HomeMy WebLinkAboutNotes on the Early Settlement of CGby IZobert �Natson
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With an Introdtiction and ]Votes
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Heritage Education Yroject
�n � � � � � � Cities� af Cottage� Grove and Newpori �� � � � � � �� �
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��� �� Iu 1996, tha Cities of Cottage Grove and Newport formed a partnerstiip to devclop � �
classroom materialsfor teachipg with local historic places. The Iieritage Education Project is �
coordijiated by the Cottage�Grove City HistoricPreservation�Officec (CHPO), with the Ne�vpart �' �
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partnership.
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Interior.
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Historic Preservation Division II � �
Departmenf of Community Developrnent ,�
City of Gottage Grove,' _ -- �
7516 80th Street South :� � �
Cottage Grove, Minnesota 55016 -••-°��-� •-•—°-- i
Heritage Preservation Comnussion �
CityofNewport ' ,.�,��
596 7th Avenue �� � � ""'
,d ���u�r �,
Newport, Minnesota 55055 ��� �
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1997 �
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ROBERT WATSON' S NOTES
ON THE EARLY SETTLEMENT
OF COTTAGE GROVE
INTRODUCTION
Robert Watson was bom in Dundee, Scotland, in 1825. In about 1837, the family
emigrated to the United States and settled in Parma, a small town near Cleveland, Ohio. Watson
received a common school education and attended Bro�klyn Academy in Ol�io, which enabled
him to earn a living as a rural school teaclter. He came to Mimiesota Ten�itoiy in tlte spring of
1850, accompanied by his younger broTher, William. Together, they explored the countryside
between Fort Snelling and Stillwater and eventually established a fann at Cottage Grove, in
southem Washington County. The following year, Robert returned to Ohio to bring tlieir
widowed mother and Cheir youngest brother, John, tolive with ihem in their log house ou the
edge of the Cottage Grove prairie. In 1852 they built a frame dwelling out of luuiber that was
purchased from a sawmill at St. Anthony Falls, assembled into a raft and floated down the
Mississippi to Red Rock (Newport). In 1854, Robert married Mehitable (Bell) Furber, tlie
daughter of Major Pierce P. Furber, wfio had immigrated to Cottage Grove from Milo, Maine.
Robert and Bell had four daughters, Minnie, Isabella, Olive, and Florence, and a son, William.
Although he was a successful fanner, as the years went by Watson concemed himself
more and more with public affairs. In 1854 he represented southem Washington County in the
Territorial House of Representatives, where he aligned himself with the Free Soil faction of the
Democratic caucus. His recard as a legislator was blemished somewhat by charges of election
fraud, but he rendered notable service in helping to defeat the enactment of the infamous "black
law" that would have required African Americans to post a bond before being allowed to settle in
Minnesota. Afrer Miimesota became a state, Watson retured to the House of Representatives in
1866 for a single term. He also held various county and township offices, helped found the
Cottage Grove Lyceum Hall, and was active in the Congregational Church.
Iji the spring of 1857 Watson moved to another farm in Cottage Grove, which he named
Evergreen Hill, after the European larch trees he planted there from seeds brought over from
Scotland. The family stayed at Evergreen Hill until 1878, when they moved to Northfield,
Minnesota. According to family tradition, the move was necessitated by the need to provide
better educational opportunities far the four Watson children (daughter Olive having died in
1864). By comparison with pioneering in Cottage Grove, the rest of Robert Watson's life was
uneventful. Robert and Bell celebrated their golden wedding anniversary together in 1904, and
he died at his home in Northfie�d in 1913, at the age of 87. Bell lived until 1920 and was 92
years old when she died.
Robert Watson's narrative of the early setflement of southern Washington County was
originally composed in the forni of a diary and "penciled notes made at different times," which
were collected by his daugliter Isabella after his death and edited for publication. Notes on the
Early Settle»zent of Cottage Grove and Vicinity, Washington County, Minn. was privately printed
in 1924, in the form of a soft cover pamphlet of thirty-six pages. How many copies were printed
is not known, but it has become a very rare volume. Watson's 1850 diary, some handwritten
reminiscences and other unpublished materials are preserved in the Robert Watson Papers in the
Minnesota Historical Society, which also owns copies of the Notes and a printed version of one
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of Watson's poems.
In Notes on the Early Settlement of Cottage Grove, Watson covers a broad range of
t'opics. The major, and certainly the best, part of the book deals with his experiences as a pioneer
in the 1850's. Aside from short passages apparently condensed or reconsh�eted froni his original
diaries and notes and some informaYion added by the 1924 editor, most of the narrative consists
of aneedotes, ananged chronologically, covering the period from 1850 to about 1$78. There are
a few brief digressions and the reader is treated Yo a sample of Robert Watson poetry, running to
twenty lines (entitled simply "Song" in 1924 but retitled "Prairie Song" in the present edition).
Throughout, Watson presents a vivid (and histoncally accurate) picture of life on the Minnesota
frontier. His descriptions of people and places demonstrate a knack for remembering small
details as well as unaffected literary ski1L �
The version of Notes on the Early Settlement of Cottage Grove presented here does not
reproduce the entire text of the 1924 published version. Isabella Watson interspersed her father's �
narrative with briefreminiscences by her uncles John Watson and Samuel W. Furber,
biographical sketches and anecdotes about Joseph Haskelt and Joseph Warren Furber
(contributed by descendants), and a contribution of hef sister Minnie's on family wedding lore.
Some of this extraneous material has been left out of the present edition. All of Robert WaCson's
narrative has been retained, with minor editing to modernize punctuation; spelling, and paragraph
structure. As a convenience to the reader, a handful of archaic terms have also been modernized,
and proper nouns abbreviated by Watson are given here in full.
ROBERT C. VOGEL
s
�tz
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COMING TO MINNESOTA
The year 1849 was a notable one in the history of the United States. Gold had Ueen found
in California the year before, and `49 beheld the great rush of gold-seekers over the plains and
mountains, by the Isthmus of Panama, or around Cape Horn to California. These were the
"forty-miners," only a few of whom succeeded in making a fortune, while many perished by the
way. In the same year the tenitory of Minnesota was organized and President Zachary Taylor
appointed a govemor, a secretary of state and three judges of circuit courts. The first govemor
was Alexander Ramsey, who is still at this date (1900) living in St. Paul.
The year 1849 also saw the beginning of the immigration of settlers to Minnesota. Those
here befare that year were mostly lumbermen, Indian agenYs and traders, people attached Yo the
military service; American Fur Company men, Canadian voyageurs and other half-breeds largely
in the employ of the Fur Company; some ranging frontiersmen and a few seekers-after-health
from "Below," as the country down the Mississippi was then conunonly designated.
The year 1850 saw a greatly increased imn�igration. The river steamers from Galena to
St. Paul were crowded from April to July. Many camejust to see the country and did not
become settlers. A good many remained in the then villages ar embryo cities of SY. Paul, St.
Anthony and Stillwater. And a few bought governmenf land and' opened farms on the east side
of the Mississippi, that being the only land open to setYlement ui Minnesota at that time.
On the first trip of the Nominee that year (1850) tny brother William and I were
passengers from Galena to St. Paul, having come directly from our home in Parma, Ohio. The
steamer was crowded. A great many kinds of people were aboard, lumbermen, hunters, sight-
seers, health-seekers, settlers intending to make new homes, and so forth. They were a jolly,
jubilant lot for the most part, and oh so hungry! What a rush there was to get a seat at the first
table when the bell rang! The table was bountifully filled and the food was good and varied.
Bayard Taylor said of boating on the Nile, that it was "The Paradise of travel," but it could
hardly excel steam boating on the Mississippi in those early, pre-railroad days. Everything was
new and fresh to most of the passengers; the great swollen river, the numerous wooded islands,
the grand, high, even-topped bluffs now close above us and [at once] receding far back, the
ancient boundaries of a great pre-Adamite river. Lots of ducks and other water fowl swarmed on
the sloughs and inlets. All was young, fresh and fair, as just from the Creator's hand.
At LaCrosse there was a Winnebago Indian village and agency; and on the Minnesota
side of the river farther up, Kaposia (Little Crow's village) five miles below St. Paul. All the
land on the west side of the river belonged then and for four years afterward to the Sioux or
Dakota Indians, and they occupied and used it as they had from time immemorial. We noticed at
each village as we passed, the scaffolds made of crotches and poles about twelve feet high on
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which they laid the dead who had died during the winter, there to wait until spring thawed out the
ground so that they could bury them.
Captain Smith of the Nominee was a genial Christian gentieman, very approachable and
willing to give information, with a dash of humor withaL He was asked all sorts of questions by
the passengers, many of them foolish; I wonder he did not get tired of answering them. I heazd
one man ask him: "Are there any Odd Pellows in that country?" "Oh yes," said the cheery
captain, "lots of them, all waiting for the girls to come out so they can be made even."
Editor's Noie:
American Indian sovereignty over Minnesota was extinguished by a series of
treaties made between the tribes and the United States government beginning in
1837. Before the creation ofMinnesota Territory in 1849, the larad between the
St. Croiz and Mississippi rivers, known as the "St. Croiz Triangle, " was attached
to Wisconsin. WashingPon and Ramsey counties were two of Minnesota's original
nine counties.
Settlement of the St. Croic Triangle was slow at first, a mere trickle of
adventurers, Zumbennen, and pioneer farmers. Then, after the river towns
became established and the leading edge of the frontier moved westward acYOSs
the Mississippi, came wave after wave of [and-hungry settlers. The Mirtnesota
pioneers of the 1850's included Germans, Scotch-Irish, Cqnadians, and Swedes,
but the majority of the imrnigrants were native born Americans. Among the
American settlers, the most important group were the Yankees from Maine, New
Hampshire, Yermont. Massachusetts, Connecticut and upstate New York, who
brought to Minnesota Territory niany of the traditions and lifeways of New
England. By the time Minnesota became a state in 1858, Yankee immigrants hacl
transfonned much of the St. Croix Triangle into a veritable °New England of the
West. "
One of the Yankee cultural institutions transplanted to Minnesota was the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal and ben�evolerat sociery, the ohject
of Captain Smith's pun.
EXPLORING ON FOOT
In company with an old friend, Mr. Reuben Emerson, also from Parma, Ohio, William
and I explorad the country around St. Paul, SY. Anthoiry and Stillwater. We did it mostly on foot,
that being the only way we could go to Yhe places we wanted to see. On one trip we went by
steamer frona St. Paul to Fort Snelling. We looked over the Fort and got directions there how to
go to Minnehaha. We walked northwest on a pretty good wagon track and found the Falls early
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in the afternoon. From there we ranged the prairie to the river looking for Lakes Calhoun and
Harriet, of which we had heard. We did not find them that day. When it was nearly night we
brought up at the old stone mill on the west side of St. Anthony Falls. This mill was built to
grind feed and so forth for the use of the fort and outstations. We found the miller and got
permission to stay with him that night and we went to sleep with the rush and roar of the Falls in
our ears. It was the spring rise and there was much water in the Mississippi.
Next moming, the miller gave us our direction for the lakes, right across the prairie. We
soon reached them, wandered all around them and into the woods beyond. We selected meutally
what we thought would be a good claim, 320 acres, if we could get it; then we retraced our steps
to the old mill. The miller ferried us over to the island (afterward named Hennepin Island) and
from there we crossed on Chute's dam to St. Anthony. At that time there were three saw-mills
there, or one mill with three old-fashioned upright frame saws. We had seen St. Anthony before
but we strolled around awhile and then went on to our headquarters in St. Paul.
