Fifty Years In The Northwest by William H. C. Folsom
1850. It was organized regularly in 1853 by Rev. T. M. Fullerton. The
2046 words | Chapter 145
first house of worship was a small frame on Myrtle street, between
Second and Third streets. It was enlarged and improved in 1862. The
present edifice on Third street near Myrtle, with the parsonage
adjoining, cost about $4,200. The church has a membership of two
hundred.
ST. MICHAEL'S (CATHOLIC) CHURCH
Was organized in 1853, the first services being held by Rev. Father
Peyragrosse, a missionary. The first edifice was built on Fourth and
Mulberry streets, and Rev. Father Fisher was the first clergyman in
charge. The building was enlarged and improved in 1857. The present
commodious edifice was commenced in 1872 and dedicated in 1875. The
church property, including the school parish buildings and cemetery of
twelve acres in South Stillwater, is worth $130,000. There are now two
resident clergymen, Revs. Murphy and Gaughan.
ST. MARY'S (CATHOLIC) CHURCH,
Rev. P. Alphonse Krusle, pastor, was organized in 1865, and owns a
church building on Fifth street, near Pine, valued at $25,000. The
total value of church and parish buildings, and of the six lots on
which they are located, amounts to $55,000.
THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH
Society was incorporated June 6, 1868, and the first preaching was by
Rev. E. A. Hodsdon, of St. Anthony. The edifice is on Third street
South; cost about $15,000.
SWEDISH LUTHERAN.
The society was organized in 1871; the church building was erected in
1882-83, at a cost of $15,000. The pastor is Rev. A. F. Tornell.
THE FIRST GERMAN LUTHERAN
Church was organized in 1871. The church building and parsonage are on
Third street, near Olive, and are valued at $4,500. The pastor is Rev.
J. J. Weiss.
THE NORWEGIAN LUTHERAN
Society uses the German Lutheran church buildings, corner of Olive and
Fourth streets.
THE GERMAN METHODIST
Congregation worships in a frame building, corner of Linden and
Everett streets.
THE SALEM GERMAN LUTHERAN CHURCH
Was formed by the withdrawal of a part of the members of the First
German Lutheran church for separate worship. The Swedish church and
school, on the corner of Olive and Fourth streets, were purchased for
$2,150. To this a parsonage was added at a cost of $2,150. Rev. L. F.
Frey is the pastor.
THE DANISH LUTHERAN CHURCH
Has a cosy frame edifice on Laurel, between Williams and Owen, but is
not holding services at present. The edifice cost $7,000 and the
membership is one hundred and fifty.
SWEDISH CONGREGATIONAL.
The Swedish Congregational church occupies a frame building on Fourth
street, between Hickory and Elm streets, which cost $2,000 and has
sixty members.
THE ST. JOSEPH'S (CATHOLIC) CHURCH
Was organized by the present pastor, Rev. Father E. Roe, in 1882, with
seventeen members, which has since been increased to eighty families.
A frame edifice was erected in 1884, with a seating capacity of four
hundred, costing about $8,000, corner of Olive and Greely streets. The
church property consists of the edifice and the priest's house, and
cost $11,000.
THE SWEDISH METHODIST CHURCH
Was organized in 1880 by Rev. C. S. Carlander. The church building is
located on Myrtle and Fourth streets, and cost $2,000.
THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
Has a membership of seventy-five and a frame building erected in 1872
at a cost of $1,200.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
The court house and other public buildings of the city are creditable
specimens of architecture, rooms convenient and well adapted to the
purposes of their construction. The present court house building is
the third erected. Its cost, including that of the jail buildings, the
wall around them and other improvements, has been something over
$75,000. The city hall, at the corner of Myrtle and Third streets, is
a substantial and convenient building. It contains also room for the
city officers. The public school buildings have kept pace with the
growth of the city. In the summer of 1887 the city erected a high
school building at a cost of $60,000. The engine house is a good
building, centrally located. An elegant union depot was built in 1887,
of brown stone from the Apostle islands, at a cost of $30,000.
