"A History of Western Murray County" by Robt. B. Forrest, Pages 100-111,
Murray Co., MN 
Published 1947
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Early W. Murray Co. MN Hist., pages 100-111       

most of them petty. There were also eight marriages at two of which 
Sheriff Lowe happened to be best man.

          The oldest settler of Chanarambie township is Mrs. S. 
Barrows who now makes her home at Chandler. The Barrows family 
came to Murray County in 1880. The late Mr. Barrows took an active 
part in community affairs and for over twenty years served as county 
commissioner. Mrs. Barrows was the most active in church work of 
any of the old settlers. They lost a son, Ezra, in World War I. His 
remains were brought back from France and interred in Hillside cemetery 
south of Lake Wilson.

          One of the famous baseball teams of western Murray 
County was "The Beavers." This team was composed largely of young 
lads from farms in Chanarambie and Cameron townships. Here is a 
list of the names of the members of the team and extra players 
given us by a former player. Art Baack, pitcher; Ed. Nissen, 
catcher; Herman Nissen, 1st; Elmer Deden, 2nd; Arnold Lang, 3rd; 
Wm. Aderhold, S. S.; Lars Bondhus, C. F. Fred Von der Heit, R.; 
and John Harmsen, L.; Substitutes, Carl Nissen and Fred Bose. 
This team was a heavy hitting outfit and won 12 out of 13 games 
in 1912. A. J. Ottilie was manager of the team.

          Revivals in the winter were another escape valve. 
Holmes and Graves, revivalists, had them standing in the corners 
and the entrance. A powerful talker was Holmes and a sweet singer 
was Graves. He afterwards killed off his hogs and was taken to St. 
Peter. At these gatherings all were urged to get up and relate 
their experiences. Some were humorous and some were sincere. Over 
in Leeds, these meetings led to a division of the township for 
a number of years. The settlers who lived south of the track had 
a regular McCoy-Hatfield feud with their neighbors on the north.

  FIRST MURDER COMMITTED IN CHANARAMBIE TWP.

          The first and only murder on the records of Murray 
County was committed in Chanarambie township. The author of 
this volume was the justice of the peace for Chanarambie township. 
On Sunday evening, August 14, 1898, Ed Henniger came to town with 
his horse in a lather shouting, "A man has been

—100—

murdered just south of my place." We notified Sheriff Jim Lowe, 
got Constable R. D. Sprague and drove out to the farm about 
three miles west of town. The house was a shambles, blood on 
the walls, blood on the furniture, blood on the floor and in 
the doorstep lay the body of a man naked to the waist and covered 
with blood. Matt Nagler, the renter on the farm, had gone to 
a neighboring town on Saturday with his hired man, L. Volkel, 
who was evidently a tramp. They drank freely and brought home 
a keg of beer with them. Nagler hid the keg in a straw pile. 
The next day the hired man wanted some of the stale beer as 
he had "chipped in" his share.

          Nagler refused to tell him where the keg was and a 
fight started. Volkel, so Nagler stated, was getting the best 
of him so he grabbed a butcher knife and plunged it into Volkel 
just below the heart and then left the house. Volkel started 
after him with an axe in his hand (so Nagler said), he followed 
him for several hundred feet but evidently was weakened by the 
loss of blood and started back to the house. He got as far as 
the door when he went down. He tore off his shirt and was trying 
to staunch the flow of blood when death came. Nagler ran across 
the fields to the Henniger place screaming, "I killed a man" and 
Henniger immediately came to town. Sheriff Lowe came out from 
Slayton, the coroner was notified and we spent the rest of the 
night at the farm. Nagler had his hearing Monday and Sheriff 
Lowe took him to Slayton. Dr. Morrel of Slayton and Dr. 
MacGillvary of Pipestone had the post mortem in the lumber office 
which stood just in front of the machine shop now occupied by L. 
M. Adams.

          The case came up for trial at the December term of court 
in 1898 and naturally Nagler pleaded "not guilty." Bob Grass was 
the attorney for the prisoner and B. H. Whitney, the county attorney, 
was the prosecutor. The case was tried before Judge P. E. Brown. 
The jury brought in a verdict of self defense; there were no 
witnesses that saw or even heard the fight. Curt Norton was the 
foreman of the jury.

          Public opinion was pretty well against Nagler. He was 
of a quarrelsome, moody disposition, and the statements he made 
after the killing created the opinion that it was plain murder.

