Waseca County, Minnesota - Biographical Sketches - Reminiscbnses Op Early Days, 1905 (part 2 of 6)

Mr. Isaac Ballard

was born in North Hamptonshlre, Eng., eighty-five miles from London, Dec. 14, 1834. He came to America in 1857, and stopped in Pennsylvania one summer. He came to Minnesota in the fall of 1857, and boarded with Mr. Chas. Billings, of Iosco, who had been here one year. He made a claim adjoining Mr. Billings' place. Mr. Wm. Taylor, his half brother, came about the same time, and settled on a farm in Blooming Grove.

Mr. Ballard had no property whatever to commence with. His first investment was changing work with a Mr. Churchill for a pig, and also with old Uncle Brossard for a calf. He was compelled to keep bachelor's hall. By working out a little here and a little there he was soon able to buy a pair of three-year-old steers from Enoch Roe, of St. Mary, paying therefor $45. He was obliged to change works to get some breaking done. After this he raised a crop of wheat, part of which he traded for a wagon.. Some of his first crop of wheat he hauled to Wilton, and sold It for twenty-five cents a bushel in store pay. He remembers that the first good bargain he ever made was when he sold two chickens to two Indians for twenty-five cents each. He says he never felt so rich before in his life. The Winnebago Indians were near neighbors and frequent visitors in those days. He married Catharine Erwin, Oct. 7, 1865. His first Investment in land was sixty acres, which he thoroughly improved.

His nearest cash market was Hastings or Redwing. After a few years he was enabled to buy one hundred and sixty acres more, and he afterwards added another eighty to his large farm. A few years ago he sold a half section of his land, and retained only eighty acres, upon which he now resides.

Mr. and Mrs. Ballard have seven children - Carrie, Arthur, Clifton, Walter Isaac, Marshall, Eugene, and Maud. Mr. Ballard is one of our best and wealthiest farmers, and has a comfortable home in which to spend his declining years. Mrs. Ballard is a refined and worthy woman, a sister of Mr. D. A. Erwin, of St. Mary.

Mr. William M. Gray

Among the Blooming Grove settlers who faced the storms and blizzards and exposures and hardships of 1855, was William M. Gray, one of the earliest settlers, who was born in Genesee county. New York. He was married in his native state to Miss Lucina Fuller. They came West ai an early day and settled first in Illinois, then came to Iowa, where they tarried two years, and finally came to Blooming Grove, in the early summer of 1855, where they spent the remainder of their lives. The last days of December, 1855, Mr. Gray, in company with Simeon Smith, J. M. Bliven and Daniel Riegle started for West Union, Iowa, to obtain a supply of provisions. They found the roads blocked with snow, the weather being intensely cold, and they made slow progress. They had horse teams, but even with those they were long on the road. Miss Jane Gray, now Mrs. O. Powell, came back with her father from Iowa, on that trip. Messrs. Blivens and Riegle did not return at that time with the others. Messrs. Gray and two Mankato men encountered rough weather and bad roads on their return, and between the Vaughn settlement and Owatonna they got caught out and had to remain in a grove or thicket over night. They built a fire and managed to keep from perishing, but Mrs. Powell frosted her feet and suffered much from the cold. They had nothing to eat except flour wet with snow water and baked before the campfire on the end board of the wagon box. When Mr. Gray got back as far as Mr. Hatch's place, he left his daughter and his load and went home on foot to get oxen to haul the load the rest of the way, the horses being nearly tired out. The family had eaten the last potatoes the day the father reached home. Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Gray reared a family of nine children, one of whom, Melissa, died at the age of twelve years. Mr. Gray died in 1872, of dropsy, aged sixty-four years. Mrs. Gray died some years after, aged seventy.

William Henry Gray

known as Henry, was born July 22, 1840, in the state of Illinois. He came to Minnesota with his father and participated in all the labor and hardships iacident to pioneer life. At the age of twenty-one he enlisted in Company F., Fifth Minnesota infantry, and served his country faithfully for over thrse years. He participated in many battles and was always found at his post. On the fifth of June, 1865, he married Miss Rosalia Ketchum, who was born in Ohio, May 24, 1846, and who came to Minnesota with her parents in 1856.

This worthy citizen, after years of suffering, passed to the "Great Beyond" Monday morning, Feb. 27, 1905. 'He left surviving him his widow, one son, Fred W., and four daughters, Mrs. E. R. Stevens, Mrs. D. M. Tanner, Mrs. W. R. Ellis, and Miss Isora, to mourn his departure. He was an honored and prominent member of Comee lodge. No. 25, I. O. O. F., of Waseca, and of McKune Post G. A. R. He owned a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, a mile northwest of Waseca, and left his family in comfortable circumstances.

Mr. H. P. Chamberlain

Some years ago, when the writer was considered a pretty fair republican, he had a chat about "ye olden times," with Mr. Chamberlain, who gave substantially the following account of himself:

"I was born in Sparta, Livingston county. New York, April 13, 1833. My parents emigrated from there to Florence, Brie county, Ohio, when I was a year old. My father, being the victim of the saloon traffic like thousands of others, made it necessary for me, at the age of nine years, to shift for myself. I worked out by the month and day, in Ohio, until I was about twenty years of age when I went to Grand Island, Lake Superior, and worked about a year. I was also employed in the Michigan pineries one winter. Early in the spring of 1855, I started for Minnesota, coming through from Michigan, accompanied by my brother, Orlando, and arriving at what is now the city of Rochester, Olmsted county, April 13. My personal property consisted of one horse and a small amount of money for expenses. After looking the country over, I made a claim south of Rochester, near Root river, put up a small cabin, and eight days afterwards sold my improvements for $200 to a man named Wilson. Then, in company with Messrs. Tuttle, Keys, Roberts, and 'ihomas, I came to LeSueur county, about a mile north of Okaman, and took another claim. The next June, 1855, Fred Roberts, George Johnson, Chas. Chrlstenson, Bph. Davis, Frank and John Conway, came in and settled near by. George Johnson was the first proprietor of Okaman village site. I held my claim in LeSueur county until March, 1856, when I sold to Patrick Kelly and removed to Iosco, on section 28. But before I sold out in LeSueur county, late in the fall of 1855, I was employed by George Johnson to take my oxen and sleighs and go with Jim Johnson, the hired man, to Iowa for provisions. We started about the 17th of December, with two sleighs and four pair of oxen, with instructions to bring back 8,000 pounds of flour, pork, etc. We arrived at Auburn, Iowa, about the first of January, 1856, and while purchasing our loads, there came a heavy snow storm blockading all the roads. We bought the pork in West Union, and the flour in Auburn, putting 4,000 pounds on each sleigh. We started on the return trip about January 6. It was one of those undertakings which tried a man's pluck and powers of endurance.

"In many localities the stopping places were from eighteen to twentyfive miles apart. The roads were very little traveled and badly drifted. In many places we were compelled to shovel through the drifts, and sometimes had to unload and reload to get through. At two places we stayed at the same house three nights. The first night, we left our loads on the prairie, five miles away, in order to get to the house. We went back the next day and brought in the loads, again staying over night. The inird day we went on five or six miles, and returned to stay the third night. The next morning at break of day we were again on the road.

"Jim Johnson was a peculiar fellow. He was a large muscular man, would swear like a trooper, and was full of brag and bluster, pretending not to believe in any hereafter, and apt to ridicule all religious belief. The day we started to cross the large prairie, between the two Cedars, near the Iowa line, the weather was cold and stormy. Night came on before we got in sight of any house; the lead cattle were tired out and refused to face the storm, so we were obliged to stay all night without shelter or protection from the cold blasts, and nothing to eat but frozen bread. As soon as all hope of getting to a house was lost, Johnson's brag and bluster and profanity turned in the opposite direction, and he commenced to weep like a child, and pray like a lunatic. He was so beside himself with fear of perishing, that it was some time before he could ae induced to secure his teams or take any precautions against freezing. All night, at intervals, he would cry and pray, exhibiting the most abject fear. He was considerably frost bitten before we reached the settlement next morning, where we found food and shelter.

"Between Austin and Owatonna we were again caught out all night, but it was not so bad as the night between the Cedars, as we found a grove which afforded some protection. From Owatonna we went northwest and reached a house in Blooming Grove. The next day we reached Okaman under the sheltering wing of the Big Woods, thankful for a chance to rest a little."

Mr. Chamberlain was married to Sarah Hatch, February 22, 1857. She was the daughter of Curtis Hatch, who settled in Blooming Grove in 1855. He was a blind man and died in Moody county, D. T., In 1SS4. Mrs Chamberlain was born in the state of Ohio. She resides on the old farm at this writing, (1904) while Mr. Chamberlain does business in the city of Waseca.

Mr. Chamberlain was elected to the ofllce of justice of the peace, soon after the organization of the township, and held the olHce for ten consecutive years by reelection. Before the railroads were built into this section, he did his share of marketing grain, at points on the Mississippi river - camping out on the green-carpeted prairie, under the broad canopy of infinite space, with prairie wolves as watch dogs and prairie chlcliens to sound the reveille.

