USA > Minnesota > Rice County > History of Rice and Steele counties, Minnesota, Vol. I > Part 8
USA > Minnesota > Steele County > History of Rice and Steele counties, Minnesota, Vol. I > Part 8
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HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
organized counties. Wabasha county was created but not organ- ized, and these provisions as to officers did not apply within its borders, which, as then constituted, included the present Rice and Steele counties.
Qualification of Voters. By an act approved November I, 1849, the qualifications of voters in the territory were defined as follows: All free white male inhabitants over the age of twenty- one years who shall have resided within the territory for six months next preceding any election, shall be entitled to vote at such election * provided that they shall be citizens of the United States for a period of two years next preceding such election, and have declared on oath before any court of record having a seal and a clerk or in time of vacation of said court before the clerk thereof, his intention to become such, and shall have taken an oath to support the constitution of the United States and the provisions of an act of congress entitled "An Act to Establish the Territory of Minnesota," approved March 3, 1849. * * * That all persons of a mixture of white and Indian blood who shall have adopted the habits and customs of civilized men are hereby declared to be entitled to all the rights and privileges granted by this act.
Chapter 1, Revised Statutes of Minnesota of 1851, divides the territory into Benton, Dakota, Itasca, Cass, Pembina, Ramsey, Washington, Chisago and Wabashaw counties and defined their boundaries.
By this revision the present Rice and Steele counties became a part of Dakota county. It should be remembered that during the period of two years when these counties ewre a part of Wabasha county they were still in the possession of the In- diaus and aside from the men at the trading posts had no white settlers.
Under the revised statutes, all the territory west of the Missis- sippi river and east of a line running from Medicine Bottle's village at Pine Bend, due south to the Iowa line, was erected into a separate county to be known as Wabashaw. This included in Wabashaw county a portion of what is now Dakota county as well as all the present counties of Goodhue, Wabasha, Dodge. Olmstead, Winona, Mower, Fellmore and Housted, but excluded the present Rice and Steele counties.
By the same revision Dakota county was made to consist of all that part of the territory west of the Mississippi river and lying west of the county of Wabasha. and south of a line begin- ning at the mouth of Crow river, and up said river and the north branch thereof to its source and thence due west to the Missouri river. Thus Dakota county then included portions of the present counties of Dakota, Wright, Meeker, Stearns, Pope, Stevens
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HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
and Traverse, and all of Big Stone, Swift, Kandiyohi, Henne- pin, Scott Carver, McLeod, Renville, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Yellow Medicine, Lincoln, Lyon, Red Wood, Brown, Nicolet, Sibley, Le Sueur, Rice, Steele, Waseca, Blue Earth, Watonwan, Cottonwood, Murray, Pipestone, Rock, Nobles, Jackson, Martin, Faribault, Freeborn, as well as all the counties in what is now South Dakota, west of the counties named to the Missouri river.
By the laws of 1852, page 51, the boundaries of Dakota county, then including the present Rice and Steele counties, were still further curtailed, Hennepin county being set off. It was enacted "That so much of Dakota county as lies north of the Minnesota river, west of the Mississippi river and east of a line commencing at a place known as the Little Rapids on the said Minnesota river, thence in a direct line north by west to the forks of the Crow river, thence down the Crow river to the Missis- sippi be, and the same is hereby erected into a separate county, which shall be called the county of Hennepin. The act provided that "for election purposes it shall remain as at present, in con- junction with Dakota county, so far as relates to the election of a councellor and two representatives, until the next apportion- ment of representation."
Rice County was created by act of the territorial legislature March 5, 1853. Section 7, chapter 15 (General Laws of Minne- sota, 1853) gives the boundaries as follows: Beginning at the southwest corner of Dakota county, thence west along said county line to Lake Sakatah, thence south to the Iowa state line, thence east along said state line to the southwest corner of Fillmore county, thence along the west lines of Fillmore, Wabasha and Goodhue counties to the place of beginning.
Steele County was created by act of the territorial legislature, approved February 20, 1855. Section 7, chapter 6 (Laws of Minnesota, 1855), gives the boundaries of Steele county as fol- lows: Beginning at the southwest corner of township 105, range 19 west; thence running west thirty miles on said township line, to the township line between ranges 24 and 25 west ; thence north twenty-four miles on said township line to the township line between townships 108 and 109; thence east on said town- ship line thirty miles to the township line between ranges 19 and 20 west; thence south on said township line to the place of beginning.
