Fifty Years In The Northwest by William H. C. Folsom
CHAPTER XVI.
1867 words | Chapter 155
STEARNS, ANOKA AND SHERBURNE COUNTIES.
STEARNS COUNTY.
Stearns county derived its name from Hon. Charles T. Stearns, a
prominent citizen of St. Cloud, a representative of the precinct of
St. Anthony Falls in the fifth and sixth territorial councils.
It is bounded on the north by Todd and Morrison counties, on the east
by Benton, Sherburne and Wright counties, the Mississippi forming the
dividing line against Benton and Sherburne, and Clearwater against
Wright county, on the south by Kandiyohi and Mecker, and on the west
by Pope county. It contains an area equal to thirty-six townships. It
is a fine agricultural county and is well watered by the tributaries
of the Mississippi, the principal of which is Sauk river. It has also
an abundance of small lakes. Its oldest settlement and principal city
is St. Cloud, and among its most flourishing villages are Sauk Centre,
Fair Haven, Clearwater, Melrose, St. Joseph, Albany, Paynesville,
Richmond, and Cold Springs.
The county was organized in 1855, under the legislative act of that
year. Gov. Willis A. Gorman appointed the following commissioners:
David T. Wood, John Ferschniller and John L. Wilson. They held their
first meeting at the house of John L. Wilson, April 9, 1855. J. L.
Wilson acted as chairman. The board appointed the following county
officers: Charles Ketchum, clerk; Robert B. Blake, treasurer; L. B.
Hammond, sheriff; N. N. Smith, judge of probate; R. B. Blake,
surveyor; and John Harry Weltshimer, assessor. The board established
three precincts, viz.: St. Augusta, St. Cloud and Tamarack. The judges
of election for St. Augusta were John M. Feble, John G. Lodenbeck and
Anton Emholt; for St. Cloud, Joseph Demil, L. B. Hammond and Battise
Arsenan; for Tamarack, Henry Foster, Louis Amel and John Smith.
License was granted to Joseph P. Wilson, George F. Brott, L. B.
Hammond, and O. Carter to run a ferry across the Mississippi river.
April 30, 1855, Farmington precinct was established. John M. Lindeman,
Jacob C. Staples and D. T. Wood were judges of election. July 5, 1855,
the first rate of taxation was fixed for the county at one per cent.
The first license to sell spirituous liquors was granted to Anton
Edelbrock. The first order issued was to pay for county books, $31.86,
to John L. Wilson. Ordered that Washington avenue and St. Augusta
street be adopted as county roads. Aug. 27, 1855, it was ordered that
Chippewa Agency precinct (now in Crow Wing county) be and remain as it
was when a part of Benton county, and J. D. Crittenden, Truman Warren
and D. B. Herriman were appointed judges of election. It was ordered
that Long Prairie precinct (now in Todd county) remain as it was when
a part of Benton county, and Anson Northrup, Lewis Stone and Harman
Becker were appointed judges of election. On Jan. 6, 1856, a new board
of commissioners qualified, consisting of Anton Edelbrock, chairman,
Reuben M. Richardson, and M. J. Orth. H. C. Waite was appointed
prosecuting attorney. The county was organized for judicial purposes
in 1855, and the counties of Crow Wing and Todd were attached. The
first term of court was held June 25, 1855; Hon. Moses Sherburne,
presiding, Taylor Dudley, clerk, and Joseph Edelbrock, sheriff. The
writer is indebted to the efficient clerk of court of 1887, A. L.
Cramb, for collecting data, as the old records are quite
unintelligible.
Judge E. O. Hamlin held the first term of court under the state
organization. At the session of the commissioners in July, 1856, the
first bonds of the county were ordered for building a court house,
amounting to $7,000, at twelve per cent interest for eight years. The
bonds were offered in New York City by an agent. These bonds were
lost, and only two of them were recovered. At the session of the
commissioners for August, the donation of John L. Wilson of four
blocks of ground, containing eight acres, for court house purposes,
was accepted. Three-fourths of the ground was sold by the county, and
the funds received from the sale, together with $6,000 in bonds issued
in 1857, and other bonds issued later, were used in erecting the
court house.
ST. CLOUD.
The eastern side of the Mississippi river was the first settled. As
early as 1848 David Gilman had located at a point now called Watab.
