USA > Minnesota > Ramsey County > St Paul > A history of the city of Saint Paul, and of the county of Ramsey, Minnesota > Part 2
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Of symmetry, and rearing on its rock, The glittering Parthenon. These ample fields
Nourished their harvests. Here their herds were fed,
When haply by their styles the bison lowed,
And bow'd his maned shoulder to the yoke. All day this desert murmured with their toils, Till twilight blushed, and lovers walked and woo'd In a forgotten language, and old tunes From instruments of unremembered form, Gave the soft winds a voice.
" The red man came ---
The roaming hunter tribes, warlike and fierce,
And the Mound Builders vanished from the earth. The solitude of centuries untold
Has settled where they dwelt. * All is gone-
All, save the piles of earth that hold their bones- The platforms where they worshipped unknown gods-
The barriers which they builded from the soil, To keep the foe at bay.
Thus change the forms of being. Thus arise
Races of living things, glorious in strength, And perish."
THE ABORIGINAL PERIOD.
Following the era of the Mound Builders, came the " Abo- riginal Period,"-erroneously so called-or the period when the Red Race, or Indians, were in possession of this region, and probably all the continent of America, when it was discovered by the Northmen in the eleventh century. The nation which occupied this spot, and the region immediately about it, from the earliest period concerning which any traditions of the Red Man exist, was the Dakota or Sioux, one of the most populous of the Indian Nations of North America. There were numer- ous villages of that Nation in this vicinity at a very early day, and it appears to have been a favorite locality for them, on account of natural advantages, and the abundance of game. As late as the time of CARVER's visit this was the case. The towering cliffs, or " bluffs," of white sandstone which overhung
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the river, formed a prominent landmark for the Indians as they paddled up or down in their canoes, and it was known to them from time immemorial as Im-in-i-ja Ska, i. e., White Rock, and to this day is so called in their tongue.
The scenery, before the hand of the white man marred its wild, quiet beauty, must have been picturesque in the extreme. Then the bluffs were crowned with majestic trees, and the bottom lands above and below and opposite the city, were a dense jungle, where the primeval forests* grew in unchecked luxuriance. Here the deer, the bear and the buffalo roamed freely, disturbed occasionally by the wily Indian, whose skin teepee was frequently pitched in the bottom-land along the margin of the river. Standing on the edge of the high plateau, or second table, say where the bridge now starts, the eye would . then have wandered over a sea of foliage on the bench below, through which rolled the calm and placid river, unvexed by anything except the " squaw's birch canoe." Civilization had not then come with its burning force, changing and marring the natural face of creation, but instituting new forms of beauty -planting in the solitude a busy, populous city, with its din and noise, and smoke and clang of factory and mill, and the scream of engine and steamer.
" Here lived and loved another race of beings." On the upper plateau of our city they hunted the deer and bear and bison ; speared the muskrat in its marshes, and shot the beaver in its streams. The quiet river bore their canoes. Under the old century-mossed trees in the glen their group of skin teepees stood. Their songs of festivity echoed in the vale; anon it rang with the demon yells of their scalp-dance, or the shrieks of a victim tortured to death. The Indian lover wooed his dusky sweetheart with a flute serenade, or whispered sweet tales of love by moonlight. Anon they joined in death-combat with the wily Chippewa, and the soil beneath our feet may have once been reddened with the life-blood shed in those fierce battles.
* In 1854, Mr. R. O. SWEENY counted the rings on a large tree that had been cut down near the upper levee, and found over six hundred annual rings, indicating an age of over six centuries. Primeval indeed.
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But it is not necessary here to speak at length of the Red Race who once occupied this spot. Their history, customs and character are too well known and too thoroughly recorded to need incorporation into this work. They seem doomed to disappear before the settlement of the white man, and, how- ever lightly they may be regarded by those who have mingled with them on the frontier, there is something sad in the way they have been dispossessed of their ancestral heritage by the pale-faced intruder. Truthfully are they represented as lamenting :
" They waste us-aye, like April dew, In the warm noon we shrink away, And fast they follow as we go, Towards the setting day, Till they shall fill the land, and we Are driven into the western sea !"
At the period of which we write they were at least untainted by the vices the white man introduced among them, and what- ever natural nobility of character may be claimed for them by their eulogists, must have then been displayed. The white people, since St. Paul was settled, do not seem to have ad- mired them greatly, though many who read this book may entertain for them the romantic regard of LONGFELLOW and COOPER.
