Fifty Years In The Northwest Part 51

Curtis, came to Stillwater in 1851. He held the positions of postmaster and justice of the peace.

FRANCIS ROACH DELANO.--The ancestors of Mr. Delano came to America in 1621, and were active partic.i.p.ants in the stirring scenes and controversies preceding the Revolution. Francis Roach, after whom Mr.

Delano was named, was the owner of the ship Dartmouth, one of the vessels out of which the tea was cast into Boston harbor, on the memorable occasion of the Tea Party of 1774. Notwithstanding the affair of the tea, the family, who were ardent patriots, have preserved as a precious relic some of the tea rescued from the general destruction.

Mr. Delano is one of sixteen children in his father's family. He was born in Worcester, Ma.s.sachusetts, Nov. 20, 1823; received a common school and academic education, and was employed in a machine shop some years. At the age of twenty he was employed in an engineering corps and served two years. He was for two years superintendent of the Boston & Worcester railroad. In 1844 he came to St. Louis, Missouri, and was variously employed until 1848, when he removed to Minnesota and was engaged for a year in St. Anthony (now Minneapolis), in running the government mill. The mill had been leased for five years.

Mr. Smith fulfilled the contract, and Mr. Delano, being released from it, came to Stillwater in 1851 and entered into contract with Jesse Taylor, Martin Mower, Jonathan E. McKusick, and Jacob Fisher, under the firm name of Jesse Taylor & Co., to build the territorial prison.

Mr. Delano was appointed first warden, March, 1853, and served until 1858. He was intrusted with the expenditure of public moneys from territorial authorities, in caring for and improving the prison. When the state government was organized he was released. He was afterward a member of the firm of Delano, McKusick & Co., sawing and selling lumber. J. E. McKusick and Robert Simpson were members of this firm.

Mr. Delano moved to St. Paul in 1862, and was afterward engaged in railroad employment. In 1862 he was commissioned colonel to take command of five companies during the Indian outbreak. The command was stationed at Chengwatana, Pine county. He died February, 1887. He was married Oct. 11, 1846, to Calista Ann Cavander, who, with two sons, survives him.

HENRY W. CANNON was born in Delhi, New York, Sept. 25, 1852. He was educated at Delaware Literary Inst.i.tute. He came to St. Paul in 1870, and in 1871 to Stillwater, where he accepted the position of cashier of the Stillwater Lumberman's Bank. In 1882 he was appointed by President Arthur United States bank comptroller. He was removed by President Cleveland. He is now a resident of New York City, and is engaged in banking.

DWIGHT M. SABIN was born at Ma.r.s.eilles, La Salle county, Illinois, April 25, 1843. The ill health of the father, who was an extensive land owner and stock raiser, necessitated a removal to the seaside in Connecticut in 1856. In consequence of the continued ill health of the father and his death in 1864, young Dwight was deprived of the thorough education to which he aspired, and, being the oldest son, found the cares and responsibilities of managing his father's business thrown upon his shoulders while he was yet a boy. In 1867 he removed with his mother and younger brother to Minnesota, the year following to Stillwater, where he engaged in business with the firm of Seymour, Sabin & Co. This firm contracted for the convict labor in the state prison, and engaged in the manufacture of doors, sash, blinds and cooperage. The business in 1874 was extended and made to include the manufacture of agricultural implements, including also a machine, boiler shop and foundry, until it is now one of the most extensive establishments in the country.

Mr. Sabin is also interested in other manufactures, among them the C.

N. Nelson Lumber Company and the Duluth Iron Company. In 1882 Mr.

Sabin was the prime organizer of the Northwestern Car Company, with a capital of $5,000,000. The company was to receive a bonus from the city of Stillwater of $100,000 in bonds, on certain conditions. The company purchased the interests of Seymour, Sabin & Co., thereby coming into possession of their immense manufactories, including those managed under the prison contracts, and elected Mr. Sabin president, and was making rapid progress toward the completion of its plans, when, owing to the stringency of the financial world, it was compelled to make an a.s.signment.

