Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 28

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 28

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

To all these came, in the years before the Civil War, the flower of Southern society from as far down the river as New Orleans, making a summering place of the beautiful locality about the Falls and the lakes near the growing villages. This was a natural out- growth of the steamboat traffic on the great river- and in that traffic itself there arose another element of rivalry which unified all the competitive elements of the twin villages at thic Falls of St. Anthony.

RIVALRY BEGETS A FEUD.

This union was the first manifestation of a bitter rivalry which dwarfed all the petty differences of the several commercial communities at the falls. It was the feud between the pioneer cities of Minnesota -- St. Paul and Minneapolis ; a vindictive fire which has now smoldered, now broken out afresh, throughout the nearly three-quarters of a century which has passed since the founding of the towns. It was even declared that the long delay in the opening of the Military Reservation on the west side of the Falls was caused by the machinations of men at Fort Snell- ing and in the settlement of St. Paul. The early evi- dences of competition for settlers and commerce in- eluded scheming by St. Paul to prevent the river boats from passing further up-stream to the landing below St. Anthony Falls.

LOCAL STEAMBOATING ESTABLISHED.

It was this influence which led to the acquirement of a steamboat by residents of St. Anthony, and the organization of a river traffic company to maintain a line of steamers, of which the Falls City was to be the first, which were to ply between St. Anthony and the Mississippi below. That was in 1854, when the first merchant flour mill had been erected on the East Side, and when the need of transportation facilities, not merely for flour but for wheat, became evident. That was an important year in the history of the two villages; it saw the first bank established in St. An- thony ; the first survey on the west side; the first lot given away by Colonel Stevens; the establishment of the Minneapolis postoffice; the first retail lumber vard; and the operation of the old Government flour mill commercially.

And while the river traffic below the falls was be- coming an important element in the future of the two settlements, the possibilities of traffic above the falls were not neglected. The steamboat Governor Ramsey, as has been said, had been put in service as early as 1851, plying between St. Anthony and Sauk Rapids, and later other steamboats were put on: a circumstance in transportation history which shows what elements contributed to the development of Minnesota Territory in the years before railroads were built and the country opened up by settlement. The boats that carried freight and passengers up- river above the falls continued in active service most of the years until the Federal Government, in the midst of the Civil War, took them around the Falls and used them in the river navy that figured in the

military operations in the West. And one of them- the first one, the Governor Ramsey-reappeared on Lake Minnetonka and did good service there about the time the first railroad was laid to the north shore of that lake.

It was not until well into the second decade of St. Anthony's history that the railroad figured at all in the transportation problems of the city. "Transpor- tation" in those first ten or twelve years of the city's life meant steamboat traffic in summer, or stage and wagon freighting. The historic Red River carts, relics of the first transportation efforts in the North- west, continued to be features of the time. And through the "Big Woods" to the southwest and west there were mail routes, mostly traversed by mounted horsemen, to the frontier settlements. Ox teams were as common as horses in the farming districts, and all communication was as primitive as in any new country.

THE LYCEUM AND THE LIBRARY.

The Lyceum was an institution of the time; debat- ing clubs included men, not mere youths, in their membership; intimate acquaintance with literature was perhaps a commoner attribute then than it is to- day ; singing schools were among the forms of enter- tainment; and in its earliest years St. Anthony pos- sessed a public library co-operative in form. Ten years later-in 1859-the foundation for the Minne- apolis Public Library was laid, in the formation of the Atheneum, a private library association which was to all intents and purposes public. It was to this. semi-public institution that, after another ten years, an endowment was to come through Dr. Kirby Spen- cer's bequest, which was to yield rich aid to the li- brary of the Twentieth Century.

THE PIONEER NEWSPAPERS.

