Becker County, Minnesota - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read), 1907 (part 11 of 16)

On June 23rd, 1871. the town of Richwood was organized, and the first town meeting was held in Haney's sawmill, on the 29th of September, 1871. The first town clerk elected was Hans Hanson, but as the records have been destroyed I cannot remember who the rest of the town officers were. School districts number 4 and 7 were organized August 9th, 1872. These were the first school districts in the town.

Chairman of board of supervisors, W. W. ^IcLeod; supervisors, Ole Qualey and Sivert Sampson; township clerk, Hans Hanson; treasurer, Gabriel Halverson; justices of the peace, Tver Christenson, John Anderson.

Mr. Ezra Rumery settled on the northeast charter of Section 34 in the spring of 1872. Mr. Rumery was one of the jurors in the trial of Bobolink for the Cook family murder. He was town clerk of Richwood for many years. A little later in the same spring Luke Collins and Sidney Brigham. both Americans from the state of Massachusetts, settled on the west half of Section 34. Our first school was taught by Miss Hattie Brigham, in the fore part of the summer 1873. We had no schoolhouse, but hired the shanty wliich Iver Larson had erected on his claim on Section 30 for that pnrpose. In winding" up this little history of the early settlement of the town of Richwood, I will have to mention another trip that we made in September, 1871. The weather was nice, and Iver Christenson and I with our families started for Detroit Lake. We camped on the shore of the lake, where we had camped on the 2nd of July the year before when we were moving into the country. We went along the lake shore when Mr. Christenson noticed a piece of colored paper floating on the water close to the land. We then picked it up, and after examining it came to the conclusion that it was a part of a ten dollar greenback. After looking for some more, we found several other pieces which belonged to the same bill. These pieces were carefully preserved and sent to the bank in St. Paul, which sent us by return $9.80, so this pleasure trip turned out better than the one to Oak Lake when the Indians tackled us.

The first birth in the township of Richwood was that of Tolof Christenson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Iver Christenson, who was born on the 19th of November, 1870. This same little boy died on the 8th of October, 1871, and his death was the first to occur in the township. The first people to get married in the township were Swan Lundin and Emma Johnson, who were married on the 27th of April, 1872, by L. G. Stevenson, justice of the peace.

W. G. Hazelton and William Long settled near Richwood Village in the spring of 1872. Mr. Hazelton has resided there ever since, and has been the leading spirit and the principal standby in that part of the township for many years.

In the fall of 1870 I sold my homestead in West Union, Todd County, Minn., and fixed up a good covered wagon and with a span of stout mules, took my neighbor E. E. Abbott and started for the Northern Pacific Railroad. We camped for dinner at Old Oak Lake, and while I was after a pail of water, a man by the name of Andrew J. Haney came along and was talking very earnestly with Mr. Abbott when I came back. He finally persuaded us to go home with him instead of going to where Lake Park is now as we had intended. Haney wanted to sell us a share in his sawmill, and after buying a lot of eatables at Sterling's store, at Oak Lake we started north and after traveling about ten miles came to his mill dam where the village of Richwood now stands. We looked over his property, which looked quite favorable, and finally made a bargain for a third interest, although it was all on government land. I was the only one who had any ready money, as Abbott depended on Alexander Moore of Sauk Centre to give him a lift, which he did the next spring.

The next spring we shipped a new sawmill to Benson, which was then the terminus of the nearest railroad and hauled it by team from there to the present village of Richwood, a distance of 160 miles. In the month of May, 1871, I moved my family to the new mill and about the 20th of June the sawing commenced, with a low head of water, as it was a very dry summer and the streams were low. Our sawing proceeded slowly in consequence, but we secured a good price for all the lumber we sawed.

That summer J. E. Van Gorden came to our place from Oak Lake Cut, where he had been clerking, and did a few jobs of carpenter work, and during his stay he traded his farm to Haney for his interest in his claim, mill and saw logs. Soon after that time I bought Abbott's interest, and then took one-third of Van Gorden's interest, which made us equal owners. The next spring we received $1,000 in advance on lumber, but it went, and in the spring of 1874 the dam went out and I went out afterwards, and Knowles and A. S. Blowers went in and put a flour mill in operation which was sold and resold until it was lastly bought by the present owner, Henry Reinhardt, who is a credit to all concerned.

The first store was brought from Fergus Falls by two brothers by the name of Miles. They put a part of their goods in a large tent and a part of them in my house, and there they remained all summer, but were taken away in the fall 1871. The parties lived in Wisconsin.

You are correct in thinking that I taught the first school in Richwood. You will probably recollect that when you came after me, you were obliged to cut a road through the woods for the passage of the team. Finding that you would not get through in time, you left the oxen somewhere in the vicinity of Campbell's Lake, and I came on foot. I was obliged to walk some distance, while you and another man carried my trunk.

I first taught in the village of Richwood, the school beginning on the 22d of September, 1872. This was the first school ever taught in that village. The district was composed of three families, that of W. W. McLeod, J. E. Van Gorden and E. E. Abbott, and the pupils were eleven in number. For the first two weeks the school was held in Mr. Win Gorden's house, and for the remainder of the term in a log house with a board addition. It was during my first week that the great snow-storm of September 25th occurred.

Hugh Campbell froze to death on the 20th of February, 1875. He lies buried in the same grave with William W. Harding in the Detroit cemetery, about midway in the front tier of lots. There is a little marble slab at the head of Harding's grave. When the cemetery was resurveyed in 1883. Campbell's grave was found to be in the street, so I had him taken up and placed beside his old neighbor.

Sidney Brigham was born at Marlborough, Mass., August 4th, 181 7. He was the son of Phineas Brigham, a soldier of the War of 1812, and of Lydia Wilkins Brigham, whose father was a Revolutionary soldier. He was a descendent in the seventh generation of the Puritan Thomas Brigham, who left England, April 8th, 1653, and settled in Massachusetts.

of eight children, consequently his early educational advantages were limited, but he became a well informed man with more than ordinary acquaintance with the people and events of his own and other countries. On January 8th, 1839, he was married to Fanny N. Hemenway, a native of Farmingham, Mass., and lived happily with her for more than thirty-nine years. Nine children were born to them, four of whom died in early childhood, the remaining five daughters growing to womanhood. Those who died were two boys and two girls.

On the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion, he enlisted in the 13th Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, but he was unable to pass the necessary medical examination, and was obliged to return home. Though he was prevented from serving his country in the field, his patriotism was unbounded, and by word and vote he sustained the government and its defenders, and his hand and purse were ever ready at their call.

On account of ill health of himself and other members of his family he decided to settle in Minnesota, and leaving Massachusetts, on the 22nd day of July, 1872, with his wife and five daughters, he reached Detroit in Becker County, August 2nd, and on the 4th of the same month, his fifty-fifth birthday, took up his residence on a timber claim in the town of Richwood. There 1)eing' no road to his claim, he was obliged to follow the Indian trail to Floyd Lake, skirt the shore of that body of water for a certain distance, cross through the timber to the Pelican River, where it enters Little Floyd Lake and fording that stream, strike out a road for himself by following a footpath to his claim. A tamarack swamp blocked the way. Having taken his oxen through the swamp, he dared not undertake the crossing, but hired teams to take the lumber for his house, boxes of goods, etc., as far as the swamp, where they were unloaded, unpacked, carried or backed through the swamp to where his own team was in waiting, reloaded and taken to his home. Fortunately the road through the timber to White Earth was soon opened, the corduroys laid through the swamps and before winter set in, while the corduroys were still guiltless of earth, he had the privilege and the honor of being the first man to drive a team over the new road to Detroit. Notwithstanding his age and ill health, his industry and energy were unfailing, and he went to work with a will to make a home in the wilderness. He built a log house and spent his days in clearing his land and in the labors of seed time and harvest. Twice the grasshoppers descended on his fields and destroyed the fruits of his labors, but still he was ready to try again with faith in ultimate prosperity.

In the spring of 1877 his health began to fail rapidly and he gradually relinquished his most arduous labors. As winter approached and he was unable to swing an ax, a long handle was attached to a hatchet and with it he continued to clear the brush from the land, and piling it about trees, previously killed, or in which he had bored holes with an auger to give a better hold to the flames, he burned all together making ready for breaking the soil. But at last this was relinquished, and after a few more weeks of great suffering borne with remarkable patience and fortitude, on the 30th day of April, 1878, he laid down life's burdens and rested from his labors.

Amelia R. was born in Stow, Mass., Jan. loth, 1846; was a teacher in Becker County, and she married J. H. Sutherland of Detroit, Jan. ist, 1875.

Hattie M. was born in Hudson, Mass., Dec. 19th, 1853 ; she was a teacher in Becker County and married W. A. Norcross of Detroit, Dec. 19th, 1875.

