Viola Township (part 3 of 3)

Charles H. Burbank was born in New Hampshire in 1839. He served in the Union army and was captured and spent nine months in Libby prison, from which he never recovered. After the war he came to Olmsted county and was a farmer till elected register of deeds. He died in 1895. ^^'^^ ^'^O' popular throughout the

William Logan Brackenridge was born in Pennsylvania in 1856, and was an infant when he came to Rochester in the family of his father, Walter L. Brackenridge. He graduated from the Shattuck Military School at Faribault and at the law school of Michigan University, and became a partner in the law firm of Start & Gore, and afterwards practiced alone. He was very successful in his pro- fession and was a business man of unusual ability. He was city attorney of Rochester seven years and was also mayor. He was the Democratic candidate for attorney general of the state, and though not elected, polled the largest vote on the unsuccessful ticket of the minority party. He was prominent in most public enterprises of the city and very popular. He died in June, 1905, while in the midst of a promising career, at the age of forty-nine years.

Thomas Fraser is a son of John Fraser, an early settler in Dover township. He was born on the farm and reared as a fanner though educated in the schools of St. Charles. He learned surveying with his father and followed that profession, being county and city surveyor for four years. He read law in the office of H. A. Eckholdt, was admitted to the bar in 1892 and entered upon the practice in Rochester. He was elected judge of probate in 1893 and served two terms, after which he was for two terms county attorney, and is now engaged in a successful practice of his profession.

Joseph Underleak is a native of Bohemia, born in 1854. His parents emigrated to Wisconsin when he was eight weeks old and came to Chatfield in 1856. Mr. Underleak became a school teacher, after which he engaged successively in the grocery, lumber and hardware business, succeeding in all. He was admitted to the bar in 1893 and .has a large practice. He was town clerk ten years and was elected a representative in the legislative session of 1893 and served three terms and one term as state senator. He was a leading member of the judiciary and other important committees. He is a highly respected and influential citizen of Chatfield.

Adam Brin came as an infant with the family of his father, who settled in High Forest township in 1855. He was born in Germany in 1852. He was brought up on the farm and, with the exception of three years as a school'teacher, has been a farmer. He has held several township offices such as clerk and treasurer, and is popular with his fellow townsmen.

As a result of the development in this region of the stock and dairy industries there were in December, 1888, seven mills in Rochester at which feed was ground.

A meteoric stone weighing 203 pounds fell on the ground of A. W. Sears, in Rochester city, about the first of June, 1888. It fell on a bed of sand stone, into which it had sunk nearly two feet. It was dark colored, looking like iron and as smooth as if varnished.

St. Mary'S Hospital

THE Sisters of St. Francis, a charitable order of the Catholic church, who had been successfully conducting a convent and the Academy of Our Lady of Lourdes in Rochester since 1877, were impressed with the suitableness of the city as a location for a hospital under the patronage of the order. The mother superior, Mary Alford, consulted with Dr. William W. Mayo. The enterprise was undertaken and St. Mary's Hospital was founded in 1889, with Dr. Mayo as surgeon in charge, and opened October i of that year with a capacity of forty-five beds and about a dozen patients. During the first year over 300 patients were admitted and the number increased so rapidly that additions were made to the building in 1893, again in 1898 and again in 1903, and in 1908 the building was commenced of a wing costing $100,- 000. The hospital was dedicated April 6, 1894. Its present capacity is 180 beds. It consists of five connected buildings of brick, four stories in height with a frontage of 250 feet, and is surrounded by grounds of thirty acres kept in beautiful order. The structure and all appliances for surgery and for the care of patients are of the latest and most perfect kind.

Dr. Mayo. Sr., associated with him his sons, Drs. William J. and Charles H. Mayo, and gradually withdrew from the personal management, leaving them as surgeons in charge, but is still on the staff as consulting surgeon.

The success and growth of the hospital, which is open only to surgical cases, has been phenomenal. It is recognized as one of the very best in the United States, and we have the statements of leading surgeons that the Drs. Mayo are among the most skillful operators in the world. An average of from fifteen to twenty important operations are performed daily, and the successful outcome and the small percentage of deaths is wonderful. There were 5.^23 patients treated at the hospital in the year 1907. Miss Alice Magaw, now Mrs. Dr. Kessler, who was the anaesthesian for several years, administered unconsciousness to more than 17,000 subjects of operations.

Though the hospital is a Catholic institution, it is an interesting fact that of the religious beliefs of the patients in 1907 only 704 were Catholics. All creeds and beliefs were represented, and the most numerous was the Lutheran, 916 in number.

Bethel Lutheran Church, Rochester

The hospital has become a great clinical post-graduate school for surgeons, and nearly every day a number of the profession, many themselves distinguished surgeons, come to Rochester to witness the operations performed, most of them staying from one to several weeks. Not only American, but celebrated foreign surgeons from different countries of Europe and from far Japan are among the visitors. St. Mary's has been called a surgeon's hospital from the fact that surgeons in need of surgery are more likely to submit to the Mayos than to any other of the profession. From sixty to eighty physicians are operated on there in the year.

Every train coming into the town brings patients, accompanying friends and visitors; every train leaving the town carries them away. The busiest place in the city is the office in the Masonic Temple, where every day not less than a hundred people of all classes are waiting to have their cases diagnosed; perhaps half of them to be admitted to the hospital and all of them to be carefully examined and advised. This influx of people, which is claimed to add a floating population of not less than 1,500, has taxed the boarding accommodations of the city. Cook's hotel, a large one for the size of the town, has been enlarged. The Kahler, a large additional hotel owned by the landlord of Cook's, has been built. Several of the other hotels have been enlarged. Chute's Sanitarium, the West and several smaller hotels and boarding houses have been established. The hotel capacity of the town has been increased by 250 rooms in the past two years, and besides a number of houses convenient to the hospital are boarding the strangers.

There are now in the city of about 8,000 population fourteen hotels and thirty boarding houses. The hospital has converted the town into a camp.

and came to Rochester with his father's family about 1863. He graduated in the medical department of the University of Michigan in 1883 and entered on the practice of his profession at Rochester. He is a member of the Olmsted County and the Minnesota State Medical associations, and president of the American Medical Association. The degree of Doctor of Science was conferred on him by the University of Michigan in 1908.

