Lyon County, Minnesota - Chapter 4, 1912

Chapter 4

WHEN Lyon County was organized in the summer of 1870 the only portions settled to any extent were along the Redwood river in the townships of Lyons, Lynd and Lake Marshall, and along the Cottonwood river in the townships of Custer and Amiret. There were a few families in the northern part of the county, and a few of the other townships boasted a family or two. When the federal census of 1870 was taken, about the time the county was organized, the total number of men, women and children residing in the present counties of Lyon and Lincoln was 268 - about as many as now reside in the village of Russell!1

There were a number of new comers during 1870. Those who had come in a party the year before and taken claims returned and brought a few others with them, arriving Ju e 1. The permanent settlers thus acquired were C. H. Whitney, C. H. Upton, PI G. Bascomb, O. A. Hawes, R. Waterman, Moses Fifield and Mendell Fifield, who had been out the year before; Dr. G. W. Whitney, Z. O. Titus and John N.

lLyon county was not recognized as a separate division by the census takers of 1870, but was included in Redwood county. Lynd precinct, which probably included the settled portions of Lyon and Lincoln counties, was listed as containing 268 persons. Of these, 235 were native born (including two Indians) and 33 were of foreign birth. The population of Redwood county in 1870 was 1829, divided as follows: Lac qui Parle, 307; Lynd, 268; Redwood Falls, 691;-

Johnson, who came with them and settled in Lynd; and John Snyder and William Ramsey, who took homes near Lake Benton. All these built sod shanties and most of them had families with them.

Among the other arrivals of 1N70 were A. C. Tucker and M. A. Tucker, who located in Lynd; George R. Welch, who became a resident of Lake Marshall township; William S. Reynolds and Joseph Carter, who became the first settlers of Fairview; Daniel Monroe, who settled in Stanley; Frederick Holritz, the first settler in the township of Nordland; Rev. Williams and John II. King, who were the first to make homes in Island Lake; and D. S. Burt, the fir.-i settler of Coon Creek.

In the fall of 1870 a postoffice named Marshall was established at the home of C. H. Whitney on section 4. Lake Marshall township, and that gentleman served as postmaster until the village of Marshall was founded.

Sheridan, 111; Sherman, 67; Yellow Medicine, 385. It is apparenl that the precincts of Redwood Falls Sheridan and Sherman were in the presenl Redwood county, that Lac qui Parle included tin- settled portions of the county which now bears that name, thai Yellow Medicine precinct included the settled portions - present county bearing the same name, and that Lynd precinct included the presenl counties <>t Lyon and Lincoln.

in the old log building on section 33, Lynd, the building that had served as James W. Lynd's trading post in the early days and in which later Luman Ticknor conducted a hotel. Later Dr. "Whitney erected a store building in Lower Lynd and conducted the store there. Later still the Whitney store passed into the hands of Z. O. Titus and John N. Johnson.

In 1870 also came the first Indian scare. It was rumored that the Indians living to the west threatened to make a raid on the settlement at Lynd and excitement ran high. On May 24 a meeting of the settlers was held at the home of Luman Ticknor, of which C. F. "Wright was chairman and T. T. Pierce secretary. At the meeting it was the opinion that danger threatened and a militia company was formed, the members signing a paper which read: "We, the undersigned, agree to enlist in a company of state militia for the defense of our settlement and state." The following officers were elected: James Cummins, captain; M. V. Davidson, first lieutenant; C. E. Goodell, second lieutenant; A. D. Morgan, orderly sergeant; C. E. Taylor, sergeant; W. Herrick, A. McGandy, P. Ki-ltz and W. Kiel, corporals. The captain was instructed to send to the adjutant general for arms and ammunition and to request that the Spencer rifle and one hundred rounds of cartridges to each man be sent.

"He [Mr. Durst] recalls that he and the late Charles Bellingham and the latter's father immigrated to Lyon county together, from Fillmore county. They came with an ox team and camped on the present site of Marshall on the night of May 25, 1871. There were then but two settlers on the ground which was later to be built up into a modern little city - C. H. Whitney and C. H. Upton. They located in the summer of 1869 on the southeast and northeast quarters of section 4 and built sod houses on the east side of the river. With the Bellingham-Durst party also came another ox team from Fillmore county with two young men, Charles Bastion and Calvin Shipton. . . .

settlement and promised to notify the settlers in case of danger. The scare soon died out and the organization of the militia company was not perfected.

