Fifty Years In The Northwest Part 89

Minnesota was early visited by this scourge of the eastern world. It was brought up the river on the crowded steamers and created the utmost consternation, and even panic. No one on board the Royal Arch, May, 1853, can forget the dreadful scenes upon this boat. The first case occurred at Galena, that of a child, and the next at La Crosse, that of a woman, who was put ash.o.r.e in a dying condition twenty miles above. From thence to St. Paul the boat was a floating hospital, and thirteen corpses lay under a canvas on the lower deck.

Notwithstanding the ghastly freight carried by the steamer, and its sick and dying pa.s.sengers in the cabin above, kind hearts sympathized and kind hands were extended to help; and the dead were buried and every thing possible was done for the sick and suffering survivors, many of whom died after being carried ash.o.r.e at St. Paul. What these good Samaritans did was at the risk of their own lives, and more than one, among them Henry P. Pratt, editor of the St. Paul _Minnesotian_, sickened and died from infection caught by ministering to the stricken ones.

DECREE OF CITIZENs.h.i.+P.

The first naturalization papers on record in Minnesota are somewhat unique, and for that reason worthy of preservation, and are herewith presented _et literatim_:

DECREE OF CITIZENs.h.i.+P.

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN, ST. CROIX COUNTY.

I, William Willim, an alien by birth, aged twenty-six years, do hereby, upon my oath, make known that I was born in the county of Hereford, in the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, on the twenty-sixth day of June, A. D. 1821; that I emigrated from the kingdom aforesaid, and landed in New York, in the state of New York, on the first day of October, 1838; that I was at that time a minor aged seventeen years, and that I have since that time resided in the United States of America; that it is my _bona fide_ intention to become a citizen of the United States, to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity which I, in anywise, owe to any foreign power, potentate, state or sovereignty whatever, and more particularly all allegiance and fidelity which I, in anywise, owe to Victoria, queen of Great Britain, of whom I have heretofore been a subject, and, further that I do not possess any hereditary t.i.tle, or belong to any of the order of n.o.bility in the kingdom from whence I came; so help me G.o.d.

WILLIAM WILLIM.

Sworn and subscribed to before me on this eighteenth day of June, 1847, in open court.

JOSEPH R. BROWN, _Clerk of District Court of St. Croix County, Wisconsin Territory._

Another oath, such as is now administered, to support the const.i.tution of the United States, was signed and attested in like manner.

BURNING OF THE INTERNATIONAL HOTEL.

On a clear, cold night in February, 1869, the International Hotel, located at the corner of Seventh and Jackson streets, took fire and was speedily consumed. The alarm was sounded at two o'clock in the morning. The hotel was crowded with boarders, among whom were many members of the legislature, then in session, and their families. The writer occupied a room on the second floor and was among the first aroused. Hastily seizing my trunk I hurried down stairs and returned to a.s.sist others, but was stopped by the smoke at the entrance. The guests of the house were pouring from every outlet. A group of ladies had escaped to the sidewalk, partly clad, some with bare feet. Ladders were placed to the windows to save those who had failed to escape in the hallway. Senators C. A. Gilman and Seagrave Smith, with their wives, were rescued in this manner. Many diverting circ.u.mstances occurred ill.u.s.trative of nonchalance, coolness and daring, as well as of bewilderment and panic.

Senator Armstrong tried in vain to throw his trunk from a window in which it was wedged fast and was obliged to leave it to the flames.

Judge Meeker came out of the house carrying his clothing upon his arm, having a shawl wrapped round his head, and bewailing the loss of the maps and charts of Meeker's dam. Seagrave Smith tarried too long searching for a senate bill, and narrowly escaped sharing the fate of the bill. Many of the guests escaped in their night clothing, and carrying their clothing with them completed their toilet standing in the snow in the light of the burning building. Considering the rapidity of the fire, and the hour at which it occurred it seemed marvelous that no lives were lost.

GRa.s.sHOPPERS.

