Fifty Years In The Northwest Part 25

I, ---- ----, do hereby declare that my purpose in entering this State Normal School is to fit myself for the profession of teaching, and that it is my intention to engage in teaching in the schools of the State.

_Fourth_--No person shall be ent.i.tled to a diploma who has not been a member of the school in which such diploma is granted, at least one year, nor who is less than nineteen years of age; a certificate of attendance may be granted by the president of a normal school to any person who shall have been a member of such school for one term; provided, that in his judgment such certificate is deserved.

As an addition to the work of the normal schools, the board of regents are authorized to expend a sum not exceeding $5,000 annually, to sustain teachers' inst.i.tutes, and may employ an agent for that purpose. Inst.i.tutes are regarded as important auxiliaries and feeders to the normal schools. At present one professor from each normal school is employed conducting inst.i.tutes every spring and fall.

The normal school fund now amounts to over $1,250,000, and yields an annual income of about $100,000. It will be increased by the further sale of swamp lands, and will prove ample for the objects for which it is set apart.

In 1865 the legislature divided the swamp lands and swamp land fund into two equal parts, one for drainage purposes, the other to const.i.tute a normal school fund. The income of the latter was to be applied to establishing, supporting and maintaining normal schools, under the direction and management of the board of regents of normal schools, with a proviso that one-fourth of such income should be transferred to the common school fund, until the annual income of that fund should reach $200,000. During the same year, proposals were invited for extending aid in establishment of a normal school, and propositions were received from various places.

In 1866 the board of regents was incorporated by the legislature.

JOEL FOSTER.--Judge Foster was born at Meriden, Connecticut, Dec. 15, 1814. He was liberally educated. He came to Edwardsville, Illinois, in 1830, and to Hudson, then known as Buena Vista, in 1848. After a careful exploration of the country he made choice of the valley of the Kinnikinic, and made him a home in the fall of 1848, at the junction of the two branches of that stream, and within sound of its beautiful cascades. He was the pioneer settler of the River Falls of to-day. He built the first dwelling house, raised the first crops, and ever proved himself a worthy citizen, first in every good work and enterprise. He was a man of far more than ordinary intelligence and moral worth, was temperate, industrious, public spirited, sagacious and independent. He has filled many positions of responsibility, amongst them that of judge of St. Croix county. During the Mexican War he served as a quartermaster in Col. Bissell's Second Illinois Regiment. Judge Foster was married at Chicago in 1856 to Charlotte Porch. He died at his home in River Falls, Aug. 9, 1885.

JESSE B. THAYER was born Oct. 11, 1845, in Janesville, Wisconsin; was educated at Milton College in 1870, and is by profession a teacher.

During the Rebellion he served in the Fortieth and Forty-ninth Wisconsin Volunteers as a private. He served five years as princ.i.p.al of the public schools in Menomonie, and since 1875 has been connected with the State Normal School at River Falls as conductor of inst.i.tutes. In 1885 he was elected to represent Pierce county in the state a.s.sembly.

A. D. ANDREWS.--Dr. A. D. ANDREWS was born in Lowell, Maine, Sept. 21, 1830. He graduated at the Chicago Medical College in 1860, and in 1861 was commissioned a.s.sistant surgeon of the Sixth Wisconsin Infantry, of the famous Iron Brigade, with which he served up to the battle of Gettysburg. After retiring from the army he came to River Falls and engaged in milling, in which business he successfully continued until 1880, when he retired. He was elected state senator in 1878. He was appointed a regent of the Fourth State Normal School in 1877. He died at his home an River Falls, after a short illness, July 23, 1885. He was mayor of the city at the time of his death.

JOSEPH A. SHORT.--Mr. Short was born in Madison county, New York, April 16, 1806. He learned the trade of a millwright. He visited the East and West Indies. He came to Milwaukee in 1842. In 1849 he went to California, but returned in 1854, and settled in River Falls, where he built a saw and planing mill, laid out an addition to the village and in various ways promoted the interests of the settlement. Mr. Short was a member of the Methodist church sixty years, and of the Masonic fraternity fifty years. He was married Aug. 25, 1831, in New York, to Olive Prossen. He died at his home, May 6, 1886, aged eighty years, leaving a son and three daughters.

ALLEN H. WELD.--Prof. A. H. Weld, widely known as a pioneer educator, and as the author of an excellent grammar, was born in Vermont in 1810. He graduated at Yale College. He came to River Falls in 1858 and taught the first graded school in the village. For two years he was princ.i.p.al of the high school at Hudson, and for six years was superintendent of schools in St. Croix county. He was a member of the state board of regents nine years, and was prime mover in securing the location of the State Normal School at River Falls. The excellent character of the schools in St. Croix county, and the high educational position of River Falls, are due to his untiring effort and wise direction. Mr. Weld was a member of the Congregational church and a consistent Christian as well as a progressive, public spirited man. He died in 1882, at his home in River Falls, leaving a widow and one son, Allen P.

ALLEN P. WELD was born in North Yarmouth, Maine, in 1839. In 1859 he graduated at Dartmouth College. He studied law and was admitted to practice in 1867, at Albany, New York. He taught school at Albany three years, and came to River Falls in 1859, where he is a dealer in real estate. He was married in 1872 to Alice Powell, daughter of Lyman Powell.

GEORGE W. NICHOLS was born in 1795, at Braintree, Vermont. His father was a soldier in the Revolution. At the age of seventeen he enlisted and served in the war of 1812. He lived in Vermont fifty years, in Ma.s.sachusetts ten years, and in 1855 came to River Falls, where he engaged in farming until he was eighty years of age. He was married in Vermont to Deborah Hobart, who died in 1874. His sons George H. and William H. reside in River Falls. They were soldiers during the war of the Rebellion. His son Isaac N. was a member of Capt. Samuels'

company, and was killed at Perrysville, Kentucky. The Grand Army of the Republic post at River Falls has his name. He died in 1887.

W. D. PARKER--Prof. Parker was born in Bradford, Orange county, Vermont, in 1839. He received a common school and academic education.

At the age of sixteen years he entered the Janesville High School, and four years later graduated. He taught two years in Janesville, four years at Delavan, and one year in Monroe, Green county, Wisconsin. In 1867 he visited Europe, after which he taught two years at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He was superintendent of schools five years at Janesville. In 1875 he was elected to the presidency of the Fourth State Normal School at River Falls. In 1886 he was elected state superintendent of public instruction. Prof. Parker was married to Justine B. Hewes, of Chicago, in 1869.

THE POWELL FAMILY.--William Powell, the father, came to River Falls in 1849, where he lived with his sons until his death, Nov. 30, 1865. His second wife was the widow of ---- Taylor, and the mother of Horace and Lute Taylor, the well known journalists. Mrs. Powell died in July, 1884.

LYMAN POWELL came to River Falls with his family in 1855. He was married to Lucinda Taylor, sister of Horace and Lute Taylor. Mr.

Powell died at River Falls, Nov. 9, 1872, leaving a wife, two sons and five daughters.

NATHANIEL N. POWELL, the second son, born May 11, 1827, in St.

Lawrence county, New York, came to River Falls in 1849, and pre-empted the northeast quarter of section 1, now a part of the site of River Falls city. He was married to Martha Ann Hart, Sept. 28, 1842, at Hudson. He died at River Falls, Sept. 28, 1862, leaving one son and one daughter.

OLIVER S. POWELL, the youngest son, was born June 19, 1831, and came to Hanc.o.c.k county, Illinois, in 1843, where he lived eight years. He had no great opportunities for gaining an education. He came to Stillwater in 1849, bringing with him the first threshing machine north of Prairie du Chien. He threshed the first grain threshed in the county in the fall of that year, for Fiske, on a farm three miles below Stillwater. In November, 1849, he located in River Falls, pre-empting the south half of the southeast quarter of section 36, town 28, range 19, lands lying just north of those claimed by his brother, and which afterward became a part of River Falls. Mr. Powell was a representative in the state a.s.sembly in 1870-71-72, and was a county commissioner many years. He was married in 1860 to Elmira Nichols. They have three sons, Harvey C., Newell N. and Lyman T., and four daughters, Lucy M., Sarah H., Amy E., and Miriam.

NILS P. HAUGEN was born in Norway in 1849; came to America in 1853 and to River Falls in 1854. He graduated in the law department of Michigan State University in 1874. Mr. Haugen was phonographic reporter of the Eighth and Eleventh Judicial circuits for several years, and a member of the a.s.sembly from Pierce county in 1879 and 80. He was elected railroad commissioner for Wisconsin in 1881, and re-elected in 1884.

In 1886 he was elected representative to Congress.

H. L. WADSWORTH was born July 10, 1821, in Erie county, New York. He learned the trade of a shoemaker, came West in 1846, and settled at River Falls some time in the '50s, and engaged in farming. He has filled many positions of trust in the St. Croix valley, and in 1867 represented St. Croix county in the a.s.sembly. In 1841 he was married to Miss A. R. Baldwin. Eight children have been born to them.

ROCK ELM

Includes township 26, range 15. It was organized as a town Nov. 16, 1866. The first town meeting was held at the house of J. p.r.i.c.kett. The first commissioner was Sylvester Fox, chairman. The post offices are at Rock Elm, on the western line of the town, section 19, and Rock Elm Centre, sections 16 and 17. At the latter place is located Rock Elm Inst.i.tute, a school of high grade, founded in 1880. Harrison Lowater is the princ.i.p.al. The town is well supplied with schools, there being as many as nine within its limits. Among its first settlers were Loomis Kellogg, Charles A. Hawn and Sylvester Fox.

SALEM.

Salem occupies township 25, range 16. It is drained by Rush river. It was organized as a town Jan. 13, 1862. First board of supervisors, C.

C. Carpenter, Eben White and J. H. Shults. The first school was taught in 1857, by Thompson McCleary. The first marriage was that of Harvey Seeley and Kate McKinstry. The first child born was Sarah Fuller. The first death was that of John McCleary, Sept. 2, 1863. The first post office was established at Rush River, May 1860, Joseph Seeley, postmaster. The first settlers were Jeremiah Fuller, from Ohio, and W.

Wells, 1846; Harvey Seeley, 1848; Thomas Boyle and James White, 1854; John F. Davis from Ireland, 1856 (town clerk twenty years); John H.

Brasington, from Pennsylvania (town treasurer fifteen years); Eben White, James Walsingham, John Strong, H. M. Hicks, from Pennsylvania, 1858; John Foley and brothers, from Ireland, 1856; James H. Shults, Joseph Seeley, H. C. Brown, John McClure, from Ireland; C. C. and Ira W. Carpenter, from Connecticut, 1858.

Mrs. Fuller, the wife of the pioneer, was here over six months, during which time she did not see a white woman.

SPRING LAKE

Is the extreme northeastern town of the county, occupying township 27, range 15. The post offices are Oak Ridge and Spring Valley. The town was organized Nov. 10, 1868. The first town meeting was held at the house of A. M. Wilc.o.x. The first supervisors were: W. D. Akers, chairman; Jonas Nebb; Levi Hess, clerk. The first school was taught in 1866, by Agnes Harriman. The Methodist and Baptist churches have organizations, and the Methodists have a building worth five hundred dollars. The first marriage was that of H. M. Wilc.o.x to Mrs. Kate Rice, of Lake City, by W. D. Akers, justice of the peace. The first child born was a daughter of Ole P. Gardner. The first death was that of Leota Wilc.o.x, in 1864. The first postmaster was B. H. Preston, 1871. The first settlers in the order of their coming were James Gilmore, O. P. Gardner, George Wilc.o.x, John Francisco and W. D. Akers.

TRENTON.

Trenton contains about twenty-eight sections, those on the Mississippi having very irregular boundaries. Twenty-four whole sections lie in township 25, range 18, and the remainder in township 24, range 18.

Trenton, in section 33, township 25, is its post village. Trenton was organized in 1857; James Akers, chairman of supervisors. Wilson Thing, the pioneer settler, came in 1848.

TRIMBELLE.

Trimbelle includes township 26, range 18. Its post villages are Trimbelle and Beldenville. It was organized March 2, 1855. Its supervisors were F. Otis, chairman, and Aaron Cornelison. Among its earliest settlers were the Cornelisons, F. Otis and M. B. Williams. It has four saw mills and one flouring mill, five school houses and one church (Methodist).

MARTIN B. WILLIAMS was born in New York in 1812. He received a common school education, and at the age of sixteen years was thrown upon his own resources. He learned the trade of blacksmith. He was married in New York, and has four sons, Clark M., Frank T., G. Glen and A. Judd.

Mr. Williams is one of the pioneer settlers of Trimbelle, and has held many public town and county positions. He served as treasurer of Pierce county four years. He has been a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church for over thirty years.

UNION.

Union consists of township 25, range 15. It is drained by Plum creek.

It has two post offices, Plum Creek, in section 24, and Ono, section 6. It was organized Aug. 15, 1863. Among its first settlers were Eleazer Holt, Hiram N. Wood, and Capt. Horst, who made their homes here in the early '50s.

FOOTNOTES:

[B] In 1849 the town of Elisabeth was organized by St. Croix county, and included what is now Pierce county. The first board of supervisors were William Thing, chairman; Aaron Cornelius, and L. M. Harnsberger; clerk, Hilton Doe; treasurer, Geo. W. McMurphy. In 1851, by legislative enactment, the name Elisabeth was changed to Prescott.

[C] A member of the well known Faribault family, after whom the town of Faribault has been named.

[D] NOTE.--When I touched at Prescott in 1845, it was generally known as the "Mouth of St. Croix," though by some called "Prescott's Landing." The residents were Hilton Doe, a farmer; Geo. Schaser, boarding house keeper; W. S. Lockwood, merchant; Joseph Mosier, an Indian trader or storekeeper. The princ.i.p.al trade was with Indians.

CHAPTER VIII.