Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 24

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 24

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

FIRST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

Members of the Episcopal Church were not very numerous in St. Anthony in early days, but they were faithful and zealous. Frank Steele and R. P. Russell gave them a site for a church building on what is now Second Street, between First and Sec- ond Avenues North. Here the corner stone of a church building was laid October 30, 1850, by Rev. Timothy Wilcoxson, assisted by Rev. Ezekiel G. Gear, the latter then, and for many years prior thereto, the post chaplain at Fort Snelling. At the time there were not more than half a dozen Episcopalians in Minneapolis, but it is said that "many others were interested" in the building of the church. The build- ing was not completed until in the spring of 1852, and the first sermon therein was delivered by Father Gear April 15. The church organization and the building were each called Holy Trinity Church.

Rev. Dr. James L. Breck, who was present at its dedication and had assisted in its construction, says the Holy Trinity Church was the "first house of wor- ship erected in this growing town"-St. Anthony. (See "Early Episc. Churches," etc. Part 1, Vol. 10, Minn. Hist. Socy, Col., p. 222.). But the best evi- dence is that Holy Trinity was not completed so as to be ready for service until in the spring of 1852, while St. Anthony of Padua, the Catholic church, was completed in August, 1851, and the first services in it were held the following December.

METHODISTS HAD THE FIRST ORGANIZATION.

The first religious organization formed in St. Anthony, however, and which held services peculiar to it was a "class" of the Methodists, (meaning mem- bers of the M. E. Church) which was organized by Rev. Matthew Sorin, an itinerant missionary, in July, 1849, at the house of Calvin A. Tuttle. There were about a dozen members and John Draper was the "leader." They met regularly every Sunday at the members' houses or in the little school house. At first they had no pastor, and so there was no serinon. The exercises consisted of singing, of prayers, and the "giving of testimony." But late in 1849 Rev. Enos Stevens was appointed by the Wisconsin Con- ference as a Missionary to St. Anthony Falls, and then monthly preaching was had in the school house. The preacher did well to speak once a month, at St. Anthony, for he had to minister to small but zealous flocks of his church at Fort Snelling, Red Rock, Cot- tage Grove, Point Douglas, and Bissell's Mound.

The successors of Rev. Stevens were in order Revs. C. A. Newcomb, E. W. Merrill, (who became a Con- gregationalist) and Eli C. Jones. The last named

101

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

came in 1852, and it was during his pastorate, (accord- ing to Atwater's History) when the first church, a frame, was erected at a cost of $1,000.

THE PIONEER CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.

According to Atwater's History, which seems to contain information furnished by the records, the First Congregational Church of St. Anthony was organized November 16, 1851, by Revs. Charles Sec- combe and Richard Hall, with 12 members. It was called the First Congregational Church of St. Anthony, and the name is still retained. The History further says that Rev. Seccombe had commenced his services in St. Anthony "a year earlier," as a home missionary, and that he was in ministerial service here for fifteen years.

Stevens says, however, (p. 108) that in July, 1850, Rev. Wm. T. Wheeler, "formerly a Congregational missionary in Africa, commenced preaching," and was succeeded in 1851 by Rev. Charles Seccombe "as pastor."

Services were held for some time in the building used as a preparatory school for the University. The first church building was commenced in 1853, at Central Avenue and Fourth Street Northeast, and services were held in the basement that year. It was completed and dedicated February 15, 1854.

ST. ANTHONY TRIES FOR THE COUNTY SEAT.

Up to the creation of Hennepin County, in March, 1852, the village of St. Anthony was in Ramsey County, and of this county St. Paul was the county seat. There was, as has been stated, a rivalry between the two villages which extended nearly to a form of hostility. The idea of two villages named for the blessed St. Paul and St. Anthony being engaged in hostility against each other !

In the Territorial Legislature of 1851 a desperate attempt was made to remove the county seat from St. Paul to St. Anthony. If this could be done, the pros- perity and even the supremacy of the latter village might be assured. With its many admitted natural advantages the little town might go from county seat to capital city and from capital city to greatness and grandeur.

