Fifty Years In The Northwest

The same cyclone visited Lake Elmo and did great damage, blowing down the depot buildings, Lake Elmo Hotel and other structures. The buildings and trees of the agricultural fair grounds were destroyed. Some parts of the buildings were carried miles away by the storm.

THE CYCLONE AT WHITE BEAR AND MARINE, MINNESOTA, AND CLEAR LAKE, WISCONSIN

Sept. 9, 1884, a storm arose in Hennepin county and did some damage; continuing to White Bear lake, Oneka and Grant, in Washington county, it gathered force and proved very destructive to life and property. As it passed through Oneka and Grant its path was about ten miles in width. Churches, school houses, dwellings, barns, grain stacks, and fences in its way were either partially or wholly destroyed, and the wrecked property was distributed for miles around. The cyclone passed on over Marine, Big Lake and Scandia, crossed the St. Croix, passed over the town of Somerset, Star Prairie, New Richmond, in St. Croix county, and over Black Brook, Clear Lake, Pineville and Clayton in Polk county and Turtle Lake in Barron, pursuing the usual northeasterly direction common to these cyclones, and disappearing in terrific thunderstorms, in the timbered lands of Barron and Chippewa counties. An eye witness, Mr. Ivory Hatch, of Oneka, thus describes the approach of the storm:

"I was standing near a shed in the barnyard, when suddenly the sky became black and threatening. In about five minutes I saw two funnel-shaped clouds descend and approach each other. I started for the house to warn my family, when, as quick as a flash, I was enveloped in the cloud, and while clinging to a post for safety my grain stacks and buildings disappeared. The storm did not continue over a minute and a half. I escaped almost miraculously without a bruise." The testimony of others in the neighborhood is substantially the same. In the town of Oneka the destruction was worse than in any other locality.

In the track of the storm through Washington county not less than fifty houses were demolished. The loss on each averaged $600, making a total of $30,000. Losses on barns, machinery and stock raised this sum to $50,000. The loss at Marine was computed roughly at $75,000, which made a total of $135,000, not including hay and grain. The entire loss to Clear Lake was estimated at $200,000. Three persons lost their lives, Mrs. P. Burdick, Willie Kavanagh and John Saunders. The Methodist, Congregational and Swedish churches were leveled with the ground. The timber losses were close to $1,000,000; private property in villages, loss near $500,000, and all other losses, such as farm property and the like, in the hundred thousands. The total loss in Wisconsin has been placed at six lives and $4,000,000 in property.

THE ST. CLOUD AND SAUK RAPIDS CYCLONE OF 1886

The most destructive storm yet recorded occurred on the afternoon of April 14, 1886. The clouds were first seen from St. Cloud to gather a short distance over the basin of the Masour cemetery about three o'clock, Sunday afternoon, in dark, overhanging masses. Then sharp tongues of lightning darted down with terrific force, and the storm with all its fury burst upon the doomed cities. The south end, or beginning of the cyclone track, was located two or three miles south and a little west of St. Cloud and its total length was twenty-four miles. The property destroyed amounted to over a quarter of a million of dollars, and the loss of life at St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids was seventy-five. If we include those who died later of injuries from wounds, exposure and fright, we may safely say a hundred.

The first victim of the cyclone was Nicholas Junneman. The cyclone rising, as we have said, over or near Calvary cemetery, for a space of about three hundred yards in diameter the trees were uprooted or twisted off, gravestones were thrown flat, and fences demolished. Crossing over Calvary Hill, in a path about one hundred feet wide, it wrecked the small Catholic chapel and badly injured the crucifix located there. Next in its course was the farm house of Nicholas Junneman which was left a pile of ruins, and Mr. Junneman was killed, while his wife was dangerously injured. The first house struck within the city limits was J. W. Tenvoorde's. Just across the street J. Schwartz's two story brick house was almost wrecked. Here the path of the tornado was about two hundred feet wide, and increased until by the time it reached the Manitoba depot the width was six hundred feet, taking in in its fearful embrace during the length of its course half a hundred or more buildings, which were totally wrecked, moved from their foundations, or more or less damaged. In many instances there was nothing left to show where a house had stood, and the prairie was covered far and wide with the debris of the demolished buildings. Over fifty houses in St. Cloud were totally destroyed and as many more badly damaged. Before striking the river it swerved slightly northward, and thus the costly building blocks and crowded streets in the heart of the city were spared. Had the cyclone veered in its course more to the south, the loss of property and life in St. Cloud would have been incalculable.

