Rochester City (part 1 of 4)

Rochester City

THE first known discovery of the site of Rochester was by a party of United States surveyors, under charge of Thomas Simpson, a well-known resident, for years, of Winona, who were running the line and setting the stakes marking the townships, but not subdividing them into sections. Mr. Simpson says :

*1 first saw the location of Rochester, or, rather, a fog or the spray arising from the falls there, from a point where the village of Simpson is now located, one bright morning early in the spring of 1854. The next day I visited the falls with members of my surveying party. White men had evidently been there, but we saw none. . . .

'*We made a claim here at what we called *the Falls of Wazionja.' We took this claim in the name of General Warner Lewis, surveyor general at Dubuque, Iowa; Maj. Michael Carrick, also of Dubuque, who held the contract for running the section lines of the townships, and myself, who had charge of the work of surveying under Major Carrick's contract. To establish our claim and retain it, we constructed a house - a very small house of rock and sod laid up irregularly, without very much regard to artistic or architectural skill or beauty. We cut some stakes and drove them down in front of the house, portico-like, and wrote thereon the date and owners of the claim. We left an axe and two old wornout spades in the house. I made a memorandum of the event in my field notebook and then went about our work. Next day, upon examination of the instructions furnished from the surveyor generaFs oflFice, 1 discovered that our claim was illegal and void, as all persons employed in survey of the public land for the government were prohibited from making and holding such claims.

"However, returning a few days after, we found that some parties from Winona (just like them) had 'jumped' our claim. Among them I recall M. W. Sargent and Edward Smith. They had taken possession, confiscated axe and spades, and obliterated every vestige of our rights (if we had any). We were greatly incensed and angered, but could do nothing, as we knew we had no legal rights there."

That same spring, but probably later than the discovery by the surveying party, Robert H. McReady, with his family, and Thomas C. Cummings, both from Herkimer county, New York, looking for new homes on the frontier, located farms of a quarter section each on what is now the western edge of the city of Rochester, McReady's being outside the city, afterward the home of M. VV. Leland, and recently of Philip D. Manley. Cunimings' claim was south of McReady's, and part of it was, later, platted as Cummings' addition to the city, and includes the district extending from the court house to the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and west to the city limits.

McReady is said to have had a part of his claim surveyed and platted as a townsite, but, if so, he did not have it recorded, while Head was nurturing his embryo city.

Silas McReady, a brother of Robert, came about a year later and settled in the same neighborhood. He was a quaint individual and in the office of deputy sheriff, which he held for a short time, is credited with displaying much more zeal than judgment. Among other things, it is told of him that in administering an oath he would gravely recite, reading from the statutes, '*You do solemnly swear, or affirm, as the case may be, that you will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God. You owe me a quarter," all in one breath. The McReadys returned Elast in 1867.

In that same summer of 1854, Henry Woodward and Frederick Prodger settled, each of them on a quarter section which have since become North Rochester.

In those days the townsite speculator was abroad in the land and at home in Winona. Some of the enterprising settlers of that town made journeys of discovery into the back country in search of the best localities for founding future cities and making present fortunes. Such a party started from Winona in the summer of 1854, with the idea of locating a townsite somewhere in the valley of the Zumbro. The party consisted of Edward S. Smith, M. Wheeler Sargeant, Charles Eaton, and others whose names have not been preserved. In passing through St. Charles, which was already a settlement of at least one house, the party seems to have been joined by L. H. Springer, who was one of the town proprietors, and a hotel-keeper there, and who afterward was for years one of the best known residents of Rochester. The late Elder Ely, of Winona, in a reminiscence, says : "They first made a claim where they struck the river and intended to lay out a town, but Smith, in traveling down the river, heard the roar of the falls, and continued his journey until he came in sight of the present site of the stone mill. They abandoned the place they had fixed upon up the river and made a claim, fixing a site for a log shanty at the head of Main street. They immediately returned to Winona and hired George Wiltsee to go out and build the shanty. Smith & Co. held the claim without anybody to disturb them until about the 12th of July following, when George and Jonathan Head and their father came from Wisconsin and made their claim. They disregarded the claim and improvements of Smith & Co. ; indeed, they began to tear down the log shanty built by the first claimants. Smith, however, was on hand before the destruction was completed, and with revolver in hand drove away the intruders. Subsequently the matter was settled by the payment of money. Smith and Eaton each received $1,800, but Springer and Sargeant got nothing. Smith and Eaton showed fight."

How far this account is accurate and how far apocryphal, I cannot say, not having learned Head's version of the affair, but it is probably like the old-fashioned Sunday-school story books, "founded on fact,'* and as true as most history. James W. Smith, a reliable authority, who came here in September, 1854, and entered the southwest quarter section in what is now the city, says the nonresident Winona speculators built no house or cabin, but only laid four logs together, as if to commence a house, and, being all nonresidents, they evidently had no rights as occupants under the townsite law.

George Head proceeded to build a log house of the usual style of frontier architecture. It was located on College street, directly at the south end of Broadway, right in front of the present location of the central fire station.

I have been told that the initiation of the town was the marking out of the main street, Broadway, by the dragging, probably by ox team, of a log through the brush the length of the street, and that Mrs. Head dedicated the main thoroughfare of the future city by riding along it on horseback.

George Head told me that he named the town Rochester because the falls, or, rather, rapids, reminded him of the water power at Rochester. New York, where he once lived. No one who knew him would suspect George of being of a poetic temperament; but what an imagination must have been his to find any resemblance between the gentle purling rapids below College street bridge, mere ripples on the surface of a quiet little stream, and the majestic cataracts, with their falls of twenty, seventy and ninety-five feet, that furnish the unlimited power of New York's great manufacturing city! Its common, second-hand name, so lacking in individuality or local appropriateness, amounts to a handicap of our little city. There is a Rochester in each of eighteen States of the Union, and the name is a cause of certainly occasional if not frequent inconvenience, especially in the miscarriage of both mail and freight. One of the greatest improvements that could be made in the city would be a change in its name.

The Head family comprised John Head, an elderly gentleman, a typical sailor in appearance, who had served in the British navy, and carried a dent in his skull made by a French saber; George

Head, his son, a middle-aged man ; Jonathan, a younger son, and Mrs. George Head and her sister, Sophie Nelson. John Head died in Dakota in 1864.

George Head, who may well be considered the founder of Rochester, was a baker by trade and had been in that business in Waukesha and W^atertown, Wisconsin, coming here from Watertown. He was a man of more than ordinary enterprise. In Rochester he engaged in various business ventures, among them dealing in real estate, building houses, and keeping a grocery store, but finally met with financial disaster as a merchant, and in 1873 removed to the new tow>n of Fergus Falls, where he again achieved success as a dealer in town property, and again was unfortunate. He died in 1883. in Bermuda, \vhere he had gone in search of health. He and his wife are buried in our Oakland Cemetery.

On the 15th of July, 1854, M. O. Walker established a stage line from Dubuque to St. Paul, running through Pleasant Grove and Rochester. McReady's was the Rochester station and McReady was also appointed postmaster and his house became a tavern. Tradition said he carried the postoffice in his hat, but maybe that was only a Western adaptation of the old, old story that Benjamin Franklin, when made the first postmaster of Philadelphia, used that receptacle for the mail. The same story was told of Elder Ely, Winona's first postmaster.

Robert Proud foot started a store, west of McReady's on the Oronoco road, on what was afterward the pasture of W. H. Dodge. He soon moved to the Head settlement, built the first frame store on Broadway, and then drowned himself in the Zumbro.

The first bridge across the Zumbro was built in 1855 by L. Wayne Bucklen and James Lovington. It w^as a rough and ready structure, located within a few rods of the present College street bridge.

The first Fourth of July celebration was held by the McReady family, Mr. and Mrs. McReady and two children, and Mr. Cummings, w^ho constituted the entire population. It was a picnic spent in fishing, strolling on the bluflfs, and celebrated by the firing of shotguns.

The next year there was a double celebration. McReady proclaimed that the day would be observed at his place by the barbecue of a steer, and Head, not to be outdone, roasted a sheep. McReady's celebration was held in the morning and Head's in the afternoon. At Head's, John Enke and Solomon Grimes went into the woods and cut a couple of poles, and James Aries, who was then a blacksmith, spliced them with an iron band, and Mrs. Head made a flag.

A procession of seven men was formed, and John Enke was appointed captain because he carried the only revolver in the crowd. An address was delivered by Jay Parker, the pioneer lawyer, and was cut short by the orator leaning against a scythe and slightly wounding his arm, and the noise, so essential to the proper observance of the Fourth, was made by all the guns in the settlement.

Since then Rochester has held a big celebration about every third year, and celebrations are held at different places in the county the other years.

John Enke and his brother Fred came in the winter of 1854. They were Germans. Fred settled on a farm and died a few years ago, and John was a mason and builder in Rochester. He moved in 1878 to Verdi, in this State, where he is still living. James Aries became a prosperous owner of city property in Rochester, and died in December, 1884. Solomon Grimes was from Virginia, speculated in town lots for a few years, and returned East. Jake Fox and Anton Fisher were squatters living in cabins not far from Head's.

It is not believed that the Head home was intended as a hotel, but the emergencies of the frontier necessitated the frequent entertainment of settlers and prospectors, and the proprietor became and continued for a couple of years to be an involuntary landlord, with a crowded hostelry. In the spring of 1856 he sold out to Asa Lesuer, from the State of New York, who built a frame front on the log cabin, named it the York State House, and was for years a flourishing landlord.