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The History of the City of Saint Paul,
CHAPTER II.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE NORTHWEST.
THE JESUIT MISSIONARIES AND THEIR EXPLORATIONS-MARQUETTE AND JOLIET VISIT THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI-LA SALLE AND HIS ACTS-FATHER HENNEPIN SENT TO THE SIOUX REGION-HIS ADVENTURES AMONG THAT NATION-HE DISCOVERS AND NAMES SAINT ANTHONY'S FALLS-SUBSEQUENT DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS-CESSION OF THIS REGION TO GREAT BRITAIN.
T HE Northwest was early claimed by the French through the right of discovery, and its first explorers were of that nation. Religious zealots have ever led the vanguard of discovery, and, in accordance with this rule, we find that many years before even the traders had dared to traverse the wilds of the Northwest, a class of men of that remarkable Order founded by IGNATIUS LOYOLA-the Jesuits-had explored much of the country around the Lakes and the headwaters of the Missis- sippi, sent hither to plant the banner of the Cross among the aborigines, and win them to its mild religion. Its missiona- ries, inspired with a sublime heroism in the cause of CHRIST, visited these wilds, endured incredible toils and privations, and, with a fortitude that never faltered, even in the face of peril and death, carried the precious words of the Gospel to the savages of the wilderness. History records no devotion more sublime. Many of them now wear the martyr's crown, but their sufferings and toils were not in vain. To no sect or order could such a work have been more properly confided. Says MACAULAY : "Before the Order had existed a hundred years, it had filled the whole world with memorials of great things done and suffered. There was no region of the globe in which Jesuits were not to be found. They wandered to countries which neither mercantile avidity nor liberal curiosity had ever impelled any stranger to explore. Yet, whatever might be their residence, whatever might be their employment, their spirit was the same-entire devotion to the common cause,
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implicit obedience to the central authority. None of them had chosen his dwelling place or his avocation for himself. Whether the Jesuit should live under the Arctic circle or under the Equator-pass his life collating MSS. at the Vatican, or in persuading naked barbarians in the southern hemisphere not to eat each other-were matters which he left, with profound submission, to the decision of others. If he was wanted at Lima, he was on the Atlantic in the next fleet. If he was wanted at Bagdad, he was toiling through the desert with the next caravan. If his ministry was needed in some country where his life was more insecure than that of a wolf, he went without remonstrance or hesitation to his doom." Bishop KIP pays them this just tribute : "Amid the snows of Hudson's Bay-among the woody islands and beautiful inlets of the Saint Lawrence-by the council fires of the Hurons and of the Algonquins-at the sources of the Mississippi, where, first of all the white men, their eyes looked down upon the Falls of Saint Anthony, and then traced down the course of the bound- ing river as it rushed onward to earn its title of 'Father of Waters'-on the vast prairies of Illinois and Missouri-among the blue hills which hem in the salubrious dwellings of the Cherokees, and in the thick cane-brakes of Louisiana-every- where were found the members of the 'Society of Jesus.'"
The reports and letters of these devoted Heralds of the Cross to their superiors, (Jesuit Relations, and Lettres Ed- ifiantes et Curieuses,) contain the earliest reliable historical and descriptive data relating to the Northwest, and are rare and valuable. From them we glean the meagre details of the earlier explorations in the Northwest, and the
PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY TOWARDS THIS REGION.
GABRIEL SAGARD, in 1624, visited the tribes on Lake Hu- ron, and in 1641 Fathers JOGUES and RAYMBAULT reached as far as the Sault Ste. Marie. Here they first heard tidings of the Dakotas. PAUL DE JEUNE, a Jesuit Missionary, is per- haps the first writer who mentions them with any distinctness, about the same date. He says they were called by the voya- geurs, " The People of the-Lakes." The Iroquois war ensued,
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The History of the City of Saint Paul,
however, and further exploration was arrested for several years. At length, in 1658, two daring traders penetrated to Lake Superior, wintered there, and brought back accounts of a fero- cious tribe who dwelt on " a great river" to the west. These accounts incited the Jesuit Fathers at Quebec to dispatch a . missionary to the tribe mentioned. Father RENE MESNARD, (or MENARD,) an aged priest, was selected, and set out in the autumn of 1660, penetrating that fall as far as Chegoimegon Bay on Lake Superior. The next spring he crossed the country from Lake Superior to Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Here, or near here, it is supposed, he was lost in the forest. His cassock and breviary, long afterwards preserved among the Dakotas as medicine charms, afforded the only clue to his fate. In 1665, Father CLAUDE ALLOUEZ, the successor to MESNARD, reached La Pointe, and, erecting a chapel, established a per- manent mission among the Ojibwas.
