Fifty Years In The Northwest

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 1858. In 1874 a large church 50 × 80 feet, ground plan, and with steeple 80 feet high, succeeded the second structure. A fine parsonage was attached. This church was blown down by a cyclone in 1884, but was rebuilt.

The Swedish Methodists built a church on the south side of Long lake in 1856; C. P. Agrelius, pastor. The Congregationalists commenced the first church and perfected the first organization in Marine village, in 1857. The church was completed and dedicated in 1859. Rev Geo. Spaulding was the first pastor. The second Congregational church was erected in 1878, in section 21. The Swedish Lutherans have a church and congregation in the village of Marine. The church was built in 1875. Rev. L. O. Lindh was the first pastor. Oakland Cemetery Association was organized in 1872 and the cemetery located near Marine village.

IMPROVEMENTS

A passable road was opened from Stillwater to Marine in 1841. The government road from Point Douglas to Superior was built through Marine in 1852-3. The company built the first frame dwelling, on a point above the mill, in 1848. The mill company built a frame store in the same year. This building was burned in 1863; loss, $4,000. The only hotel until 1850 was a log building, when the Marine store was built. The Lightner House was built in 1857, the St. Croix House in 1858. The Marine flour mill was built in 1856 by Gaskell & Co. The first flour was manufactured in 1857. The mill is four stories high and is furnished with a turbine wheel. The water is brought a distance of 1,000 feet by an elevated race. The Arcola saw mills were built in the winter of 1846-7, by Martin Mower, David B. Loomis, Joseph Brewster and W. H. C. Folsom. They were located on the river shore three miles below Marine Mills. The motive power is an overshot wheel, propelled by water from two large springs. The mill is now the property of Martin Mower. The losses by fire in Marine have been:

The Marine saw mill, Sept. 16, 1863, loss $6,000; Judd & Gaskell's store, Jan. 9, 1864, loss $4,000; Samuel B. Judd's dwelling, April, 1884, loss $12,000;

W. H. Veazie's dwelling, April, 1885, loss $6,000.

A heavy financial failure occurred in the winter of 1885-6. The firm of Walker, Judd & Veazio were compelled to make an assignment; indebtedness, $250,000. In the ensuing May, by order of the court, the mill property with its assets passed into the hands of a newly constituted organization, styled the Marine Lumber Company. This company was composed of the creditors of Judd, Walker & Veazie; B. C. Keater, president; Ed. St. John, superintendent; capital stock, $750,000. In 1888 the property passed into the hands of Anderson & O'Brien.

VASA VILLAGE

Was platted in 1856, in section 30, township 32, range 19, by B. F. and Mary Jane Otis and John Columbus; W. P. Payte, surveyor. James Russell, James Cilley and Frank Register in 1857 built a steam saw mill. James Russell built a three story hotel. A saloon and other buildings were erected, but the village did not prosper, and the site is now abandoned. There are several ancient mounds in the town site which have been utilized to some extent as burial mounds. One in the rear of the school house contains the remains of Caroline Reid, a sister of Mrs. B. F. Otis, and Hiram Otis, a son of the latter. A mound on the farm of John Copas contains the remains of John Columbus, buried there at his own request with the body of his favorite dog. A post office was established at Scandia, in the northern part of Marine, in 1878; John M. Johnson, postmaster. The upper part of the town of Marine was at one time organized as a town called Vasa, but has since been merged in Marine.

Orange Walker was born at St. Albans, Vermont, Sept. 1, 1801. His ancestors were of English stock and Revolutionary fame. He received a good common school education, and at the age of sixteen entered as an apprentice in a tanner and currier's establishment in St. Albans. After learning the trade he worked at it some time in Milton, Vermont. In 1834 he came West, and located at Jacksonville, Illinois, where he worked at his trade and also engaged in farming until 1839, when he became a member of the Marine Lumber Company, and came with them to Marine, where he resided a period of forty-eight years. During that time he has been the most active and influential man in the company, having been in almost constant service as its president or principal agent. Mr. Walker was well known to the earlier dwellers in the St. Croix valley as a hale, hearty, well informed man, prompt in fulfilling his engagements, and liberal in everything that pertains to the general good. Mr. Walker filled many public positions. He was county commissioner ten years, postmaster twenty-five years, and represented his district in the house of the Second Minnesota legislature in 1859-60. He was married Sept. 16, 1848, to Mrs. Georgiana Lockwood, of Prescott, formerly Miss Barton, a native of Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Walker died Oct. 9, 1885. Mr. Walker died Aug. 17, 1897.