Nellie F. was born in Marlborough, Mass., Nov. 27th, 1855 ; she was a teacher in Becker County and married C. H. Potter of Detroit, April 5th, 1876, and moved to Spokane, Washington, May 1st, 1884.

Angie S. was born in Marlborough, Mass., Nov. nth, 1859; she taught in Becker County and moved to Spokane, Washington, May ist, 1884, and married C. H. Dart of Spokane, June ist, 1887. Mrs. West. Mrs. J. H. Sutherland.

Luke Collins was born at Southboro, Mass., August 3rd, 1816. He learned the trade of boot and shoe making, and became a superior workman, holding places of responsibility when in the employ of others, and also engaging in the business as a manufacturer. About 1845, he was married to Sophia H. Heminway of Marlborough, Mass. Three sons were born to them, one of whom came with hun to Minnesota. The others, twins, dying in infancy. His wife survived them only a few weeks ; .she died in February, 1857. He never remarried. Though nearly forty-five years of age he was one of the first to answer Lincoln's call for "three year men" in 1861, enlisting in Company "F," Thirteenth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, leaving for Washington in July. He was detailed as driver of medical stores and later as ambulance driver; in the latter capacity during and after the battle of Antietam, September 17th, 1862, he labored in carrying away and caring for the wounded three days and nights without rest thereby contracting the disease which necessitated his discharge from the service in Jan., 1863, and which finally resulted in his death. He was popular with his comrades being known as Uncle and Daddy Luke. After his discharge from the army he returned to Massachusetts and pursued his ordinary avocation until June, 1872, when he with his son removed to Minnesota, taking up a claim in Richwood, Becker County. On the 30th of May, 1888, he insisted on marching with his comrades to the cemetery to place his tribute of respect and loving remembrance upon the graves of those who had fallen from the ranks. His sight was so nearly gone that he found it difficult to keep in line and once he wandered from the ranks. Afterwards he marched with his hand on the comrade preceding him and in that way was able to keep his place. The hard march was too much for him with his failing strength, and the next day a violent attack of neuralgia of the heart developed which resulted fatally in the early morning of the ist of June. His funeral was conducted by F. C. Choate Post, Number 67 of the Grand Army of the Republic, of which he was a member. To the music of the fife and drum his comrades escorted his remains to the cemetery and with a volley of musketry left him at rest in a soldier's grave.

Lars (3esox Ramstad. Lars Olson Rainstad was born in Toten, Norway. Aug'ust. 13th. 1849, ^"<^ ^^"^^ educated in the public school from the age of six to ten, then in a ])ri\'ate school until he was fourteen, when he was confirmed in the Lutheran church. He worked on the home farm for two rears, and then went into a country store as clerk for three years. He emigrated to the United States in 1869 and landed in Quebec, May 17th. He came directly to Lanesboro, Fillmore Count}-, -Minnesota, where an uncle Haagan Anderson was living ten miles south of Lanesboro. He remained there one year. In the latter part of May. 1870, he started with another uncle, Ole Peterson and family, and Jens Sukkestad (a cousin), Ole J. Xettum and Iver Knudson being also in the company. They had two covered wagons and tw'O double ox teams. Ramstad at this time only owned a cow ; among them all the}- had about 23 head of slock. They camped the first night between Preston and Chatfiehl, grass furnishing food for the stock. They had four teams of working oxen, and it sometimes took the cond)ined teams to pull a single wagon out of the mud encountered on the way. They came through Rochester, Zumbrota, Cannon Falls, St. Paul, St. Anthony, Elk River, and St. Cloud, where the railroad stopped then, and followed a trail to Cold Spring ^Nlill and then on to Sauk Centre, Osakis and Alexandria. They stopped a day there and bought provisions. They then resumed their travels to Chippewa and Clitheral. They found log houses and Indians camping there, and remained for some days looking over the coimtry. Iver Knudson and Jens Sukkestad went ahead on foot to John Heaver's house, west of Audubon wdiich is still standing ( 1894), and came back with so goodly a report of the countrx' that they had seen that the rest of the party went on to the same point. John r)eaver was one of the first l)oard of county commissioners. His land was on Section 8, Audubon. Dr. Pyle's home is still standing southwest of I'eaver's on the hill south of the road going to Beaver's. All thought they had never seen a finer prospect. The grass in some jdaces was two and a half feet high, the ToJlihg prairie was dotted with lakes and groves here and there ; so liei-e they tarried. From Clitheral to Otter Tail City they were obliged to ford the streams and cross the sloughs. They cut pine boughs and placed them in the swamjjs; when they reached the third crossing of the Otter Tail River, where Frazee now stands, the men waded in the stream to their armpits, the women climbing onto the highest boxes in the wagons, and the young stock swam across. At Oak Lake two trails could be seen, one leading to White Earth, the other west, used by the Indians. Peterson and Sukkestad took land adjoining in Audubon, Section 4. Ramstad took some land in Section 32, in Hamden, and two lots in Section 33. He selected the same on July 1st, 1870, and got his papers in 1872. Xettum took land in Section 2,- in Hamden. He and Ramstad were the first settlers in that townshi]). Hans Ebeltoft located in June, 1870, and settled there in 1871. Tom Reese, brother-in-law of Isaac Jenkins, took land late in the fall of 1870, on Section 12, and Belmont Clark in the same year, on the same section. On November 4th, the town was named for him. John Bill came next. ^^^ A. ^^'ilkins came in 1871 and bought Belmont Clark's claim. Xels Anderson, an earlv settler came then. Ramstad was married Feb- ruary nth, 1875, to Annie L. Johnson, sister of Ole Johnson. The ceremony was performed l)y Rev. Tharaldson in the Congregational Church. The first Norwegian Lutheran meeting was held in John Beaver's house in the fall of 1870. Rev. Watleson holding service. Here the synod church was formed. The preacher came there twice yearly from Otter Tail County. They decided to become a conference church the next year, 1871.

A great prairie fire raged in the fall of 1870, starting at Bufifalo River ; it swept over Richwood, then down across the prairie and only stopped in the Oak Lake woods. Ramstad then saw A. H. Wilcox for the first time. He was surveying for the government and had to start a back-fire to protect himself. Henry Way speaks of the same fire. He and C. A. Sherman had to run for their lives and just escaped. A rain-storm put it out finally.

By L. O. R.\mstad. L. O. Ramstad, March 12th, 1894, said : "During the fall of 1870, a large party of forty or fifty carriages camped on Section 5 of Audubon. They kept up firing all night, which startled the settlers as they did not see them come in and did not know what to make of it. They proved to be a party of railroad people who had come from Red River. They had not seen them go out. Late the same fall, 1870, on Section 6, in Audubon, Gunder Carlson was shot by Indians, he being upon his claim with a son nine or ten years old. They had gone to bed when Mr. Carlson, noticing a bright light, stepped to the door and out into the yard, when he saw it was from his haystacks. The Indian, who had come for plunder, had set the stacks on fire, and standing behind Carlson and the haystacks fired. Carlson called to his boy who came to him when he was shot, and they went around to the stable to turn out the stock. Carlson and the boy went that night to Christ. Anderson's. Next morning the neighbors heard of it and those who cared and could be mustered went to the relief. Ramstad, Gregory, Henry Way and Doctor Pyle were there. Carlson lived several years after this but finally died of the wounds. The first graveyard in Audubon was on Way's farm, and Gunder Carlson was buried there. Carlson's son in 1894 was living on Ole Boe's place in Section 29, Hamden Township.

One hundred and seven signed a petition to Governor Austin begging- protection from the Indians, the result being that after this and the Cook murder the Indians had to have a pass when they were off the reservation, which they would hold up above their heads whenever they came within range of a settler. Indians would lie about and watch Ramstad at work, but he would pay no attention to them. In the winter of 1870-71, Ramstad Sukkestad and three others lived together for protection. They killed a steer and had game in abundance. Ramstad was cook and would put the pot on with water heating, and go out with his gun and get prairie chickens for breakfast without trouble. He went to Alexandria in the fall of 1870. It took him thirteen days to make the trip with an ox team. He got flour, $1 worth of sugar and coffee. Sukkestad went to Otter Tail City in the winter for flour. They gathered from their hay some kind of grass from which they made the tea they drank that winter, and thus the five men spent the winter. In 1870 kerosene oil was 80 cents a gallon at B. B. Anderson's store, grain sacks 50 cents each, calico 18 cents a yard, matches 40 cents a box with about 500 in a box, unbleached sheeting 19 cents a yard, potatoes 80 cents a bushel, one quarter pound of common tea was fifty cents, box of pills 75 cents, one half gallon of molasses 80 cents, scythe $2.00, snath $1.50, whetstone 40 cents, stove pipe 40 cents a length. Hay sold for ten dollars a ton in the spring of 1871. In 1870 lard oil for greasing boots was 45 cents a quart, one half barrel of salt was $3.25, and in September linseed oil was 25 cents a pint. In the summer of 1870 the mosquitoes were very bad; one of the men would sit up all night to keep a smudge. They brought dogs with them to help protect themselves and the stock, taking turns to do this. All slept in their wagons from June until October, 1870, and found the mosquitoes very annoying.

