USA > Minnesota > Stearns County > History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 7
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CHAPTER VII.
TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION.
Minnesota Admitted as a Territory-Ramsey Arrives and Perfects Preliminary Organization-Stearns County Included in Second Judicial District-In Sixth and Seventh Council Districts-Territorial Legislature Meets- Original Counties Created-Stearns in Dakotah and Wahnahta Counties -Attached to Ramsey County-Stearns in Cass County-Cass Attached to Benton for Judicial Purposes-Other Sessions of the Territorial Legislatures.
After Wisconsin had been admitted as a state of the Union May 29, 1848, steps were taken to have that part of the former territory which was left outside the state boundaries organized into a new territory to be ealled Minnesota. This, however, was not the initial movement in that direction. The Wisconsin enabling act was passed by congress August 6, 1846. On December 23 following a bill was introduced in the lower house by Morgan L. Martin, the delegate from that territory, providing for the organization of the territory of Minnesota. This bill was referred to the committee on terri- tories, of which Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, was the chairman, who, January 20, 1847, reported in favor of the passage of the bill, but with the name changed to Itasea. When the matter came up again, February 17, there was much discussion as to the name. Mr. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, pro- posed Chippewa; J. Thompson, of Mississippi, who didn't eare for Indian names. wanted Jackson; while Mr. Houston, of Delaware, spoke strongly in favor of giving recognition to the Father of his Country by calling it Wash- ington. The matter ended with the retention of the name originally proposed, Minnesota, this being the name of the largest tributary of the Mississippi river within the borders of the new territory. It is a composite Sioux Indian word, and while there is some difference of opinion as to the exaet meaning, that most generally accepted is "sky-tinted-water," which is a very satisfying as well as poetieal interpretation.
At the so-called "Stillwater convention" held at Stillwater August 26, 1848, at which sixty-one delegates were present, memorials were prepared addressed to the President of the United States and to congress praying for the organization of a new territory. It had been assumed that the territorial government of Wisconsin still existed over that part of the original territory excluded from the state boundaries, and for this view there was the authority of a letter from James Buchanan, then secretary of state of the United States. John Catlin, the territorial secretary of Wisconsin, who had removed to Still- water, issued a proelamation in his official eapaeity as aeting governor of
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Wisconsin (Governor Henry Dodge having been elected United States Senator) calling an election to be held October 30, to select a delegate to congress. John H. Tweedy, the territorial delegate from Wisconsin, who was in sympathy with the movement, resigned and Henry H. Sibley was elected his successor. Mr. Sibley proceeded to Washington and presented his credentials, but it was not until the fifteenth of the following January that he was admitted to a seat, there having been much discussion as to whether excluded territory was entitled to continued political existence and representation.
Mr. Sibley devoted himself assiduously to securing the passage in the United States senate of the bill for the creation of the territory of Minnesota which had been introduced at the previous session and met with gratifying success. His efforts in the house of representatives were less satisfactory, political questions entering largely into the matter, and it was not until March 3, 1849, the very last day of the session-and then only with the aid of Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who having been in the meantime elected to the United States senate from Illinois, was chairman of the committee on terri- tories in that body as he had previously been in the house-that he succeeded in securing the passage of the bill. This was finally done under suspension of the rules, the previous opposition having been unexpectedly withdrawn. This being before the days of railroads and telegraphs in the West, the good news did not reach St. Paul until thirty-seven days afterwards, when it was brought by the first steamer coming from the lower river.
At the time of the organization of Minnesota as a territory the country was described as being "little more than a wilderness." That which lay west of the Mississippi river, from the Iowa line to Lake Itasca, had not yet been ceded by the Indians and was unoccupied by the whites save in a very few instances. On the cast side, in this more immediate vicinity, were trading posts with the cabins of a few employes at Sauk Rapids and Crow Wing. Away up at Pembina was the largest town or settlement within the boundaries of the new territory, where were nearly a thousand people, a large majority of whom were "Metis" or mixed bloods, French Crees or French Chippewas.
