USA > Minnesota > Concise history of the state of Minnesota > Part 10
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The anniversary of our National Independence was celebrated in a becoming manner at the capital. The place selected for the address, was a grove that stood on the sites of the City Hall and the Baldwin School build- ing, and the late Franklin Steele was the marshal of the day.
On the seventh of July, a proclamation was issued, dividing the territory into seven council districts, and ordering an election to be held on the first day of Au- gust, for one delegate to represent the people in the House of Representatives of the United States, for nine coun- cillors and eighteen representatives, to constitute the Legislative Assembly of Minnesota.
In this month, the Hon. H. M. Rice dispatched a boat laden with Indian goods from the Falls of St. Anthony to Crow Wing, which was towed by horses after the manner of a canal boat.
During this summer, the first Presbyterian clergyman of Saint Paul erected a two story edifice of brick, for his residence, the first of that material in Minnesota.
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EARLY NEWSPAPERS.
It stood on Fourth street, opposite the Metropolitan, and in 1SS6, was pulled down to make room for other improvements.
The election on the first of August, passed off with little excitement, Hon. H. H. Sibley being elected dele- gate to Congress without opposition. David Lambert, a candidate for the Legislature, on what might be termed the old settler's ticket, was defeated in St. Paul, by James M. Boal. The latter, on the night of the elec- tion, was honored with a ride through town on an axle and fore-wheels of an old wagon, which was drawn by his admiring but somewhat undisciplined friends.
J. L. Taylor having declined the office of United States marshal, A. M. Mitchell, of Ohio, a graduate of West Point, and Colonel of a regiment of Ohio volun- teers in the Mexican war, was appointed and arrived at the capital early in August.
There were three papers published in the territory soon after its organization. The first was the Pioneer, issued on April twenty-eighth, 1849, under most dis- couraging circumstances. It was at first the intention of the witty and talented editor to have called his paper "The Epistle of St. Paul." About the same time there was issued in Cincinnati, under the auspices of the late Dr. A. Randall, of California, the first number of the Register. The second number of the paper was printed at St. Paul, in July, and the office was on St. Anthony, between Washington and Market Streets. About the first of June, James Hughes, afterward of Hudson, Wisconsin, arrived with a press and materials, and es- tablished the Minnesota Chronicle. After an existence of a few weeks two papers were discontinued, and, in
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
their place was issued the "Chronicle and Register," edited by Nathaiel McLean and John P. Owens.
The first courts, pursuant to proclamation of the Gov- ernor, were held in the month of August. At Stillwater, the court was organized on the thirteenth of the month, Judge Goodrich presiding and Judge Cooper, by court- esy, sitting on the bench. On the twentieth, the second judicial district held a court. The room used was the old government mill at Minneapolis. The presiding judge was B. B. Meeker; the foreman of the grand jury, Franklin Steele. On the last Monday of the month, the court for the third judicial district was organized in the large stone warehouse of the fur company at Mendota. The presiding judge was David Cooper. Governor Ramsey sat on the right and Judge Goodrich on the left. Hon. H. H. Sibley was the foreman of the grand jury. As some of the jurors could not speak the English lan- guage, W. H. Forbes acted as interpreter. The charge of Judge Cooper was lucid, scholarly and dignified. At the request of the grand jury it was afterwards published.
On Monday, the third of September, the first Legisla- tive Assembly convened in the "Central House," in Saint Paul, a building at the corner of Minnesota and Bench streets, facing the Mississippi river, which an- swered the double purpose of capitol and hotel. On the first floor of the main building was the Secretary's office and Representative chamber, and in the second story was the library and Council chamber. As the flag was run up the staff in front of the house, a number of Indians sat on a rocky bluff in the vicinity, and gazed at what to them was a novel and perhaps saddening scene. The Legislature elected the following per- manent officers: David Olmsted, President of Coun-
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FIRST TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE.
cil; Joseph R. Brown, Secretary; H. A. Lambert, Assistant. In the House of Representatives, Joseph W. Furber was elected Speaker, W. D. Phillips, Clerk; L. B. Wait, Assistant.
On Tuesday afternoon, both houses assembled in the dining hall of the hotel, and after prayer was offered by Rev. E. D. Neill, Governor Ramsey delivered his mess- age. The message was ably written, and its perusal afforded satisfaction at home and abroad.
