Class, FUZr Book M i A b% PRESENTED BT OLD TIMES ON Portland Pr&irie J85M880 LARIMORE, N. D. Printed By H. V.Arnold J9JJ OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND PRAIRIE HOUSTON COUNTY, MINN. INCLUDING FAMILY RECORDS. 1851—1880 LARIMORE, N. D. Printed by H. V. Arnold 1911 rH8 A6S PRINTED FOR PORTLAND PRAIRIE RESIDENT^ AND DESCENDANTS OF ITS EARLY SETTLERS Publisher's Booklet No. 16. V^ PREFACE During the middle and later seventies a young man of the name of EdwardS. Kilbourne was publishing at New Albin a small paper called the "Spectator," for which the writer was occasionally a cor- respondent. This paper suspended publication about the beginning of the summer of 1879 an( * its proprietor went to the Red River Valley to look for a location. The country up in that part of Dakota Territory was only just beginning to develope, so returning home, in October, 1879, he founded the "Houston County Argus." Geo. B. Winship had for two years been running a local paper in Caledonia, but in June he had left with his outfit for Grand Forks, then a mere village, where he started the "Herald," at first as a weekly paper. In his last issue at Caledonia, Winship warned publishers against tryinp; th?re?ft^r to ut'iize his yacated field, as times then were in Houston County. This well- intended advice Kilbourne disregarded. Some two or three weeks prior to issuing the first number of the "Argus" we had an interview with Kilbourne, who outlined his proposeJ venture and requested something for the paper, anything suitable for a local publication. It chanced at that time that we had been considering the gathering of materials concerning settlement times at Portland Prairie, to be supplemented with our own later recollections, and have them published as a series of articles. Men- tioning this literary project to Kilbourne, he said at once that he would be glad to publish them. We now set about having talks with the old settlers, taking notes and dates. These were made the basis of some of the articles of which there were six in the whole series, each with some sub-head and number, but collectively bear- ing the title, "Early Days on Portland Prairie." We never saved the papers and do not know that any copies are now in existence. After Kilbourne sold out to move to Casselton v , N; D.; the office IV PE^FACE was burned and the early files of the paper were destroyed. We, have not had, therefore, those articles with which to form a basis for the present work. It happened, however, that in the early eighties a History of Houston County was published, and scraps from the articles in question as well as other of our writings in regard to the county in general, were appropriated and used in that work. Having the facilitits to do so, the printing of this work has for several years been contemplated. But it was thought to be useless to undertake the work until we could again visit Portland Prairie with this project in mind and have the cfeance to collect anew a tund of information, besides collecting family records. The op- portunity to do these things came last December. It should be further explained that with the exception of the book cover this work has not been printed or bound in any office. Nor has it been put in type from any previously prepared man- uscript. The contents of each chapter were arranged like an index page, a single line, it might be, indicating the substance of a whole paragraph, and wfcfc occasional looking s\ notes to verify facts, names and dates, the rest, excepting quoted accounts and family records, has been gotten up in type much on the same principle as where a person sits down and composes a letter by using a type-writer. The expression "the writer," is only used for convenience. Two sizes of type have commonly been used in this work, the smaller size for things of a special character. All works of loca\ history contain errors, and to expect a work of that kind to be faultless in this respect, would be expecting the impossible. Larimore, N. D., Sept. 30, 191 1. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Portland Prairie 1— ft CHAPTFR II. The Rhode Island Settlement 7—16 CHAPTER III. Affairs in the Later Fifties 17—28 CHAPTER IV. The War Period and Later Conditions 29—54 CHAPTER V. Through the Middle and Later Sixties 55—72 CHAPTER VI. Portland Prairie in the Seventies 73—100 es and Family Records— Necrology 101—120 OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND PRAIRIE C»A PTER I. PORTLAND PRAIRIE. THERE are two townships in the southern part of Houston County, Minnesota, both corresponding with the surveyor's or government townships and bordering on the Iowa state line, wl ich were among the first of the seventeen townships comprised in the county te re- ceive their first contingent of pioneer settlers. A few of these early settlers had begun to establish claims on the Iowa side of the state line in 1851, and likewise to select claims also on the other side of the line before these Minnesota Territory townships, called Winnebago and Wilmington, had been staked out by the government surveyors into sections and quarter sections. But this* narrative, composed along lines of local history, is not intended to deal with the settlement and earlier life of any township as a whole, but rather with matters of the same import relative to an agricultural community that is located partly in one and partly in the other of the- two townships mentioned and which also has a southerly extension across the state line into Iowa. At an early day this community came to be called Portland Prairie, 2 OLD TTMES OS PORTL*NP PRAIRIE The general level erf the southern portion of Houston, County is about 1150 feet above the sea, by which wa mean the average altitude irf the rounded tops of the ridges between the creek valleys and their branching ravines and the rolling prairies about the heads of these ravines. Portland Prairie is rolling because each syncline is a drainage way that leads down into some ravine and although these hollows lead from the prairie in nearly all directions, drainage waters, as in times of rapidly melting snows or heavy summer showers, ultimately find their way to the Winnebago creek or the Oneota river (the Upper Iowa of maps) and thence to the Mississippi river, the valley of which is about thirteen miles eaet of the Winnebago and Wilmington town line. The river at the state line is 620 feet above sea-level, hence the de- scent from Portland Prairie to the river is over five hun- dred feet, rather gradual where you follow the valleys. The actual watershed of that section of the county it a ridge, more or less broad in places, with projecting spur-ridges, elevated 100 to 200 feet higher than the, adjacent prairies. This upland tract covers a consider- able area in Spring Grove and Wilmington townships and a projecting line of ridge, interrupted by a few wind gaps, trends northeasterly into the southern part of Cal- edonia township.' The rock structure of these ridges is a white sandstone but capped toward the top by a hard bluish limestone. The axis or watershed of Portland Prairie extends southeast from the point of the ridge in the eastern part of Wilmington township to Eitzen and beyond. The swells of the prairie may be broad in some of the sections, but usually tht fields do not extend level like far in anv direction without some slope, either IN5SCR1FTIVK OF PO-ktf.AND PEAIRIE $ gentle, or it may be, but slight. Portland Prairie is on the horizon of the base of the sandstone stratum that mainly forms tl>e upland ridges, but as you pass down the ravines to the creek valleys two other strata of sand- stone and two of limestone occur, one below the other in alternating layers. The soil of the prairie is a dark brown or black loam, of a kind called loe3s, which also mantles the tops of the upland ridges and those of the other ridges between the ravines. The prairie soil is from one to two feet in depth, or thereabout, and is apt to grade into a few feet of yellow clay and this iu turn into a mixture of clay and decayed limestone rubble, beneath which comes the limestone bedrock. The early settlers found the sun-shaded sides of th© ravines and tops of some of the bluffs or ridges between them, fairly well-stocked wit.h timber, largely of the full-grown kind, with groves of trees of smaller growths where the bluffs began merging into the swells of the open prairie. There were several varieties of oak in the heavy timber tracts, occasionally a hickory tree and a few other kinds, the white oak being the predominant tree. There was but little pine any where in the county, while the chestnut, so common in the eastern states, was not found in Minnesota. The sides of the bluffs that received the rays of the sun in winter, where high and steep, were apt to be bare of trees, though on the opposite sides of the raviiiHs, sciub-oaks, poplar, birch, etc., might occur, more or less thick. The border prairie groves contained oaks of different varieties and size, but largely consisted of poplar and wild cherry. These last two usually attained in those times only a thickness of three or four inches, when from some 4 OLD TIMES OH PUKTLtSD PBAHtftE cause, they died out and fell. These groves also contained wild phim trees, some of which bore plums of about the size of small peaches, and the wild crab-apple sometimes grew about the borders of the groves. Patches of hazel brush usually extended long or short distances outward from the groves and iu these scrub-oaks and Ion* trees gained a foothold. The wild prairie grass grew a foot high or more. The botanist might then have found the prairie rose and quite a variety of flowering plants whose roots were not .killed by the prairie fires of the late fall or early spring that annually burned over parts of the country, some- times in one area, sometimes in another. The wild strawberry was not lacking, but the dandelion was not seen until after the seed had been introduced into the county during settlement days. The first comers into this section of Houston County did not occupy the open rolling prairie, but rather sought out locations about its south and southeast borders, where the land was partially timbered. Two or thre* considerations have usually influenced the locations of pioneer settlers in the northwest, to-wit, the shelter of timber, and nearness to water combined with good land. A log cabin once built, other conveniences might be left to be attained as soon as might be, while seme privi- leges commonly enjoyed in the communities from which they had emigrated, were to be indefinitely postponed or left to come as they would. The first settlers to locate in the neighborhood of Portland Prairie appear to have been Freeman Graven Everett Brothers, George Carver, John Edger, Mrs. Ja*. PORTLAND PRAIRIE— EARLIEST SETTLERS* 5 Robinson with her pons and daughters, and besides these there were a few others who did not remain long in the country. Freeman Graves was a native of Vermont, born July 10, 1809. He moved to St. Lawrence County, N. Y., where he married Betsey Billings February 6, 1833. He came to Wisconsin in 1846 and located in Columbia County, from which section of the state he came to the place of his settlement, Section 34, Winne- bago township, March 15, 1851. After the government survey of the state line in 1852 he found that the most of the land he had selected lay on the Iowa side of it. He spent the remainder of a long life on his farm and ten children were born to the family. James Robinson was a native of Antrim County, Ire- land, born in 1797 and died in 1841. We do not know in what year the family came to America, but in 1845 Mrs. Robinson and family settled in Columbia County, \V*is. In 1851 the family located on what is still known as the Robinson place on the southern border of Port- land Prairie and on the Iowa side of the state line. Four sons in the family were named William, Henry, George and John. William only was old enough to make entry on the claim. The Fourth of July was observod by raising a log cabin, which in later years gave place to a commodious framed house. Another early settler was John Coil who located south of the Robinson place. John Edger and three other Irishmen located in Sec- tion 32, Wilmington township, in 1852, where Edger broke 23 acres, but he soon moved his location to the southeast corner of Section 36 where he built a log cabin about 14 by 16 feet. None of the party remained long in the township ere they sold their holdings and left, b OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND PRAIRIE George Carver settled some distance to the south of where Eitzen now is, in 1852, and on the Iowa side of the state line. He was a native of the state of New York, born January 24, 1814. The sons of Col. Josiah Everett, as he was called, also settled on the Iowa side of the state line. The sons were named Josiah, Andrew, Franklin, Benaiah and Seth. Two daughters of the family were named Orra and Lucy. Some of the sons had settled first in Wisconsin, and came to what became known as the "Everett neighborhood" about 1853-4. All of the family were from about New Portland, Maine, a village about eighty miles north of the city of Port- land. Possibly the Everetts gave to Portland Prairie the name that has come down from settlement days. The first of the Norwegian settlers to locate in Wil- mington township came as early as 1853. It was about that time that the government survey of the county was made to establish the corners of sections and quarter- sections. A laud office soon afterwards was opened at Brownsville. Tbe earlier settlers had to get their mail at Lansing, Iowa, or bring it out for several families. In those years some small fragments of tbe Winne- bago tribe of Indians lingered along the Iowa riyer and Mississippi bottoms, and small groups of them occasion- ally appeared at the cabins of the settlers to beg food or old clothing or to barter game for what they needed. An old Indian trail from the Iowa to Root river followed the watershed of the prairie and passed around the point of the ridge in its course northwesterly, keeping as conveniently as possible to high ground. The first road struck out across the prairie essentially followed the course already marked by the old trail. CHAPTER II. THE RHODE ISLAND SETTLEMENT. THE most northwestern township of the little state of Rhode Island is called Eurrillville. Originally it was ten miles long from north to south and eight miles wide from east to west. In 1806 this large "town" was divided in halves on an east and west line, the southern half being set off to form the town of Glocester. Th€f; whole of northern Rhode Island is rough, rocky and quite generally timbered, though the existing timbered tracts are not the old time "woods of fifty or sixty years ago, but more recent growths instead. Although the highest of the great drumlin-shaped hills do not much exceed an elevation of 900 feet above sea-level, yet as viewed from some points the region has a mountainous aspect, at least in that sense on a small scale, the topog- raphy in some respects being more pronounced and quite different from that of Houston County. Streams of various sizes from brooks to small rivers intersect the region in question, their valleys usually having gradually sloping sides, according to the form of their bordering hills. In these valleys are located many small mill villages, Burrillville having several, the largest of which is called Pascoag. The mills have generally, since the development and use of the waterpowersof that section, been devoted to woolen manufacturing, though other industries were carried on even in the old days. The creation and growth of manufacturing villages, largely along in the second quarter of the last century, had » 8 OLO TfMKS ON WItTL\SD PRAISIK tendency to develops mechanics, and the mills created a class called factory operati ves. The latter at first, were mainly of the native American stock, but were later reinforced by families of Irish, emigrants from Ireland. A hilly, wooded region like Burrillyille could not be much of a f arming country. Still, there were many small farms there in the old days, made in forest clearings and by removing cobble-stones from fields, and by cultivating the less stony lands of the broad stream valleys. Large substantial houses and barns had been built earlier than the manufacturing era, and the farms had their orchards of pear, peach and apple trees. The larger townships had each their "townhouse" in which the town meetings were held. Educationally, the bulk of the people were not advanced! ranch beyond what the common schools and the scant periodical literature of the middle of the last century, also occasional town libraries of a few hundred volumes, chanced to afford them, none of these facilities then being of a high order. Some towns, however, maintained academies, and it was common for well-to-do families to send away favored sons to some noted school or to a college. We have thus referred to northern Rhode Island in general, and the town of Burrillville in particular, be- cause it was from that region, including a neighboring portion of Massachusetts, that quite a contingent of the early settlers of Portland Prairie came, and those from Rhode Island being more numerous than those from any other single state, the prairie colony was re- ferred to by some in the early days as the "Rhode Island* Settlement." THK RHODK IHfcAKD hETTLBMBNT ft Minnesota Territory was organized as such in 1849,, As a territory, the Missouri river was made its western boundary. The gold fever emigration to California which began that year, took from the east and the mid- dle west the restless and adventuresome classes, which left the new territory to be quietly occupied by a sub- stantial class of home seekers. Steamboats had begun to run up to the settlement at St. Paul, the number of boats and their traffic increasing each year, and the. river ties of counties were rapidly occupied by settlers hi the early fifties and through that decade. Where favorable townsites were found adjacent to the main, channel of the river, market-towns sprang up. The first Rhode Island settlers to locate on Portland Prairie came in, the spring of 1864. These were Jamee M. and Duty S. Paine, Charles F. Albee and Jeremiah Shumway. They bought out John Edger and occupied his log cabin until they could establish themselves on places of their own. Edger next moved down on the Mississippi river bottom somewhere to the south of the state line. The four men named were still young and all married, but at first had left their wives in the east. The Paines were brothers and the other two had mar«j ried sisters of the Paine brothers. At the time they came out to the west, Minnesota was attracting attention in the easiern states as a favor- able section for emigrants. The south line of the ter-. ritory corresponded in latitude with the southern parts of Vermont and New Hampshire or about the same aa Portland, Maiue, hence the winter temperature might be expected to be somewhat colder than that of southern ^ w England. In 1854 no railroad line from any point 10 OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND PRAIEIB oa Lake Michigan had readied the Mississippi river west or northwest of Chicago. The trip from the east was then somewhat harder to make than in these times,, and it took longer to accomplish it. Chicago could be. reached by railroad; thence a local railroad, but recently built took the traveler to liuckford, 111., from whence he proceeded by stage to Galena. Here a line of boats ran up to St. Paul, making landings at all the market towns„ on the v\*ay. Times were not at their best in Rhode Island and so the party referred to decided to follow the example of others and emigrate to the west. They left the boat at Lansing, Iowa, without any very definite idea where in southeastern Minnesota they would make choice of a location. Learning of a prairie tract some twenty miles to the northwest of Lnnsing, as yet scarce- ly occupied by settlers, some of the party went out to* view the land tli^re and reported that there would be no need of looking for any other location. James and. Duty (or Darius) Paine came, of a large family such as often grew up on the old farmsteads of New England and mainly furnished the recruits for an almost constant stream of western emigration. An, ancestor of the Paines, named James King came into the then partial wilderness of Burrillville in 1768 and built a large framed house on a road leading north to Douglass, Mass. The old house was still standing more than a hundred years afterwards, though a later house, itself already old, had long occupied the opposite side of the road, both about two miles north of Bascoag. Here the Paine family were brought up. D. S. Paine was born February 1, 1830 and married Sarah Maria Cook. J. M. Paine was born July 19, 18S5 and married as a. THE RHODE ISLAND f-ETTLEMENT 21 first wife Ruth E A. Shumway, who was born August 4, 1835. Charles P. A I bee was born on a farm in Bur- rillville, within two miles of Pascoag, February 1, 1822, Prior to coming west he had been engaged in carpenter- ing and building. He married Sarah Paine, April 22, 1847; she was born August 8, 1825. The Shumway family came to Eurrillville from