The Kahbakong Cemetery Association was organized in 1853. The first

board of officers were W. H. C. Folsom, president; Joshua L. Taylor,

secretary. The cemetery is located a mile and a half from the village

and contains fifteen acres of ground beautifully located.

Zion Lodge, No. 55, A. F. &. A. M., was organized March 3, 1866.

Sherman Post, No. 6, G. A. R., was organized in July, 1882, Caspar

Hauser, commander. Taylor's Falls Library Association was organized

Oct. 8, 1871, E. D. Whiting, president; J. A. McGowan, secretary.

Within two years the library numbered 1,000 volumes and since that

time the number has been increased to 1,500.

In 1858 the village of Taylor's Falls was regularly incorporated with

the following board of officers: Trustees, Patrick Fox, president; W.

H. C. Folsom, E. D. Whiting, L. W. Folsom; recorder, H. H. Newbury;

treasurer, Wm. Comer.

AN INDIAN DANCE.

The last Indian dance in Taylor's Falls was given by a party of

Chippewas in 1856. They had come down the St. Croix in birch canoes

with furs and cranberries to exchange with Samuels in St. Croix

village for "scootawabo," or whisky. They remained about a week,

drinking and carousing in their peculiar style. One Sabbath, and when,

for a wonder, they were quite sober, they visited Taylor's Falls and

gave a series of grotesque and laughable dances in the street,

opposite Folsom's store, after which they called for presents as

tokens of friendship and appreciation, kindly and gravely shook hands

and recrossed the river.

"Thus departed Hiawatha."

CHAPTER XIII.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

JESSE TAYLOR, the first permanent settler of Taylor's Falls, came to

the Falls in 1838, as narrated in the general history of the village.

Nothing is known of his life before coming to the Falls, except that

he was originally from Kentucky, and lived at Fort Snelling, where he

was employed as a stonemason. By the death of his associate, B. F.

Baker, he came into possession of the mill property and its

belongings. This he sold to Joshua L. Taylor in 1846, and removed to

Stillwater, where he took a contract for stone work on the prison

walls. His name appears as a member of the house from Stillwater in

the territorial legislature for 1851 and 1852. He was married in 1844

to Abigail, daughter of widow Edwards, of Stillwater. He left

Stillwater in 1853.

JOSHUA L. TAYLOR was born in Sanbornton, New Hampshire, in 1816. In

1836 he removed to Alton, Illinois, where he lived until 1840, when he

came to Taylor's Falls in the employ of the St. Croix Falls Lumber

Company. In 1846 he purchased the property of Jesse Taylor. He engaged

in logging until 1849, meanwhile pre-empting portions of the site of

Taylor's Falls. In the fall of 1849 he went to California, and was

fairly successful in his mining ventures. He returned to Taylor's

Falls in 1852, where he has since resided. He was married in October,

1856, at Skowhegan, Maine, to Clarinda Wyman. Mrs. Taylor died May 4,

1860, leaving no children. Mr. Taylor built a fine residence in 1856,

on block 1, River street, Taylor's Falls, commanding a beautiful view

of the river. Mrs. Gilmore, a sister of Mr. Taylor, and her daughter

Mary, lived with him many years. Mrs. Gilmore died in 1868. Mary

Gilmore was married to D. G. Sampson in 1881 and now lives in Ashland.

Mr. Taylor had many opportunities of entering public life, but, with a

solitary exception, declined them. At the organization of the

territory of Minnesota, in 1849, he was appointed United States

marshal, but declined. He was afterward appointed warden of the

penitentiary at Stillwater, and served two years.

NATHAN C. D. TAYLOR, elder brother of Joshua, was born in Sanbornton,

New Hampshire, in 1810; removed to Alton, Illinois, in 1832 and was

for several years in the employ of Godfrey, Gilman & Co., merchants of

Alton. Mr. Taylor came to St. Croix Falls in 1846. He was one of the

original pre-emptors of the site of Taylor's Falls. In 1852 he engaged

with Patrick Fox in the mercantile business. They carried on an

extensive trade in goods and logs until 1858. The firm of Taylor & Fox

erected a good store building on lot 16, block 15. He was a member of

the house in the fifth and seventh territorial legislatures, and

speaker of the fifth. In 1866 he was elected county treasurer of

Chisago county, and thereafter to the same office continuously for ten

years. Mr. Taylor never married. He died at Taylor's Falls, March 20,

1887.

THOMAS F. MORTON was born in South Carolina. He came to St. Croix

Falls in 1840. In 1850 he settled on a farm adjoining Taylor's Falls,

known as the Jerry Ross claim. He pre-empted the southwest quarter of

section 25. In 1852 he was married to Mrs. Margaret Boyce, his second

wife, mother of Silas Boyce, of Amador. He followed farming

successfully a few years, and in 1862 enlisted in his country's

service, as a private in Company C, Seventh Minnesota Volunteer

Infantry, and along with his friends Colby and Guard did noble

service, participating in several battles, in one of which, the battle

of Nashville, he was wounded by the bursting of a shell. He remained

with the regiment, however, until, disabled by his wound and by

sickness at the siege of Spanish Fort, he was compelled to return

home. He never recovered his health, but in 1867 peacefully passed

away. He was a good man, a brave soldier, and an exemplary Christian.

HENRY N. SETZER.--Mr. Setzer is a descendant of a North German family.

He was born in Montgomery county, Missouri, Oct. 6, 1825, and received

his education at home, which he left at the age of fourteen years,

and afterward at St. Charles College, Missouri. In 1843 Mr. Setzer

came to the St. Croix valley, where he engaged in lumbering for

himself and others, and devoted some time to public affairs. From 1843

to 1854 he resided alternately at Stillwater, Marine, Taylor's Falls

and Chengwatana. Mr. Setzer represented the Fourth district, including

Marine, Rush Lake, Rice River and Snake River precincts, in the house

of the first territorial legislature, and the First district,

including the counties of Washington, Itasca, Chisago, Superior and

Doty, in the council of the seventh and eighth territorial

legislatures. He was a member of the Democratic wing of the

constitutional convention in 1857. In 1857 he was appointed warden of

the state prison at Stillwater, which position he held until 1860,

when he was appointed register of the land office at Cambridge, Isanti

county. He held this position until April,1861. Having devoted his

leisure time to the study of law, and having been admitted to practice

in the supreme court of Minnesota, he concluded to devote himself

entirely to practice. He established a law office in Taylor's Falls

with L. K. Stannard. He removed to Superior City in 1869, to Duluth in

1874, and returned to Taylor's Falls in 1877. He has served as town

and county attorney in Chisago county for many years, and has an

extensive practice in the higher courts.

PATRICK FOX was born in Tipperary county, Ireland, in 1819; came with

his parents to America in 1823, and to Davenport, Iowa, in 1836. In

1841 he came to St. Croix Falls, where he lived three years, moving

thence to Stillwater, where he engaged in logging until 1851, when he

removed to Taylor's Falls and engaged in lumbering for a year, then

entered into a mercantile partnership with N. C. D. Taylor. The firm

closed business in 1858. Mr. Fox has been a public spirited citizen,

contributing freely of his means for the improvement of the village,

aiding in opening roads, building levees and bridges, and school

houses, before such enterprises could be paid for out of tax revenues.

Mr. Fox represented Chisago county in the second legislature, 1860.

Mr. Fox is a good neighbor, industrious and temperate. He was married

at Davenport, Iowa, to Elisabeth Riley. They have three sons and two

daughters. The eldest daughter is the wife of Clarence Peaslee; the

second daughter became the wife of Winfield P. Larcy, of Dakota, in

1886.

W. F. COLBY was born in Whitefield, Maine, June 12, 1818. In his early

life he was a sailor. He came to St. Croix Falls in 1843. He was

married to Salina De Attly in 1849, and removed to the west side of

the river, where he located on the Otis farm which he had previously

bought. He followed lumbering and farming and kept a lodging house for

travelers. He built a good house, and the first frame barn in Chisago

county. He sold his property, consisting of one hundred and sixty

acres and improvements, for $8,000. In 1862 Mr. Colby enlisted in

Company C, Seventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and served until the

close of the war as sergeant. Mr. Colby is a bluff, square, outspoken

man, hearty in his manner, and somewhat sailor-like in his expressions

though almost a lifetime has passed since he trod the deck of a

vessel.

OSCAR ROOS was born in West Gothland, Sweden, in 1827. He came to

America in 1850, and located in Taylor's Falls, where he has since

resided continuously, taking an active part in public affairs, and a

deep interest in everything pertaining to the growth of the village

and county. Mr. Roos was postmaster at Taylor's Falls 8 years,

register of deeds 8 years, register of the land office 5 years, and

county treasurer 8 years. He is engaged in exchange, loaning money,

etc., and has a branch office in Centre City. He was married to Hannah

Swanstrom in 1870.

SAMUEL THOMSON, a Pennsylvanian by birth, came to Taylor's Falls in

1851, and in company with Ansel Smith built the Chisago House, a

notable enterprise at that time, as neither the resources of the

village or surrounding country had been developed in such a way as to

give any assurance of success. Mr. Thomson removed in 1854 to Polk

county; and settled on a farm in Osceola, where he made himself an

attractive and pleasant home. His farm has long been celebrated for

its trout pond. Mr. Thomson has given much attention and been quite

successful in fish culture. The farm was sold in 1885, and Mr.

Thompson removed to Arkansas, where he died Nov. 5, 1886.

SUSAN THOMSON, sister of Samuel Thomson, taught the first school in

Taylor's Falls, in 1852. She had just come from Pennsylvania, and had

traveled on horseback from Stillwater, there being no carriage roads

above Marine. She was married to Daniel Mears, of Osceola, in 1852.

GEORGE DE ATTLY, a native of Virginia, came to St. Croix Falls with

his family in 1847, and removed to Taylor's Falls in 1851, locating in

section 25, and making a pre-emption. He was a carpenter. He raised a

large and respected family. One son is in the Black Hills, Dakota

Territory. His oldest daughter is the wife of Wm. F. Colby, of

Taylor's Falls. His second daughter was the widow of Jacob Markley.

His third daughter is the wife of Alvah Brown. One son, George,

resides in Taylor's Falls. Mr. De Attly died in Nebraska.

JACOB MARKLEY came from Virginia to the St. Croix valley in 1847,

settling first at St. Croix Falls, and in 1851 locating at Taylor's

Falls, where he pre-empted the northeast quarter of the northeast

quarter of section 24. He went to Montana in 1869, where he died a

tragic death. His widow and two children reside in the Black Hills,

Dakota.

JOHN DOBNEY was born in England in 1820; came to America when a child,

to Stillwater in 1845, and to Taylor's Falls in 1852. He followed

logging for many years, and made himself a permanent home on a farm in

Amador, on the banks of the St. Croix river, in 1858. He was married

to Eveline Page, in Michigan, in 1859.

WILLIAM DOBNEY, younger brother of John, came to Taylor's Falls from

Michigan in 1852, and engaged, with characteristic energy, in

lumbering and selling goods until his death, which was the result of

an accident, he having been thrown violently from a wagon which he was

driving, in the spring of 1871. He was married in 1855 to Fanny M.

Gray, who with two children survives him. The oldest, a son, is

married and resides in Minneapolis. The daughter is the wife of Dr.

Greely Murdock, of Taylor's Falls.

HENRY H. NEWBURY came to St. Croix Falls in 1849, and to Taylor's

Falls in 1852. Mr. Newbury is a practical surveyor and explorer. He

served as county surveyor and commissioner many years. He was married

first to Sarah Ayers, widow of E. R. St. Clair, who died in 1874. In

1880 he was married to Fanny M. Gray, widow of Wm. Dobney.

EMIL MUNCH was born in Prussia in 1831; came to America in 1849, and

to Taylor's Falls in 1852, where, until 1857, he worked at the

carpenter's trade, when he removed to Chengwatana, Pine county, and

engaged in lumbering and dealing in pine lands. He served as register

of deeds in Pine county, and represented Washington, Chisago, Pine and

Kanabec counties in the house of the third legislature in 1861. He

enlisted at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, Oct. 16, 1861, as a private in

the First Minnesota Battery, and was chosen captain on the following

month; was wounded at Shiloh, April 5, 1862; returned to his battery

in September of the same year, took part in the battle of Corinth,

October 4th and 5th, and in the after campaign was appointed chief of

artillery, in October, 1862, and from effects of exposure on the march

was forced to resign in the December following, but again entered the

service to fight the Sioux Indians on the Minnesota frontier in May,

June and July, 1863. He entered the Veteran Reserve Corps in August,

1863. At the close of the war, in 1865, he settled in St. Paul and

acted as deputy state treasurer. In 1868 he was elected state

treasurer and held the office until 1872. Mr. Munch lost most of his

property in a long litigation, in consequence of some unfortunate

ventures in buying pine lands. Subsequent to his term of office as

state treasurer he removed to Lakeland and engaged in the lumber

business. In 1875 he removed to Afton where he took charge of a

flouring mill. He was married in 1865 to Bertha Segar. He died Aug.

30, 1887.

ALVIN MASON WILMARTH.--Mr. Wilmarth came from Massachusetts to the

valley of the St. Croix in 1849, and to Taylor's Falls in 1852. He has

followed lumbering and farming. Mr. Wilmarth is a steady, temperate

man.

LUCIUS KINGSBURY STANNARD was born in Franklin county, Vermont, July

6, 1825. He had good educational advantages and improved them. He

completed his literary course at Barkersfield Academic Institute,

Vermont, afterward studied law at St. Albans, and was admitted to the

bar in 1850. In 1852 he came West and located at Taylor's Falls, where

for some years he had charge of the business of Taylor & Fox. In 1857

he was a member of the territorial legislature, representing in the

house the counties of Washington, Itasca, Chisago, Superior, and Doty.

He was a member of the Republican wing of the constitutional

convention of 1857. He represented Chisago, Pine and Isanti counties

in the state senate of 1859-60. He was a member of the house of the

thirteenth legislature, 1871, representing Washington, Chisago, Pine

and Kanabec counties. He held the position of receiver in the United

States land office at Taylor's Falls from 1861 to 1870. He was the

first lawyer admitted to practice in the courts of Chisago county. He

was associated in his law practice for several years with H. N.

