Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 17

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 17

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TIMBER PURCHASED FROM THE CHIPPEWAS.

Through the assistance of Henry M. Rice, who then had a trading post at the mouth of the Crow Wing, and Allan Morrison, who had long lived in that quar- ter and had a Chippewa wife, trees were purchased from the Chippewa Chief "Pug-o-na-ge-shig," or Hole in the Sky, (commonly called Hole in the Day) for a consideration of 50 cents a tree. Hole in the Day was then chief of the old Pillager band of Chip- pewas, having succeeded to the name and rank of his father, who had been murdered the previous year. The Indian village was, in the winter of 1847-48, on an island in the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Crow Wing.

. Work was prosecuted vigorously through the win- ter and with much success. A great deal of the haul- ing was done by ox teams, which traveled slowly but steadily. March 1 work was stopped and Mr. Stanch- field ordered the camp broken, and he and many of the cutters set out for St. Anthony, A sufficient num- ber of drivers was left in camp to bring down the logs when the Mississippi should be open, a month or so later.

Stanchfield tells us that he found Mr, Steele sick in bed, perhaps from over-work and worry, The lum-

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

berman, by Stcele's dircetion, went down to Galena, and from bankers there he says he reecived, "two remittances of $5,000 each from Cushing and Com- pany, their investment for lumber manufacturing at St. Anthony."

DID STANCHIFIELD GET THE MONEY ?

But Mr. Stanchfield's positive assertion that he re- ceived for Mr. Stecle $10,000 from Cushing and Com- pany, is clearly disputed by other good authorities that deelare the Boston men, Cushing and Rantoul, did not pay Mr. Steele $10,000 or any other sum. By their default, it is claimed, Cushing and Rantoul forfeited their contract and lost all interest in the St. Anthony property. Warner & Foote's History, (printed in 1881, when many old pioneers conversant with the facts were living and presumably were interviewed for historieal data) states positively that these were the facts. Goodhue's historieal sketch, written in 1849, apparently from data furnished by Mr. Steele, says : "A few months sinee Cushing and Company, of Massachusetts, having failed to comply with the eon- ditions of their purchase of a part of this property to Mr. Steele, he sold one-half of the water power to Mr. A. W. Taylor, of Boston," etc.

Regarding the starting of the mill and other inci- dents eonneeted therewith, Stanchfield says :

"The first sawmill that the company built began to saw lumber September 1, 1848, just one year from the time when the exploring party in the little canoe started up the Mississippi to estimate its supply of pine. Following that exploration, the town was sur- veycd and lots were placed on sale. The real estate office and the lumber office were together. Later in the autumn a gang-saw mill and two shingle mills were to be erected, to be ready for business in the spring of 1849. Sumner W. Farnham ran the first sawmill during the autumn, until he took charge of one of my logging parties for the winter. As soon as the mill was started, it was run night and day, in order to supply enough lumber for the houses of immi- grants, who were pouring in from the whole country."

JONATHAN CARVER'S HEIR COMES FORWARD.

While Steele was completing and when he had eom- pleted the mill he was annoyed for a time by a Phil- adelphia man, Dr. Hartwell Carver, who claimed to be one of the heirs of Capt. Jonathan Carver, the ex- plorer of 1767. Capt. Carver, as has been stated, claimed that the Indians had given him a large grant of land in this region, including the site of St. An- thony Falls. This Hartwell Carver elaimed that he was a descendant of the old explorer and that he had purchased the interests of some of the other Car- ver heirs in their aneestor's elaim. In November after the mill was completed he wrote Steele that he had borrowed $30,000 in cash from Hon. Lewis Cass with which to purchase the interests of the remaining heirs. In the same letter, (which is among the Sib- ley papers, and which smells of blaekmail,) he warns the people of St. Anthony that he ean do much for

them if they will approach him in the proper way. To Mr. Steele he hints that he has a strong legal claim on the mill and says :

"I can prove to you, sir, that I was offered by some men in St. Louis ten thousand dollars in cash for a quit-elaim deed to your claim. The temptation, sir, was great, for I wanted the money badly. But, sir, eome to go on there and see what you had done and how you was situated, and after talking with some of the people I concluded not to do it."

