USA > Minnesota > Stearns County > History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 56
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EXTRACTS FROM PAPERS READ AT MEETINGS OF THE OLD SET- TLERS ASSOCIATION.
Harmon Becker (1905 meeting). My brother Henry and myself reached what is now St. Cloud August 10, 1852. We made our home with our brother John who was then living on the Lowry farm, and who was the only white man living on the west side of the river at that time. Several others were working on the east side of the river, but did not establish their homes here until later. The county was then occupied by the Winnebago Indians, who had a camp at the mouth of Sauk river and another at the mouth of the Watab. I should judge there were some 500 Indians in the two camps. They re-
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mained here until the spring of 1855, when they were removed to a reserva- tion in southern Minnesota. I was then twelve years of age and was with the Indian boys so much that I learned the language and could speak it as well as they could. (Mr. Becker gives an account of the fight between a party of Chippewas and a party of Sioux which took place at Maine Prairie, being practically the same as that printed on another page of this book.)
A. W. Gordon. In December, 1855, my parents moved from St. Anthony Falls to the township of Brockway, in Stearns county, from which the Win- nebago Indians had only recently been moved. Among my earliest recol- lections was of a big celebration held on the occasion of the opening of the new wagon bridge across the Mississippi river at Watab, built in 1858, which was blown down in March, 1859, and never rebuilt. When the call for volun- teers came in 1861 the response was so general that when a draft followed and the town was called on for two more men there were but thirteen left, and these were too young or too old. It was therefore decided to secure two substitutes and a town order for $200 was issued to Chris. Pitz, who was and still is a citizen of St. Cloud, and with this money the two additional men were secured. As showing the financial condition of the people at that time I will say that although the town of Brockway then contained three town- ships of land barely enough money could be raised each year to pay the in- terest on this borrowed money. At the thirteenth annual town meeting after the order was issued, when Mr. Pitz wanted his money it was voted to issue town bonds in the sum of $200 and thus raise the required amount. I do not know how long it took the town to pay the bonds.
The provisions and wearing apparel required by the family were pur- chased by my parents, in the earlier days, at St. Anthony Falls, the distance of nearly 100 miles being made with an ox-team and requiring about a week.
At the time of the Indian outbreak in 1862 the few families living on their farms in the surrounding country decided to move into one house, my grand- father Getchell's being selected for that purpose. The men came in from the fields before the sun went down, and no one left the building until the next morning. For a time a guard was posted at night to provide against a sur- prise. The early part of the evenings, before dark, was spent by the men in practising at target shooting, that they might become proficient marksmen in case of an attack. When a report came that the Chippewas had joined the Sioux and were coming down the Mississippi in canoes to massacre the settlers, the families at Brockway decided to move to St. Cloud, but before starting organized the Brockway militia for the purpose of saving what horses they had from being taken by government army officers, many of the farmers having traded their oxen for horses, which they were very desirous to keep. After the families were taken to St. Cloud the men returned to their farms to finish harvesting their crops, each man carrying a gun and plenty of am- munition. As soon as the grain was harvested it was threshed. Our family remained in St. Cloud until fall when they returned to their farm.
Philip Beaupre (1903 meeting). I am now living at Sauk Rapids, having first visited that place and St. Cloud (then uninhabited) in the summer of 1845, forty-five years ago. In 1840 I left Lower Canada, where I was born
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in 1823 and came by the great lakes to Chicago; went to Green Bay, Wis- consin, in 1841; in 1842 walked west to Dubuque; in 1843 went to St. Louis; in 1844 went up the Missouri by steamboat to Fort Benton in Montana; re- turned to what is now Fort Buford at the mouth of the Yellowstone, and from there, with ponies, went easterly to the Mouse river, where I wintered in what is now North Dakota. In the spring of 1845 I went to Fort Garry and assisted in organizing a train of some eighty Red river carts and came with them the following summer to St. Paul, reaching there about August 1, 1845. In order to avoid the dangerous Sioux country this expedition opened up a new route by way of Detroit, Otter Tail Lake and Crow Wing.
At that time the only white men between Fort Gary and St. Paul were two men at Crow Wing, which later became an important outfitting point, and later still was entirely abandoned. These two men, traders, were Allen Morrison, the father of Mrs. John Sloan, of St. Cloud, and Donald McDonald, while in this latitude there was no settlement between here and the Pacific ocean. One half-breed had a little log hut at St. Anthony Falls. In St. Paul there were perhaps a dozen white men, including Mr. Larpenteur, Louis and Joseph Roberts, the two latter gentlemen being uncles of Therese Des Noyes, whom I married in St. Paul in 1851, the ceremony being performed by Father Ravoux, who is still living there. Previous to 1849 the population of Min- nesota was very small and mostly confined to a few points-St. Paul, Still- water, St. Anthony, Mendota (where General Sibley resided), Sauk Rapids and Crow Wing being the more prominent ones; St. Paul being equal almost to all the others combined. In the carly years there were many brainy men whom I knew personally, among whom were Joseph R. Brown, David Olm- sted, General S. B. Lowry, Major Fridley, the two Rices, Baldwin Olmsted and others too numerous to mention here.
The American Fur Company was a powerful factor in the business and politics of the country, as the Hudson Bay Company was on the Canadian side of the line. As collector of customs under President Pierce, between 1852 and 1856, I was located at Pembina, and about 1862 I was sheriff of Stearns county.
Sank Rapids has happened to be the residence of an unusual number of old settlers, many of whom are now among the dead. But there are still liv- ing there Mrs. Russell, Mrs. Sweet, Mrs. Hicks, Mrs. Richard Cronk and Edwin S. Hall, all of whom were born between 60 and 70 years ago at La Pointe on Madeline Island in Lake Superior, but who came to Sauk Rapids between 1848 and 1854; Mrs. Julia A. A. Wood, who came about 1850; George W. Benediet in 1854, and some others at an carly day. A smaller number, including Mr. Wilson, Mr. Smitten and some others on the west side of the river came about 1851.
The first settlements between Crow Wing and St. Paul, as I now recollect, were about as follows: In 1849 the Winnebago Indians were removed from Iowa to Long Prairie, under the general charge of Henry M. Ricc, afterwards United States Senator from Minnesota, and in connection with that move came David Gilman in charge of transportation and he settled at Watab in 1849. A little later Marks and White, Nathan Myrick and General S. B. Lowry
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settled at Watab as traders, a part of the Winnebagoes having returned to that place from Long Prarie. David Olmstead located at Long Prairie, and S. Baldwin Olinsted settled early at a point opposite Fort Ripley. It was about 1849 that old man Chapman with his sons located at the Tamarac, three miles above Little Rock creek, making a farm there. Just below the month of Little Rock creek William A. Aitkin, for whom Aitkin county was named, had a trading post which was later occupied by Major Hatch. In 1845 or 1846 a man named Green made a commencement at building a cheap dam across the east channel of the Mississippi river at Little Falls. He died of cholera soon after at St. Paul. The Rev. Frederick Ayer in about 1860 came from Sandy lake, where he had been a missionary and teacher, and made a good farm and resi- dence at Belle Prairie. Between 1845 and 1851 I frequently passed through the county between St. Paul and Crow Wing, and in 1851 I settled perma- nently at Sauk Rapids. In that year I helped Governor Stevens and his ont- fit of 75 men and teams to cross the Mississippi just above Sauk Rapids. He had just been appointed governor of Washington territory and made the trip overland with great success. At that time Jeremiah Russell and his wife were living in a new log house on the east bank of the river just above Sank Rapids, where Mr. Russell opened the first farm in Benton county. George W. Sweet was then living with Mr. Russell, and below Sank Rapids, opposite the present residence of Charles A. Gilman, an eccentric character named Charles Webb lived in a small log house.
