Fifty Years In The Northwest. William H. C. Folsom
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After him, at different periods, came Drs. Hilton, Brooks, Gaskill, Garlick, Marshall, Searles, Cornbacker and Clark. The first deed recorded of Osceola property was a quitclaim from Wm. H. Nobles to Anson Northrup, consideration $3,250, in 1847. The first lawyer settled here was I. P. Freeland. His successors were Button, Dowling, Dyke, McDill, and others. The first sermon preached in Osceola was by Rev. Lemuel Nobles, a Methodist minister, in 1851. There are two church organizations; each has respectable church buildings. The first Baptist preacher was Rev. S. T. Catlin, in 1854. The Baptists built the first church in the county in Osceola, 1856. The first log house in the town was built by Richard Arnold in the locality of the famous Drake Troutmere springs. This house was built in 1848. Mr. Arnold raised the first crops in the town of Osceola. The first school house was built in 1852. A high school building was erected in 1868. W. A. Talboys taught the first public school in 1852. Until 1861 the schools were under the town system. In 1875 a free high school was established. The first post office was established in 1854, and W. C. Guild was postmaster for twenty years. The first town election was held April 5, 1853, when the following supervisors were elected: Wm. Ramsey, chairman; Nelson McCarty and W. C. Guild. At this meeting the town voted a tax of thirty dollars for school and fifty dollars for town expenses. The first Sunday-school was organized by W. A. Talboys in 1852.
The first marriage, that of John Buckley to Elizabeth Godfrey, was in 1853. The first white child born was John Francis, in 1847. The first death was that of Leroy Hubble, by accident, in 1845.
CHANGE OF NAME.
The name of the town was originally Leroy, in honor of Mr. Hubble above mentioned. It is to be regretted that this name was not retained, inasmuch as Osceola, though the name of one of the most celebrated Indians in American history, is shared by a post town in the eastern part of the State. It was therefore necessary to call this post town Osceola Mills, a distinction that correspondents and postmasters are not always careful to note. Osceola village remained unorganized until Aug. 10, 1887. The first officers were: President, H. B. Dyke; trustees, W. C. Reilly, R. S. Sutton, G. W. De Long, H. E. Cornbacker, Paul Filzen, S. C. Benjamin; clerk, S. Rowcliff; treasurer, C. W. Staples; supervisor, G. D. McDill; justice of the peace, George Wilson; police justice, T. Post. The village has a splendid situation upon the bluffs overlooking the river, and communicates with points on the river by boat, and with overland points by the Minneapolis, Soo & Atlantic railway, completed to this place Aug. 21, 1887. There is also a branch road from Dresser's station to St. Croix Falls. The village was visited by destructive fires at various times. Most prominent of these was the burning of the Freeland Hotel in 1857, the Western Hotel in 1878, and the first flouring mill in 1880.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Daniel Mears.—Mr. Mears was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1819. His first wife, Emeline Mendon, died in 1850, leaving three sons, Charles, David, and Daniel. In 1852 he was married to Susan Thompson. They have one daughter, Lulu, now Mrs. Wheeler, of Stillwater. Mr. Mears came West in 1848, and sold goods one year at Taylor's Place (since Taylor's Falls). In 1849 he removed his store to St. Croix Falls, where he continued merchandising and lumbering until 1852, when he went to Willow River as agent in building the first saw mill in what is now Hudson. In 1860 he made himself a permanent home on a farm near Osceola. He served as state senator from the Twenty-eighth district in 1858-59, and as state timber agent in 1874-75. As an officer Mr. Mears acquitted himself well. In politics he is a Democrat, and while in the senate took an active part in debates. The oldest son, Charles, is editor and proprietor of the Polk County Press. The three sons are married.
Nelson McCarty.—Mr. McCarty was born July 4, 1819, in Pike county, Pennsylvania; in 1834 was married to Mary McKune, and came to St. Croix valley in 1846, where he engaged in piloting and lumbering. In 1847 he made him a farm on Osceola prairie. He died in 1856. His brother Philip came to Osceola in 1850, and settled on Osceola prairie.
William O. Mahony, a native of Ireland, born about 1810, came to America while he was yet a minor, and to St. Croix Falls in 1843. He had learned the trade of a baker, but in 1844 became one of the proprietors of the saw mill at Osceola, and sold his interest in 1860. He was a man of original and eccentric mind. He went to California in 1862, and died there in 1866.