Subsequent changes and modifications are noted under the history of the separate counties, in Parts II and III of this work.
CHAPTER V.
JUDICIAL HISTORY.
Henry H. Sibley and His Extensive Jurisdiction-Judicial Dis- tricts-Rice and Steele Counties Under Judicial Jurisdiction of the Court of Washington County in 1849-Under the Judicial Jurisdiction of Ramsey County in 1851-Attached to Dakota County in 1853-Rice and Steele Counties Included in the Fifth Judicial District With Hon. N. M. Donaldson on the Bench.
Henry Il. Sibley, living at Mendota, was the first officer of civil justice in the area now including Rice and Steele counties. He received his appointment as a justice of the peace, first from Governor Porter, of Michigan, and later from Governor Cham- bers, of Iowa. In writing of his early experiences, General Sibley has given us some amusing as well as enlightening side views of frontier justice. A selection from his manuscript is as follows :
"It may seen paradoxical, but it is nevertheless true, that 1 was successively a citizen of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Min- nesota territories, without changing my residence at Mendota. The jurisdiction of the first named terminated when Wisconsin was organized in 1836, and in turn Iowa extended her sway over the west of the Mississippi in 1838. When the latter was admitted as a state, with very much diminished area, the country lying outside of the state boundaries was left without any gov- ernment until the establishment of the Minnesota territorial organization placed us where we now are. It was my fortune to be the first to introduce the machinery of the law into what our legal brethren would have termed a benighted region, having received a commission of justice of the peace from the governor of lowa territory for the county of Clayton. This county was an empire of itself in extent, reaching from a line some twenty miles below Prairie du Chien, on the west of the 'Father of Waters,' to Pembina, and across to the Missouri river. As I was the only magistrate in this region and the county seat was some 300 miles distant, I had matters pretty much under my own control, there being little chance of an appeal from my deci- sions. In fact, some of the simple-minded people around me firmly believed that I had the power of life and death. On one
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HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
occasion I issued a warrant for a Canadian who had committed a gross outrage and then fled from justice. I dispatched a trusty constable in pursuit, and he overtook the man below Lake Pepin and brought him back in irons. The friends of the culprit begged hard that he should not be severely punished, and, after keeping him in durance vile for several days, I agreed to release him if he would leave the country, threatening him with dire vengeance if he should ever return. He left in great haste and I never saw him afterwards.
"I had the honor of being foreman of the first grand jury ever impanneled on the west of the Mississippi river, in what is now the state of Minnesota. The court was held at Mendota, Judge Cooper being assigned to that district. His honor delivered a written charge of considerable length, and really it was an able and finished production. Unfortunately, out of the twenty odd men who composed the jury, but three, if I recollect rightly, could speak English, the rest being Frenchmen, who were, to a man, profoundly ignorant of any language but their own. As a matter of course, they were highly edified while engaged in listening to the judge's charge."
March 3, 1849, the territory of Minnesota was created by act of congress. By that act the judicial power of the territory was vested in a supreme court, district courts, probate courts and in justices of the peace. It was provided by that act that the territory should be divided into three judicial districts and that a district court should be held in each of the said districts by one of the justices of the supreme court at such times and places as might be prescribed by law. It was also provided that temporarily, or until otherwise provided by law, the governor of said territory might define the judicial districts of said ter- ritory, and assign the judges who might be appointed for said territory, to the several districts, and also appoint the times and places for holding courts in the several counties or subdivisions in each of the judicial districts by proclamation.
Governor Ramsey arrived at St. Paul, May 27, 1849, and on June 11, issued his proclamation dividing the territory into three judicial districts. The third district had no definite boundaries, but in general included all that part of the territory south of the Minnesota, and south to the Mississippi from where it receives the waters of the Minnesota to the Iowa line. This included the present Rice and Steele counties. Court was ordered to be held at Mendota on the fourth Monday in August and the fourth Monday in February.
At the first session of the territorial legislature only Wash- ington, Ramsey and Benton counties were fully organized for all county purposes. The other counties in the territory were
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
attached to some one of these counties for judicial purposes. Wabasha county, then including the present Rice and Steele counties, was attached to Ramsey county for that purpose.
March 5, 1853, Dakota county was fully organized and terms of court were appointed to be held therein, on the second Mon- day of September in each year, and Hon. David Cooper was assigned as judge thereof. Rice county, which had been created and included the present Steele county, was attached to Dakota county for judicial purposes.
Judge Cooper held court in Mendota the fourth Monday in August, 1849. H. H. Sibley was foreman of the grand jury, the first ever impaneled west of the Mississippi, in Minnesota. Judge Cooper delivered a written charge, able and finished, but as appears in General Sibley's reminiscences, only three of the twenty odd men composing the jury understood a word of the language he was speaking. Major Forbes served as interpreter through the term, but no indictments were found. The court was organized in a large stone warehouse belonging to the Fur Company. Judge Cooper's term of office was from June 1, 1849. to April 7, 1853.
The first district court for the county of Dakota, to which Rice county (which included the present Steele county) had been attached, was held in Mendota on the second Monday of September, 1853 (September 12), as appointed to be held by the law organizing the county. Judge Andrew G. Chatfield (who went on the bench April 7, 1853) presided. The officers of the court present were: W. W. Irwin, marshal of the United States for the district of Minnesota ; J. C. Dow, district attorney ; A. R. French, sheriff of Dakota county ; J. J. Noah, clerk, represented by Dwight Downing, his deputy. Edmund Brisette was ap- pointed interpreter and James McShane, crier. Henry H. Sibley was foreman of the grand jury. The grand jurors were: llenry H. Sibley, James McBoal, Claude Cournoyer, James M. Griggs, Thomas Odell, Baptiste Cudet, James Locke, Patrick Quigley. William L. Batley, Louis Martin, Henry Coleoff, George Fari- bault, Andrew Robertson, O. P. Bromley, John W. Brown, Elias Cope, Horace Dresser, William Bissell, Michael Lemell and Francis Gamell. The petit jurors were: James Thompson. Peter M. Califf, Albert Webster, Warren Woodbury, John McShane. Patrick A. Moran, Duncan Campbell, Louis Fourcier, Hugh Kirkpatrick, Sylvester M. Cook, George Bell, David Cope, William Quinn, Baptiste Campbell, Peter St. Antoine, Norbest Paquin, Joseph Gervais, Louis Lendivche, Alexander McCloud, Franklin J. Bartlett, Joseph R. Brown, Annable Turpin and James Bruce.
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The grand jury was in attendance six days and the petit jury five days.
On March 6, 1854, Judge Chatfield ordered a special term of court to be held on the thirteenth day of April, 1854, in said county ; and a panel of grand and petit jurors to be drawn and summoned for the same. The special term was held on that date at Mendota and the officers present were: Andrew G. Chat- field, judge; Andrew J. Whitney, acting United States marshal ; Franklin J. Bartlett, sheriff; J. J. Noah, clerk. Dr. Thomas Foster was appointed foreman of the grand jury. The grand jury was in attendance four days, and there is no record that it found any indictments. The petit jury was in attendance, but there is no record of the trial of any case by it.
The next general term of the district court for Dakota county was held at Mendota, August 28, 1854. The officers present were: Andrew G. Chatfield, judge; W. W. Irwin, marshal; F. J. Bartlett, sheriff ; J. J. Noah, clerk. Two indictments were found by the grand jury against James Grant for selling liquor without a license, both of which were dismissed on motion of the defendant's attorney. One civil case was tried by the jury at this term. The jurors were in attendance four days and the court was in session six days.
The next term was held at Mendota, February, 26, 1855. The officers present were: Andrew G. Chatfield, judge; A. C. Jones, marshal, F. J. Bartlett, sheriff; J. J. Noalı, clerk; J. C. Dow, prosecuting attorney. This term was in session five days. No indictments were returned and no jury cases were tried.
The next term was held at Mendota, August 27, 1855. The officers present were: Andrew G. Chatfield, judge; A. C. Jones, deputy United States marshal ; Norman Eddy, United States dis- trict attorney : F. J. Bartlett, sheriff ; J. J. Noah, agent. A. M. Hayes was appointed by the court as district attorney for the term. Court was in session six days.
The next term of the court was held in Mendota, February 25, 1856. The officers present were: Andrew G. Chatfield, judge ; W. W. Irwin, United States marshal; Norman Eddy, United States district attorney; E. F. Parker, prosecuting attorney ; John Devlin, sheriff ; J. J. Noah, clerk. The term was in session seven days.
The next term was held at Mendota, August 13, 1856. The officers present were: Andrew G. Chatfield, judge ; John Devlin, sheriff ; J. J. Noah, clerk. The term was in session eight days. John J. McVay was admitted to the bar at this term.
Judge Chatfield's term expired April 23, 1857, and he was succeeded by Judge Charles E. Flandrau, whose distinction as a
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HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
soldier, citizen and historian was equal to his reputation as a jurist.
A special term of court was held in Smith's hall, Hastings, August 31, 1857, and was in session one day. The officers present were: Charles E. Flandrau, judge ; George S. Winslow, clerk; Edward F. Parker, district attorney.
A general term of the district court was held in Burgess hall, Hastings, December 27, 1857. The officers present were : Charles E. Flandrau, judge; George S. Winslow, clerk; E. F. Parker, district attorney ; John Devlin, sheriff. This term remained in session until January 15, 1858.
By an act of congress passed February 26, 1857, the people of the territory of Minnesota were authorized to form a con- stitution and state government, preparatory to their admission into the Union, and it provided for the election of delegates on the first Monday in June, 1857, to a constitutional convention to be held on the second Monday in July, 1857. Such a conven- tion was held and a constitution formed on August 29, 1857, which was submitted to a vote of the people at an election held on the thirteenth day of October, 1857, and adopted.
That instrument provided that every free white male inhabi- tant over the age of twenty-one years, who had resided within the limits of the state for the ten days previous to the day of said election, might vote for all officers to be elected under the con- stitution at such election, and also for or against the adoption of the constitution. It also provided for the election at such election time of members of the house of representatives of the United States, governor, lieutenant-governor, supreme and dis- triet judges, members of the legislature and all other officers designated in that constitution. It also, for the purposes of first election, divided the state into senatorial and representative districts. The constitution also divided the state into six judicial districts until the legislature should otherwise provide. The counties of Washington, Chisago, Anoka, Pine, Buchanan, Carl- ton, St. Louis and Lake were made to constitute the first judicial district and the counties of Dakota, Goodhinte, Scott, Rice, Steele, Waseca, Dodge, Mower and Freeborn the fifth judicial district.
At the election, Hon. S. J. R. McMillan was elected judge of the first judicial district, and Ilon. N. M. Donaldson, of Owa- tonna, judge of the fifth.
The judicial history of Rice and Steele counties, individually, is continued in Parts II and III of this work.
PART II RICE COUNTY
CHAPTER I.
NATURAL PHENOMENA.
Introduction-Situation and Advantages-Natural Drainage- Cannon River-Topography-Spil and Timber-The Bridge- water Kame-Minerals from the Drift-Mastodon Remains -Old Wells in Rice County-Artificial Mounds-Material Resources-Building Stone, Bricks and Lime.
In the central part of that fertile triangle of land, formed by the Mississippi river and the northeastwardly flowing Minnesota is a beautiful county which has taken its name from Henry M. Rice, whose voice and influence were so important factors in shaping the destinies of Minnesota in its territorial and early statehood days. Unusually blessed by nature with deep soil and abundant natural resources, and endowed with a wealth of pre- historic and historic lore, the county is a fitting home for the sturdy people who have here made their dwelling place. Hard- working, progressive, educated and prosperous, they have appre- ciated the gifts which nature has spread for them, and have added their own toil, and the fruit of their intellects, to the work of the elements, making the county one of the beautiful spots of the earth. On the hills graze cattle and sheep, while the level lands respond to the efforts of the spring-time sower and planter with a wealth of harvest in the summer and autumn. On nearly every quarter section is reared a comfortable home and commo- dious barns, while from the crest of every swell of land are visible the churches and schools wherein the people worship the Giver of all Gifts, and educate their children. Faribault, the county seat, is known in all parts of the world as an educational and religious center ; the milling industry is but one of the fea- tures that has made Northfield famous ; as a dairy market, Mor- ristown takes no backward place, and the other busy villages and hamlets have had their share in the growth of the county by furnishing a shipping and trading point for the agricultural sections. Thus blessed by God and beloved by man, the county today stands for all that is ideal in American life and is forging ahead to still wider influence and more extended opportunity.
