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Wood Family Documents " , Chaska Herald - Thurs', November 26, 1992 , i I L ~m;~b~r~ ~i~W ~~~ Square . -r----~-:------ I t' '. i . c'\ i .;, <, .~_.--' Chatting with a real pioneer ~. II was 51) years ago Ihis mllnlh that I had an opportunity as a young Ikrald reporter-writer- l~dill Ir '-Just a few years out of high ~:hl ~ II .. 10 srend part of a Sum1ay :lflerncl(1n with a territorial pionl'er. My re.:cntly acquired first car. a u~d'-{lf course-Model T Ford, orened new hori7.0ns hcyond the walking limits of Chaska. \I.lith a Novemhcr wind and snllwnakes gently mixing. I w:tC; hraded for what was then Chanhas- scn Township, more specifically La that area settled hy "Yankees" in the \XSOs. At the Ilerb Ac;pden home I wac; going to hccome acquainted with his mother, Mary Wood A<;pden, a delightful lady gracefully enjoying her upper Ms. She and her family had the experience of coming from Mas.'-W1chusells to the frontier twit:e. Abel Wlxxl had worked in the colton mills of that state since coming from England as a hay. Learning of new opportunities in the new Midwest, he hrought his family, including two-year-old Mary, to the Waukesha area of WisConsin. However, it proved to he a malaria area. The family went lxlck east. Some German families had come up the Minnesotil River in IX52 and pre-empted homesteads on the prairie and along the hluffs of what would hccome Carver County, cast of whal would hccome Chaska. The steamboats let them off at a landing cllled Yorkville. During the following year, 10 families from MilssachuSCllS gOt off at the s,ame place and headed north to claim land. In the group were Arha Cleveland, George Powers, H.M. Lyman, Joshua Moore, J. C.athcart, George Galpin, Lemuel Griffin, James Ryan, William Tillon and James Hillery. A minister came 10 visit lhe Clevt:lilnds and was so favorahly irnpre~,sed with the new area that he wrote rellers to the Palmer Journal. a Mas.'-W1chuSCllS puhlica- t jon. One of the readers who was convinced and hccilme excited was Ahcl W(xxl. He started west amI left enough money for his family to follow later. He landed at Yorkville in 1854 and eSlahlished a home- stead. After a year's prep;lralion of the site, he sent for his family, A contingent of IG SCI out from Ma~c;achusells. making lhe first legs of the trip hy rililrO.1d. (n the group the Wcxx1s' cousins, Caspar KnOll, John A'ipden, and the Hobson, Lynn and M(xlre families. On one leg of the journey they nxle in a callIe cm, just vacated hy animals. Planks were put in as sealS for women. After six days they arrived in Chicago on a Sunday. Trains did not ofX:rate on that duy. The nexl day they were back on the rails headed for Galcnil, III. There they got on the steamhaat, Franklin, bound for 5t. Paul. There they boarded the Antelope and reached the Minnesota River Valley ilt Shakopee by nightfilll. KnOll, il tinsmith, was impres.c;cd with the selllement at Shakoree and decided to sct up husiness there. TIle Antelope stopped at Yorkville, a sc.tltering of log homes east of what wa<; to become Chaska. They were greeted there by Juhn Mann, a sclller. He had been requested to take c.1rc of the newcomers until their friends arrived. Mr. Wood arrived with a lumhcr wagon drawn hy a yoke of oxen he had purchased. Reunited, the Wlxxl family drove into the nearby Chaska selllement, stopped at David Fuller's store on the levee at the south end of Walnut Street. They purchased a harrel of salt pork, a dollar's worth of sugar, a barrel of nour and It gallon of molasses. With those purchases, the wagon and oxen and a $60 cow, the Woods had $42.50 left a<; their wealth. That woulll he contrihuted to the COSt of a Jog sch(x)] neigh- hors had dec.:ided 10 build. lbey could then get education funds from the territorial government. As the filrmsteild ~me into view, there was the 16 hy 24 fOOl log house with twO windows. Inside were ;1 "l'lI m:llk with tamarack poles. a cross-leg pine hoard lahle, some sltlols and an iron stove. 