Okabena City

Okabena City

Okabena is an unincorporated little village located on the Milwaukee railroad and on section 7, West Heron Lake township, four miles south of Heron Lake.

-The petitioners were H. F. Tucker, F. G. Riley. W. G. Malchow. S. L. Rank. J. A. Thorn, W. L. Trowbridge. F. H. Vail. E. P. Colman, C. L. Moodln. J. J. lutz. John HaU, W. S. Price, F. D. Silliman. John McQulgg, W. B. Fry, Eara Winslow. I. G. Reed. O. A. Patter, A. Egeland, H. R. Trowbridge, 9eorge KoonU, F.

Okabena makes no pretense of metropolitan greatness, but it is a prosperous little hamlet, boasting a dozen or more business enterprises. In the town are a bank, school, church, general store, hardware store, creamer}', lumber yard, hotel, livery barns, blacksmith shop, implement dealers, elevators, restaurant, billiard hall, etc. Okabena was founded as a station of the Southern Minnesota railroad in September, 1879, and when the tracklayers reached that point they laid a sidetrack. The same fall a warehouse was built, and the next February a postoffice was established with K. C. Jackson as postmaster. Mr. Jackson opened a small store in November, 1880, which he conducted until the summer of 1884. Okabena did not develop into a town until the nineties. The tpwnsite was surveyed in May, 1892,'' although the records show that the plat was not put on record until October 30, 1897. It was surveyed by J. L. Hoist and platted by Henry J. Schumacher. The plat consisted of six blocks located on the north side of the railroad. East and west streets were named Jackson, Exchange and Market; those north and south were named Front, Minnesota, Grove and Okabena. With the prosperous times of the late nineties and of the present decade came the building of the town, which is recognized as an excellent trading point by those residing in the vicinity.

G. Betts, T. Goodwin, Bruce Bumgrardner, E. R. Henderson, Howard Winslow. G. Crotzer, Charles D. Glbb. E. B. WeHs, F. N. Fry, A. B. Phillips. J. F. Case, J. L. Hoist. William Crotzer, H. C. Bliss, H. A. White, H. L. White and A. Iverson.

'**A townsite is to be platted at Okabena this .spring:. No doubt we shall see a great city there some day. Such enterprise Is liable to bust the commercial business of Us neighbor. Prairie Junction." - Jackson County Pilot, April 28. 1892.

same distance northwest of Okabena, on section 35, LaCrosse township, the main line of the Omaha railroad and the Southern Minnesota division of the Milwaukee road cross. A union depot is maintained ; the other enterprises consist of a postoffice, a small store and eating house, combined, and a warehouse.

In the early days, when railroads were building through the virgin country of southwestern Minnesota, the location of towns depended upon the routes the railroads took, and years before the Southern Minnesota was extended it was predicted that the principal town of southwestern Minnesota would be at the point of crossing of the Sioux City & St. Paul and the Southern Minnesota railroads - ^but the prediction did not como^true.® It was in April, 1879, that officials of the Southern Minnesota railroad gave out the information that their road would cross the Sioux City road on the south half of section 35, LaCrosse township. Tracklaying was completed to that point August 1 of the same year.

The building of a metropolis at the junction did not eventuate; in fact for over a year absoUitely nothing was there/ and the place did not even boast a name, being referred to as "the Sioux City junction" or "the junction." The monotony of the place was broken during the winter of 1880-81 by the erection of a joint depot, and in August, 1881, arrangements were made for transferring the mails at

*The Worthington Advance of January 13, 1876. said: "The Southern Minnesota Is Worth- Ington's opportunity. If the road comes here. Worthington become.s from that day a railroad Center and an important Inland city. If It goes north of us, the railroad center for this section of country will be at the point of crossing the Sioux City road."

In the light of present conditions, this prediction is amusing. The Southern Minnesota railroad did build north of Worthington; the point of crossing the Sioux City road is at Miloma: and anyone who has spent his time there waiting for trains will corroborate the statement that it is not a metropolis.

that point. Then came an official name - Prairie Junction. In the spring of 1885 James H. Drake, who owned forty acres of land at the junction, set out the grove of trees which is located just to the east of the depot. It was rumored at the time that a site was to be platted there and a town founded, but if anyone had such intentions he abandoned them. J. W. Barber became postmaster in 1886, and two years later Thomas Sweeney built the little store building near the depot and opened a restaurant. The depot at Prairie Junction was struck by lightning on the night of Sunday, May 21, 1893, and burned to the ground together with all the contents. Agent Cooper and family barely escaped with their lives. The depot was rebuilt. In recent years the name of the station and postoffice was changed from Prairie Junction to Miloma, the first syllables of the names Milwaukee and Omaha being used to form the name.