History of Wright County, Minnesota, Part 10

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. cn
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : H.C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 738

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The convention that framed the constitution of Wisconsin in 1847-48 strongly desired the Rum river as their western bound- ary. After accepting the boundary chosen by congress the con- vention recommended a line which, if agreeable to congress, should replace the one in the enabling act. The proposed bound- ary, which was rejected, was described as follows: Leaving the aforesaid boundary line at the first rapids of the St. Louis river, thence in a direct line, bearing southwestwardly to the mouth of the Iskodewabo or Rum river, where the same empties into the Mississippi river (at Anoka) thence down the main channel of the said Mississippi river to the aforesaid boundary. (Charters and Constitutions of the United States, Part II, page 2030.)

Minnesota Territory. The events which led up to the estab- lishing of Minnesota as a territory can be given but brief mention here. Sufficient is it to say that for three years after the admis- sion of Iowa (in 1846) the area that is now Minnesota, west of the Mississippi, was practically a no-man's land. December 18, 1846, Morgan L. Martin, delegate from Wisconsin territory, gave notice to the house of representatives that "at an early day" he would ask leave to introduce a bill establishing the territorial government of Minnesota. The name, which is the Indian term

HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY

for what was then the river St. Peter (Pierre) and has now become its official designation, was, it is believed, applied to the proposed territory at the suggestion of Joseph R. Brown. During its consideration by congress the bill underwent various changes. As reported baek to the house, the name "Minnesota" had been changed by Stephen A. Douglas to "Itasea." Mr. Martin imme- diately moved that the name " Minnesota" be placed in the bill in place of "Itasea." "Chippewa," "Jackson" and "Washington" were also proposed. After many motions, counter motions and amendments, "Minnesota" was placed in the bill, which with a minor change passed the house. In the senate it was rejected. A second attempt was made two years later. January 10, 1848, Stephen A. Douglas gave due notice to the senate that "at a future day" he would introduce a bill to establish the territory of Minnesota. He brought in the bill February 23. It was several times read, was amended, referred to committee and discussed, but congress adjourned August 14 without taking ultimate action on the proposition.

In the meantime Wisconsin was admitted to the Union May 29, 1848, and the western half of what was then St. Croix county was left outside the new state. The settled portions of the area thuis cut off from Wiseonsin by its admission to statehood privileges were in the southern part of the peninsula of land lying between the Mississippi and the St. Croix.

The people of this area were now confronted with a serious problem. As residents of the territory of Wisconsin they had enjoyed the privileges of citizenship in the United States. By the creation of the state of Wisconsin they were disfranchised and left without the benefits of organized government. Thus, Stillwater, which had been the governmental seat of a growing eounty (St. Croix), was left outside the pale of organized law. Legal minds disagreed on the question of whether the minor civil officers, such as justices of the peace, created under the territorial organization, were still qualified to exereise the authority of their positions. At a meeting held at St. Paul, in July, 1848, the citizens of that (then) village considered the question of the formation of a new territory. August 5 a meeting of citizens of the area west of the St. Croix was held at Stillwater, and it was decided to call a general convention at that place, Angust 26. 1848, for a three-fold purpose: 1-To elect a territorial delegate to eongress. 2-To organize a territory with a name other than Wisconsin. 3-To determine whether the laws and organization of the old territory of Wisconsin were still in effect now that a part of that territory was organized as a state. In the call for this meeting, the signers ealled themselves, "We, the undersigned citizens of Minnesota territory." The meeting was held pursuant to the call. Aetion was taken in regard to the first proposition by the

HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY

election of H. Il. Sibley, who was authorized to proceed to Wash- ington and use such efforts as were in his power to secure the organization of the territory of Minnesota. In regard to the second proposition, a memorial was addressed to the President of the United States, stating the reasons why the organization of Minnesota territory was necessary. The third proposition pre- sented technical points worthy of the attention of the wisest legal minds. The state of Wisconsin had been organized, but the terri- tory of Wisconsin had not been abolished. Was not, therefore, the territory still in existence, and did not its organization and its laws still prevail in the part of the territory that had not been included in the state? If territorial government was in existence would it not give the residents thereof a better standing before the nation in their desire to become Minnesota territory ? Might not this technicality give the delegate a seat in congress when otherwise he must, as simply the representative of an unorganized area, make his requests in the lobby and to the individual mem- bers? John Catlin, who had been secretary of the territory of Wisconsin before the organization of that state, declared that the territory still existed in the area not included in the organized state and that he was the acting governor. Accordingly, the people of the cut-off portion organized as the "Territory of Wis- consin," and named a day for the election of a delegate. In the closely contested election held October 30, 1848, Sibley won out against Henry M. Rice and accordingly made his way to Wash- ington, technically from the "Territory of Wisconsin," actually as a representative of the proposed territory of Minnesota. As a matter of fact, indeed, Sibley, living at Mendota, had ceased to be a citizen of the territory of Wisconsin in 1838, when Iowa terri- tory was created, and was a resident of the part of Iowa territory which the organization of the state of Iowa had left without a government, rather than of that territory in question (between the Mississippi and the St. Croix) which the admission of Wis- consin as a state had left without a government. Sibley was, how- ever, after much opposition, admitted to congress and given a seat January 15, 1849. He at once set about securing friends for the proposition to create Minnesota territory. December 4, 1848, a few days previous to Sibley's admission to congress, Stephen A. Douglas had announced that it was his intention to introduce a new bill to establish the territory of Minnesota. Like the pre- vious attempt, this bill underwent various vicissitudes. As passed, March 3, 1849, the aet creating the territory read as follows: "Be it enacted, * * That from and after the passage of this aet, all that part of the territory of the United States which lies within the following limits, to-wit: Beginning in the Mississippi river at a point where the line of 43º and 30' of north latitude crosses the same, thence running due west on said line, which is

HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY

the northern boundary of the state of Iowa, to the northwest corner of the said state of Iowa ; thenee southerly along the west- ern boundary of said state to the point where said boundary strikes the Missouri river : thenee up the middle of the main chan- nel of the Missouri river to the month of the White Earth river; thenee up the middle of the main channel of the White Earth river to the boundary line between the possessions of the United States and Great Britain; thenee east and south of east along the boundary line between the possession of the United States and Great Britain to Lake Superior; thenee in a straight line to the northernmost point of the state of Wisconsin, in Lake Superior ; thence along the western boundary of the state of Wisconsin to the Mississippi river; thence down the main channel of said river to the place of beginning, and the same is hereby erected into a temporary government by the name of the territory of Minnesota."

State of Minnesota. The people of the territory of Minnesota were not long content with a territorial government. In the words of A. N. Winehell, "December 24, 1856, the delegate from the territory of Minnesota introduced a bill to authorize the people of that territory to form a constitution and state govern- ment. The bill limited the proposed state on the west by the Red River of the North and the Big Sioux river. It was referred to the committee on territories, of which Mr. Grow, of Pennsyl- vania, was chairman. January 31, 1857, the chairman reported a substitute, which differed from the original bill in no essential respeet except in regard to the western boundary. The change there consisted in adopting a line through Traverse and Big Stone lakes, due south from the latter to the Iowa line. The altered boundary ent off a narrow strip of territory, estimated by Mr. Grow to contain between five and six hundred square miles. Today the strip contains such towns as Sioux Falls, Watertown and Brookings. The substitute had a stormy voyage through congress, especially in the senate, but finally completed the trip on February 25, 1857."

The enabling aet, as passed and approved February 26, 1857, defined the boundaries of Minnesota as follows: "Be it enaeted, * That the inhabitants of that portion of the territory of Minnesota which is embraced within the following limits, to-wit : Beginning at the point in the center of the main channel of the Red River of the North, where the boundary line between the United States and the British possessions erosses the same ; thence up the main channel of said river to that of Bois des Sioux river : thenee (up) the main channel of said river to Lake Travers; then up the center of said lake to the southern extremity thereof; thenee in a direct line to the head of Big Stone lake; thence through its center to its outlet ; thence by a dne south line to the

HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY

north line of the state of Towa; thence east along the northern boundary of said state to the main channel of the Mississippi river; thence np the main channel of said river and following the boundary line of the state of Wisconsin, until the same inter- sects the St. Louis river; thence down said river to and through Lake Superior, on the boundary line of Wisconsin and Michigan, until it intersects the dividing line between the United States and the British possessions; thence up Pigeon river and following said dividing line to the place of beginning; be and the same are thereby authorized to form for themselves a constitution and state government, by the name of the state of Minnesota, and to come into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, according to the federal constitution."

