Goodhue County, Minnesota - Chapter 1: Natural Phenomena, 1909

On its splendid course from Itasca to the Gulf, the mighty Mississippi passes no fairer land than that which it touches from Prairie Island to Central Point, where, guarded on the north by towering bluffs and broken here and there by picturesque valleys, Goodhue county stretches to the southward in undulating prairies. Unusually blessed by nature with deep soil and abundant natural resources, and endowed with a wealth of prehistoric and historic lore, it is a fitting home for the sturdy people who have here made their dwelling place. Hard-working, progressive and prosperous, they have appreciated the gifts which nature has spread for them, and have added their own toil to the work of the elements, making the county one of the garden spots of the earth. On the hills graze cattle and sheep, while the level lands respond to the efforts of the spring-time sower and planter with a wealth of harvest in the summer and autumn. On nearly every quarter section is reared a comfortable home and commodious barns, while from every hill top are visable the churches and schools wherein the people worship the Giver of all Gifts and educate their children. The county seat city is known for its progressiveness in all parts of the world, and the busy villages and hamlets have had their share in the growth of the county by furnishing a shipping and trading point for the product of the farms. Thus blessed by God and beloved by man, the county today stands for all that is ideal in American life, and. from year to year is forging ahead to still wider influence and more extended opportunity.

Goodhue county is situated on the Mississippi river and Lake Pepin, and is bounded on the northwest by Dakota county, on the west by Rice county, on the south by Dodge county and a small portion of Olmsted county, and on the east and southeast by Wabasha county. Its Wisconsin neighbor is Pierce county. The population in 1905 was 31,628, and this has probably been increased by several thousand since that date. It is a large and important county, ranking among the first in the state in wealth. size, population, education, progressive]! ess and prosperity. It contains twenty-three townships and Red Wing, which is outside of any township jurisdiction. Its total area is 784.79 square miles, or 502,265.62 acres; the water area being only 20.21 square miles, or 12,936.06 acres.

The surface waters of the county all reach the Mississippi river in an easterly or northeasterly course, descending from the height of 1,250 feel above the sea in Kenyon. to 665 feet in Lake Pepin, a drop of nearly 600 feet. The chief of these tributary streams are the Cannon, with its southern arm. the Little Cannon, and the north and north-middle branches of the Zumbro. Belle creek, another branch of the Cannon river, occupies an important valley, running northward from near the center of the county. Spring creel;. Hay creek and Wells creek, though not large streams, are important agents in defining the topography of the county, and have subterranean sources of supply which keep thein at a nearly uniform stage of water and afford valuable water powers. These water powers have in the past been utilized to a greater or less extent, and at the present time afford the motive power for many mills. Their use in generating electricity has also been considered.

The county has no lakes. There are a great many large springs issuing from the banks of the streams, giving clear, pure water, which are dependent on the impervious nature of the rocky strata. Some of the tributaries of Belle and of Wells creeks issue from the rock Avails of the valley, having size sufficient, in some instances, to afford available water power for machinery.

The topography of the county has from time to time been made the subject of careful study. The high prairies in the central and southwestern portions present a strong contrast with the hilly tracts in the northern and eastern. The former are broad, undulating, and somewhat monotonous. The winds find no natural obstacles, and the exposed traveler can retire to no sheltered nooks for protection. The latter are broken by frequent and abrupt hills, which rise, with some sheltering timber, from two to five hundred feet above the adjoining valleys. The transition v between these extremes is gradual, and is due to a variety of causes. Some of the deep valleys of the northeastern part of the county penetrate, in their uppermosl sources, far within the flat and monotonous areas of the county. Such are the valleys of the Little Cannon and of Belle Creek. The north fork of the Zumbro, which entirely crosses the county from west to east, in its southern portion, introduces an agreeable diversity of surface westward from Zumbrota, which otherwise would be one of mere open and nearly Level prairie. The north middle fork has the same effeel near the southern border of the county, about six miles further south. The townships of Tine Island. Roscoe, Cherry Grove, Keiiyon. the central portion of Holden, the northern half of Wanamingo and Minneola, and much of the area of Warsaw, Leon and Belle Creek, also some of Vasa, Peatherston and Goodhue, are included in this higher portion of undulating prairie. The uplands of the most elevated portions of the county are from 1,150 to 1,250 feet above the sea. The streams in those portions are but little below thai area. They gradually work to lower and lower levels, becoming larger by springs and territories, until they reach the level of Lake Pepin, which is 662 feet above the sea. At the same time the uplands that immediately adjoin these streams, even The Mississippi valley itself, do not partake of this gradual slope toward the Mississippi. The Mississippi bluffs are from 1,000 to 1,100 feet above the sea. or only about 150 feet lower than the average elevation in the southwestern part of the county.

In Stanton, Cannon Falls and Vasa, rounded or elongated knobs and ridges rise abruptly from the plains to tic height of about one hundred and fifty feet, and to a ceil a in extent the same features may be seen in Welch, Burnsicle, Red Wing, Featherston, Hay Creek and Florence. But in the latter townships the knolls are larger and higher.

In those vastly remote ages, so remote that the passage of time since then can only be vaguely estimated and expressed in terms of thousands of years, when nature, by the exertion of her forces, was preparing the earth for the habitation of humankind, occurred a period known as the glacial epoch, by reason that a large part of the earth was covered with vast fields of solid ice,. many hundreds of feet deep. With the melting of this ice were formed vast seas and streams in which floated huge icebergs, composed both of stone and ice, which plowed out the valleys which are now dry land, and wrote their evidences in scratches upon the rocks, and gradually melting, left various deposits of mud and gravel in the turbulent waters. On the shrinkage of the high waters of the glacial epoch, numerous streams were dried.

old channels were abandoned, and the hastening currents made deeper cuts in the gravel and loam, which they themselves had previously deposited there. The location of these old streams, some of which were dried up, or changed their courses thousands of years ago, forms an interesting subject for conjecture. Colonel "William Colvill during his lifetime, after long study, suggested the course of some of these old streams in the following words: "Hay creek, going upstream, carried one of these currents. The Trout brook, whose branches came down through those magnificent gorges, now followed by the roads leading up to Featherston, came at the old tannery, on to the ground now held by Hay creek. The bluffs below the tannery, on that side, are a continuation of the Trout brook bluffs, and beyond the range of Hay creek at any time. At the then mouth of Trout brook, on the river, struck in the current, and soon broke across the narrow and low divide, into Hay creek, followed aloug its valley to the mill, Section 12, Featherston, near its then head, and broke over into the wide and deep valley which there comes down from Featherstone - pointing directly to the great bend of Hay creek. This bend was then a part of the main valley of "Wells creek, and the current then flowed down that, now dry, valley to AVells creek mill, on the present stream. With what eloquent tongues do the acrid cliffs and isolated peaks of that old dry valley speak. They seem to echo the thundering floods which in those days battered their faces, and, like the gigantic bones of an old creation, to tell us the history of the past."

Colonel Colvill conjectured, further, that the water of AVells creek was not then able to reach the Mississippi freely, but passed through some of the valleys now tributatory to it, southward into some of those that are tributatory to the Zumbro, mainly through, the valley of Skillman's brook, uniting with the Zumbro at Mazeppa. The disproportion between the size of the Zumbro valley and the drainage area which it now serves has been noted by geologists, and this hypothesis serves to account, possibly, for this irregularity. There is still observable by one passing southwesterly, a perceptible valley, running southeastwardly, outlined on the west by the Trenton bluffs all the way from northeastern Vasa 4o southwestern Zumbrota.

Another probable water course which is now abandoned was from Cannon Falls, northeastwardly. The observer is struck with the narrowness of the Cannon valley at once on passing Cannon Falls, as compared with the width of the low, flat valley, lying next north. It is probable that much of the water of the Cannon, in glacial times, passed north of the bluffs that lie next north of the village. Some of it re-entered the Cannon valley again about at the mouth of Belle creek, by way of Trout brook, and some of it passed northeastward to the Mississippi at Etter, the same place, where the Vermilion waters entered it. The descent of this northeastern flat to Etter is about one hundred feet for the uplands, but three or four hundred feet for the valley in which the waters were collected.

The greatest recorded elevation in Goodhue county is on the line of the Chicago and Great Western, on Section 23, Kenyon, being 1,250 feet above the sea level; but large areas of several other townships, notably Cherry Grove, Roscoe, Holden, Wanamingo, Leon and Belle Creek, would doubtless, if subjected to careful measurement, prove to have nearly, if not quite, the same elevation.