Setzer. He has served as prosecuting attorney and probate judge. He

served several years as county surveyor. He has, in later years, been

engaged in the lumbering and mercantile business, in the firm of

Ellison & Stannard. In October, 1884, he was appointed register in the

land office, which position he now holds. Mr. Stannard has a very

pleasant home within the village limits, but some distance beyond the

settled portion. He is a man of sound judgment, of grave and almost

severe demeanor, outspoken and positive in his views, but withal a

reliable citizen and kind neighbor. He was married in 1858 to Harriet

Stevenson, in St. Louis. They have one son, Luke.

JAMES W. MULLEN was born in Nova Scotia in 1830. He came to Davenport,

Iowa, in 1843. He commenced life on a steamboat at the age of fourteen

years. He was employed on the steamer Boreas, plying between St. Louis

and Keokuk, and followed river life most of the time until 1878. In

1885 he built the Vincent House, St. Croix. Taylor's Falls has been

his home at different times since his marriage in 1854. He was married

to Margaret Riley, of Davenport, Iowa. Their children are William,

Edward and Elsa.

DAVID CANEDAY was born in Vermont in 1830, and settled in Taylor's

Falls in 1853. Mr. Caneday has devoted much of his time to prospecting

as a mineralogist. During the years 1861-62 he edited the _St. Croix

Monitor_, and from 1881-84 the _St. Croix Dalles_. In 1862 he enlisted

in Company C., Seventh Minnesota Infantry, and served till the close

of the war. His record as a soldier was good. After the battle of

Tupelo he volunteered to remain with the wounded, of whom there were

about sixty, in the hands of the enemy. Two of these wounded were

comrades and friends in Company C., Andrew J. Colby and John S.

Swenson. The former died. Mr. Caneday remained at great personal risk,

and saw the inside of several prisons before being exchanged. After

his return Mr. Caneday engaged in mining and prospecting, except such

time as he edited the _St. Croix Dalles_. He is now mining on Kettle

river, in Pine county, Minnesota, and in Burnett county, Wisconsin. He

was married in 1865 to Laura, daughter of Judge N. M. Humphrey.

GEORGE B. FOLSOM was born in St. Johns, New Brunswick, April 9, 1815.

He was married to Deborah Sawyer, October, 1842, and came to Taylor's

Falls in 1853, where he engaged in lumbering. In 1855 he removed to

Rush Seba, locating in section 14. He was the first settler in the

town and raised the first crops; built the first log and the first

frame house, and was prominent in advancing the educational and other

interests of the town. He was appointed postmaster in 1856, and held

the office fourteen years. He held the office of county commissioner

ten years. In 1875 he was appointed receiver of the land office at

Taylor's Falls, which office he held for ten years, since which time

he has resided in the village.

AARON M. CHASE was born in Machias, Maine, April 7, 1813. He received

a home and common school education. In the fall of 1848 he came to St.

Anthony and engaged in lumbering. He and Sumner Farnham ran the first

logs down the Mississippi from Rabbit river to Fort Ripley and St.

Anthony, in 1849. In the spring of 1849, in company with Pat Morin, he

built a tow boat, clearing for that purpose a tow path on the eastern

side of the river a distance of eighty miles. He carried freight for

the American Fur Company, but the introduction of steamboats put an

end to this enterprise. In the fall of 1849 he went to St. Louis and

remained there till August, 1850, when he returned North, locating at

the outlet of Balsam lake, Polk county, Wisconsin, where he built a

saw mill. He built a dam and mill, bringing the materials together

without other team than himself and five men. After completing the

mill he engaged for some years in lumbering. He located at Taylor's

Falls in 1853. In 1869 he supervised the building of a series of dams

on streams tributary to the Upper St. Croix, the water collected by

them to be used at low stages to float logs to the St. Croix and down

that stream to Stillwater. These dams are operated under a charter

from the state of Wisconsin, and have proved a great benefit to the

lumbermen. Mr. Chase is president of the company. He is a man of

strong, clear mind, deliberate in action, positive in his opinions and

pointed in his expressions, and withal a kind hearted, generous and

true man. Mr. Chase is unmarried.

PETER ABEAR was born in Canada East in 1830; came to Stillwater in

1850, but subsequently removed to Taylor's Falls where, in 1855, he

was married to Kitty Wickland, who died in 1860, leaving a son,

Franklin E., merchant at Anoka. Mr. Abear married again. His second

wife died in 1868, leaving a daughter, Mary. Mr. Abear married a third

wife, who died in 1874, leaving no children. Mr. Abear is a machinist

but has given much of his attention to farming.

LEVI W. FOLSOM was born in Tamworth, Carroll county, New Hampshire,

Sept. 25, 1821. He was fitted for college at Gilmanton, entered Penn

College at Gettsyburg, Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1848. Returning

to New England, he studied law at Cornish, Maine, with Caleb R. Ayer,

and was admitted to practice in the county of Carroll, New Hampshire.

He came to Taylor's Falls in 1854, and was admitted to practice in the

supreme court of Minnesota, and practiced law for a period of fifteen

years, when he engaged in real estate and other business. He is a

pleasant and agreeable speaker, stands high in the masonic fraternity,

is an ardent and uncompromising Democrat, a positive man with strong

home and social feelings. He has been vice president of the Taylor's

Falls branch of the St. Paul & Duluth railroad since its organization.

He was married in 1859 to Abbie Shaw, in St. Paul.

EDDINGTON KNOWLES was born in Kentucky in 1821; came to St. Croix

Falls in 1844, and followed lumbering. He was married to Ann Carroll

at Taylor's Falls in 1854, and made his residence at Taylor's Falls.

He enlisted for service during the Rebellion in the Third Minnesota

Volunteers, but was discharged for disability before the close of the

war. He died at Hayward, Wisconsin, in 1883, leaving a widow and three

children. His oldest daughter is the wife of Douglas Greely, of

Stillwater. His body was brought to the Taylor's Falls cemetery for

interment.

DR. LUCIUS B. SMITH.--Dr. Smith was the first regular physician in

Taylor's Falls, having located here in 1854. He was born in Berlin,

Erie county, Ohio, in the year 1824. He was married in 1849, and after

some years' practice of medicine in his native town he came West and

located in Taylor's Falls, where he resided until 1862, when he was

appointed surgeon of the Seventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, in

which regiment were many of his friends and associates. He performed

well his duties in that position, but was killed on the day preceding

the battle of Tupelo, the division to which he belonged having been

ambuscaded by Forrest's troops. His remains were carried to the field

of Tupelo and there buried, but have since been removed to Kahbakong

cemetery, at Taylor's Falls. Dr. Smith was a tall man, of fine

presence, with the air of an officer, for which reason, doubtless,

some sharpshooter singled him out for destruction. Dr. Smith left a

widow, one son, Charles, and one daughter, Mary, the wife of J. W.

Passmore. His widow was married to E. D. Whiting. Both are deceased.

WILLIAM COMER was born in Cheshire county, England, in 1812; was

married to Elisabeth Davis; came to America in 1846 and located in St.

Louis, where he remained until 1852, when he removed to Pike county,

Illinois. In 1854 he removed to St. Croix Falls and in 1855 to

Taylor's Falls, where he has since resided. He has been treasurer of

Chisago county two terms, and four years register of the United States

land office. For a number of years he has held the position of town

and bridge treasurer. He and his two sons, George and William, are

engaged in the mercantile business. His daughter, Eleanor, is the wife

of Benj. Thaxter, of Minneapolis.

DR. ERASTUS D. WHITING.--The Whiting family, consisting of three

brothers, Erastus D., Selah and Charles B., came to Taylor's Falls in

1855, and for many years were prominent merchants and business men in

the village. Erastus D. Whiting was born in Vernon Centre,

Massachusetts, in 1811. He was educated in the common schools and at

Westfield Academy. At the age of sixteen he commenced reading medicine

and graduated at the Ohio Medical College in 1832. He practiced three

years in Ashtabula, Ohio, and twenty years in Pike county, Illinois.

When he came to Taylor's Falls he retired from practice and engaged in

the mercantile and lumbering business until 1867. During this time he

served in two sessions of the Minnesota legislature as representative,

1860-61. In 1869 he visited Europe. He died in Taylor's Falls in 1880.

He was twice married; first in 1837, to Emily Bradley, who died in

1866; and second in ----, to Mrs. Smith (widow of Dr. L. B. Smith),

who died in 1872.

SELAH WHITING was born in Connecticut; came West to Pike county,

Illinois, in 1836, and to Taylor's Falls in 1855. He engaged in the

mercantile business. His wife died in 1867. He died in 1868.

CHARLES B. WHITING was born in Litchfield county, Connecticut; came to

Pike county, Illinois, in 1836, and to Taylor's Falls in 1855. He was

associated with his brothers in the mercantile business. He was

register of the land office four years and served as United States

marshal during the war. His first wife died in Taylor's Falls. He was

married to Flavilla Blanding in 18--. Mr. Whiting died in 1873.

FREDERIC TANG was born in Prussia in 1819. He learned the trade of

house carpenter and served in the Prussian Army one year. He was

married in Germany, in 1850; came to America in 1852 and to Taylor's

Falls in 1856. He served three years in Company C, Seventh Minnesota,

during the Rebellion. One son, Frederic, resides at Taylor's Falls,

engaged in lumbering. His oldest daughter, Pena, is the wife of Ernest

Leske, of Taylor's Falls. His second daughter, Bertha, is the wife of

David Bowsher, of Dakota. Mr. Tang died in November, 1887.

WARD W. FOLSOM was born in 1822, in Tamworth, New Hampshire; was

married to Matilda Stedman in 1844; came to Taylor's Falls in 1856,

where he kept a boarding house for several years. He died at his home,

Sept. 28, 1884. His eldest son, Charles W., was editor of the Taylor's

Falls _Reporter_ for several years. He was married to Luella Gray in

1865. He died in 1872. Edward H., his second son, for some years has

edited the Taylor's Falls _Journal_. He started and conducted for some

years the Stillwater _Lumberman_. He was married to Susie Way, in

September, 1868.

GEORGE W. SEYMOUR was born in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, in

1828, and came to Taylor's Falls in 1857, where he has since resided,

following the occupation of druggist, but occasionally holding a town

office. Mr. Seymour held the positions of postmaster and justice of

the peace for several years, and has been secretary of the Taylor's

Falls & Lake Superior railroad since its organization. Mr. Seymour is

an active member of the masonic fraternity, an ardent Democrat and

thoroughly trustworthy and reliable as a man and friend. He is

unmarried.

JAMES A. WOOLLEY, a native of England, came to Taylor's Falls in 1857.

He was an engineer and in my employ as engineer and foreman in the

pinery for fourteen years, during which period our association was

quite intimate, and I learned to know him and esteem him as a true

friend, and faithful to all his obligations as a man. He was a true

Christian and died in full hope of immortality. He promised, when he

knew himself to be dying, to return to earth and revisit me if

possible, but so far has not returned. He died in 1874. His family

removed to Dakota. His oldest son, John Alley, was killed in

Washington Territory by a premature explosion of a blast in a mine, by

which nineteen others were killed at the same time. Alida married

William McKenzie and resides at Grand Forks, Dakota. Frank W. F., the

youngest son, also lives in Dakota.

PATRICK CARROLL, was of Irish birth. His wife is a sister of Patrick

Fox. He is about ninety years of age. They have had two sons, Joseph

and one drowned, and three daughters, one the wife of E. Knowles,

deceased, the other two becoming respectively the first and second

wife of John O'Brien. Mr. O'Brien has two daughters, Minnie and

Lizzie, and three sons, William, Joseph and Daniel.

JOSEPH CARROLL was born at Davenport, Iowa, in 1840; came to St. Croix

when a boy, early in the 50's, and worked for his uncle, Patrick Fox,

in the pinery; was married to Mary Cotter at Davenport, Iowa, in 1858.

He resided at Taylor's Falls until 1861, when he enlisted in a Kansas

regiment. He was severely wounded at Springfield, Missouri. He was

subsequently transferred to a heavy artillery company of colored

troops from Tennessee, and commissioned a lieutenant. He was at Fort

Pillow during the massacre, was taken prisoner and confined at

Andersonville eighteen months. After his dismissal he went to Memphis

and was employed in the police service until 1867, when he and his

wife died of yellow fever, leaving two daughters, one the wife of

Edward St. John, of Marine, the other of Geo. W. Booth, of Taylor's

Falls.

REV. E. E. EDWARDS was born in Delaware, Ohio, Jan. 26, 1831; was

educated at Indiana Asbury University, and has been employed most of

his life in educational work, serving as president of Whitewater

College, Indiana, professor of Latin in Hamline University, professor

of natural sciences at St. Charles and McKendre colleges, and

president of the Colorado State Agricultural College. Mr. Edwards came

to Taylor's Falls in the winter of 1860, and remained two years as

pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church, and teacher in the Chisago

Seminary. During the last year of the war he was chaplain of the

Seventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. In the winter of 1885 he again

became pastor of the Taylor's Falls Methodist Episcopal church. He was

married in 1854 to Alice L. Eddy, of Cincinnati, Ohio. His family

consists of four sons and one daughter.

STEPHEN J. MERRILL was born in Schoharie county, New York, in 1827;

came to the St. Croix valley in 1848, and to Taylor's Falls in 1861.

He was married to Caroline Nelson in 1861. They have six sons and one

daughter. He has a beautiful and well improved homestead within the

town limits, adjoining the cemetery.

[Illustration: REV. E. E. EDWARDS.]

NOAH MARCUS HUMPHREY was born in 1809, at Goshen, Smithfield

Connecticut. He removed to Ohio in 1833, served in the Ohio

legislature in 1852 and 1853, and was for six years judge of probate

court in Summit county. He was married twice, the second time to Mrs.

Young, in 1840. His first wife left two children, Mark, for some time

a resident of Taylor's Falls, now deceased, and Laura, wife of David

Caneday. Judge Humphrey has been justice of the peace in Taylor's

Falls for twenty years, and postmaster for as many more. He was judge

of probate court for ten years, and has recently been re-elected to

that position.

ROYAL C. GRAY was born in Bakersfield, Vermont, October, 1832. He

spent his early life in Vermont and Massachusetts. He came West in

1850, and located in Kanabec county, where he farmed and kept a public

house at Greely station, on Kanabec river, until 1860, when he

returned to Massachusetts. In 1864 he returned to the St. Croix valley

and located in Taylor's Falls, where he still resides. He has been

employed by the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad Company for ten years as

surveyor and explorer, and holds some valuable pine lands. In 1861 Mr.

