Fifty Years In The Northwest Part 29

Thriving villages are growing up along these lines of railroad, and the county is being rapidly settled. It was organized as a county in February, 1854, from territory originally belonging successively to Crawford, St. Croix and La Pointe counties.

The first election was held Nov. 7, 1854. The following officers were elected: County judge, J. A. Markland; sheriff, Asa A. Parker; district attorney, R. R. Nelson; register of deeds, F. A. Whitaker; county treasurer, Bradley Salter; supervisors, Frank Perfect, Chas. H.

Kimball and Alexander Paul; supervisors' clerk, C. H. Kingsbury; superintendent of schools, J. J. Post; coroner, R. H. Barrett. Judge J. A. Markland held the first term of court, June 4, 1854. The first deed filed in the county was from William Herbert to Geo. L. Becker, being a warranty in section 14, towns.h.i.+p 47, range 14. Consideration, $250. The deed was recorded February, 1854. At the organization of the county, Superior was made the county seat.

SUPERIOR CITY.

The site is on a beautiful plateau originally covered with pine, lying on the southern sh.o.r.e of Lake Superior, separated, however, from it by the waters of Superior bay, a fine natural harbor shut in from the lake by tongues of land called Minnesota and Wisconsin Points. These approach within a half mile of each other, the s.p.a.ce thus left being the original outlet of the bay. Between Wisconsin Point and the main land lie the waters of Allouez bay, extending in length a distance of three miles, and in width in its widest part about one mile. The Nemadji river flows into Superior bay near its outlet. The bay of St.

Louis finds an outlet into Superior bay between Rice's Point and a tongue of land a mile or more in length, projecting from the Wisconsin main land. Minnesota Point, which separates Superior bay from Superior lake, is a strip of land seven miles in length, with an average width of seven hundred feet, beautifully fringed with pines. At the outlet of Superior bay two piers have been constructed, extending into the lake three-fourths of a mile. On one of these piers is a forty-day lighthouse, constructed by the government. The bay forms one of the finest harbors in the world.

The plateau on which Superior City is located is about thirty-five feet above the waters of the bay. The site occupies the triangular s.p.a.ce lying between St. Louis bay and the bays of Allouez and Superior, and has at least eleven miles of frontage on these bays, along which numerous docks and piers have been built and projected, some of them costing as much as $200,000. The government surveys were made in 1853, by George R. Stuntz. In July of the same year J.

Addison Bulmer made a location on Allouez Point. In August, John T.

Morgan settled at the mouth of the Nemadji river. They were followed by Wm. H. Newton, George E. Nettleton, Benjamin Thompson, Col. D. A.

Robertson, R. R. Nelson, and D. A. J. Baker, of St. Paul. In September the Roy brothers and ---- Cadott came. The same autumn Frank Roy, Abraham Emmuit and Louis Souvenard made pre-emptions of frontage on Superior bay. Several buildings were erected. Mr. Roy and others give to Col. Robertson the honor of building the first house in Superior.

It is still standing.

In the fall of 1853 mineral explorations were made, and mines were worked during the ensuing winter. An Indian trail was widened and a road opened into the St. Croix valley by which supplies were brought from St. Paul. This road was not wide enough for wagons, but was traveled during the winter in dog sledges and on snowshoes. The winter following the opening of the road, Messrs. Robertson, Nelson and Baker went over it to St. Paul on foot. In the spring of 1854 Newton and others made additional surveys of the town site of Superior City, and the same was recorded Nov. 6, 1854. Settlers came in rapidly. O. K.

Hall built a hotel. At the organization of Douglas county, in 1854, Superior was made the county seat, the proprietors donating twelve acres of land for county buildings. Two lots for every eight blocks were donated for schools, twenty lots for churches, and a square for a park. A weekly mail to and from St. Paul was established in July of that year. A saw mill was erected. A land office was established at Superior that year. Rev. David Brooks, a pioneer Methodist minister, preached the first sermon, using a carpenter's shop as an audience room.

