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MINESCIA PEOPLE AND
EARLY HISTORY OF
MINEAPOLIS!
Gc 977.6 St4p 1146122
PREL
M. L
GENEALOGY CÔLLEČTIC
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01053 2627
.
Eng 2 by HB Hall & Sons 13 Barclay St. N.Y.
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
OF
MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE,
AND
EARLY HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS.
1
1
BY
JOHN H. STEVENS.
1
WITH BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA AND LETTERS TO COL. JOHN H. STEVENS, SELECTED BY MARSHALL ROBINSON.
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
1890.
COPYRIGHTED 1890 BY MARSHALL ROBINSON.
TRIBUNE JOB PTG.CO. PRINTERS & BINDERS. MINNEAPOLIS.
1146122
INTRODUCTORY.
0 I essay to write something of my personal recollections and present knowledge of Minnesota and its people. Living alone, as to white men, on the west bank of the Falls of St. Anthony, I preempted a part of the present site of Minneapolis. I have witnessed wonderful transformations. With such aid as I can command, I commence the relation I have long contemplated, as one of love and legacy to such patient and charitable readers as I may have. A multitude of loved ones have gone before, but many remain. In spirit they are equally present and in view. Heroes of the past, brave men of the present, many of them were, and are. Blessed is their memory, and their presence.
Banta-
TABLE OF SOME OF THE CONTENTS.
SUBJECTS. PAGE.
Introduction and Preliminary.
With the Army in Mexico, 1846, 1847 and 1848 1
Attention directed to Minnesota -
2
The Wonderland of the Northwest 3
On the way to Minnesota 4
Prominent organizers of Minnesota Territory 5
Black Hawk battle-ground 6
From LaCrosse to St. Paul by the early river boats 7
Little Crow's village of Kaposia, five miles below St. Paul 9
First sight of St. Paul 10
Pre-Territorial Settlers 11
First visit to the Falls of St. Anthony
13
First permanent claim at the Fall of St. Anthony 14
Expedition to Coon Creek 17
Missionary Fred Ayer 18
The present site of Minneapolis 20
Winnebago Indians encamped at Minnehaha Falls 22
Franklin Steele and Fort Snelling 24
Officers at Fort Snelling 25
28
My Claim that became my home at St. Anthony Falls Some of my Indian guests 29 32 34
The Pioneer Editor of Minnesota, James M. Goodhue
A tribute to the noble men who have passed away The caravan of ox-carts from the Red River of the North Visit of Mrs. Snelling to the Fort 38
35
Rev. E. D. Neill 39
First session of the Territorial Legislature -
42
Philander Prescott 43
II.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
SUBJECTS.
PAGE.
A Frontier Wedding
45
Game in the early days 49
The early Missionaries. Illustration 51
Big Thunder, the father of Little Crow
55
Wild Food of Minnesota
61
Pioneers of Stillwater
65
Frontier Dancing Party
67
A phenomenal winter . 69
Esquimaux dispatches by dog-train from Pembina
74
The first pioneer white lady of original Minneapolis 77
Enthusiasm for Minnesota 78
Minnesota climate banishes cholera
81
First town election in St. Paul
82
Moving into the first house in Minneapolis 84
85
Native oak groves where the town was laid out
86
Miss Fredrika Bremer, the Swedish authoress, at the Falls Arrivals during 1849 and 1850 91,
92
Some of the first ministers of the Gospel at the Falls
92
Manner of colonizing
95
Pioneer school teacher in Minnesota
96
A winter journey to Washington
97
An interview with Daniel Webster -
100
Statesmen of forty years ago
102
The first white child born in what is now Minneapolis
104
The first churches at the Falls of St. Anthony. 108
Organization of Board of Regents of the State University 109 The first merchants at the Falls 114
Our first grist mills 115
An important treaty with the Dakota Indians
116
The first farmers about the Falls 120
Enthusiasm, fascination, and romance of frontier life 122
A wild deer on Spirit Island, and bears at Rice lake 124
Indians encamped at the Falls 126
Costume of the Dakota squaws, and behaviour of Indians 127 Seeking a name for the new town 128
First claims on the west side of the Falls 129
First public school on the west side at the Falls 136
Mr. Hoag buys 160 acres of Minneapolis for $100 136
89
My old farm where Minneapolis now is
III.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
SUBJECTS. PAGE. One of the first jurymen refuses to be frozen into a verdict 137 Claims made after the Traverse des Sioux treaty 140 Original owners of the soil on the west bank of the Falls 148 The University of Minnesota 158
St. Anthony pioneers of 1851 161 162
Last visits of the red men at the Falls of St. Anthony
Legislators come by dog-train from Pembina 165
A public dinner to Franklin Steele 166
A pioneer of the last century, Jean Baptiste Faribault Discussing a name for our town
167 171
Organization of a Claim Association
180
First and only unanimous election in Hennepin county 183
