Redwood County, Minnesota - Chapter 2: Eras and Periods, 1916

I - Geologic Eras. During these Eras the world was made fit for human habitation. The study of this subject lies in the realm of the trained geologist, and will not be considered at length in this work. For the purposes of this history, however, it is necessary to study the effect that the physical conditions have had on the occupation of this region by man, the changes that mankind has wrought in the physical conditions of the county and the influence that the physical conditions of the county have had upon mankind. It must be borne in mind that the Geologic Eras have not passed, and that mankind is merely living in the latest, not the last of these Eras.

II - Prehistoric Era. During the Prehistoric Era, mankind in some form took up his habitation in Redwood county. Possibly this occupation took place in Interglacial times. There have been discovered no evidences of Interglacial man in Redwood county. The only pre-historic evidences left in the county are the mounds constructed by the Mound Builders, so-called. These Mound Builders are believed to have been the ancestors of the present day Indians, and differing from them in no important aspects.

m - Indian Era. The Indian Era is divided into four periods : (a) The Period of the Explorers; (b) The Period of the Agency; (c) The Period of the Massacre ; (d) The Post-Massacre and Mission Period.

Indians were living in Redwood county when the white explorers came to this region is somewhat vague, and the subject worthy of extended study far beyond the limits of this publication. In 1834, Pond describes the Minnesota river above Shakopee as Wapeton country. However, the Sissetons and Yanktons were not far to the westward, and the Sisseton country was not far to the southward, while Sleepy Eye's band of the Sissetons, appear, for a time at least, to have ranged the region of the Cottonwood, and even to have located at the mouth of the Little Rock, in Nicollet county. Le Sueur, in 1700, reached the present site of Mankato. Carver, in 1766 camped not far from the present site of New Ulm, and possibly visited Redwood county. Pollowing him came a long list of explorers, trappers, fur traders, and missionaries. This period closed with the signing of the Indian treaties of 1851. During the period of the explorers the national and territorial sovereignty of Redwood county underwent many changes.

The Period of the Agency. In 1853, Ft. Ridgely was started, and in 1854 the Lower Sioux Agency, in what is now Sherman township, Redwood county was established. The various Sioux Indian tribes designated as the "Lower Tribes," settled about the Agency. There they lived in more or less discontent until the massacre. Many became reconciled, in a degree, to the ways of the white men, moved into log or brick houses erected by the government, and started farming under the supervision of the government farmers. The establishment of the Agency had an important economic influence on the future of Redwood county; it kept the county from being settled before the massacre; it caused a sawmill to be built in 1855 at Redwood Falls, which was restored by the settlers in 1865 and used to finish lumber for many of the pioneer homes; it caused the military road to be built from Ft. Ridgely, via the Lower Agency to the Upper Agency, thus providing a route of travel for the pioneers who came after the massacre; it caused a considerable acreage of land to be broken, thus providing many of the pioneers after the massacre with wheat fields the first year they came, and it provided many of the pioneers, after the massacre, with homes of brick and logs which the Indians had abandoned. Then too, the setting aside of the land as an Indian reservation kept it from entry by the pioneers under the homestead law, even after the Indians had departed. It was placed on sale at an appraised price in 1867, fell into the hands of speculators, and greatly retarded the growth of the county. In Redwood county this reservation embraced a strip ten miles wide, following the course of the Minnesota.

slaughtered the whites at the Lower Agency, and spread their devastation up and down the Minnesota. During the campaign which followed, military headquarters for the punitive expedition was established at Camp Pope, not far from the present village of North Redwood. For the next two years, Redwood county was deserted, except for the soldiers, scouts and trappers.

Period of the Mission. The Mission period overlaps the Agricultural Era. In Paxton township, just above the hill from Morton, is a group of buildings, consisting of an Indian church and school, and here, in the center of a small Indian community, the descendants of the "Friendly Indians" of the massacre days, are given educational, religious and vocational instruction.

IV - The Agricultural Era. The Agricultural Era marks the time from 1864 to the present day, the era of white occupancy. This era may be divided into four periods: (a) The Pioneer Period, 1864-1872; (b) The Grasshopper Period, 1873-1877; (c) The Period of Rapid Growth, 1878-1905; and (d) The Modern Period, 1906-1916.

The Pioneer Period. Col. Sam. McPhail, an Indian fighter, erected a stockade at Redwood Falls in 1864, and attracted by the waterpower, fixed upon that location as the site of a village. A few families lived in the stockade that winter, and one family lived on the shores of Tiger lake. With the spring of 1865 settlers began to spread out along the Redwood and up and down the Minnesota. Not long afterward a settlement was made in the walnut grove, not far from the present village of that name, and along Dutch Charley creek in Lamberton and Charlestown. Gradually the settlers scattered southward on the prairie from Redwood Falls. However, the reservation was not subject to homestead entry, and vast tracts in the central part of the county were railroad, school and internal improvement lands, and were likewise not subject to entry. Thus the settlements of the county formed a shell, with unoccupied land in the center for many years. Times, however, with the exception of the year 1867, when the long cold winter, and the wet late spring caused much suffering, were prosperous until 1873. The Pioneer Period may therefore be considered as extending from 1864 to 1872. In 1872 the railroad was built through the southern part of the county.

The Grasshopper Period. In 1873 the crops were ravaged by the grasshoppers who continued their devastations until 1877. Redwood Falls was incorporated during this period, and stores established at Lamberton and Walnut Grove.

The Period of Rapid Growth. In 1878 the railroad came to Redwood Falls, and in 1884 one was built through the northern part of the county. Gradually farmers came in, and settled up the county, the population increased rapidly, more railroads were built in 1899 and 1902, modern inventions took the place of the crude appliances of pioneer days, and the county became one of the leading agricultural regions of the state. During this period the other villages of the county were established.

The Modern Period. The modern period begins with 1906, in which year modern ditching and tiling was extensively inaugurated, preliminary work having been done in 1905. This period, inaugurated by the wet years which caused a severe setback to the county, has been characterized by the automobile which has made communication easier and quicker, by the ditching which has drained the land to some extent, and by the making of state roads which now net-work the county in all directions. It has also been characterized by the rapid rise in land values, and by the incoming of many intelligent farmers from Iowa and Illinois.