Mr. Anthony Gorman

This gentleman, for many years justice of the peace in St. Mary, was born in the county of Donegal, in the north of Ireland, in 1S25. He came to America In 1848, and landed in New YorK. .lie was employed in Orange county. New York, where he remained some ten months. He afterwards went to Duchess county, the same state, where he lived three years. He then came west to Aurora, 111., where he remained thirteen months. He next came to St. Mary, Waseca county, where he arrived in the month of June, 1856, and settled on section 28, which has since been his home. He had at one time two hundred forty acres of land, but now, has only two hundred, one hundred thirty-five acres of which are cultivated. He was elected justice of the peace in 1859 or 1860, and held that office for nine or ten years. He has been chairman of the board of town supervisors, and for some years was town treasurer. He brought with him to the county some $400 or $500 in money, His first house was made of sod. He afterwards built a small farm house, and some years ago he built his present residence. He is a bachelor and rents his land. One season during the early years of his settlement he made ten trips to Hastings with wheat. He says he distinctly remembers the "Johnny cake and cold water" times when he had to pay twenty-two cents a pound for pork and fifty-five cents per hundred for corn meal, and only got three pounds of sugar for a dollar. At this writing (1904) he is hale and hearty for a man of eighty years.

Mr. Roscob A. Philbrook

"I was born in the town of Palmyra, Somerset county, Maine, June 16, 1839. My parents came to Wisconsin in the year 1844, and lived first in Jefferson county, afterwards in Marquette county.

"In the spring of 1856 we covered two wagons and started for Minnesota. We first lived In Olmsted county. In the spring of 1857 we again started west, arriving, about the first of June, in the town of Byron, in this county. We had four yoke of oxen, two covered wagons, very little money, and no stock. Our family numbered six in all, William and Sarah Phllbrook, and their four boys.

"After locating our claims, the first thing we did was to start the breaking plow, and that summer we turned over ninety-five acres of the prairie sod. W^e planted a few potatoes, some corn, etc. We did considerable breaking that season for others at |5 and $6 per acre. We lived in our covered wagons five months before we built our house. We raised very little the first year, and experienced many hardships the first few years of our settlement. I remember that almost every one went barefoot summers, and wore bag pants and other coarse clothing. We often paid as high as $6 per hundred for flour, which had to be hauled from Hastings, eighty miles distant. At one time we lived two weeks on potatoes and salt and no bread.

"The first public school was taught In our district in 1863 - kept in a vacated house. Several terms were taught in this house, but in 1866 we built a school house.

"William Philbrook, my father, died in 1864, and was buried in the Freeborn cemetery, and Sarah Philbrook, his wife, died in June, 1890, aged eighty-three years. Lyman and George, the two youngest sons, are both dead. Byron lives in California."

"One of the first settlers in Otisco was Zachariah Holbrook, who was born in Courtland county, N. Y., in 1820. He went to Chautauqua county N. Y., when a young man, and married Mary Jane Bumpus, who was born in Cataraugus county in 1824. They came west as far as Wisconsin, where they lived a few years, and then came to Otisco early in May, 1856, settling near the LeSueur. Their first house was built of bark and poles. In August, 1858, their oldest son, Marvin, was drowned. Mr. Holbrook died April, 1887, and was buried in the Wilton cemetery.

"David Beavins, Wm. Beavins and Isaac Lyng settled in Byron township in June, 1857, where they resided for many years. David Beavins now lives near Alma City, this county. Mr. Lyng died in the service of his country. Wm. Beavins served as a soldier during the Sioux outbreak under Gen. Sibley, and also with the Fifth regiment in the south. He died some time ago, and was buried in the Wilton cemetery."

Roscoe was a modest, retiring man and held no ofiice except that of supervisor for one term. He was ill for a long time and died some years ago.

Mr. Samuel W. Franklin

"I received a circular from you asking for my biography. At least, it amounts to 'something like a biography to answer your questions. Now 1 have some objections to having my biography published. My principal objection is that 1 have sometimes been very foolish and have done things that I don't like to talk about. Besides I have not been a successful man in making and saving money. By the way, I have been studying to find something that I can tell of with a feeling of complacency: and I can think of only one thing and that is, that I have paid out in Waseca county between four and five thousand dollars in interest money.

"Now, I am not sure that this is a matter to feel complacent about. It is true that I had only the handling of this money, but then, what more do the successful moneyed men have? Surely, I have been of some use. The foxes would not fare well if there were no geese! But I confess that this is not much satisfaction to me.

"But now for tlie autobiography: In the autumn of 1845, a youth of twenty-one was slowly plodding his way from the northern part of Pennsylvania to Illinois. He was driving a pair of very poor old horses, which required the almost constant use of the whip to keep up a slow motion. He does not own the team but is working his passage and camping out. There is nothing striking in his appearance except verdancy. Except for this, he is very common place in his appearance. You can see nothing very smart or heroic. But he is bound for the land of promise and is in dead earnest. He is full of wild and extravagant notions, and nothing but a severe discipline in the school of experience can dispel his illusions and make him reasonable. He is going to get rich, to make money; but he has no reasonable, well-defined plan of action. His first idea is to teach school. His education is very limited and he has not the quickness of eye necessary to a teacher. But he is full of hope and expectation. Difficulties are nothing, and, at last, the sight of Illinois and its prairies, its immense stretch of unoccupied land, so rich, so beautiful of promise for the future, dawns upon his vision. Is it to be wondered that he was full of enthusiasm for Illinois, and of contempt for the comparatively rough and poor soil of northern Pennsylvania? An extract from a letter he wrote home at the time of his arrival at the then new town of Dixon, 111., will illustrate. Speaking of the land he had left, he apostrophizes:

"He engaged a school, the first district school taught in the now city of Dixon, but after a month's trial became satisfied that he had undertaken more than he could do and he gave it up.

"This was failure No. 1. Could he have been moderate and reasonable, and engaged in some country school he might, no doubt, have succeeded passably well. But he now gave up all thoughts of that kind and hired out to work on a farm. It was a time of depression in business. Farmers had to draw their wheat one hundred and ten miles to Chicago and sell it for sixty or seventy cents per bushel; pork was $3 per cwt.; beef was not much better; butter six to eight cents per pound; eggs three to four cents per dozen; corn fifteen cents per bushel; oats about the same. He hired out for $12 per month by the year and worked three years for the same man. There was but little of the country occupied. There was as good land as ever was seen in market at government price, but no buyers.

1 don c think the plan was necessarily altogether extravagant; but his plans were very extravagant. There was a very good, unoccupied house several miles from inhabitants and in the timber. Around and near the house was a beautiful stretch of natural meadow and pasture. His plan was to occupy the house entirely alone and keep his stock. It was a kind of hermit plan, very wild and extravagant, and ended very disastrously. He found himself alone in the world without means, almost without friends - for his wild notions had alienated those who would have been his friends. But he was not disheartened.

"When the time came for winter school, he_ with some difficulty engaged a school which, they said, was badly run down. There would not be more than eight or ten scholars and they would give him $14 per month and board. He asked them if they would agree to give him $20 per month if he would make the school average twenty scholars. They agreed that they would. He went to work and succeeded in filling the house with scholars. He taught three winters in the same district at $20 and board. He had now considerable popularity as a teacher; more than his abilities warranted.

"He came to New Richland the spring Buchanan was inaugurated, in the montn of March. He came from Illinois the fall before, and staid at Willow Creek, twelve miles this side of Red Wing, through the winter. He kept a hotel there, and O. Powell and likely some others in the county were his customers.

"He had been looking over the state considerably and was well satisfied with it. He found here when he came A. G. Sutlief, E. B. Stearns, Z. Holbrook, N. Lincoln, the Northups, Grovers, Scotts, and Jenkinses. Besides, in his neighborhood, there were several town proprietors trying to start a town near the Holbrook place, called Otisco. The only wholesale drygoods store ever built in that city is now a part of Wm. Iver's bam. There was a saw mill and some boards were sawed there. A school house was built the next year costing about one hundred dollars. Miss Rachel Dodge, who afterwards married Dr. Gove, was the first teacher, and Mrs. G. R. Buckman the next. The house was used for religious meetings,

"A. G. Sutllef was the only wealthy man in the settlement, and he had some enemies as well as a good many friends. At one time a party of his enemies were coming from Wilton in the evening by a very lonely place which had the reputation of being haunted. Sutlief managed to occupy the haunted place when they were passing, and acted the ghost to his own satisfaction. The fright caused a stampede of the ox-teams, when Sutlief slipped back by a short way, and when they came by in some excitement he asked all about the trouble.

"He ought to have told you that he brought with him, when he came, four yoke of oxen, a span of horses, and three cows. But he left some debts behind which he had to pay, and he puts that in as a partial excuse for not Deing rich now."

Mr. Franklin was one of our best and most conscientious citizens. He owned a good farm in New Richland township, and died Aug. 21, 1898, of erysipelas, highly respected by all who knew him.

Mr. Thomas Maloney

of Iosco, was born in Ireland, in 1834. He came to America in 1852, and lived in the state of New York about two years. He then went to Pennsylvania where he lived ten years, and then came to Minnesota in 1863, and settled in Iosco. He married Miss Catharine Gorman, in 1861, in Pennsylvania. She came from Ireland in 1852. They have eight children; four boys and four girls. They have a valuable farm. In the first years of his settlement in this county he, like others, hauled his wheat to Hastings, that being our nearest market. One year he obtained fifty cents a bushel for his wheat. In the year 1871 he lost all his crop by hall. He Is one of our most public spirited citizens, and honorable In all matters.

Mr. Samuel Lambert

Among the pioneers who earned their daily bread by honest toll, few are more entitled to honorable mention than iVIr. Samuel Lambert, of St. Mary. In an interview with him in 1897 he said:

-I was born In Three Rivers, Canada, May 15, 1836. When nineteen years of age I went to New Hampshire. I lived there until 1863 and was m.arried Jan. 15, 1863, to Miss Catharine Sullivan. She was a native of Waterford, Ireland. In March, 1863, we came to Minnesota and stopped in Hastings for a time. We opened a boarding house on the railroad then being constructed near Hastings, for one G. W. Cummins, a contractor, and ran It some four months. Cummins then left without paying anyone, and we lost $450 by the deal. I followed the rascal as far as Crow River, and then lost track of him. I then worked in a stave factory for some time. I bought my land in St. Mary in 1864, but did not move onto it until 1868. In that year we built a shanty. I remember when the shanty was completed I got of Tom White a dollar's worth ot sugar, a sack of flour and a pound of tea, and had only sixty cents in money left. When we got the flour home we found that it was so injured by kerosene oil we could not use it, and I hired a man to take it back, as I had no team of my own then. Soon after I got a yoke of cattle of Matt Keeley for which I agreed to pay $130. Our first crop was that of 1868 - had twenty acres broken in 1867. I paid for seed wheat $1.25 per bushel to John Baldwin, and raised one hundred eighty bushels. We put one hundred bushels into the house and eighty bushels into a crib outside. Late in the fall, Tom White, having a grading contract on the W. & St. P. R. R. set a prairie fire, which burned the eighty bushels of wheat and nearly burned tne house. I was absent from home at the time, working for |3 a day in the Faribault stave factory. Tom refused to pay for the burned wheat and other darnage, and for some years after we had a tough time trying to make a living and pay debts. After a while we got along better and have managed to make a living. I now have the old home eighty and we have eighty acres more for the boys."

Mr. William Lee

"I was born Oct. 10, 1831, on a farm, in county Wexford, Ireland, at a place called Killcotty, midway between the town of Bnniscorthy and the village of Oulart. The last named places are ten miles apart. I emigrated to America and landed in New York on St. Patrick's day 1851. I had a cold reception from the elements as it was snowing when I landed from the vessel, and it continued to snow and blow all day. I hired to a farmer on Long Island, a few miles from Brooklyn, and worked for him until navigation opened in the rivers and lakes and then I started for Milwaukee, Wis. I went to Albany by steamboat, thence to Bufi'alo by freight train, and by steamboat from Buifalo to Milwaukee. The journey tooK ten days and the weather was cold for April. I lived on the poorest and roughest kind of food and did not see a bed during ttie whole journey.

On the 25th of April, I went to work for a farmer twelve miles from Milwaukee, for eight dollars a month. The next June, I went to work on the Prairie du Chien railroad. My pay was seventy-five cents a day in script, worth seventy-five cents on the dollar at the bank in cash. At that time there were but twenty miles of railroad in all Wisconsin, from Milwaukee to Waukesha.

After remaining a little more than a year in the state, I went to Chicago and worked unloading lumber from vessels in the harbor. May 4. 1852, I commenced working on the Rock Island railroad, near Ottawa, 111. That scourge of the human race, cholera, broke out among the men.

and I shouldered my "turkey" and went to Elgin, 111., where I worked tor the C. & G. railroad company and was with the track layers when the track was built into Rockford. I was on the first train that ever crossed the railroad bridge at that place; this was the first railroad bridge across Rock river. After a time I was fireman on a locomotive that hauled the construction train. This was the first train that ran to Beloit, Wis. Next I was night watch in the round house at Turner Junction.

I went South in the winter 1853-4, to Memphis, worked on a levee in_ Arkansas, returned to Chicago in the spring and worked in a livery barn for a month, and then worked as a section hand on the Dixon Air Line railway, at Lodi, 111.

I was imited in marriage with Catharine Behan at Freeport, 111., Aug. 10, 1854. She came from Ireland to America in 1853. We went to the same school in Ireland. In the summer of 1855 I ran a stationary engine In a machine shop and foundry, at Rockford, 111.

We came to Minnesota, Hastings, Nov. 15, 1855. It was a small place at that time; the population was made up of whites, half-breeds, Indians, and one black man. Red Owl's band of Sioux Indians camped near the village all winter.

While there I saw a glowing account in the Boston Pilot about the Lake Elysian country, so I came to look for a claim and arrived at Lake Elysian March 26, 1856. I traveled in parts of Waterville, Janesville, Elysian and Iosco. I selected the claim I now live on in Iosco.

There was a man in company with me named James Hennessy. He took the southwest one half of section 6. We left the claims with the intention of not coming back, if we found land that suited us better; not finding any, we returned about the middle of April. At that time a young man by the name of James Foard came with us and we worked together building shanties by cutting small logs and carrying them to the building place. Neither one of us had a team, and a yoke of oxen at that time would cost about $200.

There was claim jumping in those times, so Mr. Hennessy remained to watch the claims and I went to Hastings to bring his wife and mine and our household goods out here.

We got on a steamboat and went to St. Paul and thence by steamboat to St. Peter on the Minnesota river. The Minnesota river was very crooked and we were three days on the journey.

I made every effort in St. Peter to hire a team to take us out to the claims but was unsuccessful, and we started to walk the twenty-five miles. It was four o'clock in the afternoon when we started and we intended to stop over night at some house on the way; we were told the country was settled for a short distance.

C72 Child'S History Op Waseca County

We kept on traveling until we got beyond the settlement, and night coming on we found ourselves in the dense woods. Not wishing to go back we traveled on and soon came to a claim shanty. It was unoccupied but we stayed there all night. I built a fire in one corner and we warmed up, for the nights were cool, being the second week in May, 1856. I found some potatoes in a hole under the floor and we cooked them in the fire and had roast potatoes for supper. We had some quilts and the women slept on a bunk in one corner, while I kept fire all night.

About the middle of the forenoon we began to meet Indians by the hundreds. They were all shapes, all sizes, and all ages. We were told there were three hundred of them but there seemed to us to be nearer three thousand. After traveling ten or twelve miles we came to a house where Greenland is now. George Jaqua lived there (he now lives in Elysian); it was then long after noon but we got some dinner which we ate with a relish.

We boarded with a Mr. Johnson until our cabins were fixed so we could occupy them. We peeled the bark off the elm trees and roofed our cabins with it as there was no lumber nearer than Faribault twenty miles distant.

Mr. Lee served as county commissioner from 1871 to 1S73 inclusive, and has been elected to various town offices for many successive years. He has also held important positions in his church parish and in his school district. He owns a good farm and is in a position to enjoy the fruits ot a well-spent life.

Mr. Bbenezer B. Stearxs

He was born in Readsborough, Bennington county, \'ermont, Oct, 1, 1812. When he was four years of age, his parents removed from Vermont to near Syracuse, Onondaga county, N. Y.

In that locality he learned the carpenter and joiner trade which he followed for a number of years, at times working as a millwright. Fifty years ago he built a mill at Bellville, Canada West.

In 1853, he married Miss Emily Garrett, a native of Onondaga county, N. Y., and late the same year they came west, living first at Greenbush, Sheboygan county, Wisconsin. There he bought eighty acres of land, built a house and barn, and made other improvements. After three years ot hard work in Wisconsin, he concluded to try his fortune in Minnesota.

Early in the spring of 1856, in company with Mr. Zachariah Holbroolv, he visited the new settlement along the LeSueur river in this county. After a pretty thorough examination, he concluded to cast his lot in Waseca county.

His first arrival was April 7, 1856. He then returned to Wisconsin, settled his matters there, and returned by prairie schooner, arriving on the Le Sueur about the first of August. His first introduction was to the claim jumping struggle going on at Wilton. He was the innocent cause of the claim changes which took place between Tom Kerr, "Uncle" Fisk, Tarrant Putnam and Col. Ide, as related elsewhere in this history in the statement of Thomas J. Kerr. He soon cut loose from all entangling alliances at Wilton and moved up the river to Otisco, where, on the 5th of August, 1856, he made his claim. Here he broke the native sod, built a house and stables, and made large improvements. He sold his first claim after a few years, and then obtained the fine farm where he now resides. .

He was early called upon to take an active part in piloting our new county through the financial disasters and business depressions of 1857 and following years. At the October election of 1857, Mr. Stearns was elected county commissioner - his associates being Mr. John Bailey, (late of Medford, Steele county,) then of St. Mary, and Mr. L. C. Wood, of Woodville, who died a soldier of the Union. He was re-elected for three successive years, and was one of the ablest and most conscientious officers that ever served the county.

After three years of faithful and poorly-paid services for the county, he declined further honors as an officer, and devoted himself wholly to his own affairs. He did some building for other parties in an early day, erecting the first frame schooi house in the Brisbane district. Farming, however, was his principal business. He now owns a farm of two hundred fifty-two and' one-half acres, all improved. His family were three boys and three girls. The boys, William H., George, and Charles, are all married and living in the vicinity. The eldest girl married Frank Weed and died several years ago. Mary married M. R. Baldridge, a clergyman; Cora became the wife of Mr. Wm. Root, of Wilton.

At this writing (1897) Mr. Stearns is almost eighty-five years of age and yet he retains to a remarkable degree his physical and mental vigor. He and his wife are general favorites, socially, with old and young.

Ah, If the world were only filled with such people, what a paradise it would bo! Courts and lawyers and constables and a horde of ofiice-holders who now "eat our substance" could be dispensed with and put to work.

Since the foregoing was written, Mr. Stearns passed peacefully away on the 15th day of May, 1899, honored by the whole community. The son, William H., also died Jan. 10, 1905.

C74 Child'S History Of Waseca County Mr. Simon Henry Drum

"I came to Waseca county, May 3, 1859. After visiting with Mr. Austin Vinton's family and others in the neighborhood for several weeks, I became a clerk in Dr. D. S. Harsha's drug store in Owatonna, where I remained until August of the same year.

My first visit to Clear Lake was in that month, when I accompanied Mr. Vinton, who was going after lumber at Forrest's saw mill, which was situated in the hollow just east of where Wm. Deverell now lives, near the lake shore. This trip will always remain very distinct in my memory. We had two yoke of oxen. On our arrival, Mr. Vinton requested me to unhitch the cattle and let them run in the yoke to "bait", while he went to hunt up Mr. Forrest. I was decidedly green at that business. Whether it was my greenness that he objected to, or a natural viciousness that he possessed, I am unable to say, but certain it is, one of the steers, when I went between them to take them off the wagon- tongue, began to kick and paw and finally ran off leaving me sprawling in a fashion that Mr. Vinton seemed to think very amusing, though I failed to see the fun of it. But I was only a "tender-foot" then. However, when he "saw that I was unable to rise, he helped me up and apologized for his levity, for he was one of the kindest of men. I must have been a sight as I was scratched considerably and my clothes were pretty badly torn, especially my pantaloons. But my worst hurt was my left leg, the small bone of which was broken between the knee and the ankle. I didn't realize that it was fractured at the time, so it was never properly set.

Among the settlers I found here when I came were Austin Vinton, of Woodville, T. J. Stevens, M. T. C. Flower, Geo. Hatch, Howard Hatch, Anton Schuldt, Wm. Schuldt, and C. H. Wilker, of Meriden. Of these, Mr. Vinton has gone to his long home, Mr. Stevens is living in Massachusetts, Mr. Flower is m St. Paul, Mr. Geo. Hatch has a farm in Byron township in this county, but lives in New Richland. Howard Hatch is dead. Anton and William Schuldt are still living in green old age on their preemption farms, and are very prosperous. Mr. "Wilker and wife are living near San Diego, California. Their children are respected and well to do; most of them are still living in Meriden. [Mr. Wilker died in the spring of 1905. - Ed.]

The year '58-9 was what is known as the 'Johnny-cake year' among the old settlers, when the best-to-do had mush and milk for breakfast, Johnnycake for dinner, mush and milk for supper, with fried mush next morning for breakfast. Lucky the family that had fifty pounds of white flour for the year. It was treasured and only used when distinguished guests arrived. I well remember one of the matrons censuring a hostess for extravagance in making a pan of biscuits when only her neighbors were present."

Mr. George R. Buckman

Died, April IT, 1899, at 11 o'clock p. m., of neuralgia of the heart, George R. Buckman, of Waseca, Minnesota, aged sixty-six years, three months and twenty-iour days.

Mr. Buckman was horn December 23, 1832, at Crown Point, New York, and in his boyhood days played many a time under the old oak tree to which Gen. Putnam was hound by the Indians when taken prisoner during the French and Indian war, prior to the Revolution. The tree was still standing there when he visited the place during the War of the Rebellion.

At the age of twenty he went to New Hampshire and spent somewhat over two years with an uncle in the hardware business. Prior to this he had learned the carpenter and joiner trade.

In 1855 he came West, arriving at Winona on the 29th of April. At that time Winona was a decidedly small village. About the 1st of May following, he, in company with another young man, went to Rochester. This place then contained only one or two houses, one of which, of course, was an inn. There was no bridge across the Zumbro, and the water was high. They went down the river some distance and finally waded the stream, putting up at Head's tavern. He staid a few days, selecting a claim in the mean time. After taking the claim he needed an ax, but not an ax could he purchase in Rochester. As Mr. Head was going to Winona with a team, Mr. Buckman concluded to return with him.

Shortly after his return, he fell in with a Scotchman, by the name of Brownlee, and the two soon commenced to burn lime. The bluffs just west of the village contained excellent limestone and he and his partner did a thriving business, lime then being worth a dollar a barrel at the kiln. After working hard through the summer they both took the ague in the fall. Not being used to that disease, he thought he would surely die. They left the shanty by the lime-kiln and went over to town. After considerable shaking and taking medicine, he got better and taught the Winona school that winter - the second term taught in the place.

The ague still hung about him, and all the next summer he was unable to work much. The next October he came as far west as Waseca county, looked the country over pretty thoroughly, and entirely recovered his health. He returned to Winona and settled up his affairs, -coming a'gain to this county in January, 1857. His entry this time was in a hard storm or blizzard. He and George Tremper, with a horse team, left Owatonna about noon and did not reach Wilton until 9 o'clock In the evening. The next day he went to St. Mary and stayed with a Mr. Grossman who had opened a hoarding house. Everything in and about St. Mary was then new, and the carpenter business offered Inducements which Mr. Buckman accepted.

Sumter reverberated over the continent, G. R. Buckman was among the first to respond to the call for volunteers, and enlisted in Company G, First Minnesota regiment. His comrades from the village of St. Maryware Norman B. Barron and Charles C. Davis, and though they passed through all the hard-fought battles of three years' service, they came out without a wound. His company when it entered the service was commanded by Capt. Lewis McKune, who was shot dead at the first battle of Bull Run.

He and his company participated iu the siege of Yorktown, the Peninsular campaign, the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Fair Oaks, West Point on York River, Gettysburg, and numerous other battles. His company participated in a sharp fight at Brlstow station, where Sergeant Niedam captured twenty prisoners in a most daring and reckless manner.

At tne close of his term of enlistment he was mustered out of the service, May 5, 1864. Shortly after, he opened a country store in St. Mary, as modestly as though he had never taken part in the most terrific battles of civilized times.

He was nominated for county treasurer in 1865, without solicitation on his part, and elected. He held that office for four successive terms, with honor to himself and to the satisfaction of the public.

Just prior to the close of his term of office, as treasurer, he opened a real estate and loan office in Waseca, and made that his main business until December, ISSO, when he became one of the founders of the Peoples bank, serving the first year as president, and afterwards as cashier until June 29, 1897, when, his health having become somewhat Impaired, he resigned the position.

The robbery of the Peoples bank by the Guarantee Loan swindlers, of Minneapolis, we doubt not, shortened his life at least ten years. It was a terrible blow to a man of his high sense of honor and to one with his sensitive feelings. Himself a man of the strictest integrity and of unimpeachable character, he became prostrated by the financial blow dsalt by the Guarantee Loan assassins. A suspicion that he might be misjudged or misunderstood by former friends and the people generally, disturbed him more than all the hardships and terrors of the battlefield.

But his life struggle is o'er. A brave, gentle, and noble spirit has been set free from the cares and burdens of this transient and incomprehensible life, to take its flight to that eternal state where, let us hope, the scales of justice are held wiih equal poise, and where duplicity, deception, doubledealing, and falsehood shall not prevail against honesty, sincerity, and true manhood.

Mr. George W. Watkins

Few men, even in the West, have had more experience and less real manual labor than Geo. W. Watklns, Sen. He was born of wealthy parents, at Hamptonburg, Orange county. N. Y., May 27, 1S20.

He spent atout six months on horse back, exploring a great deal of country, in Wisconsin, Iowa, and portions of Missouri. That was in 1844 when Chicago and St. Louis were frontier villages. He rode his horse over two thousand five hundred miles and hack to his home in the state of New York. A detailed account of his travels and experiences among the pioneer settlers of the west fifty-five years ago, would fill' a large volume.

Returning to Orange county, N. Y., in 1844-5, he remained there until 1850, when he went to California, by way of the isthmus, and at once engaged in mining. How well he succeeded in his mining operations he has always kept to himself, simply remarking whenever approached on that subject, that he made enough to pay expenses.

He returned to his New York home within a year, and remained there until 1853, when he again came as far west as Chicago. He engaged in railroading on the Galena road for some time as a contractor, and finally came to J'aribault, in this state, in November, 1855. There he remained for nearly a year and then returned to Chicago where he married Miss Annetta Ward, in 1856. They remained in Chicago about a year, and in the spring of 1857 came to Wilton, then the county seat of this county, where they made their future residence. They built a very pleasant home in that village, but his wife did not live many years to enjoy it. One son, George, was born to them, and shortly afterwards the mother passed to the Eternal Home in 1860.

A little over a year later he married Miss Anna F. Green, of Wilton, who bore him one daughter, who is now Mrs. Adams and resides with her husband. Prof. Adams, in Oregon. His second wife died in May, 1895.

For many years he was engaged with Hon. P. C. Bailey in the hardware business in Wilton and Waseca. He also had an interest in the firm of Dodge & Co., hardware merchants, of Janesville.

Mr. Obadiah Powell

"Well, to begin with,'' said he, "I commenced life very young, so young, in fact, that I have always had to depend upon my parents to refresh my recollections regarding my first start in my biographical career. According to that recollection, I entered upon the scene of action Feb. 1, 1828, in the town of Hartsville, Steuben county, N. Y. In due time, I worked west- v/ard and arrived in tlie then territory of Minnesota, the last of October, 1855. I settled where I now live. May 9, 1856. It was then called Swavesey precinct, Steele county. I found in the southwest corner of what is now Blooming Grove, a small settlement made in the month of June, 1855. There was John M. Blivens, now in Missouri; Wm. M. Gray, who died aoout fifteen years ago; Simeon Smith, who also died some thirteen or fourteen years ago; Alfred C. Smith, who has the honor of being father to the first child born in tSie neighborhood, (Lovica, now Mrs. H. N. Carlton, born Oct. 15, 1855); and Ole Knuteson, now of Renville county."