SECOND DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
DE Soro had discovered the Mississippi in 1541, but the discovery was never used, and was well nigh forgotten. Over a century had passed, when it was again to be discovered from the north. JEAN NICOLLET, an interpreter and Catholic, in 1639, advanced on a mission to one of the strange tribes of the west [Winnebagoes] so far that he discovered the Wisconsin River, and, floating down it, heard from the Indians of a " great water," only three days' journey beyond, which he inferred was the sea. While Father ALLOUEZ was preaching to the Ojib- was, on Lake Superior, he heard these accounts of a powerful nation, called by that tribe the Naudowessioux, meaning, in the Ojibwa tongue, " enemies," and of a mighty stream called the Mese Seepi, signifying, " Great River." Returning to Quebec soon after, he spread the reports of this great river, and M. TALON, Intendant of New France, became interested in the subject. He resolved to endeavor to discover this great stream, so as to reap the honors of such a feat, but owing to the trouble and delays incident to carrying an expedition into the far wilder- ness, it was not until 1673 that anything practical was effected.
LOUIS JOLIET, of Quebec, once a priest, but at that time a
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fur-trader, agreed to undertake a voyage to the unknown river. With him was associated Father JACQUES MARQUETTE, a Jesuit priest, then a missionary among the Hurons, admirably fitted, from his influence among the Indians, to aid the enterprise, and who has been thought by some to have been the real originator of the expedition. They set out from Michilimackinac, Father MARQUETTE's missionary station, on May 13, 1673, accompa- nied by five Frenchmen and two Algonquin Indians. They proceeded to Green Bay, thence up the Fox River to the port- age, and on June 10 launched their canoes on the Ouisconsin. MARQUETTE and JOLIET proceeded thence alone. For seven days they floated down this river, and, on the 17th, chanting the Exaudiat and De Profundis in thankfulness to God, they glided out on the broad bosom of the " Great River."
The two explorers continued their journey down the Missis- sippi, until, about the middle of July, they reached the mouth of the Arkansas. Here they began to retrace their voyage, and, returning by the Illinois River, soon floated into Lake Michigan through one of the branches. JOLIET returned to Quebec to become famous for his discovery. MARQUETTE pursued his missionary labors along the western lakes for two years longer, and, on the 16th of June, 1675, died at the age of thirty-eight.
LA SALLE'S EXPEDITION.
No effort to follow up the discovery of MARQUETTE and JOLIET seems to have been made for fully five years. ROBERT CAVALIER, SIEUR DE LA SALLE, a descendant of a noble Nor- man family-once a Jesuit, but then a fur-trader of Montreal- resolved, if possible, to prosecute still further the discovery of the Mississippi, and laid his views before Count DE FRONTENAC, then Governor of New France. Imbibing somewhat of the enthusiasm of LA SALLE, but unable to fit out such an expe- dition, FRONTENAC sent him to France, with credentials that would ensure him aid at Court. COLBERT, the Prime Minister of LOUIS XV, kindly listened to LA SALLE's scheme, and pro- cured for him authority to prosecute his plan, as well as other honors. LA SALLE also enlisted Chevalier DE TONTI, and
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about thirty colonists, to accompany him. The expedition arrived at Quebec September 15, 1678. A vessel was built, and LA SALLE started on his voyage, but was compelled to put into winter quarters near Niagara Falls. In the spring of 1679 he built and launched another vessel above the Falls. It was called the Griffin. The expedition again set sail on August 7, and arrived at Green Bay on October 8. The Griffin was loaded with furs and sent homeward, with instructions to return at once. But she never returned, a storm on Lake Erie having sent her and her cargo to the bottom. Meantime, having left a part of his force in a small fort near the mouth of St. Joseph's River, he proceeded with the rest to the Illinois River, where he built a fort, which, in view of the discouraging circumstances surrounding him, he named Creve-Cœur, [Broken Heart. ]
While here he resolved to make another effort to explore the Mississippi, and on February 28, 1680, dispatched
FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN,
with two companions, on a voyage of discovery. Perhaps no one could have been selected better fitted for such a mission. He had all the ambition and daring of a knight-errant. He was born in Flanders about the year 1640. He entered holy orders while young, but was always afflicted with a burning passion for travel and adventure. He relates that he used to hide him- self behind the doors of taverns, to listen to the sailors narrate their adventures, and longed to visit strange lands. This at last led him to get leave of his superiors to go to Canada. He came over on the same ship which bore back LA SALLE in 1675, and then, most probably became acquainted with LA SALLE and his plans. PARKMAN describes his dress : " With sandaled feet, a coarse .gray capote, and peaked hood, the cord of SAINT FRANCIS about his waist, and a rosary and crucifix hanging at his side." Such was the first white man who was to look upon the Falls of Saint Anthony.
HENNEPIN'S ADVENTURES.
HENNEPIN set off, as stated before, on February 28. His canoe was heavily laden with goods sent by LA SALLE as pres-
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ents to the Indians. For companions and oarsmen he had two Frenchmen, named ACCAU and Du GAY. Floating down the Illinois River to its mouth, which they reached on the 12th of March, they commenced their toilsome journey up the Missis- sippi. Game was abundant, and they fared well. On the 11th or 12th of April, HENNEPIN says they stopped in the afternoon to repair their canoe, when a fleet of Sioux canoes suddenly swept into sight, and in a moment they were surrounded by 120 naked warriors. HENNEPIN placated them with presents of tobacco, when they explained to him that they were on their way to attack the Miamis. HENNEPIN caused them to understand that the Miamis had gone across the Mississippi, beyond their reach. At this they showed signs of sorrow, and finally stated that they would retrace their way up the river, and that HENNEPIN and his companions must accompany them. To this he agreed, as they had thus far expected to be murdered, while it allowed him to continue his explorations. Slowly the Indians and their prisoners paddled their way up the Mississippi, HENNEPIN and his companions still tormented with fears for their safety.
THEY ARRIVE AT THE SITE OF SAINT PAUL.
On the 30th day of April, or the 19th day after their captiv- ity, HENNEPIN's captors arrived at what is most probably the site of the present city of Saint Paul. He describes it as a little bay or inlet, five leagues below the Falls of Saint Anthony, grown with alders or rushes. This description seems to point to the little bay at the mouth of Phelan's Creek, which is about that distance below the Falls, and would be a very convenient point for the Indians to land and set out on their journey over- land to Mille Lac. Here, he says, the Indians broke his canoe to pieces, and hid their own among the reeds. They then divided amongst them the baggage and effects of the Father, even taking his priestly robes, whose ornaments allured their covetousness. They then set out on foot for their village, which was near Mille Lac, and arrived there about May 5th.
Here HENNEPIN was adopted into the family of the Chief, AQUIPAGUETIN, and lived with him in his lodge on an island in the Lake. His account of his life among the Indians is entertaining, but space forbids its narration here.
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In September, the Indians set out on their annual hunt, and left HENNEPIN and his companions at liberty to go where they pleased. AccAU preferred to remain with the Indians, and consequently HENNEPIN and Du GAY set off alone down the Mississippi River in a small canoe.
HE DISCOVERS THE FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY.
About the first of October, they arrived at the Falls of Saint Anthony, being beyond doubt the first white men to gaze upon that spot. His description of the Falls is very brief, but toler- ably accurate. He named them, he says, in honor of Saint ANTHONY, of Padua. They portaged around the Falls, meet- ing several Indians who were making sacrifices to the Spirit of the Waters. Launching their canoe below the Falls, they con- tinued their journey, and, after a variety of adventures, reached the Jesuit station at Green Bay.
HENNEPIN'S SUBSEQUENT CAREER.
From thence he proceeded to Montreal, and, soon after, to Europe. "Providence," he writes, " preserved my life that I might make known my great discoveries to the world." He published an account of his travels, and afterwards, for some reason, put out a new edition, with' a lying account of his ex- ploration of the Mississippi to its mouth in 1680. This has detracted from the fame he otherwise would have had, and, though twenty editions of his work have been printed, in six different languages, HENNEPIN died at last in obscurity. In the Northwest, which he was so instrumental in discovering, something has been done to his memory. A town in Illinois, and a flourishing county of our own State, carry the name of the Franciscan priest to posterity.
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
Though HENNEPIN referred to the River as the Meschasipi and Meschasebe, he nevertheless endeavored to bestow upon it the name of " Saint Louis," in honor of the King of France. MARQUETTE and JOLIET christened it La Riviere de Con- ception ; LA SALLE named it "the Colbert," after the Prime
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and of the County of Ramsey, Minnesota.
Minister of the King ; but none of these names have been re- tained, and that by which it was first known to the Algonquins two centuries ago, with slight modifications, still adheres to it.