The significant fact which stands out before all else in the history of the communities is that the people were of a high cultural average. Their daily tasks were performed amid conditions often full of hard- ship, always in surroundings wholly lacking in ex- terior refinement. But all held true to the traditions of their forefathers. One may see proof of cultural qualities in the circumstances surrounding the found- ing of the first newspaper, the St. Anthony Express, promoted by Tyler, the tailor, and established in 1851. The Express had been Whig in politics at the begin- ning, and Democratic later, but its brand of Democ- racy did not suit those who opposed the old "Silver Grays," and in 1853 the Northwestern Democrat ap- peared, first under Prescott & Jones and later, after it had been moved to the west side, under W. A. Hotchkiss. This second paper succumbed, too. The St. Anthony Republican was another weekly paper. published by the Rev. C. G. Ames, who was an out- spoken abolitionist and a vigorous figure of the time. It was merged, in 1858, with the State News, edited by W. A. Croffutt, who in years to come gained fame equal to that of Rev. Mr. Ames in a national way, as

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

a thinker and writer. It was Croffutt who, with his partner, ventured the first daily newspaper at the Falls-the Daily Falls Evening News. But this was short-lived. Indeed, most newspaper enterprises of the first decade failed to succeed commercially. It was not until 1859 that a newspaper appeared which was destined to endure the financial storms of the times. And its publication served to introduce to the Northwest a man who became a great, notable figure in its history. It was in this year, during the stress of hard times following the panic of 1857, that Colonel William S. King founded the State Atlas, and the paper at once became a strenuous factor in the upbuilding of the community. It held its own for ten years, and then was merged into the Tribune, which still endures.

THE EARLY SCHOOLS.

The newspaper history of the young community, its achievement in establishing a library, the cultural tendencies of its citizens, were part and parcel of the same spirit which earlier had founded a school sys- tem, first on the East, later on the West, Side. In old St. Anthony the first institution to have community support was a private school, established in 1849 and with Miss Electa* Backus as the teacher. That was in June of 1849, and the need for better accommoda- tions was responded to in the fall, when a school building was erected and the first public school estab- lished.

The pioneers who cast their lot with the settlement of squatters and early claimants on the west side of the river set about establishing their own schools as soon as the settlers became sufficiently numerous to warrant. It was in 1852 that Anson Northrup's house, close to the present site of the new Minneapolis postoffice building, became a school house for a time. Miss Mary Miller was the teacher of the twenty-odd pupils in this, the first organized district school west of the Mississippi river in the Northwest. It is an index to the character of the people, this establishing of a school district before they had even gained title to or right to settle on the lands about the western end of the Falls of St. Anthony. As usual, Col. Stevens's house had been the scene of the organization meeting, and the first school board was composed of Col. Stevens, Dr. A. E. Ames, and Edward Murphy.

Three years later, in 1855, the questions of title and government having been cleared up in a way, the people of Minneapolis met in town meeting and deter- mined to organize a graded school and erect a school building. The result was the erection of the Union School, on the site of the present conrthouse and city hall. The building was opened and schools estah- lished in 1858, with a principal and four teachers. It was the real nucleus for the Minneapolis public school system. To its traditions and those of the Washington School, which succeeded it. scores of Min-

neapolis men and women remain loyal, and people all over the West count as their best school days the time spent under roof of the Union or the Washington School.

THE FIRST MINNEAPOLIS CHURCHES.

As establishment of schools was early one of the efforts of the villagers of St. Anthony and of Minne- apolis, so were the natural assemblages of the adher- ents of one or another religious creed notable circum- stances of the time. The first churches in St. Anthony have been noticed. On the West Side, the mission house of the Pond Brothers, on Lake Calhoun, was the first building which by liberal license may be con- sidered a church. It was used only to proclaim the Gospel to the Indians, and cannot be considered as in any sense the foundation of Christian church organi- zation in Minneapolis. The services first held in the John H. Stevens house by Presbyterians gave that denomination definite part in the church history of the West Side, culminating in organization in 1853. The Methodists had organized on the East Side in 1849 ; the Congregationalists formed a church there in 1851; the Episcopalians formed Holy Trinity Parish in 1852, and four years later became organized factors in religious work on the West Side. The Baptists, first established on the East Side in 1850, got together on the West Side in 1853. Other Protestant denomi- nations came later. As for the Catholic church, the parish of St. Anthony of Padua continued for many years to embrace all of the members by the Falls.

Other schools, churches, and libraries sprang up spontaneously with the first settlement of either vil- lage ; they existed in the will of every one of those first settlers in the decade and a half preceding the Civil War, and though they may not have had visible form and dimension, yet they were truly elements in the life of the villages from their very beginning. Hardship and privation, financial setback and panic, rivalry with St. Paul, intensive struggle for existence could not check their growth. Even in the bitter days of the panic of 1857 there was no cessation from pro- moting the institutions of the mind and of the soul as necessary elements in the life of the two young cities. The earnestness and the vigor and the cul- tural instinct of Eastern fathers and mothers kept their fires alight, and held the people true to the best that was in their heredity.

ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

The first preliminary and authoritative action taken to organize the Republican party was by a conven- tion of Michigan anti-slavery Democrats, calling themselves "the Free Democracy of Michigan," which meeting was held at Kalamazoo, February 22, 1854, the anniversary of Washington's birthday. This con- vention nominated a State ticket, adopted a strong anti-slavery platform, and called itself a "convention of Free Democrats and Jeffersonian Republicans." About a week later, or February 28, a meeting held at Ripon, Wisconsin, resolved to hold another meeting

* Atwater's History gives her Christian name as Elizabeth; but Warner & Foote's and Hudson's give it as Electa, which is correct.

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

and form a new party if the Kansas-Nebraska bill, then before Congress, was passed. The bill was passed, and March 20 the contemplated meeting was held and an organization, called by A. E. Bovay the Republican party, was formed; this organization did not pretend to be State-wide in character.

June 21, 1854, the "Independent Democrats" of Michigan, in convention at Kalamazoo, endorsed the State tieket nominated February 22 previously. July 6 a grand mass convention, composed of all elements of the anti-slavery sentiment in Michigan, met in a large, shady grove at Jackson, and among other things resolved, "that, in defense of Freedom, we will co-operate and be known as Republicans." The anti- slavery elements of other States followed snit: of Wisconsin at Madison, and of Vermont at Burlington, July 13; of Massachusetts at Woreester July 20. etc. Each of these organized a State party ealled Repub- lican. There was no national organization until in 1856. In 1854 the new party elected a majority of the members of the lower House of Congress that chose N. P. Banks, of Massachusetts. Speaker. Feb- miary 22, 1856, a so-called "People's Convention"- all of whose members were Republicans-met at Pittsburg and prepared the way for the holding of the first national Republican nominating convention, which met at Philadelphia June 17 following and nominated John C. Fremont and Wm. L. Dayton for President and Vice President. (See E. V. Smalley's and also S. M. Allen's Histories of the Republican Party : Stanwood's History of Presidential Elections : Thomason's Political Hist. Wis .. etc. )

TIIE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN MINNESOT.1.

Prior to 1855 all political canvasses in Minnesota Territory had been non-partisan. Democrats, Whigs, pro-slavery, and anti-slavery men, prohibitionists, and personal liberty men, were all to be found on the same tieket. Simple influences controlled; a neigh- bor was voted for in preferenee to a man living at some distance. The only faetions were those of the rival fur companies headed by Riee and Sibley. Per- sonal fitness for the place largely controlled the voter in his selection of a eandidate. There were very few real pro-slavery men in the Territory. but they and the out-and-out abolitionists were about equal in numbers-and in the publie esteem.

An overwhelming majority of the people were op- posed to the further extension of slavery, did not want any more slave States; but at the same time they did not desire the abolition by Congress of slavery in States where it already existed. The for- mer Demoerats, still holding to their old States' rights beliefs, deelared that each State should settle the mestion for itself. If any slaveholding State wanted to abolish the "peculiar institution." let it do so, in heaven's name, and God speed it! Con- gress had not the power over the subjeet. If Con- gress eould abolish slavery in any State, it eonld establish it in another-and the latter idea was not to be entertained for a moment !

THE ABOLITION MEETING OF 1854.

On the 4th of July, 1854, the little flock of aboli- tionists in and about St. Anthony held what they called a "mass meeting" in the school house. The attendance was small, for an Independence Day cele- bration was being held, and the proceedings were so unimportant that not one newspaper in the Territory mentioned them. Rev. Chas. G. Ames, the Unitarian clergyman, Minnesota's Theodore Parker, was the leading spirit of the meeting. He had been a Free Will Baptist ; he was now heterodox. He had been a conservative Whig; he was now an ultra abolition- ist. He made a passionate and even violent speech against slavery and those that had any sort of sym- pathy with it. He claimed that the U. S. Constitu- tion recognized slavery, and for that reason the great American charter "ought to be buried so deep that it ean never be resurrected." He believed with Gar- rison that the Constitution is "a covenant with death and a league agreement with hell." John W. North and other members of the meeting made inflammatory and incendiary speeches, and no doubt they felt mueh better after their fires went out. In the following October a new paper ealled the Minnesota Republiean was established at St. Anthony, with Rev. Ames as its editor. In his salutatory he announced that he was an uncomprising abolitionist, and wanted slavery abolished at onee wherever it existed.

