The history of Redwood County, Minnesota, Volume I, Part 4

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. 4n
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr.
Number of Pages: 658

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The surface of Redwood county is principally till, or the mix- ture of clay with smaller proportions of sand and gravel and occasional enclosed boulders, which was thus deposited in a mingled unstratified mass by the ice sheets of the glacial period. Its thickness in this county is generally from 100 to 200 feet. Within the till are found occasional layers of sand or gravel, which often yield large supplies of water in wells. Many of these veins of modified drift were probably formed by small glacial streams, and they can not be regarded as marking important divisions of the ice age. It is shown, however, by shells, remains of vegetation and trees, found evidently in the place where they were living, underlain and overlain by till, that this very cold period was not one unbroken reign of ice, but that this re-treated and re-advanced, or possibly at sometimes was nearly all melted and then accumulated anew.

Two principal glacial epochs can be distinguished, in the first of which all of Minnesota except its southeast corner was deeply covered by the continental ice sheet, and its border was several hundred miles south of this district, in Nebraska, Kansas, Mis- souri and southern Illinois; whereas in the later very severely cold epoch, the ice fields were of less extent, and terminated from 50 to 300 miles within their earlier limit, covering all the basin of the Minnesota river, but not enveloping a large tract in the southwest corner of Minnesota and leaving uncovered a much larger area than before in the southeast part of the state. Be- tween these glacial epochs the ice sheet was melted away within the basins of the Minnesota and Red rivers, and probably from the entire state.

The greater part of the till appears to have been deposited by this earlier ice sheet; and during the retreat of the ice this till was overspread in some places, especially along the avenues of drainage, by the beds of modified drift, or stratified gravel, sand and clay, washed from the material which had been con- tained in the ice and snow and now became exposed upon its surface to the multitude of rills, rivulets and rivers that were formed by its melting.

In the ensuing interglacial epoch, this drift sheet was chan- neled by water-courses till its valleys were apparently as numer- ous and deep as those of our present streams. The interglacial drainage sometimes went in a different direction from that now taken by the creeks and rivers; and the valleys then excavated in the drift, though partly refilled with till during the last glacial epoch, are still, in some instances, clearly marked by series of lakes. More commonly the interglacial water-courses

HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY

must have occupied nearly the same place with the valleys of the present time; and there seems to be conclusive proof that this was true of the valley of the Minnesota river.

A long period intervened between the great glacial epochs; the earlier ice sheet gradually retreated northward; a lake was formed in the Red river valley by the receding ice barrier on the north; the outflow from this lake, and the drainage of the Minnesota basin itself, appear to have excavated the valley of the Minnesota river nearly as it now is; and the further reces- sion of the ice sheet probably even allowed the drainage of the Red river basin to take its course northward, as now, to Hudson bay, this being indicated by fossiliferous beds enclosed between deposits of till within the area that had been covered by this interglacial lake and was afterward occupied by lake Agassiz at the close of the last glacial epoch.

Again a severely cold climate prevailed, accumulating a vast sheet of ice upon British America and the greater part of Min- nesota. By this glacial sheet the valley of the Minnesota river was partly refilled with till, but it evidently remained an impor- tant feature in the contour of the land surface. During the final melting of this ice sheet, its waters, discharged in this channel, quickly removed whatever obstructing deposits of drift it had received, and undermined its bluffs, giving them again the steep slopes produced by fluvial erosion. This partial re-excavation and sculpture were then followed immediately, during the retreat of the ice sheet, by the deposition of the stratified gravel, sand and clay, 75 to 150 feet deep, remnants of which occur as ter- races on the sides of this valley, from its mouth to New Ulm, and less distinctly beyond.

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Had not the great valley existed nearly in its present form through the last glacial epoch, it could not have become filled with this modified drift, which must belong to the era of melting of the last ice sheet. After the departure of the ice, the supply of both water and sediment was so diminished that the river could no longer overspread the former flood plain of modified drift and add to its depth, but has been occupied mainly in slow excavation and removal of these deposits, leaving remnants of them as elevated plains or terraces.

