Fifty Years In The Northwest Part 54

The first commissioners' meeting was held at the house of Joseph Brown, at the village of Humboldt, which was made the county seat and so remained until 1867, when it was removed to Elk River village. The county was attached to Benton for judicial purposes until 1862. Prior to this Mr. Brown's house was used for county commissioners' meetings and for courtrooms until burned down some years later, when the commissioners met at the house of John E. Putnam.

A court house was built at Elk River on lots donated by J. Q. A.

Nickerson, the village donating $1,000 and the county the remainder necessary for the building.

Prior to the formation of the state government, the county was divided into election precincts. The first term of district court was held at Humboldt in December, 1862; Judge C. E. Vanderburgh, presiding; J. E.

Putnam acting as clerk. The first commissioners who held their meeting at Elk River were H. Houlton, chairman; A. Boyington and O. Bailey.

The first meetings were held at the house of J. Q. A. Nickerson.

In 1867 the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba railroad was completed through the county on a line parallel with the general course of the Mississippi river. The North Pacific railroad, since built, runs parallel on the same grade. The depots were built upon the same plan and placed on opposite sides of the two tracks. The stations are Elk River, Big Lake, Becker, Clear Lake, and East St. Cloud. The Manitoba has a branch line from Elk River to Princeton and Milacca, built in 1884.

The first deed recorded was transcribed from the Benton county records, transfers of property from James Beatty to Richard Chute and David Olmstead, and bears date of July 28, 1851.

TOWNS.

The towns in Sherburne are: Baldwin, deriving its name from F. Eugene Baldwin, an old citizen; Big Lake, from the lake on which located; Becker, from Hon. G. L. Becker, of St. Paul; Blue Hill, from a high hill in the town; Clear Lake, from a lake of that name; Elk River, from the river on the sh.o.r.e of which it is located; Haven, from Hon.

John Ormsby Haven, who represented his district in the state senate in 1872-73; Livonia, from the christian name of the wife of an old citizen; Orrock, from Reuben Orrock, a pioneer, originally from Scotland; and Palmer, from Dr. Palmer, of Sauk Centre.

Elk River was the first town organized, and included the whole county.

The first election was held Sept. 30, 1858, at which the following board of officers was elected: Moderator, Alden B. Heath; supervisors, J. G. Jamieson, Alden B. Heath, J. Q. A. Nickerson; clerk, George H.

Davis.

VILLAGES OF SHERBURNE COUNTY.

Orono, a post office, was established at Orono in 1850. The office was merged into the Elk River post office in 1853. This post office, with the mills erected in 1851, became the nucleus of the Elk River settlement, which some years later became Elk River village, within the corporate limits of which Orono is now situated. Orono was surveyed and platted May, 1855; Ard G.o.dfrey, proprietor.

ELK RIVER,

Located originally about a mile below Orono, was not platted as a village until 1865. J. Q. A. and Julia Nickerson were the proprietors.

It is on the east bank of the Mississippi, at its junction with Elk river, above which it now extends a distance of two miles. It has a pleasant location. It was incorporated in 1881, with C. S. Wheaton, president; W. T. Struble, recorder; N. K. Whittemore, H. P. Burrell and L. Pollard, commissioners. Elk river affords a fine water power with ten feet head. Mills were erected here in 1851. A great fire in May, 1887, destroyed mill property valued at $50,000. Since the fire a flour mill with a capacity of 250 barrels a day has been completed at a cost of $25,000. A saw mill is also in process of construction. The village has an elevator with a capacity of 10,000 bushels, 2 town halls, 3 churches, Episcopal, Free Will Baptist and Congregational; a first cla.s.s school building, with rooms for four departments; a school building at Orono, with two departments; and two railroad depots, built at a cost of $9,000.

In June, 1885, a private bank was incorporated as the Bank of Elk River.

EAST ST. CLOUD,

In the town of Haven, is a thriving village. It has one of the best granite quarries in the State. The State, in 1887, located here its reformatory school, receiving a donation of two hundred acres of land, covered with gray and variegated granite. The village was surveyed and platted in August, 1853; Geo. F. Brott & Co., proprietors.

CLEAR LAKE

Was surveyed and platted March 24, 1882; Alanson Potter and wife, proprietors.

BECKER

Was surveyed and platted Dec. 5, 1870; J. Freeman and H. C. Fridley, proprietors. Mr. Vadnais was the first settler, in 1855.

BIG LAKE,

Originally Humboldt village, is located on Elk river, ten miles above its junction with the Mississippi. Its first settler was Joseph Brown, a veteran pioneer, but not to be confounded with the invincible Joe R.

Brown, elsewhere referred to. Mr. Brown came here in 1848, and made substantial improvements. He died in 1886. His family still reside here. James Ely and Newell Houghton also settled here in 1884. Mr.

