\-- 3 3433 08192355 3 |:?;ij ■k.ii.vi w^ f (' ; ■ ' , • ; ', . ; ; ■ 1 ' ■ » - . I ■ 1 . \ I [ 1 I • 1 J NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES : r k ! [ ; ■ : ■ M HISTORY OF Morrison and Todd Counties Minnesota THEIR PEOPLE, INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS BY ^ CLARA K. FULLER With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families VOLUME I ILLUSTRATED 1915 B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY, Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana h f Fi;^'- ■ 1 39 DEDICATION. This work is respectfully dedicated to THE PIONEERS, long since departed. May the memory of those who laid down their burdens by the wayside ever be fragrant as the breath of summer flowers, for their toils and sacrifices have made Morrison and Todd Counties a garden of sunshine and delights. PREFACE All life and achievement is evolution; present wisdom comes from past experience, and present commercial prosperity has come only from past ex- ertion and sacrifice. The deeds and motives of the men who have gone before have been instrumental in shaping the destinies of later communities and states. The development of a new country was at once a task and a privilege. It required great courage, sacrifice and privation. Compare the present conditions of the people of Morrison and Todd counties, Minnesota, with what they were sixty years ago. From a trackless wilderness and virgin land, they have come to be centers of prosperity and civilization, with millions of wealth, systems of railways, grand educational institutions, splendid industries and valuable agricultural and mineral productions. Can any thinking person be insensible to the fascination of the study which discloses the aspirations and efforts of the early pioneers who so strongly laid the foundation upon which has been reared the magnificent prosperity of later days? To perpetuate the story of these people and to trace and record the social, political and industrial progress of the community from its first inception is the function of the local historian. A sincere purpose to preserve facts and personal memoirs that are deserving of perpetuation, and which unite the present to the past, is the motive for the present publi- cation. A specially valuable and interesting department is that one devoted to the sketches of representative citizens of these counties, whose records deserve preservation because of their worth, effort and accomplishment. The publishers desire to extend their thanks to the persons who have so faithfully labored to this end. Thanks are also due to the citizens of Mor- rison and Todd counties for the uniform kindness with which they have regarded this undertaking, and for their many services rendered in the gaining of necessary information. In placing the "History of Morrison and Todd Counties, Minnesota," before the citizens, the publishers can conscientiously claim that they have carried out the plan as outlined in the prospectus. Every biographical sketch in the work has been submitted for corrections to the party inter- ested, and therefore any error of fact, if there be any, is solely due to the |)erson for whom the sketch was prepared. Confident that our effort to please will fully meet the approbation of the ]>ublic, we are, Respectfully, THE PUBLISHERS. CONTENTS MORRISON COUNTY CHAPTER I— RELATED STATE HISTORY 33 Organization of State of Wisconsin — Congressional Bill for Organization of Minnesota Territory — Adjustment of the Boundary Lines Between Wis- consin and Minnesota — Naming of the New Territory — Question as to Territorial Jurisdiction — Territorial Organization — Henry H. Sibley, First Congressional Delegate — The Name, Minnesota — The Territory from 1849 to 1854 — Early Trading Posts and Settlements — St. Paul — First Newspaper — Formal Organization of the New Territory — Governor's Proclamation, Dividing the Territory into Districts for Judicial and Legislative Purposes — Early Newspapers — First Court — First Legislative Assembly — An Inter- esting Event — Noteworthy First Events — Treaty with the Indians — Events of 1852 and 1853 — Events Just Prior to Minnesota's Admission as a State — The Years 1856-7 — Admission of Minnesota to Statehood. CHAPTER II— GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL FEATURES— 45 State and County Surveys — Area of Morrison County — Surface Features — Streams — Lakes — Topography — Altitudes — Soil and Timber — Prairies — Geological Structure — Wells — Material Resources — Water Power — Mills — Building Stone — Bricks — Archaeology — Peculiar Earthworks — Nathan Rich- ■ ardson's Account of Mounds — Hole-in-the-Day's Bluff. CHAPTER III— INDIAN TRIBES AND EARLY MISSIONARIES 54 Early Indian Tribes in Northern Minnesota — The Sioux Indians — The Dako- tahs — Indian Villages — The Winnebagoes — Ojibway or Chippewa Nation — Treaties with the Indians — Early Church Missions — Religious Efforts at Mackinaw — The Chippewa Mission at Pokeguma — A Dictionary of the Sioux Language — Rapid Increase in Mission Work — Final Disposition of the Indians. CHAPTER IV— EARLY SETTLEMENT OF MORRISON COUNTY 60 Location and Area of the County — Surface Features — Population — Points of Historic Interest in the County — Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike — Early Settlements — Early Movements of the Traders — First Missionary in Morrison County — Some of the First Settlers — Father Pierz — His Successful Efforts to Maintain Peace with the Indians — Oldest Living Settler — William Nicholson — A Half- breed Settler — Swedish Settlers in Morrison County — Norwegian Settlers — The German Population — The French in Morrison County — French Settlers CONTENTS. of the Fifties — Martin Bisson and Other French Settlers of the Sixties, Seven- ties and Eighties — Early French Priests — French Settlers of Todd County. CHAPTER V— COUNTY GOVERNMENT 7i Organization of Morrison County — Legislative Act Creating the County — How Named — First Officers — Changes in Civil Divisions — Present Town- ships — Court House History — First Voting Precincts — Court House Bonds — Tlie First Temple of Justice — The Present Court House — County Jail His- tory — Caring for the Poor— Tax Levies of 1857 and 1876 — Property \'alua- tion in 1914 — Financial Statement, 1915 — Bank Deposits of County. CHAPTER VI— COUNTY, STATE AND NATIONAL REPRESENTATION.. 79 Governors of Minnesota — Congressmen — State Senators — State Representa- tives — County Officers — Auditors — Treasurers — Sheriffs — Registers of Deeds — Judges of Probate — County .'\ttorneys — County Surveyors — Coroners — Clerks of the Court — Court Commissioners — Superintendents of Schools — -County Commissioners — Presidential Vote. CHAPTER VI!— AGRICULTURAL, STOCK RAISING AND DAIRYING... 85 Favorable Conditions for Productive Agriculture — Direct Communication to the Great Markets — Grain — Potatoes and Vegetables — Fruits — Live Stock — Dairying — Farm Lands^Grasses — Agricultural Societies — The Pio- neer hair of Morrison County — Farm Names. CHAPTER VIII— BANKS AND BANKING 93 A Creditable Financial History — Banks at Little Falls, Pierz, Genola, L'p- sala, Randall, Royalton, Swanville, Motley and Bowlus — Little halls Bank Deposits — Benefits of Modern Methods in Farm Life. CHAPTER IX— SCHOOLS OF MORRISON COUNTY 98 Educational Methods Have Kept Pace with the Times — A Report in 1881 — First School in Morrison County — First Schools in Various Sections of the County — Organization of School Districts — Buildings — Teachers — Pupils — Expenses and Valuation — Modern Educational Methods — Special State Aid — Little I'alls llish Scliool. CHAPTER X— NEWSPAPERS OF MORRISON COUNTY 103 The h'irst Newspaper in Morrison County — H. C. Stivers, the First Success- ful Editor and Journalist — Wheaton M. Fuller — Newspapers at Little Falls, Pierz, Swam ille. Royalton and Motley. CHAPTER XI— CHURCHES IN MORRISON COUNTY 108 Interest of the Early Settlers in Religious and Moral Matters — Church of the Holy Family, One of the Oldest Churches in Northern Minnesota — The Convent — Other Catholic Churches — Methodist Episcopal Churches — Bap- tist Church — German Evangelical Lutheran Zion Church — Episcopal Churches — Presbyterian Cluirches — Congregational Churches — ( )thcr Reli- gious Societies. CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII— CIVIC SOCIETIES OF MORRISON COUNTY—. 121 The Masonic Order — Independent Order of Odd Fellows — Grand Army of the Republic — Woman's Relief Corps — Other Fraternities Scattered Over the County. CHAPTER XIII— BENCH AND BAR OF MORRISON COUNTY 125 The Pioneer Attorney and Other Early Members of the Bar — Brief Per- sonal Mention of Some of the Prominent Attorneys Who Have Practiced Here — Attorneys of 1915 — The Bar Association. CHAPTER XIV— MILITARY AND INDIAN AFFAIRS OF MORRISON COUNTY 129 The County's Part in the Civil War and in the Spanish-American Con- flict—The Indian Outbreak of 1862— The Massacre at New Ulm— The Federal and State Governments Unprepared for the Emergency — Quick Work by Colonel Sibley and His Troops — Danger of a Chippewa War — The Indian Depredations — Siege of Fort Abercrombie — Mounted Rangers — Battle of Birch Coolie — Relief for the Refugees — Creation of Military Department — Battle of Wood Lake — Release of the Captives — Close of the Indian War — Execution of Thirty-eight Indian Murderers. CHAPTER XV— PHYSICIANS OF MORRISON COUNTY ..__ 142 Rapid Strides in Medicine and Surgery — Early Physicians in Morrison County — Physicians in the Eighties and Nineties — List of Registered Physi- cians — Present Physicians. CHAPTER XVI— COMING OF THE RAILROADS 146 Effect of Railroads on the Advancement of the State of Minnesota — Land Grants and Construction of the Roads — Railroads in Morrison County — Mileage. CHAPTER XVII— TOWNSHIPS OF MORRISON COUNTY 150 Belle Prairie Township — Gravelville — Belle Prairie — Motley Township — Motley Village — Bellevue Township — Royalton — Buckman Township — Buckman Village — Little Falls Township — Pierz Township — Town of Pierz — Genola (New Pierz) — Two Rivers Township) — Bowlus — Swan River Township — Parker Township — Scandia Valley Township — Elmdale Town- ship — L'psala — Greene Prairie Township — Culdrum Township — Ripley Township — Old Ft. Ripley — Agram Township — Rails Prairie Township — Clough Township — Darling Township — Cushing Township — Mount Morris Township — Pulaski Township — Platte Township — Granite Township — Ros- ing Township — Hilman Township — Lakin Township — Richardson Town- ship — Leigh Township — Morrill Township — Pike Creek Township — Buh Township — Lastrip — Swanville Township — Village of Swanville. CHAPTER XVIII— CITY OF LITTLE FALLS 181 Made Seat of Justice — Location — Early Settlement and Development — Sur- veys — Water Power — Mills — Sale of Town Lots — Murder of a German Peddler — Sioux Massacre at Little Falls — Little Falls War — Municipal His- CONTENTS. tory — Incorporation — First Election — Presidents and Mayors — Present City Officers — Fire Department and Water Supply — Postoffice History — The "White Way" — Pine Grove Park — Public Library — Little Falls Water Power Company — Pine Tree Lumber Company — Flour-mill Industries — Hennepin Paper-mills Company — Little Falls Iron Works — Jacob Kiewel Brewing Company — The Brick Industry — Manufacturing Statistics, 1913 — Business College — Catholic Hospital and Orphanage. CHAPTER XIX— THE POLISH PEOPLE 200 Origin of the Polish People — Oppression and Persecutions in Europe^ Emigrations to the United States — First Polish Emigrant to Morrison County — North Prairie Settlement and Other Polish Colonies in this County — Their Prominent Part in the Development of the County — Prosperous and Progressive Citizens. CHAPTER XX— MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 203 Population of Morrison County at Dififerent Periods — Incorporated Towns and Villages — Postoffices in 1915 — Recorded Village Plats — Town Plats — Grasshopper Ravages — Only Legal Hanging in the County — Discovery of Iron Ore — Worthy Pioneer — Little Falls Granite Quarries. TODD COUNTY CHAPTER I— GEOLOGY AND SURFACE FEATURES 211 Area of Todd County — Surface Features — Streams and Drainage — Lakes — Topography — Elevations — Soil — Timber — Geological Structure — Mater- ial Resources. CHAPTER 11 — EARLY DAYS 1\ TODD COUNTY 215 Fine Advantages for Home Huililing — Attractive Side of Frontier Life — The Indian Problem — Disputes Between the Sioux and Chippewa Indians — Old Indian Agency at Long Prairie — Early Settlers — An Old- Fashioned Pole Raising — The Sioux Outbreak — A Courageous Pioneer — Original Boundaries of Todd County — Rapid Settlement After Peace was Secured with the Indians — Old Long Prairie and Mississippi Road — Round and Long Prairie Settlements — Settlers in the Whiteville Neighborhood — Other Pioneers of 1865 and Later — F'irst Polish Colony — Coming of the Railroad — Town of Staples — Reward of Industry — Mills — Attempts at River Traffic. CHAPTER 111— COUNTY GOVERNMENT.. 