Fifty Years In The Northwest
thirteen are living.
JAMES R. M. GASKILL was born in Madison county, Illinois, in 1820;
graduated from McKendrie College in 1843; graduated from the medical
department of the Missouri State University in 1854; practiced
medicine a short time at Centralia, Illinois, and came to Marine in
1855, where he practiced medicine and interested himself in milling,
lumbering and merchandise. He represented his district in the house of
the first legislature of Minnesota, 1857-58, and of the fourteenth and
fifteenth, 1872-73. He served during the Rebellion as surgeon of the
Forty-fifth Illinois Volunteers. He was for many years a trustee of
the Minnesota State Prison. In 1861 he was married to Clara E. Hughes.
They have one son and one daughter.
NEWPORT.
The town of Newport includes fractional townships 27 and 28, range 22,
and part of sections 34, 35 and 36, in township 29, range 22: It was
organized as a town Oct. 20, 1858. The first supervisors were William
Fowler, E. B. Schofield and John Willoughby. The surface is mostly
prairie. This town has some points of great historic interest. Gray
Cloud island, in the southern part, in the Mississippi river,
separated from the mainland by a slough, is the place where, according
to some historians, Le Sueur planted a French fort in 1695. It was
styled the "Isle Pelee," and was described as a beautiful "Prairie
Island."
The description of the island tallies precisely with that of Gray
Cloud, and is applicable to none of the other conjectured localities.
It is mentioned by many antiquarian writers as a place of rendezvous
for French traders during the French domination in this part of the
continent. Gray Cloud has been known as a trading post for the last
hundred years, and has the credit of being the first white settlement
in Washington county, and probably in Minnesota. Here came Joseph R.
Brown in 1838, and here he married the daughter of Dickson, the
trader. Hazen Mooers, one of the commissioners of St. Croix county in
1840, Joseph Boucher and others were living at Gray Cloud when the
Methodist mission was established at Kaposia in 1836. Gray Cloud is
the translation of the Indian name of the island. It was also borne by
an Indian maiden, who became the wife of Hazen Mooers, who seems to
have been a man of excellent repute and considerable influence. The
Browns cherished for him a very warm feeling of regard.
Red Rock, another historic locality, derives its name from a painted
rock which seems to have been held in great reverence by the Sioux
Indians. According to Rev. Chauncey Hobart, a veteran pioneer and
preacher still living in Minnesota, it was the custom among the Sioux
to worship the boulders that lie scattered along the hills and
valleys. When a Dakotah was in danger, it was his custom to clear a
spot from grass and brush, roll a boulder upon it, paint it, deck it
with feathers and flowers, and pray to it for needed help.
The peculiarity of the painted boulder from which Red Rock took its
name is that it was a shrine, to which from generation to generation
pilgrimages were made, and offerings and sacrifices presented. Its
Indian name was "Eyah Shah," or "Red Rock." The stone is not naturally
red, but painted with vermillion, or, as some say, with the blood of
slaughtered victims. The Indians call the stone also "Waukan," or
"mystery." It lies on a weathered stratum of limestone, and seems to
be a fragment from some distant granite ledge. The Dakotahs say it
walked or rolled to its present position, and they point to the path
over which it traveled. They visited it occasionally every year until
1862, each time painting it and bringing offerings. It is painted in
stripes, twelve in number, two inches wide and from two to six inches
apart. The north end has a rudely drawn picture of the sun, and a rude
face with fifteen rays.
Red Rock is noted as the site of a mission planted here in 1837 by the
Methodist Episcopal church, by Alfred Brunson, a distinguished pioneer
preacher and missionary. The mission was originally established at
Kaposia, on the western bank of the river, in 1837, but removed by
Alfred Brunson in the same year to Red Rock. Rev. B. T. Kavanaugh, of
this mission, and afterward a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church
South, superintended the erection of the first buildings. Taylor F.
Randolph and wife were teachers here, as assistants in the Indian
school, and also in a school of mixed bloods and whites. B. T.
Kavanaugh was postmaster in 1841. John Holton was mission farmer in
1841, under a commission from Maj. Taliaferro, of Fort Snelling. The
mission was discontinued in 1842. Mr. Randolph and wife made them a
home in the town of Afton, where both died in 1844.
The first marriage was that of John A. Ford to Mary Holton, daughter
of John Holton, in 1843. The first birth was that of Franklin C. Ford,
September, 1844. The first death was that of a child of Rev. B. T.
Kavanaugh. The village of Newport was platted in 1857. W. R. Brown's
addition was platted in 1874. A steam saw mill was built in 1857 by E.
M. Shelton & Brothers. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1874. A flour
mill was built in its place by Joseph Irish. The first Baptist church
was organized Jan. 18, 1858. The first commodious house of worship was
built in 1878. The Red Rock Camp Meeting Association was organized in
1869. A plat of ten acres, beautifully situated in a natural grove
near the village, and on the line of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
railroad, was donated to the association by John Holton. These grounds
have been improved, and adorned with tasteful cottages. The camp
meetings held during the summer are largely attended.
GRAY CLOUD CITY
Was platted in June, 1856, by J. R. Brown and Truman W. Smith, and
surveyed by J. Donald McCullom.
NEWPORT VILLAGE
Was platted May 2, 1857, by Joseph H. Huganin, R. C. Knox, Wm. and
James Fowler, and surveyed by B. Densmore.
