History History

Florence Township, in Minnesota's Goodhue County, is part of the beautiful so-called Driftless Area, a geological area that was largely missed by glaciers and shaped by water, retaining a dramatic terrain of bluffs and valleys. It has a rich history and includes two sites listed on the U.S. Park Service's National Register of Historic Places: 

• The Old Frontenac Historic District, known for several stately homes built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and its Steamboat Landing beach (Lake Pepin/the Mississippi River), and,
• Our historic Florence Town Hall in Frontenac Station, which has been in continuous use since 1875.

The township also is home to sprawling Frontenac State Park, one of the finest birding sites in the Upper Midwest. According to the most recent U.S. Census, the township has a population of about 1,550 people. It has two "metro areas." Old Frontenac is an unincorporated village with a historic cemetery and church (Christ Episcopal, built in 1868), unpaved streets, no streetlights or sidewalks, and a dark-skies aesthetic -- traits harking back to its historic roots. Frontenac Station, an unincorporated but lively little town along Minnesota Hwy. 61 and a major rail line, has a gas station and liquor store (Hwy. 61 Express) , a popular and always busy diner (the Whistle Stop), a tavern (B Wells), an antiques store (Camilla and Me), and several other businesses, and is home to St. John's Lutheran Church (WELS). 

• For centuries before European colonization, Indigenous peoples, including those of the Hopewell tradition, which flourished from about 100 BC to 500 AD, and later Dakota, Fox and Sioux peoples, live, hunt and fish in the area on the western shore of what is now Lake Pepin/the Mississippi River.
• 1600s: Europeans arrive in the area -- voyageurs, fur traders, missionaries.
• 1680: During an expedition to our area, Father Louis Hennepin, a priest and missionary from Belgium, remarks on its beauty. He was among explorers to the area sponsored by Count Louis de Buade de Frontenac (1620-1698), based in Montreal (then called Villa Maria). The count never visited our area, but his name lives on here.
• 1727: Early explorers build Fort Beauharnois on what is now Sand Point to guard their fur-trading interests. No trace of the fort remains, but a plaque acknowledges it at the Frontenac State Park rest stop at the intersection of Hwy. 61 and Goodhue County Rd 2.
• 1830: Treaty of Prairie de Chien, which with the Mdewakanton Dakota tribe establishes the so-called Half-Breed Tract, which runs south from what is now Barn Bluff (He Mni Can) in Red Wing more than 30 miles southeast along the Mississippi River and extends about 15 miles to the west in parts of what are now Wabasha and Goodhue counties.
• 1837: Fur trader James "Bully" Wells arrives, establishing his third trading post and becoming the first known non-Native person to live in the area. As amateur historian Lorry Wendland (and Old Frontenac resident) writes in her book "19th-Century Frontenac, Minnesota: The Rest of the Story," Bully Wells was 30 when he married 19-year-old Jane Graham, the daughter of a Scottish fur trader and a Native woman. Along with her sister, Mary Elizabeth (Graham) Faribault, Jane Graham Wells was granted 40 acres within the Half-Breed Tract. Because of that, you'll find the sisters' names listed near the historic beginnings of almost all abstracts of Frontenac area properties. As for Bully Wells, he later moved to Rice County and was killed in 1863 in the Dakota Uprising.
• 1847: Minnesota becomes a territory.
  
• 1852: The U.S. government claims and buys land in the Half-Breed Tract, saying it is doing so because the local Dakota tribe violated a treaty. Historians say that land grab occurred largely due to growing recognition that the area was packed with valuable natural resources -- a familiar story when it comes to land lost by Native Americans.
  