At the meeting of the American Medical Association, held at Portland, Oregon, in July, 1905, Dr. William J. Mayo was unanimously elected president. This honor, placing him at the head of his profession in the United States, was fully appreciated by his neighbors and friends, and on his return home a banquet in his honor was given at Cook's hotel on the evening of July 24. He was accompanied from the convention by a number of the most eminent physicians and surgeons of the country. The banqueting rooms were profusely decorated w^ith flowers and all available space was crowded with citizens of Rochester and guests from abroad. Hansner's Orchestra played and Hamlet Easton sang at intervals. Dr. Horace H. Witluratim presided. An opening address, very eloquent and highly eulogistic, was delivered by Thomas Spillam. He was followed with speeches by Dr. C. M. Rosser, of Austin, Texas; Frank B. Kellogg, of St. Paul; Dr. W. D. Haggard, of Nashville, Tennessee ; Senator Moses E. Clapp, of St. Paul ; Chief Justice Charles M. Start, Governor John A. Johnson and R. F. Edwards, of Oklahoma, who presented an elegant cut-glass vase to Dr. Charles H. Mayo. Last of all a loving cup of solid silver inscribed as from **His many Rochester friends'* was presented to Dr. William J. Mayo by A. T. Stebbins and accepted in a speech in which the doctor claimed equal appreciation with himself for his brother Charles, saying that "Together they had labored side by side and the achievements of one were the achievements of the other."

It was stated at the meeting at which Dr. Mayo was elected to the presidency that he had been honored as one of the most distinguished surgeons of America to have a degree conferred at a meeting of the University of Edinburgh, but had to decline the honor because unable to make the trip to the Scottish capital.

Dr. Charles H. Mayo was born at Rochester in 1865. He graduated at the Rochester High School, graduated as a physician at the Chicago Medical College in 1888 and received the honorary degree of M. A. from the Northwestern University in 1903. He entered upon the practice of medicine at Rochester in 1888. He was elected president of the Minnesota State Medical Association in 1905.

Dr. Augustus W. Stinchfield was born in Maine in 1842. He was educated at Bowdoin College, taught school and served as a Union soldier in the war of the rebellion and graduated as a physician at the Maine Medical College and the University of Michigan. He went to Missouri in 1868 and followed his profession there till 1872, when he came to Minnesota, and in 1873 located in Eyota. He removed to Rochester and in 1892 became a member of the firm of Mayos & Stinchfield. His specialty is diseases of the heart and lungs, in which he has the highest reputation. He retired from the firm in 1906 and has since done a limited private practice. He is a prominent member of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Christopher Graham was born in the State of New York and came to Kalmer with the family of his father, Joseph Graham, who was one of the earliest settlers of that township. He graduated at the University of Minnesota and the University of Pennsylvania, and became a member of the medical firm of Mayo, Graham & Co. He is a member of the State Board of Health and of several medical societies.

Dr. Edward Starr Judd is a native of the county, a son of Edward F. Judd, deceased, who was a well-known grain buyer in Rochester when the doctor was born in 1878. He graduated at the Rochester High School and went to the University of Minnesota, where he graduated as a physician in 1893. He then became an interne in St. Mary's Hospital and has ever since been connected with that institution. He has a high reputation as an operating surgeon.

Amherst W. Blakbly T. H. Bliss A. T. Stebbins

Alonzo T. Stebbins was bom in Massachusetts in 1847 and in 1857 came to Winona county with his father's family, who settled on a farm there. He attended the Winona high school and Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College in Boston. He was clerk in a hardware store in Winona and came from there to Rochester in 1871 and established a store of his own and has acquired a large business. He served one term as representative and was elected state senator in 1895 and served one term. He has been a prominent citizen of Rochester, active in all public affairs, and has held several local offices, having been alderman, president of the Board of Trade, and of the Southern Minnesota Fair Association, and a trustee'of the State Hospital for the Insane. He is prominent in Free Masonry, being several years master of the Rochester Lodge and for two terms grand master of the State - in 1898 and 1899. He has been president of the Minnesota Hardware Association and is now president of the National Retail Hardware Association.

The centennial anniversary of the inauguration of Washington as president, which was celebrated in many of the large cities of the countr>% was also celebrated at Rochester, on Tuesday, April 30, 1889. Services were held in the churches in the morning, most of the business fronts on Broadway were decorated and a great meeting was held at Clark's Opera House in the afternoon, preceded by a march on Broadway by the City Band and the Grand Army Drum Corps. The meeting was presided over by Mayor Porter. There was music by Lovejoy's Parlor Orchestra, comprising George W. Lovejoy, Misses Minnie May. Mayl)el and Eva Lovejoy, E. D. Wilson and E. S, Crowell ; singing by a quartet comprising Mrs. Knapp and Messrs. Knapp, Ainslie and King, and a choir comprising Mesdames Mosse and Knapp, Misses Crouch and Busian and Messrs. Knapp, Ainslie, King and Hopkins. There was Scripture reading by Rev. E. R. Pope, Baptist; prayer by Rev. Frank Doran, Methodist; reading of Washington's inaugural address by Rev. W. H. McGlauflin, U niversalist ; addresses by Hon. J. A. Leonard and Hon. C. M. Start ; singing of "America," and benediction by Rev. L. H. Mitchell, Presbyterian. Another meeting was held at night by the Knights of Labor, in the United Workmen Hall, which was presided over by J. W. Grainger and addressed by Rev. E. R. Pope and Rev. Frank Doran, and singing by a club consisting of Messrs. King, Walden, Magaw and Seikert, accompanied by Miss Schuster. The German Library Association wound up the day by a ball at their hall at night.

In the political campaign of 1890 a combination was made by which the Democratic party adopted legislative nominations made by members of the Farmers' Alliance and a vigorous and bitter campaign was waged between the Republican party and the combined opposition. The Alliance candidates were zealous in opposition to the railroads and to the McKinley tariff and succeeded in drawing off many Republican votes, and the result was a decided victory for the opposition on the legislative ticket. Most of the incumbent county officers were re-elected.

For the legislature, W. W. Mayo, of Rochester, was elected senator, and, as representatives, Corwin French, of Quincy, and J. Lyman Wright, of Cascade - all Alliance candidates.