Among the arrivals to Lyon county in 1871 were the following: G. M. Durst, C. T. Bellingham, Charles Bellingham, Milo Morse, Oren Drake, Mrs. U. S. Stone, Josiah Clark, Charles Bastion, Calvin Shipton, Charles Van Fleet and the Bean Brothers to Lake Marshall township;2 0. C. Gregg, L. A. Gregg, Christian Nelson, P. I. Pierce and G. W. Pierce to Lynd; Ransom Wait, M. S. Fawcett and O. S. Carlisle to Lyons; John W. Elliott, Reuben Henshaw, Henry Gibbs and Richard Gates to Fairview; O. M. McQuestion to Grandview; A. O. Strand to Nordland; Nils Torgerson, Swend Peterson and Ole Esping to Eidsvold; Halvor A. Nyland and Thorbjin Aadson to Westerheim; William H. Slater, R. H. Price, Allend Christianson, Peter Oliason, E. T. Hamre, Hans Dahl and James Wardrop to Lucas; Lafayette Grow and Mr. Fort to Island Lake; J. R. Burgett, H. H. Hodgkins and F. T. Burt to Coon Creek; E. *K. Ronning, C. P. Myran and Christopher Johnson to Shelburne; A. McNabb and George H. Thurston to Rock Lake; Henry Cuyle to Sodus; S. S. Truax to Amiret; David Stafford, E. W. Healy, George White and Rees Price to Monroe.

south from Marshall, on section 20, Lake Marshall township. A few days later Josiah Clark, the Bean boys and Charley Van Fleet put in an appearance, and about the same time Milo Morse, Mrs. U. S. Stone and Oren Drake. Morse and Mrs. Stone had filed on the southwest and northwest cjuarters of section 4.

"Milo Morse had a 'bee' that summer and Mr. Durst remembers that he was one of the party who helped at the 'bee' to put up the first sod shanty on the original site of Marshall, which was laid out in the center of section 4. The sod shanties of Messrs. Whitney and Upton were on the other side of the river, just outside the first plat, though part of the Whitney land was in the original plat and was all subsequently included in the village. The Morse sod house was east of the river, between Main Street ami the Northwestern tracks."

of the county. It was still the most Thickly settled part and in it were the county's capital, the only business houses, and the only place that could by any stretch of the imagination be termed a village.

One of the important events of 1871 was the establishment, at Upper Lynd, of the county's second store by Rev. W. T. Ellis. The store was quite a pretentious affair, considering its distance from the railroad and the sparsely settled country from which it drew trade. It was later moved to Lower Lynd, some two miles down the river.3

Although the population of the county was still very small, the year 1871 witnessed the founding of two villages in the Lynd settlement, about two miles apart - Upper Lynd, on the south side of the Redwood river, on the southeast quarter of section 33, about one and one-half miles above the present village of Lynd; and Lower Lynd, also on the Redwood river, about one-half milenorthwest of the modern village of Lynd.

The village of Upper Lynd had been started earlier by A. W. Muzzy, already had a hotel and postoffice, was the county seat, and for a time had boasted a store. The plat of Lynd - commonly referred to as Upper Lynd - was platted by William T. Ellis and George C. Smith in the fall of 1871, the site having been surveyed by T. G. Morrill on August 22.

3"The older citizens of the county will remember Ellis as a character. Governed mostly by impulse, he was always ready to preach a sermon, run horses for the whisky, conduct a Sunday School, or beat his best friend in a trade. While here he was an energetic, fervid, effervescent citizen who did considerable to build up the church and secular interests of Lynd and develop its latent possibilities. He opened a store at Lynd and bought goods for it sufficient to stock several such settlements. His goods had to be brought in by team from New Ulm and were caught in a heavy rainstorm on the way. It is said the dried apples swelled so that all the other goods in that load were shoved overboard. His load of codfish, bought at ton rates, probably on time, had to be spread over the hills of Lynd to dry till the air of that settlement, it is claimed, reached the Flandreau Indians and seventy bucks went on the warpath, thinking they smelled the camp of another tribe." - Case's History of Lyon County.

After a short career the village succumbed to its more prosperous rival down the river, lost the county seat, postoffice and store, and in time became good farming land. Lower Lynd was laid out in June, 1871, by A. R. Cummins and A. D. Morgan. Levi S. Kiel and A. D. Morgan built a hotel on the site and the latter opened a store. After the fall of its up-river rival Lower Lynd became the leading town of Lyon county. '

The first church building in the county was erected by the Methodists early in 1871. It was located on M. V. Davidson's claim, the northeast quarter of section 33, Lynd. The building was of logs, had a shake roof, and the floor was of earth. Rev. C. F. Wright preached the first sermon in the building.

