Boon Lake township is located in the northwestern part of Renville county. It embraces township 116-31, and is bounded on the north by Meeker county, on the east by McLeod county, on the south by Preston Lake township and on the west by Brookfield township. It is rolling prairie, beautified by cultivated groves. Boon Lake, from which the township takes its name, is in the northwestern part. Hodgdon lake is in sections 20 and 21, and Phare lake is in sections 28 and 29. Allie lake comes into sections 33 and 34 from Preston Lake township.

The first claim was filed in 1856 by George M. Michael in section 34. In 1861 V. P. Kennedy and M. B. Ridsill took claims in sections 7 and 8. The first claim after the Massacre was taken in 1864 by William Fremming, in section 13. In 1865 those who filed on claims were Francis R. Maxwell, Augustus T. Perkins, William E. Merrill, E. U. Russell and Ira S. Shephard.

While claims were taken in the township before the Massacre, nothing is now known as to whether any of the claimants actually lived here. The first settler who came after the Massacre was E. U. Russell, who came in 1865. Isa S. Sheppard secured a claim in 1865, but did not move here with his family until June, 1866. Among other prominent early settlers were Rev. George D. Potter, Orrin Hodgdon, John Booth, Owen Carrigan, G. S. Edner, Frederick Eggert, Ernest Koeppe, C. D. McEwen, A. L. Pfeil, Timothy Cornish, William Phare, Thomas Simmons, William Simmons, Walter Simmons, N. H. Shafer, John Merrill and John Tyson.

Boon Lake was created September 6, 1870, and then included Brookfield. It has had its present boundaries since 1874. It is said that an election was held in the fall of 1870. There is no record of the supervisors elected. The other officers elected are said to have been: Clerk, J. W. Post; treasurer, M. T. Cornish; assessor, E. U. Russell; justice, Ira S. Sheppard; constable, Samuel Chilson.

The first real estate assessment of Preston Lake township, then including 116-31, was made in 1869. Those assessed in what is now Boon Lake were: Ithamer Hagen, section 2; George Dye, 4; Ezra Corenell, 6; Charles Barkuloo, 6; A. F. Perkins, 4; W. O. E. Bourne, 7, 8, 17, 18; William E. Merrill, 8, 9; Morris Tyler, 10; G. K. Gilbert, 10; Susan D. Gale, 12, 14, 15; William Fremming, 13; Ira S. Shepard, 28, 33, 34; J. R. Drake, 27; E. U. Russell, 29; H. H. Davis, 34, Olin Gifford, 34; Hattie L. Baker, 34.

The first real estate assessment made in Boon Lake (116-31) as a separate township was in 1871. Those assessed were: E. K. Hitchcock, sections 2, 22; R. P. Johnson, 2; W. P. Allen, 2; Henry Jewett, 4; J. A. Beaver, 6, 29, 30; Charles T. Barkulow, 6, 8; C. H. Pettit, 8, 10, 17, 20, 29; Ezra Connell, 10; Seth Adams, 10; E. J. Temper, 12; W. O. Horton, 12; D. G. Martin, 12; Daniel Herrington, 13; W. C. Horton, 14, 23; W. S. Horton, 14; W. O. Thompson, 14; R. J. Mendenhalt, 14; James Moore, 15; E. S. Fisher, 15; G. W. Fisher, 15; Adam Sheiner, 21; Henry Ritz, Jr., 21; R. H. Rogers, 24; Jacob Ritz, 28; Sarah M. Horton, 32.

The first personal assessment is Boon lake township, 116-31, was made in 1871. Those assessed were: Henry H. Battkin, Alonzo M. Bell, Charles Bohn, B. G. Brown, Charles Budrius, M. T. Cornish, Hanna Dallmann, Charles Eggert, Fred Eggert, Sr., Fred Eggert, Jr., G. S. Edner, Gottlieb Fredertz, Dan Glidden, Oliver Glidden, George R. Green, Ira Gleason, George A. Clifford, John Gotteridge, J. C. Hodgdon, Oscar Hodgdon, Orrin Hodgdon, Christoph Jarson, John Jones, Y. M. Keough, Albert Harquardt, Enock C. Nelson, William S. Pierce, G. D. Potter, Albert W. Potter, William Phare, M. T. Ridout, John Rantmann, Ed. Reindorf, G. D. Staddard, Ira S. Sheppard, Aug. Seefeldt, Horten Schmandt, G. W. Slough, Albert Schultz, John Weseloh.

