USA > Minnesota > Wabasha County > History of Wabasha County : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc. : gathered from matter furnished by interviews with old settlers, county, township, and other records, and extracts from files of papers, pamphlets, and such other sources > Part 19
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About daylight on the morning of Sunday, May 9, 1852, another large party, on their way to Rolling Stone, was landed on Wabasha prairie from the Dr. Franklin. Among these passengers were Robert Thorp and son, Robert Taylor, wife and three children, D. McRose, wife and three children, John Burns, wife and three children, James Gardner, wife and daughter, a young woman, and quite a number of others.
On account of the flood and insufficient means for transportation they were detained at Johnson's landing several days. They built a shelter on the bank of the river by piling up their boxes, forming a small inclosure which they covered with boards found near by.
One of the party, Robert Thorp, furnished the following inci- dent. He is yet a resident of the county; a hale and hearty old farmer, living in the town of Rolling Stone. He has preserved his certificate of membership and a copy of it has been procured to show the form of this relic of the association :
No. 37. This is to certify that Robert Thorp has paid his initiation fee and has been elected a member of the Western Farm and Village Association No. 1 of the city of New York. WILLIAM HADDOCK, President.
CHARLES E. WHEELER, Financial Secretary.
October 15, 1851.
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OTHER SETTLEMENTS.
These certificates are embellished with emblems of industry and civilization. But two of them have been preserved. The other is held by James Wright, of Minnesota City, to whom it was given. It is No. 15, and dated August 15, 1851.
When the association was first organized its members were mechanics of different occupations living in the city. Mr. Thorp was a blacksmith, and had worked at his trade in New York for about twenty years. He was born in England.
He left New York on April 15, 1852, with the members of the association who started at that date, taking with him his eldest son. John. The remainder of his family, consisting of his wife and three boys, Thomas, Robert and William, remained in the city abont a month before they joined him in Minnesota. All except the last are yet living.
Mr. Thorp brought with him his blacksmith tools and all things necessary to start a shop in the new colony, and also some house- hold goods. On account of delay in the transfer of his heavy freight at Dunkirk he was left behind his party. On reaching Chicago he shipped his own goods and the goods and baggage of William Christie, D. Jackson and others down the canal and Illinois river to St. Louis, taking passage over the same route.
At St. Louis Mr. Thorp bought his supplies in connection with Taylor, Burns, McRose and Gardiner, members of the association, , who were there on their way to the colony. They took passage to Galena, where they were transferred to the Dr. Franklin.
To his great surprise and sorrow Mr. Thorp learned that William Christie, who left him at Chicago and whose baggage was with his own freight, had died but a few hours before and was then lying in Johnson's shanty. Mr. Christie had arrived a few days previous on the Nominee and had been up to Rolling Stone. On Saturday he came down expecting to meet Mr. Thorp at the landing. On his way he forded the back slough, and without changing his wet cloth- ing lay down to rest, complaining of not feeling well. He was taken with what was supposed to be cholera, and died before morning.
Mr. Christie was a Scotchman-a large, strong and healthy young man when he landed here. He was highly respected by his acquaintances for his good qualities. He joined the association in New York city, where he was working at his trade as a machinist. For economy he, with others, walked from Cherry Valley to Galena
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HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
and came up the river as deck passengers. While at Rolling Stone he had been almost without shelter; the demand was much greater than the accommodation. Provisions of every kind were abundant and none suffered from want of sufficient food. The colonists were liberal in relieving each other when aid was required.
William Christie was buried on the Evans claim. His coffin was made by E. H. Johnson from the common unseasoned pine boards lying on the bank of the river. A short funeral service was held in the open air in front of the shanty by the Rev. Edward Ely. Mr. Thorp, with other members of the association, accompanied by the settlers and strangers on the prairie, followed the dead body to the grave and aided in depositing it in its last resting-place.
The occurrence was one long to be remembered. William Christie was comparatively a stranger. He had died suddenly, far away from the land of his birth and from his personal friends and relatives. His death was the first on Wabasha prairie, the first among the members of the association and the first among the settlers in the county. His funeral was the first, but before the summer was passed funerals were frequent both on Wabasha prairie and in the settlement at Rolling Stone. A young man by the name of Morgan, a stranger, died after a short sickness not long after Christie's death.
A fatal sickness attacked the families camped on the bank of the river. Robert Taylor lost two of his children here. He removed his sick wife to La Crosse, where she soon after died. Mr. McRose lost two children ; one of them died on the flatboat while on the way to Rolling Stone.
Mr. Thorp stopped at Johnson's landing for a few days until he could get transportation for his freight and supplies. He then went to Rolling Stone to prepare for the arrival of his family. For tem- porary accommodation, which could be the most readily provided, he built a "goplier" on the lot drawn by him before he left New York. This location was in the field a little above where the barn of James Kennedy now stands. This hut was an improvement on the ordinary structures of the kind. It was about 12×12. The basement, or part below the surface, was lined with a framework of logs. It was here that the family of Mr. Thorp began housekeeping in Minnesota.
In the morning of May 12th another large party of immigrants for the colony landed from the Caleb Cope at Johnson's landing.
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OTHER SETTLEMENTS.
Owing to unfavorable reports in circulation down the river relative to the condition of affairs, some left their families at Galena and came up to explore the country. Among these were James Wright, John Nicklin, David Duryce, James Brooks and many others. Some who landed with their families were compelled to put up temporary shelters on the bank of the river to protect themselves from the drizzling rain while waiting for transportation.
Although the day proved to be stormy, a large number of the men went directly to Rolling Stone. As there was insufficient shelter, a company of nine built a "gopher" for their immediate use. This was constructed by digging a hold about 8×12 and about eighteen inches deep, over which a cover was made. The body of this struc- ture was of small basswood logs, about eight feet long and about eight or ten inches in diameter. These logs were split and placed on end close together along the sides and one end of the hole in the ground, with the tops resting on a ridge-pole supported on posts with a crotch at the top. This framework was covered with coarse, dry grass and a layer of earth, over which was laid a covering of sod. The turf, by careful arrangement, made a roof that readily shed the rain of ordinary showers.
In this "gopher hole," on a floor of dry grass, the nine men of this company slept the first night of their arrival, and occupied it as their lodging-place for a week or two afterward. This "gopher" was built on the land now owned by James Wright, and where he now lives in Minnesota city. It was afterward used as a stopping- place for the family of Mr. Wright. The most of this party of explorers decided to continue in the colony. Some sent for their families, others went down the river to escort them up. Mr. Wright and Mr. Nicklin were among the latter.
Mr. Charles Bannon came up the river on the Caleb Cope. He was one of the directors of the association and one of its earliest members. He, with his wife, started from New York with the party that landed from the wood-boat at Rolling Stone. While on the way up the river he left the boat at Davenport and, in company with M. A. Allen, stopped to buy cattle. Mr. Bannon purchased three yoke of oxen and Mr. Allen two yoke, which they drove through the country to Dubuque, where they took passage with their stock. These oxen were designed for use as breaking-teams and for general farm work.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
FIRST SETTLEMENTS AT WINONA CITY.
To catch the drift from the colony above, Johnson offered the choice of an acre of his claim on Wabasha prairie to each of the disaffected ones who would stop there, build a house, and make it their residence for one year. At that time the claim had not been surveyed or divided into lots and streets. This offer was accepted by several and a number of locations selected.
Rev. E. Ely made choice of an acre south of Johnson's shanty, about where the Ely block now stands, on the corner of Center and Second streets. Jacob S. Denman selected an acre adjoining that of Mr. Ely's on the east ; Dr. Childs an acre on the south of Mr. Ely's ; E. B. Thomas on the south of Mr. Denman's and east from that of Dr. Childs'; John Evans selected an acre west of John- son's shanty ; John Burns, a member of the association and one of the party who camped on the bank of the river from the Dr. Frank- lin on the 9th of May, accepted the offer of an acre from Ed. Ham- ilton on his claim on the same conditions as the others. The acre chosen by him was in what is now the front yard of the residence of Hon. H. W. Lamberton, on the corner of Huff and Harriett streets.
Mr. Burns planted a small garden and set out a few small apple- trees, which he had brought up the river. Some of these trees afterward grew to be of considerable size. These were the first fruit-trees, or trees of any kind, planted on Wabasha prairie by the early settlers. These fruit-trees were planted in a trench near together, as in a nursery. When Mr. Huff took possession of the Hamilton claim he built a fence around the few trees that had escaped the ravages of the cattle, and after two or three years trans- planted them in his garden.
W. H. Stevens gave the use of his shanty on the Stevens claim to Mr. Denman until he could procure lumber and build a residence for his family. Mr. Denman found occupation for his team and plow by breaking the land selected for himself and others. They all made small gardens by way of occupancy and improve- ments. Mr. Denman enclosed his acre and that selected by Mr.
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Thomas with a temporary fence and planted the field with corn. This was his first attempt at farming in Minnesota. It was not a profitable enterprise. The fence that enclosed this corn-field was the first fence built on the prairie by the settlers. It was put up by George W. Clark and his brother Wayne Clark. Mr. Denman paid them for it by breaking four acres of land on Clark's claim across the slough.
Neither Mr. Thomas, Dr. Childs or Mr. Burns ever made any other improvements on the lots selected. They abandoned them and made locations elsewhere. Mr. Thomas and Mr. Burns held claims in the colony, but left the territory in the fall. Dr. Childs remained on the prairie for several years after.
Mr. Denman built a house on his acre of prairie as soon as he could procure lumber. Mr. Ely built one in the fall. During the summer his family lived in Johnson's shanty after they came up from La Crosse, where they staid for a short time. He paid John- son four dollars per month rent for the use of the "Hotel."
The house built by Mr. Denman stood on Lafayette street, be- tween Second and Third streets. This.was the first house built by the settlers on Wabasha prairie, not expressly designed as a "claim shanty." It was a balloon frame building of considerable preten- sions for that date of improvements, about 16×32, one story high, the sides boarded "up and down" with rough boards and the cracks battened. The roof was of boards, and because of its pecu- liar construction the building was given the name of " car-house," from its fancied resemblance to a railroad car. The doors and win- dows were furnished with frames and casings-the first improve- ments of the kind. The floor was of dressed lumber, a luxury heretofore unknown. This building was divided into rooms by board partitions, and parts of it ceiled with dressed Inmber.
Mr. Denman occupied this house as his residence until fall, when he moved on his claim. About the first of July he opened a . store in the front room of this building. He brought up from Galena a small stock of goods suitable for the market, and here started the first store on Wabasha prairie for the sale of goods to the settlers. Jacob S. Denman was the first merchant to establish himself in business in what is now the city of Winona.
It was in the "car house " that the first white child was born within the limits of this city. While living here the family of Mrs. Denman was increased by the addition of a daughter on the 18th of
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HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
July, 1852. Mrs. Goddard, after consultation with Mrs. Ely, gave to this first native settler the name of " Prairie Louise Denman," the name by which she was afterward known. She has been dead many years. The oldest native settler, born in the city of Winona, who is now living, is Mason Ely, the second son of Rev. Edward Ely, born in 1853.
The primary object of all of the early settlers was to secure land for farming purposes on which to locate a future home. About the first thing done was to "make a claim." Mr. Denman began prospecting as soon as he landed, and on the 9th of May discovered and formally made a claim on the upper prairie. He and his mother there held 320 acres. The high water flooded the bottom lands, and their claims covered all of the land not overflowed, lying east from the Rolling Stone creek, to about where the highway now crosses the railroads, and extended south far enough to include the table next to the bluffs. It was on this table that he blazed the trees and inscribed his name as proprietor of the claim. It was on this table that he built a very comfortable log house, made other improvements, and moved his family there in September. The land selected by Mr. Denman had been previously claimed by Had- dock and Murphy for the Western Farm and Village Association. Mr. Denman was duly notified that he was trespassing on grounds claimed for the colony, but he persisted in holding it and making improvements, without regard to the protestations of the members of the association.
This was the first collision of a settler with that organization. The first person to encroach on the territory claimed was an ex- member. To get Denman off, the colonists tried "moral, legal and physical suasion, but he tenaciously adhered." He lived in this log cabin under the bluffs for about three years, until he built a more modern house and large barns near the center of his farm. This claim, or, more properly, the claims of Denman and his mother, are now known as the Denman farm. It is at present owned and occu- pied by Mr. George Fifield.
Mr. Denman sacrificed this large farm, which he had secured by honest industry and years of hard labor,. in his mistaken zealons efforts to aid the "Grange movement" for cheaper freights, cheaper supplies and cheaper agricultural implements. He removed to Texas, but his good luck at farming failed him there. It is said that Mr. Denman is now a poor man, and in his old age again a pioneer,
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FIRST SETTLEMENTS AT WINONA CITY.
looking for "a home in the west" in one of the territories. None of his family are now living in this county.
Dr. George F. Childs, with his wife and niece, lived for a short time in Johnson's shanty. While there his niece was taken with the measles and died after a few days' sickness. The remains were taken to La Crosse for burial.
About the middle of May Dr. Childs bought the east half of the claim made by Jabez McDermott. He paid McDermott eighty dol- lars for a quit-claim deed and possession of the eighty acres. This was the first claim sale on Wabasha prairie. Whether this deed was ever made a matter of record is now very uncertain, as at that time there was no county organization in Wabasha county, of which Winona county was a part. All matters of record were filed in Washington county, with which Wabasha was connected for all judicial purposes. Possession of land was then more important than title-deeds. The land still belonged to government and no surveys had been made.
The machine-shops and surrounding buildings of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, the Winona wagon-works and the Winona plow-works are on what was once the McDermott claim. This locality was a favorite camping-place of Wabasha's band. When Dr. Childs took possession there were about half-a-dozen of their large bark cabins, or tepees, yet standing, but in a somewhat dilapidated condition, the settlers having taken material from them for use in other localities. In the vicinity of the machine-shops was an old Indian burying-place. The graves were scattered over tliat locality ; very many were exposed and destroyed in the excavations made. Relics of the past-stone hatchets, flint arrowheads and pipes of red pipestone-were found. Sometimes fragments of bones or a tolerably well preserved skeleton would be unearthed and used to help form a railroad embankment in some other locality.
Indian graves have been found in several places on Wabasha prairie and in the mouths of the valleys. Quite a number were exposed by the caving of the river bank on the lower part of the prairie. Two modern Indian graves were on Johnson's claim when the whites first took possession of the prairie. They were left undis- turbed for several years. The covering of sticks which were placed over them by the natives marked their location until the ground was plowed by Johnson in the spring of 1855. These graves were on lot 2, block 17. When it was improved and buildings were erected,
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HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
the bones buried there were thrown out in excavating a cellar and taken possession of by Dr. Franklin Staples. These bones were the remains of young persons and were very much decayed. It has been stated that some of Wabasha's children were buried in these graves, but there is no evidence confirming this statement. Wa- basha's special home was in the mouth of Burns valley.
The Indian village located on the McDermott claim, a part of which was purchased by Dr. Childs, was said to be the grand gathering-place of the Mdaywakantonwan division of Sioux. It was in this.vicinity that Wabasha's bands met for their amusements, sports and games, as well as more serious and important affairs. From this village the Indian trails diverged as from a common cen- ter, some leading to the valleys, others up and down the bank of the river. The wild grass, common on every other part of the prairie, had almost entirely disappeared around this village or sum- mer resort, and had been replaced by a fine turf of blue-grass found in no other place except along the bank of the river on the lower part of the prairie, where Mrs. Keyes now lives.
Mr. George W. Clark says "That on McDermott's claim there was a large flat stone, the center of a large circle of smooth, level ground, with well defined boundaries, plainly to be seen in 1851. This stone was taken away by some of the early settlers."
Dr. Childs lived during the summer of 1852 in the little cabin with a bark roof which McDermott occupied as his claim shanty. He built a comfortable cottage near by it, in which he lived for sev- eral years. The logs and poles of the Sioux tepees were used in the construction of sheds and as posts for his fences. The bark covering of the huts was carefully gathered and used as firewood for his kit- chen stove.
It was the custom of Dr. Childs to date all of his correspondence and business papers from his residence on this claim, to which he gave the name of "Ozelle cottage." This name was derived from the one given by the old French voyageurs to Wabasha prairie. Ozelle was but the French pronunciation of Aix Aile anglicized by Dr. Childs in writing.
When Dr. Childs left New York he supposed that he would find the Indians occupying this part of the territory, and brought along an assortment of goods for the purpose of bartering with them, but found that the Sioux had forsaken their homes in this locality. He
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FIRST SETTLEMENTS AT WINONA CITY.
after a time traded his Indian goods with the Winnebagoes for dressed deerskins and got rid of his goods without loss.
Dr. Childs was a botanic physician, but never practiced his pro- fession in this vicinity, or only to a very limited extent. He engaged in mercantile business for a year or two after he sold his land. He moved to Minneiska, Wabasha county, where he lived for awhile. Dr. G. F. Childs is now a resident of the State of Maryland, where he has charge of a benevolent institution, a home for aged people.
Among the passengers who landed at Johnson's landing from the steamer Caleb Cope on May 12, 1852, were Abner S. Goddard, wife and three children, from La Crosse. They arrived at about four o'clock on a dark and rainy morning, and went directly from the landing to the shanty on the Stevens claim, in accordance with a previous arrangement made with Silas Stevens. On reaching the shanty they were surprised to find the table, benches and other fur- niture of the cabin, which they supposed to be occupied, irregularly piled outside. When the inmates were aroused they discovered that the furniture had been removed to afford sleeping quarters for the occupants. William H. Stevens and a young man living with him held one corner, while the family of Mr. Denman, seven in number, were in possession of the remainder of the little 10×12 shanty, not occupied by the cook-stove. To accommodate the new- comers, the future occupants of the cabin, Mr. Denman provided for his family by making a shelter for them with the lumber he had laid up loosely to dry for use in the house he was then building. While living in this manner the loose boards were blown from over their heads during a severe thunderstorm one night when they were all in bed. They were compelled to seek shelter in Johnson's shanty, but again occupied their lumber piles in the morning and continued to do so until their house was finished.
During the previous winter Mr. Goddard had been living in La Crosse. He there taught the village school-the first school ever taught in La Crosse, the first school ever taught on the Mississippi river between Prairie du Chien and St. Paul, if the Indian mission schools at Red Wing and Kaposia are excepted. His schoolroom was in the court-house, which was built during the fall and fore part of the same winter. To add to their income and to accommodate some personal friends, Mrs. Goddard opened a boarding-house. " Aunt Catharine's " table was then, as it is now, always full, with- out soliciting patronage. Silas Stevens became a boarder and made
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it his home with them while in La Crosse. After the attempt of Mr. Gere to jump the Stevens claim Mr. Stevens offered to furnish Mr. Goddard a shanty of sufficient capacity to keep a boarding-house on Wabasha prairie if he would go up and live on his claim, and also promised him an acre of the claim on which to build a house if he would continue to reside there. Others; then living in La Crosse, who had made claims, urged him to accept Mr. Stevens' proposition. As Mr. Goddard had been up to the prairie witli a party of claim- hunters early in the spring, and had been solicited by, the settlers in that locality to come up, he was the more readily induced to change his residence.
Immigrants were landed from every boat, and the little shanty was crowded with hungry guests as soon as their arrival was known. Meals were provided for all that came, but they were required to look out for their own lodging-places. The beds of their guests were sometimes the soft sands of the prairie, the bed clothing their ordi- nary wearing apparel with the addition of a blanket.
Three or four days after the arrival of Mr. Goddard, another shanty was put up by Mr. Stevens to meet the increasing business and the demand for better accommodations. This shanty was a one- story building about 16×32. To increase its capacity an awning of canvas was stretched from one side, which served as a shelter for the cooking department. The two rooms were subdivided by can- vas partitions. It was customary, however, for guests who lodged there to blow out the candle and go to bed in the dark. This was a rule of the house.
This shanty stood about where the "Davenport house" now stands, not far from the corner of Third and Kansas streets. The original shanty on the Stevens claim was torn down, and the material used in the construction of this second one.
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