The commissioners select the name of Albion for the town 184
The citizens select the name of Minneapolis 186
First real start for a prosperous race
189
A man goes over the Falls -
194
Preliminary to building the suspension bridge
201
History of the first Minneapolis bell tolled 202
Beginning of the Minnesota Agricultural Society
208
Territorial Agricultural Society organized 214
Thanksgiving sermon, as prophetic as devout 217
A hasty but happy marriage in the early days 231
Survey of the village in 1854 233
Naming the streets and avenues in Minneapolis 234
First newspapers published in Minneapolis 240
First Agricultural and Horticultoral Fair in Minnesota 242 254
Boats on the Mississippi above St. Anthony Falls
246
Clergymen of the early days 249
Navigation of the Mississippi to the Falls
254
Suspension bridge presents the first span over the river Citizens celebrate the completion of suspension bridge 260
255
St. Anthony becomes a city
263 265
Exploring expedition westward through the big woods The former home of the buffalo -
266
Minneapolis putting on metropolitan airs 269
Business houses in Minneapolis in 1855 276
St. Anthony annexed to Hennepin county. 283
Reminiscent Review of events of pioneer days 296
Representative men of the early settlers
IV.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
SUBJECTS.
An Indian Republic 299
Men of mark who came in 1857 307
A movement to unite Minneapolis and St. Anthony 324
Abolition excitement at the Falls 329
Marvelous shrinkage in the value of property
381
Mr. and Mrs. M. N. Adams as Missionaries
338
Perilous winter journey from Pembina to Fort Snelling
345
Thirst in snow-covered countries
353
Buffalo Hunting in the northwest
354
Assiniboin belief in futurity
355
Journey along the southern shore of Lake Superior
356
Brief essay on the Life of Man 357
Condensed history of the Sioux Massacre of 1862 362
The Indians spare not their earliest and best friends
364
Whole settlements annihilated by the savages 366
371
Full-blooded Indian, with a white wife, saves many whites 372 General Sibley's account of the captives at Camp Release 375
Death of Little Crow, the Chief who led the massacre 377
Statement by Wowinapa, a son of Little Crow 378
Conclusion of the Pioneer record to close of 1862 384
Life of a missionary half a century ago 385
Missionary Pond teaches Little Crow to read 387
387
At Lake Harriet fifty years ago 389
392
Addresses by Messrs. Atwater, Neill, Marshall, and others 393 Indians taking a sad farewell view of St. Anthony Falls 393
An agricultural school at Lake Calhoun 60 years ago 396
Redbird and his warriors on the east bank of the Falls 399
Letter to the Old Settlers, from Dr. C. L. Anderson 400
St. Anthony Falls as it appeared of old. Illustration. 400
Biographical Memoranda-With letters to Col. Stevens 402
Colonel Stevens in the war with Mexico, 1846 to 1848 402 Letter from Horace Greeley 404
An early boom-with a protest-from Franklin Steele 412
Reminiscent letters from the Hutchinson singers 423
An infant pioneer-an old settler 431
Two hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the Falls 431
Wonderful escape from the Indians
An Indian protest as to Christians' love for one another
Old Settlers Association of Hennepin county
CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY.
On returning from Mexico to my Wisconsin home in 1848, with impaired health, I thought of returning to a claim I made in Texas in 1846. During a military march in the fall of 1846 from Matamoras to a point on the plains some forty miles east of that city into Texas, the command lost its bear- ings on the prairie, through the carelessness of the guide, and in seeking water and a place to camp, after a march of two days, on the second night a light was seen in the distance which evidently indicated the presence of either a settlement of whites or a Comanche camp. The latter would not be a desirable event, but after so long a march over an unbroken wilderness it was decided best to approach the signs of hab- itation. About midnight the place was reached and it was found that three men had taken claims on the banks of a small stream which drained that part of Texas, where both mesquite trees and grass were abundant. The owners of these claims were from New Orleans where, as clerks, they had saved considerable money. They had concluded to unite their earnings and become planters in southwestern Texas. They purchased a few negroes and mules, supplied them- selves with provisions and agricultural implements, and wandered through the wilds of Texas in search of land suita- ble for planting, and located in what they thought the most desirable place. Upon a hasty examination of the neighbor- hood the next morning, I decided to take an adjoining claim, and employed them to make improvements on it for me, with a full intention of making it a permanent home after the war.
