USA > Minnesota > Hennepin County > Dayton > History of Anoka County and the towns of Champlin and Dayton in Hennepin County, Minnesota > Part 3
USA > Minnesota > Anoka County > History of Anoka County and the towns of Champlin and Dayton in Hennepin County, Minnesota > Part 3
USA > Minnesota > Hennepin County > Champlin > History of Anoka County and the towns of Champlin and Dayton in Hennepin County, Minnesota > Part 3
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Mr. Dorr was more fortunate with his timber, most of which he saved and delivered safely at the St. An- thony dam the next spring.
In the winter Holmes sold the Rum river post to Patrick Caine; and Captain Simeon P. Folsom, who was then living in St. Paul, purchased half of Caine's interest and moved to the place with his wife about the middle of February, 1848. Provisions were scarce and high. Captain Folsom paid $4 for a barrel of po- tatoes at Fort Snelling in the spring of 1848. He pared them carefully so as to preserve the eyes, and after eating the potatoes planted the parings near his home at Rum river. On a small patch of ground, half the size of a city lot he raised forty bushels of potatoes, which grew from these parings. Mr. Noot also raised some very good corn and a few beans at King's island. These were the first crops raised in Anoka county. In the spring of 1847, the count heard of an uprising in his native country, and left in haste for Europe, leaving a valuable horse and some other property with the Noots.
In 1840 the Winnebago Indians had been removed from their ancient home in what is now Wisconsin be- yond the Mississippi to land since included in the state of Iowa. But white men were now casting longing eyes upon this land also, and after much persuasion and negotiation the Chippeways had been induced to grant
31
THE FIRST HOUSE.
land in the vicinity of Long Prairie in what is now Min- nesota for the use of the Winnebagoes, and the latter had agreed to remove thither in 1848. But when the time came for the removal the Indians were very re- luctant to go. Edmund Rice had undertaken the task of transferring them to their new home. Mr. Rice suc- ceeded in getting most of them as far as the Sioux vil- lage presided over by Chief Wabasha, by steamboat. The old Dakota chief sympathised with the new comers and finally sold them the site of the present city of Winona. Here the Winnebagoes camped and refused to move another rod. Troops were hastily summoned from Fort Snelling, and after a considerable show of force those of the Indians who had not run away were bundled into steamboats and taken to St. Paul. From this point the Winnebagoes and their military escort marched up the Mississippi on foot. The Indians had heard of Rum river and believed that intoxicants must be plentiful there. Consequently, those who were provided with ponies pushed on ahead, and reached the river before the main body had got much beyond St. Anthony falls. Captain Folsom understood the Win- nebago language and recognized a number of the In- dians, whom he had known in 1840 at the time of their former migration. But he had no whiskey for them. At the "big island" they had better success. Noot had two barrels of whiskey; but as soon as the Indians found he had it they procceeded to help themselves without ceremony. They locked Noot in the barn and his wife and child in the house, and then proceeded to get riotously drunk.
32
HISTORY OF ANOKA COUNTY.
Noot had a yoke of oxen, and had agreed to haul some hay for Captain Folsom. The latter went up toward the island in the morning to see about hauling the hay and met Indians in all stages of intoxication. They had whiskey in all sorts of receptacles. One had a pan half full before him on his horse, and every few minutes bent his head down and took a drink. An- other had filled up an empty powder can. One had two cans tied at the ends of a rope thrown across his horse's neck, and these clanked together at every step.
It took considerable courage to face a mob of drunken savages, but Captain Folsom was determined to ascer- tain what had become of the Noots. When he came in sight of the cabin he heard Noot and his wife calling for help. Just then there came up a chief named Whis- tling Thunder, whom Captain Folsom had known in Wisconsin, and Folsom said to him:
"What is going on here?"
"You mustn't go down there," said the chief.
"See here, chief," said Captain Folsom in the Win- nebago tongue, "no brave man will ever lock up a woman." .
"We-chook-a-nig-era says no brave man will lock up a woman," repeated the chief to his followers.
This appeal to the Indians to save their reputation for courage proved effectual, and the cabin door was im- mediately unfastened. Mrs. Noot came out with her child, and ran off into the brush.
As a means of gaining the good will of the redskins Captain Folsom set before them the remainder of the whiskey in the barrel which they had seized. One of the Indians, who was in an advanced state of intoxication was recklessly firing his gun, to the imminent danger
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THE FIRST HOUSE.
of everybody within range. Captain Folsom succeeded in convincing the others that this ought not to be per- mitted, and so the offender was tied up in such a man- ner as to put a stop to this form of. hilarity.