232 Organization of the County — Division into Districts, and. Later, into Town- ships — I'irst Election — First Officers — Acts of the Board of Commissioners — First Court House — Early I-'inances — Court House and Jail History — Poor Farm Experiment — Assessed Valuations, 1914-15 — Officials and Employees of the County — County Financial Statement, 1915. CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV— COUNTY, STATE AND NATIONAL REPRESENTATION- 239 Congressmen — State Senators — State Representatives — County Auditors — Treasurers — Sheriffs — Register of Deeds — -Judges of Probate — County At- torneys — County Surveyors — Coroners — Clerks of the Court — Court Com- missioners — School Superintendents — County Commissioners — Presidential Vote of Todd County. CHAPTER V— AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES OF TODD COUNTY 244 Agriculture the Prime Base of all Wealth — Original Condition of Todd County — Influence of the Railroads on the Development of the County — Water Supply — Farm Products — Dairying Interests — A Creamery Report — Todd County Agricultural Society. CHAPTER VI— CHURCHES IN TODD COUNTY 249 Early Interest of the Pioneers in Religious Matters — First Church Build- ing — The Pioneer Missionaries — Denominations Now Represented in the County — Methodist Episcopal Churches — An Interesting Account of Early Church Life in Todd County — A Versatile Pioneer Pastor — First Sunday School Organized — Rural Churches — Long Prairie Methodism — Polish Parish of St. Joseph at Browerville — Early Polish Immigrants — Organization of the First Church — Donations for the Church — Erection and Dedication of the Building — Pastors of St. Joseph's — School of Holy Angels — New Customs Learned in America — Troublous Times — Division of the Congre- gation — Agreement — Polish Members Assume Debt — Instructors in the School — The Parish House — Rev. John St. Guzdek — Erection of the New Church — Blessing of the Cornerstone — Dedication of the New Church — Rev. Guzdek's Pastoral Work — Trustees of the Congregation — Greek Cath- olic Church — Poles as American Citizens — Present Membership of the Par- ish. CHAPTER VII— TODD COUNTY NEWSPAPERS 273 Brief Mention of the Various Newspapers Which Have Existed in Todd County — Officers All Have Good Equipment — Local Papers Managed by Able Men. CHAPTER VIII— EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS 276 High Rank of Todd County in the Matter of Schools — The First School — Summary of the Annual Report of the County School Superintendent — Other Statistics — A Review of the County Educational System by the Pres- ent Superintendent. CHAPTER IX— BANKS OF TODD COUNTY 280 Prosperity of County Accompanied by Corresponding Growth in Bank De- posits — Bank Reports of March, 1915 — Brief Mention of the Banks at Grey Eagle, Staples, Long Prairie, Burtrum, Eagle Bend, Browerville, Clarissa and Bertha. CHAPTER X— TOWNSHIPS OF TODD COUNTY 286 Division of the County into Townships — Long Prairie Township and the CONTENTS. Townships of Hartford, West Union, Gordon, Birch Dale, Kandota, Little Sauk, Grey EagJe, Leslie, Moran, Stowe Prairie, Ward, Bertha, Wykeham, Germania, Eagle Valley, lona. Fawn Lake, Staples. Villard, Bartlett, Bur- leene, Reynolds, Little Elk, Bruce. Round Prairie, Turtle Creek and Hurn- ville. CHAPTER XI— CITIES AND VILLAGES 295 City of Staples — Location — First Mill — Public Improvements — Population — Business Interests — Churches— Eagle Bend — Long Prairie — Round Prairie— Hewitt— West Union— Clarissa— Burtrum— Grey Eagle— Bertha— Brower- ville — Little Sauk. CHAPTER XII— MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 303 Population by Townships, Cities and Villages, According to the Census Reports of 1890, 1900 and 1910— Prospective Iron Ore, Wealth— Lake and Summer Resorts- Village Plats. HISTORICAL INDEX MORRISON COUNTY Agram Township 7i, 77. 173, 204 Agricultural Societies 88 Altitudes 47 American Fur Company 57 Ancient Earthworks 52 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons 121 Archaeology 52 Area of Morrison County 45 60 Assembly, First Legislative 38 Attorneys, County 82 Attorney, First in the County 125 Auditors, County 82 Ayer, Frederick 63, 98, 151 B Banks and Banking 78, 93 Baptist Church 117 Bar Association 128 Battle of Birch Coolie 135 Battle of Wood Lake 139 Belle Prairie 69, 98, 108, 119, 143, 151 Belle Prairie Township 47, 73, 77 150, 204, 208 Bellevue Township 47, 7i, 77, 98 154, 204, 208 Bench and Bar 125 Big Bend 205 Birch Coolie, Battle of 135 Bisson, Martin 69 Bowlus 96, 164, 202, 205, 206 Brick-making 51, 196 Brotherhood of American Yeomen — 124 Buckfield 205 Buckman 110, 157, 205, 206 Buckman Township 47, 73, 77 99, 157, 204 Buh Township 73, 77, 179, 204 Building Stone 51 Business College 197 C Catholic Churches— 57, 63, 108, 156, 179 Chippewa Mission 57 Chippewa War, Danger of 132 Chippewas 54, 56, 63, 132 Church History 108 Church Missions, Early 56 Church of the Holy Family 108 Civic Societies 121 Clerks of the Court 83 Clough Township 73, 77, 174, 204 Commissioners, County 83 Commissioners, Court 83 Congregational Churches 119 Congressmen 79 Convent at Belle Prairie 109 Corn 8S Coroners 83 County Attorneys 82 County Auditors 82 County Commissioners 83 County Election, First 72i County Finances 77 County Government 7i County Officers 81 County Superintendents 83 County Surveyors 83 County Treasurers 82 County's Bank Deposits 78 Court Commissioners 83 Court House History 74 Court House, Present 75 Creameries 87 Culdrum Township 47, 73, 77, 171, 204 Gushing 174, 20S, 206 Gushing Township 7i, 77, 174, 204 HISTORICAL INDEX. D Dairying 86 Dakotah Language 58 Dakotahs 40, 54 Dakotahs, Treaty with 40 Darling 67, 174 Darling Township 11. 174, 204 Daughters of Rebekah 122 Districts, School 99 Doctors of Morrison County 142 Drainage, Natural 45 Eagles, Fraternal Order of 124 Early Missions 56 Early Settlement 60 Earthworks, Ancient 52 Eastern Star, Order of 121 Education 98, 167, 171 Election, First County 73 Elevations 47 Elks, Benevolent and Protective Order 124 Elmdale Township 47, 73, 11, 99 168, 202, 204 Episcopal Churches 118, 156 Events, First Noteworthy 39 Events of 1852-3 41 Execution, First Public, in State— 43 E.xecution of Indian Murderers 14(1 Freedhem 67 French in Morrison County 68 French Priests 71 F'ruits 86 Genola 94, 162, 205, 206 Geology 49 German Evan. Luth. Zion's Church-- 118 German Population 68 Governors of Minnesota 79 Grain So Grand .Army of the Republic 123 Granite City 205 Granite Township 73, 77, 176, 204 Grasses 88 Grasshopper Ravages 207 Gravelville 151 Green Prairie Township li, 11. 99 169, 204 H Half-breed Settler 65 Hennepin Paper Mills Company 195 Hillman 177, 205. 206 Hillman Township 73, 11, 176, 204 Historic Points 60 Historical Society of Minnesota 38 Holdingford 202 Hole-in-the-Day's Bluff 53 Holy Cross Church 114 Fair, the First 89 I'arm Lands 87 Farm Names 89 Farm Products 85 Ferries, Early 159 Finances of County H First County F'lection 73 I'irst Events, Noteworthy 39 First Fair 89 F'irst Pul)lic Execution in State 43 Flensburg 202, 205, 206 Flour-mill Industries 194 Foresters 124 Ft. Abercrombie, Siege of 134 Ft. Ripley 171 ■raternities .'1 I Improved Order of Red Men 124 Incorporated Towns and Villages 205 Independent Order of Odd Fellows-- 122 Indian Depredations 43, 130 Indian Missionaries 58 Indian Outbreak 130 Indian Tribes.- 35, 40, 54, 58 Indians Executed 140 ln Organization of School Districts 99 Organization of Territory 2)7 Otto's Orphanage 199 Parker Township. .47. 73. 77. 99, 166, 204 Physicians of Morrison County 142 Physicians, Present 145 Pierz 94, 106, 113, 145. 162, 205, 206 Pierz, Father Francis 63, 71, 108 113, 161 Pierz Township 47, 73, 77, 98, 160, 204 Pike Creek Township.47, 73. 77. 178, 204 Pike, Lieut. Zebulon M. 61 HISTORICAL INDEX. Pike's Fort 60 Pine Tree Lumber Company 193 Platte Township 73, 11, 175, 202, 204 Polish People 200 Poor, Caring for the 76 Population of Morrison County--60, 203 Potatoes 86 Prairies 49 Presbyterian Church 57, 119 Present Court House 75 Presidential Vote 84 Probate Judges 82 Property Valuations 76 Pulaski Township 73, 11. 175, 204 Pupils, Public School 100 Q Quarries 50, 209 R Railroad History 146 Railroad Land Grants 146 Railroad Mileage in the County 149 Rails Prairie Township— 73, 77, 173, 204 Ramey 205 Randall 11, 95, 174, 205, 206, 208 Rebekah, Daughters of 122 Recorded Village Plats 205 Red Men 124 Registered Physicians 144 Registers of Deeds 82 Related State History 33 Representatives 81 Richardson, Nathan 209 Richardson Township 73, 11. Ml, 204 Ripley Township 47, 73, 11. 171, 204 Rock Outcroppings 49 Rosing Township 73, 11, 176, 204 Royal Arch Masons 121 Koyalton 77,95, 106, 114, 116, 118, 121 124, 145, 155, 205, 206 Ruckcr 205 Sacred Heart Church 111 St. Adalbert Church 112 St. Francis Xavier Church 110 St.Gabriel's Hospital 198 St. Joseph's Benevolent Society 124 St. Joseph's Church 113 St. Michael's Church 110 St. Stanislaus Kostka Church 112 Scandia Valley Township-73, 11, 167, 204 Scandinavian Evangelical Church 66 School Districts 99 School Houses 100 School Methods, Modern 101 School Statistics 100 Schools of Morrison County 98 Seal of the State 39 Secret Societies 121 Senators, State 80 Settlements 60, 65, 67, 69, 150 155, 157, 159, 160, 163 165, 168. 170, 171, 178 Settler, Oldest Living 64 Sheriflfs 82 Sibley, Henry H. 33, 34, 37, 130, 135 Sioux Indians 35, 54, 63, 132 Sioux Massacre at Little Falls 184 Sioux Villages 55 Soil 48 Spanish-American War 129, 141 State Aid for Schools 101 State History, Related 33 State Organic Act 44 State Representatives 81 State Seal 39 State Senators 80 Stone Quarries 50, 209 Streams 45 Superintendents of School 83 Surface Features 45, 85 Surveyors, County 83 Swan River Township 47, 73, 11, 165 202, 204 Swanville .-72, 11. 96, 106, 118, 121, 124 145, 180. 205. 206 Swanville Town.ship 73, 180. 204 Swedish Baptist Church 120 Swedish Congregational Church 67 Swedish Free Church 67 Swedish Lutheran Church-66. 67, 120, 169 Swedish Mctliodist Church 67 Swedish Mission Church 66, 120, 169 Swedish Settlements 65 HISTORICAL INDEX. T Tax Levies 76 Teachers 100 Territorial Boundaries 33 Territorial Officers i7, 42 Territory, Organization of 37 Timber 48 Topography 46 Townships of Morrison County ISO Trading Posts 62 Treasurers, County 82 Treaty with Dakotahs 40 Trees 48 Two Rivers Township 47, 73. 77 163, 201, 204 U United Workmen, Ancient Order of- 124 Upsala 67, 94, 120, 169 V Valuations, Property 76 Vawter 206 Vegetables - 86 Village Plats 205 W Water Power 51 Wells 51 Winnebagoes 54, 58, 132 Woman's Relief Corps 123 Wood Lake, Battle of 139 Woodmen, Modern 124 Y Yeomen 124 TODD COUNTY Adventist Churches 250 Agricultural Society 247 Agriculture 244 Altitudes 213 Area of County 211 Assessed Valuation 237 Attractions of Pioneer Life 215 Auditors, County 240 Brick-making 214 Browerville __228, 237, 250, 255, 274, 276 280, 282, 284, 301, 303, 306 Bruce Township 237, 293, 303 Burgstrom 306 Burleene Township 228, 237, 292, 303 BurnharaviUe 227, 249, 306 Burnhaniville Township 237, 294, 303 Burtrum 237, 250, 276, 280, 282 294, 299, 303, 306 B Banks 280 Baptist Churches 250 Bartlett Township 237, 292, 303 Beautiful Vistas 215 Bertha 228, 237, 250, 275, 276, 280 284, 290, 300, 303, 306 Bertha Township 229, 237, 290, 303 Birch Lake 287, 306 Birchdale 223 Birchdale Township 237, 287, 303 Bohemian Settlers 229 Boundaries, Original County 221 Catholic Churches 250, 255 Cattle 245 Chippewas 216, 219, 222 Christian Church 250 Church, the First 249 Churches of Todd County 249 Clarissa 228, 237, 250, 275, 276, 280, 282, 290, 298, 303, 306 Clerks of the Court 242 Climate, Attractive 244 Cogel 294 Commissioners' Districts 232 HISTORICAL INDEX. Commissioners, County 242 Commissioners, Court 242 Commissioners, Early Acts of 233, 235 Congregational Churches 250 Congressmen 239 Coroners 242 County Attorneys 241 County Auditors 240 County Boundaries, Original 221 County Commissioners 242 County Finances, Present 238 County Government 232 County Officers, First 232 County Officers' Salaries 237 County Official Roster 239 County Surveyors 241 County Treasurers 240 Courageous Pioneer 220 Court Commissioners 242 Court House History 234, 235 Creameries 245 D Dairying Interests 245 Depredations by Indians 219 Dower Lake 306 Drainage, Natural 211 E Eagle Bend 228, 237, 250, 273. 280 282, 290, 296, 303 Eagle Valley Township.226, 237, 290, 303 Early Days 215 Early Farming Difficulties 231 Early Finances 235 Early Religious Worship 249 Early Roads 223 Early Settlers Now Living 222 Educational Interests 276 Election, First County 233 Elevations 213 Episcopal Churches 250 F i'air, the First 247 Fair Grounds 247 Fawn Lake Township 237, 291, 303 Finances, Early 235 Finances, Present Count)' 238 First Church Building 249 First County Officers 232 First Court House 234 First Election 233 Free Methodist Church 250 French Settlers 224 Geology 213 German Lutheran Church 250 German Settlers 224, 226, 229 Germania Township 228, 229, 237 290, 303 Gordon Township 237, 287, 303 Grain 245 Grasses 245 Greek Catholic Church 270 Grey Eagle 223, 237, 250, 274, 276 280, 281, 300. 303, 306 Grey Eagle Township 237, 288, 303 Guzdek, Rev. John St. 264 H Hartford 225 Hartford Township 217, 226, 229, 232 237, 257, 286, 303 Hausen 306 Hewitt 237, 250, 273, 280 289, 296, 303, 306 Holy Angels School 259 Indian Agency 217 Indian Camps 216 Indian Outbreak 219 Indian Problem 216 Indians 216, 219, 222 lona Township 226, 237, 291, 303 Iron Ore, Prospective 304 Jail History 235 Judges of Probate 241 HISTORICAL INDEX. K Kandota 223 Kandota Township 233, 237, 287, 303 Lake Osakis 212, 217, 227, 287, 305 Lakes 212, 305 Land in Cultivation 244 Leevilla 306 Leslie 307 Leslie township 237, 288, 303 Lincoln 291 Little Elk Township__217, 237, 293, 303 Little Sauk 251, 288, 301 Little Sauk Township 237, 288, 304 Living Early Settlers 222 Long Prairie— 211, 217, 218, 221, 224, 237 250, 254, 256, 273, 280, 281 282, 285, 286, 296, 304, 306 Long Prairie-Mississippi Road 223 Long Prairie Township 229, 232, 237 286, 304 Lutheran Churches 250, 254 M Material Resources 214 Methodist Episcopal Churches 250, 251 Mills 230 Missionaries, Pioneer 250 Moran Township..226, 229, 237, 289, 304 N Navigation, River 231 New England Settlers 229 Newspapers 233, 273 Norwegian Lutheran Church 250 Norwegian Synod 250 O Oak Hill 288 Officers, First County 232 Official Roster 239 Organization of the County 232 Osakis 237, 287, 304 Osakis Lake- 212, 217, 227. 287, 305 P Philbrook 229, 292, 306 Pillsbury 227, 250, 293 Pioneer Attractions 215 Pioneer Church History 251 Pioneer Conditions 215 Pioneer Missionaries 250 Pioneers of 1865 225 Pioneer Privations 221 Pole-raising, Old Fashioned 218 Poles as American Citizens 271 Poles, Cliaracter of 271 Polish Church at Browerville 255 Polish Settlers 226, 256 Polish Sisters of St. Benedict 263 Poor-farm Experiment 236 Poor Relief 234 Population of Todd County 303 Prairies 213 Presbyterian Churches 250 Presidential Vote 242 Privations of Pioneers 221 Probate Judges 241 R Railroad, Coming of the 227 Registers of Deeds 241 Relief for the Poor 234 Report of Schools 276 Representatives 239 Reynolds Township 236, 233, 237 292, 304 Rivers 211 Roads, Early 223 Rock Exposures 213 Roster of County Officials 239 Round Prairie 224, 250, 276 293, 296, 306 Round Prairie Township 232, 237 249, 293, 304 Rural Churches 254 S St. Joseph's Church 255 Salaries of County Officers 237 Scandinavian Settlers — ( 229 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. School Districts School Examiner School of Holy Angels School Statistics School Superintendents 234, 235, Schools, the Senators, State Settlement, Permanent Settlers, Living Early Sheriffs Sioux Indians 216, Sisters of St. Benedict Sliters Beach Social Life, Pioneer Soil Staples 228, 237, 250, 274, 281, 284, 291, 295, 304, Staples Mill Staples Township 237. 