The movement originated in the House of Repre- sentatives. An amendment, No. 15, to Council File No. 1, consolidating the statutes, provided for the removal of the county seat. This amendment was adopted in committee of the whole by a vote of 7 to 6 : but when it came up for final action on its incor- poration into the general bill, the vote of the House was 9 to 7 against such incorporation. The St. Paulites had rallied all their forces into action and won by 2 votes. The amendment was expected to pass the Council by 5 to 4, and if it had passed the House, would doubtless have become a law.

Those voting for the amendment were David Gil- man of Sauk Rapids, North and Patch of St. Anthony, Olmstead of Watab, Trask and Ames of Stillwater, and Warren of Gull Lake. Those voting

against were Brunson, Ramsey, (the Governor's brother) Rice, and Tilden of St. Paul; Randall and Faribault of Mendota, Sloan of Little Rock, and Tay- lor of Washington County. The result was regarded as a practical defeat for Henry M. Rice's friends, although his brother, Edmund, voted against the amendment. The seven that voted for it were Rice's henchmen.

WHY AND HOW THE PROPOSITION FAILED.

Now, Ben. H. Randall (died at Winona, Oct. 1, 1913,) and Alexander Faribault, of Mendota, were elected to represent Dakotah County. They were strong friends of Sibley and not very favorable to Rice. There were objections made by the Rice ele- ment to their being given seats in the Legislature, ostensibly because it was claimed that their election was not in due and legal form. A committee re- ported that the two members elect were entitled to their seats, and on the vote to adopt this report both North and Patch, of St. Anthony, as well as three others-Ed. Rice, Sloan, and Warren-voted no, or to keep out Randall and Faribault.

And so, when the vote came to remove the county seat from St. Paul to the town where both John W. North and Ed. Patch lived and had their interests, both Randall and Faribault voted "no, " and defeated the measure! Had they voted for it, St. Anthony would have became the county seat, in all probability, the vote standing 9 to 7 in'its favor. And had North, Patch, and the others voted to keep the two Dakotah county members in their seats, they probably would have voted in the interest of St. Anthony.

It really seemed that St. Anthony suffered for the devotion of some of its principal citizens to the inter- ests of Henry M. Rice. Writing in the St. Anthony Express of September 27. following, Editor Atwater said :

66 * The interests of the west side of the river are identified with our own, and the votes of that side would have been with us in the last Legisla- ture had not a most unprovoked Rice onslaught been made on the Representatives from that side Our Rice Representatives (North and Patch) were made the tools and the active instruments of this attack. Consequently we lost the vote of the west side for the capital. the penitentiary, and the county seat. Had our Representatives not taken this suicidal course, the county seat would this day be located in St. Anthony."

DIVERSIONS AND ENTERTAINMENTS.

The winter of 1849-50 was a long and lonely one for the settlers at St. Anthony. Not much work could be performed, mails were uncertain and infrequent. for Frink & Walker's stage line, or sleigh line, was hard to keep open and clear of snowdrifts all the way from Galena to St. Paul. There were no libraries or places of amusement, and even church services were rare. But where there are 200 or 300 Americans in one settlement they will not suffer much from loneliness.

102

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

The New Englanders and other Amerieans arranged for a series of lectures to be given during the winter, at least one a month. The lecture force was eom- posed of local talent. Lieut. Richard W. Johnson, afterward a distinguished major general of the Union army, but then not long from West Point and an officer of the garrison at Fort Snelling; Rev. E. G. Gear, chaplain of Fort Snelling; Wm. R. Marshall, who had laid out the town; Prof. Lee, of the "aead- cmy ;" Rev. C. G. Ames, and others were the leeturers, and their efforts gave general satisfaction. Marshall's leeture was first. December 15; subjeet, "Our Terri- tory ;". ;"' Lieut. Johnson leetured in January on "Edu- cation."

The French-Canadians and other fun-loving citi- zens, in and about the village, especially the young people, had a good time from first to last. They had skating parties, sleighing parties, fishing exeur- sions to the near-by lakes, where they took the fish through holes in the ice : the young men made many hunting trips, and nearly every ineident or event of the kind was concluded with a danee. Two or three of these dancing parties were often held in a week. Commonly these were private affairs, held in dwell- ings, where there was room for but one eotillion "set" of eight persons at a time. Violins supplied the music and the fiddlers were compensated by eollee- tions taken up during the evening. Oeeasionally there was "a ball" to which tiekets were sold for sometimes as much as $2 apieee, although commonly a dollar was the price. This ineluded supper and a great good time.