In "Minnesota in Three Centuries" attention is called to the fact that at this time the east side of the Mississippi, as far north as Crow Wing, was fast filling up with settlers who had come to the country when it had been announced that the territory was organized. The settlers were almost entirely from the Northern States, many being from New England. The fact that the state which would succeed the territory would be a free state, without slavery in any form, made it certain that the first settlers would be non-slaveholders, with but few people from the Southern States interested in or in sympathy with the "peculiar institution."
Alexander Ramsey, of Pennsylvania, then only thirty-four years of age, was appointed by President Taylor the first governor of the new territory of Minnesota. His previous public experience had been as a member of the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth congresses, in which he had displayed the sterling qualities and the marked ability which characterized his long after- career. From the time of his coming to Minnesota until the close of his life he remained one of its most loyal and honored citizens, filling many important
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positions both in the state and the nation. He arrived in St. Paul, May 27, 1849, and the hotels being full to overflowing proceeded with his family to Mendota, a fur-trading station at the junction of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, where he became the guest of Henry H. Sibley, remaining there until June 26.
On the first of June he issued a proclamation, said to have been prepared in a small room in Bass's log tavern which stood on the site now occupied by the Merchant's Hotel, making official announcement of the organization of the territory, with the following officers: Governor, Alexander Ramsey, of Pennsylvania; secretary, C. K. Smith, of Ohio; chief justice, Aaron Goodrich, of Tennessee; associate justices, David Cooper, of Pennsylvania, and Bradley B. Meeker, of Kentucky; United States marshal, Joshua L. Taylor; United States attorney, H. L. Moss. Mr. Taylor, having declined to accept the office of marshal, A. M. Mitchell, of Ohio, a graduate of West Point and colonel of an Ohio regiment in the Mexican War, was appointed to the position and arrived in St. Paul in August.
A second proclamation issued by Governor Ramsey June 11 divided the territory into three judicial districts, to which the three judges who had been appointed by the president were assigned. The present Stearns county was included in the Second district, which comprised the county of La Pointe (a former Wisconsin county) and the region north and west of the Mississippi and north of the Minnesota and on a line running due west from the head- waters of the Minnesota to the Missouri river, and over this district Judge Meeker presided.
The census of the territory taken in 1849 by an order of Governor Ramsey issued June 11, although including the soldiers at the fort and pretty much every living soul in the territory except the Indians, footed up the disap- pointing total of 4,764-of which number 3,058 were males and 1,706 were females. Additional and revised returns made the population exactly 5,000- males, 3,253; females, 1,747. Of these Benton county had 249 males and 108 females.
Another proclamation issued July 7, 1849, divided the territory into seven council districts and ordered an election to be held August 1 to choose one dele- gate to the house of representatives at Washington, and nine councillors and eighteen representatives to constitute the legislative assembly of Minnesota. The election passed off very quietly, politics entering scarcely at all into the contests, which were wholly personal. In all 682 votes were cast for the dele- gate to congress, Henry H. Sibley, who was elected without opposition.
The council districts were described in Ramsey's proclamation as follows: "No. 1. The St. Croix precinct of St. Croix county, and the settlements on the west bank of the Mississippi south of Crow village to the Iowa line. 2. The Stillwater precinct of the county of St. Croix. 3. The St. Paul precinct (ex- cept Little Canada settlement). 4. Marine Mills, Falls of St. Croix, Rush Lake, Rice River and Snake River precincts, of St. Croix county and La Pointe county. 5. The Falls of St. Anthony precinct and the Little Canada settlement. 6. The Sauk Rapids and Crow Wing precincts, of St. Croix county, and all settlements west of the Mississippi and north of the Osakis river, and a line
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thence west to the British line. 7. The country and settlements west of the Mississippi not included in districts 1 and 6." The area that is now Stearns county was included in the Sixth and the Seventh districts, that part north of the Sauk river being in the Sixth district and that part south of the Sauk river being in the Seventh district.
