History of Washington County and the St. Croix Valley, including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, by ... E. D. Neill, and Outlines of the History of Minnesota, by J. F. Williams

Front matter

HISTORY Ill-' WASHINGTON COUNTY AND the ST. CROIX Y ALLEY. INCLUDING THE EXPLORERS and PIONEERS of MINNESOTA By REV. EDWARD D. NEILL AMI OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF MINNESOTA By J. FLETCHER WILLIAMS MINNEAPOLIS NORTH STAK I'UBLISHINO COMPANY, 1881. JOHNSON, SMITH .t HARRISON. PRINTERS, .MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. CONTENTS.

CHAPTER LV. PAGE

Newport, - - 380-385 CHAPTER LV1. Woodbuxy, - - 386-399

Preface

. We live not alone in the present but also in the past and suture. The radius that circumscribes our lives must necessarily extend back indefinitely and forward infinitely. We can never look out thoughtfully at our immediate surroundings but a course of reasoning will start up leading us to inquire the causes that produced the development around us, and at the same time we are led to conjecture the results to follow causes now in operation. We are thus linked indissolubly with the past and the future. If, then, the past is not simply a stepping-stone to the future, but a part of our very selves, we can not afford to ignore, or separate it from ourselves as a member might be lopped off from our bodies ; for though the body thus maimed, might perform many and perhaps most of its functions, still it could never again be called complete.

We therefore present this volume to our patrons, not as something ex trinsic, to which we would attract their notice and secure their favor, but as a part of themselves, and an important part, which it is the province of the historian to re-invigorate and restore to its rightful owner. Moreover, we can not but hope that we shall thus confer much pleasure. The recounting of events which have transpired in our own neighborhood is the most inter esting of all history. There is a fascination in the study of the intermingled facts and fiction of the past which is heightened by a familiarity with the localities described. The writer remembers the glow of enthusiasm with which he once stood at the entrance of the old fort at Ticonderoga, and re peated the words of Ethan Allen : " In the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress," etc.

The river which flows through our native village acquires a new interest when, in imagination, we see the Indian canoe on its surface and the skin-covered tepee on its banks, as in days of yore. Log cabins, straw roofs, and the rude "betterments" of the hardy pioneer, are the next changes on the scene, followed soon by mushroom towns, some of which perish as quickly as they sprung up, while others astonish us by their rapid growth ; cities are built, and moss and ivy, the evidences of age, accumulate. The log cabin and all the steps of first settlement are things of the past; the place which knew them shall know them no moie forever. Our purpose is to present these pictures in their natural succession, arousing the enthusiasm of the reader, if possible, and giving him a more vig orous enjoyment of the present by linking it with the past.

The compass of the work is wide, extending over a long period of time, embracing the accounts of early explorers, also reaching back among the legends of the past, and approaching the events of the day, almost undesignedly casting a prophetic glance forward at what must be in the future after such a beginning.

PREFACE.

. IV Washington county and the St. Croix valley present an exceptionally rich field for a work of this character. To the Indian it was the valley of bones ; to the'white man it was a place of danger. Explorer, missionary, voyageur and trader have here left traces of their occupation, although the character of the hostile tribes prevented the St. Croix from becoming the principal highway of travel. Incidents connected with the early settlement derive interest from the Indian treaties of 1837, which pertained specially to the pineries of this valley. While reviewing these events and enterprises inaugurated for the development of the country, we come to regret that we can not claim the prestige belonging to the aristocracy of early settlers. It is but just to ourselves to state that the plan as conceived contemplated only a history of Washington county, and it was only after some time spent in collecting the material for such a history, that the facts were discovered to be so inextricably involved with those of the valley at large, as to require the story of the settlement of the whole to be embodied in this work.

The plan of the work was enlarged accordingly, and we trust this improvement in the original design will be appreciated by our patrons. To give in detail all the various sources from which the facts here given have been obtained, would be tedious if not impracticable. It may be sufficient to say that it fairly presents the history of our remarkable development and a faithful picture of our present condition. We must, however, express our obligations to a host of living witnesses, from whom a large portion of the facts have been obtained and doubtful points verified ; they have our hearty thanks. Material has been drawn largely from the columns of newspapers, which have given from time to time, a record of passing events. The contri bution of Rev. Edward D. Neill will be of great permanent value in imperish able print, and will be greatly prized by historiographers everywhere.

