Faribault County, Minnesota - Chapter 6, 1896

Chapter 6

We now enter upon the history of the sixth year of the county. It was an important year, for among other things it was a year of reckoning - one in which the accounts were made up and the progress which tlie county had made, was exhibited. Five of the most wretched years in the history of the county had been passed, 1855 was the first of the settlement, during which but little had been done. In 1856 the population was sparce, and the couaty still a wilderness. In 1857 the Indian excitement and late spring were greatly detrimental. In 1858 the county was deluged by excessive rains and the crops were light. In 1859 the spring was again late, provisions scarce and high and the times hard. It was the period of first settlement and of the struggle to get a foothold and a subsistence - the stone age of the county. They were the years of semi- barbarism, of salt pork, corn bread and poor whisky, of rags and recklessness.

But with the incoming of 1860, a better day in many respects notwithstanding the hard times, a new day with new duties dawned upon the county - a new decade and a new epoch in our history began.

In distinguishing between the earlier and later years of the county, the years before 1860 may appropriately be named, the "early years" or "early days" of the county, and those who resided here then "the old settlers" or the early settlers of the county.

The Legislature

The second State legislature assembled at the capital December 7th, 1859, and adjourned Mai-ch 12th, 1860. The county was represented in this session by Geo. Watson in the Senate and Guy K. Cleveland, Allen Shultis and T. W. Purdie in the House. No acts were passed relating exclusively to this county, but the State was re apportioned for legislative purposes, and this county was placed in a new district, numbered the twentieth. The district was composed of the counties of Faribault, Martin, Jackson. Cottonwood, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Rock and all that part of Bi'own County lying east of range thirty-four - a tract of territory large enough for an empire. This county had the distinction of being considered

The Supervisors

This board met on the second day of January and had a session of four days. Much business was done, which is stated elsewhere in this history, but we note here that at the close of the session a very suspicious resolution was adopted, on motion of Supervisor Seely. The resolution was to the effect that Dr. W. N. Towndrow be appointed a committee "to inquire how much strychnine can be procured for one hundred dollars of county orders, and to report at the next meeting of the board." The resolution has a dark and mysterious aspect, as it does not state whether liquid "strychnine," as whisky was sometimes called, or the crystal, was intended, nor is there any intimation in the resolution, or on the record, as to the purpose for which the board was going into the wholesale poisoning business. But to save the board from unjust suspicion, the writer suggests the fact that in the earlier years of the county, among other calamities endui-ed by the settlers, was the great destruction of the crops by gophers, blackbirds and cranes, and which sometimes became so serious that the public authorities took the matter in hand, and purchased large quantities of poison, which was distributed among the farmers, with which to destroy the pests.

The board met again on the 5th day of March, and after a session of several days adjourned, sine die. This was the last meeting of the board of supervisors. A note on the record reads as follows: "During the session of the legislatui-e of 1859-60, a general law was passed providing for a board of county commissioners, to consist of five members in counties of over eight hundred voters, and of three members in counties containing a less number, and repealing the act providing for a board of supervisors. Under this act this county is entitled to three commissioners, and in pursuance of the provisions of said act, such commissioners were elected at large at the annual town meetings in April, of this year, to hold their offices until the next general election." The persons elected were Albin Johnson, Thomas Blair and J. H. Welch.

The supervisor system was wisely abolished. It may serve a good purpose in wealthy and populous counties, but the system is too cumbersome and expensive in counties thinly settled. Ordinarily three or five men, as under the commissioner system, can transact the business of a county as wisely and expeditiously and much more economically, than a board composed of from ten to twenty members. The only action taken at this last meeting of the supervisors, needing special mention, was that of granting two licenses to saloonkeepers to sell intoxicating liquors, which were the first ever granted in the county. In such cases a certificate signed by the county auditor is usually made, certifying the fact that the person named is authorized to sell intoxicating liquors at retail, and is delivered to such person.

