OTHER ONE BUILT ON THE SAME SITE.

T WILL be remembered that the passage of the law granting land for the building of the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad was what first attracted the attention of the early settlers to this county and induced them to make their selections here. The first grant applied exclusively to Minnesota and did not affect Iowa at all, but in 1865 Congress passed another law granting the Sioux City & St. Paul road through Iowa the same subsidies that were granted to the St. Paul & Sioux City road through Minnesota ten years before. Originally two companies controlled that line. The Minnesota end of the line was known as the St. Paul & Sioux City road, while the Iowa end was known as the Sioux City & St. Paul road. This was due to the fact that neither state would turn its grant over to a foreign company, but insisted on having a resident company; accordingly, when the Iowa grant was made a local company was organized in Sioux City with J. C. C. Hoskins, president, and S. T. Davis, secretary, for the development of the Iowa end of the line. The two roads were afterwards consolidated.

A law was also passed at this time granting a subsidy of land for building the McGregor & Western road, which became a part of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul system. The prospect of the early completion of these roads gave quite an impetus to emigration. The St. Paul & Sioux City Com

THE SIOUX CITY & ST. PAUL R. R.

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pany, in locating their line, found that they could get larger quantity of land by swinging around to the west, and accordingly did so, thus passing through Osceola County instead of this, as was the original expectation. The road was completed in the fall of 1871 and for the next eight years, or until the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul was completed to Spencer, stations on that route were the nearest railroad points for the people of this county. The inhabitants in the north part of the county divided their patronage about equally between Worthington, Sibley and Windom, the distance to either place being about the same. The south part of the county transacted their business almost entirely at Sibley. This state of affairs continued in force until the building of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the main line of which was built through Spencer in the fall of 1878.

In the early days this county was noted for the fine quality of wheat raised here, but inasmuch as there were no mills. short of Mankato or Fort Dodge, but little attention was given to its production. As the population increased the want of a good flouring mill was keenly felt. It was generally believed that the outlet to the lakes would furnish a sufficient water power for that purpose. Indeed an attempt was made to improve it as early as 1861 by J. S. Prescott and Henry Meeker, who went as far as to put up a frame and get in the machinery for a first-class mill, but getting discouraged at the time of the Indian raid of 1862 and the extremely low water occasioned by the drouth of that and the following year, they sold off the machinery and abandoned the project, and the country had to depend upon the distant points for breadstuffs.

In the fall of 1868, Mr. A. D. Foster of Hudson, Wisconsin, in company with Frank Boyd of Humboldt County in this state, visited this place in search of a location for erecting a flouring mill. Mr. Foster had been traveling extensive

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ly through northwestern Iowa and southern Minnesota in search of a suitable location for that purpose, and not having found anything that fully suited him, he had about given up the object of his search when he fell in company with Frank Boyd at Fort Dodge. Mr. Boyd had visited the vicinity of the lakes the June previous and had noticed the fact that their outlet would probably furnish a water power of more than ordinary value. After making the acquaintance of Mr. Foster he told him of his trip to the lakes and induced. induced him to up there and make an examination for himself, at the same time offering to accompany him on the trip. They arrived here some time in the month of September and Mr. Foster was so well pleased with the appearance of the country at large and with the water power afforded by the lakes that he decided to look no further but to locate here and commence operations as soon as possible. He immediately returned to Wisconsin, where he made the necessary preparations and returned here some time in the month of October, when he made his selection of a location and commenced operations at once. The site selected had previously been taken as a homestead, but afterwards abandoned. Mr. A. D. Inman and Wallace Smith were the only persons living in that locality.

The labor and expense necessary for the accomplishment of an enterprise of that kind was a different thing then from what it would be at present. Labor was high and provisions remarkably dear. The nearest railway station was at Mankato, and everything had to be transported by team. from there. Again, the nature of the ground required the work to be done on a more extensive scale than was at first contemplated and the fact soon became apparent to Mr. Foster that the expense of getting the mill into operation would be more than double his original estimate and greater than he was

at that time prepared to meet. To abandon the enterprise would be to lose the considerable amount already expended and also to relinquish what promised to be, if properly developed, one of the biggest things in the Northwest; while to proceed was to subject himself to uninterrupted toil, privation, anxiety and embarrassment. He decided to accept the latter alternative and take the chances. The people in that locality were much interested and favored the project by every means in their power. Mr. R. R. Wilcox had charge of building the mill.

The sawmill was put in operation July 4, 1869, and the gristmill in the December following. The success of the mills was complete from the start. The flouring mill commanded work from a range of country nearly seventy miles in every direction and it was no uncommon occurrence for thirty or forty teams to be camped there at a time waiting their turns for getting their grists and it finally became necessary to have their grists registered months in advance. Of course, this state of affairs was a harvest for the proprietors and they soon succeeded in relieving themselves of the embarrassment occasioned by the extra cost and outlay to which they had subjected themselves in thus exceeding their original plan.

A question out of which has grown a considerable strife and contention is the right of the mill company to maintain an auxiliary dam for the purpose of regulating the flow of water. The very first act of Mr. Foster when he commenced operations for building his mill was to throw a dam across the outlet at the foot of the lake so as to stop the flow of water. The season being dry and the water low, this was an easy job. A half day with two or three men and a team was sufficient to accomplish it. But during the winter there were heavy snows followed by heavy rains in the spring, thereby causing a material rise in the lakes, and Foster was obliged to

build up and strengthen his upper dam accordingly. This state of affairs continued two or three years, at the end of which time the mill company had a strong dam in there some six or seven feet high and solid in proportion.

At the first Mr. Foster had no thought of maintaining this upper dam permanently but simply put it in as a protection for his main work while building, with the intention of removing it as soon as his main dam was completed. But the high water of two or three seasons about that time soon made it evident that they were at any time liable to be overwhelmed with more water than they had made provision for, and consequently the upper dam was allowed to remain.

Just previous to this time Stimpson had been overhauling the "old red mill" on the isthmus, and had just commenced business when the sudden and unparalleled rise in the lower lake so backed the water into his race that he claimed it materially affected the efficiency of his water power and presented a claim to Foster for damages. Foster did not acknowledge the validity of his claim, but rather than go into court at that time, he compromised with him. In addition to the money consideration, one of the conditions of this compromise was that the lower lakes should be drawn down to a certain point by the first day of September. A dry summer following the wet spring made this part of the stipulation possible; but this was only the commencement of the trouble.

As has been before stated, Stimpson in 1870 disposed of his mill on the isthmus to O. Compton, who overhauled it, putting in entirely new machinery. But his wheel was SO large and the head so low that it took a perfect flood of water to run it, and soon Spirit Lake began to draw down, while Okoboji was higher than ever. Compton now made his claim for damages by "backwater."