On the first of April 1997, Farmington's municipal government celebrated its 125th year of serving the needs and interests of the community.

The first generation of Farmingtonians - the proper name for the community’s residents - was unsuccessful in having the village incorporated. The story of Farmington's village charter, and the individuals involved in how it came to be, begins in 1869.

Farmington was an unorganized village when it was pummeled by the City of Hastings for attempting to have the county seat moved from Hastings to Empire Township in November 1869. Hastings, the first community in Dakota County to be incorporated, wasted no time flexing and using its political muscles on any community in the county that challenged its position of power and importance, and Farmington was no exception.

Farmington was quick to learn that if it wanted to prosper materially and be a force in county politics like Hastings, it needed a strong municipal government.

In February 1869, Reuben J. Chewning, a state representative from Farmington, and a member of the Military Affairs, Agriculture and Manufactures, and State Prison Committees, introduced a petition to the house signed by forty residents requesting that the legislature pass an act to incorporate the village. The act was approved by both branches of the legislature without a dissenting vote and sent to Governor William Marshall for his signature.

Frank J. Mead, the outspoken publisher of Farmington's first newspaper, the Telegraph, gave an account of what happened to the bill in the March 18, 1869 issue.

"While the matter was yet pending in the Senate, a gentleman named Donaldson, who constitutes himself the peoples guardian for this section of Dakota County, went to St. Paul and requested one of our members to kill the measure. With the measure in his hands, and no remonstrance from any one except a verbal one from Donaldson, our member did not feel justified in doing so, and the bill passed into the hands of his excellency, Gov. Marshall."

The "gentleman named Donaldson" that Mead referred to was Major James Donaldson, a veteran of the Fourth Minnesota Regiment, and one of Farmington's leading citizens. Donaldson was Farmington's postmaster before he was elected to the state legislature in 1867.

"Now, it so happens," continued Mead, "that Donaldson is a species of 'Man Friday' to Gov. Marshall, being interested with him in an agricultural venture (not wheat seed) down in Mower County. So much is Gov. Marshall in love with Donaldson that the latter has become a 'power behind the throne', a kind of deputy governor for Dakota County, and hence when he whispered in the attentive ear of the executive, that the bill of incorporation was liable to make him [Donaldson] pay a few more dollars in taxes to build sidewalks and grade streets in Farmington, the accommodating governor-in-chief quietly kills the bill by a pocket veto.

"Of all the mean things done by the Radicals since they have been in power in Minnesota it was reserved to Gov. Marshall to perpetrate the meanest contemptible office of 'court favorite,' and allowing one man, and he a man void of either principle of ability, to override the wishes of a whole community."

The "Radicals" Mead referred to were the Republicans. Gov. Marshall played a role in the founding of the Republican Party in Minnesota and defeated the popular Democrat Henry M. Rice for governor in 1865.

Mead was no stranger to politics and was the publisher of the Northwestern Democrat, a weekly newspaper at Hastings for a brief time. He was described as a "bitter Democrat" and a "loud denouncer" of the Republican Party.

"We do not propose to discuss the merits or demerits of the act of incorporation," Mead continued. "Whether it was good or bad, just or unjust, it had a proviso attached submitting it to a vote of the people, and we have always been taught that the community at large was the best judge of what was for its own immediate interest, and neither Marshall or Donaldson had a shadow of right to steal from the people of this village the opportunity to vote on the question of incorporation; and such an act of favoritism on the part of the Governor, in the teeth of a large majority of the most respectable of our citizens, was nothing less than contemptible.

"Thank God, we have only a little more than nine months longer to live under the administration of this man Marshall," rejoiced Mead, "and unless we are sadly mistaken his chances of playing the tyrant another two years are waxing beautifully less with each cropping out of the bed rock of his natural and constitutional meanness."

So adamant were the ill feelings toward Marshall and Donaldson, Mead expressed the community's feelings by writing "the worst punishment we could wish for Marshall, Governor-in-chief, and Donaldson, deputy Governor, for vetoing our incorporation bill is that they may be compelled to wander through all eternity over such streets as we have in this village...."

Built on a dry lakebed, Farmington and its streets were scraped out of fertile prairie soil. April's spring thaw and any amount of rainfall made traveling on the village's mired earthen streets an unendurable experience.

