Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 16

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 16

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On the east side of the river the banks sloped gently from the high lands above down to the bank of the river. Still farther eastward from the highlands was a level expanse varied by clusters of oak trees of low, serubby growth, so that they looked like apple trees, at a distance, and the collection resembled an old orchard. Still farther to the east and northeast the expanse continued, baek to the Rose Hills, with oases of oak and a considerable eranberry marsh intervening.

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

THE WEST SIDE AND THE ISLANDS.

On the west side a beautiful rolling prairie, virgin as when first created, stretched out beyond Cedar Lake. On the bank of the river, at the lower part of the Falls, was the old Government Mill and the miller's little hut adjoining. The mill had two depart- ments, one for sawing and the other for grinding. The latter had but one run of buhrs-one old-fashioned granite millstone-and the gauge had to be altered when the miller changed from wheat to corn. There was only one saw in 1847, an upright. It did its work well, but required great care in its management, because if broken its replacement would be difficult. At a distance the buildings, with their gray, weather- stained surfaces, resembled piles of limestone.

In 1847 the Falls were nearly perpendicular for the most part, but the wall was irregular and broken, and on its crest upraised and broken rocks, against which parts of trees and other timber had lodged, were frequent. Spirit Island, only a little way below the Falls, with its evergreen covering has long since disappeared. Cataract, Hennepin, and Nicollet

Islands, then without names, were also densely wooded.

THE PIONEERS OF ST. ANTHONY IN 1847.

Opposite the Falls, but a little removed from the bank on the east side, stood the log cabin of Frank Steele, with a few acres of corn-one account says seven acres-growing in a fenced patch near it; its location was at what is now the corner of Second Avenue South and Main Street East. What was then called the block house was being built. Pierre Bot- tineau's house, on the bank of the river, above the head of Nicollet Island; Calvin A. Tuttle's claim shanty, near the ravine north of the University ; Steele's house, then occupied by Luther Patch with his family, including his two pretty daughters, Marion and Cora, and a few liumble cabins occupied by obscure Canadian Frenchmen, were all the human habitations in the little settlement which became Saint Anthony and is now the wealthy and highly improved seat of civilization sometimes called East Minneapolis.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE FOUNDING AND EARLY HISTORY OF ST. ANTHONY.

MINNESOTA OPENED TO WHITE SETTLEMENT-FRANK STEELE'S MILL AT ST. ANTHONY IS COMPLETED AND A BUSINESS BOOM RESULTS-FIRST BUSINESS HOUSES OPENED-ADVERSITIES FOLLOW AND FALL UPON THE FOUNDER OF THE PLACE-FIRST TIMBER-CUTTING ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI-STEELE'S MILL-WHEELS TURN AND THE VILLAGE GROWS-CREATION OF MINNESOTA TERRITORY-WM. R. MARSHALL SURVEYS THE TOWN SITE IN 1849 AND ANOTHER BOOM FOLLOWS-THE FIRST FERRY-ADVENTURE OF MISS SALLIE BEAN-MINNESOTA'S GOVERN- MENTAL MACHINERY SET IN MOTION-WHAT THE FIRST CENSUS DECLARED, ETC.

THE LAND IS SURVEYED AND COMES INTO MARKET.

Up to 1848 the land in that part of modern Minne- apolis east of the Mississippi was not properly in mar- ket. The Indian title to it had been extinguished, but until it had been surveyed, and the survey recorded and notice of sale at the Land Office given, it could not be fully and legally acquired. It might be "claimed" before final acquirement, but if a "jumper" went to the Land Office and entered the land so claimed and paid for it his title was superior to that of the unfortu- nate claimant, or "squatter," as he was sometimes called.

In 1847 President Polk established a Government Land Office at St. Croix Falls for the portion of Wis- consin Territory lying west of the St. Croix River. It will be borne in mind that at that time what is now the portion of Minnesota below Rum River and east of the Mississippi belonged to Wisconsin, and the coun- try west and south of the Mississippi practically was a part of Clayton County, Iowa. So that until 1849, when Minnesota Territory was organized, the portion of Minneapolis east of the big river was in Wisconsin. Gen. Saml. Leech, of Illinois, was appointed Receiver and C. S. Whitney Register of the St. Croix Land Office, which was where all the lands in the Minne- sota district and those in the Western Wisconsin dis- trict were to be sold. The country west of the Mississippi was Indian land.