Lewis Walker, brother of Orange Walker, was born in St. Albans, Vermont, in 1811; in early life removed to Marine, Illinois, and in 1853 came to Marine Mills, Minnesota. He spent many years at the St. Croix upper boom, and the last fifteen years of his life he lived in Osceola. He was a quiet, peaceable citizen, exemplary in his habits and respected by all his acquaintances. He died in Osceola in 1882. Mr. Walker was married in 1853 to Calphrunia White, who, with two daughters, survives him. The oldest daughter, Ella, has been for many years a teacher in the Minneapolis and St. Paul and other schools. Emma is the wife of Henry Fifield, a printer and journalist of Northern Michigan.

Samuel Burkelo was born in Kent county, Delaware, March 31, 1800. He came to Marine in 1839, being one of the thirteen constituting the Marine Lumber Company. He remained with the company ten years, removed to Stillwater and engaged in the mercantile business. In 1858 he removed to a farm in Lakeland, where he died in 1874. He was one of the commissioners appointed in 1840 to organize St. Croix county, and represented his district in the council of the first and second territorial legislatures. He was married Dec. 7, 1844, to Susan McCauslin, at Point Douglas. Four children survive him.

Asa S. Parker was born in Windsor county, Vermont, July 11, 1812. His youth was spent in Vermont, New York and Illinois. He was by trade a brickmaker. He joined the Marine Company and came to Marine in 1839. He continued a member of the company until 1858, since which time he has been engaged in farming and selling goods at Marine. Mr. Parker is a quiet, unobtrusive gentleman, well posted in general matters. He was a very useful member of the company. He was eight years county commissioner, and has filled responsible town and county positions. He was married in 1859 to Isabella Thompson. Archie I., an only son, living with his parents, was married to Lena Smith in 1883.

Hiram Berkey was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, Oct. 22, 1813. He came to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1819, but made Collinsville, Illinois, his home, and engaged in farming. He came to Marine Mills in 1839, and was one of the original company that founded Marine. He sold his interest in 1860, since which time he has been engaged in hotel keeping and farming. He served as county commissioner four years, and filled local offices. He was married to Jennie McCarty, of Pennsylvania, Oct. 23, 1860. They have one son, John R.

Geo. B. Judd was born in Farmington, Connecticut, Oct. 19, 1799. In 1832 he came to Illinois and engaged in farming and merchandising. In 1839 he became a member of the Marine Company, and came up on the Fayette, but did not make his residence there until 1862. He retained his interest in the company until about 1863. He removed to St. Louis in 1844, and became a member of the enterprising commission firm of Judd & Hammond. After his removal to Marine he engaged in the mercantile and lumbering business. Mr. Judd died at his home in Marine in 1872.

James Hale was born in 1822, in Putnam county, Indiana; lived five years in Illinois, and came to Marine Mills in 1844, where he engaged in farming. He was married to Mary Finnegan in 1855. Mr. Hale died Feb. 9, 1888.

John Holt was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, in 1818. He came to Marine in 1846. In 1852 he was married to Mary Jane Ward, and removed to Stillwater, where for two years he kept the Minnesota House, at the southwest corner of Main and Chestnut streets. Returning to Marine in 1853 he followed lumbering and farming many years. During the latter portion of his life he was afflicted with partial blindness. He died Jan. 12, 1874, leaving two children.

George Holt, brother to John Holt, was born in Kentucky in 1822, where he spent his early life. After spending a year at Prairie du Chien, in 1846 he came to Marine and obtained employment with the Marine Company. In 1850 he removed to Stillwater, and engaged in the livery stable and hotel business until 1853, when he returned with his brother to Marine. He claims to have carried, in 1851, the first leathern mail pouch from Stillwater to Taylor's Falls. During the Rebellion he served one year in Company G, Fourth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. While residing in Marine he has been engaged chiefly in farming, rafting and lumbering. In 1851 he was married to Melinda Ward. They have five children.

