Blue Earth County, Minnesota - Chapter 7: Blue Eaeth County Cebated - Its Peior Political Histoey, 1901

On Februajy 14th, 1853, Congress ratified the important treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota, whereby the Indian title to all lands in Blue Earth County and in all the state west of the Mississippi and south of St. Cloud and Morehead was extinguished.

On March 5th, 1853, the County of Blue Earth was created by ah act of the Territorial Legislature, it embraced all of the State of Minnesota south of the Minnesota river, except the counties of Wabasha, Dakota, Goodhue, Eice, Scott, Pilmore and that portion of Le Sueur which lies east and north of Wi - Wi Creek opposite St. Peter.

Truly our county at birth was of goOdly size and fair to look upon. No land on earth more richly endowed in productive qualities. None more full of promise to the homeseeker. It may be well to give the political history of our county to this point. The first civilized nation to claim its soil was Prance, and we have seen how Le Sueur in 1700, by permission of the French government built Port Le Huillier in our county and prospected for copper. French traders also carried on a brisk trade in furs with the Indians of our county in those days of long ago.

In 1763 the French at a secret treaty sold their old Louisiana Territory, to which our county belonged, to Spain. The matter was kept a secret for some time and Spain did not take possession until 1769. The Spanish domination however, was very feeble and did not effect the northern end of the territory in the least. It is not probable that a single Spaniard even saw the portion of the territory embraced in the present state of Minnesota. October 1st,

1800, at another secret treaty Spain sold back to Prance her Louisiana Territory, and our county became a part of the dominion of Napoleon Bonaparte. It did not so remain but a short time, for Napoleon, fearing that the territory might fall a prey to Great Britain, on June 30th, 1803, sold it to the United States. It continued under its old name of "Province of Louisiana" until March 26th, 1804, when by Act of Congress, the portion now embraced in the present State of Louisiana, was created into the Province of Orleans, and the vast remainder, of which our county was part, was designated "District of Louisiana" and attached to the Territory of Indiana for administrative purposes, with seat of government at Vincennes on the Wabash. On June 4th, 1813, the District of Louisiana was erected into the Territory of Missouri. We remained a part of Missouri until June 28th, 1834, when all the lands west of the Mississippi and north of the Missouri river became a part of the Territory of Michigan. Here we continued until April 10th, 1836, when the territory of Wisconsin was created, of wliich we were made part. Here we belonged until June 12th, 1838, when the Territory of Iowa was formed and we were included within its boundaries. Here we came very near finding our permanent home. At the convention which met October 17th; 1844, to form a State Constitution the proposed north boundary adopted for the New State was a straight line from the mouth of the Big Sioux Eiver to the mouth of the Blue Earth river and thence down the Minnesota river to its mouth. This took in nearly all of Blue Earth County.

Iowa so much territory^ as it wished to reserve enough to form another northern state. So thu bill for its admission was amended fixing vhe line between ranges 29 and 30 as its west b< undary and the Minnesota river as its north boundary. This put the whole of our county into Iowa, forming its northwest corner. The people of Iowa were much dissatisfied with this abridgment of their territory and the position of Des Moines, with reference to the long narrow strip proposed, was unfavorable for retention of the capitol.

When therefore the amended bill came back to the people for ratification it was defeated by a small majority. A compromise was at last effected and Iowa finally admitted on March 3rd, 1845, with its present boundaries. The land to the north and east of the Mississippi of which our county was part, was thus cut ofE from any government.

On the admission of Wisconsin May 29th, 1848, as a state, the portion of our state lying between the St. Croix and the Mississippi was also left in the same condition. The initial iiieeting, for organizing the two remnants thus severed, into a new territory, was held at the trading post of our old friend Henry Jackson, ai St. Paul in July, 1848, which was the first public meeting held in Minnesota. Pinally through the efl:orts of H. H. Sibley an act of Congress was passed on March 3rd, 1849, creating the Territory of Minnesota.

Thus after being outside of the pale of government for four years to a day we were restored again to an organized state. The further changes in the political annals of our county, after its creation as a separate municipal body, will appear more properly as we proceed with our narrative.

The winter of 1852-3 was quite cold and tlie snow deep. The spring freshets consequently were high, and the Minnesota in tlie early part of April was over all its banks. The first boat for Mankato was the Greek Slave, left St. Paul on the 4th day of April. She was a newly built side wheeler, with powerful boilers, a fine cabin, and well equipped for passengers and freight. Her captain and owner was Louis Robert, destined to become one of the most prominent river men in Minnesota. On this her first trip the Slave carried in addition to a big load of freight, 150 passengers, many of whom were bound for Mankato, and the Blue Earth country, where on April 7th, they arrived.

Another new boat to enter the Minnesota river trade this spring was the Clarion. She was a small boat of seventy-two and one-half tons burden, owned by Captain Samuel Humbertson. She at once began making trips to the Blue Earth country. Early in April, 1853, Edwin Perkins of St. Paul was appointed the first Eegister of Deeds of Blue Earth County, and on April 14th, he recorded his first deed in the new county. It seems, when appointed to the office, Perkins intended to locate immediately at Mankato City, a new town which Henry McKenty had just laid out on the stone quarry bench, as a rival to Mankato. The recordtug of the plat of this new townsite was one of Perkins' first ofl^icial acts.

Plenry McKenty was an eccentri.c character, with much of the typical western in his makeup, a mixture of energy, daring and bluster. Since purchasing his claim the previous summer, he had been greatly bothered by claim jumpers, and had been obliged to buy out successively three of four different claimants, and ]:is patience was completely exhausted. So when he came up on the first boat in the spring of 1853, he was armed with two big revolvers and brought with him a coffin, with the avowed purpose of taking the next jumper back in it. As yet the government had made no survey of the ci/untry and there were no definite lines to go by, and much confusion resulted as to boundaries of the various claimants. To avoid any such difficulty as to his claim, McKenty had posts eight to ten feet high planted at its four corners, with a number of posts almost as large put at intervals to mark the lines. Mr. Mc- Kenty being in the real estate business at St. Paul and a great hustler, worked up quite an interest in his townsite, and the sale of lots in Mankato City during the spring and summer of 1853 was vei-y brisk. About May, Edwin Howe opened a hotel there, which he called the "Mankato City Hotel." It was a fair sized log house but quite bare of furniture. Each guest as a rule had to provide his own bed and bedding. There were no partitions. The men slept in the attic and the woman down stairs. The first blacksmith shop in ilankato or even Blue Earth County, was started by Josiah Keene in "j\Ic- Kenty's Town," as ilankato City was then generally called.

A native of Maine, young Keene had arrived at the new townsite almost at its birth. He was very fond of music and spent about as much time with his violin as with his anvil, for customers were not numerous.

