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 3
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PRAIRIE DEFICIENT IN TIMBER .- While the whole of the State west of the Mississippi may be characterized generally as " prairie," the Upper Minnesota Valley, and portions of the south-western part of the State, and of the Red River Valley, are the most strictly prairie sec- tions, where there is a scarcity of timber. Only on the margins of the lakes and streams is there anything like an abundance of timber ; but there is no such deficiency as Mr. Parker, in his book on Iowa, attributes to that State. We state, on the authority of Gen. Bishop, U. S. Surveyor, that there is scarcely a breadth of 10 miles without timber. Parker says of Iowa, " Sometimes the prairies are from 20 to 40 miles in width, thus making timber inconvenient." To obviate this he says, "there is a vast amount of locust being cultivated. This grows
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20
WATER, LAKES, AND RIVERS.
here with a rapidity seldom equalled elsewhere. I have seen trees at the age of ten years that would make eight posts of sufficient size for fencing." The same process has been adopted by many of the prairie farmers of Minnesota, who have groves of hard wood timber, the growth of a very few years, already sufficient to supply to a considerable extent their demands for rails and fuel, and to take the place of the natural timber when it shall have become scarcer with the increased population.
WATER, LAKES AND RIVERS. - Prof. M. F. Maury, formerly superintendent of the observatory at Washing- ton, speaking of the vast number of our lakes, estimated by Schoolcraft as ten thousand in number, but probably more correctly estimated as from 1000 to 2000 in number, says : " There is in this territory a greater number of these lovely sheets of laughing water than in all the country besides. They give variety and beauty to the landscape ; they soften the air and lend all their thousand charms and attractions to make this goodly land a lovely place of residence. * Minnesota is far from the sea, but it is a better watered country than either Kansas or Nebraska. Indeed, it may be considered the best watered State in the Union; and it doubtless owes its abundance of summer rains measurably to this lake system."
Size of Lakes .- They vary from 50 yards to 30 miles in diameter. A steamer navigates Lake Minnetonka now, and one was formerly used by the Government on one of the large lakes north of Crow Wing in transport- ing supplies to the Chippeways. Clarke, in his Geological report, estimates that in a body of 1,250,000 acres of land, between the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers, 73,000 acres are covered by small lakes ; and Col. J. J. Abert's official report estimates that one-sixth of the
21
NATURAL MEADOWS AND GRASSES.
" Big Woods," or 825 square miles out of 5000 square miles, are covered with lakes, " some of them eight miles long, and deep enough to float a frigate." In south-west Minnesota, he speaks of large and beautiful sheets of water, 6 to 10 miles long, aud 1 to 5 broad, full of delicious fish, and bordered with timber. (See map.)
Purity and Beauty .- The most numerous class, from 1 to 3 miles in diameter, " are generally distinguished for their clear, white, sandy shores, set in gentle, grassy slopes, or rimmed with walls of rock, their pebbly beaches sparkling with cornelians and agates, while the oak grove or the denser wood which skirts its margin completes the graceful and picturesque outline."
The waters are generally pure, being supplied by springs, or living water. Nearly all abound in fish ; but more of this under its appropriate head.
Rivers .- The Mississippi flows through Minnesota 797 miles, the Minnesota 334, Red River 379, St. Croix 129, St. Louis about 135, and Root about 80. The Missis- sippi is navigable 534 miles, interrupted by St. Anthony Falls and Sauk Rapids ; the Minnesota 238 miles, the Red River 379, the St. Croix 524, the St. Lonis 21, and the Root 24.
Besides these, among the larger rivers are the Crow, Rum, Blue Earth, Snake, Kettle, Crow Wing, Red Wood, Cottonwood, Sauk, Cannon, Zumbro, Le Sueur, Red Cedar, Red Lake, Des Moines, and many others, with innumerable tributaries, the whole spreading out over every section of the State, and bringing almost to the door of every farmer the priceless boon of living water for stock and water power for mills and manufac- tories.
NATURAL MEADOWS AND GRASS .- Among the many natural advantages of the State for agriculture and stock
22
NATURAL MEADOWS AND GRASSES.
growing, a most prominent and important one is the spontaneous growth of hay, without seeding or culti- vation, in all parts of the State-used by the farmers instead of timothy, and relished well by horses and cattle, which thrive well on it.
Hon. Thomas Clarke, Assistant State Geologist, esti- mates over one million acres, distributed between the St. Croix and Mississippi, south of Sandy Lake, mostly natural meadows. Dr. Norwood, in Owen's report, says, " Some of these meadows are very extensive, and bear a luxuriant growth of grass often five or six feet in height. It is coarse but sweet, and is said to make an excellent hay." In the northern part of the State, he speaks of "extensive natural meadows bordering the lakes and streams, the luxuriant grasses of which are sweet and nutritious, and eagerly eaten by cattle." West of the Mississippi, Pope says he " made a march of nearly a thousand miles with heavy loaded wagons over a country heavy from continuous rains, and the wagon horses sub- sisted during the whole period upon the prairie grass." He speaks of a portion of the Elk River Valley as remark- able for its vast meadows of fine hay, from which it has derived the name of " The Big Meadows." Col. Abert's official report estimates one-sixth of the "Big Woods" as "wet meadows or marshes connecting with chains of lakes covered with very high grass, and affording fine pasturage for cattle, and making excellent hay-some too marshy for grazing, but easily drained." Long's official report to the War Department, in 1823, speaks of grass in the Minnesota Valley "growing to the height of six feet."
Carlton, correspondent of the Boston Journal, speaks of grass as high as a man on horseback, in the Red River Valley. Owen, Pope, Reno, Nicollet and
23
NATURAL ADVANTAGES.
others, in official reports, testify to the same luxuriance and abundance of the natural meadows conveniently distributed in all parts of the State.
Fed by Living Water .- These meadows are not stagnant marshes, but generally are made by springs of clear water, and are drained by running brooks and rivulets of living water-thus combining the two grand essentials for stock raising-cheap and abundant grass and good water. These meadows are so luxuriant, that two crops are sometimes mowed the same season.
Cost of Saving : Yield per Acre .- Cost of saving by patent mower from $1.00 to $1.50 per ton. The State Auditor's official report shows 334,555 tons cut in 1868 on 133,564 acres. Average two and a half tons per acre.
SUMMARY OF NATURAL ADVANTAGES .- We have thus succinctly stated the natural resources of Minnesota necessary to her developement into a great agricultural country. In addition to these, when we add her inex- haustible raw material of iron, copper, slate, granite, clay, limestone, salt springs, pine lumber, glass sand, hard wood ; water power for manufacturing purposes ; rivers and lakes for commerce ; forests and prairies alive with game ; lakes and brooks full of fish ; a climate singularly favorable for health and vigor of both man and beast, and for the successful culture of the cereals ; natural fruits of delicious flavor ; rice, as good as wheat and as palatable as that of the Carolinas, growing wild on thousands of acres ; broad prairies and beautiful parks adorned with natural flowers and perfumed with their aroma, redolent with the songs of birds and refreshed by electric nightly showers that alternate with sunny days,-we need nothing more to convince us that the Creator fashioned this land with such a harmonious blending of all the elements of wealth
24
POPULATION AND NATIONALITY.
and happiness, not to remain the abode of the savage and a wilderness for the elk and buffalo, but the home of millions of men and women, who will yet develope into a great and prosperous State.
CHAPTER II.
POPULATION AND NATIONALITY .- In January, 1869, Gov. Marshall in his message says, the population is " reliably ascertained to be 445,000 from the school census and election returns," the vote in November amounting to 71,868, and the school census showing 129,103 between the ages of five and twenty-one.
Nationality .- The 445,000 are classified by careful esti- mates from every county, as German, 80,000 ; Irish, 60,000 ; Swedes and Norwegians, 60,000 ; French, 7,000 ; Bohemians, 3500; Welsh, 3000 ; over 200,000 American, and the balance English, Scotch, Canadians, not classified, and a sprinkling of Poles, Swiss, and every variety. The Swedes and Norwegians are mostly located in the river counties south of St. Paul, the southern counties, Chisago, Washington, Nicollet, and the new counties on the north- west frontier ; the Irish and Germans in Dakota, Ramsey, Scott, Le Sueur, Goodhue, Hennepin, Wabasha, Wright, Waseca, Rice, Winona, and Houston; the Germans in Carver, Brown, Blue Earth and Nicollet ; the Welsh in Blue Earth ; French, mostly in Ramsey and Dakota ; Bohemians, in Le Sueur and Rice.
Nationality by Census, 1860 .- Population, 172,022. Born in the United States, 112,227 ; Germany, 17,289 ; Ire-
25
POPULATION AND NATIONALITY.
land, 12,869 ; Norway and Sweden, 11,692 ; British Ameri- ca, 8156 ; England, 3406; Scotland, 1119 ; France, 907 ; balance from almost every civilized nation, the whole speaking sixteen different languages. (See Wheelock's Report.) Every State in the Union was represented ; 3437 from the Southern States. From Wales there were 448 ; Austrian Empire, 654 ; Denmark, 190 ; Belgium, 91 ; Holland, 419 ; Italy, 56 ; Poland, 103 ; Russia, 35 ; Switz- erland, 1150 ; Spain, 1; Mexico, 3 ; West Indies, 2 ; East Indies, 5 ; Africa, 1, &c. Of mixed Indian blood, 2545 ; Blacks and Mulattoes, 143.
Nativities of American Population .- Minnesota, 32,682 ; New York, 21,720 ; Pennsylvania, 7574; Ohio, 7506 ; Wisconsin, 6695 ; Maine, 6554 ; Illinois, 5440 ; Vermont, 4268 ; Massachusetts, 3771 ; Indiana, 3649 ; New Hamp- shire, 2422; Iowa, 1708; Michigan, 1836 ; Connecticut, 1681; New Jersey, 811 ; Rhode Island, 420 ; Kansas, 25 ; Border Slave States, 2863 ; Southern Slave States, 574; California, 11, &c.
Growth in Population .- Organized as a Territory in 1849, with 4057 population ; having by the census of 1850, 5330 population ; admitted as a State in 1858 with 152,000 ; having by the census of 1860, 172,022 ; by census of 1865, 250,099 ; she had in January, 1869, by estimate of Gov. Marshall, based on reliable data, 445,000.
Comparison with other States .- " Michigan, Indiana and Illinois were each from 20 to 28 years in reaching the population obtained by Minnesota in ten," viz., from 1850 to 1860.
Increase of Wisconsin, from 1860 to 1865, 93,064, or 11.9 per cent.
Minnesota, 1860 to 1865, 78,077, or 45.3
Wisconsin, 66 1860 to 1865 (5 yrs.) 93,064, or 11.9 per cent.
66 Minnesota, 1865 to 1868 (3} yrs.) 194,011, or 77.9 "'
Considering that Wisconsin in 1860 had 775,873 popu- lation, and Minnesota in 1865 had only 250,099-less 3
26
POPULATION AND NATIONALITY.
than one-third that of Wisconsin, the 194,011 increase in Minnesota, in 32 years, compared to 93,064 in Wis- consin, in 5 years, shows the very remarkably rapid growth of Minnesota.
Compared with the prosperous State of Iowa, her great pre-eminence still holds.
Increase of Iowa, from 1860 to 1865, 78,553, or 11.16 per cent.
Minnesota, 1860 to 1865, 78,077, or 45. 3
66
Iowa, 1860 to 1865 (5 yrs. ) 78,553, or 11.16 per cent.
66 Minnesota, 1865 to 1868 (3} yrs.) 194,011, or 77.9
Population of Iowa in 1860, 674,948.
Population of Minnesota in 1865, 250,099.
With less than a third of the capacity of Wisconsin for natural increase by births, and a little over a third of the capacity of Iowa, Minnesota shows a per centage of increase in three years and a half seven times as great as these States in five years, and an actual increase in numbers, in three and a half years, two and a half times that of these States in five years.
And yet the American Reporter, an immigration paper published at New York, reviewing the progress of the Western States from 1860 to 1865, and placing Minnesota in the front rank, says, "most of them took a census in the years 1864 and 1865, and the results of these cen- susses establish the astonishing fact that the increase of these States from 1860 to 1865 has been, in spite of the war, more rapid than that of the most flourishing States of Europe."
Europe Challenged to Show a Parallel Increase .- The same paper then gives the following exhibit :
States.
Census of 1860.
Census of 1865.
Per cent. increase.
Minnesota
172,022
248,848*
.. 40.+
Illinois.
. 1,711,951
..
2,163,000
. . 27.
Wisconsin.
775,871
. .
868,847
.. 12.
Iowa
674,948
.. 753,501
.. 11.16
Michigan.
749,113
. . 805,479₫ .. 7.05
* Should be 250,099. + Should be 45.3. # 1864.
27
INCREASE OF WEALTH.
The average annual increase of Minnesota is 9 per cent., Illinois 5.4 per cent., Wisconsin 2.4 per cent., Iowa 2.2 per cent., Michigan 1.9 per cent. The article then proceeds to state that they have not room to review the messages of the governors, which "unroll a picture of satisfactory progress, but takes one of the Governor of Minnesota as a specimen." After stating our financial condition, number of acres of land entered, logs scaled, amount of school funds, railroads in process of com- pletion, &c., as given in ex-Gov. Miller's last message, the Reporter adds : "Now we may safely challenge Europe to show us any State equalling these statistics. And let our friends in Great Britain always bear in mind the above figures show the development of this State during a war, the like the world. has rarely seen, and which, in the opinion of famous statesmen and financiers of Europe, was infallibly to terminate in the dissolution of the Union, and the utter prostration and bankruptcy of the dissolved parts."
INCREASE OF WEALTH .- VALUATION OF REAL AND PERSONAL ESTATE.
Year.
Year.
Year. 1863-$32,211,324
1849- $514,936
1856-$24,394,395
1850- 806,437 .
1857-49,336,673
1864-41,222,264
1851- 1,282,123
1858-41,846,778
1865-45,127,318
1852- 1,715,835
1859-35,564,992
1866-57,974,352
1853- 2,701,437
1860-36,753,408
1867-65,140,248
1854- 3,508,518
1861-39,981,513
1868-75,795,366
1855-10,424,157
1862-29,832,719
INCREASE OF LIVE STOCK.
Horses . .. 1850- 860
1862-29,742
1865-49,575
1860-16,879
1863-34,749
1866-59,328
1861-21,168
1864-41,901
1867-76,317
1868-83,709
Cattle .. 1850- 1,347
1862 -- 180,482
1865-186,259
1860- 88,729
1863 -- 194,736
1866-183,910
1861-127,777
1864-196,448
1867-219,336
1868-235,426
28
BEAUTY AND FERTILITY OF THE STATE.
Sheep .... 1850- 80 1862-43,552
1865-147,512
1860-12,595
1863-63,624
1866-171,053
1861-22,455
1864-92,612
1867-173,04
1868-146,598
Hogs . . . 1850- 734 1862-117,237
1865- 67,589
1860-104,479
1863- 87,857
1866- 84,436
1861- 93,083
1864- 71,483
1867-108,004 1868- 91,468
Mules and Asses . . . . 1850 -- 14 1860-384 1865-664
Value of Live Stock .... 1850-
$92,859 1865- $5,967,812
1860-$3,201,769 1868-$10,707,872
CHAPTER III.
OFFICIAL DESCRIPTIONS OF THE BEAUTY AND FERTILITY OF THE STATE .- Eastern Minnesota south of 48º, em- bracing the counties of Houston, Fillmore, Winona, Olmsted, Dodge, Wabasha, Goodhue, Rice, Dakota, and half of Washington and Ramsey. " The land best adapted for wheat and most small grains, and in which the proportion of earthy, saline, and organic matter is distributed in the best proportion to impart fertility and durability, is the soil based on the calca- reous and magnesio-calcareous rocks, and which par- ticularly characterizes the country bordering on the Mississippi and its tributaries between the 41st and 45th degrees of latitude, with an average width of twenty to thirty miles west of the Mississippi. It includes on the west side of the Mississippi the country watered by the Des Moines, the two Iowas, Yellow, Root, Minneiska, Wasioja, Cannon, and Vermillion."*
* Owen's Geological Report (1851.)