Considerable time was required to survey the lands -to lay them off into sections, townships, and ranges -and it was not until August 15, 1848, when the first tracts were offered for sale; this sale continued for two weeks, but only 3,326 acres were sold, at the uni- form price of $1.25 an acre. The second sale com- menced September 15, and also continued for two weeks. At this latter sale were disposed the lands now comprised within the lower peninsula between the St. Croix and the Minnesota, including the town sites of St. Paul, St. Anthony (or East Minneapolis) and Stillwater. Only a score or so of white settlers then lived outside of these towns.

At that time, and for some years afterward, St. Paul was the commercial center of the Northwest. It had a store, a Catholic Church, a hundred or so inhabitants, largely French-Canadians by birth or descent, and was known down to St. Louis as St.

Paul's or St. Paul's Landing. St. Anthony-by which name the little settlement at the Falls was known before it was laid out and regularly named- was not so important in 1848. It had neither store nor church. The citizens bought their goods at the sutler's store of "Mo-seer Steele," at Fort Snelling, and when they attended church (which, to tell the truth, was not very often) the greater part of them knelt in Father Ravoux's and Father Lucian Galtier's services in a part of their dwelling house at Mendota. A few Catholics went to their duties down to the little log chapel which good Father Galtier had built in 1841 and named St. Paul's, and which finally fur- nished the town its name. Every house in both St. Paul and St. Anthony was in 1848 of logs, but there were as happy households in the two places then as now.

It was at the September land sales, as has been said, when the sites of St. Anthony, St. Paul, and Still- water were purchased from the Government. The only way of obtaining Government land then was by purchase; the homestead law was not enacted until thirteen years later. To be sure the greater part of the claims had already been selected, occupied, and improved ; but no man could safely say that he owned his land until he had the Government's patent for it. There had been a little apprehension that "jump- ers" might appear at the sale and bid in some of the improved claims, but nothing of the kind was at- tempted. There were no speculators present at either the August or September sale. There was only one contra bid, which was in a friendly way between two settlers of Cottage Grove, Washington County, one bidding ten cents per acre more than the other.

The most exciting period of the September sale was when the town site of St. Paul was offered. Some of the settlers who had selected lots and built cabins upon them were disturbed by a rumor that specula- tors would be present to bid on the homestcads which the bona fide settlers of St. Paul had selected. Trader Sibley had been selected as the agent of all the St. Paul settlers to bid in the lands they wanted, and pay for them. This he did to the general satisfaction; in some instances he advanced the money to help out the impecunious home-seekers. Quite a number of St. Paul men accompanied him to the sale.

SWEET W. CASE

Among first settlers and most influen- tial citizens of Minneapolis.

HON. JOHN W. NORTH

Prominent early pioneer settler in St. Anthony; founder of the Town of Northfield, etc. (From print in Territorial Pioneers' Collection.)

DR. JOHN H. MURPHY

First physician in St. Anthony, and prominent in early affairs.

FRANKLIN STEELE

The Leading Pioneer of St. Anthony and Minneapolis

DR. ALFRED E. AMES

Pioneer physician and among first settlers of St. Anthony and Minne-

EDWARD MURPHY

A leading pioneer of St. Anthony and Minneapolis. (From an old photo.)

CHARLES H. CLARK

Prominent early citizen and official of Minneapolis.

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

In one of his "Reminiscences," printed in the State Historical Society's "Collections," Gen. Sib- ley says :

"I was selected by the actual settlers to bid off their portions of the land for them, and when the hour for business had arrived my seat was invariably surrounded by a number of men with huge bludgeons. What this meant I could only surmise, but I should not have envied the fate of the individual that would have ventured to bid against me."

In the case of St. Anthony there was no trouble and apparently no apprehension of any. Franklin Steele was practically the only bidder. A few others bid and secured lands, but seemingly they were bid- ding for Mr. Steele's interests, as it has been stated, and not denied, that soon after the land sale he owned a tract extending from University Avenue to the northern limits of St. Anthony village, another tract at the upper end of the village, and all of Boom Island. It seems from the records that he took meas- ures to secure for himself such lands as he thought most valuable, particularly the site of his mill, and that for some reason he employed others to purchase and hold certain claims and then transfer them to him.

