Fifty Years In The Northwest
attached to the Sixteenth Army Corps. Mr. Owens served as regimental
and brigade quartermaster until the close of the war. In April, 1868,
he was appointed register of the United States land office, which
position he held until his death, Sept. 11, 1884. He was first Grand
Master of the I. O. O. F. in Minnesota; He left at his death an
unpublished manuscript, "The Political History of the State of
Minnesota." His first wife was Helen McAllister, whom he married in
Ohio in 1848. She left an only daughter, Mary Helen. Mr. Owens' second
wife was Frances M. Hobbs, whom he married Oct. 26, 1853, in New York
City.
ANDREW CLENDENNING was born in 1798, in the north of Ireland. He was a
Protestant, united with the Methodist church when a young man and
proved ever after a consistent Christian, strong in his religious
convictions and a faithful worker. He crossed the ocean in 1835,
locating first at New Brunswick. In 1855 he came to Michigan, in 1859
to St. Croix Falls, in 1870 to Taylor's Falls, where he resided until
his death, in 1875. He left three sons in Taylor's Falls, Andrew,
James and George, and one son in Oregon. One son, Joseph, died in the
service of his adopted country, having enlisted in Company C, Seventh
Minnesota. One daughter, the wife of Thomas Thompson, of St. Croix
Falls, died in 1886.
SMITH ELLISON was born in Marine, Madison county, Illinois, March 15,
1823. He came to Marine Mills in 1844. For two years he was in the
employ of Judd, Walker & Co. The next three years he spent at Osceola,
Wisconsin. In 1849 he engaged in logging and continued in that
business for many years. In 1856 he settled on and improved a farm in
Sunrise. In 1868 he removed to Taylor's Falls and formed a partnership
with L. K. Stannard in the mercantile and lumbering business. Mr.
Ellison was a representative in the eighth legislature, and served as
county commissioner eight years. In late years he has been interested
in a saw, planing and flour mill at Stillwater. He is a stockholder
and director in the First National Bank at Stillwater and owns large
tracts of pine lands. He has applied himself closely to business, is
energetic, cautious and thoroughly reliable. Mr. Ellison is unmarried.
WYOMING
Includes township 33, range 21. The eastern half is well timbered, the
west has oak openings. Sunrise river flows in a northerly direction
through the township, and with its tributaries and numerous lakes
supplies it abundantly with water. There are some wild meadows and
tamarack swamps. Green lake, in the eastern part of the township, is a
picturesque sheet of water, five miles in length by one and a half
broad, with sloping timbered shores and cedar points projecting into
the lake, in one place forming a natural roadway nearly across, which
is connected with the mainland opposite by a bridge.
A colony from Eastern Pennsylvania settled the western part of the
township in 1855. The colony was composed of L. O. Tombler, Dr. John
W. Comfort, E. K. Benton, and some others, in all ten families. The
eastern part had been previously settled by Swedes. The township was
organized in 1858. The supervisors were J. W. Comfort, L. O. Tombler
and Fred Tepel. A post office was established at Wyoming with J. Engle
as postmaster. The Catholics and Methodists erected churches in 1864.
The St. Paul & Duluth railroad was completed in 1868, and in 1879 the
branch road to Taylor's Falls. The township was settled rapidly after
the completion of the railroad. At the junction of the two roads there
is a good depot, two stores and a fine hotel, the latter kept by L. O.
Tombler.
WYOMING VILLAGE
Was surveyed and platted by Ben. W. Brunson in 1869, in portions of
sections 17, 19 and 20, township 33, range 21; proprietors, Western
Land Association, L. Mendenhall, agent.
DEER GARDEN VILLAGE
Was surveyed and platted by Alex. Cairns, October, 1856, in sections 1
and 12, township 33, range 21; proprietor, Erastus S. Edgerton.
LUCIUS O. TOMBLER was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1823. His
ancestors were Moravians, who, driven from Germany in the eighteenth
century, came to America, and founded the colony of Bethlehem, a
colony famed for its thrift, advancement in educational matters, and
high morality. Mr. Tombler and his wife, Christiana Brown, to whom he
was married in 1845, were educated in the Moravian schools. They came
with the colony from Bethlehem to Wyoming in 1855, and built a two
story log hotel on the St. Paul and Lake Superior stage road, which
was long noted as a rest for the weary traveler and a home for the
invalid. Mr. Tombler was an energetic, worthy man, genial in his
manners, a good farmer, a good landlord, and an accomplished musician
besides. Mrs. Tombler possessed superior endowments as a landlady, and
the house soon gained widespread popularity with the traveling public.
The first hotel was burned in 1876, but the year following a more
commodious building was erected on the grounds, which, with its modern
improvements within, and its park-like surroundings, is more popular
with the traveling public than its predecessor. The Tombler family
consists of Charles A., the father of Lucius O., born in 1800, but
still hale and vigorous, in the possession of all his faculties, two
sons, Maurice and Milton, and one daughter, Laura. Charles A., the
grandfather, has received the thirty-third degree Scottish Masonic
rite.
DR. JOHN WOOLMAN COMFORT was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in
1804. He graduated at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in
1836, and practiced medicine continuously, and, although an
accomplished graduate of an allopathic school, was a zealous advocate
and exponent of the Thompsonian system, in favor of which he published
several works. He was also for some years editor of the _Thompsonian
Medical Journal_. As a physician he was untiring, and impartial in the
performance of his duties, never refusing a medical call on account of
the poverty of the patient. He was especially kind to the poor. He
came to Wyoming with the colony in 1855, and died there Feb. 9, 1881,
leaving a widow, since deceased, one son in Philadelphia, and two
daughters, Mrs. Markley, of Wyoming, and Mrs. Carter, of Melbourne,
Australia.
