Waseca County, Minnesota - Chapter 65, 1905

Chapter 65

PROCEEDINGS OP COUNTY BOARD - THE VOTE ON COURTHOUSE - CONTRACT FOR BUILDING COURTHOUSE LET - WASECA CREAMERY - TERRIBLE SUFFERING AND DEATH OF SOL. JIIDDAUGH - MASONIC HALL AT ALMA CITY BURNED - "EACO" MILL BURNED - CREAMERIES ESTABLISHED - DIED: JENNIE GASINK, JULIENNE MINSKE, HANNAH BUCKMAN, JOHN PETERSON, JUSTINA KRASSIN, JOHN JORDAN, P. H. SPILLANE, MARY DONOVAN - THE ELECTION.

The le<.;islative braiich of the eouiit.v i;overnment met iu annual session Jan. 7 and oruanizcd by electing Hon. F. C. Bailey to jireside. The county printing was let as follows; The tax list to the Ilci-ald, the financial statement and the report of board of ccinalization to the Kadical, and the proceedings of the county commissioners to the Argus - all at legal rates.

Proposition To Build Courthouse

At the meeting of the county board April 23, after a very lengthy and laborious examination of the eleven plans submitted, the commissioners accepted the plan submitted by architects Orff & Joralemoii, of Minneapolis, the cost of the building not to exceed $35,000. It is 68x911/2 feet in size, two stories high with a stone basement. It fronts on Second street, is built of St. Louis mottled brick, and is heated by steam. The first tloor is fire-proof. The tower and dome are one hundred leet high and furnish a fine look-out over the city and surrounding country.

At the ]May meeting, the board proceeded to open the proposals for erecting the new courthouse. The bids, twenty-one in number, ranged from $48,000, made by Keefe Bros., of Waseca, to $34,765.96, made by J. D. Carroll, of St. Paul Park; the latter bid was accepted.

The following appropriations were made to towns: To Freedom, $75 for stone culvert on county line road on section 7, and $25 for grading road on slough between sections 27 and 34; to Vivian, $40 to be used for building bridge between sections 21 and 28, $20 for a bridge on road between sections 22 and 27. and $40 for bridge on road between sections 1 and 2; to loscd, $50 to be appropriated for grading road on section 10; to Alton, $100 for a stone culvert between sections 9 and 10.

At the board meeting of May 18, 1896, the contract for furnishing the heating apparatus for the new courthouse was awarded to Pond, Hasey & Co., of Minneapolis, for $2,150. W. P. Porter & Co., of St. Paul, also had in a bid at $2,325.

In the afternoon the board ordered the purchase of sixty feet front of the Priest land, adjoining the courthouse grounds, and appropriated $2,5Q0 to be paid upon receipt of proper conveyance of land.

The following appropriations were made from the road and bridge fund : Town of New Richland, $30 for two bridges and approaches on road between sections 17 and 18; $30 for grading road between section 2 in New Richland and section 35 in Otisco ; and $40 for two bridges between sections 15 and 22 in New Richland; to town of Otisco, $35 for a bridge and grading on section 10; $45 for repairing the Walstrom bridge, and $20 for repairing bridge on section 9.

At the September meeting, the following appropriations were made from the road and bridge fund: Town of Byron $25; town of Janesville $100 ; town of St. IMary $50.

The erection of the courthouse progressed slowly during the year 1896. The contractor finally failed entirely, and the American Surety Company, his bondsmen, were compelled to take charge of the building and complete it. Great credit is due to the board of county commissioners and to Hon. A. J. Lohren, then county auditor, for this very complete edifice. It is of much credit to the county. The American Surety Company and Hon. S. P. Child, its state agent, are also entitled to credit for honestly carrying out the contract.

The Waseca Creamery

got its start the first of this year. A joint meeting of farmers and business men was held the Saturday before New Year's day and a subscription for stock started. John Diedrich headed the list with fifty shares, or $500. Committees were appointed to solicit stock and also to ascertain the number of cows that would be pledged to the enterprise. At the adjourned meeting held Jan. 3, there was a large attendance and the following officers were then chosen for the first year: Thomas Bowe, president; W. PI. Wheeler, vice-president; James Conway, secretary; AVm. Mittelsteadt, treasurer; Cornelius McGonagle, Fred. jNIahler, and D. A. Brwin, directors. The officers were also elected directors.

point a committee on articles of incorporation and by-laws, and the chairman appointed Messrs. John Diedrich, W. H. Wheeler, James Conway, Wm. Mittelsteadt, C. McGonagle, Fred Mahler, and D. A. Erwin as such committee.

