Abner Bennett (Excelsior book)rip
who had been "the moving spirit in the enterprise." The four children had all died in rowboats and sailboats to see the first train pull into Wayzata on the new St. Paul
between 1859 and 1863, leaving Mr. and Mrs. Vickers alone on their farm beside and Pacific Railway tracks. Preacher Galpin was there, of course, to offer visitors abetween
Bay.ride on Minnetonka's one and only steamboat, the Governor Ramsey, recently en-
For many decades, church history clung to the belief, supported by an artist's larged and renamed Lady of the Lake. (OB, 8)
sketch and memorial plaque, that this little chapel once had a stockade around it.
Church records state: "A war meeting was held at the close of divine service and the 1
1868placeofservicewasstockadedagainsttheattackofIndiansandbecameaplaceof
common rendezvous upon occasion of alarm." But the "place of service" at the time
of the Sioux Uprising had been the second floor of the schoolhouse. The congregation
of six families had left their St. Albans log church that June, of 1862, and were only March 2. By order of the County Commissioners a part of Excelsior Township, lying
starting to build Trinity Chapel when the stockade was needed in late summer.
north of Lake Minnetonka and north of the Narrows, was detached from the Town-
ship of Excelsior and "added and attached to the Township of Medina." The northern
boundary of Excelsior then became the center line of the lake. (AS, 1217)
1865
April 3. Robert McGrath and several others, riding to Minneapolis with the Reverend
Galpin, found the city celebrating the fall of Richmond and Lee's retreat. Returning
the following day in time for the town meeting, the Excelsior men "procured the large
flag and held it aloft while [they] drove around to the polls, throwing out papers L t r-•
telling the news." (McG -A) Peace would come officially on April 9 when Lee surren-
dered at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia.q l'
F
Summer. Soldiers who survived the battles were being mustered out and returned to id a
their homes and families. But many were not so lucky. When George Day returned,ho.
m
r
I'he found that four of his boyhood friends had "yielded up their lives for their coun-
try." They were Abner Bennett, Charlie and George Galpin, and George Gideon.0 ,-Young Gideon had been killed "while fighting Little Crow and his band in the Battle
of Acton." (GD)
1866 The Sue Gardiner, second boat on the lake, 1868
Summer. Minnetonka's second steamboat was the Sue Gardiner, a 35 -foot propeller
March 18. Theodore Bost wrote to his parents that he was going into fruit growing built in Detroit and launched here by Charles Gardiner. John Mann bought and ran the
and beekeeping, because backaches and deteriorating health prevented his doing heavy Sue for a while, but in 1874, a new owner would take the neat little steamer to Lake
farm work. He had already planted 140 new fruit trees and built many beehives Pepin. (OB, 9)
according to a "greatly improved, patented plan." The new design prevented the loss
of bees in the winter, as it allowed the beekeeper to open the hives and inspect them.1869Mr. Bost ran an agency for the new beehive that enabled him to sell "rights" to
others to make the new hives for themselves. The inventor had to sell such conces-
sions, because the wooden hive itself would have been too bulky to deliver in rural Spring. The first public notice of Peter Gideon's hardy Wealthy apple appeared in theareasbeforetheadventoftrains. For $80 Bost bought the privilege of selling "indivi Western Frontier." The apple, which Gideon had introduced to horticulturists fivedual" rights, at $5 each, to farmers throughout Hennepin and Carver Counties. Since
interest in beekeeping was growing, he hoped the new hives would be in demand.years earlier, was called a boon to the Northwest and an epoch in apple growing.
FF, 269)Its discovery, in 1864, had followed a ten -year struggle to develop from seed an apple
tree that could survive Minnesota winters.
Gideon's four daughters and three sons were well aware of their father's early
1867 trials and disappointments, but it was the youngest, Florence, who seemed most
eager to please him. In fact, she liked to follow him around all day, helping any way
she could. Perhaps it was she who told this story:
August 24. A goodly number of Excelsiorites must have been among those gathered
14
15
would soon open in the former bank building, the Burchard block, on Water Street.
