History of Goodhue Co Minnesota, 1909
Transcribed by Janice Rice
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Goodhue County History Goodhue county is situated on the Mississippi river and Lake Pepin, and is bounded on the northwest by Dakota county, on the west by Rice county, on the south by Dodge county and a small portion of Olmsted county, and on the east and southeast by Wabasha county. Goodhue county received its name in honor of James M. Goodhue, the pioneer editor and printer of the state, who at the time of his early death, in 1852, had already won for himself name and fame as well as influence in the new territory. It consists of twenty-three townships, all of which are practically the same in area and name as when first constituted in 1858. They are: Welch, Burnside. Wacoota, Stanton, Cannon Falls, Vasa, Featherstone, Bay Creek, Florence, Central Point, Warsaw, Leon, Belle Creek, Goodhue, Belvidere, Holden, Wanamingo, Minneola, Zumbrota, Kenyon, Cherry Grove, Eoscoe and Pine Island. Red Wing formerly had a township organization. Previous to 1858 precincts had been established, but townships were not laid out as regularly organized political divisions until that year, when, under a new ad passed by the legislature, Martin S. Chandler. William P. Tanner and Jesse Mclntire, the three gentlemen selected, defined and named the townships in Goodhue county. Its Wisconsin neighbor is Pierce county. The population in 1905 was 31,628, and this has probably been increased by several thousand since that date. It is a large and important county, ranking among the first in the state in wealth. size, population, education, progressiveness and prosperity. It contains twenty-three townships and Red Wing, which is outside of any township jurisdiction. Its total area is 784.79 square miles, or 502,265.62 acres; the water area being only 20.21 square miles, or 12,936.06 acres. The surface waters of the county all reach the Mississippi river in an easterly or northeasterly course, descending from the height of 1,250 feel above the sea in Kenyon. to 665 feet in Lake Pepin, a drop of nearly 600 feet. The chief of these tributary streams are the Cannon, with its southern arm. the Little Cannon, and the north and north-middle branches of the Zumbro. Belle creek, another branch of the Cannon river, occupies an important valley, running northward from near the center of the county. Spring creel;. Hay creek and Wells creek, though not large streams, are important agents in defining the topography of the county, and have subterranean sources of supply which keep them at a nearly uniform stage of water and afford valuable water powers. These water powers have in the past been utilized to a greater or less extent, and at the present time afford the motive power for many mills. Their use in generating electricity has also been considered. The county has no lakes. There are a great many large springs issuing from the banks of the streams, giving clear, pure water, which are dependent on the impervious nature of the rocky strata. Some of the tributaries of Belle and of Wells creeks issue from the rock Avails of the valley, having size sufficient, in some instances, to afford available water power for machinery. The greatest recorded elevation in Goodhue county is on the line of the Chicago and Great Western, on Section 23, Kenyon, being 1,250 feet above the sea level; but large areas of several other townships, notably Cherry Grove, Roscoe, Holden, Wanamingo, Leon and Belle Creek, would doubtless, if subjected to careful measurement, prove to have nearly, if not quite, the same elevation. Belle Creek township lies in practically the geographical center of the county, and constitutes one entire government township, its number being 111 north, range 16 west. Its area has remained unchanged since the township was first constituted in accordance with the township act of the legislature in 1858. Belle creek waters the western part of this township, and affords fair water power. It is bordered by fine stretches of hay meadows and an occasional ledge of limestone. Near the creek are also scattering groves of oaks, white birch and poplar. The surface, which is largely a rich, undulating, high prairie, except in the vicinity of the creek, is in general about 150 feet higher than its neighboring township of Yasa. Its other neighbors are Leon, on the west ; Minneola, on the south, and Goodhue, on the east. The first influx of whites into this section was in 1853, when Charles Ross and A. G. Kempe went into the township and built a cabin on section 5, mar the creek. They spent the winter there, but soon after moved north into what is now Vasa. In the spring, or early summer, of 1851. Walter Doyle, with his five sturdy sons, Henry, Richard. Michael. Walter and John, settled on sections 2 and 4. Benoni Hill and his sons, John, Henry and Thomas, came in July and made their claims on sections 5 and 8. James O'Neill and family also came the same year; and in the fall the Rev. S. P. Chandler staked out a claim, but did not move on it until the following spring. In 1855 the influx was rapid, and the town was soon thickly settled. A large part of the ground was broken up, grain sowed, and cottages built in place of the original cabins. It was not long before children came to bless the homes of the pioneers. Anna O'Neill was born in March, 1855, but did not long live to enjoy the distinction of being the first white child born in the township, having passed away when still a schoolgirl. Her father was James O'Neill. May Cook was born in August of the same year, daughter of Jacob Cook. John Cavanaugh, son of Patrick Cavanaugh. was born in November. The first two deaths were by accident. In the early part of the winter of 1855-56, Dennis Cavanaugh