Folsom next visited the barn, where Noot was mak- ing piteous appeals to be released.
SIMEON P. FOLSOM.
"That door has got to be opened," said he firmly. Finding that Folsom was thoroughly in earnest, the Indians went away, and the captain unfastened the door of the barn where Noot was confined. He then pro- cured an ax and stove in the head of the remaining
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HISTORY OF ANOKA COUNTY.
barrel of whiskey. Noot was disposed to bemoan the loss of his liquor, but Folsom said to him :
"You are very foolish to begrudge an old barrel of whiskey. Don't you know that your life is at stake here ?"
Noot ran over on the island calling to his wife, but Captain Folsom finally found her at the mouth of Rum river, whither she had fled with the heavy child in her arms. The only boat Folsom had was a leaky birch bark canoe, and before he could get Mrs. Noot and the child into it the Indians appeared. They were firing their guns in drunken glee. Some of them tried to enter the canoe, but the captain ordered them away, push- ing one back forcibly, and finally succeeded in getting his canoe launched.
Having safely landed Mrs. Noot and the child near his own house he heard Noot calling from the shore he had just left :
"Meester Folsom! Meester Folsom!"
There was nothing to be done but to make another trip, and try to save the man from the reckless savages. When the captain got back to the west shore he found that Whistling Thunder had also arrived. Again a half drunken Indian attempted to enter the boat. But the rebuke of his chief was forcible and effective. Whis- tling Thunder gave the bending figure of the savage a sound kick under the chin, which sent him sprawling on his back, and Folsom sped away with his passenger to the east side.
Then Whistling Thunder himself decided that it would be very much safer to put the river between him- self and his unruly followers until they had had an op- portunity to sleep off their debauch, and begged Folsom
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THE FIRST HOUSE.
to come and get him. The captain was not at all averse to the presence of so stalwart an ally, and again braving the river in his crazy craft, he brought the chief over in safety, and the whole party slept that night in Captain Folsom's house, exhausted with their exertions, but feeling tolerably safe from the intrusion of the drunken crew who were making night hideous on the farther shorc.
Noot's experience with the Winnebagoes seems to have dampened his enthusiasm for frontier life. He afterward went to St. Paul, where he became possessed of eighty acres of land. This having risen in value on account of the growth of the city, he became quite well off. Some time later he served a term in the legislature.
Captain Folsom cut a great deal of hay in the sum- mer of 1848, which he sold at a profit of some $6,000. All the supplies for the Winnebagoes had to be hauled to Long Prairie. A considerable amount of these sup- plies had been stored at Banfil's, on Rice creek. The teams had to be fed. Captain Folsom had the best hay on the upper Mississippi and the most of it, and could command a good price. In the fall of 1848 he removed to Elk river.
Captain Folsom and Caleb D. Dorr were both pres- ent at the Anoka street fair in 1904, and regaled the citizens with many anecdotes of pre-territorial days.
The settlement of the Winnebagoes at Long Prairie greatly increased the amount of travel up and down the river, and there sprang up along the route between that point and St. Paul a series of taverns and trading posts, many of them with farms attached. Bloodgood settled on Coon creek. Joseph Brown located at Big lake. and Burgess at Big Meadow, eight or ten miles
36
HISTORY OF ANOKA COUNTY.
north of Big lake. There was also a settler at Clear lake still farther north, and there were a number of settlers at or near Sauk Rapids. Allan Morrison was still at Crow Wing, where he had had a trading post for some twenty years.
The Winnebagoes were very much dissatisfied with their home at Long Prairie. They complained bitterly of the scarcity of game, and often large bands of the tribe would descend the Mississippi to Crow river for the purpose of hunting and fishing on the neutral lands between the Chippeways and Sioux. In order to keep the Indians under some sort of restraint, the govern- ment decided to establish a fort on the upper Mississippi, and in 1848 Gen. George M. Brooks located the new fort between Sauk Rapids and Crow Wing. It was first known as Fort Marcy, but later as Fort Gaines, and finally as Fort Ripley.
A considerable band of Winnebagoes established themselves at and near the mouth of Crow river, front which place they roamed through the adjacent country in search of sustenance. One of their trails ran through the northern part of what is now the town of Ramsey, crossing Rum river about a mile and a quarter above Trott brook and below the mouth of Cedar creek, and running thence to Lake George, where the fishing was excellent, and where deer came to feed in great numbers. Some parts of this trail were afterward used as a road by the early settlers, and it was visible for many years.
