GHENT, LYON COUNTY, MINNESOTA
Minnesota received its name from the largest river that lies wholly within its area, excepting
only that its sources above Big Stone Lake are in South Dakota. During 150 years, up to the time
of the organization of Minnesota Territory in 1849, the name St. Pierre or St. Peter had been
generally applied to this river by French and English explorers and writers.
March 6, 1852, the territorial legislature adopted a memorial to the president of the United
States, requesting that this name should be discontinued and that only the aboriginal name
should be used for the river, the same as for the territory, by the different government
departments; and this was so decreed on June 19 of the same year by an act of Congress.
Minnesota became the 32nd U.S. state on May 11, 1858.
Minnesota Minnesota Counties (Lyon county in red)
LYON COUNTY
This county, established by two legislative acts, March 6, 1868, and March 2, 1869, was named in
honor of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, who was born in Ashford, Conn., July 14, 1818, and was killed in
the battle of Wilson's Creek, Mo., August 10, 1861.
GHENT
A city in section 15 of Grandview, platted in June 1878 by the Winona and St. Peter Railroad and
incorporated May 15, 1899, at first bore the name of the township but was renamed in
September 1881 for the ancient city of Ghent in Belgium, in compliment to Belgian colonists
coming in 1880-81, who were led by Bishop John Ireland to settle in this part of the county. The
post office was established as Grandview in 1874; however, in 1882 a residents' petition
requesting the name be changed to Ghent was granted, the railroad changing the name of the
station as well.
South Dakota
The 1878 plat map of Grandview shows the partition of the area in square sections of about one
by one mile. The numbers are written in the centre of each section.
According to Arthur P. Rose, William Bot lives in the southern part of section 11 (North-east of
Ghent), after buying this land of B.F. Jellison in 1866.
William Bot is the brother of Catharina Hero Bot (wife Jacobus Tjaarts Alma, like we have seen
in the introduction of this website).
Raymond Bot lives now on a part of section 33.
The size, and numbers of the sections did not change in more than 120 years.
Plat map 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 writes in his book (b) about the primitive conditions the first pioneers
of Lyon County experienced:
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