We have also drawn upon the accumulation of facts in the possession of the Minnesota Historical Society, for a paper by its secretary, Mr. J. Fletcher Williams. The value of a reservoir of historical data at the capital of the State, for such purposes, was fully appreciated, and the maintenance of such a centre of information can not be too strongly advocated. In conclusion, we have an obligation to express to our patrons, and are pleased to acknowledge a liberal patronage and more than ordinary courtesy toward our employes ; for all of which we tender our hearty thanks. Hoping that those who have subscribed for and are about to receive this volume, will favor it with a kind reception, and take as much interest in reading as we have in compiling the history of Washington county and the St. Croix valley, we are, Very respectfully, yours, GEORGE E. WARNER, CHAS. M. FOOTE.

Chapter I. Footprints Of Civilization Toward The Extremity Of Lake Superior

Minnesota's Central Position.— D'Avagour's Prediction.— Nicolet's Visit to Grpen Bay.— First White Men in Minnesota.— Notices of Groselliers and Radisson.— Hurons Flee to Minnesota.— Visited by Frenchmen.— Father Menard Disappears.— Groselliers Visits Hudson's Bay.— Father Allouez Describes the Sioux Mission at La Pointe.— Father Marquette.— Sioux at Sault St. Marie,— Jesuit Missions Fail.— Groselliers Visits England.— Captain Gitlaiu, oi Boston, at Hudson's Bay,— Letter of Mother Superior of Ursulines., at Quebec,— Death of Groselliers. the St. Lawrence, with a party of Hurons, and probably during the next winter was trading at Green Bay, in Wisconsin. On the ninth of De cember, 1635, he had returned to Canada, and on the 7th of October, 1637, was married at Quebec, and the next month, went to Three Rivers, where he lived until 1642, when he died.

Of him it is said, in a letter written in 1640, that he had pen etrated farthest into those distant countries, and that if he had proceeded " three days more on a great river which flows from that lake [Green Bay] he would have found the sea." The Dakotahs, called by the Ojibways, Nado waysioux, or Sioux (Soos), as abbreviatsd by the French, used to claim superiority over other peo ple, because, their sacred men asserted that the mouth of the Minnesota River was immediately over the centre of the earth, and below the centre of the heavens. The first white men in Minnesota, of yvhoni we have any record, were, according to Garneau, two persons of Huguenot affinities, Medard Chouart, known as Sieur Groselliers, and Pierre d'Esprit, called Sieur Radisson. While this teaching is very different from that of the modern astronomer, it is certainly true, that the region west of Lake Superior, extending through the valley of the Minnesota, to the Missouri River, is one of the most healthful and fertile regions beneath the skies, and may prove to be the centre of the republic of the United States of America.

Baron D'Avagour, a brave officer, who was killed in fighting the Turks, while lie was Governor of Canada, in a dispatch to the French Government, dated August 14th, 1663, after referring to Lake Huron, wrote, that beyond " is met another, called Lake Superior, the waters of which, it is believed, flow into New Spain, and flits, according to general opinion, ought to be the centre of the country." Groselliers (pronounced Gro-zay-yay) was born near Ferte-sous-Jouarre, eleven miles east of Meaux, in France, and when about sixteen years of age, in the year 1641, came to Canada. The fur trade was the great avenue to prosperity, and in 1646, lie was among the Huron Indians, who then dyvelt upon the eastern shore of Lake Huron, bartering for peltries. On the second of September, 1647, at Quebec, he was married to Helen, the widow of Claude Etienne, who was the daughter of a pilot, Abraham Martin, whose baptismal name is still attached to the suburbs of that city, the " Plains of Abraham," made famous by the death there, of General Wolfe, of the English army, in 1759, and of General Montgomery, of the Continental army, in December, 1775, atthe :.

