USA > Minnesota > Goodhue County > History of Goodhue county, including a sketch of the territory and state of Minnesota > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
The first roadway along the bank of the Mississippi River between Prairie du Chien and Hudson, Wisconsin, was marked out in Decem- ber, 1849, and the hauling of supplies by land was commenced. Pre- vious to that time the only roadway in winter to the settlements of Wisconsin and Iowa was the ice of the Mississippi. Mails were scarce, and as late as 1850 there was only one mail a week between St. Paul and Prairie du Chien. The proposals inviting bids for its transporta- tion specified that it should leave St. Paul at 6 o'clock A. M. every Mon- day, and arrive at Prairie du Chien, 270 miles, by 6 o'clock P. M. the next Sunday.
The first murder, after white settlements commenced, occurred at St. Paul on the afternoon of September 12, 1849, when one boy named Isaiah McMillan shot and killed another boy named Snow, aged about twelve years. The case came on for trial before Judge Cooper at the February term (1850) of the Court at Stillwater. Messrs. Bishop and Wilkinson prosecuted, and Messrs. Ames and Moss defended. Notwith- standing there seemed to be an absence of malice prepense on the part of McMillan, he was found guilty of manslaughter, and in accordance with the recommendation of the jury that the court would inflict the lightest possible penalty consistent with the law, he was sentenced to one year's imprisonment. There was no prison in which to confine
-
P Sandford
RED WING
PUBL
113
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
him, and he was sent up to Fort Snelling, and was subsisted at the expense of the soldiers. The circumstances of the murder were as follows: McMillan and a number of other boys were playing on the bluff, and seeing Snow coming toward them with a press-board before his face, McMillan exclaimed that he would shoot him, and taking aim with a gun he had in his hands at the moment, fired. The shot entered Snow's right eye and left cheek, from the effect of which he died in a few hours.
The first proclamation for a Thanksgiving Day was issued by Gov- ernor Ramsey in 1850; and the 26th day of December was the day appointed, which was generally observed.
ST. PAUL IN OCTOBER, 1850.
In October, 1850, Miss Frederika Bremer, the Swedish novelist, visited Minnesota and St. Paul, where she was the guest of Governor Ramsey and his wife, and this is her description of the capital of Minnesota and its surroundings at that time :
" Scarcely had we touched the shore, when the governor of Minnesota, and his pretty young wife, came on board and invited me to take up my quarters at their house. And there I am now ; happy with these kind people, and with them I make excursions into the neighborhood. The town is one of the youngest infants of the Great West, scarcely eighteen months old; and yet it has in a short time increased to a population of two thousand persons, and in a very few years it will certainly be possessed of twenty-two thousand ; for its situation is as remarkable for its beauty and healthiness, as it is advan- tageous for trade.
" As yet, however, the town is but in its infancy, and people manage with such dwellings as they can get. The drawing-room at Governor Ramsey's house is also his office, and Indians and work people, and ladies and gentlemen, are all alike admitted. In the meantime, Mr. Ramsey is building a handsome spacious house upon a hill, a little out of the city, with beautiful trees around it, and commanding a grand view of the river. If I were to live on the Mississippi, I would live here. It is a hilly region, and on all sides extend beautiful and varying landscapes.
" The city is thronged with Indians. The men, for the most part, go about grandly ornamented with naked hatchets, the shafts of which serve them as pipes. They paint themselves so utterly without any taste, that it is incredible. Here comes an Indian who has painted a great red spot in the middle of his nose; here another who has painted the whole of his forehead in lines of black and yellow; there a third with coal- black rings around his eyes. * * * The women are less painted, with better taste than the men, generally with merely oue deep red little spot on the middle of the cheeks; and the parting of the hair on the forehead is dyed purple. There goes an Indian with his proud step, bearing aloft. He carries only his pipe, and when he is on a journey, perhaps a long staff in his hand. After him, with bowed head and stooping shoulders, follows his wife, bending under the burden which she bears. Above the burden peeps forth a little round-faced child, with beautiful dark eyes."
THE SECOND LEGISLATURE.