Head had *'land hunger" and tried to get the ownership of three or four quarter sections, though the law allowed the claiming of only one. \\^hile living on the quarter section that he claimed as a townsite, he tried also to hold the quarter adjoining it on the west as a farm, but made no settlement.

In the season of 1855 James Crabb, father of John C. Crabb, recently clerk of court, came along with his family, and finding the claim unoccupied, put up a tent and proceeded to build a log house, and went to living on the claim. On going to the land office to preempt, he found that Head had filed on the claim. He contested Head's claim, and a lively contention followed. Head, with a party of his boarders, comprising, among others, James W. Smith, Dr. McLain, Jake Fox, Solomon Grimes and Jonathan Head, went to Crabb's to pnt him off the claim, but Crabb's neighbors, among them James Bucklen, John Barncard, Fred Prodger, Ezra Cooper and Theodore Owen, rallied to his defense. Both parties had arms, and a heated quarrel took place, but no blood was spilled, and Crabb held his claim, and the next season Head bought him out for $1,500. Crabb's log house was clapboarded and is still standing

Head was also involved in a contest over his original claim on the river, and settled by selling 120 acres to Charles H. Morton and forty acres to Lorenzo L. Lewis, who became the pre-emptors.

In the year 1855 the new settlement became well known as a town. Strangers came to investigate its prospects, and a few of them to settle; but the houses built were few because of uncertainty as lo titles, and it was not till the next year that the town really began to grow.

It was in the summer of 1855 that the different claims now included in the city were preempted at the United States Land Office, and then not all of them in the names of the original locators. The preemptors were Jonathan Head, John Head, James Aries, Lorenzo L. Lewis, Charles H. Morton, George Head, James W. Smith, Frederick Prodger, Samuel R. Woodbury, Thomas C. Cummings and Henry Woodward.

The first survey of town lots was made in October, 1855, but did not become of record till June 7, 1856, at which date the original plat of the town of Rochester was filed in the office of the register of deeds of Olmsted county, J. A. McLain being the register. The land owners making the plat were William D. Lowry, Richard Smith and Charles H. Morton. Lowry had bought the claim of Woodbury. The area included in this plat was the southwest quarter of section 35, north of Zumbro street, in Cascade township, and the northeast quarter of section 2 in Rochester township, and was on the preemptions of Morton, Lewis and Woodbury. A number of additions to the original plat have since been made, much enlarging the size of the city.

Charles H. Morton is a native of the State of New York, born in 1828. He learned the trade of tinner and had a shop in Fredonia. He came to Rochester in February, 1855. He ran a shop about three years, after which he operated in real estate. He was engaged several years in buying grain at Faribault and Minneapolis. In 1896 he returned to Rochester, which has since been his residence. He is the only survivor of the original town site proprietors. He has a large circle of friends throughout the State.

The first public building of the town was a log cabin. It was commenced in the fall of 1855, when the school district was established by the county commissioners. S. G. Whiting stated that the logs were rolled up and the building started on the west side of the river, when it was thought that east of the river would be a better location, and the logs were moved to the lot on the corner of Washington and Line streets, now occupied by the residence of Mrs. Bonham. There it was finished in the spring of 1856 and used as a school house, meeting house and public hall. It was probably built by contributions of labor by the settlers and of logs appropriated from the public domain. Everybody helped himself then to his Uncle Sam's timber and picked the best of it. The log house was used by the public till the building of the old court house, now the Broadway hotel, which was finished in 1858, provided the village with a school room in the basement, and that summer the log house was bought of the city by Zalmon J. Cowles and converted into a residence. He lived there till the fall of 1859, after which the building was torn down.

In the spring of 1855 J. D. Jenkins, from Decorah, Iowa, built a log store on the northwest corner of Broad and College streets, where the Leader department store now is, and sold it to Hugh Mair, who kept store and lived there for several years after. Mair was a queer old Scotchman, and his store in later years, at least, was like him. He had all sorts of odd things and would sell nothing for less than he considered it worth in the high-priced times when he got it. The result was that Mair's store became an old curiosity shop with but few customers. At first the old man sold whisky to the pioneers, and the story became current that he replenished the whisky barrel from the Zumbro, and to such an extent that some of "the boys" who helped themselves to a barrel of it on a winter night, without his permission or knowledge, found that the exhilarant was half ice and refused his claim for pay, telling him they were not paying for ice water in the middle of the win* ter. It was a common joke that Mair sold whisky by the pound. He died in September, 1872, aged seventy-eight years.

Dr. J. N. McLain, the first register of deeds, built a little office, which was the first frame building on Broadway. It was on the west side of Broadway, between Third and Zumbro streets, where the grocery store of George W. Root, now Holland & Campbeirs, is.

David Lesuer, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, built another frame store in the same block on Broadway, w^here the Palace Block now is, in 1856, and continued in the business of selling goods for a number of years. Lesuer hall was a little room in the low second story. He died in 1891. He was one of the most highly respected members of the community.

A peculiarity of the town site was that section 36, which was a school section, belonging to the state, was not brought into market till 1862, and while the rest of the town w^as filling up that rich square, extending from the river to the west line of what are now the State Hospital grounds and from Zumbro street to the north line of the city, lay unimproved for eight years, and even after the lots became private property its settlement was very slow, but it is now one of the prettiest and pleasantest residence sections.

In 1855 P. H. Durfee, from Indiana, succeeded Robert McReady as postmaster and moved the office to the Httle building of Proudfoot on Broadway.

I90 History Of Olmsted County

as ''Jskt" Ault, a Pennsylvania Dutchman, who was several years night watchman. He magnified his office, fully realizing its importance and filling it with great dignity. Though innocent of both education and business capacity, he had a letter written to President Buchanan on his accession, asking to be appointed postmaster because he came from Lancaster, the President's home, and fully believed the boys when they told him he was sure to get it; but, like many another embryo politician, he was doomed to disappointment. He died in June, 1865, while city marshal.

The first practicing physician was Dr. Martin T. Perrine, who came in May, 1855, from Ohio, and moved away in i860, on account of his health. He died in Kansas in October, 1900, in his eighty-fourth year. Mrs. F. A. Poole, still a resident of Rochester, is his daughter.

William Oker is a native of Germany and a carpenter who came to Rochester in 1855. He built the Rommel Block and the Schuster Block on Broadway, the residences of Frederick C. Seikert, Dr. Edwin C. Cross and others. In 1877 he moved to a farm near Lake Benton, in this State, and lived there twenty years, when he returned to Rochester and is now living here. Mr. and Mrs. Oker, who was Miss Julie Schmitzer, celebrated their golden wedding December 9, 1907, having been married in . Rochester fifty years previously by Esq. Lyman L. Eaton.

The new town grew rapidly. In the spring of 1856 the population did not number fifty; in the spring of 1857 it was estimated at 600, and in 1858 was claimed to be 1,500. The number of buildings erected in 1856 was about 80 and in 1857 200.

As nearly as I can find out from reading and interviewing, there must be about half a dozen of the first frame residences built in Rochester. Samuel G. Whiting, a carpenter, came from Ohio and built a frame residence on the south side of Line street, in East Rochester, and completed it in December, 1855. ^ think this was the first framed residence. Mr. Whiting lived in it several years, and it was last the residence of Frank Weed. Mr. Whiting was for years a justice of the peace. He died in October, 1901. Frederick Prodger, an Englishman, sold half of his preemption, including his log cabin, to Lysander C. Jacoby, and in 1855 built a frame house on Broadway in North Rochester. This also is claimed to have been the first frame residence. Charles C. Crane, who is now a well-known resident of the city, built a log house in the spring of 1856 on the southwest corner of Third and Franklin streets. It was sold to Sheriff Baker, who clapboarded it, and is now the pleasant home of Pembroke S. Kelly.

In 1856 John R. Cook came here from Indiana, and Charles H. Morton erected for his use the Morton Block, a large two-story frame building still standing on the northwest corner of Third and Main streets, opposite the City Hall. In addition to the two large rooms on the first floor occupied by the store, the block had in the second story Morton hall, which was for years the finest public hall in the town and unusually fine fdr the times. Cook's store carried a large stock of everything and drew trade from twenty-five miles or more around. It was the largest mercantile establishment in all this region.

John R. Cook was born in Ohio in 1825 and became a merchant. At the age of twenty-four he went to Wolf Creek, Indiana, where he carried on business very successfully till 1856, when he came to Rochester. He was of the greatest business ability and highest character and became the most prominent business man of the community. He conducted an extensive and profitable mercantile business till 1864, when he disposed of it and devoted himself to banking, organizing the First National bank, which is still doing a large business. In 1869 built Cook's hotel, the largest and best hotel at that time in southern Minnesota. As the largest building, most handsomely finished and situated in the heart of the city, it may well stand as his monument. He died in September, 1880.

His son, John R. Cook, who is a native of Rochester, succeeded his father in the presidency of the bank and the management of his large estate, and has been a leading citizen, of superior business ability, very public spirited and generous. He has continued the policies of his father and taken a similar prominent position in the business life of the community.

The American house was built by Charles C. Cole in 1856, on the corner of Broadway and Fourth street, and managed by him. It was a big, plain, two-story frame building with a big barn adjoining, and for years was the great caravansary of all this region, being the stage station and crowded with travelers. It was afterwards rented by Mr. Cole to K. A. Goodell and Nathaniel N. Hammond. It was burned down in 1871 and a skating rink built on its site, succeeded by a theater, and it is now the location of the hardware and agricultural machinery store of Henry H. Hymes.