At the ordinary dances or cotillion parties, the fid- dlers were loeal talent, too, either from the village or from the Frenehmen at Little Canada. But on the occasion of a "ball" the orchestra was often imported. Then would eome Bill Taylor, a negro barber of St. Paul, a noted player of danee music, and Lem Fow- ler, with his "French horn." also from St. Paul; and sometimes there would be somebody from the Fort Snelling Military, and then three fiddles and a "French horn" would be going and rare was the enjoyment and glorious the fun. Modern balls fur- nish nothing approximating the real enjoyment and delight of the old pioneer daneing parties. No won- der that the young men were determined, as they sang, that they would. to-

"Danee all night till broad daylight, And go home with the gals in the morning."

A large proportion of the participants in these innocent and exhilarating pastimes were French- Canadians; but the Americans fairly rivaled them in numbers and interest. Stevens says that none joined in these dances with more zest than the mixed- bloods of the time. The social equality of those in whose veins the Indian and the Caueasian blood were blended was generally recognized. For they were the offspring of white men and Indian women, who had been joined in Christian marriage, and were for the most part professcd Christians themselves and lived reputably before the world. Stevens says that many mixed-blood girls were graceful and beautiful

dancers, as they were graceful and beautiful in other ways, and they were much sought as partners by the young men.

THE SIOUX TREATIES OF 1851.

No other events or ineidents have been of more importanee in their influence upon the character and destiny of Minnesota than the negotiations with the Sioux Indians of that Territory in the summer of 1851. These events are commonly known as the Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota. The latter marked the beginning of a great and important epoeh in the career of Minneapolis. For as a result of the Treaty of Mendota a vast region of country, large enough and naturally rieh enough for a king- dom, was released from the rule of barbarism and opened to settlement and civilization; and a leading feature of this result was the acquisition of territory whereon in time the main portion of the eity of Min- neapolis was built, and whereon it now stands.

Prior to these treaties only land in Minnesota east of the Mississippi was open to white settlement and oceupation; the vast fertile expanse west of the river was Sioux Indian land and forbidden ground to the whites, and the greater part of the northern portion of the State belonged to the Chippewas. The boundary lines between the lands eeded to the whites and those retained by the. Indians constituted im- passable barriers against which the eager waves of immigration were beating in vain. In 1851 the greatest and most formidable of these walls was removed.

In June, 1849, Territorial Governor Ramsey and John Chambers, a former Governor of Iowa, were authorized as commissioners to make a treaty with the Sioux for the land west of the Mississippi. The Commissioners met at Fort Snelling in the fall; but the Sioux were absent from their villages gathering wild riee and hunting for their winter supply of meat, and sent word that they were too busy to make a treaty. The truth is that they were not ready to dispose of their lands at that time. They heard the great elamor among the whites that their lands should be acquired and they believed that if they. postponed the sale they would get better terms. So at this time they remained in their homes and the Commissioners returned to theirs. The clamor to have the land opened to white settlement was renewed with increased volume and force. The vear 1850 came and passed without a treaty and a mighty demand came from Minnesota and the North- west that negotiations for the lands be opened at once.

The need of some action bceame imperative. It required vigilant effort on the part of the military and the Indian agents to prevent bold and enter- prising home-seekers from erossing the river and claiming and settling upon sites surpassingly beauti- ful and inviting, thus trespassing and eneroaching upon Indian rights. Think of white men standing at hay for years upon the east bank of the river at St. Anthony Falls and gazing upon the country to the westward, so fair to view and so full of possibilities,

103

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

with only a few paddle strokes between them and its glories !

At last, in the spring of 1851, President Fillmore directed that the treaty with the Sioux be made. He appointed as Commissioners Gov. Ramsey, who was ex-officio Indian Commissioner for Minnesota, and Luke Lea, the National Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Particular instructions were given them, so that they were entitled to no especial credit for the terms and conditions they made, since their duties were almost purely ministerial.

The Commissioners decided to make two treaties ; that with the two upper Sioux bands, the Sissetons and Wahpetons, was to be made at Traverse des Sioux, and that with the two lower bands, the Meda- wakantons and Wahpakootas, would be at Mendota. There was much interest manifested, and many prominent men of the Territory attended. Mr. Good- hue, of the Pioneer, reported the proceedings of the Traverse des Sioux treaty and printed them in his paper.