Although a school, supported by subscription, had been conducted so early as 1869, school districts were not organized or public schools conducted until 1871. Districts No. 1 and 2 were created by the Board of County Commissioners on March 15, 1871. The former included sections 20 to 29, inclusive, and 32 to 36, inclusive, in the township of Lynd; the latter included all of Lyons and Rock Lake townships. 5

An event of the greatest importance to Lyon county at the time and bearing directly on its whole future history was the building, in 1872, of the Winona & St. Peter railroad - now a branch of the

Northwestern system. To aid in the construction of the road the government gave to the company the odd-numbered sections of land for a distance of twenty miles on each side of its line, so that one-half the lands of Lyon county were withdrawn from homestead entry and passed into the possession of the railroad company.6

The line was run diagonally across the county from southeast to northwest. The rails were laid into the county in 1872, a construction train reached the site of Marshall on October 12, but the line was not operated until the spring of 1873.

The building of the railroad had a wonderful effect upon the settlement of Lyon county. A country into which a railroad is building is not destined long to remain a frontier region and during the whole of the year 1872 immigrants poured in and took claims in every precinct.7 Sod shanties and little frame shacks dotted the prairies in theretofore unsettled portions.8 The village of Marshall was founded and rapidly grew into the most populous and important center of the county.

Because there was this big immigration and the whole order of things was changed, it must not be imagined that the country was developed in a day.

"This land grant undoubtedly brought the railroad several years sooner than would have been the case otherwise and for the time being aided materially in the settlement of the county. But a little later, when all the government lands had been filed upon and settlers were passing through the county to locate upon the free lands in Dakota, it was found that the grant was a decided drawback to the settlement of the county. For several years the railroad lands were not placed on the market; when they were they sold for from six to fifteen dollars per acre.

7Among the arrivals of 1872 were Jacob A. H. Dahl, John Krog, Ole O. Brenna, Michael Knudson, A. Malde. Knud O. Dovre, T. O. Loftsgaarden, Ole O. Myrvik, Lars J. Jerpbak, Sam Hanson, Charles Anderson, Sven H. Jeremiassen, Nils N. Myre, T. I. Trana, Nels Gregerson, Ole O. Nordby, T. J. Barber, Selden Coleman, James Butson, L. E. Bates, Jacob Thomas, James M. English, A. L. Baldwin, J. A. Brown, H. G. Howard, Thomas Lindsay, Frank D. Wasson, Duncan McKinlay, S. B. Wheeler, J. A. Dillman, R. D. Barnes, C. A. Cook, G. P. Ladenburg, C. H. Richardson, Joseph Sanders, John Ward, S. Webster, W. M. Todd, J. W. Blake, S. V. Groesbeck, J. A. Hunter, J. K. Johnson, Mathew Steele, W. G. Hunter, Andrew

Almost without exception the early settlers of the county were poor in this world's goods; they came to secure free land and build themselves homos in the new country. Most of the arrivals of 1872 came too late in the season to break their lands and put in a crop, and consequently there was not a large harvest.

Only 676 acres of land - a little more than one section - were planted to crop in 1872 in the whole territory now embraced in the counties of Lyon and Lincoln. Of these 342 acres were in wheat, 98 in oats, 167 in corn, 6 in barley, 13 in buckwheat, 45 in potatoes and 5 in beans. From this acreage were produced 6690 bushels of wheat, 38S9 of oats, 5274 of corn, 165 of barley. 3651 of potatoes, and 88 of beans. There were also put up 2574 tons of wild hay. The dairy products consisted of 7166 pounds of butter and 4850 pounds of cheese. There were less than 500 head of cattle and only ninety sheep in the county in 1872, according to the assessors' figures.

Except for the fact that the prairies became dotted with tin1 homes of settlers, it was largely the same virgin territory it had always been. The game lover found himself in a paradise. Birds abounded. There were ducks,

8Sod houses were easily built and were the prevailing style of architecture in the days when lumber was scarce and money more so. They were comfortable if properly built. Some of them had floors and others did not. The roof was usually constructed of poles and brush, covered with dirt and sod; some of them shed rain and some did not.

Tracy Public School Typical Sod Shanty

wild geese, brant, curlew and prairie chickens. Occasionally glimpses were caught of some of the big game that formerly roamed the prairies in vast numbers. The summer was fine. The days and nights were frequently glorified l>y electrical storms of terrific and ineffable grandeur. At night the settlers often sat until midnight watching the frolic of sheet-lightning playing over miles of cloud banks, vividly suggesting the possible glories of another world. Vegetation grew rank. The newcomers rode along the river bottoms or on the ed^es of sloughs through seas of wild bluejoint grass up to the horses' hacks.

It was the experience of a life time, this breaking up the virgin lands and building a community from the ground up, and many were the probable and improbable stories told of those days. Letters went back to the old homes in the East, telling how the homesteaders planted corn with an ax and caught fish with a pitchfork, and how the piano was set up in the shanty and the library stacked up under the bed.

During the season the county was visited by disastrous prairie fires and hail storms, and as a result aid for those who met with loss was furnished by the state. For the relief of those in straitened circumstances in Lyon county by reason of fire losses, $100 was distributed. To supply seed grain the state authorities also sent to the county $808.25, all of which was reported distributed by the Board of County Commissioners on March 19, 1873.

The winter following the year of rapid settlement - the winter of 1872-73 - must go down in history as a most severe one. It brought the most terrible blizzard in the county's history, before or since, in which the settlers received their first experience of real hardships.

Winter began November 12. The day had been line, but toward nightfall those who knew the Northwest saw indications of a blizzard. At dark a gale from the northwest struck the houses with a whack as distinct as if it had been a board in the hands of Old Boreas. One of the famous northern blizzards was on. and there was a series of storms until the afternoon of the third daw Thenceforth it was winter. Snow fell to a great depth, probably not less than two feet, but it was so blown about and drifted by the wind that in some places there were drifts of twenty feet or more.

From the time winter so set in there was little let-up in the severity of the weather. One storm followed another, and when not storming the weather was cold and severe, while the deep snows, almost constantly drifting, made travel difficult and sometimes dangerous. During that long winter the inhabitants of this part of the state were practically shut out from the world. For weeks at a time there were no mails. Many people were inconvenienced for want of necessary food, fuel and clothing. The sufferings and horrors of that long and dreadful winter will never be effaced from the memories of those wdio experienced them.

The ill-fated year 1873 began with the most violent storm in the history of the state from the time of its first settlement to the present date. For three days, beginning January 7, the blizzard raged, extending over the whole Northwest. The temperature was from eighteen to forty degrees below zero during the whole period of the storm. The air was filled with snow as fine as flour. Through every crevice, keyhole and nailhole the fine snow penetrated, puffing into the houses like steam. Seventy human lives were lost in the

The forenoon of Tuesday, January 7, was mild and pleasant; the sky was clear and there was no wind. It seemed as though a "January thaw" was imminent. The pleasant weather had induced many farmers to go to the woods for a supply of fuel or with their families to the neighbors to visit!

About eleven o'clock a. change was apparent. The sky lost its crystal clearness and became a trifle hazy. Just about noon a white wall was seen bearing down from the northwest. The front of the storm was distinct and almost as clearly defined as a great sheet. In a few minutes a gale, moving at the rate of thirty or forty miles an hour, was sweeping the country; a fullfledged blizzard had supplanted the bright sunshine in a few minutes. The air was so completely filled with hying snow that it was impossible to see objects a short distance away.

One who witnessed the storm said: "The air was filled with whirling frost, fine as flour, so thick that it was impossible to see into it more than a rod or so, and no idea of direction could be kept. The snow would blow right through ordinary clothing, and it was impossible to face the wind because of intense cold." Another declared that there were twenty-four different currents of air to the cubic foot, each traveling in a different direction and each moving with the velocity of electricity.

All Tuesday night. Wednesday and Wednesday night the storm raged with unabated fury. Not until Thursday was there any let-up, and not until Friday was the storm over. Very few who were in places of safety when the storm struck braved the dangers of getting anywhere else. The hotel at Marshall was filled with people as securely fastened within -doors as though they had been in jail, and at Kiel's hotel in Lynd were other wayfarers awaiting the opportunity to get home. Besides those who perished, several Lyon county residents were caught on the prairie in the storm, and some were obliged to spend two or three days in deserted claim shanties or hay stacks.

Three of those who perished in the storm were residents of that part of the county which a year later was organized into Lincoln county. They were William Taylor, who had settled at Lake Benton in 1868; James Robinson and a Mr. Fl.ersold.

William Taylor had started from Lake Benton to mill at Redwood Falls with a load of grain. The storm came upon him when he had reached a point about where the village of Russell now stands. There he unhitched his team, overturned the sleigh box, and spent the night and part of the next day. Realizing that he must freeze if he remained where he was. Mr. Taylor turned loose one of the horses and, mounting the other, set out in an attempt to find a place of safety.