Charley Cole was one of the most enterprising and best known of the men of those early days. He was a native of the State of New York and came to Rochester from Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1855. He was devoted to the development of the city, kind hearted, and became very popular. He was several times elected alderman and was very useful in that office. It was he who suggested the city snow plow by which the sidewalks have been made passable in the winter for so many years. He was provost marshal in 1865, postmaster for two years in 1869 and 1870. He left Rochester and went south alx)ut 1875, and returning lived on farms in Wabasha county and in Pipestone county, and died at thj? latter place in August, 1889.

The Rochester hotel also has a history reaching back to 1856. That year it was built by John Stevens as farm house, rather small for a hotel, and conducted by him about three years as the Stevens house, when he sold it to Jacob Fleck, who carried it on several years. Uncle Jacob and his wife. Aunt Kate, were a good old Pennsylvania German couple and kept a homelike house that was very popular and always full. It was generally known as the Fleck house. About 1865 Mr. and Mrs. Fleck moved to Austin and were succeeded by Job Pierce and his wife, Sarah Pierce, who conducted the house several years, generally under Mrs. Pierce's management, and she was a very popular landlady. She moved to Barnesville, Minnesota, but in a few years returned and again was the landlady. The hotel burned down in 1876 and she rebuilt and enlarged it, and named it the Pierce house. She retired from the business in a few years, and died in May, 1895. James Fitzpatrick became the next owner. He was succeeded as landlord by Capt. Charles E. Thurber, from Chat field, who after seven years was succeeded in 1895 by W. H. Brown, also from Chatfield, who changed the name to the New Rochester hotel and kept it up five years. He was succeeded in 1 89 1 by John M. Norton, the present proprietor, who changed the name back to the Rochester hotel and has twice enlarged and improved the building. It is now a large and handsome three-story brick building with sixty guest rooms.

John Stevens was one of the original characters of the town. He was a native of the State of New York, born in 1816. After living in Illinois and Wisconsin he came to Rochester in 1855. ' After selling his hotel he worked at his trade of painter. He had the skill of a good sign painter and the high ambition of the great masters of art. His first great work was the band wagon that carried the Rochester Brass Band to the neighboring towns, a very brilliant production. After the Indian massacre of 1862 he conceived the idea of painting a panorama of those imaginary events and reproduced from the illustrated papers a series of life-size pictures that by the liberal use of red paint fully displayed the blood-thirstiness of the savages. A panorama of the Modoc massacre and one of the Chicago fire followed. The panoramas were exhibited in many of the villages of this and the adjoining States. He settled on a farm in Dodge county and his latter days were spent in farming and portrait painting. He died in 1879 and, unlike most great artists, left a fair estate as the product of his genius.

John M. Norton is a native of Rochester, having been born in the Norton house, of which his father, Patrick Norton, was the landlord. He grew up in the hotel business, and when the Norton house was sold to John W. O'Rourke he bought the New Rochester. He has been an alderman for two terms, ending in 1908.

The pioneer druggist and for a few years the only one was John Clark, who came from Indiana in 1856 and kept his store on Broadway, north of Fifth street. He was a native of Virginia, born in 1 82 1. He was a quaint character, was mayor in 1861 and 1862, and the council meetings were held in his store and were very informal assemblages. He died in 1883. His daughter, Jennie Clark, is the very efficient telegraph operator of the Western Union Company.

During Mayor Clark's administration a cannon was secured by subscription at his suggestion and presented to the city. The single gim was known as Clark's battery and was used for firing salutes on the Fourth of July and on other public occasions. It was seldom used, rusted out and disappeared years ago. It was discovered in October, 1908, buried in a gutter beside Mayo park and exhumed, and will probably be kept in the park as a relic.

Asahel Smith, of the firm of Smith & Daniels, real estate dealers, was born in New York State in 18 14. He was engaged in the lumbering business in partnership with J. V. Daniels, his brotherin-law. They came together to Rochester in 1856 and continued their partnership here. He was one of the best known business men in the city and of high character. He was five times elected alderman for North Rochester. He died in March, 1904.

His sons, DeWitt D., Julian and Charles, are proprietors of the New Method laundry. Charles was for some years a prominent jeweler, and Julian a farmer.

Batholomew Donahue, a native of Ireland, came from Wisconsin to Rochester in 1856 and opened a quarry of limestone just outside the city on the northwest. He with his sons, Patrick, John, Frederick, Hartley and James, have furnished most of the stone and for years have laid the basement walls of many of the buildings of the city. He died in 1903.

In the history of the West it has been unusual for any town to build itself up without internal rivalries, and Rochester was no exception to the rule. The original town was not to grow without some opposition. In 1855 Charles H. Lindsley bought the preemptions of Prodger and Woodward and sold a three-fourths interest to Boston speculators, G. S. Harris, W. W. Cowles, Daniel Williams and Richard B. Smith. They were known here as the Boston Company. Their intuition and expectation was to build up the new town there, north of Head's location. They had the northem addition to Rochester surveyed by Thomas Hunter in October, 1856, and the plat filed in the office of the register of deeds March 5, 1857. The plat was made by Charles H. Lindsley and his wife, Silvia A. Lindsley; Lysander C, Jacoby and Richard B. Smith. Under the management of Lindsley the rival addition grew rapidly and for a while bid fair to become the bigger end of the town. A fine mill was built with a pretty reservoir for its water supply, a store, a blacksmith shop, a cabinet shop, carried on by James S. Niles, who afterwards became one of Eyota's best citizens, and a number of homes made quite a village, and a large hotel was projected. The excavation for its foundation is still conspicuous on North Broadway. But the financial panic of 1857 struck the Boston Company, the contemplated improvements were not carried out, and all the business establishments except the mill ceased to be. It was merged in ownership with the Olds mill in the original town, and what we used to call Lower Town, but is now known by the more dignified title of North Rochester, is but one of the pleasant residence districts of the city.

A saw mill was built by Joseph Alexander and William Goldsworthy, a son-in-law of Judge Olds, in 1855. It consisted of a scaffolding, six or eight feet high, to which logs were raised and sawed by a long saw worked by a man on the ground and one on the platform - a primitive plan in common use to this day in China. It did a large business and turned out as much as 500 feet a day. There was a ready demand for all that it could manufacture.

Joseph Alexander was born in England in 1826 and came to America in 1844. He lived ten years at Watertown, Wisconsin, and came to Rochester in 1855 and acquired a water power on Bear creek. He built a furniture factory in partnership with Mr. Goldsworthy, which was burned down in 1863, after which the power was used for a woolen mill conducted by W. G. Bartley and later and now for a feed mill. Mr. Alexander died in 1895.

William G. Bartley came from Wisconsin and started a woolcarding macliine in 1869. He developed a good business for a few years, but removed his establishment to the western part of the State. His departure was not only a business but a personal loss to the community.

In 1856 Frederick A. Olds, known as Judge Olds, bought the mill reservation and commenced building the Olds mill, which was completed the next year at a cost of $40,000. It is a large stone structure and has always been a prominent institution of the city. After the death of Judge Olds it was conducted by his son, Frederick T. Olds, and Thomas L. Fishback. It has been kept up with the changes and improvements in the milling industry and is a firstclass mill, using a thousand bushels of wheat, employing sixteen people and turning out 200 barrels of flour daily. In 1883 the mill was sold to John A. Cole, who had succeeded his father as proprietor of the mill in North Rochester, and the two have been carried on in connection. They are now conducted by the John A. Cole Milling Company, with William H. Knapp as manager.

first brick in the town and built the first brick residence, that of Addison Moe, in East Rochester. It was pulled down in 1902 to make way for the Chicago Great Western railroad. D. C. removed to Texas in 1874, where he is still living, and E. M. became a farm landlord. He died in March, 1904.

John \y. Reniine, probably a Kentuckian, was one of the earliest lawyers, coming to Rochester not later than 1856. He was a good lawyer and a good fellow. After staying here a few years he pushed west to the mining territories and died in Colorado in 1869.

The educational interests of the city have been well cared for, and that department of local government has kept well up with the city's growth and development in other respects. The first school was taught in the summer of 1856 by Miss Mary Walker, afterwards Mrs. L. B. Joslyn. S. G. Whiting and J. P. Gurr, while on a trip to Dubuque for merchandise, engaged here in Fillmore county and brought her with them. She taught in the log school house east of the river. From that time the public schools were kept up, but for about ten years under great disadvantages from the lack of suitable buildings. Rented rooms in the business part of the town and the basement of the old court house were made temporary temples of learning. In i860 C. F. Anderson, who had established the Rochester Literary and Classical School in 1858, w^as employed by the city to teach a public school in connection with his institution. He was a native of Sweden and a sailor, and came to New York and acquired an academic education. He came to Rochester about 1857. After teaching school he established a stationery and notion store, which he conducted till about 1884, and removed to Minneapolis, where he practiced law. He died in August, 1904, aged about seventy-seven years. He was very energetic, well informed and quite eccentric.

In 1866 a tax of $25,000 for building a school house was voted with nine votes in opposition. Under this authority the site for the Central School building was purchased and its construction commenced. It was completed in 1868. The building is in the center of a block of land on Zumbro street. Tt is of brick, of four stories and a high basement, and includes sixteen rooms and commodious hall. It has well proportioned rooms, is a very handsome building and was at the time of its erection equal to any school building in the state. It cost about $75,000.

