Viola Township (part 1 of 3)

Viola Township

The county commissioners at this January session, 1900, submitted the question of appropriating a sum not exceeding $2,500 for the erection of a monument on the court house grounds at Rochester, in honor of the Olmsted county soldiers in the War of the Rebellion, to be voted on at the election in November of that year.

A committee appointed by Custer Post, G. A. R., brought the subject before every township in the county, urging the people to vote for the appropriation, but at the election in November it was defeated. There were 1,961 votes in favor of the proposition and 1,695 against it. While there was a small favorable majority of the votes cast on that question, the law required, for the success of the proposition, a majority of all the votes cast at the election. The total of votes on president being 4,306, it required 2,154 votes to carry the appropriation, and there being only 1,961 votes in its favor, it was lost. Six hundred and fifty voters failed to vote on that question. The proposition failed through indifference. A decided majority of the voters did not care to remember the Union soldiers. The tax would have amounted to 75 cents on a quarter section valued at $2,500.

A post of the Grand Army of the Republic was organized in Rochester in March, 1868, with tlie following officers : Commander, O. P. Steams; senior vice commander, J. Fisher; junior vice commander, D. H. Williams; adjutant, J. F. Van Dooser; quartermaster, C. M. Start. It was given the title of McPherson Post, No. 13, which was afterward changed to George H. Thomas Post. Col. James George was commander several years. It was a live organization, but, like several other posts of that period, it dwindled till, in 1875, disbanded.

But the comradeship survived, and Custer Post, No. 44, was organized in September, 1883, with fifty members and the following officers : Commander, Henry M. Richardson ; senior vice commander, Holden R. Smith; junior vice commander, Joseph H.

Wagoner; adjutant, Amos Hyatt; surgeon, J. K. Knapp; chaplain, Thomas O. McCabe; quartermaster, Gustavus Hargesheimer; officer of the day, Charles Van Campen; officer of guard, Ed. Schwartz; sergeant major, J. R. Morrison; quartermaster sergeant, W. H. Earle.

Custer Woman's Relief Corps, No. 28, was organized in 1887, with nineteen charter members and the following officers: President, Mrs. M. E. Cross; senior vice president, Mrs. A. A. Williams; junior vice president, Miss Nellie Ballard ; secretary, Mrs. T. A. Runyan; treasurer, Mrs. A. V. Eckholdt; chaplain, Mrs. L. A. Ennis; conductor, Mrs. S. E. Horn; assistant conductor, Mrs. N. J. Eastmond; guard, Mrs. F. M. Wrought; assistant guard, Miss Lulu Hargesheimer. The corps now numbers fifty members, with the following officers: President, Isabelle Stewart; senior vice president, Emma Rogers; junior vice president, Anna Oilman; chaplain, Mary Vosburg; secretary, E. Mae Stone; treasurer, Josephine Seaman; conductor, Elizabeth Woodford; guard, Mary Kuensel; assistant conductor, Agnes Donahue ; assistant guard, Ellen Pease ; patriotic instructor, Frances Bearbaun ; musician, Gertrude Dale ; color bearers, Alice Webster, Lottie Colvin, Sarah Horn, Emeline Pett. The corps is in a flourishing condition and is doing a great deal of relief work.

Major McKinley Camp, No. 5, of the Sons of Veterans, was organized in November, 1901, with the following membership: C. E. Callaghan, H. J. Richardson, Fred A. Root, H. A. Van Campen, A. H. McCoy, George S. Hannon, A. M. Dresbach, W. J. Tyler, Paul Hargesheimer, Frank W. Gilbert, George H. Knowlton, W. O. Campbell, Lauren E. Pollock, W. B. Richardson, George E. Stewart, Clarence Stewart, Samuel P. Crandell, George Pollock, N. C. Pollock, C. H. Wagoner, Thomas Eraser, Arthur Hicks, H. Wrought, J. P. Dibble, J. E. Berg, William Friedell, F. C. Ormond, M. Sweeney.

Harold J. Richardson was captain ; George S. Hannon, first lieutenant, and Homer A. Van Campen, second lieutenant. The camp was not kept up.

The post has been the means of securing the annual observance of Decoration Day, which has been one of the great celebrations of Rochester. Every year the post and relief corps and the militia company, with other organizations, have paraded to Oakland Cemetery, where the graves have been decorated ; and generally a public patriotic meeting has been held in the afternoon. The occasions have attracted great crowds from all over the county.

The first observance in Rochester of Decoration Day, the 30th of May, was held in 1870. A meeting was held at School House Hall, with prayer and music, and addressed by Hon. Mark H. Dunnell, the State superintendent of instruction. Colonel George, commander of McPherson Post, presided. A procession, under the direction of Maj. J. C. Hamilton, marched from the school house to the cemetery. The procession was headed by a band; a floral car carried thirteen young ladies in white and black scarfs. They were : Ida Olds, Hattie Jones, Ella Markham, Mary Markham, Florence Garland, Leafy Andrews, Helen Cross, Ella Rickert, Gertie Brown, Anna Evans, Nettie Everstine, Carrie Crook and Edna Emrick. Three omnibuses carried soldiers' widows and orphans. The Grand Army of the Republic, with a drum corps, numbered about fifty, and there were as many more other veterans; the Turners ; scholars of the public schools, 820, with their teachers, every one carrying a bouquet or wreath ; ending with a long procession of private vehicles and persons afoot. The procession included not less than five thousand persons. At the cemetery the graves were decorated by the young ladies; votive bouquets and wreaths were hung on a cross, and brief speeches were made by Col. O. P. Steams, Rev. J. W. Keys, Capt. J. A. Leonard, Maj. C. E. Behle and Chaplain D. Cobb. The number of people who came from outside the city was estimated at not less than three thousand.

John B. Wooldridge Post, No. 175, was organized at Stewartville, March 15, 1893. It was named in honor of a volunteer from High Forest township. The charter members were: Eugene S. Wooldridge, G. D. Knox, John Brin, O. P. Shaffer, D. W. Wilhelm, L. G. Fish, L. J. Duncanson, T. R. Mason, F. Zierath, W. L. Humason, E, M. Schermerhom and D. Toogood.

The charter, with books and all other post property, was destroyed by fire December 7, 1897, and a new charter was issued December 8. The post has twenty-three members and is prosperous. It has had the following commanders: E. S. Wooldridge, G. D. Knox, J. S. Pierson, A. P. Douglass, W. F. Glover and Thomas E. Kennedy. The present officers are : Commander, J. N. Rutledge; senior vice commander, W. F. Glover; junior vice commander, George F. Allen; adjutant, G. D. Knox; quartermaster, J. S. Pierson; chaplain, L. J. Duncanson; surgeon, John Brin; officer of the day, E. M. Schermerhom. The post has been very successful in perpetuating the observance of Decoration Day.

John B. Wooldridge Woman's Relief Corps was organized at High Forest village, May 10, 1895, by Mrs. Henrietta Dusen, of Eyota, with seventeen members. The first officers were : President, Lucia R. Crumb; vice president, Dorcas Burton; junior vice president, Josephine Brin; treasurer, Levira Pierson; chaplain, Mrs. Frank Vail; conductor, Lenah Buck; guard, Lucia M. Gaskill; secretary, Edna Armstrong. The present officers are: President, Maggie Rutledge; senior vice president, Sarah E. Monette; junior vice president, Louise Severson; treasurer. Alice Murphy; chap-

Olmsted county had not the representation in the Spanish-American War to which it was entitled. Efforts were made to obtain authority from the governor to raise a company, but no encouragement was given. In June, 1898, a company was enrolled, with George A. Van Smith, captain; L. H. Yokes, first lieutenant, and Fred Ormond, second lieutenant, and ninety-five privates, but the promise to call it into service was not fulfilled.

A reception was given by Custer Post, G. A. R., in November, 1899, to three Olmsted county returned volunteers in the Spanish War - Ed. Van Slyke, Frank Barbridge and Charles Huny. At a meeting of the post they were welcomed by the commander, J. A. Leonard, and speeches were made by Comrade C. Van Campen and Rev. FranTc Doran. Interesting references to their experiences were made in reply by the guests of the evening, and a fine supper was enjoyed, served by the ladies of the Woman's Relief Corps.

The remains of Carl M. Thygeson, a Rochester young man who enlisted in the State of Washington, as a sharpshooter, and was killed at Manila, were brought home to Rochester and buried in March, 1900. He was honored with a funeral in which the Danish Brotherhood, Company D of the militia, Custer Post, G. A. R., and the Knights of Pythias participated.

The body of Guy L. Whitlock, a young man of High Forest, who died in the army in the Philippines, was brought home and buried from Stewartville in March, 1900. The funeral services were joined in by the Stewartville Drum Corps, the Stewartville squad of Company F, and comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Andrew Larson, a young man from Byron, of the regular army, was killed in battle in the Philippines, and his remains were brought home for burial in October, 1901. Members of Company F of the State militia, of Rochester, attended the funeral and gave him a soldier's burial.

Several efforts have been made to keep up a militia company in Rochester, but not with permanent success. Such a^ company was organized in September, 1871, with J. P. Clelland as captain, D. A. Morrison as first lieutenant, and F. B. Van Dusen as second lieutenant. The company died out.

In October, 1898, a company was formed, with George A. Van Smith as captain, Fred Ormond as first lieutenant, and Harry Doran as second lieutenant, and was mustered into the State service as Company H, Fourth Regiment, Minnesota National Guard. This organization was flourishing for several years, but was disbanded in 1906, when Fred Ormond, who had been captain several years, moved to the Pacific coast. The physically fit young men find all the exercise and drill that they want in baseball and football.

