Skip to main content

1871: Second post office placed in Ash Creek

Subhead
Bits By Betty
Lead Summary
By
Betty Mann, president, Rock County Historical Society

The following appeared in The Rose History in 1911.
 
Rock County Village (continued from 01-07-20 edition of the Star Herald)
 
Ashcreek
         The little village of Ashcreek, the first  station south of Luverne on the Doon extension of the Omaha railway, is one of the two Rock county hamlets in Clinton township. The platted town is on section 23 of that precinct. Though it has never assumed proportions that would warrant its being set off as an independent municipality, Ashcreek for many years has justified its existence as a trading point and grain market for a rich farming community.
         The building of the Doon branch and the subsequent location of a station on section 23, Clinton, were conditions undreamed of when Ashcreek was first placed on the map as a country postoffice, the second postoffice established in the county. The southern part of Rock county, especially Clinton and Martin townships, was an early field for settlement. By the summer of 1871 the population of these two precincts exceeded that of all the rest of the county, and a demand was made for better postoffice facilities. The only office in the county at that time was located at Luverne, and the trip to that point was much of an undertaking for a majority of the settlers living in southern Rock county in the days when ox teams were practically the only mode of conveyance.
         The agitation for a second postoffice bore immediate fruit. Out of several applicants for the position of postmaster, Mrs. L. B. Kniss was chosen and the office was established on the George W. Kniss homestead, one half mile distant from the future Ashcreek station. The office was named for the creek flowing near by. To members of the pioneer Estey family was given the naming of this stream. The incident of the christening, which occurred on Christmas day, 1867, has been told in Colin J. Estey’s own words:
         In the afternoon Byron and I went to tend our traps. He had one set for a fox near where Saint’s Rest now stands, and on that day he caught a coyote. Byron was about eight years old then. As we went out to look at the traps we crossed Rock river at a point about where M. C. Smith’s ford was eventually located and followed up what is now known as Ash creek. Byron, boy-fashion, asked the name of the creek, and I told him it had no name and that he might name it. He looked the surroundings over carefully and said: “Well, there is a lot of small ash growing at the mouth, so I guess we will have to call it Ash creek.” Next summer when the government surveyors were sectionizing Rock county we gave the name in to them and the stream has been so called ever since.
         The Ashcreek postoffice was located on the mail route connecting Luverne with Doon and LeMars, Iowa, which was first operated by Sam Bellesfield. Mrs. Kniss continued in charge of the office until 1873,8 when she removed from the locality and was succeeded as postmistress by Mrs. Susan M. Brown, who held the office seven years.
         So, Ashcreek, which nominally came into being in the early seventies, advanced no further than the country postoffice stage until about a dozen years later. Then it was through the agency of the railroad that it was enabled to assume a more pretentious air.
         The branch road from Luverne to Doon was built in 1879, the first trains being operated in November. The rudiment of a station was established on what then was the Kniss & Brown farm, on section 23, Clinton, which was to develop gradually, but with a certainty, into the village of Ashcreek. The initial improvement in the town-to-be, and the only one recorded for the year 1879, was a small grain warehouse erected by Traux & Co. This firm had extensive farming interests in the immediate vicinity, and the warehouse erected was solely for the purpose of taking care of the products of its own farms.
         8Mrs. Kniss has given some interesting statistics relating to this early day postoffice:
         “Our local paper was then the Jackson Republic, as those who wished to prove up on their claims had to go to Jackson, the nearest land office, and so their names and their witnesses were published in the paper. A paper was also printed at Rock Rapids. There were six subscribers to the paper and nine to the Jackson Republic. The total number of regular subscription papers was twenty-three and one magazine was taken by a patron of the office, although a great many were sent by friends in the east.
         “The receipts for stamps sold during the quarter ending September, 1872, were $6.47, and that was when postage on a letter amounted to three cents. Notwithstanding the fact that the postmistress was expected to be at home any time a patron should happen to call, the department paid the munificent sum of $12.00 a year for services rendered.”
        
         The story of the village of Ashcreek will continue in the Jan. 21 edition of the Star Herald.
         Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, 312 E. Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

You must log in to continue reading. Log in or subscribe today.