USA > Minnesota > Minnesota as it is in 1870 : its general resources and attractions for immigrants, invalids, tourists, capitalists, and business men ; with special descriptions of all its counties and townsand inducements to those in quest of homes, health, or pleasure > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24
126
RED RIVER SETTLEMENT.
Homes for the Immigrant .- Mr. Rawlings says of this country : "The splendid landscapes of the Assiniboine that adorn the great picture gallery of nature cannot be closed for ever. The measureless prairies that stretch in vast waves of beauty from the Lake of the Woods to the base of the Rocky Mountains, redolent and gorgeous with the richest profusion of rose bushes, blue bells, woodbine, convolvulus, helianthii, and thousands of name- less and delicate flowers, tell the beholder the wealth of soil that supports them in their entangled and untrained luxuriance of variety and numbers. The thousands of small lakes-sweet eyes of earth that dot the valleys- invite him with their clear waters and fisheries ; the rivers that spread, interlace and ramify for thousands of miles, tell of a well-watered soil. * Game, such as the buffalo, swarm over the plains, while the stately cariboo, the prowling bear, the wily fox, the pretty mink, the busy otter, the nimble squirrel, and the scented rat, are swarming through the forest and by lake and river. Of birds, there is the majestic eagle and the blue-winged jay, the murderous hawk and the little jewelled humming bird ; together with duck and pigeon, sandpiper and cherry bird, loon and partridge, magpie and blackcap, nightingale and swallow, grouse and snipe, kingfisher and plover."
THE RED RIVER SETTLEMENT .- 14,000 People North of Minnesota .- What is called the Selkirk Settlement, sixty miles north of Pembina, numbers about 14,000 souls -Europeans, French-Canadians, and half-breeds. "One- half the population are hunters and the other half far- mers. The hunters, mostly half-breeds, do nothing but hunt buffalo. They make two grand excursions each year, one commencing on the 20th of June and lasting two months, and the other on the 10th of September and
127
LIFE AT WINNEPEG.
lasting till the 10th of November. The hunters lead a free, happy, wild, romantic life, and are, when in the settlement, temperate and well behaved."
The number of acres of land under cultivation in 1864 was 22,000.
There is quite a trade carried on between St. Paul and this settlement, in furs brought down and merchandise and agricultural implements taken back. There is quite a town at Fort Garry, where a newspaper is printed, churches and schools supported, and the refinements and cultivation of city life sustained. Pianos and music are not unfrequent items in an invoice of merchandise from St. Paul to Fort Garry. All this nearly 600 miles north of St. Paul.
The newspaper is published by Dr. Walter R. Bown, formerly of St. Paul, and has twenty-four columns, filled with reading matter, St. Paul, St. Cloud, and Winnepeg advertisements-the number before us is dated July 3rd, 1869. The town is now called "Winnepeg." We have only room for a few extracts.
LIFE AT WINNEPEG.
(Local Items from the " Nor'- Wester.")
The carts are beginning to return from St. Paul.
Flour has fallen to twenty-five shillings per 100 lbs.
The parties who are coming through by way or Superior City are reported close at hand.
The weather has been exceedingly hot during the last two or three days.
FROST .- The customary June frost has done but slight damage in this section, the tenderest plants only being " scorched " to a limited extent.
A good many of our farmers sowed their wheat too thickly, and they are getting sorry for it.
Work commences immediately upon the Lake of the Woods section of the Red River and Lake Superior Road. Mr. Mair has succeeded in engaging fifty laborers.
DEPARTURE .- Dr. Schultz leaves to-day with horses, as far as Abercrombie. The Doctor will visit Montreal and Ottawa before his return, which will be in about five weeks.
IMMIGRATION -Preparations are being made in all parts of Ontario and a portion of Quebec to inaugurate a lively emigration hither during the present summer and fall. Companies are being formed in many localities to come in and take possession of the idle prairies which surround us, waiting for the occupancy of enterprising and practical agriculturalists One correspondent assures us that a large number of families in one locality are making preparations to come in as soon as possible ; and another writes from Montreal that a "party of about one hundred young men is forming to leave for this country as soon as arrangements can be completed."
