~ Zumbrota Township ~

Zumbrota comprises township 110 range 15, and originally included Minneola, which was set off in June, 1860. It is bounded on the north by Goodhue, east by Wabasha County, south by Pine Island and west by Minneola. Through a larger part of the southern tier of sections runs one of the branches of the Zumbro, and from this river the name of the township is derived. The surface is largely rolling prairie, with higher, undulating land in the northwestern portions.

The first settler was William Fiske, who came in 1854 and took a claim on Dry Run, in the southeastern part. Fiske was a man of strong personality. He was born in Maine and for some years was a sailor. Of hermit tendencies, he tried to get as far from civilization as possible. He died in 1878 and is buried in the cemetery at Mazeppa, Wabasha County. Aaron Doty and C. W. Smith were also early settlers, as was C. P. Bonney, who arrived May 26, 1856, and built a cabin. It is related that for the first six weeks Mrs. Bonney saw the face of no white man but her husband.

In the fall of 1855 Rev. H. N. Gates, a missionary who had been laboring in Iowa, returned to Stafford, Connecticut, where he had formerly lived, and proposed organizing an emigration company to establish a colony in the west. The first meeting was held in Stafford, at which time the company was organized, under the name of Stafford Western Emigration Company, with Albert Barrett, of Stafford, as president and Charles Ward, of Lowell, Mass., as secretary. The following members constituted the board: T. P. Kellett, Josiah Thompson, Joseph Bailey, D. B. Goddard, Dr. Ira Perry, James Elwell, Milton Bonner, Samuel Chaffee, Ruben A. Smith and C. C. Webster. At a meeting held in Palmer, Massachusetts, January, 1856, they adjourned to meet at Lowell in February, 1856. One hundred and sixty persons joined the association at the time of the adjourned meeting in Lowell and the capital stock paid in at that time was $30,000. At this meeting Rev. H. N. Gates, Albert Barrett and Mr. Sherwood were appointed a committee to go to Iowa or Minnesota and purchase a township of land. The funds of the association were placed at the disposal of Rev. H. N. Gates, chairman of the committee. Nothing was heard from the committee after their departure until the latter part of May 1856, when a call for a meeting was issued by the secretary, Charles Ward, stating that the committee had returned and would report, Gates and Sherwood both made reports but disagreed, and the company disbanded.

A smaller company was formed soon after. There were certain transportation concessions that had been made to the old company and the company wished to secure these and at the same time not have the name of the old company, a thing which was accomplished by the insertion of the letter "r" in the old name, the new designation being the Strafford Western Emigration Company. The members were Josiah Thompson, Ira Perry, Joseph Bailey, D. B. Goddard, T. P. Kellett and Samuel Chaffee.

In the latter part of July or early part of August 1856, some of the members of the company came to this part of Minnesota and, after looking over the country in different localities, Samuel Chaffee, D. B. Goddard and Joseph Bailey came across the Zumbro river valley with the intention of returning to New England via Red Wing. As they ascended the hill north of where the village of Zumbrota now stands, Samuel Chaffee discovered the beauties of the valley, and probably to him belongs the credit for the subsequent settlement of the colony at that point. The following day the party arrived in Red Wing, where Mr. Chaffee, who had been taken ill on the journey, died, August 9, 1856. His remains still repose in the cemetery at Red Wing.

There was quite a tide of immigration to Zumbrota, chiefly among those who belonged to the company, in the fall of 1856 and spring of 1857. Prink and Walker's stage route from Dubuque to St. Paul had previously been established through the township, but in March, 1857, the route was changed so as to lead through the village. T. P. Kellett was the first postmaster. The first death was that of John Cameron, December, 1856. William E. Winter was married in May 1857, his being the first marriage in the township.