Gray was married to Ann Eliza Johnson, in Massachusetts. They have one

son, Orin.

JOHN PHILIP OWENS.--William Owens, the father of John Philip, came to

America from North Wales, and served as a soldier in the war of 1812.

John Philip was born Jan. 6, 1818. His father died seven years later,

and the son was brought up on a farm by a stepfather. He received an

academic education at Cincinnati, Ohio. At the age of seventeen he

commenced learning the printer's trade, served as an apprentice four

years, and graduated on his twenty-first birthday. Having some means

inherited from his father, he commenced a newspaper enterprise at

Cincinnati, invested and lost all his money. For several years he was

engaged as a reporter and assistant editor on various papers in

Cincinnati, Louisville, Vicksburg and New Orleans. In 1849 he formed a

business partnership with Nat. McLean, of Cincinnati, to establish a

paper at St. Paul. He arrived at St. Paul May 27th of that year. The

first number of the _Minnesota Register_ was printed in Cincinnati and

brought to St. Paul for distribution in July. In October the paper was

united with the _Minnesota Chronicle_, and so published until July,

1850, when it was discontinued. In 1851 Mr. Owens and G. W. Moore

started the _Weekly Minnesotian_, adding in 1854 a daily and

tri-weekly edition. The _Minnesotian_ was ably edited, and was

Republican in politics. Owing to poor health, Mr. Owens sold his

interest in the _Minnesotian_. In 1862 he was appointed quartermaster

of the Ninth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. This regiment did service

in the State during the Sioux War, but in 1864 was ordered South and

attached to the Sixteenth Army Corps. Mr. Owens served as regimental

and brigade quartermaster until the close of the war. In April, 1868,

he was appointed register of the United States land office, which

position he held until his death, Sept. 11, 1884. He was first Grand

Master of the I. O. O. F. in Minnesota; He left at his death an

unpublished manuscript, "The Political History of the State of

Minnesota." His first wife was Helen McAllister, whom he married in

Ohio in 1848. She left an only daughter, Mary Helen. Mr. Owens' second

wife was Frances M. Hobbs, whom he married Oct. 26, 1853, in New York

City.

ANDREW CLENDENNING was born in 1798, in the north of Ireland. He was a

Protestant, united with the Methodist church when a young man and

proved ever after a consistent Christian, strong in his religious

convictions and a faithful worker. He crossed the ocean in 1835,

locating first at New Brunswick. In 1855 he came to Michigan, in 1859

to St. Croix Falls, in 1870 to Taylor's Falls, where he resided until

his death, in 1875. He left three sons in Taylor's Falls, Andrew,

James and George, and one son in Oregon. One son, Joseph, died in the

service of his adopted country, having enlisted in Company C, Seventh

Minnesota. One daughter, the wife of Thomas Thompson, of St. Croix

Falls, died in 1886.

SMITH ELLISON was born in Marine, Madison county, Illinois, March 15,

1823. He came to Marine Mills in 1844. For two years he was in the

employ of Judd, Walker & Co. The next three years he spent at Osceola,

Wisconsin. In 1849 he engaged in logging and continued in that

business for many years. In 1856 he settled on and improved a farm in

Sunrise. In 1868 he removed to Taylor's Falls and formed a partnership

with L. K. Stannard in the mercantile and lumbering business. Mr.

Ellison was a representative in the eighth legislature, and served as

county commissioner eight years. In late years he has been interested

in a saw, planing and flour mill at Stillwater. He is a stockholder

and director in the First National Bank at Stillwater and owns large

tracts of pine lands. He has applied himself closely to business, is

energetic, cautious and thoroughly reliable. Mr. Ellison is unmarried.

WYOMING

Includes township 33, range 21. The eastern half is well timbered, the

west has oak openings. Sunrise river flows in a northerly direction

through the township, and with its tributaries and numerous lakes

supplies it abundantly with water. There are some wild meadows and

tamarack swamps. Green lake, in the eastern part of the township, is a

picturesque sheet of water, five miles in length by one and a half

broad, with sloping timbered shores and cedar points projecting into

the lake, in one place forming a natural roadway nearly across, which

is connected with the mainland opposite by a bridge.

[Illustration: SMITH ELLISON.]

A colony from Eastern Pennsylvania settled the western part of the

township in 1855. The colony was composed of L. O. Tombler, Dr. John

W. Comfort, E. K. Benton, and some others, in all ten families. The

eastern part had been previously settled by Swedes. The township was

organized in 1858. The supervisors were J. W. Comfort, L. O. Tombler

and Fred Tepel. A post office was established at Wyoming with J. Engle

as postmaster. The Catholics and Methodists erected churches in 1864.

The St. Paul & Duluth railroad was completed in 1868, and in 1879 the

branch road to Taylor's Falls. The township was settled rapidly after

the completion of the railroad. At the junction of the two roads there

is a good depot, two stores and a fine hotel, the latter kept by L. O.

Tombler.

WYOMING VILLAGE

Was surveyed and platted by Ben. W. Brunson in 1869, in portions of

sections 17, 19 and 20, township 33, range 21; proprietors, Western

Land Association, L. Mendenhall, agent.

DEER GARDEN VILLAGE

Was surveyed and platted by Alex. Cairns, October, 1856, in sections 1

and 12, township 33, range 21; proprietor, Erastus S. Edgerton.

LUCIUS O. TOMBLER was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1823. His

ancestors were Moravians, who, driven from Germany in the eighteenth

century, came to America, and founded the colony of Bethlehem, a

colony famed for its thrift, advancement in educational matters, and

high morality. Mr. Tombler and his wife, Christiana Brown, to whom he

was married in 1845, were educated in the Moravian schools. They came

with the colony from Bethlehem to Wyoming in 1855, and built a two

story log hotel on the St. Paul and Lake Superior stage road, which

was long noted as a rest for the weary traveler and a home for the

invalid. Mr. Tombler was an energetic, worthy man, genial in his

manners, a good farmer, a good landlord, and an accomplished musician

besides. Mrs. Tombler possessed superior endowments as a landlady, and

the house soon gained widespread popularity with the traveling public.

The first hotel was burned in 1876, but the year following a more

commodious building was erected on the grounds, which, with its modern

improvements within, and its park-like surroundings, is more popular

with the traveling public than its predecessor. The Tombler family

consists of Charles A., the father of Lucius O., born in 1800, but

still hale and vigorous, in the possession of all his faculties, two

sons, Maurice and Milton, and one daughter, Laura. Charles A., the

grandfather, has received the thirty-third degree Scottish Masonic

rite.

DR. JOHN WOOLMAN COMFORT was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in

1804. He graduated at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in

1836, and practiced medicine continuously, and, although an

accomplished graduate of an allopathic school, was a zealous advocate

and exponent of the Thompsonian system, in favor of which he published

several works. He was also for some years editor of the _Thompsonian

Medical Journal_. As a physician he was untiring, and impartial in the

performance of his duties, never refusing a medical call on account of

the poverty of the patient. He was especially kind to the poor. He

came to Wyoming with the colony in 1855, and died there Feb. 9, 1881,

leaving a widow, since deceased, one son in Philadelphia, and two

daughters, Mrs. Markley, of Wyoming, and Mrs. Carter, of Melbourne,

Australia.

ISAAC MARKLEY was born in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, April 2,

1822. In the spring of 1849 he came westward, and engaged in

steamboating. He commanded the Uncle Toby, and in October, 1850, ran

his steamboat from St. Louis to Taylor's Falls for the writer of this

work. He engaged in mercantile pursuits for some time in St. Paul, and

in 1871 came to Wyoming and located on a farm. He was married to

Frances, a daughter of Dr. Comfort. He died at his home, February,

1883.

JOEL WRIGHT was born in Pennsylvania in 1800, and came to Wyoming with

the Bethlehem colony in 1855. He is a blacksmith by trade, but has

also devoted himself to hunting and trapping. Mr. Wright has been

married three times, and has three children.

RANDALL WRIGHT, second son of the foregoing, was born in Pennsylvania

in 1828; was married to Anna Montgomery in 1850, and came to Wyoming

in 1855. He is a house carpenter by trade.

FREDERIC TEPEL was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1824; received a fair

education and learned the trade of blacksmithing. He came to America

in 1843, lived in New Orleans one year, in St. Louis ten years, in St.

Paul one year, and settled in Wyoming in 1855. In 1847 he was married

to Fredrica Wilmina, of St. Louis. They have seven children. Mr. Tepel

has held many town offices to the satisfaction of his townsmen. He has

been for forty years a member of the Methodist church. CHARLES HENRY

SAUER was born in Germany in 1824; served as a soldier in the German

Army three years, and in the twenty-fourth year of his age came to

America. The year following he returned to Europe and was married. In

1851 he took up his residence in Chicago, and in 1855 came to Wyoming,

and engaged in farming. He has three sons, Fred, Henry and Harvey, and

a daughter married to a Lutheran minister.

CHAPTER XIV.

WASHINGTON COUNTY.

The early history of Washington county is to be found in the history

of St. Croix county, Wisconsin, of which it was a part until the

organization of Minnesota Territory in 1849. At the first session of

the territorial legislature Washington county was established in full

for county and judicial purposes. It included all that part of the

Territory lying east of the range line between ranges 21 and 22 and

north of the Mississippi as far as the British possessions and

fractional parts of townships 29 and 30, range 22.

The courts held prior to this organization are referred to elsewhere.

The first territorial court in Washington county was held Aug. 13,

1849, Judge Aaron Goodrich, presiding; Judge David Cooper, associate.

It continued in session six days. There were sixty cases on the

calendar. Harvey Wilson was clerk of court; A. M. Mitchell, of St.

Paul, United States marshal; Henry L. Moss, district attorney; John

Morgan, sheriff. The lawyers present were H. L. Moss; M. S. Wilkinson,

M. E. Ames, A. M. Mitchell, L. Babcock, and David Lambert. The second

court house (the first under the new organization) was built in

Stillwater, corner of Fourth and Chestnut streets, in 1849, at a cost

of $3,600. This was the first court house in the territory of

Minnesota. The lot was donated by John McKusick. In this building were

held all the courts from 1849 to 1867. In that year Churchill & Nelson

donated a city block on Nelson Hill, a fine location overlooking the

city and lake, and the county erected upon it a fine stone structure

costing $60,000, including jail and ground improvements.

The first election was held Nov. 26, 1849. The following board of

county officers was elected: Commissioners, John McKusick, Hiram

Berkey, Joseph Haskell; treasurer, Socrates Nelson; register of deeds,

John S. Proctor; judge of probate, Harvey Wilson; sheriff, Jesse

Taylor. At the same election the following persons were elected

justices of the peace in their various precincts: St. Croix Falls,

Jerry Ross; Point Douglas, Martin Leavitt; Stillwater, Albert Harris

and H. K. McKinstry; Marine, James Moore and W. H. Johnson.

The territory of the county has been from time to time divided and

subdivided for the organization of new counties. Washington county,

however, was divided but once. In 1852 the county of Chisago was set

off in the north, since which time its boundaries have been, Chisago

on the north, the St. Croix river and lake on the east, the

Mississippi river on the south, Anoka and Ramsey counties and the

Mississippi river on the west. It includes the following townships:

From 27 to 32 inclusive, ranges 20 and 21, and fractional parts of

townships 31 and 32, range 19, and fractional part of township 26,

range 20.

AFTON

Was organized as a town in 1858. Joseph Haskell, G. W. Cutler and H.

L. Thomas were the first supervisors; Minor H. Thomas, clerk. It

includes a fractional part of township 28, range 20. It is well

watered by Bolles and Valley creeks, streams tributary to the St.

Croix. The southwestern part of the township is rolling prairie, the

remainder somewhat broken. The soil is all productive and the streams

afford good water powers. The township had French settlers as early as

1837,--Baptist Fornier and others. Joseph Haskell commenced his farm

in 1839. Prior to 1850 A. Mackey, L. Bolles, P. J. Carli, T. F.

Randolph, E. Bissell, N. H. Johnson, James Getchell, and A. McHattie

located in the town.

The first crops were raised by the French settlers. The first marriage

was that of Andrew Mackey to Mrs. Hamilton, in 1844. The first child

born was Helen M. Haskell, daughter of Joseph Haskell. The first death

was that of Paul J. Carli, in 1844, accidentally drowned in the lake.

The first road was located between Stillwater and Point Douglas, in

1847. A military road was surveyed from Point Douglas to Superior

through this town in 1850. Lemuel Bolles erected a flouring mill on

Bolles creek, in the winter of 1845-46, the first to grind wheat

north of Prairie du Chien. The old mill was long since replaced by a

new one, and the mill property has changed owners many times, Emil

Munch being the last owner. The present mill is a fine structure with

a capacity of fifty barrels per day. The first post office was at the

old mill; L. Bolles, postmaster. The first organized school was in the

Haskell district, in 1855. The Scandinavian Methodists have a church

in section 18, built in 1885. The German Lutherans have a church in

section 6, and a parochial school.

AFTON VILLAGE.

In May, 1855, Afton village was surveyed and platted by Haskell,

Getchell & Thomas, in section 23; Emerson & Case were the surveyors.

The village is beautifully located on the shore of the lake and

contains one hotel, one church (Congregational), one school house, an

academy building, and several stores, shops and dwellings. The

academy, known as the St. Croix Academy, was established in 1868, and

the building, a handsome three story brick structure, erected the same

year. Mr. Gorrie was the first principal. Simon Putnam was the first

pastor of the Congregational church.

SOUTH AFTON

Is located one mile south of Afton, on the shores of the lake. It has

an elevator, store, warehouses and other buildings. A saw mill was

built by Lowry & Co., between Afton and South Afton; in 1854, and

rebuilt in 1855 by Thomas & Sons. The Getchell Brothers built a mill

in 1861, which was burned.

VALLEY CREEK

Is a small village on Bolles creek, in sections 9 and 10. Erastus

Bolles located here in 1857, and improved the water power, built a

machine shop and manufactured edge tools. He sold out to his son, C.

E. Bolles, who further improved the property by building a corn and

feed mill. In 1860 Gilbert & Buswell erected a flour mill with three

run of stone. The post office in this village was established in 1874,

with Erastus Bolles as postmaster.