But what a mighty change these two centuries have wrought. The route over which HENNEPIN then traveled was an un- known wilderness. Now it is dotted with populous and busy cities. - The Anglo-Saxon, " the dominal blood of the world," with religion as its pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, has wrought this great change. As the Star of Empire lightens the Western sky, it gleams over fruitful valleys and opulent cities. In its track are borne the banners of the Prince of Peace ; along its course flourish the Arts and Sciences, while the country blossoms as the rose.
DISCOVERIES SUBSEQUENT TO HENNEPIN.
The discoveries made by HENNEPIN undoubtedly attracted considerable attention to this region, and diligent efforts were made to take formal possession of it in the name of France. In 1689, NICHOLAS PERROT, a French officer, erected a fort on Lake Pepin, and, planting the arms of France on a cross, took formal possession of this region. Other forts were built, and the exploration of the country pushed. LE SUEUR ascended . the Minnesota River in the fall of 1700, and established a fort, which he named L'Heullier, on the Blue Earth River, near the mouth of the Le Sueur, where there is a deposit of a sort of mineral which he mistook for copper ore.
CESSION OF THE COUNTRY BY FRANCE.
Before much further explorations were made, the "French War," between Canada and the Colonies, ensued, and prevented further progress of settlement in the Northwest for some years. It was not until the Treaty of Versailles, in 1763, by which all of the territory comprised within the limits of Wisconsin and Minnesota, east of the Mississippi, were ceded to Great Brit- . ain, that the way seemed opened for further discoveries. It needed only an adventurous spirit to take advantage of the fact, and introduce to the notice of the world the vast empire of the Northwest.
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The History of the City of Saint Paul,
CHAPTER III.
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JONATHAN CARVER AND' HIS EXPLORATIONS.
SOME ACCOUNT OF CARVER-HIS OBJECT IN MAKING THE JOURNEY-HIS ACCOUNT OF HIS ADVENTURES-HE DISCOVERS THE "GREAT CAVE"-MAKES A TREATY WITH THE SIOUX-AND RECEIVES A GRANT OF LAND-SUBSEQUENT FATE OF THE PURPORTED LAND GRANT-THE NORTHWESTERN TERRITORY ORGANIZED.
"THE man for that work at length arrived. It was brother JONATHAN CARVER, a keen Yankee from Connecticut- not indeed with a stock of wooden nutmegs and cheap clocks, but with his eye open for a good speculation of any kind. History must record him as the progenitor and founder of the noble order of real estate speculators who have flourished here since, and the first man to originate a " land grant."
SOME ACCOUNT OF CARVER.
JONATHAN CARVER was a grandson of WILLIAM JOSEPH CARVER, of Wigan, in Lancashire, England, who was a cap- tain in the army under. King WILLIAM, and served in the campaign against Ireland with such distinguished reputation, that the Prince was pleased to reward him with the government of the Colony of Connecticut, in New England. JONATHAN Was born in 1732, at the town of Canterbury, Connecticut. His father, who was a Justice of the Peace, died when he was 15 years of age. It was designed to educate him for a physician, but his spirit of enterprise and adventure could not brook the close study necessary to acquire the profession, and he chose the army instead. He therefore purchased an ensigncy in a Connecticut regiment, and soon, by good conduct, rose to the command of a company during the "French War." In the year 1757, he was present at the massacre of Fort William Henry, and narrowly escaped with his life.
CARVER'S OBJECT IN MAKING THE JOURNEY.
Having served through the war with credit and distinction,
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the peace of Versailles, in 1763, left Capt. CARVER without occupation. It was then that CARVER conceived the project of exploring the newly acquired possessions of Great Britain in the Northwest. In the preface to his book he says :
CAPTAIN JONATHAN CARVER.
"No sooner was the late war with France concluded, and peace estab- lished by the Treaty of Versailles, in the year 1763, than I began to consider (having rendered my country some service during the war) how I might continue still serviceable, and continue, as much as lay in my power, to make that vast acquisition of territory, gained by Great Britain, in North America, advantageous to it. It appeared to me in- dispensably needful, that Government should be acquainted, in the first place, with the true state of the dominions they were now become possessed of. To this purpose I determined, as the next proof of my zeal, to explore the most unknown parts of them, and to spare no trouble or expense in acquiring a knowledge that promised to be so useful to my countrymen. I knew that many obstructions would arise to my scheme from the want of good maps and charts. These
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