WINONA COUNTY
Established February 23, 1854, this county was named for a Dakota woman, Winona, cousin of the last chief named Wabasha, both of whom were prominent in the events attending the removal in 1848, of the Winnebago Indians from Iowa to Wabasha's prairie (the site of the city of Winona) and thence to Long Prairie in Todd county. This name belonged, says Prof. A. W. Williamson, in any Dakota or Sioux family, to the "first born, if a daughter, diminutive of wino, woman;" and similarly the name of the "first born child, if a son," was Chaska. In pronunciation, Winona is accented on the middle syllable, and the first and last syllables' have the short vowel sounds. The first, however, is often incorrectly given the long sound, as in urine; it should be short, as in win, or may be quite rightly given the sound of long e, as we.

Keating gave an impressive narration of the death of a Dakota maiden named Winona, who threw herself to death from the precipice known as "the Maiden's Rock," on the east shore of Lake Pepin, in preference to being married, as her parents requested, to one whom she did not love. (Narrative of Long's Expedition, 1823, vol. I, pages 289-295.) With much amplification, including change of the home of the maiden from Wabasha's village of Keoxa to a Dakota village represented to have been near St. Anthony Falls, Hon. Han ford L. Gordon retold this tragedy in a poem bearing her name, "Winona," published in 1881, reprinted in his collected writings ("Indian Legends and Other Poems," 1910, pages 43-74).

This name was first applied, about a year before the establishment of the county, to the village of Winona, which became the county seat.

Townships And Villages.
Information of names has been gathered from "History of Winona County," by Dr. L. H. Bunnell and others, 1883, 966 pages; "Winona (We-no-nah) and its Environs on the Mississippi," by Lafayette Houghton Bunnell, M. D., 1897, 694 pages; "The History of Winona County," compiled by Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge, editor, assisted by William Jay Whipple, 1913, two volumes, continuously paged, 1125 pages; and from interviews with the late Mr. Whipple and Prof. John M. Holzinger, of the State Normal School, each of Winona, during a visit there in April, 1916.

Altura, a railway village in Norton, is named for a town in Valencia, Spain.

Beaver, a hamlet in Whitewater township, platted in 1856, is on the Beaver creek near its mouth, where it was found obstructed by a beaver dam when the first white settlers came.

Bethany, a railway village in the south edge of Norton, bears the name of a village in Palestine. It is the name of villages or townships in twelve states, and of a city in Missouri.

Centerville is the name of a hamlet in the southeast part of Wilson.

Dakota is a railway village beside the Mississippi on the line between Dresbach and New Hartford.

Dresbach township and its railway village, platted in September, 1857, were named in honor of George B. Dresbach, who was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, August 27, 1827, came to Minnesota in 1857, founded this village, owned a farm and stone quarries, and was a representative in the legislature in 1868 and 1878.

Elba township, organized May 11, 1858, and its village, founded in 1856, bear the name of an island of Italy, famed for its rich deposits of iron ore. Napoleon had his residence there in 1814-15.

Enterprise is a hamlet in the southeast edge of Utica.

Fremont township, organized May 11, 1858, was named in honor of John Charles Fremont (b. 1813, d. 1890), who assisted Nicollet in his expedition through southwestern Minnesota in 1838, and was the first Republican candidate for president of the United States, 1856.

Hart township was also organized May 11, 1858. It bears a personal surname, but for whom should be learned by further inquiry.

Hillsdale township, likewise organized May 11, 1858, was named for its hills or stream bluffs, inclosing dales or valleys.

Homer township, organized May 11, 1858, and its village, previously platted in 1855, were named by Willard B. Bunnell, a brother of the historian of this county, for "his birthplace, the village of Homer, New York state." Fourteen states of the Union have villages and townships bearing this name of the early Greek epic poet.

Lamoille, a village on the Mississippi in the north corner of Richmond, platted in May, 1860, has the name of a river and county in northern Vermont.

Lewiston, a railway village in Utica, incorporated February 23, 1875, "was named in 1873 for S. J. Lewis, an early settler." (Stennett, Place Names of the Chicago and Northwestern Railways, 1908, p. 94.)

