History of Houston County, Minnesota, Part 2

Author: Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge
Publication date: 1919
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1343

USA > Minnesota > Houston County > History of Houston County, Minnesota > Part 2

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Schummers, Nicholas, 208 Scofield, Archibald, 533 Scofield, Charles J., 533 Scofield, Jesse, 532 Seekamp, Herman, 627 Selby, W. Milton, 434 Selke, Otto F., 451 Selke, William E., 440 Selland, Nels, 614 Selland, Gilbert, 614 Senn, Andrew, 673 Senn, Andrew L., 673 Senn, Mrs. Marie A. R., 674 Senn, William C., 339 Senness, Knute O., 282

Seuffert, Henry C., 206

Shartall, John, 699 Sheehan, John W., 549

Sheldon, Frank, 344 Sheldon, James G., M. D., 342

Sheldon, Sumner S., 343 Shisler, William M., 600

Skree, Gunder O., 227

Skree, Ole Halvorson, 225

Skree, Tollef O., 225

Sliter, John J., 257 Smith, Charles, 253

Smith, Herbert, 253

Snure, Mrs. Anna, 387

Snure, Frank H., 731 Snure, Harvey, 731

Snure, Mrs. Mary, 386

Sogla, Knud O., 255 Solberg, Helmer Julius, 209

Solberg, Severt, 208 Sorum, Henry O., and E. M., 274

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INDEX TO BIOGRAPHIES

xiii

Tangen, John A., 228 Targerson, Andrew, 283 Targerson, Targe, 283 Tendeland, Torger Johnson, 522 Tennison, Tennis A., 378 Tennison, Thomas, 377 Thery, Frank, 645 Thiele, Dedrich, 616 Thiele, Theodore W., 617 Thompson, Isaac, 277 Thompson, Knute T., 380

Thorson, Ole, 293 Thorson, Theodore, 292 Thoreson, Thorvald, 542 Tietz, Albert William, 403

Tollefsrud, Clarence O., 484 Tollefsrud, Henry O., 473 Tollefsrud, Ole O., 724 Tollefsrud, Oscar R., 481

Tone, Ole B., 708

Tosterud, Ole J., 603 Traff. Gideon, 272 Traff, John, 285

Traff, Oscar L., 285

Trehus, Carl T., 687

Trehus, Endre T., 702

Trulson, Hans, 361

Trulson, Lars, 361

Tschumper, John B., 420

Tveito, Elling, 530 Tveito, Nels, 530

Tveten, Nere, 359

Tweten, Hans T., 598 Tweten, Tob Olson. 598

Tweiten, Ole A., 229

Tyrebakken, Guttorm G., 612

Ukkestad, Lauritz, 258 Ukkestad, Theodore, 258 Unmasch, Herman Ferdinand, 320

Vaaler, Christopher, 517

Vaaler, Olaus C., 517 Vance, Aaron, 310 Vance, Daniel, 634

Vance, Charles H .. 634

Vance, William W., 310 Vanderpan, Jacob Ray, 374 Vathing, Iver., 229 Vathing, Segurd, 229 Veglahn, William H., 432 Vik Albert E., 472 Vik, Endre A., 472 Vix, Grover Cleveland, 404 Vix, Louis, 404 Vollenweider, Henry, 642

Voss, Charles, 703 Voss, John G., 703 Vossen, Joseph, 204

Wager, Otto, 270 Wahl, Andreas, 364

Walhus, John M., 537

Walhus, Martin J. D. D. S., 210

Walters, Louis G., 366

Walters, George. 366

Watson, George L., 583

Watson, George Morton, 583

Webster, Dewitt C., 698

Webster. Everett B., 433

Weier. Carl J., 395

Weis, Matt F., 548 Weist, William F., 443

Welch, John W., 446

Welsh, Patrick, 401

Welsh, Thomas William, 401

Weom, Lawrence, 222

Wermager, Carl Oliver, 581

Wermager. Hans. P., 604

Westby, Martin, 232

Westby, Martin, 272

Westby, Oscar. 233

Wetchen, Dedrick, 447

Whaley, William, 230

Whaley, William J., 230

Wheaton, Charles. 539

Wheaton, Charles J., 540

Wheaton, George W., and Ardon V., 411

Wheaton, Herbert E., 665

Wheaton, John R., 354

Wheaton. Samuel N., 353

Wiebke. Henry, 564 Wiegrefe. August, 550

Wieser, Bernard, 443 Wieser, Joseph, 443

Wilhelmson, Knute, 655

Wilhelmson, Julius Wilhelm, 655

Wilson, Alfred, 406 Wilson, Edward. 675.

Wilson, Peter, 231

Wilson. Samuel Alfred, 232

Witt, Albert. 690

Witt. Christian B., 690 Wohlers, Louis F., 373

Wold, Henry, 488 Wold, Knudt O., 490

Wold, Peter A., 491

Wolden, Lauritz O., 622

Wolden, Ole P., 621

Worthingham, Peter Adolphus, 434

Wright, George, 459

Ziemann, Julius, 409

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CHAPTER I

MINNESOTA

Minnesota derives its name from the river named "Minisota," by the Dakotas, pronounced "Min-nee-sotah" (Mini, water; sota, turbid or cloudy or poetically, sky colored). To secure the correct pronounciation in English letters, the convention called at Stillwater, in 1848, to secure a territorial organization, instructed their delegates to see that the name of the Territory was written Min-ne-sota.

Minnesota occupies the exact center of North America. The State is bounded on the south by Iowa, on the west by South and North Dakota, on the north by Manitoba and Ontario, and on the east by Wisconsin. It extends from latitude 43 degrees 30 minutes to 49 degrees 24 minutes, and from 89 degrees 29 minutes to 97 degrees 15 minutes west longitude. It is about 400 miles long and from its most eastern to the extreme western point about 354 miles wide.

In area Minnesota is the tenth State of the Union. It contains 84,287 square miles, or about 53,943,379 acres, of which 3,608,012 acres are water. The headwaters of three great river systems are found in its limits, those of streams flowing northward to Hudson Bay, eastward to the Atlantic ocean, and southward to the Gulf of Mexico. About half of this surface, on the south and west, consists of rolling prairie. The rest, embracing the . elevated district west and north of Lake Superior, has rich mineral ranges. Throughout most of the timbered sections are fertile valleys and broad trenches of flat and slightly rolling tillable lands.

But few states are so well watered as Minnesota. Its navigable rivers are the Mississippi, the Minnesota, the St. Croix, the Rainy River, the St. Louis, the Red River of the North, and the Red Lake River, all of which, near their sources, have extensive water powers. The smaller streams in- clude the Rum River and Snake River, the Cannon and Zumbro rivers, the Vermillion, Crow, Blue Earth, Des Moines, Cottonwood, Chippewa, Le Sueur, Root, Elk and Sauk rivers. These with their tributaries and a host of lesser streams penetrate every portion of the State.

Within the State there are about ten thousand lakes, the largest of which is Red Lake, in the extreme central northern part of the State. On the same northern slope, in St. Louis county, is the beautiful Vermilion lake, with its tributaries. Bordering on the northeast corner of the State for one hundred and fifty miles, the waters of the great Lake Superior wash its shores. On the southern slope of the State is Itasca lake, the source of the Mississippi, with Cass lake, Lake Winnibigoshish, Leech lake, and other innumerable lakes, all adding volume to the water of the Mississippi, even- tually flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. Then we have Mille Lacs, the source of Rum River, and the picturesque Lake Minnetonka. These are the largest lakes in the State.

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

The shore of Lake Superior is the lowest land in the State, 602 feet above sea level. The waters of the northeastern part of the State south of the Mesabi iron range flow into Lake Superior, and are carried to the Atlan- tic ocean. The Mississippi river, having its chief source in Lake Itasca, at 1,466 feet elevation, runs in a southerly direction, leaving the State at 620 feet above sea level.

The Red River of the North, rising in the north, near Itasca lake, at a height of 1,600 feet above the ocean, leaves the State at an elevation of 750 feet. The average elevation of the State is given at about 1,275 feet. The highest elevation is the Misquah hills, in Cook county, 2,230 feet.

Minnesota has an annual mean temperature of 44 degrees, while its mean summer temperature is 70 degrees, the same as that of middle Illinois and Ohio, southern Pennsylvania, etc. Its high latitude gives it corre- spondingly longer days in summer than states further south, and during the growing season there are two and one-half hours more sunshine than in the latitude of Cincinnati. The winters are not severe. The rainfall in summer is abundant. In every way the climate of Minnesota is ideal.

The great and prosperous commonwealth now known as the State of Minnesota, at one time formed part of three great sovereignties: France, Spain and Great Britain. At different periods sections of it bore the names of the Northwest Territory, Louisiana, Missouri, Michigan, Iowa and finally "Minnesota."

The economic, political and institutional life of Minnesota can be traced back to the brilliant period of Louis XIV of France and the French con- quest of the territory furnishes one of the most fascinating chapters in American history. Whether this was effected by devoted priests under the direction of various religious orders or by intrepid adventurers encour- aged in their undertakings by officials of the French government, makes little difference. The French were the pioneers in the development of the Northwest fur trade and it was the discovery of potential wealth in the large number of fur bearing animals in the territory that offered a promis- ing field for white adventurous spirits from the settlements along the St. Lawrence River.

Thus it was that in 1655 two of these traders, now indisputibly iden- tified as Medard Chouart, Sieur de Groseilliers and Pierre d'Esprit, Sieur de Radisson, reached Minnesota, having crossed Wisconsin to the Missis- sippi River and after two years' sojourn returned to Montreal laden with valuable pelts. They were the first white men to visit Minnesota.

Thereafter the possibilities of great wealth in the vast empire beyond the Great Lakes became known and the commercial life of Minnesota may well be said to have commenced in the seventeenth century.

In 1679 Daniel Greysolon DuLhut (Duluth), a French officer, explored the region along the shores of Lake Superior and inland to Mille Lacs lake where he held council with the Indians and during the following summer journeyed to the Mississippi River where he met Father Louis Hennepin, a missionary priest. Father Hennepin was on a voyage of discovery also, the object being to trace the source of the Mississippi. He reached the

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

Falls of St. Anthony, the present site of the City of Minneapolis, April 30, 1680.

The spirit of romance and adventure was ever present during this early period of Minnesota's history, and the latter part of the seventeenth century, but the aborigines did not always take kindly to the visitors. It was, therefore, a matter of self preservation that led to the erection by Nicholas Perrot a fort on the shores of Trempealeau in 1689 and of a similar means of defense by Pierre LeSueur, French explorer, at the mouth of the Blue Earth River eleven years later.

When France lost her American dependencies in 1763 all that part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi River came under the control of Great Britain and the result was that English trading enterprises began to supersede the French companies.

During the early years of this commercial warfare, there arrived in the territory Jonathan Carver, a native of Connecticut, who was the first "Yankee" to venture into the territory. With characteristic foresight, Carver established friendly relations with the Indians, and it is alleged that in the spring of 1767 he obtained a grant of land from the Sioux which included the present site of the city of St. Paul, but no government recognition of the grant, currently referred to as "Carver's Claim," has ever been discovered.

The battle for supremacy in the fur trade continued to occupy the at- tention of the French, British and American companies until the North- west Company was organized in 1783 and which a few years later gained exclusive control of the trading region beyond the Great Lakes. This supremacy it practically maintained until 1816 when the American Fur Company came into existence. This latter company has been credited with being commercially and politically the greatest single force in the development of the territory of which Minnesota forms a part.

That section of the State west of the Mississippi river had several times prior to 1803 been alternately possessed by Spain and France, but fol- lowing the "Louisiana Purchase" in that year Minnesota came under the jurisdiction of Missouri territory, and incidently, for the first time became a political division of the Unted States. In 1805 that part east of the Mississippi river, which had been a section of the Northwest Territory, and later of Indiana, was included in Michigan territory.

Geographers and scientific explorers were also taking an active interest in the territory about this time for in 1798 David Thompson traversed and mapped the Red Lake region and the discovery of the source of the Missis- sippi River at Itasca lake was announced in 1804 by William Morrison.

Two years after the Louisiana Purchase the Federal government sent an expedition into the new acquisition commanded by Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, who wintered near what is now Little Falls and visited the Indian trading posts which had been established at Leech and Cass lakes.

Lieutenant Pike negotiated with the Sioux for the purhcase of a tract of land extending from below the confluence of the Mississippi and St. Peter's (Minnesota) rivers, up the Mississippi to include the Falls of St.

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

Anthony, extending nine miles on each side of the river. Another tract nine miles square at the mouth of the St. Croix River was included in the cession. In consideration of these grants the Government paid $2,000, the actual payment being made in the distribution of goods to the Indians by Major Forsyth in 1819 and that year Fort St. Anthony, afterward named Fort Snelling, was located on the Mississippi-Minnesota rivers site.

Another Government expedition arrived in the territory in 1820 headed by General Lewis Cass, who then was governor of all the territory between the Detroit River on the east and the Mississippi on the west. This expedi- tion ascended the Mississippi River to Cass Lake, so named by the historian Henry Schoolcraft, who accompanied it and who also named Lake Itasca, discovered by Thompson in 1804. Three years later the country north and west of Fort Snelling was traversed by Major Stephen Long and a military escort.

Italy was represented in this exploration but not officially, for with Major Long was Giocome C. Beltrami, an Italian political exile. Beltrami left Long's expedition at Pembina and traveled alone or with Indian com- panions past Red Lake and across the western section of the territory and down the Mississippi River to Fort Snelling.

In the early summer of 1823 the first steamboat on the upper Missis- sippi, the little "Virginia," laden with supplies, picked its way slowly up the river to Fort Snelling, but almost a decade passed after the advent of soldiers at the fort before settlers began to arrive in any number.

Hon. Henry H. Sibley, afterwards the first governor of the State of Minnesota, arrived at St. Peter's (Mendota) in 1834 from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, as resident partner and manager of the American Fur Company, and the Anglo-Saxon influence which had begun to manifest itself in the years following the treaty of Versailles in 1763, by which the territory's allegiance was changed from France to England, began to take more definite shape.

The Sioux and Ojibway Indians, had, up to the beginning of the nine- teenth century, held the territory practically undisturbed, but the commer- cial spirit entered at about this period and the Indians were used to material advantage in many transactions with the fur traders. They received in ex- change for peltries, guns, ammunition, blankets, calicoes, knives, tobacco and rum. Under this system of barter the traders were undoubtedly able to reap large profits, the Indians being permitted to obtain desired articles at the trading posts and given credit according to their hunting and trapping ability.

The first actual settlement of the present State of Minnesota followed as a result of treaties negotiated with the Indians by Governor Dodge of Wisconsin at Fort Snelling, and by Joel Poinsette, a special commis- sioner, at Washington in 1837. By the first of these the Ojibways ceded all their pine lands on the St. Croix and its tributaries, and by the Wash- ington treaty the Dakota Indians ceded their lands east of the Mississippi and all its islands. Through these treaties the United States Government gained possession of the land between the Mississippi and the St. Croix

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

rivers south of a line drawn through the mouth of the Crow Wing River; and after the ratification of the treaties by Congress in 1838 these lands were opened for settlement.

In the next few years small settlements were created at St. Paul, Mendota, Pembina, Marine and Dakota (Stillwater), at which latter place the "Stillwater Convention" was held August 26, 1848, whereby measures were adopted for separate territorial organization and providing that the proposed new territory be named Minnesota. Henry H. Sibley was elected delegate to Congress with the result that on March 3, 1849, the bill organiz- ing Minnesota as an independent territory was passed. The territorial government was declared fully organized June 1, 1841, by Hon. Alexander Ramsey of St. Paul, who had been appointed governor.

With the creation of the territory of Minnesota, the domain of which extended to the Missouri River, a change took place in the industrial and commercial life of the people. The region was still mainly Indian country and the magnificent opportunities for development brought about negotia- tions with the tribal chiefs for approximately 24,000,000 acres of the finest agricultural land in the world by the signing of the famous Traverse des Sioux and the Mendota treaties. The first of these was signed July 23, 1851, in the presence of a large number of Sioux chiefs at a council presided over by Governor Ramsey and at which the United States Government was represented by Hon. Luke Lee, Indian Commissioner; the second was negotiated at Mendota on the fifth of August. By the Traverse des Sioux treaty the chiefs ceded all the lands claimed by the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Sioux, east of the Bois des Sioux and Big Stone rivers and Lake Traverse to the Mississippi River, excepting a reservation one hundred miles long by twenty wide, at the upper part of the Minnesota River. The Indians, under the terms of the treaty, were to move within two years to the reservation; to receive from the Government, after removal, $275,000 to enable them to become established in their new domain, and $30,000 was to be expended in breaking land, establishing mills and providing a manual labor school. They also were to receive an annuity of $68,000 for fifty years payable $40,000 in cash, $10,000 in goods and provisions, a civilization fund of $12,000 and an education fund of $6,000.

By the Mendota treaty, which was signed by sixty-four chiefs of the Med-ay-wakanton and Wah-pay-kee-tay bands of Sioux, all their lands in the territory of Minnesota and Iowa were ceded. In consideration for this the United States was to reserve for them a tract of an average width of ten miles on either side of the Minnesota River between the Yellow Medicine River on the west and the Little Rock River on the east; to pay them $220,000 with which to settle debts and aid in their removal to the reserva- tion; $30,000 to be used for the erection of structures and opening farms; an annual civilization fund of $12,000; an annual education fund of $6,000; to provide $10,000 in goods and provisions annually and to pay $30,000 in cash. The annuities were to continue for fifty years. The treaties were ratified by Congress in June, 1852.

A third treaty of 1851 was effected by Governor Ramsey with the Red Lake and Pembina bands of Ojibways at Pembina, but was not ratified by

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

the Government until the fifth of May, 1864, when President Lincoln by proclamation confirmed it. By this treaty 11,000,000 acres of land embraced within the northwestern section of the State in the Red River Valley was added to the already large tracts available for white settlement.

The United States census of 1850 showed that the white population of Minnesota numbered 6,077, but immigration increased rapidly after the negotiations and ratification of the Indian treaties and by 1853 steamboats engaged in the Minnesota River trade carried capacity cargoes and pas- sengers. Villages grew rapidly in the valley of the Minnesota, which was regarded as a veritable Eden and farms appeared in all directions. A period of unprecedented immigration continued from 1853 to 1857, at which time the population of the territory was 150,027. During these years of pros- perity Minnesota attracted the best class of men and women from Europe. They were hardy frontiersmen indeed, with slender financial resources, a condition typical always of those who have been in the vanguard of settle- ment. As a class they were far superior in morality, education and intelli- gence than the pioneers in many of the older territories. Many were farmers who came west in "Prairie Schooners," with their own stock. Although Southwestern Minnesota gained more from the incoming popula- tion than any other section, the unusual success which attended the begin- ning of the lumber industry had its effect on every branch of trade and a rapid increase in the wealth of the newcomers.