started to go on foot to his brother's, a distance of about two and a half miles. After he started, a terrible storm came up, and he was frozen to death near Hader. having lost his way. His body, which was not located until the snow had melted in the spring, was found three miles from his home, and in an opposite direction from the one lie should have kept to reach his brother's. His wanderings through the wilderness in the raging storm, until merciful death relieved him from his sufferings, can only be imagined. In May of the following spring. James Connel attempted to cross a slough with an axe on his shoulder. In some manner he stumbled and fell, and the edge of the axe struck his head, causing a fracture of the skull which resulted in death. The first death due to natural causes was that of Mrs. S. P. Chandler, June 28, 1856. Pioneer discomforts were no dampener to the ardor of Cupid, and in 1856, Lewis White and Emeline Hill took before the Rev. S. P. Chandler the vows which made them man and wife. Although no school houses were erected until 1859, as early as the fall of 1858 Alvin Herbert taught school in the basement of a stone house owned by a Mr. Kirkpatrick, and the school was continued in session practically every season, in some of the settlers' houses. The rich soil of tin' township showed its possibilities even in the earliest days, for in 1856 Walter Doyle and others obtained fair yields of wheat, threshed it by hand with flails and carried it to the Mazeppa mill to be ground. In 1856 James Allen laid out a village plat and christened the place Troy City. With sanguine hopes of the future, Jesse Johnson built a store and stocked it with merchandise. No other building was ever erected on the village site. The financial crash of 1857 impaired trade to such an extent that Mr. Johnson closed his store ; and all further attempts to build a city there were abandoned. A post office, called Burr Oak, was established in 1854, and H. M. Doyle was appointed postmaster. This was on the line of the old stage route from St. Paul to Dubuque, and the following year, when the mail route was changed, the office was discontinued. During the existence of this office Mr. Doyle's house was the last one on the road before reaching Oronoco. twenty- five miles to the south, and consequently was an all-night stopping place for the stage, and Mr. Doyle entertained such prominent men of the early days as Governor Ramsey, General Sibley, J. C. Burbank and many others. He also entertained twenty-six of the principal men and chiefs of the Chippewa tribe, including "Hole in the Day," their head chief, when they were on their way to Washington. In 1858 another post office was established in the southwest part of the town and named Belle Creek. S. P. Chandler, the first postmaster, retained that position for many years. There was no hotel, and Mr. Chandler opened his house for the accommodation of travelers, especially the farmers of the western part of the county, who had no other place to stop on their way to Red Wing with their wheat. When the Minnesota Central railroad was completed to Faribault the tide was turned toward that village, and Chandler's place was closed to the general public. At the first election, held at the residence of Walter Doyle, thirty votes were polled. Among the early supervisors were S. P. Chandler, H. M. Doyle (two terms). Michael Doyle, John Edwards, Francis Malloy, Walter Doyle and -lames Malloy. The early clerks were Patrick Drudy four terms), H. M. Doyle, Michael Doyle (two terms), P. J. Sheridan and Michael Doyle. Belvidere was given the name of York by the committee which had charge of the organization of the Goodhue county townships in 1858. At the instance of the state authorities this was changed to Elmira, and after the same authorities had urged their objections to this name it was changed to Belvidere, which it has since remained. Belvidere originally included what is now Goodhue. The township comprises government township No. 11 north, range 14 west. Wells creek rises in the northwestern part of the town, running north and east. It is fed by Clear and Rock creeks, and then crosses the northern boundary into Hay Creek township. The northern part of Belvidere is somewhat broken by these stream. In the spring of 1855, N B Gaylord and his brother George located on Rock Creek in the Northern part of the Township. In August of that year Joseph Thompson settled on Wells Creek and shortly afterward was joined by N B Gaylord who settled near, preferring that location to the place where he originally took his claim. During the fall of 1855 occurred an event which was of an importance to the future history of the County. Claus Holst and a number of other German families took up their residence near the head waters of Wells Creek and began opening up farms. Ida Thompson was the first child born in the township on June 13, 1856. The first marriage was that of George Steele, and Junla Pingrey a sister of Mrs. J S Thompson, at whose house the ceremony was performed., August 14, 1855 by J R Smith. Etta Gaylord age two years died in 1858, the first death in the township Rev John Watson held reliogous services in the house of Nelson B Gaylord as early as the summer of 1856. Delia Eggleston taught a school in the room of her father's house in 1857, this being the first school in that section of the county. N B Gaylord, in 1858 having good water power, put in operation a large hand coffee mill and ground for himself and neighbors flour, meal and other articles. Having used up two coffee mills, he next procurred a small burr millstone, and kept gradually improving his primitive enterprise until he launched out into a full grown mill with two run of stone and, a capacity of 120 bushels of wheat per day. The Belvidere