USA > Minnesota > Freeborn County > History of Freeborn County, including explorers and pioneers of Minnesota, and outline history of the state of Minnesota > Part 20
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" The school was commenced in a little log hovel, covered with bark, and chinked with mud, previously used as a blacksmith shop. On three sides of the interior of this humble log cabin, pegs were driven into the logs. upon which boards were laid for seats. Another seat was made by placing one end of a plank between the cracks of the logs, and the other upon a chair. This was for visitors. A rickety cross-legged table in the centre, and a hen's nest in one corner, com- pleted the furniture."
Saint Croix county, in the year 1847. was de- tached from Crawford county. Wisconsin, and reorganized for judicial purposes, and Stillwater made the county seat. In the month of June the United States District Court held its session in the store-room of Mr. John McKnsick ; Judge Charles Dunn presiding. A large number of lumbermen had been attracted by the pineries in the upper portion of the valley of Saint Croix, and Stillwater was looked upon as the center of the lumbering interest.
The Rev. Mr. Boutwell, feeling that he could be more useful, left the Ojibways, and took up his residence near Stillwater, preaching to the lumbermen at the Falls of Saint Croix, Marine Mills, Stillwater, and Cottage Grove. In a letter speaking of Stillwater, he says, " IFere is a little village sprung up like a gourd, but whether it is to perish as soon, God only knows."
NAMES PROPOSED FOR MINNESOTA TERRITORY.
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CHAPTER XXI.
EVENTS PRELIMINARY TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE MINNESOTA TERRITORY.
Wisconsin State Boundaries-First Bill for the Organization of Minnesota Terri- tory, A. D. 1846-Change of Wisconsin Boundary-Memorial of Saint Croix Valley citizens-Various names proposed for the New ferritory-Convention at Stillwater-H. H. Sibley elected Delegate to Congress .- Derivation of word Minnesota.
Three years elapsed from the time that the territory of Minnesota was proposed in Congress, to the final passage of the organic act. On the sixth of August, 1846, an act was passed by Con- gress authorizing the citizens of Wisconsin Ter- ritory to frame a constitution and form a state government. The act fixed the Saint Louis river to the rapids, from thence south to the Saint Croix, and thence down that river to its junction with the Mississippi, as the western boundary.
On the twenty - third of December, 1846, the delegate from Wisconsin, Morgan L. Martin, in- troduced a bill in Congress for the organization of a territory of Minnesota. This bill made its western boundary the Sioux and Red River of the North. On the third of March, 1847, per- mission was granted to Wisconsin to change her boundary, so that the western limit would pro- ceed due south from the first rapids of the Saint Louis river, and fifteen miles east of the most easterly point of Lake Saint Croix, thence to the Mississippi.
A number in the constitutional convention of Wisconsin, were anxious that Rum river should be a part of her western boundary, while citizens of the valley of the Saint Croix were desirous that the Chippeway river should be the limit of Wisconsin. The citizens of Wisconsin Territory, in the valley of the Saint Croix, and about Fort Snelling, wished to be included in the projected new territory, and on the twenty-eighth of March, 1848, a memorial signed by II. HI. Sibley, Henry M. Rice, Franklin Steele, William R. Marshall, and others, was presented to Congress, remon- strating against the proposition before the con- vention to make Rum river a part of the bound- ary line of the contemplated state of Wisconsin.
On the twenty-ninth of May, 1848, the act to admit Wisconsin changed the boundary line to the present, and as first defined in the enabling act of 1846. After the bill of Mr. Martin was introduced into the House of Representatives in 1846 it was referred to the Committee on Terri- tories, of which Mr. Douglas was chairman. On the twentieth of January, 1847, he reported in favor of the proposed territory with the name of Itasca. On the seventeenth of February, be- fore the bill passed the House, a discussion arose in relation to the proposed name. Mr. Win- throp of Massachusetts proposed Chippewa as a substitute, alleging that this tribe was the prin- cipal in the proposed territory, which was not correct. Mr. J. Thompson of Mississippi disliked all Indian names, and hoped the territory would be called Jackson. Mr. Houston of Delaware thought that there ought to be one territory named after the "Father of his country," and proposed Washington. All of the names pro- posed were rejected, and the name in the original bill inserted. On the last day of the session, March third, the bill was called up in the Senate and laid on the table.