It is often the fact that certificates and diplomas granted for various purposes, are appropriately embellished with legends, mottoes, apt quotations from the poets, or the scriptures, and the custom is a proper one. It might be asked what suitable texts may be used to adorn and beautify a license certificate to sell intoxicating liquors. The following are suggested, which may be neatly printed around the borders - "Wine is a mocker: Strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Prov. 20:1. "At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." Prov. 23: 32. "No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Cor. 6: 10.

The Spring

The year was one long to be remembered by the old settlers for many things, but especially for its delightful weather. The preceding years had been, as we have seen, very disagreeable, but seemingly to compensate for this, the spring of this year opened early and at once. The snows of the winter and the rains of the spring were light, and passed off without floods. The greater part of the grain was sown during the last days of February and first half of March, and the weather continued very fine, from the opening of spring until very late in the fall. The water, mud and mosquitoes of the preceding years were forgotten, and it was declared that Minnesota possessed the finest climate in the world. Never was a spring time more enjoyed by the people. The season of spring is always welcome. The bright sun worshipped as a god in the olden day, again comes back from his low southern position, bringing his glorious light and warmth.

The icy fetters of old winter are broken. New born life and energy and activity are awakened on every hand. The doors and windows of our dwellings are thrown wide open, and the dwellers come forth with gladness as from a prison, to enjoy the bright day and balmy air and out door f j-eedom.

The streams again glitter and ripple and dance in the sunlight. The fields grow green, the wild flowers blossom and the trees and forests, long dead and withered, clothe themselves in verdure. The hu.sbandman goes forth to his fields to sow the seed, confident in the perpetual promise of the harvest, the cattle seek the fresh, new pastures, and the birds return to gladden the heart with their songs. What a grand resurrection from death unto life! Symbol indeed, of that more glorious resurrection of the just to life everlasting.

These, as they change, Almighty Father, these Are but the varied God. The rolling year Is full of Thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring Thy beauty walks, Thy tenderness and love. , Wide flush the ttelds: the softening air is balm: Echo the mountains round: the forest smiles; And every sense, and every heart is joy. - Tkompson.

The Court

In passing it may be well to state that the second term of the District Court commenced its session on the second day of April, Hon . L. Branson, presiding. A pretty lengthy calendar was disposed of, but none of the cases tried were of public importance. In the summary of the events of a year, the sessions of our District Court, may, to a superficial observer, appear to be an unimportant item. But such is not the fact. Besides the important consideration that this court - the highest in the county - affords the means of the final adjustment of innumerable legal difficulties and the trial of offenders against the laws of the land, for which purposes it was established, it exercises a wholesome educational and restraining influence upon the public. It is, too. the occasion of the assembling of many people from all parts of the county, either as parties having some interest in the causes to be tried, or as jurors or spectators. All become more or less instructed in the laws of the land and impressed with the jiower of the laws and the dignity and decorum of the courts of justice.

No event of interest occurred until the 4th day of June, when the new board of county commissioners met and oi-ganized by the election of Thomas Blair, chairman. The board proceeded to divide the county into three commissioner districts as follows:

No. Three. - Comprised the towns of Dunbar, Marples, Lura, Guthrie and Winnebago City. This division of the county was a matter of much interest at the time because of the rivalry then existing between the north half and the south half of the county, led respectively by Winnebago City and Blue Earth City, the only villages in the county. As the commissioners were thereafter to be elected in the districts separately, and not at large, it was thought that this division would give one or the other faction a controlling interest on the board and in the county affairs. Winnebago City prevailed. The board met again on the 16th day of June and on the 4th day of September and November 17th, but did no business of historical interest, except such as is noted in other parts of this work.