Corwin French was born in Pennsylvania in 1850. He moved to Wisconsin and, in 1854, to Wabasha county, and in 1862 settled on a farm in Quincy township, where he prospered and was ten years town clerk and held other local offices. He has been for a few years past, a resident of the city of Rochester, and has moved to Idaho.

Robert Hall was born in the State of New York in 1835, went to Wisconsin in i860, and came from there to Rochester in 1865. Two years later he located on a farm in Cascade and eight years later removed to a farm in Kalmar. He served two years as commissioner from Kalmar, resigning in the middle of the term because of his removal to Rochester in 1892, where he is still living. He was again elected commissioner, from Rochester, in 1896, and ser\-ed two terms, and was chairman of the board. He has taken much interest in the good roads movement, and is now superintendent of highways for Olmsted county. He was a delegate to the National Highway Convention at St. Louis in 1903, and is a vice president of the State Board of Charities and Corrections.

John Michael Duell was born in Bavaria in 1847 came' to America in 1868, and in 1870 to Viola, where he engaged in farming, and has developed a fine estate. He has been township assessor several terms, school treasurer twenty-five years, and has held other township offices. He was president of the Rochester Farmers' Fire Insurance Company from 1882 till his resignation in 1907. The company started with insurance amounting to $25,000 and now has $4,250,000. He is now vice president of the State Insurance Society. As agent of one of the great steamship companies he has brought more than a thousand immigrants from Germany, and

The change in farming in this county from the single-crop system to varied interests was illustrated by the fact that in two days in July, 1891, there were marketed in Rochester 10,300 pounds of wool, divided among eleven sellers ; and there is no reason to believe that this included the bulk of the clip, as the main sheep-growing section was in the eastern part of the county. The price paid was from 16 to 21 cents a pound.

In 1892 the supreme court of the State appointed Charles C. Willson, of Rochester, official reporter of the decisions of that body. He edited twelve volumes, from Vol. XLVIII to Vol. LIX, inclusive, performing the duty with much ability, till the legislature, in 1896, in a paroxysm of ignorant economy, reduced his salary from $3,500 to $2,000, whereupon he asserted his selfrespect by resigning. He is a native of the State of New York, bom in 1829. He received an academic education, was admitted to the bar in that State, and practiced the profession seven years before removing to Rochester in 1858. He had come here two years previously, and invested in some lots on College street, which he helped clear of the brush that then covered most of the townsite. He is now the senior member of the Olmsted county bar, and has an extensive and high-class practice. He has avoided political office-holding, though serving one term as a member of the Rochester School Board. He was for a few years the owner of a large tract of land in Haverhill township, devoted to the raising of grain.

Thursday, October 6, 1892, was celebrated in Rochester as the two hundred and fifth anniversary of the first settlement of Germans in America, at Germantown, Pennsylvania. The Germans of this vicinity were reinforced by hundreds from outside places, and the celebration was a very enthusiastic one. A grand parade was made by Uncle Sam, in person, followed by the St. Charles Band, after which was a large delegation of ex-soldiers of the Union and of the German armies, with a martial band. There were several large floats, one with Germania and Columbia with their retinues; a representation of the ship that brought over the first German immigrants; the Rochester Turners with the Rochester Band; an industrial parade of eight large floats, representing different avocations; ending with citizens on horseback and in carriages. It was one of the most elaborate displays ever paraded in the city. A crowded meeting was held in the opera house at night, followed by an exhibition by the Rochester Turners and a large dance in the German Library Hall.

Pleasant Grove township. He was born in the State of Pennsylvania in 1847 came to Pleasant Grove with his father's family in 1856. He removed to Rochester in 1883 and was a barber there and a restaurant-keeper w^th the exception of about five years from 1896, which he spent in Stewartville. He died in 1906. His striking resemblance to the well-known pictures of Uncle Sam led him to dress, on occasion, in that character and he was in great demand as a leader of Fourth of July and other patriotic parades. He was a finely built man of over six feet in height and erect, and at the head of a procession, very dignified, slim and long-faced, with handsome features and the chin whisker and long hair of the historic character, wearing the tall white hat, long-tailed coat and striped trousers so familiar, he strode along, a most unique embodiment of the patron saint of the country.

The representatives in the legislative session of 1893 were Henry M. Richardson, of Rochester, and Joseph Underleak, of Chatfield - both Republicans. Representative rn^lerlcak served three terms.

The new county officers elected in November, 1892, were: Sheriff, Charles N. Stewart, of Stewartville, Republican; judge of probate, Thomas Fraser, of Rochester, Republican; county attorney, George \V. Granger, of Rochester, Republican; surveyor, John Fraser, of Dover. Democrat; county commissioners, Patrick Norton, of Rochester, Democrat; B. A. Doherty, of Byron, RepubHcan. and Charles A. Hoffman, of Farmington, Republican.

Charles N. Stewart was the only son of Charles Stew^art, w^ho founded Stewartville. and represented Olmsted county twice in the legislature. Charles N. was born at Stewart in 1858. He was educated at Shattuck Academy, Faribault. He engaged in the milling business with his father, on w^hose death he became the owner of a large tract of real estate, including a portion of the site of Stewartville. He was greatly instrumental in securing the location of the railroad at that point and in developing the prosperous village. As sheriff he was very popular. After his official service he resided in Rochester, where he died in February, 1891. He was a gentleman of most genial manner and universally liked.

George W. Granger is a son of Abner Granger, w^ho settled on a farm in Cascade township in 1867 and became a dairyman, doing a large business. George was bom on the farm in 1869. He was educated in the Rochester High School, studied law with Burt W. Eaton, Esq., was admitted to the bar in 1890, and engaged in practice in Rochester. He is now a member of the firm of Callaghan & Granger, and is of high standing in the profession and in the community.

try in 1854, landing in New York. He lived in Wisconsin, woricing in different places, till 1858, when he came to Wabasha county and worked as a farm hand till 1862, when he took a farm in Farmington township and became a leader in that community of German farmers. He held the offices of supervisor, town treasurer and school commissioner. He moved to Rochester in 1902, where he died in September, 1905.

Patrick Norton was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1826, and came to America in 1850, landing at Boston. He moved to Wisconsin the next year and from there to Rochester in 1856, entering the shop of Clark & Lockie and working at blacksmithing till 1873, when he opened the Norton House, which became the popular farmers' hotel of the city. He gave up hotel-keeping in 1894, and has since been a farmer in the vicinity of Rochester. He was a conscientious, practical officer, of unusually good judgment.

