USA > Minnesota > Rice County > History of Rice and Steele counties, Minnesota, Vol. I > Part 11
USA > Minnesota > Steele County > History of Rice and Steele counties, Minnesota, Vol. I > Part 11
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
As early as 1837 Mr. Faribault visited Washington with Major Taliaferro, General Sibley, and a delegation of Indians to conduct treaty negotiations with the government. He was one of the memorialists to congress in connection with the organiza- tion of Minnesota territory, and a charter member of the Minne- sota Historical Society. With General Sibley he was a principal stockholder in the Borup and Oakes Bank, and was associated with General Sibley and William R. Marshall in organizing a bank in St. Paul in 1855. He was with General Sibley in the Sioux war of 1862 until the release of the white captives at Camp Release, near the town of Montevideo, Minnesota, and was among the few fortunate ones who escaped alive at the Battle of Birch Coulee.
Until 1852 Alexander Faribault maintained his family home at Mendota, where also resided his father and family in the stone house built by the latter in 1826, which is still standing. He built the first Catholic Church in Faribault in 1855, for the Rev. George Keller-a frame structure which was burned in 1857. He was the generous donor of the site of the present church, and gave at a cost of $3,000 the first bell for the Church of the Immaculate Conception, the church which now stands on the site of the one burned in 1857. This bell was destroyed when the building was partially burned, June 30, 1903. Mr. Faribault is also to be credited with many liberal gifts to the St. Paul and Mendota Churches.
In 1856 Mr. Faribault built his last home at Faribault-his early camping ground-on the Straight river bluffs, now crowned with magnificent institutions, overlooking the site of his pioneer trading post of 1843. In 1873 he sold this home to the state of Minnesota ; the building now being used at the School for Blind.
88
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
One can imagine his emotions as he recalled this scene as he had beheld it in 1826. It was now the white man's country ; settlers were fast taking homes; the town already numbered 1,000; the frontiers-man with his vices and corruption was being crowded westward; and the lords of the forest and lake and prairie had no rights, but were the prey and dupe of the white, who smoked the pipe of peace no longer. The buffalo-the food, clothing and shelter of the Red Man, was fast disappearing. The Indians had but one hope of existence and that was Alexander Faribault. He sheltered and fed them and their children. His hand and store house were ever open to the Dakota (Codah-friend) and the white man. His promise was absolute, and as the Rev. Samuel W. Pond, veteran missionary, in his "Recollections of the Dakotas as they were in 1834" states, "Alexander Faribault and his father were favorites and highly respected by all who knew them." His name was always associated with all charities. We honor him because he ennobled his race. He lost wealth, but not respect nor honor, and history calls his life a success.
After a long and eventful life Alexander Faribault passed away November 28, 1882, at Faribault, and was laid to rest in Calvary cemetery with his kindred and other pioneer neighbors- that hill-top where once flashed the red signal fire of alarm to the Big Village braves. And where the lodges of the Wah-pe- ku-te were once as numerous as now the shocks of corn, and the wierd chant and wild screech of the scalp-dance echoed through the peaceful valley of the Cannon, the plow and sickle have levelled the Indian burial mounds on the shore of the lake of the Big Village ; the flashing paddles are stilled and an occasional arrow-head, stone hammer or broken clay utensil are all that is left to tell the story of a vanishing race.
"Behind the red squaw's birch canoe The steamer smokes and raves, And city lots are staked for sale Above old Indian graves."
Note-The writer is indebted to William Richard Faribault of St. Louis, Mo., a son of Alexander Faribault, for many inci- dents and data used in these biographical sketches .- Stephen Jewett.
CHAPTER 11I.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
Alexander Faribault Located in Rice County as a Trader-In- duces Indians to Settle Near the Confluence of the Straight and Cannon Rivers-Takes up His Own Residence on the Bluffs East of the River-Builds Trading Post and Log House in 1835-Sends Followers West of the River to Start a Farm-Entertains Many Friends-Peter Bush Arrives- Crump, Standish and Gekler Select a Claim-Luke Hulett, Mark Wells, Levi Nutting and Others Make Trip from Saint Paul-James Wells Takes a Claim-The First Winter at Faribault-First Frame House Built-Settlers Begin to Ar- rive in Larger Numbers-Experiences of the Pioneers.
Alexander Faribault came to the region of the Cannon river as a trader with the Indians in 1826 and between that date and 1834 established three trading posts in this vicinity, one at Lake Sakata, on thic present site of Waterville, one at the present site of Morristown, and one on the northwest shore of Cannon lake, between that body of water and Rice lake, the latter being located near the old Indian village, which gave to Cannon lake its Indian name of Me-da-te-pe-ton-ka, or the Lake of the Big Village. This designation is vouched for by no less a person than Richard Faribault, son of Alexander Faribault, though earlier historians of the county have given the Indian name as Te-ton-ka To-nah. These trading points were occupied at suit- able seasons of the year, not only by Faribault and his assistants, but also by many visitors, including the officers at Fort Snelling.
