Fifty Years In The Northwest
Oct. 20, 1858. The first board of supervisors consisted of Charles A.
Oliver, Elias Megean and A. D. Kingsley.
LAKELAND VILLAGE,
Situated on the lake shore, nearly opposite Hudson, Wisconsin, was
platted in 1849 by Moses Perrin. A school was taught in 1852 by
Harriet E. Newell. A post office was established in 1854; Freeman C.
Tyler was the first postmaster. Lakeland has the following benevolent
and social societies: Masons, Golden Rule Lodge, No. 65, organized in
1867; Temple of Honor, organized 1877; the Independent Order of Good
Templars, No. 200, organized in 1876. It has a Baptist and
Congregational church.
HENRY W. CROSBY was born in Albany, New York, in 1819. He spent his
youth in Buffalo. In 1840 he came to St. Croix Falls, and in 1842 to
the banks of Lake St. Croix, and located on the site of the village of
Lakeland where he resided ten years. During the ensuing thirteen years
he followed his trade as machinist at various places, besides serving
three years as a volunteer in the Eighth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry.
He was married in Cottage Grove in 1845, to Hannah Waterhouse. He has
four sons.
REUBEN H. SANDERSON.--Mr. Sanderson was born in Genesee county, New
York, in 1831. He received a common school education and studied one
year in Brockport Collegiate Institute. He came to Lakeland in 1855,
and followed the business of a house carpenter. Mr. Sanderson has
filled many town offices, and was a member of the Democratic wing of
the state constitutional convention in 1857.
NEWTON MCKUSICK, the oldest son of John McKusick, was born in
Stillwater in 1850. He received a good education in the city schools,
completed at the Minnesota State University, and located on a farm in
Lakeland in 1871. He was married to Jennie L. Green, of Stillwater,
June 6, 1872. His home and farm display taste and thrift worthy of
commendation.
CAPT. JOHN OLIVER.--John Oliver was born March 9, 1796, at Land's End,
England. He was bred to a seafaring life, and the early part of his
life was well spiced with adventure. He escaped from the British
service to enter the American, but was twice captured, and after the
second capture suffered a rigorous imprisonment at Dartmoor, England.
At the close of the war he came to the United States and became a
Boston harbor pilot, a responsible calling which he followed for
thirty-three years. He came to the West in 1848, and settled in
Lakeland. In 1819 he was married to Sarah Spear, whose father was one
of the celebrated Boston Tea Party in 1774. Capt. Oliver, after his
removal to Lakeland, busied himself in farming. He died on the
homestead in 1869, leaving a widow who survived until 1883, and five
sons, two having died prior to 1869. Of his seven sons, six were in
the Union Army in Minnesota regiments during the Rebellion: Wm. H.,
Thomas E., Charles A., George A., Walter J., and Howard F. Walter J.
died in the army.
ASA BARLOW GREEN.--The name of Capt. Green was once familiar on the
St. Croix. He was a man of varied talents and striking
characteristics, who, in a public life extending over a period of many
years, figured as a lawyer, sheriff, probate judge, steamboat captain,
minister, chaplain, and missionary. He was born at Warren, Vermont,
1826, and during his minority lived at home. He had a common school
education, and by his own efforts attained a knowledge of the law and
was admitted to practice in Minnesota and Wisconsin in 1858. He served
as sheriff in Washington county, held the office of probate judge, and
some minor offices. He commanded the steamer Equator in 1859, when
that boat was wrecked on Lake St. Croix. He was part owner of the
boat. In 1860 he was ordained as a minister of the Calvinist Baptist
church. In 1862 he entered the United States service as chaplain of
the Third Wisconsin Volunteers, and served three years, after which he
devoted himself to ministerial and missionary labors. He died in
Whitewater, Wisconsin.
L. A. HUNTOON located in Lakeland in 1857, and engaged in mercantile
pursuits. He served as town clerk and postmaster, filling the latter
position fifteen years. He represented his district in the house of
the seventh and nineteenth legislatures. He died suddenly at his home
in 1879, leaving a wife and three children. His oldest son, Samuel, a
promising young man, principal of the Hammond high school, and fitting
himself for the medical college, was drowned Oct. 9, 1872, in Cutter's
lake, at the age of twenty-one. He was much esteemed and lamented.
MARINE.
The town of Marine includes townships 31 and 32, range 20, and
fractional townships 31 and 32, range 19. The surface is somewhat
rolling, and before settlement was timbered chiefly with hardwood. It
is dotted with beautiful lakes, some of which have abrupt and hilly
shores. The more noted of these lakes are Big, Carnelian, Square,
Bony, Terrapin, Long, Fish, and Hay.
Next to St. Croix Falls, Marine contains the earliest settlement in
the valley. In September, 1838, Lewis Judd and David Hone were
deputized by a company of men residing in Marine, Illinois, to visit
the Northwest and examine the region recently secured by treaty from
the Chippewas, and to return the same year and report upon its
advantages of climate, soil and other resources. They were authorized
also to locate a claim for a future settlement, if they found one
entirely suitable. They embarked on the steamer Ariel at St. Louis,
September 10th, and were twenty-five days reaching the head of Lake
St. Croix, whence they proceeded in a flatboat propelled by poles up
the St. Croix as far as the falls, and thence to the mouth of Kettle
river. Returning by birch canoes, they stopped at the site of the
present village of Marine, and there made a mill claim. They then
returned to Marine, Illinois, where they arrived November 10th, and
reported favorably on the location chosen.