ST. MARY VILLAGE

Was platted in 1855, on lots 1, 2 and 3, section 14. Thomas W.

Coleman, proprietor; James A. Carr, surveyor.

JOSEPH HASKELL was born Jan. 9, 1805, in Kennebec county, Maine.

During his minority he worked with his father on a farm at Skowhegan,

Maine. In 1837 he came West, stopping two years in Indiana. July 24,

1839, he arrived at Fort Snelling on the steamer Ariel, obtained

employment of Frank Steele for whom he, with others, rowed a mackinaw

boat from Fort Snelling to St. Croix Falls. While at the falls he

worked on the dam and mill, then in process of building. In the fall

of 1839 he made a trip to Fort Snelling and returned to the Falls,

carrying the mail in a birch canoe to Catfish bar, and then across by

Indian trail to the Fort. While on this trip he made the claim for his

homestead in Afton. In 1840 he put three acres under cultivation,

raising corn and potatoes. This was the first attempt at farming,

except by the French pioneers, who raised only garden crops, north of

Prairie du Chien. September, 1844, he made a trip to Maine, and

returned bringing three sisters with him. They kept house for him

until he married. Mr. Haskell was married to Olive Furber, sister of

J. W. Furber, in 1849. They have four children, Helen M., Mary E.,

Henry Pitt and Hiram A. Mr. Haskell was a representative in the state

legislatures of 1869 and 1871. He was of most exemplary habits. He

died at his home Jan. 23, 1885.

LEMUEL BOLLES was born in New York. He came to St. Croix Falls in

1840. In 1843 he opened a grindstone quarry in the soft, coarse

sandstones, a short distance below the Dalles. In 1844-45 his

grindstones were much used. He made Stillwater his home in 1844-55,

when he removed to Afton. He was industrious, ingenious and eccentric.

He died in Stillwater in 1875.

TAYLOR F. RANDOLPH was the first school teacher in Washington county.

He and his wife taught at Red Rock in 1837-38-39-40, under the

supervision of the Methodist mission at that place. In 1842 he settled

on a farm in a valley near Bissell's Mounds, Afton, where he and his

wife died in 1846.

ELIJAH BISSELL, in 1842, located a farm near the three mounds in

section 8, which now bear his name. He left the county in 1850.

ANDREW MACKEY.--Mr. Mackey, of whom some mention is made in the

chapter concerning the early history, is one of the first pioneers,

having come in 1837 with John Boyce to the valley of the St. Croix in

a mackinaw boat, towed from St. Louis to the mouth of Lake St. Croix

by a steamer, from which point they poled their boat up to the St.

Croix falls, where they landed on the west side. From this point they

made a portage and cordelled their boat, and with poles and lines

ascended to Snake river. He engaged for some time in lumbering, and

worked at the falls until 1841, when he settled on a beautiful farm,

on a part of which Afton is now situated. Mr. Mackey was born in

Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1804, and (in 1888) is still living. His wife

died in 1873.

BAYTOWN

Comprises the north half of fractional township 28, range 20. The

surface is somewhat uneven and broken, owing to the lake bluff

formation, but there is much good farming land. Originally it was

covered with oaks or oak openings. It derives its name from a bay

indenting the western shore of Lake St. Croix. At South Stillwater

village a considerable stream, known as Spring creek, flows from some

large springs and forms a good water power in its descent to the lake.

Two flour mills are located on this stream. In 1842 Francis Bruce

built a house on the present site of the office of the St. Croix

Lumber Company. In the same year Norman Kittson built a trading post

at what has been since known as Kittson's Point. Both of these parties

left in 1844 and John Allen built a house and cultivated a field on

the east side of Kittson's Point. Allen sold the place in 1846 and

removed to California. He raised the first crops in the town. In 1847

Joseph Pero became a prominent settler and made him a good home on

Spring creek. Other parties made claims and abandoned or sold them.

Fiske & Marty located here in 1848. In 1860 came Ambrose Secrest and

some others. In 1852 Nelson, Loomis & Co. built a steam saw mill on

the bay. In 1854 Secrest & Booth built a flour mill on Spring creek.

In 1858 Baytown was organized as a town. The first supervisors were

Ambrose Secrest, John Parker and W. H. Crosby; John J. Hale, clerk.

BAYTOWN VILLAGE.

Socrates Nelson, D. B. Loomis, Levi Churchill, Daniel Mears, and James

W. Hinton, in February, 1856, platted the village of Baytown. Harvey

Wilson was the surveyor. The location was on the lake shore, lots 3

and 4, section 11, and lot 7, section 2. In 1872 a post office was

established called South Stillwater; William Graves, postmaster.

BANGOR VILLAGE

Was platted May. 1857, by C. I. and J. E. Whitney, Albert and Edwin

Caldwell, Wm. Hollinshead, Isaac Staples, and A. J. Short; J. J.

Carleton, surveyor. It was situated on the shore of the lake south of

Baytown.

MIDDLETOWN VILLAGE

Was platted in July, 1857, in parts of sections 2 and 3, by William

Holcomb; Myron B. Shepard, surveyor.

SOUTH STILLWATER

Was platted in January, 1873, by the St. Croix Railway Improvement

Company; Peter Berkey, president; A. B. Stickney, secretary; J. S.

Sewall, surveyor. South Stillwater was made to include the platted

villages of Baytown, Bangor and Middletown. It has prospered greatly

as a manufacturing village. In 1854 Torinus, Staples & Co. built a

steam saw mill, to which from time to time they added various

manufacturing establishments. Subsequently the firm became the St.

Croix Lumber Company. In the spring of 1876 this company sustained a

loss by fire on their mill and appurtenances to the value of $70,000,

which was not insured: With indomitable energy they rebuilt, and

prospered. The two leading business men in this firm were Louis

Torinus and William Chalmers. Turnbull's steam saw mill, on the lake

shore, has a capacity of 100,000 feet per day. The property is valued

at $70,000. The South Stillwater Lumber Company has a mill with a

capacity of 90,000 feet per day, with planer and other machinery

attached, in which they have invested $70,000. The firm consists of D.

Tozer, A. T. Jenks, H. McGlinn, E. W. Durant, and R. Wheeler. The

mills of the Herschey Lumber Company, valued at $70,000, have a

capacity of 100,000 feet per day. The proprietor, ---- Herschey, lives

in Muscatine, Iowa.

The Stillwater Dock Company was organized in 1877. The company

consists of Durant, Wheeler & Co., St. Croix Lumber Company and Jonah

Bachelder. They have built many fine steamers and barges. Their

repairing docks are a great convenience to steamboat lumbermen. The

South Stillwater Soap Factory, owned by McKenzie & Co., deserves

honorable mention. The construction of the branch railroad from

Stillwater in 1872, and the St. Paul & Milwaukee railroad, built in

1883, have greatly increased the prosperity of the village. Aside from

mills and manufactories there are many private residences, one hotel,

stores, shops, a Lutheran church, and a school house. There are three

cemeteries in the village limits known as Hazlewood, St. Michael's,

and the potter's field. The block for the former was contributed by

Secrest & Pero, in 1858. St. Michael's was established by the

Catholics in 1873. The potter's field was established by the city of

Stillwater in 1873. The first death in the limits of South Stillwater

was that of Sylvester, son of Joseph Pero. South Stillwater was

organized in 1881. First board of officers were: President, B. E.

Meigs; clerk, Edward Ivison; councilmen, Richard Burns, C. M.

Anderson, Charles Kregor; justice of the peace, Ambrose Secrest. South

Stillwater has a graded school with four departments.

COTTAGE GROVE

Includes township 27 and a fractional part of township 26, range 21.

It was organized as a town in October, 1858; James S. Norris,

moderator; William Watson, clerk; John Atkinson, Jacob Moshier, Joel

Munger, judges of election; William Watson, John Atkinson, B. Winant;

supervisors. Wm. Ferguson, Lewis Hill, James S. Davis, Jonathan Brown,

and Jacob Moshier were the first settlers, locating here in 1844. The

first marriage was that of Henry W. Crosby to Hannah Waterman, in

1854. The first child born was Nathan, son of John Atkinson, in 1846;

the first death was that of Mehitable, wife of P. P. Furber, in 1851.

A post office was established at Cottage Grove village in 1850; J. W.

Furber was postmaster. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad was

completed through the town in 1871. With its fine natural advantages

of soil, and its convenient access to markets, Cottage Grove is well

settled and prosperous.

COTTAGE GROVE VILLAGE

Is situated in section 12. It is a pleasant inland village, well

supplied with stores, shops and dwellings. It has one hotel, one

school house and three churches, Congregational, Evangelical German

Lutheran and Methodist. The Congregational society was organized in

1858, Rev. B. Hall, pastor; the Evangelical in 1874; the Methodist

some years later. The Universalists also have an organization. The

village was platted in April, 1871, by John P. and S. W. Furber, James

A. McClusky, Margaret M. Ellwell and Clarence Smith, in the southwest

quarter of the northwest quarter of section 12; J. W. Furber,

surveyor.

LANGDON VILLAGE

Was platted in December, 1871, in the southwest quarter of section 21,

on the line of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad. It contains

an elevator, hotel, three stores, a school house, Catholic church and

other buildings. The Catholic church was erected in 1873. Father

Huxley is the officiating clergyman. The village was platted by Joseph

J. Dodge; C. B. Lowell, surveyor.

JOSEPH W. FURBER was born in New Hampshire in 1813. His ancestors came

to this country with the early colonists of New England. His father

was a soldier in the war of 1812. During his minority he worked at

farming, obtaining, meanwhile, an education in the common schools and

at Foxcroft Academy, Maine. He emigrated to the valley of the

Mississippi in 1838, locating at Alton, Illinois, where he remained

for two years. In 1840 he came to St. Croix Falls and engaged in

lumbering until 1844, when he located in Cottage Grove. In 1846 Mr.

Furber represented Crawford county in the Wisconsin legislature as

representative. He traveled on foot as far as Prairie du Chien on his

way to the capital of the Territory. He represented the First district

in the first Minnesota territorial legislature and was elected speaker

of the house; was again a representative in the eighth territorial

legislature in 1857; was a member of the tenth and seventeenth state

legislatures. In 1857 he was commissioned major general of Minnesota

militia. He was also appointed United States marshal of Minnesota by

President Fillmore. He died at his residence in Cottage Grove in 1883.

He was a man of strong intellect, sound judgment and high moral

character. His widow, Sarah Wimples, to whom he was married in 1843,

one son, William W., and two daughters survive him.

SAMUEL W. FURBER was born in Stafford county, New Hampshire, in 1819.

He removed with his parents to Milo, Maine, and came to Cottage Grove

in 1860.

THEODORE FURBER was born in 1817, in Farmington, New Hampshire; came

West in 1845 and located at St. Croix Falls. In the following year he

moved to Cottage Grove. Mr. Furber was married to Sarah J. Hale in

1843, in Skowhegan, Maine. Mr. and Mrs. Furber visited California in

1867. In 1885 they removed to California.

JAMES S. NORRIS.--James S. Norris was born in Monmouth, Kennebec

county, Maine, in 1810. He was married at Newport in 1845 to Miss

Haskell. Mr. Norris came to St. Croix Falls in 1839, removed to

Washington county in 1842, where he settled on a farm at Cottage

Grove, and lived continuously till his death, March 5, 1874. He raised

the first crops in Cottage Grove, and though he made farming his chief

business, his abilities were such that his fellow citizens intrusted

him with many official positions, in all of which he acquitted himself

with honor. He acted as county commissioner, was a member of the first

territorial council, member of the sixth and seventh territorial house

of representatives, and speaker of the sixth, a member of the

Democratic wing of the constitutional convention, and of the twelfth

state legislature (house).

LEWIS HILL was born at Hollis, Maine, in 1822. In 1843 he came to the

valley of the St. Croix and located at St. Croix Falls. In 1844 he

came to Cottage Grove and engaged in farming, and, excepting a few

years spent in Dakota county, has resided there since. He was married

to Abbie Welch in 1854. Their living children are Emma C., Jessie L.

and Frederick E. G.

JACOB MOSHIER was born in Nova Scotia in 1820. He removed with his

parents in 1829 to Canada West. In 1839 he removed to Illinois, in

1843 to St. Croix Falls, and in 1845 to Cottage Grove, where he still

resides. He is a house carpenter, and has also been engaged in

farming. He was married in 1854 to Maria Shatto. Their children are

Annie F., Mahala, William, Addie, Grant, Laura, and George.

WILLIAM FERGUSON came to Cottage Grove in 1844, and made a claim in

section 26.

JOHN ATKINSON was born in Lewiston, Maine, April 4, 1805. He remained

in his native town until 1833, resided in Pittsfield until 1844, when

he came West and located in Cottage Grove. He pre-empted eighty acres

of land, purchased additions to it from time to time, and made for

himself a very attractive home, where he resided thirty years. Mr.

Atkinson was twice married, first to Hannah Moore, at Lewiston, Maine,

who died in 1874, then to Mrs. A. B. Fiske, of Baytown, at which place

he now resides, an aged, much respected citizen. His first wife left

four sons and two daughters.

DENMARK.

This town is located on the point of land between the Mississippi

river and Lake St. Croix, and includes the territory lying south of

Afton, and between Cottage Grove and Lake St. Croix, fractional

townships 26 and 27, range 20. The surface is elevated, somewhat

rolling, without lakes or streams, and the soil rich and well adapted

to agricultural purposes. The early history of the town is

substantially that of its earliest settlement, Point Douglas. It was

organized in 1858. Supervisors, John Shearer, Thomas Wright and David

Hone.

POINT DOUGLAS.

Levi Hertzell and Oscar Burris, young men, located in 1839 on the

extreme point of the delta between the Mississippi and St. Croix lake,

where they cut wood and sold it to the steamboats. They built a log

cabin and store, under one roof, and traded with Indians, discharged

soldiers and French settlers. They were diligent and industrious, and

prospered. In 1846 they built a frame store building. Their trade

increased and they grew wealthy. Messrs. Levi Hertzell, Oscar Burris

and David Hone, in 1849, platted the village of Point Douglas, Harvey

Wilson acting as surveyor. It was named in honor of Stephen A.

Douglas.

The following settlers came to Point Douglas prior to 1850: Wm. B.

Dibble, the Truaxes, Harley D. White, David Barber, E. H. Whittaker,

James Shearer, Martin Leavitt, Simon Shingledecker, H. A. Carter,

Thomas Hetherington, Geo. W. Campbell, John Allibone, Mark Wright,

John H. Craig, John O. Henry, and George Harris. The first post office

north of Prairie du Chien was established in 1840, on the site of

Prescott, at that time known as "Mouth of St. Croix." This office was

removed to the opposite side of the lake in 1841, and Levi Hertzell

was appointed postmaster. The first school was taught in 1850, by

John Craig. Rev. Joseph Hurlbut, a Methodist minister, preached here

in 1848. In 1656 Rev. T. Wilcoxson, Episcopalian, established "St.

Paul's Parish." Mr. Woodruff erected a saw mill in 1851. The

enterprise was not successful. A. J. Short built a saw mill in 1858,

which eventually passed into the hands of John Dudley. The first road

to Point Douglas was the Stillwater county road, located in 1847. The

Point Douglas and Lake Superior military road was built in 1849. A

ferry was established in 1851 from Point Douglas to Prescott, which

was chartered in 1856, and controlled by W. B. Dibble, who also

established a ferry from Point Douglas to Hastings in 1857. The first

marriage was that of Oscar Burris to Amanda M. Henry, Nov. 14, 1847.

The first birth was that of Emmet M. Hone, born in 1845, son of David

and Mary G. Hone.

LEVI HERTZELL came to Point Douglas in 1839, and was quite successful

in business. In 1846 he was married to Rhoda C. Pond, an adopted

daughter of Cornelius Lyman, of Stillwater. In 1849, in company with

Burris and Hone, he platted the village of Point Douglas. In the

spring of 1856, while in New York, whither he had gone to purchase

goods, he mysteriously disappeared, and nothing has since been heard

from him. Mrs. Hertzell and her three children were left in a

dependent condition, she being able to realize but little from the

property held in Point Douglas. She soon after married again. Of her

subsequent history nothing is known.

OSCAR BURRIS, associated with Levi Hertzell as one of the first

settlers of Point Douglas and pioneer merchants and traders, left in

1849 for California.

DAVID HONE.--The following statement was given me, on request, by Mr.

Hone himself: "I was born in Cherry Valley, Otsego county, New York,

April 5, 1808, and was married to Mary Henry in 1835. We came by stage

over the mountains of Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh and by steamboat from

there to Cairo, Illinois, and stopped at the Marine settlement until

Sept. 10, 1838. At that time I embarked on the steamboat Ariel, at St.

Louis, and in twenty-five days reached the head of Lake St. Croix,

from which point I proceeded on a flatboat, propelled by poles, to St.

Croix Falls, the trip occupying two days. I made a pine timber claim

on an island opposite the mouth of Kettle river. On my return, which

was made with eight companions in birch canoes, I stopped at Marine

and made a claim where the Marine mill now stands, intending to build

a saw mill. We then proceeded in our canoes to Galena, where we took

passage on the Ariel for St. Louis, landing there November 10th, after

an absence of two months, more than half of which had been spent on

the water. We reported favorably, and, organizing a company of

thirteen at Marine settlement, Illinois, with a capital of $26,000,

got our material together at St. Louis during the winter, and embarked

on the Fayette, May 4, 1839, for the point afterward known as Marine

Mills, Minnesota. We arrived May 13th and commenced at once to work

upon the projected mill, which was completed Sept. 1, 1839. I remained

at the mill until March, 1841, when I removed to Gray Cloud. I made a

claim at Point Douglas in 1843, and moved upon it in April of that

year. In 1844 I built the Union House, the first frame house built in

the territory now embraced in Minnesota. At Gray Cloud I acted as

justice of the peace. I was appointed deputy sheriff by Sheriff R. D.

Lester of Crawford county, and held the office until Minnesota

Territory was organized. My first wife died in November, 1864, leaving

three sons, Edwin A., John H. and Emmet M. In 1865 I was married to

Electa Barnes, of St. Paul. In 1872 I removed to Hastings, my present

home." Mr. Hone died at Hastings, July 11, 1887.

WILLIAM B. DIBBLE was born in the state of New York in 1815. He spent

part of his early life in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama and Illinois.

He came to the St. Croix valley in 1839, and was one of the founders

of Marine, Minnesota, from whence he removed to Point Douglas in 1844,

and established ferries across Lake St. Croix to Prescott, and across

the Mississippi river to Hastings. He also engaged in farming. He was

twice married, first in 1844, to Eliza McCauslin, who died in 1847,

then to Mary Wright, who, with nine children, survives him. Mr. Dibble

died in 1884.

GEORGE HARRIS was born in Pennsylvania in 1824. In 1827 his father

removed to Illinois and was killed during the Black Hawk War while

acting as sentry. At the age of eight years George commenced working

on a farm, and continued nine years. He then removed to Missouri and

remained until 1845, when he came to Stillwater and engaged in

lumbering. Soon afterward he settled on a farm near Point Douglas,

where he still resides. His family consists of a wife (formerly Alice

White) and seven children.

HARLEY D. WHITE was born in Orange county, Vermont, in 1812; came to

Prairie du Chien in 1840 and engaged in selling goods; removed to Red

Rock in 1844 where he sold goods in partnership with Daniel Hopkins,

and settled on a farm at Point Douglas in 1847. Some years later he

removed to Beattie, Kansas. He was married to Mrs. E. Tainter, of St.

Croix Falls, in 1849. She died in 1850, leaving a daughter, who was

adopted into the family of W. H. Tinker, of St. Paul. This daughter

became a teacher and taught in the public schools of St. Paul for a

period of eighteen years, and with her earnings purchased a home for

her foster parents. Mr. White married a second time and reared two

sons, one an editor, now residing in Alameda, California. The other is

engaged in farming in Kansas. Mr. White died in April, 1888.

THOMAS HETHERINGTON was born in Northumberland, England, in 1818; came

to Canada at the age of sixteen years and to Point Douglas in 1849 and

settled on a farm at Basswood Grove, where he died in 1885, leaving

his family in good circumstances. He was held in great esteem as an

upright man by those who knew him.

JAMES SHEARER was born at Palmer, Massachusetts, Oct. 30, 1815. He was

engaged in the mercantile business from 1837 to 1843, when he sold out

and went to Canada. He came to Point Douglas May 8, 1849, and engaged

in farming. He held various offices of trust in the county and town.

He served as county commissioner for 6 years, postmaster 2 years,

chairman of town board of Denmark for 4 years, and town treasurer 12

years. Mr. Shearer was married to Minerva J. Taylor, March 6, 1866.

Their children are Marcus, Martha and Irvin.

SIMON SHINGLEDECKER was born in Germany in 1815; came to America in

1831 and located in Ohio, where he worked nine years as a farmer. He

removed thence to Illinois, then to St. Louis, and in 1845 came to

Hudson, Wisconsin, where he engaged in lumbering. In 1848 he located

on a farm near Point Douglas, which is still his home. In 1850 he was

married to Margaret Truax. They have eight children.

CALEB TRAUX was born in Mohawk valley in 1810. He became a citizen of

Montreal and was there married to Elisabeth Morehouse. He removed to

Point Douglas in 1849, where he followed the business of farmer and

house carpenter. He was a representative in the fourth territorial

legislature. He died at his home in 1878, leaving seven sons and three

daughters.

ABRAHAM TRUAX was born in Brooklynn, Canada West. He came to Point

Douglas in 1848; removed to Hastings in 1850. While there he was

elected sheriff of Dakota county. He returned to Point Douglas in

1859, where he still resides. He was married to Mary Lahey in 1859.

Mrs. Truax died in 1867, leaving five children.

GEORGE W. CAMPBELL was born in Canton, New York, April 8, 1810. He

received a common school and academic education. His father died in

1826, leaving to George W. the care of the family and the management

of the estate. He was married in 1832, at Cornwell, Canada West, to

Margaret Harriet Robinson. He came to Point Douglas in 1848, where he

has lived since, engaged in farming and lumbering. He was a

representative in the first state legislature, 1857-58. Mrs. Campbell

died at her home in Point Douglas in 1886, aged seventy-four years.

She had been a member of the Episcopal church for sixty years. Six of

her seven surviving children with the aged husband and father attended

the funeral. Mr. Campbell died in 1887.

FOREST LAKE.

This town includes township 32, range 21. The surface was originally

covered with hardwood timber, interspersed with wild meadows; the

western part with oak, maple, poplar and tamarack. The first settlers

were Louis Schiel, Wilson, Rice and Cyrus Gray. Later came Simmons,

Posten, Marsh, York, and Banty. The first marriage was that of Francis

Cartwright to Mary Long, in 1865. The first child born was Rebecca

Simmons. The first death was that of Frederic Veith, in 1867. In 1873

the first school district was organized. A Methodist church was

organized in 1876 by Rev. Adam Ringer. The Forest Lake Lodge, I. O. G.

T., was organized in 1879. A post office was established in 1868;

Michael Marsh, postmaster. The town of Forest Lake was organized in

1874; W. D. Benedict, A. C. York and George Simmons, supervisors;

Louis Schiel, clerk.

FOREST LAKE VILLAGE

Was platted May, 1869, in the northwest part of the town, by Luther

Mendenhall, agent of the Western Land Company, and surveyed by B. W.

Brunson. It is beautifully located on the shore of Forest lake and is

rapidly becoming a popular place of resort for summer tourists and

pleasure parties. The lake is almost separated into three distinct

parts by points or capes. It is five miles from the northwest to the

southeast extremity and is nearly two miles wide at the widest point.

Its shores are well timbered and approach the water's edge in gravelly

slopes. The indications are that the lake was once much larger. In the

south lakes the water is deepest, averaging twenty feet. The south

lakes have also higher banks. The lake covers territory in sections 8

to 15, inclusive, of township 32, range 21.

CAPT. MICHAEL MARSH is a native of Wesemburg, Germany, and has resided

at this lake nineteen years. He has done much to make it attractive as

a place of resort. He has built a hotel with seventy-five rooms for

the accommodation of summer visitors, and has placed a steamer, the

Germania, upon the lake. Capt. Marsh was married in Germany and has a

family of two sons and three daughters.

GRANT.

This town was organized in 1858, under the name of Greenfield. In 1864

the name was changed to Grant. It comprises township 30, range 21. The

soil is a sand and clay loam, with clay gravel subsoil. The surface

varies from undulating to rolling, and was originally well timbered

with white, black and burr oak. White Bear lake lies partly within the

township, occupying about 1,200 acres. Other and smaller lakes are

Pine, Stone Quarry, Deep, Ben's, and Long.

The first officers of the town were: Moderator, Joseph Crane; clerk,

Jesse H. Soule; supervisors, Albion Masterman, James Rutherford and

Joseph Crane. The first settlers were Albion Masterman and William

Rutherford, in 1849. Soon after came James Rutherford, Thomas Ramsdell

and George Bennett. Albion Masterman built the first house, and his

wife, formerly Eliza Middleton, was the first woman in the settlement.

The first public highway through the town was the Rum river road. The

first child born was Castinea O. Rutherford. The first death was that

of James, son of James Rutherford. The first school house was built in

section 1, in 1856. Joseph Crane taught the first school. The first

sermon was preached by Rev. ---- Hamlin, a Free Will Baptist, but the

first religious organization was that of the German Protestant

Lutheran. Rev. Siegrist was the first pastor. The church building is

in section 2, and was built in 1872. The Spiritualists had an

organization in 1868, of which Jesse H. Soule was president, and

George Walker secretary. Summer meetings were held, and lecturers from

abroad invited to address them.

DELLWOOD VILLAGE

Was platted in September, 1882, on the line of the Stillwater & White

Bear railroad, on the shore of White Bear lake; Augustus K. and Carrie

Barnum, proprietors; Simon & Morton, surveyors.

EAGLE CITY

Was platted in 1854; proprietors, K. Starkey and Chas. G. Pettys;

surveyor, Daniel S. Turpen. It is located in the southwest quarter of

section 27.

MAHTOMEDI

Was platted in July, 1883; proprietors, Mahtomedi Assembly; surveyors,

Hone & Holland. White Bear lake has become a noted resort for tourists

and pleasure parties. A steamboat plies regularly upon its waters

during the open months, and the Stillwater & White Bear, the St. Paul

& Duluth and the Wisconsin Central railroads render it easy of access.

It is made attractive by the beauty of its scenery, the clearness and

brightness of its waters and its convenient distance from St. Paul,

Minneapolis and Stillwater. The Mahtomedi Association have erected

here a fine hotel, assembly houses and numerous cottages for the

accommodation of summer visitors. Summer schools are held here under

the auspices of the Chautauqua Association. The grounds are also

adapted to camp meetings, conventions and military parades.

WILDWOOD PARK

Was platted in 1883, by the Park Association; Elmer & Newell,

surveyors. It is located on White Bear lake, on the line of the

Stillwater & White Bear railroad.

WILLIAM ELLIOTT was born in Ireland in 1825. His parents removed to

New Brunswick in 1830, whence he came to Minnesota in 1850, and

located in Grant in 1862, devoting himself to farming. He had been a

pilot and a lumberman. His second wife was Mary Crawford. They have

eight children.

FREDERICK LAMB was born in Prussia in 1825; served three years in the

Prussian Army, traveled some time for a manufacturing firm in Germany

through Switzerland, France, England, and Italy; came to America in

1848, and to Stillwater in 1849. For some time he was unsettled as to

his location, but in 1852 made his home in Stillwater, where he

remained until 1866, when he located in Grant. He was married in 1851

to Lena Laroche. A son and a daughter lost their lives by accident.

Three daughters are living.

JAMES RUTHERFORD was born in the parish of Elsdon, Northumberland

county, England, in 1812. In 1818 he came with his parents to America.

In 1849 he came to the valley of the St. Croix and located in what is

now the town of Grant. He built a flour mill on Brown's creek. He

engaged in farming and also in lumbering for many years. He was

married to Elisabeth Smith in 1836. He died at his residence Sept. 14,

1874. Four children survive him.

JESSE H. SOULE has been a prominent and enterprising citizen of Grant

since 1854. He was born at Avon, Franklin county, Maine, in 1823. Mr.