The first Territorial Legislature-called the Territorial Assembly-met Monday, September 3, in the Central House, St. Paul, a large log building weatherboarded, which served both as a state house and a hotel. It stood on practically the present site of the Mannheimer block. On the first floor of the main building was the secretary's office and the dining room was occupied as the Representatives' chamber. As the hour for dinner or supper ap- proached the House had to adjourn to give the servants an opportunity to make the necessary preparations for serving the meal. In the ladies' parlor on the second floor the Council convened for their deliberations. The legis- lature halls were not to exceed eighteen feet square. Governor Ramsey, dur- ing his entire term of office, had his executive office in his private residence, and the supreme court shifted from place to place as rooms could be rented for its use. Although Congress had appropriated $20,000 for the erection of a capitol, the money could not be used as "a permanent seat of government" for the territory had not yet been selected, so the machinery of government had to be carted around in the most undignified manner.
David Olmsted, of Long Prairie, and William R. Sturges, of Elk River, were the members of the Council from the Sixth district, which comprised the territory west of the Mississippi and north of the Osakis river to the British boundary line. David Olmsted, who was a native of Vermont, came from Iowa in 1848 to Long Prairie when the Winnebago Indians were trans- ferred there, and established a trading post which he continued for several years. He was elected president of the Council at this, the first, session. He died February 2, 1861, at his old home in Vermont.
William R. Sturges was elected by his constituents to both the Council and the House, and his election was so certified and proclaimed by the gov- ernor. He resigned the office of Representative and at a special election Allan Morrison was chosen in his stead.
The members of the House of Representatives from the Sixth district were Jeremiah Russell, of Crow Wing; Lorenzo A. Babcock and Thomas A. Holmes, of Sauk Rapids; and Allan Morrison, of Crow Wing. Jeremiah Russell was born in Madison county, New York, February 2, 1809; came to Fort Snelling in 1837, and was engaged as clerk and Indian trader in the Minnesota country for ten years. In 1848 he took charge of Borup & Oakes' trading house at Crow Wing, and in the fall of 1849 located at Sauk Rapids, opening the first farm in that section of the territory. He was one of the original proprietors of Sauk Rapids, and in 1855 established the Sauk Rapids Frontierman, the sixteenth paper started in Minnesota. He was afterwards treasurer of Ben- ton county several years and county auditor one year. He died June 13, 1885.
Lorenzo A. Babcock was born in Sheldon, Vermont, and came to Minne- sota from Iowa in 1848, locating at Sauk Rapids. After serving in the legis- lature he was appointed by Governor Ramsey territorial attorney general,
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holding the office for four years, 1849-53. He was secretary of the Republican wing of the constitutional convention in 1857, and practiced law in St. Paul until his death.
Thomas A. Holmes was a native of Pennsylvania, born March 4, 1804; lived a number of years in Ohio; in 1835 built the second house and became the second permanent settler in the town-site of Milwaukee; made the first settlement at Janesville, Wis., and was virtually the founder of that city, selling his interest there in 1839 for $10,000. In the winter of 1849 he located at Sauk Rapids and was elected a few months later to the legislature. Two years afterwards he became the first settler at Shakopee; and in 1852, before the Indian title to the site was fully extinguished, he laid out and named the town. He also surveyed, located and named the town of Chaska. Died at Culman, Ala., July 2, 1888.
Allan Morrison was a Canadian by birth, having been born June 3, 1803, and was a brother of William Morrison, an early explorer of Minnesota and one of the first white men to visit Lake Itasca. Allan Morrison located as a trader in northeastern Minnesota in 1821, and for more than thirty years was engaged in the Indian trade, successively at Sandy Lake, Leech Lake, Red Lake, Mille Lacs and Crow Wing (where he was the first settler), accom- panying the Indians when they were removed to the White Earth Reser- vation, where he died and was buried November 28, 1878. His wife was Charlotte Charbouillier, a mixed-blood Chippewa. The county of Morrison was named for him, and not for his brother William, as has often been stated.
The Seventh district was represented in the council by Martin McLeod, of Lac qui Parle; and in the house by Alexis Bailly, of Mendota, and Gideon H. Pond, of Oak Grove.