IN the legislative session of 1861 Stiles P. Jones was senator and Abram Harkins and William K. Tattersall representati\'es - all Republicans. Mr. Jones died in the middle of his term, in 1861.

In the fall of 1861 John V. Daniels was elected to the senate to fill the unfinished term of Mr. Jones. He was bom in Scohane county, New York, and went to Tioga county, where he was successively a school teacher and merchant, and to Bradford county, Pennsylvania, where he was a lumberman. He came to Rochester in 1856 and engaged in the real-estate business, in partnership with his brother-in-law, Asahel Smith. He was postmaster for a short time under President Buchanan, and up to the time of receiving the Republican nomination to succeed Jones, had been a prominent Democrat. He became a leader in the Republican party, and served during eleven sessions as either state senator or representative, being representative when his death occurred, in 188 1. In

1864 he was appointed one of the commissioners who took the votes of the Minnesota soldiers in service in the South. He was mayor of Rochester one term, and for several years local trustee of the Rochester State Hospital. He was a delegate to the Republican national convention which nominated Garfield. He established the Union National Bank of Rochester. He had a high reputation for integrity and was popular with the mass of the people. His son, Capt. Milton J. Daniels, was recently a representative in congress from California.

David Blakely was clerk of the house of representatives in the sessions of 1861 and 1862. He was a native of the State of New York, and while a lad his parents moved to Vermont, where he learned printing, and lived till 1856, when he came to Bancroft, Mower county, Minnesota, and established a newspaper in the interest of the proprietors of the townsite. The speculation not proving successful, he moved to Austin, where he published a paper and was register of deeds. In 1859 he moved to Rochester and, in partnership with Cyrenus H., a younger brother, established the Rochester City Post. He was secretary of state two terms. In

1865 he sold the Post to Leonard & Booth, and removed to Chicago, where he published the Evening Post and was United States pension agent and proprietor of a large printing office. He afterwards was publisher of the St. Paul Pioneer, and later had charge of the Tribune printing office at Minneapolis. He went cast as the manager of the celebrated Gilmore's Band, and after that of the Sousa Band, and was engaged in other important musical enterprises. All his undertakings were on a large scale, and he had the faculty of impressing others with his plans. He died in the city of New York in 1896.

In 1861 Orlen P. Whitcomb was elected county treasurer; Ozoro P. Steams, county attorney, and Reuben Reynolds, clerk of the court - all Republicans. Mr. Whitcomb held the office of treasurer for eight years. Mr. Reynolds was clerk four years.

Ozoro P. Stearns was a native of Ohio and a graduate of the law school at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and came to Rochester for the practice of his profession in 1859. He was young, well informed, and a ready speaker, and became popular. In 1862 he became captain of Company F of the Ninth Regiment, and served till the end of the war. He became colonel of a colored regiment and saw active service in the Army of the Potomac. He was engaged in the desperate assault on Petersburg. He was, at the close of his ser\^ice, provost marshal. He returned to Rochester after the war and resumed the practice of law. He was appointed register of bankruptcy in 1867. He was elected by the legislature, in 1 87 1, United States senator, to fill out the unexpired term of David S. Norton, deceased. He was mayor of Rochester in 1866. He moved to Duluth in 1872, where he became a large owner of real estate, and was judge of the district court.

Reuben Reynolds had a varied career. He was first a Methodist and then a Congregational minister, preaching in New York State and later in Michigan, and came to Rochester in 1855 and took up a claim on the northern edge of the city. He organized the Congregational church of Rochester and preached in the log school house east of the river, which was the original church and school building. He became a free thinker and organized a society for the propagation of such opinions, and lectured at Rochester, St. Charles and other places. He had been city justice, and after two terms as clerk of the court, became judge of probate, and then, after middle age, became a lawyer and moved, in 1870, to Alexandria, in this State, where he found his vocation and achieved success in the law. In 1872 he was made receiver of the United States land office at Detroit, Minnesota. In 1878 he removed to Crookston and in 1885 was appointed judge of that district. He died at Crookston in 1889, seventy years. He was a man of keen intellect and as a speaker had a style of concise and lucid statement that was extraordinary. We have never heard a speaker who, without imagination or humor, could by mere force of intellect and clearness and precision of statement, hold an audience interested in any subject upon which he chose to talk as he could.

Thomas Harris was one of the founders of the village of Cummingsville, establishing a steam saw mill there in 1855. He enlisted in the army, and after the close of his service removed from the State. He was an energetic, intelligent man of much force of character.

F. Johnson was a proprietor of the flour mill at Quincy. He was a reputable and intelligent business man and stood high in the estimation of his neighbors.

The county commissioners for 1862 were Thomas Brooks, Amos Parks, of Farmington; Samuel H. Nichols, of Salem; J. M. Greenman, of Dover, and Thomas Harris - all Republicans. Commissioner Parks served eight years. Amos Parks was a native of the State of New York. He was a pioneer farmer in Wisconsin from 1846 to 1857, when he settled on a farm in Farmington township. He was a man of cordial manners and thorough integrity, and became a favorite with his townsmen. He was chairman of supervisors of the township, assessor and justice of thie peace. In the latter office he insisted on a settlement of all cases brought before him, even when cases were referred to him from other justices. He was county commissioner for eight years. He died in August,

Samuel H. Nichols was a farmer, born in Massachusetts, and an early settler in Salem township. He became assistant clerk to the house of representatives at St. Paul in 1869. He moved to Fergus Falls and was clerk of the supreme court from 1876 to 1887. He removed to the State of Washington.

J. N. Greenman was an early settler in Dover township. He removed to Austin, Minnesota, where he became a successful lawyer, and has been city attorney, county attorney, and is now in his third term as judge of probate.

The county commissioners for 1863 were William D. Hurlbut, of Rochester; Amos Parks, S. H. Nichols, George Stocking, of Rochester, and J. P. Moulton, of Marion. Mr. Hurlbut served as commissioner seven years, when he resigned. He was chairmar of the board during the whole of his service.

William D. Hurlbut was a native of the State of New York, born in 1820. He was an accountant in New Vork City, and in 1843 went to Chio, where he was interested in a woolen mill, and became a partner with James N. Coe in merchandising. He came to Rochester in 1856 and engaged in money loaning and dealing in real estate. He was mayor of Rochester in i860. He was well educated and of scholarly tastes, practical, and unusually well informed on a variety of subjects. He made a study of geology and his observations on the geology of this county are quoted in the official report of State Geologist N. H. Winchell, issued in 1882. He visited California for the benefit of his health, and died there in February, 1903.

Rev. George Stocking was a native of Connecticut and went to Ohio with his father's family in his infancy. In 1848 he was ordained a Methodist minister, and spent eight years as a member of the Erie conference. He came to Minnesota in 1857 and was six years a farmer in Eyota township, after which he moved to Rochester and did a successful business as a grocerymaq and dealer in chinaware. He was justice of the peace one term in Eyota and one in Rochester. He was a correct business man and of the strictest integrity. He died in 1892.

J. P. Moulton settled in Saratoga, Winona county, in 1856, where he kept a store and a hotel. He came to Marion village in 1859. where he was a merchant and afterward landlord of the village hotel. He moved to Rochester and kept a shoe store several years, and servxd as an alderman. He was elected to the legislature and in 1876 was appointed receiver of the United States land office at Worthington, Minnesota, and became a resident of that place and a real-estate dealer. His health failing, he moved to California, and died at Los Angeles in 1893. He was of cordial manners, and very popular.

In the session of 1863 Zabina Handerson, of Salem, and J. P. Moulton, of Marion, were representatives in the legislature. Both Republicans. Mr. Moulton served two terms.

The chinchbug (Blissus leucopterus), the fragrant, untamed cousin of the domestic bedbug, made itself manifest in the wheat fields as early as 1863, but was most destructive from 1878 to 1881, and has since been an occasional discouragement to grain growing. It has remained in the fields, dormant or destructive, according to the weather conditions of the season.

The following county officers were elected in the fall of 1863: Judge of probate, M. W. Fay; sheriff, Horace Loomis; treasurer, O. P. Whitcomb; register of deeds, L. R. Bliss; surveyor, A. J. Olds ; county attorney, Lloyd Barber ; court commissioner, M. W. Fay; county commissioners, William Carson, of High Forest, and E. Day, of Pleasant Grove - ^all Republicans. Mr. Carson served two terms.

Horace Loomis was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Ohio with his father's family in his youth. He came to Rochester in 1857 and worked at his trade of carriage-making about a year, when he became deputy to Sheriff Baker, serving four years, after which he was elected sheriff for three terms. (His father was sheriff for fifteen years in Ohio.) In 1870 he was appointed deputy warden in the State prison, where he was two years and a half. He was next landlord of the Bradley House in Rochester. After that he was for several years a horse trainer. He died in Rochester. As an officer he was most efficient, prompt and fearless, and a terror to the unruly, and thoroughly respected by the public.

Lloyd Barber came to Rochester in 1858, from the State of New York, where he received his legal education. He formed a partnership with Peter M. Tollert, from the same place, who came the same season, and they had a large and successful practice. He was, in the fall of 1864, elected judge of the district court for the Third district, which included Olmsted county, and held the office one term of six years, after which he removed, in 1874, to Winona for the practice of his profession, and is now living there.

William Carson settled on a farm near High Forest village at an early day and became a large land proprietor and money loaner. He was of fine business qualifications and highly respected.

In the session of 1864 Thomas H. Armstrong, of High Forest, Republican, was a representative in the legislature. He was reelected to the session of 1865 and was made speaker of the house.

