Fillmore County, Minnesota - Early Days, 1912

Early Days

Early Routes of Travel - Difficulty of Carting Produce to Market - Hardships Endured by the Pioneers - Changes in Methods of Agriculture - Stories and Incidents Which Are Now Nearly Forgotten - The Fillmore County Moonshiners - By William Willford.

More than a half century ago wlien the staple crop in Fillmore county was wheat, a ''state line'' or main thoroughfare was established that crossed the township of Newburg near Mabel. It started as far west as range 13 and over it the early settlers of the southern part of Fillmore county, and the northern part of Howard and Winneshiek counties in the state of Iowa, traveled to market their wheat and dressed pork at Brownsville, Minn., and La Crosse. Wis., both on the Mississippi river. The distance from the eastern part of Fillmore eounty to Brownsville was about forty miles, and to La Crosse about fifty-five miles, but many of the settlers had to travel from sixty to sixty-five miles to reach these market points. This route took an easterly direction by Elliota and entered Newburg township (town 101, range 8), near the southwest corner of seetion 31; then running in a northeasterly direction; crossing sections 27 and 26; and passing a hamlet on section 25 known as Belleville. The route entered Houston county, in section 30, town 101, range 7. thence running in a northeasterly direction across Houston county, by the way of what was known by the teamsters as Norwegian Ridge, through Caledonia to Brownsville.

Another market thoroughfare started in the south eentral part of Fillmore county, running in an easterly direction, by the way of Lenora und Newburg in Fillmore county, and Rieeford in Houston county, and making a union with the state line route on Norwegian Ridge. Al} the teamsters that desired to market at La Crosse, Jeft this main thoroughfare at Caledonia, and going by the wav of Hokah could reach La Crosse by crossing the Mississippi river on a ferry boat.

The grain and pork was marketed in the late fall and in the winter time, but largely in the winter months. The marketing of wheat in the winter time was what tried the settlers as to their grit and enduranee, especially when the thermometers registere

William Willford

80 and 35 degrees below zero, and the ground was covered with about a foot or more of snow. At times it was not so cold, but the teamsters had to encounter a good stiff wind that made huge snowdrifts, and filled the sleigh tracks full of snow immediately after they were made, so that the teams had to be depended on to follow the road, as it was impossible for the drivers to discern them. The teams used at this period on the farms and the hauling of grain to market were of both oxen and horses.

The clothing of the settlers in the fifties was mostly homemade and largely flannel and a fabric called linsey. The settlers when marketing their wheat and pork in the winter time were elad in the following manner: Flannel undershirt and drawers; linsey shirt; a vest; a coat; home-made woolen pantaloons that were lined; a cloth, muskrat or coonskin eap; and woolen mittens faced with cloth or deerskin. The footwear consisted of a pair of woolen socks, and cow hide boots. Overeoats and overshoes were to them unknown. In the latter part of the fifties came a substitute for the cow hide boots known as ''shoe packs,'' which were made out of cow hide that was tanned with what was ealled the ''oil process'' and made similar to an Indian moccasin, with two straps coming together over the instep of the foot and fastened with a buckle. Later another style of footwear was used, called ''boot packs,'' made of the same kind of material, and the same shape as the ''shoe packs'' only with the leg added.

The loads of wheat hauled over this great thoroughfare consisted of thirty to forty bushels to each load and it usually took Fillmore county settlers three days to market a load of wheat or pork in favorable weather. But it often required one or two days longer to make the trip when the snow was deep and the weather cold and stormy. If the roads were badly ent up with ''pitch holes'' the locomotion was very slow and tedious indeed.

In the winter of 1856 and 1857 the ''piteh holes'' were so large that a great portion of the farmers sold their loads of wheat in Caledonia to a man who was prepared to buy in emergency cases, paying 20 to 80 cents per bushel and perhaps making part payment in goods out of his store, for which he charged almost unheard of priees. The market price for No. 1 wheat in Brownsville and La Crosse in the fifties ranged from 30 to 60 cents per bushel. In 1857, the time of the panic, Fillmore county settlers delivered dressed pork in La Crosse and sold it for $2 per hundred weight and were paid off in what was called ''wild eat'' money that might, perhaps, be worth its face value when the settler arrived home, or might not be worth a penny. In June, 1858, the writer delivered a load of good No. 1 wheat in MeGregor, Lowa, and sold it for 45 cents per bushel. It took four days to make the trip.

