USA > Minnesota > Brown County > History of Brown County, Minnesota: Its People, Industries and Institutions (Volume 1) > Part 4
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AREA.
Minnesota is, in area, the tenth state of the Union. It contains 84,287 square miles, or about 53,943,379 acres, of
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which 3,608,012 acres are water. In altitude it appears to be one of the highest portions of the continent, as the head- waters of three great river systems are found in its limits, those of streams flowing northward to Hudson bay, east- ward to the Atlantic ocean, and southward to the Gulf of Mexico.
About half of this surface, on the south and west, con- sists of rolling prairie, interspersed with frequent groves, oak openings and belts of hardwood timber, watered by numberless lakes and streams, and covered with a warm, dark soil of great fertility. The rest, embracing the ele- vated district immediately west and north of Lake Superior, consists mainly of rich mineral ranges and of the pine for- ests which clothe the headwaters of the Mississippi, afford- ing extensive supplies of lumber. There is but a very small percentage of broken, rocky or worthless land in the state. Nearly all is arable.
RIVERS.
Numerous rivers and watercourses give the state excel- lent drainage. But few states are so well watered as Minne- sota. Its navigable rivers are the Mississippi, the Minne- sota, the St. Croix, the St. Louis, the Red River of the North, and the Red Lake river, all of which, near their sources, have extensive water powers; while a number of smaller streams such as Rum river and Snake river, both valuable for lumbering, the Cannon and Zumbro rivers, the Vermilion, Crow, Blue Earth, Des Moines, Cottonwood, Chippewa, LeSueur, Root, Elk and Sauk rivers, also fur- nish fine water powers. These with their tributaries and a host of lesser streams penetrate every portion of the state.
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Some of the water powers furnished by these streams are among the finest in America, and many of them have been utilized for manufacturing purposes.
LAKES.
The lakes of Minnesota are more numerous and varied in form than in any other state in the Union. Bordering on the northeast corner of the state for one hundred and fifty miles, the waters of the great Lake Superior wash its shores. Within the state there are about ten thousand lakes, the largest of which is Red lake, in the central northern part of the state, bordered partly by dense pine forests, with its overflow through Red Lake river, by a devious course, into the Red River of the North. On the same northern slope, in St. Louis county, is the beautiful Vermilion lake, with its tributaries, at the edge of the great Vermilion iron range, and flowing into Rainy lake, on the northern boundary, and then through Rainy Lake river into the Lake of the Woods, and thence into Lake Winnipeg, and finally into Hudson bay. On the southern slope of the state is Itasca lake, the source of the Mississippi, with Cass lake, Lake Winnibi- goshish, Leech lake, and other innumerable lakes, all adding volume to the water of the Mississippi, eventually flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. Then there is Mille Lacs, the source of Rum river, and the picturesque Lake Minnetonka. These are the largest lakes in the state. Of these, however. only Minnetonka, White Bear, Bald Eagle and Chisago lakes have so far been much utilized as summer resorts. The incomparable park region, traversed by the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads, is the paradise of summer
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idlers, of hunters and fishermen; but it is not in this portion alone that all the beautiful lakes are found. The north- eastern and the southwestern sections each have numerous lakes to attract the summer visitor.
There is an undoubted modification of the climate of the state, caused by these numerous bodies of water, giving a most delightful summer temperature.
Fine varieties of fish are abundant in all these lakes; and the state expends annually thousands of dollars, through a game and fish commission, to improve the varie- ties and to prevent their wanton destruction.
ELEVATION.
Surveys with leveling from the sea show that the shore of Lake Superior is the lowest land in the state, 602 feet above sea level. The waters of the northeastern part of the state south of the Mesabi iron range flow into Lake Su- perior, and are carried to the Atlantic ocean. The Missis- sippi river, having its chief source in Lake Itasca, at 1,466 feet elevation, runs in a southerly direction, leaving the state at 620 feet above sea level.
The Red River of the North, rising in the north, near Itasca lake, at a height of 1,600 feet above the ocean, after a circuitous route south and west of Breckenridge, in Wil- kin county, and then flowing north along its great valley, leaves the state at an elevation of 750 feet. The average elevation of the state is given at about 1,275 feet. The high- est elevation is the Misquah hills, in Cook county, 2,230 feet.
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CLIMATE.
