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    Stevens County
    Stevens County
    Stevens County
    Ebook149 pages41 minutes

    Stevens County

    By Stevens County Historical Society

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    About this ebook

    The land area that came to be known as Stevens County was ceded to the United States government by the Dakota Indians in the treaty of the Traverse des Sioux in 1851. Government and railroad exploration parties, Red River Trail oxcarts, and pioneers and missionaries had come through the area long before it was officially ceded or settled. After the Dakota uprising of 1862, the United States government made the decision to put a fort in Dakota Territory. In 1864, Fort Wadsworth, later called Fort Sisseton, was built. Mule teams with supplies for soldiers and Native Americans, and pioneers began traveling in greater numbers across the tallgrass prairies of Stevens County from St. Cloud and into Dakota Territory. Pioneers from many different countries settled in Stevens County to break up the prairie sod and plant wheat and tree claims on their homesteaded land. Grasshoppers, prairie fires, and blizzards tested their determination, but the hardy ones survived to provide for their children's education, organize local governments, and build homes, churches, and businesses.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439633090
    Stevens County
    Author

    Stevens County Historical Society

    The authors of this book present Stevens County and its important pioneer history in a style that invites the reader to look at all aspects of life in the county. In stories and photographs from the collection of the Stevens County Historical Society, Stevens County tells of pioneers, their descendents, and the full and varied lives they lived on the tallgrass prairie of westcentral Minnesota.

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      Book preview

      Stevens County - Stevens County Historical Society

      Society.

      INTRODUCTION

      Almost every local historical organization seeks to capture moments of the area’s history on paper. The visual image has a powerful impact. The images in this publication are from the collection of the Stevens County Historical Society. From over 20,000 possible photographs, these have been chosen to represent the categories, differing demographics, and decades in the life of the county.

      From a personal perspective, I am an avid photographer of the history of events and happenings in my family as well as community life. I grew up with a sense of preserving history through images. Through those family pictures one can know what great-grandma wore for everyday, what flowers she planted in her gardens, and who she invited to celebrate the special events of her life. If you believe that family photographs are valuable to your own history, then think of the importance of a collection of photographs depicting the history of a county. The photograph collection is considered one of the greatest assets a historical society has, especially when there is a description or identification with it. This book gives us an opportunity to share some of those pictorial experiences of history with others.

      Images shown in this book are by no means the only images that might have been chosen. Within these pages is a sampling of photographs, snapshots taken in our county as it has grown, developed, and evolved from a land with bright blue skies, picturesque wetlands, and rolling prairies to an era in history of becoming an agricultural, educational, social, and economic center to the residents that dwell here.

      The pictorial history represented is not as much about major historical events, but more about people and places and the things that occupy their time as they live out their history. Oftentimes a good picture will convey a better sense of the history of a place than a whole book of facts, figures, and dates. Looking at these photographs, really looking, will tell multitudes about the details of clothing, architecture, everyday tools, and the times in which the photograph was taken. A picture is worth a thousand words, but only if the viewer does more than scan the image.

      And so, we pass along these snapshots of our past, leaving it to the reader of the present and future to determine what they will remember and what they will pass along.

      Randee L. Hokanson

      Director

      Stevens County Historical Society

      One

      AGRICULTURE

      Applications to have federal land transferred to the homesteader in Stevens County were filed with several different federal land offices. The first two homestead applications were filed with the Alexandria land office in 1870. Of the 1,203 applications filed with the Federal Bureau of Land Management from 1870 to 1916, 84 were in the names of women. Peter and Anna Hanson owned a farm in Scott Township. Peter emigrated from Denmark in 1879, came to Stevens County in 1903, and erected this home in 1904.

      The Hellebust Farm was located one mile west of Donnelly in Donnelly Township. Anders Olson Hellebust was a native of Norway who arrived in Donnelly in 1888. He worked at the Barrett Ranch before homesteading this land. The older part of the home was built in 1890.

      Rural mail service began in Stevens County in 1903. One of the first mail carriers was Mary Kane, whose route was in Framnas and Swan Lake Townships. The picture shows her winter rig. A heated soapstone kept her feet warm. She would stop for lunch at the Carlson place in Swan Lake Township, exchange the cooler stone for one heated in the Carlson’s oven, put her feet on the well-wrapped stone, and be on her way.

      Frank Schott is pictured here seeding grain with a team of three horses and an ox in Stevens Township in 1920. Born in 1880, Schott was a native of Germany. He came to Stevens County at age 29. He was well known for his masonry work.

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