History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 25

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 547

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* * * Here is the place, the central place where the agriculture of the richest region of North America must pour its tribute. On the east, all along the shore of Lake Superior, and west, stretching in one broad plain, in a belt quite across the continent, is a country where State after State is to arise, and where the productions for the support of humanity, in old and crowded States, must be brought forth.

"This is then a commanding field, but it is as commanding in regard to the destiny of this coun- try and of this continent, as it is, in regard to the commercial future, for power is not permanently to reside on the eastern slope of the Alleghany Mountains, nor in the sea-ports. Sea-ports have always been overrun and controlled by the people of the interior, and the power that shall communi- cate and express the will of men on this continent is to be located in the Mississippi valley and at the sources of the Mississippi and Saint Lawrence.

"In our day, studying, perhaps what might seem to others trifling or visionary, I had cast about for the future and ultimate central seat of power of North American people. I had looked at Quebec, New Orleans, Washington, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and San Francisco, and it had been the result of my last conjecture, that the seat of power in North America could be found in the valley of Mexico, and that the glories of the Aztec capital would be surrendered, at its becoming at last the capital of the United States of America, but I have corrected that view. I now believe that the ultimate seat of government in this great Conti- nent, will be found somewhere within the circle or

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radius not very far from the spot where I now stand."

FLAG PRESENTATION.

In a few months after this speech, Mr. Seward was chosen by President Lincoln, inaugurated March 4, 1861, as secretary of state, and the next great crowd in front of the capitol was collected by the presentation of a flag by the ladies of St. Paul to the First Minnesota regiment which had been raised for the suppression of the slave-holders rebellion. On May the 25th, 1861, the regiment came down from their rendezvous at Fort Snelling, and marched to the capital grounds. The wife of Governor Ramsey, with the flag in hand, appeared on the front steps, surrounded by a committee of ladies, and presenting it to Colonel Gorman, made a brief address in which she said: "From this capitol, to the most remote frontier cottage, no heart but shall send up a prayer for your safety; no eye but shall follow with affection the flutter- ings of your banner, and no one but shall feel pride, when you crown the banner as you will crown it, with glory."

As the State increased in population it was nec- essary to alter and enlarge the building, and in 1873, a wing was added fronting on Exchange street, and the cupola was improved. The legis- lature of 1878 provided for the erection of another wing, at an expense of $14,000, fronting on Waba- Bha street. The building, by successive additions, was in length 204 feet, and in width 150 feet, and the top of the dome was more than 100 feet from the ground.

THE CAPITOL IN FLAMES.

On the morning of the 1st of March, 1881, it was destroyed by fire. About 9 o'clock in the the evening two gentlemen, who lived opposite, discovered the capitol was on fire, and immedia- tely, by the telegraph, an alarm notified the firemen of the city, and the occupants of the capitol.

The flames rapidly covered the cupola and licked the flag flying from the staff on top. One of the reporters of the Pioneer Press, who was in the senate chamber at the time, graphically describes the scene within.

He writes: "The senate was at work on third reading of house bills; Lieutenant Governor Gil- man in his seat, and Secretary Jennison reading something about restraining cattle in Rice county ; the senators were lying back listening carelessly,

when the door opened and Hon. Michael Doran announced that the building was on fire. All eyes were at once turned in that direction, and the flash of the flames was visible from the top of the gallery, as well as from the hall, which is on a level with the floor of the senate. The panic that ensued had a different effect upon the differ- ent persons, and those occupying places nearest the entrance, pushing open the door, and rushing pell mell through the blinding smoke. Two or three ladies happened to be in the vicinity of the doors, and happily escaped uninjured. But the opening of the door produced a draft which drew into the senate chamber clouds of smoke, the fire in the meantime having made its appearance over the center and rear of the gallery. All this occurred so suddenly that senators standing near the re- porter's table and the secretary's desk, which were on the opposite side of the chamber from the en- trance, stood as if paralyzed, gazing in mute as- tonishment at the smoke that passed in through the open doors, at the flames over the gallery, and the rushing crowd that blocked the door-ways. The senate suddenly and formally adjourned. President Gilman, however stood in his place, gavel in hand, and as he rapped his desk, loud and often he yelled: "Shut that door! Shut that door!"

"The cry was taken up by Colonel Crooks and other senators, and the order was finally obeyed, after which, the smoke clearing away, the senators were enabled to collect their senses and decide what was best to be done. President Gilman, still standing up in his place, calm and collected as if nothing unusual had happened, was encour- aging the senators to keep cool. Colonel Crooks was giving orders as if a battle was raging around him.

"Other senators were giving such advice as oc- curred to them, but unfortunately no advice was pertinent except to keep cool and that was all. Some were importuning the secretary and his as- sistants to save the records, and General Jennison, his hands full of papers, was waiting a chance to walk out with them. But that chance looked re- mote, indeed, for there, locked in the senate cham- ber, were at least fifty men walking around, some looking at each other in a dazed sort of a way; others at the windows looking out at the snow-cov- ered yard, now illuminated from the flames, that were heard roaring and crackling overhead.

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From some windows men were yelling to the lim- ited crowd below: "Get some ladders! Send for ladders!" Other windows were occupied. About this time terror actually siezed the members, when Senator Buck remarked that the fire was raging overhead, and at the same moment burning brands began to drop through the large ventilators upon the desks and floor beneath.

"Then, for a moment, it seemed as if all hopes of escape were cut off. * * * *

But happily the flames having made their way through the dome, a draught was created strong enough to clear the halls of smoke. The dome was almost directly over the entrance of the senate chamber, and burning brands and timbers had fallen down through the glass ceiling in front of the door, rendering escape in that director im- possible.

"But a small window leading from the cloak room of the senate chamber to the first landing of the main stairway furnished an avenue of escape, and through this little opening every man in the sen- ate chamber managed to get out.

"The windows were about ten feet high, but Mr. Michael Doran and several other gentlemen stood at the bottom, and nobly rendered assistance to those who came tumbling out, some headlong, some sideways and some feet foremost.

" As the reporter of the Pioneer-Press came out and landed on his feet, he paused for a moment to survey the scene overhead, where the flames were lashing themselves into fury as they played under- neath the dome, and saw the flag-staff burning, and coals dropping down like fiery hail.

"It took but a few minutes for the senators to get ont, after which they assembled on the outside, and they had no sooner gained the street than the ceiling of the senate chamber fell in, and in ten minutes that whole wing was a mass of flames."

Similar scenes took place in the hall of the house of representatives. A young lawyer, with a friend, as soon as the fire was noticed, ran into the law library and began to throw books out of the windows, but in a few minutes the density of the smoke and the approach of the flames com- pelled them to desist, and a large portion of the library was burned. The portraits of 'Generals Sherman and Thomas which were hung over the stairway were saved. The books of the Histori- cal Society, in the basement, were removed, but were considerably damaged. In three hours the

bare walls alone remained of the capitol which for nearly thirty years had been familiar to the law-makers and public men of Minnesota.

Steps were immediately taken to remove the debris and build a new capitol, upon the old site. The foundation walls have been laid, and in the course of a year the superstructure will be com- pleted.

THE PENITENTIARY.

Before the penitentiary was built, those charged or convicted of crime were placed in charge of the commandants of Fort Snelling or Ripley, and kept at useful employment under military supervision. At the same time it was decided to erect a capitol at St. Paul,it was also determined that the territorial prison should be built at or within half a mile of Stillwater. A small lot was secured in 1851 in what was called the Battle ravine, in consequence of the conflict between the Sioux and Chippeways de- scribed on the 103d page. Within a stone wall was erected offices of the prison, with an annex con- taining six cells. A warden's house was built on the outside of the wall. In 1853, an addition of six cells was made and on the 5th of March, 1853, F. R. Delano entered upon his duties as warden. His reports to the legislature show that for several years there was little use for the cells. The prison was opened for criminals on the 1st of September, 1853,and until January, 1858 there had been received only five convicts, and forty-one county and thirty city prisoners awaiting trial. The use of the prison by the counties and city as a temporary place of confinement led to some misunderstanding between the warden and Wash- ington county, and the grand jury of that county in November, 1857, complained that the warden was careless in discharge of his duties. The jury, among other complaints sent the following ironi- cal statement: "It was also found in such exami- nation that one Maria Roffin, committed on charge of selling spirituous liquors to the Indians within the territory of the United States escaped in the words of the record, 'by leaving the prison' and it is a matter of astonishment to this grand jury that she so magnanimously consented to leave the penitentiary behind her."

Francis O. J. Smith acted as warden for a brief period after Delano, and then H. N. Setzer. In 1859, the number of cells had increased to sixteen, and among the inmates was a hitherto respectable

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citizen sentenced for fifteen years for robbing a post-office.

In 1860 John S. Proctor became warden, and after eight years of efficient service, was succeeded by Joshua L. Taylor. By successive additions in 1869 nearly ten acres were enclosed by prison walls, and during this year extensive shops were built. The State in 1870 erected a costly prison at an expense of about $80,000, which, besides a chapel and necessary offices, contained two hun- dred and ninety-nine cells.

A. C. Webber succeeded Taylor as Warden in March, 1870, and the following October, Henry A. Jackman took his place, and continued in office until August, 1874, when the present incumbent, J. A. Reed, was appointed.

It has been the policy of the State to hire the convicts to labor for contractors, in workshops within the walls. At present the inmates are largely engaged in the making of agricultural machines for the firm of Seymour, Sabin & Co.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA.

The Territorial Legislature of 1851, passed an act establishing the University of Minnesota at or near the Falls of St. Anthony, and memorialized Congress for a grant of lands for the Institution. Soon after, Congress ordered seventy-two sections of land to be selected and reserved for the use of said University.

As the Regents had no funds, Franklin Steele gave the site now the public square, on Second Street in the East Division, opposite the Minnesota Medical College. Mr. Steele and others at their own expense erected a wooden building thereon, for a Preparatory Department, and the Rev. E. W. Merrill was engaged as Principal. At the close of the year 1853, the Regents reported that there was ninety-four students in attendance, but that the site selected being too near the Falls, they had purchased of Joshua L. Taylor and Paul B. George about twenty-five acres, a mile eastward, on the heigth overlooking the Falls of St. Anthony.

Governor Gorman, in his message in 1854 to the Legislature said: "The University of Minne- Bota exists as yet only in name, but the time has come when a substantial reality may and should be created." But the Regents could not find any patent which would compress a myth into reality, for not an acre of the land grant of Congress was available. The Governor in his message therefore added: "It would not embarrass our resources, 10

in my judgment, if a small loan was effected to erect a building, and establish one or two profes- sorships, and a preparatory department, such loan to be based upon the townships of land appropri- ated for the sole use of the University."

While it was pleasing to local pride to have a building in prospect which could be seen from afar, the friends of education shook their heads, and declared the prospect of borrowing money to build a University building before the common school system was organized was visionary, and would be unsuccessful. The idea, however, con- tinued to be agitated, and the Regents at length were authorized by the Legislature of 1856, to issue bonds in the name of the University, under its corporate seal, for fifteen thousand dollars, to be secured by the mortgage of the University building which had been erected on the new site, and forty thousand dollars more were authorized to be issued by the Legislature of 1858, to be secured by a lien on the lands devoted for a Ter- ritorial University. With the aid of these loans a costly and inconvenient stone edifice was con- structed, but when finished there was no demand for it, and no means for the payment of interest or professors.

In the fall of 1858, in the hope that the Uni- versity might be saved from its desperate condi- tion, the Regents elected the Rev. Edward D. Neill as Chancellor. He accepted the position without any salary being pledged, and insisted that a University must necessarily be of Blow de- velopment, and must succeed, not precede, the common schools, and contended that five years might elapse before anything could be done for a University which would be tangible and visible. He also expressed the belief that in time, with strict watchfulness, the heavy load of debt could be lifted.

The Legislature of 1860 abolished the old board of Regents of the Territorial University by pass- ing an act for a State University, which had been prepared by the Chancellor, and met the approval of Chancellor Tappan, of Michigan University. Its first section declared "that the object of the State University established by the Constitution of the State, at or near the Falls of St. Anthony, shall be to provide the best and most efficient means of imparting to the youth of the State an education more advanced than that given in the public schools, and a thorough knowledge of the

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branches of literature, the arts and sciences, with their various applications."

This charter also provided for the appointment of five Regents, to be appointed by the Governor, and confirmed by the Senate, in place of the twelve who had before been elected by the Legis- lature. The Legislature of 1860 also enacted that the Chancellor should be ex-officio State Superin- tendent of Public Instruction.

The first meeting of the Regents of the State University was held on the fifth of April, 1860, and steps were taken to secure the then useless edi- fice from further dilapidation. The Chancellor urged at this meeting that a large portion of the territorial land grant would be absorbed in pay- ment of the moneys used in the erection of a building in advance of the times, and that the only way to secure the existence of a State University was by asking Congress for an addi- tional two townships, or seventy-two sections of land, which he contended could be done under the phraseology of the enabling act, which said : "That seventy-two sections of land shall be set apart and reserved for the use and support of a State Univer- sity to be selected by the Governor of said State," etc.

The Regents requested the Governor to suggest to the authorities that it was not the intention of Congress to turn over the debts and prospectively encumbered lands of an old and badly managed Territorial institution, but to give the State that was to be, a grant for a State University, free from all connection with the Territorial organiza- tion. The Governor communicated these views to the authorities at Washington, but it was not till after years of patient waiting that the land was obtained by an act of Congress.

At the breaking out of the civil war in 1861, the Chancellor became Chaplain of the First Regi- ment of Minnesota Volunteers, and went to the seat of war, and the University affairs continued to grow worse, and the University building was a by-word and hissing among the passers by. Dur- ing the year 1863, some of the citizens of St. An- thony determined to make another effort to extri- cate the institution from its difficulties, and the legislature of 1864 passed an act abolishing the board of Regents, and creating three persons sole regents, with power to liquidate the debts of the institution. The Regents under this law were John S. Pillsbury and O. C. Merriman, of St. An- thony, and John Nicols, of St. Paul.

The increased demand for pine lands, of which the University owned many acres, and the sound discretion of these gentlemen co-operated in pro- curing happy results. In two years Governor Marshall, in his message to the legislature, was able to say: "The very able and successful man- agement of the affairs of the institution, under the present board of Regents, relieving it of over one hundred thousand dollars of debt, and saving over thirty thousand acres of land that was at one time supposed to be lost, entitles Messrs. Pillsbury, Merriman, and Nicols to the lasting gratitude of the State."

The legislature of 1867 appropriated $5,000 for a preparatory and Normal department, and the Regents this year chose as principal of the school, the Rev. W. W. Washburn, a graduate of the Uni- versity of Michigan, and Gabriel Campbell, of the same institution, and Ira Moore as assistants. The legislature of 1868 passed an act to reorganize the University, and to establish an Agricultural Col- lege therein.

Departing from the policy of the University of Michigan, it established what the Regents wished,a department of Elementary instruction. It also pro- vided for a College of Science, Literature and the Arts; a College of Agriculture and Mechanics with Military Tactics; a college of Law, and a College of Medicine.

The provision of the act of 1860, for the appoint- ment of Regents was retained, and the number to be confirmed by the Senate, was increased from five to seven.

The new board of Regents was organized in March, 1868. John S. Pillsbury, of St. Anthony, President; O. C. Merriman, of St. Anthony, Seo- retary, and John Nicols, of St. Paul, Treasurer.

At a meeting of the Regents in August, 1869, arrangements were made for collegiate work by electing as President and Professor of mathematics William W. Folwell.

President Folwell was born in 1835, in Seneca county, New York, and graduated with distinction in 1827, at Hobart College in Geneva, New York. For two years he was a tutor at Hobart, and then went to Europe. Upon his return the civil war was raging, and he entered the 50th New York Volun- teers. After the army was disbanded he engaged in business in Ohio, but at the time of his election to the presidency of the University, was Professor of mathematics, astronomy, and German at Ken- yon College.

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THE FACULTY.

The present faculty of the institution is as fol- lows:

William W. Folwell, instructor, political science. Jabez Brooks, D. D., professor, Greek, and in charge of Latin.

Newton H. Winchell, professor, State geologist, public health and hygiene.

John G. Moore, professor, German.

Moses Marston, Ph. D., professor, . English lit- erature.

C. W. Hall, professor, geology and biology. John C. Hutchinson, assistant professor, Greek and mathematics.

John S. Clark, assistant professor, Latin.

Matilda J. Campbell, instructor, German and English.

Maria L. Sanford, professor, rhetoric, and elocu- tion.

William A. Pike, O. E., professor, engineering and physics.

John F. Downey, professor, mathematics and astronomy.

James A. Dodge, Ph. D., professor, chemistry. Alexander T. Ormond, professor, mental and moral philosophy and history.

Charles W. Benton, professor, French.

Edward D. Porter, professor, agriculture.

William H. Leib, instructor, vocal music.

William F. Decker, instructor, shop work and drawing.

Edgar C. Brown, U. S. A., professor, military science.

James Bowen, instructor, practical horticulture. THE CAMPUS AND BUILDINGS.

The campus of the university since it was orig- inally acquired, has been somewhat enlarged, and now consists of about fifty acres in extent, undu- lating in surface, and well wooded with native trees. The buildings are thus far but two in number, the plan of the original building, which in outline was not unlike the insane asylum build- ing at St. Peter, having been changed by the erection in 1876, of a large four-story structure built of stone and surmounted by a tower. This building is 186 feet in length and ninety in breadth, exclusive of porches, having three stories above the basement in the old part. The walls are of blue limestone and the roof of tin. The rooms, fifty-three in number, as well as all the corridors are heated by an efficient steam appara-

tus, and are thoroughly ventilated. Water is sup- plied from the city mains, and there is a stand- pipe running from the basement through the roof with hose attached on all the floors for protection against fire. The assembly hall, in the third story, is 87x55 feet, 24 feet high, and will seat with comfort 700 people, and 1,200 can be accom- modated.

THE AGRICULTURAL BUILDING

is the first of the special buildings for the separ- ate colleges, and was built in 1876. It is of brick, on a basement of blue stone, 146x54 feet. The central portion is two stories in height. The south wing, 46x25 feet, is a plant house of double sash and glass. The north wing contains the chemical laboratory. There are class rooms for chemistry, physics and agriculture, and private laboratories for the professors. A large room in the second story is occupied by the museum of technology and agriculture, and the basement is filled up with a carpenter shop, a room with vises and tools at which eight can work. and another room fitted with eight forges and a blower-the commencement of the facilities for practical in- struction.

DEAF AND DUMB INSTITUTION.

Of all the public institutions of Minnesota, no one has had a more pleasing history, and more symmetrical development than the Institution for the education of the deaf and dumb and the blind at Faribault.

The legislature of 1858, passed an act for the establishment of "The Minnesota State Institute for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb," within two miles of Faribault, in Rice county, upon con- dition that the town or county, should within one year from the passage of the law give forty acres of land for its use. The condition was complied with, but the financial condition of the country and the breaking out of the civil war, with other causes retarded the progress of the Institution for five years.

The legislature of 1863 made the first appro- priation of fifteen hundred dollars for the opening of the Institution. Mr. R. A. Mott, of Faribault, who has to this time been an efficient director, at the request of the other two directors, visited the East for teachers, and secured Prof. Kinney and wife of Columbus, Ohio. A store on Front Street was then rented, and adapted for the temporary

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use of the Institution, which opened on the 9th of September, 1863, with five pupils, which soon in- creased to ten.

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History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 25

Author: Edward D. Neill Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages: 547

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 547