Goodhue County, Minnesota - Chapter 12: Keminiscences, 1893

Every new region has its peculiar attractioDs. The largest share of the early settlers of Minnesota were doubtless attracted hither by reports of the healthfulness of the climate and fertility of the soil. But there were attractions for all classes. All trades and professions are wanted among civilized men. No better description of the employments and diversions experienced in early times in Goodhue county can be given than is furnished in the following address by Judge E. T. Wilder, delivered before the Old Settlers' Association, in January, 1883:

"In May, 1856, in company with Mr. Chas. Hall, of Ohio, the father of our O. M. Hall, I left Dubuque for Minnesota. Traveling with our own team, we went west to Waterloo on Cedar river, then up that stream, visitiug Cedar Falls, AVaverly, St. Charles, Osage; thence through iVustin, Owatonna, Faribault, Cannon Falls, to Red W^ing. Returning from this point south, we passed Poplar Grove, Oronoco, Rochester and Decorah, to Dubuque.

"The incitlents of this trip were not a little diversified. Hotel accommodations, even in towns, were by no means incapable of improvement. In this particular, Red Wing was not an exception. The regulation diet was fresh pork from i-hoats of the racer variety; dried apples in different forms; a decoction of the tea plant with little or no sugar; and now and then a dish of corn coffee. The only bright, sunny spot we found on the whole route was Owatonna. This picture is a pleasant one to this day. Reaching that place at noon, we stopped for dinner at a small but cheerful looking hotel. We found no one to care for us but the landlady, a neat, tidy, petite, and charming lady; for all this she was! Looking after the team ourselves, she, unassisted, with exceptional promptness, prepared the dinner. The table was neatness personified, and the dinner was in all respects entitled to equal commendation. With such a table, such a dinner, and such a waiting maid, standing out in bold contrast with the experience of the few preceding days, no one of the early settlers will doubt that we did full justice to the dinner, and honor to the hostess.

" This trip was purely one of observation. No point visited pleased me as well as Red Wing, and no section through which we passed equaled in promise what we saw in Goodhue county. In a few days I returned to Red Wing to look over the ground again and with more care. This was about the 20th of June. At this time I formed numerous acquaintances, prominent among whom were Judge W. H. Welch, Messrs. Phelps and Graham, J. C. Weatherby, James Lawther, Messrs. Smith, Towne & Co. Of the latter firm I then saw more of Mr. Towne than of his partners. My interviews were mainly with him, and though long since gone to his rest, I am pleased to say that in all my intercourse with men, few, as a stranger, have ever met me with more of cordiality and gentlemanly courtesy than he. The result of these investigations was a determination to remain here. I rented an office in the second story of a wooden building, then nearly completed, standing on the north side of Main street, the present site of Rich's hardware store. Red Wing then contained a population of perhaps six hundred.

"A few days after, I returned to Dubuque and sent Mr. A. AV. Pratt forward with our office furniture, following him about the 10th of July. I found the building before referred to completed and occupied. In the west compartment, on the lower floor, was the U. S. land office; in the east, the hardware store of Clark & Cooper; in front, over them, was our office; and in front, over the land office, were Messrs. Smith, Towne & Co. ; and back of them, the law office of Murdock <fe Bristol.

"From that building radiated many matters of practical importance to this land district. From well nigh all parts of the State came attorneys to be heard in cases of contest in the land office court.

" In this block were concocted the thousand and one practical jokes that contributed not a little to save our people in those days from ennui.

"Those who are familiar with that period in our history need not be told that our friend Pratt was the presiding genius in this department, supported by Phelps Everett as his efficient and unfailing aid. While a volume could be filled with reports of their- work in this field, I give only a specimen.

"Messrs. Clark & Cooper had ordered and received the bell for the new Presbyterian church. It stood upon the sidewalk in front of their store and of course directly below and in front of our office; its position was such that it could be easily rung. I had just re- turned from the East with memoranda for numerous business entries upon our books. I was seated at one side of the table in the office, and Pratt at the other, making entries at my dictation. It was a hot day in summer and the office windows Avide open. We liad progressed with our work but a little time, when clang, clang, in full tone, went the bell; not a single tap or two, but persistently. Of course it disturbed us. An exclamation of annoyance on my part was followed by Pratt's quiet movement to the window to discover by whom the bell was rung, and to request its discontinuance. From him came the remark, 'The scamps have run; they must be the same cubs who have kept the bell going for the last two nights. They don't let a fellow sleep.'