Richard Arnold is of Illinois birth. He came to Osceola in 1845, and moved to his farm near the village in 1848. In 1852 he removed to Taylor's Falls and built the Cascade House. In 1855 he was the first farmer in the town of Amador, Chisago county. In 1859 he left the valley for Pike's Peak, Colorado.
Wm. Kent Sr., was born in Scotland sometime in 1790. He was married in Scotland, and, with his wife and two eldest children, came to America in 1823. He seems to have lived awhile in New Brunswick, probably till 1829 or 30, when he removed to Eddington, Maine, whence he removed to the West and made his home at Osceola in 1852, where he and his wife died at an advanced age, honored by all who knew them. His family of six sons and five daughters all grew to mature age, and, except Andrew, who located in Farmington, had homes in Osceola The daughters are Anna, wife of Curtis Guild; Agnes (deceased), wife of I. W. Freeland; Jane, wife of Jerry Mudget; Mary (deceased), wife of Chapin Kimball; and Eva, wife of Henry C. Goodwin.
Robert Kent, oldest son of Wm. Kent, Sr., was born in Scotland in 1819; came to Galena, Illinois, in 1840, and to Osceola in 1848, where he has filled many responsible public positions. His first wife, to whom he was married in Galena in 1841, died in 1847, leaving four children. In 1859 Mr. Kent was married to Susan Babb, of Osceola.
Andrew Kent was born in Scotland in 1821. He was married in New Brunswick in 1838, but his wife died soon after. He came to Osceola in 1852 and was married to Esther Hill, of Osceola, in 1855. Mr. Kent followed lumbering for many years but finally settled on a beautiful farm in Farmington, where he still resides, an industrious, thrifty farmer.
William Kent, Jr., was born in New Brunswick in 1824; came to Galena in 1843 and to St. Croix Falls in 1844. He was one of the original owners and builders of the first mill at Osceola. From time to time he purchased the interests of other partners until he became sole owner of mill and town site. In 1853 he sold the mill to B. H. Campbell, of Galena. Mr. Kent engaged in steamboating for many years and was a popular commander. He built the Nellie Kent, the Helen Mar and Maggie Reany. Of late years he has been engaged in mercantile pursuits. He was married to Nellie Kidder in 1855. They have no children. Mr. Kent is an influential member of the masonic order, and has filled many positions of public trust.
James Kent was born in Frederickton, New Brunswick, in 1826; came to Wisconsin in 1850; and was married to Mary Jane Wilson at Osceola in 1858. In 1874 he removed to Ashland, Wisconsin, where he died in 1878, leaving a wife and five children.
Thomas Kent was born in Richmond, New Brunswick, in 1828. He came to Osceola in 1849 and was married in 1856 to Achsah Hale. He was a practical lumberman and a very active man. He was accidentally killed in 1847, while breaking a jam of logs in Clam river. He left a wife and one child.
John Kent was born in Eddington, Maine, in 1831. He came to Wisconsin with his parents in 1852. He was married to Jennie Kidder in 1866. He was a house carpenter. Lived in Duluth some years but returned and settled in Osceola.
Samuel Close in 1845 made a land claim for a mill at the falls of Close creek. Shortly after he abandoned the claim and left the country, leaving his name to the creek and slough.
Ebenezer Ayres came from Maine to the St. Croix valley in 1850, and settled on a farm in Osceola, where he made his home during the remainder of his active life. During his last years he became very feeble and partially insane, and his friends placed him in the asylum at Madison, where he died, Aug. 20, 1876. His wife, familiarly known in later years as "Mother Ayres," and greatly esteemed for her excellence of character, died two years later. They reared a family of four sons and seven daughters. The sons Charles, Seth and Andrew are farmers on typo for Osceola prairie. Warren, a fourth son, died in Iowa. The daughters were married—Elizabeth to Ambrose Sevey, Ruth to Walter Carrier, Mary (deceased) to Frank S. Eddy, Sarah to E. R. St. Clair, and to a second husband, H. H. Newberry, all of Taylor's Falls; Abigail to Wm. E. Doe, and to a second husband, the distinguished phrenologist, O. S. Fowler, of New York; Almena