The First National Census

During the month of June a national census, the first of this county, was taken. Geo. B. Kingsley acted as assistant marshal, for taking the census of this county. The following abstracts of the returns are of interest:

As compai'ed with the census of 1857, the increase of population was about one hundred per centum in three years. As to the nativity of the population, one was born in Switzerland, one in Spain, one in District of Columbia, one in Holland, two in N. Carolina, two in Maryland, three in New Jersey, three in Nova Scotia, three in Missouri, three in Virginia, four in Hungary, four in Rhode Island, nine in France, ten in Kentucky, ten in Tennessee, twelve in Michigan, eighteen in Ireland, twenty in Connecticut, twenty- three in Scotland, twenty-five in New Hampshire, twenty-nine in England, thirty in Massachusetts, thirty-four in Prussia, thirty- five in Maine, thirty-seven in Norway, thirty-nine in the German States, foi-ty-two in Vermont, forty-eight in Iowa, forty-eight in Canada, fifty seven in Ohio, sixty-nine in Indiana, seventy-two in Illinois, seventy-five in Pennsylvania, one hundred and eighteen in Wisconsin, one hundred and fifty-eight in Minnesota, and two hundred and eighty-seven in New York. From which it appears that 1,095 of the inhabitants of the count}' were born in the United States, of whom one hundred and fifty-eight only were native Minnesotians, the remainder, two hundred and forty-seven, were born in foreign countries. No citizen of African descent is reported. Turning to the report of certain property, it is found that the numbor of acres of improved laud was 3,651.

As to the occupations of the people of the county, the returns show that thei'e was one stage driver, one silversmith, one clerk, one millwright, one baker, one cooper, one gunsmith, one trapper, one butcher, two machinists, two tailors, two merchants, two hotel keepers, three shoemakers, three wagonmakers, six blacksmiths, seven school teachers, nineteen carpenters, two hundred and sixty farmers, besides farm laborers, two i^hysicians to look after the health of the people, five lawyers to see that justice was done and topreserve the peace and secure the temporal prosperity of the community, and one minister of the gospel to guard their spiritual interests. The disproportion which appears above, between the law and the gospel, was not so great as it seems, as there was but one law^'er at that time who pretended to practice.

A census is defined to be "an official enumeration of persons and their property, generally with such facts as tend to show their moral, social, physical and industrial condition." The knowledge of the number of inhabitants, their condition in all respects and the resources of the country is very necessary to every government. The enumeration of the people was enjoined in the Pentateuch, and the most ancient record of the kind is that of Moses. There is a record of a Chinese census made in the year 2042 B. C.and of one in .Japan in the last century before Christ. The Greeks and Romans made such enumerations of the inhabitants, and in almost all civilized or semicivilized countries it has been the custom for many centuries, at longer or shorter periods, to take a census. The Federal Constitution requires the taking of a census every ten years. The first was made in 1790, and one has been made in every tenth year since. The number of any year ending with a cipher, is the year of the National census. The State also provides for a census everj' ten years, but the State census is usually taken in the year, the number of which ends with five. Thus we have a census of the State, either National or State, every five years. The National census of 1880, the tenth, was the most perfect, elaborate and reliable one ever made in any age or country.

The National Holiday

There was a Fourth of July celebration at Blue Earth City in due and ancient form. J. B. Wakefield, Esq. delivered the address. A large company was present and listened attentively as the orator eloquently told the old, old story, repeated every year from Washington Territory to Florida, from Maine to California, of the greatness and glory and eternal perpetuity of our country and its institutions. Ah, how little we know of the future 1 This very anniversary of the Fourth of July was the last one, for many years, celebrated in an undismembered country. The speaker of the following year had a different story to tell - one of treason, disunion and blood, appalling to the patriotic heart!

The Times

The times still continued hard, and money, as the phrase goes, was very "close," but, as someone remarked, was not so close that the joeople could get hold of much of it.

Yet a very marked and agreeable change had come over the community - a more hopeful and healthful spirit, a new life, new energy and enterprise seemed to animate the people. Immigration was very considerable, some building was being done in the villages and through the country - quite a large amount of land was broken up and farms opened, schools were started in various districts, roads were laid out and worked and bridges built, regular religious services were instituted at a number of places, society was getting in better condition and the county into good running oi'der, and to crown all, the crops were abundant and harvested in good season.

