USA > Minnesota > Ramsey County > St Paul > A history of the city of Saint Paul, and of the county of Ramsey, Minnesota > Part 1
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Go 977.6 M661c v.4 1173319
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01715 9077
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historyofcityofs04will
Eng ª by G.E Perine N York
My Ramley
HON. ALEXANDER RAMSEY,
SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA.
A HISTORY
OF THE
CITY OF SAINT PAUL,
AND OF THE
COUNTY OF RAMSEY, County, FORT
MINNESOTA. -
By J. FLETCHER WILLIAMS,
SECRETARY OF THE MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY; COR. SEC. OF THE OLD SETTLERS ASSOCIATION OF MINNESOTA; SEC. OF THE RAMSEY COUNTY PIONEER ASSOCIATION, &C., &C.
[COLLECTIONS OF THE MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY: VOL. IV. ]
SAINT PAUL: PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 1876.
.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by the "MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY,"
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C.
PIONEER-PRESS CO., BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS.
Face-17.50
Book.Ste.
Cara
.
PREFACE.
. 1173319
This work was prepared at the request and advice of a number of friends, who believed that the writer had the material at hand and the opportunity to prepare it, better than any one else who was likely to undertake it. There seemed, too, a necessity for such a work. The old pioneers of our city and State were, one by one, passing away, and the events of our early history, if not soon gathered and placed on permanent record, would be lost. The names even, of those who first planted their cabins on the site of our city, were fast becoming lost and forgotten ; and their worthy acts, their labors, their adventures, the privations and struggles of frontier life, and other events in the earliest days of our city, were rapidly fading from the memory of the little group of pioneers who survived. Even what manner of men they were, whence they came, their personal history, particulars which will interest those who come after us more, perhaps, than they do the pres- ent generation, were matters known to so few, and scattered in frag- ments among widely distant households, it was almost a sealed book to some of the pioneers themselves.
It needed, therefore, some one who was, by occupation and taste, interested in such a work to perform it-since it was certain to be both laborious and unremunerative-some one who would hunt up from the various sources the lost and forgotten threads which, little by little, might be woven into the record of the founding and early days of our goodly city. It was this work that, in a rash moment, I was induced to undertake, little foreseeing into what a labyrinth of troubles I was about to plunge. (At first, however, I should say, only a pamphlet was projected.)
It is now fully ten years since I began collecting material and data for these chronicles-and it was fortunate that I began the work then. I secured, in writing, the minute statements of some of the earliest pio- neers of our city, who have since gone to their reward, and which, if not recorded by me then, would probably have been lost. Among
.
4
Preface.
these were GUERIN, PIERRE GERVAIS, BEAUMETTE, SIMPSON, HARTS- HORN, ROBERT, FORBES, HOYT, J. R. BROWN, and others, all of whom were among the earliest residents here, and took a prominent part in the pre-territorial period of our history. Coming to Saint Paul at quite an early day myself, it was my good fortune to be well acquainted with nearly all the early settlers-scores of them since deceased-and, being in an occupation which enabled me to do so, was accustomed to secure from them and write up for publication, little sketches, histori- cal and biographical, about the early days and early men of Saint Paul. Thus I collected and preserved from loss, a considerable amount of materials for history, and became generally familiar with the subject.
I have since visited and secured the minute statement of every living pioneer of our city, (besides the deceased ones mentioned,) whose ad- dress I could ascertain, if within any accessible distance-and also the families of many who died before I began the work-securing also the statements, in writing, of those I was not able to visit. To do this has required not a little travel-sometimes journeys of considerable length and expense. But I am repaid by the satisfaction of know- ing that I left no known source unexplored, that would throw light on my subject, or develop material. A large number of letters were writ- ten also, and circulars sent out, asking information, and I conversed widely with our old settlers, from time to time, on various points. These facts are not mentioned in a boastful way, but simply to enable the reader to judge whether the author has performed the task under- taken with the thoroughness and fidelity which was requisite-or, rather, has endeavored to do so.
That the work is correct in every particular, he does not claim. Among so many hundred names, dates and statements of facts, it would be a miracle if errors are not found. Of the imperfections of the work no one is more sensible than the writer-yet, in view of the many dif- ficulties which surrounded him, he is entitled to the leniency of critics. The task of one who writes a local history during the lifetime of the actors, is an unenviable one. He must depend for many facts upon the memory of those actors or their friends, no two of them, perhaps, agreeing on the same statement, or in the exact amount of prominence due to each. Where these oral statements are the only sources of in- formation, any one can realize the troubles that environ a writer who endeavors, with impartiality and candor, to build a faultless structure on such shifting quicksands !
To the earliest years of our history, the pre-territorial period, and up to the organization of the city, the most space and minuteness was given. But the events of those years were so imperfectly recorded, if recorded at all, as to be inaccessible to the great mass of our present citizens, and almost forgotten by the old pioneers themselves. The living witnesses were fast disappearing, and what they 'knew and could
5
Preface.
remember of that period must be first.cared for. After 1854, there were several daily papers, directories, and other means of recording history and its actors, which did not exist before. It was the earliest pioneers and oldest settlers who most needed the biographer and his- torian. Those of a later day are amply cared for in other ways. Hence, when the work was about half printed, finding that it threat- ened to largely overrun its intended size and cost, the later years were of necessity condensed to a simple record of important facts. Some 200 pages of manuscript, prepared with considerable labor and cost, were thus cut out-among other things, the entire census roll of the men of 1857.
It was my intention to have given many more portraits and biogra- phies of pioneers of our city, and of men who have been prominent in public or professional life, &c .- one hundred, at least, were hoped for, but there were difficulties that prevented it. The publication, not long ago, of a "Historical Atlas," almost destroyed the desirableness of this feature, and quite recently the city has been flooded with the cir- culars of publishers from abroad, proposing to issue more works of that kind. In the face of such schemes, any legitimate work, purely in the interest of history, and not for profit, has but little chance of success, and I was compelled to forego much of what I had hoped to secure. Some, doubtless, supposed this work was also designed as a speculation. This does me injustice. It was projected and completed solely from a taste for historical research, a feeling of pride in the sub- ject, and an endeavor to honor the memory of our pioneers and pioneer days, and without the slightest desire of profit. As an evidence of this, it will be observed that the copyright, even, has been given to one of our deserving institutions, so that not a penny of the receipts can enure to the writer. But if the labor and outlay incurred by him has in any satisfactory degree accomplished what was intended-if this work shall prove of any value or interest to those for whose pleasure and information it was written-then he will feel amply repaid for both.
Were I to mention those who have kindly aided me in my researches, and furnished information and other aid, it would embrace almost the entire roll of our old settlers. To one and all, I return my grateful thanks, regretting only that I have so imperfectly performed the task they confided to me.
J. F. W.
SAINT PAUL, January 6, 1876.
·
6
Contents.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGES.
I. The Pre-Historic period. .9- 17
2. The Discovery of the Northwest. 18- 25
3. Jonathan Carver and his Explorations 26- 37
4. The First Settlement of Minnesota 38- 56
5. The Treaties of 1837 57- 63
6. The First Settlement of Saint Paul 64- 76
7. Events of the year 1839.
77- 98
8. Events of the years 1840 and 1841.
99-116
9. Events of the year 1842
117-125
IO. Events of the year 1843 126-139
II. Events of the year 1844 140-148
12. Events of the year 1845
149-152
13. Events of the year 1846 153-163
14. Events of the year 1847 164-176 15. Events of the year 1848 177-202 16. Events of the year 1849. 203-222 17. Events of the year 1849, continued 223-246
18. Events of the year 1850 247-264 19. Events of the year 1850, continued 265-283 20. Events of the year 1851 . 284-308
2I. Events of the year 1851, continued 309-320
22. Events of the year 1852. 321-332
23. Events of the year 1853 333-347
24. Events of the year 1854. 348-355
25. Events of the year 1855 . 356-361 26. Events of the year 1856 362-368
27. Events of the year 1857 369-378
28. Events of the year 1857, continued 379-383
29. Events of the year 1858 384-387 30. Events of the year 1859 388-391
31. Events of the year 1860. 392-397
32.
Events of the year 1861 to 1865 .
398-419
33. Events of the year 1865 to 1870 420-439
34. Events of the year 1871 to 1875 . 440-454 35. A Quarter Century's Retrospect 455-458
Appendix 459-465
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PORTRAITS.
Hon. Alex. Ramsey (on steel) opposite title page.
Capt. Jonathan Carver · page 27
Joseph R. Brown .. . opp. 40 66
Norman W. Kittson. 66
48
Gen. Henry H. Sibley (on steel) opp 50
97
Rev. Lucian Galtier . opp. II2
Very Rev. A. Ravoux II3
John R. Irvine. 127 14I
Capt. Louis .Robert.
Capt. Russell Blakeley
66
175
Nathan Myrick
66
195
Rev. E. D. Neill
213
Hon. A. Goodrich .
66 220
Gen. R. W. Johnson.
66 226 239
Dr. David Day. 243
Hon. Geo. L. Becker
251
" Old Bets"
253
Hon. Edmund Rice
66
Hole-in-the-Day
255 261 276
Bartlett Presley
294
J. C. Burbank
299
Bishop Joseph Cretin
66 3II
Col. Alex. Wilkin.
66
315
Judge R. R. Nelson 345 Col. E. S. Goodrich 35I
Dr. J. H. Stewart. 361
Rev. John Mattocks 367
John W. McClung
373
Vetal Guerin
Ex-Gov. W. R. Marshall.
Little Crow
S
Illustrations.
D. W. Ingersoll · page 395
Capt. Wm. H. Acker
יי 397
Gen. John B. Sanborn (on steel)
opp. 398
Hon. E. F. Drake. 405
L. E. Reed
4II
Hon. James Smith, Jr. 6 6
422
Edward Zimmerman 425
Hon. Geo. L. Otis. 66
429
Ex-Gov. C. K. Davis
68
431
Hon. C. D. Gilfillan
66
436
VIEWS.
Chapel of Saint Paul · page 112
Court House.
280
Old Jail.
66 28I
Corner of Third and Robert streets (1851) 292
339
International Hotel
יי
365
McQuillan Block
436
Custom House.
446
First Baptist Church
66
45I
ERRATA.
Page 282, 9th line, for " Tremont," read " Fremont."
Page 390, for " Henry J. Howe," read " Henry J. Horn." 1
66
Old Capitol
66
HISTORY OF SAINT PAUL, . AND RAMSEY COUNTY.
CHAPTER I.
THE PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD.
IN WHICH IS MORE ROMANCE THAN HISTORY-THE CREATION OF THE WORLD- GEOLOGICAL CHANGES-HOW SAINT PAUL LOOKED A MILLION YEARS AGO-THE MOUND BUILDERS AND THEIR WORKS-ORIGINAL AND ABORIGINAL IDEAS-IM- IN-I-JA SKA-THE RED MAN-THE SCENERY OF THE INDIAN PERIOD-PAST AND PRESENT.
T HE changes which the settlement of the Northwest by the whites have wrought in this region, are truly wonderful, even in a country that has shown so many instances of remark- able progress as America. Many a reader of these pages, yet on the sunny side of forty, can remember when the great valley of the Upper Mississippi was known only to a few adventurous traders and explorers. On the school-boy's map over which he pored in his far eastern home, not over thirty years ago, it was put down as an " unknown region, inhabited by Indians and buffaloes !"* . Fort Snelling and the Falls of Saint Anthony may have possibly been indicated, or the outlines of "Carver's Claim," but beyond this all was vague and uncertain. Indeed, as late as 1849, when the Territory of Minnesota was organized, and the bill creating it located its capital at "Saint Paul,"
*The "National Geography," published in 1845, and widely used in schools at that period, in describing this section of the country, says : "A large portion of this region is unknown, and occupied by Chippewas, Menominees and other Indians. Wild rice, growing in the marshes, furnishes a considerable portion of their food. The soil is fine, and there are rich mines of iron, lead and copper."
2
IO
The History of the City of Saint Paul,
people examined their maps for it in vain. It was vaguely supposed to be " somewhere near Saint Anthony's Falls," and that was all the light that geographers or newspaper writers of that day were able to throw upon its location.
The record of these wonderful changes-which have trans- formed this wilderness of yesterday, comparatively, into a garden of fruitful fields and busy cities, with railroads and fac- tories, and churches and colleges-which have built up a pros- perous empire, populous with civilized and educated people, where were only the few wandering bands of a pagan and savage race before-seems more like a tale of enchantment than a sober history. The scenes shift so rapidly, the phan- tasmagoria almost bewilder us. Literally-
With smoking axles hot with speed, with steeds of fire and steam, Wide-waked To-day leaves Yesterday behind it like a dream ; So from the hurrying trains of life, fly backward far and fast, The mile-stones of our fathers, the landmarks of the past.
And in the tales our fathers told, the songs our mothers sung, Tradition, snowy-bearded, leans, on Romance, ever young.
PAST AND PRESENT.
Nor is this remarkable, for it is within the memory of men still young, when most of the site of Saint Paul was a tangled jungle-a morass-a wilderness of trees and bushes, and rocks, and long swamp grass and reeds-a spot almost inaccessible except for muskrats and aquatic fowl. As late as 1855, or pos- sibly a more recent date, wild ducks were shot by the Indians on marshes where now stand some of our most durable blocks of warehouses. Where the muskrat built his queer " house," or the fox burrowed in the rocks, and wild fowl bred undis- turbed in the tangled reeds of the slough, or the dense jungle, are now the homes of 40,000 people, many of them built in the highest style of elegance, and furnished with every appli- ance of comfort that human ingenuity and taste can devise, or wealth procure. Where the " medicine man" performed his barbarous incantations, now is reared the walls of colleges and schools in which a science more profound is taught, and the best learning of the age. And where the rude worship of the Wakan was performed, with its mystic rites and ceremonies,
.
and of the County of Ramsey, Minnesota.
now rise stately temples dedicated to the true GOD, in which the mild religion of the Prince of Peace is taught to the peo- ple who have supplanted the pagans of that day. In a word, upon the spot so recently wrested from the savage that the smoke of his lodge-fire almost yet lingers in the vale, has arisen, like the palace of ALADDIN, the work of enchantment, a great, opulent, prosperous, populous city, with its wharves, shipping, railroads, factories, granaries and business ware- houses, schools and churches, and all the institutions of the highest civilization of the age.
It is our task to chronicle these wonderful changes.
In writing our history, perhaps we may as well begin at
THE CREATION OF THE WORLD !
But here ensues a difficulty at the very outset, for while a historian should always be very particular and accurate as to dates, there is considerable disagreement among writers as to the date of that event. MOSES' chronology would place it at about 6000 years ago, while recent French savan's are confident of the great antiquity of the globe, and assert its age anywhere from half a million to several million years. It is evident, then, that Saint Paul is a place of great antiquity !
Originally, say those savans, the globe was a mass of molten granite. The cooling process was beyond doubt a slow one, and the crust just under our feet did not become hard enough and cool enough to rest any superstructure on, for perhaps many thousands of years. Perchance ages passed while it was a rough, ragged, repulsive mass of granite-the skeleton of the future earth. Abrasion and erosion ground the surfaces of the mass into powder. Oceans swept over it. Chemical changes operated on it. Next our sand rock, or the saccharoid sandstone was laid up. This singular formation underlies the whole limestone of the Upper Mississippi valley, from Saint Peter to Rock Island. Then came the Magnesian Limestone, of which our bluffs are composed .* Here fossil life begins.
* In the valuable work of OWEN, [" Geological Survey of Iowa, Wisconsin and Min- nesota,"] is given an examination of the formation at and near Saint Paul. He says : "At Fort Snelling the sandstone is one hundred and fourteen feet thick; it is here of
I2
The History of the City of Saint Paul,
The Reptilian age came on. The Icthyosaurus, the Ptero- dactyl, the Iguanodon and Plesiosaurus, and other huge mon- sters wallowed and splashed in the muddy water, which in time hardened into splendid building stone, worth $1.25 per cord. Then came on the "Glacial Period." The edges of the limestone strata along Dayton's Bluff and West Saint Paul, are ground smooth and polished by the sliding of the icebergs, on their way down from the north. The Mississippi of that day could not have been the stream of the present time. Then it must have flowed from bluff to bluff. Baptist Hill, a huge pile of rocks and boulders, and gravel and sand, was evidently deposited, like a great sand-bar, by a whirl or eddy of the wild waters and icebergs. Perhaps the stream wore its way through · the limestone rock for many miles, since the Falls of Saint
a pure white color, composed of loosely cemented grains of quartz. Above this we have 22 feet of fossiliferous limestone, with numerous organic remains, similar to those at the Falls of Saint Anthony. The fossils of the upper beds are mostly casts, but the moulds often show the structure of the original surface. Many of the fossils have a coating of sulphuret of iron, which gives a bright metallic appearance.
" The best section of these rocks that we have observed in Minnesota is at a bluff half a mile below Fort Snelling. The section here is as follows : Feet.
I. White sandstone, without fossils, in thick beds 92
2. Soft argillaceous marlite of a blue color, in which no fossils were discovered . . 5
3. Ash-colored limestone, clouded with blue, full of fossils. These layers effer- vesce freely with acids, and contain nearly 65 per cent. of carbonate of lime. They will probably afford the best rock for burning into lime of any of the beds in the neighborhood. Thickness .
