History of Hennepin county and the city of Minneapolis, including the Explorers and pioneers of Minnesota, Part 1

Author: Warner, George E., 1826?-1917; Foote, C. M. (Charles M.), 1849-1899; Neill, Edward D. (Edward Duffield), 1823-1893; Williams, J. Fletcher (John Fletcher), 1834-1895
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Minneapolis, North Star Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 738

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HISTORY

HENNEPIN COUNTY

AND THE

CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS, Y INCLUDING THE

EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

BY REV. EDWARD D. NEILL,

AND

OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.

BY J. FLETCHER WILLIAMS,

MINNEAPOLIS : NORTH STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY. 1 ~~ 1.

THENEW YORK PUBLICLIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. 1897.

ASTOR

WHY

LIBRARY

PRINTERS. MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

PREFACE.

We live not alone in the present but also in the past and future. The radius that circumscribes our lives must necessarily extend backward indefi- nitely and forward infinitely. We can never look out thoughtfully at our im- mediate surroundings but a course of reasoning will start up leading us to inquire the causes that produced the development around us, and at the same time we are led to conjecture the results to follow causes now in operation. We are thus linked indissolubly with the past and the future.

" Now for my life," says Sir Thomas Browne, " it is a miracle of thirty years, which to relate were not a history, but a piece of poetry, and would sound to common ears like a fable. Men that look upon my outside. perusing only my condition and fortune, do err in my altitude ; for l'am above Atlas his shoulders. I take my circle to be above three hundred and sixty. Though the number of the arc do measure my body, it comprehendeth not my mind."

If, then, the past is not simply a stepping-stone to the future, but a part of our very selves, we can not afford to ignore it, or separate it from ourselves, as a member might be lopped off from our bodies ; for though the body thus maimed might perform many and perhaps most of its functions, still it could never again be called complete.

We, therefore, present this volume to our patrons in Hennepin county. not as something extrinsic, to which we would attract their notice and secure their favor, but as a part of themselves, and an important part, which it is the province of the historian to re-invigorate and restore to its rightful owner. Moveover, we can not but hope that we shall thus confer much pleasure. The recounting of events which have transpired in our own neighborhood is the most interesting of all history. There is a fascination in the study of the intermingled fact and fiction of the past which is heightened by a familiarity with the localities described. The writer remembers the glow of enthusiasm with which he once stood at the entrance of the old fort at Ticonderoga, and repeated the words of Ethan Allen : "In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress, etc." " The river which flows through our native village acquires a new interest when, in imagination, we see the Indian Canoe on its surface and the skin-covered tepee on its banks, as in days of yore. Log cabins, straw roofs, and the rude " betterments" of the hardy pioneer. are the next changes on the scene, followed soon by mushroom towns, some of which perish as quickly as they spring up, while others astonish us by their rapid growth ; cities are built, and moss and ivy, the evidences of age. soon accumulate. The log cabin and all the incipient steps of first settlement are things of the past ; "The place which knew them shall know them no more forever."

PREFACE.

Our purpose is to present these pictures in their natural succession, arousing the enthusiasm of the reader, if possible, giving him a more vig- orous enjoyment of the present by linking it with the past. The compass of the work is wide, extending over a long period of time, embracing the accounts of carly explorers, also reaching back among the legends of the past, and approaching the events of to-day, almost undesignedly casting a prophetic glance forward at what must be the future after such a beginning.

St. Anthony Falls and the environs present an exceptionally rich field for a work of this character. By situation, it was the highway of travel for Indian and white man, explorer, missionary, voyageur and trader. This was the favorite hunting ground as well as the battle-field of our savage predeces- sors. Here, too, they calmed their barbarous hearts, and bowed in worship of the Manitou, whose abode was at the great water-fall.

Incidents connected with the early settlement derive interest from the military reservation, and are unique in character. While reviewing these events and enterprises inaugurated for the development of the county, we come to regret that we can not claim the prestige belonging to the aristocracy of early settlers.

To give in detail all the various sources from which the facts here given have been obtained, would be tedious if not impracticable. It may be suffi- cient to say that it fairly presents the history of our remarkable development and a faithful picture of our present condition. We must, however, express our obligations to a host of living witnesses, from whom a large portion of the facts have been obtained and doubtful points verified ; they have our hearty thanks. Material has been drawn largely from the columns of newspapers, which have given, from time to time, a record of passing events. The contri- bution of Rev. Edward D. Neill will be of great permanent value in imperish- able print, and will be greatly prized by histographers everywhere. We have also drawn upon the accumulation of facts in the possession of the Minnesota Historical Society, for a valuable paper by its secretary, Mr. J. Fletcher Wil- liams. The value of a reservoir of historical data at the capital of the state, for such purposes, was fully appreciated, and the maintenance of such a centre of information can not be too strongly advocated.

In conclusion, we have an obligation to express to our patrons, and are pleased to acknowledge a liberal patronage and more than ordinary courtesy toward our employees ; for all of which we tender our hearty thanks. Hoping that those who have subscribed for and are about to receive this volume, will favor it with a kind reception, and take as much interest in reading as we have in compiling the history of Hennepin county, we are, very respectfully,

Yours, GEO. E. WARNER, CHIAS. M. FOOTE.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XLV.

PAGE

PREFACE,

opp. 1

Brooklyn,

MAP,

CHAPTER 1-XXIII.

Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota-Rev.

Edward Duffield Neill,

1-128

CHAPTER XLVII,

CHAPTERS XXIV-XXIX.

29 -- 301

Champlin,

Ontlines of the History of Minnesota from

1-58 to 1881-J. Fletcher Williams, -

129-160

302-306

Dayton,

CHAPTER XXX.

CHAPTER XLIX.

Fort Snelling,

161-166

CHAPTERS XXXI-XXXIV.

167-187

Hennepin County History,

CHAPTER XXXV.

War Record,

182-211

CHAPTER XXXVI.

CHAPTER LII

Richfield,

1 212-221

Maple Grove,

322-328

CHAPTER XXXVII.

CHAPTER LIII.

Bloomington,

222-230

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

. 231-237

CHAPTER LIV.

Minneapolis, Town of,

339-353

CHAPTER XXXIX.

CHAPTER LV.

Minnetonka,

233-2446

353-356

Saint Anthony, Town of,

CHAPTER XE.

CHAPTERS LVI-LXXV.

Excelsior,

CHAPTER XLI.

CHAPTERS LXXVI-LXXXIV

Minnetrista,

CHAPTER XLII.

Independence, -

263-268

CHAPTER XLIII.

Medina,

CHAPTER XLIV.

278-28-1

Directory,

INDEX,

697

Crystal Lake,

PAGE

iii

285-293

CHAPTER XLVI

294-297

Osseo,

CHAPTER XLVIII.

Hassan,

307-310

CHAPTER L.

Greenwood,

311-316

CHAPTER LL.

317-3221

C'orcoran,

Plymouth,

328-338

Eden Prairie,

247-256

357-199

Minneapolis, City of,

499-662

Minneapolis, City, Biographies,

CHAPTER LXXXV.

662-668

Chronology,

CHAPTER LXXXVI.

- 268-277

669-696

- 257-262

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DAYTON

EXPLORERS

AND

PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

CILAPTER I.

FOOTPRINTS OF CIVILIZATION TOWARD THE EXTREMITY OF LAKE SUPERIOR.

Minnesota's Central Position .- D'Avagour's Prediction .- Nicolet's Visit to Green Bay .- First White Men in Minnesota .- Notices of Groselliers and Radisson,- Hurons Flee to Minnesota .- Visited by Frenchmen .- Father Menard Disap- pears .- Groselliers Visits Hudson's Bay .- Father Allouez Describes the Sioux Mission at La Pointe .- Father Marquette .- Sioux at Sault St. Marie,-Jesuit Missions Fail .- Groselliers Visits England .- Captain Gillan, ot Boston, at Hud- son's Bay .- Letter of Mother Superior of Ursulines., at Quebec,-Deatlı of Grosellers.

The Dakotahs, called by the Ojibways, Nado- waysioux, or Sioux (Soos), as abbreviatsd by the French, used to elaim superiority over other peo- ple, because, their saered men asserted that the mouth of the Minnesota River was immediately over the centre of the earth, and below the eentre of the heavens.

While this teaching is very different from that of the modern astronomer, it is certainly true, that the region west of Lake Superior, extending through the valley of the Minnesota, to the Mis- souri River, is one of the most healthful and fer- tile regions beneath the skies, and may prove to be the centre of the republic of the United States of America. Baron D'Avagour, a brave officer, who was killed in fighting the Turks, while he was Governor of Canada, in a dispatch to the French Government, dated August 14th, 1663, after referring to Lake IIuron, wrote, that beyond " is met another, called Lake Superior, the waters of which, it is believed, flow into New Spain, and this, according to general opinion, ought to be the centre of the country."

As early as 1635, one of Champlain's interpre- ters, Jean Nicolet (Nicolay), who came to C'ana da in 1618, reached the western shores of Lake Michigan. In the summer of 1634 he ascended

the St. Lawrence, with a party of Hurons, and probably during the next winter was trading at Green Bay, in Wisconsin. On the ninth of De- eember, 1635, he had returned to Canada, and on the 7th of October, 1637, was married at Quebec, and the next month, went to Three Rivers, where he lived until 1642, when he died. Of him it is said, in a letter written in 1640, that he had pen- etrated farthest into those distant countries, and that if he had proceeded " three days more on a great river which flows from that lake [Green Ray] he would have found the sea."

The first white men in Minnesota, of whom we have any record, were, according to Garneau, two persons of Huguenot affinities, Medard Chouart, known as Sieur Groselliers, and Pierre d'Esprit, called Sieur Radisson.

Groselliers (pronounced Gro-zay-yay) was born near Ferte-sous-Jouarre, eleven miles east of Meaux, in France, and when about sixteen years of age, in the year 1641, came to Canada. The fur trade was the great avenue to prosperity, and in 1646, he was among the HIuron Indians, who then dwelt upon the eastern shore of Lake Huron, bartering for peltries. On the second of Septem- ber. 1647, at Quebec, he was married to IIelen, the widow of Claude Etienne, who was the daugh- ter of a pilot, Abraham Martin, whose baptismal name is still attached to the suburbs of that eity, the "Plains of Abrabam," mado famous by the death there, of General Wolfe, of the English army, in 1759, and of General Montgomery, of the Continental army, in December, 1775. at the

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1881, by GEO. E. WARNER and C. M. Foots, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

commencement of the " War for Independence." His son. Medard, was born in 1657. and the next year his mother died. The second wife of Gro- selliers was Marguerite Ilayet Hayay) Radisson, the sister of his associate, in the exploration of the region west of Lake Superior.

Radisson was born at St. Malo. and. while a boy. went to Paris, and from thence to Canada. and in 1656. at Three Rivers, married Elizabeth. the daughter of Madeleine Hainault. and. after her death. the daughter of Sir David Kirk or Kerkt. a zealous Huguenot. became his wife.

The Iroquois of New York, about the year 1650, drove the Ilurons from their villages, and forced them to take refuge with their friends the Tinon- tates. called by the French, Petuns. because they cultivated tobacco. In time the Hurons and their allies, the Ottawas (Ottaw- waws), were again driven by the Iroquois, and after successive wanderings, were found on the west side of Lake Michigan. In time they reached the Mississippi, and ascending above the Wisconsin. they found the lowa River. on the west side, which they fol- lowed, and dwelt for a time with the Ayces (Joways) who were very friendly : but being ac- enstomed to a country of lakes and forests. they were not satisfied with the vast prairies. Return- ing to the Mississippi. they ascended this river, in search of a better land. and were met by some of the Sioux or Dakotahs. and conducted to their villages, where they were well received. The Sionx, delighted with the axes, knives and awls of European manufacture, which had been pre- sented to them. allowed the refugees to settle upon an island in the Mississippi. below the mouth of the St. Croix River, called Bald Island from the absence of trees. about nine miles from the site of the present city of Hastings. Possessed of firearms, the Hurons and Ottawas asserted their superiority, and determined to conquer the country for themselves, and having incurred the hostility of the Sionx, were obliged to flee from the isle in the Mississippi. Descending below Lake Pepin, they reached the Black River, and ascending it, found an unoccupied country around Its sources and that of the Chippeway. In this region the Hurons established themselves, while their allies. the Ottawas, moved eastward. till they found the shores of Lake Superior, and set- tled at Chagouamikon (Sha - gah - wah - mik-ong)

near what is now Bayfield. In the year 1659, Groselliers and Radisson arrived at Chagouamik- on, and determined to visit the Hurons and Pe- tuns. with whom the former had traded when they resided east of Lake Iluron. After a six days' journey, in a southwesterly direction, they reached their retreat toward the sources of the Black. Chippewa. and Wisconsin Rivers. From this point they journeyed north, and passed the winter of 1659-60 among the " Nadouechionec," or Sioux villages in the Mille Laes (Mil Lak) re- gion. From the Hurons they learned of a beau- tiful river. wide, large. deep, and comparable with the Saint Lawrence. the great Mississippi, which flows through the city of Minneapolis, and whose sources are in northern Minnesota.

Northeast of Mille Lacs, toward the extremity of Lake Superior, they met the " Ponalak," or Assiniboines of the prairie, a separated band of the Sionx. who, as wood was scarce and small, made fire with coal (charbon de terre) and dwelt in tents of skins: although some of the more in- dustrions built cabins of clay (terre grasse), like the swallows build their nests.

The spring and summer of 1660, Groselliers and Radisson passed in trading around Lake Superior. On the 19th of August they returned to Mon- treal. with three hundred Indians and sixty ca- noes loaded with " a wealth of skins."

" Furs of bison and of beaver. Furs of sable and of ermine."

The citizens were deeply stirred by the travelers' tales of the vastness and richness of the region they had visited. and their many romantic adven- tures. In a few days, they began their return to the far West, accompanied by six Frenehmen and two priests, one of whom was the Jesuit, Rene Me- nard. His hair whitened by age. and his mind ripened by long experience, he seemed the man for the mission. Two hours after midnight, of the day before departure, the venerable missionary penned at " Three Rivers," the following letter to a friend :

. REVEREND FATHER :

" The peace of Christ be with you : I write to yon probably the last. which I hope will be the seal of our friendship until eternity. Love whom the Lord Jesus did not disdain to love, though the greatest of sinners; for he loves whom he

FATHER MENARD LOST IN WISCONSIN.

loads with his cross. Let your friendship, my good Father, be useful to me by the desirable fruits of your daily sacrifice.

" In three or four months you may remember me at the memento for the dead, on account of my old age, my weak constitution and the hard- ships 1 lay under amongst these tribes. Never- theless, I am in peace, for I have not been led to this mission by any temporal motive, but I think it was by the voice of God. I was to resist the grace of God by not coming. Eternal remorse would have tormented me, had I not come when I had the opportunity.

" We have been a little surprized, not being able to provide ourselves with vestments and oth- er things, but he who feeds the little birds, and clothes the lilies of the fields, will take care of his servants; and though it should happen we should die of want, we would esteem ourselves happy. I am burdened with business. What I can do is to recommend our journey to your daily sacrifice, and to embrace you with the same sen- timents of heart as I hope to do in eternity.

" My Reverend Father,

Your most humble and affectionate

servant in Jesus Christ.

R. MENARD.

"From the Three Rivers, this 26th August, 2 o'clock after midnight, 1660."

On the loth of October, the party with which he journeyed reached a bay on Lake Superior, where he found some of the Ottawas, who had fled from the Iroquois of New York. For more than eight months, surrounded by a few French voyageurs, he lived, to use his words. " in a kind of small hermitage, a cabin built of fir branches piled one on another, not so much to shield us from the rigor of the season as to correct my im- agination, and persnade me I was sheltered."

During the summer of 1661, he resolved to visit the Hurons, who had fled eastward from the Sioux of Minnesota. and encamped amid the marshes of Northern Wisconsin. Some Frenchmen. who had been among the Hurons, in vain attempted to dis- suade him from the journey. To their entreaties he replied, " I must go, if it cost me my life. 1 can not suffer souls to perish on the ground of saving the bodily life of a miserable old man like myself. What! Are we to serve God only when there is nothing to suffer, and no risk of life?"

Upon De l'Isle's map of Louisiana, published nearly two centuries ago, there appears the Lake of the Ottawas, and the Lake of the Old or De- serted Settlement, west of Green Bay, and south of Lake Superior. The Lake of the Old Planta- tion is supposed to have been the spot occupied by the Hurons at the time when Menard attempt- ed to visit them. One way of access to this seclu- ded spot was from Lake Superior to the head- waters of the Ontanagon River, and then by a port- age, to the lake. It could also be reached from the headwaters of the Wisconsin, Black and Chip- pewa Rivers, and some have said that Menard descended the Wisconsin and ascended the Black River.

Perrot, who lived at the same time, writes : "Father Menard, who was sent as missionary among the Ontaouas [Utaw-waws] accompanied by certain Frenchmen who were going to trade with that people, was left by all who were with him, except one, who rendered to him until death, all of the services and help that he could have hoped. The Father followed the Outaouas [Utaw- waws] to the Lake of the Ilinoets [ fllino-ay, now Michigan] and in their flight to the Lonisianne, [Mississippi] to above the Black River. There this missionary had but one Frenchman for a companion. This Frenchman carefully followed the route, and made a portage at the same place as the Outaonas. Ile found himself in a rapid, one day, that was carrying him away in his canoe. The Father, to assist, debarked from his own, but did not find a good path to come to him. He en- tered one that had been made by beasts, and de- siring to return, became confused in a labyrinth of trees, and was lost. The Frenchman, after having ascended the rapids with great labor, awaited the good Father, and, as he did not come, resolved to search for him. With all his might, for several days, he called his name in the woods, hoping to find him, but it was useless. He met, however, a Sakis [Sauk] who was carrying the camp-kettle of the missionary, and who gave him some intelligence. Ile assured him that he had found his foot -prints at some distance, but that he had not seen the Father. He told him, also, that he had found the tracks of several, who were going towards the Scioux. He declared that he supposed that the Scioux might have killed or captured him. Indeed, several years afterwards,

EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOT.1.

there were found among this tribe, his breviary and cassock. which they exposed at their festivals, making offerings to them of food."

