Cobden City

Cobden City

Cobden is situated in Prairieville township, section 31, township 110, range 33 west, and was platted on February 16, 1901, by Thomas Peterson and S. C. Prederickson. Its population in 1910 was given as eighty-five. It is the first station west of Sleepy Eye, on the Chicago & Northwestern railway.

Cobden became an incorporated village in 1905. The first set of village officers included these: Thomas Peterson, president ; A. Newdoll, A. C. Klein, Herman Altermatt, councilmen; J. F. Brodish, recorder. During the present year a contract will be let for the erection of a village hall. The village now has a debt of six hundred dollars. The place has an excellent set of gas street lamps and is tile drained throughout. There is a very efficient volunteer company for the fighting of any fire that may occur in the village ; it has sixteen members, and is aided materially by use of a chemical engine.

The following have served as presidents of the village since its incorporation: Thomas Peterson, 1905; S. C. Fredericksen, 1906 to 1911; D. N. Jenkins, from 1911 to 1912; A. Newdoll, from 1912 to 1914; S. C. Fredericksen, 1914 to present date.

Commercial Interests In 1916

The postoffice did business during the last fiscal year amounting to three hundred and ninety-six dollars. The postmaster is H. J. Zieske. I. N. Davis is the village blacksmith.

Sigel township was originally a part of Cottonwood township and was named after Gen. Franz Sigel, who won distinction during the Civil War as an officer in the Union army, and later as a statesman. The northern boundary has been changed numerous times on account of crossing the Big Cottonwood river ; in 1861 the boundary was made to follow the course of the river as far as possible. Sigel, as now constituted, is bounded on the north by Milford township, on the east by Cottonwood, on the south by Lake Hanska and on the west by Stark township. It is somewhat cut up by rough land and numerous little lakes. Among the larger of these lakes may be named Clear lake, in the northeastern part; School lake, in the center of the township; Lake Juni, in section 26. There are no villages or railroads in this township, but it is well cultivated as a rich agricultural section. Its population for the last three enumeration periods has been : In 1890 it was six hundred and eighty; in 1900 it was twenty-five less, and in 1910 it was six hundred and forty-five.

Bruggert, clerk. Officers elected: Ernst Brandt, chairman; Herman Plath and G. Guggesberg, supervisors; A. Loomis, assessor; H. Hillesheim, treasurer; Fred Frank and H. Manderfeld, justices of the peace, and J. Scheisser, constable.

The first settler in this township, as now constituted, was Almond Loomis, who located in section 3, in 1856. In 1862 he, with his brother, Uriah, William Tuttle and seven others were killed by the Indians while trying to reach New Ulm. Several others settled in 1856, among the number C. C. Brandt, who, during the winter of 1856-57, erected a wind-power grist-mill; this was the first Aiill in Brown county. The buhrfc were made from limestone out of the river bed and the timbers were sawed by hand from logs; later it was removed to New Ulm.

Among other settlers who might justly be numbered among the pioneer band in this part of Brown county are these : John Berg, a German ; Christian J. Engel, a German; Capt. Sylvester A. George, of Maine; Christian Krambeer, a German; John Lisenfeld, a native of Prussia ; Almond Loomis, of New York, who was murdered by the Indians at New Ulm ; Anthony Manderfeld, of Prussia, who served in the wars in his native land and was in the Union cause in this country and was at the New Ulm massacre; Christian Niedegger, a German; Matthias Penning, a German ; and Conrad Schweppe, a German.