Another election was held in 1875, at which 127 votes were cast for and only 14 against building ward school houses in the first and the third wards. They were built by Horace E. Horton and are handsome frame structures. The one in the first ward is named the Phelps School in honor of William F. Phelps, a prominent educator, at one time president of the Winona Normal School, and the one in the third ward is called the Northrop School for Cyrus Northrop, president of the State University.

A few years later a pretty two-story frame school building was erected in the southwest part of the city and named the Hawthorne in honor of the author of that name.

The last ward school house to be built is the Holmes, named for the celebrated author. It is a handsome two-story frame building on Fifth street east of the river. It was built in 1896.

By the year 1895 the increase of scholars had necessitated the finding of separate quarters for the High School and a building on Zumbro street that had been used as a business college by Dr. Darling was purchased and refitted and has been used for that purpose. It is a roomy and good looking two-story building, but the school has outgrown it and it is now understood that a new high school building will have to be erected within a year or two.

The first principal of the Central School was Miss M. C. Bateman, from Lansing, Michigan. In 1868 W. P. Hood, from Red Wing, was appointed superintendent of the city schools. He served about two years. C. C. Curtiss, now of Minneapolis, served less than a year. Charles H. Roberts, of Geneva, Ohio, was superintendent from 1870 to 1878. He invented a school desk, engaged in the furniture business, taught in different places in the state and came back to Olmsted county and carried on a large farm in Marion township for the breeding of blooded horses. He was born in 1842 and died in September, 1907. He was grand master of the Order of United Workmen in 1883.

J. K. Davis, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, served two years as superintendent. He was followed by Henry O. Durkee, from La Crosse, who served about five years, and he by S. S. Parr, and he by Darius Steward. Edward Adams followed and after one year was succeeded by Frank D. Budlong, who entered the Episcopal ministr>'. In 1899 Lester S. Overholt came from Michigan, and is still superintendent.

There have been numerous private schools started in the city from time to time, but none has achieved real permanency, though several of them deserved it.

The first private school was taught by Mrs. Melissa Sloan Brown in 1856 and 1857, at her residence. She was a daughter of Willard Sloan, who came to Rochester in 1856. She died in May, 1904, aged eighty-two years.

P. C. Compton moved a building from Lower Town in 1861 and fitted it up for the Rochester Academy. After about two years he was succeeded by O. S. Porter, who taught about a year and changed the school to a hotel - the Porter House.

1864 and conducted by Rev. J. L. Farber, and afterward by B. B. Herbert, who is now editor of the National Editorial JournaL It Hved about two years.

The Rochester Female Institute was a Presbyterian school, established in 1864 by Mesdames M. R. Andrews and M. Rice. It survived a few years.

The Rochester Training School was established by Sanford Niles and his wife, Priscilla Niles, in 1877. Horace H. Witherstine was at first associated with them. In a year its title was changed to Rochester English and Classical School. It was a successful school and it was continued until 1882, when it was succeeded, in 1883, by the Rochester Seminary and Normal School, conducted by E. W. Young, under the patronage of the Methodist church. The present high school building was erected for this school. It was continued several years. After its discontinuance the building was purchased for Darling's Business College and Phonographic Institute, which was established in 1879 by iJclbert Darling and William Brainerd. This was the longest lived of all the private schools. Mr. Brainerd retired from the school and it was continued by Mr. Darling seventeen years. He was a native of Wisconsin, born in 1853, and graduated at a business college. He was a practical educator and his school was the first in the city to teach the use of the typewriter. He was elected mayor in 1890 and served two terms. He moved to Fergus Falls in 1901 and died there in October, 1902.

William Brainerd is one of the best known Olmsted county teachers. He was bom in New York City in 1839, moved to Connecticut and came from there to Rochester in 1867 and taught in various schools of the county. He has made a special study of geology and astronomy, and has lectured on the latter subject in different parts of the county. He is now a resident of Rochester.

The Industrial School was started in 1896 by George F. Howard and James H. Chapman and was conducted by them till 1903, when W. D. Moffett, from Minneapolis, succeeded Mr. Chapman and formed a partnership with Martin A. Beatty and established the Rochester Business and Normal College. In about a year Mr. Moffett left, and the school was conducted by Mr. Beatty and Miss Kate Leonard as teacher of typewriting and stenography, and then by Mr. Beatty alone about a year longer.

Mr. Beatty is a native of Haverhill township, and taught several years in the district schools of the county. He moved to South Dakota, where he is now teaching. Miss Leonard is the daughter of J. A. Leonard, and is a resident of Rochester.

ing of typewriting and stenography, and built up a popular institution, which she conducted about four years, when she sold out to Moffett & Chapman, and it was consolidated with their Business College.

The only schools of Rochester now are the public schools, the Academy of I-ourdes and the Lutheran Parochial School. Though the city and surrounding prosperous country would seem to have many youths to whom the public schools are unadapted, most efforts to supply that want have failed.

The first Rochester newspaper, the Olmsted County Journal, was started in the winter of 1857 by 'Evans & Robbins, a couple of young men from Massachusetts. In 1858 it was bought by John H. Hyatt and Martin L. Stewart, and its nartie changed to the Free Press, Hyatt was afterward for years a landlord at Windom, in this State. In 1859 Fred A. Soule became the publisher and in about a year discontinued the paper. Later he moved to Chicago, where he died in July, 1894.

Charles Cottam, from Indiana, started the Rochester Democrat in September, 1857, and published it about two years. He went to Chicago and was employed as a printer in the office of the Times.

The first preaching in Rochester was in December, 1854, by an itinerant whose name is to fame unknown. He preached one night at McReady's and the next night at Head's. Robert Welch, who made a claim in 1855, adjoining the town on the north, and afterward became a florist and gardener, was also a Free Will Baptist preacher and preached frequently. Reuben Reynolds, a Congre^ gational minister from Michigan, made a claim north of the town and also preached. Thomas Tait, a baker from Scotland, and a Congregational minister, also preached. After the completion of the log public building, in the spring of 1856, it was used as a church, and Rev. Reynolds became the regular preacher, occasionally assisted by the others.

The first organization of a church seems to have been that of the Methodist Episcopal denomination. The first Methodist service was preached by Rev. Nelson Moon at the log house of Jamef Crabb in South Rochester. At a conference held at Red Wing in July. 1856, the Oronoco mission was established, with Rev. Joshua M. Rodgers, from Indiana, as minister. The mission included Oronoco, Pine Island, Greenwood Prairie, Mantorville and Rochester. The first quarterly meeting was held February 14 and 15, 1857. In July, 1857, Rev. Rodgers was succeeded by Rev. S. N. Forest, who died at Rochester in the spring of 1857. The sue* cessive ministers of the church since, most of them serving two years, have been: Reverends Phoebus, Ezra Tucker, G. W. T. Wright, W. A. Chambers, Norris Hobart, A. J. Nelson, Ezra R. Lathrop, Daniel Cobb, William C. Rice, H. P. Satchwell, J. Whisher, C. E. Cline, John Stafford, W. K. Marshall, ¥. B. Cowgilh Frank Doran, E. P. Robertson, George P. Avery and Ora A. Taylor, who came in 1903, and still is pastor of the church. Rev. Stafford, Rev. Cowgill and Rev. Avery each stayed three years.

Rev. Ezra R. Lathrop is a son of Junia Lathrop, who came from Indiana and located on a farm in Farmington township in 1855. Ezra was born in Indiana in 1831 and was admitted to the Minnesota Conference in 1857. To attend the first quarterly meeting, held at Rochester in February, 1857, he walked through the deep snow from the farm, a distance of twelve miles. He was chaplain to the Tenth Minnesota Regiment in the War of the Rebellion, and was chaplain to the Minnesota house of representatives in 1870. He is now retired from labor and residing at Hastings, Minnesota.

Rev. William C. Rice was born in Illinois in 1840 and in 1856, with the family of his father, William R. Rice, settled on a farm in Cascade township. He worked on the farm and taught school, graduated from Hamlin University and was admitted to the ministry in 1864. He was appointed to Rochester in 1870 and was for eight years alternately pastor at Rochester and presiding elder, residing at Rochester. His health failing, he spent a few years in farming, and was for a year editor of the Rochester Post, He resumed the ministerial profession and has filled various appointments. Besides being a preacher of unusual ability, he has superior business qualifications and a range of knowledge of worldly matters not generally possessed by members of his profession. He is now living at Fergus Falls and is not in active service.

Fev. Frank Doran, who was stationed here seven years, from 1896 to 1903, and is now in Winona, was a very eloquent speaker, and the best mixer of any minister in the city, being equally friendly and popular with the unregenerate outside the church and the saints of the amen corner. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by Hamlin L^niversity during his pastorate at Rochester.

A frame building intended as a chapel was built in 1858, but was too small for services and was made a parsonage. The foundation of the present large church was laid in the fall of 1864. It was badly damaged by the cyclone of 1883, but has been restored and much enlarged since and greatly improved.

