Kingsville
In 1848, Jacob King bought 57 acres in the E1/2 of section 29, and the
W1/2 SW1/4 of section 28, Town 20, Range 24 . It is unknown what Mr. King
did from 1848 to 1857. He probably worked in the mills in Neshoto, but
there are no records of that. In 1857, Jacob had a vision to create his
own little mill town. He divided his property (that was south of the West
Twin River) into blocks. There were 15 blocks in all, but only 10 were
numbered .Kingsville was laid out in blocks that numbers 1 through 5 ran
along the river, numbers 6 through 10 ran south of the road named East
Water Street, and had 20 lots per block. Another set of blocks to the
south of blocks 6 through 10 were laid out, but no numbers were assigned.
Will Creek was a small stream that ran through blocks number 2 and 9. It
traveled south through two other unnumbered blocks. Kingsville also had
three streets, East Water Street, Franklin Street and South Water Street.
He received a Certificate of Plat at the County Surveyors Office on April
23, 1857.
Kingsville was laid out to the east of the village of Neshoto, and had
about 14 families with a population of 125 at it's peak. Some of the
residents that lived in Kingsville were: Salomon, Oestrich, Kettenhofen,
Hess, Meyer, August Schmidt, William Schmidt, Kesley, Mueller and Jacob
King. These people rented their property from King, it is unknown at this
time where they lived in Kingsville. They worked in Jacob's sawmill mill,
which was built in 1859. The sawmill was built on top of the hill just
east of where Shoto (Neshoto) now is . Kingsville also had two saloons,
one across the road from the mill. This saloon had a dance hall, and when
the hall was torn down, the wood was used to build a grainery. The other
saloon was directly across the road from where the second schoolhouse was
built. The latter also served as a store.
In 1859, Jacob King built a grist mill, saloon and dance hall. He left
Kingsville in 1868 for reasons unknown. In 1884, the mill was sold to
Charles Hacker and Henry Warnke and was moved down to Neshoto. Years later,
the mill became known as the Holly Mill, until it burned down in 1949.
Early saloon keepers in Kingsville were: Kettenhofen, Stadler, Oestreich
and Silbersack.
A few years after the mill was moved, the saloon across the road from the
school was also moved, and placed on the south bank of the West Twin River
in Neshoto (the exact year is unknown). This saloon was known as Neshoto
House, and later became Shoto Gardens.
Not much is known about Kingsville's founder. We do know that he married
around 1849 to Maria or Mary Otelia Hileman. According to the August 14,
1860 Census, Jacob and Maria had six children; John born May 1850, Henry
born in 1851, Mary born in 1853, Wilhelmina born in 1854, Richard born in
1858 and Joseph born June 1860. Where he went after selling his property
in 1869 is unknown.
|