Terminal Moraines. In Redwood county the morainic tract is not prominent, and its course, which is believed to coincide approximately with that of the Cottonwood river, has not been traced. Close south of the valley of this river in the N. W. 1/4 of section 14, Gales, numerous small hillocks and ridges, ten to twenty feet high, rough with abundant boulders, were observed to occupy a width from a few rods to an eighth of a mile or more, reaching a half a mile or more in length from east to west; and from a bridge in section 10, Gales, a noteworthy hill, perhaps

HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY

sixty feet high, is seen in the view westward, situated not far from where the Cottonwood river crosses the county line. Far- ther northwest, this moranic belt is clearly traced across Yellow Medicine and Lac Qui Parle counties, its most conspicuous ac- cumulations being the Antelope hills.

During the later stages in the recession of this ice sheet, when the fourth and fifth terminal moraines of its Minnesota lobe were formed, its southern extremity was successively at Kiester in Faribault county and at Elysian in Le Sueur county, and its southwest boundary doubtless crossed Brown and Red- wood counties, but the marginal accumulations of drift belonging to these stages have not been traced here. A shallow lake extended along the edge of the ice sheet across these counties and acted to partially level down and smooth the morainic deposits. It seems likely, however, that they are still recogniz- able, and by careful observation might be mapped approximately. At the time of the fourth or Kiester moraine, the ice margin probably extended through the central part of Brown and Red- wood counties; and the kame-like deposits near Sleepy Eye and in Granite Rock and the northwest part of Vesta, may in part represent this moraine. The fifth or Elysian moraine is probably indicated similarly in section 33, Swedes Forest.

Modified Drift of the Last Glacial Epoch. Upon the sheet of till which covers Redwood county are frequently noticed mounds and knolls or short ridges of gravel and sand, 10 to 20 feet, or rarely 30 feet or more, in height, which in any excavation are seen to be irregularly interstratified and obliquely bedded. These deposits appear to have been formed by streams that flowed from the drift-strown surface of the departing ice fields of the last glacial epoch; having a similar origin with the eskers or kames, which form prolonged ridges, or series of interlocking ridges and mounds, in Ireland and Scotland, in Sweden, and in New England. Conspicuous kame-like deposits of modified drift in Redwood county were observed in the N. E. 1/4 of section 33, Swedes Forest, where a mound of this class rises some 30 feet above the general level; in the northwest part of Vesta, which has numerous hillocks and short ridges of gravel and sand, 10 to 40 feet in height, trending from north to south more commonly than in other directions; and in Granite Rock and thence south- westward to the Cottonwood river.

Authority. "The Geology of Brown and Redwood Counties," by Warren Upham, contained in pages 562-558 of "The Geology of Minnesota," published in 1884, the whole volume being Vol. I, of the Final Report of the Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, 1872-1882.

HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY

CHAPTER IV.

PREHISTORIC INHABITANTS.

Scientists declare that in the Glacial period, this region was several times covered with a great ice sheet at recurrent inter- vals. When for the last time the glacier receded, and its melting waters subsidide, it left behind an area that in a few years became a wonderfully diversified and beautiful region. Verdure took the place of glaring ice and swirling waters. The smiling expanses of gently rolling prairie, beautiful and virgin, dipping here and there into swales and pools, or even into sparkling lakes, covered in the summer with luxuriant grass and spangled with flowers, were caressed by perfumed breezes, untrod by human foot, and unmarred by human handiwork. In the ravines and along the watercourses were forest trees and tangled under- brush. And this varied landscape fairly quivered with animal life. The American bison, commonly called the buffalo, ranged the prairies, countless birds of all kinds flew over its surface, great flocks of waterfowl lived in its marshes and pools. In the edges of the wooded ravines, antlered animals such as the deer and the elk, and the larger fur-bearing animals such as the bear, were found in greatest profusion. All the smaller animals com- mon to this climate found a home here. Prairie and woodland presented a scene of teeming life and ceaseless animal activity.

A country so bountiful and inviting to man, whether primitive or civilized, would remain uninhabited only while undiscovered. At some period of the earth's history, mankind in some form took up its abode in what is now Redwood county. How many ages distant that period was no one can tell. It is evident that man followed very closely the receding of the last glacier, if indeed he had not existed here previous to that time. A discussion of the possibilities of the existence of man in Minnesota during Glacial, Inter-Glacial and Pre-Glacial ages is beyond the scope of this work. It has been made a special subject of study by several Minnesota savants, and many notable articles have been written concerning evidences that have been discovered.

