Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/773

 1 1 1 STORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 671 some five or six years there, they closed out their business, and Sidney, the father of the subject of this sketch, removed with his family to Utica, N. Y., and later to Morrisville, in the same state. At the age of eighteen, Sidney S. bought his time for $200, to be paid later, and started in life for himself. In the summer of 1856, in company with Abraham Howe, he came west with a view to engaging in the lumber business. They first visited Fond du Lac, Wis., and took notes of some twenty-five saw r mills ; afterward going up the Wolf river into the pine woods as far as New London and Royalton, near Green Bay, where John Moore, a son-in-law of Mr. Howe, was engaged in lumbering, both logging and milling. Finding nothing there to suit them, they went to William Howe's, some fourteen miles from Racine, Wis. It was here decided that Mr. Grannis should make a trip alone to Minnesota, still looking for a suitable business location. Accordingly, about July 1, he started for Dunleith, opposite Dubuque, and from there took the steamer Fannie Harris for St. Paul. After arriving in St. Paul he went to Stillwater and then up the St. Croix river to Taylor's falls. Finding nothing to suit him there, he went to Prescott and then to Hastings. There were disadvantages in a. location there, so he came to Red Wing and here found what he wanted. Ar- rangements were made with William Freeborn for a location at the end of Bluff street, from LaGrange to Levee street, at the top of a bold rock or ledge. The price of this location was to be $750. Upon his return home with a favorable report, a company was organized with S. S. Grannis. George H. Grannis, Peter Daniels and William Howe, the firm name being Grannis, Daniels & Co. In October, Mr. Grannis visited Red Wing and completed arrange- ments,- afterward returning to the old home at Morrisville, N. Y. April 20, 1857, S. S. Grannis, Peter Daniels and a party consisting of Elijah Atkins, Almeric Childs, Charles M. Grannis, Orson Blanchard, Harvey Miller, William Ingram, Ira McClenthen and wife set out from Morrisville to Red Wing to set up the mill. Work was at once started clearing the recently purchased prop- erty in Red Wing, and on June 1 S. S. Grannis went back to Morrisville after machinery. This was properly placed and on July 20 the first log was sawed. Among the first output was some timber of the Cannon Falls bridge. In the spring of 1858, Will- iam Howe, one of the partners, located permanently in Red Wing. In the course of the summer Mr. Howe and Mr. Grannis bought the acre lot, No. 12, block 2, Freeborn & Co.'s addition, of Robert Todd, and each erected houses, Mr. Howe's being the one now numbered 712 and Mr. Grannis the one now numbered 722 Bush street. The business at the mill continued to increase, and from it came the timber for the county courthouse, built by D. C. Hill. In the fall Mr. Grannis brought 'his wife and two children here,