USA > Minnesota > Hennepin County > Minneapolis > Personal recollections of Minnesota and its people : and early history of Minneapolis > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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
We spent a profitable month among the Indians, trad- ers, and lumbermen, in the upper St. Croix valley and along
71
OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
the tributary streams. We there renewed our acquaintance with Hon. N. Setzer, who was connected with Mr. Greeley in lumber operations on Snake river. He was a member of the first territorial Legislature. The lumber operations were crude in those early days in the pineries of Minnesota and Wisconsin. The absence of booms and other necessary facilities to make them profitable may be set down as the reason that those early lumbermen made no money in getting out logs. This I know to my sorrow, as a winter or two after my visit to the St. Croix pineries I engaged in the enterprise on Rum river and lost $17,000 in the operation ; not but that there were huge piles of logs banked, and safely in the Mis- sissippi, but there came a flood ; many of the logs went over the Falls of St. Anthony and were swept down the river, and it cost more to gather them up and raft them to southern markets than they were worth. Had there been good boom privileges such disasters would not have occurred. There was one advantage the lumbermen had, however, and that was that the timber was good, and grew right on the banks of the river, so the hauls were short and the cost of banking light to what it is now. Then again the stumpage was free. At that early period the public domain, and all that was on it, was free plunder.
All the lumber used in the houses erected at an early day in this part of the northwest, and all that was rafted down the Mississippi, was secured from the lands belonging to the government, and cost nothing to those who cut it. Early in the fifties the government claimed, and in some instances secured, a stumpage but the amount was very small. The agents sent out from Washington to collect it were unable, even with the powerful aid of the government, to secure more than a mere pittance. One of the timber-agents was a brother of the President, but Mr. Fillmore met with no better success than the others.
THE RETURN.
After gathering all our furs and sending them to the Fort by voyageurs, we started home through an unbroken wilder- ness past the numerous lakes in what is now Chisago county. After leaving the pine lands we came into a tract of beautiful
72
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
hardwood timber, mostly sugar-maple. Those groves have long since passed away ; large, productive farms and happy firesides exist in their place, mostly occupied by intelligent, industrious, hardy Norsemen and their descendents in Chisago county.
While at Taylor's Falls I desired to meet N. C. D. Taylor, a friend of my earliest boyhood, although ten years my senior, but he was absent in the pineries. Mr. Taylor was once a clerk for his uncle Nathan Lovejoy, a merchant in New Hampshire, in the vicinity of my early home. He was a resident of Alton, Illinois, in 1832. We lived in the same hamlet at the Stake Diggings lead-mines in Wisconsin. When I left for Mexico, in 1846, Mr. Taylor came to the St. Croix valley, and was one of the original preemptors of the city of Taylor's Falls. For many years he was one of the most active business men in Minnesota. In 1854 he was a member of the territorial legislature. In 1856 he was also a member, and was elected speaker at that session. In 1866 he was elected treasurer of Chisago county, and re-elected for many years. He died in 1887. Mr. Taylor was a pure, just man, in both public and private life. No taint ever attached to his name. Among the many pleasant visitors under my humble roof during many years there never was one more welcome than Nathan Chase Daniel Taylor. He was never married. No man was more universally respected.
Mr. Taylor having a large experience in mining, was of the opinion that some day copper and other mines would be dis- covered around the falls of St. Croix ; in which opinion all miners of experience fully concur. The formation is green- stone, much in appearance like the copper-bearing rock of Lake Superior. This dark-green trap-rock is very different from the formation around the falls of St. Anthony.
ยท
CHAPTER XIV.
EVENTS IN THE WINTER AND SPRING OF 1850.
The long winter of 1850 became wearisome as the spring months approached and no steamboats came. Communica- tion to the lower country was on the ice, though early in the winter Judge Wyman Knowlton, of Prairie du Chien, laid out an air-line road from that place to St. Paul, the distance being only 313 miles ; but people preferred the ice to the new road.
Two promising schools were opened in St. Anthony, and the library association provided for intellectual treats to the young colony. Rev. Dr. E. G. Gear, in a lecture early in January, said that on his first visit to Anthony cataract, nine years before, there was only one poor cabin there, and a body of Indians were engaged in spirit worship. Out of brush the Indians had erected a large number of booths several hundred feet long, in the center of which was a dog bedaubed with various colors, which was a prominent feature in the super- stitious exercises.
Lieutenant R. W. Johnson, Hon. W. R. Marshall, and other prominent citizens, lectured before the association. A sewing- circle was formed by the ladies, which was a kind of relief to the home-sickness which they naturally felt, to some extent, the first winter after their departure from their former home. Hon. John A. Wakefield organized a temperance society in St. Paul, which extended to St. Anthony. The academy building was finished and a kind of high-school was opened in it during the latter part of the winter.
Goodhue of the Pioneer was inclined to poke fun at those around the falls. That paper of February 27th said that
74
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
probably a town on the west shore of the Falls of St. Anthony would be laid out and vigorously commenced the ensuing spring. He added : " We propose that it be called All Saints, so as to head off the whole calendar of saints." After the snow disappeared in March, the Pioneer said, " We learn that on Sunday, April 3, a fire broke out in St. Anthony, in the dry grass, and burnt over several squares where buildings will be." Little did Colonel Goodhue, or any one at that time, think that in thirty-five years not only those few squares would be built over, but that solid blocks would extend from them for miles.
CHANGE OF COMMAND AT FORT SNELLING.
On the 27th of February Colonel Loomis received orders to turn over the command to Colonel Woods and proceed to Fort Leavenworth. The noble old colonel who had done so much for the benefit of the northwest, and for Christianity, never returned to Fort Snelling. With his departure the missionaries lost their best friend.
On April 3d orders came for Colonel Woods to take three companies from Fort Snelling and proceed to Iowa and remove the Pottawatomies, Sacs and Foxes, over the Missouri river. This order ended Colonel Wood's command and presence at the fort.
Such was the anxiety for the arrival of steamboats that little else was talked about. On the 19th of April the High- land Mary, Captain John Atkinson, landed at the fort. Many citizens of St. Paul, Stillwater, and other places, were that night in much the same condition as were the friends of Johnny when he came marching home from the war.
New life and vigor was imparted to the enterprising and enthusiastic pioneers of the upper Mississippi by the opening of navigation in the spring of 1850 ; but it must not be sup- posed that the long winter months were without excitement.
ESQUIMAUX DISPATCHES BY DOG-TRAIN.
On the first of March a dog train arrived from the Red river of the North, containing news of moment from the Arctic ocean. I forwarded this news to the Pioneer, and received
-
75
OF, MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
from editor Goodhue the following evidence of appreciation : "I am greatly obliged to you for the Esquimaux dispatches, " and hesitated whether to make an acknowledgment for the " favor, in print ; but finally decided not to do it."
April 3d word was received that fourteen Chippewas were killed at Apple river ; and the weekly mail from Prairie du Chien brought interesting accounts of the Parkinson mur- der trial in Boston. All news, even if it was old, from the great world outside of Minnesota, was thoroughly discussed. Newspapers were read and re-read. The people were well- informed in regard to the current events of the day. One could tell the names of every senator and representative in congress, and the states they represented. Then again the health of the people, according to the population, was superior, if possible, to that of a later period. More food was consumed to the average man, and enjoyed with a keener relish, than elsewhere. Colonel Goodhue, on careful investigation, said that it took nine men to pole a keel-boat up the St. Croix river, and on an average they consumed a barrel of flour and a barrel of pork on the trip. He claimed that men eat more here than any place in the United states. True, the luxuries were few, but the necessaries of life were appreciated, and so long as the wants of the inner man were satisfied there was no danger but that the ingenuity of the people would find proper amusement during the long winter months.
A TRIP TO THE LOWER COUNTRY.
On the 25th of April the good steamer Nominee, Captain Orrin Smith ( whose name is a household word to the pioneers of the upper valley of the great river), appeared at Fort Snelling with recruits and government stores for the army. Having an important engagement at Rockford, Illinois, I took passage on the steamer for Galena. At St. Paul and other landings several persons came aboard bound for the lower country ; among them was Simon Powers, who had quite a cargo of live-stock which he was taking to the lower markets. Among the lot was an old white mule which I had, as agent for Mr. Steele, sold with other stock the previous fall. This mule Mr. Steele purchased from the quartermaster's depart-
76
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
ment in 1837. In 1849 he was capable of doing a heavy day's work, and no one would, from his appearance, suppose he was over fifteen years old, though Joseph R. Brown, who was a soldier at the time, and present on the occasion, said this same mule helped haul the stone that was used in building Fort Snelling, and was by no means a youngster at that time. We were all much surprised that Mr. Powers should ship stock for the lower markets when we required so much here and boat-loads were being shipped to St. Paul and other towns. Mr. Powers explained the reason by saying that he had purchased horses the previous year in St. Louis, and traders there, who understood their value, had requested him to secure the descendants of horses that had, at an early period, been introduced into the lower Red river valley by the Earl of Selkirk. These, with the French-Canadian horses, were the original breeds that were in use in pre-territorial days. They were capable of great endurance, and were fleet, requiring but little grain notwithstanding the extreme cold, and were valuable either as roadsters or for the chase. When Mr. Perry and his associates came from the Hudson Bay territory and settled on the reservation near Fort Snelling, in 1827, they brought their stock with them, which included many valuable horses, and it was this blood that Mr. Powers was transporting. He was undoubtedly the first man in the territory who shipped horses to the lower country for the purpose of selling them.
On landing at Galena I was surprised to find the season was as forward at Fort Snelling as it was in that city, and I found that such was the case all the way to Rockford. I began to be impressed that, after all, Minnesota was not such a hyperborean region as it had been represented to be. There was no perceptible difference in the climate between Rockford, Illinois, and St. Anthony Falls.
A BUSINESS OFFER FROM CAPTAIN (SINCE GENERAL ) KIRKHAM.
While at Rockford, I received a letter from Captain Kirk- ham, quartermaster in the United States army at Fort Snel- ling, in which he says : "Major Woods leaves to-day for Iowa, " directing the three companies of troops to follow him in
77
OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
" about ten days. I have no doubt it is to be a summer's job, " and will require quite a heavy disbursement. I shall send "ten days' supplies of everything with them, and two months' "supplies of all rations except pork, flour, and fresh beef. "These will be purchased in market. Forage will also have "to be bought for upwards of a hundred head of horses and "mules. Now, can you play agent or contractor ? You know "what we agreed upon before you left. If you think it for "your interest to go, I wish you would. I am sure you " will not regret it. I would like, in case you decide to go, to "have you at Muscatine by the 16th or 17th. Woods will "meet the troops at Marengo. I will bring down funds with "me if I go, and if I cannot leave with the troops, will send "you a draft on the quartermaster at St. Louis for a thousand "dollars, which will be enough to start upon. P. S .- The "steamer Lamartine went up to St. Anthony on Saturday the "4th. A large party of us from the garrison were along. " We took the band and had a pleasant time. The river was " so strong that the boat could not land on the east side, but "we stopped opposite Tuttle's place. There is no doubt now "about the head of navigation."
I decided to accept the position of agent of the quarter- master in the expedition to remove the Indians from Iowa to the west side of the Missouri river, and so notified Captain Kirkham.
THE FIRST WHITE LADY PIONEER OF ORIGINAL MINNEAPOLIS.
On the 10th of May I perfected the object of my visit to Rockford, and Miss Frances Helen Miller, of Oneida county, New York, became my wife; and now, after nearly forty years since that event, I can with certainty say that man was never blessed with a better wife. She is the first white lady pioneer who became a permanent resident of the original Minneapolis, and is the mother of the first white child born in that city.
RETURN TO MINNESOTA.
A two days' journey brought us to Galena whence, on Mon- day, the 13th of May, we embarked with our old friend Captain Smith and his excellent clerk Maitland, for Fort
78
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
Snelling. The steamer was full of emigrants bound for the new country. Among those who have since been prominent in Minnesota affairs, and held high positions in the state, was George W. Moore, who was for a long tinfe connected with Major John P. Owens, manager of the good old Minnesotian, a newspaper of much moment in territorial day. I met Mr. Moore a few days before at Rockford, and advised him to- visit the territory. He had been a book-printer in New York.
On the way up the river we met several agents of the gov- ernment picking up Winnebago Indians who had stealthily strayed away from Long Prairie, and wandered back to their old haunts and hunting-grounds on the banks of the river in Iowa and Wisconsin. . The little bands gathered from time to time were marched to the hurricane-deck of the steamer, and when the last came aboard at Wabasha prairie, now Winona, the upper deck presented the appearance of an Indian encampment. They were so thickly packed that it was difficult for the pilots to reach the pilot-house. These Indians, on their arrival at St. Paul, were marched overland to the agency at Long Prairie.
ENTHUSIASM FOR MINNESOTA.
In addition to Mr. Moore, there were several others who for the first time were on their way to look for homes in the north ; most of whom were pleased with the country, and located on claims, and have been useful citizens of the state. I had during twelve months' residence caught the enthusiasm of those who had preceded me to Minnesota, in regard to the resources and advantages of the country, and was constantly doing missionary work among the numerous passengers all the way up the river, without being aware of it. The primi- tive inhabitants believed in the brilliant future of the upper valley of the river. This belief was contagious. Frequently an immigrant from the east would at first be disgusted with the lay of the land but, as a general rule, the longer he remained the better he was satisfied, and after a year's resi- dence he was, like all the others, an active missionary in behalf of his adopted country.
Landing at St. Paul on the forenoon of the 16th, we were
79
OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
met by Mr. Steele, and other friends, and immediately pro- ceeded by land to Fort Snelling, which at that time was almost abandoned by the troops, only one company remaining for garrison duty, the other companies having left a few days before for the wilds of Iowa, where they were to be employed in removing the Indians, and where I was to join them with- out delay. During my absence Mrs. Stevens remained in the family of J. W. Bass in St. Paul.
Having had considerable experience in the quartermaster's department with the army in Mexico, it was thought best by the commanding officer, Colonel Woods, that I should perfect the necessary arrangements for the convenience of the expe- dition, at his headquarters; and as the steamer Highland Mary was on the eve of departure from Fort Snelling, I went aboard and secured passage for Dubuque, from which city I was to proceed overland and overtake the troops at a point known as Patterson's trading-post, some thirty or forty miles west of Iowa city. At that time there were scarcely any settlers west of Marengo to the immediate vicinity of the Missouri river. The broad, vast country with its rich soil stretched out for hundreds of miles, which had to be traversed before the Indians could be landed on their reservation west of the river. As the early season of 1850 was an unusually wet one, the prairies were almost impassable for our heavily-loaded govern- ment mule-teams.
REMOVING THE INDIANS.
Previous to my arrival at the headquarters of the command Colonel Woods had sent out runners to the different fragment- ary bands of Indians who were scattered in the immediate neighborhood of Patterson's trading-post, requesting them to come in and hold a council with him. In compliance with this request many of them responded. Old Poweshiek, chief of the Pottawatomies, accompanied by several individuals of his band, as well as by some of the Sacs and Foxes who were prowling through the country, appeared, but no satisfactory terms could be agreed upon. Colonel Woods then commenced gathering them in with the troops. This was a slow, expensive process, and not always attended with success, on account of
80
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
obstructions thrown in the way by traders. For instance, several hundred would be gathered ready to start the next day for their reservation when, during the night, whiskey would be smuggled into the camp, and the result was that, when moving-time came the Indians were scattered many miles in different sections of the neighborhood, and this too, although the camp was strictly guarded by the troops. The work would then have to be commenced over again. If there is one branch of service which the army despises more than another, and justly too, it is gathering up wandering bands of Indians that range over a large extent of territory, marching them into camp, and guarding them afterwards. If the mus- ket or bayonet could be used, it would be different. Such measures would soon be effective ; but the wily, cunning red truants were wards of the government ; their only offense was in running away from their location west of the Missouri, they said because the climate was against them, and there was no game. They wanted to be let alone and live in the land where they were born, and be buried by the graves of their fathers. They knew very well that powder and ball and cold steel could not be used in forcing them back to the land of their exile. After repeated attempts to make a clean deal- and some of them were successful-Colonel Woods closed a contract with a couple of citizens to remove them : which was successfully executed.
Every member of the command had a holy horror of the fearful, bottomless roads through the wild, rich country to the Missouri. The troops under the command of Colonel Woods engaged in the tiresome and perplexing expe- dition were well known to the early citizens of the territory.
Colonel Woods received orders from the War department to proceed to the Lizard Fork of the Des Moines and erect a fort, which is now the site of the flourishing city of Fort Dodge. Proceeding to Muscatine, which had been our ship- ping point on the Mississippi, I embarked, in company with my wife who met me there, on the steamer Anthony Wayne, Captain Dan Able, for Fort Snelling. Captain Able after- wards became famous in the transportation of troops under General Grant during the earlier stages of the war on the lower rivers. He was a favorite with the first merchants of
81
OF MINNESOTA AND ITS PEOPLE.
the Falls of St. Anthony, in consequence of repeatedly run- ning his steamer up to the Falls.
FIRST IMPORTED STOCK.
At Muscatine I purchased a drove of cows, paying for them only seven dollars per head, and shipped them to Fort Snel- ling, to stock my embryo farm, a portion of which is now known as Minneapolis. This was my first venture in stock in Minnesota, and was also my second venture in agricultural matters. I only mention this for the purpose of showing the low price of stock in the west at that time. I paid the steamer Dr. Franklin No. 2 four dollars per head for their transporta- tion from Muscatine to Fort Snelling ; so the cows cost me, delivered at the fort, only eleven dollars per head. They were a fair average lot, and many of their descendents are to be found in the state to-day. This was undoubtedly the first herd of cows ever introduced on the west bank of the falls, outside of those required for the use of the troops at Fort Snelling. It is well known that for many years previous to the occupation of the military reservation from a few rods above Bassett's creek down toward the Falls of Minnehaha, the government summered and wintered all their stock, which was mostly under the care of Alpheus R. French, then a quartermaster-sergeant in the army. He occupied the old government dwelling-house, which was on the margin of a deep ravine , near the Palisade mills, and his stables and yards were on the bank of the river just below the dwelling- house.
MINNESOTA CLIMATE BANISHES CHOLERA.
When we were out a few miles from Muscatine my wife told me that she had learned from the chambermaid that chol- era had broken out among the passengers on the boat after it left St. Louis ; that several persons died on the way, and several others were dangerously ill with the disease. It was mostly confined to the steerage, but a number of fatal cases had occurred in the cabin. There were several deaths after we came aboard, but the further we proceeded up the river the less the dreadful disease prevailed.
On landing at Galena we met Mr. Steele, who was on his
82
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
return home from the Atlantic cities. He was accompanied by Mrs. Steele's mother, Mrs. W. C. Barney of Baltimore. She was the only daughter of Judge Samuel Chase, who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and afterwards one of the Supreme Judges of the United States. Her husband's father was the distinguished Commodore Josiah Barney. Better than all, she was the mother of many beautiful, accomplished daughters. There being no vacant state-room in the ladies' cabin, I gave up mine to Mrs. Bar- ney, who occupied it with Mrs. Stevens.
When cases of cholera proved fatal, the remains were. buried after dark on an island or at a landing, in rough coffins prepared during the day by the ship-carpenter. My experi- ence on the boat during this trip convinced me that cholera is worse than yellow-fever or black-vomit. I had been on shipboard between Vera Cruz and New Orleans where were many fatal cases of the latter ; but bad as those cases were, cholera is worse. I dislike to think of that journey up the. river.
HIGH-WATER OF 1850.
1
As we neared the end of our journey we noticed that the river was full of fresh-cut logs, and soon word came that the logs had all broken through the St. Anthony boom in conse- quence of high-water, and had come over the falls. This was dreadfully unwelcome news to Mr. Steele and myself, because the main dependence of the new village of St. Anthony was at that time centered in pine logs ; and then again the loss would be a serious one to Messrs. Steele and Ard Godfrey, the owners of both the logs and the mills. It was afterwards learned that while several million feet of logs went over the falls there was still left a sufficient quantity to keep the mills in successful operation until the next season's logs could be secured ; but the loss was a heavy one. -
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.