Fifty Years In The Northwest by William H. C. Folsom

JESSE H. SOULE has been a prominent and enterprising citizen of Grant since 1854. He was born at Avon, Franklin county, Maine, in 1823. Mr. Soule came to Grant when there were but six families in the town, and pre-empted one hundred and fifty acres of land, where he made him a pleasant and attractive home. He has held many positions of trust, having been elected town clerk, which office he held twenty-two years, justice of the peace, assessor, superintendent of schools and county commissioner. He represented his district in the house of the sixth state legislature in 1864. Mr. Soule has been married three times. His first wife left one daughter, his second wife two sons, twins, Osmar and Winfield; his third wife, who still lives, Rachel Michener, to whom he was married in 1871, has three children, Alice, Olive and Reuel. Albion Masterman and William Rutherford, the first settlers of Grant township, are mentioned among the biographies of the chapter on Stillwater. LAKELAND. This town includes the south half of fractional township 29, range 20, and comprises about 65,920 acres. The surface is quite diversified, ranging from undulating prairie land to hills. Before settlement there were prairies and oak openings. The soil is productive and is well cultivated. The first settlers were French, who located along the lake shore in 1838-39. These early settlers raised the first crops, but were gardeners rather than farmers, and were transient. The first American settler was Henry W. Crosby, who came in 1842, and located on the site of the present village of Lakeland. George Clark, a young man, came with him and made a claim near the ferry, but was drowned not long afterward. This was the first death in the town of which we have any mention. The first marriage was that of Wm. Oliver and Mrs. Mary Davis, a sister of Joseph Haskell, in 1848; the next was that of A. B. Green to Eliza M. Oliver, Oct. 1, 1851. A ferry was established in 1848. Moses Perrin built a hotel and saw mill the ensuing year, and platted the village of Lakeland. Another mill was built by Ballard & Reynolds. In 1857 Stearns, Watson & Co. built an extensive saw mill at a cost of $45,000. This mill changed hands many times, finally passing into the hands of C. N. Nelson, who enlarged it to a capacity of 20,000,000 feet per annum, a $50,000 investment. The St. Paul & Milwaukee railroad traverses this town near and parallel to the lake shore. The town contributed $5,000 in ten per cent bonds to the building of the road, for which they received an equal amount of railroad stock. The St. Paul & Omaha railroad crosses the lake and a part of the northeastern part of the township of Lakeland. The railroad bridge has its western terminus in Lakeland, a short distance above the village. Lakeland was organized as a town 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