291, State Representatives State Senators Stowe Prairie Township 228, 289 Streams Sunday School, the First Superintendents of School— 234, 235 Surface Features Surveyors, County Swedish Episcopal Church Swedish Lutheran Churches Swedish Mission Church 232 232 259 276 242 276 239 222 222 241 219 263 306 215 213 280 307 307 304 239 239 237 304 211 253 242 211 241 250 250 . 250 T Timber 213 Todd County Agricultural Society— 247 Topography of County 212 Townships of Todd County 286 Trading with the Indians 216 Transportation Problems, Early 231 Treasurers, County 240 Turtle Creek Township 237, 293, 304 U United Brethren Church 250. 253 V Valuations, Assessed 237 Van Cleve, General 218, 220 Versatile Pastor 251 Villard Township 237, 292, 304 W Ward Township-226. 229, 237, 289, 304 Wards Springs 287, 306 Water Supply 244 Wells 213, 244 West Union 237, 250, 280, 287 298, 304, 306 West Union Township 232, 237 287, 304 Whiteville 225 Winnebagoes 217, 219 Wykeham Township— 228. 237, 290, 304 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX A Adams, E. P. 505 Andersen, Hans C. 479 Anderson. Alex 653 Anderson, Frank 641 Andre, Camille H. D. M 471 Andwood, John A. 564 Ayer, Lyman W. 661 B Balcom, Kyle H. 685 Barnes. Prof. Martin E 356 Bastien. Frank X. 499 Bates, Benjamin B. 706 Bennett, Silas T. 610 Bergheim. Nels Nelson 448 Berglund. John 654 Bergman, Axel 422 Biteman, Isaac 379 Blom, Sven M. 626 Boehm, Frank 371 Bolander, Carl 498 Borgstrom. Ax<:l M. 404 Borgstrom. Rasmus 4/6 Bottemiller, Charles 517 Bouck, Hon. Charles W 372 Brick, Otto J. 657 Brick, Simon P. 376 Brockway, William C. 378 Brooks, Warren W. 527 Brown, Charles H. 432 Brown. Otis J., M. D 511 Bujalski, Rev. Stephen 592 Burton, Barney 489 C Calhoun, George 444 Callahan, Thomas F. 679 Cameron, Donald M. 521 Chapman. Clinton E. 440 Chirhart. George N. 436 Chirhart. Joseph J. 415 Cochran. Survetus C. 587 Corbin. Dura 507 Cox, Bennett B. 393 Cox. William H. 381 Crossfield. John W. 502 D Dally. Willis C. 424 Dalquist, Carl O. 537 Davies, Frank P. 656 Dobbyn, Prof. Frank W. 375 Docken, John H. 496 Dubbels, George 649 Dvorak, Peter 627 E Eckblad, Axel 525 Edden, William 634 Edeburn, George 705 Ehr, Ethel M. 435 Erickson, Carl J. 607 Erickson. Rubin 403 Erlandson, Erick 580 Etzell, George A. 637 F Falk. James W. 389 Farrow. Franklin P. 481 Featherston. James W. 454 Fenn, Andrew J. 495 Flood, Edward A. 395 Fortier, George M. A., M. D 490 Franzen, Gust 698 Freeman, Fred 531 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. K Gassert, Henry 426 Gendreau, Paul 528 Gordon, Thomas C. 509 Gothman, Henry 703 Gravel, Charles, Sr. 401 Gravel, Charles E. 383 Groover, Leslie A. 559 Gunderson, Mark J. i 684 Glitches, Merton E. 704 H Hall, Elmer £., M. D 360 Hanson, John \V. 538 Hanson, Willie 623 Hart, James 652 Hartmann, Joseph B. 398 Hartmann, Philip A. 387 Haymaker, Ernest G. 460 Hedin, Henry 411 Hedin, John 640 Hegg, John 659 Hennen, Nicholas J. 560 Herum, Andrew 590 Herrmann, Chris 524 Hitzemann, Otto H. 385 Hokenson, Henry E. 408 Holmgren, Pear A. 550 Honstrom, Andrew W. 437 Houn, Joseph 555 iloystrom, Peter O. 677 Husmann, John H. 691 Hutchinson. Wilber E. 672 I Isaacson. Hans 600 J Jacobs, Sherman W. 462 Janski, Rev. Joseph C. 419 Jaschkc, Paul 540 Johnson, James P. 681 Johnson, John O. 467 Johnson, Ole A. 598 Jones. John David 368 Kalis, Frank 674 Kasparek, Valentine E. 669 Keehr, Fred 683 Kempenich, John 552 Kerkhoff, Edward H. 430 Kiewel, Jacob 595 Kjeldergaard, Ole O. 473 Knapp, Perry 701 Koslosky, Austin F. 400 Kroll, Rev. Peter J 670 LaFond, Edward M. 585 Lambert, James M. 622 Lamothe, Rev. Arthur 384 Landahl, Henning 353 Lee, Rudolph 519 Lee, William E. 468 Lisle, John W. 358 Lockwood, Vernie 589 Loegering, August 696 Logan, Frank B. 611 Logan, Harry M. 603 Lyon. Frank W. 477 Mc McDougall, Thomas 621 McGivern, Frank C. 458 McNairy, Bartlett Y. 515 McRae, John J. 361 M Malm, Olaf 443 Marlin, John D., Jr 647 Martin. J. Kenneth 416 Massy, Gerald W. 464 Metcalf, Joseph L. 363 Millspaugh, Joseph G., M. D 504 Molde, Christian 533 Monson, Mathias T. 605 Morcy, William N. 693 Muelkr. John P. 616 Muncy, Leslie 513 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. N NagI, Rt. Rev. Mgr. Edward 480 Nelson. Albert O. 446 Nelson, Frank A. 488 Nelson, George O. 439 Nelson, Hans 618 Nelson, Hoken 663 Nelson, Louis 632 Newman, J. H., D. V. S 483 Nichols, Jerry C. 549 Nutter, Hugh A. 624 Nygaard, Bernard 690 Nygaard, Ole 535 Nylen, Peter 688 O Odor, Francis T. 636 Olson, Maurice 593 P Palm, Jones 571 Parker, George F. 576 Pedley. William 512 Pehrson, Alfred 412 Perkins, John C. 671 Perry, Tim 428 Person, Nels 617 Person, Ola 619 Peterson, John H. 406 R Ragan, George 680 Randall, Phil S. 493 Rekosiak, Rev. Theodore J 544 Remillard, Cyprien A. 456 Renick, Frank 565 Rennie, John 675 Rhode, Otto A. 365 Riedner, George M. 569 Roberts, Lemuel M., M. D 392 Rodman, William 643 Roese, Alfred E. 530 Rosenberg, Edward M. 484 Runquist, Carl W. 562 Rydholm, Andrew 567 S Samuelson, Olof 575 Sandahl, August 573 Schallern, Victor 486 Scherer, Rev. Michael 602 Schermerhorn, George 354 Schmolke, John 566 Schult:^, George 399 Schvvanke, August 638 Sears, Fred P. 463 Seely, Charles E. 466 Shaw, Hon. Edward F 367 Shutt. Sylvester J. 582 Signer. Edwin 628 Sjodin, Ole 614 Smith, Alfred P. 547 Snow, Heman D. 584 Sparrow, William 396 Stenholm, Charles 687 Stephenson, John W. 522 Stoll, Alfred M. 413 Suszczynski, Rev. Sigismond 608 Swanson, Henry 546 Swanson, Oscar E. 545 Swedback, Charles J. 409 Tanner, Leigh V. 501 Tedford. Samuel 599 Thelander, John A. 557 Thorsen, Richard 630 V Vasaly, Peter J. 658 Vasaly, Dr. Spirit J. 474 Vasaly, Stephen C. 650 Vernon, Archibald H. 516 Vertin, John 520 Viehauser, Peter 417 W Waage, Nels O. 442 Wait, John 541 Waldron, Herbert L. 699 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. Waller, John C 695 Wilson, George E. 391 Warnberg, Seth 554 Winscher, Charles 667 Wermerskirchen, Melchior 433 Wise, Elwin H. 615 Werner, Charles H. 420 Z Wetzel, John 449 Wilson, Alfred 451 \\'ilson, Byron R. 423 Zitur. Rev. Francis 459 HISTORY OF MORRISON COUNTY CHAPTER I. RELATED STATE HISTORY. Three years elapsed from the time that the territory of Minnesota was proposed in Congress, to the final passage of the organic act. On August 6, 1846, an act was passed by Congress authorizing the citizens of Wisconsin territory to frame a constitution and form a state government. The act fixed the St. Louis river to the rapids, from thence south to the St. Croix, and thence down that river to its junction with the Mississippi, as the west- ern boundary. On December 23, 1846, the delegate from Wisconsin, Morgan L. Mar- tin, introduced the bill in Congress for the organization of the territory of Minnesota. This bill made its western boundary the Sioux and Red river of the North. On March 3, 1847, permission was granted to Wisconsin to change her boundary, so that the western limit would proceed due south from the rapids of the St. Louis river, and fifteen miles east of the most easterly point of Lake St. Croix, thence to the Mississippi. Several members of the constitutional convention of Wisconsin were anxious that Rum river should be a part of her western boundary, while citizens of the valley of the St. Croix were desirous that the Chippewa river should be the limit of Wisconsin. The citizens of Wisconsin territory, in the valley of the St. Croix and about Ft. Snelling, wished to be included in the projected new territory, and on March 28, 1848, a memorial, signed by H. H. Sibley, Henry M. Rice, Franklin Steele, William R. Marshall and others, was presented to Congress, remonstrating against the proposition before the convention to make Rum river a part of the boundary line of the contemplated state of Wisconsin. On May 29, 1848, the act to admit Wisconsin changed the boundary to (3) 34 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. the present lines, and as first defined in the enabhng act of 1846. After the bill written by Mr. Martin was introduced into the House of Representatives in 1846, it was referred to the committee on territories, of which Mr. Doug- las was chairman. On January 2, 1847, he reported in favor of the proposed territory, with the name of Itasca. On February 17, before the bill passed the House, a decision arose in relation to the proposed name. Mr. \\'in- throp, of Massachusetts, proposed Chippewa as a substitute, alleging that this tribe was the principal one in the proposed territory, which was not correct. J. Thompson, of Mississippi, disliked all Indian names, and hoped the terri- tory would be called Jackson. Mr. Houston, of Delaware, thought that there ought to be a territory named after the "Father of his Country," and pro- posed the name Washington. All of the names proposed were rejected and the name as proposed in the original bill was inserted. On the last day of the session, March 3, the bill was called up in the Senate and laid on the table. When Wisconsin became a state the query arose whether the old terri- torial government did not continue in force west of the St. Croix ri\er. The first meeting on the subject of claiming territorial privileges was held in the building at St. Paul, known as Jackson's store, near the corner of Bench and Jackson streets, on the bluf¥. This meeting was held in July, and a conven- tion was proposed to consider their position. The fir.st public meeting was held at Stillwater, August 4, and Messrs. Steele and Sibley were the only persons present from the west side of the Mississippi. This meeting issued a call for a, general convention to take steps to secure an early territorial organization, to assemble on the 26th of the month at the same place. Si.xty- two delegates answered the call. A letter was presented to the convention from Mr. Catlin, who claimed to be acting governor, giving his opinion that the Wisconsin territorial organization was still in force. The meeting also appointed Mr. Sibley to visit Washington and represent their views; Init the Hon. John H. Tweedy having resigned his office as delegate to Congress, September 18, 1848, Mr. Catlin, who had made Stillwater a temporary resi- dence issued a proclamation on October 9, ordering a special election at Stillwater on the 30th to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation. At this election, Henry H. Sibley was elected as delegate of the citizens of the remaining portion of Wi.sconsin territory. His credentials were presented to the House of Repre.sentatives, and the committee to whom the matter was referred jiresented a majority and a minority report; but tiie resolution intro- duced by the majority passed and Mr. Sililey took his seat as a delegate from Wisconsin territory, January 15, 1849. MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 35 In an interesting communication to the Minnesota Historical Society, Mr. Sibley wrote : "When my credentials as delegate were presented by Hon. James Wilson, of New Hampshire, to the House of Representatives, there was some curiosity manifested among the members, to see what kind of a person had been elected to represent the distant and wild territory claiming a representation in Congress. I was told by a New England member with whom I became subsequently quite intimate, that there was some disappoint- ment when I made my appearance, for it was expected that the delegate from this remote region would make his debut, if not in full Indian costume, at least with some peculiarities of dress and manners characteristic of the rude dress and manners of semi-civilized people, who had sent him to the capitol." THE NAME, MINNESOTA. The territory of Minnesota was named after the largest tributary of the Mississippi within its limits. The Sioux called the Missouri, "Minne-sho- shay" (muddy water), but the stream after which this region is named, "Minne-sota." Some say "sota" means clear; others turbid; Schoolcraft, bluish green. Nicolett wrote: "The adjective 'sotah' is of difficult transla- tion. The Canadians translated it by a pretty equivalent word, 'brouille,' perhaps more properly rendered into English by 'blear.' But after all these tangled-up explanations of the meaning of the word 'Minnesota,' it may be stated that its true meaning is found in the Sioux expression 'Ishtah-sota' (blear-eyed)." From the fact that the word signifies neither blue nor white, but the peculiar appearance of the sky at certain times, Minnesota has, by some, been defined to mean the tinted water, which is certainly poetic and believed by well-versed scholars to be nearly correct. MINNESOTA TERRITORY, 1 849 TO 1 854. Extracts from Works in Historical Society. On March 3, 1849, by act of Congress, Minnesota became a territory, whose boundary on the west extended to the Missouri river. At this time the region was little less than a wilderness. The west bank of the Mississippi from the Iowa line to Lake Itasca, was unceded by the Indians. At Wapa- shaw was a trading post, in charge of Alexis Bailly, and here also resided the ancient voyageur, of four score years, A. Rocque. At the foot of Lake Pepin was a storehouse, kept by F. S. Richards. On the west shore of the 36 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. lake lived an eccentric man named Wells, whose wife was a bois brule, a daughter of the deceased trader, Diuican Graham. The two unfinished buildings of stone, on the beautiful bank opposite the renowned Maiden's Rock, and the surrounding skin of lodges of his wife's relatives and friends, presented a rude, but picturesque, scene. Above the lake was a cluster of bark wigwams, the Dakotah village of what came to be later known as Red Wing city. At that place there was also a Presby- terian mission. At Red Rock, the site of the former Methodist mission station, there were but few farmers. St. Paul was