The Winona & St. Peter (now the Chicago & Northwestern) Railroad was built across the county from east to west in the summer of 1864, reaching Rochester that fall. The conductor of the first through train was George Shannon, who, after years of that service, moved to Washington Territory, where he died several years ago.

In 1864 the county commissioners had the erection of a new court house commenced, the business of the county having outgrown the "old court house" on Broadway. The location of the new structure was the subject of a bitter controversy. Persons interested in property in the vicinity were urgent for its location alongside the old jail, the present site of Schuster's Brewery. The controversy was settled by locating it on the handsome lot of three acres in the addition to the city platted at that time by William McCullough, a wealthy Rochester dry goods merchant. The building, which was a very fine one for that time, was erected under the supervision of County Commissioner Hurlbut. It is a brick with stone trimmings, and with a narrow skirted figure of Justice on the dome. It has the lower story devoted to the county offices and the upper story a court room and anterooms. The upper part of the building was badly racked by the cyclone of 1883, and several alterations have been made from time to time, adapted to the changes in the times, notably a handsome reconstruction of the court room a few years ago. The original cost of the building was $32,000, and the sum had been saved from the tax levies of several years, so that no bonds or special tax was necessary for its payment. The new court house was finished and occupied in January, 1867. It is scarcely large enough for present uses, and some board of commissioners of not many years hence may expect to wrestle with the problem of providing for an ampler and more modem coimty building. Counties, as surely as boys, outgrow their clothes.

The change from sowing grain by hand to the use of machinery took place in .1864 or 1865, when the seeder was brought into market and readily supplanted hand labor.

In the session of 1865 William Teachout, of Quincy, was a representative in the legislature. He was a farmer of much local prominence and was justice of the peace several years. He moved to Granite Falls, Minnesota, in 1876, and was living at Owatonna in 1879.

In 1865 the county commissioners were William D. Hurlbut, Amos Parks, William Carson and Richard S. Russell, of Pleasant Grove. Mr. Russell served two terms.

Richard S. Russell was bom in London, England, and came to this country when a young man. He lived several years in New York City, removed to Pennsylvania, and came to Pleasant Grove township in 1858, where he was engaged in farming. He was held in much esteem by his neighbors for his high character, and was prominent in local affairs. He died in 1878.

In October, 1865, the county commissioners appointed San ford Niles county superintendent of schools, the office having been established by the legislature. He was born in Connecticut. His parents removed to Indiana when he was seven years old, where he was educated in the common schools and at an academy, and taught in the common schools. In 1856 he moved to Salem township and cultivated a farm and taught in the country schools. He was re-elected county superintendent eleven consecutive times, holding the office twelve years. As, when he was appointed, roads were poor and stables not always to be had, he made the round of the county eighteen times on foot. He kept in his office a teachers' library, one of the first in Minnesota. He was foremost in the support of county institutes, and in 1871 he held at Rochester the first summer training school held in the State. He prepared a Teacher's Guide and Course of Study for district schools, the first in Minnesota. At the close of his service as county superintendent he established the Rochester English and Classical School. In 1885 he purchased the paper School Education, removed it to Minneapolis and was its editor till 1892. He was one of the committee of three appointed to approve the school text-books selected under the MerriU Text-Book Law. He wrote a number of school text-books, ir- lud ing a Geography of Minnesota ; a series of Common School Geographies; a History of the United States, and the History and Government of Minnesota. The Common School Geographies were adopted and used by the State of Indiana for many years. He was for fifteen years a member of the Normal School Board. He was a man of thorough practical education and of the highest character, devoted his life to the cause of common-school education, and was in the front rank of institute instructors. He was the father of the common-school system of Olmsted county, which is one of the best in the State. He died in Minneapolis in July, 1905, and was buried at Rochester.

The first Teachers* Institute was held by Superintendent Niles in Rochester, November 13, 1865, and since then they and Teachers' Training Schools have been held every year and often twice a year, generally at Rochester, as the most central point, but sometimes at Eyota, Dover, Byron, Oronoco, High Forest, Chatfield and Marion. They have always been ably conducted and largely attended, and have contributed much to keeping up the high .standard of the schools of the county.

In the fall of 1865 Alfred Blanchard, of Rochester, was elected clerk of the court ; Reuben Reynolds, of Rochester, judge of Probate; O. P. Stearns, of Rochester, county attorney; and Hector Galloway, of Rochester, coroner - ^all Republicans. Judge Reynolds served two terms.

Alfred Blanchard came to Rochester from Wisconsin and was for several years a blacksmith. He was also several years city justice. He moved to Missouri in 1876.

That perpetual pest, the potato bug, or Colorado beetle (Doryphora decemlineata), in its deliberate migration from the sandy plains of the West to the Atlantic seaside, reached Olmsted county, as nearly as can be ascertained, in 1865, and is, and probably always will be, still with us, making eternal vigilance the price of potatoes.

In the legislative session of 1866 Roderic D. Hathaway, of Pleasant Grove, and Benjamin F. Perry were representatives - ^both Republicans. Mr. Perry served two terms.

Roderic D. Hathaway was a native of the State of New York, born in 1826, and was reared a farmer. He was a graduate of the Albany State Normal School. He came to Wisconsin in 1850, where he was four years a county judge, and to Pleasant Grove in 1859. He served twice in the legislature and served the village and township as justice of the peace and in other capacities. He was postmaster for several years. In 1888 he removed to Austin, Minnesota, where he died in 1895. He had unusual business capacity and was genial and popular.

first surveys of the city. Most of the grades of the city were established by him, and for several years he was the only surveyor of the city. He was deputy postmaster under John W. Everstine in i860 and 1861. He served several times as county and city surveyor. He enlisted in the Third Regiment and was promoted to first lieutenant of Company F. In the battle of Wood Lake, in charging the Sioux, he had the unique experience of escaping death by a bullet striking his cartridge box with such force as to flatten every cartridge in the box, but penetrating no farther. He returned to Rochester at the close of the war, followed his profession several years, and then removed to his early home at Weedsport, New York, in 1891, and died there in 1897. He was a quiet and estimable man, and left a kindly memory.

J. K. Randall was elected a county commissioner in 1866. He came to Eyota township about i860 and became a prosperous farmer and highly esteemed. He was representative in the legislative session of 1867. He died in 1870, aged forty-four years.

Railroad Projects

FROM the first settlement of Rochester it was realized that its prosperity and that of the surrounding country would be dependent on its acquisition of one or more railroads. The completion to that point of the Winona & St. Peter railroad in 1864 established the city as the center of a large surrounding area and its benefits were undeniable, but the road had not been long in operation before its exclusive control over traffic was felt and resented, and a desire for one or more competitive lines was aroused which has lasted to this day, and for years the leading subject of local interest has been the acquisition of other roads, and nearly every year some project of that kind has been proposed, agitated and abandoned. In most cases the new lines were surveyed, but the money for their construction was not procured. All of these projects were advocated by citizens of Rochester and were expected to make it a great business center.

In 1867, less than three years after the entrance of the Winona & St. Peter road to Rochester, the Lake Pepin & Omaha Railway Company was organized with flattering prospects. In 1873 a proposition to aid the road by issuing bonds for $50,000 was carried in Rochester by a majority of eighty-eight, but the road was not built. Companies were also formed in 1867 to build the St. Paul & Rochester railroad and the Green Bay & Lake Pepin railway to run to Rochester.

In 1869 ^ branch of the Southern Minnesota road was projected from Lanesboro to Chatfield, and the township of Elmira voted by a majority of 31 out of 137 to issue $15,000 in bonds in aid of it, and later another issue of $5,000 was carried by a vote of nearly two to one. Orion township voted down a proposition for a $5,000 issue. The road was not built and the bonds were never called for.

The legislature of 1870 passed a law chartering the Lanesboro branch of the Southern Minnesota railroad to run by way of Chatfield, Rochester and Pine Island to St. Paul, Hastings or Farmington.

In 1 87 1 the Davenport & St. Paul and the Dubuque & St. Paul railroad companies were organized. In 1872 Oronoco voted a bonus of $30,000 in bonds to the Davenport & St. Paul company. The same year High Forest township voted down a proposition to issue bonds to the same company by a vote of 90 to 18.

under the name of the St. Paul & Iowa Railroad Company to build a road to connect Rochester with Duluth by way of St. Paul. It ceased to exist.

By the year 1872 Rochester was the center of imaginary railroads, and the Rochester Post of March 23 of that year gave a list of ten proposed roads, namely, the Davenport & St. Paul, the Lake Pepin & Omaha, the Minneapolis, Rochester & La Crosse, the Dubuque & St. Paul, a branch of the Southern Minnesota, the Lanesboro branch road, the Chicago, Dubuque & St. Paul, the McGregor & St. Paul, the Dubuque, Rochester & Minneapolis and a branch of the Chicago & North-Western from Rochester to St. Paul. But of all those proposed roads the paper could speak hopefully of only two, the Davenport & St. Paul and the Lake Pepin & Omaha, and neither of them was ever realized. After years of waiting, hoping and half trying for another road, partial relief was afforded by the Chicago & North-Western Company building three branch roads in the county in 1878.

The Rochester & Northern Minnesota road runs from Rochester to Zumbrota through Pine Island. For this branch Rochester paid a bonus to the company of $30,000 in bonds. Bonuses were also paid by Zumbrota and Pine Island. The township of New Haven, in Olmsted county, through which the road runs, was asked for a bonus of $10,000, but the proposition was voted down. A station was established at Douglass, on the edge of New Haven township, and another three miles from Oronoco.

It was the understanding of the communities along the line, and the expectation of those voting the bonuses, that this would be a line from St. Paul to Rochester, but when finished it extended no farther than from Rochester to Zumbrota, and afforded only a roundabout and unsatisfactory connection with St. Paul by way of Red Wing.

The so-called Rochester & Plainview road is a line running from Eyota to Plainview. A station was established at Viola. The township of Viola voted a bonus of $10,000 and Plainview $50,000 in bonds for the road.

The Chatfield railroad is a line running from Eyota to Chatfield, making with the Plainview road a continuous line from Plainview to Chatfield. The only station between Eyota and Chatfield is Plank's Crossing. The village of Chatfield and township of Elmira voted a bonus of $45,000 in bonds for the road. A proposition for Orion township to vote $5,000 in bonds for the road was voted down by 85 votes against 30 in its favor.

In 1879 the Midland narrow-gauge railroad was built from Wabasha to Zumbrota. It runs along the Zumbrota river through a wonderfully picturesque valley. When first proposed it was in- tended that the road should run to Rochester, but Zumbrota interests got control of it and Rochester was left outside. It has recently been changed to a standard-gauge road.

In 1884 a road called the Decorah, Rochester & Red River railroad was surveyed from Decorah, Iowa, to Rochester, by way of Spring Valley and Stewartville, and the question of issuing bonds for $56,000 for its construction was submitted to the voters of Rochester and carried by a majority of 775 in a vote of 845, and High Forest township voted 154 in favor to 28 against a proposition to issue $10,000 in bonds. Marion township voted $10,000 in bonds by 79 to 26 votes. But the road was never built.

In the summer of 1889 the project was agitated of building a road from Wasioja to Rochester. A road had already been built from Eden, on the St. Paul & Kansas City road, a few miles north of Dodge Center, to Wasioja, and it was proposed to connect with that line a road called the Rochester & St. Paul railroad, running through Mantorville to this city. The new line would have been eighteen miles long, and it was proposed to aid it by voting $45,000 in bonds by the city of Rochester and $10,000 in bonds by Kalmar township and $5,000 by Cascade township. There was a good deal of opposition in Rochester to bonding the city to that amount, and a lively campaign of meetings and newspaper controversies was carried on with a great deal of personal animosity. About the time that the vote on bonds was proposed another project was started to build what was called the Soo road, to connect at Rhinelander, Wisconsin, with the Sioux, St. Marie & Southwestern railroad and run to Omaha, crossing the Mississippi at Alma, Wisconsin. This road wanted a bonus from Rochester of $35,000 in bonds. The principal advocates of the Rochester & St. Paul road were Dr. W. W. Mayo and Andrew Nelson, and of the Soo road Hiram T. Horton and William D. Hurlbert. Elections were held in October on the Rochester and St. Paul proposition on Friday, the eighteenth, and on the Soo proposition on Saturday, the nineteenth. They resulted in Rochester in a majority of 252 votes in favor of the Rochester & St. Paul road out of a total of 726; in Kalmar a majority of 98 against out of 130 votes, and in Cascade a majority of 12 in favor out of 72 votes. In Rochester, the only place voting on the Soo bonus, there was a majority of 263 against the issue of the bonds out of 609 votes.

When the question of the issuing of the bonus voted by Rochester to the Rochester & St. Paul road came before the Common Council a majority of the council insisted on incorporating in the bonds promises that had been made by the railroad company that the proposed road should not be transferred to or controlled by the Chicago & North-Westem road and other promises that had been made by the promoters of the road but were not incorporated in the election notice. This modification of the bonds was insisted on by

Aldennen George D. Parnish, William H. Knapp, Henry R. Hymes, Milo Jacks and William W. Churchill, while Alderman Noah Wilkins was in favor of the railroad company, as was also Mayor Porter. The railroad company insisted on having bonds in the usual form with no such limitations, and presented to the city attorney, E. C. Gettie, such bonds and demanded that they should be executed by the mayor and clerk. The council by the vote of all but Alderman Wilkins refused to approve the- bonds and instructed the clerk to withhold them until further instructions from the council. While the matter was thus hung up the bonds were signed by Mayor Porter and Clerk Getter and deposited in escrow with Mayor Smith, of St. Paul, as had been provided in the election notice. On hearing of that action the council, except Alderman Wilkins, voted instructing the city attorney. Royal H. Gove, to demand the bonds from Mayor Smith and cancel them, or in case of his refusal to bring suit at law for their recovery. This action making the bonds worthless in the market caused the railroad company to give up the fight. Mayor Smith, who was perfectly neutral, returned the bonds and the effort of Rochester to get the stub road ended as had all other efforts to secure opposition to the Chicago & North-Western road - in failure.

The refusal of Rochester to vote the bonus to the Soo road ended that project and thus another north and south railroad project **vvent a-glimmering."

An attempt was made in the fall of 1890 to revive the project of building this railroad from Wasioja to Rochester, and a proposition was again submitted to the voters of Rochester to issue $45,000 in bonds in aid of the road. It was voted down by a majority of 368 out of a total vote of 936.

The Duluth, Red Wing & Southern railroad was agitated and surveyed in 1887 and 1888. It was at first proposed that it should nui from Red Wing to Albert Lea by way of Rochester, and high hopes were entertained of getting it here, but it was built by way of Zumbrota and again Rochester was a disappointed community. The history of Rochester projects for obtaining railroads has been a record of failures.

While Rochester had been grasping after elusive railroads, one of actual promise for the county, if not for Rochester, was built. The scheme of running a railroad from Winona to Omaha was devised in the former city and pushed through actual completion in 1890 and 1891. It was called the Winona & Southwestern railroad and ran by a tortuous course from Winona <^hrough the bluffs to St. Charles and from there parallel with the Chicago & North- Western road through Dover, and from that point southwesterly across Olmsted county to Spring Valley. Rochester was anxious for the road and would no doubt have voted a liberal bonus for its construction through that city, and for a while the company seemed likely to build it there, but the foolish fear of the Winona promoters of the road that Rochester might draw trade away from the town on the river prevailed and when built it was run within twelve miles, but no nearer.

Bonuses were asked for and voted. Six thousand dollars in bonds in aid of the road was voted by Dover township, the vote being 137 for to 79 against. In Marion township the proposition for issuing bonds for $4,500 was defeated, the vote being 51 for to 79 against it. In Pleasant Grove township the vote on issuing $3,000 in bonds was 136 for to 51 against. In High Forest township the vote on issuing $10,000 in bonds was 151 for and 59 against. In Elmira township the vote on issuing $5,000 in bonds was a tie, there being 110 votes for and the same number against the issue. That vote destroyed the hope that Chatfield had of the road running to that place.

The road as built runs diagonally in a southwesterly direction through the township of Dover and Eyota, across the southwest corner of Marion township and the northwest corner of Pleasant Grove and through the center of High Forest township to the south line of the county. Its route in this county is through one of the best farming districts in the state.

The building of the road changed the geography of the southern part of the county. New stations were established and small towns started. Near the southeast corner of Eyota township is Laird; Predmore is in the southeast corner of Marion township; Simpson is a thrifty village near the northeast corner of Pleasant Grove township. One of the most important results of the building of the road was the development of Stewartville, which from a village consisting of but little else than a good mill in the center of a rich farming neighborhood has grown into a flourishing and pretty town of nearly a thousand population, with business houses, residences and other improvements of much better average grade than would be expected in a place of the size. The skipping of Rochester and building up of Stewartville was at first an apparent disadvantage to the central city by drawing away the trade of the rich farmers tributary to the latter town, but in the lapse of time Rochester has got its full share of the added prosperity, and while the wealth and prosperity of the county has been greatly increased by Stewartville's growth, we are inclined to believe that from its central location Rochester has also benefited by that development. It certainly has not been appreciably injured by the growth of its neighbor.

In 1899 the gap between Rochester and Simpson, which had been left by the Winona & Southwestern Company, was fitted by the building of a road between the two points. In the meanwhile the road had changed its name to Winona & Western. The building of this little spur gave Rochester an outlet to the south as far as Osage, Iowa.

After all the efforts to obtain another road, one came of its own volition. In 1902 the Chicago Great Western Company built a line paralleling the Chicago & North-Western's short line from Rochester to Zumbrota. Contrary to all former custom, this company built the road without soliciting bonuses and paid generally full value for the property wanted for its right of way, and in most cases without resorting to condemnation proceedings. By way of Zumbrota and Red Wing it gives a round-about connection between Rochester and St. Paul. A direct line from St. Paul through Rochester to Chicago is still needed.

The latest railroad project and one not yet fully developed is that of the Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester & Dubuque Electric Traction Company. It is the outcome of a number of years' agitation of an electric line from Decorah and Preston through Rochester to St. Paul and Minneapolis. The present company was organized in 1907, and after much prospecting and promoting M. W. Savage, of Minneapolis, became interested and active in its promotion, assumed the presidency of the company and gave the line an unofficial title of the Dan Patch Air Line, in honor of a famous racing horse of which he is the owner, and it is oftener called by that than by its real name. The road is surveyed to run from Minneapolis through Northfield and Owatonna to Rochester, and is partly built from Minneapolis and a contract let for its construction as far as Northfield. The right of way has been secured to the city of Rochester through Salem and Rochester townships, a franchise for its use of streets in that city has been granted, and the building of it to that point is hoped for. The route from Rochester southward has not yet been determined.

Rev. Caleb Sawyer was a native of New Hampshire. He was ordained as a Baptist minister, but his occupation in Viola, where he settled in 1856, was that of a farmer. He served two terms as representative. He was of the highest character and universally esteemed. He died in 1881.

