USA > Minnesota > Hennepin County > Minneapolis > Personal recollections of Minnesota and its people : and early history of Minneapolis > Part 37
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
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tion. May we depend upon you to initiate and advocate such a measure in the senate ? I need not say that I am much interested in the speedy passage of whatever act is necessary in the case. And I would fondly hope that the members of the legislature will all be disposed to do what can be done for the advancement of these " old settlers" of Minnesota in civil- ization and Christianization ; and that it will not be made a party question at all. Yours very truly. S. R. RIGGS.
PROPOSED CAPITOL REMOVAL.
St. Paul, April 18, 1857 .- J. H. Stevens, Glencoe, Dear Sir : I want your help in the matter of locating the Capitol by a vote of the people on the Big Peninsula in Lake Minnetonka. The scheme is pretty well under way. I can get over four thousand acres of land from the settlers on the lake in the way of donations to aid in the project. W. P. RUSSELL.
JUDGE GOODRICH.
St. Paul, July 4th, 1857 .- Dear Col .: I am not unmindful of your kindness to me as a citizen and legislator. I hope that you will never have cause to regret those kind offices. I shall always strive to continue the friendly relations that exist between us. We have generally taken better care of' the interests of others than of our own. All that you and I need to make us popular men, is ample fortune. That I shall never have, so I make no calculations upon being a great man either in my own estimation or that of any one else. I am your friend. AARON GOODRICH.
ON COLONEL BENTON.
St. Paul, April 30th, 1858 .- Dear Col .: You speak of that great man, Colonel Benton. . Yes, he is dead. We have no other Benton to die. It is no ordinary grief that can or should express the nation's sorrow. He has gone down to history with a more enduring page than any man in our country's history. Extracts from his speeches, and his thirty years in the senate, will be read as long as the language shall endure. Well may he exclaim, "What is a seat in congress to me ? I who have sat for thirty years in the highest branch of the national councils." But enough. I have never expe- rienced feelings of envy for great men. I think I can honor all. I wish I was the only small man in the land ; I could then leave. But I must close. AARON GOODRICH.
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MEMORANDA AND LETTERS.
THE HUTCHINSONS.
Hutchinson, Minn., Feb. 23, 1876 .- Col. J. H. Stevens : Dear friend and brother-Knowing your love for music, and your willingness to aid every good word (song) and work, in behalf of the musical fraternity I have this first and only favor to ask through you of the legislature of our adopted state, viz : that before the close of the present session you will form and pass a bill in the interest of free singing, as well as free speaking, granting to any person or persons the right to hold public concerts of music anywhere in the state without license or penalty. The present infamous license is frequently perpetrated in our own adopted state upon those messengers of peace and good-will, the musicians, hindering their usefulness in disseminating a higher civilization through the divine medium of song. ASA B. HUTCHINSON.
Hutchinson, July 8, 1886 .- Col. J. H. Stevens : My good old friend-I was much pleased to receive a word from you, and it set me thinking of the past when, thirty-one years ago, we first came up the river to St. Paul to see the country, and give our concerts On one occasion in the corridor of the church we met two enthusiastic men who besought us to come to St. Anthony and Minneapolis. We kept our promise and were entertained at the cottage under the hill near the bridge, and met other good friends, and were treated to milk and honey. Then the getting away to the Fort for supplies for the journey through the big woods to the grand prairie ; the impromptu concert at Shakopee ; the camping in the woods en route to Glencoe ; the foraging among the Dutch settlers; the welcome reception by Bell & Chapman ; the social gath- ering and songs at the little hotel ; the tour over the prairie to the valley of the Hassan ; the campfires, the game, the Johnsons, Pendergasts, Messers, and Harringtons, all sleep- ing by the blazing log fire, and the mercury falling ; the early risers with axes, chopping for the morning meal ; the prospectors, returning in the evening delighted with the lay of the land and richness of the soil ; the farewell, and ride down the river. My dear brothers are now all sleeping their last sleep, having proved all things earthly full of vanity and vexation. Glad, dear man, you survive the wreck, and still can hold the pen. JOHN W. HUTCHINSON.
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MEMORANDA AND LETTERS.
Colonel Stevens and Jacob Schaefer were socially and finan- cially intimate as early as 1849, when the former came to Min- nesota, and the latter went to California. Their wives were sisters. Later Mr. Schaefer was well known in Hennepin county, as auditor, commissioner, and business man. He was born in Baeruth, near Strasburg, then France, now Germany, at which last-named place he was educated, and then came to the United States. He was four and a half months on the way overland to California, where he quickly won and lost a fortune, and then made his way to Central America, being taken ill with yellow fever on the route. He lay unconscious, with several other patients, in an illy-ventilated room, and the doctor said he would die. Two friendly sea-captains had him removed to airy quarters, and he recovered, to the surprise of the doctor, disappointment of the undertaker, and delight of his seafaring friends. He took a look at the coffin provided for him, and though it was of beautiful redwood, he declined its use, in favor of somebody seemingly less fortunate, and proceeded on nis way, buoyant with hope, and courageous to work. Going home to the United States, he was shipwrecked on the way.
Mrs. Schaefer returned with him to his silver-mining camp in Honduras, and for five or six years was the only white woman there, a wonder to the dusky natives. Their daughter Francisca, now wife of W. O. Winston, of Winston Brothers, of Minne- apolis, was born at Yuscaran. The Catholic natives accom- plished by strategy what they could not with consent of parents, and the little white native of the tropics was baptised in their church, near the mining town of Depilto. Coming North from that country of tropical scenery, fruits, and flowers, where there were no wheeled vehicles, and all conveyance was on mule- back, the little Central American brought with her a young pet tiger, and a bird of rare plumage ; but was nevertheless home- sick to return, preferring Spanish as more pleasing to her ear, and more yielding to her tongue.
Mr. Schaefer was of a brusque cheerfulness, that was like a tonic to those with whom he came in contact. He was fond of children, and was their popular friend. During the late war he was regimental, then brigade quartermaster, and was called to the staff of a division quartermaster. He experienced finan- cial reverses from fire, flood, and shipwreck ; but was honored
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with military and civil offices ; and blessed with friends. A characteristic letter is given from-
Truxilo, November 28, 1855 .- As you were somewhat uneasy about our safe arrival here, I must inform you that Sunday last, the 25th instant, we landed safe, after a very pleasant voyage of only sixteen days, at this seaboard town in Honduras. Our captain was a gentleman, and we had a good crew. Mrs. S. was sick for five days, after which she was able to beat the captain at chess almost every day. We have excellent health, and are in first-rate quarters, with an Englishman who has a pleasant house and sets a fine table, with fruits and wines.
My machinery, trunks, and goods, are already on their way to the interior. We shall leave the 30th with our servant. We have native visitors every evening. Mrs. Schaefer is the first American lady who ever traveled into the interior. This evening we took a walk. A boy came running after, and pre- sented a rose, saying his mother sent it to the lady. Flowers in the gardens this 28th of November ! We visited a Carib village near this place. They are a black race, strong and well built. Each man has as many wives as he can build huts for. Each wife must have her own dwelling. The man clears a piece of ground for her, which she must cultivate as long as he is with her. He goes a fishing, and for a few months each year cuts mahogany. Happy race ! We entered several of the houses. In one of them we found a young woman who was very happy. She said she had been very busy all day, and was going to be married to-morrow.
We expect to be in Yuscaran by the 18th of December. The revolution is ended. I hope it will not revive until the Yankees occupy the land. Then the country will improve, and it will be the garden of the world. J. SCHAEFER.
Col. Stevens-Dear Sir : He that doeth well ought to be commended, and I feel privileged to say, that in the legisla- ture your willingness to undertake, and efficiency in carrying through what you did undertake, whether for constituencies you immediately represent, or those more remote, make you a model legislator. You have done the whole state a great ser- vice in procuring the establishment of an institution that will be a lasting honor and glory to our commonwealth. Your obliged follow-citizen. T. ELWELL.
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MEMORANDA AND LETTERS.
FROM MARTIN MCLEOD.
Oak Grove, March 11, 1852.
Dear Sir : Before I take up my weary way to resume the shackles of bondage imposed upon me by the most trying of all callings, the Indian trade, I will drop you a line. Mr. Pond was here this morning, and said that he thought Mrs. P. would not recover, but linger on, perhaps for some months yet. She is wearing away from this frail abode, to the quiet repose of a future and better hope, than aught of earth. Happy those who are prepared for the change.
Granby, C. E., April 25, 1854 .- Dear Sir : After twenty years absence from ones native land it is no easy matter to get away to return to that of our adoption. I have been stay- ing here for some time with the dearest of my brothers, Kev. Norman McLeod, and will quit his most agreeable and in- structive society with deep regret. He is highly esteemed in the region round about, and has been of much usefulness. You would like him. I hope we will have him one of these days, with us in Minnesota. He is anxious to go west. In- deed every one is. Westward the star of empire holds its unwavering course. Minnesota has incalculably advanced in my estimation since I started on my journey. Having seen such an extent of country in the United States and both the Canadas, so far inferior in every respect to our Territory, I am now without a ray of doubt, sanguine that it will very soon be settled, and well settled, with an industrious, thriving and happy population. There is no place I have seen since I left I prefer to Minnesota-none that I like so well.
Oak Grove, Hennepin county, Jan. 20, 1857 .- Dear Col .: What about that draft for the University ? We can get the charter through without difficulty, I think, but the question is about the grant to endow it. You will have perhaps seen by the papers that Rice has introduced a bill providing for state organization, making a north and south line. I do not know what your views are as to the boundaries ; mine are for the north and south line. I know the west, and the utter worthlessness of a great portion of it toward the Missouri. I also know and have traveled in the. Lake Superior region in many directions. We want the minerals, pines, fisheries, and the outlet by the great inland sea. We do not want the
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muddy and turbulent Missouri, with its still more dark and turbulent tribes, its gravelly hills, its sterile prairies without a tree, "its deserts vast and idle". For all these reasons, and more, I am now, and always have been, for the north and south line, which will make Minnesota a magnificent state with great and diversified resources, leading to boundless wealth, and all the mighty results which follow in its train, and the interminable blessings also, when properly applied, as let us hope they will be in the brighter and wiser future. We belong to the past, but let us embrace our little share, prospectively.
I most heartily agree with you as regards keeping some mementos of the poor disappearing aboriginees, but also have to thank you for your compliment to my individual name. I am fully impressed with all that appertains to the future of Glencee. The Creator has done his great part, but there is always something left for man to do.
April 4, 1858 .- The proposed cemetery is too near Glencoe. What is needed of a ten acre cemetery, which would be large enough for a place of burial-a Necropolis for a city of half a million of inhabitants. Why, ten acres would be large enough for the whole county, for generations yet unborn, with room and verge enough for all the ghosts and ghostesses in the Northwest to pace their weary rounds, above ground by the pale light of the moon, or the flickering glare of the aurora boraelis. And the day, the barberous age, of burying the dead at our doors, is past. Surely this insane relic of anti-sanity will not be resuscitated at Glencoe.
July 23, 1859 .- I regret to see in the New York Herald that poor Judson Hutchinson has, in a state of mental derange- ment, hung himself at Lynn, Massachusetts, his residence. What a poor, uncertain, probationary state, this life is, at best, but ah! how miserable when the end is so gloomy and deplorable.
Be fearless for the people in your Register. It is a sacred duty you owe to your adopted country as a man and a jour- nalist. It matters not whose toes you may tread upon. It is only rogues, not honest men, who will fear you, and that is the proudest position any paper or public exponent can attain to.
MARTIN MCLEOD.
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MEMORANDA AND LETTERS.
DEATH OF MARTIN MCLEOD -LETTER FROM WM. S. CHAPMAN.
Minneapolis, Nov. 23, 1860 .- Dear Colonel : I have just returned from paying the last tribute of respect to Hon. Mar- tin McLeod. He was at my house the day I wrote you last, took dinner with me, was unusually jovial, and spoke of his excellent health. He asked me to rent a house here for him, and said he would bring his family here and send his children to school this winter. He went home to Oak Grove late in the evening, attended church the next day, and in the evening was taken quite unwell. Wednesday he wrote in for medi- cine, which I sent him. The next day Dr. Boutillier visited him, and thought he would be better in a day or two. He grew worse, and I sent Dr. Anderson out. He was deranged, and talked incessantly. He told Mr. Pond, who called the day he died, that he was too young a man to die, and that he put his trust in the Savior. He died Tuesday. Mr. Pond preached the sermon. W. S. CHAPMAN.
REMINISCENT.
Department of Agriculture, Washington, July 5th, 1877 .- Old in our friendship, and growing old in years, what vital changes have taken place since we discussed the agricultural possibilities of Minnesota, twenty-seven years ago, sitting on the bank of the Mississippi above the Falls, or wandering from your little claim-house across the virgin prairie which is now adorned by streets, houses, and mills, of this wonderful city of Minneapolis. Enthusiastic and imaginative as we were, the facts accomplished have outrun all prophecy and hope, and our state to-day leads in the production of man's first necessity, bread. What are the changes for the next twenty-seven years ? Who can tell ? You and I may not be here to know ; but let us do our earnest part in the right direction for the glory of the present, and the benefit of the future. Your friend. WM. G. LEDUC.
COMING TO THE POINT-AND TO MINNESOTA.
Salem, Ohio, 3d Month, 11th, 1852 .- Dear Friend : I have very often thought of you with feelings of near affection, strangers though we are to each other, and have often been led to sympathize with you, in your isolated situation ; and yet in view of the difficulties in our once peaceful Society, perhaps it would be more appropriate to rejoice on your
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account, that in respect to these things you are not as we are, "Tossed with a tempest and not comforted." There is no doubt in my mind that there is a disposition in many to give encouragement, either directly or indirectly, to views approx- imating more nearly to the doctrines of other professors of the Christian name, than those of our early friends did ; but there are many who feel bound to " contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." In all our travels we saw no place we liked so well as Minnesota, and I believe if it should prove to be adapted to Agricultural pursuits there are several families of friends in the neighborhood that will turn their steps thitherward ere long, perhaps myself and family among the rest. Hoping to hear from thee soon, I conclude with much love to thee and thine. JOSEPH BRANTINGHAM.
Amasa Cobb, once a messmate of Colonel Stevens in the lead mines at Galena, Illinois, and afterwards a general in the army, now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nebraska, recently visited his old friend in Minneapolis, and heralded in a pleasant way his coming by a letter dated-
State of Nebraska, Supreme Court, Lincoln, July 11, 1888. My dear old Friend and Compatriot : I am making calcula- tions to invade your city the last of next week or the week following. The ostensible object of this movement is to take my wife to visit her brother, Dr. Moffet, of Minneapolis, but my real purpose in making the campaign, is that I may have another meeting with you, before one of us is mustered out. I write this to inquire whether you will probably be in the city at or about the time above indicated. As the fellow said when his lawyer advised him to run away from Texas, "I don't know where you would go to" from cool Minnesota such weather as this ; and still Minnesota is a large state, I am advised, and I might not be able to find you among the lakes and cool recesses without information or a guide. Your old friend.
AMASA COBB.
St. Paul, Sept. 28, 1849 .- Mr. Steele's ferry bill was up in the Council yesterday, and they have made the most complete humbug of it you can imagine. The time is reduced to five years. Foot passengers pay six and-a-fourth cents, the rest in proportion, and he is bound in $1,000 to keep his ferry open day and night, &c. JOSEPH R. BROWN.
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AN ELECTION IN YE OLDEN TYME.
October 7th, 1852 .- I wrote you a note two days since informing you and our friends that the people at Little Crow's village had held a meeting and nominated J. W. Brown of Dakota county for their representative, Mr. Robertson and Mr. Cook both having refused to run. Mr. Brown is a mem- ber of the Methodist church in good standing, and a good Whig, and will support the People's ticket, and I hope all good citizens will support him.
I would like to get my house at Little Falls insured for about $350, but wish to know your rates of percentage before I conclude to do so.
P. PRESCOTT.
Executive Department, Idaho Territory, Boise City, June 21, 1878 .- My dear Friend : Like a pleasant echo from the chamber of pleasant memories, comes your very kind letter of the 10th. Very happy am I to hear from you. I have thought of you a thousand times-wondered if you still lived, and where ? whether you still thought of me ? whether we should meet again ? and often thought of writing to you. For of the many good and true men it has been my fortune to know, you hold a sacred place. M. BRAYMAN.
Minneapolis, March 17th, 1855 .- I beg leave to resign the position to which your kindness called me, that of Teacher of the Public School of Minneapolis. The reason which induces me to this step is the perplexities surrounding us pertaining to the entry of homes at the Land Office, which will necessa- rily draw much upon our, time and attention. I thank you for the uniform kindness and attention you have shown me since my service under your direction. CHARLES HOAG.
Princeton Mills, Preston county, Virginia .- Brother and friend-Permit me thus to address you, for so I esteem all who work upon the square. News from Minnesota is like good news from a far country. I now feel interested more in that far-off territory than in the old tobacco fields of Virginia. I will resign the office of surveyor and take my little family to Minnesota in the spring. I would rather live in snow a foot deep than in this rainy climate in the winter. Could I sell a few dozen first-rate rifles, also a few hundred good chopping axes ? and. I think of taking out a pair of good horses and a buggy. Give me your opinion. A. J. BELL.
CARVER'S SKETCH OF THE FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY, 1766.
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MEMORANDA AND LETTERS.
Washington, Feb. 14, 1867 .- I have been here about ten days, and have done but little towards making a treaty with the Indians. There are a dozen or more delegations of Indians here from different parts of the country, all pressing their claims for precedence at the department. Congress is growing more radical every day. Even Reverdy Johnson is in favor of the constitutional amendment and negro suffrage. So you see the political world moves. I am satisfied the next congress will insist on universal suffrage. J. B. BASSETT.
AN INFANT PIONEER-AN OLD SETTLER.
A grand woman of this century, identified with the history of Minnesota, is living in Minneapolis, at the age of "three score years and ten." Of romantic birth, she was here in infancy and during early childhood, when Minnehaha, and the Falls of St. Anthony, were in their natural glory ; and she saw them with fresh young eyes undimmed to their beauty and grandeur. She was here with her parents when Fort Snelling was Camp Coldwater. Outside the Fort, the nearest neighbors were three hundred miles away, and the mail was received only once in six months. She witnessed the arrival of the first steamboat at the Fort. The Dakota language was familiar to her. She has been intimately acquainted with our great statesmen, brave generals, grand philanthropists, and identified with the nation's progress and glory. The infant pioneer of 1819 is in 1889 one of the oldest settlers. Incidents of her life are autobiagraph- ically told by Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve, wife of Major- General Horatio P. Van Cleve, and are of great interest.
The Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Discovery of the Falls of Saint Anthony was celebrated by the Minnesota His- torical Society, at the University Campus, Minneapolis, Min- nesota, on the third day of July, eighteen hundred and eighty. Articles were requested to be prepared for a Memorial Volume on the Life of Hennepin and Establishment of Catholic Mis- sions, by Bishop John Ireland ; Indian Trade, by Hon. H. M. Rice ; Military Occupation, by T. V. D. Heard, Esq .; Protes- tant Missions, by Rev. S. R. Riggs, D. D .; Education, by Rev. E. D. Neill ; Civil Government, by Gen. H. H. Sibley ; Our Commercial Interests, by Capt. R. Blakely ; Agriculture, by Col. J. H. Stevens ; Early French Explorers, by J. E. Ferte.
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CHRONOLOGICAL.
1680. In September, DuLuth and Hennepin were at the Falls of St. Anthony.
1700. LeSueur ascends the Minnesota River.
1766. Jonathan Carver, on November 17th, reaches the Falls of St. Anthony.
1817. Major Stephen Long, U. S. A., visits the Falls of St. Anthony.
1819. Colonel Leavenworth arrives on the 24th of August, with troops, at Mendota.
1820. Laidlow, superintendent of farming for Earl Sel- kirk, passes from Pembina to Prairie du Chien, to purchase seed wheat. Upon the 15th of April left Prairie du Chien with Mackinaw boats and ascended the Minnesota to Big Stone Lake, where the boats were placed on rollers and dragged a short distance to Lake Traverse, and on the 3d of June reached Pembina. On the 5th of May, Col. Leaven- worth established summer quarters at Camp Coldwater, Hen- nepin county. In July, Governor Cass, of Michigan, visits the camp. In August, Col. Snelling succeeds Leavenworth. Sept 20, corner-stone laid under command of Col. Snelling. First white marriage in Minnesota, Lieutenant Green to a daughter of Captain Gooding.
1821. Fort St. Anthony was sufficiently completed to be occupied by troops. Mill at St. Anthony Falls constructed for the use of garrison, under supervision of Lieut. McCabe.
1823. The first steamboat, the Virginia, on May 10th, arrived at the mouth of the Minnesota river.
1824. General Winfield Scott inspects Fort St. Anthony, and at his suggestion the War Department changed the name to Fort Snelling.
1826. January 26th, first mail in five months received at the Fort. April 5th, snow-storm with flashes of lightning.
1829. Major Taliaferro, Indian agent, establishes a farm for the benefit of the Indians at Lake Calhoun.
1833. Rev. W. T. Boutwell establishes a mission school for Ojibways at Leech Lake.
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