The original townsite of Jlankato in the meantime had been growing. On Itarch 14th, 1853, Minard Mills had brought his wife (afterwards Mrs. Lullsdorff) to the new town and established there his home. He began preparations at once for the erection of a frame warehouse at the south end of the levee, just a few feet south of where tlie city hall now stands. The river at that time was situated about the rear of that building. Mr. Mills had the frame of his warehouse up and the structure ready for shingling, when on April IGth, James Hanna and George Maxfield with three or four of their oldest sons arrived. Both had very large families of sons and daughters, nearly all full grown, tv,'enty-six souls in both families, ilessrs. Hanna and Maxfield were perplexed to find immediate shelter for their large households, the balance of whom were waiting at St. Paul. ]\rr. Hanna, therefore, bought the warehouse of Mills, and he and Maxfield hastily completed it, and occupied it with their families.

Two main events in the history of our state in 1853 were the removal of the Sioux to their aLcneies and the establishment of Fort Eidgely, about forty miles above Mankato, on the Minnesota. All the material and supplies required for the fort and about half of the garrison had to be transported by boats up the Jlinnesota. I^he West Newton secured the contract for carrying the troops and their baggage, and about the last of April she, together with the Tiger and Clarion, each having two or three barges in tow loaded with lumber, passed by Maukato on their way to the new fort. A letter written under 'date of April 29th, 1853, on board the West Newton gives many interesting glimpses of the country and its people. Among other things it tells of the Indians gathering from the eugar bushes into Traverse des Sioux and Mankato, many of them very sick from gorging themselves on maple sugar; it speaks of meeting at Traverse, George McLeod, who had just ai rived from Lac qui Parle in a huge canoe twenty-four feet long by forty-four inches wide, made from a single cottonwood tree, in which he had brought forty bushels of potatoes, besides a crew of five men; Kasota then was in Blue Earth County, and our correspondent states tljat J. W. Babcock had just started his new saw mill on Tchankaska (AVood tying) creek, two weeks before. It had an overshot water vi'heel for power, a muley saw, and its capacity was about 8,000 feet of lumber per day. Kasota townsite was then full of great expectations. A railroad from Dubuque was headed straight for the town and was sure to reach it by next summer. There was no other place where a railroad could conveniently cross the Minnesota river. There was no question, but here was ,t;(iing to be the second largest city in the Minnesota valley. Second of course to Traverse des Sioux, which was then generally supposed to have the lead for the first place. Our correspondent seemed to have been carried away with such delusions until he reached jMankato City. But ^\'hen ilcKenty and his boomers had showed him the prospects of the city whose foundations were literally on the rock, the scales fell from his eyes, and he was completely dazzled by its future magnificence.

On May 4th, the Mankato Townsite company cnncelled the contract they had made the previous November with Lewis F. Windslow, to build the Mankato House, and Samuel Leech n-as appointed to superintend its construction. During the winter, Minard Mills, who had a subcontract from Windslow, had the sills and most of the frame hewed from the native forest and hauled on the gnmnd. General Ijcech now had most of the mill work for the building done at^ St. Paul and shipped same with the pine lumber necessary and some workmen by boat to Mankato. The building was raised on July Gth, and enclosed and doors and windows hung that season and the stairway built. It was a two story frame thirty-two feet by twenty-four feet with a one story- wing sixteen feet by twenty-four feet, and stood where the present Xational Citizens bank block stands on corner of Front and Hickory streets.

The spring and summer of 1853 were exceptionally wet and cold. On May 12th there was a big snow storm, which covered the ground six to eight inches in depth, and sundogs were visible.

On May 27th, Henry Jackson located in Mankato with his family, occupying their new log house on lot 5 block 14. About the same time the Hanna and Maxfield families arrived and took up their abode in the new frame structure at the south end of the levee. These two families had been religiously trained in their Ohio home and about June 3rd, 1853, Mr. Ilanna started a Sunday school at his home, the conduct of which devolved mostly on his energetic daughter, Sarah J. Hanna, afterwards Mrs. J. Q. A. Marsh. This was the first service of a religious character in the county. The Sunday school was kept up thereafter with fair regularity and was the precursor of the present Presbyterian Sunday school of Mankato. Of late years there has been some diversity of opinion a-- to who preached the first sermon. "When the question was asked in a lyceum at Mankato in 1857, it was answered without a dissenting voice that a Rev. Brown, a Presbyterian preacher from Cleveland, Ohio, was the man. This verdict, rendered at a time when people ought to have known the fact, has generally been accepted by a majority of the old settlers. The main doubt arises from the fact now known, that a Rev. Brown, a Presbyterian minister from Cleveland, Ohio, a returned missionary, who came to Minnesota in quest of health, visited Mankato and preached at Mr. Hanna's house, but the date was October 16th, 1853, and we also know that two sermons at least had been preached before that date. Mrs. John Q. A. Marsh, who as teacher in the Sunday school and leader in the choir, was present and had a part in all the religious meetings of that year in the Mankato settlement, thought that Rev. Brown paid Mankato two visits, one in the spring and the other in October, or that the Rev. Brown who came in the spring was a brother of the Rev. Brown who arrived in October. In the summer of 1853, Rev. Chauncey Hobert was commissioned by the M. E. Church to visit the various towns of the Minnesota valley and secure building sites for M. E. chapelg. In his note book under date of July 3rd, 1853, he tells of visiting Mankato and preaching there at Mr. Hanna's house, the first sermon heard in the new town. In his memoirs Rev. Julius S. Webber, a Baptist minister, states that he visited Mankato on September 25th, 1853, and preached the first sermon there at Mr. Hanna's home. Mrs. 0. Pitcher, a daughter of T. D. Warren, is very positive that Rev. Norris Hobert preached the first sermon on June 12th, 1853. It is quite probable that Mrs. Pitcher's memory has got the two Hoberts mixed, and that her recollection relates to the visit of Rev. Chauncey Hobert referred to above.

About the first of June of this year Thomas D. Warren and George Van Brunt arrived at jMankato, followed by their families a few days later. They ' located on seven forties of land claimed by the old townsite company, being the land now covered by the Warren and Van Brunt Additions to Mankato. Henry Jackson brought suit, against Warren for jumping his land before Squire Mills. This was probably the first law suit in Blue Earth County. The action was never pressed, as there were no lawyers to carry it on, and it soon was abandoned.

On June 11th, 1853, the first marriage in Blue Earth County was solemnized before Squire Jiills at Mankato, the contracting parties being Jacob Guenther and Christiana M. Wischmeier. The bride came to Mankato with Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Fronert from Milwaukee, where she and the groom first met.

The only other marriage recorded in the county for this year was that of Hazen Moores to Mrs. Ellen Larkin, which occurred at Eed Wood on November 22nd, 1853, and at which the noted Sioux missionary, Dr. Thomas S. Williamson officiated. Eed Wood then belonged to our county as we have seen.

This Hazen Moores was a famous character whose adventurous life was spent among the Indians and traders of the Minnesota valley during the first half of the last century.

