Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 5

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 1190

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FOR WHOM WAS THE ST. PETER'S RIVER NAMED ?

The river which is now and has long been known as the Minnesota was originally called by the Sioux Indians "Wat-pa-Minne Sotah," meaning River of Bleary Water. (Wat-pa, river; Minne, Water ; Sotah, bleary.) The Chippewas called it by a name signify- ing the river where the cottonwood trees grow. The early French explorers called it "la Riviere St. Pierre, " or the river St. Peter, and it was commonly called the St. Peter's, which name it bore until in 1852, when Congress declared that thereafter it should be called the Minnesota.

Singularly enough, Father Hennepin does not mention the Minnesota. Doubtless its mouth was con- cealed by an island and trees and he passed up and down the eastern channel of the Mississippi and did not see it. This was Carver's conjecture.

The Sioux called it the river of clouded or bleary water, because a hundred or more years ago it washed some clay deposits above the present site of the vil- lage of Morton, and the dissolved clay clouded or bleared the water. The current long ago receded from the clay banks.

Why did the French call it the St. Pierre or the St. Peter's ? The question, like many another relative to early history, cannot with confidence be definitely answered. It had been named the St. Peter before May 8, 1689, because in his proclamation taking pos- session of the country Captain Nicholas Perrot twice mentions it by that designation. A suggestion that it

was named for the first Christian name (Pierre) of Le Sueur has met with endorsement, from good authorities. But this theory cannot be well estab- lished. It is most probable that Perrot christened the stream before 1689, possibly in 1688, and at that time Le Sueur was in his employ, an obscure person, whom Perrot designates as simply a Mr. Le Sueur, in com- pany with Mr. Le Mire, Mr. Hebert, and Mr. Blein. Not until six years later did Le Sueur become famous and worthy of having a river named for him because he thought he had discovered a copper mine and had built a post on Lake Pepin. In his journal Le Sueur repeatedly mentions the river and always calls it the St. Peter, without a hint that it was named for him- self. He well knew whether or not it was so called, for he was at Fort Antoine when the name was given. Penicaut also mentions the St. Peter frequently, but never intimates that it was named for his superior, which he most probably would have done had this been the fact. No early chronicles even suggest that it was named for Le Sueur and it is a distinction not given him by any biographer. The fact that his name was Pierre simply, and not Saint Pierre, is also an objection to the claim made for him, but which he never made for himself, that the stream was called in his honor. Ilis name has been honored in Minnesota, however, by calling one of the best counties and a flourishing town in the State for him.

It has also been suggested that the river was named for Capt. Jacques Le Gardeur St. Pierre, at one time commander of Fort Beauharnois, on Lake Pepin, but he did not come to the country for nearly fifty years after the St. Peter was christened and well known by its name.

It will probably never be certainly known for whom the St. Peter was named. No theory vet brought forward has been conclusively demonstrated. One guess is as good as another until the truth is shown. Since it could not have been named for either of the individuals suggested, or for any other early pioneer and explorer, it may be that it was called for Saint Peter himself, the "Prince of the Apostles." It may have first been visited by Perrot's men on June 29, or St. Peter's day,* of some year between 1683 and 1689; if so, the appropriate designation would at once be perceived and insisted upon by Rev. Father Marest, the devout Jesuit chaplain of Perrot's party. Or for some other reason it may have been called in honor of the great apostle, to whom were delivered "the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven," and this seems to be the most probable solution of the question.

THE ST. CROIX NAMED FOR AN UNFORTUNATE FRENCHMAN.

The origin of the modern name of the St. Croix river has been well enough determined. Father Hen- nepin says the Indians called it Tomb river ("Watpa ohknah hknah-kah-pe") "because the Issati (or, Na-

* The shallops referred to were probably flat boats propelled by both oars and sails; afterwards they were called Mackinaw boats.

* Some chroniclers say that Saints Peter and Paul hoth suffered martyrdom at Rome on the same day; others allege that St. Paul suffered a year after St. Peter. In the Roman Calendar St. Peter's Day is June 29 and St. Paul's June 30.

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

douessioux) left there the body of one of their war- riors, killed by the bite of a rattlesnake." The father says he eovered the grave or tomb with a blanket, and that this aet of respect gained him great admiration and impelled the savages to give him the great banquet he deseribes which was given on the occasion of his and Du Luth's visit to the big village at Mille Laes.