An old settlers' a.s.sociation was organized September, 1855, known as the Fond du Lac Historical Society. Its officers were: R. B. Carlton, president; W. H. Norton and E. F. Ely, vice presidents; E. W. Perry, secretary. The Superior _Chronicle_ issued its first number June 12, 1855. It was the first newspaper published at the head of Lake Superior. Ashton & Wise were the publishers. The second number contained the announcement of the opening of the Ste. Marie ca.n.a.l and the pa.s.sage through it of the first boat, the steamer Illinois. It contained also the astonis.h.i.+ng announcement, from the St. Anthony _Express_, that a salt lake had been discovered by W. H. Ingersoll, one hundred and fifty miles west of St. Cloud. The salt was said to be of good quality, and in such quant.i.ty that it could be gathered by the bushel. Large beds of coal had also been discovered near the lake.

The _Chronicle_ was discontinued in 1863 and succeeded by the Superior _Gazette_ in 1864. The _Gazette_ has been succeeded by the Superior _Times_, now edited by J. Lute, Thomas Bardon, proprietor.

Superior City has pa.s.sed through periods of depression as well as of advancement. At an early period speculators were lured to the spot by the manifest advantages it presented for the building of a great city.

The favorable site attracted attention throughout the Union. Wealthy men and men prominent in the political history of the country invested largely. Amongst these we find the names of W. W. Corcoran, of Was.h.i.+ngton; Robert J. Walker, of New York; G. W. Ca.s.s, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Horace S. Walbridge, of Toledo, Ohio; the Breckenridges of Kentucky; the Rice brothers, of St. Paul; and James Stinson, of Chicago. With the influence of these names, and the means furnished, the new city had a rapid, if not healthy growth. The prosperity was short lived. The adjacent country was not sufficiently developed, the s.h.i.+pping interests languished, and those who had been attracted hither by dreams of becoming suddenly rich, were discouraged and moved away, till, in 1858, the city was half deserted. The period of depression continued through the Civil War, and for years afterward, until, by the building of railroads and the consequent development of the country, the claims of Superior as a centre of trade were again acknowledged, and the tide of emigration was turned back. With Allouez, Superior and Duluth bays for its harbor, with its railroads already built, building or projected, its enterprising people are ready to contest with Duluth for the sovereignty of the Unsalted Seas.

Superior, being a combination of Old Superior and West Superior under one munic.i.p.ality, was organized as a village Aug. 27, 1887, and held her first village election Sept. 24, 1887, with a population of 6,000 people. It was organized with the following officers: President, L. F.

Johnston; trustees, Wm. Munro, Neil Smith, L. G. Moran, A. Lederman, A. A. Cross, and Howard Thomas.

WEST SUPERIOR

Was platted in 1884. The first buildings were erected in October of the same year. The city has now a population of 3,000. It has excellent graded schools, under the supervision of Prof. G. Glen Williams. The Catholics, Presbyterians and Congregationalists have church buildings, and the Methodists are about to build. A hotel is in process of building that will cost when completed $100,000. West Superior is supplied with water works, the electric light, extensive coal docks and elevators, and has three newspapers, the Superior _Inter-Ocean_, established June 3, 1886; the West Superior _News_, established June 24, 1886; and the _Sunday Morning Call_, established July, 1887.

THE BARDON BROTHERS.--James, Thomas and John A. Bardon came early to Superior City and upheld her doubtful fortunes in the days of trial, never losing faith in her prospective greatness. They have not toiled and watched and waited in vain. The expected railways have been built; the improved harbor, with dredge boats, well built piers and lighthouse, has been completed. Surveys and terminal approaches of other roads insure the commercial prosperity of the city. Thomas has for some years been a resident of Ashland, Wisconsin.

WM. H. NEWTON, an early citizen of Superior City, is among those who have never lost faith in its future prosperity, believing the head of the lake to be the natural terminus of European trade and a centre of American commerce. He is an engineer, surveyor, real estate dealer, and is interested in some of the converging lines of railroad at Superior City.

