Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 15

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 1190

USA > Minnesota > Hennepin County > Minneapolis > Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota > Part 15

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The officer had to admit the correctness of Steele's position and retired. Mr. Steele soon had another cabin ready in which to receive visitors, and in a little while, late as was the season, planted a few vegetables. He placed a French-Canadian voyageur named La Grue and his wife in charge, and they so remained until the fall of 1839, when a sad tragedy terminated their occupancy.

POOR UNFORTUNATE MRS. LA GRUE !

Mrs. La Grue may have had a little Indian blood in her veins, but she was almost white in appearance. La Grue was a good sportsman and fond of hunting and fishing. Returning from a hunting trip, at the time mentioned, he found his cabin burned to the ground, with everything it had contained, and the charred body of his wife lay among the smoking ruins. How the house came to take fire, or why Mrs. La Grie did not save herself, was never explained. There were no witnesses and the dead woman could tell no tales. No censure was ever placed upon the husband, how- ever.

After gazing upon his loss for a little time, La Grie started to cross the river below the Falls in an effort to reach the old Government mill, where he hoped to pass the night, before going to Mr. Steele with a report of his loss. But on the bluff, where the Univer- sity buildings now stand, he encountered a war party of Chippewas, hidden and in bivouac in the dense grove of oaks. They had slipped down from Mille Lacs and hoped to surprise some unwary Sioux from about Fort Snelling and take their scalps. They, however, received La Grue kindly, commiserated him because of his misfortune and bereavement, and enter- tained him as best they could, aiding him to cross the river next morning.

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

It was believed by many that this band of Chip- pewas were the murderers of La Grue's wife and the ineendiaries that first plundered and then burned his cabin. Why they did not kill him where they found him eannot be explained. A few weeks after the tragedy, La Grue left the country and never returned. Mrs. La Grue's death was the first of a person living in civilization on the present site of Minneapolis. The date was in the fall of 1839, probably in October.

FURTHER HISTORY OF STEELE'S CLAIM.

A singularly incorrect version of Frank Steele's occupation of the Plympton elaim has frequently been made and printed. It is said that when Mr. Steele made his elaim it was mid-winter and very cold; that he crossed the Mississippi on the iee; that he built a board shaek and "planted" potatoes in the snow, etc., etc. Even the late Gen. R. W. Johnson, of St. Paul, who was Mr. Steele's brother-in-law, and was pre- sumed to know the faets, gives the version above in his otherwise historieally correct Ft. Snelling sketch which appears in Volume 8 of the State Historieal Society's "Collections." The fact that Steele "jumped" the Plympton elaim July 16, (the next day after the arrival of the steamboat Palmyra at Fort Snelling) makes it impossible that the arctie con- ditions mentioned in Gen. Johnson's account could have existed when the noted pioneer made his claim.

After La Grue left the country, heart broken over the fate of his wife, Charles Landry, (or Laundry) another Freneh-Canadian voyageur, was, aeeording to the best evidence obtainable, placed in charge of the Steele elaim. It seems that La Grue had lived in the cabin built by Plympton and Seott, and this hav- ing been burned Landry oceupied the one built by Steele. A postscript to a note from Steele to Sibley dated in December, 1839, says: "Do not let C. Lan- dry have anything on my aceount without a written order."

Landry was not as faithful a steward as La Grue had been. He was wont to absent himself from the Steele elaim frequently and remain away for days. It was the rule, if not the law, that the occupation by a claimant (by himself or agent) of a elaim must be continuous. If he was absent from it 24 hours, it might be, during his absence, held and occupied by another. On one occasion when Landry, after an absence of some days, returned to his cabin he found it occupied by James (or Theodore) Menk, (or Menke or Mink) the afore-mentioned discharged soldier and whisky seller. Jim Menk was as daring as he was unserupulous. He sat with a rifle between his knees and swore he would "blow out the brains" of any man that attempted to enter the eabin or to possess the elaim against him !

In great alarm and distress Landry left Menk and hurried to Mr. Steele and reported the foreible entry and detainer of the bold, bad Englishman. Steele promptly and vigorously kicked Landry from his pres- enee for his negligence and faithlessness, and then proceeded to make terms with Jim Menk. He was forced to pay Jim $200 in eash and $100 in store goods to relinquish the elaim. Mr. Steele then decided

to put on the claim the head of a family as his agent and steward, so that when the agent was off the claim some member of his family would remain to hold it.