It is reasonably certain that thic St. Croix bears the family name of one of Perrot's Frenchmen, who was drowned at the mouth of the stream by the upset- ting of his boat, some time prior to 1689, when Perrot issued his proclamation in which the river is named. In his Journal M. Le Sucur says that on the 16th day of September, 1700, he "left on the east side of the Mississippi a river called St. Croix, because a French- man of that name was wreeked at its mouth." M. Penieaut, heretofore mentioned, in his deseription of the country in 1700, and his aceount of Le Sueur's expedition, states (sec quotation on a preecding page) that at the river St. Croix "there is a eross sct at its mouth." It is probable that this cross was over the grave of the unfortunate voyageur, or at least marked the locality where he was drowned. Carver says in his Journal that the river "is said to be named for a Frenehman that was drowned here."

TWO ALLEGED VERY EARLY VOYAGES TO AND PAST ST. ANTHONY FALLS-THE ALLEGATIONS NOT VERIFIED.

In an extract from his "Memoires," (which is printed on pp. 171-72 of Vol. 6 of the Margry Papers, in French) M. Le Sueur tells of a canoe voyage made by himself on the upper Mississippi sometime about the year 1690, or before 1700. He claims that he went more than a hundred leagues above the Falls of St. Anthony. ("J'ai desja dit que j'avois monte plus de 100 leanes au-dessus du Sault St. Antoine.") Ile fur- ther says that the Sioux with whom he went up as- sured him when he had reached the end of his upward trip there were yet more than ten days' jour- ney to the sources of the Mississippi, of which sourecs the Indians said there were very many.

It is to be regretted that M. Le Sueur did not give fuller and better details of his alleged voyage, and that what he wrote was not intended solely to refute the statements of a certain Mathieu Sagean, with whom he seems to have had a dispute. He does not say why he went up the river or give us any exaet dates or en- lightening details. His aceount is not eonclusive or convincing-and may as well be disbelieved.

In "Minnesota ; Three Centuries" (Vol. 1, pp. 253-4) Warren Upham suggests that Le Sueur and a M. de Charleville made the voyage above St. Anthony's Falls together. The authority for M. de Charleville's connection is a statement made by M. Le Page Du Pratz in his "History of Louisiana," originally pub- lished by him in French in 1757. In an English trans- lation printed by Becket, London, 1774, the historian (ehap. 1 of Book 2) is made to say :

"M. de Charleville, a Canadian, and a relation of M. de Bienville, Commandant General of this Colony, told me that, at the time of the settlement of the

French, euriosity alone had led him to go up this river [the Mississippi] to its sourees; that for this end he fitted out a canoe, made of the bark of a bireh tree, in order to be more portable in ease of need. And that having thus set out, with two Canadians and two Indians, with goods, ammunition, and provisions, he went up the river 300 leagues to the north above the Illinois; that there he found the fall ealled St. An- thony's. This fall is a flat roek which traverses the river and gives it only between eight and ten feet fall. He ascended to the sources 100 leagues above the fall."

That will be about all for the story of M. de Charle- ville. It is void for improbability and uneertainty. The date of his setting out is given as "at the time of the settlement of the French." (meaning probably Perrot's settlement ) which might be any time between 1683 and 1695. That he would go to all the trouble and expense of fitting out and taking part in an expe- dition up the river 1,200 miles (or 400 leagues) above the Illinois, merely out of "curiosity alone," is at least strange. That he should see and pass St. An- thony's Falls and pronounee them " a flat rock" which was "only between cight and ten feet fall" is a pal- pable mis-statement. He says he went 100 leagues (or 300 miles) above St. Anthony's Falls and learned from the Indians that the sources of the Mississippi were still hundreds of miles to the north. He esti- mated the entire length of the Mississippi at 4,800 miles or 1.600 leagues. Nowhere in Du Pratz's ac- eount of Charleville is the name of Le Sueur men- tioned, and nowhere in the extract from Le Suenr's "Memoires" relating to his voyages is the name of Charleville mentioned. Warren Upham says that both Le Sueur and Charleville were relatives of the brothers Iberville and Bienville, who were at different periods Governors of the Louisiana Territory. In that ease, it is again singular that if they were in company when they made the voyage to and above St. Anthony's Falls, neither of them in his aecount mentions the other.

