The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1939-08-17
,J.W. Paxton Raced to St.Peter
To Claim Paxton Twp. Land

ana were ldiIIy wei QoCd "
rough trips. To avoid passing the
other party, we crossed the river
at the agency and took the Beav-
er Falls road, passing Fort
Ridgely, then made for an old
trailrunning east of Swan lake.
Pulling through sioughs and
across unbridged streams was
telling on the horses and we
made our way to farm house
at the south end of Swan lake
until morning.
"At break of day we started
again ard were at the land
office at 2 a. m. to find that the
party that had given us all the
trouble had not reached st.
Peter.
81 entered two quarters and
Mr.. Paxton a large part of the
land originally known as the
Paxton farm.
eve learned later that the
party we had driven SO hard to
head off did rot get to St. Peter
until the evening after we had
entered the land. They said that
if such men as we were to be In
the country they would not go
back to make further entries.
ssThis in face of their efforts
to take up lands on information
secured by spying on our work.
after this trip, MIR. Paxton
returned to Redwood Falls and
made further selections of land
until his entries aggregated over
Is 900 acres.
''IIis plan was to improve
every other quarter section by
building a house and breaking
enough for the use of an ordin-
airy farmer and then selling to
incoming settlers, but in the
meantime farming or renting as
the scheme developed.
The land purchased was only
the beginning of Paxton's
troubles in 1868. There were
practically no men, teams or
supplies, to be had at Redwood
and the nearest railroad station
was st. Peter.
"He went to st. Louis, bought
eight pair of mules ard brought
them to st. Paul by boat. There,
having obtained wagons and
supplies and engaged superin-
tendent and some Workmen, the
cavalcade set out for the prairies
of Redwood county to begin
what he though entirely prac-
ticable = the opening of new
lands to. wheat culture on a large
scale as a commercial enterprise.
"On arriving at Redwood, OPP
erations were commenced on a
section in Paxton now owned by
Thomas Dennistoun (the Leroy
Woodford farm.).
"a house, barn and blacksmith
shop were built and breaking
begun the last of June.
Water in Burrows
'The season was very wet and
water often followed the plows
for a good part Of the length Of
the land.
There was no feed for teams
nearer than New Ulm, oats were
80 cents a bushel and roads were
so bad that it took a four-mule
team a good part of the time to
do the hauling.
81 do not know how much
land was broken that first year
but according to Mr.. Paxton, it
was at a pretty high cost per
acre.
"The first two years exper-
fence proved that grain could
not be raised at a profit and
that houses ready for occupancy
ard land already opened up
were not attractive enough to
make incoming settlers pay SIS
an acre when they could get
homesteads by going outside the
reservation less than six miles
south of town. Finally, seeing
that he could not force condi-
tons, Paxton built a house in
town and sat down to await de-
velopments.
During his ownership, Mr..
Paxton broke about 500 acres,
built five houses and enclosed
5000 acres in post and rail
fences.
81 bought the property in 1871
at $3.75 per acre." concluded Mr..
Turrell.