USA > Minnesota > Hennepin County > Minneapolis > History of Hennepin county and the city of Minneapolis, including the Explorers and pioneers of Minnesota > Part 62
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After this, Bottinean gave part of his claim to Lonis Desjarlais, his brother-in-law. In the spring of 1815, Mr. Bottinean and Desjarlais moved on their claims from St. Pant. Mr. Bot- tincan had a family, consisting of a wife and three children. His two brothers. Severre and Charles, lived with him.
In 1515, the old Petit John house, south of the Steele claim, was occupied by Baptiste Turpin. a voyageur and half-breed, though the claim was still the property of Pierre Bottineau. Pascal
and Sauverre St. Martin. Canadian Frenchmen, made a claim below the Petit John claim, which included a small portion of the southern part of the university land. extending indefinitely.
The total population of what is now Minneap- olis consisted at this time of less than fifty souls, and these were scattered along the east side of the river guarding their own elaims or those of their employers. One man, whom they called Old Maloney, lived at the government mill on the other side of the river, where he had been em- ployed four or five years.
St. Anthony Falls, at this time, boasted only one shingled house, that belonging to Frank- lin Steele and occupied by Reachi. The others were covered with elm bark or sod.
Navigation was undertaken in 1842, in a primitive way on the Upper Mississippi, above the Falls. The crafts used were a style called Mackinaw boats. These were keel-boats rigged for both rowing and sailing. manned by eight voyageursand carried four tons burden. or eighty lo one hundred packages. These packages were calculated in weight and form for convenient handling. In case a portage was reached, the voyageurs were required each to carry two of these at a load on their backs any distance re- quired. The first package was swung on his own back by means of the strap used in carrying, by the voyageur himself: the second package was placed on top of this by his companions. The whole load was equal in weight to a barrel of flour. These boats were operated by Pierre Bot- tineau, in the employ of the American Fur Com- pany, carrying supplies from St. Anthony Falls to Sauk Rapids and Little Rock. After experi- ence it was found that these boats, on account of their keel, drew too much water to pass bars and shallows in the river during low water, and flat- boats of larger size were substituted, manned with twenty-two men and propelled by poles. These boats were employed in transporting goods to various points from St. Anthony Falls to Fort Ripley. for the American Fur Company and for the United States government; both military stores and Indian goods for the upper country.
Nicollet Island at this time was covered with magnificent maples, and three or four sugar cumps were opened for successive years by the various families living near. The implements
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SETTLERS FROM THE EAST.
used were the very rudest. Birch-bark pans were used to catch the sap which flowed from a gash made by the Frenchman's ax. Kettles, swung from erotched sticks, boiled down the precious liquid. These spring days were the sweetest of the year to the uncultivated inhabitants.
These early days remind us of the Darwinian theory, and may be considered as an illustration of that philosophier's doctrine. In the first place, there is the hodge-podge or chaotic condition of the country under Indian brutality, a mixture of Ojibwas, Sioux, Winnebagoes and numerous tribes and combination of tribes, which we may denominate the "Nebular condition." Then came in French voyageurs. a higher. or more en- lightened raee, with beads and gew-gaws to en- tice the Indian maidens. illustrating the theory of " Natural Selection." "The struggle for ex- istence," and the "Survival of the fittest," each find a most vigorous illustration. The lineaments and habits of the whites appear in these men as imitations or caricatures of the race. The ine- vitable " Struggle for existenee" began in earn- est when actual settlers moved in and took claims. for we can hardly regard Mr. Steele as a settler in St. Anthony at this time, since he never lived on his elaim, but only attempted to hold it by a color of title, employing a tenant to live in the cabin. Peter Quinn obtained a claim here, but it was subsequenty absorbed by Franklin Steele as well as one taken by his son-in-law Findley. Mr. Steele now owned the most valuable portion of St. Anthony, including the Falls, and, from his social and financial position as well by his natural abilities, became not only the most inter- ested, but the most powerful friend of the new settlement. Ifis claim at St. Anthony Falls was a little in advance of the wheels of progress, but he kept his foot firmly on it until the rest of the world came up with him. He lived near the Fort where he held out a hospitable hand to all new- comers, and encouraged the settlement. Mr. Steele opened a farm of seven acres and em- ployed a man to fence and cultivate it until he entered it and perfected his title in ISIS, by pay- ing the usual price, one dollar and twenty-five cents per aere.