In the winter of 1871 flour was $5.00 a sack, beans 7 cents a pound, pork, only a shilling; brown sugar, 15 cents; axes, $1.75; wooden pail, 40 cents ; smoking tobacco, 25 cents a quarter pound ; breaking land was $5.00 per acre. In 1872, yellow sugar was 17 cents a pound. In the winter of 1871-72, they were paid $1 a cord for chopping wood, and wagon grease was 25 cents a box. Hamden was at first called Belmont. Another town in Minnesota had the same name and it was changed. Settlers had to pay a carrier who went from Oak Lake to Otter Tail City live cents for a letter besides the postage. In the fall of 1872 was the first reaping that Ramstad knew of, B. B. Hemstock "cut grain with a reaper, and Thomas Pierce raked after him with a hand rake. Ramstad worked on the railroad in the fall of 1871, and on the gravel train in 1872. There were no buildings but tents in Fargo; the Headquarter's Hotel was building then. He bought pine lumber at Richwood of McLeod in 1872, before Frazee had started. He sa}s that grasshoppers appeared in the summer of 187 1 in June, and in 1872. In 1873 it was a wet season and they did not bother much, but were back in 1874 and hatched out in 1875, and they came back in 1876, but left for good in 1877. It seemed as if they were swept off. In 1877 they seemed to destroy the whole plant of wheat, eating head straw and all. Governor Pillsbury appointed a day of prayer for the abolition of this scourge and the people well attended the church services. The first mowing with machine brought $5.00 per day and $3. 00 for machine raking.

I saw Mr. L. S. Cravath early in the spring of 1871, before the snow went off. He and two other men had been over to Section 34, where he had taken a claim the fall before. He and his family were then stopping at Dr. Pyle's house, about four miles southwest from his claim. He moved onto his claim soon afterwards and if Mrs. Cravath went with him she was the first white woman in the township. Hans Ebeltoft's family did not come until May or June.

W. A. Wilkins told me the name of the township had been changed from Belmont to Hamden because there was another Belmont in the state, but he could not tell why it was called Hamden, and I never knew.

Late in the fall of 1871 several of us were working on the railroad grade, hauling dirt with our oxen from a cut to a dump a little west of Mu.skoda in Clay County. In our party were Andrew Jenson. Simon Jenson, J. O. Sukkestad, Chris Olson, now a Lake Park banker, Thorville Hanson, Ammund Borstad, P. A. O. Peterson and Chris E. Bjorge, another banker. Chris Olson's oxen ran home one night, but Olson was on hand with the oxen the next monfing all the same after a chase of nearly thirty nfiles. One time I went home after a load of supplies for the camp. I started from home at four in the morning and all went well until I came near to where Winnipeg Junction is now when I saw smoke coming up from the southwest with a strong wind. I kept on the bluffs along the border of the valley, but in a short time I found that the situation was a grave one, and my only hope was to get across to the north side of the railroad grade at the Buffalo River crossing-. I drove on and urged the oxen faster and faster with the fire close behind, and with our oxen nearly exhausted we crossed the grade with the fire close to our heels, but we were where we were safe and gave the oxen a much needed rest. I arrived at the camp nearly midnight.

I would here like to mention one useful person : Mrs Hannah Ebeltoft, mother of Hans and Peter Ebeltoft. She was born in Sweden and married to Peter Ebeltoft, Sr., who died in Freeborn County before the Ebeltofts came to Becker County. She was the mother of twelve children and adopted three more who lived with her until maturity. She followed the calling of midwife until the time of her death, when she was over ninety years old, and the number of her patients ran into the thousands. She was a blessing to the people of this county during its early settlement when we had no doctors, going wherever called, whether in Becker, ( )tter Tail, Clay, or Xorman counties, in heavy snowstorms, dark, rainy nights, in some cases being ferried across rivers in wagon boxes too deep to be crossed with a team, and in many instances she was the saver of lives after they had been gi\en up by skillful physicians.

By AIrs. L. S. Cravatii. In the latter part of October, 1870, my husband, Mr. L. S. Cravath left Saratoga, Minnesota, in company with Ward Bill for the Northern Pacific country, wdiere he intended to file on government land, and return to Saratoga to spend the six months, before it was necessary to take his family onto the claim. They found so much excitement over claims that he decided to remain and send for his family to join him. Accordingly he accepted a position in T. M. Ault's railroad store. The latter part of December of the same year, I started with my three little boys and maid ; we were nearly frightened to death by the solicitude of friends, who prophesied, either freezing to death in a blizzard, or starving for lack of food, or being killed by Indians ; still the prospect of a united family gave me courage to go. The journey from Sauk Centre to Otter Tail City was made by stage. That town and its hotel were the newest of the new, and barren of all comforts. My husband did not reach there until morning and then we made the journey to the railroad camp, which was between what is now Frazee and Detroit Lake, in a lumber wagon. I had never seen a railroad camp before and the long, low, log buildings covered with dirt, and filled with rough, unshaven men, were far from attractive. The next night after reaching the camp, it being Christmas eve, the contractor furnished the men whisky, and such a carousal as they had, forty or fift}' men in one room and nearly all howling drunk. The men's quarters were on one side of the kitchen and eating room and the store on the other. Our family arose and dressed and went into the store to sit the night out. I asked the contractor if the men Avere killing each other. "Oh no," he said, "I guess you are not used to Christmas carols, Mrs. Cravath." We stayed at the camp only about six weeks, and then went to Dr. Pyle's, where we lived until we moved onto our claim the first part of April. Dr. Pyle, whose large frame indicated his big, generous heart, made every one welcome, and divided room with each newcomer, as long as another bed could be crowded onto the floor. He made the first Fourth of July oration delivered in Becker County, and it was a good one. Near the close he praised the country, the men, and the women, and moving his hand in a circle to include the young mothers that held their babies, said, and the babies, the plentiest, the prettiest in the world, God bless them," and sat down amid roars of applause. To the credit of the Audubon people, be it said, that four years later, when the doctor was about to move to Monticello, Minnesota, they made a banquet for him and presented to him a goldheaded cane on which was engraved a chronicle of his helpfulness to the early settlers; and we were told that the cane proved an open sesame to a good practice there.

My husband found it a long way to go five miles every day to work on the buildings on our claim, so as soon as the stable of unhewed logs was completed we moved into it. There was not a house nor claim shanty in sight, yet we were never homesick nor discouraged, but full of hope for the future.

In 1871 my husband was elected to the legislature, and in 1872 appointed local land agent and townsite agent for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. In the months of May and June, 1871, the settlers commenced coming, and many shanties were built on claims, and the tent town of Oak Lake having arisen in all its glory, visitors of note commenced to come. We met there Hon. William Windom ; Hon. Schuyler Colfax; C. C. Coffin, the author; Rev. E. P. Smith, the first Congregational Indian agent, at White Earth ; the bogus Lord Gordon (that cut so wide a swath) and his company. Bayard Taylor, the traveler, remarked as he drove over Oak Lake hill, "That he had seen no finer natural scenery, not even in Switzerland." Our family owned our homestead for thirty-six years, and lived on it all of the time, excepting the five years we lived in St. Charles for the

])urpose of cdncatini;- our children. \\e bout^jht land adjoinini^ our homestead, until the farm numbered four hundred and fifteen acres. Every tree and shrub we set out and with infinite pleasure, watched them grow, to their present beauty. They can be seen for miles around and certainly add a charm to the landscape. It was a sorrow to leave them and again take up pioneer life in North Dakota. Four of the children were born there and two married in the old home; one under one of the trees in front of the house.

The development of Becker County has been wonderful. Not even during the grasshopper scourge did the settlers accept aid, but bravely struggled on to earn a living. School houses and churches, are as numerous as in places that have been settled a hundred years, and scores of people have attained wealth here.

As L. O. Ramstad and Mrs. West have made a good beginning of the history of Hamden, and brought it up to the close of the year 1870, I will begin where they left ofT.

In November, 1870, Thomas Reese and Ole J. Weston took claims on Section 12, John Bill took a claim on Section 28, and Belmont Clark and L. S. Cravath took claims on Section 34, also Ward Bill.

C. A. Arvidson, Daniel Amos, and Nels Nelson settled on Section 2 that spring. Ellef N. Jellum and Anders Nelson took claims on the east half of Section 4, and Erick Overgaard on Section 6.