CHAPTER IV.
TRADERS AND PROSPECTORS.
The first lumbering done on Rum river was in the winter of 1848-9. The work was done by Daniel Stanch- field, with Sumner W. Farnham as foreman of one of his two crews. The logs were cut on Stanchfield brook to the amunt of 2,200,000 feet, and driven down to the St. Anthony mill. Mr. Stanchfield found the ruins of the old camp where the soldiers had cut logs for the construction of Fort Snelling in 1821, and located one of his own camps within a hundred feet of it.
In 1846 Congress had authorized the calling of a constitutional convention in Wisconsin territory, prepar- atory to the admission of the state of Wisconsin into the Union. When the convention met a number of its mem- bers wished to make Rum river the western boundary of the new state. The influential citizens of St. Paul and the St. Croix valley were alarmed at the prospect of thus becoming a tail of the Wisconsin kite, and a memorial was hastily prepared and forwarded to Wash- ington, protesting against the proposed boundary, with the result that the St. Croix river became the western boundary of Wisconsin. A convention to represent what was left of the old ,Wisconsin territory was called to meet at Stillwater in August, 1848, and H. H. Sibley was elected as delegate to congress. In this convention N. B. Ferrell and P. Flynn were admitted as delegates
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HISTORY OF ANOKA COUNTY.
from "Rum river." The absurdity of their position will be appreciated when it is understood that there was probably not a single white resident anywhere on Rum river at this time, Captain Folsom having moved to Elk river and William Noot to St. Paul. The two as- sumed delegates lived at St. Anthony.
In the fall of 1848 or spring of 1849 Antoine Robert (pronounced Ro'-bare) established himself with his fam- ily in the Rum river trading post, and associated with him was William Dahl, who came down from Red river.
An act of Congress organizing the teritory of Min- nesota was passed March 3d, 1849. St. Paul was made the capital, and Alexander Ramsey of Pennsylvania ap- pointed governor. In April James M. Goodhue printed the first newspaper in the territory, the St. Paul Pioneer. Population poured in with every steamboat arrival. April 27th John H. Stevens, who afterward built the first house in Minneapolis (west of the Mississippi), came with a dozen of his neighbors from Rock River, Illinois. Ascending the Mississippi from St. Paul, they could find no place where they could stop for the night at St. Anthony, and were obliged to push on to Banfil's on Rice creek in order to find sleeping accommodations.
At noon the next day the party arrived at Rum river and were ferried across by William Dahl, who directed them to "the big island" (King's island) as a suitable camping place. During the afternoon members of the party searched the shore of the Mississippi down as far as Rum river for bottom lands and hay meadows. Of course they found no hay, and they shook their heads at the sandy soil over which they passed. Stevens acci- entally discovered some remains of Noot's farming op- erations the previous year, and a little search disclosed
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TRADERS AND PROSPECTORS.
part of the crop hidden under a brush pile. The claim hunters were surprised to see such large cars of corn.
"Upon this discovery," says Mr Stevens, "I made up my mind that the soil might be light, but if it pro- duced such corn it was good enough for me."
Most of the party still protested against locating on such light soil, and all but Mr. Stevens and one other returned in disgust to Illinois. And yet a more thorough investigation would have led to the discovery that one man had made $6,000 from the hay crop in that vicinity the previous year. Mr. Stevens returned to St. Paul and hunted up Noot and gave him $200 for his claim, which laid the foundation of a considerable fortune which Noot afterward acquired. Mr. Stevens, however, never received much value for his money. He cut a few logs on the island, but soon after located on the Minneapolis town site, and his rights in the King's island property were suffered to lapse.
In the fall of 1849 John R. Bean and John Simpson established a camp on the island since called Cloutier's island in the Mississippi opposite the present town of Ramsey, for the purpose of traffic with the Winnebago Indians. They carried on a lively trade and the next spring built a log house on the main land near the river upon what is now the farm of C. G. Richardson.
Thomas A. Holmes and James Beatty visited the trad- ing post on the island, observed the thriving business, and determined to secure a share of the trade. They accordingly built a log house the same fall (1849) near the present station of Itaska and put in a stock of goods suitable for the purpose.
The Winnebagoes were an offshoot of the Sioux tribe, and all of the Indians were aware of that fact.