In November, 1867, William Brown, of Rochester, was elected sheriff; Charles M. Start, of Rochester, county attorney; L. O. Benjamin, of Rochester, coroner ; Edwin A. Doty, of Viola, Henry J. Grant, of Rochester, and George W. Wirt, of Oronoco county, commissioners. All were Republicans.

Coroner Benjamin had been appointed coroner to fill a vacancy caused by the moving away of Dr. H. Galloway, and the appointment was confirmed by his election to the office.

Charles M. Start is a native of Vennont, born in 1839. He enlisted in the Union army from that state, but was obliged to leave the service from disability. He read law in Vermont, came to Rochester in 1863 and was successful in his profession. In 1865 he was appointed city attorney of Rochester. In 1879 elected attorney general of the State, and after serving about a year was appointed by Governor Pillsbury judge of the Third District, to fill the vacancy made by the promotion of Judge Mitchell, of Winona, to the Supreme Court. He was twice reelected without opposition. In 1895 he became chief justice of the Supreme Court and is now filling his third term, to which he was elected without opposition.

The occasion of his retirement from the district bench to become chief justice was marked by a highly complimentary demonstration of the esteem of the Olmsted county bar and citizens. At the close of his last term as district judge, in December, 1894, a meeting of the bar was held in his honor, at which complimentary addresses were made by Attorneys Henry C. Butler, Charles C. Willson, Burt W. Eaton and Thomas Spillane, and Mayor Horace H. Witherstine, on behalf of the bar and citizens generally, presented him with a library of sixty-three volumes, comprising the American Statesman, in twenty-six volumes; the American Men of Letters^ in thirteen volumes; Modern History, in eighteen volumes, and French History, in six volumes. Their receipt was very gratefully acknowledged by the chief justice.

Lemuel O. Benjamin was born in Vermont in 1830, and in 1854 moved to Indiana, and came to Rochester in 1856 and invested in city lots. He returned in 1857 and located on a farm in Rochester township, but removed to the city in 1862. He was deputy sheriff eight years under Sheriffs Brown and Ellison and was city marshal two years. He was elected city justice of Rochester in 1882 and filled the office twelve years. He was an officer of unusual ability and is now a highly respected citizen.

Edwin A. Doty was born in the State of New York and was a farmer. He settled in Viola in 1858. His wife taught the first school in the township. There being no school building, Mrs. Doty gathered the neighboring children in her own home daily for two years, when the school house was built. When the Rochester and Plainview railroad was built across the township in 1879 it ran across Mr. Doty's farm and he established a grain elevator and warehouse, calling it Doty Station and handling the grain of the neighborhood. He was town treasurer a number of years. He died in January, 1905. He was one of the best citizens - honest, frank and reliable, and thoroughly worthy the great respect in which he was held by all who knew him.

Henry J. Grant was a farmer in Cascade township and afterwards moved to Rochester, where he was alderman one term. He removed to Lac qui Parle, where he was appointed county auditor, and is now a resident of California.

George W. Wirt was born in 1828, in Ohio, where his father was a miller, and the son learned the trade and received a high-school education. He removed with his father to Waupon, Wisconsin, in 1847, was engaged in milling with his father and A. D. Allis. He came to Oronoco in 1863 and became a partner with Mr. Allis in the Oronoco mill. After the mill was destroyed by fire he turned to farming. He was chairman of the town supervisors in 1867 and 1876. He was one of the most prominent and influential members of the community. He died in September, 1900.

There never has been much pauperism in the county, but in 1868 the county commissioners found it necessary to provide a home for the indigent on their hands, and established a poor farm by the purchase, from Silas N. Howard, who moved to Missouri, of a farm in Marion township, pre-empted by him in 1855. It consisted of 240 acres, seventy-five under cultivation, with a good two-story house and outbuildings. The county paid $3,600 for it. It proved to be literally a poor farm, and in 1874 the county traded it with Dr. T. M. Westfall for a farm in Rochester township, pre-empted by David Whitney in 1854. This also proved to be true to the name - poor farm - and in 1896 the county bought the farm of Mark Olin, about a mile south of the city, in Rochester township, and built on it a large and commodious building with household conveniences, making it one of the best county houses in the State. The care of the unfortunates has generally been kind and considerate. The first superintendent was John Williams, a war veteran. He was followed by Thomas Bonham, and he by John A. Howard. Those following them have had long tenures of office. * Henry Moulton, a veteran, was superintendent thirteen years; A. L. Morey, nine years; H. Reymon, three years, and Frederick Fairbanks, who has recently resigned and been succeeded by August Anderson, seven years. As a boarding place for the poor, the present farm has been as satisfactory as could be expected, but as a farm, though a fine piece of land, it has been an incumbrance. The extra hundred or so acres that have to be carried along have kept the county, in that respect, land poor. There are now twenty inmates in the institution.

In the legislative session of 1868 the representatives were Charles Stewart, S. W. Eaton and Caleb Sawyer - ^all Republicans. Representative Stewart was re-elected to the session of 1870.

Charles Stewart, a native of western New York, born in 181 6, came to High Forest township in 1857 and improved a waterpower on the Rock river by building a flour mill, which became the nucleus of Stewartville. He developed a large business. He was a man of good education and unusual business sagacity, and stood high in the community. He died in 1886.

Samuel William Eaton was born in Erie county. New York. His boyhood was spent on a farm. He attended one term of an academy. He spent a year and a half as a printer in the office of the Cattarmgtis Freeman, but gave up the business on account of failing health, and became a farmer. He removed to Michigan and from there to Rock county, Wisconsin. In Wisconsin he was ordained as a Universalist minister. In 1861 he came to Olmsted county and followed farming a year, when he moved to Rochester. In 1862 he became a partner with William H. Mitchell in the editing and publishing of the Rochester Republican, for two years. He then spent a year on the Rochester Post, which was owned at that time by David Blakely, after which he and U. B. Shaver bought the Republican and published it a year and a half, when it was absorbed by the Rochester Post, and Mr. Eaton became associate editor of that paper, and sustained that relation till compelled by age and failing health to retire. He was an editor of unusual ability; a finished and vigorous writer and an all-around newspaper man. He filled the pulpit of Grace church, Rochester, for a time, soon after its organization, but aside from that, only preached occasionally. He was judge of probate two terms and served as city recorder, alderman and city justice. He completed a well written History of Olmsted County, published in 1883. He died in 1890. Of irreproachable character and thoroughly sincere, he received universal respect.

In May, 1868, Henry J. Grant resigned as county commissioner and Sylvanus Risker, of Rochester, was appointed by the board of commissioners to fill the vacancy.

Wheat growing being, by far, the most important branch of farming, and its harvesting on a large scale being exceedingly expensive and precarious when dependent on the hiring of gangs of irresponsible harvest hands at wages ranging from $2.50 to $5 a day, besides board, the use of machinery for cutting the grain was becoming universal, but the invention of self-binders was more complicated and slower of achievement. Harvesters had been invented that would cut the grain and deliver it in bundles ready for binding, but the automatic or self-binder was no less necessary, and several machines, more or less perfect, were in the market. At this stage of the invention, John H. Whitney, of Rochester, evolved the idea of a wire binder (twine binders had not yet come in use) that should gather and tie the bundle on the harvester automatically, without human handling, and throw it on the ground, tied up, ready for the stack. He worked on the invention more than a year, and in the season of 1868 had so perfected it that he put it in the field in competition with other binders. It was awarded the first gold medal given by the State Agricultural Society. It was made to do good work, was simple in construction, and apparently a merchantable machine, and a number of harvesters were made and sold, but, for some reason, they never came into general use, and the enterprise failed.

Edward Chapman, a skilled machinist, also, soon afterward, invented a self-binder that was apparently an excellent machine, and Messrs. C. H. Chadbourn and Alan K. and J. M. Williams formed a company and established a factory for the machines, and turned out a number of them, but the manufacture was abandoned.

L. H. Johnson, of Rochester, invented a reaper and binder in which the improvement was in the easier working of the sickle. It, too. never got into general use.

John H. Whitney was a son of David Whitney, a pioneer farmer in the vicinity of Rochester. He came with his father's family from Ohio in 1855. He received his education in the city of Rochester and spent most of his life there. He served in a cavalry regiment in the War of the Rebellion, and afterward became a skilful photographer. After the invention of his binder he devoted himself to the perfection of it and other inventions. He died in St. Louis in 1876, at the early age of thirty-five years. He had unusual inventive abihty and prospects of great distinction.

Charles H., an older brother of John H., co-operated with him in his experiments. He was a furniture dealer in Rochester. He invented a binder, became an agricultural machinery expert, and was employed several years by the Marsh Harvester Company and afterward by the Deering Company as an expert in the improvement of their machines. He died at Winnetka, a suburb of Chicago, a few years ago. He was a man of popular manners, and universally liked.

In the fall of 1868 David S. Hibbard was elected county auditor. He was bom in Chautauqua county, New York, in 185 1. He received his early education in Ohio and took a course at a business college. He clerked for some years and went into mercantile business in Pennsylvania. In 1856 he made a claim in Salem and was a farmer till 1866, when he became deputy to County Auditor Harkins, and on the resignation of Captain Harkins in 1868 was appointed auditor. He was elected auditor for three successive terms. He then became a partner with A. D. Allis and A. Gooding in the Oronoco mill, which was destroyed by fire in 1879. 1878 he was appointed judge of probate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of H. H. Richardson before entering upon the office. Mr. Hibbard held the office until the expiration of the term. In 1880 he was employed as a clerk by D. H. Moon, and afterward purchased his grocery business. He moved to California and died there in 1898. He was a good man and highly respected.