Oxford, Mass., and located on a farm adjacent to Pascoag. Jeremiah Shum- way was horn in Oxford. October 15, 1827. He married Mary Paine July 24, 1852. Mary Paine was born July 28, 1832. During the year others came on from the east. Among these were Asa Sherman, David Salisbury and Silas C. Perry, who, having the means, boughfe up government lands not as yet entered by any one and held them a w.bile on speculation. After J. Shumway had been in the country a short time he went back to the east for his wife, and probably the wives of the Paine brothers came out at the same time. The Paines located, on lands in Section 3£, Wilmington, or on what is now the Schultze place. J. Shumway remained on the John Edger claim, having land on both sides of the state line. For the present C. F. Albee lived in the Edger cabin with the Shumway family and worked at building the few frame houses that were put up that vear, the lumber being teamed from Lansing. It is said that at one tinm the log cabin sheltered sixteen inmates which included small children and infants. Mrs. Sarah Albee, wife of C. F. Albee, came out to Minnesota in the summer of 1854 with her two children that were born at the east. In her old age she wrote out her vivid recollections of those times, of which the following is a part: — 12 OLD TIMES 09 PORTLAND PRAIRIE "Opening the door I saw Mary sick, lying on some straw in a corner. Our goods had not come; we had only what we brought in our trunks. The roof of the cabin was thatched with shakes and leaked; when it rained we used to raise an umbrella to keep off. all the water we could. It was quite a while before we got our boxes of goods. Now it rained so much that it made the Iowa river raise so that it could not be crossed with a team, and Lansing was our trading point. "The boys had got two cows and these had calves, so it took one cow's milk, with string beans about as large as your little finger and potatoes as large as marble;, with a little flour for our first meals. Monday night Mary was so sick that she was un- conscious; then, Charles really seemed to hare the cholera and was really very sick, and from eating such stuff I felt bad and I did not kuow but that they were liable to die. On Wednesday they were both better. "Up north about a mile. Duty and wife and James and wife and my father* had their log cabin, and were just as hard up for food. They were trytng to fix a better roof. Well, news came that a neighbor's wifef was so sick with the cholera that sue died on her way home from Lansing, and what could be done? One of our neighbors asked if Jerry could not make a coffin if he brought some beards. He said he would try, and so went to ^ork. Charles would raise up on his elbow and tell Jerry how and what to do. My two brothers and Jerry with Mr. J. Coil went along to bury her. They had not been gone long before a regular tornado swept in upon us. The floor boards of the cabin were not nailed down and began to fly up, and the shakes flew Irom the roof. I expected that the logs would tumble next and no one but myself able to do anything. So I got my babies' wraps on and Charles dressed and got Mary and her baby to the door ready to go if the logs tumbled. I never can forget how Charles • Old Mr. Paine had come on from Rhode Island to star a whii* thatytar with his sons. t A Mn. Griffin who lived near Waterloo cree^. THB XHODK IShAlfl) BETTUtM'MIT 1$ looked, so much like a dead man with my white bed-spread over him. We had no bedding except what we brought in our trunks. "I looked up on the hill and what a sight ! My poor old father trying to keep up with the ox-team in which the women and babies were loaded. The roof of their house was entirely gone, trunks blown open and clothing scattered to the winds. James' wife had a silk wedding-dress which was found in a hasel patch, and my lather's black silk-velvet vest and neck handker- chief he never did find. This was Thursday and I had not been ia Minnesota Territory a week. "The men soon carae back and Jack Coil came riding up, say- iug that the cattle were in our cornfield, the fence having mostly blown down. Then they all took hold and fixed up the fence. Jack wanted me to take shelter at his house but I could not leav* my sick ones. The men went and Grandma Coil found out how we suffered. The next Tuesday we heard that the Iowa river could be crossed and they got Jack's team and brought flour and eatables from Lansing. We did not suffer for food any further. The crops were soon ripe and we had both wheat and corn. We bought an improved place. It had twenty acres in corn, four or five acres in wheat, the old log cabin, and a log yard to herd our stock in, and some hogs that run wild. When we saw them we could tell ours by their marks." It does not appear who Mrs. Albee came on from the east with, but a few others from Rhode Island were arriving about that time. The party got off the boat at Lansing about noon on a Saturday and were enabled to reach the prairie settlement by team by evening. The Iowa river was not bridged on the Lansing road at that time, but could easily be crossed by teams when the v/ater was low, at a ford. In bringing on household goods from the east it was customary to pack them in large boxes made of pine boards an inch thick. Both %he boxes or the pieces of boards when taken apart, even. 14 0LI> TIMES OH PORTLAND PRAIRIE the nails, were useful about the cabins and small framed houses of the settlements. Probably many a temproary cupboard and like things were made from such mate- rials. Mrs. Albee states in her record that a box which, contained their winter clothing was lost on the way and was never recovered. Freight moved west comparative- ly slow in those tim^s and goods shipped as mentioned might be two or three weeks in reaching Minnesota. In fixing up the old cabin some suitable logs were cut and with a cross-cut saw short lengths were mad* and^ split and shaved into shingles so that the roof was now put in better order than before. J. IShumway also be- gan the erection of a framed house a few rods south- east of the log cabin. A pond hole was dug to retain rain water and the water used to wash clothes until the hogs then running loose, spoili it for any such use. A sort of sled made from the crotch of a small tree was then used to haul water in a barrel or two up from Duck creek with oxen. These were truly pioneer days when hardships and many inconveniences, not known to the late generation of the same community, had to be patiently borne until they could be overcome. The first preacher Mrs. Albee remembered as coming to that section waa a Campbellite who came about once a month for a while and preached to such assembly as could be gathered in those parts and in Mr. Coil's house. About that time other points were being occupied on Portland Prairie by Rhode Island people and others from that state came later. Asa Sherman is said to have built the first framed house in the community. It Etood about one-fourth mile east from the R. E. Shum- way house, was a fair sized dwelling a story and a half THK BHODS IHI.AW1) SETTLEMENT 15 high and its gable ends stood toward the northwest and southeast. It had been oriented to face a road, which, before the farms were fenced on all sides, kept as much as convenient upou the axis of the prairie land without regard to section lines. As a community gradually developes, many changes in the location of the roads are apt to ensue. While the land remains unbroken and unfenced, passing teams wear temporary roads along what proves to be the easiest and most direct routes. Silas U. Perry built a log cabin near the foot of the xidge on what is now remembered as the Con. Metcaif Utlace now owned by Herman Schoh. The cabin stood on level ground about ten rods south of the house in the side hill that belongs to the farm. Some other settlers who came from Rhode Island in i«64 and 55 were Dr. Alex. Batchellor, John G. Cook, Tideman Aldrich, John McMelly, James K. True and probably Elisha Cook. The first Germans to settle in this part of Minnesota are said to have come in 1865 and located in the neighborhood of where Eitzen is now. Dr. Batchellor appears to have owned at one time the quarter-section (s. e. £ 25) now comprising the McNelly and Winkelman places. He built and resided in for some years, the house on the Winkelman place. Such land as was cultivated on the quarter was rented by Tideman Aldrich who built a house where the McNelly residence now stands. Aldrich remained oil the prairie for several years but never brought his family out from the east. John G. Cook also lived for some years in a small house that stood about fifteen rods west of Aid- rich's location. Be was a cooper by trade and waa. cousin to Ehsha Cook. 16 QLP TIMKS ON PORTLAND ?KAIRI» John McNelly was born in County, Down, Ireland* March 25, 1830. At the age of eighteen he came to> America and located first in Norwich, Conn., and at some later date moved to Burrillville, R. I. Here he* married February 1£, 1852 Nancy Shumway, a sister of JP. Shumway. He came to Portland Prairie with wife and two small children in 1855 and after living in the old log cabin with other occupants until he could build a dwelling, he located for the next ten years in Section 36, Wilmington township. What is now the G. M. Watson quarter-section (n. e.. 4 24) was one of those of which Asa Sherman got pos- session. He sold it May 19, 1855 to James K. True of Burrillville. Mr. True never improved nor built on it but in 1856 he sold i;t to Amos Arnold of the same town, and about a >ear later moved with his family from Pas- coag to Iowa, settling near Iowa City. Mr. True came to Rhode Island from the state of Maine. Of the Ger- man settlers mentioned, Henry Deters came first and gradually others afterwards. In the early days the land around Eitzen was owned mainly by American settlers, but as the years passed they sold out one by one, and German farmers bought their places. The earlier settlers did not find the country lackingin game. There were big fish in the Mississippi and trout and other kinds in the creeks. Of the bird kind, there were quail and prairie chickens and ducks and wild geese were birds of passage. Not to mention rabbits, always present, a few deer then abounded which C. F. Albee end others hunted with an old-time heavy rifle, tow in possession of Alfred Albee. CHAPTER III. AFFAIRS IN THE LATER FIFTIES. PORTLAND Prairie from the days of its settlement, has ever been a community of small or moderate sized farms. The swells of the original prairie land, with the hollows or troughs between, descending into a system of ramifying, steep-sided ravines or valleys, to- gether formed a kind of land sculpture that was not favorable for the development of farms of several hun- dred acres, nor are such estates desirable in any com- munity. Usually, even in the old days the larger farma did not much exceed a quarter-section (160 acres) and a few such might have an additional forty acres. The eighty was more common and forty acre places were not unknown, yet these were liable in the long run to be bought out and attached to larger farms on one side or another. Many of the settlers also secured wood-lots at a distance and on the timbered ridges. In the fifties settlers and land-speculators bought at low prices government land at the land offices. As we have seen, Sherman, Salisbury and Perry, having the means to make such purchases, got a number of the best quarter sections on the prairie, not, however, with the intention of holding them longer than they could be sold to others at a profit. In that way Charles F, Albee secured the northeast J Section 25, Wilmington, and then or later also bought a forty adjoining east in* Winnebago township. He built. a log house on the quar- ter and % log stable across ths rbad on the forty. 18 : OLD TIMES ON Pt/UTLAND PfillBI* In the spring of 1866 four youngmen, all from Bur* rillville, R. I., came west and united with the prairie* settlement. These were Horace Arnold, John Albee v and Kufus-JL, and George T. 8numway, these last two being younger brothers of Jeremiah Shumway. Before coming west John Albee and R. K. Shumway kept a store at Laurel Ridge, a mill village close to Pascoag, and Horace Arnold had worked in a spindle manufac- tory in the same village, which was also the residenceof his father, Amos Arnold. The Shumway residence and farm also lay close to this village on the north. Horace Arnold was born in Cumberland, ii. I., April 8, 18S3. John Albee, who was brother to C. F. Albee, was a native of Burrillville, born February 14, 1827. Rufue E. Shumway was born in Oxford, Mass., June 1, 1833, and Georue T. Shumway was born October 30, 1840; he whs therefore a boy in age when he left Rhode Island with the others From time to time for several years others continued to arrive from the New England states. By this time (1866) it is to be presumed that all of the government land in that section of the county that would make even a good forty acie farm had gone into the hands of pur- chasers, and where not improved was being held on speculation for sale to new comers. Arnold Stone and 'family came out to the west in 1856. He located first in Winnebago township, but later moved to a quarter^ eectibh in Wilmington, largely ridge land and next west of what was then Perr>'s farm. Mr. Stone was a native of Burrillville, born May 25, 1821 . He married Philind* Aldrich of the game town, November 13, 1844. Th£ TfcBjil} settled on the ridge farm in I860. AFPAlKS Iff THE ».ATRR FIFTIES* 1^ About 1856 a maff route was established between lirowusville, Minn., and Dorchester, Iowa. Intermed- iate postoffices on the route were provided at Crooked Creek, Winnebago Valley and Portland Prairie. The iME named station was kept at Asa Sherman's house, and was attended to by David Salisbury, deputy, Dr. Batchellor having been appointed postmaster. In those days there was not much to attend to for the mail only came once a week and when it reached the prairie the amount of papers, etc., was usually no more than would fill a quarter of an ordinary mail-sack and daily news- papers formed no part of the contents of the bag. About that time railroads from Chicago and Milwau- kee reached the Mississippi at three points, Dunleith opposite Dubuque, Prairie du Chien and La Crosse. The last named place was the nearest railroad terminus to Portland Prairie, but over thirty miles distant and on the other side of the Mississippi. During the boating season and for years afterwards, two lines of boats had the river freight and passenger traffic all to themselves and with no river lines of railroad to change things. In the early years of the prairie settlement flour and meal had to be teamed from Lansing. About the time now arrived at, a log grist-mill was luilt at Dorchester by Harney & Bell. Sometime later it gave place to a large framed building with facilities to grind out flour, corn-meal and feed, and became quite a resort for farm- ers to get their milling done. A stoie, blacksmith and wagon shop followed and a saw-mill was built on the creek above the village. Dorchester is some Ave miles from the center of the prairie. Some who had wood- lots not too far from the saw-mill, cut oak logs, hauled 2<) OLft TIMES ON PORTLAND PRAIRIB them to it and had them sawn into lumber. Charles Pv Albee refashioned over his log house with oak lumber sawn at this mill on Waterloo ereei|. William Jones was not a prairie settler for he lived on the broad ridge near Freeman Graves' place. H$ was a native of Franklin County, N. Y., born March 11,, 1817. His wife's maiden name was Clara Billings, whom he married in 1844. In 1854 he moved with his family to Illinois, and two years later came to the location, where he became so well known to the prairie people. Spafford Williams, Joseph A. Melvin, I. C. Calkins, Samuel Evans and others were settled round about the vicinity of Eitzen, or where this country village was as yet to be, nut we lack information as to what years they severally located on their placets.. Cornelius Metcalf Jr., came to the prairie in 1857 from Blackatone, Mass., a manufacturing town close to the northern line of Rhode Island. He was born in. Blackstone September 30, 1837, and was consequently twenty years of age the year he came on from the east, and had an academy education. A Kohlmeier family came from Chicago and settled on the prairie the same year. An adopted son was named Henry F. Kohlmeier. He was born in Hanover, Germany, March 1, 1842. About the time now reached Amos Lapham and James Emerson and his family also arrived in the country, the latter from Massachusetts. The first located on what is. now the L. L. Lapham farm and built a small framed house on the place close to the town line road, or a few rods northwest of the present brick residence. Amos Lapham was a native of Burrillville, R. I.; he had a wife, but no children. The Emerson family settled on, AijTAIES. IN THE l.ATEK FIFTIES 21 an eighty acre tract in trie south part of Section 23, Wilmington township. At this period the cultivation of wheat, corn, oats and garden stuff had become quite general on such acreage of the farms as had been brought under the plow, but there was, as yet, little in the way of agricultural ma- chinery in the community such as became common some years later. No great amount of wheat could be raised, since it was sown by hand, dragged in by oxen, cut with cradles and pounded out with flails. Sam. Evans is said to have used the first reaper in the community in 1857, and a horse-power threshing machine was introduced about ihat time. Few or no attempts were made during that decade to set out fruit trees of any Kind as it was thought that they would become winter-killed. The financial panic of the full of 1857 was severely felt in Minnesota. For nearly a year there was little or no money in circulation on Portland Prairie and it became hard to get such things as people have to buy at stores. Some could not even write their letteis for some time, because they had not the means to buy the three-cent stamps then required to post them. Of those times Mrs. Albee wrote: "We were so hard up I did not know where to get the next bar of soap to wash my babies' aprons with." But gradually the effects of the great financial disturbance of the later fifties passed away. The aged parents of Jeremiah Shumway and brothers bad been for some time in the country aud lived at the Shumway place. Both died the year above mentioned, Noah Shumway in June, and Farmelia A., who was a second wife, in October. Born in 1770, Noah Shnmwaj might have heard guns fired in the Revolutionary war. 32 Q\,U XJME$ QS PORTLAND PRAIRIE There were several more families who located on Port- land Prairie in 1858. Cprnelius Metcalf Sr., with others of his family arrived that year and located on Sherman *s place, which they afterwards bought. Mr. Metcalf was a native of Mendon, Mass , and was born in 1806, Leonard Albee, with a wife, sou and daughter, came on from Pascoag, R. I., the same year and bought the eighty next west of Dr. liatchellor's place of that time. Leon- ard Albee, who was cousin to Charles F. Albee, was bom ill Chester, Mass., November 4, 1810. His wife's maiden name was Eliza Buckman, whom he married in 1833. She was a native of Woodstock, Conn., and was born in 1812. There came also in 1858 the Cass family who settled across the town line road in part east of C. F. Albee's quarter-section and on a place bought of David Salisbury. Tbey came west from Blackstone, Mass. The head of the family, William Cass, was a native of the town of Smithfield, U. 1„ and was born March 2, 1809. Mm. Cass' maiden name was Sarah W. Sturdy; she was born in Attleboro, Mass., May 4, 1819, and was married to William Cass March 27, 1839. Another family of that year, of whom we have no date records of the kindherq being used, was that of Hosea W. Pease who came from Maine, Sometime in the preceding decade he married Qrra, a daughter of Col. Everett, (see p. G) by whom be had at this time three daughters and one son. The family settled on an eighty in Winnebago township ad- joining the town line road next north of the Lapham farm. Mr. pease bought the tract of John Albee. In the changes being made in regard to parts of the roads, that going south from near \he present McNelly AVPAIKS IN THE t.ATER FIFTIES 2& place to Dorchester, was placed about twenty rods west of the township line so that it runs one mile through the east part of Section 86, Wilmington. This cut forty acres off James Pai tie's place which part he sold to kelson Smith of Burrillville, R. I. The remainder of the strip was owned by J. Shumwav, and belonged first to the Robinson farm. Before coming to the prairie Mr. Smith had lived for some time at Rockford, 111. Spring Grove township and the west part of Wilming- ton had largely been occupied by .Norwegian settlers, who came either from Wisconsin or direct from Norway. At the north end of the prairie and on either side of the town line were located the "five brothers," Fred, Peter, James, Eber and Iver Hanson. A well-to-do Norwegian farmer named Knut Anderson was also located at the foot of a wooded spur of thn main ridge in Section 14, Wilmington, now the Robelie place. Down in the Win- nebago Valley the settlers of that time were American, Scotch and Irish, or mainly so. Minnesota Territory became a state May 11, 1868. The first Wilmington town meeting is said to have been held at the Norwegian schoolhouse in Section 28 on the same day of the month, but it was a tradition that the people of Portland Prairie did not for some time become aware from receiving weekly newspapers, that the terri- tory had actually become a state of the Union. This same year a school house was built on the prairie. It stood for the next ten years close east of the site now occupied by the present one in the McNelly district. At this time Charles and John Albee, J. Shumway and one or both of the Paine brothers, occasionally engaged in carpentering work. 24 OLD 7IMES ON PORTLAND PRAIR16 In 1869 Davit! P, Temple came and took up his, residence on Portland Prairie. He was a native of Connecticut but came west from Framingham, Mass. About this time Silas C. Terry sold out and removed to Iowa. A man named Benjamin liobbins next had the place to? several years. Levi L. Lapham was born in Burrillville, R. I., April 11,1829. He married Sarah Cargill of Dudley, Mass,, January 13, 1857. She was born May 28, 1834. In 1854 Mr. Lapham went to Chicago, residing there several years. He then moved to I'edar Rapids, Iowa, and in 1860 he teamed it with oxen^to Portland Prairie and went on to the place ever since occupied by him. His brother Amos, wl o was six years the elder, next bought u place to the west of L. Albee's location where he he resided until 1874. A while before Mr. Lapham 's arrival at the prairie, a man named Isaac Gault came to the community, and was much on this farm, off and on, taking care of things, during the next dozen years. He was born in Oakham, Mass., October 19, 1826, and was an acquaintance of Lapham before coming on from Michigan, having gotten that far west. Asa Sherman built a new house in 1860 on the east eighty of the quarter- section he was on and facing south on the section line road. That was a great political year for the country at large, but the prairie community, still in a slow stage of development, and isolated from large towns, railroads and traveled routes, was influenc- ed mainly by what the weekly mail brought to it. There were no daily papers seen, but in those days many ex- cellent weeklies were published in the cities for country circulation and they were apt to contain a fair assortment AFFAIR?,, IN THE V I«AT|CR FJFT1ES 25.