Alma City, Minnesota

Elijah Hills came at the same time and took a claim on what is now the northeast corner of Alma City, and when that village was laid out it received its name from his daughter. Alma HilJs. When these two families came here there were but two famihes within a radius of six miles. Both these two families of Wager and Hills spent the winter in one cabin, 14x16 feet in size, and built of poles and bark taken from the old Indian tepees and some basswood boards.

Passage source: History of Steele and Waseca Counties, Minnesota : an Album of History and Biography, Embracing Sketches of the Villages, Cities, and Townships : Educational, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Citizens, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Men, published 1887.

In the spring of 1864, Jefferson Davis made a settlement on section 34, this town, where he lived for several years, and finally removed to Alma City, and put in a general stock of merchandise in what is now the Ked front store, which was called Jeff Davis' Headquarters. There he remained a few years, and then moved to Vivian, and remained about three years, thence to Amboy, where he now runs a hotel and livery.

Passage source: History of Steele and Waseca Counties, Minnesota : an Album of History and Biography, Embracing Sketches of the Villages, Cities, and Townships : Educational, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Citizens, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Men, published 1887.

Emerson Gates came to Waseca County in 1866, and entered into mercantile pursuits at the village of Alma City, at first by himself, but in a short time formed a i)artnership with W. E. Lockwood, and continued in business there until 1881, when he sold out to his partner and moved to his farm, on section 32, forty acres of which he had purchased of E. G. Pierce, in 1874. He now has 160 acres of land, including some ten or eleven acres of timber, and his residence and barns, which are of a high class, are located about eighty rods west of Alma City. Emerson Gates is a native of Erie County, N. Y., born February 27, 1842. He is the son of Abel and IMary (Peabody) Gates, both natives of Massachusetts. His father was a chairraaker by trade and followed that business all his life. The parents had a family of six children, three boys and three girls. Emerson began life for himself when nineteen years of age, by enrolling himself among the nation's defenders, enlisting October 7, 1862, in Company A, One Hundredth New York Infantry, and participated in the battles of Yorktown, Fair Oaks, Seven Pines, and other's of the Chickahominy campaign, siege of Charleston, S. C, and of Fort Wagner, battles of Fort Walthal Junction, Drury's Bluff and siege of Petersburg, Va., and many others. He entered the service as a private, and was mustered out of it as sergeant, at Buffalo, N. Y., Januaiy 30, 1S65. He then came west to La Crosse, Wis., and the next year to this township, as related. February 5, 1865, he was united in marriage with Emma J. Gray, a native of Erie County, N. Y., born February 5, 1844. They have been the parents of six children : Caspar A., born November 18, 1865, died in 1875 ; Clarence L., born December 19, 1807, died in July, 1875 ; Edith, born February 20, 1876 ; Alice, born July 25, 1878 ; Laura E., born November 22, 1880, and Cassius E., born April 26, 1886.

Passage source: History of Steele and Waseca Counties, Minnesota : an Album of History and Biography, Embracing Sketches of the Villages, Cities, and Townships : Educational, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Citizens, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Men, published 1887.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Alton Township - it names this place 12 more 12 times.