USA > Minnesota > Redwood County > The history of Redwood County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 24
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1876-The eighteenth state legislature assembled January 4 and adjourned March 3. The Thirty-seventh district was repre- sented in the senate by John W. Blake and in the house by Peter F. Jacobson, of Lac qui Parle, and William Skinner, of Brown couinty.
1877-The nineteenth state legislature assembled January 2 and adjourned March 2. The Thirty-seventh district was repre- sented in the senate by S. A. Hall, of Wood Lake, and in the house by David Worst, of Redwood county, and E. P. Bertrand, of Brown county.
1878-The twentieth state legislature assembled January 8 and adjourned March 8. The Thirty-seventh district was represented in the senate by S. A. Hall and in the house by J. W. Williams, of Marshall and Charles C. Brandt.
1879-The twenty-first state legislature assembled January 7 and adjourned March 7. The Thirty-seventh district was repre- sented in the senate by K. H. Helling and in the house by Gorham Powers, of Granite Falls, and J. P. Bertrand.
1881-The twenty-second state legislature assembled January 4 and adjourned March 4. The Thirty-seventh district was repre- sented in the senate by S. B. Peterson of New Ulm, and in the house by J. C. Zeiske, of Sleepy Eye, and G. W. Braley, of Red- wood Falls. Beginning with this year, a resident of Redwood county has sat in every session of the legislature.
By the apportionment of 1881, Redwood county was placed in the Ninth district with Brown county and was entitled to one senator and two representatives.
An extra session was called for the purpose of considering the legislation at the regular session relating to the state rail- road bonds, which were declared unconstitutional by the supreme court. The session was commenced October 11 and closed No- vember 13.
1883-The twenty-third state legislature assembled January 2 and adjourned March 2. The Ninth district was represented in the senate by S. D. Peterson, and in the house by Joseph Bobleter, of New Ulm, and Orlando B. Turrell, of Redwood Falls.
1885-The twenty-fourth state legislature assembled Jannary 6 and adjourned March 2. The Ninth district was represented in the senate by S. D. Peterson and in the house by William Skinner and Orlando B. Turrell.
1887-The twenty-fifth state legislature assembled January 4 and adjourned March 4. The Ninth district was represented in the senate by Thomas E. Bowen, of Sleepy Eye, and in the house
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by William Skinner and J. N. Jones, of Westline, Redwood county.
1889-The twenty-sixth state legislature assembled January 8 and adjourned April 23. The Ninth district was represented in the senate by T. E. Bowen and in the house by James McMillan, of Redwood Falls, and C. W. H. Heidemann, of New Ulm.
By the apportionment of 1889 Redwood county remained in the Ninth district with Brown county, to be represented by one senator and two representatives.
1891-The twenty-seventh state legislature assembled January 6 and adjourned April 20. The Ninth district was represented in the senate by S. D. Peterson and in the house by Orlando B. Turrell and Christian Ahlness, of Brown county.
1893-The twenty-eighth state legislature assembled January 3 and adjourned April 18. The Ninth district was represented in the senate by S. D. Peterson and in the house by William Skinner and Orlando B. Turrell.
1895-The twenty-ninth state legislature assembled January 8 and adjourned April 23. The Ninth district was represented in the senate by E. D. French, of Redwood Falls, and in the house by J. N. Jones and Nels Christenson, of Brown county.
1897-The thirtieth state legislature assembled January 5 and adjourned April 21. The Ninth district was represented in the senate by E. D. French and in the house by Henry Heimer- dinger, of Brown county, and James A. Larson, of Walnut Grove, Redwood county.
By the apportionment of 1897 Redwood county was placed in the Nineteenth district, with Brown county, to be represented by one senator and two representatives.
1899-The thirty-first state legislature assembled January 3 and adjourned April 18. The Nineteenth district was represented in the senate by George W. Somerville, of Sleepy Eye, and in the house by Henry Heimerdinger and James A. Larson.
1901-The thirty-second state legislature assembled January 8 and adjourned April 12. The Nineteenth district was repre- sented in the senate by George W. Somerville and in the house by S. D. Peterson and James A. Larson.
An extra session was called for the purpose of considering the report of the Fox Commission created by Chapter 13, General Laws of A. D. 1901. The extra session convened February 4, 1902, and adjourned March 11, 1902.
1903-The thirty-third state legislature assembled January 6 and adjourned April 12. The Nineteenth district was represented in the senate by George W. Somerville and in the house by S. D. Peterson and Frank Clague, then of Lamberton, Redwood county, now of Redwood Falls.