'Ibe family unpacked the two chests of clothing lhey hrought from the East. Now Ihere were eight hanus insteatl of Iwo for further clearing the entanglement of hrush, fern growth amI reXllS under which thrre was rich soil for cultivating. While the son helped his father, nine- yem-oltl Mary :Iided her mother. churning hUller :lOd shooting blackbirds to prolect the acre of wheal her father had planted for next winter's nour. A young girl. Susan Hai',dline, started teaching. school in the Cleveland hOllle, hut, when the log school was finished, that Ix:camc the educ<ltional, cultural <Ind social center. The newcomers from Massachusctts were tjuite cultured. (n the Sdllxllthey had such activities as spelling bees and lyceums, including dehates, recitations, singing, and reading of prepared parers. The Rev. Edward Eggleston, author famous for "TIle Hoosier SchlXl)master" and "The Circuit Rider," preached at the school while Iraveling as a hlxlk salesman. Mrs. As(xlen remembered the occasion. She cou Idn 't allend, because she didn't have sh(x:s. Th(~re were no churches, hut in the summer neighhors .....ould galher in the sugar maple grove near Ihe Lyman home for servil:es. It wao; there that the first Protestant scrmon was preached hy the Rev. Charles Galpin of Minneapolis in June I H54. The Aspdens and Woods being neighhllrs led to a mther natural romance, and Henry Aspden and Mary Ann Wo(xl married. By that time Minnesota had become a state. There was so much more Grandma A<;pden told me in that 1933 visit. In il future column I shall relate some of her experiences with Indians al home in Chanhas- sen and while tcaching at Shakopee. ---~~-., ..-. ~"""'1L' --~# --- -- "-- I!V-flO-'1f.f.. , 46.7 Update Date 10/2/1997 Lot Grave Status Occupied Occupant Information Name Abel Wood Sex Male Social Sec. No. Date of Birth 11/21/1809 Date of Death 5/13/1888 Interment Date Cause of Death Softening of the Brain (CCDR) Place of Birth Glossap, England Place of Death Chanhassen, Carver County, Minnesota Age Marital Status Mother Father Children Occupation Military Status Baptized 78 Window John, Mary Ann Wood Purchaser Information Purchased By Abel Wood Street City, State, Zip Phone Date Purchased Amount Fee Paid Date Int Fee Paid Interment Fee Name Address City, State, Zip Phone Name Relationship Address City, State, Zip Phone 2/15/1869 $5.00 0.00 Spouse Information Margaret (Jackson) Wood Next of Kin Information .. Lot 46.7 Abel Update Date 10/2/1997 Name Wood Comments/History Abel Wood's son, John (born 1842 in Massachusetts) married Ella Sarver, and he is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, Excelsior, Hennepin County, Minnesota. Abel's daughter, Mary Ann (born in 1846 in Massachusetts) married Henry Aspden (see Grave 46.2) and she is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, Excelsior, Hennepin County, Minnesota. .. lot Grave Status 46.8 Occupied Update Date 10/2/1997 Occupant Information Name Margaret Wood Sex Female Social Sec. No. Date of Birth Date of Death Interment Date Cause of Death Place of Birth Place of Death Age Marital Status Mother Father Children Occupation Military Status Baptized Purchased By Street City, State, Zip Phone Date Purchased Amount Fee Paid Date Int Fee Paid Interment Fee Name Address City, State, Zip Phone Name Relationship Address City, State, Zip Phone 2/2/1815 11/16/1883 Glossom or Glossap, England Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota 68 Married Unknown (1 st name unknown) Jackson John, Mary Ann Wood Purchaser Information Margaret Wood 2/15/1869 $5.00 0.00 Spouse Information Abel Wood Next of Kin Information Theresa (Diethelm) and Arnold Notermann. Notermann was among the Chanhassen settlers from the Limburg area of Holland. Although he farmed in Chanhassen, many people associate him with Victoria where he ran a store. Site of battle between the Dakota and the Ojibway in 1858. Photograph taken in the 1920s. '.10 00 D CHANHASSEN: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY 43 Theodore Bost noticed the changes. He wrote, "This year the price of land doubled on account of an influx of Dutch settlers, but there's hardly anybody except the Germans who can sell to them be- cause the latter tell the newcomers to have nothing to do with the Americans." His new neighbors concerned him. "If another pack of Germans should move in, it's not impossible that I might sell out, not wanting to be stuck in the middle of such a bunch of ignorant Demo- crats." Sophie complained that the Germans-"all ignorant lower- class people-are becoming more numerous around us." Other immigrants came from Luxemborg. They included the Klingelhutzes, Paulys and Kleins. The Dakota War The land had been open for settlement for a decade. Although, technically, the Native American population had all been removed to reservations, they continued to have a presence around Chanhassen. Descriptions ofIndian life have been filtered through the eyes of a different culture. Family tradition says that Veronica Vogel would of- ten give bread to Indian visitors. The Bennett family states the same story about their mother. Even older residents recall similar tales in their lifetimes. Henry Dimler remembers some coming to Carver Beach every year to dig ginseng roots and gather lotus leaves. "We were scared of the Indians," he said. The early pioneers had seen the possible violence first hand. When the Ojibway moved into northern Minnesota after white s(';ttlement forced them west of their traditional homes, they pushed the Dakota --- . 44 CHANHASSEN: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY 1 to lands further south. Chanhassen stood along the imaginary border. The dispute led to a fierce battle near Rice Lake on May 27, 1858. Hundreds of Shakopee residents stood on the bluffs to watch the combat. Mary Wood remembered several Dakota men riding through the streets of that town, preparing for the battle. At night, she visited their camp and watched their ceremonies. The Chippewa's scalp was hung on a pole in the center of a circle of Indians. As the bright flames of a campfire cast weird shadows of the dancing Indians upon the trees and tents about them, the braves shuffled their feet in an odd fashion as they moved about the scalp, shouting "Hey-yah! Hey-yah! Hey-yah!" This dancing was continued nightly until. .. the battle benvecn the nvo tribes. The Ojibway (Chippewa) used routes through Chanhassen and they retreated through town to the relative safety of Lake Minne- tonka. The simmering tensions between the Dakota and the European population erupted in the summer of 1862. Chanhassen was distant from the bloodshed but rumors swept across the fields like a prairie wildfire. Theodore Bost scribbled a quick letter to his parents, telling them in early August, "Early this morning I learned that the Yankton [Indians] and the Sioux were five miles from our home, killing and burning everyone and everything, and I must go to Chaska to join the forces being organized there.. . I consider the whole thing another hum- bug...The nearest they are known to be is eighty miles away. You [would] have no idea what a com- motion there was. Everybody stopped harvesting crops, three out of four [had left] with their fami- lies, bagage, animals, ete.; many had left their wheat stacks half-finished outdoors." The Bosts had "more occasions for enjoying a good laugh at the expense of those who were most eagerly panicked." Sophie Bost was not as cavalier. She wrote, "I dreamed night be- fore last that my children were butchered before my eyes." Her neigh- bors were even more fearful. Sophie wrote, "Mrs. Cheeseman carne in with her four children whom she hadn't waited to wash and comb. On the way home, I looked in at the Sarvers' and found the wife pale with fear and the children weeping, the father molding bullets for his mus- ket and about to leave at top speed for Chaska, which is the assembly point. Great numbers of neighbors piled what they could onto their wagons and departed; others were standing watch, ready to leave at a Members of the Dakotas remained a part of Chanhassen life despite government efforts to remove them. This photograph was taken in the early 1900s. Many older people remember annual trips by the Shakopee settlement to Lotus (Long) Lake. ~";.. . 'T1 i CHANHASSEN: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY 45 moment's notice. We were all at the point of bundling up a few valu- ables and leaving for Fort Snelling where the garrison is." Mary Wood Aspden remembered that her father had gone out to cut hay with a scythe and Mrs. Wood was visiting a neighbor. The two children set out to find their father but couldn't find him. When they returned, they found the door open. Fearing the worst, they looked in to see their father. "If the Indians want to destroy my property," he said, "he might as well be killed by them." She said that some Excel- sior people headed for Big Island in Lake Minnetonka while others scurried to Fort Snelling. Ruth Bennett relates a similar family escape to Big Island. The Civil War Edwin Aldritt, Civil War veteran, in his GAR uniform. When the Civil War began, there was no surge of patriotic fervor that swept other towns in Minnesota. Theodore Bost, a Republican, supported the war. In May 1861, he wrote, "Have I ever told you I'm the only person hereabouts who wants to see slavery abolished? The Republicans want only its non-extension but I want abolition which is a different mat- ter." In the end, fifty men from Chanhassen served in the Civil War. Most of these soldiers went reluc- tantly, though, called up in the drafts of 1864. It was not easy. William Maxwell enlisted and served in the Second Minnesota Infantry. Sophie Bost wrote, "Some of our neighbors have suffered very badly-among others, Mrs. Maxwell who, not having any able-bodied men at home, can't have a snug, warm house. We've found her all dressed up as though she were going to pay visits, wearing a hood and covered with shawls, sitting hunched over me stove. tier nealth has been ruined. The poor woman! The only son she has left at home is a drunkard." George Powers' brother-in-law was captured while in the army and held in a prison camp. Theodore Bost noted on January 24, 1865 that, "Mrs. Powers' brother has just been liberated by an exchange of prisoners from the mud hut where he was kept, and he was in such wasted con- dition when he arrived in the North that he didn't even have enough ambition to write anyone for six weeks." 28 CHANHASSEN: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY Massachusetts in the fall of 1855 to marry Martha Pomeroy of Southampton in the spring of 1856. Lyman was the first postmaster and clerk for the first election. Lyman was widely respected for his ability with agriculture and horti- culture. He probably planted the first apple tree in Carver County in 1853, bringing with him six small apple trees and seeds. They all died in the winter of 1856. The Northampton Courier, Nov. 22, 1853 re- ported, "At Minnetonka, on the claim of Henry Lyman, is a meadow of fifteen acres or more of the best quality of native hay, which yields from three to five tons to the acre." Another person noted that prairie grass stood fourteen feet tall in Lyman's fields. Powers George Powers was born on a farm near Belchertown, Massachu- setts. Like many of the Northampton Colony, he was an educated man, graduating from college with honors. His wife, Thelena White, graduated from Mount Holyoke. Powers traveled to Minnesota with the goal of claiming land, building a home, and then returning to marry. He followed his plan. A neighbor wrote that Powers was "an excellent, handsome young man. Always happy, good Christians, very nice and pleasant." He was active in local politics, holding offices at the township and local level. 'frumble Joel Trumble was born in 1831 in Concord, New York. While liv- ing in Illinois, he met Jemima Aldritt, followed her to Chanhassen and married her in 1857. They had ten children. Wood Abel Wood came to America from England as a young boy and found work in New England cotton mills. He brought his family to the Waukesha area of Wisconsin. There was malaria so they returned to Massachusetts. He began to read the series of letters that Henry Martyn Nichols sent to the Northampton Courier and decided to try the west again. In 1854, he and his family landed in Yorkville with a contingent that included Caspar Knott, John Aspden, and the Hobson, Lynn, and Moore families. The farmstead was a 16 x 24 foot log house with two windows, a bed made of tamarack poles, a cross leg pine board table, some stools, an iron stove and two chests of clothing from the east. Harrison Edward B. Harrison, a native of England, was born July 21, 183l. Mter duty in the English navy, Harrison settled in Chanhassen in 1855, shortly after his marriage to Hannah Richardson of England. Harrison