Notable Events

Among the great events of the year, which attracted public attention and were the subjects of discussion, there may be mentioned that terrible calamity, the falling of the great Pemberton Mills, at Lawrence, Mass., in wbichhundredsof operatives were crushed and burned to death.

Then there was the arrival in May, at Washington, of the Grand embassy from Japan, bearing a treaty of peace and commerce with the United States. This was the first treaty ever made by this curious and ancient people, with any outside, "barbarous" nation. The Embassy, and the reception accorded it by the general government, were very imposing and worthy, too, such great nations.

The checkered career of Gen. Walker, the great filibuster, whose "expeditions" during a number of years, created considerable interest, came to an end in Sei)tomber of this year. He was shot in Honduras, a country which he designed to "take," but which, it appears took him. The visit of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and his tour through the United States during the summer and fall, was also one of the memorable events of the year.

As an evidence of the progress of the times it is well to record the fact that on the 8th day of September, of this year, there was organized at Blue Earth City a lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templars, consisting of sixteen charter members. This was the first temperance organization ever instituted in the county, and the necessity for it, at that time, has never been questioned from that day to this* It being the first society of the kind, the writer will he excused for mentioning the chief officers of the lodge. They were as follows :

Geo. S. Converse, Chaplain. This lodge prospered greatly and many were reclaimed from habits of intemperance, but after about a year of good works, owing to various causes, it ceased to exist. The order has often however, been re-established and done good work in various parts of the county, since that day. Frontier towns are often rough and immoral places and the villages in our county, in the earlier days, were no exception, though they were not so bad as many other places. In western border towns, saloons are too often the chief places of resort, and drunkenness, with its inevitable concomitants, gambling, profanity and rowdyism pretty generally prevails, to the great injury of the locality. To even a casual observer it is very plain that were the intoxicating liquors removed from such places the greater proportion of these evils would disappear. They constitute, in great measure, the fuel which feeds these fires of hell. A town or city should not only be an aggregation of people and houses, and a center of trade and manufactures, but it should also be a center of intelligence and culture, with its schools and libraries, lecture halls and high-toned press, a center of religion, morality and good man ners and good order, with its churches and moral and benevolent societies and pure social and domestic life, and should exert a benign and elevating influence on all the surrounding and tributary country. It should not be a sinlf of iniquity where drunlienness, vulgarity, gambling, jDrofanity and other vices and crimes, with ignorance, filth and social degradation, are the predominent features, a place where easy facilities and temptations are found, on every hand, to allure the unwary to wrong doing, a quagmire, a hole in which not only many of its own people are sunk, but one exercising a baleful influence on all the surrounding country, a place which, when anyone visits on business or pleasure, an anxious family, or friends at home, fear for him because he may return demoralized, despoiled and drunken. That our villages, larger towns and cities, shall ever be such places as they should be, is doubtless but a Utopian dream, but all experience and observation prove, that the longest step which can be taken toward such an accomplishment, would be the extermination of the use of and traffic in intoxicating liquors, and blessed be the hand, the head, and the heart, that helps so good a cause.

"Temperance in its broader meaning is distinctly a Christian virtue, enjoined in the Holy Scriptures. It implies a suDordination of all tlie emotions, passions and appetites to the control of reason and conscience. Dietetically it means a wise use of suitable articles of food and drink, with entire abstainance from such as are i?nown to be hurtful. Both science and human experience argee withtheholy Scriptures, in condemning all alcoholic beverages as being neither useful nor safe. The business of manufacturing and vending such liquors is also against the principles of morality, political economy and the public welfare."

