in 1877. It was afterward rebuilt, but it burned again in 1892, at a loss of $188,000. The mill is now the property of Staples, Atlee & Co., who have built the third mill.

cut by these mills has been 735,600,000 feet.

The gross amount

Mr. Hospes served as president of the First National Bank of Stillwater for twenty years. His active, energetic business methods had good influence in Stillwater.

The firm of Hersey, Staples & Hall, eastern capitalists, built a mill in the south part of Stillwater in 1854, which passed through several ownerships, with different firm names. Hersey & Bean are the present owners, and it is known as the Atwood mill. The amount, cut by this mill, in forty-four years, is 756,000,000 feet. Its loss by fire has been $5,000.

Isaac Staples, a native of Maine, came to Stillwater in 1853, as the agent for Hersey, Staples & Hall, who made large investments in pine lands, carrying on an extensive business. After a number of years of successful business, the property passed into the hands of Isaac Staples, a man of vigor, health, unlimited ambition, good judgment, and money sufficient to insure success in business. He did much to advance the interest of Stillwater. He died in 1898, aged eighty-two years.

The number of owners in the Hersey, Staples & Hall mill, from the time of its erection to the present, is too numerous to refer to. Those living are among the business men of Stillwater and elsewhere.

In 1850, a mill was built near the State Prison; it cut 3,000,000 feet.

McKusick, Anderson & Co., in 1869, erected a mill opposite to Stillwater, in Houlton, Wisconsin. The firm was composed of James Anderson, William McKusick, John G. Nelson, and Alexander Johnson. During the year 1888 the capacity of the mill was nearly doubled. The present firm is known as the East Side Lumber Company, composed of David Bronson, E. A. Folsom, Robert Slaughter, John G. Nelson, Alex. Johnson, and J. D. Bronson. The cut of this mill has been 500,000,000 feet. All the different proprietors who have been connected with this mill are so well known in the Valley as men possessing true and reliable character and business habits, that it will not be necessary to give individual notes.

In 1884, The Hershey Lumber Company, composed of Benjamin Hershey and others, built a mill at Oak Park Village, Stillwater. The gross amount cut by this mill up to 1899, has been 170,000,000 feet; its loss by fire, $2,500.

R. W. Turnbull, in 1886, built a mill in Oak Park at a cost of $70,000. The gross cut of this mill has been 275,000,000 feet.

In 1852, the first mill was built in South Stillwater, by a company composed of Socrates Nelson, David B. Loomis, and Daniel Mears. The gross cut by this mill has been 30,000,000 feet.

Socrates Nelson came from Massachusetts to Stillwater in 1844, where he opened the first store. He was territorial auditor in 1853, and was state senator in the second legislature. He donated to Washington county the block of land on which the court house stands. He was free and generous of disposition in all the relations of life.

The successors to the S. Nelson Lumber Co. were Torinus & Co., who rebuilt the mill in 1873, at a cost of $150,000, and assumed the name St. Croix Lumber Co. This mill became the head of various manufactories, with Louis Torinus and William Chalmers as operating members of the firm. In 1876, it sustained a loss by fire to the amount of $75,000, uninsured. The present operators of this mill are William Chalmers, G. S. Welchance, and Louis Torinus. Its cut, to 1899, has been 650,000,000 feet.

Louis Torinus, an active business man, was a Russian. He came to America in 1854, and to Stillwater in 1856. William Chalmers, the present manager of the firm, came to the Valley in 1854 from Canada. He is president of the firm. Mr. Torinus is vice president, and Mr. Welchance is secretary and treasurer.

In 1881, D. C. Gaslin and L. B. Castle built a mill in South Stillwater, which they operated for three years, cutting 18,000,000 feet. In 1884, this mill was rebuilt, at a cost of $70,000, by the South Stillwater Lumber Co., the firm consisting of Smith Ellison, David Tozer, A. T. Jenks, E. W. Durant, and R. J. Wheeler. Since that time the mill has passed through many changes. The cut of this mill to 1899 has been 200.000, 000 feet.

David Tozer, one of the proprietors, came from New Brunswick to the Valley in 1856. He is an active, cautious, and honorable man. Mr. Jenks, one of Stillwater's prompt business men, came to the Valley in 1855. Smith Ellison, of Illinois birth, came to the Valley in 1844. He was a member of the eighth Minnesota legislature, and is now a trustworthy citizen of Taylor's Falls. Edward W. Durant, born in Roxbury, Mass., in 1829, came to Stillwater in 1848. He represented Washington county in the fifteenth, seventeenth, and twenty-fourth legislatures; he has served as mayor of Stillwater often, and has filled many responsible positions with fidelity.

LAKELAND, AFTON, AND POINT DOUGLAS.

In 1857, Osgood & Andrews built a mill in Lakeland, which was soon after dismantled. Its gross cut was 10,000,000 feet.

In Lakeland in 1848, Moses Perin and Ballard & Reynolds each built a mill. The cut of these mills was 11,000,000 feet. Lakeland was first settled by French refugees from Fort Snelling reservation in 1838.

Stearns, Watson & Co. erected a mill in Lakeland at a cost of $45,000. This mill changed hands many times, finally passing to C. N. Nelson, who enlarged it at a cost of $50,000. It is now dismantled. Gross amount cut by this mill, 150,000,000 feet.