Soule came to Grant when there were but six families in the town, and

pre-empted one hundred and fifty acres of land, where he made him a

pleasant and attractive home. He has held many positions of trust,

having been elected town clerk, which office he held twenty-two years,

justice of the peace, assessor, superintendent of schools and county

commissioner. He represented his district in the house of the sixth

state legislature in 1864. Mr. Soule has been married three times. His

first wife left one daughter, his second wife two sons, twins, Osmar

and Winfield; his third wife, who still lives, Rachel Michener, to

whom he was married in 1871, has three children, Alice, Olive and

Reuel.

Albion Masterman and William Rutherford, the first settlers of Grant

township, are mentioned among the biographies of the chapter on

Stillwater.

LAKELAND.

This town includes the south half of fractional township 29, range 20,

and comprises about 65,920 acres. The surface is quite diversified,

ranging from undulating prairie land to hills. Before settlement there

were prairies and oak openings. The soil is productive and is well

cultivated.

The first settlers were French, who located along the lake shore in

1838-39. These early settlers raised the first crops, but were

gardeners rather than farmers, and were transient. The first American

settler was Henry W. Crosby, who came in 1842, and located on the site

of the present village of Lakeland. George Clark, a young man, came

with him and made a claim near the ferry, but was drowned not long

afterward. This was the first death in the town of which we have any

mention. The first marriage was that of Wm. Oliver and Mrs. Mary

Davis, a sister of Joseph Haskell, in 1848; the next was that of A. B.

Green to Eliza M. Oliver, Oct. 1, 1851.

A ferry was established in 1848. Moses Perrin built a hotel and saw

mill the ensuing year, and platted the village of Lakeland. Another

mill was built by Ballard & Reynolds. In 1857 Stearns, Watson & Co.

built an extensive saw mill at a cost of $45,000. This mill changed

hands many times, finally passing into the hands of C. N. Nelson, who

enlarged it to a capacity of 20,000,000 feet per annum, a $50,000

investment. The St. Paul & Milwaukee railroad traverses this town near

and parallel to the lake shore. The town contributed $5,000 in ten per

cent bonds to the building of the road, for which they received an

equal amount of railroad stock. The St. Paul & Omaha railroad crosses

the lake and a part of the northeastern part of the township of

Lakeland. The railroad bridge has its western terminus in Lakeland, a

short distance above the village. Lakeland was organized as a town

Oct. 20, 1858. The first board of supervisors consisted of Charles A.

Oliver, Elias Megean and A. D. Kingsley.

LAKELAND VILLAGE,

Situated on the lake shore, nearly opposite Hudson, Wisconsin, was

platted in 1849 by Moses Perrin. A school was taught in 1852 by

Harriet E. Newell. A post office was established in 1854; Freeman C.

Tyler was the first postmaster. Lakeland has the following benevolent

and social societies: Masons, Golden Rule Lodge, No. 65, organized in

1867; Temple of Honor, organized 1877; the Independent Order of Good

Templars, No. 200, organized in 1876. It has a Baptist and

Congregational church.

HENRY W. CROSBY was born in Albany, New York, in 1819. He spent his

youth in Buffalo. In 1840 he came to St. Croix Falls, and in 1842 to

the banks of Lake St. Croix, and located on the site of the village of

Lakeland where he resided ten years. During the ensuing thirteen years

he followed his trade as machinist at various places, besides serving

three years as a volunteer in the Eighth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry.

He was married in Cottage Grove in 1845, to Hannah Waterhouse. He has

four sons.

REUBEN H. SANDERSON.--Mr. Sanderson was born in Genesee county, New

York, in 1831. He received a common school education and studied one

year in Brockport Collegiate Institute. He came to Lakeland in 1855,

and followed the business of a house carpenter. Mr. Sanderson has

filled many town offices, and was a member of the Democratic wing of

the state constitutional convention in 1857.

NEWTON MCKUSICK, the oldest son of John McKusick, was born in

Stillwater in 1850. He received a good education in the city schools,

completed at the Minnesota State University, and located on a farm in

Lakeland in 1871. He was married to Jennie L. Green, of Stillwater,

June 6, 1872. His home and farm display taste and thrift worthy of

commendation.

CAPT. JOHN OLIVER.--John Oliver was born March 9, 1796, at Land's End,

England. He was bred to a seafaring life, and the early part of his

life was well spiced with adventure. He escaped from the British

service to enter the American, but was twice captured, and after the

second capture suffered a rigorous imprisonment at Dartmoor, England.

At the close of the war he came to the United States and became a

Boston harbor pilot, a responsible calling which he followed for

thirty-three years. He came to the West in 1848, and settled in

Lakeland. In 1819 he was married to Sarah Spear, whose father was one

of the celebrated Boston Tea Party in 1774. Capt. Oliver, after his

removal to Lakeland, busied himself in farming. He died on the

homestead in 1869, leaving a widow who survived until 1883, and five

sons, two having died prior to 1869. Of his seven sons, six were in

the Union Army in Minnesota regiments during the Rebellion: Wm. H.,

Thomas E., Charles A., George A., Walter J., and Howard F. Walter J.

died in the army.

ASA BARLOW GREEN.--The name of Capt. Green was once familiar on the

St. Croix. He was a man of varied talents and striking

characteristics, who, in a public life extending over a period of many

years, figured as a lawyer, sheriff, probate judge, steamboat captain,

minister, chaplain, and missionary. He was born at Warren, Vermont,

1826, and during his minority lived at home. He had a common school

education, and by his own efforts attained a knowledge of the law and

was admitted to practice in Minnesota and Wisconsin in 1858. He served

as sheriff in Washington county, held the office of probate judge, and

some minor offices. He commanded the steamer Equator in 1859, when

that boat was wrecked on Lake St. Croix. He was part owner of the

boat. In 1860 he was ordained as a minister of the Calvinist Baptist

church. In 1862 he entered the United States service as chaplain of

the Third Wisconsin Volunteers, and served three years, after which he

devoted himself to ministerial and missionary labors. He died in

Whitewater, Wisconsin.

L. A. HUNTOON located in Lakeland in 1857, and engaged in mercantile

pursuits. He served as town clerk and postmaster, filling the latter

position fifteen years. He represented his district in the house of

the seventh and nineteenth legislatures. He died suddenly at his home

in 1879, leaving a wife and three children. His oldest son, Samuel, a

promising young man, principal of the Hammond high school, and fitting

himself for the medical college, was drowned Oct. 9, 1872, in Cutter's

lake, at the age of twenty-one. He was much esteemed and lamented.

MARINE.

The town of Marine includes townships 31 and 32, range 20, and

fractional townships 31 and 32, range 19. The surface is somewhat

rolling, and before settlement was timbered chiefly with hardwood. It

is dotted with beautiful lakes, some of which have abrupt and hilly

shores. The more noted of these lakes are Big, Carnelian, Square,

Bony, Terrapin, Long, Fish, and Hay.

Next to St. Croix Falls, Marine contains the earliest settlement in

the valley. In September, 1838, Lewis Judd and David Hone were

deputized by a company of men residing in Marine, Illinois, to visit

the Northwest and examine the region recently secured by treaty from

the Chippewas, and to return the same year and report upon its

advantages of climate, soil and other resources. They were authorized

also to locate a claim for a future settlement, if they found one

entirely suitable. They embarked on the steamer Ariel at St. Louis,

September 10th, and were twenty-five days reaching the head of Lake

St. Croix, whence they proceeded in a flatboat propelled by poles up

the St. Croix as far as the falls, and thence to the mouth of Kettle

river. Returning by birch canoes, they stopped at the site of the

present village of Marine, and there made a mill claim. They then

returned to Marine, Illinois, where they arrived November 10th, and

reported favorably on the location chosen.

During the following winter a verbal agreement was made by thirteen

persons, all of Marine settlement, to start in the spring and build a

saw mill on the distant St. Croix. On April 27th this company left St.

Louis on the steamer Fayette for the new settlement, which they

reached on the thirteenth of May. The Fayette was chartered expressly

for this voyage. They took with them mill irons, farming tools,

household goods, three yoke of oxen, and cows.

The members of the party were Lewis, George and Albert Judd, David

Hone, Orange Walker, Asa S. and Madison Parker, Samuel Burkelo, Wm. B.

Dibble, Dr. Lucius Green, Joseph Cottrell, and Hiram Berkey. When they

landed they found Jeremiah Russell and Levi W. Stratton in possession

of the claim, they having taken possession during the preceding

winter. These men demanded and received three hundred dollars for

relinquishing the claim to its rightful owners.

The colonists set to work immediately to build a log cabin as a

temporary shelter, which being completed, they commenced the mill, and

worked with such energy that it was finished in ninety days. The first

wheel used was a flutter wheel, which, not proving satisfactory, was

replaced by an overshot with buckets. This mill sawed the first lumber

in the St. Croix valley.

Orange Walker was the first clerk and chieftain of the concern, and

when anything was wanted a call of the company would be made, and the

members assembled. No article of agreement existed. Only one book was

kept for a series of years--a unique affair, no doubt. The first

installment was $200; second, $75; third, $50; all within two years,

after which the company became self sustaining. No partner forfeited

his stock. One by one the partners sold out their interest, until

Orange Walker and G. B. Judd were the owners. The company was first

known as the Marine Lumber Company. In 1850 the name was changed to

Judd, Walker & Co., the firm consisting then of the Judd brothers,

Orange Walker, Samuel Burkelo, Asa Parker, and H. Berkey. In 1863,

when Orange Walker was sole owner, he associated with him Samuel Judd

and W. H. Veazie, and the firm name has since been Walker, Judd &

Veazie.

The colonists raised, during the first year, corn, potatoes and garden

vegetables. They found the Indians peaceably inclined toward the

settlers, though the Chippewas and Sioux kept up a constant warfare

with each other. During the winter of 1839-40 four members of the

company, Parker, Berkey, Green and Dibble, were sent to the mouth of

Kettle river to cut logs. Marine was organized as a town in 1858, with

the following supervisors: J. R. M. Gaskell; John E. Mower and B. F.

Allen.

MARINE MILLS VILLAGE.

The settlement gradually grew into the village of Marine Mills, which

was not platted, however, until 1853, nor incorporated until 1875. The

following was the first board of officers: President, Orange Walker;

councilmen, J. R. M. Gaskell, Ola Westergreen and Asa S. Parker. Until

1842 the mail was received from Ft. Snelling by private conveyance,

when a monthly mail service was established from Point Douglas, and

Samuel Burkelo was appointed postmaster.

The first jury trial in the St. Croix valley was held at Marine, in

1840, before Joseph R. Brown, justice of the peace. The case was that

of Philander Prescott against Chas. D. Foote, plaintiff charging

defendant with jumping a claim. The jury consisted of Samuel Burkelo,

Orange Walker, H. Berkey, David Hone. J. Haskell, J. S. Norris, A.

McHattie, A. Mackey, H. Sweezy, Francis Nason, and two others. The

claim in dispute was located near Prescott. The court adjourned to

allow the jury to visit Prescott to ascertain if the claim had been

made in accordance with custom. On viewing the premises the jury

failed to agree, and the matter was compromised by Prescott allowing

Foote eighty acres of the claim.

The first white child born in Marine was Sarah Anna Waterman, in 1844.

Dr. Wright, the first physician, located in Marine in 1849. The first

marriage was that of Wm. B. Dibble to Eliza McCauslin, in 1842. The

first death was that of a child of W. H. Nobles, in 1843. The first

sermon preached was by Rev. J. Hurlburt, a Methodist missionary, Jan.

1, 1844. The first school was taught by Sarah Judd, in 1849. The

Swedish Evangelical Lutherans built the first church in the town of

Marine, in section 27, in 1856, a log structure afterward used as a

school, its place being supplied by a new structure in section 14 in

1858. In 1874 a large church 50 × 80 feet, ground plan, and with

steeple 80 feet high, succeeded the second structure. A fine parsonage

was attached. This church was blown down by a cyclone in 1884, but was

rebuilt.

The Swedish Methodists built a church on the south side of Long lake

in 1856; C. P. Agrelius, pastor. The Congregationalists commenced the

first church and perfected the first organization in Marine village,

in 1857. The church was completed and dedicated in 1859. Rev Geo.

Spaulding was the first pastor. The second Congregational church was

erected in 1878, in section 21. The Swedish Lutherans have a church

and congregation in the village of Marine. The church was built in

1875. Rev. L. O. Lindh was the first pastor. Oakland Cemetery

Association was organized in 1872 and the cemetery located near Marine

village.

IMPROVEMENTS.

A passable road was opened from Stillwater to Marine in 1841. The

government road from Point Douglas to Superior was built through

Marine in 1852-3. The company built the first frame dwelling, on a

point above the mill, in 1848. The mill company built a frame store in

the same year. This building was burned in 1863; loss, $4,000. The

only hotel until 1850 was a log building, when the Marine store was

built. The Lightner House was built in 1857, the St. Croix House in

1858. The Marine flour mill was built in 1856 by Gaskell & Co. The

first flour was manufactured in 1857. The mill is four stories high

and is furnished with a turbine wheel. The water is brought a distance

of 1,000 feet by an elevated race. The Arcola saw mills were built in

the winter of 1846-7, by Martin Mower, David B. Loomis, Joseph

Brewster and W. H. C. Folsom. They were located on the river shore

three miles below Marine Mills. The motive power is an overshot wheel,

propelled by water from two large springs. The mill is now the

property of Martin Mower. The losses by fire in Marine have been:

The Marine saw mill, Sept. 16, 1863, loss $6,000; Judd &

Gaskell's store, Jan. 9, 1864, loss $4,000; Samuel B. Judd's

dwelling, April, 1884, loss $12,000;

W. H. Veazie's dwelling, April, 1885, loss $6,000.

A heavy financial failure occurred in the winter of 1885-6. The firm

of Walker, Judd & Veazio were compelled to make an assignment;

indebtedness, $250,000. In the ensuing May, by order of the court, the

mill property with its assets passed into the hands of a newly

constituted organization, styled the Marine Lumber Company. This

company was composed of the creditors of Judd, Walker & Veazie; B. C.

Keater, president; Ed. St. John, superintendent; capital stock,

$750,000. In 1888 the property passed into the hands of Anderson &

O'Brien.

