Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1884-06-18
OLD SETTLERS OF MOWER
COUNTY

JUSTIN, j. y JUNE los 1904.
OLD SETTLERS OF MOWER
COUNTY
First Reunion !--Large Gather
ing Interesting Historical Ad-
dress - Fine Dinner IA
Good Time Generally
The old settlers of Mower county,
those who entered Minnesota previous to
its becoming a state, 1858, held its first
reunion Thursday, June 70.
The day was all that could have been
desired, cool and s%unshiny.
About II o'clock in the morning the
exercises were commenced in the new
courthouse hall, there being a large at
tendance of old settlers and friends, with
a short address of welcome by the presi-
dent of the Association, Thomas Gibson,
of Lansing. He said, in effect, he should
have shrunk from accepting the position
he occupied had he known what a large
and respectable assembly: would have as
sembled on this occasion.
He was proud to see so many old set
tiers present. He hoped all would have
good time that our posterity after us
would meet from year to year and cele-
brate the day of our organization and
that when the good Lord calls us, He
will require no more Of US than that
we have been citizens of Mower county.
Prayer was then offered by Rev. S. G.
Lowery, an old settler of this vicinity,
now in his s5th year.
A song, "Altogether," was then sung
by Mrs. L. A. Sherwood and Mrs. G. H.
Davidson; Mrs. D. B. Johnson, the first
organist in Austin, presided at the organ.
Judge Ormanzo Allen, then gave the
historical address, which we give entire:
Venerable Men and Women of the Old Settlers
association Of Mower County:
Permit me thus to address you, for all
of you have come down to us from a
former generation, through trials and
hardships incident. and only incident, to
pioneer life.
II is meet after a quarter of q century's
pilgrimage together as neighbOrs and
friends, that you con in here in social
intercourse in this temple built by your
W toll and dedicated by you to Justice
and right, and here tell a story or sing a
song to cheer each other along life's
rugged pathway.
A retrospect of the past 20 years shows
not all joy, nor yet does it show all .sor-
rows also have been many.
A q brother Or sistar or father Or
mother, or husband, or wife, or child, OF
dear friend, has sunk down in life's con
hict, you have paused to sympathize and
weep with each other, or as success and
victory have crowned a neighbor's en-
deavors you have fastened to rejoice and
exult with him.
If the lean hand of poverty has at times
been stretched out to us, as we have come
along the way if trials and disappo1nt.
ments have overtaken and beset us upon
every side; if we have not attained unto
all that which: we have desired 1--WE may,
and can say, we are not discouraged, we
are not cast down.
The history of Mower county may not
have the glamour Of ancient, forgotten
Greece. The history of Austin may not
mother of three dead civilizations yet
Austin, yet Mower county, has a history
full of vitality, full of energy, full of the
present, progressive, living, growing age,
of which no MinnesOtian need be ashamed.
It is only when we contrast the present
with the past that We bring out and see
fully the great change that rs years have
wrought in the material prosperity of
Austin and of Mower county.
So slow indeed has been progress at
times, the heart has grown sick and weary
and tired, and wondered when the end
would come to this slow. and wearisome
journey. Be not disheartened, be not
discouraged, my neighbor. be not weary
in we'll doing. It takes toll, it takes time,
to found and build towns and cities;
it takes toll, it takes time, to form town
ships and organize counties. 1t takes
many houses to make a town or city it
takes many farms to make a township, to
make a county and a state.
Phillips tells us, that as he stood upon
the ruins Of the palace of the Cegars, he
saw growing there the tiny plants that
had let down one after another their
small rootlets until they had removed
from their moorings and cast down to the
abyss below, those "stupendous and mas
sivs rocks, which had withstood for cen
turtles the earthquake shock. Again, ]
say, my neighbor, my friend, be not
weary in constant and persistent and
high and holy endeavor, the reward will
be by and by.
The history of Mower county is a his.
tory as yet in its plastic, moving, forma.
tive state partly written and partly in
traditions. about which there has been,
and is, a great deal of controversy.
The territory embraced in Mower county
was in the year 1858 parts of Dakota and
Wyoh0ohn o1,,rsnc 1No1 To- ~e I~..-ln--
between said counties running about one
mile west of the city of Austin. Waba.
sha lying east and extending to Mississippi
river, Dakota county lying west and ex
tending to the Missouri river. In this
year, 1858, the territory nov embraced il
Mower county was set off to and constl
tuted a part Of Rice county.
In February, in the year 1866, Mower
county was defined by the legislature, anc
on the first day Of March of that year tn,
county was organized and named IL
honor of John E. Mower, an early settler
of the state Of Minnesota, residing il
Washington county, and a member Of al
early territorial legislature. 49,
In the year 1858 the territory embraced
in Mower county was surveyed into town
ships and sectionized. Prior to that time
and as for that matter for several year,
thereafter, Mower Co. was the home ant
hunting grounds of the wild Indian, an(
the early settlers of Mower county hav'
seen them in their native independence q
they have been, by scores, in their teepe
and wigwams along the Cedar river ant
many of you have seen them in thei
native dependence as they have begged
for bread in your houses, where they
had entered unannounced and unlimited
and you have heard their simple lar guage
In the fall of 1859 some claims were
taken along the Cedar river by trapper.
from Iowa, but were abandoned in thu
following winter. In the fall of 1856
near where lakewood cemetery nov
IS, a man by the name of: Hunter. CLARK
settled, and built there the first log house
in Mower county. This was followed il
the same fall by the coming and settle
ment of Austin Nichols. who built a loe
house just back of where Judge Cameroni
house new stands. Austin was namedi1
honor Of this first settler on the town pla1
Of Austin. 1t is unnecessary to say tina