Fifty Years In The Northwest Part 40

WYOMING

Includes towns.h.i.+p 33, range 21. The eastern half is well timbered, the west has oak openings. Sunrise river flows in a northerly direction through the towns.h.i.+p, and with its tributaries and numerous lakes supplies it abundantly with water. There are some wild meadows and tamarack swamps. Green lake, in the eastern part of the towns.h.i.+p, is a picturesque sheet of water, five miles in length by one and a half broad, with sloping timbered sh.o.r.es and cedar points projecting into the lake, in one place forming a natural roadway nearly across, which is connected with the mainland opposite by a bridge.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SMITH ELLISON.]

A colony from Eastern Pennsylvania settled the western part of the towns.h.i.+p in 1855. The colony was composed of L. O. Tombler, Dr. John W. Comfort, E. K. Benton, and some others, in all ten families. The eastern part had been previously settled by Swedes. The towns.h.i.+p was organized in 1858. The supervisors were J. W. Comfort, L. O. Tombler and Fred Tepel. A post office was established at Wyoming with J. Engle as postmaster. The Catholics and Methodists erected churches in 1864.

The St. Paul & Duluth railroad was completed in 1868, and in 1879 the branch road to Taylor's Falls. The towns.h.i.+p was settled rapidly after the completion of the railroad. At the junction of the two roads there is a good depot, two stores and a fine hotel, the latter kept by L. O.

Tombler.

WYOMING VILLAGE

Was surveyed and platted by Ben. W. Brunson in 1869, in portions of sections 17, 19 and 20, towns.h.i.+p 33, range 21; proprietors, Western Land a.s.sociation, L. Mendenhall, agent.

DEER GARDEN VILLAGE

Was surveyed and platted by Alex. Cairns, October, 1856, in sections 1 and 12, towns.h.i.+p 33, range 21; proprietor, Erastus S. Edgerton.

LUCIUS O. TOMBLER was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1823. His ancestors were Moravians, who, driven from Germany in the eighteenth century, came to America, and founded the colony of Bethlehem, a colony famed for its thrift, advancement in educational matters, and high morality. Mr. Tombler and his wife, Christiana Brown, to whom he was married in 1845, were educated in the Moravian schools. They came with the colony from Bethlehem to Wyoming in 1855, and built a two story log hotel on the St. Paul and Lake Superior stage road, which was long noted as a rest for the weary traveler and a home for the invalid. Mr. Tombler was an energetic, worthy man, genial in his manners, a good farmer, a good landlord, and an accomplished musician besides. Mrs. Tombler possessed superior endowments as a landlady, and the house soon gained widespread popularity with the traveling public.

The first hotel was burned in 1876, but the year following a more commodious building was erected on the grounds, which, with its modern improvements within, and its park-like surroundings, is more popular with the traveling public than its predecessor. The Tombler family consists of Charles A., the father of Lucius O., born in 1800, but still hale and vigorous, in the possession of all his faculties, two sons, Maurice and Milton, and one daughter, Laura. Charles A., the grandfather, has received the thirty-third degree Scottish Masonic rite.

DR. JOHN WOOLMAN COMFORT was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1804. He graduated at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1836, and practiced medicine continuously, and, although an accomplished graduate of an allopathic school, was a zealous advocate and exponent of the Thompsonian system, in favor of which he published several works. He was also for some years editor of the _Thompsonian Medical Journal_. As a physician he was untiring, and impartial in the performance of his duties, never refusing a medical call on account of the poverty of the patient. He was especially kind to the poor. He came to Wyoming with the colony in 1855, and died there Feb. 9, 1881, leaving a widow, since deceased, one son in Philadelphia, and two daughters, Mrs. Markley, of Wyoming, and Mrs. Carter, of Melbourne, Australia.

ISAAC MARKLEY was born in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, April 2, 1822. In the spring of 1849 he came westward, and engaged in steamboating. He commanded the Uncle Toby, and in October, 1850, ran his steamboat from St. Louis to Taylor's Falls for the writer of this work. He engaged in mercantile pursuits for some time in St. Paul, and in 1871 came to Wyoming and located on a farm. He was married to Frances, a daughter of Dr. Comfort. He died at his home, February, 1883.

JOEL WRIGHT was born in Pennsylvania in 1800, and came to Wyoming with the Bethlehem colony in 1855. He is a blacksmith by trade, but has also devoted himself to hunting and trapping. Mr. Wright has been married three times, and has three children.

RANDALL WRIGHT, second son of the foregoing, was born in Pennsylvania in 1828; was married to Anna Montgomery in 1850, and came to Wyoming in 1855. He is a house carpenter by trade.

