Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1880-05-21
THE HISTO Y OF ].
MORRISON COUNTY,
WRITTEN IN 1876 by ORDER OF THE
g BOARD OF COUNTY con oMslIssIoNERs AND
SPuBL1sHED IN THE TRANsCRRTN N THE
U SAME YEAR. REVISED AND BROUGHT
I DOWN TO THE PRESENT TINE. &, z<# T. Z

n @r BOARD OF COUNTY COMMlsslONER ANI
j, PUBLISHED IN THE TRANsGRRTN NTHH
SAME YEAR. Revised AND BROUGHT
4 DOWN TO THE PRESENT TINE. s. & st :
Ss,t BYsNATHAN RIcHARDsoN. IL. L.
II 5+5asRe 5 5sslsss --z- is s?ii gf}
j Continued from last weeks Transcript
In 1856, and for two or three years after
wards, great many engaged in laying out
and speoulating in fictitious and worthless
town sites, Twenty four town plats we're re.
corded in the office of the Register of Deeds Of
4 Morrison county during those years, not all
however, situated in Morrison county. Many
were surveyed and plated on nzunsur ed
government lands, and great many lots were
sold of lands which the proprietors had never
4 purchased from the government. The general
4 plansin such cases was to issue stock in great
abundance and sell shares. Noneof the towns
4 located for the purpose Of speculation ever
amounted to anything, excepting Fergus
Falls, in Otter Tail county, which was located
by a company that went from Little Falls in
1856. James Fergus,f5of this place, after
whom that town was named, ,svas member o.
that company, and they located several other
towns that summer, in the western part Of the
State, but none of those other towns; were ev-
er heard from since. OF all the towns located
in Morrison county, every one vanished, ex-
cepting Little Falls, the county seat, although
some of them made some effort to keep up the
appearance of a town, and succeeded for a
time. There were three of that sort, Swan
River, Belle Prairie and Granite City. These
gotten up for speculation in Morrison county
were Lu1o, Buckfeld, Big Bend; Little Elk,
Janesville and Olean. -
in the town Of Little Falls, is probably the
Oldest resident of the county, though not the
| first white man who visited it. He first came
to Swan River in the summer of l s47, in COM
pany with ten other men. They forded the
| Mississippi river just below the place where
the Swan River ferry now is, and made
small raft of hewed timber from the pine
growing along the river bank. They ran the
raft but a few miles, ann abandoned it on ac-
count of low water and Nicolson went below.
but returned in the summer of l84S, and
crossed the Mississippi river at the same place
in company with % men, and cut a road
through to Long Prairie, where the Winneta
go Indian agency was established and where
it remained for seven years. On Nicolsons
returning from Long Prairie the same sum-
mer, after finishing the road, he found VIM.
Aiken had made a claim and was building a
hotel and store, on the east bank of the Mis-
sissippi at the crossing. Nicolson went into
the woods to work for man by the name of
VIM. Knowls, in the winter of lS49-5O, near
the mouth of Rabbit river. A man by the
name of James Green, who had taken o squat
ters claim at Little Falls in ls4S, bought the
logs. Green had BUILT saw mill on the east
side of the Mississippi, by the island at the
falls, and made a water power by building a
wing dam to the island above, making head
of about three feet, which was enouehto d.
good business on account of the abundant
supply of water. He made q round log boom,
fastening one end on the west bank of the
river, near the Little Falls ferry landing, and
the other end to the northern end of the island
below, and thus managed to run the most of
the logs into the mill pond. The boom was
frail concern and poorly calculated to accom-
plish the desired purpose, and in order to save
| any of the logs and keep the boom from break
inv IL Woo IN ho1,o thoh hoooo o1
night and day while the logs were running.
Mr.. Nicolson's account of traversing that
boom in company with Mr.. Green, for 4S
hours without rest or sleep, the nights being
fearfulIy dark and rainy, partakes strongly of
the tragical, and is evidence of great skill and
| power of endurance. Immediately after the
| logs were secured, Mr.. Green went to St. Paul
to get money to pay for them, and being de-
layed, he went up the Minnesota river with
an excursion party, and on the tip WAS taken
with the cholera and died. Hon. H. M. Rice
then bought the logs. Capt. Todd, Of Fort
Ripley, soon went in partnership with Nr.
Rice, and they bought out Mr. Green's winow,
completed the mill, and the same year sold
out to VIM. Sturgis, who will be further spok-
en- of connection with the town of Little
Falls.
On the 9th day of April, 1858, the Board
of county commissioners organized four
towns, which comprised all the lands of the
county at that time, viz: Belle Prairie,
Granite, Little Falls and Bellevue. Since
that time Granite has been disorganized and
the territory was added to the town of Belle
Prairie, and seven more towns organized, viz {:
Green Prairie, Culdrum, Two Rivers, Swan
River and Parkerstown, ON the west side of the
Mississippi river, and the towns of Pierz and
Buckman on the east side. VIM Nicolson,
the first settler in the county, though at frs t
a transient one, is now q resident of Little
Falls. w IN. Aiken was also an early settler, !,
and permanently located at Swan River, which
is now in the town of Little Falls, in ls4s, one
year after the arrivals Of Nicolson at that
/ point. He had been an old Indian trader and
the *possessor of two wives chosen from the
fair maidens of the forest, by whom he raj sed
many children. He had become quite an aged
man, and his health failing, he rented his ho-
tel in 1850 to Joseph. Brown and Duncan
Stewart. Aiken died in 1851, at about IS
years Of age. At his funeral personal en-
counter took place between the two wives, in
which wife No. 2 was vanquished. The fight
was to settle the question as to which was eu-
titled to position Of chief mourner. In 1852
I the hotel went into the hands Of James
i Warren. John T. stiIlwell went to that place
in l849, and worked at his trade IS a carpen
ter until 1856, when he went into the hotel
business there. He now sides ,at Little
Falls. = IL .s.s@ .s$f $*f t.i.izssss2s q q s-
| The village of Little Falls was made the
county seat by the act organizing the county,
and it still retains that honor, and from its
, central position it will without doubt perma.
nently remain the county seat It is located
{ on the east bank Of the Mississippi river
about midway between st. Cloud and Brain
ed. It is probably the most beautiful place ii
the State for = town, and not surpassed on th,
continent of America for natural beauty.
have often heard nonresidents say that if they
] had seen Little Fails before making . hom'
4 elsewhere they would have located here. It.
history is . varied one. AS before mentioned
james Green first settled hereAnd bsilt sav
!, mill, and after his death it was bought out >.
q: II Rice and Gspt. Todd they sold il ou
/ to VIM. sturgis IL 1850, he running it upti
/ 1854, when he cold out s two-tbirds INTEREST,",
James Fergus and Calvin "a Tuttle, ant
formed = co-par1t nership, consisting of tn
three men, and was known BY the firm nam
of Little Falls Company The lands on th
east side Of the Mississippi were surveyed !,
3 'l 1852, and john N. Kidder, father in Law. 0