Two years before, or in 1846, Dr. Carver had vis- ited St. Anthony in the interest of his elaim. How- ever sincerely he really believed in its rightfulness, it is reasonably plain that he was trying to frighten Mr. Steele into paying him some money in return for a quit-claim deed to the site of his mill. It seems that his intention was to practice a species of black- mail, first upon Steele and next upon the settlers of St. Anthony, whose lands he pretended to own under a mythieal grant by the Indians to his ancestor, the unreliable Capt. Jonathan Carver.

But Mr. Steele was not "taken in." He knew enough of the facts in the ease not to be imposed upon. He rejected all of Dr. Hartwell Carver's overtures, and curtly and emphatically informed him that he would have naught to do with his proposition or with him, save that if he came any more to St. Anthony and endeavored to blackmail the citizens he would be treated as he deserved to be. There was no more of Dr. Hartwell Carver.

STEELE THE FIRST POSTMASTER.

In 1840 Mr. Steele was commissioned U. S. post- master at Fort Snelling-the first postmaster in what is now Minnesota. At that day postmasters had the. franking privilege and could send their mail matter free of charge to wherever the mails were carried. But this emolument, while it helped Mr. Steelc some, did not go far towards helping him build mills and to improve the Falls of St. Anthony.

THE MILL WHEELS TURN AND THE VILLAGE GROWS.

Notwithstanding the adverse finaneial circum- stances prevailing, the work of building Steele's mill went cheerily on. In the spring of 1848, despite all obstacles, the mill was completed; September follow- ing it began to run. There was great joy in the little settlement when the water-gates were opened and the wheels began to go round. And the joy was not con- fined to St. Anthony but extended to the other settle- ments at Fort Snelling, Mendota, St. Paul's, and up the Minnesota to the mission stations as far as to Lac- qui Parle. The mill had but two saws at first, but in a few months two more were added.

Several new settlers came in and new houses were built. The first that was constructed of lumber from the new mill was the house of Sherburne Huse, (or Hughes) the next was an addition to the house of Richard Rogers, and it was built by Washington Getehell; the third was the house of Getchell himself. (See Warner & Foote's History.)

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

In the spring of this year (1848) William A. Chee- ver, the enterprising Bostonian, platted a town on his land, now occupied by some of the University build- ings, and sold some lots. Other settlers came and another boom was on. Cheever's plat was never re- corded, however.

ORGANIZATION OF MINNESOTA TERRITORY.

It was in the summer of 1848 when the first steps were taken for the organization of Minnesota Terri- tory. A bill, whose real author was Joseph R. Brown, and which provided for the Territory's organization, was introduced in Congress by Hon. Morgan L. Mar- tin, Delegate from Wisconsin Territory, in 1846. Brown and Martin had been associates in the Wis- consin Territorial Legislature in 1841, and it is said that the organization scheme was then planned by them. The bill passed the House but failed in the Senate. It was apparent to the latter body that there werc not 500 bona-fide white settlers in the proposed Territory !

Congress admitted Wisconsin as a State May 29, 1848, with boundaries as they are at present. The lower part of the country between the Mississippi and the St. Croix, including St. Anthony, had been St. Croix County. By the creation of Wisconsin, as a State, this St. Croix County was left out and became a no-man's land, as it were, and Stillwater, St. Paul's, and St. Anthony were under no law or government. And yet there was a court house, (at Stillwater) court records and clerk, justices of the peace, etc.

The people were greatly dissatisfied, and finally decided to take action and have it determined that they were still under a republican form of govern- ment. They claimed that the country which had formerly belonged to Wisconsin Territory but had been left out of Wisconsin State, was, prima facie at least, still Wisconsin Territory and entitled to a Dele- gate in Congress.

THE STILLWATER CONVENTION.

Pursuant to certain preliminary meetings and a public call, a "general convention of all persons in- terested" was held at Stillwater, August 28. The number of men participating was 61. Franklin Steele, Joseph Reasche, and Paschal St. Martin at- tended from St. Anthony. Mr. Steele was prominent in the proceedings.

The Convention declared that the country west of St. Croix was still the Territory of Wisconsin and en- titled to have a Delegate in Congress. Whereupon Henry H. Sibley, of Mendota, was unanimously elected by the convention as such Delegate. Sibley had not lived in St. Croix County, Wisconsin, but always in Iowa, until it became a State, when he too became, a resident of a no-man's land. At a special election, held October 30, Sibley was elected Delegate by a decided majority over Henry M. Rice. The contest was spirited, but the result was accepted and Sibley went on to Washington, and. after some discus- sion, was admitted as a "Delegate from the Territory

of Wisconsin," and took his seat in the House of Representatives.