Striking the river the cyclone appeared to be almost motionless for a few moments, or moved so slowly as to seem to hang over the face of the water, its huge black column rising toward the zenith. Then leaving the river, this monster of the air struck Sauk Rapids at Stanton's large flouring mill, which was left a heap of ruins. It then took Demeules' store and the Northern Pacific depot, and passed on through the main business part of the place, leaving but one important business house standing, Wood's store, which was badly damaged. Court house, church, school building, post office, newspaper offices, hotels, dwelling houses, all went down under the relentless power of the storm. Streets were blockaded with the wreck so as to be practically impassable. The list of dead out of a village of about 1,000 population included some of the leading county officials and prominent citizens. Amongst them were John Renard, county auditor, and Gregg Lindley, register of deeds; also Edgar Hull, president of the German-American National Bank; E. G. Halbert, of the New York Insurance Company, with whom Mr. Hull had just filed an application for a $5,000 policy, was so badly injured that he died in a few days. The destruction of property in Sauk Rapids was far greater than in St. Cloud, as the business portion of the city was almost entirely swept away. The loss of life was also proportionately greater.

After leaving Sauk Rapids the cyclone struck Rice's, a station on the Northern Pacific road, about fourteen miles from the former village. Some four miles southeast of the station, at the house of a farmer named Schultz, a happy wedding party was gathered, a daughter of the farmer having been married to Henry Friday, chairman of the board of supervisors of Langola. Almost before they realized it the terrible power of the storm encircled them, and in the twinkling of an eye nine of the goodly company were mangled corpses, among the number being the groom, while the bride was dangerously if not fatally injured. The victims also included the Rev. G. J. Schmidt, pastor of the German Evangelical church of Sauk Rapids. The Rev. Mr. Seeder, pastor of the Two Rivers district, was found out on the prairie with both legs broken.

At Buckman, Morrison county, several persons were killed, and six or seven farm houses destroyed. The suffering caused by this most terrible of cyclones evoked the liveliest sympathy, and large contributions of money, food and clothing were forwarded by the citizens of St. Paul, Minneapolis and other cities throughout the State.

G. W. Benedict, of Sauk Rapids, relates his experience in the storm as follows: "I was in the yard at my residence half a mile north of the depot, when I heard a terrible deafening roar, and on looking up I saw what first appeared to be a very heavy black volume of smoke from a railroad engine, but in a moment I realized what it was. The volume of black cloud soon increased to double its size, and had a funnel shape, gyrating in a peculiar zigzag form. Untold amounts of debris of houses, fences and everything above the surface were shooting and flying with terrific velocity from the cloud, which took a northerly direction. The horrible writhing demon of destruction, with its deafening roar, increased in volume and force, and hurled to utter destruction everything in its path, a great portion of which was carried miles in the air out of sight as though but trifles of lightest chaff."

Thos. Van Etten was walking on the street, going home, when the cyclone struck the town, and he was bodily lifted into the air, carried four hundred feet up a steep hill and landed in a street, literally plastered over with mud. A young man fishing near the end of the bridge, on the opposite side from Sauk Rapids, says that many of the houses were lifted high in the air, and did not seem to be injured until they were dashed to the ground, when they collapsed, and the pieces were scattered in all directions. None of the very large number of persons who went into a cellar for protection from the storm were badly injured. The Fink family, the mother and four children of which were almost instantly killed, were in a house which had an excellent cellar, but the family forgot to utilize it. Near the ruins of the Carpenter house is a tree about ten inches in diameter, through which a pine board was driven so that it protruded at both sides of the tree. The property loss in Benton county was estimated at $300,000, and in St. Cloud at $56,000.

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING

Some time in the '50s Messrs. Oaks, Rand, Witham, Carson, and twelve other men were in a tent on the banks of Lake St. Croix, just below the mouth of Willow river, during a severe thunder storm. It was about 9 o'clock P. M. when lightning struck the tent and passing down killed Witham and Carson, and severely stunned Oaks and Rand. The other men were not injured, but, being badly frightened, ran away, and did not return till the following morning, when they found two of the men supposed killed still alive, but dazed and motionless. The two killed were lying close together, while Mr. Oaks lay upon one side and Mr. Rand upon the other. The lightning had struck the men who were killed upon the head, and traversing the body had passed out below the ankles. The current of electricity had passed up the arm of Mr. Oaks and down his body, burning spots the size of a pea, and plowing lines under the skin, the scars of which, after recovery, were raised in welts nearly as large as a whipcord. Mr. Oaks was nearly a year recovering. He says that during the time he lay motionless and apparently stunned he was in full possession of his faculties. Mr. Rand had one side of his body burned to a blister. Prior to this he had been affected with weak eyes, but the electrical treatment there received effected a complete cure.

ASIATIC CHOLERA

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

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

DECREE OF CITIZENSHIP

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

DECREE OF CITIZENSHIP.

Territory of Wisconsin,

St. Croix County.

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

William Willim.

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

Joseph R. Brown,Clerk of District Court of St. Croix County, Wisconsin Territory.

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

BURNING OF THE INTERNATIONAL HOTEL

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

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

GRASSHOPPERS

Minnesota has been visited at intervals by that scourge of some of the Western States, grasshoppers. The first visitation was from the Selkirk (now Manitoba) settlement, about 1838-9. The pests are said to have accompanied some of the early immigrants from Selkirk who came down to the reservation about Fort Snelling. They made yearly visitations and threatened to become a serious obstacle to the settlement of the country. Some seasons they proved quite destructive. In 1874-5-6-7 the state legislature made appropriations to relieve those suffering from their ravages in the western and southwestern parts of the State. There were also large private contributions to the relief fund. One of the acts passed at the session of 1877 appropriated $100,000 for bounties to pay for the destruction of grasshoppers and their eggs. Townships and villages were also authorized to levy taxes for the destruction of the common enemy, and $75,000 was appropriated to furnish seed grain for those who had lost their crops, and $5,000 was voted for a common relief fund. Special prayers were offered for an abatement of the scourge. In 1877, when the grasshopper appeared in myriads again, the governor appointed a day of fasting and prayer for riddance from the calamity. From some unknown cause the grasshoppers disappeared, and have not since returned in such numbers as to prove a plague. These grasshoppers were a species known as the Rocky Mountain locusts.

ANCIENT MOUNDS

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

That they are very ancient is unquestionable. They outdate the traditions of the Indians who inhabited this country at the date of its discovery, while the most ancient remains taken from them indicate as their builders a people widely different from the present aborigines, and possessed of arts unknown to them. Conjecture points to a race from the South, probably the Aztecs, as the mound builders. This race was exterminated in some way, or driven away by some stronger tribes, who may in turn have given place to our present race of Indians. A full description of these ancient works would require volumes; we can therefore allude only to a few that may be considered typical specimens of their class.

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

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

No. 1 is of circular form, 20 feet in height and 60 in diameter. Trees 2 feet in diameter are found on this mound. Mound No. 2 has a diameter of 90 feet, and was originally 30 feet high; at present but 20. This mound is also of circular formation. Mound No. 3 is circular in form, 36 feet in diameter and 2 feet high. Mound No. 4 is circular, 40 feet in diameter and 5 feet high. Mound No. 5 is oblong and 40×60 feet in dimensions, and 4 feet high. The largest and finest of these mounds have been nearly destroyed by the encroachments of the road makers. These mounds are located two miles north of Osceola, on Close creek. Alanson Thompson made a homestead of the land on which they are situated, and built his home immediately in the rear of the two larger mounds. His garden included many of the mounds.

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

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

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

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

LAKE ITASCA

The Mississippi appropriately takes its name at the outlet of Lake Itasca, its reputed source. This lake, although known to the fur company adventurers of the eighteenth, and the early part of the nineteenth centuries, received the name Itasca in 1832 from Schoolcraft and Boutwell. A complete account of the naming of the lake will be found in the biography of Rev. W. T. Boutwell, attached to the history of Pine county in this work. Itasca lies in range 36, townships 133 and 134, and is about three miles in length by one and one-half in width. Its title to the distinction of being the true source of the Mississippi has been frequently called in question. There are tributary lakes of smaller size lying near it, connected with it by small streams, barely navigable for birch canoes. Elk lake, a body of water three-fourths of a mile in length, lying south, is connected with it by a stream 25 links wide and 30 rods in length. Elk lake has an influent stream 2 miles in length, which drains a swamp lying south.

Another stream from the south, two miles in length, flows into Itasca, and has its source in a lake one-fourth of a mile long. As this lake has not been named in any original or later township map, United States Surveyor Chandler, Chief Clerk B. C. Baldwin and the writer, in January, 1887, agreed to give it the name of Boutwell, in honor of the devoted missionary who visited Itasca in company with Schoolcraft in 1832. This lake is really the source of the Mississippi, though from its small size is not likely to receive general recognition as such. Lakes Itasca, Elk and Boutwell lie in range 36, township 143, west of the 5th principal meridian, United States survey, latitude 47.10, and longitude 95.30 west from Greenwich United States survey. The lands bordering on and adjacent to these lakes were surveyed in October, 1875, by Edwin Hall, and lie in Beltrami county, which was named after an Italian traveler who visited this section in 1823.

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