TOWNSHIP HISTORY, "WHO WE ARE"
|
Thirty-six years ago a family man and farmer,
Eugene Greene approached Town Clerk, John
Jackson with his filing fee to contend in the
March 12, 1974 election for a three-year term as
Town Supervisor in Franconia Township. The
sensitive issue of the day was whether a vacated
one-room school house should be saved and
converted for use as the first official town
hall or if land should be acquired and a new
building erected. Until this |
decision was made regularly scheduled meetings
were rotated between the homes of the members of
the Board. Mr. Greene was quite familiar with
the old school house, intimately you could say
with his daily attendance at class through the
sixth grade.
(click here to read
entire story) |
Franconia is today a quiet settlement nestled on
the west shore of the St Croix River just below
the lower Dalles area, about two miles south of
Taylor Falls. With its rolling topography, the
area is mindful of New England and the sheer
basalt walls in the lower Dalles area just north
of the town landing have been compared to parts
of the Hudson river. At one time the settlement
boomed, first with logging and later with
enterprises. While Taylor Falls remained a dot
on the map, Franconia became the major town site
north of Marine on the river.
On February 24, 1858,
Ansell Smith appeared before Thomas Lacy at the
Taylor's Falls Land Office to record his plat,
Franconia.. (This maiden development is
still the largest on record in the township yet
today.) Eight months following the recording, a
formal organization of the township and first
election was held on October 25,
1858.
Once the federal government
had sanctioned this land the steamboat industry
flourished bringing more New Englanders,
Germans, Irish, and ah yes, the Swedes.
Steamboat whistles signaled the imminent arrival
of the boats, drawing people from their homes
down to the river. Franconia soon developed
into a thriving community. Farmers worked the
soil of the highlands, while industry boomed
along the river. The population rapidly grew
from eighty homesteads in 1860 to one hundred
sixty-five in 1880.
Franconia's golden era
lasted barely 30 years, from 1852-1881, but
during those years it grew from an area covered
with hardwood forests to a booming river town.
Once part of a region claimed by both Ojibwa and
Dakota, Franconia's modern history began in the
mid-19th- century with the arrival of
Yankees from New England. That story begins in
1850 with the arrival of Ansell Smith in St
Croix Falls as a teacher. Smith helped build
the Chisago House, a hotel that served as a home
for immigrants for almost 100 years, in Taylors
Falls in 1851. The following year Smith claimed
land about two miles south of Taylors Falls.
There he cleared timber, began farming, and
named the site Franconia. Smith operated the
first store in the village and became its first
postmaster in 1854.
The first sawmill was built
in the village in 1854, a collaboration of Smith
and the Clark brothers, and logging became the
main business of the town. At one time the
settlement earned the name of "Plugtown" because
it manufactured plugs used in making rafts of
logs. Wooden piers stretched out into the river
from the later riverside sawmill.
In 1858 a school was
organized and Margaret Smith became the first
teacher. Ten students met with their new
teacher in the hotel barroom. A new school was
built in 1870.
Paul Munch settled in
Franconia and during the 1860's erected a three
story flouring mill on Lawrence Creek. About
the same time that Munch built his gristmill,
White, Thornton and Irish embarked upon
steamboat building in the village. In addition
to rebuilding the G.B. Knapp, they built the
Jenny Thornton, Ben Campbell, Viola, and Jenny
Hayes. |