The Convention also resolved in favor of the organ- ization of a new Territory, to be called Minnesota, and it was understood that Delegate Sibley's chief duty would be to introduce a bill to that effect, and to press it to final passage. This he did, and the nec- essary enactment was secured at the ensuing Con- gress. One of the very last official acts of President Polk, March 3, 1849, was the signing of the bill which created Minnesota Territory.

THE NEWS REACHES ST. ANTHONY.

The winter of 1848-49 was a hard one on the little settlement at St. Anthony. It was long and severe. A rather heavy snow fell November 1. To the people of St. Paul's, Fort Snelling, St. Anthony, and Still- water the long season was most uncomfortable. In addition to the inclemency of the weather and the consequent privation, there was a loneliness hard to bear. The nearest point of mail distribution and sup- ply was at Prairie du Chien, nearly 200 miles down the river; but for four months of this season the river was ice-locked, and neither men, merchandise, nor mail could be brought up by water, and so for long periods the settlements were entirely cut off from communica- tion with the outside world.

There were no men and no merchandise en route to this locality, but the mail, scanty as it was, might be brought in and would be gladly welcomed. There were no horse teams available, and so dog sledges were constructed and made to serve as mail coaches. Teams of dogs were trained to draw them and a coureur du bois, who was sometimes a white man but generally a mixed blood, was hired to drive and manage the dogs, having to carry rations for them and himself during the entire round trip.

The mail route was over the ice on the river, and it was not always smooth. The outfit encamped at night by a good fire which the driver kindled. On the return trip from Prairie du Chien a chilling, cut- ting, arctic wind blew steadily in the faces of man and dogs all the way. Under such circumstances the mail arrivals were always infrequent and uncertain. It was not until January that the news of Gen. Tay- lor's election to the Presidency, in the first week of November, reached Fort Snelling. About the 1st of February, word came that Delegate Sibley had intro- duced his Territorial bill and was working for it, but there were only faint hopes of its passage.

The snow began to melt about March 1. The track on the river became wet, slushy, and impracticable, and the dog mail sledge was abandoned and the mails discontinued until the opening of steamboat naviga- tion in the spring. It was not until the 9th of April when the steamer "Dr. Franklin No. 2," Capt. Rus- sell Blakeley, arrived at St. Paul's with the glad news that Minnesota Territory had been organized, and the cheering tidings soon spread to the other settlements. The organization was one of the most important epochs in our history. The full details, including the appointment of the first Territorial officers, with

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Alexander Ramsey as Governor, belong to other his- tories. (See Neill's History ; also "Minnesota in Three Centuries," etc.)

LEADING EVENTS OF 1849.

The year 1849 was not only of commanding influ- enee upon Minnesota, but upon the town of St. An- thony, and other towns in the new Territory. St. Anthony now belonged to something, and was no longer in a no-man's land or a neutral zone. It be- longed to a regular political organization of the United States, a Territory, with all the rights and powers of such a political division, and this fact helped wonderfully in the development of the little village. New settlers came, new buildings were ereeted, new capital invested.

LAYING OUT THE TOWN.

The first town laid out and established in Minne- sota was "Dahkota," on the St. Croix in 1839 by Joseph R. Brown, who made the first claim to land in Hennepin County, was the first white visitor to Lake Minnetonka, etc. In 1843 the name of "Dah- kota" was changed to Stillwater. St. Paul was laid out and named in 1847, but St. Anthony was not reg- ularly established until in the spring of 1849.

In the latter season, Wm. R. Marshall returned from the St. Croix to St. Anthony. It has already been stated that he came over in the fall of 1847, made a claim, ent some logs for a eabin, but, being unable to proeure a team to haul them to the site selected, he returned to St. Croix. Now he was baek at St. Anthony, determined to perfeet his claim, build his cabin and make this his permanent home, and he had brought his brother Joseph with him. He soon built two houses, and in one of them, which was on Main Street, "above the former residence of John Rollins," he and his brother Joe established their store, which Gov. Marshall always claimed was the first store or merehandising establishment in Minne- apolis; he eontended that R. P. Russell's "wheelbar- row load of goods" in the Patch residence was not, properly speaking, a store. The first weddings, it will be remembered, were those of the then young "mer- chant princes" of their time, R. P. Russell and Joe Marshall, and the two pretty Patch girls.