29
EASTERN MINNESOTA.
Col. J. J. Abert, chief of topographical engineers, in a report to the War Department, April, 1854, says of a large portion of these counties : "Vermillion Prairie, a most fertile and beautiful region, beginning twelve miles from the Minnesota River, and extending to the Missis- sippi on the east, and to Iowa on the south, has a surface gently undulating and a rich soil. Occasional beautiful . groves of oak relieve its otherwise monotonous appear- ance and afford charming sites for residences."
Mr. Wheelock (official report) says of Houston, Fill- more, Mower, Freeborn, Winona, Olmsted, Wabasha, Dodge, Goodhue, Rice, Dakota and a part of Le Sueur counties : "The soil of the valley bottoms is alluvial, very deep, and astonishingly fertile. Upon the slopes, ridges and prairies where it is derived from the magnesian limestone which it overlays, it is scarcely less so." Plenty of timber " along the valleys and ravines," " sparse on the uplands and wide prairies," and large tracts in the Zumbro Valley, Dodge and Wabasha counties, the Root River Valley and in Rice County.
"The Cannon and Vermillion rivers (in Rice and Dakota counties) flow through smooth, wide prairies almost to their very mouths. The courses of the Zumbro, Minneiska and Root rivers are marked as they approach their outlets by deep sinuous ravines, cut through the series of sedimentary rocks, whose castellated summits, towering above the intervening valleys, seem like huge Titans guarding the sleeping beauty beneath." "All the streams run over pebbly bottoms, and in their rapid de- scent break into numerous waterfalls, while their pure waters, replenished by innumerable springs, are stocked with fine trout."
EASTERN MINNESOTA, NORTH OF THE ST. CROIX AND SOUTH OF ST. LOUIS RIVERS, embracing Carleton, Aiken, Pine,
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EASTERN MINNESOTA.
Chisago, Kanabec, Isanti, Mille Lacs, Anoka, Sherburne, Benton, Morrisson, Crow Wing, and north half of Ramsey and Washington.
Hon. Thomas Clarke, Assistant State Geologist (official report, 1861,) says: "The granite, basalt and trap boulder and fragment are geological specimens of our best soils. Two-thirds of my field of observations, the triangle between the St. Croix and Mississippi, south of St. Louis and Prairie rivers, consists of the above soils. The remaining third, in areas of 100 to 1000 acres, is swamp land." Of this he estimates 250,000 acres of . cranberry marsh, 74,000 acres of wild rice, 735,000 tam- arac marsh, 73,000 small lakes, and 122,000 sandy bar- rens with little timber. The finest natural meadows abound in this district.
Mr. Wheelock speaks of the country bordering on the St. Croix, below 46°, as "heavily timbered with hard woods and of a rich soil," "its lower sections presenting a succession of oak openings of great beauty and fertility." The valleys of the Snake and Kettle rivers occupied mainly by swamps and natural meadows, bearing a luxuriant growth of grass five or six feet in height, which makes a coarse, sweet hay of great use in the pineries."
He speaks of the Mississippi Valley above Elk River and below the pineries (latitude 46°) as "of excellent soil-prairies interspersed with beautiful parks of oak ;" the valleys of the Rum, Elk, Platte and other streams which rise in the highlands and lakes of the great summit level and cross the pineries, as a " low undulating plain, covered with clusters of lakes, tamarac swamps, meadows and oak openings, with a thin sandy soil on the highest ridges, and intervening masses of great fertility in all the slopes and depressions ;" the prevailing characteristic
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THE MINNESOTA VALLEY.
below 46° being rolling prairies with oak openings, soil sandy, but rich in organic ingredients.
Facility for Drainage of the Swamp Lands .- Clarke, geologist, in his official report, says "the elevation of the main or dividing ridge between the St. Croix · and Mississippi is known to be from 100 to 200 feet greater than those rivers at their approximate points. Hence ample fall exists for the thorough drainage of these lands."
Subsoil of the Marshes .- " The subsoil of these lands is the same as the uplands, sand, clay, and marl. The surface is vegetable mould and fibrous roots-nearly a peat in some localities-covered with moss, grass, and ferns, and varies from one to three feet in depth."
The Pineries are the most valuable of the resources of this district, of which see more under head of "Timber," " Manufactures," &c.
THE MINNESOTA VALLEY AND SOUTH-WESTERN MIN- NESOTA embrace the counties of Scott, Sibley, Nicollet, Carver, Le Sueur, Blue Earth, Waseca, Faribault, Martin, Brown, Watonwan, Cottonwood, Redwood, Renville, Chippewa, Lac Qui Parle, Big Stone, and parts of Hen- nepin and Dakota.
Owen, in his geological report, describes the Minnesota Valley thus : "With the exception of the Bois Franc District (Big Woods) the whole country may be con- sidered as prairie, the streams only being skirted with wood. * Throughout the greater part of the St. Peter [Minnesota] River country the traveller is surprised and charmed with the ever changing variety and beauty of the scenery.
" The alluvial land bordering upon the river varies in width from a quarter of a mile to a mile or more. The greater portion of this constitutes numerous natural
32
THE MINNESOTA VALLEY.
meadows, covered annually with a large, luxuriant growth of grass. A remarkable feature of this country consists in the small lakes and ponds scattered over it. Many of these are beautiful sheets of water, having the appearance of artificial basins, which greatly enhance the beauty of the country, especially when skirted by groves of trees, as they sometimes are, and frequented by a variety of water fowls." In another place he says, " on fairly entering the Valley of the Minnesota River, we again find a fertile, well-watered, and desirable farming country."
Exceedingly Fine View .- Again : "About ten miles above the Rapids (Little Rapids) two beautiful terraces of fertile prairie rise above the river bottom. The summit of the first bench is elevated one hundred and thirty feet above the river, and extends for several miles up and down the river, with a width of about three quarters of a mile, dotted with occasional groves of oak, maple, and elm trees. The second terrace rises one hundred feet higher, or two hundred and thirty feet above the river, and is composed of coarser materials. The view from these heights is exceedingly fine, and the disposition of prairie and groves of timber almost con- veys the idea of a cultivated country."
Jonathan Carver, an English traveller, in a book pub- lished in 1781, describes the Minnesota Valley as " a most delightful country, abounding with all the neces- saries of life, that grow spontaneously." He speaks of " trees bending under the loads of fruits, meadows covered with hops and many sorts of vegetables, the ground stored with useful roots, and eminences a little distance from the river, from which you have views that cannot be excelled, even by the most beautiful of those I have already described."
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33
THE MINNESOTA VALLEY.
G. W. Featherstonhaugh, another English traveller, in 1835, in his "report of a geological reconnoisance," speaks of this valley as " extremely beautiful-charming slopes, with pretty dells intersecting them, studded with trees as gracefully as if they had been planted with the most refined taste."
I. N. Nicollet, a scientific explorer, in his official report to the War Department, of his expedition of 1838-9, says : " Among the regions (adjoining the Coteau des Prairies) which appear to me the most favorable, is the one watered by the Mankato or Blue Earth River, and to which I have given the name of the 'Undine Region.'" This appears to comprise the counties of Faribault, Martin, Blue Earth, Waseca, Watonwan, and parts of Brown and Cottonwood.
He continues : "The great number of the navigable tributaries of the Mankato, spreading themselves out in the shape of a fan ; the groups of lakes surrounded by well-wooded hills ; some wide-spreading prairies, with a fertile soil ; others, apparently less favored, but open to improvement ; the whole together bestow upon this region a most picturesque appearance. The whole country em- braced by the Lower St. Peter (Minnesota River) and the Undine Region exceeds any land on the Mississippi above the Wisconsin River, as well in the quality and quantity of its timber as the fertility of its soil."
Timber .- " The forests of the Valley on the right bank are connected by groves and small wooded streams of the adjoining prairies, with the forest called Bois Francs (Big Woods)." He gives the varieties as " soft maple, American and red elm, black walnut, the nettle tree, basswood, and red and white ash."
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