M. Footk, in the office uftue Librarian ofCongress, at Washington, D. C. As early as 1635, one of Champlain's interpreters, Jean Nicolet (Xicolay), who came to Cana da in 1618, reached the western shores of Lake Michigan. In the summer of 1634 he ascended Entered according lo act ofCongress, in the year 1S.S1, by Gso. E. Warnkr an. ulC. commencement of the " War for Independence." His son, Medard, was born in 1657, and the next year his mother died. The second wife of Gro selliers was Marguerite Hayet (Hayay) Radisson, the sister of his associate, in the exploration of the region west of Lake Superior. near what is now Bayfield. In the year 1659, Groselliers and Radisson arrived at Chagouamik on, and determined to visit the Hurons and Pe tuns, with whom the former had traded when they resided east of Lake Huron.

After a six days' journey, in a southwesterly direction, they reached their retreat toward the sources of the Black, Chippewa, and Wisconsin Rivers. From this point they journeyed north, and passed the whiter of 1659-60 among the " Nadouechiouec," or Sioux villages in the Mille Lacs (Mil Lak) region. From the Hurons they learned of a beautiful river, wide, large, deep, and comparable with the Saint Lawrence, the great Mississippi, which flows through the city of Minneapolis, and whose sources are in northern Minnesota. Radisson was born at St. Malo, and, while a boy, went to Paris, and from thence to Canada, and in 1656. at Three Rivers, married Elizabeth, the daughter of Madeleine Hainault, and, after her death, the daughter of Sir David Kirk or Kerkt, a zealous Huguenot, became his wife.

The Iroquois of New York, about the year 1650, drove the Hurons from their villages, and forced them to take refuge with their Mends the Tinon tates, called by the French, Petuns, because they cultivated tobacco. In time the Hurons and their allies, the Ottawas (Ottawwaws), were again driven by the Iroquois, and after successive wanderings, were found on the west side of Lake Michigan. In time they reached the Mississippi, and ascending above the Wisconsin, they found the Iowa River, on the west side, which they followed, and dwelt for a time with the Ayoes (Ioways) who were very friendly ; but being accustomed to a country of lakes and forests, they were not satisfied with the vast prairies. Return ing to the Mississippi, they ascended this river, in search of a better land, and were met by some of the Sioux or Dakotahs, and conducted to their villages, where they were well received.

The Sioux, delighted with the axes, knives and awls of European manufacture, which had been pre sented to them, allowed the refugees to settle upon an island in the Mississippi, below the mouth of the St. Croix River, called Bald Island from the absence of trees, about nine miles from the site of the present city of Hastings. Possessed of firearms, the Hurons and Ottawas asserted their superiority, and determined to conquer the country for themselves, and having incurred the hostility of the Sioux, were obliged to flee from the isle in the Mississippi. Descending below Lake Pepin, they reached the Black River, and ascending it, found an unoccupied country around its sources and that of the Chippeway. In this region the Hurons established themselves, while their allies, the Ottawas, moved eastward, till they found the shores of Lake Superior, and set tled at Chagouamikon (Sha - gah - wah - mik - ong ) Northeast of Mille Lacs, toward the extremity of Lake Superior, they met the "Poualak,"or Assiniboines of the prairie, a separated band of the Sioux, who, as wood was scarce and small, made fire with coal (charbon de terre) and dwelt in tents of skins ; although some of the more in dustrious built cabins of clay (terre grasse), like the swallows build their nests.

The spring and summer of 1660, Groselliers and Radisson passed in trading around Lake Superior. On the 19th of August they returned to Mon treal, with three hundred Indians and sixty canoes loaded with " a wealth of skins." " Furs of bison and of beaver, Furs of sable and of ermine." The citizens were deeply stirred by the travelers' tales of the vastness and richness of the region they had visited, and their many romantic adventures. In a few days, they began their return to the far West, accompanied by six Frenchmen and two priests, one of whom was the Jesuit, Rene Me nard. His hair whitened by age, and his mind ripened by long experience, he seemed the man for the mission. Two hours after midnight, of the day before departure, the venerable missionary penned at " Three Rivers," the following letter to a friend : 1 Reverend Father : " The peace of Christ be with you : I write to you probably the last, which I hope will be the seal of our friendship until eternity.