The semi-centennial anniversary of the founding of the church was held in September, 1907, lasting three days, with meetings of the church and a banquet at German Library Hall on the night of the 14th instant. The large hall was crowded and an elegant repast was served by the ladies of the church. John C. Crabb was toastmaster, and a history of the church was read by P. L. Dansingburg ; reminiscences of early Rochester were given by J, A. Leonard, and addresses were made by Dr. W. W. Mayo, E. A. Knowlton and W. H. Dodge. Homer Steadman spoke in behalf of the Baptist church, W. H. Knapp in behalf of the Congregational church. Dr. Christopher Graham in behalf of the Episcopal church, Archie P. Gove in behalf of the Presbyterian church, C. E. Callaghan in behalf of the Universalist church, and Martin Heffron in behalf of the Catholic church. A. W. Blakely spoke for the press of the city, John M. Rowley for the Masonic lodge, and Matthew Markham for the Odd Fellows. Presiding Elder F. M. Rule and Rev. W. C. Rice and Rev. Frank Doran, former pastors of the church, were called on and made brief remarks. The speaking concluded with a response by Rev. Ora W. Taylor, the pastor of the church, which was one of the most eloquent addresses ever delivered in Rochester. On Sunday able sermons were delivered by the former pastors, Rev. Frank Doran and Rev. W. C. Rice.

Dr. Cornelius S. Younglove came to Rochester from Dixon, Illinois, in 1856. He was bom in the State of New York in 1824. He was an educated and skilful physician, highly respected, and had a large practice. He removed to California on account of his health in 1891, and died there in 1906.

The pioneer brick mason was Thomas Ireland, from New York State, who came in 1856, laid the first brick in a chimney, and was for years the leading mason, building and plastering a number of the large brick buildings first erected, such as Heaney's Block and Cook's Hotel. He moved to Appleton, Minnesota, about 1870, and died there a few years ago.

Granville Woodworth, a carpenter, came to Rochester in 1857. He was born in the State of New York in 1832, moved to Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1855 came from there to Rochester. His skill as a workman brought him the best jobs in the new town, and he became a leading contractor, and built most of the best buildings, among them Cook's Hotel, portions of the State Hospital, the jail, Heaney's Block, the Universalist church, Blake's residence and his own very handsome home. About 1889 he succeeded to the grain and coal business of Samuel Whitten. He was twice elected alderman and was several years a member of the cemetery board. He died in August, 1904, about three years after he had retired from business. He was very liberal and unostentatiously benevolent: For instance, at the time of the cyclone he quietly handed to Henry M. Richardson $200 and told him to use it where needed and say nothing about it. He has many other deeds of charity charged to his credit wherever those accounts are kept.

The Baptist church was started in the log house in East Rochester in June, 1857, at a meeting of which J. P. Gove was chairman and C. F. Anderson clerk. A church organization was effected in August of the same year. Rev. E. Wescott was the first pastor. It was the first church to build a place of worship, erecting, in the spring of 1858, a small wooden meeting house, at a cost of $1,200, on a lot on Zumbro street, near the river. It was painted yellow and was decidedly unattractive in appearance. Its site is now crossed by the track of the Chicago Great Western Railroad, and the Sunday excursion trains of that wicked road now run over the ground where Elder Westcott preached against the sin of Sabbathbreaking. The baptisms were performed, until the new church was built, in the river near the church.

At noon on a Sunday, on one of those spring days at the breaking up of winter, when the sun shines bright and the air has a shivery chilliness, my attention was attracted by a crowd at the river, and, going there, I found Norton C. Younglove and Milton J. Daniels standing on opposite banks of the river, each armed with a board, with which they were pushing aside the floating cakes of ice to clear a space for the immersion of some half a dozen men and young women. On the erection of the new church, a baptistry was built in the church, making a compliance with the creed more comfortable for the believers.

In i860 Rev. Westcott resigned and moved to Dodge Center, where he died a few years ago. He was succeeded by a young man, Rev. D. A. Mason, who stayed till 1868. He was succeeded by Rev. L. A. Abbott, who stayed till 1872, and in 1873 was succeeded by Rev. R. Telford, who was succeeded in 1874 by Rev.

D. D. Read, w^ho stayed till 1886, and was succeeded in 1887 by Rev. J. A. Heritage, who was pastor from March to September. Rev. E. R. Pope came in 1887 and left in 1894. Rev. W. H. Davenport's term of service was from 1894 to 1895, and Rev. A. O. Stevens' from 1896 to 1897. Rev. F. P. Leach came in 1897 and left in 1900. Rev. F. C. Whitney stayed from 1900 to 1907. Rev. G. H. Gamble, who is the present pastor, came from Minneapolis in April, 1907. The present membership of the church is 330.

A new church building was erected in 1870 and dedicated January I, 1871. It is a large and tasteful brick edifice, on the comer of Franklin and Fourth streets, and cost $16,500.

The church celebrated the semi-centennial of its organization in September, 1907, by holding a series of meetings every night, commencing on Wednesday, the 17th instant, and continuing all day Sunday. An address of welcome was delivered by Rev. G. H. Gamble, and greetings were extended from pastors of other of the city churches. The history of the Sunday school was read by Mrs. Ida Churchill, and of the church by Mrs. H. W. Garrett, and addresses were made by Rev. E. R. Pope, the church's pastor from 1887 to 1894.

George Baihiy was the pioneer butcher. He was born in Germany in 1837, came to America in 1854 and to Rochester in 1857. He started business in partnership with William Black, but soon did business alone, starting in 1858 in a shanty north of the American house and next putting up a small frame building on Broadway. This was followed in 1870 by the two-story brick building, still occupied as the Baihiy meat market, which was one of the best buildings erected in the city up to that time. He was a large buyer of cattle for the eastern markets and had dealings with nearly every farmer for miles around. He was considered the best judge of cattle in the region, was of unusual industry and enterprise and very prosperous in his business. He served two terms as alderman. He died in July, 1895. The business is now conducted by his sons, Ralph and Walter, who are equally successful in its management. His son Arthur is successfully engaged in the same business in partnership with Frank Rommell.

The grocery store of De Wolf & Hawes was established in 1857. F. Marion Havves was from Whitewater, Wisconsin, and was a wide-awake, social young man. He went to St. Louis and from there to Chicago, and was engaged in the insurance business. Mr. De Wolf formed a partnership with X. N. Hammond. He was for several years a grain buyer and was postmaster under President Cleveland and filled the office with the greatest public satisfaction. He came to Rochester from the State of New York. He died November 29, 1907, aged eighty-six years.

Dr. Edwin C. Cross came to Rochester in 1858. He was born in Vermont in 1824, was educated in an academy, attended medical lectures at Dartmouth and Andover colleges and graduated at Castleton. He practiced in Massachusetts and Vermont before coming West. He did a large practice here, being part of the time in partnership with his brother, F^lisha W. On the 4th of July, 1894, he was driving a span of spirited young horses in Rochester, when they were frightened by a fire cracker, ran and became uncontrollable, throwing him out of the carriage and breaking his thigh, which resulted in his death within a few days.

His son. Dr. John Grosvenor Cross, after practicing the profession a few years in Rochester and taking a post-graduate course in Vienna, moved to Minneapolis, where he is now practicing.

The pioneer hardware store was built on Broadway by Horace A. Brown in 1856. He was a tinsmith, born in New York State in 1832, went to Illinois in 1856 and came from there to Rochester. In 1872 he sold his hardware business to A. T. Stebbins and engaged in the milling business with Mrs. Ameigh, which he retired

One of the early merchants was Heman C. Green, a native of New York State, bom in 1831. He was a surveyor and came from Missouri in 1856 and engaged in the grocery business in partnership with a Mr. Sherman. He married a daughter of Mrs. Baker, the postmistress. In 1870 they moved to South Dakota, and have recently celebrated their golden wedding at Mitchell, where they were the original settlers.

Franklin A. Poole came to Rochester in 1857, from Dubuque. He is a native of Ohio, born in 1834. He was sent here by a Dubuque firm to make a settlement with Sherman & Green, grocers, whose business was wound up. He was clerk in the postoffice for Mrs. Baker, and afterward for John W. Everstine, and then was employed in the drug store of John D. Ameigh, who died in 1863, at the age of twenty-eight years.

In 1863 Mr. Poole became a partner with Henry B. Upman in the drug business, and has continued in that business ever since. He removed to Red Wing and lived there six years, but came back to Rochester, is still conducting a drug store, and is one of the most respected business men.

Rochester Lodge, No. 21, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, was organized in August, 1857. The first officers were: Worshipful master, L. H. Kelley; senior w^arden, Charles C. Jones; junior warden, J. W. Williams; secretary, David Lesuer; treasurer, Abraham Ozmun; senior deacon, Edwin C. Dorr; junior deacon, C. D. Houghton : tyler, Peter Cassiday. The first meetings were held in Lesuer Hall, a little low second-story room over Lesuer^s store. It was part of the time used by day as a millinery shop, and the brethren had to move the feminine paraphernalia out of their way before opening lodge. A lodge room was afterward fitted up over the Free Press office, at the corner of Broadway and Fourth street, and still later, in 1864, commodious rooms were built by the lodge in the upper story of the Graham Block, at the corner of Broadway and Zumbro street. The present Masonic Temple at the corner of Zumbro and Main streets was completed and dedicated in January, 1901. It is a large and handsome three-story brick structure, with the first story occupied by the offices of Drs. Mayo, Stinchfield and Graham and the drug store of Webber & Heintz, the second story by the lodge room and banquet and reception rooms, and the third story by an ample public hall. It constitutes elegant Masonic headquarters. The lodge now has 175 members.

