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 he City of Foley is named after the Foley brothers,
lumber barons who settled in Benton County. They were four brothers who came from Lanark, in eastern Ontario, where their father
John
goes back a century and a quarter to the second administration of Andrew Jackson "the turbulent 1830's" when
John Foley Sr., an Irish immigrant, had settled. The first one to come to
Minnesota was Michael, who arrived in 1870 and spent most of his time in Benton County.
Michael was soon to see the awesome economic possibilities in Minnesota and was catapulted into the lumber industry through his
getting to know James J. Hill, "the empire builder." After a few years, Michael
returned to Lanark to persuade his brothers -- Thomas, Timothy and
John -- also to seek their fortune in the Land of Sky-Tinted Water. Immediately the four
brothers formed a partnership which lasted for a lifetime without a word in writing.
They bought 80 acres of land in Gilman township, land with fine pine and oak
trees, set up a sawmill and sold lumber to the railroad for ties, bridges, depots, then extended their industry to grocery stores
and bakeries located near railroad depots. They speculated rightly on the railroad's going from St. Cloud to Hinckley,
making it easier for them to ship out their lumber.
Msgr. Vincent Yzermans writes about the size of Foley when the
railroad came.
"By the time the Great Northern Railroad opened its line through this area in 1882 the future town site already
had a saw mill, an office and general store, a blacksmith shop and several barns to house the many horses needed for a
successful logging operation. Several years later the (Foley) brothers opened a two-story hotel. Within a few years the
site came to be known as the Foley settlement."
In 1898, the Foley brothers filed the original plat of the village, for
business was mushrooming. In 1900 such enterprises as a bank, a newspaper, a drugstore, a livery stable, a meat market,
a machinery dealer, cafes and saloons lined the streets.
Incessant efforts were made to have the village of Foley grow. One of the
next major moves was to have the Benton County offices moved from Sauk Rapids to Foley. The citizens of Foley spread
propaganda for the cause far and wide throughout the county, and then a committee circulated a petitioin on March 4, 1901, to be
presented to the county commissioners. Foley's citizens pledged $12,000 to build a new court house. The Sauk Rapids
citizenry was naturally opposed and spread the rumor that the pledges were not worth a Continental. Immediately John Foley
deposited $12,500 in the Foley Bank to cover the pledges and other costs of the new courthouse.
The election was held in June, and the editor of the Foley Independent gleefully
reported the results. There were 788 votes for keeping the county seat at Sauk Rapids; 1,284 for moving it to Foley.
Mayhew Lake voted 106 to 54 in favor of Foley.
-- from The People of Mayhew Lake
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