Mower County Pioneer Judge Sanford Washburn Finally Laid to Rest

MOWER COUNTY – Imagine discovering an ancestor on Find-A-Grave that died 87 years ago in Illinois, but his cremains were still stored rather than buried or placed in an urn on the mantel of the family home.

That is where this story begins.

Anne Bruggeman, the great grandniece of Sanford Washburn, was researching the Jennie (Washburn) Adams family and discovered Washburn’s fate. After reading the Find-A-Grave message stating the unclaimed cremains were in storage at the Valhalla Hillcrest Abbey Mausoleum Columbarium Crematory in Illinois, the oldest crematorium west of the Mississippi River, she decided to investigate his story.

Sanford Washburn was born in Vermont in 1854, the son of Seth and Julia Washburn, and traveled with his family to Udolpho Township (in the northwestern corner of Mower County) in 1857 where his father staked his claim and began farming. At the time, Mower County was still the frontier.

Sanford Washburn, published in 1896 by the Austin Register of prominent Austin officials. (Photo courtesy Mower County Historical Society)

In 1877, Washburn worked on an experimental farm while attending the University of Minnesota, and later returned home to the farm. He went on to continue his education at Columbia Law School in New York City. Coming back to Minnesota, he studied with the Lewis & Leslie law firm in Waseca and was admitted to the bar.

Washburn returned to Austin and purchased the Mower County Transcript newspaper with N. S. Gordon, and married Minnette Comstock, a teacher in Austin. But after three years, he sold his interest in the newspaper and was elected probate judge in 1891, while continuing to farm.

Washburn served as Mower County probate judge until 1903. He was a part of the Courthouse Gang, a group of men in the local government that had no trouble winning elections year after year, and served the community well.

He retired at the age of 53, and like many public servants of that time, was poorer than when he started.

In 1905, the Washburns with their daughter, Eleanor, moved to a farm in Clear Lake, Wash. Minnetta taught school for several years, before leaving Clear Lake for Montana in 1917, where one son lived, and then on to Fargo, North Dakota. There is no mention of Washburn going with her.

The walking match

By June of 1926, Washburn was living with his sister in White Bear Lake, Minn. One day, while reading the Austin Daily Herald, he read about “the 12-mile walking match” from Lyle to Austin. This fired his ambition as he set out to walk the more than 100 miles from the Twin Cities to his former hometown. He wanted to test out his powers as an imitator of Edward Payson Weston, the noted ten-day walker who in 1861 gained notoriety when he walked 478 miles from Boston to Washington D.C. in 10 days and 10 hours.

So, at 71-½ years old, Washburn struck out on foot for Austin. From White Bear Lake, he hitched a ride with a farmer after five miles of walking, then spent six cents for the streetcar, which took him to St. Paul’s Cherokee Heights. He walked another seven miles before catching a ride with a milkman that took him as far as Rosemont, where a traveling man insisted Washburn ride with him to Owatonna. From there, Washburn took the evening train to Austin.

Sanford Washburn’s cremains were buried on the side of the Washburn family gravestone, where there was no name, leaving room to engrave his name. His parents’ names and a sibling were engraved on the other three sides of the stone. On the right, Ann Bruggeman, Sanford Washburn’s great grandniece, performed the graveside service on May 21, 2025 at Udolpho Cemetery near Austin. (Photos by Sue Doocy)

Washburn contacted a friend from his days as probate judge, former county auditor Osman Simmons, and arranged to meet at the courthouse. He was not recognized with his long beard by those who passed him on the street. He and Simmons were later described as “two cronies, a picture that would have delighted the eyes of a painter.”

They reminisced about the past and the men who were county employees, “some living, some gone on where the ‘elect’ don’t depend on the uncertainty of politics for their positions.”

Washburn sought medical treatment for his before returning to White Bear Lake and then, starting on foot for the state of Washington later.

An Austin Daily Herald reporter wrote a farewell salute to the former judge:

“He may ride the cushions most of the way, but whether he rides in a Pullman or wears out his shoes, he will carry with him the best wishes of all his old time friends, who, if they have not seen him with his whiskers, will continue to carry in mind a picture of the Good Old Wash, as he sat on the political throne of Mower County, when he occupied the office of judge of probate of Mower County 30 years ago.”

In 1927, Washburn spent time in California for his health, before returning to Washington where Minnetta and Eleanor were living back on their Clear Lake farm.

Minnetta and her daughter, Eleanor, moved from the Clear Lake farm to Mount Vernon, Wash. on January 19, 1928, where Minnetta died suddenly — she “just slipped quietly away.”

It appears Washburn and his wife traveled in different directions while seeking to care for themselves and their interests.

He had sought medical care with his sister, Dr. Emma Washburn Rogers, in Carbondale, Ill., where he died of pneumonia in February 1928 at the age of 73 — just 16 days after Minnetta’s passing.

A neighbor’s team of Percherons pulled a wagon of people who attended the burial service, a kind gesture to Judge Sanford Washburn for serving Mower County. (Photo by Sue Doocy)

Washburn’s cremains were abandoned for 87 years, until his great grandniece chose to send him home, making arrangements for his remains with Worlein Funeral Home in Austin. His final resting place is in Udolpho Cemetery beside his parents and siblings.