USA > Minnesota > Goodhue County > History of Goodhue county, including a sketch of the territory and state of Minnesota > Part 24
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One of the missionaries to the Dakota Indians, Rev. Joseph W. Han- cock, is still a resident of Goodhue county and a citizen of Red Wing, where he has maintained a continuous home since June 13, 1849. Although a teacher to benighted, darkened souls, he is not, and never was, of that class of teachers and preachers that thought it sinful to
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smile or " crack a joke," to go a ducking or get a "ducking;" but was as ready to join the members of his charge in innocent sports as the most sportive of their kind. And although his missionary labors ended a quarter of a century ago, and he is now far past the meridian of life, he is still young at heart, and well preserved intellectually and physically, and his memory well stored with a rich collection of inci- dents and happenings in the early days of his residence among the dusky sons and daughters he came to teach. Among these happenings of the long ago, he relates the following :
When he came to Red Wing he was as ignorant of the management of a canoe or other small water craft, as the Indians were of the letters of the alphabet or their uses when his predecessors, Denton and Gavan, first came among them in 1838. On one occasion an old Indian and his son were going out duck hunting, and Mr. Hancock asked for permission to accompany them, as anxious, no doubt, to witness the Indian modus operandi of taking the feathered, web-footed game, as he was to secure a share of the trophy of the hunt for his own table ; for it is reasonable to suppose that Mr. Hancock, missionary though he was, was as fond of a nicely-prepared roast of duck as the Sandwich Islanders used to be of a roast from the arm or thigh of a fat missionary. Mr. Hancock's request to accompany the hunt was granted, but he says he " came near falling out of the canoe before he got in," from which bull it might be supposed he was an Irishman, but we do not venture the opinion that the supposition is correct. When all was ready, the canoe was shoved off, and headed up stream for the duck haunt. Mr. Hancock had a long stick in his hand, and coming to a place where he observed the water was not deep, he put the stick over the side of the boat, touched bottom, and gave a strong push. The bottom was muddy and the stick stuck. In attempting to recover the stick by pulling it out, it pulled him in about as quick as a flash of lightning. The next thing he knew the canoe tipped over, and tipped him into three feet of water, head foremost, and he went a ducking. When he regained his feet, the Indians were picking up their guns and powder horns from the bottom of the river. The elder Indian seemed to blame Mr. Hancock for the mishap and administered to him a pretty severe rebuke for his ignorance, using the following Dakota words :
He-he! Wa-si-cun-wakan kin, wahokonkiya hecen he-conpi na-ce-ca ; tuka can-wata cin, ka wa-to-papi cin, hena ta-ku-dan docapi-ini.
To-hi-ni akei can-wata en da idotanka hukuga wo, nakun inina yankawo.
Which, being translated, is substantially as follows :
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The white missionary may be a very good man and know all about the road to the land of the Great Spirit, and how to point the Indians there, but he cannot point a canoe to a duck pond. His words may stick like the stick he stuck in the mud that pulled the canoe over ; but if he don't know more about what he preaches than he does about paddling a canoe, he'd better quit and go back to the home of white men. May be white men make good preachers, but bad canoe men. Get in the canoe now and keep still. Indians know how to keep them right, and never turn them over like the white missionary.
Mr. Hancock obeyed the injunctions of the old Indian, got into the canoe again, but was mindful to " keep still " the balance of the trip, and returned home a wetter, as well as wiser man as regarded canoe management. He afterwards learned to " paddle his own canoe," as he was determined the Indians should not always have occasion to taunt him with his ignorance of skill in that kind of water-craft.
An account of another canoe ride, in which Mr. Hancock partici- pated, is worthy of place in this connection. This time the ride was taken on land.
In the summer of 1852, John Bush, the Indian farmer, accompanied by his wife and Mr. and Mrs. Hancock, concluded to make a visit to the head of Lake Pepin, to " call " on Mr. George W. Bullard and family. The distance was six miles by land. There was no available wheeled vehicle-no carriage, or wagon, or horses that could be used, so a large canoe was brought into requisition. A yoke of cattle were hitched to the canoe by a log-chain, and the visitors started. The wild grass was tall and thick, and the canoe glided along where the ground was level like a sleigh over a good snow-path. But the ground was not always level. It was level only occasionally, and the oxen, not used to that kind of a vehicle, stepped rather quickly over the rough places, occa- sioning frequent turn overs and tip-outs. It is the opinion of Mr. Hancock that they turned over as much as fifty times in going and returning. They landed in all sorts of positions-on their sides, backs, faces, singly, in heaps, and on top of each other-presenting the most ludicrous appearances as they sought to right themselves. "No bodily harm was experienced, however," says Mr. Hancock, " but the amount of fun and hearty laughter we enjoyed that day exceeded anything of the kind I ever knew, before or since. It was enough to make a stoic laugh or cure a dyspeptic. I have never failed to laugh when the circumstance is called to mind, and I don't know but what it will be one of the last things I think of as my bark of life is shoved away from the shore of time."