just emerging from a collection of Indian whisky shops and birch-roofed cabins of half-breed voyageurs. Here and there a frame tenement was erected, and, under the auspices of Hon. H. M. Rice, who had obtained an interest in the town, some warehouses were constructed, and the foundations of the American house, a frame hotel, stood at Third and Exchange streets. In 1849, the population had increased to between two hundred and fifty and three hundred, for rumors had gone abroad that it might be mentioned in the act of creating the territory, as the capital of Minnesota. More than a month after the adjournment of Con- gress, just at the eve of April 9, amid peals of thunder and torrents of rain, the weekly steampacket, the first to force its way through the icy barrier of Lake Pepin, rounded the rocky point, whistling loud and long, as if the bearer of glad tidings. Before she was safely moored to the landing, the shouts of the excited villagers were heard announcing that there was a ter- ritory of Alinnesota. and that St. Paul was the seat of government. Every successive steamboat arrival poured out on the landing men big with hope, and anxious to do something to mould the future of the new state. Nine days after the news of the existence of the territory of Minnesota was received, there arrived James W. Goodhue with press, type and printing apparatus. A graduate of Amherst College, and a lawyer by profession, he wielded a sharp pen, and wrote editorials which, more than anything else, perhaps, induced immigration. Though a man of some faults, one of the counties properly bears his name. On Ajiril 28 he issued from his press the first number of the "Pioneer." On May 27, Alexander Ramsey, the governor, and family, arrived at St. Paul, but, owing to the crowded state of the public houses, immediately proceeded in the steamer to the establishment of the fur company, known as Mcndota, at the junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi, and there became the guest of Hon. Henry H. Sibley. MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 37 ORGANIZATION OF THE TERRITORY. By proclamation on June ist. Governor Ramsey declared the territory duly opened and organized, with the following officers : Alexander Ramsey, of Pennsylvania, governor; C. K. Smith, of Ohio, secretary; A. Goodrich, of Tennessee, chief justice; D. Cooper, of Pennsylvania, and B. B. Meeker, of Kentucky, associate judges; Joshua L. Taylor, marshal; H. L. Moss, attorney of the United States. On June ii, 1849, a second proclamation was issued, dividing the terri- tory into three judicial districts. The first comprised the county of St. Croix; the county of La Pointe and the region north and west of the Mississippi and north of the Minnesota and of a line running due west from the head- waters of the Minnesota to the Missouri river, constituted the second district, and the country west of the Mississippi river and south of the Minnesota formed the third district. A court was ordered to be held at Stillwater on the second Monday, at St. Anthony Falls, on the third Monday, and at Mendota on the fourth Monday in August. Until June 26 Governor Ramsey and family were guests at Hon. H. H. Sibley's at Mendota, but on the afternoon of that day they arrived in a birch-bark canoe and became permanent residents of the capital. On July I a land office was located at Stillwater, and A. Van Vorhes became register, after a few weeks. On July 7, 1849, a proclamation was issued, dividing the territory into seven council districts, and ordering an election to be held on August i for one delegate to represent the people in the House of Representatives of the United States, for nine councillors and eighteen representatives, to constitute the Legislative Assembly of Minnesota. The same month, Hon. H. M. Rice dispatched a boat loaded with Indian goods, from the falls of St. Anthony to Crow Wing, it being towed by horses after the manner of a canal boat. At the election H. H. Sibley was elected, without opposition, as dele- gate to Congress. Soon after the territory was organized there were three newspai>ers established in the territory now known as the state of Minnesota. The first was the Pioneer, April 28, 1849, which was started under most trying cir- cumstances. It was at first the intention of the witty and reckless editor to have called his paper "The Epistle of St. Paul." About the same time there was issued in Cincinnati, under the management of Dr. Randall, the 38 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. first number of the Register. The second number of the paper was pubhshed in St. Paul, in July. About June i James Hughes, afterwards of Hudson, Wisconsin, arrived with a printing outfit, and established the Minnesota Chronicle. After two or three months, two of these three papers went down, and in their place was issued the Chronicle and Register, edited by Nathaniel McLean and John P. Owens. The first court was opened at Stillwater in August, as per proclamation issued by the governor. Judge Goodrich presided. The old government mill at Minneapolis was used for court purposes for the second district. Judge B. B. Meeker persiding as judge. In the third district, the same month, court was held in a large stone warehouse, belonging to the fur com- pany at Mendota, with David Cooper as presiding judge. On September 3, the first Legislative Assembly convened in the Central house (hotel) at St. Paul. On the first floor of the main building were ihe secretary's office and representatives' chamber ; in the second story was the library and council chamber. A flag was run up the staff in front of the house. A number of Indians sat on a rocky bluff in the vicinity and gazed at what to them was a novel and perhaps saddening scene, for, if the tide of immigration sweeps in from the Pacific as it has from the Atlantic coast, they must soon be crowded out. The first session of the Legislature ad- journed November i. During that session there were created the following counties : Itasca, Wapashaw, Dakotah, Wahnahth, Mahkahto, Pembina, Washington, Ramsey and Benton. The three latter counties comprised the country that up to that time had been ceded l)y the Indians, on the east side of the Mississippi. Stillwater was declared the county seat of Washington; St. Paul, of Ramsey, and "the seat of justice of the county of Benton was to be within one-quarter of a mile of a point on the east side of the Missis- sippi, directly opposite the mouth of Sauk river." Through the exertions of the first secretary of the territory, C. K. Smith, the Historical Society of Minnesota was formed and incorporated at the very opening session of the Territorial Legislature. AN INTERESTING EVENT. On the evening of New Year's day, at Ft. Snelling. there was an assem- blage wiiich is only seen in the outposts of civilization. Outside llic wall, in one of the stone edifices belonging to the United States, there resided a gen- tleman who had dwelt in Minnesota since tlie year 1819, and who for many MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 39 years had been in the employ of the government as Indian interpreter. In his youth he had been a member of the Columbia Fur Company and, con- forming to the habits of traders, had purchased a Dakotah wife who was wholly ignorant of the English language. As a family of children gathered around him, he recognized the relation of husband and father and consci- entiously discharged his duties as parent. His daughter, at a proper age, was sent to a boarding school of some celebrity, and on the night referred to was married to an intelligent young American farmer. Among the guests pres- ent were the officers of the garrison in full dress uniform, with their wives, the United States agent for the Dahkotahs, and family, the bois brules of the neighborhood, and the Indian relatives of the mother. The mother did not make her appearance, but, as the minister proceeded with the ceremony, the Dahkotah relatives, wrapped in their gay blankets, gathered in the hall and looked in through the door. This marriage feast was worthy of the occasion. In consequence of the numbers, the officers and those of European extraction partook first; then the bois brules of Ojibway and Dahkotah descent, and then the native Americans, who did ample justice to the plenti- ful supply spread before them. NOTEWORTHY FIRST EVENTS. Governor Ramsey and Hon. H. H. Sibley, at Washington, in the winter (January) of 1850, devised a seal for the territory of Minnesota. The design was a representation of St. Anthony falls in the distance; an immi- grant plowing the land on the borders of the Indian country, full of hope and looking forward to the possession of the hunting grounds beyond; an Indian amazed at the sight of .the plow, and fleeing toward the setting sun. The summer of 1850 was the commencement of navigation of the Min- nesota river by steamboats. With the exception of a steamer that made pleasure trips as far as Shokpay, in 1841, no large vessels had ever dis- turbed the waters of this river. In June of 1850 the "Anthony Wayne," which a few weeks before had ascended to the falls of St. Anthony, made a trip. On July 18 it made another trip, going almost to Mahkahto. The "Nominee," also, navigated the Minnesota river that season. The first proclamation for Thanksgiving day in Minnesota was issued in the autumn of 1850 by the governor, and the 26th day of December was the day appointed and generally observed. *" In 185 1 the penitentiary was located by the Legislature at Stillwater, 40 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. which greatly displeased some of the citizens at St. Paul. By the etlorts of J. W. North the University of Minnesota was established at or near the falls of St. Anthony. By the provisions of the state Constitution it is now called the State University. The first newspaper published above St. Paul was at St. Anthony, and was known as the St. Anthony Express, which made its appearance in April, 1851. The most important event of 1851 in Minnesota was the treaty with the Dakotahs, by which the west side of the Mississippi and the valley of the Minnesota river were opened to the hardy immigrant. This treaty was held for the upper bands at Traverse des Sioux. The commission arrived there the last days of June, but were obliged to wait many days for the congre- gating of the several tribes of Indians interested. The treaty was finally concluded on July 23, 1851, after the usual speeches, f eastings, etc. The pipe having been smoked by Commissioners Lea and Ramsey, it was passed to the chiefs. The paper containing the treaty was then read in English and translated into the Dakotah by Rev. S. R. Riggs, Presbyterian mission- ary among the Indian people. This finished, the chiefs came up to the secretary's table and touched the pen ; the white men present then witnessed the document, and nothing remained but the document's ratification by the United States Senate to open that vast country for the residence of white settlers. During the first week in August, 1851, a treaty was also concluded beneath an oak bower on Pilot Knob, Mendota, with the M'dewakantonwan and Wahpaykootay bands of the Dakotahs. About sixty of the chiefs and principal men touched the pen, and Little Crow, who had been in the mis- sion school at Lac qui Parle, signed his own name. Before they separated. Colonel Lea and Governor Ramsey gave them a few words of advice on various subjects connected with their future welfare, but especially upt)n the subject of education and temperance. The treaty was interpreted to them by Rev. G. H. Pond, a gentleman who was conceded to be a most cor- rect speaker of the Dakotah language. The day after the treaty, these lower bands received thirty thousand dollars, which, by the treaty of 1837, was set apart tor education: but. by the misrepresentations of interested half-breeds, the Indians were made to believe that it ought to be given to them to be employed as they pleased. The next week, with their sacks filled with money, they thronged the streets of St. I'aul, purchasing whatever pleased their fancy. MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 41 EVENTS OF 1852 AND 1853. During the summer of 1852, Elijah Terry, a young man who had left St. Paul the previous March and gone to Pembina, to act as a teacher to the mixed-bloods in that vicinity, was murdered under distressing circum- stances. With a bois brule, he had started to the woods on the morning of his death, to hew timber. While there he was fired upon by a small party of Dakotahs ; a ball broke his arm and he was pierced with arrows. His scalp was wrenched from his head, and was afterward seen among Sisseton Dakotahs, near Big Stone lake. At the November term of the United States district court, of Ramsey county, a Dakotah, named Yu-ha-zee, was tried for the murder of a German woman. With others, she was traveling above Shokpay, when they met a party of Indians, of whom the prisoner was one, who gathered about the wagon and were much excited. The prisoner punched the woman with his gun and, being threatened by one of the party, loaded and fired, killing the woman and wounding one of the men. On the day of the trial he was escorted from Vt. Snelling by a company of mounted dragoons in full dress. It was an impressive scene to witness the poor Indian in his blanket, in a buggy, with a civil officer, surrounded with all the pomp and circumstance of war. The jury found him guilty. On being asked if he had anything to say why death sentence should not be passed, he replied, through the interpreter, that the band to which he belonged would remit their annuities if he could be released. To this Judge Hayner replied that he had no authority to release him, and, ordering him to arise, he, after some impressive remarks, pronounced the first sentence of death ever delivered by a judicial officer in Minnesota. The prisoner trembled when the judge spoke and was a piteous spectacle. At that time, by the statutes of Minnesota, one convicted of murder could not be executed for twelve months, and he was confined until the governor of the territory should by warrant order his execution. On April 9, 1853, a party of Ojibways killed a Dakotah at the village of Shokpay. A war party from Kaposia then proceeded up the valley of the St. Croix and killed an Ojibway. On the 27th of the same month a band of Ojibway warriors, naked, decked, and fiercely gesticulating, made their appearance on the busiest street of the capital, in search of their ene- mies. Just at that time a small party of women, and one man, who ha'd lost his leg in the battle of Stillwater, arrived in a canoe from Kaposia, at the Jackson street landing. Perceiving the Ojibways, they retreated to the 42 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. building then known as the Pioneer office, and the Ojibways discharged a volley through the windows, wounded a Dakotah woman, who soon died. For a short time, the new capital city presented a sight similar to that wit- nessed in earlier days in Hadley and Deerfield, Massachusetts. Messen- gers were dispatched to Ft. Snelling for the dragoons and a party of citi- zens, mounted on horseback, were quickly in pursuit of those who, with such boldness, had sought the streets of St. Paul as a place to avenge their wrongs. The dragoons soon followed, with Indian guides scenting the track of the Ojibways, like bloodhounds. The next day they discovered the transgressors, near the falls of St. Croi.x. The Ojibways manifesting what was supposed to be an insolent spirit, the order was given by the lieutenan^ in command to tire, and he whose scalp was afterwards daguerrotyped and engraved for Graha)ii's Magazine, paid the penalty for his misdeeds. During the summer a passenger, as he stood on the hurricane deck of any of the steamboats, might have seen, on a scaffold on the bluffs in the rear of Kaposia, a square box covered with red cloth. Above it was sus- pended a piece of the scalp of the Ojibway whose death had caused the affray in the streets of St. Paul. Within was the body of the woman who had been shot in the Pioneer building, while seeking refuge. A scalp sus- pended over the corpse is supposed to be consolation to the soul and a great protection in the journey to the spirit land. On the accession of Franklin Pierce to the Presidency of the United States the officers appointed under the Taylor and Fillmore administrations were removed, and the following apjxjinted in their places : Governor, W. A. Gorman, of Indiana; secretary, J. T. Rosser, of ^'irginia; chief jus- tice, W. H. Welch, of Minnesota; associates, Moses Sherburne, of Maine, and A. G. Chatfield, of Wisconsin. One of the first official acts of the sec- ond governor was the making of a treaty with the Winnebago Indians at Watal), Benton county, for an exchange of country. EVENTS JUST PRIOR TO MINNESOTA'S ADMISSION AS A STATE. The fifth session of the Territorial Legislature convened in the build- ing just completed as the state capitol, January 4, 1S54. The president of the council was S. B. Olmstead and tlie si)cakt>r of the House was N. C. D. Taylor. The most e.xciting event of this session was the passage of the act incorporating the Minnesota & Northwestern Railroad Company. It was MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 43 passed after the hour of midnight on the last day of the session, and con- trary to the expectation of the people, it was signed by the governor and became a law. On December 27, 1854. the first public execution in Minnesota took place, that of Yu-ha-zee, the Indian who had killed the woman previously referred to. The scafifold was erected on the open space between an inn called the Franklin house and the rear of J. W. Selby's enclosure in St. Paul. About two o'clock, the prisoner, dressed in a white shroud, left the old log prison, near the court house, and entered a carriage with the officers of the law. Being assisted up the steps that led to the scaffold, he made a few remarks in his own language, and was then executed. Numerous ladies sent in a petition to the governor, asking the pardon of the Indian, to which that officer, in declining, made an appropriate reply. The Legislature, in the winter of 1855, adjourned one day, to attend the exercises occasioned by the opening of the first bridge of its kind over the Mississippi river. It was the well-remembered wire suspension bridge at St. Anthony falls. At the date of its opening to the public the land on the west shore of the stream had not yet been patented by the government, which shows the reader how wonderfully the Twin Cities have grown in so short a period of time. THE YEARS 1856-57. On June 12, 1856, several Ojibways entered the farm house of a Mr. Whallon, of Hennepin county, on the banks of the Minnesota river, a mile below the Bloomington ferry. The wife of the farmer, a friend and three children, besides a little Dakotah girl, who had been brought up in a mis- sion house at Kaposia, and so changed in manners that her origin was scarcely perceptible, were sitting in the room when the Indians came in. Instantly seizing the little Indian maiden, they threw her out of the door, killed and scalped her, and fled before the men in the field nearby could reach the house. During the session of the Legislature in 1857 the chief issue was the grant of lands for railroad purposes. Also a bill calling for the removal of the state capital from St. Paul to St. Peter caused much stir and no little excitement. After a long and heated contest, the decision was finally reached that St. Paul should be the permanent seat of state government, since which date no effort has been made to change the capital of Minne- sota. 44 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. On February 23, 1857, an act passed the United States Senate to authorize the people of Minnesota to form a constitution preparatory to their admission into the Union on an equal footing with the original states. On January 29, 1858, Senator Douglas, of the United States Senate, submitted the bill for the admission of Minnesota territory as a state into the Union. On February i a discussion arose on the bill, in which Senators Douglas, Wilson, Gwin, Hale, Mason, Green, Brown and Crittenden par- ticipated. Brown, of Mississippi, was opposed to the admission of Minne- sota until the question was settled about Kansas. Mr. Crittenden, a Southern man, could not endorse all that was said by the senator from Mississippi, and his words of wisdom and moderation are worthy of historic mention. On April 7, 1858, the bill finally passed the Senate, with only three dis- senting votes, and in a short time the House of Representatives concurred; on Mav 1 1 the President approved the bill, and Minnesota was fully recog- nized as one of the United States of America. CHAPTER II. GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL FEATURES. In 1888, State Geologist Winchell and Warren Upham made a survey of the topography and geology of the part of Minnesota embracing Morri- son county and their research was published in a large volume by the author- ity of the commonwealth. Professor Upham, now at the head of one of the departments of the State Historical Society at St. Paul, made the sur- vey in both Morrison and Todd counties, and from this exhaustive work the author has largely drawn for the material found within this chapter, which serves for both counties, in a way, with certain variations, owing to the locality treated upon. Morrison county is about forty miles long from west to east, and its greatest width, on its western boundary, is thirty-nine and a half miles, but east of the Mississippi river its width is only twenty-three miles. Morrison county's area is 1,154.82 square miles, or 739,088.97 acres, of which 8,171.77 acres are covered by water. SURFACE FEATURES. The Mississippi river flows south from Crow Wing county, dividing; the domain of Morrison into two sections, of almost equal parts. From its eastern portion comes in several tributaries, such as Rabbit river. Sand creek, Noka Sebe (commonly called Nokasippi) river, Fletcher creek and Platte river. Platte, the largest stream, has its source in Platte lakes, on the northern county line, and flows thirty miles southwesterly into the Mis- sissippi in Benton county. Skunk river is an important tributary of the Platte from the east. From the west, the affluents of the Mississippi are the Crow Wing river, which forms a part of the northern boundary of Morrison county, the Little Elk river. Pike creek, Swan river, Little Two rivers, the main Two Rivers and Skunk brook. Lake Alexander and Fish Trap lake, in northwestern Morrison 46 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. county, are the sources of the Fish Trap brook, which flows over into Todd county. The east borders of these counties from Mille Lacs south- ward belong to the basin of Rum river, which is a tributary of the Missis- sippi at Anoka. LAKES. Platte lakes, above mentioned, and others in their vicinity, are alwut all the lakes within Morrison county. The most noteworthy lakes of the countw perhaps, may be considered Rice lakes, the Southern Platte and Fish lake, lying between Little Falls and Rich Prairie. In western l\Iorri- son countv only a few small lakelets occur south of Lake Alexander, Fish Trap and Shaminaeu lakes, with others of a small size, make up the inter- esting group in the northwest part of the county, beautiful for their hilly shores, numerous points, bays and islands, and abounding in fish and water- fowl, while deer and other game live in the surrounding forests. TOPOGRAPHY. Morrison and Crow Wing counties present about the same topography. A rough, hilly belt of morainic drift, chiefly till, with scanty kame-like deposits of gravel and sand, borders the west side of Morrison county — especially is this seen in Elmdale, Culdrum and the south half of Parker township. North from the south fork of Little Elk river it reaches two or three miles into Morrison county, in the northwest part of Parker township, as well as the next township to the northward. It then turns eastward in a strip two miles south of Fish Trap lake and Lake Alexan- der, above which these morainic hills rise from one to one hundred and fifty feet in height. Its highest portions ri.se more than one hundred feet above Lake Alexander, or two hundred to two hundred and fift\- feet above the Crow Wing and Mississippi rivers. Green Prairie, adjoining the Mississippi, and most of the tract west to Fish lake, is flat or only slightly luidulating. From the west end of Fish lake are kames or knolls, small plateaus and short ridges of gravel and sand, having cobbles up to one foot in diameter, but no larger bowl- ders, rising thirty to fifty feet above the smoothly undulating gravel and sand on each side, extending thrci.- miles west, with a width of about one mile. MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 47 Southward from the morainic area and this tract of modified drift, most of the southwestern part of Morrison county is moderately undulat- ing, rising in gentle swells twenty to forty feet above the water courses. In southeastern Elmdale, south of the north branch of Two rivers and Little Two rivers, a belt of le\'el till is found, continuing over into Stearns county. East of the Mississippi river, a morainic belt from one to three miles wide extends from north to south through Mooreville, Belle Prairie and Little Falls, nearly parallel with the Mississippi river, from which it is sep- arated by a plain modified drift, one to three miles wide and from twenty- five to fifty feet above the river. Where this belt crosses the roadway from Little Falls to Rich Prairie it attains its greatest height, and its material is almost wholly till or bowlder-clay. The same modified drift forms Hole- in-the Day's bluff, a notable conical hill, forty feet above the average height of the range and about one hundred and fifty feet above the Mississippi river, situated in the south edge of Belle Prairie, one and one-half miles northeast of Little Falls. ALTITUDES. Little Falls is 1,115 ^^^t above sea level. Summit cut, seventeen miles from Little Falls, is 1,192 feet. The descent of the Mississippi river within the limits of Morrison county is about one hundred and fifty-nine feet. Crow Wing river, at Mot- lev, is 1,206 feet above sea level, descending nearly sixty feet thence to its mouth. Lake Alexander is 1,275 ^^^t above sea level. The highest land in Morrison county consists of morainic hills in the vicinitv of Lake Alexander; the tops are about 1,400 feet above sea level and its lowest land is the shores of the Mississippi river in Two Rivers township, 1,029 feet. The mean elevation of the county is about 1,220 feet. By townships, the sea level runs approximately thus : Township No. 42, range 28, 1,275 feet; township 41, range 28, 1,300; township 40, range 28, 1.275; Morrill, 1,225; township 42. range 29, 1,260; township 41, range 29, 1,275; Ripley, 1,260; Pierz. 1,220; Buckman, 1,180; Belle Prairie, 1,230; Pike Creek, 1,170; Little Falls, 1,160; Bellevue, 1,100; Motley, 1,275; Swan River, 1,140; Two Rivers, 1,100; Parker, 1,260; Culdrum, 1,240, and Elmdale, 1,200. 