Baytown Township
Early Settlement
Because of its location on Lake St. Croix, by the time Baytown Township was organized in May 1858 in the new State of Minnesota, it already had seen considerable settlement activity. Even before the 1837 treaties opened the land to settlement, the river was the thoroughfare of the Ojibwe and Dakota Indians, whose fur traders also frequented the area. Even after settlers began arriving, Norman Kittson still kept a store on the point, later known as Kittson’s Point, to trade with travelers and settlers. This business was apparently run by the notorious Pig’s Eye Parrant, whose earlier posts had been at St. Paul. Parrant left the country suddenly in the spring of 1842, and the point was sold at a sheriff’s sale to Joseph R. Brown, one of Stillwater’s founders, for $27.50.
Frances Bruce became one of the township’s earliest settlers when he built a house on the site of Bayport in 1842. Bruce was a French Canadian who had been in the employ of the American Fur Company. First to open a farm was John Allen, who built a house and planted crops on Kittson’s point about 1845. He didn’t stay long, leaving for California in the early days of the gold rush. In 1847 raft pilot Joseph “Big Joe” Perro settled on the upper reaches of Spring Creek. The springs that fed the creek also fed the fish at the Perro Trout Farm. Some of the Perro land was sold to the state in 1911 to build the state correctional facility that is still called the Stillwater Prison. A second Minnesota Correctional Facility opened in 1982 in Oak Park Heights as maximum custody prison.
South Stillwater and Oak Park Heights
By the 1850s rival lumbering companies were vying for positions near the bay that gives the township its name. Some were attracted by Spring Creek, which promised a good water power. Early settlers Ambrose Secrest and Joseph Perro platted an addition in 1854 that revolved around Secrest’s flouring mill. In 1856 Stillwater lumbermen Socrates Nelson and David Loomis platted Baytown, now Bayport, organizing it around the firm’s sawmill. Other plats were William Holcombe’s Middletown and Isaac Staples’ Bangor, both made about 1857. The various plats all came together in 1873 when the St. Croix Railway Improvement Company incorporated Baytown, Bangor and Middletown into South Stillwater. The Village of South Stillwater was incorporated in 1881 and separated from the township. It later became Bayport.
Another early settlement was Oak Park, laid out in 1857 by John Parker, William Dorr and others, most of who had an interest in the lumbering industry. Early development centered around Mill Street, which led to the river and the milling townsites just to the south. The original plat and several additions were densely built up by 1900. It was replatted in 1938 as the Village of Oak Park Heights, and incorporated in 1959.
From Agriculture to Suburbanization
Early settlers came not only for the advantage of starting industries on the river, but also for the rolling farmland west of it. Many of the early settlers were from the South and the New England states: D. H. Fiske came from New Hampshire in 1848; Parmelia Gardner hailed from New Brunswick and J. B. H. Mitchell came from Kentucky. John Marty opened a farm in the southwest corner of the town in 1848. Samuel Burkleo, one of the original members of the Marine Lumber Company, opened a farm on Stagecoach Trail. Other settlers were German and Irish; the German settlement in the western sections was organized around St. John’s German Lutheran Church on the Lake Elmo-Stillwater road (Highway 5). Other congregations were the First Lutheran Church organized by Swedes in 1886 and Bethlehem Lutheran, mostly Norwegians, organized in 1889.
By 1900, J. H. Kern owned considerable acreage in sections 5 and 6, which later became the Kern Sod Farm. The large Cloverdale Farm west of McDonald Lake was developed by Thomas Irvine. This farm in recent years has been laid out as the upscale residential developments of Cloverdale Farm, Shores of Lake McDonald and Lake McDonald Woods.
Transportation a Key
In 1872 rails of the St. Paul, Stillwater and Taylor’s Falls and the West Wisconsin Railways came together at what became known as Stillwater Junction, with one branch running to Stillwater and the main line heading southeast to Hudson. The depot stood just west of what is now the crossing of Osgood Avenue. Beginning in 1898 milk cans from area farms were picked up at the depot and shipped to the creamery at Lake Elmo. From this depot, farmers could travel to St. Paul, Stillwater or Hudson and River Falls. A waiting platform was also placed at Oak Park Station, where Stagecoach Trail crossed the tracks. The lines merged as the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railroad in 1880.
One of the county’s earliest roads, Stillwater Boulevard from Stillwater to St. Paul, was laid out in 1848. It cut diagonally through the western part of the township, and after several annexation fights, has in part become the township’s western boundary. In the 1930s Highway 36 was extended to Stillwater, and with it came automobile tourist travel to the river valley. One old vestige of this era is the Tara Hideaway now in Oak Park Heights. This log cabin style roadhouse, built in 1932, is typical of the establishments that sprang up to cater to motorists.
When Minnesota became a territory in 1849, federal funds became available to build territorial roads. The most important of these was the Point Douglas-St. Louis River Road, which was needed to provide a military and commercial connection between the Mississippi River and Lake Superior. Most of the road was built from 1853-56. Unfortunately, squabbling over the route led to the section south of Stillwater not being completed until 1857. The government road through Baytown survives today as County Highway 21. The usefulness of this road to early settlers is still apparent in its present name, Stagecoach Trail.
Later Development
Railroad magnate A. B. Stickney is credited with establishing the Washington County Fair Grounds just off Highway 5. The fairgrounds was laid out on Stickney’s land and fenced with a high board fence. Fair buildings were erected and a half-mile racetrack was built on the grounds. Next to the fairgrounds is the Baytown Community Center, built in 2002, which doubles as the town hall. The construction and expansion of Lake Elmo Airport (actually in Baytown just south of the fairgrounds) has given the area a regional reliever airport used by many local businesses.
Postwar development has seen Baytown surge from a sleepy farming community to an upscale bedroom community for the Twin Cities. The township is growing fast, having gained more than 50 percent in population in the 1990s, going from 950 to over 1500 residents. Property values have soared with the building of luxurious subdivisions, making Baytown the second highest assessed community in Washington County. Industry and heavy commercial development have been left to the cities of Oak Park Heights and Bayport, with Baytown retaining 5800 rural acres. Baytown has given up a lot of land over the years, but still retains its identity as an agricultural and residential community.