USA > Minnesota > Renville County > The history of Renville County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 11
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Hawk Creek, township 114, range 38, was surveyed by R. H. L. Jenett and G. G. Howe. between November 2, 1866, and Novem- ber 3, 1866.
Kingman, township 116, range 36, was surveyed by R. II. L. Jenett and G. G. Howe, between Fine 26. 1866. and .hume 30, 1866.
Erickson, township 116, range 37, was surveyed by R. II. L. Jenett and G. G. Howe, between July 19. 1866, and July 24, 1866.
Wang, township 116. range 38, was surveyed by Jenett and Howe, between July 24. 1866, and July 31. 1866.
CHAPTER VI. JOSEPH RENVILLE.
Of French and Indian Blood-Educated in Canada-Starts Life as a Courier-In War of 1812-Serves as British Captain-In the Fur Trade-Brings First Seed Corn to Minnesota-Literary Work-His Triumphant Death.
Joseph Renville. for whom Renville county was named, was of mixed descent. and his story forms a link between the past and the present history of Minnesota. His father was a French trader. His mother was a Dakota (Sioux) of Little Crow's Kaposia band, which was at various periods located at different points between the mouth of the Minnesota and the mouth of the St. Croix, much of the time at the present site of South St. Paul. She was related to some of the principal men of the Kaposia village.
Thus with the daring blood of a French adventurer in one branch of his lineage, and the noble strain of the Sionx in the other, Joseph Renville was born at the Kaposia village about the year 1779, while the Revolutionary war was still raging.
Acenstomed to see no European countenance but that of his father, in sports, habits and feelings, he was a full Dakota yonth. But his father, noting the activity of his mind, was not content that he should be entirely an Indian boy, and therefore before he
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was ten years old took him to Canada, and placed him in the care of a learned and saintly Catholic priest, under whose fostering and loving tuition he obtained a slight knowledge of the French language and the elements of the Christian religion. But the education thus started was broken off, for upon the death of his father the boy returned to Minnesota.
As the youngster attained a proper age. Col. Robert Dixon, an Englishman in the employ of a British fur company, who traded with the Minnesota Indians, hired him as a coureur de bois. While a mere stripling he had guided his canoe from the Falls of Pokeguma to the Falls of St. Anthony, and followed the trails from Mendota to the Missouri. He knew by heart the legends of his tribe. He had distinguished himself' as a brave, and as he grew older identified himself with the Dakotas more fully by following in the footsteps of his father and marrying a maiden of that nation.
In 1797 he wintered in company with a Mr. Perlier near Sauk Rapids. Zebulon M. Pike, who was in Minnesota in 1805-06, was introduced to him at Prairie du Chien, and was conducted by him to the Falls of St. Anthony. This officer was pleased with him, and recommended him for the post of United States interpreter. In a letter to General Wilkinson, written at Mendota, September 9, 1805, he says: "I beg leave to recommend for that appoint- ment Joseph Renville, who has served as interpreter for the Sionx last spring at the Illinois, and who has gratuitously and willingly served as my interpreter in all my conferences with that tribe. He is a man respected by the Indians and I believe an honest one."
At the breaking out of the War of 1812 Colonel Dickson was employed by the British to secure the warlike tribes of the North- west as allies. Renville received from him the appointment and rank of captain in the British army, and with warriors from the Ke-ox-ah (Wabasha's band at Winona ), Kaposia and other bands of Dakotas, marched to the American frontier. In 1813 he was present at the siege of Fort Meigs. One afternoon, while he was seated with Wabasha and the renowned Petit Corbean (Little Crow), the grandfather of the Little Crow of the Sioux uprising, an Indian presented himself and told the chief's that they were wanted by the head men of the other nations that were there con- gregated. When they arrived at the rendezvous they were sur- prised to find that the Winnebagoes had taken an American cap- tive, and, after roasting him, had apportioned his body in as many dishes as there were nations, and had invited them to participate in the feast. Both the chiefs and Renville were indignant at this inhumanity and Colonel Diekson, being informed of the fact, the Winnebago who was the author of the outrage was turned out of the camp.
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In 1:15 Renville accompanied the Kaposia chief to Drum- mond's Island, who had been invited by the commandant of that post to make him a visit. On their arrival they were informed by the officer that he had sent for them to thank them in the name of His Majesty for the aid they had rendered during the war. lle conelded by pointing to a large pile of goods, which, he said. wore presents from Great Britain. Petit Corbean replied that his people had been prevailed upon by the British to make war upon a people they scarcely knew and who had never done them any harm. "Now. " continued the brave Kaposia chief, "after we have fought for you, under many hardships, lost some of our people and awakened the vengeance of our neighbors, you make peace for yourselves, and leave us to get sneh terms as we can : but no. we will not take them. We hold them and yourselves in equal contempt."
For a short period after the war Renville remained in Canada and received the half pay of a British captain. Ile next entered the service of the Hudson Bay Company, whose posts extended to the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. In winter he resided with his family among the Dakotas: in summer he visited his trading posts, which extended as far as the sources of the Red river.
In 1×19 Colonel Snelling commenced the erection of the mas- sive stone fort near the junetion of the Mississippi and Minnesota. From this time Renville became more acquainted with the people of the United States, and some of his posts being within the limits of the Republic, he with several other experienced trappers, estab- lished a new company in 1822, which they called the Columbia Fur Company. Of this new organization he was the presiding genius. When Major Stephen Il. Long arrived at Fort St. Anthony, as Snelling was then called, in the year 1823, he became acquainted with Renville, and engaged him as the interpreter of the expedi- tion to explore the Minnesota river and the Red River of the North. The historian of the expedition, Professor William H. Keating, gave to the world one of the most interesting accounts of the Dakota nation that had ever been published. and he states that for most of the information he is indebted to Joseph Ren- ville.
Shortly after the Columnbia Fur Company commenced its opera- tions the American Fur Company of New York. of which John Jacob Astor was one of the directors, not wishing any rivals in the trade, purchased their posts and good will. and retained the "conrenrs de bois." Under this new arrangement Renville removed to Lae qui Parle and erected a trading house, and here he resided until the end of his days.
Living as he had done for more than a half century among the Dakotas, over whom he exercised the most unbounded con-
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trol, it is not surprising that in his advanced age he sometimes exhibited a domineering disposition. As long as Minnesota exists he should be known as one given to hospitality. Ile invariably showed himself to be a friend to the Indian, the traveler and the missionary. Aware of the improvidence of his mother's race, he used his influence towards the raising of grain. He was instru- mental in having the first seed corn planted on the Upper Minne- sota. An Indian never left his house hungry, and they delighted to do him honor. lle was a friend to the traveler. His conver- sation was intelligent, and he constantly communicated facts that were worthy of record. Ilis post obtained a reputation among explorers, and their last day's journey to it was generally a quick march, for they felt sure of a warm welcome. His son was the interpreter of Joseph N. Nicollet, that worthy man of science who explored this country in connection with John C. Fremont. This gentleman in his report to Congress pays the following tribute to the father and son :
"I may stop a while to say that the residence of the Renville family, for a number of years back, has afforded the only retreat to travelers to be found between St. Peter's and the British posts, a distance of 700 miles. The liberal and untiring hospitality dis- pensed by this respectable family, the great influence exercised by it over the Indians of this country in the maintenance of peace and the protection of travelers would demand. besides our grati- tude, some especial acknowledgment of the United States, and also from the Hudson Bay Company."
The only traveler that has ever given any testimony opposed to this is Featherstonhaugh, an Englishman, in whose book, pub- lished in London in 1847, and styled a "Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor," he says: "On reaching the fort. Renville advanced and saluted me, but not cordially. He was a dark, Indian-looking person, showing no white blood, short in his
stature, with strong features and coarse, black hair. *
# * 1 learned that Renville entertained a company of stout Indians to the number of fifty, in a skin lodge behind his house, of extraor- dinary dimensions, whom he calls his braves, or soldiers. To these men he confided various trusts, and occasionally sent them to distant points to transaet his business. No doubt he was a very intriguing person and uncertain in his attachments. Those who knew him intimately supposed him inclined to the British alle- gianee, although he professes great attachment to the American government. a circumstance, however, which did not prevent him from being under the surveillance of the garrison at Fort Snell- ing."
The Rev. T. S. Williamson, of the Presbytery of Chillicothe, arrived at Fort Snelling in 1834; then returned to the East, and in 1835 eame baek with assistant missionaries. Renville warmly
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welcomed him and rendered invaluable assistance in the establish- ment of the missions. Upon the arrival of the missionaries at Lae qui Parle he provided them with a temporary home. Ile acted as interpreter, he assisted in translating the Seriptures, and removed many of the prejudices of the Indians against the teachers of the white man's religion. llis name appears in con- nection with several Dakota books. Dr. Watts' second catechism for children, published in Boston in 1837, by Crocker & Brewster, was partly translated by him. In 1839, a volume of extracts from the Old Testament. and a volume containing the Gospel of Mark. was published by Kendall & Henry, Cincinnati. the translation of which was given orally by Mr. Renville and penned by Dr. Williamson. Crocker & Brewster in 1842 published Dakota Dowanpi Kin. or Dakota Hymns, many of which were composed with the help of Renville. The following tribute to his ability as a translator appeared in the Missionary Herald of 1846, published at Boston :
" Mr. Renville was a remarkable man, and he was remarkable for the energy with which he pursued such objects as he deemed of primary importance. Ilis power of observing and remembering facts. and also words expressive of simple ideas, was extraor- dinary Though in his latter years he could read a little, yet in translating he seldom took a book in his hand, choosing to depend on hearing rather than sight, and I have often had occasion to observe that after hearing a long and unfamiliar verse read from the Scriptures. he would immediately render it from the French into Dakota. two languages extremely ulike in their idioms and idea of the words, and repeat it over two or three words at a time. so as to give full opportunity to write it down. He had a remark- able taet in discovering the aim of a speaker, and conveying the intended impression, when many of the ideas and words were such as had nothing corresponding to them in the minds and language of the addressed. These qualities fitted him for an inter- preter. and it was generally admitted he had no equal."
It would be improper to conelude this article withont some remarks upon the religious character of Renville. Years before there was a clergyman in Minnesota he took his Indian wife to Prairie du Chien and was married in accordance with Christian rites by a minister of the Catholic church. Before he became acquainted with missionaries he sent to New York for a large folio Bible in the French language, and requested those with him in the fur trade to procure for him a elerk who could read it. After the commencement of the Mission at Lae qui Parle, his wife was the first full Dakota to be recorded as converted to Protestant Christianity. Before this, through the instruction of her husband, she had renouneed the religion of her fathers. The following is an extract from a translation of Mr. Renville's account of his
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wife's death : "I said to her: 'Now, today, you seem very much exhausted,' and she answered. 'Yes; this day, now God invites me. I am remembering Jesus Christ, who suffered for me, and depending on him alone. Today I shall stand before God, and will ask him for merey for you and all my children, and all my kinsfolk.' "
Afterwards, when all her children and relatives sat around her weeping, she said: "It is holy day, sing and pray." From early in the morning she was speaking of God and telling her hus- band what to do. Thus she died in the faith of that Christ whose story was first taught her by Catholic priests and later by Pres- byterian missionaries.
In 1841 Renville was chosen and ordained a ruling elder in the church at Lae qui Parle, and from that time till his death dis- charged the duties of his office in a manner acceptable and profit- able both to the native members of the church and the mission. After a sickness of some days, in March, 1846, his strong frame began to give evidence of speedy deeay. Dr. Williamson thus narrates the death scene: "The 'evening before his decease he asked me what became of the soul immediately after death. I reminded him of our Saviour's words to the thief on the cross, and Paul's desire to depart and be with Christ. He said, 'That is sufficient,' and presently added. 'I have great hope I shall be saved through grace.' Next morning (Sunday) about eight o'clock I was called to see him. He was so evidently in the agonies of death, I did not think of attempting to do anything for him. After some time his breathing becoming easier, he was asked if he wished to hear a hymn. He replied. 'Yes.' After it was sung he said, 'It is very good.' As he reelined on the bed, I saw a sweet serenity settling on his countenance, and I thought that his severest struggle was probably passed, and so it proved. The clock striking ten, he looked at it and intimated that it was time for us to go to church. As we were about to leave he extended his withered hand. After we left, he spoke some words of ex- hortation to his family, then prayed and before noon calmly and quietly yielded up his spirit."
Sixty-seven years passed by, before he closed his eyes upon the world. The citizens of Kentucky delight in the memory of Daniel Boone; let the citizens of Minnesota not forget Joseph Renville.
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HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
CHAPTER VII.
RIVER NAVIGATION.
Indian Days on the Minnesota-Mackinaw Boats-Early Voy- agers-Period of Steam Navigation-Names of Boats Which Reached the Upper Stretches of the River-Gradual Reduc- tion in River Traffic.
Minnesota received its name from the longest river which Jies wholly within this state, excepting ouly its sources above Big Stone Jake. 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 Sioux 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 II. HI. Sibley and Hon. Morgan L. Martin, of Wisconsin, in the years 1846 to 1548, 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 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 eease to be spoken.
The Chippewa name for the stream, Ash-kibogi-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 majestie stream, we know not.
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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 retinne of voyagers, who made our river an avenue of a great commeree 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 sinnons length. The sturdy voyagers, however, left to history but a seant reeord 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 their songs of old France.
The first white men known to have navigated the Minnesota were Le Suenr and his party of miners, who entered its month in a lelucca 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 bhie or green shale which he had dng 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 eolony, 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 to its source, and, dragging their loaded boats over the portage on rollers, descended the Red river to their homes, which they reached carly 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
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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 elimb.
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 pietnre 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. MeLeod in April, 1853, bringing down from Lae 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 boats navigating the upper Mississippi in those days had to enter the Minnesota to reach these terminal points.
Except for these landings at its month, and save that in 1842 a small steamer with a party of exenrsionists 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 eratt 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-
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gation was possible. They reached the foot of the rapids near Carver, the captain decided not to continue the passage, turned the steamboat homeward. Emulons of the Wayne's achievement, the Nominee, a rival boat, arranged another excursion July 12, aseended 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 exeursion 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 Uncle Toby con- veyed to Traverse 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 luly 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.
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