—101—

He sold out his personal property and left the country soon 
after the trial.

          Volkel was buried in the Potters field in Hillside 
Cemetery by the county.

  =========================================

  FIRST ROAD IN MURRAY COUNTY

          The first road through this section of the county was 
the government trail from New Ulm to Fort Thompson, South Dakota.
The road entered at the northeast part of the county, crossing 
the Des Moines River at the foot of Lake Shetek, then crossing 
over what is now Poverty Hill in Mason township. Then westward, 
passing the Bear Lakes at the southern tip and on through what 
is now Lowville and Cameron townships to the Buffalo ridge and 
from thence down into what is now Pipestone county. The huge 
ruts made in the trail by the big government wagons, which were 
pulled by three yoke of oxen, were plainly seen in Cameron 
township on the prairie at the top of the ridge as late as the 
'80's.

  =========================================

  WATER WAS A PROBLEM IN LATER YEARS

          In the seventies and early eighties there was plenty 
of water available. Wells were mere makeshifts; merely a hole 
in the ground and the well covered by logs. In later years the 
water level decreased and deeper wells were dug by hand. Some 
of them were stoned up and when lumber came curbing was made
of wood. The next step was the well auger; this machine would 
go down to nearly 100 feet. The auger was run by a horse. It 
would bore a well two and a half feet across. This type of 
well was curbed by six-inch beveled boards. Then came the 
well drill of six or eight inch wells. This type is what 
is in use in our section in 1947.

  ==========================================

          The only limestone kiln of record in Murray County 
was on section 34 in Lake Sarah township. It was on the John 
Swenson farm. Mr. Swenson only burned one kiln a year.

—102 —

  CAMERON TOWNSHIP

          For some reason unknown, Cameron township was one of 
the best settled townships in Murray County in the old days.

          The first official notice is that of W. H. Bennett, 
appearing before the county commissioners at Currie on Sept. 
l9th, 1878, with a petition signed by fifteen voters praying 
that 107-43 be organized and that the name of the new township 
be called "Stanley." The first meeting was held at the home of D. 
Connors. In the census of 1880 there was a population of 124 
in the township. Just five years later another census was taken 
and Cameron had lost three residents. The census was taken by 
Guy Stedman who was an uncle of the late Bert Peters. He filed 
his report on May 27th, 1885. Here are the names that appeared 
on the first census: 

Guy Stedman
Wm. Cann,
David Hood,
Chas. McSherry,
Tom Farrel,
Chas. Grant,
Pete McSherry,
Pat Gildea (in later years he became a representative in the legislature),
Geo. H. Smith (father of the present postmaster at Lake Wilson),
W. S. Pattinson,
J. W. Shadbolt,
Chas. Welch,
Wm. Wilson,
Mrs. Adeline Miller,
Jas. Jackson,
Wm. Wright,
J. M. Pullen,
Chas. Cole,
Jerry Baker,
Tom Gildea,
Bill Sabin,
John Thompson,
James Bell,
James Forrest (father of the writer of this volume),
C. Thompson,
Wm. Stedman,
J. W. Parshall,
H. Scovel (the post office was named after him),
Davy Guy.

          Cameron Township was settled in the late '70's mostly 
by civil war veterans and "sooners." Sooners were men with their 
faces always toward a setting sun. They disliked neighbors and 
when they had a neighbor nearer than two miles they just itched
to get away from the crowds. Jerry Baker was typical of those 
men. He wore a swallow tail coat that had once been black, chewed 
tobacco incessantly, trapped and fished and was a great visitor. 
Whenever there was a building or post nearby, Jerry would aim 
to get there and with his back against it, would pour forth 
rivers of wisdom about things he knew nothing about. The maddest 
we ever saw Jerry was at a threshing machine. The threshing 
machine days were the social events of the years. Jerry was 
pulling "sticks" (two men would sit facing one another. They 
held a broom stick in their hands and the game was to pull your 
opponent over your head.) 
We

—103 —

saw Jerry matched one day against the top notch puller and, 
when they started, some of us kids stood on the tails of Jerry's 
swallow tail coat. There were two or three grunts and Jerry flew 
over the head of his opponent, but the tails of his swallow tail 
coat, that he had had ever since he left Missouri, were not with 
him. He soon left for the plains where "there weren't so danged 
many neighbors."