Orrin Hodgdon was one of the early settlers of Boon Lake township. In regard to his early experiences he says, "In 1871 I took a homestead in township 16, section 18, range 32 and built a frame house 14 by 22. I broke a piece of prairie with four oxen that same year. December 21, 1871, I was married to Louisa Potter and we moved onto my homestead in April, 1872. Ira L. Gleason, M. T. Cornish, James C. Hodgdon, Albert W. Potter and George D. Potter were living in the neighborhood at that time. The grasshoppers came upon us July 5, 1876, nearly destroying the crops and the eggs hatched out in the spring of 1877 destroying the entire crop for that season. But the grasshoppers were hardly any worse than the blizzards and the prairie fires, which rolled unhindered over the prairies and sometimes burned not only crops but also farm buildings. After the grasshopper plague of 1877 and 1878 quite a few settlers moved in. I will mention some of the names of people within a mile or two of us: John Merrill, George Frieze, John Mitchell, Charles Mitchell, Byron Woodard, ______ Palms and John Booth.

"In 1871 school district No. 25 was organized with James Hodgdon, Jonas Post and William Phare as school board and Belle Jewell taught the first public school held in Boon Lake township during the summer of 1870, in one room of a private house. The following spring a shanty roof school house was built, 12 by 16 feet in size, and Louisa Potter (now Mrs. Orrin Hodgdon) taught a four months' school during the summer of 1871. Lucy Pellet, who had just come from Massachusetts and with her father and brother William Pellet settled in Brookfield township, taught the Boon Lake school in the summer of 1872.

"During the year 1873 the school was taught in a large log house known to all old settlers as the old 'Russel House,' a building which has been erected in a very early day. Abbie N. Potter taught this school and the same summer married John H. Tyson, an early settler of the district. They lived together on their homestead for twenty-five years and the district became known as the Tyson district.

"The school of 1874 was taught in the same building by Flora Willson and Julia Graham taught school there during the summer of 1875. In the spring of 1878 a new school building was erected and Katie Washburn taught the school. Some of the pupils of those early schools were: John and Clyde Post, William, Jane and James Phare, Ida, May and Ernest Hodgdon, Ptola and Alice Jones, Nathan C., George D., Charlotte and Eliza Potter, Minerva, Ida May and Libbie Greene, Emma and Hattie Chapman and Olive Ridout. Some of these have since become prominent citizens, some have moved away, while others have long since gone to the great beyond. On account of the sparse settlements and blizzards no winter schools were held during those early years.

"Religious services were not neglected during those pioneer days and the Methodist Episcopal local ministers came as often as possible and meetings and Sunday school were held in the scool house and often in the private houses. Those who opened their homes for regular religious worship were: James Hodgdon, Rev, George D. Potter, David Graham and Smith Pierce. Rev. George D. Potter and Rev. Alva Kenedy, both local Methodist preachers, conducted those services. Rev. N. Tainter preached on the circuit in 1875 and 1876, followed by Rev. John McDonald in 1877 and 1878. Rev. Nelson Schafer, a local Methodist preacher, settled here in Boon Lake in 1878 and did much religious work in the community."

John Borden's Reminiscences. James Borden trapped in the vicinity of Bird Island before the Indian Massacre. In 1866 he came again to the county and he and his brother Benjamin trapped here, making their camp in a crude log shack in the timbers of the island from which the township and village of Bird Island derive their names. The vicinity then abounded in mink, otter, muskrat, fox and other fur-bearing animals.