The elevation of Minnesota above the sea, its fine drain- age, and the dryness of the atmosphere give it a climate of unusual salubrity and pleasantness. It has an annual mean temperature of 44 degrees, while its mean summer tempera- ture is 70 degrees, the same as that of middle Illinois and Ohio, southern Pennsylvania, etc. The excessive heats of summer often felt in other states are here tempered by the cooling breezes. Its high latitude gives it correspondingly longer days in summer than states further south, and during the growing season there are two and one-half hours more sunshine than in the latitude of Cincinnati. This, taken in connection with the abundant rainfall of early summer, ac- counts for the rapid and vigorous growth of crops in Minne- sota, and their early maturity. The cool breezes and cool nights in summer prevent the debilitating effects of heat often felt in low latitudes. The winter climate is one of the attractive features of the state. Its uniformity, and pre- vailing freedom from thaws and excessive spells of cold, severe weather or heavy snow storms, and its dryness, to- gether with the bright sunshine and electrical conditions of the air, all tend to enhance the personal comfort of the resi- dent, and make outdoor life and labor a pleasure.
These features tend to make this climate the healthiest in the Union. It gives life and briskness to those perform- ing manual labor, enabling them to do more work than in a damper or duller climate.
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CHRONOLOGICAL.
In the following list some of the more important events in the state, from the earliest explorations to the present time, are set forth in chronological order :
1635. Jean Nicollet, an explorer from France, who had wintered in the neighborhood of Green Bay, brought to Montreal the first mention of the aborigines of Minnesota.
1659-60. Grosseilliers and Radisson wintered among the Sioux of the Mille Lacs region, Minnesota, being its first white explorers. In a previous expedi- tion, four years earlier, they are thought to have come to Prairie Island, west of the main channel of the Mississippi, between Red Wing and Hastings.
1661. Father Rene Menard left Kewennaw, on Lake Su- perior, to visit the Hurons, then in northern Wisconsin, and was lost near the sources of the Black and Chippewa rivers. His breviary and cassock were said to have been found among the Sioux.
1679. July 2, Daniel Greyselon Du Lhut (Duluth) held a council with the Sioux at their principal settle- ment on the shore of Mille Lacs. Du Lhut, in June, 1680, by way of the St. Croix river, reached the Mississippi and met Hennepin.
1680. Louis Hennepin, after captivity in the village of Mille Lacs Sioux, first saw the Falls of St. An- thony.
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1689. May 8, Nicholas Perrot, at his Ft., St. Antoine, on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Pepin, laid formal claim to the surrounding country for France. He built a fort also on the Minnesota shore of this lake, near its outlet.
1695. LeSueur built a fort or trading post on Isle Pelee, now called Prairie Island, above Lake Pepin.
1700. LeSueur established Ft. L'Huillier, on the Blue Earth river (near the mouth of the LeSueur), and first supplied the Sioux with firearms.
1727. The French established a third fort on Lake Pepin, with Sieur de La Perriere as commander.
1728. Great flood in the Mississippi.
1763. By the treaty of Versailles, France ceded Minnesota, east of the Mississippi, to England, and west of it to Spain.
1766. Capt. Jonathan Carver visited St. Anthony falls and Minnesota river. He claimed to have made a treaty with the Indians the following spring, in a cave afterward called "Carver's Cave," within the present limits of St. Paul, at which he said they ceded to him an immense tract of land, long known as "Carver's Claim," but never recog- nized by the government.
1796. Laws of the Ordinance of 1787 extended over the Northwest territory, including the northeastern third of Minnesota, east of the Mississippi river. 1798-99. The Northwestern Fur Company established it- self in Minnesota.
1800. May 7, that part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi became a part of Indiana by the division of Ohio.
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1803. April 30, that part of Minnesota west of the Missis- sippi, for the preceding forty years to possession of Spain as a part of Louisiana, was ceded to the United States by Napoleon Bonaparte, who had just obtained it from Spain.
1803-04. William Morrison, the first known white man to discover the source of the Mississippi river, vis- ited Elk lake and explored the streams entering into the lake forming the head of the river.
1805. Lieut. Z. M. Pike visited Minnesota to establish gov- ernment relations there, and obtained the Ft. Snelling reservation from the Dakotas.
1812. The Dakotas, Ojibways and Winnebagoes, under the lead of hostile traders, joined the British during the war. Red River colony established by Lord Selkirk.