Minnesota has been visited at intervals by that scourge of some of the Western States, gra.s.shoppers. The first visitation was from the Selkirk (now Manitoba) settlement, about 1838-9. The pests are said to have accompanied some of the early immigrants from Selkirk who came down to the reservation about Fort Snelling. They made yearly visitations and threatened to become a serious obstacle to the settlement of the country. Some seasons they proved quite destructive.

In 1874-5-6-7 the state legislature made appropriations to relieve those suffering from their ravages in the western and southwestern parts of the State. There were also large private contributions to the relief fund. One of the acts pa.s.sed at the session of 1877 appropriated $100,000 for bounties to pay for the destruction of gra.s.shoppers and their eggs. Towns.h.i.+ps and villages were also authorized to levy taxes for the destruction of the common enemy, and $75,000 was appropriated to furnish seed grain for those who had lost their crops, and $5,000 was voted for a common relief fund. Special prayers were offered for an abatement of the scourge. In 1877, when the gra.s.shopper appeared in myriads again, the governor appointed a day of fasting and prayer for riddance from the calamity. From some unknown cause the gra.s.shoppers disappeared, and have not since returned in such numbers as to prove a plague. These gra.s.shoppers were a species known as the Rocky Mountain locusts.

ANCIENT MOUNDS.

The valley of the Mississippi and the valleys of its tributary streams abound with mounds of various sizes and fas.h.i.+ons, circular, oval or oblong, serpentine and sometimes irregular in outline, and all works of intelligence and design, wrought by some ancient people for purposes now not fully known. It is probable, however, that some were used as places of defense, others were built for sacrificial or religious purposes, others for sepulture, and others still may be the remains of dwellings. Most of them contain relics, coins or implements made of sh.e.l.ls, of flints and in some instances of baked earthenware, and lastly human remains. These relics are not necessarily of cotemporaneous date, and many of them are comparatively modern. Such mounds were used for burial places long after their original builders had pa.s.sed away.

That they are very ancient is unquestionable. They outdate the traditions of the Indians who inhabited this country at the date of its discovery, while the most ancient remains taken from them indicate as their builders a people widely different from the present aborigines, and possessed of arts unknown to them. Conjecture points to a race from the South, probably the Aztecs, as the mound builders.

This race was exterminated in some way, or driven away by some stronger tribes, who may in turn have given place to our present race of Indians. A full description of these ancient works would require volumes; we can therefore allude only to a few that may be considered typical specimens of their cla.s.s.

At Prairie Village, now Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 1836, the writer saw a mound six feet high, representing a tortoise, the head, feet and tail being still distinctly traceable. Many mounds exist at Prairie du Chien, some quite large, and of varying shape, some representing inclosures or fortifications, with gateways or openings. These are located on the high bluffs east of the Prairie. Many of these, very distinct in the early days, are now almost obliterated by the plowshare of the farmer and the spade of the relic hunter.

The builders of the ancient mounds certainly exercised great taste in their location, as they are generally found in pleasant localities, on gra.s.sy plateaus or elevated lands, and by the sh.o.r.es of lakes and streams. Some, originally built on plains, have since been overgrown with trees. In some cases trees of immense size have been found growing even on the summit of the mounds. The most notable mounds of the St. Croix valley are at Vasa village, in Marine towns.h.i.+p, Was.h.i.+ngton county, Minnesota, and in the neighborhood of Osceola Mills, Polk county, Wisconsin. We append notes of a survey of the latter, made in 1870. They are sixteen in number and we mention only the most remarkable.

No. 1 is of circular form, 20 feet in height and 60 in diameter. Trees 2 feet in diameter are found on this mound. Mound No. 2 has a diameter of 90 feet, and was originally 30 feet high; at present but 20. This mound is also of circular formation. Mound No. 3 is circular in form, 36 feet in diameter and 2 feet high. Mound No. 4 is circular, 40 feet in diameter and 5 feet high. Mound No. 5 is oblong and 4060 feet in dimensions, and 4 feet high. The largest and finest of these mounds have been nearly destroyed by the encroachments of the road makers.

These mounds are located two miles north of Osceola, on Close creek.

Alanson Thompson made a homestead of the land on which they are situated, and built his home immediately in the rear of the two larger mounds. His garden included many of the mounds.

Mr. T. H. Lewis, of St. Paul, made a later survey of these ancient mounds. In the group north of the creek and near the school house, which he cla.s.sifies as the upper group, he finds ninety-six well developed mounds, and some of them of peculiar shape and great interest. In the group south of the creek, which he calls the lower group, he finds forty-nine mounds, a total of one hundred and forty-five in the two groups; at least five times as many as has been supposed to be there.

But one of the mounds is an effigy mound, and this is not clearly defined, plowing in the field having disturbed the outline of the effigy. The most of them contain bones, as has long been known, and Mr. Lewis finds in them sh.e.l.l relics, which are rarely found in any mounds; also pottery, and beads made from sh.e.l.ls.

Another peculiar mound not included in this description may be found on the bluff overlooking the St. Croix, not far from the Close creek series of mounds. It is over one hundred feet in length and serpentine in form, one end being enlarged to represent the head. There are also fine specimens of ancient mounds on Chisago lake, near Centre City and Chisago City.

The subject is a fascinating one to the archaeologist, but it behooves him to make haste with his investigations, as these marvelous works are rapidly disappearing, being dug over by the irresponsible and unscientific relic hunter, or worn down by the plow, or carted away for loose earth to mend a roadway or fill a sinkhole.

LAKE ITASCA.

The Mississippi appropriately takes its name at the outlet of Lake Itasca, its reputed source. This lake, although known to the fur company adventurers of the eighteenth, and the early part of the nineteenth centuries, received the name Itasca in 1832 from Schoolcraft and Boutwell. A complete account of the naming of the lake will be found in the biography of Rev. W. T. Boutwell, attached to the history of Pine county in this work. Itasca lies in range 36, towns.h.i.+ps 133 and 134, and is about three miles in length by one and one-half in width. Its t.i.tle to the distinction of being the true source of the Mississippi has been frequently called in question.

There are tributary lakes of smaller size lying near it, connected with it by small streams, barely navigable for birch canoes. Elk lake, a body of water three-fourths of a mile in length, lying south, is connected with it by a stream 25 links wide and 30 rods in length.

Elk lake has an influent stream 2 miles in length, which drains a swamp lying south.

Another stream from the south, two miles in length, flows into Itasca, and has its source in a lake one-fourth of a mile long. As this lake has not been named in any original or later towns.h.i.+p map, United States Surveyor Chandler, Chief Clerk B. C. Baldwin and the writer, in January, 1887, agreed to give it the name of Boutwell, in honor of the devoted missionary who visited Itasca in company with Schoolcraft in 1832. This lake is really the source of the Mississippi, though from its small size is not likely to receive general recognition as such.

Lakes Itasca, Elk and Boutwell lie in range 36, towns.h.i.+p 143, west of the 5th princ.i.p.al meridian, United States survey, lat.i.tude 47.10, and longitude 95.30 west from Greenwich United States survey. The lands bordering on and adjacent to these lakes were surveyed in October, 1875, by Edwin Hall, and lie in Beltrami county, which was named after an Italian traveler who visited this section in 1823.

Hon. B. C. Baldwin, a member of the Minnesota const.i.tutional convention of 1857, told the writer that when surveying government lands in 1874, he discovered in range 37, towns.h.i.+p 143, six miles west of Itasca, a lake two and a half miles in length, without inlet or outlet, the waters apparently rising, as trees were standing in the water near the sh.o.r.e and submerged at least eight feet. Small lakes of similar character were also discovered. Twelve miles west of Itasca the tributaries of the Red River of the North have their source.

