USA > Minnesota > Dakota County > History of Dakota County and the City of Hastings, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota > Part 22
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EVENTS OF A. D. 1852.
The third Legislative Assembly commenced its sessions 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 morn- ing. The minds of the population were more deeply interested in the ratification of the treaties made with the Dahkotahs, than in political dis- cussions. Among other legislation of interest was the creation of Hennepin county.
On Saturday, the fourteenth of February, a dog-train arrived at St. Paul from the north, with the distinguished Arctic explorer, Dr. Rae. He had been in search of the long-missing Sir John Franklin, by way of the Mackenzie river, and was now on his way to Europe.
On the fourteenth of May, an interesting lusus naturæ 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 sup- plied McKusick's mill. Owing 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 diluvium. 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."
During the summer, Elijah Terry, a young man who had left St. Paul the previous March, and went to Pembina, to act as teacher to the mixed bloods in that vicinity, was murdered un- der distressing circumstances. With a bois brule he had started to the woods on the morning of
his death, to hew timber. While there he was fired upon by a small party of Dahkotahs; a ball broke his arm, and he was pierced with arrows. His scalp was wrenched from his head, and .was afterwards seen among Sisseton Dahkotahs, near Big Stone Lake.
About the last of August, the pioneer editor of Minnesota, James M. Goodhue, died.
At the November Term of the United States District Court, of Ramsey county, a Dahkotah, named Yu-ha-zee, was tried for the murder of a German woman. With others she was travel- ing 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 wound- ing 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 annuities if he could be released. To this Judge Hayner, the successor of Judge Fuller, replied, that he had no authority to release him; and, ordering him to rise, after some appropriate and impressive remarks, he pro- nounced the first sentence of death ever pro- nounced by a judicial officer in Minnesota. The prisoner trembled while the judge spoke, and was a piteous spectacle. By the statute of Min- nesota, then, one convicted of murder could not be executed until twelve months had elapsed, and he was confined until the governor of the ter- orrity should by warrant order his execution.
EVENTS OF A. D. 1853.
The fourth Legislative Assembly convened on the fifth of January, 1853, in the two story brick edifice at the corner of Third and Minnesota streets. The Council chose Martin McLeod as presiding officer, and the House Dr. David Day,
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INDIAN FIGHT IN STREETS OF ST. PAUL.
Speaker. Governor Ramsey's message was an interesting document.
The Baldwin school, now known as Macalester College, was incorporated at this session of the legislature, and was opened the following June.
On the ninth of April, a party of Ojibways killed a Dahkotah, at the village of Shokpay. A war party, from Kaposia, then proceeded up the valley of the St. Croix, and killed an Ojibway. On the morning of the twenty-seventh, a band of Ojibway warriors, naked, decked, and fiercely gesticulating, might have been seen in the busiest street of the capital, in search of their enemies. Just at that time a small party of women, and one man, who had lost a leg in the battle of Still- water, arrived in a canoe from Kaposia, at the Jackson street landing. Perceiving the Ojib- ways, they retreated to the building then known as the " Pioneer " office, and the Ojibways dis- charging a volley through the windows, wounded a Dahkotah woman who soon died. For a short time, the infant capital presented a sight similar to that witnessed in ancient days in Hadley or Deerfield, the then frontier towns of Massachusetts. Messengers were despatched to. Fort Snelling for the dragoons, and a party of citizens mounted on horseback, were quickly in pursuit of those who with so much boldness had sought the streets of St. Paul, as a place to avenge their wrongs. The dragoons soon fol- lowed, with Indian guides scenting the track of the Ojibways, like bloodhounds. The next day they discovered the transgressors, near the Falls of St. Croix. The Ojibways manifesting what was supposed to be an insolent spirit, the order was given by the lieutenant in command, to fire, and he whose scalp was afterwards daguerreo
typed, and which was engraved for Graham's Magazine, wallowed in gore.
During the summer, the passenger, as he stood on the hurricane deck of any of the steamboats, might have seen, on a scaffold on the bluffs in the rear of Kaposia, a square box covered with a coarsely fringed red cloth. Above it was sus- pended a piece of the Ojibway's scalp, whose death had caused the affray in the streets of St. Paul. Within, was the body of the woman who had been shot in the "Pioneer " building, while seeking refuge. A scalp suspended over the corpse is supposed to be a consolation to the soul, and a great protection in the journey to the spirit land.
On the accession of Pierce to the presidency of the United States, the officers appointed under the Taylor and Fillmore administrations were removed, and the following gentlemen substitu- ted : Governor, W. A. Gorman, of Indiana ; Sec- retary, J. T. Rosser, of Virginia ; Chief Justice, W. H. Welch, of Minnesota ; Associates, Moses Sherburne, of Maine, and A. G. Chatfield, of Wisconsin. One of the first official acts of the second Governor, was the making of a treaty with the Winnebago Indians at Watab, Benton county, for an exchange of country.
On the twenty-ninth of June, D. A. Robertson, who by his enthusiasm and earnest advocacy of its principles had done much to organize the Democratic party of Minnesota, retired from the editorial chair and was succeeded by David Olm- sted.
At the election held in October, Henry M. Rice and Alexander Wilkin were candidates for deligate to Congress. The former was elect- ed by a decisive majority.
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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
CHAPTER XXIII.
EVENTS FROM A. D. 1854 TO THE ADMISSION OF MINNESOTA TO THE UNION.
Fifth Legislature -- Execution of Yubasse-Sizth Legislature - First bridge over the Mississippi-Arctic Explorer-Seventh Legislature-Indian girl killed near Bloomington Yerry- Eighth Legislature-Attempt to Remove the Capital- Special Session of the Legislature-Convention to frame a State Constitution- Admission of Minnesota to the Union.
The fifth session of the legislature was com- menced in the building just completed as the Capitol, on January fourth, 1854. The President of the Council was S. B. Olmstead, and the Speak- er of the House of Representatives was N. C. D. Taylor.
Governor Gorman delivered his first annual message on the tenth, and as his predecessor. urged the importance of railway communications. and dwelt upon the necessity of fostering the in- terests of education, and of the lumbermen.
The exciting bill of the session was the act in- corporating the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad Company, introduced by Joseph P .. Brown. It was passed after the hour of midnight on the last day of the session. Contrary to the expectation of his friends, the Governor signed the bill.
On the afternoon of December twenty-seventh. the first public execution in Minnesota, in accord- ance with the forms of law, took place. Yu-ha- zee, the Dahkotah who had been convicted in November, 1852, for the murder of a German woman, above Shokpay, was the individual. The scaffold was erected on the open space be- tween an inn called the Franklin House and the rear of the late Mr. J. W. Selby's enclosure in St. Paul. About two o'clock, the prisoner. dressed in a white shroud, left the old log pris- on, near the court house, and entered a carriage with the officers of the law. Being assisted up the steps that led to the scaffold, he made a few remarks in his own language, and was then exe- cuted. Numerous ladies sent in a petition to the governor, asking the pardon of the Indian. to which that officer in declining made an appro- priate reply.
EVENTS OF A. D. 1855.
The sixth session of the legislature convened on the third of January, 1855. W. P. Murray was elected President of the Council, and James S. Norris Speaker of the House.
About the last of January, the two houses ad- journed one day, to attend the exercises occa- sioned by the opening of the first bridge of any kind. over the mighty Mississippi, from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. It was at Falls of Saint Anthony, and made of wire, and at the time of its opening, the patent for the land on which the west piers were built, had not been issued from the Land Office, a striking evi- dence of the rapidity with which the city of Minneapolis, which now surrounds the Falls, has developed.
On the twenty-ninth of March, a convention was held at Saint Anthony, which led to the formation of the Republican party of Minnesota. This body took measures for the holding of a territorial convention at St. Paul, which con- vened on the twenty-fifth of July, and William R. Marshall was nominated as delegate to Con- gress. Shortly after the friends of Mr. Sibley nominated David Olmsted and Henry M. Rice, the former delegate was also a candidate. The contest was animated, and resulted in the elec- tion of Mr. Rice.
About noon of December twelfth, 1855, a four- horse vehicle was seen driving rapidly through St. Paul, and deep was the interest when it was announced that one of the Arctic exploring party, Mr. James Stewart, was on his way to Canada with relics of the world -renowned and world- mourned Sir John Franklin. Gathering together the precious fragments found on Montreal Island and vicinity. the party had left the region of ice- bergs on the ninth of August, and after a con- tinued land journey from that time, had reached
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PROPOSED REMOVAL OF THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT.
Saint Paul on that day, en route to the Hudson Bay Company's quarters in Canada.
EVENTS OF A. D. 1856.
The seventh session of the Legislative Assem- bly was begun on the second of January, 1856, and again the exciting question was the Minne- sota and Northwestern Railroad Company.
John B. Brisbin was elected President of the Council, and Charles Gardner, Speaker of the House.
This year was comparatively devoid of interest. The citizens of the territory were busily engaged in making claims in newly organized counties, and in enlarging the area of civilization.
On the twelfth of June, several Ojibways entered the farm house of Mr. Whallon, who re- sided in Hennepin county, on the banks of the Minnesota, a mile below the Bloomington ferry. The wife of the farmer, a friend, and three child- ren, besides a little Dahkotah girl, who had been brought up in the mission-house at Kaposia, and so changed in manners that her origin was scarcely perceptible, were sitting in the room when the Indians came in. Instantly seizing the little Indian maiden, they threw her out of the door, killed and scalped her, and fled before the men who were near by, in the field, could reach the house.
EVENTS OF A. D. 1857.
The procurement of a state organization, and a grant of lands for railroad purposes, were the topics of political interest during the year 1857.
The eighth Legislative Assembly convened at the capitol on the seventh of January, and J. B. Brisbin was elected President of the Council, and J. W. Furber, Speaker of the House.
A bill changing the seat of government to Saint Peter, on the Minnesota River, caused much discussion.
On Saturday, February twenty-eighth, Mr. Balcombe offered a resolution to report the bill for the removal of the seat of government, and should Mr. Rolette, chairman of the committee, fail, that W. W. Wales, of said committee, report a copy of said bill.
Mr. Setzer, after the reading of the resolution, moved a call of the Council, and Mr. Rolette was found to be absent. The chair ordered the ser- geant at arms to report Mr Rolette in his seat.
Mr. Balcombe moved that further proceedings under the call be dispensed with; which did not prevail. From that time until the next Thursday afternoon, March the fifth, a period of one hun- dred and twenty-three hours, the Council re- mained in their chamber without recess. At that time a motion to adjourn prevailed. On Friday another motion was made to dispense with the call of the Council, which did not prevail. On Saturday, the Council met, the president declared the call still pending. At seven and a half p. m., a committee of the House was announced. The chair ruled, that no communication from the House could be received while a call of the Coun- cil was pending, and the committee withdrew. A motion was again made during the last night of the session, to dispense with all further pro- ceedings under the call, which prevailed, with one vote only in the negative.
Mr. Ludden then moved that a committee be appointed to wait on the Governor, and inquire if he had any further communication to make to the Council.
Mr. Lowry moved a call of the Council, which was ordered, and the roll being called, Messrs. Rolette, Thompson and Tillotson were absent.
At twelve o'clock at night the president re- sumed the chair, and announced that the time limited by law for the continuation of the session of the territorial legislature had expired, and he therefore declared the Council adjourned and the seat of government remained at Saint Paul.
The excitement on the capital question was in- tense, and it was a strange scene to see members of the Council, eating and sleeping in the hall of legislation for days, waiting for the sergeant-at- arms to report an absent member in his seat.
On the twenty-third of February, 1857, an act passed the United States Senate, to authorize the people of Minnesota to form a constitution, preparatory to their admission into the Union on an equal footing with the original states.
Governor Gorman called a special session of the legislature, to take into consideration measures that would give efficiency to the act. The extra session convened on April twenty- seventh, and a message was transmitted by Sam- uel Medary, who had been appointed governor in place of W. A. Gorman, whose term of office
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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
had expired. The extra session adjourned on the twenty-third of May ; and in accordance with the provisions of the enabling act of Con- gress, an election was held on the first Monday in June, for delegates to a convention which was to assemble at the capitol on the second Monday in July. The election resulted, as was thought, in giving a majority of delegates to the Republi- can party.
At midnight previous to the day fixed for the meeting of the convention, the Republicans pro- ceeded to the capitol, because the enabling act had not fixed at what hour on the second Mon- day the convention should assemble, and fear- ing that the Democratic delegates might antici- pate them, and elect the officers of the body. A little before twelve, A. M., on Monday, the secretary of the territory entered the speaker's rostrum, and began to call the body to order: and at the same time a delegate, J. W. North, who had in his possession a written request from the majority of the delegates present, proceeded to do the same thing. The secretary of the ter- ritory put a motion to adjourn, and the Demo- cratic members present voting in the affirmative, they left the hall. The Republicans, feeling that they were in the majority, remained. and in due time organized, and proceeded with the business specified in the enabling act, to form a constitu- tion, and. take all necessary steps for the estab- lishment of a state government, in conformity with the Federal Constitution, subject to the approval and ratification of the people of the proposed state.
After several days the Democratic wing also organized in the Senate chamber at the capitol, and, claiming to be the true body, also proceeded to form a constitution. Both parties were re- markably orderly and intelligent, and everything was marked by perfect decorum. After they had been in session some weeks, moderate counsels
prevailed, and a committee of conference was appointed from each body, which resulted in both adopting the constitution framed by the Democratic wing, on the twenty-ninth of Aug- gust. According to the provision of the consti- tution, an election was held for state officers and the adoption of the constitution, on the second Tuesday, the thirteenth of October. The constitution was adopted by almost a unanimous vote. It provided that the territorial officers should retain their offices until the state was ad- mitted into the Union, not anticipating the long delay which was experienced.
The first session of the state legislature com- menced on the first Wednesday of December, at the capitol, in the city of Saint Paul; and during the month elected Henry M. Rice and James Shields as their Representatives in the United States Senate.
EVENTS OF A. D. 1858.
On the twenty-ninth of January, 1858, Mr. Douglas submitted a bill to the United States Senate, for the admission of Minnesota into the Union. On the first of February, a discussion arose on the bill, in which Senators Douglas, Wilson, Gwin, Hale, Mason, Green, Brown, and Crittenden participated. Brown, of Mississippi, was opposed to the admission of Minnesota, un- til the Kansas question was settled. Mr. Crit- tenden, as a Southern man, could not endorse all that was said by the Senator from Mississippi; and his words of wisdom and moderation during this day's discussion, were worthy of remen- brance. On April the seventh, the bill passed the Senate with only three dissenting votes ; and in a short time the House of Representatives concurred, and on May the eleventh, the Presi- dent approved, and Minnesota was fully rec- ognized as one of the United States of America.
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OUTLINES
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA FROM 1858 TO 1881.
CHAPTER XXIV.
ADMISSION AND ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE.
Admission of the State .- Its want of Resources .- The Hard Times .- Commence. ment of Railroad Building .- The State Railroad Bonds Discredited. -- " Wild- Cat" Banking Scheme .- The Wright County War .- Failure of the State Loan Scheme .- Attempted Adjustment of the Dilemma .- Partial return of Good Times. - The Political Campaign of 1860 .- Secession Movement .- Prospect of War, &c., &c.
On May 11th, 1858, the act of Congress admit- ting Minnesota to the Union, became a law, and our State took her place among the sisterhood of republics, the thirty-second in the order of admis- sion, and had thenceforth a voice in the national councils. On the 24th of May, the State officers elect were quietly sworn in, in the Executive Rooms in the Capitol, and the machinery of the State government was put in motion. The out- look for the little commonwealth at this time, was far from propitious. The terrible financial revulsion of the previous year had prostrated all business, destroyed values, undermined confi- dence, depressed the energies and ambition of the people, and almost entirely checked immigra- tion. There was but limited agriculture (a large portion of the bread-stuffs used being imported), little accumulated wealth, and that mostly based on real estate, now unsaleable, money command- ing two per cent. a month; no established indus- tries or manufactures, not a mile of railroad, no sound banks or currency, no system for raising revenue, and not a cent of money in the State treasury. In fact the State was considerably in debt. The loan of $250,000 authorized by the Legislature the winter previous, was not yet real- ized on. Meantime, denominational treasury 9
warrants, bearing interest, were used as currency, while town and county " scrip " were generally circulated among the people as money. It was under such gloomy circumstances as these, that the State began its career.
An adjourned session of the Legislature was held in July, but little or nothing could be done for the relief of the people from the financial strin- gency or other troubles surrounding them. Some relief was hoped for from the building of the land grant railroads, which were generally got under way during the summer, but there was not as much money disbursed by the companies or contractors, as had been anticipated. The direct- ors of the roads hurried their first ten mile sec- tions of grading to completion as rapidly as possi- ble, and as soon as they were entitled to bonds, according to the terms of the constitutional amendment, applied to Gov. Sibley for the same. He declined to issue them unless the roads would give the State first mortgage bonds in equal amounts, giving it a priority of lien. This the land grant companies refused to accede to, and applied to the Supreme Court of the State, for a writ of mandamus, to compel Gov. Sibley to issue the bonds, as demanded by them. The writ was issued on November 12th, and left the Executive no alternative in the premises, so the bonds were issued. Efforts were at once made to negotiate them in the New York market.
The harvest this year, although a greatly in- creased area was sown, was almost a failure, and
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OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
bread-stuffs were still largely imported. Every- body was in the most desperate straits financially* A winter of gloom and depression set in, such as has never been experienced in the history of the Northwest, and, it is scarcely probable, ever will be again. The price of labor, for such as could get employment at all, touched an unprecedentedly low figure, though, fortunately, the cost of living had declined in the same ratio. Meantime, the ne- gotiation of the bonds in New York, proceeded very slowly. Capitalists were very unwilling to invest in them, as already some journals in the State had predicted the failure and break-down of the whole scheme, added to pretty clearly ex- pressed threats that the bonds would be repudi- ated. Anxious to save the credit of the State, and prevent a disastrous ending of the measure, Gov. Sibley went to New York in person, about the close of the year (1858) and gave his best en- deavors to aid the pending negotiation of the bonds ; but the capitalists there, alarmed at the hostile tone of the newspapers in the State, finally refused to touch them at all. The only recourse now left for the holders of the bonds, and those interested in the railroad scheme, was to use them as a security for the issue of bank notes, under the recently enacted general banking law. Purported sales at ninety-five cents on the dollar having been certified to the State Auditor, he re- ceived a large number at this figure, and procured for the owners currency in like amount. Mean- time, work was progressing on the four land grant roads.
No session of the legislature was held in the winter of 1858-'9. The stringency increased with each month. The newspapers of the state which survived, were crowded with mortgage foreclosure advertisements. Taxes were scarcely paid at all, and the warrants, or scrip, of both State and counties, depreciated, in some in- stances, to forty or fifty cents on the dollar. These were soon replaced by the issues of the new banks based on the state railroad bonds which now began to flood the state, until the names "Glencoe," "Owatonna," "La Crosse" and "La Crescent," etc., were familiar words. These issues were regarded with considerable distrust from the outset. Bankers in the state received them with much disrelish, and generally at a discount, while outside the state, they scarcely
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