1
2
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
I had made up my mind to reach this point as soon as I could close my business in Wisconsin and Illinois.
The morning after the election of General Taylor to the Presidency, in company with General Henry Dodge, who was on his way to Washington to take his seat as United States Senator from Wisconsin, I left Mineral Point for Galena as a starting point for my proposed new home in Texas.
A CHANGE IN MY PLANS.
Early as it was in November, we were met by one of the most fearful snow and wind storms that ever swept over the Northwest. The result was that we were snowed in at Hazel Green, a little hamlet a few miles east of Galena, and were obliged to remain there two days. Upon our arrival at Galena the roads between that place and Chicago were still impassable. Governor Dodge concluded to go by way of St. Louis, while I remained waiting for one of Frink & Walker's stages to make the trip to Chicago. While thus waiting at the old American House for the roads to become passable, the Prairie du Chien stage from the north arrived, one evening, having for one of its passengers no less a personage than John Catlin, the former Secretary of the Territory of Wis- consin. When that Territory became a State, in 1848, it left Mr. Catlin acting governor of the portion of the old Territory not included in the new boundaries of the State; hence Mr. Catlin had just returned from the Upper Mississippi, after an official visit. Among other duties he had authorized the election of a Delegate to Congress.
ATTENTION DIRECTED TO MINNESOTA.
From Mr. Catlin I first learned it was expected that a new Territory would be organized by Congress at the coming ses- sion, which would include the Falls of St. Anthony, and its name would be Minnesota ; that the result of the election was in favor of Henry H. Sibley as Delegate from the pro- posed new Territory.
Learning that I was on my way to Texas in consequence of serious lung difficulties, Mr. Catlin strongly urged me to give
3
OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
up Texas and try Minnesota, as it was well known, he said, to be the best climate in the world for such invalids. He urged me so strongly in this matter, and said so much in favor of the new country that I became half inclined to re- tire to my farm near Rockford, Illinois, for the winter, with a view of visiting Minnesota before I returned to Texas. Delayed by the storm, and dreading the long winter journey which must be accomplished mostly by land, I finally con- cluded to abandon, at least for the time being, the journey to Texas, and in the mean time would seek more information in regard to Minnesota.
THE WONDERLAND OF THE NORTHWEST.
After being settled for the winter, I made diligent in- quiries about this new Wonderland of the Northwest. I wrote to my friend Lieutenant Governor Timothy Burns of Wisconsin. Governor Burns and myself had for years been intimately associated in the mining region around Mineral Point. He had traveled extensively through the Territory. Here is an answer to one of my letters :
LETTER FROM GOVERNOR BURNS.
Madison, February 4th, 1849.
My Dear Sir : In answer to yours of the 20th of January making inquiries of me about the Territory of Minnesota, I would state that I think there will be a great deal of business there'next summer. Besides the agricultural and lumbering advantages it possesses, our Government pays off some four or five tribes of Indians, with three or four companies of United States troops, which necessarily causes a great amount of money to be put in circulation there annually. In addition to these resources, the country is very well adapted to farm- ing purposes. The soil and location of the country is excel- lent, and St. Paul, in my opinion, will soon be a place of con- siderable importance. The whole business of the people of the Red River of the North is now transacted at St. Paul, which is very considerable in itself. In conclusion, I think it a very good country. Yours truly, TIMOTHY BURNS.
PREPARING TO VISIT MINNESOTA.
In a subsequent letter Governor Burns informed me that upon the opening of navigation he should make a visit to the
4
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
upper country as far as the Falls of St. Croix, and I agreed to meet him at Galena to accompany him on the journey. The result was the abandonment of my Texas claim, though at first I did not observe all the attractions of the country. We intended to have left on the first boat, but on arriving at. Galena we found that three or four steamers had preceded us.
MY FIRST BILL OF GOODS.
Governor Burns suggested that I should lay in a supply of stores, as hotels and boarding houses were scarce where we were going, and being a novice in such matters, I purchased from B. H. Campbell, through J. R. Jones, at Galena, the following :
One barrel of pork
-
$9 50
Two hundred pounds of ham
8 00
Ten pounds of coffee
-
1 00
One pound of tea
1 00
Fourteen pounds of sugar One-half sack of salt
1 00
50
Pepper, spices
30
Four and one-half pounds of Tobacco
1 67
One barrel of whiskey
6 48:
-
-
It will be observed that these necessaries of life were cheap in those days. These merchants had not become the prominent and illustrious politicians which they were a few years later.
