Nobles County MN Archives History - Books .....Chapter XXIV Reminiscent 1908
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Book Title: An Illustrated History Of Nobles County

CHAPTER XXIV.

REMINISCENT.



A PRAIRIE FIRE.



  Those who lived in Nobles county during the years of its early settlement will

never forget the alarm caused by the approach of a prairie fire. Many of the

present generation are sceptical of the dangers to life and property from this

source. Others can but marvel at the conditions that made a-prairie fire

dangerous or even possible. But conditions in the early days differed greatly

from those of the present day. Then there were vast stretches of sparsely

settled and unbroken prairie, covered with a dense growth of rank grass, which

in the low places often grew to a great height. In the fall the grass died and

formed a thick covering of highly inflammable material, which "burned like a

prairie fire" when it became ignited.



  When a heavy wind accompanied one of these conflagrations the effect was

thrilling. The flames would race over the prairie with the speed of the wind,

leaping, bounding, rushing on its fiery way. By day the air would be filled with

smoke and cinders and the atmosphere would become hazy; at night the heavens

would be illumined by the blaze, and the bright lines of the raging fires could

be seen, often miles in length. After the passing the prairie would be left a

blackened waste.



  The few scattered settlers were in the greatest danger when one of these fires

approached. Many settlers lost their whole belongings, and but few escaped

without loss from this source. "Fire-breaks," made by plowing furrows around the

buildings or hay stacks, sometimes served as a check to the flames, but with a

strong head wind the flames often jumped hundreds of feet, and in such case the

breaks were of no use. The favorite method of fighting fire was by

"back-firing." When one of the terrors of the prairie was seen approaching with

the wind, a fire would be set near the property 'to be saved. This, small at

first, could be controlled and whipped out on the leeward side, leaving the

flames to slowly eat their way windward to meet the oncoming lurid destroyer.

Sometimes a space of sufficient width would thus be burned over in time to

prevent the destruction. In case of a big conflagration fire fighting companies

would be organized to go out and contend with the flames, using dampened sacks,

quilts, or whatever was handy, to whip out the blaze.



  Prairie fires continued a menace to the people of Nobles county many years or

until the county had been settled and subdued. Seldom did a fall pass in the

early days without one or more disastrous conflagrations in some part of the

county. The story of one of these fires will be given as an illustration.



  On Saturday afternoon, October 16, 1875, a dense smoke extending northward for

several miles was seen rising above the prairie to the west of Worthington, then

practically the only village of the county. It was evident that-an extensive

prairie fire was raging at some point miles away. As night came on the bright

lines of the fire became visible, and by ten o'clock the fires had approached so

near the town as to be thought dangerous. Several squads of men went out from

Worthington and fought the fire at points where the prairie in the immediate

vicinity of town was exposed. The fire approached to within one mile of the

village from the west.



  The fire had started on the west side of the Kanaranzi. It jumped the creek

and burned the whole country from that point to Worthington, burning over the

greater portions of Olney, Dewald, Summit Lake and Worthington townships. The

damage to property was about $5,000. The greatest loss was sustained by Mr.

Thorn, who had about 200 bushels of wheat in the stack burned. A number of

persons lost hay, ranging in quantity from one to twenty tons each.



  In the early days the starting of a prairie fire, whether intentionally or

otherwise, was a crime, and steps were at once taken to apprehend the guilty

party. The origin of the fire was soon learned. Spencer Maxwell stated that he

had come in from the west during the day and that he had seen the beginning of

the fire. He had seen a teamster start a fire for the purpose of cooking his

dinner at a point just beyond the Kanaranzi, that the fire got beyond his

control and soon covered acres of ground. A stiff breeze was blowing from the

west and the flames spread with great rapidity.



  John Alley, who did more than any other man in the community to impress upon

the public the importance of preventing prairie fires, insisted that the party

should be promptly arrested, Sheriff Bullis, accompanied by Spencer Maxwell, was

soon on his way westward to seek the teamster. The officer went as far as Valley

Springs, Dakota, where he learned that the man wanted was on the road south of

the main traveled Sioux Falls road. He hastened in the direction indicated and

arrested the man in Martin township, Rock county.



