USA > Minnesota > Hennepin County > Minneapolis > Personal recollections of Minnesota and its people : and early history of Minneapolis > Part 29
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On the 17th of February the publication of the daily edition of the Atlas was discontinued.
February 23 Rev. E. D. Neill resigned the office of chan- celor of the University.
In view of the fact that new postmasters would be appointed in the two cities by the incoming administration, soon after the 4th of March the republicans held elections for a choice. The result in St. Anthony was : W. W. Wales 108 votes, L. H. Lennon 89 votes ; in Minneapolis, John S. Walker 283, D. Bassett 193, Cyrus Snow 12, and Captain Putnam 9. President Lincoln appointed D. Heaton in St. Anthony. David Morgan was appointed in Minneapolis. He was not a candidate before the people.
The people of the two cities were kindly remembered by the administration after the 4th of March, as John Hutchin- son, a resident of Minneapolis, received the appointment of secretary of Dakota, and W. D. Washburn was made surveyor- general of Minnesota, while Lucius C. Walker of St. Anthony was appointed agent of the Chippewa Indians.
At the annual spring election in St. Anthony Hon. O. C. Merriman was elected mayor ; D. B. Bowman, treasurer ; D. Edwards, assessor ; J. H. Noble, marshal ; Chas. F. Stimson, supervisor ; Messrs. Peter Weingart, Richard Fewer, Owen T. Swett, and J. S. Pillsbury, re-elected alder- men. Members of the board of school directors were S. H.
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Chute, J. B. Gilbert, and Charles Henry. The election of town officers in Minneapolis, held April 2d, resulted in the choice of Collins Hamer, chairman ; and J. H. Thompson, and E. B. Ames, supervisors ; Geo. A. Savory, clerk ; D. R. Barber, assessor ; and J. P. Howlett, treasurer.
The large mill owned by J. B. Bassett was burned April 2. There was some 4,000 bushels of wheat belonging to C. Hamer and John E. Bell, stored in it, which was destroyed. I have often wondered if ever another western town suffered as much from fires as did Minneapolis.
On the 13th of April the daily evening News ceased to exist. Several years after this date I was associated in the pub- lication of a daily and weekly newspaper with three of the young men who were on the News at the time of its suspension. I refer to Col Le Vinne Plummer, Fred. L. Smith, and Wil- lard S. Whitemore.
The returns of the assessors this spring showed that the personal property in Hennepin county amounted to $560,366, of which St. Anthony had $146,325, and Minneapolis $302,411. Outside of the cities $11,630. The real estate in St. Anthony amounted to $800,992, in Minneapolis $1,054,812.
War was at hand, and military organizations were the order of the day. People at the Falls determined to be the first in their efforts to preserve the whole Union. For all time to come the community in this neighborhood should be proud of the noble record of the citizens of Hennepin county in the trying times of the spring and summer of 1861. A company was raised at once in St. Anthony, another in Minneapolis, the former under the command of Captain Geo. N. Morgan, the latter under Captain Harry R. Putnam. Captain Morgan became one of the most efficient officers in the army, and rapidly rose by merit to the rank of general, while Captain Putnam was transferred from the volunteer to the regular service. He too became an officer of high rank. Mayor O. C. Merriman of St. Anthony, and other influential citizens, on both sides of the river, were active in every possible way in aiding the volunteers. Captain Merriman may be properly be called the war-mayor of St. Anthony. He has ever since his residence on the east side of the river taken an active part in all measures that would be a benefit to to the vicinity of the
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OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
Falls, as well as the whole country. All party feelings were thrown aside during these exciting times. The raising of troops for the war absorbed every other interest.
In addition to those already mentioned, the following resi- dents at the Falls received Federal appointments : Dana E. King, register of the U. S. land-office at Forest city ; Delano T. Smith, third auditor of the treasury department at Wash- ington ; Geo. E. H. Day, Indian agent east of the Rocky mountains ; and Rev. C. G. Ames, Consul at Porto Rico.
Several parties from this vicinity had wintered in the south and were obliged to leave the confederacy in haste ; among them were Dr. Geo. H. Keith and John Kyrk.
J. Mason Eustis was appointed contractor at Fort Snelling. Messrs. Geo. A. Bracket and H. H. Brackett were associated with him.
Then, as now, wheat was a great staple at the Falls. Early in May William Blaisdell sold two thousand bushels to Messrs. Gibson & Eastman for seventy cents per bushel. At that time this was considered a large price. It was thought that in consequence of the war the price of wheat would advance, but instead of an upward tendency it fell the following fall to forty-eight cents per bushel.
On the 27th of May Daniel Bassett died. He was the father of Judge Joel B. Bassett, Daniel Bassett, jr., and Mrs. Joseph H. Canney.
At the municipal election held at Minneapolis in May S. H. Mattison was elected president of the board of supervisors. The other members of the board were J. H. Jones, John E. Bell, E. H. Davie, and E. Hedderly. There was a new school board elected this spring. The members were O. B. King, David Morgan, T. A. Harrison, Isaac Atwater, with Rev. D. B. Knickerbacker, secretary. Several new teachers were employed. The able corps were Prof. Geo. B. Stone, prin- cipal ; assistant principal, Miss L. M. Rogers, of New Hamp- shire ; Miss Boutwell, Miss Walcott, Miss Sarah L. Jones, Mrs. Pomeroy, Mrs. Rice, Miss Hoyt, Miss Clark, and Mr. D. Folsom.
The streets in Minneapolis were in bad condition this year. Complaints were made July 3 to president Mattison of the supervisors that the hill near Barber's on Helen and Fourth
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streets was so badly gulled as to be impassable for carriages. A person at this time would hardly suppose that there had ever been a steep hill at the corner of Second avenue south and Fourth street.
The deputy county-treasurer, John Morrison, died July 14. Nathan Herrick sold to farmers 24 reapers up to July 14. He was the pioneer in the farm-implement and marble business.
Loren Fletcher became associated about this time with Chas. M. Loring. This progressive firm became prominent.
The Downs brothers, Henry, Thomas and John, who had for several years resided with their parents at Lake Calhoun, now took honorable rank as citizens in business for themselves.
Business on the west bank of the river was increased during the season in additions to the retail trade by John I. Black, John E. Bell, and others, and merchant tailoring establish- ments by J. H. Thompson and Peter Schrappel.
Cyrus Aldrich, M. C., appointed David Cooper Bell, of the firm of John E. Bell & Co., his private secretary. This took Mr. Bell to Washington, where a new phase of life was opened to him during that stormy congress. He became a prominent citizen of Minneapolis, and his good deeds will be held in last- ing remembrance. He has borne an honorable part in the upbuilding of this great city from a frontier village. On his father's side, he is of Scotch-Irish stock. On his mother's side he is of New England ancestry, and his grandfather Owen Cooper lived to complete a full century, having passed his one hundredth birthday.
September 1st Samuel Thatcher of St. Anthony died. In his death the pioneers in this vicinity met with a great loss. OFFICERS ELECTED IN EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE.
The officers elected for the year in Hennepin county were A. Blakeman, Henry S. Plummer, D. R. Barber, Wm. Finch, and J. B. Hinckley, county commissioners ; N. H. Hemiup, judge of probate ; H. O. Hamlin, clerk of the district court ; John S. Walker, county-treasurer ; and Isaac Brown, coroner. For the legislature, Rufus J. Baldwin, senator ; F. R. E. Cornell, and John C. Past, members of the house of repre- sentatives. St. Anthony, David Heaton, senator ; Jared Benson and J. H. Allen, members of the house.
There were several changes in the newspapers during the
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OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
fall. J. B. King and Geo. D. Bowman were at one time editors of the Atlas. On the 30th of October the old Express was sold, root and branch, to John L. Maconald of Belle Plaine, who issued the Enquirer with the old material. This was Mr. Macdonald's first enterprise in Minnesota. He has since been state senator, member of the state house of representatives, judge of the district court, and member of congress.
A DOUBLE-WEDDING.
On the 4th of November there was a double-wedding in Minneapolis. Mr. Lucius A. Babcock was married to Miss Ellen M. Sully, and Mr. Seymour L. Fillmore was married to Miss Annie Sully. The brides were sisters, and daughters of Deacon James Sully of Minneapolis.
Mr. Fillmore enlisted in the volunteer service of the war for the Union, and died of camp-fever at Nashville, Tennessee:
Mr. Babcock also entered the Union army, was wounded at the battle of Guntown, Mississippi, and died in Anderson- ville prison on the second birthday of his son Charles N. Babcock who is now an excellent lawyer in Minneapolis. He was buried in the Andersonville cemetery. His eldest brother was a brigadier-general of Northern troops, was wounded while leading a charge at the battle of Winchester, and died after having both legs amputated. The youngest and only remaining brother, a lieutenant in the Union army, was killed at the battle of Gettysburg. The Babcock brothers were cousins of Judge Isaac Atwater.
Mrs. Fillmore and Mrs. Babcock reside in Minneapolis to-day, one in and the other near their early home.
In addition to those already in the field, there were, during the summer and autumn, a great many soldiers enlisted in the volunteer service from St. Anthony and Minneapolis, as well as from Hennepin county. Dr. Levi Butler raised a whole company from the county precincts, for the Third regiment, and there were equally as many more enlisted in the Second regiment which was organized early in July, and a number of men were sent during the year to the First regiment.
CHAPTER XLIV.
MR. AND MRS. M. N. ADAMS AS MISSIONARIES AND OLD-SETTLERS.
GOODWILL MISSION, SISSETON AGENCY, SOUTH DAKOTA, May 24th, 1889.
In compliance with your most reasonable request, I would respectfully submit the following statement of facts, to wit : I was born February 14th, 1822, at Sandy Springs, Adams county, Ohio ; received my collegiate education at Ripley, and my theological training at Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating in June, 1848.
Mrs. Adams, whose maiden name was Rankin, daughter of James Rankin, was born December 19th, 1827, near Knox- ville, East Tennessee ; educated at Ripley, Ohio, and Mission Institute, Quincy, Illinois, where we were married July 9th, 1848 ; and having been commissioned as missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to the Sioux or Dakota Indians, we embarked on board of a Mississippi river steamer, for Fort Snelling, Iowa Territory, as it was then known.
On arriving at Galena, Illinois, the last of the week, we rested there until after the Sabbath, according to the Fourth Commandment ; and on resuming our journey by the first boat for St. Paul, leaving Galena, we arrived at St. Paul July 24th, 1848, and Ft. Snelling at noon the same day.
St. Paul was then only a wayside-landing, with one small trading-post, with a few trinkets and Indian curiosities in store ; and there were less than half-a-dozen resident white families there.
Fort Snelling, and H. H. Sibley's trading post at Mendota,
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were then regarded as the head of navigation. Our boat, on which we shipped our household goods, and supplies for one year only, reached the foot of the island opposite Mendota, from which point the freight was transferred to Fort Snelling in barges, by the steamer's crew.
During our detention, awaiting the annual meeting of the Dakota Mission, at Kaposia, Dr. T. S. Williamson's station, in the autumn of 1848, Mrs. Adams and I applied ourselves to the study of the Sioux or Dakota language, the customs and practices and character of the natives, among whom we were to live and labor as missionaries ; and for the time being were kindly and hospitably entertained at the mission home of Rev. T. S. Williamson at Kaposia, four miles below St. Paul, on the west side of the Mississippi river.
Meantime I reconnoitered the field, visited Red Rock, and held services at St. Paul and Grey Cloud Island, reaching the latter by an overland route, on horseback, guided over a trackless prairie by a pocket-compass to a point opposite the island, where I was kindly met by one Mr. John Brown, who safely transferred me across (in a small canoe) to his island home, while I swam my horse alongside of the canoe, and in like manner returned after the Sabbath.
In like manner, in filling an appointment to preach at St. Paul, I rode on horseback to a clump of grape-vines and bushes opposite St. Paul, where I tied out my horse, and was ferried over in an Indian canoe, in the morning, and after service was returned in the afternoon in like manner by an Indian's kindness. The Divine services were then held in St. Paul in the primitive log schoolhouse. On that day (to which I especially refer) we had only about twelve adult English- speaking people, and fifteen or eighteen children, at that service ; which comprised about all the English-speaking people of that small village of St. Paul, where now there is a population of upwards of two hundred thousand-a city of schoolhouses and consecrated churches.
ยท At another time I accompanied the venerable Dr. T. S. Williamson, who held Divine service in the house of one Hosea, a Canadian Frenchman who had married a Dakota woman, a member of the Presbyterian mission church at Lacquiparle ; and at that Sabbath afternoon service, in the
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Dakota language, there were only about half-a-dozen adults, and a like number of native children, present.
At that time Minneapolis, on the west side, was not founded, and no improvements there, except a small saw-mill guarded. by a soldier of the U. S. army detailed on that special duty. The Falls of St. Anthony and Minnehaha were then in their primitive beauty and grandeur, and the little village of St. Anthony did not then amount to much more than a mere portage-encampment for lumbermen and fur-traders of the upper Mississippi country.
Fort Snelling was then quite a military post ; a small U. S. garrison, but important, for the national flag was there dis- played, signaling the fact that there was power on the part of the U. S. government ; and that was usually respected, altho' sometimes contemned by Indian braves who gloried more in an eagle-feather of a certain description, those times, than in the Flag of our Union.
At the annual meeting of our Dakota Mission, held at Kaposia in September, 1848, it was decided that myself and wife should go to Lacquiparle mission station, and unite with Rev. S. R. Riggs in mission work among the Sisseton and Wahpeton Sioux or Dakotas of that region ; in which we most heartily concurred. Accordingly on the 19th day of Septem- ber, 1848, we set out from Kaposia station via Ft. Snelling, Oak Grove, Shakopee and Traverse-des-Sioux. Owing to the want of roads, bridges and ferries, those times, this was a difficult and tedious overland route. Yet it was not without occasional episodes and little diversions ; as when a rawhide tug-strap broke and let the patient ox out, and the two-wheel cart tilt back on a steep hillside grade, dumping the wives of the missionaries, with their children, baggage and all, out in a rolling attitude toward the overflowing brook below ; and amid the cries from the frightful disaster, and the joyful exclamations that after all no one was seriously hurt, all was gathered up, restored, and the journey resumed, with heart- felt thankfulness that only that had happened us.
Then again, as we journeyed in road and without roads, we encountered one of those bottomless sloughs, partly covered over with a mere tuft of grasses, when suddenly one of our oxen broke through the grass covering and went down in the
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OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
marsh, or bog, up to his sides, and bellowed like a calf for fear that would be his grave ; and our women and children fearing the same fate, jumped from the mission cart and ran from tuft to tuft until they reached terra firma ; and then, on seeing how soon we roped the poor ox and the cart out of the slough, and reloaded, concluded that that was an eventful day when we went from Oak Grove mission station to Shakopee.
But we had not crossed the Rubicon. By the time we reached the Minnesota river at Shakopee it was dark, and pouring down rain. There was, just as we expected, no bridge and no ferry there. There were, however, some Indian canoes on the opposite side of the river. After a long time we succeeded in getting an Indian to bring one or two over for us ; and lashing two canoes together, side by side, we improvised ferriage for all, except our two good, patient oxen and my horse, which we compelled to ferry themselves over, after the most primitive manner, each one swimming for himself to the other shore. Hungry, tired and sleepy, we reached the mission station at Shakopee ; were kindly received and entertained by Rev. Samuel W. Pond ; and all felt satis- fied with the rich and varied experiences of the day and the journey.
From Shakopee we proceeded next on our way, and camped out two nights between Shakopee and Traverse-des-Sioux, where St. Peter is now situated. The first day we were sud- denly and almost without any warning compelled, by reason of a heavy rain-storm, to go into camp ; but before we could pitch our tent and get our baggage into it, we were nearly drenched with the rainfall, and we were surrounded with a flood of water, so that it was with difficulty that we kept our blankets dry and suitable for encampment for the night. This encampment was at or near where Jordan is located.
The next day we had a tedious time making our way thro' the big woods below Le Sueur. That night one of our oxen, worn down, or disgusted with the roads, or without roads, deserted us. After two or three hours search for him the next morning, all in vain, we concluded to go on without him, leaving a hired man with the cart to bring all on the journey when the truant ox should be found, which was done the evening of the same day ; and that day we arrived safely at
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Traverse-des-Sioux ; and there we rested over the Sabbath in obedience to the Fourth Commandment.
On that Sabbath day, while at Traverse-des-Sioux mission station, two events occurred to make that day memorable : First, it was a communion Sabbath, when the little band of missionaries, providentially there, celebrated the Lord's Sup- per, in obedience to Christ, who said to his diciples, " Do this in remembrance of me." Second, in the afternoon of that same day some natives who had been down to Mendota and St. Paul, returned with a supply of whisky, and several Indians were intoxicated, and one man was killed, only a few hundred yards from the mission station ; and but for the help of two of our young men from the mission the man who was in charge of the trading-post would have been killed by them. In attempting to rescue my horse from the danger of being shot by the intoxicated furious party, one shot from a musket was discharged at my feet, and another over my head, by an Indian too drunk to aim and fire on time, at a white man.
The next week, resuming our journey across the prairie to Lacquiparle from Traverse-des-Sioux, one hundred and twenty- five miles in a northwestern direction, after camping out four nights, we reached our destination safely, blessed with good health. Lacquiparle mission was one of the oldest mission stations of the A. B. C. F. M. among the Dakotas. A Presby- terian church of seven members was organized there by Dr. T. S. Williamson early in 1836, which in 1848 had increased to upwards of fifty members. On arriving there we at once entered upon mission-work, teaching school, having from forty to fifty day scholars, and studying the Dakota language, and reciting the same, during the evenings and mornings.
Meantime, as a matter of experiment, as well as duty and privilege, we ventured to take six native children into our family to board, lodge, teach and train, and so demonstrate the possibility, not only, but also the feasibility, of educating and training Indian children, as the right arm of the mission- work, and the hope of success, in the work of civilizing and Christianizing the Sioux or Dakotas. Nor were we disap- pointed as to the anticipated results. To us, it was a work as interesting as it was new and arduous. Rev. S. R. Riggs, with whom we were intimately associated in missionary work
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OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
at that station, seeing the manifest success and good results of the experiment, from an attitude of toleration with many doubts and misgivings as to the work, was convinced and con- verted, and became a warm friend and faithful advocate of the plan and work of establishing and maintaining some such manual-labor boarding-schools as the sine qua non of mission- ary labor among the Dakotas, and among the aboriginal tribes of the Northwest ; and hence he subsequently ventured to establish and maintain a manual-labor boarding-school at Hazlewood station near Yellow Medicine Agency, in Minne- sota ; and always, up to the day of his death, he gave me the credit of inaugurating and successfully demonstrating the practicability of such manual-labor boarding-schools among the Dakotas. Others had tried it, but failed in the attempt.
But our connection with the Dakota mission was not of long continuance-only about five years-when, owing to the failure of Mrs. Adam's health, we were constrained to resign and leave that field of labor, and go East in order to secure medical treatment of Mrs. Adam's case. It pleased the Lord to bless the change of the field of our labors, and the means used for the recovery of Mrs. Adam's health, and to give us work in the Home field, in Minnesota, as at St. Peter and in that vicinity for a number of years consecutively, during the early settlement of that state ; and later, to widen the field of my labor in various departments of Christian work, and especially in preaching the Gospel of Christ; and for the period of ten years it was my privilege to preach the Gospel as Chaplain of the U. S. Army, previous to our return to the Dakotas, the people of our first love and service for the Master.
We are now, by the special and wonderful grace of God, engaged once more in mission-work, among the Dakotas. Here at Goodwill mission station we have some few of the very Indians who were at Lacquiparle, Minnesota, and whom we taught there years and years ago ; and we have here many of the children of their children, in these two manual-labor schools, that of Goodwill, and that of the U. S. Government- school, in all upwards of two hundred pupils, studious, con- tented, interesting and hopeful, under faithful tuition, disci- pline and training in knowledge and the industrial pursuits and avocations of life.
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We feel assured-even if we do not fully understand all about the way that we have been led and brought to resume missionary labor among this people, so poor and needy-that our labors cannot be in vain, nor all our hopes be lost or disappointed. "Hitherto the Lord has helped us ;" and now, after more than forty years labor and personal experience, so varied, in the remembrance of all His love and mercy and faithfulness, and His great and precious promises to us as in His Holy Word, we can well afford to trust Him in time to come.
It is a matter of deep heartfelt interest, and devout thank- fulness to God, that we have been permitted, in His kind Providence, to have some humble part in the great work of laying the foundations of learning and religion in this the comparatively new Northwest, and that we have witnessed the settlement, growth and prosperity of Minnesota from the very beginning. "Behold what God hath wrought !"
The remembrance of our association and work with the early settlers and pioneer friends is to us here, in our mission home, out on the coteau des prairies of Dakota, very precious and grateful indeed ; and from this high elevation, so near heaven above, we do most heartily congratulate you all in the enjoyment of your Christian homes, home-comforts, and the manifold blessings, comforts and hopes of Christian associa- tions and work, to the honor of Christ and the ultimate glory of God.
Yours, very truly, M. N. ADAMS.
CHAPTER XLV.
TRAVEL IN THE EARLY DAYS OF MINNESOTA-JOURNEY AFOOT FROM PEMBINA TO FORT SNELLING FIFTY YEARS AGO.
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