Shortly afterward we made a Yrip to Stillwater, going on foot as we wanted to look at the
land as we went. At the hotel where we stayed we heard great stories of the richness and
productiveness of the prairie land in the south part of Washington county. So, after staying one
day in Stillwater, where we made the acquaintance of Captain Holcombe and Major Van Vorhees
of the U. S. Land Office for Minnesota, we tumed our steps southward along the west bai4c of
Lake St. Croix. Three miles south of Stillwater we reached Captain Holcombe's fann, then
Fisk's, Greeley's, Kane's and nearer the lake, Green's aud Oliver's. After that no more farms but
some claims, and some French half-breed settlements on the lakes and creeks. At Bolles' Creek
old Mr. Bolles had built a grist mill mostly for grinding feed, but he put in a bolt later in the year
and made flour.
The shores of Lake St. Croix looked beautiful. The blue, clear water, the shrubbery and
trees on the banks, a few evergreens interspersed, made a mare artistic park than could be laid
out by the mind of man. On the easYem edge of the "delta" prairie at the head of a long wooded
ravine we came upon Mr. Joseph HaskelPs farni, about forty acres in cultivation, with an old-
fashioned New England fence around it, all neat and trim. We did not stop to make his
acquaintance at this Yime but pushed on to Mound Prairie. When we reached Mound Prairie we
found Mr. Bissell and the Welch family who had settled fhere. We stayed with them that night
and off and on for two weeks afterwards, inaking trips from there to the Middleton settlement, to
Cottage Grove, Point Douglas, Red Rock and so froth.
Editor's Note:
Fort S�zelling, the first permanent Anserican outpost in Minnesota, was
constructed by the United States Arnay in 1819-1820 and was the oYiginal nucleus
ofsettlen:ent i�i the region. By the 1830's, a s�nall village offur traders,
voyageurs, mid Indians grown up opposite the fort at Mendota. After the country
was opened up to settleniertt by the treaty of 1837, permanent settlements weYe
started �t St. Paul and at Marine Mi1ls on the St. Croix River. Grey Cl�ud Island
and Red Rock (modern-day Newport) were settled in 1838. At the junction of the
St. Croix and the Mississbppi (the "delta' j the river town of Pointl3ouglas was
started in 1840. Stillwater, considered the "birthplace ofiLlinnesota"because it
hosted the Stillwater Convention of 1848, was founded in 1843.
ROAMING THE PRAIRIES
We found the prairie winds cold and chill. We had thoughY it was spring when we left
Cleveland, Ohio, on April9th and we were not expecting so much cold wind and almost wintry
weather with some snow. I think we had discarded our winter underclothing before we left
home. Speaking about the cold weather and the cold winters of Minnesota, we asked the
Welshes how they kept warm in winter. "Oh," said one of the big boys, "it is not so cold in
winter as it is now, only hazder frost. And when it is cold then we just put on an extra shirt unril
sometimes we have on six at once."
There were but few sett:ements in the south part of Washington County then, and none
out on the prairie away from timber. At Middleton's there were William Middleton and his
father and mother and a younger sister and brother who had recenYly come over from Ulster,
Ireland. A mile farther west, John McHattie, who married one of the Middleton gifls; and a mile
farther southwest Alex McHattie, who mamed another Middleton girl. The McHatties were
from Banff, Scotland. Samuel Middleton, a brother of William, had a place a mile and a half
northeast of William's place; he had thirty or more acres in crop, a�ood log house and stables,
and he "kept bach."
Southwest of Alex McHattie, John Anderson and George Bryden had claims buC boarded
mostly with the Middletons and McHatties. 7acob Mosier and John Anderson were the
carpenters of that wbole section of country. Mosier was froin Nova Scotia and Anderson from
Ireland; they were both companionable and agreeable men. 7udge Cooper and Govenlor Ramsey
had entered land adjoining Wm. Middleton on the east. Judge Cooper had some breaking done
in 1850 and built a small house and rented it to William Gnernsey. Ranisey sold his 160 acres to
Newington Gilbert who ea�ne in May 1850 from the state of New York io settle in Minnesota.
At Cottage Grove there were three families a mile or more apart. Mr. James S. Norris
who came to the Northwest in 1839; his wife was a sister of Mr. Haskell. Mr. and Mrs. J.
Warren Furber, and Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Furber. In Mr. J. W. Furber's family there were two
IiYtle girls, Estella and Aurilla. The other iwo families had no children then or afterwards.
Editor's Note:
The fzrst settlement within the modern ciry limits of Cottage Grove was made in
f838 along the Mississappi River at Grey Cloud Island, where Joseph R. Brown
hnd c� tYading post and farm. In 1843, .Iames S. Non•ds established the fzrst
faYniing settlement away from the river, on the pYairie a little north of what is now
calZed Old Cottage Grove village. Norris named his settlement "Cottage Grove"
because of the picturesque natural landscape of rolling prairie land interspersed
with oak groves. His neighbor, ,7oseph Haskell, had jounieyed to St. Croz.z Fal1s
in 1839 and opened the first farm in Afton, also in 1843. Both Norris m�d Haslcell
were originally from Maine. � � �
Although his contemporaries regarded hi�n as a man of extraordinary tale�sts and
influence, James Sullivan Norris is one ofMinnesota's forgotten pioneers. He
was born in Monnaouth, Kennebec County, in 1810 mad came West i�s 1839 to
woYk for the St. Croix Fal[s Lumber Company; in 1842 he was ei�sployecl as a
clerk in an Indian trading post on Grey Cloud Island. During tke course of Izis
life, he held a seYies of political o�ces: justice of the peace, cozinty consmissioneY,
territorial and state legislator, townslzip supervisor and clerk. A Democratic
Party "wheel horse, " he was a delegate to both tlie Stilfivater Conve�itiofa of 1848
and the Constitutional Convention of 1857. As Cottage G�rove's Zeading citizen,
he helped found the first schoal, public library, cem�etery, and agricultuYal
society. His wife, Sophie .Iane, was Josepl2 Has/cell's sister. Alt7aough childless,
they adopted a boy, blind froin birth, who weiat on to become a��ell-known
musician. Norris died of cancer at Old Cottage G�rove in 1874.
James Middleton, an Irish emigi�ant, canie to tive St. Croix Triangle a year after
Norris and ope�aed a farni in what is now Woodbury. AlexandeY McHattie and his
brother John carne to Minnesota by way of Canada and had worked in loggi�ig
camps along�tl�e St. Croi� before settling in Woodbury i�T� 1844.
THE BACHELORS
Some bachelors had claims and had opened small farnis in the near vicinity. Ben Gates,
who was a little off in his mind, had a claim a mile north of Lewis Hill's, but he had made no
improvements; he worked for and boarded with some of the Cottage Grove families. In 1854 he
sold his 160 acres to Ebenezer Ayers and went to the Cannon River country, where he kept up
his reputation of being B(ig) F(ool) Gates, as some one had dubbed him and he accepted it as a
goodjoke.
At Basswood Grove there was one family, Simon Shingledecker. A few bachelors had
claims near by. One of them, popularly called "Rock," had a small iinprovement in the brush
and woods between Shingledecker's and Lake St. Croix. He was a rough and original specimen
and many odd stories about him were told by the other bachelors. All the bachelors were
expected to be "at hoine" to all their brotherhood. When any of them called and found no one in,
they made themselves at home by taking possession, entering by the door if they could; if not
they could usually effect an entrance by the wide chimney. The standard dish in bachelors'
housekeeping consisted of pancakes; a dish of batter-rising was always kept on hand and flour
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and soda were added in quantities according to the number that were to partake. Some of the
"baches" were very good cooks, many of them having cooked for crews in The big woods; and
when they had time they could bake bread, cook meats and vegetables and set a very good table.
Rock's house was a convenient stopping place for travelers from Stillwater to "the
mouth" [of the St. Croix River, i.e., Point Douglas]. About 1847, when Stillwater was first
settled by the McKusicks and others and a saw mill was built there, a missionary Episcopalian
minister, Mr. Wilcoxson, located himself there and tramped back and forth between the far-
scattered settlements on the St. Croix, preaching to them occasionally and doing pastoral wark.
On one of his trips to Point Douglas he stopped at Rock's and was made welcome to stay to
dinner. Rock went on with his preparations, listening the while to the talk of the minister. He
told Rock thaC he would preach at Cottage Grove on his return and he hoped that Rock would
attend; to which Rock replicd: "Well, Pm d--d glad to hear it. I don't know any place in tl�ese
parts where they need it more."
When the meal was ready, Rockbrusquely said: "Well, dinner's ready; sit right up and
help yourself," at the same time sitting down and seizing his knife and fork. On looking up he
saw the minister looking at him rather solemnly, and then the good man said: "I am in the habit
of asking a blessing before eating." Rock was taken aback, and dropping his knife and fork said:
"Yes, yes; gol dam it I fargot; now go aheadP' I never heard anythi�g more of Rock after he left
for Califomia; he was one of the `49ers.
MORE EARLY SETTLERS
At� Point Douglas, Hertzel kept a general store and had considerable trade with the
scattering settlers, with lumbennen, raftsmen, and wood-choppers who cut and banked steam
boat wood, with stray hunters, trappers and Indians. There was also a hotel or boarding house in
the village. Under fhe high bluff up the Mississippi River a mile or so there were three or four
Irish families. They l�ad little farms on the fertile slope at the foot of the bluff and spent a good
deal of their tin7e Fishing 3nd in winter they cut sYeamboat wood. Farther up the river, in the
vicinity of Grey Cloud Island, a number of French half breed families lived. They also cut and
banked wood for steauiboats, and in summer they fished and had little vegetable gardens. They
built their small log houses close to the sloughs and inlets. On Section 36 of Cottage Grove
township, Willia�n Altenberg, who had� married a Sioux girl, Iived and reared a famIly of dusky
children. In view of his distinguished relationship the govemment granted him his quarter
section [160 acres] fiee of cost.
Between Point Douglas and Cottage Grove on the high prairie there were no settlers nor
improvements. The road between the two places lay right over the prairie, winding around in a
free and easy fashion to get the easiest grades. It is about nine miles beYween the two places; and
until 1849 or 1850 Point Douglas had the only post office in the county except Stillwater and
Marine Mills. Around Red Rock on the Mississippi there were a few settlers: old Mr. and Mrs.
Holfon and their son David; Mr. Jolui Ford at the steamboat landing; he had been the black-smiYh
for the Indians at Kaposia and he still ran a forge for their gun work and did general blacksmith
work for the few settlers. L. C. Johnson had opened a small farm at what is now Newport.
William R. Brown had a pretty good farm three miles from Ford's landing. David Wentworth
had a claim on the prairie near Grey Cloud Island.
In the township of Cottage Grove about a mile east of William R. Brown, Mr. John
Atkinson had opened a nice little farm and built a comfortable log house, stables and so forth.
He settled there mainly because of the spring of clear and abundant water at the edge of the
grassy lake to the south of the trail from Point Douglas to St. Paul. His nearest neighbor toward
the Cottage Grove settlement was Lewis Hill, two and a half miles northeast. Between all these
settlements and St. Paul it was all scrub oak and brush land, rather rolling and broken, with no
openings or settlements. The most frequented place in it was the tamarack swamp on and near
Section 16 of Woodbury Township, In the winter the settlers for miles around resorted thither for
poles for fencing and building purposes.
Editor's Note.•
William Reynolds Brown, a native of Ohio, came to Minnesota in 1841 as an
employee of the Reverend Benjamin Kavanuugh, who was then in charge of the
Methodist mission at Kaposia. Brown pioneered in both Newport and Cottage
Grove; his dairy, covering the period from October, 1845, to June, 1846, has
been published by the Minnesota Historical Society. John A. Ford and,Tohn
Holton of Red Rock also came to work at the Kaposia mission and remained to
become the leading settlers of Newport township.