^ of domestic and foreign news, editorials, discussions,, speeches, legislative ana miscellaneous matter. True, the country's news might be a week or ten days old and foreign intelligence twenty days to a month old when it finally reached its readers (there were then no ocean cables in use) but all of that was taken as a matter of course. There were also political discussions among the, neighbors based upon information brought by the papers. During those years the income gotten from the farms, was rather limited and household economy had to be, almost always kept in mind. The people lived according to their means. Some tilings in the line of dress and groceries, more or less common in their former eastern homes, they had to dispense with until they could feel that they were in better circumstances. Pondholes were dug to water the limited amount of stock kept; for household use large cisterns were dug into the under- lying clay bed, cemented and,; covered, including a curb, over the center. These stored the rain water from the, shingled roofs; drawn up cold it had a slight smokey taste, but one easilv got used to it. Where springy places could be found, surface wells six or seven feet, deep could bs dug from which water could be drawn in, barrels. In fencing along the roads, on division lines of prop- ety, or enclosing fields, the zigzag fence four rails high was generally used, the ends of the bottom rails resting in crotches projecting about two feet above ground and tl?e tpij ones in the accompanying cross stakes. The rails were usually got out in winter and entailed the sacrifice of a large amount of the full-grown timber then, covering the tops and the slopes of many of the bluffs. 26' OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND KRAWIIB Pn ledgy and wooded sections of the country the rat- tlesnake has usually been found until exterminated or rendered scarce by the first generaiion of settlers. They were not wholly a new sort of the snake kind to the settlers who came from Burrillville, since a few still lingered on a low, rocky and forest covered mountain^ called Buck Hill, in the northwestern corner of Rhode Island. In the fifties and early sixties there were many rattlesnakes found down the ravines and where the prairie farms bordered these valleys so as to have brusb>. and trees on parts of them, they were often discovered, in summer on these lands and in some instances in the very dooryards of houses. To lessen the number of these unwelcome visitants, parties armed with stout sUffs or long clubs used to go down the ravines and search the sides of the bluffs in the vicinity of tfceir known breeding-dens. Before closing this chapter we should speak of what was being done during those years in a church way for the spiritual welfare of the people. The first preachers who came to the prairie community were itinerants who traveled about the new and thinly settled parts of the country and preached in houses and school buildings where any of the latter then existed. One of these was a young Methodist exhorter named Bansom Scott who unfortunately lost his life in a blowing snow storm, on December 9, 1856. He lived with a Mr. Young, an ancle, on the north ridge, Winnebago. Leaving the prairie to return home, about eight miles distant, and against the advice of friends, it would appear that he> got bewildered, lost his way and perished in the stora*. AFFAIRS IN THK kATER FIFTIES 25T At first bo apprehension whs felt over his absence on account of his vocation, but as time passed and he did not return, inquiries and search began to be made, It was not until next May that any trace of him was found. His body had been almost entirely devoured by wolves. Besides remnants of clothing, his bible, hymn book,, Unife and wallet were found near by in the ravine in which he had perished. He was 26 years of age and came to the west from the state of New York. A Minnesota Conference of the Methodist Church was formed in 1855, its annual meetings being held in the spring for several years. .Thereafter circuits and, charges or stations began to increase as Uie settlements extended. A small village had been growing up at Caledonia, the county seat, which gave a name to a circuit of the denomination mentioned. At first the Caledonia Circuit included as outlying stations, Hokah and Brownsville, to which was added Popes Prairie, Portland Prairie, and Winnebago Valley. Hokah and Brownsville having iater been dropped from the circuit, meetings were held at one time at Hacketts Ridge. A church was soon erected at Caledonia. The following named ministers were assigned by the Minnesota Con- ference to the Caledonia Circuit during those years; Rev. John Hooper, conference year 1855-6. Rev. J. L. Dyer, conference years 1856-7 and 1857-8. Rev. E. Haight, conference year 1858 9. Rev. J. Cowden, short conference year, spring to fall, «8$9> Rev. Ellingwood, conference year 1859-60, Rev. V endell, conference year 1860-61. AV of the charges mentioned did not, of course, re- main attached to the circuit at any given time; even as 28 OL» TIMES ON PORTL.VND PRAIRIR matters then stood It was impossible to hold services a^ all of the stations at any given time on the circuit, on the same Sabbaths, and so the custom of visiting the different communities each alternate Sunday prevailed* and possibly with some, less often than that. Some of these clergymen were young in the ministry, and otheTft more advanced in age, one or two being of the old-fash- ioned type then in some measure characteristic of west- ern Methodist preachers outside of the cities. The first of these clergymen held meetings in houses at the prairie, but in 1858 a school house having been built, it was next used for the services. About 1865 an agent of the Sunday School Union visited the community and organized a Sunday School, its sessions also being held In houses as previously appointed, and during the mod- erate and warm months of the year. The attendance of: young people was considerable and from both sides of the state line. In those years before any school house had been built, a quarterly -meeting of the circuit was held at the prairie. The house of J. Shumway, in the southeastern corner of the township, was often the scene of these various religious gatherings. Occasionally a marriage interested the community. Henry F. Kohlmeier was married to Katherina Burmes- ter, March 13, 1859. R. E. Shumway married Hannah, daughter of Cornelius Metcalf Sr., March 4, 1860. She was born April 25, 1834. Another wedding of the same year was that of Cornelius Metcalf Jr., who married May 29, 1860 Elizabeth M., daughter of Leonard Albee. {She was horn April 3, 1841. CHAPTER IV. THE WAR PERIOD AtyD LATER CONDITIO^. DURING the continuance of the Civil war the prai,^ ne people were influenced thereby merely in the, way that great events, transpiring far away, would bai apt to affect any country community. But the war, lasting over four years, profoundly affected the whole nation and there was scarcely a community so isolated or remote that in some measure did not feel the changed spirit of the times. At the prairie those influences were largely such as resulted from war news in the weekly papers, neighborhood discussions, enlistments, and later on, compelling of others to become soldiers by conscription, the rise of prices that the war engendered, aud other factors. There was no telegraph station nearer to the prairie than La Crosse, yet news of battles and naval engagements, minus details, sometimes reach- ed the community several days in advance of the mail which brought St. Paul, Chicago and other papers. Some traveler or business man, leaving La Crosse, would, come to Caledonia by way of Brownsville, bringing the latest war news and likely also some copy of a city daily in his coat pocket; again, important news was dropped off the packet boats at Lansing and would reach the prairie, from that point. The early part of the war period infused some sort of military spirit into a uuznber of the men, so far as to assemble on horseback and practise cavalry tactics on the roads; at times, too, the grown boys met with guns. 80 OLU TIMES OJf PORTLAND PKA1BIV to imitate skirmishing and other sorts of practise. Along in 1861, '62 and later there were a number of enlistment^ of young men from the prairie and vicinity; some of these seryed in Iowa regiments, but mostly they belong- ed to Minnesota regiments. As was stated at page 16 Amos Arnold bought of an early possessor the northeast £ Section 24. The pur- chase was made on recommendation by letter of his son, Horace Arnold, already in the country, and included forty acres of woodland on the Winnebago creek bluffs \n Section 17. In 1856 Amos Arnold moved his family from Burrillville to Daniel son vile, a cotton- factory town in the eastern part of Connecticut. In the spring of 1H61, Ellery C. Arnold, wife aud two small children, emigrated from this place to the west, and arrived at Lansing just at the time the country was rocking under the excitement of the Confederate bombardment of Foit Suinter, the news of wbjch speedily traveled to all points then reached by telegraph and the river steam- boat lines. Iteaching the prairie, E. C. Arnold went on„ to the Tideman Aldrich place. In the summer, Amoa Arnold came out to see his land and build a house on it. The house, as then built, was a story and a half high, and measured 16 by 24 feet. In November Mr. Arnold, went back to Connecticut, accompanied by Albert Marcy who was living on an eighty next south of Benj. Rob- bins' farm. Henry Robinson had been living with his brother William, but owned sixty acres in Section 36. He built a house on this land and occupied it that year. In 1862 Dr. Batchellor moved to New Jersey for a year or two so as to enjoy a milder winter climate. His quarter-Lection had become somewhat divided. The, TUB WAR PKRIOI) AND I.ATKB CONDITIONS 31 forty acres next to the townliue road was in possession of Tideman Aldrich and K. C, Arnold occupied the place; the next forty acres was owned by John G. Cook, and a son-in-law named Amos Glanville lived with him; the west eighty, now the J. Winkelman place, on which Dr. Batcbellor and family lived, he sold to a man named McDan. This purchaser did not retain the place longer than the next year ere he sold it to Wm. Walker Everett and moved to Iowa. William R. Ballou, from Burrillville, R. I., lived at the prairie at this time and owned the forty in Section 24 which has the road to Caledonia on its east and north sides. At one time after passing the east end of the ridge the road struck northwest across this forty, passing just north of a tree-covered sandstone hill, a mound-like outlier of part of the ridge close south of it. At the foot of the mound on its east side Mr. Ballou dug a cellar for a small house, and walled it with stone taken from the mound, but no house was ever built there. Several years later the stone was carted away to furnish a foundation to the Wright district school house, when that was built. The depression of the cellar, dug nearly fifty years ago, is surrounded by brush and trees, but has not filled up much since its walls were removed. The Sioux Indian massacre of August, 1862, though mainly confined to western Minnesota, spread a feeling of insecurity and alarm east to the Mississippi, and largely owing to the absence of so many men from the state serving in the Union armies and the weakness of the garrisons at the few military posts on the frontier. Th re were but few lines of telegraph then in the state, *iencb false or exaggerated reports, due to excitement, #2 OW TIMES OS ft)fctLAND P&AlfcI$ were ail the more apt to be far carried and remain tM longer uncontradicted. There were no Indian hostilities nearer to the center of Houston County than perhaps 150 miles; yet many families in the southeastern part of the state turned their stock loose in the fields and taking to their teams, started for the river towns. Most of them turned back after the temporary panic bad sob- sided. Some would-be refugees from the country west of Portland Prairie reported that the Indians were at Spring Grove, and several families gathered and started for Lansing; but having been halted at the Albee place, it was thought best to ascertain whether or no they were about to fly from an imaginary danger. So C. P. Albee *nd Asa Sherman rode horseback to Spring Grove and learning that there was no cause for alarm, they came buck, and then the intended refugees returned to their homes. Thereafter the people followed the details of this Indian war in the papers until the hostiles were driven beyond the Missouri river. Two families, originally from Burrillville, R. I., came to the prairie that fall from the west, leaving on account of Indian troubles. The heads of these families were iflarcius Eddy and Edin Ballou. A daughter of JCdiu Ballou had been the wife of Asa Sherman, but she had died early in July of ihat year. Harley P. Kelly, wife, and two children, also came in 1862 and for the time being, occupied the house that Amos Arnold had built. This place was in process of being broken and fenced at that time by Horace Arnold. The Kelly family came west from Blackstone, Mass. Next south of the Arnold place lay a quarter-section 1 ov* »e\ which swayed slightly lrorn the motion of engines and paddle-wheels, and falling overboard had been drowned. Mr. Wright had been back and forth between the prafc rie and the east more than once, so that the occasion on which he brought his family out was probably not the same as when Sherman disappeared. In later years one could hear rumors that Sherman had been seen in the army, and in Colorado, but such reports are almost sure to become circulated about persons who have mysterious- ly disappeared and their remains never found. The Metcalf farm of those years on the Winnebago side of the townliue road had earlier belonged to Sherman; hi*, home place was bought of his heirs by Christian Flessa* and a farm on the south side of the road was bought by Fred Rune. Two houses were built not far north of the prairie ridge in 1863. Edin lisHou, who had two grown-up sons, and a daughter, went on to what is now the Herbert Lapham place and put up a small framed house near the southeast corner of the eighty. II. P. Kelly took land half a mile farther west that had once been one of the Perry claims, and built a house of small hewn logs near the end of a projecting spur of the ridge. Kelly's land extended back to the top of the main ridge; along the northern slope of the ridge at that point and extending west, there was then and still remains a considerable tract of timber, which came to be called Kelly's woods, and in which he cut the logs to build bis house. After this family vacated the A. Arnold house at the end of the ridge, it was occupied by E. C. Arnold. THft WAK PK*lOI> AND IATKB CONDITIONS CD During part of the war period the postoffice was k»pt at the old log cabin on J. Shumway's place. After Dr. Batchellor moved to New Jersey, or before, John G. Cook had the office at his house for some time and then in 1863 It. E. Shuniway having been appointed postmaster,, it was moved down to the cabin where he then lived. At this point we will again refer to the ministers who were annually assigned to the Caledonia Circuit by tho Minnesota Conference of the M. E. Church and who also preached at the prairie, holding services in the school house of that time. ltev. Nahum Taintor, a mid- dle aged clergyman, came in the fall of 1861 and being »gam returned the next fall, he remained two years on Ihe circuit. In the fall of 1863 he was succeeded by an elderly clergyman of the name of White who was annual- ly returned twice afterwards, and consequently remained three years at Caledonia, which was then the longest limit that a Methodist minister could stay on a circuit, Usually they were changed every year or two. At the prairie a Sunday School met at theschoolhouse at least during the warm months of the year. They had some pretense of a library, kept in a flat box set upright, about three feet high, two-and-a-half feet wide and eight inches deep, opening in front. Some carpenter made it of planed pine boards, and of course fixed shelves inside. Most of the books were small ones and on the whole, of a sort that the young people now would not care for* It is probable that in those days when eastern Sunday Schools changed their libraries, the least worn and the unread books were separated out, and turned over to some agency to supply needy country communities in the west. 36 O&P TIMES ON PORTLAND PRALRIE About this time Nelson Smith sold out to a German named August Guhl and moved as others had done into Iowa. It was said of Guhl that when he came to this country, a dollar in gold money was worth two in green* backs; that having brought over a thousand dollars in gold money he exchanged it for $2,000 in American paper currency, and using a thousand dollars of the latter he bought the Smith place which had a fair sized framed house on it. It was about the point of time arrived at that three young men named Elijah, John and Abram Sinclair left Wisconsin and located on Portland Prairie. Their fam- ily name was really Vreeland, but they assumed that of their mother, who was a Sinclair before marriage. It was later thought that the draft or fear of it had somer thing to do with their leaving Wisconsin and changing their family name. Another brother named James Vreeland appears to have come earlier; he was a married man and was located on what is now the W. E. McNelly place in Section 26. A fifth brother, named Enoch Vreeland, came after the war was over, remained a year or two in the community and then moved to Missouri, where some time later he died. In 1864 Dr. Batchellor was back from New Jersey and went on the place that he had sold to Tideman Aldrich, Either the latter had never fully paid for it or it may have beee bought back again. The doctor and family were quite an addition to the prairie socially. At this time David P. Temple built a house on the north eighty of the Win. Cass place, which he had bought. Temple and Marcius Eddy and family occupied the house ana; the place was carried on by the latter^ THE WAB PEKXOD AND I^ATfift CONDITIONS 37 In June, 1864, Amos Arnold moved with part of his family from Dauielsonville, Conn., to the prairie. The Mississippi was reached by railroad at Prairie du Chien where the packet u ltasca" lay waiting at six o'clock in the evening for its throng of up-river passengers. The boat, however, did not leave until after midnight, and reached Lansing about eight o'clock the next morning. Knut Anderson was in town and took the family out to the prairie, a hard journey in a common farm-wagon. Xn July a house was built for E. C. Arnold and family, located on the east side of the farm and above the shal- low ravine that