JOHN HOLTON came to Red Rock in 1831, with the Methodist missionaries;
served some years as Indian farmer under Maj. Taliaferro, Indian
agent, and afterward settled on a farm just above the mission ground.
He donated ten acres of this farm to the Methodists for camp meeting
grounds. Mr. Holton died in 1884, leaving two children, Mrs. Ford and
Mrs. Winters.
JOHN A. FORD was born in Utica, New York, in 1811. He learned the
trade of edge tool and rifle making, and in 1834 came West with his
father, locating a land claim where Chicago now stands. In 1841 the
son came to Red Rock and erected a store building in which he sold
goods for twelve years. Subsequently he engaged in farming. With the
exception of the traders Mr. Ford was the first merchant in Washington
county. Mr. Ford was a representative in the second territorial
legislature. He was married to May Holton in 1843. Their children are
Franklin and Willis. Franklin, the eldest son, was married to Addie
Witherspoon in 1870, and resides in Newport.
DANIEL HOPKINS, a native of New Hampshire, came West at an early age.
He was a gunsmith by trade. He located in Green Bay in 1836, and
removed to Prairie du Chien in 1838, where he built a stone shop with
a large double window over his workbench and overlooking a spot where
he kept his money buried. A large mullein growing over it sufficiently
indicated that his treasure was still undisturbed. Growing somewhat
doubtful of the security of his hoard, he removed and placed a
thousand dollars in a stone quarry as a safer place of deposit.
Unexpectedly to him, the quarry was reopened and a well placed blast
scattered the old gentleman's treasure to the four winds. He recovered
but a portion of it. In 1844 he left Prairie du Chien and came to Red
Rock. He was three years associated with John A. Ford in selling
goods, after which, in 1848, he removed to St. Paul, where he opened a
store. He died in 1852, aged sixty-five years.
WILLIAM R. BROWN was born in Urbana, Ohio, in 1816. He spent his
boyhood at home on a farm and served as an apprentice to a carpenter
in Mt. Carmel, Illinois. In April, 1848, he came to Red Rock mission
in company with Rev. B. T. Kavanaugh, Charles Cavalier and Julia
Bosnell. He lived upon a farm until 1854, when he sold out and removed
to St. Paul, where he dealt in real estate. During the Rebellion he
served three years in Company C, Sixth Minnesota Volunteers. He was
married in 1841 to Martha Neuman. He died Nov. 25, 1874.
WILLIAM FOWLER settled in Newport in 1852 and has become a prominent
farmer and successful stockman. His farm, which originally cost him
$2,500, he sold in 1887 for $80,000. He was for two years president of
the Minnesota Agricultural Society, and five years of the Dairymen's
Association. He was a member of the house of representatives in 1872.
During the war he served as lieutenant in the Eighth Minnesota
Volunteers.
OAKDALE.
Oakdale includes township 29, range 21. Originally it was covered with
white, black and burr oak timber; the surface is rolling, and the soil
well adapted to the cultivation of wheat. It is well watered and has
numerous lakes, among which Lake Elmo is favorably known as a summer
resort.
Oakdale was organized as a town November, 1858. The first supervisors
were E. C. Gray, John Bershen and E. L. Morse. The clerk was W.
Armstrong.
The first settler was B. B. Cyphers, who kept a hotel or stopping
place on Sun Fish lake in 1848. The year following John Morgan built a
more commodious house a mile and a half west on the stage road, and
this was afterward known as the "Half-way House," it being nearly
midway between St. Paul and Stillwater. At this well known station the
pioneer stages of Willoughby & Powers changed horses at noon, and the
passengers took dinner. In 1855 the property passed into the hands of
E. C. Gray. The Malones, Lohmans, Grays, Day, Stevens, and Gardiner
located here in the '50s.
The first post office established was in 1857, in the south part of
the town, in section 35. Arthur Stephens was for ten years postmaster.
The office was called Oakdale, and was discontinued and another
established at the Half-way House, and called Lohmanville post office.
In 1873 it was transferred to the Oakdale station on the railroad. It
was discontinued in 1876, and re-established at Bass Lake station,
where it has since remained but is now known as the Lake Elmo post
office.
The St. Paul & Stillwater railroad passes through this town from east
to west. It has three stations, Lake Elmo, Oakdale and Midvale.
The churches of Oakdale are the St. John's Lutheran and the Church of
the Holy Angels. These churches have fine buildings and good
congregations. The buildings are located on the line of the old stage
road, and have spacious burial grounds attached.
Lake Elmo is the only village in the town. It is handsomely located on
Lake Elmo. The company that platted the village has expended over
$65,000 on improvements. The hotel is an elegant and spacious
building, and a favorite resort for summer tourists. The lake was
originally known as Bass lake, and the station was known as Bass Lake
station. In 1879 the lake and station were rechristened Elmo, a name
certainly more musical and charming than the original, and inferior
only to the aboriginal name, which ought to have been retained.
E. C. GRAY came originally from Pennsylvania, and located in Oakdale
in 1855, having purchased the Half-way House of John Morgan. He died
in 1874, leaving a large family of children. Two of his sons, M. P.
and W. H., remain on the family homestead. Others are in St. Paul. All
are known as men of good business ability.
ARTHUR STEPHENS was born in Scotland in 1830. He came to America in
1839, lived awhile in Illinois, learned the trade of a mason and
plasterer, came to St. Paul in 1849, worked at his trade until 1854,