Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 27

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 27

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In May. 1852. Philip Bassett, a brother of Jocl B. Bassett, claimed what became the part of the eity known as Hoag's Addition to Minneapolis. A few

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

weeks later, however, he sold his claim to his old New Hampshire school-fellow, Charles Hoag, the man that gave Minneapolis its name. Previously Joel B. Bassett had taken up a quarter section above the creek that still bears his name and immediately upon the west bank of the river. He settled upon this tract in May, 1852, and conducted it as a farm for several years, when it became city property.

As to Phil Bassett's claim which became Hoag's Addition, it may. be said that it was 160 acres in extent. Really it may be called Hoag's claim, for Phil Bassett had it only about three weeks when he conveyed it to Charley Hoag and went to California. Hoag had been a school teacher in Pennsylvania, but in youth he had been a farmer's boy. Upon the land acquired from Bassett he opened a farm which in- cluded the site of the West Hotel and what is now termed the heart of the business center of the city.

FIRST CLAIMS ON THE INDIAN LANDS.

Col. Emanuel Case had come from Michigan and opened a store in St. Anthony in the spring of 1851, with his son, Sweet W. Case, as a partner. Not long afterward he came to the west side of the river and surveyed and filed on a claim of 160 acres immedi- ately north of Bassett's. Peter Poncin, an Indian trader, had previously built a small trading house on the same claim and sold goods to the Lake Calhoun Indians until they removed. He and Colonel Case had a controversy over the ownership of the land which the Government authorities decided belonged to Colonel Case. Poncin was an early merchant but had a bad personal reputation. In March, 1852, Colonel Case's son, James Gale Case, aged 20, slipped through a watering hole near the west bank of the river and was drowned. In his "Minnesota and Its People" (p. 140) Colonel Stevens says this was the second death in Minneapolis, but in his Lyceum ad- dress published in the Northwestern Democrat of January 27, 1855, he says the second death was the wife of Colonel Case, in 1852. Alexander Moore, Case in the ownership of the land, much of which was in cultivation up to 1855, when it was laid out into lots and blocks and platted as a part of Bas- sett, Case & Moore's Addition to the Village of Min- neapolis. Both Case and Moore became merchants in Minneapolis, and both aided in the upbuilding of the town in early days. Moore finally removed to Sauk Center, but Colonel Case lived in Minneapolis until his regretted death, in the summer of 1871, Colonel Case's original farm became Lawrence & Reeve's Addition.

Joseph Menard came in 1851 and by permission of Indian Agent Lea occupied land near the Case and Moore claim. After the Treaty of Mendota he ac- quired full title to the tract which eventually became "Menard's Addition to Minneapolis." Mr. Menard died some years since.

Charles W. Christmas, an Ohio man, came over to Minneapolis in the fall of 1851 and took a claim near Menard which he improved in 1852. This claim

subsequently was surveyed off and platted as "Christ- mas's Addition to Minneapolis." Mr. Christmas* was a surveyor and laid out the original town of Minneapolis in 1854. He was a prominent early citi- zen, the first county surveyor of Hennepin County, had Christmas Island, in Lake Minnetonka, named for him, etc. His son-in-law, Isaac I. Lewis, and his nephew, Capt. J. C. Reno, the steamboat man, became interested with him in the Addition.

The three claims of Colonel Case, Joseph Menard, and Chas. W. Christmas were the first made on the Indian lands in Minneapolis or in the vicinity ; pre- vious entries had been made. on the Fort Snelling Reservation.

MISCELLANEOUS CLAIMANTS AND THEIR CLAIMS.

Waterman Stinson (original family name Stephen- son) came from Maine in 1852 with his big family of boys and girls, and his aged parents and by per- mission of Col. Francis Lee, commandant at Fort Snelling, located on Bassett's Creek and opened a fine farm. He raised a big field of wheat and oats and his hay meadows were large and very productive. His neighbors bought every peck of grain and every pound of hay he would sell. In time his farm became "'Stinson's Addition to Minneapolis." His son-in- law, a Mr. Brennan, made a claim near him but sold it to Franklin Steele.

In June, 1851, Isaac Atwater took a claim on the old Reserve of 160 acres. The next day he sold it for $10, and congratulated himself as a get-rich-quick fellow that by sheer shrewdness had made $10 in a day! Had he but retained ten acres of his 160, he would have become a multi-millionaire.

In 1852 John George Lennon, the great St. An- thony merchant, who had an entire column advertise- ment in the Express, came over and by Colonel Lee's permission settled on a tract of the Reserve which is now included in "J. G. Lennon's Out-Lots Addition."