centrally intersects this quarter-section. C. F. Albee, L. L. Lapham and one or both of the Paine brothers were the local carpenters who put up the house, but, of course, only engaged in such employment when any chance job called for their services. The observance of the Fourth of July in the community took the form of picnics in some shady grove, the women having previously provided the cakes, pies, roast chick- en, coffee, etc., for the whole assemblage, who sat down at a long table fixed of loose boards. In 1864 the picnic was held in a grove of oaks on Duty Paine's place and just above the Duck creek ravine. Duck creek, so called, now perhaps dry, was a small streamlet issuing from springs within the last mile of the ravine, which opens into the valley of Waterloo cretk above Dorches- ter. The latter part of that summer was dry and then and all that fall some people had to haul water for household use from the springs then existing well on down the ravines. Water barrels were placed in a farm wagon and while one dipped up the water, using two pails al* 88 OtD TIMES ON PORTLAND PRAIKHI ternately, an assistant standing in the wagon, emptied them into the barrels. Sacking had to be tied oyer the tops of open barrels to keep much of the water from slopping out while driving home. A fine spring of that time called "Tippery spring"' was located about three , miles down the ravine of that name, on the south si^e, and flowed from the base of a sandstone ledge, which, . as there cropping out of the side of the bluff, was about twelve feet high. The flow was enough to have filled" a^ pipe four or five inches in diameter and formed the head of a fair sized brook that run through some mead- ows about two miles to the Winnebago creek. The road- from the prairie then followed the bed of the ravine to the head of the meadow fields and then took to the foot, of the bluffs on the north side, as in present times. The. road passed near the spring and across it stood the; rtbiise of the Tippery famUy in part built of hewn logs* They had a lime-kiln at the foot of the bluff northwest from the house. The iainily came from Pennsvlvania. about 1853, locating first near where the upper mill now stands, and later moved up to the spring. During the same fall Benj. Bobbins sold his quarter- section to Joel S. Yeaton, and moved away. Mr. Yeatoi* was from about New Portland, Maine, from whence Several other families on the prairie had came earlier. His family did not come until November. That fall a draft took many of the men with families at the prairie, who otherwise would not have deemed it expedient to leave their families to serve in the army. There had been one or two drafts before this, but these^ had not very perceptibly affected the community. Some,, others besides- married men were drafted at tfcis time, TMB WAB FMhWti AND 1.AT-SR CONDITIONS SS The drafted meD had to report at Rochester, Minn., and were mainly assigned to the 5th Minnesota Infantry, Before they left the prairie election day came, Tuesday, November 8th, and with it a snow storm from the north- east That day and the following night the snow fell as much as eight inches deep, but melted off again after iome days had passed. Either at the time of the draft mentioned, or previously, two men of the community 4id not report at Rochester, but fled instead to parts unknown, preferring exile from their homes and friends rather than come within range of Rebel bullets. They were not seen at the prairie again until the fall of 1865. During the last two years of the war hundreds of men, most of whom took refuge in Canada, did the same rather than be compelled to serve in the army contrary to their choice. The 5th Minnesota regiment took part in the battle of Nashville, December 16, 1864. William Walker Everett, one of the prairie men, was killed in this battle. The winter of 1864-5 was rather cold but not as severe as some in earlier years were reported to haye been. People who had been troubled for water the previous fall kept a water barrel in their houses into which clean snow was put from time to time, and a pot of warmed water was occasionally added to keep the snow mainly melted. We have spoken of how slowly important news some- times reached the prairie. The fall of Richmond was inferred for some time before the event was heard of, because the distant sound of a cannon was noted iu the direction of Decorab, as if being fired in celebration of some important event. Although the assassination o£ 4(> OLD TfMM OK PORTLAHl> PRAIRIE President Lincoln occurred on a Friday evening, it wa$ not until the forenoon of the following Tuesday that any report of this startling event reached Portland Prairie, though known at La Crosse on Saturday. Some traveler from Caledonia brought the news to the prairie, and it caused a profound impression. The day was cloudy, with sprinkling rain, and people gloomily discussed the event in their houses. The report also had it that Sec- retary Seward had been assassinated, but of details there were none, except that these needs had been done in the interest of the falling Southern Confederacy. The peo- ple had to wait for the particulars of this direful tragedy until Friday evening, April 21st. and then to the dis- appointment of many, the Chicago papers failed to get through. This meant another anxious week of waiting. However, the mail man was questioned as soon as he came in, whether this report was true or not, but while able to confirm it he could give but few details. It was not until the evening of the 28th, tv»o weeks after the event, that prairie people who had to rely ou the weekly papers from Chicago and the east, were enabled to read any newspaper accounts of the great tragedy. During the last year of war, It. E. Shumway being absent in the army, Hannah, his wife, attended to the mail. The mail man usually came along, sometimes on horseback, early in the evening. Entering the old log cabin he dropped the large leather bag on the floor. Hannah pulled up the top, unlocked it, and emptied the contents out upon the floor. The amount, mostly papers in packages or singly in wrappers, perhaps two or three magazines, and occasionally a book, would have about half filled a bushel basket, sometimes a little more. A TflK WA» PERIOli AND I.ATKB CONDITIONS 41 few loose letters appeared, tut the. bulk of themforeach postoflice on the route were tied up in separate bundles, The mail had to be sorted over and the little of it that went on to Dorchester was put back in the bag, and this being laced up and and the snap-lock pressed to catch, the carrier at once departed. Next came the distribu- tion of the mail. A half dozen persons were usually waiting to get their own (or parent's) mail and often that of near neighbors. First the names on the letters were read and handed to those who were authorized to receive them. Then the miscellaneous mail followed together with the papers that came in packages. Much of the mail was disposed of at once in that way, but some had to be laid aside until called for later. The usual postoffice address on the letters was "Wilmington, Houston County, Minn.'" It was now the spring of 1865, and the war ending in May, those from the prairie who had served in the army gradually returned to their homes, as mustered out of service. The 5th Minnesota Infantry was retained in Alabama to do garrison duty until the following Sep- tember when the regiment was sent to Fort Snelling to be mustered out of service. But few men who went from Portland Prairie and vicinity were killed or died of disease while in the army service. It should be borne in mind, however, that quite a, number were in service only within the last year of the war. We shall now proceed to make some mention of the various families living on Portland Prairie or about its borders, particularly within a mile of the main road through the community and as existing In the spring of ^865, or before certain families had moved *waj s '*'£ OLU TlMfci UN PORTLAND P3AIRI1 In coming from Caledonia to the prairie, the upper portion og tome ravines being passed, and a rise up a hill made, the first house reached in which an American family lived, was that of Harley P. Kelly, on the north side of the prairie ridge or bluff aft some called it. The family consisted of Mr. Kelly and wife aad a boy and girl named George and Ella. George was born Sept 25, 1853, and all were from the east. Next east where the road turns south was the house of Edufc Ballou. There were himself and wife, two grown-up sons named Edwin and Henry, and a daughter also grown named Mary. Next on the road south, at the end of the bluff, stcod the hous*> of : Amos Arnold, then no larger than when first built. Besides. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold, there were in the family Caroline E., Horace,, Maria, Lucy and Henry V. The last two were still in their later 'teens, and the two older daughters returned to Connecticut that summer. Over on the east side of the farm stood the house of E. C. Arnold, oldest son of Amos Arnold. Besides himself and wife there were three small children in the family, Horace F., Adeline and Emma. The two first were bor,n in Connecticut. South of the Arnold place came C. F. Wright's farm. Mr.. and Mrs. Wright had three small children at this time, Samantha* Frederick A., and Charles. The two first were born in Black- stone, Mass. Up north on the townlme road lived the Hanson brothers and one, Seams Nelson, but we have no data concerning their family, relations. Next on this road south of Hanson's place was H. W. Pease'* eighty. Both himself and wife were getting somewhat along i% years. There were several children in the family, all born in. Maine, viz: Esther, Orra, Charles and Lucy. Next on the east side of the road came L. L. Lapham's place. While he was in the army it was looked after by Isaac Gault. Mr, and Mrs. Lapham had only two small children at this time named Fanny and Cora. There were no houses then on the ridges east of the Hanson, Pease and Lapham farms, nor even east of, th* Albee, Temple and Cass places. TUX WAR FEilVV AND l.ATXE COftDlTIOKB 43 At the Albee place «eie C banes F,, and Mrs. Sarah Albee, jobs, brother to Char tes, and usually two hired men, The farm consisted of the quarter section the house stood upon, also the forty across the road. There was a long log stable on this forty roofed with straw, and a shop stood to the south of the house. The children of the family had all been born in the years 1848 to 1864, and named Edgar, Emily, Maria, Alice, Alfred and Olive. The hrst two were born in Burrillville, R. I. The house of David P. Temple stood across the road east from the present Alfred Albee place. Mr. Temple was no farmer, but tatber a peison who sought civic offices instead, at one time rep* rcsentative in the state legislature, and later along county superin- tendent ot schools. Marcius Eddy and wife occupied the house, having two sons, Henry and Herbert. The first was old enough to enter the army which he did in the summer of 1864. The second was then a boy ot about fourteen. Between these two. another son had died in December, 1863. The Cass family next south lived quietly, the old folks seldom leaving the place to go anywhere. All of the family were native* of Massachusetts. 1 here were two daughters and two sons in the family, Charlotte, George, Aria!3£.d William, the last having been born in 1853. The Metcalf farm bordered both the townline road and that which runs east and west for a mile, passing the McNelly school house. From the latter point east and south, it was then called the Lansing road. The house on the place stood back from both roads. The farm was carried on by Cornelius Metcalf Jr., and his brother David. Mr. Metcalf, their father, lived with them. Cornelius Metcalf Jr. had married Elizabeth, daughter of Leonard Albee, and they had two small children at this time, George and Lucinda. Mrs. R. E. Shumway and Mrs. Wright were daughters of Cornelius Metcalf St., whose wife had died before the family came to the west. At the south end of the next eighty east stood Sherman's later built house, facing the Lansing road, but now owned by Christian 44 OLD TIMES OH PORTLAND PSAIRIE Flessa. He had a son Adam, about fifteen years of age at this. time. Of the people who lived aoout where Eizten now stands oc below there, a community part German, we have little informa- tion of the kind here sought. Returning nearly to the McNelly school house, on the south. side of the road was the Kohlmeier place. Mr. Kohlmeier had been in the army, but having been sick in an army hospital, on leaving it he mysteriously disappeared, and was not heard of afterwards. The place then passed to Henry Flegg (Kohlmeier) who was also a soldier of the Civil war. Next west of the school house was the residence of Dr. Alex. Batchellor and wife. The children of the family ranged from a grown-up son, over twenty years old, downward to a small boy, and were named Frank, Lucy, Alexander, Martha, Moses and Stephen. A short distance west stood the house of John G. Cook. Me, had a daughter who married Amos Glanville. Besides these and and the old folks, there were two nephews of John living with them naued Frank and Gideon Cook. The aged father of John had lived with him earlier, but he had died in 1861. Next down the road west came the widow Everett's place, Mr. Everett, as already mentioned, having been killed in the army, near the close of the previous year. He was a son of a brother of Col. Cy. Everett. The house bad been built some twenty rods, back from the road. The children of the family were born from 1849 to 1862, the first two by a first wife, and named William,. Thomas, Irene, Walker, George, Eliza and David. Some distance above the ravine into which the road descends, and on the north side of the road, stood the house of Leonard Albee and wife. A tXG A I bit W9& sisiu to Di. DatchelloK The place was carried on by Wesley Albee, who was born in 1842. In passing down the road to Dorchester, the first house passed on the east side and some thirty rods south of the road corners, Was that of August Guhl. The family were German, but we have to particulars concerning them. tnm WAK PKMQI* ANJ> LATER CONDITIONS 45 A little further along the road and on the west side, stood the h*>use of James M. Paine and family. There were several small children m the family at this time, to wit, Martha, James S., Rufus M., Amy H., and Minerva. There were no other houses very close to the road ^in Section 36, although that section was as thoroughly divided into small farms as it very well could be. In the southeast corner of the section and reached by a roadway from the main one, stood the house of Jeremiah Shumway, a fair sized framed dwelling, and the old log cabia of settlement days, which had a loft under its roof, as was usual with such dwellings. There were then (1865) rive childien in the family, the first named having been born in Burnllville, R. I., in 1853: Viola P., Hubert P., Mary Evelyn, Edgar E., and Charles O. — Rufus E. and Hannah Shumway, as has previously been stated, occupied the log house on the place, in which was the Wilmington postoffice. There were only two «oiall children in the family at that time, Adelia and Frederick. — A few rods northeast of the Shumway house, or in the southwest corner of Section 31, Winnebago township, was a small place, owned by Simeon Wait. He was in the army durmg the war. We have no particulars concerning his family. After crossing the state line, the road turns west by south and up through a tract of brush and trees for a quarter of a mile, then south again upon a broad tract between ravines, once partially timbered. Just below the last turn of the road and, a little to the west of it is the Robinson place, and even in 1865 the house was a substantial one. Old Mrs. Robinson was still living, but the place was considered as belonging to William, whose land extend- ed north across the state line into the south part of Section 36, Wilmington, in which Henry Robinson and sister Esther also resided. William was married and had one child, Minnie. In the northeast part of Section 36 Duty Paine had his farm, bordertng on both roads, but his log house was not very near to either of them. Children in the family were Catherine, James, Nathan, Sarah, Ida, and others boxn after he moved away 46 OLi> TIMW OH PORTLAND rSAIRtl A road through this section on the quarter line passed west to the Duck creek ravine, intersecting or starting from the Dorchester road a short distance south of J. M. Paine's place. North ef this cross-road and toward the west side of the section, John McNelly then lived on a small farm. With himself and wife there were several children in the family that had been born to thcm r to wit, Ella, William, and Annie. The first was born at the east; two others had died in infancy, and a boy of nine had died in the summer of 1S63. To tbe south of the cross-road, Elisha Cook and family lived on another of tbe small farms of Section 36. The children of this family were named Amelia, Susan, Henry (this one was imbecile) Maria, Charles, William and Warren. Returning northward again, there were a few families 00 the western side or border of the prairie of whom some note should be taken. Arnold Stone's quarter-section was largely ridge land and his house stood an a broad part of the Wilmington ridge, a m'ile back from its eastern termination. Mr. and Mrs. Stone had quite a family, largely gills, tbe oldest having been born in the late forties. The children were named Marcus, Ellen, Jane, Phebe, John, Emerline, Adelaid and Lewis. South of the A. Stone farm and mostly on lower land, lay an eighty owned by James Emerson. His wife was not living, but he had one or two daughters nearly grown up. The names of the children were Eunice, Eldora, Willis and Lydia. The northwest % Section 24 (excepting the forty owned by W. R. Ballou) and an eighty next south of this quarter, formed Joel S. Yeaton's rather large farm. Mr. and Mrs. Yeaton had the following named children in tbe family, all excepting the last born in Maine: Florence, Zelotes, Elias, Melvin and Edgar. Next south of the Yeaton farm, an eighty then belonged to an elderly man named Alfred Marcy. His wife was a sister of L. Albce. This eighty is crossed through the middle by the road that runs scuth into the Duck creek ravine. Just west of this road, in one place, the ground rises to a conical hill, a saedstone THE WA* ;pE!!