county, Wisconsin, where he was engaged in farming until 1862, when he came to St. Martin, Stearns county, and continued farming until the fall of 1875. He then came to Cold Spring City, and built the hotel known as the Farmer's Home, of which he has since been proprietor. Mr. Fischbach was united in marriage with Mary Weber, of Luxemburg, in 1845; she died in 1871, leaving six children; Mary, Katie, Margaret, Lizzie, Mathias, and John. He was again married in 1872, to Katrina Jacks, of Germany.

JOHN FISCHBACH, JR. is a son of the subject of our last sketch, and was born in Prussia, on the 9th of December, 1846. He came to America with his parents, remaining at home until 1862, when he came to Cold Spring City. In 1864, he enlisted in Company G, of the Eleventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and served until the fall of 1865, when he was mustered out at Fort Snelling. He then went to St. Cloud and learned the trade of harness-maker. After acquiring his trade, by industry and economy he soon saved sufficient money to enable him to attend three terms at the University, at Fayette, Iowa. In 1871, he was in the harness business at Cold Spring City, but soon after went to Winona, where he perfected himself in carriage and ornamental painting, for which he evinced great talent, and to which his time is now exclusively devoted. He has also taught school three terms, in Stearns county. Mr. Fischbach was united in marriage with Julia E. Fadden, of New York State, in 1868. Of eight children, but five are living; Mary A., Frank J., Matthew L., Leo L., and Peter P.

MATHIAS FISCHBACH, also a son of John Fischbach, Sr., was born in Luxemburg, on the 18th of August, 1851. He came to America and to Stearns county with his parents. In 1872, he commenced an apprenticeship to the harness-maker's trade, at Cold Spring City, but finished it at Winona. In 1874, he went to Wisconsin and was engaged in various pursuits in that State and elsewhere until his return to Cold Spring City in 1879. He then began working for his brother, but since the spring of 1880, has been in the harness business on his own account.

FRED. HECKLIN dates his birth in Germany, on the 26th of November, 1831. He came to America in 1851, first locating at Racine, Wisconsin. In the spring of 1853, he removed to Mankato, Minnesota, and nine months later, to Carver county, taking a claim five miles from Chaska. After re

maining seven years on this farm he bought the Chaska House, at Chaska, and run it for six years and also kept a meat market. In 1860, he was elected County Surveyor of Carver county, and served two years. In 1862, he was elected Sheriff, and re-elected at each succeeding election for eleven years. In 1873, he removed to Todd county, built a saw-mill and run it till 1877, when he located at Cold Spring City, and has since conducted a meat market here. Mr. Hecklin was married in 1852, to Carrie Hoelsken, of Germany. They have had eight children, six of whom are living; Fred. P., Bertha, Hugo, Ida, Gustave, and Mollie.

JOHN KRAY, proprietor of the Central House, and for twenty-eight years a resident of Minnesota, was born in Germany, on the 22d of March, 1833. He came to America in 1849, remaining in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, until 1851, when he removed to Racine, and thence, in 1853, to St. Paul, Minnesota. The following year he went to Scott county and took a claim near Shakopee, on which he resided eight years. He then rented his farm, removed to Shakopee, and run an express between there and St. Paul until the route became unnecessary by the building of a railroad. In 1873, he came to Cold Spring City, and has been in the hotel business here ever since. Mr. Kray was united in marriage with Katrina Hartmann, of Germany, in 1855. Of nine children, the result of this union, but five are living; Mary, Philip, Kate, Valentine, and Joseph H.

FRANK F. KUHN was born on the 10th of August, 1829, in Bavaria, Germany. He enjoyed the school privileges of his native country, left the parental roof in 1849, and emigrated to the United States. After spending one winter in Pennsylvania, went to Cincinnati, Ohio, making it his home for seven years. Then removed to Minnesota, and located in this township in 1857. He taught the first school in the district of which he is now a patron, in the winter of 1859. Was married to Miss Margaret Snider, on the 4th of May, 1854. They have had eight children; five of whom are living.

MARCUS MAURIN is a native of Austria, born on the 22d of April, 1837. His father was a goldsmith and jeweler, doing business in nearly every part of Europe. In 1855, the subject of our sketch came to America, and remained in Chicago two years, engaged in mercantile business. In 1857, he came to St. Paul, Minnesota, and was engaged there and in various parts of the State, as

traveling merchant, until 1863, when he located at Cold Spring City and engaged in mercantile and real estate business in company with his brother. He also purchased the water-power at this point, but sold it in 1865. Mr. Maurin was married in 1863, to Mary A. Lauer, of Chicago. Their children are, Mary F., Louisa M., Annie M., Peter P., and Ros M. The firm of Maurin Brothers, is the heaviest in the Sauk valley, if not on the Upper Mississippi, having branch stores at St. Joseph, Little Falls, and Elizabeth. Their store building at Cold Spring City is divided into two departments; that devoted to general merchandise is 100 x25 feet, and the hardware department 100x18 feet, besides a large grain elevator. Their merchandise sales for 1881, amounted to $185,000, and their grain sales to $250,000.

