Birth of a New Town
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Anders R. Kilen, an early Jackson County pioneer who had homesteaded in Belmont Township in 1867, was a young man very interested in the growth and development of Jackson County. Mr. Kilen felt that a tract of land within the southwest quarter of section 33, Heron Lake Township, would make an excellent location for a town. The area chosen by Anders Kilen for a town site was higher in elevation than the surrounding area and the land here was well drained on all sides. For many years the earliest trappers who passed through the area had known of this beautiful piece of ground called “The First Mound” by the Indians. The lakes in the area were abundant in fish and waterfowl which provided early residents a source of food. There were also many muskrats to be trapped for fur. Heron Lake, just a mile and a half away, was famous as a hunters’ paradise and was the site of considerable market hunting for several years. Anders Kilen had visions of a town being located on this tract of land. Not knowing who owned the land, he took action to locate the owner. First, he walked to Jackson, the county seat, consulted the records and learned in whose name the 80-acre tract was assessed. He then walked to Windom and took a train to St. Paul where he located the owner of the land and returned home with the deed in his pocket. He had purchased the original site of the town of Lakefield from The St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad Company for $420. The date was July 1, 1879. Mr. Kilen then met with officials of the Southern Minnesota Railroad (later known as the Milwaukee Railroad) and agreement was reached for a side-track on the land. Finally, he hired James E. Palmer to survey and plat the new town site, and by August of 1879 there was much interest and excitement about the new town born on the prairie. For a time the people in the area called the new town Bethania. However, on September 5, 1879, Anders R. Kilen, the town founder and proprietor, dedicated the new town and called it Lakefield.
Thus the town of Lakefield was born. A train depot was built and train service began on November 3, 1879, less than two months after the town’s christening. Within a year a hotel, a post office, two hardware stores, a lumber yard, a saloon, several grocery stores and several grain dealers had sprung up to serve the people of the surrounding area.
In 1884, a resident of Jackson wrote, “A few hours spent by the writer in Lakefield this week convinced him that Jackson’s sister village is up to the times. New buildings are going up, a large acreage of prairie turf is being reduced to a state of cultivation nearby and prosperity prevails. Within the past year Lakefield has seen a newspaper, a creamery, a hardware store, a drug store and doctor ‘spring up in her midst.’”
Since its very beginning, Lakefield has been and still is dependent upon its area agriculture. This is its industry. It is located in the exact geographical center of Jackson County and has some of the best agricultural land in the nation. Some of the crops that have been grown here over the years include flax, corn, oats, barley and soybeans. In addition, production of swine, beef, lambs, eggs and dairy products have also met with great success.
Regional History
During the first half of the nineteenth century, the entire southern part of Minnesota was still inhabited by tribes of the Sioux Indians. What is now Jackson County was the domain of the Lower Sisseton Sioux Tribe until 1851 when the territorial governor of Minnesota, Alexander Ramsey, was commissioned by President Fillmore to negotiate a treaty with the Sioux Nation for the area. A treaty was signed at Traverse Des Sioux near St. Peter, Minnesota on July 23, 1851 which ceded 23,750,000 acres to the U.S. government at a price of $2,968,750. This treaty officially opened up the area to white settlement.
In 1856 the first Jackson County settlement was established by William, George and Charles Wood, merchants and Indian traders. They established a store and brought with them to the area about 40 settlers who built homes along the Des Moines River. This first settlement was named Springfield, later to be called Jackson. In March of the following year, a part of the Great Sioux Uprising under renegade Sioux Indian Inkpaduta attacked the small new community of Springfield. Six people were killed and three wounded. Some of the settlers fled, never to return again. On May 23, 1857, Springfield changed its name to Jackson and the legislature of the Minnesota Territory created the political division known as Jackson County and designated the town of Jackson as the seat of county government. Jackson County was named in honor of Henry Jackson, the first merchant in St. Paul. The first permanent rural settlement in Jackson County was made by Norwegian immigrants in 1857 in an area about seven miles northwest of Jackson along the Des Moines River in what is now Belmont Township. In June of 1862, this settlement was attacked by a band of Sioux Indians under the leadership of White Lodge who slaughtered thirteen men, women and children. This phase of the Great Sioux Uprising was known as the Belmont Massacre. The panic-stricken settlers who escaped joined with the settlers living along the river and those at Jackson, and they fled from Jackson County. Some went to the more populated areas of Iowa and Eastern Minnesota. Some went to make temporary homes in Estherville and Spirit Lake, Iowa. Those in charge of the county government at Jackson fled as well and most of the records were lost or destroyed. For two years following the Belmont Massacre, there were no white people living in Jackson County. In June of 1864, however, the people in Spirit Lake and Estherville who had fled took courage and gradually returned to their homes in Belmont and Jackson. Determined that they would never again be driven from their homes, the settlers at Belmont completed a plan they had made two years earlier. They built a stockade in Belmont Township. This stockade built as protection against possible Indian attack became known as Fort Belmont. By 1864 the Great Sioux Uprising in Minnesota had subsided and from that date on settlers began flowing into the area, taking up homesteads; building homes, churches and schools; working to develop the land; and engaging in business enterprises of all kinds. These first settlers were primarily of Norwegian, German, Slovak, Bohemian and later Swedish descent.
