CHIPPEWA
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CHIPPEWA |
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NAME: Chippewa COUNTY: Douglas ROADS: 2WD GRID: 3 CLIMATE: Snow in Winter, warm Summers BEST TIME TO VISIT: Spring, Summer, Fall |
COMMENTS:
This village site is on private property.
From Brandon go 3 miles north on County Rd. 16 until you come to a "high
and spreading hill." The village site is on the Jerrod Lund farm, across
the road from that farm is the Bitzan farm which has a sign at its driveway.
If you go beyond that point a 'titch' you will come to the Edgefield cemetery,
which was begun in 1866. REMAINS: None |
| Henry Gager is thought to have been the first person to settle on the land which became the village called Chippewa, named for the lakes and river of that name. He arrived in 1860 and along with farming he operated a stage station for Burbank and Waite who held the mail contract on the stage route between St. Cloud and Fort Abercrombie, which is near the present city of Breckenridge, MN. The stage route was a military road built by government troops in 1859, and it was along this road that Henry Gager farmed and kept the stage station until the Sioux uprising in 1862, when he along with the other settlers, was driven out. In the History of Douglas County it states that during the time of the Sioux uprising, there was a stockade at Chippewa, as well as in Alexandria and Pomme de Terre, and that once the soldiers were there for defense, most of the settlers returned. In 1865 George Freundrich bought the Gager place, and in 1866 other settlers began coming into the area, making Chippewa there headquarters. In the coming years the town began to prosper, and a townsite was laid out, having two stores, a hotel, a blacksmith shop and the Chippewa Lake post office (1861-79). The stage stations were also places of caches of whiskey, and the cache at Chippewa was said to be the best along the route. In 1879 the railroad past two miles south of Chippewa. Shortly after, businesses began to move next to the railroad. Along with the move, a new settlement named Brandon was born. It was named in honor of Stephen A. Douglas's birthplace of Brandon, Vermont, for whom the County is named. Many thanks to Marge VanGorp for her undying dedication to finding the location of this village, and to Bud Greenquist of his assistance. Submitted by: Duane V. Peterson |
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