JOSEPH MEDVED was born in Austria, on the 6th of January, 1850. He was engaged in mercantile business in different countries of Europe until 1870, when he entered the Austrian army and served until 1873. He then came to America, locating at Cold Spring City, and was in the employ of Maurin Brothers until July, 1879, when he embarked in the mercantile business on his own account. Although a young man, Mr. Medved, by his energy and ability is doing a very prosperous business; his sales amounting to $35,000 annually.

JOHN SAUER dates his birth in Iowa, on the 24th of November, 1852. At an early age, he removed with his parents to Stillwater, Minnesota, and soon after, to St. Cloud, where he remained until 1871. He then removed to Cold Spring City, where he learned the trade of wagon-maker, which has been his business ever since. In May, 1878, he started in business on his own account and is quite an extensive manufacturer of wagons, buggies, sleds, etc.; he also deals in wagon and carriage materials, his business amounting to from $2,500 to $3,000 annually. Mr. Sauer was married in 1879, to Elizabeth Kinzer, of Minnesota. Their children are, Joseph and Nicholas.

NICHOLAS WEBER was born in Luxemburg, Germany, on the 29th of October, 1842. He came to America with his parents in 1856, and after one year's stay in Illinois, came to Rockville, Stearns county, where our subject remained, working on a farm about four years. He then went to Iowa, and in 1861, enlisted in the Fifth Iowa Cavalry, and served until mustered out at Clinton, Iowa, in August, 1865. He then returned to

Rockville, where he continued farming until 1880. since which time he has been in the employ of Maurin Brothers, of Cold Spring City.

ZION.

Zion lies in the southern part of the county and has an area of 23,040 acres, of which 7,390 are under cultivation. The surface is generally a rolling prairie, with numerous tracts of marsh, or "hay sloughs," in which appear a large number of boulders.

The soil is a clayey loam with a clay subsoil.

The first settler appears to have been Michael F. Plantikow, a Prussian, who settled on section thirty-two, in the summer of 1860. He was soon followed by David Moede, M. Nehring, Gottlieb, and Weber, who settled near by. During the same season, John Blonigen, H. B. Meyer, and others settled in the north part of the town.

This town was a part of Verdale until 1867, when a separate organization was effected, and the name of Zion adopted.

The first child born in the town was Augusta Plantikow, on the 20th of October, 1860. The first death was Mrs. Hannah L. Nehring, in 1869.

The first marriage was in 1862, the contracting parties being John Schlick and Miss Veronika Ley. The first school was taught in 1866, by John Moore, in a log school house which is yet in use.

The first religious service was held in the winter of 1860-61. A German Evangelical Church was organized the fall before, and a class formed with M. F. Plantikow, leader. The congregation now numbers one hundred and twenty, and services are held every Sabbath. Their church building was erected in 1871; it is well finished and commodious.

This is one of the best agricultural towns in the county, and although the first sod was turned but twenty years ago, and but sparsely settled for a number of years afterward, it now has the largest cultivated acreage of any town in Stearns county. The population, according to the last census, was 661 persons.

The agricultural report for 1880 shows the following products: wheat, 75,012 bushels; oats, 47,415 bushels; corn, 6,045 bushels; barley, 1,418 bushels; rye, 120 bushels; buckwheat, 3 bushels; potatoes, 2,876 bushels; beans, 3 bushels; culti

vated hay, 11 tons; wild hay, 2,148 tons; apples, 26 bushels; tobacco, 30 pounds; wool, 2,254 pounds; butter, 12,462 pounds; and honey, 5 pounds.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

JOSEPH M. GILLITZER, a native of Bavaria, Germany, was born on the 18th of March, 1860. He received his education, chiefly in his native land. He emigrated to America in 1876, locating

in Kansas, where he engaged in teaching school. The climate did not agree with him, and he suffered severely from asthma. After about one and a half years experience in that State, by the advice of his physicians he came to Minnesota and settled in Stearns county. He has regained his health, and been very successful in teaching, his large gift of earnestness and zeal having won him a prominent position as an instructor. His parents still reside in Germany.

GENERAL

CHAPTER CXVII.

PHYSICAL

FEATURES

DESCRIPTION EARLY SETTLEMENT ORGANIZATION-GRASSHOPPERS-POLITICAL CHANGES-THE WRIGHT COUNTY WAR-THE GINSENG TRADE- THE OLD JAILWAR MATTERS-THE INDIAN SCARES.