The progress of the building in St. Paul was rapid. No sooner was
9
114
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
the territory organized and the news spread abroad, then people-men of capital, mechanics, laborers, speculators-flocked there by hundreds, if not by thousands. Stone quarries, as well as the pine forests of the upper district of country and the deposits of brick-clay in the immediate vicinity, were utilized for building purposes, and in a short space of time large buildings were being erected in all parts of the embryo city. When the time came for the meeting of the second legislature on the Ist of January, 1851, better accommodations were in readiness, and a three-story brick building that stood on St. Anthony street, between Washington and Franklin streets, was secured for the occasion. This legislature, composed of nine councilmen and eighteen representatives, as provided in the organic act, consisted of the following members:
COUNCIL.
Names. No. of District. Residence.
Age.
Nativity.
James S. Norris,
1 Cottage Grove, 39
Maine.
Samuel Burkleo,
2 Stillwater, 46
Delaware.
William H. Forbes,
3 St. Paul,
35 Montreal, Canada.
James McC. Boal,
3 St. Paul,
39 Pennsylvania.
David B. Loomis,
4 Marine Mills, 33
Connecticut.
John Rollins,
5 Falls of St. Anthony, 42 Maine.
David Olmsted,
6 Long Prairie,
28 Vermont.
William Sturges,
6
Elk River,
32 Upper Canada.
Martin McLeod.
7 Lac qui Parle,
36 Montreal, Canada.
David B. Loomis, of Marine Mills, was chosen president of the council.
MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE.
Names.
No. of District
Residence.
Age.
Nativity.
James Wells,
1 Lake Pepin,
47
New Jersey.
John A. Ford,
1 Red Rock,
38
New York.
M. E. Ames,
2 Stillwater,
30
Vermont.
Sylvanus Trask,
2
Stillwater,
30
New York.
Jesse Taylor,
2
Stillwater,
45
Kentucky.
Benjamin W. Brunson, 3
St. Paul,
26
Michigan.
J. C. Ramsey,
3
St. Paul,
29
Pennsylvania.
Edmund Rice,
3 St. Paul,
30
Vermont.
H. L. Tilden,
3
St. Paul,
32
Connecticut.
John D. Ludden,
4 Marine Mills,
32
Massachusetts.
John W. North,
5 Falls of St. Anthony,
35
New York.
Edward Patch,
5 Falls of St. Anthony,
27
New York.
S. B. Olmstead,
6 Belle Prairie,
36 New York.
W. W. Warren,
6 Gull Lake,
26
Lake Superior.
D. T. Sloan,
6 Little Rock,
36
New York.
David Gilman,
6
Watab,
39
New York.
Alex. Faribault,
7 Mendota,
46
Minnesota.
B. H. Randall, 7 Fort Snelling,
27
Vermont.
M. E. Ames was elected speaker.
The penitentiary was located at Stillwater and the capitol building at St. Paul.
115
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
The exertions and influence of J. W. North, a member of the House from the St. Anthony district, secured the passage of a bill creating the University of Minnesota, and locating it at or near the Falls of St. An- thony. This establishment subsequently became the State University, and entitled to the ten townships of land granted by Congress to the State for that purpose.
A little " unpleasantness" occurred during this session, that finally resulted in the secession or withdrawal of seven members from the House. The difficulty grew out of the apportionment bill based on the census of 1850. The opponents of the bill maintained that the census was incorrect; that under the provisions of the bill, Benton county, " with four thousand acres under cultivation, had but one-half the representation that Pembina county had, where there were but seventy acres under cultivation, and more than one-half of that belong- ing to one individual. They also urged the fact that, excepting soldiers, at least seven-eights of the population were Indians, and that the Leg- islature had no authority over the unceded lands." Notwithstanding the bitter personal feeling and discussion, and the withdrawal of the seven opposing members, the bill passed the House on Saturday, the 29th day of March. Under the provisions of this bill, the territory was divided into the counties, and the counties apportioned into council districts, as follows:
1. Washington, Itasca and Chisago counties.
2. Precincts of St. Paul and Little Canada.
3. Precinct of St. Anthony Falls.
4. Counties of Wabasha and Washington, and precincts of St. Paul and Little Canada, jointly, ( Wabasha county to be one representative district. )
5. Benton and Cass counties.
6. Dakota county.
7. Pembina county.
The session of the Legislature adjourned on Monday, the 31st of March, after a three months' session.