B. A. Doherty was a native of Ireland, born in 1833, and immigrating with his parents to Canada while a child. He came to Massachusetts in 1850 and engaged in farming. He went back to Canada and bought a farm and then went to the Pennsylvania oil region and came from there to Kalmar, near Byron, in 1865, where he has been a successful farmer. He was a man of much intelligence, of positive convictions, and much interested in education, and was for several years clerk of his school district. He died in January, 1906.

IX the spring of 1893 the farms of this vicinity were threatened with a great calamity. In locaHties in Dakota the Russian thistle had so overrun some of the fields and so resisted all efforts at extermination, that farms had to be abandoned. Its seeds were believed to have been brought from Russia mixed with flax seed imported from that country for its superior quality. In appearance the thistle was much like the well-known tumbleweed, and when dead and dried was uprooted by the wind and driven everywhere, scattering its seed wherever it went. Its importation here was the result of the wTeck of a freight train on the railroad near Dover. The contents of twenty-three cars loaded with grain from Dakota were scattered on the ground, and some of it gathered up by farmers and the flax sowed for the next crop. When it grew it w^as found to be full of the pestiferous weed. For a couple of seasons it was a threatening annoyance, but was checked before it became generally prevalent, and is now only a memory.

The new county officers elected in November, 1894, were: Auditor, S. O. Sanderson, of Rock Dell; treasurer, Gustavus Hargesheimer, of Rochester; register of deeds, James F. Spencer, of High Forest; clerk of court, John C. Crabb, of Byron; surveyor, William C. Fraser, of Rochester; court commissioner, C. E. Callaghan, of Rochester; coroner, A. S. Adams, of Rochester; county commissioners, M. J. Merrick, of Dover, and Andrew C. McCoy, of Salem - all Republicans.

Surveyor Fraser served four terms, Clerk of the Court Crabb three terms of four years each, and Register Spencer and Auditor Sanderson two terms.

Sander O. Sanderson was born in Rock Dell township in 1868. He worked on a farm and in the blacksmith ^hop at that place till 1885, when he entered the store of Nels Magneson, at Rock Dell, as clerk. He graduated at Darling's Business College in Rochester and became bookkeeper and salesman in the Boston Clothing House in the same city. He next became a partner with Mr. Magneson and afterward sole proprietor of the store. He served as town treasurer and treasurer of the Zumbro Creamery Company and the Rock Dell Butter and Cheese Company. He was elected auditor by four majority. He was of very social manners and exceedingly popular. He has removed to Minneapolis, where he is now treasurer of the Northwestern School Supply Company.

came to America in 1857 and located in Chicago, where he went to school and entered a college of pharmacy, and on the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion enlisted in the Union army, being then only eighteen years old. He served in the Twenty-fourth Illinois Regiment till August, 1864. He came to Rochester in 1865 and entered the drug store of Woodard & Ells and, a year later, started a store of his own, securing a large trade. He was very popular and a representative member of the German-American community, being prominent in their societies on all public occasions. He was several terms commander of Custer Post, Grand Army of the Republic. Rochester had no better citizen. He was re-elected treasurer and served till March, 1898, when he died while in office. The county commissioners appointed his son Max treasurer for the unfinished term.

John C. Crabb is the son of James Crabb, who was one of the pioneer settlers of Rochester, having made a claim on the townsite in 1855. Mr. Crabb removed to a farm in Cascade township a year later, and there John C. was bom in i860. His father died when he was but four years old. He obtained his education in the district school and at the Union Normal School. He adopted the profession of teacher and followed it eleven years. In 1862 he engaged in merchandising in Byron, in partnership with S. E. Tompkins, and was so engaged when elected clerk of the court. In 1907 he opened a real-estate office in Rochester, in partnership with James Kelly. He enjoys a very extensive acquaintance throughout the county, and is very popular.

William C. Eraser is a son of John Eraser, a pioneer farmer of Dover township, and a brother of Thomas Eraser, of Rochester. He was born in Dover township in 1869. He attended the public schools of St. Charles and graduated at Darling's Business College in Rochester. He is of a family of surveyors, his father haying been county surveyor of Olmsted county, from whom the two sons, Thomas and William, inherited that profession. William has been very successful as surveyor and civil engineer, having been city engineer of Rochester several years, during which he built a large number of sewers. He is a contracting engineer, making a specialty of building sewers for cities throughout the State, and has taken much interest in the agitation for good roads. He has been president of the Minnesota Surveyors' and Engineers' Society. He was representative in the legislature in the sessions of 1903 and 1904.

Charles E. Callaghan was born in the State of New York in 1863. In 1865 he, with his parents, came to Rochester. He got his education in the schools of Rochester and Darling's Business

College, read law with H. A. Eckholdt, Esq., and was admitted to the bar in 1889. He served two terms as city attorney of Rochester. Besides being a member of the law firm of Callaghan & Granger, he has been since 1898 postmaster of Rochester, and is now filling his second term in that office. He is a popular speaker and in great demand in that capacity for public occasions in the surrounding country.

Dr. A. S. Adams was born in Ohio in 1850. He was educated in Oberlin College and Michigan University, and graduated in medicine at Wooster University. He practiced medicine ten years in Cleveland and came to Rochester in 1885 and has since practiced his profession here. He was coroner several years, and is now one of the Board of United States Pension Examiners.

Mathew J. Merrick was born in 1825, in Delaware. At the age of five years he moved, with his father's family, to Indiana. In 1856 Mr. Merrick removed to Burns Valley, near Winona, and in i860 settled on a farm in Dover township. He was highly respected by his neighbors, and has served twenty years as township treasurer and four years as a supervisor. He served one term as county commissioner.

Andrew C. McCoy was born in Illinois in 1842 and, with his father's family, settled on a farm in Salem township in 1856. He went to the district school and to Hamline University at Red Wing, where, in 1862, he enlisted in the Ninth Minnesota Regiment. He w^as captured at Ripley, Mississippi, after the battle of Guntown. and was for six months a prisoner at Andersonville. After being paroled he returned to his regiment and served till the end of the w ar, at the close of which he returned to Salem, and has ever since been a farmer there, having a model farm. He is a man of sterling character, highly respected by his neighbors. He has been a township supervisor, clerk of the township fifteen terms, and a member of the school board more than thirty years. He was elected representative in the legislature of 1903 and in that of 1907.