became a prominent community leader, serving as Chair- Abel Wood MargaretJackson Wood Jemima Aldritt Trumble 32 CHANHASSEN: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY the South in Sewanee, Tennessee and apparently supervised the con- struction of the first campus buildings. They left a permament re- minder of their stay~they named Lake Lucy after their five-year-old daughter. Lake Ann was named after William's wife. Theodore Bost Theodore Bost came from Switzerland and settled in Chanhassen in November, 1855. He was a regular correspondent throughout his life and his many letters provide us with the most detailed look at life in early Chanhassen. After landing at Chaska, he began walking through the woods, checking possible claims. "The claim I've just bought was occupied by a railroad engineer who thought he'd like farming but got tired of it.. . .Another good point of this claim is that the people round about are English or American, eitller Christians or at least churchgoers, ready to lend a hand to their neighbors and to protect one another's claims." Bost was a strongly opininated man from a strict Protestant family. Along with Cleaveland, Lyman and Powers, he immersed himself in Republican politics. Life on the Frontier The pioneers remembered the early years of Chanhassen as hard yet Edwin Aldritt wrote, "Those were happy days. We were all good friends and every man helped his neighbor. Frequently we would drive ten or twenty miles to visit some family and if a new homesteader came to the country we would all help him build his cabin." There were no tradespeople, no shopkeepers. Everyone farmed the land. Theodore Bost described his home to his parents in Switzerland: I moved into the old log cabin, which is eight feet square, four feet high at the north end, and seven feet high at the south end. Before moving in I took some earth from the cellar, mixed water with it, and then threw it with all four fingers and my thumb between the logs of the cabin walls so that I am cozy and warm and in the morning when I wash I have hardly any ice in my room instead of seeing my drinking water turned to ice. The cabin is now my bedroom, living room, dining room, pantry, etc. and if I stay near the door I can spin around three times in a row. . .without knocking anything over. Seated on my empty nail keg, I can do everything I need to do without getting up; I tend my fire by leaning over to my right, where I also keep my kettle; then I keep my lamp, a tin can, a cup, etc.; then still perched on my keg, by leaning over backward I land on my bed which serves me as a backrest. ~iI"11 :i" I II !! Ii J ~ CHANHASSEN: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY 33 The farms provided most of the necessities of life. There were few cash transactions. Benedict Schmid kept a careful accounting. For ex- ample, his total expenses for the year 1862 were: Jan. S Jan 12 Jan 17 Feb 7 Feb S Feb 11 Feb 15 Feb 22 MarS May MayS May 20 June 1 Juncl5 June 29 July 11 Aug 16 Aug 24 Sept 3 Sept 21 Oct. Oct 20 Nov. S Nov. 15 Nov 23 Dec 20 Shoe soles Pants Postage and thread Shirt material and spoon Income Tax Wash kettle, copper wash boiler Salt, shoes for child, pants paper and ink Starch and braid School tax Hat and other small items Blacksmith Smith's plow and trivet ax Shoes and material Harrow teeth, fork and other items Agricultural paper Poll tax Calf Caliper, schnapps, strap; items Cotton material Boots, pants material, underpants Fixing plow Pig, bowls, string, glass Wagon Coat, underwear, pants, rope Threshing, nails Shoes, shirts Linen for pants Linen and small items Geese Midwife .35 .S5 .25 2.65 3.S5 .75 4.20 .15 .40 .40 4.40 1.00 3.75 3.76 5.60 1.S0 1.00 1.25 4.10 9.70 7.15 .SS 1.S0 60.00 11.30 13.00 7.25 1.33 1.90 1.00 2.00 For cash, he sold wheat, corn, rye, potatoes, green beans, and two and a half pigs. The farmers found that the land was good. Nature provided the direst threats. Clarissa Cleaveland wrote about one danger. The prairie fires.. .have been raging all the month. Some nights, when there is no moon, the whole heavens are illumined and it looks like one mighty conflagration. Other nights, when the fire is near I can see to pick up a pin anywhere, but it does