128
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.
CHURCH DIRECTORY.
R. CATHOLIC CHURCH .- Cathedral of St. Boniface. Mass 6 A. M. and 7 A. M. ; Solemn Mass : and Sermon J A. M. ; Vespers 3 P. M. On week days, Mass 6 A. M. and 8.30 A. M. All of the Priests resident in the Bishopric officiate according to appointment.
CHURCH OF ENGLAND .- St. John's Cathedral. The Venerable Archdeacon McLean, M. A., Rector. Saobath services at 10.30 A. M. and 3 P M. Sunday School at 2 P M .- Churoh of the Holy Trinity. Service by Archdeacon McLean every Sunday evening, at 6.30 P. M. Sun- day School at 3 P. M.
PRESBYTERIAN .- Kildonan Church. Sabbath Service at 10 A. M., Rev. John Black; and Prayer Meeting at 2.30 P. M. Rev. Wm. Fletcher first Sabbath of every month, at 6 P. M. -Knox Church, in this town. Rev. Win. Fletcher second Sabbath of every month, at 3 . P. M. Rev. John Black first and third Sabbaths, at 3 P. M. rews open and free to all. Sabbath School at 2 P. M.
WESLEYAN METHODIST .- At Larsen's building every Sabbath, at 10.30 A. M. Rev. George Young, Minister. "The citizens of Winnepeg are cordially invited to attend."
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD .- Its future Business .-. "But," says Mr. Rawlings, after further glowing de- scriptions of the coal, salt springs, timber, natural grasses, enormous yields of wheat, &c., &c., for which we have not space, " all this land has been shut out from the knowledge of the world. A new era is at hand. The people of the Atlantic are wooing the people of the Pacific ; they would be united by an iron band.
Starting from La Crosse to St. Paul, Minnesota ; from Fon du Lac, at the head of Lake Superior ; and from St. Paul,-we have a system of railways, which are partly built and which are now under contract and construction, to the Red River of the North. Carry out the project of a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, at whatever cost to the British Government or people, and the future of that country will present a panorama of magnificence unexampled in history, and before which the splendor of Roman wealth, in the days of Augustus, will sink into insignificance. The silks, teas, and opium of China will swiftly speed over the Rocky Mountains to the warehouses of Europe; the spices and Oriental luxuries of India will be transported over lands where the red race but an age since had trapped the beaver and the ermine; the re-awakened commerce of Japan would find a way across the prairie land of Hudson's Bay Territory ; the gold of California, of British Columbia and the Sascatchewan Valley, would find a safe passage, by the great lakes, to
129
THOMAS D'ARCY MCGEE.
the Atlantic ; the wool of California would find a more direct route to England ; and the homeward and outward bound would cross the Atlantic on their way to India, China, Australia, California, British Columbia, British North America, and the United States, in social com- panionship."
The Northern Route the Shortest and most Available .- Its Effect on Minnesota .- The applicability of this glow- ing language to Minnesota becomes apparent when we consider that Minnesota is the mouth of the funnel through which all this traffic and travel must pass-where bulk must be broken and cars changed.
The single fact which fixes this destiny and crystalizes it as a logical conclusion sure as fate, is found in the fol- lowing figures from the Message of Gov. Marshall, Jan- uary, 1869 :
" The distance from New York to Puget's Sound, via the Northern Pacific Railroad, is 2892 miles ; from New York to San Francisco, via the Union Pacific Railroad, 3417, a difference of 525 in favor of the Northern Route. From Chicago to San Francisco, by the Union Pacific Road, the distance is 2448 ; from west end of Lake Su- perior to Puget's Sound, by the Northern Pacific route, the distance is 1775 miles, a difference in favor of the northern route of 673 miles, or more than one-fourth ; while Puget's Sound is nearer by from 700 to 1000 miles to Japan, China, and India, than San Francisco is."
