History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 16

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198

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A large number of entries were made under the provisions of this act, but the percentage of claimants who appeared to offer final proof at the expiration of the eight or more years provided was quite limited. And it was carly discovered that the law was not fulfilling the expectations of the Government. Where a homesteader coukl secure a tree claim adjoining his homestead, he was able to comply with the law, as a rule, but this was seldom available. There was no commutation clause in the timber culture law. It did not appeal to the home- seeker in preference to the homestead law under which he could take a home- stead and after five years' residence secure his title. To fulfill the requirements of the law in the great majority of cases was considered at the time as much more expensive than the requirements of the homestead law. Partial drouths were quite fatal to the carly growth of the timber tracts planted : many claims were totally abandoned or relinquished to a homesteader after a few years' trial and failure ; the law was finally repealed, and the prairies had been but little benefited directly from its well intended but rather impracticable requirements.

CHAPTER XI EARLIEST WHITE SETTLEMENTS

RED RIVER OF THE NORTH-SIOUX FALLS AND MEDARY-PEASE AND HAMILTON SETTLEMENTS-YANKTON, VERMILLION, AND BONIIOMME-BIG SIOUX POINT -MIXVILLE-ELK POINT.

We have here undertaken to give a brief sketch of the pioneer settlements of Dakota which were contemporaneous, or nearly so. These include Sioux Falls and Medary, Yankton, Bon Homme, Charles Mix, Mixville, below Fort Randall ; Vermillion, Big Sioux Point, Elk Point, and Red River of the North region, which had been occupied by white people a half century earlier. What is now Lincoln County does not appear to have had a permanent white settlement until some years later, though the county was carved out and named in 1862, and there were a very few scattered pre-emptors along the valley in that section, in 1864. While Yankton was the first point occupied by a permanent settlement of whites on the Missouri slope in Dakota, the country opposite Fort Randall contained a number of white men, not soldiers, who had probably come as civilian employes with the Harney expedition in 1855 and had located in that vicinity in 1857, for the purpose of sharing in the wood and hay contracts that were annually given out, or to engage in hauling supplies for the Government. Thus the Hamilton and Pease settlements were both well established in 1859, and peopled largely by dis- charged soldiers and French Canadians who had been employed in various civil capacities in Harney's campaign. We have for convenience of reference fre- quently designated these various settlements by the names of the counties given them by the first Legislatiure in 1862, though no county names or boundaries were existing during the period these sketches are designed to cover, up to the winter of 1861-2.

In 1858 Minnesota was admitted as a state with its present boundaries, and that portion of its former territory lying west to the Missouri River, was without a government. This fact will explain the urgency of the carly settlers to secure the organization of Dakota Territory. AAn exception to this statement as to the absence of local government might be taken as to the strip of ceded lands lying west of the western boundary of the State of Minnesota and east of the Big Sioux, which the House of Representatives virtually decided as still being the Territory of Minnesota, and permitted the delegate to Congress elected prior to the state's admission to continue as its representative to the end of his term-1859. The Territorial Legislature of Minnesota .at its closing session in 1857 had also organized the counties of Big Sioux, containing Sioux Falls, and Midway, con- taining Medary, and the governor had appointed officers for each county, who completed their organization in 1858, and transacted business.

The carliest settlements by the whites within the boundaries of the future Ter- ritory of Dakota were made when all of the country east and north of the Mis- souri River as far away as White Earth River, was embraced in the Territory of Minnesota : the country on the south and west of the Missouri being then in Nebraska Territory, excepting the settlement of the Hudson's Bay Company. made by Lord Selkirk in 1808. The first settlement in the future Dakota by citi- zens of the United States was made at Pembina about 1843 by Norman W.

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

Kittson and Joe Rolette. A postoffice was located there with Kittson as post- master and Rolette as deputy. In 1850 a custom house was established there, it being close to the international boundary, with Charles Cavileer, of St. Paul, as the customs officer. The settlement has been continuous from that time.

