Stevens County

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• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9780738540825
• eBook ISBN: 9781439633090
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

The land area that came to be known as Stevens County was ceded to the United States government by the Dakota Indians in the treaty of the Traverse des Sioux in 1851. Government and railroad exploration parties, Red River Trail oxcarts, and pioneers and missionaries had come through the area long before it was officially ceded or settled. After the Dakota uprising of 1862, the United States government made the decision to put a fort in Dakota Territory. In 1864, Fort Wadsworth, later called Fort Sisseton, was built. Mule teams with supplies for soldiers and Native Americans, and pioneers began traveling in greater numbers across the tallgrass prairies of Stevens County from St. Cloud and into Dakota Territory. Pioneers from many different countries settled in Stevens County to break up the prairie sod and plant wheat and tree claims on their homesteaded land. Grasshoppers, prairie fires, and blizzards tested their determination, but the hardy ones survived to provide for their childrens education, organize local governments, and build homes, churches, and businesses.

Seven

FAMILY LIFE AND LEISURE

Before the days of the modern funeral home, it was common practice to keep the casket carrying the deceased at the family home until the funeral. It was also a common practice to conduct the funeral at the family home. Flowers were sent to the home and displayed there along with a portrait of the deceased. Portrayed here is the casket of Samuel Larson, pioneer Stevens County businessman.

Members of the Rollin Hall family of Morris Township are shown here out for a tour of Stevens County with a horse and buggy and bicycle on July 7, 1901.

Veterinarian George E. Maughan of rural Morris and his family are pictured here at the “Big Slough.” Dr. Maughan came to Stevens County in 1879. Seen in this picture are George E. Maughan (the man with gun); Robert Colyer and an unidentified person (in the back seat of buggy); and Martha Louise (Colyer) Maughan, wife of George E. Maughan, and daughters Louise and Kathryn (in front seat of buggy).

Thomas and Georgine Thomasson listen to their youngest child, Tilda Jannett, age 14, playing the piano in their Morris home. This photograph was taken on a Sunday afternoon in 1899 and sent to their son Hilfred Thomasson, who was serving in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, during the Spanish American War.

An unknown group of women and children are shown wading across a stream near Hancock. The photograph was taken around 1900.

Three Hancock women at leisure read by bicycles near a tent in 1895.

The Brisbane family delights in skating near the Walter Brisbane farm in 1913. Seen here are, from left to right, Beatrice Brisbane (daughter of Aldis and Bessie Brisbane) and Lester and Gladys Brisbane (children of Walter Brisbane). Walter Brisbane farmed in section 10 of Framnas Township in Stevens County.

Prairie chickens were numerous in pioneer days and were the main course at many home and church suppers, as well as providing sport for visitors. Early train crews even stopped the train to shoot a few chickens. Bags of 50 to 100 were common. The Dakota Native Americans who lived, traveled, and buried their dead throughout Stevens County before and after the settlers came, knew the area that became Morris as “the place where they hang the chickens.”

This image of hunters and their dog was captured on Jack O’Brien’s farm. The O’Brien family came to Stevens County in 1879 and settled on a farm in Stevens Township. Jack O’Brien and his brother moved to Morris in 1920. O’Brien owned a big Ford trimotor plane and was killed when the plane crashed in 19...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• One - AGRICULTURE
• Two - ARTS AND CULTURE
• Three - BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY
• Four - CHURCHES
• Five - EARLY SETTLERS AND HOMES
• Six - EDUCATION
• Seven - FAMILY LIFE AND LEISURE
• Eight - MAIN STREET
• Nine - TRANSPORTATION
• Ten - WEATHER