Opening…

Preface

At the age of nineteen years, I landed on the banks of the Upper Mississippi, pitching my tent at Prairie du Chien, then (1836) a military post known as Fort Crawford. I kept memoranda of my various changes, and of many of the events transpiring. Subsequently, not, however, with any intention of publishing them in book form until 1876, when, reflecting that fifty years spent amidst the early and first white settlements, and continuing till the period of civilization and prosperity, itemized by an observer and participant in the stirring scenes and incidents depicted, might furnish material for an interesting volume, valuable to those who should come after me, I concluded to gather up the items and compile them in a convenient form.

As a matter of interest to personal friends, and as also tending to throw additional light upon my relation to the events here narrated, I have prefixed an account of my own early life for the nineteen years preceding my removal to the West, thus giving to the work a somewhat autobiographical form. It may be claimed that a work thus written in the form of a life history of a single individual, with observations from his own personal standpoint, will be more connected, clear and systematic in its narration of events than if it were written impersonally.

The period included in these sketches is one of remarkable transitions, and, reaching backward, in the liberty accorded to the historian, to the time of the first explorations by the Jesuits, the first English, French and American traders, is a period of transformation and progress that has been paralleled only on the shores of the New World. We have the transition from barbarism to civilization; we have the subjugation of the wilderness by the first settlers; the organization of territorial and state governments; an era of progress from the rude habits of the pioneer and trapper, to the culture and refinement of civilized states; from the wilderness, yet unmapped, and traversed only by the hardy pioneer in birch barks or dog sledges, to the cultivated fields, cobwebbed by railways and streams furrowed by steamers. It is something to have witnessed a part, even, of this wonderful transformation, and it is a privilege and a pleasure to record, even in part, its history.

I have quoted from the most correct histories within my reach, but the greater part of my work, or of that pertaining to the fifty years just passed, has been written from personal observation and from information obtained directly by interview with, or by written communications from, persons identified in some way with the history of the country. To those persons who have so freely and generously assisted me in the collection of material for this work, I hereby express my thanks. I have relied sparingly on traditions, and, where I have used them, have referred to them as such.

Introduction

While genealogical tables are of interest chiefly to the families and individuals whose names are therein preserved, I still deem it not amiss to insert here a brief account of my ancestry. Among the emigrants from England to the New World in 1638, came John Foulsham, then twenty-three or twenty-four years of age, and his wife, to whom he had been married about a year and a half. They came from Hingham, England, to Hingham, Mass., with a colony that probably named the settlement in loving remembrance of the town they had left. They came on account of certain ecclesiastical troubles; their rector, with whom they sympathized, having torn down the altar rails and leveled the altar, an act of irreverence that called down upon them the wrath of their superior, Bishop Wren, and resulted in rector and people selling out their real estate at half its value and emigrating to America. John received a grant of land consisting of four acres and built himself a house, the frame being constructed of sawed oak timber. This house, built in 1640, stood until 1875, two hundred and thirty-five years, when it was taken down and manufactured into canes and chairs, which were distributed as relics to the American descendants of the family. The family, however, had increased so greatly that the supply was not equal to the demand.

The wife of John Foulsham was Mary Gilman. From this couple the American Folsoms and their allies from marriages with the female descendants of the family have sprung. The ancestors of John Foulsham may be traced backward a period of near six hundred years, and many of the family have honorable mention in English history. The earliest mention is concerning John Foulsham of Foulsham, prior of a Carmelite monastery in Norwich, and "præses provincialis" of all England. This Foulsham is spoken of in Bayle's catalogue of eminent worthies as "no mean proficient in controversial theology, knowing how, by means of syllogystic tricks, to turn white into black and men into donkeys." He died in the great plague at Norwich in 1348.

A certain John de Foulsham is spoken of in Blomefield's History of Norfolk as an "eloquent, unflinching opponent of the corruptions of the times." It is possible that this may be the Carmelite prior above mentioned, though the prefix de leaves the matter somewhat in doubt.

As to the original derivation of the family name, Hon. George Folsom, of Philadelphia, in one of the manuscripts left by him, says: "It arose upon the adoption of surnames in England, from the town of Foulsham, a village in the county of Norfolk, six or eight miles north of Hingham, in which county the family was seated for many centuries, possessing estates in fifteen different places." Thus John de, or John of Foulsham, became John Foulsham.

The orthography and pronunciation of the name have varied in the family itself, as well as among those writing and pronouncing it. The first Anglo-American bearing the name spelled it "Foulsham." His son, Deacon John, spelled it "Fullsam" in 1709, and it is signed "Foullsam" in his last will--1715. In one instance, in the Hingham town records, it is spelled "Fulsham," but always afterward, "Foulsham." In the Exeter records it is written uniformly "Folsom" with but one exception, when it is written by the town clerk "Foulshame." In the records of the first parish, Haverhill, Massachusetts, it is written "Foulsham," "Foulsam," "Folsham" and "Fulsom." Originally it was doubtless spelled "Foulshame," its etymological significance being the fowls' home, a breeding place or mart. It was probably at first written with a hyphen, as Fouls-hame, but the final syllable was eventually shortened. Everywhere it is now written Folsom by those having the name, and is pronounced like wholesome.

The characteristics of the family have been quite uniform. Far as known they were a religious family, and prominent as such in both Catholic and Protestant circles, with a strong disposition toward dissent from the established order of things. Thus John de Foulsham wrote a treatise quite at variance with the doctrines of the church, advocating the marriage of priests. John Foulsham, the Anglo-American, left England on account of his dissent, preferring a home in the wilderness with freedom to worship God, to dwelling under the rule of a haughty and tyrannical bishop. Many of the family espoused the doctrines of Whitfield. Many of them became Baptists, becoming such at a time when the Baptists were most unpopular, and afterward becoming Free Will Baptists, in which communion more of the family may to-day be found than in any other.

The occupations of the family were mostly, in the early days, mechanical. Many were joiners and millwrights. The children and grandchildren were farmers, landholders and lumbermen. Of the many who removed to Maine, after the Revolution, most engaged in lumbering, but turned their attention also to milling and storekeeping.

The family have also shown a military tendency, and during the various wars visited upon the country since the early colonial times, this family has borne its full share of the dangers, toils and expense.

My father, Jeremiah Folsom, was born in Tamworth, New Hampshire, Sept. 16, 1780, and was married to Octavia Howe, April 5, 1805. My mother was born in Machias, Maine, Oct. 12, 1786. My father was a prominent business man, and was engaged in shipping and mercantile pursuits, he owning vessels that plied from St. Johns to Machias and other American ports. To facilitate his business, St. Johns was his home four years, during which time he was associated with William Henry Carman. This temporary residence and business association account for my being born on British soil, and for the names by which I was christened. According to the record in the old family Bible, I was born at St. Johns, New Brunswick, June 22, 1817. When I was six months old my parents moved to Bangor, Maine, thence to Foxcroft, Maine, thence to Ascot, Lower Canada.

When I was five years old my parents moved to Tamworth, New Hampshire. Young as I was, I am still able to recall events that occurred while I lived in Canada. I remember falling into a well and being badly bruised. I remember also an adventure with a bear. My parents had gone to church, leaving me at home, greatly against my will. I attempted to follow, but missed the road and wandered off into a wood, perhaps three miles away. When my parents returned they were much alarmed, and parties immediately went in pursuit. When I knew I was lost I set up a vigorous screaming, which had the effect of attracting attention from two very different parties. The first was a huge bear in quest of food, and doubtless delighted at the prospect before him. The second was one of the rescuing parties in quest of the lost boy. Both simultaneously approached the screaming youngster and Bruin fought stubbornly for his prey, but was vanquished by the clubs of my rescuers, and I was carried home in triumph. I do not clearly recall all the incidents of this scene, and, strangely enough, do not remember seeing the bear. Perhaps the terror of being lost drove out every other impression. An excuse for the narration of this apparently trifling incident may be found in the fact that but for the prompt arrival of the rescuing party, this history would never have been written.

When I was ten years of age my parents removed to Bloomfield, Maine. While in Tamworth I had excellent opportunities of attending school, which I improved to the utmost. After leaving Tamworth my school privileges were well nigh ended, as I never received from that time more than six months' schooling. My father followed lumbering on the Kennebec river. During the first winter in Maine, he took me to the logging camp as camp boy. During the second winter he hired me to Matthew and Lewis Dunbar as a cook for their wood camp. I cooked for six men and received five dollars a month. I was used very kindly by the Dunbars, but that winter in the woods seemed a long, long winter. The only book in camp was the Bible. There were, however, newspapers and playing cards. In the spring my father used the fifteen dollars received for my three months' work to purchase a cow. I served the Dunbars the third winter, as cook, for six dollars a month, and worked the ensuing summer on farms at about twenty-five cents per day. During the fourth winter I worked for the Dunbars and Timothy Snow at seven dollars per month, and the summer following worked on a farm for Benjamin Cayford at seven dollars. Cayford was a merciless tyrant, and sometimes compelled his men to work in the field till nine o'clock at night. These details of wages paid and work done, uninteresting in themselves, serve to show the value of a boy's work (I was not yet fifteen) and what was expected of the average boy, for mine was no exceptional case nor was my father more exacting than others in his station in life. He was in poor health, and had a large family of boys. We were eight in number, and of these I was one of the most robust and able to assist in the support of the family.

This year I persuaded my father to sell me my time, which amounted to five years, which he reluctantly did, accepting two hundred and fifty dollars as an equivalent. It was my ambition to go West. Horace Greeley had not uttered the talismanic words, "Go West, young man," but I believed that by going West I would be better able to advance my own interests and assist my parents. My father signed the necessary paper relinquishing my time, which was printed in the Skowhegan Clarion. From this time until I was nineteen years old I worked on the river and on farms, worked continuously and beyond my strength. I worked another summer for Cayford, but have no pleasant recollections of him, for on his farm I was sadly overworked, being often called to work before sunrise and kept at work after sunset. I worked two winters cooking in the woods for Capt. Asa Steward, of Bloomfield, one of the best men I ever served, a kind hearted, honest Christian. He gave me good counsel and good wages besides. In the fall of 1835 I went into the woods to work for Capt. Eb. Snow, of Madison. Like Cayford, he was a merciless tyrant and abusive to his men. I left his camp before my engagement closed, not being able to endure his abuse longer. This is the only time in which I failed to keep a labor engagement. I finished the winter with Capt. Asa Steward, but my eyes became so inflamed from the smoke of the camp that I was obliged to abandon cooking.

During this winter occurred an incident that came near having a serious and even fatal termination. There were three of us, Simeon Goodrich, Jimmie Able and myself, who went down the Kennebec to the Forks, a distance of twelve miles from camp. A deep, damp snow had fallen the night previous, and through this snow, reaching above our knees, we trudged wearily till Able gave out. We carried him a short distance, but becoming exhausted ourselves, laid him down in the snow. To remain with him would be to imperil the lives of all; by hurrying on we might be able to send a party to bring him in. We carefully made for him a bed of fir boughs and placed loose garments over him and under him, and as he was sick, weak and faint, gave him a draught of liquid opodeldoc, and leaving the bottle with him, hurried on. We traveled the last mile through an opening. Snow drifted deeply. We dragged our bodies through the drifts in the direction of a glimmering light, which proved to be Sturgis' hotel, which we reached at 11 o'clock P. M. A team was sent back immediately for the lost Able by a road of which we knew nothing. The rescuing party met him trudging along with all his baggage. The opodeldoc had revived him, and he had traveled a full mile when he met the rescuing party. At two o'clock the team returned bringing the lost wayfarer.

Another adventure terminated more disastrously than this. In the spring of 1835 I was employed in taking logs across Moosehead lake. The logs were in booms, and were moved by a capstan and rope. This was before the days of steamboats, and the moving of the booms was no light task. On this occasion a gale of wind struck us and drifted us across the lake. We threw out an anchor, hoping to check the course of the boom and swing it into Cowan's bay. In one of our throws the anchor tripped, or caught fast, and suddenly tightened the line. Our whole crew were in an instant hurled headlong. Some were thrown into the water. One man (Butler) had his ribs broken. All were more or less injured. The capstan went overboard. The old boom swung on and on, and, passing Spencer's bay, broke and went to pieces on the shore. The logs were with great difficulty regathered, but were finally brought to the outlet of the lake July 4th, the last raft of the season.

After river driving in the spring of 1835, I went to the Penobscot river and found employment at twenty dollars a month at East Great Works, building a dam. John Mills, our superintendent, was a good man. There was a lyceum here, the first I ever attended. In December I returned to the Kennebec, and in the spring of 1836 went to Dead river to drive, but an attack of the measles and general ill health, with symptoms of pulmonary derangement, compelled me to abandon the work. I had lived nine years on the Kennebec, years of hard labor and exertion beyond my strength, and in that time had earned enough to pay my father two hundred and fifty dollars. I had been able to purchase a small library, and had two hundred dollars in cash to defray my expenses to the West.

REMINISCENCES.--He that leaves the home of his youth for a strange land carries with him memories, pleasant to recall, of scenes and incidents, the influence of which he feels to the latest hour of life. There are some things he can not forget. They may not be an essential part of his own life history, but still they have found a place in his mind and seem a part of himself, and he recurs to them again and again with ever increasing delight. There are other things, may be, not so pleasant to dwell upon, which still have a place in his memory and may be profitably recalled. No one who has ever lived in Maine can forget its dark pine forests, its rugged hills, its rushing streams, cold and clear as crystal, its broad lakes, the abundant game of its forests and the fish in its waters. The Minnesota and Wisconsin pioneers, who with the author of this book claim Maine as an early home, will not object to the insertion in this chapter of a few of these reminiscences.

MOOSEHEAD LAKE.--My first visit to Moosehead lake was in the early winter of 1834. At that time it was still in the wilderness, only two settlers having found their way to its shores. We were going with a six ox team to a camp on the Brasua and our road led us across the frozen lake. Emerging from a beech and maple grove on the margin near Haskell's, our sled plunged downward, and in a moment we found ourselves on the gray ice of the lake, with a wonderful panorama spread out before us. The distant islands and the shores, hilly and mountainous, stood out plainly between the winter sky and the ice covered lake. The mirage added its finishing touches to the picture, increasing the brightness and apparent size of distant objects, or lending them brilliant hues, the whole scene sparkling in the frosty sunlit air, making a vision of beauty that could not fade. On we trudged over the ice, the sled creaking, the ice emitting a roaring sound, not unlike the discharge of a park of artillery, sounds produced by the expansion of the ice. We trudged on past islands and craggy, rock-bound shores, passed Burnt Jacket, Squaw and Moxey mountains in the east, Lily and Spencer bays at the southeast, Misery and other mountains in the west, while far away to the north of east towered white old Katahdin. Before us loomed up the flint rock Kinneo, its perpendicular face fronting west, on the lake; at the base a beautiful maple interval extending toward Spencer bay.

The following spring our boom lay wind-bound at the base of Kinneo, and we seized the opportunity of climbing the vast pile of flinty rocks composing it, and obtained thence a view of unparalleled beauty, including the broad, bright lake, fairy islands, mountains and hills and vast stretches of pine forests. The tourist might seek far and wide, vainly, for a landscape rivaling this.

MOOSE HUNTING.--The lake and surrounding country offer unrivaled attractions to the sportsman. The lake abounds in fish, of which the lake trout is the most abundant in number and delicious in flavor. Specimens are frequently taken weighing from ten to fifteen pounds. The forests at that time abounded in wild animals, chief of which was the moose, the largest and the homeliest of the deer family. With his long, narrow head, small eyes, donkey-like ears, pendant lips, the upper one curling like a small proboscis, with his high shoulders and giraffe-like hips, with his short, round body, long and clumsy legs, he is as distinguished for his want of grace and comeliness as the red deer is for its presence. No animal is better adapted for its own home and mode of life. Their heavy coat of hair adapts them to high latitudes. With their curved upper lip they take hold of the branches of the trees, and with their strong teeth and paws they are able to peel off the tender bark of saplings and small trees. The moose, when attacked, is fierce, resolute, defiant, and defends himself in a masterly manner, striking with his fore legs with such precision that the hunter is obliged to keep at a respectful distance. The male moose wears a remarkable pair of horns of annual growth, to which each year a prong is added. The home of the moose is the northern part of the North Temperate Zone.

Moose hunting is a healthy though laborious pastime. The hunter must be an expert, and it requires years of practice to become skillful. He must build his camp in the wilderness, packing thither his food, blankets, camp utensils and gun. With his pack of dogs he starts out in search of a moose yard. This is generally in some well timbered district. The snow in winter is generally from three to six feet deep, but the moose has broken paths through this to facilitate his movements through the forest, and here he roams about in fancied security, browsing on the young shrubs, but the hunter finds his hiding place. In such case he conceals himself in the snow near one of these paths and waits patiently till the moose passes, when he fires upon him. If the moose is killed at once the hunter waits patiently in his hiding place till another and another comes up to share a like fate. If the moose is only wounded he starts off as rapidly through the snow as his long legs will carry him, pursued by the hunter and his dogs. The hunter has all the advantages of the position, being mounted on snowshoes, thus being able to move with comparative swiftness, while the moose plunges heavily through the snow, and at last, weakened by loss of blood, he is overtaken and easily killed.

MOUNT BIGELOW.--This is a noble, grand, historical mountain, situated on the south side of Dead river, in Franklin county. For years it had been my strong desire to make the ascent, and in May, 1833, the desire was gratified. With six others, I left camp, and by evening reached Green's hotel, where we obtained lodgings for the evening. At early dawn, having supplied ourselves with lunch, tin cup and hatchet, we began the ascent on the northeast side. We soon passed the thrifty timber and aided our ascent of the craggy sides of the mountain by clinging to the shrubs that found roothold in the crevices of the rocks. It may not be amiss to say that we rested, that we rested frequently, for mountain climbing is no light work for those unaccustomed to it. While toiling wearily upward we found ourselves enveloped in mist, or a cloud, from which we soon emerged to find the heavens above us clear and bright, while leaden clouds shut out the landscape below. At twelve o'clock, noon, we were on the summit. By this time the clouds had been dispersed. The air was clear and cold and beneath us lay, as in a beautiful panorama, the lands and lakes of Maine. There are two peaks, about half a mile apart, between which is a valley and a small lake. From the highest of these peaks the view was magnificent. In the far north we imagined we saw Canada. The vast, northern expanse was all unoccupied save by a few farms at the foot of the mountain, and by a few camps of lumbermen, hunters and trappers. Looking to the northeast, we saw in the blue distance, glittering with snow drifts, Mount Katahdin. A little north of the divide line to Katahdin lay Moosehead lake, the largest, most beautiful lake in Maine.

At this season of the year the snow had disappeared from the valleys and hills, but the summits of the mountains were still white. In all directions the scene was grand and inspiring. We could trace the Kennebec river in its windings to the sea and fancied we could see in the dim distance the blue Atlantic. To the southwest mountains seemed piled on mountains, while here and there in intermediate vales bright lakes reflected the blue of the upper deep. In this direction there were farms, but they looked like mere dots on the face of the earth. Lake Umbagog lay coiled in the shade of distant mountains in the southwest. We fancied that we could see the ragged crest of the white mountain still further beyond. The scene had also its historical associations. Along the base of this mountain, on the northwestern side, ere his name had been sullied by the foulest treason in our country's history, Benedict Arnold bravely led the Colonial troops in the campaign against Canada. With him, as an aid, was Col. Bigelow, whose name is given to the mountain. The gallant little army halted on the banks of Dead river at the base of the mountain, and made their camp. While the army was resting at this camp Lieut. Col. Bigelow ascended the mountain and planted his country's flag upon the highest peak, doubtless the first white man who made the ascent, and the mountain is his monument to-day. Around the site of the camp was planted the colony of Flagstaff.

While we were gazing on the magnificent scene, musing upon its varied beauties and recalling its historical associations, the sun set, and reluctantly we set out on our return, a descent the more perilous because it was growing dark. Extreme caution was necessary; nevertheless we made good headway, as we found ourselves sometimes sliding and even rolling down the path that we had ascended with so much difficulty in the forenoon. It was long after nightfall that, tired and hungry, we reached Wyman's hotel on the banks of Dead river.

LUMBERING IN MAINE.--The practical lumberman did not usually start his teams for the pineries until snowfall and the freezing of the lakes and rivers. The first thing was to select a place for operations. This was done in the open season. When the winter had fairly set in the lumberman, with his ox teams, generally six oxen to a sled, the sleds laden with camp plunder, would start for the pineries. The slow ox teams would consume many days making the journey. The crew of men employed for the winter generally met the teams in camp. The snow would be cleared away for the camp, and a fire built. The cook would prepare a supper of fried pork, fritters or pancakes, tea, syrup and New England apple sauce, the crew meanwhile cutting boughs, wood, etc., and preparing for permanent camp. Supper over, the cattle were tied to trees and fed. Water was secured for evening use only. A glowing fire would be kept up, around which the crew would gather to spend the evening in talking over the adventures of the day, discussing plans for the morrow or singing camp songs. Thus the evening would pass merrily and swiftly. At the hour for retiring parties of two would spread their blankets on a couch of fir or cedar boughs, and lie down to rest. Next morning the cook would rise at four o'clock to prepare breakfast, which over, as soon as it was light enough the crew would commence the work of the day. Every man goes to his assigned duties, the boss in charge having the general oversight.

