History of Dakota County and the City of Hastings, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 29

Author: J. Fletcher Williams
Publication date: 1881
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

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The commanding officer's quarters have been re- modeled during the current year.

The water is obtained from a spring about three-quarters of a mile from the post, by means of water wagons. Water is also obtained from the Minnesota river, being forced through pipes by an engine, into a large tank on the west side of the parade ground, but the water thus obtained is unfit for drinking purposes. During extreme cold weather the water pipes freeze up, rendering it impossible to refill the tank except during the open weather.

There is a post-office, a telegraph office and a railroad station at the post. * * * * * * * * * *

The nearest supply depots are at St. Paul, four miles distant from the post, by wagon road, and six miles by railroad. A bridge is building across the Mississippi river at the post.

Forage and fuel are obtained by contract. The post and company garden supply vegetables for the garrison.

The armament consists of two three-inch rifled cannon, with carriages, model of 1861. The present strength of the garrison is sixteen com- missioned officers and three hundred and fourteen enlisted men.

It is impossible to obtain from the records of the post, the various expenditures for barracks and quarters, and repairs of same, for any definite period. All that I have been able to obtain is that thirty-five thousand dollars was appropriated for barracks and quarters in 1878. It is presumed, however, that the required in- formation can be obtained at the quartermaster general's office. The work, practically, with few exceptions, has been performed by the labor of the troops, and the cost to the government cannot be correctly estimated.

A site has been selected on the Fort Snelling reservation upon which to erect buildings for the headquarters of the department.

The records of the post are very incomplete. It seems, from all attainable evidence, that the records were removed in 1857, when the troops were withdrawn, and have not been returned. It further appears that these records had not been received by the adjutant general of the army prior to July 18th. 1866. The last board of officers appointed to investigate claims on the

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FORT SNELLING.

Fort Snelling reservation met pursuant to S. O. No. 278 A. G. O. dated October 17th, 1870. I have been unable to find any general order re- ferring to the reservation of 1853 or 1862, or re- ferring to lands sold in 1857 and 1870.

The reservation of 1870 was announced in General Order No. 66, Adjutant General's office of that year, and was first surveyed by Captain D. P. Heap, corps of engineers, on April 15th, 1871. A new line for the southern boundary was run by First Lieutenant Edward Maguire, corps of engineers, on May 7th, 1877.

* *

I respectfully submit the foregoing, believing it will cover a few of the points required.

I am, sir, very respectfully your obedient ser- vant. S. R. DOUGLAS,

Second Lieutenant Seventh Infantry. It has already been intimated that Fort Snell- ing was the point of departure for every enter- prise connected with the north-west, and in addi- tion to the matter already given with reference to events that there took place, we may with in- terest add others. Missionary enterprise for the north-west began among the Ojibwas of the north, in 1831. The region of country about Lake Superior and along the northern borders of the United States, had been longer open by reason of trading-posts, and the safer and more approachable character of the tribes. The fierce, wild traits of the Sioux had repelled the Jesuit missionaries, as well as all other efforts for their good, until 1834, when two determined young men appeared on the scene, destined to prove superior to all obstacles. These were the mission- aries now so well known to all acquainted with the history of the north-west, by their clerical names, Rev. S. W. Pond and his brother, Rev. Gideon H. At this time, however, they were young adventurers in the Christian work, without profession or patronage save that of the Master in whose vineyard they set at work, devoting their lives to His service.

.They arrived by steamboat at Fort Snelling, May 6th, 1834, self-equipped and commissioned to labor for the Sioux. Major Taliaferro, the In- dian agent, was absent on their arrival at the fort, but they obtained a room in one of the agency houses of the post, by feeing the mercenary sub- agent in charge. To exhibit some of the trials

to which the brothers were immediately exposed, we give some of Rev. S. W. Pond's reminiscences.

" We had not been at the agency house at the fort long, before Major Bliss sent his orderly, re- quiring us to appear before him and give an ac- cout of ourselves. I, of course obeyed the man- date, and he told me it was his duty to exclude from the Indian country all who were not author- ized to be here. Having no authority to show, I handed him Mr. Kent's letter, which he pronounced unsatisfactory, for he said though Mr. Kent was a reliable man being the Presbyterian cler- gyman at Galena, his acquaintance was too short for him to know much about me. I then handed him a private letter from General Brinsmaid, a man well known in New England, and also a let- ter from the postmaster of my native place. These letters he said were perfectly satisfactory, so far asour character was concerned. He then asked me what our plans were. I told him we had no plans except to do what seemed most for the benefit of the Indian. He told me then that the Kaposia band wanted plowing done, and had a plow and oxen, but could not use them, so I volunteered to go down and help them, and then hastened back to the agency house to tell Gideon how I had succeeded with the major, for I knew that his mind would be in a state of anxious sus- pense. These little things may seem now hardly worth relating, but whether we were to stay here or be driven away, depended on the result of that interview with the major. We were in fact in- truders, and had no right to be here. The mis- sionaries of the board did not come here without authority from the secretary of war. Major Plympton, who succeeded Major Bliss in com- mand, received orders to remove all persons from this region who were not authorized to be here, but we were not molested. From the time of my first interview with Major Bliss, he and Mrs. Bliss were our true friends and when I returned from Kaposia, they invited me to reside in their family, and instruct their son, a boy eight or ten years old, but I had other work to do. When the Indians learned that I would plow for them they took down the plow in a canoe, and I drove down the oxen. At Kaposia, the chief was Big Thunder, the father of Ta-o-ya-te-du-ta, called by the whites erroneously Little Crow, and the chief soldier was Big Iron These two held the plow

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FIRST CHURCH.

alternately, while I drove the oxen. I suppose they were the first Dakotas who ever held a plow. The dogs, or Indians, stole my provisions the first night I was there, and I did not 'fare sumptu- ously every day,' for food was scarce and not very palatable. About the time I returned from Kaposia, Major Taliaferro arrived and seemed glad to find us here. No more was said about rent, and we kept the key to our room till our house was finished at Lake Calhoun. This was a great convenience for us, for before that time, neither provisions nor clothing were safe at the lake. We told the agent that we wished to build a house near some village, and he advised us to build at Lake Calhoun, and after my brother plowed for the Indians a few days, we commenced building where the pavillion now stands. Owing to our inexperience we wasted a great deal of labor. We put up a building of large oak logs that might have stood fifty years, but we could have built a more comfortable house afterwards with half the labor. Five years after, we used the timber to build a breastwork for the Indians. While building we occupied a temporary shelter in the woods, where we were constantly sur- rounded by a cloud of musquitoes, and, as my brother's health was not good that summer, the laborious days and restless nights almost wore him out, but when our house was finished it seemed like a palace to us after living a few weeks in that kennel, and we were no longer compelled to walk eight miles and back every week, to the agency-house to get a supply of food, for we now had a safe place to store our clothing and provisions. Major Taliaferro gave us a window-lock and an ax, and Mrs. Bliss sent us a ham, and Major Bliss gave us potatoes to plant the next spring. That was all the pecuni_ ary aid we received or wished to receive, and when the agent offered us a stove we preferred to build a fire-place, for while we felt grateful for the favors we received, we wished to maintain a spirit of independence. We had the use of oxen, but we used them chiefly for the Indians and to take care of them through the winter. But though we did not receive and should not have accepted much pecuniary aid if it had been offered us, the influence of friends in our favor was of great advantage to us, for it was needed to coun- teract the efforts of others to excite the prejudice

of the Indians against us, and we congratulated ourselves on the timely arrival of Mr. Sibley at Mendota."

Lake Calhoun was within the Fort Snelling reservation and thus was established the first mission, not only for the fort, but for the whole country of the Sioux.

Rev, T. S. Williamson, M. D., and Rev. J. D. Stevens, with their wives and associates, Mr. Huggins and Miss Poage, arrived at Fort Snell- ing in May, 1835, under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Dr. Williamson came by the Missis- sippi from the mouth of the Ohio, and Mr. Stevens came through Lake Michigan to Green Bay, thence by the Fox and Ouisconsin (then so spelled) rivers to Prairie du Chien, thence to Fort Snelling by the Mississippi. Major Bliss in com- mand, Major Loomis, Major Taliafero, and all at the fort welcomed their arrival. During their continuance at the fort and before proceeding to the stations selected at Lac qui Parle and Lake Harriet, about a month elapsed.

In June they organized a Christian church, to which eight persons connected with the garrison and who had been hopefully converted during the preceding winter and spring, were admitted on profession, together with six others, who had been members of other churches. The elders of the church were Col. Gustavus Loomis, Hon. H. H. Sibley, then a young man who had lately as- sumed charge of the trading post at Mendota, A. G. Huggins and S. W. Pond. "On the second Sabbath in June, these with the members of the mission families, amounting to twenty-two in all, sat down in the wilderness to communicate the dying love of the Savior of sinners, hundreds of miles in advance of where a similar scene had ever before been witnessed or enjoyed." It is in- teresting to follow out this feeble beginning. Suffice it to say, the First Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, of which D. M. Stewart, D. D., is pastor, is a continuation or perpetuation of the old church at the fort.

In 1822, to supply the demand of the fort, a mill was erected at the Falls of St. Anthony to saw lumber, and to this was added, in 1823, stones for grinding corn for provender. Thus the fort opened enterprise in the direction of manufac- tures. This old stone mill, partially hid by shrub-

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bery, was long a land mark, but its simple struc- ture produced small results in the way of sawing or grinding. A small house was built near the mill for the occupany of those employed in its operation; and here, when the settlement after- wards began, was a small, cultivated tract, which, with the mill, was under the charge of one called "Old Maloney," who was aided, as required, by soldiers from the fort.

Hon. Robert Smith, member of congress from Alton district, Illinois, wrote, February 15th, 1849, from the house of representatives, to the commissioner of Indian affairs, expressing a wish "to lease for five years the old government house and grist and saw-mill, on the west side of the Mississippi river, opposite the Falls of St. An- thony." In the letter he adds: "I shall move into the territory of Minnesota after the adjourn- ment of congress, and I wish to procure this house for my family to live in, and to fix up the old grist mill to grind corn and other grain, there being no grist-mill now in that region of coun- try."

This led to correspondence between Major Woods, in command at the fort, and the secretary of war, and also other letters. A letter descrip- tive of the property at that time is here intro- duced, but the details must be taken with many grains of allowance, as the writer was in league with the grasping congressman, to descry the property and obtain it for a song.

In September, Mr. Smith had asked the privi- lege of purchasing the buildings, and in March, 1853, Captain N. J. T. Dana, quartermaster at Fort Snelling, wrote to the quartermaster-general at Washington: "I returned to this post on the 20th instant, and on the next day visited the old mill and buildings belonging to the quartermas- ter's department, and now in possession of Hon. Robert Smith, and I submit the following as my opinion of the value of the buildings to the gov- ernment at the time when Mr. Smith received them. The old stone grist-mill, the building somewhat dilapidated, the water-wheel worn out entirely, but the other machinery, including two mill-stones, good, was worth $400. The old frame of a saw-mill, greatly decayed, together with the mill-irons on it and extra posts, mostly worn out, $100. The one-story frame building, much decayed, $200. Fences and races, much de-

cayed, $50." The result of the negotiation was the purchase by Mr. Smith of the improvement, and a permit granted him from the secretary of war to make a claim including the same, although at this time the land formed a part of the Fort Snelling reserve.

The purpose of the grant was that Mr. Smith should operate the mill for the benefit of the gov- ernment, in supplying provender for Fort Snell- ing. This purpose was carried out by Mr. Smith by placing Reuben Bean in charge to operate the mill, soon after substituting Calvin A. Tuttle, who continued several years. The ostensible pur- pose of moving to Minnesota, and personally oc- cupying the buildings and land, was never car- ried out on Mr. Smith's part, for he remained in Illinois until his death, representing Alton dis- trict in the house of representatives at Washing- ton.

Soon after the erection of Fort Snelling, the fur trade of the northwest, which had previously been carried on by the way of the lakes, took the great river as one important avenue, and the fort became the rendezvous of traders and speculators, forming their channel of communication and base of supplies.

Under the sheltering wing of the fort also sprung up, on the reserve, cabins and small farms, some of which were occupied by French Canadians, who here took a rest from their voy- aging, living with the squaws, with whom they seem to have mated as easily as birds in the spring. Others were occupied by half-breeds, very similar in character to the former, but the Swiss refugees, from Lord Selkirk's colony, were by far the most interesting and important of these squatters. Induced by the flattering representa- tions of Lord Selkirk, a large settlement had been formed on the Red river, in the Hudson Bay ter- ritory, from the Swiss and Scotch. After suffer- ing untold privations from cold, hunger, floods and the strife between the two great fur companies of the north, this colony was broken up and the individuals that constituted it found homes at various points within our territories. Many located near Dubuque, but a few about Fort Snelling, and to this exodus from the north we must ascribe our first settlement. Some of these became farmers with no small pretensions. Perry, who located on the limits of the reserve,

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REMOVAL OF SWISS SETTLERS.

at the cave, near St. Paul, was called the Abra- ham of the country, in consequence of his large flocks.

Near him also lived Benjamin Garvais and his brother Pierre, who had farms with considerable improvements. After occupying their comfort- able homes for nearly ten years, in obedience to an imperative order from the war department, these inoffensive settlers were forced to abandon their lands and improvements and seek other homes. We cannot forbear tender sympathy for these simple 'people, whose misfortunes had al- ready been so great, when we see them the vic- tims of new trouble. The instructions of the war department, reiterated October 31st, 1839, were, however, imperative and inexorable, and it is probable that the unwarranted force exercised was necessary to compel obedience to the military order.

On May 6th, 1840, Edward James, United States marshal for the territory of Wisconsin, called on the commanding officer of Fort Snelling for troops, by his deputy Brunson, and the set- tlers were forcibly and hastily removed. On the following day their cabins were destroyed. Thus rendered homeless and shelterless, they sought new abodes. Perry, Gervais, Clewette, Rondo and some others made claims and settled at St. Paul, while others removed to Wisconsin.

A large portion of what is now Minneapolis

was included in the reservation, and there, similar events were enacted some years later, when squatters began to encroach on that portion of the reserve. The permits granted to a few to locate on the reserve opposite the Falls of St. Anthony, encouraged settlers to make claims and locate there in anticipation of the reduction which it seemed probable was near at hand. It is un- fortunate that it must be recorded of the officers in charge, that their rough treatment in the exe- cution of orders were often executed in an arbi- trary and tyranical manner, unless we discredit the universal testimony of the well known settlers of respectability thus dispossessed. In addition to pulling down their shelters and threatening the occupants with the guard-house in case they re-built, the officers were guilty of corruption and received bribes from the squatters in the form of notes or agreements to pay when their claims were established.

In these various ways the history of our cities, the settlement of the country at large, and even farming and manufacturing find in Fort Snell- ing their origin and first progress. The perusal of the following pages will exhibit much more fully the intimate connection between Fort Snell- ing and the development of the north-west, and, although its influence is a thing of the past, its history will always remain a matter of present interest.

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CHRONOLOGY.

CHAPTER XXXI.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS CHRONOLOGICALLY RANGED.

AR-

1659. Groselliers (Gro-zay-yay) and Radisson visit Minnesota.

1661. Mena:d, a Jesuit missionary ascends the Mississippi, according to Perrot, twelve years be- fore Marquette saw the river.

1665. Allouez, a Jesuit, visited the Minnesota shore of Lake Superior.

1680. Du Luth in June, the first to travel in a canoe from Lake Superior, by way of the St. Croix river, to the Misssissippi. Descending the Mississippi, he writes to Seignelay in 1683: "I proceeded in a canoe two days and two nights, and the next day at ten o'clock in the morning" he found Accault, Augelle, and Father Hennepin, with a hunting party of Sioux. He writes: "The want of respect which they showed to the said Reverend Father provoked me, and this I showed them, telling them he was my brother, and I had him placed in my canoe to come with me into the villages of said Nadouecioux." In September, Du Luth and Hennepin were at the falls of St. Anthony on their way to Mackinaw.

1683. Perrot and Le Sueur visit Lake Pepin. Perrot with twenty men, builds a stockade at the base of a bluff, upon the east bank, just above the entrance of Lake Pepin.

1688. Perrot re-occupied the post on Lake Pepin.

1689. Perrot, at Green Bay, makes a formal record of taking possession of the Sioux country in the name of the king of France.

1693. Le Sueur at the extremity of Lake Su- perior.

1694. Le Sueur builds a post on a prairie island in the Mississippi, about nine miles below Hastings.

1695. Le Sueur brings the first Sioux chiefs who visited Canada.

1700. Le Sueur ascends the Minnesota river. Fort L'Huillier built on a tributary of Blue Earth river.

1702. Fort L'Huillier abandoned.

1727. Fort Beauharnois, in the fall of the year, erected in sight of Maiden's Rock, Lake Pepin, by La Perriere du Boucher.

1728. Verendye stationed at Lake Nepigon.

1731. Verendrye's sons reach Rainy Lake. Fort St. Pierre erected at Rainy Lake.

1732. Fort St. Charles erected at the south- west corner of the Lake of the Woods.

1734. Fort Maurepas established on Winnipeg river.

1736. Verendrye's son and others massacred by the Sioux on the isle in the Lake of the Woods. 1738. Fort La Reine on the Red River estab- lished. 1743. Verendrye's sons reach the Rocky Moun- tains.

