The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1889-01-17
SAUK CENTRE.

of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba
Railroad runs through it and a branch
of that road DIVORCES and runs north
ward about thirty miles to Long Prairie
and Eagle Bend. Thus the town has
railroads in five directions, east, north,
on high, rolling ground at the foot of
Sank Lake, narrow strip of water,
eight miles long, with we'll titled farms
everywhere sloping up from its pebbly
beaches. The Sank River drains the lake
and flows into the Mississippi opposite
the village of Sank Rapids. A dam of
very moderate cost built across the river
gives an excellent water-power, with
fall of about twelve feet and with the
entire lake for storage reservoir. The
only use made of this power is to run a
Touring mill with daily capacity of $50
barrels. 1 had never heard Sank Centre
mentioned among the Minnesota towns
possessing good water-powers and the
dam and fall were a surprise to me. The
townspeople do not seem to appreciate
it's value. The only manufacturing now
done in the place is of hard " God, and
the waste furnishes fuel to run steamer
gines, as in mostwood-working concerns,
so that that there would be no economy
in using the water-power for these con-
| Germs. --a
he 1fryy NIB 1o
longs to the Lake Park region of Mime
sofa, a region of remarkable natural
beauty, consisting of rolling prairies,
diversified with groves of hardwood
timber ard dotted with countless lakes,
varying in area from little ponds cover
ing only few acres to large bodies of
deep water covering many square miles.
The great hardwood belt begins just
east of the town and reaches to the Mis-
sissippi River, about thirty-fve miles dis
tant, broken only by few small prairies
and by clearings of the settlers. This
hardwood country begins to be appre
ciated as an immense reserve of valuable
| timber-oak, birch, maple, ash, elm and
Eastwood, covering strong, productive
soil. Settlers are steadily going into the
woods to make permanent homes. They
can earn good living for their families
by cutting cordwood, railroad ties and
timber for factories, while at the same
time gradually clearing the land and get
ting it ready for crops. When once
brought under cultivation these forest
lands are more reliable for crops than are
the open prairies.
Sank Centre has 1000 inhabitants and
ought to be a county seat. 1t is in the
northwestern part of Stearns, one of the
largest and most populous counties in
Minnesota. St. Cloud, the county town
is forty-two miles distant, on the eastern
border of the county, and having 10000
people, her voting power is strong enough
to veto the plan of separation advocated
by the people in the western part of the
county, who would like to go to Sank
Centre for their court and other county
DSSCtuSS IhclI piSaSS ID luSlI IctI-
ural trading point. The town has a
pretty situation overlooking the lower
arm OF the lake and it's two business
streets with perhaps forty stores, its
electric lights, its numerous churches and
its large school building combine to i'm
press the visitor with a favorable opinion
of the prosperity of the place. A good
start has been made in manufacturing.
One concern makes bob sleds and refrig-
orators and another makes chairs of a
variety of novel, patented devices, and
also tents and awnings, using the birch
and oak of the neighboring forests.
There is deposit of clay three miles from
the town and one from the N. P. railroad
that is excellent for both brick and pot
terry. A we'll sunk 100 feet in this bed of
clay proves it to be solid to at least that
depth. From one side of the bed red
bricks are made and from the other side
yellow bricks and the division between
the two kinds of clay is very sharply de-
fined.
There are seven churches-German and
Irish Catholic, Episcopalian, Baptist,
Methodist, Congregational and Advent
ist-too many of them, as is the rule in
almost all towns. Catholics and Pro-
testants must, of course, keep apart, but
Protestant religious work would be
greatly advanced if there were fewer and
stronger churches, with financial resourc-
es sufficient to support ministers of decid-
ed ability. The newspapers are the Ava
Lanche, young Democratic sheet and
the HERALD, well-established Republic
can paper. Mr.. Hendryx, the editor of
the HERALD was formerly from Coopers-
town, New York, and before coming to
Sank Centre, was on the staff of the Min
neapolis Tribune. He is vigorous writ
er, of too independent ways of thinking
to always please the strong partizans in
his party. o.. =.
A flavor Of early frontier history still
hangs about Sank Centre. The site OF
the stockade Gov. Ramsey had built in
| 1862 to protect the settlers at the time
of the Sioux outbreak is pointed out to
settlers. Mr.. Moore, the pioneer who
laid out the town, is still living in the
vicinity. He drove all the way from
Minneapolis to Sank Centre in one day,
a distance of over hundred miles, to
warn the people on what was then the
extreme frontier, that the Indians had
begun to massacre the settlers in the
country south of them. Settlement in
the Sank River Valley began in 1859, fol-
lowing the river up from the Mississippi
to the lake. The Sioux massacre put a
stop to the development Of the region,
but after the Indians were expelled from
Minnesota and the close of the Southern
rebellion had started fresh wave of
Western immigration, Northern Mime
sofa began rapidly to fill up. Stearns
county has now population of $4,000,
as shown by the vote at the last election.
If the different townships on the map