After first coming to this part of the West I was in the employ of the American Fur Company and my business took me several times across the plains, to the upper waters of the Missouri and to the Saskatchewan in British America. Twice, in company with others, I was attacked by Sioux Indians in overwhelming numbers. One of these occasions was in the summer of 1844, when I was at the junction of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers in what is now western North Dakota. Buffalo were very numerous, and we knew that hostile Sioux were lurking not far off in force although they kept pretty well out of sight. We erected an adobie fort, which we christened Fort Union, and conducted a fur trading business. On a certain Sunday five of us decided, as our supply of fresh meat was getting low, to cross the river, kill a couple of buffalo and get back with the carcasses if possible without meeting the Indians. We secured an old flat-boat, took our knives and guns, and sculled over to the far bank, where the boat was drawn well up on the shore. After creeping the distance of a mile or so we were within range of the herd. A cow and a bull were dropped by well-directed shots and most of our number immediately busied ourselves cutting up the meat. We had gotten fairly along with the work when a half-breed, simultaneously with the crack of a rifle off in the hills, dropped dead into the opened carcass of the animal he was dressing. Each of the remaining four made a jump for his rifle and while in the act of securing his a Frenchman named Johnson joined the half-breed in death, and a third whose name I do not remember was wounded. This left but the two of us, and as we knew the red skins to be in force we decided that it would be useless to make a stand. Accordingly we dropped our rifles and made a dash for a clump of willows that extended back from the river bot-
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toms a half mile or so. We were successful in reaching this without being hit by any of the numerous shots fired at us as we ran. From our ambush we could see the Indians ride up to where the two dead men and the wounded one lay. They scalped all three. Then creeping through the willows we made a run for the river. We could hear the Indians scouring the brush in their search for us. We had thrown our rifles away but still had our revolvers and were determined if necessary to sell our lives dearly. In due time we reached the bottoms and while the savages were in the willows we peeled off our surplus clothing and dropped into the river. We were half way across before the Indians on the top of the bank discovered us, and as the distance was too great for accurate shooting we soon reached the other shore-and our fort. This was the most exciting brush I had with the Indians, although there were several others. The last buffalo I killed was near Fort Abercrom- bie in 1866.
Lieutenant Governor Charles A. Gilman (1904 meeting). While a goodly volume might be written regarding our old settlers, their characteristics and experiences, my limited time for the reading of this paper permits but a few briefly condensed statements.
Coming from Dubuque on the steamboat Luella, I reached St. Paul about the third of May, 1855, and reached St. Cloud by team, in company with five young men from the East, about the sixth of May, by the wagon road on the east side of the river leading from St. Paul to Sauk Rapids and Crow Wing, that being the only long-distance road leading northwesterly from St. Anthony and St. Paul. No census of the population of the territory was taken between 1850 and 1860, but on May 1, 1855, which was about the beginning of the first rapid and continuous immigration to Minnesota, a fair estimate would per- haps have placed the white population at about 40,000 or 50,000, whereas the number now is not far from 2,000,000. These 40,000 or 50,000 people were then in villages and very small hamlets and in the country adjacent thereto along a very few lines of road, and on the Mississippi, the Minnesota and St. Croix rivers, the great extent of country away from those lines being unin- habited except by an occasional settler venturing a little beyond the rest, and by the Indians; a condition however soon to meet with a rapid change. Those little towns along the rivers named have mostly become the cities of today, the greatest aggregation of population and power, however, being in the Twin Cities, with their nearly half a million of people, in place of some 6,000 the first of May, 1855.
But chiefly for our consideration is the line of settlement reaching through this locality and the branches leading therefrom at that period. The little stopping places on the old up-river wagon road on the east side of the Mis- sissippi are the sites of the cities and villages of today, although what was then the youngest of all, and one of the least, St. Cloud, is now by far the largest and wealthiest. At the date named, the stopping places between St. Anthony and St. Cloud had but from one to three houses each, with occasional nearby scattering settlers, though perhaps Manomin or Rice Creek had more. Up Rum river for eight or ten miles above Anoka was a scattering settlement, and later that year Princeton was settled by the Hon. Samuel Ross and a few
ยท
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others. Also, on the west side of the river opposite Big Lake the Montieello settlement was begun, and that year, I think, Simon Stevens began the set- tlement at Clearwater, Mr. Jamison at Orono, Joseph Brown at Big Lake and Casimir Galarneault at Big Meadows were very old as well as valuable set- tlers. In this vieinity the conditions which are of interest to a majority of this assembly greatly changed since May 1, 1855. Then the townsite of St. Cloud, with its one house near where our bandstand in Central Park now is, occupied by Anton Edelbrock, and a lumber shanty in what is now the middle of the street near the west end of the Tenth Street Bridge, and occupied by Philip Sheppard and wife, were, as I recollect, the only habitations on the townsite of St. Cloud when I arrived here, General Lowry's residence being at Arcadia, so-called, just above the present residence of the writer of this paper, and Mr. Wilson not having at that time erected his house. Outside the surveyed townsite, however, were a large number of settlers, to whom ref- erence may be made later on. The only man I now remember of having scen here when I first came, and who is now here, is the venerable father of the town, Hon. John L. Wilson, though it is possible there were others. Several ladies, however, who are still with us were residing then on places just out- side but now within the present city limits, among them Mrs. Lamb, Mrs. Keteham and Mrs. John Schwartz. A little later during the same month the Hon. H. C. Waite arrived, as I think did Mr. and Mrs. Spicer and others. I should say that while I was here at the time stated, and frequently after- ward, I settled at Sauk Rapids, then much larger than St. Cloud and eon- sidered more important prospectively, and I did not come to St. Cloud to live until 1861. J. B. Sartell, now at the mouth of Watab river, with a large and rapidly increasing posterity, came about the time I did.