1819. Minnesota, east of the Mississippi river, became a part of Crawford county, Michigan. Ft. Snell- ing established, and a post at Mendota occupied by troops, under command of Col. Leavenworth. Maj. L. Taliaferro appointed Indian agent, ar- riving on April 19.
1820. Corner stone of Ft. Snelling laid on September 10. Governor Cass visits Minnesota and makes a treaty of peace between the Sioux and Ojibways at Ft. Snelling. Col. Josiah Snelling appointed to the command of the latter post.
1823. The first steamboat arrived at Mendota, May 10, Major Taliaferro and Beltrami being passen- gers. Maj. Stephen H. Long explored Minnesota river, the Red river valley, and the northern
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frontier. Beltrami explored sources of the Mis- sissippi.
1826. Great flood on the Red river; a part of the colony driven to Minnesota, settling near Ft. Snelling.
1832. Schoolcraft explored sources of Mississippi river, and named Lake Itasca (formerly called Elk lake).
1833. First mission established at Leech lake by Rev. W. T. Boutwell.
1834. The portion of Minnesota west of the Mississippi at- tached to Michigan. Gen. H. H. Sibley settled at Mendota.
1835. Catlin and Featherstonhaugh visited Minnesota.
1836. The territory of Wisconsin organized, embracing the part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi, the part on the west being attached to Iowa. Nicollet visited Minnesota.
1837. Governor Dodge, of Wisconsin, made a treaty at Ft. Snelling with the Ojibways, by which the latter ceded all their pine lands on the St. Croix and its tributaries; a treaty was also effected at Washington with a deputation of Dakotas for their lands east of the Mississippi. These trea- ties led the way to the first actual settlements within the area of Minnesota.
1838. The treaty ratified by Congress. Franklin Steele makes a claim at St. Anthony falls. Pierre Par- rant makes a claim and builds a shanty on the present site of St. Paul.
1839. St. Croix county established.
1843. Stillwater settled.
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1846. August 6, the Wisconsin enabling act.
1847. The Wisconsin Constitutional Convention meets. The town of St. Paul surveyed, platted and re- corded in St. Croix county register of deeds' of- fice. First improvement of the water power at the Falls of St. Anthony.
1848. May 29, Wisconsin admitted, leaving the area of Minnesota without a government. August 26, the "Stillwater Convention" held, taking meas- ures for a separate territorial organization, and asking that the new territory be named Minne- sota. October 30, H. H. Sibley elected delegate to Congress.
1849. January 15, H. H. Sibley admitted to a seat. March 3, the bill organizing Minnesota passed. March 19, its territorial officers appointed. June 1, Governor Ramsey declared, by proclamation, the territory organized. September 3, the first territorial Legislature assembled.
1850. Great flood this year; highest water ever known. Minnesota river first navigated by steamboats. Census shows 6,077 inhabitants.
1851. Location of the capitol, university and penitentiary ; another flood. July 23, treaty of Traverse des Sioux completed and August 5 the treaty of Men- dota, opening the territory west of the Missis- sippi to settlers.
1852. June 23, the treaties ratified by the United States Senate.
1853. Pierce's administration. W. A. Gorman appointed governor. The capitol building completed.
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1854. Celebration of the opening of the Rock Island rail- road, the first road to the Mississippi river, by a mammoth excursion, reaching St. Paul, June 8. Large immigration this season and the three succeeding ones, and the real estate mania com- mences.
1857. Enabling act passes Congress, February 26. Gov. Samuel Medary (appointed by Buchanan), ar- rives on April 22. Legislature passes a bill to remove the capital to St. Peter, but it fails to accomplish the object. Ink-pa-du-to massacre, April. Land grant passes Congress. April 27, extra session of the Legislature to apportion land grant. July 13, Constitutional Convention as- sembles. Real estate speculation reaches its height, and is checked by the financial panic, August 27. Great revulsions and hard times. Census shows 150,037 population. October 13, Constitution adopted and state officers elected.
1858. State loan of $250,000 negotiated. Five million loan bill passed by the Legislature, March 9; ratified by vote of the people, April 15. Great strin- gency in money market. State admitted, May 11. State officers sworn in, May 24.
1859. Hard times continue to intensify. "Wright County War." "Glencoe" and "Owatonna" money is- sued. Work on the land grant road ceases. Col- lapse of the five million scheme. First export of grain this fall. Hard political struggle; the Re- publicans triumph.
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1860. Another warm political canvass. Federal census, 172,023.