Wright county is situated in the east central portion of the State, on the right bank of the Mississippi river, by which it is separated from Sherburne and Anoka counties on the north. Its eastern boundary is Hennepin county, most of which line is marked by Crow river. Carver and McLeod counties south, and Meeker and Stearns west, the latter partly marked by Clearwater river, complete its boundary. With more than half its outline marked by streams, its shape is irregular. Its extreme length from east to west is thirty-six miles, while its average breadth is not far from twenty miles, north and south.

Along the Mississippi and Crow rivers, as well as on the Clearwater river, are found excellent water-powers, some of which are already utilized. The surface of the county is gently undulating, with occasional portions somewhat hilly. A few beautiful prairies, bordered by brush land, are found mostly in the northern part; the remainder being timber and meadow land.

It is dotted with numerous lakes, whose clear,

lucid waters enrich the scenery and furnish unlimited enjoyment to sportsmen and pleasure-seekers. Some of these lakes are already becoming popular, and are destined to become favorite watering places. No town in the county is destitute of lakes, while myriad streams, which, as well as the lakes, are fed by springs, afford ample attraction to stock growers and farmers, while serving the further purpose of drainage, thereby rendering its area free from the malarious influences exist

ing in less favored localities. The soil is very fertile, and produces in abundance, all the varied list of cereals and vegetables grown in the Northwest. Year by year the timbered area is lessening, and fertile fields supplant the primeval forests, as do pleasant rural homes the late wigwam of the native, or the still more recent claim shanty of the early pioneer.

Wright county, with other territory west of the Mississippi river, was once included in the Spanish claims; later by the French, and in 1803, with the lands embraced in the Louisiana purchase, ceded to the United States. The early pioneers found other claimants in that once powerful tribe

-the Dakotas, whose rights were relinquished by the treaty of July 23d, 1851. But back of all these were that long departed race, the Mound Builders, whose only record is the mounds still plainly marked along the principal streams, and on the margins of many lakes. No county in this his

toric valley furnishes more frequent evidence of a former habitation by this mysterious people, of whose origin, history, or ultimate fate we know absolutely nothing. That they were the first human dwellers here is not a matter of doubt, but whether their disappearance is due to war, famine, disease, or other causes, is yet, and may ever remain an impenetrable mystery. A few crumbling human bones, bits of rude pottery, and a few imperfectly fashioned tools, are all that is left behind, and of the mounds we only know that:

"A race that long has passed away

Built them! A disciplined and populous race,
Heaped, with long toil, the earth, while yet the Greek
Was hewing the Pentelicus to forms

Of symmetry, and rearing on its rock,
The glittering Parthenon.

But the hands that reared these piles have long since mingled with the mother earth, leaving but meager records of their work.

*

*

"The solitude of centuries untold
Has settled where they dwelt.
* All is gone-
All save the piles of earth that hold their bones-
The platforms where they worshiped unknown gods-
The barriers which they builded from the soil,
To keep the foe at bay.

Thus change the forms of being. Thus arise
Races of living things, glorious in strength,
And perish."

EARLY SETTLEMENT. The first white men to locate homes within the present borders of Wright county, were John McDonald, Sen., and David McPherson, in July, 1852. Their claims were in the present town of Otsego, where the former still lives. He is the oldest settler in the county, and is prominently identified with its organization, as is shown by his biography elsewhere given. Mr. McPherson's residence here was brief. The reputed wealth of the Pike's Peak gold fields induced his emigration thither, from which locality he afterwards removed to Wisconsin. During the summer and autumn of 1852, several claims were taken near Monticello. Prominent among these early claimants were H. W. McCrory and F. M. Cadwell, the former of whom was one of the first officers of the county.

No beaten track or highway then existed between these settlements-naught save the tortuous Indian trail winding along the margin of the river; and it was not until the spring of 1854, that a wagon road was cut between these points by Mr. McCrory and others. Five days were required to hew out this rough passage through the forest, which even then was a barely passable route.

About this time settlers began to locate in other parts of the county, as will appear in the several town histories following.

ORGANIZATION. The act providing for the organization of Wright county passed the Territorial Legislature, and was approved February 20th, 1865. Its prescribed boundaries were substantially as before given, though soubsequent changes have occurred in contiguous territory by the formation of new counties, and the annihilation of Davis county, which was then named as the western boundary. The name given the county was in honor of Hon. Silas Wright, a prominent New York politician of that time, and was adopted as a compromise after a somewhat animated discussion. John McDonald, Sen., Archie Downie, and J. D. Taylor, were appointed County Commissioners. Monticello was designated as the county seat, and there the Board of Commissioners held their first meeting on the 9th of April, 1855, the first-named Commissioner being chosen as Chairman. John O. Haven was appointed Clerk of the board and Register of Deeds; Herbert W. McCrory, Sheriff; William Creighton, District Attorney; James C. Beekman, County Treasurer; Israel Heard, Judge of Probate; John O. Haven, County Surveyor; Row Brasie, Coroner; Selah Markham and Joseph Brown, Assessors.