the engines and machinery as soon as the lake could freeze. Then they would rebuild The first shipment of seven barrels of whisky waiting at the Excelsior depot must have
the dredge boat, because it was needed to keep the Narrows passage open for steamers had the "Wets" drooling until work was completed on the saloons. (EC)
and to work on the new bridge over St. Albans Bay to be started in December. (MJ)
April 2. Because of a feud with Mr. Newell "over mismanagement of our public tele-
December 6. Now in its fifth year under the present owners, the Northwestern Chris-phone," Dr. George H. Schrodes had a letter published, instructing his out -of -town
tian College burned mysteriously about 3 a.m. this Sunday morning. The cause was a patrons how to reach him. "Use the telegraph or a special messenger," he said, "as it
mystery because there had been no fire in the building since Saturday noon, and the is simply impossible to get a telephone message to me over the wire while E.L. Newell
chemistry professor had taken the usual precaution of covering all combustibles with is at the head of the local management ... [He frequently] holds messages and at
water. Although offered the Town Hall for classes, the College lacked money to re-least once refused to send a messenger to my office." Dr. Schrodes had come to
place books and "fixtures." To the disappointment of its half -dozen instructors and Excelsior in January, 1896, and set up his office in the Apgar building.
some 75 students, the school was never rebuilt. (EC)
May 14. After nearly two years here, Mr. Bath handed over management of the
December 14. For more than five months a Blind Pig case had been recurring in the Cottager to Harry B. Wakefield of Hutchinson, Minnesota. Issue Number One, Volume
FI news as it bounced in and out of various courts. W.C. Knight, owner of a general XXII, carried news that the St. Albans Bay bridge was open for pedestrians and
store and agent for the Franklin Laundry Company, was accused of running a "blind bicyclists, that the Excelsior Bicycle Club had elected new officers, and that Capt.
pig" under the bank. He promptly sued his accusers for trying to "drive him out of E.W. Dyer of Minneapolis was building a residence on First Street. In another change
business, ruin his moral reputation, injure his credit and hold him up for public scandal this year, A.T. Morse moved his three - year -old dry goods store across the street into
and shame."the new I.O.O.F. building.
There was no conspiracy, said the Cottager, because "any man, woman or child
who passes the Minnetonka Bank corner and has the faculty of smelling, knows May 21. The dancing platform in the grove, adjoining the bath houses on the Com-
whether W.C. Knight is running a blind pig or not." A bench warrant was issued with mons, was being repaired. Owner S.W. Bardwell said that new features would be a new
orders to find the defendant, missing when the case was called on this date, but the floor and good shade. Mr. Wagner was to have charge of the dances, for which tickets
trial was over at last. The "blind pigger" had amused himself at County expense,cost 50 cents and lunch would be available on the grounds.
leading the Council "a merry dance." (EC)
May 28. A Scroll listing Dead Soldiers at the Excelsior Cemetery included these
1897 names: John Maxwell, Wm. Milner, Ed Stoddard, E.P. Braman, S.P. Sterrett, Melvin
Noyes, Chas. S. Bardwell, R.B. Young, Wm. Murray, R.C. Dix and F.G. Gould. (Names
January 28. Eureka's C.W. Sampson of those at other cemeteries included Frank W. Halstead, Abner Bennett, and George
received a shipment of 200,000 pint boxes Gideon.)
and 60,000 quart boxes at his Minnetonka
Nursery, and another carload was on the June 18. Excelsior's baseball team, having chosen yellow uniforms with black bloom-
0 ,,,, ,way. He hired two experts to assemble the ers and stockings, became known as the "Yellow Kids." They played all local games
berry boxes, ready for sale to local grow-against visiting teams on the Commons.
ers. (EC)
June 23. Rev. C.L. Mears, popular young
February 2. For the first time in a 40 -year minister of the Congregational Church,N
struggle, the "Wets" won in the Village and Miss Ernestine Wyer were married
i °election. When they won a month later in at 8 p.m. in the church. Ladies of the
i the Township election as well, there were congregation, who arranged the rece
many applications for licenses to establish
g p
tion following the ceremony, observed
saloons. The defeated "Drys," convinced a that this significant day was also the first
that one saloon in town would be enough,anniversary of their young minister's
voiced the hope that it would be "respect-e .: `
A-
ordination. (EC)
able." Then someone asked: "Did you ever m
Att hear of a good Devil ?" (EC)June 26. Mrs. E. F. Seamans left Excel-
sior to spend the summer in Minneapolis
t March 22. Villagers called for their mail at with her husband, Ed, who was manager
a new post office in the Frank Perkins and leading tenor of the Marie Bell Opera
1building. The former post office room in Company. Their summer concerts at
the Beers block had been rented by a Rev. C.L. Mears and
Ernestine Wyer Mears, 1897
Lake Harriet were "playing to good
Charles W. Samspon with wife (Carrie Ella Minneapolis man who would open a saloon houses."
Leach) and daughter Blanche, about 1887 there in April. A second licensed saloon
49
48