The Minnesota continued navigable during the whole summer of 1853 and several boats made regular trips to Mankato. On her trip of June 29th and again on July 6th, the Clarion left St. Paul with 150 passengers on board each time. The other boats engaged in the same trade this year were the Tiger, Black Hawk, Greek Slave, West Newton, Humbolt, lola and Shenandoah. In all there were forty-nine arrivals from the Minnesota at the port of St. Paul this year. 01' the multitude of homeseekers, who thronged these boats, or who on foot or by team followed tlie rough Indian trails, Mankato and the Blue Earth country received their share. With the Warren and Van Brunt families came Marshall T. Comstock and James Jlcilurtrie. In June Clements Kron and Hoxie Eathburn arrived with their families. About the same time came Dr. Jeffrey T. Adams, the first physician to locate in Blue Earth County. He was followed July 14th, by the first lawyer, J. McMahon Holland, who brought in his pocket a commission from the Governor appointing him the first County Attorney. Among many other arrivals of 1853, vc have not yet mentioned were : Dr. James W. Heath, Michael Kaufman, Henry J. Sontag, John Brules, George W. Lay, Henry Goodrich, Blassius Yobst, Michael Syler, John Schroeder, James M. Ayers, George W. Cummings, George II. Marsh, Jared Lewis, Henry Goodrich, John C. Taylor, John Henderson, Basil Moreland, 0. C. Eedfield, Benj. Fritz, Bernhard Bruggernian,- Joseph Frounert, Levi Kotthoff, Martin ]\Iettler, John Fresholtz, Byron W. Comstock, B. W. Stannard, James Talmadge, Max Freudle, Christian Eoos, Uriah S. Karmany and John Fresholtz.

The Legislative Act creating the County of Blue Earth authorized the Governor to appciint the first officers. We have already noted the appointment of Eegister of Deeds and County Attorney. Edwin Perkins after serving two months concluded not to move to Blue Earth County and about June 1st, 1853, P. K. Johnson was appointed Eegister in his place, and the office removed from St. Paul to Jlr. Johnson's home in Mankato.

Early in July a school was started at Mankato with twenty-four scholars, taught by ]Miss Sarah J. Hanna (the late Mrs. John Q. A. Marsh.) It was held in a room built as a wing to the frame warehouse, which Mr. Hanna had finished as a dwelling, and which wing T. D. Warren had occupied for a short time as a store. During the same month Captain Eeno v/ith a corps of United States engineers surveyed through the county a military road, which Congress had ordered to be laid out and constructed between Mendota and the mouth of the Big Sioux river. The survey was begun at the Big Sioiix end and followed in the main the Indian trail. It entered Blue Earth County near its southwestern corner, east of Perch Lake, and traversing Pleasant Mound and Ceresco in a nrrtherly direction it passed to the west side of Perch Creek near the Thurston farm and crossing the Watonwan above the mouth of that creek near the present bridge and thence keeping in the general direction of the North Bluffs of the Watonwan and west bluffs of the Blue Earth it continued in a northeasterly course t]:rough Garden City and South Bend Townsliips, following quite closely the present Garden City and Mankato road. The first survey from Garden City to Mankato followed the old Indian trail which crossed the Blue Earth near the Eapidan Mill and the Le Sueur near its mouth and thence to Mankato by the Eed Jacket valley, but this route was so rough that it was abandoned, and the way by Welsh Lane, Pigeon Hill and Village of South Bend adopted instead. From i^Iankato the survey followed practically the present highway to Kasota and thence by what was known as the Dodd road through the Big Woods. The laying out of this military

Johnson, Clerk. They also divided the county On August 37th, was held the first political into two election precincts, all south of claim caucus or convention in the county. It convened of James Eablin being designated, "Mankato at Mankato for the purpose of nominating canprecinct," and all north, "Babcock's Mill pre- didates for county ofl'ices. Minard Mills was cinct," with place of election for last precinct made chairman and J. McMahon Holland seein J. W. Babcock's house and for the former retary. Dr. P. P. Humphrey was the nominee pi-ecinct, the New Hotel. The judges of election for Judge of Probate, J. McMahon Holland for for Mankato precinct were: Henry Jackson, District Attorney, Basil Moreland for Sheriff, Edwin Howe and Jacob Guenther; and for Bab- I*. K. Johnson for Eegister of Deeds, Hiram cock's Mill: Eeuben Butters, C. C. Mack and Puller for Treasurer, and Ephraim Cole, Jos- Dr. P. P. Humphrey. The first grand and petit eph W. Babcock and Jacob Guenther for County jury for the county were also, drawn at this Commissioners. On September ISth, a special session, and comprised the following persons: meeting of the County Commissioners convened Grand juroi-s: Lewis P. Windslow, P. K. John- at P. K. Johnson's house. At this meeting son, Evans Goodrich, Philip Krummel, Minard Basil Moreland was appointed the first County Mills, Edwin Howe,- Josiah Keene, James Eablin, Treasurer and Thomas D. Warren was made William Wood, Eobert Wardlaw, George C. Justice of the Peace. At the third meeting of C'lapp, John Henderson, Hiram Puller, Thomas the Board held October 3rd, the salary of J. Lemaraux, Joseph Prounert, John B. Harrison, McMahon Holland as County Attorney was fixed Jared Lewis, Dr. P. P. Humphrey, C. C. Mack, at $100.00 per annum. James Eablin and Eeuben Butters, James Lindsley, Charles Pettis, Jared Lewis were also appointed Judges of John C. Durham and Philip Snider. Petit Election for Babcock precinct instead of Mack Jurors: George M. Van Brunt, Thos. D. War- and Humphrey. On October 11th occurred the ren, Marshall T. Comstock, M. Gruntry, Eph- first election held in the county at which Manraim Cole, George Maxfield, Basil Moreland, kt.to precinct cast twenty-one votes, and Kasota Henry Goodrich, Clements Kron, Michael Lea- precinct ten votes, making thirty-one votes in land, Jeffrey T. Adams,' I. S. Lyons, M. H. all in the county. The county officers elected Bergholtz, John ScliToeder, John (the mason), at this first election were: Sheriff, Basil More- Jacob Guenther, Peter Lano, Charles C. Pettis, land ; Treasurer, Hiram Puller ; Eegister of Charles Kirtmacher, Thos. Sparhawk, William Deeds, P. K. Johnson; Judge of Probate, Min- Ehodes, and John Gerheim. ai'd Mills; District Attorney, Henry Jackson;

By an act approved March 5th, 1853, the Coroner, Philip Krummel; Surveyor, Daniel L. Legislature divided the territory into Judicial Turpin; County Commissioners, Ephraim Cole, Districts. All counties east of the Mississippi Joseph W. Babcock and Jacob Guenther; Asformed the First District, and all west of that sessor, Joseph Prounert. One freak of this first river were included in the Second District, ex- election was the selection of Henry Jackson (who did not pretend to know anything about law) as District Attorney by 22 votes to 3 votes for J. McMahon Holland, the only lawyer in the county. Holland -was so disgusted with the result that he soon quit the country. Most of the county officers elected were democrats and yet party politics does not seem to have cut much figure. On the vote for Delegate to Congress, H. M. Eice, then democratic nominee, received seven votes to eleven for Alexander WilMn, the Whig nominee, in Mankato precinct; while Kasota gave nine votes to Eice and one for Wilkin.

In the fall of 1853 James Hanna erected a frame dwelling on lot 5 block 13 of Mankato, just in the rear of where now stands the First National Bank building. Until the opening of the Mankato House, Mr. Hanna's home became the usual stopping place at Mankato for strangers other than Germans, while the latter generally made the log cabin of Clements Kron their hostelry. In the same fall Basil Moreland put up a frame building on lot 2 block 6 of Mankato. It had its side to Front street and was partitioned into two parts. The northerly half was used for church, lyceum, Sunday and day school, and public purposes generally, while the southerly half generally served as a dwelling.

Under date of November 23nd, 18.53, P. K. Johnson writes to a St. Paul paper: "Mankato has about 20 families and the precinct about 100 voters. There are about twenty buildings in the village, among them is a good hotel 50x30 with wing. The village has a school with 24 jrapils, taught by Miss Sarah J. Hanna. Tt also has: one minister (old school Presbyterian), two lawyers, one saddler, two tailors, one millwright, two stores, two hotels. Four miles away on the Le Sueur a saw mill has been nearly completed, owned by George Van Brunt. There are carpenters, masons, plasterers, etc., here. A new town called South Bend has been laid out across the Blue Earth, and eight miles further is Eureka, where there is a good saw mill." The Eureka referred to was a paper townsite which Hiram Caywood had laid out just across the river from the present townsit« of Judson,

At La Crosse, Wis., there resided in 1853 a prominent Welshman named David C. Evans. In the spring of that year, when in the real e&tate office of Colonel T. B. Stoddard, his attention was called to the great bend of the Minnesota as a strategic commercial point and he concluded to visit it. On the 26th of July Mr. Evans started to spy the country. On the way he fell in with General Lyman Matthews, who had come from the blue grass region of Kentucky. They spent a day at St. Paul, then a village of a few shanties, and went to see the great falls of St. Anthony, and found upon the land now occupied by the city of Minneapolis only a single white man, Colonel John H. Stevens, who had built a squatters shanty close to the falls, but was in daily apprehension of being driven off by the military at Fort Snelling, as a trespasser. At St. Paul Evans and Matthews met Captain Samuel Humbertson. (No native American, having any opinion of himself, came west in those anti-bellum days, whose rank was less than "captain." Our captain's title was not derived from any military record, however, but from the fact that he owned and operated the boat "Clarion," which did such valiant service upon the Minnesota in those early days.) On his trips to Fort Eidgely the captain had discovered an excellent boat landing at the mouth of a dry ravine, through which ages ago, the Blue Earth had found its way into the Minnesota, but which now was a mile above the mouth of that stream. So impressed was he ^s'ith the advantages of the spot as a townsite that on his last trip he had left there a pile of boards for a shanty, with his nephew, Thomas Lameraux, in charge, while he got up a townsite company at St. Paul. His enthusiasm soon induced Evans and Matthews to Join the enterprise, and up the Minnesota they all went in the Clarion. It was the 1st day of August when they reached 'TBabcock's Landing," near Kasota and the river was getting low, so they had to tie up the boat there and proceed the rest of the way on foot. Besides our two friends and the captain, the company comprised Alden

Bryant, clerk of the Clarion and John Mann, it? engineer. They found Tom Lemeraux and the pile of boards holding possession of the coveted site. On the bench above they also found I. S. Lyon and family, who had arrived from Iowa a day or two before in a covered wagon, or "Prairie Schooner" as the vehicle was called by the pioneers. Lyon was at iirst taken into the townsite company, making the sixth member, each having an equal share. At the suggestion of Mr. Evans the prospective city was called "South Bend" from its position at the great bend of the river.

On Saturday, August 6th, 1853, was built for Mr. Lyon on the table land east of the village site, the iirst log cabin. Mr. Lyon brought with him the first cow west of the Blue Earth and on this day was done the first churning, the beginning of the great dairy industry of today. On the 7th day of August most of our townsite proprietors footed it back to the Clarion, and thence returned to St. Paul and their various homes, to get ready to move at once to the new town. The death of his father at Palmyra, Ohio, delayed Mr. Evans several weeks in his return. He, however, sent Owen Herbert, to South Bend in August to look after his interests while he followed in ISTovember. On the 33nd of the same month Mr. Evans went to St. Paul after D. T. Turpin, a civil engineer, to survey and plat the new townsite, which survey was completed the 2nd of December. The weather had been exceedingly pleasant all this fall, and on the last day of the survey there was no. frost in the ground. Even on Christmas day, when a party of Mankato people came up to visit South Bend, the ice on the Blue Earth was not strong enough to cross.

By the first of January, 1854, however, there was a change in the weather program, and for six weeks a very cold spell was experienced. About this time the provisions at South Bend got very low, and none to be had nearer than St. Paul, one hundred miles away. Mr. Evans had bought a span of horses of Captain Humbertson, which, by the way, were the first, and for two years the only, horses west of the Blue Earth. It, therefore, devolved upon Mr.

Evans to take his horses and sleigh after the needed supplies. With deep snow on the ground, drifted in places to, mountain heaps, with the mercury down to the twenties, and the danger of being" caught in a blizzard without a road or human habitation, the journey was anything but desirable. It took Mr. Evans eleven days to make the trip, and the hardships attending it were the severest he experienced in all his life. On the evening of January 34th, he was overtaken by a terrible storm, far away from any house, and soon lost the road. The deep snow, the blinding storm, and the bitter cold gave no hope of escape. He could not see a rod away. He had no idea of the points of the compass, night was approaching, the howling blizzard seemed to be closing in on its prey. Unhitching his team he made the best shelter possible for them behind the sleigh, and put before them all the fodder he had. "With a few sticks of wood he managed to kindle a small fire, and sat down beside it not expecting to see the morrow. He soon fell into a stupor, from which he awoke to find his fur cap laying on a few coals before him, apparently intact, but on touching it with his hand it fell to ashes. This aroused him from his lethargy, and the storm having fortunately abated, he took courage, and with head tied up in some flannel shirts he had bought at St. Paul, he eventually managed to reach Shakopee, where he and his team were hospitably cared for at the hostelry of the old pioneer, Joe Reynolds. The next morning Mr. Evans resumed his journey and after three or four more days of struggling with snow drifts, he finally reached the famine stricken city at the bend. The winter, however, was very short. Towards the last of February the weather grew very warm, and a thunder storm on March 1st, took away all the snow and broke up all the rivers. After this so mild was the temperature that Mr. Evans had no need to shelter his horses, but left them out to pasture day and night. By the 4th of April the sndces and mosquitoes were out.

postoffice of Mankato was created, and P. K. Johnson appointed its first postmaster. Soon thereafter the contract for carrying the mail from St. Paul to Mankato once a week was left to George H. Marsh to hegin July 1, 1854. Until that date the mails came when the boats ran, or when some one happened to call for them.

