Matthew tells that when he was 21 he hired out to the late John P. Douglas to work on the Ashland Farm, owned by the Douglas family, located near Three Mile Bay. Later he returned and purchased the Thompson place near the Roger school house, where the Thompsons had erected a log house (still standing) and there began farming with 101 acres of land. Later he saw the opportunity to purchase an adjoining farm of about 200 acres and paid for it, although he had helped his father for several years to get out a debt because parties had gone bankrupt who were owing him.

“In my early day,” said Mr. Folts, “we knew the Lake of the Woods as Thompson Lake, and the old Hough history gives the lake this name. The Thompsons had made the first clearing in the region of the lake, and that, as I told you, is the first farm I bought. Mr. Schuyler Soper actually made the clearing here for the sawmill at the outlet of the Lake of the Woods, where he had a fall of 20 feet with unlimited water to supply the wheel. Most people have thought that Orange Soper, a son, was the man to start the mill, but it was his father.”

Mr. Folts, telling about the former name for the Lake of the Woods, clears up a query often asked today by students reading Hough’s history as to where Thompson lake is located.

“In my boyhood days I should start out for the cows in the morning and would find a drove of deer sleeping with them in the pasture.” he related. “They would seldom run away, if I went cautiously among the cows to get them started. I have seen the deer lay their heads down flat on the ground and follow me with their eyes, but if I didn’t yell, or run, they would remain quiet.

“There has been a great change in this section since my boyhood. When I was a young man Anson Harder of Redwood, as well as Mr. Butterfield, held much property in the lake section. Some of this land has been put up for sale and I have bought it, but sometimes I think I have bought too much.

There was quite a family of us children, but now only three are left besides myself. There is Ed. Folts, general blacksmith, Redwood; Mrs. Don Simonds, near Redwood and Alverson, one of the twins, who resides here at the Lake of the Woods. In my more active days the chapel here was open and we had religious services regularly. Now it is closed. I am one of the trustees, but where can we get a minister to come and preach?”

When Mr. Folts was interviewed it was over the office of the sawmill at the Lake of the Woods, with a view directly up the lake, -- a beautiful sight. A full grown, mounted deer stood in a corner of the room and pictures of fish were about. When asked how many acres of land he owned he disclaimed an exact knowledge of the correct amount.

“But it’s all I want to pay taxes on,” he said.

He had just bought a large farm sold in his neighborhood and neighbors say his holdings are above the one thousand acre mark with mortgages on many more.