USA > Minnesota > Redwood County > The history of Redwood County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 48
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The bishop was away on a visitation work, and first learned in St. Paul of the outbreak. Many of its victims were his personal friends.
"The only gleam of light on the darkness of this unparalleled outbreak," he says, "is, that not one of the Indians connected with our mission was concerned in it. It is due to their fidelity that the captives were saved.
"While suffering deeply, and feeling the most lively sympathy for the sufferers, I felt that it was my duty to lay the blame of this massacre at the door of the government, which had left savages without the control of law, innocent border settlers without protection, and permitted robbery and every evil influ- ence to excite savage natures to deeds of violence and blood. There would have been a like tale of sorrow on the Chippeway border, if the plans of the guilty leaders had not been exposed by our Indian clergymen (Enmegahbowh) and Chippeway friends."
All the members of the mission escaped in safety from the Lower Sioux Agency, and at length reached Faribault.
Unfortunately, some of the Dakota pupils at Andrews' Hall, Fairibault, were at their homes, it being vacation time. A pious mother of mixed blood, with her two sons, all of them communi- cants, and three grown up Indian boys, with an Indian girl, had gone home to visit their friends. These were all taken prisoner, or were victims of the outbreak. There were likewise seventeen
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communicants of the Dakotah Mission of St. John, who, it was thought, were massacred, or taken prisoner.
The Rev, Mr. Hinman and his associates left everything behind of their personal effects, barely escaping with their lives.
In 1885 the Rev. S. D. Hinman again visited Birch Coulee, and the following spring took up his residence there. About 1882 Good Thunder had bought eighty acres of land there, of which he gave twenty for the mission, on which, with the assistance of Bishop Whipple, Mr. Hinman built the mission house and school house in 1887. At this time there were eight houses, the Fari- bault Indians forming the nucleus of the settlement. August 27, 1889, Bishop Whipple laid the cornerstone of the church, which was completed the following year, being built, in part, of the stone of the church begun in 1862, which was removed by the Indians with their own hands. The new church was consecrated by Bishop Whipple July 16, 1891, and at the special request of the Indians was named "St. Cornelia," in grateful memory of their "white mother," as they said. March 24, 1890, the Rev. Mr. Hinman entered into rest after a short illness, and he sleeps beside the church to which so many cares and toils had been given.
For some time the mission was under the general care of the rector of Redwood Falls. During this interval Napoleon Wabasha was lay reader, also Henry W. St. Clair; and Miss Barney, and afterwards Miss Whipple, superintendents of the Sunday School.
June 25, 1899, Henry Whipple St. Clair was ordered deacon by Bishop Whipple in the church at Birch Coulee, and, after com- pleting his studies at the Seabury Divinity School, was advanced to the priesthood by Bishop Edsall in the Church of St. Cornelia June 12, 1904. The occasion was a notable one. The Indians now were to have one of their own people to minister to them. Mrs. Bishop Whipple, the patroness of the mission, who had cared for the work since the passing of the bishop, was the guest of honor ; and of the clergy there were present the Rev. E. Steele Peake, who had visited the Lower Agency in 1856, and Messrs. Tanner, Purves, Rollit, Camp, Shutt, Hills, Doffin, and the Indian clergy, Walker and Holmes of Bishop Hare's jurisdiction ; members of the mission and hostesses were Susan E. Salisbury and Mary W. Whipple, Robert Heber Clarkson Hinman, teacher in the govern- ment school, and John Wakeman, or Wakinya, tanka, half brother of Little Crow, and John Crooks, the Indian scout.
The Rev. Henry W. St. Clair, priest in charge, is the son of the Rev. George St. Clair, and grandson of Job. St. Clair of Men- dota, who died at Birch Coulee. The Rev. George St. Clair was admitted as a candidate for Holy Orders by Bishop Whipple December 26, 1874, ordained deacon by him June 15, 1879, entered
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into rest June 10, 1881, "Indian Missionary to the Sioux Indians of Minnesota."
Bishop Whipple says in his Council Address 1882: "At my first visit to Faribault, a bright-eyed Indian boy sat on the chancel steps of the Chapel. I little thought that it would be my privilege to ordain him a minister of Christ. You who knew him will bear witness to this guileless simplicity of character, his singleness of purpose, his purity of life and earnest faith in Christ. He made full proof of his ministry, and has gone before us to the rest of the people of God."