William Town was born in Rome, N. Y., 1814. In 1836 he removed to Warren county, Illinois, and in 1838 he was married to Louisa Robinson. He came to Marine in 1846; removed to St. Croix Falls in 1847; to Osceola Prairie in 1852, and to Taylor's Falls in 1860, where he died in 1870. His first wife died at Osceola in 1855, leaving three daughters, one the wife of W. J. Seavey, of Taylor's Falls, one the first wife of Henry Mallen, of Farmington, Wisconsin, and one the wife of E. Hines Bates, of Taylor's Falls. Mr. Town was married in 1857 to Mrs. Mary Collins, formerly Mary Talboys. A daughter of Mrs. Town, by her first husband, is the wife of N. P. Bailey, of Taylor's Falls. Mr. Town's aged mother came to Osceola Prairie in 1856, and died in June, 1886, aged ninety-seven years. Mrs. Abbott, of Moorhead, and Mrs. Richmond, of Farmington, are her daughters.

Matthias Welshance was born in 1818, in Pennsylvania, where he lived during his minority and learned the carpenter's trade. In 1843 he removed to Galena, Illinois, in 1847 to St. Croix Falls and in 1848 to Marine Mills, where he worked at his trade until 1856. From that time until his death, May 19, 1886, he was engaged in hotel keeping. He was for nine years keeper of the Marine Hotel and has since been proprietor of the St. Croix House. He was married Nov. 12, 1848, to Mary J. Hooper. They have five children living. One daughter, Mrs. Tolan, met a tragic death at the hands of an insane husband, in 1881. Mr. Welshance died in 1886.

Benjamin T. Otis was born in Fairfield, Maine, in 1816. He came to St. Croix Falls in 1841, and engaged in lumbering. In 1846 he located on what is known as Colby Flat, on the site of Taylor's Falls, and improved a farm. In 1849 he removed to Marine. His first wife died suddenly at Marine. He was married to Mrs. Church, of Stillwater, in 1859. Henry F., a son by his first wife, enlisted in 1862, in the Seventh Minnesota Volunteers, was wounded in 1864, and honorably discharged.

William Clark was born in New Brunswick, July, 1815. He came to Marine Mills in 1848, and since has followed lumbering. He married Elisa Jane Nelson in 1861. Mrs. Clark died in 1879, leaving two daughters.

James R. Meredith was born Aug. 22, 1812, in White county, Illinois, where he lived until eighteen years of age, when he removed to Galena, where he spent five years in mining. He went thence to Burlington, Iowa, and in 1849 located in Marine, and was employed by the Marine Company several years. In 1860 he located upon his present farm. In 1847 he was married to Eleanor Freeman. They have three children living.

John D. and Thomas E. Ward. The Ward brothers are natives of Massachusetts. They came to the St. Croix valley with their brothers-in-law, John and George Holt. They have engaged chiefly in steamboating and river business.

Samuel Judd, son of Lewis Judd, was born in Illinois in 1840. He graduated at McKendrie College, Lebanon, Illinois, and came to Marine in 1863, and became a member of the firm of Walker, Judd & Veazie. In 1874 he was married to Amelia D. Flaherty, at St. Louis. Their children are Orange W. and Lucille M. In 1886 he changed his residence to St. Paul.

Frederic W. Lammers was born in Germany in 1829. He came to America in 1843, locating first at St. Louis, where he remained two years. In 1845 he removed to the St. Croix valley, and for several years engaged in lumbering. In 1852 he settled on a farm in Taylor's Falls, and was married to Helen C. Nelson, of Marine. In 1865 he sold his farm and removed to Big Lake Marine. Mr. Lammers has been a public spirited and excellent citizen. His family consisted of fifteen children; of these thirteen are living.

James R. M. Gaskill was born in Madison county, Illinois, in 1820; graduated from McKendrie College in 1843; graduated from the medical department of the Missouri State University in 1854; practiced medicine a short time at Centralia, Illinois, and came to Marine in 1855, where he practiced medicine and interested himself in milling, lumbering and merchandise. He represented his district in the house of the first legislature of Minnesota, 1857-58, and of the fourteenth and fifteenth, 1872-73. He served during the Rebellion as surgeon of the Forty-fifth Illinois Volunteers. He was for many years a trustee of the Minnesota State Prison. In 1861 he was married to Clara E. Hughes. They have one son and one daughter.

