USA > Minnesota > Washington County > History of Washington County and the St. Croix Valley, including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota > Part 30
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August, treaty concluded with the Sioux at Mankato.
September 19th, the Minnesotian, of St. Paul, edited by J. P. Owens, appeared.
November, Jerome Fuller, chief justice in place of Aaron Goodrich arrives.
December 18th, Thanksgiving day.
Smithsonian Institution publish Dakota Gram- mar and Lexicon.
1852. Hennepin county created.
February 14th, Dr. Rae, Arctic explorer, arrives at St. Paul with dog-train.
May 14th, land-slide at Stillwater.
August, Jas. M. Goodhue, Pioneer editor, dies.
November, Yuhazee, an Indian, convicted of murder.
1853. April 27th, Chippeways and Sioux fight in streets of St. Paul. Governor Willis A. Gor- man succeeds Governor Ramsey.
October, Henry M. Rice elected delegate to congress. The capitol building completed.
1854. March 3d, Presbyterian mission-house near Lac-qui-Parle burned.
June 8th, great excursion from Chicago to St. Paul and St. Anthony Falls.
December 27th, Yuhazee, the Indian, hung at St. Paul.
1855. January, first bridge over Mississippi completed at Falls of St. Anthony.
Church erected near Yellow Medicine. Indi- ans contribute two-thirds of its cost.
October, H. M. Rice re-elected to congress.
December 12th, James Stewart arrives in St. Paul, direct from Arctic regions, with relics of Sir John Franklin.
1856. Erection of State University building was begun.
1857. Congress passes an act authorizing peo- ple of Minnesota to vote for a constitution.
March, Inkpadootah slaughters settlers in South-west Minnesota.
Governor Samuel Medary succeeds Governor W. A. Gorman.
March 5th, land-grant by congress for rail- ways.
April 27th, special session of the legislature convenes.
July. On second Monday, convention to form a constitution assembles at Capitol.
October 13th, election for state officers, and ratifying of the constitution.
H. H. Sibley first governor under the state con- stitution.
W. W. Kingsbury elected delegate to Congress. December. On first Wednesday, first legisla- ture assembles.
December. Henry M. Rice and James Shields elected United States senators.
1858. April 15th, people approve act of legis- lature loaning the public credit for five millions of dollars to certain railway companies.
May 11th, Minnesota becomes one of the United States of America.
June 2d, adjourned meeting of legislature held.
175
CHRONOLOGY.
W. W. Phelps representative in congress.
Jas. M. Kavenaugh representative in congress.
November. Supreme court of State orders Governor Sibley to issue railroad bonds.
December. Governor Sibley declares the bonds a failure.
1859. Normal school law passed.
June. Burbank and Company place the first steamboat on Red River of the North.
August. Bishop T. L. Grace arrived at St. Paul.
October 11th, state election, Alexander Ramsey chosen governor.
William .W. Windom elected representative to congress.
Cyrus Aldrich elected representative to con- gress.
December, Morton S. Wilkinson elected United States senator.
1860. March 23d, Anna Bilanski hung at St. Paul for the murder of her husband, the first white person executed in Minnesota.
August 9th, telegraph line completed to St. Paul.
August 20th, J. B. Faribault died, aged eighty- seven.
1861. April 14th, Gov. Ramsey calls upon the president in Washington and offers a regiment of volunteers.
June 21st, First Minnesota Regiment, Col. W. A. Gorman leaves for Washington.
June 28th, first railway completed from St. Paul to St. Anthony.
July 21st, First Minnesota in battle of Bull Run.
October 13th, Second Minnesota Infantry; Col. H. P. Van Cleve leaves Fort Snelling.
November 16th, Third Minnesota Infantry, H. C. Lester go to seat of war.
Alexander Ramsey re-elected Governor.
William Windom re-elected to congress.
Ignatius Donnelly representative in congress. 1862. January 19th, Second Minnesota in bat- tle at Mill Spring, Kentucky.
April 6th, First Minnesota Battery, Captain Munch, at Pittsburgh Landing.
April 21st, Second Minnesota Battery, goes to seat of war.
April 21st, Fourth Minnesota Infantry Volun- teers, Col. J. B. Sanborn leaves Fort Snelling.
May 13th, Fifth Regiment Volunteers Col. Borgesrode leaves for the seat of war.
May 28th, Second, Fourth and Fifth in battle near Corinth, Mississippi.
May 31st, First Minnesota in battle at Fair Oaks, Virginia.
June 29th, First Minnesota in battle at Savage Station.
June 30th, First Minnesota in battle near Wil- lis' church.
July 1st, First Minnesota in battle at Malvern Hill.
August, Sixth Regiment Col. Crooks organized. August, Seventh Regiment, Col. Miller organ- ized.
August, Eighth Regiment Col. Thomas organ- ized.
August, Ninth Regiment, Col. Wilkin organ- ized.
August 18th, Sioux attack whites at Lower Sioux Agency.
Amos W. Huggins killed by Sioux.
James W. Lynd killed by Sioux.
Philander Prescott killed by Sioux.
September 2d, battle of Birch Coolie.
September 23d, Col. Sibley defeats Sioux at Wood Lake.
December 26th, Thirty-eight Sioux executed on the same scaffold at Mankato.
1863. January, Alexander Ramsey elected United States senator.
Henry A. Swift, governor for an unexpired term.
May 14th, Fourth and Fifth Regiment in battle near Jackson, Mississippi.
July 2d, First Minnesota Infantry in battle at Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania.
July 3d, Tah-o-yah-tay-doo-tah or Little Crow killed near Hutchinson.
September 19th, Second Minnesota Infantry en- gaged at Chickamauga, Tennessee.
November 23d, Second Minnesota Infantry en- gaged at Mission Ridge.
William Windom elected to Congress.
Ignatius Donnelly elected to Congress.
1864. January, Col. Stephen Miller inaugu- rated Governor of Minnesota.
March 30th, Third Minnesota Infantry engaged at Fitzhugh's Woods.
June 6th, Fifth Minnesota Infantry engaged at Lake Chicot, Arkansas.
176
CHRONOLOGY.
July 13th, Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth, with portion of Fifth Minnesota Infantry engaged at Tupelo, Mississippi.
July 14th, Colonel Alex. Wilkin, of the Ninth, killed.
October 15th, Fourth Regiment engaged near Altoona, Georgia.
December 7th, Eighth Regiment engaged near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Fifth, Seventh, Ninth and Tenth Regiments at Nashville, Tennessee.
Railway reaches Elk River.
1865. January 10th, Daniel S. Norton elected United States senator.
April 9th, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth and Tenth at the siege of Mobile.
November 10th, Shakpedan, Sioux chief, and Medicine Bottle, executed at Fort Snelling.
William Windom re-elected to congress.
Ignatius Donnelly re-elected to congress.
1866. January 8th, Colonel William R. Mar- shall inaugurated governor of Minnesota.
Railway reaches St. Cloud.
1867. Preparatory department of the State. University opened.
. Railway reaches Wayzata.
1868. January, Governor Marshall enters upon second term.
January 1st, Minnesota State Reform school opened for inmates.
June 27th, "Hole-in-the-day," the second Chippeway chief of that name, shot by relatives, near Crow Wing.
M. S. Wilkinson elected to congress.
Eugene M. Wilson elected to congress.
1869. Bill passed by legislature, removing seat of government to a spot near Big Kandiyohi Lake vetoed by Governor Marshall.
Alexander Ramsey re-elected United States senator. Railway completed to Willmar.
M. H. Dunnell elected to congress.
J. T. Averill elected to congress.
1870. January 7th, IIorace Austin inaugurated as governor. Railway to Benson completed.
August, railway completed from St. Paul to Duluth.
1871. January, Wm. Windom elected United States senator.
In the fall destructive fires, occasioned by high winds, swept over frontier counties.
October, railway reached Red River of the North at Breckenridge.
Hon. George L. Becker, president of the rail- road, gives invitations to the old settlers to an excursion to the Red River.
1872. January, Governor Austin enters upon a second term.
1873. January 7th, 8th and 9th, polar wave sweeps over the state, seventy persons perishing.
May 22d, the senate of Minnesota convicts state treasurer of corruption in office.
September, grasshopper raid began and con- tinued five seasons.
Jay Cooke failure occasions a financial panic.
1874. January 9th, Cushman K. Davis in- augurated governor.
William S. King elected to congress.
1875. February 19th, S. J. R. McMillan elected United States senator.
November, amendment to state constitution, allowing any woman twenty-one years of age to vote for school officers, and to be eligible for school offices.
Rocky Mountain locusts destroy crops in south- western Minnesota.
1876. January 7th, John S. Pillsbury inaugur- ated governor.
January 12th, State Forestry association or- ganized.
September 6th, outlaws from Missouri kill the cashier of the Northfield Bank.
1879. November, state constitution amended, forbidding public moneys to be used for the sup- port of schools wherein the distinctive creeds or tracts of any particular Christian or other relig- ous sect are taught.
J. H. Stewart, M. D., elected to congress.
Biennial sessions of the legislature adopted.
1878. January, Governor Pillsbury enters upon a second term.
May 2d, explosion in the Washburn and other flour mills at Minneapolis.
One hundred and fifty thousand dollars appro- priated to purchase seed grain for destitute set- tlers.
1880. November 15th, a portion of the Insane Asylum at St. Peter was destroyed by fire and twenty-seven inmates lost their lives.
1881. March Ist, Capitol at St. Paul destroyed by fire.
HISTORY
OF THE
SAINT CROIX VALLEY.
CHAPTER XXXII.
LEGEND OF THE ST. CROIX-DU LUTH FIRST EXPLORER-HENNEPIN'S DESCRIPTION -- IN- DIANS FIGHT AT FALLS OF ST. CROIX-EARLY TRADERS, PORLIER AND REAUME-SCHOOL- CRAFT'S EXPLORATIONS - POKEGUMA MIS- SION.
The river and Lake St. Croix, which Le Sueur, as has been narrated in a former chapter, says was called after a Frenchman of that name, was always called by the Sioux, Hogan-wahnkay- kin, (the place where the fish lies.) Their le- gend as to the origin of the name is that two Dahkotah hunters were descending the river after a long hunt. After several days of fasting one said " are you not hungry?" "Yes," was the re- ply of the other, "but what have we for food?" At night the one who opened the conversation, killed a sand hill crane, and preparing it for sup- per invited the other to partake. The comrade answered "If cranes did not wade I could eat. I am not afraid of water, but may not eat flesh which has touched water." His friend astonished asked, "How can that be?" But he persisted in refusal, saying "Hold your peace and eat alone. I am hungry as well as you, but may not eat."
The journey was continued, when the first es- pied the tracks of a supposed raccoon on the snow, and they followed it to a hollow tree and the comrade was pleased at the thought of finding flesh which had not touched water. He first kindled a fire, while his comrade ascended the tree, and looking into the hollow he was disap- pointed in finding it a fish, and told the first, "If you will not urge me to eat, I will throw down the fish, which is a pike."
12
The pike was thrown to the ground and roasted by the first, and his comrade could no longer re- sist the craving for food, and agreed to eat, on condition that the first would bring water from the lake, on the shore of which they were, to sa- tiate his thirst. After the meal was over, the comrade began to ask for water. It was brought again and again. After he had been supplied hundreds of times, still he asked for more, when the first, worn out with fatigue, told his comrade to lie down by the water of the lake and drink. The comrade answered, " You urged me to eat, but now you weary in giving me drink. If you had continued one day you would have saved me. You will soon tremble with fear." After this speech he lay down by the waters of the lake and drank. Gradually he was transformed into a large fish, and stretched himself across the lake. This, tradition says, is the origin of " Pike Bar," which stretches across the middle of the lake.
Upon page 112, will be found the description of Du Luth, who was the first explorer. Hennepin, who afterwards met Du Luth on the Mississippi, writes: "Forty leagues above, is a river full of rapids, by which striking northwest, you can reach Lake Conde [Superior], that is as far as Nimmissakouat [Brule], river, which empties into the lake. This first river is called Tomb river, because the Issati [Knife lake Sioux], left there the body of one of their warriors, killed by a rat- tlesnake. According to their custom, I put a blanket on the grave, which act of humanity gained me much importance by the gratitude dis- played by the countrymen of the departed, in a great feast, which they gave me in their country, and to which more than a hundred Indians were invited."
(177)
178
HISTORY OF THE SAINT CROIX VALLEY.
The Sioux have a tradition that a tribe called Onk-to-kah-dan lived just above Lake St. Croix, and were exterminated before white men ex- plored the country.
Very near the period that France ceded Can- ada to Great Britain, the last conflict of the Foxes and Ojibways took place at the Falls of St. Croix. Waubojeeg, or White Fisher, who died at La Pointe, in 1793, when he was in the prime of life, sent his war club and wampum to collect a party to go against the Foxes and their allies the Sioux.
The Ojibways who had but recently driven the Sioux from Sandy Lake, sent word that they would unite with him at the confluence of the Snake and St. Croix rivers. Wauhojeeg with three hundred warriers reached that point, and the Sandy lake party not having arrived, he did not wait, but continued down the St. Croix. Early one morning he reached the Falls of St. Croix, and while some of his warriers were pre- paring to take their bark canoes around the port- age, scouts were sent in advance to reconnoitre. They soon returned with the information that they had discovered a large party of Foxes and Sioux. The Ojibways instantly prepared for the conflict, and the Foxes requested the Sioux to sit still and watch them defeat the foe. The fight now commenced in earnest, and about noon the Foxes began to yield, and at last fled in confusion. They would have been driven into the river, if the Sioux had not come to their relief. The Ojibways bravely resisted the attack of the allies, but their ammunition being exhausted, they in turn were forced to retreat, and they would have been exterminated had not at this juncture the band from Sandy lake arrived. Eager for the fight this last party withstood the onset of the Foxes and Sioux, and at last drove them from the field. Many to escape sprang into the roaring wa- ters, and in the crevices of the rocks some of the wounded crept, and died. From this time the Foxes ceased to appear in large bodies in this region.
A French post was established fifty leagues from the Mississippi, on the upper St. Croix, on the Wisconsin side of the river, but on a map prepared in 1762, by Jefferys, geographer to the king of England, it is marked as destroyed.
During the latter part of the last century,
James J. Porlier, sometimes written Perlier; traded with the Indians of the St. Croix valley. He was a native of Montreal, and in 1793 was employed by Pierre Grignon, of Green Bay, to take goods to this region, and here he married the daughter of an Indian woman who had been abandoned by a French trader. His associate was a broken-down merchant of Montreal, quite pompous and eccentric, by the name of Charles Reaume. One day, it is stated, that he asked Por- lier, and some other traders, to dine with him. The company arrived, and the venison was cooked, when Amable Chevalier, a half breed, told Reaume that there were not plates enough on the table, because there were none for him. "There are," said Reaume sternly, when Chevalier without a word, tore a red cap from Reaume's head, and placing it upon the table, without cere- mony, filled it with hashed venison. Reaume in indignation, threw some hash into the half-breed's face, and the whole room was in an uproar. Reaume afterward lived at Green Bay, as justice of the peace, and in the eighth volume of the Wisconsin Historical Collections is the following certificate signed by him: "I certify that I have baptized a child of Mr. Grignon, named Bernard, at Green Bay, the 22d of June, 1806. Born the 12th of June, at 9 o'clock, A. M."
About seventy years ago, the South West Com- pany had a trading post on the upper St. Croix. In 1825, the Indian agent at Fort Snelling licensed a trader of the Columbia Fur Company, to trade at the Falls of St. Croix, and the post was desig- nated as Fort Barbour, but in 1831, the only licensed trader above the falls, on the Minnesota side, was Thomas Connor, an energetic Irishman whose trading post was at Lake Pokeguma on Snake river.
The first American explorer of the St. Croix river, was Henry R. Schoolcraft, and among bis companions was the Rev. W. T. Boutwell. On the 16th of July, 1832, about three o'clock in the afternoon he entered the lake from the Missis- sippi. As evening approached he met a Mr. B- descending in charge of four canoes and several Frenchmen and Indians, and as there was reason to suppose that he had been selling whisky to the Indians, his license to trade was revoked. At eight o'clock of the evening of the next day he encamped at the Falls of St. Croix
179
EARLY MISSIONARIES.
On the 30th he reached Snake river, and had an interview with the Chippeway tribe called Pez- hikee, or Buffalo. Indians at that point num- bered about three hundred, and the half-breeds, thirty-eight. By eight o'clock of the morning of the next day, he was at the mouth of Yellow river, and at two o'clock in the afternoon, reached the Namakagun fork of the St. Croix, where the Ojibway Chief Kabamappa and his band received him with a salute. On the evening of the second of August, he reached the lake which is the source of the river, and then made a portage to Splashing Brule or Misakoda river, by which he descended to Lake Superior.
In the fall of 1825 the Ojibways of Pokeguma were visited by Mr. Frederick Ayer. He was born October 11th, 1803, at Stockbridge, Massa- chusetts, and in June, 1829, became a teacher and catechist in the Mackinaw mission, and in 1831 went to La Pointe, and moved from thence in September, 1833, to Yellow Lake, in northwest Wisconsin, where with his wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Taylor, a native of Heath, Massachusetts, he established a mission school among the Indians. As the point did not prove favorable, he came to Pokeguma, to make ar- rangements for removal there. He soon brought to the lake his wife and two assistants, John L. Seymour as teacher and mechanic, and Sabrina Stevens.
By the close of the year 1836, four Ojibways had been induced to clear small farms, and settle near the station.
In the spring of 1837 the Rev. Sherman Hall, missionary at La Pointe, passed a week at Lake Pokeguma and organized a church, consisting of the missionary's family, Henry Blatchford a mixed blood from Mackinaw, a chief of the band, and some others.
On the 4th of October, 1837, Mr. Ayer wrote: "We have assisted in putting up a log house for the chief, who is a member of the church, and are now about completing two more. * *
* *
*
* The Indian must have some- thing tangible, something that he can see and feel to induce him to let go his hold on long cher- ished habits."
During the summer of 1839, as the Ojibways had abandoned Fon du Lac, Edmund F. Ely, teacher and catechist, and his wife, were trans-
ferred to the Pokeguma mission. Mr. Ely was a native of North Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and at the age of twenty-four, on the 19th of Septem- ber, 1833, became a missionary teacher at Ait- kin's trading post, on the shores of Sandy lake. In August, 1834, he went to Fon du Lac, and on the 30th of August, 1835, he married at La Pointe, Catherine Bissell, who was born at Sault St. Marie.
Rev. W. T. Boutwell, who had been for several years a missionary at Leech lake, on the 4th of January, 1841, with two men, left La Pointe for Pokeguma. The snow upon the ground was over two feet in depth, and placing blankets, axes and provisions on a dog train, the journey was per- formed on snow shoes, and occupied nearly ten days. Mr. Boutwell, upon his arrival, was very much surprised to find the highest chief and many others of the band cutting wood with axes. Mr. Ayer had persuaded them to work by offer- ing them a bushel of potatoes, or an equivalent in coin, for each cord of wood cut, and thus had suppressed the habit of begging. Mr. Boutwell wrote on the 8th of February, after his return to La Pointe : "I administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to twelve. "Five of the num- ber were natives of Pokeguma. The ordinance of baptism was administered to three children. Two were admitted to the church on profession of their faith, one of them a young man from Ohio, who had wandered into the forest to engage in lumbering."
Jeremiah Russell, a pioneer, in 1837, in open- ing the pine forests of the Saint Croix valley, was in 1840 appointed by the United States govern- ment, to oversee the farms for the Pokeguma band, and he cheerfully co-operated with the mis- sionaries.
Mr. Ayer wrote in April of this year: "During the past winter Indians from among the heathen portion of the tribe have chopped for us, about one hundred cords of wood and boarded themselves. Chief and subject, men, women and children of all ages from twenty to seventy, have come and solicited work. Some who were once so lazy that they preferred going hungry to working, have the last winter here chopped from four to six and eight cords of wood. Two or three, one of them a man of seventy or more, have cut most of the timber for their houses alone.
180
HISTORY OF THE SAINT CROIX VALLEY.
"In connection with Mr. Russell we have helped them draw their timber, and put up the body of the buildings. Three others are erecting houses, and another completing a house begun two years ago. One of the last mentioned is a chief, as is the old man. They visited Washing- ton during Mr. Adams' administration. * * * Mr. Russell takes a lively interest in the settling of the Indians, and has to some extent assisted thus far, all, with one exception, who have re- cently begun to build. He is also preparing to aid the Indians efficiently. in agriculture this spring. He will assist exclusively the heathen Indians. We think it expedient, on the whole, that the praying Indians should depend on us for aid, since the heathen party seeks every possible occasion to speak evil of them, and accuse the farmer and blacksmith of partiality toward them. On this account, I presume, they prefer digging up their fields with the hoe, to soliciting or receiv- ing aid from the Indian farmer. They are de- signing to cultivate much larger fields than here- tofore. The lumber company will purchase at a very fair price all the surplus produce of the set- tled Indians."
In May, 1841, the Sioux attacked the Ojibways at Pokeguma, and this conflict, the particulars of which are given on page 110, was a death-blow to the mission at that point.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
TOPOGRAPHY-RESERVOIRS UNUSED WATER- POWER - RAPIDS -DALLES-POT-HOLES - A TRIP DOWN THE ST. CROIX-THE ST. CROIX VALLEY.
No strictly classic grounds exist in the north- west. By the aid of the imagination, poets and novelists have been able to formulate from the beautiful legends of Indians, sketches and poems that rank among American classics, but the country is new to literature and not rich in works of art. It bears the impress still of its savage occupancy in every state, county, town,
city and village; further, as we sit or walk on the streets of any town we see frequently the coarse black hair, high cheek bones and copper-colored- skin of the full-blood Indian, and still more fre- quently meet the half-breeds, that resulted from the legal marriages, and illicit habits of the early French voyageurs, many of whom still remain as settlers now occupying the land, while others have passed away, or followed the direction of their reckless habits into new fields, where their semi-barbarism could have free scope.
If any portion of the north-west above Prairie du Chien, and west of Green Bay, is old and rich in reminiscences, it is the St. Croix Valley, as evidence of which, we instance the facts and in- cidents that follow in this volume.
What, however, may be lacking in man's work, is amply atoned for by the prodigal hand of Na- ture, that has here lavished a wealth of towering rock, noble forests and a magnificent stream, with picturesque rapids and water-falls in the main channel and on its tributaries, that affords scenery rarely equalled in America. Here, too, Nature has set to work her cunning workmen that with slow but unerring stroke have hewed out monuments of her power, and excavated caves and wells, that show what lies within the range of her infinite possibilities, though in the limited view of man, outside the bounds of utility.
By the casual observer it would be supposed that, starting with the Upper St. Croix lake as the head waters of the river, the valley proper would begin, extending on each side of the river, in- cluding all the basin from which tributary streams flow. The trend of the surface and more espe- cially the dip of the rocks show, however, a par- adoxical condition, for the St. Croix river takes its rise within limits naturally drained by the St. Lawrence system and the slope of the surface is for the Upper St. Croix mostly north-westward; while at the same time the inclination and dis- charge of the valley is toward the south-west and south. In the upper portion, the direction is south-westward and in the lower directly south. The common distinction of the Upper and Lower St. Croix, though usually indefinite, may, there- fore, properly be determined as follows; the Up- per St. Croix is that portion whose surface and rocks trend toward Lake Superior and the Lower
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