USA > Minnesota > Hennepin County > Minneapolis > Personal recollections of Minnesota and its people : and early history of Minneapolis > Part 12
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The legislature met in St. Paul, for the session of 1852, on
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the 7th of January. The council was composed of nine mem- bers, the house of eighteen. Since the election the previous fall, we had been hard at work visiting, soliciting and impor- tuning many of the new members, that when the proper time came they might aid us with their votes. While the council and house contained but few members in each body, their homes were scattered from Pembina to Reed's landing ; so a good deal of work had to be done after the session opened. A lively fight was made, and won. I had been required to draw up the bill just as we wanted it, and hand it to Martin McLeod, who would present it to the council for their consideration. In the bill I had called the county Snelling, in honor of the army officer who built Fort Snelling, but that name was stricken out by the council and Hennepin inserted instead. Otherwise the bill passed just as it was drawn, including the important provision that the first board of county commissioners should name the county-seat. It was a close shave, for the bill only passed the last working day of the session, and then only by a bare majority. It was my first and last experience in lobbying in a legislative body. Aside from the expense, anxiety and suspense, during the pendency of the bill, a lobbyist is liable to lose his self- respect. But the passage of the bill was everything to us, and to those who should follow us. The very idea of being obliged to cross the prairie and the Minnesota river, nine miles to Mendota, for county business, such as to get a deed recorded, and the like, was not to be thought of for a moment.
It is greatly to be regretted that the boundaries of the county could not have been suffered to remain as they were, but on February 20, 1855, a large part of Carver county was cut out of Hennepin county by legislative enactment, and Chaska was selected as the county-seat of the new county.
During the fall of 1851 our side of the river received a val- uable addition in the person of Allen Harmon who, with his family came from Maine. He was a man of great worth, and we were pleased to have him for a neighbor, though not a very near one, as his claim was back some distance from the river. He continually resided on it, from a few days after the commanding officer at the Fort granted him permission to take it, until his death some five years ago. He had laid it all
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out into building-lots, which have long since been occupied by residences. The First Baptist church building, the new Athenæum library, and many other beautiful and costly build- ings, public and private, have been erected on Mr. Harmon's old claim. This was the last claim made in 1851, on the mil- itary reservation on the west side of the river, except the one made by Dr. A. E. Ames, and he did not move on it until the next spring.
Dr. Ames arrived from Roscoe, Illinois, on the 11th day of October. He was at the time one of the state senators from Illinois. He came up on a prospecting tour, and was so well- pleased with the country that he concluded to remain here. On the 14th of October he made an arrangement with Colonel Anderson D. Nelson, U. S. A., then a second-lieutenant at Fort Snelling, to make the selection of a quarter-section of land and occupy it. Dr. Ames selected the land which now includes the court-house and jail. His first house was built on the same block which the county buildings now occupy. The land was then densely covered with prickly-pear, hazel- brush, and other shrubbery, which made a considerable part of it almost impassable. Dr. Ames resided in St. Anthony, and practiced medicine with Dr. Murphy, until the arrival of his family in the spring of 1852, when he immediately moved on his claim.
Great preparations had been made during the summer and fall by the lumbermen for active operations in the woods the coming winter of 1851 and 1852. The work was mostly con- fined to the two branches of Rum river. In addition to the mills at St. Anthony, steam saw-mills had been built at St. Paul, and at several other points down the river. There was every prospect in the fall of 1851 that there would be a large local demand for logs in the spring of 1852. Among the lumbermen who had teams in the woods in the winter, from St. Anthony, were Messrs. Farnham, Stimson, Stanchfield, Huse, Chambers, Pratt, Stevens, Lennon, Leonard Day and sons, Edgar Folsom, and Stephen Cobb ; from St. Paul, Rebert O'Neill. Large quantities of supplies for lumbermen had been purchased in the lower country, during the fall, and transported up the river before the close of navigation. As the banks of the two branches of Rum river were swarming
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with men, it necessarily required a large amount of provis- ions. Employment was given to all the teamsters in the country to haul these supplies from St. Anthony and St. Paul to the pineries. It required about a week to make the round trip. The head tote-teamster so called, was Otis C. Whitney, who had similar experience in Maine. He followed teaming for several years around the Falls, when he emigrated to Montana, early in the sixties, and is now one of the cattle- kings of that territory. These tote-teams had a hard, cold time of it during these early years of lumber operations in the territory. They were required to be on the road every day, as it was necessary that the camps should be supplied with provisions. They had, most of the way, poor accommo- dations, frequently being obliged to camp out in the coldest of weather. Elk river was the only place where good, warm, comfortable quarters could be obtained, Pierre Bottineau, of St. Anthony, having built a large hotel there the previous year. These teamsters were, as they should have been, paid liberal wages.
Continuing the list of those who became early residents on the military reservation opposite St. Anthony, we mention Edward Murphy, who came from Quincy, Illinois, to St. Anthony, in 1850, obtained a permit, in September, to occupy a quarter-section of land down the river adjoining John P. Miller's claim, but he did not take possession by actual resi- dence until May, 1852. He immediately improved consider- able land ; had one field especially prepared for a nursery and orchard which, in due time, at great expense, was occupied as such, but the fruit-trees and nursery-stock perished from some unaccountable reason, and after a few years he aban- doned trying to raise apples and the larger fruit raised in his Illinois home. Mr. Murphy was the pioneer in the nursery business in this state, and like many others who subsequently engaged in the same enterprise, lost all the money employed in the undertaking, besides the work in caring for the trees, and the use of the land.
Anson Northrup made a claim immediately up the river, above the Smith or old-mill claim, of a fractional lot contain- ing a few acres. He was a partial resident on it from Feb- ruary 10, 1851, to June, 1852 ; from that time he resided on
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it constantly until he pre-empted it in 1853. This claim includes the present depot and yards of the Milwaukee rail- road. Mr. Northrup built a large house, in which the United States courts were held. When Hennepin Lodge of Free Masons received its dispensation its sessions were held in the house. Mr. Northrup also erected a smaller house near the site of the present woolen-factory storehouse. In this build- ing the first public-school was held, commencing December 3, 1852. The teacher was Miss Mary E. Miller, now Mrs. Marshall Robinson. In this building Rev. J. C. Whitney was installed pastor of the first Presbyterian church, in June, 1853, by Rev. Dr. Chester of Buffalo, New York. There were present on that memorable occasion other distinguished divines of the Presbyterian order, such as Rev. Dr. Hopkins, professor of Auburn Theological Seminary ; Rev. Dr. Fowler, Utica ; Rev. Mr. Spencer, Milwaukee ; besides our home members, Rev. Gideon H. Pond, Oak Grove; Rev. E. D. Neill, St. Paul ; with two elders, Governor William Holcomb of Stillwater, and Dr. Alfred E. Ames of Minneapolis. Dr. Ames, Daniel M. Coolbaugh, and E. N. Barber, were elected elders.
Philip Bassett, in May, 1852, made a claim to the part of the city known as Hoag's addition to Minneapolis. He only had it for a few weeks when, June 10th the same year, he sold it for one hundred dollars to Charles Hoag. Messrs. Bassett and Hoag were born in the same town in New Hampshire, and were school-boys together. Mr. Bassett went to Califor- nia, and. Mr. Hoag opened a farm on the claim, which con- tained one hundred and sixty acres, now in the very heart of the city ; the West hotel being built on it. Previous to com- ing to the territory, Mr. Hoag had been, for a long time, principal in one of the Philadelphia high schools, but having been raised on a farm, and more or less connected with farm- ing while teaching, he made a successful farmer. Few of the present generation are aware that this one hundred and sixty acres of land were at one time sold for the pitiful sum of one hundred dollars : hardly the price now for an inch on some of the lots on Hennepin avenue. Mr. Hoag became one of the most useful citizens of the place.
Previous to Mr. Hoag's purchase, Joel B. Bassett, a brother
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of Philip, took up a quarter-section above the creek that bears his name, and immediately on the bank of the river. Having perfected his arrangements in the fall of 1851, in regard to it, at Fort Snelling, he moved on it in May, 1852, and for several years, and in fact until it became too valuable for that purpose, occupied it exclusively for farming. He was as good a farmer as he has since proved to be a lumber- man and business man.
AN EARLY LAWSUIT AND JURY-TRIAL.
Soon after Mr. Bassett made his claim, David Bickford and Isaac Ives Lewis discovered a few fractional lots between the boundaries of Mr. Hoag's and Mr. Bassett's land, which they insisted were not covered by the permits of either of the above- named gentlemen, and iminediately occupied the disputed territory by building a house on the present site of Thomas Lowry's office, Second street and Third avenue north, and in spite of a lawsuit, and against the command of the officers at Fort Snelling, succeeded in pre-empting it in April, 1855. At that period there was an important law in the territory for the protection of squatters on government land under a chap- ter entitled "forcible entry and detainer". In pursuance of the provisions of this law, a suit was brought against Mr. Bickford, after the organization of the county, before Justice Hedderly. A jury was called, and after a tedious trial of several days, the case was submitted to the jury. There being no room in-doors where the court was held, the jury was obliged to retire outside to deliberate on the merits of the case. It being in mid-winter, of course the weather was cold, and the jury suffered from the low temperature. There was not much comfort in discussing the evidence with the mercury pretty near zero, and the wind coming down from the north at the rate of about forty knots, which almost congealed the breath as each of the members of the jury endeavored to explain to the others the way in which he understood the evidence. After an ineffectual attempt to agree upon a ver- dict, one of the jury declared he had been out in the cold long enough ; he would not be frozen into a verdict contrary to his understanding of the matter ; and although he was alone
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in his opinion as to the merits of the case, and as to the proper verdict they should render, he would not return with them to the justice's office, but would immediately leave them to solve the question by themselves, and return such a verdict as they had a mind to. He then made a bee-line at as rapid a pace as his half-frozen limbs would permit to his shanty- home across the prairie, leaving the other jurors in a state of astonishment. They immediately reported progress and the fact of the elopement of one of their number, to Justice Hed- derly, and although Judge Atwater, the plaintiff's attorney, demanded a writ of attachment to be issued by the court against the delinquent juror for contempt of court, and that it be given to Sheriff Brown for service, the justice denied the motion, and a record of disagreement by the jury was entered in the case.
This was the first jury-trial in any justice court in Hen- nepin county, and the ending of it was so ludicrous, and so different from what the plaintiff had been familiar with in conducting cases in the courts in his New England home, that he never had the courage to move for a new trial. He obtained a slight satisfaction in an encounter with the tres- passer, in a snow-drift on the disputed claim, not long after the farce of the trial.
Some of these lawsuits on the frontier were conducted in a queer way, before justices of the peace ; but no one could find fault with the first two justices, Hedderly and Fletcher. They were honest, just, able men, and conducted all trials brought before them in an impartial, proper manner ; but there were no conveniences for holding courts in those days ; and then the litigants, lawyers, and jurors, were all strangers to each others.
Mr. Lewis, who was interested with Mr. Bickford in the claim, remained in St. Anthony until 1854, when he removed to Minneapolis and built a large store and dwelling on the lots now occupied as a market by Harlow A. Gale. In the fall of that year he filled his store with goods, and occupied the dwelling with his family.
Mr. Bassett was our first judge of probate, a member of the legislature, Chippewa agent, and occupied other high trusts in the gift of the people, in a most satisfactory manner. He is
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always a friend of the city and the county. Mr. Bickford sold out his interest in city property to Judge Beebe, many years since, and removed to Vineland, New Jersey.
Mr. Lewis for a long time transacted a large mercantile and general business in Minneapolis, which he closed out in 1859, and transferred his home to Watertown, in Carver county where, in company with his brother E. F. Lewis, he engaged in mercantile pursuits, and built a flour-mill, and pot and pearl ashery. At one time he was a member of the legislature from Carver county. He is now a resident of Idaho, and president of one of the national banks in one of the most prosperous cities of that territory.
There was up to this time several other valuable claims on the military reservation that had not been taken, and as the commanding officer at Fort Snelling had seemingly become indifferent to their occupation, people flocked from different parts of the territory to take them. Claim-houses dotted the prairie between the town and Lake Calhoun. A change in the commanding officer, just as the houses were completed, made a change in the management of the reservation. All who did not have permits, with one or two exceptions, were ordered to leave the reservation and remove their buildings and lumber. The order was obeyed, but it was an unjust one, and caused great injury to the squatters, though eventually a good many of them, after congress passed the bill reducing the reservation, held on to the boundaries of the land they had made previously, and obtained it from the government.
CHAPTER XXIII.
CLAIMS MADE AFTER THE TRAVERSE DES SIOUX TREATY OF 1851.
The Traverse des Sioux Treaty with the Indians having been perfected, persons seeking homes made haste to get hold of the best locations in the neighborhood of the Falls. Col. Emanuel Case arrived in the spring of 1851 and opened a store in St. Anthony, in connection with his son, Sweet W. Case. They came from Michigan. Colonel Case surveyed one hun- dred and sixty acres of land immediately north of Mr. Bassett's, on the river, and filed a claim on it. Peter Poncin, a pioneer merchant of Stillwater, wanted the same land. He had taken out a permit to trade with the Indians, built and opened a store, but as the Indians had left, he had no customers. The dispute was settled at the government land-office, and Colonel Case was the winner. In March, 1852, he was greatly afflicted by the loss of his youngest son, James Gale Case, nearly twenty- one years old. The young man fell through a watering-place cut in the ice, near the bank of the river, and was drowned. This was the second death on this side of the river. Colonel Case had interested with him Alexander Moore, also from Michigan. A good part of the land was under cultivation for several years when, in 1855, it was laid out into lots and known as a part of Bassett, Case and Moore's addition to the « village of Minneapolis. Moore ultimately became a mer- chant in Minneapolis, and transacted a large business, and contributed, as Colonel Case did, largely in building up the city, in its early days. Mr. Moore moved to Sauk Center, in Stearns county, many years since, and has represented that county in several sessions of the legislature. Colonel Case frequently
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held high trusts, and died, greatly regretted, in the summer of 1871.
In 1851, through an arrangement with the Indian agent, Joseph Menard occupied land near that of Colonel Case. After the treaty he came in possession of it, and the tract is now known as Menard's addition to Minneapolis. Mr. Menard is still a resident of the city.
Charles W. Christmas followed Mr. Menard on the Indian lands, securing a valuable claim in the fall of 1851, which he improved in 1852. He laid it out into lots as Christmas's addition to Minneapolis. His son-in law, Isaac I. Lewis, and nephew, Captain J. C. Reno, became interested in it with him. Mr. Christmas was the father of a large family. His wife and many of his children preceded him to the spirit-land. The three claims of Colonel Case, Menard, and Christmas, were the first made on the Indian lands in this vicinity.
A few more permits were granted in 1852 by the new com- manding officer at Fort Snelling. Martin Layman came from Illinois and located on the land, a part of which is now known as Layman's cemetery. When surveyed by the government, it proved to be included in a school section. In 1858, after the admission of Minnesota as a state, our senators, Henry M. Rice and General James Shields, and our members in the lower house of congress, James M. Cavanaugh, and Wm. W. Phelps, obtained the passage of a bill by congress granting Mr. Lay- man the privilege of entering the land in the same way that other lands are secured to settlers. This was on the ground that Mr. Layman had settled on them previous to the survey, and that settlers were not supposed to know that the sections sixteen and thirty-six on the military reservation were to be set apart for school purposes. The state was authorized, by the bill that passed congress, to make selection of other government lands in the place of those claimed by Mr. Layman.
Waterman Stinson came from Maine to St. Anthony. Being a farmer in his native state, he was desirous of securing a good farm in Minnesota. Most of the immigrants to the Falls from Maine had been engaged in the lumber trade ; hence , they followed that business here, and when a farmer from that state made his appearance, we were all anxious to
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see that he was well settled. Mr. Stinson was the father of numerous girls and boys of industrious habits, capable of working a large farm, and not having the least knowledge of speculation, he wanted a home in the country ; so he was placed on the bank of Bassett's creek, where there was not the least prospect that he would ever be disturbed by the extension of the village into his neighborhood. In addition to his children, he had his aged parents to support. He opened a large field for grain. His natural hay-meadows on the creek were extensive and productive. His son-in-law, Mr. Brennan, made a claim, at the same time, adjoining him, which in after years became the property of Franklin Steele. Mr. Stinson could not turn the tide of the expansion of the city, which soon swallowed up his farm, and is now known as Stinson's addition to Minneapolis. He died several years since.
Judge Isaac Atwater, in June 1851, became interested in the military reservation, only for a day, when he sold out for ten dollars. He afterwards owned a large share of the Miller claim.
John George Lennon obtained permission to occupy the land adjoining Mr. Layman's, which is included in J. G. Lennon's out-lots addition to the city. Captain Benjamin B. Parker was fortunate in securing a quarter-section of land east of Mr. Layman's, which is absorbed by his son's, the Parkers' addition to Minneapolis. Sweet W. Case came in for a quarter-section, as did Chandler Hutchins, back of Mr. Lennon's. Mr. Case purchased the Hutchins pre-emption. Mr. Case's original farm is Lawrence and Reeve's addition to the city. While occupied by Mr. Case those claims were greatly improved, most of the whole breadth of the half- section being under cultivation. Mr. Hutchins's old claim is included in Chicago, Lake Park, and several other addi- tions. Edgar Folsom, through the good will of the military authorities, came in possession of a quarter-section in the neighborhood of Mr. Parker's, which eventually became the home of Nathan Roberts, and is now included in Newell, Carr and Baldwin's addition to the city.
Mrs. Judith Ann Sayer, a widow lady from New York, occupied a claim near Mr. Case's, which is now Eustis's
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addition to Minneapolis. About this time Mrs. Sayer sold her claim and married William Dickie of Lake Harriet.
Mr. Robert Blaisdell and his three sons, John T., William, and Robert, Jr., became the owners of claims, all now known, as follows : Robert Blaisdell, senior, Flour City addition to Minneapolis ; John T. Blaisdell pre-emption, John T. Blais- dell's addition to the city ; William Blaisdell's land, Bloom- ington addition to the city ; and Robert Blaisdell, Jr.'s old farm is now Lindsley and Lingerfelter's addition. John S. Mann, William Dickie, Eli Pettijohn, L. N. Parker, Henry Angell, and Henry Heap, occupied beautiful lands on the shores of and near Lakes Calhoun and Harriet, which are in the several Remington additions to the city. James A. Lennon, and Deacon Oliver, had claims near them ; the lat- ter is now Oliver's Park addition : the former is in the Rem- ington addition. Charles Moseau's old claim, the site of the former Dakota chieftain's residence, is now the beautiful grounds of Lakewood cemetery.
Edmond Bresette occupied the east shore of Lake Calhoun, but, by a special act of congress, Rev. Dr. E. G. Gear became the proprietor, and it is now included mostly in Calhoun Park. George E. Huey had the claim east of Dr. E. G. Gear's, which is in one of the Remington additions ; and David Gorham had the claim north bordering on Lake of the Isles, which he sold to R. P. Russell, who has made out of it several additions to the city ; and George Park's claim east of the Isles, which is now Lake of the Isles addition, and N. E. Stoddard pre-empted the adjoining claim ; then John Green made a claim, a portion of which land is called Lake · View addition. Z. M. Brown and Hill made the next claims, which comprise the present Groveland addition. Dennis Peter's claim is known as Sunnyside addition.
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William Worthingham's old claim became the property of John C. Oswald, and it now bears the novel name of Bryn Mawr addition. A little further out William Byrnes made a beautiful home, and was elected sheriff of Hennepin county, but died before his term of office expired. This old home- stead of Sheriff Byrnes is now Maben, White and Le Bron's addition to the city ; while James Byrne's land is included in the Oak Park addition.
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There were several other claims made in 1852 and 1853 in what may now, perhaps, be classed as north Minneapolis ; some on the military lands ; others on the ceded Indian lands. Among them were those of Charles Farrington ; Eli- jah Austin's, now Sherburne and Beebe's addition ; F. X. Crepau's, now Crepau's addition ; Stephen and Rufus Pratt both laid out their claims in city lots, one Stephen Pratt's and the other Rufus Pratt's addition. The beautiful Oak Lake addition is mostly on the pre-emption of Thomas Stin- son. Central Park is on the original land of Joseph S. John-
son. Asa Fletcher and his brother Timothy owned the land out on Portland and Park avenues, now Merriam and Lowry's addition, while William Goodwin owned what is now the Evergreen addition. Bristol's old claim was pre-empted by Jackson, and is now known as Jackson, Daniels and Whitney's and Snyder and Company's additions. H. H. Shepley's claim is divided among several additions, Viola included.
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