> A.ND I.ATJER CONDITIONS 47 outlier of the ridge. Just south of this mound stood a long cabin built of scantling and pine boards. Such dwellings were battened outside and papered inside, old newspapers often being used. Mr, Marcy had a grown-up son named Albert living with him and als* a daughter named Ada, well along in her 'teens. Along or near the road to the south of Marcy 's place, there were a few other families— German, Norwegian and American. Among these there was a Meitrodt family still represented upon the same place; then James Vreeland and the Sinclair brothers lived on farther south. The suspected identity as to connection between the Sinclairs and Vreelands by closer family ties than cousins, (p. 36) began to be admitted after the close of the war. Over west, Amos Lapham and wife occupied a quarter-section farm. Mr. Lapham was born in 1S23 and his wife's maiden name was Deborah Neil, whom he married June 28, 1854. The following is a list of soldiers of the Civil war, so far as we have been able to gather their names, who were of Portland Prairie and saw service for longer or Shorter periods in the South. E. C. Arnold, 5th Minnesota, Frederick Monk, 12th Iowa, Henry C. Ballou, 10th Minn., August Pottratz, 5th Minn., £dward L. Ballou, 6th Minn., John Robinson, — Iowa, Burmester, 5th Minn., Jeremiah Shumwuy, 5th Minn., Henry Eddy, nth Minn., Rufus E. Shumway, 5th Minn., VVm. W. Everett, 5th Minn., Geo. T. Shumway, 10th Minn., Henry Flegg, 8th Iowa Cav'y, Wm. H. Stone, 6th Minn,, Amos E. Glanville, loth Minn., Frederick Theis, 2d Minn., Wm. H. Going, 4th Minn., Simeon Wait, 10th Minn., Henry Kohlmeier, 5th Iowa., Jasper Williams, — , L. L. Lapham, 1st Minn. Art'y, Joseph Winkelman, loth Minn., A son of Israel Noyes djed in the army; the regiment he belong- ed to is not known to the writer. Possibly two or three others of the neighborhood not listed above may have served in the war, 4$ OfcD TIMES ON PORTLAND FKAIRl* We shall next proceed to take some note of material •unditions as existing on Portland Prairie in 1865, the year the war closed, though the same might also apply generally, for some time before and for two or three years later than the year specified. The farms we have mentioned had by this time been quite generally brought under cultivation, espcially those of forty and eighty acres. But there was considerable unplowed land on some of the larger places, held as pasture, hay land or because partially covered with hazel brush aud scattered trees, in some cases groves of poplar and scrub-oak, re- quiring considerable labor to clear and break. North of the Arnold farm lay a whole quarter-section that had not been touched by the plow, and owned by some one iu Rhode Island, probably the last of the D. Salisbury claims. Fully fifty acres on the south side of the Ar- nold quarter had not been broken, and much of Wright's eighty adjoining was also in its natural state* His south eighty, now Frank Theis' farm, was still covered by the original prairie grass, and the same may be said of what is now Henry Weibke's place. Nor had anything been done to bring the top of the ridge under cultivation. Next as to farm buildings. There were some good framed houses in the community, but usually without additions, or in some cases, a cheaply built lean-to about the rear doors. Some were log houses, >et roofed and shingled as other dwellings are. The chinks were filled with mortar and they were whitewashed inside. A few dwellings were of the cabin sort. Some of the bouse* were not plastered inside, but papered instead. The stove-pipe projecting above the peak of the roof, was, in those times, more eommon than brick chimney* A few TJSK WAK PKPIOl) AND JATKR CON&FTiONB 4S> of the farm dwellings were painted, or had been painted when new, but the weathered aspect predominated. Oa the whole, the larger number of the farm dwellings of the community were of limited size and indifferent ap* pearance, and as for roominess, far inferior to the broad roofed, two-story-and-attio farm houses of New England, in which some of the prairie people had been born. What shall be said of barns on the premises of the prairie farms ? In comparison with present times it might almost be said that there were none. Put as the stock then kept required shelter, makeshifts for barns were constructed that served their purpose for those years. They were called "straw barns." Crotches placed eight to ten feet apart were set in three rows, the center row being the highest. Large poles were run In the tops of the crotches and smaller poles and fence rails were set leaning against the crotch poles and end rafters all around the outside.. Poles or fence rails were used for rafters, and all this formed the frame-work of the structure. In threshing time a large amount of straw was run upon and banked around it, and what was left would be stacked in the yard against some part of the Stable for the cattle to work on. Sometimes the stable bad a fence of posts and poles built around it within three feet of the sides and ends and straw was trampled into the spaces between, making a straw wall for the sides and ends. The entrance might be provided with a door made of boards. The tops of these straw barns or sheds were rounded up like the top of a rick of hay, so as to shed off the rain. In such sheds, horses, cattle and poultry were wintered. A few had log stables, but they were covered at first as were the others. &6 OLD T1MXS ON. PORTLAND ^BAHtf* In regard to granaries, tho only ones the writer now remembers as existing in 1865 were one on the Metcalf place, and one on Yeaton's farm at the foot of a spur of ike ridge, southwest of the log cabin that he occupied. It had been built by a former owner of the place, either Ferry or liobins. The Metcalf granary was built of oak lumber, probably sawn at the mill on Waterloo, creek, which was now out of use. Some of the people had surface wells, but all depended more or less on rainwater cisterns. On the Arnold farm" a pondhole was dug in the ravine a qurater of a mile east of the house and before it became filled with water; a well seven feet deep was put down close south of the pond. A tiny spring w»s struck and gave about two, feet of standing water in the well, sometimes more in a w T et speli, and the well was stoned up. The water had to be hauled up to the house with a sled, barrel and oxen. Mr. Wright also dug a deeper well down into sandstone rock just south of the log house be occupied, and using a curb and buckets, he managed to get a good supply of water if the season was not a dry one- The people were fairly well provided with agricultural machines and common farm implements, yet not so much so as in later years. There was a great deal of changing of work in the community, particularly in harvest and threshing time. Some who had a limited acreage in wheat hired their cutting done by a neighbor, offsetting the bill as much as possible by an exchange m work. As late as the spriug of 1865 some of the people were stiirsowing grain by hand, though the broadcast seeder was coming into use about that time. Spring Wfceat was then the principle crop; next in acreage came TH* WAR PSKICfW ANfc l.ATXR CONDITIONS Gl corn, and then oats. Harvest time was the busiest sea- son which began in the latter part oi July, Some men from a disiance came in at this time* but largely the crews were made out by exchanging with neighbors, their grown boys or their hired men. The same usage applied to threshing crews. Various self-raking reapers were in use, especially one called the "New Yorker" that cost over $200. The self-binder was unknown, and although conceivable, was hardly thought to be a possibility. There was scarcely any such thing on Portland Prairie $» threshing in the field directlv from the shock. The harvest over, the grain was stacked. On the larger farms-, some stacking was done in the fields and sooner or later the straw was burned; but in any event numbers of the stacks were pitched about the stable yards for use ot the straw, especially oats straw and chaff. The steam- thresher, although beginning to be used in some part* of Minnesota, was never seen on the prairie during the wheat-raising period. There were only a few machines owned in the community (one by C. F. Albee) and hav- ing stacked their gr^in, each farmer had to await their turn for a machine to get around to their places and do their jobs. Various horse-power machines were in use, run by four or generally five span of horBes, walking around in a circle and attached to the arms of a low machine largely composed of iron gearing, placed back about three rods from the threshing-machine, the two being connected by a shaft in loose jointed aections so it could be slanted from a low level where the horses stepped over its covering, gradually upward to the shaft of the cylinder of the thresher, at which noint beveled 52 OLD TIME8 ON PORTLAND PRAIME gearing communicated the power to the whole machine. Th»y were provided with straw-stackers so that the sheds and stables could be covered anew each fall, with stacks of straw piled up as high as need be in the yards. The driver, with a long-lashed whip, stood on a platform Just above the gearing of the horse-power and which covered it over, thus keeping everything in motion. Occasion- ally a stop had to be luade to mend a broken belt, or to adjust something else about the rig that had gone wrong, but a regular break-down seldom occurred. It took about a dozen men and boys to attend to everything; three or four men went with the outfit and the others were gathered in the neighborhood. After the outfit bad pulled away, a ring at least 24 feet in diameter was left where the teams had circled around, and much grain was left scattered on the ground where the pitching, threshing and measuring had been done. It should be added that harvest and threshing made busy times for the women and their daughters, because, as they ex- pressed it, "they had so many extra mouths to feed." ' It may be wondered at now in a section where wheat was the principal crop, how so many had to tide along without granaries. Of course various makeshifts bad to be resorted to. One method was to build bins of fence rails, line them inside with straw and fill them up With wheat as threshed. Another method was to build bins of scantling and pine boards, blocked up a foot or more above ground, but in either case roofed over with a rounded paeking of straw. Those were times when the people had to get along without many things, some big but more of the little sort of which they often found that they stood in peed. THE WAK PEMOl) A»D IiA?<•. and reached the prairie with the sheep the next afternoqu. THROUGH THE MIDB1.K AND LATER SIXTIES 59 introducing a better breed of hogs than the kind com- monly raised in that part of the country at that time. Prairie people were not prepared to raise sheep, either in respect to land seeded to grass, buildings or fences. Straw sheds of the sort already described had to be built £o shelter them. After two vears trial it became evident that keeping sheep in their case was productive of more care, bother and damage than of profit, and consequently all who had gone into the busness, with the exception of Mr. Yeaton, got out of it as well as they could. As had been the case early in November of the pre- ceding year, so again about the same time of the month in 1865, a snowstorm from the nort least covered the ground with at least eight inches of snow, which, how- ever melted off within a week. On one of these two occasions, what seemed curious, the St. Paul Press stated shat it appeared from reports received from La Crosse that they had about a foot of snow down there, while at St. Paul no snow had fallen, and that they were enjoy- ing pleasant weather there instead. In after years it must have become known to the Weather Bureau, as it did to commercial travelers, that there stretches from Lake Michigan southwesterly toward Nebraska, a M%. of country a hundred miles, more or less, in breadth, within which snow is apt to fall, not every year, but occasionally, late in October or early in November. v This strip of country, which crosses Houston County, the traveling men came to call the l 'snow-belt.*' The winter of 1865-6, though rather cold, was more marked in its latter half by the great depth of snow that fell. This, wind storms piled into the roads, and along some stretches* as uigfc as the top rails of fences 60 OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND PRAfcRIE Opposite the deeper filled portions of the roads, teams had to take to the fields for longer or shorter distances. The deep snow lasted all through March. The 31st of that month was a moderate day with a south wind, b&t not quite warm enough to start a sudden thaw with torrents running down the ravines; yet the night follow- ing brought what the day had not. About midnight a terrific downpour of rain with lightning and thunder ensued. The lightning flashed almost incessantly and the clouds must have been low, since each yivid flash was followed, not by rolling thunder, but by loud and sharp explosions, resembling the firing of cannon. All of the ravines leading from the prairie became rushing torrents. Many bridges in that part of the country were swept away, including the Iowa river bridge on the road to Lansing. Most of the snow was swepi off, but where it bad drifted against ftnces, these remains later froze hard and did not wholly disappear until late in April. The south eighty of Wright's quarter had never been cultivated or fenced along the road on the township line. The road through the north eighty th«n continued straight on up a gentle rise of the ground until near 0. F. Albee's land when it curved to the east and joined the townline road at the point where the one that runs down Tippery ravine begins. In the spring of 1866 Frederick Theis, who had been living in the south part of Wilmington, moved a building on to the east forty of the uncultivated eighty mentioned, which he had bought, and fitted it up for a bouse. He broke and fenced the land and had the road changed to the quarter-section line where it now rvins, so far as to border his place, THROtTGH THE MIDDLE AND LATEK SIXTIES 41 The same spring L. L. I.aj ham put up a large barn on his premises and in place where a different one now stands. It had no irame of hewn oak timbers but was framed instead of scantling and joist materials, such as would be used in building a house. It was provided with a commodious hay-mow or loft and basement part. Wm. H. Going went on to what is now the H. Weibke place about thai time and built a house on it just north of the road that runs dowu Tippery ravine. Hitherto the land had lain unfenced and uncultivated. It. E. Shumway moved that summer from the old log cabin near the state line to the Cook house then on the McNelly place. This brought the postoffice one mile nearer to a part of the community. On the Fourth of July of that year the people of the prairie held their picnic at the point where the road to Lansing crosses the Oneota or Upper Iowa river, eight or or nine miles distant. In those times scarcely anyone in the whole neighborhood possessed such a thing as a buggy or any other light rig for family use. Family parties or other groups of persons had to travel to such gatherings in common farm wagons, if too far away to go on foot. Many teams of the prairie people journeyed down to the river, the day being a favorable one. The* bridge there, swept away the previous spring, had not been rebuilt, but the teams easily crossed at a gravelly ford just above where it had stood. A flat boat had been used for a ferry when the water was higher than in its summer stage. The picnic was held in a grove close to the river and a little above the bridge piers. Quite a large assemblage of people were present, some portion of them presumably from that neighborhood, 62 OLD TIMES OH PORTLAND PRAIRIK This year was uot as prosperous on some accounts as toe preceding one had been. An early frost injured the' corn crop where it had been planted late in the season/ The Colorado beetle or potato bug, began to attract at- tention that year as a pest to potato vines. The first snow of the season came on the last day of October, but «nly about two inehes deep. That year Joseph Winkelman took up his residence on the prairie, coming from La Crescent to manage the widow Everett place. He was born in Germany Fete ruary IS, 1838, and came to Wisconsin with his parents when fifteen years of age. That fall Geo. M- Watson, Frank Healy and Geo. T. Shu m way and probably Win- kelman were running a threshing-machine. Geo. M. Watson came to the prairie from New Portland, Maine* the previous year and at first worked on Yeaton's place. He married Lucy Arnold Christmas day, 1866, and took charge of the Arnold farm. Rev. White had now been three years on the Caledo- nia Circuit. In the fall of 1866 he was succeeded by Rev. John W. Klepper, a younger man, a native of Illir nois, born in 1834. In the following winter he held protracted meetings in the McNelly school house, some of the young people of the community joining the church society after the usual probationary period. It may be worth while to remark here, that in the forty and more years that have passed since those school bouse preach- ing services, many views then voiced therein have been abandoned as obsolete and untenable by all educated Clergymen of the Methodist Church. The Lansing road, as it was called in those times, runs east from the corners at the Mc^flly schoel house THROUGH THE MIDDLE AND LATER SIXTIES IS one mile on the line of sections 30 and 31, Winnebago township; thence it gains the center of Section 32 by south and east quarter mile stretches. At that point there are other toad corners, one road continuing east as a ridge road and the main or Lansing road turning southward through what was then the Everett neigh- borhood. At the southwest corner of the roads stood the log house of Spafford Williams, and several other houses stood near the roads within a quarter of a mile. f lies. Biggs, a blacksmith, had put up a shop a short distance east of Williams' place in 1862. On the road south was the Qerman church built in 1864. There was probably a school house east of the corners in the year under discussion. The Williams family had now moved to Caledonia; and other old-time settlers of the vicinity had also gone, Germans having bought their places. Sometime in 1867, Christian Bunge Jr., whose father was located on a farm some distance east on the ridge road, opened a store in the log cabin. A chapel had also been built east of the store during the previous year and two or three houses were added to the plaee, with a postoffice in the store the year following, all of which made a beginning to the village of Eitzen. In the sixties the people of the prairie had a custom of observing the Fourth of July by picnic assemblages at different localities. In 1867 the grove either on or ad- joining the Schultz place was again used for holding the picnic and we think also again next year, but we are not positive on that point. Beginning in 1866, when Lapham put up the barn on his place that has been mentioned, new and much need- ed buildings began to be added to the prairie' farms, by 64 0^9 X*Hm ON PORTIA SP MJ4IKI2 this or that person as $hey chanced to be able to build. Each year now saw a granary, a barn or new house built in the community, or more than one of each kind. Some, dwellings were made larger by building on additions. In the summer of 1867 the Wright school house was built on a parcel of ground either donated or bought of Mr. Wright and in a corner of his land made by the road. As first built, a door in the center of the east end opened into entrys with two inner doors opening into the school room. The pupils sat facing east. Late in the fall a school opened in the building, Miss Ellen Healy keeping the first or winter term, having some twenty pupils. Chas. F. Albee built a substantial granary a few rods north of the house he then lived in, and near the road. It was twelve feet posted so as to allow a Joft above for. 8 sleeping place for hired men. We have spoken of a quarter-section (the southeast. Section IS) north of the Arnold farm as yet uncultivated. About the time arrived at, this quarter having been^ bought by Horace Arnold, was soon transferred by him to several other parties. £. Q. Arnold bought the south- east forty and had his house moved to it; the forty next north of it was bought by a Norwegian named Seams Nelson who put up a house on it near the townline road. The west eighty of this quarter was transferred to the Sinclair brothers who built a hpuse on it near its south end, about twenty rods east of the road corner at what was then Hartley's place. These several parties broke up the quarter and brought it under cultivation. About that time James Hanson, one of the five brothers, went on to the eighty next north of Hartley's place and put in. the walls of a basement to a bouse on tjie %ort|t sid$ THROUGH THE MlUDi.K AND LATEE SIXTIES §5 of a shallow ravine a quarter of a mile directly north of Hartley's house, and this he roofed over and occupied several years until he could build a framed dwelling on the basement walls. But no house stands there now. Thus far along the prairie farmers had to depend on the grist-mill at Dorchester to get their grinding done. About 1861 a man at the Winnebago Valley named J£n3ign McDonald put up a small stone-built mill just at the north side of the mouth of Tippery ravme. He was not able to equip the mill with machinery and the war coming on, nothing was done with it for about seven years. In 1867 a new mill, also stone-built, was erected an the creek about a mile below the other by Eeck Brothers, who were from Pennsylvania. The upper mill was now purchased by Rose & McMillen, and late in the fall both mills were got in running order. McMillen had, for some time previously, been the hired miller at Dorchester. The upper mill had one run of stone only; the larger lower mill two, one set for flour and the other for grinding corn-meal and feed. At any time for sev^ eral years previously a mill on Winnebago creek would have had a good custom. The fall of 1867 was mild and pleasant, that sort of weather continuing until long into November, since the fall plowing held out to the day before Thanksgiving on which day the ground had frozen up. The breeds of stock raised on the farms in those years was of the common western kind such as usually accom- panied the wheat raising as a principle crop. Pew or bo attempts were made to improve the breeds of hogs; as for cattle, cows and steers, they were said to have become u bred in and out" owing to so much free range. 