HISTORY OF DRYDEN TOWNSHIP

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The Township was officially organized at 9:00 a.m. on May 11, 1858, in Section 23 in the home of Robert Beatty. It was first called Williams Township, perhaps for the William Williams family who settled in Section 4.

The officers elected were Hamilton Beatty, Chairman; Joseph Tamble and Isaac Troxel, Board of Supervisors; J.W. Beatty, Town Clerk; Robert Heath, Overseer of the Poor; John Dresser and H. Beatty, Justices; and J. Lewis and J. Tramble, Constables. William Stevens was chosen Judge of Elections and 17 votes were cast.

The town was shortly thereafter renamed Dryden at the request of Hamilton Beatty and others. The name, in honor of the celebrated English Poet and Dramatist, John Dryden (1631 to 1700), is borne also by villages and townships into Maine, New York, Virginia, Michigan, and Arkansas. It reflects the British heritage of the New England Yankees who took the first claims in Dryden.

The first birth in Dryden Township was that of Elizabeth Callahan in 1856. The first death recorded was Robert Beatty Jr., in September 1856, at the age of 25. The first marriage was performed in the residence of Charles Nessay on New Years Day, 1859; James Lewis to Mary Hermining. Justice of the Peace Hamilton Beatty officiated.

Subsequent to the organizational meeting, the Board of Supervisors ordered that a road tax be assessed at the rate of $1.50 on each $100 assessed value to be taken from the assessment roll. This amount totaled $65.75 in the year 1858 and $30,000.00 in the year 1978.

In 1858, the levy was set at $100 to meet the township’s needs. In 1949, the levy was set at $6,000. In 2003, the levy for the township was set at $58,000.

A special meeting was called by the Board of Supervisors to discuss the building of additional roads, culverts and bridges since more people were moving into the township. Note the wording of the actual minutes.

At a meeting of the Supervisors of the Town of Dryden at the Town Clerk’s Office in said Town on the twenty-first day of April A.D. 1859 the said Supervisors having proceeded to ascertain, estimate and assess the highway and road tax to be performed and paid in said Town the ensuing year do estimate and assess three days’ highway labor to each and every male inhabitant in said Town liable to be assessed for highway labor, to be performed in said Town the ensuing year. And we do assess a road tax of five mills on each dollar of real estate liable to taxation in said Town as marked on the assessment role of the past year to be paid to the Town the ensuing year.

An election and meeting was held April 2, 1861, to levy a school tax. The vote was: yes-40 and no-36 to levy 5 mills on a dollar. T.A. Dorr received 33 votes for School Superintendent. A year later at a board of supervisors’ meeting, J. W. Beatty was appointed to fill the vacancy of School Superintendent. The school tax collected was equally divided between District No. 1 and District No. 2. There are no longer any district schools in the township since all school districts have been consolidated in the early 1950s.

There were 93 male voters in Dryden Township on November 8, 1870, and some voters wrote “Dricton” Township instead of Dryden Township.

On May 2, 1871, a special meeting for arbitration on Minnesota State Railroad Bonds was held. The vote to buy bonds was: yes-0 and no-36. On February 6, 1883, another special election for issuing bonds for railroad right-of-way from St. Cloud to Austin through Dryden Township, the Village of Gaylord, and Mankato. The vote was: yes-80 and no-81

Mortgages were recorded in Dryden Township clerk’s records until 1872. The interest rate recorded in 1870 was 12 percent per annum. The mortgage recorded on 40 acres of farmland was $200.

Livestock roamed freely and sometimes strayed. When “estrays” were found, a notice was written and filed with the township board.

Take notice that on the 4th day of October A.D. 1870 J. Wilimeyer residence in the Town of Dryden in the County of Sibley and State of Minnesota took upon my enclosed land two estray calves. One of them is a steer calf of a red color, the second one a heifer of a black color with white forehead, two white hind feet, also a white tip of the tail, and that I did within five days of said taken up, post a written notice of such estrays containing a particular description thereof, in three of the most public places of said Town; and that no one has claimed such estrays and paid the reasonable charges and damages sustained by reason depredation committed by such estrays on my enclosed land upon this date. Dated at Dryden this 19th day of October A.D. 1870. William Maurer Town Clerk.

On March 14, 1876, thirty-nine votes were cast against allowing horses and cattle to roam at large. On December 30, 1886, the town board resolved to publish all public notices in the Gaylord Hub.

The year of 1890 the valuation of taxable Dryden property was as follows:

Real Estate Personal Property 

               Dryden                              $212,091                                         $35,710

               Gaylord                                            $ 25,000                                           $25,618

 

The Dryden Township Assessor assessed the Village of Gaylord through 1891.

A resolution was passed by the Dryden Township board on June 1, 1897, to license peddlers and hawkers in said Township. The fees were as follows: for peddlers and hawkers who carried their goods on foot or by rail transportation, $1; by two-horse wagon conveyances, $5. The licenses were to be obtained from the town clerk and were good for one year.

At a special meeting on June 8, 1901, a motion was passed to pay Charles Gruenwaldt $1 for buying a dead horse found on the public highway.

In 1922 road grading bids were let: $.90 cents per mile with four horses, $.75 cents for three horses, and $.65 cents for two horses and grader.

Throughout the years and especially the depression years, Dryden Township funds gave support to needy families to buy shoes, coal, cord wood, and groceries, and pay medical and funeral expenses, and home rent.

Township officers settled disputes over road right-of-ways, farm boundary lines, vacating land, building roads, and building fences.

In 1981 the Dryden Township governmental board consists of three supervisors: Chairman, Marvin Busse, Gerhard Podratz, and Willmer Schwarzrock; Treasurer, Walter Mueffelman; and Clerk, Raymond Sylvester. There is no Dryden Town Hall; elections and special meetings are held at the Gaylord Fire Hall.

The population at the time of Organization was approximately fifteen families. In 1981 and excluding Gaylord, the population of Dryden has increased to approximately 385 and there are about 85 farm families in the township.

In 2003, the Dryden Township estimated population was 274 within 107 households. After a number of annexations by the City of Gaylord, Dryden Township consist of 33.5 sections instead of the usual 36 sections.

There is one church in the Township, St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mountville and is still an active church. There are five different cemeteries in the Township.

There are six lakes: Kirby Lake, Duff Lake, Altnow Lake, Beatty Lake, Titloe Lake, and Mud Lake. There is one Wildlife Preserve Area.

Homestead farms still in the family are the Bandelin farm now occupied by Merry Kay Bandelin and the Marth farm now occupied by Donald and Ellie Marth.

Dates when early settlers gained title to their land were:

            Henry Altnow                               June 2, 1856                                                    John Fiss                    November 1, 1861                             George Quinner                         August 19, 1857                                             John Dresser           April 1, 1862

                    Joseph Russell                           October 7, 1857                                             Patrick Stock           April 1, 1862

                    Edward Clark                              October 9, 1859                                             Henrick Goebel      November 1, 1862

                    William Hasselgrove                July 2, 1860                                                      John Quinner           August 1, 1863

                  Daniel Barry                                 October 1, 1860                                             Carl Wolpern            October 8, 1863

                  Ludwig Borchert                        October 1, 1860                                             Ludwig Hoppe         November 26, 1864

                 Joseph Gamble                            October 1, 1860                                             Hans Mansfield       December 15, 1866

                 Christian Marth                            April 1, 1861                                                     Hamilton Beatty      June 1, 1868

                 Joseph Beatty                              June 1, 1861                                                    John Hahn                 September 1, 1869

                 Bernard Duff                                 July 1, 1861                                                      Spencer Meier        September 1, 1869

                 Henry Callwell                             October 2, 1861                                             Fred W. Fenske       April 15, 1872

                 Fredrich Boettcher                    November 1, 1861