On May 27 1870 Hans Hanson and lver Christenson and families left Spring Grove, Houston County, Minnesota, with the intention of going northwest, where they could take up land under the homestead laws. Not knowing where to go they determined to continue their journey until they found land that suited them. On July 1st they crossed the boundary line between Otter Tail county and Becker county, and camped at night upon a high elevation of land near the west shore of Otter Tail River, where the town of Frazee now stands. There were no buildings in sight and the whole place looked like a wilderness.
On July 2nd, about 8:30 am., we broke camp and started on, as we had been told that the land around Oak Lake was very rich and well adapted for farming. This was on tile old Red River trail. They were striving to reach that place, which we thought could be the termination of our journey. After we had traveled until about one o'clock, we reached the east shore of Detroit Lake, which is about seven miles from where we started in the morning. On account of very poor roads and trails, our oxen were pretty tired. When we came to the lake we unyoked our oxen to give them a little rest while we ate dinner. At 2:30 pm we hitched up and were going on farther, but there was no roads. The only chance to get on farther was to go right into the lake. We had to follow around the lake shore, but always came out in the water.
In the evening, about 5pm, we came to dry land again on the northerly side of the lake, about twenty rods west of where the Pelican River enters into Detroit Lake. There we had to rest the oxen again as they were tired of walking in the soft sand.
We then got on the Red River trail and that evening went across the prairie to where the village of Detroit stands today. On this prairie there was not a single shanty, nor a human being to be seen.
That night we camped about 2½ miles northwest of where Detroit Lakes is now located. In the morning of July third, we started out again and went as far as Floyd Lake where we found Samuel J. Fox. He was a blacksmith by trade and had a small blacksmith shop near his birch bark teepee. Mr. Fox was a white man, a native of Scotland, but his wife was a Chippewa Indian. This was the first white settler we found in Becker County. He was a nice gentleman, and gave us quite a few hints in regard to the surrounding country. About noon, we reached the much-talked-about Oak Lake. At this place we found a family by the name of Sperry, who had been there for two years. They were nice people too, and told us all about the country. They said the soil was fertile and that nearly everything would grow here. After eating our dinner, we started out to pick our claims, leaving our families in the covered wagon, which we led occupied for nearly a month. After going west for about five miles we found a man by the name of lver T. Knudson, a Norwegian, who had moved from Houston county, Minn. and had settled on a claim on the south side of the lake where the village of Audubon is now located. This man told us it was useless to look for claims any farther west, as the land hunters were already quarreling among themselves over their claims. We then walked back where we had left our families, and made up our minds to go back to Detroit Lake and pick our claims on that prairie. We went back over the same road by which we had come, and reached Detroit Lake about eleven pm. on July third.
We unyoked our oxen so as to given them a chance to free them of the mosquitoes which were plentiful. The next thing we did was to build a smudge to drive the mosquitoes away, but as soon as we started the fire, those inhabitants put the fire out three times before we could get it started.
The next day, the Fourth of July, we were not going to work this national holiday.
There were no brass bands or even a white person or a shanty to be seen anywhere, but we were happy anyway and decided to settle there on July 5th. We started to break the sod along the foot of the hill afterwards called Fox Hill, which is just back of where Minnesota Hotel stood and below Water Tank Hill east. After making a few rounds, we came to real sandy soil. Mr. Christenson said this soil is not good for much. I agreed with him, but said that if ever the railroad came through we would be sure to get a small fortune for the land from the railroad. To my remark Christenson said he was not looking for a town site, but land that would make a good farm.
We then loaded the breaking plow into the wagon where our families were, and told them that we had to pick up our things and leave. This did not suit the women as they had been camping long enough, but this ended our settlement at Detroit Lake.
On July 6 we started out again and went to Oak Lake, where we left our families again, then we went north on the White Earth trail.
Another man by the name of Iver Everson had then joined us. When we went north about five miles from Oak Lake, we found some nice oak groves and good prairie land right up to the timber and this suited us. The land was so rich that the grass reached nearly up to our arms on the highest parts on the prairie. We picked our adjoining claims that day. The county was not surveyed at that time so we did not know what town, range, or section our claims were in. Anyway, we located our claims and came back to our families and wagon that same day and were glad that we had found land that suited us.
