Martin Township continuedThe following is from the Rock County Herald printed on July 18, 1924:"The first child born in the settlement was Edward Evans, April 15, 1871, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Evans. The first child born in Martin Township was Jorgen Anderson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Niels Anderson, June 24, 1872, who died at nine years of age. The first girl born in Martin Township was Anna Jensen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nels Iverson. One of the first deaths in the neighborhood was Mrs. Thora Moe, mother of Gulbrand and Knute Moe, in 1872. The first divine service was at the home of Mrs. Thora Moe by Rev. E. Olson in 1871, at which three children were baptized, namely Edward Evans, Pete Steen, and a child of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Jacobson. The first public school in the county was at the home of Deborah Estey in Clinton Township in December 1870. Mrs. Richmond was the teacher. The winter following the year of rapid settlement — the winter of 1872-73 — must go down in history as the most severe one. It brought the most terrible blizzard in the county’s history before or since in which the settlers received their first experience of real hardships. (This article was written in 1924 and was talking about 50 years before that.) The ill-fated year 1873 began with the most violent storm in the history of the state from the time of its first settlement to the present date. For three days beginning Jan. 7, the blizzard raged, extending over the whole northwest. Seventy human lives were lost in the storm in Minnesota, but by a miraculous turn of fate, none of these was in Rock County It was the only county in the vicinity that escaped without loss of life. Several Martin Township farmers were caught in the storm while on a trip for wood on Rock River and had narrow escapes from meeting death in the storm. One such party was composed of Ole O. Rue Sr., Ole O. Rue Jr., Nels Anderson and John Goldberg. Just as they reached the edge of the timber, the storm broke. The men got their cattle within the grove, and there the unfortunate men were obliged to pass the night. Mr. Rue states that he had all he could do to keep the other members of the party on the move. They begged to be permitted to sit down and rest, which of course, would have been fatal. About daylight, Anderson and Goldberg went out of the grove to seek a place of shelter, but they could find none and returned with badly frozen faces. At noon the weather cleared a little — enough to permit the storm bound men to see the sun and get their bearings, then they set out for the west in an effort to reach their home. Ole O. Rue Jr., led one yoke of oxen, and the other members of the party clung to the tails of the oxen and kept close together. In that manner they safely reached the home of Henry Martin where they secured shelter for the night. During the night Mr. Goldberg, who was more badly frozen than the others, was in great agony, and, believing himself to be dying, he bade his comrades good-bye. He subsequently recovered. All the members of the party reached home after spending the night at Mr. Martin’s. Erick Colby was another Martin Township farmer who went to Rock River after wood that awful day. He reached the timber just as the storm struck, but braving the dangers of the blizzard, he at once set out for home, and reached it in safety."
