USA > Minnesota > Minnesota - its advantages to settlers, 1869 : being a brief synopsis of its history and progress, climate, soil, agricultural and manufacturing facilities, commercial capacities, and social status, its lakes, rivers, and railroads, homestead and exemption laws > Part 1
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01053 1363
MINNESOTA :
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
1869.
BEING A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF
ITS HISTORY AND PROGRESS, CLIMATE, SOIL, AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING FACILITIES, COMMERCIAL CAPACITIES, AND SOCIAL STATUS ;
ITS LAKES, RIVERS AND RAILROADS; HOMESTEAD AND EXEMPTION LAWS;
EMBRACING A CONCISE TREATISE ON ITS
CLIMATOLOGY, IN A HYGIENIC AND SANITARY POINT OF VIEW ;
ITS UNPARALLELED SALUBRITY, GROWTH AND PRODUCTIVENESS,
AS COMPARED WITH THE OLDER STATES ;
AND THE ELEMENTS OF ITS FUTURE GREATNESS AND PROSPERITY.
ETOILE
NORD
FOR GRATUITOUS CIRCULATION, ORDER COPIES TO ANY ADDRESS, FROM GIRART HEWITT, ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA. 1869.
STATEMENT.
- -
The pamphlet issued by me January, 1867, was received in such a way as to call for a similar work for 1868. The flattering endorsements which the nine editions of those years received from the Press, the Legislature, the State Board of Immigration, and the publie, seem to warrant an issue for 1869, If the pamphet of 1868 was an improvement upon that of 1867, I trust this will be found a still greater improvement upon its predecessors. The plan for its cirenlation has proved a success-a copy is sent to each name furnished me whether the person thinks of seeking a new home or not. If the pamphlet falls into the wrong hand at first, it finds its way to the right one at last. A resi- denee here of twelve years and an immense correspondence, embracing every State and Territory in our own and many foreign countries, satisfies me that the facts regarding Minnesota are' not known in the world.
While many of the general items of the last editions are preserved in this, it will be found enlarged and improved in [many respects, and brings us down to January, 1869.
I have tried to avoid exaggeration, aiming to faithfully and impartially repre- sent the whole State. It is not designed to persuade persons to come here who are doing well enough where they are, but to give those seeking new homes re- liable information as to this young, attractive and progressive State.
Upon the important question of health, I have given the able treatise of Dr. T. Williams, and added the opinion of Dr. D. W. Hand, of St. Paul.
Coming here over twelve years ago, an invalid, myself a beneficiary of this climate, I have studied this question with interest, and can say that each year has served to confirm me in the opinion that Minnesota is unsurpassed for health.
GIRART HEWITT.
St. Paul, January, 1869.
1825271
MINNESOTA:
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
,
. GEOGRAPHICAL.
The State of Minnesota is one of the youngest in the united sisterhood of States. It was admitted into the Union in May, 1858, being the thirty-second State admitted into the Union. It derives its name from two Indian words, " Minne " and " Sotah," " sky-tinted. water," in reference to its numerous and beautiful streams and lakes which from their crystal purity reflect the clear, steel- blue skies. The State lies between 43º 30' and 49º north latitude, and 91º and 97º 5' west longitude. It is bounded on the north by the British Posses- sions ; on the south by the State of Iowa ; east by Wisconsin and Lake Supe- rior ; and west by Dakota Territory. Its estimated area is 84,000 square miles, or about 54,000,000 acres, thus making it one of the largest States in the Union, being nearly equal to the combined areas of the large and populous States of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and embracing a larger extent of territory than the whole of New England, capable of eventually sustaining a population equal to that of England.
Advantageous Geographical Position .- The geographical position of Min- nesota is the most favored on the continent. Its location is central between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Hudson's Bay on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico on the south. It is also midway between the arable limits of the con- tinent, where the products of agriculture attain their most perfect development. Generally speaking, the valleys of the Mississippi, St. Lawrence and Red River may be said to rise in the form of a huge convex mass, which culminates in the sand dunes or drift hills in the northern part of Minnesota, where those three great rivers take their rise and flow north, south and northeast. Minnesota is thus the actual summit of the continent, and the pinnacle of the watershed of North America. In reference to this fact, the Hon. Wm. H. Seward, in a speech delivered at St. Paul in 1860, says, " Here spring up almost side by side, so that they may kiss each other, the two great rivers of the continent," the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, rising almost within a stone's throw of each other, and running in opposite directions,-the one half way to Europe, the other bearing our commerce to the Gulf of Mexico, gathering the products of the cotton plantations of the South and bringing them to the vast water powers of the Upper Mississippi.