SOLON H. CLOUGH.--Mr. Clough was born in Madison county, New York, Aug. 31, 1828; was educated at Fulton Academy, since known as Falley Seminary, Oswego county, New York. He attended for a short time Hamilton College, New York, studied law, and was admitted to the bar at Syracuse in 1851. He came to Hudson, Wisconsin, in the fall of 1857; in 1861 was elected mayor of Hudson; in 1864, judge of the Eleventh circuit, and removed to Osceola. In 1869 he removed to Superior City; in 1876 returned to Hudson, but removed again to Superior in 1881, where he still resides. He was re-elected circuit judge in 1870, and in 1882 was appointed by Gov. Rusk to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Barron. At the conclusion of his term he was re-elected for the ensuing term. Judge Clough was married in 1851 to Kate Taylor, of New York.

VINCENT ROY, a brother of Peter Roy, well known among the pioneers of the Northwest, was born in Fort Francis in 1825; came to La Pointe in 1839; attended school a few terms, and engaged in the fur trade. In 1854 he came to Superior, where he still resides, and is an active, enterprising merchant.

D. GEORGE MORRISON, a son of William Morrison, the discoverer of the source of the Mississippi, resides at Superior City, where he has served as register of deeds for Douglas county since 1856, a period of thirty-one years. He came to Superior an 1854.

AUGUST ZACHAU came to Superior in 1852, from Chicago, where he had been for three years, working at the carpenter's trade. He was then twenty-seven years of age, and a Prussian by birth. He was engaged by the Superior Town Site Company to superintend the building improvements going on at what is now the East End. When he came up, no Ste. Marie ca.n.a.l had been dug, and a portage was necessary between Lakes Superior and Huron, involving a change in the line of vessels.

He built the first hotel in Superior, the old Pioneer House, which burned in 1857, and also the present Nicollet House, which was built of logs, cut on what is now Tower Slip. He also built the Quebec pier, the first dock ever built at the head of Lake Superior. He also a.s.sisted in cutting the old government trail through to the St. Croix river. He was an active partic.i.p.ant in the defense of the town site people in their battles with the claim jumping pre-emptioners, who had settled on the lands adjoining, and who filed contests on much of the town site as soon as the plats were returned to the land office at Willow River, now known as Hudson. In cutting the sixty miles of trail to the St. Croix, every able-bodied man turned out, except enough to guard the homes and cut kindling wood. The axemen ground their axes at Fond du Lac, the only trading station of importance at that time on the St. Louis river. He pre-empted, in the interest of his fellow sufferers on the town site, eighty acres of land, now part of Superior. He has always led a quiet, laborious life; now runs a small general store at the East End, and does a little general contracting for ties and bridge timbers and dock piling. He has a family of five boys and one girl now living, all in Superior.

Among the first settlers were Judge Hiram Hayes, ---- Ritchie and ---- Gates.

CHAPTER X.

PINE COUNTY.

Prior to the organization of Minnesota Territory, in 1849, Pine county was included within the limits of St. Croix county, Wisconsin. Until the organization of Chisago county, in 1852, it was within the limits of Ramsey, and from thence until 1854, within the limits of Chisago, when it was organized under its present name. Until 1858 it included the territory of the present counties of Kanabec and Carlton. It is bounded on the north by Carlton county, on the east by the St. Croix river and the state line, and on the west by Aitkin and Kanabec counties. It is well watered by the St. Croix, Kettle and Kanabec rivers with their numerous tributaries. There are many fine lakes within its borders. The finest of these are Cross, Pokegama, Pine and Sturgeon lakes. This county was originally heavily timbered with pine, from which fact it derived its name. Though immense quant.i.ties have been removed, the supply is still great enough to make this region a lumberman's paradise for years to come.