After the storm a searching party found the trail of the unfortunate man. The horse he had ridden was found on the Redwood river in Lyons township, from which place Mr. Taylor had traveled afoot with the storm in a southeasterly direction about forty miles. The searching party lost the trail about twenty miles from where he had left the Redwood. At one place he passed within ten feet of a claim shanty and at another he passed between a shanty and a hay stack, but owing to the dense snow, and possibly to the fact that at that time he was blinded, he passed them by. The body was found the

Three others that met death in the storm were members of the Fox family. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Fox, their six year old daughter and a nephew, a young man. They were on their way home to Lynd township from Redwood Falls, where they had been visiting, and became lost in the storm at a point on the east side of the Redwood river, not far from the site of the Catholic church of Marshall.

they were, the unfortunate people unhitched the oxen and overturned tin1 wagon box to fix a shelter. It was of little value, however, and the family were soon drifted over with the snow. When the storm abated, on Saturday, the family was found. The young man and the little girl were dead and Mr. Fox was so severely frozen that he died on Monday. Mrs. Fox recovered.

The other deaths in Lyon county occurred not far from where Tracy is now situated. The victims were Asle Olson, who lived near Lake Sigel, and a man whose surname cannot be recalled hut whose given name was Knute, who lived just over the line in Murray county. The men were returning from Lake Shetek with a load of wood when they lost their way ami perished. When the storm subsided Olson's body was found a half mile from his home. The body of the other man was not found until March. It was discovered only a short distance south of Tracy, near the old fair grounds.

0. C. Gregg was one of those who had experience with the awful storm. In a speech delivered before the Old Settlers Society in February, 1885, he said: thought winter had broken up. Without an overcoal he started down the river to visit Uncle Mareyes. While chatting there, all of a sudden came a wind from the northwest with a wailing sound such as he had never heard before - that terrible roar that precedes a genuine blizzard, but then new to him. Alarmed, fearful of some disturbance of the elements, he started home, accepting an overcoat from his host. He had hardly got started before the blizzard struck. A dense volume or sheet of blinding snow came upon him, crowded with terrible pressure by the northwest wind.

On reaching the timber he could barely see from tree to tree, so fiercely was the snow driven through the woods. As he merged from the timber to traverse the few rods to Kiel's hotel, he could not see his hand placed two feet from his eyes, but he managed to reach the house and gain entrance, where he found other wayfarers.

He never before knew what a storm was. Here for three days and three nights they were compelled to remain, during which time two others joined their number, each at different times gaining the door and falling into the room nearly exhausted. At these times it required the united force of two or three men to close the door against the storm.

W. P. Durst, then a boy seventeen years old living in Lake Marshall township, and his twelve year old brother were also caught in the storm and barely escaped with their lives. On the day of the great blizzard they had gone to the Lynd woods with an ox team for a load of fuel. They had secured their load and started home when the storm came upon them. The older boy placed his brother on the south side of the load and cautioned him to keep a hand constantly on the wood. He then took his place at the head of the team and literally felt his way through the blinding storm for six miles, arriving at last at the cabin of the Bellinghams. The smaller boy's toes were frozen, but he recovered.

Despite the ushering in of the year 1873 with the terrible January storm, the year opened auspiciously. The new railroad thawed out and regular train service was established to Marshall in

April.9 During the year the road was extended to Lake Kampeska and the transient population thus brought in made times lively. For two years train service was not maintained west of Marshall, except that every Saturday an engine and caboose made the trip to the western end of the line to hold the land grant .

»The first train to run within the limits of Lyon county on a regular schedule left New Ulm at nine o'clock in the morning of April 14, made the run ot eighty miles in seven hours, and arrived on time at Marshall at four o'clock in the afternoon. H. B. Gary wa< conductor and Robert McConnell engineer. I he train was made up of engine No. 26, a baggage car. coach, and twentv-five freight cars. John Ward, Marshall's first station agent, was on the platform to receive the first train.

