Fifty Years In The Northwest. William H. C. Folsom
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Stratton was one of the passengers of the Palmyra in 1838. He worked for the St. Croix Company two years. After leaving the Falls, he changed his residence several times, and finally settled at Excelsior, Hennepin county, Minnesota, where he died in 1884. Mr. Stratton wrote for the Minneapolis papers many interesting reminiscences of pioneer life on the St. Croix.
Elma M. Blanding.—Mr. Blanding was born in Harford, Susquehanna county, New York, Feb. 14, 1800. He was married to Eliza Tuttle in 1826. He settled on a farm near St. Croix Falls in 1856, where he died, Sept. 16, 1871. Father Blanding, as he was affectionately called in the later years of his life, was a man of exemplary habits, of strong religious convictions, and a consistent member of the Presbyterian church. He left a widow, five sons and three daughters. Mrs. Eliza Blanding died Jan. 18, 1887. Wm. M. Blanding, the oldest son, owns a fine farm near the Falls, formerly known as "Jerusalem." He is a surveyor, lumberman and farmer, and a prominent citizen. He was married to Eliza Tuttle. A family of thirteen children has grown up around him. In 1887 he was appointed receiver in the St. Croix land office. John, the second son, is also a farmer in St. Croix Falls. He was married to Sarah, daughter of Edward and Mary C. Worth. Eugene E. is engaged in the drug business at Taylors Falls, and is also surveyor and express agent. He married Joanna Ring, of Taylors Falls, in 1871. Fred, the fourth son, was married in 1885 to Emma Sly. He was appointed United States land receiver at St. Croix Falls in 1887. He died in California, Jan. 30, 1888. Frank, the youngest son, was married to Annie McCourt, and lives on the homestead. Josephine, the oldest daughter, is the wife of Wm. Longfellow, and resides in Machias, Maine. Flavilla, the widow of Charles B. Whiting, lives at St. Paul, Minnesota. Her husband died in 1868. Mrs. Whiting was executrix of the will of Dr. E. D. Whiting, and successfully controlled a property valued at about $80,000. Mary, wife of Wm. McCourt, died in 1880.
Frederick K. Bartlett was a native of New England. He came to St. Croix Falls in 1849, as attorney and land agent for Caleb Cushing. He was candidate for judge of the district court in 1850, but was defeated. He subsequently settled in Stillwater, and later in Hudson, where he died in 1857, leaving a wife and one son, who became a civil engineer and died in St. Paul in 1885, and one daughter, Helen, who achieved some reputation as a writer for periodicals.
Michael Field was born June 8, 1806. He came from a New England family, his father and mother having resided in Connecticut. In early life he removed to New York and resided awhile at Rochester. He engaged principally in transportation business. The earliest work he ever did was on the Erie canal. He was married in 1833 to Miss Reynolds, who died in 1874. His children are Capt. Silas Wright Field (mortally wounded at Shiloh), Norton, a resident of Racine, Wisconsin, Mrs. Fanny Nason, wife of Hon. Joel F. Nason, Phebe and Mary, unmarried and resident in Brooklyn. Mr. Field was married to his second wife, Mrs. Harriet Lee Bracken, in 1882. He was appointed register of the land office at St. Croix Falls by President Lincoln in 1861, and served twenty-six years. Though over eighty years of age he retains his faculties and general health, and his mind is a store house of the early history of the country.
ALDEN.
The town of Alden embraces township 32, range 17, and twenty-four sections of range 18. It has both prairie and timber land, and is abundantly supplied with water. Apple river traverses it from northeast to southwest. There are many tributary small streams, and a large number of small lakes, of which Cedar lake is the largest. This lies only partially in Alden. The surface is gently undulating.