The Traverse des Sioux treaty was held under a brush arbor constructed especially for the purpose by Alexis Bailly, a Mendota justice of the peace and at one time a prominent trader. The treaty document was not finally signed until July 23. On the part of the Indians it was signed by numerous "head men," and by Chiefs Running Walker, the Orphan, Limping Devil, Sleepy Eye, Lengthens His Head- Dress, Walking Spirit, Red Iron, and Rattling Moccasin.

Six days after the signing of the Traverse des Sioux treaty, or July 29, 1851, the treaty of Mendota was begun. It was held also under a brush arbor erected by Alexis Bailly on the elevated plain on the northi side of Pilot Knob. On the 5th of August it was finally signed by the U. S. Commissioners, Lea and Ramsey, and by the following chiefs: Wabasha, head chief of the Medawakantons, and Sub-Chiefs Little Crow, Wacouta, (the shooter) Cloud Man, Gray Iron, Shakopee, (or Six) and Good Road. There was only one band of Wahpakootas and Chief Red Legs signed for it.

The territory ceded by the Indians comprised about 23,750,000 acres, of which more than 19,000,000 acres were in Minnesota, nearly 3,000,000 acres in Iowa, and more than 1,750,000 acres in what is now South Dakota. To quote the treaty, the Indians sold-

"All their lands in the State of Iowa, and also all their lands in the Territory of Minnesota east of a line beginning at the confluence of the Buffalo River with the Red River of the North, [12 miles north of Moorhead] thence south, along the Red River, to the Sioux Wood River; thence along that river to Lake Traverse; thence south along the western shore of Lake Traverse to its southern extremity; thence in a direct line to the juncture of Lake Kampeska with the Sioux River [Chan-kah-snah-dahta Watpa, or Splintery Wood River]; thence along the western bank of said [Splintery Wood, or] Sioux River to the boundary line of Iowa."

The price which it was agreed should be paid to

the Indians for their lands was 1212 cents an acre. The two upper bands were to receive $1,665,000 in cash and supplies and be allowed a reservation twenty miles wide-ten miles on either side of the Minnesota -from the western boundary down to the mouth of the Yellow Medicine and Hawk Creek. Of this sum $305,000 was to be expended for their benefit the first year, and five per cent interest on the balance of $1,360,000, or $68,000, was to be paid in cash and supplies annually for fifty years, commencing July 1, 1852. Of each annuity $40,000 was to be in cash, $12,000 for "civilization," $10,000 for goods and pro- visions, and $6,000 for education.

The two lower bands were to receive $1,410,000, of which sum $30,000 was to be paid as soon as the U. S. Senate ratified the treaty, $25,000 was to be paid for them in settling their debts with the traders, remov- ing them to their new reservation on the upper Min- nesota, and for schools, mills, opening farms, etc., and five per cent of $1,160,000, a trust fund reserved by the Government, which interest amounted to $58,000, was to be paid annually for 50 years after July 1, 1852. The sum of $28,000 was to be expended for them annually for "civilization," education, goods, etc. The lower bands were also allowed a reservation, ten miles wide on either side of the Min- nesota and extending down that river from the mouth of the Yellow Medicine to Little Rock Creek, four miles east of Fort Ridgely and 14 miles west of New Ulm. The back annuities due under the treaty of 1837 were to be paid in annual installments and $150,000 in cash was to be divided among the mixed bloods of the two bands in lieu of the lands they had failed to claim under the Prairie du Chien treaty of 1830. Of the cash paid the sum of $100,000 was to be deducted and paid to certain traders for "just debts" due them from the Indians for goods and supplies had and delivered in former years.

The U. S. Senate amended the treaties by striking out the provisions for reservations, for which ten cents an acre was to be paid, and other reservations in what is now the Dakotas were to be selected and the Indians removed thereto; also the item of $150,000 in cash for the half breeds was stricken out. The amended treaty came back to Minnesota and in Sep- tember, 1852, was signed by some of the chiefs and head men of the Indians. President Fillmore pro- claimed it, and it went into full legal effect, February 24. 1853: it had been in practical effect, so far as white settlers were. interested, for many months before!

