The Hubbard County - Sanders Years (1895-1904)

This is the fourth chapter of "Ella and Agnes: The Story of a Family." 

The third chapter was The Mystery Years - Brown Years (1885-1895).

To recap: in 1895 Ella Brown was a single mother with a seven year old daughter, Agnes. She appears to have been widowed several years prior. They were living in Bird Island, Minnesota, about 13 miles north of her parents' homestead, in the household of a widower named Daniel Foley. Daniel had four sons from his previous marriage and Ella would have been looking after them as well as Agnes. Perhaps Ella was the housekeeper and nanny for the children, or perhaps something more - we do not know. In any case, she hadn't been there long, because Daniel's wife had died just one year earlier. And as it turns out, Ella and Agnes would not be staying there very long either.

By 1895, most of Ella’s siblings had married, and many had moved away from Renville County. This was typical for large families of the day. Her sister Johanna married George Perusse on Sept 26, 1892 in Renville County. George was a railway man, and their family moved often in the 1890s. They had three children in three different states (Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota). Mary married William Welsh in about 1893, but we cannot find a record of their marriage or location of residence in the 1890s; this suggests that they married and lived outside of Minnesota. Their daughter Julia was born about 1894. Josephine married Dennison "Dan" Steele Coles on Nov 23, 1893, in Bird Island, and their daughter Loretta was born there in 1894. Dan worked in the Coles family flour milling business and they also moved repeatedly in the 1890's. Rinehart married Anne Mary Kavanagh on May 17, 1893 in Le Sueur County, and they were living there next to her family in 1895. Their son John Peter was born in Le Seur county in 1894. Joseph and Katharine Reger  lived in Renville County next door to John and Josephine, and they had 4 children by 1895. Ella's youngest sibling "Aggie" (Agnes) was 13, and was living with Joseph's family, probably to help with the little ones. Bertha and William Duffey lived a few miles away next to his family and they also had four children. Only 19 year old Annie Reger was still living at home with John and Josephine in 1895. Ella had already moved away and then returned to Renville by this time, and her daughter Agnes was the second oldest of this rapidly increasing brood of Reger cousins![1]

There was more going on, however, than the expansion and dispersion of a large family. In 1893, the United States entered a time of serious economic depression[2]. We don't know the full impact of that depression on the Regers, but it probably accelerated their exodus from Renville County. What is certain is that by 1900, Joe and Kate and their children were the only ones left living in Renville, while several of the others, including Ella, moved north to the Mantrap Township of Hubbard County, Minnesota in the late 1890s. What prompted this mass migration? A neighbor of theirs in Hubbard, J.H. Nixon, later recalled:

“When the panic of 1893 came, it hit many farmers in southern Minnesota and Iowa, who had small real estate loans on their farms. The loan company refused to renew them, but foreclosed, leaving the farmers only a small amount of money that their personal property would bring. Most of them had children and were forced to look for homesteads. They moved north in covered wagons. Many of them came to southeastern Hubbard County, arriving with very little money. There were houses to build, food to grow, and roads to build. Also, schools were needed for the children. The only taxable property was the timber lands so the school districts had to have some timber land to support a school. The first land cultivated was for potatoes, rutabagas, etc. with brush pastures for the livestock.”[3]

Although this account was not written specifically about our Reger clan, it probably described their situation pretty well. Even Ella’s parents John and Josephine left their farm in Renville and made the journey 180 miles north to Hubbard County. That journey would have taken between 10-20 days in a covered wagon with all their belongings[4]. John was in his 60’s at the time and Josephine was in her late 50’s. The land they moved to was largely unsettled “brush land” without homes or roads. Apparently, it yielded relatively good crops but was “much more disagreeable to farm” than the smooth prairie[5]. The Town of Nevis was established just a few miles southeast of Mantrap Township in 1898, and the Great Northern Railroad finally came to Nevis that same year[6]. Also in 1898, the last battle between Native Americans and the U.S. Army was fought at Sugar Point, about 40 miles northeast of Nevis[7]. This was still very much frontier country.

It was under these conditions that Ella, at 31 years old,  applied for her own homestead on Feb. 7, 1897:

Image above from a collection of digitized land records purchased from the National Archives and Records Administration

Ella paid a $14 fee to file this claim; a sum worth just under $500 today.

In her land entry application, "Ellen L. Brown" says that she was from Park Rapids, Hubbard County, Minnesota. This means that she made the journey north prior to Feb. 7, 1897. Several family members had already submitted homestead claims for land in Hubbard County by that time. Her brother Rinehart had filed on January 15 along with Joseph Kavanagh (Joe was the brother of Rinehart's wife, Anna). Ella's father, John Reger, filed on January 21 and her brother-in-law William Duffey filed the next day, January 22. In June of 1897, Ella's sister Annie married Joseph Kavanagh in Park Rapids. This means that, including Ella and Agnes, there were five "Reger" related families who applied for homesteads in the Mantrap Township of Hubbard County in 1897[8].

Ella and Agnes probably lived with some of these other family members at first, but they did settle on their homestead claim within a year of filing. According to her "Homestead Proof  - Testimony of Claimant" (1899), Ella built a home on her land in December of 1897 and she and Agnes began residing there in January of 1898:

Image of "Homestead Proof  - Testimony of Claimant" (1899) from the same digitized land record collection at the National Archives and Records Administration (see above).

It was a modest residence; a 16' x 24' wood frame house with a well and a log stable. By 1899, Ella and Agnes had cleared 3 of their 160 acres and had "raised crops" for two seasons. The rest of the land was covered in timber and brush.

The Regers, Duffys, and Kavanaughs were not the only Renville County residents to move to Mantrap Township. On July 21, 1898, Louis Frank Sanders[9] filed an application for the southwest quarter of section 29, just east of Ella and just north of Joe Kavanagh. 

Portrait of Louis Frank Sanders by F. J. Lee Studio at Bird Island, Minnesota, originally shared in Ancestry.com by user ttrimber2.  According to the directory of Minnesota photographers at the Minnesota Historical Society,  F. J. Lee worked in Minnesota in the 1890s so this picture is from that decade.

Louis Sanders had also been living in Bird Island in the 1895 State Census when Ella and Agnes were living with the Foleys. In that census, he was described as a 45-year-old merchant who was born in Wisconsin but had lived in Minnesota for 22 years, including the last 6 in Bird Island.[10] He must have known Ella then, and they may have started a relationship there. Did he follow Ella and her family up to Hubbard County for that reason? We don't know, but it seems unlikely to be a coincidence that he filed on land right in the midst of her family.

Locations of land patents obtained by Reger relatives in Mantrap (Township 141N Range 33W of 5th Meridian) from the US Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records

In 1899, Ella became the first member of her family to complete a homestead claim in Hubbard County. Rather than wait the usual five years, she paid $1.25 per acre to have her claim commuted. This came to a total of $200 for the 160 acres (approximately equivalent to $7,136 in 2022). She paid this fee in December of 1899, but prior to that she had to provide evidence of residence and cultivation of the land. Besides her own sworn testimony ("Homestead Proof  - Testimony of Claimant" above), this consisted of providing witness statements and having a notice published in the local paper for six successive weeks[11]. There were fees for these steps as well. It is not clear how Ella came up with money for all of this. The three acres that she had cleared by that time would not have generated that much excess income. It is more likely that Louis Sanders provided the funds necessary, because he and Ella married soon after.

Louis and Ella were married on Feb. 27, 1900, in Park Rapids, Hubbard County, Minnesota by Rev. J. Walsh. The witnesses were Louis and Carrie Bird[12]. Louis Bird was a Saloon Keeper in Park Rapids village at the time, and he and Carrie had been married for ten years. We don’t know how Louis and Ella met the Birds, but we discovered that both L.E. Bird and L.F. Sanders were Hubbard County delegates at the State Democratic Party convention in September, 1900[13]. The Birds do not appear again in our family story, but Louis Sanders continues to play a major part for the next 15 years.

Picture of Louis and Ella Sanders from Ancestry.com user: thanksgodbless.  This user knew that the man in the photo was Louis F. Sanders but could not identify the woman because she did not know who Louis had married.  There is no indication of a year or location on the photo, but it looks like it was probably their wedding photo and therefore would have been taken in 1900 in Park Rapids, Minnesota.  This is the earliest photo we have of Ella.

By the time of the 1900 United States Census, Louis and Ella were married and living as one household together with Agnes[14]. Louis Sanders was described as a 49 year-old farmer born in Wisconsin and Ella Sanders as his 34 year-old wife born in Minnesota. Agnes Brown is described as the 13 year-old step-daughter of Louis who was born in Minnesota. Intriguingly, the census record describes Agnes' father as being from Iowa. All three family members were able to read, write, and speak English, and Agnes had attended 5 months of school (presumably in Nevis that year).

John and Josephine Reger, their children and their families made up 24 of the 69 inhabitants (about 35%) of Mantrap Township in the 1900 U.S. Census[15]. All of these families are found on the same page of the census and were living very near to each other (see map above). Agnes would therefore have had grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins living nearby during her teenage years, much as her mother had in Renville County. 

Not long after the census, however, Ella's mother Josephine Reger began to have serious health issues. We learned of this from some brief references in Minnesota newspapers printed in February of 1901: 

The Minneapolis Journal, Minneapolis, MN, Fri, Feb 01, 1901; Page 2

"This village" refers to Sauk Rapids

St. Paul Globe, St. Paul, MN; Feb. 3, 1901; Page 12

Unfortunately, Josephine's surgery did not stop the progression of her cancer. On Aug. 3, 1901, she died in Park Rapids, Minnesota. The local paper printed the following notice a few days later:

Hubbard County Enterprise, Park Rapids, MN; Aug. 9, 1901

Josephine was buried in the Straight River Township Cemetery in Park Rapids[16].

Josephine Reger's headstone in Straight River Township Cemetery, Park Rapids, Minnesota. Photo was shared by Ancestry.com user: composthappens on June 29, 2013.

We have been unable to obtain an obituary for Josephine Reger. If we find one, we will add it here; in the meantime, we imagine that one would have looked something like this:

"Josephine Reger was born in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany on Aug. 12, 1839 to Michael Fehrenbacher and Maria Anna Stump. She was 15 years old when she immigrated to America aboard the Pacific, landing in New York, NY on Sept 18, 1854 along with her father, step-mother Gertrude and 7 younger siblings. The family settled in Cambria County, Pennsylvania where Josephine married Johannes Reger on Feb 15, 1858. They settled and farmed together in Cambria County until 1865 when they headed west to Minnesota. The family farmed in Renville County, Minnesota until 1897 when they moved to Hubbard County. Josephine died Aug. 3, 1901 in Park Rapids, Hubbard County. Josephine was predeceased by her parents, her daughters Anna Mary, Philemina, and Emma, and her son Charles John. Surviving her are John, her loving husband of 43 years, daughters Katrina, Bertha (William) Duffy, Ella (Louis) Sanders, Josephine (Dennison) Coles, Mary (William) Welch, Johanna (George) Perusse, Annie (Joseph) Kavanagh, and Agnes Reger, and sons Joseph Reger (Catherine Duffy), and Rinehart Reger (Anne Kavanagh) as well as her many grandchildren."

For a few years after Josephine's death, her family carried on in Hubbard county. Ella was officially granted her land patent on Feb. 27, 1901, followed by Joe Kavanagh on Dec. 30, 1902, Rinehart Reger on June 17, 1903, John Reger on Feb. 25, 1904, and William Duffy on July 15, 1904[17]. In June of 1901, Ella's brother-in-law Dennison Coles also filed on some parcels of land between Louis and John and north of Louis, but he relinquished his claim the following year. Some of his claim ended up being part of John Reger's land patent[18].  

Image of land patent granted to Ellen L. Brown, from the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records

Last of all, Louis Sanders received his land patent on Dec. 1, 1905[19] . By that time, however, the other Reger-related families had all left Hubbard County. By the 1905 Minnesota State Census in June, Louis, Ella and Agnes were the only members of the family still listed[20] . Rinehart and Ann Reger had moved to North Dakota around 1904[21]. Annie and Joseph Kavanaugh and Bertha and William Duffy also appear to have left Hubbard County between the spring of 1904 and the summer of 1905[22]. The whereabouts of John Reger and of his youngest daughter Agnes are harder to track. John seems to have moved about to visit or live near several of his children[23]. Agnes Reger, on the other hand, disappears from the records until 1920 when she is listed as Agnes London in Seattle, Washington[24] .

It may be that the Reger relatives had never intended to stay long in Hubbard County. The land they settled was full of brush and timber and much of it would never become productive farmland (see below). They all continued further west, presumably in search of better land and opportunities.

Google Imagery of the area in 2020.  The Reger relatives occupied most of the land along present-day highway 40 between Spider Lake and Little Sand Lake. The Cavanaugh quarter now has a pivot irrigation circle but much of the rest is still covered in bush and timber.

Nevertheless, Louis and Ella soldiered on in Hubbard County for several years after the others had gone. When their daughter Agnes married and moved away, Louis and Ella continued to live in Mantrap Township until 1910[25]. Even when they eventually left Minnesota to join Agnes, they kept the title to some of their land in Mantrap Township[26]. And as we will see later in the story, Louis and Ella briefly returned to Nevis in 1915.

South Side of Main Street, Nevis in approximately 1910 (from www.lakesnwoods.com/NevisGallery.htm) This is what the town would have looked like when Louis and Ella finally left Hubbard County.

Although all of the Regers eventually left Hubbard county, there was one person connected to the family who remained. Peter Cavanaugh, brother-in-law of Ella’s siblings Rinehart and Annie, settled in Nevis around the same time as his siblings. He was one of the witnesses listed in the newspaper for Ella's homestead claim in 1899. Peter quickly became a prominent figure in the district. He homesteaded just outside the village limits but was very active within the town as well. Peter was a former school teacher who was elected as the Hubbard County Superintendent of Schools in 1900. He started the Hubbard County Farm Bureau, was the Nevis village Clerk, Town Recorder and census taker. He was also part owner of Nevis Mercantile Company and a founding member of the Roman Catholic parish in Nevis. He donated the land to the Catholic Church in Nevis and was a trustee until his death. Before the church was completed, he held Mass in his home whenever a missionary or one of his many priest friends passed through[27]. Peter Kavanagh lived in Nevis until his death in 1939, and he is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Nevis.

Next chapter: Moving West - The Herrington Years (1904-1911)

Notes:

[1]  We have researched and documented the families of Ella's siblings in both familysearch.org and  ancestry.ca. Feel free to contact us for more information about them.

[2]  See the "Panic of 1893" Wikipedia article “The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. It deeply affected every sector of the economy, and produced political upheaval that led to the political realignment of 1896 and the presidency of William McKinley.”

[3]  J.H. Nixon's account of the early days of mantrap Township settlement which was printed in the March 15, 1956 issue of Hubbard County Enterprise, was cited in the Nevis School History. Mr. Nixon was listed right below Louis and Ella Sanders on the 1910 US Census and probably knew them well. He was the first school teacher in Nevis (in 1900), a school board member for 30 years, the secretary-treasurer of Nevis Federal Land Bank for 8 years and the Mantrap town clerk for 17 years. He also built the first permanent roads north of Nevis and in Mantrap Township.

[4]  An estimated time of 10-20 days of journey by covered wagon is based on a speed of about 8-20 miles per day cited on the “Wagons West” page of the Highway History website, US Federal Highway Administration.  We do not know for certain that the Regers made this journey by covered wagon, but we know that many others did. We also know that they could not have made the journey entirely by rail until at least 1898. 

[5]  Description of Hubbard County by David Smith in the Worthington Advance (MN) July 10, 1885; cited on the Hubbard County History section of the genealogytrails.com website

[6]  According to the Nevis School History, the Great Northern Railroad reached Park Rapids in 1893, but the financial panic of that year delayed further building for five years and it did not come to Nevis until 1898.

[7]  The Battle of Sugar Point, or the Battle of Leech Lake, was fought on October 5, 1898, between members of the Pillager Band of Chippewa Indians and the 3rd U.S. Infantry. The military was attempting to apprehend Pillager Ojibwe Bugonaygeshig due to a dispute with Indian Service officials on the Leech Lake Reservation. Six soldiers, including the commanding officer Major Melville C. Wilkinson, were killed and ten others wounded. Bugonaygeshig was never captured. (Wikipedia: Battle of Sugar Point)

[8]  Our dates for the claims of the families in the Mantrap Township come from the "United States Bureau of Land Management Tract Books, 1800-c. 1955," database with images in FamilySearch (20 July 2022), Minnesota > Vol 37 > image 171 of 247; Records Improvement, Bureau of Land Management, Washington D.C.

[9]  Louis Frank Sanders was born June 9, 1850, in Waterford, Wisconsin.  His parents, Louis J. Sanders and Anna Maria Francesca Henningfeld were German immigrants who married and raised a family in Waterford, Wisconsin. Many of his siblings stayed in Wisconsin, but Louis struck out on his own. “Mr. Louis Sanders, Jr who has been absent from home for the past seven years, is on a home visit to his parents in this place.” (Waterford Post 7-18-1878).  He is mentioned in his mother’s obituary in 1893 as living in Bird Island, and he visited Waterford again in Feb. 1897 (probably after his sister Minnie’s funeral in Iowa). “Louis Sanders returned to his home in Bird Island, Minn, after a week spent at his home here.” (Waterford Post 2-27-1897).  

[10]  Louis Sanders' entry in 1895 Minnesota State Census (FamilySearch) in Bird Island, MN

[11]  Information about Ella's homestead application process comes from a digitized Land Entry File purchased by the authors from the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection includes her homestead application, receipts, affidavit of application, affidavit of publication, witness testimonies (Rinehart Reger, William Duffy) and testimony of claimant, and final affidavit.

[12]  A certified copy of Ella and Louis' marriage document is in the possession of the authors.

[13]  The Sept. 6, 1900 St. Paul Globe lists L.E. Bird and L.F. Sanders as the Hubbard County delegates at the State Democratic Party convention in the story on page 1.

[14]  The 1900 United States Census can be found in FamilySearch.

[15]  The 1900 U.S. Census lists the following related families (in order that they appear): 

• Rinehart “Regger” (Reger) age 40, Anna - 30, John P - 5, Benedict - 4, Mary - 2, Catharine G - 5/12
• John Reger - 68, Josephine - 60, Agness - 19
• William Duffy - 40, Bertha - 35, Katie - 10, Charles - 9, James - 8, Willie - 6, Mary - 3, John - 6/12
• Louis Sanders - 49, Ellen - 34, Agnes Brown - 13
• Joseph Kavanaugh - 26, Anna - 25, Jane - 2, Jeremiah - 1

[16]  Josephine (Fehrenbacher) Reger Find a Grave, Memorial no. 68787171. Her headstone says: "JOSEPHINE REGER, MOTHER, AT REST, DIED AUG. 3, 1901, AGE 61YRS. 11 MO, 28 DYS,"

[17]  Copies of the official land patents can be downloaded from the Bureau of Land Management(BLM), General Land Office (GLO) Records automation web site: https://glorecords.blm.gov/

[18]  We were surprised to find Dennison Coles listed on the same page as Louis Sanders and William Duffy in the "United States Bureau of Land Management Tract Books, 1800-c. 1955," database with images in FamilySearch (20 July 2022), Minnesota > Vol 37 > image 171 of 247. Because he relinquished his claim, we had not had any idea that he filed this application until we discovered these tract books.

[19]  The land patent for Louis F Sanders can be viewed at the Official Federal Land Records Site https://glorecords.blm.gov/. 

[20]  The 1905 Minnesota State Census can be viewed on FamilySearch

[21]  Rinehart Reger's biography (in "Rural Cass County, The Land and People" pub. 1976, p. 510) says that they moved to North Dakota in 1904.

[22]  The Kavanagh and Duffy families do not appear in Hubbard County on the 1905 Minnesota State Census. The Kavanaughs were still there in 1904 because the death of Allan Kavanaugh, son of Ann and Joseph, was registered as occurring in Nevis, Minnesota on Feb. 14, 1904. The Duffeys were also there, because Marcus Duffy, son of Bertha and William, was born in Hubbard County on July 9, 1904.

[23]  John Reger was not in Minnesota for the 1905 State Census.  On the 1910 US Census, he is living in Ellsbury, North Dakota with Joe and Anna Kavanaugh. In 1911 he shows up near Ella Sanders in Whitla, Alberta on the Canadian census.  In 1912 he crosses the border to live with Bertha Duffy. By 1920 he was back in North Dakota, but this time he was living with Rinehart and Anna Reger.

[24]  In the 1920 United States Census, Agnes London is listed as a divorced lodger who works as a waitress.  We know this is her from her 1956 death certificate.

[25]  Louis and Ella are still listed in Hubbard County on the 1910 United States Census, (which can be viewed in FamilySearch)

[26]  The 1916 Plat Map of Mantrap Township shows “Mrs. LF Sanders” owning the East ½ SE ¼ of Sec 30. This is half of her original land patent granted in 1901. The other half, the N½ of the NE¼ of Sec 31, was in the possesion of William H. Hemphill by this time. We do not know when Ella sold it.

[27]  Peter Kavanagh's biography taken from Findagrave.com

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