Lyon County Biographies
"An Illustrated History of Lyon County"
Below are biographies from the 1912 "An Illustrated History of Lyon County".
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*The date in parentheses following the name of each subject is the year of arrival to Lyon county.
CHARLES C. WHITNEY (1880),* ex-president of the Minnesota Editors and Publishers Association, ex-superintendent of state printing for Minnesota, and for thirty-two years publisher of the Marshall News-Messenger, is a man who has taken a most active and important part in the affairs of his county and state. Perhaps no man in Lyon county is better known within the county and throughout the state than is Mr. Whitney. For nearly a third of a century has he labored in the promotion of every worthy undertaking that tended to the betterment of his city and county and he has wrought well. The life story of such a man is indeed entitled to a place in the History of Lyon County.
Charles Colby Whitney is a product of New England. He was born at Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, March 20, 1846, and resided in New England until he came to Lyon county at the age of thirty-four years. His father was overseer in the cotton mills at Salmon Falls and later held similar positions at Lawrence, Haydenville, and Waltham, Massachusetts. It was while our subject was quite young that the family moved to Lawrence, and it was there that his life-work began. After securing a public school education young Whitney entered the office of the Lawrence American, at the age of fifteen years, and served a most thorough mechanical apprenticeship. Ever since that date, fifty-one years ago, he has been engaged in the printing business. So expert did he become as a printer that he was made foreman of the job department when only seventeen years old.
Upon the outbreak of the Civil War Mr. Whitney was too young to enlist but when he reached the age of eighteen years he left the office and went to the front. He enlisted for three months as a private in Company I, Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, and when his term expired he joined Company D, First Battalion, Twenty-sixth New York Cavalry, in which he remained until the conclusion of the war.
The war over, Mr. Whitney returned to his work in the American office, where he remained until coming to Lyon county in 1880. During the last ten-years of his service on that paper he was employed in the editorial department, first as a reporter, later as city editor, and during the latter part of his stay he was one of the proprietors of the paper upon which he had begun to work as a young boy. While thus engaged he was also for many years a special correspondent for the Boston Herald. His parents moved to Waltham soon after he began his apprenticeship, but with the persistence which has characterized his later years he remained at his post and secured a mechanical, business and editorial education. During his residence in Lawrence Mr. Whitney became actively interested in politics and public affairs and for two years served as a member of the City Council.
The most marked success of Mr. Whitney's career awaited his coming to Lyon county. The attraction of this region led him to leave Massachusetts in 1880 and locate in Marshall, where his home has ever since been. Upon his arrival he purchased the Lyon County News and in 1885 he
bought the Marshall Messenger, consolidated the two, and has ever since continued the publication under the name of News-Messenger. Of his success as a publisher an article in a history issued by the Minnesota Editors and Publishers Association said:
"The first thing which attracted the attention of the newspaper fraternity to Mr. Whitney was the neat typographical appearance- of his paper, the result of his thorough Massachusetts schooling. This at once led to the reading of its contents, and it was readily-seen that a new editor had come to the state who was bound to make his mark. Mr. Whitney's paper at once took front rank in the politics of Southwestern Minnesota, and as he became more widely known, its influence has been extended far beyond his local bailiwick, and it is one of the influential Republican papers of the state."
Soon after his arrival Mr. Whitney became an active member of the State Editors and Publishers Association and in 1895 he was elected its president. He still participates in the management of that organization and for sixteen years has been chairman of its executive committee. In 1894 he organized the Republican Press Association, was elected its first president, and for many years was represented on its executive committee. He is serving his twelfth year as a trustee of the Minnesota State Soldiers' Home.
In November, 1895, Mr. Whitney was tendered and accepted the office of superintendent of state printing, his selection being made by the board of printing commissioners composed of the secretary of state, state treasurer and state auditor. For ten years he held the office and his administration was highly successful.
Locally Mr. Whitney has also served in official capacities and his work as a member of the Board of Education was exceptionally beneficial. He was secretary of the board twelve years and was one of its most valued members. In social life he has also been active, belonging to the Grand Army of the Republic, Masonic, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Royal Arcanum orders.
Charles C. Whitney was married in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1866 to Mattie M. Hogle, and there his eldest son, Frank C.
Whitney, was born. Mrs. Whitney died in 1877, and in 1879 Mr. Whitney was married to his present wife, Nellie A. Johnson, of Bethel, Maine. To this union have been born the following named children who are living: Joseph W., Minnesota (Mrs. Fred A. Hills), Dick and Jack.