An active participant in the settlement of Zumbrota is authority for the following items regarding the early days of the township: "Zumbrota was settled by a small fragment of a large company called the Stafford Western Emigration Company. The original company was organized in the winter of 1855-56. This company contained over 150 members, most of them heads of families. Its members were mainly from Massachusetts and Connecticut. It had a paid up capital of $30,000. The plan contemplated the purchase of at least a township of land in one body, and laying out a village in the center of the tract. The aim of the projectors was to plant a distinctively New England colony in the West. At a meeting of the company at Lowell, Massachusetts, in February 1856, the organization was perfected and plans matured to transplant the colony in the early spring as soon as a suitable site could be selected by the committee of three chosen for the purpose. This committee started for the West soon after the meeting at Lowell and took with them about $30,000, with which to purchase land and make the needed improvements ready for the colonists, when they should arrive.

It would be tedious to relate the details which followed the departure of the committee for the West. Suffice it to say that not one of the committee was a practical man. They had no acquaintance with western affairs. And at least two out of the three seem to have had separate schemes of their own by which each hoped to subserve his own interest, or that of his friends and backers. The result was such as might have been expected. There soon developed dissensions and divisions in the committee. After wasting some three months of time and $3,000 of the company's funds, the company was called together again in May, at Lowell, to hear the report of the chairman of the committee. The outcome of this meeting was a dissolution of the original company and a repayment of the funds to the members, less the amount expended or squandered by the committee. This re-payment of the funds was obtained through the unflinching integrity of Charles Ward.

"Immediately upon the breaking up of the original company, a few of its members proceeded to reorganize a new company upon a much smaller scale. Several members of this company immediately started for Minnesota in order to find a location for their little colony. Instead of a special committee, the members constituted themselves a committee of the whole, and upon their arrival in Minnesota started out in search of land. They had agreed upon Red Wing as a place of rendezvous, where they should meet and compare notes. A company of three of these explorers, who seem to have been a leading sub-committee of the company, in the latter part of July, 1856, proceeded to the southwest of that point to a southerly portion of the then territory of Minnesota. This committee consisted of Joseph Bailey, Daniel B. Goddard and Samuel Chaffee. After several days of weary search for government land that could be had for their purpose, and finding nothing to their liking, they started on their return to Red Wing, weary, footsore and discouraged, fully resolved to return to New England.

"Let us now for a brief period leave our travelers making their melancholy journey to the Mississippi River, and give a few moments attention to what has transpired in the valley of the north branch of the Zumbro. There was a beautiful valley, three miles in width, and perhaps four miles in length, through the center of which the Zumbro coursed like a serpentine band of silver. On account of this tract not being represented on the maps of the time as surveyed lands it was supposed by many to be on the 'Half Breed' tract, so called, consequently up to the midsummer of 1856 scarcely a settler had ventured into this beautiful valley. No road traversed it. The trail of the red men and the old paths left by the buffalo were the only evidence remaining that any living creature had ever traversed the valley.