In the session of 1869 J. A. Leonard was state senator and R. D. Hathaway, of Pleasant Grove; Brown S. Larson, of Rock Dell, and John Lathrop, of Farmington, representatives - all Republicans.

Brown S. Larson was born in Norway, coming to this country in his youth. He was an early settler in Rock Dell, where he was a farmer and taught school. He served two terms in the legislature. He removed to Byron and kept a store there. He read law in the office of Stearns & Start, but his health failing, he went to Norway in hope of improvement, and died there in 1873, consumption, at the early age of thirty-three years. He was cut off at the commencement of a promising career.

It is an interesting fact that Mr. Larson was not a citizen of the L^nited States at the time of serving in the legislature, he not taking out his papers of full naturalization till two years later. The State constitution, till amended in 1896, allowed foreigners who had declared their intention to become citizens of the United States to vote and hold State offices, and those of them who became full

John Lathrop was the son of Junia Lathrop, who settled in Farmington township in 1855, coming from Indiana, where John was bom, being a youth on his arrival in Minnesota. He was a farmer and was an intelligent and energetic young man. He was secretary of the Farmers' Alliance of the State. He removed to Gary, South Dakota, about 1878, and died there in 1892.

S. W. Graham was a school teacher and lawyer at Eyota, a well educated gentleman of popular manners. He moved to Rochester for the practice of law, about 1872, and in 1874 removed to Blue Earth City, Minnesota.

The county officers elected in the fall of 1869 were: Treasurer, A. Gooding, of Rochester; sheriff, William Brown, of Rochester; register of deeds, Thomas Brooks, of Farmington ; county attorney,

C. M. Start, of Rochester; county surveyor, Robert J. Perry, of Cascade; clerk of court, C. L. Benedict, of Rochester; judge of probate, S. W. Eaton, of Rochester; court commissioner, W. S. Booth, of Rochester; coroner. Dr. W. W. Mayo, of Rochester; county commissioner, E. S. Wooldridge, of High Forest township - all Republicans.

Alphonso Gooding was born in 1829, in the State of New York, locatmg on a farm in Eyota township. He moved to Rochester in 1865 and engaged in the grocery business in partnership with C. H. Morrill. He then became interested in the mill at Oronoco, which was destroyed by fire, and he went into partnership with G. W. Van Dusen and C. H. Chadbourn in the business of buying grain, which they conducted on a very large scale. He had unusual business capacity and a reputation of thorough integrity. He retired from business several years before his death, which occurred in October, 1906.

Robert J. Perry was a son of Benjamin F. Perry, a prominent farmer of Cascade, and lived on a farm in the same neighborhood. He was a successful fruit grower at that early day, and a progressive farmer. He removed to Kasson.

Eugene S. Wooldridge was an early settler of High Forest township, locating on a farm that is now adjoining the village of Stewartville, a part of it being an addition to the village. He has always been prominent in local affairs, and was postmaster of Stewartville at his death, in January, 1901. He was an enterprising, energetic citizen, and very influential.

The bicycle, first called the velocipede, came into use here in 1868, and was then an awkward, high-wheeled machine. At first it was a vehicle of luxury, used for recreation. It has now come into evcry-day use by a few persons and is superseded as a luxury by the high-priced automobile.

In October, 1869, the following market prices were quoted in the Rochester Post: No. i spring wheat, 45 cents; No. 2, 40 cents;, corn. 20 cents ; oats, 16 cents; pork, $4 to $4.25 per hundred.

AS in all the West, the main crop of the early farmers was wheat. Its cultivation and especially its sale for cash in hand, seemed to make it the best money-raiser, and for about ten years after the first settlements it was not only the main crop, but the only one raised on a large scale, and the county was one great wheat field. And no country was more attractive than this when the ripening grain was spread out over mile beyond mile of the tilled fields. But little other grain was raised and scarcely any stock. Minnesota was the great wheat State, and it was the prevalent opinion that for all future time it was to be the granary of the world. But in 1866 a short crop gave the first warning of the successive shrinkage in the yield that followed for several years. The yield diminished from twenty to thirty bushels to the acre to ten to twenty bushels. This process of deterioration culminated in 1878 with a total failure of the crop.

The failure of wheat growing and the neglect of other kinds of farming had impoverished many of the farmers, though there were those who, by more fortunate management, succeeded in the business. Mortgages were numerous, scarcity of money and hard times prevalent. The whole community felt poor - ^perhaps poorer than it really was. Less wheat was raised from year to year, and other field crops, stock raising and dairying soon substituted till now scarcely any wheat is raised. Barley is the main cereal crop. Com, which, it was at first thought, could not be relied on here, is, perhaps, as important as any, and stock raising and dairying are considered the most profitable branches of farming.

The first development of dairying on a large scale was the establishment of cheese factories. Chauncey and Rudolph Vroman, farmers from Oronoco township, started a cheese factory, about

1 87 1, another near Byron, and one at Rock Dell in 1875. '^he factories outside Rochester were co-operative, supported by the farmers of the neighborhood, were carried on successfully a number of years, and were profitable to their patrons, but the introduction of the hand separator, of recent years, has made it so much more convenient and economical for the farmer to furnish cream to the creamery than milk to the factory, that cheese-making is becoming a lapsed industry in this region.

Cheese-making was followed by factory butter-making. In 1881 the firm of Eaton & Walker, consisting of William J. Eaton and Charles Walker, came from Iowa to Rochester, engaged in the buying and shipping of butter, and established a creamery in the Vroman Building. The next spring they sold it to Charles E. Marvin and Edward N. Cammack, also from Iowa, who, as Marvin & Cammack, conducted the business about three years and removed it to West St. Paul, where it has since been carried on as the Crescent Creamery. It was followed by creameries throughout the county. There have generally been, and now are, two at Rochester. They are, at present, the Rochester Creamery, owned by W. J. Eaton, and the Queen City Creamery, owned by Clarence Van Hook and Edward J. Henry. By 1886 there were creameries at Byron and in High Forest township. In 1890 others were added at Viola and Pleasant Grove, and in 1892 the creameries in the county had increased to sixteen, there being new ones at Douglass, Haverhill, Oronoco, Genoa, Salem, Stewartville, Stone's Corners and Marion, and in 1894 one was started at Laird, and, later, others at Simpson and Predmore. A creamery was run for years in Viola township by H. D. Morse, of Winona, and one in High Forest township by C. E. Waller. They were both discontinued several years ago.

There are now creameries at Rochester, Eyota. Dover, Viola, Rine, in Farmington township; Oronoco, Byron, Douglas, Rock Dell, Simpson and Pridmore. The county is well supplied with facilities for dairying.

Most of these enterprises have been co-operative. Some failed after a few years of successful operation, but most of them were profitable to the farmers. In 1906 there were in the county in connection with the creameries, of which there were fourteen, 1,176 patrons; 9,241 cows, furnishing 37,590,754 pounds of milk, from which 1,654,269 pounds of brtter were made, and the farmers received for the milk and cream, $310,853.92.

At the same time that this change was taking place, other diversification was going on in the way of raising and improving the breeds of stock of different kinds, not forgetting poultry, and the everyday circulation of money was greatly increased, the mortgages were paid or reduced, and prosperity succeeded stringency. The cow had redeemed the farm, and today the county is one of the most prosperous in the State, and dairying is one of its best industries.

During the territorial period, when the federal administration was Democratic, the local offices were controlled by the administration, and were generally held by Democrats, but with the independence of the State and the influx of new settlers during the succeeding years, the county became strongly Republican, and a Republican nomination was nearly equivalent to an election. Party spirit was strong and nearly all local officers were Republican; but about 1868 a new element entered into the politics of the State and county. The railroads, which the settlers had been so anxious for tliat localities voted them large bonuses for the location of their lines, had become established, and, with the elevators, had control of the transportation and the price of wheat, then the main product of the farms, and almost the sole dependence of the farmers for money. They were accused of' monopolizing the handling of farm products and fixing prices to the great detriment of the farmers, and anti-monopoly became the dominant issue - monopoly being a synonym for railroad. The dominant party was held responsible for the railroads and for the hard luck of the farmers, and men who had for years been Republicans turned anti-monopolists and voted with the Democrats.

Leonard B. Hodges, one of the founders of Oronoco village, and an unsuccessful farmer, stumped the county, in the fall of 1870, as the Democratic and anti-monopoly candidate for the senate, and was elected over Col. Ozro P. Steams, the regular Republican nominee, by less than three hundred majority. Richard A. Jones, of Rochester, who up to that time had been a Republican, also stumped the county as an anti-railroad candidate, and was elected representative; while Thomas W. Phelps, of Marion township, and William Somerville, of Eyota township, straight Republicans, were also elected representatives. These gentlemen served in the legislative session of 1871.