Love whom the Lord Jesus did not disdain to love, though the greatest of sinners; for he loves whom he FATHER MENARD LOST IN WISCONSIN. 3 loads with his cross. Let your friendship, my good Father, be useful to me by the desirable fruits of your daily sacrifice. Upon De ITsle's map of Louisiana, published nearly two centuries ago, there appears the Lake of the Ottawas, and the Lake of the Old or De serted Settlement, west of Green Bay, and south of Lake Superior. The Lake of the Old Planta tion is supposed to have been the spot occupied by the Hurons at the time when Menard attempted to visit them. One way of access to this seclu ded spot was from Lake Superior to the head waters of the Ontanagon River, and then by a portage, to the lake. It could also be reached from the headwaters of the Wisconsin, Black and Chip pewa Rivers, and some have said that Menard descended the Wisconsin and ascended the Black River.

" In three or four months you may remember me at the memento for the dead, on account of my old age, my weak constitution and the hard ships I lay under amongst these tribes. Never theless, I am hi peace, for I have not been led to this mission by any temporal motive, but I think it was by the voice of God. I was to resist the grace of God by not coming. Eternal remorse would have tormented me, had I not come when I had the opportunity. " We have been a little surprized, not being able to provide ourselves with vestments and oth er things, but he who feeds the little birds, and clothes the lilies of the fields, will take care of his servants; and though it should happen we should die of want, wre would esteem ourselves happy. I am burdened with busmess. What I can do is to recommend our journey to your daily sacrifice, and to embrace you with the same sen timents of heart as I hope to do in eternity.

Perrot, who lived at the same time, writes : "Father Menard, who was sent as missionary among the Outaouas [Utaw-waws] accompanied by certain Frenchmen who were going to trade with that people, was left by all who were with him, except one, who rendered to him until death, all of the services and help that he could have hoped. The Father followed the Outaouas [Utaw waws] to the Lake of the Illinoets [Illino-ay, now Michigan] and in their flight to the Louisianne, [Mississippi] to above the Black River. There this missionary had but one Frenchman for a companion. This Frenchman carefully followed the route, and made a portage at the same place as the Outaouas. He found himself in a rapid, one day, that was carrying him away in his canoe. The Father, to assist, debarked from his own, but did not find a good path to come to him.

He en tered one that had been made by beasts, and de siring to return, became confused in a labyrinth of trees, and was lost. The Frenchman, after having ascended the rapids with great labor, awaited the good Father, and, as he did not come, resolved to search for him. With all his might, for several days, he called his name in the woods, hoping to find him, but it was useless. He met, however, a Sakis [Sauk] who was carrying the camp-kettle of the missionary, and who gave him some intelligence. He assured him that he had found his foot -prints at some distance, but that he had not seen the Father. He told him, also, that he had found the tracks of several, who were going towards the Scioux. He declared that he supposed that the Scioux might have killed or captured him. Indeed, several years afterwards, " My Reverend Father, Your most humble and affectionate servant in Jesus Christ.

R. MENARD. "From the Three Rivers, this 26th August, 2 o'clock after midnight, 1660." On the loth of October, the party with which he journeyed reached a bay on Lake Superior, where he found some of the Ottawas, who had fled from the Iroquois of New York. For more than eight months, surrounded by a few French voyageurs, he lived, to use his words, " in a kind of small hermitage, a cabin built of fir branches piled one on another, not so much to shield us from the rigor of the season as to correct my im agination, and persuade me I was sheltered." During the summer of 1661, he resolved to visit the Hurons, who had fled eastward from the Sioux of Minnesota, and encamped amid the marshes of Northern Wisconsin. Some Frenchmen, who had been among the Hurons, in vain attempted to dis suade him from the journey.

To their entreaties he replied, " I must go, if it cost me my life. I can not suffer souls to perish on the ground of saving the bodily life of a miserable old man like myself. WhatI Are we to serve God only when there is nothing to suffer, and no risk of life?" there were found among this tribe, his breviary and cassock, which they exposed at their festivals, making offerings to them of food." They are forty or fifty leagues from here, in a country of prairies, abounding in all kinds of game. They have fields, in which they do not sow Indian corn, but only tobacco. Providence has provided them with a species of marsh rice, which, toward the end of summer, they go to col lect in certain small lakes, that are covered with it. They presented me with some when I was at the extremity of Lake Tracy [Superior], where I saw them.