Little did the community know that their wish to have Gov. Marshall eternally wandering through Farmington's mucky streets almost became a reality. In 1869 Maj. Donaldson purchased Gov. Marshall's residence in St. Paul, and Marshall bought Farmington's most handsome commercial building, the Donaldson block, on the corner of the Third and Oak Streets. Maj. Donaldson constructed the building in 1867 at a cost of $10,000. The building's potentially high property taxes and Donaldson's unwillingness to pay them were the reasons he asked Marshall to veto the incorporation bill.

"We hope Marshall has no intention of taking up his residence in Farmington," wrote Mead. "Such an infliction would be worse than the wide-spread prevalence of the itch in the community."

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Farmington patiently waited for Gov. Marshall's second term to end. Horace Austin, a judge from St. Peter, was elected governor in 1870 and proved to be friendlier to the community than his predecessor.

To the great pleasure of the community, Gov. Marshall sold his property in Farmington, and, after serving as the state railroad commissioner, left Minnesota for California. He died at Pasadena in 1896. Maj. Donaldson also left Farmington, no longer having any interest in the community. He died at the state insane asylum at St. Peter in 1885.

Frank J. Mead folded the Farmington Telegraph in 1870 and moved to Minneapolis to work as the city clerk for the Tribune.

The Farmington Telegraph was described as "democratic in politics, and devoted to the interests of the town in which it was founded. Its career was short, however brilliant it may have been."

In 1879 Mead moved to the Dakota Territory and became one of the original settlers of Mandan, North Dakota. He served as mayor, register of deeds and in 1881 was elected to the North Dakota legislature and served as the chief clerk of the house of representatives.

In 1888 he returned to Minnesota where he did syndicate work for the Minneapolis Tribune. He also wrote for the New York Journal and the Boston Herald.

He died at Minneapolis of heart disease in 1908. His body was returned to Farmington and interred at Corinthian Cemetery.

Mead was described as "an ideal reporter, genial, suave, possessed of a large acquaintance with the leading men of the northwest, and was among the last of the old guard in the Twin Cities."

Gov. William Marshall, Maj. James Donaldson and Frank J. Mead played important roles in Farmington's attempt to become incorporated in 1869.

Three years later, state senator Reuben J. Chewning would introduce another petition from Farmington's residents requesting that the legislature pass an act to incorporate the village.

Another newspaper and newspaper man would take the place of the Telegraph and Mead. With the help and encouragement of John Emery and the Farmington Press, the village of Farmington would receive its Charter.

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So important was the role Emery and the Press played in having the 1872 Charter accepted by the community, the story of he and his newspaper needs to be told.

"Horrid black mud, and dust, with filthy, stagnate pools that filled the atmosphere with what in any eastern climate would be a real pestilence," was Emery's first impression of Farmington and its streets in the spring of 1870.

Emery arrived from Boston in search of a healthier climate. He also came to look around Farmington to see if the community would be able to support a new newspaper. Farmington was without a newspaper in 1870 after Frank J. Mead folded the Telegraph and moved to the Dakota Territory.

A native of Maine, Emery had lived all his life on the east coast, but the foggy and damp climate affected his health. It seemed that Farmington's dust would be more suitable than fog and the fine aroma of Farmington's filth healthier for him than the salty spray of ocean air.

Despite his health, things had been good back east for Emery. Born at Eastport, Maine in 1822, he spent his youth sailing the Atlantic. His nautical experience qualified him for a place on the Massachusetts Board of Pilot Commissioners. In 1860 he was appointed an Inspector at the Boston Custom House, a position he held for six years, and from which he was promptly discharged because he swore at President Andrew Johnson when he "swung 'round the circle."

During the congressional elections of 1866, President Johnson made a "swing '’round the circle" - a tour of the important cities of the east and middle west - to explain the reconstruction policy to the people and to help elect a congress with which he could work. His efforts were a failure. Under the goad of vicious heckling, Johnson lost his temper and hurt rather than helped his cause. One of the loudest hecklers was Emery.

After loosing his government job Emery went back to the business he knew best. When he was 14 he became a printers apprentice and for six years learned the newspaper trade. When he was 26, he purchased the Eastport, Maine, Sentinel, his hometown newspaper. He subsequently moved to Massachusetts on account of his health and purchased the Provincetown Banner and the Harwich Press.