• 1854: Evert Westervelt takes over Wells' trading post. Also that year, a limestone quarry is built on the southeastern slope of Point-No-Point, in what is now Frontenac State Park, providing sturdy, impressive foundations for many grand local homes, as well as faraway structures, including the Cathedral of St, John the Divine in Manhattan In the fall, brothers Israel and Lewis Garrard, who will be key founders of the village of Old Frontenac, visit the area from Kentucky.
• 1855: Israel Garrard (1822-1901) builds a hunting lodge, St. Hubert’s Lodge, overlooking the river in what is now Old Frontenac The home, long lovingly maintained, still stands in Old Frontenac. Current owners are Jeff and Ann Bolin.
• 1856: A warehouse (later converted to the Lakeside Hotel) and store (later the Pavilion cottage) are built on Frontenac Point to sell goods to residents and river travelers.
• 1857: Evert Westervelt and Israel Garrard buy 4,000 acres from half-breed Jane Graham Wells and her sister and designate 320 of them for a town site to be called Westervelt. Settlers begin arriving from Europe, many of them craftspeople hired by Frontenac's founders to help build the village and beach resort structures.
• 1858: Minnesota becomes a state. Florence Township established. (It's named for Florence Graham, an early settler.)
• 1859: Village name changed from Westervelt to Frontenac. This begins a 20-year period in which the Garrard family develops the village and the surrounding area thrives from fur trading, logging, limestone mining and hospitality.
• 1867: The two-story warehouse at Frontenac Point is converted into the three-story Lakeside Hotel, build on the shore of Lake Pepin between Point-No-Point and Long Point, becomes the first resort hotel in the Upper Midwest. Also this year, Kate Wood Garrard, the young wife of Israel, dies after giving birth to a son, who dies a month later. They become the first burials in what is now the historic Old Frontenac Cemetery.
• 1868: Christ Episcopal Church is built in Frontenac village. (It still stands, preserved and active.)
• 1875: Florence Town Hall built. It still stands, having been lovingly restored in the late 1990s by the township and Friends of the Florence Town Hall. Look for it along Hwy. 61 as you drive through Frontenac Station.
• 1890: An unexpected storm sinks the Sea Wing, a boat and barge loaded with passengers in Lake Pepin just a mile south of Frontenac. Ninety-eight people, mostly from Red Wing, Minn., and western Wisconsin, are killed. In the days to come, items and bodies would wash up on the Frontenac shore.
• 1891: The Ursuline Sisters of the Central Province, nuns based in New Orleans and St. Louis, open the Villa Maria Academy for Girls in Frontenac village on land donated by the Garrard family.
• 1879-1937: Frontenac becomes a well-known resort community and popular vacation destination, especially for people from Chicago. Its Lakeside Hotel operated till 1901, then closed for a time. In 1907, the Garrard family sold it to Celestine Schaller, who operated a summer resort there until 1937.  
• 1901: Israel Garrard, a veteran of the Grand Army of the Republic (Civil War Union army) and Frontenac's chief founder, dies. He is buried in the Garrard family plot in the Old Frontenac cemetery. 
• 1939: Lakeside Hotel and its cabins became the Methodist Campus, summer home-for-a-week for thousands of visiting youths.
• 1946: Marian Hall, a French chateau-style building, is added to the Villa Maria. It still stands today.
• 1956: 200 acres of farmland donated for what would become Frontenac State Park in 1957. The park has greatly expanded over the years.
• 1969: A spectacular fire started by lightning destroys school building at Villa Maria, leading to its closure as a school.
• June 4, 1973: Much of the village of Old Frontenac is added to the U.S. Park Services' National Register of Historic Places, designated as the Old Frontenac Historic District.
• 1974: Florence Town Board adopts an ordinance establishing the Old Frontenac Heritage Preservation Commission to manage and protect the district's architectural and cultural integrity.
• 1985: Frontenac Sportsman's Club founded. The club, which is now housed in and manages the Community Center west of Hwy. 61 in Frontenac Station, is well-known locally for its generosity to local causes and clubs. Its yearly ice-fishing contest on Frontenac Pond (Pleasant Valley Lakelet) is the local social event of the year!
• 1986: Methodist Campus is sold to Bill and Linda Flies, who restore or rebuild its building as private residences. The beach and shoreline area, including Frontenac Point, remain public township property, now called Steamboat Landing. 
• 2003: Citizens craft Florence Township's first Comprehensive Land Plan, updating it in 2013. The plan, considered by many an innovative document, is currently being updated anew.
• 2016: The Ursuline Sisters leave the Villa Maria, which they sold in 2019 to John Rupp's Commonwealth Properties, which used it as a wedding venue and has hopes of reviving it, perhaps as condos,
• July 2019: Frontenac celebrates its 160th anniversary with a weekend of well-attended events, including a historic cemetery tour with re-enactors, booths with information about fur traders, limestone mining, Native peoples of the past and present, and a splendid cannon shoot.
• 2026: Florence Township begins work on its next Comprehensive Plan, which will help the township move wisely into the future, and unveils its new website -- this one! We're still working to add lots of information and photos to it.

Information drawn from several history sites and books. Questions or comments? Contact town clerk Pamela Miller at florencetwpmn@gmail.com.