When the first Territorial legislature assembled, David Olmsted was elected president and Joseph R. Brown secretary of the council. In the house Joseph W. Furber was the speaker and W. D. Phillips clerk. The session opened with prayer by the Reverend E. D. Neil and Governor Ramsey deliv- ered his message to the two houses which had assembled in joint convention in the hotel dining room.
By the act of this legislature approved October 27, 1849, the territory was divided into nine counties: Washington, Ramsey, Benton, Itasca, Wa- bashaw, Dakotah, Wahnahta, Mahkahto and Pembina. What is now Stearns county was included in Dakotah and Wahnahta counties. Only the counties of Washington, Ramsey and Benton were fully organized for all county pur- poses. The others were created only for the purpose of the appointment of justices of the peace, constables, and such other judicial and ministerial officers as might be specially provided for. Each of these unorganized counties were entitled to "any number of justices of the peace and constables, not exceed- ing six in number, to be appointed by the governor, and their term of office was made two years unless sooner removed by the governor," and they were made conservators of the peace. Dakotah, Wahnahta and Mahkahto counties were attached to Ramsey county for judicial purposes. Ramsey county, with these counties attached, was constituted the first judicial district, and Hon. Aaron Goodrich was assigned as judge thereof. St. Paul was made the seat
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of justice of this district, and the term of the district court was appointed to be held there every year on the second Monday of April and the second Monday of September.
By act of November 1, 1849, a tax of one mill on the dollar was levied for the purpose of raising a territorial revenue. Among other provisions it was ordered that the property in Dakotah and Wahnahta (which would in- clude the present Stearns county) was to be assessed by a board of three in each county, appointed by the governor, and that these assessors were to re- port the results of their findings to the county commissioners of Ramsey county who would order the collector of Ramsey county to collect the tax.
Dakotah county, as erected by the act of October 27, 1849, embraced a strip of land bounded on the east by the Mississippi river and on the west by the Missouri river. Its northern boundary was a line due west from the mouth of the Clearwater river. Its southern boundary was a line drawn due west from the mouth of the St. Croix river. Thus that part of the present Stearns county that lies south of a line drawn due west from the mouth of the Clearwater river was in this original Dakotah county.
Wahnahta county, as erected by this act, was bounded on the east by the Mississippi and on the west by the Missouri. On the south it was bounded by a line drawn due west from the mouth of the Clearwater and on the north it was bounded by a line drawn due west from the mouth of the Crow Wing river. Thus that part of the present Stearns county that lies north of a line drawn due west from the mouth of the Clearwater was included in this original Wahnalta county.
The seat of justice of Benton county, which lay just across the river from what is now Stearns county, was much nearer than St. Paul, which was the seat of justice for what is now Stearns county. This act creating the counties provided that "the seat of justice of the county of Benton should be within one-quarter mile of a point on the east side of the Mississippi, di- rectly opposite the mouth of the Sauk river," in other words, at Sauk Rapids. Contrary to general belief, Stearns county was never a part of Benton county, though later it was attached to that county for judicial purposes. Orig- inally, however, as noted, it was attached to Ramsey county for judicial and taxation purposes.
No session of the legislature was held in 1850. For the session the follow- ing year the legislature assembled January 2 in a brick building on west Third street, which afterwards burned, the site being occupied by the present Metro- politan hotel. St. Paul was selected as the permanent seat of government and arrangements were made for the erection of a capitol building on a block of ground, afterwards known as "Capitol Square," which was donated to the government for that use by Charles Baziell.
The session assembled January 1 and adjourned March 31. The Sixth district was represented in the council by David Olmsted and William R. Sturges; in the house by David Gilman, S. B. Olmsted, W. W. Warren and D. T. Sloan. The Seventh district was represented in the council by Martin McLeod, of Lac qui Parle county, and in the house by Alexander Fari- bault, then of Mendota; and B. H. Randall, then of Fort Snelling.
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By the revised statutes passed at this session the territory was re-divided into nine counties: Benton, Dakota, Itasca, Cass, Pembina, Ramsey, Wash- ington, Chisago and Wabashaw. What is now Stearns county was included in Cass county.