About December 30th, 1853, Theron Parsons and son, L. P. Parsons, arrived at Mankato, having come by team all the way from Illinois. At Hastings they stopped at a hotel kept by Eev. Jonathan Morris, a noted pioneer Campbellite preacher, who afterwards founded Morristown, Eice County, Minnesota. Eev. Morris accompanied Mr. Parsons on a visit to Mankato, and on January 1st, preached there a sermon long remembered by the pioneers. Mr. Parsons purchased the Chris Eoss claim, a portion of which was afterwards laid out as "Parsons Addition to Mankato," and moved to his new home in April, 1854, with his family.

The Indians who made their home about the mouth of the Blue Earth were divided into two bands. One under the chieftainship of Sintomnidutah, and the other under a half breed, called "Frenchman." The latter was married to a sister of the other chief, but they did not live very happily together. Late in the fall of 1853, Frenchman accused his wife of being unfaithful to him. Her friends claimed he did tliis for an excuse to marry a younger squaw. According to the Indian law the punishment for adultery was to cut oflE the end of the nose, and Frenchman and his followers were in favor of law enforcement in this case. The squaw fled to her brother for protection. His village then stood on the table land in West Mankato. Frenchman and his warriors pursued her thither, and demanded that she be delivered up to them. This was refused and the Frenchman's band fired into the teepees, and a battle was precipitated. Most of Sintomnidutah's warriors happened to be away on a hunt and he was not able to cope with his opponent. In the fight one of his warriors was killed and another dangerously Mounded. As it was in the dusk of evening he and his sister managed to escape into the brush and fled to a cave beside Minneopa Falls, which ever after bore the name of "Sintomnidutah's Cave." Here they kept concealed for two or three days until the chiefs warriors returned from the hunt. He then sallied forth at the head of his warriors to avenge his sister's wrongs and his own, and chief Frenchman was obliged to flee to the whites at Mankato for protection, where he stayed for some time, until a truce was arranged between the two bands. The wounded Indian from Sintomnidutah's band was also taken at once to the whites at Mankato for medical aid, and he stayed with Drs. Heath and Adams all winter, being about the only patient the doctors had, and was healed of his wounds.

January 32, 1854, occurred the first meeting of the new Board of County Commissioners, the first board elected by the -people. Ephraim Cole was chairman and J. W. Babcock and Jacob Guenther were the other members. At this meeting a .resolution was passed making Mankato the county seat.

During this month the small Mankato settlement had a narrow escape from an Indian m^assacre. In the autumn the chief Sintomnioutah had purchased twenty-five dollars worth of goods of T. D. Warren, and hypothecated his crop of wild rice for the payment, which was to be made from the first annuity money. This money, however, was spent for something else, and when winter brought hunger to his wigwam, the chief began calling for his rice. Warren informed him he could get it as soon as he paid the debt and not before. The chief said he had no money, and, therefore, could not pay, but that his squaw and papoose were starving, and so must have the rice. The chief carried a fine rifle, which had the reputation among the Indians of always hitting whatever it was aimed at, and Warren proposed to give him the rice and five dollars to boot for the gun. Sintomnidutah agreed to this, but when he and his brother and their squaws came that evening to get the rice, they pretended to have forgotten the rifle, and said they would bring it next morning. Warren was too shrewd for such a trick, and insisted they could not have the rice until the gun was brought. Sintomnidutah was a tall, well proportioned Indian, with head and features resembling those of Henry Clay. Besides being quick witted he had great reputation for strength and bravery, and was an ugly antagonist in a fray. On the supper table lay a Itng bladed knife. Seizing it like a flash, the chief brandished it over his head and declared h' would have his rice, whether pale face was willing or not, and started to climb into the attic where it was stored. Warren was a large, athletic man, who knew no fear. Instantly he grabbed the chief by both wrists, and shaking the knife out of his hand, shoved him out through the door with a parting kick. The Indians at once took their departure and nothing more was heard of them for several days, when Tom Lemeraux, who was accustomed to visit the Indians, came to Warren's cabin one night with the intelligence that he had just been to the Indian village; that the warriors were holding a war dance and the squaws had warned him away, saying that the braves were very ugly towards the whites and had determined to kill them all in the morning. Warren simply laughed at Tom's story. Next day about nine o'clock in the forenoon, however, the people of Mankato were surprised and startled to see some forty Indians, all armed and decked in war paint and feathers, march up Front street in single file. The settlers hurried from their cabins to inquire the meaning of this unwonted savage demonstration. The school children saw the strange procession as it passed the school room in the Moreland building, and followed with childish curiosity. Straight to Warren cabin, which stood near Dr. Harrington's present residence, grimly marched the line of warriors. Warren and a young man, named George Oummings, were chopping firewood by the door when the Iiidians approached. Cummings dodged into the house and he and Mrs. Warren seized a couple of guns. Warren faced the foe like a lion and demanded the why of their coming. The laconic word "rice" was the only answer as the braves formed in two lines, one on each side of the path leading to the door. Not seeing the chief at once, Warren demanded where he was. Down at the further end of the two lines Sintomnidutah stepped out into the path in all his regalia of war. Instantly Warren seized a large sled stake, and, marching straight down the path between the two lines of armed savages, he faced the chief and demanded the gun. Sintomnidutah eyed his antagonist keenly for a moment, then turning the barrel of his gun upside down he emptied the contents into the palm of his hand, and showing Warren the half dozen ugly slugs, which had formed the charge, he said, "White man, these were intended for you, but your heart is brave." So saying he replaced the charge and fired it into the air and handed the gun to Warren. Warren's courage was all that saved him and the other settlers of Mankato that day. Had he shown the slightest fear the massacre planned would have taken place. The Indians always reverenced courage as something supernatural, and a true ejhibition of it seldom failed to call forth their respect. Some twenty or more settlers had now gathered, most of them fairly well armed and a determined lot of men. So if the Indians had begun the fight, it would not have been wholly a one sided affair. Warren paid the chief at once the five dollars, and hitching his oxen, hauled the rice down to his lodge, and peace and good will prevailed once more.

