Dassel, Minnesota<\/h3>
DASSEL\nIn 1868, some men from the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad were looking for land. They had chosen a route west from the Twin Cities that went right through a village named Collinwood. But the people in that village didn't want to give up or sell the land that the railroad needed for its rails, crossings, depot, etc. In frustration, the railroad men left town, redrew their route map, and moved one mile north. There they found the settlers in a place called Swan Lake more than eager to sell the land that the railroad needed. (Swan Lake Township was originally a part of Kingston and was named after a lake in the township. The first settlers were men by the names of Ayres and Richardson in 1856. They were surveyors from Mexico, New York. They left in 1862 during the Sioux Uprising and the Indians burned their cabin. After the Indian War, Isaac N. and Antone W. Russel came in 1864 or 1865. Soon a group from Kentucky came. The township became the town of Dassel.) The railroad platted out a new village in 1869, naming it Dassel, after one of their own employees, Bernard Dassel, a paymaster for the railroad, who came from a village named Dassel in the province of Einbeck, Germany. Bernard was a friend of railroad magnate James J. Hill and Hill gave Bernard the job of secretary of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, with a salary of $1800 a year. Parker Simons, a civil engineer for the railroad, put up the first frame building in Dassel. Bernard Dassel was put in charge of the pay car that was pulled by the Wm. Crooks Engine No. 1, which made a visit every month to Dassel with the cash for its workers. The station agent at the depot was Charles J. Atwater (who also had a town named after him), who was also postmaster with the new post office situated in the depot. When the post office was opened, it made the name Dassel official, by the way, and Dassel, with its 302 inhabitants, was incorporated as a village on March 4. 1878. The depot was on the north side of the main track until 1883, when it was moved over to the south side.\n<\/p>
Most of the early settlers of Dassel came from Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, and Sweden, especially from Vastergotland and Varmland. Adam Brower was living in Indiana when he enlisted in the Union Army in April 1861. He fought in battles at Winchester, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Cumberland, Resaca, and Altoona, where he was wounded and laid up in the hospital for a few weeks. He was taken prisoner by the Confederates in the battle of Winchester on May 25, 1862, and was kept by them until September 20, when he was exchanged for another prisoner. In February 1867, he came to Meeker County and purchased a place near Swan Lake (Dassel). For the first three years, he did brick making in the village, but then he started farming. Harlow F. Ames came to the township, with his brother Henry, in January 1868, and they settled on the farm their father, Harlow, Sr., who had bought the land in absentee. The brothers stayed there until 1869 when their parents came to claim their land. Harlow F. got his own claim and Henry moved between Darwin and Litchfield where he started his famous brickyard, the bricks of which built downtown Litchfield.\n<\/p>
George Maynard came in May 1866. He cast the first vote to incorporate the village in 1878. Andrew Davidson came to Meeker County on July 4, 1866. He drove the entire distance from Columbia County, Wisconsin with an ox team, bringing his family with him in a covered wagon. Upon his arrival, he took up a homestead of eighty acres of land on section 14. In 1866, James P. Davis came to Meeker County and took up a claim early in July on section 10. He built up his farm while working at the same time for the railroad. The next fall, he worked in the Forest City grist mill. In 1868, he helped clear the site of the village, chopping down trees, making cordwood, etc. Also in 1866, Frederick Spath came and took up a homestead of eighty acres of land in section 10, where his family lived for nine years. He worked for a while on the construction of the railroad, and on the laying out of the village of Dassel. He opened a blacksmith shop and his family moved into the town in 1875, where, on April 1, 1881, he turned the business over to his son, P. F. Spath, and then moved back to his farm. On the organization of the town in 1867, Frederick was appointed one of the town supervisors, and the following year as chairman of the board. He was also one of the first village trustees and held that office for three years consecutively.\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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