Near the Lennon claim Capt. Benj. B. Parker se- cured a quarter section which became a part of his

another Michigander, was interested with Colonel . son's Addition. Colonel Case and Chandler Hutchins each secured a quarter section back of Lennon's, and in a year or so Colonel Case bought the Hutchins claim, which is now in Chicago, Lake Park and other Additions. Edgar Folsom, the old-time ferryman. ob- tained a quarter section in Parker's neighborhood and the claim is now a part of Newell, Carr & Baldwin's Addition. For some time Mrs. Judith Ann Sayer, a New York widow, "held down" a claim near Colonel Case's, (now Eustis's Addition) but finally sold it and married Wm. Dickie, who had a claim near Lake Harriet.

FIRST CLAIMANTS NEAR LAKES HARRIET AND CALHOUN.

Other settlers on the shores of or near Lakes Har- riet and Calhoun were John S. Mann, Eli Pettijohn, L. N. Parker, Henry Angell, and Henry Heap, with James A. Lennon and Deacon Oliver near by. Oliver's

* The family name was originally Wynacht, the German for Christmas.

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

claim is now Oliver's Addition, and Jim Lennon's is in Remington's; Charles Mousseau's claim, which included the old Pond Mission and the log cabin of Chief Cloud Man, is now Lakewood Cemetery.

Robert Blaisdell and his three sons-Robert, Jr., John T., and William-had claims in 1852 which are now respectively in the Flour City, Jolın T. Blais- dell's, Bloomington, and Lindsey & Lingenfelter's Additions.

Rev. Dr. E. G. Gcar, chaplain at Fort Snelling, made a claim in 1849 on the east shore of Lake Cal- houn. There was a technical error in the proceedings and the claim was forfeited. Edmund Bresette then "jumped" it. Dr. Gear had the matter taken into Congress by Delegate Sibley and a special act was passed allowing the chaplain to repossess the land, and giving him a perfect title, upon the payment of $1.25 per acre. A part of the claim is now in Cal- houn Park. Geo. E. Huy had the claim east of Rev. Gear's. David Gorham had the claim north of Gear's, bordering on Lake of the Isles, but sold it to R. P. Russell, who made of it several Additions to the city. George Park had his claim in the now Lake of the Isles Addition, and N. E. Stoddard was his neighbor. A part of John Green's claim is in Lakeview Addi- tion. Z. M. Brown and Hill claimed the pres- ent Groveland Addition, and Dennis Peter's farm is now Sunnyside Addition.

Wm. Worthingham's claim was bought by John C. Oswald and is now called Bryn Mawr Addition. (Bryn Mawr is Welch for big hill; bryn means hill and mawr means great or big.) A little farther out Wm. Byrnes made a beautiful home, and after his return from good service in the Civil War was elected sher- iff of Hennepin County, but died in office. His old homestead is now Maben, White & Le Bron's Addi- tion. See biographical sketch of Wm. Byrnes, clse- where.

FIRST CLAIMS IN NORTH MINNEAPOLIS.

In North Minneapolis the claims of Charles Far- rington and Elijah Austin were in Sherburne & Beebe's Addition; F. X. Crepeau's, in Crepeau's Addition; Stephen and Rufus Pratt's in the Addi- tions bearing their respective names. Nearly all of Oak Lake Addition is on Thomas Stinson's old claim, made in 1852. Central Park is on the original claim of Joseph S. Johnson. Asa and Timothy Fletcher, brothers, located on Merriam & Lowry's Addition and Wm. Goodwin pre-empted what is now Ever- green Addition. Warren Bristol's old claim became Jackson's, Daniels's and Whitney's, and Snyder & Company's Additions. H. H. Shepley's claim was partly in Viola Addition.

EARLY CLAIMS IN SOUTH TOWN.

In the more southern part of the city Andrew J. Foster and Chas. Gilpatrick's farms are Additions with the names of the original owners. "Deacon" Sully's old claim is now platted as Sully & Murphy's Addition. Henry Keith's old Falls City farm, named

for the steamboat and claimed in 1852, was afterward owned by Judges Atwater and Flandrau, of the State Supreme Court and became a part of the Falls City and the Riverside Short-Line Additions. Mr. G. Mur- phy's claim is in Cook's Riverside and Alfred Mur- phy's in the Fair Ground Addition.

MORE MISCELLANEOUS CLAIMS.