Christian Larson located on the southwest quarter of Section 8. He was the father of Sivert Larson and Ole C. Larson, the present sheriff, neither of these boys being old enough- to hold a homestead at that time. The remainder of Section 8 was taken about the same time by Nels Olson, Nicoli Overgaard, and a man by the name of Ingebretson.

John O. Herfindal. John Johnson and Peter Wilson settled on Section 18, Rolf Aniundson, Tosten Olson, Sylfest Branser, Peter Ellingson and L. L. Ramstad all located on Section 20.

Judge W. W. Wilkins

John F. Crowl and Joseph McKnight settled on Section 28; Stengrem N. Jellum, C. \\'. Mickelson. Lars A. Larson and John A. Herfindal located on Section 30.

Li 1872 W. W. A^'ilkins settled on Section 12, northeast qnarter, and W. S. Mois on Section 26, and A. K. Murray bought the John Bill place on Section 28.

The town was organized in September, 1871, and the first town election w^as held at the house of John Bill on Section 28, the 19th day of September, 1871, and the following officers were

The first white child born in Hamden township was Ingebor Dahlen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel H. Dahlen, who was born on the tenth of November, 1871. She is now the wife of Edward Mobraaten, and they live in Wendall, Minn.

The first recorded birth of a boy in the township is that of Ingebret Olson, born December 14th, 1872. He was the son of Tosten and Anna Olson, and is now dead. First death recorded,. Gunil Herfindal, died Alarch iSth, 1873.

The town was first named Belmont, but later changed to Hamden. The first marriage was Ole A. Boe to Julia Ebeltoft, Dec. 8th, 1872, ceremony performed by Rev. Hagebo, Lutheran minister.

In the fall of 1871 I was living with my brother on Section 32 in the town of Hamden. Game was very plentiful, especially ducks, geese and prairie chickens. It was no trouble to keep our families in meat, as all we had to do was to look out on the lake in the morning and see where the ducks were, which would be located according to the wind, and with a double-barreled shot gun we could usually kill enough to last the whole day. We had a small boat in the lake that was just large enough to carry one man, which we used in our hunting excursions. It was a small affair and at first we had to be very careful. After a while we got used to it and could shoot from the boat without any fear of upsetting. One day, however, I was out chasing a wounded duck without success, and I finally concluded I would go down to the other end of the lake and let her die, and pick her up when I came back, but I had hardly turned around when my boat swamped and the first thing I knew, I was out in the lake. I caught my gun with one hand and the edge of the boat with the other, so I had something to hang onto, but I was in a bad fix,, eighty rods from shore and unable to swim a stroke. The bottom of the lake was so soft that I could not stand, the boat was full of water and I could get no foothold to empty it and there was not another boat anywhere in the vicinity. After being in the lake for more than two hours the boat drifted ashore on the side of the lake opposite to my home and I had lost all confidence in myself, as a sailor, but rather than walk for miles around the lake, I finally decided to take my chances in the boat, which took me back across the lake in safety.

Soon after the Cook family murder all our neighbors, except one family, gathered together in the stockade at Lake Park. This one family was that of Ole Davis, and together with my brother William's family and my own decided to stay together in my brother's house, as we were well armed and had a good dog that would not let any one come near without making a great fuss, so we all slept soundly every night until the scare was over.

In July, 1871, the grasshoppers came down in multitudes, but we had nothing for them to eat that year, but they laid immense quantities of eggs which hatched out in the spring of 1872, and ate up everything that we had sown, and had it not been that muskrats were plentiful, and brought a high price, many of the settlers would have suffered for the necessaries of life.

Hamden Township is famous for its artesian wells, and some of the finest springs in Becker County are to be found on the line between Sections 35 and 36. There is also a spring of strong, pure, sulphur water near the quarter section corner between Sections 25 and 36. This spring is supposed to possess superior medicinal properties when drank fresh from the spring, but the water loses its mineral properties after standing for a few hours even when corked up tight in an earthen jug.

Hans Ebeltoft. Hans Ebeltoft was born in Tromso, Norway, January 15th, 1836, and came to America in 1862, enlisted in the United States army in 1864 and remained with it until the close of the war. He was married to Gunhild Michelson on June 9th, 1867, and came to Becker County, June 5th, 1870, where he took a claim on Section 31 in the town of Hamden. His family came the year afterwards from Freeborn County, Minn.

Mr. And -Mrs. Hans Ebeltoft

In 1887 he mo\'e(l to tlie village of Lake Park, where he resided until his death, Aug. loth, 1903, leaving his wife and ten living children. He served two terms as county commissionerrjand several terms as a memher of the village council of Lake Park.

The town of Cuba was mostly settled during" the years of 1871 and 1872. A few came in 1870, but they were only three or four. Their names were Martin Olsen, B. O. Bergerson, Halvor M. Beaver and Ole Kittelson. Nearly every government quarter section was settled on during the years 1871 and 1872.

Martin Olson was the first to arrive in the township, although the land was not surveyed at that time, so that this locality did not possess a name. Next after him came the writer. Bernt O. Bergerson. I was born in Norway, July 23, 1847, ^^^ ^i^^ "^y parents came to America in the year 1852, and settled in Winnishiek County, Iowa, in the village of Decorah, where my father worked for a man named Painter, who was building a canal and mill, which was the first mill in that county. In the year 1863, we moved to the town of Bancroft, Freeborn County, Minnesota, where my father opened up a new farm, and after working on that farm until the year 1870, I started west to find a farm for myself. After traveling with an ox team for twenty-one days, I finally arrived at my present homestead, the southwest quarter of Section 36. The land was not surveyed yet. If it had been, I could not have taken it as a homestead, for it would have become school land when surveyed, it being on Section 36. I was not married then, so I had to "bach" it that summer; but late in the fall of that year I hitched my oxen to the wagon and turned their heads towards Albert Lea and went over the road once more that year. I slept out of doors every night and late in the fall the ground was frozen hard nearly every night. I arrived safe at my father's farm in Freeborn County, none the worse for the trip both ways with a pair of oxen, which is not the fastest way to get over the country roads. That winter I visited with my folks till in the early spring when I got married to Ingeborg Grasdalen, a daughter of a neighbor of my parents. Immediately after we were married we started for Becker County in company with several others who wanted to go and get land for themselves. The parties who came with me that spring" were my brother-in- law, Lars P. Laite and Erick Quam. They are still living in the county. On arriving at my claim that spring, I found everything as I had left it. The previous summer I had built a house which came handy now when I brought my wife home with me. We lived through that summer mostly on what we had brought with us. Then in the winter, I had to go to work in the woods hauling ties and cutting cord-wood for the railway company in order to get flour and pork ; besides, we had three cows which were a great help to us. In 1871, the year the railroad was built through here, we sold milk and butter in the railroad camps near our home for a good price. They mostly paid us in groceries, but they paid us well, I thought. The first years we tried to farm, we did not have any success, the grasshoppers and blackbirds got in their work so that we were left without anything, not even seed. I had to buy seed wheat three times. The first I bought cost $1.90 a bushel, the second lot cost $1.50, and the third lot cost $1.25. In order to get that last seed I had to sell a cow, which was a great loss, because the cows were our main support then as now. I stay by the cows yet, and this is thirty-five years after, and I will always stay by them as long as I stay on the farm. A good many of the settlers went to Dakota to do breaking, and also some of them did breaking for a Mr. Paul Van Vlissingen, who opened a farm near where Hitterdal now is, in Clay County; and in 1872 a man by the name of M. E. d'Engelbroner, opened a large farm in the western part of Cuba.

This township was organized in the winter of 1871-72. We held our first election at the claim shack of Halvor Beaver. There were quite a few of the early settlers present at that election ; so far as I can remember the following settlers were there : Charles W. Smith, Alonzo F. Chase, Thomas Torgerson, H. M. Beaver, Thorville Hanson, Amund Baarstad, H. Salveson, Lars P. Laite, Ole Kittelson, Barney Qlson, Torger Matson, Ole Asleson, Andrew Pederson and B. O. Bergerson. At that meeting it was decided to name the town AlcPherson, after a famous general in the civil war, but it was discovered that we could not get that name, as there was another town by that name in the state. At a later meeting it was finally named Cuba by Charles W. Smith, in honor of the village of Cuba, Allegany County, New York, the native place of Mr. Smith. Smith was appointed town clerk to act until we held a regular town election. At the regular town elec- tion Theodore Holton was elected town clerk, he being the first town clerk elected in the town of Cuba. As there is no record of the first town meeting I am unable to say positively who were the first board of supervisors, but I do remember that two of them were Ole Kittelson and Thomas Torgerson, the last being chairman. Charles W. Smith was the first assessor, and B. O. Bergerson was first justice of the peace. Theodore Holton was town clerk for three years ; after him was Thomas Torgerson, who held the office for four years ; then after him, B. O. Bergerson was elected and he has held the office ever since.

