The Settlement of Taylors Falls

In 1837 the United States Acquired from the Chippewa lumbering rights to the pine rich St. Croix Valley. Many lumberman did not wait for congress to ratify the treaty, but hurried into the area to claim the best timber. One of these, Joseph R. Brown, set up a trading post and lumbering camp on the west bank of the St. Croix at what is now Taylors Falls. Jesse Taylor, for whom the town was named, arrived the same year and laid claim to the west bank of the river. The next year, he returned with men, boats, building materials and a partner, Benjamin F. Baker, to begin construction of a mill just north of what was to become the town's upper steamboat landing. Taylor built a double log house, a sawmill, and other improvements but was forced to sell his claim and holdings to Joshua L. Taylor in 1846. It was the first exchange of deeded land in the St. Croix Valley.

Gradually, Taylor's Falls became a town. The first two frame houses were built in 1846, and in 1848 Dan Mears opened the first store. In 1850, the town's downtown area was laid out, and W.H.C. Folsom, one of the great figures in St. Croix lumbering history, erected a three-story frame store building. Heavy immigration, at first mainly New England Yankees followed by large numbers of Swedes in the 1850s, transformed the tiny settlement into a bustling frontier town.

First Swedish Settlers

In 1850, the first Swedish settler to come to Taylors Falls arrived in the small frontier community. Ulrich Nordberg explored the unsettled, heavily wooded area to the west, hoping to find a site suitable for a Swedish colony. Impressed with the land around Chisago Lake, he wrote Per Anderson, leader of a Swedish immigrant group in Moline, IL, recommending the area and enclosing a crude map and directions on how to get there.

As soon as the Mississippi was free of ice in the spring of 1851, Anderson, Per Berg, and Peter Wicklund, with their families and several hired men, began the steamboat journey up the river. En route, they were joined by another Swedish family, the Anders Swensons from New Orleans. The steamboat took the four families as far as Stillwater, where they built two flatboats which they poled into Taylors Falls on April 23, 1851. While the women and children stayed in the small settlement, the men hacked a trail west to what is now the Center City area. The Andersons, Bergs and Swensons staked their claims there, while the Wicklunds settled just west of Taylors Falls. These early Swedish settlers were followed by large numbers of their countrymen, who grew and prospered with the Chisago County Area.

Site of Historic Log Jams

In 1886, it took two steamboats, two steam engines, every available team of horses in the area, and over 200 men working with peevies and dynamite six weeks to break up a log jam at Taylors Falls. Stacked 50 feet high in places, logs choked the river for miles, a spectacle of sufficient magnitude to attract European journalists and thousands of sightseers

Jams of 250 million feet of timber were a common occurance from 1850 to 1890 as lumbermen on the Upper St. Croix sent their winter cut of white pine downstream to the mills at Stillwater. To control the flow of logs that piled up at Taylors Falls where the river makes a sharp right angle bend, the Nevers Dam was built 11 miles upstream in 1890. In 1912, the last log sluiced through its gates, and the colorful days of logging on the St. Croix were over.

Town House School

This is Minnesota's oldest existing public school house, built in 1852.

First United Methodist Church

Methodist circuit riders of the Sunrise Mission served the Taylors Falls area from 1852-59. On March 27, 1859, the Rev. Sias Bolles, Presiding Elder, organized the Taylors Falls Methodist Episcopal Church, with 35 members. Services were held in the public school until the present building was erected, 1860-61. It was dedicated January 1, 1862 by the Rev. Cyrus Brooks, Presiding Elder.

This is the second oldest Methodist church building in continuous use in Minnesota. Selected in 1934, by the Historic American Building Survey, "as possessing exceptional historic architectural interest, worthy of careful preservation."

Folsom House

William Henry Carmen Folsom, St. Croix River Valley lumberman and land speculator, chose this imposing site for his home in 1854. He, his wife Mary Jane, and their two small sons lived in an open barn on this property to prove up the claim while the five-bedroom home, reflecting both Federal and Greek Revival styles, was constructed. In 1855, after the family moved in, Mary Jane wrote to relatives in Maine, "We shall have plenty of room for as many as will come."

W.H.C. Folsom arrived in Taylors Falls in 1850 and actively involved himself in both the business and community development of his new home. Although he ran a store for 24 years, Folsom also helped operate a gristmill, a copper mining company, a bridge company, and a cemetery association. A member of the 1857 state constitutional convention. Folsom served five terms as state senator and is still a respected source of information on the early years of settlement in the area.

Once a wagon shed and stable, barn, icehouse, chicken coop, outhouse and wellhouse surrounded the main building. Of these, only the wellhouse remains, although the present garage was made with timbers from the barn.

Picturesque, historic homes abound in and near Taylors Falls. This home is in Franconia, settled in 1852, about 4 miles south of Taylors Falls. It was the center for river navigation bringing lumber and agriculture to the St. Croix River Valley.

The historic railroad station at Taylors Falls was used until the late 40s and early 50s. Trains would bring summer visitors from St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Some historic homes in Taylors Falls are located in Angels Hill, where one house is prettier than the last. All of these homes are within walking distance of downtown Taylors Falls.