Let us now see what we had this year in the way of crops and the value of property. The following statement was compiled by the county auditor from the asse'ssors returns:

Prices average as follows during the year: In the spring flour was *3. 50 per hundred, butter 12A cents per pound, corn 50 cents and wheat ^\.00 per bushel. In the fall Uour $3.50 to §4.00 per hundred, pork 9 to 12 cents per pound, butter 12A cents per pound, corn 50 cents and oats 16 cents per bushel.

The Second Fair

THE SECOND FAIR. The fair of the Agricultural Society was held again at Winnebago City and proved a gratifying success. The farmers manifested a disposition to make these annual exhibitions pleasant and profitaable. The interest in the society was now well established and growing, and the society bid fair to serve a good purpose.

The Hattle Of The Ballot.S.

As the fall came on, politics began to interest the people. It was the year of a great presidential election and was the first presidential election at which the people of this county were permitted to vote on this question. Great interest too was manifested in our local politics. Several State and quite a number of county and district officers were to be elected. The presidential candidates were Abraham Lincoln, Republican: Stephen A. Douglas, Northern Democrat; .John C. Breckenridge, Southern Democrat, and John Bell, Old Whig and Peace party.

The Republican District Convention met at Madeli^, and nominated for Senator Guy K. Cleveland, of this county, and A. Strecker, of another county, for Representative.

County Commissioners, J. H. Dunham, J. B. Wakefield and Thomas Blair. No nominations were made for the offices of Clerk of Court and Court Commissioner. The Democratic candidates wei'e:

Lincoln electors, 270 votes. Douglas electors, 63 votes. For Senator, Guy K. Cleveland had 221 votes and Andrew C. Dunn 105. For Representative, A. Streeker had 246 votes and W. B. Carroll 87. For County Auditor, A. Bonwell had 270 votes and Geo. K. Moulton 64. For County Attorney, J. B. Wakefield (no opposition), had 328 votes. For Surveyor, J. H. Welch had 264 votes and J. M. Wheeler 69. For Judge of Probate, A. Preston had 268 votes and D. H. Morse 65. For Register of Deeds, J. A. Kiester had 262 votes and L. W. Brown 74. For Clerk of Court, Geo. B. Kingsley (no opposition), had 126 votes. For Court Commissioner, Andrew C. Dunn had 91 votes and J. A. Kiester 102. For County Commissioners, J. H. Dunham, J. B. Wakefield and Thos. Blair were elected. The whole vote of the county was 336.

The presidential contest of 1860 was a bitter and exciting one, and on its issues depended, in a great measure, very stupendous results. The antagonism between the free States of the North and the slave States of the South, had been growing stronger and stronger, from year to year. The cry of "disunion, secession" had long been heard, but grew loud and portentious in this campaign. It meant something. The Shibboleths of the campaign in the North were, free homers, free labor, free speech, free press and squatter sovereignty. The Republican party was in the minority, as against all outside of its ranks, but owing to the divisions among the opposition, Mr. Lincoln was elected president. When this fact became known, intense excitement prevailed throughout the South. Seces sion conventions were called in various southern States, southern members of the cabinet and a number of senators and representatives in congress, from southern States, resigned their seats, and several forts, custom houses and other property of the general government, in the South, were seized under State authority.

The year closed here, as throughout the whole nation, in gloom. Business became again depressed, another "money panic" prevailed, and currency became greatly depreciated, enterprise was paralyzed, and the people, full of forebodings, were watching and waiting. It was indeed evident that the di'eaded hour, long threatened, had come, and a dreadful time - the awful import of which none then fully realized - aye, even the day of the battle of the bullets - was indeed near at hand.

If the reader will now recall to mind, the principal events of this year, the weather conditions, the scarcity of money, our statistics of population, of live stock and farm products, the topics of local and public interest, discussed among the people, and will at the same time remember that there were then no railroads or telegraphs and no newspapers in the county, that we had but two small villages then, that the settlements were confined to the timber, along the streams and about the lakes, and that the prairie lands were almost all unclaimed and vacant, he will have a very accurate mental picture of our county in 1860.