The first session of the Legislature adjourned on the first of November. Among other proceedings of inter- est was the creation of the following counties: Itasca, Wapashaw, Dahkotah, Wahnahtah, Mahkahto. Pembina, Washington, Ramsey and Benton. The three latter counties comprised the country that up to that time had been ceded by the Indians on the east side of the Mis- sissippi. Stillwater was declared the county seat of Washington, Saint Paul of Ramsey, and "the seat of justice of the county of Benton was to be within one- quarter of a mile of a point on the east side of the Mis- sissippi, directly opposite the mouth of Sauk River."
By the active exertions of the Secretary of the Terri- tory, C. K. Smith, Esq., the Historical Society of Min- nesota was incorporateil at the first session of the Legis- lature. The opening annual address was delivered on the first of January, 1850, in the then Methodist Church, by the Rev. Edward D. Neill.
At this early period the Minnesota Pioneer issued a Carrier's New Years Address, which was an amusing dog- gerel. The reference to the future greatness and igno- ble origin of the capital of Minnesota was as follows:
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
The cities on this river must be three,
Two that are built and one that is to be. One is the mart of all the tropics yield, The cane, the orange, and the cotton-field, And sends her ships abroad and boasts Her trade extended to a thousand coasts; The other, central for the temperate zone, Garners the stores that on the plains are grown, A place where steamboats from all quarters range,
To meet and speculate, as 'twere on change. The third will be, where rivers confluent flow,
From the wide spreading north through plains of snow; The mart of all that boundless forests give,
To make mankind more comfortably live, The land of manufacturing industry, The worship of the nation it shall be. Propelled by this wide stream, you'll see A thousand factories at Saint Anthony: And the Saint Croix a hundred mills shall drive,
And all its smiling villages shall thrive; But then my town-remember that high bench, With cabins scattered over it, of French?
A man named Henry Jackson's living there, Also a man-why every one knows L. Robair, Below Fort Snelling, seven miles or so,
And three above the village of Old Crow?
Pig's Eye? Yes, Pig's Eye! That's the spot! A very funny name, is't not?
Pig's Eye's the spot to plant my city on,
To be remembered by when I am gone. Pig's Eye, converted thou shalt be, like Saul: Thy name henceforth shall be Saint Paul.
Governor Ramsey, and Hon. H. H. Sibley, the delegate to Congress, devised at Washington this winter, the ter- ritorial seal. The design was Falls of St. Anthony in the distance. An immigrant ploughing the land on the bor- ders of the Indian country, full of hope, and looking forward to the possession of the hunting grounds be-
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FIRST SEAL OF MINNESOTA.
yond. An Indian, amazed at the sight of the white man ploughing and fleeing on horseback toward the setting sun.
The motto of the Earl of Dunraven, "Que sursum volo videre," (I wish to see what is above ) was most ap- propriately selected by Mr. Sibley, but by the blunder of an engraver it appeared on the territorial seal, "Quo sursum velo videre," which no scholar could translate. At length was substituted, "L' Etoile du Nord," "Star of the North," while the device of the setting sun remain- ed, and this is objectionable, as the State of Maine had already placed the North Star on her escutcheon, with the motto "Dirigo," "I guide." Perhaps some future legislature may direct the first motto to be restored and correctly engraved.
In the month of April there was a renewal of hostili- ties between the Dakotahs and Ojibways, on lands that had been ceded to the United States. A war prophet at Red Wing dreamed that he ought to raise a war party. Announcing the fact, a number expressed their willing- ness to go on such an expedition. Several from the Ka- posia village also joined the party, under the leadership of a worthless Indian, who had been confined in the guard-house at Fort Snelling the year previous, for scalping his wife.
Passing up the valley of the St. Croix, a few miles above Stillwater the party discovered on the snow the marks of a keg and footprints. These told them that a man and woman of the Ojibways had been to some whis- ky dealer's, and were returning. Following their trail, they found on Apple river, about twenty miles from Stillwater, a band of Ojibways encamped in one lodge. Waiting until daybreak of Wednesday, April the second,
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
the Dakotalis commenced firing on the unsuspecting in- mates, some of whom were drinking from the contents of the keg. The camp was composed of fifteen, and all were murdered and scalped, with the exception of a lad, who was made a captive.
