Sweet Township

Sweet Township

^iS. U Bailey was elected chairman of the board on the sixth ballot; the bonds of .some of the county officers were approved: the cinnily wa.s divided into two assessment districts; the whole county was created into one township and named Sweet; the motion prevailed that all deeded lands be assessed at $:i.OU per acre board of county commissioners at the second meeting, February 20, 1879. It was mimed by the county board in honor of the county's first settler. Asa Van Allstine, A. O. (Jiay and Samuel Harrison were appointed a board of election to preside over the llrst tnwn uiecfing on the second 'i'uesday in ^larcli, when were chosen the township's first officers. At the ele.tion. wliich \va^ lield in the village of Pipestone JIarch 11. tlic following were chosen the first officei's : 1). I-]. Sweel. chairman; Isaac N. Converse and .lobii Pearson, supervisors; John Stuart,'' clerk; Frank Pork, constable. The township organization was perfected when the board of supervisors met for the first time on March 23.

From time to time new townships were created until the original Sweet township was nearly legislated out of existence. In Decend)er, 1S79, its territory had been reduced to land comprising the present townships of Sweet, Altona and Aetna. On the eighth day of November the residents of township 106, range 46 and the fraction of range 47, petitioned the county board for organization under the name Sweet townsliip. leaving the other townships to shift for themselves. The petition was considered December 3, but because it did not contain the signatures of a majority of the legal voters of the precinct, the board did not at that time authorize the organization. However, the matter was remedied later, and Sweet township with its present boundaries was created. Following is a list of those wlio received title to land in Sweet township under the homestead and timber culture acts (not including pi'e-emptions) :'

The first township organized with tl)e botindaries as at present established was Osborne. In response to a petition of the residents, the commissioners declared it organized at a meeting on March 31, 1ST!). Tlie first tow)) meeting was held at the residence of E. W. Day on section vio .\pi-il 1."). The na)ne was suggested bv William J. I)odd and was given in honor of that gentleman's cousin, J. C. Osborne, of Newark, New .Jersev. Mr. Osborne presented the township with a large flag and a pennant upon which the are taken from the records in the office of the register of deed.s. The numJier in parentheses fo))owing- the name designates the section on which the land was located. Tiie seniority of title is maintained - the earliest appearing first on the list. The earliest title under the homestead and timber claim acts was received in 1879.

°Ma.ior D. E. Runals. of Osborne township, furnishes the following items concerning the early history of the precinct: The first breaking was done by George Ganfleld in 1876. He also erected the first building in the township, a sod hut on the northeast quarter of section 32. in 1S78. The same year another sod hut was erected hv another settler on the northeast quarter of section 8, The first frame building was put up in the spring of 1877 by A. D. Kingsbury on the southeast quarter of section Its