1861. April 15, President proclamation for troops re- ceived; the first regiment recruits at once; June 22, it embarks at Ft. Snelling for the seat of war. 1862. Call for 600,000 men. August 17, massacre at Ac- ton; August 18, outbreak at Lower Sioux Agency, eight miles east of Redwood Falls; 19th, New Ulm attacked; 20th, Fort Ridgely attacked; 25th, second attack on New Ulm; 30th, Fort Abercrombie besieged; September 2d, the bloody attack at Birch Coulee. September 19, first rail- road in Minnesota in operation, between St. Paul and Minneapolis. September 23, battle of Wood Lake; 26th, captives surrendered at Camp Re- lease; military commission tries 321 Indians for murder, rape, etc .; 303 condemned to die; De- cember 26, 38 hung at Nankato.
1863. General Sibley's expedition to the Missouri river; July 3, Little Crow killed; July 24, battle of Big Mound; July 26, battle of Dead Buffalo Lake; July 28, battle of Stony Lake.
1864. Large levies for troops. Expedition to Missouri river, under Sully. Inflation of money market. Occasional Indian raids.
1865. Peace returns. Minnesota regiments return and are disbanded. In all 22,016 troops furnished by the state. Census shows 250,099 inhabitants.
1866-72. Rapid railroad building everywhere; immigra- tion heavy; "good times" prevail, and the real estate inflated.
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1873. January 7, 8 and 9, polar wave sweeps over the state; seventy persons perish. September, the Jay Cook failure creates another panic. Grass- hopper raid begins and continues five seasons.
1876. September 7, attack on bank at Northfield by a gang of armed outlaws from Missouri; three of the latter killed and three captured.
1877. Biennial session amendment adopted.
1878. May 2, three flouring-mills at Minneapolis explode; eighteen lives lost.
1880. November 15, portion of the hospital for the insane at St. Peter destroyed by fire; eighteen inmates burned to death, seven died subsequently of in- juries and fright, and six missing; total loss, $150,000.
1881. March 1, the state capitol destroyed by fire.
1884. January 25, state prison partially burned.
1886. April 14, a tornado strikes the cities of St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids, demolishing scores of build- ings and killing about seventy people.
1887. Important legislation regarding the liquor traffic, common carriers, and elections.
1889. The Legislature enacts the Australian system of vot- ing in cities of 10,000 and over. The first elec- tric street railway started in the state at Still- water.
1890. United States census shows a population of 1,301,- 826. July 13, an excursion steamboat returning from Lake City encampment foundered on Lake Pepin, and 100 people drowned. July 13, tor- nado swept across Lake Gervias, in Ramsey
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county, demolishing several buildings and killing six people.
1891. June 15, a series of tornadoes started in Jackson county, near the town of Jackson, traversing Martin, Faribault, Freeborn, Mower and Fill- more counties, on a line nearly parallel with, but from five to fifteen miles north of, the Southern Minnesota division of the Milwaukee & St. Paul railway, doing a large amount of damage to farms and farm buildings, and causing the death of about fifty people along the track of the storm. 1892. June 7, Republican national convention held at Min- neapolis. The Australian system of voting used at the November general election.
1893. The Legislature authorizes the appointment of a capitol commission to select a site for a new capitol, and providing a tax of two-tenths of a mill for ten years to pay for the site and the erection of a building. A great financial crisis causes the failure of several banks and many mercantile and manufacturing establishments in the larger cities of the state.
1894. September 1, forest fires start in the neighborhood of Hinckley, in Pine county, carrying death and destruction over nearly four hundred square miles of territory, destroying the towns of Hinckley and Sandstone, causing the death of 417 people, rendering homeless and destitute 2,200 men, women and children, and entailing a property loss of about $1,000,000.
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1895. A census of the state was taken during the month of June, and the total population of the state was found to be 1,574,619.
1896. The Red Lake Indian reservation was diminished to about a quarter part of its former area, and on May 15 a large tract of agricultural and timber lands formerly belonging to that reservation was opened for settlement.
1897. July 2, the monument at Gettysburg to the First Minnesota Regiment was dedicated.
1898.
July 27, the corner stone of the new capitol was laid. Minnesota supplied four regiments for service in the Spanish-American War, being the first state, May 7, to respond to the president's call. October 5, the Pillager Indians attacked United States troops near Sugar Point, Leech lake.
1899. Semi-centennial of the territory and state celebrated by the Old Settlers' Association, June 1, and by the Historical Society, November 15.
1900. Population of Minnesota, shown by the national cen- sus, 1,751,394. Death of Senator C. K. Davis, November 27.
1901. In the Pan-American Exposition, at Buffalo, New York, the superior exhibits of wheat, flour, and dairy products of Minnesota caused her to be called "the Bread and Butter State."
1902. August 23, the fortieth anniversary of the Sioux War celebrated at New Ulm. Monuments and tablets erected there and at other places in the Minnesota valley.
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1903. Tide of immigration into Minnesota, particularly in northern and western sections. April 22, death of Alexander Ramsey, first territorial governor, later governor of the state, United States sen- ator, and secretary of war.
1904. Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Minnesota ex- hibits win many first prizes for flour, butter, fruits, iron ores, work of pupils in schools, etc.
1905. January 3, Legislature convenes in the new capitol. The population, according to the state census, June 1, was 1,979,912.
1906. September 3, live stock amphitheater on the state fair ground dedicated, with address by James J. Hill. Attendance at the fair on that day, 93,199; during the week, 295,000.
1907. Folwell Hall, the new main building for the College of Science, Literature and Arts, of the Univer- sity of Minnesota, completed at cost of $410,000 for the building and its equipment. The total number of students of this University enrolled in all departments for the year was 4,145.
1908. The fiftieth anniversary of the admission of Minne- sota to statehood was celebrated in connection with the state fair, the attendance during the week being 326,753.
1909. Death of Gov. John A. Johnson as the result of an operation, at Rochester, Minnesota, September 21, 1909. Lieut .- Gov. Adolph O. Eberhart sworn in as governor by Chief Justice Start, in the Su- preme Court retiring room, at 11 o'clock the same day.
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1910. Population of Minnesota, shown by the national cen- sus, 2,075,708. Death of State Treasurer Clar- ence C. Dinehart, June 8, E. S. Pettijohn ap- pointed to succeed, June 11. Forest fires in northern Minnesota during the second and third week in October, results in death to about thirty people and the destruction of about $20,000,000 of property. Spooner and Baudette wiped out.
1911. The Legislature ratified the proposed amendment to the United States Constitution for election of United States senators by popular vote. Octo- ber 18, George E. Vincent was inaugurated pres- ident of the University of Minnesota.
1912. The Legislature in special session enacted a new pri- mary election law and "corrupt practices" act. October 19, the statue of Governor Johnson on the capitol ground was unveiled.
1913. June 16-20, the American Medical Association held its sixty-fourth annual session in Minneapolis. United States postal savings bank and parcel post inaugurated in Minnesota. Practical re- forms in state road laws enacted. Work begun on the new building of the St. Paul Public Li- brary and Hill Reference Library. New post- office and new railroad depot building in Minne- apolis. November 5, the historic Carver's cave, all trace of which had been lost for forty years or more, was definitely located.
1914. March, Minneapolis made the reserve city in the Northwest for the system of regional national banks. Remarkable impetus to building opera-
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tions in Minnesota cities. April 4, Frederick Weyerhauser, extensive lumber operator, died in his winter home at Pasadena, California. April 15, plans adopted for St. Paul's new ter- minals and union depot. May 9, a bronze statue of Gen James Shields, tendered by the Loyal Legion and the Grand Army of the Republic to the state of Minnesota, for a niche in the capitol. Unveiled in November; formally presented to the state by Commander Samuel Appleton, of the Loyal Legion; accepted by Governor A. O. Everhart; eloquent memorial address by Com- rade and Companion John Ireland, archbishop. July 4-11, the National Educational Association held its annual convention in St. Paul. Novem- ber, Winfield Scott Hammond, Democrat, elected governor of Minnesota, defeating William E. Lee, Republican nominee.
1915. January 2, session of the thirty-ninth Legislature opened at the state capitol ; Hon. J. A. A. Burn- quist, lieutenant-governor, president of the Sen- ate; H. H. Flower, speaker of the House of Rep- resentatives. January 3, Winfield Scott Ham- mond inaugurated governor of Minnesota. Feb- ruary 12, birthday of Abraham Lincoln observed by Minnesota Commandery of the Loyal Legion by a banquet at the West hotel, Minneapolis. Oration by Bishop William A. Quayle, of the Methodist Episcopal church. February 19-20, forty-ninth annual convention of the Minnesota Editorial Association assembled at the St. Paul
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