USA > Minnesota > Goodhue County > History of Goodhue county, including a sketch of the territory and state of Minnesota > Part 26
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"The next morning thirty-two squaws appeared, with the usual accompaniment, and the same number continued until the field was finished. When the last round was dug we were all grouped together on a slope between Main and Third streets, in front of Mr. Densmore's- the women talking and joking. Lucy stepped up to me and said, ' Pezuta-wichasta, do you know the reason why you have not worked any in the field?' I thought I saw mischief in her eye, and looking around observed the same sign among the dusky crowd; but not to be beat by squaws I replied, 'Yes, it is because there are so many women
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to work for me, there is no need of my working.' She said, 'No, no, that is not it; you are little, and not strong and cannot work,' tossing her blanket off' as she made the remark. I saw the point at once, and felt relieved, as that was one of my best holds. I told her I was strong enough for any in that crowd. No sooner were the words out of my mouth than Lucy pitched in, and was thrown a double-somersault the first time. Another essay was made with like result. The natives were chagrined. A little whispered parley took place, and a challenge for a third trial was given. We squared ourselves, shoulder to elbow, Lucy gripping like a vice. Just as the struggle commenced, I felt myself grasped from behind, and knew I had got into difficulty. The outside pressure was heavy against me-tripping, yelling and laughter. The best I could do was to make of it, what in my youth was called a ' dog- fall,' that is, a tumble into a promiscuous heap, without anyone being uppermost enough to speak of, and this was accomplished. I extricated myself from the confused mass and concluded not to engage any further in this undignified pastime, knowing very well that fair play couldn't be had in that crowd. They then dispersed, having gathered for me over 1,000 bushels of potatoes, exclusive of their own wages. From this crop I never realized a dollar, as there was no market, but it answered very well for gratuitous distribution in the spring of 1854.
" Having such success in operating with native labor, I concluded to cut up eight acres of corn, so as to secure the fodder for my stock, it being as yet but little injured by the frost. The services of a married woman and her sister were secured, besides two boys of ten or twelve years of age. The girl was sixteen or seventeen years old, and the most mischievous imp I ever saw. She appeared to have grown too fast for the apparel she had on, for I noticed that her upper garments refused to form a junction at the waist with that portion designed as protection for the lower portion of the body. Myself and the woman cut up the corn; the duty of the boys was to place it in the shock. After working pretty hard, the day being warm, I called a rest and we all sat down, I fanning myself with a large straw hat. When it was time to resume labor, the women were told to go to work. The girl laughingly refused, telling me to work myself. After a little parley, she finally got up and advanced close to where I was sitting. Making a remark to attract my attention away from her, she dexterously seized my hat by the rim and sent it sailing over the cornfield and then bounded like a deer to get out of my reach, but she was too late. Without rising, I threw myself forward in the direction she was going ; grasping desperately at the same time, I caught the hem of her gar-
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THE HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY.
ment and something gave way. When I recovered an upright position and my equanimity, I saw a dark piece of feminine apparel lying on the ground, and, what to my astonished gaze appeared to be a pair of per- ambulating tongs scudding through the corn. The girl hid herself behind a shock and commenced begging for her clothes. After tor- menting her enough, I exacted a promise that she would behave herself and go to work, and then sent one of the boys with the desired garment. When she rejoined the company her countenance had a very decided vermillion tinge, and I thus discovered that a squaw could blush !
EVIDENCES OF PRE-OCCUPATION.
" I find that the ' old times' subject has made me garrulous, and my address has far outgrown the proportions first designed, with many matters of interest yet unrecorded. I will close with a notice of some artificial remains which were observable when I first visited the locality.
" Evidences of the occupation of the country by a race of people, whose habits in some respects differed from those of the Dakotahs of the more recent period, were numerous. On the sharp hill points in the vicinity of Cannon River and Spring Creek, were a number of cairns or stone mounds. These were on the highest points, where shelly rock outcropped, and always overlooked the lower plateaus or valleys, on which were situated large groups of earthern tumuli. The cairns were of various sizes, ranging from six feet in diameter to twelve at the base. Their shape was conical, and some of those in the best state of preser- vation had an elevation of from eight to ten, feet. The base was on the bare rock, and all the lower stone in the vicinity had evidently been gathered to aid in the completion of the structure. The first layer was in the form of a circle, and by inlapping toward the centre in every succeeding layer an apex was finally reached. A majority of these structures had fallen in, leaving a circle of rude masonry from three to four feet high, while the remains of the upper portion laid in a mass inside the wall, not filling the cavity; showing very conclusively that they had been built hollow.
" Being very desirous of ascertaining the purposes for which they had been erected, I selected two of the most perfect, which were situated on an isolated hill in the valley leading to the little brook near Hawley's mill, to Spring Creek. This hill is very sharp and narrow, barely afford- ing level base enough for the foundation of the larger mound, which was at least twelve feet in diameter and nine feet high, and had settled considerably, pressing upon the cavity. After an hour's hard work we were in a situation to observe the condition at its foundation. A few
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THE HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY.
handfuls of black mould was scattered over the bare rock base, a frag- ment of bone three inches long, a muscle shell nearly in powder, and two remnants of wood, distant from each other about six feet, in the east and west direction of the cairn, was all it contained. Of the bone there was hardly enough to determine conclusively as to the species of animal to which it belonged; but I think it was a portion of the hu- merus, or upper arm bone of an adult human being. When we found the wooden fragments they were standing upright, as stakes, supported in that position by rock, and were dry-rotted to points. With a knife I cut off all the decayed wood, the centre being a mere splinter, but enough to clearly distinguish it as that kind of oak known as swamp or blue oak. I searched very thoroughly for teeth, (as my opinion was and is, that these cairns were burial places,) thinking that the enameled portions would resist the process of decay, but none were to be found. The other mound did not yield the same amount of discoveries ; a little mould, and traces of what we supposed to be decayed bones or shells, was all that repaid our labor.
" As I observed, I think these cairns were designed as burial places, and for distinguished personages. The material of which they were composed secured them against the depredations of wild animals. Their number, however, would lead to the conclusion that it was not the common mode of sepulture. The groups of earthen mounds in the valleys overlooked by these cairns, were counted by hundreds, and I think were once human habitations; and if my conjectures be in the right direction, these isolated cemeteries would not alone contain the mortuary remains of as numerous a people as the evidences then to be observed indicated.
" These rock structures appear to be peculiar to that portion of our county lying between Hay Creek and Cannon River, and distant but two or three miles from the Mississippi River. In no other portion of our county or State have I seen remains of a similar character. The earthern structures are always found where the soil is alluvial and loose, doubtless for the purpose of quickly absorbing the moisture from rains and melting snow, and consequently are mostly seen, when in numbers, in the valleys or on benches, considerably below the general level of the country, and in the vicinity of water. Occasionally one is found in situations almost corresponding with those of the cairns ; and looking at these with reference to those in the valley. beneath, the conclusion arrived at is that they were designed as shelters for outposts or sentinels whose duty it was to spy out danger and give warning to the inhabitants below.
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THE HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY.
" On breaking up land on which were many of these mounds, I ex- posed large quantities of broken pottery and muscle shells. The frag- ments of pottery appeared to be a combination of tenacious clay and pulverized shells. It had a thickness of about one-fourth of an inch and on the outside were rudely delineated, with some pointed instru- ment, the figures of men, animals, foliage, etc. I noticed but one peculiarity in the specimens. The representation of a weapon of war or the chase was not to be found which would have been different had the habits of the makers in any way assimilated those of the modern Dakotas. The earthenware appeared to have been sun-dried, as there was no trace of the action of fire to redden the clay, was quite firm, and from the different shapes observable in the fragments, was manu- factured in various forms.
" In numbers of places where farms have been made in the vicinity of mounds, similar exhumations have taken place, and some very per. fect specimens of the manufacture before spoken of have been obtained, but unfortunately it was not properly appreciated, and has become lost to the researches and speculations of the antiquarian.