The latest claim made as to the discovery of the source of the Missispippi is that of Capt. Willard Glazier, who, in 1881, claimed to have discovered Elk lake as the source of the Mississippi. The Minnesota State Historical Society promptly repudiated his a.s.sumptions, and protested against affixing to Elk lake the name Glazier, as the captain was in no sense a discoverer, either of the lake or its connections with Itasca, the adjacent lands having been surveyed in 1875, and partially covered with claims in 1881. With far more justice we might claim for Lake Boutwell, a more remote lake, the distinguished honor of being the true source of the Mississippi.

COPPER MINING ON THE ST. CROIX.

As early as 1842, a company, composed of the Harris brothers and others, of Galena, Illinois, prospected in the Upper St. Croix valley for copper. Their superintendent, Mr. Crosby, located a mineral permit at Pine island, one mile above St. Croix Falls, where he found rich specimens. Citizens and operatives at St. Croix Mills gave liberally to aid the enterprise, but Mr. Crosby's health having failed he left expecting to spend the winter in Cuba, but sickened and died at New Orleans, and the mining enterprise of the Galena company was never resumed.

In 1847, a Boston company, composed of Caleb Cus.h.i.+ng, Robert Rantoul, Dexter and Harrington, and others, of Boston, and some other capitalists, located a mineral permit one mile square at St. Croix Falls, and another of the same dimensions on the St. Croix and Kettle River rapids. This proved to be a speculative scheme of Boston and Was.h.i.+ngton capitalists and politicians.

In 1848, David Dale Owen, a prominent geologist, made an exploration of the territory now included in Minnesota and Wisconsin and published a report. His work being done at the order of the government, he was accompanied by a corps of scientific men, and had time and means to make thorough investigations. He reported that the trap rock ranges of the St. Croix, a continuation of the copper ranges of Superior, are rich in specimens of copper. These ranges crop out every few miles in a southwesterly direction from Superior. The most southerly are those known as the Dalles of the St. Croix, including as a part the Franconia ledge three miles below. The Kanabec river range crops out near Chengwatana. The Kettle river range crosses the St. Croix further north.

In 1865 the Minnesota legislature placed the sum of $1,000 in the hands of N. C. D. Taylor for the purpose of examining and reporting the different mineral prospects on the St. Croix and its tributaries.

He reported the Kettle river veins as being very promising. Mr. Taylor sunk a shaft in a locality in Taylor's Falls to a depth of forty feet and found excellent indications of copper, and some good specimens. He reports most of the rock in the St. Croix valley above Taylor's Falls to be of the different kinds of trap rock, with belts of conglomerate running through them in a direction from northeast to southwest, the conglomerate being most abundant on the Kettle river. There are limited patches of sandstone which in places contain marine sh.e.l.ls, but no rock in place. Prof. Hall says of the Taylor's Falls vein that it is a very distinct vein and shows quite equal to the early showing of many of the best paying mines of Superior. He regards the Kettle river vein as one of the most promising yet found in the country.

Other veins have been discovered in the vicinity of the St. Croix Dalles. Considerable money has been spent in prospecting and development, but more capital is needed than miners have yet been able to obtain.

Taylor's Falls Copper Mining Company was organized Dec. 15, 1874, W.

H. C. Folsom, president; Geo. W. Seymour, secretary; Levi W. Folsom, treasurer; David A. Caneday, mining agent. They sunk a shaft one hundred and thirty feet deep and found good indications. This mine was worked in 1875-76, at an expenditure of over $5,000. Excellent specimens were found but not in paying quant.i.ties. The rock increased in richness as the shaft sunk in depth. The work was suspended for want, of material aid. There is but little doubt that as the valley becomes known and populated, that as wealth increases, the mineral resources of the country are better known, mining will become a prominent and profitable industry.

REMINISCENCES OF REV. JULIUS S. WEBBER.[K]

We reached Stillwater, June 3, 1850, and moved into the Elfelt house on North Hill. The village contained at that time about thirty dwellings, two hotels, three stores, and a number of saloons. Three religious denominations held services each Sabbath, the missionaries in charge alternating through the successive Sabbaths, and supporting in addition a union prayer meeting and Sabbath-school, of which Capt.

Wm. Holcomb was the first superintendent. The meetings were held in a school house on Third street.