On July 7th we started out again with our outfits and came to our claims by noon. We made settlements on our claims that day and were the first settlers in the whole township, which turned out to be Richwood Township.
Mr. Christenson and I decided to live together for a time in the same house, as we only had one stove for two families. I went to my claim the same day and started to break up the soil to show that the land had been taken. Then we peeled some birch bark and made a shanty. This served as a kitchen and dining room. We used the wagons for bedrooms.
Everything went on nicely until we lived this way more than one week, when one evening we had two men visitors, who said they were from White Earth. One of them looked like a white man and the other an Indian or half-breed. They said to us that all the land alongside the timber had already been claimed by people from White Earth, and about seventy of them had organized to drive away any persons or person who would try to take their claims, and they were going to drive us away.
I at first thought it might be so, as at the place where Christenson picked his claim, there were a few furrows broken and a sign tacked to a tree. But this sign showed that there had not been any improvements for more than one year, so they had no more right to the land than we did. After the two men had been talking with us for a long time, telling us what consequences would be if these White Earth people showed up to drive us off, I finally told them that we had come there to stay and make a home, andif they thought to kill us they certainly hed a chance to do so. We were not going to leave until we had to, and our lives were no dearer than theirs.
After this conversation, the two men departed, I then loaded all our things into the wagon, hitched up the oxen and myself, wife and child went to protect our home, as we expected this crowd from White Earth would call that night. After getting over to the place where we had intended to build our house, we unyoked our oxen, but they bellowed and ran back to Christenson's place on account of the mosquitoes, where he kept a smudge every night to drive mosquitoes away. That was one of the worst nights I had ever spent. I and my wife and child were alone, and I was laboring under the thought of a gang from White Earth to come to kill us.
I had two guns, which were carefully loaded that night, and were kept under the mattress in the wagon where I was supposed to sleep. No one showed up that night, which was fortunate as their lives would have been in danger. The next morning we left our wagon where it was and went back to Christenson's. We had talked the matter over as to what to do, whether to leave and go somewhere else or try and stay where we were.
Our stock had gone over towards the White Earth reservation and we had to go after them and bring them home. Coming over into the White Earth road we met a man on horseback, and when we saw we were white, he stopped to talk to us, and seemed to be a gentleman in all respects. His name was Dr. Pyle, and he was hired by the government to doctor the Indians on the White Earth Reservation. We told him we had settled there a few days ago, but had been warned to leave our claims and told there were a lot of men from the reservation who were coming to drive us away. He told us to stick to our claims and not be afraid, that he was going to White Earth and tell those people that there were some settlers who had taken claims along the groves and that they had better keep away and not bother them. This gave us encouragement and we made up our minds to stay, and we did not hear any more from those parties, this scare was soon over.
After we had been on our claims about two weeks a man by the name of Gabriel Holverson, a Norwegian from Freeborn County, Mlnnesota, settled a little to the north of us, so that his claim and mine joined.
About the first improvement we had to make was to do a little breaking to get a little to live on next year. We broke about two-and-a-half acres on each place, that is on mine and Iver Christenson's. Then we cut hay for our stock for the coming winter. We found plenty of grass, but it was hard to stay out and cut it as the mosquitoes were so bad we had to keep our jackets on, even in the hottest part of the day. After we cut and stacked our hay, we started to cut logs for our shanties.
The size of the shanties was to be 15 by 15 feet, and seven feet high. It was now August 20, and we had some bad weather, which lasted a week. It was so cold we had to wear our overcoats to keep warm even if we were in the timber cutting house logs.
After this cool spell, we had just as nice weather as we could wish for. The last of August a swarm of grasshoppers came. They were very thick so that they covered the ground in many places, especially on the breaking.
The middle of August a party of surveyors surveyed the town and range lines and when those lines were run we found out that our claims were in township 140 range 41 west, but could not tell what section we were in. It was not till November that Alvin Wilcox and a crew of men subdivided the town into sections. In October
Ole Qualley
and Nery Augunson came from Freeborn County. Qualley on Section 20, Augunson on section 8. My claim was in Section 20, Iver Christenson in Section 29-30, Iver Evenson section 32 and 29.
In November Andrew Anderson and John Anderson both Swedes from Carver County, came and settled, Andrew southeast quarter Section 20 and John, northwest quarter Section 8. W. W. Harding and Hugh Campbell, both employed on the government reservation at Leech Lake, came in July. Harding, a farmer, took Section 20, and Campbell, a blacksmith Section 28. Daniel Swanson and John Rydeen took their claims in Section 18; they were Swedes.
In the same year came Andrew Olund, John Enberg, Olaf Johnson, August Stallman, a German; Swan Swanson, a Swede; Gus Lundeen, A.J. Haney, who picked a claim and started to build a dam on the Buffalo River just a little way from where the river empties out of Buffalo lake. The dam was complete in the fall of 1871 and the frame raised for a saw mill which went into operation. l must say these few people that settled here were very nice people and very respected to each other as near relatives and we got along well together.
Provisions were remarkably high that fall and winter of 1870 and 1871. A barrel of flour cost twelve dollars, twenty-five cents a pound for pork, five pounds of brown sugar for one dollar, butter thirty-five cents a pound and it had about as many colors as the rainbow, and yet I cannot remember that I never heard a single person who complained or suffered for want of food.
In April 1871, came Colbjorn and Engbret Vold, Norwegians. lver Larson, Mrs. Albert Fingalson's father, came from Houston County.
I must here relate a trip we made down south to Otter Tail County. lver Christenson, Iver Evanson and Gabriel Holverson and I started on a trip, Jan. 9 1871, to go to St. Olaf in Otter Tail County to buy wheat and have it made into flour at Belmoral Mill, as we could get more flour for our money this way than if we bought the flour from the dealers. The first day we got as far as Detroit Lakes. Here we made a good fire and camped out all night as there were no settlers. The weather was cold and about six inches of snow on the ground. We had brought a load of hay on our sled before we left for home. The oxen were eating from the hay whenever we stopped to rest them. The next day we got as far as we called the second crossing of Otter Tail River, about four miles south of where Frazee is now. Here we found a man who told us that a team of horses had broken into the river that forenoon, so the ice was not safe for the oxen to cross. We then came to the conclusion to unyoke the oxen and lead them one at a time, then pull the sled across by hand. Before we started, we were going to find out where the ice was the strongest. With a stick in one hand, I went on the ice, but before I had gone very far, I broke through and went into the water up to my arms. It was pretty cold. The sun was just going down, it was cold weather, and there was no settler for five miles ahead.
This was a German family that had settled on the prairie in 1870. My clothes were frozen stiff to my body. We got to the place where the Germans lived, sometime in the night, tied our oxen to the hay load and went into to get thawed out. We went inside and warmed up some and then went out again, but did not reach Balmoral mill until the next evening. It was a rather small mill, run by water power and located near Otter Tail Lake about five mites south of Otter Tail City, on a small stream of water which empties into the lake. This was the only gristmill for a long distance in any direction, so that there were generally a lot of people waiting until their turn to have their grist ground.
This was the case at this time, and we soon learned that nearly all of them were short of hay for their oxen. We made up our minds to stay out and watch our hay all night, and dug ourselves into the hay as well as we could for it was rather cold to stay out. All went nicely until towards morning, when it started to snow and the wind blew so hard that we had to leave our hay loads. We then went a little way from our loads and built a fire. Here we lay down, warmed ourselves on one side and frozen on the other side till day light, then we started again on our journey. After we had gone a little way, I found out that the bottom of my moccasins were gone, so I was walking in the snow in my stocking feet. I finally got hold of a piece of rope and with this I tied my moccasins on so to keep them on my feet. The reason they came off was I had gotten too close to the fire to keep my feet warm. There were no stores on the way, so I had to use the old ones for the next few days till I got to Otter Tail City on the way home.
That same morning after we had camped all night, we asked the proprietor of the mill if we could leave some of our hay with him so we would have hay there when we came back again to get our grist ground. He said we could leave it in his care until we came back. We started off south to buy wheat, leaving most of our hay at the mill.
After we left, some of those men who were out of hay went to the mill owner and told him we had stolen some of their bow pins out of the oxen bows, and in place of them, claimed our hay to feed their ox, so we did not have a spear of hay left for oxen. Of course we had not stolen or seen their bow pins, but lost the hay anyway. So we had very little reward for camping out in the snowstorm at Balmoral Mills.
Some time in April 1871, we sowed our breaking into wheat and it came up looking very good. To our surprise it never got any farther. In examining it, we found that the little grasshoppers were destroying it as fast as it come up. The swarm of grasshoppers that had been here in 1870, had left all their eggs to hatch for the next year, and the sun hatched them out early. They were so thick the breaking was just covered with them. They destroyed everything, even our clothes if they could get at them. They were here for seven years and destroyed potatoes and vegetables. It was a sad situation and many claim settlers came and went in these bad years.
The Indians were very friendly and we very seldom saw them, although we did see them occasionally. This was in June of 1871; I started to go to the railroad camp near Oak Lake Cut one morning to the store. My wife decided to go also. There were not too many whites to be seen. We started out with the oxen and coming past Iver Christenson's, Mrs. Christenson decided that she wanted to go too. She had a baby with her, and so did my wife. These two women were out for a pleasure trip to the store, but it ended in a short time. On our way back about one mile from our homes, when we had to pass some Indians who were near the road, and some were drunk. There were two bucks and two squaws, and one of the squaws was so drunk that she could not stand up.
One of the Indians came to the wagon and asked for scuttawbo, which meant whiskey. We did not have any, and tried to make them understand this, but they went through everything we had on the wagon. When they did not find any, they searched us. Then they gave up I started the oxen, thinking it was well. When the wagon started, the squaw took hold of the wagon wheel to stop it, but her hand slipped from one spot: to the other. Finally she dropped down at the side of the wagon and we went on.
After we had gotten ten rods or more, one of the Indians came running after us. I was then walking ahead in the road driving the oxen, and when the Indian was about a rod back of the wagon, my wife called me saying he had cocked his gun. I stopped the oxen and when I looked back this Indian was again searching through our things on the wagon, and he held his right finger on the trigger of the gun. The first thing I did was to grab the gun and turn the muzzle away from the wagon. After this we had a squabble over the gun, and in an instant I had the gun in my possession. The Indian thought I was going to shoot him and he made motions that I should fire the gun into the air, and there we stood. He was looking at me and I at him. l then fired the gun as the only thing I had to do was to pull the trigger, and off it went. It was then getting dark and it gave a bright light for an instant. It was an old flintlock gun and was heavily loaded, so that the report was something like a small cannon. After I fired the gun, it struck me that I had better smash it over the wagon wheel, but having heard that Indians were very revengeful, I gave up this idea and gave him his gun. He then started to shake the powder horn and was going to reload; I stood right by him and prevented him from doing so. When he found he could not reload, he ran back as fast as he could to his companions. I picked up my little stick, which I drove the oxen with, and we went on. We did not see any more of the Indians that night.
It was very lucky, as women were almost scared out of their senses.
-Ole Qualley Family, First Supervisor of Rlchwood Township-
Richwood Township organized June 23 1871. The first town meeting was held in the Haney sawmill on the 29th of Sept. 1871. The first town clerk elected was Hans Hanson.
School district Numbers 4 and 7 were organized August 9 1872. These were the first schools in Richwood.
Ole Qualley said the first set of town officers of Richwood were as follows: Chairman of the board of supervisors, W.W. McLeod; Supervisors
Ole Qualley
and Severt Sampson; Town Clerk, Hans Hanson; Treasurer, Gabriel Halvorson; Justices of Peace, Iver Christenson and John Anderson.
Peter Iverson, Mrs. Catheren Shannon, Mrs. Lena Bryngelson's father and Hans Dierhoe, both Danes, came in May 1871, and settled on Section 6 out by Callaway where Fultzes now live, and DierhÏ lived across the road from Iversons. Mr. Ezra Rumery settled on Section 4 in the spring of 1872. Mr. Rumery was one of the jurors in the Bobolink trial of the Cook family murder. He was town clerk of Richwood for many years.
In the spring of 1873, Luke Collins and Sidney Brigham, both Americans from Massachusetts, settled on the west half of Section 34. Our first school was taught by Miss Hattie Brigham in the summer of 1873. We had no school house, but hired the shanty which Iver Larson erected in 1871 on his claim and used it for a schoolroom, taught by Hattie Brigham.