John Atkinson and Lewis Hill were two of the original south Washington County
pioneers, settling in Cottage Grove within a year or two of Norris and Haskell.
Both were Maine men. Atkinson nsoved his farm in about 1850 to a location on
the trail between St. Paul and Point Douglas, in the general vicinity of the
modern-day Grove Plaza shopping center; this neighborhood came to be called
Atkinson's Corners (or, simply, The Corners). Hill's original pioneer shanty
(briefly occupied by the Watsons) was located between Old Cottage Grove and
Aticinson's Corners, on the north side of 70th Street (County Road 22) in what is
now calZed "Shepard's Woods. " He left Cottage Grove in 1855 but returned a few
years Zater and built a house that is still standing at 7007 East Pt. Douglas Road.
THE BEAUTY OF THE PRAIRIE
To go back to our ramblings over the prairies and through the oak groves. The dwarf
character and low stature of the oaks struck us,forcibly. William and I said to each other that they
looked just like the tops of trees stuck in the ground with no length of body to speak of; for we
had grown up in the tall and thick woods of Ohio. However, many of them were picturesque and
wide spreading.
The prairies had all or neariy all been bumed over and were one dreary black in color;
and as they were swept by cold spring winds, traveling over them then was not very enjoyable.
They looked very different a few weeks later. At this time the numerous gopher hills of rich
black earth were very noticeable to us as we had never seen anything of the kind before. Towards
the latter part of April, we found on warm sandy knolls and on the sand prairie the showy
anemone patens or pasque flower in great abundance. It gave us great delight. In the groves the
anemone nemerosa was showing buds; and along the river and in the woodlands the hepatica and
other early spring flowers were appearing. The prairies continued to look black until about the
eighth of May. Prairie grass is always late in starting, but we did not know it then and thaught
the spring was unusually ]ate. After it began Yo grow it was only a few days before the whole
prairie was green excepY where, a little later, it was blue with acres of prairie violets Later the
prairie phlox (phlox-pilosa) was abundant and it brightened up the whole prairie. From the lOYh
of May to the end of Jtme the prairies were in all their glory, and very Ueautiful they looked with
their waving grass and flowers, with their valleys, their little hi11s, sti11 sweeping on "in airy
undulations far away."
In our wanderings we stopped about mealtime at any house we came across, if we
happened co find any before seeking them toward nightfall. We were aiways kindly welcomed
and had a good hearty meal; and our appetites were such as to do ample justice to the fare.
PRAIRIE SONG
(Written in the "early days" by Robert Watson)
A life in the prairied west,
Where the noble rivers flow,
Where earth wears an emerald vest,
And flowers, by the acre grow.
How fair in the blossomiug spring
To be]iold the tender blue
Which the early violet spreads,
As far as the eye can view.
I love from some breezy hill
To gaze o'er the channing scene,
Broad prairies of grass, and flowers,
And young-leaved groves between.
Then the gorgeous autumn comes
With its mellow and hazy skies;
And the prairie's frestuiess is changed
10
Into purple and golden dyes.
Then the farmer looks with pride
At the crops his hands have tilled,
Where the drooping ears proclaim
The promise of spring fulfilled.
�
Editor's Note:
The original native vegetation of much ofsouthern Washington County was a
cover of tall prairie grasses interspersed with small woodlands. At maturity, the
prairie grass grew five to eight feet tall, with a great variety offloweringplants
growing among the grasses. As Watson and other pioneers observed, in
springtime lhe prairie took on the appearance of a great flower garden.
The dominant forest cover was oak woodland, except along rivers and streams,
where the forest contained mixed stands of maple, cottonwood, ash and elm. T&e
boundary between prairie and forest was ever-changing in response to shifting
climatic patterns and wildfires. The "openings" between the oak woodlands anrl
the upland prairies were the preferrecl sites for settlement.
The official state tree afMinnesota is the eastern white pine, which naturally
occurs in Cottage Grove only within the ravine at Pine Coulee along the
Mississippi. If Cottage Grove were to have an off cial "comrnunity tree, " it would
have to be the bur oak. This large, slow-growing hardwood often reaches a
height of sixty to eighty feet and its life expectancy is about a hundred yeaPS.
Drought mid fcre resistant, it has a short trunk with deeply furrowed bark, anct a
broad, massive top.. Tl�e pioneers used bur oak for builcling log houses and
framing bariis and saved the ancient specimen trees for sheZterbelts ar�d shade.
FINDING A PLACE TO LOCATE
There was so much government land then that it was hard to select what would be the
very best. The ideal place with prairie, timber, good water, shelter and accessibility was really
not to be found. A mile back from Lake St. Croix and about a mile south of Mr. McKane's farm
we found a good-sized tract of upland level prairie on which we decided to locate. We had four
Mexican War land warrants each for 160 acres; we gave Mr. Emerson two of them to use in
entering two quarter sections adjoining, one for him and one for us; we kept the other warrants to
locate later. Mr. Emerson gave us $300.00 to buy Mr. Lewis Hill's horses, wagon, sleigh, plows,
11
harrows and other farm tools and to rent his little place of 30 acres on which to raise a crop; for
we needed hay and grain to keep our team and other stock until we could open our own places.
Mr. Hill "kept bach," and he gave us to use for a year all his household utensils. He also
instructed William in the art of cooking.
Mr. Emerson, after entering the land at Stillwater, was to go back immediately Yo Ohio
and get his family ready as soon as possible to come to Minnesota. Our mother and brother Jolui
(then twelve years old) were to come with them. Part of the preparations had been made when
Mr. Emerson had a severe attack of pneumonia of which he died in about two weeks. Under the
circumstances we could do nothing but wait.
We got the crop haroested, which had to be done by hand, cradling, raking and binding,
then stacking, and waiting until winter to thresh. The threshing was done by smoothing off a bit
of ground and pounding it down hard; then we spread the grain on it and trod it out by dridrng
horses in a circle over it.
Editor's Note:
Land was the magnet that attracted immigrants to the St. Croix Triangle. Land
acquisition and use are recurring themes throughout Robert Watson's narrative,
which contains frequent references to claiming, entering, improving, and
purchasing land; as well as various units of land, such as townships, sections,
quaYter sections, 40's, and 80's. Robert and YVilliam's encounter with the o�cers
of the government land office ix the spring of 1850 was of»iore than passing
interest because it enabled them to obtain the most reliable, up-to-date
information on the availability of land. �
In 1785, Congress passed an act providing for a rectangular land survey by the
federal government and a system for subdividing the newly se�tled territories into
townships. After estab[ishing a"prime meridian" (the original meridian was the
boundary between Ohio and Indiana), an east-to-west "base line" was then
surveyed to intersect it at right angles. From the intersection of the prime
meridian and the base line, government surveyors laid out perpendicular lines at
six-mile intervals; the crossings of these lines created a grid of sguares, called
"townships, " each containing 36 square miles. Each township was then
subdivided into 36squares, called "sections, " each containing one square mile, oY
640 acres. When it came time for the government to transfer title, the sections
were usually further subdivided into square "quarter sections" of 160 acres or
rectangular 80-acre "quarter-quarter sections, " with the 40-acre or ' forty" (one-
eighth of a section) being the smalZest subdivision.
When Robert YPatson arrived in Minnesota in 1850, Cottage Grove had already
been surveyed into a township of thirty-six sections (numbered 1 through 36,
beginning in the northeast corner and ending in the southeast corner). Transfers
12
of tand in the township from the government to private individuals had begun in
1848, but much of Cottage Grove remained in the public domain for several
years. Under the laws in effect in 1850, the Watsons were allowed to "enter"
claims and purchase raw dand from the government Zand offzce in Stil[water at
public auction. (Settlers who arrived before 1848 were allowed to exercise their
squatters'rights by filing'pre-emption"claims, which enabled them to purchase
lands which they had occupied before the government survey.) The minimum
price was $1.25 an acre and there were sometimes multiple bidders for a choice
parcel. An alternative to cash purchase was to use military bounty warrants.
This was an early form of veteran's benefits, where the government rewarded
faithful soldiers with a bounty in the form ofpaper notes (warrants) that could be
redeemed for free land in the West. Of course, most soldiers did not become
pioneers and instead sold their bounty warrants on the open market. Neither
Robert nor William Watson ever served in the military, but they used warranLs
originally issued to veterans of the Mexican War (1846-1847) to buy part of their
farms in Cottage Grove. Free land to pioneers became a reality when Congt^ess
passed the Homestead Act in 1862, but by that time all of the original public
domain in Cottage Grove had already been taken up by settlers.
GOING BACK FOR THE REST OF THE FAMILY
In September, after the grain was stacked, I left William to cut and make some more
prairie hay and I went back to Ohio for Mother and John. In a short time we got our household
goods packed up and in October we started for Minnesota. We took a lake steamer (the Empire
State, the largest on the Great Lakes) for Milwaukee, where we landed three or four days later.
Then I found a teamster acquainted with the country and roads, and hired him to take us and our
goods to Galena. It took us about a week, the roads in the vicinity of Janesville, Wisconsin,
being bad on account of recent rains.
At night we stopped at hotels or farmhouses by the way, as happened to be most
convenient. At Galena I bought a cook stove and other heavy things for household use which it
would noY pay to bring from Ohio and tote across Wisconsin. I got Mother and John and all the
household goods aboard the river steamer Nominee at Galena to be landed at Red Rock, at Mr
John Ford's landing.
�
A MEMORY
Written by John Watson in 1923
In the spring of the year 1850 Robert and William, with one of our old neighbors, Reuben
Emerson, whose Ohio home was just opposite Marcus Brown's, came to Minnesota. After
13
looking round for some time, Mr. Emerson purchased some land near Lakeland about a mile
back from Lake St. Croix. Then he went back to Ohio for his family and for Mother and me.
While he was getting his affairs ready to leave he took sick and died.
In the meantime Robert and William got acquainted with some of the first settlers round
Cottage Grove who were very kind to them -- Mr. Atkinson's family down at The Corners,
Warren and Theodore Furber and Mr. Noms. So they decided to make their home among them
and they took up four 40's, lying along the present road. (I have two of the 40's and 45 rods of
that land now, and Elmer Furber has the rest.)
A bachelor, Lewis Hill, owned the place which is now Mr. Shepard's across the road from
our present home. It had a log house on it and we lived there about two years. The Shaw family
also lived there. They then owned a fann of 160 acres adjoining the Hill place.
Robert and William got a raft of lumber at St. Anthony Falls and had it floated down the
Mississippi to Red Rock. One day Mr. Ford sent them word that a passing steamboat had
caused the raft to break its rope and the lumber had floated away down the river. It was halted
near where Hastings now stands. It was in good shape, and that was the lumber that made our
first home in Minnesota.
After Mr. Emerson's death, Robert came back to Panna for Mother and me. We took a
steamer from Cleveland to Milwaukee. There we got a man with team and lumber wagon to
take us all to Galena on the Mississippi River. We had quite a number of boxes of goods, so it
made a big load over the then bad roads. We were late one night in finding a place to stop and it
was dazk. I fell off the top of some of the boxes into a puddle of mud. When we stopped for the
night, Robert took me to the pump and gave me a very heavy shower bath! I made no back talk
because I saw he was a little off in temper, but I kept a good grip after that.
It took a week to cross to the river. Robert saw us safe on the steamer Nominee and
stayed behind to teach school for the winter. He wanted to earn some much needed money to
make a home in Minnesota. We landed one bright October morning in 1850 at Red Rock. Mr.
Ford and his little son Frank came down to meet us. He invited Mother to come in and directed
me where I would find William. He told of "bluffs" and "coulees" -- I did not lrnow what they
were and did not ask but just started out to find William. One road led along the river to Grey
Cloud Island and the other, about half a mile east, would take me to the Atkinson home. I was
about halfway from Mr. Ford's to the Atkinson farm when I looked down on the river road and
saw about a dozen Indians on horseback. "My!" I thought, "if they see me Pm gone!" So I got
down on my hands and feet, and you bet it would have taken a good dog to make better time than
I did for a while. I surely was glad when I reached the home of the Atkinsons and the good
hearted people I met there.
From that point I had to follow a wagon track across the native prairie until I found
Willia� digging potatoes. He quit his wark, got the team onto the wagon and we went for
Mother and the goods. When night closed round us we were all safe in our westem home which
has proved such a good home for us all.
14
Editor's Note:
John Watson, youngest of the Watson brothers, was born in Dundee, Scotland,
shortly before the family emigrated to America. He attended school in Parma,
Ohio, and Cottage Grove. He became a farmer and also worked as a carpenter.
In 1868 he married Belle Munn, a schoolteacher who had immigrated to
Minnesota from New York; they had three children. After Robert and William
moved to Northfield, John purchased the "home farm" in Section 9, Cottage
Grove Township, where he Zived until his death in 1924, at the age of 87.
TEACHING SCHOOL IN ILLINOIS
The next day after I saw Mother and John off at Galena I took passage on a steamer to St.
Louis, expecting to meet there Mr. Edward Porter, an old schoolmate with whom we had been
corresponding and who was a bookkeeper in an establishment there. He thought I could get a
similar place there. I found his location and boarding house, but be had gone to New Orleans to
stay indefinitely. I stayed a while in St. Louis but found no such position as I wanted, so I went
twenty miles up the river to Alton, Illinois. At the hotel where I stopped there I met a man from
Ohio whose home was iu Carlinville, Illinois. He was in business but he had been a school-
teacher. He said the community in and around Carlinville was atixious to get good school-
teachers and he wanted me to go out there.
A day or two later, I took the 60-mile stage trip to Carlinville where I found a Mr.
Freeman in charge of the school. He did not like the idea of my trying to get either a public or a
private school there, but told me that at Rural Academy, a settlement east of town, they were
looking for a teacl�er and that I would find it a good place. Or I might go back fourteen ar fifteen
miles on the stage route to Blackburn, and from there two and a half miles east Yo Bunker Hill, a
thriving and prosperous settlement; a good many there were from New England and I might get a
larger school and higl�er pay.
I went to Rural Academy first, saw the school trustees and learned about the size of the
school, the length of the term and the pay. I told them I would consider their offer but would go
first to Bunker Hill, see their school and learn their terms. I found Bunker Hill to be a lively,
bright looking place. Most of the houses were new and painted white, quite in contrast to
Blackburn and other early settled places where the houses were mostly unpainted and dingy and
things were allowed to drift along. At Bunker Hill, however, they had engaged their teacher and
begun their school. It was larger than the one at Rural, but the teacher's pay was no higher; $25 a
month with board and room at one special place. I went back to Rural, engaged the school and
taught there four months. I liked the school and the people. Most of them came from western
Virginia (now West Virginia) and western Maryland. They had never been slave holders. They
were mostly Methodists, and a circuit preacher preached far them about once in two weeks.
15
BACK TO MINNESOTA
I went back to Galena in March and stayed there about two weeks with Hawkins, an old
school mate at Brooklyn Academy. He was teaching there. When I learned that Lake Pepin was
open [i.e., free of ice], I went on to Minnesota, getting there a little before the middle of April,
1851. Since I leff in the fall a few persons had come into the settiement to stay. Mr. and Mrs.
Richard Hall came sometime in October, 1850. He and Mr. Charles Secombe, wl�o located at St.
Anthony, were thc first Congregational home missionaries who came to Minnesota. Mr. and
Mrs. Hall made their home with Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Furber; he preached at Cottage Grove,
Point Douglas and at Prescott, Wisconsin. In May or June, 1860, Mrs. Furber's mo[her and sister
Emma came from Massachusetts to visif them and stayed for some time. After we got
acquainted, we used to go over to Mr. Furber's frequently to sing and have a social time. We
were only one and one-fourth miles from Mr. Furber's and that was accounted as nothing in those
days.
Before Mr. Hall came, Reverend Mr. Boutwell, who had been a missionary to the
Chippewas, used to come down from Stillwater occasionally and preach at Mr. Furber's house.
He was a very pleasaut man and well liked by all the settlers and froi�tiersmen who generally
gathered to bear him preach. His wife, with whom � afteiward became acquainted, was a half-
breed Chippewa, well educated, and reputed to be a daughter of Ramsey Crooks of tl�e American
Fur Company.
Mr. Norris of Cottage Grove was a member of the Council of the first Territorial
Lcgislature of Minnesota. He was largely self-educated but a man of solid good sense and
natural gifts, and very companionable withal. His wife, a sister of Mr. Joseph Haskell, was a
noble and helpful Christian woman.
Mr. J. W. Furber was Speaker of the House of the First Territorial Legislature of
Minnesota. He had some legislative experience, having been a representative of tlie Wisconsin
Territorial legislature some years before.
Editor's Nole:
6Yatson's hrother-in-lcnr, Joseph Warre�t Furber, was one ofMinnesota's forenzost
citi�e�rs — mid, Iike his fi-ie�rd James No� his activities have been largely igr�ored
fi�� historiuns. Bo�n in Farmington, New Hanipshire, fn 1814, his ancestors had
m�rii�ed in Manie i�i 1635. Fm�fier ine�it West iii 1838 and made his way to the St.
Croix Valler ir+ 1 SdO, u�/rere he ii�orked as cz timber� surveyor. In 1846 he ce�id his
firother Theoclore csiublished fm-ms �rem�.7ames S. Norris iri Cottage GYOVe. When
1�e u�cts elected to re��resent dre SG Goit T��langle ut the Wiscorasin TerritoYial
Legrslnture nr 1546, he hc�d to iralkfi�om Cottage Grove to Prairie du Chien, leaving
Ihe dcn� nfter Christmns iir order to reach the capitol in time for t�te opening day of
the assemfili. �?fter Congress created Miit�iesota Territory, Furber was electecl
Specrkei� of the flarse of Representatives; Ire was also the first Speaker of the State
16
House of Representatives, the United States Marshall for Mim�esota Territory, a
Waskington County commissioner, and the Cottage Grove postm�ster. A sta¢utcl�
YVhig and one af the founders of the Republican Pm�ty i�i Minnesota, Furber and
Robert Watson found themselves on opposing sides of mm�p political issues fiut
nevertheless worked together on a wicte range ofprojects. Furber diect in 1884 cmd
his son, D�. Williarn Warren Furber, built his house in 1901 on the site of7lis fadrer's
pioneer dwelliiag, at 7679 Lamar Avenue in Old Cottuge Grove.
In adctition to Jo.reph Warren, tl�ree otl�er sons (Theorlore, Sami�el, and .TohnJ and
two dauglsters (Mehitable and Olive) of Pierce P. Fin�her settled iir Cottage Groi�e
area. They and their ckild��en aclrfeved prominence in areas as diverse ns
agriculture, politics, busfness, nnd esagi�reeri�rg.
GOOD NEIGHBORS
Mr. John Atkinson, located on the Sand Prairie two and a half miles soutllwest of us, was
a genial, warm hearted, cheery man. He came from Maine in 1846 aild with his grown up boys,
Warren and Charles, soon made a farm with good house and outbuildings. The Atkinson men
were handy with tools of all kinds and just the right sort of folks for pioneers. Mrs. Atldnson
was a cheerful and helpful woman and their home was a pleasant place to visit. They were also
very hospitable; we were asked to come and see them as often as we liked, and we frequently
went, almost always having a good meal with them before returning which was a very good
thing far two inexperienced "baches."
Mr. Frank O'Dell had come from New Hampshire and taken a claim west of the
Atkinsons, which he afterward sold to Frederick Leyde. A mile faril�er south, on the edge of the
timbered ravine, Mr. McKee had made a daim. This place was soon sold to Waterman Buck. At
Cottage Grove proper, Mr. Asahel Stevens bad bought 80 acres from Mr. Norris and was Uusy
getting up a house when I came back from Illinois in the spring of 1851. Mr. Alfred Holman
also came early that spring.
Later in tl�e season, Major P. P. Furber, father of J. Warren and Theodare Furber, arrived
with his family consisting of his wife, his grown-up son John P., and his daughter Mehitabel..
They came from Milo, Maine. When out there the year before Mr. Furber had bought the north
80 of J. W. Furber's farm and they proceeded at once to put in the crop. They occupied Warren's
log house, as he had just moved into his new frame house. During the summer they were busy
getting lumber and material to build a new house. But before it was built Mrs. Furber was taken
sick with a severe dysentery and died in September. It was the first death of anyone on the
prairie since we came to Minnesota.
17
BUILDING THE HOUSE
While I was south, William and John had threshed the grain; hauled a lot of it to SC.
Anthony to pay for lumber for our house and bams, had got out some fenciug stuff and split oak
slabs or punchions for a cellar wall; and had dug a cellar on the hill souYh of Lewis Hill's grove.
William entered 160 acres one mile long right south of Hill's 1and just after I went back to Ohio
in September, 1850.
Editor's Note:
Unfortun.ately, neither the log house or the original frame dwelling built by the
Watsons has survived to the present day. The log house was almost aertainlv f�ot
a round-log cabin, but a hewn-log, flat-sided structure of two rooms or- cribs,
perhaps with a lean-to additio�i in back— the type ofpioneer dwellifig
traditional[y Fiuilt in so�ither�a Mimzesota. T/�e frame Iaouse was n:ost likely a
smcdl cottcage, or�e anrl ¢ halfstories in height arrd simila�r to the hall-and pavloY
kouses �f New England.
T/ae Watsorr "home farm ° was located iri Sectio�a 9, Cottage Grove Towr�ship, on
the soutli side of what is irow 70th Street (Cowity Xoad 22), on the crest of a low
Irill. Two historic Iranes still exist in the viciraity of the original fanrtstead: the
house built hv John Wntsoii iii abot�tt 1874, the moder�� street addr-ess of which is
8919 70d� Str-eel, cnid Ihe Elmer Fvrber house, built by Johiz P. Furfier's son in
1917, at 87l5 70th Sb�eeL Arr old granary, belleved to have been constructed by
Wrllim�i Wcdsai, ii�as i�ct�ecl i�r 1995.
THE GREY CLOUD WOOD LDT
BeCore leaving for Ohio I had entered 160 acres of woodland on the slough in the
soutl�west part of Cottage Grove township. There was a fine l�t of young timber with some large
hard maple on Grey Cloud Island. On the slough bottoin the timber was largely elm, large white
maple, basswood, ironwood, red cedar, oak and so fortl�. It did not prove to be a good
investment, but we then undervalued the bur oak land adjoining our �rairie entry. During the
season ( i. e., benvee�i the opening and closing of jiavigation on the Mississippi), scattering
settlers came in and bcgan to ma�:e improvements. Messrs. Gilbert, Guernsey and Cox began on
their places east of the Middleton settlement. At Basswood Grove, about one and a half miles
soeth of Shingledecker's, a number of En�lish families settled -- Mr. and Mrs. Wright with a
grown up fa�3iily, Burton, Allibone, Clark and others. Near Lake]and the Newell family settled
and opened a large farnl.