"Our work was barely resumed when the boys gave notice of their return by interruption number two, and with increased power. Pratt moved rapidly to the window; the boys were just disappearing round the corner. Tliis game was kept up two or three times more. At last Pratt left his seat, saying, 'Confound them; I will catch them anyway ! ' Going to his closet he produced a pitcher of water, the best part of a gallon, and taking position behind the wall near the window, watched the movements below. Some little time elapsed with no results. Meantime he stood and watched. At length came the sound of the bell with still increased volume, and simultaneously out went the contents of the jntcher, followed by the joyous outcry, 'I hit the biggest fellow squarely in the face! I guess they'll stop now.' And they did.

Haiiiline University. A local minister, not now in the place, officiated. 1 remember nothing of his sermon further than that by way of illustration he presented to his congregation by a word picture, a pig, which, trying to force itself through a rail fence, finds itself caught so that it can move neither forward nor backward. On the way from meeting Mr. Pratt, being in company, suddenly stopped, and with a tone and expression of anxiety, said, 'Hold on. Judge! I have got to go back.' 'Why, what's the matter?' 'Why, don't you hear that poor pig squeal? I must go back and get him out of the fence.'

"In those days the range of amusements was limited and sports of the field and stream had many votaries. Allow me to photograph one feature of a fishing trij^, and a single hunting scene. As soon as the ice in the river was knoAvn to be firm, parties could be seen, each with his blanket, spear and decoy, at an early morning hour, moving with dignity toward the favorite run way for the day's sport. The language of the thermometer was ignored. Twenty or twenty-five below prevented no one from keeping a previous engagement. Reaching the designated poiut, the first step was to build upon the bank a big log fire, the next to cut the number of holes, and then commenced the work of the day. Seated upon the ice under his blanket, with spear in one hand and the string of his decoy in the other, the sportsman would watch for his prey, until by reason of his cramped position his limbs uttered their protest, then join his comrades at the fire, swap yarns, roast and eat salt pork, and then again take up his spear and decoy for the second instalment of what some of you would characterize as discomfort and folly. Again and again 1 have heard the question : ' What pleasure can there be in this?' If I could take one of these skeptics under my blanket and compel him to keep perfectly still, the answer would readily be given. Like a flash, like a ray of light through the clear pellucid water striking at the decoy as he goes under and beyond the hole, darts a twenty pound muscalonge. The nerves respond as to a current of electricity. Now, not a motion, not a noise, not even a long breath. In a moment or two, he comes moving slowly, cautiously, suspiciously back. You first see the very tip of his nose as it projects above the ice. In the slowest, most cautious manner possible, watching everything, he moves steadily on towards the decoy, and then when he has passed so far under the hole as to present his head and shoulders inside of the wall of ice, a quick, sharp, downward blow, skillfully given with the suspended spear, and the fellow is yours. If in this there is not excitement, if there is not pleasure which a sportsman feels to his very fingers' ends, then recollection is strangely at fault.

"Occasionally our trips were made with teams and to points some distance away. One trip of this sort will not readily be forgotten. The party consisted of Dr. Sweney, Prof. Wilson, Teele, Downing, Brundage, Abe Thomas, Dr. Hoyt and myself. The shoes of the team had been recently sharpened; we drove up the river some distance and then across the island and struck the Vermilion slough at a point five or six miles above its mouth. We had in that neighborhood a good day's sport, Mr. Downing usiug hook and line and catching 'snakes,' the balance of the company using spear and decoy taking fish. We returned by the Ver- milieu; all were on board (Mr. Teele excepted, who was iipou skates), Mr. Thomas driving. Moving at a good round trot, without premonition we entered upon a section of ice so thin that a jet of water of an inch or more in height followed each cork of the shoes of the horses as they were raised from the ice in our progress, and so feeble as perceptibly to yield to the weight of the load. You may well imagine that at that moment our sleigh contained white faces, pallid lips and nervous men. It was madness to stop; our only chance for safety consisted in going on and over the weak ice if possible, and this the driver instinctively appreciated. Applying the whip promptly and smartly, the team fairly flew until solid ice was reached and safety assured. For a brief period the strain was painfully intense. It was an experience no one of that party was ever ambitious to repeat.