66, OLD TIMES OK PORTLAND PRAIUB In 18.Q.8, what is now the body part of the house oil the "Wright place was built, Mr. Wright having down to that year continued to live in the original log cabin on the same site. Some time previously a wind-storm blew over a tall oak on the south side of the cabin, its top falling into a tree on the north side, so that the trunk and lower branches came in contact with the roof of the cabin, partially crushing it in. Mr. Wright then built a woodshed and lived in that while the new house was being erected. An addition was built on the north side of Leonard Albee's house the same year. The present Mc^elly school house was also built in, 1868, and without at first removing the old one. The new building was put in close west of the other. The entrance door was placed near the southwest corner, so a,s to open directly into the schoolroom to one side of the teacher's desk. After the building had been completed in June it was used in which to hold church services, and in fact, the first service of any kind to be held in, the building was the public funeral service of Wesley Albee, son of Leonard Albee, who died July 5, 1868 r Rev. J. W. Klepper preaching the sermon. The old sphool house remained in place where it had stood for a little over ten years, until the next winter, when, having been bought by Esten Olson, it was moved over to his place a mile or more farther west. During the same year ft. E. Shumway moved the house he then liyed in to his present place, which earlier had been part of the Metcalf farm. This brought the postoffice to the townline road and more centrally for the community in general, than when the house stood to the wes,t of the McNelly residence. THROUGH THE MIDDLE AND LATEK SIXTIES G? W. Ii. Eallou was still about the prairie at ',:mes and had been so since war years, but with occasional long absences at the east. A bout the time the Winnebago mills were put in operation he located near the upper one, yet worked at the prairie more or less in the warm season putting up barns, granaries and sometimes addi- tions to houses. The Wright school house had been built under his charge, and in 1868 he put up a granary at the Arnold place. I] is forty around the end of the ridge, he had transferred to the Sinclair brothers. Mr. Ballou was a widower, his wife having died in Burrill- ville, Ii. I., September 6, 1854. He had one son, Oscar B., born September 19, 1858, and who at the time now referred to was living at Leonard Albee's place. Frank Healy married Esther E. Pease, oldest daughter of Hosea W. Pease, April 8, 1868, and they went to live on the Marcy place which Mr. Healy had bought. Mrs. Marcy had died the previous \ear and Mr. Marcy and his son Albert had moved away; Ada Marcy married Alexander Batchellor Jr., and the couple were living in Iowa, several miles from Cedar Falls. Hitherto the surplus wheat raised on the prairie farms had been carted to Lansing as the most available market town on the river, and in like manner farmers through the central part of the county journeyed to Brownsville, unless, in some cases, they went to points on the S. M. railroad. In 1868 a stone-built warehouse for receiving wheat was put up on the banks of a slough about a mile north of the site of New Albin which was then a farm. A store and a house or two was built near the ware- house and lumber to sell to farmers was barged in there. A man named Hayes and Wm. Kobinspn were ckieoy 68 OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND PRAIRIE interested in the place, which was commonly called tb§ "New J^anding." There was not space enough there^ at the foot of the bluff for much of a place to grow up, while "Ross' bench" across both the Winnebago creek and the Iowa state line, was a natural town site. After a fitful existence of about four years, the building of the west side river line of railroad and starting of the village of New Albin, caused the "landing" to be abandoned. About 1869, possibly in the spring of that year, the, county commissioners earne from Caledonia to view and lo decide on the location of a piece of road in Section 24. The cross-road from the Wright corners over to the west road hitherto had no existence. Nor did the west road pass up on to the ridge where it runs now up the east side of a spur of the ridge. Instead, after passing by Frank Healy's (now Stigen's) place, it continued north- erly by the east end of Yeaton's log cabin and thence turned up on to the top of the ridge, near where the t house of the place now stands under the ridge. There was then a roadway on the top of the ridge to its eastern termination. It descended off the ridge at the south- eastern shoulder, crossed the ground south of the Arnold house of that time and joined the main road near the Wright school house. The road from the Wright corners over to the west road having been established, that on the eastern part of the ridge was abandoned so far as no longer needed, and the ground it had crossed became fenced in. At that time new fences were much made of posts and pine fence-boards, apd some of the old rail fences had begun to be replaced by them. In the old days two large "lone trees" were standing well up on either shoulder of the ridge and on the farm THROUGH THE MIDDLE AND LATER SIXTIES 6& of Amos Arnold. That at the north shoulder was a tail birch tree with a trunk much over a foot in diameter; the other was a full-grown black oak. Both trees, in coming from the north or south, could be seen at long distances away apd formed landmarks. The birch was blown down during the Civil war, and the oak also fell in a storm many years afterwards. During 1869 several persons on the prairie united to take "Harper's Weekly," the leading illustrated pape* of that period-, a larger number were taking during the later sixties the «2*ew Xork Ledger," which for many years past had been the leading story paper of the coun- try At the same time many of the young people of the community rejoiced over the weekly visits of -The Youth's Companion," a publication started by Nathan^ F Willis in 1820, Si. Paul and Chicago weeklies, were still taken in the community. Many too, who had come from Rhode Island or the adjacent part of Massachu- setts, took the "Woonsocket Patriot," their -old home paper" and an excellent lamily weekly in its time. VI course a few other publications reached the community, such as some copies of a farmer's paper, one or two religious publications, and one or two ladies' magazines, During 1863 several persons took Harper's Magazine, but no later issues, we think, had since been seen in the community. The numerous magazines of present times were then, nearly all of them, unborn. From year to year, as before, no dailv papers were seen there. The prairie people appear to have been invited to com* to Caledonia to spend the Fourth of July, 1869. Quite a humber of them went up to that village on that day, which was a favorably pleasant one. The general 70 OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND PRAIXIE picnic, which we think, was of the basket kind, each family party bringing their own provisions, was held in a fine grove of large poplars south of where St. Peters church now stands. If we remember correctly, a stand for speakers and a platform for a bowery dance was used there. The village had not changed much since wartime. On all sides around where there are either new streets or extensions of old ones, were then fenced fields or a few scattered buildings. The court-house was then a two story wooden building; there were four small wooden-built churches in the place, and several stores and saloons, and one printing office. We do not think that the place then contained a single stone-built or brick building. The year was a fair one for crops on the farms. Mr. Yeaton had kept his sheep and had a large flock on his hands. He said that if he kept them he would have to have a wider range of pasture. The Everetts had al- ready emigrated to Burt County, Nebraska, and so Mr. Yeaton decided to sell out and locate in the same then new section of country. He had his sheep driven to that state and in the fall a largely attended auction was held at his place and stock, farm machinery, etc, disposed of to good advantage. The farm was sold to Cornelius Metcalf Jr., who soon occupied it, leaving the old place to his father and brother David. David Metcalf had married Florence Yeaton about the time here under con- sideration. Mr. Yeaton had not done much to improve buildings on the place while he owned it; a shed-roofed addition had been built to the old log house; yet much money and labor had been expended on post-and-board fences and in breaking land on the top of the ridge. THROUGH THE MIDDLE AND LATER SIXTIES 71 In the fall of 1869 Jeremiah Shumway purchased of Charles Albee the south eighty of his quarter-sectiom and in the spring of 1870 he prepared to leave the old place near the state line and occupy the other. First a granary with a walled uuder part was built and the family occupied that while a new house with an ell part was being built a few rods north of it. There was some other building on the prairie that >ear; Leonard Albee and Mr. Cass had barns built on their places, and A. Arnold an ell to the west side of his house. These three jobs were in charge of W. R. Ballou who had been living for some years at the Win- nebago Valley and near the upper mill. The same year Fred Ruhe built a house on the south side of the road about a half mile east of the McNelly school house. George T. Shumwaj mairitd Floier.ee E. Henderson, a former school teacher in the community, April 3, 1870, and they were living at the Nelson Coil place above Dorchester. Mr. Shumwtiy took the contract to carry the mail twice a week between Dorchester and Browns- ville, beginning July 1st. J. Shumwpy took charge of it most of the time, though young persons* in the em- ployment of one of the other of the brothers, were gen- * One of these chanced to be the publisher of this pamphlet. In 1870 Brownsville was experiencing Rood times. Thme of the grown people joined in the movement, but in general, the organization was maintained for a little over two years by the young people to whom any such institution of a minor and usually transient character, was new and novel. Their meetings were held at the school house Saturday evenings, at first weekly, and later every other week. It may truly be said that along in the middle seventies the prairie community had on the whole an interesting class of young folks, about fifty in number, ranging in age from twelve upward to twenty or more. And here it may be observed, what is already apparent, that these movements influencing young and old since spring, grew out of a ball brought into the community. 84 QLP TIMES O^ PORTLAND FRAIBI? In the fall of 1875, Charles F. Albee built the house, now on. the place, the lumber haying been hauled frou\ New Albin. The body and ell were both built at the same time. The old house had stood on the same site, but was moved back and used for a woodshed and a place to keep implements. The old log barn across the road stood for sonrie years longer. J^ate in the fall Rev. Aaron Matspn was assigned by the conference to some other circuit, and for the con-, ference year 1875-6 no minister was returned to the Caledonia Circuit. The people of the prairie took that opportunity to build a church of a size adequate to the community and on land donated by Geo. Cass. It was, built in the summer of 1876, largely by subscription, but considerable work was also contributed in various ways r such as hauling stone for the foundation, lumber and othev materials, some carpentering a,nd lathing work. Dr. Ambler of New Albin, and, a A^r. Hall of Caledonia sometimes acted as itinerant preachers, and one or the other probably first preached in the new building. In November ltev, W. M. liowdish was assigned to the cir- cuit and remained two years. There was not much doing on the prairie that year besides some building.* Cornelius Metcalf Jr. erected * There bt-ing no Fourth ot July celebration at the prairie that year, the writer with H F. A mold, Martin Taylor and William Lee went to La Crosse. The speaking was iu a German beer-garden and Robert Collyer of Chicago made the principal address.— A few pet- 89ns went from Caledonia to the Centennial Exposition at Philadel- phia that year; the writer also went from Portland Prairie. Going in September, tickets in I a Crosse were then 839.40 for the round trip and good for sixty days. There was also a variety of routes from which to make a choice, going by one route and returning by another. The writer was enabled to again visit the southern New England states. PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN THE SEVENTIE8 85 a large house on his place and in the base of the ridge; however, it was not finished off inside so as to be occu- pied for about two years. To the south a quarter of a mile or more, Frank Healy put up a building on the east side of the road, called a granary, but it had a hay-loft above and a stable in a basement below. The hay was passed down through the granary part into the mangers in closed vertical chutes. The building is not there in present times. About this time the farmers of the prairie began to possess themselves of open buggies and in some cases light two-seated wagons. These were much better to get around in than the ordinary farm wagon. The days of covered carriages bad not yet come, so far as the prairie community was concerned. Wood for the season was hauled in winter and early in the spring was sawn and chopped up for stove use. This practise had been more or less general through the decade. Each place had one or two hired men, when large boys were lacking in a family, and the former were usually young men hired for the season, and who came from Iowa or Wisconsin.* As has been said, the young folks who had been or were still attending the school at Caledonia had formed friendships with others of their age belonging to other communities. This led to pleasant interchanges of visits along in the middle seventies, Martin Taylor and sisters of Pope's Prairie, Myron Butterfield of Union, and a few others occasionally making visits at the prairie. * Borne of these young men around the prairie in the middle and later seventies were named Thoe. McKee (came in 1874) Leonard and Robert Oliver, Fred Oben and J. Hophius. Then there were German and Norwegians who worked on the farms. Melvin Yeaton of Ne- braska was there more than one season, and J Sayles Pain,e. 86 OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND BttAIftlE Sometime before 1877 L. L. Lapham bought a large amount of brick that had been made near the Ross spring, at the foot of the bluffs near New Albin. In the year mentioned the brick house on the Lapham place was erected and in course of time the small fram- ed house near the road which the family had occupied seventeen years, was torn down. That year Chas. F. Wright built on the ell to the north side of his house. It was in the middle seventies, we think, that Mr. W. set out near the road rows of little pines. It was not thought by some that they would ever thrive, but they form quite a grove now, bordering the road. The observance of the Fourth of July now depended upon whether there was a general agreement in the community to gather for thstf purpose or not. The grove in which the last picnic was held had been grubbed out the preceding year, the ground plowed, and it was now a field of grain. It was proposed that year to go down to the Iowa river and hold a basket picnic, each family party providing for themselves. There was a meeting in wagons and carriages at the Albee and Shumway places, both near the new church, and then the route taken was the road to Dorchester; passing that place on the east, the creek valley was followed some distance to where a road turned up and over an elevated ridge, from which a descent was made down into the Upper Iowa river valley. A grove between the river road and the stream was occupied by the Mt. Hope people; most of the teams had passed this point, when a Mr. Ratcliffe hastened after them and as he passed different teams he extended an invitation to join this valley community, in their observance of the day. After some conference PORTLAND PKA1BIE IN THE SEVENTIES 8? this cordial invitation was accepted and the procession turned back to the grove and unhitched the horses. Both picnic parties were of about the same number, neither over large, and hitherto any acquaintance had been but casual in some cases* The Mt. Hope party had a platform and organ upon it, so that during part of the afternoon there was music and singing. A number of the boys and young men did not neglect to go over to the river for a swim. The day was pleasant and on • the whole there was more pleasure derived from joining parties than could have been had by either singly. As the afternoon waned, the prairie people hitched up their teams, and passing down the valley some distance to the Lansing road, they returned home by that route. The temperance organization mentioned on a preced- ing page, having lasted somewhat longer than could have been expected, came to an end by reason of internal dissensions. For a long time adult members, consider- ing it a young folks' affair, had ceased attending its semi-monthly meetings. Nevertheless the lodge flour- ished. But by September, 1877, it became filled with composite elements, and dissensions arose. A number of the members consequently refused to attend the next meeting, at which about two dozen young men and boys were present. Seeing the trend of things, several ruling spirits conferred among themselves, then one of them named Hophius put in a motion to terminate the lodge. This was generally agreed to and the local organization was declared to be disrupted, and a scene of confusion followed for some time. The matter made talk in the community for a while, but no attempt was ever mad® to re -instate things. 88 OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND PRAIRIE The winter following, for t'ne most part, was open$ wet and muddy. No winter like it had been known in that part of the country since its settlement. It had been a custom to kill hogs in December and after they were dressed to pack them away in straw bins or gran- aries to freeze up and then cart or sled them to market when prices rose. This method was no longer safe and so a better one came into use at this time, that of placing hog-racks on wagons and transporting the hogs to market and selling them live-weight. Some attention was being given to secuie better breeds of hogs, but as to cattle the buyers who annually came around, said that the blufl> and-prairie region of Iowa and Minnesota was backward in growing good stock, and to make fair lots they had to pick the best they could find here and there. John Robinson had for some years been located at New Albin as a buyer and shipper of stock, and G. M. Watson also made the beginning of an extensive business in the same line along in the middle seventies. Gradually some persons left the prairie for other loca- tions. James Hanson sold his eighty to Wm. Hartley and moved to Douglas County, Minn., where he died a few years later. Horace Arnold and Marcus Stone went to Lake County, Dakota, and others left about that time to look for land if not to stay. There was no picnic of the prairie people for the 4th of July. 1878, but the day being pleasaut some families went on invitation to the Widow Robinson place for an outing. In September a few of the prairie people went up to St. Paul to attend the State Fair for that year, at which on one day President Hayes was present and made an address to the thousands gathered there, his PORTLAND PBAIRIE IN THE SEVENTIES 89 topic being the financial condition of the nation under his administration. Prof. Henry of the Weather Bureau and a few other officials were of the presidential party. A plat-book of Houston County was published in 1878. Taking the same sections in Wilmington and Winne- bago townships as before noted on pages 75 and 76, and in the same order, it may be observed that some changes had taken place in regard to the ownership of land in each of these sections since 1871, and what the changes had been. In the penciled copy here used we find that we have not noted names of owners of ridge and ravine lands in the two most northern sections and we cannot make these complete, but this will not matter. Section 13, Wilmington. — South half only; west quarter of same, William Hartley, l6© acres. East quarter, H, Arnold, 70. acres; S, Nelson, 40 acres; E. C. Arnold, 50 acres. (The latter had bought ten acres ofi the €Me Moen or H. Arnold eighty, while Nelson owned twenty ad' ditional acres next north of the forty here listed.) Section 24. — A. Arnold, 160 acres; C. F. Albee, 40 acres; C. Metcalf, 196 acres; C. F. Wright 80; F. Thiess 8o; H. Hannebuth 40, and F. Healj 40 acres. (C. Metcalf had 29 additional acres on the west side of his farm in Section 23, Four acres of his other 200 were deducted for the east and west road, leaving 196.) Section 25. — C. F. Albee, 80 acres; J. Shumway, 80 acres; H. Hannebuth, 80 acres, O. E. Olsgaard Jr., 120 acres; L. Albee, 120 acres; J. Winkelman, 80 acres; J. McNelly, 80 acres.. Section 36.— J. Guhl 40; J. Schultze 80; Mrs. A. Sneesby 40; J. Myer 80; J. Vreeland 40; A. Hannebuth 80; E. Cook 40; H. Robinson 60; Geo. Robinson 80; and J. Guhl other 60 acres. 90 OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND FRAIRI1 Section 18, Winnebago. — Southwest quarter, I. & F. E. Hanson, 161 acres. North, and northeast of this quarter, N. Reierson had 80 acres. Section 19. — H. W. Pease, 81 acres; L. L. Lapham, 18,1 acres; C. Kruger„ 120 acres; J. H. Schoh, 40 acres (the most northeast forty of this section); H. Weibke, 61 acres. Southeast quarter, J. H. Schoh, 160 acres. The deduction of twenty acres from Weibke'S eighty, forms the south part of the Lapham farm, and existed that way before Going fenced and broke the diminished eighty. Section 30. — }. H. Franzen, 80 acres, ridge land; H. Weibke, a forty next west of the last; C. F. Albee, 40 acres; Geo. Cass, 74 acres; J. M. Schutte, 120 acres; E. D. Carsten, 41 acres; Wm. Cass, 74 acres; R. E. Shumway, 40 acres; D. Metcalf. 100 acres, and C. Flessa, 34 acres. (This section was rather irregularly divided.) Section SI.