Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/259

Rh flowing directly through the town and the south branch passing the south. It is generally understood that H. B. Powers was the first man who came and built his cabin in this town in the year 1854. A close second was Josiah Haggard, a youth of nineteen or twenty years, who came the same spring, located a claim and built his cabin about where the residence of Dr. Charles Hill now stands. This claim was jumped by a man named Howard, and Haggard crossed the Zumbro and made his second claim of land now cov- ered by business blocks and residences. Moses Jewell and his son, Solomon, came the next fall and the former pre-empted the Haggard claim, the owner having made but a half-hearted attempt to fulfil the conditions of the law. Moses Jewell returned to Wisconsin for the winter, leaving here his son. Solomon, who has been a resident of the community almost continuously since that time and still owns a large tract of the original Moses Jewell pre-emption. Nelson Denison, another pioneer, pre-empted a claim farther east the same season and a large number of settlers arrived in that and the following seasons. Among these Giles and George Hayward, W. S. Newton, J. A. Tarbox, Philip and Henry Tome, John Lee, John Clance, Sylvester Dickey, C. R. White and others. Moses Jewell and family occupied a log house about where White street now crosses Main street, and there the first marriage took place between his daughter, Sarah, and A. B. Cron, July 13, 1856. although another marriage was solemnized at about the same time between H. B. Powers, the young settler, and Mary E. Miller. At about this time (autumn of 1856) the first school was organized in a log building about where the Citizens State Bank now stands, with Annette Seek as teacher. Other schools were established in the vicinity shortly afterward, among which was one taught by Thomas McManus. The first school building was erected the following year near the Geo. Paige residence on the north side of the river. John Salmon was the first preacher and held services at the homes of the settlers. The first child born in the community was Martha Cron. now Mrs. S. P. Collins. The first death was that of Michael Horn in the winter of 1856. In 1856 Haggard & Hayward began the erection of a saw mill under the supervision of Rice Hamlin, a young Pennsylvania millwright, and the father of Charles and Henry Hamlin, who later became prominent in the affairs of the village. This mill was run in the early years by Dowry & Powers and about 200,000 feet of lumber was manufactured. In 1858, the mill was sold to A. J. Tarbox, and later passed into the possession of W. W. Cutshall, who continued to operate it until about 1902, when it was dismantled on account of the scarcity of saw timber. In