  A Norwegian by the name of Nels Nelson proved to be the man. He was taken to

Worthington on the eighteenth and there arraigned before Justice of the Peace

Bennett. Nelson pleaded guilty and was fined $60 and costs, bringing the total

up to $90. Imprisonment in the Blue Earth county jail for ninety days was the

alternative of paying the fine. Nelson's story of the start of the fire was as

follows: He was engaged in teaming for a Sioux Falls party, and on Saturday was

returning to that town from Worthington. After crossing the Kanaranzi he drove

aside from the main road into a by-road and started a fire to cook a meal. He

whittled some pine shavings and lighted them, when a gust of wind scattered them

among the prairie grass, and in a moment the fire was beyond his control.



  The story and the evidence of others went to show that the fire was the result

of carelessness merely, and that the case was an unfortunate one. Nelson claimed

that there was enough money due him in Sioux Falls to pay his fine and the

costs, and the court did not impose sentence at once. He was permitted to go to

work in Worthington with the understanding that he was to pay the fine as soon

as the money could be collected. He was pardoned by the governor in November,

upon the recommendation of a number of the citizens of the county. Mr. Maxwell

received $100 offered by the county for information leading to the conviction of

the guilty party.



"THE WILD GIRL."



  The history of Nobles county would be incomplete without a word about Caroline

Harrison, "the wild girl," who came to the Graham Lakes country with the early

settlers and there lived the rude life of the trappers for a few years. Many

stories of her doings—most of them of imaginative origin—have been told, to the

effect that she was in reality a wild girl, that she lived alone in the timber

on the lake, and that on one occasion she drove a party of surveyors out of the

country at the point of a rifle.



  Miss Harrison was the eldest daughter of Benjamin Harrison, one of the

commissioners appointed by Governor Horace Austin to organize Nobles county. Her

mother died when she was quite young and Caroline became the companion of her

father. Hunting and trapping, living on the frontier and denied the society of

her own sex, she was at home in the company of the frontiersmen. She could play

the violin, shoot, trap, chew tobacco and occasionally swear. While she was

short in stature she weighed perhaps 180 pounds, and, notwithstanding her

weight, could walk thirty or thirty-five miles in a day, lift a twenty-five

pound sack of shot from one shoulder to the other, swim a mile or more without

apparent fatigue, and was in fact an athlete of no mean proportion.



  Her rough manners were the result of her association, as was demonstrated when

she began her association with the neighbor women. She then began to check her

rude habits, and before she left the county she had given up all except the

violin. She afterward fell heir to a small sum of money and had the good sense

to use it in obtaining an education.



WORTHINGTON'S FIRST SALOON.



  All the old-timers are familiar with the efforts put forth to make Worthington

a temperance town, which efforts were successful for several years during the

early history of the town. However, numerous efforts were made by several

different parties to sell liquor, which efforts generally resulted disastrously.

We have the story of the first saloon—if it may be so termed—which opened in

Worthington from one who was a resident of the village at the time. From the

facts regarding this first attempt we may form the opinion that this initial

"drunk shop" did very little harm.



  One of the enterprising business men, in the fall of 1871, shipped in a five

gallon jug of whiskey. Then came the blockade, and no more could be procured

until late the next spring, but this did not prevent the storekeeper from doing

a thriving business in his side line. There were two residents of Worthington

who were regular patrons of this five gallon jug, who were wont to toss a coin

several times a day to decide who should "buy."



