Charlie is a senior this year!
While we did not venture as far as last year, we did some history digging close to home in Wasioja. Believed to be one of the first settlements in the state, the small hamlet does not boast of much; but it harbors buried treasure...
In 1862, Wasioja was bustling with business... Now it hardly appears on the map with a population of only 84 people. We were drawn there because of the little stone building below, originally built in 1855. It was converted into a military recruiting station in April of 1861 to aid in organizing Company C of the Second Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment for service in the War Between the States.
Of the eighty young men who left Wasioja in 1861 only twenty-five returned alive and unhurt. Not half a mile away are the ruins of a Seminary built in 1860. First called Minnesota Seminary and later Northwestern College, the school was instrumental in the growth of Wasioja. Many of the young men enrolled in this seminary enlisted at the recruiting station as soon as organizing Captain James George asked for volunteers. After the war, the seminary continued to operate although its enrollment was cut in half.
Like the town of Wasioja, however, the school never recovered from the loss due to the war. It eventually closed permanently in 1894 and a fire destroyed the building in 1905.
The cemetery there also stands testimony to the heritage of the town. I found one stone in particular which read David ______ (I could not make out the name) Born 1789, Died 1855. It is amazing to think of the time and events that have passed over that grave, and intriguing to see the remnants of the labor of men who lived more than a century ago.
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