Rice county is situated in the triangle between the Missis- sippi and that part of the Minnesota which flows northeastward,
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and nearly in the center. Northfield, near the northern boun- dary, is thirty-eight miles from St. Paul, and the eastern boun- dary of the county is about the same distance from Lake Pepin. Faribault, the county seat, at the forks of the Cannon river, is about fifty miles south from St. Paul. The area of the county, which includes twelve sections more than fourteen government townships, amounts to 322,560.70 acres, of which 11,054.83 acres consist of water.
Natural Drainage. The main artery of surface drainage is the Cannon river, which flows northeasterly through the central portions of the county. This stream, which moves with a smooth current, receives the Straight river from the south at Faribault, thus nearly doubling its volume. The Cannon river rises in the lakes at Shieldsville, a few miles northwest of Faribault, at an elevation of about 1,090 feet above the sea, and after a circuitous route through Le Sueur county, enters the county again at a point about seven miles from the point at which it left it. Throughout its course it passes through numerous lakes, and its main channel in Rice county, before its union with the Straight river, is widened out in the form of lakes at four places. It has the aspect in this part of its course of having once been occupied by a larger stream than the present Cannon river. Thus the Cannon river carries off the most of the surplus water from most of the lakes that are scattered throughout the western half of the county, though some of these waters seem to reach that valley by underground drainage, the lakes having no visible out- Iets. In the southeastern part of the county the north branch of the Zumbro rises in a long marsh, which extends uninter- ruptedly to within a mile and a half of the Straight river. These marshes, and several others in the county, are caused by the impervious nature of the underlying Hudson river and Trenton shales, and mark the channels of glacial drainage. In a similar manner, the valley of Prairie creek, which once was one of volu- minous discharge, extends nearly as far southwest as to the val- ley of the Cannon river west of Cannon City. It is there partially filled up with drift.
To the most casual observer Rice county presents remarkable contrasts in its drainage features. That portion which lies east and southeast of the Cannon river is different from that portion lying to the west and the northwest of that valley. The former is undulating in long and gentle swells, with slow-flowing streams that are fringed with wide, often marshy and quaking low-lands. The streams are msignificant in comparison to the valleys which they occupy; and they have a direct and well- established direction of flow, without much tortuosity. Where they leave Rice county, their channels are sunk from one to two
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hundred feet below the general upland level. The country here drained is alike without lakes and timber. The latter is rolling in short and often steep and frequent hills that rise from fifty to a hundred feet above the surrounding country. Among these hills the crooked streams wander with every conceivable curve and change of direction, often encountering small lakes and re- ceiving small tributaries that drain others. They have no deeply eroded valleys, but run near the average low-land level of the country where the present contours of surface will permit. While there are frequent marshes here, they are isolated like the lakelets, and have a similar relation to the drainage. In this part of the county the precipitated moisture is retained by the more slow course of surface drainage as well as by the more gravelly and sandy nature of the surface drift materials. This part of the county also is timbered, a circumstance that not only produces, but also is favored by, a greater amount of natural moisture within the drift materials and on the exposed surface. This last has also retarded the former devastations by forest fires. This wooded portion is on the castern edge of the "big woods" of Minnesota, or Bois fort, well and long known as one of the great physical features of the surface of the state. Several valuable water-powers have been improved in Rice county.
Topography. The eastern and southern portions of the county are broadly undulating or smoothly rolling, with long swells running so as to operate as the primary divides between the drainage valleys. The northeastern corner of the county, east of the Cannon river, is characterized by considerable dif- ferences of level, separated by plains that extend like terraces along the river courses. The Prairie creek valley is thus a wide. nearly level, expanse, bounded by an abrupt ascent of about a hundred feet to a higher flat which extends, with an undulating surface, right and left. The Cannon valley is the great topo- graphic feature of the county. Its outer bluffs rise about 100 feet above the water at Northfields, about 250 at Dundas and 200 feet at Faribault. The water surface of Straight river descends northward, within the county, from the level of about 1,050 feet above the sea to 950. The Cannon river, in like manner, de- scends, in crossing the county, from about 1,000 to 890 feet, its source in the lakes at Shieldsville being about 1,090. The high prairies in the towns of Wheeling and Richland are 1,150 to 1,200 feet above the sea. The high plateau cast and southeast of Cannon City is in general about flat, but has numerous deep valleys that penetrate within the St. Peter sandstone. The head of Prairie creek runs thus south and southwest far enough to unite with the Cannon valley.
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