While Mr. Sabin has been busy with the management of his vast manufacturing establishments, he has been no less active and conspicuous as a public spirited citizen, ever taking a great interest in the affairs of his adopted city, of the State and country at large, and his talents and efficiency have been recognized by his fellow citizens, who elected him to the state senate in 1871-72-73, and to the house of representatives in 1878 and 1881. He has several times been a delegate to the National Republican convention, and was chairman of the convention at which James G. Blaine was nominated for the presidency. He was elected to the United States senate in 1883 as the successor of Hon. Wm. Windom.

CHAPTER XVI.

STEARNS, ANOKA AND SHERBURNE COUNTIES.

STEARNS COUNTY.

Stearns county derived its name from Hon. Charles T. Stearns, a prominent citizen of St. Cloud, a representative of the precinct of St. Anthony Falls in the fifth and sixth territorial councils.

It is bounded on the north by Todd and Morrison counties, on the east by Benton, Sherburne and Wright counties, the Mississippi forming the dividing line against Benton and Sherburne, and Clearwater against Wright county, on the south by Kandiyohi and Mecker, and on the west by Pope county. It contains an area equal to thirty-six townships. It is a fine agricultural county and is well watered by the tributaries of the Mississippi, the princ.i.p.al of which is Sauk river. It has also an abundance of small lakes. Its oldest settlement and princ.i.p.al city is St. Cloud, and among its most flourishing villages are Sauk Centre, Fair Haven, Clearwater, Melrose, St. Joseph, Albany, Paynesville, Richmond, and Cold Springs.

The county was organized in 1855, under the legislative act of that year. Gov. Willis A. Gorman appointed the following commissioners: David T. Wood, John Ferschniller and John L. Wilson. They held their first meeting at the house of John L. Wilson, April 9, 1855. J. L.

Wilson acted as chairman. The board appointed the following county officers: Charles Ketchum, clerk; Robert B. Blake, treasurer; L. B.

Hammond, sheriff; N. N. Smith, judge of probate; R. B. Blake, surveyor; and John Harry Weltshimer, a.s.sessor. The board established three precincts, viz.: St. Augusta, St. Cloud and Tamarack. The judges of election for St. Augusta were John M. Feble, John G. Lodenbeck and Anton Emholt; for St. Cloud, Joseph Demil, L. B. Hammond and Battise a.r.s.enan; for Tamarack, Henry Foster, Louis Amel and John Smith.

License was granted to Joseph P. Wilson, George F. Brott, L. B.

Hammond, and O. Carter to run a ferry across the Mississippi river.

April 30, 1855, Farmington precinct was established. John M. Lindeman, Jacob C. Staples and D. T. Wood were judges of election. July 5, 1855, the first rate of taxation was fixed for the county at one per cent.

The first license to sell spirituous liquors was granted to Anton Edelbrock. The first order issued was to pay for county books, $31.86, to John L. Wilson. Ordered that Washington avenue and St. Augusta street be adopted as county roads. Aug. 27, 1855, it was ordered that Chippewa Agency precinct (now in Crow Wing county) be and remain as it was when a part of Benton county, and J. D. Crittenden, Truman Warren and D. B. Herriman were appointed judges of election. It was ordered that Long Prairie precinct (now in Todd county) remain as it was when a part of Benton county, and Anson Northrup, Lewis Stone and Harman Becker were appointed judges of election. On Jan. 6, 1856, a new board of commissioners qualified, consisting of Anton Edelbrock, chairman, Reuben M. Richardson, and M. J. Orth. H. C. Waite was appointed prosecuting attorney. The county was organized for judicial purposes in 1855, and the counties of Crow Wing and Todd were attached. The first term of court was held June 25, 1855; Hon. Moses Sherburne, presiding, Taylor Dudley, clerk, and Joseph Edelbrock, sheriff. The writer is indebted to the efficient clerk of court of 1887, A. L.