A golden jubilee of the lodge was held on the 23d of August, 1907, in the Masonic Temple, in celebration of the semi-centennial anniversary of its organization in 1857.

noon, at which there were present the grand master of the State, Gustav Widell, of Mankato; several of the grand officers, and more than three hundred Masons from the surrounding country and distant places. An address of welcome was made by J. A. Leonard, as the senior member of the lodge, and responded to by A. O. Eberhart, of Mankato, grand orator. A golden trowel was presented to the lodge from Home Commandery and Halcyon Chapter, in an address by Dr. W. Allen, of the commandery. A souvenir coin in commemoration of the occasion was presented to every Mason present. It was a most enthusiastic gathering.

At night the greatest banquet ever held there was assembled in the large and beautiful Masonic Hall. Dr. O. C. Hyerdale, worshipful master, presided, and nearly four hundred Masons and ladies were seated at the tables. A history of the first twenty-five years of the lodge was read by A. T. Stebbins, and of the last twenty-five years by C. E. Callaghan. An address was made by Rev. Joseph B. Hingely, of Minneapolis, and toasts were responded to by the grand master, Dr. Charles H. Mayo; Calvin L. Brown, justice of the supreme court; Rev. Frank Doran, of Winona; H. R. Wells, of Preston; Chief Justice Charles M. Start; Attorney General E. T. Young, and L. L. Brown, of Winona. There was music by the Metropolitan Orchestra and singing by a quartet consisting of Hamlet Easton, John Magaw, Miss Willett and Mrs. M. H. Knapp. The very happy occasion ended at half past one o'clock in the morning.

Martin W. Cook came to Rochester in 1857 from Michigan. He was born in 1826 in the state of New York. He started the first dairy for furnishing the city with milk and sold it to Winnie & Granger. He established a nursery and small fruit farm, was the pioneer strawberry raiser and built up a large business in supplying the city and shipping to the West. He died in 1897.

George W. Lovejoy came to Rochester about 1857. He was born in Massachusetts, went to Ohio when a child and caihe from there to Minnesota, settling first at Utica. He was a violinist of unusual ability and was for years the leading musician and teacher of music of the city. He met death by drowning in the Zumbro while fishing, within the city, in June, 1905.

Rochester had not the rough wildness of the frontier town of the novels, but its development was orderly and peaceful. The only tragedy of the frontier type was a murder in the spring of 1858. Two men, one named Ashenherst, the other an unknown stranger, were playing cards in a saloon in a basement on Broadway and in a quarrel, Ashenherst was fatally stabbed by the other man, who fled and escaped. Some pursuit of him was made, but he disappeared and all knowledge of him was lost.

Rochester's first bank was of the rather common variety of those days, known as wild cat. There was no government supervision of banks and any one could proclaim himself a banker and take in other people's money. A wild cat bank was one issuing currency without the expectation of redeeming it and the notes were generally put in circulation as far away from the bank of issue as possible, in the hope that they would never come home. About 1858 two well dressed and prosperous looking young men, whose names are not embalmed in history, rented an office, put in a large safe and called it a bank. The issue of currency constituted the principal business, and it went along till one day a man came to town carrying one of the black glazed traveling bags that were then in use. He went to the bank, opened the bag and brought out a bundle of the bills of the bank and asked the bankers to redeem them in money, and was told by them that they had no use for the bills, that nobody would take them and they could not buy anything with them. The man, who had bought up the bills at a discount, departed poorer and wiser, the bank was suspended and the young men left.

The first brick store building is the two-story one, now John Powderly's shoe store, at the corner of Broadway and College street. It was built in 1858 by Dr. Lewis H. Kelly, who lived in the building several years. The front part was occupied, at different times, as a dry goods store by William McCullough and F. W. Andrews and by Upman & Poole as a drug store, and afterwards by Cassiday's restaurant. It has been occupied a number of years by Mr. Powderly.

Dr. Kelly was born in the state of New York in 1808, moved to Ohio and came from there to Rochester in 1857 and engaged in the practice of medicine. He left Rochester in 1864 and went to

Hiram T. Horton came to Rochester to reside in 1858. He had been here two years before and made investments in real estate. . He was bom in New York state in 181 1, and was a carpenter. He lived four years in Ohio and went to Illinois and invested in real estate as early as 1837. He returned to New York in 1841 and lived there till he came to Rochester and became an extensive dealer in real estate. He was one of the most prominent citizens and highly regarded for his business capacity and excellent judgment. He served a term as alderman. About the year 1900 he went to Chicago, spent his remaining years there with his son, Horace E. Horton, and died in January, 1906, at the age of ninety-five years.

Horace E. Horton, son of Hiram T. Horton, was bom in the state of New York in 1843. He came to Rochester with his father in 1858. He studied surveying and civil engineering at Fairfield Seminary, New York, and returning to Rochester, followed that profession. He built several bridges in this vicinity, was architect of the city hall and Northrop school house and was city surveyor several terms and county surveyor. He became a member of a large bridge building corporation and built a number of the largest bridges in the country, among them, one at Fort SnelHng and one at St. Louis, and is a member of the leading societies of engineers. He removed in 1890 to Chicago, where he is still residing, engaged in this profession. His son, George, is also an eminent engineer and bridge builder.

George C. and David C. Cook, brothers, came to Rochester in 1858, bringing a livery stable outfit from Watertown, Wisconsin, where they had been in the business two years. They had previously been railroad graders in Ohio. They were natives of Vermont. George being born in 1828 and David in 1829. They had for years the leading livery stable of the city. In the early years it was the gathering place of the socially inclined and the Sunday morning sessions were especially interesting. David was dry and shrewd and George was decidedly sociable and interested in public affairs. He was three times elected alderman and was elected city assessor in 1874 and held the office till 1901, twenty-seven years. David died in December, 1894, and George in December, 1901.

Lyman L. Eaton left the state of New York and located with his family in the spring of 1855 on a farm in Cascade, about four miles west of Rochester. He kept tavern there on the main thoroughfare of westward travel, for a couple of years, and moved into Rochester. When the city was incorporated, in 1858, he was elected justice of the peace for the First Ward, and continued to administer the office twenty years, almost continuously till 1884, and two years of the time was city justice. He was sensible and fair, and his decisions were seldom appealed from. He died in February, 1887. His son, Burt. W. Eaton, is a prominent lawyer of Rochester.

Matthew Markham, who is still living in Rochester, came here in 1858. He was born in Rochester, Xew York, in 1826. He and his brother, Col. William Markham, served on a whaler and enlisted in the navy in the Mexican w^ar, serving twenty-two months. On his return after the war he followed his trade of brick mason in Milwaukee, Oshkosh and in La Crosse, where he assisted in building the first brick house in the city. He went to Le Seuer county in this state in 1855, from there to Sibley county. He has superintended the building of a number of the best brick structures in the city. He was badly injured in a railroad wreck in Wisconsin in 1890, but has fairly recovered from it.

Peter M. Tolbert, a lawyer, came from the state of New York in 1858. He practiced in partnership with Lloyd Barber and afterw^ards for several years alone, doing a large business. He died in March, 1884. His son, Irwin Tolbert, is an extensive farmer in Rochester township.

Rev. R. Reynolds organized a church in the summer of 1855 under the title of the First Congregational Church and Society of Rochester, but his theology was not sufficiently orthodox and that fall Rev. Elias Clark, a missionary of the American Home Missionary Society, came here and in January, 1858, organized a regular Congregational church with twelve members. Mr. Clark was the pastor till September, i860. Rev. H. H. Morgan afterwards preached for three months. He was followed by Rev. J. S. Whitman, a scholarly young man and an orator. He remained about a year. In November, 1862, Rev. William R. Stevens came and remained till his health broke down. He died in 1867. In November, 1866, Rev. A. Fuller came to the church and remained till July, 1874. when he went to Turkey as president of a missionary college. He returned after about thirty years' service and is now living in California. Rev. N. C. Chapin came in 1864 and staid till January, 1876. Rev. George P. Blanchard came in July, 1877, and staid till July, 1879. Rev. J. W. Bradshaw came in June. 1880, and staid till 1885, when he was followed by Rev. Jesse F. Taintor, who remained till 1903, filling a pastorate of eighteen years, one of the longest in the history of the city. He was the author, while here, of the ''Evolution of the Madonna,'' a work that has been highly commended. He is now a professor in the Ripon, Wisconsin, College. He was succeeded in 1904 by Rev. Charles H. Curtis, who came from Windom, Minnesota, and was previous to that assistant pastor of Westminster Church, Minneapolis. He resigned in February, 1908, and went to the People's Church of St. Paul. The Congregational Church has now 285 members.

ill 1863. The next year, before its completion, the walls were blown down in a storm and it was not till December of 1866 that it was finished. It had cost about $9,000. It has been improved from time to time and is a commodious and good-looking brick structure.

A semi-centennial celebration was held by the church Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the third, fourth and fifth of January, 1908, the fiftieth anniversary of its birth. A banquet was held at the church on Friday night, at which J. J. Casseday and L. O. Benjamin gave reminiscences of the early days of the church ; Rev. Taintor spoke of his long pastorate and there was singing by Mrs. R. L. Blakely, accompanied by Mr. Blakely. A reception was held at the residence of Mrs. A. Gooding Saturday night, and two able sermons were preached by Rev. Taintor on Sunday. An important feature of the celebration was the raising of a subscription of $1,000, by which the church was placed in the novel position, for a church, of being out of debt.