The life of a lumberman is one of exposure to the elements, yet it is not necessarily unfriendly to the development of character. With a well ordered camp and gentlemanly crew the winter may pass away pleasantly, and the young man engaged in the comparatively hard toil of the camp, may, with books and papers and cheerful converse with the more thoughtful of his elders, improve the long evenings spent around the camp fire. Many a Maine boy has received here the greater part of his training for the duties of after life.

Sunday was usually occupied in reading, singing, and doing some of the lighter work of camp, such as repairing sleds, shoeing oxen and making axe helves or visiting neighboring camps. It was a day of rest only so far as the heavier work of the camp was suspended. Sanctuary privileges there were none. The work would often close in the sunny days of March. The men would mostly depart for home. A few would remain to drive the logs with the first water from the melting of the snows late in April.

Driving logs in the rapid waters of Maine is hazardous work. Scarcely a day passes without imminent risk to life and limb of the hardy and venturesome men engaged in the work of breaking log landings and jams, and running boats. Men are exposed to wet and cold from dawn till dark. This work requires active and vigorous men, constitutionally fitted and carefully trained to the work. They are usually sociable, lively and wide awake, these qualities enabling them to endure, and even to enjoy, the life of hardship which they lead, and to which they become so accustomed that they are unwilling to leave it until worn out by its inevitable hardship.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

W. H. C. Folsom Frontispiece

James S. Anderson opp 55

Martin Mower 60

John McKusick opp 68

Edward White Durant 74

William M. Blanding 114

Reuben F. Little 121

Oliver Wendell Holmes Hospital 157

John Comstock opp 170

Hans B. Warner opp 207

Rev. Wm. T. Boutwell 273

Devil's Chair 301

Frank N. Peterson 320

Rev. E. E. Edwards 348

Smith Ellison 351

Isaac Staples opp 413

Jacob Bean 416

Louis Hospes 418

Fort Snelling 498

William D. Washburn opp 517

John S. Pillsbury opp 528

St. Anthony Falls 531

Birdseye View of St. Paul opp 536

Henry H. Sibley opp 553

Alex. Ramsey opp 555

Henry M. Rice opp 558

Edmund Rice opp 560

Wm. Rainey Marshall opp 568

Wm. H. Fisher 571

John B. Sanborn opp 577

H. P. Hall 589

Hon. G. W. Le Duc 594

Lucius F. Hubbard opp 597

Home of the Author 614

State Seal 658

Seal of Old Settlers Association 732

Introduction

BIOGRAPHICAL. Genealogy of the American Folsoms VII

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. Parentage IX Time and Place of Birth IX Earliest Recollections IX Removal to Bloomfield, Maine X First Essay at Logging X Commencing Life XI Lost in the Snow XI Adventure on Moosehead Lake XII On the Penobscot XII Reminiscences of Maine XIII Moosehead Lake XIII Ascent of Kinneo Mountain XIV Moose Hunting XIV Mount Bigelow XV Lumbering in Maine XVI

Chapter I

GOING WEST. 1 Lakes Huron and Michigan 3 Chicago and Milwaukee 5 On Foot to Galena 6 The Northwestern Territory 7 Arrival at Dubuque 7 Reminiscences of Dubuque 8 Arrival at Prairie du Chien 9 Early History of Prairie du Chien 9 Ancient Document 10 Forts Shelby--McKay--Crawford 11 First Commissioners at Prairie du Chien 11 Organization of Crawford County 12 Indian Troubles 12 Running the Gauntlet 13 Fort Crawford Robbed 13 Early Justice 14 A Southward Journey 15 New Orleans, Vicksburg 15 Return to Prairie du Chien 16 Privations 16 A Perilous Journey 17 Return to Maine--Mountains of New Hampshire 17 Marriage 18 Prairie du Chien in 1837 18 American Residents 19

BIOGRAPHIES. James Duane Doty 19 James H. Lockwood 20 Indian Troubles 21 John S. Lockwood 22 Samuel Gilbert 23 Michael Brisbois 23 Pierre La Point 24 Joseph Rolette 24 Hercules Dousman 24 Rev. David Lowry 25 Chief Justice Charles Dunn 25 Rev. Alfred Brunson 26 Ira Brunson 27 John H. Folsom 28 Ezekiel Tainter 28 Judge Wyram Knowlton 29 Robert Lester 29 Thomas Pendleton Burnett 30 General Henry Dodge 30 General George W. Jones 31 S. G. and S. L. Tainter, John Thomas 31

II. STILLWATER AND ST. CROIX COUNTY

From Prairie du Chien to Stillwater 32 Stillwater in 1845 33 St. Croix County 33 First Settlement in 1838 34 Dismemberment of St. Croix Valley from Crawford County 34 Judge Irwin's Court in 1840 35 Events in 1840, First Commissioners' Meeting 35 Election Precincts in 1841 36 Early History of Stillwater 37 The First Saw Mill 37 Copy of Agreement of Mill Company 38 Agreement of Land Claims 40 Bateau Voyage up the St. Croix 41 Indian Drunks 42 Skiff Voyage to Prairie du Chien 42 Mail Carrying 43 Claim and Mill at Arcola 43 Stillwater in 1846, Events 44 Overland Trip to Prairie du Chien 44 Return, Adventure 45 A Pioneer Cat 45 Stillwater in 1847 46 Territorial Election 46 Arrest of Nodin and Ne-she-ke-o-ge-ma 46 Visit to Sunrise, Connor's Camp 47 Murder of Henry Rust 47 Funeral, Indignation Meeting 48 First District Court in Stillwater 48 Nodin and Ne-she-ke-o-ge-ma Acquitted 49 Steamer War Eagle and Raft 49 Society Ball in Stillwater 49 Stillwater in 1848 50

III. BIOGRAPHIES

Joseph Renshaw Brown 52 Paul Carli 53 Dr. Christopher Carli 53 Lydia Ann Carli 54 Phineas Lawrence 54 Jacob Fisher 55 James S. Anderson 55 Emanuel D. Farmer 56 Col. John Greely 56 Mrs. Hannah Greely 57 Elam Greely 57 Himan Greely 57 Aquilla Greely 58 Elias McKean 58 Calvin F. Leach 58 Socrates Nelson 58 Mrs. Socrates Nelson 59 Edward Blake 59 Walter R Vail 59 John E Mower 60 Martin Mower 61 William Willim 61 Albert Harris 61 Cornelius Lyman 62 David B Loomis 62 William E Cove 63 John Smith 63 John Morgan 63 Anson Northrup 63 Robert Kennedy 64 Harvey Wilson 65 Andrew Jackson Short 65 James D McComb 65 William Rutherford 66 Albion Masterman 66 Joseph N Masterman 66 Mahlon Black 66 Morton S Wilkinson 67 William Stanchfield 67 Thomas Ramsdell 68 Charles Macey 68 Jonathan E McKusick 68 John McKusick 68 William McKusick 69 Noah McKusick 69 Royal McKusick 69 Ivory E McKusick 69 Charles E Leonard 69 Daniel McLean 70 Robert Simpson 70 William H Hooper 70 James H Spencer 71 John T Blackburn 71 Joseph T Blackburn 71 Horace McKinstry 71 Seth M Sawyer 71 Henry Sawyer 72 Alvah D Heaton 72 John McKenzie 72 George McKenzie 72 Henry Kattenberg 72 Julius F Brunswick 73 Henry McLean 73 Hugh Burns 73 Sylvanus Trask 73 Ariel Eldridge 73 Edward White Durant 74 Oliver Parsons 75 Albert Stimson 75 Abraham Van Voorhees 75 Michael E Owens 76 Joseph Bonin 77 Marcel Gagnon 77 Sebastian Marty 77 John Marty 77 Adam Marty 77 Michael McHale 77 George Watson 78 Rev Eleazer A Greenleaf 78 J B Covey 78 John Shaesby 78 John S Proctor 78 Barron Proctor 79 Henry Westing 79 Thomas Dunn 79 Charles J Gardiner 79 Samuel Staples 79 Josiah Staples 80 Joel M Darling 80 Early River Pilots 80 Joe Perro 80 James McPhail 80 John Cormack 81 John Hanford 81 John Leach 81 Stephen B Hanks 81 Samuel S Hanks 81

IV. POLK COUNTY

Description and History 82 Franklin Steele, the First Pioneer 82 His Account of the Settlement 83 The St Croix Falls Lumbering Company 83 Organization and History 83 St Croix River, Origin of Name 84 Treaty and Purchase of 1838 85 History of Polk County 85 County Seat located at St. Croix Falls 86 First Election County Officers 86 First Happenings 87 The Liquor Traffic 87 Melancholy Results 88 Death of Hall and Livingston 88 Indian "Jamboree." 88 Frontier Justice 89 Balsam Lake Murders 89 Execution of an Indian 89 Population of St. Croix Falls in 1848 90 Natural Language 90 Drowning of H. H. Perkins 90 A Quailtown Murder 90 Mineral Permits 91 Marriage under Difficulties 91 An Indian Scare 92 The First Fire Canoe 92 Mill Building 92 More Indian Murders 93 Indian Battle of Stillwater 96 The First Loggers 96 The First Rafting 97 An Indian Payment 98 Indian Dancing and Theft 99 Other Thefts 99 Hard Times 100 Puzzled Indians, "Ugh! Ugh!" 101 Mrs. Worth and Muckatice 101

V. POLK COUNTY--CONTINUED

BIOGRAPHIES. Gov. William Holcombe 103 William S. Hungerford 104 Caleb Cushing 104 Judge Henry D. Barron 105 George W. Brownell 107 Col. Robert C. Murphy 108 Edward Worth 109 Mrs. Mary C. Worth 109 Maurice M. Samuels 109 Joseph B. Churchill 110 John McLean 110 Gilman Jewell 110 Elisha Creech 110 James W. McGlothlin 110 Andrew L. Tuttle 110 John Weymouth 111 B. W. Reynolds 111 Augustus Gaylord 111 James D. Reymert 111 William J. Vincent 112 Thompson Brothers 112 William Amery 112 Lewis Barlow 113 Levi W. Stratton 113 Elma M. Blanding 113 Blanding Family 113 Frederick G. Bartlett 114 Michael Field 115 Alden 115 Rev. A. B. Peabody 115 V. M. Babcock 117 Apple River 117 Balsam Lake 117 Beaver 118 Black Brook 118 Clam Falls 119 Daniel F. Smith 119 Clayton 120 Reuben F. Little 120 Clear Lake 122 Pineville 123 Frank M. Nye 123 Eureka 123 Charles Nevers 123 Farmington 124 Harmon Crandall 125 Samuel Wall 125 William Ramsey 125 Hiram R. Nason 126 Joel F. Nason 126 John McAdams 126 Charles Tea 126 Garfield 126 Georgetown 127 A Double Murder 127 George P. Anderson 128 Laketown 128 Lincoln 128 William Wilson 129 Loraine 129 William W. Gallespie 130 Luck 130 William H. Foster 130 Milltown 130 Patrick Lillis 131 Osceola 131 Scenery 132 First Happenings 132 Change of Name 133 Osceola Village 134 Daniel Mears 134 Nelson McCarty 134 William O. Mahony 135 Richard Arnold 135 William Kent, Sr. 135 Robert Kent 135 Andrew Kent 135 William, James, Thomas, and John Kent 136 Samuel Close 136 Ebenezer Ayres 136 Dr. Carmi P. Garlick 137 John S. Godfrey 137 William A. Talboys 137 Charles H. Staples 138 J. W. Peake 138 George Wilson 138 Samuel B. Dresser 138 Frederic A. Dresser 139 Oscar A. Clark 139 Oscar F. Knapp 139 Mrs. Elisabeth B. Hayes 140 Cyrus G. Bradley 140 W. Hale 141 Edgar C. Treadwell 141 St. Croix Falls 141 St. Croix Falls Village 141 West Sweden 142 Sterling 142 Dr. Samuel Deneen 143 William W. Trimmer 143 Arnold Densmore 143

VI. ST. CROIX COUNTY

Organization, 1840 144 Division, 1848 144 County Seat Located at Buena Vista 145 First Election 145 Division of the County, 1853 146 Present Limits 146 General Description 146 Monument Rock 147 Towns and Date of Organization 148 St. Croix County Agricultural Society 148 Pomona Grange 148 Agricultural Statistics 148 Manufactures 149 St. Croix Poor Farm 149 First Tax Roll of County, 1848 149 Hudson City 152 Original Claimants 153 First Survey, etc. 153 First Deed Recorded 154 City Government 155 Mayors of the City 155 City Schools 155 Military Institute 156 Mills and Manufactories 156 Banks 156 Oliver Wendell Holmes Hospital 157 Water Works 158 Hotels, the Great Fire, 1866 158 Social and Benevolent Organizations 159

BIOGRAPHIES. Louis Massey 159 Peter Bouchea 160 William Steets 160 Capt. John B. Page 160 Dr. Philip Aldrich 160 The Nobles Family 161 James Purinton 161 Ammah Andrews 162 James Walstow 162 James Sanders 162 J. W. Stone 162 Joseph Bowron 163 Moses Perin 163 John O. Henning 163 Moses S. Gibson 164 Col. James Hughes 164 Daniel Anderson 165 Alfred Day 165 Dr. Otis Hoyt 165 S. S. N. Fuller 166 Miles H. Van Meter 166 Philip B. Jewell 166 John Tobin 166 Horace A. Taylor 167 Jeremiah Whaley 167 Simon Hunt 167 John S. Moffatt 167 James H. Childs 168 William Dwelley 168 James M. Fulton 168 Marcus A. Fulton 168 David C. Fulton 168 N. S. Holden 168 William H. Semmes 169 Sterling Jones 169 D. R. Bailey 169 Henry C. Baker 169 Mert Herrick 169 D. A. Baldwin 170 John Comstock 170 Lucius P. Wetherby 170 John C. Spooner 170 Thomas Porter 171 Herman L. Humphrey 171 Theodore Cogswell 172 Frank P. Catlin 172 Charles Y. Denniston 173 A. E. Jefferson 173 Samuel C. Symonds 173 John E. Glover 173 Lemuel North 173 Edgar Nye 173 William T. Price 173 E. B. Bundy 174

TOWNS AND BIOGRAPHIES. Baldwin 174 Baldwin Village 174 Woodville Village 175 Cady 175 Cylon 175 Eau Galle 176 Emerald 176 Erin Prairie 176 Forest 177 Glenwood 177 Hammond 177 Hammond Village 178 John Thayer 178 Rev. William Egbert 178 Hudson 178 James Kelly 178 Daniel Coit 179 James Virtue 179 Theodore M. Bradley 179 William Dailey 179 Robert and Wm. McDiarmid 179 William Martin 179 Paschal Aldrich 180 Kinnikinic 180 Duncan McGregor 180 W. B. and James A. Mapes 181 Pleasant Valley 182 Richmond 182 Boardman Village 183 Gridley Village 183 New Richmond Village 183 New Richmond City 183 Bank, High School 184 Benjamin B.C. Foster 184 Robert Philbrick 185 Linden Coombs 185 Eben Quinby 185 Lewis Oaks 185 Henry Russell 185 Joseph D. Johnson 185 Joel Bartlett 185 Francis W. Bartlett 186 George C. Hough 186 Silas Staples 186 Dr. Henry Murdock 187 Steven N. Hawkins 187 Rush River 188 Somerset 188 Somerset Village 189 Gen. Samuel Harriman 189 St. Joseph 190 Houlton Village 191 Burkhardt Village 191 Springfield 191 Hersey Village 191 Wilson Village 192 Stanton 192 Star Prairie 192 Huntington Village 192 Star Prairie Village 192 Hon. R. K. Fay 192 Troy 193 James Chinnock 193 William L. Perrin 193 Warren 194 James Hill 194 Village Plats 195

VII. PIERCE COUNTY

Descriptive 196 History, First Events 197 County Seat Changed to Ellsworth 198 Railroads 199 Miscellaneous Statistics 199 Village Plats 199 Organization of Towns 200 Clifton 200 George W. McMurphy 201 Osborne Strahl 201 Charles B. Cox 201 Ephraim Harnsberger 201 Diamond Bluff 202 Capt. John Paine 202 John Day 202 Sarah A. Vance 203 Allen R. Wilson 203 E. S. Coulter 203 James Bamber 203 Jacob Mead 203 Charles Walbridge 203 Charles F. Hoyt 203 Enoch Quinby 203 The First Settler 203 El Paso 204 Ellsworth 205 Ellsworth Village 205 Anthony Huddleston 206 Perry D. Pierce 206 Hans B. Warner 207 Gilman 207 Hartland 208 Isabelle 208 Maiden Rock 209 Christopher L. Taylor 209 Martell 209 Oak Grove 210 Lewis M. Harnsberger 210 Prescott City 210 History 211 Platted in 1857 212 First Official Board 212 Statistics, First Events 212 Churches 212 Fair Grounds 213 Cemetery 213 Destructive Fires 213 Philander Prescott 214 George Schaser 214 William S. Lockwood 215 James Monroe Bailey 215 Adolph Werkman 215 Joseph Manese 215 Hilton Doe 215 Lute A. Taylor 215 John Huitt 216 John M. Rice 216 An Indian Battle 216 River Falls 217 First Happenings 217 Water Powers 217 Schools at River Falls 218 River Falls Academy 218 Churches 219 Associations 219 Bank, Railroad 220 Fires 220 River Falls City, Organization 220 Falls of Kinnikinic 220 The Cave Cabin 221 The Fourth State Normal School 221 Joel Foster 224 Jesse B. Thayer 224 A. D. Andrews 224 Joseph A. Short 225 Prof. Allen H. Weld 225 Allen P. Weld 225 George W. Nichols 225 W. D. Parker 226 William Powell 226 Lyman Powell 226 Nathaniel N. Powell 226 Oliver S. Powell 226 Nils P. Haugen 227 H. L. Wadsworth 227 Rock Elm 227 Salem 227 Spring Lake 228 Trenton 228 Trimbelle 229 M. B. Williams 229 Union 229

VIII. BURNETT, WASHBURN, SAWYER AND BARRON COUNTIES

BURNETT COUNTY. Location and Description 230 Organization 231 Pine Barrens 231 Murders 232 Old Geezhic 233 The First Mission 234 The Chippewas of Wood Lake 236 Grantsburg 237 Canute Anderson 237 The Hickerson Family 238 The Anderson Family 238 Robert A. Doty 238 The Cranberry Marshes 239 WASHBURN COUNTY. Description, Town Organization 240 First Events 240 Shell Lake, Summit Lake 241 First Board of County Officers 241 Shell Lake Lumber Company 241 Sawyer Creek 242 Spooner Station 242 Veazie Village 242 SAWYER COUNTY. Organization, Description 242 County Indebtedness 243 Town of Hayward 243 Village of Hayward 243 First Events, Schools, Churches, etc. 244 Bank, Lumber Company 244 Malcomb Dobie 245 Milton V. Stratton 245 BARRON COUNTY. Description, Organization 245 Turtle Lake, Town and Village 245 Barron, Perley Village 246 Cumberland Village 246 Sprague 246 Comstock and Barronett Villages 247 Charles Simeon Taylor 247

IX. ASHLAND, BAYFIELD AND DOUGLAS COUNTIES

ASHLAND COUNTY. History, Location, Description 248 Isles of the Apostles 248 Claude Allouez at Madeline Island 249 Early History of La Pointe 249 Remarkable Epitaph 249 La Pointe County Election 249 John W. Bell 250 Ashland 250 History, First Events 250 Asaph Whittlesey 251 J. P. T. Haskell 251 G. S. Vaughn 251 Dr. Edwin Ellis 252 Martin Beaser 252 Hon. Sam S. Fifield 252 BAYFIELD COUNTY. Location and History 253 Bayfield Village 253 Washburn, Drummond, etc. 254 DOUGLAS COUNTY. Description and History 254 First Election 254 Superior City 255 History 255 Early Speculation 256 Period of Depression 257 West Superior 258 The Bardon Brothers 258 William H. Newton 258 Judge Solon H. Clough 258 Vincent Roy 259 D. George Morrison 259 August Zachau 259