Houghton was killed at the New Ulm ma.s.sacre in 1862.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS NICKERSON was born in New Salem, Franklin county, Maine, March 30, 1825. He received an academic education; taught school and followed farming in Maine. In 1849 he came to St. Anthony Falls, and in 1853 settled at Elk River, which then contained but one house, a hewed log structure, which he, in company with B. F.

Hildreth, purchased for a hotel. The house has been enlarged from time to time, and has been continuously under the charge of Mr. Nickerson.

He has besides employed much of his time in farming and lumbering, and has dealt in village lots. He was appointed postmaster at an early day. He has filled various responsible offices, among them that of county treasurer and town and county supervisor. He was married to Julia A. Farnham, of St. Anthony Falls, Oct. 2, 1852. They have five children.

HENRY BITTNER was born in Bavaria in 1799; came to America in his boyhood; enlisted in the United States Army in 1835; served in the Mexican War; was present at the battle of Buena Vista, and when the American forces were surrounded performed a daring feat, carrying a dispatch from Gen. Taylor through the Mexican lines to an American fort. He was a target for the bullets of the Mexican Army, but arrived at his destination severely wounded. He was discharged on account of his wounds. In 1855 he came to Clear Lake and made him a home. He offered himself as a volunteer during the late Civil War, but was not received on account of age and disability. He died at his home at Clear Lake in 1885.

FRANCIS DE LILLE, of French descent, was born in Canada in 1782. He came with his family to St. Anthony in 1848, and in 1852 to Elk River, where he occupied the first house built in the lower town. He settled on a farm, where he lived the remainder of his life. He died April 18, 1874, under peculiar circ.u.mstances. He was a devout Catholic, and died suddenly in the church while kneeling during a part of the service.

His widow and youngest son reside at the old homestead.

MRS. DE LILLE, formerly Catharine Queenan, of Ireland, is one of the oldest settlers of Sherburne county. She has eight children living, Mary F., married and living in Dakota; Frank, Agnes; Elisabeth, married to Peter Trump of Taylor's Falls; Harriet, wife of Joseph Holt, of Taylor's Falls; Joseph F., Rosanna and Sarah, all married.

HOWARD M. ATKINS was born in New Sharon, Franklin county, Maine, May 11, 1838. His father was stricken down by lightning, leaving him at the age of thirteen to a.s.sist in taking care of the family. Howard was near his father and was struck senseless by the same flash that deprived him of a father. Recovering, he set himself earnestly and seriously to the duties of life, performed his allotted tasks about the household, and succeeded in obtaining a good high school education. He came to Princeton, Mille Lacs county, in 1856, studied law and was admitted to practice in Mille Lacs county in 1863.

Subsequently he practiced law five years in St. Cloud. He came to Elk River in 1876. He has held official positions in Mille Lacs, Stearns and Sherburne counties. Mr. Atkins has acquired an honorable position through his own exertions and richly deserves the respect of his fellow citizens. He was married in 1862 to Virginia Sinclair, of Illinois. They have two sons and four daughters.

B. F. HILDRETH was born in Milford, Maine, March, 1822. He learned the trade of a blacksmith and came to St. Anthony in 1849, and the year following did part of the crew work of the first steamer launched on the Mississippi above the falls. Since then he has engaged chiefly in lumbering and farming. In 1850 he was married to M. E. Farnham, of St.

Anthony. He removed to Elk River in 1873.

SAMUEL HAYDEN was born Oct. 12, 1806, at Madison, Maine. He came to Livonia, Sherburne county, in 1856. He has a family of four sons and three daughters, residents of Minnesota. His brother, the Hon.

Wentworth Hayden, was a member of the const.i.tutional convention of 1857.

The writer of these sketches had known Mr. Samuel Hayden in early life, and distinctly remembered seeing him the winter of 1827, driving an ox team in the pineries on Dead river, Maine. He was then a young man of twenty-one, and the writer was a boy of ten. Sixty years later they met in Sherburne county, and the writer recognized in the aged man of eighty-one years the young man of twenty-one, though for the moment unable to call his name. It is seldom that memory bridges so wide a chasm.

JOSEPH JEROME settled in the town of Haven in 1846, and is therefore among the first of the pioneers. In 1848 he sold his property to Samuel Sturgis and removed to Michigan.

JOSHUA O. CATER came from Stafford county, New Hampshire, and was one of the earliest settlers of the town of Haven, where he still lives.

J. F. BEAN also came from New Hampshire to Sherburne county, and is now a resident of Livonia, and postmaster at Lake Fremont.

J. H. FELCH, of Maine, an early settler of Livonia, is now living at Elk River.

JAMES BRADY came to Palmer in 1855. He died about 1868.

JOSHUA BRIGGS settled in Palmer in 1855, and died there in 1881.

ROBERT ORROCK, for whom the town of Orrock was named, died at his home, at a good old age, January, 1885.

JOHN G. JAMIESON died at Elk River in 1869.

A. B. HEATH removed to Oregon in 1873, where he still lives.

DR. B. R. PALMER, for whom the town of Palmer was named, was a resident of Sauk Centre and died there in 1885.