GHENT, LYON COUNTY, MINNESOTA
Minnesota is genoemd naar de grootste rivier die geheel binnen haar grenzen ligt, met
uitzondering van de bronnen ten noorden van Big Stone Lake: die liggen in Zuid Dakota.
Gedurende 150 jaar, tot de oprichting van de Minnesota Territory in 1849, wordt deze rivier door
Franse en Engelse ontdekkingsreizigers en schrijvers in het algemeen resp. St. Pierre of St. Peter
genoemd.
Op 6 maart 1852 stuurt het regionale bestuur een brief naar de president van de Verenigde
Staten met het verzoek dat de verschillende overheidsdiensten in het vervolg alleen de
oorspronkelijke naam voor deze rivier te gebruiken, net als voor het gebied.
Op 19 juni van dat jaar wordt door het Congress bij wet conform besloten.
Minnesota wordt de 32e staat van de Verenigde Staten op 11 mei 1858.
Minnesota Minnesota Counties (Lyon county in rood aangegeven.)
LYON COUNTY
Deze county, opgericht met twee wetgevingsbesluiten op 6 maart 1868 en 2 maart 1869, is
genoemd naar Generaal Nathaniel Lyon, geboren in Ashford, Conneticut op 14 juli 1818 en
gesneuveld in de slag van Wilson’s Creek op maandag 10 augustus 1861.
GHENT
Een stad in sectie 15 van Grandview, in juni 1878 in kaart gebracht door Winona and St. Peter
Spoorwegmij. en in bezit genomen op 15 mei 1899. In eerste instantie heet de stad Grandview,
maar wordt omgedoopt in Ghent in september 1881, naar de oude stad Gent in België, ter ere
van de Belgische kolonisten die kwamen in 1880-1881. Zij werden door bisschop John Ireland
gestimuleerd om zich te vestigen in dit deel van de provincie.
Het postkantoor werd opgericht als Grandview in 1874; maar in 1882 wordt ook deze naam op
verzoek van de bewoners veranderd in Ghent, net als de naam van het station.
South Dakota
De kadastrale kaart van Grandview uit 1878 toont de verdeling van het gebied in vierkante
secties van ongeveer 1 mijl bij 1 mijl. De nummers van de secties staan in het midden van
iedere sectie.
Volgens Arthur P. Rose woont William Bot op het zuidelijke deel van sectie 11 (ten noordoosten
van Ghent), nadat hij dat land heeft gekocht van B.F. Jellison in 1866.
Willem Bot is de broer van Catharina Hero Bot (echtgenote van Jacobus Tjaarts Alma), zoals we
hebben gezien in de inleiding van dit deel van de website.
Raymond Bot woont nu op een gedeelte van sectie 33.
De grootte en de nummers van de secties zijn in meer dan 120 jaar niet veranderd.
Kadastrale kaart van Grandview, 1878.
Plat map of Grandview, 2010.
I can close this chapter no more fittingly than by reproducing an article written
by Mrs. Fellows, of Lynd, and read before the old settlers' gathering in February,
1885. It gives a very true idea of conditions in 1869:
The time I first saw Lyon county, in the dark days of 1869, there were about a
dozen in our settlement, scattered along the Redwood river in the timber.
Another settlement, nearly as large as ours, was on the Cottonwood river, and
another at Lake Benton. These constituted the entire population of our county.
What was then one county has been divided into two, Lyon and Lincoln.
The settlers lived in small, low, miserable log houses; indeed, some of them were
originally Indian tepees, remodeled to suit the emergency. Some were without
floors, except the solid earth with a covering of prairie grass; after it became dry
and broken it was raked off and fresh grass cut and spread down. Of course, the
floors needed no sweeping, and that was something saved, as there was a chance
to economize in brooms.
Economy, rigid economy, was the rule.
A roof made of shingles was almost unknown. The houses were roofed, some with
hay, some with earth, but the prevailing fashion was a shake roof. I fancy only the
initiated have seen or heard of the shake roof. It consisted of flat, clumsy pieces
of wood, all sizes and widths, and, as nearly as I can remember, about three feet
long, split and shaped and smoothed with a broad-ax, overlapping each other
shinglefashion, serving as a mere covering, keeping out the sun, but affording
little protection. The wind and snow and rain and flies and mosquitoes and gnats
and all other nice things had full liberty to come and go at will. And of all these
things there was no lack.
In those days there were blizzards, too, real genuine blizzards. The winds were
not tempered to the shorn lamb, not by a good deal. After a blizzard what a
picture our houses presented ! Floors, beds, everything, were fancifully covered-
decorations enough to have satisfied the most esthetic admirer of Oscar Wilde.
Here and there and everywhere were festoons and wreaths and garlands and
every imaginary thing of "the snow, the beautiful snow", filling the house, above
and below.
We didn't enjoy it a bit, however. With the mercury frolicking among the lower
twenties, the poetry of our natures was entirely frozen out. Even a board to make
a door or case a window was of inestimable value. Flooring, not the best quality
by a number of grades, sold for $50 per thousand.
Thanks are due a Maine Yankee for introducing an improvement in our
architecture.
Sod houses made an appearance, and they were much better, being more
economical. Here we lived, deprived of every luxury and most of the comforts and
necessaries of life, trying to be happy and keep homesickness away, which would
occasionally trouble us notwithstanding all efforts to prevent it.
We were, so to speak, at the jumping-off place, as another leap would have
landed us among the savages. We depended wholly upon Redwood Falls for
everything we had, and that a poor trading place, indeed. A spool of thread, a
sheet of note paper, a pound of tea or sugar, had to be hauled fifty miles.
One of our great blessings was our postoffice with a weekly mail.
By the way, the first postoffice in this county was a gigantic affair! It required
but one box, fastened with a huge padlock, to prevent mail robbery.
Arthur P. Rose beschrijft in zijn boek (b) de primitieve condities die de eerste pioniers
van Lyan County moesten ondergaan:
Arthur P. Rose,
An illustrated history of Lyon County
Minnesota.
Northern History Publishing Company,
Marshall, Minnesota Publishers 1912
Page 441
Arthur P. Rose,
An illustrated history of Lyon County
Minnesota.
Northern History Publishing Company,
Marshall, Minnesota Publishers 1912
Page 45