THE REPUBLICAN ORGANIZING CONVENTION.

Pursuant to much previous advertising, the first Republican Territorial Convention in Minnesota was held in St. Anthony, Thursday and Friday, March 29 and 30, 1855, more than a year after the first Mich- igan convention. Wm. R. Marshall presided and James F. Bradley was secretary. It was a mass meet- ing, but only about fifty men attended, ( Editor. Emer- son, of the St. Paul Daily Democrat, says he counted fifty-two, but Smalley says they numbered 200), and not a half dozen of these lived outside of Hennepin and Ramsey Counties.

The meeting was divided into radical and eonserva- tive anti-slavery men. The leading radicals were the fiery preacher, Rev. C. G. Ames, and John W. North, W. D. Babbitt, J. F. Bradley, Geo. E. H. Day-one preaeher. two lawyers, and two business men. The influential conservatives were Chairman Marshall, Geo. A. Nourse, Warren Bristol. Dr. Hezekiah Fleteher, and Rev. S. T. Creighton.

A committee consisting of North, Nourse, Babbitt, Rev. B. F. Hoyt, HI. P. Pratt. Eli Pettijohn, and a Mr. Bigelow, reported resolutions denouncing slavery and the fugitive slave law, but not deelaring in favor of the abolition of either. Thereupon there was a lot of speech-making and heated debates. A resolution deelaring the fugitive slave law wholly unconstitu- tional was defeated, and one pronouneing it "uncon- stitutional in spirit and character, oppressive, unjust, and dangerous to domestie tranquility and deserving repeal," was passed, but by a vote of twenty-five to twenty-two. This was a compromise resolution be-

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

tween the two factions. So spirited had been the debates and so intense the feeling that there was dan- ger that the convention would "break up in a row,"' without crystallizing the sentiment and uniting the forces for freedom. The zealot, Rev. Ames, saw this danger, and to avoid it he accepted the resolution and championed it. He failed, however, to induce very many of the impracticable and unreasoning element to follow.

The stormy convention held until midnight, and then adjourned until the next day when the final ses- sion of three hours was held. The last resolution con- cluded : "Appealing to heaven for the rectitude of our intentions, we this day organize the Republican Party of Minnesota."

THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION OF APRIL 3.

April 3, four days after the Republican Conven- tion, the Democrats-or "Democratic Republicans," as they styled themselves-held a mass meeting at Chambers & Hedderly's hall, Minneapolis. There were 125 members, who were chiefly from Minne- apolis and St. Anthony. Dr. A. E. Ames presided and Charles Hoag was secretary. W. A. Hotchkiss, Sweet W. Case, and F. R. E. Cornell, composing the committee on resolutions, reported on the slavery question : "That while we deprecate slavery agita- tion, either North or South, we do not, in any manner, sympathize with the institution, believing it to be a great moral and public evil; and that we will use all

lawful means to confine it within its present limits." The resolutions, including the one quoted, were passed without dissent. D. M. Hanson and F. R. E. Cornell, two able lawyers, spoke eloquently in their favor.

The resolution on the slavery question adopted by this Democratic meeting became practically the car- dinal principle of the Republican party and the chief feature of its platforms. This was why so many old Free Soil Democrats became Republicans. The fol- lowing year Editor Hotchkiss and his Northwestern Democrat supported Fremont and Dayton and the Republican ticket generally, though Hotchkiss claimed that he was still a Democrat. In his editorial announcing that he would support Fremont he said :

"We are a Democrat in every sense of the word. The Republican platform is the old Democratic policy in extenso. We are a Democrat-'dyed in the wool.' as the saying is; a States' Rights Democrat are we, and not a fillibuster or ruffian. Until the Demo- cratic ship gets back to its proper waters and original purity, we shall say hard things of it."