- Leonard B. Hodges was born in the State of New York. At the age of fourteen he went to New Haven, Connecticut, working a year in a book store, then back to New York, where he worked two years in a hardware store, then he went to Saratoga county, New York, and worked on a farm and studied and taught school in the winter. In 1845 he opened a farm on government land near Rockford, Illinois. In 1846 he worked in the lead mines near Galena. In 1848 he was lumbering in the Wisconsin pineries. After getting out a fleet of lumber and running it down the Mississippi and selling it, he had only $5 left after paying expenses. This he sent to his mother and went to work in some old diggings and got a "grub stake" and bought an outfit of an ox, frying pan, coffee pot, bake pan, a sack of flour, bacon, coffee, salt and a pair of blankets. With these he went to northeastern Iowa and again located a farm. He was appointed deputy United States surveyor and surveyed government land in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. He laid out a part of his farm in town lots and named it Hardin, in honor of Captain Hardin, of Mexican war fame. In the course of his surveys he discovered the site of Oronoco and, in company with John B. Clark and Ebenezer S. Collins, preempted the village site. He settled on a farm adjoining the village. He served the township several years as chairman of supervisors, and was also a county commissioner. After his senatorial term he was employed by the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company as superintendent of tree planting for the protection of their track through the exposed prairies. His was one of the first cases where the railroads of the state have shown their business sagacity by taking into their employment those who showed force of character in opposing them. He removed to St. Paul in 1872, was made superintendent of tree planting on the Northern Pacific railroad and had trees planted along the line of that road from the Big Woods of Minnesota to the Yellowstone river. He was secretary of the Minnesota State Forestry Association. He died in St. Paul in 1883. He was a man of unusual general information and very positive convictions, and was highly regarded by the people of the county.

Richard A. Jones was a native of Indiana, born in 183 1. At the age of seven years he went to Wisconsin with his father's family. He was educated at the Milton Academy and became a lawyer. He went to California by team in 1853. He practiced law there till 1859, when he located at Chatfield. He came to Rochester in 1864. After his senatorship he became identified with the Democratic party and was its candidate for representative in congress against William Windom and made a strong canvass, but was defeated.

He was reelected State representative for 1872 and again for 1879. deputy grand master of the Free Masons of Minnesota. He was appointed by President Cleveland in 1887 chief justice of Washington Territory, and died there in 1888, after attaining a high reputation as an able and impartial jurist. He was a lawyer of extraordinary readiness and resource, a strong speaker, and of social qualities that made him a host of friends.

Thomas W. Phips was one of the earliest settlers in Marion township, coming there from Indiana with his father's family in 1854. He was a farmer, had an academic education, was prominent in the affairs of the town and county, and was a representative man of the community, with a large and favorable acquaintance throughout the county. He died in June, 1899, in California, where he had gone for his health.

William Somerville was bom in Pennsylvania and moved in his youth to Indiana. He was reared on a farm. He was active as a speaker in the Republican party in that state. He settled in Viola in i860 and became prominent in local affairs. He was for three years chairman of the supervisors. He was very enterprising as a farmer, and especially successful as a fruit raiser, having one of the best apple orchards in the State. He was for several years a' lecturer in farmers' institutes. He spent the last four years of his life in Rochester, where he died in 1906. He was an exemplary and public-spirited citizen.

9,524. The population of Rochester in i860 was 1,424, and in 1870 it was 4,544. These are official figures, but we know of nothing less reliable than statistics of a new country.

At the January session of the county commissioners in 1870, William D. Hurlbut, the chairman, resigned, and Charles H. Chadbourn was appointed to the vacancy. He was elected chairman.

Charles H. Chadbourn was born in Maine in 1832. He went to California in 1851 and engaged in mining two years. He then settled in Wisconsin, where he stayed till i860, when he came to Rochester and, with Rodney Whitney, of Massachusetts, established a private bank, doing a large business in money loaning. In 1875 the bank was changed to the Rochester National Bank and is still doing business under the management of Henry M. Nowell. Mr. Whitney died in January, 1868, aged thirty-seven years, and Mr. Chadbourn continued the business till 1886, when he moved to Minneapolis. He was very successful in Rochester in banking and real estate transactions and, in partnership with George W. Van Dusen, did an extensive wheat-buying business along the line of the Chicago & North-Western railroad. He became prominent in the banking and real estate business in Minneapolis. He died in May, 1900.

The legislature of 1870 passed a law submitting to the vote of the people the question whether the 500,000 acres of internal improvement lands belonging to the State should be applied to the payment of the repudiated State bonds issued for the building of railroads under the $5,000,000 loan act of the territorial legislature. The question was voted on in May, 1870. The vote in Olmsted county was 844 for and 409 against the proposition. The townships of Cascade, Haverhill, Marion, New Haven, .Quincy, Rochester and the village of High Forest voted against it, all the rest of the county in favor.

The County Commissioners for 187 1 were Frederick T. Olds, of Rochester; George W. Wirt, of Oronoco; E. H. Dewey, of Dover; A. Burnap, of Orion, and Eugene S. Wooldridge, of High Forest. Mr. Olds was elected chairman of the board.

r>ederick T. Olds was a son of Judge Olds, the proprietor of the stone mill in Rochester, and after the death of his father was with Thomas L. Fishback, one of the owners of the mill. He was a native of Kentucky and came to Rochester from Iowa in 1857. He was mayor and was afterwards alderman of Rochester and served a term as a member of the legislature in 1874. He removed in 1878 to Dakota and later to Tacoma, where he died in 1900. He was a thorough business man of faultless character and greatly respected.

Emery H. Dewey was a farmer of Dover township. He was a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1835. He moved to Illinois in 1855, located in Dover in 1856 and died there in May, 1908. He was a well-to-do fanner, held several township offices, was of excellent character and deservedly popular.

Alvares Burnap was a native of New Hampshire, born in 1831. He located a farm in Orion in 1854 and was a leading citizen of the township. He was chairman of supervisors from the first organization of the township. He served two terms as commissioner and was a representative in the legislature in 1876 and again in 1878. He was an excellent farmer, and was one of the first to enter into the raising of thoroughbred stock and did much to develop that branch of industry. He was very charitable and held the highest esteem of the community. He died in October, 1902.

In 1 87 1 Andrew C. Smith, of Rochester, was appointed collector of internal revenue for the First District and held the office a number of years. He was born in New York State and removed from there to Illinois and then to St. Paul, where he and two brothers built the first saw mill in Minneapolis. He afterwards lived at Winona and at Stockton. He was a member of the legislature from Winona county in 1867. He came to Rochester in 1866 and was secretary of the Farmers' Insurance Company. In 1872 he formed a partnership in the insurance business with Marion G. Denton. He was succeeded in the collectorship by A. C. Wedge, of Albert Lea, and afterwards removed to Tacoma, where he died in April, 1905. He had a very extensive acquaintance and was very popular and influential in Republican politics.

Rev. Sylvester N. Phelps was elected chaplain of the house of representatives at the session of 1871 ; the same session in which his brother, Thomas Phelps, was a representative. He was one of the first settlers of Marion township, coming there with his father's family in 1855. a native of Pennsylvania and a Methodist preacher. He enlisted in the Sixth Minnesota Regiment and after his service preached in various parts of the State till about ten years ago, since which he has resided at Windom, Minnesota, where he is still living.

In November, 1871, James A. Ellison, of Salem, was elected sheriff; O. O. Baldwin, of Rochester, court commissioner; Alfred Blanchard, of Rochester, coroner, and Peter Hoganson, of Rock Dell, county commissioner. All Republicans.

James A. Ellison was born in Indiana. He had the misfortune while a child of losing his forearm by the explosion of a powder flask. He came to Salem in 1855 and located on a farm. He held the local offices of supervisor, justice of the peace and constable.

Oscar O. Baldwin was a native of Ohio. He graduated at Oberlin College and taught school at Cleveland. He came to Rochester in 1 86 1 and taught the public school in the old court house, and afterwards opened a law and insurance office and was court commissioner for several years, county attorney and alderman of Rochester. He was an intelligent and estimable gentleman. He died in May, 1889.

Peter Hoganson was born in Norway in 1834 and came to this country in 1854, settling in Illinois. He went to California and came to Rock Dell in 1864, where he became a leading farmer and was kept continuously in township offices by his neighbors. He died in January, 1904. His son, Tobias Hoganson, is cashier of the First National Bank of Stewartville.

In the apportionment of legislators made in 1871 Olmsted county was allowed two senators and four representatives, and in the session of 1872 Milo White, of Chatfield, and O. S. Porter, of Rochester, both Republicans, were senators, and Arthur H. Gaskill, of High Forest township, and Thomas B. Lindsay, of Oronoco, Republicans, and Peter Finton, of Viola, and Richard A. Jones, of Rochester, Democrats, were representatives.

Milo White is a native of Vermont. He was a farmer boy and when eighteen years old became a clerk in a store. After such employment for five years in Vermont towns he went to the city of New York, following the same occupation. In 1855 he came to Chatfield and in 1856 opened a store in that place, which has been in continuous business longer than any other in Fillmore county. Chatfield is divided by the county line, and while Mr. White's residence is in Olmsted county, his place of business is in Fillmore county. He has done a large and successful business both at Chatfield and at times in Eyota and St. Charles. He was first chairman of the township supervisors, has been village president and has been treasurer of the school district fifteen years and of the village several years. He was reelected senator at the end of his first term and again in 1880. He was representative in congress two terms, from 1883 to 1887, and being the only member of the committee on agriculture having a personal knowledge of the creamery business, he was one of the three who perfected the oleomargarine bill, which passed in 1886 and became the first national law regulating that business. Though not now in active business he is, at the age of seventy-seven, a leader in the community and has the respect of the people of a large district in southern Minnesota.

Orson Gage Porter was born in the State of New York in 1829. He was a sailor for six years of his early manhood and circumnavigated the globe. He then returned to Canandaigua, New York, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1861. He came to business in Eyota. He was Sergeant at Arms of the Senate four years and for fifteen years one of the board of trustees of the State penitentiary, and much of the term president of the board. He was several terms president of the village of Eyota. He was commander of Custer Post and junior and senior vice commander of the Minnesota Department of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was socially and politically popular and had a large acquaintance throughout the state. He died at Eyota in July, 1908.

