Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/260

 204 JIL STORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY the late sixties a steam Hour mill was erected on the bank of the river below the saw mill by Tarbox & Jewell, but several years ago, after a checkered history, it was pulled down and the ma- chinery and lumber was sold. Another flour mill was built on the water power just below the confluence of the two branches of the Zumbro by a man named Jacobs and for a number of years did a flourishing business, but in 1876 it was burned and was never rebuilt. The dam was shortly afterward carried out and the land formerly covered by the waters of the mill pond have since be- come valuable for pasturage. Pine Island Village was surveyed and platted in the winter of 1856-57, on land owned by John (lance, Moses Jewell and J. A. Tarbox. For many years the principal business part of the vil- lage was on the north side of the river and grew rapidly to a flourishing business point. The business portion of the village, however, gradually moved southward, until at the present time nearly all the business houses of the village are on the south side of the river. The first hotel was built by E. Denison in 1857 and old settlers still remember how the ladies of the village plied their needles for days to supply the new hotel with the necessary bed and table linen. John Lee had previously built a hotel on the old St. Paul- Dubuque road near where Poplar Grove church now stands and the landlord was also postmaster of the place, but the fact of the existence of the hotel or postoffice is now scarcely remembered. The early settlers received their scanty mail from Oronoco, where a settlement had existed for a number of years, but in 1856 a postoffice was established with John Clance as postmaster. J. A. Tarbox. las. McManus, S. S. Worthing, Fletcher Hagler, Chas. Parker, Henry Hamlin, Henry Tome and George II. Tome have since held this responsible position, the last named gentleman be- ing the present incumbent. The Avar history of the village and the country immediately surrounding it. could it be written in full, would make interest- ing reading. It has been said, probably with more or less justice, that Pine Island has furnished more soldiers to the government in proportion to the size of the place, than any town in the coun- try. Be that as it may, it is a fact that of the Minnesota regi- ments which took part in the Civil war and the Sioux war of j 863-4. Pine Island was liberally represented in all. with the possible exception of the Ninth Infantry, while a number enlisted with Wisconsin regiments. Again in 1898 the young men of Pine Island responded to call to arms, and a few found soldiers' graves in distant lands. In the spring of 1878 the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad