USA > Minnesota > Rice County > History of Rice County, including explorers and pioneers of Minnesota and outline history of the state of Minnesota > Part 48
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is so clear that to make good brick it is necessary to add sand.
Henry Durham, of Faribault, burns about 300,000 per year and finds lying immediately under the clay a stratum of sand for mixture with it.
Another brickyard has been started at Faribault, which has been a success. At Prairieville, Messrs. Meisner and Leonard are making about 300,000 per year. Their brick are said to contain consid- erable lime and to be very good. At Morristown, Mr. Pettiel makes about 50,000 per year. Three miles northeast of Faribault, Mr. Dungay is mak- ing the best brick yet produced in the county. His product so far has been but about 100,000 per year, but these have been sold at from $7.50 to $8 per thousand. At Shieldsville one kiln is burned each year for home supply, and at North- field one or two small kilns are burned every season.
In 1878, a bank of clay was opened about three miles from Northfield, and brick for the new col- lege building (St. Olaf's) have been burned. They are pronounced of fine quality.
CHAPTER XLVI.
EARLY SETTLEMENT-INCIDENTS-THE RED MEN- FARIRAULT AND RICE COUNTY IN 1858.
Alexander Faribault, the pioneer of the county, a son of Jean B. Faribault, who had been for years in the employ of the Fur Company, started from Fort Snelling in the fall of 1826, with Joseph Dashner, who remained here until. a few years ago, when he went to Dakota, and afterwards died. There were several others in the party; he had a one-horse cart laden with goods, and after a trip of ten days a trading post was established at Te-ton-ka To-nah, or the "Lake of the Village," which is three miles above Faribault. The In- dians were got together, and the goods trusted out to them, on their promise to pay in furs when the party should return in the spring, about the first of April, and to the credit of the red men it may be said, that they, almost without exception, were prompt in meeting their obligations.
In relation to the prices paid for furs by the fur companies, about which there might be some curi- osity, it may be said that there were certain tech-
nicalities connected with the trade that was well understood. A certain number of skins of a smaller animal represented a certain fraction of a larger one. The price of a bear skin, for instance, would be a multiple of so many muskrat skins, and the prices paid were well up, if not equal to the New York price. The object, of course, was to monopolize the trade, the profit being made on the goods paid in exchange, which were of two, three, four or more prices. This post was kept up until removed to the present site of Faribault, and Mr. Faribault kept on collecting furs, and supply- ing goods up to the time of the settlement of the place, and the removal of the Waupakutas, that being the name of the band of Sioux that occu- pied this region.
The Indians removed from the lake where their village was, and built on the point which is now occupied by Mr. Faribault's old residence. This was in 1835, and at that time there were about forty of their bark: covered abodes. Their burial ground is enclosed by the dooryard of Mr. Fari- bault's house. There rest the bones of Visiting Eagle and his family, a prominent chief who was killed at the irstigation of Jack Frazer, a half- breed who had a rival trading post, because Visit- ing Eagle's people traded with Faribault, and the chief refused to restrain them and give him a mo- nopoly.
After the village of Faribault began to be set- tled, there was chief Red Leg, brother to Visiting Eagle, who was a fine red man but very intem- perate. A second chief at that time was Pah-pa, or Prick Leg, as he was commonly called, but he was a teetotaler, a sort of John B. Gough in his tribe.
Two log houses were built by the agents of a trading company, in 1845, and would be occupied in winter by the whites, and when they left in the spring the red men would take possession. These buildings afterwards served as a residence and hotel which was kept by Mr. Peters Buh and fam- ily, who came in 1853, which date must be set down as the actual beginning of the settlement, which has gone on with no real interruption until the present time. Mr. Bush afterwards became the proprietor at Lake Te-ton-ka To-nah.
E. J. Crump with his wife crossed Straight River on the 2d of May, 1853. Mr. Crump, in company with Rev. Standish and John Gekler, under the direction of the Massachuseets Colony,
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HISTORY OF RICE COUNTY.
had previously selected a claim here and erected a cabın.
Mr. J. Wells was an early one to establish a home here, and he opened a farm on the Cannon bottom just above town, which became one of the finest in the vicinity.
The next important arrivals were Luke Hulett and family, with Levi Nutting, Mark Wells, Mc- Kinzie, and Mr. Boyington, with others who will be mentioned further on.
In relation to the very earliest visits to this region, Mr. Alexander Faribault, who is still alive and most excellent authority, as all will admit who have the honor of his acquaintance, gives the fol- lowing account, and also furnishes incidents at and subsequent to the actual occupation by the whites. General H. H. Sibley, who knew him long years ago when in the employ of the North American Fur Company, pays an unqualified tribute to his character, integrity, energy, and reliability, as well as his high sense of honor and his unbounded hospitality ; indeed, the exercise of this last quality, more than all else, has left him pecuniarily stranded. He was led into investments in the milling and other interests to which he was not adapted by nature or education, aud not having the "almighty dollar" before him as the chief end of man, we find him to-day in his old age, de- pendent upon his old friends whom, years ago, he himself placed on the road to prosperity. The honse in which he lives was furnished by J. D. Greene, and the citizens of the town who are so largely indebted to him for having a city here at all, will see that during his remaining years the few requirements for his support are within easy reach. But, to his relation; as already stated he was an Indian trader who established a post near here in 1826, at a time when the North American Fur Company, under the management of John Jacob Astor, was a mammoth institution, employ- ing three thousand men, scattered all through the Northwest. In 1835, the post was fixed here, at what was then known as the junction of the Straight with the Cannon Rivers. About the year 1844, he resolved to locate on the very site of the present city of Faribault, and make it a permanent residence, to await the oncoming tide of emigra- tion which had halted at the Father of Waters, but which was absolutely certain to resume its march, not again to halt until the Pacific ocean, with a mandate not to be disobeyed, should say,
"Thus far and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed."
So that year Mr. Faribault sent Joseph Dash- ner and Hypolite Martin to open a farm and take charge of it for him. Three years afterwards, Al- exander Graham, Mr. Faribault's brother-in-law, together with Mr. Brunel, his wife and one child, all of whom were French Canadians, came on here, as they had all been engaged to take care of the farm. About this time John Rix was employed to cook and help care for the stock, and after a time Peter St. Antoine and his wife came to relieve Mr. Brunel. In 1853, Peter Bush came out to do the blacksmithing, and his family came along and oc- cupied the building erected some years before by Mr. Faribault for a trading post, which was near where the mill built by Mr. Faribault now stands. He also had a log house near the Travis place, which he used as a sugar camp. Mr. Faribault lived here at intervals every year, after first bring- ing these people, spending usually several months each summer. At such times he was visited by Geu. Sibley, Major Forbes, and other acquain- tances, who sometimes brought their families.
In the winter of 1827, Mr. Faribault spent some time at Elysium with his wife. He claims to have been the very first one to open a farm here, and his land, which was broken and cultivated, was on the flat south of the Faribault stone mill, and here he raised wheat, barley, oats, and root crops. On his farm he had, as he declares, twenty horses, forty head of cattle, three hundred chick- ens, and fifty or more turkeys, and the Indians never gave him any trouble.
Mr. Faribault was a member of the Territorial Legislature for this county, and had the privilege of naming it, so he selected the name of Rice, in honor of his old friend, Senator Henry M. Rice. When Mr. Hulett came there was quite a well de- fined track from St. Paul to this point, made by teams hauling provisions, and at that time there were actually here, Peter Bush and family, Ed- ward Le May, Narcisse Arpan, Henry Millard, Joseph Dashner, Mr. E. J. Crump, and a Rev. Mr. Standish, with five log shanties all told, such as they were.
At the Old Settlers re-union in 1875, the Hon. Henry M. Rice was present, and delivered an ad- mirable address, full of historical anecdotes, and what will he of especial interest to residents of this county will be here condensed. In 1844, General
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Sumner had command at Fort Atkinson, in Iowa, which was then Indian territory, and he got up an expedition to Minnesota, and invited Mr. Rice to accompany the party. They had no wagons along, but only pack mules to carry provisions. Arriving at the confluence of the Straight and Cannon Rivers, they found Mr. A. Faribault, and he was engaged as a guide. Up to this point they had not met a human being, but they pushed on and swung around to Fort Snelling, up the Min- nesota valley to the Blue Earth, and so west toward the Des Moines, and thence to Shell Rock and Cedar River. At Shakopee there was found a brother of Mr. Faribault, and at St. Peter's there was a polite old Frenchman, "Mons Provincial." Not a soul was then living at Mankato.
General Sumner kindly allowed Mr. Rice and Mr. Faribault to leave the company and hunt buffalo, and they soon spotted a fine animal and at once gave chase. A shot wounded him, and he became furious and at once reversed the order of things, the pursuers becoming the pursued. Mr. Rice was thrown from his horse, and he began to realize how rapidly his earthly career was drawing to a close, when Mr. Faribault, who was a most admirable marksman, brought down the infuriated brute. On this journey the men had to swim the rivers holding on to the tails of their horses.
In 1847, Mr. Faribault went with Mr. Rice on a trip up the upper Mississippi, and he never, as he stated, saw him more than pleasurablexcited, under any circumstances.
At this same meeting Sheriff Barton made a few remarks, relating how he came to St. Paul in 1850, when corner lots were selling at $10. There was a girl east that he thought a good deal of, and he went back to find that some other fellow had got her. He returned to St. Paul and found that some other fellow had got that, and this exasper- ating loss of two good things so discouraged him that he sought the country air, which he has been breathing ever since.
In the spring of 1852, Mr. Luke Hulett, who had already had quite a frontier experience, was living on his farm in Wisconsin, and he read in the "New York Tribune" that the purchase of the lands west of the Mississippi from the Sioux had been effected. He then resolved to carry out his purpose formed long before, to make his home in Minnesota, and he accordingly started for St. Paul, but on arriving there he saw a letter from
Hon. H. H. Sibley, the delegate in Congress, stating that the treaty had been defeated in the Senate, but he concluded not to allow a little cir- cumstance like this to disarrange his plans. Low water, however, in the Wisconsin River, prevented him from getting his family and effects on the road until the next spring. It seems that he had read in the "Milwaukee Sentinel" a truthful ac- count of this region, from the pen of a gentleman who had been one of a surveying party to lay out a road from Lake Pepin to Mankato, the junction of the Straight with the Cannon Rivers being a point. The description filled his idea of a place to locate, and he started up the Mississippi, and arrived in St. Paul on Sunday, the 9th of May, 1853. Hestopped at a tavern, and the landlord, learning that he proposed to go to the Straight and Cannon Rivers, advised him to stick to the water communications, but if he must go back into the country, that Mankato was the place. But Mr. Hulett had his mind made up, after a careful survey of the subject, to examine the loca- tion of which he had received such glowing ac- count, and while making arrangements he formed the acquaintance of Levi Nutting, which resulted in a lasting friendship.
Mr. Nutting, on learning that Mr. Hulett was going to explore for a location, inquired as to his plans, and informed him that himself and several other young men had just arrived in St. Paul, and desired to find a place to locate, and the result of the interview was that a party of six was thus formed, and with an emigrant team of two horses they started from St. Paul, leaving the family there, and made the first attempt to establish a permanent agricultural colony in Rice county. On the 13th of May, 1853, the little party crossed the Mississippi at St. Paul, to the bottom oppo- site that little hamlet. Roads then were mere trails, and whatever facilities for transportation existed in the country anywhere, was due to nature and not art. That spring was wet, and before they had got out of the bottom the wagon was mired and the horses had to he detached, the wagon unloaded and hauled by human muscle, assisted by human brain, to high ground. Dur- ing the journey they saw no more of humanity outside of their own party, except two settlers' cabins near the river. The first night they en- camped in a grove fifteen miles from St. Paul, and a northeast storm which had been threatening
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HISTORY OF RICE COUNTY.
through the night broke upon them in the morn- ing, and its copious stores continued to drench them until they arrived at a slough within a few miles of Cannon City, which seemed to interpose a barrier against further progress, as there was ten inches of water on a network of roots for a road bed. The horses were unhitched and taken over, and then the young men hauled the wagon through. As they entered the woods between Cannon City and Faribault, the rain ceased and the clouds began to disperse, and the prospect that opened up before them was most charming, looked upon in a practical way; good timber and good water laying contiguous to good cleared land aggregated the very desideratum for a .pio- neer settler. Superadd to this a climate where health holds the highest place, and what could be found better after traveling the wide world over? The varieties of timber were familiar, and to say that Mr. Hulett was delighted would be expressing it mildly, and as they reached the brow of the hill opposite the site of the old Barron House, the sun, as it was about to set, broke through the canopy of the clouds, and casting a mellow golden light upon the village of the Wau-pa-ku-ta band of Indians, comprising some sixty wigwams, stretched along where Maiu Street now is, the vision presented was most enchanting, and the newcomers felt that they had arrived in the promised land, which it was proposed to occupy, whether they had a commis- sion to drive out the aborigines that inhabited it or not. The view is well described in poetic words:
' Over the fields the daisies lie, With the buttercups under the azure sky; Shadow and sunshine side by side, Are chasing each other o'er meadows wide; While the warm, sweet breath of the summer air, Is filled with the perfume of blossoms fair.
Ferns and grasses and wild vines grow Close where the waters ripple and flow, And the merry zephyrs the livelong day With the nodding leaves are ever at play ;
And the birds are winging their happy flight
.
'Mongst all things beautiful, free and bright. With a hum of bees in the drowsy air, And a glitter of butterflies everywhere."
The next morning, on the 15th of May, 1853, the sun rose clear and the air was balmy, and having spanceled the horses and set them out to feed near where the stone mill now is, our adventurers ascended the hill near the present site of the Cath- olic Church, "and viewed the landscape o'er," and as they faced to the north, the junction of the two
streams and their respective backgrounds were in full view, and the panoroma was most enchanting as there had been no marring of nature's handi- work by the vandal hand of man. The thoughts uppermost in the mind were that here is a rich and pleasant land, a fit abode for civilization, that has been preserved for this purpose by the various races that have occupied it, the last being the "Ani-chin-a-bees," in the vernacular, or the Indian with his animal neighbors. Unnumbered sum- mers had annually renewed the rich vegetation of these lovely valleys to be swept away by autumnal fires. These two smiling rivers mingled their waters unwitnessed by man, except in his hunter state. Man is left to work out his own destiny, and with such facilities there should be no uncer- tainty as to the result.
"Our lives through various scenes are drawn, And vexed with trifling cares, While Thine eternal thoughts move on, Their undisturhed affairs."
Mr. Hulett judged that this country, being known, would be settled as fast as it would be de- sirable, and here nature had certainly conspired to produce a business center. He therefore came to the conclusion that this should be his future home. and he so informed the young men who were with him, advising them to take a quarter section right here, hold on to it, and go to work and secure, as soon as possible, the two hundred dollars with which to pay for it, for the slave power being dominant then, there was no hope for a homestead law, and that in a few years they would be worth four or five thousand dollars each. Such modest hopes and expectations did not meet the views of a majority of these ambitious young men, and they declared that in a few years they expected to be worth ten or twelve thousand dollars. Mr. Hulett asked them how much they had saved in the last three years, they replied, not a "red cent;" well, said he, "the experience of the past is the prophecy as to the future," but they could not be prevailed upon to embark with the colony here, and so only Mark Wells remained to make a home, although Levi Nutting returned the next year.
Five claims were found staked out in the inter- est of Alexander Faribault, when Mr. Hulett ar- rived, who up to this time had never heard of him. While returning to St. Paul for his family, Mr. Hulett and Mr. Faribault met and talked over the whole business, and although Mr. Faribault had resolved to have a settlement of French Cana-
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dians, he was so favorably impressed with the new comer that he cordially invited him to come and they would together work in the interest of building up a town.
In a few days Mr. Hulett returned and found Peter Bush, Edward J. Crump, and James Wells were with the party. Mr. Wells was one of the first members of the Territorial Legislature. He was an eccentric, but sincere and honest man in all his dealings.
Here is a complete list of those who spent the winter of 1853 in Faribault, who had responded in a practicel way to the refrain so popular at that time:
"To the west, to the west, the land of the free, Where the mighty Missouri rolls down to the sea, Where a man is a man if he's willing to toil
And the poorest may gather the fruits of the soil."
Alexander Faribault and family, Luke Hulett and family, James Wells and family, Frederick Faribault and family, Edward J. Crump and wife, Peter Bush and family, Mr. Sprague and wife, Mr. Springer and wife, and the following young unmarried people, Norbert Paquin, Smith John- son, Orlando Johnson, John Hulett, Hugh Mc- Clelland, Mark Wells, A.Mckenzie, Robert Smith, and Theodore Smith.
The spring and summer of 1854 brought the following accessions; John Morris, who subse- quently laid out Morristown, Major Babcock, Truman Bass, Mr. Tripp, who was the first to settle on East Prairie, Dennis O'Brien, Mr. Travis, Mr. Parshall, and James and Henry. Scott, who built the first saw-mill in town. The Sears', father and son, in the fall of 1854, located in Cannon City and became formidable competitors for the county seat. Judge Woodman came about this time, and also Mr. William Dunn, who se- cured a claim east of Cannon City. Mr. Drake and others settled near Northfield. This is sub- stantially Mr. Hulett's statement as written out for the "Republican"" a few years before his death, there is a slight variation, in the personnel of the pioneers, from other accounts.