The arable area of the vast territory northwest of us-bounded on the north by the line of arctic temperature, and south by the arid sandy plains-is pro- jected through the valley of the Saskatchewan to the Pacific border ; " grimly guarded by the Itasca summit of the Mississippi, 1680 feet high on the east, and the Missouri coteau, 2000 feet high on the west," it forms " the only avenue of commercial communication between the east and west coasts, the only possible route of a Pacific railway, and the only theater now remaining for the formation of new settlements." Lying exactly across the commercial isthmus thus hemmed in, and which is the only outlet of this vast region to the Eastern and Southern States, Minnesota is the gateway between the eastern and western sides of the continent. " Through this one pass," says Mr. Wheelock, " between the con-
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MINNESOTA :
tinental deserts of sand and ice, must flow the great exodus now dashing itself in vain against their shores, as the tribes of Asia flowed into Europe through the passes of the Caucasus. Every advancing wave of population lifts higher and higher this gathering flood of American life, which, the moment that it begins to press upon the means of subsistence, must pour all its vast tide through this narrow channel into the inland basins of the Northwest-till the Atlantic and Pacific are united in a living chain of populous States."
This commanding physical position of Minnesota gives it the key and control of the outlet of the great mass of the commerce of the immense and produc- tive regions of the western and northwestern portions of the continent-regions as yet almost a wilderness, but whose incalculably large exports and imports, fol- lowing the inexorable laws of commerce, must find their highway through our State, when at no distant day those large and fertile districts north and west of us swarm with the industry of empires, and pour their wealth into our coffers, giving us a significance second to none in the world. Not only that, but, instead of passing by us and going two thousand miles east to trade, the workshops and factories which even now are opening up so rapidly on our wa- ter-powers will supply them and enrich us ; thus making this vast region tributary to us as surely as the West ever has heretofore been tributary to the East. Notic- ing this fact, in the speech already alluded to, Mr. Seward says, " Here is the place, the central place, where the agriculture of the richest region of North America must pour out its tributes to the whole world. On the east, all along the shore of Lake Superior, and west, stretching in one broad plain, in a belt quite across the continent, is a country where State after State is yet to arise, and where the productions for the support of human society in the old, crowded States must be brought forth." Then follows the remarkable and far-seeing views of this great statesman and politician, that Minnesota is yet to exercise a powerful influence in the political destinies of this continent. " Power is not to reside permanently on the eastern slope of the Alleghany mountains, nor in the seaports. Seaports have always been overrun and controlled by the people of the interior, and the power that shall communicate and express the will of men on this conti- nent is to be located in the Mississippi Valley, and at the sources of the Missis- sippi and St. Lawrence." Mr. Seward only expresses the fact, taught by the whole past history of the whole world, that empire travels westward, when he asserts, " I now believe that the ultimate, last seat of government on this great continent will be found somewhere within a circle or radius not very far from the spot on which I stand, at the head of navigation on the Mississippi River."
The future destiny of Minnesota therefore is to be a glorious one, and fortu- nate the descendants of those who may now obtain an interest and foothold within her borders. We will proceed to speak more specially of the true ele- ments of this future greatness and prosperity, as already indicated by the unerring logic of facts and unparalleled growth.
HISTORICAL OUTLINE.
Minnesota is what was once the " land of the Dakotas," who inhabited it long before their existence was known to white men. Their chief council chamber was in Carver's Cave, near where the present capital of the State now stands.
The honor of discovering Minnesota is divided between Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan priest, and DuLuth, a French explorer. Hennepin was sent out in the spring of 1680 to explore the Upper Mississippi in company with two traders ; he was captured by the Indians and carried to the present site of St. Paul. On his return in June, he met DuLuth and a party of explorers. He claims to have discovered the Falls of the Mississippi, and bestowed upon them the name of St. Anthony, in honor of his patron saint.