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RETROSPECTIVE.
REMINISCENCES OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AT RED WING.
At a meeting of the Old Settlers Association* of Goodhue county, held at Red Wing, on Tuesday, the 15th day of June, A. D. 1869, W. W. Sweeney, M. D., delivered an address on the early scenes and incidents attending the first settlement at Red Wing, that was so full of interest as to be worthy of preservation in these pages. A gentleman of educa- tion, large observation and diversified experience, and one of the first settlers, no one was better prepared to speak accurately of the trials and hardships, realities and romance of pioneer life. When this address was delivered, only seventeen years had been added to the record of time since he "pitched his tent " in the shadows of Barn Bluff. These seventeen years encompassed the fullness of his physical and mental vigor, and hence the subject of his address was still fresh in his memory. He said :
"In the spring of 1852, Calvin Potter, with whom I had previously been acquainted, called at my office in St. Paul, and in the course of our conversation informed me that he had bought out Mr. Snow, the licensed Indian trader at Red Wing; and in view of a treaty then in process of consummation, he thought that point a good location for a town-site ; also, that he would like to interest some one with him in a claim he had there. Mr. William Freeborn being one of the old residents of St. Paul, and having a large acquaintance, Mr. Potter thought he would be a desirable man. From my opinion of the country, acquired in various conversations with an old French voyager, and also from an Englishman by birth, but in language and habits a compound of English, French and Indian, who had been in the country for thirty years, I was more than anxious to take part in the enterprise, and brought about a speedy meeting between Mr. Potter and Mr. Freeborn.
" In our council Mr. Freeborn demurred at first, urging his inability to remove to the new El Dorado immediately. I proposed to remove that objection by coming myself, to which he acceded. The result was that we three took the return boat, and landed in Red Wing in the early part of May. While there I purchased a claim-right from a half-breed, named Benjamin Young, of that part of the city known as " Sweeney's Addition," as also that old weather beaten, two-story log-house, well known to old settlers-sided up with antediluvian lumber, that stood in the rear of where Mr. Sheldon's warehouse now is. This done, I
* This organization, it is to be regretted, was not maintained, and now exists only in memory.
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returned to St. Paul, put my business in a proper shape, and came back to Red Wing with James McGinnis, who concluded to try his fortune in this then unexplored country. We made our headquarters in the venerable tenement before mentioned, kept our own house-or, as some graphically describe it, ' kept bach.' This was in the latter part of May or beginning June.
" As it was not deemed advisable to go into any farming or building operations until the treaty was ratified, we had plenty of idle time on our hands, and the grand difficulty was to know how to dispose of it. The families then here were the Rev. James N. Hancock, of the Pres- byterian mission and John Bush, Indian farmer. John Day was not far off, however. The old ' Excelsior' never made a trip up from below that John did not board her, to hear ' about the treaty.' There were several transient persons here, but their whereabouts is not now known. The only actual residents of the county previous to my coming, besides those above mentioned, were George Bullard (now deceased) and family at Wacoota ; James Wells, since killed by the Indians in the southwestern portion of the State, who then had a trading post at what is now the village of Frontenac; and a Mr. Gould and family, who resided near the mouth of Wells Creek. This comprised the white population of the county.
HUNTING THE SOURCE OF HAY CREEK.
" Of the country back of us, even for four miles, I could learn nothing. Mr. Knauer, the engineer of the old military road up the river, said he had rode out to the source of Hay Creek, and that it orginated in a fine' tamarack marsh. It occurred to McGinnis and myself that a good tamarack swamp, in a prairie country, would be a fine thing to possess, and being like the caged starling, anxious to 'get out,' we 'just went' for Hay Creek, and to our intense disgust, didn't find any tamarack. In an after conversation with Mr. Knauer, I am persuaded that not following the creek valley all the way, he mistook the poplar grove, known in early times as ' Albert's grove,' for the swamp aforesaid.
"After our little disappointment about the source of Hay Creek, our trips were mainly confined to the river side of the county, between the divide of the waters of the Zumbro and Mississippi-even Belle Creek was not known-its locality and course, however, was traced for us by Hapah, the old chief's son-in-law. It was not deemed advisable to go far from the river, as many of the Indians were decidedly hostile to ceding their lands, and the Zumbro country was the common hunting ground for several bands of the M'dewakantonwan Dakotahs, besides
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being in the route of traveling Indians from the upper Minnesota to Wabasha, the residence of the acknowledged head chief of the seven bands.
REMOVAL OF HIS FAMILY TO RED WING-INDIAN NEIGHBORS.
"Having become acquainted with the principal men among the Indians, I thought it safe to bring my family from St. Paul, which I did in July, 1852, as did also Mr. McGinnis. I have a very lively recollec- tion of getting our household stock from the landing to our residence. A winding, rugged path up the bank was the course by which we con- veyed it, and ' Mc' and I transformed ourselves into pack-mules, until stoves, bureaus, provisions and various etceteras of two households were placed under shelter, and we were at home. Within the next twenty-four hours ninety-nine hundredths of the Indian population had called in through curiosity, and their various comments would, doubt- less, have been edifying, had we been able to understand them. Friendly relations were established, however, and we never could complain of lack of company as long as they remained in the village. I must also say in justice to the memory of these original settlers and occupants of the soil, that I was never more kindly treated by any people, nor did I ever enjoy myself better. To be sure they were importunate beggars, as a community, and the women as a rule were chronic thieves. In fact, they were kleptomaniacs, i. e., they would not help their steal- ing proclivities. But making all allowances for these little peculiari- ties of their manners and morals, which were a part of their natures, and they were not a bad people to live among. By a little liberality when their begging seemed justifiable, and by firmly refusing when necessary, the beggars were disposed of and kept in good humor. And by watchfulness and the aid of bolts and bars their thieving propensi- ties were held in check and rendered measurably harmless.
THE TREATY-SECOND CONVENTION-HUNGER AND DESTITUTION.
" The treaty being ratified by the Senate of the U. S., with some alter- ations from the original as framed by the Dakotahs and the commis- sioners, it became necessary to convene the different bands interested therein to get their consent. Notice was accordingly given to them to meet at Fort Snelling early in the fall, in consequence of which a perfect exodus of the aborigines took place, and nothing more was seen of them here until late in November, after the close of navigation. When they did return, a more squalid, wretched looking set I never saw. Bitter were the complaints against the government officials.
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Their annuities were spent in waiting at the fort, the best of the hunting season had passed, their canoes were frozen in the ice away from home, and would be mainly lost. I remember well when the first installment that came home, three families, pitched their tents in the evening near the mission house. They were worn out, cold and hungry. The children were emaciated and sick, from want and exposure. They were supplied by the whites with food until the men could obtain game for their sustenance. In the morning two of the men went out hunting, and as I came home in the evening, unsuccessful from a similar expe- dition on Hay Creek, I struck their trail, and in a short time overtook them, a little below where Cogel's flouring mill now is, each of them slowly toiling through the deep snow, under the burthen of a deer. The men seemed exhausted, and requested me to stop at their teepees and tell the women where they were-that they had got tado-and wanted them to come to their assistance. I hurried home to commu- nicate this joyful intelligence to the inmates of those three lodges. Upon reaching them I told one of the women the good news. She immediately shouted forth a peculiar cry, which was echoed by all in the tent, down to a three year old boy dressed in purus naturalibis. This brought out the inhabitants of the other lodges. Upon being told the cause of the commotion, the same shout went up from all present. Women and children acted as if demented. The women rushed about for straps, knives and blankets, and the children jumped up and down for joy. After giving them the proper directions where to go, three women started on a dog trot, and were soon lost to view ; but sometime after dark I called at the lodges and found them busily engaged in masticating huge mouthfulls of venison. In three days those little half-starved, copper colored specimens of the genus homo had acquired a very perceptible rotundity, and were as sleek and as frisky as a litter of young pups. The cry or shout mentioned, I have heard frequently, and is made on the occasion of the intelligence of a successful hunt : not always the same, different intonations indicating the kind of game killed, as for deer, bear, elk, &c.
ADDITIONS TO THE POPULATION.
" The additions to our population besides those mentioned, were John Day and family, E. C. Stevens, David Pucket, Jack Sanders and Ben. Hill, in the summer, and Charles Parks, in November, 1852.
" The proprietors of the town site had procured lumber late in the fall for the erection of a hotel early in the spring, and it was necessary to engage carpenters to prepare such of the material in the winter as
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could be done within the shop. H. B. and Joseph Middaugh were obtained, and became residents of the town, in December, 1852. About this time, also, the first of our Scandinavian population arrived here : Mathias Peterson, a farmer, now in Zumbrota township, a Norwegian by birth ; and in a short time he brought Nels Nelson, a Swede, who for a long time lived with me. These two men were the pioneers of that nationality in Goodhue county, which now exceeds eight thousand souls. Both these men formerly resided in St. Paul. In the spring fol- lowing, Albert, a Norwegian, an acquaintance of Mr. Peterson, settled here and made a claim in what is now Featherstone township, at Poplar Grove, or Albert's Grove, now embraced in the limits of the farm owned by Mr. Friend.
SHUT IN BY WINTER.
"The winter of 1852-3 was passed very pleasantly by our little iso- lated community .. The natives soon left on their winter's hunt after their return from the treaty ratification at the fort, and we saw but little of them until some time in January ; in fact, we saw nobody but our own residents. Communication between us and the civilized world was only resumed when the post had rendered traveling safe on the Mississippi River. The mail was carried from Prairie du Chien through Wisconsin, crossing the Chippewa near the Menominee River, thence through a wooded wilderness to the very source of Rush River, at Baker's station, thence to Stillwater and St. Paul. A trip from Prairie du Chien in the winter, required nerve, endurance, and a willingness to perform any amount of manual labor that the emergency of the case might require. We here got our mail from St. Paul-when we had a chance to send for it. When the ice was safe, trains arrived frequently from below, principally laden with pork and flour. Our isolation was from about the middle of November to some time in January. Such supplies as ran short were obtained of Mr. Potter, whose establishment contained those articles more especially demanded by the Indian trade ; from Geo. W. Bullard, at Wacoota, whose situation at the head of the lake ren- dered it necessary for him to keep a more extensive assortment of goods to supply the wants of the lumbering interests ; or if these stores were deficient in the articles, then St. Paul was the last resort for the winter.
COUNTY HISTORY.
"As it is impossible to relate all that I wish to say in chronological order, I may as well give a few of the incidents connected with our county history, even though out of their proper era.
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"On the Wisconsin side of the river, previous to the settlement here in 1852, the land was ceded, surveyed and opened to settlement. At Diamond Bluff lived John Day, Allen Wilson, Jack Payne, and George Day. At the mouth of the Trimbelle, " old Hawley" and Jake Meade. At Thing's Landing (now Trenton) lived Wilson Thing, E. C. Stevens and Dexter, all more or less engaged in getting out wood for the use of steamboats. Mr. John Day and E. C. Stevens are residents of our county ; Mr. Thing and Wilson are deceased. The whereabouts of Payne, George Day, Dexter and Hawley is unknown. Meade still resides near his old location.
"'Old Hawley' was rather a hard case. By his sale of whisky our community was frequently disturbed by the whooping and yelling of drunken Indians, upon which occasions about all the population of natives not engaged in the spree would flee to the houses of the whites for protection, and there remain until the 'Minnie Wakan' gave out, and the legitimate results of a 'high old time' had overtaken the carousers. Nothing is known of Hawley's fate, but from a knowledge of his character, I would infer that he is at some 'side station ' or 'switch off' in that 'undiscovered country from whence no traveler returns.'
JUSTICE TO TRUTH AND HISTORY-A PIONEER JUSTICE AND A PIONEER WEDDING.
"In justice to truth and history, I must say something of Wilson Thing, a very eccentric man, a strict vegetarian, a man of strong preju- dices, but moral and upright-a good neighbor and an honest man. He was the only justice of the peace for many miles around, and conse- quently had a little legal business to perform. Previous to my coming here, (as related by an old settler,) a fair widow of this place had entered into a marriage contract with a gentleman of St. Paul, and the time was fixed for a consummation of the happy event. When the time arrived, and the parties to the contract were present, a grand difficulty occurred. Rev. Mr. Hancock, the only one authorized to solemnize marriages, was absent. The bridegroom was impatient and the bride annoyed. Friends suggested a canoe ride to Trenton and the services of ' Squire Thing' as the only solution of the evils complained of. course, under the circumstances, both bride and bridegroom eagerly acceded to the proposition, and in a short time the bridal party was under way for the residence of the justice. They found this worthy representative of the law, as enacted and promulgated by the great state of Wisconsin, busily engaged in the rather feminine occupation of washing a two months' accumulation of dirty shirts (he being at that
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time a bachelor,) and he was somewhat embarrassed at the sudden irruption into his sanctum. The bride, however, was plucky, and to relieve the justice, and give him time to make himself presentable and con over the marriage ceremony, she proposed that herself and mother would finish the laundry operations, while he got ready for his part of the proceedings, which was accepted, and in due time both the shirt washing and the marriage ceremony were completed to the satisfaction of all concerned.
DIGGING POTATOES IN WISCONSIN.
" As winter approached, it became necessary for us to look about for a supply of vegetables for winter use, as there were none to be had on this side of the river. Upon inquiry I found that Mr. Thing had planted four or five acres of potatoes, besides some beets and cabbages, which latter we were able to purchase. The potatoes, however, were not to be obtained by a regular business transaction of cash down. In the first place, they were ' planted on the sod ;' that is, two rounds were plowed the potatoes dropped in the last furrow, and covered by the sod of the next round, and so on. The 'Squire's field was in the prairie between Trenton and the bluffs. The season was not favorable for rotting the sod, and the tubers were hard to excavate. He wanted help, which was hard to get. We wanted potatoes, and money wouldn't buy them. Consequently, it was 'root, hog, or die,' with us, and we went to rooting. A hard day's work unearthed ten bushels to the man, for which one bushel was given as wages. I have to this day a very acute apprecia- tion of the pleasant occupation I was then engaged in. Just fancy my getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning, breaking my fast as soon as pos- sible, getting into a canoe, with hoe, basket and sack, and paddling up to Trenton, thence to the field. Now commences the dissection of those gutta percha sods with a plantation hoe. A little experience in another line of business enabled me to get the hang of the thing. In getting honey out of a hollow tree, the best way is to cut two carfs into the cavity, then split off the block of timber between. The same rule held good in the present instance, but I must say I never saw sod so tough, potatoes so hard to get at, and so small when I got them. But as an offset, I have never eaten potatoes of equal excellence, and I was prouder of the ten bushels I thus acquired, than of the biggest buck I ever arrested in his wild career through the woods, or the largest trout I ever landed from the clear rushing waters of his native brook. Just think of it! Ten bushels all my own. No gift ; not begged, but earned. One hundred bushels torn from the rugged earth, ninety given as a
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peace offering, but ten my own, for use and dissipation. I think I didn't dissipate. On my back I nightly bore my wages down to my gondola, and sailed away for home. But I have dwelt too long on this subject. Time has mellowed down all of pain that was associated with the circum- stance, and the recollection is now pleasurable and full of interest to me in my musings and speculations of then, now of the future.
TROUT FISHING-INDIAN SUPERSTITION.
" Leaving this portion of my subject, I must now refer to one full of interest to me, but probably not as acceptable to a majority of my audience. Among the first items of information I obtained from the Indians was, that the small spring brooks contained an abundance of trout, and the equally gratifying intelligence that they never used them as an article of food; in fact, their religious notions 'tabooed' their use. From the name they gave the speckled beauties, I would infer they considered them too bad to eat. Hogal-wichasta-sni (literally, wicked-man-fish) is not suggestive of high appreciation among the Indian community. They really believed some malign influence resided in the fish, and that to eat them would be to invite disease and the anger of the gods. This feeling was very prevalent among them, and Wacoota (the chief) being invited to take dinner with me, at which meal I informed him there would be a dish of trout, he consented to be present provided we would lock the doors, eat dinner up stairs, hang a curtain before the window and say nothing about what he had eaten. This was done, and the old 'Shooter' made a very hearty meal, as Indians are apt to do, but I thought during the trout course, that he acted as though the morsels were hard to bolt, like a boy swallowing his first oyster, and that qualms of conscience interfered with degluti- tion. He ate frequently with me afterwards, but I cannot say that trout ever appeared to be a favorite dish with him.
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