Minnesota City, a village in Rollingstone township, was platted in March 1852, for the Western Farm and Village Association, a colony of settlers from New York, this place being named by Robert Pike for the Territory. The association was- organized in New York city in October, 1851.

Mount Vernon township, organized May 11, 1858, is named from the home of Washington in Virginia, on the Potomac river, commemorating Admiral Edward Vernon (b. 1684, d. 1757). Twenty-one other states have townships and villages or cities of this name.

New Hartford township, organized in 1858, and its earlier village, platted in August, 1857, were named by settlers from Connecticut.

Norton township, organized May 11, 1858, at first called Sumner, and later Jefferson, bears an honored name of this county. James L. Norton (b. 1825, d. 1904) and Matthew George Norton (b. 1831, d. 1917), brothers who came from Pennsylvania in 1856, were members of the widely known lumber firm of Laird, Norton and Co., in Winona. Daniel S. Norton was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, April, 1829, and died in Washington, D. C., July 14, 1870. He received his education at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio; served in the Mexican war, and afterward studied law. In 1855, in company with Hon. William Windom, he came to Minnesota, and settled in Winona, where he practiced law ten years. He was a member of the state senate in 1857, 1861, and 1864; and of the United States senate from 1866 until his death.

Oak Ridge is a hamlet in the south part of Mount Vernon.

Pickwick, a village in Homer, platted in 1857, was named from the "Pickwick Papers," published serially by Charles Dickens in 1836-7.

Pleasant Hill township has many bluffs and ridges, 200 to 300 feet high. Its name originated with the first permanent settler, Joseph Cooper, who, coming in December, 1854, "to the ridge at the head of the south branch of Pine creek," exclaimed "What a pleasant hill!" He immediately took "a claim of 160 acres of land, lying on the ridge and embracing the heads of South Branch and Money Creek valleys." (History of the county, 1883, p. 582.)

Richmond township, organized May 11, 1858, took the name of its village, platted in 1855. "In 1850, a Frenchman named Richmond established a wood-yard on the site of the landing where George Catlin, the noted artist, was forced by obstructing ice to winter his boat, when he was painting his celebrated Indian portraits and pursuing his voyage up the Mississippi in early days. For years, on a conspicuous sand rock in a cove where his boat lay out of danger from running ice, the name of George Catlin could be seen in glaring red, and the landing was well known to steamboat men and pioneers as 'Catlin's Rocks.' Finally, the name of- Catlin disappeared by the action of frost and rain, and Richmond's name was given to the landing and perpetuated in village and township." (Bunnell, Winona and its Environs, 1897, p. 473.)

Rollingstone township and its village are named from their river or creek. Its Dakota name is "Eyan-omen-man-met-pah, the literal translation of which is 'the stream where the stone rolls.'" (History of the county, 1883, p. 144.) The journal of Forsyth, with Leavenworth and the troops who came in 1819 for building the fort that in 1825 was named Fort Snelling, called this stream "the Tumbling Rock."

St. Charles township, organized May 11, 1858, and its village, founded in 1854, incorporated as a city February 28, 1870, were named for St. Charles of Italy, who was born in 1538 and who became cardinal of Milan and secretary to Pope Pius IV." (History of the county, 1913, p. 597.)

Saratoga township, organized May 11, 1858, and the village in its west edge, were named by settlers from New York, where this is the name of a lake, a county, and a town having famous medicinal springs. It is an Indian word, said to mean "place of miraculous water in a rock." (Gannett, Place Names in the U. S., 1905, p. 275.)

Stockton, a village in Hillsdale, platted in 1856, was named in honor of J. B. Stockton, who was the proprietor of this townsite.

Troy, a village in Saratoga, was named from the city in New York, which took this name from the ancient city in Asia Minor, the scene of the Trojan war, narrated by Homer in the Iliad.

Utica township, organized May 11, 1858, and its railway village, platted in 1866, are named, like Troy, from a city in New York, which, with villages and townships in fourteen other states, derived this name from the ancient city of Utica, founded by the Phoenicians in North Africa.