  Knowing that it was impossible that any more should have been shipped in and

that the supply at the start was limited as stated, these two gentlemen, along

in the spring, began to make calculations and found to their great surprise that

they must have consumed at least forty gallons of the liquor. This was a stunner

and hard to reconcile with the facts. It began to dawn upon these gentlemen that

perhaps the liquor had been adulterated, and they called upon a friend to

investigate the matter. The friend was one who did not drink, and his judgment

was asked for that reason. They figured that, as they had been accustomed to

drinking the liquor, their taste might have become perverted, and that the

non-drinking friend would be a better judge of the liquid than they who had

become so accustomed to it.



  So they asked him to sample the liquor and ascertain if he could find any

trace of whiskey in it. This the friend consented to do. First he smelled the

cork, and then tasted the contents of the bottle. After several trials he gave

it as his opinion that the cork had a perceptible odor of whiskey, but that he

could detect no trace in the bottle. And so it proved to be. When a quart of

whiskey had been sold a quart of rainwater had taken its place, and so gradual

had been the change that the tastes of the customers had been educated up to

drinking rainwater.



  This is a true story.



BATTLE OF STONY POINT.



  In 1896 some Worthington gentlemen found in lake Okabena an old-fashioned

single-barreled shot gun of the style in use years ago. The barrel of the gun

was deeply encrusted with rust, and the stock, which was of black walnut, was

badly eaten and washed thin by incessant contact with the waves of more than a

quarter of a century. How the old gun came to be there was of course an unsolved

mystery, but the Worthington Herald editor had a dream and printed it. Here is

the story he wove about the old gun:



  "Away back in the early sixties, so the story runs, a party of Sioux Indians

belonging to the band of the ferocious and blood thirsty Inkpadutah, who

conducted the massacre at Spirit Lake, were encamped at Stony Point [on West

Okabena lake] laying in a supply of fish. This was but a few days after the

Spirit Lake butchery, and United States cavalry was scouring the country in

search of the terrible chief and his band.



  "While the Indians were quietly fishing a detachment of soldiers suddenly

appeared behind them, deployed in a semi-circle, so that escape to the north,

south and east was impossible. In this predicament the Indians plunged into the

lake, which was very deep in those days, and by swimming under water all but one

managed to elude the bullets of their pursuers and escape in safety to the other

side. They took their weapons with them. The one mentioned, when about two

hundred yards from the shore, raised himself from the water to yell defiance at

the troops on the bank. It was his last yell on earth. A sharp crack from a

musket, a short struggle in the water, and the Sioux brave sunk to a watery

grave. Finding it useless to continue the pursuit, the soldiers took the back

trail to the eastward."



THE DIAGONAL ROAD.



  One of the best known public thoroughfares of southwestern Minnesota is the

diagonal wagon road which extends from Worthington due northwest, diagonally

across the sections, for a distance of about fourteen miles, ending a mile and a

half east of Wilmont. To realize the importance of this road in the early days

it must be remembered, that up to recent years the whole of northwestern Nobles

county—a rich and productive territory—was without a railroad and far from

market. Until the Worthington & Sioux Falls railroad was built and Adrian and

Rushmore were founded the trade of this whole northwest country came to

Worthington, and after that event much of it went to the county seat town. The

building of the diagonal road shortened the route to market several miles and

proved of great benefit to the farmers and the business men of Worthington.



  To B. W. Lyon belongs, primarily, the credit for the making of the road.. It

was he who conceived the idea, and he who drew up the petitions and circulated

them. The county commissioners took favorable action and formally established

the road as county road No. 9. Surveyor B. W. Woolstencroft laid out the road,

in which he was assisted by Mr. Lyon. The latter was the first to drive a team

(an ox team) over the proposed road, which he did without making a single detour

from a straight line. The railroad company donated the land of its sections over

which the road passed and took a friendly interest in the proceedings. Efforts

to make the diagonal road a thing of beauty as well as useful were made. The

railroad company offered free of charge willow shoots to line the road if the

farmers and others would plant them. Along only a short distance of the road

were the trees planted.