C. A. Webster, better known as ''Put'' Webster, had an experience with ''piteh holes'? when on one of his trips to Brownsville in wheat growing times. He left his home in Winneshiek county, Iowa, on a midwinter day in the fifties, when the ground was covered with a thick blanket of snow, with a horse team hitched to a long sled on which was loaded about forty bushels of wheat. Ilis brother T. R., with a team and also a load of wheat, accompanied him, both bound for Brownsville. All went well and no trouble was experienced in crossing the ''pitch holes,'' which they found to be many, until they had passed the point on Norwegian Ridge, where the Lenora, Newburg and Riceford route formed a Junction with the state line route, and from there the 'pitch holes'? became more numerous and larger. In one of these huge ''pitech holes'' the roller to which the tongue of Mr. Webster's sled was fastened broke, thereby leaving him remote from any habitation with a tongueless sled, and no way of repairing it. Thoughtfully, on leaving home, he had put a log chain in his sleigh box, which he could use in case of an accident or emergency. He got the chain and fastened it to the ends of the runners of his sled, and the whiffletrees to the center of the chain. As he was putting the tongue of his sled on the load of wheat he discovered a score or more of wheat haulers coming behind him. In an instant a thought flashed in his mind that if all those teams succeeded in passing him he would be doomed for a night's drive, as all the hotels would be filled. He hastily hitched his horses to his tongueless sled and seating himself on the load, not forgetting to brace himself well with his feet and legs, he started for Hotel Burns, four miles west of Caledonia. He went down in the ''pitch holes'' at an angle of 45 degrees on the double quick, and out at about the same angle but not the same speed. He soon arrived at the hill going east ofi of Norwegian Ridge, and on casting his eyes down the long and steep descent hesitated for a moment whether he dared to risk taking the perilous ride that flashed before his imagination. But as he was speeding rapidly down the hill he determined to take his life m his hands and chance the result. He beckoned to those ahead of him to get out of the road, which they did instantly, and away he went at a breakneck speed, the farther the faster, until he reached the bottom of the hill, and at this time the momentum was so great that he soon was at the top of the hill toward Hotel Burns. He arrived at Hotel Burns in advance of the score or more of teams that followed him, repaired his sled and made the round trip in the usual time.

The log cabins of the Fillmore county pioneers were not a pretty bit of arehiteeture, but the settlers did not contemplate remaining always in such an humble and primitive habitation. It the panic, but they stuck to their claims and raised wheat which they were compelled to market at some point on the Mississippi river, and by and by many of them built frame buildings which were not so pretentious as are the houses of today, but in those days, by comparison, fine mansions. All the while they worked from daylight to darkness, and when they could no longer sce their way to plow and hoe in the fields they worked with their brain - planning to solve the many problems of life in frontier Minnesota, for Fillmore county back in the fifties was real frontierish in its environment.