Three voting precincts were formed with the following described boundaries: Big Bend precinct, bounded on the east by a line running due south from John O. Haven's northwest corner on the Mississippi river, to the south line of the county, south and west by the county lines, and north by the Mississippi river. Monticello precinct, bounded on the north by the Mississippi river, east by a line running due south from the northwest corner of L. Dimmick's claim to the south line of the county, south by the south line of the county, and west by Big Bend precinct. Pleasant Grove precinct, bounded on the north by the Mississippi river, east and south by Crow river, and west by Monticello precinct.

These somewhat imperfect descriptions were due to the yet undeveloped region included, the lands remaining unsurveyed until July and August of that year.

The dwelling house of Selah Markham was designated as the place for holding elections in Big Bend precinct, and Selah Markham, John C. Dow, and John Oakes, appointed judges of election. John C. Dow and Archie Downie were appointed

Justices of the Peace, and Oscar Dow and John Lowell, Constables.

In Monticello precinct the place designated was the dwelling house of William Creighton. Joseph Brown, William M. Vanness, and Samuel M. McMannus were appointed judges of elections; Samuel McMannus and George M. Bertram, Justices of the Peace, and Newell Houllet and J. B. Rich, Constables.

In Pleasant Grove Precinct the dwelling house of John McDonald was designated, and Ezra Tubbs, Charles Lambert, and Caleb Chase appointed Judges of Election; John McDonald and Ezra Tubbs were appointed Justices of the Peace; and William Carsley and Otis T. True, Constables. Archie Downie, Josiah B. Locke, and D. L. Ingersoll were appointed Assessors.

Each precinct constituted a school district, with officers or agents, as follows: No. 1, Pleasant Grove Precinct, Dudley P. Chase; No. 2, Monticello, Nathan Fletcher; No. 3, Big Bend, Selah Markham. Rockford and Buffalo Precincts were organized later, in 1857.

The next meeting of the board was at Monticello, July 2d, 1855, at which petitions were received for a county road from Waterville, at the mouth of Crow river, to Monticello, and from Monticello to El Dorado City, at the mouth of Clearwater river. Both petitions were granted, and the necessary surveys ordered. Another road was asked, from John McDonald's Landing across the county to the Crow river, near the Bigelow place, which was also ordered surveyed.

A petition was also received from J. W. Hanaford and others, asking the formation of a new school district. The following appointments were then made: J. S. Mason, Judge of Election in Monticello precinct, vice Samuel M. McMannus, removed from the county; Joseph C. Walker, Sheriff, vice Herbert McCrory, resigned; David McPherson, Judge of Election in Pleasant Grove precinct, vice Ezra Tubbs, who failed to qualify; and R. Brasie, Treasurer, vice James C. Beekman, resigned.

During this session the assessment roll was completed, and a tax of eleven mills to the dollar levied on all taxable property. The assessed valuation, as shown by the completed and corrected roll, was $33,863, on which a tax of $575.67 was levied, $84.66 of which was for school purposes. The rolls were placed in the hands of Sheriff Walker for collection. Grand and petit jury lists

The next meeting of the board was held September 3d, at which time a petition was received for a road running from Monticello south to Pelican Lake, then called Big Lake.

Bills amounting to $126.52 were audited and allowed, $31.37 of which was for books and stationery.

The taxes collected in 1855, for county and school purposes, amounted to $293.52.

The Commissioners of 1856 were: Dudley P. Chase, H. W. McCrory, and Selah Markham, the first of whom was elected Chairman. Their first meeting was held January 7th, 1856. At a subsequent meeting in June, $1,053.84 was levied for county taxes, $126.71 for Territorial, and $319.28 for school purposes. The fact that about fiveeighths of this amount was assessed to Monticello will serve to show the relative advancement in the precincts at that date, a fact largely attributable to the fertile prairie extending back from the river, which first lured the early settlers to the selection and improvement of future homes.

GRASSHOPPERS.-The 19th of August, 1856, is a date not likely to be forgotten by the early settlers in this county, for on that day arrived the advance guard of that all-devouring army of winged gourmands, whose ravages spread terror and panic among the inhabitants and well nigh depopulated the young settlements. Rye and Rio Grand wheat escaped with little injury, the former from its advanced state, and the latter from the protection offorded by its bearded heads, as well as its almost completed maturity. The hope of relief occasioned by their sudden disap