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CHARLES E. GOODELL (1866), deceased, was the first permanent settler of Lyon county and for over twenty years he was prominent in the affairs of Lyons and Lynd townships.
He was born in Buffalo, New York, August 4, 1843. When a boy he moved to Illinois and was living in that state when the Civil War began. He enlisted in Company D, Seventy-fifth Illinois Infantry, August 14, 1862, and served nearly three years, being discharged July 1, 1865.
In the spring of 1866 Charles Goodell came to Lyon county with a cousin, Will Stone, to trap and hunt. He did not make permanent settlement at that time, but the following spring he came again and took a claim on section 5, Lyons township, where the Lynd trading post had been established years before. He resided in Lyon county until 1888, when he moved to Tennessee and located in a community settled by Lyon county people. He died there June 10, 1908. Mr. Goodell was a prominent Mason and a member of Delta Lodge of Marshall. He was also one of the early members of D. F. Markham Post, G. A. R., having been admitted to membership September 24, 1881.
Mr. Goodell's wife died in 1904. At the time of his death he had four sons living, as follows: George H., of Illinois; Ernest, of Sioux City, Iowa; Frank, of Tennessee; and Roy, who lived with his father.
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OREN C. GREGG (1870) is one of Lyon county's earliest settlers and is today one of its most widely known citizens. His work as superintendent of State Farm Institutes took him all over the state and gave him a wide acquaintance, and for the last few years his work under the direction of the agricultural colleges in North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Utah and Colorado has made his name well known, especially in the farming communities of those states. The farm in Lynd and Island Lake townships which Mr. Gregg owned and operated thirty-nine years was sold a few years ago when our subject took up his work in the West, but Mr. Gregg reserved a comfortable cottage on the place for the use of himself and wife, and they still make their home on the old farm.
The date of Mr. Gregg's birth was November 2, 1845, and his birthplace is Enosburg, Vermont. He is the son of Oren and Clarinda (Comstock) Gregg. The mother died when her son was six years of age and is buried in Vermont, her husband's native state. She was a native of New York State. Oren Gregg, Sr., was a clergyman, and for forty years he was a member of the Troy Conference of Vermont and New York. At the close of his active work in the pulpit he made his home for a few years with his son Oren in Lyon county, and later he went to California. He lived there with his son, Leslie A. Gregg, and died at the age of eighty-two years.
The subject of this sketch received his early education in Fort Edward Institute and Plattsburg Academy in the state of New York. After finishing school he was employed in the enrollment office of the provost marshal, in the sixteenth district, New York, located at Plattsburg, a position he resigned at the close of the Civil War. Moving to Mower county, Minnesota, in 1865, he taught school and also filled the pulpits of the churches at Chatfield, High Forest and Eyota. Mr. Gregg came to Lyon county early in 1870, when the country was new and unsettled. At that time no clergyman had ventured into the field, excepting traveling missionaries. The community, however, was earnestly desirous of having church services, and Mr. Gregg, who was naturally a fluent speaker and well trained in the scripture on account of his environment as a boy, modestly offered his help and ably conducted worship in the villages several years, never asking any remuneration for his work.
The year 1870 marked Mr. Gregg's arrival to Lyon county, and he located on the northwest quarter of section 30, Lynd township, where he has since made his home and to which he has added adjoining land in Lynd and Island Lake townships, making a total acreage of about 100 acres. The place for years has been known as the Coteau Farm
and the State Farm. Mr. Gregg gave it the first name on account of the little range of hills which extends from southwestern Minnesota west into South Dakota.
Mr. Gregg was ever a farmer of advanced ideas. He was one of the first winter dairy men in the state, in the days before the cream separator and the silo. Early in his farm experience he began to study the laws which govern the selection of dairy stock and their improvement. It was his original investigation in this line which caused him to be called to aid in college extension work in nearly one-half the states of the union. Mr. Gregg also co-operated with H. W. Campbell in promoting dry farming ideas. To Mr. Campbell may be given the credit of the inception of the idea, but to Mr. Gregg must be given praise for taking hold of the scheme with all his enthusiasm, furnishing the implements and actually working out a good part of the system on his Lyon county farm.
Our subject was becoming well known throughout the state on account of his practical experimenting and advanced theories in farming. In 1893 the State Experimental Station established a branch on Mr. Gregg's farm. They occupied at will the 400 acres and furnished a few scientific instruments, but our subject freely offered the use of his stock, machinery and buildings for the carrying on of the work, met all expenses excepting the hire and board of the experimenting force, and ably assisted the representatives of the state farm school who actively took charge of the experimental work.