In 1886, Fall & McCoy built a mill in Lakeland, which cut about 155,000,000 feet; present proprietor, R. H. McCoy.

In 1854, a mill was built at St. Mary's; cut, 3,000,000 feet. Lowry & Co. built a mill in Afton, in 1850; Getchell & Co., in 1861, built a mill, which was afterward burned, loss, $3,000. In 1855, Thomas & Sons rebuilt the Lowry mill. Gross cut of these mills, 15,000,000 feet.

Lemuel Bolles, in 1846, built a flouring mill on Bolles creek in Afton, St. Croix county, and ground the first wheat raised north of Prairie du Chien. The wheat was raised by Joseph Haskell and Andrew Mackey, at Afton.

At Point Douglas, which was located and named by Levi Hertzell and Oscar Burris in 1839, Woodruff & Sons built a mill in 1851; but it was afterward removed to Prescott. Cut of this mill, 3,000,000 feet. A. J. Short built a mill in 1858,

which was burned at a loss of $6,000. The cut of this mill was about 20,000,000 feet.

David Hone, one of the original proprietors of the Marine mill, says that he built the first frame house in Minnesota, at Point Douglas, in 1843.

PRESCOTT, WISCONSIN.

Philander Prescott came to Fort Snelling in 1819, and, in conjunction with army officers, made a land claim where the city of Prescott now stands, on the Wisconsin side of the mouth of the St. Croix. He subsequently became sole owner, residing there and at Fort Snelling alternately, until he was killed by the Sioux Indians in 1862.

In 1856, mills were built at Prescott by Silverthorn & Dudley, Lowry & Co., and Todd & Hunter. Cut of these mills, 45,000,000 feet; loss of mills by fire, $10,000.

DISTRICT OF THE APPLE AND WILLOW RIVERS.

The first mill that was built on the Apple river, an eastern tributary of the St. Croix, was by Aaron M. Chase, at the outlet of Balsam lake, eight miles east of St. Croix Falls, in 1850. He had neither oxen nor horses, but he yoked himself with another man and hauled the timber for the mill, which has changed owners many times. It has cut about 15,000,000 feet. Mr. Chase has a varied history; prior to mill building, he was on the Mississippi river running towboats for eighty miles above St. Anthony Falls. There have been two mills on Balsam creek; gross cut, 12,000,000 feet.

An Indian entered one of the homes at Balsam Lake and demanded of the woman within, Mrs. Edward Worth, who was alone, admittance to the cellar, believing that there was whisky there. The woman was plucky and sternly refused him admittance. He attempted to raise the trap-door and force an entrance, but as he was passing down the stairs the woman shut the door upon his legs and jumped on it, holding him until assistance came.

Samuel Harriman, a native of Maine, came to the Valley in 1855, and was the founder of Somerset village on the Apple river, where he built and owned a sawmill. We first learn of him, in 1845, in California, mining and lumbering. He enlisted in the army in 1862, June 10th, in Company A of the

Thirtieth Wisconsin Regiment. In 1864, he was commissioned colonel of the Thirty-seventh Wisconsin, being afterward commissioned a general. He was a brave soldier, and a genial, kind-hearted gentleman. He was fond of a joke, even at his own expense. He informed the writer of this sketch that when he was mustered out of the service, he was addressed as General at Washington; on his way home, he was saluted as Colonel; when nearing Wisconsin, he was hailed as Major; in Wisconsin, as Captain; but when he met the boys, they greeted him with "Hello, Sam." He died in 1897 at Hot Springs, Arkansas.

In 1848-49, James Purinton, as the agent for a Boston company, built a mill and dam at the mouth of Willow river in North Hudson, at a cost of about $25,000. Both mill and dam were burned in 1862; loss, $15,000. The gross cut of the mill was about 35,000,000 feet.

In 1856, J. W. Peers built a mill in Hudson, which passed through many ownerships, being rebuilt in 1883 by H. A. Taylor, C. R. Coon, M. Herrick, and others, at a cost of $45,000. In 1889, the company was organized into the Hudson Sawmill Company. Gross cut during the first thirty-three years, 198,000,000 feet; during the last nine years, 108,000,000; total, 306,000,000. This mill had a loss by fire, in 1873, of $10,000. In 1899, it is a stock company with a capital of $55,000, composed of O. K. and J. T. Ingram, of Eau Claire, Wis., C. L. Chamberlain, of Minneapolis, Minn., A. E. Richard, of Mason, Wis., and G. P. De Long, of Hudson, Wis. There were four mills in Hudson, built in the 50's and 60's; their cut was about 20,000,000 feet.

Horace A. Taylor came to the Valley in 1850, from Norfolk, New Jersey; a man of enterprise and energy, quick perception, and ready wit. In 1881, he was appointed by President Garfield as consul at Marseilles, France.

In 1852, Joseph Bowron built a mill above Willow River Falls; cut, 6,000,000 feet. At the same place, in 1868, Charles Buckhart built a mill; cut, 10,000,000 feet.

The Lord Brothers, in 1872, built a mill in Glenmount, Wis., which changed hands a number of times, being remodeled by Pennington & Harper; gross cut, 175,000,000 feet. Mills on the Kinnikinic have cut 3,000,000 feet.