The first year of their political organization the Re- publicans would have elected their candidate, Win. R. Marshall. as Delegate to Congress over Henry M. Rice, Democrat, had they not put a strong prohibition plank in their platform. The author of this plank and of its incorporation in the platform was Rev. Chas. G. Ames, before mentioned, and who was as zealous a prohibitionist as he was an abolitionist. The vote cast at the election, October 6, was: For Rice, 3,215; for Marshall, 2,434; for David Olmsted, independent Democrat, 1,785.

THE HENNEPIN COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

In March, 1853, the Territorial Legislature incor- porated the Hennepin County Agricultural Society. The prime mover and leading spirit in almost every public enterprise at that day. Col. Stevens, was the prime mover and leading spirit in the organization of this society. He believed it would be a great and val- uable advertisement, not only for the town of Minne- apolis and Hennepin County, but for the Territory and the pioneer farmers. and he infused his ideas into the minds of certain of his prominent fellow-citizens. The charter members of the Hennepin Society were John H. Stevens, Emanuel Case, Joel B. Bassett, Alexander Moore, Warren Bristol, Dr. Hezekiah Fletcher, Dr. A. E. Ames, Philander Prescott, Joseph Dean, and John S. Mann.

The first meeting of the Society was held in what was sometimes termed the courthouse, at St. Anthony, Sept. 7, 1853. There was a large attendance for the time. Dr. Ames presided. Addresses were delivered by John W. North, Isaac Atwater, A. G. Chatfield, Captain Dodge, and others. A committee, consisting of John H. Stevens. Isaac Atwater. J. N. Barber and R. B. Gibson, drew up and presented the constitution and by-laws, which were adopted. The officers elected for the first year were: President, Rev. J. W. Dorr; treasurer, Emanuel Case: secretary, J. H. Canney ; executive committee. John H. Stevens, N. E. Stod- dard, Wm. Chambers. Stephen Hall, and W. W. Getchell.

The Society decided to hold an agricultural fair at Minneapolis, October 18. Farmers were cordially in- vited to exhibit selections from their fields and from their flocks and herds, and the ladies were particu- larly requested to send specimens of their industrial work. The people of the Territory generally were invited to attend.

Stevens, Dr. Ames, and Charles Hoag were ap- pointed to make a careful analysis of the soil of Hennepin County, and to make "a full and candid report" as to its adaptability for general agricul- tural purposes. Dr. Hezekiah Fletcher, R. W. Gib- son, and David Bickford were appointed another committee, "to consider and report upon the best means of destroying all birds and animals that infest and destroy the agricultural productions of this county." (See St. Anthony Express, Sept. 17, 1853.)

At this meeting, pursuant to a resolution offered by N. E. Stoddard, steps were taken to form a Terri- torial agricultural society ; and the "Minnesota Agri- cultural Society" was organized at St. Paul in Jan- uary following, with Governor Gorman as president. Although both the Hennepin and the Minnesota Soci- eties declared for holding fairs in the fall of 1853, none were held. But after careful consideration the circumstances seemed forbidding, and the exhibitions were postponed until the following year. (Stevens, p. 213.)

THE FIRST AGRICULTURAL FAIR IN MINNESOTA.

The second annual meeting of the Hennepin County Agricultural Society was held October 6, 1854. John

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H. Stevens was elected president, Emanuel Case treas- urer, and Joseph H. Canney secretary. After dis- cussion the Society determined to hold a fair at Min- neapolis two weeks later, or October 20. The time was short for advertising and securing exhibits and for making preparations but some of this work had already been done.

The fair was held at the time appointed. It was a complete success, with the additional distinction that it was the first agricultural and horticultural fair held in Minnesota. The site was on the Minneapolis side of the river, on what was subsequently known as Bridge Square. It was opened with somewhat im- posing exercises. Fervent, high-sounding, and fairly eloquent addresses were delivered by Governor Gor- man, Ex-Governor Ramsey, and Ex-Justice Bradley B. Meeker.

In his "Minnesota and Its People" (p. 242), Colo- nel Stevens says that the first fair "was a success in every department." The grain, roots, vegetables, live stock, poultry, dairy exhibits, the mechanical and in- dustrial departments, fine arts, ladies' department, and the miscellaneous articles exhibited were all of such excellence that, the St. Anthony Express de- clared, "they would have done credit to one of the oldest and richest agricultural counties in New York" The number of exhibitors exceeded fifty, and the cash premiums, all of which were paid, amounted in the aggregate to several hundred dollars.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 28

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