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County Agricultural society was organized in 1852, the first such county organization in
<br />Minnesota. Elk River's Oliver Kelley was among the founders.
<br />Elk River's first farm was reportedly that established by Silas Lane in 1850.11 Lane
<br />claimed acreage in Section 33 that included frontage on the Elk River and a promising
<br />mill site immediately noticed by Ard Godfrey and John G. Jameson, and purchased by
<br />them in 1851. In 1855, the townsite of Orono was platted on a portion of Lane's farm.
<br />Lane's claim was followed by Charles M. Donnelly's in Section 32, and those of L.B.
<br />Culver and Richard Davis in Section 31.
<br />The 1860 census shows that many early Elk River township farmers were natives of
<br />Maine, with others from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Illinois and a few from
<br />New Brunswick, Canada, Ireland, Hamburg and Prussia (Germany). By1900, more
<br />Germans and farmers from Norway and Sweden were represented, but the community's
<br />roots were still predominantly in New England. 12 Some farmers found winter work in
<br />the lumber camps of Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Elk River's Hungarian colony
<br />was founded by he 1890s by John, Martin and Andrew Fazekas. Arriving in the United
<br />States in 1881, they arrived in Elk River in the late 1880s and John purchased a farm in
<br />Section 10 in the hilly northern part of the township. The Farzekas were the first of a
<br />substantial group of relatives and friends who settled here, many of whom became dairy
<br />farmers."
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<br />Northeastern Elk River Township in 1903 shows Hungarian family farms.
<br />Atlas of Sherburne County.
<br />Elk River's best-known farmer was Oliver H. Kelley (1826-1913). A native of Boston, in
<br />1850, Kelley made a claim at the southeastern edge of the township in Section 14. 14 A
<br />leader in founding local agricultural societies, he turned to journals to learn new farming
<br />methods. In 1867, he founded the National Grange of the Order of the Patrons of
<br />Husbandry, an organization that would have one million members by 1875. The Grange
<br />was among a number of farmers' protest organizations and movements in the mid -
<br />nineteenth century. It was a response to farmer's struggles with new technology and
<br />Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
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