FREDERIC TEPEL was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1824; received a fair education and learned the trade of blacksmithing. He came to America in 1843, lived in New Orleans one year, in St. Louis ten years, in St.

Paul one year, and settled in Wyoming in 1855. In 1847 he was married to Fredrica Wilmina, of St. Louis. They have seven children. Mr. Tepel has held many town offices to the satisfaction of his townsmen. He has been for forty years a member of the Methodist church. CHARLES HENRY SAUER was born in Germany in 1824; served as a soldier in the German Army three years, and in the twenty-fourth year of his age came to America. The year following he returned to Europe and was married. In 1851 he took up his residence in Chicago, and in 1855 came to Wyoming, and engaged in farming. He has three sons, Fred, Henry and Harvey, and a daughter married to a Lutheran minister.

CHAPTER XIV.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON COUNTY.

The early history of Was.h.i.+ngton county is to be found in the history of St. Croix county, Wisconsin, of which it was a part until the organization of Minnesota Territory in 1849. At the first session of the territorial legislature Was.h.i.+ngton county was established in full for county and judicial purposes. It included all that part of the Territory lying east of the range line between ranges 21 and 22 and north of the Mississippi as far as the British possessions and fractional parts of towns.h.i.+ps 29 and 30, range 22.

The courts held prior to this organization are referred to elsewhere.

The first territorial court in Was.h.i.+ngton county was held Aug. 13, 1849, Judge Aaron Goodrich, presiding; Judge David Cooper, a.s.sociate.

It continued in session six days. There were sixty cases on the calendar. Harvey Wilson was clerk of court; A. M. Mitch.e.l.l, of St.

Paul, United States marshal; Henry L. Moss, district attorney; John Morgan, sheriff. The lawyers present were H. L. Moss; M. S. Wilkinson, M. E. Ames, A. M. Mitch.e.l.l, L. Babc.o.c.k, and David Lambert. The second court house (the first under the new organization) was built in Stillwater, corner of Fourth and Chestnut streets, in 1849, at a cost of $3,600. This was the first court house in the territory of Minnesota. The lot was donated by John McKusick. In this building were held all the courts from 1849 to 1867. In that year Churchill & Nelson donated a city block on Nelson Hill, a fine location overlooking the city and lake, and the county erected upon it a fine stone structure costing $60,000, including jail and ground improvements.

The first election was held Nov. 26, 1849. The following board of county officers was elected: Commissioners, John McKusick, Hiram Berkey, Joseph Haskell; treasurer, Socrates Nelson; register of deeds, John S. Proctor; judge of probate, Harvey Wilson; sheriff, Jesse Taylor. At the same election the following persons were elected justices of the peace in their various precincts: St. Croix Falls, Jerry Ross; Point Douglas, Martin Leavitt; Stillwater, Albert Harris and H. K. McKinstry; Marine, James Moore and W. H. Johnson.

The territory of the county has been from time to time divided and subdivided for the organization of new counties. Was.h.i.+ngton county, however, was divided but once. In 1852 the county of Chisago was set off in the north, since which time its boundaries have been, Chisago on the north, the St. Croix river and lake on the east, the Mississippi river on the south, Anoka and Ramsey counties and the Mississippi river on the west. It includes the following towns.h.i.+ps: From 27 to 32 inclusive, ranges 20 and 21, and fractional parts of towns.h.i.+ps 31 and 32, range 19, and fractional part of towns.h.i.+p 26, range 20.

AFTON

Was organized as a town in 1858. Joseph Haskell, G. W. Cutler and H.

L. Thomas were the first supervisors; Minor H. Thomas, clerk. It includes a fractional part of towns.h.i.+p 28, range 20. It is well watered by Bolles and Valley creeks, streams tributary to the St.

Croix. The southwestern part of the towns.h.i.+p is rolling prairie, the remainder somewhat broken. The soil is all productive and the streams afford good water powers. The towns.h.i.+p had French settlers as early as 1837,--Baptist Fornier and others. Joseph Haskell commenced his farm in 1839. Prior to 1850 A. Mackey, L. Bolles, P. J. Carli, T. F.

Randolph, E. Bissell, N. H. Johnson, James Getch.e.l.l, and A. McHattie located in the town.

The first crops were raised by the French settlers. The first marriage was that of Andrew Mackey to Mrs. Hamilton, in 1844. The first child born was Helen M. Haskell, daughter of Joseph Haskell. The first death was that of Paul J. Carli, in 1844, accidentally drowned in the lake.