In 1689, Perrot, accompanied by LeSueur and others, took formal possession of the country embracing Minnesota, in the name of France, and established a fort on the west shore of Lake Pepin. Although discovered upwards of two hundred years ago, the settlement of Minnesota did not commence until about twenty years ago, with the exception of a few scattering pioneer hunters, traders
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ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
and missionaries, who took up their abode in it at a much earlier date. During the lapse of two centuries the vast northwest, embracing the best lands and climate on the continent, remained a wilderness, while the Atlantic and Western States were being settled. Very vague and erroneous notions prevailed in regard to this region, which was popularly supposed to be too cold and inhos- pitable for agricultural pursuits. But this region reproduces the west and north of Europe, containing the most powerful and enlightened nations on the globe, with the exceptions caused by vertical configuration only, and gives an immense and yet unmeasured capacity for occupation and expansion, containing an area above the 43d parallel, perfectly adapted to the fullest occupation by cultivated nations, not inferior to the whole of the United States east of the Mississippi.
This region, extending to the Pacific, and of which Minnesota is the " garden . spot," is yet destined to supersede in wealth and agricultural and manufacturing importance the older part of the United States, lying on the Atlantic coast and east of the Mississippi, and to become the seat of empire on the American continent.
" The parallel in regard to the advancement of American States here may be drawn with the period of the earliest trans-Alpine Roman expansion, when Gaul, Scandinavia, and Britain were regarded as inhospitable regions, fit only for barbarian occupation. The enlightened nations then occupied the latitudes near the Mediterranean, and the richer northern and western countries were unopened and unknown."*
In the year 1695, the second post in Minnesota was established by LeSueur ; and in October, 1700, he explored the Minnesota and Blue Earth rivers and established another post on the latter. From this period up to 1746, the history of Minnesota is nothing more than the history of the adventures of LeSueur and the traders among the Indians, and the wars of the latter among themselves, and is full of wild and romantic incidents. At this time France and England were involved in a war which extended to their colonies in the New World, and the French enlisted many savages of the Upper Mississippi on their side.
On the 8th of September, 1760, the French delivered up their posts in Canada to the English. By a treaty made at Versailles in 1763, France ceded the territory comprised within the limits of Minnesota and Wisconsin to England. But for a long time the English got no foothold in their newly acquired territory, owing to the greater popularity of the French, many of whom had married Indian wives. But little was known of the country previous to 1766, when Jonathan Carver of Connecticut explored it, and afterwards went to England and wrote a book of his adventures. Even at this early day, though over a thousand miles intervened between the Falls of St. Anthony and any white settlement, the explorer was impressed with the beauty and fertility of the country, and spoke . of the commercial facilities its future inhabitants would enjoy via the Mississippi and the northern chain of lakes. Carver's Cave at St. Paul, in which several bands of Indians held an annual grand council-making it the capital of the State a hundred years ago-was named after him.
After the peace between the United States and England in 1783, England ceded her claim to the territory south of the British Possessions to the United States. December 20, 1803, the province of Louisiana, embracing that portion of Minnesota west of the Mississippi, was ceded to the United States by France, who on the first of the same month had received it from Spain ; the latter objected to the transfer, but withdrew her opposition in 1804. In 1805, Gen. Zebulon M, Pike explored this region of country, and his reports, and those of Long, Fremont, Pope, Marcy, Stansberry, and other military officers exerted a large influence in first attracting attention to Minnesota as a field for settlement. He obtained a grant of land from the Sioux Indians on which Fort Snelling, five miles above St. Paul, was built in 1820.
The English traders still lingered in Minnesota after its cession to the United States, and incited by them against the Americans, the Indians became trouble-
*" Blodget's Climatology of the United States," page 526.