"Property! Well, it was immense. It inventoried about as follows: An ax, iron wedge, two beetle rings, $90 in cash and my every day clothes, all of which I easily carried in a satchel strapped upon my back. Having neither lamily nor property, the settlers treated me rather coolly - did not rush around to show me the best claims - and some of them plainly told me they did not want single men to settle among them. So, not to crowd them too much, I left, but did not go far, making my claim on sections four and five, in Woodville. The part of my claim running down to Clear Lake was fractional, as I learned on going to Winona, the next October so that I got one hundred and forty-four and fifty-nine one-hundredths acres. 1 must say, however, in justice to my neighbors, that when they saw me strip my coat and go to. splitting rails in hot weather, in order to get some breaking done, they softened, so to speak, and without exception, treated me very kindly.

"Two weeks after my settlement, B. K. Carlton, now living with his son near me, came with his family to be my neighbor, and I broke bread with them until I was married July 5, 1857. My wife, Mary J., daughter of Wm. M. Gray, was born in Alleghany county, N. Y., March 22, 1837. As she was as poor as myself, we had about an even start, and suffered and enjoyed all the inconveniences incident to poverty and a new country."

"In the summer of '56 our settlement was increased in population by the coming of Daniel Riegle, now living in Kittson county; Patrick Murphy, still living here; Joshua R. Smith, now of Greenland, LeSueur county; Josiah Smith, when last heard from being in Nebraska; Henry Smith, now of Montana; Sam Smith, now of California; Jacob Oory, now in Kansas; Wm. H. Young, deceased; Jos. Churchill, who removed to Renville county and died there several years ago; Jacob Myers, who preempted the present site of the city of Waseca, sold it to I. C. Trowbridge, and soon after removed to California, where he now resides; E. G. Wood; Loren C. Wood, who died of disease contracted in the army; and some others."

"I think ours was the first school district organized in the county. At any rate it was originally No. 1. When the township district was adopted, under the law of 1861, we lost the number, and now it is No. 7. Our first school house was built in the spring of 1857. We had three months school that summer and paid the teacher six dollars per month."

"In June, 1857, Patrick Farrell and his lathcr-in-law, Daniel Bagen, settled in our neighborhood. Mr. and Mrs. Eagen died years ago. Mr. Farrell and wife, Patrick Murphy and wife, W. H. Gray, who came with his parents when he was about sixteen years of age, H. N. Carlton and wife. Uncle E. K. Carlton, A. C. Smith and wife, and your humble servant and wife are about all that remain in our neighborhood of the settlers prior to 1860. In the early days we were known as the 'Blivens settlement.'

Mr. Segurd Johnson

In January, 1897, in a chat with one of the sons of the late Mr. Segurd Johnson, of Iosco, I learned something of the life of that early settler. He was born at a place in Norway called Gjoslor Ovre Telemarkan, on the 29th day of May, 1821. It seems that he commenced life as a cattle herder; afterwards learned and worked at the carpenter and joiner trade, and finally became a traveling merchant or peddler, traveling from town to town among the people of his own country. This variety of work and experience qualified him, in his younger days, for the duties of after life in Minnesota. He heard much, in his travels, of that great country. North America, and, in the year 1845, made up his mind to make his future home in the United States. Before leaving Norway, he married Miss Anna Livorson, who was his faithful and devoted helpmate all through life.

He and his young wife were among the first to emigrate from that part of Norway to this country. They took passage on a sailing ship and endured the hardships incident to a long and stormy voyage across the sea, with only the fickle winds as motive power. They finally reached tReir destination. Sun Prairie, in Wisconsin. They were twenty-three weeks on their journey. Wisconsin was then a new territory and Mr. Johnson was among the first settlers in that section of country. He^ endured many hardships and privations in Wisconsin. His first market place, in the Badger state, was Milwaukee, seventy miles distant from his Sun Prairie home. He lived there about eleven years and then, in 1856, sold his possessions and came to Minnesota.

It appears that he came to Iosco early in the spring of 1856, and settled on section 11 where he secured three hundred acres of fine land upon which he resided until the time of his death, which occurred Sept: 12, 1886. He came to Minnesota with considerable property, and was,' to a great extent, exempt from that struggle with poverty which marked the early lives of very many of the first settlers of the county. He participated, however, in all the arduous labors incident to pioneer life, and made many trips to Hastings with ox-team, camping by the way-side witn the otne>- early settlers.

supporters. He helped to build the church edifice with his own hands. He also took a leading part in the erection of the school house in his district, No. 10, about the same time. Six of his children survive him, three sons and three daughters. Anna, John, Taaraand and Gunhild were born in Wisconsin, and Louis and Segurd S., in Minnesota. Louis is said to have been the second child born in the township of Iosco.

He brought with him, from Wisconsin, one span of mules, one yoke of oxen, and twenty-four head of other cattle. He also brought with him a new wagon and necessary farm implements, and money enough to pay for his land. He was one of our best and most reliable citizens, and was a leading and influential man in his community. He exemplified the piety, the patience, the endurance, the industry, the frugality, the honesty, and the sound judgment so characteristic of the successful Scandinavians that came to this country in the early days.

Mr. Hiram A. Mosher

Company F of the Tenth regiment was almost entirely made up of men from Waseca county, and among them was Hiram A. Mosher, who was mustered in August 18, 1862.

Hiram was born in the state of Ohio in 1834 and came to Wisconsin with his parents in 1845. They settled in Chester, four miles south of Waupun.

Hiram came to Minnesota in 1856 and pre-empted a claim on section one in Otisco. He returned to Wisconsin that fall where he remained until 1860, when he married Miss Frances Robbing, and returned to Minnesota settling in Woodville. He engaged in farming until August, 1862, when he enlisted in Company F, of the Tenth Minnesota infantry, commanded by Capt. George T. White, of this county. His company was stationed at the Winnebago agency, Blue Earth county, during the winter of 1862-3, did duty at Mankato at the hanging of the Sioux murderers, and "chased the Indians o'er the plains," as mounted infantry, under the command of General Sibley.

After the Indian expedition, he went South with his regiment and participated in all its gallant history there. He was at the battle of Tupelo, helped to chase Forrest for some days, drove Price out of Jlissourl, and fought the good fight at Nashville where he lost his left arm and was wounded in the side and abdomen. At the battle his regiment lost some twenty-nve killed and seventy-five wounded. It was at this battle that Captain George T. White gave up his life for his country, shot through the bowels. Privates Theodore Hacker, Hanson Oleson, Chandler Fleming and J. D. Ferguson, were killed. Lieutenant Isaac Hamlin, sergeants H. A. Mosher and George H. Woodbury, and private Edward Brossard, of this county, were wounded, more or less severtly. Corporal David Snyder was also wounded at the battle of Nashville.

After his return from the service, with his armless sleeve, he was elected register of deeds in November, iscr.. in this county, and reelected for

S3ven consecutive terms - fourteen years. He then gave way for Mr. Charles SanGalll, hut was again elected to that position in 1883. He died Nov. 13, 1884, very suddenly, of heart disease. He was one of God's noblemen in every sense of the word, and came about as near perfection as any human being gets.

Mr. August Minskb

of Iosco, was born in Belgen, Prussia, near the city of Berlin, August 14, 1837. He came with his parents across the ocean and landed at New York, taept. 11, 1855, after a voyage of seven weeks. They came on to Dodge county, Wisconsin, where they spent the winter and made preparation to come to Minnesota. They started from Dodge county, in March, 1856, with two covered wagons and four pair of oxen. The company that came together consisted of John Minske, father of August and F. W., and family; Gottfried Kanne, who died in 1886, and his sons, F. Kanne, August Kanne, Gottlieb Kanne, and his only daughter, Mrs. Wm. Marzahn and her husband. There were five covered wagons and nine pair of oxen in all.

They were little used to the ways of the country or that niode of traveling, and were six weeks on the road, reaching Iosco, the 25th day of May, 1856. 'ihe country, as is generally the case in early spring, was wet and the sloughs soft, and some days the company would not make more than two miles. At nearly every soft place they had to double teams, and in some places they had to put all the teams to one wagon, often breaking chains and having a rough time generally.

Mr. Minske says: "As soon after our arrival as we could select our claims we commenced breaking with four yoke of oxen and broke about sixty acres - twenty acres on each ot our claims. The season was a busy one, breaking and building.

"The next spring we bought seed wheat, Scotch fife, near Morristown, for which we paid $2 a bushel. The crop was a light one. We got only forty bushels, having harvested it with a cradle and threshed it on the frozen ground with flails. This we saved mostly for seed the next year. Ihe next year's wheat crop, that of 1858, was almost a total failure. Our corn crop that year was middling good, and we had a good crop of vegetables, so we had to fall back on corn for bread.

August Minske was married to Miss Karoline Schultz, February 27, 1860. Mrs. Minske was born in Prussia, April 12, 1838, and came to America in the same ship with Minske. They have had twelve children, ten boys and two girls. Three of the boys are dead. Robert died of croup at the age of two years, six months; Bmll was so badly burned in a prairie fire that he died within twelve hours thereafter. The third death was that of an infant, twenty days old, on Sept. 25, 1S79. .