In 1870 a change in health led him to sell the newspapers. He went west in search of a healthier climate. Arriving at Minnesota in May, he met General John Averill, a veteran of the Minnesota Sixth Infantry, who told him of an opening for a paper in Farmington.

Emery spent a few days in Farmington and wasn't impressed with what he saw, but the town had possibilities. After some doubts and hesitation, he wrote to his wife, Mary, to pack up his type and newspaper equipment, hire a railroad car and come to Farmington as soon as possible.

When the boxcar arrived at Farmington in June and finally opened, Emery was horrified to see all the neatly packed type spilled and scattered on the boxcar floor. Type that has been spilled is known as pied type. It took the Emerys' two months to sort them and get them in working order. On August 4, 1870, the first issue of the Farmington Press appeared in town.

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"First Words"

"We have, after various tribulations by rail, and sorting an immense amount of pi, started our PRESS in Farmington...to whose interests we shall now heartily devote ourselves," wrote Emery in the first issue.

"We shall aim to make a readable and wholesome news-visitor for every family who have cast their lot in this section, and build up and further all enterprises that shall be for the general welfare."

Emery tells his readers that the success of the newspaper and the prosperity of the community will be determined by the readers themselves.

"Our usefulness will be in just proportion to the interest manifested by our fellow-citizens in aiding and sustaining us: THE PRESS will be just what its readers and neighbors give it the opportunity of becoming. By their good-wills, their subscriptions, their advertisement, their hints, their communication of news - in short, their general enterprise and co-operation in all that concerns the public welfare - they can sustain here a paper that will reflect credit to their town and county."

He then gives the ground rules for those readers who are interested in expressing their points of view.

"On all topics we shall speak freely and with candor; and we invite all who can write to ventilate their thoughts as freely as we incline to ourselves. If they are written with fairness and courtesy, they will not be refused because their sentiments may not coincide with those of the Editor, for toleration and free speech shall be a special characteristic of THE PRESS."

The Farmington Press was a Republican paper and was fair to the residents of the community that leaned toward the Democratic Party, however it wasn't so amiable to such politicians as Dakota County's very own Ignatius Donnelly or his supporters. Emery had this to say in the October 13, 1870 issue about a certain unnamed gentleman who criticized the Press in the Hastings Union.

"Some sorehead, who was not manly enough to make his complaints to us personally, has written a dirty little mess concerning this paper to the Hastings Union. He vows that he would rather endure the itch or even the cholera, (one of which he is probably afflicted with), than the PRESS in Farmington. Very likely. It hurts. And then his free-trade notions would naturally impel him to kill off any thing started at home - even his "patronage" would do that. Hypocrites generally prefer death to exposure. Our pen has evidently pricked a Donnelly yearling, and it is quite natural that he should bellow. Mr. 'Low' (so much of his signature is about right) thinks we shall be heard no more here after 1870. Well, if we should leave, we don't believe we should cheat the people of Farmington half as much as he has, already. Now, dear Mr. Sorehead, do roar some more!"

Emery made it clear to his readership that politics were important but not as important as the welfare of the community.

"We shall mainly devote our columns to matters of local importance, and leave political squabbles, for the most part, to those who have a keen relish for such warfare."

Although Emery enjoyed a bare-knuckle verbal battle with politicians, his real desire was to use his energy and journalistic talents in helping Farmington to become a better community.

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It was already obvious to the community what Farmington needed to "reap the advantages that properly belong to it as a place of business" as Emery put it.

Platted in 1864, Farmington was six-years-old when he arrived and it had already gone through a bitter county seat fight with Hastings and endured an unjust rejection by the governor to be incorporated and allowed to organize a municipal government.

The Press had been in business for a month and began to make its first attempts to motivate the community "to whose interests we shall now heartily devote ourselves," as Emery had promised.

He offered two suggestions to improve the village. First, to construct a flour mill on the Vermillion River, and the second, to get incorporated.

"Being the center of one of the best wheat-growing districts in the State," he wrote in the September 1 issue, "there is no one enterprise that is more needed, or that will pay better, than a grist mill. Nature has furnished the power here to hand, in a stream that never runs dry, and where a fall of ten or twelve feet can be obtained. Wheat can be had in abundance - indeed is always to hand, and for lack of he mill has to be shipped as grain, so that even the farmers cannot get it converted to flour for their own use short of a tax of about 25 cts. per sack. Then reflect how much business the mill would add to the village. It would also require the addition of a barrel-maker, giving employment to a score of hands in packing and coopering. The additional business and trade it would stimulate here would pay for all expenses of costs the first year. Even if the waterpower were not available, a steam mill would be a good investment - as it would have all the business it could possibly do. Why not here as well as elsewhere in the State? At some rate or other, a Grist Mill must go up here, or our businesses interests will suffer."

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To illustrate his second suggestion - to incorporate the village - he pointed to the example of a few residents he called "the fair promise of the future."

"The village wants trimming up. Property in any village is worth 100 per cent more for having good streets, good fences, good sidewalks, and a good supply of trees about it. The do-nothing, care-less and slovenly manner of letting the streets and walks take care of themselves, will soon spoil the reputation of any village. And a little pride and pains expended upon these will render any place attractive, and enhance the value of every house lot, twice what it may cost to improve them. Here and there we see evidence of taste and refinement about private dwellings. A graveled walk, a neat fence, a little paint and a green shutter, show that the indwellers have a sense of propriety, and desire to make things better. These people are the fair promise of the future, for without them we should have no hopes of improvement. Their example will be contagious - others will imitate them, and in time we shall all be better for their influence. But Farmington needs and organized force to start a reform in its appearance. It should be incorporated, at once, and have a local government that would regulate its local interests. First, the principal streets need to be crowned up, and guttered on each side, sending the drainage off to the river instead of sweltering and festering in puddles as now, creating malaria and engendering fevers. Were it not that our atmosphere is remarkably pure in itself, there would be no living here, from the effluvia arising from every conceivable kind of garbage that is dropped wherever it is most convenient. But so long as it is nobody's business to make decent streets, nobody will think it worth while to build and beautify.  We have thus indicated some of the grievous wants of this village. The people, unitedly, can supply all these wants; and all of them will be better off, in every way, the day the work is done. Will they do it?"

Emery had his doubts about Farmington. The first few months for the Press were difficult and the residents were slow to embrace it as a tool to improve the community.

He knew how to broadcast the seeds of ideas, and knew the conditions were right for them to germinate, grow, and flower in Farmington. He waited to see with whom his ideas fell and how they would develop. He did not have to wait long.

Two brothers-in-law, J.M.D. Craft from Castle Rock, and Leroy Fluke from Farmington, organized the Farmington Mill Company in the fall of 1870.

Emery would continue to campaign for the incorporation of the village for another year. His persistence would pay off. He would see the unpretentious little prairie town of Farmington grow to become "the gem of the prairie."

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"Here shall the PRESS the People's Rights maintain,

Unawed by Influence and unbribed by Gain.

Pledged to no party's arbitrary sway,

We follow Truth where 'er it leads the way," was the motto Emery, printed in every issue of his newspaper.

Outspoken about the community's economic, social, spiritual, intellectual and physical health, Emery never wavered in following the Truth - as he saw it.

However, not everyone saw it his way, and expressed their differences with him in their own style.

"We have contended with every species of personal abuse, deceit, lying, defamation and slander, that could be connected by a few mean souls, and one malicious fool in particular, that were resorted to in order to injure our business and defame the character of our family - not even the wife being spared," wrote Emery in the August 10, 1871 issue. "With all this, and in a period of general dullness and cry of hard times in this neighborhood, we have yet managed, by hard work and close application, by both man and wife (both in poor health), to get all the friends worth having, keep our Press moving, pay our bills, and TELL THE TRUTH."

Farmington wasn't making any progress in the early 1870s and he let the community know it. Things had gone from bad to worse and people were getting tired of Emery harping about it.

Unsanitary conditions of the streets and alleys created health problems. The first cold blooded murder in town - a local farmer beaten to death with a piece of firewood - was the result of a quarrel in one of Farmington's six saloons, and a shop keeper rousted from his bed and dragged through the muddy streets by four inebriated and unhappy customers, were a few problems the community had no way to deal with.

These occurrences were "an outrage upon law and decency," wrote Emery in the November 2, 1871 issue.