Other claims made in 1852-53, with the Additions to Minneapolis in which the lands subsequently lay were Hiram Burlingham's, in Morrison & Lovejoy's Addition; Simon Odell's, in Palmer's; E. A. Hod- son's in the Southside; Captain Arthur H. Mills's and J. Draper's in Galpin's and adjoining Additions ; Charles Brown's and Frank Rollins's, in Rollins's Second ; John Wass's in Wass's; Amasa Craft's, in Monroe Bros.'; Hiram Van Nest's in Van Nest's ; Philander Prescott's in Annie E. Steele's Out-Lots. Simon Bean's claim is Minnehaha Driving Park. Ard Godfrey's old claim and home is now the site of the Soldiers' Home, and W. G. Moffett's is Minne- haha Park.

STILL OTHER PIONEERS OF 1851-52.

Additional settlers in Minneapolis in 1851-52, as given by Colonel Stevens, were Capt. Sam Woods, a former commandant of Fort Snelling, and Wm. Finch, Samuel Stough, S. S. Crowell, Mark Baldwin, Wm. Hanson, J. J. Dinsmore, Willis G. Moffett, Christopher C. Garvey, H. S. Atwood, Thomas Pierce, and Titus Pettijohn. The original town plat bears A. K. Hartwell's and Calvin Church's entries, but it is not known just when they were made. Among those who were residents, but not claim-holders, on the west side in 1850 were Simon Stevens, Thomas Chambers, Henry Chambers, and Horace Webster ; they made claims elsewhere. Wm. Goodnow, the car- penter that built Anson Northrup's house, was an- other resident but not a claim-holder. His was the first case of suicide in Minneapolis. He was a drunk- ard, and in the early winter of 1852, while demented from delirium tremens, he jumped into the river just above the Falls, was swept over them, and of course lost ; fortunately he had no family.

Other adult men, unmarried, and who were resi- dents but not landholders on the west side in 1852-3, were Maj. Geo. A. Camp, a nephew of Anson Northrup and who was a member of his uncle's household. Gordon Jackins and William Jackins lived with their brother John, the merchant; they were unmarried but became interested in a forty-acre tract adjoining Mrs. Sayer's claim, and William died while living on it. William H. Hubbard, a Tennessee lawyer, held a claim on the town site for a year or two but sold it before it came fairly into market and left Minne- sota. He came first to St. Anthony in 1850, the year in which Atwater came. John Berry pre-empted a farm near the Lake of Isles.

LAST RECORDS OF SOME FIRST SETTLERS.

Of some of the earliest settlers of St. Anthony and Minneapolis, it may be said that Eli Pettijolm and

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Caleb D. Dorr, each aged more than ninety years, are yet living. Anson Northrup died in St. Paul, March 27, 1894. Allen Harmon died in 1883. Ed- ward Murphy died in Minneapolis, January 18, 1877. Peter Poncin went to the Pacific Coast and died there between 1880 and 1890. Martin Layman, on whose farm the first cemetery was platted, died in' Minne- apolis, July 25, 1886. Judge Isaac Atwater died in Minneapolis, December 22, 1906. John George Len- non, whose general store in St. Anthony was in 1850 the largest mercantile establishment in Minnesota, died in Minneapolis, October 13, 1886, aged seventy- one; he was an Englishman and first came to Minne- sota in 1843 and to St. Anthony in 1849; in 1851 he married Mary B. McLean, a daughter of Maj. Nathaniel McLean, the old-time Indian agent at Fort Snelling. Capt. John Christmas Reno, the old Min- neapolis steamboat man, died April 13, 1902. N. E. Stoddard, the scientific agriculturist that did so much to improve Dent corn, died on his farm many years ago. Ard Godfrey died in Minneapolis, October 15, 1894. Edwin Hedderly died in the city, in June, 1880. Hon. D. M. Hanson, a noted Democratic politician and in his time regarded as the ablest lawyer in Minneapolis, died while a member of the Territorial Council, March 28, 1856; his father, Wmn. Hanson, died at the age of 82. Chas. W. Christmas, the sur- veyor, died June 17, 1884.

The foregoing list of first settlers in Minneapolis has been compiled from the best authorities, notably from Colonel Stevens' valuable volume "Recollections of Minnesota and Its People." The list is not com- plete, for as to other names and the circumstances connected with their settlements the authorities do not agree. In the list here presented, where there have been discrepancies in the authorities the state- ments of Colonel Stevens have invariably been de- ferred to; and the same has been done in the case of many an historical item.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE UNIVERSITY.

