The Founding of Parkers Prairie

The Founding of Parkers Prairie

By Steve Heriot

Jacob looked out over the landscape with a critical but appreciative eye. It was June 2, 1868. and Jacob Saunders had come a long way, looking for the right land. He, like most settlers, wanted to avoid the immense labor and expense of clearing heavy forest, but he still needed some standing trees to use for fuel and to build with. What he saw before him had it all, a mixture of grasslands for his stock, scattered forest, and plenty of water. Now to find his homestead!

He had left Stillwater to find land for his family to settle on, and after riding to Osakis, he had met a man that had recently been on a crew that had surveyed an area of beautiful mixed prairie about 30 miles north, towards Ottertail City. Jacob had heard that the area was being opened up to homesteading. He joined a party of men who were cutting the first trail north to the area, and then helped them blaze out the last few miles.

After arriving, he immediately left the party, located and staked his own homestead, and returned to Washington County for his family. After arriving back in Stillwater, he loaded his covered wagon, and with his family, traveled the 140 miles back to his stacked home site. Their oldest son, Frank, who was 12 years old at the time, walked behind the wagon, driving two cows and a few sheep. It took the family three weeks to travel from Stillwater to what would someday be known as Parkers Prairie. The family arrived July 17, 1868 and began to build a home. There would eventually be four other children in the family, and the youngest, Charles, would become the first white child born in the area. The farm was a success, and Jacob’s descendants live on the land to this day.

Another settler, Henry Asseln, became the first merchant and one of the wealthiest men of the county. He started a trading post there, and it became the hub of all roads. The first mail to the area was distributed from the little store, first arriving on July 4, 1869. Mail was carried in once a week on foot, horseback or by dog sled, depending on the weather and season.

In 1870, a second store, made of native oak logs, was built overlooking Lake Adley, just south of the settlement. The same year the area was organized as Jasper township. Three years later the township and village was named after one of its first supervisors, a pioneer named Parker.

[This story can be found on page 57 of our 2017 Otter Tail Lakes Country Destination Guide]