The average elevation of the county, estimated from contour lines, taken by railroad officials, would be as follows : Central point. 725 feet above the sea; Florence, 975; Wacouta, 925; Red Wing, 800; Hay Creek, 975; Belvidere, 1,100; Burnside, 825; Featherstone, 1,000; Goodhue. 1,100; Zumbrota, 1,075; Pine Islland, 1,075; Welch, 925; Vasa, 975; Belle Creek, 1,050; Minneola, 1.075; Roscoe, 1.125; Cannon Falls, 925; Leon, 1,080; Wanamingo. 1.150; Cherry Grove, 1.200; Stanton, 925; Warsaw, 1,050; Holden, 1,150; Kenyon. 1,210. Florence and Central Point in these estimates are considered equal to one town, their areas being as 7 to 1 ; Wacouta, Red Wing and Burnside make another, their areas being as the figures 1, 2, 8; Welch and Stanton together make two towns. The figures give an estimated average elevation for the county of about 1.015 feet above the sea.

The soil of Goodhue county is based on a clayey sub-soil, in all places except on the terrace plains that skirt the main streams. This clay is generally fine and loamy; but in the high prairies of the western towns it is mingled with some pebbles, and even foreign boulders of a foot or more in diameter. Yet, however frequent the stones on the surface, or in the immediate subsoil, the real soil, which sustains the crops of the farmer, is invariably of a fine grain, and usually of a black color, with a thickness from a few inches to several feet. The stones in the sub-soil, which appear in the western part of the county, gradually disappear towrard the east, and are wholly wanting in the extreme eastern part of the co'unty. The sub-soil in the rolling towns of the eastern tiers is a fine yellowish loam, in some cases a compact clay.

Goodhue county abounds in lumber along the rivers, and also in several other portions. The following list has been compiled, giving the trees native to this county, together with a short description of each variety. In addition to those found in the list there are a few smaller trees, like the plum, crab apple and thorn apple, which are of little consequence. Among the eulti- vated shade trees which have been induced to grow here are the Balm of Gilead, White Poplar, Scotch Pine, Mountain Ash, White Spruce Balsam, or Fir, and Arbor Vitae. The native trees are as follows :

Rock Maple - Not abundant; it is very valuable for fuel, and fine for shade but of rather slow growth. Soft, or Red Maple - A good shade tree, but easily broken by storms. Box Elder - Common in rich woods: a hardy shade tree. Sugar is made from this tree in some parts of the state. Basswood - Abundant in rich woods. One of the most beautiful trees for shade. Its lumber is excellent for furniture. Black Cherry - Very valuable for lumber. Some trees are found here which grow to be quite large. White Ash - Well known as a large and valuable forest tree. It is used much for shade. Rc<! Ash - Not common. Grows in low grounds. A small tree which resembles the white ash. Green Ash - Grows near river banks. Upper half of leaves have sharp teeth. Black Ash - Not abundant. It grows in swamps and wet banks along streams. A small tree with tough wood. Red Elm, or Slippery Kim - Well known, and ranks with the better grade of soft wood for fmd. White Elm - Abundant in rich soil along rivers. An elegant shade tree. Rock Elm - Very scarce. Wood very hard and timber valuable. Sugar Berry, or Hack Berry - A small tree hearing sweet fruit, the size of wild cherries. Xot abundant. Grows by river banks. Black- Walnut - A beautiful and valuable tree found along streams. Butternut - Grows in damp, rich soil, with wood softer and lighter than the walnut. Butternut-Hickory - Abundant on moist land. Bark smooth. The nut is small and bitter. Very valuable for fuel.

Paper, or Canoe Birch - Grows sparingly on river banks. The Indians use the hark of this species for making canoes. Black Alder - Found at the Big Falls. It resembles the black cherry. Ironwood, or Hophorn Bean - Common in rich' woods, and is excellent for fmd. Has hop-like fruit. Blue, or White Beech - Grows along streams. Its wood is very hard. Burr Oak - Pin oak; abundant. It varies much in size and appearance. Very valuable for timber and fuel. White Oak - Xot common. Trunk more smooth and bark lighter colored than burr oak. Black Oak. or Scrub Oak. or Jack Oak - Grows in dry soil and has deepeu1 leaves, shining on the upper surface; has a small acorn with a deep ciii). Red Oak - Abundant on rich soil on elevated ground in this vicinity. It resembles the black oak. but the trunk is smoother and more slender and light colored. The leaves are larger, not deeply cut nor shining above. Acorn large and oblong, with shallow cup. It is often mistaken for the black oak. Common Poplar, or Popple - Well known ; grows further north than any other deciduous tree. Large Tooth Poplar - Bark darker. Colored leaves with large teeth. Less common than common poplar. The wood is harder and more valuable for fuel. Cottonwood - Largely used as a shade tree. A rapid grower. White Pine - Found in several places along the banks of rivers and small streams, but now largely cut off. Bed Cedar - A beautiful tree found in small quantities along the banks of streams.

To do justice to the detailed description of the geological structure of the county would be to use more space than the limits of this volume would justify. The thoughtful reader will find much valuable information on this subject in the second volume of a publication entitled "The Geology of Minnesota," dated 1885, edited by X. IT. Winehell. upon whose statements much of the information in this chapter is based.

The first deep well drilled in the county is at the station of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, beginning at the grade line of the road, 687 feet above the sea. Tin1 work was done by W. E. Swan, of McGregor, la., who estimated the discharge at 800 gallons per minute. The water could rise seventy-five feet above the surface when confined in a pipe. The water began to flow at 190 feet from the surface, and kept on increasing to the end. Another deep well situated about eighty rods west of the Milwaukee station, three rods south of the track and thirty feet above it, spouted three hundred barrels per day, rising thirty feet above the surface. This well passed through 160 feet of drift materials and entered the sandstone one hundred feet. Following is the record of the well at the Milwaukee depot, as given by Mr. Swan: Sand and gravel. 40 feet; sandy shale, 10 feet ; blue shale, 50 feet ; sand rock, 10 feet ; blue shale, 30 feet ; mixture of sand, quartz and limestone, 45 feet; soft sandrock, 265 feet. Total depth, 450 feet.

In the early part of 1887 August Peterson obtained another artesian flow at the extreme northwest corner of section 26, township 113. range 15, in the valley of Spring creek. The surface of the ground where this well begins is about fifty feet higher than at the well above mentioned, and the water rises freely through a pipe that stands twenty feet above the surface. On striking the yellow, green and brown sandrock. the water rose to within twenty-five feet of the surface, and increased constantly in volume and force as the well went deeper. The bottom of this well is 146 feet short of the bottom of the well at the depot. The water is soft and pure. The record of this well was taken by the late Colonel William Colvill as follows: Sand and gravel, 112 feet; compact sandrock, 4 feet; blue sandrock, 30 feet; green slaty shale, 90 feet; yellow, green and In-own sandrock. 15 feet: white sandrock. 104 feet: total depth, 355 feet. Since these first three, numerous others have been successfully sunk, and the city of Red "Wing is soon to receive its water supply from artesian sources. "With the increase in the number of wells, the force of the water has been somewhat diminished.

While Goodhue county is pre-eminently an agricultural one, outside of the cities and villages, yet it has several other sources of material wealth. The county is abundantly supplied with building stone, and from some of the quarries a large amount of stone has been sent to various parts of the Northwest. There are quarries at Frontenac and Red Wing, from which stone has been obtained for buildings in Red Wing, St. Paul, Minneapolis and elsewhere. There are other quarries of lesser importance at Belvidere, Hay Creek, Featherstone and Vasa. Another product produced in large quantities is quicklime, and sand for mortar is abundant whenever access can be had to the gravel terraces, or the plains, along the principal streams ; but in the absence of that, resort can be had to the sandstone, which can easily be excavated for that purpose. Such use of this rock has been made on the southwest quarter of section 23, Goodhue township. There are some townships, however, in the southwestern part of the county, in which sand for mortar has to be hauled a great distance, the whole county being uniformly covered with a clayey loam.