18
But no one as yet had bought, or opened places on the open prairie any distance away
from sheltering groves. The summers and falls were very fine and the virgin prairies skirted by
woodlands dotted here and there with groves of poplar, oak and so forth were very beautiful;
much more delightful to look upon than the "improved" country is now wiflt all the land plowed
up and in farms
MOSQUITOES
One drawback to the enjoyment of the summer was the swarms of mosquitoes, for as
prairie grass grew rank and thick it bred and sheltered them in great numbers. And in those early
days we had no window screens; only the beds were draped around with the indispensaUle
mosquito bar. Living, as we did, close to woods and thick undergrowth and not far from a
marsh-edged lake, they were especially numerous. We were not used to them, as the people fi�om
Maine were, and they annoyed us exceedingly. But after the middle of August they died off
rapidly and gave us no mare trouble. The black flies or gt�ats were inore annoying, especially to
horses and cattle. We had to grease the eye lids ears, nose and other exposed parts of our
breaking oxen to protect tl�em froill the attacks of these insects. The gnats would not enter a
stable or any enclosed and darlcened shack, and the cattle would just rush into them for
protection. A swarm or hatching of these gnats had a lifetime of about three weeks. Then, after a
respite of two or three weeks, another swami would come. The last half of June and all of July
was their season. As the country settled up they gradually disappeared, it least from the prairie
country.
THE YEAR'S WORK
The privcipal business of tlae eacly settlers was to get as nwcli prairie broken as was
possible during tlle month of June. If broken earlier, or later, the sod did not rot well and so
would not prodt�ce a good crop the nexC year, A�er thaY the time until l�atvest was Yal<en up in
hoeing aud cutting wild swale l�ay in the IitYle meadows scat[ered through the scrub, bur and
black oal< woods, in building famt outbuildings and so fortli. After harvest, which tool< a good
while as all the work had to be done by hand, cutting prairie grass for choice hay, l�uskii�g com
aud so Porth took up the time uutil freezing weather. Tl�rough the entire winter we were busy
getting f rewood and fe��cing material, threshing grain and hauling it to �narket, hauling Ilu��ber
for building and fencing and so foirth.
We had regular preaching service on Sundays, usually in private houses. During the
winters of 185 ], 'S2 and 'S3 we had a sociable literary society which �net once a week on some
�vicekday evening. There �ve discussed the news of the day, had manuscripts read and discussed,
had some siuging ai�d so passed an enjoyable evening.
Erlrror's Nore.
The h«sic patter�i offirrmi�ig in Mi�zuesotn dm-ing the �zi�teteentb century wccs
rlerire�l chiefh� fi�om tlie older settled cu�eas of the Michvest Ohio, Indiana,
19
Mickigan, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin. Unlike later prairie farmers, the Ymikees �
who came to the St. Croix Trimigle before the Civil War settled ns closell� hnit
rural neighborhoods, rather thari as isolated fmnily farmsteads. As Wntso�t points
out, there were comparatively few families living on the '4iigh prairie, "ivrth most
of the sett[ers congregated in the "oak opeira�igs"ac jaceiit to the liills mrcl rani�ies.
The distribution offarmsteads changetl after abottt 1870, as more and more
farmers nzoved out onto the treeless prair�ie sections.
The pioneer farmers i�r Cottage Grove as a grotrp x-ere most pr wit71
grain growing and stock raising. bidimi corn and potatoes tii-ere x�idely grown,
fioth for human consu»iption as well ¢s for animal feed, 6r�G the c7�ief cash crop
was spring wheat. Cctttle and hogs were raised for meat a���f hides, horses and
oxen for� use as draught animals. Before the arrival of the raibroad in 1870, farm
commodities were shipped to nzarket in wago�ts, over 6Ad roads, and aboard r(ver
steamboats, which ran betweeri April and Nol�emfier.
Architecturally, the �Ycznkees hrought with them the Netv Englanrl three-bay fian�,
which combiried stable, granc�ry, anct wago�i shed i�n�fer die sm�ae�roof. Mzrlti-
story banked b¢rns wlth stone basements for livestock a�td large haylofts, adapted
frons Pen�esylvania Dutch prototypes, also begmr m appear i�i Cottoge Gr�ove crfter
the Civil War. Yankee farmsteads Zooked Zike miniature villages, consisti�ig of a
great variety of specia[ purpose buildings, usually li�ied up iri �ieat rows aZo�ig
farm lanes.
FaYming in Robert Watsota's day was undergoing a technological revolution.
New plows wer developed, i�icluding laeavy steel "breakirzg plows"pulled by
several yoke of oxest or horses, which were designed to scour the tough prairie
sod. Horse powered �nowing, reaping and threshing machines began to appear
in the Iate 1850's arid everrtual[y replaced the cradles, scythes and l�and flails
described in the narrative.
NE�I NEIGHBORS
During fhese years a few settlers came in and joined our group. Mrs. Shaw with her two
sons, Melville and George, and four daughters Addie, Ellen, Clara and Marian, came to live in
Mr. Hill's house after we inoved out; they were close beside us and made very pleasant
companionship for us. Mr. Shaw had made a claim and entry of land just west of ours and had
some breaking done. Afrer his death, his family came to Cottage Grove with the intention of
impmving this land. This was afterward given up for various reasons, and Melville got a place as
bookkeeper to the Harrises of Galena, where the family also went and stayed until after the war.
Melville had studied law but enlisted when the war broke out; and George got into journalism.
20
Later, Mr. Jonathan Green and family settled on the prairie east of Mr. Akers and made
another desirable addition to church and society. I think I never knew of so admirable a niral
community, composed of so many religious, moral, upright, intellectual and wide awake people.
And not the least among them were the pioneer settlers we found when we first came: Mr. and
Mrs. Norris, Mr, and Mrs. Theodore Purber, Mr, and Mrs. J. W. Furber, Mr. and Mrs. I�askell
and Wm. R. Brown.
TEACHING 1N STILLWATER
During the winter of 1852-53, I taught school in Stillwater. IY was a rough lumbemzan's
town, but I found a good many nice people there; made the acquaintance of the McKusicks, the
Sawyers, Mr. John Proctor, Major Van Vorhees, Capt. Holcotnbe and many more. The minister
of the Union (or Presbyterian) church was Mr. Whitney. Mr. i Boutwell I knew before and now I
got acquainted with his wife and family. They lived two and a-half miles west of town. Often Mr.
Boutwell or one of the boys would call for me and take me out to their home Friday nights aud
bring me back on Saturday.
WEDDINGS
That fali, Miss Margaret Miller and her sister Isabel came to Stillwater aud opened a
milliuery establisltmenY. Along in the winter I got acquainted with them through the church and
Sunday School. I did not tl�inl< then that the acquaintance would be life-long, as it has proved;
for Mr. Elwell married Maggie and Mr. John Furber married Isabel. The Miller girls afterward
moved from Stillwat'er to St. Anthony, and it was there that they were inarried in the First
Cougregational churcl� o�� July 4tli, 1854, ii1 a double wedding.
Major P. P. Furber had married a Mrs. Ford in January, �854, and was iiving in St. Paul.
On May 16th of the same year his daughter Mehitabell and I were married at the home of her
brother Theodore. So the liouse in "tlte grove" was left for Jolui and his bride. Mr. Elwell was a
pliotographer then and was living in St. Anthony. Soon after his marriage he got into real estate
business. He laid out a Town in Morrison County and called it Granite City. He built a saw mill
and sold many lots. For a ti�ne it seemed as though it would be a success, but when the panic of
1857 came it went down like many others. Later, Mr. Elwell moved to Cottage Grove and lived
in a house next to J. P. Furber's in tl�e village.
SERVING IN THE TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE
The winter of 1853-'S4 � spent in St. Paut as a member of the TerriYorial House of
Representatives. Willis P. Gorman was Govemoc Joseph T. Rosser, a Virginian, was Secretary
of State. I got well acquaiaited with hiui as weboarded at the sanie place. He was a cheery,
good-natured man. Mr. Kittson, Indian agent (or trader), was in the Council (Senate) from Yhe
"up river" Indian couiitry. And in Che House were Joe Roulette, a French half-breed, bright,
quick, cwming and unprincipied; and Peter Roy and Wiiliam Morrison, half-breed Scotch frotn
Pembina. Iu the Council I�tliink Joseph R. Brown represented all the country wesY of the
Mississippi. I do not remeiiiber wlio was in the House from that side o�the river.
21
Most of Yhe time of the session was spent in revising the code, or mass of statute laws
received from the TerriYory of Wisconsin when Wisconsin became a state. The thing I took mosC
pride in accomplishing was the defeat of a bill to enact what in those days was called a"black
law," i.e., a law requiring all persons having Negro blood in their veins who came into the state
of Mi�nesota to remain, to give a bond to the amount of 300 to 500 dollars as a guarantee of
good behavior and so forth. Indiana and a number of other western states had passed such laws,
and in so doing were disgraced in the eyes of anti-slavery people who were then getfing
numerous. I saw RouleYte, Roy and Morrison, talked with them about it and got their promise to
vote against the bill. So with fheir help the Free Soil element in the House killed the bill on it's
third reading and thus saved Minnesota the disgrace of putting a"black-law" on her statute
books.
IMMIGRATION
In 1854, the treaty with the Sioux was ratified by the Congress and that opened for
settlement all tlle land west of the Mississippi in Minnesota. The effecfl' of this treaty [was to
bring] a large immigration to Minnesota. Many came in 1854, but the �irst treaty rush began in
1855 and continued for five or six years, until the Civil War and the Indian Outbreak in 1862.
In the meantime all Che good land in the delta of Washington County had been entered,
some by speculators, but most of it by settlers. Breakings [i�.e., cultivated fields] could be seen
on all sides and thc whole prairie was soon dotted with settlers' houses. Northwest of fhe
MeHattie place, by a lake about a mile long on the road to St. Paul, Mr. John Colby had bought a
tract of rough brusl�land where he opened a place and made a home for his family. His daughter
Ann became the wife of Alf Holman, a Maine man, who bought part of the Lyford place and
entered soine other land adjoining; his houie was built a mile or so east of Theodore Furber's
house. The Colby family came from the South and during the Civil War they returned to
Nlemphis, Tennessce, where oi�e of his sons joined the Confcderate Army. At the close of the
war, Mr. and Mrs. ColUy rehinied to their northcm liome. After Mr. Colby's death l�is son John
cama back from Tennessee and lived for a number of years on the farm. His mother bought a
little house not far from her daughter's, beside the cimrch, and lived there for many years until
hcr death.
Mr. Niclzolas Van Slyke and family came from Rock County, Wisconsin, and settled on a
quarter-section which his son George had entered on the road leading south from the Cottage
Grove setticment to the river and the Sand�Prairie. Among the first persons that settled on the
prairie east and south of Cottage Grove village were Williain Keene, Adoiuram KEene, John
Swetland, and 7ohn and Reuben Morey. Toward Afton were two Penningtons, Adam Willock,
Frank Dick and thc Oldham family.
About 1857, Mr. and Mrs. Gould, Mr. and Mrs. Sleeper and Mr. and Mrs. Robinson came
from Massachusetts aud New Hampshire to Cottage Grove. A11 the wives were sisters of Mrs.
Theodore Furber. Mr. Furber having just finished and moved into his large new house, they had
plenty of room so the Goidds and Robinsons stayed with them; Mr. and Mrs. Sleeper occupied
22
the Lyford house. Mr. Henry House, who bought 200 acres of U. S. land north of Lew Hill'S and
including the lake, made some i�provements and built a house in 1854.
AFTON AND VICINPI'Y
We used to do a good deal of business with the Afton people who were lumbering and
running sawmills. We furnished them corn and other grain for feed far their lumber camps,
taking pay for a good part of it in lumber for buildings, fencing and so forth. In those days we
used a great deal of board fencing, as all our cultivated land had to be fenced in, all stock being
allowed to run at large.