Many scholars are of the opinion that in all probability the first inhabitants of the northern part of the United States were, or were closely related to the Eskimo. While the data are very meagre, they all point that way. The Eskimos seem to have remained on the Atlantic seaboard as late as the arrival of the Scandinavian discoverers of the eleventh century, for their de- scription of the aborigines whom they call "skrälingar" (a term of contempt about equivalent to "runts") is much more conso- nant with the assumption that these were Eskimos than Indians.

HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY

So possibly it is permissible to picture the first human inhabi- tants of Redwood county as a small yellowish-brown skin-clad race, identical with the quartz workers of Little Falls, slipping around nimbly and quietly in the woods and dells, subsisting mainly on fish, but also partly on the chase. Their homes were doubtless of the simplest descriptions, and their culture not above absolute savagery.

The Eskimos seem to have followed more or less closely the edge of the last receding glacier. Whether they were forced out by a stronger race or whether they found the bleak shores of the Arctic seas more suited to their physical make-up than the fertile regions further south is only a matter of conjecture.

Scholars are of the opinion that the next inhabitants of Min- nesota were tribes of the Siouan stock, in other words the ances- tors of the present Sioux (Dakota) Indians. These peoples of the Siouan stock appear to have built the mounds of southern Minnesota. Possibly they lived in Redwood county. These Siouan people were possibly driven out by the people of the Algonquin stock, whereupon they eventually took up their homes in the neighborhood of the upper valley of the Ohio river and possibly elsewhere. How many centuries they lived there it is impossible even to estimate. In the meantime the Algonquin peoples prob- ably occupied the Minnesota region, and possibly Redwood county. They did not make mounds. Some five hundred years ago the Siouan Mound Builders were driven out from their homes in the upper Ohio region where they had erected the mounds that are now the wonder of the world, and a part of them found their way to the homes of their ancestors in the upper Mississippi and the Minnesota river region. The mounds built here by these peoples were inferior to the ones built by their ancestors. In coming up the valley it is possible that these Mound Builders drove from the Minnesota regions the intruding Algonquins.

The Siouan Mound Builders, returning some five hundred years ago from the Ohio region were doubtless the builders of the mounds in Redwood county, though there are possibly some mounds in this county built by the Siouan people during their previous occupancy of the region.

The Mound Builders. Not so many years ago there was a widespread belief that the Mound Builders were a mysterious people of high culture resembling the Aztecs, and differing from the Indian in race, habits and customs. Now, scholars are unani- mous in their belief that the Mound Builders were merely the ancestors of the Indians, doubtless, as already related, of the Sioux Indians, and not characteristically differing from them. These Mound Builders are the earliest race of whose actual resi- dence in Redwood county we have absolute evidence. While Redwood can not boast of mounds of such gigantic proportions as

HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY

some other parts of the United States, nor of such grotesque formations as the serpent mound of Ohio, yet the mounds of the county are sufficient in number, kind and distribution, to present a rich field for archaeological inquiry, as well as supply- ing evidence that Redwood county was populated by this ancient people.

The larger groups are invariably situated near the water- courses and usually on the lofty terraces that give a commanding view of magnificent prospects. Such a distribution of the mounds finds its explanation in the fact that the river banks afford excel- lent sites for habitations, and the rivers afford routes of travel in times of peace and war. Above all the streams furnish two substances absolutely necessary for the maintenance of life, namely water and food. The Mound Builder was not slow in picking out picturesque places as a location for his village sites. The distribution of the mounds bears ample proof of this. Any one who visits the groups can not fail to be convinced that the Mound Builders were certainly guided in the selection of the location for the mounds by an unerring sense of beautiful scenery and a high appreciation and instinctive love of nature as well as by other factors.

Purpose of the Mounds. The mounds of Redwood county are both oblong and round, varying from a swell of land to several feet in height. Other varieties have also been found. The ar- rangement of mounds in the various groups does not seem to depend on any definite rule of order, but seems to result from a process of mound building, extending over a considerable period of time, each site for a mound being selected by the builders according to the space, material, or topography of the locality.

Undoubtedly each mound was placed for some definite pur- pose on the spot where it is found today, but what the purpose of any particular mound was may be difficult to say. The spade often partially tells us what we want to know, but sometimes it leaves us as much as ever in the dark. When the interior of a mound reveals human bones, then the inference is that the mound served as a tomb, but intrusive burials, that is burials made long after the mounds were built, complicate the problem. But when a mound can be opened without revealing any trace of human remains or of artificial articles, it seems safe to conclude that not all the mounds were built for burial purposes. The erection of such a large number of mounds as exist along the Mississippi and its tributaries in Minnesota must have required an enormous expenditure of time and labor. The tools with which all the work was done were probably wooden spades rudely shaped, stone hoes and similar implements which indicate a low degree of industrial culture. Where the whole village population turned out for a holiday or funeral, a large mound could be built in a

HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY

much shorter time than if the work was performed by only a few individuals. The surface of the land adjoining the mounds in Redwood county, and in fact all the mounds of this vicinity, fre- quently shows plain evidences of where the material was obtained for the construction of the mound. All in all, the regularity, sym- metry and even mathematical exactness with which the mounds are built show considerable skill and taste. The reader can pic- ture to himself the funeral scenes, the wailings of the sorrowing survivors, and the flames of the funeral pyres which were some- times built. Or one can picture the mourning relatives waiting beneath the tree in which the body has been suspended on a scaffold while the elements are stripping the bones of flesh prepa- ratory to their interment.

Life and Habits of the Mound Builders. Modern scientists unite in the belief that the Mound Builders were Indians, the ancestors of the Indians that the early settlers found here. The old theory of a race of Mound Builders superior in intellect and intelligence to the Indian has been exploded by archaeological research, though a few of the older text books advance the now obsolete theory.

The evidences that the race of Mound Builders was a race of genuine Indians are many. Indians are known to have built mounds. The articles found in the mounds are the same as the articles found on the Indian village sites nearby. Invariably a large group of mounds has nearby evidences of such a village. The articles found in the mounds and on the village sites are such as the Indians used.

Tomahawks, battle clubs, spearheads and arrows signify war and the chase. The entire absence of great architectural remains show that the Mound Builders lived in frail homes. The dearth of agricultural implements speaks of the absence of any but the most primitive farming. Ash-pits and fireplaces mark the bare ground as the aboriginal stove. Net-sinkers imply the use of nets; ice axes the chopping of holes in the ice to procure water ; stone axes, a clumsy device for splitting wood ; stone knives were used for scalping, cutting meat and leather and twigs; countless flakes mark the ancient arrow maker's workshop; cracked bones show the savages' love for marrow ; shell beads, charms and orna- ments in the shape of fish and other designs reveal a primitive desire for ornamentation; chisels and gouges recall the making of canoes; sun-dried pottery made of clay mixed with coarse sand, clamshells or powdered granite and marked with rows of dots made with a stick, thumbnail or other objects, or else marked with lines, V-shaped figures or chevrons, all are an index of rather a crude state of pottery making. The hand supplied the lathe and the wheel.

All of these things tell us something of the habits and condi-

HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY

tion of the Mound Builders and are further evidence that the Mound Builders differed in no important manner from the Indians found here by the early explorers.

The people were rude, semi-agricultural, warlike, ignorant of all metals except copper, hunters with stone arrow and spear, naked in warm weather and clothed with the skins of the buffalo and bear in winter. Their skill in art was confined to the making of such domestic utensils and such weapons of war and of the chase as were demanded for the personal comforts and physical necessities. They have left no literature, and these heaps of earth and a few rude pictures scraped in soft stones, together with a few crude relics, are our only source of information regarding this once powerful people.

Location of Mounds. The artificial mounds of Redwood county have never been adequately surveyed or excavated, though many interesting studies have been made of them. A volume entitled "The Aborigines of Minnesota," published by the Minnesota State Historical Society in 1911, contains a valuable resumé of these explorations and studies as follows :

Mounds below Redwood Falls, S. E. 1/4, section 30, township 113-35, group of thirteen mounds, about 150 feet above the Min- nesota river, of which seven are elongated and one is angled twice in opposite directions in equal amounts, so that its parts, at the extremities, are still parallel with each other. Redwood river is 900 feet toward the west. The largest tumulus is 75 feet by 51/2 feet, and has been excavated. Surveyed Sept. 29, 1884.

In 1867 the largest of these tumuli was opened by David Watson by sinking a shaft from the center downward. He found some very much decayed human bones at the depth of four feet. From four feet to eight feet from the surface he found iron rust, indicating, as he judged, that some tool had been oxidized and lost. He also found in the immediate vicinity, glass beads of many different shapes, sizes, colors and varieties, and more human bones that were not so much decomposed, indicating burial at two dates.

He also reported "rifle pits" in section 31, a little north of the center, and gives a statement by an "intelligent Indian" that that was the scene of a hard-fought battle of several days' duration. Similar pits were reported by Mr. Watson in 1868 on the north side of the Redwood river, on section 8, town- ship 112-36," similar to those near the mouth of the same river. -(Hill record).

Mounds a mile and a half below the Lower Agency (a) S. E. 1/4, N. W. 1/4, section 9, township 112, 34; three tumuli about 100 feet above the bottomland. Surveyed Oct. 31, 1887; (b) S. W. 1/4, N. E. 1/4, section 9, township 112, 34. Lone mound about 100 feet above the bottomland.

HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY

Mounds about one and three-quarters miles east-southeast of the Lower Agency (a) S. 1/2, N. E. 1/4, section 9, township 112, 34; a lone mound 100 feet above the bottomland. Surveyed Oct. 31, 1887. (b) N. E. 1/4, S. E. 1/4, section 9, township 112, 34; three tumuli about 100 feet above the bottomland. Surveyed Oct. 31, 1887. (c) S. E. 1/4, S. E. 1/4, section 9, township 112, 34; a lone mound about 100 feet above the bottomland. Surveyed Oct. 31, 1887.

Mounds four and a half miles east of Redwood Falls, N. E. 1/4, N. E. 1/4, section 3, township 112, 35; about 125 feet above the river, on a ridge; three tumuli, about 30 feet in diameter, on cultivated land. Surveyed Oct. 31, 1887.

There is a lone mound two and a half miles below Patterson's Rapids, S. E. 1/4, N. E. 1/4, section 9, township 113, 36, 30 feet in diameter, 10 feet high; about 100 feet above the bottomland.

Mounds five and a half miles east of Redwood Falls, S. 1/2, N. E. 1/4, section 2, township 112, 35; about 125 feet above the river. No. 5 is 30 feet by 21/2 feet, with an exterior ditch of eight feet by one foot. The group embraces 10 mounds, of which two are elongated.

There is a lone mound, S. E. 1/4, S. E. 1/4, section 6, town- ship 112, 34, at the Lower Agency, immediately opposite Birch Cooley creek, about 110 feet above the bottomland, 30 feet by one foot.

On the Cottonwood river, somewhere not far from the South Pass wagon roads, there are some mounds of small size .- (Hill record).

A trapper reported one N. E. 1/4, S. E. 1/4, section 32, town- ship 109, 35, on the right bank of a stream emptying into the Cottonwood .- (Hill record).

Authority and References. P. M. Magnusson in the "History of Stearns County," H. C. Cooper, Jr., & Co., 1915.

Edward W. Schmidt in the "History of Goodhue County," H. C. Cooper, Jr., & Co., 1910.

"The Aborigines of Minnesota," 1906-1911, a Report Based on the Collections of Jacob V. Brower, and on the Field Surveys and Notes of Alfred J. Hill and Theodore H. Lewis, Collated, Augmented and Described by N. H. Winchel, published by the Minnesota Historical Society, 1911.

HISTORY OF REDWOOD COUNTY

CHAPTER V.

INDIAN OCCUPANCY AND TREATIES.

The archeology and anthropology of the American Indian is still in its infancy. But a few fundamental facts stand out in bold relief. We are told by scientists that man is of great antiquity in America; and that though the aborigines' blood is doubtless mixed with later arrivals in many localities and tribes, still, barring the Eskimo, the fundamental race characteristics are the same from Hudson Bay to Patagonia. Hence a common American ancestry of good antiquity must be predicated of the whole Indian race.

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The history of Redwood County, Minnesota, Volume I, Part 4

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. 4n Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr. Number of Pages: 658

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. 4n
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr.
Number of Pages: 658