Easton City

Easton City

About the middle of September the town-site of "Easton" was surveyed and building commenced. This new village - the sixth in the county according to age, was located upon section thirty-six (36), in the town of Lura, on the line of the Southern Minnesota railroad. The early history of this village, will be given further along in this work.

Jack Frost The Wells Atlas

This paper, which had suspended in January of this year, was again re-issued, appearing September 17th. It was a six column sheet and neatly printed, and in the curious phi-aseology of the times, was described as made up of "liomespun outsides" and "patent internals." R. Calvert appeared as editor and manager.

The Fair

The fifteenth annual fair of the Agricultural Society was held at Winnebago City, on the second and third days of October. The first day the weather was so bad that nothing was done. The second day was not much better. The exhibition was rather poor and the attendance not great. The ofiBcers of the society had made a very commendable effort to have a good fair, but the unfavorable weather was something no effort or prudence of theirs could overcome.

Prairie Fires

About the sixth day of the month, great jirairie fires started up in the southern towns of the county and raged fearfully for some days. Great quantities of grain and hay in the stack were burned up. Several farmers lost all their grain and hay. A large number of stables, and several dwellings were burned. Many fruit trees were injured, or totally killed, and a number of fine groves of forest trees were destroyed. The fires broke out in a number of localities and ran over wide area.s. The principal damage was done in the towns of Pilot Grove, Elmore, Rome, Seely, Poster, Delavan and Verona, and many of the residents of those towns will sadly remember the event.

for the annual prairie fires, which have heretofore swept over them from time immemorial. Timber seeds seem to be in the ground everj'whero, and many spots of ground, free from fires for a few years, are soon covered by groves of young popples, oaks, and other wood growths. Doubtless the protection against fire, furnished by our streams, has given us our timber, and the very tortuous and winding course of our creeks and rivers, adding length to the streams, and furnishing innumerable protected promontories, nooks and corners, has greatly added to the quantity of the timber.

These prairie fires are usually the result of accident, or carelessness, but sometimes of design. Much of the damage which has resulted from them is, also, the result of negligence and carelessness in not taking timely precautions against them. The laws for many years have provided severe penalties against the negligent, or malicious setting fire to the prairies, by which damage is done, and these laws have been frequently enforced in this county. The firing of the prairies in former times was often the work of the Indians, who had some, to us, unknown purpose in it.

There are few grander sights than that of a prairie fire at night, on the boundless prairies of the west, and, as seen above, thej' are often fearfully destructive, as well as grand, but it is a sight which, owing to the rapid settlement of the county, will soon be a thing of the past, and one with which we can well dispense.

A Political Imbroglio

Let us now turn to a brief account of the political contest of this year. On several of the ofiices the fight was an exciting one. A governor of the State and several other state officers were to be elected, and several proposed amendments to the constitution of the State were submitted to the people, for approval or rejection, all of which added to the interest of the election.

On the fourth day of October, a county council of the Patrons of Husbandry was held at Blue Earth City, at which the following nominations were made for legislative and county offices:

No nomination for the office of state senator was made, but a committee consisting of one from each Grange in the county was cho.sen, who were to assemble at Blue Earth City on the eleventh of Octobei", the time of meeting of the Republican County Convention, and ratify the nomination for senator, if satisfactory, if not, to make a nomination.

The Republican Couuty Convention was held at Blue Earth City October 11th. Every town in the county was fully represented and great interest was felt in the result. For months preceding the convention, two candidates for the office of state senator and their respective friends, had labored with might and main to secure the convention, and consequently the nomination. There were several candidates already in the field for the several offices of treasurer, county attorney and sheriff. But the greatest interest centered in the offices of senator and treasurer.

The convention organized by choosing Allen Shultis, of Elmore, chairman, and A. A. Williams, of Verona, secretary. The usual committees were then appointed. The committee on credentials reported two delegations from the town of Emerald, one in favor of G. W. Whallon for senator, and the other for S. P. Child, when on the question being submitted to the convention on receiving one-half of each delegation, it was, after much heated discussion, so determined. Mr. Child, who was a member of the convention, and all his friends in the convention at once withdrew. The remainder of the convention, composed of several more than one-half of those elected, then proceeded, hurriedly and amid much confusion, to make the nominations, which were as follows:

After the convention adjourned, the committee of the county council, above mentioned, assembled, and after admitting several more members to the committee, proceeded to vote on the nomination for senator; J. A. Latimer and G. W. Whallon being the candidates. The vote was a tie and no nomination was made. Allen Shultis withdrew as a candidate for representative, and C. S. Dunbar, of Poster, was substituted.

In a few days after the conventions, R. B. Johnson was announced as an independent candidate for treasurer; J. H. Sprout, for county attorney, and S. P. Child, for sepator. Electioneering "ran high" and a number of the candidates put forth their best efforts. Mr. Wilmert withdrew as a candidate for judge of probate, not wanting the office.

The election was held on the fourth day of November, and the day was clear and mild. For a week or more before election, the canvassing and electioneering was done on runners, and the roads were, by some of the candidates, pretty well worn. After all was said and done, the polls closed, the vote counted, and the following was the result. The people had spoken. For Governor:

The first snow of the season fell on the night of the twentyfourth and the forenoon of the twenty-fifth of October. There was probably a depth of four inches. This snow storm had a very discouraging effect upon the people. The spring had been late, the grasshoppers had done much damage in certain localities, the crops were light, and the prices low, people were much in debt, and but little plowing had yet been done, and now, the question was asked by many anxious people, "can it be true that winter has already come upon us?" However, it did not prove so bad as was apprehended, and considerable plowing and other fall work was done after this snow.