15 [The composition of this rock is as follows :
Carbonate of lime 64.85
Carbonate of magnesia 13.75
Insoluble matter 12.40
Alumina, oxide of iron and manganese 7.50
Water 1.25
Loss 0.25
100.00]
4. Ash-colored, argillaceous, hydraulic limestone, in thin layers, sometimes with a conchoidal fracture. It effervesces slightly with acids, and disintegrates rapidly when exposed to the weather
5. Grayish, buff-colored, highly magnesian limestone, with numerous casts of fossils, &c.
" About half a mile above Saint Paul, near the entrance of a small cave, the sand- stone has an elevation of only 14 feet above the river level, and on it rests II feet of shell limestone.
" At Saint Paul, the strata again rise. Here the cliffs are from 70 to So feet high, of which the lower 65 feet consists of white sandstone, the remainder being shell lime- stone. About one mile below this point the hills recede from the river."
5
13
and of the County of Ramsey, Minnesota.
Anthony have receded several hundred yards even since the white man settled here. But the Glacial Period passed. Its duration cannot be estimated. Vegetation appeared. The earth rejoiced in scenes of beauty. Mammals came. Man- rude and uncouth, the cotemporary of the mammoth and cave bear-appears on the scene. The Age of Flint, then of Bronze, the Era of the Mound Builder, and the Red Man succeeded- each an indefinite period-terminated by the advent of the white explorer. From this on, the milestones of history are plainly visible.
THE MOUND BUILDERS.
The first human inhabitants (unless DARWIN's theory be true) who occupied this spot, were of that mysterious race known as the " Mound Builders." Who and what they were, whence they came, their history and ultimate fate, are wrapped in an impenetrable mystery, that will perhaps always baffle the most industrious scrutiny of antiquarians. Many plausible theories concerning them have been advocated by writers. It is gen- erally agreed that they were a simple and somewhat ingenious race, who subsisted partly by cultivating the earth and partly by the chase, and were more civilized than the Red Race who subsequently occupied this region. By what means they dis- appeared-whether by war, or famine, or disease, or partly by all those causes-will never be known, but it is beyond doubt that they disappeared centuries ago.
The only memorials of their existence that have survived are the mounds that lie scattered about, generally (and erroneously) called Indian Mounds, though the Indians deny that their race erected them, asserting, "our fathers found them here when they first possessed the land." A number of these mounds have been found on the site of Saint Paul, mostly on Dayton's Bluff. Several of them are very large, showing that the Mound Builders must have lived for some time on this spot, and in considerable numbers. The mounds in this city are evidently of great age. Several of them have been excavated at times by antiquarians, and human remains, beads, pottery, and other relics of the pre-historic races discovered. Occasionally the
14
The History of the City of Saint Paul,
stone axes, chisels, arrow-heads, and other implements of the aboriginal dwellers here are found in the soil of our city. They are curious remains of this race .*
The object of these mounds has never been satisfactorily explained. Some regard them as memorials, others as sepul- chral, and some as religious or sacrificial altars. Whatever they are, they possess absorbing interest, and carry back the imagination to the period of the lost race who built them, and to the time when they dwelt on the very spot occupied by our own hearth-stones. As a recent writer has aptly said :
"Lonely, storm-beaten and freshet-torn, they stand nameless and without a history in this generation-silent, yet convincing illustra- tions of the ephemeral character of the nomadic races which for cen- turies peopled this entire region, and, departing, left behind them neither letters nor monuments of art-nothing, save these rude earth- mounds, and occasional relics, to give assurance of their former existence.
"In the twilight of what by-gone and unrecorded century were these tumuli built? Whence came, and who the peoples that lifted them from out the bosom of our common mother? Served they as friendly refuge in seasons of freshet and of storm? Were sacred fires ever kin- dled upon your summits? Within your hidden depths do the brave and honored of your generation sleep that sleep which knows no waking until the final trump shall summon alike the civilized and the savage to the last award? Or are ye simple watch-towers, deserted of your sentinels-forts, abandoned of your defenders ? We question, but there are no voices of the past in the ambient air. We search among these tombs, but they bear no epitaphs. We gaze upon these monuments, but they are inscriptionless."
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT's beautiful poem, " The Prairie," refers thus to the Mound Builders :
" Are they here-
The dead of other days ? And did the dust
Of these fair solitudes once stir with life,
And burn with passion? Let the mighty mounds That overlook the rivers, or that rise In the dim forest, crowned with tall oaks, Answer.
* One of the handsomest stone axes ever found in the Northwest was picked up by EUGENIO A. JOHNSON, C. E., in the ravine near the City Hospital, and presented by him to the Historical Society.
1
and of the County of Ramsey, Minnesota.
15
" A race that long has passed away
Built them ! A disciplined and populous race,
Heaped, with long toil, the earth, while yet the Greek Was hewing the Pentelicus to forms
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