Fifty Years In The Northwest

The party with their own boats descended the Mississippi, distributing tobacco, medals and flags to Indians on their way.4 "When I see the great cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul now," said Mr. Boutwell, "I have to reflect that when we made our memorable trip down the river in 1832 we stopped at St. Anthony falls, and I stood on the east bank and looked across the river in profound admiration of the most beautiful landscape I had ever seen, with only a few head of government cattle belonging at Fort Snelling grazing upon it. The whole country on both sides of the river was as God had made it. When we passed the locality of St. Paul there was not even an Indian tepee to be seen."

The party halted at a Sioux Indian village at Kaposia, a few miles below St. Paul, and after a short consultation proceeded to the mouth of the St. Croix, and ascending the St. Croix to its source, made a portage of two miles to the source of the Burnt Wood river, which they descended to Lake Superior, and thence returned to their starting place. In the following year Mr. Boutwell established a mission at Leech lake. In giving an account of his reception by the Indians, he says: "When I arrived the men, with a few exceptions, were making their fall hunts, while their families remained at the lake and its vicinity to gather their corn and make rice. A few lodges were encamped quite near. These I began to visit, for the purpose of reading, singing, etc., in order to interest the children and awaken in them the desire for instruction. I told them about the children at Mackinaw, the Sault, and at La Pointe, who could read, write and sing. To this they would listen attentively, while the mother would often reply: 'My children are poor and ignorant.' To a person unaccustomed to Indian manners and Indian wildness it would have been amusing to have seen the little ones, as I approached their lodge, running and screaming, more terrified, if possible, than if they had met a bear robbed of her whelps. It was not long, however, before most of them overcame their fears; and in a few days my dwelling, a lodge which I occupied for three or four weeks, was frequented from morning till evening by an interesting group of boys, all desirous to learn to read, sing, etc. To have seen them hanging, some on one knee, others on my shoulder, reading and singing, while others, whether from shame or fear I know not, who dared not venture within, were peeping in through the sides of the cottage, or lying flat upon the ground and looking under the bottom, might have provoked a smile; especially to have seen them as they caught a glance of my eye, springing upon their feet and running like so many wild asses colts. The rain, cold and snow were alike to them, in which they would come, day after day, many of them clad merely with a blanket and a narrow strip of cloth about the loins. The men at length returned, and an opportunity was presented me for reading to them. The greater part listened attentively. Some would come back and ask me to read more. Others laughed, and aimed to make sport of both me and my mission."

He continued to labor here until 1837, when the Indians becoming troublesome, and having murdered Aitkin, an agent of the fur company, he deemed it advisable to remove the mission to Pokegama lake. He labored here faithfully, much respected by the Indians for his firmness and christian devotion. In 1847 he removed to Stillwater and settled on a farm near the city, where he is spending the remainder of his days, cared for by his affectionate daughter Kate and her kind husband, – Jones. Though infirm in body on account of advanced age his mind is clear and his memory retentive. He enjoys the respect accorded to venerable age, and that which pertains to an early and middle life spent in unusual toils and hardships in the noblest work intrusted to the hands of man.

Mrs. Hester Crooks Boutwell deserves honorable mention as the early companion of the devoted missionary. She was the daughter of Ramsey Crooks, of New York, an Indian trader. Her mother was a half-breed Ojibway woman. Hester Crooks was born on Drummond island, Lake Huron, May 30, 1817. Her father gave her a superior education at Mackinaw mission. She was a woman of tall and commanding figure, her black hair and eyes indicating her Indian origin. She was a fluent conversationalist, and careful and tidy in her personal appearance. She died in Stillwater in 1853, leaving a family of seven children.