After eight years, however, Mr. Faribault having mastered thoroughly the geography of the country decided that the most favorable location in this locality for a trading post was on the bluffs near the junction of the Straight and Cannon rivers. Near that point he would be in direct touch with the Indians descend- ing the Straight river as well as with all who descended the Cannon from the lake region beyond. He accordingly pursuaded the Indians to leave their ancient habitation on the shores of Cannon lake and move to the present site of Faribault.
They occupied all that tract between Division and Four- teenth streets on the west side of the Straight river, and the plateau was covered with the picturesque encampment of bark
89
90
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
and buffalo skin teepees. In 1835 Mr. Faribault erected the first log house on the east side of Straight river, northeast of the Front street bridge, and several log houses on what is now the Travis farm, on the road to Cannon city. This traet was then covered with a dense growth of maple which afforded abundance of sugar. The first regular trading post was of logs, built the same year, midway between the Straight river stone mills and Front street bridge.
With far seeing eye, Faribault readily understood that the time was soon coming, when the prairies of southern Minnesota would be open to white settlement, and the days of the hunter, trapper and fur trader would pass away. Therefore he decided to prepare for the coming of civilization by opening a farm on the present site of the city of Faribault. Accordingly in 1844 he sent Joseph Dashner and Hypolite Martin across the river to open up a farm and take charge of it for him. Three years after- wards, Alexander Graham, brother of Mrs. Faribault, together with Mr. Brunel, his wife and one child, all of whom were French Canadians, came to take charge of the farm. About this time. John Rix was employed to cook and help care for the stock, and after a time Peter St. Antone and his wife came to relieve Mr. Brunel.
In the meantime. Faribault occupied his log house a few months each year, and entertained extensively, among his guests being General Sibley, Major Forbes and others, many of whom sometimes brought their families, so that the location became well known.
When no whites were present, the Indians occupied the houses, and no doubt enjoyed themselves greatly, partaking of this sort of white man's comfort.
The real settlement of the city dates from the early spring of 1853, when Peter Bush. a blacksmith. arrived and settled in the buildings which had been erected by Faribault, also using the cabins on the Travis farm as a sugar camp. Bush brought with him his family, and since that date there has been continuous white settlement of this locality.
About this time, or possibly a little earlier, E. J. Crump, the Rev. Standish and John Gekler, under the direction of an eastern company, selected a claim and erected a cabin. May 2. 1853, Mr. Crump and his wife crossed the Straight river and took up their habitation. Later in the month Luke Inlett came, and accord- ing to his statement made in later life there were then actually living here. Peter Bush and family, Edward LeMay. Narcisse Arpan, Henry Millard. Joseph Dashier, E. J. Crump and a Rev. Mr. Standish, all this party being housed in five small log cabins.
With Luke Hulett came Levi Nutting, and a party of young
91
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
inen consisting of Mark Wells, A. McKinzie, Mr. Boynton and others. Mr. Hulett settled here, as did Mark Wells and A. Mc- Kinzie. Levi Nutting did not stay that year but came back later. The other young men decided that they could make money faster elsewhere, and sought other fields.
In the same season of the year came James Wells, "Bully" Wells, as he was called, who opened a farm on the Cannon bottoms, just above the city.
A little party spent the winter of 1853 in the embryo village, awaiting the opening of the spring which would bring a new influx of settlers, and new supplies of provisions. According to an article written by Luke Hulett, shortly before his death, the residents of Faribault, in the winter of 1853 were 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 Johnson, Orlondo Johnson, John Hulett, Hugh McClelland, Mark Wells, A. Mckenzie, Robert Smith and Theo- dore Smith.
In this winter (1853), Faribault built a temporary log house on the southeast corner of what is now Third street and Fifth avenue, east, while the first frame house in Rice county, sur- rounded by a stockade, was being erected on the northwest corner of First avenue, east, and Division street, the house being com- pleted in 1853. The materials for this structure were hauled from St. Paul and Hastings.
The spring and summer of 1854, according to the same author- ity, 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, J. R. Parshall and James and Henry Scott, who built the first saw-mill in the town. The Searses, 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 William Dunn, who secured a claim east of Cannon City. Mr. Drake and others settled near Northfield.
F. W. Frink, in 1876, delivered an Independence Day oration, giving the early history of the county which we here preserve for future reference.