These boundaries were accepted without change and are the boundaries of the state at the present time. The state was admitted May 11, 1858.

Summary. It will therefore be seen that the territorial claim of title to Wright county was first embraced in the paper grant to Spain, May 4, 1493. It was subsequently included in the in- definite claims made by Spain to lands north and northwest of her settlements in Mexico, Florida and the West Indies; by the English to lands west of their Atlantic coast settlements, and by the French to lands south, west and southwest of their Cana- dian settlements. The first definite claim to territory now em- bracing Wright county was made by La Salle at the mouth of the Mississippi, March 8, 1682, in the name of the king of France, and the second (still more definite) by Perrot, not far from the present site of Winona, May 8, 1689. This was also a French claim. France remained in tacit authority until February 10, 1763, when, upon England's acknowledging the French authority to lands west of the Mississippi, France, by a previous secret agreement, turned her authority over to Spain. October 1, 1800, Spain ceded the tract to France, but France did not take formal possession until November 30, 1803, and almost immediately, December 20, 1803, turned it over to the United States, the Amer- icans having purchased it from Napoleon April 30 of that year.

March 26, 1804, the area that is now Wright county was included in the Louisiana district as a part of Indiana, and so remained until March 3, 1805. From March 3, 1805, to June 4, 1812, it was a part of Louisiana territory. From June 4, 1812, until August 10, 1820, it was a part of Missouri territory. From August 10, 1821, until June 28, 1834, it was outside the pale of all organized government, except that congress had general juris- diction. From June 28, 1834, to April 20, 1836, it was a part of Michigan territory. From April 20, 1836, to June 12, 1838, it was a part of Wisconsin territory. From June 12, 1838, to December 28, 1846, it was a part of the territory of Iowa. From December

HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY

28, 1846, to Mareh 3, 1849, it was again without territorial affili- ation. From Mareh 3, 1849, to May 11, 1858, it was a part of Minnesota territory, and on the latter date became an integral part of that sovereign state.

CHAPTER V.

THE EXPLORERS.

Groseilliers and Radisson-Hennepin and Duluth-Le Sueur and Charville-Carver-Pike-Ft. Snelling Established-Cass and Schoolcraft-Beltrami-Nicollet-Surveys-Chronology.

The French explorers from the settlements in Canada and about the Great Lakes gradually began to penetrate toward Min- nesota. At various times traders, adventurers and priests dis- appeared from these settlements. What deaths they met or what experiences they underwent will never be known. What places they visited in the wilderness of the upper Mississippi remains a mystery. With the seventeenth century, however, the area that is now Minnesota began to be known to the civilized world.

Groseilliers and Radisson. The meager accounts which these two explorers have left of their two expeditions which are sup- posed to have penetrated into Minnesota, are capable of more than one interpretation. Dr. Warren Upham believes that Gro- seilliers and Radisson, the first known white explorers of Min- nesota, entered it near the southeast corner, and proceeded up the Mississippi through Lake Pepin to Prairie Island. Here the French explorers and the Indians that accompanied them, to- gether with other Indians, spent the year 1655-1656. Thus when Cromwell ruled Great Britain and Ireland, when the Puritan the- ocraey was at the height of its glory in New England, and when the great emigration of Cavaliers was still going on to Virginia, Minnesota saw its first white man-unless indeed the Seandina- vians visited this region eenturies before, as the Kensington Stone avers.

About New Years, 1660, if we may trust Radisson's narration and its interpretation, our two "Frenehmen" are again in Min- nesota. Traveling with a big band of Indians, they passed a severe January and February, with attendant famine, probably (according to Prof. Winehell) at Knife lake, Kanabee county. According to Hon. J. V. Brower (in his monograph "Kathio," 1901) the lake was ealled Knife lake and the Dakota tribe of this region the Knife tribe (Issanti) because early that spring deputations of Dakotas came to the encampment and here for the first time proenred steel knives from the white men and from

HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY

the Indian band that was with them. Until this time the Stone Age had ruled supreme in the realm of Wright, but now we may well suppose that within a short time many an enterprising brave cherished as his most precious possession one of these magic knives that cut like a stroke of lightning. Very soon after meet- ing these Dakotas at Knife lake, Groseilliers and Radisson went to the great Dakota village at Mille Lacs, and were there received with every mark of friendship and respect.

Now follows the story of a seven days' trip to the prairie home of the "nation of the Boefe" (buffalo), that is to say, the Dakotas living farther west and south. This story seems likely to be fiction, but if it is true, there is a fair chance that it was to the region just north of the "Big Woods," the journey went. This was the nearest and most accessible buffalo country from Mille Laes. So it is possible that these two Frenchmen were the first white men to approach Wright county. But the supposition favored by Winchell is that they went due south. However that may be, it is certain that with Groseilliers and Radisson the first glimmer of European civilization reached Wright county.

Hennepin and Du Luth. In journeying from the Mille Lacs region, down what is now the Rum river into the Mississippi river, Hennepin and Du Luth and their companions in 1680 passed within a few miles of Wright county.

Robert Cavelier, better known in history as the Sieur de la Salle, who had built a fort near Lake Peoria, Illinois, decided in February, 1680, to send from there an expedition up the Missis- sippi. For this task he selected three of his associates. Accord- ingly, on February 29, 1680, Father Hennepin, with two compan- ions, Picard du Gay (Anthony Auguelle) and Michael Aceault (also rendered d'Aceault, Ako, d'Ako and Dacan), the latter of whom was in military command of the party, set out in a canoe. They paddled down the Illinois to its mouth, where they were detained by floating ice in the Mississippi until March 12. On the afternoon of April 11, while on their way up the Mississippi, they were met by a band of Sioux on the warpath against the Illinois and Miami nation. Being informed, however, that the Miamis had crossed the river and were beyond their reach, the Indians turned northward, taking the Frenehmen with them as captives. The journey up the river occupied nineteen days.

At the end of the nineteen days, the party landed near the present site of St. Paul, and then continued by land five days until they reached the Mille Lacs region. There Aquipaguetin, the chief who had previously been unfriendly to a certain extent, adopted Hennepin in place of the son he had lost. The other two Frenchmen were adopted by other families. After several months in the Mille Lacs region, Hennepin and Pickard were given per- mission in July, 1680, to go down the Mississippi to the mouth of

IHISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY

the Wiseonsin, where they expected that La Salle would send them supplies.

On their southward journey, accompanied by a Sionx chief, Quasieoude ( Wacoota) and a band of Indians, the Frenchmen descended the Rum river, and eamped on an eminence opposite what is now the city of Anoka. Aceault was left as a hostage. Continuing down the river with the Indians, Hennepin and Pickard came to St. Anthony Falls, which Hennepin named in honor of his patron saint. On July 11, 1680, while hunting For the month of the Wisconsin river, the party was overtaken by Hennepin's savage adopted father, Aquipaguetin, with ten war- riors. The two Frenehmen and the Indians then spent some time in the vicinity of Winona, hiding their meat near the mouth of the Chippewa, and then hunting on the prairies further down the river, the old men of the tribe watching on the river bluffs for enemies while the warriors killed buffaloes.

July 25, 1680, the party encountered Daniel Graysolon, Du Luth and five Freneh soldiers. There is some doubt about the exact spot where this meeting took place, but it was probably near the southeast eorner of Minnesota, or possibly a little further south. After the meeting, the eight white men, accompanied by the Indians, went up the river. Du Luth had been exploring the country of the Sioux and the Assiniboines, west of Lake Superior, for two years, and had seeured the friendship of these very Indians who had captured Hennepin. Consequently, when he learned what had happened since he last saw them, he rebuked them for their treatment of the priest, saying that Ilennepin was his brother. The party reached the Issanti villages (the Mille Lacs region) August 14, 1680. No mention is made of the route which they took.

Toward the end of September the Frenehmen left the Indians to return to the French settlements. A chart of the route was given them by Quasieonde, the great chief. The eight Frenchmen then set out. Hennepin gives the number as eight, though it would seem that the number was nine, for Hennepin and Pickard had met Du Luth with five soldiers, and when reaching the Issanti villages they must have been rejoined by Aecault, though pos- sibly the last named stayed with the Indians and pursued his explorations. The party passed down the Rum river in the fall of 1680, and started the descent of the Mississippi. After reach- ing the Wisconsin they went up that river to the portage, thenee up the Fox river, thenee to Green Bay, and thenee to the settle- ments in Canada.

Thus Hennepin and Du Luth, in their trips in this vieinity, missed what is now Wright county. Accault, one of Hennepin's companions, had been left with the Indians near the present site of Anoka, when Hennepin and Arguille took the memorable down-

HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY

the-river trip on which they met Du Luth. Aeeault took many journeys with the Indians, even visiting the Itasca region, and it is not improbable that he may have passed Wright county, or even hunted within its present borders.

Le Sueur and Charleville. From 1681 to 1699, Nicholas Perrot made numerous trips to the country of the upper Mississippi river. Several of his posts were located in the vicinity of the lower end of Lake Pepin. From there he sent out numerous expeditions. One of these expeditions was probably that of Le Sueur and Charleville, who, with the possible exception of Ae- cault, are believed to have been the first white men who ever gazed upon the fair prospeet that is now Wright county. This trip was taken about 1690.

Le Sueur wrote an account of this trip to refute certain fie- titious narrations by Mathieu Sagean. Le Sueur passed Wright county, in his trip above the Falls of St. Anthony, and possibly went as far up as the outlet of Sandy Lake. Very probably Charleville, whose narration of a similar early expedition of a hundred leagues on the part of the Mississippi above St. Anthony Falls has been preserved, was a companion of Le Sueur, so that the two accounts relate to the same canoe trip. Charleville de- elares that he was accompanied by two Canadian Frenehmen and two Indians. It is of interest to note that Charleville and Le Sueur were relatives. As in Le Sueur's description of the sources of the great river, Charleville also states that the Indians spoke of the Mississippi as having many sourees.

Dr. Warren Upham, secretary of the Minnesota State His- torical Society, in a letter says: "Doubtless numerous French and British fur traders and explorers had voyaged along your part of the Mississippi many times during more than a century preceding the expedition of Pike, whose narrative journal is our first detailed record of travel on that part of our great river. Probably the earliest explorers were Le Sueur and Charleville, about the year 1690 or earlier. They made a canoe voyage far up the Mississippi, probably, as Brower and Hill have supposed, to a northern limit at the outlet of Sandy lake."

In his excellent and monumental work, "Minnesota in Three Centuries," in Vol. I, pp. 253-4, Upham says: "Brower and Hill come to the conelusion that on the Mississippi at the outlet of Sandy lake, a village of Sioux doubtless then existed, as it has also been during the last century or longer the site of an Ojibway village. The estimates noted, that the distance traveled above the Falls of St. Anthony was about a hundred French leagues, and that an equal distance of the river's course still separated the voyageurs from its sources, agree very closely with the accurate measurements now made by exaet surveys, if Le Sueur's journey ended at Sandy lake.

HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY

"Very probably Charleville, whose narration of a similar early expedition of a hundred leagues on the part of the Mississippi above these falls is preserved by Du Pratz in his 'History of Louisiana,' was a companion of Le Sueur, so that the two accounts relate to the same canoe trip. Charleville said that he was ae- companied by two Canadian Frenehmen and two Indians; and it is remarkable that Charleville, like Le Sueur, was a relative of the brothers Iberville and Bienville, who afterwards were gov- ernors of Lonisiana."

Le Suenr's subsequent explorations were interesting. In the spring of 1695 he and his followers erected a trading post or fort on Isle Pelee, now Prairie Island, just above Red Wing. Early in the summer of 1695 he returned to Montreal with some Indians, among whom was a Sionx chief named Tioscate, the latter being the first Sioux chief to visit Canada. Tioseate died while in Montreal.

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History of Wright County, Minnesota, Part 10

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. cn Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago : H.C. Cooper Number of Pages: 738

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. cn
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : H.C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 738