"When we first commenced to cut grain I had to cut it with my 'armstrong' reaper, my wife following, raking and binding. Then, after threshing, we had to haul it to Red Wing or Hastings with ox teams and got from forty-five to fifty cents a bushel. It took a round week of travel and camping out before we saw home again. On one trip, our trusty engines, the oxen, in the night, left for better quarters, and it took nearly all the next day to hunt them up. Another time, in the fall, I camped on the yellow prairie, ten miles out from Hastings. It was a cold night. I wrapped myself in an Indian blanket, lay down under the wagon, and awoke in the night to find myself covered with about three inches of snow, with a keen wind from the northwest. While I was getting ready to bid my landlord and his white feather-bed good-bye, I was surprised to miss my watch, the only time piece we had. After a half hour's search I found it in the snowy bed. At another' time, Wm. Priebe, now deceased, and myself made the round trip to Hastings, with ox teams, in three days and nights, but we drove day and night - and the last night I fell asleep m the wagon" about midnight and did not awake until I found mj-- self at home the next morning.

"On the 9th of March, 1865, I enlisted in the First Minnesota battalion. Company C, and proceeded to the front at Petersburg. The next day after my arrival, the company had to fall into line of battle and march upon the enemy. My first lesson in war was in a hall-storm of bullets from 9 a. m., till dark at night, but after three days of hard fighting, Petersburg was ours. Then followed days and nights of marching and fighting while following G-en. Lee. At High Bridge many a soldier saw daylight for the last time till the day of resurrection. After Lee's surrender we marched back to Burk's Station, and on this march the men suffered very much for want of provisions, as the army wagons could not be brought along, owing to the swampy roads. We were without provisions for nearly three days. While in camp there, H. P. Chamberlain, Wm. Allen, Isaac Ballard, and Isaac Billings came to us from Washington, to rejoin the company. After camping there for about four weeks, we marched to Washington, thence we were shipped to Louisville, Ky., where I was taken with dysentery and ague and became so weak that I could not care for myself. Here our company lost fifteen strong men by disease. Shortly after, we started by boat for Fort Snelling. After camping a week, near Minnehaha, we received our discharge, and reached home July 26, 1865."

Mr. George W. Soule

is one of those, who at an early day, followed Horace Greeley's advice by coming West when a very young man. He came with elder brothers and a widowed mother, in 1849, from Coeymans, Albany co\mty, X. Y.. and settled first at Watertown, Wis. Coming thence to Minnesota, the family settled just over the county line, in Morristown, arriving at their new home August 10, 1855, when George was only eleven years of age.

Mrs. Soule, nee Nancy Canfield, daughter of the late Judge Canfleld, of this county, was born in the town of Chester, Dodge county. Wis., July 27, 1846, and came with her parents to this county, arriving here, June 9, 1S56.

George W. Soule enlisted in the Third regiment, Minnesota volunteers, Feb. 15, 1864, and served until the close of the war. Soon after his discharge, he bought eighty acres of land on section 4, Blooming Grove, where he settled down to farming. He was elected assessor in 1877, to which office he was re-elected for five consecutive years. He was then elected county commissioner and served one term.

"Hardships were many and lucky hits few. Some of my older brothers were here a year previous to our coming, and had a potato and a buckwheat patch, and a little sod corn. They had the body of a log house raised and covered with bark. That was a lucky hit as we learned before the next spring, for the winter following was one of Minnesota's coldest.

"We had to go to Hastings to get that buckwheat and corn ground. We had only the ground for a floor, the first winter, and other comforts in the household line to correspond.

Among the earliest settlers were B. K. and W. R. Soule with their younger brothers. Of these the following have died: L. B. Soule, Dec. 2, 1859; F. N. Soule, Sept. 28, 1864, at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, member of Co. H, Third Minnesota volunteers; H. S. Soule, June 9, 1880, at Baker City, Oregon, (he also was in the service during the war) ; S. G. Soule, June 30, 1882, at Morristown; Jane Soule, mother of the Soule boys, July 12, 1877, at the old homestead in Rice county.

There is a silent yet glorious eloquence in the fact that a brave mother, away back in 1855, came to this unsettled country with her young sons and endured all the hardships and privations of frontier life that they they might make for themselves free homes and acquire a competency for themselves and their children. It requires no small amount of courage, devotion, and heroism for a mother thus to face the dangers of the frontier, and endure the privations incident to early pioneer life.

Mr. Daniel Riegle

Among the first settlers of Blooming Grove, the name of Daniel Riegle must not be forgotten. He was born in Erie county, N. Y., Oct. 23, 1829. His forefathers, away back, came from Germany, and retained their mother tongue; and Daniel can converse fluently in that language. He left his native state, when twenty-two years of age, and came Weststopped one month at Chicago, and then went to Stevenson county, 111., where he remained one year. He next moved to Clayton county, Iowa, and thence to Delaware county, the same state, where he ran a saw mill about two years. While living at the latter place he married Miss M. C. Bliven, daughter of J. M. Bliven, one of the earliest settlers in Blooming Grove. She died in 1870. J. M. Bliven came here early in the season of 1855, and in the month of December of that year, Bliven having returned to Iowa for supplies, Riegle came up with him and another man, ariving ox teams. Between Fort Atkinson and Cottrell's grove, in Iowa, they met a blizzard which detained them three days and nights. They wandered off the road, got some of the oxen down in a creek, and came near losing one pair. They finally found a Bohemian family, who had just moved in that fall. The house was small, and contained a family of children, and a sow with a brood of young pigs in one corner. There was no room to lie down, but then they had plenty to eat, could keep from freezing, and could sleep some while sitting.

After much hard work and many exposures, they reached Blooming Grove - then Swavesey. After looking the ground over, Mr. Riegle, accompanieu by Wm. M. Gray and Simeon Smith, returned to Fayette county, Iowa. This was during the last days of December. Messrs. Gray and Smith went to West Union, Iowa, for provisions.

Mr. Riegle returned with his family in the spring of 1856, and made a claim on section 31 which he afterwards bought of the government, and on which he resided until 1874. The first death in the settlement was in the family of Mr. Riegle, being that of his son Mahlon who died in the winter of 1857. Mr. Riegle enlisted August 18, 1862, for three years, in Company F, Tenth regiment Minnesota infantry, and served until July, 1865.

For his second wife he married Miss Melvina Gray, in 1871. She was born in Illinois, Oct. 11, 1847, being a daughter of Wm. M. Gray. Mr. Riegle remained on his farm until 1874, when he sold out. He lived for a time in Morristown, then went to Waterville, and from there he moved to Renville county where he bought a farm. There he remained until 1883, when he moved to the farm where he now resides, in Kittson county.

Mr. Alfred C. Smith

The first claim taken in the town of Woodville was that of Mr. Alfred C. Smith, who came to the county in 1855. Under date of Jan. 10, 1891, he wrote as follows:

"In answer to your request I will say that I came to Minnesota and settled in the town of Woodville, June 20. 1855. I came in company with my father, Simeon Smith, and William Gray and- John Bliven. We all settled in what they called then the Swavesey district. Our nearest neighbor, except the Indians, was old Mr. Morris, of Morristown, ten miles away.

Smith, was born in Cataraugus county, New York, in 1833. We brought with us, when we came West, one yoke of oxen, a wagon, a cow, a calf, and a five franc piece. My wife and I are the only settlers left in the neighborhood of those who settled here in 1855. Mrs. Simeon Smith died in 187J-, and Simeon died in 1872. Mr. Gray died in 1871, and Mrs. Gray died some time afterwards.

The first year we were here we had to go to Iowa for provisions. I remember that I worked for one dollar a day, and paid seven dollars a htmdred lor flour, four dollars and a half a hundred for corn meal, and twentyfive and thirty-five cents a pound for pork. The first school house was built of logs. Ours was the first district organized in the county, and we used the building also for religious meetings. The first birth in the neighborhood was that of my daughter Lovica, and the first death was that of Mrs. Josiah Smith. E. G. Wood, L. C. Wood, Henry Watkins, Jacob Myers, O. Powell, E. K. Carlton, Patrick Murphy, Joshua Smith, Samuel Smith, Daniel Riegle, Joseph Churchill, Henry Smith, William Dunn, and perhaps others settled here in 1856. Our circumstances were such that we were compelled to go barefoot during the summer. We built our houses of logs with puncheon floors and elm bark for roofing. I remember that I gave an acre of breaking for a pair of boots that had been worn a year. Of course we had to haul our wheat for many years to Hastings, camping by the roadside, and getting from fifty to sixty cents a bushel."

Mr. Simon Henry Drum

This early and worthy settler was born April 14, 1840, at Port Gratiot, Michigan. His wife, Ella A. Sutliff, was born May 13, 1850, at New Haven, Conn., and came with her parents to Houston county, Minn., in 1856, coming from there to Waseca county in 1865. Mr. Drum arrived in Owatonna. May 4, 1859, and found employment in the drug store of Dr. Harsha, of that place, until the following August. He taught school eight successive winters, spenaing his summers at farm work. He was elected clerk of joint school district No. 21-35 and held the position for upward of twenty years. He was town assessor in 1881-2, elected justice of the peace in 1883, and re-elected for many successive terms. The first school house in his neighborhood was built in Meriden in 1860. The school house in joint district No. 21, Steele county, and 35, Waseca county, was built in 1870.