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1905-The thirty-fourth state legislature assembled January 3 and adjourned April 18. The Nineteenth district was repre- sented in the senate by George W. Somerville and in the house by S. D. Peterson and Frank Clague.
1907-The thirty-fifth state legislature assembled January 8 and adjourned April 22. The Nineteenth district was represented in the senate by Frank Clague and in the house by S. D. Peter- son and C. M. Bendixen, of Three Lakes, Redwood county.
1909-The thirty-sixth state legislature assembled January 5 and adjourned April 22. The Nineteenth district was represented in the senate by Frank Clague and in the house by C. M. Bendixen and Albert Pfaender, of New Ulm.
1911-The thirty-seventh state legislature assembled January 3 and adjourned April 19. The Nineteenth district was repre- sented in the senate by Frank Clague and in the house by Joseph R. Keefe, of North Redwood, Redwood county, and Albert Pfaender.
An extra session was called for the purpose of enacting a state-wide direct primary law applicable to all state officers, a corrupt practices act and a reapportionment law. The extra ses- sion convened June 4, 1912, and adjourned June 18, 1912.
1913-The thirty-eight state legislature assembled January 7 and adjourned April 24. The Nineteenth district was repre- sented in the senate by Frank Clague and in the house by Albert Pfander and C. M. Bendixen.
At several successive sessions of the legislature prior to that of 1913 attempts had been made to secure a new apportionment. The last had been in 1897 and a great change in the population had taken place in the meantime-the northern part of the state having increased while in the southern part the gain had been slight, in some counties an actual loss having taken place. At the 1913 session, after a protracted struggle, a compromise bill was agreed upon, by which the number of senators was increased to 67, and the number of representatives to 130, although the legislature was already one of the largest in the United States and altogether out of proportion to the population. By this apportionment, Redwood county was placed in the Fourteenth district with Brown county and was to be represented by one senator and three representatives.
1915-The thirty-ninth state legislature assembled January 4 and adjourned April 22. The Fourteenth district was repre- sented in the senate by L. E. Potter of Springfield and in the house by Albert Hauser of Sleepy Eye, Alfred W. Mueller of New Ulm and C. M. Bendixen.
Congressional Representation. Redwood county has never elected any of its residents to Congress, though Orlando B. Tur- rell was once a formidable candidate for the Republican nomi-
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nation. Since the apportionment of 1871, Redwood county has remained in the Second Congressional district with the excep- tion of the period from 1901 to 1913 when it was in the Seventh district. The Second district now consists of Blue Earth, Fari- bault, Martin, Watonwan, Brown, Cottonwood, Jackson, Nobles, Rock, Pipestone, Murray, Redwood and Lincoln counties.
Authority and References. Fifty Years in the Northwest, by W. H. C. Folsom.
Legislative Manual of the State of Minnesota.
History of Minnesota by Edward D. Neill.
History of Minnesota, by W. W. Folwell.
Minnesota in Three Centuries, by Return I. Holcombe.
Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol. 14, Min- nesota Biographies, by Warren Upham and Mrs. Rose B. Dunlap.
CHAPTER XIX.
RIVER TRANSPORTATION.
Minnesota received its name from the longest river which lies wholly within this state, excepting only its sources above Big Stone lake. During a hundred and sixty years, up to the time of the organization of Minnesota Territory, in 1849, the name St. Pierre, or St. Peter, had been generally applied to this river by French and English explorers and writers, probably in honor of Pierre Charles Le Sueur, its first white explorer. The ab- original Sionx name Minnesota means clouded water (Minne, water, and sota, somewhat clouded), and Neill, on the authority of Rev. Gideon H. Pond, poetically translated this to mean sky- tinted. The river at its stages of flood becomes whitishly turbid. An illustration of the meaning of the word has been told by Mrs. Moses N. Adams, the widow of the venerable missionary of the Dakotas. She states that at various times the Dakota women explained it to her by dropping a little milk into water and calling the whitishly clouded water "Minne sota." This name was proposed by General H. H. Sibley and Hon. Morgan L. Martin, of Wisconsin, in the years 1846 to 1848, as the name of the new territory, which thus followed the example of Wis- consin in adopting the title of a large stream within its borders.
During the next few years after the selection of the terri- torial name Minnesota, it displaced the name of St. Peter as ap- plied in common usage by the white people to the river, whose euphonious ancient Dakota title will continue to be borne by the river and the state probably long after the Dakota language shall cease to be spoken.
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The Chippewa name for the stream, Ash-kübogi-sibi, "The River of the Green Leaf," is now nearly forgotten, and the French name St. Pierre is known only by historians.
The picturesque river which gave our commonwealth its name had always been an important feature in the geography and his- tory of this northwest country.
The geologist reads in the deep erosion of this valley, and in its continuance to Lake Traverse, which outflows to Lake Winni- peg and Hudson bay, the story of a mighty river, the outlet of a vast ancient lake covering the Red river region in the closing part of the Glacial period. What use, if any, the primitive men of that time made of this majestic stream, we know not.
Many and varied have been the scenes enacted upon its banks, scenes of thrilling adventure and glorious valor, as well as of happy merriment and tender love. It was for centuries the arena of many a sanguinary conflict, and the blood of the Iowas, Dakotas, Ojibways, and white men, often mingled freely with its flood.
For generations unknown the only craft its bosom bore was the canoe of the Indian. Then came the French traders, with their retinue of voyagers, who made our river an avenue of a great commerce in Indian goods and costly furs. For over a hundred years fleets of canoes and mackinaw boats, laden with Indian merchandise, plied constantly along the river's sinuous length. The sturdy voyagers, however, left to history but a scant record of their adventurous life. A brave and hardy race were they, inured to every peril and hardship, yet ever content and happy; and long did the wooded bluffs of the Minnesota echo with the songs of old France.
The first white men known to have navigated the Minnesota were Le Sueur and his party of miners, who entered its mouth in a felucca and two row boats on September 20, 1700, and reached the mouth of the Blue Earth on the thirtieth of the same month. The next spring he carried with him down the river a boat-load of blue or green shale which he had dug from the bluffs of the Blue Earth, in mistake for copper ore. Much more profitable, doubtless, he found the boat-load of beaver and other Indian furs, which he took with him at the same time. This is the first recorded instance of freight transportation on the Min- nesota river.
In the winter of 1819-20, a deputation of Lord Selkirk's Scotch colony, who had settled near the site of Winnipeg, traveled through Minnesota to Prairie du Chien, a journey of about a thousand miles, to purchase seed wheat. On April 15, 1820, they started back in three Mackinaw boats loaded with 200 bushels of wheat, 100 bushels of oats, and 30 bushels of peas. During the month of May they ascended the Minnesota from its mouth
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to its source, and, dragging their loaded boats over the portage on rollers, descended the Red river to their homes, which they reached early in June.
The Mackinaw or keel boats used on the river in those days were open vessels of from twenty to fifty feet in length by four to ten feet in width, and capable of carrying from two to eight tons burden.
They were propelled by either oars or poles as the exigencies of the river might require. The crew usually comprised from five to nine men. One acted as steersman, and, in poling, the others, ranging themselves in order upon a plank laid lengthwise of the boat on each side, would push the boat ahead; and as each, in rotation, reached the stern, he would pick up his pole and start again at the prow. Their progress in ascending the river would be from five to fifteen miles per day, depending upon the stage of the water and the number of rapids they had to climb.
Dr. Thomas S. Williamson, the noted missionary to the In- dians, in describing his first journey up the valley of the Min- nesota, in June, 1835, gives an interesting account of how he shipped his wife and children and his fellow helpers, Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Huggins, with their goods, on one of these boats, which was nine days in making the trip from Fort Snelling to Traverse des Sioux.
In the correspondence of Mrs. S. R. Riggs, the wife of an- . other famous missionary to the Sioux, is found a vivid picture of a Mackinaw boat, belonging to the old Indian trader, Phil- ander Prescott, in which she ascended the Minnesota in Septem- ber, 1837. It was about forty feet long by eight feet wide and capable of carrying about five tons. It was manned by a crew of five persons, one to steer, and two on each side to furnish the motive power. Oars were used as far as to the Little Rapids, about three miles above Carver, and thence to Traverse des Sioux poles were employed. The journey consumed five days.
Illustrative of the size and capacity of some of the canoes used by the traders, we find George A. McLeod in April, 1853, bringing down from Las qui Parle to Traverse des Sioux forty bushels of potatoes, besides a crew of five men, in a single canoe twenty-five feet long by forty-four inches wide, hollowed out of a huge cottonwood tree.
The first steamboat to enter the Minnesota river was the Vir- ginia on May 10, 1823. She was not a large vessel, being only 118 feet long by 22 feet wide, and she only ascended as far as Mendota and Fort Snelling, which during the period between the years 1820 and 1848 were about the only points of importance in the territory now embraced within our state. Hence all the
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boats navigating the upper Mississippi in those days had to enter the Minnesota to reach these terminal points.
Except for these landings at its mouth, and save that in 1842 a small steamer with a party of excursionists on board ascended it as far as the old Indian village near Shakopee, no real attempt was made to navigate the Minnesota with steamboats until 1850. Prior to this time it was not seriously thought that the river was navigable to any great distance for any larger craft than a keel boat, and the demonstration to the contrary, then witnessed, has made that year notable in the history of the state.
On June 28, 1850, the Anthony Wayne, which had just ar- rived at St. Paul with a pleasure party from St. Louis, agreed to take all passengers for $225 as far up the Minnesota as navi- gation was possible. They reached the foot of the rapids near Carver, the captain decided not to continue the passage, turned the steamboat homeward. Emulous of the Wayne's achievement, the Nominee, a rival boat, arranged another excursion July 12, ascended the Minnesota, passing the formidable rapids, placing her shingle three miles higher up the river. The Wayne, not to be outdone, on July 18 with a third excursion party, ascended the river two or three miles below the present city of Mankato. The success of these boats incited the Harris' line to advertise a big excursion on the Yankee, and that steamer reached a point on the Minnesota river a little above the present village of Jud- son, in Blue Earth county.
The steamer Excelsior, in the summer of 1851, conveyed the treaty commissioners, their attendants and supplies to Traverse des Sioux, and later the Benjamin Franklin No. 1 ascended the river with a load of St. Paul's excursionists to witness the progress of the famous treaty. In the fall the Unele Toby con- veyed to Travers des Sioux the first load of Indian goods under the new treaty.
The springing up of embryo towns in the Minnesota Valley stimulated steamboat transportation, and during the early sea- son of 1852, the steamboat Tiger made three trips to Mankato. The midsummer rains having restored the navigable condition of the river, the Black Hawk was chartered in July for three trips to Mankato. She also made during the season two trips to Babcock's Landing, opposite the present site of St. Peter, and one to Traverse des Sioux. The Jenny Lind and Enterprise were also engaged in the traffic.
Navigation was opened on the Minnesota in 1853 by the new boat, the Greek Slave; the Clarion, also new, entered the trade this year.
Two events of 1853, of much importance in the development of the Minnesota river trade, were the establishing upon its head
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waters of the Sioux Reservation and the erection in its vicinity of Ft. Ridgely. The necessity thus created, of transporting to such a distance up the river the large quantity of supplies re- quired annually by both soldier and Indian, gave an impetus for years to the steamboat traffic of the Minnesota.
The West Newton, Capt. D. S. Harris, secured the contract to convey the troops with their baggage from Fort Snelling to the new post. She was a small packet, 150 feet long and of 300 tons burden, and had been bought the summer before by the Harris brothers to compete with the Nominee in the Mississippi river trade. She left Ft. Snelling on Wednesday, the twenty- seventh of April, 1853, having on board two companies of the Sixth U. S. Regiment, in command of Captains Dana and Mon- roe. To help carry baggage, she had two barges in tow. The Tiger had also departed from St. Paul on the twenty-fifth, and the Clarion on the twenty-sixth, each with a couple of barges in tow, heavily loaded with supplies for the new fort and the agen- cies. The West Newton, being the swiftest boat, passed the Clarion at Henderson, and the Tiger near the Big Cottonwood, and thence to the site of the new fort (Ft. Ridgely) at the mouth of Little Rock creek, was the first steamer to disturb the waters of our sky-tinted river.
The Minnesota this year remained navigable all summer, and a number of boats ascended it to Ft. Ridgely and the Lower Sioux Agency, while others went to Mankato and other points. The passenger travel, as well as the freight trade, was excellent.
The winter of 1853-1854 was mild and open; the river broke up early without the usual freshet. Owing to the success of the prior season, the boatmen had great expectations. They were, however, doomed to disappointment. Capt. Samuel Humbert- son, who owned the stern wheel steamboat, Clarion, had sold it and purchased a fine new boat, 170 feet long with thirty-eight staterooms, which he called the Minnesota Belle. May 3, with a large load of immigrants and freight, he started up the Minne- sota. His new boat failed to climb the Little Rapids, near Carver, and he had to abandon the trip. A rainfall a few days later swelled the river, and enabled the Black Hawk to reach Traverse des Sioux. The Iola and Montello, during the summer, ran fairly regular trips between Little Rapids and Traverse des Sioux supplementing the Black Hawk, Humboldt and other boats plying below the rapids.
Large keel boats, denominated barges, propelled after the ancient method by a crew of men with poles, became common on the river this year. Andrew G. Myrick placed two of these barges on the river in charge of the Russell boys. These vessels were from 50 to 60 feet long, 10 to 12 feet wide, and with sides 4 to 5 feet high, along the top of which was fastened a plank
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walk, for the use of the pole men. A small low cabin for the cook was built in the stern, and during foul weather a big tarpaulin was spread over the goods. A full crew consisted of a captain, who also acted as steersman, ten to a dozen pole men, and a cook. With a fair stage of water the usual speed up stream was twelve to fourteen miles a day, but if sandbars or rapids interfered a mile or two would be a hard day's journey. Down stream, however, they would travel much faster. Most of the supplies for Ft. Ridgely and the Sioux Agencies, as well as for all up river towns, had to be transported this year in such barges.
The snowfall in the winter of 1954-1855 was again light, conse- quently the Minesota continued low during the following spring. Louis Robert, having the contract this year to deliver the Sioux annuities, took them up to the agency late in October in the Globe, of which Edwin Bell was then captain. Within two miles of the landing the boat struck on a rock, and the goods had to be unloaded on the river bank. While Captains Robert and Bell were gone to carry the Indian money, amounting to $90,000 in gold, to Ft. Ridgely, the Indians, who were gathered in force to divide the provisions, carelessly set fire to the dry grass, which was quickly communicated to the pile of goods, and most of them, including fifty kegs of powder, were destroyed.
Of his experiences, Capt. Edwin Bell had said: "In 1855 I had command of the steamer Globe, making trips on the Minne- sota river, and in the early fall of that year we carried supplies to the Sioux at Redwood Agency. The Indians would come down the river several miles to meet the boat. They were like a lot of children, and when the steamboat approached they would shout, 'Nitonka Pata-wata washta,' meaning 'Your big fire-canoe is good.' They would then cut across the bend, yelling until we reached the landing.
"In the fall of that year, 1855, their supplies were late, when I received orders from Agent Murphy to turn over to the Indians twelve barrels of pork, and twelve barerls of flour. As soon as we landed, we rolled the supplies on shore. I was in- formed that the Indians were in a starving condition. It was amusing to see five or six of them rolling a barrel of pork up the bank, when two of our deck hands would do the work in half the time.
"A young Indian girl stood at the end of the gang plank, wringing her hands and looking toward the boat, exclaiming 'Sunka sanicha,' meaning 'They have my dog.' The cabin boy told me the cook had coaxed the dog on board and hid it. I could speak the language so as to be understood, and I mo- tioned to the girl and said, 'Niye kuwa,' meaning 'Come here.' She came on board, and I told the cook to bring the dog to me.
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When the dog came, she caught it in her arms, exclaiming, 'Sunka wasta,' meaning 'Good dog.' She then ran on shore and up the hill. It seemed to me that white people took advan- tage of the Indian when they could, even steamboat cooks.
"When the flour and pork were on level ground, the barrel heads were knocked in, and the pork was cut in small strips and thrown in a pile. Two hundred squaws then formed a circle, and several Indians handed the pieces of pork to the squaws until the pile was disposed of. The flour was placed in tin pans, each squaw receiving a panful.
"Later, in the same season, we had an unfortunate trip. The boat was loaded deep. Luckily Agent Murphy and Capt. Louis Robert were on board. We had in the cabin of the boat ninety thousand dollars in gold. About three miles below the agency, we ran on a large boulder. After much effort, we got the boat afloat. Major Murphy gave orders to land the goods, so that they might be hauled to the agency. We landed and unloaded, covering the goods with tarpaulins. There were about fifty kegs of powder with the goods. While we were unloading, the agent sent for a team to take Captain Robert and himself, with the gold, to the agency. Then we started down the river. We had gone only a few miles, when we discovered a dense smoke, caused by a prairie fire. The smoke was rolling toward the pile of goods, which we had left in charge of two men. When we reached the ferry at Red Bank, a man on horseback motioned us to land, and told us that the goods we left were all burned up and the powder exploded. This was a sad blow to the Indians. "The following is a list of the steamboats running on the Minnesota river, during high water, in the year 1855 and later: Clarion, Captain Humberson; Globe, Capt. Edwin Bell; Time and Tide, Capt. Nelson Robert; Jeannett Roberts, Capt. Charles Timmens; Mollie Moler, Captain Houghton; Minnesota, Captain Hays; and the Frank Steel and Favorite, both side-wheel steam- ers. These boats were drawn off when the water got low; and when the railroad paralleled the river, all boats quit running.
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