EN ROUTE FOR MINNESOTA.
On the 20th day of April the good old steamer Dr. Frank- lin, Captain Pres Lodwick, with Captain Russell Blakely in the office, entered Fever river and landed at Galena. On going aboard to secure a passage to St. Paul we found the cabin full of passengers. Among them were Hon. Henry H. Sibley, Hon. Henry M. Rice and his bride, the late Joseph McAlpine so long the book-keeper of the old St. Anthony Mill Company, and several others who have since become prominent citizens of Minnesota. Messrs. Sibley and Rice were returning from Washington, where they had put in a good winters work in behalf of the Territory. Governor
5
OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
Sibley had been admitted during the session as a Delegate in Congress, and had made many friends in Washington. Mr. Rice was no less active than Governor Sibley during the session, and to the united efforts of these gentlemen, with those of the late Franklin Steele, who spent a considerable portion of the winter of 1849 at the seat of Government, is Minnesota indebted for the early organization of the Terri- tory.
PROMINENT ORGANIZERS OF THE TERRITORY.
No country was ever more fortunate than Minnesota in containing such honest, able men as the three above named. The steamer laid all day at the levee in Galena, and only started on her northern journey after dark, hence we passed old Julian Du Buque's town during the night. We reached Prairie du Chien early in the forenoon of the next day, where a portion of the old Sixth Infantry was stationed at Fort Crawford I recognized, and was cordially greeted by, many of the officers of the Sixth Infantry, with whom I had been quartered at the Convent of San Fernando, in the City of Mexico. Among them were Dr. McLaren the Surgeon, Lieut. Winfield S. Hancock, and several others whose names have since become known all over the world for their gallant deeds of patriotism during the War for the Union. Dr. McLaren was a brother-in-law of the late Adjutant General Townsend of the United States Army. His removal to Fort Snelling soon after I saw him at Fort Crawford made him one of the pioneers of Minnesota. We remained at Prairie du Chien several hours, which afforded the passengers an opportu- nity to take a good survey of the ancient town. We met Douseman, Brisbois, Fenton, Brunson, Savage, and several others. We missed the familiar face of a good old friend, Thomas P. Burnett, who had, while a member of the then recent Constitutional Convention of Wisconsin, passed over the silent river-where all those citizens of Prairie du Chien whom I have mentioned have since joined him on the other shore.
TOWNS AND SETTLERS ALONG THE WAY.
There were no towns of importance in those days on either side of the river between Dubuque and Prairie du Chien.
6
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
A German colony had recently landed and founded a town called Guttenberg, on the Iowa side. McGregor, just opposite Prairie du Chien, contained only a wareroom and a house or two. Cassville was a mining hamlet on the Wisconsin side, supported mostly by the mineral in the neighborhood. Since more attention has been given to the agricultural resources of the country, there is no reason why these old Wisconsin mining towns on and near the banks of the river in Grant and other counties should not become places of moment, for a better soil for farming purposes never laid " out of doors".
From Prairie du Chien up to the Bad Axe there were few if any white settlers-if we except the Indian traders and wood choppers. Once in a while we found a squaw man who had a small patch of vegetables-which was worked by a poor Indian wife.
BLACK HAWK BATTLE GROUND.
There were several Eastern passengers on board who, as well as the others, were much interested in looking at the neighborhood in the vicinity of the junction of the Bad Axe with the Mississippi. The location had become famous as the place of the defeat of the Sauk Chief Black Hawk by our troops under General Dodge and General Atkinson, August 1, 1832. The Indians were dreadfully whipped. Black Hawk said, when taken prisoner, that his warriors fell around him like hail. He claimed that his evil day had come. The sun, he added, rose clear on the morning of that eventful day, but at night it looked like a ball of fire and sank in a black cloud. It was, he continued, the last sun that shone on Black Hawk. During our stay at the mouth of the Bad Axe much sympathy was expressed for the Indians. Doubtless this was one of the most disastrous battles to them known in the history of the Indian war with the United States, as it ended in the total destruction of most of the fol- lowers of Black Hawk.
From the Bad Axe the Dr. Franklin made but few landings until we reached La Crosse, which at that time contained but
7
OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
a few houses. I was introduced by Governor Burns to a Mr. Levy as the pioneer of the village. I also met at La Crosse Hon. Nathan Myrick, who subsequently became one of the most prominent citizens of Minnesota. He was also a pioneer of the place. A village had just been commenced on the Iowa side, on the banks of the river, in Allamakee county, under the auspices of John Hanney, since known as Lansing. With the exception of a warehouse it was a paper town. There was no Brownsville or La Crescent at that time on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi. The fact that La Crosse was the center of a considerable trade in fur with the Indians, as well as a depot for the lumber trade on some of the streams entering the Mississippi, warranted the belief that it would eventually expand into a city of considerable proportions. This induced Governor Burns to make a large investment in the embryo village.
