Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/241

 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 189 James McDonough, .James Melehoir, Andrew Orhlin, John Birber, Doctor Gr. Wilkes, Albert A. Thayer, Moses Haines. Holden is a discontinued postoffice thirty miles southwest of Red Wing and five miles north of Kenyon. Mail is now received via Nerstrand R. P. D. No. 2. Nansen is a discontinued postoffice twenty-eight miles south- west of Bed Wing and eight miles northeast of Kenyon. Mail is received via Kenyon R. F. D. No. 5. Einseth Station is a tiag station on the Chicago & Great Western railway. HAY CREEK TOWNSHIP. Hay Creek receives its name from the stream which touches the west central portion of the township and along whose banks in the early days the settlers found large quantities of wild hay. The surface of the township is somewhat uneven, but is rich in agricultural possibilities. A deep valley crosses the town- ship from east to west in the northern part, and another, with various branches, crosses the township in the center, east and west. These make a hilly and rolling surface for the whole town, the hills being from two to four hundred feet above the valleys. Yet, owing to the abundant overspread of fine clay and loam, practically all of the surface is tillable. Many of the hillsides are covered with growing timber, and the valleys were originally heavily wooded. In the southeastern part is Wells' creek. Bullard creek drains the northern part. Hay Creek comprises township 112, range 14. and is bounded on the north l)y Red AVing and Wacoota, on the east by Florence, on the south by Belvidere and on the west by Featherstone. It was organized with its present boundaries in 1858. The first settlement was made in the spring of 1854 by a Mr. Egar, in the northeast part of the town. Among the early settlers were George Steel* Ernest Schubert, Henry Inzancee, William Hayman, Garry Post, David Bartrom, Simon Peterson, Benville Mosier, Rudolph Kruger, Charles Darling, Jacob Turner, M. Eggle*ston, G. F. and William Meyer, John Hack and James B. Wakefield. George Frederick, an early settler of Belle Creek, also lived here a short time in the early days. The early settlers were subjected to constant annoyance, the whole township, with the exception of a small portion in the northwest, being within the limits of the half-breed tract. Meetings were held and the settlers organized for mutual protection. Charles Alders, who in 1856 built a hotel near where Borkhard's hotel was later located, was one of the many who suffered the annoyance of a previous claimant. He had his first log cabin nearly completed