CHENGWATANA

This town derived its name from the Chippewa words, "cheng-wa" (pine) and "tana" (city), applied to an Indian village which from time immemorial had been located near the mouth of Cross lake. This locality had long been a rallying point for Indians and traders. When the writer visited it, in 1846, it had the appearance of an ancient place of resort. Half-breeds and whites with Indian wives settled here, and in 1852 there were several log houses, and a hotel kept by one Ebenezer Ayer. There was also a dam built for sluicing logs. Among the early settlers were Duane Porter, George Goodwin, Herman Trott, John G. Randall, Emil, Gustave and Adolph Munch. Mr. Trott built a fine residence on the shore of Cross lake, afterward the home of S. A. Hutchinson. The Munch brothers built a store and made other improvements. John G. Randall, in 1856-7-8, manufactured lumber, ran it down the Kanabec and St. Croix rivers to Rush Seba, Sunrise and Taylor's Falls. In 1852, and soon after the building of the government road to Superior City, a post office and a stage route from St. Paul to Superior City were established. The dam, to which reference has been made, was built in 1848, by Elam Greely. It is at the outlet of Cross lake and has ten feet head. The flowage covers many thousands of acres. The ownership has changed several times. The tolls levied amount to from ten to fifteen cents per thousand feet. The chartered operators control the flowage completely, opening and shutting gates at their pleasure. Many of the first settlers removed to other localities. Mr. Trott and the Munch brothers to St. Paul, J. G. Randall to Colorado, and Louis Ayd to Taylor's Falls.

In 1856 an effort was made to found a village on the site of the old Indian town of Chengwatana. Judd, Walker & Co. and Daniel A. Robertson surveyed and platted the village of Alhambra, but the name was not generally accepted, and the old Indian name of Chengwatana superseded it. The town of Chengwatana was organized in 1874. The first supervisors were Duane Porter, Resin Denman and Ferdinand Blank.

Louis Ayd was born in Germany in 1840; came to America in 1852 and settled in Chengwatana. He served three and a half years as a soldier during the Rebellion, and was seriously injured in the service. On his return he settled in Taylor's Falls. He is a well-to-do farmer and dealer in live stock for the meat market. He has been a member of the Roman Catholic church from childhood. He was married to Rosabella Hoffman, of Hudson, Wisconsin, in 1871.

Duane Porter, the son of a surgeon in the United States Army in the war of 1812, was born in Washington county, New York, in 1825; came West as far as Illinois in 1852, and to St. Croix Falls in 1844. He was married in 1848 to Mary Lapraire, and in the same year located at Chengwatama. His occupation is that of an explorer and lumberman. He has ten children living.

S. A. Hutchinson. – Mr. Hutchinson was a native of Maine, and while yet a youth came to the valley of the St. Croix, and located at Chengwatana, where he married a Chippewa woman, and raised a family of half-breed children. "Gus" Hutchinson, as he was familiarly called, had many noble traits of character and was very popular with his associates. He had a well trained mind; was skilled as a lumberman and explorer, and was of a genial disposition, honest in heart and true in his friendships. He was elected sheriff of Pine county, and served four years. On the night of Aug. 16, 1880, he was found in a sitting posture on his bed, lifeless, a rifle ball having pierced his heart. It appeared, on investigation, that his oldest son wanted to marry an Indian girl, to which his father objected. On the night after the murder the marriage took place in Indian style. Suspicion pointing strongly toward mother and son, they were arrested, and an indictment found by the grand jury against the son. He was tried and acquitted.

HINCKLEY

The township of Hinckley was organized in 1872. It includes a large area of land; heavily timbered with pine and hardwood. The soil is varied, consisting of black and yellow sand loam with clay subsoil. It abounds in meadows, marshes, tamarack swamps, pine and hardwood ridges, and is capable of cultivation.

THE VILLAGE OF HINCKLEY

Lies midway between St. Paul and Duluth, on the St. Paul & Daluth railroad. It was founded soon after the completion of the road. The Manitoba railroad passes through the village, running from St. Cloud to Superior. It was incorporated in 1885. The following were the first officers: President, James J. Brennan; recorder, S. W. Anderson; trustees, James Morrison, Nels Parson, John Perry; treasurer, John Burke; justices of the peace, John Brennan, A. B. Clinch; constable, Andrew Stone. Prior to this incorporation, Hinckley had suffered considerably from the lawlessness of its occasional or transient residents and visitors, and the large majority of the vote in favor of incorporation is justly considered as a triumph of law and order. The village has a saw mill doing a large business, a good depot, round house, four hotels, several stores, shops, and fine residences, a commodious school house, and two churches – a Lutheran and Catholic. The Minneapolis & Manitoba railroad connects here with the St. Paul & Duluth railroad, and is being extended to Superior.

James Morrison was born on Cape Breton island in 1840. Mr. Morrison was one of the first settlers of Hinckley, having come to the settlement in 1869, in the employ of the St. Paul & Duluth railroad. He has followed farming and hotel keeping. He is an active and industrious man, the proprietor of a large hotel, and a member of the Presbyterian church.