This town was settled principally by Norwegians and Swedes, about all of them coming in the years 1870-71-72. Being near the railroad, even numbered sections were opened for homestead entry. If every section could have been settled, all the land would have been taken those three years. Besides the Norwegians and Swedes there were a few Irish settlers in town those early days, but some are dead and some have gone away. There is only one family now, Hugh Sullivan's, who reside on Section 30. Besides the Irish we had some American families, but those of the early settlers have gone away. We have some that came later.

In the winter of 1872-73, we had to look to something else besides our crops for a living, as they gave us nothing for the winter except a few potatoes, so some of us went cutting cordwood and others went hauling ties to the railroad. I hauled ties which was both trying on man and oxen. The snow was deep and the cold was intense. We got $2.00 a day for man and team, and we had to make two trips each day with from 22 to 24 ties each load. In order to do that we had to be out in the woods before daylight, and never got back to camp until after dark. We who hauled by the day had to load our own loads which was very hard work when we had to work in snow from two to three feet deep in the woods. When loading we got wet from snow, and when we got out of the woods on the prairies where the wind blew hard with the mercury at forty below zero, and the roads drifted full of snow, we would chill to the bones, but we did not mind it much, for when we got back to the camp in the evening and got our oxen stabled and our supper over we had forgotten all our hardships suffered during the day.

pork and $8.00 per barrel for flour. Money we hardly ever saw. What paid best was trapping. Fur was high those days and this helped us quite a bit. I can remember that I got as high as thirty cents for muskrats. One Christmas eve in 1873, we had nothing for Christmas, and no money to get anything with, but having a few muskrat pelts I went to Lake Park and traded them for groceries. 1 was allowed twenty-eight cents for the rats so we had a merry Christmas after all.

In July, 1871, a swarm of grasshoppers settled over this country, and as there were but few grain fields they did not do much damage that }'ear, but most of the new^ settlers had broken a few acres of new land, and while the grasshoppers stayed there they put in their time laying eggs in the new breaking, and all the bare spots they could find. After they had finished laying, they arose one windy day and left us for that year. The next year, 1872, the eggs hatched out in the early summer, and the grasshoppers began their work of destruction. That year they ate everything that was sowed or planted, so that there was nothing left for us to harvest. I remember that the piece of land that I had sowed that spring was eaten close down to the earth, so that I could not have believed there had been any wheat there, if I had not sown it myself, and had seen the grain coming up in the spring. They stayed here that summer until they were full grown, then they took to their wings and left us for where I do not know.

Miss Lottie Rossman, of Detroit, taught the first school in Cuba Township, beginning in 1877 and completing her second term in the summer of 1878.

Martin Olson was born near Trondhjem, Norway, in October, 1839. After he had grown to manhood he followed the occupation of sailor until the year 1866, when he came to America. He first settled in Alamakee County, Iowa, where he remained four years. In 1869 he was married to Christine Osberg. In the spring of 1870 they started for Becker County, with an ox team and on the nth day of June located on what is now the southeast quarter of Section 35 in the town of Cuba. The land was not surveyed at that time, so he could not know what land he was on until the next October.

Mr. Olson remained on his farm, where he had erected good substantial buildings, until his health failed, when he sold his farm for a good price and moYcd to the village of Lake Park, which adjoins his farm. He still has two other farms which are rented out.

Halvor M. Beaver was born at Kongsberg, Norway, in June, 1842. In 1865 he came to America, locating in Dodge County, Minnesota, where he remained for about five years. He came to Becker County on the nth of November, 1870, and took a homestead on Section 34 in Cuba Township, and in the spring of 1871 built a house on his place, and has resided there ever since. Mr. Beaver was married to Betsey E. Aaberg on the 21st of August, 1875. Mrs. Beaver was a native of Urdal, Norway. His first crop of wheat was sown in 1872, and what promised to be a good crop at first was nearly all destroyed by blackbirds. In 1875 he planted his first trees, and has planted some around his house every year since, so that now he has a large grove around his buildings. Mr. Beaver's farm is provided with commodious buildings, and he conducts his farm on the diversified plan. He keeps a large number of cows and other stock, and does not depend on raising grain altogether. In the early part of January, 1873, we had the worst blizzard in the history of the country, wdiich lasted for forty-eight hours. Stables were covered with snow in some places so that cattle could not be taken out or in, and had to be fed by cutting a hole through the roof. Water they did not get for three days. On the 9th of July, 1876, a swarm of grasshoppers came down by the million, and laid their eggs in immense numbers, which hatched out the next year and threatened to devour everything in the country. That year the hopper dozers were invented and came into use. They were long, scraper-like things, that were besmeared with coal tar on the inside. Beaver and his wife would pull this machine back and forth across the fields while the baby slept in the cradle near by.

Lars P. Laite was born in Hafslo, Norway, August 2nd, 1874. When nine years of age he came to America with his mother, who was a widow at the time. After Hving at Stoughton, Wisconsin, for three years they moved to Freeborn County, Minnesota, where they Hved in the town of Bath until 1871. On the 27th of October,

1870, he was married to Sophia Bergerson and in the spring of 1 871 they came to Becker County, arriving in the town of Cuba on the 1 2th day of June. They came with oxen and a prairie schooner, and were three weeks on the road.

John Olson came to Cuba Township in 1871, and took a homestead on Section 12, and in 1875 began the erection of a gristmill but for lack of capital it went slow. Finally after a few years his mill was so far advanced that he was able to make a little flour, which he continued to do for several years, but owing to frequent trouble with his dam and lack of capital he finally became discouraged, and in the year 1885 it broke up altogether. Mr. Olson has since moved out of the county.

Thorville Hanson was born in Hakkedalen, Norway, on the 4th day of August, 1847. He lived at home until he had grown to manhood when he left his native land for America, arriving in Houston County, Minnesota, on the 26th of May, 1867 On the nth day of May. 1871. he came to the township of Cuba, in Becker County and located on the same quarter section where he now resides. He was not married at that time, but on the 28th day of June, 1872, he was married to Christine Halverson. She came to Cuba on the same date and took a pre-emption on Section 26, adjoining Hanson's, and as soon as the government plat of the township was received at the land office she proved up on her claim which gave them a fine farm of 320 acres including the whole of the south half of Section 26. I well remember the wedding day, as it was the first wedding in the township of Cuba. They were married by a traveling minister by the name of Manuel Hagebo. I think he was the first Scandinavian minister in this part of the country. The wedding was held in Mrs. Hanson's own cabin which was about ten by twelve feet. Right in the midst of the ceremony a great shower of rain came down. The roof of the house was made with a few rails for rafters, and these were covered with hay and sods of earth, and when the rain began to pour down it came through the roof and brought a large quantity of black soil with it, covering the table and also the groom and bride. They, however, got married in good shape and have stayed married ever since. They have since taken on more Cuba soil, and are now the largest land owners in the township.

Lars Larson was born in Sweden in the year 1850, and came to the United States in 1869. He lived two years in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and in 1870 came to Clitheral, in Otter Tail County, Minnesota, and in March, 1871, came to Becker County and took a claim on Section 18, in Lake Park Township, where he lived for four years. Since that time he has lived on Section 29 in the township of Cuba.

On the 22nd of December, 1875, Mr. Larson was married to Gertrude Pearson, who was born in Sweden and came to America about the same time as Mr. Larson.

Ole Christenson was born in Norway on the 6th day of January, 1850, and came to the United States in 1867. locating at La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he lived until May, 1871, when he started with an ox team for Becker County, Minnesota, and his mother who came with him took a homestead. Ole was not then old enough to hold a homestead himself, but his mother died a few years afterwards and he filed a homestead on the place himself, where he still resides in good circumstances.

severa vea'?. f ^i, takmg land on Section 36. He lived there for several years when he sold out and removed to Atlanta Town- Mr. Olson died on the 12th of July, 1895. Ole Halverson.

fathers when they came to Plymouth Rock in the year 1620. The steers and old wagon, however, carried them through all right, although Ole and the boy walked most of the way, and it took them about five w'eeks to make the trip.

Mr. Halverson died on the 31st day of December, 1901. but the farm is now in the possession of Theodore Halverson who is one of the pioneers of Becker County, being only a boy when he came here. He was a little too young to take a homestead so he stayed at home with his father and helped on the farm. On May 20th, 1878, Theodore was married and they have raised a family of sons and one daughter all of whom are still living.

The first summer the Halverson family lived in a tent, then they dug a hole in the side of a hill and made a roof of hay and sods. They had one small window in front, and in this way they lived for four years, when they built a log house.

