MORE TO THE STORY: McLeod County’s settler boom

McLeod County’s settler boom mirrored much of the region around it. Adventuresome people from the Eastern United States, hearing of the North Country and the seemingly limitless opportunity there, uprooted their lives, packed what possessions they had the means to carry, and made the journey west. Those who settled in McLeod County had their choice of three main voting precincts — Glencoe, Hutchinson and Lake Addie. All three communities had their own appeal, yet with Glencoe being the first to be settled, and acting as the county seat, many of the first settlers chose that community to lay their foundation.

In today’s sense, those first communities did little to resemble the “towns” they were plotted as. Clustered around the closest bodies of water, the county’s first three communities consisted of a handful of log cabins with straw-covered roofs. Near the cabins were stacks of hay, wood piles, covered wells, and maybe a split rail fence. The streets were merely trails that had been cut by ox carts and foot traffic.

Few women or children existed in the early settlements. It was common for the male of the household to travel to the settlement alone, make a claim, build a cabin, and sow some seed — only then, after the foundation of the home was made, would he send for his family to head to their new community. After a period of a year or two, more people came, and more homes were built.

Those first homes were crude in every sense of the word. Roofs were made of straw or bark, the home consisted of one room, and if you had the time and resources, you might have a floor made of rough cut boards — most were dirt. These pioneers lived mainly on salt pork and wild game until their first crop could be harvested.

After a period of a year or two, most of these early communities began to resemble a town. In Glencoe, by 1856, about 20 families were living in the town, and a hotel, “The Pioneer Hotel” was built with lumber. Likewise, in Hutchinson, L.N. Parker built a log tavern that could also lodge newcomers while they looked for a claim.

Outside of the “big three” communities, there were several other attempts at creating settlements with varying degrees of success. “Karns City” was a proposed settlement built on the shores of Lake Marion. Proprietors went so far as to clear some land, build a “hotel” and erect a log hut, yet nobody ever moved into the settlement, and it was a ghost town from the very start. North of Hutchinson was Cedar City (not to be confused with Cedar Mills) where several settlers did come together to form a community, yet it too was short-lived. Perhaps the most successful of the “lost communities” was Koniska, which attracted a good number of settlers who successfully built a community there. Unfortunately, the town eventually vanished as people moved to either Hutchinson or Glencoe to be closer to the rail lines.

The influx of settlers to the big three communities began to slow at the start of the American Civil War. Young men, rather than uprooting and moving their families west, chose instead to fill the ranks of the Union Army and fight the southern secessionists. Then, in 1862, the flow of settlers came to an abrupt halt as large factions of Dakota/Sioux began attacking settlers across the southern and central portion of the state. By the end of 1863, the war with Dakota had ended. Two years later, the Civil War ended with a Union victory — only then did the flow of settlers resume.

From about 1865-1870, a second wave of settlers began coming to the region and McLeod County’s big three began growing into fully fledged towns equipped with every trade and service needed at the time. Alas, the period of the settler traveling to the region in a covered wagon would cease as the railroads moved in and carried immigrants to the area by train. It was indeed an end of an era — one that I can say is one of the most enthralling in local history.