The changes to 1847, were. in addition to the facts already given, exchanges among the owners of claims, of little more import to our history than
the swapping of jack-knives among a party of school boys, for settlers came in 1847 who added tone to business, and soon obliterated all traces of these petty trades.
In an address of Judge Atwater's we find that Charles Wilson was the first American settler at St. Anthony. He arrived in the spring of 1847. In June of this year, William A. Cheever ob- tained a elaim near the present site of the Uni- versity. Through him a negotiation was opened with parties from the East for a purchase of the water-power. which culminated July 10th. in the sale by Mr. Steele of nine-tenths of the water- power of St. Anthony Falls to Hon. Robert Ran- toul, Caleb Cushing and others for twelve thousand dollars, and measures were at once taken for the erection of mills. Mr. Ard Godfrey was secured from Maine to superintend the con- struction of a mill, and arrived in the fall of 1847. Mr. Jacob Fisher. of St. Croix, directed the first work in the construction of the dam previous to the arrival of Ard Godfrey. During this year John Rollins, Calvin A. Tuttle, Luther Patch and his son Edward, Sumner W. Farnham, Caleb D. Dorr, Robert W. Cummings, Charles W. Stimpson. R. P. Russell, John McDonald, Samuel Ferrald, Joseph and William R. Marshall, Daniel Stanehfield and others arrived. Luther Patch brought his wife and two daughters, who were the first resident white women at St. Anthony. Calvin Tuttle also brought his family. R. P. Russell brought a stock of goods from the Fort, where he had been since 1839, and, in connection with Mr. Tuttle, opened a small store. the first in St. An- thony, in a room of the tog house on Mr. Steele's claim, occupied at the same time as a residence by Luther Patch and family. Under these favor- able circumstances for acquaintance, it is not surprising that this history records the marriage of Mr. Russell and Miss Patch October 3d, 1848, the first wedding in St. Anthony.
In the spring of 1819, William R. Marshall. afterward Governor of the state, established a small store in company with his brother Jo- seph M., in a building on Main street. next above the former residence of John Rollins. Disregarding the small stock of goods kept as stated in a private house by Mr. Russell, this is called by Gov. Marshall
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HISTORY OF HENNEPIN COUNTY.
the first store in St. Anthony. In the fall of the same year Mr. R. P. Russell and his partner, Mr. Cruttenden. opened a store on Main street above the end of the present bridge: counting Marshall's . first. this was the second store. John G. Lennon opened the next in connection with the American Fur Company. P. Chotean & Co., whose main office was in New York, with a branch at St. Lonis, also located on Main street. In 1851. John H. Stevens opened a store in connection with Mr. Steele. under the name of John Il. Stevens and Company.
In the fall of t- 19 the first steps in Jumbering were taken and a gang of men sent up the Mississippi river to Swan river. by Mr. Steele. to secure timber for the proposed mill. They paid the Sioux chief. Hole-in-the-Day. two hundred dollars for fifty sticks of hewed timber. This timber was caught at Pike Rapids, nine miles above Sauk Rapids, and frozen in. but was mostly secured as it came down in the spring. A gang sent up Rum River to obtain timber for the dam were even more un- fortunate. for their logs were frozen in at the mouth of Rum River, and wholly lost in the spring freshet. involving a loss of $3,000. The work must. however, go on during the winter, and the beautiful maple and elm groves on Nicollet and Hennepin Islands were ruthlessly sacrificed to furnish the lumber requisite. A block-house was built that fall. near the end of the present stone-arch bridge leading to Nicollet Island, which was called the " Old Mess-house," for the men employed on the dam during the winter. and Da- vid Gorham acted in the capacity of cook. Ard Godfrey, who also brought his family, lived in a comfortable house near the mill, situated on what is now Main Street. just below the falls. His daughter Hattie was the first white child born at St. Anthony,
The winter of 1817 s was fraught with misfor- tunes to the settlers. The boat in which their supplies from the East were conveyed was sunk in the Erie Canal. The hardware, of which they were greatly in need, was wholly lost. This caused great seareity of tools with which to carry forward their building. The winter was severe, and provisions were scarce and high. Women were too few to do the cooking, and men were forced to act as cooks and housekeepers. The old government saw -mill was a poor affair and worked 1
slowly; its utmost capacity was but three or four hundred feet per day, and the settlers were forced to bring lumber from the St. Croix. Worst of all, Rantoul and Cushing failed to meet their pay- ments,and when their paper came back protested. it was a source of great embarrassment to Mr. Steele, and, as all depended on him, to the whole settlement, its effects continued to be felt for some time. In spite of all difficulties, Mr. Steele's mill began to run in the spring of 1848, and many of the inconveniences disappeared. Many new set- flers came in, and new houses were rapidly built. The first built from the new lumber were one for Mrs. Huse, and part of that occupied by Richard Rogers, built by Washington Getchell : also one imilt by him for his own residence.
CHAPTER LVH.
DESCRIPTION OF SCENERY IN 1847 GOVERN- MENT LAAND SALES- SURVEYS -- ORGANIZA- TION OF TERRITORY LITERARY AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS-EVENTS OF 1819-50.
The early explorers, visitors and pioneer settlers have vied with each other in extolling the beau- ties of this region in its original glory, We have Father Hennepin's and JJonathan Carver's de- seriptions at an early day, and in later times novelists and poets have immortalized its scenery. It will be appropriate to this history to give briefly the impressions produced upon the pioneer settlers who arrived in the fall of 1847. just at the time the work on the dam commenced, and before the beauties as God made them had been marred by the hand of man, and at the same time give a picture of the settlement at this date which properly belongs to this chapter.
Visitors arriving on foot, the usual mode of travel in those days, obtained their first view of the Falls of St. Anthony from the high ground where the I'niversity now stands. At this point they would halt spell bound, and reclining on the green grass take in the magnificent view. The
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SCENERY IN 1847.
fall was the central figure, where the mighty Father of Waters leaps over the limestone rocks twenty-five or thirty feet to the foot of the preci- piee, extending in nearly a straight line from llennepin Island to the east bank, forming a gentle curve from the island to the west bank. The roaring of the fall seemed to threaten the solid land, but the rainbow of promise beckoned on the traveler, inviting his approach and holding ont rich rewards. Just below the falls, but in the midst of their spray, was a little green island called " Spirit Island." An old Indian legend makes it the abode of an Indian mother who threw herself with her child into the river and went down into the seething water in anguish of heart because her lord and master brought a new wife into the wigwam. The banks and the islands were covered with beautiful evergreens. At the right, the banks slope gently from the high land above to the bank of the stream, while still farther to the right, above the rising ground, was a level expanse varied by clusters of oaks of low growth which gave the appearance of an old orchard. Still further as a back-ground, extend- ing as far as the eye could reach, a line of low bluffs. On the left was spread out a beautiful rolling prairie covered with a wild luxuriance of grass and flowers, while on the bank near the falls appeared a low pile of limestone, which proved on approach to be the old government mill that grinds a little corn and saws a little lumber in a rude and primitive manner. At this time the falls were nearly perpendicular, and that of the main channel many hundred feet lower down than the present fall. Spirit Island, now almost washed away, was then of considerable size and covered with wood, and only a little way below the main fall. Cataract, Hennepin and Nicollet Islands were densely wooded. Opposite the falls, but a little removed from the bank on the east side, stood the log cabin of Mr. Steele, with a few acres of corn growing near it. at what is now the corner of Second Avenue South and Main Street, East Division.
The block house then building, Pierrie Botti- nean's house on the bank of the river above the head of Nicollet Island, Calvin A. Tuttle's claim shanty near the ravine north of the University. and two or three French squatter's cabins were all that marked the presence of man. Mr. Luther
Patch, with two interesting daughters, Marion and Cora, were living in the okl log house of Mr. Steele. The former soon became Mrs. R. P. Russell, and the latter Mrs. Joseph M. Marshall. At this date Saint Paul, which soon after assumed the position of the commercial centre for the North-west, was little in advance of this poor showing for Saint Anthony, and shrewd men whose wit often comes afterward, now assert that, as the Mississippi is easily navigable to a point three miles below the Falls of Saint An- thony, if the claim held in 1847 by Denoyer, three miles down the river, had became the property of sueli men as built up Saint Paul and Minne- apolis, the commercial center might have been made there, and thus brought in close proximity to what God ordained should be the mannfaetm- ing centre. Had this happened, doubtless this dual city would long since have become by the union of three, a city of more than one hundred thousand inhabitants, with vastly greater wealth than the present aggregate of all.
It must be borne in mind that up to this time these lands still belonged to the United States government. No survey had been made and no title to the land had been or could be conveyed until such survey was made and recorded. Set- tlements, therefore, previous to this were simply squatters' claims, and transfers of claims hereto- fore. had been in anticipation of the survey and government land sale. The sale took place in 1848 and the lands were entered by the several claimants at the government price, one dollar and a quarter per acre. The rights of each were strictly regarded although it was now certain that the claims were quite valuable. It would further appear that some of the claims adjoining, or near Mr. Steele's were held by the claimants under a contract with Mr. Steele, or were bought by him immediately after the survey and entry, for, he is represented as having obtained at the government price, a tract extending from where the bridge now is -to the northern limits of the village, and another at the upper end of the town and the island called Boom Island." From the fact that titles and transfers about this time appear a little mixed, it is inferred that measures were taken by Mr. Steele to cover such lands as he thought most valuable, by employing others to hold them until under the color of purchase
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HISTORY OF HENNEPIN COUNTY.
the claims were, according to previous contract, transferred to him.
In the spring of 1815. as stated above, Mr. Steele's mill was complete and running two single sash saws. During this year Mr. Cheever platted and laid out a town where he first located. near the present site of the University. This seems to have been a year of preparation for the incom- ers of Is19, who came in considerable numbers; but the character of the men was of greater sig- nifirance than their numbers: such men as Col. John H. Stevens. Judge Bradley B. Meeker, Dr. John 11. Murphy, the Gietchells, Farnhams, etc .. etc.
In the spring of this year Wm. R. Mar- shall. afterward Governor of the state, came to reside at St. Anthony. He bad visited here in the fall of is17, at which time he made a claim in the rear of what is now the upper town, and ent logs for a cabin. but could find no team to draw them together. and abandoned the claim for more promising employment on the St. Croix River. On his return. in the spring of 1849, he secured his old claim and erected his house. This subsequently formed Marshall's addition to St. Anthony.
Mr. Steele. in further preparation for new- comers. employed W. R. Marshall to survey into blocks and lots the town site of St. Anthony. Mr. S. P. Folsom had begun a survey previously, but it was not completed and was superseded by the new survey. Gov. Marshall states that he tried to secure generous-sized lots and wide streets. The lots were made sixty-six feet front by one hundred and sixty-five feet in depth. an ! the streets all eighty feet wide except Main street. which was made one hundred feet. Mr. Botti- nean, who had never seen a city, and had a very imperfect conception of one, or the use of all this measurement. for. since he had never learned to read, he had never realof a city. after listening to the conversation of the land speculators, di- rected Mr. Marshall to take his land and fix it like the others, or do as he pleased with it.
From this year. dates the real growth of St. Anthony. In addition to those mentioned above. we find Hon. J. W. North. John G, Lemon. J. P. Wilson, and twenty more of names that have he- come of great interest in connection with the de- velopment of the city. This year was a time of
general stir and prosperity. Mr. Steele started two more saws. Anson Northrup began the St. Charles hotel. About this time Mr. Steele sold to Arnold W. Taylor, of Boston, an undi- vided half interest in his property at the Falls, for $20,000. This proved subsequently a damage to the settlement, for Mr. Taylor, an eccentric old man, could not agree with any one. and two years after, Mr. Steele thought himself fortunate in buying back the property for $25.000. Litiga- tions growing out of this transaction were pro- ductive of evil, and retarded the growth of the city. The population did not exceed three Im- dred. Near the river were most of the newly built houses, unpainted, but fresh and bright from the recently sawn lumber, while back from the river were log houses already stained by the hand of time. During the year the territory was organized in June, in accordance with an act of congress passed March 3d. 1819. The area embraced in the territory was nearly double that of the present state. Pursuant to a proclamation of the governor. courts were organized for the territory of Min- nesota in August. The President appointed Aaron Goodrich, Daniel Cooper, and Bradley B. Mecker. judges in the several districts. Judge Mecker removed at this time from Kentucky to St. Anthony, and hell his first court in the old government mill. August 20th, 1819, with Frank- lin Steele, foreman of the grand jury. John Roll- ins was elected to the Territorial Council, and William R. Marshall, to the House of Represen- tatives from St. Anthony. and William Dugas from Little Canada, which was united with St. Anthony, in the same representative district. At the meeting of the Legislature, at St. Paul, which had been made temporary capital by the act organizing the territory, a bill was introduced to make it the permanent capital. This biit was opposed by Mr. Marshall and others, and a vig- orous, though ineffectual attempt was made to locate it at St. Anthony. The struggle was aided by a fore-runner of " Nast " who caricatured it by a picture of a building, representing a Capitol on wheels with ropes attached by means of which Mr. Marshall was tugging away. endeavoring to drag the building off, while Bronson. Jackson and others of St. Paul were pulling back and blocking the wheels, with humorous and laconic speeches is-
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POST-OFFICE AND SCHOOL-HOUSE.
