USA > Minnesota > Ramsey County > St Paul > A history of the city of Saint Paul, and of the county of Ramsey, Minnesota > Part 27
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TRAVELING ON A DOG-SLEDGE.
The Pioneer, of February 19, says :
"Dr. RAE arrived in Saint Paul on the 14th instant, having performed the journey from Pembina to Sauk Rapids, some 500 miles, in ten days. It was the continuation of a journey from a station on McKen- zie's River, about 2,500 miles beyond Pembina. Both journeys were performed on snow-shoes. He was sent last spring to the Arctic coast in search of FRANKLIN, by the Hudson's Bay Company."
The "dog-sledge" used by Dr. RAE, in his long journey over the snow, was presented by him to the Historical Soci- ety, as a memento, and may still be seen at their rooms. This was the only mode of winter traveling between Saint Paul and Pembina, until 1859, when BURBANK & BLAKELEY'S line of stages commenced to run to Fort Abercrombie.
A Sauk Rapids correspondent of the Pioneer, January S, says :
"The honorable members elected to the House and Council, from Pembina, viz. : Messrs. KITTSON, ROLETTE and GINGRAS, arrived at Crow Wing on Christmas eve, in 16 days from home, stopping two days at Red Lake by the way. Each had his cariole, drawn by three fine dogs, harnessed tastily, with jingling bells, and driven tandem fashion, at 2 : 40 at least, when put to their speed. They usually traveled from 30 or 40 miles per day, and averaged about 35 miles. They fed the dogs but once a day, on the trip, and that at night, a pound of pemmi- can each. On this, they draw a man and baggage as fast as a good horse would travel, and, on long journeys, they tire horses out."
LEGISLATION AFFECTING SAINT PAUL.
The legislation of the third Assembly, affecting Saint Paul, may be summarized as follows :
DANIEL F. BRAWLEY was granted a charter to run a ferry for ten years, from the upper levee to West Saint Paul. (This ferry ran until the completion of the bridge, 1858.)
An act to incorporate the Ramsey County Agricultural Society.
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An act granting to JAMES M. GOODHUE and ISAAC N. GOODHUE, the right to run a ferry across the Mississippi River.
TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION.
The prohibitory legislation demanded by the Temperance Convention, and the efforts made by them in the shape of " personal pressure" on the Assembly, resulted in success. A very stringent "Maine Liquor Law" was enacted by the Legis- lature. The manufacture, sale, or possession of liquor was made a penal offense, to be severely punished. Liquor dealers were prohibited from sitting as jurymen. All liquor found in the Territory was to be destroyed, &c. The law was to be voted on by the people on the first Monday in April, and, if approved, was to be operative from and after May I. If approved, County Commissioners could not grant licenses longer than to that date, &c.
The contest over the liquor question was short, but very excited. On April 5, the election took place. Ramsey county, strange to say, gave a majority in favor of the law. When this result was known, late in the evening, the church bells rang a peal of joy. The result in the Territory was for, 853 ; against, 662.
It was ardently hoped and expected, by the advocates of the law, that it would operate successfully, but, as in so many other cases, they were disappointed. In Ramsey county, the Commissioners construed the law to suit themselves, and granted licenses as before. Thus the liquor traffic in Saint Paul went on about as usual. In Stillwater, however, the law was en- forced, and the saloons closed up.
Believing the law to be unconstitutional, its opponents took an early occasion to test it by a case occurring at Saint An- thony soon after. WILLIAM CONSTANS, a commission mer- chant on the levee, had in his warehouse several packages of liquor, stored there by or for another party, and Sheriff BROTT, being informed of the fact, made a descent on his place, to confiscate and destroy the liquor. CONSTANS and his friends resisted the process, offering to give the packages up, if BROTT
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would give a bond to indemnify him if the law was declared unconsitutional. This the Sheriff declined to do, and sum- moned a larger force from the crowd collected there, as a posse comitatus. CONSTANS' friends also rallied, and, in the excited state of things, a riot, with serious results, might have occurred, if other parties had not advised a compromise, which was effected, and the liquors left in CONSTANS' possession for the time.
The Saint Anthony case soon came before Judge H. Z. HAYNER, of the Supreme Court, who declared the liquor law null and void, inasmuch as the legislative power was vested by the Organic Act in the Governor and Assembly solely, and they had no power to delegate their authority to the people, and the law in question, being an attempt to do so, was inopera- tive. This was a severe blow to the temperance element, but, nothing daunted, it set to work to procure the passage of an- other and better law the next session.