Cramb, for collecting data, as the old records are quite unintelligible.

Judge E. O. Hamlin held the first term of court under the state organization. At the session of the commissioners in July, 1856, the first bonds of the county were ordered for building a court house, amounting to $7,000, at twelve per cent interest for eight years. The bonds were offered in New York City by an agent. These bonds were lost, and only two of them were recovered. At the session of the commissioners for August, the donation of John L. Wilson of four blocks of ground, containing eight acres, for court house purposes, was accepted. Three-fourths of the ground was sold by the county, and the funds received from the sale, together with $6,000 in bonds issued in 1857, and other bonds issued later, were used in erecting the court house.

ST. CLOUD.

The eastern side of the Mississippi river was the first settled. As early as 1848 David Gilman had located at a point now called Watab.

During the ensuing year, Jeremiah Russell, Philip Beaupre and James Beatty were keeping trading posts at Sauk Rapids. In 1849 J. Q. A. and W. H. Wood, brothers, located there. In 1854 the Rapids had become quite a point with its Indian trading posts, its stores and its United States land office. Among the early residents were many subsequently identified with the interests of St. Cloud. In the spring of 1854 John L. Wilson crossed the river at the point now known as the upper landing, then covered with a dense growth of trees and underbrush. On the adjoining prairie, a Norwegian, Ole Burgerson by name, had staked out a claim and put up a shanty. Mr. Wilson purchased his interest and in June of the same year erected a frame dwelling (still standing) near the railroad bridge. Nicholas Lake put up a blacksmith shop near by. During this year James. .h.i.tchins put up a small log dwelling for Gen. S. B. Lowry, who platted the township of Acadia, now Lowry's addition to St. Cloud. A post office was established here through his influence. The same year Brott & Co. laid out St. Cloud city. The earliest claimants of the town site, owning claims fronting on the river, were S. B. Lowry, Ole Burgerson, Martin Woolley, and Michael Zoms. John L. Wilson having purchased the claim of Ole Burgerson, platted the village of St. Cloud, and this was the first recorded of any of the St. Cloud plats. The village of St. Cloud made but little progress until 1856, when a hotel known as the Stearns House, now used in connection with the normal school, was built, a ferry established and other improvements made. A notable incident connected with this ferry is the fact that the Rev. Abbot Alexius Edelbrock, now president of St. John's University, then a lad of thirteen years of age, was ferryman, he being the son of the proprietor of the ferry. The craft was swung back and forth like a pendulum, by the current acting against its keel, being fastened by a long rope some distance up the river. It was not therefore beyond the ability of so youthful a ferryman to manage. The post office, established first at Acadia, became the St. Cloud post office and Joseph Edelbrock was appointed postmaster. He was reappointed by President Cleveland to the same position in 1886. The first newspaper in St. Cloud was the _Visitor_, established in 1857, by the gifted and somewhat erratic journalist and reformer, Jane Grey Swisshelm. This paper had but a brief and troubled career--the advanced views and dictatorial style of its publisher and editor proving somewhat distasteful to the community at large. Mrs.

Swisshelm, who had already won a national reputation, went to Washington, became a contributor to the New York _Tribune_, and had thereafter a somewhat variable, and upon the whole brilliant, career as a lecturer, editor and reformer. She was amongst the strongest, though not the most radical, of the advocates of woman's rights. She was not a woman suffragist, but directed her efforts chiefly toward establishing the legal ident.i.ty of married women. She was also very p.r.o.nounced in her anti-slavery views.

The first records of the organization of St. Cloud as a village have been lost. It was reorganized by legislative enactment in 1862, and the following were the first officers: Mayor, Judge L. A. Evans; councilmen, H. C. Burbank, John W. Tenvoorde, Joseph Broker and Barney Overbeck; clerk, A. B. Curry.