40
HISTORY OF ANOKA COUNTY.
They were settled upon land which had been obtained as a concession from the Chippeways. But race prejudice was so strong among them that in petty disputes between the two large tribes they were constantly inclined to side with the Sioux. Finally a Chippeway was killed by Win- nebagoes and a sanguinary conflict seemed imminent. The Winnebagoes hastily transferred their families or a large number of them from Long Prairie to Itaska, where they dug deep pits and threw up breastworks on a piece of ground covering several acres, upon what was afterward the farm of Charles E. Bowers. The spot was upon a steep bank of the Mississippi and com- manded a view of the river from both directions. The earth works are still plainly visible. The trouble was finally adjusted and no battle took place.
An unfailing object of interest to new comers in the territory was the Red river cart, which was the only vehicle, and its track the only road, through hundreds of miles of the northern wilderness. This cart was a two- wheeled contrivance made entirely of wood and green hides, fastened together with thongs and sinews. No iron or metal of any sort entered into its composition. Two poles from which the bark had been stripped served as thills, and between these was harnessed a pony, or more frequently an ox, always driven single. Moving in caravans of fifty to two hundred carts, in single file, fording and swimming the rivers, and following a tort- uous trail at a pace set by the foremost ox, the Indians and half-breeds of the Red river country conveyed their furs and buffalo hides, tongues and pemmican to St. Paul, where traders were eager to outbid the grasping Hudson Bay Company. The sound produced by wooden wheels turning on wooden axles, without the smallest
1
RED RIVER CARTS AT ANOKA.
1870.
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HISTORY OF ANOKA COUNTY.
particle of grease to ease the friction, can only be com- pared to that proceeding from a group of swine whose lunch is half an hour overdue. Remembering that wheels, unlike pigs, are under no obligation to stop for breath, and multiplying the shrill and long drawn out wail by a hundred and upward, one may form a tolerably accu- rate idea of the music which heralded for miles around the approach of the Red river train. The trail ran from St. Anthony up through what is now Fridley and the town of Anoka, leaving the river near the old Jared Benson place, and striking across the prairie to the Upper Ford, where the State Insane Asylum buildings are now located. Thence it struck into what is now the river road just below where I. A. Harthorn's house now is. During the time of the Civil War railroads began to creep over Minnesota and the Red river caravans grew shorter and less numerous, and finally ceased altogether to visit St. Paul and Minneapolis about 1868.
During the summer of 1849 the fur company whose Minnesota representative was Henry M. Rice constructed a tow boat to run above St. Anthony falls, and several trips were made by this boat, conveying a hundred bar- rels of flour up the Mississippi to the company's trading posts at each trip. The next spring a steamboat which was named the "Governor Ramsey," was built by St. Anthony people, and made its first trip to Sauk Rapids the last week in May, 1850.
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THE FIRST COLONY.
THE FIRST COLONY.
In the spring of 1850 the first colony to locate within the present limits of Anoka county made their homes in what is now the town of Ramsey. The colony con- sisted of Daniel Harthorn, John, Emerson and Penuel Shumway, Penuel Shumway, senior, and Cornelius Pit- man, with their families and Nathan Shumway and Eber Harthorn. The two last named being single men, made the first trip to spy out the land, and Nathan Shumway erected a log house where the home of Mr. Hanson now stands (E. 1/2 N. E. 1/4 section 35). This was the fifth house built in the county. The rivers were very high. Robert's ferry across Rum river near the mouth, had not yet progressed beyond the row boat stage, and when some of the new settlers attempted to cross, the boat was upset. Mr. Pitman, being unable to swim, came near drowning, but finally reached the shore without further damage than a thorough wetting and the loss of his hat. In June the families of the colonists arrived on the steamboat Governor Ramsey. The new comers landed opposite the present residence of I. A. Harthorn, the Mississippi being bank high at that point and pro- ceeded to the house of Nathan Shumway. One small log house proving rather inadequate for the shelter of eight men and six women, to say nothing of the children, some of the colonists were obliged to sleep out of doors the first few nights. The men at once began the erection of houses. Emerson Shumway built a house where I. A. Harthorn now lives (lot 4, section 34), and John Shum- way built on the river bank in front of it, near what was then the steamboat landing. Eber Harthorn erected a house on what was afterward known as the F. A. Edgar- ton place (S. W. 14 section 35). Daniel Harthorn built
A PIONEER FAMILY.