Forty-six farmers subscribed for stock, the total amounting to $3,080. Members of the association met again Jan. 9, selected a site for the building, adopted articles of incorporation, and made arrangements to perfect the organization and to erect a creamery building. The enterprise proved to be an entire success, and the association is doing good work to-day. The liberal business men of Waseca subscribed to the enterprise $365.

Terrible Suffering And Death

Solomon Middaugh, one of the early settlers of Meriden and Waseca, about 1875, moved with his family to Jackson county, Mum. On Jan. 15, 1896, in returning from Estherville to his home, his team ran away, throwing him out and breaking both his legs. His brother, R. M. Middaugh, of Waseca, went to his brother's assistance and wrote the following letter describing the closing scenes of the sufferer's life :

It is evening and the doctor has just left us giving no hope that dear brother Sol. will live through the night. While I am writing this he is resting quietly, but has passed a very hard afternoon. Ah! but how he has suffered ever since the awful Monday night, just two weeks ago, when, lying upon the prairie, he vainly called for help that did not come.

How he has lived through it all is a mystery. The particulars of the sad accident, so far as I can learn, are these: He was coming home from Estherville with a horse team attached to a lumber wagon loaded with some lumber and tin roofing. When about one mile from home the ring on one of the singletrees broke, letting the tongue down. The horses ran, striking the wagon tongue against a stone which threw the wagon high in air, and this was the last poor Sol. knew until he found himself on the prairie, some distance from the road, with both legs broken close below the knees. He must have fallen with both legs into a wagon wheel. The track showed that one of the wheels must have been clogged for some distance, as It dragged on the ground.

When he recovered his senses he crawled some twenty rods, leaving a trail of blood all the way. Pools of blood in places show that he must have stopped to rest several times. At last, when near the road, his strength gave out, and he had to give up. He gathered his broken legs under him as best he could, and there remained all the long night calling lor help. About 8 o'clock the next morning he was found, more dead than alive, by some school children on their way to school.

The team did not go home, but ran across the fields through a wire fence, and, when found the next morning, one horse was still attached to the front axle, with only one wheel on, and some of the fence wire hanging to it. Both horses were cut some, but not seriously. The wagon was a total wreck, scattered in every direction.

Many wonder why Sol. did not bleed to death during the night, ancj the only answer is that his leg froze and this stopped the flow of blood. Although he had on warm felt boots, they were frozen solid and had to be cut open to get them off.

These are the disconnected facts concerning my brother Sol., and, if you can fix them up, they may be of interest to his many friends in Waseca county.

Lodge Room And Records Burned

On the night of I\Iay 23, 1896, the IMasonie lodge room, at Alma City, was burned. The lodge occitpied rooms over Daniel J. Bickford's blacksmith and wagon shop. The cause of the fire is unknown to the public. It seems that there was lodge meeting that night until after 10 o'clock; within two hours afterward the whole building was in ashes. My. Bickford lost nearly all his tools and stock on hand, and the hall and all its contents, including the records, M'crc consumed. The records of the lodge were the oldest in the connty, being "Wilton Lodge No. 21," organized in lSr)9. Most of the older IMasons in the county took their first IMasonie lessons in that lodge while it M^as located at Wilton. Many of the "boys in blue" were initiated into the mysteries of the order preparatory to taking their chances on the Southern battle fields. After the old village of Wilton had shi'uiik out of sight, as it were, the archives of the lodge, retaining the old name and number, were removed to Alma Citv.

xVt about twenty minutes after 3 o'clock Tuesday morning, Aug. 25, 1896, the fire alarm and mill whistle aroused our citizens and it was soon discovered that the old and long-vacant coffin factory, on the west side of the M. & St. L. railroad track, nearly opposite the flour mill of Everett, Aughenbaugh & Co., M'as on fire. It made a terribly hot fire, but soon burned to the groimd, and the people were just congratulating one another that the fire was no worse, when the cry went forth that the flour and bran house on the south of the mill was on fire.