"In the summer of 1857, a company, consisting of Mr. Going, Mr. AVilliston, Brown and others, left Red Wing for an extended chicken hunt. In the vicinity of Hader the troop were ranging over quite an area, yet within sight and hearing. Two of the company fired at a covey of chickens, and in a direction not toward but from Mr. Going. The reports of their guns had barely reached us wdien all eyes were turned to Mr. Going some distance away, who howling in agony was at intervals hurling curses loud and deep at the heads of our companions for their supposed carelessness, while he was with both hands holding up one leg, and at the same time trying to preserve his equilibrium, by hopping and jumping, not quite gracefully, upon the other. All feared he was seriously wounded, and were at his side with the least possible delay. He was still grasping and rubbing the calf of tlie injured leg and obviously suffering intense pain. We placed him gently upon the ground, removed his boots and so much of his clothing as was necessary for a thorough examination, when to our surprise as well as his, no blood, no wound, no mark, not even a scratch could be found. Further examination disclosed the fact, that a single shot had struck him on the upper lip, had passed through and lodged against the skin upon the inner surface of the lip, and that was the extent of the injury. Two questions are suggested: First, where did that one shot come from? and second, Avhat is the nervous connection between the lip and the calf of the leg?

"Among the citizens of Red Wing and the surrounding country there are few better or more widely known than John Jordan, who is still living on a farm in Wacouta. His life's career is here given in his own words:

"I was born in Belfast, Ireland, March 6, 1805. My father enlisted as a private soldier in 1798, when the Irisli rebellion was raging. The first night he brought his gun home, the rebel neighbors flocked around his house demanding the gun. My mother with a baby brother in her arms, w^ent to the window to look out, when one of the crowd struck at her wdth the butt end of his gun. She ran into an adjacent room, threw the baby on the bed, twisted the bayonet off father's gun, pulled him from the door and swinging the weapon over her head, swore that the first man who w^ould touch her she would run through. The disturbers, awed by her courage, stepped back, and allowed her to pass quietly to a neighbor's house, while they withdrew without more trouble. My mother was large and very

" My father Avas a fancy linen weaver before he became a private soldier. He was also something of a mechanic. He made his own loom for weaving, and mother spun the yarn. I was the fifth of thirteen children. My parents were very poor, and as the family was large, the children had to fight for themselves when very young.

"At the age of seven I was put into a fancy printwork establishment in Dublin, to which place my parents had removed, when the rebellion was over. I had no time to go to school. I learned to spell and read, studying by myself during the intervals when work at the factory Avould stop. Never wrote a copy at school. The little I learned from books was in teaching my own children at home. When I was sixteen years old I began to serve as an apprentice to the fancy printing trade. T served seven years. About the year 1832 or 1833, I was chosen out of a large factory of fancy printers, to print a dress for the queen of England when she was a little maid and before she wore the crown. It was a seven colored Chinese pattern and took seven blocks for the design. This was at Irelandbridge near Dublin. I went from there to England and worked several years in Manchester.

"The year 1845 found me employed in the Globe print works at Fall River, Mass. From there I went to Garner's print works, Rockland county, N. Y., where I worked nine years, and laid up from my earnings $2,000. In 1856 I lelt for Red Wing, Minnesota.

I lost $800 in gold, wliicli my wife forgot under her pillow in her sleeping room. She had nine in the family to look after, and in the hurry forgot the money. We spent three days in the city trying to recover it without success. We reached Ked Wing, November 1, 1856, and in the following year settled in Wacouta. We were prosperous until the breaking out of the war, when all the help I had went to fight for the Union. Three sons went away; one returned broken down in health, and the other two lie in some southern ditch for the sake of their country. I was then nearly sixty years old; I had to rent out my farm. I now get a pension of $12 per month. I had twenty relatives on the battle field. The war was a sorrowful thing on me and mine, but it had to be, or freedom was no more, and if I had been young I would have been there too."