It is perhaps true, as has been often alleged, that the State University was located at St. Anthony pur- suant to a "gentlemen's agreement" among the St. Paul, the Stillwater, and the St. Anthony members of the Territorial Legislature of 1851. To that Legis- lature was given authority to locate the principal Territorial institutions. St. Paul was the temporary capital, but there was no other public institution. There was no penitentiary ; Territorial prisoners were confined in the guardhouse at Fort Snelling. Only the three little towns named were to be considered, for they were the only communities worth consider- ing. There was then no Minneapolis or Duluth or Winona or Mankato or Fergus Falls or any other village or town in Minnesota, aside from St. Paul, St. Anthony, and Stillwater.

Pursuant to the "'gentlemen's agreement" St. Paul was given the capital, St. Anthony the University, and Stillwater the penitentiary. Wm. R. Marshall fought hard to have the capital located at St. An- thony, and the St. Paul and certain other members

were only too glad to give him the University to si- lence him.

The bill creating the University was drawn by John W. North, assisted by General Marshall, Judge Meeker, and Isaac Atwater. The members of the first Board of Regents were Franklin Steele, Isaac At- water, Wm. R. Marshall, Bradley B. Meeker, Joseph W. Furber, Socrates Nelson, Henry M. Rice, Alex- ander Ramsey, H. H. Sibley, Chas. K. Smith, N. C. D. Taylor, and Abram Van Vorhees. The first four were strong St. Anthony partisans. Steele was made presi- dent, Atwater was secretary, and John W. North, treasurer. The first meeting was held May 31, 1851.

Steele donated about four acres for the site of a "preparatory school," and this site was to be between what is now Central Avenue and First Avenue South- east and also between Second Street and University Avenue. The title to this site was never made over to the Board. In lieu Mr. Steele offered, in January, 1854, to give the University five acres in Tuttle's Grove. Meanwhile a "preparatory school" building (costing over $2,500, of which sum Steele had given $500) had been erected on the original site, and Steele offered to build another, costing as much, on the proposed new site. The next year Steele offered to pay to the Board the sum of $2,500, instead of erecting the building, and the offer was accepted. Finally, in 1862, Steele's obligation, which was held as an asset, was turned over to the St. Anthony Water Power Company in payment of debts owed by the University to the Company, and in November, 1862, the Regents quit-claimed the site of the "pre- paratory school" to the same Company in discharge of other University debts.

It was at the second meeting of the Board, which was held in the St. Charles Hotel, June 14, 1851, when it was decided to build the "preparatory school" building at a maximum cost of $2,500. At the first meeting it was decided to erect the building but its cost was not limited. The money was raised by subscription among the people, and Johnson's His- tory says that before the building was completed "a second subscription was necessary." When finished the building, a frame structure, was two stories high with a ground area of thirty by fifty feet. The walls of the basement were twelve feet in height, of which six feet was above the ground. The floor was reached by descending stone steps. For years this building, which would now be inadequate for housing the smallest ward school, was the seat of the prepara- tory department of the University of Minnesota, and of the University as a whole.

The building was completed about November 15, 1851, and the first school was opened on the 26th, when only two rooms were ready. The school was practically of the character of a country district school. About twenty scholars were enrolled the first week, but before the year was out there were per- haps double the number. The principal branches taught were spelling, reading, grammar, descriptive geography, and arithmetic; the charge for instruction in these studies were $4 for a "quarter" of eleven weeks. The Board, however, advertised to teach

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY. MINNESOTA

everything up to Latin, Greek, the higher mathe- maties, and astronomy, or as Goodhue expressed it in his Pioneer. "everything from a-b abs to algebra."

At first there was but one teacher, Rev. E. W. Mer- rill, who, of course, was ealled "Prof." Merrill. Before the year expired, however, he had an assist- ant, and in the second year, when there were eighty- five pupils, and elementary spelling as well as eonie sections was being taught, he had three assistants. Unfortunately the names of these assistants have not been ascertained for use in this volume.

Rev. Merrill came to take charge of the school be- lieving that he would be paid a good salary out of the Territorial treasury : but when he came the Board told him plainly that his compensation would be the receipts for tuition, minus the expense of running the sehool ! For the first eleven weeks, therefore, he re- ceived probably $300, and when he had paid the fuel bills for those eold winter weeks, his assistant's salary, and the other expenses, he did not have a very large sum left. In the spring of 1855 he eoneluded that

his four years of experience as the virtual head of a university was all he wanted, and he closed the school, although during the last year he had on his rolls the names of 150 students. At the elose of 1913 there were 3,932.

In May, 1856, the school house passed from the control of the Board of Regents, as has been stated. Thereafter, until it was burned, in November, 1864, private sehools under the name of "high sehools," and even "academies," were taught in it from time to time. It is, perhaps, well to note that not a dollar was ever paid out of the Territorial treasury toward the establishment and maintenance of this preparatory sehool. All the money spent on it was contributed by the pioneers. They built the school house and Mr. Merrill defrayed the running expenses of the school out of the tuition fees received for teaching their children.