          The first wave of settlers was succeeded by a bunch 
of settlers who came in 1882-83. This new wave came from Scotland, 
brought here through the solicitation of the Scottish American 
Land Colonization Company which had agents in many parts of Scotland 
extolling the fertile soil of Murray County. The company owned 
large tracts of land in Pipestone and Murray Counties. Thirty-five 
people who were among the 121 of the 1885 census were born in Scotland. 
There was only one Scandinavian in the township and he was a Dane. 
Most of the Scottish people did not take kindly to the long cold 
winters and soon returned to Scotland.

          For years a post office was maintained on the place just 
south of the C. F. Sierk farm. It was called Scovell, after the 
first postmaster. J. W. Parshall was postmaster in 1885. This 
postoffice was on the overland mail route from Currie to Pipestone 
and included Mason, Lowville (where Oran Jones now lives), and Scovell.

          This mail route was maintained for a number of years 
after the railroad had reached Pipestone, as it served people 
far from towns.

          Among the big men in the township in the early days was 
Phillip Stanley. He was of the go-getter type, took an active part 
in affairs, had a cane mill and had the township named after him. 
But they ganged up on him They argued that the township should 
not be named after any of the settlers. Charley Cole, a shrewd 
Yankee with a lot of native ability, moved that the township be 
called "Cameron." In later years the folks found out that Cameron 
was Charley's middle name. Some of those old guys weren't so dumb. 
Among the early mail carriers were B. M. Low, M. D. Mason, and R. 
Boombower. These men faced real perils during the winter months 
when the blizzards swept unheeded, without corn fields, groves or

—104—

snow fences just the barren prairie. They felt their way by instinct.

          Claim jumping was the first athletic sport. An ambitious 
settler would come out in the summer or fall and take up a claim. 
The law only allowed the settler to be gone so long from this 
homestead and when they overstayed the limit, many of them returned 
and found out that their farm was gone, so they looked for another. 
Bill Sabin jumped the Pete Smith claim (now owned by Mrs. A. Edmundson)
but Pete, who had studied law by the light of a tallow candle, had 
taken plenty of land. Pete got to be county attorney and his son, A. D., 
was Superintendent of Schools a number of years. Pete was a typical western 
lawyer. He could stand in a store or bar and discuss Blackstone until 
the lights went out, but he was a grand fellow at heart and died on 
the farm north of town, where he learned his law.

          Looking over the many fine town boards of the last fifty 
years the pick of the bunch would go to Cameron township when Wm. 
Scott, John Heins, W. S. Pattinson and Rolf Harmsen guided the 
destinies of the township. They were clear headed, efficient and a 
capable bunch of men and rendered Cameron splendid service.

          Cameron has had two churches and both suffered the same 
fate—being destroyed by storms. The first church, which was built 
in 1891, was hit by a small tornado and scattered over the prairie. 
A second church, which was built two years later, was blown down 
in a gale of wind. These storms discouraged the members of the St. 
John's Lutheran Church and four years later, to get away from the 
Cameron hoodoo, they built a church in Lowville township just four 
miles east of where the second church was erected. This church is 
still standing. Gus Zieman and Miss Minnie Dettmer were the first 
couple married in the first church built and Wm. Helmke and Lena 
Dettmer were the first couple married in the second church in 
Cameron.

          Back in the early days, leaders in the group of Germans 
built a social hall in the north part of the township. For many 
years they enjoyed the pleasant gatherings at the hall. The whole 
family would go and spend the Sunday afternoons and evenings. 
Dances were started and enjoyed for several years.

—105—

Young folks, some from nearby towns, brought in modern dances 
and a little more life than the promoters were used to, and the 
hall gradually folded up.

          The oldest living resident of Cameron township is Mrs.
W. S. Pattinson of Slayton. The Pattinsons came to Cameron Township 
from Scotland in the fall of 1883. The late Mr. Pattinson was 
prominent in township affairs. He served as county commissioner 
from this district for 12 years. He was instrumental in bringing 
black cattle into this section. The Pattinsons left the farm several 
years ago, but Mrs. Pattinson still owns two farms in the township. 
Of the family three sons remain: William, James and Donald.

          The only fence of the kind we have ever seen in this 
section was constructed on what is now the C. F. Sierk place. 
Back in the '70's Phillip Stanley homesteaded the place. He had 
a bunch of calves one year and had neither barb wire, posts nor 
boards. So he made his fence out of sod. He piled the sod up three 
feet high and three feet wide around the pasture, then plowed a 
couple of furrows in the inside close up to the sods. It made an 
effective fence when the calves were young and the only cost 
was the labor.

