Fifty Years In The Northwest
was that of Paul J. Carli, in 1844, accidentally drowned in the lake.
The first road was located between Stillwater and Point Douglas, in
1847. A military road was surveyed from Point Douglas to Superior
through this town in 1850. Lemuel Bolles erected a flouring mill on
Bolles creek, in the winter of 1845-46, the first to grind wheat
north of Prairie du Chien. The old mill was long since replaced by a
new one, and the mill property has changed owners many times, Emil
Munch being the last owner. The present mill is a fine structure with
a capacity of fifty barrels per day. The first post office was at the
old mill; L. Bolles, postmaster. The first organized school was in the
Haskell district, in 1855. The Scandinavian Methodists have a church
in section 18, built in 1885. The German Lutherans have a church in
section 6, and a parochial school.
AFTON VILLAGE.
In May, 1855, Afton village was surveyed and platted by Haskell,
Getchell & Thomas, in section 23; Emerson & Case were the surveyors.
The village is beautifully located on the shore of the lake and
contains one hotel, one church (Congregational), one school house, an
academy building, and several stores, shops and dwellings. The
academy, known as the St. Croix Academy, was established in 1868, and
the building, a handsome three story brick structure, erected the same
year. Mr. Gorrie was the first principal. Simon Putnam was the first
pastor of the Congregational church.
SOUTH AFTON
Is located one mile south of Afton, on the shores of the lake. It has
an elevator, store, warehouses and other buildings. A saw mill was
built by Lowry & Co., between Afton and South Afton; in 1854, and
rebuilt in 1855 by Thomas & Sons. The Getchell Brothers built a mill
in 1861, which was burned.
VALLEY CREEK
Is a small village on Bolles creek, in sections 9 and 10. Erastus
Bolles located here in 1857, and improved the water power, built a
machine shop and manufactured edge tools. He sold out to his son, C.
E. Bolles, who further improved the property by building a corn and
feed mill. In 1860 Gilbert & Buswell erected a flour mill with three
run of stone. The post office in this village was established in 1874,
with Erastus Bolles as postmaster.
ST. MARY VILLAGE
Was platted in 1855, on lots 1, 2 and 3, section 14. Thomas W.
Coleman, proprietor; James A. Carr, surveyor.
JOSEPH HASKELL was born Jan. 9, 1805, in Kennebec county, Maine.
During his minority he worked with his father on a farm at Skowhegan,
Maine. In 1837 he came West, stopping two years in Indiana. July 24,
1839, he arrived at Fort Snelling on the steamer Ariel, obtained
employment of Frank Steele for whom he, with others, rowed a mackinaw
boat from Fort Snelling to St. Croix Falls. While at the falls he
worked on the dam and mill, then in process of building. In the fall
of 1839 he made a trip to Fort Snelling and returned to the Falls,
carrying the mail in a birch canoe to Catfish bar, and then across by
Indian trail to the Fort. While on this trip he made the claim for his
homestead in Afton. In 1840 he put three acres under cultivation,
raising corn and potatoes. This was the first attempt at farming,
except by the French pioneers, who raised only garden crops, north of
Prairie du Chien. September, 1844, he made a trip to Maine, and
returned bringing three sisters with him. They kept house for him
until he married. Mr. Haskell was married to Olive Furber, sister of
J. W. Furber, in 1849. They have four children, Helen M., Mary E.,
Henry Pitt and Hiram A. Mr. Haskell was a representative in the state
legislatures of 1869 and 1871. He was of most exemplary habits. He
died at his home Jan. 23, 1885.
LEMUEL BOLLES was born in New York. He came to St. Croix Falls in
1840. In 1843 he opened a grindstone quarry in the soft, coarse
sandstones, a short distance below the Dalles. In 1844-45 his
grindstones were much used. He made Stillwater his home in 1844-55,
when he removed to Afton. He was industrious, ingenious and eccentric.
He died in Stillwater in 1875.
TAYLOR F. RANDOLPH was the first school teacher in Washington county.
He and his wife taught at Red Rock in 1837-38-39-40, under the
supervision of the Methodist mission at that place. In 1842 he settled
on a farm in a valley near Bissell's Mounds, Afton, where he and his
wife died in 1846.
ELIJAH BISSELL, in 1842, located a farm near the three mounds in
section 8, which now bear his name. He left the county in 1850.
ANDREW MACKEY.--Mr. Mackey, of whom some mention is made in the
chapter concerning the early history, is one of the first pioneers,
having come in 1837 with John Boyce to the valley of the St. Croix in
a mackinaw boat, towed from St. Louis to the mouth of Lake St. Croix
by a steamer, from which point they poled their boat up to the St.
Croix falls, where they landed on the west side. From this point they
made a portage and cordelled their boat, and with poles and lines
ascended to Snake river. He engaged for some time in lumbering, and
worked at the falls until 1841, when he settled on a beautiful farm,
on a part of which Afton is now situated. Mr. Mackey was born in
Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1804, and (in 1888) is still living. His wife
died in 1873.
BAYTOWN
Comprises the north half of fractional township 28, range 20. The
surface is somewhat uneven and broken, owing to the lake bluff
formation, but there is much good farming land. Originally it was
covered with oaks or oak openings. It derives its name from a bay
indenting the western shore of Lake St. Croix. At South Stillwater
village a considerable stream, known as Spring creek, flows from some
large springs and forms a good water power in its descent to the lake.