Barney Olson. Barney Olson was born in Voss, Norway, in the year 1837, and came to America in the spring of 1867. After staying a year and a half in \\isconsin, he went to Freeborn County, ^Minnesota, where he w^as married to Brita Jerdahl. In the spring of 1871, he and his wife started for Becker County with a yoke of oxen and wagon, and on the 2C)th day of July settled on their homestead on the northeast quarter of Section 26, in the township of Cuba, where he has continued to reside ever since. They have a fine farm of 240 acres and have raised a family of nine children, who are all alive and in good health at the present day. Like most of the other settlers in the vicinity, Mr. Olson had his first crops destroyed by grasshoppers, and had to go away to work in order to support his family. Work was readily obtained on the M. E. d'Engelbroner farm, which was then just opening up and also on the Hawley farm which included three sections of land right in his neighborhood.

Amund E. Baarstad A^as born in northern Fron Gubbrausdalen, Norway. December, 28th, 1831. He grew up on a farm in his native land and in 1857 he was married to Miss Maret Erlandson. In the spring of 1869 he and his wife came to America and settled in Vernon County, Wisconsin, and early in the summer of 1 87 1 came to Becker County, and on the 4th day of July settled on the northwest quarter of Section 26. of Cuba Township, where he is still living. Mrs. Baarstad died on the 30th ofMay, 1902, and was buried in the cemetery on their own farm. Mr. Baarstad has a fine farm and a fine grove of trees around his buildings.

Andrew O. Wee, Andrew O. Wee was born at Flo, Hallingdal, Norway, and came to America in the spring of 1861. He lived for a while in Rice County, Minnesota, and then went to Houston County, and in August, 1864, enlisted in the Second Minnesota Regiment of Volunteers, and served with them until the end of the war. On the 8th of April, 1866, he was married to Briget Evenson. They lived at Spring Grove for five years, when in the spring of 1871 they came to Becker County and took a homestead on the southwest quarter of Section 4 in the town of Cuba. He lived on and cultivated this place for thirty-three years when he moved to the village of Lake Park, where he has ]:)uilt a fine residence.

Peter R. Jacobson was born in Helgeland, Norway, on the 9th of August, 1844. He was married to Olava Pederson, who was born in 1842. In May, 1866, they started for America in a sailing vessel, and after a voyage of nine weeks they landed in Quebec, Canada, from which place they went to Farmington, Dakota County, Minnesota. They lived in this vicinity until the spring of 1871, when they started for the Northwest, intending to go to North Dakota. When they got to Fort Ambercrombie thev left their teams to look around over the Red River vallev.

Appearances indicated that the conntry about there was Hable to overflow, so they started for the rolling country to the northeast and finally came to the place where Audubon Village has since been built, where they camped for a while. After lookmg the country over for a week, they selected the southwest quarter of Section 10, in the Township of Cuba, on the 22d day of June, 1871. They still live on this same land, hale and hearty, and have one of the best farms, and some of the best buildings in the country. Their home is sheltered with a fine grove of timber, where snows and storms have no terrors for them.

Hugh Sullivan w'as born in Houghton County, Alichigan, August 15th, 1850. As soon as he was old enough he went to work in the copper mines Where he remained until 1870, when he went to Duluth, and there remained one year, coming to Becker County in August, 1871. He settled on the southwest quarter of Section 30 where he still resides.

In addition to the settlers who came here in 1871, already mentioned, there was Theodore Holton who located on Section 18. Otto Peterson and Andrew Thorson on Section 8, M. Carlson on Section 18, two John Sullivans on Section 20, Thomas Torgerson on Section 28, Alonzo Chase and Hugh Sullivan, Sr., on Section 30; John Teg on Section t,2, and Tver Larson on Section 34.

The following are also among the early settlers of Cuba, Torger Matson (now dead), Magnes Lindstrom, Andrew Hedlund, John Sandgren, Tom Olson (now dead), Nels Peterson, John Peterson, Andrew Peterson. Charles M. Smith and Ole I. Olson.

Mr. Bakken was born in Ringereke, Norway, December 26tli, 1833. He was married to Christene Gulbranson of the same place on the i8th of June, 1855. In 1864 they came to St. Croix County, Wisconsin, where they lived nine years. In 1873 they came to Becker County and took up a homestead on the northeast quarter

Ole O. Dokken was born at Ness, Hallingdal, Norway, on the 27th of September, 1838. He worked on a farm in his native land until 1867 when he came to Winneshiek County, Iowa. In November, 1870, he was married to Hilleborg Seim, and in May, 1871, they started on their journey to Becker County, with an ox team the same as all the settlers came to this country in those days. After about five weeks travel they arrived in Cuba and took a homestead on the southeast quarter of Section 4, where the family are still living.

Ole Johnson was born in Skaam, Sweden, where he lived until he had grown to manhood, and in the spring of 1866 he came to the United States locating first at Red Wing, Goodhue County, Minnesota, where he lived for one year, then went to Denmark, Washington County, where he lived for three years and then in the spring of 1872 came to this township and took a homestead on the northwest quarter of Section 12. While in Goodhue County he was married to Elna Truls who was also a Swede. He is still living on his homestead, but has been in poor health for several years.

Michael Ristvedt was born in Norway on the 27th of August, 1847, 3-"d came to the United States in the spring of 1866. He lived for a while in Wisconsin, working in the lumber woods and on the log drives, and for the farmers in the summer. In the spring of 1872 he was married to Lina Potter, and three days after the wedding they started for Becker County, arriving in the township of Cuba. He afterwards took a homestead on the southwest quarter of Section 2, where he still resides. He has a fine farm with good buildings in the midst of a fine grove of timber.

About the 22d of May. 1872, I was directed by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company to go with M. E. d'Engelbroner and Paul Van Vlissingen. two men from Holland, and show them the land located between the White Earth Reservation and the Red River flats. They were looking" for land where they could open up wheat farms on a large scale.

We left Oak Lake City in the morning and passed over the site of the present village of Audubon, and up across Hamden and Cuba to the south branch of the \Vild Rice. L. S. Cravath and Charles B. Plummer were with us on this trip. W^e found only one family at home during the day. The others had left their homes and gone to Oak Lake or Lake Park for fear of the Indians. We met one family going at a fast gait, the woman driving the horses, and the man carrying a broadaxe for a weapon. We tried to persuade them to go back home, telling them there was not a particle of danger, but they were afraid to go back. We, however, managed to borrow the broadaxe as we had no axe with us. We camped that night by a lake in the eastern part of Township 141, Range 44, in Clay County. There were two families there who had not heard of the Cook nnirder and they were all at home. Van Vlissingen was delighted with this location and afterwards opened up a big farm right there. The next morning we drove on west to the Red River flats, and from there started back in a southeast direction, and at night arrived at old John Sullivan's place on Section 20 in the town of Cuba. There was no one at home when we arrived, but we soon found the old man and his wife out in the brush where they had been hiding for fear of losing their scalps. We convinced them that it would be safe to stay in the house that night, at least when we were there, so the old lady helped to cook up some of our provisions and we carried some hay into the house and made beds on the floor and passed a very comfortable night.

I had told my Holland friends for the start that I was going to show them the best location the last of all, so the next morning we drove down to Section 19 in Cuba looking over that and several other sections near by. d'Engelbroner was so well pleased with the land in that vicinity that he bought about 3,600 acres in Cuba and the adjoining towns and in a short time had them nearly all under the plow, with headquarters on Section 19. He carried on wheat raising on a large scale for several years, his land producing abundantly, but nearly every season the grasshoppers would swoop down onto his fields just about the time the wheat began to fill and nearly ruin his crop. He fought bravely year after year against fate, but finally in 1877 had to give up the battle ; the same year the grasshoppers left the country.

His land consisted of Section t,^ in Atlanta, Sections 5. ig and half of 20 in Cuba and 13 and 2t, in the town west of Cuba, in Clay County.

On Section 19 in Cuba he erected a dwelling house, a boarding house and a commodious barn and granary, and gave employment to a large number of men, and the farm was a boon to the settlers in the vicinity during the grasshopper period.

In addition to the grasshopper scourge d'Engelbroner was handicapped by v/ant of experience in farming and lack of general business ability. He was said to have been brought up as a page for some nobleman in the city of "The Hague," in Holland, and had too many aristocratic notions to become a successful farmer in America. None of the men in his employ liked him, and were inclined to "soldier" and shirk whenever the opportunity was oiYered. As an example of his want of perception in ordinary matters: in the spring of 1874 the mill dam at Richwood broke away in time of high water, by reason of which a flood deluged the bottom lands of the Buffalo River which crosses Section 19 not far from where his farm buildings were located. Meeting him in Lake Park not long afterwards he wished me to ask some lawyer in Detroit "if that man what owns the mill at Richwood have any pusiness to let his tam brake loose and flood his pottom."