48 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. SOIL AND TIMBER. The bowlder-clay or till is good farming land, except limited portions of the morainic belts, which are too hilly and stony for cultivation, and such lands are valuable for pasture purposes. The soils of gravel and sand belonging to the modified drift have less fertility and are more quickly exhausted by cropping; but from Motley to Crow Wing, and thence south through Morrison county, they are fairly productive, and have to a large extent been brought under cultivation successfully, because they were prai- rie, or only covered by brush and small trees, so that the land was easil)'' prei>ared for the plow. Heavy timber covers the areas of the till and some portions of the modified drift. On the latter, Jack pines, red or Norway pines, black and burr oaks, aspen and other species grow. Much jack pine also grows on a belt next east of the morainic belt in Crow Wing, Mooreville, Belle Prairie and Little Falls, and much red pine is found on the tract of modified drift in Green Prairie north of the Little Elk river. The general southwestern limit of the pines, spruce and fir, crosses Buckman township, Bellevue and the south part of Swan River, thence con- tinuing northwestward through Culdrum into Todd county. Much white pine has been cut, and much remained in Parker township and northward in Green Prairie and Motley, about the head of West branch of Rum river, on Hillman brook, and the u]>per portions of Skunk, Platte and Nokasippi rivers. Among the many species of tree and shrub growth of this county there may be named, as common, the white pine, white, burr and black oaks, ironwood, white, reel and rock elms, hackberry, basswood, sugar and soft maple, box elder, black and green ash, canoe and yellow birch, poplars, but- ternut, bitter hickory, wild plum, red and black cherry and Juneberry. Of the shrulxs are the hazelnut, prickly ash, choke cherry, red and black rasp- berry, high blackberry, wild rose, thorn, prickly and smooth gooseberry, black currant, wolfbcrry, staghorn and smooth sumach, frost grape, Vir- ginia creepers, climbing bittersweet. New Jersey tea or red-root, honey- suckle and arrowwood, the high-bush cranberry, alder and willows. Tama- rack is plentiful in the swamps. Red cedar rarely occurs on bluffy shores of rivers and lakes. MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 49 PRAIRIES. Prairies of grass, with scarcely any shrubbery or plants, occupied orig- inally a considerable part of the modified drift plain bordering the east side of the Mississippi river, southward through Belle Prairie and part of Little Falls; also a tract of two or three square miles in the southwest part of Bellevue, and another, three miles long from north to south and a mile wide, in Crow Wing. Green Prairie, three miles long from north to south and a mile wide; North Prairie, in Two Rivers, and Rich Prairie, which is about four miles wide and reaches eleven or twelve miles from the middle of Pierz, south through the west part of Buckman and the east edge of Bellevue, continuing on into Benton county. These are mostly "brush prai- rie," having much hazel and oak brush, prairie willow, red root and sand cherry. GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. In Morrison county many outcrops of bed-rocks occur. East of the Mississippi river the prevailing types are granite, cyanite and gneiss. Along the river and farther west they are slate, staurolite-bearing mica, schist and dioryte. Of the geological formation at and near Granite City, in part of sec- tion 21, township 41, range 29, on the northwest side of Skunk river, it may be stated that that is where the steam saw-mill and a considerable town existed during several years ne.xt preceding the Indian outbreak of 1862. Its buildings remained empty from that date on and were gradually removed or decayed into ruins. The nearest farming immigrants after that time settled a half-mile down the river. The rock outcropping at Granite City, from which the name was derived, is coarse gray gneiss, containing much black mica. Its strike is from northeast to southwest, and its dip is ver- tical, or within a few degrees of it. This rock forms numerous bare hill- ocks and ridges, ten to thirty feet above Skunk river, for a fourth of a mile along its northwestern side, and in less amount on its southeast side. It is also seen on the southeast side in an exposure of a few acres, rising ten to twenty feet above the river at a fourth of a mile farther to the east. Here the Skunk river is from ten to twenty feet wide, and flows in a mean- dering course among the ledges. About six miles above Granite City, on the northwest side of Skunk (4) 50 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. river, a little beyond where this stream is crossed by the road used for carrying the supplies distributed yearly to the Mille Lacs Indians, rock exposures are reported to cover as large an area as at Granite City, but to have less height above the adjoining surface of the drift. This is near the northwest corner of township 41, range 28. The rocks found in Morrison county, along the Mississippi river and west of it, belong to a group lithologically different from the foregoing, and doubtless newer in age. The first exposure is on the Little Elk river near its mouth, two and half miles north of Little Falls. It continues northwest above the dam, and is also visible in low exposures at the bridge, twenty rods above the dam. This slate contains occasional veins of quartz from a quarter of an inch to three inches in width, and from one to twenty feet in length. At the rapids at Little Falls on the Mississippi, beside the town of this name, this dark slate, varying from mica schist to argillyte, has extensive outcrops in each shore and forms the north end of Mill island, on the west side of which it makes a perpendicular cliff twenty feet high. The princi- pal rapid extends a fifth of a mile from alxiut six hundred feet above the island to five hundred feet below its north end, the descent being five feet. The stone was slightly quarried here prior to 1888, nearly opposite the north end of Mill island, for use in foundations, but no massive blocks nor any of regular form are obtainable. In this slate, veins of white quartz occur, varying from an eighth of an inch to one inch in thickness and extending out as far as seventy feet in places. The thickest of these veins is situated in the channel of the river, where it is about one foot wide. In the eastern part of Little Falls this slate is encountered at a depth of ten feet in digging wells, but it is not found thus in the west part, between this and its exix)sure at the river. This same geological formation is found outcropping at other points, as for example at Cash's rapids, below Pike's rapids, at the niitldle of Nun- cy's rai)ids, and at other points within Morrison county. Of the cretaceous beds of tiie county it should be said that at the mouth of main Two rivers these beds outcrop in the west bank of the Mis- sissippi along a distance of a quarter of a mile and in the banks of Two rivers it is overlaid by from ten to thirty feet of drift. A perfect shark's tooth was found about thirty years ago by Eddie Young on a sandbar of Two rivers, a fourth of a mile aliove its month. Other shark's teeth have been discovered since that date, all indicating that marine cretaceous beds probably underly the drift somewhere within the basin of the stream, though MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 5 1 possibly they are eroded by the ice, their fossils being now contained in the drift. The modified drift of the Mississippi river valley discloses that at Hay creek, where the river-road crosses, near the south line of Swan River town- ship, out of every one hundred pebbles found, about two are limestone; a hundredth part are red sandstone; the remainder, nearly ninety-nine per cent., are dark greenish or brown trap, redish and gray granite, cyanite and other crystalline rocks. The wells in Morrison county have a depth ranging from fifteen to fifty-five feet; usually about thirty feet from the surface good drinking water is obtained by digging for it. MATERIAL RESOURCES. In 1 88 1, when a geological survey was made of Morrison county by Warren Upham, now of the Historical Society of Minnesota, he found water-powers in use and dams for lumbering purposes as follow : On Skunk river, at Kasper's grist-mill, two miles northeast of Pierz, with an eight-foot head, as well as another in way of a saw-mill in section 30, with a seven-foot head. On Hillman brook and its branches, dams to supply water for log driving and other purposes, amounting in all to a half dozen or more. On Platte river two dams were in existence for lumbering and had a head of six feet. On Skunk brook, the Northern Pacific flouring- mills, in section 27, had a sixteen-foot head and run a three run of stones. On Two rivers there was a flouring-mill, with a twenty-foot head and numer- ous saw-mills. On Swan river, in the east edge of section 12, a third of a mile from its mouth, the Swan River flouring-mills, with a head of eleven feet. On the Little Elk river, Hill's grist-mill and saw-mill had a twelve- feet head, besides a large shingle-mill in the west part of section 8. Other good water powers, said Mr. Upham, waited to be employed on these streams, and on the Nokasippi, and especially on the Mississippi river at Little Falls and Pike rapids. Building Stone. — The outcrops of rock in Morrison county have been but slightly quarried at several localities. The most promising seems to be the granite seen a short distance south of Fish lake, three miles southwest of Rich Prairie. Drift builders are considerably used for rough masonry. Bricks. When Fort Ripley was built the bricks used were made on the west side of the Mississippi, near the site of the fort. They were red 52 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. and of excellent quality. In 1879 brick-making was begun by William Schwartz on the east side of the Mississippi a mile northeast from Brainerd. ARCHAEOLOGY. Without entering deep into the mysteries of this interesting subject, it should be stated, in brief, that this county affords a wonderland for scien- tific investigation along these lines. Peculiar earthworks are found less than a mile north of Little Falls, near the present. town plat. Professor Winchell described these in his work in the eighties in the following lan- guage : "Low circular ridges, from eight to twelve feet across, rising but two to three feet above the common level, are scattered over a small distance. They may have been designed for human habitation, having been formed at first by slightly excavating the surface of the ground, and then building rude, arched coverings, supported by wooden branches and enclosed by earth. If all these decayed and fell in, the resulting forms would be exactly what are now seen. Beyond the limits of the village, farther north, is an interesting ridge, nearly straight, running obliquely back from the river and one hundred and eight paces in length. It has two low spots, or oj)en- ings, through it, which separate it into three main parts. It does not extend to the immediate river bank, but is separated from it by several rods. The design of this ridge is not evident, but it must have sustained some relation to other works in the neighborhood. It may not, however, have the same age as the smaller circling ridges." NATHAN RICHARD.SON's ACCOUNT OF MOUNDS. That well-posted gentleman, Nathan Richardson, one of the first county ofiicials and a man of learning and much local research, wrote on the subject of mounds over a c|uarter of a century ago as follows: "On section 35, townshii) 4}, range 31, in the south edge of Belle Prairie, six miles east of Little Falls, nearly forty mounds are 'found around the shore of a lake, which by the Indians was called 'the lake between the hills'. A mile east from this lake is a group of about a dozen mounds, two of which were dug into a few years ago, a skeleton being found in each. Going from these nearly south about two miles, on the point of dry land running down to the thoroughfare between the two Rice MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 53 lakes, there are three mounds near together, much larger than these I have mentioned. Then, by crossing the stream connecting the two lakes and following down the strip of dry land between them about a half-mile, one comes to the largest mound known in Morrison county. It is about twelve feet in height. Passing on about one mile, on the southwest bank of East Rice lake, eight or ten more of the smaller size are found. Occasionally one or two small ones are met with in other parts of the county." HOLE-IN-T he-day's BLUFF. Hole-in-the-Day's Bluff is one and one-half miles northeast from Lit- tle Falls. It received its name from that of a famous Chippewa Indian slayer of Sioux (Dakotahs) in the terrible conflicts between these two tribes, and who was buried, in accordance with his wishes, at the top of the hill. The prospect from it is beautiful, overlooking a wide extent of coun- try in every direction, with the smooth Belle prairie and the Mississippi river at its foot on the west. CHAPTER III. INDIAN TRIBES AND EARLY MISSIONARIES. Before entering into the modern history of Morrison and Todd coun- ties it will be well to consider some of the conditions found in this domain, while Minnesota was yet a territory, and trace briefly some of historic events which led up to its final development by the white race. To begin with, it should l)e stated that three separate Indian tribes were present in northern Minnesota at the time the state was admitted into the Union in 1858. These tribes were the Sioux, or Dakotahs; the Chippewas, or Ojib- ways, and the Winnebagoes, or Ho-tchungraws. THE SIOUX INDIANS. The Sioux tribe was an entirely different group from the Algonquin and Iroquois, who were found by the early settlers of the Atlantic states on the banks of the Connecticut, Mohawk and Susquehanna rivers. When the Dakotahs were first noticed by the European adventurers large num- bers were occupying the Mille Lacs region of the country, and appropriately called by the voyageur "People of the Lac," "Gens du Lac." Tradition states that here, in ancient times, was the center of this tribe. Though we have traces of their warring and hunting on the shores of Lake Superior, there is no satisfactory evidence of their residence east of the Mille Lacs region, as they have no name for Lake Superior. The word Dakotah, by which they love best to be designated, signifies allied or joined together in friendly compact, and is equivalent to "E pluribus ununi," the motto of the United States. More than two hundred years ago, it was written by La Pointe Mis- sion authors in Wisconsin thus: "For sixty leagues from the extremity of the Upper lake, toward sunset, and, as it were, in the center of the western nations, they have all united their force by a general league." Historians all know that from the earliest documents the Dakotahs MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 55 have been called the Sioux, Scioiix or Soos. The name originated with the early voyageurs. For centuries the O jib ways of Lake Superior waged war against the Dakotahs and, whenever they spoke of them, called them Nado- waysioux, signifying enemies. To avoid exciting