Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/774

 672 HISTOKY OF GOODHUE COUNTY and established his home. In 185!). Mr. Grannis was elected a member of the city council, and October 8 of that year he and his wife, together with their daughter, now Mrs. Ellen MeCord, of this place, united with the First Presbyterian church of Red Wing by letter from the Congregational church at Morrisville, X. Y. About this time, in I860, he was chosen a school director, and in this year also several additions were made to the machinery in the mill. November 11. 1861, he was elected elder in the Presby- terian church, a position he held for thirty-two years, and then resigned. In the spring of 1862. Mr. Daniels, one of the partners, returned after an absence of nearly five years and with him came Abraham Howe, whose son. A. Howe. Jr., was the engineer at the Grannis mills. In the spring of 1863, George II. Grannis came out from Morrisville, X. V.. and the Grannis interests in the mills were sold out, the firm becoming Daniels. Howe & Co. .Mr. Gran- nis at once started the plans dor sawing shingles, using a scheme by which he planned to cut many more from a log than was then the practice. In the tall of L863, Mr. Grannis was elected a mem- 'ber of the legislature, and toot his seal the following January. During his term in the Legislature Mr. Grannis put through a bill giving the city of Red Wing a eitj charter, and authorizing the, city to issue bonds for its school districts, for the purpose of rais- ing school funds. In this connection it may be mentioned that Mr. Grannis was the one who purchased for the city the land where the Central school now stands from 1). ( '. Hill, whose resi- dence was moved across the street, where it mm stands, in a re- modeled and improved condition. A hill for the location of an insane asylum in Red Wing, in which Mr. Grannis was interested, failed to pass. The machinery for sawing shingles, erected on a boat, was in operation before July 11, 1864, and the output from the beginning was very Large. Early in the winter .Mr. Grannis acquired land in Bartland heavily covered with timber. Follow- ing this came negotiations for the purchase of the Central Point mill property of Spotswood, Scott & Sterrett from A. G. Hudson, the trustee. Later the Drew property was also purchased. It was in the engine room of this mill that F. F. Philleo and his son William, in 1S(I7. started the manufacture of terra cotta floAver pots, one of the early beginnings of the pottery industry in the county. The whole property was afterward sold to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Construction Company. In 1866, Mr. Grannis was appointed surveyor general of the third of the seven lumber districts then existing in the state. It is interest- ing to note that during these eight or ten years Mr. Grannis pur- chased, including the property already mentioned, the shingle ma- chinery from the Starr mill at Lake City, the Central Point mill property, the machinery from the Florence mill, from the Trenton,