Osage Township

Osage Township

Osag-e, the name chosen, was taken from Osage, Iowa, which was conjured from O. Sage, a wealthy New Yorker, who afterwards gave his namesake a vaUiable library, and we are sorry that he did not serve us likewise.

During the spring of 1881 S. S. McKinley began the construction of a dam across Straight River on the southeast quarter of Section 20. He finished it during the summer and built the first sawmill. He also platted a portion of this quarter section west of the river, and secured the Carsonville post-ofhce, carrying the mail from Detroit with Carson Brothers as carriers, three trips per week.

It was on the loth of October, 1881, that the legal voters gathered at the residence of G. ]\I. Carson and organized school district No. 31, and ordered a schoolhouse built "within forty rods of the dam."

Six weeks later, H. F. Witter, a second grade teacher, began the first school in a private house owned by K. C. Allen, March 1st. His term closed and he received an order for $66, with which he laid the foundation of his present fortune.

Osage had quite a boom in 1881-2 but it practically stood still for ten years. Then prospects of a railroad appeared upon the horizon only to vanish in the early nineties. Then it began to retrograde for another decade, but in 1901 McKinley's store was consumed by fire, together with nearly all the buildings on the north side of the street. Osage had to rebuild and since that time has had a steady growth. In 1904 Henry AA'ay built a fine residence and ]\Ir. Burlingame also completed another modern building.

It was in the month of May that T. M. Sharp moved to Osage. He had previously leased the milling site for a term of years. He and Henry \\'ay straightway began the improvement of the sawmill, and commenced getting out the lumber for a grist-mill. The mill was 1)eg"un in the summer of 1902 and finished the next season. Now Osage can boast of having- one of the best equipped seventy-five barrel mills this side of Minneapolis. A set of five double rollers, together with ])atent cockle extractor and smiitter, and the improved machinery in line of bolters.

Three grades of flour are made, first patent, Straight (meaning the lake of course) and export. It is not uncommon to see men who live twenty-five miles away come here with a grist.

Under the same roof is a feed mill, which is at work nearly all the time making chop-feed for the farmers at the low price of five cents a sack.

When Osage Township was first settled there was a road running north by west through the tract. It was an old government trail between Leech Lake and A\'hite Earth. This road crossed the J^traight at the outlet. Now we have at least fifty miles of road in pretty good repair, generally on section lines. The judicial road crosses the township from north to south, two miles from the west line.

During the winter of 1903,- while the Legislature was in session, E. D. Sylvester requested Senator Peterson for an appropriation of $600 for a bridge at Osage. Senator Peterson and representative Hawley took the matter in hand ; l)ut when the Legislature cut the appropriation bill in two, the allo\\ance became $300. Now we have a substantial bridge of stone abutments.

In the fall of 1889, J- F- ancl G. F. Siegford, Ed. Haight, G. M. Carson, Emmett Kelly and Frank Horr went on a hunting trip, as was their custom many seasons before and since, about the first of November.

After picking out their ground and making the necessary hunter's shack, they began to study the surrounding country. The ground was bare for several days, but one morning they awoke and found about four inches of snow had fallen. All were ready at six o'clock for the chase. J. F. Siegford, who had been cook for a few days, had noticed two deer near the camp, and when they started they ahvays ran in the same direction. The plan was to start a drive from camp. Mr. Siegford made a detour of half a mile and located on the runway where it crossed the brow of a hill. He gave the signal and the boys started on a drive of about eighty rods. Soon Mr, Siegford saw the deer coming. Just as they were passing he dropped the one in the lead by a neck shot. The doe turned and ran the back track. Ere long she met Ed. Haight face to face. Ed., forgetting his double-barreled buckshot loaded gun. threw his "ready cap in the air'' and stood admiring the symmetry and agility of the doe carrying the white flag. She stopped still, forcil)ly threw out her breath, and trotted slowly back down the runway. J. F. noticed her coming, took good aim and soon she lay within a rod of the buck.

The finish of the first drive was near the west bank of the lake, which was two miles long. Just above the first ledge on a rise of the ground was a second runway. Frank Siegford and George Carson were left to watch this runway, while J. F. Siegford remained where he was. The rest of the company went up the lake on the ice to make a drive. The men on the runway waited patiently for half an hour. Xot seeing any deer or hearing any of the boys, they met and made a fire. Presently they heard a shot. Soon Frank and Ed. came down the lake on their back track whistling. They said "Awful big woods up there." "But where is Emmett?" they were asked. Neither had seen him for an hour and a half. All started to find the lost boy.

Just as they arrived at the north end of the lake, Emmett came in sight. When asked why he did not make the drive he said, "Why, you see after I had been in the woods a long time I came to a man's track and concluded to follow it. I traveled half an hour and came to a place where another man had taken the same track. I determined to catch him and hurried as fast as I could. I was about out of breath when I saw a porcupine on a tree just ahead and I shot him. Again I started after the man, sometimes nearly on a run. What do you think? What do you think?

Here on the bank they ate hmch and held councih It was agreed to send Kelly down the west bank of the lake to watch a runway at the outlet of the lake. This creek had high banks and was about forty rods long, running into a second lake.

The rest were to drive the eastern shore of the lake. Giving Kelly twenty minutes the start, they all lined up in the woods on the east bank with an interval of twenty rods between each.

Hardly had their systematic drive began till they heard shots down near the outlet. Bang, bang, bang, went the Winchester. The drivers kept making plenty of noise. About a hundred shots had been fired when they reached the outlet. They looked for Kell}' and the venison. Only one small fawn was in sight. "How many were there?" they asked. "Over twenty, but I was too far ofif," said Kelly. Mr. Horr went to the runway and paced toward Kelly. At twenty-five paces he began to pick up shells, and ere he had reached thirty near the foot of a balsam tree, he had picked up twenty-five empties. "Well," said Mr. Horr, "Kelly's got the ague; let's take the fawn and go to camp." It so happened that both hind legs and one front leg of the fawn were broken. Kelly declared that it was done at one shot.

But all days were not like this one, for when they started home twenty-seven saddles were strung up near their camp. Still this was a poor year for hunting.

Squire S. McKinley was born at Geneva, Kane County, Illinois, February 9th, 1840. His school days were nearly all passed there, but in 1854 his parents removed to Newberry, Mitchell County, Iowa, and later to St. Ansgar. Later he took a course at the Academy and finally studied law under Daniel W. Lawrence.

Squire had just reached his majority before President Lincoln was inaugurated and on the 5th of March, 1861, he ofifered his services to his country. A company was organized and drilled under John P. Knight as captain. In June, 1861, Squire, with twenty-nine others, were mustered into the service of the United States at Keokuk, Iowa. His regiment, the Third Iowa Regiment of Volunteers, lost nearly half its number in the first battle. It followed Grant to Fort Henry, Fort Donaldson, Shiloh and Memphis. It was under General Halleck at the second battle of Cornith, and later took part in the battle of Coldwater and Greenville, where Mosby entertained them royally to the extent of half of their depleted ranks. At the battle of Haines' BluiT, General E. O. C. Ord commanded, but May 9th they met General Grant and took part in the great siege of Vicksburg. Squire was with Sherman at the capture of Jackson, Mississippi, where the division had one of its hardest encounters during the war. His regiment was ordered to charge some cannon on a slope ; when they were within a few steps ]\rr. IMcKinley was facing one of them. A discharge followed and the first thing he remembered afterward was that a comrade was washing his face at a little creek. He immediately took his place in the ranks. Next the regiment was with Sherman in a marauding expedition in Alabama. Later, what was left of the boys took part in the ill-fated Red River expedition, and were forty-seven days under fire. The regiment having fought itself out of existence, was mustered out at Davenport, Iowa, in July, 1864. There were fifteen men in line of Squire's company. During this exciting term of service Squire never lost but one battle, and that was caused by a case of measles which held him bedfast. He never entered the hospital, and the only harm done to him was done by the concussion of the cannon.

In the spring of 1880, he, in company with a Mr. Britz, filed on the Rice water-power of Park Rapids and the following spring sold it to the present owner.

Squire ]*kIcKinley was strictly temperate, clear-headed, and an orator of no mean ability. His loyalty was unquestioned. He voted for every Republican President - Lincoln to Roosevelt.

Lying on his death bed, he closed the interview with the words, "The Shell Prairies are an ideal place for any man to live. The most beautiful country I ever saw." He died February 19th, 1905.

The subject of our sketch was born on Chestnut Street in the city of "Brotherly Love" on August 14th, 1824. His father's birth was under the same roof, and this house is still in possession of the family wdiose ownership will soon reach the second century milestone. ]\Ir. Siegford is the second of a family of five, two brothers and two sisters besides himself; both of the brothers are living.

When J. F. Siegford was seven years old his father moved to Rochester, N. Y., where he went to school in a log school house for six months in a year, each pupil paying tuition. He carried Cobb's Dictionary and v'^peller and Daboll's arithmetic. A piece of slate rock served as a slate, being ground smooth, and a soft rock pencil served for computations and writing.

Rochester was then a small town, there being only one house west of the river, in the midst of a black ash swamp, now the heart of the city.

At fifteen years of age he was apprenticed to his uncle for four years as a wheelwright, who was then working in Lowell, Massachusetts. His trade being learned, four years later he became master mechanic and later superintendent of a paper mill.

While working at Gibsonville. he met and married Aliss Elmira Davis, of Danesville, who has shared the trials of her husband for the last fifty-seven years.

During the war ^Ir. Siegford worked for the government, and assisted in throwing the ]iontoon l-)ridges across the Tennessee River at Chattanooga.

In 1865, he was in Wisconsin, a farmer, working a part of the time as a carpenter. Three years later he sought another climate, moving to New Hampton, Iowa, where he worked as a contractor.

He is an Abraham Lincoln Republican, and has always tried to make the "North Star State" shine as bright as any of her sisters. His activity of early life has remained with him in his later years ; although over eighty years old he moves as supple as one of forty.

His active days of labor are over, l^ut he takes pleasure in looking backward over an active career with the consolation of a life well spent.

G. F. Siegford, son of J. F. Siegford and Elmira Siegford, first saw the light of day January 29th, 1849, ^^ Danesville, N. Y. His early education was obtained from the village schools of Danesville, East Pike and Mt. Morris. When sixteen he removed with his father to Columbus, Wisconsin, where he attended school in the winter and farmed in summer.

Three years later he engaged as a carpenter and joiner, working with his father at New Hampton, Iowa. For a period of eleven years he was associated with the company, Siegford & Son, and many buildings from \Yaterloo to Osage, Iowa, stand as monuments of their handicraft.

During the winter of 1875 ^^^ took a brief respite from labor and visited the scenes of his bovhood. Here he met and married Aliss Sib}'l Haight and the following spring they returned to Iowa.

In the fall of 1878 the family removed to A'erndale and remained there for the winter. The following spring he moved to the farm where he now resides.

His wife, Sibyl Haight, was born May 31st, 1844, at Oakport. N. Y. She attended a district school, and began teaching at the early age of fifteen, beginning at $2.25 per week or $9.00 per month of twenty-two days. Mrs. Siegford taught the greater part of the time for seventeen years, and towards the last commanded $35.00 per month which was counted big wages in those days. They have raised four children to manhood and womanhood, Roy E., Renie, Maurice and E. L.

^^Ir. Siegford is the largest individual land owner in Osage Township, and a few }'ears more will find him farming one of the best farms in Becker County. He has filled nearly every position of trust in the tow'nship afi'airs and has always been equal to the emergencv.

John Gillian was born at Lowell, Mass., July 21st, 1843. His wife is his junior by one year, having 1844 as the date of her birth, and Prince Edward Island as the location. In 1863 she took up her residence in Lowell, Mass., and six years later she married John. The chances in the East are limited, and ten years later they moved West, and in the spring- of 1881 moved to A'erndale.and a few months later upon the northwest quarter of Section 20. Not long after they came to Osage, Mr. Peter McSuteer, who had subsequently located upon the northwest quarter of Section 32, passed away, and Mrs. Gillian fell heir to 160 acres in Shell Prairie. They now have 220 acres under the plow and several acres more ready for the breaker. They are contented and have retired from active life, and hope to spend their latter days under Christian influence.

As a further evidence that Osage is a good place to live, we give an account of W. P. Holliday. A Canadian by birth, born August 23rd, 1849, i" Ontario, he emigrated to ?^Ieeker County, Minnesota, in 1878, and two years later he was in Cormorant Township, Becker County. Five years later he took up a homestead in Osage Township. Here he lived seven years, and again moved to Cormorant Township. He had the misfortune of losing his first wife during this move, and had equally good luck two years later in finding another. Again he moved to Osage, 1901, and has since remained upon his homestead. He says that he has lived in a good many places, l)ut Osage suits him best of all, and that if anyone can make an honest living he can do it in Osage Township.

Luther Phelps was born on a farm in Warren Countv, N. Y., March 8th, 1832. At the early age of eleven he went before the mast, and sailed the seas until he gained his majority. He was a soldier in the civil war. W^ien he was twenty-two years of age he married Miss Mary E. Horning, who was also a resident of the same county and state.

Nine children were born to them, five boys and four girls. All the boys have farms near their father's, while their older daughter, Mrs. Smith, resides on a farm just across the road.

While the family was living near Albert Lea, Minnesota, they heard of the free land on Shell Prairies, and in the fall of 1880 Mr. Phelps and family removed to Osage and settled npon the northeast quarter of Section 14, where he lives to-day. When he came to Becker County he possessed four horses, harness and wagon, together with a little money. He now has two horses, eleven head of cattle, some other stock and machinery enough to run the seventy-five acres he has under the plow. He has made an honest living, increased his stock, which is enough. Few men can boast of more.