The first services of the Protestant Episcopal Church were held by Bishop Kemper, of Wisconsin, in the summer of 1858. Calvary Parish was organized by Rev. Charles Woodward June 7, i860. He came from St. Anthony, now part of Minneapolis. He continued as rector until 1866, after which he was for several years a farmer in Kalmar. He was a native of England and a very estimable gentleman. He died in November, 1891. It was during his incumbency that the church on Zumbro street was built, being completed in 1866. It has been improved at different times and has now a very beautiful interior. In 1867 Rev. W. J. Johnston became the rector. He was succeeded in 1869 by Rev. David P. Sanford, who was succeeded in 1870 by Rev. A. Spor; succeeded by Rev. A. W. Seabrease in 1872; succeeded by Rev. Jason F. Walker in 1875; succeeded in 1878 by Rev. J. K. Karcher, who was. converted to the Catholic Church, and was succeeded by Rev. Charles T. Coer in 1880: succeeded in 1884 by Rev. R. N. Avery, who resigned in 1889. He was followed by Mr. Taylor, a student at Seabury Divinity School. Faribault, who was succeeded April 26, 1889, by Rev. William W. Fowler, who is still the rector. He came from Gethsemane Church, Minneapolis, and had been nine years a missionary to Santee Sioux Indians in Nebraska. During his rectorship a guild hall has been built and subsequently enlarged; the church building has been twice remodeled in the interior; memorial windows of beautiful design and artistic value have been placed in the sanctuary and nave, and a pipe organ of tmusual sweetness has been placed in the choir.

Huber Bastian left a bequest of $1,000 to the church, and in 1907 Mrs. Margaret Brackenridge paid off the indebtedness of the church amounting to $1,700.

The Zumbro river, which is subject at intervals of several years to great freshets, had the first knov^rn, and perhaps the greatest of those spasms, in the summer of 1859. A storm which lasted all night with downpouring steadiness, the rain pounding down in solid sheets, raised the river so that the next morning it was flooded and not less than fifteen feet above its ordinary level. It was most destructive in Rochester, carrying away the bridges and everything on or near the river banks. A young man named Nathan B. Robbins, from Boston, one of the proprietors of the Olmsted County Journal, was drowned in the reservoir of Cole's mill, while endeavoring to dam the flood. He was a talented gentleman and his death was mourned by the little community as a public calamity.

Olan Oleson started a wagon shop on a small scale in 1859, which he developed into a large establishment, and, in partnership with Frank Larsen, built a large stone factory at the corner of Broadway and Fifth street, now occupied by Roth & Freeman's agricultural machinery store.

The Rochester City Post was established by David and Cyrenus H. Blakely, brothers, in the fall of 1859. It lived to be the longestlived paper in the city, and is still in existence as part of the Post and Record. After six years' successful publication by the Messrs. Blakely, it was sold, in 1865, to Leonard & Booth. In 1875 Mr. Leonard became the sole proprietor, Mr. Booth removing to Minneapolis. The Post was issued as a daily for free distribution during each of the six state fairs held in Rochester. During the absence of Mr. Leonard as United States Consul for two periods of four years each, it was conducted by Lewis H. and Pembroke S. Kelly, brothers, who were for a number of years foremen in the office. They started a daily edition under the name of the Leader in 1892. The title was afterwards changed by Mr. Leonard to the Daily Post. In 1899 the Post was sold to Charles P. Stine, of St. Paul, and transferred to Blakely & Son and consolidated with the Record and Union under the title of Post and Record. It ranks as one of the best local dailies of the state.

The Nordisk Folkeblad, a Norwegian newspaper, was established by Leonard & Booth, publishers of the Post, in 1868; edited by Sundorf Christenson, a native of Denmark, who came to Rochester from La Crosse. He was an able editor and the paper acquired a large circulation. After about nine months it was sold to Mr. Christenson, who moved it to Minneapolis. It was the first Scandinavian paper published west of the Mississippi river. Mr. Christenson was afterwards assistant secretary of state and later a banker at Rush City, where he died.

learned the trade of printers and were very proficient at it. Lewis died in September, 1892, at Wilmot, South Dakota, where he was publishing a paper, and Pembroke is now conducting a job printing office in Rochester.

The Rochester City Nezvs was started in October, 1859, by C. W. Blaisdell. He ran it about a year when it was bought by Dr. L. H. Kelly and his son-in-law, William H. Mitchell, who published it as the Rochester Republican, Dr. Kelly retired, selling out to R. H. Hoag, from Northfield, in about a year. Hoag enlisted and Mitchell, in 1862, formed a partnership with S. W. Eaton as editor. In 1865 Mitchell sold to Mr. Eaton and U. B. Shaver, who conducted the paper till 1867, when the subscription list was bought by Leonard & Booth and Mr. Eaton became associate editor of the Post. Mr. Shaver took the material of the office to Kasson in 1867 and made a success for years of the Dodge County Republican, He died at Kasson in March, 1898.

Andrew Nelson came to Rochester in 1859. He was a native of Norway, born in 1837, came to America in 1844 and lived in Wisconsin previous to coming to Rochester. After being employed in the stores of George Wead, who was his brother-in-law, and Henry M. Kellogg, he opened a store of his own in 1862, which developed into a very large drj^ goods establishment, and later a wholesale carpet store. He had great force of character and was prominent in city affairs, being six times alderman and twice mayor. He died in July, 1 89 1.

The German Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1859 and the church building was erected in 1867. The first pastor was Rev. F. Groeschtenmeyer, who served from 1859 to i860. Revs. C. Thalenhorst and F. Hermesmeyer followed in succession, each staying one year. Rev. H. Boettcher came in 1862 and staid till 1865; Rev. A. Lamprecht from 1865 to 1868; Rev. H. Roth from 1868 to 1871 ; Rev. Adam Miller came in 1871 ; Rev. F. W. Buckholtz in 1873 ; Rev. George Hoerger in T875, and Rev. H. Schnitker in 1877; each of these staid two years. Rev. F. Hogref came in 1879 staid till 1882. Rev. H. Roth came again in 1882 and Rev. C. L. Lenhert in 1884, and each staid two years. Rev. J. C. Pfeifer staid from 1886 to 1887; Rev. G. A. Rabe from 1887 to 1889; Rev. C. A. Barchardt from 1889 to 1893; R^^. William Pagenhart from 1893 to 1895 : Rev. H. Clement from 1895 to 1900; Rev. W. F. Maas from 1900 to 1901 ; Rev. W. E. Baumgarten from 1901 to 1906, and Rev. F. C. Schulz, who is now the pastor, came in 1906. The church has sixty members.

Zion's Church, near Dover, organized in 1875, and Emanuel Church, on Greenwood Prairie in Farmington township, organized in 1877, are connected with the church at Rochester.

Rev. 1. M. Westfall, of Lafayette, Indiana, preached the first Universalist sermon in Rochester in the spring of i860. He organized a church and preached for it and at Mantorville, Cascade, Spring Valley and other places till 1863, when he moved away and the meetings were suspended till 1866, when the church was resurrected by Rev. S. Wakefield, from Elkader, Iowa, assisted by Rev. S. W. Eaton, of Rochester. Mr. Wakefield was pastor of the church till the spring of 1868. During his incumbency a neat wooden church building was erected at the corner of Zumbro and Franklin streets, and it became known as Grace Church. Rev. H. L. Haywood, from Tecumseh, Michigan, was pastor for a year. He was succeeded by Rev. Miss Eliza Tupper, from Neenah, Wisconsin. She remained about six months, when she left and married W. A. Wilkes, a lawyer of Neenah. The next year was filled by Rev. J. W. Keyes, after which Mrs. Wilkes returned and was the shepardess till 1873. She was very popular. She was succeeded by Miss Florence E. Kollock, a student of thology from the state of New York, who remained about three months. Rev. George H. Deere came from Danbury, Connecticut, in January, 1875. He was a scholarly and cultivated gentleman and very pleasing speaker, and during his pastorate the present very comfortable brick church was built at a cost of $16,000. In 1881 Mr. Deere removed to California, where he is still living, and was succeeded by Rev. J. M. Payson, from Sherman, New York, who staid till 1886, and was followed in 1887 by Rev. W. H. McGlauflin, an eloquent and very popular pastor. He was succeeded in 1892 by Rev. L. D. Boynton, who was also eloquent and popular. He was succeeded in 1898 by Rev. L. W. Brigham, and he in 1902 by Rev. O. C. Evans. In 1905 Rev. George F. Patterson came and is still here, and the church is growing under his popular ministrations.

Rev. Sheldon Jackson, who was then located at La Crescent, Minnesota, held the first Presbyterian service at the old court house in January, 186 1. Mr. Jackson and Rev. J. C. Caldwell, missionary for the Synod of St. Paul, organized the church February 17 of that year in Morton hall. The original members were: Mrs. John R. Cook, Mr. and Mrs. Robert McBride, John H. Hyatt, his mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Hyatt, and Mr. and Mrs. George Miller. Mr. Jackson was the minister till the services were procured of Rev. Robert F. Taylor, who resigned after a few months and returned to Ohio, where he died. Rev. George Ainslie, who had been a missionary to the Choctaw Indians, became the pastor in 1862, and Rev. Sheldon Jackson became his associate in 1864. In the fall of 1865 ^ "^^ft frame church was finished on Zumbro street at a cost of $8,000. A manse was also built, and the church was presented with a 1,500- pound bell by a church of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. In 1868 Mr. Jackson resigned and w^as succeeded by Rev. J. T. Killen, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and in 1873 he was succeeded by Rev. H. A.

