LeSueur County, Minnesota

NEW  57-Page Booklet

Early days in LeSueur County, MN, are recalled through a mixture of colorful tales and factual data in this 57-page spiral bound booklet reprinted from the rare 1882 book: History of the Minnesota Valley, by the Rev. Edward D. Neill. The booklet is printed one-sided on 60# paper with the print enlarged for easier reading. A vinyl sheet has been added to protect the  front cover.

LeSueur County encompasses the past and/or present communities of Cleveland, East St. Peter, Elysian (part), Heidelberg, Kasota, Le Center (formerly Le Sueur Center), Le Sueur, Mankato (part), Marysburg, Montgomery, New Prague (part), and Waterville, and includes ten townships: Cleveland, Cordova, Derrynane, Kilkenny, Lanesburgh, Lexington, Ottawa, Sharon, Tyrone (formerly Hillsdale), and Washington.

Among the many and diverse topics in the booklet are: Physical features; early county and municiple officials, the ginseng market; firsts -- postmaster, school, teacher, birth, death, marriage, etc.; Le Sueur foils invasion by Cleveland; deciding where to have the county seat; schools, newspapers, churches; first settlers in various towns; the memorable first funeral service; the Le Sueur Christian Temperance Union, Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and other organizations; businesses and industries; Six saloons and their owners; the effect of liquor on Ottawa; Financial effect of an anti-liquor clause; too many spuds; the Great Fire of 1856 in Elysian Twp.; and other interesting bits of history and trivia.

An extensive list of Civil War soldiers is included. Here's a sample:
Sixth Infantry. Company H. Private -- Lafayette Root, must. Nov. 20, '62, pro. corp., dis. with regt.  Company I. Private -- F.F. Enfield, must. Oct. 4 '62, dis. with regt. Recruit -- J.O. Enfield, must. Jan. 5, '64, dis. with regt.

The booklet includes brief biographies on:
  LeSueur: John Ahlf, Peter Arbes, Dr.Otis Ayer, David Baker, Daniel Bannatyne, F. Baumann, Frank Barnard, Elisha A. Bigelow, E. Blaser, Rev. Henry Boettcher, Mrs. Julia M. Brown, August Budke, P. Cantwell, John M. Cochrane, Hugh Cochrane, C.M. Cosgrove, Henry J. Dane, J.E. Derby, Erastus H. Derby, August R. Doescher, J. L. Drake, Rev. Adolph Dulitz, David W. Edwards, William E. Elshoff, Frank Elshoff, W. D. Evans, Rev. G. M. Eyrich, John M. Farmer, A.S. Ford, John P. Funk, Charles H. Ginthner, James J. Green, Thomas Hessian, Samuel J. Hewson, Ed. P. Huntington, John Kreger, Henry Kruse, John C. Maag, George Noys, Herman Ohde, William H. Patten, W.S. Pierce, George Plowman, Livingstone Quackenbush, W.C. Ralls, Mrs. Alice Robertson, E. P. Rutan, Herman Schiffer, Hermann Siemering, Edson R. Smith, Henry C. Smith, John Smith, Mrs. Harriet C. Snow, Charles Steinigeweg, Henry Stiebeling, Dr. George D. Swaine, George W. Taylor, W.H. Tomlinson, Orr HTousley, Rev. H.J. Van Fossen, Frederick Vasterling, John . Vasterling, Rev. Maximilian Wurst. Tyrone Township & Ottawa: David Bean, Atwood Crosby, George Drew, John Downs, S. Gibbs, Homer E. Gibbon, L.N. Gray, James Hayes, William R. Jones, Francis J. Logan, Andrew Miller, Charles Needham, T.M. Raney, Lewis A. Roberts,  Walker Weisel, William Weyl. Kasota Township and Village, and East St. Peter: Julius Baker, E.E. Boutwell, R. Butters, S.B. Carpenter, George Case, Asa Cheadle, O.E. Edson, M.L. French, Nicholas Kolbert, S.F. Holbrook, E.P. Hull, Jacob Klaseus, John P. Koenen, William Nason Jr., R.L. Nason, John Ofenloch, Alex Pettis, John R. Pheeney, C. Smith, David Street, E.R. Vernon, A.J. Wakefield, James Warrant, John Weger. Washington and Marysburg: Anselm Biehn, Henry Biehn, John L. Meagher, Patrick W. Smith, Mark L. Wildes.  Cleveland : Mrs. Eliza Brown, J.W. Chambers, Florian Drenttel, D. Dugaw, R.H. Everett, W.A. Flowers, John R. Roberts, George Foreyth, Nelson Goldsmith, Benjamin W. Harrison, Jesse Hankins, Dennison Hill, Thomas B. Hobson, H.A. Johnson, N.B.Lampman, Carl Leth, Mrs. Lydia Meeker, J.J. Oehler, Joseph Pofpaff, Joseph Ponwitt, Lorenzo D. Randon, George Rinkel, Charles Rogers, Lafayette Root, Minnie Scahndel, Freeman Talbot, Daniel Vanvleet, Christian Vollmer, Andrew Wilbert, Mose E. Wilson, Adam Wright. Sharon Township: Philip Dressel, Henry J. Fisher, Charles Friburk, John Heiken, Joseph Huonder, Peter Imhoff, S. H. Kast, William H. King, John Lehnert, William Ludwig, Michael Lynch, Jacob M. Muckley, Charles Regenscheit, Christian Schwarz, Robet Ulrich, Henry Wasman, Charles Wandrei. Derrynane Township (Ruggles), Lexington and LeSueur Centre: E. Agnew, Thomas Barker, John A. Burton, J.U. Chapman, George J. Earle, Phillip Hiller, O.F. Huntley, Mary A. Jackson, William Kendall, Francis F. Morgan, Edwin Purrington, J.S. Potter, R.L. Safford, Stephen Tooker, J.L. Whipple. Cordova,  Elysian, Waterville, Kilkenny, Montgomery, Lanesburgh:  Elias Alexander, R. Anderson, Caleb Brock, Joseph Chadderdon, John Chadwick, E.P. Case, A.D. Chase, Herman Christman, William Clarke, Niles Cottingham, Nathaniel Damp, Ephriam Davis, Jacob Dawald, Michael Dooly, Lewis Doyle, Dennis Doyle, Jacob Etsel, D. Flynn, G.W. Fowler, H. Giles, Henry L. Gish, William Grinnell, Wenzel Groh, Frank Guslander, C.M. Hall, T.W. Hammond, Frank Havlicek,  J. C. Hanes, John Hankins, J.S. Higgins, C.E. Hinton, Orange K. Hogle, Thomas G. Hovorka, Patrick Hunt, R. W. Jacklin, O.A. Jackson,  Merell S. Kendall, John Kenny, J. Kent, Martin Klingele, Vincent Kletschke, John A. Knapp,  A. Labatt, Aug. H.E. Lange, Frank M. Long, Adam Lucus, R. Lussier, W. G. Mathes, Rose A. McCoy,  Dennis Moore,  John Murray, Ira Myrick,  E. L. Norton, R.R. O'Hearn, William Oney, John G. Parker,  Joseph Petricka, John Piper, F.A. Pischel, Anthony Pittmann, Joseph Pittmann, Capt. D.E. Potter,  A.E. Prosser,  P.P. Rice, James F. Richardson, Zoar Rogers, Major A.B. Rogers, L.Z. Rogers, Jonathan H. Robbins, August Richter, L. Schrauth, T.W. Sheehy,Mrs. Mary Sierbert, A.E. Prosser,  H.G. Schulz,  A. Sheriden,  Ira Simpson, John Smith, E. J. Stangler, George H. Sterling, Asa B. Swaine, J.C. Swain, A. Tidball, Frank Tousley, William T. Unger, Asa Waif, William Warner, Dr. W.H. Woods, F.H. Zander, Leopold Zipf.   

MANY OTHER NAMES ARE MENTIONED THROUGHOUT THE BOOKLET.

Note: The picture on the front of our Minnesota booklets shows the Goldfinch as "The State Bird". This information was taken from the World Book Encyclopedia, which showed it as such in its 1960 edition, apparently assuming the goldfinch would be a "shoe-in" for the honor over it's chief competitor, the loon. The WBE guessed wrong. Since the information in our booklet pre-dates the naming of the loon as state bird in 1961, and since we don't know how to draw a loon, we're content to allow the goldfinch to have this moment in the spotlight.

Wouldn't this make a unique gift?