Brick of excellent quality is made at various points. The old capitol at St. Paul was made of red pressed brick from Red Wing, and the Red Wing product in this line is known far and wide for its excellence. The clay found in Goodhue township has caused the making of stoneware to become practically the leading industry of Red Wing. From this clay are manufactured the finest kinds of white and yellow stoneware, and also the sewer pipe which has a national reputation. A fine quality of sand is also shipped for filtering purposes. There is but little peat in the county at large. Along the old valleys in the eastern part of the county are found some peat beds, but as yet little has been done in the line of making it a commercial product by its successful use as fuel.

The animals native to Goodhue county are deer, elk, bear, fisher, beaver, otter, mink, muskrat, coon, squirrel (black, fox, red and chipmunk), fox, wolf (cayote and lumber), weasel, skunk, gopher (pocket and striped), wild cat, lynx, badger, woodchuck, porcupine and a very few buffalo, though these were stragglers from the south. The buffalo, badger, porcupine, otter, beaver, fisher, bear, elk and deer are now practically extinct.

Elijah Haskell Blodgett, deceased, will always be remembered as one of the most kindly and best beloved of Red Wing's most prominent citizens. His period of activity in this city began in the early days and extended until the day of his lamented death, June 6, 1909, although he retired from the more strenuous duties of his career several years before. Mr. Blodgett came of sturdy old New England stock, the name of Blodgett being an honored one in the Colonial annals of that section. His father, Ashley Blodgett, a native of Massachusetts, married Orill Haskell, the daughter of an old Vermont family, and together they established their rooftree on a large farm in Weathersfield, in the Green Mountain State. In 1835 they moved to Middlesex, Vermont, and there continued farming until 1854, when they retired from active life and took up their residence in Norwich in the same state, where the mother ended her days in 1867 and the father in 1894, the latter having reached the honored old age of ninety-nine years. Elijah was born in Weathersfield, Vt., February 16, 1832, took advantage of such education as the primitive district schools of his time afforded, and supplemented this with a course in an academy at Montpelier, Vt., later learning the carpenter's trade, which he followed at Windsor, Vt., from 1848 to 1855, in the meantime acquiring a knowledge of wood pattern making, which he made his occupation in, the same village from 1855 to 1866, with the exception of the year 1857, which he spent at Newark, N. J. Like many other young men of his day, he then determined to try his fortunes amid the wider opportunities of the great Northwest. Arriving in Red Wing May 31, 1866, he first entered the employ of the late T. B. Sheldon, who at that time conducted a large grain elevator. After several years of faithful and efficient service, Mr. Blodgett was admitted as a partner, the firm being known as T. B. Sheldon & Co. In this enterprise Mr. Blodgett continued until 1902, when he sold the business and retired. During his more active days he served as mayor and alderman, as president of the Red Wing & Trenton Transit Company, and as president of the board of education. He had extensive interests in the manufacturing industries of Red Wing, and at the time of his death was a director in the Red Wing Union Stoneware Company, the Red Wing Sewer Pipe Company, and the LaGrange mills. Mr. Blodgett was married September 17, 1855, at Hartland, Vt., to Sarah P. Sturtevant, of that place, a daughter of Thomas F. and Rosaline (Taylor) Sturtevant, the former of whom was an extensive wool manufacturer. Mrs. Blodgett died March 28, 1906, and is laid at rest in Oakwood cemetery, as is her husband. At the entrance of this cemetery is a beautiful arch, erected by Mr. Blodgett in loving memory of his wife.

Hon. Joshua C. Pierce, one of the sturdy pioneers who laid the foundations for the future financial integrity of Red Wing, was born near Nashua, N. H., December 8, 1830. When young he went to Boston and started in life for himself as a newsboy. By dint of much saving, he managed to secure funds sufficient to pursue a course in surveying in the Academy o'f New Hampshire. It was in 1855 that he came to Red Wing and entered the land business as a member of the firm of Smith, Towne & Co. He followed that business until October, 1868, when, in company with T. K. Simmons and A. W. Pratt, he started the bank of Pierce, Simmons & Co. When the bank was incorporated Mr. Pierce became president of the institution, and retained that position until the time of his death. Pie also served several terms in the Minnesota legislature, being elected on the Democratic ticket. Mr. Pierce was twice married. During his lifetime he was an enthusiastic supporter of all enterprises tending toward civic growth and improvement. The name is perpetuated in Red Wing by a nephew. A. P. Pierce, for many years mayor of the city. J. C. Pierce died June 13, 1904.