THE TOWN ELECTION
took place on May 6. The result was as follows :
President B. W. Lott 227
Robert Kennedy .. 183
Recorder Louis M. Olivier. 237
B. B. Ford I71
Wm. Freeborn 396
Councilmen.
Chas. Bazille. 231
Egidus Keller 228
Firman Cazeau
178
John Rogers. .22I
A. Baker 175
Lot Moffet . .306
W. W. Hichcox I66
Those in italics elected.
The total vote cast in both precincts into which the town was now divided, was 414, evincing a population of about 1,500.
SOME NOTES ON STEAMBOATING.
The steamboat interest now began to be quite a consider- able one, and profitable, doubtless, as travel on the Upper Mis- sissippi, under the flood of immigration pouring in, was becoming large, and freighting was also growing in importance.
On page 173 was given some note of the beginning of the old Galena Packet Company. The "Senator" and "Nomi-
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nee" had been the regular " stand-by" packets, up to this season. During the past winter, (1851-2,) the " Ben Camp- bell" had been built for the trade. During the seasons of 1849, 1850, and 1851, the packet line only made two trips per week, each way. This year, it commenced tri-weekly trips. During the season, also, there was quite a rivalry in the steamboat trade. . The HARRISES, SMITH and SCRIBE, ran a packet in opposition to the old line, but, ultimately, they con- solidated with it. Capt. LOUIS ROBERT brought out the " Black Hawk" and "Greek Slave," this year-both new. There were " wild" boats, also, in the trade. Capt. KEELER HARRIS, who had commanded a new boat this year, called the "Saint Paul." died in August, aged 36 years.
BRIEF NOTES.
The Pioneer, of July 29, in a pretty pointed paragraph, compares the dearth of schools to the abundance of churches :
"Truth compels us to say, that there is not a building in all Saint Paul, fit to be called a district school house. The only building known as such, is hardly fit for a horse stable. There was another miserable substitute for a school house on Bench street, belonging to the upper district; but that was sold the other day, to satisfy a mortgage of less than $200. All this in an opulent town, swarming with children, little, untaught brats-swarming about the streets, and along the levee, in utter idleness, like wharf rats. All this in a town, too, that boasts of half-a-dozen steepled churches. If Saint Paul is not a priest-ridden town, it is in a fair way to be. This is a blunt, homely truth, but we are perfectly indifferent who dislikes it."
The Pioneer, of August 25, says : "The court-house is finished, and is an ornament to the town."
The same journal (September 16) says : "NEILL's church has got a fine organ, and the Cedar street church followed suit." It also adds, on the subject of church music : "now we have good choirs in all the churches, which would do honor to the most refined congregations in the States."
The Pioneer, of October 21, has a little item which shows that even at that early day our present system of water-works was thought of. It suggests supplying the city with water " from one of the lakes toward Little Canada."
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On August 10, it was stated that the cars on the Galena road had commenced to run to Rockford. They did not reach. the Mississippi for three years after this.
At this date, Minneapolis was not yet christened by that name, but is always referred to in the papers as "All Saints."
Hotels seemed to be as ill-fated those days as they were a few years subsequently. On June 23, a large hotel just erected by DANIELS & WASSON, near the upper levee, burned.
The repeated reference by the editors to the need of a cem- etery, led to the formation in March of an association, which procured 80 acres on what was, for many years, and perhaps is now, known as "Nigger Lake," a beautiful forest-covered hill to the right of Como avenue, and laid out a cemetery called "Oak Hill." Several burials were made there, when, for some reason, the scheme was abandoned and the property reverted to the original owners. It is unfortunate that the sites of the graves made there were afterwards obliterated, and cannot be recognized.
" LANGRISHE & ATWATER's Troupe" commenced a theatri- cal season at Mazurka Hall, on May 22, and played to good houses for two or three weeks.
RATIFICATION OF THE SIOUX TREATY.
During the early summer, the Sioux treaties of 1851 were before Congress for ratification, and, for some reason, delayed unnecessarily. The result was looked for with great interest by the people in Saint Paul. On June 26, the Senate, having ratified the principal treaty, (with the upper Sioux, ) the news was received in Saint Paul, amid great rejoicings.
The newspapers issued extras, and in the evening bonfires blazed on the bluffs, while the Maine law was somewhat dis- regarded. Settlers had not waited for the formal ratification of the treaty before taking possession of "Suland," as it was slangishly termed. Good points for farms, mills and town- sites had already been seized on, which have since become leading cities of our State.