NEWPORT

The town of Newport includes fractional townships 27 and 28, range 22, and part of sections 34, 35 and 36, in township 29, range 22: It was organized as a town Oct. 20, 1858. The first supervisors were William Fowler, E. B. Schofield and John Willoughby. The surface is mostly prairie. This town has some points of great historic interest. Gray Cloud island, in the southern part, in the Mississippi river, separated from the mainland by a slough, is the place where, according to some historians, Le Sueur planted a French fort in 1695. It was styled the "Isle Pelee," and was described as a beautiful "Prairie Island."

The description of the island tallies precisely with that of Gray Cloud, and is applicable to none of the other conjectured localities. It is mentioned by many antiquarian writers as a place of rendezvous for French traders during the French domination in this part of the continent. Gray Cloud has been known as a trading post for the last hundred years, and has the credit of being the first white settlement in Washington county, and probably in Minnesota. Here came Joseph R. Brown in 1838, and here he married the daughter of Dickson, the trader. Hazen Mooers, one of the commissioners of St. Croix county in 1840, Joseph Boucher and others were living at Gray Cloud when the Methodist mission was established at Kaposia in 1836. Gray Cloud is the translation of the Indian name of the island. It was also borne by an Indian maiden, who became the wife of Hazen Mooers, who seems to have been a man of excellent repute and considerable influence. The Browns cherished for him a very warm feeling of regard.

Red Rock, another historic locality, derives its name from a painted rock which seems to have been held in great reverence by the Sioux Indians. According to Rev. Chauncey Hobart, a veteran pioneer and preacher still living in Minnesota, it was the custom among the Sioux to worship the boulders that lie scattered along the hills and valleys. When a Dakotah was in danger, it was his custom to clear a spot from grass and brush, roll a boulder upon it, paint it, deck it with feathers and flowers, and pray to it for needed help.

The peculiarity of the painted boulder from which Red Rock took its name is that it was a shrine, to which from generation to generation pilgrimages were made, and offerings and sacrifices presented. Its Indian name was "Eyah Shah," or "Red Rock." The stone is not naturally red, but painted with vermillion, or, as some say, with the blood of slaughtered victims. The Indians call the stone also "Waukan," or "mystery." It lies on a weathered stratum of limestone, and seems to be a fragment from some distant granite ledge. The Dakotahs say it walked or rolled to its present position, and they point to the path over which it traveled. They visited it occasionally every year until 1862, each time painting it and bringing offerings. It is painted in stripes, twelve in number, two inches wide and from two to six inches apart. The north end has a rudely drawn picture of the sun, and a rude face with fifteen rays.

Red Rock is noted as the site of a mission planted here in 1837 by the Methodist Episcopal church, by Alfred Brunson, a distinguished pioneer preacher and missionary. The mission was originally established at Kaposia, on the western bank of the river, in 1837, but removed by Alfred Brunson in the same year to Red Rock. Rev. B. T. Kavanaugh, of this mission, and afterward a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church South, superintended the erection of the first buildings. Taylor F. Randolph and wife were teachers here, as assistants in the Indian school, and also in a school of mixed bloods and whites. B. T. Kavanaugh was postmaster in 1841. John Holton was mission farmer in 1841, under a commission from Maj. Taliaferro, of Fort Snelling. The mission was discontinued in 1842. Mr. Randolph and wife made them a home in the town of Afton, where both died in 1844.

The first marriage was that of John A. Ford to Mary Holton, daughter of John Holton, in 1843. The first birth was that of Franklin C. Ford, September, 1844. The first death was that of a child of Rev. B. T. Kavanaugh. The village of Newport was platted in 1857. W. R. Brown's addition was platted in 1874. A steam saw mill was built in 1857 by E. M. Shelton & Brothers. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1874. A flour mill was built in its place by Joseph Irish. The first Baptist church was organized Jan. 18, 1858. The first commodious house of worship was built in 1878. The Red Rock Camp Meeting Association was organized in 1869. A plat of ten acres, beautifully situated in a natural grove near the village, and on the line of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad, was donated to the association by John Holton. These grounds have been improved, and adorned with tasteful cottages. The camp meetings held during the summer are largely attended.