USA > Minnesota > Hennepin County > Minneapolis > Personal recollections of Minnesota and its people : and early history of Minneapolis > Part 10
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The village now had representatives of most of the trades. Mr. Henry Fowler, with a large family, from one of the pro- vincial cities in England, opened a clock and watchmaker's establishment.
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At this early date the village had four good lawyers, Messrs. E. S. Hall, John W. North, Isaac Atwater, and David A. Secombe ; three doctors, John H. Murphy, Ira Kingsley, and H. Fletcher. These were all the professional men, aside from the ministers, at that time ; but they kept coming right alon“,
FIRST CHURCHES.
In 1849 Father Ravoux commenced the erection of a frame church-building in the upper town. In the spring of 1851 Rev. Mr. Ledow was stationed in St. Anthony. He was the first resident Catholic missionary in the village, though Rev. Mr. Galtier and Father Ravoux had, previous to that time, held services in private houses. A Methodist church was organized at the east-side residence of C. A. Tuttle in 1849, by Rev. Enos Stephens of Wisconsin. Rev. C. A. Newcomb was the resident pastor in the spring of 1851.
Rev. E. D. Neill of St. Paul preached under the auspices of the Presbytertan missionary society occasionally during 1849 and early in 1850, and in July, 1850, Rev. William T. Wheeler, formerly a Congregational minister to Africa, com- menced preaching, but was succeeded in 1851 by Rev. Charles Secombe as pastor. This was the first Congregational church organized in Minnesota. A Baptist church had been organ- ized June 24, 1850, by Rev. J. P. Parsons, formerly of the lead mines near Galena. Rev. W. C. Brown was the first pastor, and occupied the pulpit in 1851. In June of this year Rev. C. G. Ames was sent out from New England as a missionary. He belonged to the Free-will Baptist church. A church was organized October 25th following Mr. Ames's advent. The first services under the auspices of the Episcopal church were held by Dr. Gear as early as 1849, but from July, 1850, Rev. Timothy Wilcoxson held occasional services until October 1, 1852, when Rev. J. S. Chamberlain was assigned to duty. It will be seen that the different denom- inations of Christians had a pretty full representation at this early day.
STATE UNIVERSITY.
On the same day that the Express made its appearance, May 31, an event occurred in St. Anthony of great interest to
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OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
the people of the territory. It was the organization of the board of regents of the University of Minnesota ; the begin- ning of the magnificent seat of learning which every Minne- sotian is so proud of to-day. The charter had been granted at the previous legislature. In the distribution of the public buildings by that body St. Paul was to have the capitol, Stillwater the penitentiary, and St. Anthony the university. The university had been granted several thousand acres of land by congress. William R. Marshall has always asserted that St. Anthony got the best of the bargain. The organiza- tion of the board was as follows : Franklin Steele, president ; John W. North, treasurer ; Isaac Atwater, secretary ; and William R. Marshall, librarian. The original members of the board selected by the legislature contained such well- known men as Henry H. Sibley, Henry M. Rice, Alexander Ramsey, B. B. Meeker, Isaac Atwater, William R. Marshall, C. K. Smith, Franklin Steele, and A. Van Vorhees, with John W. North as their attorney.
STAGES, BOATS AND CARS.
A much-needed service to the traveling public was supplied early this spring by the establishment of a four-horse stage- line between St. Paul and St. Anthony, by two young men by the name of Patterson and Benson. They ran a Concord- coach between those points, going and returning once in the forenoon, and going and returning once in the afternoon. The price charged was half a dollar each way. I do not see how any one could possibly have foretold at that time that in a little more than a generation there would be four or five railroad companies running half-hourly trains between Minneapolis and St. Paul, and other railroad trains several times a day, all full of passengers, and the traveling public demanding more facilities. Such a thing as a railroad was not thought of ; but after several boats had landed in lower Minneapolis, the question whether the future head of naviga- tion on the Mississippi would be at St. Paul or at the Falls of St. Anthony was a live issue in those days. The import- ance of the navigation of the river between those two places at that time was considered so essential that in discussing the
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matter the usually conservative pen of Judge Atwater became quite radical. The new paper declared that when it was once settled, as it soon would be, that St. Anthony Falls is the real head of navigation on the Mississippi river, St. Paul would retrograde to a modest village. A line of boats did establish the fact that they could run to the Falls, but the result was not so beneficial as every one expected. John G. Lennon erected a commodious warehouse at the lower land- ing on the east side. Others built another at Murphy's landing on the west side ; but both investments were unre- munerative. Undoubtedly had navigation been considered a necessity, boats would long since have landed at St. Anthony as often as at St. Paul, but when E. F. Drake, in the early sixties, built for the St. Paul and Pacific a railroad between the two points, and other roads followed, navigation between the two points ceased to be necessary ; and now a great many think it would not prove beneficial.