Warren and Wilson townships, side by side, each organized May 11, 1858, and the village of Wilson, are thought to have been named in compliment for Warren Wilson, a prominent early settler.

Whitewater township and its village of Whitewater Falls bear the name of the river flowing through them northward to the Mississippi, derived in translation from two Dakota words, mini, water, ska, white. In Wabasha county this stream has a township and village named Minneiska.

Winona, the county seat, platted June 19, 1852, was at first named Montezuma by Ervin H. Johnson, one of the proprietors of the site, for the Aztec war chief of Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest, who was born in 1477 and died June 30, 1520. It was changed to Winona through request of Henry D. Huff who in 1853 bought an interest in the townsite and platted an addition. This Dakota name has been fully noticed at the beginning of this chapter. A sobriquet recently coming into use is "the Gate City."

"The site of Winona was known to the French as La Prairie aux Ailes (pronounced O'Zell) or the Wing's prairie, presumably because of its having been occupied by members of Red Wing's band." It was latest occupied by Wabasha, the last of the Dakota chiefs for whom the county next northward was named, whose village here was called Keoxa, "difficult of translation, but it may be rendered as "The Homestead,' because in the springtime there was here a family reunion to honor the dead and invoke their blessings upon the land." (History of the county, 1883, p. 25.) Prof. A. W. Williamson spelled and defined this name more correctly, that "the name of the band was Kiyuksan, breakers in two, or violators, so called because they violated the custom forbidding relatives, however distant, to marry."

Winona township, at first having a much larger extent than now, was established as an electoral precinct April 29, 1854. The city was incorporated March 6, 1857.

Wiscoy township bears the name of a creek and a village in Allegany county, New York, "an Indian word meaning 'under the banks,' or, according to another authority, 'many fall creek.'" (Gannett, Place Names in the U. S.)

Witoka, a hamlet in the north edge of Wiscoy, platted in 1855, was named for "the daughter of the war chief of Wabasha's band. Witoka was captured by the Sacs (Sauks) near the present site of Witoka, and was rescued by her father's daring dash." (History of the county, 1913, p. 549.)

Lakes And Streams.
Beaver creek and the Rollingstone and Whitewater rivers are noticed in the foregoing list, for a village or hamlet and two townships named from them.

West, Middle, and South branches of Rollingstone creek unite in the township of this name; and similarly the North, Middle and South branches of Whitewater river unite in Elba.

The presence of brook trout is noted by Trout creek in Mount Vernon, a second creek so named in Saratoga, and Big Trout creek in Homer and Richmond.

White pine and red cedar trees, growing sparingly on stream bluffs, are the source of names of Pine creek in Pleasant Hill and New Hartford townships, a second Pine creek in the southwest part of Fremont, and Cedar creek in Homer.

Rush and Money creeks flow south into Fillmore and Houston counties, there giving names to Rushford and Money Creek townships.

Other small streams, directly tributary to the Mississippi here, are Gilmore creek, West and East Burns creeks, Pleasant Valley creek, and Dakota creek, the last having its mouth near Dakota village.

Relatively narrow channels of the Mississippi between its large alluvial islands and the west shore, within a few miles northwest from the city of Winona, are named Crooked slough and Straight slough.

Lake Winona, about two miles long, adjoining this city, occupies a part of a former rivercourse, which also was the character of a similarly long but shallow lake formerly mapped three to five miles northwest of the city.

Above the river bottomlands, this county has no lakes, like several other counties in southeastern Minnesota, which belong wholly or partly to an extensive area that was exempt from glaciation. The greater part of this tract lies in Wisconsin, so that it is commonly called by geologists the Wisconsin driftless area.

Sugarloaf bluff, south of Lake Winona, rises about 550 feet above the lake and river; Minneowah bluff, in Homer, and Gwinn's bluff, also called Queen bluff, in Richmond, have nearly the same height; and the bluffs adjoining the village of Dresbach, including Mineral bluff, rise 600 feet above the river, or about 1230 feet above the sea.
[Source: "Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance" By Warren Upham - KT - Sub. by FoFG]

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