The history of Mower County, Minnesota : illustrated, Part 2

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co.
Number of Pages: 1246

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HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

miles. It includes congressional townships 101, 102, 103 and 104, north, ranges 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 west of the Fifth principal meridian, except sections 1 to 6, in township 104, ranges 14 and 15, which were cut off and annexed to Olmsted county, May 22, 1857. This territory is organized into the following civil townships : Udolpho, Waltham, Sargeant, Pleasant Valley, Racine, Frankford, Grand Meadow, Dexter, Red Rock, Lansing, Austin, Windom, Marshall, Clayton, Bennington, LeRoy, Lodi, Adams, Nevada and Lyle.

Surface and Topography. The general surface features of Mower county can more accurately and more readily be scen by a glance at the description of the various townships, than can possibly be given in a general chapter. The surface of the county is somewhat diversified; yet the whole is gently undulating. Nowhere within the limits of the county does the surface approach the character properly called hilly, but maintains throughout its general smoothness, and susceptibility of cultivation. The situation is necessarily healthful and free from malaria. The cold springs of crystal water that burst through the surface of the soil, feed the numerous streams that flow in every direction from the borders. The elevation is an effectual and perpetual injunction against the inroads of fevers of any kind. The Red Cedar river in the western tier of townships, receives the waters of Rose, Dobbins' and Turtle creeks from the east and flows southward into Iowa. The little Cedar river is in the south central part of the county, and further south, in Iowa, joins with the Red Cedar river to form the Cedar river, which stream in turn joins the Iowa river and thus reaches the Mississippi. The Wapsipinicon river, which rises in the south central part of the county, flows through Iowa to the Mississippi. A branch of the upper Iowa rises in the southeastern part of the county. In the northeast and eastern part of the county, are many tributaries of the Root river, which river flowing northeast and east reaches the Mississippi river. The county has also several small creeks, and a number of springs.

As an agricultural and stock raising region Mower county is not excelled by any county in the state. The soil is very . productive; being a rich, dark sandy loam, well adapted to all cereals common to this latitude. It is also excellently adapted to the production of cultivated and indigenous grasses, and the raising of stock, both common and blooded, attracts the general attention of the intelligent class of farmers who have located here. Timber is found in considerable quantities along the banks of the water courses and distributed in beautiful groves, both natural and domestic, all over the county. The general varieties of timber are oak, maple, ash, hickory, walnut, basswood, elm, cottonwood, poplar, etc. Four nuts grow here-hickory nuts, walnuts,

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

hazelnuts and butternuts. The wild lands are covered with the richest and most nutritions grasses, eminently adapted to grazing.

From the Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota from 1872 to 1882, as compiled by Prof. N. H. Winchell, assisted by Warren Upham, Ph. D., we make several extracts of that portion relating to Mower county :

Estimates of the average height of the townships of this county are as follows: Racine, 1,300 above the sea; Frankford, 1,320; Bennington, 1,325; LeRoy, 1,300; Pleasant Valley, 1,350; Grand Meadow, 1,360; Clayton, 1,360; Lodi, 1,325; Sargeant, 1,360; Dexter, 1,360; Marshall, 1,330; Adams, 1,275; Waltham, 1,310; Red Rock, 1,270; Windom, 1,240; Nevada, 1,230; Udolpho, 1,260; Lansing, 1,225; Austin, 1,190; Lyle, 1,190. The mean elevation of Mower county is approximately 1,300 feet above the sea.

The soil of Mower county is everywhere dependent on the nature of the drift. The underlying rock has affected it only so far as it may have mingled with the general mass. It is henee primarily a gravelly elay, that being the character of the subsoil throughout the county. This gravelly clay, however, is not prominently displayed as the immediate soil of the surface. Indeed, the farmer in plowing rarely penetrates to it. It lies below a rich loam usually at depths varying from zero to two or three feet, or even more. The surface soil itself, which has resulted from it through the ageney of the forces of the atmosphere and of vegetation, is of a dark color, and in general may be designated as clayey loam, or a sandy loam, depending on the nature and completeness of the local drainage. In low grounds this loam is thick and of dark color. It is also apt to be more clayey in low ground than it is on the hillsides or slopes adjoining, and on high hills or steep slopes it is thin or wanting, the wash of the surface having carried it into valleys. Along the streams it often consists of an arenaceous loam variously mingled with the detritus of the flood-plain.

The soil of the county is everywhere characterized by the strength and fertility that the drift soils of the Northwest are noted for. They are the most reliable soils for all the purposes of the farmer that are known. The states that are regularly and deeply buried in drift deposits are known as the best farming states of the Union. Certain rock soils, endowed with special qualities, may excel in the production of certain crops, especially in favorable seasons, but for general tillage they cannot com- pete with the homogeneons drift soils, through which are dissem - inated the good qualities of the various rocks concerned in their production, in the proportions that make stability and diversity equally certain.

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

A detailed account of the geologic features of Mower county may be found in the published reports of the "Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota," to which reference has already been made.

Material Resources. With the exception of the central high prairie portion of Mower county, it is tolerably well supplied with wood for common fuel. On the prairies referred to wood is rare. Along the valleys of the streams in the eastern and western portions of the county the first settlements took place. The principal natural wealth of the county lies in its soil and its agricultural adaptations. The people are generally farmers. The growth of the county in all respects will be primarily dependent on, and co-ordinate with, the settlement of the farming lands, and their profitable tillage. Quarrying is carried on to some degree, lime is burned, cement is made, and from the early days brick have been manufactured in the county. At the present time briek and tile making in Austin is a most important indus- try. Many wells have been sunk in the soil of the county and the water thus obtained is uniformly excellent.

CHAPTER II.

THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

Primeval Solitude-Origin of Human Life in Minnesota-The Lowland Mound Builders-The Highland Mound Builders- Mower County a Hunting Place for the Indians.

From the first existence of the earth to the time of the coming of man many æons passed, and after countless ages this locality awaited human habitation. Primeval nature reigned in all het beanty.

"The buffalo, the elk, and the deer, for centuries roamed the wild prairies and woodlands; fishes basked undisturbed in its rippling streams: the muskrat, the otter, and the mink gamboled upon the ice in winter with no man to molest them. Ducks, geese, and other aquatic fowls, in countless numbers, covered the streams in summer, and chattered and squawked and frolicked in all their native glory and happiness. The prairie wolves howled upon their little hilloeks, and, cowardlike, were always ready to attack and destroy the weak and defenseless. Pocket gophers went on with their interminable underground opera- tions, all unconscious of the inroads later to be made upon their

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

dominions by the husbandman. Grouse and prairie chickens cackled, erowed and strutted in all their pride. Blizzards and cyclones swept unheeded across its domains.

"The autumnal prairie fires, in all their terrible grandeur and weird beauty, lighted the heavens by night and clouded the sun by day. Age after age added richness to the soil and prepared. it to be one of the most productive fields of the world for the abode of the husbandman and for the uses of civilized man,"

At some period of the earth's history, mankind in some form took up its abode in the area that is now Mower county. The origin of human life in Minnesota has been made a subject of special study by Dr. Warren Upham, secretary of the Minnesota Historical Society, and the thoughtful student is referred to his various articles on the subject; a detailed discussion being be- vond the scope of this work.

It is possible that this region may have been occupied by primitive man in glacial, inter-glacial and pre-glacial times. Prof. Edward W. Schmidt, the distinguished Minnesota archaeologist, has investigated the mounds lying in the lowlands and on the prairies of Minnesota and Iowa, and it is possible that a new chapter will soon be added to the world's knowledge of pre- historie life in this region.

There are some of these lowland mounds, so called, on the road between Austin and Faribault, and many on the prairies between Grand Meadow and Le Roy. The name lowland mounds is given to distinguish this class of mound from the highland mounds, so well known on eminences along the Mississippi and its larger tributaries.

The mounds between Grand Meadow and Le Roy have thus far been the subject of little more than superficial notice, but will be investigated more thoroughly at a later date. They are first seen surrounding a marsh about a quarter of a mile across, about two miles and a quarter south of Grand Meadow. About twenty are here visible, rising each about two feet above the surface. Farther south they increase in number, extending three or more miles toward the south and southwest. Probably 500 could be counted, some being five feet high. They are scattered promisenously over the upper prairie. The surface has the ap- pearance of having been poorly drained formerly, and was per- haps covered with shallow water till late in the summer season. It is thought that they occur where the ground is wet and the clay near the surface. Yet south of the region designated they do not exist, though there is no apparent difference in the prairie. The material of which they consist is the ordinary loam of the surface soil. Several of them have been removed, when near the highway, and the material hauled into the street for grading.

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

There is no record or knowledge of any human bones or other relics having been found in them.

In regard to these lowland mounds, Professor Schmidt lias said: "These mounds are undoubtedly of the kind I have been studying. They are a conundrum. After examining so many similar mounds in many different places, and in view of the fact that so far there is no positive evidence at hand to tell us how these mounds came to be, it is perfectly proper to ask: How are these mounds made ? Are they geological features of the coun- try? If so, let the geologist explain them. Or have they been formed by plants or animals? If so, let the biologist explain them. If, for example, animals have made them, either by their own efforts or by the help of natural agencies, then it may be that many of the highland knolls which are now counted and mapped as Indian mounds may prove to be of a similar origin.

"A prolonged observation of these mounds in the various lo- calities where they occur seems to justify this conclusion that by far the greater number, if not all of them, are Indian mounds. These mounds are either artificial or else they are not artificial. Either view has its difficulties in our present state of knowledge.

"The following are some of the reasons which point to an artificial origin: The mounds are invariably sound and are made of the same kind of soil as occurs on the land on which they are situated. Some people call them gopher hills, or ant- hills, or remnants of haystacks, or swells in the land marking the site of a buried boulder. As regards the view that the mounds are the remains of haystacks, we may say that haystacks leave no residual soil of this kind when hay is left to rot. The mounds are often located where hay was never stacked, for example, in woods. On one tract of land that was being cleared of its timber some of the mounds located in the woods had trees growing on them. Nor do haystacks leave remains of soil with sand, gravel and pebbles in them. Nor do they occur in woods with old trees growing on them. Some of the mounds occur in places where, at least for a part of the year, it is very wet, where no farmer would stack hay, nor any gopher burrow. nor ants build their homes. It is true that ants are to be found in the lowlands, but the structures reared to mark the sites of their nest are never in these localities more than a few inches over a foot in height. The width of the anthills is about one foot, and the flat truncated top usually slants in a southerly direction, facing the sun. Very likely such frail structures would, when deserted, disappear in a short time under the at- tack of the elements. In no instance were ants found living in the mounds.

"That people call these mounds gopher hills is easily ex-

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

plained by the fact that gophers occasionally burrow in mounds. Immediately the inference is drawn that the gophers built the whole mound. Closer observation shows that wherever burrow- ing animals are found inhabiting mounds, the mound loses its smooth, convex outline and becomes roughened and warty in appearance on account of the small heaps of dirt thrown up by the animals. Hence we may readily see how, in the lapse of long centuries, some of the mounds may have been inhabited for a time by gophers and made rough on the exterior. This would account for the bossed surface that some mounds have. Mounds can be found in localities so wet that it is doubtful if a gopher ever lived there. Gophers do not live in wet places any more than in woods. Again, we know that gophers abound in many places where no mounds whatever ocenr. Why, for example, does not the enormous number of gophers in other counties build mounds on the high prairies, or along the whole lengths of river courses? Why do they not build intermediate mounds as well as mounds twenty to forty feet across? I never met a man who knew of gophers building large mounds.

"These considerations seem to warrant the conclusion that these mounds are not the accumulations of rotted grass, nor of gopher and ant diggings. Nor does there seem to be a natural ageney to which the making of so many mounds, so regularly alike, in such different localities, can be inferred. If it be sug- gested that they might have been formed by upturned roots of trees that were blown over, or by the drift material of swollen waters, or by springs, a number of questions can be raised at once to throw great improbability on such an origin of the mounds. While we may conceive of some mounds having been formed in this way in certain places, none of the suggested modes, nor a combination of them, will explain the mounds in these places. Why should not these agencies have formed mounds in vastly larger areas where we know there are springs, where winds overturn trees, where flooded streams form very numerous drift acenmulations but not mounds ? Nor are these mounds small dunes blown up by the wind. The character of the land is such as to preclude all possibility of their formation by the wind. Much of the ground is too wet to permit the drifting of soil; some of the pebbles and rocks found in the monnds would require a terrific wind to transport them. Again, dunes built by the wind are not uniformly circular. Rather they are oblong, with the highest elevation not in the middle but towards one end. It were odd indeed that the wind should build such dunes in low places, or in woods, or in groups, or string them along ereeks and not build them in places that are ap- parently much better adapted to wind-work. There are also

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

other considerations which give color to the conclusion that the mounds were built by man, and that by the Indians. The shape of all the mounds is that of the ordinary round mound. In size they vary from fifteen to thirty feet across the top. Few exceed thirty feet. One mound measured fifteen paces, or about forty- five feet across. In general, the height varies from one-half to two and one-half feet. A number exceed this and may form very conspicuous objects on the meadow where the grass is burned away. A number of mounds have circular depressions around them as if dirt had been removed thence. After a thaw, water may stand in the ring and make it very noticeable.

"At first it seemed to me very probable that the mounds served as tenting places. The diameter and circumference of the mounds would suggest this, but the seeming absence of the action of fire does not support this view unless the Indians camping there did not build fires. In other respects there is no reason why Indians might not have camped there, as there was plenty of water, and an abundance of game. In ancient times, the region of these mounds between Grand Meadow and Le Roy was, doubtless, a great marsh, and possibly even a marshy lake, drained by what are now tributaries of the Root river, a probable traffic way for the savages from the Mississippi river.

"There is no reason to doubt that fancy, or some definite cause, such as the capture of game, brought Indians to all parts of this country ; hence it is not at all unlikely that pre-historic Indians did the same thing. Our inability to find a conclusive reason at present why Indians should camp or build mounds in these places is no proof that the mounds are not of Indian origin. Should closer study prove the mounds to be burial places, then they are witnesses both of the large number of Indians buried there, as well as of the much larger number of population which was not honored with a monument of earth.

"If it is true that these mounds are the products of human activity in prehistorie times, then they present us with a new and unexpected phase in the mound builders choice of location for mounds. To a person accustomed to seeing large effigy mounds in Wisconsin, or other larger mounds along the Mississippi, it would naturally be a puzzle to find mounds in a location where his former experience would not have prompted him to look for mounds. The unexpected may also turn up in the experience of the mound-hunter, and there is nothing unreasonable in thinking that these mounds are another link in the chain of Minnesota archeology, throwing light on the life of the prehistorie builders. It merely shows that Indians built mounds also in other places than on high terraces and shores.

"But should further study ever show that these mounds are

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

not the work of wandering savages, then they ought to be ac- corded a place in that science whose province it will be to ex- plain them. So far I have utterly failed to find any adequate cause or principle mentioned in geology, biology or physiog- raphy, which will explain all of these in all places. If these mounds were not built by Indians, then it may be that in any other mounds now reckoned as Indians' mounds may also be explained by the action of some other agency."

The first actual residents of this vicinity, whose occupation of the region has been conclusively demonstrated, were the High- land Mound Builders. Many relics, such as arrow heads and the like, have been found along the Cedar river. No scientific inves- tigation has been made of Highland mounds in Mower county, but studies that have been made of these mounds to the north and east, inside of a radius of 100 miles, would seemingly form the premises of a fairly safe conclusion, that the Highland mound building race ranged the prairies of Mower county. Scholars at one time held to the belief that the Highland Mound Builders were a distinct race of a now exterminated people, much superior to the Indians in intelligence and habits and related closely, indeed, in civilization to the highly cultured Aztecs of Mexico. Present day scholars, however, are of the belief that the High- land Mound Builders, of North America, were the ancestors of the Indians found here by the early explorers, and differing from them in no important characteristic of intelligence, habits, morals or education. The Highland Mound Builders of this immediate vicinity were, doubtless, the ancestors of the Sioux and the Iowa Indians, it being well known that these two races were' branches of the same great family.

None of the early explorers mention any permanent Indian villages within the present limits of Mower county, and, although the Sioux Indians claimed this stretch of land, this prairie was doubtless crossed from time immemorial, by bands of the Sioux, Iowas, Sacs and Foxes.

The vague traditions of the Sioux having been driven out of Wisconsin by the Chippewas, their settlement about Mille Lacs, and their gradual distribution along the west banks of the upper Mississippi, as well as their alleged conquest of the Iowas, who, according to tradition, formerly occupied the latter locality, is beyond the scope of this work. The words Dakota and Sioux, though exactly opposite in meaning, are applied to the same race of Indians. Dakota (variously spelled) is the name applied by the race themselves, and means friendly or joined together in friendly compact, the Sioux nation being a confederation of tribes. The word Sioux comes from the word Nadowayscioux, applied by the Chippewas and meaning enemies. The diaries of

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

the early hunters along the west bank of the Mississippi, lead us to believe that the vicinity embraced in Mower county was familiar to all the Sioux Indians living along that river, and that annual hunting parties visited this region. Many sanguinary wars were also fought here, for the Sacs and the Foxes were not far away, and even the Chippewas occasionally braved the wrath of their enemies and came here after game.

With the coming of the white settlers, the Sioux Indians became rather plentiful in Mower county, although at that time the treaties which relinquished the Indian rights of title had already been signed.

CHAPTER III.

INDIAN TREATIES.

Visit to Washington-Boundary Lines Between Indian Tribes Defined-Territory Now Mower County Included in the Sioux Jurisdiction-Second Treaty of Prairie Du Chien- Some of Wabasha's Men Killed by the Foxes South of Aus- tin in Iowa-Strip of Territory South of Mower County Ceded by Treaty-The Doty Treaty and Its Failure-Treaty of Traverse Des Sioux-Treaty of Mendota, by Which Mower County was Opened to Settlement.

From prehistoric days up to the time of the treaty signed at Mendota, August 5, 1851, ratified and amended by the United States senate, June 23, 1852; accepted with amendments by the Indians, September 4 and 6, 1852, and proclaimed by President Fillmore, February 24, 1853, the territory embraced in Mower county remained in the undisputed possession of the Indians, being used as a hunting ground by the Sioux Indians, but also being visited by other Redmen. Before this treaty, however, sev- eral agreements were made between the Indians of this vicinity and the United States government, regarding mutual relations and the ceding of lands.

Visit to Washington. In the spring of 1824 the first delega- tion of Sioux Indians went to Washington to see their "Great Father," the president. A delegation of Chippewas accompanied, and both were in charge of Major Taliaferro. Wabasha, then properly called Wa-pa-ha-sha, the head chief of the band at Winona ; and Little Crow, head of the Kaposia band; and Wah- natah, were the principal members of the Sioux delegation. The

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

object of the visit was to secure a convocation of all of the upper Mississippi Indians at Prairie du Chien to define the boundary line of the lands claimed by the separate tribes and to establish general and permanent friendly relations among them. The party went in keel boats from Fort Snelling to Prairie du Chien, and from there to Pittsburg by steamboat, thence to Washington and other eastern eities by land.

Prairie du Chien Treaty of 1825. The treaty of Prairie du Chien, signed in 1825, was important to the Indians of this vicin- ity, in that it fixed certain boundaries. The eastern boundary of the Sionx territory was to commence on the east bank of the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the "Ioway" (now the upper Iowa) river, running back to the bluffs, and along the bluffs to the Bad Ax river; thenee to the mouth of Black river, and thence to "half a day's mareh" below the falls of the Chippewa. The boundary lines were certainly, in some respeets, quite indefi- nite, and whether this was the trouble or not, at any event, it was but a few months after the treaty when it was evident that neither the Dakotas (Sioux) nor Ojibways were willing to be governed by the lines established-and hardly by any others. The first article of the treaty provided: "There shall be a firm and per- petual peace between the Sioux and the Chippewas; between the Sioux and the confederated tribes of Sacs and Foxes ; and between the 'Ioways' and the Sioux." But this provision was more honored in the breach than the observanee, and in a little time the tribes named were flying at one another's throats and engaged in their old-time hostilities. On the part of the Sioux this treaty was signed by Chiefs Wabasha, Little Crow, Standing Buffalo, Sleepy Eye, Two Faces, Tah-sah-ghee, or "His Cane"; Black Dog, Wah-ah-na-tah, or "The Charger"; Red Wing, Shakopee, Penishon and Eagle Head, and also by a number of head soldiers and "principal men." The Chippewa signers were Shingauba Wassa, Gitehe Gaubow, Wis Coup, or "Sugar," and a number of sub-chiefs and principal men.

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The history of Mower County, Minnesota : illustrated, Part 2

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co. Number of Pages: 1246

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co.
Number of Pages: 1246