It was about this time that Gov. Pillsbury created the state farmers institutes. For several months in every year several corps of experts in all branches of farming were sent out over the state, holding a several days' session in the important towns and talking advance methods to the farmers. The system met the success it deserved, and the farmers were enthusiastic recipients of the idea. To Mr. Gregg was given the position of superintendent .of the institutes by Gov. Pillsbury, and that office he held twenty-two years. This work and the compiling of the Farmers Annual, a publication in connection with the institute work, occupied our subject's time, and most of the active farm. management was in the hands of a tenant during the years of Mr. Gregg's incumbency of his office.
During Mr. Gregg's early residence in the county he was county auditor twelve years, and was during that time also on the Marshall Village Council and the Board of Education.
Oren C. Gregg was married in Plattsburg, New York, May 25, 1868, to Charlotte I. Carter. She was born December 19, 1840, and is the daughter of Samuel Carter, an old and highly respected citizen of Plattsburg.
Our subject is associate editor of the Northwestern Agriculturist. He is a stockholder in the Dakota Telephone Company. He and his wife have for many years been prominent members of the Methodist church. Mr. Gregg's fraternal affiliations are with the I. O. O. F. lodge.
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MAJOR JOHN WINSLOW BLAKE (1872), deceased. One of the leading men of. Marshall and Lyon county in the early days was Major John W. Blake, who was one of the founders of Marshall and a man who played a most important part in the business, political and social life of the community in pioneer days.
John Blake was born at Dover, Maine, August 29, 1839. He moved to Wisconsin in 1840 and to Lyon county, Minnesota, in 1872. He was educated in Milton Academy and in the University of Wisconsin and by profession was a civil engineer. In 1860 he established and published the Jefferson County Republican, at Jefferson, Wisconsin, and was conducting that journal when the war began.
Our subject enlisted for three months' service as a private soldier and afterwards re-enlisted for three years in Company E, Fourth Wisconsin Infantry. In October, 1862, he was made first lieutenant of H Company, Twenty-ninth Wisconsin Infantry, and was regimental adjutant from December, 1862, to June, 1864. Then he was commissioned captain of H Company and detailed on the staff of General Cameron, acting as A. A. Q. M. general of the Thirteenth Army Corps and later as A. A. C. S. of La Fourche district, Department of the Gulf. In October, 1864, he became major of the Forty-second Wisconsin Infantry. The next month he was made provost marshal on the
staff of General John Cook, in which position he was serving at the close of the war.
The first active service of the young soldier was in 1861 in Maryland under Generals Butler, Dix, Wool and Lockwood. He went to the Gulf Department with General Butler and participated in the capture of Fort Phillips, Jackson and New Orleans and the engagements at Red Church, Grand Gulf and the first attack on Vicksburg under General Williams. He took part in the battle of Baton Rouge and was later with General McClelland in the expedition up White river and the capture of Arkansas Post. He was in the Vicksburg campaign under General Grant, took part in the battles of Fort Gibson, Fourteen-Mile Creek, Edward's Station, Raymond, the siege of Vicksburg. and was at the capture of Jackson under General Sherman. He was again in the Gulf Department under General Banks and participated in the battles of Carrion Crow Bayou, Opolusas, Sabine Cross Roads. Mansfield, Marksville Plains and the capture of Fort Esperanza.
After the war Major Blake returned to Jefferson, Wisconsin, and engaged in the lumber business in company with W. G. Ward. Later they built mills and conducted an extensive business at Wolf River, Wisconsin. In 1867 Major Blake built a foundry and a machine and agricultural implement manufactory at Jefferson and conducted the same successfully for some years. In 1872 he engaged in the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company as a civil engineer and assisted in the location of and construction of the Winona & St. Peter railroad from New Ulm to Kampeska. and that year paid his first visit to Lyon county.
During the summer the railroad was built Major Blake bought the land upon which the city of Marshall now stands and in company with others platted a town and founded Marshall. His home continued in the new village until January, 1891, when he located at Dalton, Georgia. He died at that place May 15, 1903, and was buried in the Marshall cemetery.
Major Blake was a guiding spirit in the affairs of the community for many years. He held the office of county surveyor many terms and represented his district in both houses of the Minnesota Legislature.