Some of the Indians at Birch Coulee are living on the same land they occupied before the "Outbreak" in 1862. The govern- ment gave them thirty acres, more or less. The mission property consists of church, rectory, mission house and school house. Hard by the church, in the burial ground used by the Indians before the "Outbreak" of 1862, is the monument erected by Mrs. Whip- ple to the memory of Good Thunder, the first Sioux brave baptized by Bishop Whipple, "a loyal Indian, who saved nearly two hun- dred white women and children in 1862."
While on a visit to Japan Sybil Carter conceived the idea of lace-making as a branch of industry for the Indian women. After hearing what lace-making had done for the poor women of Japan, Bishop Whipple said : "It is just the thing for our Indian women. Go with me to White Earth, and, if you will teach my women there to make this lace, you shall have the hospital for headquarters for your work." Miss Carter went to White Earth with the bishop and taught the women. This was in 1886. In 1890 she went east and raised the money for a teacher, and, on her return in October, took Miss Wiswell with her for a teacher. In August, 1891, Pauline Colby was added as a teacher in the school, and in 1892 Miss Carter herself went up and remained for over a year. In August, the same year, Susan E. Salisbury, the bishop's niece, went to White Earth to assist Miss Carter. Sub- sequently a school was started at Red Lake, a hundred and twenty miles north of White Earth, and one at Leach Lake, ninety miles east of White Earth. There are now (1906) nine lace schools.
To bring the work more prominently before the public, Miss Carter, with Miss Salisbury, removed to St. Paul as headquarters in September, 1893. In the spring of 1894, Miss Carter closed the house in St. Paul for the summer and went to Birch Coulee, tak- ing Miss Salisbury and Miss Barney with her. In 1897 the house in St. Paul was closed permanently, and Miss Carter removed her headquarters to New York, where she holds lace sales every year. The first bedspread made by the Indian women was for Mrs. Pierpont Morgan of New York City. Since then eight have been made. It may be mentioned as of interest that the lace made by the Indian women took the gold medal at the Paris exhibition.
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It has proven, as Miss Carter said when the thought came to her, this industry has "solved the question of work for her Indian sisters."
In June, 1895, Mary Whipple went to Birch Coulee to take charge of the school; and after the house in St, Paul was closed in March, 1897, she was joined by Susan E. Salisbury. In the autumn of 1905 Miss Whipple resigned and Mrs. St. Clair, wife of the Rev. Henry St. Clair, was appointed assistant to Miss Salisbury, who has charge of the mission.
Since the passing of Bishop Whipple his plans and wishes in regard to the mission at Birch Coulee have been faithfully carried ont by Mrs. H. B. Whipple, who, with other substantial improve- ments, has built and furnished a commodious rectory, and erected a beautiful monument of Minnesota granite hard by the church in pious memory of Good Thunder, the first Sioux baptized by Bishop Whipple. In all this loving work she has had the sym- pathy and support of Bishop Edsall, whose election was the choice of the first bishop, as well as of the diocese, because he believed he could entrust to the loving heart of his son in the faith the care of these wards whose cause he had espoused when he came to the diocese. It would seem invidious to single out any one name from the many who have aided Bishop Whipple in this mission, to the exclusion of others who have given valuable assistance in its maintenance. For further information we refer the reader to Bishop Whipple's "Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate"; to "Taopi and His Friends"; to the Rev. Mr. Cook's "History of the Niobrara Mission," and to the many letters of Bishop Whipple in "The Minnesota Missionary."
Susan Elizabeth Salisbury, the devoted missionary at the Bishop Whipple Mission, Redwood county, was born at Adams, Jefferson county, New York, daughter of Hiram and Sarah B. Whipple Salisbury, natives of that county, and niece of the Right Rev. Henry B. Whipple, first Bishop of Minnesota. She was reared as an only child, her only sister, Frances Whipple Salis- bury, having died in infancy. Early determining to devote her life to the cause of the church, Miss Salisbury finished her educa- tion at St. Mary's Hall, the school that Bishop Whipple had established at Faribault, Minnesota. In August, 1892, she went to the Chippewa Reservation at White Earth, Minnesota, to labor among the Indians there, under the auspices of the Domestic and Foreign Mission Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church. At White Earth, she became the assistant in the lace-making school, which Sybil Carter, under the direction of Bishop Whip- ple, acting upon the inspiration received from watching Japanese women at work, had there established as the first of the nine
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lace-making schools, which are now working such a revolution in the life of the Indian women, on the various reservations. In September, 1893, Miss Carter and Miss Salisbury removed to St. Paul and there established headquarters for the purpose of bringing the project of Indian lace-making prominently before the public. In the spring of 1896, the headquarters at St. Paul were permanently closed, and Miss Salisbury joined Miss Carter in New York, where Miss Carter had established headquarters. In March, 1897, Miss Salisbury came to the Bishop Whipple Mission as missionary and to assist Miss Mary W. Whipple, the Bishop's cousin, who later resigned, in the autumn of 1905, when Miss Salisbury assumed full charge of the work with Mrs. St. Clair, the wife of the Indian priest, as her assistant. This school was established January 10, 1894, and meets on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. The product of this and the other eight schools consists of lace bed spreads, lace sofa pillow covers, insertions, etc. The lace bed spreads are particularly the product of the Bishop Whipple Mission, nine having been com- pleted. Among the purchasers of these articles are such peo- ple as Mrs. Helen Gould Sheperd, Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Mrs. J. P. Morgan, Mrs. Robert Winthrop and others. One of the workers made a sofa pillow cover for Queen Alexandria of England, who wrote a letter in commendation of the work. A gold medal was awarded the lace of the Indian women at the Paris Exposition.
Miss Salisbury resides at the mission and devotes all of her time to the work.
The Rev. Henry Whipple St. Clair, who has charge of St. Cor- nelia's Church, and the Bishop Henry B. Whipple Mission, is a Sioux Indian. His father, George Whipple St. Clair, was also a clergyman, ordained to the priesthood hy Bishop Henry B. Whipple. He was much loved by all the Sioux, who came for miles to attend his ordination. His ministerial life was largely devoted to preaching at Faribault and in the surrounding towns, where in the early days many Indians were located. Esther Walker, wife of Rev. George Whipple St. Clair, and mother of Rev. Henry Whipple St. Clair, spent her latter years at the mission in Redwood county. She was an example for good to all the Indians at the mission, and a devoted church woman.
Rev. Henry Whipple St. Clair was educated for the ministry at the Seabury Divinity school at Faribault, Minn., having been sent there by Bishop Whipple, whose great desire was that he could give to the Indian people at Birch Coulie, a clergyman who could speak to them in their own language. He was or- dained by Bishop Whipple to the deaconate June 25, 1899, and later to the priesthood by Bishop Edcall June 11, 1904. Quoting from the "Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate" Bishop
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Whipple's book, he says, "The strongest opponent to missions would have bowed head and heart could he have looked upon the dignified thoughtful faces of that Indian congregation as they hung upon the words of the holy office, which gave them a shep- herd from their own flock and their own people. For seventeen years this priest has gone in and out among these people trying to minister to them as his Bishop would have him. It has not been easy work, but daily God has given him the needed strength.
Henry Whipple St. Clair was married to Amelia Jones in Gethsemane church, Minneapolis, Minn., Nov. 2, 1889, by Bishop Anson Graves. They have had thirteen children: George, Cora, Ruth, Cornelia, Gertrude, Henry, Evangeline (first), Evangeline, Reuben, Viola, Toby, Eleanor and Samuel. Evangeline (first), Gertrude and Toby are dead. Mrs. St. Clair has been a great help to Mr. St. Clair in his work and is an experienced lace- maker, having been Miss Salisbury's assistant and interpreter for many years.
Authority. Condensed from the article by the Rev. George C. Tanner, D. D., in the "History of the Diocese of Minnesota, 1857-1907." To this, the biographies have been added.
CHAPTER XXXII.
MATERIAL RESOURCES.
The excellence of this county for agriculture, and the areas of prairie and valleys of the watercourses, have been adequately treated in this work. Besides the fertility of the land, this region possesses an invigorating, healthful climate, and almost invariably good water in its wells and springs. The material resources which remain to be mentioned are water-powers, build- ing stone, lime, clay products, gravel and mineral paint. Ex- plorations made for coal, its mode of occurrence, and the im- probability that it exists here in any valuable amount, have been spoken of in the chapter on physical features. No ores of any practical importance have been found. The principal re- sources of this part of the state are the products of its rich soil, and as yet, little developed water power. At one time a gold mine of considerable proportions was developed.
Springs. Springs of water, often impregnated with iron, oc- cur along the ravines and valleys of many of the creeks and rivers in this region. At the southwest side of the Minnesota valley in the north part of section 30, Swedes Forest, near the west line of Redwood county, is a "boiling spring," also irony ;
1
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from which a stream three or four feet wide, and six to twelve inches deep, flows away. This is at the northwest side of a rivulet, in a ravine some fifty feet below the general level. These springs issue from the drift, and show that large water-courses exist in sand and gravel feins or strata, enclosed in the till. Such subterranean streams are often struck in wells, with the water sometimes flowing constantly through them at the bot- tom; but more frequently, when the outlet of the spring is dis- tant, the water soon rises to fill the well permanently, 10, 20 or 30 feet in depth.
Mineral Paint. A good and durable paint was manufactured in 1868 or 1869 from ferruginous portions of the kaolinized gneiss and granite mentioned in the vicinity of Redwood Falls. The material thus used was obtained from the northwest or left bank of the Redwood river in its gorge, about a mile north of Redwood Falls, in the N. 1/2 of the N. E. 1/4 of section 36, Delhi. Of this business Prof. N. H. Winchell wrote in his second annual report of the Geological and Natural History Survey of Minne- sota, 1872-1882: "At Redwood Falls the kaolin which has re- sulted from the decomposition of the granitic rock, has become stained with iron, and has a brownish or greenish-brown color. It contains, generally, some silica. From this stained kaolin a good mineral paint has been manufactured. Messrs. Grant and Brusseau commenced the enterprise, and carried it far enough to demonstrate the quality of the product. The manufactured article is said to have been equal to that of Brandon, Vt., but the cost was so great that, after transportation to St. Paul, it could not be offered in the market so cheaply as the Brandon paint. Their process was very simple. The raw material was obtained from the banks of the Redwood river, and was of a rusty-brown color, having also a greenish tinge. It was broken or crushed to the fineness of corn or wheat. It was then dried in a large pan placed over a fire, and ground by water-power, between two burr-stones. In that condition it was ready for use by simply mixing with boiled or raw linseed oil . . . The color produced was reddish umber. By making some selections vari- ous lighter shades, of the same general character, were pro- duced. It had a heavy sediment, consisting probably of iron and silica. The quality of the paint is said to have been superior to that from Ohio, and fully equal to that from Brandon, Vt. The surface of the wood painted becomes hardened and glazed, but remains smooth." A number of buildings in Redwood county were painted with this mineral paint. The paint material out- crops in various places in the valley of the Redwood and even near the mouth of that stream in the cliffs of the Minnesota river.
Water Power. Although the water power in this county is an important economic feature in the story of its settlement, in
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that the water-power at Redwood Falls was the magnet that brought Col. Sam. McPhail to this spot in 1864, nevertheless the water power of the county has been but little developed. A. C. Burmeister built the present dam at Redwood Falls in 1902, and power secured from this dam operates his extensive electric and heating plant, as well as his mill. The power obtained by dam- ming the Redwood river at North Redwood, is used to operate a grist mill. This is the total extent to which the water power in Redwood county is now utilized.
The tremendous fall of water on the Redwood river at Red- wood Falls has been used more or less in times past. In 1855 the government established a saw mill in what is now the Red- wood Falls city park. The mill was located on the southeast bank of the river, just below where the falls are now spanned by the cement bridge. Power was obtained by carrying the natural fall of the water onto an overshot waterwheel from a flume for which a space was made by blasting in the granite. This mill, though abandoned during the massacre and for a few years thereafter, was reopened in 1865 by the early settlers, and used for many years. The first log sawed after the massacre, was furnished by Birney Flynn, and was used by him for tables for a grand Fourth of July picnic, held in a grove nearby.
From the late sixties and early seventies, through the grass- hopper period and well into the railroad period, waterpower sites were being utilized for four mills, three being flour mills at Redwood Falls, and one being a sawmill (later converted into a flour mill and finally into a grist mill), at North Redwood.
The Redwood Mill, operated by Worden & Ruter, is now re- built and remodelled as the Burmeister mill. It stands on the southeast bank of the river, a short distance northeast of the bridge. Its original dam, with a head of eighteen feet, now washed out, was built a short distance above the mill, a part of the sluice through the mill being cut from the solid rock. This mill, the first flour mill in Redwood Falls, and the county, was erected about 1868. It was in this mill that A. C. Bur- meister established the dynamo which furnished Redwood Falls with its first electric current, first using the dam (now washed out) above the mill, and later the present dam above the bridge. Still later the flume was extended to the present power plant which is located on the river bank, nearly opposite the foot of Washington street.
The Delhi Mill, operated by A. A. Cook & Co., later by Baker & McMillan, and later by O. W. McMillan, was situated on the west bank of the Redwood river, just across from the foot of Third street, in Redwood Falls. The dam, which had a head of some twenty feet, and was located a few rods above the mill, op- posite the foot of Fifth street, is now submerged by the back-
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water of the Burmeister dam. This mill was destroyed by fire and never rebuilt. It was established about 1869.
E. Cuff, about 1870, erected a flour mill some forty rods north of the present Burmeister mill, on the high south bank of the Redwood river, a few hundred feet southeast from the present residence of Orlando B. Turrell. Below the Little Falls, he built a small dam, sufficient to divert water into his flume. This flume followed the natural descent of the rapids, and the water therein thus gained in force until reaching the waterwheel, situated in the bend just before the river takes its sudden course to the north through the Ramsey state park. From this waterwheel, a pulley conveyed the power to the mill, situated high above on the south bank of the river. After being operated for a num- ber of years as a flour and grist mill, this mill was dismantled.
In 1868-69 the Birum Brothers erected a saw mill on the present site of the Birum mills, at North Redwood, a few rods above where the river is crossed by the railroad. This was re- placed by a flour mill in 1879. Of late years it has been used as a grist mill. The dam was washed away several times. The last time in the spring of 1916.
The foot of Birum's dam is thirty or forty feet above the Minnesota river, being some seventy-five feet below the general level of the prairie and town. The beauty of this deep, rock- walled gorge, about one and a half miles long, with its cascades and rapids and meandering river, can scarcely be over-stated. Its geological formations are equally interesting, by reason of their variety and uncommon character.
Clay Products. In 1871 an attempt was made to manufacture brieks in the town of Sherman, on the bottoms not far from the old agency. It was operated for only a few months. In the late seventies brick was made on the west bank of the Redwood river at Redwood Falls, not far above the present dam. In the early nineties, brick was made quite extensively on the bank of the Redwood river, nearly opposite the present Redwood Falls cem- etery.
Quarrying. The gneiss and granite of the Minnesota valley at the north side of Redwood county, and of the Redwood river gorge have been but little used for quarrying purposes. In the early days stones for foundations were quarried in the gorge of the Redwood river, just below the Redwood falls. Building and foundation stones have been quarried on the Charles Fleischer farm, a half mile east of the railroad station at North Redwood. This stone, being softer than some of the other deposits in the neighborhood, is somewhat more easily worked. A harder stone has been quarried on the farm of Thomas Hoskins, at North Redwood, the quarry lying half way between the Camp Pope marker and the bridge across the Minnesota river. Quite a
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large quantity of this stone has been used for paving in Minne- apolis. Some is used for paving at Redwood Falls. Stone from this quarry is now polished and sold extensively for monumental and ornamental purposes. The Hoskin farm was formerly the farm of J. S. G. Honner, and his magnificent monument in the Redwood Falls cemetery is from this quarry. The boulders scat- tered throughout the county have been used for foundations and fence walls to some extent. Some "soap stone" has been secured near Redwood Falls.
Gold Mine. In the early nineties a gold mining proposition of considerable proportions was inaugurated in Swedes Forest, a mile or so northwest of the Vicksburg bridge. Options were secured on thousands of acres of land, stock was sold to the neighboring farmers, as well as in the cities, an extensive plant was erected, and considerable quartz milled and crushed. Gold was found, but not in paying quantities. For many years after the venture was abandoned, the machinery stood neglected on the spot, being partially dismantled from time to time whenever anyone who chanced to be in the vicinity needed any pieces of machinery. Finally the machinery that remained was taken down and removed, and only the remains of the plant, the crushed quartz and the hole in the rock now exist to mark the spot of this venture, which once inspired such high hopes.
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