Undoubtedly the heat upon the sheet iron covering had set the woodwork inside on fire. Every effort was made by the fire department to keep down the flames, but the high wind and the bursting of a watermain in the south part of the city at that time, reducing the pressure, combined to aid the flames which were carried directly into the windows of the mill. It was short work for the consuming element to destroy one of the best mills in the state, the accumulation of years of industry, economy, and safe biisiness management. Two cars loaded with flour were also consumed. The total loss of the Eaco Milling Company was estimated at $70,000, and the property of the mill was insured for $45,000. The old coffin factory was of little value and had been, for a long time, the tramps' paradise. There is no doubt that the fire was either the work of incendiarism or the carelessness of tramps. The mills were at once rebuilt on a more elaborate plan than before, and are, at this day, doing the best of work.

Several Creameries

Several farmers' co-operative creameries were established in the county this year. In addition to the Waseca creamery, the following are noted :

In the month of January, the farmers of St. Mary and adjoining towns organized a co-operative creamery association by adopting articles of incorporation and subscribing stock to the amount of $3,500. The following officers were chosen: Patrick Campion, president; James Byron, secretary; M. W. Keeley, treasurer; M. Gallagher, manager; George Kahnke, Steven Priebe, Michael Sheeran, and Michael McGonagle, Jr., directors.

ized a creamery association and elected as its first officers, Hon. H. M. Buck, president; Joseph Fromlath, treasurer; R. Jacoby, secretary; W. R. Brisbane, Louis Anderson, Amil Weckwerth, Chas. J. Johnson, John A. Johnson, board of directors. The amount of capital stock was fixed at $3,000.

The Janesville creamery had been running a .year, and the Argus reported it as follows : ' ' Total number of pounds of milkreceived, 1,077,905 ; pounds of butter fat, 41,839 ; pounds of butter made and sold, 48,923 ; average price per pound, twenty cents plus a fraction. The officers for the ensuing year are P. 0. Ayers, president; J. H. ^Murphy, vice-president; James Sullivan, secretary; J. W. Jennison, treasurer; Ed. Hayden, A. Gunn,- IT. Hugunin, H. 0. Thrall, and the officers named, constitute the board of directors.

Deaths Of 189G As Noted

I\Irs. Jrnnie Gasink, about eighty-three years of age, mother of Albert, John, and Gradus Gasink, died Jan. 28, of old age and the grijipe. She ciime to this country from Holland in 1847, and settled fii'st in j\Iilwaukee, Wis. She and her husband moved to Sheboygan, the same state, in 1853, and came to "Waseca in 1869, where she has since resided. Her husband died some nine years before. She left siirviving her seven children and a large number of grandchildren.

^Irs. Hannah Biu'kman, wife of Augustus Buckman, died Feb. 26, at Waseca. She was l)orn in Crown Point, state of New York, March 20, 1840. She M-as luarried in December, 1863, and came to Minnesota in 1,S69. She became the mother of seven children, five of whom survive her. She was first taken with pleurisy, and typhoid pnpinuoiiia followed. Slie had passed the critical point in her illness, it was thoui;lit, and she appeared much better. But later slie was taken with congestion of the stomach and rapidly sank into the sleep of death. Mrs. Buckman Avas a kind-hearted, good neighbor, evm- ready to share her scanty fare with those in need. She -^vas one of God's noble workers who somehow so often fail to receive a fair share of the comforts of th(^ life wliich they work so liard to produce. Hers had been a life of toil and eare on behalf of lier children, and mav her

]Mr. John Peterson, of Otisco, one of the very early settlers of the county, died Aug. 27, 1896, of cancer of the liver. He was born in Sweden, Feb. 6, 1828. lie came to America, stopping at Chicago, in 1853. He worked in Chicago six months, going thence to La Fayette, Indiana, where he worked until he came to JNIinnesota via Red Wing, in 1857. He at first secured 120 acres of land on section 28, Otisco, and afterwards bought 40 acres more. Soon after his settlement here he married Miss Carolina Hokanson, of the same town. They had nine children. Mrs. Peterson came from Sweden with her parents in 1858. Mr. Peterson had the misfortune to lose one arm in a threshing machine, in October, 1875.