MURDER OF ELIJAH S. TERRY BY THE SIOUX.
The doom of the Dakota race in this State was practically
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sealed by the treaty, although they continued to hang around until 1862. During all those years, there were repeated mur- ders of white people by them, which nearly all went unpun- ished. On June 25, the Sissetons, near Pembina, murdered, under the most outrageous circumstances, a young man named ELIJAH S. TERRY, a resident of Saint Paul, who had gone to that point to teach a mission school. He was a finely educated and religious young man, who had designed to devote his life to the elevation of the very savages who murdered him. He was a brother of JOHN C. TERRY, of this city, and of BENJ. S. TERRY, who, 10 years later, himself fell at Birch Coolie by a Sioux bullet.
WIFE MURDER.
On July 21, a man named CHAUNCY GODFREY, formerly of Baraboo, Wisconsin, while in a fit of jealousy and drunk- enness, shot his wife through the heart with a pistol, killing her almost instantly. They were boarding at the Tremont House, a small frame hotel which stood on Bench street, where the rear of Bell's Block now stands. In the excitement that followed, GODFREY escaped, and was captured some days afterwards at Reed's Landing. He broke jail several weeks subsequently, and fled from the Territory. No effort to re- take him was made, and he was never heard from again.
The newspapers of that day did not cultivate sensational reporting, as they do now. The murder did not make an item of over six or eight lines in either journal.
DEATH OF JAMES M. GOODHUE.
On August 5th, Mr. GOODHUE's serious illness was an- nounced in his own journal, and referred to with apprehension by the other papers. He grew rapidly worse. About the 26th he rallied, and hopes were entertained of his recovery, but he relapsed again, and sank rapidly, expiring on the 27th.
JAMES M. GOODHUE was born in Hebron, New Hampshire, on March 31, 1810. He entered Amherst College at a youthful age, and, after a creditable course, graduated in 1832, in his 23d year. He at once en- tered upon the study of law, and was, for a time, associated with Judge
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W. R. BEEBE, now of the firm of BEEBE & DONOHUE, New York. He ultimately emigrated west, and finally settled in the lead region of Wisconsin, then almost on the frontier of the Northwest, and compar- atively unsettled. Here he began to practice his profession with vigor and success, and was soon widely known in that region. A circum- stance, however, changed the current of his life. He was invited to take charge of the editorial columns of the Wisconsin Herald, pub- lished at Lancaster, during the temporary absence of the editor. He found in the new vocation the very field that his restless activity, strong discrimination and keen wit eminently qualified him for. The paper doubled its interest during his occupancy of the tripod, and at length it resulted in his becoming its editor.
In the spring of 1849, Mr. GOODHUE resolved to remove to Saint Paul. and swiftly executed his design. On April 28, he issued, under dis- couraging circumstances, the first paper ever published in Minnesota, which he continued with remarkable success until his death, three years subsequently.
He became a man of mark and power in the new commonwealth. He was one eminently fitted to impress the "elements of empire," which were "plastic yet, and warm." His habits, temperament, feelings and style, were all such as to give him influence in such a population as the Territory then had. His journal was an institution inseparably connected with the word Minnesota. In the early days of the Territory it was a powerful immigration document. Thousands of the present citizens of our State first heard of Minnesota in the columns of the Pioneer, or by extracts from it in other journals, which were widely circulated, and were attracted hither, by his bright and glowing pictures of life in the new Territory. His paragraphs thus circula- ted, powerfully contributed to correct the prevalent errors in eastern States as to our climate, soil, etc. He was unwearied in laboring for good enterprises to advance the prosperity of his adopted State. His faith in its future greatness was unbounded. He constantly predicted its prosperous career, in paragraphs that now read as if he had been gifted with prophetic ken. When any civil or political emergency arose, he could summon the force, strength, nerve and daring of his nature so promptly and powerfully as to astonish and confuse his op- ponents. His strength of will and purpose was remarkable.
In a paper prepared by Rev. E. D. NEILL, his intimate friend and spiritual counselor, for the Historical Society,. his character is strikingly sketched :
"The editor of the Pioneer, was unlike other men. Every action, and every line he wrote marked great individuality. Impetuous as the whirlwind, with perceptive powers that gave to his mind the eye of a lynx, with a vivid imagination that made the very stones of Minnesota
1852] and of the County of Ramsey, Minnesota. 329
speak her praise; with an intellect as vigorous and elastic as a Damas- cene blade, he penned editorials which the people of this Territory can never blot out from memory. His wit, when it was chastened, caused ascetics to laugh. His sarcasm upon the foibles of society was paralyz- ing. His imagination produced a tale of fiction called 'Striking a Lead,' which has already become a part of the light literature of the west. When in the heat of partisan warfare, all the qualities of his mind were combined to defeat certain measures; the columns of his paper were like a terrific storm in mid-summer in the Alps.