the attention of Indians, while conversing in their presence, the French traders called them by names which they could not understand. The Dakotahs were nicknamed Sioux, a word composed of the last two syllables of the Ojibway word for foes. Under the influence of the early French traders the eastern Sioux began to wander from the Mills Lacs region. A trading post at 0-ton-we- kpadan, or Rice creek, above the falls of St. Anthony, induced some to erect there their summer dwellings and plant corn, which took the place of wild rice. Those who dwelt here were called Wa-kpa-a-ton-we-dan, or, those who dwell on the creek. Another division was styled the Ma-tan-ton-wan. About 1790, or a little later, the eastern Sioux, pressed by the Chippewas, and influenced by traders, moved seven miles above Ft. Snelling on the Min- nesota river. In 1849, only sixty-six years ago, there were seven villages of Med- day-kawn-twawn Sioux — one below Lake Pepin, where now stands the city of Winona, known as Wapashaw, and of whom Bounding Wind was chief; one at the head of Lake Pepin, where, under the lofty blufif, was the Red Wing village, of which Shooter was the big chief; one, styled Kaposia, oppo- site Pigs Eye Marsh, of which the chief was Little Crow, who became notorious as the wicked leader of the 1862 massacre; Black Dog Village, on the Minnesota river a few miles above Ft. Snelling, inhabited by Ma-ga-yu-tay-shnee, of whom Gray Iron was chief; at Oak Grove, on the north side of the river, eight miles above the fort, was Hay-ya-ta-o-ton-wan (Inland Village, because they formerly lived at Lake Calhoun) ; the sixth branch of this tribe of Dakotahs was the "Bad People," or O-ya-tay-shee-ka, and the seventh band was styled Tin-ta-ton-wan (Prairie Village); Shok- pay, or Six, was the chief, and it is now the site of the town of Shakopee. West of this division of the Sioux were the Leaf Shooters (War-pay- ku-ray), who occupied the region south of the Minnesota river, near the headwaters of the Blue Earth and Cannon rivers; north and west of this band were the War-pay-twawns (people of the leaf), who numbered about fifteen hundred and lived in a village known as Lac qui Parle; still to the west of these were the Se-see-twawns (Sissetoans), or Swamp Dwellers. This band claimed the land west of the Blue Earth to James river. They it was who held title and sacredly guarded the famous sacred red pipestone S6 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. quarry. Their principal village was at Traverse, and they numbered fully four thousand. Finally, the Ho-tchun-graws, or Winnebagoes, who also belong to the Dakotah family of aborigines, perhaps the dirtiest and most unattractive band of all Indian tribes, were, by a treaty in 1837, removed to Iowa, and by another treaty, in October, 1846, they came to Minnesota, in the spring of 1848, to the country between the Long Prairie and Crow Wing rivers. Their agency was located on Long Prairie river, forty miles from the Mis- sissippi river, and in 1849 the tribe numbered twenty-five hundred souls. In February, 1855, another treaty was effected with them, and that spring they removed to lands on the Blue Earth river. Owing to the panic caused by the outbreak of the Sioux in 1862, Congress, by a special act. in 1863, without consulting them, removed them from their fields in Minnesota to the Missouri river, and, in the words of a missionary, "they were, like the Sioux, dumped in the desert, one htmdred miles above Ft. Randall." OJIBWAY OR CHIPPEWA NATION. This tribe of Indians, when the French first came to Lake Superior, had their chief setlement at Sault St. Marie. They were called by the French, Saulteurs, and by the Sioux, Hah-ha-tonwan, "Dwellers at the Falls of Leaping Waters." When Duluth erected his trading post at the western extremity of Lake Superior, they had not obtained a foothold in Minnesota and were constantly at war with their hereditary enemies, the Nadouaysioux. But by the middle of the eighteenth century they had pushed in and occupied Sandy, Leech, Mille Lacs and other points between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, which had been the dwelling places of the Sioux. In 1820 the main villages of the Ojibways in Minnesota were at Fond du Lac. Leech lake and Sandy lake. In 1837 they ceded most of their lands. Since then other treaties have been made, until by 1880 they were confined to a few reservations, in northern Minnesota and vicinity. EARLY CHURCH MISSIONS. As Morrison county once had a large Indian school and a religious mission within its borders, it is well to give a brief account of the various missions established by Catholics, Methodist Episcopal and other denomi- nations, in this portion of the great Northwest. MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 57 After the American Fur Company was formed, the island of Macki- naw became the residence of the principal agent for the Northwest, Robert Stuart, a Scotchman and devoted Presbyterian. In June, 1820, the Rev. Dr. Morse, father of the world-famous inventor of the telegraph, visited and preached at Mackinaw, and later, at his suggestion the Presbyterian Missionary Society sent a graduate of Union College, Rev. W. M. Ferry, father of the man who was later United States senator from Michigan, to explore the field. In 1823 he established a large boarding school, com- posed of children of various tribes, and here some were educated and became wives of men of intelligence and influence at St. Paul. Later this plan of a central school was changed and there were sent teachers to the various tribes. Rev. Alvin Coe and J. D. Stevens arrived at Ft. Snelling in Sep- tember, 1829. The Historical Society has in its possession the journal of Major Lawrence Taliaferro, in which this entry appears: "The Rev. Mr. Coe and Stevens reported to be on their way to this post; members of the Presbyterian church looking for suitable places to make missionary estab- lishments for the .Sioux and Chippewas, found schools, and instruct in the arts of agriculture." During this visit the government agent offered for a Presbyterian mis- sion the mill which stood on the present site of Minneapolis, that had been erected by the government, as well as the farm at Lake Calhoun, which was established to teach the Sioux agriculture. In 1830 Frederick Ayer, one of the teachers at Mackinaw, made an exploration as far as La Pointe, and returned, and in about one year a mis- sion was established by the church at La Pointe. In 1833 Rev. Ayer opened a school at Yellow Lake, Wisconsin, and F. F. Ely became a teachef at Aitkins trading post at Sandy lake. In 1834-35 a mission was formed as well as a Presbyterian church organized at Ft. Snelling. In tlie autumn of 1841 the Roman Catholic church attempted to estab- lish a mission at Mendota, which, however, did not remain long in the work. The Chippewa mission was at Pokeguma, one of the "mille lacs", or thousand beautiful lakes for which Minnesota is remarkable. It is twenty miles above the junction of Snake river and St. Croix river and was estab- lished in 1836, among the Ojibways and Pokeguma, to promote their spir- itual and temporal welfare. The mission house was erected on the east side of the lake, but the Indian village was on the island, not far from shore. A vear later, 1837, a journal says: "The young women and girls now make, mend, wash and iron after our manner. The men have learned 58 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. to build log houses, drive team, plow, hoe and handle an American axe with skill in cutting large trees, the size of which, two years ago, would have afforded them sufficient reason why they should not meddle with them." In 1837 Rev. A. Brunson commenced a Methodist mission at Kaposia, four miles below and opposite St. Paul. It was subsequently removed to the west side at Red Rock. The Rev. Spates and a few others also labored among the Ojibways for a brief period. At the stations the Dakotah language was diligently studied. Rev. S. W. Pond had prepared a dictionary of three thousand words, and also a small grammar. The Rev. S. R. Riggs, who had joined the mission in 1837, in a letter dated February 24, 1841, writes: "Last summer, after returning from Ft. Snelling, I spent five weeks in copying again the Sioux vocabu- lary which we had collected and arranged at this station. It contained then about five thousand five hundred words, not including the various forms of the verbs. Since that time the words collected by myself and Doctor \\'ill- iamson have, I presume, increased the number to fully six thousand. Mrs. Riggs and others wrote a vocabulary of about three thousand words." Steadily the number of Indian missionaries increased, and in 185 1, before the lands of the Dakotahs west of the Mississippi river were ceded to the whites, they were disposed of as follows by the Dakotah presbytery : Lac-qui-parle, Rev. S. R. Riggs, Rev. M. N. Adams and assistants; Trav- erses des Sioux, Rev. Robert Hopkins, missionary, and assistants; Shack- pay, Rev. Samuel W. Pond, missionary, and assistants; Oak Grove, Rev. Gideon H. Pond and wife; Kaposia, Rev. Thomas Williamson, M. D., mis- sionary and physician, and assistants ; Red Wing, Rev. James F. Alton, Rev. Joseph W. Hancock, missionaries, with their devoted wives and assist- ants. An account of the Indian school and church established in Morrison county by Rev. Frederick Ayer, a Congregational minister of Massachu- setts, will be found in the county chapters of this work. His son is still an honored resident and business factor at Little Falls. Thus the heralds of the Cross endured the i^rivations and sacrifices of a wilderness, away back in the thirties, forties and fifties, that the pioneer and red man might l)e taught the way of truth and goodness. FINAL DISPOSITION OF INDIANS. The Winnebagoes were for some years located within the bounds of Todd and Morrison counties. In 1848 General Fletcher removed them MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 59 from Ft. Atkinson, Iowa, to Long Prairie, west side of the Mississippi river; but, although the agency was located at Long Prairie, the Indians occupied the Swan river valley, within the present limits of Morrison county for a period of seven years, where they engaged partly in hunting and partly in farming, having about two hundred acres under cultivation, but they became dissatisfied and were removed to the Blue Earth country. When the Winnebago Indians were brought to Long Prairie and Swan river valley, in 1848, the government built Ft. Ripley on the west bank of the Mississippi river, about twenty miles above the mouth of Swan river. During the outbreak of Indians in 1862 it became necessary to station a large force of soldiers here to overawe the redskins — to hold back the Chip- pewas, who were then suspected of an intention to make common cause with the hostile Sioux in warfare against the whites. The Seventh United States Regulars were there stationed for quite a period until the Indian war had subsided. CHAPTER IV. EARLY SETTLEMENT OF MORRISON COUNTY. Morrison is one of the central counties of Minnesota ; it is about forty by forty-two miles, respectively, east and west and north and south, and has an area of one thousand one hundred and thirty-nine square miles, equal to almost seven hundred and twenty-nine thousand acres. That por- tion lying east of the Mississippi river was originally included in Benton county, while that to the west of that river was a part of Todd county. Cass and Crow Wing counties are at the north of Morrison; Crow Wing and Mille Lacs on the east; Benton and Stearns on the south and Todd county at the west. The surface is rolling and originally well timbered, but interspersed with lakes and beautiful prairies. Ten townships in the eastern portion were, as late as 1882, noted for their heavy pine and maple timber. In the northwestern part of the county five other congressional townships had the same kind of native forest lands. At that date, from the pine region north on the west side of the Mississippi river, south to the county line, an unbroken forest e.xisted. The soil in this particular portion is excep- tionally fine. For ten miles south of the pine region extensive natural meadows existed. On the east side of the Mississippi river the country not included in the pine belt has but little timber of any sort, Init is made up largely of brush land, marsh and meadowland, with some good prairie land. The soil is generally good for this section of Minnesota. The population of Morrison county, according to the census of 1910, was twenty-four thousand and fifty-three; Little Falls, its seat of justice, having at that date six thousand and seventy-eight. Among the points of historic interest in this county is that where Pike's fort was situated, on the west side of the Mississippi below the rap- ids south of Little I'alls. At this place the bank rises fifteen feet, on the summit of which the stockade was built. Measurements taken in 1879 showed it to have been thirty-eight feet square. In Pike's own official MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 6l account it is stated that his fleet consisted of two long boats, one of which was put upon either side of the passage-way from the stockade to the river. The distance from the water's edge being not over sixty feet in low water, there is no inconsistency in the statement. This was Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, the first United States Army officer sent to the upper Mississippi. He was later made famous by his explora- tions in the Rocky Mountain country, where a celebrated mountain peak was named for him — Pike's Peak. After building the stockade near Swan river, he passed a month in hunting and exploring the vicinity, but toward the close of November he began to make plans to visit the trading posts of British traders. On December lo he left his little stockade near Little Falls. The party took with them prairie sleds and a preoque, towed by three men. On December 14, just after leaving the encampment, the fore- most sled, carrying his baggage and powder, fell into the river. But suffi- cient was saved to continue the journey. On December 31, 1805, he passed