1766. Jonathan Carver, on November 17th, reaches the Falls of St. Anthony.

1794. Sandy Lake occupied by the North- west Company.

1802. William Morrison trades at Leech Lake.

1804. William Morrison trades at Elk Lake, now Itasca.

1805. Lieutenant Z. M. Pike purchases the site since occupied by Fort Snelling.

1817. Earl of Selkirk passes through Minne- sota for Lake Winnipeg.

Major Stephen H. Long, U. S. A., visits Falls of St. Anthony.

1818. Dakotah war party under Black Dog, attacks Ojibways on the Pomme de Terre river. 1819. Col. Leavenworth arrives on the 24th of August, with troops at Mendota.

1820. J. B. Faribault brings up to Mendota, horses for Col. Leavenworth. (170)

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CHRONOLOGY.

Laidlow, superintendent of farming for Earl Selkirk, passes from Pembina to Prairie du Chien to purchase seed wheat. Upon the 15th of April left Prairie du Chien with mackinaw boats and ascended the Minnesota to Big Stone Lake, where the boats were placed on rollers and dragged a short distance to Lake Traverse, and on the 3d of June reached Pembina.

On the 5th of May Col. Leavenworth estab- lished summer quarters at Camp Coldwater, Hen- nepin county.

In July, Governor Cass, of Michigan, visits the camp.

In August, Col. Snelling succeeds Leaven- worth.

September 20th, corner stone laid under com- mand of Col. Snelling.

First white marriage in Minnesota, Lieutenant Green to a daughter of Captain Gooding.

First white child born in Minnesota, daughter of Col. Snelling; died following year.

1821. Fort St. Anthony was sufficiently com- pleted to be occupied by troops.

Mill at St. Anthony Falls constructed for the use of garrison, under the supervision of Lieuten- ant McCabe.

1822. Col. Dickson attempted to take a drove of cattle to Pembina.

1823. The first steamboat, the Virginia, on May 10th, arrived at the mouth of the Minnesota river.

Mill stones for grinding flour sent to St. An- thony Falls.

Major Long, U. S. A., visits the northern boundary by way of the Minnesota and Red river.

Beltrami, the Italian traveler, explores the northernmost source of the Mississippi.

1824. General Winfield Scott inspects Fort St. Anthony, and at his suggestion the war de- partment changed the name to Fort Snelling.

1825. April 5th, steamboat Rufus Putnam reaches the Fort. May, steamboat Rufus Put- nam arrives again and delivers freight at Land's End trading post on the Minnesota, about a mile above the Fort.

1826. January 26th, first mail in five months received at the Fort.

Deep snow during February and March.

March 20th, snow from twelve to eighteen inches.

April 5th, snow storm with flashes of light- ning.

April 10th, thermometer four degrees above zero.

April 21st, ice began to move in the river at the Fort, and with water twenty feet above low water mark.

May 2d, first steamboat of the season, the Law- rence, Captain Reeder, took a pleasure party to within three miles of the Falls of St. Anthony.

1826. Dakotahs kill an Ojibway near Fort Snelling.

1827. Flat Mouth's party of Ojibways at- tacked at Fort Snelling, and Sioux delivered by Colonel Snelling to be killed by Ojibways, and their bodies thrown over the bluff into the river. General Gaines inspects Fort Snelling.

Troops of the Fifth Regiment relieved by those of the First.

1828. Colonel Snelling dies in Washington.

1829. Rev. Alvan Coe and J. D. Stevens, Presbyterian missionaries, visit the Indians around Fort Snelling.

Major Taliaferro, Indian agent, establishes a farm for the benefit of the Indians at Lake Cal- houn, which he called Eatonville, after the sec- retary of war.

Winter. Spring and Summer very dry. One inch was the average monthly fall of rain or snow for ten months. Vegetation more back- ward than it had been for ten years.

1830. August 14th, a sentinel at Fort Snell- ing, just before daylight, discovered the Indian council house on fire. Wa-pa-sha's son-in-law was the incendiary.

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History of Dakota County and the City of Hastings, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 29

Author: J. Fletcher Williams Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: J. Fletcher Williams
Publication date: 1881
Publisher:
Number of Pages: