Fifty Years In The Northwest / With An Introduction And Appendix Containing Reminiscences, Incidents And Notes

by William H. C. Folsom

James Beatty was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, April 27, 1816. When fourteen years of age he went to Cass county, Michigan. He farmed for the Winnebago Indians near Fort Atkinson, Iowa, for several years, and coming to Minnesota in 1848 located at Sauk Rapids, which he made his permanent home. He has been engaged as Indian trader, hotel keeper, merchant and farmer. He was a member of the Minnesota territorial legislatures of 1851, 1853 and 1854. He was married to Eliza Foscet, of New York, in 1854. They have three children living.

Ellis Kling was born in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, Oct. 15, 1824. He was brought up as a farmer, and has made farming his occupation through life. He came to Sauk Rapids in 1851. In 1854 he was married to Lucy Lewis, of Belle Prairie. They have five sons and one daughter.

George W. Benedict.—Mr. Benedict was born at Rochester, New York, in 1827. He served an apprenticeship to a printer in Canada for five years. In 1851 he was married to Anna Cronk, a native of Prince Edward county, Canada. For four years he published the Tecumseh (Mich.) Herald and in 1854, having removed to Sauk Rapids, established the Frontiersman for Jeremiah Russell. This paper he conducted for three years. He then conducted the New Era for one year. In 1868 he established the Sauk Rapids Sentinel, which he conducted four years, when he started the Alexandria Post and also became a member of a company that published the St. Cloud Press, with which he was connected one year. In 1872 he re-established the Sauk Rapids Sentinel, which he sold to W. L. Nieman, but repurchased after the cyclone of 1886. Mr. Benedict was in the United States revenue service ten years, and served as a member of the state senate one term.

J. Q. A. Wood was born in Chichester, New Hampshire, in 1815. He graduated at Union College, New York, in 1843; studied law with President Franklin Pierce; was admitted to practice in 1846, and made his home at Sauk Rapids in 1854, which has been his home ever since, with the exception of some years spent in Kentucky as editor of the Southern Kentucky Shield. This paper was suppressed in 1862. Returning to Sauk Rapids in 1864, he engaged in the practice of law, in which he has since continued. During this period he served eleven years as county attorney, and also a term as probate judge. Mr. Wood was seriously injured in the great cyclone, having been buried in the debris of the court house, from which, with great difficulty, he extricated himself. Mr. Wood is a poetical writer of some reputation, many of his productions having been received with great favor. Among them we may mention "Father is Growing Old, John," "Ode to New Hampshire," and "The Wine of Cyprus." He has one son, a resident of Dakota, and one daughter, the wife of D. C. Roberts of West Superior.

William H. Wood was born in London, New Hampshire, Feb. 2, 1817. When he was fourteen years of age his father removed to Tecumseh, Michigan. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1839 and afterward took a course in Union College, New York, graduating in 1843. He then returned to Tecumseh, Michigan, where he studied law with Judge Stacy. In 1845 he was admitted to the bar in Lenawee county, Michigan. During the presidential campaign of the year following he edited a paper in Kentucky, the Rough and Ready, advocating the claims of Gen. Taylor for the presidency. In 1848 he located in Greensburg, Kentucky, and in 1849 was married to a lady of refinement, known to the literary world under the nom de plume of "Minnie Mary Lee." In 1849 he removed to Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. He was there editor of the pioneer paper, the Frontiersman. He afterward owned, and with his gifted wife edited, the New Era, in which he was an ardent supporter of Mr. Lincoln for the presidency in 1860. Meanwhile he practiced his profession and held the office of county attorney for many years. When the land office was established at Sauk Rapids he was appointed receiver and served a number of years. He was a member of the first state legislature. In 1869 he was elected president of the New Athens College, Greensburg, Kentucky, and served a short time, when he contracted the disease that afterward terminated his earthly career. Mr. Wood was a man of more than ordinary ability, an eloquent speaker, a fluent and gifted writer, whose influence will long be felt. He left a widow and three children.

Mrs. W. H. Wood has been a liberal contributor to magazines and the author of several volumes, of which a list is here appended: "The Heart of Myrrha Lake;" "Into the Light of Catholicity;" "Hubert's Wife;" "The Brown House at Duffield;" "Strayed from the Fold;" "Three Times Three; or, Basil, Beatrice, Ethel;" "Story of Annette;" "Hazel Green's Rival."

A. de Lacy Wood, son of Mrs. W. H. Wood, edits the Two Harbor Iron Post, in Lake county.

P. H. Wood, second son of Mrs. W. H. Wood, edits the Sauk Rapids Free Press.

Rev. Sherman Hall was born in Weathersfield, Vermont; was educated at Exeter Academy, Dartmouth College and Andover Theological Seminary. He was married to Betsey Parker in 1831, and ordained the same year as a missionary to the Chippewa Indians at La Pointe. With them he remained until 1854, when he transferred his residence to Sauk Rapids and organized a Congregational church, of which he continued pastor until his death, Sept. 1, 1859. Mr. Hall made a translation of parts of the Bible into the Ojibway tongue. He was greatly beloved amongst his people for his firm, christian demeanor and publicly recognized as a man of integrity and sound judgment. He served the people of Benton county as judge of probate court and county superintendent of schools.

Jeremiah Russell was born in Eaton, Madison county, New York, Feb. 2, 1809. He received a common school and academic education, and learned to set type in the office of the Chautauqua Gazette. He subsequently taught school and worked for awhile in printing offices. Removing to Palmyra, he clerked in a store several years. In 1835 he came to Michigan, and thence to the Lake Superior country, where he superintended a copper mine for a couple of years, at Left Hand river, near the head of the lake. In 1837 he came to Fort Snelling, and in 1839 accompanied Frank Steele and others to St. Croix Falls, and engaged in building a saw mill. In 1840 he went to Pokegama mission as government farmer and blacksmith. About 1842, at the closing up of the Pokegama mission in consequence of Indian disturbances, he purchased the old Connor trading post and farm. In 1843, with Elam Greely, he went down the St. Croix and up the Mississippi and Rum rivers in a birch canoe, exploring for pine timber. They found Rum river blockaded at one place a distance of three-quarters of a mile, with drifts or rafts of trees, consolidated and held together by the roots of grasses and water willows, the accumulations apparently of ages. Around this raft they made a portage, and ascended a tributary of Rum river to its source, thence down the Kanabec or Snake river to Pokegama. In 1848 Mr. Russell came to Crow Wing, Minnesota, as agent for Borup & Oakes, Indian traders and fur dealers. In the autumn of 1849 he established himself at a point two miles above Sauk Rapids, and opened up a farm of one hundred and thirty acres. At the end of four years he moved down the river and made a land claim on the west side, including the water power of Sauk Rapids. He owned an interest also in the water power on the east side. In 1854 he was one of the company that surveyed and platted the village of Sauk Rapids. He established the pioneer newspaper, the Sauk Rapids Frontiersman.