USA > Minnesota > Minnesota - its advantages to settlers, 1869 : being a brief synopsis of its history and progress, climate, soil, agricultural and manufacturing facilities, commercial capacities, and social status, its lakes, rivers, and railroads, homestead and exemption laws > Part 3
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We rarely see here any of that ruffianism and lawlessness which in most new States renders them unpleasant as a permanent residence. It would be as diffi- cult to find a township without its " meeting house " and school house as in Ohio or Pennsylvania. The various religions denominations are proportioned among the population in about the same ratio as in the older States.
The following table, from the Bureau of Statistics, exhibits the ratio of crime in several States as compared with Minnesota :
State.
No. of Indictments.
No. of Convictions.
Ratio of Convictions-
Ohio,
3,571
1,234
1 in 1,950
Massachusetts,
- 4,248
1,295
1 in 841
New-York,
1,842
1 in 1,900
Minnesota, - - 122
44
1 in 3,854
" The comparison is remarkably favorable to Minnesota, but might have been expected in a population chiefly agricultural."
EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS.
Minnesota took the subject of education in hand at an early stage of her set- tlement, and she may now justly boat of possessing the most munificent endow- ment for educational purposes of any State in the Union Two sections of land, 1,280 acres, in every township, are set apart for sale or lease in aid of common schools, amounting in all to three million acres.
In the Message of Governor Marshall to the Legislature of Minnesota, January 7th, 1869, upon this subject, he says :
" The sales of school lands during the year 1868 have been 76,910 acres, pro- ducing $464,840.61, which sum added to the former accumulations of the per- manent school fund, makes the magnificent fund of two millions seventy-seven thousand, eighty-two dollars!" The State Land Commissioner estimates that the land granted to the State for school purposes will amount to three million acres when the Government Surveys are completed. But little more than one tenth of the whole have been sold-making allowance for inferior lands there will ulti- matly be derived from these lands the grand sum of sixteen million dollars for
-
15.
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
the perpetual use of common schools. What an inheritance for the children of Minnesota !"
From the able report of the Hon. M. H. Dunnell, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, I take the following facts :
Whole number of school districts in the State in 1868, was 2,353 ; whole num- ber of children in the State by the returns for 1868, 129,103, an increase for the year of 14,682 over 1867; whole number of teachers in 1868, 3,276; value of school houses in the State in 1868, 1,091,559.42. His report says Minnesota has a larger number of school houses than any other State in the Union of the. same population and taxable property. Her total expenditures for school pur- poses during the last two years exceed $1,500,000, and her school houses have already cost over one million dollars ! These facts constitute a record of which our young State may well be proud.
STATE UNIVERSITY.
This institution is located in the city of St. Anthony and now in successful operation. A land grant of 46,080 acres was made for the endownment of a State University and a magnificent college edifice erected. In addition to the above land grant, in March, 1868, by an act of our State Legislature the Agri- cultural College Lands granted by the general government were given to the University of Minnesota, being 120,000 acres.
The First State Normal School is located at Winona and in successful opera- tion, training teachers for our common schools. The number in attendance the past year 122. The school buildings are large, elegant and a credit to the State.
The Second State Normal School is located at Mankato, and has but recently been opened.
The Third State Normal School is located at St. Cloud, and will, in a short time, enter upon its career of usefulness.
Private enterprise has also established many private schools, classical Acada- mies and Seminaries in different portions of the State, thus affording educational facilities surpassing many of the older States.
CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.
Minnesota, although as yet too young to have a system of the noble public charities perfected, her wants in this line are provided for as soon as felt. An Asylum for the deaf, dumb and blind is in operation at Faribault ; ample land grants have been made for the erection of an Insane Asylum, as well as for the support and education of the orphans of soldiers who fell in the late war. The Insane Asylum has been located at St. Peter, and is now in practical operation, and contains about 100 patients at this time. A State Reform School has been located near St. Paul, and is now in operation. There are two Orphan Asylums in St. Paul, one under the auspices of the Protestants, the other of the Cath- olics.
BANKS.
The State has sixteen National Banks, with an aggregate paid up capital Zof nearly two millions, located as follows :
St. Paul,
3,
Capital,
$900,000
.
Minneapolis,
3,
200,000
W'inona,
2,
100,000
Hastings,
2,
200,000
Red Wing,
1,
50,000
Rochester,
1,
50,000
Shakopee,
1,
50,000
Austin,
1,
50,000
Stillwater,
1,
50,000
Faribault,
1,
50,000
Mankato,
1,
50,000
"
16
MINNESOTA :
These, with numerous private banks located at the principal manufacturing "and commercial centres, afford ample conveniences for the transaction of busi- ness. More banking capital, however, is needed to facilitate the rapidly increas- ing business of the State, and more than double the present amount would find active, safe and profitable employment.
RIVER TRADE-STEAMBOATS AND BARGES.
The steamboat business of Minnesota is as yet confined to the Mississippi, the Minnesota and the St. Croix rivers. On the Mississippi the business is principally done by the following lines of boats, although a large number of independent or " wild" boats, as they are called, engage in our trade :
The North Western Union Packet Company, [white collar line,] being a union of the " Davidson Line " and the Minnesota Packet Company, has within a few years grown to a large and influential company, starting, it is said with a "Line " consisting of one boat, they now own fourteen first class packets, nineteen stern wheel steamers together with one hundred and thirty-one barges, and employ over 2,300 men. The capital stock of this company is $1,500,000. Their boats ply between St. Louis and St. Paul, and LaCrosse and St. Paul; two boats leav- ing St. Paul daily, connecting with the Ill. Central R.R. at Dubuque, Milwau- kee R.R. at Prairie du Chien and LaCrosse, and also a daily Line from St. Louis to St. Paul. This line also has boats on the St. Croix, one boat daily to Tayl- or's Falls, and on the Minnesota a daily packet besides several freighters. They have recently purchased the St. Louis and Quincy Packet Co's Boats.
The Northern Line boats ply between St. Louis and St. Paul, but I have not been able to obtain the facts as to this Line.
The Collector of Customs at the Port of St. Paul, gives the aggregate ton- nage of that port for 1868, at 16,430.27 tons, which falls far short of the actual amount, because of a large number of the boats being registered at Du- buque and Galena. Were the boats and barges plying to the Port of St. Paul - all registered there, the tonnage would double the amount given above.
An association of capitalists have recently projected an enterprise of great moment to the Northern portion of the State. It is that of steamboat navi- gation from the Falls of Saint Anthony to St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids, also from Sauk Rapids to the Falls of Pokegama. These, if successful, will greatly aid in the development of an immense extent of valuable country. The localities that will be more immediately benefited are St. Anthony, Minneapolis, Anoka, Day- ton, Otsego, Monticello, Clear Water, Elk River, St. Cloud, Sauk Rapids, Little Falls, Sauk Centre, Alexandria, &c.
THE RAILROAD SYSTEM OF MINNESOTA.
In 1857, Congress made a land grant of four and a half million aeres to Min- nesota for railroad purposes. In 1864, an additional grant was made.
These acts grant ten sections, or 6,400 acres of land for each mile of road to be built under it, and projected the great lines which were intended to benefit all parts of the State, and provide for its increasing demands. These lines are as follows :
STILLWATER AND ST. PAUL R. R. CO.
Ist .- A line from Stillwater to St. Paul, 18 miles in length. It has been located, and the franchises of the company and its land grant are in the hands of the business men of Stillwater, who are directly interested in the early comple- tion of the road.
When finished it will bring to St. Paul the heavy lumber trade of the St. Croix Valley, and will materially assist in the development of a rich agricultural region.
THE FIRST DIVISION OF THE ST. PAUL AND PACIFIC R. R. CO.
2d. - From St. Paul, via St. Anthony and Minneapolis, to a point on the western boundary of the State, near or at Big Stone Lake, with a branch from
17
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
>ª
St. Anthony to Watab. The main line, from St. Paul to the western boundary of the State, is 200 miles in length. It has been located the whole distance ; forty miles of the road is in operation, it is graded and ready for the iron,- and the company expect to complete it to the centre of Meeker County,. through the " Big Woods," a distance of 70 miles from St. Paul, by the first of June, 1869, and to complete ninety additional miles by the first of January, 1870. An expensive bridge over the Mississippi, just above the Falls of St. Anthony, has been completed and is now in constant use.
The branch line from St. Anthony up the valley of the Mississippi, is com- pleted to Sauk Rapids, a distance of 65 miles, and is now in operation. The remaining section of the branch line will be finished as soon as the business of the country will justify.
.
TIIE ST. PAUL AND PACIFIC R. R. CO.
3d .- A line from Watab, where it connects with the First Division of the St. Paul and Pacific Rail Road, via Crow Wing, to Pembina, on the great Red River of the North, about 320 » iles in length, with a branch from some point between St. Cloud and Crow Wing to Lake Superior, a distance of 120 miles,
The line from Watah to Crow Wing has been located, but is not yet in course of construction. Operations have not commenced on the Lake Superior branch.
ST. PAUL AND SIOUX CITY, [LATE MINNESOTA VALLEY R. R.]
4th. - A line from St. Paul, up the valley of the Minnesota, to Mankato, thence in a southwesterly direction to the Iowa State line ; there to meet a road from Sioux City, Iowa, to the Minnesota State line.
The distance from St. Paul to Iowa State line is 170 miles ; from thence to Sioux City 70 miles.
The road is completed and in operation from St. Paul to Mankato, 86 miles, and work on the line is in progress toward Sioux City. The distance fiom Mankato to Sioux City is 170 miles, to which point the Sioux City and Pacific road is now completed.
THE MILWAUKEE AND ST. PAUL RAILWAY CO.
5th .- A line from St. Paul and Minneapolis (junction at Mendota) via Fari- bault and Owatonna, to the north line of the State of Iowa. This line runs almost due north and south ; it intersects the Winona and St. Peter Rail Road at Owatonna; is about 110 miles long, and connects with the Iowa Division of the same company, which is complete to McGregor, on the Mississippi, opposite Prairie du Chien.
This Railway furnishes the only all rail continuous route from Milwaukee and Chicago to St. Paul and Minneapolis, connecting at Mendota with St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad for St. Peter, Mankato and all points on the Minne- sota River; and at St. Paul and Minneapolis with the St. Paul and Pacific Rail- road for St. Cloud and all points in the northwest, being the direct route to the valley of the great " Red River of the North."
Arrangements have been made and now begun for bridging the Mississippi at St. Paul and running into that city at a convenient point for the accommodation of both passenger and freight traffic. The city of Minneapolis has also granted the right of way for this road to unite tracks with the main line of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad within its limits. . When these important additions are made, the facilities for the transaction of business and interchange of traffic between the different Railways of the State will be as perfect as those of any of the older States, and will tend greatly to increase the usefulness of these lines to the public.
, LAKE SUPERIOR AND MISSISSIPPI R. R. CO.
6th .- A line from St. Paul, which is the head of navigation on the Mississippi river, to the head of Lake Superior in Minnesota, with authority to connect with a branch to Superior City, Wisconsin. The distance to the navigable waters of Lake Superior is 133 miles ; to the head of Lake Superior, 150 miles, This line is controlled by the Lake Superior and Mississippi R. R. Co. It is 2
18
MINNESOTA :
completed to Wyoming, 30 miles from St. Paul, and will be pushed to completion the entire distance within two years. This road has also a grant of seven sec- tions to the mile of State lands in addition to those named.
THE HASTINGS AND DAKOTA R. R. CO.
7th. -- A line from Hastings, through the counties of Dakota, Scott, Carver, and McLeod, to the foot of Big Stone Lake.
This road is finished to Farmington, where it intersects the Milwaukee and St. Paul Road, a distance of 22 miles. It is an east and west line across the State, and work progressing.
THE WINONA AND ST. PETER R. R. CO.
8th. - A line from Winona, via St. Peter, to the western boundary of the State. This line extends east and west across the entire State. It is completed to Waseca, 105 miles west of Winona, and will be finished to the Minnesota River, 140 miles, by the close of 1869. When completed, the line will be 250 miles long. It intersects the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway at Owatonna, and has recently been purchased by the North Western R. R. Co., which insures its rapid completion. Within three or four months the eastern connection of this road with the Milwaukee and St. Paul road will be in operation, thus forming another all rail route from the East to the interior of Minnesota.
. THE SOUTHERN MINNESOTA R. R. CO.
9th. -- A line from La Crescent up the valley of the Root River, through the counties of Houston, Fillmore, Mower, Freeborn, Faribault, Martin, Jackson, Noble, and Rock, to the western boundary of the State.
This line is controlled by the Southern Minnesota R. R. Co., is completed to Lanesboro, Fillmore county, 50 miles west of the Mississippi river, and will be pushed forward vigorously to its terminus at the Great Bend of the Missouri. This company propose to construct the road this season from Austin or Lansing, on the Milwaukee and St. Paul road to Albert Lea, in Freeborn county, thence to Blue Earth City, Fairmont and Jackson. It crosses the entire State, from east to west, through the southern tier of counties, and is upwards of 250 miles long.
THE NORTHERN . PACIFIC R. R. CO.
10th .- During the past year several corps of engineers have been engaged in locating the line of this road across the State of Minnesota.
Two lines have been run: one commencing at Bayfield, on Lake Superior, passing about 10 miles south of Superior City, and thence via St. Cloud, up the valley of Sauk River to Breckenridge, on the Red River of the North. The other, commencing at Superior City, passes almost due west, crossing the Miss- issippi 10 or 12 miles above Crow Wing, and thence to Breckenridge, on Red River.
It is not yet known which line will be adopted; but either will cross the State from east to west, and will add immensely to the development of Northern Min- nesota.
All the roads named have been endowed by Congress with land grants of ten sections or 6,400 acres per mile, with the exception of the Northern Pacific which has a grant of twenty sections or 12,800 acres per mile.
THE CHICAGO AND ST. PAUL RAILWAY CO.
11th .- In addition to the lines named above, the St. Paul and Chicago Rail- way Company has been authorized to construct a road along the Mississippi River from St. Paul to the southern boundary of the State, and has been endowed with a valuable grant of State lands, amounting to fourteen sections or nearly 10,000 acres of land per mile. The line has been surveyed as far as Winona, a distance of 100 miles, and partly graded.
19
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
SUMMARY.
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this system of railroads to the present and future population of the State. The construction of these lines now in active progress gives employment to vast numbers of men, and gives as- surance that every part of the State in the near future will enjoy the benefits of a cheap and speedy transportation of passengers and products to and fro. And when completed, the system will give to the whole State every advantage, so far as markets are concerned, which now belongs to the favored State of Illinois.
These lines, covering over 2,000 miles wholly within the limits of the State, are rapidly opening up some of the best lands in the world, by bringing them within easy reach of good markets. The different railroad companies are pur- suing a liberal policy towards immigrants offering them inducements as to price and time of payments, seeing that their own prosperity is identical with that of the State. St. Paul may be said to form the heart or centre of this net-work of the ·" arteries of trade."
The great facility which Minnesota possesses of sending her produce to mar- ket is not the least of her many advantages. The richest lands and the finest climate in the world are useless in a commercial point of view if not connected with the great trading emporiums by wide and accessible channels of trade. The broad bosom of the Mississippi sweeps our commerce to the Gulf of Mexico, and brings back the cotton of the South to be manufactured by our numberless water-powers; our railroads open another channel to the Atlantic coast ; while by way of lake navigation, via Lake Superior and the great Pacific Railroad, con- necting us with both the Atlantic and Pacific, afford ample and unequalled com- mercial facilities.
Navigation on Lake Superior opens the last of April and closes about the 1st of December. In previous years propellers have left Buffalo as late as the 10th of December, in 1861 as late as the 21st.
"The navigation of Lake Superior, contrary to the general opinion, is much safer than that of the lower lakes. Its waters, being deeper, make easier seas, and it is navigable as many days in the year as any of them. * * *
* It has been predicted by thinking men, who understand the subject, that when steam communication shall have been effected across the continent from the Pacific to the Atlantic, a change must take place in the courses of the commerce between the East and the West. When you can lay down in London and Hamburg cargoes of tea, silks, &c., from China, within fifty to sixty days after their ship- ment from there, then the old courses of trade by the way of the Cape of Good Hope will have to be abandoned-then the commercial sceptre will depart from England and pass into our keeping. This all seems as sure as anything in the future can be."-Report of the Buffalo Board of Trade, for 1866.
PROJECTED RAIL ROADS.
In addition to the ten Land Grant Roads already mentioned, nearly all of which are progressing rapidly, there are the following eleven roads projected, some of which will be commenced this year.
1st .- The Owatonna and State Line R. R. Co. propose to construct a road from Owatonna via Albert Lea to the south line of the State, there to connect with a road now in progress northward through lowa. Large local aid has been secured.
2d .- A road from Lanesboro, Fillmore county, via Chatfield to Rochester, Zumbrota and Cannon Falls to Saint Paul, passing through the counties of Olmsted, Wabashaw, Goodhue and Dakota.
3d .--- A road from the Mississippi river, starting at the city of Red Wing thence via Cannon Falls and Faribault to Blue Earth City.
4th .- A road from Wabashaw at foot of Lake Pepin, on the Mississippi river, via Plainview, Rochester and Lansing to Omaha, with a branch via Faribault to St. Peter.
5th .- A road from Minneapolis up the west side of the Mississippi river
20
MINNESOTA :
via Dayton, Monticello and Clear Water to St. Cloud, thence up Sauk Valley, via Sauk Centre to Alexandria, Douglas county.
6th .- A road from White Bear Lake, on the Mississippi river and Lake. Superior road via St. Anthony and Minneapolis to Shakopee, Scott county, thence up the west side of the Minnesota river, via Chaska, Carver and Hen- derson to St. Peter.
7th .- An " Air and Hour Line Road" from St. Paul to Minneapolis and Saint Anthony, distance from the city limits of St. Paul to the city limits of those cities five miles.
8th .- A road from Mankato via Blue Earth City, to the Iowa line, thence. to connect with the Keokuk and Fort Des Moines R. R.
9th .- A road from Taylor's Falls, on the St. Croix, to connect with the Mis- sissippi river and Lake Superior R. R.
10th .- A road from St. Cloud to Mankato, passing through Stearns. Meeker, Wright, McLeod, Sibley and Nicolet counties.
11 .- Railroad from Mankato, via Albert Lea, to interseet a road from Iowa,- up the valley of Turkey river.
MANUFACTURING FACILITIES.
, Our State has, during the year 1868, made considerable progress in manufac- turies of various kinds. Want of space prevents a detail. In nearly every section of the State there has been a gratifying improvement in this respect, more so than during any previous year of our history.
"Apart from social causes and the general influence of the stimulating and exacting climates of the North, in developing the forms of skilled industry, it is owing chiefly to two physical circumstances that New-England has attained her present eminence iu manufactures, in spite of her deficiency in the useful minerals and the raw material employed in the arts. These are, first, her abundant water power ; and, second, her favorable commercial position which has enabled her to obtain ready supplies of raw material from abroad and to distribute the product through a wide range of dependent markets. These circumstances alone among the physical conditions of manufacturing power, have raised the little State of Massachusetts, without internal resources of raw material, without coal or iron, to the first rank among American States in the manufacture especially of textile fabrics. And these purely physical conditions of industrial developement exist in Minnesota in a greater degree than in New-England, and in addition she possesses to a large extent essential elements of raw material of which New-England is destitute.
" 1. Minnesota possesses a more ample and effective water power than New- England. The falls and rapids of St. Anthony alone, with a total descent of 64 feet, affords an available ydraulic. capacity, according to an experienced and competent engineer, of 120,000 horse power. This is considerably greater than the whole motive power-steam and water-employed in textile manufactures in England in 1850, and nearly seven times as great as the water power so employed.
" 'That is to say, the available power created by this magnificent waterfall, is more than sufficient to drive all the 25,000,000 spindles and 4,000 mills of England and Scotland combined. The entire machinery of the English Manchester and the American Lowell, if they could be transplanted here, would scarcely press upon its immense hydraulic capabilities. But as compared with those great industrial centres, the Falls of St. Anthony possess one decisive advantage, which is to a great extent illustrative of the functions of the State as a commercial and manufacturing emporium, this splendid cataract forms the terminus of continuous navigation on the Mississippi ; and the same waters which lavish on the broken ledges of limestone a strength almost sufficient to weave the garments of the world, may gather the products of its mills almost at their very doors and distribute then: to every part of the great valley of the Mississippi.
There are now at the Falls of St. Anthony thirteen grist mills, fourteen saw mills, two woolen mills, two paper mills, one oil mill. These, with minor establishments there; produced in 1867, $4,669,358 worth of manufactured articles, and in 1868 nearly $6,000,000, with a capital employed in manufac- turing industry of $2,894,360.
21
ITS ADVANTAGES TO SETTLERS.
" The St. Croix Falls, which are only second to St. Anthony Falls in hydraulic power, are similarly, though somewhat less advantageously situated at the head of navigation upon a tributary ot the Mississippi. Except the Minnesota, nearly every tributary of the Mississippi, in its rapid and broken descent to the main stream, affords valuable mill sites. The Mississippi itself in its descent from its Itasca summit to Fort Snelling, in which it falls 836 feet, or over 16 inches per mile, is characterized by long steps of slack water, broken at long intervals by abrupt transitions in the character of the rocks which forms its bed, and forming a fine series of falls and rapids available for hydraulic works. Pokegoma Falls, Little Falls, Sauk Rapids, and St. Anthony Falls, are the chief of these. But the Elk, Rum, St. Croix, and numberless smaller streams on the east slope of the Mississispi, the Sauk, Crow, Vermillion, Cannon, Zumbro, Minneiska, Root, and their branches, nearly all the tributaries of the Minnesota, and a multitude of streams besides, in their abrupt descent over broken beds of limestone or sand- stone, through long and winding valleys or ravines, with a fall of from three to eight feet per mile, afford an unlimited abundance of available water power to nearly every county in the State. This diffusion of hydraulic power throughout the whole State, is a feature whose value as an element of developement, can scarcely be over estimated, as it gives to every neighborhood the means of manufacturing its own flour and lumber, and affords the basis of all those numerous local manufactures which enter into the industrial economy of every northern community.
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