"People are determined that "law and order" shall prevail here even if it may be necessary to suppress every saloon in the village for that purpose."

To have "law and order" prevail in the community, Farmington needed to be incorporated and organize a municipal government. It took Emery a year and a half of hard campaigning to get the community ready.

In January 1872, state senator Chewning introduced a bill to have Farmington incorporated.

"At last it seems that an act to incorporate the Village of Farmington has passed through the Legislature. We hope to have a copy of it soon. It should be printed and put in the hands of every person interested, so that all can act and vote upon it understandingly, when called upon. There can be no doubt of the importance of such a measure, in regulating and improving the village and enhancing the value of every man's estate within its limits," wrote Emery in the February 29, 1872 issue.

A copy of the act was slow to arrive but hurriedly printed in the March 21 issue for the residents to read, study and discuss its implications.

"In our view, it is very fair and equitable," wrote Emery. Section 17 of the document indicated that the act of incorporation would be voted upon on the first Monday of April at Niskern's Hotel on the corner of Oak and Second Streets.

After a week of discussing the act Emery had this to say in the March 28 issue: "The Incorporation Act, we suppose, is to be voted upon next Monday afternoon, and we presume all interested will be at the polls, to vote for or against it. Our opinion is that the act will be accepted by a respectable majority; for the fact is, the better portion of the people in this village are sick of the miserable and careless manner in which the place has gone on, with no government, no regulations, and no responsibility. If they are to live here, they desire to have the place assume a decent appearance, and made somewhat attractive, so that strangers passing thro' and desiring a place to locate may not be repelled by the absence of all systems, order and neatness, which are so agreeable to people from the eastern States, generally, and to all people of taste and refinement from anywhere. Hundreds of persons in search of good farming locations, which are here abundant - people with money, enterprise and taste - what we specially need and must have to build here, have passed us by: the shanty-like aspect of things, the muddy streets and sink-holes, the absence of sidewalks and trees, made them dubious, and so they passed on. We must remedy all this, if possible, and the first step is now before us. We therefore urge all friends of order and improvement who have votes to give to throw them '"For the Act of Incorporation,"' on Monday next when they assemble to ballot."

On April 1, 1872, the Act of Incorporation was approved by 89 voters and rejected by 11. Although the Act of Incorporation was accepted, Farmington had to wait a little longer for its anticipated Village Charter.

Emery was ready for the next step in the process and encouraged qualified residents to consider running for public office.

A citizen's caucus was held on Friday, May 3, with nine candidates competing for six offices. It was no surprise that the candidates who received the majority votes at the caucus were the ones elected as Farmington's fist public officials on Monday, May 6.

B.F. Miller, a merchant, and Thomas C. Davis, a banker and wealthiest individual in town, were elected to the Board of Trustees. Edward Brackett, a railroad agent, was also elected a Trustee and chosen to preside over the Board.

J.F. Dilley, a merchant, was elected Constable, Charles B. Smith, a merchant and real estate agent, was elected Treasurer, and I.W. Gibbons, a merchant, was elected Justice of the Peace. Samuel Webster was appointed the Village Assessor by the Board of Trustees and John Emery was asked to be the community's first Village Clerk.

Emery gave the newly elected officials some advice in the May 9 issue: "The officers elected are as competent and faithful as could be gathered from the list of those who would be willing to serve; and we trust they will perform their duties in an acceptable manner. The trustees are burdened with the entire management of the village government, and their office is one of much responsibility and trust. They will have plenty to see to, lots of fault found with them, and have no pay for their trouble - always expecting the satisfaction they will feel in regulating, re-arranging and beautifying this naturally pretty village. We say...to our new Board of Officers: Go ahead, moderately, but firmly and fearlessly; and manage our young city's affairs just as you would manage your own estates - as if you had all to enjoy and all to pay for yourselves - and you can not go very wide of the mark."

The officers of the Board of Trustees did go ahead moderately, firmly and fearlessly, as well as the generations of elected and appointed officials who followed them. Farmington’s charter would change with the community. In 1900 Farmington was re-incorporated. The village was then governed under the "General Village Laws of the State of Minnesota." The special charter granted to the village in 1872 by the State was surrendered. The greatest benefit of the re-incorporation was that the duties of the elected officials were better defined. The stage was set for the community to change.

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