Continued from last week’s column, which detailed the earliest days of Monticello, up to the town plat being filed in the land office at Sauk Rapids in November 1854.
This new town immediately took the lead, stores were started, a post office established, mills commenced and almost all kinds of businesses were established in a very short time.
With the 1856 establishment of Wright County, Monticello became the county seat.
Ashley Crowl Riggs did not make much of a show, and to many it may seem strange, as the resident proprietor he was a busy and active man. So you’d think he should’ve spent most of the winter of 1855 in St. Paul working for the establishment of Wright County and having the location of the county seat be at Moritzious, rather than Monticello, but such is the fact that he didn’t.
Possibly somebody was too sharp for him, or maybe this was one of his many games to get clear of Moritzious Weissberger, who didn’t want much notoriety until his town was the county seat.
The long legal battle that ran on for several years between the original town proprietors of Moritzious and Monticello, entailing about 60 different court cases, were all lost on Moritzious’s behalf. The courts decided the plat be renamed “Lower Monticello” and the townsite of Moritzious be abolished.
The end of Moritzious was one of the first defining moments of Monticello, marking it as a mainstay on the maps of Minnesota.
Postmasters over the years
On a different note, in regards to the U.S. Post Office, the first one in Monticello was established Aug. 16, 1855, with Daniel Bailey Sutton (1830-69) as the first postmaster.
Since then, during the 1800s, the office was held by James Spencer Cannon Beekman (1835-1906), appointed Oct. 30, 1855; Martin Fox (1810-66), appointed Nov. 6, 1856; Capt. John Edward Hartley (1838-83), appointed Nov. 1, 1858; Col. Samuel Emery Adams (1828-1912), appointed April 7, 1860 and May 27, 1868; Horatio Francis Lillibridge (1836-94), appointed March 13, 1861; Wickliffe C. Williams (1823-90), appointed April 8, 1864; Albert Francis Barker (1836-93), appointed Sept. 11, 1865; George Washington Gerrish (1811-94), appointed April 27, 1869; Charles E. Kreis (1849-1935), appointed March 17, 1881; William Tubbs (1830-1905), appointed Sept. 18, 1885; Don Fayett Fuller (1848-1939), appointed May 2, 1889; John Louis Harwick (1861-1922), appointed Aug. 30, 1893; Robert Burns Kreis (1850-1928), appointed Aug. 21, 1897.
In the 1900s, the office of postmaster was held by Henry Clement Brasie (1869-1931), appointed April 28, 1910; Charles Silas Strout (1858-1934), appointed May 4, 1914; Edwin Herbert Anderson (1895-1965), appointed March 3, 1923; Marguerite Mealey (1888-1956), appointed June 25, 1936; Floy Adeline McCoy (1902-1989), appointed Oct. 31, 1955; Elaine Marie Nelson (1925-2020), appointed Officer in Charge Dec. 30, 1966; James Patrick Fitzgerald (1925-1987), appointed Jan. 17, 1969; James Willis Hall (b. 1933), appointed Officer in Charge May 2, 1980; Jerome David Baeyen (b. 1936), appointed Sept. 6, 1980; Judy Marie Thon (b. 1964), appointed Officer in Charge July 19, 1984; Pvt. Patrick Shaun Conrad (b. 1951), appointed Jan. 19, 1985; Kenneth George Krueger (b. 1945), appointed Officer in Charge March 22, 1988; Corrine Carol Bregenzer (b. 1943), appointed Officer in Charge May 5, 1988 and July 29, 1998; John Thomas Hutchinson Jr. (b. 1938), appointed July 30, 1988; John Louis Roden (b. 1952), appointed Nov. 7, 1998.
More recently, in the 2000s, the office of postmaster was held by Louise Marie Marquette (b. 1956), appointed Dec. 23, 2010; Brian Paul Wulff (b. 1959), appointed Jan. 29, 2014; Erin Elizabeth Jeandron (b. 1977), appointed July 23, 2016; Cheryl Denise Fritz (b. 1959), appointed Officer in Charge Nov. 25, 2016; James Adams Hanson (b. 1968), appointed Officer in Charge Jan. 4, 2017 and Postmaster Jan. 4, 2018; Eric Poland, appointed Officer in Charge Sept. 9, 2017; Charles Edward Stepanek (b. 1962), appointed Officer in Charge Oct. 3, 2017; David James Watrud (b. 1959), appointed Officer in Charge Jan. 19, 2019; Anthony Collis Pauly (b. 1964), appointed Officer in Charge March 28, 2019; Daniel John Pohl (b. 1980), appointed Officer in Charge Feb. 24, 2020; Liz Anne Troll (b. 1981), appointed Officer in Charge April 23, 2020; Chelsea Rae Emslander (b. 1996), appointed Officer in Charge Sept. 14, 2022; Ed Traeger; Jaden Magnuson; and most recently Salini Narayanan Nair (b. 1981), appointed March 23, 2024.
Ayden Irwin will be a senior this fall at Monticello High School. An avid local history buff and genealogist, he serves as the city’s unofficial historian.
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