Miss Cora Wing, daughter of Hon. Marcus Wing, of Rock Dell, was appointed stenographer and typewriter to the judiciary committee of the house of representatives.

Joseph B. Kendall is a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1838. At the age of eighteen years he came, as one of the family of his father, Dr. Stanton B. Kendall, to Minnesota. In 1861 he enlisted in the Fifth Wisconsin Regiment, saw hard service in the Army of the Potomac, and was severely wounded in the battle of Chancellorsville, and rendered lame for life. He was appointed a clerk in the quartermaster's department at Washington, where he served four years. He graduated from a commercial and law school. In 1868 he opened a store at Byron and did an extensive business, and later became proprietor of a large brick yard, which he is still conducting. He had served his locality as justice of the peace, notary public and postmaster, and is prominent in all public affairs, being honored with the fullest confidence of the community.

Truman B. Horton was elected doorkeeper of the State senate in the session of 1895. He was born in the State of New York in 1847 and came with his father, who settled on a farm in Yankee Ridge, High Forest township, in 1861. He moved to Stewartville in 1883, worked nine years in the mill, and has ever since been a resident of the village. He has served three years as a member of the village council. He was appointed postmaster in 1901, and is still filling the ofiice, which is one of the best kept to be found anywhere.

The population of the county in 1895, according to the State census, classified as to occupations, was: Total population, 21,141; males, 11,236; females, 9,905; legal voters, 5.961 ; ex-soldiers, 209, and I ex-sailor. The male population was divided as follows: 3,240 farmers, 966 laborers, 495 mechanics and engineers, 3 lumber and woodsmen, 125 professional men, 193 dealers and supply men, 96 clerks, 21 railway men, 23 cooks, porters and bartenders; 269 merchants, 63 retired, 17 manufacturers, 221 unclassified.

The population has fluctuated with the different stages of the county's development. It had nearly 10,000 people in i860. The number doubled in the next twenty years, reaching 21,543 by 1880, decreased about a thousand by 1885 and 700 more in the next five years; then a new growth started and about 2,500 was gained by 1895 and nearly another thousand by 1900, and more than 700 was lost by December, 1905.

Corn harvesting machines were first used here in the harvest of 1895. The use of these new machines was followed by several accidents resulting from un familiarity with their dangers, and occasionally an arm or a head was sacrificed to the innovation, but experience and changes in the machines are lessening such accidents.

In the fall of 1896 the newly elected county officers were J. A. Leonard, Republican, judge of probate, and Robert Hall, Republican, of Rochester, and Fred Rucker. Democrat, of Oronoco township, county commissioners.

J. Fred Rucker was born in Germany in 1848, came to America with his parents and to Oronoco township in 1862. He acquired an education in English and became a farmer. He was successful and became prominent in the township. He has been a township supervisor and filled other town offices. He is highly respected and influential.

Royal H. Gove was a native of Vermont, born in 1830. He obtained an academic education and went to Illinois in 1851, taught school two years and returned to Vermont. In 1856 he went to Wisconsin and practiced law till 1864, when he came to Rochester, and was several years in the employment of Van Dusen & Co. He commenced the practice of law in Rochester in 1873 and afterwards became a partner with Richard A. Jones, which partnership lasted till Mr. Jones removed to Washington Territory. He was city assessor in 1869, city justice from 1870 to 1874 and city attorney in 1877 and 1889. He was prominent in Free Masonry and was grand master of the State. He was highly esteemed and respected. He died in 1903.

Edward Fanning, of Stewartville, Republican, was made assistant sergeant-at-arms of the house of representatives in the legislature of 1897. He was elected sergeant-at-arms of the house by the legislature of 1899 and for three subsequent sessions, and was a member of the house for the sessions of 1905 and 1907. He was born in 1862, and grew up on a farm in Wabasha county. At the age of twenty-one he came to Rochester and lived here till 1890, when Stewartville took on its new growth after the building of the railroad there. He then moved there, opened a barber shop, became prominent in the affairs of the village, engaged in different business enterprises and became one of the publishers of the Times. After living sixteen years in Stewartville he moved in 1907 to Wyoming, where he is now in the real estate business.

The year 1897 was marked by an interesting change in the citizenship of the State. When the State constitution was framed in 1857 the need of settlers and the proportion of foreigners to the native born was so great that it was necessary to admit the foreigners to local citizenship. In many townships there were not enough American citizens to fill the township offices, so that State constitution gave the right of voting and holding office to all natives of other countries who had filed their first papers, declaring their intention to become citizens of the United States, and many foreigners after making such a declaration would take no further trouble to become American. For nearly forty years those half citizens had voted for not only state, but also United States officers, and occupied office in the State, and the foreign vote was and still is the most considered in making political nominations. The legislature of 1895 submitted to the vote of the people an amendment to the State constitution requiring full citizenship of the United States as a prerequisite of Minnesota citizenship. The amendment was advocated in the legislature by foreign-born members and received the votes of most such voters at the polls and became a part of the constitution at the election of November, 1896. The result was the naturalization of hundreds of men who had scarcely been known as of foreign birth. Foreigners had previously been naturalized at the rate of about a dozen a year, but within the three years following the change in the constitution 563 foreigners in the county became full citizens of the United States. It was the last act in the Americanization of the immigrants.

The new county officers elected in November, 1898, were: Auditor, E. H. Walden, of Rochester; treasurer, A. R. Haggerty, of Farmington; register of deeds, James Kelly, of Stewartville; sheriff, E. H. Vine, of Viola ; county attorney, Thomas Eraser, of Rochester; school superintendent, A. R. Dresbach, of New Haven; coroner, F. R. Mosse, of Rochester; county commissioners, A. C. Aaby, of Rock Dell, and J. Preston, of Haven Hill. All Republicans.

Sheriff Vine and Coroner Mosse are still holding their offices in 1907; Register Kelly served four terms; Auditor Walden, Treasurer Haggerty and Commissioner Preston three terms, and County Attorney Eraser and Superintendent Dresbach two terms.

