I am off to California for the summer. This blog will report my journey from Minneapolis to Pacific Grove and my travels this summer around California and other places.
No more office for the summer. The second floor corner
window with the half-drawn blind in my office.
I left home Sunday May 23rd at 1pm and after a quick stop to drop off my just completed final grading at the office I headed off essentially due west. Firstly through the suburbs of Minneapolis then across the farmland and prairie on US Highway 212 before dropping south just a little to follow Highway 19 to Redwood Falls. On through Marshall which is home to Southwest Minnesota State University then across the border into Lincoln County. I drove through the country seat of Ivanhoe, a fairly unique name for a very typical small Midwestern town of just 608 people.
Having seen the imposing county courthouse building I made reference in the notebook I carry beside me on my road trips to find out more about this town. You may ask why, no special reason other than I went to Lincoln University in New Zealand and I thought an American town named after a novel by a famous Scottish writer must be interesting. The following is edited from the city website at: http://www.co.lincoln.mn.us/History.htm
Lincoln County is located in the southwestern portion of Minnesota, and is bordered by Yellow Medicine County on the north, Lyon County on the east, Pipestone County on the south and South Dakota on the west. The county is rectangular in shape and extends 18 miles east and west and 30 miles north and south. It has a total area of 550 square miles.
Two early explorers, Joseph H. Nicollet and John C. Fremont, headed a group of scientists who crossed what would someday become Lincoln County in 1838. They were part of a US Government exploration of the region lying between the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. This land was the home to the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of the Sioux Native Americans – but they relinquished the title to a vast tract in Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota (including all of the future Lincoln County) to the government under terms of the 1851 treaties of Traverse De Sioux and Mendota. A few people settled near Lake Benton before the summer of 1862. Pioneer homes were built in scattered parts of the county in the late 1860's and early 1870's but development was slow as by 1875 there were only 413 white settlers in the county.
The intensely cold winters and blizzards, summer heat and drought, insect pests, crop failures, and poverty all combined to create an environment best suited for settlers from harsh climates. Throughout the county Icelandic, Danish, and Norwegian colonies were founded and their descendants still constitute a considerable element in the present population. The Icelandic group centered around a town first settled in 1878 called Ivanhoe – after the popular novel written by Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott.
Creating "Lincoln County"
Lincoln County, named after Abraham Lincoln, was created by the Minnesota Legislature on March 6, 1873 after a fairly complicated and drawn-out process to honor the assassinated president.
A patriotic Minnesota Legislature, desiring to honor Lincoln on his winning the presidency in 1861, sought to give his name to a county established from the northeastern part of the present Renville County. But this act failed to receive the necessary ratification by the people of the county. A second attempt to honor Lincoln came in March of 1866, when the State Legislature sought to change the name of Rock County to "Lincoln" County. This act was ignored by the people of Rock County. A third unsuccessful attempt came on February 12, 1870, on the anniversary of Lincoln's birth. Another effort was made to remove part of eastern Renville County and establish "Lincoln" County, but with different borders from the failed 1861 proposal – but once again, this failed to be ratified by the local people. Finally, in 1873, Lincoln County was successfully created out of the western part of Lyon County, and this time it won wide support from voters. Counties have been named for Abraham Lincoln can be found in fifteen other states.
The Battle for the County Seat
Every county needs a county seat, a city which serves as the seat of government for the county. That fortunate community becomes the focal point of the county and is where the Courthouse is located. In the early days, being the county seat held out the potential for healthy growth and economic development; it is no wonder, then, that the location of the county seat can grow into a major controversy, as was the case in Lincoln County.
The first county seat was at "Marshfield," a community platted in 1873. However, when the towns of Tyler and Lake Benton began to develop due to their location on the railroad line, several buildings were moved from Marshfield to each of those other cities. By the close of the winter of 1880-81, business had almost ceased at the Marshfield county seat. Today only a few abandoned buildings remain of "Marshfield." Seeing the demise of Marshfield, the people of Lake Benton petitioned for the removal of the county seat to their village. At a county-wide election in 1881, a slim majority of just nine votes favored relocating the county seat to Lake Benton. This narrow victory was immediately (but unsuccessfully) contested in the District Court. With the legal challenge having been dismissed in 1883, the county seat was (for a time, at least) firmly established at Lake Benton.
By 1900 the continued steady growth of the city of Ivanhoe resulted in a petition to the County Commissioners for a special election in 1901, calling for the county seat to be moved to Ivanhoe. The measure was passed, but the validity of the election was challenged. A legal appeal which eventually led up to the State Supreme Court found that the election was void because the County Auditor had failed to follow establish election procedures. On August 5, 1904, yet another election was held on the petition to move the county seat. Out of the 2,274 votes case, the majority of 1,310 were in favor of moving the county seat to Ivanhoe, where it has remained ever since.
Building a Courthouse
Lincoln County began its history without a "home," that is, without a formal courthouse building to house the local government. The first meeting of the County Commissioners was held at the home of M. S. Phillips in Marshfield. Later meeting were held in a store building. The County officials had their offices in various homes and stores in Marshfield until 1881, when they moved their official headquarters to the town of Lake Benton. The railroad company had donated a courthouse site and the citizens of Lake Benton provided a courthouse building, which was later enlarged and improved. Then began the "Battle for the County Seat."
In 1901, after the voters had approved moving the county seat to Ivanhoe, the county accepted a donation of a courthouse site from landowners in that community. The legal challenges to the location of the county seat delayed construction of a courthouse building until 1903, when a contract was let for building a combined jail and sheriff's residence in Ivanhoe, to be financed by an appropriation of $17,000 from accumulated tax levies. However, later that year the Minnesota Supreme Court declared that Lake Benton, not Ivanhoe, was the county seat. Switching gears, the county decided that the old courthouse in Lake Benton should be repaired.
The election of 1904 finally located the county seat in Ivanhoe and, with that decision made, plans moved forward for final construction of a new courthouse. A contract for construction of the facility in Ivanhoe was let in 1919 at a cost of $143,200. Subsequent contracts were awarded for heating, ventilating, plumbing, electric lighting, interior marble finishing, furniture, and interior oil murals. The three-story courthouse which stands today is a structure of 108 feet x 75 feet, built of Bedford granite. Construction was completed in 1920. Today the courthouse still serves as the primary administrative building for the county which is home to 6,480 people.
What a fascinating history for one little town. This is one of the reasons I love to travel. It is so easy to blow through towns (or more often, by-pass them all together by traveling on Interstate Freeways) yet, each place has its own story to tell.
Continuing west for the next ten miles the countryside was filled with wind turbines for as far as I could see. This was part of the massive Buffalo Ridge Wind Farm which is home to over 200 massive turbines generating clean re-newable energy. Then a road sign encouraging me to "visit again" signaled I was leaving Minnesota.
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