After paying $18,000 to the Indians, as a part of the purchase price of their reservations, at ten cents an acre, the Government, by President Pierce and an appropriation bill, refused to select new reservations for the Indians and allowed them to keep those given them by the treaties of 1851. They were finally con- firmed in these reservations in July, 1854.

The point most prominent in connection with the matters under consideration, is that by the Treaty of Mendota, in 1851, the site of Minneapolis was pur- chased from the Indians for 1212 cents an acre.

104

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

A NEW ERA OF PROSPERITY OPENS FOR MINNESOTA.

Great was the general rejoicing throughout Min- nesota over the fact that by the Indian treaties the country west of the Mississippi had been opened to white settlement. Even in St. Anthony the property owners were glad, although it was fairly certain that a competitive town would soon arise just across the river from them. The main reason was that all of them had a "claim" of some sort already selected

in the new land of promise! The fact that the treaties had been made was the consummation of desires, hopes, and expectations which had long been devoutly held by everybody. In May, 1850, John H. Stevens had written to Sibley :

"Immigration pours in, but we fear with little money. We want a treaty with the Indians for their lands west of the Mississippi. Our Territory will have bad repute unless we open the west side of the river."

CHAPTER XII.

THE CITY AND COUNTY ARE ESTABLISHED.

EFFECT OF THE INDIAN TREATIES OF 1851-THE WEST SIDE OF THE RIVER OPENED TO WHITE SETTLEMENT-SETTLERS FLOCK TO THE NEW HOME SITES-THE FIRST PERMANENT OCCUPANTS OF THE CITY'S WESTERN DIVISION-A NEW CITY IS FOUNDED AND A NEW COUNTY CREATED.

THE EPOCH OF MOST IMPORTANCE.

The incidents connected with the Indian treaties of 1851 constituted the most important epoch in the his- tory of Minneapolis. For following hard upon the treaties a town was laid out on the west bank of the river, and this town was named Minneapolis. At first it was a rival of St. Anthony, the town on the east, bank, but eventually it absorbed and benevolently as- similated its rival and extended its corporate limits far to the north and west of the original boundaries of St. Anthony.

It would seem that St. Anthony might have pre- vented the laying out of the new town with the new name. It was then a bright and promising village. In two years the rude log cabins of the first settlers had been 'replaced by commodious frame buildings, white painted and attractive. There were good saw- mills, a very excellent hotel, a fairly good corn-grind- ing mill, two schools, church organizations, and a strong array of stores and shops. John G. Lennon's big general store was quite a creditable institution and carried the largest advertisement in the St. Anthony Express, a whole column in length.

The little town had doctors, lawyers, scholars, and politicians, and brainy men of all avocations, and Franklin Steele was largely interested in the place. Had the people seen fit they could have had the Legis- lature (which met a few months after the treaty was signed at Mendota) create a new county embracing the territory on both sides of the river at the Falls and designating St. Anthony as the county seat. Then the corporate lines could have been extended and the town on the west side of the river might have been "West St. Anthony," for all time!

"SOONERS" INVADE THE WEST SIDE.

It must be borne in mind that while the west side was properly considered Indian country, it was liter- ally a part of the Fort Snelling military reserve, which had been purchased from the Indians by Lieutenant Pike when he visited the country. in 1805-06. Set- tlers were not allowed to go upon it except by special permits from the military authorities; but, under all the circumstances, and when the manifest destiny of the greater part of the reservation was realized, these permits or licenses were not hard to obtain. The idea was to obtain, preliminary to permanent occupation,

good claims on the new site, and even the army officers and soldiers were disposed to secure this sort of holdings.

Hardly was the ink of the signatures to the treaty of Mendota dry on the paper when certain bold, ad- venturous spirits, indifferent to legal restrictions, were upon the west side of the river selecting, staking out, and even building upon their claims. Opposite St. Anthony, between the Falls and Fort Snelling. on the military reservation were a score of these "sooners." They expected that Congress would soon reduce the limits of the reservation, that their claims would be outside of the new limits, and that the ratification of the treaties would give them titles secure against all assaults.

Between the Falls and Fort Snelling several claims were made and houses, or rather shanties, built on them. The "sooners" in these cases made claim to large blocks of the land for possible advantage when the new town should be laid out. A majority of them were St. Anthony men anyhow. and had these claims as anchors to windward in case adverse gales of for- tune should blow violently upon their little home village.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 24

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