THE OPERA HOUSE.--The opera house occupies the site of the old Lake
House, on Main street between Nelson and Chestnut streets. It was
commenced in 1880 and finished in 1881, under the supervision of L.
W. Eldred, architect. Its size is 90×120 feet, ground plan, and four
stories in height, or seventy-one feet from lower floor to cornice.
The style of architecture is a blending of the Queen Anne, Victoria
and Gothic. The entrance to the upper part of the building is by a
stairway twelve feet wide, in a lofty, ornamental turret. The
auditorium is 64×120 feet, and beautifully and elaborately finished
and furnished, and is capable of seating over 1,200 persons. It is
well lighted, being supplied with 130 gas jets, warmed by steam, and
well ventilated. The stage is 39×64 feet, complete in all its
appointments, and supplied with all the necessary stage scenery,
wings, border bridge, balcony, interior and other decorations. The
ceiling of the auditorium is superbly frescoed and the cornice is
adorned with medallions of Shakespeare, Haydn, Schiller, Goethe,
Dickens, Handel, Scott, Longfellow, Mozart, Tennyson, and Beethoven.
The parts of the building not occupied for stage purposes are
appropriated to halls, offices and stores.
SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS.
I. O. O. F.--Lodge No. 1, organized June, 1849; Stillwater Lodge, No.
51, organized January, 1876.
Masonic.--St. John's Lodge No. 1, organized 1849; Washington, Royal
Arch Chapter, No. 17, organized March, 1868; Bayard Commandery, K. T.,
No. 11, organized March, 1878.
Knights of Pythias.--Stillwater Lodge, No. 7, organized November,
1872.
A. O. U. W.--St. Croix Lodge, No. 11, organized July, 1876.
Sons of Herman.--Stillwater Lodge, No. 3, organized January, 1876;
Concordia Lodge, No. 19, organized January, 1881.
Temperance Societies.--I. O. G. T. Lodge of Stillwater, organized in
1859; L'Etoile du Nord Lodge, No. 57, organized May, 1866; Temple of
Honor, No. 10, organized September, 1876; Father Matthew Temperance
Society, organized November, 1872.
Miscellaneous.--St. Ann's Society, organized November, 1866; St.
Vincent de Paul Conference, organized October, 1870; St. Joseph
Benevolent Society, organized November, 1879; Y. M. C. A., organized
in 1878; Washington County Bible Society, organized in 1851;
Northwestern Benefit Society, No. 1, organized in 1879; Subordinate
Union Penn Equitable Association, No. 165, organized in 1880;
Stillwater City Hospital, organized March, 1880; Stillwater
Mannerchoir, organized in 1875; the Stillwater Turnverein, organized
in 1859; G. A. R., Stillwater Post, No. 13, organized March, 1868.
CEMETERIES.
The first burial ground was selected in 1846. Ten years later, by a
survey of the city, these grounds were included in what is now known
as block 3. These grounds were used until the organization of the
Fairview Cemetery Association in 1867, when the bodies were removed to
the new cemetery in the burial ground in South Stillwater. Fairview
cemetery is beautifully located on undulating or hilly ground and is
adorned with shrubbery and made attractive by the hand of art. Its
location is within the city limits, near the corner of Orleans and
Fourth streets.
WASHINGTON COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
An attempt was made at organization in 1856, but it proved premature.
The present society was organized in February, 1871, at Cottage Grove,
and incorporated the same year. The first board of officers consisted
of J. W. Furber, president; J. S. Norris, vice president; T. Elwell,
secretary, and James Middleton, treasurer. In 1873 the fair grounds
were established near Stillwater, under the joint control of the
Agricultural Society and the Driving Park Association. In 1875 the
fair grounds were established at Lake Elmo. But one fair had been held
there when a cyclone struck the grounds and swept away all the
improvements. The society again effected an arrangement by which their
fairs were held on the grounds near Stillwater.
MINNESOTA STATE PRISON.