TELEGRAPHIC.
A strong attempt was made in early summer to raise enough money by subscription to build a telegraph-line from the Falls to Galena. W. Chute of the last-named place canvassed all the towns between the two points and only succeeded in getting about $16,000 subscribed. As it would require almost as much again the enterprise was abandoned. In 1860, nine years afterwards, Mr. Winslow pushed the line to completion.
THE FIRST MANUFACTURES.
Up to this time there had, with few exceptions, been only lumber manufactured at the Falls. James McMullen, who came here in 1849, during the following winter made numer- ous sleds and sleighs, for which he found ready sale. He may be properly classed as the first, outside of the mill com- pany, to engage in manufacturing at the Falls.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE OUTLOOK IN THE SUMMER OF 1851.
Except in the immediate vicinity of the Falls, in early summer, the roar of the cataract fell upon a pathless prairie for everything but the Indian and the wild game he pursued, but every boat that landed at St. Paul brought those who became permanent settlers of St. Anthony and its vicinity. The Express said that it required "no very sagacious observer of the change that is taking place to predict the future of the place. The important position which St. Anthony occupies must inevitably make her the great manufacturing and com- mercial town of the northwest."
THE SCALPING RED-SKINS.
In our efforts to encourage immigrants who were seeking lands to settle upon for farming purposes, to locate above the Falls, we occasionally received a set-back in consequence of Indian disturbances. Late this spring a war-party of Dakotas were after Chippewa scalps on Swan river. They found one of their foes who had a keg of whisky. Bloodthirsty as they were, they cared more for the whisky than for the scalp of the Chippewa, for while they ceased hostilities long enough to take a drink, the Chippewa escaped. By the time the con- tents of the keg were disposed of the Dakotas were drunk. When in that condition a white man's scalp is as valuable to them as that of a Chippewa ; hence they attacked a party of teamsters on the road from St. Paul with military stores for Fort Gaines, and killed a worthy man named Andrew Swartz.
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Such occurrences prevented the occupation of the really good farming lands above the Falls.
In the first settlement on Coon creek, just above St. Anthony, the Indians killed such domestic cattle as they could find belonging to the whites, which discouraged the settlers.
The first military duty in the field by Lieutenant R. W. Johnson, after his arrival at Fort Snelling in 1849, was to remove a band of pilfering Indians who were engaged in killing cattle belonging to settlers above the Falls. His headquarters while engaged in this duty, were at the junction of Rum river with the Mississippi-now the flourishing city of Anoka. What made it more discouraging was that the mauraders were seldom punished. Those who murdered Swartz escaped from the military authorities at Fort Ripley and were never recaptured.
A year later some Dakota Indians met a party of German immigrants above Mendota and shot one of them, Mrs. Keener, killing her instantly. In this instance the Indians were punished in the most thorough manner. They were compelled by the government forces to surrender the mur- derer, Yu-ha-zee, who was tried, convicted, and hung in St. Paul, but not until a year after his conviction by the court.
IMMIGRATION, STAGES AND NAVIGATION.
As the season advanced immigration increased. Messrs. Amherst Willoughby and Simon Powers of St. Paul had established a two-horse stage and express, which made daily trips to the different towns immediately connected with St. Paul, but the volume of travel so increased that these enter- prising gentlemen stocked their route with good horses, and Concord coaches imported from the factory in New Hamp- shire. Messrs. Willoughby & Power's line of coaches to St. Anthony was called the red line because it was painted red, Messrs. Patterson & Benson's line was known as the yellow line because the coaches were painted yellow. The rivalry between the two lines became intense, though neither offered to reduce the rates of fare.
While St. Anthony was unable to secure navigation between St. Paul and the Falls, yet through the energy of John
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Rollins the river above the Falls was made an important use of in the running of steamboats to Sauk Rapids. Captain Rollins was a native of New Sharon, Maine, and was born in 1806. Before coming to Minnesota he was engaged as lum- berman, and was at one time a member of the legislature of his native state. In 1848 he visited the Falls of St. Anthony, and was so pleased with the country that he moved his family here in the spring of 1849. The same year he was elected a member of the territorial council. Having had considerable experience in the somewhat difficult navigation of the rivers in his native state, he became satisfied that navigation above the Falls could be made profitable with steamers of the same style as those used on the rivers in Maine. He deter- mined to make the experiment, and gave orders for the build- ing of a boat similar to those used on the Penobscot. The boiler, engine, and all iron-work, were made in Bangor, and when completed were shipped by sea to New Orleans and up the Mississippi to St. Paul. The hull and all wood work was made in the village, under the supervision of experienced ship-carpenters who came from Maine to superintend the work. It was found, when the steamer was finished, that it worked to perfection. He called it the Governor Ramsey, in honor of our first governor. The problem was solved so far as the navigation of the river above the Falls was concerned. He manned the steamer with experienced boatmen who had served an apprenticeship on similar water-craft in Maine. He sent there for them. Captain Benjamin B. Parker was the master. He soon built up a prosperous trade on the river, and from 1851 and for several years, the Governor Ramsey was well patronized by the business men of the upper river. In the meantime several other boats were built and became rivals of the Governor Ramsey.
UPPER MISSISSIPPI BOATS WITHDRAWN.
During the civil war there was a great demand for small, light-draft steamers to run on the tributaries and bayous of the lower Mississippi, to transport troops and munitions of war from the deep waters of the parent stream through the shallow streams leading into the interior of the country. All
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the steamers above the Falls were used for this purpose. They were moved on rollers by land around the cataract, launched in the river below it, and steamed toward the Gulf of Mexico never to return. Perhaps it was just as well, as the advent of railroads up the river about the time of the removal of the steamers down the stream would have made navigation of the upper waters unprofitable. Besides, the owners of the boats obtained a good price for their property.
A REPRESENTATIVE PIONEER.
Captain Rollins was one of our most enterprising men. I once made a long winter's journey with him, when a regent of the University of Minnesota, through the Mississippi pineries, in selecting pine lands for that institution. He was capable of enduring great fatigue, as I well know from per- sonal observation, and was considered one of the best judges of pine lands in the state. He died universally respected and lamented, at his pleasant home in St. Anthony in 1885. There is no doubt but that the navigation of the upper Mississippi, in those early days, attracted more immigration to that locality than all other efforts. Stearns, Wright, Benton and Sherburne counties felt the influence to a very great extent. Farmers were willing to settle on lands that were in the vicinity of navigable waters.
The river was very high during the whole season of 1851. On June 26th of that year a great many of the logs in the mill-pond were swept over the dam, but fortunately enough remained to supply the mill, which was kept running to its full capacity for the whole year, and at the close of the sea- son but little sawed lumber was left for the winter market. Much of the building material required for immediate use was kiln-dried, but more of it had to be used entirely green. The shrinkage, when made into buildings, was considerable, and created wide openings in the ceilings that admitted the cold. Otherwise the houses were good. Some of them are occupied to-day by the descendants of those who built them.
FIRST MERCHANTS AT THE FALLS.
As the season advanced the merchants of the village decided
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OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
to compete for a portion of the Red river trade. The annual . caravan was expected about the middle of July. Heretofore this trade had been confined to Fort Snelling, St. Paul, and at an early day to Mendota. The first real live merchant in St. Anthony was R. P. Russell, who came to Fort Snelling in the fall of 1839. Nine years later he commenced commercial pursuits, and October 3 the same year married Miss Marian Patch, a daughter of Luther Patch, and a lady of great merit. Mr. Patch with his family had been a resident of the place for more than a year. Mr. Russell was not only the first merchant, but set an excellent example to the others who came afterwards and were bachelors by getting married.
William R. Marshall, in the spring of 1849, established the second store. Later that year John George Lennon, of the house of P. Choteau & Co., the head of the American Fur Company, opened the third store. The fourth store was established in May 1851 by Messrs. Steele & Stevens. The same year Mr. R. P. Upton succeeded Mr. Marshall. J. P. Wilson opened a store in the upper part of the town, and E. Case and his son S. W. Case, opened a grocery store opposite the St. Charles. These merchants tried to attract the attention of the Red river traders, and prevent them from trading exclusively with the merchants they had formerly dealt with. When the hundred or more carts made their . appearance en route for St. Paul, inducements were presented to the principal traders in the caravan, with the result of a moderate exchange of goods for furs, pemmican and Indian curiosities. Still the lion's share went to St. Paul. Many of the merchants with the expedition bought their goods for cash, having sold their furs far down the valley of the Red river to the agents of the Hudson Bay Company, receiving for them English coin.
OUR FIRST GRIST-MILLS.
Up to this time but little grain had been raised in the ter- ritory ; and for that matter, with the exception of vegetables, but little of anything else to eat. In 1850 a few farmers sowed wheat, and harvested an abundant yield ; but there being no mills in the vicinity it had to be shipped, in order to realize money on it, to Messrs. Fentons' mill at Prairie du
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Chien, which was the nearest mill ( if we except the small one on Boles' creek, with only one run of stones) to the Falls. The Express, in speaking of our wants in this particular, said there ought to be a large mill of the first class for grinding grain put up at once. That paper was confident there would be sufficient grain grown in this vicinity in 1851 and 1852 to keep such a mill in full operation the year round. It added that it was an absurd idea to send all our grain out of the territory three or four hundred miles distant to be manufac- tured into flour or meal, when we have the most splendid water-power in the world, of unlimited extent. Although this is now the greatest milling center in the world, the people in this neighborhood had to wait for several years after 1851, before there was a grist-mill at the Falls.
AN INDIAN TREATY.
We were all very much interested in the result of the great Indian treaty held in the early summer of 1851, at Traverse des Sioux. At that period most of those who had ever held an office in the territory, or traded with the Indians, and everyone who could get away from his home, went to Trav- erse to be present on the occasion. Twenty-one millions of acres of the choicest agricultural lands in the northwest were owned by the Indians. The whites wanted it, and the Indians wanted to sell it. Governor Alexander Ramsey, and Hon. Luke Lea, Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington, represented the United States. The territory included all the lands west of the Mississippi river from the Iowa line to the boundaries of the Chippewa reservation, and so west beyond the boundaries of Minnesota. The bargain was com- menced on July 2d, and lasted until the 22d of that month before it was completed. The Indians received a large sum in gold at the signing of the treaty, and a large annuity annually in cash, goods and provisions, for twenty years afterwards. The government also paid all the debts they owed to the Indian traders. The Indians spent their money freely on their return from the treaty, making for a short time a large circulation of gold in the business-circles of the territory. This treaty was the most importantevent that had
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OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
ever transpired in Minnesota. Its good effects were visible at once. St. Paul, St. Anthony, and Stillwater were not the only portions of the country to be benefitted. New towns were to spring up. The town-sites upon which were Winona, Shakopee, Red Wing, Mankato, Rochester, and those of other well-known cities and villages that exist now, were to be occupied by the whites.
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
At this time the village had three justices of the peace- . Dr. Ira Kingsley, Charles E. Leonard, and Lardner Bostwick. Justice Leonard represented the upper part of the village. It was seldom the justices had any business. Once in a while a small lawsuit was brought before them, which in most instances was caused by claim-jumping. People had not been in the country long enough to get in debt to any great extent, and if they had, they had a year in which to pay. The monthly collection of bills was then unknown. B. Cloutier had a bowling-alley and a saloon. Once in a while a dispute would arise between his customers, but it was settled by an adjournment to the bank of the river, where the parties would fight it out, shake hands after the battle, and that was the last of it. The courts were seldom called upon to punish such law-breakers.
Almost every state and nation was represented in the list of settlers, though nine out of ten of the lumbermen were from Maine, the others from the British provinces, with a few from the middle states. All in all, it would be very difficult to find a more orderly and law-abiding people. They had come to the Falls to settle for life. They would grow up with the city, and aid in developing its resources. They were in favor of good habits and good morals in their every-day life.
MOSQUITOES.
This year mosquitoes were more numerous than ever. At sunset the air was filled with them. Everyone, unless pro- tected, was made to suffer from their blood-thirstiness. I had been pretty well acquainted with this pest on the Spanish main, at the balize at the mouth of the Mississippi, at Vera
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Cruz, at Corpus Christi, and Brazos Santiago-places noted throughout the world for being a great rendezvous of mos- quitoes-but I never saw them more numerous than in the neighborhood of the Falls during the first few years after occupation by the whites. Neither smoke, smudges, or fire would banish them. Mosquito-bars in the doorways and around the beds were inefficient protection. The breaking up of the prairie, the draining of the ponds and marshes, the building of houses, and the results of civilization generally, have made the mosquito comparatively a pest of the past.
CHARACTER OF THE IMMIGRATION-FIRST SURVEYORS.
Most of the immigration this year was composed of farmers from different sections of the east. They wanted lands for farms, to live on permanently. This kept our land-surveyors busy in tracing the lines of the wild lands, so that the claim- ants could place the correct boundaries to their farms. Here- tofore William R. Marshall had been the only surveyor, but his mercantile and other business pursuits were such that he could not attend to outside work. The year previous Charles W. Christmas arrived in St. Anthony from Wooster, Ohio. Mr. Christmas was a surveyor of experience. He had been employed by the government in surveying the public lands in Michigan. He at once had all the work he could do in run- ning the lines of the land claimed by those seeking new homes in the territory. Mr. Christmas was the first register of the United States land-office at Sauk Rapids. On the organi- zation of Hennepin county he was elected county surveyor, an office he held for many years. He surveyed the first lands into lots in Minneapolis proper and was the principal engineer on all the territorial roads running into or out of St. Anthony and Minneapolis. He made and occupied a claim on the Indian lands just above the boundary of the Fort Snelling military reservation in north Minneapolis. He lived to see Minneapolis grow into a large city. He died about three years since at the ripe age of eighty-three years.
FIRST MECHANICS.
St. Anthony had now nearly all the home mechanics neces-
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OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
sary to complete buildings from foundation to ridge. Wil liam Worthingham, a master mason and a first-class work- man, had emigrated from Chicago to the village, and was con- stantly employed on the foundations for houses, and also plas- tering. He brought his workmen from Chicago. The quarries so abundant on the banks of the river afforded the very best material for foundations and walls. Edgar Folsom established a lime-kiln, which afforded lime for the first coat, but finishing-lime at first had to be imported from below Prairie du Chien. Subsequently it was secured at Clear- water. Elias H. Conner, who came to the village in 1848, Edward Patch and S. Huse about the same time, George T. Vail and Justus H. Moulton, in 1850, and Joseph Dean, James M. Garrett, and Stephen Fullard, in the spring of 1851, were all superior master-carpenters. Up to this time we lacked a professional house- and sign-painter, but A. Stone, a native of New Hampshire, fortunately wandered out west, selected St. Anthony for his home, and our wants in this particular were supplied. He was soon followed by John Holland. Previously the village had, to a great extent, depended upon J. M Boal and other painters in St. Paul for work of this character. From this time on we had our own citizens of every trade, and were no longer dependent on outsiders for aid in any enterprise we might undertake, to forward the interests of our young village. While as a matter of fact I was not a resident or a voter in St. Anthony at that time, all my business was centered there, and I felt great interest in its prosperity. My residence and home was on the western bank of the river, in another county, known as Dahkotah. The center of the river was the boundary-line between Ramsey and Dahkotah counties.
No new village can expect praise from the traveling public unless it contains a good hotel, or a house of entertainment that is comfortable for those who are obliged to seek a tem- porary home there. St. Anthony was peculiarly fortunate in having such a home. In 1849 Anson Northrup commenced the erection of the St. Charles, a first-class hotel, sufficient for the accommodation of seventy-five guests, and finished it in June 1850.
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