On February 25th, 1854, Rev. James Thomson, a Presbyterian minister, arrived, having come all the way from Wabash, Indiana, on horseback. He was the first minister to locate in the county, and the next day being Sunday, he preached his first sermon at the little room in the Moreland building, where Miss Hanna had her school and where the Sunday school was kept. After the sermon Rev. Thomson had all who were members of the Presbyterian church rise and make a sort of church covenant together. There were seven persons who arose as follows: Mr. and Mrs. James Hanna and two of their children, Mrs. George Maxfield and Mr. and Mrs. George Clapp, who lived on a claim in Kasota township, and whom Eev. Thomson had met on the road the day before and invited to the meeting.

called, came of a distinguished family of preachers, educators, and authors. His father and three of his brothers were ministers, two brothers were professors in Wabash College, and one brother was the famous Dr. William M. Thomson, the author of "The Land and the Book." Father Thomson had organized the first Presbyterian church at CrawfordsvUle, Indiana, and had taken the most active lead in the founding of Wabash College. His whole life was dominated by one ambition to found a great religious college in the west. Wabash College did not satisfy him, and hence he started for the Blue Earth country in Minnesota, haviag a great scheme on his mind. This was to find a township of the choicest farm land and purchase it entire from the government, then get up a colony of select Presbyterian people, to whom the lands were to be sold at a fair profit, this profit to be the endowment of the school. Thus a financial and moral support would be afforded the young institution, which would insure its success. So reasoned Father Thomson and as a precedent he pointed to Galesburg College in Illinois. That first Saturday night at Mr. Hanna's house he explained his mission to Mr. Hanna and Major Murphy, then superintendent of the Sioux Indians in Minnesota, who happened to be stopping there over night. Mr. Hanna thought that the best land had already been taken, for in those days prairie land away from the timber was considered uninhabitable. The Major suggested a still more fatal objection to the plan, which the reverend gentleman had not thought of, namely: That the government was not selling land any more in large tracts, that the only way in which land could be secured at that time was under the "Pre-emption Act," which did not permit more than 160 acres to be sold to one person. Though greatly disappointed in not getting his township of land and being able to carry out his original plan. Father Thomson did not abandon his dream of founding a great college at the big bend of the Minnesota and he concluded to locate at Mankato. Mr. Hanna assured him that small tracts of land, suitable for a college, could be found and showed him a lithographed map of Mankato, on which a big college building was already pictured. The Major showed him a big lump of excellent coal, which someone had just found that afternoon upon the Blue Earth, and spent half the evening dilating upon the importance of the find, and the discovery was heralded iu the state papers. It was afterwards proven that the coal had been taken from Josiah Keene'a blacksmith shop and deposited where found, by some wag.

February 27th Rev. M. N. Adams, then colporteur of the American Bible Society, and pastor of the Presbyterian church at Traverse des Sioux, held at Mankato the first meeting in the interest of the Bible cause. Father Thomson had met him at Traverse des Sioux the previous Saturday and arranged for the meeting. Rev. Thomson in a few days bought the claim of Evans and Henry Goodrich, where Dukes Addition is now located, for $800.00 and sent for his family who arrived the foUowiag June.

On April 3rd, 1854, the County Commissionero organized the county into two school districts: District No. 1 to comprise the voting precinct of Mankato and District No. 3 the precinct of Kasota. The excellent stage of water maintained ia the Minnesota river during 1853 had greatly encouraged steamboat men. Captain Humbertson during the winter disposed of his "Clarion," and had built in its stead a much lurger and finer boat, which he called the "Minnesota Belle." On the third of May the captain started up the Minnesota with his new boat. On board also were Lewis Branson, Henry Shaubut, John Barnard, Luther Barrett and many others destined for the Blue Earth country. The little freshet caused by the melting snow had occurred early in March and there had been no spring rains. On reaching the rapids near Carver, on the fourth of May, the Belle got stuck on the rock and every effort to get her over it proved futile. The captain was so disgusted with his failure that he never attempted to navigate the Minnesota again. Most of the passengers managed to reach their destination by team or on foot, but aU of those bound for South Bend located elsewhere except

Matthew Thomson. Lewis Branson, a lawyer from Indiana, Henry Shaubut, Adam Froendle and a number of others settled at Mankato. In a few days after his arrivel Henry Shaubut purchased from the Mankato Townsite company, tlirough General. Leech, the Mankato House. ll had cost the company about $3,500.00 but Mr. Shaubut got it for $1,200.00. He had the lower story plastered and completed during the summer, and the wing part was occupied by Eevw Thomson and his family until the following spring, when Mr. Shaubut brought his family to Mankato and took possession of the , building.

Along about the middle of May there was some rain, which raised the river sufficiently, so the steamer "Globe" was able to reach Mankoto, on May 30th. She was the first boat that seasouj and about the last, for the water in the river soon fell again. Eight glad were the people -at Mankato to see the boat, for their provisions were about exhausted and nearly all the inhabitants had been living on fish alone for weeks.

Among' the 'Globe's' passengers was John Q. A'. Marsh, who brought with him a stock of merchandise, which his brother George H. Marsh had ordered the 'previous fall. The two brothers opened a' store at once in the Hanna building, which was the first store ' in the county having other than Indian' goods. A month later they moved" the store to their own building on lot 5 block 16, where they conducted a general store for years. ' '

On the 4th of May, 1854, a, second term of the District Court was held in Colonel Eobertson's store building. Hon. A. G. Chatfield presided, Basil Moreland was sheriff, ajid Jeffrey T. Adams clerk.

This year witnessed, a number of cabins added to Mankato as well as to farm settlements to the north, east and south of it. At South Bend D. C. Evans erected quite a pretentious three story log house, the rear of the lower stories extended into the bluff, on the side of which it was built. Matthew Thompson, Elijah K. Bangs and John Barnard were among the

On the west half of section 34 in Mankato township George Van Bnmt had in 1853 discovered a good water power on the he Sueur, and during the winter with the help of M. T. Comstock and James McMurtrie, he had a dam constructed and timbers hauled for a sawmill. By July, 1854, the mill was completed and began the manufacture of lumber, a much needed commodity. This same summer George W. Lay began the erection of a saw mill at Mankato, but tor some reason he failed to get it into workiug order for a year or two. On Minneopa Creek I. S. Lyons, "Buckskin Lyons," as the old settlers called him from his peculiar costume, put lip a small saw mill, which he began to operate on the 8th of August. It stood just above where the present New Ulm road crosses the stream.

From a census taken at the time and preserved in his diary by D. C. Evans , the Township of South Bend on August 8th, 1854, had: -'J'ive "houses, 1 six lamilies,- comprising twenty- . six souls,, one span lof horses, four yokes of oxen, - six cows, and two dogs. , On September 23nd, 18S4, a plat of the/ tpwjisite was recorded, in 'y/hich D. ,C. Evans, Lyman Matthews, Samuel -IIumbertson,i/Alden -Bryant -ai;4 'M. ThompsOjU ' appear i as' I proprietors. .:,' ., ij iii . In July John JooBf and. his. Son-in-law, Griffith Jones, from nfear : Oshkosh, , Wis., visited Bend! Township J and rlooated claims on Eush Lake, to which- on August. 17th,, they removed with their families. -About -the first- of , April of this I same , y^ar S. Titus : Mills, started from his home in Lakfe. County, 111., in a:coveTed -wagoui-drtiwn by i two .yokes of- > Dxen,i hound for the Blue,- Earth '.country. , i -He . took - with , him thirty , head of cattle and one horse and had a man !to help drive them. After many adventures : and hardships- .he -.reached Mankato about the first of June. Mrs. Mills and the children started about a month later with Theron Parsons and family and came by the ordinary steamboat route. She reached Mankato about as soon as her husband. Mr. Mills bought of George Cummings of Mankato a claim, he had just taken and built a small log cabin upon, at the east end of Mills lake, and on July 1st, moved his family thereon, being the first permanent settler of Garden City Township.

