Fifty Years In The Northwest Part 12

The town of Pineville, a railroad station and village in section 9, is a lumbering centre. The Pineville Lumbering Company have here a saw mill with a capacity of 7,000,000 feet. The logs are brought on wooden railways three to ten miles. P. B. Lacy & Co., of Hudson, are the proprietors.

FRANK M. NYE was born in s.h.i.+rley, Piscataquis county, Maine, in 1852.

His parents removed to Wisconsin in 1854. He was educated at the common schools and at River Falls Academy. He came to Clear Lake in 1879, and was elected district attorney for Polk county in 1880, and representative in the Wisconsin a.s.sembly in 1885. He removed to Minneapolis in 1887.

EUREKA.

Eureka embraces towns.h.i.+p 35, range 18 and a fractional part of range 19. The west part is somewhat broken by the St. Croix bluffs; the remainder is undulating and capable of agricultural improvement. There are many good farms in this town. There are a few small lakes in the eastern part. Eureka was set off from St. Croix Falls, and organized Dec. 16, 1877. The first supervisors were Lucius A. Harper, Jens Welling and William Booth. The first settlers were L. A. Harper, John C. Beede, Henry Cole and others. There are three post offices in the town,--Harper, Cus.h.i.+ng and North Valley. At the mouth of Wolf creek, in the extreme northwestern section of this town, J. R. Brown had a trading house in the '30s, and Louis Roberts in the '40s. At this place Alex. Livingston, another trader, was killed by Indians in 1849.

Livingston had built him a comfortable home, which he made a stopping place for the weary traveler, whom he fed on wild rice, maple sugar, venison, bear meat, muskrats, wild fowl and flour bread, all decently prepared by his Indian wife. Mr. Livingston was killed by an Indian in 1849.

In 1855 Carma P. Garlick surveyed a quarter section here and laid it off into town lots, and had lithograph maps published, calling the prospective village Sebatanna, an Indian town signifying "Water Village."

CHARLES NEVERS settled here about 1860, and has now a fine farm and good buildings.

FARMINGTON.

Farmington was organized as a town in 1858. It contains forty-two sections of land, in towns.h.i.+p 32, ranges 18 and 19, with some fractions of sections on the St. Croix. It is a rich agricultural town, well diversified with prairie and timber land. Its western portion, along the St. Croix, has the picturesque bluffs common to that river, with some unusually beautiful cascades and hillside springs, of which the most notable are the well known mineral spring and the springs at the lime kiln. The mineral spring is situated on the St. Croix river, at the base of the bluff, and about one mile and a half below Osceola Mills. A beautiful hotel was built in 1876 on the cliff above, at a cost of about $20,000, which became quite a popular place of resort until 1885, when it was burned. It has not been rebuilt. The property was improved by Currant & Stevens, but afterward sold.

The following a.n.a.lysis shows the chemical const.i.tuents of a gallon of the water of the spring:

GRAINS.

Chloride of sodium .053 Sulphate of soda .524 Bicarbonate of soda .799 Bicarbonate of lime 11.193 Bicarbonate of magnesia 7.248 Iron and alumina .492 Silica .265 Organic matter a trace ------- Total 20,565

South Farmington Corners has a prosperous cheese factory, owned and operated by Koch Brothers, erected in 1883, turning out in 1884 sixteen tons of cheese and in 1885 over twenty tons. South Farmington has a Catholic church building.

The first crops in Farmington were raised by Wm. Kent on a farm near Osceola in 1846, and the same year Harmon Crandall and Richard Arnold improved land and raised crops not far from the present village of Farmington. Here, owing to the sandy nature of the soil, well digging proved rather perilous to the two farmers. Mr. Arnold attempted to dig a well in a depression, a sinkhole, in the prairie. As he dug deeper the sides of the well caved in, almost burying him. He managed by his own utmost exertions and those of his friend Crandall to escape, but left his boots deeply imbedded in prairie soil.

In 1887 the Soo Railroad Company bridged the St. Croix, at the cedar bend at the south point of the leaning cedars, and extended their grade along the base of the precipice overlooking the river above, and commanding an extensive view of bold, picturesque and beautiful scenery.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

HARMON CRANDALL.--The Crandall family were the first to settle in Osceola Prairie, in the town of Farmington. Mr. Crandall moved to his farm in 1846, and lived there many years; sold out and removed to Hudson, where, in later life, he became blind. He had three sons born in Farmington. In 1882 he moved to Sh.e.l.l Lake, Washburn county, where he died, Aug. 8, 1886. Mrs. Crandall died May 11, 1888.