The old territorial road from St. Paul to Dubuque crossed the Zumbro about one and one-half miles below the lower end of this valley. In the spring of 1856 a backwoodsman by the name of Smith, who was a born pioneer and could no more endure civilization than a Sioux Indian, who, nevertheless, was shrewd and scheming, in one of his hunting trips for deer, ducks and prairie chickens, strolled over the divide from the big woods on the middle branches of the Zumbro, where he had settled the year before, into the above described valley. He round to his surprise that no settler had invaded its precincts. His interest was aroused. He traveled over its length and breadth, appreciated both its beauty and its advantages, though one may suppose that its beauties in his mind had more of a practical than an aesthetic value. Visiting the valley several times he discovered that near the center was an ideal site for a town: that the road from Red Wing to the southwest, if straightened, would cross the Zumbro in the center of his proposed townsite, and that there was a natural crossing at that point. He also discovered that by straightening the St. Paul and Dubuque road it would also cross the center of this valley. Keeping all this to himself, he found a man by the name of Aaron Doty, who would preempt a quarter section in the valley and share the land with him after the title was obtained from the government. Meantime he had traced out the route for the change of the Red Wing and Mantorville road, and stationed himself somewhere near the center of the present town of Roscoe, in order to intercept some of the many teams which were passing from towns and points south toward Red Wine, he was able, now and then, to persuade one to try the new route over the trackless prairie. In this way after a while, there was a wagon track that could be followed in the direction he desired, straightening the former road. It was late in July or early in August of 1856, Smith and Doty had the walls of their shanty built to the height of some ten feet. It had as yet no roof. A few boards leaned against the inside wall furnished them a rude shelter during the rain and at night. Occasionally a wayfarer would stop and share the hospitality of Smith, whose wife had come over from the woods to keep house for her husband. Doty, who was unmarried, boarded with Smith. The sun was approaching the horizon one afternoon when three weary travelers called at Smith's shanty and asked for a drink of water and some food. They were informed by Smith, who was delighted that his new road was beginning to be traveled, that he could accommodate them. Smith's wife soon spread before them on a rough board table such viands as her larder afforded, consisting of wheat bread, molasses and cold boiled venison, some coffee, black as ink, without milk or sugar, and a refreshing drink of cold water from a spring nearby. These three travelers were the sub-committee whom we left journeying toward Red Wing. They anxiously inquired the distance to Red Wing and also the distance to the nearest stopping place on the road. Smith having no accommodation for them over night. They concluded to go on as far as Moer's who had a log house where Luther Chapman's house was later erected. Smith, with his shrewd inquisitiveness had drawn out of these men the object of their journey and the fact of their failure to find what they were seeking for. Learning that they were the representatives of a colony and had been upon an unsuccessful search for a suitable, location, Smith, with his rude enthusiasm, told them that he had just the spot for, them; that the place where they now were was the Promised Land. He expatiated upon the fact that the center of the valley was just the place for a town; that there was an abundance of vacant land all around; pointed out the further fact that that particular point was the natural center of travel from St. Paul to Dubuque, Wabasha to Faribault, and Red Wing to Mantorville, and other points to the southwest which made Red Wing their shipping point. But our travelers were too weary and discouraged to listen to Smith's suggestions and propositions.

Samuel Chaffee, one of the three, an elderly man, was not only weary but sick. It was with difficulty that he could travel at all, he reached Red Wine the next day and died a few days after. As the trio ascended the northern slope of the valley Mr. Chaffee, in his weak condition, sat down to rest. Turning his eyes toward the river, as the sun was casting its last rays upon the landscape, the view that met his gaze was one of unequalled beauty. So impressed was he that he called out to his associates to stop and look at the landscape as he was doing.

At first they chided him for delaying their progress, but at his solicitation they returned to his side. He exclaimed to them, 'How beautiful' Why is not that the spot we have been looking for?' His companions became interested also. As the shadows of evening began to fall the three men arose with a profound conviction that the beautiful valley before them was their Canaan. It continued to be the theme of their conversation while picking their way along the faint wagon tracks on the prairie, and at their lodging place. During the next day with more hope than they had felt before, they made their way to Red Wing, Goddard and Bailey weak and footsore, Chaffee sick unto death. At Red Wing they found several of their associates awaiting them. They reported what they had found in the valley of the Zumbro. It was resolved by all of them that the place should be visited the next day. The other members of the party were Josiah Thompson. T. P. Kellett, Albert Barrett and Dr. Ira Perry. On the following morning, leaving Goddard to take care of his sick companion, Chaffee, the others chartered a conveyance and repaired to the valley of promise. It was afternoon when they came in sight of it. The whole party were in ecstasies over the view that met their eyes, and all with one accord exclaimed that it was the place for which they had been seeking for so long.