Mrs. Geo. A. Foster. Mrs. Geo. W. Branch. Mrs. S. S. Paine. John Shumway. Mrs. John Shumway.
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PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.
on the present Ridge place ( W. 1/2 of N. E. 1,4, section 35). Pentel Shumway built . where Herbert Wilson's house now stands (N. 1/2 S. E. 1/4, section 35), and Cor- nelius Pitman built his house where his son A. I. Pitman still lives (S. 1/2 S. W. 14, section 25).
The first breaking for farming purposes in Anoka county consited of six acres directly in front of the pres- ent residence of I. W. Patch, and was made by Cornelius Pitman. None of the first settlers had any great amount of worldly possessions. Mr. Pitman's account of stock disclosed a cow, a small quantity of flour, and fifty dol- lars in money. He procured the roof boards for his house at St Anthony and placed them in a small boat which he poled up the river.
A week after their arrival John Shumway and his wife were both taken sick with typhoid fever. The near- est physicians were at St. Anthony, and the settlers were inclined to be skeptical in regard to the qualifications of frontier physicians in general. Herself a skillful nurse, Mrs. Shumway directed as best she could the treatment which should be given in her own case and that of her stricken husband, and both recovered.
PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.
In 1849 an energetic young man named George W. Branch found his way to Rum river, coming thither from New Brunswick. He and another man explored Rum river to its source, poling a boat up the river to Mille Lacs. The next year he returned to New Bruns- wick and induced his brother-in-law, Horace W. Tay- lor, to come to Minnesota. Taylor made a claim and built a house on the west side of Rum river north of
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HISTORY OF ANOKA COUNTY.
the present railroad tracks on what was afterward-known as the McCann farm, upon a part of which the driving park is now located. This was in July, 1850. When the land was surveyed Mr. Taylor found himself on a school section and moved to a point directly across Rum river, upon land now occupied by the state insane asylum, where he continued to reside until the time of his death in 1893. Taylor located at this point which was the ford- ing place of the old Red river trail, thinking that a town would grow up there.
In 1850 also F. W. Traves settled in what is now Centreville. The same year Oliver H. Kelley settled in what is now Elk River a short distance above the pres- ent station of Itaska.
In the fall of 1850 three Chippeways took passage on Antoine Robert's row boat ferry on Rum river. They had imbibed somewhat freely of fire water and declined to pay any fare. A quarrel arose in consequence, and one of the Indians stood up in the boat, threatening Robert's life. Robert struck him a heavy blow on the head with a paddle, breaking his neck. The two other
Indians sprang overboard and swam ashore. A large band of Indians were encamped not far away. Robert took the body ashore and buried it in the sand, and then hastily made his way on horseback to the home. of Pierre Bottineau at St. Anthony. Several years later the skeleton of the Indian was disinterred by Dr. A. W. Giddings, who had it preserved for the purpose of an- atomical study.
Robert's brother, Louis Robert of St. Paul, took possession of the trading post, put in a swing ferry on Rum river large enough to carry loaded teams, and hired a well behaved and inoffensive half breed named
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PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.
Logan to run it. This boat was probably put in ser- vice in the spring of 1851, but from its appearance it had evidently been in use elsewhere previous to that time. At all events it was quite an old looking boat in the fall of 1851. Logan's wife was a Menomonee squaw.
In May, 1851, Richard M. Lowell landed in St. An- thony, and in company with Simon Bean started in a batteau with supplies for the Rum river log drivers. He was frequently at Rum river and Elm creek there- after, but did not make his home in this section until several years later.
In the first days of November, 1851, George W. Branch went to St. Anthony to meet a party of rel- atives who had come from the East. They were his sister, Mrs. Thompson, and her three children, his father, Samuel Branch, and Matthew F. Taylor, then a lad of fourteen, who had never seen anything of frontier life. The party got into a batteau, which the men proceeded to pole up the Mississippi. They had to break the ice near the head of Nicollet island in order to make the start. At Coon Rapids they were joined by Horace Taylor. It was quite dark when they reached the mouth of Rum river, and a band of Winnebagoes were hold- ing a pow wow around their camp fires near Elm creek and sending out whoops that were anything but reas- suring to the new comers.
George Branch bought land on the west side of Rum river running from what is now Fremont street north- ward to Division street. Samuel Branch took the claim immediately north of Horace Taylor's claim, afterward owned by John Broadbent and now included in the insane asylum grounds. As soon as he was of age
18
HISTORY OF ANOKA COUNTY.
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