2500 28th Street - PO Box 57 - Slayton, MN 56172

Lowville

Lowville Township Board

Meeting Date: 1st Monday
Meeting Time: 7:30 P.M.
Meeting Location: Hadley Community Center

Lowville Township History

T107N R42W
Organized September 15, 1876

Lowville Township is located in the west, second tier of Murray County. Mason Township borders on the east, Leeds Township on the south, Cameron Township of the west, and Skandia Township on the north.

Lowville is the richest township in history and was the home of ancient peoples , trappers, and traders. In a diary on trading posts in Minnesota, kept by Joseph Marin, the first recorded visitor to Lowville was his son in 1750, when Minnesota was under French regime. Marin came to this section of the county with a cart loaded with merchandise, and he then built a trading post close to the timber. In the battle of Quebec (1759) the post fell into the hands of the British, but, after 1832, was occupied by the American Fur Company. The post was called “le Grande Leisure” and operated from 1833 to 1838.

This area called “Bear Lake,” was actually a group of lakes, four in number: Bear Lake, Crooked, Hawk or Rush Lake, and Tibbetts or Great Oasis Lake. Bear Lake had 300 acres of timber surrounded by lakes.

The timber consisted of tall stately trees, and the woods were full of gooseberries, chock cherries, currants and plums, which made it an ideal spot for a picnic. There were sailboats on the lakes, and it was hunting, fishing and trapping paradise.

The large amount of land in the township covered by water kept the population low, when compared to the other townships, and with the influx of settlers looking for more farm land, a petition was put before the County Commissioners in 1909 to drain over 6000 acres of wetland in Lowville Township. By 1915, the “big ditch” was put in and what was the Bear Lake was no more.

The first road passed through Lowville township. It was a government trial from New Ulm to Fort Thompson, South Dakota.

Lowville Township was named for John H. Low and Bartlett M. Low, brothers, who came from New York and Wisconsin. John H. Low came first in the winter of 1865-66, to trap in the vicinity of Bear Lake. In 1866 the brothers took land claims in and adjoining the “Great Oasis” of timber.