W. R. Marshall was a man of various accomplish- ments. He was a good land surveyor, and soon after his arrival Frank Steele engaged him to survey his town and lay it off into streets, alleys, blocks, and lots. Marshall had his own surveyor's compass and ehain with him, and the work was soon properly done, for Marshall was a good surveyor. In his written account of his survey on this occasion, made many years sub- sequently, he said that he tried to secure good-sized lots and wide streets. The lots were generally 66 feet wide and 165 feet in depth. All the streets were 80 feet wide. Main Street, running up and down the river, was surveyed as 80 feet wide, but in places the survey did not include eertain projections over the river bank, and where these unsurveyed portions were the street was often 100 feet wide or more. Warner

& Foote say that Main Street was "made 100 feet wide," by the survey, but this is a mistake.

The State Historical Society has lately come into possession, by purchase, of Gov. Marshall's plat or map of his survey of the original town site of St. Anthony, or as the plat calls it, "St. Anthony Falls." This document is in fine preservation and not only interesting but instructive. The certificate attached is in Gov. Marshall's handwriting, quite legible, and reads :

"St. Anthony Falls, Oet. 9th, 1849.

"I hereby eertify that the map hereunto attached is a correct plat of a Town survey made by me for Arnold W. Taylor, Franklin Steele, and Ard God- frey. Said town being located on sections twenty- three and twenty-four, in Township No. twenty nine north (and) of Range No. twenty-four west of 4th Meridian.

"W. R. Marshall, Surveyor."

The map was recorded in the office of Hon. Wm. Holcombe, (afterward Lieutenant Governor, ete.) then Register of Deeds for "Washington County" (State or Territory not named) at Stillwater, as per his certificate attached :

"Register of Deeds' Office County of Washington. "I hereby certify that the annexed Town Plat of St. Anthony Falls, certificate of survey, or acknowl- edgment was this day received in this office for record, at 6 o'clock P. M., and was thereupon duly recorded in Book A of Town Plats, on pages 36, 37, and 38.

"Done at Stillwater, Nov. 10, 1849. "W. Holcombe, Register."

At that date Washington County had been ereated and its seat of justice established at Stillwater just 14 days; the Territorial Legislature had so enacted Oct. 27. Why the survey was recorded at Stillwater and not at St. Paul cannot be explained. At that day St. Anthony was in Ramsey County, whose county seat was St. Paul.

It will be noted in Marshall's certificate the names of Arnold W. Taylor and Ard Godfrey appear as eo- partners with Mr. Steele in the ownership of the town. The truth is that Arnold W. Taylor, whom eertain Minneapolis histories call "Mr. Arnold," had pur- ehased half of Mr. Steele's interest for $20,000, but Ard Godfrey was best known as Mr. Steele's mill- builder, and certainly not regarded as prominently a town proprietor. What his real interest was cannot now be said. Mr. Taylor had visited the place the previous summer; Seymour saw him there. He was a rich Bostonian, and, like many other rich men, had imperfeetions of character which rendered him per- sonally disagreeable to others. In January, 1852, Mr. Steele was glad to purchase his interest in the town at an advanee of $5,000, paying him $25,000.

In Marshall's survey Bottineau's interest is not referred to; Warner & Foote's History is anthority for the account, on a subsequent page, of the survey of his lots. Marshall's original survey was fourteen and one-half bloeks up and down the river by four bloeks baek from the river. The streets parallel with

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

the river were in order, Main, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Streets. The street starting opposite the Falls and running back from and perpendicularly to the river northeasterly was called Cedar Street; it is now Third Avenue Southeast. The first street down the river from Cedar was Spruce, now Fourth Avenue Southeast; then came in order Spring, Maple, Walnut, Aspen, Birch, and Willow, now respectively Fifth, Sixth Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Avenues Southeast.

Westward or up the river from Cedar Street (now Third Avenu: S. E.) and running parallel with it were, in order, Pine, Mill, Bay, Linden, and Oak Streets, now respectively Second, First, and Second Avenues Southeast, Central Avenue, and First and Second, Avenues Northeast.

BOTTINEAU HAS HIS LOTS "FIXED."'