          Stanley's first house was a semi-log and sod affair. 
He planted a few trees some of which are still left. The farmers 
came to the Stanley place frequently in the early fall. He had a 
cane mill and the farmers would bring in the sugar cane with enough 
wood to keep the tanks going and they would turn out a supply of 
sorghum. Stanley lived on the southeast corner of the quarter.

  =========================================

  MURRAY COUNTY KNOWN TO WHITE MEN IN 1820

          This area was well known to white men, even before 
the construction of the American Fur Trading Post at Bear Lakes.

          According to early maps when this section was in the 
states of Wisconsin and Iowa, there is an "official" map published 
by the Federal government that depicts a trail which crosses 
Murray County, north and south.

  —106—

          It was called the William Dickson and Lewis Musick trail 
of 1822. According to the map this trail was used by drovers when 
they took cattle and sheep to the far north.

          The trail came up the west side of the Des Moines river. 
On this trail map the Bear Lakes are named Otter Lakes. Sheep and 
cattle from Missouri were driven northward to Pembina for the Hudson
Bay colony. The journal of the Indian agent at Fort Snelling discloses 
that drovers with cattle got lost on the prairie and they left the 
livestock. They were later picked up at Lac Qui Parle. That was in 
June 1828. A big drove of sheep, being driven up to the Hudson Bay 
colony, was abandoned in 1833.

          The journal of Taliaferro, the Indian agent at Snelling, 
contains mention of Indians finding the body of a well dressed 
white man on the upper Des Moines in 1831.

  ========================================

  THERE WAS PLENTY TO EAT IN 1836

          Catlin, the great Indian painter and explorer, had met 
La Framboise in 1835 at Prairie du Chien, Wis., and became 
interested in western Murray county and the Pipestone quarries. 
He promised La Framboise he would visit him the next year. In his 
diary Catlin tells of his arrival at the Bear Lakes in 1836 and 
his welcome. He wrote: "La Framboise was surprised and pleased 
when our party galloped up to the post, and standing in the gate 
of the trading post said 'I assure you gentlemen this is the 
happiest moment of my life. I cannot give you feather beds to 
sleep on; but I have plenty of buffalo robes. We can give you 
plenty of buffalo meat and tongues, wild geese and ducks, prairie 
hens, trout, young swan, beaver tails, pigeons, plums, grapes, 
young bear, some green corn, squash, onions, water melons and 
pommes des terres (potatoes), some coffee and some tea. There 
is plenty of sport here, and in a short distance you will find 
buffalo'." If Catlin was sticking to the truth, something that 
few explorers did, he must have been pretty well filled up before 
he started across the prairies for the Pipestone quarries. Most 
explorers were a little inclined to exaggerate.

—107—

EARLY HISTORY OF LOWVILLE TOWNSHIP

          No township in Murray County or in Minnesota is as rich 
in history as Lowville township. It was the first section settled 
in the Western part of the County and yet it was the most sparsely 
settled in the middle '70's.

          Soil of Lowville township was the first cultivated in 
the county. The Indians had planted corn and pumpkins there for 
generations and La Framboise planted potatoes and other vegetables 
here in 1834.

          When the Low brothers came here in the sixties they 
settled in the Bear Lake timber and Bart planted his first garden 
in soil that had been cleared by the Indians hundreds of years before.

          A petition was filed with the county board signed by 
John H. Low and 11 other legal voters asking the county board to 
organize township 107-42. The first meeting was held at the home 
of W. Ingalls and the township was named in honor of the Low brothers, 
the first settlers.

(Picture 108.jpg)
 
The Mihin Homestead

Built by Mike Mihin in 1872, in Lowville Township

—108—

          B. M. Low was the first census taker. The first census 
was taken in 1875. At that time there were only twelve families in 
the township. The names of the settlers who signed the petition 
for the organization of the township were: W. H. Ingalls, Michael 
Mihin, S. Manchester, Frank Stevens, B. M. Low, Jas. Cartwright, 
H. O. Stanley, John Soules, Norman Jones, John Low, G. T. Gray and 
C. Williams.

          Lowville was almost a native born American township, 
only two signers having been born abroad, Michael Mihin in Ireland 
and G. T. Gray in England.

          For years the township, or rather that area surrounding 
the lakes, had been one of the finest hunting and trapping grounds 
in the middle west.