St. Cloud was organized as a city in 1868, under the following officers: Mayor, Judge E. O. Hamlin; aldermen, L. A. Evans, president; Peter Smith, Thomas Smith, T. C. Alden, Leander Gorton, T. R. Bennett, O. Tenny, C. Bridgman, Andrew Fritz, L. R. Roberts, Lewis Clarke, H.

C. Burbank; clerk, N. F. Barnes. The city government has been judiciously managed. The United States land office, established first at Sauk Rapids in 1853, was removed to St. Cloud in May, 1858. The first receiver was W. H. Wood. His successors have been S. B. Hayes, C. A. Gilman, W. B. Mitch.e.l.l, H. G. Burbank, Ole Peterson, and C. F.

McDonald, the present inc.u.mbent. The first register was George W.

Sweet. His successors have been W. A. Caruthers, T. C. McClure, H. C.

Waite, H. L. Gordon, J. A. Brower, and D. H. Freeman.

The city has paid for various improvements as follows: City water works on the Holly system, $25,000; city bridge over the Mississippi, 500 feet in length, $12,000; to the Manitoba railroad in real estate and bonds, $100,000; in cash, $27,000; gas works, $10,000. The fire department is well equipped. An electric light plant has been established. Considerable money and work have been expended in dredging Lake George, a beautiful lake about fifty-five acres in extent, lying in the heart of the city, and surrounding it with parks.

Street cars have been introduced and altogether the city has made most commendable advancement in all those things that pertain to beauty and comfort.

Not less rapid and substantial are its advances in commerce and manufactures. Before the completion of the railway it had regular communication by water with all river points, and since its facilities for transportation have made it the peer of any inland city of its size in the State. The railroads of St. Cloud are the Manitoba with its various branches and the Northern Pacific, the latter pa.s.sing through East St. Cloud. Among the improvements of which its citizens are justly proud we may mention the St. Cloud dam, constructed in 1886, at a cost of $200,000. The city gave $100,000 for this improvement. The dam has for its foundation the underlying granite of this section. It is intended as a permanent structure and must conduce largely to the growth and prosperity of the city. The dam has 10 feet head of water and furnishes 1,500 horse power. A flour mill with a capacity of 300 barrels per day is run by the water power. The Phoenix Iron Works, established at a cost of $175,000, give employment to 100 men. Bridgman's steam saw mill has a capacity of about 40,000 feet of lumber per day.

St. Cloud is backed by a rich agricultural and timbered district. In the vicinity are valuable quarries of jasper, and of gray and red granite. Two granite polishing works, operated by steam, are located near the city. These quarries stretch away to the northeast, through the counties of Benton, Morrison, Mille Lacs and Kanabec. They give employment to 1,000 men. The Manitoba Railroad Company has purchased recently about 400 acres of land, on which to build extensive shops and stock yards, calculated to give employment, when completed, to 1,000 men. The princ.i.p.al hotels are the Grand Central and the West House.

The first bank in St. Cloud was established by Waite & McClure in 1859. This bank, a private inst.i.tution, was the beginning of the banking system in St. Cloud. It is now operated by N. P. Clarke. The First National Bank was organized as a private bank in 1867, with a capital stock of $25,000; James A. Bell, president; Joseph G. Smith, cashier. It was reorganized as a state bank in 1879, with a capital stock of $50,000. In 1886 it was reorganized as a national bank. The first board of officers have served continuously to date. The business of the bank amounts to over $300,000. The German American National Bank was organized in 1883; Chas. A. Hull, president; Edgar Hull, cashier; capital stock $50,000. The business (in 1886) amounts to $250,000. The present board of officers are: F. E. Searle, president; John Cooper, vice president; F. M. Morgan, cashier.

St. Cloud has many fine buildings. The court house cost $40,000, and four school buildings an aggregate of $75,000. The bishop's cathedral cost $40,000, and the Catholic church $30,000. The Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Congregationalists, and Lutherans have organizations and good church buildings. The normal school buildings located here cost $100,000. St. Cloud University is a flourishing inst.i.tution. St. John's University, although located in the adjoining town of St. Joseph, has been identified more or less with the interests of St. Cloud, and deserves mention in its history.

It was originally located two miles south of St. Cloud, but was subsequently removed to a point northwest, a mile distant from the thriving village of Collegeville.

The university owes its existence to the zeal, energy and self devotion of the Benedictine Fathers, a colony of whom came to America in 1846. This colony settled first in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, but in 1856, at the invitation of Bishop Cretin, came to Minnesota, where, the year following, they commenced their educational work on the banks of the Mississippi near St. Cloud. The school was commenced as a seminary, but in 1869 the state legislature granted authority to confer degrees, and in 1883 formally changed the name from St. John's Seminary to St. John's University. The buildings are ample and commodious, and located pleasantly on the banks of a beautiful lake.

The faculty consists of Rt. Rev. Alexius Edelbrock and twenty-two professors. In 1885 St. Benedict's Hospital was erected at a cost of about $15,000. It is under the supervision of the Benedictine Nuns.

The state reformatory was located at East St. Cloud in 1887.

LA SAUK,

Formerly St. Joe, adjoining St. Cloud on the north, had a saw and flour mill erected in 1855. These mills were burned in 1886, and rebuilt in 1887. Amongst the early settlers were J. H. Lineman in 1854, J. A. Upham and George Rieder in 1855.

PETER SCHAELER, a farmer, a native of Germany, came to America in 1850, and to St. Joseph in 1856. John, his only son, retains the old homestead, and was in 1883 engaged in the insurance business in St.

Cloud.

JOHN L. WILSON was born in Columbia, Washington county, Maine, in 1820. He came to Minnesota in 1851, locating at St. Anthony, but in the following year removed to Sauk Rapids and in 1854 to St. Cloud.

The first deed on record in Stearns county was from John L. Wilson to L. C. Kenna, and bears date of 1855. In 1855 he was married to Harriet N. Corbett. They have three children living.

CHARLES T. STEARNS, from whom the county took its name, has been for many years a resident of Louisiana, and is a wealthy planter.

HENRY G. FILLMORE, a nephew of President Fillmore, was born in the state of New York in the '20s, and came to Watab in 1848. He has lived in St. Cloud many years.

NATHANIEL GETCh.e.l.l was born in Washington county, Maine, in 1828. He came to St. Anthony in 1852, and to Stearns county in 1855.

JAMES KEOUGH came from Ireland to America in 1850, and directly to Watab. He settled in St. Cloud in 1854, was married in 1855, and has a large family.

LOREN W. COLLINS was born in Lowell, Ma.s.sachusetts, Aug. 22, 1839. He received a common school education; came to Hastings, Minnesota, some time prior to the Rebellion, studied law with Smith & Crosby and was admitted to practice, but in August, 1862, entered the service of his country in Company F, Seventh Minnesota Volunteers, of which company he was commissioned second lieutenant, and a year later first lieutenant. He was discharged with his regiment at the close of the war, and returned to his law practice. In 1866 he removed to St. Cloud and practiced law. He served as county attorney a number of years; was a member of the Minnesota house of representatives in 1881-83; was appointed judge of the Seventh Judicial district April 8, 1883, and elected to that office in 1884. Nov. 12, 1887, he was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Berry, an appointment that gives general satisfaction, Judge Collins having won an enviable reputation as a jurist and as a man.

HENRY C. WAITE was born in Albany county, New York, in 1830; graduated at Union College, Schenectady, New York; was admitted to practice law in 1852, and the same year came to Iowa. A year later he removed to Wisconsin, and located at Madison, where he practiced law two years.

In May, 1855, he came to St. Cloud, where he has since continuously resided. The first ten years of his residence in St. Cloud he devoted to the practice of his profession, after which he devoted his time to farming and milling.