Fifty Years In The Northwest
THOMAS HETHERINGTON was born in Northumberland, England, in 1818; came
to Canada at the age of sixteen years and to Point Douglas in 1849 and
settled on a farm at Basswood Grove, where he died in 1885, leaving
his family in good circumstances. He was held in great esteem as an
upright man by those who knew him.
JAMES SHEARER was born at Palmer, Massachusetts, Oct. 30, 1815. He was
engaged in the mercantile business from 1837 to 1843, when he sold out
and went to Canada. He came to Point Douglas May 8, 1849, and engaged
in farming. He held various offices of trust in the county and town.
He served as county commissioner for 6 years, postmaster 2 years,
chairman of town board of Denmark for 4 years, and town treasurer 12
years. Mr. Shearer was married to Minerva J. Taylor, March 6, 1866.
Their children are Marcus, Martha and Irvin.
SIMON SHINGLEDECKER was born in Germany in 1815; came to America in
1831 and located in Ohio, where he worked nine years as a farmer. He
removed thence to Illinois, then to St. Louis, and in 1845 came to
Hudson, Wisconsin, where he engaged in lumbering. In 1848 he located
on a farm near Point Douglas, which is still his home. In 1850 he was
married to Margaret Truax. They have eight children.
CALEB TRAUX was born in Mohawk valley in 1810. He became a citizen of
Montreal and was there married to Elisabeth Morehouse. He removed to
Point Douglas in 1849, where he followed the business of farmer and
house carpenter. He was a representative in the fourth territorial
legislature. He died at his home in 1878, leaving seven sons and three
daughters.
ABRAHAM TRUAX was born in Brooklynn, Canada West. He came to Point
Douglas in 1848; removed to Hastings in 1850. While there he was
elected sheriff of Dakota county. He returned to Point Douglas in
1859, where he still resides. He was married to Mary Lahey in 1859.
Mrs. Truax died in 1867, leaving five children.
GEORGE W. CAMPBELL was born in Canton, New York, April 8, 1810. He
received a common school and academic education. His father died in
1826, leaving to George W. the care of the family and the management
of the estate. He was married in 1832, at Cornwell, Canada West, to
Margaret Harriet Robinson. He came to Point Douglas in 1848, where he
has lived since, engaged in farming and lumbering. He was a
representative in the first state legislature, 1857-58. Mrs. Campbell
died at her home in Point Douglas in 1886, aged seventy-four years.
She had been a member of the Episcopal church for sixty years. Six of
her seven surviving children with the aged husband and father attended
the funeral. Mr. Campbell died in 1887.
FOREST LAKE.
This town includes township 32, range 21. The surface was originally
covered with hardwood timber, interspersed with wild meadows; the
western part with oak, maple, poplar and tamarack. The first settlers
were Louis Schiel, Wilson, Rice and Cyrus Gray. Later came Simmons,
Posten, Marsh, York, and Banty. The first marriage was that of Francis
Cartwright to Mary Long, in 1865. The first child born was Rebecca
Simmons. The first death was that of Frederic Veith, in 1867. In 1873
the first school district was organized. A Methodist church was
organized in 1876 by Rev. Adam Ringer. The Forest Lake Lodge, I. O. G.
T., was organized in 1879. A post office was established in 1868;
Michael Marsh, postmaster. The town of Forest Lake was organized in
1874; W. D. Benedict, A. C. York and George Simmons, supervisors;
Louis Schiel, clerk.
FOREST LAKE VILLAGE
Was platted May, 1869, in the northwest part of the town, by Luther
Mendenhall, agent of the Western Land Company, and surveyed by B. W.
Brunson. It is beautifully located on the shore of Forest lake and is
rapidly becoming a popular place of resort for summer tourists and
pleasure parties. The lake is almost separated into three distinct
parts by points or capes. It is five miles from the northwest to the
southeast extremity and is nearly two miles wide at the widest point.
Its shores are well timbered and approach the water's edge in gravelly
slopes. The indications are that the lake was once much larger. In the
south lakes the water is deepest, averaging twenty feet. The south
lakes have also higher banks. The lake covers territory in sections 8
to 15, inclusive, of township 32, range 21.
CAPT. MICHAEL MARSH is a native of Wesemburg, Germany, and has resided
at this lake nineteen years. He has done much to make it attractive as
a place of resort. He has built a hotel with seventy-five rooms for
the accommodation of summer visitors, and has placed a steamer, the
Germania, upon the lake. Capt. Marsh was married in Germany and has a
family of two sons and three daughters.
GRANT.
This town was organized in 1858, under the name of Greenfield. In 1864
the name was changed to Grant. It comprises township 30, range 21. The
soil is a sand and clay loam, with clay gravel subsoil. The surface
varies from undulating to rolling, and was originally well timbered
with white, black and burr oak. White Bear lake lies partly within the
township, occupying about 1,200 acres. Other and smaller lakes are
Pine, Stone Quarry, Deep, Ben's, and Long.
The first officers of the town were: Moderator, Joseph Crane; clerk,
Jesse H. Soule; supervisors, Albion Masterman, James Rutherford and
Joseph Crane. The first settlers were Albion Masterman and William
Rutherford, in 1849. Soon after came James Rutherford, Thomas Ramsdell
and George Bennett. Albion Masterman built the first house, and his
wife, formerly Eliza Middleton, was the first woman in the settlement.