ISAAC MARKLEY was born in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, April 2,
1822. In the spring of 1849 he came westward, and engaged in
steamboating. He commanded the Uncle Toby, and in October, 1850, ran
his steamboat from St. Louis to Taylor's Falls for the writer of this
work. He engaged in mercantile pursuits for some time in St. Paul, and
in 1871 came to Wyoming and located on a farm. He was married to
Frances, a daughter of Dr. Comfort. He died at his home, February,
1883.
JOEL WRIGHT was born in Pennsylvania in 1800, and came to Wyoming with
the Bethlehem colony in 1855. He is a blacksmith by trade, but has
also devoted himself to hunting and trapping. Mr. Wright has been
married three times, and has three children.
RANDALL WRIGHT, second son of the foregoing, was born in Pennsylvania
in 1828; was married to Anna Montgomery in 1850, and came to Wyoming
in 1855. He is a house carpenter by trade.
FREDERIC TEPEL was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1824; received a fair
education and learned the trade of blacksmithing. He came to America
in 1843, lived in New Orleans one year, in St. Louis ten years, in St.
Paul one year, and settled in Wyoming in 1855. In 1847 he was married
to Fredrica Wilmina, of St. Louis. They have seven children. Mr. Tepel
has held many town offices to the satisfaction of his townsmen. He has
been for forty years a member of the Methodist church. CHARLES HENRY
SAUER was born in Germany in 1824; served as a soldier in the German
Army three years, and in the twenty-fourth year of his age came to
America. The year following he returned to Europe and was married. In
1851 he took up his residence in Chicago, and in 1855 came to Wyoming,
and engaged in farming. He has three sons, Fred, Henry and Harvey, and
a daughter married to a Lutheran minister.
CHAPTER XIV.
WASHINGTON COUNTY.
The early history of Washington county is to be found in the history
of St. Croix county, Wisconsin, of which it was a part until the
organization of Minnesota Territory in 1849. At the first session of
the territorial legislature Washington county was established in full
for county and judicial purposes. It included all that part of the
Territory lying east of the range line between ranges 21 and 22 and
north of the Mississippi as far as the British possessions and
fractional parts of townships 29 and 30, range 22.
The courts held prior to this organization are referred to elsewhere.
The first territorial court in Washington county was held Aug. 13,
1849, Judge Aaron Goodrich, presiding; Judge David Cooper, associate.
It continued in session six days. There were sixty cases on the
calendar. Harvey Wilson was clerk of court; A. M. Mitchell, of St.
Paul, United States marshal; Henry L. Moss, district attorney; John
Morgan, sheriff. The lawyers present were H. L. Moss; M. S. Wilkinson,
M. E. Ames, A. M. Mitchell, L. Babcock, and David Lambert. The second
court house (the first under the new organization) was built in
Stillwater, corner of Fourth and Chestnut streets, in 1849, at a cost
of $3,600. This was the first court house in the territory of
Minnesota. The lot was donated by John McKusick. In this building were
held all the courts from 1849 to 1867. In that year Churchill & Nelson
donated a city block on Nelson Hill, a fine location overlooking the
city and lake, and the county erected upon it a fine stone structure
costing $60,000, including jail and ground improvements.
The first election was held Nov. 26, 1849. The following board of
county officers was elected: Commissioners, John McKusick, Hiram
Berkey, Joseph Haskell; treasurer, Socrates Nelson; register of deeds,
John S. Proctor; judge of probate, Harvey Wilson; sheriff, Jesse
Taylor. At the same election the following persons were elected
justices of the peace in their various precincts: St. Croix Falls,
Jerry Ross; Point Douglas, Martin Leavitt; Stillwater, Albert Harris
and H. K. McKinstry; Marine, James Moore and W. H. Johnson.
The territory of the county has been from time to time divided and
subdivided for the organization of new counties. Washington county,
however, was divided but once. In 1852 the county of Chisago was set
off in the north, since which time its boundaries have been, Chisago
on the north, the St. Croix river and lake on the east, the
Mississippi river on the south, Anoka and Ramsey counties and the
Mississippi river on the west. It includes the following townships:
From 27 to 32 inclusive, ranges 20 and 21, and fractional parts of
townships 31 and 32, range 19, and fractional part of township 26,
range 20.
AFTON
Was organized as a town in 1858. Joseph Haskell, G. W. Cutler and H.
L. Thomas were the first supervisors; Minor H. Thomas, clerk. It
includes a fractional part of township 28, range 20. It is well
watered by Bolles and Valley creeks, streams tributary to the St.
Croix. The southwestern part of the township is rolling prairie, the
remainder somewhat broken. The soil is all productive and the streams
afford good water powers. The township had French settlers as early as
1837,--Baptist Fornier and others. Joseph Haskell commenced his farm
in 1839. Prior to 1850 A. Mackey, L. Bolles, P. J. Carli, T. F.
Randolph, E. Bissell, N. H. Johnson, James Getchell, and A. McHattie
located in the town.
The first crops were raised by the French settlers. The first marriage
was that of Andrew Mackey to Mrs. Hamilton, in 1844. The first child
born was Helen M. Haskell, daughter of Joseph Haskell. The first death