Mrs. Justina Krassin, widow of Martin Krassin, after long years of poor health, passed peacefully away, Aug. 31, 1896, aged sixty-one years. She was born in Germany, in 1835, married ]Martin Krassin in 1851, and came with him to America in the year 1854. She reared a family of six children, all of whom are living except Aiigust C, who died Aug. 9, 1891.

Mr. John Jordan, a single man, of St. Mary, was found dead in his bed on Wednesday morning. He arose about 4 o'clock and was about the house for a short time, and then retired to his room where he was soon after found dead. Mr. Jordan was born in Ireland, June 4, 1835, and came to America with his family in 1849. He first landed in New Brunswick, afterwards lived in Massachusetts, and came to Minnesota in 1856, settling on section 16, in St. Mary, where he had since resided. He remained single, having upon his farm a renter family at the time of his death. Mr. Jordan was a jolly, easy-going, pleasant man, with mimerous friends. It is supposed that he died of heart disease.

Patrick H. Spillane, Esq., of Woodville, after a severe illness, died December 19, 1896, at the age of fifty-five years. He was a native of Framore, Ireland; came to America at the age of ten years, lived near Waupun, Wis., enlisted in Company D, Third Wisconsin infantry, in February, 1864, marched with Sherman to the sea, was engaged in the battle of Averysbovo, N. C, Avhere he was shot through the body, just above the hips, and from which he never fully recovered. He married Miss Charlotte

LaBg, in 1867, and the same year came to this county. The next year he took a homestead in Faribault county, where he remained some eight years, and then returned to Waseca county. He was, for several years, jarior to his death, justice of the peace of Woodville, and a prominent member of the G. A. E. post of Waseca. He was honorable and upright in his dealings, and possessed high qualities of good citizenship. His funeral took place with military honors at the Catholic church, Father Treanor officiating. He left surviving him a widow and five children - three l)oys and two girls.

j\Irs. j\lary Donovan, of Woodville, passed to her long rest, Dec. 22, IMitti. She was the widow of the late C. Donovan, and had been sick for many months of cancer. She was a native of County Cork, Ireland. She and her husband came to this county from Wisconsin over twenty-five years ago. She left five sons and two daughters to mourn her departure.

The General Election

This year saw the great struggle between plutocracy, or the gold standard advocates, and democracy, or the bimetallists of the county, and plutocracy won by an overwhelming majority. In Waseca county the gold standard won by a majority of six hundred and forty votes. The local candidates received the following votes :

Representative, John Wilkinson, rep., 1,940, Keyes Swift, populist, 1,315 ; auditor, A. J. Lohren, rep., 1801, John S. Abell, dem,, 1,448; treasurer, W. H. Koesler, rep., 1,913, E. R. Krassin, bimetallist, 1,366; sheritf, Geo. H. Goodspeed, rep., 2,101, P. H. Kenehan, populist, 1,198; register, Chas. San Galli, rep., 1,202, John M. Wollschlaeger, dem., 2,131; judge of probate, Geo. A. Wilson, rep., 2,145, John j\Iadigan, dem., 1,117; attorney, L. D. Rogers, rep., 1,559, P. McGovern, dem., 1,739: clerk of court, Henry Re.vnolds, rep., 2,009, John ]M. Byron, dem., 1.290; school superintendent, C. W. Wagner, rep., 2,227. Dr. J. P. Corry, populist. 1,171. Orson L. Smith, for county surveyor, E. P. Latham, for court commissioner, and Dr. JF. J. Taylor, for coroner, were elected without opposition. Joseph Fromlath, of the first commissioner district, Henry P. Lewer, of the third, and Raymond

The Weather

As a rule, the weather was favorable throughout the year. The heaviest rain storm of the season commenced Nov. 25, and continued three days. The long drouth which had prevailed in the Northwest for two years was broken. The sloughs and low places were filled with water and the high lands were thoroughly soaked. While November was cold and stormy, the first half of December was mild; but the latter part of the month was stormy, and in the last week of the month a very severe sleet storm visited Southwestern ]\Iinnesota, extending into this countv.