SANDSTONE VILLAGE

Is located in the northwest quarter of section 15, township 42, range 20. It contains about forty dwellings, three large boarding houses, two stores, one hotel and a stone saw mill with diamond-toothed saw, built by Ring & Tobin, at a cost of $30,000. The stone quarries of the Kettle River & Sandstone Company are located on sections 3, 10 and 15, in township 42, range 20, and extend two and three-quarters miles on each side of Kettle river. The first work in opening the quarries was done Aug. 22, 1885. The village plat was surveyed in June, 1887, and a post office established there the February preceding, W. H. Grant, Jr., being the first postmaster. The saw mill and the quarries give employment to about four hundred men. Sandstone is located on the old site of Fortuna. The Kettle River railroad was built to the quarries in 1886, from the St. Paul & Duluth railroad, a distance of five miles. The Manitoba railroad, running to Superior, passes through the village.

William H. Grant, Sr., one of the founders of Hinckley, and the proprietor and founder of the Sandstone enterprise, was born Dec. 23, 1829, at Lyndborough, New Hampshire. He received his education at Hancock Academy, New Hampshire, and Yates Academy, Orleans county, New York. He studied law and was admitted to practice in 1854 at Hillsborough, New Hampshire. He came to St. Paul in 1859, where he still resides, his property interests at Sandstone being immediately under the super vision of his son, W. H. Grant, Jr. He sold his interest in May, 1888, for $100,000. He was married to Martha McKean in New Hampshire, January, 1855.

KETTLE RIVER

The town of Kettle River, including townships 43 and 44, lying on the west line of the county, was organized in 1874. S. S. Griggs was chairman of the first board of supervisors. The town contains but one school district. The first settler was S. S. Griggs, who, in company with John S. Prince, of St. Paul, built a saw mill at the St. Paul & Duluth railroad crossing on Kettle river, in 1871-72. This was not a successful venture. A post office was established at the mill, and S. S. Griggs was appointed postmaster. The Manitoba and St. Paul & Duluth railroads pass through the town from south to north. The township now has no settlement except about twenty-four families at the station and village. It is heavily timbered with pine and hardwood. There are meadows, marshes and tamarack swamps, fine streams and beautiful lakes, and much excellent farming land besides. The Pine lakes in township 43, range 21, are beautiful sheets of water. There are no good roads or public improvements.

John C. Hanley was born in Covington, Kentucky, and was educated at Oxford College, Ohio. He came to St. Paul in 1849, as a machinist and millwright. He was married in 1853, at St. Anthony, to Sophia Ramsdale. In 1862 he enlisted in Company M, Minnesota Mounted Cavalry, a company recruited principally at Sunrise, Chisago county, by Capt. James Starkey. He was commissioned second lieutenant and was with Gen. Sibleys expedition against the Sioux. Subsequently he received a captain's commission, and recruited Company M, Second Minnesota Cavalry, stationed on the frontier. He was mustered out in 1865. He resides at Kettle River.

MISSION CREEK

Was organized as a town in 1880. The first supervisors were M. Thomas, T. Johnson, Wm. McKean; Messrs. H. A. Taylor and Philip Riley & Co., of St. Paul, were the first operators here. They built a saw mill with a capacity of 3,000,000 feet per annum. This property has changed owners, and is now held by the John Martin Lumber Company, of St. Paul. It was burned down in 1885, but was immediately rebuilt.

PINE CITY

The town of Pine City was organized in 1874. The first supervisors were Hiram Brackett, H. B. Hoffman and James Griffith. The village of Pine City was platted in 1869. The original proprietors were James and Stephen H. Petrie, Catherine Sloan and Luther Mendenhall. The survey was made by B. W. Brunson. Wm. Branch acted as attorney and the acknowledgment was made by J. J. Egan, notary public, of St. Louis county. The village was organized in 1881, but the officers did not qualify until the following year.

The oldest settler was probably a Mr. Kirkland, of Quincy, Illinois, who worked for some time on the banks of Cross lake, on the present site of Pine City, hoping to be able to plant a colony there, but, according to the testimony of Mrs. E. T. Ayer, the missionary became disheartened by the Indian troubles, and left in 1841, abandoning his scheme. The completion of the railroad which crosses the Kanabec river at this point gave a great impetus to the prosperity of the village and neighborhood. It now contains a fine court house, built at a cost of $8,000, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and Lutheran churches, good buildings for graded and common schools, and three hotels. Pine City has besides a pleasant park, the gift of Capt. Richard G. Robinson, which has been adorned and embellished and named after the donor, "Robinson Park."

Richard G. Robinson was born in Jackson county, Iowa, in 1829; he moved thence with his parents to Illinois, and to St. Croix Falls in 1848, where he followed lumbering, scaling, surveying and exploring. He lived at St. Croix and Taylor's Falls until 1872, when he received the appointment of land examiner for the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad Company. He was in the employ of the company twelve years, making his home at Pine City, where he still lives, engaged in lumbering and real estate. He was married to Catharine A. Fullenwider, of Iowa. Mrs. Robinson died at Pine City in 1885.

Hiram Brackett was born in 1817, in China, Maine, and came to Pine City in 1868 from Aroostook county, Maine. He was among the first to make improvements. He built a hotel and was the first postmaster in the town. He died in 1883, leaving an estimable widow, three sons, John, Albert and Frank, and two daughters, Emily, married to Henry A. Linn, of Milwaukee, and Louise, married to Henry D. Crohurst, of Pine City.

Randall K. Burrows, a native of Connecticut, came to Pine City in 1869, and, with Adolph Munch, built a large stave mill on the shores of Cross lake. This proved an unfortunate investment, resulting in litigation, during the progress of which the mill was destroyed by fire, in 1878. Mr. Burrows was an active, enthusiastic man, and worked hard for the interests of Pine City, filling many positions of trust. He was elected to the state senate from the Twenty-eighth district, in 1874. His seat was contested by John Hallburg, of Centre City. The Senate referred the question to the people, but in the election that followed (1875) he was defeated. In 1879 he removed to Dakota, where he died three years later.

John S. Ferson came from Michigan to Pine City in 1869. During that and the succeeding year he was principal in building a first class steam saw mill. It was located on a bay in the western part of the city. This mill was burned in 1872, rebuilt and burned again. Mr. Ferson has since removed to Dakota.

Samuel Millet settled in Pine City in 1869, and in 1870 erected the Bay View House, on an elevated plateau commanding a fine view of Cross lake and Kanabec river. Mr. Millet died in 1879, leaving a widow, two sons and three daughters.

ROCK CREEK

Was organized March, 1874. The first supervisors were Enoch Horton, Frank England, and S. M. Hewson. Obadiah Hewsom was town clerk. Enoch Horton and C. W. Gill were justices of the peace. Mr. Horton was the first settler, he having come to the county in 1872. The year following he raised the first crop. Mr. Horton was from Colchester, New York. He was born in 1811, and came to Minnesota in 1862. He was the first postmaster at Rock Creek. Other settlers came in slowly. Edgerton, Gill & Co. built a saw mill in 1873, with a capacity of 3,000,000 feet. This property has changed hands several times.

Capt. Enoch Horton commenced official life at the age of twenty-two years, in New York, where he served twenty-eight years as justice of the peace and county judge. He served during the Rebellion as captain of a company of sharpshooters.

ROYALTON

Was organized in 1880. The first supervisors were Edward Peterson, Alexis Kain and Joseph Heiniger. It is a good farming township with many good farms. The first settlement was made by Elam Greely, in 1849, who made a farm and built a large barn, hauling the lumber from Marine Mills, a distance of seventy miles. The town was named in honor of Royal C. Gray, who located on the Greely farm in 1854, in the northwest quarter of section 15, township 38, range 22, on the banks of the Kanabec river.

WINDERMERE

Was organized as a town Jan. 3, 1882. The first supervisors were August Schog, William Champlain and Frank Bloomquist.

The towns of Kettle River, Hinckley and Pine City were organized, and Chengwatana reorganized by special act of the legislature in 1874, and at that time embraced all the territory in the county. Since 1874, Mission Creek, Rock Creek and Royalton have been set off from Pine City and Windermere from Kettle River.