To illustrate one special annoyance, which every pioneer of that day experienced from the Indians, and to show as well the mettle of the women of that period, I will quote from a paper Mrs. Mills prepared for an old settlers gathering, this incident: "Provisions of all kinds v/ere- very high. Mr. Mills paid $1.50 a bushel for some corn. He kept it in sacks in one corner of our cabin. The Indians saw it and came every day begging for it. At last they became so persistent we told them it was for our own use we had got it, and could not let them have it. One day Indian men, squaws and papooses crowded in and filled the room full. They appeared very merry, laughing and gabbleing among themselves. Soon I noticed their attention was directed to the corner where the corn was and I knew they were helping themselves tn it. I was" alone with my little child and what could I do with so many of them. When they began to go out I saw some of them had corn in their blankets and let them go without saying anything. But one squaw had such a big load, it was more than I could put up with. 1 took hold of her blanket, and gave it a suddeii jerk, which loosened it and the corn fell tp the floor. I told her to put it back in the sack and she said no, and I closed the door and gave her to understand it must be put back before she could go out. The others laughed at her and helped her put it back, but, oh, how mad she was! I gave her a few ears and told her to go, and that was the last I saw of her."

About the same time, or it may have been a i'ew weeks later, two young men from Vermont, named William and Edward Washburn, located claims in the Haunted Valley at the mouth of the Watonwan, in Garden City township. Early in the fall of the same year, came Charles Gilchrist, Edward Thompson, George Lamberton, Orin J. Westover and Edson Gerry, all young men, and located claims in the same town along the Watonwan. About the 1st of May W. E. Eobinson and S. H. Thorne left their homes in Tompkins County, N. Y., to seek their fortunes in the west. Thorne went to visit his brother-in-law, Calvin Webb, in Iowa, while Eobinson went to his brother-ia-law, L. 0. Hunt, in Wisconsin. Since the cession of their lands by the Sioux, Minnesota was everywhere talked about as ofiering the best opportunity to settlers. Messrs. Hunt and Eobinson concluded to visit the Blue Earth country, where they arrived early in Jidy. Both were favorably impressed and made up their minds to locate here at once. Eobinson wrote to his family and to Mr. Thorne about the decision he had come to, and Mr. Thorne induced Calvin Webb to sell his Iowa claim and go with the rest to Minnesota. The Eobinson family joined the Hunt family in Dodge County, Wis., while the Thorne family went to Calvin Webb's home near Davenport, and all were to rendezvous at La Crosse on August 1st, 1854. Writing of the journey Mrs. Thorne says: "So we procured our camping outfit in Davenport and shipped most of our goods by boat to St. Paul. Our boat was detained four days at Galena, waiting for. passengers overland from the west, so when we arrived at La Crosse, we did not meet our friends. We went up the river a few miles above Winona, and then started for our overland trip, very much disappointed that we did not meet them. We left the river, and it took all the forenoon to get up the bluff. When all the teams had reached the prairie we camped for dinner, our first meal on the boundless prairie. While we were preparing the meal, Mr. Webb and Mr. Thorne cui the bark from some trees nearby and wrote our names and date.

After we had traveled about an hour we noticed a horseman following us on the gallop, and halted for him to come up. It proved to be Mr. Eobinson. They had found our campfire and our names and he had hurried after us, whUe the rest were cookiag dinner, and we were very happy to be together. We had no roads to follow, only the compass to guide us. We had not expected to be more than ten days on the way, but we found all the marshes and cieeks full of water, and every river a raging torrent, so that it took us nearly six weeks.

Our stores of bread and cake and such things soon disappeared. Once we traveled two days and came back where we camped 'the first night. That is only one of the many adventures we had. For over three weeks we never saw another human being, except two Indians, who visited our camp one night. We had no vegetables. ALL we had was some dried fish and salt meat and what bread we could bake before the camp fire, and many times we held the umbrella over it while it baked. We frequently saw elk and deer and plenty of wild fowl, but our hunters never could get near enough to kill any of them. When everything was done for the night, before we sought our beds spread on the earth under the canvass we always sang:

"Forever with the Lord, Amen, so let it be. Life from the dead is in that word. Tis immortality. Here in the body pent Absent from him we roam. But nightly pitched our moving tent A days' march nearer home."

Well at last we reached the Blue Earth river, just above the mouth of the Le Sueur and we had no way to get across. So some of our m.en swam across and went to South Bend, and Armstrong and Lemeraux came over with a boat and helped us. It took about all day Saturday, and we could not get to South Bend until Sunday morning, September 13th, and a very sorry looking crowd were we. D. C. Evans kindly welcomed us and let us have a part of his new house, and we were happy to be under a roof once more. We thought our troubles were over, but alas we had only begun our frontier life, and the many trials and privations we had to endure seem now almost incredible. Mr. Thorne took a claim on Crystal Lake, Mr. Webb located in Judson Township, and Mr. Hunt and Mr. Eobinson after settling for a few weeks in Eapidan, removed on November 1st to the banks of Lake Crystal."

was laid out, called "Eureka" near the mouth of Swan Lake Creek, in Nicollet County, and during that summer a saw mill was erected by Mr. Caywood on the creek. This at once attracted some settlers to the locality, as the townsite was widely advertised. A few of these located on the Judson bottom, on the Blue Earth County side of the river, as early as 1853. Eev. John Tidland and family, and John Eandahl, were of this number. During 1854, John Goodwin, William Irving, Chester D. Hill, Eobert Patterson, Gustav Johnson, Peter Olson, Charles Youngberg, John Beckman and Fred and Frank Winnestrand joined the Judson settlers.