Mr. Drum now has two hundred acres in his farm and devotes considerable attention to dairying. He is the father of ten children - four boys and six girls. Two of the sons and four of the daughters have been teachers in the county. One son and two daughters attended the State University in 1904-5.

Mr. Jesse R. Weed

dents. He was born in the town of Angelica, county of Alleghany, state 01 New York, May 23, 1819. His wife was Miss Clarinda Maxson, born April 9, 1819, in ihe town of Deruyter, Madison county. New York.

Mr. and Mrs. Weed settled in the town of Byron, in this county, October 7, 1860, on sections twenty-seven and thirty-four, where they reside at the present writing, 1896. Mr. Weed brought with him two yoke of oxen, a wagon, three cows, two steers, and a calf. He has held the office of town clerk, supervisor, justice of the peace, and assessor. He has been school district clerk for more than half the time since since the district was organized. He Is at this writing the oldest school district clerk in the county, being nearly seventy-two years of age.

His nearest flouring mill, for years, was at Okaman. It often took from three to four days to make the trip to mill. At one time, in February, 1862, he was four days going from Okaman to his home, a distance of thirty miles by the road. In many places the snow was up to the oxen's necks.

The first school house built in that neighborhood was in 1860, on the line between the counties of Freeborn and Waseca. The first child born was Maggie Davis, daughter of Jeremy and Keziah Davis. The first death in the neighborhood was an old lady by the name of Hodge, the mother of Mrs. Parvin.

Mrs. Almira Wheeler And Family

Mr. Lewis W. Wheeler, her husband's father, was born in the state of New York, in the year 1791, July 6, and lived there until the spring of 1844, when he moved to Janesville, Wisconsin. He came next to Faribault, Minn., in 1854, where he lived until 1857, when he moved to the then village of St. Mary. In 1866 he again moved, this time settling in Wilton, where he died in 1867, at the age of seventy-six years and six months.

Mrs. Almira Wheeler's late husband, Whitney L. Wheeler, son of Lewis W., was born in the state of New York, in the year 1822. In 1846, he was married to Miss Almira Kibby, who was born in the state of New York, April 2, 1821. They resided in their native state until 1856, when they came to Faribault, in this state, where they tarried until the spring of i857, when they moved to St. Mary where Mr. Wheeler carried on a saw mill and worked his farm. They remained in St. Mary until the fall of 1866, when they settled in Wilton, where the family resided until after Mr. Wheeler's deam, which occurred Nov. 4, 1S70. Mrs. Wheeler has three children, two sons and a daughter.

Mr. Whitney L. Wheeler practiced as a veterinary surgeon. He was prominent as a very active republican during the days of James Buchanan's administration.

Mr. George Drbbver, Of Janesville

This gentleman was horn in the county of Kildare, Ireland, in 1837, and came to America in 1855, first living in Newark, N. J. He soon after came as far west as Illinois and settled in Stevenson county. There he remained until the spring of 1857 when he came to Minnesota. Soon . after he married Rosanna McQuade, who was also born in the Emerald Isle.

Like many another patriotic young man, he enlisted in the Union army, Co. F, Tenth Minnesota regiment, volunteer infantry, under Captain White. He served until 1864, when he was discharged for disability.

He first bought a quarter section of land in Janesville of a Mr. O'Rourke. He next bought the Haines farm and afterwards forty acres more of a Mr. McArthy, of Faribault. He was somewhat unfortunate in the purchase of some of his lands. The land warrant wiich had been laid on the McArthy land, turned out to be a forgery and Mr. Dreever was compelled some years afterwards to pay the price of the land to- the government to protect the title. In regard to the Haines farm, one of the title - sharks of the country discovered a flaw in the title, and Mr. Dreever was compelled to pay a large bonus in order to save it.

When Mr. Dreever came to Minnesota, he took steamboat from Galena, 111., to Hastings, Minn., and then drove across the country to Janesville with four yoke of oxen, two wagons, and fourteen cows. His brother, Richard Dreever, also came in 1857, and settled near him in Iosco. Richard died some years ago.

George has three children living. His son, George F. Dreever, is a graduate of the Watertown, Wis., college, of Notre Dame college, Indiana, and of the medical school of Ann Arbor, Mich.

Mr. Abbott, now of Winona, one of the prominent and leading lawyers of the state, was born July 13, 1859, at Clinton Falls, Steele county, Minn. He is one of nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Abbott, who settled at Clinton Falls, in the fall of 1857. Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Abbott were born in New Hampshire - Mr. Abbott, May 10, 1829; Mrs. Abbott, March 5,

1830. D. Abbott is a graduate of the law department of the Minnesota state university. He practiced for a time in Owatonna as a member of the firm of Sawyer, Abbott & Sawyer; in March 1885, he came to Waseca, where he practiced law until November, 1892, when he accepted a position in the law department of the C. & N. W. Ry. Co., and is, at this time, 1904, a member of the firm of Brown, Abbott & Somsen, of Winona.

Mr. Abbott is still a young man and his prospects for the future are promising indeed. He recently came prominently before the public as leading attorney in the defense of Dr. Koch, of New Ulm.

Mr. Obadiah Mosher

This man was a natural pioneer. He was born in June 1797, in Washington county, N. Y. His wife was Miss Nancy Allen, of Vermont, who was born Jan. 29, 1797. She died at Minneapolis, June 1, 1890, being over ninety-three years of age. Obadiah went to Ohio in 1816, at the age of nineteen years, and remained there until 1845, when he removed with his family to Dodge county, Wisconsin. In 1859 he and his wife came to Minnesota and lived on section 35, Woodville. He sold out here in 1866, and moved to Plainview, Minn., where he died in 1867, aged seventy years. Mr. and Mrs. Mosher were the parents of eight children, who grew to manhood and womanhood - five sons and three daughters - John, Robert, Asa, Hiram A., L. J. (Jim), Mrs. W. S. Baker, Mrs. J. A. Canfield, and Mrs. Esther Young.

L. J., better known as Jim, Mosher, son of Obadiah, came with his parents to this county in 1859. He was one of the first to enlist in the Union army and joined Company G, First Minnesota infantry under the first call in 1861. He participated in many battles and returned home with one leg ana one arm crippled. Soon after the war he moved to Iowa, and afterwards lived in the state of Kansas.

The Reverend W. J. Clelaxd

who was born Feb. 14, 1814, in Butler county. Pa., was one of the pioneer clergymen of this section. He was a graduate of one of the Presbyterian colleges of the East, and preached to the people of Delaware county, X. Y., until 1863, when he came West and lived temporarily in Owatonna. In 1864, he bought a farm in Otisco, just east of the old villag; of Wilton, where he resided until the time of his death, which took place August 31, 1876. He was a devout man and preached the gospel wherever he could find a school house, hall, or church to preach in. Mrs. Cleland's maiden name was Judith A. Wilson. She was born in Albany, \. Y., in the month of August, 1819.

J. W. Cleland, son of the foregoing, was born in Delaware coimty, N. Y., and was one of the nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. W, J. Cleland. His birthday was Sept. 27, 1847. He came West with his family in 1863. He carried on the homestead farm until 1885, when the place was sold and he purchased a small farm on the west shore of Clear lake, near Waseca. J. W. Cleland and Miss Amanda C. Connor, of Blooming Grove, were married Oct. 3, 1877. Amanda was born Sept. 11, 1S52. in the state of Indiana, and came to Waseca county with her parents in 1S56. The children of Rev. W. J. Cleland were known as Anna M.. Wm. T., E. E.,

Maggie A., John W., D. M., J. McKay, and C. S. James W. was stricken by paralysis while working about a threshing machine. He never recovered from the stroke, and died after a very prolonged illness, July 15, 1903.

Captain Jacob W. Pierce

was born in Cumberland County, N. J., Oct. 15, 1833. His wife, Sarah A., was born in Herkimer county, N. Y., in 1837. Captain Pierce came West in 1855, tarried in Wisconsin a little over a year, then returned to New Jersey, remaining until 1857 when he came to Freeborn, Freeborn county. Soon after he took a claim on section 35, town of Byron where he now lives. The date of this settlement was May 27, 1857. He worked at the carpenter and joiner trade in Byron, Freeborn, and Wilton for several years, putting up a number of frame buildings for the early settlers. He went with James D. Andrews and D. Skinner to Superior, Wisconsin, in the spring of 1861, where they worked until the next summer.

He returned in the summer of 1862, and in August enlisted in Company F, Fifth Minnesota infantry. He participated in many battles, being wounded at the second battle of Corinth. He served until September, 1865, when he was mustered out at Fort Snelling with all the honors of war.

He married Sarah Horning, Jan. 1, 1867, and they immediately commenced housekeeping on their farm.- They are the parents of live children: Clarence E., born Jan. 4, 1868; Albertus M., born March 12, 1869; Vilmer E., born March 20, 1872; Bertrice M., born March 19, 1874, and Claude A., born August 18, 1877.