the mouth of Pine river. On January 2, 1806, just as he was encamping, four Chippewas, Grant, an Englishman, and a Frenchman of the North- west Company arrived. The next day Pike returned with Grant to one of the posts on the Red Cedar lake and found the British flag flying. That night he came back to his men. On January 8 he reached Sandy lake. Grant's residence, and was received with hospitality. After a visit of twelve days, he left on the 20th, and on February i he crossed Leach lake, twelve miles from the establishment of the Northwest Compan^^ where he arrived at three o'clock in the afternoon. The gates were locked, but, upon knock- ing, he was admitted and cordially greeted by Hugh McGillis, the principal trader of the Northwest Company west of Lake Superior, being the director of the Fond du Lac department. EARLY SETTLEMENT. The early movements of the traders in Morrison county were some- what complicated, and difficult to trace out at this late date. In 1826 Charles Larose and Charles Chawboile had a trading post for at least two winters on a small flatboat on the east side of the Mississippi near Big Bend. In 1837, when Wadena came down from the north country, he found two trading posts near together on the west side of the Mississippi, just below where later the ferry crossed at Swan river. The buildings then appeared quite old. 62 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. An Indian trading post was established at a very early day in the east side of the Mississippi, in what was later known as Bellevue township. Of this post, Duncan McDougal, a former resident, said when he was at the place, in the spring of 1849, the logs of the building were fully half decayed; also stated that the post had been run by August Ballangier and Baptiste Roy for Allen Morrison. Previous to 1835 all goods were brought across from Lake Superior, but after that date from points below on the Mississippi. About 1844, Mr. Ewing, of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, in company with others, established a trad- ing post at Swan river on the east side of the Mississippi. Philip Beaupre and Lewis Morrow were employed by this company in 1846. The firm was superseded by Peter Chonteau & Company. The earliest missionary in Morrison county, aside from the Catholics in 1838, was the Rev. Samuel Spates, a native of Kentucky, born in 1815, and sent by the Methodist Episcopal church into the Northwest. He estab- lished a mission near the mouth of Little Elk river in October, 1839. He was assisted by Revs. Allen Huddleston, George Copway and John John- son, the latter being a converted Ojibway Indian. Subsequently Rev. Spates removed to Sandy lake, then to Fond du Lac, and, in 1856, returned to Little Falls, Minnesota. Two years later he moved to Cannon Falls, Minne- sota. John Johnson, the converted Indian, later located at White Earth mission and was ordained as an Episcopal clergyman. In 1881 the oldest inhabitant of this county was a Little Falls man named William Nicholson. He came to Swan river in the summer of 1847, in company with ten other men. They forded the Mississippi just below the Swan river ferry, and there made a raft of hewed timbers from pine trees growing on the river bank, for use in the construction of the first dam at St. Anthony Falls. They ran the raft only a few miles, then abandoned it on account of low water. Nicholson went below and returned, in the s])ring (if 1848, crossed the Mississippi at the same place, in company with twenty-two other men, and cut a roadway through to Long Prairie. He returned after completing the road, and found William Aitken, who had made a claim and was building a hotel and store building on the east bank of the Mississippi at the crossing. William Aitkin located at Swan river and in 1848 conducted the Indian trading post. Aitkin had an eventful life, and hr died in 185 1, aged sixty-five years. He had two Indian wives. They quarreled and fought savagely at the funeral as to who should have the remains and be chief mourner; wife number one came off victorious. MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 63 James Green made a "squatter's" claim in 1848, and built a saw-mill on the east side of the Mississippi river by the island at the falls. Will- iam Knowles located at the mouth of Rabbit river in 1849. John Stillwell, who came to Swan river in 1849, was by trade a carpenter and worked at his trade until 1856, when he embarked in the hotel business. In 1888 he and pioneer William Nicholson were the only old settlers of Swan river remaining in this county. Historian Nathan Richardson said in 1876, in his letters, that the Chippewas were seldom hostile toward the whites, while the Sioux would kill stock to supply their needs, and never thought of paying for the same. Father Pierz, a Catholic missionary, came to Mimiesota, among the Chippewa Indians, in 1852, and. finding the country well adapted to agri- culture, he wrote letters describing the beauty of the country and the fer- tility of the soil, and sent them to several of the leading newspapers of both Germany and America, which soon caused a large emigration, a part of which finally located in Morrison county. In this connection it will be well to give a brief account of the work of this faithful old missionary, at the date of the Indian outbreak, showing as it does his bravery and true missionary character. In the autumn of 1862, during that never-to-be-forgotten Indian war- fare, the Chippewa Indians, under their chief, Hole-in-the-Day, were assembled at Gull lake, threatening an attack on the whites. Father Pierz was in the vicinity of St. Paul at the time and hearing of the hostile atti- tude of the Indians, immediately set out alone to go to Gull lake, traveling day and night. On his way he met the Indian guards, who positively refused to let him pass. He insisted and, unable to longer withstand his importuning, the guards picked him up and carried him over the dead-line, across which they were ordered to let no white man pass alive. He pro- ceeded to their camp and saw their chief. What effect this interview with Hole-in-the-Day had is not definitely known, but the Indians did not attack the whites as contemplated. It is certain the white people had in Father Pierz a true friend who would not desert them in times of great danger. He labored in the mission until 1874, when he retired on account of old age, going to Germany to spend the remainder of his days. He died in Ger- many in January, 1880, having attained the ripe age of ninety-two years. Another faithful missionary of the Cross, of the Protestant faith, was Frederick Aver, whose son still resides at Little Falls, respected and hon- ored by all within this section of Minnesota. Rev. Frederick Ayer, a 64 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. native of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, was sent out by the American Board of Foreign Missions, and came to Sandy lake, Minnesota, in 183 1, and to Red lake in 1842, and finally to Belle prairie, Morrison county, in 1848. Here he soon oijened up an extensive farm, doing the first breaking in the county in the summer of 1849, using oxen borrowed from Hon. Henry M. Rice. Desiring to work in a religious way among the Indians as well as among the white settlers, he erected a large dwelling in 1850 and a commo- dious school house, which also served as a church for a number of years. The house was still standing in the eighties, a fit and suitable reminder or memorial of those early sacrifices by one who spent his whole life in the cause of religion and education. Rev. A. B. Adams, a inissionary, who went to Red Cedar, or Cass lake, about 1845, settled in Morrison county in the Platte river vicinity, and preached several years, then removed to Michigan. O. A. Coe came to Minnesota in 1838, working on the St. Croix and Snake rivers. He visited Belle prairie in 1849, and came to this place in 1853, engaging in farming pursuits. Of the numerous earlv settlers in this county, additional to these tew above named, the reader is referred to the various township histories. OLDEST LIVING SETTLER. In the publication known as '"Upper Mississippi Valley," published in 1881, the following is said concerning pioneer William Nicholson: "Will- iam Nicholson, the oldest living settler in Morrison county at this date, was born in X'enango county, l-'ennsylvania, in 1828. In childhood his parents removed to Ohio, where his mother died in 1844. The following year William left home, and came with friends to I'lalte Mounds, Wisconsin. In Sejitemijcr, 1847, h^ came to Minnesota with a survc\ing party, and engaged at surveying north of St. Paul. In that autumn he joined a crew who came u]) the river, near this vicinity, for limber for the dam about to be constructed at St. Anthony falls. Returning to St. Paul, he spent the winter on the survey and returned to Wisconsin in March. In July, 184S, on the removal of the Winnebago Indians from Wisconsin and Iowa, he engaged as government teamster at Watal) and I.nng Prairie. In the lat- ter place he found the Indian agent, Fletcher, and remained in his employ until October, putting up a building for a trading post. The winter of 1849-50 was spent in the pineries. The following August he came to MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. 65 Swan river, remaining until 1858. After the Indian outbreak, at the time of the treaty with the Chippewas, he was taken prisoner, not being held long, however. During the period of fear and anxiety he was of great sen-ice to the garrison and settlers, making several secret trips, and once, at a great risk, guiding James Whitehead and Lafiferty, the former bearer of an important dispatch, to Crow Wing agency. In the fall of 1862 Mr. Nicholson went on a trapping expedition and then settled in Little Falls. After seven years he moved to his farm and lived in peace and retirement, the remainder of his days. A HALF-BREED SETTLER. Hon. Peter Roy, born 1828, in what is now Itasca county, Minnesota, was the son of two half breeds. He came to Morrison county in 1855, remained until 1857, moved to Crow Wing and there opened a store. In 1862 he returned to this county, settling in 1866 in Little Falls village. He engaged in the hotel business, which he followed until his sudden death, in June, 1 88 1, dropping from his chair when apparently in excellent health. He was three times elected to a seat in the Minnesota Legislature from Morrison county, and was town clerk at the date of his death. In 1853 he married, at the Chippewa agency, Miss Philomon Chouinard, part Indian, by whom fourteen children were bom. SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS IN MORRISON COUNTY. The climate of Minnesota is very similar to that of Sweden, more so than that of any other state in the Union. The soil and the vegetation is also about the same here as in their old home and it is therefore but natural that the Swedes should have settled in Minnesota in large numbers and that Morrison county, located as it is in the very center of the state, should have attracted a good many of these intelligent and industrious settlers. In comparison, however, with the oldest Swedish settlements in the state, those in Morrison county are of a recent date. Already, fifty years ago, there were large, prosperous Swedish settlements in the southern part of the state, while the oldest one in Morrison county, that of Upsala, twen- ty miles southwest of Little Falls, dates back only since the year 1880. During that decade a number of Swedes came in to join their friends and (5) 66 MORRISON AND TODD COUNTIES, MINNESOTA. acquaintances in that settlement, but it was not until the year 1890 that any particular influx of Swedes to Morrison county took place. Since that year, however, systemized efforts directed from Little Falls were made, and hundreds of settlers of that nationality were brought in to take up vacant lands. The erroneous impression frequently prevails that a good many of these people came direct from the old country. As a mat- ter of fact, not one in a hundred of the Swedes that leave the old country has on his arrival here money enough to buy a piece of land. He must first earn money for this purpose and the Swedes who settled in Morrison county came from the cities, the mines or the railroad or lumber camps — from anywhere where wages were good. Brought up on farms where dairying and diversified farming have been carried on for generations, these new settlers were experienced farmers and, besides that, they were now broadened and educated by travel. They very quickly adapted themselves to the new conditions and surroundings and they were able and willing to work and work hard. This was, to be sure, also required as the lands that were taken up by them were, while undoubtedly the Ijest and most productive in the county, also the most difficult to bring under cultivation. The growth of these Swedish settlements for the first few years was accordingly slow. Perse- verance and ability won, however, and that these settlers were amply rewarded for their labors can be seen by anyone visiting their settlements today. Take the neighborhood a few miles northwest of Little Falls, for instance. Twenty-five years ago it was about as uninviting a country as could possibly be imagined. The road followed the "hogsl)ack," a jackpine- covered ridge, and the travelers' first impression would be that, between swamp and sand, there was little choice. Travel that same road today and you will see fertile fields, well-kept farm houses, roomy barns, large silos and herds of blooded cattle grazing on the hill sides. This is the Darling Swedish .settlement, where .some two hundred Swedes — or Swedish-.Vmericans, to he correct, as nearlv all the people of the Swedish nationality in Morrison county are naturalized Americans — now enjoy genuine and well-earned prosperity, supixirting two churches, the Swedish Lutheran, Imilt in i8()7 and the Swedish Mission cluircli. built in 1913. About ten miles southwest of this settlement, nurth of Flenslnirg and Swanville, on the Little F'alls & Dakota railroad, a number of Swedes have also settled, but while the}' have their own church, the .Scan