Furthermore there is no corroboration extant of the statements of Le Sueur and Charleville as to their several expeditions 300 miles up the Mississippi above St. Anthony's Falls. No other contemporary writer, whether historian or reeorder, endorses their asser- tions or even refers to them. The "sourees" of the Mississippi are on a direct line about 160 miles north- . west of the Falls; by the meanderings of the river and through the lakes, the distance is much greater; but if Le Sueur, as he says, went up the stream for more than 300 miles above Minneapolis, it is prepos- terons that there were yet "more than ten days' journey," or 250 miles, to Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi. Le Sueur, it seems, was bent on making, or at least claiming, a reeord. In the eontro- versy over which was the greater explorer, Le Sueur said : "I went to the Falls of St. Anthony." Sagean replied : "That's nothing; I went 50 leagues above those Falls." Le Sueur rejoined : "That's nothing ; I went 100 leagues above them." As to Charleville he is not mentioned in American history elsewhere than in Du Pratz's "Deseription." His statement to Du

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Pratz is entirely unsupported, and not worthy of belief.

EXPEDITION OF VERENDRYE AND HIS FOUR SONS.

In 1731, Pierre Gautier Varennes, more commonly known as the Sieur de la Verendrye, made, in company with his four sons and a nephew, an extended expedi- tion west of the western extremity of Lake Superior. The expedition was commissioned and equipped by the Canadian government and its main object was the discovery of an easy route across the country to the Pacific Ocean. One of Verendrye's sons was a priest. The expedition built Fort St. Pierre, at the mouth of Rainy Lake; Fort St. Charles, on the Lake of the Woods, and other forts and trading posts on Lake Winnipeg and the Assineboinc and Saskatchewan, in Manitoba.

The expedition did not come ncar St. Anthony's Falls or the present site of Minneapolis. It went westward and southwestward to "the great shining mountains," which may have been the Black Hills. On the return at the crossing of the Missouri, where the city of Pierre now stands, the commander buricd an inscribed leaden plate, which was resurrected by a school girl in February, 1913.

FROM 1727 TO 1767.

In 1727 a French post, called Fort St. Beauharnois, was built and a Catholic Mission, called the Mission of St. Michael the Archangel, established on the Min-

nesota shore of Lake Pepin, near the present site of Frontenac. The first commander of the post was the Sieur Perriere, and the commander in 1735 was Capt. LeGardeur St. Pierre, before mentioned. The mission was in charge of the Jesuit Fathers Michel Guignas and Nicholas de Gonnor. It is not certain that the fathers built a separate mission house, and therefore the first church building in Minnesota. The post had four large buildings and it is probable that a room in one of these was used as a chapel. At all events there is no special mention in the early records that a sepa- rate mission honse was erected, though some good authorities think there was.

In May, 1737, Capt. St. Pierre burned Fort Beau- harnois and departed down the Mississippi, on account of the hostile conduct and menaces of the wild Indians of the surrounding country. The Fort was rebuilt in 1750 and for the next two years was under the com- mand of Pierre Paul Marin. (See Vol. I Minn. in Three Cents., p. 276.)

Before further explorations and establishments were made by the French in the country of the North- ern Mississippi the old "French and Indian War" between the English Colonies in North America and the French of Canada broke out. Meanwhile the few and scant records of that period make no mention of the Falls of St. Anthony or the country about them. In 1763, by the treaty of Versailles, all the territory now comprised within the present limits of Wisconsin and of Minnesota east of the Mississippi was ceded by France to Great Britain, and all French establishments in this quarter were permanently abandoned, Fort Beauharnois being the last of these.

CHAPTER III.

THE FIRST AMERICAN VISITS AND EXPLORATIONS.

VISIT OF CAPTAIN JONATHAN CARVER IN 1766- THE FIRST NATIVE-BORN CAUCASIAN-AMERICAN TO SEE AND WRITE ABOUT ST. ANTHONY'S FALLS-HIS DESCRIPTION OF THEM AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY-GOES UP TO RUM RIVER AND ASCENDS THE MINNESOTA-CLAIMS THAT HE SPENT SEVERAL MONTHS WITH THE SIOUX-HIS ENTIRE ACCOUNT A MIXTURE OF TRUTH AND FALSITY-BUT ALTOGETHER HE DID MORE GOOD THAN HARM TO THE MINNE- SOTA COUNTRY-LIEUT. Z. M. PIKE'S EXPEDITION AND INVESTIGATIONS-HE PROCLAIMS THE AUTHORITY OF THE UNITED STATES, TREATS WITH THE INDIANS FOR THE SITE OF FORT SNELLING AND MINNEAPOLIS, ETC.