Edward H. Walden was from an early age a resident of Rochester. His father, Myron Walden, who was a carpenter, fell from a building in 1868 and fractured his spine, depriving him of the use of his lower limbs. He lived in that condition for years, being wheeled about in a chair. He was a familiar figure on the streets, as was his little son Edward pushing the chair. The care of the family devolving to a great extent on the boy, he as soon as old enough kept a confectionery stand, then became a clerk in the store of J. D. Blake & Co. In the meanwhile, though his opportunities for schooling were limited, he managed to acquire a good education. He was city treasurer six years and city recorder one term, and four years deputy county auditor. After his service as auditor he was appointed assistant land clerk in the office of the State auditor at St. Paul, where he now is. He is an officer of unusual ability, of excellent personal character and very popular.

Andrew Reed Haggerty was born in 1864 on the farm of his father, Joseph R. Haggerty, who in 1855 preempted in Farmington township. He was reared on the farm, taught school and held township offices. Since being county treasurer he has resided in Rochester and has served two terms of city assessor.

James Kelly was born in the State of New York in 1852 and came to Minnesota with the family of his father, Patrick Kelly, who located on a farm in High Forest township in 1856. He learned the trade of a blacksmith and worked as an apprentice and journeyman in Rochester three years and established a shop in Stewartville, where he followed the business till his election as register of deeds. He was elected clerk of High Forest township fifteen years in succession. He is now engaged in the real estate and insurance business in Rochester. He has been very popular, both as an official and an individual.

Elbert H. Vine is a son of Wandell Vine, an early settler of Viola township. He was born in New York city in 1858 and was brought with his father's family to Hadley valley in i860. From there the family moved to Viola the next year and he was reared on the farm, and acquired a farm of his own in the same township where he was living when elected sheriff. He is now serving his fifth term in the office and has made friends of the whole county.

Arthur R. Dresbach is a native of Olmsted county, being born in New Haven township in 1867. His father, Anthony Dresbach, came from Wisconsin to New Haven in the early sixties. Arthur was educated in the district school and graduated at Carleton College in 1887. He taught in the district schools of the county and was for a number of terms principal of the graded schools at Pine Island and Byron. He had intellectual ability and popular manners. He moved to St. Louis and is now believed to be somewhere in the Southwest.

Andrew C. Aaby was born in Wisconsin in 1856, came with his parents to Rock Dell in 1864 and is a farmer. He had been one of the supervisors of Rock Dell township and was fourteen years a school commissioner. He served three years as county commissioner, and in 1901 was appointed a member of the State Board of Appeals and filled that office two terms, till 1905. He is now secretary of the Hayfield Lumber Company.

Joseph Preston was born in the state of New York in 1841. He enlisted in the Union army in 1862 and served three years. He settled on a farm in Haverhill township in 1868 and was a justice of the peace ten years. In 1904 he moved to Elgin, Wabasha county, where he is now living. He was held in the highest respect by the entire community.

The State senator elected for the session of 1899 was Joseph Underleak, of Chatfield, and the representatives Henry R. Hymes, of Rochester, and Avery K. Bush, of Dover. All Republicans.

Henry R. Hymes is a native of Illinois, born in 1846. His father, John Hymes, a farmer, came to Haverhill in 1856, where Henry grew up. He came to Rochester in 1870 and was employed in the business of selling agricultural machinery. He started the first McCormick binder that was run west of the Mississippi. In 1875 he went into the machinery business on his own account. He was three years in partnership with John Edgar and has since conducted the business alone and is still engaged in it. Besides his service as representative he was two terms an alderman of Rochester.

In the fall of 1900 all the Republican incumbents of county offices except commissioners were renominated without opposition and reelected, the auditor, treasurer, register, surveyor and coroner having no opposition at the polls. A competent lady teacher, Miss Helen B. Searles, of Viola, was nominated by the Democrats in opposition to School Superintendent Dresbadi, but failed to win.

Lyman P. Case was born in Ohio in 1844. He came to Orion in 1854 with the family of his father, Stephen Case, who was one of the earliest settlers. Lyman P. has been a farmer in Orion for fifty years. He was several years chairman of the township supervisors and was four years and a half chairman of the county commissioners, and four years president of the State Association of County Commissioners. He has filled every position with credit. In 1906 he moved from the farm to that portion of Chatfield in Elmira township.

Almeron O. Cowles was a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1832. He acquired a common school education and learned the trade of carpenter. He came to New Haven township and settled on a farm in 1856, also following his trade. He procured the estabHshment of the Othello postoffice in his neighborhood, named it and was postmaster ten years. He resided six years in Mantorville working at his trade, but with that exception has lived on his farm. Plum creek, one of the feeders of the Zumbro river, has its source in a large spring on his farm. He served as township supervisor and justice of the peace, was prominent in local affairs and had the high regard of his neighbors. He was five years secretary of the State Association of County Commissioners and last year president, and was also president of the Olmsted County Good Roads Association. He died April 7, 1908.

Joseph W. Grainger, of Rochester, was appointed by Governor Van Sant in 1901 a member of the board of examiners in optometry and was reappointed at the end of the first term of three years for another term. He is a native of England, born in 1838. He learned watchmaking and jewelry and optics and came to America in 1868, locating in Wisconsin, and came to Rochester in 1883, where he has since followed the business of optician. He has been president of the Southern Minnesota Optical Association two terms and of the Northwestern Optical Association four terms, and is now president of the board of regents of that association. He has been presented by the association with a gold medal and a handsome silver cup as testimonials of his services.

The box elder bug [leptocoris vittatus], a black bug with lines of bright red on the edges of its wings, appeared in 1901 and tlireatened the destruction of that species of tree, but after disporting itself on their leaves for a couple of years and in some localities invading dwellings, it disappeared.

The assassination of President McKinley was publicly mourned by an immense demonstration at Rochester on the day of the funeral, Thursday, September 19, 1901. Rain prevented a parade that was to have included all the societies of the city. Places of business were all closed and the whole city was dressed in mourning. The demonstration of love and reverence for the lamented President could not have been more general or sincere. A meeting that had been called to be held at the Opera House was so crowded that an overflow meeting was held in the Masonic hall. Both places were packed with auditors. In the Opera House Mayor E. L. Sinclair presided. Prayer was offered by Rev. William Riordon. and there was singing by a quartet comprising John Magaw, C. N. Ainslie, Harold J. Richardson and Rev. F. H. Whitney, with singing of solos by Hamlet Easton. Addresses in eulogy of the lamented President were made in -both halls, the speakers being J. A. Leonard, Thomas Spillane, W. Logan Brackenridge, Rev. W. B. Gantz and C. E. Callaghan. There was a band in both halls.