VASA VILLAGE

Was platted in 1856, in section 30, township 32, range 19, by B. F.

and Mary Jane Otis and John Columbus; W. P. Payte, surveyor. James

Russell, James Cilley and Frank Register in 1857 built a steam saw

mill. James Russell built a three story hotel. A saloon and other

buildings were erected, but the village did not prosper, and the site

is now abandoned. There are several ancient mounds in the town site

which have been utilized to some extent as burial mounds. One in the

rear of the school house contains the remains of Caroline Reid, a

sister of Mrs. B. F. Otis, and Hiram Otis, a son of the latter. A

mound on the farm of John Copas contains the remains of John Columbus,

buried there at his own request with the body of his favorite dog. A

post office was established at Scandia, in the northern part of

Marine, in 1878; John M. Johnson, postmaster. The upper part of the

town of Marine was at one time organized as a town called Vasa, but

has since been merged in Marine.

ORANGE WALKER was born at St. Albans, Vermont, Sept. 1, 1801. His

ancestors were of English stock and Revolutionary fame. He received a

good common school education, and at the age of sixteen entered as an

apprentice in a tanner and currier's establishment in St. Albans.

After learning the trade he worked at it some time in Milton, Vermont.

In 1834 he came West, and located at Jacksonville, Illinois, where he

worked at his trade and also engaged in farming until 1839, when he

became a member of the Marine Lumber Company, and came with them to

Marine, where he resided a period of forty-eight years. During that

time he has been the most active and influential man in the company,

having been in almost constant service as its president or principal

agent. Mr. Walker was well known to the earlier dwellers in the St.

Croix valley as a hale, hearty, well informed man, prompt in

fulfilling his engagements, and liberal in everything that pertains to

the general good. Mr. Walker filled many public positions. He was

county commissioner ten years, postmaster twenty-five years, and

represented his district in the house of the Second Minnesota

legislature in 1859-60. He was married Sept. 16, 1848, to Mrs.

Georgiana Lockwood, of Prescott, formerly Miss Barton, a native of

Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Walker died Oct. 9, 1885. Mr. Walker

died Aug. 17, 1897.

LEWIS WALKER, brother of Orange Walker, was born in St. Albans,

Vermont, in 1811; in early life removed to Marine, Illinois, and in

1853 came to Marine Mills, Minnesota. He spent many years at the St.

Croix upper boom, and the last fifteen years of his life he lived in

Osceola. He was a quiet, peaceable citizen, exemplary in his habits

and respected by all his acquaintances. He died in Osceola in 1882.

Mr. Walker was married in 1853 to Calphrunia White, who, with two

daughters, survives him. The oldest daughter, Ella, has been for many

years a teacher in the Minneapolis and St. Paul and other schools.

Emma is the wife of Henry Fifield, a printer and journalist of

Northern Michigan.

SAMUEL BURKELO was born in Kent county, Delaware, March 31, 1800. He

came to Marine in 1839, being one of the thirteen constituting the

Marine Lumber Company. He remained with the company ten years, removed

to Stillwater and engaged in the mercantile business. In 1858 he

removed to a farm in Lakeland, where he died in 1874. He was one of

the commissioners appointed in 1840 to organize St. Croix county, and

represented his district in the council of the first and second

territorial legislatures. He was married Dec. 7, 1844, to Susan

McCauslin, at Point Douglas. Four children survive him.

ASA S. PARKER was born in Windsor county, Vermont, July 11, 1812. His

youth was spent in Vermont, New York and Illinois. He was by trade a

brickmaker. He joined the Marine Company and came to Marine in 1839.

He continued a member of the company until 1858, since which time he

has been engaged in farming and selling goods at Marine. Mr. Parker is

a quiet, unobtrusive gentleman, well posted in general matters. He was

a very useful member of the company. He was eight years county

commissioner, and has filled responsible town and county positions. He

was married in 1859 to Isabella Thompson. Archie I., an only son,

living with his parents, was married to Lena Smith in 1883.

HIRAM BERKEY was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, Oct. 22, 1813.

He came to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1819, but made Collinsville,

Illinois, his home, and engaged in farming. He came to Marine Mills in

1839, and was one of the original company that founded Marine. He sold

his interest in 1860, since which time he has been engaged in hotel

keeping and farming. He served as county commissioner four years, and

filled local offices. He was married to Jennie McCarty, of

Pennsylvania, Oct. 23, 1860. They have one son, John R.

GEO. B. JUDD was born in Farmington, Connecticut, Oct. 19, 1799. In

1832 he came to Illinois and engaged in farming and merchandising. In

1839 he became a member of the Marine Company, and came up on the

Fayette, but did not make his residence there until 1862. He retained

his interest in the company until about 1863. He removed to St. Louis

in 1844, and became a member of the enterprising commission firm of

Judd & Hammond. After his removal to Marine he engaged in the

mercantile and lumbering business. Mr. Judd died at his home in Marine

in 1872.

JAMES HALE was born in 1822, in Putnam county, Indiana; lived five

years in Illinois, and came to Marine Mills in 1844, where he engaged

in farming. He was married to Mary Finnegan in 1855. Mr. Hale died

Feb. 9, 1888.

JOHN HOLT was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, in 1818. He came to

Marine in 1846. In 1852 he was married to Mary Jane Ward, and removed

to Stillwater, where for two years he kept the Minnesota House, at the

southwest corner of Main and Chestnut streets. Returning to Marine in

1853 he followed lumbering and farming many years. During the latter

portion of his life he was afflicted with partial blindness. He died

Jan. 12, 1874, leaving two children.

GEORGE HOLT, brother to John Holt, was born in Kentucky in 1822, where

he spent his early life. After spending a year at Prairie du Chien, in

1846 he came to Marine and obtained employment with the Marine

Company. In 1850 he removed to Stillwater, and engaged in the livery

stable and hotel business until 1853, when he returned with his

brother to Marine. He claims to have carried, in 1851, the first

leathern mail pouch from Stillwater to Taylor's Falls. During the

Rebellion he served one year in Company G, Fourth Minnesota Volunteer

Infantry. While residing in Marine he has been engaged chiefly in

farming, rafting and lumbering. In 1851 he was married to Melinda

Ward. They have five children.

WILLIAM TOWN was born in Rome, N. Y., 1814. In 1836 he removed to

Warren county, Illinois, and in 1838 he was married to Louisa

Robinson. He came to Marine in 1846; removed to St. Croix Falls in

1847; to Osceola Prairie in 1852, and to Taylor's Falls in 1860, where

he died in 1870. His first wife died at Osceola in 1855, leaving three

daughters, one the wife of W. J. Seavey, of Taylor's Falls, one the

first wife of Henry Mallen, of Farmington, Wisconsin, and one the wife

of E. Hines Bates, of Taylor's Falls. Mr. Town was married in 1857 to

Mrs. Mary Collins, formerly Mary Talboys. A daughter of Mrs. Town, by

her first husband, is the wife of N. P. Bailey, of Taylor's Falls. Mr.

Town's aged mother came to Osceola Prairie in 1856, and died in June,

1886, aged ninety-seven years. Mrs. Abbott, of Moorhead, and Mrs.

Richmond, of Farmington, are her daughters.

MATTHIAS WELSHANCE was born in 1818, in Pennsylvania, where he lived

during his minority and learned the carpenter's trade. In 1843 he

removed to Galena, Illinois, in 1847 to St. Croix Falls and in 1848 to

Marine Mills, where he worked at his trade until 1856. From that time

until his death, May 19, 1886, he was engaged in hotel keeping. He was

for nine years keeper of the Marine Hotel and has since been

proprietor of the St. Croix House. He was married Nov. 12, 1848, to

Mary J. Hooper. They have five children living. One daughter, Mrs.

Tolan, met a tragic death at the hands of an insane husband, in 1881.

Mr. Welshance died in 1886.

BENJAMIN T. OTIS was born in Fairfield, Maine, in 1816. He came to St.

Croix Falls in 1841, and engaged in lumbering. In 1846 he located on

what is known as Colby Flat, on the site of Taylor's Falls, and

improved a farm. In 1849 he removed to Marine. His first wife died

suddenly at Marine. He was married to Mrs. Church, of Stillwater, in

1859. Henry F., a son by his first wife, enlisted in 1862, in the

Seventh Minnesota Volunteers, was wounded in 1864, and honorably

discharged.

WILLIAM CLARK was born in New Brunswick, July, 1815. He came to Marine

Mills in 1848, and since has followed lumbering. He married Elisa Jane

Nelson in 1861. Mrs. Clark died in 1879, leaving two daughters.

JAMES R. MEREDITH was born Aug. 22, 1812, in White county, Illinois,

where he lived until eighteen years of age, when he removed to Galena,

where he spent five years in mining. He went thence to Burlington,

Iowa, and in 1849 located in Marine, and was employed by the Marine

Company several years. In 1860 he located upon his present farm. In

1847 he was married to Eleanor Freeman. They have three children

living.

JOHN D. AND THOMAS E. WARD. The Ward brothers are natives of

Massachusetts. They came to the St. Croix valley with their

brothers-in-law, John and George Holt. They have engaged chiefly in

steamboating and river business.

SAMUEL JUDD, son of Lewis Judd, was born in Illinois in 1840. He

graduated at McKendrie College, Lebanon, Illinois, and came to Marine

in 1863, and became a member of the firm of Walker, Judd & Veazie. In

1874 he was married to Amelia D. Flaherty, at St. Louis. Their

children are Orange W. and Lucille M. In 1886 he changed his residence

to St. Paul.

FREDERIC W. LAMMERS was born in Germany in 1829. He came to America in

1843, locating first at St. Louis, where he remained two years. In

1845 he removed to the St. Croix valley, and for several years engaged

in lumbering. In 1852 he settled on a farm in Taylor's Falls, and was

married to Helen C. Nelson, of Marine. In 1865 he sold his farm and

removed to Big Lake Marine. Mr. Lammers has been a public spirited and

excellent citizen. His family consisted of fifteen children; of these

thirteen are living.

JAMES R. M. GASKILL was born in Madison county, Illinois, in 1820;

graduated from McKendrie College in 1843; graduated from the medical

department of the Missouri State University in 1854; practiced

medicine a short time at Centralia, Illinois, and came to Marine in

1855, where he practiced medicine and interested himself in milling,

lumbering and merchandise. He represented his district in the house of

the first legislature of Minnesota, 1857-58, and of the fourteenth and

fifteenth, 1872-73. He served during the Rebellion as surgeon of the

Forty-fifth Illinois Volunteers. He was for many years a trustee of

the Minnesota State Prison. In 1861 he was married to Clara E. Hughes.

They have one son and one daughter.

NEWPORT.

The town of Newport includes fractional townships 27 and 28, range 22,

and part of sections 34, 35 and 36, in township 29, range 22: It was

organized as a town Oct. 20, 1858. The first supervisors were William

Fowler, E. B. Schofield and John Willoughby. The surface is mostly

prairie. This town has some points of great historic interest. Gray

Cloud island, in the southern part, in the Mississippi river,

separated from the mainland by a slough, is the place where, according

to some historians, Le Sueur planted a French fort in 1695. It was

styled the "Isle Pelee," and was described as a beautiful "Prairie

Island."

The description of the island tallies precisely with that of Gray

Cloud, and is applicable to none of the other conjectured localities.

It is mentioned by many antiquarian writers as a place of rendezvous

for French traders during the French domination in this part of the

continent. Gray Cloud has been known as a trading post for the last

hundred years, and has the credit of being the first white settlement

in Washington county, and probably in Minnesota. Here came Joseph R.

Brown in 1838, and here he married the daughter of Dickson, the

trader. Hazen Mooers, one of the commissioners of St. Croix county in

1840, Joseph Boucher and others were living at Gray Cloud when the

Methodist mission was established at Kaposia in 1836. Gray Cloud is

the translation of the Indian name of the island. It was also borne by

an Indian maiden, who became the wife of Hazen Mooers, who seems to

have been a man of excellent repute and considerable influence. The

Browns cherished for him a very warm feeling of regard.

Red Rock, another historic locality, derives its name from a painted

rock which seems to have been held in great reverence by the Sioux

Indians. According to Rev. Chauncey Hobart, a veteran pioneer and

preacher still living in Minnesota, it was the custom among the Sioux

to worship the boulders that lie scattered along the hills and

valleys. When a Dakotah was in danger, it was his custom to clear a

spot from grass and brush, roll a boulder upon it, paint it, deck it

with feathers and flowers, and pray to it for needed help.

The peculiarity of the painted boulder from which Red Rock took its

name is that it was a shrine, to which from generation to generation

pilgrimages were made, and offerings and sacrifices presented. Its

Indian name was "Eyah Shah," or "Red Rock." The stone is not naturally

red, but painted with vermillion, or, as some say, with the blood of

slaughtered victims. The Indians call the stone also "Waukan," or

"mystery." It lies on a weathered stratum of limestone, and seems to

be a fragment from some distant granite ledge. The Dakotahs say it

walked or rolled to its present position, and they point to the path

over which it traveled. They visited it occasionally every year until

1862, each time painting it and bringing offerings. It is painted in

stripes, twelve in number, two inches wide and from two to six inches

apart. The north end has a rudely drawn picture of the sun, and a rude

face with fifteen rays.

Red Rock is noted as the site of a mission planted here in 1837 by the

Methodist Episcopal church, by Alfred Brunson, a distinguished pioneer

preacher and missionary. The mission was originally established at

Kaposia, on the western bank of the river, in 1837, but removed by

Alfred Brunson in the same year to Red Rock. Rev. B. T. Kavanaugh, of

this mission, and afterward a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church

South, superintended the erection of the first buildings. Taylor F.

Randolph and wife were teachers here, as assistants in the Indian

school, and also in a school of mixed bloods and whites. B. T.

Kavanaugh was postmaster in 1841. John Holton was mission farmer in

1841, under a commission from Maj. Taliaferro, of Fort Snelling. The

mission was discontinued in 1842. Mr. Randolph and wife made them a

home in the town of Afton, where both died in 1844.

The first marriage was that of John A. Ford to Mary Holton, daughter

of John Holton, in 1843. The first birth was that of Franklin C. Ford,

September, 1844. The first death was that of a child of Rev. B. T.

Kavanaugh. The village of Newport was platted in 1857. W. R. Brown's

addition was platted in 1874. A steam saw mill was built in 1857 by E.

M. Shelton & Brothers. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1874. A flour

mill was built in its place by Joseph Irish. The first Baptist church

was organized Jan. 18, 1858. The first commodious house of worship was

built in 1878. The Red Rock Camp Meeting Association was organized in

1869. A plat of ten acres, beautifully situated in a natural grove

near the village, and on the line of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul

railroad, was donated to the association by John Holton. These grounds

have been improved, and adorned with tasteful cottages. The camp

meetings held during the summer are largely attended.