          John and Bart Low did a lot of trapping in the late 
'60's and they had long trap lines. John's line ran to the south, 
down the outlet of the south Bear Lake into the Beaver and he 
followed the Beaver Creek to a point where Currie now stands. He 
also trapped in Slaughter Slough where the Indians killed many of 
the early settlers in the raid of 1862. He trapped Slaughter Slough 
in 1867-8. Bart had the north trap line and went as far north as where 
  Lynd now stands. The lines were so long that they could not be 
made in a day, so crude shelters were made along the trap lines.

          The large amount of land in the township covered by water 
kept the number of early settlers low when compared to the other 
townships. These lakes and sloughs were the attraction for hundreds 
of hunters, not only locally, but from other nearby towns and villages.

          As far back as fifty years ago, sportsmen from some 
of the towns erected hunting shacks in the woods and the hunters 
and fishermen would take turns during the open season. Luverne, 
Pipestone and Slayton all maintained hunting camps at the lakes 
and what loads of game those early hunters got! Take hunters like 
Doc Williams, Doc. Baker and J. K. Bennett of Slayton. Zealous hunters 
they were! Several times, owing to the muck in the bottom of the lake, 
they were not able to carry all their ducks to the shore when dusk 
came and would have to wait and make another trip in the morning.

—109—

The natural stand of timber, the best in the southwest, was a boon 
to the pioneers. Many of the first settlers bought an acre from 
the Low brothers and the timber furnished wood for many a log cabin 
and fuel during the winter months.

          When the big ditch was started thirty years ago, the 
Bear Lakes passed out of the picture as a hunting, trapping and 
fishing area. The ditch has been only partially successful. The 
sifting sands and dirt and the growth of trees and weeds in the 
bottom of the ditch have lessened its effectiveness.

  When Nature Was at Her Very Best

(Picture 110.jpg)

A sketch of a nook in Bear Lake in the late sixties

          The Bear Lake timber was a pleasure resort for the 
early settlers. The tall stately trees, the adjoining lakes, the 
woods full of gooseberries, choke cherries, currants and plums 
made it an ideal spot for picnics, Fourth of July celebrations, 
etc. There were sailboats on the lakes during the celebration, 
programs, orations, big feeds, lemonade by the barrel, stirred 
with a spade, and the memory of these gatherings is hard to erase 
from the memories of the youngsters of those days who are still 
living today. To many people it seemed like vandalism to cut down 
the fine timber and destroy the beauty of the surroundings, but 
civilization has but little sentiment.

—110—

          One of the men who has been closely associated with 
this section for seventy years is Charley Aspeline. He and his 
brother trapped the lakes for years and in the winter of 1907-08 
their take of muskrats was over 18,000. Even as late as 1904 the 
lakes furnished a lot of rats and Fred Gass took over 1,000 pelts 
that winter.

          A post office was established on the west side of the 
north lake in 1877. The first post office was part dug-out and 
part sod. L. Manchester was the first postmaster. He sold out 
in two years to James Bissett who, after holding the office for 
a few years, traded it to Evan Jones for a farm near Lake Benton. 
Mr. Jones was postmaster until the office was discontinued. Mr. 
Jones also kept a stock of groceries and dry goods. Oran Jones now 
lives on the place where the old settlers got their mail for years. 
Being close to the lake bank, many Indians were seen by the folks, 
going for their mail, sometimes as many as a hundred in the group,
but they were friendly; they had not forgotten the defeats of 1862-63.

          The wave of settlers that came to Lowville township in 
the late '80's brought a lot of good men to the township. Among 
them was level headed, steady and substantial August Erickson; 
George Vallance, a keen-witted, hustling Yankee and Albert Oberg, 
who really did more to hasten the hog movement in this section than 
any other man. Then there was A. Olin, physically handicapped though 
he was, who left his imprint on the community for better farming
and better living.

          The first schoolhouse was built in the timber. It was 
12x14. There were no desks or tables. The kids sat on wooden benches. 
Reading, writing and arithmetic were the only subjects. There were 
no maps, no globes — not much of anything. Amelia Cleveland was the 
first teacher. The kids would walk four miles to school. Wm. Lowe 
also taught in the school in the timber.

          Among the descendants of the signers of the organization 
petition living in this section are Marshall Low and his daughter 
Mrs. E. (Pauline) Allinson, and the Mihin family.

—111—