On Thursday, the victors came to Stillwater, and danced the scalp dance around the captive boy, in the heat of excitement, striking him in the face with the scarcely cold and bloody scalps of his relatives. The child was then taken to Kaposia, and adopted by the chief. Governor Ramsey immediately took measures to send the boy to his friends. At a conference held at the Governor's mansion, the boy was delivered up, and, on being led out to the kitchen by a little son of the Governor, since deceased, to receive refreshments, he cried bitterly, seemingly more alarmed at being left with the whites than he had been while a captive at Kaposia.
. From the first of April, the waters of the Mississippi began to rise, and on the thirteenth, the lower floor of the warehouse, then occupied by William Constans, at the foot of Jackson street, St. Paul, was submerged. Taking advantage of the freshet, the steamboat Anthony Wayne, for a purse of two hundred dollars, ventured through the swift current above Fort Snelling, and reached the Falls of St. Anthony. The boat left the fort after dinner, with Governor Ramsey and other guests, also the band of the Sixth Regiment on board, and reached the falls between three and four o'clock in the afternoon. The whole town, men, women and chil- dren lined the shore as the boat approached, and wel- comed this first arrival, with shouts and waving hand- kerchiefs.
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AN INDIAN FIGHT.
On the afternoon of May fifteenth, there might have been seen, hurrying through the streets of Saint Paul, a number of naked and painted braves of the Kaposia band of Dakotahs, ornamented with all the attire of war, and panting for the scalps of their enemies. A few hours before, the warlike head chief of the Ojibways, young Hole-in-the-Day, having secreted his canoe in the retired gorge which leads to the cave in the upper suburbs, with two or three associates had crossed the river, and, almost in sight of the citizens of the town, had attacked a small party of Dakotahs, and murdered and scalped one man. On receipt of the news, Governor Ramsey granted a parole to the thirteen Dakotahs con- fined in Fort Snelling, for the Apple River massacre.
On the morning of the sixteenth of May, the first Protestant church edifice completed in the white settle- ments, a small frame building, built for the Presbyterian church at Saint Paul, was destroyed by fire, it being the first conflagration that had occurred since the organiza- tion of the territory.
The summer of 1850 was the commencement of the navigation of the Minnesota river by steamboats. With the exception of a steamer that made a pleasure excur- sion as far as Shokpay, in 1841, no large vessels had ever disturbed the waters of this stream. In June, the "Anthony Wayne," which a few weeks before had as- cended to the Falls of St. Anthony, made a trip. On the eighteenth of July she made a second trip, going almost to Mahkahto. The "Nominee" also navigated the stream for some distance.
On the twenty-second of July the officers of the "Yankee," taking advantage of the high water, deter-
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
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mined to navigate the stream as far as possible. The boat ascended to near the Cottonwood river.
As the time for the general election in September ap- proached, considerable excitement was manifested. As there were no political issues before the people, parties were formed based on personal preferences. Among
those nominated for delegate to Congress, by various meetings, were H. H. Sibley, the former delegate to Congress, David Olmsted, at that time engaged in the Indian trade, and A. M. Mitchell, the United States marshal. Mr. Olmsted withdrew his name before elec- tion day, and the contest was between those interested in Sibley and Mitchell. The friends of each betrayed the greatest zeal, and neither pains nor money were spared to insure success. Mr. Sibley was elected by a small majority. For the first time in the territory, sol- diers at the garrison voted at this election, and there was considerable discussion as to the propriety of such a course.
Miss Fredrika Bremer, the well known Swedish novel- ist, visited Minnesota in the month of October, and was the guest of Governor Ramsey. Her description of Saint Paul, as it was in 1850, in her published letters, is in these words:
"Scarcely had we touched the shore when the gover- nor of Minnesota and his pretty young wife came on board and invited me to take up my quarters at their house. And there I am now, happy with these kind people, and with them I make excursions into the neigh- borhood. The town is one of the youngest infants of the great West, scarcely eighteen months old; and yet it has in a short time increased to a population of two thous- and persons, and in a very few years it will certainly be
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FREDRIKA BREMER DESCRIBES ST. PAUL.
possessed of twenty-two thousand, for its situation is as remarkable for its beauty and healthiness, as it is ad- vantageous for trade.