"They were soon in conference with Smith and Doty. The 100 acres preempted by Doty was negotiated for at a low price, each retaining an interest with the company, which was denominated the Strafford Western Emigration Company. Smith, who knew every acre of land in the valley, pointed out to them the claims, very few of which had as yet been taken. Three or four pioneers had settled in the valley besides Smith and Doty, but they were soon bought out. Each of those present selected a claim for himself and one or two of his friends, who in some cases were real and in others imaginary. The land office was at Winona, where all those who had selected claims repaired and made the necessary tiling. On their return the party fell in with several persons who were seeking places in the West where they could settle, among them J. A. Thacher, a civil engineer and surveyor. He was induced to go along with the company. Meantime they had found a surveyor by the name of Beckwith, whom they had engaged to survey their townsite. Upon the return of the party from Winona, the townsite was surveyed and platted under the auspices of Messrs. Beckwith and Thacher. The shape of the original townsite was unique. It extended from the Zumbro River, one mile in Length and about seventy rods in width. It is a matter of tradition that the reason for laying out the town in this shape was that the town would eventually grow to large dimensions and would extend across the river. The townsite was hounded on its west Por its whole length by a school section which was not then available. The 160 acres east of the surveyed townsite was claimed by S. P. Gambia, of Red Wing, who had become a member of the company and who had promised, so far as he dared to do before getting the title to his land, that he would turn it in to the company and have it laid out in hits. One of the members had purchased of a settler a quarter-section, north of the school section, which some of the party alleged was to be turned in to the company and become a part of the extensive townsite. while Joseph Bailey and Ira Perry, getting possession of the adjacent land across the river, were to turn in that, in due course of time, to the company for a further addition to the townsite. Alas, for human expectations! The north quarter of the original strip of land laid out for a townsite was all and more than was needed for town purposes for many years after the events here narrated.

"Smith and Doty's shanty soon became a hotel. Travel had set in over the new road and many wayfarers were glad to avail themselves of the hospitality of the hostelry. Most of the members of the company lodged in the board shanty across the river, but took their meals at Smith's. Smith's hotel for several months was the center of interest and influence in the embryo city. A description of it may not be uninteresting: In dimensions it was 12 by 18 feet on the ground, and 12 feet to the eaves. It was built of poplar logs about 8 and 10 inches in diameter, roughly hewn on the inside and outside. The interstices between the logs were filled with clay, according to the most primitive architecture. The floor for the upper story was about eight feet from the lower floor, and both doors were rough boards. The upper story was used exclusively as a sleeping room. There was a small window in the east gable. In this attic there were as many beds as could be placed, some on rude bedsteads and some on the floor. These beds were made of prairie hay, and the bed clothes were mainly cheap blankets. There were also two beds in the lower room, standing end to end. During the autumn the cooking and much of the housework was done in a lean-to shed at one end of the cabin. Soon after the location of the company, new arrivals were frequent, until Smith's hotel was filled to overflowing. The table fare was abundant, if not always palatable. But in those days appetites were good and the food was eagerly disposed of. The fare consisted mainly of bread made from wheat flour, mixed with the fry of pork and baked in large iron pans; salt pork, occasionally boiled; fresh beef or venison, which sometimes was allowed to remain out in the sun until it became slippery before it was cooked. Vegetables were rare; butter likewise, and when furnished was in strength, about five horse power. Molasses was a staple article. Coffee, or a decoction which went by that name, was an ever-present beverage.

Those who lodged at Dr. Perry's shanty over the river had comfortable beds and pure air at least. All was activity and stir. Everyone was eager to secure a claim and get his shanty up before winter. Soon all the travel from Red Wing to the southward passed through the new settlement. The amount of teaming increased daily, and in a few weeks the new road became a busy thoroughfare. Trouble about this time arose over the claims which settlers had selected for friends, as they pretended. One of the settlers saved a claim near his own ostensibly for a friend, and then sold it for $350. This caused all kinds of trouble. Smith was indignant, as, in his interest for the settlers, he had given up the chance of making many a fat fee for locating casual settlers. The matter was finally adjusted to the satisfaction of Smith and of the company; but soon outside parties learned of these claims, held for so-called but largely imaginary friends, and began to settle on them, as was their legal right to do, and soon no claims were held except such as had been filed on according to law.

