"History and Description of Lyon County, Minnesota", 1884
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Town of Vallers.
The town of
Vallers is town 113. range 41, and is bounded north by
Yellow Medicine county, east by
Lucas, south by
Fairview and west by
Westerheim.
The first settlement in
Vallers was made by
Johannes Anderson on section 6 in
1869.
The town was surveyed early, but the surveyor neglecting to make proper mounds, the stakes were mostly burned down by prairie fires, and settlement in the town was, without doubt, delayed considerably by the fact that the section corners could not be found.
In
1872
Ole O. Brenna Sr.,
Michael Knudson and
A. Malde located farms, and in
1873
N. L. Jones,
N. M. Fiske,
Isaac Olsen and perhaps one or two others took up government land in the town, and efforts were made to get an organization. It could not be effected, however, till
1876 when the first town officers were elected at an election held in
O. Brenna's house. They were,
S.W. Laythe, chairman;
John Anderson and
M. K. Snortum, supervisors;
Ole O. Brenna Jr. clerk and justice;
Ole O. Brenna Sr. assessor.
The report that the first school was taught by
J. L. Robinson is incorrect in the sense of a public school. He taught a private school on his claim in
1879 for the benefit of his brother's and sister's children. The first public school was taught by Miss
Lavina Day in
1880. A school house was built the same year on the north line of section 29.
Church services were first-held in
1877 at the house of
Ole O. Brenna by Rev.
Knud Thorstenson, a Lutheran, and a church society was soon after organized.
The first birth was
John Anderson in
1872. The first marriage was that of
Ole O. Brenna Jr. and
Anna Olson,
Dec. 23, 1877. The first death was that of
Ole J. Engen in
August 1877.
The only postoffice in the town is at
Ole O. Brenna's on section 4. It was established soon after the settlement of Mr.
O. Brenna, who has been postmaster since its establishment. The name of the office, by some misspelling, became
Brenner and so remains.
The name of the town has undergone a similar change, probably from the same cause. The Norwegian word
Vala, meaning a valley, was intended for it, given by the
O. Brennas, we understand. But as the name was not plainly written or properly spelled it was thought to be
Vallers, and so named. To one familiar with the topography of the town the appropriateness of the name does not instantly appear. Drained by
Three Mile Creek on the south line and the
Yellow Medicine on the north, the town of
Vallers occupies the high land between these two water courses, and is about as far removed from a valley as any point in the county. The name may however have been intended as a reminder of some vala in
Norway.
The town of
Vallers is a town of exceptionally good soil. Everything that grows in
Minnesota will do well here.
There were in
1883 1,115 acres under cultivation of which 773 were wheat;283 oats; 85 corn 19 barley.
There were at the same time 53 acres of cultivated trees and 240 rods on highways.
Vallers has two organized school districts. The northwest quarter of the township constitutes No. 56, with 19 pupils reported. There is a school house on section 8. The southwest quarter of the town forms district No. 48,with 11 pupils reported. School house on section 29. The east half of the town is not yet organized.
The last assessed valuation of the town is $29,782.
The town has at present no trading point,
Marshall being its market town; but the proposed railroad line from
Duluth to
Yankton will undoubtedly give the town a station at or near its southeast corner.
The
Yellow Medicine river cuts the northwest corner of the town and
Three Mile Creek makes a bend into its south tier of sections.
On section 29 and adjoining sections there is a large marsh, called the
Big Slough, which is the home of thousands of water fowl and the resort of sports men in proper season.
Considerable state land, mostly university land, is still vacant in the town, and the Southern Minnesota R. R. Company have some sections there still unsold. These make a vacant tract of country through the central and eastern portions that the inhabitants would like to see settled. The town of
Vallers is settled mostly by Norwegians, who are, as a general thing, thriftily located in comfortable homes and on good farms. There are one or two Iceland families here, and in the south part of the township a few Americans have taken farms.
During the Indian war of
1862 some of the skirmishing, it is thought, extended into this locality, as a skeleton was dug up on section 34 some two or three years ago which was supposed to be that of a soldier. A mask thought to be once a soldier's cap rested over the face, and other signs convinced the finders that it was the skeleton of one of the scouts or soldiers of the Indian war.
Section 34 has been a historic section in
Vallers, and has furnished much material for gossip among the denizens of that "valley."
N. B. Langdon took up the east half of the section several years ago opening thereon the "Brookfield farm," stocked it with fine sheep, erected good buildings and made the farm famous as a sheep farm. There was not much domestic harmony, however,between Mr. and Mrs.
Langdon, and the latter was one day found dead with chloroform in the room. No especial reason was ever discovered for the step at that time, but the coroner's jury brought in a verdict of suicide. This shocking event gave rise to much talk in the town and out of it. Mr.
Langdon from that time fell into habits of dissipation, from which he had for several years kept free, and the stock farm began to lose its fame through neglect and bad management. A short time after the suicide of his wife
Langdon went to
St. Paul, and while there married a Mrs.
Farrington. This marriage was not a happy one.
Langdon repented of it before the week was out,and returned to
Vallers alone, where his new wife soon followed him, determined not to be shaken off from her husband and her acquired interest in the Brookfield farm. A domestic fight that became the talk of the country ensued and ended every night, like a Ledger story; with a "To be continued." Mrs.
Langdon was a woman of remarkable grit, and dared death and destruction for her rights, sticking to the farm through threats of everything terrible and some actual assault and battery, out of which grew law suits, and finally desertion of the field by
Langdon and peaceable possession by Mrs.
L. except by law suits to exclude her. The farm was stripped of everything saleable,and the
Brookfield stock farm is now but an episode of history.