JONATHAN CARVER, THE FIRST ENGLISH VISITOR.

The first English-speaking explorer and English subject to visit St. Anthony of Padua's Falls was Capt. Jonathan Carver, who first saw them in November, 1766. Capt. Carver was born at Stillwater, or Can- terbury, in the then Province of Connecticut, in 1732, the year of the birth of George Washington. He was captain of a company of Colonial troops in the French War and was present at the massacre of the' English troops at Fort William Henry, in northeastern New York, in 1757, narrowly escaping with his life.

In 1763, as soon as peace had been concluded, Capt. Carver conceived the idea that it would be greatly to his credit and advantage, and to the interests of his sovereign and government, if he should explore at least a portion of the territory in the Northwest which had been recently ceded by France to Great Britain. That territory was very little known to Englishmen, and the Captain believed that if he were the first to explore it, and then report upon it, his King would suitably reward him, and his countrymen highly honor him.

Capt. Carver's plan was meditated very early, but its execution was greatly delayed. Not until in June, 1766, did he set out from Boston for the country about the Falls of St. Anthony, then fairly well known through French explorers and adventurers, although no Englishman had yet visited it. He proceeded to Mackinac, or Mackinaw, then the most distant British post. Following the track of Marquette and Joliet and of Du Luth and other early voyageurs, he passed up Green Bay, ascended the Fox River, made the portage across to the Wisconsin and descending that stream entered the Mississippi October 15. His de- clared destination after leaving the Falls of St. An- thony was the so-called "River of the West," or Ore- gon, which was supposed to enter the Pacific Ocean at the fictitious or mythical "Straits of Annian."

At Prairie du Chien (which he calls "La Prairie le Chien") some traders that had accompanied him from Mackinac left him. He then bought a canoe and some supplies, and "with two servants, one a French Canadian and the other a Mohawk of Canada," started up the Mississippi October 19.

Capt. Carver did not return to Boston until in 1768, · having been absent on his expedition two years and five

months. The following year he went to England, wrote from his notes a fairly good account of his jour- neyings, including much narrative and descriptive matter. and published it in book form. He died Jan. 31, 1780, at the age of 48, and after his death several editions of his book were printed, with some new mat- ter, by his friend Dr. John Coakley Lettsom. He made repeated efforts to obtain a suitable reward for his pub- lic services from the British government, but failed in every instance to obtain anything beyond "an indem- nification for certain expenses." His book had a lim- ited sale and he made little profit from its publication.

He became very poor. In 1779 he was clerk in a London lottery office at a few shillings per weck. He died in extreme poverty. Dr. Lettsom says: "After rendering at the expence of fortune and health and the risk of life many important services to his country, he perished from absolute want in the first city of the world." His death was caused by dysentery occa- sioned by actual want of food.

With his two men Capt. Carver paddled slowly up the Mississippi. About the 12th of November (1766) he came to the present site of St. Paul and in what is now Dayton's Bluff visited the noted cavern afterward called Carver's Cave. He also noted that the crest of the bluff was even then a prominent burial place or cemetery of the Naudowessie, or Sioux, Indians.

SEES AND DESCRIBES THE GREAT FALLS.

November 17 he visited the Falls of St. Anthony. In a very early edition of his book, ("'Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America," London, 1778,) he describes his visit, with a mention of prominent features of the surrounding country. To quote :

"Ten [?] miles below the Falls of St. Anthony the River St. Pierre, called by the natives the Wadda- pawmenesotor [Wat-pa-Minne Sotah] falls into the Mississippi from the west. It is not mentioned by Father Hennepin, although a large fair river; this omission, I conclude must have proceeded from a small island [Pike's ?] by which the sight of it is intercepted. I should not have discovered the river myself had I not taken a view when I was searching for it from the high lands opposite, [probably Pilot Knob] which rise to a great height. Nearly over against this river I

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

was obliged to leave my canoe, on aeeount of the ice, and travel by land to the Falls of St. Anthony, where 1 arrived on the 17th of November. The Mississippi from the St. Pierre to this place is rather more rapid than I had hitherto found it, and without islands of any consideration."

