History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 21

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Minnesota > Fillmore County > History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota > Part 21

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"After some brief remarks by Rev. Mr.

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

Hobart, upon the objects and ends of history, the ceremonies were concluded with a prayer by that gentleman. The audience dispersed highly delighted with all that occurred."

At this early period the Minnesota Pioneer issued a Carrier's New Year's Address, which was amusing doggerel. The reference to the future greatness and ignoble origin of the capital of Minnesota was as follows :-

The cities on this river must be three, Two that are built and one that is to be. One, is the mart of all the tropics yield, The cane, the orange, and the cotton-field, And sends her ships abroad and boasts IIer trade extended to a thousand coasts ; The other, central for the temperate zone, Garners the stores that on the plains are grown, A place where steamboats from all quarters, range,

To meet and speculate, as 'twere on 'change. The third will be, where rivers confluent flow From the wide spreading north through plains of snow ;

The mart of all that boundless forests give To make mankind more comfortably live, The land of manufacturing industry, The workshop of the nation it shall be. Propelled by this wide stream, you'll see A thousand factories at Saint Anthony : And the Saint Croix a hundred mills shall drive, And all its smiling villages shall thrive ; But then my town-remember that high bench With cabins scattered over it, of French ? A man named Henry Jackson's living there, Also a man-why every one knows L. Robair, Below Fort Snelling, seven miles or so, And three above the village of Old Crow ? Pig's Eye ? Yes ; Pig's Eye! That's the spot ! A very funny name ; is't not ? l'ig's Eye's the spot, to plant my city on, To be remembered by, when I am gone. Pig's Eye converted thou shalt be, like Saul : Thy name henceforth shall be Saint Paul.

On the evening of New Year's day, at Fort Snelling, there was an assemblage which is only seen on the outposts of civilization. In one of the stone edifices, outside of the wall, belonging to the United States, there resided a gentleman who had dwelt in Minnesota since the year 1819,

and for many years had been in the employ of the government, as Indian interpreter. In youth he had been a member of the Columbia Fur Com- pany, and conforming to the habits of traders, had purchased a Dahkotah wife who was wholly ignorant of the English language. As a family of children gathered around him he recognised the relation of husband and father, and consci- entiously discharged his duties as a parent. His daughter at a proper age was sent to a boarding school of some celebrity, and on the night re- ferred to was married to an intelligent young American farmer. Among the guests present were the officers of the garrison in full uniform, with their wives, the United States Agent for the Dahkotahs, and family, the bois brules of the neighborhood, and the Indian relatives of the mother. The mother did not make her appear- ance, but, as the minister proceeded with the ceremony, the Dahkotah relatives, wrapped in their blankets, gathered in the hall and looked in through the door.

The marriage feast was worthy of the occa- sion. In consequence of the numbers, the officers and those of European extraction partook first ; then the bois brules of Ojibway and Dah- kotah descent; and, finally, the native Ameri- cans, who did ample justice to the plentiful sup- ply spread before them.

Governor Ramsey, Hon. II. H. Sibley, and the delegate to Congress devised at Washington, this winter, the territorial seal. The design was Falls of St. Anthony in the distance. An immigrant ploughing the land on the borders of the Indian country, full of hope, and looking forward to the possession of the hunting grounds beyond. An Indian, amazed at the sight of the plough, and fleeing on horseback towards the setting sun.

The motto of the Earl of Dunraven, "Que sursuin volo videre". (I wish to see what is above) was most appropriately selected by Mr. Sibley, but by the blunder of an engraver it appeared on the territorial seal, "Quo sursum velo videre," which no scholar could translate. At length was substituted, "L' Etoile du Nord," "Star of the North," while the device of the setting sun remained, and this is objectionable, as the State of Maine had already placed the North Star on her escutcheon, with the motto "Dirigo," "I guide." Perhaps some future legislature may

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SCALP DANCE IN STILLWATER.

direct the first motto to be restored and correctly engraved.

In the month of April, there was a renewal of hostilities between the Dahkotahs and Ojibways, on lands that had been ceded to the United States. A war prophet at Red Wing, dreamed that he ought to raise a war party. _ Announcing the fact, a number expressed their willingness to go on such an expedition. Several from the Kaposia village also joined the party, under the leadership of a worthless Indian, who had been confined in the guard-house at Fort Snelling, the year previous, for scalping his wife.

Passing up the valley of the St. Croix, a few miles above Stillwater the party discovered on the snow the marks of a keg and footprints. These told them that a man and woman of the Ojibways had been to some whisky dealer's, and were re- turning. Following their trail, they found on Apple river, about twenty miles from Stillwater, a band of Ojibways encamped in one lodge. Wait- ing till daybreak of Wednesday, April second, the Dahkotahs commenced firing on the unsuspecting inmates, some of whom were drinking from the contents of the whisky keg. The camp was com- posed of fifteen, and all were murdered and scalp- ed, with the exception of a lad, who was made a captive.

On Thursday, the victors came to Stillwater, and danced the scalp dance around the captive boy, in the heat of excitement, striking him in the face with the scarcely cold and bloody scalps of his relatives. The child was then taken to Ka- posia, and adopted by the chief. Governor Ram- sey immediately took measures to send the boy to his friends. At a conference held at the Gov- ernor's mansion, the boy was delivered up, and, on being led out to the kitchen by a little son of the Governor, since deceased, to receive refresh- ments, he cried bitterly, seemingly more alarmed at being left with the whites than he had been while a captive at Kaposia.

From the first of April the waters of the Mis- sissippi began to rise, and on the thirteenth, the lower floor of the warehouse, then occupied by William Constans, at the foot of Jackson street, St. Paul, was submerged. Taking advantage of the freshet, the steamboat Anthony Wayne, for a purse of two hundred dollars, ventured through the swift current above Fort Snelling, and reached

- the Falls of St. Anthony. The boat loft the fort after dinner, with Governor Ramsey and other guests, also the band of the Sixth Regiment on board, and reached the falls between three and four o'clock in the afternoon. The whole town, men, women and children, lined the shore as the boat approached, and welcomed this first arrival, with shouts and waving handkerchiefs.

On the afternoon of May fifteenth, there might have been seen, hurrying through the streets of Saint Paul, a number of naked and painted braves of the Kaposia band of Dahkotahs, ornamented with all the attire of war, and panting for the scalps of their enemies. A few hours before, the warlike head chief of the Ojibways, young Hole- in-the-Day, having secreted his canoe in the retired gorge which leads to the cave in the upper sub- urbs, with two or three associates had crossed the river, and, almost in sight of the citizens of the town, had attacked a small party of Dahkotahs, and murdered and scalped one man. On receipt of the news, Governor Ramsey granted a parole to the thirteen Dahkotahs confined in Fort Snell- ing, for participating in the Apple river massacre.

On the morning of the sixteenth of May, the first Protestant church edifice completed in the white settlements, a small frame building, built for the Presbyterian church, at Saint Paul, was destroyed by fire, it being the first conflagration that had occurred since the organization of the territory.

One of the most interesting events of the year 1850, was the Indian council, at Fort Snelling. Governor Ramsey had sent runners to the differ- ent bands of the Ojibways and Dahkotahs, to meet him at the fort, for the purpose of en- deavouring to adjust their difficulties.

On Wednesday, the twelfth of June, after much talking, as is customary at Indian councils, the two tribes agreed as they had frequently done before, to be friendly, and Governor Ramsey presenting to each party an ox. the council was dissolved.

On Thursday, the Ojibways visited St. Paul for the first time, young Hole-in-the-Day being dressed in a coat of a captain of United States infantry, which had been presented to him at the fort. On Friday, they left in the steamer Gov- ernor Ramsey, which had been built at St. An- thony, and just commenced running between -

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that point and Sauk Rapids, for their homes in the wilderness of the Upper Mississippi.

The summer of 1850 was the commencement of the navigation of the Minnesota River by steamboats. With the exception of a steamer that made a pleasure excursion as far as Shokpay, in 1841, no large vessels had ever disturbed the waters of this stream. In June, the " Anthony Wayne," which a few weeks before had ascended to the Falls of St. Anthony, made a trip. On the eighteenth of Juiy she made a second trip, going almost to Mahkahto. The "Nominee " also navigated the stream for some distance.

On the twenty-second of July the officers of the " Yankee," taking advantage of the high water, determined to navigate the stream as far as possible. The boat ascended to near the Cot- tonwood river.

As the time for the general election in Septem- ber approached, considerable excitement was manifested. As there were no political issues before the people, parties were formed based on personal preferences. Among those nominated for delegate to Congress, by various meetings, were H. H. Sibley, the former delegate to Con- gress, David Olmsted, at that time engaged in the Indian trade, and A. M. Mitchell, the United States marshal. Mr. Olmsted withdrew his name before election day, and the contest was between those interested in Sibley and Mitchell. The friends of each betrayed the greatest zeal, and neither pains nor money were spared to in- sure success. Mr. Sibley was elected by a small majority. For the first time in the territory, soldiers at the garrisons voted at this election, and there was considerable discussion as to the propriety of such a course.

Miss Fredrika Bremer, the well known Swedish novelist, visited Minnesota in the month of October, and was the guest of Governor Ramsey.

During November, the Dahkotah Tawaxitku Kin, or the Dahkotah Friend, a monthly paper, was commenced, one-half in the Dahkotah and one-half in the English language. Its editor was the Rev. Gideon II. Pond, a Presbyterian mis- sionary, and its place of publication at Saint Paul. It was published for nearly two years, and, though it failed to attract the attention of the Indian mind, it conveyed to the English reader much

correct information in relation to the habits, the belief, and superstitions, of the Dahkotahs. .

On the tenth of December, a new paper, owned and edited by Daniel A. Robertson, late United States marshal, of Ohio, and called the Minne- sota Democrat, made its appearance.

During the summer there had been changes in the editorial supervision of the "Chronicle and Register." For a brief period it was edited by L. A. Babcock, Esq., who was succeeded by Wy. G. Le Duc.

About the time of the issuing of the Demo- crat, C. J. Henniss, formerly reporter for the United States Gazette, Philadelphia, became the editor of the Chronicle.

The first proclamation for a thanksgiving day was issued in 1850 by the governor, and the twenty-sixth of December was the time appointed and it was generally observed.

EVENTS OF A. D. 1851.

On Wednesday, January first, 1851, the second Legislative Assembly assembled in a three-story brick building, since destroyed by fire, that stood on St. Anthony street, between Washington and Franklin. D. B. Loomis was chosen Speaker of the Council, and M. E. Ames Speaker of the House. This assembly was characterized by more bitterness of feeling than any that has since convened. The preceding delegate election had been based on personal preferences, and cliques and factions manifested themselves at an early period of the session.

The locating of the penitentiary at Stillwater, and the capitol building at St. Paul gave some dissatisfaction. By the efforts of J. W. North, Esq., a bill creating the University of Minnesota at or near the Falls of St. Anthony, was passed, and signed by the Governor. This institution, by the State Constitution, is now the State Uni- versity.

During the session of this Legislature, the pub- lication of the " Chronicle and Register" ceased.

About the middle of May, a war party of Dah- kotahs discovered near Swan River, an Ojibway with a keg of whisky. The latter escaped, with the loss of his keg. The war party, drinking the contents, became intoxicated, and, firing upon some teamrters they met driving their wagons with goods to the Indian Agency, killed one of

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LANDS WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI CEDED.