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MINNESOTA .
some, and during the war of 1812 generally took sides with the English, After the peace of 1815 they acknowledged the authority of the United States, but the Ojibways and Dakotas (or Siouxs) being hereditary enemies continued to war among themselves. In 1812 a small settlement was formed in the Red River country, composed principally of Scotchmen, uuder the auspices of Lord Selkirk. They were greatly persecuted by the Hudson Bay Company, who claimed the sole right of hunting and trading for furs in the northwest. In 1821, " after years of bloodshed, heart-burnings, fruitless litigation, and vast expense, the strife was concluded by a compromise between the two companies." In 1822, the first mill in Minnesota was erected where Minneapolis now stands. In 1823, the first steamboat that ever ascended the Mississippi above Rock Island, arrived at Fort Snelling, to the great astonishment of the natives.
In 1820, Missouri was admitted into the Union as a State, leaving the territory north of it, including Iowa and all of Minnesota west of the river, without any organized government. In 1834, it was attached to Michigan for judicial pur- poses. In 1836, Nicollet arrived in Minnesota and spent some time in exploring the sources of the Mississippi.
In 1837, the pine forests of the valley of the St. Croix and its tributaries were ceded to the United States by the Ojibways ; and the same year the Dakotas ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi. These treaties were ratified June 15, 1838.
One of the earliest settlers in St. Paul, the present capital of the State, was named Phalon. Other families from the Red River settlement settling there, Father Gaultier, a Catholic missionary, built a log chapel, "blessed the new basilica," and dedicated it to St. Paul, which thus came to be the name of the city, which previous to that time had been called " Pig's Eye." In 1848 St. Paul was a small settlement, and contained only 840 inhabitants in 1849. Its present population is 20,108.
In 1843, the settlement of Stillwater, on the St. Croix, 18 miles from St. Paul, was commenced.
Territorial Organization .- On the 3d of March, 1849, the Territory of Minnesota was organized, its boundaries including the present Territory of Dakota, and St. Paul designated as the capital. April 28th the first newspaper was issued in the new capital. Alexander Ramsey was appointed Governor, and arrived with his family the latter part of May. On the first of June he proclaimed the Territorial government organized. The Territory contained 4,680 inhabitants at this time.
After the organization of the Territory, immigration flowed in rapidly, and both St. Paul and country were settled very fast. On the 1st of August, 1849, the first delegate (H. H. Sibley) was elected to Congress, and on the 3d of September the first Legislative Assembly met and created nine counties. In 1850 small steamboats commenced to run on the Minnesota river.
In 1851 an important treaty was effected with the Dakotas, by which their title to the west side of the Mississippi and the valley of the Minnesota river was extinguished, and this vast tract open to settlement. At a very early day Minnesota took the subject of common schools in hand, and the first report of a Superintendent of Public Instruction was presented to the third Legislative Assembly, which met in January, 1852.
From this time forward immigration flowed into Minnesota at high tide, and the State filled up with unprecedented rapidity. Villages and towns sprang up as if by magic. Land speculation ran high, and during the period of the greatest inflation of prices, the financial crash of 1857 fell like a thunderbolt. Great distress and stagnation of business was the direct result, and for a year or two the rapid growth of the State was arrested. But the remoter consequences of the crash were permanently beneficial to the State. Towns had sprung up like mushrooms without sufficient tributary agricultural districts to support them. Rent and living were ruinously high. After the crash, the speculator's occupa- tion was gone ; the energies of the inhabitants were directed to manufactures
7
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
and agriculture-the basis of all true State or National prosperity. Previous to that era, breadstuffs had been imported; in 1854 the number of plowed acres in the State was only 15,000; in 1860, there were 433,276; and in 1866, 1,000,000 ; and in 1867, over 1,200,000; 1868, 1,400,000. Minnesota was suddenly developed as one of the finest grain growing States in the Union, and in 1865 exported upwards of 8,000,060 bushels of wheat ; in 1866 over 10,000,000 bushels; and in 1867 the aggregate yield was as much ; and in 1868 over 17,000,000.
Admitted into the Union .- The State Constitution was framed by a convention elected for that purpose, which assembled at St. Paul in July, 1857, and it was voted upon and adopted the ensuing October. The State was admitted into the Union in May, 1858, the State government organized, and Hon. H. M. Rice and Gen. Jas. Shields elected to the U. S. Senate. In 1861, when the re- bellion broke out, our State promptly responded to all the calls made on her for men and money, though at a greater detriment to her growth and prosperity, perhaps, than that of any other State. Being a new State, she had no surplus population, and her quotas were taken from her grain fields, workshops and pine- ries, With a population of about 175,000 at the beginning of the war, she fur- nished about 24,000 men to the Union armies. Few States have such a record.