In a journal of the Jesuits. Menard, about the seventh or eighth of August. 1661. is said to have been lost.

Groselliers (Gro - zay - yay). while Menard was endeavoring to reach the retreat of the Ilorons which he had made known to the authorities of Canada, was pushing through the country of the Assineboines. on the northwest shore of Lake Superior. and at length, probably by Lake Alem- pigon. or Nepigon, reached Hudson's Bay, and early in May. 1662, returned to Montreal, and surprised its citizens with his tale of new discov- eries toward the Sea of the North.

The Hurons did not remain long toward the sources of the Black River, after Menard's disap- pearanee, and deserting their plantations, joined their allies. the Ottawas, at La Pointe, now Bay- Geld, on Lake Superior. While here, they deter- mined to send a war party of one hundred against the Sioux of Mille Lacs (Mil Lak) region. At length they met their foes. who drove them into one of the thousand marshes of the water-shed between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, where they hid themselves among the tall grasses. The Sioux, suspeeling that they might attempt to es- cape in the night. eut up beaver skins into strips, and hung thereon little bells, which they had ob- tained from the French traders. The Hurons, emerging from their watery hiding place, stumbled over the unseen cords. ringing the bells, and the Sioux instantly attacked. killing all but one.

About the year 1665, four Frenehmen visited the Sjonx of Minnesota, from the west end of Lake Superior, accompanied by an Ottawa chief, and in the summer of the same year, a flotilla of canoes laden with pelfries, came down to Mon- treal. Upon their return. on the eighth of Au- gust, the Jesuit Father, Allonez. accompanied the traders. and, by the first of October, reached Che- goimegon Bay. on or near the site of the modern lown of Bayfield. on Lake Superior, where he found the refugee Hurons and Ottawas. While on an excursion lo Lake Alempigon, now Ne- pigon, this missionary saw. near the mouth of Saint Louis River, in Minnesota, some of the Sioux. He writes : " There is a tribe to the west of this, toward the great river called Messipi.

They are forty or fifty leagues from here, in a country of prairies. abounding in all kinds of game. They have fields. in which they do not sow Indian corn. but only tobacco. Providence has provided them with a species of marsh rice, which. toward the end of summer, they go to col- leet in certain small lakes, that are covered with it. They presented me with some when I was at the extremity of Lake Tracy [Superior], where I saw them. They do not use the gun, but only the bow and arrow with great dexterity. Their cabins are not covered with bark, but with deer- skins well dried, and stitched together so that the cold does not enter. These people are above all other savage and warlike. In our presence they seem abashed, and were motionless as statues. They speak a language entirely unknown to us, and the savages about here do not understand them."

The mission af La Pointe was not encouraging, and Allonez, " weary of their obstinate unbelief," departed, but Marquette succeeded him for a brief period.

The " Relations" of the Jesuits for 1670-71, allude to the Sioux or Dakotahs, and their attack upon the refugees at La Pointe :

" There are certain people called Nadoussi, dreaded by their neighbors. and although they only use the bow and arrow, they use it with so much skill and dexterity. that in a moment they fill the air. After the Parthian method, they turn their heads in flight. and discharge their ar- rows so rapidly that they are to be feared no less in their retreat than in their attack.

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History of Hennepin county and the city of Minneapolis, including the Explorers and pioneers of Minnesota, Part 1

Author: Warner, George E., 1826?-1917; Foote, C. M. (Charles M.), 1849-1899; Neill, Edward D. (Edward Duffield), 1823-1893; Williams, J. Fletcher (John Fletcher), 1834-1895 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Minneapolis, North Star Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 738

Author: Warner, George E., 1826?-1917; Foote, C. M. (Charles M.), 1849-1899; Neill, Edward D. (Edward Duffield), 1823-1893; Williams, J. Fletcher (John Fletcher), 1834-1895
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Minneapolis, North Star Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 738