When the panie of 1857 struck Fillmore county it was sparsely settled, and many of the settlers who were somewhat isolated from their neighbors became discouraged and gave up. They had braved the hardships of pioneering as long as they cared to, they remembered the trail that led them Minnesotaward, and many a dilapidated covered wagon squeaking aloud for want of axle grease trundled its way across the hills, valleys and fertile prairies out of Minnesota and back to Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and other of the older states, never to return. Truly the outlock at this period was very discouraging. But many of the middle-aged and the young men who came here from an old settled country and who financially were poor were fortified with two attributes of success - foresight and grit. Their foresight told them that the discouraging conditions were only temporary. Their grit gave them the necessary staying power. 'Those that stayed had their judgment verified, and although they suffered extreme privations, a few years brought a gradual change for the better. Even then prosperity was written only in the dictionary, and dictionaries were scarce in Fillmore county those days. But through it all the men of grit and foresight battled on, and after a while they moved from their first frame house into a better one - very much the same type of architecture, but larger. The Pioneers of Fillmore county have only done as hundreds, yes, thousands of other Minnesota pioneers have done. All over Minnesota sueh men and such successes are written in local history. While it is a tribute to the men, it is also a tribute to the state - a vindication of the foresight of the early day optimist, and a refutation of the once widespread belief that Minnesota was a God forsaken stretch of waste Jand unfit for habitation other than Indians, wolves, owls and rattlesnakes. The man who had faith and who backed his faith by sticking to his cabiu is now reaping a reward of luxury in a land of fulfillment; and today may be seen in Fillmore county as fine farms, with splendid houses and commodious barns, as ean be found anywhere in a month of travel. The man who lacked faith and who abandoned his log eabin and his elaim more than a half century ago is (if living) in many instanees now ont looking tor another claim on which to ereet another log cabin In another untried country - a victim of lost opportunity.

Sometimes an early settler in the first part of the fifties made claim to enormous tracts of timber land that was well supplied with springs and spring brooks, and like the native Winnebago Indian felt that he was monarch of all he surveyed. One of those greedy specimens of humanity, who perhaps had never heard of the golden rule, lived on seetion 10, town 101, range 9, and laid elaim to the greater part of sections 10, 11, 14 and 15, in town 101, range 9. When a new settler (who was sometimes called a "'tenderfoot'') appeared on his domain the speeulator would say to him, ''I ean fit you out with a location and will sell you a part of my elaim.'" The price was fixed according to the location and which ranged from $200 to $600 a quarter section. The new claim seeker, not conversant with the United States land laws at that time, would pay the price asked for a elaim, obtaining no more nor less than simply the speculator's consent for the ''tenderfoot'' to settle on the land, as the title was vested in the government of the United States. In making this deal perhaps nearly all of his ready cash was gone. He bnilt a log eabin as a home for himself and family, and then had to ''fish or eut bait?' in order to support his family. This was not the only "'land shark'? in Fillmore county, as a seore could be named. As soon as they disposed of their entire holding they had settled on, another location was mapped out, and again they were watching for a vietim. And today if any of those early day ''elaim hueksters'' own a farm in the county it is-considered a poor one, worth $40 to $50 per acre, while other farms are selling at 470 to $125 per aere.

With many of the present generation there seems to be a query as to why the first settlers in the fifties located on such rough lund while there were good claims to be had on the fertile prairie. This is very easily answered. They certainly had good reasons for so doing, and they were - wood and water. In the first settlement of the country many springs were to be found in the hilly and timhered sections of the country from whieh flowed the best of clear water from the fountain head. In the fifties there were some settlers that located on the prairie and hauled their needed supply of water from the nearest spring or spring brook. It is said that some of the early settlers on Highland prairie hauled water a distance of more than five miles. At this period well drilling machines were unknown iu Fillmore county. The first well drilling contrivance that was operated in this part of the county was in 1858 and 1859 on the farm of Gorwood

Bursell, Sr., on section 36, town 101, range 9. It consisted of a lind of spring pole arrangement and was operated by the foot. The hole drilled was about four inches in diameter, and about twelve inches a day constituted a day's work drilling. The procuring of water was a success, but the quantity was not sufficient to satisfy a 1,400-pound ox a single day, as the output was only about four pails full of water in twenty-four hours. The quality was excellent and I can say from an experience that it was astonishing how it would quench thirst.

Some of the farm vehieles and tools used by the early settlers of our country in the fifiies were lumber wagons, bob sleighs of home manufacture, sleds with long runners of liome manufacture, ''A''-shaped harrows, wood beam crossing and breaking plows, cradles to eut the grain, scythes to cut the grass, hand rakes to rake the hay and the grain from the swath, single and double shovel corn plows, spades, shovels, axes, hoes, iron wedges, bettles or inauls used to split the rails for fencing, frows to rive out the shakes or clapboards to cover the log cabin, and a limited number of carpenter tools. Five or more settlers would own a fanning mill to clean their grain, and in the first few years of settiement an eight-horse sweep power separator threshed all the grain grown in two or more townships.