The Indian Massacre .- In August, 1862, one of the most fiendish and wide- spread massacres recorded in American history took place upon the western frontier of Minnesota by the Dakota or Sioux Indians. A large military force, commanded by Gen. Sibley, was at once sent out, which soon laid waste the whole Indian country belonging to these tribes, killed " Little Crow," their leader, and utterly routed and subdued their braves. A large number were captured ; some of them tried and sentenced to death-of these 38 were hung, and the others, with their entire tribes, were, under the order of the General Government, sent clean out of the country to a reservation beyond the Missouri river.
Remarkable Progress of the State .- It will thus be seen that Minnesota has had extraordinary obstacles to overcome. The financial panic of 1857, the rebellion of 1861, and Indian war of 1862, have undoubtedly greatly retarded · her growth ; yet, notwithstanding those drawbacks, she has grown more rapidly than any State in the Union. Her percentage of increase from 1860 to 1865 was 45} per cent., while that of Wisconsin was only 12, Illinois 27, Iowa 11, Michigan 7}. All danger from Indians has long since vanished ; perfect securi- ty reigns, and homes in the most remote parts of the State are as secure as those of New-England. In 1865 the population of the State was 250,000, and at the close of 1868, 460,000. Gov. Marshall in his annual message gives it at 445,000.
Government .- The State government is very similar to that of the other Western States. The constitution sceures civil and religious rights to all ; a citizen of the United States 21 years of age who has been in the State four months can vote-if of foreign birth he must have resided in the United States one year, and in Minnesota four months, and have declared his intention to become a citi- zen of the United States. Impartial suffrage is now the law of this State.
EXEMPTION LAWS OF MINNESOTA.
Humane and Just Provisions .- Too much credit cannot be accorded the men of our Legislature for the wise and liberal provisions of our State Homestead and Exemption Law. When we recall for a moment the statutes of the older States in that barbarous age when an Exemption Law " of one hundred dollars " and "imprisonment for debt" disgraced their law-books, and contemplate the succession of revulsions that we have seen sweeping over the land, prostrating the business and business men, the energetic, progressive, live men of our country almost in a night, themselves, and those dependent on them, involved in one com- mon ruin, say whether I too much honor those men whose legislation comes up to the spirit of the age in which we live, who have placed upon the statutes of Minnesota a Homestead and Exemption Law more liberal than that of any other State.
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MINNESOTA :
I quote from the statutes of 1866, page 498 :
"That a homestead consisting of any quantity of land not exceeding eighty" acres and the dwelling house thereon and its appurtenances, to be selected by- the owner thereof, and not included in any incorporated town, city or village, or" instead thereof, at the option of the owner, a quantity of land not exceeding in amount one lot, being within an incorporated town, city or village, and the dwelling house thereon and its appurtenances, owned and occupied by any resident of this State, shall not be subject to attachment, levy or sale, upon any execu- tion or any other process issuing out of any court within this State."
Thus it will be seen that we have no limitation as to the value of the farm or - residence thus secured to the family. It may be worth one thousand or ten thousand dollars. Whatever it is, it remains the shelter, the castle, the home of the family, to cluster around its hearthstone in the hour of gloom and disaster, as securely as they were wont to do in the sunshine of prosperity.
While there may be those who prefer an exemption by value rather than area, and urge that one so liberal as ours can be taken advantage of by knaves, it must be remembered that no general law can be framed for the protection of the helpless and unfortunate, that will not be sometimes taken advantage of by others. We think it may be safely asserted that an exemption law such as ours, is found a blessing to thousands of worthy men, women and children for every . one unworthily shielded by its provisions
Personal Property Exempted .- In addition to the home, there is also ex- empted a proportionately liberal amount of personal property, consisting of household furniture, library, horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, wagons, farming utensils, provisions, fuel, grain, &c., &c., and all the tools and instruments of any mechan- ic, and four hundred dollars' worth of stock in trade ; also the library and im- plements of any professional man. See State laws, page 489.
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