"As yet, however, the town is but in its infancy, and people manage with such dwellings as they can get. The drawing-room at Governor Ramsey's house is also his office, and Indians and workpeople, and ladies and gen- tlemen, are all alike admitted. In the mean time, Mr. Ramsey is building a handsome, spacious house upon a hill, a little out of the city [Exchange and Walnut streets ] with beautiful trees around it. If I were to live on the Mississippi, I would live here. It is a hilly re- gion, and on all sides extend beautiful and varying land- scapes.
"The city is thronged with Indians. The men, for the most part, go about grandly ornamented, with naked hatchets, the shafts of which serve them as pipes. They paint themselves so utterly without any taste that itis incredible. Here comes an Indian who has painted a great red spot in the middle of his nose; here another who has painted the whole of his forehead in lines of black and yellow; there a third with coal black rings round his eyes. The women are less painted, * * with better taste than the men, generally with merely one deep red little spot in the middle of the cheek, and the parting of the hair on the forehead is dyed purple. There goes an Indian with his proud step, bearing aloft his plumed head. He carries only his pipe, and when he is on a journey, perhaps a long staff in his hand. After him, with bowed head and stooping shoulders, fol- lows his wife, bending under the burden which she bears. Above the burden peeps forth a little round- faced child, with beautiful dark eyes."
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
During November, the Dakotah Tawaxitku Kin, or the Dakotah Friend, a monthly paper, was commenced, one- half in the Dakotah and one-half in the English lan- guage. Its editor was the Rev. Gideon H. Pond, a Presbyterian missionary, and its place of publication at St. Paul. It was published for nearly two years, and, though it failed to attract the attention of the Indian mind, it conveyed to the English reader much correct information in relation to the habits, the belief, and su- perstitions, of the Dakotahs
On the tenth of December, a new paper, owned and edited by Daniel A. Robertson, late United States mar- shal, of Ohio, and called the Minnesota Democrat, made its appearance.
During the summer there had been changes in the editorial supervision of the "Chronicle and Register." For a brief period it was edited by L. A. Babcock, Esq., who was succeeded by W. G. Le Duc.
About the time of the issuing of the Democrat, C. J. Henniss, formerly reporter for the United States Ga- zette, Philadelphia, became the editor of the Chronicle.
The first proclamation for a thanksgiving day was issued in 1850 by the governor, and the twenty-sixth of December was the time appointed which was generally observed.
On Wednesday, January first, 1851, the second Legis- lative Assembly assembled in a three-story brick build- ing, since destroyed by fire, that stood on Third street, between Washington and Franklin. D. B. Loomis was chosen Speaker of the Council, and M. E. Ames, Speaker of the House. This assembly was char- acterized by more bitterness of feeling than any that has since convened. The preceding delegate election
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TREATIES OF 1851.
had been based on personal preferences, and cliques and factions manifested themselves at an early period of the session.
The locating of the penitentiary at Stillwater, and the capitol building at St. Paul gave some dissatisfaction. By the efforts of J. W. North, Esq., a bill creating the University of Minnesota at or near the Falls of St. An- thony, was passed and signed by the Governor. This institution, by the State Constitution, is now the State University.
During the session of this Legislature, the publication of the "Chronicle and Register" ceased.
The first paper published in Minnesota, beyond the capital, was the St. Anthony Express, which made its appearance during the last week of April or May.
The most important event of the year 1S51 was the treaty with the Dakotahs, by which the west side of the Mississippi and the valley of the Minnesota River were opened to the hardy immigrant. The commissioners on the part of the United States were Luke Lea, Commis- sioner of Indian Affairs, and Governor Ramsey. The place of meeting for the upper bands was Traverse des Sioux. The commission arrived there on the last of June, but were obliged to wait many days for the assem- bling of the various bands of Dakotahs.
On the eighteenth of July, all those expected having arrived, the Sissetoans and Wahpaytoan Dakotahs assem- bled in grand council with the United States commis- sioners. After the usual feastings and speeches, a treaty was concluded on Wednesday, July twenty-third. The pipe having been smoked by the commissioners Lea and Ramsey, it was passed to the chiefs. The paper containing the treaty was then read in English and trans-
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
lated into the Dakotah by the Rev. S. R. Riggs, Presby- terian Missionary among this people. This finished, the chiefs came up to the secretary's table and touched the pen; the white men present then witnessed the docu- ment, and nothing remained but the ratification of the United States Senate to open that vast country for the residence of the hardy immigrant.