TREATY WITH THE DAKOTAS.
At Traverse des Sioux, on the 23d of July, 1851, Luke Lea and Gov- ernor Ramsey, as commissioners on the part of the United States, con- cluded a treaty with the Dakotas, by which the country on the west side of the Mississippi River and the valley of the Minnesota, were opened to white occupancy. The terms of the treaty were in substance : Perpetual peace.
The cession of all the Sioux lands east of the Sioux River and Lac Traverse. The line then runs up to the head waters of Otter Tail Lake, thence down from the head of Watab River to the Mississippi.
116
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
The cession embraces the entire valley of the Minnesota, and the eastern tributaries of the Sioux, and was estimated to contain 21,000,000 acres.
The Indians reserve a tract on the Minnesota, about one hundred miles in length, and twenty in breadth. This reserve commences at the mouth of Yellow Medicine River, and extends up the Minnesota ten miles on each side to Lake Traverse.
The Indians are to receive $1,655,000, as follows :
To be paid after their removal to the reservation, $275,000, and
To be expended in breaking land, erecting mills, and establishing manual labor schools, amounting to $305,000.
The balance of $1,360,000 to be invested at five per cent. for fifty years, which will give an annual income of $68,000, to be paid as follows :
In cash, annually . $40,000
Goods and provisions 10,000
Civilization fund.
12,000
Education
6,000-$68,000
After fifty years all payments to cease, and the principal of $1,360,000 to revert to the government.
The intercourse laws, so far as relates to the introduction and sale of ardent spirits, shall be continued in full force until changed by legal authority .- Neill.
The first week in August a treaty was also concluded beneath an oak bower on Pilot Knob, at Mendota, with the M'dewakantonwan and Wahpaykootay bands of the Dakotas. " 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" to the treaty papers. The next day after the treaty papers were signed, " these lower bands received $30,000, which, by the treaty of 1837, had been set apart for education, but by the misrepresentation 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 Mendota treaty, signed on the 5th day of August, 1851, ceded to the United States all the lands held by the tribes named, in Minnesota and Iowa. A reserve was granted them on the Minnesota River, commencing at Little Rock, which is about fifty miles by land from Traverse des Sioux, and extending up the river ten miles wide on each side to Yellow Medicine and Chautauba rivers, to which they were to remove within one year after the ratification of the treaty.
In ratification of the treaty, the chiefs were paid the sum of $220,000, to be used by them in the purchase of provisions, to defray the expenses of their removal, and settle their affairs generally.
Thirty thousand dollars were to be expended in opening farms, erecting mills, smith shops, and schoolhouses.
In annuities, to be continued fifty years :
In agricultural fund,
$12,000
In goods and provisions,
10,000
In education,
6,000
In cash,
30,000
$58,000
1
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
117
These two treaties concluded with the four divisions or bands of the Dakota tribe, secured to the United States about 30,000,000 acres of land, most of which was within the limits of Minnesota.
THIRD LEGISLATURE.
An election for members of the Third Legislature was held on the 14th day of October, 1851, and on the 7th day of January, 1852, the assembly met in a building on Franklin street, which subsequently became, and still remains a part of the Merchants' Hotel.
COUNCILLORS.
Names.
No. of District.
Elam Greeley,
1
Residence. Near Stillwater,
Occupation. Not reported.
D. B. Loomis, 1
Marine,
Lumber merchant.
G. W. Farrington,
2 St. Paul,
Merchant.
Wm. H. Forbes,
2
St. Paul,
Indian trader .*
W. L. Larned,
3
St. Anthony,
Not reported.
L. A. Babcock,
4
St. Paul,
Lawyer.
S. B. Lowry,
5 Watab,
Indian trader.
Martin McLeod,
6
Oak Grove,
Indian trader.
N. W. Kittson, 7 Pembina,
Indian trader.
William H. Forbes, of St. Paul, was chosen as president.
REPRESENTATIVES.
Mahlon Leavitt,
1
Stillwater,
Lumber dealer.
Mahlon Black,
1
Stillwater,
Lumber dealer ..
Jesse Taylor, 1 Stillwater,
Not reported.
John D. Ludden,
1
Marine,
Lumber dealer.
Charles S. Cave,
2
St. Paul,
Saloon keeper.
W. P. Murray,
2
St. Paul,
Lawyer.
S. D. Findlay,
2 Near Ft. Snelling,
St. Paul,
J. E. Fullerton, 2
St. Paul,
Merchant.
S. W. Farnham,
3
St. Anthony,
Lumberman.
J. H. Murphy,
3 St. Anthony,
Physician.
F. S. Richards.
4
Lake Pepin,
Trader.
James Beatty,
5
Itasca,
Farmer.
David Day,
5
Long Prairie,
Physician.
James McBoal,
6
Mendota,
Painter.
B. H. Randall,
6 Fort Snelling,
Clerk.
Joseph Rolette,
7 Pembina,
Clerk.
Antoine Gingras, 7 Pembina,
John D. Ludden, of Marine, was elected speaker.
Hunter.
Indian trader. Farmer.
J. W. Selby,
2
118
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
Political discussions did not disturb the sittings of this assembly, nor did political issues cut any figure in the election of members. The people were more deeply interested in the ratification of the Dakota treaties of July and August, than in the discussion of political questions.
Hennepin county was created during this session, and an act was passed to punish trespassers on school lands. The election of a dele- gate was postponed, by enactment, until October, 1853. Even at this early day the temperance question enlisted the attention of the people, and it was so urged upon the attention of the Legislature that a law similar to the Maine Liquor Law in its provisions, was passed, referring the question back to the people and the ballot-box. An election was authorized to be held on the first Monday in April, and if the law was then ratified by the people, it was to become operative from and after the first day of May following. In St. Paul and Ramsey county the discussion of the law was a theme of general interest among all classes, and the subject of sermons in all the pulpits-Protestant and Catholic ministers all joining in advocacy of the approval of the law. When it become known that Ramsey county had voted in favor of the law; all the church bells at the capital were made to ring out glad peals simul- taneously about the hour of nine o'clock at night. The good people of St. Paul never went to bed in a happier frame of mind than on the night of the day when they learned that the sovereign voters had declared, by their ballots, that King Alcohol should no longer be allowed an abiding place in their midst.
The vote on liquor law was as follows :
COUNTIES.
FOR.
AGAINST.
COUNTIES.
FOR.
AGAINST.
Ramsey
528
496
Chisago . .
13
3
Washington
218
68
Benton and Cass.
62
91
Dakota.
32
4
Total
853
662
Congress was memoralized in regard to changing the name of the River St. Peters. The memorial set forth that ever since the acquisition of the country by the United States, this river had been called St. Pierre by the French, and Anglicized by the Americans into St. Peters. The memorial further cited (Neill) that the stream was named after Mons. St. Pierre, who was never in this country, which is incorrect. It then asserted " that Minnesota is the true name of this stream as given to it in ages past by the strong and powerful tribes of aborigines, the Dakotas, who dwelt upon its banks, and, that not only to assimulate the
119
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
name of the river with that of the Territory and future State of Minne- sota, but to follow what we believe to be the dictates of a correct taste, and to show a proper regard for the memory of the great nation whose homes our people are soon to possess, we desire that it should be so designated." Agreeable to the request of the memorial an act was passed ordering the word St. Peters to be discontinued in public docu- ments, and Minnesota employed in its place.
The first report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction was pre- sented at this session of the Legislature. It was an elaborate docu- ment, and contained not only a full and concise account of the condition of the schools of the Territory, but it also contained many valuable suggestions that have had an important and influential bearing upon the welfare of the school interests. The following table represents the condition and number of school districts in the Territory on the 1st of January, 1852.
SCHOOL HOUSE, BY WHOM OWNED.
WHEN BUILT.
COST.
DIMENSIONS.
SIZE OF LOT.
Washington county.
Point Douglas .
Private property ..
..
16 by 18 ft.
Cottage Grove.
[No school building erected or school kept.] Stillwater.
District District
1848 Now build'g.
20 by 30 ft. 20 by 30 ft
50 by 150 ft. 75 by 150 ft.
Benton county.
[No returns received.] Ramsey county.
District No. 1
St. Paul, No. 2.
66
No. 3.
Private individual.
1848
20 by 24 ft.
66 No. 4.
No returns.
St. Anthony, No. 5. No. 6
District
1849
600 24 by 34 ft. 4 acre.
None.
District No. 7.
No returns.
District No. 8.
No returns.
The Legislature adjourned on the 6th of March.
The fourth session of the Legislature convened on the 5th day of January, 1853.
Councillors .- First district, Elam Greeley, D. B. Loomis; 2d, George W. Farrington, William H. Forbes; 3d, William L. Larned; 4th, L. A. Babcock ; 5th, S. B. Lowry ; 6th, Martin McLeod ; 7th, N. W. Kittson.
Martin McLeod, of Lac qui Parle, was chosen as presiding officer.
Representatives .- First district, N. Greene Wilcox, John D. Ludden, Albert Stimson, Caleb Truax; 2d, William P. Murray, B. W. Lott, J. C. Ramsey, L. M. Olivier, William Noot; 3d, R. P. Russell, G. B. Dutton ; 4th, James Wells ; 5th, David Day; 6th, A. E. Ames, B. H. Randall ; 7th, Joseph Rolette, Antoine Gingras.
50 by 150 ft.
District .
1850
$600 18 by 36 ft. 400
Marine Mills.
120
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
David Day, of Long Prairie, was elected speaker.
The liquor law question was reopened at this session. A majority of citizens petitioned for the passage of a law that would be free from the objections held against the law enacted at the previous session, and a new law was framed by the friends of temperance, but it failed to pass.
Petitions were presented at this session, asking for a division of the school fund in the interest of the Catholic Church. A law was framed looking to that end, but it failed to pass. The bill was introduced by Mr. Murray, of the second representative district, and lead to a good deal of discussion. The moderate and liberal-minded people of all denominations, and the friends of the American free school system, were amazed and surprised at the attempt to enact such a law, and the popular clamor against it became so great that the bill failed of a third reading in the House. When the question recurred on a third reading the ayes and noes were called, with the following result: Ayes, 5; noes, 12. " So the House refused to order the bill to be read a third time."
Eleven new counties, all on the west side of the Mississippi River, were created at this session-Dakota, Goodhue, Wabasha, Fillmore, Scott, Le Sueur, Rice, Blue Earth, Sibley, Nicollet and Pierce.
The Baldwin School was incorporated at this session and opened the following June. The male department of this school subsequently became subject to a separate charter, and is now known as the College of St. Paul.
The Legislature adjourned on the fifth of March.
The election of Franklin Pierce to the presidency in 1852, involved a change in the officers and policy of the Territory. Governor Ramsey was appointed under the Whig administration of Zachary Taylor, carried out by Mr. Fillmore, who succeeded to the presidency because of the death of Mr. Taylor. Mr. Pierce was elected as a representative Dem- ocrat, and, as had been the practice with all political parties since President Jackson established the rule that " to the victors belong the spoils," when he was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1853, he pro- ceeded to exercise the prerogative of removing all the appointees of his predecessor, and filling their places with men whose political pre- dilections were in harmony with. his own. W. A. Gorman, of Indiana, was appointed Governor to succeed Mr. Ramsey ; J. T. Rosser, of Vir- ginia, was appointed Secretary; W. H. Welch, of Minnesota, Chief Justice ; and Moses Sherburne, of Maine, and A. G. Chatfield, of Wis- consin, were appointed Associate Judges.
Soon after assuming the duties of his position, Governor Gorman
121
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
made a treaty with the Winnebago Indians at Watab, Benton county, for an exchange of country. At the close of the summer, the Dakotas began to remove from their former villages along the Mississippi to the Upper Minnesota reserve.