In Sept. 1871, the weather was nice. lver Christenson and l with out families started for Detroit Lake. We camped on the shore of Detroit Lake where we had camped on July 2, the year before, when we were moving into the county. We went along the lake shore when Mr. Christenson noticed a piece of colored paper floating the water close at hand. We picked it up, and after examining it, saw it part of a ten dollar bill. After looking for some more, we found several other pieces of the same bill. These pieces were carefully preserved and sent to the bank of St. Paul, which sent us by return mail nine dollars and thirty cents, so this pleasure trip turned out better than the Oak Lake one, when the Indians attacked us.
The first baby born in Richwood was Tolof Christenson, son of Mr. and Mrs. lver Christenson, on Nov. 19 1870. This little boy died on Oct. 8 1871, and his death was the first one to occur in Richwood Township. The first couple to get married was Swan Lundeen and Emma Johnson, who were married April 27 1872 by L.G. Stevenson, justice of the peace.
W. C. Hazelton and William Long settled near Richwood village in the spring of 1872. Mr. Hazelton resided there until he passed away, was a leading spirit all through the years, and took part in all township business. Ole Qualley, one of the settlers who came in 1870 died about 1928.
In the fall of 1870, I sold my homestead in Wet Union, Todd County, Minn., and fixed up a good covered wagon and with a span of stout mules, took my neighbor E.E. Abbott and started for the Northern Pacific Railroad We camped for dinner at Oak Lake Cut, and while I was after a pail of water, a man named Andrew J. Haney came along and was talking very earnestly with Mr. Abbott when I came back. He finally persuaded us to go with him instead of going to where Lake Park is now, as we had intended. Haney wanted to sell us a share in his saw mill, and after buying a load of eatables at Sterling store at Oak Lake, we started north and after traveling about ten miles, came to his saw mill, where the village of Richwood now stands. We looked over his property, which looked quite favorable, and finally made a bargain for a third interest, although it was all on government land. I was the only one who had any ready money, as Abbott depended on Alexander Moore of Sauk Centre to give him a lift, which he did the next spring.
The next spring we shipped a new saw mill to Benson, Minn., which was then the nearest railroad town and hauled it by oxen from there to the present village of Richwood, a distance of l60 miles. In the month of May I moved my family to the new mill and about the 20th of June the sawing commenced with a low head water, as it was a very dry summer and the streams were low. Our sawing proceeded slowly, but we secured a good price for all the lumber we sawed.
That summer J.E. Van Gordon came to our place from Oak Lake Cut, where he had been clerking, and did a few jobs of carpenter work. During his stay he traded his farm to Haney for his interest in his claim, mill and saw logs. Soon after that time I bought Abbott's interest, and then took one third of Van Gordon's interest which made us equal owners.
The next spring we received 1000 dollars in advance on lumber. in the spring of 1874 the dam went out and I went out afterwards, and Knowles and A.S. Blowers went and put a stone grinding flour mill into operation, which was sold to Van Gordon. Van Gordon sold it to Campbell who sold the mill to Arbuckel, and Henry Reinhardt bought it from Arbuckle in about 1900. Henry Reinhardt operated a saw mill during the day and the flour mill at night as he did not have enough water power to run both at the same time, and he ran this business for many years. Harry's dad was the miller for 22 years they hauled grist in from Ulen, Ada, and all over from out on the prairie and around the neighborhood.
Mr. Reinhardt, who is a credit to all concerned, had the reputation of being the most honest man. He believed in giving what a man had coming and he wanted the some in return. He was loved by all that knew him. This mill had the reputation of making one of the finest flours. The name of it was Sunset Flour. Peggie Bryengelson had one of the sacks she found in the attic.
This mill was one of the biggest mills for miles around; the name of the flour mill was Richwood Roller Mills.
In 1912 Johnson and Pederson, Props., were manufacturers of "Beauty For the Home" and "Sun Rise" brands of flour, feed, bran, and shorts. The other names were "Richwood Roller Mills" Peterson and Thoreson',' "Beauty and Home", and "Beauty Flour".
Then Lindquist bought the flour mill from Reinhardt, and sold shares to the Homesville farmers, as they wanted the dam out so they could lower the lake for more farm land.
The mill was torn down, a landmark in Richwood that was taken away.
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