The first public highway through the town was the Rum river road. The
first child born was Castinea O. Rutherford. The first death was that
of James, son of James Rutherford. The first school house was built in
section 1, in 1856. Joseph Crane taught the first school. The first
sermon was preached by Rev. ---- Hamlin, a Free Will Baptist, but the
first religious organization was that of the German Protestant
Lutheran. Rev. Siegrist was the first pastor. The church building is
in section 2, and was built in 1872. The Spiritualists had an
organization in 1868, of which Jesse H. Soule was president, and
George Walker secretary. Summer meetings were held, and lecturers from
abroad invited to address them.
DELLWOOD VILLAGE
Was platted in September, 1882, on the line of the Stillwater & White
Bear railroad, on the shore of White Bear lake; Augustus K. and Carrie
Barnum, proprietors; Simon & Morton, surveyors.
EAGLE CITY
Was platted in 1854; proprietors, K. Starkey and Chas. G. Pettys;
surveyor, Daniel S. Turpen. It is located in the southwest quarter of
section 27.
MAHTOMEDI
Was platted in July, 1883; proprietors, Mahtomedi Assembly; surveyors,
Hone & Holland. White Bear lake has become a noted resort for tourists
and pleasure parties. A steamboat plies regularly upon its waters
during the open months, and the Stillwater & White Bear, the St. Paul
& Duluth and the Wisconsin Central railroads render it easy of access.
It is made attractive by the beauty of its scenery, the clearness and
brightness of its waters and its convenient distance from St. Paul,
Minneapolis and Stillwater. The Mahtomedi Association have erected
here a fine hotel, assembly houses and numerous cottages for the
accommodation of summer visitors. Summer schools are held here under
the auspices of the Chautauqua Association. The grounds are also
adapted to camp meetings, conventions and military parades.
WILDWOOD PARK
Was platted in 1883, by the Park Association; Elmer & Newell,
surveyors. It is located on White Bear lake, on the line of the
Stillwater & White Bear railroad.
WILLIAM ELLIOTT was born in Ireland in 1825. His parents removed to
New Brunswick in 1830, whence he came to Minnesota in 1850, and
located in Grant in 1862, devoting himself to farming. He had been a
pilot and a lumberman. His second wife was Mary Crawford. They have
eight children.
FREDERICK LAMB was born in Prussia in 1825; served three years in the
Prussian Army, traveled some time for a manufacturing firm in Germany
through Switzerland, France, England, and Italy; came to America in
1848, and to Stillwater in 1849. For some time he was unsettled as to
his location, but in 1852 made his home in Stillwater, where he
remained until 1866, when he located in Grant. He was married in 1851
to Lena Laroche. A son and a daughter lost their lives by accident.
Three daughters are living.
JAMES RUTHERFORD was born in the parish of Elsdon, Northumberland
county, England, in 1812. In 1818 he came with his parents to America.
In 1849 he came to the valley of the St. Croix and located in what is
now the town of Grant. He built a flour mill on Brown's creek. He
engaged in farming and also in lumbering for many years. He was
married to Elisabeth Smith in 1836. He died at his residence Sept. 14,
1874. Four children survive him.
JESSE H. SOULE has been a prominent and enterprising citizen of Grant
since 1854. He was born at Avon, Franklin county, Maine, in 1823. Mr.
Soule came to Grant when there were but six families in the town, and
pre-empted one hundred and fifty acres of land, where he made him a
pleasant and attractive home. He has held many positions of trust,
having been elected town clerk, which office he held twenty-two years,
justice of the peace, assessor, superintendent of schools and county
commissioner. He represented his district in the house of the sixth
state legislature in 1864. Mr. Soule has been married three times. His
first wife left one daughter, his second wife two sons, twins, Osmar
and Winfield; his third wife, who still lives, Rachel Michener, to
whom he was married in 1871, has three children, Alice, Olive and
Reuel.
Albion Masterman and William Rutherford, the first settlers of Grant
township, are mentioned among the biographies of the chapter on
Stillwater.
LAKELAND.
This town includes the south half of fractional township 29, range 20,
and comprises about 65,920 acres. The surface is quite diversified,
ranging from undulating prairie land to hills. Before settlement there
were prairies and oak openings. The soil is productive and is well
cultivated.
The first settlers were French, who located along the lake shore in
1838-39. These early settlers raised the first crops, but were
gardeners rather than farmers, and were transient. The first American
settler was Henry W. Crosby, who came in 1842, and located on the site
of the present village of Lakeland. George Clark, a young man, came
with him and made a claim near the ferry, but was drowned not long
afterward. This was the first death in the town of which we have any
mention. The first marriage was that of Wm. Oliver and Mrs. Mary
Davis, a sister of Joseph Haskell, in 1848; the next was that of A. B.
Green to Eliza M. Oliver, Oct. 1, 1851.
A ferry was established in 1848. Moses Perrin built a hotel and saw
mill the ensuing year, and platted the village of Lakeland. Another
mill was built by Ballard & Reynolds. In 1857 Stearns, Watson & Co.
built an extensive saw mill at a cost of $45,000. This mill changed
hands many times, finally passing into the hands of C. N. Nelson, who
enlarged it to a capacity of 20,000,000 feet per annum, a $50,000
investment. The St. Paul & Milwaukee railroad traverses this town near
and parallel to the lake shore. The town contributed $5,000 in ten per
cent bonds to the building of the road, for which they received an
equal amount of railroad stock. The St. Paul & Omaha railroad crosses
the lake and a part of the northeastern part of the township of
Lakeland. The railroad bridge has its western terminus in Lakeland, a
short distance above the village. Lakeland was organized as a town