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RUFUS H. PRICE (1871). A very few men have had a longer continuous residence in Lyon county than has the gentleman whose name heads this review. He came to Minnesota in Territorial days and he came to Lyon county when the prairie was broken only occasionally by the claim shacks of homesteaders. For forty-one years he has been a resident of Lucas township. He was the third settler to locate in that township and his house was the first erected there. He is deservedly given a place in this History, of Lyon County.
In Will county, Illinois, on February 3, 1846, Rufus H. Price was born. His father, Charles Price, was an Englishman by birth who located in Illinois in 1838. He was killed in Indiana in 1854. The mother of our subject, Abigail (Fuller) Price, was born in Ohio. She came with her son to Lyon county in 1871 and resided with him until her death in 1884.
Rufus Price left his native state and came to Minnesota when it was yet a territory, in 1857. He located near Rochester and resided there the next fourteen years of his life, purchasing land and engaging in farming after growing up. When he reached the age of eighteen years, on February 18, 1864, Mr. Price enlisted at Rochester in Company C, Ninth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and spent the next seventeen months in the service of his country, having been mustered out at St. Paul July 18, 1865. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
After the war Mr. Price continued his residence in Eastern Minnesota until 1871. In June of that year he came to Lyon county and filed a homestead claim to the southwest quarter of section 2, of what is now Lucas township. His nearest trading point at the time he located on the claim was Yellow Medicine, on the Minnesota river, which consisted of a store, postoffice and blacksmith shop. The lumber for his house was hauled from Willmar. In that pioneer home was taught the first school in the township, conducted for three months by Miss Ella Williams. Mr. Price encountered many hardships in the early days, but he passed successfully through the period of travail and in time came upon prosperous times. He now has one of the finest farm homes in the county and is the owner of 320 acres of excellent land on sections 2 and 3.
Mr. Price took a leading part in affairs in the early days. He was one of those who brought about the organization of Lucas township in 1873 and he was appointed township clerk by the Board of County Commissioners at the time of organization. He held the office several years, was assessor four years, and has been a member of the town board. He -assisted in the organization of school district No. 19 and has held the office of treasurer of that district. He is a member and one of the trustees of the Presbyterian church of Cottonwood.
In local business matters Mr. Price has also taken a part. He owns & controlling interest in and is vice president of the Home Telephone Company of Cottonwood. He is a stockholder of the Lyon County National Bank of Marshall and of the First National Bank of Cottonwood.
Mr. Price was married in Lucas township January 4, 1890, to Helen Elmer. She was born in Gothland, Sweden, July 18. 1862, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Elmer, who came to Lyon county in 1888. Mrs. Price's mother died in December, 1910; her father lives in Northern Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Price have seven children: Logan, of Graceville, Montana; Marvin, of Alberta, Canada; Fern, Willard, Hazel, Porter and Ray, who live at home.
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LEVORIT AVERY (1868), of Lake Marshall township, is a native of the Gopher State, having been born in Rice county, Minnesota, November 9, 1858. When ten years of age, he accompanied his parents to Lyon county and his father homesteaded land in Custer township. Our subject received his early education and grew to manhood while residing at home, living on the home place until twenty-four years of age.
At the latter age he started working out on farms and in 1884 he rented his father's farm and conducted it one year. He then returned to Waseca county, Minnesota, where he rented land three years, after which he returned to Lyon county and has resided here since, with the exception of eighteen months spent in Colorado. In 1908 he rented the northwest quarter of section 21, Lake Marshall township, where he now resides.
The parents of our subject are John and
Lydia (Ketchun) Avery, both natives of Ohio.
Mr. Avery was married at Waseca, Minnesota. February 14, 1883, to Minnie Norcutt, a native of Minnesota. She was born June 22, 1862. and is a daughter of Norman and Sarah (McKinley) Norcutt, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of New York. Mr. and Mrs. Avery are the parents of the following children: Clyde, born May 17, 1884; Guy, born August 12, 1886; Percy, born December 25, 1888; Daisy M., born March 21, 1891; Denzil, born December 9, 1893; Edith Blanche, born April 30, 1896; John, born August 8. 1898; Minnie P., born January 18, 1901: Robert, born April 11, 1904.
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JAMES MITCHELL (1869), ex-county commissioner of Lyon county and one of the earliest settlers, owns 280 acres of land and operates one of the finest improved farms in Amiret township. He has been a continuous resident of Amiret township forty-three years. Mr. Mitchell served twelve years as county commissioner when there were but three commissioners in what is now Lyon and Lincoln counties and when the county seat was at Lynd. It was also during his term of service as commissioner that the various townships pf Lyon county were created and organized.
Our subject was born in Jefferson county, Wisconsin, September 16, 1848. His parents were James and Margaret (Barclay) Mitchell. now deceased. His mother died when James was a child and his father was married a second time to Martha Lane, a native of Maine. James Mitchell, Sr., was born in Scotland, came to America in 1838, and settled in Wisconsin in 1842, where he made his home until 1866. That year he moved to Plainview, Minnesota, and farmed in the vicinity three years. In the spring of 1869 he and his son, the subject of this biography, came to Lyon county and each took a quarter section of land on section 30, Amiret township, as homesteads. The father resided on his Amiret farm until his death on September 14, 1901, at the age of eighty-one years.
James Mitchell, Jr., was reared in Wisconsin and attended school until fourteen years of age. He then worked at farm labor one
year, after which he moved to Plainview, Minnesota, with his parents, and worked there two years. After the family moved to Lyon county James made his home with his parents until he married in 1884, after which he moved to his present place, the southeast quarter of section 5, Amiret township.
James Mitchell's marriage to Trena Rude occurred in Amiret township May 31, 1884. His wife is a native of Butler county, Iowa, and is a daughter of Michael and Olena Rude. The family were pioneer settlers of Brown county, Minnesota, locating there in 1869 and making it their home until their deaths. Mrs. Mitchell was born April 9, 1858. She and her husband are the parents of three children, as follows: Margaret (Mrs. Neil Currie), of Pittsfield, Massachusetts; Jeanette, a school teacher of Austin, Minnesota; and Jay (deceased).
Mr. Mitchell was for a number of years a member of the Amiret Township Board of Supervisors and was chairman of the township's first board. He was one of the organizers of school district No. 64 and has served continuously as clerk of the board since its organization. Our subject is a member of the Masonic lodge.
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REES PRICE (1871), one of the earliest settlers of Monroe township, was born in Wales May 31, 1847. His parents were David and Mary (Rees) Price, both natives of Wales. The family came to the United States in 1866, when Rees was nineteen years old. The boy made his home for a few months with relatives in Goodhue county, Minnesota, and then journeyed to Rock Island, Illinois, where he worked in the coal mines until 1868. That year he was married to Ruth Thomas, a Milwaukee girl and a sister of Benjamin, James and Joseph Thomas, all of whom became early Lyon county settlers.
After his marriage in February, 1868. Mr. Price and his wife farmed in Blue Earth county, Minnesota, renting for a couple of years. In 1870 Mr. Price and others came to Lyon county to look over the country. They homesteaded in 1871 and Mr. Price moved his family to their new home on the northwest quarter of section 18, Monroe township, in 1872. The family lived on the farm for the next forty years. It was frontier life for those early comers to Lyon county. Mr. Price hauled logs from the Cotton wood river-with which to build his first dwelling. The old cabin, a 14x16 feet log hut, still .stands on the place and is the oldest house standing in Monroe township. The other residents of the township at that time were Ed. Healy, David Stafford and George White, a brother-in-law of Mr. Price and now a resident of California. These four broke the first ground in the precinct with oxen. Until the railroad came in 1872 all trading was done at New Ulm.
During the years when the grasshopper scourge was in Southwestern Minnesota, Rees Price and others worked at farm labor in the eastern part of the state and succeeded in keeping themselves and their families from want. The winter of 1880 and 1881 brought more hardships. But the early settlers were of hardy stock and had faith in the country, which led them to endure the discomforts of the early days. The settlement grew and Mr. Price was one of those who helped organize the township of Monroe. He was the first justice of the peace and was on the town and school boards for several years, besides holding various other offices from time to time. The Price family lived in the original log cabin for twenty-eight years, when they built their present comfortable dwelling. The fine groves on the Price farm were set out from slips brought years ago from the Cottonwood river by Mr. Price.
Seven children have been born to Rees and Ruth Price, as follows: Elenor (Mrs. Hugh Jones), Mary (Mrs. Bert Wilford), Mabel (Mrs. Philip Hughes), Joseph, William, Winifred, who is at home with her parents, and Diana (Mrs. Ruben Harris), of Kernan, California. Mr. and Mrs. Price have for years been active members of the Congregational church.