The following villages were platted at the dates named: Neshodana, by Clark, Cowell & Foster, in townships 41 and 42, ranges 15 and 16, in 1856; Fortuna, by W. A. Porter, surveyor, at the crossing of Kettle river and the military road, January, 1857; St. John's, by M. L. Benson, surveyor, in section 26, township 41, range 17, October, 1857; Midway, by Frank B. and Julia L. Lewis, proprietors, in the northwest quarter of section 34, township 40, range 21, September, 1855.

A ROCK CREEK MURDER

A man passing under the name of Harris had been arrested for stealing horses. George Hathaway started with the prisoner to Sunrise. Five days afterward Hathaway's dead body was found, and the inquest decided that he probably met his death by stabbing or shooting at the hands of his prisoner, who made his escape, and was never again heard from. Hathaway was a native of Passadumkeag, Maine.

THE BURNING OF A JAIL

March 22, 1884, a couple of young men, John Cope and William Leonard, were arrested for drunkenness and disorderly conduct, and confined in the Pine City jail, a wooden structure. About three o'clock the next morning the jail was found to be on fire. All efforts to extinguish the flames or rescue the unhappy prisoners were unavailing. The fire originated from within, in all probability from the careless action of the prisoners themselves in striking matches, either for the purpose of smoking or of exploring their cells.

A DISFIGURED FAMILY

Mr. Redman, the agent at the Kettle River railroad station, called my attention to the fact that old Batice is singularly disfigured. He was born without thumbs or big toes. The fingers and remaining toes resemble birds' claws. Two of the fingers of each hand and two of the toes on each foot are united to the tips but have distinct nails. Of his four children three are disfigured like the father. His grandchildren are many of them worse than himself, one having but one finger.

INDIAN FAITH CURE

A woman at Pokegama was badly burned by the explosion of gunpowder while she was putting it in a flask. Her face became terribly swollen and black. The missionaries did what they could for her, but thought she must die. After two days the Indian doctors held a medicine dance for her benefit. After they had gone through with their magic arts the woman arose, and, without any assistance, walked around distributing presents to the performers of the ceremony. It was truly wonderful. She recovered rapidly.

INDIAN GRAVES

The Chippewas bury their dead much as the whites do. The body is deposited in a grave and covered with earth. A low wooden covering, somewhat like the roof of a house, is reared above it, the gables resting on the ground. The roof is covered with white or bleached muslin, and surmounted by a board cross. An aperture about six inches square is left in each end of the structure. The head of the grave is toward the west, and here are deposited offerings of fruits and trinkets of various kinds. We found at one grave a broken saucer, an oyster can filled with blueberries, a large red apple, and a pair of old shoes. Friends of the deceased visit the graves for one or two years, renewing their tributes of affection, and bringing offerings of fruit according to the season, and various foods, from acorns to dried venison, but in time these visits are discontinued and the graves are neglected and forgotten.

STOICISM OF THE INDIAN

On the banks of the Kettle river a five-year-old boy burned his hand badly. The mother, after examining the wound, decided that it was incurable, ordered the boy to place his hand upon a block, and by a single blow from a common hatchet severed it from the wrist. The boy endured the suffering without flinching.

Old Batice, alias "Kettle," lived on Kettle river in 1880. Counting by moons he claims to have lived there ninety-nine years. He is certainly very old. He says that he has always been a friend to the whites, and that in the Sioux outbreak of 1862 he counseled his people to remain quiet; that he was the enemy of the Sioux, three of whom he had killed and scalped. To commemorate his warlike deeds in slaughtering his enemies, he wore three large eagle feathers in his gray hair. He claims to be half French.

AN INDIAN DANCE

In June, 1880, the Indians were practicing a new dance near the Kettle River railroad station, part of which it was my privilege to witness. The dance house was a rudely constructed pole frame covered with birch bark, fastened down with willow twigs. About thirty dancers, male and female, and of all ages, were crowded in the dance house, sweating, grunting, hopping and bounding at the tap of a deer skin drumhead, and the "chi-yi-chi-yi-chi-hoo" of a quartette of boys and girls, squatted in a corner of the bark house. The din was incessant, the chant of the singers, or howlers, monotonous and wearisome, yet the dancers stepped and bounded to their rude music as readily as do civilized dancers to the more exquisite music of stringed instruments. This dance was the same that so frightened the Burnett county people, and required at least ten days for its complete performance. A few minutes' observation amply satisfied us, and we gladly withdrew.