There have been but few years in the history of the county, or of the nation, that were "harder," as the expression is, or more discouraging generally, during the summer and autumn.

Locally, we suffered from short crops and low prices of wheat, the staple and money crop of the county. All through September, October and November, the price of wheat was very low. Money was extremely scax'ce and rates of interest very high. Everybody was more or less in debt, and everyone to whom money was due, was urgent, persistent for his pay, and the county newspapers were filled with notices of mortgage foreclosures and sales of land under execution. During this and several subsequent years, many homes and farms passed away forever from the owners, for a very small proportion of their real value. And in this sad summary of local afflictions we must not forget what has been said as to the damages done by grasshoppers and prairie fires in certain portions of the county.

In the fall there came upon the nation a great money panic - a financial crash. The great failure of the banking house of Jay Cook & Company, of Philadelphia, Pa., led off in this dance of financial dishonor and death. Many banks suspended; thousands of individuals of supposed great wealth, great moneyed corporations of all kinds, went down in bankruptcy. Manufactories and mines ceased to be operated. Great public enterprises were brought to a sudden close. The building of railroads ceased. The number of defaulters in public office, was legion. The army of the unemployed swelled from hundreds to thousands, and hundreds of thousands, and great distress prevailed throughout the country, while suspicion and distrust existed everywhere.

work of ruin and distress for a number of years, as will be seen hereafter. This was the era when the usurer, the land shark, the scalping attorney and tlie collecting officers nourished in all the land.

And what were the general causes which led to all these tremendous evil results? History says that the success of the first Pacific railroad led to tho building of a second - the Northern Pacific - and also to the building of thousands of miles of other railroads, in the west, which were really not needed, and that multitudes of people, the rich and the poor, put their capital and savings into these projects for speculative purposes. They jiroved delusive. Other financial schemes had also started up which absorbed millions of dollars, which failed to make any return. Other causes were extravagant living and building, everywhere, the accumulation of great individual and corporate indebtedness, and wild speculation in all kinds of properly that proved worthless. It is claimed, also, by a class of writers on finance and the currency that there was still another and leading cause of the public calamities of this and many subsequent years.

In February, of this year, through, it was said, the corrupting influences exercised by English capitalists, an act was passed by congress, in relation to the mint and coinage, which prohibited the coinage of the former kind of silver dollars, and which, in effect, it was alleged, degraded and demonetized silver. By this act silver ceased to be a legal tender except in sums not exceeding five dollars in any single transaction.

Prom all this it may be correctly inferred, that there is but little in improvement and general progress in this county, in 1873, of which to boast.

It was everywhere throughout the whole country very apparent that reform and retrenchment, better systems of farming, stricter business principles, economy, and a general settling up and starting anew, were imperatively demanded.

The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway (formerly the Southern Minnesota) passes through the town of Lura, in the soutliern tier of sections. On the line of this road, on the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section thirty-six, is situated the village of Easton, the capital of the town of Lura. The village site was surveyed and staked out in September, 1873, but the plat was not filed for record in the ofiice of the register of deeds of the county until March 14, 1874. The original proprietors of the village were J. C. Easton and Conrad Ruf. At the close of 1873 there were already twelve buildings on the town site. The village was named in honor of Mr. Easton, but it was for some time known as "Lura Station." The name Easton is not an unfamiliar one. There is a fine city of that name in Pennsylvania, which contains a population of about fifteen thousand people. It is to be hoped that at some day, probably in the very distant future, our village of that name may rival that of Pennsylvania, in numbers, wealth and enter- prise. It may not be inappropriate to mention here the fact, that there are, in the United States, sixteen post-offices of the name of Easton.

Jason C. Easton, after whom the village was named, was for many years the most extensive banker and land owner in this State, and one of its wealthiest citizens. He was born in Lewis county, state of New York, on the twelfth day of May, 1823. He was prepared for college at Lowville Academy, N. Y., and entered Yale in 1847, but owing to failing health, he left during the first year. He subsequently became the editor and publisher of a newspaper, at Lowville, N. Y., for some four years In 1851 he was married to Miss Sarah J. Johnson, of Lewis county, N. Y. They have had one child. Mr. Easton came to Minnesota in 1856, and located at Chatfield, Filmore county, where he has since resided. He engaged, very extensively, for some time, in the grain commission business, and was for some years a director in the Southern Minne.sota Railroad Company. His principal business, however, has been banking and dealing in real estate. He has many farms, and has engaged largely in stock raising, and has some of the best sheep, hogs and cattle in the State. Mr. Easton is, undoubtedly, one of the ablest, most reliable and most successful financiers of the Northwest. The village was incorporated by act of the legislature, approved March 9th, 1874.

Statistics

The population of the town was 20 in 1860, 362 in 1865, 621 in 1870, 724 in 1875 and 648 in 1880, including the village. Of the residents of this township, about one-third ai-e Norwegians, and the remainder are of various nationalties, but principally American.

The total tax assessed on the same was $3,022.31. The agricultural products of the town, for the same year, as nearly as they can be estimated from the returns, were as follows: Wheat, 40,000 bushels; oats, 44,800 bushels; corn, 32,500 bushels; barley, 840 bushels; potatoes, 2,750 bushels; sorgham syrup, 990 gallons; flax seed, 3,340 bushels; tame bay, 112 tons; wool, 5,617 lbs; butter, 26.000 lbs.; cheese, 300 lbs.; honey. 200 lbs. There were reported, also, 3,000 apple trees growing, 690 of which were bearing, and 450 bushels of apples were produced. The total number of acres of cultivated land was 6,600.

Large portions of this town are conveniently near to railroad markets, either at Minnesota Lake, Easton or Delavan, and its future in many other essential respects also, is forever secure.