Agenda - Public Works Committee - 03/20/2018

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floated and were worked along by a crew of men called river drivers to Anoka, on the Rum, and Minneapolis, where saw mills were located. Logging and river driving gave employment to the male population of Anoka and Ramsey for many years. There was very little education for most people these days. They were too busy doing the work necessary to bring them something to eat. School terms were short. The teacher boarded around. There were no scratch tablets, slates were used and there were no books except those possessed by the teacher, and she was expected to possess these as a necessary qualification. On account of absence of machinery so much hand work was necessary to raise a living by farming that very little time was left to go to school. In these days ministers of the Gospel traveled, usually on horseback, and boarded with those upon whom he called. Some of the early settlers were Lewis Carpenter, Mrs. Dayton, F. J. Edgartons, Alfred Bryant, Penn Shumways, Alfred Foster, C. Pitman, Majors, W. B. Wilson, A. J. Smith, James Collins, Michael Nugent, R. B. Porter, Rufus Downs, Zelotus Downes, Isaac Varney, Rices, and Mr. and Mrs. John C. Bowers. The Bowers first lived at and kept the hotel where James Collins liver) later on. They later moved to the place now known as the Bowers' farm, keeping a store for a time. Mr. Bowers passed away in October, '79 and Mrs. Bowers and their son, Charles, moved to Anoka about two years later. The Bowers, Lewis Carpenter, Penn Shumway, Alfred Foster, Isaac Varney, Majors and R. B. Porter families all came to Ramsey about the same time, between the years 1850 to 52 and 53. The land for the first cemetery in Ramsey was deeded to the Town of Ramsey by Alfred Foster in November of 1865. C. Pitman and Joseph Trott were witnesses - H. W. Tilden was Justice of the Peace and this deed is on record. This H. W. Tilden owned the old Tilden farm, and was father of Freeman Tilden, on whose farm Mr. and Mrs. Sherwin Schenk now live. J. W. Wilson married Ida Edgarton, daughter of F. J. Edgarton in 1880, and they purchased the farm north of the railroad known as the Fred Huebner farm. The new land was partly prairie where they built their house. The house still stands, though remodeled some. In 1883 a son was born, Henry H. Wilson. In 1892 they moved io what was then the David Bryant home, where John and Ida Wilson lived, until Henry grew up, attended school and the University of Agriculture, before he married Myrtle Hall, and they followed in possession of this home forty years. In 1910, John Wilson purchased a house from the Kings and went to live there. J. W. Began on very little and added to it by preserving an enduring interest that brought him success and comfort in his declining years. 54