Waseca County, Minnesota - Chapter 15, 1905

Falls, Blooming Grove And Woodville

The last chapter necessarily carried this history into the year 1856. There are other matters that took place that winter that belong to both years. It is intended to keep the history of each year by itself, as far as possible, but there are some matters that cannot be separated by months without destroying the thread of the narrative. Of such matters will this chapter relate.

First Election

FIRST ELECTION. The first election in Steele county, of which the present Waseca county was then the larger part, territorially, was held October 9th, 1855. The LeSueur precinct, as it was called, included the south half of this county and the township of St. Mary ; the polling place was at the residence of Chris Scott, the farm now belonging to Mr. Carmody in Wilton. Twenty votes were cast. The north half of the county, then called Swavesey, also held an election at the same time, but I have been unable to learn how many votes were polled there at that time. Only one hundred seventeen votes were cast at that election in the territory comprising the counties of Steele and Waseca. The following officers were elected: County commissioners, S. B. Smith, Wm. Allen and M. P. Ide (Mr. Ide lived then in what is now Blooming Grove) ; register of deeds, Chas. Ellison; sheriff, Wm. F. Pettit; treasurer, David Sanborn; surveyor, John W. Park; clerk of the court, F. W. Fisk; county attorney, John :\I. Bliven (then a resi- dent of what is now Blooming Grove) ; judge of probate, F. B. Davis; assessors, David Lindesmith, Chas. Thompson, and Luke B. Osgood (Mr. Osgood lived on the line between Janesville and Iosco) ; justices of the peace, Simeon Smith and Curtis Hatch, of the north part of the county, and John Jenkins, of the south part.

Originally the territory of Minnesota was divided into nine counties. By act of the territorial legislature, Wabasha county originally occupied all that portion of Southeastern Minnesota east of a line running due south from a point on the Mississippi river, known as ^Medicine Bottle village at Pine Bend. Dakota county embraced all the territory west of Wabasha county and south of a line beginning at the mouth of Crow river and running up said river and the north branch thereof to its source, and thence west to the Missouri river. In 1852, Hennepin county was carved out of Dakota county, and, in 1853, Goodhue, Fillmore, Scott, LeSueur, Rice, Sibley, Blue Earth and Nicollet counties were carved out of Dakota and Wabasha counties. Rice county, by that act, included all of what is now Steele county and townships 105, 106, 107 and 108, range 22, of what is now Waseca county. Blue Earth coimty, by the same act, included the townships in ranges 23 and 24, of what is now the larger portion of Waseca county.

By legislative act of February 23, 1854, the counties of Houston, Fillmore, Wabasha and Goodhue were changed, and the county of Winona was organized. By act of Feb. 20, 1855, the counties of Olmsted, Dodge, Mower, Freeborn, Faribault, and Steele were created and the boundary lines of the old counties changed. By that act, Steele county then contained ranges 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24, and townships 105, 106, 107, 108 - a territory twenty-four miles north and south and thirty miles east and west. The geographical center of the county, as then bounded, was near the western line of the township of Meriden.

The county seat of Steele county was not designated, nor the county fully organized by statute until Feb. 29, 1856, although county officers had been elected in the fall of 1855.

In the month of December, 1855, 1 made a trip to Aubui-n, Iowa, for supplies. In January, 1856, shortly after my return, the settlers in the western part of what was then Steele county learned that Messrs. Cornell, Pettit, Abbott & Co., of Owatonna, were endeavoring to get the territorial legislature, then in session, to divide Steele and Dodge counties so as to make three counties of the two - the same as we now have them.

The county was then very sparsely settled. Probably there were not 1,000 families or voters in all the territory of the three counties. The people of Waseca county were nearly all young farmers, just commencing life, and poor in goods, waros, etc. They did not feel able to support a county government while there were so few to pay taxes. A meeting of the settlers was held and I was selected to visit the people in all parts of the then county to secure signatures to a remonstrance and forward the same to Hon. George A. ]\IeLeod, then of Siblej^ countj^ our representative in the house, th(2 Hon. Chas. B. Flandreau, then of St. Peter, our member in the council.