not 34 CHANHASSEN: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY frighten me at all, for I know it is harming no one, or at least it will not, if they take the precaution they should to burn around everything they have. I have heard of but one being burned out near us and that was a German 3 miles west of us. The country is so destitute of mountains or large hills that we can see the reflec- tions of fires that are miles & miles, distant. The threat of prairie fire was real. A few years later, the Bosts lost their stable, fence, and hay. Bost explained, "There was a man about two miles from here who set fire to a pile of weeds in his garden and then was unable to prevent the fire from spreading into the woods and marshes. Several of our neighbors had their fences burned up. If the unlucky wretch who did such a good job of burning his weeds had a penny to his name, he would lose it all in lawsuits but he is a poor Methodist minister." Rufus Cheeseman, the minister, remained in poverty for years to come. Since the New Englanders were all educated, the establishment of a school was very important. The Cleavelands brought Susan Hazeltine to their home in 1855. She began the first school in Carver County and made such an impression that two lakes were named after her. Two years later, the county established official school districts. The social life of the community centered around the new school- house. Theodore Bost wrote, "Our surroundings are excellent; a schoolhouse and church arc half a mile away; there are social gather- ings in winter where men and youths hold discussions on all sorts of subjects.... There aren't many places where he would find ways to Susan Hazeltine started the first school in Carver County in 1855. The schoolhouse was located along a lake that bears her name. CHANHASSEN: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY 35 spend money, unless he were to go to Shakopee, and I'm sure he wouldn't want to associate with that crowd of young rascals." Mary Wood Aspden remembered the spelling bees, debates, and lyceum meetings at the District Twelve Schoolhouse. She wrote a poem on mosquitoes: And if they ever come again To torment and to vex us. I hope a good strong wind shall come And blow them all to Texas. Love and Marriage Life on the Minnesota frontier was a challenge. Most of the Northampton Colony brought families with them. Others came alone with hopes of bringing their wives later. A few were bachelors who needed to secure a farm before they married. Theodore Bost worked alone on his farm for several years before he turned to the pursuit of matrimony. Obviously, there were few available women in the township and Bost evaluated each one with a careful eye. "Fanny Maxwell is the only girl hereabouts that I could love, but-always supposing she were willing to marry me-I hesitate to tie myself in that way to such a family," he wrote his parents. "I don't like to put my reasons on paper in detail; but the word "debauche" could be used in a general sort of way....It is really dis- gusting to see a lady who wants to pass for a Christian behaving this way." He wrote to his parents for advice and they suggested that Sophie Bonjour, a young girl living in Switzerland, was interested. He re- membered Sophie, although Theodore at first thought that her older sister, Marie, was the intended. Still, he courted her for two and a half years. He assured his parents, "Are they afraid that I am too isolated? But, just as I am now, I have two neighbors within a half a mile.. .If Sophie and I should want to, we could build a house between these two neighbors, the Ma:x"\vells and the Moores." Sophie finally consented and traveled to Minnesota. Bost met her in Saint Paul and they were married the following day. They remained together until Theodore's death in 1919 in San Dimas, California. Benedict Schmid and Rosina Auer Benedict Schmid returned to Minnesota in 1858 and built a home northwest of Lake Minnewashta. Once the first growing season was completed, Benedict's mind turned to his next acquisition- a wife to help with the chores. His quest was not easy but he was single-minded in his pursuit. On December 13, 1858, he recorded his first attempt. He wrote,