They do not use the gun, but only the bow and arrow with great dexterity. Their cabins are not covered with bark, but with deer skins well dried, and stitched together so that the cold does not enter. These people are above all other savage and w-arlike. In our presence they seem abashed, and were motionless as statues. They speak a language entirely unknown to us, and the savages about here do not understand them." In a journal of the Jesuits. Menard, about the seventh or eighth of August, 1661, is said to have been lost. Groselliers (Gro-zay-yay), while Menard was endeavoring to reach the retreat of the Hurons which he had made known to the authorities of Canada, was pushing through the country of the Assinebomes, on the northwest shore of Lake Superior, and at length, probably by Lake Alem pigon, or Nepigon, reached Hudson's Bay, and early in May, 1662, returned to Montreal, and surprised its citizens with his tale of new discov eries toyvard the Sea of the North.

The Hurons did not remain long toward the sources of the Black River, after Menard's disap pearance, and deserting their plantations, joined their allies, the Ottawas, at La Pointe, now Bay field, on Lake Superior. While here, they deter mined to send a war party of one hundred against the Sioux of Mille Lacs (Mil Lak) region. At length they met their foes, who drove them into one of the thousand marshes of the water-shed between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, where they hid themselves among the tall grasses. The Sioux, suspecting that they might attempt to es cape in the night, cut up beaver skins into strips, and hung thereon little bells, which they had ob tained from the French traders. The Hurons, emerging from their watery hidingplace, stumbled over the unseen cords, ringing the bells, and the Sioux instantly attacked, killing all but one.

The mission at La Pointe was not encouraging, and Allouez, " weary of their obstinate unbelief ," departed, but Marquette succeeded him for a brief period. The "Relations" of the Jesuits for 1670-71, allude to the Sioux or Dakotahs, and their attack upon the refugees at La Pointe : " There are certain people called Nadoussi, dreaded by their neighbors, and although they only use the bow and arrow, they use it with so much skill and dexterity, that in a moment they fill the air. After the Parthian method, they turn their heads in flight, and discharge their ar rows so rapidly that they are to be feared no less in their retreat than in their attack. About the year 1665, four Frenchmen visited the Sioux of Minnesota, from the west end of Lake Superior, accompanied by an Ottawa chief, and in the summer of the same year, a flotilla of canoes laden with peltries, came down to Mon treal.

Upon their return, on the eighth of Au gust, the Jesuit Father, Allouez, accompanied the traders, and, by the first of October, reached Che goimegon Bay, on or near the site of the modern town of Bayfield, on Lake Superior, where he found the refugee Hurons and Ottawas. "While on an excursion to Lake Alempigon, now Ne pigon, this missionary saw, near the mouth of Saint Louis River, in Minnesota, some of the Sioux. He writes : " There is a tribe to the west of this, toward the great river called Messipi. " They dwell on the shores and around the great river Messipi, of which we shall speak. They number no less than fifteen populous towns, and yet they know not how to cultivate the earth by seeding it, contenting themselves with a sort of marsh rye, wThich we call wild oats. " For sixty leagues from the extremity of the upper lakes, towards sunset, and, as it were, hi the centre of the western nations, they have all united their force by a general league, which has been made against them, as against a common enemy. •■ They speak a peculiar language, entirely dis tinct from that of the Algonquins and Hurons, whom they generally surpass in generosity, since they often content themselves with the glory of GROSELLIERS AND RADISSON IN THE ENGLISH SERVICE. 5 having obtained the victory, and release the pris oners they have taken in battle. at the occurrence, and in a letter to Colbert, one of the Ministers of Louis the Fourteenth, speaks in condemnation of this discharge of a cannon by a Brother attached to the Jesuit Mission.