Newell, who was succeeded in 1882 by Rev. Cyrus A. Hampton, who staid till 1886. Rev. Charles H. Smith came in 1887 and staid a year. Rev. L. H. Mitchell came in 1889 and left in 1893. Rev. John Pringle staid from 1894 to 1895. Rev. Newman H. Burdick came in 1896 and staid till 1900. Rev. William B. Gantz came in 1901 and left in 1905 and was succeeded that year by Rev- Robert K. Wharton, who is the present pastor. The church has 250 members.

Mr. Jackson became a missionary in Alaska, was made commissioner of education by the United States Government and achieved a national reputation by obtaining reindeer from Siberia for domestication in Alaska.

Rev. George Ainslie was a native of Scotland. He filled appointments for several years at Chester and other villages, and later located on a fruit farm adjoining Rochester, where he died in July, 1885. He was quite* a naturalist, and his son, Charles N. Ainslie, who was for years a bookkeeper in the First National Bank, became an amateur entomologist and is now employed in that branch of the agricultural department at Washington. Another son, Rev. John Ainslie, was for several years a missionary in Turkey, and, returning, was several years a pastor at Washington, Fillmore county, and is now living in California.

John D. Blake came to Rochester in 1861 and opened a large dry goods store. He was born in Vermont in 1838, and was a clerk in a store at the age of sixteen years and early engaged in business for himself. He revolutionized the business of selling goods in Rochester. Up to his time business had been carried on in the old, easy-going way of buying and selling on credit and at a good profit and expecting goods to sell themselves, but Blake introduced the more modern methods of selling as nearly as possible for cash and getting rid of all surplus stock. The present system of low prices and forced sales and extensive advertising that have made the city a great center for retail trade had its initiation in his business methods.

Mr. Blake was plaintiff in the first suit brought in the courts of this state for the control of the railroads. The legislature of 1871, in which L. B. Hodges and R. A. Jones, of this county, were leading anti-railroad members, passed a law prescribing the rates of freight to be charged by the roads. Blake, supported by the merchants of Rochester, sued the Winona & St. Peter Railroad Company in 1872, in the district court, under the law, for excessive freight charged on some dry goods. The suit was prosecuted by William P. Clough, a young lawyer of Rochester, and defended by Mitchell & Gale, of Winona, the company's attorneys. The question in the case was as to thje right of the legislature to fix the freight rates of the roads. The right of the legislature to control the road was denied by Judge Waterman, of the district court.

who decided that the law was unconstitutional. ' The case was appealed to the supreme court and that tribunal reversed the findings of Judge Waterman and, in an opinion by Chief Justice Ripley, decided the law to be constitutional. This was the beginning of the control of railroads by the government, which has now become established. Mr. Clough, like Hodges, was afterwards employed by a railroad, becoming an attorney for the Great Northern road, and moving to St. Paul in 1872, and now a prominent official of that corporation.

Mr. Blake was a delegate to the International Sunday School Convention at London, and a lay delegate to the Methodist General Conference at Baltimore, in 1876.

In 1865 Alfred D. Leet and Stephen V. Crouch became partners in the firm of J. D. Blake & Company. Mr. Leet had come to Rochester in 1858 from Mantorville, and opened a clothing store in partnership with Jay La Due. He is a native of Xew York state, born in 1828. After a change in the firm he carried on a carpet store several years and is now^ living, having retired from business a few years ago. Mr. Crouch died in 1879. He was an excellent business man.

Elliott A. Knowlton came to work for the firm in 1867. was born in Vermont in 1844 and came to Northfield, Minnesota, at an early age. He attended Hamline University three years and enlisted in the Seventh Minnesota Regiment, serving in the Sioux war. He has been commander of Custer Post, G. A. R. He became a member of the firm of J. D. Blake & Company in 1874.

After doing a very extensive and successful business, Mr. Blake, in 1882, withjdrew and removed to Minneapolis, where he engaged in real estate business and died in October, 1906. The Rochester business was continued by the firm of Leet & Knowlton. Since the retirement of Mr. Leet Mr. Knowiton has taken in partnership his sons, George B. and Clarence E., and the firm is now the Knowlton Company, doing a very large business at the old stand.

Rochester Lodge, No. 13, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was instituted July 31, 1861. The charter members were John D. Ameigh. Cyrenus H. Blakelv, Dawson Bell, John W. E\-erstine and David Lesner. The first officers were noble grand, C. H. Blakely; vice grand, D. Bell ; secretary, J. D. Ameigh ; treasurer, D. Lesner. In 1875 ^he, Odd Fellows block was built by the lodge. A handsome two-story brick building with ample lodge rooms and a few offices in the second story, and below the postoffice, Saxer's cigar factory, and the ladies' furnishing store of Misses Scott & Everstine. It has become an important business center and, with its income of rents, is a memorial of the business sagacity of the lodge. The membership of the lodge is now 183.

market in 1862, the Oakwood Cemetery Association was established and forty acres of the state land was purchased for a cemetery. It has been added to from time to time till now there is seventysix acres. It is a pretty ridge, centrally located, and aside from the proximity of the railroads, is conveniently situated. Previous to its purchase a neglected spot near the east bank of the river, on the school section, which, belonging to the state, was a "no man's land," had been used as a place of interment, and though all the bodies were thought to be removed, on the opening of the cemetery, a few parts of skeletons have been found there within a few years, in digging for building sand. The association has improved the grounds till now it is a most beautiful city of the dead. Col. George Healy, who platted it in 1863, was, during his life, deeply interested in its development. He superintended the building of a receiving vault in 1890, and presented it to the association, and in his will left an endowment of about $60,000 for the perpetual improvement of the grounds. The first sexton and watchman of the CQinetery was George Tilbury, a policeman and city watchman for several years. Andrew Holm, the present sexton, has served in that capacity for twenty years, and under his tactful care the grounds have been constantly growing in beauty till now they are unsurpassed in attractiveness by those of any small city.

St. John's Catholic Church purchased fifteen acres on the school section in 1874 and has a cemetery that is prettily laid out and handsomely kept up.

George Healy was born in 181 2 in the state of New York. He was brought up on a farm, but became a civil engineer and followed that profession for several years, being engaged on the Erie canal and on the New York and Erie railroads, and acquired a competency. He came to Rochester in 1859 and engaged in money loaning. He also did some surveying as city surveyor and county surveyor. He was interested in weather observations and kept a daily record for years. He was a pioneer sheep raiser, bringing a large flock of Merino sheep here from Vermont and distributing them among farmers in the vicinity. He made a donation of $5,000 to the Public Library. He died in 1896. He was of correct business habits and strict integrity.

Henry Schuster was born in Prussia in 1835 and came to America when twenty years old, locating in Wisconsin. In 1863 he opened a blacksmith shop in Rochester and two years later he bought the brewery of William Thresher and enlarged and improved it from year to year, till in 187 1 it was destroyed by fire. He at once rebuilt it on a larger scale and continued the business till his death in August, 1885. He was very enterprising, liberal, generous and public spirited. He served four terms as alderman.

extract from the Rochester Post of May, 1865 : "Henry Schuster, the man who knocked down the traitor for exulting over the death of the president, runs a blacksmith shop immediately adjoining Ole Oleson's wagon factory."

Mr. Schuster left two sons, Henry and Frederick W., who, after their father's death, continued the business. Henry Schuster was born in Wisconsin in 1862 and Frederick W. in Rochester in 1863. The business has been incorporated under the title of the Schuster Brewing Company, and capitalized at $350,000. It has been pushed with great energy and developed into the largest business establishment of the city, with a group of substantial and handsome brick buildings, including the brewery, offices, bottling works, storehouse, cooper shop and barn. The equipment is, throughout, the most modern and up to date. Fifty men are employed, and the output is 10,000,000 bottles a year, of which about half is beer and by-products and half a malt tonic, sold in drug stores. These are shipped to twenty-three states, taking in the entire central, western and southern states. The Schuster Realty Company has al§D been incorporated and capitaHzed at $150,000. The Schuster Brothers are liberal contributors to public enterprises.

The first ministrations of the Roman Catholic Church in this vicinity were by Father Pendergast, who was the pastor at Winona. In 1863 Rev. James Morris became a resident priest at Rochester and established St. John's Church. Peter's Hall, the second story of the old court house, was the chapel, but Father Morris, looking ' to the future, bought from William McCuUough the site of the present church. His health failed and he was succeeded in 1866 by Rev. Thomas O'Gorman, a young, energetic and very eloquent preacher, who rapidly built up the church. He was also pastor of St. Bridget's Church in Pleasant Grove township. The building of the church edifice was commenced under his administration in 1866 and finished for occupancy in 1872. He left in 1877 and is now bishop of Omaha. Rev. Michael A. Breeton succeeded and remained till 1881. He was succeeded in 1881 by Rev. William Riordan, the present incumbent. Father Riordan's pastorate has been a very successful one, lasting more than twenty-six years, and being the longest tenure of office by any clergyman of the city. He was born in Ireland in 1838. was admitted to the priesthood in 1869 and came to America the same year, locating in St. Paul, where he was an assistant to Bishop Grace. He went to Chatfield in 1870 and came from there to Rochester. He has had a large addition built to the church, about doubling its capacity, and it is now the largest and most substantial church of the city - of grey limestone and of graceful proportions, and has a most beautiful interior, worthy a city of twice the size. The present membership of the church is 1,500, comprising a large proportion of farmers' families.