Page 52 - 2017 Willmar Lakes Area Guide

History
First home in KAndiyohi county
In October 1856, Elijah and Loretta Woodcock built the first permanent home on the Columbia Town
Site Company’s land (currently Spicer, Minnesota)
in what is now Kandiyohi County. The 14 x 15 foot log house featured a common wood shingle roof, a puncheon floor and a six pane window. They used an old dry goods box to make the door. The following year, the Woodcocks added a 12 x 16 foot wing.
Elijah T. Woodcock, 23 years old, came from New York State and located a claim west of Green
Lake on August 10, 1856. Elijah found his way
to Green Lake from New York State via Galena, Illinois; McGregor, Iowa; and Rochester, Mantorville, Faribault, Owatonna, Mankato, Henderson, Glencoe, Hutchinson and Cedar City Minnesota. Green Lake so captivated Elijah that “We selected 320 acres, including prairie and timber lands, at this spot for
a town site and called it ‘Columbia’. We also took
a quarter section joining the town site lands as homestead under the preemption law–here I found my ideal farm.”
Years later, in 1901, Elijah wrote of his early residence here, “We thought a glorious future was in store for the Green Lake country - a great city would grow up and steamboats would ply on the beautiful waters. Laboring under this hallucination I hastened to my native state and took myself a wife to share the joys and grief of a western home.”
eLiJAh t. woodcocK (Age 22 yeArs)
LorettA woodcocK (Age 18 yeArs)
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Loretta herself wrote in 1901 about her first winter
in their western home. “No other person was nearer than forty miles except Indians and there were times that we were glad to see an Indian.” Elijah called
the winter of 1856-1857 “one of the severest in the history of Minnesota.” Loretta recalled that “winter came early and lasted long.” Snow was four feet
on the level. “The woods were deserted by beast and fowl,” as her husband well remembered. Still
a teenager, Loretta made do with “a little pork and beans and molasses but at last there was nothing but flour and tea, which we lived on alone for weeks. Flour became very low and starvation stared us in the face. At last the long dreary winter wore away, wild ducks and geese began to fly and ice gave way so we could fish. We had plenty to eat but nothing to cook with other than water and salt.”
Loretta faced another severe trial. She was pregnant. When April came she knew her baby was arriving. Loretta’s account of the birth of the first white child in in the county was written in 1901.