Rice county is named for Henry M. Rice, an early settler in Minnesota, and a warm friend of him who gave to the city of Faribault his name and here made his dwelling place.
Although it was not until October, 1855, that Rice county held an election as a separate organization, Alexander Faribault had conducted trading posts in this region since 1826. He was
92
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
the first settler of Rice county. Leaving out the numerous rela- tives, friends and helpers of Faribault who came here from year to year, the next white settler was Peter Bush. In the spring of 1853 Luke Hulett, after having made a trip to the locality. came here with his family, and with him the settlement of the county really begins, for the first settlement of a farmer in an agricultural region is the beginning of its history. Alexander Faribault, Luke Hulett and Peter Bush should be considered the founders of the first settlement in Rice county.
The history of the towns and villages of Rice county begins at an early date. Faribault, Northfield, Morristown and Cannon City were surveyed, platted and recorded in the order named.
Alexander Faribault, F. B. Siblev, John W. North and Porter Nutting filed the plat of the town of Faribault in the office of the register of deeds in Dakota county, to which county Rice county was then attached for judicial purposes, February 17, 1855. Previous to this date, however, a preliminary survey had been made and Walter Morris owned the share after- ward represented by John W. North.
In August, 1855, Mr. North having disposed of his interest in Faribault, while searching for another promising location, se- lected the site of the present city of Northfield, and on March 7, 1856, filed the plat in the office of the register of deeds in Rice county, which was then an office a little over two months old.
A plat of Cannon City had been made almost as early as that of Faribault, but owing to the fact that the plat had been made without the usual formality of a preceding survey, it was thought best by the proprietors, after a vain attempt to har- monize conflicting interests caused by conflicting boun- dary lines, to have a survey made, the plat of which was not filed for record until the eleventh day of November, 1856, but previous to that date it was a town of sufficient force to give Faribault a lively race in a contest for the location of the county seat.
April 1, 1856, Mrs. Sarah Morris, mother of Walter Morris, one of the first proprietors of the town of Faribault, and widow of Jonathan Morris, one of the first settlers of Morristown, filed and recorded the plat of Morristown.
These were the first born towns of Rice county, but the times were then prolific in the birth of towns and cities, and the eye of the speculator saw beside every crystal lake or limpid stream a site for a city full of the possibilities of future glory. Numerous additions were surveyed and added to towns already recorded. The new towns of Wheatland, Wedgewood, Warsaw, Walcott, Shieldsville, Dundas, Millersburg, East Prairieville, and Lake
93
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
City were added to the list. Of these, some are dead and some are dying, and nearly all remaining have from time to time, by vacations obtained through the courts, contracted their vast circumference in conformity with the request made at an early day to the territorial legislature to limit the area of town sites, and reserve certain portions of the public domain for agricul- tural purposes.
While, however, visionary speculators were creating town sites and multiplying town lots with almost as much facility as farmers increased the number of their pigs or chickens, the agri- cultural interest was also thriving until the year 1858, when occurred the nearest to a failure of crops that Rice county has ever experienced. The land office had been located in Faribault the year previous, and the little store of money that most of the settlers had brought with them had been generally used in pay- ment for their lands. The prospect was gloomy, and many families anticipated actual want before the coming of another harvest ; but the silver lining to the cloud was not long obscured, and relief came from a quarter as little looked for as was the manna in the wilderness by the Israelites. By somebody the happy discovery was made that our timbered lands were full of ginseng, the sovereign balm for every ill that Chinese flesh is heir to, and forthwith our population was transferred into a community of diggers, and many a man, and even woman, too, who had never earned more than a dollar a day before, received from two to four dollars for their day's labor in the woods. Thus was Rice county's darkest hour tided over, and from that day to this there has never been a time when its citizens have had reason to fear a lack of the necessaries of life.
The statistics of crops for 1860, previous to which no record is obtainable, show 18,000 acres under cultivation in various. fruits and grains, with a product of 260,000 bushels of wheat. Five years later the cultivated area had increased to 25,000 acres, with a product of 325,000 bushels of wheat; in 1872, 56,672 acres were cultivated, and 548,000 bushels of wheat produced, while the wheat crop alone, of Rice county, reached nearly 700,000 bushels in the year 1875. Yet this county must not be judged as an agricultural district by the amount of wheat it raises, although that cereal is still the one the most relied upon by our farmers as a source of income; yet, as more than two- thirds of its arca is or has been timbered land, is not so well adapted to growing wheat extensively as a prairie country, its agricultural productions are necessarily more diversified.
The population of the county, as indicated by the number of votes cast at is first election, which, being a county seat contest, probably brought out as large a proportion of legal
94
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
voters as could be summoned on any occasion, was, in 1855, be- tween 1,500 and 2,000, the number of votes cast being 384. In 1860, the first census, it was 7,886; in 1865, 10,966; in 1870, 16,399, and the census of 1880 makes the number 20,622.
While Rice county, more fortunately situated than some of her western sisters, never experienced any of the horrors of Indian warfare, yet her history would not be complete without mention of its terrible fright in the winter of 1857. There are doubtless some of the present audience who will remem- ber how panic-stricken we were when the news came through some mysterious channel that the Indians had sacked and de- stroyed St. Peter, only forty miles away, and were in rapid march for Faribault. General Shields, by reason of his military experience, was made commander-in-chief of all the forces in, and around Faribault, with headquarters at the head of the stairs in the old Faribault House, and all of our brave young men who could be armed with shot-guns, rusty pistols, or any- thing having the appearance of firearms, were posted on guard at all the principal thoroughfares leading into town, and in front of the houses of the most timid and defenseless. This state of affairs lasted all of one night and until time of changing guard the next, when the relief, finding that the extreme cold had induced the guards to seek the inside of the houses they were defending, retreated in good order to more comfortable quarters, and our first Indian war was over. The cause of the panic was afterward ascertained to be the Spirit Lake massacre, more than a hundred miles away, by Inkpadutah and his band of outlawed Sioux.
It should be here chronicled, however, that when the war actually came, although it came no nearer than Mason and Dixon's line, Rice county bore its full share of its responsi- bilities, losses, and calamities right manfully. The war of the Rebellion found us nurtured in the arts of peace, a happy and home-loving people, and yet, before its close more than a thou- sand of its bravest and best had volunteered to defend the flag they loved so well. How well they bore themselves on the battlefield, the number of the unreturning brave whose "graves are severed far and wide by mountain, stream, and sea," too well attests. The records show that more than one-eighth of the number shown by the census of the year before the break- ing out of the great rebellion as the entire population of the county had enlisted in the Union army before its close, a record of which our citizens may well be proud.
From this brief sketch it will appear that the history of our county has not been eventful in the light in which the historian usually regards events. It has been the scene of no fierce con-
95
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
flict of arms, and within our borders no monumental marble rises to commemorate bloody victories won, or the heroic deeds of knightly chivalry, which contribute so largely to the romance of history. Nevertheless, is our history full of those "victories not less renowned than war," victories which in less than a quarter of a century after the extinguishment of the Indians' title to these lands, without bloodshed, swept away every vestige of their barbarous life, and substituted the school, the church, and on every hand happy and contented homes; victories which vanquished the hearts of our suffering people on the frontier when Rice county was the first to send relief after the devasta- tion from hail and fire in the memorable year 1871. The suffer- ing people of Chicago, northern Wisconsin, and Michigan were subjugated by the munificent donations sent to their relief in that terrible year of fire, and of those donations Rice county gave with no sparing hand. These are the victories not less renowned than war of which our county can boast. Victories over a stubborn soil, turning a wild waste into fruitful fields and happy homes. Victories over ignorance and superstition best shown by the maintenance and prosperity of a free press and the public school. Victories over the selfishness of human nature in devoting so large a share of our worldly goods in the relief of suffering humanity at home and abroad, and above all it was a grand and glorious victory when the echoing of Sum- ter's guns found response in a thousand brave hearts ready to give their lives for their country. These are the victories which give assurance that government of the people, by the peo- ple, and for the people, can longest endure supported and de- fended by a peace-loving, generous, and intelligent people.
Henry M. Rice, at the Old Settlers' reunion in 1875, deliv- ered a speech in which he recounted the story of a trip taken in 1844, during which he passed the present site of Faribault. The account, in part, is as follows: In 1844 General Sumner had command at Fort Atkinson, in fowa, 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 con- fluence of the Straight and Cannon rivers, they found Alexander 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 Minnesota 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 French- man, "Mons. Provincial." General Sumner allowed Mr. Rice and Mr. Faribault to leave the company and hunt buffalo, and they
96
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
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 in- furiated brute. On this journey the men had to swim the rivers holding on to 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 pleasurable excited under any circumstances.
Luke Hulett was one of the earliest pioneers of Rice county. In the spring of 1852, Mr. 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 circumstance like this to disarrange his plans. Low water, how- ever, 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 account 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 river 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, May 9, 1853. He stopped at a tavern, and the land- lord, learning that he proposed to go to the Straight and Can- non 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 care- ful survey of the subject, to examine the location of which he had received such glowing account, and while making arrange- ments he formed the acquaintance of Levi Nutting. which re- sulted in a lasting friendship.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.