Whoever would learn the full history of this great institution must consult Bird Johnson's "Forty Years of the University."

CHAPTER XIV.

LEADING EVENTS OF THE EARLY HISTORY.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND COMMENTS-ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN THE NATION AND STATE- POLITICS IN 1855 AND THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION AT MINNEAPOLIS-THE HENNEPIN COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY HOLDS THE FIRST AGRICULTURAL FAIR IN THE STATE-THE GOVERNOR PREVENTS THE ORGANIZATION OF ST. ANTHONY COUNTY AND IS SEVERELY DENOUNCED - ST. ANTHONY INCORPORATED AS A CITY - HENNEPIN COUNTY ABSORBS ST. ANTHONY-THE SENSATIONAL ELECTION FOR DELEGATES TO FORM THE FIRST STATE CON- STITUTION-THE FIRST GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION, IN 1857-THE FINANCIAL PANICS OF 1857 AND 1859.

HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

It was in 1854 when Charles W. Christmas platted the elaims of John II. Stevens and Frank Steele. Meanwhile, the Stevens house had been the scene of most of the notable public meetings and transactions of the city builders. There they had met and organ- ized Hennepin County in 1851, after it had been set off from Dakota County. There they had held their elaim holders' meetings, and there they had organ- ized an agricultural society. That they organized to further the cause of agriculture is an indication of the kind of men they were, for they had already set out to prove the soil's fruitfulness and the elimate's fitness to rival that of older fields of agriculture.

They organized for this purpose and that; they en- joyed such forms of entertainment as a vigorous, eul- tured group of people might well be expected to en- joy, in the time, and with the best that each could contribute from his own talents alone. They went on laying the foundations for a eity by the splendid water power; and all this time, in a county without a designated place for its seat of government. This com- munity was unnamed, save for the various names given it by this or that settler.

It was not until in 1854 that Minneapolis gained a place on the postal map of the United States, when a postoffice was established, with Dr. Hezekiah Fleteher as postmaster. Up to that time mail for Minneapolis was delivered at St. Anthony. The two communities were linked by common citizenship, in that there were common interests on both sides of the river. Between them plied Captain Tapper's ferry, taking toll from all except troops of the Federal Gov- ernment, according to the original license granted to Colonel Stevens. The ferrying was a difficult pas- sage at first, as Colonel Stevens's reminiseenee and those of other pioneers indieate, in tales of upsets in the swift waters above the falls. Colonel Stevens's house continued to be the social center of the west siders and to mark the line of communication between the two settlements.

In 1854, so rapidly had the settlement of the plateau and of the older village progressed, men on both sides of the river banded together to seeure the construction of a suspension bridge over the river.

The bridge was opened in 1855. It stood where the Steel Arch bridge now links the east and west sides, and it gave into a gateway then, just as the present bridge does now. In those days they spoke of Bridge Street ; later of Bridge Square, when the twin ar- teries, Hennepin and Nicollet Avenues, began to take definite direction; and now it has become Gateway Park.

Forward-looking men were at work developing the nucleus of a city on the west side; and men of no lesser culture and forward-looking qualities were likewise at work in the older village of St. Anthony. In 1851 they had established what they ealled a pre- paratory department for the University of Minnesota. Indeed, in this latter establishment may be seen the true pioneering spirit, for they built this humble pre- paratory department apparently in the assurance that by the time students were prepared for entrance, the University proper would be there for them to enter.

In the formative conditions of those first years on both sides of the river it was natural that there should be rivalries between the settlements, and even compe- tition for supremacy even within each of the two divi- sions. Thus in old St. Anthony there were, at one time, three centers which strove for commercial leader- ship: "Cheevertown," where the campus of the Uni- versity of Minnesota now lies; the village of St. An- thony, centering in the present Central Avenue from the river up the hill; and the town of St. Anthony, up river in the neighborhood that is now Third to Fifth Avenue Northeast, and opposite the mouth of Bassett's Creek. At the last named site the steamboat landing for the traffic above the Falls was established, and for a time that was the east side eenter of busi- ness.

BECOMES A SUMMER RESORT.

As the village on the west side of the river grew, there sprang up that portion of the vil- lage which eentered on Bridge Street, and an- other as far down river as the present Sixth to Eighth Avenues South, along Washington Avenue. On the east side, the rival communities had their hotels, the St. Charles and the Winslow ; and on the west side there were the Cataract and the Nicollet.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 27

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