully noticed on a following page.
In the southwest corner of Redwood county, its even con- tour, which to this distance from the Minnesota river may be called in general a vast plain, is changed; and a gradual rise of 200 or 300 feet takes place within a distance of a few miles, along a massive terrace which extends from northwest to south- east and east-southeast. This line of highland forms the north- eastern border and first prominent ascent of the Coteau des Prairies, which farther west rises gradually and at length steeply' again, to the much higher watershed between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In southwestern Redwood county a gradual rise begins a few miles south from the Cottonwood river, and in six or eight miles southwestward to the corner of this county amounts to about 250 feet, beyond which a slower rate of ascent continues in the same direction to the belt of swelling and some- what hilly till at the northeast side of lakes Shetek and Sarah, in Murray county. On the Northwestern railroad, which makes this rise obliquely running from east to west, the ascent from Lamberton to Walnut Grove, in ten miles, is 79 feet; and in its next eight miles, to Tracy, is 180 feet.
Elevations. In the early eighties, John E. Blunt, engineer, of Winona, prepared a list of the elevations along the line of the Chicago, Northwestern Railway in this region, selections from which are here given, the miles indicated being the distance from Winona, and the feet given being the elevation above the sea level.
. ' 'Minnesota river, bridge (near New Ulm) 162.50 miles, 821 feet. Minnesota river, high water (near New Ulm) 162.50 miles, 807 feet. New Ulm, 165.31 miles, 837 feet. Siding, 169.00 miles,
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HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY
990 feet. Sleepy Eye, 179.72 miles, 1,034 feet. Redwood Falls, 205,00 miles, 1,028 feet. Springfield, 193.18 miles, 1,025 feet. San- born, 201.56 miles, 1,089 feet. Lamberton, 208.77 miles, 1,144 feet. Walnut Grove, 218.98 miles, 1,223 feet.
The elevation of the Minnesota river along the north side in this region at its ordinary stage of water, 20 to 25 feet below its high floods, is approximately as follows: At the northwest corner of Redwood county, 845 feet above the sea; below Patter- son's rapids, at the east side of Swede's Forest, 820 feet; at the mouth of the Redwood river, 810 feet; at the line between Brown and Redwood counties, 789 feet; at Ft. Ridgely, 793 feet; at New Ulm, 784 feet; at the mouth of the Big Cottonwood river, 782 feet.
The Redwood river enters Redwood county at a height of nearly 1,100 feet above the sea, and its descent in twenty-four miles to Redwood Falls is some 150 feet. Thence to its mouth, in three miles, it falls about 140 feet, the greater part of this de- scent being in less than a half mile at Redwood Falls.
At the west line of Redwood county the Cottonwood river is about 1,120 feet above the sea, and it leaves this county and enters Brown county at an elevation of about 1,030 feet. Its height at Iberia is estimated to be 900 feet, and at its mouth, as already stated, approximately 782 feet.
The highest land of Redwood county is the southwest part of Springdale, its most southwestern township, about 1,400 feet above the sea, being some 300 feet above the Cottonwood river, ten miles distance to the north, and about 600 feet above the lowest land of this county, the shore of the Minnesota river at its northeast corner. Estimates of the mean elevation of its townships are as follows: Sherman, 990 feet; Morgan, 1,030; Brookville, 1,040; Honner, 900; Paxton, 1,025; Three Lakes, 1,060; Sundown, 1,070; Delhi, 1,000; Redwood Falls, 1,050; New Avon, 1,080; Willow Lake, 1,100; Charlestown, 1,120; Swede's Forest, 940; Kintire, 1,050; Sheridan, 1,070; Vail, 1,100; Water- bury, 1,125; Lamberton, 1,140; Vesta, 1,080; Granite Rock, 1,120; Johnsonville, 1,125; North Hero, 1,175; Underwood, 1,120; West- line, 1,150; Gales, 1,175; Springdale, 1,275. The mean elevation of Redwood county, derived from these figures, is 1,090 feet above the sea.
Soil. The black soil, everywhere from one to two feet thick, and often reaching to a depth of three or four feet in the depres- sions, forms the surface, being glacial drift or till, colored by a small proportion of humic acid derived from the decaying vege- tation. This drift is principally clay, with which is an inter- mixture of sand and gravel, with occasional but not frequent boulders. The composition of this clay makes it quite unfit for brick-making, but gives it a porous character, so that rain and
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HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY
the water from snow melting are, to a certain extent, absorbed by it, excepting the large part which is drained away by the gentle slopes and the numerous water-courses, and some which stands in the swamps and lowlands. Below the soil cellars and wells find a continuation of this till, yellow in color and com- monly soft enough to be dug with a spade, to a depth of ten to twenty feet or sometimes more, and then dark bluish and usually harder to a great depth beyond, which is seldom passed through.
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