Otter Tail County Minnesota Genealogy MnGenWeb Eastern Township

Welcome to

Otter Tail County Minnesota

Eastern Township

 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 131N, Range 36W
First Settled 1870
Government survey 1871
Organized July 29, 1875

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 Eastern (township 131, range 36) was organized on July 29, 1875, on the petition of S. L. West and others, representing a majority of the legal voters of the said township. The first election was held at the house of S. L. West on the 16th of the following month.

This township was attached to Jasper [later Parkers Prairie] in response to a petition of the legal voters of that township to the commissioners dated January 4, 1870, which contained the following signatures: Henry Asselm, Henrick M. , J. Drayer, Charles J. Velden, Benjamin L. Pease, J. S. Hogen, H. H. Carpenter, August Benggvist, Charles Svenson, Andrew Hanson, Sven Carlson, Hans Anderson, John Svanman, John Hakenson, Amor Bacon, Horis Aatkinson, Byron Rathbust, Hamilton Hall, Peter Lindall, W. A. Rathbun, Peter Jensen, G. I. Lundquist, P. A. Lundquist, P. Nelsen, P. N. Lundquist, A. Lundquist, John G Nelson and John N. Nelson.

The petition for the creation of this township was not presented to the commissioners until five years after this first petition. It was dated at Parkers Prairie, July 19, 1875, and contained the following names: S. L. West, William Melugin, William Boath, J. J. Melugin, Thomas Knott, John Tanglen, Peter Hakinson, John Svanman, C. Nyman, S. Caltras, Joseph Livesnosh, A. Peterson, Phillip S. Ireland and C. Haugen.

This township is the extreme southeastern township of the county and its location sufficiently accounts for the name which was given it by the county commissioners. It has six lakes of good size, Annalaid, Mary, Long, Rich, South and North Maple. The northern part of the township drains into Wing river and the southern portion is crossed by Spruce creek, which leaves the county in section 33. There is much valuable farming land in the township, and with drainage much more land can be brought under successful cultivation.

This is one of the several townships in the county without railroad connections with the outside world and this fact in part accounts for the township having no village. Earlv in its history sawmills were established in the northwestern corner of section 13 and in the northern part of section 33. At the present time the sole industry of the people of the township is farming, and the well-improved farms to be found indicate that the pursuit of this time-honored occupation has been successful.

The present township officers are as follow: Supervisors, Hans Arvedson, Frank Fox and O. K. Hanson; clerk, A. C. Rosenquist; assessor, Oliver Williams; justice, Nels Benson; constables, J. E. Nelson and J. A. Peterson.

Population

Population totals in state and federal census summaries.

   Eastern
 1870  
 1875  
 1880  244
 1885  341
 1890  385
 1895  475
 1900  548
 1905  553
 1910  522
 1920  516
 1930  446
 1940  473
 1950  444
 1960  339
 1970  294

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

 Native (USA)  76   14%
 Minnesota  296   54%
 Foreign  181   33%
     Germany  10   6%
     Sweden  144   80%
     Norway  6   3%
     Canada  3   2%
     Ireland  2   1%
     Denmark  3   2%
     England  3   2%
     Poland  0   0%
     Finland  0   0%
     Russia  5   3%
     Scotland  2   1%
     Other  3   2%

Land Maps


Names



The following names have been extracted from original land records (by John Nelson) and Mason's History (by Karen Terry). Aatkinson , Horis ; Anderson , Andrew , Edward , Hans ; Andersson , Thufve , Truls ; Arvedson , Hans ; Arvidtson , Ole N ; Asselm , Henry ; Bacon , Amor ; Ball , George W ; Benggvist , August ; Benson , Nels ; Boath , William ; Booth , William ; Borggren , Ola A ; Burk , Marcus M ; Burroughs , Alfred W ; Caltras , S ; Carlson , Adolph , Sven ; Carpenter , HH ; Close , Gideon ; Cossentine , Frank B , George W , James , Rachel E ; Craig , Lorenzo V ; Drayer , J ; Fox , Frank ; Gibson , Loretta A ; Hakenson , John ; Hakinson , Peter ; Hall , Hamilton ; Hanson , Andrew , OK ; Haugen , C ; Herl , John ; Herman , Jons ; Hillberg , Andrew C ; Hine , Juliette E , Rolfe ; Hogen , JS ; Hokansson , Peter ; Hosmer , William D ; Hower , Levi ; Hultin , Gustaf ; Ireland , Phillip S ; Jensen , Peter ; Johnson , Andrew , Peter ; Kanada , Henry S ; Kanberg , P J ; Knott , Thomas ; Lindall , Peter ; Livesnosh , Joseph ; Ljungmark , Andrew ; Lundberg , Claus A , John , Mary ; Lundquist , A , GI , PA , PN ; Malmgren , Nils ; Mccallister , Nelson ; Melugin , JJ , Jonathan , William ; Mills , Horatio ; Montgomery , James , Richard L ; Nelsen , P ; Nelson , JE , John G , John N ; Nyman , C ; Olson , John A ; Pease , Benjamin L ; Person , Swen ; Peterson , A , Carl J , JA , Sven A ; Petersson , Johan ; Petterson , Per ; Pratt , Llewellyn ; Rathbun , WA ; Rathbust , Byron ; Roehm , George ; Rosenquist , AC ; Sanders , Jacob W ; Schneider , Edward ; Schroeder , David ; Shoborg , Elof ; Slepicka , Tomas ; Smith , Jacob ; Streeter , Thomas J ; Svanman , John ; Svenson , Charles ; Svensson , Sven ; Swanman , John ; Tanglen , John ; Taylor , John , Samuel ; Thompson , Hugh ; Tillotson , Oliver R ; Turner , David B ; Velden , Charles J ; West , SL ; Wilde , Alfred ; Williams , Oliver ; Wilson , Elam


Return to Otter Tail County Home Page