FROM LA CROSSE TO ST. PAUL.
From La Crosse to St. Paul the landings became more fre- quent. Lumbermen and Indian traders were more numerous. . At one point under the bluffs the boat landed to take on several hundred bushels of potatoes, the product of land cul- tivated by a man by the name of Reed. Mr. Reed had sold the potatoes to a house in St. Paul. He informed me that this was his first shipment of farm products north, and he thought the first of a similar character between Lake Pepin and the upper Iowa river. Heretofore, he said, most of the agricultural products required for the upper country were raised between Dubuque and St. Louis. . I think Mr. Reed was an Irishman, with a mixed blooded woman for his wife, and had lived under the bluff for a great many years in a kind of voluntary retirement. He seemed to be much pleased that a market had been opened at St. Paul and Stillwater for his surplus products. Nelson's Landing at that time was a depot for lumber. There was no Winona. I think the landing was known as Wabasha prairie. The only business-small at that-was the Indian trade. At Wabasha large groups of Indians were seen. Early traders with the natives had made this a point for many years. Hon. Alex. Bailey was at that time the representative of the Fur Company at Wabasha.
8
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
Oliver Cratt, A. Rocque, and several other Canadian French- men, were residents of the village. Hon. James Wells, an old trader, had a store at the foot of the Lake. They were mostly employed by the Fur Company and the United States Agent of the Indians. Reed's Landing, just above Wabasha, was at that time one of the most important trading points on the river. The numerous logging camps up the Chippewa river, in Wisconsin, had all their outfits stored and reshipped from this point, which made business lively, especially every fall and spring. Mr. Richards had a store house at Maiden Rock, on the right bank of Lake Pepin, which was a place of much interest to the passengers. It is about five hundred feet high, and the location of a sad legend of the natives.
AN INDIAN ROMANCE.
Winona, an Indian maiden, was commanded by her father, a prominent Chief, to marry a favorite brave, but the girl had made choice of another for her husband. Rather than com- ply with her father's wishes, she threw herself from the rock, and was instantly killed.
Lake City was not in existence as we passed Lake Pepin, and there was no town or landing-place on the eastern banks of the Lake until we reached Wacouta, at the head of the Lake, at which point an Indian trader or two had goods to sell to the Indians. Red Wing was the seat of an Indian colony. I think only a few whites resided there at the time. I only remember John Bush, the Indian farmer, and Rev. Mr. Hancock, the missionary. Probably there were others that I did not see. It was, and had been for a long time, a favorite resort for Indians, and I believe they love to linger in the bottoms, near that city, to this day. Prescott, on the Wis- consin side, attracted considerable attention in consequence of its beautiful location. There were but few buildings, aside from the necessary warehouses, but many of my fellow- passengers predicted a flourishing town in the near future. That was before the days of Hudson, which place has sprung up since, and has reaped many of the benefits that naturally belonged to Prescott. We thought the more of Prescott because it was named after that philanthropist, the late Phi- lander Prescott, who was so wantonly murdered by the
9
OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
Dakotas, below Redwood, during the Indian outbreak, on the 19th day of August, 1862.
On the steamer leaving Prescott, the next landing was at Point Douglas, a trading post of some consequence in the early days of the Territory. Two of its early traders, Messrs. Burris and Hertzell, had accumulated quite a competency, even at that early day. The village had the advantage of the trade of the pioneer farmers residing on the fertile lands bordering on both the Mississippi and St. Croix. Other towns have sprung up since, and the trade of the Indians has passed away. Point Douglas has not made the growth that all the passengers on the steamer Dr. Franklin expected on that pleasant April day in 1849.
Our next call was at Oliver's Grove, now Hastings. A few Indian traders came aboard with packages of fur destined for Mendota. Oliver's Grove was so called from a Lieut. Oliver, who, at an early day, had charge of Government stores des- tined for the St. Peters camp, that were landed there in conse- quence of the close of navigation. There were no permanent residents there then, though the late Hon. Joseph R. Brown had a trading post there as early as 1828. It was considered an excellent point for trading with the Indians. I do not think there was a soul on board who could for a moment have thought that a large and flourishing town would be built up so rapidly in less than a decade.
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