"The question of naming the new town was the cause of no little discussion. Zumbrota was finally decided upon. The original members of the company were not men of practical experience and broad views in the matter of town building. The trustees, especially, were very narrow and short-sighted. They placed an extravagant price upon their town lots and were not liberal enough to devote any for much desired and needed improvements. One of the most important needs of the new town was a hotel. Ezra Wilder came over from Oronoco to build one. The trustees gave him no attention and were unwilling to make any concessions to him. Doty finally sold him two lots at a reasonable price in an undesirable location. He proceeded to erect a building for a hotel late in the fall, which he was not able to make comfortable till midwinter, although it was actually occupied at the beginning of the winter. The frame of the building was put up and it was sided and the roof shingled by December 1. The weather was extremely cold and a considerable depth of snow was on the ground. Into this he moved his wife and several children. Smith's cabin was full to overflowing. Another family besides Smith's occupied the lower floor, while the attic was filled with Lodgers. Wilder laid a loose floor in the second story of his building over the cook stove, and hung up sheets in keep the snow out. Upon this floor a bed, filled with prairie hay, was laid and two men lodged there for some weeks with the mercury outside at 30 below zero, and but a trifle above that indoors where they slept. Wilder's family consisted of his wife and two daughters. Now these women endured the rigors of that terrible winter in the half finished building has ever been a mystery. So cold was it that, within four feet of the cook stove where these women cooked, water would freeze in the men's beards while washing. A few families came on in the fall, but they suffered many hardships and deprivations, which can scarcely be realized at this day. There were many cases of sickness and much discouragement. Dr. Perry's wife was sick all winter and nearly insane. Others were similarly affected. One poor fellow was taken down with typhoid fever at Smith's; the house was full of boarders; he soon died from want of care, it could not be given him. All travel soon ceased. Occasionally someone would go to Red Wing for the mail and needed supplies. T. P. Kellet had opened a store with a small stock of goods. No post office was established until the following spring. Locomotion on the prairies was made on snow shoes. Those remote from timber found it difficult to keep warm during the winter. Snow fell about November 20 and remained on the ground until May of the following spring. Notwithstanding the setting in of winter, all parties were eagerly planning to advance the interests of the new town. It was determined to change the route of the St. Paul and Dubuque stage through Zumbrota, and to open a road from Wabasha, on the Mississippi River, to Faribault.

"The few members of the company remaining all the winter in Zumbrota were busy planning for the opening of spring, when large accessions of settlers were expected, and the parties who had gone east were expected to return with their families. The first important end to gain was to open the St. Paul and Dubuque stage road through Zumbrota. The stage company had promised to make the change if a passable road could be made. To open this road it became necessary to break a new track from Lee's, four miles southeast of Zumbrota, to Hader, eight miles to the northwest. All the inhabitants in the settlement and along the proposed new route turned out on an appointed day, with shovels and axes, to cut down the brush and break through the snow crust, and a few yoke of oxen to tread the snow crust into some semblance of a road. After several days of hard work the road was declared passable and, to the unspeakable delight of all, the stage for the first time made the trip through the incipient town.

This was a great event. The next move was to secure a post office. This was eventually done and T. P. Kellett appointed postmaster. The next important enterprise inaugurated was a bridge over the Zumbro at the foot of Main Street. This bridge consisted of stringers of oak laid from bank to bank, upon which were laid for a floor poplar poles, hewed fiat on the upper and lower sides. This primitive bridge was the only one for several years. After the middle of March old settlers began to return and new ones started to come in. The ice did not break up on Lake Pepin until May 1, so that many of the families of the settlers were obliged to remain at the foot of the lake for days and weeks. There was a rush of people to Zumbrota in the spring. Many found claims on the prairie, a few settled in town.

A large number, finding no chance of employment and no building material at hand, left for other parts. Those who remained exerted themselves to the utmost to boom the new town. A flouring mill was built, other enterprises inaugurated, high hopes were entertained and the prospects bore a roseate hue. The financial panic of 1857 blasted the hopes of the settlers, and it was many years before the town regained its prosperity and courage."