X. PINE COUNTY

History 260 Description 260 First Events 261 Finances, Railroads 261 Losses by Fire 262 Pokegama Lake and Mission 262 Thomas Conner's Trading Post 262 Presbyterian Mission 263 Mushk-de-winini 263 Battle of Pokegama 264 Cannibalism 265 A Noble Chief 267 Frank Confessions 267 A Cowardly Deed 268 An Unjust Accusation 268 Indian Magnanimity 269 Rev. Frederic Ayer 269 Rev. William T. Boutwell 272 Discovery of Itasca 274 Mrs. Hester C. Boutwell 276 Chengwatana 276 First Settlers 276 Chengwatana Village Platted 277 Chengwatana Town Organized 277 Louis Ayd 277 Duane Porter 277 S. A. Hutchinson 277 Hinckley, Town of 278 Hinckley, Village of 278 James Morrison 278 Sandstone Village and Quarries 279 Wm. H. Grant, Sr. 279 Kettle River, Town of 279 John C. Hanley 280 Mission Creek 280 Pine City, Town of 280 Pine City, Village of 281 Richard G. Robinson 281 Hiram Brackett 281 Randall K. Burrows 281 John S. Ferson 282 Samuel Millet 282 Rock Creek 282 Enoch Horton 282 Royalton 282 Windermere 283 Neshodana, Fortuna, St. John's 283 A Rock Creek Murder 283 Burning of a Jail 283 A Disfigured Family 284 Indian Faith Cure 284 Indian Graves 284 Indian Stoicism 285 Old Batice 285 An Indian Dance 285

XI. KANABEC, ISANTI, AND MILLE LACS COUNTIES

KANABEC COUNTY. History, Boundaries, etc. 286 Description 286 First Settlers, First Election 287 First Events 287 Arthur 288 Mora, Village of 288 Stephen L. Danforth 288 N. H. Danforth 288 Alvah J. Conger 288 Ira Conger 288 Bronson, Village of 288 Brunswick, Town of 289 Brunswick, Village of 289 Ground House City 289 James Pennington 289 George L. Staples 289 Daniel Gordon 290 Grass Lake, Town of 290 ISANTI COUNTY. Organization 290 Cambridge 291 North Branch, Town of 291 Oxford, Town of 291 Stephen Hewson 291 George W. Nesbit 292 Rensselaer Grant 292 MILLE LACS COUNTY. Description 292 Mille Lacs Reservation 293 County Organization in 1860 293 First Election and Officers 293 Milacca, Village of 294 Bridgman, Village of 294 Princeton, Village of 294 Samuel Ross 296 Joseph L. Cater 296 M. V. B. Cater 296 Edwin Allen 296 John H. Allen 296 A. B. Damon 296 C. H. Chadbourne 296

XII. CHISAGO COUNTY

Location, Surface, Scenery 298 Chisago Lake 298 Dalles of the St. Croix 299 Origin of the Formation 300 The Devil's Chair 300 The Wells 301 Settlement and Organization 302 Joe R. Brown to the Front 303 Prehistoric Remains 303 Robinet in Possession 303 Robinet Bought Off, First Improvements 304 Death of B. F. Baker 304 The First Log House Built 305 First Crops Raised 305 First Election 305 Chisago County Named 306 First Commissioners 307 County Seat Located at Taylor's Falls 307 Removed to Centre City 307 Amador 307 First Supervisors 308 Thornton Bishop 308 William Holmes 308 James M. Martin 309 Branch 309 North Branch Station 309 Henry L. Ingalls 310 Mrs. Lavina L. Ingalls 310 Chisago Lake, First Settlers 310 First Crops 311 Swedish Lutheran Church 311 Centre City 312 Andrew Swenson 312 John S. Van Rensselaer 312 Axel Dahliam 313 Nels Nord 313 Join A. Hallberg 314 Charles A. Bush 313 Lars Johan Stark 313 Frank Mobeck 313 Robert Currie 314 Andrew N. Holm 313 Cemetery and other Associations 314 Incorporation 314 Indian Dance 314 Lindstrom Village 314 Daniel Lindstrom 315 Magnus S. Shaleen 315 Chisago City 315 Otto Wallmark 316 Andrew Wallmark 316 Fish Lake 316 Peter Berg 317 Benjamin Franklin 317 Franconia 317 Franconia Village 318 Ansel Smith 318 Henry F. and Leonard P. Day 318 Henry Wills 318 The Clark Brothers 319 David Smith 319 Jonas Lindall 319 William Peaslee 319 Charles Vitalis 319 August J. Anderson 320 Frank N. Peterson 320 Harris 321 Harris Village 321 Lent 322 Nessell 322 Robert Nessell 323 Stephen B. Clark 323 Rush Seba 323 Rush City 323 Thomas Flynn 324 Patrick Flynn 324 Rufus Crocker 324 Frank H. Pratt 324 Voloro D. Eddy 325 F. S. Christianson 326 Shafer 326 Jacob Shafer 326 Peter Wickland 327 Tuver Walmarson 327 Andros Anderson 327 Eric Byland 327 Jacob Peterson 327 Ambrose C. Seavey 327 Sunrise 328 Sunrise Village 328 Kost Village 329 Chippewa 329 Dronthiem 329 Nashua 330 Washington 330 John A. Brown 330 Patten W. Davis 330 James F. Harvey 330 Floyd S. Bates 330 Isaac H. Warner 331 Charles F. Lowe 331 Wells Farr 331 John G. Mold 331 George L. Blood 331 Joel G. Ryder 332 John Dean 332 Taylor's Falls 332 First Post Office and Mail Service 332 Mills, First Events 333 Religious Organizations 333 Bridge Company 334 Banks, Mining Companies 334

XIII. BIOGRAPHICAL

Jesse Taylor 336 Joshua L. Taylor 336 Nathan C. D. Taylor 337 Thomas F. Morton 337 Henry N. Setzer 337 Patrick Fox 338 William F. Colby 339 Oscar Roos 339 Samuel Thomson 339 Susan Thomson Mears 339 George De Attly 340 Jacob Markley 340 John Dobney 340 William Dobney 340 Henry H. Newbury 340 Emil Munch 340 A. M. Wilmarth 341 Lucius K. Stannard 341 James W. Mullen 342 David Caneday 342 George B. Folsom 343 Aaron M. Chase 343 Peter Abear 343 Levi W. Folsom 344 Eddington Knowles 344 Dr. Lucius B. Smith 344 William Comer 344 E. Whiting and Brothers 345 Frederic Tang, Sr. 346 Ward W. Folsom 346 George W. Seymour 346 James A. Woolley 346 Patrick Carroll 347 Joseph Carroll 347 E. E. Edwards 347 Stephen J. Merrill 348 Noah Marcus Humphrey 348 Royal C. Gray 349 John P. Owens 349 Andrew Clendenning 350 Smith Ellison 350 Wyoming--Settlement and Organization 350 Wyoming Village 352 Deer Garden 352 L. O. Tombler 352 Dr. John Woolman Comfort 353 Isaac Markley 353 Joel Wright 353 Randall Wright 353 Frederic Tepel 353 Charles Henry Sauer 354

XIV. WASHINGTON COUNTY

Organization in 1849 355 First Board of Officers 355 Afton 356 Afton Village 357 South Afton 357 Valley Creek 357 St. Mary Village 357 Joseph Haskell 358 Lemuel Bolles 358 Taylor F. Randolph 358 Elijah Bissell 358 Andrew Mackey 358 Baytown Settlement 359 Baytown Village 359 Bangor 360 Middletown 360 South Stillwater 360 Mills, etc. 360 Docks, Factories, Cemeteries 360 Cottage Grove 361 Cottage Grove Village 361 Langdon 362 Joseph W. Furber 362 Samuel W. Furber 362 Theodore Furber 363 James S. Norris 363 Lewis Hill 363 Jacob Moshier 363 William Ferguson 363 John Atkinson 363 Denmark 364 Point Douglas 364 Levi Hertzell 365 Oscar Burris 365 David Hone 365 William B. Dibble 366 George Harris 366 Harley D. White 367 Thomas Hetherington 367 James Shearer 367 Simon Shingledecker 367 Caleb Truax 367 Abraham Truax 368 George W. Campbell 368 Forest Lake, History of 368 Captain Michael Marsh 369 Forest Lake Village 369 Grant, History of 369 Dellwood 370 Eagle City 370 Mahtomedi 370 Wildwood 370 William Elliott 371 Frederick Lamb 371 James Rutherford 371 Jesse H. Soule 371 Lakeland, Description and History of 372 Lakeland Village 372 Henry W. Crosby 373 Reuben H. Sanderson 373 Newton McKusick 373 Captain John Oliver 373 Captain Asa Barlow Green 374 L. A. Huntoon 374 Marine, Origin of Settlement 374 First Settlers 375 The Mill Completed 375 Marine Mills Village 376 First Lawsuit 376 Churches, Improvements 377 Losses by Fire 378 Vasa Village 378 Orange Walker 378 Lewis Walker 379 Samuel Burkelo 379 Asa S. Parker 379 Hiram Berkey 380 George B. Judd 380 James Hale 380 John Holt 380 George Holt 381 William Town 381 Matthias Welshance 381 Benj. T. Otis 382 William Clark 382 James R. Meredith 382 John D. and Thomas E. Ward 382 Samuel Judd 382 Frederic W. Lammers 382 James R. M. Gaskill 382 Newport, Town of 383 Isle Pelee 383 Red Rock 383 Mission at Red Rock 384 Gray Cloud City 385 Newport Village 385 John Holton 385 John A. Ford 385 Daniel Hopkins, Sr. 385 William R. Brown 386 William Fowler 386 Oakdale, Town of 386 Lake Elmo Village 387 E. C. Gray 387 Arthur Stephens 388 Oneka, Town of 388 Oneka Station 389 Shady Side Village 389 Daniel Hopkins, Jr. 389 Stillwater, Town of 389 Oak Park 390 David P. Lyman 390 Henry A. Jackman 390 Frederic J. Curtis 391 David Cover 391 John Parker 391 Woodbury, Town of 391 Jacob Folstrom 392 Alexander McHattie 393 John McHattie 393 The Middleton Family 393 Newington Gilbert 394 Ebenezer Ayers 394

XV. WASHINGTON COUNTY--CONTINUED

CITY OF STILLWATER. Stillwater in 1850 396 The Freshet of 1850 397 A Real Estate Movement 397 Incorporation of Stillwater 398 List of Marshals 398 Post Office, Mail Routes 398 Statistics 399 Hotels 399 City Banks 400 Board of Trade, Water Company 402 Fire Department 402 Gas Light, Telegraph, Telephone 403 Elevator, Express Companies, Bridge 403 Lumbering Interests, Flour Mills 404 Manufactories 404 Building Association 405 Churches, etc. 406 Public Buildings 408 Societies, etc. 409 Cemeteries 410 Agricultural Society 410 State Prison 410 Fires, Bonds, Indebtedness 412 BIOGRAPHIES. Isaac Staples 413 Samuel F. Hersey & Sons 415 Jacob Bean 416 Charles Bean 416 Rudolph Lehmicke 417 Hollis R. Murdock 417 George M. Seymour 417 Frank A. Seymour 418 Louis Hospes 418 David Tozer 419 David Bronson 420 John Maloy 420 Mrs. Susannah Tepass 420 William E. Thorne 420 Edmund J. Butts 420 A. B. Easton 421 Edwin A. Folsom 421 John B. H. Mitchell 421 Joseph Schupp 422 Clifford A. Bennett 422 Samuel Mathews 422 John and James Mathews 423 Peter Jourdain 423 James Rooney 423 James N. Castle 423 Abraham L. Gallespie 423 John C. Gardiner 423 V. C. Seward 424 Ralph Wheeler 424 Edward S. Brown 424 William Lowell 424 Albert Lowell 425 Nelson H. Van Voorhes 425 Andrew J. Van Voorhes 425 Henry C. Van Voorhes 425 C. A. Bromley 426 Charles J. Butler 426 Levi E. Thompson 427 George Davis 427 William M. McCluer 427 John N. Ahl 427 Samuel M. Register 428 J. A. Johnson 428 Gold T. Curtis 429 Harley D. Curtis 429 Francis R. Delano 429 Henry W. Cannon 430 Dwight M. Sabin 430

XVI. STEARNS, ANOKA AND SHERBURNE COUNTIES

STEARNS COUNTY. Organization and History of 432 St. Cloud 434 Newspapers and Post Office 435 Village and City Organization 435 Land Office, Expenditures 435 The St. Cloud Dam, Improvements 436 Banks, Public Buildings 436 St. John's University 437 La Sauk, Town of 438 Peter Schaeler 438 John L. Wilson 438 Charles T. Stearns 438 Henry G. Fillmore 438 Nathaniel Getchell 438 James Keough 438 Loren W. Collins 438 Henry C. Waite 439 Gen. S. B. Lowry 439 A. and Joseph Edelbrock 439 John Rengel 440 Louis A. Evans 440 Ambrose Freeman 440 Nathan F. Barnes 440 Nehemiah P. Clark 441 Oscar E. Garrison 441 Charles A. Gilman 441 Other Citizens 442 ANOKA COUNTY. Organization 442 First Settlers, Commissioners 443 Anoka, Town of 443 Anoka, City of 443 Incorporation 444 Fires, Public Buildings 445 Manufactures, Banks 445 Bethel, Town of 446 Blaine, Town of 446 Burns, Town of 446 Centreville, Town of 446 Centreville Village 446 Columbus, Town of 447 Fridley, Town of 447 John Banfil 448 Grow, Town of 448 Ham Lake, Town of 448 Linwood, Town of 448 L. S. Arnold 449 S. Ridge 449 J. G. Green 449 S. W. Haskell 449 M. M. Ryan 449 Hurley Family 449 Oak Grove, Town of 449 Ramsey, Town of 449 St. Francis, Town of 450 An Indian Riot 450 Jared Benson 451 James C. Frost 451 A. J. McKenney 451 John Henry Batzle 452 John R. Bean 452 A. McC. Fridley 452 William Staples 452 Capt. James Starkey 453 SHERBURNE COUNTY. Description 453 Organization 453 Towns of Sherburne County 454 Villages of Sherburne County 455 Orono, Elk River 455 East St. Cloud 456 Clear Lake 456 Becker 456 Big Lake 456 J. Q. A. Nickerson 456 Henry Bittner 456 Francis DeLille 457 Mrs. F. DeLille 457 Howard M. Atkins 457 B. F. Hildreth 458 Samuel Hayden 458 Joseph Jerome 458 Joshua O. Cater 458 J. F. Bean 458 J. H. Felch 458 James Brady 458 Joshua Briggs 458 Robert Orrock 458 John G. Jamieson 458 A. B. Heath 458 Dr. B. R. Palmer 459 Judge Moses Sherburne 459 Charles F. George 459 Royal George 459 W. L. Babcock 459

XVII. BENTON, MORRISON AND CROW WING COUNTIES

BENTON COUNTY. Description 460 First Settlers, Organization 461 Towns of Benton County 461 Villages 461 Sauk Rapids, Incorporation 461 Dam and Public Buildings 462 The Cyclone of 1886 462 Watab Village 462 Philip Beaupre 462 David Gilman 463 James Beatty 463 Ellis Kling 463 George W. Benedict 464 J. Q. A. Wood 464 William H. Wood 464 Mrs. Wm. H. Wood 465 A. DeLacy Wood 465 P. H. Wood 465 Rev. Sherman Hall 465 Jeremiah Russell 466 Edgar O. Hamlin 467 MORRISON COUNTY. Description 468 History 468 Indian Feuds 469 Organization 469 Winnebago Indiana 470 Towns of Morrison County 471 Little Falls Village 471 Little Falls Water Power 472 Incorporation 473 Schools and Churches 473 Royalton Village 473 Incorporation, First Officers 473 Peter Roy 473 William Sturgis 474 James Fergus 474 Nathan Richardson 475 Moses La Fond 475 O. A. Churchill 475 John M. Kidder 476 Warren Kobe 476 Ola K. Black 476 Ira W. Bouch 476 Robert Russell 476 Peter A. Green 476 Rodolphus D. Kinney 476 John D. Logan 476 CROW WING COUNTY. Description 477 First Settlers 477 Organization 478 Reorganization 478 Murderers Lynched 478 Brainerd 478 First Settlers 479 Northern Pacific Sanitarium 480 The Kindred Dam 480 L. P. White 480 Allen Morrison 480 Charles F. Kindred 481

XVIII. AITKIN, CARLTON, ST. LOUIS, LAKE AND COOK COUNTIES

AITKIN COUNTY. Description 482 Organization, Officers 482 Aitkin Village 483 William A. Aitkin 483 Alfred Aitkin 483 Nathaniel Tibbett 484 CARLTON COUNTY. History and Organization 484 Towns of Carlton County 485 Thomson Village 485 Cloquet Village 485 Moose Lake Station 485 Barnum Station 486 Mahtowa Station 486 North Pacific Junction 486 Francis A. Watkins 486 ST. LOUIS COUNTY. Description 486 Picturesque Scenery 487 Commissioners' Meetings 487 List of Commissioners 488 Duluth, Early History 488 Growth, Population 489 Mills, Warehouses, Shipments 489 Duluth Harbor 490 Fish Commission 490 Fond du Lac Village 491 Oneota Village 492 Clifton Village 492 Portland Village 492 Endion Village 492 Middleton Village 492 Montezuma Village 492 Buchanan Village 492 St. Louis Falls Village 492 Fremont Island 493 Tower 493 George R. Stuntz 494 George E. Stone 494 Charles H. Graves 494 Ozro P. Stearns 494 Lake County. Description 495 Two Harbors 496 COOK COUNTY. History and Organization 496

XIX. HENNEPIN COUNTY

Organization and History, Towns 497 Fort Snelling 497 Treaty of 1837 499 First Land Claims, 1838 499 Cheever's Tower 500 St. Anthony Village Platted 500 First Marriage in the Territory 500 First Courts, School, Post Office 501 Church Organizations 501 The Suspension Bridge Built 502 St. Anthony Incorporated 1855 502 Annexation to Minneapolis, 1872 502 St. Anthony Falls 502 La Salle's Description 502 Minneapolis, Early Settlers 502 Early Land Claims 504 Business Enterprises 505 Mills Erected 505 St. Anthony Water Power Company 506 Minneapolis Named, Land Office 506 Incorporation as a City, 1867 506 Annexation of St. Anthony 506 List of Mayors 507 Water vs. Steam 507 Terrific Explosion at the Flour Mills 508 Suburban Resorts 508 List of Public Buildings 509 Post Office Statistics 510 Lumber Manufactured 511 Bonded Debt, Taxes, Expenses 511 West Minneapolis 511 BIOGRAPHIES. Calvin A. Tuttle 512 Cyrus Aldrich 512 Dr. Alfred E. Ames 514 Dr. Albert A. Ames 514 Jesse Ames 515 Cadwallader C. Washburn 515 William D. Washburn 517 Joseph C. Whitney 517 Charles Hoag 518 Franklin Steele 518 Roswell P. Russell 519 Horatio P. Van Cleve 520 Charlotte O. Van Cleve 520 Ard Godfrey 520 Richard Chute 521 Lucius N. Parker 521 Captain John Rollins 521 John G. Lennon 521 John H. Stevens 522 Caleb D. Dorr 522 Rev. Edward D. Neill 522 John Wensignor 523 Robert H. Hasty 524 Stephen Pratt 524 Capt. John Tapper 524 R. W. Cummings 524 Elias H. Conner 524 C. F. Stimson 524 William Dugas 524 David Gorham 525 Edwin Hedderly 525 Louis Neudeck 525 Andrew J. Foster 525 A. D. Foster 525 Charles E. Vanderburgh 525 Dorillius Morrison 526 H. G. O. Morrison 526 F. R. E. Cornell 526 Gen. A. B. Nettleton 527 Isaac Atwater 527 Rev. David Brooks 527 Prof. Jabez Brooks 527 John S. Pillsbury 528 Henry T. Welles 528 David Blakely 528 William Lochren 528 Eugene M. Wilson 528 R. B. Langdon 529 William M. Bracket 529 Thos. B. and Platt B. Walker 529 Austin H. Young 530 Henry G. Hicks 530 John P. Rea 530 John Martin 520 John Dudley 531

XX. RAMSEY COUNTY

Organization, First Officers 532 St. Paul in 1840, Known as Pig's Eye 532 First Settlers 532 Father Ravoux, 1841 533 Henry Jackson Established a Trading Post 533 Accessions of 1843 533 Accessions of 1844 534 First Deed 534 Accessions of 1845 534 First School 535 Second Deed, Phalen's Tract 535 Accessions of 1846 535 Reminiscences 536 Accessions in 1847 536 St. Paul Platted 537 Miss Bishop's School 537 First Steamboat Line 537 Accessions of 1848 538 Progress in 1849 539 St. Paul Made the Capital of the State 539 The First Newspapers 539 Early Items and Advertisements 540 Pioneers of 1849 540 Some Comparisons 541 Statistics of Population, Schools, Buildings 542 List of Mayors 543 West St. Paul 544 Towns of Ramsey County 544 White Bear 545 First Settlers 545 Indian Battle Ground 546 Town Organization 547 White Bear Lake Village 548 Hotels and Cottages 548 Daniel Getty 549 South St. Paul 549 North St. Paul 550 Population of St Paul 550 Post Office History 551

XXI. BIOGRAPHICAL

Henry Hastings Sibley 553 Alexander Ramsey 556 William H. Forbes 557 Henry M. Rice 558 Edmund Rice 560 Louis Robert 561 Auguste L. Larpenteur 562 William H. Nobles 562 Simeon P. Folsom 563 Jacob W. Bass 563 Benjamin W. Brunson 564 Abram S. and Chas. D. Elfelt 564 D. A. J. Baker 565 Benjamin F. Hoyt 565 John Fletcher Williams 566 Dr. John H. Murphy 566 William H. Tinker 567 George P. Jacobs 567 Lyman Dayton 567 Henry L. Moss 567 William Rainey Marshall 568 David Cooper 569 Bushrod W. Lott 570 W. F. Davidson 570 Wm. H. Fisher 571 Charles H. Oakes 572 C. W. W. Borup 572 Capt. Russell Blakely 573 Rensselaer R. Nelson 573 George L. Becker 574 Aaron Goodrich 575 Nathan Myrick 575 John Melvin Gilman 576 Charles E. Flandrau 576 John B. Sanborn 577 John R. Irvine 579 Horace R. Bigelow 580 Cushman K. Davis 580 S. J. R. McMillan 581 Willis A. Gorman 581 John D. Ludden 582 Elias F. Drake 582 Norman W. Kittson 583 Hascal R. Brill 583 Ward W. Folsom 584 Gordon E. Cole 584 James Smith, Jr. 584 William P. Murray 585 Henry Hale 585 James Gilfillan 585 Charles Duncan Gilfillan 586 Alexander Wilkin 586 Westcott Wilkin 587 S. C. Whitcher 587 T. M. Newson 587 Alvaren Allen 588 Harlan P. Hall 589 Stephen Miller 589

XXII. DAKOTA, GOODHUE, WABASHA AND WINONA COUNTIES

DAKOTA COUNTY. Description 591 Hastings 591 Farmington 591 Ignatius Donnelly 591 Francis M. Crosby 592 G. W. Le Duc 593 GOODHUE COUNTY. Red Wing, Barn Bluff 595 Cannon Falls 595 Indian Burying Ground 596 Hans Mattson 596 Lucius F. Hubbard 597 William Colville 599 Martin S. Chandler 599 Charles McClure 600 Horace B. Wilson 600 WABASHA COUNTY. Wabasha Village 601 Bailey and Sons 602 Nathaniel S. Tefft 602 James Wells 602 WINONA COUNTY. Scenery 602 Winona City 603 Daniel S. Norton 603 William Windom 603 Charles H. Berry 604 Thomas Wilson 604 Thomas Simpson 605 Wm. H. Yale 605

XXIII. MISCELLANEOUS BIOGRAPHIES

Pierre Bottineau 606 Andrew G. Chatfield 606 Hazen Mooers 607 John McDonough Berry 607 Mark H. Dunnell 608 James H. Baker 608 Horace B. Strait 609 Judson Wade Bishop 610 John L. McDonald 610 Thomas H. Armstrong 611 Augustus Armstrong 611 Moses K. Armstrong 611 James B. Wakefield 611 William Wallace Braden 611 Reuben Butters 612 Michael Doran 612 Andrew McCrea 613 John W. Blake 613 Knute Nelson 613 William R. Denny 613

Appendix

MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS, INDIAN TREATIES, ETC.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 616 Spanish Claims 616 French Claims 617 Louisiana in 1711 618 Settlement of Marietta, Ohio 618 Ohio Territory 619 Statistics 619 BOUNDARY QUESTION 625 Wisconsin Constitutional Convention, 1846 625 Wisconsin Constitutional Convention, 1847 626 Some Resolutions 627 Under What Government? 628 H. H. Sibley Elected Congressional Delegate 628 Queries 629 Minnesota Territory Created 629 Land Office at Stillwater 629 INDIAN TREATIES 629 Treaty with the Sioux (Mendota) 1805 629 Treaty with the Chippewas (Mendota) 1837 630 Treaty with the Sioux (Washington) 1837 630 Treaty with the Winnebagoes (Washington) 1837 631 Treaty with the Chippewas (Fond du Lac) 1847 631 Treaty with the Pillager Band (Leech Lake) 1847 632 Treaty with the Sioux (Traverse des Sioux) 1851 632 Treaty with the Sioux (Mendota) 1851 632 Treaty with the Chippewas (La Pointe) 1854 634 Treaty with the Pillagers (Washington) 1855 634 Treaty with the Chippewas (Red Lake River) 1863 634 GEN. PIKE AND THE INDIANS 635 Treaty of 1805 636 Pike's Address to the Council 636 Details of Treaty 636 Pike Hospitably Entertained 637 UNITED STATES SURVEYS IN THE NORTHWEST 637 Establishment of Land Offices 638 Establishment of the Present System of Surveys 638 The First Surveyor General's Office at Marietta, O 638 UNITED STATES LAND OFFICES IN THE NORTHWEST 639 List of Registers and Receivers, Wisconsin 639 First Entries 640 First Auction Sale of Land 641 List of Registers and Receivers, Minnesota 641 List of Wisconsin Territorial and State Officers, Governors, Senators, andRepresentatives from St. Croix Valley 641 Legislative Representation 642 First and Second Constitutional Conventions 643 Governors of Wisconsin 643 United States Senators 643 United States Representatives 644 District Judges 644 State Legislature 644 List of Minnesota Territorial and State Officers 647 Census of the Territory in 1849 647 First Territorial Legislature 648 First Prohibition Law 649 Constitutional Convention 649 List of State Officers and Judicial 649 Senators and Representatives 650 Minnesota State Legislatures 651 Constitutional Convention of 1857 654 Division of Convention 654 Union of Conventions on a Constitution 656 Have We a Constitution 656 First, Minnesota State Legislature 657 Protests Against Legislation 657 Five Million Bill Passed and Adopted 657 State Seal Adopted 658 State Seal Design 659 Adjourned Session of Legislature 660 Protests Against Recognizing Gov. Medary 660 Reports on Protests 661 Land Grants--Railroad Surveys and Construction 665 Northern Pacific Railroad 665 Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad 667 St. Paul & Duluth Railroad 668 Minnesota & Manitoba Railroad 669 Stillwater, White Bear & St. Paul Railroad 670 St. Paul, Stillwater & Taylor's Falls Railroad 671 Wisconsin Central Railroad 671 Taylor's Falls & Lake Superior Railroad 672 Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad 672 A Memorial for "Soo" Railroad 673 Organization of Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic Railroad 674 Mileage of Railroads Centring in St. Paul and Minneapolis 675 Chicago, Burlington & Northern Railroad 675 Congressional Appropriations 675 Inland Navigation 676 George R. Stuntz on Lake Superior and St. Croix Canal 680 Waterways Convention, 1885 682 E. W. Durant's Valuable Statistics 683 Resolution for St. Croix and Superior Canal 685 Early Steamboat Navigation 686 Steamboat Accommodations 687 First Mississippi Steamboat Officers 689 First Mississippi Steamboat Organizations 689 List of Steamboats 690 Later Navigation on Northwest Rivers 691 Steamboating on the St. Croix 692 Ice Boats 693 James W. Mullen's Reminiscences, 1846 694 St. Croix Boom Company 696 Surveyors General of Logs 696 Organization 696 Conflict over State Boundary 697 Language of Logs 698 Logs Cut from 1837 to 1888 700 Chartered Dams 701 Lumbering and Lumbermen in 1845 702 Lumbering and Lumbermen in 1887 705 St. Croix Dalles Log Jams 706 Population of Northwest Territory in 1790 709 Population of Wisconsin Territory in 1836 709 Subsequent Census 709 Population of Minnesota in 1849 709 Minnesota State Capitol 710 Burning of State House 711 Selkirk Visitors 712 Cyclones 713 Isanti and Chisago Cyclone 713 Cottage Grove and Lake Elmo Cyclone 715 Washington County and Wisconsin Cyclone 717 St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids Cyclone 718 Curious Lightning Freaks 721 Asiatic Cholera on the Royal Arch 721 First Decree of Minnesota Citizenship 722 International Hotel, St. Paul, Burned 723 Grasshoppers 723 Ancient Mounds 724 Lake Itasca, Schoolcraft and Boutwell Form the Name Itasca. Description of Itasca 726 Elk and Boutwell Lakes 727 Capt. Glazier's False Claim 727 Copper Mining on St. Croix 728 Rev. Julius S. Webber; Reminiscences 729 Judge Hamlin--Amusing Incident 730 Minnesota Old Settlers Association 731 St. Croix Valley Old Settlers Association 740 Newspaper History 741 Gen. Scott, Maj. Anderson, and Jeff. Davis 752 Jeff. Davis' Marriage at Fort Crawford 753 Dred Scott at Fort Snelling 754 Incidents in Dred Scott's History 755 Old Betz and Descendants 757 ADDENDA. Military History of the Rebellion, 1861 to 1865 759 Gov. Alex. Ramsey's Address to Loyal Legion 759 Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Legislative Sessions of Wisconsin 762

ERRATA.

[Transcriber's note: Errata corrected in the text.]

II. , page 32, read Stillwater and St. Croix County, instead of Counties

Page 140, read Cyrus G. Bradley, instead of Cyrus Q.

Page 166, read Philip B. Jewell, instead of Philip P.

Page 422, read Clifford A. Bennett, instead of Clifton.

Page 432, read Stearns, Anoka and Sherburne Counties, instead of Stearns, Anoka and Morrison Counties.

Page 420, read Edmund J. Butts, instead of Edward J. Butts.

Chapter I

Going West.--In June, 1836, I again visited the Penobscot in quest of employment, in which I was unsuccessful. At Stillwater, above Bangor, I met my kind friend Simeon Goodrich, also out of employment. After mature deliberation we concluded to go West. Returning to Bloomfield, I collected the money held for me by Capt. Ruel Weston and was soon in readiness for the journey. But a few days before the time agreed upon for leaving, I received a letter from Simeon Goodrich, which contained the unpleasant information that he could not collect the amount due him and could not go with me. Truly this was a disappointment. I was obliged to set out alone, no light undertaking at that early day, for as yet there were no long lines of railroad between Maine and the Mississippi river. The day at last arrived for me to start. My companions and acquaintances chaffed me as to the perils of the journey before me. My mother gave me her parting words, "William, always respect yourself in order to be respected." These words, accompanied with her farewell kiss, were long remembered, and, I doubt not, often kept me from evil associations.

The stage took us directly to the steamboat at Gardiner. The steam was up and the boat was soon under way. It was the New England, the first boat of the kind I had ever seen. I felt strangely unfamiliar with the ways of the traveling world, but observed what others did, and asked no questions, and so fancied that my ignorance of traveling customs would not be exposed. It was sunset as we floated out into the wide expanse of the Atlantic. The western horizon was tinged with fiery hues, the shores grew fainter and receded from view and the eye could rest at last only upon the watery expanse. All things seemed new and strange. Next morning a heavy fog hung over the scene. The vessel was at anchor in Boston harbor and we were soon on shore and threading the crooked streets of the capital of Massachusetts. I was not lost in the wilderness maze of streets, as I had feared I should be, but on leaving Boston on the evening train I took the wrong car and found myself uncomfortably situated in a second or third class car, crowded and reeking with vile odors, from which the conductor rescued me, taking me to the pleasant and elegant car to which my first class ticket entitled me. On arriving at Providence I followed the crowd to the landing and embarked on the steamer President for New York, in which city we remained a day, stopping at the City Hotel on Broadway. I was greatly impressed with the beauty of part of the city, and the desolate appearance of the Burnt District, concerning the burning of which we had read in our winter camp. I was not a little puzzled with the arrangement of the hotel tables and the printed bills of fare, but closely watched the deportment of others and came through without any serious or mortifying blunder. Next morning I left New York on the steamer Robert L. Stevens for Albany, and on the evening of the same day went to Schenectady by railroad. Some of the way cars were hauled by horses up hills and inclined planes. There were then only three short lines of railroad in the United States, and I had traveled on two of them. At Schenectady I took passage on a canal boat to Buffalo. I had read about "De Witt Clinton's Ditch," and now greatly enjoyed the slow but safe passage it afforded, and the rich prospect of cities, villages and cultivated fields through which we passed. At Buffalo we remained but one day. We there exchanged eastern paper for western, the former not being current in localities further west. At Buffalo I caught my first glimpse of Lake Erie. I stood upon a projecting pier and recalled, in imagination, the brave Commodore Perry, gallantly defending his country's flag in one of the most brilliant engagements of the war, the fame whereof had long been familiar to the whole country and the thrilling incidents of which were the theme of story and song even in the wilderness camps of Maine.

The steamer Oliver Newberry bore me from Buffalo to Detroit. From Detroit to Mt. Clemens, Michigan, I went by stage and stopped at the last named place until October 14th, when, being satisfied that the climate was unhealthy, fever and ague being very prevalent, I returned to Detroit, and on the fifteenth of the same month took passage on the brig Indiana, as steamers had quit running for the season. The brig was aground two days and nights on the St. Clair flats. A south wind gave us a splendid sail up the Detroit river into Lake Huron. We landed for a short time at Fort Gratiot, at the outlet of the lake, just as the sun was setting. The fort was built of stone, and presented an impressive appearance. The gaily uniformed officers, the blue-coated soldiers, moving with the precision of machines, the whole scene--the fort, the waving flags, the movement of the troops seen in the mellow sunset light--was impressive to one who had never looked upon the like before. A favorable breeze springing up, we sped gaily out into the blue Lake Huron. At Saginaw bay the pleasant part of the voyage ended. The weather became rough. A strong gale blew from the bay outward, and baffled all the captain's skill in making the proper direction. Profane beyond degree was Capt. McKenzie, but his free-flowing curses availed him nothing. The brig at one time was so nearly capsized that her deck load had rolled to one side and held her in an inclined position. The captain ordered most of the deck load, which consisted chiefly of Chicago liquors, thrown overboard. Unfortunately, several barrels were saved, two of which stood on deck, with open heads. This liquor was free to all. The vessel, lightened of a great part of her load, no longer careened, but stood steady against the waves and before the wind. It is a pity that the same could not be said of captain, crew and passengers, who henceforth did the careening. They dipped the liquor up in pails and drank it out of handled dippers. They got ingloriously drunk; they rolled unsteadily across the deck; they quarreled, they fought, they behaved like Bedlamites, and how near shipwreck was the goodly brig from that day's drunken debauch on Chicago free liquor will never be known. The vessel toiled, the men were incapacitated for work, but notwithstanding the tempest of profanity and the high winds, the wrangling of crew and captain, we at last passed Saginaw bay. The winds were more favorable. Thence to Mackinaw the sky was clear and bright, the air cold. The night before reaching Mackinaw an unusual disturbance occurred above resulting from the abundance of free liquor. The cook, being drunk, had not provided the usual midnight supper for the sailors. The key of the caboose was lost; the caboose was broken open, and the mate in the morning was emulating the captain in the use of profane words. The negro cook answered in the same style, being as drunk as his superior. This cook was a stout, well built man, with a forbidding countenance and, at his best, when sober, was a saucy, ill-natured and impertinent fellow. When threat after threat had been hurled back and forth, the negro jumped at the mate and knocked him down. The sailors, as by a common impetus, seized the negro, bound him tightly and lashed him to a capstan. On searching him they found two loaded pistols. These the mate placed close to each ear of the bound man, and fired them off. They next whipped him on the naked back with a rope. His trunk was then examined and several parcels of poison were found. Another whipping was administered, and this time the shrieks and groans of the victim were piteous. Before he had not even winced. The monster had prepared himself to deal death alike to crew and passengers, and we all felt a great sense of relief when Capt. McKenzie delivered him to the authorities at Mackinaw.

Antique Mackinaw was a French and half-breed town. The houses were built of logs and had steep roofs. Trading posts and whisky shops were well barred. The government fort, neatly built and trim, towered up above the lake on a rocky cliff and overlooked the town, the whole forming a picturesque scene. We remained but a few hours at Mackinaw. There were ten cabin passengers, and these, with two exceptions, had imbibed freely of the Chicago free liquor. They were also continually gambling. Capt. McKenzie had fought a fist fight with a deadhead passenger, Capt. Fox, bruising him badly. What with his violence and profanity, the brutality of the mate and the drunken reveling of crew and passengers, the two sober passengers had but a sorry time, but the safe old brig, badly officered, badly managed, held steadily on its course, and October 30th, fifteen days from Detroit, safely landed us in Chicago.

After being so long on the deck of a tossing vessel, I experienced a strange sensation when first on shore. I had become accustomed to the motion of the vessel, and had managed to hold myself steady. On shore the pitching and tossing movement seemed to continue, only it seemed transferred to my head, which grew dizzy, and so produced the illusion that I was still trying to balance myself on the unsteady deck of the ship.

Chicago, since become a great city, had at that time the appearance of an active, growing village. Thence I proceeded, November 1st and 2d, by stage to Milwaukee, which appeared also as a village, but somewhat overgrown. Idle men were numerous, hundreds not being able to obtain employment. Here I remained a couple of weeks, stopping at the Belleview House. After which I chopped wood a few days for Daniel Wells. Not finding suitable employment, I started west with a Mr. Rogers, December 2d. There being no other means of conveyance, we traveled on foot. On the evening of the second we stopped at Prairie Village, now known as Waukesha. On the evening of the third we stopped at Meacham's Prairie, and on the fifth reached Rock River, where I stopped with a Mr. St. John. The evening following we stopped at an Irish house, where the surroundings did not conduce to comfort or to a feeling of security. Several drunken men kept up a continuous row. We hid our money in a haystack, and took our turn sleeping and keeping watch. We ate an early breakfast, and were glad to get away before the men who had created such a disturbance during the night were up. We moved onward on the seventh to Blue Mound, where we found a cheerful resting place at Brigham's. The eighth brought us to Dodgeville, where we stopped at Morrison's. On the ninth we reached Mineral Point, the locality of the lead mines, where I afterward lost much time in prospecting. Mineral Point was then a rude mining town. The night of our arrival was one of excitement and hilarity in the place. The first legislature of the territory of Wisconsin had been in session at Belmont, near Mineral Point, had organized the new government and closed its session on that day. To celebrate this event and their emancipation from the government of Michigan and the location of the capital at Madison, the people from the Point, and all the region round about, had met and prepared a banquet for the retiring members of the legislature. Madison was at that time a paper town, in the wilderness, but beautifully located on Cat Fish lake, and at the head of Rock river. The location had been accomplished by legislative tact, and a compromise between the extremes. In view of the almost certain division of the Territory, with the Mississippi river as a boundary, at no very distant day, it was agreed that Madison should be the permanent capital, while Burlington, now in Iowa, should be used temporarily. Milwaukee and Green Bay had both aspired to the honor of being chosen as the seat of government. Mineral Point, with her rich mines, had also aspirations, as had Cassville, which latter named village had even built a great hotel for the accommodation of the members of the assembly. Dubuque put in a claim, but all in vain. Madison was chosen, and wisely, and she has ever since succeeded in maintaining the supremacy then thrust upon her.

In my boyhood, at school, I had read of the great Northwest Territory. It seemed to me then far away, at the world's end, but I had positively told my comrades that I should one day go there. I found myself at last on the soil, and at a period or crisis important in its history. The great Northwest Territory, ceded by Virginia to the United States in 1787, was no more. The immense territory had been carved and sliced into states and territories, and now the last remaining fragment, under the name of Wisconsin, had assumed territorial prerogatives, organized its government, and, with direct reference to a future division of territory, had selected its future capital, for as yet, except in name, Madison was not. In assuming territorial powers, the boundaries had been enlarged so as to include part of New Louisiana, and the first legislature had virtually bartered away this part of her domain, of which Burlington, temporary capital of Wisconsin, was to be the future capital.

Two more days of foot plodding brought us to Galena, the city of lead. The greeting on our entering the city was the ringing of bells, the clattering of tin pans, the tooting of ox horns, sounds earthly and unearthly,--sounds no man can describe. What could it be? Was it for the benefit of two humble, footsore pedestrians that all this uproar was produced? We gave it up for the time, but learned subsequently that it was what is known as a charivari, an unmusical and disorderly serenade, generally gotten up for the benefit of some newly married couple, whose nuptials had not met with popular approval.

At Galena I parted with Mr. Rogers, my traveling companion, who went south. On the fifteenth of December I traveled to Dubuque on foot. When I came to the Mississippi river I sat down on its banks and recalled the humorous description of old Mr. Carson, my neighbor, to which I had listened wonderingly when a small boy. "It was," he said, "a river so wide you could scarcely see across it. The turtles in it were big as barn doors, and their shells would make good ferryboats if they could only be kept above water." Sure enough, here was the big river, but covered with ice, scarcely safe to venture on. Several persons desiring to cross, we made a portable bridge of boards, sliding them along with us till we were safe on the opposite bank. I was now at the end of my journey, on the west bank of the Mississippi, beyond which stretched a vast and but little known region, inhabited by Indians and wild beasts.

As I review the incidents of my journey in 1836, I can not but contrast the conditions of that era and the present. How great the change in half a century! The journey then required thirty days. It now requires but three. I had passed over but two short lines of railroad, and had made the journey by canal boat, by steamer, by stage, and a large portion of it on foot. There were few regularly established lines of travel. From Michigan to the Mississippi there were no stages nor were there any regular southern routes. Travelers to the centre of the continent, in those days, came either by the water route, via New Orleans or the Fox and Wisconsin river route, or followed Indian trails or blazed lines from one settlement to another. The homes of the settlers were rude--were built principally of logs. In forest regions the farms consisted of clearings or square patches of open ground, well dotted with stumps and surrounded by a dense growth of timber. The prairies, except around the margins or along certain belts of timber following the course of streams, were without inhabitants. Hotels were few and far between, and, when found, not much superior to the cabins of the settlers; but the traveler was always and at all places hospitably entertained.

DUBUQUE.

Dubuque was a town of about three hundred inhabitants, attracted thither by the lead mines. The people were principally of the mining class. The prevailing elements amongst them were Catholic and Orange Irish. These two parties were antagonistic and would quarrel on the streets or wherever brought in contact. Sundays were especially days of strife, and Main street was generally the field of combat. Women even participated. There was no law, there were no police to enforce order. The fight went on, the participants pulling hair, gouging, biting, pummeling with fists or pounding with sticks, till one or the other party was victorious. These combats were also accompanied with volleys of profanity, and unlimited supplies of bad whisky served as fuel to the flame of discord. Dubuque was certainly the worst town in the West, and, in a small way, the worst in the whole country. The entire country west of the Mississippi was without law, the government of Wisconsin Territory not yet being extended to it. Justice, such as it was, was administered by Judge Lynch and the mob.

My first employment was working a hand furnace for smelting lead ore for a man named Kelly, a miner and a miser. He lived alone in a miserable hovel, and on the scantiest fare. In January I contracted to deliver fifty cords of wood at Price's brickyard. I cut the wood from the island in front of the present city of Dubuque, and hired a team to deliver it.

While in Dubuque I received my first letter from home in seven months. What a relief it was, after a period of long suspense, spent in tediously traveling over an almost wilderness country,--amidst unpleasant surroundings, amongst strangers, many of them of the baser sort, drinking, card playing, gambling and quarreling,--what a relief it was to receive a letter from home with assurances of affectionate regard from those I most esteemed.

Truly the lines had not fallen to me in pleasant places, and I was sometimes exposed to perils from the lawless characters by whom I was surrounded. On one occasion a dissolute and desperate miner, named Gilbert, came to Cannon's hotel, which was my boarding house while in Dubuque. He usually came over from the east side of the river once a week for a spree. On this occasion, being very drunk, he was more than usually offensive and commenced abusing Cannon, the landlord, applying to him some contemptuous epithet. I thoughtlessly remarked to Cannon, "You have a new name," upon which Gilbert cocked his pistol and aiming at me was about to fire when Cannon, quick as thought, struck at his arm and so destroyed his aim that the bullet went over my head. The report of the pistol brought others to the room and a general melee ensued in which the bar was demolished, the stove broken and Gilbert unmercifully whipped. Gilbert was afterward shot in a drunken brawl.

I formed some genial acquaintances in Dubuque, amongst them Gen. Booth, Messrs. Brownell, Wilson and others, since well known in the history of the country. Price, the wood contractor, never paid me for my work. I invested what money I had left for lots in Madison, all of which I lost, and had, in addition, to pay a note I had given on the lots.

On February 11th I went to Cassville, journeying thither on the ice. This village had flourished greatly, in the expectation of becoming the territorial and state capital, expectations doomed, as we have seen, to disappointment. It is romantically situated amidst picturesque bluffs, some of which tower aloft like the walls and turrets of an ancient castle, a characteristic that attaches to much of the bluff scenery along this point.

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN.

I reached this old French town on the twelfth of February. The town and settlement adjacent extended over a prairie nine miles long, and from one to two miles broad, a beautiful plateau of land, somewhat sandy, but for many years abundantly productive, furnishing supplies to traders and to the military post established there. It also furnished two cargoes of grain to be used as seed by the starving settlement at Selkirk, which were conveyed thither by way of the Mississippi, St. Peter and Red rivers. The earliest authentic mention of the place refers to the establishment of a post called St. Nicholas, on the east bank of the Mississippi, at the mouth of the Wisconsin, by Gov. De La Barre, who, in 1683, sent Nicholas Perrot with a garrison of twenty men to hold the post. The first official document laying claim to the country on the Upper Mississippi, issued in 1689, has mention of the fort. This document we transcribe entire:

"Nicholas Perrot, commanding for the king, at the post of the Nadouessioux, commissioned by the Marquis Denonville, governor and lieutenant governor of all New France, to manage the interests of commerce amongst the Indian tribes and people of the Bay des Puants (Green Bay), Nadouessioux (Dakotahs), Maseontins, and other western nations of the Upper Mississippi, and to take possession in the king's name of all the places where he has heretofore been, and whither he will go.

"We, this day, the eighth of May, one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine, do, in the presence of the Reverend Father Marest, of the Society of Jesus, missionary among the Nadouessioux; of Monsieur de Borieguillot (or Boisguillot), commanding the French in the neighborhood of the Ouiskonche (Wisconsin), on the Mississippi; Augustin Le Gardeur, Esq., Sieur de Caurnont, and of Messeurs Le Sueur, Hibert, Lemire and Blein:

"Declare to all whom it may concern, that, being come from the Bay des Puants, and to the lake of the Ouiskonches, and to river Mississippi, we did transport ourselves to the country of the Nadouessioux, on the border of the river St. Croix, and at the mouth of the river St. Pierre (Minnesota), on the bank of which were the Mantantans; and further up to the interior to the northeast of the Mississippi, as far as the Menchokatoux, with whom dwell the majority of the Songeskitens, and other Nadouessioux, who are to the northeast of the Mississippi, to take possession for, and in the name of, the king of the countries and rivers inhabited by the said tribes, and of which they are proprietors. The present act done in our presence, signed with our hand and subscribed."

Then follow the names of the persons mentioned. The document was drawn up at Green Bay.

There is little doubt that this post was held continuously by the French as a military post until 1696, when the French authorities at Quebec withdrew all their troops from Wisconsin, and as a trader's post or settlement, until the surrender in 1763 to the British of all French claims east of the Mississippi. It was probably garrisoned near the close of the latter period. It remained in the possession of the French some time, as the English, thinking it impossible to compete for the commerce of the Indian tribes with the French traders who had intermarried with them, and so acquired great influence, did not take actual possession until many years later.

The post is occasionally mentioned by the early voyageurs, and the prairie which it commanded was known as the "Prairie du Chien," or praire of the dog, as early as 1763, and is so mentioned by Carver. It was not formally taken possession of by the United States until 1814, when Gov. Clarke with two hundred men came up from St. Louis to Prairie du Chien, then under English rule, to build a fort and protect American interests at the village. At that time there were about fifty families, descended chiefly from the old French settlers. These were engaged chiefly in farming, owning a common field four miles long by a half mile wide. They had outside of this three separate farms and twelve horse mills to manufacture their produce. The fort, held by a few British troops under Capt. Deace, surrendered without resistance, but soon after the British traders at Mackinaw sent an expedition under Joe Rolette, Sr., to recapture the post, which they did after a siege of three days, the defenders being allowed to withdraw with their private property on parole. They were followed by the Indians as far as Rock Island. Meanwhile, Lieut. Campbell, with reinforcements on his way from St. Louis, was attacked, part were captured and the remainder of his troops driven back to St. Louis. Late in 1814 Maj. Zachary Taylor proceeded with gunboats to chastize the Indians for their attack on Campbell, but was himself met and driven back. The following year, on the declaration of peace between Great Britain and America, the post at Prairie du Chien was evacuated. The garrison fired the fort as they withdrew from it.

The fort erected by the Americans under Gen. Clarke in 1814 was called Fort Shelby. The British, on capturing it, changed the name to Fort McKay. The Americans, on assuming possession and rebuilding it, named it Fort Crawford. It stood on the bank of the river at the north end of St. Friole, the old French village occupied in 1876 by the Dousmans. In 1833 the new Fort Crawford was built on an elevated site about midway in the prairie. It was a strong military post and was commanded at this time by Gen. Zachary Taylor. Many officers, who subsequently won distinction in the Florida Indian, Mexican, and late Civil War, were stationed here from time to time. Within a time included in my own recollections of the post, Jefferson Davis spirited away the daughter of his commanding officer, Gen. Taylor, and married her, the "rough and ready" general being averse to the match.

Prairie du Chien derived its name from a French family known as du Chien, in English "The Dog." By this name the Prairie was known long prior to the establishment of the French stockade and post. By that name it has been known and recognized ever since. It has been successively under the French, English and United States governments, and lying originally in the great Northwestern Territory, in the subsequent divisions of that immense domain, it has been included within the bounds of the territories of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Gov. Wm. H. Harrison, of Indiana Territory, recognized Prairie du Chien by issuing commissions to Henry M. Fisher and ---- Campbell as justices of the peace, the first civil commissions issued for the American government in the entire district of country including West Wisconsin and Minnesota east of the Mississippi. Prior to this time, about 1819, the inhabitants had been chiefly under military rule. In 1819 the county of Crawford was organized as a part of Michigan Territory, and blank commissions were issued to Nicholas Boilvin, Esq., with authority to appoint and install the officers of the new county government. Gov. Lewis Cass established by proclamation the county seat at Prairie du Chien, and John W. Johnson was installed as chief justice of the county court. The entire corps of officers were qualified. In January, 1823, Congress passed an act providing for circuit courts in the counties west and north of Lake Michigan, and James Duane Doty was appointed judge for the district composed of Brown, Mackinaw and Crawford counties, and a May term was held in Prairie du Chien the same year.

INDIAN TROUBLES.--There were some Indian troubles, an account of which is given in the biographical sketch of J. H. Lockwood. There were other incidents which may be worthy of separate mention. In 1827 an entire family, named Methode, were murdered, as is supposed, by the Indians, though the murderers were never identified. The great incentive to violence and rapine with the Indians was whisky. An intelligent Winnebago, aged about sixty years, told me that "paganini," "firewater" (whisky), was killing the great majority of his people, and making fools and cripples of those that were left; that before the pale faces came to the big river his people were good hunters and had plenty to eat; that now they were drunken, lazy and hungry; that they once wore elk or deer skins, that now they were clad in blankets or went naked. This Indian I had never seen drunk. The American Fur Company had huts or open houses where the Indians might drink and revel.

At an Indian payment a young, smart looking Indian got drunk and in a quarrel killed his antagonist. The friends of the murdered Indian held a council and determined that the murderer should have an opportunity of running for his life. The friends of the murdered Indian formed in a line, at the head of which was stationed the brother of the dead man, who was to lead in the pursuit. At a signal the bands of the prisoner were cut, and with a demoniacal yell he bounded forward, the entire line in swift and furious pursuit. Should he outrun his pursuers, he would be free; should they overtake and capture him, they were to determine the mode of his death. He ran nearly a mile when he tripped and fell. The brother of the dead Indian, heading the pursuit, pounced upon him and instantly killed him with a knife.

Considering the fact that the Indians were gathered together under the guns of a United States fort, and under the protection of a law expressly forbidding the sale of intoxicating liquors to them, the people of the United States were certainly justified in expecting better results, not only in regard to the protection of the frontier settlers but for that of the Indians themselves. All came to naught because of the non-enforcement of law. Liquors were shamelessly sold to the Indians and they were encouraged to drunken revelry and orgies by the very men who should have protected and restrained them.

The prosperity of Prairie du Chien depended upon the Indian trade, and upon government contracts which the presence of a military force rendered necessary. The Indians gathered here in great numbers.

Here the Winnebagoes, part of the Menomonies and some Chippewas received their annuities, and here centred also an immense trade from the American Fur Company, the depot being a large stone building on the banks of the Mississippi, under the charge of Hercules Dousman.

FORT CRAWFORD ROBBED.

Two discharged soldiers (Thompson and Evans) living at Patch Grove, thirteen miles away, visited the fort often. On a morning after one of their visits a soldier on guard noticed a heap of fresh earth near the magazine. An alarm was given, an examination made, and it was found that the magazine had been burst open with bars and sledge hammers, entrance having been obtained by digging under the corner picket. Three kegs of silver, each containing $5,000, were missing. The kegs had been passed through the excavation underneath the picket. One keg had burst open near the picket, and the silver was found buried in the sand. The second keg burst on the bank of the Mississippi, and all the money was found buried there except about six hundred dollars. The third keg was found months after by John Brinkman, in the bottom of the river, two miles below the fort. He was spearing fish by torchlight, when he chanced to find the keg. The keg he delivered at the fort and received a small reward. On opening the keg it was found to contain coin of a different kind from that advertised as stolen. Brinkman, however, made no claims on account of errors. Thompson, Evans, and a man named Shields were arrested by the civil authorities on suspicion; their trial was continued from term to term and they were at last dismissed. One man, who had seen the silver in the sand during the day and gone back at night to fill his pockets, was seized by a soldier on guard, imprisoned for a year, and discharged.

EARLY JUSTICE.

A Frenchman shot and killed a couple of tame geese belonging to a neighbor, supposing them to be wild. Discovering his mistake, he brought the geese to the owner, a Dutchman, who flew into a great rage, but took the geese and used them for his own table, in addition to which he had the goose-killer arrested and tried before Martin Savall, a justice of the peace. The defendant admitted the killing of the geese, the plaintiff admitted receiving them and using them for food, nevertheless the justice gave judgment in favor of plaintiff by the novel ruling that these geese, if not killed, would have laid eggs and hatched about eight goslings. The defendant was therefore fined three dollars for the geese killed, and eight dollars for the goslings that might have been hatched if the geese had been permitted to live, and costs besides. Plaintiff appealed to the district court which reversed the decision on the ground that plaintiff had eaten his geese, and the goslings, not being hatched, did not exist. Plaintiff paid the costs of the suit, forty-nine dollars, remarking that a Dutchman had no chance in this country; that he would go back to Germany. The judge remarked that it would be the best thing he could do.

A SOUTHWARD JOURNEY.

My original plan on leaving Maine was to make a prospecting tour through the West and South. I had been in Prairie du Chien for a season, and as soon as my contract to cut hay for the fort and my harvesting work was done. I started, with two of my comrades, in a birch bark canoe for New Orleans. This mode of traveling proving slow and tedious, after two days, on our arrival at Dubuque, we sold our canoe and took passage on the steamer Smelter for St. Louis, which place we reached on the seventeenth of October. We remained five days, stopping at the Union Hotel. St. Louis was by far the finest and largest city I had yet seen in the West. Its levee was crowded with drays and other vehicles and lined with steamers and barges. Its general appearance betokened prosperity. On the twenty-second, I left on the steamer George Collier for New Orleans, but the yellow fever being reported in that city, I remained several days at Baton Rouge. On the second of November I re-embarked for New Orleans, where I found a lodging at the Conti Street Hotel. New Orleans was even then a large and beautiful city. Its levee and streets were remarkable for their cleanness, but seemed almost deserted. Owing to a recent visitation of the yellow fever and the financial crisis of 1837, business was almost suspended. These were hard times in New Orleans. Hundreds of men were seeking employment, and many of them were without money or friends. It was soon very evident to me that I had come to a poor place to better my fortunes. After a thorough canvass, I found but one situation vacant, and that was in a drinking saloon, and was not thought of for an instant. I remained fifteen days, my money gradually diminishing, when I concluded to try the interior. I took steamer for Vicksburg, and thence passed up the Yazoo to Manchester, where I spent two days in the vain search for employment, offering to do any kind of work. I was in the South, where the labor was chiefly done by negroes. I was friendless and without letters of recommendation, and for a man under such circumstances to be asking for employment was in itself a suspicious circumstance. I encountered everywhere coldness and distrust. I returned to Vicksburg, and, fortunately, had still enough money left to secure a deck passage to the North, but was obliged to live sparingly, and sleep without bedding. I kept myself somewhat aloof from the crew and passengers. The captain and clerk commented on my appearance, and were, as I learned from a conversation that I could not help but overhear, keeping a close eye upon me for being so quiet and restrained. It was true that the western rivers were infested with desperate characters, gamblers and thieves such as the Murrell gang. Might I not be one of them. I was truly glad when, on the fifth of December, we landed at St. Louis. It seemed nearer my own country; but finding no employment there, I embarked on the steamer Motto for Hennepin, Illinois, where I found occasional employment cutting timber. There was much talk here of the Murrell gang, then terrorizing the country; and I have good reason to believe that some of them at that time were in Hennepin. After remaining about two months, I left, on foot, valise in hand or strapped upon my back, with J. Simpson, for Galena, which place we reached in four days. Finding here Mr. Putnam, with a team, I went up with him on the ice to Prairie du Chien, where, after an absence of five months of anxiety, suspense and positive hardships, I was glad to find myself once more among friends.

During the summer of 1838 I cultivated a farm. I had also a hay contract for the fort. My partner was James C. Bunker. I had worked hard and succeeded in raising a good crop, but found myself in the fall the victim of bilious fever and ague. I continued farming in 1839 and furnishing hay to the fort, but continued to suffer with chills and fever. Myself and partner were both affected, and at times could scarcely take care of ourselves. Help could not be obtained, but ague comes so regularly to torture its victims that, knowing the exact hour of its approach, we could prepare in advance for it, and have our water, gruel, boneset and quinine ready and within reach. We knew when we would shake, but not the degree of fever which would follow. The delirium of the fever would fill our minds with strange fancies. On one occasion I came home with the ague fit upon me, hitched my horses with wagon attached to a post and went into the house. Banker had passed the shaking stage, and was delirious. I threw myself on the bed, and the fever soon following, I knew nothing till morning, when I found the team still hitched to the post, and, in their hunger, eating it.

In November of this year I made a somewhat perilous trip with team to Fort Winnebago, at the portage of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. The weather was cold and the military road, much of the distance, covered with snow. There was scarcely a trail over the rolling prairie to guide me. Exposure brought on the chills as I was returning. Fatigued, sick and suffering, I coiled myself on the top of the load. The second day, as the sun was setting, I came in sight of Parish's Grove, but the horses were unwilling to obey my guidance. Coming to a fork in the road they insisted on going to the right. I pulled them to the left. Had I been guided by their "horse sense" they would have brought me in a few moments to the door of Parish's hotel. As it was, I drove on until far in the night, when we came to a steep hill, two steep for descent in the wagon. I unhitched the team, loaded them with the portable things in the wagon to keep them from the wolves that were howling around, mounted one of the horses and descended the hill and found myself at Parish's door, the very place I had been trying to find for a day and a night. Lieut. Caldwell, quartermaster at Fort Crawford, received the load, and learning something of the perils of the journey, gave me eighty dollars instead of the forty he had promised.

RETURN TO MAINE.

During the spring and summer of 1840, I fulfilled heavy hay and wood contracts for the fort, and in the autumn of that year concluded to revisit my early home in Maine. I set out September 23d, and reached Chicago in seven days, traveling with a team. I traveled thence by steamer to Buffalo, by canal boat to Rochester, by railroad and stage to Albany and Boston, by railroad to Lowell, and by stage to Tamworth, New Hampshire. After spending four years amidst the prairies of the West it was indeed a pleasure to look again upon the grand ranges of mountains in this part of New England. When eleven years of age I had lived where I could look upon these mountains, and now to their grandeur was added the charm of old association. I looked with pleasure once more upon "Old Ossipee," Coroway Peak, and White Face. Time had written no changes upon these rugged mountains. There were cottages and farms on the mountain side. Sparkling rivulets gleamed in the sunlight, as they found their way, leaping from rock to rock, to the valleys beneath. Tamworth is situated on beautiful ridges amongst these mountain ranges. Near this place is the old family burying ground containing the graves of my grand parents and other near relatives. These mountain peaks seemed to stand as sentinels over their last resting place. I remained at Tamworth a short time, visited the graves of my kindred, and on October 20th pursued my journey to Bloomfield, Maine, my old home. I found great changes. Some kind friends remained, but others were gone. The old home was changed and I felt that I could not make my future home here. The great West seemed more than ever attractive. There would I build my home, and seek my fortune. I found here one who was willing to share that home and whatever fortune awaited me in the West. On January 1st I was married to Mary J. Wyman, by Rev. Arthur Drinkwater, who gave us good counsel on the eve of our departure to a new and still wilderness country. On February 16th we bade adieu to our friends in Maine, visited awhile at Tamworth, and March 20th reached Prairie du Chien, having traveled by private conveyance, stage and steamer, passing through New Haven, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Frederick City, Maryland, over the National road to Wheeling, Virginia, by steamer down the Ohio and up the Mississippi to our destination. Here we made our home until the autumn of 1845, I continuing in the business in which I had been previously engaged. At this time a failure in my wife's health rendered a change of climate necessary.

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN IN 1836-37.

Our history of Fifty Years in the Northwest commences properly at Prairie du Chien in the years 1836-37. The entire country west and north was at that time but little better than a wilderness. Prairie du Chien was an outpost of civilization. A few adventurous traders and missionaries had penetrated the country above, planting a few stations here and there, and some little effort had been made at settlement, but the country, for the most part, was the home of roving tribes of Indians, and he who adventured among them at any distance from posts or settlements did so at considerable peril. Prairie du Chien, as we have shown, had been for an indefinite period under various governments, at first a French, and later an American settlement, generally under the protection of a military force. It was a primitive looking village. The houses were built for the most part of upright timber posts and puncheons, and were surrounded by pickets. There was no effort at display. Every thing was arranged for comfort and protection.

AMERICAN RESIDENTS.

There were living at Prairie du Chien in 1837 the following Americans with their families: Alfred Brunson, Thomas P. Burnett, Joseph M. and Thomas P. Street, Ezekiel Tainter, John Thomas, Milo Richards, John H. Fonday, Samuel Gilbert, and William Wilson. The following were unmarried: James B. Dallam, Ira B. Brunson, William S. Lockwood, and Hercules Dousman. In addition to these were perhaps near a hundred French families, old residents. Among the more noted were the Brisbois, La Chapelle, Rolette and Bruno families.

We include in the following biographical sketches some names of non-residents, prominent in the early territorial history, and others who came to Prairie du Chien later than 1837.

BIOGRAPHIES.

JAMES DUANE DOTY.--The life of this eminent citizen is so interwoven with the history of Wisconsin that it might well claim more space than is here allotted to it. The plan of this work forbids more than a brief mention, and we therefore give only the principal events in his life. Mr. Doty was born in Salem, Washington county, New York, where he spent his early days. After receiving a thorough literary education he studied law, and in 1818 located at Detroit, Michigan. In 1820, in company with Gov. Cass, he made a canoe voyage of exploration through Lakes Huron and Michigan. On this voyage they negotiated treaties with the Indians, and returning made a report on the comparatively unexplored region which they had traversed. Under his appointment as judge for the counties of Michigan west of the lake, which appointment he held for nine years, he first made his home at Prairie du Chien, where he resided one year, thence removing to Green Bay for the remainder of his term of office, at which place he continued to reside for a period of twenty years. In 1830 he was appointed one of the commissioners to locate military routes from Green Bay to Chicago and Prairie du Chien. In 1834 he represented the counties west of the lake in the Michigan legislative council at Detroit, at which council the first legislative action was taken affecting these counties. At that session he introduced a bill to create the state of Michigan, which was adopted. The result of this action was the creation of the territory of Wisconsin in 1836. In 1838 Mr. Doty was chosen territorial delegate to Congress from Wisconsin, in which capacity he served four years, when he was appointed governor. He served as governor three years. He acted as commissioner in negotiating Indian treaties. In 1846 he was a member of the first constitutional convention. In 1848 he was elected member of Congress, and was re-elected in 1851.

Somewhere in the '50s he built a log house on an island in Fox river, just above Butte des Mortes, and lived there with his family many years. There he gathered ancient curiosities, consisting of Indian implements, and relics of the mound builders. This log house still stands and is kept intact with the curiosities gathered there by the present owner, John Roberts, to whom they were presented by Mrs. Fitzgerald, a daughter of Gov. Doty, in 1877. The cabin overlooks the cities of Menasha and Neenah, and the old council ground at the outlet of Lake Winnebago, where the Fox and Sioux Indians held annual councils, also the old battle ground where the Fox Indians routed the Sioux in one of the hardest fought battles on record.

In 1861 Judge Doty was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs, and subsequently was appointed governor of Utah Territory, which place he held until his death in 1865. Wisconsin had no truer friend nor more faithful and efficient servant. His aims were exalted, and he deservedly held a high place in the affections of his fellow citizens.

JAMES H. LOCKWOOD.--Mr. Lockwood was the only practicing lawyer at the organization of Judge Doty's court. He was the pioneer lawyer in Prairie du Chien, and the first lawyer admitted to the bar in what is now Wisconsin. He practiced in Crawford, Brown and Mackinaw counties. He was born in Peru, Clinton county, New York, Dec. 7, 1793. He married Julia Warren in 1822. She died at Prairie du Chien in 1827. He married his second wife, Sarah A. Wright, in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1834. She died at Prairie du Chien in 1877, much esteemed as one of the pioneer women of the Upper Mississippi, and respected as a devout Christian, whose faith was proven by her works. The early years of Mr. Lockwood were spent on a farm. He had not the privileges of a classical education, and he may be said to be self educated. In 1810 he commenced the study of law. In 1814 he was sutler in the United States army, and in 1815 at the post at Mackinaw. From 1816 to 1819 he was an Indian trader, his home being at Prairie du Chien. In 1826 orders came to abandon the fort at Prairie du Chien. The soldiers were transferred to Fort Snelling, but arms and ammunition were left in charge of John Marsh, sub-Indian agent. Mr. Lockwood's family was the only American family at the post. On June 25th of the ensuing year he left for New York by the Wisconsin River route, Mrs. Lockwood remaining at home. The Winnebagoes were a little troublesome at this time, the more so as the soldiers were removed from the post, but no serious disturbance was anticipated. The first night after leaving Prairie du Chien Mr. L. met some Winnebagoes, and all camped together for the night; but the Indians, under their chief, Red Bird, left the camp stealthily before morning, and, proceeding to Prairie du Chien, entered the house of Mr. Lockwood with loaded rifles. Mrs. L., greatly frightened, fled to the store, then in charge of Duncan Graham, an old English trader. The Indians followed Mrs. L. into the store. Graham counseled with them and they left. As they were acting suspiciously a messenger was sent after Mr. Lockwood in haste. He returned on the twenty-seventh and found the inhabitants assembled, but without ammunition or means of defense. The Indians told the people not to go into the fort, as they would destroy it. As the day passed pickets and embankments were built around an old tavern. About sundown a keelboat came down the river and landed, bearing three dead bodies and several wounded. The sides of the boat had been riddled by bullets. This ghastly arrival increased the panic. Mr. Lockwood urged organization for defense. He was selected as captain but declined, and Thomas McNair was chosen, who ordered an immediate removal to the fort. Repairs were made and preparations for successful defense. On the day the fighting commenced Red Bird and his companions shot and killed Gagner and Lipcap. Mrs. Gagner, with rifle in hand, held Red Bird at bay till she escaped with one child into the rushes, whence she was rescued by a soldier on patrol duty. The soldier went to the house, where he found Gagner and Lipcap lying dead upon the floor, and an infant child, scalped and with its throat cut, lying under the bed. Gov. Cass, of Michigan, arrived on the fourth of July, greatly to the relief of the besieged garrison, which he mustered into the service of the United States, appointing Mr. Lockwood quartermaster. Another company, under Capt. Abner Field, was sent from Galena to their relief. Mr. Lockwood sent a messenger to Col. Snelling at Fort Snelling, who promptly sent down a company in a keelboat. The force thus concentrated at the fort was sufficient to overcome the Indians, who were in no plight to engage in a war with the United States. As the result of a council held by the Winnebagoes in the presence of the officers of the garrison, the Indians agreed to surrender Red Bird and Kee-Waw to Maj. Whistler, the Indians asking that the prisoners should not be ironed or harshly treated. Maj. Whistler promised that they should be treated with consideration, and Red Bird, rising from the ground, said, "I am ready," and was marched off with his accomplice, Kee-Waw, to a tent in the rear and placed under guard. The prisoners were handed over to Gen. Atkinson, and given into the hands of the civil authorities. They were chained and imprisoned, which so chafed the proud spirit of Red Bird that he drooped and soon died of a broken heart. Kee-Waw was afterward pardoned by the president of the United States. For this and other outrages perpetrated upon the settlers, not a single Indian suffered the penalty of death, excepting Red Bird, whose pride may be said to have been his executioner.

Mr. Lockwood continued in mercantile business at Prairie du Chien many years. He held many positions of honor and trust, acquitting himself with credit. He built the first saw mill north of the Wisconsin river, on the Menomonie river. The famous Menomonie mills now occupy the same site. A small mill had been commenced prior to this on Black river, but the Indians had burned this mill before it was completed. Mr. Lockwood died at his home, Aug. 24, 1867.

JOHN S. LOCKWOOD.--John S., the brother of James H. Lockwood, was born in 1796 in New York; came to Prairie du Chien in 1838, and thereafter engaged in merchandising. He was a man of exemplary habits and a member of the Presbyterian church most of his life. He raised an interesting family. He died at his home at Prairie du Chien in 1858.

SAMUEL GILBERT settled at Prairie du Chien in 1830. He was of Kentucky birth, a blacksmith by trade, and a model man in habits. Mr. Gilbert, in 1842, became one of the proprietors of the Chippewa Falls mill. He afterward lived at Albany. He followed Mississippi river piloting, removed to Burlington, Iowa, and died in 1878. Mr. Gilbert left four sons, Oliver, lumberman in Dunn county, Wisconsin, John and I. Dallam, lumber merchants at Burlington, Iowa, and Samuel.

MICHAEL BRISBOIS.--We find the names of Brisbois and some others mentioned in the proceedings of the commission held by Col. Isaac Lee in 1820, to adjust claims to land in Prairie du Chien and vicinity. Michael Brisbois testified that he had been a resident of the Prairie thirty-nine years, which would date his settlement as far back as 1781. Mr. Brisbois lived a stirring and eventful life. He died in 1837, leaving several children. Joseph, the oldest, became a man of prominence and held many offices in state and church. Charles, the second son, while yet a boy went to McKenzie river, British possessions, in the employ of the Northwestern Fur Company, where he lived thirty years beyond the Arctic circle, and raised a large family. In 1842 he returned to Prairie du Chien, but his children, reared in the cold climate of the frozen zone, soon after his return sickened, and most of them died, unable to endure the change to a climate so much milder. Bernard W., a third son, was born at Prairie du Chien, Oct. 4, 1808. He was well educated and grew up a leading and influential citizen. As a child he had witnessed the taking of Fort Shelby by the British in 1814, and its recapture as Fort McKay by the United States troops in 1815. During the Red Bird Indian war he served as second lieutenant, and for several years was stationed at Fort Crawford. He was also a prominent agent or confidential adviser in the fur company which had its headquarters at Prairie du Chien. He was sheriff of Crawford county and held the office of county treasurer and other positions of trust. In 1872 President Grant appointed him consul to Vernier, Belgium, but ill health compelled an early return. Mr. Brisbois married into the La Chapelle family. He died in 1885, leaving an interesting family.

PIERRE LAPOINT was also before the commission of Col. Lee as an early resident, having lived at the Prairie since 1782. The testimony of these early citizens served to establish the ancient tenure of the lands by French settlers, a tenure so ancient that no one could definitely give a date for its commencement. Mr. Lapoint was a farmer. He reared a large family of children, and died about 1845.

JOSEPH ROLETTE.--Joseph Rolette was at one time chief justice of the county court of Crawford county. He was of French descent and was born in Quebec, L. C., in 1787. He was educated for the Catholic priesthood. In 1804 he came to Prairie du Chien. In the early part of his mature life he was an active and successful trader with the Indians on the Upper Mississippi. He was a man of keen perceptions and considerable ambition. He joined the British at the siege of Detroit, and was an officer at the capture of Mackinaw. He was in command of a company in the campaign of the British from Mackinaw to Prairie du Chien, and aided in taking the American stockade. His early education and associations inclined him to espouse the British cause during the war of 1812, which he did with all the ardor and enthusiasm of his nature. To his family he was kind and indulgent, giving his children the best education possible. One daughter, married to Capt. Hoe, of the United States army, was a very superior woman. One son, Joseph, received all the aid that money could give, and might have risen to distinction, but he early contracted intemperate habits which became in later life tenaciously fixed. This son was at one time a member of the Minnesota legislature. Joseph Rolette, Sr., died at Prairie du Chien in 1842.

HERCULES DOUSMAN.--The leading Indian trader of the Upper Mississippi, the prominent adviser at Indian treaties and payments and the trusted agent of the American Fur Company, was Hercules Dousman, a keen, shrewd man, and universally influential with the Indians, with whom it might be said his word was law. He understood all the intricacies involved in the Indian treaty and the half-breed annuities and payments. His extended favors and credits to the Indians, properly proven, of course, would be recognized and paid at the regular payments. He accumulated through these agencies great wealth, which he retained to his dying day. He came to Prairie du Chien, in the employ of Joseph Rolette, in 1828. He afterward married the widow of Rolette. He died in Prairie du Chien in 1878.

REV. DAVID LOWRY.--A noble, big hearted Kentuckian, a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, he was located by the government as farmer and teacher of the Indians on Yellow river, near Prairie du Chien, in 1833. For years this good man labored with unquestioned zeal for the welfare of the untutored Indian. Mr. Lowry informed me, while at his post, that he was fearful that all his labor was labor lost, or worse than useless. The Indian pupil learned just enough to fit him for the worst vices. The introduction of whisky was a corrupting agency, in itself capable of neutralizing every effort for the moral and intellectual advancement of the Indian, with whom intoxication produces insanity. He felt quite disheartened as to the prospect of accomplishing any good. He died at St. Cloud some time in the '50s.

CHIEF JUSTICE CHARLES DUNN.--When Wisconsin Territory was organized in 1836, Charles Dunn was appointed chief justice. He served as judge until Wisconsin became a state in 1848. He was of Irish descent and was born in Kentucky in 1799. He studied law in Kentucky and Illinois, and was admitted to practice in 1820 at Jonesboro, Illinois. He was chief clerk of the Illinois house of representatives five years. He was one of the commissioners of the Illinois and Michigan canal. In 1829 he was one of a party which surveyed and platted the first town of Chicago, and superintended the first sale of town lots there. He was captain of a company during the Black Hawk War in 1832, and was severely wounded through mistake by a sentinel on duty. In 1835 he was a member of the Illinois house of representatives. In 1837, as judge, he held his first court in Crawford county. In this court, in 1838, indictments were found against certain individuals for selling liquor to whites and Indians contrary to law, when, by evasions, continuances and technicalities, the suits would go by the board. In one case the charge given to the jury by this dignified and courteous Judge Dunn was as follows: "Gentlemen of the Jury: Unless you are satisfied that the defendants in this case did deal out, in clear, unadulterated quantities, intoxicating drinks, it is your imperative duty to discharge them." The jury, of course, discharged the defendants. Aside from his drinking habits, which interfered much with his usefulness, he was a genial gentleman and regarded by his associates as an eminent jurist. He sometimes kept the court waiting till he should become sober, and on one occasion came near losing his life in a drunken spree. He jumped through an upper window of Tainter's hotel, and escaped with only a broken leg. Judge Dunn was a member of the second Wisconsin constitutional convention. He was state senator in 1853-4-5 and 6. He died at Mineral Point, April 7, 1872.

REV. ALFRED BRUNSON, a distinguished pioneer preacher in the West, was born in Connecticut, 1793, and received there a common school education. His father died while he was yet a minor, and with commendable zeal and filial love he devoted himself to providing for his mother and her bereaved family, working at the trade of a shoemaker till he was seventeen years of age, when he enlisted as a soldier under Gen. Harrison and served under him until the peace of 1815, when he entered the Methodist ministry, in which, by industry and close application, he became quite learned and eminent as a divine. His active ministry extended to the long period of sixty-seven years. He was the first Methodist minister north of the Wisconsin river. In 1837 he established a mission at Kaposia and thence removed to Red Rock (Newport), in Washington county, Minnesota. In 1840 he was a member of the Wisconsin legislature. In 1842 he was Indian agent at Lapointe, on Lake Superior. Mr. Brunson was very prominent in the councils of his own church, having represented his conference several times in the general conference of that body. He is also the author of many essays and other publications, among them "The Western Pioneer," in two volumes, a most entertaining and instructive account of life in the West.

Mr. Brunson was married to Eunice Burr, a relative of the famous Aaron Burr. She was a woman of great intelligence and of excellent qualities of heart as well as mind. Her heart overflowed with sympathy for the sick and distressed, and she won by her care for them the affectionate title of "Mother Brunson." She died in 1847.

Rev. Alfred Brunson, though an itinerant, was so favored in his various fields of labor that he was able to have his permanent home at Prairie du Chien, where he lived from 1835 until the time of his death in 1882.

Many incidents in Mr. Brunson's career are worthy of permanent record. He was among the most hardy and daring of the pioneers. He came down the Ohio and up the Mississippi in a barge to Prairie du Chien in 1835, the barge laden with household furniture and the material for a frame building which, on landing, he proceeded immediately to erect. This house, which he and his family occupied till his death, is still standing.

When he established his mission at Kaposia he was greatly in need of an interpreter. An officer at Fort Snelling owned a negro slave who had been a Methodist before going into the army in the service of his master. Afterward he had married a Dakota woman and by associating with the Indians had learned their language. This young negro, James Thompson, was a slave, and Mr. Brunson could only secure his services by purchasing him outright, which he did, paying the price of $1,200, the money for which was raised by subscription in Ohio. "Jim" was presented with his "free papers," and was soon interpreting the Gospel to the Indians at Kaposia. This is the only instance on record of a slave being sold on Minnesota soil. It will be remembered, however, that the historical "DRED SCOTT" was also the property of an officer at the Fort, Surgeon Emerson. James Thompson resided in St. Paul in the later years of his life, and died there in 1884.

IRA BRUNSON.--Ira, the eldest son of Rev. A. Brunson, was born in Ohio in 1815, and came to Prairie du Chien in 1836. He was a member of the legislature during the years 1837-38-39 and 40. He was also postmaster many years. He was continuously in office in Crawford county until his death in 1884. In 1840 he was appointed special deputy United States marshal for the purpose of removing the settlers from the Fort Snelling reservation. These settlers were mostly from Selkirk, Manitoba. They had been driven out by the grasshoppers and, fleeing southward, had settled about Fort Snelling to be under the protection of the Fort. The government, however, considered them intruders and ordered Mr. Brunson to remove them outside the reservation, and to destroy all their dwellings and farm improvements, which disagreeable duty he performed as well, perhaps, as it could be performed; he, as he afterward told me, being satisfied in his own mind that the removal would be for their ultimate good, the influences of the Fort and of the associations of the motley crowd of hangers on around it being somewhat demoralizing. At any rate the eviction of these western Acadians has never aroused the sympathies of the poet and sentimentalist as did that of the Acadians of the East.

JOHN H. FOLSOM, brother of W. H. C. Folsom, was born in Machias, Maine, Dec. 27, 1813. He was engaged during his youth in clerking. In 1835 he made a voyage as supercargo of a vessel to the Congo coast. In 1836 he came to Michigan, and in 1837 to Prairie du Chien, where he has since continuously resided. He was married in 1839 to Angelica Pion, who died in 1878, leaving no children. He has a very retentive memory, and is quoted as an authority in the local history of Prairie du Chien. The writer is indebted to him for many particulars referring to the early history of that city.

EZEKIEL TAINTER.--Mr. Tainter came to Prairie du Chien in 1833 from Vermont. He had at first fort contracts, but afterward engaged in merchandising, farming and hotel keeping. He also served as sheriff. He was eccentric and original in his methods, and some amusing stories are told of his prowess in arresting criminals. On one occasion he was about to arrest a criminal. Having summoned his posse, he followed the man until he took refuge in a cabin with one door and two windows. Stationing his men before the door, he thus addressed them: "Brave boys, I am about to go through this door. If I fall, as I undoubtedly will, you must rush over my dead body and seize the ruffian." Giving the word of command, he plunged through the door and captured the criminal, apparently much astonished at finding himself still alive. At his tavern, one morning, a boarder announced that he had been robbed. Uncle Zeke quieted him, and, quickly examining his rooms, found one boarder missing. It was gray twilight. He ordered all to retire but the man who had been robbed. The two sat quietly down as they saw a man approaching the house from the bluffs. To their surprise it was the absentee approaching. As he stepped on the piazza, Uncle Zeke dexterously tripped him up with his stiff leg, and seizing him by the throat, shouted to the astonished miscreant: "Where is the money you stole? Tell me at once, or you will never get up." The prostrate culprit, thoroughly frightened, tremblingly answered, "I hid it in the bluff." They marched him to the spot, recovered the money and generously allowed the thief his freedom on the condition of his leaving the country. Uncle Zeke lived to a good old age, and died at the residence of his son Andrew, in Menomonie, Wisconsin.

WYRAM KNOWLTON.--Mr. Knowlton was born in Chenango county, New York, in 1816, came to Wisconsin in 1837, and commenced the study of law. He was admitted to practice in Platteville, and in 1840 came to Prairie du Chien and opened a law office. In 1846 he enlisted and served in the Mexican War, after which he resumed practice. In 1850 he was appointed judge of the Sixth Judicial district of Wisconsin, and served six years. He held the first court in Pierce county in 1854. He was a man of fine ability. He died in the north part of the State in 1873.

ROBERT LESTER.--A melancholy interest attaches to the memory of this man on account of his early tragical death. He had come to Prairie du Chien in 1840, and in 1842 had been elected sheriff. Next year his official duties called him to the Menomonie and Chippewa valleys. On his return he had left Lockwood's mills on the Menomonie, and had passed through Trempealeau and was coasting along the west shore, when an Indian hailed him, calling for bread. Lester passed on without responding. As he reached a point of land the Indian ran across the point and, awaiting his approach, shot him through the heart. Lester rose as the ball struck him, and fell overboard. Mr. Jean Bruno, proprietor of the Chippewa mills, was on his way up river in a canoe, and witnessed the whole transaction. Mr. Bruno described the whole tragic scene. Popular excitement ran high at Prairie du Chien. A party of men volunteered to search for Lester's body, which was found at the place of the murder and brought back for interment at Prairie du Chien. The Indian, a Sioux, was arrested and kept in jail a long time, and although he had acknowledged to some of his Indian friends that he had killed Lester, he was acquitted. It was a cold blooded and atrocious murder, and the proof of the Indian's guilt was overwhelming, as he was, by his own confession, the murderer; still he was not punished. In this case the prisoner did not languish and die in jail of a broken heart as did Red Bird, the murderer of Gagner and Lipcap. As a rule the courts dealt very leniently with Indian criminals.

THOMAS PENDLETON BURNETT was born in Virginia in 1800. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in Paris, Kentucky. He was appointed sub-Indian agent under J. M. Street, in 1829. He came to Prairie du Chien in 1830 and entered upon the duties of the agency. He also practiced law. In 1835 he was a member of the Michigan territorial council and its president. In 1836, after his term of office expired, he married a daughter of Alfred Brunson and, continuing the practice of law, became quite eminent for his skill, and acquired an extensive practice. He was a fluent speaker, well skilled in the management of the cases intrusted to his care. In 1840 he removed to a farm at Patch Grove, Grant county. He was a member of the Wisconsin constitutional convention which met in 1846. He served but a few weeks when he was called home by the death of his mother and the sickness of his wife. The fatigue of a twenty-four hours' ride of eighty-five miles in a rude lumber wagon was too much for his not very rugged constitution, and four days after his mother's death he followed her to the world of spirits. His devoted wife survived him but three hours. Under circumstances of such unusual sadness did this brilliant and promising lawyer and citizen take his departure from earth. His death created a profound sensation throughout the entire Northwest, where he was so well and favorably known.

HENRY DODGE, the first governor of Wisconsin Territory, was born in Vincennes, Indiana, Oct. 12, 1782. He came to the lead mines of Wisconsin in 1828. In 1832 he took part in the Black Hawk War, an uprising of the Sac and Fox Indians against the United States government. Mr. Dodge participated as a general at the battle of Bad Axe, his regiment occupying the front rank in that battle. April 30, 1836, he was appointed governor of Wisconsin by President Andrew Jackson, reappointed in 1839 by President Van Buren, and by President Polk in 1845, serving three terms. From 1841 to 1845, during the presidency of Harrison and his successor (Tyler), he served as territorial delegate to Congress. In 1848 he was elected United States senator for the short term, and re-elected in 1851, Senator Walker being his colleague. On the occasion of the motion to admit California, the Wisconsin senators were instructed by the legislature to vote against the measure. Senator Walker disregarded the instruction and voted for the measure. Senator Dodge, although extremely ill at the time, had himself carried to the senate chamber that he might record his vote adversely to the bill. Gov. Dodge rose to the highest position in his State, and chiefly by his own unaided efforts. As a soldier he was brave and efficient, as a governor, congressional delegate and senator he was clear headed, cautious and wise, and altogether a citizen of whom the State might justly be proud. He died in Burlington, Iowa, June 19, 1867.

GEORGE W. JONES was born in Vincennes, Indiana. He graduated at Transylvania University, Kentucky, in 1825. He was educated for the law, but ill health prevented him from practicing. He, however, served as clerk of the United States district court in Missouri in 1826, and during the Black Hawk War served as aid-de-camp to Gen. Dodge. In 1832 he was appointed colonel of militia, and was promoted to a major generalship. After the war he served as judge of a county court. In 1835 he was elected delegate to Congress from the territory of Michigan, or from that part of it lying west of Lake Michigan, and remained a delegate until the formation of Wisconsin Territory, in 1836, when he was elected delegate from the new territory. In 1839 he was appointed surveyor general for Wisconsin. He was removed in 1841, but reappointed by President Polk, and continued in office until elected senator from the state of Iowa, which position he held for six years, and was then appointed by President Buchanan minister to New Granada. During the Civil War his sympathies were with the South and he was imprisoned for awhile at Fort Warren under a charge of disloyalty. He has resided in Dubuque, Iowa, since the formation of Iowa Territory. He still lives, a hale and hearty old gentleman, and served as a delegate to the waterways convention held in St. Paul, September, 1880.

S. G. AND S. L. TAINTER AND JOHN THOMAS (father of Hon. Ormsby Thomas, representative from Wisconsin in the Congress of 1887-88) with their families came to Prairie du Chien in 1837. The Messrs. Tainter and Thomas died many years ago.

II. STILLWATER AND ST. CROIX COUNTY

In September, 1844, reluctantly I bade adieu to Prairie du Chien with its picturesque bluffs and historic associations, and embarked on the steamer Highland Mary, Capt. Atchison, to seek a home and more salubrious climate further north. The voyage was without incident worthy of note, till we reached St. Croix lake, in the midst of a crashing thunder storm and a deluge of rain, which did not prevent us from eagerly scanning the scenery of the lake. The shores were as yet almost without inhabitants. The home of Paul Carli, a two story house at the mouth of Bolles creek, was the first dwelling above Prescott, on the west side of the lake. A few French residences were to be seen above on the west side. On the east bank, below the mouth of Willow river, where Hudson is now situated, were three log houses owned by Peter Bouchea, Joseph Manesse, and Louis Massey. On the high hill west, nearly opposite Willow river, stood the farm house of Elam Greely, and on the same side, on the point, in full view of Stillwater, stood the farm house of John Allen. With the exception of these few dwellings, the shores of the lake were untouched by the hand of man, and spread before us in all their primitive beauty. There were gently rounded hills sloping to the water's edge, and crowned with groves of shrubby oak, amidst which, especially at the outlet of streams into the lake, the darker pines stood out boldly against the sky. We passed on over the clear, blue expanse of water on which was no floating thing save our boat and the wild fowl which were scared and flew away at our approach, till we reached the head of the lake at Stillwater, the end of our journey. November 30th my family arrived on the steamer Cecilia, Capt. Throckmorton.

STILLWATER IN 1845.

We landed just in front of the store of nelson & co. just below the landing was a clear, cold spring, bubbling out of the earth, or the rock rather. It was walled in and pretty well filled with speckled trout. On the opposite side of the street Walter R. Vail had a house and store; north of Vail's store the house and store of Socrates Nelson. Up Main street, west side, stood Anson Northrup's hotel and Greely & Blake's post office and store. One street back was the residence of John E. Mower, and north of this the mill boarding house, and in the rear the shanty store of the mill company, where the Sawyer House now stands. Up a ravine stood the shanty residence of John Smith. In a ravine next to Nelson & Co.'s store was the residence of Wm. Cove. On Main street, opposite Greely & Blake's store, was the residence of Albert Harris. On the shore of the lake, north of Chestnut street, was John McKusick's saw mill. Sylvester Stateler's blacksmith shop stood just south of the mill. In Brown's Dakotah, now Schulenberg's addition, near the old log court house, was a log hotel, kept by Robert Kennedy. This was Stillwater in 1845.

ST. CROIX COUNTY.

From 1819 to 1836 this valley was under the jurisdiction of Crawford county, Michigan, there being no white inhabitants save Indian traders. There was no law dispensed in this region, excepting the law that might makes right. In 1836 the territory of Wisconsin, comprising all of Michigan west of the great lakes; also all that portion of Missouri Territory out of which was formed the state of Iowa, which was organized as a territory in 1838, and admitted as a state in 1846; also that portion of Minnesota which lies west of the present state--yet unorganized--known as Dakota, was organized.

The year 1837 forms a new era in our history. Gov. Henry Dodge, of Wisconsin, on the part of the national government, was appointed to negotiate with the Ojibways. They met at Fort Snelling. A treaty was made, the Indians ceding to the United States all their lands east of the Mississippi, to near the headwaters of the St. Croix and Chippewa rivers.

A deputation of Dakotas at Washington, the same year, ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi to the parent government, thus opening to settlement all this portion of Minnesota and Wisconsin. But few adventurers made their way into this far off region, however, for many years. A steamer once in two months was the only mode of travel, excepting by birch canoe.

In October, 1837, at Prairie du Chien, I met a party who had ascended the Mississippi and the St. Croix as far as St. Croix Falls. According to their account they had found the place where creation ended, where a large river, capable of bearing a steamer, burst out of a rock like that which Moses smote. They had seen "the elephant with his quills erect," and were returning satisfied to their New England home. They had entered the since famous Dalles of the St. Croix, located at the head of navigation on that river.

In the year 1838, being the year succeeding the purchase of the lands bordering on the St. Croix river and a portion of her tributaries, may be dated the commencement of the settlement of the St. Croix valley; but with the exception of the Hon. Joseph R. Brown, the parties that I shall enumerate as opening business, came here for the purpose of lumbering, and in no instance as permanent settlers. The valley was considered too far north and the soil too sterile for cultivation, but many of those who came here in 1838 found out their mistake and made choice of the valley for their permanent homes. They were afterward abundantly satisfied with the healthfulness of the climate and the fertility of the soil. Several companies were formed this year for the ostensible purpose of lumbering, many members of which became permanent settlers.

The first dismemberment of the St. Croix valley from Crawford county was by the organization of the county of St. Croix. Joseph R. Brown was elected representative to the legislature, from the north part of Crawford county. His residence at that time was Gray Cloud, now in Washington county. Mr. Brown introduced the bill for the organization of St. Croix county, which passed and was approved by the governor of Wisconsin, Jan. 9, 1840. The writer of these sketches was employed by Messrs. Brown and Brunson (the representatives from this district), in December, 1839, to take them with a team from Prairie du Chien to Madison. One of the indispensable requirements for traveling in those days was a large "Black Betty," which was the butt of much wit and humor. Mr. Brown said the contents of Old Betty must establish a new county away up in the Northwest. The deed was done--the act did pass. I don't know whether Old Betty came back to assist in organizing the county or not. It is well to say Mr. Brown acquitted himself with honor to his constituents, and was successful in the one great object for which he sought the election. This was the precursor to coming events--a shadow cast before. For it was under this organization that Northwest Wisconsin and Minnesota first obeyed the mandates of law and order.

Under the provision of the act of organization, Hazen Mooers, of Gray Cloud, Samuel Burkelo, of Marine, and Joseph R. Brown, of Dakotah, were constituted a board of county commissioners with county seat located at Dakotah.

This town was located at the head of Lake St. Croix, on the west side, on unsurveyed government lands, known as "Joe Brown's Claim." When the Wisconsin legislature of 1840 made this the county seat of St. Croix county it was named Dakotah.

JUDGE IRWIN'S COURT IN 1840.

The first district court north of Prairie du Chien was called at Dakotah, St. Croix county. This county had been assigned to Judge Irwin's district (Green Bay). The time assigned for the court was June, 1840. Judge Irwin wended his way up Fox river to the portage, down the Wisconsin to Prairie du Chien, up the Mississippi to St. Paul, and across from St. Paul to Dakotah with guides. At Dakotah the regular officers were all absent, but he found at the court house two young men named Brown and six Frenchmen from St. Paul and Little Canada, summoned as jurors by Sheriff Lawrence. Judge Irwin remained one night, slept in deer skins in the county building, subsisting meanwhile on venison and bear steak. No calendar was to be found and the judge and jurors left for home.

The first commissioners' meeting was held Oct. 5, 1840. At this meeting much important work was done. An acre of ground at the county seat was selected for county buildings. A contract to erect a court house according to specifications was let to J. R. Brown, he to receive for the same eight hundred dollars. The parties agreed upon a deed or conveyance of ground, a synopsis of which we append. The conveyance cites and reiterates a Wisconsin legislative law establishing St. Croix county, giving to the people the right to locate the county seat by vote and to the county commissioners power to erect county buildings, the selected location to be the permanent seat of justice of said county. It further provides that the county commissioners shall carry into effect the law of Congress of the United States, entitled "An act granting to counties or parishes, in which public lands are situate, the right of pre-emption to one-fourth section of land, for seats of justice within the same." Approved May 20, 1824. It then cites the vote taken Aug. 5, 1840, locating the county seat at "Brown's warehouse, at the head of Lake St. Croix." Further conditions are set forth in compliance with the law, confirming the location on Joseph R. Brown's land claim. This is the first recorded deed in St. Croix county.

Thirty dollars was allowed to J. R. Brown and W. B. Dibble, each, for carrying election returns to Prairie du Chien. The first abstract of votes polled in St. Croix county was for delegate to Congress and for county officers. For delegate to Congress the following vote was cast: Henry Dodge, seventeen; Jonathan E. Arnold, ten. Samuel Burkelo, Hazen Mooers and W. B. Dibble were elected county commissioners; William Holcombe, county treasurer and register of deeds; Phineas Lawrence, sheriff; J. R. Brown, county clerk and clerk of court, and Philander Prescott, assessor.

The first recorded deed of property in Stillwater was from Walter R. Vail to Rufus S. King, transferring for a consideration of $1,550 a tract bounded east by Lake St. Croix and south and north by lands owned by Churchill and Nelson.

Three election precincts had been established in this portion of Crawford county prior to the organization of St. Croix county: Caw-caw-baw-kank, embracing the county adjacent to St. Croix Falls; Dakotah, the county at the head of Lake St. Croix, and Chan-wak-an the Gray Cloud settlement, on the Mississippi.

On July 5, 1841, the commissioners held a meeting and established voting precincts as follows:

Gray Cloud--Judges of election, Hazen Mooers, David Howe, Joseph Haskell.

Mouth of St. Croix Lake--Judges of election, P. Prescott, Oscar P. Burris, John Burke.

Marine Mills--Judges of election, Asa Parker, Samuel Burkelo, T. Harrington.

Falls of St. Croix--Judges of election, Joseph W. Furber, Joshua L. Taylor, Jesse Taylor.

Pokegama--Judges of election, Jeremiah Russell, E. Myers, E. L. Ely.

Feb. 2, 1844, St. Paul and Stillwater were made election precincts by the Wisconsin legislature, and Stillwater was made the county seat. The constituted authorities were not successful in making out assessments and collecting county revenues. The first estimate of expenditures for the county was for 1842, and amounted to $482. This included the estimate for holding one term of court. Up to the time of changing the county seat to Stillwater much dissatisfaction existed as to the manner in which the county finances had been managed, and there was a general revolt, a refusal to pay taxes. In consequence, the county building at Dakotah remained unfinished and was finally abandoned by the county authorities. J. R. Brown lost on his contract on account of this failure and abandonment. The first successful collection of taxes in St. Croix county, considered legal, was in 1845. Capt. Wm. Holcombe acted during this period as clerk of the commissioners, and register of deeds. In 1846 he deputized W. H. C. Folsom as deputy clerk and register of deeds, and transmitted the records from St. Croix Falls to Stillwater.

[A] EARLY HISTORY OF STILLWATER.

In the spring of 1843 Jacob Fisher made a claim on unsurveyed lands at the head of Lake St. Croix, immediately south of Dakotah, spotting and blazing the trees to mark the limits of his claim. Mr. Fisher thought it a good site for a saw mill, and made an offer to Elias McKean and Calvin F. Leach of the entire claim on condition that they would build a mill. McKusick and Greely were looking for a mill site; Mr. Fisher referred them to McKean and Leach. It was agreed that the four should take the claim and erect the mill. Greely improved and held the claim, while McKusick went to St. Louis and procured mill irons and supplies. McKean and Leach operated in the pinery. By April 1, 1844, the mill was finished and in operation. This was the first frame building erected in Stillwater. It stood on the lake shore, east of Main street, lot 8, block 18. The second frame building was McKusick's boarding house, west of Main street, on block 18. John Allen's family was the first to locate in Stillwater. Mr. Allen came in the spring of 1844, and subsequently removed to California. The second family was that of Anson Northrup coming soon after. Mr. Northrup built a public house on the west side of Main street, just north of Nelson's alley. Soon afterward came widow Edwards and family from Ohio, relatives of the Northrups; Mrs. Northrup being a daughter of widow Edwards. Socrates Nelson came about this time and built the first store in Stillwater. His family joined him soon afterward. The first marriage was that of Jesse Taylor and Abbie Edwards, J. W. Furber, Esq., officiating justice. The second marriage was that of William Cove to Nancy Edwards in May, 1845. The first white child born was Willie Taylor, son of Jesse Taylor, in 1845. A daughter, Maud Maria, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Carli in Dakotah (Schulenburg's addition to Stillwater), in 1843.

Stillwater derives its name from its appropriate location on the banks of the still waters of Lake St. Croix. A post office was established in 1845, and Elam Greely was appointed postmaster. The first business partnership was that of the saw mill company, already noted. We give here in full the articles of agreement as the first written and the oldest on record in Washington county. This document is important not only as fixing a date for the origin or founding of Stillwater, but as an important event, as it thus early laid the foundation of the future prosperity of the city, and indicated the direction in which its energies should be chiefly turned:

[Copy of Agreement.]

This agreement, made and entered into this twenty-sixth day of October, Anno Domini eighteen hundred and forty-three, by the following named individuals, viz.: John McKusick, Elias McKean, Elam Greely, and Calvin F. Leach, for the purpose of building a saw mill near the head of Lake St. Croix, Wisconsin Territory, and for carrying on the lumbering business in all its various branches.

Article first--It is understood by this agreement, that the heretofore named individuals form themselves into a company to continue and exist by the name of the Stillwater Lumber Company.

Article second--It is agreed to by the heretofore named individuals, that the whole amount of property owned and business done by the aforesaid company shall be included in fifteen shares, and to be divided and owned by each individual of the aforesaid company as follows, viz.: John McKusick, five-fifteenths; Elias McKean, three-fifteenths; Elam Greely, four-fifteenths; and Calvin F. Leach, three-fifteenths.

Article third--It is furthermore understood, that each proprietor of the aforesaid company shall pay his proportion of all the expenses arising from all the business done or transacted by the aforesaid company, and to continue the same ratio, so long a time as said company shall exist and continue to do business under the present form, and likewise any gain or loss, arising or accruing from any or all of the business done by the aforesaid company, shall be shared or sustained by each proprietor of the aforesaid company, in the same ratio as above named, in proportion to each above named proprietor's share of stock owned in the aforesaid company.

Article fourth--It is furthermore agreed to, that the whole amount of money or property that each or either of the proprietors of the aforesaid company shall invest, advance, or pay for the benefit or use of the aforesaid company, the same amount shall be credited to the separate credit of the proprietor or either of the proprietors of the aforesaid company making such investments, on the books of accounts kept by the aforesaid company.

Article fifth--It is furthermore understood, that for the amount of money or property that any one of the proprietors of the aforesaid company shall invest, advance, or pay for the benefit or use of the aforesaid company, more than his proportional share of the whole amount of money or property invested by the aforesaid company, the same amount of money, with interest, shall be paid or refunded back to said proprietor by the aforesaid company, out of the first proceeds arising from the business done by the company aforesaid.

Article sixth--It is furthermore understood, that in case any one of the aforesaid proprietors should at any time hereafter be disposed to sell, transfer or dispose of his share of stock owned in the aforesaid company, he shall first pay to said company all the liabilities or indebtedness of said share of stock, and then give said company the preference of purchasing and owning said share of stock, at the same rates by which said proprietor may have an opportunity to sell said shares of stock.

Article seventh--It is furthermore understood that the proprietors of the aforesaid company, individually, shall have no right, or power, to sign any obligation or due bill, make any contract, or transact any business of importance in the name of, or binding on, the aforesaid company, except some one proprietor of the aforesaid company should hereafter be fully authorized by the aforesaid company to act and transact business as agent for the aforesaid company.

In testimony whereof, we hereunto set our hands and seals this twenty-sixth day of October, Anno Domini eighteen hundred and forty-three.

JOHN MCKUSICK, ELAM GREELY, ELIAS MCKEAN, C. F. LEACH.

