"History and Description of Lyon County, Minnesota", 1884
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Town of Lake Marshall.
This township, in which is located the village of
Marshall, the county seat, is named from a lake which lies in the southeast part of the town. It is six miles west of
Redwood county and twelve miles south of
Yellow Medicine, and is town 111, range 41.
The town was the first organized town of the county, though its settlement is ante-dated by that of
Lynd. The first settlement was made in
1869,
W. H. Langdon, now of
Lynd, locating a claim on section 8 in
June of that year.
C. H. Whitney and
C. H. Upton located the same summer on section 4, the former on the southeast quarter, and the latter on the northeast quarter, both now embraced in the village incorporation. In the fall of
'69
L. W. Langdon and his son,
E. B. Langdon, located in the town, on sections 18 and 8 respectively.
In
1870 the town gained several settlers, among whom were
M.D. Morse;
Oren Drake, Mrs.
U. S. Stone,
G. M. Durst,
C. T. and
Charles Bellingham,
Josiah Clark and
Geo. R. Welch. Of these first settlers
Whitney,
Upton,
Drake,
Durst,
Bellingham and
Clark are still residents of the town.
March 8, 1872, a town meeting to organize and elect officers was held at the house of
C. H. Whitney and the following first officers of the town were elected:
Oren Drake, chairman;
C. T. Bellingham and
Noble Cuyle, supervisors;
C.H, Whitney, clerk;
S. M. Taylor, assessor;
O. A. Drake, treasurer;
W. H. Langdon and
C. H. Whitney, justices;
C. H. Upton and
O. A. Drake constables.
This was a boom year for the town and county, the
Winona &
St. Peter railroad being built and operated to
Marshall in
1872. The town site of
Marshall was laid out in
August this year by a company of the W. & St. P. surveyors, consisting of
J. W. Blake,
W. G. Ward,
J. H. Jenkins and
J. H. Stewart. The location chosen was in the central part of section 4, and the town assumed village proportions very rapidly, of which proper mention will be made in another place.
The
Redwood river, named by the Indians from the cedar trees found on its banks near its junction with the
Minnesota river, flows into the town from Lynd on section 7 and cuts sections 8 and 4, flowing out in a northerly direction into
Fairview. Groves of timber and scattering trees lie along the
Redwood in most of its very crooked passage through the town, and add very much to the generally attractive appearance of its prairie surface. The inlet to
Lake Marshall, though a small stream, furnishes running water generally to the southern sections.
Lake Marshall, named after ex-Governor
Marshall, is a beautiful little prairie lake lying in an oval shape in sections 25, 26 and 36. It is about half a mile wide by probably a mile and a half long, and has high banks on both shores, with an occasional tree to break the monotony and furnish shade for the pickerel and bullheads with which it abounds. The lake is not as deep as some of the lakes in the county, but it furnishes an attractive picnic ground, and is the almost constant resort of fishing and hunting parties, Sundays excepted, of course. At the head and foot of the lake meadows of the finest wild grasses in the west spread out for miles, making it a rich grazing field and supplying hay in greater abundance than is needed at present. These meadows, with the future growth of the country and better means of marketing, will become the richest portions of the town. They are dry enough to become tillable if desired, and have soil that is inexhaustable by any probable cultivation. The soil of the whole town, though perhaps more varied than some of the other towns, is of unsurpassed excellence, and will return large profits for good cultivation almost to a certainty. There are several large and very thrifty farms in the town, that would be a credit to any county. The acreage reported under cultivation in
1883 was not, however, very large, being but
1835, of which there were 750 in wheat. 579 in oats, 304 in corn, 98 in barley, 22 in potatoes,60 in flax. There were also 120 acres of cultivated forest trees, and 600 rods of the same on the highways.
The first marriage in the town was that of
Oren Drake and Mrs.
U. S. Stone on
Sept. 4th. 1872. Rev.
R. Wait officiating.
The first birth is said to have been a child of one of the
Billings boys.
The first death was that of the
Fox family who were caught in the terrible blizzard of
Jan. 8th, 1873.
The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs.
Fox, a little girl five or six years old and a young man, a nephew. They held a claim in
Lynd, it is said the one Mr.
Fezler now lives on, and had been to
Redwood Falls on a visit. On their return they were overtaken by the storm on Thursday, and when further efforts at traveling became useless they unhitched their oxen, letting them take care of themselves, and turning over the wagon box tried to fix up a shelter. Such a shelter, however, was almost valueless in that kind of a storm, and they were soon drifted into the snow. When the storm abated on Saturday, they were found by Mr.
Barnes near
J. K. Johnson's and brought to
Marshall. The young man and the little girl were dead and Mr.
Fox was so badly frozen that he died on Monday. Mrs.
Fox recovered. They were buried near the gravel pit, east of Mr.
Wakeman's.
The first school was taught by
Walter Wakeman in the winter of
1872 and
'73 in a building used by
W. M. Todd for a lumber office. The school had about 20 pupils.
The first sermon was preached by Rev.
R. Wait in
1872 in a tent used week days for a saloon.
The history of
Lake Marshall being very nearly connected with that of the the village of
Marshall, a more detailed account of its early events will be found in another chapter.