Otter Tail County Minnesota Genealogy MnGenWeb Elizabeth Township & Elizabeth Village

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Otter Tail County Minnesota

Elizabeth Twp & Elizabeth Village

 HISTORY
 POPULATION

 LAND MAPS

 NAMES

 


From Trygg Historical Maps, Trygg Land Office, Ely, MN www.trygglandoffice.com/maps.html
b=bottom land, m=marsh, p=prairie, s=swamp

 Basic Facts:

Township 134N, Range 43W
Government survey 18??
First Settled 18??
Organized September 5, 1870

History

[Copied by Lory Brasel, [email protected], from the book "History of Otter Tail County" Volume I - 1916 by John W. Mason]

The township of Elizabeth (township 134, range 43) was organized September 5, 1870. The first meeting was held at R. Niggler's store, Sep tember 24, 1870. The petition for the erection of this township, dated June 20, 1870, contained the following signatures: Rudolph Niggler, Lorenzo B. Peirce, Alson A. Peirce, E. A. Evans, John Grows, Charles D. Keck, G. Spindler, Edward Burau, Louis Candaux, Carl Gustav Wagner, Rugler Zim merman, August Burau, Jacob Frey, Thomas White, Herman Zimmerman, Henry Teuss, Peter Knold, Alex E. Erhard, Adolph Niggler and Erwin W. Sims. The township was named in honor of the wife of Rudolph Niggler.

The territory lying within the Pelican river valley was one of the first a sections in the country to be settled, and the first settlers of Elizabeth town ship date from the early organization of the county. No better farming land is to be found than lies in this township, while its proximity to the county seat has always had a tendency to give land a higher value than land in the more remote townships of the county. The largest lakes are Jewett, Long, Devil, Mason, Zimmerman, Reed and Helen, while a number of smaller bodies of water are scattered over the township. The whole township drains into the Pelican river, which runs south through the township along the western side.

The Pelican Rapids branch of the Northern Pacific passes through the township from north to south and affords easy communication with the outside world. This road was built in the early eighties. As a matter of fact, the township has had two railroads in its history, although the other one had only a brief career. The Great Northern built a branch from the village of Carlisle to Elizabeth and paralleled the Northern Pacific with its track to Pelican Rapids, but before the rails were laid it disposed of its right of way to its rival. The grade is now used in places as a highway. The history of these two roads is given in the chapter on railroads elsewhere in this volume.

The only village of any importance is Elizabeth, and it dates back more than forty years. A summer resort, known as Lake Mason, located on the northern side of the lake of the same name has been platted. Elizabeth.

The village of Elizabeth, located in section 31, of the township bearing the same name, was platted in 1872 for Herman and Marie Burau. The plat was recorded September 19, 1872. The village was granted the right of incorporation by the district judge, L. W. Collins, on November 21, 1884. The incorporation included two hundred acres. The judge named Peter Maurin, M. H. Iltis and Peter N. Smith to give notice of the first election for village officials.

Elizabeth has all of the various business enterprises usually found in a good rural villages, and boasts of general stores, an implement dealer, cream ery, blacksmith shop, confectionery store, lumber yard, elevator, flour mill, bank and one of the most substantially built garages in the western part of the state. A large amount of live stock is marketed here and thousands of bushels of small grain are handled annually by the Maurin elevator and the Pelican River flour mills. The religious life of the community is well taken care of by three churches, the oldest being St. Elizabeth's Catholic church. The other denominations are the Swedish Lutheran and the St. John's Evangelical Lutheran churches. All three have flourishing congregations, excellent church buildings and parsonages. The German Evangelical church also has a good parochial school building. The two-story brick. public school building was erected in 1905.

The present village officials are as follows: President, Henry F. Maurin; councilmen, Frank Grouws, A. Marquard and Fred Wilde, Sr.; clerk, J. C. Rian; treasurer, Fred Wilde, Jr.; assessor, C. S. Bell; justices, C. S. Bell and L. D. Barcalow; constables, Fred Wilde, Jr., and Walter Wilde.

Population

Population totals in state and federal census summaries.