  The diagonal road was kept in repair and became the most traveled thoroughfare

of the county. After the building of the Burlington road, however, and markets

had been established at several points in northwestern Nobles county, the old

road lost much of its usefulness. Then the northwestern end had little except

"through" travel on it, and it was kept in repair under protest. In 1902 a

petition was presented to the county board, signed by many farmers along the

road who considered the land of more value for farming than for road purposes,

asking that it be abandoned. Remonstrances poured in protesting against any such

action, as much from sentiment, possibly, as from any other cause. The action of

the board is related by the commissioners' journal of November 20, 1902:



  "On motion the petition was rejected on account of the overwhelming

remonstrances. The petition was not reasonable on its face."



A MIRAGE.



  The year of the arrival of the National colonists to Nobles county was one of

interest in many respects, and not the least item of interest were the mirages

which occurred. The autumn of that year, from the middle of September to the

middle of October, was a genuine Indian Summer. The nights were crisp and

frosty, but the days were soft and crystal clear, and the hum of the thresher

could be heard for miles.



  On some mornings the looming mirage cast a glamour over the prairies and

changed them into an enchanted land. People at first doubted their senses and

feared for their reason when they saw the country for fifty miles in all

directions raised into view, lakes, groves, villages, not ordinarily visible,

appearing like apparitions invoked by some enchanter's wand.



  The most wonderful phenomenon of this nature occurred October 1, 1872. The

mirage lasted until nearly an hour after sunrise and was witnessed by many

people. Upon those who saw it, it had almost a weird effect and threw a sort of

poetic glamour over the whole region which lasted a long time after the vision

was gone. So clear was the atmosphere and so distinct were remote objects that

the houses in the village of Hersey, not ordinarily visible from Worthington,

were revealed almost to their foundations. The timber on Graham lakes appeared

like a grove half way between Worthington and the horizon, and as far north as

the eye could reach there were dim outlines of more timber, probably on lake

Shetek, between thirty and forty miles distant. The line of timber along Des

Moines river could be traced from Jackson to Windom. Groups of houses stood out

on the prairie in every direction, looking like small villages. It certainly was

a fairy land upon which the early settlers gazed in wonder.



THE FIRST CIRCUS.



  Things of small importance in themselves are sometimes treasured in the memory

because of association. So it happens that the coming of a circus— the first in

the county—is remembered by many of the early settlers. It was in the summer of

1873 that Barnum & Bailey circus exhibited in the little town of Worthington and

thereby added to the early history of the village.



  That place was selected for an exhibition point for a two-fold reason— first,

because the long "jumps" between show towns on the western frontier made

necessary a stop at some smaller town, and second, because of the fact that the

lake at Worthington offered a splendid wallow for the animals of the menagerie.

It was a big day for Worthington, and the little village was filled to

overflowing. From Dakota, Iowa, and southern Minnesota points people by the

hundreds came to see the circus, many making a two and three days' trip.



AN OLD STOVE.



  In several places in this volume, mention has been made of a party of

Scandinavian railroad laborers who in 1871 took claims near the Bigelow-Indian

Lake township line and became early and permanent settlers. Those men became

identified with the part of the county in which they located, and nearly all of

them are residents of the county today.



  Four members of the party, Hans Nystrom, Erick Mahlberg, C. J. Wickstrom and

Peter Wickstrom, have the honor of having bought the first stove in Nobles

county. In the fall of 1871 these gentlemen went to Worthington and in

partnership invested thirty dollars in a cook stove, buying from H. W. Kimball,

who had just opened his hardware store, the first one in the county. During the

first winter all members of the party made their homes at the house of E.

Nordquist, in Indian Lake township, and there the stove was initiated to the

rigors of a Minnesota winter climate.



  In the spring of 1872 each of the settlers moved onto his own claim, and the

stove was purchased by Hans Nystrom. In his pioneer home it saw service many

years, and into its firebox were stuffed many thousand twists of hay—the fuel in

general use in early days. The old stove was on duty at the Nystrom home until

three years ago, and then, its days of usefulness having passed, it passed into

the hands of a junk dealer.



TRIBULATIONS.



