Frederic W. Lammers was born in Germany in 1829. He came to America in 1843, locating first at St. Louis, where he remained two years. In 1845 he removed to the St. Croix valley, and for several years engaged in lumbering. In 1852 he settled on a farm in Taylor's Falls, and was married to Helen C. Nelson, of Marine. In 1865 he sold his farm and removed to Big Lake Marine. Mr. Lammers has been a public spirited and excellent citizen. His family consisted of fifteen children; of these thirteen are living.
James R. M. Gaskill was born in Madison county, Illinois, in 1820; graduated from McKendrie College in 1843; graduated from the medical department of the Missouri State University in 1854; practiced medicine a short time at Centralia, Illinois, and came to Marine in 1855, where he practiced medicine and interested himself in milling, lumbering and merchandise. He represented his district in the house of the first legislature of Minnesota, 1857-58, and of the fourteenth and fifteenth, 1872-73. He served during the Rebellion as surgeon of the Forty-fifth Illinois Volunteers. He was for many years a trustee of the Minnesota State Prison. In 1861 he was married to Clara E. Hughes. They have one son and one daughter.
NEWPORT.
The town of Newport includes fractional townships 27 and 28, range 22, and part of sections 34, 35 and 36, in township 29, range 22: It was organized as a town Oct. 20, 1858. The first supervisors were William Fowler, E. B. Schofield and John Willoughby. The surface is mostly prairie. This town has some points of great historic interest. Gray Cloud island, in the southern part, in the Mississippi river, separated from the mainland by a slough, is the place where, according to some historians, Le Sueur planted a French fort in 1695. It was styled the "Isle Pelee," and was described as a beautiful "Prairie Island."
The description of the island tallies precisely with that of Gray Cloud, and is applicable to none of the other conjectured localities. It is mentioned by many antiquarian writers as a place of rendezvous for French traders during the French domination in this part of the continent. Gray Cloud has been known as a trading post for the last hundred years, and has the credit of being the first white settlement in Washington county, and probably in Minnesota. Here came Joseph R. Brown in 1838, and here he married the daughter of Dickson, the trader. Hazen Mooers, one of the commissioners of St. Croix county in 1840, Joseph Boucher and others were living at Gray Cloud when the Methodist mission was established at Kaposia in 1836. Gray Cloud is the translation of the Indian name of the island. It was also borne by an Indian maiden, who became the wife of Hazen Mooers, who seems to have been a man of excellent repute and considerable influence. The Browns cherished for him a very warm feeling of regard.
Red Rock, another historic locality, derives its name from a painted rock which seems to have been held in great reverence by the Sioux Indians. According to Rev. Chauncey Hobart, a veteran pioneer and preacher still living in Minnesota, it was the custom among the Sioux to worship the boulders that lie scattered along the hills and valleys. When a Dakotah was in danger, it was his custom to clear a spot from grass and brush, roll a boulder upon it, paint it, deck it with feathers and flowers, and pray to it for needed help.
The peculiarity of the painted boulder from which Red Rock took its name is that it was a shrine, to which from generation to generation pilgrimages were made, and offerings and sacrifices presented. Its Indian name was "Eyah Shah," or "Red Rock." The stone is not naturally red, but painted with vermillion, or, as some say, with the blood of slaughtered victims. The Indians call the stone also "Waukan," or "mystery." It lies on a weathered stratum of limestone, and seems to be a fragment from some distant granite ledge. The Dakotahs say it walked or rolled to its present position, and they point to the path over which it traveled. They visited it occasionally every year until 1862, each time painting it and bringing offerings. It is painted in stripes, twelve in number, two inches wide and from two to six inches apart. The north end has a rudely drawn picture of the sun, and a rude face with fifteen rays.
Red Rock is noted as the site of a mission planted here in 1837 by the Methodist Episcopal church, by Alfred Brunson, a distinguished pioneer preacher and missionary. The mission was originally established at Kaposia, on the western bank of the river, in 1837, but removed by Alfred Brunson in the same year to Red Rock. Rev. B. T. Kavanaugh, of this mission, and afterward a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church South, superintended the erection of the first buildings. Taylor F. Randolph and wife were teachers here, as assistants in the Indian school, and also in a school of mixed bloods and whites. B. T. Kavanaugh was postmaster in 1841. John Holton was mission farmer in 1841, under a commission from Maj. Taliaferro, of Fort Snelling. The mission was discontinued in 1842. Mr. Randolph and wife made them a home in the town of Afton, where both died in 1844.
The first marriage was that of John A. Ford to Mary Holton, daughter of John Holton, in 1843. The first birth was that of Franklin C. Ford, September, 1844. The first death was that of a child of Rev. B. T. Kavanaugh. The village of Newport was platted in 1857. W. R. Brown's addition was platted in 1874. A steam saw mill was built in 1857 by E. M. Shelton & Brothers. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1874. A flour mill was built in its place by Joseph Irish. The first Baptist church was organized Jan. 18, 1858. The first commodious house of worship was built in 1878. The Red Rock Camp Meeting Association was organized in 1869. A plat of ten acres, beautifully situated in a natural grove near the village, and on the line of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad, was donated to the association by John Holton. These grounds have been improved, and adorned with tasteful cottages. The camp meetings held during the summer are largely attended.