Morris tribune., 1922-01-27
WHEN COUNTIES OF
STATE WERE NAMED
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undoubtedly named for Jefferson
Davis, later President of the Southern
Confederacy, created in 1855, lay
north and west of Renville and Car
yer Counties; both were lost in the
manner stated. Newton County,
created in 1855, originally named
Doty County, included the greater
part of the present territory of St.
Louis County, but dropped out of
sight when that county was later
created. Buchanan County, estab-
lished in 1857, named for President
Buchanan. bordered on the st. Croix
river in the northwest part of the
territory, with Fortuna" as the
county seat. Neither the county nor
the county seat can be found; the
territory thereof is now mainly with
in Pine County. Munroe County,
created in 1858, named for President
Munroe, lay south of Mile Laos Lake
and had Princeton as its county seat.
Princeton for many years was the
county seat of Mile Laos County,
which includes much if not all Of the
old Munroe County territory. Big
Sioux and Midway counties were
created in territorial days, and out of
territory now part of South Dakota
adjoining on the west the present
Rock and Pipestone Counties. They
were both put out of commission by
the act Of Congress defining the state
boundaries. AS originally created
Ramsey County was quite large and
extended. north to the Mile Laos re-
gion, embracing practically all of the
present territory of Anoka, Mile
Laos, Isanti and Kanabec counties. In
the creation of other counties in that
part of the state a small tract of land,
probably two or three townships be-
longing to and forming a part of
Ramsey County, was cut off and left
high and dry in the Mile Laos county
so to 70 miles from home base.
Whether Ramsey County ever exer-
cised jurisdiction over that detached
part of it's territory, so isolated, does
not appear. The matter was later
corrected by adding the land to some
adjoining county.
CHANGE OF COUNTY NAMES
Most of the counties of the state
have retained the name under which
they came into being. There we're
some changes, however, and in this
respect Wilkin County may be men
toned for the somewhat interesting
facts it presents. The county was or
iginally christened Toombs, in honor
of Hon. Robert Toombs, a prominent
citizen of the state of Georgia. 1t
was said years ago by persons in posi-
ton to know, my informant being the
late Joseph P. Wilson of St. Cloud,
who had a vast store and fund of in
formation concerning the early his
tory of the northwest, particularly Of
Minnesota, that a party of Southern
ers were looking over the north and
west with a view of finding suitable
territory for the extension of slavery
at the proper time in the future. The
end of days journey in the summer
of 1856 or Whereabouts brought them
to the point where the Bots des Sioux
and Otter Tail Rivers join the Red
River of the North, about where
Breckenridge is now located; perhaps
a little south of the present site. An
optical survey of the country was
fascinating; the broad prairies of
Minnesota and of Dakota, and empire
for miles and miles around, appealed
to them as an inviting and promising
field for the future exploitation and
use of slave labor. They later caused
to be plated, in the spring Of 1857,
the town of Breckenridge, and in
1858 through their influence two new
counties were created by the legisla-
ture in that part of the state, namely,
Toombs and Breckenridge; the town
site, as we'll as the county of Brecken-
ridge being named in honor Of Col.
]. G.. Breckenridge, a distinguished
statesman of Kentucky, and Vice
president of the United States from
1858 to 1851. But the venture, or
dream more properly speaking, so far
as the contemplated extension of
slavery was concerned was neither
realized nor attempted. The civil
war came on, and the principal result
thereof, aside from the preservation
of the Union, was the abolition of
slavery in all parts of the United
States. Mr.. Toombs was Of special
prominence in the south and an &C
tive and ardent supporter of the re-
bellion, so much so that he became in
great disfavor in the north, includ-
ing Minnesota. In the midst of this
state of public feeling, and to remove
and faint of southern sympathy, or
respect for any one there supporting
the war against the Union, the state
legislature in 1852 changed the name
of the County to ANDY Johnson, In
honor of the LOYAL Tennesseean who