In October of this year (1853,) Henry M. Rice was elected as dele- gate to Congress. His opponent was Alexander Wilkin. Two thousand eight hundred and forty-five votes were cast for delegate, of which Mr. Rice had 2,149 and Mr. Wilkin 696, giving Mr. Rice a majority of 1,453.
The election contest this year was marked by bitter personal con- troversy, and the parties were known as Fur Company and Anti-Fur Company. In 1854 there were new combinations. Men who had pre- viously stood shoulder to shoulder and worked hand in hand, were found arrayed against each other in bitter political hostility. Ramsey, Rice and Robertson were pitched against Sibley and Gorman.
The fifth legislature assembled in the capitol building, (which had just been completed,) on the 4th of January.
COUNCILLORS.
Name.
Age. Nativity.
Name.
Age. Nativity.
S. B. Olmstead,
41 Otsego Co., N. Y.
A. Stimson,
37 York Co., Maine.
J. R. Brown,
48 York Co., Penn.
W. P. Murray,
28 Butler Co., Ohio.
I. Van Etten,
27 Orange Co., N. Y
W. Freeborn, 37 Richland Co., Ohio.
N. W. Kittson,
40 Sorel, Canada.
J. E. Mower, 36 Somerset Co., Maine.
REPRESENTATIVES.
R. Watson,
28 Scotland.
John Fisher,
29 Canada West.
Cephas Gardner,
53 New Hampshire.
H. Fletcher, 35 Maine.
W. A. Davis,
31 St. Louis, Mo.
R. M. Richardson, 36 Pickaway Co., Ohio.
Levi Sloan,
31 Schoharie, N. Y.
J. H. Day, 33 Virginia.
W. H. Nobles,
36 Genesee Co., N. Y. 28 Maine.
O. M. Lord,
27 Wyoming Co., N. Y.
Wm. McKusick,
Louis Bartlette, 33 Montreal, C. E.
D. G. Morrison,
27 Fond du Lac, M. T.
H. S. Plumer, 25 Sheffield Co., N. H.
C. P. Stearns,
46 Berkshire Co., Mass.
William Noot, 43 Prussia.
N. C. D. Taylor, Peter Roy,
42 Belknap Co., N. H. 26 Rainy Lake, M. T.
Joseph Rolette,
32 Prairie du Chien.
S. B. Olmstead, of Belle Prairie, President of the Senate; N. C. D. Taylor, of Taylor's Falls, Speaker of the House.
Governor Gorman delivered his first annual message on the 10th. The three most prominent features of the message were those divisions relating to railroad matters, educational affairs and the interests of the lumbermen.
The act relating to the incorporation of the Minnesota and North- western Railroad Company, introduced by Joseph R. Brown, was the most exciting topic of this session. It was passed after the hour of mid- night on the last day of the session, and contrary to the expectation of
122
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
Gov. Gorman's friends, he approved and signed the bill and it became a law.
The Legislature adjourned on the 4th of March.
GRAND EXCURSION TO MINNESOTA-A RAILROAD SERMON-RAILROAD LAND GRANT.
In the month of June of 1854, Mr. Farnham, the builder of the Rock Island Railroad, inaugurated and carried into effect, a grand project for an excursion of the magnates of the country-statesmen, scientists, his- torians, editors, divines, professors, etc .- via that road and the Missis- sippi River, to St. Paul and the Minnesota country. Five large steam- ers were chartered for the occasion, and were in readiness at Rock Island when the excursionists reached that city of the rapids, to convey the party to the point of destination. This was probably the begin- ning of the practice, now so common among railroad capitalists and " land grabbers," of extending to the national law makers free rides to such parts of the country as offer inviting opportunities for speculation and land monopoly. Mr. Farnham and his invited guests may not have foreseen nor anticipated the abuses to which that excursion opened the way. It may have been prompted by honest purposes ; it may have originated in pure motives ; but it is a fact, well known to every close observer of passing events, that such excursions in later years always result in national legislation favorable to land monopolists. But we are not writing an essay on political economy.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.