them, Andrew Swartz, a resident of St. Paul. The news was conveyed to Fort Ripley, and a party of soldiers, with Hole-in-the-Day as a guide, started in pursuit of the murderers, but did not succeed in capturing them. Through the influ- ence of Little Six the Dahkotah chief, whose vil- lage was at (and named after him) Shok- pay, five of the offienders were arrested and placed in the guard-house at Fort Snelling. On Monday, June ninth, they left the fort in a wagon, guarded by twenty-five dragoons, destined for Sauk Rapids for trial. As they departed they all sang their death song, and the coarse soldiers amused themselves by making signs that they were going to be hung. On the first evening of the journey the five culprits encamped with the twenty-five dragoons. Handcuffed, they were placed in the tent, and yet at midnight they all escaped, only one being wounded by the guard. What was more remarkable, the wounded man was the first to bring the news to St. Paul. Pro- ceeding to Kaposia, his wound was examined by the missionary and physician, Dr. Williamson ; and then, fearing an arrest, he took a canoe and paddled up the Minnesota. The excuse offered by the dragoons was, that all the guard but one fell asleep.

The first paper published in Minnesota, beyond the capital, was the St. Anthony Express, which made its appearance during the last week of April or May.

The most important event of the year 1851 was the treaty with the Dahkotahs, by which the west side of the Mississippi and the valley of the Minnesota River were opened to the hardy immi- grant. The commissioners on the part of the United States were Luke Lea, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Governor Ramsey. Tho place of meeting for the upper bands was Trav- erse des Sioux. The commission arrived there on the last of June, but were obliged to wait many days for the assembling of the various bands of Dahkotahs.

On the eighteenth of July, all those expected having arrived, the Sissetoans and Wahpaytoan Dahkotahs assembled in grand council with the United States commissioners. After the usual feastings and speeches. a treaty was concluded on Wednesday, July twenty-third. The pipe having been smoked by the commissioners. Lea

and Ramsey, it was passed to the chiefs. The paper containing the treaty was then read in English and translated into the Dahkotah by the Rev. S. R. Riggs, Presbyterian Missionary among this people. This finished, the chiefs came up to the secretary's table and touched the pen; the white men present then witnessed the document, and nothing remained but the ratification of the United States Senate to open that vast country for the residence of the hardy immigrant.

During the first week in August, a treaty was also concluded beneath an oak bower, on Pilot Knob, Mendota, with the M'dewakantonwan and Wahpaykootay bands of Dahkotahs. About sixty of the chiefs and principal men touched the pen, and Little Crow, who had been in the mission- school at Lac qui Parle, signed his own name. Before they separated, Colonel Lea and Governor Ramsey gave them a few words of advice on various subjects connected with their future well- being, but particularly on the subject of educa- tion and temperance. The treaty was interpret- ed to them by the Rev. G. H. Pond, a gentleman who was conceded to be a most correct speaker of the Dahkotah tongue.

The day after the treaty these lower bands received thirty thousand dollars, which, by the treaty of 1837, was set apart for education ; but, by the misrepresentations of interested half- breeds, the Indians were made to believe that it ought to be given to them to be employed as they pleased.

The next week, with their sacks filled with money, they thronged the streets of St. Paul, purchasing whatever pleased their fancy.

On the seventeenth of September, a new paper was commenced in St. Paul, under the auspices of the "Whigs," and John P. Owens became editor, which relation he sustained until the fall of 1857.

The election for members of the legislature and county officers occurred on the fourteenth of October; and, for the first time, a regular Demo- cratic ticket was placed before the people. The parties called themselves Democratic and Anti- organization, or Coalition.

In the month of November Jerome Fuller ar- rived, and took the place of Judge Goodrich as Chief Justice of Minnesota, who was removed; and. about the same time. Alexander Wilkin was

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appointed secretary of the territory in place of C. K. Smith.

The eighteenth of December, pursuant to proclamation, was observed as a day of Thanks- giving.

EVENTS OF A. D. 1852.

The third Legislative Assembly commenced its sessions in one of the orifices 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 IIecnepin county.

On Saturday, the fourteenth of February, a dog-train arrived at S'. 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 carth. 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 Dahkotabs ; 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. II. 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.

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History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 21

Author: Edward D. Neill Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: