Part 40 (2/2)

The territory of the county has been froanization of new counties Washi+ngton county, however, was divided but once In 1852 the county of Chisago was set off in the north, since which tio on the north, the St Croix river and lake on the east, the Mississippi river on the south, Anoka and Ramsey counties and the Mississippi river on the west It includes the following townshi+ps: Froes 20 and 21, and fractional parts of townshi+ps 31 and 32, range 19, and fractional part of townshi+p 26, range 20

AFTON

Was organized as a town in 1858 Joseph Haskell, G W Cutler and H

L Thomas were the first supervisors; Minor H Thomas, clerk It includes a fractional part of townshi+p 28, range 20 It is atered by Bolles and Valley creeks, streams tributary to the St

Croix The southwestern part of the townshi+p is rolling prairie, the remainder somewhat broken The soil is all productive and the streaood water powers The townshi+p had French settlers as early as 1837,--Baptist Fornier and others Joseph Haskell commenced his farm in 1839 Prior to 1850 A Mackey, L Bolles, P J Carli, T F

Randolph, E Bissell, N H Johnson, James Getchell, and A McHattie located in the town

The first crops were raised by the French settlers The first e was that of Andrew Mackey to Mrs Hamilton, in 1844 The first child born was Helen M Haskell, daughter of Joseph Haskell The first death was that of Paul J Carli, in 1844, accidentally drowned in the lake

The first road was located between Stillwater and Point Douglas, in 1847 A las to Superior through this town in 1850 Le rind wheat north of Prairie du Chien The oldsince replaced by a new one, and thethe last owner The present mill is a fine structure with a capacity of fifty barrels per day The first post office was at the old anized school was in the Haskell district, in 1855 The Scandinavian Methodists have a church in section 18, built in 1885 The German Lutherans have a church in section 6, and a parochial school

AFTON VILLAGE

In May, 1855, Afton village was surveyed and platted by Haskell, Getchell & Thomas, in section 23; Ee is beautifully located on the shore of the lake and contains one hotel, one church (Congregational), one school house, an acades The academy, known as the St Croix Acade, a handsome three story brick structure, erected the same year Mr Gorrie was the first principal Siational church

SOUTH AFTON

Is located one mile south of Afton, on the shores of the lake It has an elevator, store, warehouses and other buildings A saw mill was built by Lowry & Co, between Afton and South Afton; in 1854, and rebuilt in 1855 by Thomas & Sons The Getchell Brothers built a mill in 1861, which was burned

VALLEY CREEK

Is a se on Bolles creek, in sections 9 and 10 Erastus Bolles located here in 1857, and improved the water power, built a e tools He sold out to his son, C

E Bolles, who further i a corn and feed mill In 1860 Gilbert & Buswell erected a flour e was established in 1874, with Erastus Bolles as postmaster

ST MARY VILLAGE

Was platted in 1855, on lots 1, 2 and 3, section 14 Thomas W

Coleman, proprietor; James A Carr, surveyor

JOSEPH HASKELL was born Jan 9, 1805, in Kennebec county, Maine

During his an, Maine In 1837 he ca two years in Indiana July 24, 1839, he arrived at Fort Snelling on the steamer Ariel, obtained employment of Frank Steele for who to St Croix Falls While at the falls he worked on the da In the fall of 1839 heand returned to the Falls, carrying the mail in a birch canoe to Catfish bar, and then across by Indian trail to the Fort While on this trip he made the claim for his homestead in Afton In 1840 he put three acres under cultivation, raising corn and potatoes This was the first atte, except by the French pioneers, who raised only garden crops, north of Prairie du Chien Septe three sisters with him They kept house for him until he married Mr Haskell was married to Olive Furber, sister of J W Furber, in 1849 They have four children, Helen M, Mary E, Henry Pitt and Hiraislatures of 1869 and 1871 He was of most exemplary habits He died at his home Jan 23, 1885

LEMUEL BOLLES was born in New York He carindstone quarry in the soft, coarse sandstones, a short distance below the Dalles In 1844-45 his grindstones were much used He made Stillwater his home in 1844-55, when he reenious and eccentric

He died in Stillwater in 1875

TAYLOR F RANDOLPH was the first school teacher in Washi+ngton county

He and his wife taught at Red Rock in 1837-38-39-40, under the supervision of the Methodist mission at that place In 1842 he settled on a farm in a valley near Bissell's Mounds, Afton, where he and his wife died in 1846

ELIJAH BISSELL, in 1842, located a farm near the three mounds in section 8, which now bear his name He left the county in 1850

ANDREW MACKEY--Mr Mackey, of who the early history, is one of the first pioneers, having come in 1837 with John Boyce to the valley of the St Croix in a mackinaw boat, towed from St Louis to the mouth of Lake St Croix by a steamer, from which point they poled their boat up to the St