In the spring of 1876 I surveyed and staked out in rectangular form all the sloughs and pond holes on his five sections of land, and while there I remarked that there would be a big auction there before many years, and in the spring of 1878 I held an auction there myself, selling property to the amount of over $90 to pay his personal property taxes. The sheriff held another sale soon afterwards which wiped out all the personal propert}', and the real estate soon afterwards passed out of the hands of the company which he represented, and this proved to be the winding up of the aft'airs of the so-called "Adelaide Farm."

Proprietor Of The Hawley Farm

Rev. Fletcher J. Hawley, D. D.. of Lake Park, was a lineal descendant of Captain Jehiel Hawley, the early settler and the founder of the town and church of x\rlington, Bennington County, Vt., where Dr. Hawley was born, Nov. 22nd, 1813. His early years were spent on his father's farm and in the common district school. He then entered the grammar school of Kenyon College, Gambler, Ohio, and afterwards Burr Seminary, Manchester, Vt., where he completed his preparatory course. Then, after a year or two at the Polytechnic Institute of Prof. Eaton, at Troy, N. Y., he entered Union College, Schenectady, graduating in July, 1840. In October of that year he entered the Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church at New York, and graduated in June, 1843. He was ordained deacon in July, 1843, and priest in 1845. His application to study impaired his health so that he sought a milder climate, and accepted the rectorship of St. John's Church, Christianstad, Santa Cruz, West Indies - an island belonging to Denmark. Three-fourths of the population were negroes and were slaves. Religion and morals were at a low ebb. There was a small and quite inadequate church, which Mr. Hawley set about enlarging, in which work he had to be his own architect and use negroes for his working staff. He succeeded in erecting a church to accommodate over 1,200 people. In conjunction with the Roman Catholic priest he did much towards quelling the insurrection of the slaves, which threatened to destroy everything on the island. The whites were powerless ; but these two priests held the slaves in check three days, until soldiers came from the island of St. Thomas. The king of Denmark then appointed Mr. Hawley head of the colonial council - the governing body - and special adviser to the governor general. Certain modifications of former relationship, proposed by Mr. Hawley, were adopted, and the slaves became comparatively free. He returned to the United States in June, 1859. Soon after his return he was appointed to the charge of Trinity Church, New Orleans, where he arrived in December, 1859. Such was his hold upon the people that, when the civil war broke out, he retained the confidence of all, although declar- ing- his adherence to the Union. He kept church and parish united, and during the worst times, he worked without remuneration, until his means were quite exhausted and he had barely enough to sustain life. After the arrival of Gen. Butler he left for the North, and reached New York on Sept. 25th, 1862, to make a new start from amidst poverty and with impaired health. He was a while at Trinity Church, Chicago, then at Grace Church, Brooklyn, until 1864, when he went to Danbury, Conn., where he built a new stone church, and harmonized conflicting interests. He then went to Stafford Springs, Conn., where he did similar work. He acquired some land in Becker county, Minn., and through failing health was led to move to this state, settling over St. Paul's Church, Brainerd, on Sept. i6th, 1880. Here he devoted himself to his work, spending some time on his farm at Lake Park. A fall, and the loss of the use of his left leg, led him to remove with his family to his farm in December, I887, where he gradually sank until he passed to his rest on the 25th day of March, 1891.

In the summer of 1870, I received an appointment as deputy United States surveyor from the surveyor general of Minnesota with instructions to survey thirteen townships of land in the Red River country, four of which were in Wilkin County, two in Clay and seven in Becker County. I did not receive my final instructions until late in the summer and consequently found that I would not be able to complete the work before midwinter, so I decided to leave the Becker County townships, some of which were heavily timbered, for the last, and begin at the west end of my work. I accordingly began work on the Red River flats, in Wilkin County on the 1 6th of August, 1870, and finished in Clay County on the 5th of October. There was not a settler in Wilkin County at that time except at McCauleyville, and a ferry across the Otter Tail River kept by a man named Merry. There were no settlers in Clay County, except at Georgetown and a stage station or two along the Red River, and eight or ten families in the eastern towns along the border of Becker County.

The last township I surveyed in Clay County was the one in which Barnesville is now situated. It was only twelve miles from there across to Becker County, but I was obliged to go back to McCauleyville for supplies and from there we drove across the Red River flats and over to Pelican Rapids. We crossed Whiskey Creek soon after leaving McCauleyville on a narrow, rickety pole bridge, about ten feet high. Our ox teamster who had been accustomed to using the whole Red River valley for a highway, allowed his load to tumble ofif over the bridge, and the weight of the wagon pulled the oxen over on top of the load. There was about a foot of water and two feet of black mud in the creek, and down went sacks of flour and barrels of pork, sugar, cofifee, blankets, clothing and surveying instruments with the wagon on top, wheels up and the oxen on top of it all. It took us all the afternoon to get out of the muss and clean up and dry our outfit. At two difi^erent times, we were obliged to unload and carrv evervthing across sloughs, one

- After the organization of the townships whose history has just been presented tliere were none organized for seven or eight years, so here wiU be a good place to introdvice a few miscellaneous articles.

pond on Section 8 in Lake Park Township, which was on land since owned by John Lie. I was anxious to hire more men, and as I could see a house three or four miles east of us in a grove of of which was nearly a fourth of a mile wide, before we reached Pelican Rapids. In consequence of these delays we were obliged to camp out on the prairie two nights more than we expected, and had to burn up an extra ox yoke and our tent poles for fuel. From Pelican Rapids we drove north up around the west end of Pelican Lake and from there in a northwesterly direction around the west end of Big Cormorant Lake. There was a dim wagon road up as far as Section 20 in the town of Cormorant. The first person we met after passing into Becker County was Mark Warren, an old fur trader, who was hunting for his horse. Soon afterwards we came to where a man by the name of Wm. McMartin was building a log house on Section 21, I believe. Several of his neighbors were helping him. These were all the people we saw in the township of Cormorant. From here there was no sign of a road until we came to Section 8, west of Big Cormorant Lake. Many times all hands had to hold onto the wagon to prevent it from tipping over, and some of the way we were obliged to cut a road through the timber. We finally found a dim road running north which brought us over a prairie and through brush to a beautiful little prairie which must be a part of the northwest quarter of Section 5. This prairie was surrounded by brush and timber, and was such a contrast to the country on the Red River flats where we had been surveying, and where we did not see a bush or a tree for two months that the boys in the party began giving cheers for Becker County, and some of them wanted to take a homestead right there.

My objective point was Township 140, Range 43, or what is now the township of Cuba, so we drove on with our ox team over a road that was gradually becoming better as we proceeded north until we came to where a man by the name of John P. Rud was building a log house on what is now Section 29 of Lake Park Township, where we camped for the night.

In the evening, a man came to our camp by the name of E. H. Nelson who was living a little west on Section 30. Two other men were also living on Section 30 at the time, Gus Jacobson and Erick Quam. The next morning we continued north over a oad road and about 10 o'clock made a halt at a small grove by a timber I started to go to it. I do not think there was then a house on the prairie in Lake Park Township, aUhough there were quite a number scattered around among the groves, but they were pretty well hid from view. I worked my way along all right until I came to the middle of the big marsh in Section 1 1 of Lake Park and seeing no way around it to the north or to the south, I gave up the job and went back. The house I started for, I think, was where Hamilton Kelly has since lived, but was then occupied by Palmer Hall. When I reached my camp, I found two men there, Erick Anderson and his father, and I hired them. That afternoon we drove on north to the Buffalo River and camped in the grove of timber, since called Kittelson's Grove, on Section i6, town of Cuba. There was a hard frost that night, the first of the season. This was the 13th day of October, 1870,

The next thing was to hunt up the township lines and find a starting point. I found that a random line between Cuba and Lake Park had been run and temporary corners set, but no corners were established. The next day, the 14th, was Sunday and about noon a man by the name of Bemer came from Howard's camp, the surveyor who had run the township lines, bringing the field notes of the town line with the correction for each corner.

That same day, Chris E. Bjorge came to our camp and I hired him, and he proved to be a valuable assistant. A man by the name of Ole Kittelson had taken a claim which included a part of the grove where we camped. He had a dugout on the high bank of the Buffalo River which was made by digging a square hole in the face of the hill and building a low house over the hole. He had been at work on the Richwood milldam, but when he heard that the surveyors had come he started for home making a bee line across the country. He came on all right until he struck the big string of lakes and sloughs that stretches across the present town of Hamden, when trouble began. The water was much higher then than it is now since the ditch was dug. After wandering back and forth from the south to the north and from the north to the south without finding a way around, he finally plunged in where it appeared to be the narrowest and undertook to wade across, but soon got in above his depth and became tangled up in the wild rice and bullrushes and was almost drowned, but finally pulled through more dead than alive and reached our camp away in the night. I hired him also. Cuba was then sprinkled over with sloughs and ponds and they were all full of water, so we had plenty of wading to do unless we resorted to the more tedious process of offsetting, and where the water was not more than two or three feet deep we preferred to wade.