"As a paragraphist, he was equalled by few living men. His sen- tences so leaped with life, that, when the distant reader perused his sheet, he seemed to hear the purling brooks and see the agate pavements and crystal waters of the lakes of Minnesota, and he longed to leave the sluggish stream, the deadly malaria, and worn-out farms, and begin life anew in the Territory of the sky-tinted waters."
JOSEPH R. BROWN, whose sagacity in reading and knowing men was scarcely equalled by any one in our State, thus wrote of him :
" Col. GOODHUE was a man of warm temperament, which occasion- ally betrayed him into an undue severity of comment upon those who differed with him in opinion upon political questions, and upon aspirants for office whom he deemed unworthy of public confidence. Many of his editorials would have done no discredit to the New York Herald in its most palmy days. They are replete with satiric humor. Indeed, his powers of. sarcasm were limited only by his sense of propriety, and we can all testify to the effective mode in which they were exercised. In comparison with the ordinary controversial articles of the country press, his style of writing was as fine gold to lead. * * He will be numbered with the small band of sturdy men who labored constantly and with iron resolution to establish the pillars of society in our Ter- ritory upon a sound moral basis. His press was always found on the side of law, order, temperance and virtue. Minnesota may well lament his death, and inscribe his name on the roll of her benefactors."
But GOODHUE did not live to finish the harvest of fame and wealth which his energy and ability had begun to reap, as indicated by the foregoing extracts. He was mysteriously cut off in the prime of life, with apparently years of useful- ness to come. The slight illness with which he was at first attacked took an unfavorable turn, and, on August 27th, 1852, as the twilight shadows darkened around his home, his eyes closed forever on earth. The news of this sad event produced a feeling of gloom in the entire community. He was buried 22
4
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The History of the City of Saint Paul, [1852
on Sunday, August 29th, by the Masonic fraternity, from the First Presbyterian church, the pastor of which, Rev. E. D. NEILL, preached his funeral discourse to the largest audience which had ever gathered in the town. The Legislature of the following year very appropriately honored his memory, by bestowing his name on a new county, now one of the most flourishing in the State.
OUR TOWN SURVEYS.
GOODHUE had a broad and liberal view of public improve- ments. In his pride of our young city, and his strong desire for its success and welfare, he never ceased to importune for its social, physical, educational and commercial prosperity. His paper teems with advice to the people, which it would have been wisdom for them to have adopted. He deplored the building of houses on the bluff side of Bench and Third streets, and so have thousands since then. At that day it could have been avoided. The execrable manner in which the town was laid out was another horror to him. In one of his articles, just before his death. he says :
" The projectors of this town appear to have had but the smallest possible ideas of the growth and importance that awaited Saint Paul. The original plat was laid off in very good imitation of the old French part of Saint Louis, with crooked lanes for streets, irregular blocks, and little skewdangular lots, about as large as a stingy piece of ginger- bread, broken in two diagonally, without a reservation fit to be called a public square-without a margin between the town and the river ; with- out preserving a tree for shade, without permanent evidences of bounda- ries made by the survey. In fact, it was a survey without measure- ment, a plan without method, a volunteer crop of buildings, a sort of militia muster of tenements. So much for the old plat. Then came Rice and Irvine's Addition. This is laid out but little, if any, better. In fact, the two plats appear to have taken 'a running jump at each other, like two rival steamboats-which, having inextricably run into each other, the passengers and crews have concluded to knock down the railings and run along together, as one craft. Kittson's is laid off in smaller lots than any of the other additions, and its streets make no sort of coincidence with other streets in town. It would save immense cost and prove an eternal blessing to Saint Paul, if the whole site of the town could now be thrown into one common field, and platted as
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it ought to be, with large reservations of public grounds, with straight, wide, regular streets, and blocks and lots of uniform size."
ANOTHER HOMICIDE.
On the night of October 12, an affray occurred in the saloon of THOMAS H. CALDER, between Col. DANIEL BRECK, JAMES BRECK, SIMON DALTON and others, in which DALTON was fatally stabbed, dying a few hours afterwards. A coroner's jury tried to sift the case, but could come to no conclusion as to who gave DALTON his quietus. (May be he suicided ?)
THE ELECTION
came off on October 12. The canvass of votes for Saint Paul precinct of Ramsey county, showed as follows :
Democrat.
Opposition.
Louis M. Olivier . 395 J. R. Brown. .30I
Mich'l Cummings.354
F. C. Ramsey .366
Representatives. . . .
William Noot . . .. 363
B. L. Sellers 306
Wm. P. Murray . . 355
B. W. Lott .. .... 382
V. B. Barnum . . 301
George Irvine 188
Ira B. Kingsley .. . . 185 Henry A. Lambert .. 182
Surveyor Wm. R. Marshall. 184
Those in italics elected.
ANOTHER MURDER BY INDIANS.
Though the Sioux had received, in good faith, a large sum as a quit-claim for territory they had no more actual owner- ship of than the fowls of the air, they seemed unwilling to give peaceable possession of it to white people. On October 27, a party of German immigrants were traveling up the Min- nesota valley, near Holmesville, where some Indians met them, and used threatening actions and language. Finally, a Sioux buck raised his gun and shot a woman, named Mrs. KEENER. Her body was brought to Saint Paul, and buried. The Indians were pursued, and the murderer, Yu-ha-zee, ar- rested. He was taken to Fort Snelling, on Tuesday ; indicted by the grand jury of Ramsey county, on Thursday ; tried and convicted of murder in the first degree, on Friday ; and, on
D. F. Brawley .317
County Commisioner . . Louis Robert. .179 Treasurer. .. Rob't Cummings . . 179
Fudge of Probate. . W. H. Welch ..... 179
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Saturday, sentenced, by Judge HAYNER, to be hung. Justice, those days, was speedy, (to Indians, that is.) The Statutes of the Territory then provided that a person sentenced to be hung, could not be executed for at least twelve months there- after. So Yu-ha-zec was sent to jail to meditate on his latter end. He was not executed until December 31, 1854.
THE SPECULATIVE ERA
seems to have commenced as early as this. A correspondent of the Pittsburg Token, who visited Saint Paul in the fall of this year, writes of it :
" My ears, at every turn, are saluted with the everlasting din of land ! land ! money ! speculation ! saw mills ! land warrants ! town lots, &c., &c. I turn away sick and disgusted. Land at breakfast, land at din- ner, land at supper, and until II o'clock, land; then land in bed, until their vocal organs are exhausted-then they dream and groan out land, land! Everything is artificial, floating-the excitement of trade, spec- ulation and expectation is now running high, and will, perhaps, for a year or so-but it must have a reaction."
NECROLOGY OF 1852.
In addition to the death of Hon. H. L. TILDEN, JAMES M. GOODHUE, and ELIJAH S. TERRY, before mentioned, several other prominent citizens died this year.
On June 13, DANIEL HOPKINS, merchant, died on the steam- boat " Dr. Franklin, No. 2," while returning from a business trip to Saint Louis, aged 65 years.
ROBERT HUGHES, a painter, fell over the bluff, on Bench street, June 14, and was killed. [Several deaths have since occurred in the same manner.]
On November 22, EGIDUS KELLER, a member of the Town Council, died of inflammation resulting from a frozen heel.
On December 9, J. Q. A. ALTMAN, a printer, formerly of Pennsylvania, died.
December 22, RICHARD O. WALKER, merchant, formerly of Philadelphia, died, aged 24.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1853.
A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW-IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT-A SIOUX-CHIPPEWA FIGHT ON THE STREET-CHANGE OF ADMINSTRATION-GOV. WILLIS A. GORMAN ARRIVES-MAJ. FORBES APPOINTED POSTMASTER-THE NORTHERN' PACIFIC RAILROAD SURVEY-BUSINESS DIRECTORY-BRUTAL MURDER OF TWO MEN- BALDWIN SCHOOL DEDICATED.
T "HE fourth Legislative Assembly met on January 5, in the two-story brick now located on Third street, corner of Minnesota. (The Capitol was not then completed.) The Pioneer, speaking of the legislative buildings about that time, said :
"Strangers inquire which of the three doors the front of the building used as the Capitol, leads to the lower house. The members themselves sometimes get puzzled."
The Pioneer, of January II, notes the fact that Messrs. KITTSON, GINGRAS and ROLETTE, members from Pembina, walked the 500 miles from that place, on snow two feet deep, with snow-shoes.
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