During the first week in August, a treaty was also concluded beneath an oak bower, on Pilot Knob, Men- dota, with the M'dewakantonwan and Wahpaykootay bands of Dakotahs. About sixty of the chiefs and prin- cipal men touched the pen, and Little Crow, who had been in the mission school at Lac qui Parle, signed his own name. Before they separated, Col. Lea and Gover- nor Ramsey gave them a few words of advice on the various subjects connected with their future well-being, but particularly on the subject of education and temper- ance. The treaty was interpreted to them by Rev. G. H. Pond, a gentleman who was conceded to be a most correct speaker of the Dakotah tongue.
The day after the treaty these lower bands received thirty thousand dollars, which, by the treaty of 1837, was set apart for education; but, by the misrepresen- tation of interested half-breeds, the Indians were made to believe that it ought to be given to them to be em- ployed as they pleased.
The next week, with their sacks filled with money, they thronged the streets of St. Paul, purchasing what- ever pleased their fancy.
On the seventeenth of September, a new paper was commenced in St. Paul, under the auspices of the "Whigs," and John P. Owens became editor, which re- lation he sustained until the fall of 1857.
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DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION.
The election for members of the legislature and coun- ty officers occured on the fourteenth of October; and, for the first time, a regular Democratic ticket was placed before the people. The parties called themselves Dem- ocratic and Anti-organization, or Coalition.
In the month of November Jerome Fuller arrived, and took the place of Judge Goodrich as Chief Justice of Minnesota, who was removed; and about the same time Alexander Wilkin was appointed secretary of the terri- tory in place of C. K. Smith.
The eighteenth of December, pursuant to proclama- tion, was observed as a day of Thanksgiving.
The third Legislative Assembly commenced its ses- sions in one of the edifices on Third below Jackson street, which became a portion of the Merchants' Hotel, on the seventh of January, 1852.
This session, compared with the previous, formed a contrast as great as that between a boisterous day in March and a calm June morning. The minds of the population were more deeply interested in the ratifica- · tion of the treaties made with the Dakotahs, than in political discussions. Among other legislation of inter- est was the creation of Hennepin county.
On Saturday, the fourteenth of February, a dog-train arrived at St. Paul from the north, with the distinguish- ed Arctic explorer, Dr. Rae. He had been in search of the long-missing Sir John Franklin, by way of the Mac- kenzie river, and was now on his way to Europe.
On the fourteenth of May, an interesting lusus natu- ræ occurred at Stillwater. On the prairies, beyond the elevated bluffs which encircle the business portion of the town, there is a lake which discharges its waters through a ravine, and supplied McKusick's mill. Owing
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
to heavy rains, the hills became saturated with water, and the lake very full. Before daylight the citizens heard the "voice of many waters," and looking out, saw rushing down through the ravine, trees, gravel and dilu- vium. Nothing impeded its course, and as it issued from the ravine it spread over the town site, covering up barns and small tenements, and, continuing to the lake shore, it materially improved the landing, by a deposit of many tons of earth. One of the editors of the day, alluding to the fact, quaintly remarked, that "it was a very extraordinary movement of real estate."
About the last of August, the pioneer editor of Min- nesota, James M. Goodhue, died.
At the November Term of the United States District Court, of Ramsey county, a Dakotah, named Yu-ha-zee. was tried for the murder of a German woman. With others she was traveling above Shokpay, when a party of Indians, of whom the prisoner was one, met them; and, gathering about the wagon, were much excited. The prisoner punched the woman first with his gun, and, being threatened by one of the party, loaded and fired, killing the woman and wounding one of the men.
On the day of his trial he was escorted from Fort Snelling by a company of mounted dragoons in full dress. It was an impressive scene to witness the poor Indian half hid in his blanket, in a buggy with the civil officer, surrounded with all the pomp and circumstance of war. The jury found him guilty. On being asked if he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed, he replied through the interpreter, that the band to which he belonged would remit their annu- ities if he could be released. To this Judge Hayner, the successor of Judge Fuller, replied that he had no author-
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INDIAN FIGHT IN SAINT PAUL.
ity to release him; and, ordering him to rise, after some appropriate and impressive remarks, he pronounced the first sentence of death ever pronounced by a judicial officer in Minnesota. The prisoner trembled while the judge spoke, and was a piteous spectacle. By the stat- ute of Minnesota, then, one convicted of murder could not be executed until twelve months had elapsed, and he was confined until the governor of the territory should by warrant order his execution.
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