Mr. Lowery and his partner built a small sawmill at Afton and ran a circular saw for a
while. Afterward a company built a larger mill on the Andy Mackey place close Yo Lake St.
Croix. The Getchells, who came shortly afterward, built a large mill half a mile farther down the
lake. There were four Getchell brothers, Charles, Warren, James and William; they opened a
large farm south of Mr. Haskell's on the prairie and built there. Afterward, Warren alone ran the
farm and the others lumbered and ran the mill. Opposite Afton, across the lake in Wisconsin,
Mr. Olds built a mill and in winter carried on lmnbering. Later he built a nice home in Afton.
By 1860 a very nice little village had grown up in Afton, composed of a good class of people.
FIRST SCHOOL
T11e first school in Cottage Grove Township was opened in 1853. It was made up of Mr.
Atkinson's younger children, Mr. Bailey's large family, Watennan Buck's children and some
others. It was held in a log house that had been built by Mr. Atkinson near his own for storage
purposes. Tlie teacher was Miss Ellen Shaw. I do not remember whether they had a summer
school in 1854, but there was a school the winter of 1854-'S5. Brother Jolui attended that winter.
Editor's Note:
Watsoii is here refe�-ring to tJ�e cowury school at At/ci��son's Corners, which was
replaced by a fi-ame schoollrouse�in 1856 that remai�ied in use until tl2e 1930's.
Flistoricallv, tlte frst school rn Cottage Grove was held in 185] in the old log
house 6«ilt by James S. No�ris in 1843. A proper one-��oom schoolhouse wns
built in Old Cottage Grove in 1852; in 1868, a larger school was built, wl�ich was
apen for nrneh� years. Until the creatio�i oflndependent School District 833 in
1958, Cottage Grove ia�as divided iiito several rural school districts, each with its
ou��r schoollroerse. Onh� the La�igdon Consolidated Scliool, 8839 9Gth Street, a
two-sto�y brick bi�ildiitg i�arsed i�i 1918, is still standi�zg.
23
EARLY MINISTERS
Our literary society at Cottage Grove did noY continue many years, but we had frequenf
social gatherings, sometimes for the purpose of raising money to pay a minister. Reverend
Richard Hall preached for us until about 1866, when he was made Home Missionary
Supenntendent for Minnesota. After that we had Mr. Rogers from Prescott, Mr. Lyon, a Baptist
from Newport, Mr. Putnam, and Mr. McLeod. Mr. Putnam lived at A$on. He supplied at
Cottage Grove for severa] years; he also taught a singing school one or two winters, one evening
each week. He was a very pleasant and agreeable man. Later he went as chaplain to the
Minnesota Third Regiment He died about the year 1863 from an illness that began in the army.
Mr. McLeod was a Congregational minister located at Prescott, preaching there and at Cottage
Grove. When the Civil War broke ouf he raised a company was made captain; and went to tlxe
South with the Westem Army.
Editor's Note:
The Pirst Congregatiorial �Church of Cottage Grove was organized in 1$58 but �
did not build a proper�meeting house unti11868. This fiuilding is today the home
of the Accacia Lodge No. 51, 11094 70th Str-eet. The Watsons were generous
contributors to the church building fund.
THE COTTAGE GROVE LIBRARY
About 1857 or'S8, we raised money in various ways and bought a lot of good books for a
Cottage Grove Library. [There were] very few novels except those by Scott, Dickens and
Thackery; histories, biographies, [books about] exploration in the Arctic, in Africa and so forth;
Ruskin's warks, Browning's poems and Tennyson's and a lot of other poetical works; books of
travel by Bayard Taylor and others.
The library was well patronized and did a deal of good in the neighborhood, and it was
added to year by year for a number of years. A. L. Holman served as librarian without pay; he
was living just across the road from the building where the library was kept. This hall had been
built by subscription about 1857 for Sunday services and all public meetings.
Soon after this a cemetery association was organized and five or six acres of land were
bought [from] Mr. Lyford in the northeast comer of Section 11, lying apart from the rest of his
land, being isolated by deep ravines a�d also being close by Yhe public hall sometimes called,
before the township organization, the �'recinct House.
24
Editor's Note:
The Cottage Grove Library was one of the first free pu6lic libraries in Minnesota.
The ltbrary's reading room was in the Cottage Grove Lyceum Hall, also known as
the Precinct House, wlsich had been built by subscription in 1855 at a cost of
about $h00. The lyceum nsovenient spread to Minnesota from New England and
featured community organizations which presented public lectures, concerts, etc.
The Cottage Grove Lyceum Hall funczioned as a polling place dnd wns used for
the annual town meetings until 1873. It was also the meeting house of the
Cottage Grove Congregational Church until 1868. Sometirne arouncl 187Q the
lyceum and the library closed their doors, and a few years later the hall was
moved across the road to the grounds of the Cottage Grove Ce�netery, where it
stands today. The cemetery itself dates from 1856 and was laid out as a rural
garden park patterned after the Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston.
INDIANS
Tfie winter of 1854-'S5 was one of deep snow. In the fall I had built a small house for
Bell and me on our land west of the prairie field but sheitered by a thick growth of young wood.
The winter road, a temporary track from Cottage Grove to the Mississippi at Red Rock, passed
close by our door. By this time there were a good many settlers, and a lively string of sleighs
with loads of grain went by in the mornings and came scooting home towards night.
Sometime in March, our hauling being about done, Brother William and I were in the
sitting room at Mother's fixing up aecounts or planning improvements when Mother stepped in
and said that two Indians had come in and seated themselves by the kitchen stove. This did not
surprise us, as Indians were frequently strolling about on our side of the river, coming from
Kaposia, Little Crow's village about a mile above Red Rock and on the west side [of the
Mississippi]. Mother was not afraid of Indians -- we told her just to let them warm themselves,
and if they were in her w�ay to tell them to go. Ten or fifteen minutes later brother John and my
wife came in and John said there were about one hundred and fifty Indians in the yards and about
the corn cribs. My wife was greatly frightened but Mother soon soothed her while we hurried
out to see what the Indians were about. We did not know but they might kill our calves and eat
them or steal our corn. They had not touched a thing but came running to us to ask for corn. We
asked them for money, showing them some. They shook their heads but offered us moccasins,
mittens, and so forth, al1 made of tanned buckskin. We traded with them until we got all the
moccasins we wanted and more. Then we gave them to understand that we had all of their wares
that we wanted, and we pointed them on to other settlers with whom they might Yrade. Presently,
they took up their march, single file, taking a straight course through the deep snow for the
Middleton settlement. They had not even used our winding sleigh track between our place and
the Atkinson Corners, but made their own narrow, straight track through the snow.
25
They were a war party, all painted up, and with their tomahawks and guns They were
going to Apple River, Wisconsin, to have a brush with the Chippewas and their half-breeds,
whom they expected to find there preparing to tap maple trees and make sugar. The Indians in
those early years used to make and sell considerable maple sugar but it was not over clean, often
having bits of leaves and sticks in it; buY it was real maple sugar.
The Yrack the Indians made in the snow was so narrow that white men could not walk in
it. The Indians do not turn their toes out at all and they slip one foot by the other at the ankle and
close to the other foot. This party found some Chippewa Indians up the St. Croix somewhere in
the Wisconsin woods, killed and scalped a few and then returned about ten or fifteen days
afterward, hunting and stealing for a living on the way. The snow had largely melted before their
return. They passed about a mile west of our place. Mr. Fred Leyde was out in the oak wood
about half a mile from his house; they took him prisoner, marched him to his house and gave him
to understand that his squaw must get a good dinner for them. That was done and they departed
and I suppose got to their own village of Kaposia that night. I think there were about twenty in
the party for whom Mrs. Leyde had to get dinner. This was the last we saw of any Indians
strolling around our settlement Soon aFterward they were moved to their new reservations at
Yellow Medicine and Redwood up the Minnesota river. And there they remained quite
peaceable until 1862, the year after Yhe beginning of the Civil War. Then, taking advantage of
the absence of soldiers and the departure of volunteers, they ventured on an outbreak as savage as
any in Indian annals.
Little Crow, who was saidxo he at the head of the outbreak, was well acquainted with the
white people. He used to be around in St. Paul a great deal, and he and his people had always
been well treated. We used to drive by their village going Yo and from St. Paul in winter on the
river. They liked to get into our sleds and ride down from St. Paul to Kaposia with us when we
would let them; and when we whipped up so that too many could not get aboard, some of them
in their efforts to get hold of fihe back part of the sleigh would just miss and slip down sprawling
in the snow. All those aboard would raise a derisive laugh at them and seem to enjoy their
failure. But they probably got aboard the next sleigh that carne along, unless it atso was too full.
Those "poor Indians" knew very well that it was not right to massacre the white settlers
who had always been kind to them, but their savage nature and the desire of plunder overcame all
their better qualities. A few Christian Indians in this terrible crisis manifested the power of -
Christ's gospel over even their savage natures, for at the nsk of their own lives they sheltered and
led to safety many small parties of fugitive settlers. Among these was John Randall, who lived a
while with Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Furber at Cottage Grove. He warked for them and Mrs.
Furber gave him lessons in English and instilled into his mind the truths of Christianity which
bore fruit in the trying hour.
26
Eclitor's Note:
Until 1837, the St. Croix Triangle was part of the �tribal estate of the
Mdewakanton Dakota or Sioux, who had several villages along tlse Mississippi
and Minnesota rivers. Prior to the ratification of the treaty of 1837, there was a
large Mdewakanton vilZage, calZed Kaposia or Little Crow's village, situated at
Pig's Eye Lake, near downtown St. Paul. There was a�iother, smaller
Mdewakanton village on Grey Cloud Island, co�nnzonly known as Medicine
Bottle's village. Both comrnunities moved across the river (Little Crow's to
present-day South St. Paul, Medicine Bottle's to Pine Bencl) and the native follc
peacefully coexisted with the American settlers foY seveYal years. After the treaty
of 1851 opened up the lands on the west side of the river to settlement, the
Mdewakmiton were removed to reservations on the upper Miranesota River. The
tribe was expelled frona Minn�esota as a consegue�zce of tlie Dakota war of 1862,
the event referred to by Watson as the "Outbreak. "
The old trail con�iecti�ig Grey Cloud Islmicl with Lake St. Croix cYOSSed Cottage
Grove along the genera[ route of modena-day 70t1� Street (County Road 22J. As
Watson points oz�t, this trail was used by Indians well into the 1850's. There is no
record of conflict between �aative people a�ad settlers i�z Cottage Grove, c�lthough
Watson and lris neighbors tended to Yegard the Dakota presence as a nuisance.
PURCHASE OF OUR FARM
In 1855 we bought the northeast quarter of Section 1, Cottage Grove Township, adjoining
Mr. Norris on the north of his farm. We bought it of Mr. Moss of St. Paul, agent of the owner,
for $5.00 per acre. The land speculator had bought it two or three years before by land warrant
for about $1.00 per acre. Soon afterward we bought of Major P. P. Furber the timber 40 west of
the quarter section. The next summer, we broke 60 to 70 acres of the prairie east and south of the
site where we later built the house. �
Editor's Note:
Speculation in real estate was oiie of the baszc facts ofpioneer 1ife. It is safe to
say that in selecting a site for his cZaim, the typical pioneer's first consideration
was its situation with respect to a possible rise in value. Many of Cattage Grove's
early settlers (though not the Watsons) worked their land only until they could sell
out at a profit. Given the fact that raw land could be obtained for as little as
$I.25 an acre, trading o�: the progress of the newly settled region was widely
viewed as a more profitable enterprise than farnzing or manufacturing. Duning
the booming 1850's, Mi�znesota's real estate was its chief article of trade; Zand
27
was as easily transferable and convertible as any other medium oj exchange, and
some tracts in Cottage Grove passed through a half-dozen owners in just a few
years.
The mania for speculation ended abruptly with the Panic of 1857, a nationrzl
ftnancial crisis triggered by inflation (spurred by California gold) and
overinvestment in real estate and railroads. Minnesota's fi�ontier economy
literally coflapsed when the bottom fell out of the land market; recovery was slow
and painful.
BREAKING THE LAND
From a letter of John Watson to Miunie Watson, 1924
You ask what year it was when the first improvements were made on your farm. I cannot
tell the exact year. You were bom on the farm that Elmer Furber now owns. I think you were
one year old when Robert and William fixed up an awkward rig on a plow as self-holder, gave
me two yoke of oxen and one yoke of young steers, and sent me over onto that beautiful prairie
to prepare far a new home.
Before this they had built a yard to put the cattle into at night, as the only limit to their
range was the Mississippi on the west and the St. Croix on the east. I was ta board at Mr.
Norris's. When I quit work at night, I would unyoke Yhe oxen and get my supper, then go back
and close them in for_the nighC. Eazly the next morning, I would let them feed before yoking
them up. One morning, when I went up to let them out, three deer were quietly feeding round the
yard.
The hardest thing of all was to take the oxen noon and night to Warren Furber's lake to
water. A path led down through the brush near where Mr. Furber's house is now. I drove them
down just as I used them on the plow, with their chains on. One hot day they went in nearly over
their backs to cool off and would not pay any heed to me shouting at them from the shore and
they were out of reach of the whip. So, like Goliath of old, I used stones, and that fetched them.
Well, I broke about 30 acres and I guess I did a good job for next year one of the most
beautiful fields of wheat you ever saw was on that ground. But I sure had some strenuous times
with those hal£-broken steers. But I was young fhen, and all I needed was a good sleep; then I
was fresh for the trials of another day.
�
28
MOVING TO TT3E NEW FARM
In the spring of 1857 we moved my house (by taking it in pieces) to the new farm, set it
up early in the spring and afterwards dug the cellar and built the south addition and the shed
extensions on the east. We moved in as s,00n as it was up, just the rough boards unsided, so as to
be there when the crop was to be put in. It was a very late spring and the house was open and
cold. I don't know now how [my wife] and baby Minnie made out to keep warm.
Uncle Samuel W. Furber (Bell's brother) came to Minnesota that spring, and one evening
he burst in on us and gave us a�tzrprise.
Editor's Note:
The new fm�m was locuted i�i the nortlaeastern corner of Cottage Grove tow��ship,
a little north of Old Cottage Grove. The Minnesota Historical Society owns a
copy of a 74 page prirated poem by Robert Watson, entitled "Our Home Amon�g
the Ti�ees. " This Zittle boolc, which was printed in 1900, is illustrated with black-
and-white photographs of the house, wlziclz stood on what is today the Dona�lcl
aKd Frances Ratzlaff farnt. �
Watsoiz nai�sed his new farm "Evergreen Hill" after tl�e ormm�eratal larch tvees he
plaKted there from seeds brought over from Scotlmecl. (The European larch is a
species of pirie, sinzilar to tlae North American tamarack, which sheds its needles
mznually.) Many of these r�zagnificent trees are still stancling along the raoYth end
of Lantm Aven ue.
MINNIE AND THE WILD FLOWERS
As soon as warm weather cauie, Miimie, two years old, used to go wandering about the
hazel copses, which were numerous, picking pussy willows, hazel tassels and so forth; and later
when the prairie grass and flowers came on, picking violets, tailed geum and other flowers in
abundance. In the summer, when the grass grew tall among the small bur oaks southwest of the
house, she used to get lost in it We built some temporary sheds and stables south of the house
and the grain was staked there. A big pile of straw remained there all the next summer, on which
Minnie and Jennie Howard used to play and which Minnie called the "pie stack" (up-high-stack).
Jennie was living with Rufus and Emma Robinson, who occupied part of our house that year. In
1858 or'S9, I rented the farm to Rufus Robinson. They had the south part of the house with the
shed addition while we lived in the iiorth part.
29
"OLD DICK"
The spring that we moved onto Yhe new farm, we had a young light team, one of them a
little grey horse that we got from Elias Scofield in exchange for a nervous, cranky mare [that]
was so afraid of fur garments, and especially a pair of coonskin mittens, that she was dangerous
to drive or to handle. The Scofields were natural "horse men" and thought they could handle her
so we made the trade, taking the little gray which proved to be a good little horse. His driving
mate was a young sorrel horse which we got the previous fall from Mr. Elwell. He was big and
raw-boned and also a little nervous, but he made a good horse and we kept him a long time. He
was finally called "Old Dick."
After the crop was in I turned the horses out on the prairie to get their living. They stayed
around for a while, coming home at night. But by and by they got with ofher horses and went
ranging all over the prairie. They usually came every day to Warren Furber's ]ake to drink, so we
did not feel concerned about them. When we wanted them, however, they were noC easily found.
Watc�ing by the ]ake we found the little gray buY Dick did not appear. We saddled fhe gray and
scoured the prairie and springs looking for Dick. At last we heard of him at Point Douglas; Uie
ferryman, Mr. Felt, said a horse of that description had tried Co ger on the ferry boat and he had
repeatedly driven him back. But the horse took to the water and swam ovEr after the boat Since
then he had been seen a nuinber of times about the livery stable in Prescotf.
So we crossed the St. Croix and continued our search. South of Prescott we found his
tracks and those of a colt that went with him. We followed Chem along the base of the bluffs and
in the long ravines still going south. When we got as far as Diamond Bluff on the Mississippi
ten miles south of PrescoCt, Wi]liam, who had started out with me on a big gray horse, went back
home. I went on to Lake Pepin and stayed that night at Saeley's, about four miles up Rush River
from the Lake. (I had got acquainted wifh Seeley in Stilhmater.) He assured me that I would find
my horse just below the foot of the Lake by the mouth of the Chippewa River. He said Dick
wouldn't swim that river. between solid land and the river a lot of sloughs and marshes
intervened and that would keep hiin back.
When I got down there I found a settler with comfortable house and stables close in by
the marsh and timber. He said the hoxse and colt stayed at his place every nighY aud he thought
he could point them out to me on the prairie now. We did not see them, but he said they would
be in by night. So I asked if I could stay with him that night and got perinission to do so. No
horse or colt made his appearance there that night, but the setHer felt sure they were not far away;
they were both in one of his sheds one hour before I came. The next moming came and still no
horse. We went down on the marsh and slough and on the firsf island saw a few horse tracks, but
they were irregular aud scattering as though they had been feeding. He said they might have
gone up the river looking for a ford, so I got out the little gray and followed a path ap the
Chippewa. I saw some horse tracks and kept on for ten or twelve miles to a riverside hoYel on the
main traveled road. No tidings of the horse; and finally I took a rough trail back to Seeley's
where I arrived laYe in the evening.
30
At North Pepin I had put up a notice in the post office offering a reward for the rehirn of
the horse to Prescott livery stable, and had verbally notified a good many people that I met. The
next moming I started for home, spending one night on the way at Trimbelle with a settler who
had a little clearing in the woods. There were no mosquitoes out in th,e clearing although the
woods were full of them.
Next day, I reached home, having been gone a week, Brother John did not like the idea
of giving up the search. So he took a boat to Wabasha and heard there that a horse and colt had
been seen for a number of days on the island at the mouth of the Chippewa River. John crossed
the Mississippi and questioned the ferryman, ho told him they were at his place that moming;
that they came every night and tried to get through his bars [i.e., fence rails] when he let them
down for his cows. On landing, he pointed out the horse and colt to Jolui who at once recognized
Dick. The long-sought atlimals were shut up in the enclosure and the uext morning John got a
halter and started back witli Dick and the colt. He had to go up the Chippewa river about twenty-
five miles to a ford. Getting tired of wallcing, he rode Dick bare back with only a halter to gLiide
him. The colt followed to the ford but refused to cross, mttch to Jotui's disappointment as he
hoped to get enough from the owner of the colt in Prescott to pay his expenses. We were all
surprised wlten he came back with Dick, and though Jotui was very tired he felt proud to think he
had found the horse and brought him home.
LATER SETTLERS (1856-'S8)
About this Cime, Mr. Jonathan Green bought out Hem Grunhagen on the prairie easC of
Messrs. House and Ayers. He put up a veiy good house and otl�er buildings and opened up all
the land. He came from Napance, Ontario, Canada. The Greeils were a bright, intelligent family
and made a pleasant addition Co the society of Cottage Grove. A lot of the ordinary settlers
thouglit them a little "set up" -- partly because they had a covered carriage (rare at that early day),
a piano and so forth, and they were refiiled in their tastes and used Co good society. In fact they
were not "set up" but were friendly and always ready to greet all their neighbors cheerily and on
a plaue of equality. Mr. Samuel W. Furber bought eighty acres Uetween his brother Theodore's
fami and Mr. Green's. In 1859 he built a house on his farn7 and the following year l�e canie there
to live, llaving been in St. Paul for two or three years in the lumber business. To the south of
Theodore Fmber's fann, Mr. Fay and Mr. John Bailey each bought 80 acres and made homes
there. Later Rufus Robir.son bougl�t the northeast quarter of Section 10, built there and opened a
fa�n. He afterward sold it to Mr. Ladd, a New Englander.
Mr. Gould settled on a 40 acre farni in the southwest corner of the same section. On the
southeast corner Mr. Sproat opened up a large farm and built a good house and barns. Tl�e place
]�e bought was one of the first taken at Cottage Grove, but it had been abandoned and was soon
overgrown with wild strawberries; for some years it remained the strawberry patch of the
neighborhood.
About tliis time also, Mr. Howard, Mr. Thomas Screeton and Mr. Alex Oldham opened
farms oi� the north fowu line of Demnark Township, on the road to Afton. Gorham Davis had
opened a fann farther east on Yhe creek at the edge of the timber. By 1860 the east prairie was
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pretty well settled and lots of farms were being opened. In 1864 or'65 Oliver Dalrymple bought
some four or five hundred acres southeast of Cottage Grove in Dentnark Township and also a
section or more in the south part of Denmark about two miles from Hastings. He also bought
land in Woodbury lying north of our farm. John P. Furber bought a lot of land east of his fann
and along the town line between Cottage Grove and Denmark. These later purchases were all
from speculators who had bought the land as an investment.
A WINTER TRIP TO KNIFE RIVER
In J anuary or February of 1858, I made a trip Yo Knife River near Mille Lacs. Samuel
Furber was settling up his lumbering business in Maine and had some lawsuits about it, a very
common thing in lumbering. He wanted the tesrimony of a man (I have forgotten his name) who
had moved from Maine to Stillwater, Minnesota, and was employed in a luml�er camp on Knife
River. I was selected to go and try to get him to come back with me to St. Paul, where he could
make an affidavit before a U. S. Court. There was some douht as to whether he would be willing
to come, or wheCher the camp boss would let him off.
I got a light span of horses from Theodore Furber and he and I fiYted up the forward bob
of a sled with a box of rough boards. Under the seat there was room for oats for the horses, a
pail, blankets and so forth. I drove to Stillwater the first day; the next to Taylor's Falls all the
way on the St. Croix River; the next day to Rice Creek in the hardwood timber; and by the
afternoon of the fourth day I reached the camp. IC was very cold, but I kept comfortably warm
with a buffalo coat and buffalo shoes; it was much more comfortable in the woods than on the
river or the prairie. I enjoyed seeing the pine woods and getting some experience of camp life.