" Our Outouacs of the Point of the Holy Ghost [La Pointe, now Bayfield] had to the present time kept up a kind of peace with them, but affairs having become embroiled during last winter, and some murders having been committed on both sides, our savages had reason to apprehend that the storm would soon burst upon them, and judged that it was safer for them to leave the place, which in fact they did in the spring." From this period, the missions of the Church of Rome, near Lake Superior, began to wane. Shea, a devout historian of that church, writes: "In 1680, Father Enjalran was apparently alone at Green Bay, and Pierson at Mackinaw ; the latter mission still comprising the two villages, Huron and Kiskakon. Of the other missions, neither Le Clerq nor Hennepin, the Recollect, writers of the West at this time, makes any mention, or in any way alludes to their existence, and La lion tan mentions the Jesuit missions only to ridicule them." •Marquette, on the 13th of September, 1669, writes : " The Nadouessi are the Iroquois of this country. * * * they lie northwest of the Mission of the Holy Ghost [La Pointe, the modern Bay field] and we have not yet visited them, having confined ourselves to the conversion of the Otta was."

The Pigeon River, a part of the northern boundary of Miimesota, was called on the Frencli maps Grosellier's River, after the first explorer of Min nesota, yvhose career, with his associate Kadisson, became quite prominent in connection with the Hudson Bay region. Soon after this, hostilities began between the Sioux and the Hurons and Ottayvas of La Pointe, and the former compelled their foes to seek an other resting place, toward the eastern extremity of Lake Superior, and at length they pitched their tents at Mackinaw. A disagreement occurring between Groselliers and his partners in Quebec, he proceeded to Paris, and from thence to London, where he was intro duced to the nephew of Charles I., who led the cavalry charge against Fairfax and Cromwell at Naseby, afterwards commander of the English fleet.

The Prince listened with pleasure to the narrative of travel, and endorsed the plans for prosecuting the fur trade and seeking a northwest passage to Asia. The scientific men of Eng land were also full of the enterprise, in the hope that it would increase a knowledge of nature. The Secretary of the Royal Society yvrote to Rob ert Boyle, the distinguished philosopher, a too sanguine letter. His words were : " Surely I need not tell you from hence what is said here, with great joy, of the discovery of a northyvest passage; and by two Englishmen and one Frenchman represented to his Majesty at Oxford, and an swered by the grant of a vessel to sail into Hud son's Bay and channel into the South Sea." In 1674, some Sioux warriors came down to Sault Saint Marie, to make a treaty of peace yvith adjacent tribes.

A friend of the Abbe de Galli nee wrote that a council was had at the fort to which "the Nadouessioux sent twelve deputies, and the others forty. During the conference, one of the latter, knife in hand, drew near the breast of one of the Nadouessioux, who showed surprise at the movement ; when the Indian with the knife reproached him for cowardice. The Nadouessioux said he was not afraid, when the other planted the knife in his heart, and killed him. All the savages then engaged in conflict, and the Nadouessioux bravely defended them selves, but, overwhelmed by numbers, nine of them were killed. The two who survived rushed into the chapel, and closed the door. Here they found munitions of war, and fired guns at their enemies, who became anxious to burn down the chapel, but the Jesuits would not permit it, be cause they had their skins stored between its roof and ceiling.

In this extremity, a Jesuit, Louis Le Boeme, advised that a cannon should be point ed at the door, which was discharged, and the two brave Sioux were killed." The ship Nonsuch was fitted out, in charge of Captain Zachary Gillam, a son of one of the early settlers of Boston ; and in this vessel Groselliers and Radisson left the Thames, in June, 1668, and in September reached a tributary of Hudson's Bay. The next year, by way of Boston, they re turned to England, and in 1670, a trading com- Governor Frontenac of Canada, was indignant pany was chartered, still known among venerable English corporations as " The Hudson's Bay Company." He has taken possession of this great region for the King of England, and for his personal benefit A publication for the benefit of this French ad venturer, has been made in England.

He was a youth when he arrived here, and his wife and children are yet here." The Reverend Mother of the Incarnation, Su perior of the Ursulines of Quebec, in a letter of the 27th of August, 1670, writes thus : " It was about this time that a Frenchman of our Touraine, named des Groselliers, married in this country, and as he had not been successful in making a fortune, was seized with a fancy to go to New England to better his condition. He excited a hope among the English that he had found a passage to the Sea of the North. With this expectation, he was sent as an envoy to Eng land, where there was given to him, a vessel, with crew and every thing necessary for the voyage. With these advantages, he put to sea, and in place of the usual route, wiiich others had ta ken in vain, he sailed in another direction, and searched so wide, that he found the grand Bay of the North.