The adventurous spirit, however, of many of the settlers led many of them to locate near the extreme limits of the land grants and in immediate proximity to Indian settlements. Occasionally the younger Indians on hunting expeditions returned to the ceded lands in the Southwestern sec- tion near the Iowa border. One band under the leadership of Inkpaduta, composed of about fifteen lodges, were particularly given to marauding. It was this band which caused the first serious trouble for the whites. In the spring of 1857 a few of these Indians hunting in the vicinity of Rock River killed a dog belonging to a white settler. The owner of the dog assaulted one of the Indians and then gathering a few neighbors went to the Indian camp and disarmed them. In a spirit of revenge the Indians went to the white settlement at Spirit Lake, March 6, 1857, massacred the men and took four women captives, two of whom were later rescued. Other settlements were attacked and altogether forty-two settlers were killed. An expedition was dispatched by Hon. Charles E. Flandrau, the Indian agent, but all escaped across the prairies into the wilds of Dakota territory, except the eldest son of Inkpaduta who was killed in an attempt to capture him.

The prosperity of the years prior to 1857 resulted in a demand for an extensive railroad system and for a state government for the territory; therefore Congress, on February 26, 1857, passed an act authorizing a con- stitutional convention and also granting a large amount of lands in aid of public schools. In March of the same year, Congress enacted legislation making large grants of lands to railroad companies. But as the year 1857 advanced, financiers began to feel the effects of uncertain conditions in the East. Stringency in the money market was the rule and business was dull.

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

Local bankers had little money for business loans, having invested heavily in real estate. The crash came August 28, when a telegram reached St. Paul announcing the suspension of several eastern banking institutions. Within a week real estate transactions ceased; payments became slower, past due accounts began to accumulate; gold commanded a stiff premium and soon disappeared from general circulation, and money of any kind was scarce. Early in October St. Paul banks suspended specie payments, more bank- ing firms went under and instead of immigration an exodus from the terri- tory had actually begun. Bankers held meetings and unsuccessfully urged Governor Samuel Medary to call an extra session of the territorial legis- lature. The Constitutional convention which had assembled at St. Paul July 13, acting on the instant demands of the people, incorporated into the fundamental laws of the proposed state the constitutional basis for a sounder financial policy, but it was not until after the Civil War that prosperity returned.

The proposed State Constitution adopted at the convention also changed the western boundary of the proposed state, which heretofore had ex- tended to the Missouri River. The Red River of the North, the Boise des Sioux River, Lake Traverse and Big Stone Lakes with a line extending due south to the Iowa border, was the established western limits. The Constitution also provided for the election of State officers at the same time of voting on the adoption of the Constitution. The first State legislature convened December 2, 1857, and continued in session until March 25, 1858, when a recess was taken pending the admission of Minnesota to statehood by Congress. The act of admission was passed May 11, 1858, and the State's first governor, Henry H. Sibley, assumed office May 24. On June 3 the legislature having again assembled, Governor Sibley delivered his inaug- ural address and the State's lawmaking body continued in session until August 12, 1858. The first legislature worked diligently on financial and railroad legislation. To utilize the Government land grant a scheme was devised aimed to aid companies who might be willing to undertake the construction of railroads. This act came to be known as the "Five Million Loan Bill," under which the credit of the State was loaned to that amount. It was proposed as an amendment to the constitution and was adopted by a large majority. There always was much opposition to the measure, however, and when the State Supreme Court later ruled that the constitu- tional provision did not require the railroads to give the State a prior lien on their property, the railroad bonds depreciated in value. Eastern finan- ciers refused to buy the bonds and finally the entire scheme collapsed with the foreclosure of the mortgages which the State had taken upon railroad franchises and lands. The result was the abandonment of railroad con- struction temporarily. The total amount of bonds issued was $2,275,000, and by foreclosing the State acquired about 250 miles of graded road, the franchises and the lands amounting to about five million acres indemnity.

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History of Houston County, Minnesota, Part 2

Author: Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1343

Author: Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge
Publication date: 1919
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1343