sning from their mouths. The struggle. however, led ultimately to the establishment of the Uni- versity at St. Anthony as a partial equivalent. During this year, the first post-office was estab- lished in a small office building belonging to Mr. Steele, with Ard Godfrey as postmaster. Cap- tain John Rollins ran a passenger wagon oeca- sionally to St. Paul, but Mr. Godfrey had no reg- ular mail-carrier until the next year. 1850, when Powers and Willoughby established a line of daily stages between St. Paul and St. Anthony. In 1849, Mr. Godfrey obtained the mail at irreg- ular intervals as he couldl from St. Paul.
It had previously been a matter of serious mo- ment, and attended. too, with much apprehension to perceive the approach of a long cold winter, in a country where few of the necessaries of life were produced, where the settlers were depen- dent on supplies brought from a distance by means of very uncertain and irregular communi- cation, where few were able to secure large stores in advance, and were liable to be ent off for weeks together from communicating with the outside world. In the winter of [849, social en- joyments began, as the direct result of increased population, and the arrival of educated and agreea- ble people as well as better houses and more of the luxuries of life. Mr. and Mrs. North lived in a house near the center of Nicollet Island. Their approach was by a floating bridge, formed by the accumulation of logs for the mills, except when the ice of winter, bridged the entire river. Mrs. North had a piano, the first at the falls, and weekly meetings were held at the house for read- ing, conversation and music. Mr. Marshall pro- cured the passage of a bill incorporating a library association. and nearly two hundred volumes were obtained, and thus the first public library in Min- nesota, was founded. A course of public lectures was instituted during the winter; the lecturers were IIon. M. S. Wilkinson, Gen. R. W. John- ston, then Lieutenant at Fort Snelling. Rev. Father Gear, Rev. E. D. Neill, Elder Chauncey Hobart, Putnam P. Bishop and others. In the summer of 1849, the first public school was op- ened, in a small log shanty by Miss Electa Bachus. In the fall a small school-house was built, the first within the present limits of Hennepin county. During the winter following. Rev. E. D. Neill, of St. Paul, preached every other Sunday afternoon,
in this school-house. He stated that his congre- gation was larger at St. Anthony than at St. Paul, where he also preached in the morning.
Rev. E. D. Neill delivered the first lecture in the course. in the winter of 1849. The lectures were given in the school-house. Referring to this course of lectures in an address before the Old Settlers Association, Mr. Neill said :
" Allusion has been made to the first course of lectures given at the Falls, the introductory to which was delivered under difficulties. It was announced that the course would open on the night of December 26th, 1849. The lecturer had dined at the residence of one of the best educated and most energetie men of the Upper Mississippi Valley, the late Charles W. Borup, then residing at Mendota. After a late dinner, Doctor Bornp, with his sleigh and a pair of spirited horses, started with the lecturer for the Falls.
"It took but a few minutes to reach the Fort, but after its walls were passed it was dark, and fresh snow had obscured the path, which was sel- dom traveled. Soon the horses carried the sleigh into the cellar of a house that had been destroyed, but they quickly clambered out. At last the ohl government mill was reached, and the horses cau- tionsly descended the bluff, to the frozen river. The cakes of ice were jammed perpendicularly, and there were long hollows between, and as the sleigh wouhl pass over, the ice-hillocks would break down with a loud crash, and more than once the thought arose upon the part of the occu- pants, whether the sleigh would halt before it touched bottom. After slow and cantions driving, the east side of Ilennepin Island was reached, only to find a large air-hole. Escaping this by a long detour, firm land was touched once more, and as the sleigh approached the school-house John Rollins met it, and in a very kind voice, but at the time it seemed a cool way, told the lecturer he was about ten minutes too late, and that the andience had gone home. Sadder, if not wiser and "warmer" men, the horses were turned around. and driver and lecturer reached Mendota at bed time. The people of the Falls were still determined to have the lecture, and soon after, Wm. R. Marshall. the late governor of the Stale, who had organized the Library Association, came in a sleigh after the lecturer. In the midst of a heavy snow-storm they drove to St. Anthony from
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