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CHARLES H. WHITNEY (1869). A man who occupied a most important place in the early history of Lyon county is Charles H. Whitney, now a resident of Cookeville, Tennessee. More than any other man was he responsible for the advertising of this frontier region in the seventies and the immigration that settled upon its broad
prairies. He is an optimist, and many a resident of Lyon county of this day owes his presence to the wonderful word-pictures painted by Mr. Whitney. With several others he was the founder of Marshall and in most every important event of the early times he figured. He has a fund of pioneer reminiscenses and the author of this volume is indebted to him for many of the items contained herein.
Charles H. Whitney was born at Bridgton, Cumberland county, Maine, January 16, 1838. His father, George W. Whitney, was a Free Will Baptist minister and during the boyhood days of our subject the family resided in several different places where Rev. Whitney served his church as pastor. Charles lived in his native town until four years old, in Gray, Maine, three years, in Bethel, Maine, two or three years, and then in Rochester, New Hampshire.
While residing at Rochester, when eleven years of age, Charles H. Whitney started to earn his own living. His first employment was in a woolen mill, where he worked fourteen months. He then went to Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, and was employed in a cotton factory two years, beginning work in the weaving room, but later becoming office boy. He next located in East Abington (now Brockton), Massachusetts, and for several years was employed in a shoe factory which later became the W. L. Douglas factory. He became foreman of the stitching room when sixteen years of age and continued his work in the factory until he was eighteen and one-half years old.
During this time, by strict economy, young Whitney had saved money, which he expended in completing his education. He took a course in the North Parsonsfield, Maine, Academy, a Free Will Baptist school, and was graduated in December, 1856. He decided to locate in the West, and to earn money to pay his transportation he secured a position as clerk in a store.
On March 25, 1857, Charles H. Whitney arrived in Waupun, Wisconsin, where his brother, J. W. Whitney, a. building contractor, resided. Our subject took work with his brother and learned the business in all its branches, which was of great help to him later in his new home on the prairies of Lyon county. He lived in Waupun six years. During his residence there, on October 28, 1860, Mr. Whitney was united in marriage to Mary A. Wirt, a daughter of Elder Noah Wirt, of the Christian church, and Fannie (Mapes) Wirt. Mrs. Whitney was born at Willoughby, Ohio, July 22, 1843, and died at Cookeville, Tennessee, February 11, 1911. As a result of this union five children were born, as follows: George C., born at Waupun July 25, 1861, died November 1, 1862; Zula M., born at Oronoco, Minnesota, December 27, 1866, married John H. Schneider at Marshall June 16, 1886; Mille A., born at Oronoco May 7, 1888, married Fred H. White, of Marshall, Minnesota, at Cookeville, Tennessee. December 31, 1888; Fannie W., the first white child born in Marshall, born November 24, 1870, married James T. Snodgrass at McMinnville, Tennessee, September 16, 1891: Gertrude, a musician and artist of considerable note, born at Marshall April 21, 1875.
In April, 1863, Mr. Whitney became a resident of Minnesota, locating at Oronoco, Olmsted county. He resided there six years, during five of which he served as town clerk. During the war he had entire charge at Oronoco of filling the quota of troops. After the war he engaged in contracting and building, operated a .furniture manufactory, and bought a farm.
In May, 1869, Mr. Whitney left with a party of ten men, in covered wagons, on a prospecting trip to find a suitable location in Western Minnesota for new homes. They traveled three weeks, visited St. Cloud, Benson and Hutchinson, but not liking the country about any of those towns they turned southward and passed through St. Peter. There the party met "Uncle” Abner Tibbetts, register of the United States Land Office, who advised them to visit that part of Redwood county which is now Lyon county. They did so, making the trip by way of Redwood Falls, and arrived at the little settlement of Lynd on June 9, 1869. The operations of this party upon their arrival in Lyon county have been told in detail in the historical part of this volume, so it will not be necessary to repeat here. Suffice it to say that all members of the party were delighted with the country and all located, Mr. Whitney selecting as his claim the southeast quarter of section 4, Lake Marshall township, upon which was
later laid out a part of the village of Marshall.
After selecting his land Mr. Whitney broke a little land and on June 15, with the rest of the party, set out on the return home. At St. Peter they made filings on their claims. Mr. Whitney spent the next winter in his old Wisconsin home and interested several others in the new country, who accompanied him on the return in 1870. He arrived in Lyon county again on June 1, 1870, and erected a sod shanty on his claim, the first dwelling put up on section 4, of the Marshall site. It was located about twenty rods east of the Third Street bridge on the quarter section line. In the fall our subject secured the establishment of the Marshall postoffice and he became the first postmaster.
Mr. Whitney engaged in farming and booming the country. He located four-fifths of all the settlers who arrived prior to 1875. In the summer of 1872, in partnership with others, he platted the village of Marshall and it was largely through his influence that the Marshall station of the new Winona & St. Peter was located where it is, in preference to a point at the crossing of Three-Mile creek. In the fall of 1872, before the railroad had reached the new station, Mr. Whitney erected a hotel building, one of the first buildings in the town, hauling the lumber from the end of the completed track. At the first meal in the hostelry 250 people were fed. The location of the pioneer hotel building was on the site of the present Atlantic Hotel. Mr. Whitney erected the first brick kiln in Marshall and was prominent in many of the pioneer business enterprises.
He engaged extensively in land selling from the time of his arrival, and in 1876 he became the field agent and general outside representative for the railroad company, being thus employed ten years. In 1877 he established the Homeseekers Guide to the West, a monthly emigration paper of 5000 circulation.
Mr. Whitney originated the scheme of exhibiting the products of Lyon county and of the lands embraced within the railroad's land grant at the state fairs. The first exhibit was made in 1876, and first premiums were secured on all exhibits. Following is a list of premiums awarded Lyon county at early day Minnesota state fairs for largest and best displays of grains and vegetables: 1879, first for grains and second for vegetables; 1880, first for both exhibits; 1881, first for grains and second for vegetables and a silver medal for five best varieties of spring wheat; 1882, first for each exhibit and silver medal for spring wheat exhibit. On March 8, 1881, the county was awarded first premium by the Minnesota State Butter and Cheese Association for the best fifty pounds of dairy butter, and in 1882 at the Wisconsin state fair Lyon county was awarded a diploma and given special mention for the largest, best and most artistically displayed exhibit of grains, vegetables, fruits, grasses, woods and soils made by one exhibitor.
In 1886 Mr. Whitney secured for the railroad company the right-of-way for the Willmar & Sioux Falls Railroad Company from Marshall to the north line of the county. On May 1, 1886, Mr. Whitney went to St. Paul to become circulation manager of The Farmer, an agricultural paper. In six months he raised the circulation, of the paper to 30,000. After one year at that work his health failed, and in September, 1887, Mr. Whitney moved South, becoming a resident of Cookeville, Tennessee, where he has ever since resided.
During his long residence in Lyon county Mr. Whitney held a number of offices of trust. Besides being Marshall's first postmaster., he served for a time as judge of probate and was deputy county treasurer two terms, serving under Jacob Rouse and James Williams. He was justice of the peace of Lake Marshall township and held other township offices and was one of the first to hold the office of Marshall village recorder. From the time of the organization of the Marshall school district until it became an independent district he was chairman of the Board of Education.
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JACOB ROUSE (1870). Only a few of those who took part in the early history making of Lyon county are still living in the county. However, one of those who took part in the early events and who came before the county was organized is still here, with a continuous residence of forty-two years to his credit. He is Jacob Rouse, a former county treasurer, who now lives in the Camden valley of Lynd township.
Jacob Rouse was born in Louisa county, Iowa, October 18, 1844. His father, Ebenezer Rouse, was born in Canada, of German descent. His mother, Mary (Harlan) Rouse, was born in Kentucky. The parents located in Iowa in 1840 and shortly after the birth of their son they moved to Illinois, near Galena, where they engaged in farming. There the father contracted yellow fever and died in 1850.
After the death of the head of the family Mrs. Rouse and her children, two sons and two daughters, moved to Lafayette county, Wisconsin, and near Elk Grove she bought five acres of land. Later the family moved to New Diggings of the same county. At the age of fifteen years young Rouse left home and went to Jones county, Iowa, where he resided two years, working on a farm in the summer and attending school during the winter. He then spent a short time attending school and working out at East Galena, Illinois, and worked in a hotel at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, six months.
Returning to Galena, Illinois, in the spring of 1864, Mr. Rouse enlisted in Company C, One Hundred Fortieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He was discharged seven months later and the following February enlisted in Company E, One Hundred Fifty-third Illinois Infantry, served six months, and was mustered out in September, 1865. After the war he returned to New Diggings, Wisconsin, and during the next few years engaged in farming and mining.
In 1870 Mr. Rouse came to Lyon county and filed a homestead claim to the northwest quarter of section 22, Lynd township, being one of the first to file in that neighborhood, and he proved up on the claim. In the fall of 1870 Mr. Rouse, in partnership with James Cummins and John Cook, erected a sawmill on the Redwood, where was later founded the village of Camden. He was in charge of the sawmill four years, and then it was remodeled into a flouring mill by Smith, Ellis & Rouse. The village of Camden was founded and soon boasted two stores, a blacksmith shop, harness shop, postoffice and mill, becoming one of the principal towns of the county.
One year after the flouring mill was started Mr. Rouse disposed of his interests, but for eighteen years he was employed by the firm that operated the mill. Since that time he has devoted most of his time to farming, although he was manager of an elevator at Lynd two years and at Russell one year. He raises stock and makes a specialty of Duroc-Jersey hogs.
Mr. Rouse took an active part in political affairs in the early days and served as deputy county treasurer under A. R. Cummins, .the first treasurer. Later he served a term as county treasurer. He was chairman of the Lynd Township Board of Supervisors one year and has an unbeatable record as a school officer, having been clerk of his district since it was organized in 1871. Mr. Rouse is a member of the Grand Army and the Masonic lodge.
In Lafayette county, Wisconsin, on May 5, 1868, Mr. Rouse was united in marriage to Elizabeth J. Day. She was born in the county in which she was married December 2, 1849, a daughter of Joseph H. and Martha M. (Dickey) Day. Both parents were born in Pennsylvania. The father died in Wisconsin in 1886 and thereafter Mrs. Day made her home with her daughter, Mrs. Rouse, until her death in 1900. Mr. and Mrs. Rouse have five children: Mary Etta, Joseph C., Ira E., Maud and Myrtle F.
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OLE H. HATLESTAD (1874) is a prominent farmer of Lucas township and a most enthusiastic believer in the advantages of living in Lyon county. Mr. Hatlestad is well known throughout the county at large and has a host of friends in every community. For the last twelve years he has served continuously as a member of the Board of County Commissioners from district No. 1, and previous to that he had already served in the same capacity for four years. Mr. Hatlestad, besides farming 400 acres of land, owns seven lots and a fine residence, in Cottonwood and is interested in other enterprises, being a stockholder of the Farmers Elevator Company of Cottonwood, of which he was for several years president.
Our subject was born March 4, 1853, in Song, Norway, and is a son of Hans O.. and Martha (Anderson) Hatlestad, both of whom are now deceased. The parents came to America in 1854 and first located in Columbia county, Wisconsin, where they resided ten years. Their next home was in Winona county, where they lived until their
deaths. Ole Hatlestad was the oldest of the children and he received his education in the common schools of Winona county, attending until he had reached the age of nineteen years. Coming then to Lyon county, he engaged in the mercantile business with Andrew Ostlund one year and then went into the farm machinery business in Marshall, an enterprise which held his attention for the next five years. In 1879 Mr. Hatlestad commenced to acquire land and now owns a large acreage. He purchased a tree claim on the southwest quarter of section 18, Lucas, from Ole Dahl, which he still owns and operates. Subsequently he bought 200 acres on section 19 and later another forty. Mr. Hatlestad manages his farms and has made his home in Cottonwood since 1901.
Mr. Hatlestad has been affiliated with the Silo Norwegian Lutheran Church since its organization in 1880 and was formerly one of its trustees. He was a director of school district No. 15 three years and has held the office of assessor three terms. For a number of years he was chairman of the Township Board of Supervisors.
The subject of this sketch was married December 19, 1876, to Carrie Anderson, at Porter, Minnesota. His wife was a native of Norway. To this union were born: Andrew, on June 19, 1878; Martha, deceased, on January 29, 1880; Bertha, on January 25, 1882; Cora, on August 22, 1885; Clarence, on April 5, 1887; Harris, on May 10, 1889; Clara, on September 13, 1891; William, on February 16, 1894; and Oliver, on December 16, 1895. Mrs. Hatlestad died March 20, 1897.
Mr. Hatlestad married a second time in July, 1901, wedding Mrs. Dena Foss, a native of Wisconsin. To this union has been, born one child, Aldrie, born March 3, 1904.
The subject of this sketch has several brothers and sisters living. Annie (Mrs. Elling Fenney) resides in Minneapolis. Christ is a resident of Otter Tail county. Gertrude (Mrs. C. Martinson) lives in Madison, Minnesota. Christie (Mrs. Andrew Ness) resides in Fillmore county. Martin is a resident of Lyon county.
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