When Wisconsin became a state the query arose whether the old territorial government did not continue in force west of the Saint Croix river. The first meeting on the subject of claim- ing territorial privileges was held in the building at Saint Paul, known as Jackson's store, near the corner of Bench and Jackson streets, on the bluff. This meeting was held in July, and a convention was proposed to consider their posi- tion. The first public meeting was held at Still- water on August fourth, and Messrs. Steele and Sibley were the only persons present from the west side of the Mississippi. This meeting Is- sued a call for a general convention to take steps to secure an early territorial organization, to assemble on the twenty-sixth of the month at
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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTAI.
the same place. Sixty-two delegates answered the call, and among those present. were W. D. Phillips. JJ. W. Bass, A. Larpenteur, J. M. Boal. and others from Saint Paul. To the convention a letter was presented from Mr. Catlin, who claimed to be acting governor, giving his opinion that the Wisconsin territorial organization was still in force. The meeting also appointed Mr. Sibley to visit Washington and represent their views; but the Ilon. John II. Tweedy having resigned his office of delegate to Congress on September eighteenth, 1848, Mr. Catlin, who had made Stillwater a temporary residence, on the ninth of October issued a proclamation ordering a special election at Stillwater on the thirtieth, to till a vacancy occasioned by the resignation. At this election Henry II. Sibley was elected as delegate of the citizens of the remaining portion of Wisconsin Territory. Ifis credentials were presented to the House of Representatives, and the committee to whom the matter was referred presented a majority and minority report : bnt the resolution introduced by the majority passed and Mr. Sibley took his seat as a delegate from Wisconsin Territory on the fifteenth of January, 1849.
Mr. II. M. Rice, and other gentlemen, visited Washington during the winter, and, uniting with Mr. Sibley, used all their energies to obtain the organization of a new territory.
Mr. Sibley, in an interesting communication to the Minnesota Historical Society, writes : " When my credentials as Delegate, were presented by Ilon. James Wilson, of New Hampshire, to the
House of Representatives, there was some curi- osity manifested among the members, to see what kind of a person had been elected to represent the distant and wild territory claiming representation in Congress. I was toll by a New England mnem- ber with whom I became subsequently quite inti- mate, that there was some disappointment when I made my appearance, for it was expected that the delegate from this remote region would make his debut, if not in full Indian costume, at least, with some peculiarities of dress and manners, characteristic of the rude and semi-civilized peo- ple who had sent him to the Capitol."
·The territory of Minnesota was named after the largest tributary of the Mississippi within its limits. The Sioux call the Missouri Minnesho- shay. muddy water, but the stream after which this region is named. Minne-sota. Some say that Sota means clear; others, turbid ; Schoolcraft, bluish green. Nicollet wrote. "The adjective Sotah is of difficult translation. The Canadians translated it by a pretty equivalent word, brouille, perhaps more properly rendered into English by blear. I have entered upon this explanation be cause the word really means neither elear nor turbid, as some authors have asserted. its true meaning being found in the Sioux es pression Ishtah-sotah, blear-eyed." From the fact that the word signities neither blue nor white, but the peculiar appearance of the sky at certain times, by some, Minnesota has been defined to mean the sky tinted water, which is certainly portie, and the late Rev. Gideon II. Pond thought quite correct.
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MINNESOTA IN THE BEGINNING.
CHAPTER XXII.
MINNESOTA FROM ITS ORGANIZATION AS A TERRITORY, A. D. 1849, TO A. D. 1854.
appearance of the Country, A. D. 1549 - Arrival of first Editor - Governor Ramsey arrives - Guest ul H. HI. Sibley - Proclamation issued - Governor Ramsey and Il. M. Rice move to Sunt Paul Fourth of July Celebration- First election-Early newspapers-First Courts-First Legislature -- Pioneer News Carrier's Address-Wedding at Fort Snelling-Territorial Seal-Scalp Dance at Stillwater-First Steamboat at Fills of Saint Anthony-Presbyterian Chapel burned-Indian council at Fort Snelling-First Steamboat above Saint Anthony -- First boat at the BIne Earth River -Congressional election Visit.of Fredrika Bremer-Indian newspaper-Other newspapers-Second Legislature -University of Minnesota-Teamster killed by Indians-Sioux Treaties-Third Legislature-Land slide al Stillwater-Death of first Editor Fourth Legislature Baldwin School, now Macilester College-Indian tight in Saint Panl.
On the third of March, 1849, the bill was passed by Congress for organizing the territory of Minnesota, whose boundary on the west, extended to the Missouri River. At this time, the region was little more than a wilderness. The west bank of the Mississippi, from the Iowa line to Lake Itasca, was unceded by the Indians.
At Wapashaw, was a trading post in charge of Alexis Bailly, and here also resided the ancient voyageur, of fourscore years, A. Rocque.
At the foot of Lake Pepin was a store house kept by Mr. F. S. Richards. On the west shore of the Jake lived the eccentric Wells, whose wife , was a bois brule, a daughter of the deceased trader, Duncan Graham.
The two unfinished buildings of stone, on the beautiful bank opposite the renowned Maiden's Rock, and the surrounding skin lodges of his wife's relatives and friends, presented a rude but picturesque scene. Above the lake was a cluster of bark wigwams, the Dalıkotah village of Raymeecha, now Red Wing, at which was a Presbyterian mission house.
The next settlement was Kaposia, also an In- dian village, and the residence of a Presbyterian missionary, the Rev. T. S. Williamson, M. D. On the east side of the Mississippi, the first set- tlement, at the mouth of the St. Croix, was Point Douglas, then as now, a small hamlet.
At Red Rock, the site of a former Methodist mission station, there were a few farmers. Saint · Paul was just emerging from a collection of In- dian whisky shops and birch roofed cabins of
half-breed voyageurs. Here and there a frame tenement was erected, and, under the auspices of the IIon. IT. M. Rice, who had obtained an inter- est in the town, some warehouses were con- structed, and the foundations of the American Ilouse, a frame hotel, which stood at Third and Exchange street, were laid. In 1849, the popu- lation had increased to two hundred and fifty or three hundred inhabitants, for rumors had gone abroad that it might be mentioned in the act, creating the territory, as the capital of Minnesota. More than a month after the adjournment of Congress, just at eve, on the ninth of April, amid terrific peals of thunder and torrents of rain, the weekly steam packet, the first to force its way through the iey barrier of Lake Pepin, rounded the rocky point whistling loud and long, as if the bearer of glad tidings. Before she was safely moored to the landing, the shouts of the excited villagers were heard announcing that there was a territory of Minnesota, and that Saint Paul was the seat of government.
Every successive steamboat arrival poured out on the landing men big with hope, and anxious to do something to mould the future of the new state.
Nine days after the news of the existence of the territory of Minnesota was received, there arrived James M. Goodhue with press, type, and printing apparatus. A graduate of Amherst college, and a lawyer by profession, he wiekled a sharp pen, and wrote editorials, which, more than anything else, perhaps, induced immigration. Though a man of some faults, one of the counties properly bears his name. On the twenty-eighth of April, he issued from his press the first number of the Pioneer.
On the twenty - seventh of May. Alexander Ramsey, the Governor, and family, arrived at Saint Paul, but owing to the crowded state of pub-
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA
lic houses, immediately proceeded in the steamer to the establishment of the Fur Company, known as Mendota. at the junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi, and became the guest of the Hon. II. II. Sibley.
On the first of June, Governor Ramsey, by pro- clamation, declared the territory duly organized, with the following officers : Alexander Ramsey, of Pennsylvania, Governor : C. K. Smith, of Ohio, Secretary ; A. Goodrich, of Tennessee, Chief Justice ; D. Cooper, of Pennsylvania. and B. B. Meeker, of Kentucky, Associate Judges; Joshna L. Taylor. Marshal ; HI. L. Moss, attorney of the United States.
On the eleventh of June, a second proclama- tion was issued, dividing the territory into three temporary judicial districts. The first comprised the county of St. Croix ; the county of La Pointe and the region north and west of the Mississippi. and north of the Minnesota and of a line running due west from the headwaters of the Minnesota to the Missouri river, constituted the second : and the country west of the Mississippi and south of the Minnesota, formed the third district. Judge Goodrich was assigned to the first, Meeker to the second. and Cooper to the third. A court was ordered to be held at Stillwater on the second Monday, at the Falls of St. Anthony on the third, and at Mendota on the fourth Monday of August.
Until the twenty-sixth of June, Governor Ramsey and family had been guests of HIon. HI. II. Sibley, at Mendota. On the afternoon of that day they arrived at St. Paul, in a birch-bark canoe, and became permanent residents at the capital. The house first occupied as a guber- natorial mansion, was a small frame building that stood on Third. between Robert and Jackson streets, formerly known as the New England House.
A few days after, the Ilon. HI. M. Rice and family moved from Mendota to St. Paul, and oc- enpied the house he had erected on St. Anthony street, near the corner of Market.
On the first of July, a land office was estab- lished at Stillwater, and A. Van Vorhes, after a few weeks, became the register.
The anniversary of our National Independence was celebrated in a becoming manner at the eap- ital. The place selected for the address, was a grove that stood on the sites of the City Hall and
the Baldwin Schoot building, and the late Frank- lin Steele was the marshal of the day.
On the seventh of July, a proclamation was is- sned. dividing the territory into seven council districts, and ordering an election to be held on the first day of August, for one delegate to rep- resent the people in the House of Representatives of the United States, for nine councillors and eighteen representatives, to constitute the Legis- lative Assembly of Minnesota.
In this month, the Hon. H. M. Riee despatch- ed a boat laded with Indian goods from the the Falls of St. Anthony to Crow Wing, which was towed by horses after the mamer of a canal boat.
The election on the first of August, passed off with little excitement, Hon. HI, HI. Sibley being elected delegate to Congress without opposition. David Lambert, on what might, perhaps, be termed the old settlers' ticket, was defeated in St. Paul, by James M. Boal. The latter, on the night of the election, was honored with a ride through town on the axle and fore-wheels of an old wagon, which was drawn by his admiring but somewhat undisciplined friends.
J. L. Taylor having declined the office of United States Marshal; A. M. Mitchell, of Ohio, a graduate of West Point, and colonel of a regi- ment of Ohio volunteers in the Mexican war, was appointed and arrived at the capital early in August.
There were three papers published in the ter- ritory soon after its organization. The first was the Pioneer, issued on April twenty-eighth, 1849, under most discouraging eireumstances. It was at first the intention of the witty and reckless editor to have called his paper "The Epistie of St. Paul." About the same time there was issued in Cincinnati, under the auspices of the late Dr. A. Randall, of California, the first number of the Register. The second number of the paper was printed at St. Paul. in July, and the office was on St. Anthony, between Washington and Market Streets, About the first of June, James Hughes, afterward of Hudson, Wisconsin, arrived with a press and materials, and established the Minnesota Chronicle. After an existence of a few weeks two papers were discontinued; and, in their place, was issued the "Chronicle and
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DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPORARY CAPITOL.
Register," edited by Nathaiel McLean and John P. Owens.
The first courts, pursuant to proclamation of the governor, were held in the month of August. At Stillwater, the court was organized on the thirteenth of the month, Judge Goodrich pre- siding, and Judge Cooper by courtesy, sitting on the bench. On the twentieth, the second judi- cial district held a court. The room used was the old government mill at Minneapolis. The presiding judge was B. B. Meeker; the foreman of the grand jury, Franklin Steele. On the last Monday of the month, the court for the third judicial district was organized in the large stone warehouse of the fur company at Mendota. The presiding judge was David Cooper. Governor Ramsey sat on the right, and Judge Goodrich ou the left. Hon. II. 1I. Sibley was the foreman of the grand jury. As some of the jurors could not speak the English language, W. Il. Forbes acted as interpreter. The charge of Judge Cooper was lucid, scholarly, and dignified. At the request of the grand jury it was afterwards published.
On Monday, the third of September, the first Legislative Assembly convened in the "Central House, " in Saint Paul, a building at the corner of Minnesota and Bench streets, facing the Mississippi river which answered the double purpose of capitol and hotel. On the first floor of the main building was the Secreta- ry's office and Representative chamber, and in the second story was the library and Council chamber. As the flag was run up the staff in front of the house, a number of Indians sat on a rocky bluff in the vicinity, and gazed at what to them was a novel and perhaps saddening scene ; for if the tide of immigration sweeps in from the Pacific as it has from the Atlantic coast, they must soon dwindle.
The legislature having organized, elected the following permanent officers: David Olmsted, President of Council; Joseph R. Brown, Secre- ary; II. A. Lambert, Assistant. In the House of Representatives. Joseph W. Furber was elect- ed Speaker: W. D. Phillips, Clerk; L. B. Wait, Assistant.
On Tuesday afternoon, both houses assembled in the dining hall of the hotel, and after prayer was offered by Rev. E. D. Neill, Governor Ram- sey delivered his message. The message was ably
written. and its perusal afforded satisfaction at home and abroad.
The first session of the legislature adjourned ou the first of November. Among other proceed- ings of interest, was the creation of the following coimties: Itasca, Wapashaw, Dahikotah, Wali- nahtalı, Mahkahto, Pembina Washington, Ram- sey and Benton. The three latter counties com- prised the country that up to that time had been ceded by the Indians on the east side of the Mis- sissippi, Stil water was declared the county seat of Washington, Saint Paul, of Ramsey, and " the seat of justice of the county of Benton was to be within one-quarter of a mile of a point.on the east side of the Mississippi, directly opposite the mouth of Sauk river."
EVENTS OF A. D 1850.
By the active exertions of the secretary of the territory, C. K. Smith, Esq., the Historical Society of Minnesota was incorporated at the first session of the legislatme. The opening an- nual address was delivered in the then Methodist (now Swedenborgian) church at Saint Paul, on the first of January, 1850.
The following account of the proceedings is from the Chronicle and Register. "The first public exercises of the Minnesota Historical Society, took place at the Methodist church, Saint Paul, on the first inst., and passed off highly creditable to all concerned. The day was pleasant and the attendance large. At the appointed hour, the President and both Vice-Presidents of the society being absent ; on motion of IIon. C. K. Smith, Hon. Chief Justice Goodrich was .called to the chair. The same gentleman then moved that a committee, consisting of Messrs. Parsons K. Johnson, John A. Wakefield, and B. W. Brunson, be appointed to wait upon the Orator of the day, Rev. Mr. Neill, and inform him that the audience was waiting to hear his address.
" Mr. Neill was shortly conducted to the pulpit; and after an eloquent and approriate prayer by the Rev. Mr. Parsons, and music by the band, he proceeded to deliver his discourse upon the early French missionaries and Voyageurs into Minne- sota. We hope the society will provide for its publication at an early day.
"After some brief remarks by Rev. Mr.
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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTAI.
Hobart, upon the objects and ends of history. the ceremonies were coneluded 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 daggerel. 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 but s and one that is to be. One, is the mart of all the tropics yield, The eane, the orange, and the cotton-field, And sends her ships abroad and boasts Iler 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 ? Pig'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,
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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. ITis 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 Dahkotal 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 otticers and those of European extraction partook first ; then the bois brules of Ojibway and Dah- kotah descent; and, finally, the native Ameri- eans, who did ample justice to the plentiful sup- ply spread before them.
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