Fifty Years In The Northwest

Thomas H. Armstrong was born in Milan, Ohio, Feb. 6, 1829. He graduated from Western Reserve College in 1854, commenced the practice of law at La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1856, practiced at High Forest, Minnesota, until 1870, when he discontinued practice. Three years later he moved to Albert Lea, Minnesota, and established the Freeborn County Bank.

Mr. Armstrong has acted a prominent part in the legislation of the State, having been a representative in the legislatures of 1864 and 1865, and, as lieutenant governor, president of the senate for the four succeeding terms. He was elected speaker of the house in the legislature of 1865. As a presiding officer he was courteous, dignified, and fair in his rulings, and an excellent parliamentarian. April 1, 1868, he was married to Mrs. Elisabeth M. Butman, daughter of John Burgess, of Cleveland, Ohio.

Augustas Armstrong, a younger brother of the foregoing, and a prominent citizen of Albert Lea, died in 1873.

Moses K. Armstrong, another brother, has represented Dakota in Congress.

James B. Wakefield was born at Winstead, Litchfield county, Connecticut, March 21, 1828. He graduated at Trinity College, Hartford, in 1846; studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1851; came to Shakopee, Minnesota; practiced law two years and removed to Blue Earth City. He has been called to fill various and responsible public positions. He was a member of the legislature several terms, serving as representative in 1858, 63 and 66, and as senator in 1867-68-69. He served as deputy Indian agent at the Lower Sioux agency from 1856 to the Indian outbreak, and in 1869 was appointed receiver of the Winnebago land office, which position he held six years. From 1875 to 1879 he served as lieutenant governor of Minnesota, and from 1884 to 1886 as member of Congress. He served as a delegate to the Republican convention which nominated President Grant in 1868, and to the convention which nominated President Hayes in 1876. Mr. Wakefield was married in August, 1864, to Miss Nannette Reinhart, of Blue Earth City.

William Wallace Braden was born in Iberia, Ohio, Dec. 3, 1837. He was educated in the district schools and reared as a farmer. In November he came to Fillmore county with his father, and engaged in farming. He was a member of the legislature in 1866-67, and has served three terms as county treasurer. During the Civil War he served three years with the rank of lieutenant, and then of captain in Company K, Sixth Minnesota Volunteers, and was for some time detached from his command as provost marshal of Southern Missouri, with headquarters at Springfield. Capt. Braden is prominent as a Mason, and as a Republican takes an active interest in the politics of the State and nation. He was elected state auditor in 1881, and re-elected in 1885. He was married March 7, 1866, to Addie Griswold, of Pennsylvania.

Reuben Butters was born in Union, Lincoln county, Maine, May 26, 1816. He received such education as could be obtained at winter schools, and employed himself chiefly in clerking and mercantile pursuits until 1851, when he came to Minnesota and became the first permanent settler in the Minnesota valley above Shakopee. He made the first claim at Le Sueur, having, in connection with Messrs. Thompson and Lindsey, a station at that place, also at Kasota. He has been engaged chiefly in farming. He has also a stone quarry and store in Kasota, and does a fair amount of trading. Mr. Butters was a member of the first state legislature, and has served seven or eight sessions since. He was county commissioner many years. In politics he is a Democrat.

Mr. Butters has been twice married, first in November, 1847, to Elizabeth Hill, of Cleveland, Ohio, and second in May, 1861, to Mrs. Mary E. Rogers, of Maine. He died March 29, 1888.

Michael Doran, a most successful business man and prominent in political affairs, having served six terms in the state senate, was born in the county of Meath, Ireland, Nov. 1, 1829. He received but little education before coming to this country in 1850, when, although over twenty-one years of age, he obtained two years' schooling. He landed in New York City, remained in the State about a year and removed to Norwalk, Ohio, where he farmed and kept a grocery store. In 1856 he came westward and located at Le Sueur, where he engaged in farming. In 1860 he was elected county treasurer and served and held the office eight years. Since 1870 he has been engaged in banking, farming and real estate operations. He is also one of the owners of the elevator and flouring mill at Le Sueur.

In politics he is a Democrat and was an elector on the McClellan ticket. His senatorial terms were from 1872 to 1875 and 1877 and 1879. He has been twice married. His first wife was Ellen Brady, of Norwalk, Ohio, married in May, 1855. His second wife was Catherine J. Grady, of Le Sueur, married Feb. 10, 1864.

Andrew McCrea was born in New Brunswick in 1830, received a common school education and learned the business of farming and lumbering. His father having died early, the support of a mother and crippled brother devolved upon him. He was married to Jane Murphy, in New Brunswick, when he was twenty-one years of age. Mrs. McCrea died in 1878. He married a second wife in 1880. His family consists of eight sons and one daughter. He came to Minnesota in 1854, removed to Stearns county in 1858, and to Otter Tail county in 1872, where he now resides in the town of Perham. He was a member of the legislature of 1876-77, and of the senate of 1878 to 1882, inclusive. In 1885 he was appointed one of the commissioners to locate the second state prison.

John W. Blake was born in Foxcroft, Maine, in 1839. His parents moved to Wisconsin in 1840. He received a good education in the common schools, in Milton Academy, and Wisconsin State University, and became a civil engineer. He served as a soldier during the war of the Rebellion. In 1872 he came to Minnesota, located at Marshall, Lyon county, and the same year was elected a representative in the legislature. He was a member of the senate during the years 1875, 1876, 1882, and 1884.

Knute Nelson, born in Norway, came to America, studied law at Wisconsin University, and was admitted to the bar. He came to Alexandria in 1870, where he practiced law. He was a senator in the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth legislatures, and was elected representative to Congress from the Fifth Minnesota district in 1884 and 1886. Mr. Nelson is a man of unquestioned ability and force, a strong Republican, and an enthusiastic advocate of a modified tariff.

W. R. Denny was born at Keene, New Hampshire, in 1839; received an academic education, and after spending eight years in Wisconsin, came to Carver, Minnesota, in 1867. He served in the state legislatures of 1874, 1876, 1879, and 1881. He was appointed United States marshal from 1882 to 1886. He was Grand Master of the Masonic fraternity in 1884-5. He was married in Wisconsin in 1863, and has a family of four children.

APPENDIX.

MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS, ITEMS AND STATISTICS, INCLUDING

AN ACCURATE ACCOUNT OF THE VARIOUS TREATIES

BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

AND THE INDIAN TRIBES INHABITING

THE TERRITORIES OF

WISCONSIN AND

MINNESOTA.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY UNTIL THE CREATION OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY IN 1836

SPANISH CLAIMS

The Spaniards have made persistent claims to territory lying along the Atlantic coast, the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and up the valley of the Mississippi, basing their claims on discovery and conquest.

In 1512 Juan Ponce de Leon, a companion of Columbus, discovered Florida, and planted on its shores the standard of Spain.

In 1539 Hernando de Soto visited Florida and having strengthened the Spanish claim adventured west to the Mississippi, on which river he died and in which he was stealthily buried by his surviving followers, who returned to Florida broken and dispirited with the loss of half their number. By virtue of De Soto's discovery of the Mississippi, the Spaniards now laid claim to the land along that river and its tributaries. They also claimed land lying along the Atlantic coast, without limit, northward. This large and somewhat indefinite empire was by them styled Florida, after the name of the peninsula on which they gained their first foothold. Unable to defend or enforce their claims, they gradually relinquished them, giving up tract after tract, until the peninsula of Florida alone remained to them. This was ceded to the United States in 1819.

The government of the Territory was vested in the discoverers. Ponce de Leon was governor from 1512 until 1521. De Soto was governor of Florida and Cuba until 1541. Melendez, by compact with King Philip, succeeded him, his commission giving him a life tenure. The history of the Spanish possessions is by no means interesting, and illustrates chiefly the Spanish greed for gold.

FRENCH CLAIMS

The French early disputed the claims of the Spaniards and Portuguese to the possession of the New World, and accordingly in 1524 sent a Florentine, Jean Verrazzani, who explored the coast from Carolina to Nova Scotia, took possession of it, and called it New France. Ten years later Cartea continued the work, sailing around New Foundland and ascending the St. Lawrence as far as the site of Montreal. In 1564 a French colony located in Florida, but were almost immediately exterminated by the Spaniards. During the following century the French pushed their explorations to the regions of the Mississippi and the great lakes. In the year 1603 Champlain was engaged in the exploration of the St. Lawrence, and in 1609, he, with two other Frenchmen, explored Lake Champlain and the country of the Iroquois and took possession of it in the name of Henry IV of France. In 1611 and 1612 he explored Lake Huron, entered Saginaw bay, passed down Detroit river, exploring Lake Erie, and laid the foundation of French sovereignty in the valley of the St. Lawrence. Champlain for many years prosecuted the fur trade where Boston now stands, prior to the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.

We have not space for a complete account of the conflicting claims of the French and English, but will give the boundaries of New France as defined by French and English authorities at different times: 1609 – L' Escartot, in his "Histoire de la Nouvelle France," defines the French boundaries as extending "on the west to the Pacific ocean, on the south to the Spanish West Indies, on the east to the North Atlantic, and on the north to the Frozen Sea." 1683 – Baron La Honton says, "All the world knows that Canada reaches from the 39th to the 65th degrees of north latitude and from the 284th to the 336th degrees of longitude." [More accurately from about 45 to 90 degrees west, or from Cape Race to the Mississippi.] The French government persistently denied the right of the English to any territory west of the Alleghanies. The great Northwest, therefore, was for a long time under French rule and influence. We must accord to France the credit of making the first progress in civil government in the Northwest. They made many permanent settlements and by a wise and pacific policy so conciliating the Indian tribes that they were able to hold their positions on the frontier at will. They were early and persistent explorers, and, under the guidance of pious and devoted Jesuit missionaries, planted settlements in the most desirable places. They made a cordon of posts reaching from Louisiana to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, and along the chain of the great lakes, completely surrounded the English colonies and disputed with them the possession of the country. The French-English War of 1689 to 1697 failed to decide satisfactorily the question of the interior domain.

In 1712 New France was divided into two provinces, that of Canada and that of Louisiana, the dividing line being the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers, the Mississippi boundary line extending from the mouth of the Ohio to the mouth of the Missouri river. Mobile was made the capital of the southern province. The patent or commission of the new province was issued to Crozat, Marquis du Chatel. The Illinois country was afterward added, and it seems probable that the country east of the Wabash was also included in it. All north of the boundary named formed part of the province of Canada. Other boundaries than these have been given by geographers, but these boundaries are sufficiently established by official documents.

In 1763 all of the territory claimed by France lying east of the Mississippi river was ceded to the English, the territory lying west to Spain. Virginia, by three royal charters, given in 1606, 1607 and 1611, by the English government, held a part of the Northwest Territory, and in 1776 established three counties north of the Ohio river, named Ohio, Youghiogheny and Monongahela, but in 1787 ceded this territory to the United States. Its settlement was somewhat impeded by the perils of the wilderness, not the least of which was the doubtful and often unfriendly attitude of the Indians, resulting in many cases from the changes in the tenure of the lands, and the influence of French or English emissaries, generally hostile to American claims. The history of these early settlements is replete with thrilling adventures.

The first settlement made in the newly ceded territory was at Marietta, Ohio, in 1788, under the supervision of Gen. Rufus Putnam, nephew of Gen. Israel Putnam, and first surveyor general of the Northwest Territory. The settlement was named Marietta, in honor of Queen Marie Antoinette, who had been a firm friend to the colonies during the Revolutionary struggle. Gen. Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor July 15, 1788, of the newly organized Ohio Territory.

The country claimed by Virginia under the royal charters included the land lying between the sea shore on the east, and the Mississippi on the west, the Ohio river on the south, and the British possessions on the north. It will be seen, therefore, that that part of the Northwest Territory lying immediately along the eastern banks of the Mississippi now comprised in the state of Wisconsin and part of Minnesota, has been successively claimed by Spain, France, England, Virginia, and the United States, and under the territorial governments of the Northwest – Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin territories. That part of Minnesota lying west of the Mississippi belonged to the French by right of discovery, but passed into the hands of Spain, thence back again into the hands of France, by whom, with the territory known as Louisiana, it was sold to the United States in 1803. The original grant to Virginia included far more than the area of the State and that of the Northwest Territory, but was subsequently reduced by grants made by states lying north of Virginia, and vexatious disputes arose as to titles, a circumstance calculated to retard rapid settlement.

We append the following data concerning the early history of the territory included in the present states of Wisconsin and Minnesota, tabulated for more convenient reference:

1634. Jean Nicollet ventured into Wisconsin, and explored the country from Lake Michigan for a considerable distance down the Wisconsin river.

1658. Two fur traders penetrated to Lake Superior and wintered there, probably on Wisconsin soil.

1660. Rev. M. Menard with eight companions came to La Pointe, Lake Superior.

1665. Claude Allouez, an eminent pioneer missionary, succeeded Menard, and re-established the mission at La Pointe.

1669. Father Allouez established a mission on the shores of Green bay, locating it at Depere in 1671.

1670. Father Allouez made a voyage of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to within a short distance of the Mississippi – a near approach to the discovery of the Father of Waters.

1671. In this year the French took formal possession of the whole Northwest, confirmed in 1689.

1673. Louis Joliet, accompanied by Father James Marquette, discovered the Mississippi river.

1674. Father Marquette coasted Lake Michigan, from Green Bay, by Milwaukee, to the site of the present city of Chicago.

1679. The Griffin, a schooner built by La Salle, and the first to make a voyage of the lakes above Niagara, arrived at the mouth of Green bay.

Capt. Duluth held a council, and concluded a peace with the natives of Lake Superior.

1680. About the first of May Father Louis Hennepin arrived at Mille Lacs, as prisoner of a Dakotah war party, who captured him at Lake Pepin, while on his way up the Mississippi. He remained at Mille Lacs several months. On his return homeward, after being released, he discovered the falls, which he named for his patron saint, Anthony of Padua. His book, published after his return to Europe, is the first printed account of Minnesota.

1683. Le Sueur made a voyage of the Fog and Wisconsin rivers to the Mississippi.

1688. Nicholas Perrot first planted the cross and arms of France on the soil of Minnesota, and first laid formal claim to the country for France. He built a fort on Lake Pepin, near Lake City.

1695. Le Sueur built a fort on Isle Pelee, in the Mississippi, below Prescott.

1700. Le Sueur established Fort L'Huillier, on the Blue Earth river (near the mouth of the Le Sueur), and first supplied the Sioux with firearms.

1716. Le Louvigny's battle with the Fox Indians at Butte des Morts.

1719. Francis Renalt explored the Upper Mississippi with two hundred miners.

1721. Previous to this date a French fort had been established at Green Bay, on the present site of Fort Howard.

1727. The French established a fort on Lake Pepin, with Sieur de Lapperriere as commandant.

A trading post, called Fort Beauharnois, was established on the north side of Lake Pepin.

1728. There was a great flood in the Mississippi, and Fort Beauharnois was submerged.

A French expedition, under De Lignery, from Mackinaw, punished the Foxes.

1734. A battle took place between the French, and the Sacs and Foxes.

1751. Sieur Marin, in command at Green Bay, made a peace with the Indians.

1761. Capt. Balfour and Lieut. Gorrell, with English troops, took possession of Green Bay.

1763. The English, under Lieut. Gorrell, abandoned Green Bay in consequence of the Indian War under Pontiac.

Treaty of Paris, by which all the territory of New France, including Wisconsin, was surrendered to the English.

About this date the Canadian-French trading establishment at Green Bay ripened into a permanent settlement, the first upon any portion of the territory now forming the state of Wisconsin.

By the treaty of Versailles, France ceded Minnesota east of the Mississippi to England, and west of it to Spain.

1766. Capt. Jonathan Carver visited St. Anthony falls and Minnesota river. He pretended to have made a treaty with the Indians the following spring, in a cave near St. Paul, known for several years as Carver's Cave. He also reports a town of three hundred inhabitants at Prairie du Chien.

1774. A civil government was established over Canada and the Northwest, by the celebrated "Quebec Act."

1777. Indians from Wisconsin join the British against the Americans.

1786. Julian Dubuque explored the lead region of the Upper Mississippi.

1788. There was an Indian council at Green Bay. Permission to work the lead mines was given to Dubuque.

1793. Lawrence Barth built a cabin at the portage of the Fog and Wisconsin rivers, and engaged in the carrying trade.

1795. French settlement commenced at Milwaukee.

1796. The western posts were surrendered by the English to the United States, and the ordinance of 1787 extended over the Northwest.

1798-99. The Northwestern Fur Company established itself in Minnesota.

1800. Indiana Territory organized, including Wisconsin.

1803. Antoine Barth settled at the portage of the Fog and Wisconsin rivers.

1804. Indian treaty at St. Louis; Southern Wisconsin purchased.

1805. Michigan Territory organized.

1809. Thomas Nuttall, the botanist, explored Wisconsin.

Illinois Territory was organized, including nearly all the present state of Wisconsin.

1812. Indians assembled at Green Bay to join the English.

1814. Gov. Clark took possession of Prairie du Chien. Prairie du Chien surrendered to the British.

1815. United States trading post established at Green Bay.

1816. Indian treaty confirming that of 1804.

United States troops took possession of Prairie du Chien, and commenced the erection of Fort Crawford.

Col. Miller commenced the erection of Fort Howard, at Green Bay.

1818. State of Illinois was organized; Wisconsin attached to Michigan.

Brown, Crawford and Michillimackinac counties were organized by the territory of Michigan which embraced in their boundaries, besides other territory, the whole of the present state of Wisconsin.

1820. United States commissioners adjusted land claims at Green Bay.

1822. The New York Indians purchase lands east of Lake Winnebago.

James Johnson obtained from the Indians the right to dig for lead by negro slaves from Kentucky.

1823. January. Counties of Brown, Crawford and Michillimackinac made a separate judicial district by Congress.

First steamboat on the Upper Mississippi, with Maj. Taliafero and Count Beltrami.

Lieut. Bayfield, of the British Navy, makes a survey of Lake Superior.

1824. First term of United States court held at Green Bay, Judge Duane Doty presiding.

1825. Great flood on the Red River of the North; a part of the colony driven to Minnesota, and settle near Fort Snelling.

1826. First steamboat on Lake Michigan.

1827. Rush of speculators to lead mines.

Treaty with Menomonies at Butte des Morts.

1828. Fort Winnebago built. Indian treaty at Green Bay. Lead ore discovered at Mineral Point and at Dodgeville.

1832. Black Hawk War.

Schoolcraft explored sources of Mississippi river. First mission established at Leech Lake, by Rev. W. T. Boutwell, now of Stillwater.

1834. The portion of Minnesota west of the Mississippi attached to Michigan. Gen. H. H. Sibley settles at Mendota.

1835. Catlin and Featherstonhaugh visit Minnesota.

1836. The territory of Wisconsin organized. Nicollet visits Minnesota.

1837. Gov. Dodge, of Wisconsin, made a treaty at Fort Snelling, with the Ojibways, by which the latter ceded lands on the St. Croix and its tributaries; a treaty was also effected at Washington with a deputation of Dakotahs for their lands east of the Mississippi. These treaties led the way to the first actual settlements in the Territory.

1838. The treaty ratified by Congress. Frank Steele makes a claim at St. Anthony Falls. Pierre Parrant makes a claim and builds a shanty on the present site of St. Paul.

1839. Sioux and Chippewa battle fought near Stillwater.

1840. St. Croix county established.

The chapel of "St. Paul" built and consecrated, giving the name to the capital of the state of Minnesota.

1843. Stillwater settled.

1846. August 6th, the Wisconsin enabling act passed.

1847. The Wisconsin constitutional convention meets. The town of St. Paul surveyed, platted and recorded in the St. Croix county register of deeds' office. First improvement of the water power at falls of St. Anthony. Treaty with the Chippewas at Fond du Lac, August 2d. Treaty with the Pillagers at Leech Lake, August 21st.

1848. May 29th, Wisconsin admitted. August 26th, the "Stillwater Convention" held, to take measures for a separate territorial organization. October 30th, H. H. Sibley elected delegate to Congress.

1850. Great flood on the Mississippi. Minnesota river navigated by steamboats. Census of Minnesota shows population of 4,780.

1851. Permanent location of the capital of Minnesota at St Paul. Treaty of the Traverse des Sioux, opening territory west of the Mississippi to settlement July 23d. Treaty at Mendota with the Sioux August 5th.

1852. President Pierce appoints Willis A. Gorman governor of Minnesota.

1854. Real estate mania commenced. Treaty with the Chippewas at La Pointe, September 30th.

1855. Treaty at Washington, District of Columbia, with the Chippewas, and cession of lands in Minnesota, February 22d.

1857. Enabling act to admit Minnesota passed Congress. President Buchanan appoints Gen. Sam Medary governor of Minnesota. Ink-pa-dootah massacre in April. Minnesota constitutional convention met in June. Constitution adopted in October.