Martin J McAlpine

He and a cousin operated a saloon on First St. North in Minneapolis MN. After four years he came to Maple Lake and bought a saloon near the hotel where Agnes O’Loughlin worked as a maid. He stayed at this hotel and met Agnes. Martin was thirty years old and was ready to settle down. He bought eighty acres of land near Sommers Lake from Stuhr’s for $5.00 an achre in 1890. A short time later he bought another eighty acres for $10.00 an achre. Martin married Agnes O’Loughlin on November 3, 1891 at Maple Lake, MN. They are the father and mother of Mark, Sr. Martin came to Minneapolis from his home in Canada in 1885. On November 3, 1891, he married Agnes and began clearing the land to farm. He sold the saloon and devoted all his time to farming and raising nine children. In 1912 he built a four bedroom two-story house. I can remember as a little girl, the running water which was very rare in those days. In the winter time Grandma had not water, as the water pipes went through the cook store, then into a tank beside the stove and stayed warm. Grandpa (Martin) did some drinking, so it was a good choice he made when he sold the saloon. A priest had advised Grandpa to sell out and stay home and farm. Grandpa would still do some drinking and my dad, Mark, would wait up for him and help get the horse in the barn. My dad never told me this: but his mother, my grandmother did. My dad never said a bad word about his father. My dad always called his dad, “My Father”. When my dad was twenty years old, his father died. He got up one night to go to the toilet outside. He put a jacket on and felt a whiskey bottle in the pocket. He took a drink and, to his surprise, it was strychnine, a poison one of the boys had bought that day. It was to be used to treat seed wheat. It burnt his mouth and throat down into his stomach. Three days later Grandpa was dead. Because of my dad’s love for his father and this terrible accident, my dad never in his whole life ever tasted whiskey. Grandpa died on September 6, 1913. He left Grandma and nine children. He told my dad to take care of Grandma and look after the family and farm