During the following winter a verbal agreement was made by thirteen
persons, all of Marine settlement, to start in the spring and build a
saw mill on the distant St. Croix. On April 27th this company left St.
Louis on the steamer Fayette for the new settlement, which they
reached on the thirteenth of May. The Fayette was chartered expressly
for this voyage. They took with them mill irons, farming tools,
household goods, three yoke of oxen, and cows.
The members of the party were Lewis, George and Albert Judd, David
Hone, Orange Walker, Asa S. and Madison Parker, Samuel Burkelo, Wm. B.
Dibble, Dr. Lucius Green, Joseph Cottrell, and Hiram Berkey. When they
landed they found Jeremiah Russell and Levi W. Stratton in possession
of the claim, they having taken possession during the preceding
winter. These men demanded and received three hundred dollars for
relinquishing the claim to its rightful owners.
The colonists set to work immediately to build a log cabin as a
temporary shelter, which being completed, they commenced the mill, and
worked with such energy that it was finished in ninety days. The first
wheel used was a flutter wheel, which, not proving satisfactory, was
replaced by an overshot with buckets. This mill sawed the first lumber
in the St. Croix valley.
Orange Walker was the first clerk and chieftain of the concern, and
when anything was wanted a call of the company would be made, and the
members assembled. No article of agreement existed. Only one book was
kept for a series of years--a unique affair, no doubt. The first
installment was $200; second, $75; third, $50; all within two years,
after which the company became self sustaining. No partner forfeited
his stock. One by one the partners sold out their interest, until
Orange Walker and G. B. Judd were the owners. The company was first
known as the Marine Lumber Company. In 1850 the name was changed to
Judd, Walker & Co., the firm consisting then of the Judd brothers,
Orange Walker, Samuel Burkelo, Asa Parker, and H. Berkey. In 1863,
when Orange Walker was sole owner, he associated with him Samuel Judd
and W. H. Veazie, and the firm name has since been Walker, Judd &
Veazie.
The colonists raised, during the first year, corn, potatoes and garden
vegetables. They found the Indians peaceably inclined toward the
settlers, though the Chippewas and Sioux kept up a constant warfare
with each other. During the winter of 1839-40 four members of the
company, Parker, Berkey, Green and Dibble, were sent to the mouth of
Kettle river to cut logs. Marine was organized as a town in 1858, with
the following supervisors: J. R. M. Gaskell; John E. Mower and B. F.
Allen.
MARINE MILLS VILLAGE.
The settlement gradually grew into the village of Marine Mills, which
was not platted, however, until 1853, nor incorporated until 1875. The
following was the first board of officers: President, Orange Walker;
councilmen, J. R. M. Gaskell, Ola Westergreen and Asa S. Parker. Until
1842 the mail was received from Ft. Snelling by private conveyance,
when a monthly mail service was established from Point Douglas, and
Samuel Burkelo was appointed postmaster.
The first jury trial in the St. Croix valley was held at Marine, in
1840, before Joseph R. Brown, justice of the peace. The case was that
of Philander Prescott against Chas. D. Foote, plaintiff charging
defendant with jumping a claim. The jury consisted of Samuel Burkelo,
Orange Walker, H. Berkey, David Hone. J. Haskell, J. S. Norris, A.
McHattie, A. Mackey, H. Sweezy, Francis Nason, and two others. The
claim in dispute was located near Prescott. The court adjourned to
allow the jury to visit Prescott to ascertain if the claim had been
made in accordance with custom. On viewing the premises the jury
failed to agree, and the matter was compromised by Prescott allowing
Foote eighty acres of the claim.
The first white child born in Marine was Sarah Anna Waterman, in 1844.
Dr. Wright, the first physician, located in Marine in 1849. The first
marriage was that of Wm. B. Dibble to Eliza McCauslin, in 1842. The
first death was that of a child of W. H. Nobles, in 1843. The first
sermon preached was by Rev. J. Hurlburt, a Methodist missionary, Jan.
1, 1844. The first school was taught by Sarah Judd, in 1849. The
Swedish Evangelical Lutherans built the first church in the town of
Marine, in section 27, in 1856, a log structure afterward used as a
school, its place being supplied by a new structure in section 14 in
1858. In 1874 a large church 50 × 80 feet, ground plan, and with
steeple 80 feet high, succeeded the second structure. A fine parsonage
was attached. This church was blown down by a cyclone in 1884, but was
rebuilt.
The Swedish Methodists built a church on the south side of Long lake
in 1856; C. P. Agrelius, pastor. The Congregationalists commenced the
first church and perfected the first organization in Marine village,
in 1857. The church was completed and dedicated in 1859. Rev Geo.
Spaulding was the first pastor. The second Congregational church was
erected in 1878, in section 21. The Swedish Lutherans have a church
and congregation in the village of Marine. The church was built in
1875. Rev. L. O. Lindh was the first pastor. Oakland Cemetery
Association was organized in 1872 and the cemetery located near Marine
village.
IMPROVEMENTS.
A passable road was opened from Stillwater to Marine in 1841. The
government road from Point Douglas to Superior was built through
Marine in 1852-3. The company built the first frame dwelling, on a
point above the mill, in 1848. The mill company built a frame store in
the same year. This building was burned in 1863; loss, $4,000. The
only hotel until 1850 was a log building, when the Marine store was
built. The Lightner House was built in 1857, the St. Croix House in
1858. The Marine flour mill was built in 1856 by Gaskell & Co. The