The boys showed off that evening with a rousing big fire and I had a chance to sample the much
praised camp baked beans, they were very good as were all the other table supplies. I slept warm
with feet to the fire, the regulation way. On each side of the camp, a row of inen [slept] side by
side, wrapped in blankets on a mattress of boughs of evergreen, with their feet stuck under the
"deacon seaY" to get the heat of the fire.
I succeeded in getting my man to accompany me; he seemed to be quite willing as he
would have a chance to see his wife in Stillwater; but the boss let him go a little reluctantly. He
promised to come back in a few days with the first "Cote" team. We had a pleasant trip back
making a little better time than when I went up, but stopping at night at fhe same places. From
Stillwater to St. Paul we had a rough time. It had snowed and dnfted badly, and in plowing
through the drif�s we frequently got upset. However, our rig was easily righted and we had less
trouble than the stage which also frequently upset. I got my man to Yhe court and got his
affidavit. Leaving him to get back to Stillwater by stage, I drove home by the river and Red
Rock. The road did not pass our door that winter and the next day we had a hazd job to get to the
house through the deep, hard drifts.
WILLIAM GOES TO SCOTLAND
In 1860 William made a trip to Scotland. He rented Yhe home farm to Brother 7ohn. John
McChesney and Ed Brainard were his hired helpers, extra good hands. When William came back
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ir. the fall he brought Aunt Helen McLeish with him. Grandmother had died a year or so before,
and Mr. Rough, an old friend of the family in Dundee, thought it best for Aunt Helen to go to her
sister and family in Minnesota. But she was never contented here. She stayed with us the
summer and fall of 1862 and went with us when we went to Ohio in November. She stayed in
Ohio until the summer of 1864 when she went back to Dundee, Scotland. In Ohio she stayed at
Mr. George Storer's most of the time, but a part of the time she was with her brother's family at
Cuyhoga Falls, and she also stayed a while at Mr. Taylor's in Cleveland.
SCHOOL LANDS SOLD
In 1&62 the state began to sell school lands in Washington County. Section 36 in
Woodbury, adjoining me on the north, was offered far sale in 40's, 80's and 160's. In the fall of
that year, Mr. Sleeper bought the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter, 40 acres, at $8.00
per acre, and I bought the 40 east of it at $7.00 per acre.
Editor's Note:
An important aspect of the rectangular Zand survey system was the dedication of
land sale revenue to public education. By law, Section 16 and Section 36 (one-
eighteenth ofthe township) were marked for the use ofschools. To maximize the
appropriation, the school sections were customarily held off the market for
several years after land sales began.
A TRIP TO OHIO
That fall we went to Cleveland, Ohio, on about the last boat down to LaCrosse, and
stayed in Brooklyn [Ohio] that winter. We visited for about two weeks at Mr. Isaac Metcalfs in
Elyria before renting a house and settling for the winter. We found it harder to keep warm in the
house we had there than in our home in Minnesota.
We returned in May, 1863, Aunt Elizabeth (Mrs. William McLeish) and Cousin Bell
McLeish Merriam coming to Cleveland and accompanying us from there to Cottage Grove.
Be1Ps brother, Will McLeish, had bought a farm there and was married to Antoinette (Nettie)
Buck. Aunt Elizabeth and Cousin Bell stayed with different families for a month or two and then
returned to Ohio.
Before we came back in the spring of 1863, another school land sale had been held.
Archie McCallum bought the southeast 80 of Section 36 (Woodbury) and Joel Thompson the 80
north of Archie's. The northwest 80 was bought by Jacob Mosier who had "squatted" on it
before the sale and built a home. The rest of the section was taken by Oliver Dalrymple who had
also bought McCariy's farm in Section 35, right west of the section line road.
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Mr. Sleeper had some breaking done on his 40 in the summer of'63; and I broke about 20
acres on mine. Mr. and Mrs. Sleeper lived in the south part of our house and we in the north, as
when Mr. and Mrs. Robinson were there. That summer I had the two bedrooms built on the
north.
LITTLE OLIVE'S ILLNESS
In the early winYer of 1863-'64, little Olive (4 years old) had a severe attack of
rheumatism, mostly affecting her limbs. They swelled up seriously, making her lame so she
could not w�lk. After a while she seemed to get better and could walk about the house, but she
did not get well otherwise. We had Dr. Williams of St. Paul, a homeopathic physician of high
standing. He told us that she was in a dangerous condition, but we continued to hope that a
favorable tum would come. She died in March. Mrs. Robinson and Mrs. Sleeper were with us
and did all that neighbors could do to comfort us and to care for the worn little body. The new
cemetery had been laid out some years before, and there she was laid "under the trees."
THE HOUSE ACROSS THE LANE
When Cluis Yerdining, who had worked for me for a number of years, got married to
Hannah Richter, who had been Bell's help for a good while, I built them a house north of the
cattle lane. It was in the edge of the thick young growth of oak which afforded good shelter.
They lived there for a year ortwo. After they moved out, Mr. Sleeper's folks had the use of the
house for two years or more until he got a house which he bought in Lakcland moved onto his
place. He wanted me to sell him three acres of the northwest corner of my farm so that he could
build there and thus be in Cottage Grove Township; which I did. His farm lay to the north of
mine, in Woodbury Township.
Mr. Oliver Dalrymple had quite a lot of land broken on the school section north of us in
1864. He wrote to me from Washington, D. C., asking if I would rent it to suitable men to work
on shares. I did so, renting to Marty and Fred Nieman. Both these men did well and in a few
years bought Iand and became wealthy farmers.
The old house across the lane was later used for a carpenter's shop by Thomas Nixon,
who built the Congregational church. Later still it was occupied by our tenant when we began to
rent the farm.
COTTAGE GROVE IN ITS PRIME
Robert and John McChesney, who had worked the Wakefield farm for a number of years,
bought prairie land east of the Stevens farm and opened a farn2 for themselves. Later Chey
bought more land farther south and opened another farm which, on division of their interests
went to Johu McChesney; both farnis are still owned by each respectively. Sylvester Bailey, who
married Mr. 3olui Bailey's eldest daughter, Margaret, bought land south of Warren Furber's
woods and made a fann there, putting up a good house and barn. Mr. Crippen bought south of
him and began the farm now owned by his son George. Mr. George Biscoe was the
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Congregational rninister For quite a number of years. He built a house on the hill nearly opposite
Mr. Theodore Furber's, where Mr. Furber had given him an acre of land. Mr. Biscoe preached in
the Precinct House, across the road From Mr. Holman's..
From 1865, the year of the close ofthe Civil War, to 1870, Cottage Grove was at the
height of its prosperity. Mr. Samuel Furber had bought out Mr. Morgan SproaYs store in the
village and had gone into business there. He later built a steam flax-tow mill down by the small
lake in John Furber's pasture. The Congregational and Methodist churches' were built; also a
two-room school house. Mr: 7ohn Furber had built a number of houses and rented them. Mr.
James McClusky, Mr. William McClusky, Mr. Talmadge Elwell, Mr. Nelson 5tevens and others
had bought lots and built houses. The German Lutherans moved a small church from Basswood
Grove onto a lot near the Congregational church; here they had a German school taught by their
minister, Mr. Blankethom.
About 1867-'68, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Hart came to Cottage Grove. He had been
preaching in the East, but his health being poor, he came west to see if a change of climate would
help. He preached with acceptance for many years in the Congregational Church. Mr. Faiming,
Mrs. Hart's father, moved to the Grove and bought about 100 acres of land between Samuel
Furber's farm and the Ladd place. He built a large house in which three families lived: Mr. and
Mrs. Fanning, Mr. and Mrs. Hart, and another daughter, Mrs. Harriman, with her little girl,
Maidie. Miss Georgia Walker, an adopted daughter o£Mr. and Mrs. Hart, was studying in a
ladies' seminary in the East. Not long after she came to Cottage Grove she was married to Mr.
Edwin Fanning who was employed in Mr. Furber's store. Later Mr. John Shotwell came also to
work in the store. Mrs. Shotwell and Mrs. Fanning were sisters and both were good singers.
Before Will McLeish bought the Lewis Hill farm he had bought 80 acres of prairie
directly east of Mr. Norris' field. Jolm Watson bought this of Will McLeish, and afterward
bought the 80 north of it, so his northwest 40 lay between my southeast 40 and Mr. Norris' field.
There was some bur oak timber on it adjoining Mr. Norris on the west. Here John opened a
farm, built a neat and comfortable house, set out lots of evergreens and other trees, and lived
there for four or five years after his marriage to Miss Belle Munn. Subsequently he sold to Mr.
Sheldon Dalrymple, who also lived there a good many years and finally sold to Robert
McChesney, Mr. Dalrymple. moving to North Dakota where his uncle Oliver was doing "big
farming. °
About 1873, Brother John bought 200 acres of the old home section and forty acres farm
from William, the east quarter-section west of it taking in the house and barns. The remainder of
the farm William rented to William Sawyer, who married Jennie Howard. He built a house
where my first house had stood, built a good barn and sunk a well. In October, 1874, William
and his family went to Scotland where they stayed two yeazs. They had three children then,
Jessie, Howard and Willie; and Mrs. Watson's sister, Sadie Howard, went with them. On their
return they lived for a year in the Grove and then moved to Northfield.
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Editor's Note:
The farmhouse built by Robert McChesney in the 1860's is still standing, at 11825
70th Street. The McChesney brothers were from County Caven, Ireland, and some
of their descerzdants continue to farm in the area.
What Watson calls the "German Lutheran" church was the St. Matthew's
Evangelical Church, which was affiliated with the national church ofPrussia.
The original St. Matthew's Church rovas built in the Basswood Grove settlement,
Denmark Township, in 1872. Ira 1874 the church was placed on log rollers and
moved to Cottage Grove, opposite the Congregational Church. After it was
destroyed by fire, the church was rebuilt in 1887 and remained in use until 1953,
when it was moved six filocks south and converted to use as a community hall. In
1995 the historic church was moved yet again and renovated as a single family
home.
The modest dwelling built by Charles O. Fanning now forms part of Cedarhurst,
the country estate ofMary and Cordenio Severance, at 6940 Keats Avenue. Mrs
Harriman's "little girl Maidie" was Mary Frances Harriman, born in 1863, the
daughter of Samuel H. Harriman, founder of Somerset, Wisconsin, who rose to
the rank of major general of volunteers during the Civil War. In 1889 she
married Cordenio A. Severance. a pYOminentSt. Paul attorney.
CHANGES
Already other changes had taken place in Cottage Grove. Mr. Green had sold his farm
and l�ad moved to Stillwater. Mr. Noms had died after a long illness with cancer. Mr. Theodore
Furber had sold his farm to Mr. Ransom Jones from Ohio; after living for a few years in
PlatYeville, Colorado, and then in Oberlin, Ohio, the Furbers returned Yo Cottage Grove and after
some years moved to St. Anthony Park and finally to Northfield. These and other deaths and
removals were the first breaks in the almost ideal rural community of early Cottage Grove.
Editor's Note:
Cottage Grove remnined an "almost ideal "farming cammunity for three-quarters
of a century after Robert Watson moved away. The 1870 census lists 705
residents of the tow�iship, 503 of whom were native born, mostly farmers or farm
laborers. In 1930, 545 of Cottage Grove's 683 inhabitants lived on farms, the rest
in 1he rural villages of Old Cottage Grove and Langdon. The shift from rural
�
township to bedroom community began after World War II and rapidly
transformed the face of Cottage Grove. Between 1950 and 196Q the population
grew from 833 to 4850; today, an estimated 25,500 people reside within the city
limits (which are coextensive with the old township boundaYies). About two-
thirds of the land in the city is still rural.
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