Woodland Township

Woodland Township

Woodland is one of the four southern towns of the eounty, its southern boundary being the county line between Wright and Carver counties, Its area is about 23,050 acres. The surface is rolling and was originally heavily timbered. It is watered by Grimshaw creek and its tributaries and has several small lakes. Fountain lake, which lies largely in Franklin township, enters the eastern part af Woodland. Carrigan lake is in the northern part of Woodland, and Buckles and Lauzers lakes are in the western part,

The Grimshaw brothers are believed to have been the first settlers. They erected a claim cabin and made a small clearing in the northeastern part of the township very early in 1855. In May of that year they sold to M. V. Cochran and Kzra M. Staey. This claim was near the present village of Montrose, John Brabee, a Bohemian, came here from IlLlinois, where he spent one year after leaving his native country, in the fall of 1856, and took a claim on section 20. In June, 1857, Cramer Swartout, a native of Saratoga county, New York, settled on section 12. In September, 1857, John Lanzer, a native of Bohemia, settled in the town, and the same year, James MeGrath was added to the hand of pioneer settlers. Mrs. Kline, a widow, later Mrs. Thomas Young, was among the early arrivals, and is remembered by the early settlers as a woman of remarkable energy and perseverance, having onee walked from the present village of Montrose to Forest City, a distance of forty miles, pre-empted her land and returned in two days. During her first year here she was ouce last in the woods, and not found until the evening of the third day, when she was discovered about five miles from her cabin, tired, though unharmed.

Woodland was organized in 1858, but owing to missing records the list of first officers cannot be obtained. Cramer Swartout and Miles MeDermot were the first justices of the peace, and Andrew Stacey, at whose house the election was held, was the first town clerk,

The first Fourth of July celebration in this part of the county was held in the summer of 1837 on the island in Fountain lake. All the neighbors were there, the Stacys, Swartouts and Herries, Joseph Leighter, then a widower, and Charley Crawshaw, a bachelor, were also present, Andrew Stacy, festive in a long-tailed coat brought from Virginia, took the company across in a canoe. A delicious pienic dinner was served, consisting of chicken and rabbit pie and also lemon pie, made from the very first lemons brought out from Minneapolis. After dinner everybody enjoyed themselves playing games or indulging in athletic stunts, A swing was put up. <A patriotic program was carried out, Mrs, John B, Herric reading the Declaration of Independence.

When the canoe was loaded for the homeward trip the story goes that so many were taken aboard that Mr. Stacy's coat tails floated on the water behind him.

The first school in Woodland township was held in Cramer Swartout's house, his brother, Miranda Swartout, teaching the Swartout girls and Newton Stacy, who came every day and studied surveying. This was during the winters of 1861 and 1862. The next winter Mrs. Catherine Hainor, living where Sherman Staey now does, taught in her own home and in the spring and summer her daughter, Elizabeth, later Mrs. James Shaver, of Alexandria, Minn., tanght.

The day of the Dustin massacre the quiet of her little school was interrupted by the arrival of a man on horseback, whe stopped only long enough to tell the horrible news and say that the Indians were only an hour behind him. She gathered her little flock, hurried them into their wraps and sent them to tell their people, and she and her mother joined the general exodus going on to Minneapolis. When they returned they found no signs of Indians having been near, though many things had been stolen from the eabins by white people.

The people in Woodland township remember two Indian scares, one in August, 1862, and one in June, 1863. Both times the settlers hurried to Greenwood. The second one found Mrs. Cramer Swartout alone with her five young danghters and Mrs. Ezra M. Stacy with her two baby sons. These two women hitched up a team of cows, took a few household goods and the children, and set out through the woods for Greenwood, overtaking on the way many people afoot going to the same place. They did not offer rides to any grown people, but took in all the children too little to walk, reaching Greenwood with fifteen babies besides their own, Imagine their consternation when a frenzied man on horseback arrived, saying that all the people on the trail behind them were killed. Mrs. Stacy grew hysterical thinking of her great responsibility, and her relief was great when one by one the parents arrived and claimed their children.