Attest: C. SIMONDS.

This agreement and dates are taken from the original book of records in the possession of John McKusick.

After this agreement was signed, until Mr. McKusick became the sole owner, the business was conducted by mutual agreement, there being no constituted agent, except in case of an emergency.

The mill boarding house, a two story building, erected in 1845, was burned in 1846, and immediately rebuilt. In 1846 J. H. Brewster built a small store. McKusick's store was built the same year, on the southwest corner of Main and Myrtle streets. Some smaller buildings were erected this year.

In 1845 a verbal agreement was made with regard to land claims, by which Brown's claim was recognized as extending along the lake shore north of Battle Hollow, where the Minnesota state prison now stands. South of Battle Hollow, along the lake shore to Nelson, extending three-fourths of a mile west, was the claim of the mill company, originally held by Fisher. South of Nelson's alley, one-half mile down the lake, three-fourths of a mile west, was S. Nelson's claim. When the government survey was made these claims and lines were amicably adjusted and confirmed. A congressional law was in existence making provisions for villages and cities built on unsurveyed lands, that such lands should be equitably divided and surveyed into lots, and the actual settler or occupant should be protected in his rights.

In May, 1846, a desire was expressed by citizens of St. Paul and Stillwater for the opening of new roads between these cities. The traveled road up to that time was by Haskell's and Bissell's Mounds. Louis Roberts and the writer examined a route by White Bear lake. A road was established south of this route in June.

In July I started up the St. Croix river with Joseph Brewster, in a batteau, to put up hay for Elam Greely on Kanabec river. We poled our batteau with outfit and camped where now stands the village of Franconia. The next morning early we entered the picturesque Dalles of the St. Croix, then cordelled our boat over Baker's falls, and landed at the village of St. Croix Falls. This village, the first American settlement on the St. Croix, had one large mill with six saws. The water power was utilized by means of a permanent dam with massive piers. A warehouse was perched in a romantic situation amidst the cliffs of the Dalles and furnished with a tramway or wooden railway extending to the summit of the cliffs, for the transportation of goods. A boarding house dubbed the "Barlow House," another the "Soap Grease Exchange," and a few small tenement houses, constituted the village. The leading business men were James Purinton, Wm. Holcombe, Joseph Bowron and Lewis Barlow. We spent half a day in making a portage around the St. Croix falls. The wind being fair, on the third day we sailed as far as Sunrise island. At Wolf creek we passed an Indian trading post. In front of Sunrise island and on the west side of the St. Croix river, a little below the mouth of Sunrise river, stood the trading post of Maurice M. Samuels, long known as one of the most remarkable and notorious men on the frontier. He was a Jew, but had married a Chippewa woman, claiming that he had married one of his own people, the Indians being, according to his theory, descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel.

On the sixth day we came to the farm of Jeremiah Russell, on Pokegama lake. We found him a pleasant gentleman, engaged as an Indian farmer. We paddled across the lake to the Presbyterian mission. Mr. Boutwell, the superintendent, was absent. The mission was pleasantly located, the management was excellent, the crops were in fair condition, and well cultivated. Everything about the mission betokened good management. Next day we went to a hay meadow opposite the mouth of Ground House creek, where we put up on this and adjacent meadows sixty tons of hay. We left on the twenty-fourth, camping the first night at Chengwatana. On the morning of the twenty-fifth, while passing down Kanabec river, our ears were greeted with some most horrible and unearthly noises. On turning a bend in the river we saw a large body of Indians cutting indescribable antics, in the river and on the shore, chasing each other, reeling and staggering to and fro, yelling and firing guns. They seemed a lot of Bedlamites turned out as if to dispute our passage down the river. Pass them now we must. It was too late to retreat. Our batteau was light. I was in the bow, Brewster was in the stern. The yelling and uproar grew each moment more horrible. Brewster said: "Keep the bow in the best water and pass them in a hurry." He was of great strength; every set of his pole would almost lift the boat from the water. While we were passing several guns were leveled at us, but such was the noise that if any were fired we did not hear them. We were glad when we passed out of range and hearing. While passing we caught a glimpse of the cause of the unusual disturbance, some whisky barrels, and drunken savages around them, staggering, fighting or lying on the ground in drunken stupor. Landing at Samuels' camp, we learned of him that one Myers had hidden a couple of barrels of whisky on Kanabec river, that the Indians had found them, and the jollification we had witnessed would last till the whisky was all gone. We arrived at Stillwater without further adventure.

In July I made another visit to Prairie du Chien. The mail packet for Fort Snelling, on which I expected to return, broke her shaft and returned to St. Louis for repairs. The postmaster at Prairie du Chien offered me seventy dollars to carry the mail to the Fort, which offer I accepted. I bought a skiff, blankets and provisions, hired one man and started. We poled, paddled and rowed against a strong current, the low water compelling us to keep near the centre of the river. We arrived at Bully Wells' on Lake Pepin on the fifth evening and politely asked the privilege of stopping with him and were promptly refused. It was raining very hard at the time. We drew our skiff up on the shore, turned it over for a shelter, and crawled beneath it with the mail. As it was a cold, wet night, we suffered severely. As we were passing an island above Red Wing, the day following, we saw some Sioux Indian wigwams, and, as we had no firewater and no food to spare we kept close to the opposite shore. We were, however, observed. An Indian appeared on the shore near the wigwams and beckoned to us to cross over. We made no reply but kept steadily on our course, observing, meanwhile, that the Indian, with his gun, was skulking along through the brush, apparently bent on overtaking and waylaying us. We kept a respectful distance, and fortunately were able to increase it, but not till we were beyond rifle shot did we dare to pause for rest. That night we camped without striking a light, and next day arrived at Point Douglas. I went no further. The hardship and exposure of this trip brought on a severe illness. Mr. David Hone, at whose house I remained for two weeks, under the care of Dr. Carli, of Stillwater, took the mail to Fort Snelling. Soon as able I returned to Stillwater.

In May of this year I had made a claim of government unsurveyed land, covering springs sufficient for a water power. While I was sick at Point Douglas, Joseph Brewster, Martin Mower and David B. Loomis formed a company to build a mill and carry on a logging business. They had agreed upon me as a fourth partner and to build on my claim; Mower and Loomis to attend to getting logs, Brewster and Folsom to build the mill. We moved to our claim Oct. 6, 1846, and went to work in earnest. We agreed upon the name of Arcola for the new settlement. The mill was not finished until April 3, 1847, at which time Brewster and Folsom sold out their interest and returned to Stillwater.

STILLWATER IN 1846.

Living in Stillwater, Jan. 1, 1846, were the following married men: Cornelius Lyman, Socrates Nelson, Walter R. Vail, Robert Kennedy, Anson Northrup, Albert Harris, John E. Mower, William E. Cove, John Smith, and W. H. C. Folsom. Among the unmarried men were: John McKusick, C. Carli, Jacob Fisher, Elam Greely, Edward Blake, Elias McKean, Calvin F. Leach, Martin Mower, David B. Loomis, Albion Masterman, John Morgan, Phineas Lawrence, Joseph Brewster, John Carlton, Thomas Ramsdell, William Rutherford, William Willim, Charles Macey, and Lemuel Bolles.

Here follows a list of the pioneers of the St. Croix valley, in 1846, not mentioned elsewhere: Nelson Goodenough, who became a river pilot and settled at Montrose, Iowa; James Patten, Hugh McFadden, Edwin Phillips, a millwright, an ingenious, eccentric man, who left the valley in 1848; Joseph Brewster, who left in 1848, and settled in Earlville, Illinois; Sylvester Stateler, blacksmith, who removed to Crow Wing county, Minnesota, and O. H. Blair, who followed lumbering, a man of talent, but eccentric. He died in 1878. The first school was taught in 1846, by Mrs. Ariel Eldridge, formerly Sarah Louisa Judd. The second school was taught in 1847, by Mrs. Greenleaf; the third in 1848, by Wm. McKusick. A school house was built in 1848. Rev. W. T. Boutwell, a Presbyterian minister, preached occasionally in the reception room of Northrup's hotel. Rev. Eleazer Greenleaf, an Episcopalian, came the next summer and established regular services. Prior to the organization of Stillwater, Rev. J. Hurlbut, a Methodist minister, had preached in Dakotah, St. Croix Falls and Marine, but organized no societies.

The winter of 1845-46 was very open. All teaming business was done on wheels, except for a few days in December, in which there was snow enough for sledding. A new feature in the trade of the valley this year was the rafting and running of logs to St. Louis.

In December, 1845, Dr. Borup, of La Pointe, and others went by ice and overland with teams to Prairie du Chien, I accompanying them. The first day we came to Point Douglas, at the confluence of the St. Croix and the Mississippi. Between Stillwater and Point Douglas, on the route we followed, some distance west of the lake, we found but one settler, Joseph Haskell. At Point Douglas there were David Hone, a hotel keeper; Hertzell & Burris, merchants, and Wm. B. Dibble, farmer. We reached Red Wing the second day. At this place lived the famous Jack Frazier, a Sioux half-breed and Indian trader, one Presbyterian missionary, Rev. ---- Denton, and a man named Bush. James Wells, more familiarly known as "Bully Wells," lived with an Indian squaw on the west shore of Lake Pepin, where stands the town of Frontenac. On the third day we went as far as Wabasha, on the west side, three miles below Lake Pepin, where we found several French families. We stopped at Cratt's hotel. On the fourth day we reached Holmes' Landing, now Fountain City. There were then but two houses, both unoccupied. About noon we passed Wabasha prairie, now the site of Winona. It was then covered with Indian tepees. At Trempealeau, in the evening of the fifth day, we found two French families. On the next day we reached La Crosse and found there two American families. Two days more brought us to Prairie du Chien. On the way we passed a few French families, and these, with those previously named, constituted the entire white population between Stillwater and Prairie du Chien.

We started on our return with four two horse teams. We took the river road, passing over the ice. In our company was one Tibbetts, from Fort Crawford, and Jonathan E. McKusick, emigrating from Maine to St. Croix valley. They were a social, jovial pair. At Capilaux bluff, Dibble's team was ahead, and my team second. At this place all halted to allow the thirsty an opportunity of liquoring up, which was done at the rear team. Dibble, in going back, left his team unfastened, and while he was "smiling" with his jovial companions the team ran away. The horses soon broke loose from the sled. One horse made for the shore, the other plunged into an air hole in the ice. The entire company rushed to the rescue, and with ropes and poles managed, at last, to float the horse upon the ice in an unconscious condition. All the whisky left by the "smiling" throng was poured down the horse's throat, but in vain. The animal was dead. No other event of interest occurred except some difficulties experienced in the transportation of the first cat ever brought to Stillwater. "Tom" was caged in a narrow box, and the confinement so chafed his proud spirit that he sickened and at one time was reported dead. At the inquest held over his remains by Capt. McKusick, signs of life were discovered, and by liberal blood-letting the cat was restored to consciousness and lived several years afterward, a terror to the rats in Stillwater.

STILLWATER IN 1847.

For about a year the writer had been officiating as justice of the peace with but little official business, but now and then a marriage to celebrate. On one occasion I walked to Marine to marry W. C. Penny to Jane McCauslin. The marriage was celebrated at Burkelo's boarding house. The wedding supper consisted of cold water and cold pork and beans. The following morning I did not wait for breakfast but returned to Stillwater as I had come, on foot. Another day I rode to Bissell's Mounds and united in marriage John Kenny and a mulatto woman. Friend Kennedy threatened to disown me for thus aiding miscegenation. "Such things are intolerable," he said, but from aught I have ever known to the contrary the couple were well assorted.

TERRITORIAL ELECTION.

On the sixth day of April an election was held for the ratification or rejection of the constitution adopted by the late territorial convention for the anticipated state government; also a resolution relative to negro suffrage, and an election was ordered for sheriff. The vote resulted as follows:

For the constitution, 65; against, 61. For equal suffrage to colored persons, 1; against, 126. For sheriff, Walter R. Vail, 58; W. H. C. Folsom, 72.

There were five precincts that held elections--Stillwater, St. Paul, Gray Cloud, Marine, and St. Croix Falls.

I immediately gave bonds and qualified as sheriff, and the same day took charge of two criminals, Chippewa Indians, who had been committed by me for murder, while acting as justice. I had previously deputized Ham Gates to take care of them. While in Stillwater they were confined in the basement of the post office building. Their names were Nodin and Ne-she-ke-o-ge-ma. The latter was the son-in-law of Nodin. They were very obedient and tractable, and I treated them kindly, for which Nodin repeatedly told me he would show me a copper mine on Kanabec river. Nodin died not long after his trial, and before he could redeem his promise. The copper mine is yet undiscovered. Fort Snelling was, at that time, the receptacle for criminals in this region, and to the Fort I carried these prisoners with a team,--Ham Gates being driver,--unshackled, unbound, my only weapon a pistol without a lock. In May I summoned jurors and visited Kanabec river to procure witnesses in the case against Nodin and Ne-she-ke-o-ge-ma for the murder of Henry Rust. The first night I stopped with B. F. Otis, on the St. Croix, where Taylors Falls is now situated. On the second day I crossed the river and proceeded up the east side to Wolf creek, thence crossing to the west side, up as far as Sunrise river. There was no inhabitant, Samuels having vacated his shanty. I crossed the river with great difficulty. The water was high, the current was strong and swift, and I could not swim. I found a fallen tree, partly under water, cut a pole, waded out as far as I could into the current, and then by the aid of the pole floated down some distance, until by pawing and splashing I was able to reach the other shore. That night I stopped with an old Indian trader, Mr. Connor, who, with his Indian wife, welcomed me to his bark shanty, divided into rooms by handsome mats, and made me quite comfortable. He had plenty of good food, and entertained me besides by a fund of anecdotes, incidents in Indian history, and adventures of traders, trappers and missionaries in the Lake Superior and St. Croix region. He was a very intelligent and genial man. Next day I went to Russell's farm, paddled a canoe to Ground House river, and traveled thence on foot to Ann river, where I found the parties of whom I was in quest, Greely, Colby, Otis and others, a jolly log driving crew, with whom I spent a very pleasant evening. On the return journey, about two miles above the mouth of Ground House river, I saw the ruins of the trading house in which Henry Rust was killed. Rust, at the time of his murder, was selling whisky for Jack Drake. Rev. W. T. Boutwell gives the following account of the murder: "In the winter of '46 and '47 I visited the camps of Kent & True and Greely & Blake. On one occasion I met Rust, and asked him to come and hear me preach. He did not attend. On this day I preached at three camps. On the following night, at Greely's camp, came a midnight visitor with word that Rust had been shot. Seventy-five men armed themselves with all kinds of weapons, proceeded to the scene of the tragedy, removed the body of Rust and all valuables from the house, knocked out the heads of two whisky barrels and fired the house, the whisky greatly aiding the combustion. I removed the body to Pokegama and buried it there. Forty men attended the funeral. They held a meeting and resolved to clear the country of whisky. They commenced by destroying two barrels of it for Jarvis. He begged hard for his whisky, saying he was a poor man, and in debt to Frank Steele at Fort Snelling. The response was, 'Out with your whisky,' and it was destroyed before his eyes. The whisky of two other trading stations followed. For a brief period there was peace, but the whisky soon put in an appearance again."

The first term of district court held in Minnesota, then Wisconsin, was convened in Stillwater, the county seat of St. Croix county, June 1st. It was held in the upper story of John McKusick's store, southwest corner of Maine and Myrtle streets, Hon. Charles Dunn presiding. The session lasted one week. The bounds of St. Croix county then included Crawford county, Wisconsin, on the south, Brown county, Wisconsin, and the Lake Superior country on the east, the region as far as the British possessions on the north, and to the Mississippi river on the west. The jurors were found within a circuit of a hundred miles.

The grand jury was composed of the following gentlemen:

Jonathan McKusick, J. W. Furber, J. L. Taylor, W. R. Brown, Chas. Cavalier, J. A. Ford, Hazen Mooers, C. Lyman, C. A. Tuttle, Hilton Doe, Elam Greely, Martin Mower, Jr., Edward Blake, W. B. Dibble, Harmon Crandall, Jerry Ross, James Saunders, Joseph Brown, J. R. Irving, J. W. Simpson, John Holton, Pascal Aldrich, and Albert Harris.

Joseph R. Brown acted as clerk of court, Jonathan E. McKusick as foreman of the grand jury, and Morton S. Wilkinson as prosecuting attorney.

The attorneys present were: M. S. Wilkinson, of Stillwater; A. Brunson, of Prairie du Chien; Ben C Eastman, of Platteville, Crawford and Frank Dunn, of Mineral Point. There were but few civil cases. Nodin and Ne-she-ke-o-ge-ma were indicted for murder, tried and acquitted on the ground that the killing was the result of a drunken brawl.

This season, in addition to attending to my duties as sheriff, I went to St. Louis with a raft of logs. The steamer War Eagle, Capt. Smith Harris, towed through the two lakes, St. Croix and Pepin, a fleet containing ten acres of logs. During the winter of 1847-8, I was engaged in logging. It was difficult to get supplies to the pineries before the swamps were frozen over. This season my goods were taken by batteaus from Stillwater to Clam lake.

AMUSEMENTS.--SOCIETY BALL IN STILLWATER.

A writer in the Stillwater Lumberman, April 23, 1877, gives a sketchy account of an old time ball, from which we select a few items:

Anson Northrup kept what we called a first class hotel. If a man had blankets he could spread them upon the floor and sleep till the bell rang. If he had none he spread himself on the floor and paid for his lodging by tending stove and keeping the dogs from fighting. It was one of the aristocratic rules of the house that a man who slept in blankets was not to be disturbed by dogs.

At one time our popular landlord got up a ball. He sent round a copper colored card,--a half-breed Indian boy,--to tell all the folks to come. Everybody was invited. At the appointed hour they began to assemble. Soon all in town arrived except one Smith. Frequent inquiries were made for Smith, and at last a deputation was sent to inquire the cause of his absence; when it transpired that he had broken his leg. He said he was helping the landlord roll a barrel of whisky from the landing when the barrel slipped, and, rolling back on his leg, broke it. Northrup said that he had bet him one gallon of whisky that he could not lift the barrel to his lips and drink from the bung. In attempting to do this the barrel had slipped from his grasp with the result before mentioned. The wife regretted the accident very much, and said that if it had not been for that barrel of whisky, or some other whisky, they might have both attended the dance. She could have put out the fire, locked up the house, tied up the dog and taken her nine days' old baby with her. "There would be younger babies at the dance," she said.

Everything was ready. The ball opened with three "French fours," or two over. They danced a French two, the music consisting of one old violin with three strings, played by a half-breed from St. Croix Falls. He played but one tune and called it, "Off she goes to Miramachee." This carried a "French four" well enough, but when we danced a cotillion or hornpipe there was a great deal of rolling around instead of dancing. We often called for a new tune. "Oh, yes, gentlemen, you shall have him," but when we got him it was the same old "Off she goes." He worked hard to please the company and the sweat rolled down his manly cheeks like the droppings from the eaves of a saw mill; but all this would not do; it was the same old "Off she goes." There were twenty-four couples at the ball. The ladies brought with them their babies, fourteen in number, and ranging from six weeks to six months old. The night passed merrily, uproariously, but without tragic incident. The fiddler became at last so tipsy that he could no longer play "Off she goes to Miramachee," and staggered off to that locality himself. The only thing direful occurred at the breaking up, about five o'clock in the morning. The fourteen babies had been laid to sleep on a bed, but some malevolent genius during the dance mixed them up and changed their wraps, so that the mothers, in the hurry of their departure, gathered and took home with them each one some other mother's darling, and this deponent saith not that the snarl has ever been untangled and the babies restored to their rightful mothers.

With the year 1848 a new era dawned upon Stillwater and the valley of the St. Croix. Great changes had taken place in the little town. There were many new citizens, new buildings had been erected and the streets were much improved. Slabs had been placed over the quagmires on Main street. A stage route had been established to St. Paul, on which stages ran regularly. This was the first stage route in Minnesota.

The correction lines of the government survey had been run in 1846-7, chiefly in the latter year. Township, range and section lines were run in 1847, and in the early part of 1848. Prior to this claims had been made and were held subject to the limitations of the first legal survey. The creation of the new state of Wisconsin and the prospective organization of Minnesota Territory, the development of the lumbering business and the formal opening of the government lands to entry, gave an impetus to immigration. Stillwater profited largely by this immigration, it being an objective point. Population increased. The village was regularly surveyed and platted in the fall of 1848, Harvey Wilson, surveyor. Stillwater, although it never aspired to be the future capital of the Territory, became a headquarters for political characters and a place for public meetings for the discussions of territorial and other public questions. It was convenient of access, and contained up to that time a greater population than was to be found in St. Paul, and it seemed likely to become the commercial metropolis of the Territory.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] For the facts in this history I am indebted to John McKusick, Jacob Fisher, Elias McKean, and Elam Greely.