Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/244

 192 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY lies : A. J. Rlalande, Andrew Larson, Gutrom Pederson, Ole Peder- son, J. Wamberg, John Bottolfson. M. Edstrom. C. A. Haggstrom, William Olson and Rognold Johnson. They at once staked out claims and broke the land, most of which still remains in the possession of the families of the original claimants. In 1856 came Albert, Calvin, Samuel, David and Horace McGaughey, F. F. Dimmick, James Cox, Seth Davis. Charles A. Johnson, William Greaves and Ellery Stone with his sons. The eastern people who settled in the central and southeastern part of this township in the early days did not as a rule remain long, and consequently few of their names have been handed down to posterity in this county, although several attained prominence in the localities where they afterward settled. Frank Johnson, born May 8, 1856, and died September 7 the same year, was the first white child born and the first person to die in the township. The first school was taught in 1857 by Daniel Van Amberg, in a log schoolhouse near where William Olson afterward took up his residence. Among the early settlers came H. Ferrell, who laid claim to a section of land and surveyed and laid out town lots, naming the place Wastedo. His dreams of a future great city were not realized, and a larger part of the village plat is now devoted in farms. In 1857 E. A. Sargent built a store and stocked it with general merchandise, and the next year Martin Thompson built another store. Blacksmith shops were opened in 1857 and 1865. In more recent years the store of M. T. Opsal at this point became the trading center of the town. The postoffice at Wastedo was discontinued some years ago and Cannon Falls R. F. D. No. 1 was substituted. Of Leon, thirty years ago, it was written: "The township is now inhabited almost exclusively by a steady, industrious class of people, natives of Norway and Sweden, and their descendants, the Norwegians residing principally in the southwestern portion of the township, and the Swedes in the northeastern. They are all, or nearly all. citizens of the United States, and as their inter- ests are thoroughly identified with the land of their adoption, they take a deep interest in the political and social welfare of the country. Many of them are men of wide education and abil- ity, some of them having represented their districts in one or both branches of the state legislature, while others have filled local positions of trust and honor." This is no less true today. To the Civil War Leon contributed the following soldiers: George Brockman, Charles Berdan. A. J. Bailey, W. D. Bryant, Ephraim A. Bard, Harry Bristol. John Banks, Lewis Butterson, David E. Burden. Edwin Cox, Almeran Davis, Peter Froyd. II. M. McGaughey, Eward G. Bailey, Elec Albertson. Christian Lud-