— In this section names of owners are here listed across the north half from east to west, and in reverse order for the south half. Carsten Estate, the most northeastern forty; E. Ruhe 40 acres next south of the last; D. Metcalf, 80 acres, formerly the Fred Ruhe place; C. Flessa, 80 acres; H. F. Kohlmeier, 80 acres. In the south half of the section the owners were J. Deters, L. Ker- shen, L. Linde and W. Schopper, each eighty acres. Rev. W\ M. Bowdish having now been two years on the Caledonia Circuit, was assigned by the conference to a charge in Fillmore County and an elderly clergy- man named W. A. Miles came in his place. During the ministry of Bowdish and Miles two presiding-elders named McKinley and Chaffee held quarterly meetings in the church at different times. Ilev. McKinley had vis- ited the community twenty years earlier, in settlement days, when services were held in houses- PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN THE SEVENTIE8 91 Some of the ministers wl-o preached on the circuit prior to 1880, were elderly men who had received their education many years previously, and apparently were unaware of some changes of opinion in regard to cer- tain subjects that had been in progress among the ed- ucated classes sinee the close of the war. There were not lacking those who denounced the reading of news- papers, placing the practise nearly on a par with novel reading and card-playing, and it should be remembered that in those days the prairie people saw no daily papers. Of course such admonitions had little effect. The same class of ministers, or some few of them, held to the '"short chronology of the earth" and universality of the deluge with all that such views imply, not being well enough educated to be able to discern how untenable sucli views were.* Although practically extinct in cities, large towns and educational renteus, many such clerical • 8ome copies of the "Northwestern Christian Advocate," an organ of the M. E. Church, were taken at the prairie in the sixties and sev- enties. This publication, commenting on Darwin's centennary, had this to say in its issue of Feb. 10, 1909:— "Dr.'.Chalmers, in his astron- omical discourses, had pointed the way for a sane theology in ap- proaching science, but his way was narrow and steep. The multitude followed leaders like Bisl op Wilberforce and tried to shout Lyell and Darwin and Wallace down. As Augustine foresaw and foretold. *ney made themselves a 'laughing-stock,' not because of their be- liefs, but because they were ignorant alike of the developments of theology and of the observations and reasoning of scientific men. One of the chief and most valuable results of Mr. Darwin's book has been the displacement of this noisy company by saner theologians. No theologian of repute would display to-day the ignorance of geol- ogy and biology so disgracefully common in 1859." And the Advocate might also have added "to some extent in 1879" We may observe here the saying that what appears heretical to one generation becomes orthodox to the next, according to a psycholog- ical law that engenders progressive variation of opinion. 02 OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND fRlIRft fossils still survived amidst agricultural populations? and regarded such topics as Evolution, the Antiquity of Man and even Geology as a species of scientific infidel- ity, which, with the Ingersolism of that time ought to be kept from the knowledge of church people, especially the yoUnger members. The foregoing remarks are preliminary to the narra- tion of the discussion in the community during the spring and summer of 1879 of topics which previously had but little or never engaged the attention of the prairie people. For a designation, these discussions may 1 be referred to as "Scientific Infidelity (hypotheses of recent science), Atheism and Ingersollism," all of which by August became merged into another topic, viz: "The Mamline versus the State university." It will take some space to narrate how these discussions arose, how they were kept going at intervals and how at last mat- ters were in a measure righted. These things were as much a part of the local history of the prairie for the year 1879 as were the ball games, etc., for 1875. In the first place the nation at large was entering upon an intellectual transitional stage, concerning which the next generation could see that old beliefs were tbert in process of disintegration. At such times reflex in- fluences penetrate country communities through the' medium of printed matter, nevertheless agricultural communities are apt to cling to certain views long after their abandonment in educational centers. There are* apt to be individuals in these communities, less obtuse,* but who have often been constrained to silence owing to their knowledge that the majority about them hold othe* opinions of have not been appreciatively educated. PORTLAND PRAIRIE IN THE SEVENTIE8 9<* We did not hear the discussions themselves, but heard of them instead, so we cannot say as to how far the different questions were mistakenly confounded together as one and the same thing. Even between atheism and Ingersolhsra an educated person would draw a line of distinction; the first needs no definition; the other was what is now called agnosticism. Among the class of clergymen referred to, infidelity in science, in contra- distinction to "true science," was merely any conclusion or hypothesis of scientific men that in general did not accord with a literal interpretation of the first ten chap- ters of Genesis. Of course the majority of Methodist clergymen and church people admitted the geological antiquity of the earth, this having then been taught in the higher institutions of learning for over forty years. During the preceding fall and winter the writer con- tributed to a Caledonia paper some articles on geolog- ical science, prehistoric man, etc., though nothing was written on the evolutionary doctrine. Rev. Miles derid- ed geology in the pulpit as a false science and further talked that way in some of the houses. Some of the church people admitted that they did not co-incide with him in his attitude respecting physical science; geology, they knew, was a firmly established science. There was nothing in the articles mentioned, as we recall them, but what is now taught in school books or admitted in Biblical encyclopaedias.* * Hastings' Biblical Dictionary, a standard work ; art. "Deluge," makes this concession: "That the writers and compilers of Genesis sincerely believed the story we need have no doubt, but in the light of scientific and historical criticism it must be frankly recognized as one of those many stories or legends which are found in the folk-lore $ind early literature of all peoples." 94 QLP TIMES ON PORTLAND ERAJRIB But more than any influence the aforesaid articles, could have exercised, was Rev. Miles frequent attacks upon a noted skeptic and lecturer, who, about that time, was attaining national reputation, and of no favorable kind. The clergy who so freely attacked Ingersollism all over the country, failed to see that they were stim : ulating public curiosity in regard to the views and pub- lished writings of the man and advertising the same to all the young people within hearing. And it was the same with the scientific doctrine of Evolution, which Rev. Miles denounced in almost every sermon. Some of the young people of the community began to express a desire to read works on popularized science. Next came the "university question." At that time the Methodist denomination were building a university between St. Paul and Minneapolis, and raising funds, to carry on the work. The two oldest sons of J. Shumway had of late been attending the state university, a fact that stood to their credit, but were now at home for the summer vacation. On his way home, H. P. Shumway had gone with a fellow student to stop with him a few days in Chatfield; while there a certain Dr. Stafford came and deliyered a lecture for the benefit of Hamlina university. Arriving home, H. P. Shumway reported that the lecturer mentioned had grossly misrepresented conditions at the state university, and that in his opin- ion the said lecturer was not a fit person to be entrusted with any such mission. It was expected that a lecturer would come to Caledonia, and perhaps Portland Prairie also, hence a local interest began to be manifested. Rev. Miles drove down from Caledonia and preached, in the church each alternate Sunday. On intervening- POKTLAND EKAISIE IN THE SEVENTIES 9& Sundays that summer Dr. Ambler was in the habit of driving up from New Albin and supplying the pulpit. Neither of these preachers publicly attacked the state university from the pulpit, but in priyate conversation in houses they characterized the institution as a "hotbed of. infidelity." Fur some time John Albee had taken to the practise of medicine, and was spoken of as "Dr. John." lie had opportunities to talk with both parties, also frequently with H. P. Shumway, who knew more about the state university from personal observation than the two preachers did. In his calls at houses Dr. Albee was inclined to defend the state university and helped to intensify local interest. Unprejudiced persons began to think that a spirit of rivalry was being devel- oped and that a certain class of Methodist ministers were interested in creating a prejudice against the state institution so as to deter church people of their denom- ination from sending their sons there. One Sunday in August, Kev. H. C. Jennings drove down from Caledonia in company with Kev. Miles. He was to lecture in the church for the benefit of Hamline university and as the people had received previous notice that he was to come that day, a larger congregation than usual filled the church, all curious to know how a trite subject would be handled. But Mr. Jennings was well known to the people and there was a general ex- pectation that the topic would be judiciously dealt with. The meeting was the same as the usual church service, the lecture corresponding with ine sermon. Mr. Jen- nings spoke of the necessity of an education, religious as well as secular. Speaking of the non-religious char- acter of state institutions, he said, "This is just as \t, 96 OL& TIMES ON PORTLAND PfiAIRfB ought to be. The state has do right to teach any form of religion in its schools." And he gave reasons. The Christian body had become so divided into sects, alt differing in forms of worship and doctrine, that no pub- lic educational institution could be placed in charge of any one of them without exciting the jealousy and dissatisfaction of the others. To avoid endless content tion and controversy there was no resource other than to keep religion out of the public schools. Yet any denom- ination that could maintain them, had a right to build colleges, if they chose. Although Mr. Jennings ranged rather widely over educational topics, no word of denun- ciation of the state university came from him. In re* gard to the late discussions in the community, he said that he would have no controversy with any one over such topics. On the whole, Mr. Jennings treated his subject with a broad-minded liberality, calculated to satisfy all present. Although the times were getting hard locally, a considerable sum of money was raised at the prairie for the benefit of Hamline uniyersity. Late in the fall Rev. Miles, having been only one year at Caledonia, was succeeded by Rev. A. P. Bunce, a young man, who remained three years on the circuit. He was born in Columbia County, Wis., in 1855 and evidently had attended some theological college. He represented a transition type from an old school of the Methodist preacher to one that is decidedly new. Those topics that his predecessor denounced, he either let alone" or voiced opposite views. Thus, he said in the pulpit: "Somehow or other we believe in these things; we be- lieve that there has been a deluge; we believe in prehis- toric man. There are many sound theologians at the PORTLAND PBAIRIE IN THE SEVENTIES 9? present day who believe that Adam was the first man; but from what I have been able to gather on that subject I have about reached the conclusion that he was not." Rev. Miles doubtless would have deemed this partial acceptance of the theory of pre- Adamite races peculiar, if not absolutely heretical. Such in general, is a brief history of an intellectual phase of life that caused much discussion ou Portland Prairie during part of the year 1879. Questions of that nature occasionally penetrate country communities from outside sources. During the "university" discussion a matter of more importance was engaging at times the thoughtful atten- tion of the farmers. In 1878 there was scorching hot weather sometime before harvest that injured the wheat so that there was hardly more than half a crop. In 1879 the farmers said that the wheat crop of that year was "little better than chicken-feed," It now became ap- parent that a climatic change had ensued in that part of the country, and that one of two things would have to be done, either go more into stock-raising, with an im- provement of breeds, or emigrate to Dakota, then at- tracting attention as a new wheat-raising country. During the same summer and fall a narrow-gauge railroad was built from a junction on the river line at the mouth of Crooked creek, through Caledonia, Spring Grove and other places, to Preston, having a length of 59 miles. Twelve miles of road-bed for a three feet track was graded in Crooked Creek valley by Caledonia enterprise in 1874, but nothing more was done with the project for about five years. Then the C. D. & M. com- pany took hold of the line and extended it to Preston. The track-laying, with light rails, began in the latter 98 OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND PRAIRfB part of August and as the line was extended up the valley, two construction trains were used to bring for- ward from the junction loads of rails, ties and bridge timbers.* Locomotives and cars were proportionally * When the track was being laid up the ravine just below Caledo nia, a tie train came up behind the rail train and a gang of workmen hurriedly tumbled the ties out of the cars. 8ome twenty men Of Caledonia and surrounding country, who had been watching the track-laying and spiking gangs, had permission to ride down to the junction on the tops of the cars. This was the afternoon of Sept. 24. The last two miles of track, that first laid, was ballasted and even, and curved around amid some small hills. Over this the returning train was run at a rapid rate. At the junction another loaded train was ready and after a short stay there the locomotive coupled to it and the return trip was made, the engine pushing the cars ahead of it. The next day, a fine one, while the track was being laid through the village, much the same party of men made another trip to the junction on one of the construction trains. The locomotives were coal-burners, but coal not being obtainable at the junction just then, cord-wood was used for fuel, the furnaces being long enough to take in the wood without sawing. On th? return trip that afternoon, the train was made up of box cars and platform cars, the latter loaded with bridge timbers to be sent by team miles ahead of the track-lay ■< ers. When about two miles above Freeburg it was seen that the train was slowing down and at last it came to a stand still opposite a place near the creek where there was a large amount of dry driftwood. The crowd helped collect enough to refill the tender, the long stuff being chopped up with an axe. The furnace was at once stuffed full and about half an hour was spent there in raising steam. Then a run was made up the valley to a point a half mile below the mouth oi the Caledonia ravine. Here another stop was made, as assistance wa& needed to pull and push the long train up the grade in the ravine, and signals were sounded for the enerineof the rail train at Caledonia to come down. In about half an hour it came and coupled on to the forward end of the train. With this pulling and the oth^.r pushing, the train mounted over halfway up the grade; then a stop was made to get up more steam for the final effort. This time the train halted in the village in the edge of evening, a crowd, mainly school child- ren, lining the north side of the track near the town line to see it pass, the engines puflBng heavily. The end of the track was then a little beyond the depot, this building being nearly finished at that time, PORTLAND PKAIRIE IN THE SEVENTIES 9& smaller than the standard, as the track was less wide. The ties were carried in box cars and unloaded back some distance behind the forward construction train which closely followed the track-laying gang to keep them supplied with rails unloaded from platform cars. The ties were carried forward beyond the track-layers with horse teams, another gang of laborers laying them on the road-bed. Each succeeding train load of ties was thrown off the cars a considerable distance beyond where the last had been unloaded. The rails were taken forward on a light truck-car pulled by a horse, but only short distances, since the rail train kept moving after the track-layers at intervals. The track reached Cal- edonia September 25; Spring Grove, October 13, and Preston sometime in December. In a week or more after the track reached Caledonia, a passenger coach, stock-cars, etc., were brought on the road and it was opened to ordinary traffic to that point, presumably partially in conjunction with the running of construction trains further along the line. This line opened a nearer railroad market for Portland Prairie than that at New Albin. In October a large number of bogs raised at the prairie, were marketed at Caledonia. At Caledonia Junction (Reno) the stock had to be trans- ferred to standard-gauge cars, and in fact, all kinds of freight had to be reloaded there. In the fall of 1901 the track was altered to the standard-gauge. With the end of the old phase of life on the prairie there was some outgoing of some of the farmers. The Kelly family left for Nebraska about 1878; Christian Flessa later moved to Kansas, and John Sinclair left for Nebraska. In the spring of 1880 E. C. Arnold and son 100 OLD 1*1 MES OS PCmTLANI) PKJfclRlS B. F. Arnold, accompanied by H. V. Arnold and Fre$ A. Wright, left for Grand Forks County, in North Da- kota, the entire journey being made with ox teams. About the same time James Emerson and family em- igrated to South Dakota, C. F. Wright buying his place, In the earlier part of the eighties following, Houston County lost heavily in population. Containing an area of only 568 square miles, largely ridge,' valley and ravine lands, it had a population of 16,566 in 1875, decreased to 14,653 souls in 1890. The first few years after the cessation of the raising of spring wheat was a transition stage which gradually opened up more prosperous conditions than the older times had ever produced. First came creamaries in that section of country, followed by an increase of the number of hogs and cattle raised, with attention to good breeds of th& same, and a more careful looking after the land. Then came the big red barns, drilled wells and wind- mills on farms that did not have them before. In many- instances more substantial houses were built and others more or less remodeled. In the middle nineties the tel- ephone came into the community, and later the rural mail delivery, with the possibility of taking some city daily paper. As for organs, some families had begun to possess them in the seventies. At last children began growing up in the community to whom the hardships and privations their grandparents had experienced iri the old days, were only family traditions. The old times of Portland Prairie ended with the wheat-raising days. NOTES AND FAMILY RECORDS. Duck creek, p. 14, should read Archie creek. This is a small streamlet in a ravine south of the Robinson place. The Duck creek ravine is a mile farther west. The first opens into Waterloo creek valley just below, the other above Dorchester. A matter in which the larger young people were interested was overlooked in its place. In the early summer of 1864 they got up an entertainment which was held in an unfinished church south of where Eitzen was afterwards built up. We think it was also held on another evening at the (old) McNelly school house. The first public school house Christmas-tree gathering that the writer remembers at Portland Prairie, was about 1 866 or '67. On a few occasions some kind of entertainment was held in con- nection with these gatherings. Page 39. The distant sound of a cannon heard in the direction of Decorah.— On reflection, we think this was rather celebrating the news of the surrender of Lee's army instead of the fall of Richmond. People realized that both events ended the war. Frank Cook, p. 44, should read Daniel Cook. The name of August Hannebuth should have been added to the soldiers' list on p. 47- He served in an Illinois regiment. Page 63. On account of the sickness and expected death of Wesley Albee the prairie people probably gave up holding any picnic on July 4, 1868. Page 67. Tn the middle sixties W. R. Ballou lived part of the time at Lansing and Village Creek. 102 OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND PRAIRIB Notes on Points Subsequent To 1880. Other Removals. — In the spring of 1881 J. Shumway and fam* ily moved to Nebraska.. — Frank Healy moved to South Dakota about that time. — August Guhl sold his place in 1882 and went to Nebraska. — Mrs. Anne Sneesby moved to South Dakota about 1883.