At this period it was about 150 miles to the nearest railroad, which was the Illinois Central; forty to seventy-five miles to markets, which were at Mississippi points; ten to thirty miles must be traveled to obtain a supply of groceries and flour; and one to twenty-five miles to mail or receive a letter. The children had to travel one to five miles te school, and chureh-going people had to travel one to ten miles to church.

The chureh services were held in a schoolhouse, if one was conveniently located; if not, the services were held in a settler's log cabin. On the Sabbath day, when church services were to be held, ox and horse teams that were hitched to lumber wagons with hoard seats placed on the top of the wagon box seating from two to eight persons in each wagon, were seen coming from every direction to the house appointed for worship.

When a young man wanted to take Js sweetheart out for a pleasure ride or to some public gathering he used an ox or horse team hitched to a lumber wagon with the board seat on top of the wagon box. The amusements were social parties, singing and spelling schools. The instrumental musie was by drums and fife, aecordions, violins and the jewsharp.

Today may be found in our county, additional to what the early settlers had, buggies, surreys, phaetons, carts, cutters, riding sulky and gang plows, two and three-section harrows (some of them have carts hitehed bebind them, so that the driver can ride), self binders for all kinds of grain, sulky corn planters, mowers, hay tedders, hay loaders, sulky hay rakes, hay forks to unload the hay, grain drills and seeders, manure spreaders, corn shellers, feed grinders, steam threshing machines that thresh and measure the grain, power wood saws, sulky weeders, riding sulky corn plows, cream separators, washing machines, sheep shearing machines, and for conveyance, bicycles and automobiles. And the conveniences of today are nearby markets on railroads, telegraph and telephone lines, electric lights, rural free mail, free schools, free text books, and commodious churches. The farm laborer of today can ride to do all kinds of farm work, except to his meals and to his bed. For pleasure and amusement we find cornet bands, pianos, organs, violins, guitars, duleimers, harps and phonographs. The writer has lived in this county long enough to see all the improved machinery installed. He has dropped corn by hand and covered it with a hoe by hand, plowed it with a one-horse shovel plow, making hand hoeing necessary, cut it up and shocked it by hand, husked it by hand, eut grain with the cradle, cut grass with the scythe, raked the hay and the grain in the swath by hand. Threshing was done by machinery. An eight-horse sweep power separator which threshed 200 bushels of wheat in a day was called a great invention, and all the straw was pitched onto the straw stack by hand, and the grain was weasured in a half bushel. I have been a farm lJaboror and worked faithfully for 50 cents per day. I have raked grain from the swath and bound in bundles what a cradle cut in a day and was paid $1 per day. When acting as a pedagogue I received $18 per month of twenty-two days and boarded around with the scholars in the district.

The heroie days of the ''prairie schooner'' that moved ceaselessly on in battallions across the prairies of the Great West more than fifty years ago, bearing hardy adventurers, singly, or in little companies, to people Minnesota, are past. Then it was a vehicle by day, a home at night and a fort on occasion. Then the most American of our greater poets sang for those who journeyed in it toward the setting sun:

The ''Moonshiners.'' In the year 1856 a promising young man of the western part of the ''Keystone'' state and who had just recently married the lady of his choice, decided to emigrate to the then ''far: west'' and seek their fortune. After a time of reconnoitering in the east part of this county, looking for their anticipated prize, which they no doubt thought was lying around joose sOmewhere on the prairie, they established themselves among the hills on the south branch of Root river on section 9 in Preble township (where Choice postoffice was afterward located), there to begin the foundation for their anticipated collossal fortune. The young man was a genius and of an inventive turn of mind, who at once set his wits at work with the expectations of a great and prosperous future. In a short period of time he found that the country in that locality was infested with a species of serpents called rattlesnakes. Being on the alert to discover some way to accumulate wealth without any extra manual exertions, he soon believed that he had struck the ''keynote'' for his success, which was to erect a plant to manufacture and dispense a liquid that could be used as an antidote for the bite of the most venemous reptiles known to mankind. The plant was a success, and the proprietor believed he had a ''bonanza'' and was soon dispensing the antidote to the people that were bitten by the dreaded serpents, but more freely to those that were bitten only in their imagination. All went well for a time. The business was rapidly increasing and the news spread far and wide of the remedy for the bite of a rattlesnake that was manufactured in town 102, range 8. When the news reached Preston, a United States officer and two other persons who constituted his ''posse'' started out to learn something in regard to this new and rare enterprise. On their arrival at the new manufacturing plant, which was situated under a ledge of rocks, they proceeded to make an investigation and found to their entire satisfaction that the antidote mamvfactured was the same kind of liquid that was sold in Elliota and Greenfield as ''moonshine,'' and had the same effect, but had to be used in the summer time, as it would congeal at zero temperature. The officers stated to the proprietor that he was violating the law of the land by manufacturing this so-called antidote. The proprietor for a time was as ''mum as a Potomac oyster,'' after which his blood boiled, and conceiving them as obnoxious characters, he remonstrated in very strong language, and told them that their contemplated action would, if carried out, prostrate his trade, ruin his business and blight his future prospects. Contrary to the wish of the proprietor, the officer seized the plant and took possession of the manufactured article, as the proprietor was violating the law. The raiders were now in a dilemma as to what disposition they should make of the manufactured article they had in their possession. One tall and lank fellow (who hailed from the ''Buckeye'' state, and was known by every old settler of Fillmore county}, who was a member of tlie official company and who had given the subject considerable thought, said: ''The law does not order us to waste it,'' and proposed that each member of their official eompany lubricate well the inside of their anatomy before starting home, as there were many rattlesnakes on their way returning to Preston, and by thus using this antidote he thought they would be immune from the effects of a bite. After these officers of the law thought they were sufficiently "'piekled'' they put the proprietor under arrest and took all the manufactured antidote and as much of the plant equipments as they could and '"'hiked out'' for Preston, and after traveling about seventeen long and weary miles over rough and hilly roads arrived there safe and sound, except that they seemed to have wheels in their heads, and they were unable to explain why they forded Root river and Camp ereek on going, and on returning over the same road did not ford the same streaius. The proprietor had a hearing for the offense he had committed, no doubt made a very plausible plea, made good promises and was given his freedom by the officers, who bade him a fond adieu, and he retnrned to his home in town 102, range 8, perhaps a wiser man and one who had an experience. The oificer and his ''posse'' stored what antidote that was left from their confiseation in a cellar under a house on lot 3, block 8, in Barbara Kaercher's addition to Preston, and said that as the quantity of the needful which they had obtained in town 102, rauge 8, was limited, they therefore could not divide with their Preston friends, but expected some time in the near future to visit another similar plant which was situated in town 102, range 12, on the middle branch of Root river, and if they failed there to secure enough of the antidote for their friends, they would visit a location where the rattlesnakes were larger, which was in town 101, range 11, on the Upper Iowa river, where it was reported that a $20,000 plant had heen erected to manufacture the antidoie more extensively, where they would be able to obtain a greater quantity, and if so, would then remember their friends. This statement made hy the officers, who acted as though they were the ''whole cheese,'' did not satisfy the Preston citizens and they quietly surveyed the walls of the cellar that was frequented by the officers of the law, and soon found an entrance that they could use as an ingress and egress that would be unperceived by the officers. After this discovery the cellar was frequented by many Prestonians, who pronounced it a fine medicine which they helieved was good for their stomachs and their ailments. On one occasion when the officer and his ''posse'' felt as they needed ''something'' for their recuperation from their imaginary ailments they quietly entered the storage room, but to their utter astonishment found that the vessels that contained the indispensable antidote were empty.