Mill finally took rank among the good mills of the county. A cozy log church was built by the German Methodist's near the Gaylord Mill in 1862, at a cost of $300. This society now has a large frame church. In 1865 the Catholics erected a good frame church in the southern part of the town. The Norwegian Lutherans built a large church in the western part of town in 1867. A German Lutheran Church was built in the Eastern part of the town in 1872. Another Methodist was also erected. Featherstone comprises one entire government township. No. 112 north, range 17 west, and has remained unchanged since the township act of 1858. It has no villages, its trading and ship- ping point being Red Wing, which is its near neighbor. Burnside, also, as well as Red Wing, borders it on the north, Hay creek on the east, Goodhue on the south and Vasa on the west. It is crossed by the Great Western railroad, the line through this township having originally been the Duluth & Red Wing. The township is intersected by the Hay creek valley on the east and by Spring creek valley on the west. These valleys are deep and wide, but their slopes are almost uniformly turfed, while between the bluffs that enclose them are some of the finest farms in the state, in a rich, deep loam. The higher farms on the uplands between the valleys are based on a yellowish loam for sub-soil, and are fertile and reliable for the usual crops. Some of them are sightly and command very picturesque landscapes, extending over the valleys with which the township is nearly surrounded. The surface is from undulating to rolling. Beautiful residences, surrounded with groves, from which stretch rich and highly cultivated farms, prevail through the township. The earliest settlers, who had come from countries wooded and watered, were not familiar with the advantages of prairie land, and consequently Featherstone was not settled until settlements of considerable size had sprung up in some of the other localities in the county. The township was named from William Featherstone and his extensive family, who came here with a number of farm hands to assist him in breaking the land, in 1856. He was not, however, the actual first settler, as in 1855 John Spencer, Philip Storkel and the Messrs. Goldsmith and Coleman had staked out claims and started to cultivate the land. Other early settlers were William Freyberger, George Featherstone, J. Meacham and Rev. John Watson. William Featherstone, in relating some incidents of the early days, not many years ago, said that he broke a claim in 1856, but that a portion of his land had been broken the year before by others. He sowed ten bushels of fife wheat which he had brought from Canada, the first seed wheat of that kind in this section of the country. His first crop yielded but eighteen bushels to the acre. He sold what wheat he could spare for seed, broke up 170 acres more of land and sowed the next year, receiving a yield of about twenty-four bushels to the acre. The larger portion of this crop was also sold for seed. This is claimed by some writers to have been the origin of "hard wheat" in this state, but the same honor has been claimed for other localities. The first death in the township was that of a Mr. McMahon, who perished from exposure on his attempting to return from Red Wing on a cold night in January, 1857. The first marriage was that of James A. Jones and Mary Libby. daughter of William Libby. the ceremony being performed by the Rev. J. H. Han- cock. The first school was taught in the summer of 1856 by Mary Cox. in a claim shanty, the location of which later passed into the hands of Henry Featherstone. October 21, 1857, William Libby called a school meeting. F. N. Leavitt was chosen chairman and George Featherstone clerk. The first board of trustees consisted of William Freyberger, William Libby and William Watson. William Featherstone was clerk, making a board composed entirely of Williams. Although the district comprised nearly the whole township, there were but seventeen children of legal school age. The first schoolhouse was built in the winter of 1857-58 at a cost of $250. The first church service was held at. the home of William Featherstone in 1856. In 1862 the Methodists built a church edifice. 26x40, at a cost of $1,000. Hay Creek mills, on Hay creek, were built in the early days by a German pioneer named Kotzube, who afterward sold out to Messrs. Cogelt and Betcher, of Red Wing. In 1866 Ezekiel Burleigh opened a hotel, but failing to secure a license, he closed the place, finding that the patronage was too limited to support a "dry" hotel. A list has been preserved of the voters at the first election, held July 5. 1858. They were: John Watson, F. N. Leavitt, Philip Rounds, George Wooley, William Libby, Ernest Rosa, Benjamin Jones, David Coverdale, Calvin Frizzell, John Watson,. William Featherstone, Jonathan R. Perkins, H. B. Wooley, Charles Perkins, C. Rosa. Edward McMahon, Samuel P. Snow, John Gennis, William Freyberger, A. D. Roberts and Joseph Frizzell. The election resulted as follows: Supervisors, William Freyberger (chairman), S. P. Snow, Harlow Rogers; assessor, A. D. Roberts: justices of the peace, William Libby, L. Snow; constables, W. H. Featherstone, Charles Perkins; town clerk, John Watson; collector, H. B. Wooley; overseer of poor, William L. Watson; overseers of highways, J. R. Perkins, J. C. Arnold, George Wooley, Gotleib Buholtz, William Featherstone. Among the early chairmen of supervisors were William Freyberger, F. N. Leavitt, William Freyberger, George Feather- stone, F. X. Leavitt (three terms), William Freyberger. The early town clerks were John Watson (two terms), A. D. Roberts, John Watson ( three terms). George Featherstone (two terms).
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