  Many stories—some of amusing nature now, but of a serious nature at the

time—have been told of eariy day life in Nobles county. During the terribie

grasshopper scourge the settlers suffered unrecorded trials. The stories of such

alone would fill a volume of this size.



  Indicative of the times, it has been related that a prominent and, later,

successful farmer of Summit Lake township was one winter's day hauling a load of

hay to Worthington, with the proceeds from the sale of which he expected to buy

provisions. The weather was unpleasant and the snow was deep. Over miserable

roads he was having anything but a pleasant time and successful trip, and on

seven occasions the load tipped over. On one such he was assisted in getting the

load to rights by D. W. Chute, another Summit Lake farmer. The unfortunate owner

of the hay was disgusted and exclaimed:



  "If we were not out of flour I would

set fire to the d____ load."





THE FIRST DEMOCRAT.



  Almost without exception the first settlers of Nobles county were republicans.

It may be saib, en passant, that the county has not got over it to this day, but

in the early days it was so unanimously Republican that the casting of a

democratic vote  was an event.



  At the election of 1871, out of a total vote of 73, there was only one

democratic ballot. Horace Austin, republican, for governor received 72 votes,

and Winthrop Young, democrat, received one vote, and so on down the state

ticket, for lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general

and associate justices of the supreme court. The lone democrat was Michael

Maguire, of Graham Lakes township, who then, and ever since has, "voted it

straight." He is the father of the democratic party of Nobles county.



  Far from the centers of political strife, the little community on Graham lakes

took no great interest in anything but local politics, but a few of the leaders

took it upon themselves to do a little electioneering for the state ticket. Mr.

Maguire at that time had no hide-bound party affiliation, but it was surmised he

had leanings toward democracy. A few of the influential men of the community

argued long and persistently with Mr. Maguire on the infallibility of the

republican party  and the shortcomings of the opposition.



  "They hounded me almost to death," said Mr. Maguire when asked about the

incident, "talking their politics, and I finally made up my mind to vote the

democratic ticket to spite them. They made a democrat of me for good."



INCIDENT OF THE SIXTIES.



  The following account of an incident connected with the early days in Graham

Lakes township was written by Judge B. W. Woolstencroft in 1877, eight years

after the event described:



  "When we first came to Nobles county our nearest market was Jackson, thirty

miles distant, and the nearest flouring mill was at Garden City, eighty miles

away. We were often on the road in severe weather and had many a narrow escape

from the blinding snow or high water in the streams.



  "Early in the spring of 1869 John Freeman and E. J. Clark started to Jackson

for provisions. They had a team of horses belonging to Stephen Muck. On arriving

at Heron lake outlet they found the stream terribly swollen with the recent

thaw, but, nothing daunted, John took a 'fresh chew of tobacco to float on' and

drove in. When half way across the stream the wagon turned over, precipitating

them into the water. Clark, though an indifferent swimmer, got ashore, but

Freeman was drowned. His body was found some days afterward about sixty rods

down the stream, where he had caught hold of a willow, which must have been

several feet under water at the time he was drowned.



  "Thus perished one of Nobles county's first settlers. He was a comparative

stranger to us all, having been with us but a few months, yet he had made

friends of all by his joyous, joking, happy way. He was a native of Vermont, was

an orphan, and had a sister somewhere in the states, but we never knew where,

and in all probability she does not know of her brother's tragic end. Mr. Muck's

horses were drowned, and it was a sad loss to him indeed. Clark gave the fur

they were taking to Jackson to a man by the name of Stone, to deliver to the

buyer. Other parties sent fur and money until the whole amounted to about $250.

It proved too big a temptation to the fellow and we have never seen him, fur, or

money since. This was the most disasterous trip to Jackson we know of and was a

terrible shock to the settlers."



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:



AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NOBLES COUNTY

MINNESOTA

BY

ARTHUR P. ROSE



NORTHERN HISTORY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

WORTHINGTON, MINNESOTA 

PUBLISHERS

1908



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