STEELE'S MILL DAM COMPLETED

In the spring of 1847 Wm. A. Cheever made a claim near the present site of the University. He had an acquaintance with certain men of Boston then regarded as wealthy, and through him and his brother, Benjamin Cheever, Mr. Steele conducted negotiations for the purchase of a portion of the water-power of St. Anthony Falls at the site of Steele's projected mill, the money received to be applied to the erec- tion of the mill. On the 10th of July the deal was closed, and Steele transferred nine-tenths of the water-power owned by him to Caleb Cushing, Robert Rantoul, and others, of Boston, for a consideration of $12,000.

As soon as the money was promised measures were at once taken for the erection of a mill. Mr. Ard Godfrey, of the Penobscot country in Maine, an ex- perienced millwright, was secured to superintend its construction, and he arrived on the ground in the spring of 1847. Before Godfrey's arrival, however, considerable work had been done on what was called the dam. Jacob Fisher, who had worked for Steele over on the St. Croix, directed the construction of the water power and other preliminary work before Godfrey's arrival. The dam was not fully completed until in the spring of 1848.

THE FIRST BUSINESS BOOM.

In the first part of this year (1847) St. Anthony (or perhaps we should say Minneapolis) had its first business boom. Work was commenced on the mill and carried well along, the money to assure its completion was promised, and what was considered a large num- ber of settlers came to the place. A few of the names have been lost, but the following list is worth looking at and preserving. Besides Ard Godfrey, who came

late in the fall, there were Wm. A. Cheever, Robert W. Cummings, Caleb D. Dorr, Sumner W. Farnham, Samuel Ferrald, John McDonald, Wm. R. Marshall, Joseph M. Marshall, Luther P. Patch, Edward Patch, John Rollins, R. P. Russell, Daniel Stanchfield, Chas. W. Stimpson, and Calvin A. Tuttle.

One account says that Cheever came to Minnesota in December, 1846, but it seems that he did not set- tle in St. Anthony until in the spring of 1847.

As before stated, Luther Patch occupied Steele's log house, with his family, which included his two daughters, Marion and Cora. Calvin Tuttle also had a family. The other families of the place had come in previous years. It is claimed that the female mem- bers of the Patch family were the first full-blood white women in the place; but unless La Grue's wife, of sad fate and memory, was a mixed blood-and some who knew her declared she was not-she was the first white woman. Mrs. and the Misses Patch were the first white American women, for Mrs. La Grue was a Canadian.

THE FIRST STORES.

The year 1847 saw the establishment of the first. "store," if it be proper to call it a store. R. P. Russell had for some time been engaged in mer- chandising at Fort Snelling. He moved over a small stock of goods to St. Anthony and exposed them for sale in a room of the Patch building, where he boarded. One account is that the store-room was im- provised for the purpose, by partitioning off one of the lower rooms of the building, and that all of the entire stock of goods, including the counter, made only one small wagon load. When Gov. Marshall established his store, in 1849, he declared that it was the first in the place, because Russell's little stock in a dwelling house could not be called a store.

Russell's intimacy with the Patch family as a. boarder and tenant resulted in his marriage, October 3, 1848, to Miss Marion Patch, and this was the first marriage of white people in Minneapolis. Not long afterward Cora Patch married Joe Marshall. Mar- riageable white girls were in demand in St. Anthony at that time. The men were very largely in the majority, and nearly all of them were fine young bachelors.

Wm. R. Marshall, who became one of Minnesota's greatest and most gallant soldiers and also one of its. ablest and best Governors, walked across from St. Croix Falls to St. Anthony in the spring of 1847, while the ground was yet frozen. He carried a rather heavy pack in which were a blanket and some pro- visions. He liked the place, made a claim, bought an ax from Russell, and cut logs enough for a cabin. The next year he and his brother Joseph came over and built the house. Marshall had heard good ac- counts of St. Anthony, but he was a Missourian, born in Boone County, and had to be "shown." The place was exhibited to him and he liked it.

THE ADVERSITIES OF 1847-48.

'Things went well enough for the new settlement until came the winter of 1847-48. The new-comers

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

were nearly all New Yorkers. They had come to the country by steamboat and had not brought much bag- gage with them. The Sioux would have called them "Kaposia," as being lightly burdened. They had ordered the greater part of their supplies to follow them, first loading them on a canal boat on the Erie Canal.

In December a slow-traveling mail brought bad news to the New Yorkers at St. Anthony. The canal boat in which their supplies were being conveyed had sunk in the Erie Canal and the supplies were an almost total loss. The hardware and tools, which they greatly needed, were wholly a loss. This caused a great scarcity of tools, which were so necessary in their building operations.

The winter came on and it was severe. Provisions were scarce and high, and money was also scarce and hard to obtain. There were all sorts of discom- forts. There was not much to cook, but female cooks were very rare, and in most instances men did the cooking, with unsatisfactory results. The work of building went on, for the men were improving their cabins with sawed lumber. Among the New Yorkers were some carpenters and they were very busy. Ed- ward Patch was a carpenter, and a good one, and he became a contractor. But the old Government saw- mill, which was depended upon for lumber, was a weak affair. It worked slowly and imperfectly and could not be counted upon for more than 300 or 400 feet per day. Big sleds were made and considerable lumber was hauled from the St. Croix Mills, by slowly-moving ox teams, over the snow covered roads, with the thermometer below zero. Fond hopes were entertained that Steele's new mill would be com- pleted the following spring in time to do all necessary building in 1848.

Then word came to Mr. Steele that Cushing, Ran- toul, et alii, would not be able to let him have the promised money. The Mexican War was on. Because American success meant the acquisition of Texas and more slave territory, old anti-slavery Massachusetts would not furnish either men or money to contribute to that success. But Caleb Cushing, and others were more patriotic. They raised a good regiment of fight- ing Bay State men, and it was armed and equipped largely by Cushing's personal expenditures. He was made Colonel of the regiment and led it to the field. The expenses his patriotism caused him drained his purse so that he had scarcely any money left to build mills at St. Anthony.

SOME OF FRANK STEELE'S EARLY EXPERIENCES.

For some time in his early experience in Minne- sota, Mr. Steele was often in straits for money, although he was always active and busy and engaged in business enterprises.

In April, 1842, he was in Philadelphia, where he had purchased a bill of goods for his sutler's store at Fort Snelling. These goods he meant to ship over one of the few railroads then in the country to New York, where they would be transferred to a ship and carried to New Orleans by sea. From New Orleans they would be carried by steamboat to St. Louis, and

from St. Louis, by another steamboat, they would be brought to Fort Snelling.

The Sibley papers, in possession of the State His- torical Society, show that at this time Steele wrote to Sibley (who became his brother-in-law) then in Washington City two letters which are most inter- esting. April 6, he wrote that he was to marry "Miss B -- , of Baltimore," and take her with him when he returned to Fort Snelling. Sibley was earnestly invited to attend the wedding, which he did. "Miss B." was Miss Ann Barney, a granddaughter of Com- modore Joshua Barney, the noted naval commander, and also of Samuel Chase, a signer of the Declaration. In the letter of invitation to the wedding Mr. Steele wrote further to Sibley :

"Now, dear Sibley, permit me to ask a favour of yon. Can you assist me, in some way through Mr. Chouteau, to about $900? I am willing to pay well for the accommodation and shall be able to repay it in St. Louis or at St. Peter's. * If you can arrange it for me, I shall consider myself under last- ing obligations to you, and shall always be most happy to reciprocate so great a kindness. * **

* We shall leave immediately after the marriage for the West, my youngest sister accompanying us."

The "youngest sister" referred to was Miss Sarah J. Steele, who, in the following May, became the wife of the then chief trader, Sibley, her brother's friend. Three days after the letter quoted from was written, Steele wrote again from Philadelphia to Sibley at Washington, thanking him for his answer and the assurance that he would be present at the wedding on the 14th, and earnestly importuning him again to procure the loan, saying :

"I hope that Mr. Chouteau will be able to manage the money matter; if not, I shall be under the neces- sity of returning here from Baltimore, as I have a number of bills to pay for the folks at Fort Snelling, as well as the insurance on my goods. Now, my dear fellow, if you ever expect to do me a favour, do try and assist me in arranging this matter, as a neglect may injure me at Fort Snelling. Money matters are so tight here that it is entirely out of the question to do anything. I hope to see you in Baltimore on the 14th."

Mr. Steele's straitened circumstances continued for many years, just at the critical periods of his life, when he was striving to lay the foundations of com- mercial enterprise in Minnesota and to accumulate a comfortable fortune. Yet his condition did not dis- hearten him, or even daunt him. He had confidence that everything would come out all right in the end and he infused a part of this confidence into the sys- tems of his associates and fellow-pioneers. His credit was never impaired. Even the workmen whom he had been unable to pay after the failure of the Mas- sachusetts capitalists, trusted him and contimed to work for him, and in the end were paid in full. His I. O. U.'s were as good as the best paper money.

FIRST TIMBER-CUTTING ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPP'Z.

In September, 1847, Daniel Stanchfield. Severe Bot- tineau (Pierre's brother), and Charles Manock went

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

up the Mississippi and Rum River in a birch-bark canoe in the capacity of what would now be called "cruisers" for pine timber. Steele wanted to assure himself and Cushing, Rantoul, et al., that there was abundant standing pine timber in Minnesota to jus- tify the erection of at least two good saw-mills at St. Anthony. Then Cushing et al. would loan him the money he needed. Another object of the cruise was to procure the proper timber out of which to con- struct the mill-dam. Especially were some long pine logs wanted. Moreover, it would be well if logs enough for the first sawing could be secured.

Stanchfield, another Maine lumberman, was the leader of the three cruisers. A logging party accom- panied the cruisers but went on foot except for one canoe carrying supplies. In the country on the Rum River and south of Mille Lacs they found plenty of timber. Stanchfield reported to Steele that there was "more than 70 saw-mills can saw in 70 years." He soon established a logging camp and began cutting.

Accompanying the "cruisers" or explorers were about 20 men, who were to march along the shore, keeping pace with the explorers in the canoe, until pine was discovered. Then they were to form a logging camp, while the explorers went on to find more pine, and when the camp had been constructed they were to begin cutting and "banking" the logs, until the explorers returned and further plans should be made, Both explorers and cutters worked hard, and, though the mosquitoes and gnats nearly ate them up, they cut a great many logs, and by the first week in November had them piled on the bank.

Caleb D. Dorr and John McDonald had been sent up Swan River from the camp for some pieces of big timber that could not be obtained on Rum River. They had secured the long and big logs, had rolled them into Swan River, (which flows eastward and comcs into the Mississippi on the west side, near Little Falls) then floated them down the Mississippi to the mouth of Rum River. Here a great boom of the logs from Rum and Swan Rivers was formed. It was a bad night, about November 1. The snow was falling fast and freezing to the surfaces of the logs as it fell. Cold weather had come and apparently to stay. Dorr and Stanchfield had talked over their operations. They were glad and congratulated themselves that they had more logs for Mr. Steele than he could saw during the entire winter, even if he ran his saws night and day.

But lo! at midnight the frail supports of the boom gave way, the boom itself broke up, and the logs went whirling swiftly down on the bosom of the river, dashed over the Falls of St. Anthony, and were lost forever! Mr. Steele stood on the high bank of the river at Fort Snelling and saw them floating by, and he had no power to stop them. His hopes for a pros- perous and useful season floated away with them, and there was a painful hour of discouragement for this man of enterprise. Luckily, however, Caleb Dorr suc- ceeded in saving most of the fine logs he had cut and delivered them safely at St. Anthony the next spring,

HENNEPIN ISLAND TIMBER USED.

The late pioneer lumberman, Daniel Stanchfield, has left in imperishable form much of his recollection of events pertaining to the beginnings of St. Anthony and Minneapolis. In a paper which is published in Volume 9 of the State Historical Collections, and en- titled "Pioneer Lumbering on the Upper Mississippi,"' he has set down many items of interest and value. This article is freely quoted from in this chapter.

Mr. Stanchfield says that upon his return to St. Anthony after the disastrous boom break, it was at his suggestion and on his advice that Ard Godfrey built the dam largely of local timber. The logs used were cut on Hennepin Island, without waiting to pro- cure others from the pine forests of the upper Missis- sippi. The logs were of hard wood and used without hewing or dressing and proved really superior to hewn pine timbers. Then they were procured within a stone's throw of where they were used, which was a decided advantage. The planks used for nailing over the cracks, etc., were brought from the St. Croix mills.

When the success of the dam was assured, the next thing was to procure a stock of pine timber for saw- ing. In the fall of 1847, as has been stated, prepara- tions were made for logging on the upper Mississippi, in the region of the Crow Wing River. Teams to haul the cut logs to the river bank, log sleds to bear them, and men to drive and care for them, were ob- tained in what is now Washington County. It was the first of December, and snow covered the ground, when the outfit started; ten days later it reached the lumber district and its scene of operations, below the Crow Wing River, a mile back from the Mississippi,

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 16

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