The first road was located between Stillwater and Point Douglas, in 1847. A military road was surveyed from Point Douglas to Superior through this town in 1850. Lemuel Bolles erected a flouring mill on Bolles creek, in the winter of 1845-46, the first to grind wheat north of Prairie du Chien. The old mill was long since replaced by a new one, and the mill property has changed owners many times, Emil Munch being the last owner. The present mill is a fine structure with a capacity of fifty barrels per day. The first post office was at the old mill; L. Bolles, postmaster. The first organized school was in the Haskell district, in 1855. The Scandinavian Methodists have a church in section 18, built in 1885. The German Lutherans have a church in section 6, and a parochial school.

AFTON VILLAGE.

In May, 1855, Afton village was surveyed and platted by Haskell, Getch.e.l.l & Thomas, in section 23; Emerson & Case were the surveyors.

The village is beautifully located on the sh.o.r.e of the lake and contains one hotel, one church (Congregational), one school house, an academy building, and several stores, shops and dwellings. The academy, known as the St. Croix Academy, was established in 1868, and the building, a handsome three story brick structure, erected the same year. Mr. Gorrie was the first princ.i.p.al. Simon Putnam was the first pastor of the Congregational church.

SOUTH AFTON

Is located one mile south of Afton, on the sh.o.r.es of the lake. It has an elevator, store, warehouses and other buildings. A saw mill was built by Lowry & Co., between Afton and South Afton; in 1854, and rebuilt in 1855 by Thomas & Sons. The Getch.e.l.l Brothers built a mill in 1861, which was burned.

VALLEY CREEK

Is a small village on Bolles creek, in sections 9 and 10. Erastus Bolles located here in 1857, and improved the water power, built a machine shop and manufactured edge tools. He sold out to his son, C.

E. Bolles, who further improved the property by building a corn and feed mill. In 1860 Gilbert & Buswell erected a flour mill with three run of stone. The post office in this village was established in 1874, with Erastus Bolles as postmaster.

ST. MARY VILLAGE

Was platted in 1855, on lots 1, 2 and 3, section 14. Thomas W.

Coleman, proprietor; James A. Carr, surveyor.

JOSEPH HASKELL was born Jan. 9, 1805, in Kennebec county, Maine.

During his minority he worked with his father on a farm at Skowhegan, Maine. In 1837 he came West, stopping two years in Indiana. July 24, 1839, he arrived at Fort Snelling on the steamer Ariel, obtained employment of Frank Steele for whom he, with others, rowed a mackinaw boat from Fort Snelling to St. Croix Falls. While at the falls he worked on the dam and mill, then in process of building. In the fall of 1839 he made a trip to Fort Snelling and returned to the Falls, carrying the mail in a birch canoe to Catfish bar, and then across by Indian trail to the Fort. While on this trip he made the claim for his homestead in Afton. In 1840 he put three acres under cultivation, raising corn and potatoes. This was the first attempt at farming, except by the French pioneers, who raised only garden crops, north of Prairie du Chien. September, 1844, he made a trip to Maine, and returned bringing three sisters with him. They kept house for him until he married. Mr. Haskell was married to Olive Furber, sister of J. W. Furber, in 1849. They have four children, Helen M., Mary E., Henry Pitt and Hiram A. Mr. Haskell was a representative in the state legislatures of 1869 and 1871. He was of most exemplary habits. He died at his home Jan. 23, 1885.

LEMUEL BOLLES was born in New York. He came to St. Croix Falls in 1840. In 1843 he opened a grindstone quarry in the soft, coa.r.s.e sandstones, a short distance below the Dalles. In 1844-45 his grindstones were much used. He made Stillwater his home in 1844-55, when he removed to Afton. He was industrious, ingenious and eccentric.

He died in Stillwater in 1875.

TAYLOR F. RANDOLPH was the first school teacher in Was.h.i.+ngton county.

He and his wife taught at Red Rock in 1837-38-39-40, under the supervision of the Methodist mission at that place. In 1842 he settled on a farm in a valley near Bissell's Mounds, Afton, where he and his wife died in 1846.

ELIJAH BISSELL, in 1842, located a farm near the three mounds in section 8, which now bear his name. He left the county in 1850.

ANDREW MACKEY.--Mr. Mackey, of whom some mention is made in the chapter concerning the early history, is one of the first pioneers, having come in 1837 with John Boyce to the valley of the St. Croix in a mackinaw boat, towed from St. Louis to the mouth of Lake St. Croix by a steamer, from which point they poled their boat up to the St.