In the fall of 1866, John Borden came from Ft. Wayne, Ind., and on October 27, 1866, saw Renville county for the first time. He was unable to reach Bird Island that night as he had intended, so he wandered about on the prairie and finally decided to sleep. The weather was cold and he was unable to get much rest. But in the morning he found a hay stack and by burning some hay managed to get himself a breakfast, after which, with new courage, he made another attempt to get on to the Island. After trying until eleven o'clock in the forenoon to get across the sloughs, he became discouraged and decided that his brothers were not there. He therefore was convinced that he would have to return to Indiana without seeing his brothers. A mile and a half he had gone on his weary return journey, when, meditating on various Bible stories, he thought of the tale of Lot's wife and her great inclination to look back. So like her, though with somewhat different results, he turned about and looked backward. Over the tops of the trees of the island floated the smoke of a camp fire. The brothers had been out attending to their traps and had therefore been away from their camp. Joyfully John Borden went back toward the island and fired his revolver. One of his brothers answered with a shot. But even then it was an hour and a half before one of the brothers ventured to come to the spot where John Borden stood. He had not been recognized, the fear of the Indians was still strong, and the trappers had thought that the man whom they afterward found to be their brother had been brought there as a decoy. After long and watchful waiting, however, one of the brothers came through the reeds and brakes with an old dug-out canoe, his gun in his hand, on the alert and ready to shoot at the least indication of danger. When the stranger was recognized, the trappers could scarcely believe their eyes, as they did not know that John had come from Indiana. They speedily made him welcome and he spent a week with them in camp. When he left he traded them a watch, valued at $30, for 200 muskrat skins, valued at 15 cents each. He took these skins on his shoulder to Carver county, and in due time reached St. Paul with them. That winter he returned to Indiana, but the next year located permanently in Minnesota.

He made his home for several years at the old Plato postoffice, three miles from the present village of Plato, in the meantime doing considerable trapping in Renville county and elsewhere.

One year he secured 1,600 muskrat skins, mostly if not all in Renville county. He took these to Willmar and shipped them to St. Paul. The price at Willmar when he shipped them was fifteen cents and he hoped to secure more in St. Paul. But before his furs reached that city the price had dropped two cents. The dealer, however, paid him thirteen and a half cents, so he received $214.14 for the season's muskrat trapping.

In 1871 John Borden, his brother-in-law, Frank Maddock, and the latter's brother, George Maddock, came to Renville county looking for a suitable place to locate. They stopped at the shack of William Burgess, an eccentric character then living in the heavy timber near Buffalo lake. Burgess, who made much of his living by trapping, did not desire that the wilderness should be settled. He therefore discouraged the three men in every way, his clinching argument being that no railroad would ever be built anywhere near the region. Mr. Borden, however, showed the other two the farm produce around the place as an evidence of the fertility of the soil, and he finally pursuaded the men that the township was a desirable place in which to live. Accordingly they went on their way, determined to come back and settle. At Fort Ridgely one of their horses died as the result of having been fed too much corn. The Maddocks settled in Preston Lake township that year. John Borden brought his wife to the township and settled in the northeast quarter of section 20 the following year.

The Borden house was built from an old house which originally stood at Plato postoffice, three miles from the present village of Plato. The home in Preston Lake was on the main traveled road, and the home was noted for its hospitality. One night no less than eighteen guests slept in the little shack.

Mrs. John Borden, who was the daughter of John Burton, of Carver county, has many interesting stories to tell of the Indian Massacre. Before the Massacre, when she was a little girl, an Indian known to the whites as Indian Charlie often visited their home and professed a great friendship for her father. In August, 1862, Indian Charlie put in his appearance, though it was not his custom to visit the place in the summer. He aroused the suspicions of the people by asking how many white people were at home, how many had gone to the Civil war, how the war was coming on, and how much ammunition there was in the settlement. Naturally the people were somewhat frightened at these inquiries, knowing, as they did, their defenseless position, and also having heard something of the dissatisfaction of the Indians.

Indian Charlie had scarcely departed and the family was eating supper, when a physician from Glencoe came through on horseback, urging everyone to flee, and declaring that the Indians had risen and were only eleven miles away. The family jumped up from the supper table, hitched up their oxen and joined a fleeing throng.

Mrs. Borden says: "We first started for Carver, but when about half way there we met a crowd of people coming from that village. They had been told that the Inians were coming from the direction of St. Paul. So it was decided that we would seek shelter on Waconia island. A few days later we found that there were no hostile Indians in Carver county, so after leaving the island we stayed a while in Carver village and then went back to the farm." For protection the neighbors banded together, all staying together, but going from cabin to cabin. In this way the harvesting in the neighborhood was finished, When the next scare came the following year, Mr. Burton sent his wife and children to Wisconsin, while he stayed with neighbors. When they finally returned they found that no unfriendly Indians had been within eleven miles, but the white refugees had almost wrecked the home. Everything of value had been stolen, and while the family did not object to the fact that those in need had helped themselves, nevertheless that had been a wanton waste which seemed without excuse, such as turning over the bee hives and letting a large keg of maple syrup run to waste. Some of the neighbors had buried some of their possessions, but the Burton family did not have time for this.