In the afternoon of Jan. 7, 1873, a very mild day, dark clouds gathered in the west, and about 3 o'clock the wind commenced blowing a gale from the northwest, producing a rapid change in the temperature, and at the same time the air became filled with fine snow which was driven with great force into every opening, however small, by the terrific fury of the howling blast. The sun was soon hidden from view, and darkness settled upon the earth like a funeral pall, bringing with it intense cold, made doubly severe by the driving, penetrating force of the wind. This most terrible storm in the history of the state since its first settlement by white men continued throughout Wednesday, Wednesday night, and until Thursday about midnight. It was one of those intensely furious storms which once in a while visit this high northern latitude. The remembrance 01 it is retained by the old settlers and constitutes the theme of their conversation upon each succeeding similar occasion. The fierce blasts of the Storm King, on this occasion, deposited snow in vast quantities over the whole Northwest, making a winding sheet for many of the men, women and children that were caught in its icy embrace. No pen can fully

C90 Child'S History Op Waseca County

"The day opened as a pleasant one, and many people had taken advantage of it to go to town, or to visit neighbors. It so happened that Alfred C. Smith, then living on section 5, Woodville township, had gone over to the farm where his father had settled, about a mile away, with his team. About the time the storm had got well under way, his daughter Lovlca, born in this county and about seventeen years of age, who had been washing clothes, threw a shawl over her head, and taking a little brother with her, went out and up the road looking for her father. For part of the way the grove on the west side of the road shut off the gale, and she did not realize that the storm was of any unusual character. Coming to the end of the grove the brother ran back, but she pushed on, nothing daunted, thinking that she must soon meet her father. But thinly clad, no wrap around her except a light cotton shawl thrown over her head and held together by her naked hands, she soon became aware that she must turn back or perish from the cold, for the wind that' swept down upon her was of Arctic severity. Retracing her steps, blinded by the whirling, drifting snow, confused by the savage fury of the wind, she took the wrong road where the two crossed and wandered oh across the bleak prairie, death staring her in the face. Battling bravely sne pushed on, her limbs chilled by the cold, her form growing weak beneath the merciless pelting of the storm, until she reached the grove near the house of Obadiah Powell, where she halted but a moment, when, knowing that it was death to stop, she pushed on, and spying a light, made her way to Mr. Powell's house. So confused was she, so bewildered by the blizzard, and unhinged by the tension upon her nerves, that she did not know for a few moments where she was nor who were the friends she had stumbled upon. But soon the genial hospitality of Mrs. Powell, the light and warmth of the room restored her, and she was made comfortable until the SLorm abated."

The Honorable Warren Smith

This worthy pioneer was born in Barnstable county, Mass., Nov. 15, 1821. His father's name was Amasa Smith. Warren grew to manhood in his native county and attended the public schools of the neighborhood until the age of sixteen, when he learned the trade of boat builder. Between Doat building and wrecking he employed his time until 1S55-6. In the mean time, 1853, he married Miss Susan E. Johnson, of Provincetown, Mass. They came to Minnesota in 1856 and resided in Faribault. Mr. Smith and his brother-in-law, J. S. Fuller, engaged in the mercantile business at that place. In the winter of 1856-r, he came to the then village of St. Mary, in this county, purchased the general stock of merchandise of Chambenaln, Bailey & Co., and entered into the mercantile business in that village. He remained in business in St. Mary until 1862, when he was appointed assistant sutler of the Tenth Minnesota infantry, and accompanied the Sibley expedition in pursuit of the Sioux Indians in 1863.

friOT to this time he had also become a member of the Wilton firm of J. W. Johnson & Co., which carried a large stock of general merchandise in the village of Wilton. About 1863 he moved his family to Wilton where they resided until 1870 when they came to Waseca.

He was elected to tne house of representatives and served during the session of 1869. In 1870, upon the retirement of Captain Comee from the office of county auditor, Mr. Smith was appointed by the county board to fill out the unexpired term. In 1873, he was elected county treasurer by a majority of over six hundred votes. He was twice re-elected, thus serving as treasurer six years. In 1881, when Waseca first became a city, he was elected mayor, and served one year. He declined a re-election and the common council, upon his retirement, unanimously adopted the following resolution:

"Whereas, the retirement of our esteemed fellow citizen, the Hon. Warren Smith, from the ofllce of mayor of the city of Waseca, presents a suitable opportunity of expressing the esteem in which we hold him, as a faithful and courteous public servant, therefore, be it

Resolved, that the common council of the city of Waseca tender him a vote of thanks for the impartial and faithful performance of his duties as such mayor in having the laws and ordinances of the city duly enforced during his term of ofilce, and for the appointment of competent and faithful persons to the several offices of the city during his said term as mayor."

His children were Minnie M., Mary L., George W., and Charles A. Minnie and George both died soon after reaching womanhood and manhood. Miss Mary L. and Hon. Charles A., only survivors of the family, reside in the city of Waseca.

In religion Mr. Smith was a Universalist, and in all that goes to make up a true Christian life he was pre-eminent. In every calling of life, he was scrupulously honest, truthful, kind, charitable. He made no loud professions, but his everyday life was a living, practical sermon of good works. He was a member of the Masonic organizations, of this county, as high as Knight Templar, and was a true and worthy brother in all the relations of life.

He visited the Pacific coast in the winter of 1892-3, where he was taken with influenza, from the effects of which he never recovered. His death had been long expected, by both himself and family, and his departure was quiet and peaceful. He expressed, a few days before his demise, his entire readiness for the change, and his desire to depart as soon as possible. He was a grand, good man, and a true friend.

Mr. Noah Lincoln

MR. NOAH LINCOLN and family were among the early settlers of the county. Mr. Lincoln and his wife were representative pioneers. Mr. Lincoln was born in the state of New York, June 16, 1822. He came as far west as Michigan when a young man. He and Emma S. Davis were married Dec. 7, 1844. She was born Dec. 19, 1826. They came to Minnesota in 1855 and first took a claim in Fillmore county which they sold the same fall, and in 1856 came to Waseca county and bought the claim of Chris Scott - the place where the Messrs. Carmody now reside, in Wilton. This farm they sold to Mr. John Carmody and then bought a farm on section 1, in Wilton, where they resided until the time of Mr. Lincoln's death which occurred March 23, 1875. They had a family of eight children: Maria W., born Oct. 13, 1845, died in Rochester; Francis M., born July 4, 1847, died April 7, 1865, in the army at Mound City, 111.; Charles F., born Sept. 9, 1849, died recently ot consumption, in Oregon; F. A., born Dec. 11, 1851, died the following August; Eiva V., born July 13, 1853, married and resides at Mankato; Louisa .T., born Nov. 20, 1855, died July 8, 1887; Mina A., born Nov. 19, 1855, died March 30, 1862; Ida V., now Mrs. H. M. Buck, born April 4, 1862. During the winter of 1856-7, times were hard and this family, like the most of their neighbors, had to live on buckwheat flour ground in a coffee mill, and on corn meal made in a mortar with a pestle.

Mr. Jackson Turnacliff

MR. JACKSON TURNACLIFF was among the very young men who came West in 1855. Mr. Ferdinand Turnacliff, father of Jackson and Dellevan, was born in the state of New York, Sept. 11, 1813. He lived for some years in Jefferson county, N. Y., while a young man, but finally moved to the state of Ohio when that state was in "the far West." His wife, Maria, was also a New Yorker, born Api-il 4, 1812. She died Dec. 6, 1862. Five children were born to them; Jackson, May 6, 1835; Amelia Ann, deceased, born Jan. 2, 1837; Dellevan, born Sept, 30, 1838; Sally M., deceased, born August 27, 1842; Matilda, now Mrs. J. M. Dunn, born March 16, 1S4S; and Seymour, who was born May 8, 1851, and died Jan. 17, 1854. Jackson came from Ohio to Iowa in the fall of 1855. In December 1855, in company with "Doc" Ambrose Kellogg and William Young, the last a Scotchman, he came from Jackson county, Iowa, to Minnesota most of the way on Norwegian snow shoes, arriving at the Sutlief farm, in Wilton, on the last day of December, 1855. He took a claim on section 7, Otisco, where he made his future home. He returned to Ohio in 1858 and married Miss Lucia E. Barber, who was born in Ohio Feb. 6, 1839. They were married August 25, 1858, and at once came to their home in Minnesota. The Turnacliffs were well supplied with money and experienced few of the real hardships endured by most of the early settlers. Nine children were born unto Jackson and Lucia: Minnie D., June 6, 1859; Lolah M., Jan. 26, 1861; Elsie L., Oct. 26, 1863; Linna M., Dec. 6, 1865, deceased; Laura M., Aug.

Dellevan ("Tip") Turnacliff came to Minnesota with his lather and sisters about 1863 and settled with them in Wilton where, at this time, 1904, he still owns an excellent farm. He and Miss Maggie Brisbane were married some years later and now reside in Waseca.

Mr. John Doran

one of the really honest men that have lived in Waseca county, was born in Ireland, June 20, 1829. He left his native land for America, Dec. 11, 1851. He landed in New York and worked as a laborer in that state, living the greater part of the time in Brie county where he remained until about 1855. He and Catharine Kohl were married March 16, 1855, and became the parents of fourteen children, nine of whom reached adult years. The family came West in 1856, residing for a time in Wisconsin.. They came to Minnesota in 1865, and finally settled on section 33, in the town of Wilton. John Doran was a man absolutely honest. For severalyears he worked a farm on shares, and so honest was he found to be that the proprietor used to allow him to thresh and divide the grain himself and bring it to market, contrary to all custom. He was quite deaf for many years and finally met a tragic death. On the 11th of July 1891, he was thrown in front of his mowing machine and run over, receiving injuries from which he died on the 17th of the same month.