The town of Alden was organized in 1857. The first board of supervisors were Stephen Williams, William Folsom and H. Sawyer. The first post office was established at Wagon Landing in 1862, V. M. Babcock, postmaster. The first settlers were Wm. Folsom, V. M. Babcock, V. B. Kittel, I. L. Bridgman, Charles Vassau, Jr., and Humphrey Sawyer, in 1856. Mr. Bridgman raised the first crops in 1857. The first marriage was C. Vassau to Alma Kittel, in 1858, by Rev. A. Burton Peabody. The first white child born in Alden was P. B. Peabody, July 28, 1856. The first death was that of a child, Nicholas W. Gordon, June 10, 1857. Alden has two post towns, Little Falls and Alden.
Rev. A. Burton Peabody was born May 22, 1823, in Andover, Windsor county, Vermont. He was the youngest of four minor children, and was left fatherless at eight years of age, and motherless at fifteen. He obtained a good English education in the common schools, and at Chester and Black River academies. The winter terms he spent in teaching. In 1844 he came to Janesville, Wisconsin, where he spent two years, partly on a farm and partly in a law office, as a student and clerk. In 1847 he went to Iowa county, and taught school through the winter at Mineral Point. The next year he went to Clarence, Green county, Wisconsin, where he spent four years in teaching. In 1852 he entered the Nashotah Theological Seminary, where he completed the course, and was ordained deacon in the Protestant Episcopal church, June 3, 1855, by the Rev. Bishop Kemper, and took temporary charge of Grace church, Sheboygan. He was married to Charity Esther Kittel, Sept. 22, 1855, at Clarence, by the Rev. Wm. Ruger. In November of the same year he removed to Mississippi, spending the winter at Jackson. In February he went to Middleton, Mississippi, to take charge of a mission work, including several appointments. He came, the June following, to Polk county, Wisconsin, and spent the summer at Wagon Landing, on Apple river, where his wife's friends had made a settlement, but in the winter returned to his mission work in the South, and there remained until 1857. Owing to the troubled political condition of the South, he did not deem it advisable to remove his family thither, and so returned to Wagon Landing and obtained mission work, visiting at intervals Foster's Mills, now New Richmond, Huntington, Cedar Valley, and St. Croix Falls. The intervening country was, much of it, an unbroken wilderness, and he was obliged to make his journeys not infrequently on foot, to cross the swollen streams and dare all the perils of the winter storm. In 1859 Mr. Peabody accepted a call to the rectorship of St. Paul's church, Plymouth, Sheboygan county, but in 1862 returned to the valley of the St. Croix, and settled on a farm, undertaking meanwhile ministerial work at Prescott and other points, in a line extending as far north as St. Croix Falls. Three years later Prescott and River Falls were made independent, another man taking charge. In 1879 Mr. Peabody undertook additional work on the North Wisconsin railroad, including a large number of places, to be visited monthly. In 1882 his railroad work was limited to Clayton, Cumberland and Hayward. He still has charge, as rector, of Star Prairie and Wagon Landing. Few men have led more laborious lives or been more useful in their calling. He has witnessed the erection of eight churches on the field in which he labored, though concerned directly in the building of only four. Mr. Peabody's family consists of seven sons and seven daughters. One of the latter died in infancy.
V. M. Babcock settled at Wagon Landing, town of Alden, in 1856. He was born in Rensselaer county, New York; married his first wife in New York and his second wife at Somerset, St. Croix county, Wisconsin. They have four children. He has held town offices ever since the organization of the town. He has been sheriff, and was county superintendent of schools for seven years.
APPLE RIVER.
The town of Apple River includes township 34, range 16, and derives its name from its principal river. The town is well watered by Apple river and its tributaries, and it also has numerous lakes, the most considerable of which is White Ash lake. The surface of the town is gently undulating, and was originally covered with pine, interspersed with hardwood groves. There is good wheat soil, and natural meadows are found in some parts. The town was organized Jan. 22, 1876, having been set off from Balsam Lake. There are two post offices, Apple River on the west, and Shiloh on the east town line.
BALSAM LAKE.
The town of Balsam Lake embraces township 34, range 17, and takes its name from a lake within its bounds. It has an undulating surface, covered with heavy oak, pine, and maple timber principally. Balsam creek, the outlet of Balsam lake, flows through it in a southerly direction, affording fine water powers. About one-sixth of the surface is covered with lakes. The