The boundaries of Cass county (within which was included the territory afterwards erected into the county of Stearns) were defined as follows: "Be- ginning at the mouth of Crow river; thence up the Mississippi river to Itasca lake; thence on a direct line to Otter Tail lake; thence on a direct line to the source of Long Prairie river; thence south to the north boundary of Da- kota county; thence along said line to the place of beginning." This north boundary of Dakota county was the Crow river and the north branch thereof.
Cass county, together with the counties of Itasca, Wabasha, Dakota and Pembina, was declared to be "organized only for the purpose of the appoint- ment of justices of the peace, constables and such other judicial and minis- terial officers as may be specially provided for." Each of these counties was entitled to any number of justices of the peace, not exceeding six, and to the same number of constables, the said justices and constables to receive their appointment from the governor, their term of office to be for two years unless sooner removed by the governor.
Cass, Itasca and Pembina counties were attached to the county of Benton for judicial purposes.
An apportionment bill, based on the census of 1850, was passed by the legislature March 29, 1851, after a bitter personal discussion. The territory was divided into seven council districts, of which Benton and Cass counties constituted the Fifth. The apportionment was denounced as unfair in that Benton county, with 4,000 acres under cultivation, was given but one-half the representation given to Pembina county, where there were but seventy acres under cultivation, more than one-half of which belonged to one indi- vidual; and for the further reason that, excepting soldiers, at least seven- eighths of the population were Indians. Seven members of the legislature opposing the bill resigned their seats, among the number being David Gil- man, of Benton county.
The legislature of 1852 passed a prohibitory law and submitted it to the people of the territory, who adopted it by a vote of 853 for to 622 against. This law was declared to be unconstitutional by Judge Hayner on the ground that it was a violation of the constitution to submit a law to the vote of the people. After rendering his decision Judge Hayner resigned his office.
At this session of 1851 a memorial to Congress, adopted March 13, depicts very vividly the condition of affairs which then existed in this part of the new territory and how it was proposed to provide for the needs of the people in the enforcement of law and order. This memorial follows:
To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled : The Memorial of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Minnesota respectfully represents: That the county of Ben- ton is situated in the midst of an Indian country and is sparsely settled and peculiarly exposed to the incursions and depredations of the Indians, espe- ยท cially the Winnebagoes and Chippewas; that a large portion of said county
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HISTORY OF STEARNS COUNTY
is excellent farming lands, no portion of which was ever surveyed and made subject to pre-emption until within a few weeks past; that this circumstance, added to the frequent outbreaks and trespasses perpetrated on the inhabitants here, in the absence of a work house, jail or any other proper place of con- finement, rendered the administration of the laws comparatively inefficient, and deterred farmers and settlers from making their residence and fixing their homes in that otherwise desirable portion of our territory. The few who have settled in this county are altogether too few in number to afford each other mutual protection and too destitute of means at present for building a jail, court house and other necessary county buildings essential to an efficient execution of the laws in their midst Your memorialists would further state that the forty thousand dollars so generously placed at the disposal of the governor and legislature to erect public buildings has been by them ordered for these pur- poses to be expended in Ramsey and Washington counties, to-wit : at St. Paul and Stillwater, both at a great distance from the settlements of Benton, whither it would be very inconvenient and expensive to the county to transport each petty trespasser, even if it were proper to use a penitentiary for common jail purposes. Now therefore, in consideration of the premises and of the fact that a large portion of the land of said county is unappropriated by sale or settlement, your memorialists respectfully ask a donation of one township of land therein in behalf of said county, to be located by the county commission- ers and placed at their disposal to be by them applied to the speedy erection of county buildings. Your memorialists are the more urgent in their prayers as Benton is the only organized county in the territory which has not received a liberal portion of the public appropriation to Minnesota.
This appeal evidently fell on deaf ears, as Congress failed to make any grant either of lands or money to meet the necessities of Benton county, so urgently set forth in this memorial, and no public buildings were erected until they were built by individuals or by the county itself. The first was a log jail, a two-story structure, located at Sauk Rapids-the first story being for the incarceration of offenders and the second story for the use of the jailer and his family.
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