During the ensuing year, Jeremiah Russell, Philip Beaupre and James
Beatty were keeping trading posts at Sauk Rapids. In 1849 J. Q. A. and
W. H. Wood, brothers, located there. In 1854 the Rapids had become
quite a point with its Indian trading posts, its stores and its United
States land office. Among the early residents were many subsequently
identified with the interests of St. Cloud. In the spring of 1854 John
L. Wilson crossed the river at the point now known as the upper
landing, then covered with a dense growth of trees and underbrush. On
the adjoining prairie, a Norwegian, Ole Burgerson by name, had staked
out a claim and put up a shanty. Mr. Wilson purchased his interest and
in June of the same year erected a frame dwelling (still standing)
near the railroad bridge. Nicholas Lake put up a blacksmith shop near
by. During this year James Hitchins put up a small log dwelling for
Gen. S. B. Lowry, who platted the township of Acadia, now Lowry's
addition to St. Cloud. A post office was established here through his
influence. The same year Brott & Co. laid out St. Cloud city. The
earliest claimants of the town site, owning claims fronting on the
river, were S. B. Lowry, Ole Burgerson, Martin Woolley, and Michael
Zoms. John L. Wilson having purchased the claim of Ole Burgerson,
platted the village of St. Cloud, and this was the first recorded of
any of the St. Cloud plats. The village of St. Cloud made but little
progress until 1856, when a hotel known as the Stearns House, now used
in connection with the normal school, was built, a ferry established
and other improvements made. A notable incident connected with this
ferry is the fact that the Rev. Abbot Alexius Edelbrock, now president
of St. John's University, then a lad of thirteen years of age, was
ferryman, he being the son of the proprietor of the ferry. The craft
was swung back and forth like a pendulum, by the current acting
against its keel, being fastened by a long rope some distance up the
river. It was not therefore beyond the ability of so youthful a
ferryman to manage. The post office, established first at Acadia,
became the St. Cloud post office and Joseph Edelbrock was appointed
postmaster. He was reappointed by President Cleveland to the same
position in 1886. The first newspaper in St. Cloud was the _Visitor_,
established in 1857, by the gifted and somewhat erratic journalist and
reformer, Jane Grey Swisshelm. This paper had but a brief and troubled
career--the advanced views and dictatorial style of its publisher and
editor proving somewhat distasteful to the community at large. Mrs.
Swisshelm, who had already won a national reputation, went to
Washington, became a contributor to the New York _Tribune_, and had
thereafter a somewhat variable, and upon the whole brilliant, career
as a lecturer, editor and reformer. She was amongst the strongest,
though not the most radical, of the advocates of woman's rights. She
was not a woman suffragist, but directed her efforts chiefly toward
establishing the legal identity of married women. She was also very
pronounced in her anti-slavery views.
The first records of the organization of St. Cloud as a village have
been lost. It was reorganized by legislative enactment in 1862, and
the following were the first officers: Mayor, Judge L. A. Evans;
councilmen, H. C. Burbank, John W. Tenvoorde, Joseph Broker and Barney
Overbeck; clerk, A. B. Curry.
St. Cloud was organized as a city in 1868, under the following
officers: Mayor, Judge E. O. Hamlin; aldermen, L. A. Evans, president;
Peter Smith, Thomas Smith, T. C. Alden, Leander Gorton, T. R. Bennett,
O. Tenny, C. Bridgman, Andrew Fritz, L. R. Roberts, Lewis Clarke, H.
C. Burbank; clerk, N. F. Barnes. The city government has been
judiciously managed. The United States land office, established first
at Sauk Rapids in 1853, was removed to St. Cloud in May, 1858. The
first receiver was W. H. Wood. His successors have been S. B. Hayes,
C. A. Gilman, W. B. Mitchell, H. G. Burbank, Ole Peterson, and C. F.
McDonald, the present incumbent. The first register was George W.
Sweet. His successors have been W. A. Caruthers, T. C. McClure, H. C.
Waite, H. L. Gordon, J. A. Brower, and D. H. Freeman.
The city has paid for various improvements as follows: City water
works on the Holly system, $25,000; city bridge over the Mississippi,
500 feet in length, $12,000; to the Manitoba railroad in real estate
and bonds, $100,000; in cash, $27,000; gas works, $10,000. The fire
department is well equipped. An electric light plant has been
established. Considerable money and work have been expended in
dredging Lake George, a beautiful lake about fifty-five acres in
extent, lying in the heart of the city, and surrounding it with parks.
Street cars have been introduced and altogether the city has made most
commendable advancement in all those things that pertain to beauty and
comfort.
Not less rapid and substantial are its advances in commerce and
manufactures. Before the completion of the railway it had regular
communication by water with all river points, and since its facilities
for transportation have made it the peer of any inland city of its
size in the State. The railroads of St. Cloud are the Manitoba with
its various branches and the Northern Pacific, the latter passing
through East St. Cloud. Among the improvements of which its citizens
are justly proud we may mention the St. Cloud dam, constructed in
1886, at a cost of $200,000. The city gave $100,000 for this
improvement. The dam has for its foundation the underlying granite of
this section. It is intended as a permanent structure and must conduce
largely to the growth and prosperity of the city. The dam has 10 feet
head of water and furnishes 1,500 horse power. A flour mill with a
capacity of 300 barrels per day is run by the water power. The
Phoenix Iron Works, established at a cost of $175,000, give
employment to 100 men. Bridgman's steam saw mill has a capacity of
about 40,000 feet of lumber per day.
St. Cloud is backed by a rich agricultural and timbered district. In
the vicinity are valuable quarries of jasper, and of gray and red
granite. Two granite polishing works, operated by steam, are located
near the city. These quarries stretch away to the northeast, through
the counties of Benton, Morrison, Mille Lacs and Kanabec. They give
employment to 1,000 men. The Manitoba Railroad Company has purchased
recently about 400 acres of land, on which to build extensive shops
and stock yards, calculated to give employment, when completed, to
1,000 men. The principal hotels are the Grand Central and the West
House.
The first bank in St. Cloud was established by Waite & McClure in
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