J. W. Cunningham was a native of Ohio. He went to St. Paul in 1863 and engaged in the stationery business in Rochester a few years later. He again removed to St. Paul.

The following were the new county officers elected in November, 1873 - Register of Deeds, Lyman E. Cowdery, of Rochester, Democrat; Treasurer, J. Lyman Wright, of Cascade, anti-Monopolist; Judge of Probate, John W. Fulkerson, of Marion township. Democrat; Clerk of the Court, Harvey T. Hannon, of Rochester, anti- Monopolist; Coroner, Hector Galloway, of Rochester, Democrat; County Commissioners: Joseph Tait, of Pleasant Grove, anti- Monopolist, and Michael Kepner, of Quincy, Democrat.

Lyman E. Cowdery was born in the State of New York and lived in Ohio and Wisconsin, coming to Rochester in 1865. He was for several years a dealer in lumber and a grain buyer. He was elected Mayor of Rochester in 1879. He removed to Kasson, where he was proprietor of a grain elevator, and from there to Minneapolis, where he is now living. He was very popular in politics and enterprising in business.

J. Lyman Wright, a native of the State of New York, was a successful farmer in Cascade township, where he was a Justice of the Peace and held other local offices. After two terms as Treasurer he became a resident of Rochester. He was Representative in the Legislature in the session of 1891. His health failing, he moved in 1904 to Missoula, Montana, where he died December i, 1907.

Rev. John W. Fulkerson is a Virginian by birth. He was brought up on a farm and received an academic education, and at the age of nineteen became a preacher of the United Brethren denomination. He spent twelve years in preaching in Virginia and Maryland and came to the village of Marion in 1856 as a missionary. For ten years he visited many parts of southern Minnesota as a preacher, and in 1866 located on the farm in Marion, where he still lives. He served two terms as Judge of Probate. He has preached only occasionally of late years, enjoying a respected old age. He is now in his eighty-seventh year. County Treasurer John F. Fulkerson is his son.

Oronoco township with his father's family in 1857, living on a farm. He attended the Rochester schools and the Michigan University. He served two terms as Clerk of the Court. He afterwards removed to Seattle, and spent some time in Alaska, and is now living in Seattle.

Joseph Tait was bom in England in 1836 and came to America with his father's family in 1852, locating in Illinois. They came to Minnesota in 1855, settling in Pleasant Grove township. He enlisted in the Third Minnesota Regiment, and served nearly four years. He was a farmer highly respected by his neighbors. He moved to Spring Valley and died there in February, 1901.

Michael Kepner settled on a farm in Quincy township in 1856, and became one of the leading men of the township, highly regarded for the excellence of his character. He died in 1888 aged seventynine years. His sons, John H., who at one time was in business in Rochester and is now living at Pipestone, and George, who was a farmer in Quincy, now living at Dover, have both been inventors and dealers in farm machinery.

The change in domestic fuel from wood to coal may be said to have begun here in the fall of 1873, when several car loads of the black fuel were brought to Rochester, and the hardware dealers laid in stocks of coal stoves. The price of coal that winter was $12 a ton. For nearly twenty years wood had been the only fuel, and as Nature, in providing for the future, had planted enough timber to supply the population but had not distributed it for the future convenience of the prairie settlers, the cutting and hauling of the year's supply of firewood in the freezing winter weather was one of the meanest of their hardships, some of them having to haul it as far as fifteen miles. The increasing use of wood sawing machines and of the burning of coal are great rural blessings.

In i860, when wood was abundant, before Rochester had consumed the forests of New Haven and Kalmer, wood sold in that city for from $1.75 to $2 a cord. It sells now, in 1907, for from $6.50 to $7 a cord.

The financial panic that swept the country in 1873, following the failure of Jay Cooke and the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, was severely felt here and especially in knocking down the selling price of wheat below the cost of its production. It was one of the factors leading to the abandonment of wheat growing, which had been the main branch of farming.

The Rochester State Hospital

THE Rochester State Hospital is the outgrowth of an attempt to establish a state institution for the cure of drunkards. In 1873 a law was passed taxing all persons selling liquor $10 a year for the creation of a fund for the support of an inebriate asylum, on the theory that the liquor sellers were responsible for the creation of drunkards and should, therefore* contribute to their cure. The law did not tax any other class of drunkard makers.

At the session of 1875 a bill introduced by Senator Davids was passed locating the asylum at Rochester, and a board of seven directors was appointed by Governor Davis, of which J. A. Leonard was the local member.

The imposition of the tax was strongly opposed by those condemned to pay it, and the question of its constitutionality, it being contended that it was class legislation, was carried to the Supreme Court, which sustained its constitutionality, but the opposition was so great that in 1878 the institution was changed to the Second Insane Hospital, of which there was need, the one at St. Peter being overcrowded.

In the meanwhile $35,000 of the tax had been collected and a site had been purchased. The farm of Jacob Rickert, of 160 acres, adjoining the city of Rochester on the east, was bought for $9,000.

The location was not worthy of a town so surrounded by sightly elevations as is Rochester, being originally flat and unattractive ; a majority of the directors cared more to get a good farm than to secure a handsome site. But by cultivation and taste it has been made a beautiful park-like domain and a favorite drive for the city.

In 1877 the erection of the inebriate asylum was begun, and what is now the central building was under way when the change to the insane hospital was made. In 1878 the insane hospital was organized by the appointment of Dr. J. E. Bowers, assistant superintendent at St. Peter, as superintendent, and Rev. A. H. Kerr, from the same institution, as steward. It was opened for the reception of patients January i, 1879, with a hundred patients and the following staff of officers: Superintendent, Dr. J. E. Bowers; steward, A. H. Kerr; farmer, Horace Loomis; assistant farmer, F. A. James; engineer, William West; cook, H. H. Owens; laundress, Lou. Briggs; seamstress, Louise Loomis; watchman, S. M. Wattring; chambermaid, Mabel Matheson; attendants, Louise Clouse. James Debar, James McConnel, Q. P. Briggs.

History Of Olmsted Counts 119

Dr. J. Eaton Bovvers was born in Canada in 1871. He graduated in the University of Toronto and received the degree of master of arts. He was teacher of French and German in the London Collegiate Institute. He graduated from the medical department of the Michigan University. He became first assistant in the insane hospital at St. Peter, and by the death of Dr. Schultz, the superintendent, he succeeded to the charge of the hospital, after which he spent nearly a year in Europe in the study of insanity, visiting about forty insane hospitals, and returned to the St. Peter HospitjJ and served more than ten years.

After his resignation from the Rochester Hospital he removed to St. Paul and afterwards to Dukith, where he is now living. There has never been at Rochester a gentleman more highly respected or more greatly esteemed by all who know him.

Rev. Aaron H. Kerr was a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1819 He became a Presbyterian minister and preached several years in Indiana and in Dubuque, coming in 1856 to St. Peter, where he built up a very prosperous church, of which he was the preacher for twenty-two years. He was also, for five years, superintendent of the pubHc schools of Nicollet county.

He served three years in the War of the Rebellion as chaplain of the Ninth Minnesota Regiment, and was distinguished for his care for and kindness to the men needing any help. He was a trustee and afterwards secretary of the St. Peter Insane Hospital, and on the establishment of the Rochester Hospital was made its steward. He died in 1890.

A most unfortunate occurrence took place at tlie hospital on April I, 1889. A negro named Taylor Combs had been sent as a patient from Stillwater penitentiary to the hospital in 1887. He was serving a thirty-year sentence for rape, and was a powerful, desperate and incorrigible brute. He had been troublesome at the hospital and was considered dangerous. On this occasion he was assisting in cleaning the ceiling of one of the wards and got into a quarrel with two of the attendants, August Beckman, from Oronoco township, a German of about twenty-five years, and Edward Peterson, a Norwegian, of Rochester, of twenty-three years. In handling the patient the attendants were rough and injured him so that he died within a few hours. His breast bone and some ribs were broken, probably by Beckman either falling or jumping on his chest. The attendants agreed on a story that Combs had fallen from the platform and thus received the fatal injuries. Superintendent Bowers reported the case to Coroner Morse, who investigated it and, accepting the statements of the attendants as true, did not consider the holding of an inquest necessary. The body was shipped to the family of the patient at St. Paul.

was painting in the hall adjoining the ward at the time. This was not known at the time of the inquest. Superintendent Bowers hearing of it a few days afterwards, interrogated Date, but could not get full information from him. He was afraid of Becker. The superintendent was satisfied that Combs had been maltreated, but did not think there was sufficient evidence to convict the attendants of killing him. He consulted with Dr. Collins, one of his assistants, and Steward Kerr, and concluded that it was not advisable, at that time, to have the attendants prosecuted. He reprimanded and discharged them. It was quite questionable whether enough good would have resulted from any further action to compensate for the scandal to the institution that would result. Superintendent Bowers stated in the trial later that he intended to inform the trustees of the facts, but Captain Daniels, the resident trustee, was too ill to be talked to about it, and he hesitated to mention it to the board. And another reason not made public for keeping quiet about the matter was that at the time of the occurrence the Legislature had before it the question of making a large appropriation for the hospitals, and there was fear of arousing an opposition to the hospitals that would result in the defeat of the appropriation.

It was not till two months after the occurrence that Coroner Morse, hearing that Date had told some one that the attendants had murdered Combs, sent for and examined him. Warrants were send out by Superintendent Bowers, and Becker and Peterson were sent to jail by City Justice Benjamin to await the action of the grand jury. The body of Combs, which had been buried at St. Paul was exhumed and it was found that the injuries to the chest were greater than had appeared at the coroner's inquest.