General Levi Nutting's account of the first trip to Faribanlt from St. Paul, and his early exper- ience here is well worthy of perusal. He came with Mr. Hulett, Mark Wells, Mr. Mckenzie and others. The boat they got over the Mississippi on was a little larger than a hogshead; their stock of provisions consisted of flour, pork, ham, tea, coffee, and a few other things. The first night
they encamped one mile from Empire City. A fire was built and they "turned in" with their feet toward the embers, and during the night a coal of fire dropped upon Mr. Nuttings blanket, and burned through to his boot and eat a hole through that. After a while the General smelled some- body's foot burning, and an investigation revealed the uncomfortable fact that it was his own mem- ber, so he proceeded to promptly suppress the impending cremation, as that was before this method of disposing of bodies had been seriously agitated. In the morning the journey was re- sumed, Castle Rock, in the distance, looked like a meeting house.
At five o'clock in the evening of the 14th of May, 1853, the party reached Faribault and found Peter Bush and wife living near where Riedell & Turner's mill now is. This, with the cabin of Norbert Paquin, were the only white residents here. He remained three weeks and had a good appetite and enjoyed a varied bill of fare, "bread and pork for breakfast, pork and bread for dinner, and some of both for supper."
The stone quarry hill was an Indian burial ground, if such a name can be given to a place where the cadavers are hung up on trees, after being tied up in blankets. There were from twenty to thirty of these repulsive objects, swaying in the breeze over there at that time. While Mr. Hulett and one or two of the others remained at that time, the General did not come back until April, 1855- He declares the very earliest settlers are entitled to the greatest credit for what they accomplished. He once sold 100 bushels of wheat for $25, and paid it all to the hired mau. A steer he had raised was slaughtered, and he sold the fore quar- ters to R. A. Mott for $4, and he then had so much money in his pocket, more than any other man in town, that he borrowed a musket from Mr. Mott to protect himself on his way home! He says that our dignified Postmaster used to wear jeans and work at carpentering with a borrowed hammer, or in a saw-mill.
Four young men kept a boarding house, two of them did the chamber work and waited upon the table, and the other two did the cooking; one of them is now on the supreme bench, another has been a State Senator, a third has been a distin- guished Europeau traveler, and the other has been State Senator and City Attorney.
At one of the old settlers' reunions, Hon.
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HISTORY OF RICE COUNTY.
George E. Skinner, who was present, in a banter- ing way asked General Nutting how it was that a gentleman like him should go to bed with his boots on? The General at once promptly replied that it was because he did not come here bare- footed as Skinner did.
Gen. Nutting relates how the town was named. It was soon after the arrival of Mr. Hulett, when a meeting was called at the Hotel de Bush, and as Mr. Faribault was so well known, his name was agreed upon and a petition drawn up and given to Gen. Sibley for a Post-office and a post route, with Alexander Faribault as Postmaster and Mr. Davis as mail carrier.
Peter Bush made the following statement as to his advent at this point:
In 1851, he started from Beloit, Wisconsin, to St. Paul, with a load of wagons, and while there met several Canadians and trappers who were ac- quainted with this part of the country, and they told him that a good place to settle with his fam- ily would be at the junction of the Straight and Cannon Rivers, as there was water power, wood, and prairie there. In August, 1852, he visited the place and was pleased with it, and saw Mr. Fari- bault, who was then stopping at Mendota; he told Mr. Bush, however, that he did not intend to re- main there long, but proposed to locate here where he had already cultivated a farm, and an agree- · ment was made to come here in April, 1853, and occupy the old trading post, which he did. He was not in the exclusive employ of Mr. Faribault, but did work for him, and also for Mr. Wells. The first settlers after Mr. Bush, according to his recollection, were Mr. Wright, Mr. Lull, E. J. Crump, John Dutch, P. Standish, and quite a number of men who had come to work for Mr. Faribault. When Mr. Hulett came, there were two cows here, and he wanted to get board at Mr. Bush's, who had a log honse and a blacksmith shop opposite where St. Mary's Hall now is, with some land staked off, but was told that his claim would be jumped unless he had plenty of money to defend it, and so he was induced to sell it for $116, and removed to the lake where he lived afterwards.
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