Then & Now: A History of Rice County, Faribault & Communities

~en ~c;Now
the village of Shieldsville. He took steps to induce Irish
settlers to come to the vicinity, including the nearby
township of Erin. That area became known in the early
days as the General Shields Colony. By 1856 the town of
Shieldsville was well established and most of the better
government land taken.
The seventh Territorial Legislature of Minnesota
granted a charter, approved March 1, 1856 for a
railroad from the Iowa State line to follow the Straight
River valley and push through the "big woods" to
Minneapolis, a distance of one hundred miles.
General Shields, along with General H. H. Sibley of
Mendota, Franklin Steele of Fort Snelling, F. Pettitt,
Judge Alanson and B. Vaughan, was a commissioner
for opening subscriptions and making arrangements
for the permanent organization of. the Minneapolis
Cedar Valley Railroad. They secured stock
subscriptions to the amount of $200,000 and held a
meeting at the office of Shields & McCutchen in
Faribault on January 28th, 1856. However, it took an
act of Congress in 1862 to allow construction. The
railroad got as far as Rochester in 1864. It was linked to
Faribault by a stage route. By 1865 it became the
. Minnesota Railway Co. and had gotten as far as
Northfield.
Helped Faribault Grow
During the spring and summer of 1856 there were
few buildings in Faribault but largely through the
efforts of General Shields, by fall there were more than
250 units and the population had grown to 1,500.
Estimated improvements to the city that year
amounted to $100,000. According to Neill's History of
Rice County ''The residences of General Shields, J.
Cooper, N. Paquin, J. H. McClelland, F. Faribault,
Rev. L. Armsby, S. Barnard, Mr. Humphrey, H.
Riedell, J. Gibson, and Messrs. Decker, Alby, Lines,
Whipple, & Co., averaged about $2,000 each.''
General Shields, according to a few old timers still
around, resided for at least a short while in
Shieldsville, but he owned this imposing residence in
Faribault and lived in Rice County for probably three
years.
Shields returned to politics and before the state of
Minnesota was even recognized as such was elected
United States Senator along with Henry W. Rice. After
his term in office he returned to San Francisco, where
in 1861 he married Mary Ann Carr, the daughter of an
old friend.
The couple settled in Mazatlan, Mexico, where
Shields was involved in mining. When the Civil War
broke out, he sold out his interest in the mines and
offered his services to Lincoln.
On August 19, 1861, he was appointed Brigadier
General of Volunteers, and on March 7, he defeated
Stonewall Jackson, the only man ever to do so.
President Lincoln appointed him a major general but
the senate did not confirm the appointment and Shields
retired from the army on March 28, 1863, to return to
San Francisco where he was appointed a state railroad
commissioner. Finally his wife persuaded him to buy
an estate in Carrollton, Missouri.
Elected Senator Again
In 1874 the Democrats of Carrollton County
nominated him for the legislature. He was elected and
served two terms. In 1878 he was elected United States
Senator from Missouri to served out an unexpired
term. Later he served as state railroad commissioner
of Missouri.
He spent the remainder of his life on his farm and
on lecture tours. He died suddenly while on one of these
tours at Ottumwa, Iowa, June 1st, 1879 from the effects
of a wound he had received at Cerro Gordo.
He was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in
Carrollton, Missouri, where in 1910 a statue was
erected to his memory. In 1893 his statue had been
placed by the state of Illinois in Statuary Hall in the
National Capitol. In 1914 Minnesota placed a statue of
the general in the rotunda of the State Capitol.
The Coat of Arms for the family name of Shields
bears the motto, "Omne Solum Forti Patria," which
translated means, "A brave man finds every land a
fatherland.''
It would appear to be a fitting motto for General
James Shields who was indeed a man at home in many
places.
First county board
The first Rice County Board appointed by
Territorial Governor Gorman on Jan. 2, 1855, one
hundred twenty one years ago, was composed of three
members, Halsey M. Matteson, Isaac N. Stater and­
Luke Hulett, all prominent names in early county
history.
At an election held in November of 1855, three new
members were elected, Frederick W. Frink, George F.
Pettit and Andrew Storer, equally prominent in the
county's development.
In the spring of 1856, the county was divided into 14
townships and the three man board was done away
with. The chairman of each township board became a
member of a new board to be known as the Rice County
Board of Supervisors. The board had its first meeting
on Sept. 14, 1856 and it was composed of the following
people: G. L. Carpenter, Webster, L. Barlow,
Richland, Daniel Bowe, Northfield, W. A. Pye,
Wheeling, Isaac Woodman, Walcott, J. A. Starks,
Cannon City, B. Lockerby, Bridgewater, Miles
Holister, Wheatland, Tom Kirk, Wells, E. F. Taylor,
Forest, Isaac Hammond, Morristown. J. Hagerty,
Shieldsville, John Conniff, Erin, G. W. Batchelder,
Warsaw.
The above type of Board of Supervisors continued
until Jan. 7, 1860 when it adjourned, never to meet
again. Sometime between Jan. 7, 1860 and May 15, 1860,
a new board was elected or appointed, which was
composed of five members. The new five man board
had its first meeting May 15, 1860 and was composed of
J. H. Parker, G. H. Batchelder, S. Webster, William
Thorp and C. Clopson. However, C. Clopson was not
present for the first meeting. At this meeting the board
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