— David Matcalf moved to Nebraska about 1891.— H. W. Pease sold out and went to South Dakota in 1893. — The same year Geos Carver moved to Lansing and Samuel Evans sold out and moved to Nebraska about that time. Geo. Cass rented his farm in 1889 to practise medicine, and some ten years later he moved to Caledonia. Some young men of the prairie formed a brass band in 189O and built a band-house of common lumber in the grove at the southeast corner of the G. M. Watson place. The telephone was introduced into the community in 1896, the central being at the old Cass place. Some years later it was moved to R. E. Shumway's house. In 1902 another line was brought into the community. In the fall of 1910 the Northwest- ern Telephone Company carried a long distance line across Port- land Prairie, following the main road. — The rural delivery of mail dates from the fall of 1901. New barns were built in 1897 on the Con. Metcalf, Lapham ( Weibke and Widow Robinson places. Barn built on the Alice Albee place in 1905; also one on the Alfred Albee place next south, in 1907. Most all the farms had drilled wells and wind- mills prior to 1900. The present R. E. Shumway house was built in 1891; the one on the Bernard Schoh place about 1896; the G. M. Watson, once the A. Arnold place, rebuilt over and much enlarged in 1897; a oew house on the Kohlmeier place in 1900, and one on the Theodore Thiele place in 1902. We have given above such data in regard to buildings as we chance to have in hand. NOTES AND FAMILY RECORDS 108 Another plat-book of Houston County was published in 1896. Again taking the same sections in Wilmington and Winnebago townships as hitherto given on pages 75-76 and 89-90, it will be seen that a number of changes in ownership of the land had ensued since 1878. Some remarks will be appended, mostly in relation to changes later than 1896. Section 13, Wilmington. — South half only. East quarter, C. Bunge, 40 acres; Carl Busitzke, 50 acres; Ole A. Moen, 70 acres. West quarter, Isabelle Hartley, 60 acres; H. Schroedar, 100 acres. (The Seams Nelson place of 180 acres had gone into C. Bunge's possession; the E. C. Arnold place was now owned by C. Busitzke together with the Pease farm. The last two are now owned by W. F. Deters. The diminished Hartley place is now owned by Herbert Lapham who went on to it in 1897.) Section 24. — Geo. M. Watson, 200 acres; C. Metcalf, 196 acres; C. F. Wright, 80 acres including roads; Fred Thiese, 80 acres; G. H. Meyer, 40 acres; C, Stigen, 40 acres. (G. M. Watson had bought the C. F. Albee forty in 1890, and not long before that had acquired by purchase the A. Arnold farm. After the death of the owner in 1899, lne ^ on « Metcalf place became divided up. Lewis Haar who lives at the former Kelly place, has the ridge part; Herman Schoh the southwest part including farm buildings; and Wm. Bramme 70 acres on the east side, and has a house under the ridge. The Wright estate is occupied by Mrs. Wright, a second wife of the late C. F. Wright. Fred Thiese moved over to Eitzen about 1900 and a son Frank now has the place. The Stigen farm, in two sections, was once the Frank Healy place.) Section 25. — C. F. Albee, 80 acres; Alfred Albee, 80 acres; Geo. H. Meyer, 40 acres; a forty next west, no record; Jacob Evenson, 42 acres; O. E. Olsgard, 41 acres; W. E. McNelly, 26 acres, Geo. W. Metcalf, 13 acres; L. Albee, no acres; Joseph Winkelman, 80 acres; John McNelly, 80 acres. (C. F. Albee 104 OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND PRAIRIE died in 1898 and Mrs. Albee in 1.909, so that Miss Alice Albe^ now has the farm. The Alfred Albee place is the eighty once owned by J. Shumway and prior to 1870 was the south half of C F. Albee's quarter-section. Geo. W. Metcalf had W. R. Ballou build him a house several rods west of the Leonard Albee house in 1881 and got land to go with it, but in December, 1901, he moved to a farm one mile west of Caledonia. The small tract and L. Albee place is now owned by Fred Deters.) Section 36. — H. F. Kohlmeier, 40 acres; Katherine Schultze 120 acres; Jurgen Meyers, 80 acres; Katherine Schultze, 40 acres; Henry Mowinkel, 40 acres; Geo. Meyers, 40 acres; Elisha Cook, 40 acres; Geo. Robinson estate, 80 acres; Henry Robinson, 60 acres; Jurgen Guhl, 60 acres; Geo. Deters, 36 acres. (Geo. Rob- inson was killed on the evening of November 14, 189 1 by the up- setting of a load of lumber to the east of Eitzen, while returning from New Albin on the ridge road. He left two twin boys, born February 21, 1876. Geo. H. Meyers now owns the place. Henry Robinson is still on his place which he has occupied for fifty years. The Elisha Cook forty is owned by a son, Wm. Cook ) Section 18, Winnebago. — South half only. East quarter Martin P. Twite (now owned by Mrs. Halter); west quarter, about 162 acres, Martin & Carl Hanson. Section 19. — J. H. Schoh, 49 acres; Chris. Kruger, 120 acres; L. L. Lapham, 181 acres; Carl Busitzke (now W. F. De- ters) 81 acres; J. H. Schoh (now Carl Schoh) 160 acres; Henry Weibke, 61 acres. tec Section 30. — Diedrick Thiele,-*90 acres; Henry Weibke, 40 acres; C. F. Albee, 40 acres; Geo. Cass (now Fred Deters) 74 acres; F. Deters, 159 acres; E. D. Carsten, 40 acres; Mrs. C. F. Wright, 20 acres (part of the former Metcalf farm;) R. E. Shumway. Section 31. — E. D. Carsten, 40 acres; Frank Deters, 40 acres; Fred Deters, 120 acres; H. F. Kohlmeier, 80 acres; Ger- hardt Deters, 160 acres; Lambert Linde, 120 acres; Henry Schap- per, 80 acres. (Kohlmeier's place is now owned by Otto Fruchte.) NOTES AND FAMILY RECOKDS 105 Over along the west road several good houses and barns have replaced the inferior ones of earlier times. The Arnold Stone quarter-section was so far divided up and partly attached to ad- joining places, that four different persons own the land now. Going down the west road, places come in the following order: Chris. Stigen, Geo. H. Meyer, Gustav Moitrodt, Bernard Schoh, Theodore Thiele, Wm. E. McNelly and August Weigrafe. W. E. McNelly bought the Hannebuth place in 1883 and went on his present place in 1892. The publisher has received a letter from Mrs. J. B. Williams of Woonsocket, R. L, in answer to an inquiry concerning dates in regard to the family of Dr. Alex. Batcheller, to be included in such family records as we have been able to obtain. Mrs. Wil- liams writes interestingly of her early recollections at Portland Prairie: — "I can give you some dates with a few incidents that I can call to mind. We landed at Lansing October 17, 1854 and our fam- ily went from there to Portland Prairie the same day. I do not remember all of the families that had left for the west a head of us, but think Charles Albee, Jerry Shumway and Duty and James Paine did so. We went to Charles Al bee's for a few days and then we got board with Asa Sherman. His sister and her hus- band, David Salisbury, were keeping the house. There we stayed until father could build the ell part that now stands on the John McNelly house. The Indians (Winnebagoes) often came to the house bringing venison and wild game. Herds of deer would stop at our gate, and at night the wolves would howl and bark, so mother wanted board blinds on the house, for she was afraid that they would break in. "I think that John G. Cook and Elisha Cook came in the spring of 1855. My mother hired John's daughter, Mary Ann, to teach the children of our family in the house, but I do not remember whether any other children came or not. I think that it was on the following Fourth of July that the families around Portland 106 OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND PRAIRIE Prairie held a picnic. My father was county commissioner anc often went to Caledonia where business was done in those days. We kept the postoffice in our house, father being postmaster. I presume Mary Ann Cook kept the first school in the little school house just east of our place, called the Batcheller school house. When we moved to Iowa, father sold to John McNelly." We now proceed to give some family records of both present and former residents of Portland Prairie. Some were not in hand at the time that the first half of this book was printed. We do not propose to include data concerning children of sons and daughters of the early settlers where these, after marriage, haye since resided outside the county or state. Of course the number of families here listed might have been somewhat extended over and above those concerning whom some records have been obtained. The main object, however, has been to present the family records of births, deaths and marriages of those identified with Portland Prairie at any time prior to 1880, especially the old families. Robinson Family. James Robinson, born in Ireland 1797; died 1841. Mrs. Rose Robinson, born in Ireland 1 804; died Oct. 19, 1890. Children: William, born April 1, 1829; died November 20, 1872. Henry, born March 15, 1831. Anne, born May I, 1835. George, born , 1837; died November 14, 1891. Esther, born January I, 1839; died September 14, 1901. John T., born February 2, 1842. Minnie Robinson, daughter of William, was born March fj r866; married George H. Lapham November 27, 1889. NOTES AND FAMILY RECORDS 10? Everett Family. Josiah Everett, born May 23, 17975 died October 20, 1875. Lucy Everett, born February 2, 1801; died November 9, 1896. Children: Orra, born January 29, 1823; died , 1902. Josiah 2d, died in infancy. Josiah 3d, born March 25, 1827; died about 27 years ago. Andrew, born March 18, 1829. Franklin, born December 12, 1 83 1. Lucy, born May 22, 1836. Benaiah, born August 22, 1839. Seth, born June 3, 1842; died October 31, 186$. The Everetts left Portland Prairie for Nebraska, March IO, 1868. Franklin Everett had several children, all but one born when he lived on the Iowa side of the state line, to-wit: Fremont, born December 16, 1855; Walter, born April 12, 1858; E . . . B., born January 13, 1 865; Clara Ethel, born November 4, 1870. Fremont Everett was married by Rev. W. M. Bbwdish in the church at Portland Prairie on the evening of July 3, 1877 to Miss Mary Evelyn Shumway, and the couple were of the party that next day went to the Fourth of July gathering on the Iowa river, (pp. 86-7).— Mrs. Franklin Everett, b. June 10, 1834; d. Aug. 10, 1911. Family of Charles F. Albee. Charles F. Albee, born February I, 1822; died Dec. 26, 1898. Mrs. Sarah (Paine) Albee< born August 8, 1825; d. Aug. 2r, 1909; Married, April 22, 1847. Children: Edgar, born October 24, 1848; died June 4, 1866. Emily, born December 26, 1853. Alice, born December 13, 1857. Maria, born December 20, 1859. Alfred, born July 22, 1862. Olive, born April 29, 1864. 108 OLD TIMES ON PORTLAND FRAIEIE Family of Jeremiah Shumway. Jeremiah Sbumway, born in Oxford Mass., October i£, 1827. Mary (Paine) Shumway, born July 28, 1832; died Aug. 19, 1898;. Married July 24, 1852. Children: Viola P., born June 28, 1853, Herbert P., born April 18, 1856. Mary Evelyn, born September 10, 1858. Edgar E., born January 27, 1862. Charles O., born January 25, 1864. George Loren, born October 17, 1868. Joseph Arthur, born December 8, 1870; died Feb. 28, 1873. Martin LeRoy, born December 25, 1874. Family of Dr. Alex. Batcheller. Dr. Alex. Batcheller, born December 2, 181 1 ; d. Sept. 29, 1878. xMrs. Kezia (Wallin) Batcheller, b. Feb. 6, 1815; d. Dec. 9, 1898. Children: Francis L., born April I, 1836; died February 23, 1900. Victoria E., born March 8, 1842; died December 29, 1866. Alexander F., born May 4, 1847; died January 28, 1911. Lucy D., born October 18, 1848. Martha W., born May 23, 1850. Moses F., born January 3, 1853. Stephen E., born May 29, 1858. All of the members of the Batcheller family married except Francis. Alexander F. married first, Adelaide Marcy; after her death he married second, Mary Ballou, all having been at one time Portland Prairie residents. Lucy D., married John B. Wil- liams of Woonsocket, R. L, September 27, 1899. Dr. George J. Cass, born September 12, 1847. Married Ellen L. Healy January 8, 1870. She was born February 28, 1845. Children, all born at Portland Prairie, Lewis Elwin* Ellen Mabel and Harriet H- NOTES AND FAMILY RECORDS 10# Family of Jokri McNeLly. John McNelly, born March 25, 1830. Married first, Nancy Shumway, February 15, 1852; born Dec. 1, 1839; died September 9, 1868. Married second, AHda Henderson November 11, 1869; born in Wyoming Co., N. Y., September 14, 1848; died Auguit n, 1891. Married third; Charlotte Cass October 25, 1893; died February 14, 1894. Children by first wife: Ella E., born October 25, 1852. Oscar, bom June 7, 1854; died August 7, 1863. William E., born December 20, 1857. Mary P., born September li, 1859; died September 16, 1859. Elizabeth M., born November 36, i860; died August 23, 1863, Annie M., born September 9, 1862. Nancy Etta, born June 22, 1868. Children by second wife: John H., born September 9, 1876. Eugenia A., born June 6, 1879. Mabel E., born January I, 1885. Robert, born January 26, 189 1. Family of Rufus E. Shumway. Rufus E. Shumway, born in Oxford, Mass., June I, 1833. Hannah (Metcalf) Shumway, b. Mendon Mass., April 25, 1834. Married March 4, i860. Children: Adeha F., born December 18, i860; died October 21, 1870. Frederick L., born August 10, 1862. William C, born June 16, 1869; died July 31, 1875. Edwin R., born October 13, 1871. Bertha E., born October 5, 1873. On June 7, 1910, Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Shumway observed their golden wedding. Many relatives and friends from Nebraska and even more distant locations were present at this pleasureable gathering, and photographs of the assemblage were taken. 110 OLD TIMES O* PORTLAND ER^IRIE Family of vVilliam Cass. William Cass, born March 2. 1809; died December 8, 1883. Mrs. Sarah W. (Sturdy) Cass, b. May 4, 1819; d. March 6, 189$. Married March 27, 1839. Children: Charlotte, born May 27, 1842; died February 14, 1894. George J., born September 12, 1847. Adelaide, born ..,...., 18 . . William, born September 15, 1853. Charlo te became the third wife of John McNelly; George J., (p. 108); Adelaide married Henry Eddy about 1869; and William Jr. married Viola P. Shumway in the fall of 1875. Family of Levi L. Lapham. Levi L. Lapham, born in Burrillville, R. I , April II, 1829.^ 2"^> ? Cora (Lapham) Palmer born April 20, 1863. Married August a. fc^J 28, 1890 L. O. Palmer, of Calenonia, Minn. ^ \ O^ Children: Lora B., Francis I., Grace H., Marjorie M., Leland L, yUrnri fcWtoly^tJuiLJ}'* -7rf/- a 2Jfc3!kr/x O -vo >; £ &Y-0^ ffr> OLD ffiffES Otf FtfgTtAtfD FfclflKIE Family of William E. McNelly. William E. McNelly, born at Portland Prairie, Dec, 20, 1857. Married first on October 19, 1879 Samantha Wright, born J^ne 14, 1857; died February 9, 1890. Married second June $ t 1 89 1 Miss Ratcliffe of Mt. Hope, born July SI, 1867. Children by first wife: William O., born June 4, 18S1. Chester LeRoy, born June 12, 1883. Mary Etta, born September 21, 1885. Charles E. f born July 31, 1888. Children by second wife: Frank, born April 5, 1892. Irving, born October 1 1, 1903. Family of Alfred Albee, Alfred Albee, born at Portland Prairie July 22, 1862. Mrs. Charlotte G. (Ratcliffe) Albee, born October 23, 1864. Married on September 25, 1889. Children: Charles Benjamin, born January 28, 1 89 1. Born and died a son November 6, 1892. Alfred Leonard, born August 27, 1894. Edgar Jay, born September 22, 1898. Ralph Halstead, born November 29, 1900. Mabel Carlotta, born May 24, 1903. Donald Ratcliffe, born November 4, 1906. Family of Frank Theise. Frank Theise, born at Portland Prairie May 14, 1868* Married Louisa Freuchte, born July 25, 1873. Children: Lorah, born August 30, 1897. Martha, born April 30, 1900. Roy, born March 25, 1903. Ella, born August 23, 1906. NOTES AND FAMILY EECOED8 tff Family of Herbert L. Lapham. Herbert L. Lapham, born at Portland Prairie August 13, 1869. Mrs. Flora J. (Taylor) Lapham, b. at Popes Prairie July 10, 1870. Married October 6, 1892. Children: Florence J., born October 30, 1893; died June 16, 1894. Lola L., born August 1, 1895. Grant L., born February 5, 1898. Gladys H., born April 7, 1903. Bernice, born June 12, 1905. Eloise, born October 4, 1907, Family of Otto Freuchte. Otto Freuchte, born at Portland Prairie May 24, 1868. Emily (Theise) Freuchte, born at Portland Prairie, April 22, 1870, Married February iS, 1892. Children: Francis, born December 13, 1893. Herbert, born June 22, 1897. Edwin, born Norember 5, 1900. Lula, born July 20, 1902. Raymond, born January 3, 191 1. LAST NOTES. There were some marriages and deaths relative to former^ Portland Prairie residents concerning whom no full dates were obtained. Martha Paine married Myron Butterfield late in the fall of 1877, ana " m tne spring of 1879 the couple moved to Barnes County, N. D. — Amy H. Paine married Melvin Yeaton sometime in the early eighties.— Emily Albee married Zelotes M. Yeaton sometime in the middle seventies. Amos Lapham died at Caledonia early in 1891; William Hartley about 189a. Joel S. Yeaton lived about thirty-one years after moving to Nebraska (p. 70) for he died in the fall of 1900. Christian Bunge of Eitzen died in 1902. William R. Ballou was born in 1816 and died at New Albin, February, 1906. Henry F. Kohlmeier, another former resident, died in 1910. After moving to North Dakota in the spring ol 1880, the writer paid visits to Portland Prairie at different times, as follows: in November, 1882; in November, 1884; in the fall of 1887; in November and December, 1891; in April, 1895; * n December, 1901, and lastly, during December, 1910. On the occasion of the visit in 1891 we arrived at New Albin about 1 oclock p. m., Saturday, November 14, and proceeded to the prairie on foot by way of the Winnebago Valley and Tippery ravine. Geo. Robin- son was in New Albin that afternoon, but never reached home alive. Next morning Mrs. C. F. Wright died. These two deaths coming so close together caused quite a flurry in the community, PORTLAND PRAIRIE NECROLOGY. Noah Shumway, born October 4, 1770, died June ao, 1857. Parmelia A. Shumway, born July 15, 1800; died Oct. 8, 185%. John Cook, died May 25, 1861, aged 94 years. M^s. Josephine A. Sherman, died July 2, 1862. Oscar McNelly, born June 7, 1854; died August 7, 1863. Mrs. Ruth E. A. Paine, born August 4, 1835; d. Sept. 20, 1863. Jarvis S. Eddy, died December 10, 1863, aged 17 years 4 mos. Mrs. Rachel Coil, wife of Wm. Coil, died Aug, 7, 1865, aged 64. Edgar Albee, born October 24, 1848; died June 4, 1866. Mrs. Barbara Marcy, died November II, 1867, aged 63 years. William H. Stone, died January 31, 1868. Wesley Albee, died July 5, 1868, aged about 26 years. Mrs. Nancy McNelly, born December 1, 1829; d. Sept. 4, 1868. xMargaret Coil, wife of Nelson Coil, died May 8, 1869, aged 52. Adelia F. Shumway, born December 18, i860; d. Oct, 21, 1870. William Robinson, born April I, 1829; died November 20, 1872. William C. Shumway, born June 16, 1869; died July 31, 1875. Mrs. Florence Metcalf, born April 4, 185 1, died May 14, 1877. Lucinda Metcalf, born March 29, 1864; died March 26, 1882. William Cass, born March 2, 1809; died December 8, 1883. Mrs. Betsey E. Graves, born May 14, 1812; d. February 7, 1884. Mrs. Lucy Arnold, born October 5, 1808, died July 6, 1886. Mrs. Philinda Stone, born May 23, 1824; died October 6, 1886. Mrs. Maria Cook, died November 12, 1880, aged 62 yrs. 5 mos. Freeman Graves, born July 10, 1809; died April 3, 1888. Cornelins Metcalf, born December 10, 1806; d. August 12, 1888. Mrs. Samantha L. McNelly born June 14, 1857; d. Feb. 9, 1890. Mrs. Alida McNelly (2d wife) b. Sept. 14, 1848, d. Aug. II, '91. George Robinson, born 1837; died November 14, 1891. Mrs. Mary Wright, born June 13, 1832; died November 15, 1891. Leonard Albee, born November 4, 1810; died March 9, 1893. Mrs. Charlotte McNelly, (3d wife) b. May 27 1842; d. Feb. 14, '94. 120 PORTLAND PRATR1S NECROLOGY Mrs. Maria C. Winkelman, born Jan. 20, 1839; d. July 30, 1894. Arcos Arnold, born August 13, 1807; died April 6, 1895. Willie A. Hartley, born January I, 1882, died Sept. 6, 1895. Maria E. Cook, died October 28, 1895, aged 34 years 9 months. Mrs. Isabelle Hartley, born January 8, 1833; died Feb. 7, 1896. George W. Carver, born January 24, 1 814; died Feb. 20, 1897. Mrs. Mary Shumway, died at Lyons, Neb., Aug. 16, 1898, 66. Charles F. Albee, born February 1, 1822; died Dec. 26, 1898. Cornelius Metcalf, born September 30, 1837; d. Jan. 28, 1899. William Jones, born March 11, 1817; died February 10, 1899. Mrs. Sarah W. Cass, born May 4, 18 19; died March 6, 1899. Oscar T. Graves, born April 3, 1884; died March 14, 1899. Arnold Stone, born May 25, 182 1 ; died June 6, 1900. Dr. John Albee, born February 14, 1827; died October 3, 1900. Mrs. Eliza Albee, born August 8, 1812; died June II, 1901. Mrs. Mary N. Lager, born January 18, 1873; d. Sept. 13, 1901. Mrs. Elizabeth Metcalf, born April 3, 1841; died Oct. 13, 1903. Elisha Cook, born 181 5; died 1904. Horace Arnold, born April 8, 1833; died August 21, 1904. Charles F. Wright, born October 7, 1831; died January 6, 1907. Mrs. Sarah Albee, born August 8, 1825; died August 21, 1 909. Frederick Hanson, died March 31, 1911. Henry Deters, died April 4, 191 1. Mrs. Sarah Lapham, born May 28, 1834; died April 24, 1911, iffr. £m>[ £V*K?£n fc vykfli^ , i. Hot. % ittf /i. fc*ui \ S