St. Cloud was then (the first of May, 1855) a small but very pretentious suburb of Sauk Rapids (a situation sinee reversed), two miles above on the east side of the river, which was the metropolis of all northern Minnesota, having perhaps twenty-five or thirty dwellings, some quite pretentious ones, being the county seat of Benton county, one of the first organized and at that time one of the largest and most important in the territory, and having, prior to 1855, the only newspaper in the territory north of St. Anthony (the Fron- tierman), and a United States land office for a district embracing perhaps two- thirds the area of the state, several large stores, a post office, stage-line head- quarters, and the general appurtenances of a good town, including too many prominent citizens for individual mention; and continuing easterly therefrom for ten miles was a large settlement, American, English and Irish. On the west side of the river in all directions from St. Cloud and north to Winnebago Prairie were numerous agricultural settlers, upon pre-emption claims on un- surveyed government land; and any of these settlers needing to buy a sack of flour, a pair of overalls, a pound of sugar, or a bar of soap, or wishing to mail or receive a letter had to cross the Mississippi river as best they could to Sauk Rapids, or as some did, go to St. Joe, seven or eight miles west of St. Cloud and at that time about ten times as large as the latter, and where the leading man, Joseph Linneman, had a good store. And now having reached St. Joe I may as well complete that line by saying that at that time the set-
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tlement on the south side of Sauk river, including the Beckers, Keough, Staples, Payne, Wood, Morrison, Stanger and many German families, ended near Rockville, while the more northerly or St. Joe settlement (all German) continued four or five miles to what is called Jacob's Prairie, where lived the last white family of the great settlement which later continued rapidly, on and on, to the Pacific Ocean. Stopping at this last house over night the next day with my companions above referred to, I traveled beyond on the old Pembina half-breed trail through what is now Cold Spring and Richmond, and for miles beyond upon what seemed to be a grand and endless prairie, joining with my companions (now all dead) in conjecturing whether the country would ever be occupied by a good class of people, on account of the northern latitude with its severe winters and frosty summers. This thrifty settle- ment west of St. Cloud was then the largest agricultural settlement north of Hennepin county, though perhaps excelled in the size of cultivated fields, but not in the number of them, at Belle Prairie. The Maine Prairie settlement was begun some months later on.
Continuing north from St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids on the Crow Wing road, then the most important road leading to or from St. Paul, the princi- pal towns in order of their importance were Little Falls, Crow Wing and Swan River, each of which, as well as the towns of Sauk Rapids and St. Joe, was of more importance on May 1, 1855, than any other town in Minnesota north of Stillwater, St. Paul and St. Anthony. Next in order of size toward Crow Wing were Watab, Platte River, with an interesting adjacent settle- ment, and Belle Prairie, at which latter point was a fine agricultural develop- ment, mainly by Freneh Canadians, and by the Rev. Frederie Ayer, one of the first teachers and missionaries in the Lake Superior country, the first teacher in Minnesota, and whose son, Lyman Ayer, the first white ehild born in Min- nesota (at Sandy Lake in 1833) it was hoped would honor us by his presence and an address today. The history of Frederic Ayer has properly been made the subject for a prominent place by the Historical Society of Minnesota, and the same may be said as to the late Rev. Sherman Hall of Sauk Rapids, who, like Mr. Ayer, was an early missionary at Lake Superior and an early settler at Sauk Rapids.
The great thoroughfare I have tried to follow from St. Paul ended for general uses at the Leech Lake Indian agency. There was also opened from Crow Wing (which town was abandoned after the building of the Northern Pacific Railway) to the Red River valley a road connecting with the old Pembina or Fort Garry trail from St. Cloud via Sauk Valley and Fort Aber- crombie, the Crow Wing route to afford safety to the Red River expeditions from attaeks by the Sionx Indians. But very few actual settlers located early on either of the said lines north and west from Crow Wing. From the main road to Crow Wing a government road was early opened from Swan River to Long Prairie in connection with the location there of a band of Winnebago Indians, moved from Iowa, which band was in May, 1855, removed to Win- nebago Agency, Blue Earth county, Minn., a few of these Indians having in the meantime been temporarily quartered at Winnebago Prairie, so-called, opposite Watab and some eight miles north of St. Cloud. Incidentally I may
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add one of the largest agricultural settlements, and perhaps the largest, in May 1855, in the state, was upon the prairie of Hennepin county, westerly and northerly from Minneapolis, which place then had a population of only some 500 to 800 people, it not being consolidated with St. Anthony to which it just then was first connected by the first bridge across the Mississippi.
Returning once more in my narrative to St. Cloud, I would state that the increase of settlement after the early part of May, 1855, both in the town and in the country outside, was very rapid, the settlers very largely being German Catholics, many having been induced hither by the influence of tlie Rev. Father Pierz, an aged Austrian priest of extraordinary goodness and of zeal in the cause of his church; and by others of the order of St. Benedict of that church, who came after him, and made St. Cloud and its vicinity the headquarters of that order for the whole Northwest, who have added greatly to the development of this entire region, and have established St. John's Uni- versity, one of the largest religious and educational institutions in the North- west, some twelve miles west from St. Cloud.
By a line drawn east and west through the state, the settlements north of Hennepin county, which I have more particularly outlined, were all which then existed in what was two-thirds or more of the entire area of the state, but, of course, covering much that was last to be settled though not the least in interest.
My time permits but little to be said of the two principal tribes of In- dians-the Ojibwas, commonly called the Chippewas, and the Dakotahs, com- monly called Sioux, which tribes at the period of which I write were engaged in deadly hostilities with each other and had many bloody battles, sometimes almost at our doors. The line separating these tribes, as nearly as locatable, extended from St. Paul up the Mississippi to St. Cloud, thence somewhat indefi- nitely to the northwest, the Chippewas being on the north and east, and the Sioux on the south and west of that line, neither approaching it without cau- tion nor crossing it very far except with hostile intent. Their bloody trophies and serious disfigurements after their battles are well remembered by many of us, although we usually had our favorites and took pride in their victories and assisted their wounded and hungry ones on their homeward journeys. Their bad deeds have sometimes shocked the world, but if all the truth were told much to their credit would be revealed. An intelligent history of them, and especially of their much disputed origin, would supply an interesting sub- ject for the ablest and best informed writer. At the time of which I write, the white population had come largely from the Northern and Western states, many especially from Maine with a view to the lumber business; very many from Lower Canada, some from Canada West, some from England, Ireland and Scotland, and some from Germany, from which country and the Scandi- navian countries the great immigration which reached us later on was about commencing. A few also came from Winnipeg, having gone there long before with the Lord Selkirk settlement, by the way of Hudson Bay. Comparatively few brought much money, but in good sense, courage and industrious habits they were as wealthy as any people on earth as results have shown, for it is doubtful whether there can be anywhere found a similar number of people
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to those within the limits of this old Settlers' Association who have made bet- ter progress in becoming independent and in possessing what to them con- stituted the comforts of life. While not germane to the purposes of this gath- ering, it may not be wholly amiss to venture the opinion that much contact in business life with people of all nations induces the belief that the various nations, races and tribes, even including Indians, are quite equally well en- dowed in the matter of natural intelligence. But in the matter of economy and thrift, it is also evident that there is a marked difference.
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