Memorial services were held at Byron the same day. The school children marched to the church and addresses were made by Revs. Utton and Simonds and Superintendent Cornwell.

The Olmsted County Merchants' Association, including the merchants throughout the county, was organized in .April, 1902, with C. F. Massey, of Rochester, as president, and W. S. Davis as vicepresident. It is still in existence.

At the fall election of 1902 the new county officers elected were: Judge of probate, Henry O. Christensen, of Rochester; county attorney, Harold J. Richardson, of Rochester; surveyor, C. H. Armstrong, of Rochester; superintendent of schools, George F. Howard, of Rochester: county commissioner, N. Magneson, of Rock Dell. All Republicans except the judge of probate.

Henry O. Christensen is the son of John Christensen, a farmer of Kalmar. He was born there in 1872 and educated in the Rochester High School, in Dixon College, Illinois, and in the law department of Drake University in that State. In 1891 he became a partner in the practice of law with Thomas Fraser, of Rochester.

Harold J. Richardson is a son of Henry M. Richardson, of Rochester. He was born in Haverhill in 1872. He was educated in the Rochester High School and the Minnesota University, and graduated in the law department of the university in 1900, and engaged in the practice of law in Rochester in partnership with his brother, William B. Richardson, and is successful in the profession.

Charles H. Armstrong is a son of Edward G. Armstrong, one of the early settlers of High Forest. He was born in Mower county in 1872 and located at High Forest village in 1880. He became a surveyor and assisted in surveying the state line between North and South Dakota and in the subdivision of government lands in South Dakota, was appointed United States deputy surveyor in 1898 and has been since 1900 engaged at times in the survey of government lands in northern Minnesota. He has been city engineer of Rochester since 1904, and is a member of the Minnesota Surveyors and Engineers Society.

George F. Howard was born in New York State in 1858 and came to Viola township with the family of his father, Thomas « Howard, in 1868. He was reared a farmer and became a teacher in the public schools of the county. In 1896 he established a commercial college in Rochester. He has shown much energj^ in the superintendency, is an advocate of agricultural education in the district schools and has given much attention to developing public interest in that subject.

He has held annual spelling contests at Rochester every year since 1903, in which the rural schools have competed for prizes, each school being allowed to send a representative. In 1904 he inaugurated the Boys' and Girls' Club to encourage the rural scholars in farming. Exhibits were made of grains, vegetables and apples raised by boys and sewing and baking by girls and prizes awarded. It has been kept up every year and has grown into the County School Fair, held at Rochester, at which prizes are given for the best product of the farm and the best sewing and cooking by the girls, and the best three exhibits of each class are entered in a State exhibit in competition with other counties. At the contest of 1907 there were forty-two prize winners, the prizes awarded ranging from $5 to 50 cents.

fairs. There are now twenty or thirty counties holding them. He has also established a system of county graduation, holding the graduation exercises for the whole county yearly at Rochester. Diplomas are awarded to all scholars who have secured high-school certificates of examination in three out of four common branches. In July, 1908, sixty-six scholars were graduated. Diplomas of honor for perfect attendance have also been awarded.

The diplomas for 95 per cent of attendance have been nearly 300 a year. The number of first-class schools receiving special State aid has grown from twenty-five to fifty in six years.

Nels Magneson is a son of Magnus Magneson, who came from Wisconsin and settled on a farm in Rock Dell township in 1856, where Nels was horn the same year. He was reared on the farm and engaged in storekeeping in the village, which he continued till 1870. He was postmaster during all that time. He was appointed county commissioner to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of A. E. Aaby, and after filling out that term was elected and served five years in all.

Dr. Horace H. Witherstine was born in New York State in 1852. He is a graduate of Fairfield Seminary. He came to Roch-^ ester in 1872. He taught for ten years in the schools of the county and graduated from the Rush Medical College of Chicago in 1886 and has been and still is engaged in his profession at Rochester, having a large practice. He has served five years as mayor of Rochester, and was twelve years a member of the city school board. His personal popularity has insured his election to any local office that he cared to run for.

The legislature of 1903 changed the election and term of office of township supervisors. A board of three supervisors had previously been elected every year, but by the new law only one of the three is elected at a time, and serves three years.

More than five hundred dollars was collected by subscription throughout the county for the famine sufferers in Finland, Sweden and Norway, and sent to Minneapolis in March, 1903.

A most destructive cyclone struck* St. Charles Saturday afternoon, October 3, 1903, destroying the center of the little city and killing seven and injuring about thirty persons. Most of the places of business w^ere literally blown to pieces and piled on each other

St. Charles is in Winona county, only three-quarters of a mile east of the line of Olmsted county, and the disastrous effects of the storm, which came from the southwest, were severely felt on farms in the townships of Orion, Elmira and Dover. In Orion, Floyd Buck, Lester Matheusy and George, L. Knight lost barns, horses and grain. In Elmira the list of losers included Charles Chermak, John Jackson, E. A. Williams, John Patterson, M. F. Farrell. Ed. Spitzer, Fred Seigel, Louis Seigel, R. Richter. Charles F^arrier, Gust. Gierse and Carl Schwock. The damages included, on different farms, the killing of horses and destruction of bams, houses, outbuildings, farm machinery, wind mills and trees. On the farm of John Patterson everything was swept clean and the house was lifted in the air and came down with a boy and girl under it and the building had to be lifted to extricate them. The girl had a leg broken and the boy was badly hurt. In Dover the greatest losers were William Hinkley, who lost everything but his house, which was badly wrecked; Herman Richter, bam and outbuildings damaged; J. B. Holm, house moved from foundation, bam unroofed and granary and wind mill wrecked. Mr. Holm was struck by a limb and thought to be dead, but recovered after being sent to the Eyota Hospital. A trail of lesser damages was left along the entire route of the storm.

W. O. Crittendon, of Dover, was in St. Charles to consult a physician, who told him that he had but a short time to live. He started home as the cyclone began, and fell dead in his wagon; it was believed from heart disease.