Timeline
- September 5, 1879 – The new town of Lakefield is dedicated.
- November 11, 1879 – Railroad service begins at the Lakefield Station.
- 1879 – John Kilen, brother to the founder, and his wife Bertha, open the first hotel.
- 1879 – First grain dealer in town is Bonner and Hyde.
- 1879 – The first general merchandise store is Chesterson Bros.
- 1879 – First lumber yard opens in Lakefield.
- 1879 or 1880 – Larud, Morland and Co. open their doors as the first hardware store.
- April, 1880 – M.A. Foss becomes the first postmaster, post office probably located in his general store.
- 1880 – Barney Foelinger opens the first recreation parlor (saloon) in Lakefield.
- 1881 – First school house is built.
- 1882 – G.A. Stanton opens a greenhouse.
- 1883 – The first livery and harness shop is opened by A. Hohenstein.
- November 30, 1883 – Carl S. Eastwood founds the first newspaper known as the “Minnesota Citizen.” In 1886, the name of the paper is changed to the “Lakefield Standard.”
- February 12, 1884 – Lakefield’s first fire destroys the train depot.
- 1884 – H.J. Hollister opens the first pharmacy and Dr. W.W. Heffelfinger opens a physician’s office inside the store.
- 1886 – F.B. White opens the first barber shop.
- October 1887 – John Anderson is elected to be the first constable of Lakefield with R. Pietz as assistant.
- 1887 – First coal dealer opens in Lakefield.
- 1887 – Tilda Hamerstad opens the first millinery (hat shop).
- April 3, 1888 – S.D. Sumner is appointed marshal.
- 1888 – A.A. Fosness and W.D. Hill open the first feed and flour mill called Globe Milling Co.
- 1889 – Dr. A.N. Cheney opens Lakefield’s first dentist office.
- 1889 – The Model Clothing and Shoe House is the first clothing store.
- 1890 – A town well is dug on the west side of Main Street toward the north end of the street.
- 1897 – The Lakefield High School Building is built.
- May 20, 1899 – Citizens State Bank of Lakefield opens. Its name is changed to First National Bank in 1902.
- 1899-1900 – Electricity comes to Lakefield as well as the first telephones.
- December 1, 1900 – A fire destroys Dubetz Mercantile Co., two Schumacher stores, Jacob Kalf’s saloon and the Hoass tailor shop. It is finally put out by bucket brigades but damages are estimated at $19,950.
- October 1902 – Lakefield’s volunteer fire department is organized.
- July 25, 1904 – A fire consumes Otto Brothers General Store along with $18,000 worth of stock.
- October 1907 – First bowling alley and shooting gallery opens for business.
- 1908 – Lakefield Tile and Drainage Co. is formed.
- 1910 – The Scenic Theatre is opened by George Werner.
- 1913 – Sucker and Kuhnau Bros. becomes the first garage and car dealership in town.
Cost of a Ford is $345.
- 1914 – Lafot’s Restaurant becomes the first cafe in Lakefield.
- 1915 – Water tower is erected.
- 1916 – Truman Smith opens Home Bakery, the first bakery in town.
- 1916 – L.S. Hildreth opens the first jewelry store in Lakefield.
- 1918 – Eva L. Young opens the first beauty shop.
- 1920 – The first tar pavement is laid on Main Street.
- 1922 – The first service station is opened by George Welker and Ed Kilen.
- 1924 – The Lyric Theatre is opened by P.W. Ashley.
- July 29, 1926 – The first golf course is cultivated four miles south of Lakefield.
- 1928 – C.B. Rognes opens the first furniture store.
- 1929 – An airport is completed just west of Lakefield on the Krueger farm.
- 1931 – The first concrete pavement is laid on Main Street.
- 1949 – 172 acres of land along the Des Moines River is purchased from Agil Kilen to create Kilen Woods State Park.
- 1950 – Lakefield Clinic and Lakefield Municipal Hospital open their doors.
- 1958 – Pleasantview Elementary School opens for use.
- 1959 – After an attempt to organize a county library is voted down, Mrs. H.L. Bond and a handful of other residents organize the Lakefield Public Library in the city hall. Initially, it is staffed by volunteers and all books are donated. This continues until 1977 when a county library is finally established.
- 1962-1963 – The Lakefield American Legion raises funds and builds a community swimming pool.
- 1966 – Lester Tordsen is appointed chief of police with a salary of $400 per month. Arnold Kilen is his assistant and Delmar Olsen is patrolman.
- 1967 – Community Point, which had been a recreation area and the main public access to Heron Lake throughout Lakefield’s history, is added to the Jackson County Park System.
- 1968 – Colonial Manor opens its doors.
- 1971 – 24 acres of land on the western shore of South Heron Lake is purchased from the Charles Laybourn family to create Sandy Point Park.
- 1977 – Northridge Golf and Country Club is built on the north edge of Lakefield.
- July 2007 – The swimming pool is closed for construction. The pool reopens the following spring as the Lakefield Family Aquatic Center.
*All content compiled by Katie Earhart from Lakefield’s First 100 Years by Astor Kilen
*For more information on the history of the city and surrounding community, visit the Jackson County Historical Society onHighway 86 in Lakefield, MN.