So Steele sent over from the Fort, Joseph Reasehe, another Canadian, with an Indian wife, who was industrious, faithful, and prolifie. She had five sons and two daughters. Reasche had been a trader's assistant, and even a trader, among the Sioux, and was well known in the country. He could read, write, and cast aeeounts, while nearly every one of his asso- eiates eould, like Jaek Cade, thank God that he could do neither, but signed his name with a mark, “like an honest, plain-dealing man." But among them all "the wonder grew" that one small head, like Joe Reasehe's, could "carry all he knew." Reasche died at his home in North St. Anthony in 1854. Landry died near Bottineau Prairie in 1853.

So that, without counting Charles Wilson, the first four white men to reside on any part of the present site of Minneapolis were La Grue, James Menk, Charles Landry, and Joseph Reasche-not taking into account the men that lived in the little house at the Government mill, on the south side of the river; for they were soldiers and their home-if it be proper to call it a home-was properly Fort Snelling. And the occupation of these people was in 1838 and 1839. It may well be borne in mind that at the beginning of the ycar 1840 there were but three human dwellings here, and one was the hut at the Goverment mill; one was Steele's log hut occupied by Reasche and family, and the other was a log hut on the Carpenter & Quinn claim, north of Steele's, oceupant now unknown.

WHERE THE FIRST CLAIMS LAY.

Mr. Steele's claim (the old Plympton claim) was noted in the written claim as "bounded on the north by a line beginning at a large eedar tree, situated on the east bank of the river," opposite the Falls, and "running thence in right angles to the river" to an indefinite extent. The first boundary lines of the claims were almost admirably uneertain and confused. If the land had been worth $100 a square foot, as it is to-day, perhaps the elaimants would have been more careful.

Sergeant Nathaniel Carpenter's claim, which has been alluded to as having been made in 1837, before the treaties were ratified, was bounded, "on the south by the elaim of Major J. Plympton," and on the west "by the river." The northern and eastern bounds baffle deseription and understanding, but the whole traet was to "eontain about 320 aeres." The two elaims of Steele and Carpenter comprised all the lands on the east side of the Falls then considered worth elaiming !

On November 3, 1838, Sergeant Carpenter trans- ferred a half interest in his elaim to Thomas Brown, for a consideration of $25. Brown is deseribed in the certificate of transfer as "Private Thomas Brown, of Company A, Fifth United States Infantry." One- half of 360 acres of Minneapolis town site for $25! A log house was soon after built on the elaim by the

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

joint owners. It was situated near the river, on land between what are now Third and Fourth Avenues Northeast. The certificate (still owned by the heirs of the late John B. Bottineau) states that the land referred to is "in the County of Crawford, and Terri- tory of Wisconsin;" it is dated at "Fort Snelling, Iowa Territory," and is signed by Nathaniel Car- penter, in the presence of George W. P. Leonard. Who occupied the Carpenter eabin is not known.

May 6, 1840, Thomas Brown transferred his inter- est in the claim to Peter Quinn, who was described as "of St. Peter, Iowa Territory." The deed of transfer, which is attached to the deed from Carpenter to Brown, is signed by Brown and witnessed by Norman W. Kittson, then a young fur trader at the Cold Spring, near Fort Snelling. Kittson wrote his name, but Brown, who would have been described by Jaek Cade as "an honest, plain-dealing man," could not write, but made his X mark.

Kittson was born in Lower Canada in 1814 and came to Fort Snelling in 1834. Later in life he set- tled in St. Paul and beeame very wealthy, prominent, and influential in Northwestern commercial life. He died in 1888. Peter Quinn was born in Ireland and came to Fort Snelling in 1824 from Winnipeg; his half-blood Cree Indian wife (maiden name Mary Louise Findley) came the following winter on snow- shoes, losing her baby en route in a storm. Quinn became a trader's clerk, Sioux and Chippewa inter- preter, Indian farmer, etc., at Fort Snelling and was aeting as Indian interpreter for the Minnesota volun- teers when he was killed at Redwood Ferry, Aug. 18, 1862, at the beginning of the great Sioux Out- break.

May 1, 1845, Peter Quinn sold his interest in the claim to Samuel J. Findley and Roswell P. Russell. The transfers were very loosely made, without seals and without naming a consideration. While Quinn had become entitled to an undivided half, in his deed to Finley and Russell he attempts to divide the claim and describes the part sold as "half of elaim-say, north portion." But nobody questioned the deed then. Findley (or Finley) was a Canadian Scotch- man and at the time he bought the Quinn interest he was a clerk in Steele's sutler store at Fort Snelling; the following year (1846) he married Quinn's daugh- ter, Margaret; subsequently he ran the ferry at Fort Snelling for many years. He died in 1855. Russell came to Fort Snelling with Henry M. Rice, in 1839. He established the first store in Minneapolis, was receiver of the land offiee, and beeame a very promi- nent and useful citizen.

May 9, 1846, Findley and Russell decdcd their interest to Pierre Bottineau, (often pronouneed Burch-e-noe) one of the most honorably noted mixed- bloods in Minnesota. The deed to Bottineau describes the property as, "a certain tract of United States land in the Territory of Wisconsin, St. Croix County, on the Mississippi River, above the Falls of St. Anthony, containing one hundred and sixty (160) aeres, more or less." The consideration is named as $150. The deed was written by Joseph R. Brown, and of course is in correct and proper form. It is witnessed by

Brown and Philander Preseott. Mention has already been made that Brown made the first "elaim" to land in Hennepin County, selecting a traet on Minnehaha Creek, ncar its mouth. Preseott was long eonneeted with the Government service at Fort Snelling, as Indian farmer, ete. Although his wife was one of their tribe and he had ehildren by her, he was mur- dered by the Sioux on the upper Minnesota, the first day of the outbreak of 1862.

PIERRE BOTTINEAU, ELI PETTIJOHN, AND JOSEPH RONDO.

Pierre Bottineau had come to Fort Snelling in 1837, with Martin McLeod, (for whom a county is named) having lost two companions on the way. The men lost were two officers, who had been in the British military service and were coming into the United States from Winnipeg. One, Lieut. Hayes, was of Irish extraction ; the other, Lieut. Parys, was a Polish gentleman of long experience in military life. They were lost in a heavy blizzard west of Lake Traverse. Bottineau was the largest real estate owner in East Minneapolis for several years in the beginning.

From the papers of J. B. Bottineau it has been learned that Pierre Bottineau became the owner of the remainder of the Carpenter claim in 1844, and thus came to own and control all of the original Carpenter tract of 320 acres.

In 1842 came Eli Pettijohn, an Ohio man. He has resided in Minneapolis nearly ever since, and now (July, 1914) still resides here, aged 96. Strangely enough, his name is given in Warner & Foote's, Hud- son's, and Atwater's and other historics as "Petit John," as if his family name were John and his Chris- tian name Petit. He made a elaim south of Steele's claim, or down the river, where the University build- ings now stand. Ever since 1842 this noble old pioncer has lived continuously on the site of Minneapolis and it is passing strange why the historians Atwater and Hudson have failed to make proper mention of him. In 1845 Pierre Bottineau purchased Pettijohn's elaim and then was, by odds, the largest landholder in the locality. His possessions extended down the river, or eastward, almost indefinitely.

The same year that Eli Pettijohn made his elaim, or in 1842, came another Freneh-Canadian, Joseph Rondo (or Rondeau), and made a claim north of the Carpenter claim. He was a Red River refugee, and one of those evicted by Maj. Plympton's order from the Fort Snelling reservation. He eame up from down St. Paul way and made a claim with such uncer- tain boundaries that he was always in trouble about them. He was 46 years of age then, and could not brook opposition from the younger men of the settle- ment. Then he was aggressive and troublesome, and was continually trying to encroach upon the Carpen- ter elaim, especially upon Boom Island.

In 1845, after Bottinean had bought the Pettijohn claim, he began to have trouble with Rondo, but settled it in a summary and effective way. Rondo liad a claim down at "St. Paul's Landing," as it was then called, and spent some time upon it. One day, when he was absent from his St. Anthony claim, Bottineau

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

and others tore down his little cabin and with a yoke of oxen hauled away the logs a mile or more north- ward and piled them up. Then Bottineau proceeded to "jump" the Rondo claim and hold it. Rondo gave over all attempts to get his claim back, and in the fall of 1845 settled permanently on his St. Paul holdings. He lived at St. Paul the remainder of his life, died wealthy, and had a street named for him.

In a subsequent controversy over land that had been included in the original Rondo claim testimony was introduced to show that it was really included in the Frank Steele claim. Herewith is given a copy of a certificate, preserved among the Bottineau papers, which was introduced as evidence in the controversy referred to:

"This is to certify that I helped James Mink to run certain lines on claims belonging to Mr. Mink (now said claim belonging to Mr. F. Steele) and one belong- ing to Mr. Quinn, lying on the east side of the Missis- sippi River, near the Falls of St. Anthony. I do hereby further certify that the northern line of the claim, now belonging to S. J. Findley and R. P. Rus- sell, was run by me, in the year 1838, it then belong- ing to Mr. P. Quinn. The said line was marked to commence on a large elm tree, near the shore, above the small island in the Mississippi River opposite said claiming. The said northern line was marked accord- ing to law. The trees were all in a line, running due northeast from the river, or from above said elm tree, and were blazed on all four sides as well as could be done then.

"This is further to certify that, according to the way the above said northern line of said claim was drawn, that Joseph Rondo has no claim whatever to it; that said Rondo drew his line inside of the above said line, some two or three years after.

"Sept. 9th, 1845. Witness: Peter Hayden. "Baptiste Spence."

(For an interesting and generally correct account of these early land claims at St. Anthony, now East Minneapolis, see Warner & Foote's History of Henne- pin County, 1881, chap. 55; also, John H. Stevens's "Minnesota and Its People.")

THE SITUATION IN 1845.

In 1845 the former Pettijohn house was occupied by Baptiste Turpin, a French half-breed voyageur, though the claim was still owned by Pierre Bottineau. Paschal and Sauverre St. Martin, Canadian-French- men, came this year and made a claim below the Pettijohn claim, which extended down the river below what is now East Washington Avenue and perhaps Riverside Park.

The population of Minneapolis in 1845 was prob- ably 50. We may speak of the place as Minneapolis, although it then had, properly considered, neither "a local habitation or a name." It had not been chris- tened or even laid out. The place comprised a few log cabins scattered along the east side of the river and the head of the household in each case, with but one exception, was a French-Canadian or a French- Indian. All of them were either guarding their own

claims or those of employers. Old Maloney was living at the Government mill, on the west bank of the river, but he was a soldier and an Irishman. Chas. Wilson, an ex-soldier from the Fort and long in the employ of Steele as a teamster, was a white man and born in Maryland; he held Steele's claim for him at intervals, but the greater part of the time was engaged in teaming. His wife died in 1838 and when he became a single man, his home was under his hat, wherever that was, and he spent the most of his time at Fort Snelling. Col. Stevens and Judge Atwater, however, considered him the first American settler. Only one house in the place had a shingled roof, and that was Steele's cabin, which was occupied by Joseph Reasche. The other roofs were of elm bark or birch bark or sod.

APPEARANCE OF MINNEAPOLIS IN THE LATE FORTIES.

In 1842 the east side of the river at the Falls was practically. an unbroken forest, with little clearings about the cabins. Nicollet Island was covered with magnificent sugar maples, and for successive years, until the trees were cut down, three or four sugar camps were opened by the families living near. These sugar makers were invariably assisted by Indian women from Cloud Man's and Good Road's villages. As the trees were on an island constantly surrounded by water, their roots drew up plenty of moisture at all times and in the spring the sap was very abundant and sweet and never failed. Considerable quantities of sugar were made each spring, although the machin- ery was primitive and rude. Birch-bark pans caught the sap as it flowed from gashes in the trees made with axes, and it was boiled down and reduced first to syrup and then to sugar in kettles swung from a pole supported by forked sticks. The presence of flakes of ashes, bits of dead leaves, etc., did not affect the taste of the sugar, which indeed was very toothsome.

AS SEEN BY COL. STEVENS IN 1847.

The west side was then Indian country and back from the river to the Indian villages and mission sta- tion on Lake Calhoun and on to Fort Snelling was a stretch of prairie, with oases of timber and brush- wood and grass-bordered lakes here and there. In the spring of 1847, when John H. Stevens first visited the locality, he was impressed with it and in his "Minnesota and Its People" (pp. 20 et seq.) he de- scribes it as he then saw it:

"From the mouth of Crow River to the western bank of the Falls of St. Anthony was an unbroken but beautified wilderness. With the exception of the old military building, [the Government mill] on the bank, opposite Spirit Island, there was not,-and, for aught I know, never had been-a [white man's] house, or a sign of [white] habitation, on the west bank of the Mississippi from Crow River to a mile or two below Minnehaha.

"The scenery was picturesque, with woodland, prairies, and oak openings. Cold springs, silvery lakes, and clear streams abounded. Except the mili-

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

tary reservation, from what is now known as Bassett's Creek to the mouth of the St. Peter's River, the land all belonged to the Sioux Indians, and we were tres- passers when we walked upon it.

"We were particularly charmed with the lay of the land on the west bank of the Falls, which includes the present site of Minneapolis. A few Indians belong- ing to Good Road's band had their tepees up, and were living temporarily in them, in the oak-openings on the hill a little west of the landing of the old ferry. There was an eagle's nest in a tall cedar on Spirit Island, and the birds that occupied it seemed to dis- pute our right to visit the crags below the Falls * * * "Many Government mule wagons from Fort Snell- ing, loaded with supplies for Fort Gaines, were ford- ing the broad, smooth river near the brink of the trembling Falls. Here the dark water turned white and with a roar leaped into the boiling depth and gurgled on its rapid way to the Gulf of Mexico.

"The banks of the river above the Falls were skirted with a few pines, some white birch, many hard maples, and several elms, with many native grape vines climbing over them, (which formed delightful bowers) up to the first creek above the Falls. The table land back from the river was eov- ercd with oak. There were some thiekets of hazel and prickly pear. On the second bench, below the Falls, from a quarter to a half mile back, there was a dense growth of poplar [Populus tremuloides, or quaking aspen] that had escaped the annual prairie fires. These trees were very pretty on that spring day, with the foliage just bursting from the buds.

"Here and there were fine rolling prairies, of a few acres in extent, in the immediate neighborhood of the Falls; but toward Minnehaha the prairies were two or three miles long and extended to Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet. Near the Falls was a deep slough of two or three aeres. It was seemingly bottomless. This and a few deep ravines and grassy pouds were the only things to mar the beauty of the scene around the Falls.

"On the old road, from the west side landing to the rapids where teams crossed the river, [the ford being just below Spirit Island-Compiler.] was a fine large spring with a copious flow of clear cold water. It seemed to be a place of summer resort for Indians and soldiers. Large linden trees, with wide-spreading branches, made a grateful shade. In after years the water of the spring was much used by the early set- tlers. Pienie parties were common in those days from Fort Snelling. The officers, with ladies, would eome up and spend the long, hot days in the shade of the trees and drink the cool spring water.

"For many years after 1821 all the beef cattle required for the Fort were pastured, wintered, and slaughtered near the old Government buildings. The locality to the west of the Fort, in the growing sea- sons, was often so covered with eattle that it seemed more like a New England or Middle States pasture than the border of a vast wilderness.

"On the way from the Falls to Fort Snelling, about half way to Little Falls (Minnehaha) ereek was a lone tree. It was a species of poplar [perhaps cotton-

wood] and had escaped the prairie fires. Its trunk was full of bullet holes. This was the only landmark then on the prairie between Minnehaha Falls and the west bank of the Falls of St. Anthony. It was far from being a pretty tree, but it served an excellent purpose during the winter months, when the Indian trail was covered with snow, and there is not a pioneer that had occasion to use the old trail in the winter who will not hold it in grateful remembranee."'

HOW THE EAST SIDE APPEARED IN 1847.

According to other settlers, Col. Stevens's deserip- tion of Minneapolis in the fall of 1847 was fairly faithful and certainly not overdrawn. It is well to contrast the appearance of Minneapolis in 1847, the year before any portion of its site was legally and fully aequired, with its condition in 1914.

Visitors arriving on foot-a very common mode of travel in those days from the Fort to the eataraet- obtained their first view of the Falls from the high grounds where now the University buildings stand. At this point, according to the late Gov. Marshall and others, they would halt and take in the fine view presented to the west and north.

The Falls themselves constituted the central feature and the principal attraction. The river seemed to leap over the rocks and fall 25 or 30 feet to the foot of a precipice which extended in nearly a straight line from Hennepin Island to the east bank, forming a gentle curve from the Island to the west bank. With a full eurrent in the river, the roaring of the plung- ing waters seemed to almost threaten the solid land. In the mist which rose above them, however, there appeared in the sunshine a beautiful rainbow, a bow of promise that no danger was present or threatening, and that the traveler would be richly rewarded by a further and eloser approach.

Just below the Falls, but showered by their spray, was the little green islet ealled "Spirit Island." Both this and Hennepin Island were covered with beautiful tamaracks and other evergreens. The Indian story of the suicide of Ampatu-Sapa-win, or the Black Day woman, has been referred to on preceding pages. In general this story is true; it is not a mere legend or tradition. The woman committed suicide and mur- dered her little children, by floating over the terrible eataraet into the Maelstrom-like whirling waters below. The Indian assertion that the spirit of the wretehed woman dwelt among the tamaraeks, and that her apparition was often seen, and her voice as she wailed her death song often heard, cannot of course be certainly vouched for.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 15

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Chicago : H. Taylor & Co. Number of Pages: 1190

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 1190