GRAY CLOUD CITY

Was platted in June, 1856, by J. R. Brown and Truman W. Smith, and

surveyed by J. Donald McCullom.

NEWPORT VILLAGE

Was platted May 2, 1857, by Joseph H. Huganin, R. C. Knox, Wm. and

James Fowler, and surveyed by B. Densmore.

JOHN HOLTON came to Red Rock in 1831, with the Methodist missionaries;

served some years as Indian farmer under Maj. Taliaferro, Indian

agent, and afterward settled on a farm just above the mission ground.

He donated ten acres of this farm to the Methodists for camp meeting

grounds. Mr. Holton died in 1884, leaving two children, Mrs. Ford and

Mrs. Winters.

JOHN A. FORD was born in Utica, New York, in 1811. He learned the

trade of edge tool and rifle making, and in 1834 came West with his

father, locating a land claim where Chicago now stands. In 1841 the

son came to Red Rock and erected a store building in which he sold

goods for twelve years. Subsequently he engaged in farming. With the

exception of the traders Mr. Ford was the first merchant in Washington

county. Mr. Ford was a representative in the second territorial

legislature. He was married to May Holton in 1843. Their children are

Franklin and Willis. Franklin, the eldest son, was married to Addie

Witherspoon in 1870, and resides in Newport.

DANIEL HOPKINS, a native of New Hampshire, came West at an early age.

He was a gunsmith by trade. He located in Green Bay in 1836, and

removed to Prairie du Chien in 1838, where he built a stone shop with

a large double window over his workbench and overlooking a spot where

he kept his money buried. A large mullein growing over it sufficiently

indicated that his treasure was still undisturbed. Growing somewhat

doubtful of the security of his hoard, he removed and placed a

thousand dollars in a stone quarry as a safer place of deposit.

Unexpectedly to him, the quarry was reopened and a well placed blast

scattered the old gentleman's treasure to the four winds. He recovered

but a portion of it. In 1844 he left Prairie du Chien and came to Red

Rock. He was three years associated with John A. Ford in selling

goods, after which, in 1848, he removed to St. Paul, where he opened a

store. He died in 1852, aged sixty-five years.

WILLIAM R. BROWN was born in Urbana, Ohio, in 1816. He spent his

boyhood at home on a farm and served as an apprentice to a carpenter

in Mt. Carmel, Illinois. In April, 1848, he came to Red Rock mission

in company with Rev. B. T. Kavanaugh, Charles Cavalier and Julia

Bosnell. He lived upon a farm until 1854, when he sold out and removed

to St. Paul, where he dealt in real estate. During the Rebellion he

served three years in Company C, Sixth Minnesota Volunteers. He was

married in 1841 to Martha Neuman. He died Nov. 25, 1874.

WILLIAM FOWLER settled in Newport in 1852 and has become a prominent

farmer and successful stockman. His farm, which originally cost him

$2,500, he sold in 1887 for $80,000. He was for two years president of

the Minnesota Agricultural Society, and five years of the Dairymen's

Association. He was a member of the house of representatives in 1872.

During the war he served as lieutenant in the Eighth Minnesota

Volunteers.

OAKDALE.

Oakdale includes township 29, range 21. Originally it was covered with

white, black and burr oak timber; the surface is rolling, and the soil

well adapted to the cultivation of wheat. It is well watered and has

numerous lakes, among which Lake Elmo is favorably known as a summer

resort.

Oakdale was organized as a town November, 1858. The first supervisors

were E. C. Gray, John Bershen and E. L. Morse. The clerk was W.

Armstrong.

The first settler was B. B. Cyphers, who kept a hotel or stopping

place on Sun Fish lake in 1848. The year following John Morgan built a

more commodious house a mile and a half west on the stage road, and

this was afterward known as the "Half-way House," it being nearly

midway between St. Paul and Stillwater. At this well known station the

pioneer stages of Willoughby & Powers changed horses at noon, and the

passengers took dinner. In 1855 the property passed into the hands of

E. C. Gray. The Malones, Lohmans, Grays, Day, Stevens, and Gardiner

located here in the '50s.

The first post office established was in 1857, in the south part of

the town, in section 35. Arthur Stephens was for ten years postmaster.

The office was called Oakdale, and was discontinued and another

established at the Half-way House, and called Lohmanville post office.

In 1873 it was transferred to the Oakdale station on the railroad. It

was discontinued in 1876, and re-established at Bass Lake station,

where it has since remained but is now known as the Lake Elmo post

office.

The St. Paul & Stillwater railroad passes through this town from east

to west. It has three stations, Lake Elmo, Oakdale and Midvale.

The churches of Oakdale are the St. John's Lutheran and the Church of

the Holy Angels. These churches have fine buildings and good

congregations. The buildings are located on the line of the old stage

road, and have spacious burial grounds attached.

Lake Elmo is the only village in the town. It is handsomely located on

Lake Elmo. The company that platted the village has expended over

$65,000 on improvements. The hotel is an elegant and spacious

building, and a favorite resort for summer tourists. The lake was

originally known as Bass lake, and the station was known as Bass Lake

station. In 1879 the lake and station were rechristened Elmo, a name

certainly more musical and charming than the original, and inferior

only to the aboriginal name, which ought to have been retained.

E. C. GRAY came originally from Pennsylvania, and located in Oakdale

in 1855, having purchased the Half-way House of John Morgan. He died

in 1874, leaving a large family of children. Two of his sons, M. P.

and W. H., remain on the family homestead. Others are in St. Paul. All

are known as men of good business ability.

ARTHUR STEPHENS was born in Scotland in 1830. He came to America in

1839, lived awhile in Illinois, learned the trade of a mason and

plasterer, came to St. Paul in 1849, worked at his trade until 1854,

when he removed to Oakdale, where, with the exception of six years'

residence at Stillwater, he has since lived. Mr. Stephens served as

postmaster ten years, as county commissioner three years, and has

filled town offices. He was married to Marie Payden in 1852. Their

children are Harris S., Arthur, Elizabeth and Emma.

ONEKA.

The town comprises township 31, range 21. It was organized as a town

in 1880. A. J. Soule was the first moderator, George Walker the first

clerk and treasurer. The eastern and southern portions are

diversified, being quite rugged and uneven. The western part is quite

level, and was originally timbered with burr oak and poplars. The town

abounds with lakes. Bald Eagle lies partly in the town; Oneka; Rice,

Egg, Eagle, Horseshoe, and others are within the town. Small springs

and rivulets abound. A tamarack swamp, varying in width from a few

rods to a half mile, traverses the town from north to south, forming a

natural barrier between the eastern and western divisions. The

principal lake is Oneka, located in sections 9 and 16. Rice lake has

been celebrated as the resort of Indians from Mendota, who camped here

annually to gather wild rice for the St. Paul and Minneapolis markets.

The first settlers were Fayette Tainter and John Chester, young men

who came together in 1850 for the purpose of locating claims and

baling hay. They carried on a stock farm for five years. The next

settlers, Lewis Sempler and his son-in-law, Joseph Freeman, came in

1855. They were followed by Dunn, Barnum, Hatch and Beecroft.

The St. Paul & Duluth railroad passes through the western part of the

town, entering in section 31, and leaving in section 5. There is but

one station upon the road, Centreville, a thriving little village,

having a hotel, store, school house, etc. Its post office was

established in 1874.

The first school district was organized in 1867. Ruth Miller taught

the first school. The first marriage was that of Joseph Lambert and

Mary Courtone. The first child born was Hoyt E., son of O. L. Kinyon,

Dec. 27, 1863. The first death was that of Herbert, son of O. L.

Kinyon, May 30, 1869.

ONEKA,

Located in the northeast quarter of section 8, was platted May, 1847,

by Franklin Jones; Chas. B. Lowell, surveyor.

SHADY SIDE VILLAGE,

Located on Bald Eagle lake, was platted in 1880, by Chas. P. Hill;

Brinckerhoff & Phillips, surveyors.

DANIEL HOPKINS, SR., son of Daniel Hopkins, of whom biographical

mention is made in the history of Newport, was born in New Hampshire.

He came to St. Paul in 1850, and engaged in the mercantile business on

Third street until 1852, when he removed to a farm between St. Anthony

and St. Paul, and dealt extensively in blooded stock until about

1855-56, when he purchased the farms of Austin and Tainter, on Rice

creek near the railroad. His farm consists of about 600 acres. The

railroad has a flag station at the farm known as Hopkins station.

STILLWATER.

Stillwater comprises fractional township 30, range 20, excepting the

site of the city of Stillwater. The surface is rolling and the soil

good. It is well watered with rivulets and small lakes. The first

settlers in the town outside the city limits were the Lymans,

consisting of the father (Cornelius) and two sons, C. Storrs and D.

P., Charles Macy, W. T. Boutwell, Sebastian Marty, Wm. Rutherford, J.

J. McKenzie, Albion Masterman, and Dr. James Carey. The first white

child born in the town was Emily S., daughter of C. S. Lyman, in 1846.

The first death was that of Betsey, daughter of C. S. Lyman, in 1846.

The first marriage was that of Abraham Click and Jane Sample, in 1853.

The first school was taught by Cynthia Pond, in 1852. The first road

through the town was from Dakota village via Carnelian lake and Marine

to St. Croix Falls. Messrs. Rutherford & Booth in 1857 built a flour

mill on Brown's creek, which empties into the St. Croix near the head

of the lake. The mill was located above McKusick's lake, and has been

for some years abandoned. Brown's creek originally passed through

sections 18, 19, 20 and 21 to the river, but was turned in 1843 from

its natural course, and made to connect McKusick's lake with the St.

Croix by a new channel cut through sections 28 and 29, thus giving to

Stillwater its initial advantages as a manufacturing centre. The

Washington county poor farm, consisting of 207 acres of improved laud

with good buildings and other conveniences, was located in this town

in 1858.

OAK PARK

Was platted May 27, 1857. It is situated between the city of

Stillwater and South Stillwater, with frontage on the lake. The

proprietors were John Parker, Wm. Dorr, Gold T. Curtis, Mary Curtis,

Olive A. B. Anderson, and Wm. M. McCluer. The surveyor was A. Van

Voorhes.

The township of Stillwater was organized April 3, 1860, with the

following board of officers: Moderator, Cornelius Lyman; judges of

election, H. Packard, W. T. Boutwell, D. P. Lyman; supervisors, C.

Storrs Lyman, H. Packard, Henry A. Jackman; clerk, Sylvanus Trask.

DAVID P. LYMAN was born in St. Lawrence county, New York, in 1822. In

1844 he came with his parents to Marine. In 1846 he removed to his

present residence in the town of Stillwater. He was married to Anna J.

Hannah, at Farmingdale, Illinois, in 1850. They have five children.

Mr. Lyman is an upright, reliable citizen, and a consistent member of

the Presbyterian church.

HENRY A. JACKMAN, a native of Robbinstown, Maine, was born July 30,

1819. He was married to Sarah Blanchard in 1848. Mr. Jackman, with his

family, his father and his wife's parents, came West in 1849 and

located in Stillwater. In 1851 he removed to his farm. He has since

engaged in farming and lumbering, and has filled several important

positions. He served as school trustee for 30 years, as county

commissioner 8 years, as warden of state prison 4 years, as state

prison inspector 20 years, and was a representative in the territorial

legislature of 1856, and the state legislature of 1867. Mr. Jackman's

father, a native of Brunswick, Maine, died at his son's residence in

Stillwater, April, 1867, aged seventy-four years. He was a man honored

for his kindness and sterling integrity. His wife, the mother of Henry

A., died in Maine in 1844. Three sons and four daughters survive them.

The children of Henry A. Jackman are Mary E. (Mrs. Russell Pease),

James E. and Alice (Mrs. Wm. A. Boxwell).

FREDERIC J. CURTIS, a native of Ireland, was born in 1818. Before

coming to America he learned the trade of boot and shoe making. He

came to America in 1843, and spent two years in New York City working

at his trade. He also spent two years in St. Louis and New Orleans. He

came to Stillwater in 1848 and settled on his farm in section 9, where

he has since lived. He held the office of sheriff two years. He was

one of the first police of the city of Stillwater and has been town

treasurer and school director. He was married to Bridget Fenton in

1849. Their children are Daniel, Thomas, James, Elisabeth, Mary,

Maggie, and Ellen B.

DAVID COVER was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, May 22,

1826. In 1844 he came with his parents to St. Louis, Missouri, where

he became a river pilot, and engaged in lumbering for eight years,

when he came to Stillwater, and for some years gave his attention

largely to selling logs and lumber between Stillwater and St. Louis.

During the years between 1860 and 1870 his business transactions were

heavy, involving hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, and from

some injudicious movements, due to lack of experience, resulted in

disastrous failure. After his failure he devoted himself to farming

and fire insurance business. He was married in 1850 to Elisabeth

Harrold. They are the parents of three sons. Mr. Cover was

accidentally drowned in Lake St. Croix Sept. 14, 1884. His life was

insured for $17,000.

JOHN PARKER came from Vermont to the valley of the St. Croix in 1848,

located for a couple of years at St. Croix Falls, and came to Oak

Park, town of Stillwater, about 1850. In 1848 Mr. Parker was married

to Susan, daughter of David Cover, who bore him three children: Edwin

E., the oldest, killed by the explosion of the boilers of the steamer

Penn Wright, near Winona; John E., living at home with his mother, and

Ella, wife of Henry Pevey, of Stillwater. Mr. Parker was a kind

hearted, genial man. He was one of the early river pilots, and came to

his death in June, 1867, while in the performance of his duties as a

pilot. In handling a line to "snub" a raft, he was caught in its coils

and so bruised that he died.

WOODBURY,

As at present organized, includes township 28, range 21. At the date

of its organization, in 1868, it was named Red Rock, and made to

include a little over two sections of fractional township 28, range

22. This fragment contains the famous painted rock, now included in

the town of Newport, and from this rock, familiarly called Red Rock,

the town received its first name. The first board of town officers

consisted of John Colby; moderator; David Little and C. Schmeiding,

judges of election; John Colby, John A. Ford, J. J. Miller,

supervisors; Ebenezer Ayers, clerk.