There were three settlers in the township of Cuba at this time. B. O. Bergerson was living in a comfortable log house on Section 36. Martin Olson had a house built on Section 35, but there was no one residing there. He had gone below after his family and returned with them on the 21st of October. Ole Kittelson on Section 16, in addition to his dugout had a small patch of turnips. There was an old Red River cart trail which crossed the Buffalo River near the middle of the township and ran northwesterly across the country to some point on the Red River. Buffalo bones were abundant, especially near the Buffalo River on Sections 15 and 16, showing that Becker County had been a favorite summer resort for that animal.

From our camp we could see a grove of timber directly east in the next township and on the 20th day of October, I ordered my camp moved to that grove which proved to be on Section 17.

We worked north of the Buffalo River that day and finished surveying the town of Cuba, but did not get through until dark. We could see the fire at our new camp, over in what is now the township of Hamden and made as near a direct line towards the fire as the nature of the ground would permit. We got along alright until within about 100 rods of the camp, when we came to a lake and we undertook to go around it by going north, but after going in that direction a quarter of a mile or so, we became discouraged and turned back to the south to find that end of the lake. After going in that direction for half a mile, we shouted to the men in the camp and inquired which way they went to get there. They said around the north end, so we went back north. We had not gone far, however, before Chris Bjorge said he believed we could wade through the lake and immediately turned off and plunged into the water. We all concluded that we could wade it if he could, so we plunged in after him. The night was cold and icicles were forming on the bullrushes near the shore, and some of them were frozen together. We soon reached open water, where the water was up to our arms, but the bed of the lake was good and hard so we followed on after our leader and finally after wading a quater of a mile or more reached the camp in safety.

We were soon inside dry clothes, none the worse for our bath. That night and the next morning, the 21st, it snowed hard, the snow remaining on the ground all day. The second evening after dark we noticed a big fire to the south of our camp about four miles away and we were at a loss to know what it meant as it was too wet for the prairie grass to burn, but we found out in a day or two that it was Gunder Carlson's haystacks burning just over the line on Section 6, in what is now Audubon Township. They were set on fire bv an Indian by the name of Bachinana just after dark, and as Carlson went out of his house to ascertain the cause of the fire, the Indian arose from behind the woodpile and fired at him with a charge of buckshot, giving him what proved to be a mortal wound.

Hamden was worse than Cuba for sloughs and ponds ; they were all alive with ducks and geese, and sand-hill cranes were seen stalking about over the prairies or flying over head every day. and the sharp-tailed grouse or native prairie hens were abundant, especially in the vicinity of the few small groves and patches of hazelbrush.

There was not a settler then living within the limits of the present town of Hamden, although there were three small pieces of breaking, one on Section 31, belonging to Hans Ebeltoft, and another on Section 33, just west of the lake belonging to Lars O. Ramstad. Ramstad had a few haystacks and he was fighting a prairie fire that was raging when I ran the line between Sections 32 and 33. With the e.xception of these improvements there was no sign or trace of civilization in the township, except the track of a wagon that had been driven around the north end of the lake on Section 26.

After camping in the grove on Section 17 for about a week, we moved to a small grove between the two lakes on Section 34 and after remaining there for a day or two, we moved into Richwood early in November and camped in a small grove of timber by a large pond on Section 19, a short distance west of the old Red River road. This road was the main road to the White Earth Agency and the only road except the Leech Lake road.

There were eight men living within the limits of the present town of Richwood at the time, four of whom had families. Hans Hanson was living with his wife and one child in a log house on Section 20. Iver Christenson was living with his family on Section 29.

Iver Evenson with his family were on the southeast quarter of Section 29, and Gabriel Halverson and family were on Section 21. Hugh Campbell was living on Section 28 on the place since occupied by Hans Sail, and William Harding lived on Section 29 on the west side of the lake near the quarter section corner between Sections 29 and 32. There was a house on Section 33 built by a man named George Van \'alkenburg on the west side of the creek about a quarter of a mile south of the section line, but there was no one living there at the time. He came on the next spring with his family, a squaw and several half-breed children. The place was since owned and occupied by Mickel Mickelson.

Ole Qualey was living somewhere in the town, as I saw him that fall twice, but he was not yet of age and could not take a homestead. A man by the name of A. J. Haney was building a milldam where the Richwood mill is now. Gus. Lundine had his name written on the section stake on the town line at the southwest corner of Section 32, but I saw nothing of him or any of his improvements that fall.

There was any amount of water in Richwood then and ice began to form in the sloughs and ponds before we had finished the survey of the towship. It was bad enough to wade in cold water at any time, but when the ice was just strong enough to break and let you through at every step it was tough enough. When the survey of the township was made, the west end of Buffalo Lake was about half a mile east of where Richwood Mills now stand and quite a little distance east of the line between Sections i and 2. Where the west end of Buffalo Lake is now there was a fine dry meadow with the Buffalo River, a fine clear stream of water, running through the middle.

Haney was there at work on the mill-dam and he was somewhat uneasy lest he should have trouble on his hands at some future time as the result of overflowing so much land and he wanted to know if there was not some way in which I could help him. So when I came to meander the lake, I ran the meander lines well up on the face of the low bluff's or hills bordering on the meadow and away around down by his mill-pond, and made the meander lines fit the future outline of the lake so completely that when the water was raised by the dam no one would ever have known but that the lake had always been up to its present level.

Deer were very plentiful in the timbered portions of Richwood when winter set in, but they soon afterwards left for the pine forests farther east, and we did not see a deer, and but very few of their tracks after leaving that township. In the middle of Richwood the timbered forests began and it was nearly a month before the marshes were frozen sufficiently hard to bear a team ; so we were obliged to cut miles of road. This was done by Chris Bjorge, afterwards the Lake Park banker. We started in from the prairie at Gabriel Halverson's house on Section 21, and cut around the north side of the lake on Section 22, then built a bridge across the inlet to that lake near the line between Sections 22 and 23 at the only place where the marsh along the creek was narrow enough to build a bridge. This bridge was built at the same place where the little bridge now stands on the road from Detroit to Richwood village. The road ran from there east to the southwest corner of Rock Lake in Section 29, where we made our next camp. After remaining here for a few days we moved around to the north side of the lake on Section 27, as near the center of the town as we could get. When we moved into this township, which is now Holmesville, winter had set in earnestly, but was not severe until Christmas. We were living in a tent doing our cooking and warming ourselves by a fire outside until about the middle of December. We had heard before that there was a store near Oak Lake, so we sent our team there for some supplies and among other things it brought a little sheet iron heating stove which added very much to our comfort the remainder of the winter. This store, the first opened in Becker County, was owned by a man named Sterling and was located on Section 7 in the town of Detroit on the west shore of the lake. The building was owned by L. D. Sperry, who afterwards sold the land on which it stood to Byron Wheeler who lived there several years. The advance of winter brought with it many new and interesting features. Every morning for a couple of weeks the roaring of the ice as it was forming on the lakes in the vicinity was novel and strange, not one of us having ever heard anything of the kind before. It did not take long for the ice to get strong enough for us to walk upon it, which was a great convenience in running lines through a country so thickly dotted with lakes and ponds. The ice on Rock Lake, at first thin and elastic, was very transparent and in places multitudes of fish could be seen through the ice and frequently where the water was shallow the men would strike the ice with an ax or hatchet over some big wall-eyed pike or perch which stunned the fish so that they would turn belly up and be easily taken through a hole cut in the ice.

One evening as we returned to camp from Tamarack Lake and while traveling on the frozen surface of the Buffalo River, one of my men, Daniels by name, fell through the ice up to his armpits. We soon fished him out and as he began to take off his wet clothes in the tent a short time afterwards he felt something squirm in his pants' pocket, upon which he jerked out a live perch seven or eight inches long, which had taken refuge there when he went through the ice.

There was a flock of about one hundred grouse or native prairie hens around the borders of the lake on Section 27, where we camped, that had gathered in from the prairies at the beginning of winter. They were very tame, as we had no firearms, and did not molest them and the longer we remained the tamer they grew.

Before winter set in we expected to have trouble in obtaining food for our oxen as there was no hay in the vicinity, but the borders of nearly all the lakes in the woods were lined with evergreen or scouring rushes, and we soon found that our cattle could live on them and keep in as good order as if they had hay. They have been nearly exterminated since.