Abundant aid was sent to. St. Charles, among which were contributions of $500 by the city council of Rochester and $900 by the commissioners of Olmsted county. Three hundred dollars were appropriated by the village council of Chatfield and $500 by private subscriptions, and $250 in Dover by subscriptions.

The total of losses in Olmsted county was reported by a committee, consisting of County Commissioner Robert Hall and Messrs. Joseph Underleak and O. P. Krause, to amount to $13,392.

Thomas L. Phelps is a son of Thomas W. Phelps, who was a pioneer settler of Marion township. He was bom in the village of Marion in 1868, was educated in the Rochester High School and at Hamline University, taught in the public schools of the county, and was a farmer, living adjoining the village of Chester. He was clerk of Marion township ten years, and several years clerk of the school board. He is an efficient auditor.

John J. Fulkerson is a son of Rev. John W. Fulkerson, probably the oldest surviving settler of Marion township. He was bom in Virginia and came with his father's family to Marion in 1856, when only two years old. He attended the schools in Rochester, was a clerk in the grocery store of Daniel H. Moon, formed a partnership in the grocery business with Norton C. Younglove, and bought him out and conducted the business till, in 1884, he became proprietor of the flouring mill in North Rochester, which he carried on five years. He again engaged in the grocery business in 1889, buying out Henry C. Gerry. He was clerk of the board of education of Rochester six years. He is one of the most popular citizens of the county.

William H. Mitchell was born in Winona in 1861 and while an infant came to Olmsted county with his parents, who located on a farm near Potsdam in 1862. They moved to Dover township in 1866. He lived eight years in Quincy township and moved to Eyota township in 1895, and is now living there. He has been a supervisor of Eyota township a number of years, and is prominent in his community. He is now chairman of the board of commissioners.

Albert H. Spring was elected postmaster of the legislature for the session of 1905 and elected again in 1907. He was bom at Potsdam in 1876 and is the son of Christopher Spring, who settled in Farmington township in 1856. Albert went to Darling's Commercial College in Rochester and to the St. Paul Commercial College and came to Rochester in 1893, and has since been a bookkeeper and salesman in the Boston and the Model clothing stores. He is now a resident of Moorhead in this State.

Rural free mail delivery was established in the county in 1900, and on May 15, 1905, the postoffices were discontinued at Laird, Marion, Horton, Genoa, Rock Dell, Pleasant Grove and Potsdam. And the process of substituting the rural carrier for the rural postmaster is still going on, to the convenience of most of the people, but to the destruction of centers of news and social intercourse for the farmers.

The new county officers elected in the fall of 1906 were: Clerk of the district court, George S. Hannon; register of deeds, Walter A. Eckholdt, and county commissioner, A. E. Hanson - all Republicans.

George S. Hannon is a native of the county, being born in 1875 on the farm of his father, Leander H. Hannon, who settled in Oronoco township in 1858, and died in Rochester in 1904. George finished his education by two years' study at Macallister College. He came to Rochester in 1898 and was seven years deputy clerk of the district court. He is now filling the office of clerk very satisfactorily.

Walter A. Eckholdt is a son of H. A. Eckholdt, the well-known lawyer of Rochester, where Walter was born in 1873. He was educated in the Rochester schools, attended the law department of the Minnesota University and graduated in 1896. He began the practice of law in Rochester, but abandoned it for merchandising, at Douglass and Byron, and was a salesman in Rochester.

Anton E. Hanson was born in Norway in 1857 and came to America in 1882, coming directly to Byron, where he lived three years and then located on a farm in Salem township. In 1887 he moved to a farm in Kalmar township, where he is now living. He was four years one of the supervisors of Kalmar township.

For the legislative session of 1907, Andrew C. McCoy, of Salem, and James F. Spencer, of High Forest township, were elected representatives - ^both Republicans.

County Commissioner A. O. Cowles having died, the chairmen of supervisors of the townships in the Fifth district met on the 13th of April, 1908, and elected George Olson, a substantial farmer, who was chairman of the town board of Oronoco, to fill the vacancy, which ended January i, 1909.

The representatives elected for the legislative session of 1909 were Kerry Conley, of Rochester, Republican, and Matt Fitzpatrick, of Stewartville, Democrat.

The new county officers elected in November, 1908, were: Sheriff, William H. Mitchell, of Eyota township; county attorney, George J. Allen, of Rochester; county commissioners, S. H. Brown, of Simpson; F. W. Schmidt, of Viola; James A. Clason, of Cascade - all Republicans except Commissioner Schmidt, a Democrat; Henry O. Christensen, judge of probate; George F. Howard, superintendent of schools; John J. Fulkerson, treasurer; Thomas L. Phelps, auditor; Walter Eckholdt, register of deeds; Charles H. Armstrong, sun^eyor; F. R. Mosse, coroner, and J. Wesley Flathers, county commissioner. The incumbents of those offices were re-elected without opposition.

Stewart ville, that was built on his settlement in 1856 by his father, who is still living at the age of eighty-six years. Matt lived on the farm till twenty-three years old when he engaged in selling farm machinery in Minnesota and North Dakota, and afterward for five years dealt in machinery and grain at SteVvartville, and for the last few years has been selling lands in Texas, Montana and North Dakota, and is now dealing in Olmsted county lands. He has served as treasurer of High Forest township and as a member of the Stew^artville village council.

W illiam Frederick Schmidt w^as hovu in Germany in 1851 and came, as one of his father's family, in 1857, to Dodge county, Wisconsin. In 1874 he moved to the farm in \'iola township where he is still living. He is one of the most successful farmers of the township, and has been clerk of the school district two terms, director one term and three years a township supervisor.

At the November session of the board of county commissioners in 1908, Commissioner Anton E. Hanson, of Rock Dell, resigned. William G. Roeder, a farmer of High Forest township, was appointed to fill the vacancy. Mr. Hanson was chairman of the board at the time of his resignation.

According to the State census, the population of the county in 1905 was 22,409, and there are in the county 135 rural schools, two high schools, w^ith four others in joint districts with other counties, nine graded schools, five parochial schools and no private school, and forty-six churches. It is a county of well improved and well managed farms and pretty villages, and a population of more than average intelligence, that during the more than fifty years chronicled in these pages has progressed in wealth, prosperity and refinement, and, as a district of comfortable homes, will compare favorably w^ith any other in the State.