We made duplicate remonstrances for the settlers along the LeSueur and had them signed at our meeting. The next day I started for Owatonna and the Straight river settlement. It was a pretty cold day as I learned when I reached Owatonna, the thermometer registering 22 degrees below zero, at 4 o'clock p. m. The next day was intensely cold - so cold that the ordinary thermometer failed in its efforts to keep a correct record and I remained in Owatonna all day.

I soon learned that the people in Owatonna, with only two exceptions, were in favor of the division of the county. This I learned without divulging my mission, and the next day I started down Straight river, calling upon each settler as I proceeded and explaining oiir opposition to the division. Almost without exception, each farmer signed the remonstrance. At Clinton Falls and Medford, I found active co-operation, and obtained the signatures of all I could see. In one day 's canvass I had good stronir lists which I forwarded to Siessrs. MeLeod and Flandreau, accompanied by a private letter from myself and one from' Dr. Finch, of Clinton Falls, explaining to them the situation of affairs and the general condition of the people.

I left with the postmaster at Bedford a copy of the remonstrance to be signed by those whom I had not seen and to be afterwards forwarded to Jlr. Flandreini. I then slruelc across the country on foot, withoiit road or track of any kind, in search of the Remund and Ide settlement, in what is now Blooming Grove. I had no guide except the government section posts, many of which were covered with snow drifts. It was 12 miles from Clinton Falls to Blooming Grove, then called the Bliven settlement.

The trip was a good deal more of a job than I had anticipated. :Much of the way I encountered small groves and brush land where the snow was very deep and the crust not strong enough to bear my weight. After a hard day's work, I reached the house of a pioneer German, named Reineke, about 4 o'clock p. m. Like most of his nationality he did not fall in love with me at first sight, and to my salutation: "It is a wintry day," he replied: " Ich verstehen sie nicht. " This was one of the occasions in my experience where the few words of German I could speak served me well, for neither he nor any of his family could, at that time, converse in English. As soon as he found that I could speak some German he shook hands with me and became very friendly. He invited me to remain over night, a proposition that I was only too glad to accept. He entertained me a portion of the evening with stories of the Fatherland, and then drifted into the difficulties he experienced in not understanding English. He seemed much pleased when I offered to write out the names of familiar objects about the house and farm in English, opposite the German names.

After a good night's rest and a hearty breakfast, having obtained his name to the remonstrance, I bade him "lebewohl" and proceeded to visit the settlers in Blooming Grove, i\Ir. Reineke 's farm being in what is now Deerfield, in Steele county.

I proceeded eastward until I struck the settlement known as Swavesey. The first residence I found was that of il. P. Ide, on what afterwards became known as the Patrick Healy farm. :Mel, as he was called, turned out to be a Cornell man and could not'be persuaded to sign the remonstrance. I put in the whole day going from house to house, and secured the signatures of all the other^men in the settlement that I could find. It was a laborious job to travel about in the deep snow, and night found me at the hospitable cabin of Wm. M. Gray, on section 33, in what is now Blooming Grove.

-nity among the pioneer settlers of Wisconsin and ]\Iinnesota - especially in the latter territory - entirely unknown at the present day. The stranger was always welcome to such accommodations and fare as the settlers possessed. All gathered around the same table and each served the other. Each told to the other his history, almost without reserve, and in one evening they generally knew more of each other and of each other 's affairs than men born and reared in the same to^vn know of each other these days. Not only did they become acquaintances but they took a friendly interest in each other's welfare. There was a sympathy among them which later additions to the population seem not to possess.

I spent the night very comfortably and agreeably with ilr. Gray and his family, and the next morning called upon his neighbors, Messrs. Simeon Smith, Alfred C. Smith and E. K. Carlton, obtained their signatures to the remonstrance, and proceeded homewards, arriving at the McDougall cabin just as darkness covered the prairie and grove.

My only compensation for the laborious tramp was the general satisfaction we all felt in the defeat, for the time being, of the proposition to divide the county. Alas! how little man knows of the future.