The Civil War: Wasioja, Minnesota Part I

We had been out for a ride that afternoon. Visited a few state parks. Then we headed for Rochester for some "essential" shopping, according to Mrs. T. Rather than hurry there on the four lane highway, I took some back country roads. Your never know what you might come across. That's where I saw it. The sign pointed ahead to Wasioja. I remembered that name but for what?
It wasn't really a town. Just a few scattered homes from the 1950's. A few nearby farms. And a nondescript business. Then, I began to notice a some limestone buildings obviously from the 19th century.This home, for example built in 1858.
Then as we drove around a bit, I saw a sign in front of another small limestone building. When the Civil War began in 1861, Minnesota was the first state to offer and send troops to aid the Union cause. In April 1861, this building, which had been built as a law office and community meeting center in 1855 for the village, became a recruiting station. Recruits from the Wasioja station numbering over 200 formed the nucleus of Company C of the 2nd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The building was Colonel James George's, a Mexican war veteran, law office who later led the volunteers at the Battle of Chickamauga.That was it. The Civil War. But what was it about this town and the Civil War that was buried someplace in my memory? Our next stop, on a wooded hillside told the story. As we approached, I was reminded of a famous photograph of the ruins of Richmond, Virginia at the end of the Civil War.
This was the Wasioja Seminary. And no, it hadn't been blasted to ruins by Confederate artillery. Some time after the Civil War it had been destroyed in a fire.

It does speak, however, to a time when Wasioja was a live and vital village. Anxious to promote the growth of the new town it citizens agreed to provide the Free Will Baptists a seminary. A structure of native limestone was completed in 1860. The seminary opened in that year with an enrollment of over 300 students. By 1862 Wasioja had more than a dozen stores, a hotel, a flour mill and was surrounded by farms and quarries that promised a great future.
Then the course of history was changed. The Civil War had begun and men from Minnesota were on the battlefields. Colonel George asked for volunteers. Led by Professor Gilley, many young students and others marched down to the law office and enlisted. Just over a year later, on Snodgrass Hill, near Chickamauga, they stopped the Rebels advance at a very high cost. Of the eighty young men who left Wasioja only twenty-five returned with life and limb intact. The town never recovered from the loss
Wasioja and its people paid in the coin of their future, by standing for Union and against the immorality of slavery.

A few years after that visit, I read in the Rochester, Mn newspaper that the "Friends of Wasioja" were holding the first Civil War Days in the little crossroads town. Thousands of visitors were expected for the three day event. Their would be speeches, recreated battles with cannons and reenactors, dress up balls and lots more. Mrs T and I decided to attend and I'll tell you all about it....... In Part II next.