At the organization of Minnesota Territory Congress appropriated
$5,000 for a territorial prison. The legislature expended the money
thus appropriated in building a prison at Stillwater. The site was
located by a commission appointed by the legislature in 1849,
consisting of John McKusick, E. A. C. Hatch and Lewis Robert. The
commission was also authorized to locate the Territorial University
and select a site in St. Paul for the capitol. Their task was not
completed until the ensuing year. Their selection of a location for
the university and of a site for the capitol were satisfactory, but it
was generally conceded that the site for the prison was badly chosen.
The ground, nine acres, was mostly quagmire, and was, moreover,
crowded in a ravine between high bluffs. However, it was convenient to
the lake and steamboat landing, and was well watered with pure spring
water.
In 1851 Jesse Taylor, F. R. Delano, Martin Mower, J. E. McKusick, and
Jacob Fisher entered into contract with the commissioners, under the
firm name of Jesse Taylor & Co., to build one stone wing of the prison
building, to be inclosed with a stone wall. The dimensions of the wing
were 30 × 40 feet and three stories high. In 1853 an addition was
built, and Francis R. Delano was appointed warden. Until 1858 the
expenditure of the public money used in building and other expenses
was under the control of the warden. Under state rule the warden was
relieved of this burden of responsibility. The legislature had
provided that prisoners might be received in the penitentiary not yet
convicted of crime, on condition that their board should be defrayed
by the counties from which they were sent. When this expense was not
promptly met by the counties the prisoners thus held were set at
liberty. The Washington county grand jury investigated the matter and
memorialized the ensuing legislature, which effected a change in the
laws regarding such commitments. Wings were added to the prison, walls
were built, shops and other accessories added from year to year, and
appropriations were made from time to time. In 1870 an appropriation
of $74,000 was made for extending the building. Outside companies were
permitted to build shops and manufactories within the prison limits
that they might avail themselves of convict labor.
The following are the wardens who have served since the prison was
built: Territorial, F. R. Delano; state government: Francis O. J.
Smith, appointed March 4, 1858; Henry N. Setzer, Aug. 4, 1858; John S.
Proctor, Jan. 1, 1860; Joshua L. Taylor, Feb. 16, 1868; A. C. Webber,
March 16, 1870; Henry A. Jackman, Oct. 10, 1870; John A. Reid, Aug. 3,
1874; H. G. Stordock, 1887.
The following table shows the number of convicts each year up to the
present time:
1853 0
1854 2
1855 8
1856 1
1857 0
1858 2
1839 5
1860 16
1861 12
1862 7
1963 8
1864 7
1865 11
1866 29
1867 36
1868 31
1869 47
1870 39
1871 60
1872 59
1873 64
1875 93
1876 90
1877 145
1878 218
1879 254
1880 254
1881 247
1882 279
1883 301
1884 356
1885 395
1886, Mar. 31 416
The prison on the whole has been well and humanely managed. There have
been occasional outbreaks, easily suppressed, or cases of individual
insubordination, two or three with fatal results to the
insubordinates.
The prison buildings have been several times visited by damaging and
disastrous fires. The most serious were in 1884. The first occurred
January 8th, by which the large workshop and machinery owned by the
State and the Northwestern Car Company were destroyed. The second
occurred January 26th, and destroyed the main prison buildings,
including the cells, from which the prisoners were rescued with the
greatest difficulty. One perished of suffocation. On this occasion
guards, prison officials and some of the convicts displayed heroism
worthy of the highest commendation. The convicts on the whole behaved
well. Mr. Reid, the warden of the prison, behaved with great coolness
and decision, and so averted what might have been a fearful disaster.
FIRES.
Stillwater has suffered occasionally from fires. The first house
burned was the McKusick boarding house, in 1846. The Northrup hotel
was burned in 1847. In 1866 a fire occurred on the west side of Main
street, between Myrtle and Chestnut, in which twelve buildings were
burned, principally frame structures. In 1872 the Lake House and four
adjacent buildings were burned. The Schulenburg mill was burned in
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