The first settlement on the Big Sioux was made in 1856, December, by the Western Town Company, of Dubuque, Iowa, represented by David M. Mills, W. W. Brookings, John McClellan, and others, and in June, 1857, by the Dakota Land Company, of St. Paul, Minnesota, represented by A. G. Fuller, F. J. Dewitt, Byron M. Smith, and others. The latter company the same season made settle- ments at Medary and Flandrean, on the Big Sioux. The Sioux Falls settlements were abandoned in 1862, owing to Indian hostilities, the Medary settlement in 1859; and the country remained unoccupied until 1867-68.

In 1857 settlements were made on the James River near Yankton by W. P. Lyman, Samuel Mortimer. A. C. Van Meter and Sam Jerou; and as early as 1855, Aleck C. Young made good improvements and opened a farm a few miles east of the Vermillion River, which he abandoned about the year 1859; Aleck was a white man, related by marriage to the Yankton Indians. ( See sketch.) A few civilian employees of the Government and contractors who had come across from the Platte with Harney's expedition in 1855, were located in Charles Mix County opposite Fort Randall. In 1858 the settlement at Vermillion and also at Bon Homme, was begun, the former by McHenry, Van Meter, Kennerly and others, and the latter by John Shober, George Rounds, Thomas Tate and others. A more complete list of these early settlers is furnished in other chapters. Elk Point was occupied in 1859, and Eli B. Wixson built a log hotel there; in 1860 the Brule Creek Settlement was started by M. M. Rich, Mahlon Gore, E. B. LaMoure, and Judson LaMoure, a younger brother, and others.

CHAPTER XII

RED RIVER OF THE NORTH COUNTRY

RED RIVER OF THE NORTHI; EARLIEST OF DAKOTA SETTLEMENTS-HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY AND NORTHWEST FUR COMPANY PEOPLE AND THEIR DESCENDANTS FIRST INHABITANTS-PEMMICAN GAVE NAME TO PEMBINA-VERENDRYE, A CAN- ADIAN, EARLY EXPLORER-LORD SELKIRK FAMOUS PIONEER-NORTIIWEST FUR COMPANY-FORT DOUGLASS-DEVELOPMENT OF FUR INDUSTRY-RED RIVER HALF- BREEDS-FOUNDING OF PEMBINA-MAJOR LONG AND THE INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY-EARLY AMERICAN SETTLERS-THE CHIPPEWA TREATY-FORT ABER- CROMBIE-STEAMBOATING ON THE RED RIVER-PUBLIC LAND SURVEYS- BOUNDARY LINE CORRECTED BY ARMSTRONG-RED RIVER ELECTIONS-HALF- BREEDS A HAPPY PEOPLE-RED RIVER COUNTIES-TODD AND JAYNE CONTEST FOR DELEGATE-REPEAL OF LEGISLATIVE APPORTIONMENT-NEW BOUNDARIES FOR PEMBINA COUNTY.

The Red River of the North formed the eastern boundary between the north- ern half of Dakota Territory and Minnesota. The first occupation of the country by white men was long prior to the formation of the Government of the United States. The Hudson's Bay Company charter .* granted by King Charles II to Prince Rupert and his associates in 1670, included all of British America contiguous to Hudson's Bay and its tributary waters. French and Canadian history are quoted as authority for the claim that in 1734, Pierre Gaultier Varennes, Sieur de la Verendrye, of Three Rivers. Canada, was the first explorer of the Red River Valley. Verendrye was a native of Canada, and a Frenchman of remarkable enterprise. In 1734 he traversed the country from the head of Lake Superior to the Red River in company with two sons and a nephew, and explored not only the valley of the Red, but also the Assinaboine and Pembina rivers. He is credited with having founded the fur industry in a portion of that region and established the young men who were with him as traders. He be- came noted as an explorer, and his work in that field formed the basis of the French claims to the Red River country, afterwards, in 1763, ceded to Great Britain. The younger Verendryes were also possessed of the adventurous and enterprising spirit of their ancestor, and in 1743 made a journey west across and along the valley of the Saskatchewan River, and discovered the Rocky Moun- tains during their wanderings. The elder Verendrye died in 1849.

One of the important divisions of Dakota Territory is the Red River of the North country. That portion since included within the Territory of Dakota was partly embraced within the Hudson's Bay Company grant, the oldest fur company

* The history of the Hudson's Bay Company, of Lord Selkirk's settlement, and the Northwest Fur Company would occupy a volume, and has been freely published in various works, particularly by the North Dakota Historical Department. But it does not appear to have any necessary connection with the history of Dakota, except through the introduction of missionaries and the half-breeds. It is probable that the missionaries would have come had there been no companies, for they were among the earliest of the white pioneers and were found wherever Indians had their habitation. The fur companies of that region were both foreign enterprises, and except in an illicit manner, conducted no operations on the American side of the boundary, though indirectly obtaining a large percentage of the fur traffic from the itinerant trappers and traders who operated regardless of international lines. Vol. 1- 6

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

in America, and was occupied by white people earlier than any other section within the boundaries of Dakota as later defined, and possibly earlier than any section west of the Mississippi and north of Iowa. Its first white settlers were British subjects and went into the country when it was all British territory, under employment with the Hudson's Bay Company, but there does not appear to have been any event of importance to Dakota history until about the beginning of the eighteenth century, when Lord Selkirk, a Scotch nobleman, a leading member and large owner of the stock of the company, was granted by the Hudson's Bay autocracy, exclusive control, commercially and politically, as well as judicially, of the country bordering the lower Red River Valley, extending from the mouth of the river to the Red Fork of the main stream, in the vicinity of Grand Forks. Though the Selkirk grant was made some time after the formation of the United States Government, nothing definite was known regarding the northern boundary line separating the new Republic from the possessions of the mother country, and Selkirk, believing that his domain extended to the Grand Forks, erected his principal fort and trading depot in 1809, within the territorial limits of the United States. Lord Selkirk was a very intelligent and enterprising man, accord- ing to authentic reports, and was solicitous for the physical as well as spiritual welfare of the conglomerate population which composed his subjects.

The Hudson's Bay Company had brought into the country a number of Eng- lish and Scotch families to assist in their fur trade with the natives, a trade that extended into the Upper Missouri Valley ; and later a rival company formed in Canada in 1780, of French capitalists, and chartered by the Canadian Govern- ment as the Northwest Fur Company, had come into the field, and brought in a large number of assistants known as French Canadians; these people constituted the early citizenship of the country including that portion belonging to the United States. In due time the population increased by the intermarriage of the white Canadians with the Indian women who were natives of the country, and this produced a distinct class known as "Red River half-breeds," who became much more numerous than the whites, and formed a very valuable factor in supplying robes and furs to the fur company.

TIIE PEMBINA COUNTRY

Lord Selkirk had fixed upon a point near the mouth of the Pembina River for his improvements which he made in 1809; he named his post Fort Douglass, that being his family name, and from that time the Pembina Settlement had a local habitation which it has ever since maintained, if not in the exact locality of Fort Douglass, yet near enough to justify its claim as the first settlement on the United States side of the boundary.

The Pembina country south of the 49th parallel of latitude was much more inviting. because of its freedom from marshes, than a large portion of the coun- try north of that parallel, and was greatly preferred by the earliest whites, and later by the half-breed natives, most or all of whom were British subjects, if they acknowledged allegiance to any sovereign. Selkirk's choice of location for the important fort he erected is convincing proof that he regarded the country su- perior to that further north. It possessed a deep, fertile soil, was free from marshes, and the fort was well situated to take care of the trade in 'furs. Father Balcourt, who had lived a score of years or more in the British Provinces, and also on the American side, says of the Pembina Valley about 1850: "The soil is very fertile and the frosts never occasion any damage. Our gardens yield us an abundance of melons of all kinds, a fruit that is not known in the gardens of the Selkirks, about forty miles further north." In 1851 he says: "The first frost felt at St. Paul was on the 6th or 7th of September : while at St. Joseph, on the Pem- bina River, thirty miles west of Pembina Village, the first frost was not until the 2d or 3d of October. We raise potatoes which weigh about two pounds each, and carrots 18 inches long and 4 inches in diameter." The Reverend Balcourt

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

speaks also of the "measly, soggy" character of the country further north, and the difficulty experienced in trying to make it a food producing region, with the limited facilities of the people then inhabiting it.

The superior natural resources, including climate as well as soil, and the more attractive topography of the Pembina region were the principal factors in its favor, and to obtain possession of these was the motive actuating these who were attracted to its fertile vales at the time of its earliest white occupation. The Pembina River, which empties its waters into the Red coming from the west, is not only remarkable for its beauty, but the country through which it winds its way is of the most fertile character, with forests of hardwood on either side. and skirting its shores. The fur companies made very little if any effort to de- velop the resources of the country beyond its fur products, influenced no doubt by motives similar to those which governed the early fur companies on the Upper Missouri River, whose policy was to discourage any industry that would in- terfere with the fur trade, and agriculture, if successful, meant the extinction, to a large extent, of the fur bearing animals, and the certain banishment from the land of the trading industry. Because of this policy, which necessitated the shipping into the country even the food required by the settlers, there were oc- casions when great suffering was experienced from lack of suitable food-when hundreds were compelled to pass the long winters on barely food enough to keep them alive. The possession of money, or large stocks of furs and merchandise other than food, availed nothing on such occasions, for these settlements were hundreds of miles removed from the nearest points where food material could be obtained.

The name "Pembina" is said to have been given to a country cast as well as west of the Red River of the North, and may have been applied to the entire valley and west to the James River. It first comes into prominence the latter part of the seventeenth and early in the eighteenth century. The name is derived from the word "pemmican," which formed the principal food of the Indians who inhabited the country from time beyond the ken of the historian. When the early missionaries, who were the first whites to enter that region, visited the Indians in the seventeenth century they found them using pemmican as the chief article of diet, particularly when on the chase in pursuit of buffalo and on the warpath, and it soon became the principal subsistence of the clergy during their pilgrimages from one missionary station to another. Flour being a commodity not easily procurable, it is stated on good authority, pemmican was substituted by the priests in celebrating the holy communion. The Dakota Indians are also said to have given the name to the country and that its meaning when trans- lated is "sanctified bread," and was called Indian bread. Its use by the priests in administering the sacrament of the Last Supper was not uncommon. Another authority claims that Pembina is the French word for "high bush cranberry." a fruit that grows wild in the country and is used with the buffalo meat in the prep- aration of "pemmican." In either case the words "Pembina" and "pemmican" are shown to be related and their meaning explained.

When the Hudson's Bay Company began its intercourse and business with the native inhabitants of the Red River Valley, it found that the missionaries had preceded them, but it remained for the fur company to establish on a substantial scale the fur industry which was destined to become for scores of years the lead- ing industry of North America, and to give employment to many thousand people in procuring, transporting and disposing of the raw material.

After the close of the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain, an event that greatly interrupted the fur trade, the trading post built by Selkirk was discovered by some British astronomers to be located south of the boundary line, and his lordship, reputed to have been intensely hostile to Uneke Sam, and heartily loyal to John Bull, had it removed to Fort Garry, or to the site where Fort Garry was founded, now near Winnipeg. The Hudson's Bay people. however, constructed another post, safely, as they supposed, within the British

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

domimons, but near enough to the line to give them control of the fur traffic of the Pembina country. Selkirk died in 1820, being then in eastern Canada. The Northwest Fur Company, chartered by the Canadian government in 1780, had become a powerful and aggressive rival of the Hudson's Bay, and the competition between these rival organizations at times had led to acts of extreme violence and open warfare. Their difficulties were finally settled shortly after the death of Lord Selkirk, by merging the Northwest with the elder concern in 1821, an arrangement that gave to the Hudson's Bay people a monopoly of the fur traffic, and afforded an opportunity, which was improved, of exhibiting the remorseless character of those who controlled its Red River business.

This was about the time of the coming in of the first American traders from points on the Mississippi River. Fort Snelling, at the mouth of the Minnesota River, was built by the United States Government in 1820. Jesuit missionaries from Canada had made their way into the British colonies of the Red River Valley, even before the advent of Lord Selkirk, and thereafter, not only Roman Catholic but missionaries of other denominations arrived, being encouraged thereto by Selkirk, who felt that the secular interests of the country as well as the spiritual welfare of the people, would be greatly enhanced by the zealous labors of the disciples of all Christian denominations. Selkirk himself was a Protestant, but quite catholic in his administration of the affairs of his colony.

The fur industry had brought into the country, largely as employees of the rival companies, a number of British subjects of excellent business qualifications, and a much larger number of French Canadians, also British subjects, men with more or less experience in trapping and bartering with the natives. The trade of the Hudson's Bay Company not only covered the Red River and its tributaries, but extended to the Missouri River where many flourishing trading posts existed with which the foreign companies had business intercourse when the Spaniards owned that country and continued it surreptitiously after the Louisiana Purchase, though their trading on the soil of the United States had been interdicted by a law of Congress. This influx of white people, males only as a rule, had the natural result of many intermarriages with the native Indian women, so that in the course of a score or two years, the population of the country, whites and half- breeds only being included, numbered more than a thousand. Some authorities estimate the mixed bloods alone at about one thousand five hundred. This numerous native population inhabited the Red River Valley as far north as Fort Garry ( now Winnipeg), and extended south as far as Grand Forks, though principally settled around Pembina and along the Pembina Valley to St. Joseph (now Walhalla ). In the summer season it was customary for an entire village to break camp, and with their women, children and household goods, betake them- selves to the buffalo pastures and spend the season slaughtering the buffalo which grazed in countless numbers on the plains, packing the meat for winter use, and tanning the robes for barter with the traders. These villages, at times, numbered as many as five hundred all told. The village of St. Joseph, on the Pembina River, was one of the best examples of a Red River half-breed community, composed principally of mixed-bloods. It contained at one time over two hundred build- ings, and it was estimated that its population exceeded one thousand two hundred. This was about the year 1845. Its streets and lots were laid out by compass and chain, and a number of business houses did a flourishing trade. While the Roman Catholics largely predominated, the Presbyterians were well represented, and the former denomination had erected a fine church edifice. These people were not warlike, but peaceably disposed, and not remarkable for their intelli- gence or industry, but yielded cheerful obedience to their priests in observing the rites and ceremonies of the church. As a rule a priest would accompany them on their annual summer hunting excursions. In a crude way and limited in quantity some ground was tilled and grain and garden vegetables grown. There were, however, individual instances where farms were opened and domestic ani- mals raised, that would be considered creditable in the best of rural communities.

TABLE ROCK, BIG SIOUX RIVER, SIOUX FALLS

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

The earliest white settlment in what was included in the Territory of Dakota, was that of Pembina, and was made in the year 1780, or a few years before the formation of the government of the United States and during the closing years of the Revolutionary war.

Major Stephen H. Long, U. S. A., led an exploring and scientific expedition from the headwaters of the Red River of the North along that valley to Pembina, in the year 1823.

The 49th parallel of north latitude was known to be the northern boun- dary of the United States, from the Lake of the Woods in Minnesota to the Rocky Mountains, but this line had never been definitely established. Major Long, at this time, located the parallel by astronomical observations. The new trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company was discovered to be on the United States side, and was moved across and re-erected on what was ascertained to be British soil by Major Long's official survey. Accompanying the Long expedi- tion was a Mr. Keating, the historian, who found an old white trader living at the mouth of the Pembina River, who claimed to have been there over forty years, but whose name is not given. This trader was personally known to Keat- ing. The date of this settlement corresponds nearly with the year which wit- nessed the organization of the Northwest Fur Company of Canada, an event immediately followed by the immigration of a large number of French Cana- dians to the Hudson's Bay and Red River country. Major Long found a Mr. Nolen residing at Pembina at the time who extended the hospitalities of his home to the major. The Red River settlements of that day were in no way connected with the southwest portions of the country, but they gradually grew toward the Missouri River under the enterprise of the fur companies. M. K. Armstrong, of Yankton, who visited Pembina in 1867, leading a surveying expedition to estab- lish the seventh guide meridian, found old Peter Hayden at Pembina, who claimed to be seventy-six years old, and came over to the Hudson's Bay Terri- tory in 1810, and made a settlement at or near Pembina in 1821, upon a parcel of land where he found an abandoned church building in a dilapidated condition. In 1840, Rev. Father Balcourt built a chapel at Pembina. At this time there were quite a number of French Canadian settlers, and also several bands of Chippewa Indians in that region. In 1843, the well known Commodore Kittson, who was connected for a time with the fur companies and afterwards a famous steamboat owner on the waters of Red River, established a mercantile house at Pembina.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 16

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1198

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198