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

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