" In digging into several of these hillocks, where, in numbers, I have invariably found in the center of the base, charcoal and earth reddened by the action of heat; but the rule does not hold always in the isolated ones on the hilltops. On the Wisconsin shore, opposite this place, there are vast quantities of mounds dotted over the sandy plain between the river and the bluffs. Some of these deviate from the regular circular form, being composed of a main body of an oblong shape, with wings, resembling the prostrate position of a bird with wings outstretched.
"On the farm of Mr. Charles Spates, near Cannon River, was the largest collection of tumuli in a given space that I ever saw, rendering it difficult to bring the ground into a proper shape for cultivation, and which the plough has not wholly obliterated in the twelve or fourteen years in which the soil has been tilled. I could fancy when I first saw this locality, on which were some three hundred mounds, that a little ravine running down to the water had been worn to that condition by the constant tread of a busy multitude, and the appearances really indi- cated the fact, without calling on the imagination to assist in forming conclusions.
" I will close, hoping that all who feel interested in the antiquities of this country, will carefully observe and preserve all such evidences as may fall into their hands, noting localities and surroundings. Small things sometimes give insight into the history of the past. I have, as yet, to find the first trace of a warlike people in the remains above
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THE HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY.
spoken of-not even an arrow head of flint, which would be imperish- able. The Dakotahs once used them, but I have never seen one taken from a mound or from close proximity thereto."
COUNTY ORGANIZATION.
THE FIRST ELECTION-" JUDGE" YOUNG-A " RED- WINGED" BALLOT-BOX-POLIT- ICAL ECONOMY, ETC.
The first Territorial Legislature met on Monday, the 3d day of Sep- tember, A. D. 1849, and adjourned on the first of November following. During this session the following counties were created : Itasca, Wabasha, Dakota, Wanota, Mankato, Pembina, Washington, Ramsey and Benton. The three last named comprised the country that up to that time had been ceded by the Indians on the eastside of the Mississippi. Still- water was named as the county seat of Washington. The Legislature declared " that all that portion of said territory lying east of a line run- ning due south from a point on the Mississippi River known as Medi- cine Bottle's village, at Pine Bend, to the Iowa line, be, and the same is hereby erected into a separate county, which shall be known by the name of Wabasha." Wabasha county, as thus defined, included a part of Dakota, Goodhue, Dodge and Mower, and all of Wabasha, Winona, Olmsted, Fillmore and Houston counties.
Section 13 of the act relating to the "division of the territory into counties and their boundaries," provided as follows: "That the coun- ties of Itasca, Wabasha, Dakota, Cass and Pembina be and the same are hereby declared to be organized only for the purpose of the appoint- ment of justices of the peace, constables, and such other judicial and ministerial officers as may be specially provided for."
When the present counties of Dakota and Goodhue were organized, under an act of the legislature approved March 5, 1853, the boundary lines were rather vaguely and indefinitely defined, in consequence of the absence of United States surveys. Section one, chapter fifteen, of the general laws, approved March 5, 1853, provided "that so much territory as is contained in the following boundaries, be and the same is hereby created into the county of Dakota, to-wit: Beginning at a point in the Minnesota River at the mouth of Credit River; thence on a direct line to the upper branch of Cannon River, thence down said river to its lower fork, as laid down in Nicollet's map; thence on a direct line to a point on the Mississippi River opposite the mouth of St. Croix
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THE HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY.
Lake; thence up the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Minnesota River; thence up the Minnesota River to the place of beginning."
The " direct line to the upper branch of Cannon River," would strike near where the city of Faribault now stands, and the boundary down the Cannon to the "lower fork as laid down in Nicollet's map," would terminate at the junction of the Main and Little Cannon, at the present site of the town of Cannon Falls. In a map by Colton, published in 1853, the east fork of Little Cannon is laid down as a stream of magnifi- cent proportions, one much larger than the west branch or the Big Cannon.
Section two of the same act, declared " that so much territory as is contained within the following boundaries be, and the same is hereby created into the county of Goodhue, to-wit : "Beginning at the south- west corner* of Dakota county, thence due southeast on a line twenty- five miles ; t thence on a due line to Lake Pepin, at a point on said lake seven miles below Sand Point ; thence up to the middle of said lake and the Mississippi River, to the boundary line of Dakota county ; thence along the line of said county, to the place of beginning."
[These boundaries were modified by subsequent legislation (Feb. 23, 1854,) and made to conform, as nearly as possible, to the lines estab- lished by the U. S. survey.]
Dakota and Wabasha counties were declared to be " organized coun- ties, and invested with all and singular, the rights and privileges and immunities to which all organized counties in this territory are entitled by law." The county of Rice was attached to Dakota county for judi- cial purposes, and the county of Goodhue was attached to the county of Wabasha for the same purpose.
Section fifteen of the same act provided that " the counties which are unorganized for judicial purposes, which are annexed to an organized county for judicial purposes, shall, for the purpose of assessment and the collection of taxes, be deemed to be within the limits of the county to which they are so annexed, and as forming a part thereof, unless and until otherwise provided by law.
"Section 16. That at any general election hereafter, the counties of Sibley, Pierce, Rice and Goodhue, or either of them, may elect their county commissioners, and all other county and precinct officers, and thereafter the said county or counties shall be deemed to be organized for all county and judicial purposes: Provided, that at said election for county officers, as aforesaid, there shall not be less than fifty legal
* Near the present site of Faribault.
t About Concord, Dodge county.
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THE HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY.
votes cast for said county and precinct officers within the said county so holding said election."
Section eighteen provided that it should be the duty of the first board of county commissioners which should thereafter be elected in any county laid off in pursuance of the provisions of this act, as soon after said board shall have been elected and qualified as provided by law, as the said board or a majority of them might determine, to locate the county seat of the county ; and that the location so made as aforesaid, shall be the county seat of the county to all intents and purposes, until otherwise provided by law.
The law under which these counties were organized, authorized the governor to appoint all county officers until the next general election (the second Tuesday of October) after their organization, when the people were authorized to elect, as provided in the last clause of section sixteen, above quoted. This proviso (says Dr. Sweeney ) was altogether unnecessary in a country where the people were so frequently called upon to " devise ways and mean The law required six months' resi- dence, which cut off most of the immigration; but ten days in the precinct gave to the citizen of the territory the right of suffrage, and plenty of latitude for the exercise of a little enterprise. Red Wing and Wacoota were rivals for temporary county-seat honors. Wacoota was the headquarters of the lumbermen of that period, and the enter- prising proprietors of that town-site were not slow to take advantage of that fact, and to concentrate as many of those hardy sons of toil against the day of election as possible.
The proprietors and friends of Red Wing were no less earnest in their efforts to secure a majority of votes in favor of their future city. In a sudden fit of enterprise and industry, they hired twenty unmarried young men from St. Paul and set them to work in various capacities. Great care was taken to have these men here in time to give them the required residence to entitle them to the right of suffrage.
At last the second Tuesday of October arrived upon the embryo city. Great preparations had been made for the election.
There was no one in Red Wing at that time authorized to administer the oath of office to the election officers. But the judges and clerks of election were selected, and one of the number, Benjamin Young, a French half-breed, heretofore mentioned, was sent out to find some one clothed with power to administer to him the necessary oath. Young had been educated so as to read and write in the English language with tolerable accuracy. He visited Point Douglas, where he found a justice of the peace, who administered the legally required oath, and he
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THE HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY.
returned home fully prepared to act himself, and to qualify others to act according to law.
No ballot box had been provided, but "Judge " Young was equal to the emergency and rife with expedients, and to him was also delegated the duty of providing a ballot box. Mechanics were scarce, even if the sovereigns had not waited until too late, so that there was neither time nor opportunity to have one made, and "Judge " Young secured an empty tea box, which he fashioned into a ballot box. Among the other devices on the box was the figure of a dove with red wings, which were singularly appropriate to the name of the village in which the election was being conducted.
The statutes of Wisconsin in relation to the manner of conducting elections was used as a guide. "Judge" Young was exceeding jeal- ous of the purity of the ballot box, and guarded its sanctity with the utmost caution-a caution approaching solemnity. When a " sove- reign " approached the august presence of the election officers, if he was not well known to them, or at least to some of them, he was required to " swear in " his vote, i. e., to swear that he was an actual resident of the precinct, etc. The form of oath was that defined in the Wisconsin statutes, and, when the oath was administered, the entire form was read over by Judge Young, including the clause in parenthesis, "or affirm, as the case may be." Those who were clothed in citizens' dress were sel- dom " challenged ;" but when a wood-chopper, clad in a garb suited to his avocation, approached the voting place, "Judge " Young was at once on the alert, and the " chopper " was challenged, and required to " solemnly swear [or affirm, as the case may be.]" It is proper to explain here, that at the time this first election was held (the second Tuesday in October, 1853,) a number of men were employed in cutting wood for steamboats at different points up and down the river from Red Wing. They lived in log cabins at their respective wood yards ; and as the line between the State of Wisconsin and the Territory of Minnesota was not clearly understood by the judges, it seemed necessary to them to be very rigid in guarding against fraud and illegal voters.
No candidates for county officers were voted for at this election. James Wells was a candidate for the legislature. Previous to the day of election he had visited Red Wing and " made a speech," which is said to have been "rich, rare, and racy." He was an illiterate man, comparatively speaking, but full of eccentricity. The vote of the county was given to Mr. Wells for representative. A majority of the votes were cast in favor of Red Wing for the county seat. Wacoota retired from the contest, since when Red Wing has had no rival. Imme-
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THE HISTORY OF GOODIIUE COUNTY.
diately after that election there was a sudden falling off in the population. There was also a sudden lull in the enterprises undertaken a few weeks before by the town proprietors, and the usual quiet settled down on the Red Wing community. The fifty votes required by the act under which the county was organized had been obtained, and the people were happy in anticipation of a large immigration and a complete county. organization the next year. Their hopes were verified.
FIRST BOARD OF COUNTY OFFICERS.
The first county officers were appointed by Governor Ramsey, under the provisions of section fourteen, and were :
County Commissioners .- William Lauver, H. L. Bevans and Rezin Spates.
Register of Deeds .- J. W. Hancock.
Sheriff .- P. S. Fish.
Treasurer .- Calvin Potter.
District Attorney .- Charles Gardner.
Clerk of the District Court .- P. Sandford.
Justice of the Peace .- James Akers.
The first session of the board of county commissioners was held at three o'clock P. M., June 16th, 1854, on a pile of lumber at what is now the intersection of Main and Bush streets, in the city of Red Wing. H. L. Bevans was chosen as chairman of the board. Joseph W. Hancock, register of deeds, was ex officio clerk of the board. But little business was transacted. The old journal of the board shows the following entries :
"It being announced that there were two vacancies in the board of assessors for the county of Goodhue," when, " on motion, C. Bates and M. Sorin were appointed to the vacancies.
"The northern district, including that portion of the county between the northern boundary and Hay Creek, was assigned as Bates' district.
" The middle district, including that portion of the county lying between Hay Creek and Bullard's Creek, was assigned as Day's district.
"The southern district, including that portion of the county not included in the other two districts, and the whole of Wabasha county, was assigned as Sorin's district."
The next meeting of the board occurred on the 20th of June, but was adjourned until the 28th, when the following bills against the county were presented, the first evidences of county indebtedness found on record.
17
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THE HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY.
M. S. Combs,
- $23.85
L. Bates, as assessor, 6.00
J. Day, as assessor,
16.00
Total,
$45.85
The returns made by the assessors showed the assessed valuation of taxable personal property in the first and second districts to be $65,305.
First district, - $ 4115
Second district,
61,190
Total,
$65,305
The expenses of the county for the year 1854 were estimated at $554.09, and it was
" Ordered, That a tax of one per cent. be raised on the present assess- ment to meet the expenses of the county for the current year."
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