The facilities for floating logs to the St. Croix are scarce equaled elsewhere. Since 1837 the Kanabec river has been a princ.i.p.al feeder to the lumber trade of the St. Croix valley. In some of the forests a new growth has succeeded the old, and should the land be not otherwise used, the lumberman may yet reap successive harvests in periods ranging from eight to fifteen years. Much of the land in this county is well adapted for agriculture. The soil is chiefly a sandy loam with clay subsoil. Much of the county will eventually become a good grazing and cereal growing region. The southern towns.h.i.+ps are heavily timbered with hardwood and are rapidly being converted into good wheat farms. A large quant.i.ty of cordwood, piles and ties is annually marketed by means of the railroad. Kanabec river is navigable from Chengwatana and Pine City to Brunswick, in Kanabec county. The same steamboat that since 1881 has navigated the Kanabec, also makes trips, six miles up the Rice and Pokegama rivers. The first crops raised in the county, except those raised by traders and missionaries, were raised on the Greeley farm, Kanabec river, near the western limits of the county, by Royal C. Gray.

At the organization of the county, Herman Trott, George W. Staples and Royal C. Gray were appointed commissioners. The county was attached for judicial purposes to Chisago until 1872, at which date the county seat, located at Chengwatana by legislative enactment, was changed by a popular vote to Pine City. The first district court was held in October, 1872, Judge Crosby, presiding; John D. Wilc.o.x, clerk; Edward Jackson, sheriff.

The first marriage license, issued in 1872, was to John Kelsey and Mary Hoffman. The first board of county officers, after the removal of the county seat, were: Commissioners, Hiram Brackett, George Goodwin and Edward Jackson; auditor, Adolph Munch; register of deeds, Don Willard; county attorney, treasurer and superintendent of schools, John D. Wilc.o.x. The first article recorded by the register of Pine county was a military land warrant, No. 12702, in the name of Prudence Rockwell, located by William Orrin Baker upon the southeast quarter of section 32, towns.h.i.+p 38, range 20, subject to forty days' pre-emption, dated Stillwater, June 19, 1855; T. M. Fullerton, register. a.s.signed, June 14, 1856, to Enos Jones. The second record is of a warranty deed from John F. Bradford to W. A. Van Slyke, of Ramsey county, of the west half of the northwest quarter of section 30, towns.h.i.+p 39, range 19, and the west half of the northwest quarter of the same section.

The finances of the county were in good condition until 1872, from which time, owing to heavy expenditures for new roads, with possibly injudicious management, and two defalcations of county auditors, considerable embarra.s.sment ensued. In 1876 the state legislature bonded the county indebtedness of $10,000, in ten year bonds, at ten per cent interest. These bonds were readily received by the creditors, and the county is now free from debt. During the last year a bridge 800 feet long was built across the Kanabec river near Pine City, at a cost of $3,350, for which the State appropriated $1,500 and the county $1,850.

The Lake Superior & Mississippi railroad was completed to Kanabec river in 1868, and in 1869 extended northwest to the county line. The building of this road was speedily followed by the erection of numerous mills along its line, a list of which is appended, with the very remarkable statistics of the losses by fire, from which but four of these mills were exempt:

North Branch, Swenson & Co., flour mill; burned; loss, $8,000.

Rush City, Taylor & Co., capacity 1,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $3,000.

Rock Creek, Edgerton & Co., capacity 2,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $8,000; rebuilt.

Rock Creek, Strong & Co., capacity 1,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $1,500; rebuilt.

Rock Creek, Long & Co., capacity 1,000,000 feet yearly; removed.

Pine City, Ferson & Co., capacity 10,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $50,000; rebuilt.

Pine City, Ferson & Co., capacity 10,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $25,000; rebuilt.

Pine City, Munch & Burrows, stave mill; burned; loss, $10,000.

Pine City, Brackett & Co., capacity 3,000,000 feet yearly.

Mission Creek, Taylor & Co., capacity 3,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $12,500; rebuilt.

Mission Creek, Taylor & Co., capacity 3,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $12,500.

Hinckley, Grant & Co., capacity 1,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $3,000.

Hinckley, McKean & Butler, capacity 3,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $7,000; rebuilt.

Miller Station, Robie & Co., s.h.i.+ngle mill; burned; loss, $3,000.

Kettle River, S. S. Griggs & Co., capacity 3,000,000 feet yearly; never operated; loss, $5,000.

Moose Lake, McArthur & Co., capacity 2,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $30,000.