\ordland - Neils Anderson, Ole Anderson, A. Christopherson, S. Esperbrick, C. Endrusen, C. K. Eiversen, T H Flom, O. O. Groff, W. K. Hovden, Gunder Hanson, J. H. Hyglen, A. Halvorsen, J. B. Johnson, B Johnson, A. Johnson, S. Jeremiahson, C. H. Lee, T O Loftsgarden, X. H. Myre, A. L. Marken, N. B. Nielson Ole Olson, Halvor Olson, 01« O. Rear, A. O.

ments of Lyon county were indeed in a nourishing condition. That the country was developing rapidly is shown by the fact that in 1873 there were 393 personal property assessments, a considerable larger number than there had been inhabitants three years before.10

The iron horse brought many of the comforts of life - neighbors, markets, and other adjuncts of civilization. The hardships of pioneer life seemed passing

With the new order of things came two important changes in Lyon county: the creation of Lincoln county from the fifteen western townships and the removal of the county seat from Lynd to Marshall. The settlement of western Lyon county had been quite rapid and the people there demanded a county of their own. Marshall, the only railroad town in the county, became ambitious and demanded the county seat.

It is doubtful if either of these changes, singly, would have been authorized by vote of the people, but, together, they were put through without great difficulty. The electors of the future Lincoln county agreed to vote for Marshall for the county seat if the people of Marshall and vicinity would vote for the new county, and vice versa. The coalition was a strong one and the returns show that each party fulfilled its promises.

The bill for the creation of Lincoln county passed the Legislature in the spring of 1873. According to its provisions the fifteen western townships of Lyon county were set off and formed into Lincoln county, the county seat of which should be Marshfield, but the act should not become operative unless a majority of the voters of the whole of

Lyon county should ratify the act al the general election in November, 1873. Considering the importance of the question, the campaign was not an exceptionally hard fought one. Those favoring the creation of the new county won at the polls by a vote of 254 to 214. The vote by precincts was as follows:

On December 5, 1873, Governor Horace Austin issued a proclamation declaring the county of Lincoln formed21 and on that date Lyon county was reduced to its present area.22

The bill providing for the removal of the county seat from Lynd to Marshall passed the Legislature March 6, 1873. It too provided that the voters must

21The first meeting of the Board of County Commissioners of Lincoln county was held at the home of M. S. Phillips in Marshfield in January, 1874, the commissioners being N. F. Berry, A. C. Burdick and Henry Bagley. They appointed the following first officers: Charles Marsh, auditor; John Jones, treasurer and superintendent of schools; William Ross, sheriff; M. L. Wood, register of deeds; John Snyder, judge of probate; A. C. Leach, county attorney; M. S. Phillips, clerk of court; James Berry, court commissioner; John Cooley, coroner; Mr. Taylor, surveyor; Ole Swenson and J. W. Lawton, justices of the peace; Benjamin Sampson and Frank Applebee, constables.

22In 1877 a petition was circulated in the northern part of Lincoln county and quite liberally signed, asking that Lincoln county be annexed to Lyon county, but the opposition defeated the prayer ot the petitioners. The following spring a scheme was devised for the formation of a new county, composed of parts of Yellow Medicine, Lincoln and Lyon, with Canby as the county seat, but was abandoned.

ratify the act at the general election in November, 1873, before it should be put in force. The people of the Lynd settlement fought for the honor of holding the seat of government, but they were overwhelmed. The Lincoln county country voted almost solidly for Marshall, as did the people in the vicinity of Marshall and in the country to the north of that village.

Many votes were won for Marshall on the promise that a tract of land should be given for county purposes and that there would be furnished, free of cost, for a period of ten years, buildings for county offices and court purposes.23 The Prairie Schooner, published at Marshall, on October 25, 1873, said: "When any one tells you that the people of Marshall are in favor of building county buildings at the county expense, brand it as a lie. Marshall proposes to furnish all buildings necessary and suitable for county purposes just as long as the county sees fit to occupy the same, and the county will not be taxed one cent for buildings if the county seat is moved to this place."

'"Received a bond running to the county of Lyon, signed by John W. Blake, Charles H. Whitney, D. Wilcox, J. Bagley, W. Wakeman, Coleman & Company, M. E. Wilcox, R. J. Monroe, L. B. Nichols, J. W. Williams and S. Webster, properly acknowledged, conditioned in the penal sum of 82000, to furnish to said Lyon county offices or buildings for county

By proclamation of Governor Horace Austin, dated December 5, 1873, Marshall was declared to be the county seat of Lyon county. The county commissioners met for the first time in the new seat of government January 24, 1874, and the county officers began conducting business there soon after.

officers, county commissioners and district court for the period of ten years, and the bond of J. W. Blake, properly executed, conditioned in the penal sum of S1000, to deed said county certain described lots in the village of Marshall for county purposes, both bonds conditional upon the removal of the county seat to Marshall, and request that the county commissioners will accept the same on behalf of said county."