 |
|---|
| Davies Store ca. 1910 |
Lakeland
As early as 1840 a small settlement of French Canadians and their part-Indian families existed on the site of Lakeland Village along the St. Croix River. Apparently these earliest settlers moved on, because by 1849 there were no buildings at the present village site.
Henry W. Crosby, who came in 1842, located a farm that included the present site of Lakeland Village. The site was well situated for trade with Hudson across the river. A ferry service was established in 1848 by Moses Perin. The ferry was operated between 1850 and 1869 by John Oliver, a former British Naval Officer and Boston harbor pilot. Oliver built a Greek Revival house, still standing, on the bluff overlooking the ferry in 1849.
First Known as Shanghai Cooley
That same year, 1849, Moses Perin secured land near the ferry site, erected several buildings, and laid out the town plat. Perin’s plat was first of several. It featured about 47 blocks and a public square along Main Street, a wide avenue on axis with the river. Main Street intersected Minnesota Street, which followed the river.
Commercial development seemed attracted to the area. In 1850 a there was a wagon making shop, and by 1856 the village had a blacksmith shop, doctor, lawyer and saloon. A mercantile store was opened in 1855 by A. D. Kingsley and Joseph Wilson. Other early settlers were John Molton, Benjamin Bonsell, Putnam Gage, Hubbell Robinson, James Green and Sheldon Gray.
A post office was established in 1854 and by 1858 the center of Lakeland had 14 stores, hotels, shops and dwellings. This development was arranged around the Shanghai Cooley, a ravine at the northern end of the village that took its name from some large fowls, thought to be of Asian origin, brought there by Freeman C. Tyler (and, in fact, the settlement was often referred to as Shanghai Cooley). L. A. Huntoon, who came to Lakeland in 1857 and opened a store, served as town clerk and postmaster, the latter for 15 years. The first hotel was built by James Pritchard in 1857, and another by J. R. Dickenson in 1858.
In 1855 the editor of the St. Paul Pioneer suggested building a “newstyle house” of “grout,” which was a cement of lime, mud, sand and gravel. John T. Cyphers was taken with this notion and by 1858 had built a remarkable “grout house” that still stands in Lakeland, pouring the cement-like material between wooden forms to build up walls nearly two feet thick. Cyphers was obviously a man interested in practical construction and easy upkeep.
A cemetery was set aside on the bluff west of the village by Moses Perin in 1854 as a public burying ground. A school was established in 1852 and taught by Harriet E. Newell in a private home. In 1855 a school building was erected.
Lakeland Becomes a Lumber Town
The fortunes of the town were shaken by the Panic of 1857, but a number of investors attempted to establish mills in Lakeland before the Civil War. Perin began the Shanghai Sawmill near the cooley in 1852, which was completed by Freeman C. Tyler. The mill was out of operation in 1860. Several mills, including the Hale, Fay and Co. steam sawmill were begun in 1857, but many fell victim to hard times. A short-lived sawmill was erected in 1857 by Ballard and Reynolds, and another by Stearns and Watson, which later became the C. N. Nelson mill. Nelson enlarged it to a capacity of 20 million board feet per annum, and the C. N. Nelson Lumber Company Mill at its peak employed some 75 men. This business was still in operation in the 1880s.
The R. H. McCoy sawmill, built in 1886 north of the deport and near the present swimming beach, was still running night and day in 1900.
A warehouse for handing wheat was built in 1861 by Clement and Huntoon. Ballard and Nelson also built a grist mill in 1859 with two run of stones. A boat building operation was begun by the Munch Brothers in 1871. They constructed the steamer Osceola, along with several barges, that year, but the enterprise seems to have folded shortly thereafter.
Another plat of Lakeland City was made in anticipation of the St. Paul & Milwaukee railroad, which was constructed in 1880. It featured a two-block public square and several mill sites and riverside depot grounds within the nearly 90-block plat. A number of investors entered additional plats at the edges of Lakeland and Lakeland City. However, only a scattering of development occurred on the hundreds of available lots.
The small city of Lakeland Shores was detached from Lakeland Village in 1949. Incorporation of Lakeland had been considered for several years, and came to a vote in 1950 which resulted in a tie. The following year, 1951, the Village of Lakeland was incorporated.
City Retains a Small Town Feel
In 1951, Lakeland’s Main Street, Quinnell Avenue North, was the only paved and lighted street in the community. The construction of I-94 obliterated a portion of the northern end of the original plat of Lakeland, passing over the former Mill Street. In the beginning the Council rented the Community Hall for meetings and elections, later purchasing the building, which became the City Hall.
The Village, now City of Lakeland, has opted for carefully controlled development to maintain and enhance the ambiance of a small village. However, the area is becoming increasingly more suburban and the population is a highly mobile group of commuters working in Bayport, Stillwater and St. Paul. The population, which stood at fewer than 600 in 1980, is now 1,917.
Today there is little industry in the city, but there is a commercial strip centered around the Lakeland Plaza shopping center on the west side of County Road 18 (St. Croix Traiil), which includes a branch library. The City maintains a public beach and picnic area on the St. Croix and several other parks and playgrounds. The St. Croix Valley bike trail runs parallel to St. Croix Trail and crossed the river on the Interstate bridge.