SAMUEL WALL.--Mr. Wall was born in 1824, in Shrops.h.i.+re, England; went as a British soldier to the West Indies in 1840; two years later came to New York City; one year later to St. Louis; in 1844 to St. Paul and in 1846 to the St. Croix valley, where he made a permanent home at the lime kiln, which he bought of William Willim. He was married to Anna Maria Moore in 1857. They had been educated as Episcopalians, but are now Catholics and have educated their children in that faith in the schools at St. Paul. Mr. Wall served five years in the British army for thirteen pence a day, but West India rum was cheap, only ten pence per gallon, and this, Mr. Wall pathetically remarked, "was an unfortunate element for the lime-kiln man." After twenty-six years of struggle Mr. Wall came out victorious and now strongly advises all young men to "touch not, taste not, handle not," anything that can intoxicate. The writer trusts he may stand firm.

WILLIAM RAMSEY was born in Ireland in 1814, and came to America with his parents in his youth, first settling in Nova Scotia. In 1834 he came to Was.h.i.+ngton county, Maine. In 1839 he was married to Sarah Stevens, at Crawford, Maine. In 1849 he went to California. In 1850 he returned, and located on his farm in Farmington, Polk county, where he still resides, an efficient citizen, who has borne his full part in the organization of town and county, and filled various offices.

HIRAM W. NASON.--Mr. Nason was born in Waterville, Maine, in 1792.

When of age he settled in Crawford, Maine. In 1852 he was married. He came to Polk county, and settled in Farmington in 1853. Mr. Nason died in 1859. Mrs. Nason died some years later. They were members of the Baptist church. Their children are Joel F., Levi, Merrill, Crocker, Albert, James, Maria, wife of Thos. Ford, of Farmington, and Frances, wife of Moses Peaselee, of Farmington. Mr. Ford died in 1880. He was a well to do farmer. Mr. Peaselee, also a farmer, has served as sheriff of Polk county.

JOEL F. NASON.--Mr. Nason was born Aug. 31, 1828, in Was.h.i.+ngton county, Maine. He was married to Bertha Hans...o...b.. of Crawford, Maine, in July, 1851. Their children are Everett, Fred, Louisa, wife of Albert Thompson, and Bertha. Mrs. Nason died in 1862. Mr. Nason was married to Mary Ann G.o.dfrey, of Osceola, in 1867. Mrs. Nason died February, 1885. He was married to Miss f.a.n.n.y Field, of St. Croix Falls, in 1887. Mr. Nason settled in Farmington in 1852. He engaged in lumbering many years, and was called by his fellow citizens to fill several important offices. He served eight years as county clerk. He was appointed receiver of the United States land office at St. Croix Falls in 1871, which office he resigned in 1884, when he was elected state senator.

JOHN MCADAMS was born in Tennessee in 1808. He was employed for many years on the Louisville (Ky.) ca.n.a.l. He was married to Eliza Robinson in 1840. Mrs. McAdams died in 1844, leaving one son, Melville, born 1842, who came with his father to the St. Croix valley in 1849. He first located at Osceola, but in 1854 removed to Farmington, where he died in 1883. Mr. McAdams was a mineralogist of some ability.

CHARLES TEA was born in Pennsylvania in 1817; came into the St. Croix valley in 1849; was married in 1850 to Mary McAdams, sister of John McAdams, and in the same year settled on a farm in Farmington. In 1880 he removed to Southern Iowa.

GARFIELD.

Garfield includes thirty sections of range 17, and six sections of range 18, towns.h.i.+p 33. It is well watered and has many small lakes, while Sucker lake, a lake of considerable size, is about equally divided between its own territory and that of Lincoln. Garfield was organized in 1886. The first supervisors were Abraham Sylvester, James T. Montgomery and Martin Hanson. In 1887 the Minneapolis, Soo & Atlantic railway built through the town from west to southeast and established one station, Deronda, in the southeast corner of the town.

The post office of El Salem is in Garfield.

GEORGETOWN.

Georgetown comprises towns.h.i.+p 35, ranges 15 and 16. This town is abundantly supplied with water by Apple river and its tributaries, and numerous lakes, some of them of considerable size. The largest are Bone, Blake, Powder and Pipe. The timber is hardwood and pine intermingled. Immense quant.i.ties of pine have been taken from this town, and still much remains. Wild meadows are plentiful. Georgetown was set off from Milltown and organized Nov. 15, 1879. The first supervisors were David H. Smith, Elisha E. Drake and August Larbell.

George P. Anderson was the first settler (1873), and his christian name was affixed to the town. The first school was taught in 1874 by John Burns. A post office was established in 1881 at Bunyan, G. P.

Anderson, postmaster. The first sermon was preached by Rev. C. D.

Scott, a Methodist. The first birth was that of Lucy Anderson; the first marriage that of Henry King to Etta Clark. The first death was that of August Larbell.

TWO MEN MURDERED.