No one that never visited this portion of the Missis- sippi could have described it so accurately. Capt. Carver had no printed description to follow; he must have seen the country himself. From where he left his canoe he was accompanied to the Falls by a young Winnebago Indian, whom Carver ealls "a prinee,"' and who had come into the country on a visit to the Sioux. The Winnebago left his wife and children in the eare of Capt. Carver's Mohawk, while he, the cap- tain, and the French Canadian journeyed to the Falls.

Carver says they could hear the roaring of the great cataraet for several miles before reaching it. He says he was "greatly pleased and surprised" when he ap- proached this astonishing work of nature. The Win- nebago was profoundly and peculiarly impressed. Carver says :

"The prinee had no sooner gained the point that overlooks this wonderful eascade than he began with an audible voice to address the Great Spirit, one of whose places of residence he imagined this to be. He told Him that he had come a long way to pay his adoration to HIim, and now would make him the best offerings in his power. He accordingly first threw his pipe into the stream, then the roll that contained his tobacco, the bracelets he wore on his arms and wrists, an ornament composed of beads and wires that was about his neck, -in short he presented to his god every part of his dress that was valuable, at last giving the ear-rings from his ears. During this distribution he frequently smote his breast with great violence, threw his arms about, and seemed much agitated. All the while he continued his prayers and adorations, petitioning the Great Spirit for our protection on our travels."

Carver says that instead of ridiculing the pagan Indian and his heathenish devotions, "as I observed my Roman Catholic servant did." he looked on the former with great respect and believed that his offer- ings and prayers "were as aeeeptable to the Universal Parent of Mankind as if they had been made with greater pomp or in a eonseerated place." The Con- nectieut captain's mention of St. Anthony Falls is most interesting. In part he writes :

"The Falls of St. Anthony received their name from Father Louis Hennepin, a French missionary, who traveled into these parts about the year 1680, and was the first European ever seen by the natives .* This amazing body of waters, which are above 250 vards over, form a most pleasing eataract; they fall per- pendieularly about 30 feet, and the rapids below. in the spaee of 300 yards more, render the descent con- siderably greater; so that when viewed at a distance they appear to be much higher than they really are. The above-mentioned traveller has laid them down at above 60 feet. But he has made a greater error in cal-

culating the height of the Falls of Niagara, which he asserts to be 600 feet, whereas, from latter observa- tions, aceurately made, it is well known that it does not exceed 140 feet .* But the good father, I fear, too often had no other foundation for his aeeounts than report, or at best a slight inspection."

Of what we now eall Nieollet Island Capt. Carver interestingly says :

"In the middle of the Falls stands a small island, about 40 feet broad and somewhat [!] longer, on which grow a few seragged hemlock [?] and spruce trees; and about half way between this island and the eastern shore is a rock, lying at the very edge of the Fall, in an oblique position, that appeared to be about five or six feet broad and 30 or 40 feet long. These Falls vary much from all the others I have seen, as you may ap- proaeh close to them without finding the least obstruc- tion from any intervening hill or preeipiee."

Of the island afterwards known as Chcever's Island the following deseription is given :

"At a little distance below the Falls stands a small island, of about an aere and a half, on which grow a great number of oak trees, every branch of which that was able to support the weight was full of eagles' nests. The reason that this kind of birds resort in sueh mmm- bers to this spot is that they are here secure from the attacks of either man or beast, their retreat being guarded by the rapids, which the Indians never attempt to pass. Another reason is that they find a constant supply of food for themselves and their young from the animals and fish which are dashed to pieees by the Falls and driven on the adjacent shores."

APPEARANCE OF THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY.

Describing the country surrounding the Falls the explorer is fairly enthusiastic in their praise. thus :

"The country around them is extremely beautiful. It is not an uninterrupted plain where the eye finds no relief, but is composed of many gentle ascents, which in the summer are covered with the finest verdure and interspersed with little groves that give a pleasing variety to the prospeet. On the whole, when the Falls are included, which may be seen at the distance of four miles, a more pleasing and pieturesque view eannot, I believe, be found through- out the universe. I could have wished that I had hap- pened to enjoy this glorious sight at a more seasonable time of the year, whilst the trees and hilloeks were elad in nature's gayest livery, as this must have greatly added to the pleasure I received ; however. even then, it exceeded my warmest expectations. I have endeavored to give the reader as just an idea of this enchanting spot as possible in the plan annexed, [alluding to an engraving of the Falls] but all de- scription, whether of pencil or pen, must fall infinitely short of the original."

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 5

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