Also in the following from Thomas D'Arcy McGee, (quoted by Mr. Rawlings in "America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific :")
"Every one can understand that the American route from Western Europe to Asia, which lies farthest to the north, must be the most direct. Any one glancing at a globe will see where the 46° parallel leads the eye, from
130
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.
the heart of Germany, through the British Channel, across to the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; and from our Gulf westward to the Sascatchewan, to Vancouver's Island- the Cuba of the North Pacific ; and from Vancouver to the rich and populous archipelago of Japan. This course was demonstrated by Capt. Synge to be 2000 miles shor- ter between London and Hong Kong than any other in existence."
The Chicago Tribune, noticing the movements of the company to survey and commence building the North Pacific Railroad across American territory, admits the superiority of the route over all others. It says :
" If the company build the road in good faith, they will become the largest landed proprietors in the world. Congress has granted them every other section for forty miles on each side of it from the head of Lake Superior to Puget's Sound or the Pacific Ocean-that is, a belt of country west from Lake Superior entirely across the con- tinent forty miles wide. The distance is, in round num- bers, seventeen hundred miles, in all 68,000 square miles -territory enough to make three States as large as Illinois, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Nor is this land, like nine-tenths of that along the Union and Central Pacific Railways, worthless. The surveys made years ago, and the accounts of all travelers, agree that the country along nearly the entire line of this road is capable not only of cultivation, but of sustaining a large and highly prosperous population."
After further noticing the facts that there are less ob- structions from snow on this route, Capt. Mullen having crossed the Rocky Mountains six times in the winter of 1854-5, and never found snow over fifteen inches deep ; that " steam communication can be opened entirely across the Continent by building only 730 miles of track," theremain-
131
WORK TO GO FORWARD.
ing distance of a thousand miles being occupied with navi- gable rivers ; that the grades are easier, having only two summits to cross, while the Union Pacific had six, the northern route lying up the valley of the Missouri and down that of the Columbia, the Tribune concludes : "It is a thousand miles nearer, perhaps more, from Chicago and the great Atlantic cities to Japan and China by the Puget's Sound route than it is by San Francisco. Ships passing between that city and Asia always sail north of the Straits of Fuca in order to follow the shortest great circle to their destination. Hence the northern line would have most important advantages in competing for the through trade and traffic between Eastern Asia and America. On every consideration, therefore, of national development and personal pecuniary advantage, it is to be hoped the Northern Pacific Railway Company will push forward their great work to completion as fast as men and money can do it."
The Work to go Forward .- The Philadelphia Press, of May 22d, 1869, had the following :
"Mr. Ogden, in his speech night before last at the Cooper Institute, said he had been for the last two weeks, particularly for the last few days, engaged in negotiating with Jay Cooke & Co., of Philadelphia, by which Mr. Cooke would become the financial agent for the construc- tion of the great northern railroad from Lake Superior, through Minnesota and across the Plains, to Columbia River, bringing us 800 miles nearer the empire of Japan than the present Pacific Railroad. The negotiation was substantially closed, and most satisfactorily too, and he hoped the work would soon be commenced and completed. This is a deserved tribute to the financial ability of Mr. Cooke, and no less to the business reputation of Phila- delphia. This new road, which is to run from Superior
132
CONDITION OF RAILROADS.
to Puget's Sound, will probably be in the end the great continental railway, on account of the advantages it possesses of being projected across the continent on the isothermal line which secures at all seasons of the year a mild climate, which in turn secures wood and water."
Since then surveys have been going on, and an ex- pedition set on foot by Jay Cooke to examine the entire route. "Carleton" was the Boston correspondent of this expedition.
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE RAILROADS OF MINNESOTA .- In January, 1869, the Governor's Message gave the fol- lowing figures :
Constructed in 1868, Miles.
Whole line in opera- tion, Miles. 51
First Div. St. Paul & Pacific, main line ...
35
First Div. St. Paul & Pacific, to Sauk Rapids
81
Minnesota Valley, now St. Paul & Sioux City
23
90
Milwaukee, St. Paul, & Minneapolis
131
Winona and St. Peter
106
Southern Minnesota.
20
50
Lake Superior & Mississippi.
30
30
Hastings & Dakota
20
20
128
559
A total of 559 miles in operation in the State.
(For progress since, see closing pages of Part First.)
Land Grants and other Aid .- Each of the first ten roads named below have a Congressional land grant of 6400 acres of land for each mile of road, except the North Pacific, which has 12,800 to the mile. In addition to this, the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad has a grant of seven sections to the mile of State lands, and a $250,000 bonus of St. Paul city bonds.
1st. The St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, from St. Paul, via St. Anthony, Sauk Rapids, and Crow Wing, to Pembina, on the Red River, 400 miles.
-
133
LAND GRANTS AND OTHER AID.
2d. First Division of St. Paul & Pacific, main line, from St. Paul, via St. Anthony and Minneapolis, to Breckinridge, on Red River, 200 miles.
Also, from St. Paul, via St. Anthony, to Sauk Rapids, 81 miles, with a branch to Lake Superior from some point between Sauk Rapids and Crow Wing, 120 miles.
3d. St. Paul & Sioux City (late Minnesota Valley,) from St. Paul, via Mankato, to the south-western boundary of the State, 170 miles, to connect with a road from Sioux City, 70 miles long.
4th. The Milwaukee, St. Paul, & Minneapolis, from St. Paul and Minneapolis, via Mendota, Faribault, and Owatonna, to the State line nearly due south, intersects the Winona & St. Peter at Owatonna, and gives the only all rail route to Milwaukee and Chicago, 110 miles long.
5th. Lake Superior & Mississippi, from St. Paul, nearly due north to Duluth, 150 miles, with authority to connect with a branch from Superior.
6th. The Hastings & Dakota, from Hastings, via Farmington, through the counties of Scott, Carver, and McLeod, to the Big Stone Lake.
7th. The Winona & St. Peter, from Winona, via Owa- tonna, Waseca, and St. Peter, to the western boundary of the State, 250 miles.
8th. The Southern Minnesota Railroad, from La Cre- scent, up Root River Valley, through the entire southern tier of counties, via Lanesboro, Austin, Albert Lea, Win- nebago City, Fairmount, and Jackson, to the State line, 250 miles ; and thence to the Great Bend of the Missouri.
9th. The Northern Pacific Railroad, from Lake Supe- rior, either at Superior or Bayfield, via St. Cloud, or above Crow Wing, to Breckinridge-two surveys having been made and the line not yet definitely located.
12
.
134
PROJECTED ROADS AND CONNECTIONS.
10th. The Stillwater & St. Paul Railroad, via White Bear Lake, 18 miles.
11th. The Chicago & St. Paul Railroad, from St. Paul, via Hastings and other river towns, having a grant of State lands fourteen sections per mile, and graded 20 miles.
Projected Roads and outside Connections .- No less than twelve other roads are chalked out, some of them chartered, others have more or less aid in the way of local bonds, and the aid of the main trunk lines, some of which will be built very soon, and others not so soon. Among these are the following : From Lanesboro, Fill- more County, via Chatfield, Rochester, and Hastings, to St. Paul ; from Red Wing, via Cannon Falls and Faribault, to Blue Earth City ; from Wabasha, via Rochester and Lansing, to Omaha, with a branch, via Faribault, to St. Peter ; from Owatonna, via Albert Lea, to the Iowa line ; from St. Cloud to Mankato; from Minneapolis to St. Cloud, and thence to Alexandria, via Sauk Centre ; from Taylor's Falls to connect with the Lake Superior & Mis- sissippi Railroad ; from St. Peter, via Mankato and Blue Earth City, to the Iowa line ; from White Bear Lake, via St. Anthony, Minneapolis, Shakopee, Chaska, Carver, and Henderson, to St. Peter; from St. Paul to St. Anthony and Minneapolis, to run hourly ; from St. Paul to Hudson, Wisconsin ; and from St. Paul to Stillwater and Taylor's Falls.
Connections .- Of the roads finished and running are the Chicago and Galena, Chicago and Prairie du Chien, Chicago and La Crosse, all connecting with boats or railroads. Of those partly finished are the Northern Wisconsin, finished 50 miles from Tomah (on the Milwau- kee and St. Paul Road) towards Hudson, rapidly progress- ing and expected to reach Eau Claire by January, 1870.
135
STEAMBOAT NAVIGATION.
This will be the shortest route from St. Paul to Chicago. There are several Iowa roads rapidly progressing towards our southern boundary, among which are the Burlington, Cedar Rapids, and Minnesota Railroad ; the St. Louis and St. Paul Railroad, connecting with the coal fields of Iowa ; the Keokuk and Des Moines Railroad, and others. Westward are the North Pacific and the Union Pacific. In Wisconsin, the Hudson and Superior Railroad, with a branch to Bayfield, will give us a competing line to the lake, and the Wabasha and Green Bay Railroad still another ; while more important than all, the improvement of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers by Congress, as recom- mended by Gen. Warren, will connect Minnesota by water with the Atlantic and cheapen her freights more than all the projected railroads combined.
RIVERS AND STEAMBOAT NAVIGATION .- As to navigable rivers, see " Water," &c., page 20. A steamboat on Leach Lake already traverses 300 miles of the waters of the Upper Mississippi, another plies its vocation on Lake Minnetonka, the steamer International runs from Fort Abercrombie to Fort Garry, on the Red River, and four daily lines employ 61 steamboats and 248 barges on the Lower Mississippi, the Minnesota, and the St. Croix.
The following table shows the progress of the steam- boat business of the Minnesota for twenty-five years.
Steamboat Arrivals at St. Paul .- Growth of Commerce.
Year.
Arr.
Year. Arr.
Year. Arr.
1844,
41
1853,
235
1861, 927
1845,
48
1854,
310
1862, 1015
1846,
24
1855,
563
1863,
731
1847,
47
1856,
759
1864, 594
1848,
63
1857,
965
1865, 829
1849,
85
1858, 1068
1866, 1051
1850,
104
1859,
808
1867, 883
1851,
119
1860,
776
1868,
835
1852,
171
136
EXPORTS AND TRADE.
Tonnage .- Geo. W. Moore, Collector of the Port of St. Paul, gives the registered tonnage of steamboats as 11,104.74, barges 8,956.06. Boats of the Northern line and Diamond Jo line, running to St. Paul, but not regis- tered, he estimates as fully equal to the above. This only includes 84 barges of the 248. The Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce reported the tonnage for 1868 as 53,686.
Railroads against Steamboats .- The decrease of arrivals is explained by the finishing of our railroads, and the increase of our barge business. At Winona the arrivals for 1868 (up and down) were over 1800. As an instance of how much of the river commerce has been diverted to our railroads, the following table is instructive :
Leading Articles of Freight forwarded from St. Paul' by the Minnesota Valley Railroad.
1867.
1868.
General Merchandise (lbs.) ... 11,166,420
14,560,660
Machinery (lbs.) ..
55,050
363,640
Agricultural Implements (lbs.)
112,250
802,330
Lime and Cement (bbls.) .....
422,703
Lumber (feet)
908,890
Freight carried during the first Six Months of 1868 and 1869.
1868.
1869.
Total Freight (lbs.) .
40,176,978
118,779,088
Wheat (bushels)
156,483
653,461
Flour (bbls.).
22,246
28,937
Lumber (feet).
2,672,733
3,295,727
Earnings of the road (6 mos.) . $79,186.01 $183,646.27
When to this is added the freight and travel entering and leaving the State by the Winona and St. Peter Rail -- road, the Southern Minnesota Railroad, and the Mil- waukee and St. Paul, the wonder is that the arrivals of steamboats at St. Paul are not still more reduced.
EXPORTS AND TRADE .- During 1867, the estimated. amount of wheat exported was ten million bushels ;
137
MANUFACTURING RESOURCES.
lumber and logs manufactured, according to the Gover- nor's Message, during 1868, 249,889,558 feet, valued at $3,750,000, a large part of which was exported. Amount of fur trade, estimated by Secretary St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, 1867, 1200 bales of furs and 30,000 buffalo robes ; 1868, value of this trade, $600,000. Goods for the Hudson Bay Company pass through St. Paul annually to the amount of $975,000.
Winona's exports of wheat in 1868 were 2,432,086, making her the fourth primary grain market in the United States-Chicago, Milwaukee, and Toledo alone leading her. The wholesale trade of St. Paul is reported by the Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce at $15,- 000,000 during 1868. These are the principal articles exported. (For more on this subject see St. Paul and Winona, in Part Second.)
CHAPTER X.
WATER-POWER AND MANUFACTURING RESOURCES .- Among the striking and pre-eminent evidences that this State was made with the natural internal resources to make her great, independent, and self-sustaining, and the home of millions of prosperous people, none are more striking than her inexhaustible water-power unparalleled on the continent in its capacity, and unequalled in any State in its universal distribution over every part of the State. St. Anthony Falls, with a fall of 64 feet, including her rapids and a hydraulic capacity of 120,000 horse power, " more than sufficient to drive all the 25,000,000 spindles and 4000 mills of England and
138
MANUFACTURING RESOURCES.
Scotland combined," "greater than the whole motive power-steam and water-employed in textile manufac- tures in England in 1850, and nearly seven times as great as the water-power so employed ;"* St. Croix and St. Louis River Falls, second only to St. Anthony, and equally well located ; Pokegama Falls, Little Falls, Sauk Rapids, Cannon Falls, Vermillion Falls, the Rum, Elk, Crow, Sauk, Zumbro, Root, and Minneiska rivers with their tributaries, the forty-three rivers and creeks on the north shore of Lake Superior, " the volume of water in the least of which is sufficient if properly appropriated, to wash fifty tons of stamped rock per day, and the majority of which find their way to the lake over frowning precipices magnificently high ;"¡ and the hundreds of smaller cas- cades and rapids that chequer the scenery and adorn the beauty of almost every lake and rivulet, combine to give to Minnesota a water-power for the State at large, and for almost every county, which challenges the world for a parallel. When we add to this her inexhaustible raw material of wheat, corn, and barley, whose average yields we have shown compare with the best States in the Union ; her thousands of square miles of pine lumber and hard wood ; her rich fleeces of the finest wools ; her mountains of granite, iron, and copper ore ; her quarries of slate, limestone, and brown stone; her beds of clay, tripoli, mineral paint, peat, and white sand for glass ; her num- erous salt springs ; her just developing coal fields ; her promising but yet to be assured mines of silver and gold ; and her easy access by lake, river, and railroad, by which. these resources may be supplemented to any extent by the raw materials of the outside world,-when all these advantages are grouped with her water-powers, we feel
* Wheelock's Report.
+ Hanchette, State Geologist.
139
MATERIALS FOR MANUFACTURING.
that we are safe in entering her as a manufacturing State against the world, and in claiming for her the champion's belt, whose inscription shall be EXCELSIOR.
THE RAW MATERIALS FOR MANUFACTURING.
Coal has just this summer been discovered in Redwood County, on the Minnesota River. Its existence is un- doubted. Whether it can be worked to advantage is now being tested, and remains to be seen.
Peat .- Prof. Henry H. Eames, State Geologist, 1866, says, in his official report : "In nearly every portion of the State are immense deposits of peat, and the supply for all practical purposes is inexhaustible."
Iron, Copper, Gold, and Silver .- Speaking of North- eastern Minnesota, he says: "The metals occurring in this portion of the State are iron, copper, gold, and silver."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.