Oliver Grover and Harry Knight, two prominent lumbermen of Stillwater, on July 2, 1864, were exploring for timber and hay on Pipe lake, section 10, in Georgetown. Not returning to their camp, two miles distant, the watchman at the camp, after waiting two days, went to St.

Croix Falls and gave the alarm. Many parties went in pursuit of the lost men. Some traces of their presence were discovered on the sh.o.r.e of this lake, but the search was finally abandoned. After some months the Indians confessed that two of their young men shot the two men, disemboweled them, burned the entrails and sunk the bodies in the lake. Their bodies were never found. We append the following newspaper clipping:

"FINALE.--The friends of the two Indians that shot Grover and Knight, last Tuesday delivered to P. B. Lacy, of St. Croix Falls, the valuables that were taken from the bodies of the murdered men. They consisted of $113 in gold, $282.05 in greenbacks, $160 in silver, one silver watch, one wallet and one pocket knife. This is probably the closing act of the b.l.o.o.d.y tragedy which cost two innocent men their lives at the hands of Indians steeped in liquor, and who, fearing the vengeance of the white man, committed suicide."

The two murderers had confessed the crime and shot themselves.

GEORGE P. ANDERSON.--Mr. Anderson was born in Fulvana county, Virginia, 1825; was educated in the common schools; lived in Ohio eighteen and in Indiana fifteen years, and came to Balsam Lake in 1866. Few men have been more active in the opening up of a new settlement. Mr. Anderson has been several times elected to office in the new county, and was a princ.i.p.al actor in the establishment of the Polk County Agricultural Society in 1886. He has a family of fifteen children living.

LAKETOWN.

Laketown includes towns.h.i.+p 36, range 18. It is named from the lakes that dot almost every section in the town. Trade lake, with its tributary from b.u.t.ternut lake, are the princ.i.p.al streams. The town was set off from Sterling and organized April 6, 1875. The first supervisors were L. Bell; S. P. Heard and N. Fornell. The town was settled largely by Swedes, Norwegians, Danes and Alabamians. The latter settled in the northwestern part of the town. In 1869 Caleb Cus.h.i.+ng bought the agricultural college lands in the town to the amount of 7,200 acres. The first school house was built in 1870, in section 8. P. Tierney taught the first school. Lindsey McKee was the first settler. He was also the first to sell out and leave. Daniel Swensbarger, a German, bought him out, and a number of his countrymen settled near him. Jacob Swensbarger started a store. N. Grondund built the first blacksmith shop. Peter Olsen built the first saw mill, at the foot of Long lake, in 1875. The first marriage was that of L.

McKee and Mary Addington, by L. Bell, Esq.

LINCOLN.

Lincoln includes towns.h.i.+p 33, range 16, and the eastern tier of sections of towns.h.i.+p 33, range 17. It is abundantly watered by Apple river and its tributaries, and has numerous lakes of which Sucker lake is the largest. The soil is well adapted to the culture of wheat.

There are many fine farms in this towns.h.i.+p. The surface, originally covered with timber, is undulating. The town was organized in 1860, being set off from Osceola. The first town meeting was held April, 1861. A. A. Heald, M. C. Lane and John Hurness were the first supervisors. The post town is at Lincoln Centre. The Polk county poor farm is pleasantly situated on a lake in Lincoln, and has been well managed for a series of years by Capt. Wilkie.

AMERY village is located on Apple river, at the crossing of the "Soo Line" railway. It has two saw mills and a stave factory. The Minneapolis, Soo & Atlantic railway pa.s.ses through Lincoln from southwest to east, and has a station at Apple River crossing, named Amery, in honor of William Amery, one of Polk county's best citizens.

WM. WILSON was born in 1828, at Armagh county, Ireland. At four years of age he came to America with his parents, who located at Canada West, where he learned the baker's trade. In 1849 he came to Osceola and followed lumbering eight years. He was married at Osceola to Leah Moody and located on his homestead in Lincoln in 1870. He has three sons. Mr. Wilson has been a useful citizen and has done his full share of pioneer work.

LORAINE.

Loraine includes towns.h.i.+ps 36 and 37, range 15. It is a heavily timbered district, with hardwood and pine interspersed. The surface is undulating and the soil is much of it good. It is well watered by South Clam creek and tributaries, and has a mult.i.tude of small lakes.

There are some fine farms in the northern part of the towns.h.i.+p.

Loraine was organized Nov. 14, 1872. The first town meeting was held April, 1873. The first supervisors were, Frank J. Williams, George Phelps and John Klinch. Wm. Gallespie built the first hotel and opened it in 1873. The first school was taught by Georgia Lacy. The first marriage was that of James Lago and Almeda Johnson. The first white child was George Phillips; the first death that of a child of J. L.

Ellis.