Near the little town of St. Charles, Mo., not far from St. Louis, a number of German farmers had settled. The land was quite hilly and ill adapted for agriculture. Two of the colony went across the Mississippi into the Illinois country to purchase a threshing outfit in the spring of 1854. The rich farming lands they saw there opened their eyes to the poverty of the soil they had chosen at St. Charles, and they went home and stirred up the community to the folly of remaining in such a barren spot, when the country was full of good land. Af a conference held, it was decided to send one of their number as a spy to discover the best land. A young German of good judgment and education and thoroughly reliable, named Nicolas Uhle, was hired for $35.00 per month and expenses and sent out on the important mission. He went through Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, and up above St. Paul on the Mississippi. Then he came up the Minnesota to Mankato and put up with Clements Kron. The next morning after his arrival he called on Mr. Kron for his bill and paid it. He remained in the locality two or three weeks, making daily excursions into the country. He would tell no one of his mission, and the Germans at Mankato were quite puzzled to explain his mysterious coming and going. He finally returned to St. Charles with a full report of all the lands he had seen, but his recommendation was to the country about Mankato in Blue Earth County.

ised land: Michael Hund, Philip Hodapp, Peter Schulte, David Heidwinkle, and Frank Bortmeir with their families, and Henry Vahle and Leo Lamm, both ithen unmarried. Young "Uhle was, to his great disappointment, denied the privilege of going with the colony, as his parents just tiien summoned him back to Germany. This band of German emigrants reached Mankato on October 14th, 1854, and settled in Lime and Mankato Townships, where they and their descendants became prominent residents. Nearly all of the fathers and mothers, however, have gone to their reward, after rendering splendid service to their church and community.

The year 1854 saw the beginning of settlements in Eapidan, Lyra and McPherson. Basil Moreland made a claim of 160 acres in section 7 of Eapidan covering the finest water power on the Blue Earth. In April, Oliver J. Roe and John N. Dodgson made claims in the same town. In August Isaac Andrus and Truman P. Andrus located upon farms along the Maple in sections 11 and 12 of the same town, while Williston K. Greenwood claimed on the Blue Earth adjoining Basil Moreland in section 7. In the fall of this same year Noble G. Eoot moved with his family to a claim he had made on the Maple adjoining the present vUlage of Good Thunder on the south in sections 9 and 10 of Lyra. On October 11th Barnabas W. Simmons took possession with his family of 160 acres in section 33 of Lyra. In November of this same year Charles Mansfield and Ansen AV. Callen located upon claims on the east bank of -Rice LaJvC, in McPherson Township on sections nineteen and twenty.

On July 1st, 1854, George H. Marsh began his contract with the government for the transportation of the mail once a week between St. Paul and Mankato. The first trip he made on foot as far as Traverse des Sioux and thence down the river in an Indian canoe. A horse and light wagon were procured for the return trip and used for a time; but soon two horses \vere used and a covered rig to carry passengers and light freight. Within about a year the service was increased to twice a week, then thrice a week, and finally daily and the southern terminus removed to South Bend. To have a regular mail service even once a week was a wonderful convenience to the settlers in their isolation. No need then for any postoffice or letter boxes, for on mail day every resident in the settlement was on hand long before the arrival of the post, and all postmaster Johnson had to do, after opening the mail bag, was to call the names and each person was on hand to receive his mail. If any one failed to respond Mr. Johnson would put the letter in his pocket and look him up, for there must have been something serious the matter with him. The first assessment ever made in the county occurred in 1854. A most important event for the settlers of Blue Earth County in 1854 was the government survey of the land. Until this time no settler cculd tell much about the boundary of his claim. Surveyors would mark out 160 acres of land for a settler, but with no township or section lines to go by, no one could well describe it, or know how much of it he could hold when the survey was made. The original townsite of Mankato was platted from a survey made before the government lines were run, and the whole is tied to a stake on Main street near the Saulpaugh, where the survey started. AU the settlers had to readjust their farms more or less when the survey was made. The government surveyors began their work on the county about July 1st, 1854, at its southeast corner, and worked north and west. They first ran the township and range lines, and then subdivided the townships into sections. The work occupied all that summer and fall, and was not fully completed until the following spring. A number of persons connected with this survey located at Mankato this same fall. Prominent among whom were L. G. M. Fletcher, John T. Everett and Henry Humphrey. Others who settled in Mankato this same fall are: William P. Coffin and Joel Cloud, (who during the winter ran a small store in the Hanna building on the levee), Daniel T. Bunker, S. M. Walker, Adam Freundle, Geo. A. Clark, Morton Lafiin, B. W. Stannard, Antoin Jacoby, Jacob and Henry Sontag, Columbus Ballard and many others.

cinct of South Bond was created, embracing all the county -west of the Blue Earth river. The second election in the county occurred on October 10th, 1854. That in South Bend precinct was held at the house of D. C. Evans, with L. Matthews, ISToah Armstrong and D. 0. Evans as Judges of Election and I. S. Lyons as Clerk I'lve votes were cast at this precinct, forty-five at the Mankato precinct, and thirteen at Kasota j)recinct, maldng fifty-three votes in all. Daniel T. Bunker was elected sheriff over Edwin Howe, Vtho on the resignation of Basil Moreland liad been appointed to the office on September 4th. Minard Mills was elected Judge of Probate; James Thomson, County Treasurer; D. C. Evans, County Commissioner, and E. Goodrich, Surveyor.

On September 9th, 1854, John Lyons, son of I. S. Lyons died, and was buried a little Avest of the present Minneopa Cemetery. He was about twenty-one years old and of a very amiable character. His death was the first among the settlers west of the Blue Earth. The funeral services were held out doors in a grove, and Eev. James Thomson on this occasion preached the first sermon west of the Blue Earth. The first birth among the settlers west of the Blue Earth was that of Elsie J. (now Mrs. Bailey) daughter of Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Thorne on the banks of Lake Crystal on December 13th, 1854. The winter of 1854-5 was quite severe, with deep snow and, as none of the settlers were very well housed or clad, it entailed no little suffering and hardship. Deer and all kinds of game were plenty, but the cold and snow made hunting a very arduous sport.

P. K. Johnson bought of the Indians and settlers during the winter five hundred deer pelts, killed around Mankato, showing something of the number of that kind of game.

In spite of the cold, the poor houses, the poor clothing, the poor food, the isolation, and the many hardships and deprivations, the people were mostly young and strong and enjoyed their frontier life. A lyceum had been started in Mankato as early as the winter of 1853, in which all took great interest. It had closed in the spring in a blaze of glory with a grand exhibition. The Lady of the Lake was dramatized, there were songs, recitations and comic farces. John E. Harrison, Minard Mills, Josiah Keene and Miss Hanna and others were fine singers. Josiah Keene made a great hit as a colored man, wearing a pair of cow hide boots, he had borrowed of General Matthews. The General was quite a large man and his feet were massive. He had these boots constructed ample enough to fit over his other shoes, and truly they were "Great." It toook some ^plomacy on the part of the managers to keep good old Father Thomson from not being over much shocked by such levity, especially when Keene added some lively tunes on his ungodly fiddle to his other antics. But one or two good religious songs, sang in the minor key brought the old gentleman to, and all went home happy. The winter of 1854-5 saw the lyceum more flourishing than ever, because of the added numbers. There were learned addresses, fiery debates, and iiispiring songs, the echoes of which lingered in the souls of our pioneers for many a_ day, and broke the monotony of the wilderness life.