   Elizabeth  Elizabeth Village
 1870    
 1875  378  
 1880  577  
 1885  615  163
 1890  744  135
 1895  760  151
 1900  718  186
 1905  685  167
 1910  598  168
 1920  534  204
 1930  572  164
 1940  475  176
 1950  536  
 1960  416  
 1970  332  

Places of birth for Elizabeth Township in the 1905 state census.

 Native (USA)  67   10%
 Minnesota  430   63%
 Foreign  238   35%
     Germany  105   44%
     Sweden  88   37%
     Norway  41   17%
     Canada  1   0%
     Ireland  0   0%
     Denmark  0   0%
     England  1   0%
     Poland  0   0%
     Finland  0   0%
     Russia  0   0%
     Scotland  0   0%
     Other  2   1%

Land Maps


Names



The following names have been extracted from original land records (by John Nelson) and Mason's History (by Karen Terry). Ahlgren , Maria ; Altner , Gustav ; Anderson , Ole ; Barcalow , LD ; Beckman , Jans S ; Bell , CS ; Bergland , John ; Borgersrode , Rudolph V ; Bruesewitz , William ; Bur , Nicholas ; Burau , August , Edward , Herman , Marie ; Candaux , Frank , Lewis , Louis ; Carlson , Carl J ; Chaffee , Jacob W ; Chapin , Daniel , William B ; Cheldelin , Olof P ; Claas , August ; Collins , LW ; Colosky , Anthony ; Danielsson , Johan G ; Diederich , John ; Dohrer , Charli ; Downing , Rosetta ; Dreger , William ; Ecke , Anton ; Erhard , Alex E ; Evans , EA , George W ; Fick , John ; Finley , Edgar ; Frantschi , John ; Frey , Jacob ; Freytag , Johann ; Fridland , Carl G ; Gott , Wignall ; Greeney , Charles E ; Grouws , Frank , John ; Grows , John ; Grunewald , August , Fredrick J ; Hanes , Adolphus G ; Hansel , Ernst ; Hanson , Christian F ; Harbig , Alois , Anna ; Harwarth , August , Theodor ; Hinton , George W ; Holt , John ; Homann , Simon ; Huff , Theodore A ; Hurd , Charles E ; Iltis , MH ; Johanson , Adolf F ; Johnsen , Peder ; Johnson , Jonas P ; Johonson , Carl F ; Kackmann , Peter ; Kankel , Otto ; Keck , Charles D ; Knobel , Henry ; Knobell , Martin ; Knold , Peter ; Koehnlein , Charles ; Kretzschmar , Carl ; Ladwig , Wilhelm ; Lametterey , Louis ; Larsen , Daniel ; Lill , Joseph ; Lokker , Peder P ; Lubke , Gottfried ; Marquard , A , Carl ; Maurin , Henry F , Peter ; Meberg , Samuel , Samuel A , Signe ; Mobroten , Julius ; Mock , George A ; Munz , Emil , Jacob ; Neumann , Ferdinand ; Niggler , Adolph , R , Rudolf , Rudolph ; Norgren , Andrew , John ; Nygren , Swen O ; Olsen , Lars ; Ostrum , Oluf ; Pederson , Andrew ; Peirce , Alson A , Lorenzo B ; Persy , Carl H ; Peterson , Peter ; Rian , JC ; Robertson , Thomas ; Ross , Samuel H ; Schacht , August , Fredreck ; Schroeder , Bernhard ; Schwab , Jacob ; Seuss , Henry ; Sims , Erwin W ; Smith , Peter N ; Sotzer , Elizabeth ; Spies , Anna E , Christian ; Spilman , Peter ; Spindler , G ; Stahl , Christina ; Stenstrom , Lorentz P ; Stoessiger , Julius T ; Stohl , Christian ; Strohschein , Otto ; Stukkel , Mathias ; Sullivan , Daniel ; Teuss , Henry ; Thom , August ; Tobaben , Claus , Hein ; Vollmers , Julie ; Wagner , Carl G , Carl Gustav ; Wahlgren , Per M ; Wallnofer , Kasper ; Weldin , Dayton E ; White , Thomas ; Wikstrom , Nils ; Wilde , Fred Jr , Fred Sr , Walter ; Williams , Isaiah ; Zimmerman , Abraham , Casper , Herman , Rugler ; Zimmermann , Casper , Fredolin , Thomas


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