Two flour mills are located on this stream. In 1842 Francis Bruce
built a house on the present site of the office of the St. Croix
Lumber Company. In the same year Norman Kittson built a trading post
at what has been since known as Kittson's Point. Both of these parties
left in 1844 and John Allen built a house and cultivated a field on
the east side of Kittson's Point. Allen sold the place in 1846 and
removed to California. He raised the first crops in the town. In 1847
Joseph Pero became a prominent settler and made him a good home on
Spring creek. Other parties made claims and abandoned or sold them.
Fiske & Marty located here in 1848. In 1860 came Ambrose Secrest and
some others. In 1852 Nelson, Loomis & Co. built a steam saw mill on
the bay. In 1854 Secrest & Booth built a flour mill on Spring creek.
In 1858 Baytown was organized as a town. The first supervisors were
Ambrose Secrest, John Parker and W. H. Crosby; John J. Hale, clerk.
BAYTOWN VILLAGE.
Socrates Nelson, D. B. Loomis, Levi Churchill, Daniel Mears, and James
W. Hinton, in February, 1856, platted the village of Baytown. Harvey
Wilson was the surveyor. The location was on the lake shore, lots 3
and 4, section 11, and lot 7, section 2. In 1872 a post office was
established called South Stillwater; William Graves, postmaster.
BANGOR VILLAGE
Was platted May. 1857, by C. I. and J. E. Whitney, Albert and Edwin
Caldwell, Wm. Hollinshead, Isaac Staples, and A. J. Short; J. J.
Carleton, surveyor. It was situated on the shore of the lake south of
Baytown.
MIDDLETOWN VILLAGE
Was platted in July, 1857, in parts of sections 2 and 3, by William
Holcomb; Myron B. Shepard, surveyor.
SOUTH STILLWATER
Was platted in January, 1873, by the St. Croix Railway Improvement
Company; Peter Berkey, president; A. B. Stickney, secretary; J. S.
Sewall, surveyor. South Stillwater was made to include the platted
villages of Baytown, Bangor and Middletown. It has prospered greatly
as a manufacturing village. In 1854 Torinus, Staples & Co. built a
steam saw mill, to which from time to time they added various
manufacturing establishments. Subsequently the firm became the St.
Croix Lumber Company. In the spring of 1876 this company sustained a
loss by fire on their mill and appurtenances to the value of $70,000,
which was not insured: With indomitable energy they rebuilt, and
prospered. The two leading business men in this firm were Louis
Torinus and William Chalmers. Turnbull's steam saw mill, on the lake
shore, has a capacity of 100,000 feet per day. The property is valued
at $70,000. The South Stillwater Lumber Company has a mill with a
capacity of 90,000 feet per day, with planer and other machinery
attached, in which they have invested $70,000. The firm consists of D.
Tozer, A. T. Jenks, H. McGlinn, E. W. Durant, and R. Wheeler. The
mills of the Herschey Lumber Company, valued at $70,000, have a
capacity of 100,000 feet per day. The proprietor, ---- Herschey, lives
in Muscatine, Iowa.
The Stillwater Dock Company was organized in 1877. The company
consists of Durant, Wheeler & Co., St. Croix Lumber Company and Jonah
Bachelder. They have built many fine steamers and barges. Their
repairing docks are a great convenience to steamboat lumbermen. The
South Stillwater Soap Factory, owned by McKenzie & Co., deserves
honorable mention. The construction of the branch railroad from
Stillwater in 1872, and the St. Paul & Milwaukee railroad, built in
1883, have greatly increased the prosperity of the village. Aside from
mills and manufactories there are many private residences, one hotel,
stores, shops, a Lutheran church, and a school house. There are three
cemeteries in the village limits known as Hazlewood, St. Michael's,
and the potter's field. The block for the former was contributed by
Secrest & Pero, in 1858. St. Michael's was established by the
Catholics in 1873. The potter's field was established by the city of
Stillwater in 1873. The first death in the limits of South Stillwater
was that of Sylvester, son of Joseph Pero. South Stillwater was
organized in 1881. First board of officers were: President, B. E.
Meigs; clerk, Edward Ivison; councilmen, Richard Burns, C. M.
Anderson, Charles Kregor; justice of the peace, Ambrose Secrest. South
Stillwater has a graded school with four departments.
COTTAGE GROVE
Includes township 27 and a fractional part of township 26, range 21.
It was organized as a town in October, 1858; James S. Norris,
moderator; William Watson, clerk; John Atkinson, Jacob Moshier, Joel
Munger, judges of election; William Watson, John Atkinson, B. Winant;
supervisors. Wm. Ferguson, Lewis Hill, James S. Davis, Jonathan Brown,
and Jacob Moshier were the first settlers, locating here in 1844. The
first marriage was that of Henry W. Crosby to Hannah Waterman, in
1854. The first child born was Nathan, son of John Atkinson, in 1846;
the first death was that of Mehitable, wife of P. P. Furber, in 1851.
A post office was established at Cottage Grove village in 1850; J. W.
Furber was postmaster. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad was
completed through the town in 1871. With its fine natural advantages
of soil, and its convenient access to markets, Cottage Grove is well
settled and prosperous.
COTTAGE GROVE VILLAGE
Is situated in section 12. It is a pleasant inland village, well
supplied with stores, shops and dwellings. It has one hotel, one
school house and three churches, Congregational, Evangelical German
Lutheran and Methodist. The Congregational society was organized in
1858, Rev. B. Hall, pastor; the Evangelical in 1874; the Methodist
some years later. The Universalists also have an organization. The
village was platted in April, 1871, by John P. and S. W. Furber, James
A. McClusky, Margaret M. Ellwell and Clarence Smith, in the southwest
quarter of the northwest quarter of section 12; J. W. Furber,
surveyor.
LANGDON VILLAGE
Was platted in December, 1871, in the southwest quarter of section 21,
on the line of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad. It contains