Pierre Bottineau, the French half-blood, who had always been on the Northwestern frontier and had never seen a city, and who owned so much of St. Anthony realty, outside of the Stcele & Arnold sur- vey, was impressed with what Marshall had done for Frank Steele's property. He could not read, and therefore he had never read of a city and did not know how one was constructed; but he heard Stecle and Marshall and Cheever and others comment on Marshall's work, and some months afterward he said to the surveyor : "you jist take my land and fix him same lak M'sieu Steele land." Asked for particulars, he threw up his hands carelessly and replied : "O, fix him lak you please, same lak M'sieu Steele, but do as you please." Thereupon Marshall "fixed" it accord- ingly.

Simeon P. Folsom, who had just come to the place from Prairie du Chien, after a term of service in the Mexican War, had begun a survey before Marshall's, but it was incomplete, imperfect, and was superseded by the new survey.

MARSHALL NAMES THE TOWN, "ST. ANTHONY FALLS."

Mr. Steele had already chosen the name of his town, as simply St. Anthony; but Marshall added the word "Falls" to the designation on the map and it was so recorded. Marshall claimed that "St. Anthony Falls" was already so well known that the name would advertise the place and at once identify its locality. Everybody would know that a town had been laid out at the famous cataract. But in time Steele said "St. Anthony Falls" was "too big a mouthful for a man to spit out at once," and plain St. Anthony was better because shorter.

WILLIAM RAINEY MARSHALL.

Marshall was far above mediocrity as a man and as a character. He was born in Boone County, Mo., but mainly reared in Illinois. He was largely self-edu- cated, had acquired book-keeping and a knowledge of business, had "picked up" surveying and civil engi- neering, and learned much else by reading and private

study. He had been a farmer in Illinois, a lead miner at Galena and in Wisconsin, a lumberman on the St. Croix, was elected to the Wisconsin Legislature in 1848, and when he came to St. Anthony he was well prepared to fight the battle of life there or anywhere. Long afterward, when he had been Legislator, Com- missioner, colonel, brevet-brigadier, Governor, etc., he described, in a public address, (which was printed) his impressions of his first view of St. Anthony Falls after he had hiked over from the St. Croix, with his knapsack on his back, to see them :

"When, with weary feet, I stood at last, in the afternoon of that day, on the brink of the Falls, I saw them in all their beauty and grandeur, unmarred by the hand of man, and in such beauty of nature as no one has seen them in the past 22 years. As the light of the fast-declining sun of that autumn day bathed the tops of the trees and the summits of the gentle hills and left the shadows of the wooded islands darkling the waters, and as the plunging, seething, deafening Falls sent up the mist and set its rainbow arching the scene, I was filled with a sense of the awe- inspiring in nature such as I have rarely since ex- perienced. At that time (October, 1847) two or three claim shanties were the only human habitations there.'

Governor Marshall was apparently a meek and mild-mannered man, as gentle as a woman and as sweet-voiced as a girl. But his stout arms and hard fists had carried him safely and triumphantly through the battling lead miners of Galena, and he came to St. Anthony just after he had licked Jim Purrington, the bully of the St. Croix. Moreover, when he be- came Colonel of the Seventh Minnesota, he charged the Indians, sword in hand, at Wood Lake and rode them down and afterward captured hundreds at Wild Goose Nest Lake; and when he went South to Nash- ville and Tupelo he raged in battle like a son of thunder. In the attack on Mobile he received a grisly wound in the neck from a Confederate musket ball; vet, when the surgeons had bound it up, he mounted his horse, and in his capacity of general in command of a division galloped at the head of his men square up against the Confederate line and disposed them for the fighting. This was the man that laid out St. Anthony, opened its first store, and made so many good fights for the town in its carly existence.

At different periods Gov. Marshall was prominent as a business man. He was a merchant, a banker, a real estate dealer, a newspaper proprietor and editor, etc. He was in ill health in the later years of his life and died at Pasadena, California, Jan. 8, 1896. He was buried in Oakland Cemetery, St. Paul.

THE FIRST FERRY.

Meanwhile another important feature of improve- ment had been added to St. Anthony. For a long time the only means of crossing the river directly at the Falls was by fording on the ledge at the foot of Nicollet Island, and this could be done only at low water and before the dam was built. The cur- rent was swift and horses required sharp shoes to

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

prevent their slipping on the rocks. At Boom Island the current was less rapid, and here crossings were made in canoes. One old Indian woman, of Cloud Man's band, who, however, lived near the Govern- ment Mill and was noted for her skill in catching fish, ferried many persons across the river at this point in her log canoe.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 17

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