The first town meeting in Zumbrota, including what is now the township of Minneola, was held July 5, 1858, in the public hall over T. P. Kellett's store, in the village of Zumbrota. The officers elected at this meeting were:

Supervisors, I. C. Stearns (chairman), T. D. Rowell and George Sanderson
Clerk, Charles Jewett
Assessor, James Cram
Collector, C. S. Spendly
Overseer of the poor, Albert Barrett
Justices, Albert G. Hawkes and Charles Ward
Constables, C. S. Spendly and Henry Shedd

Supervisors

Clerks

Since that date Charles A Ward has served continuously as clerk, with the exception of a small part of the year 1895, when H. Runnells served.

Those who enlisted from here, who are still remembered by the old settlers, were

Others who were credited to this village but who are not now remembered are:

In explanation of these latter names, practically none of whom are connected with this village, it is said that Joseph Thacher, then state senator and deputy provost marshal at the recruiting station in St. Paul, persuaded a number of recruits to give Zumbrota as their residence, thus filling the township quota, even though the recruits had never resided in this locality. William F. Bevers is one of the well-known men of the comity, having in succession been a prominent citizen of Welch, Red Wing and Zumbrota. He was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, March 31, 1845, son of Benjamin and Jane (Hall) Bevers, natives of old Yorkshire, England. After leaving their home land, their first location was in Illinois, where they farmed on the fertile prairie hinds of that state from sometime in the early forties until the spring of 1855. They then came up the river to Red Wing, bringing with them their son, William F. The father, after landing here, May 10, 1855, secured employment in the stone quarries, in the meantime looking about for a suitable farm location.

The valleys of Welch, which were not settled as soon as the other townships, attracted his attention, and in 1857 he took his family there and staked out a claim on section 10, where he broke 280 acres, built a home and carried on general farming on a large scale. Later he rented his farm, and purchasing ten acres of land near Red Wing, lived a life of comparative retirement until his death in 1877. The mother died in November, 1855. William F., brought up on a. farm, received his education in the public schools and at Hamline University, at that time located in Red Wing. He then continued fanning with his parents until reaching his majority, at which time he purchased 120 acres on section 10, Welch Township. Of this tract Mr. Bevers broke every foot, and carried on general farming with much success until 1881, when he moved to Red Wing and associated himself with the H. S. Rich & Co. hardware concern, for whom he handled farm implements and machinery. After five years of residence in Red Wing, he came to Zumbrota and acted as general manager of the branch store which the Rich Company established here. So greatly did his accommodating spirit and honest dealings commend themselves to the people of the village and township that after nine years with the Zumbrota branch of the Rich Company, his friends persuaded him to make a venture on his own account. This he did, succeeding the company of which he had for so many years been the general manager.

The firm was continued until 1908 under the firm name of W. F. Bevers & Son. A branch under the same title has been established at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, with the son, William A., as general manager. Mr. Bevers has now practically retired from active business life, still retaining his extensive interests in the Red Wing Manufacturing Company, the Red Wing Union Stoneware Company, First State Bank of Zumbrota and the Security Bank of Zumbrota. His political career, which has been both distinguished and honorable, includes two years as president of the village council of Zumbrota, three years as an alderman in Red Wing, and four years as president of the Zumbrota board of education. For two years he was second lieutenant 10th Regiment, State Militia. William F. Bevers was married February 28, 1872 at Lake City, Minnesota, to Sarah Linn, daughter of John and Catherine Linn, natives of Ohio and early settlers of Welch. They afterward removed to Marshall, Minnesota, and finally went east to Maryland, where they both died. To Mr. and Mrs. Bevers were born two children. William A., born December 4, 1874, married Luella Grover. Mary E., born October 9, 1879, is the wife of Roy Sigmond, of Zumbrota. Mr. Bevers is a Republican in politics and a communicant of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Bevers died in the summer of 1909, and her death was a severe blow to her family and friends.

  Goodhue County | Zumbrota Village | Zumbrota Village Fraternities

Source: History of Goodhue County Minnesota, Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge, H. C. Cooper Jr, & Company, Chicago, 1909.