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COLLECTIONS 

OP  THE 

MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL 

SOCIETY 

VOLUME  XVII 


MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Officers 

Gideon  S.  Ives^  President 
Frederic  A.  Fogg,  First  Vice-President 
William  W.  Folwell,  Second  Vice-President 
Solon  J.  Buck,  Superintendent  and  Secretary 
Everett  H.  Bailey,  Treasurer 


Executive  Council 
Ex  Officio 


J.   A.   A.   BURNQUIST 

Governor 

Thomas  Frankson- 

Lieutenant  Governor 

JUUUS   A.    SCHMAHL 

Secretary  of  State 


Elected 


Everett  H.  Bailey 
Charles  Bechhoefer 
Solon  J.  Buck 
Rev.  William  Busch 
Frederick  M.  Catlin 
Lmin  Cray 
Oliver  Crosby 
William  W.  Cutler 
Frederic  A.  FpGG 
William  W.  Folwell 
Guy  Stanton  Ford 
Harold  Harris 
Frederick  G.  Ingersoll 
Gideon  S.  Ives 

Edward  B. 


Jacob  A.  O.  Preus 
State  Auditor 

Henry  Rines 

State  Treasurer 

Clifford  L.  Hilton 
A  ttomey-General 


Victor  E.  Lawson 
William  £.  Lee 
William  H.  Lightner 
William  A.  McGonagle 
William  B.  Mitchell 
Charles  P.  Noyes 
Victor  Robertson 
j.  f.  rosenwald 
Edward  P.  Sanborn 
Rev.  Marion  D.  Shutter 
Charles  Stees 
Warren  Upham 
Olin  D.  Wheeler 
Harry  E.  Whitney 
Young 


The  Elxecutive  Committee  consists  of  the  president,  the  secretary, 
the  treasurer,  and  two  appointed  members,  Frederic  A.  Fogg  and  Edward 
P.  Sanborn. 


COLLECTIONS  OF  THE  MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL   SOQETY 
VOLUME  XVII 


MINNESOTA 
GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

THEIR  ORIGIN  AND  HISTORIC  SIGNIFICANCE 


WARREN  UPHAM 

ARCHAEOLOGIST  OF  THB  SOCIBTV 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE 

MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 
SAINT  PAUL,  1920 


^ 


L.Soc.iaoM'ni  5^ 


Fhb  Colwbll  Press,  Inc. 

MiNNBAPOLIS 


PREFACE 

During  sixteen  years,  from  1879  to  1894,  of  service  for  the 
geological  surveys  of  Minnesota,  the  United  States,  and  Can- 
ada, in  travel  over  large  areas  of  this  state,  the  Dakotas,  and 
Manitoba,  my  attention  was  often  attracted  to  the  origins  of 
their  names  of  places,  partly  received  directly  from  the  Indian 
languages,  and  in  many  other  instances  translated  from  the 
aboriginal  names.  Frequently  our  geographic  names  note  re- 
markable topographic  features,  or  are  derived  from  the  fauna 
and  flora.  Perhaps  a  gre?iter  number  commemorate  pioneer 
white  explorers,  early  fur  traders,  and  agricultural  settlers. 

Later  work  for  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  since 
1895,  has  permitted  and  even  required  more  detailed  considera- 
tion and  record  in  this  field.  Many  memorials  of  our  territorial 
and  state  history  are  preserved  in  geographic  names,  and  each 
nationality  contributing  to  the  settlement  has  its  share  in  this 
nomenclature.  As  the  first  immigrants  of  the  state  along  the 
Atlantic  and  Gulf  coast  brought  many  place  names  from  Eng- 
land, France,  Holland,  and  Spain,  so  in  Minnesota  many  geo- 
graphic names  have  come  from  beyond  the  sea.  Here  the  in- 
fluence of  a  large  proportion  of  immigration  from  Germany  is 
shown  by  such  names  as  New  Ulm,  New  Trier,  Hamburg, 
Cologne,  and  New  Munich.  Old  Bohemia  is  brought  to  mind 
by  the  city  of  New  Prague.  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Denmark 
are  well  represented  by  Stockholm,  Malmo,  Bergen,  Trond- 
hjem,  Denmark,  and  many  other  township  and  village  names. 
In  the  early  eastern  and  southern  states,  Plymouth,  Boston, 
Portsmouth,  Bangor,  New  York,  Charleston,  St.  Augustine, 
and  New^  Orleans,  recalled  tender  memories  of  the  Old  World. 
Likewise,  these  German  and  Bohemian  and  Scandinavian 
names  have  a  great  meaning  to  the  immigrants  from  those 
countries  who  have  made  their  new  homes  here. 

To  illustrate  how  this  subject  is  like  a  garden  of  flowers, 
or  like  an  epic  poem,  reference  may  be  made  to  the  names  of 
the  eighty-six  Minnesota  counties.     Fifteen  came  directly,  or 

lit 


iv  PREFACE 

through  translation,  from  the  Dakota  or  Sioux  language,  eight 
being  retained  as  Sioux  words,  Anoka,  Dakota,  Isanti,  Kan- 
diyohi, Wabasha,  Waseca,  Watonwan,  and  Winona.  Six  are 
translated  into  English,  namely.  Big  Stone,  Blue  Earth,  Cot- 
tonwood, Redwood,  Traverse,  and  Yellow  Medicine;  and  one  ' 
is  received  in  its  French  translation,  Lac  qui  Parle.  Twelve 
counties  bear  names  of  Ojibway  origin;  but  only  five,  Chisago^ 
Kanabec,  Koochiching,  Mahnomen,  and  Wadena,  are  Indian 
words,  and  the  first  was  made  by  a  white  man's  coinage.  The 
seven  others  are  Chippewa  (the  anglicized  form  of  Ojibway), 
Clearwater,  Crow  Wing,  Mille  Lacs  (a  translation  in  French), 
Otter  Tail,  Red  Lake,  and  Roseau  (another  French  transla- 
tion). 

Fifty-two  counties  have  received  personal  names,  which 
may  be  arranged  in  four  lists.  The  early  explorers  of  this 
area  are  commemorated  by  seven  counties ;  the  fur  traders  of 
the  early  half  of  the  last  century,  by  four;  citizens  of  Minne- 
sota as  a  territory  and  state  have  been  honored  by  the  names 
of  twenty-six  counties;  and  citizens  of  other  parts  of  the 
United  States  are  similarly  honored  in  fifteen  counties.  First 
enumerating  the  seven  county  names  from  explorers,  we  have 
Beltrami,  Carver,  Cass,  Hennepin,  Le  Sueur,  Nicollet,  and 
Pope.  The  four  named  for  early  fur  traders  are  Aitkin,  Fari- 
bault, Morrison,  and  Renville.  The  twenty-six  counties  named 
for  Minnesota  citizens  are  Becker,  Brown,  Carlton,  Cook,  Free- 
born, Goodhue,  Hubbard,  Jackson,  Kittson,  McLeod,  Marshall, 
Meeker,  Mower,  Murray,  Nobles,  Olmsted,  Pennington,  Ramsey, 
Rice,  Sherburne,  Sibley,  Stearns,  Steele,  Swift,  Todd,  and  Wilkin 
counties.  Among  the  fifteen  counties  named  for  citizens  of 
this  country  outside  of  Minnesota,  five  are  in  honor  of  presi- 
dents of  the  United  States,  these  being  Washingon,  Polk,  Fill- 
more, Lincoln,  and  Grant.  The  ten  others  in  this  list  are 
Benton,  Clay,  Dodge,  Douglas,  Houston,  Lyon,  Martin,  Scott, 
Stevens,  and  Wright. 

Six  of  our  counties  have  names  given  by  white  men  for 
natural  features,  in  addition  to  the  larger  number  so  derived 
from  the  Indian  languages.  These  are  Itasca,  taking  the  name 
of  the  lake,  formed  of  two  Latin  words ;  Lake  county,  named 
for  Lake  Superior;  Pine  county,  so  named  for  its  extensive 


PREFACE  V 

pine  forests;  Pipestone  county,  for  the  Indian  pipestone 
quarry  there ;  Rock  county,  for  the  very  prominent  rock  out- 
crop near  Luverne ;  and  St.  Louis  county,  for  its  river  of  that 
name.  One  county  received  its  name,  Norman,  in  honor  of  its 
large  number  of  immigrants  from  Norway. 

The  earliest  systematic  endeavor  to  trace  the  origins  of 
Minnesota  county  names  was  published  by  John  Fletcher  Wil- 
liams, secretary  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  as  an 
article  in  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer,  March  13,  1870.  Another  con- 
tribution to  this  subject,  by  Return  I.  Holcombe,  of  St.  Paul, 
was  in  the  Pioneer  Press  Almanac,  1896.  Both  these  lists 
have  been  consultedu|;l9fth  much  advantage,  for  the  present 
volume.  * 

In  ascertaining  derivations  and  meanings  of  Dakota  and 
O  jib  way  names,  very  valuable  aid  has  been  obtained  from  a 
paper,  "Minnesota  Geographical  Names  derived  from  the  Da- 
kota Language,  with  some  that  are  Obsolete,"  by  Prof.  An- 
drew W.  Williamson,  of  Augustana  College,  Rock  Island,  111., 
published  in  the  Thirteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Geological 
and  Natural  History  Survey  of  Minnesota,  for  1884,  pages  104- 
112;  and  from  another  paper,  in  the  Fifteenth  Report  of  the 
same  survey,  for  1886,  pages  451-477,  "Minnesota  Geographi- 
cal Names  derived  from  the  Chippewa  Language,"  by  Rev. 
Joseph  A.  Gilfillan,  of  White  Earth,  who  also  supplied  in  later 
letters  many  further  notes  of  O  jib  way  names.  These  two 
papers  are  the  most  important  sources  of  information  on  Min- 
nesota geographic  terms  of  Indian  origin,  supplementing  the 
frequent  references  to  origins  of  names  by  Hennepin,  Carver, 
Mackenzie,  Thompson,  Pike,  Long  and  Keating,  Beltrami, 
Schoolcraft,  Allen,  Featherstonhaugh,  Catlin,  Lea,  Nicollet,  and 
other  explorers  of  the  area  -which  is  now  Minnesota. 

The  narrations  of  these  discoverers  and  explorers,  and 
many  later  books,  pamphlets,  newspapers,  atlases,  and  maps, 
have  been  examined  in  the  Library  of  the  Minnesota  Histori- 
cal Society.  Special  acknowledgments  are  due  to  the  following 
books  and  authors : 

Grammar  and  Dictionary  of  the  Dakota  Language,  edited 
by  Rev.  Stephen  R.  Riggs,  published  by  the  Smithsonian  In- 
stitution,  Washington,   1852;   and  a   revised  edition  of  the 


vi  PREFACE 

greater  part,  a  Dakota-English  Dictionary,  issued  in  1890  as  vol- 
ume VII,  "Contributions  to  North  American  Ethnology." 

An  English-Dakota  Dictionary,  compiled  by  John  P.  Wil- 
liamson, printed  by  the  American  Tract  Society,  1902. 

A  Grammar  of  the  Otchipwe  [Ojibway]  Language,  1878; 
a  Dictionary  of  the  Otchipwe  Language,  Part  I,  English- 
Otchipwe,  1878;  and  Part  II,  Otchipwe-English,  1880.  These 
are  editions  published  in  Montreal,  of  volumes  by  Bishop  Fred- 
eric Baraga,  the  Grammar  having  been  first  published  in  De- 
troit, 1850,  and  the  Dictionary  in  Cincinnati,  1853. 

A  Glossary  of  Chippewa  Indian  Names  of  Rivers,  Lakes, 
and  Villages,  by  Rev.  Chrysostom  Verwyst,  of  Bayfield,  Wis., 
in  Acta  et  Dicta  ...  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the 
Northwest,  published  in  St.  Paul,  volume  IV,  pages  253-274, 
July,  1916. 

Handbook  of  American  Indians  north  of  Mexico,  edited  by 
Frederick  W.  Hodge,  published  by  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion as  Bulletin  30,  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  two  vol- 
umes, 1907,  1910. 

The  Geological  and  Natural  History  Survey  of  Minne- 
sota, 1872-1901,  by  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell,  state  geologist,  and 
assistants:  Annual  Reports,  24  volumes;  Bulletins,  10  vol- 
umes, treating  partly  of  the  mammals,  birds,  fishes,  and  the 
flora ;  Final  Reports,  6  volumes,  having  chapters  for  all  the 
counties  and  for  the  iron  ore  ranges. 

Memoirs  of  Explorations  in  the  Basin  of  the  Mississippi, 
by  Hon.  J.  V.  Brower,  of  St.  Paul,  eight  volumes,  1898-1905. 
Four  of  these  volumes  relate  to  parts  of  this  state,  being  III, 
Mille  Lac,  1900;  IV,  Kathio,  1901;  V,  Kakabikansing,  1902; 
and  VI,  Minnesota,  1903. 

Minnesota  Historical  Society  Collections,  fifteen  volumes, 
1850-1915.  Biographic  references  for  places  bearing  names  of 
personal  derivation  have  been  supplied  in  the  greater  part  by 
the  fourteenth  volume,  Minnesota  Biographies,  1655-1912. 

The  Aborigines  of  Minnesota,  a  Report  based  on  the  col- 
lections of  Jacob  V.  Brower,  and  on  the  field  surveys  and 
notes  of  Alfred  J.  Hill  and  Theodore  H.  Lewis,  collated,  aug- 
mented and  described  by  N.  H.  Winchell;  published  by  the 
Minnesota  Historical  Society,  St.  Paul,  1911. 


PREFACE  vii 

The  Origin  of  Certain  Place  Names  in  the  United  States, 
second  edition,  by  Henry  Gannett,  published  in  1905  as  Bul- 
letin 258  of  the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey. 

Complete  Pronouncing  Gazetteer  or  Geographical  Dic- 
tionary of  the  World,  published  by  the  J.  B.  Lippincott  Com- 
pany, 1911,  two  volumes. 

A  History  of  the  Origin  of  the  Place  Names  connected 
with  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  and  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Min- 
neapolis &  Omaha  Railways,  .  .  compiled  by  one  [W. 
H.  Stennett]  who  for  more  than  34  years  has  been  an  officer  in 
the  employ  of  the  system ;  Chicago,  1908. 

In  the  early  progress  of  this  research,  a  paper  by  the 
author,  ''Origin  of  Minnesota  Geographic  Names,"  including 
quite  full  notes  for  each  county  name,  was  read  at  a  monthly 
meeting  of  the  executive  council  of  the  Minnesota  Historical 
Society,  May  8,  1899;  and  a  second  address,  entitled  "The 
Origin  and  Meaning  of  Minnesota  Names  of  Rivers,  Lakes, 
Counties,  Townships,  and  Cities,"  was  presented  at  an  annual 
meeting  of  this  Society,  January  11,  1904.    These  papers  were 
mainly  published  in  a  series  of  articles  in  the  Office  Blotter, 
a  Minneapolis  journal  issued  chiefly  for  the  interest  of  Minne- 
sota county  officers,  April  to  August,  1904;  and  they  were 
again  published  with  slight  changes  and  additions  in  the  Maga- 
zine of  History,  New  York,  volume  VHI,  September  to  No- 
vember, 1908.     More  condensed  and  somewhat  revised,  they 
were  embodied  in  a  newspaper  article,  "Whence  came  the 
Names  of  •  Minnesota's  Counties,"  in  the  St.   Paul   Pioneer 
Press,  November  19,  1911.     After  further  revision,  notes  of 
origins  of  the  county  names  were  published  in  numerous  Min- 
nesota daily  newspapers,  usually  one  county  each  day  in  alpha- 
betic order,  in  the  spring  and  summer  of  1916. 

For  interviews  with  county  officers,  pioneer  settlers,  and 
others,  twenty  counties  of  northern  Minnesota  were  visited  by 
the  author  in  the  autumn  of  1909;  and  in  the  year  1916,  from 
April  to  October,  all  the  eighty-six  counties  were  visited. 
Such  personal  interviews,  to  some  extent  followed  by  corre- 
spondence, have  been  the  chief  sources  of  information  for  most 
parts  of  this  work,  except  for  the  considerable  list  of  counties 
having  published  histories.     Dates  of  organization  of  town- 


viii  PREFACE 

ships  and  villages  are  noted  mainly  from  the  county  histories, 
so  that  comparatively  few  dates  are  given  under  other  coun- 
ties. 

Published  and  personal  sources  consulted  for  each  county 
are  stated  at  the  beginning  of  its  catalogue  of  townships.  To 
the  many  citizens  who  have  contributed  notes  of  the  origins  of 
place  names,  and  of  the  names  of  streets  and  parks  in  our  three 
great  cities,  the  author  and  the  people  of  Minnesota  are  endur- 
ingly  indebted.  Within  the  lifetime  of  pioneers  who  shared 
in  the  first  settlement  and  in  all  the  development  of  this  com- 
monwealth, a  careful  record  has  been  made  of  a  very  signifi- 
cant portion  of  its  history. 

The  first  chapter  of  the  book  treats  of  general  features, 
as  districts  bearing  topographic  names,  the  state  name  and 
sobriquets^  and  the  larger  lakes  and  rivers.  Eighty-six  chap- 
ters treat  of  the  place  names  of  the  counties  in  alphabetic 
order.  The  name  of  each  county  is  first  somewhat  fully 
noticed;  next  the  townships  and  villages  are  listed  in  their 
alphabetic  series,  preceded  by  the  due  mention  of  books  and 
persons  supplying  information  for  the  county;  and  last  are 
records  of  lakes  and  streams,  hills,  prairies,  and,  in  some  of  the 
counties,  Indian  reservations,  iron  ore  ranges,  state  and  na- 
tional forests,  state  parks,  glacial  lakes,  beaches,  and  moraines. 
Localities  of  exceptional  historic  interest  are  found  in  nearly 
every  county.  Origins  of  the  names  of  streets,  avenues,  and 
parks,  in  Minneapolis,  St.  Paul,  and  Duluth,  are  noted  in  the 
final  three  chapters,  so  that  the  whole  volume  comprises  ninety 
chapters. 

To  find  notations  of  any  city,  township,  village,  lake,  river 
or  creek,  hills  and  prairies,  iron  ranges,  etc.,  the  reader  will 
consult  the  Index,  at  the  end  of  the  volume,  which  is  the  key 
to  all  its  contents.  An  explanation  of  abbreviations  used  in 
the  Index  is  g^ven  on  its  first  page. 

Warren  Upham 

Minnesota  Historical  Society 
St.  Paul 


MINNESOTA 
GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 


GENERAL  FEATURES 

The  most  conspicuous  geographic  features  of  this  state  are  its  larger 
rivers  and  lakes,  including  the  Minnesota  river,  whence  the  state  is  named, 
the  Mississippi,  largest  of  this  continent,  which  here  has  its  source  and  a 
great  part  of  its  course,  the  Red  river,  the  Rainy,  St.  Louis,  and  St.  Croix 
rivers,  Lake  Superior,  adjoining  Minnesota  by  150  miles  of  its  northwest 
shore,  Rainy  lake  and  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  Red  lake,  Winnebagoshish 
and  Leech  lakes,  and  Mille  Lacs,  each  requiring  mention  as  belonging 
partly  to  two  or  more  counties.  Likewise  the  origins  and  meaning  of  the 
names  of  many  smaller  rivers  and  lakes  need  to  be  given  in  this  chapter, 
to  which  reference  may  be  made  under  their  several  counties,  unless  their 
names,  borne  by  counties,  townships,  or  villages,  are  thus  fully  noticed. 

Districts  bearing  Topographic  Names. 

Only  limited  areas  <of  Minnesota  have  low  mountains  or  even  any  note- 
worthy hills  that  have  received  names.  Such  are  hilly  or  somewhat 
mountainous  tracts  on  the  Vermilion  and  Mesabi  ranges,  names  which 
designate  belts  having  immense  deposits  of  iron  ores,  noted  under  Itasca, 
St.  Louis,  Lake  and  Cook  counties.  The  first  of  these  ranges  was  named 
from  the  Vermilion  lake  and  river  in  St  Louis  county.  The  second  has 
an  Ojibway  name,  spelled  "Missabay  Heights"  by  Nidollet,  translated  as 
Giant  mountain  by  Gilfillan.  It  is  spelled  Missabe,  pronounced  in  three 
syllables,  by  Baraga's  Dictionary,  which  defines  it  as  "Giant;  also,  a  very 
big  stout  man." 

The  third  and  more  southern  belt  of  iron  ores,  latest  discovered  but 
now  having  many  and  large  mines,  was  named  the  Cuyuna  range  by  its 
discoverer,  Cuyler  Adams,  from  his  own  name  and  from  his  dog,  Una, 
who  accompanied  him  in  many  prospecting  trips.  This  iron  range  has  no 
prominently  hilly  tract 

From  Duluth  to  the  northeast  corner  of  this  state,  the  land  rises  gen- 
erally 500  to  800  feet  or  more  above  Lake  Superior  within  a  few  miles 
back  from  its  shore,  forming  the  southern  margin  of  a  high  wooded  area 
that  reaches  to  the  international  boundary  and  is  diversified  by  mostly  low 
ridges  and  hills.  Seen  from  passing  boats,  the  eroded  front  of  this  high- 
land for  about  thirty  miles  in  Cook  county,  from  Carlton  peak  to  Grand 
Marais,  presents  a  peculiarly  serrate  profile  and  is  therefore  commonly 
called  the  Sawteeth  mountains,  more  definitely  noted  for  that  county. 

Morainic  hills  of  the  glacial  drift,  amassed  along  the  borders  of  the 
continental  ice-sheet,  are  traced  in  twelve  successive  belts  across  this  state. 
The  most  noteworthy  development  of  these  hills  is  found  in  Otter  Tail 
county,  where  the  eighth  and  ninth  moraines  are  merged  to  form  the 
Leaf  hills,  called  "mountains"  by  the  settlers  in  contrast  with  the  lower 


2  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

hills  in  other  parts  of  the  state,  rising  in  steep  slopes  to  heights  of  200 
to  350  feet  ak)ng  an  extent  of  about  twenty  miles.  Their  name,  more 
fully  considered  in  the  county  chapter,  is  translated  from  the  Ojibway 
name,  which  was  thence  applied  by  the  Ojibways  to  the  Leaf  lakes  and 
river,  and  by  the  white  people  to  Leaf  Mountain  township. 

An  important  contrast  is  exhibited  by  the  vegetation  in  different  parts 
of  Minnesota.  Forest  covers  its  northeastern  two-thirds,  approximately, 
while  about  one-third,  lying  at  the  south  and  southwest,  and  reaching  in 
the  Red  river  valley  to  the  Canadian  line,  as  also  the  part  of  this  valley 
north  to  Lake  Winnipeg,  is  prairie.  Half  of  the  state,  on  the  northeast, 
had  originally  extensive  tracts  of  very  valuable  white  pine  and  red  pine, 
which  have  been  mostly  cut  off  by  lumbermen.  Interspersed  with  these 
and  other  evergreen  species,  as  the  spruces,  balsam  fir,  and  arbor  vitae, 
were  tracts  of  maple,  elm,  bass,  oaks,  ash,  and  other  deciduous  trees.  The 
Big  Woods,  a  translation  from  the  early  French  name.  Grand  Bois,  oc- 
cupied a  large  area  west  of  the  Mississippi,  including  Wright,  Carver, 
Scott,  and  Le  Sueur  counties,  with  parts  of  adjacent  counties.  Until  its 
timber  was  cleared  off  for  cultivation  of  the  land  in  farms,  this  area  was 
heavily  wooded  with  the  deciduous  forest,  shedding  its  leaves  before  win- 
ter, lying  south  of  the  geographic  range  of  the  pines  and  their  allies.. 

In  the  great  prairie  region  of  southwestern  Minnesota,  and  extending 
northward  into  the  northeast  part  of  South  Dakota,  a  large  elevated  dis- 
trict is  inclosed  by  the  contour  line  of  1,500  feet  above  the  sea.  This  area 
comprises  Pipestone  county  and  the  greater  parts  of  Lincoln,  Murray, 
Nobles,  and  Rock  counties  in  this  state,  having  an  entire  length  in  the 
two  states  of  about  160  miles.  It  was  named  by  the  early  French  voyag- 
eurs  and  explorers  the  Coteau  des  Prairies,  as  on  Nicollet's  map,  meaning, 
in  English,  the  Highland  of  the  Prairies. 

The  many  beautiful  lakes  of  Alexandria  and  its  vicinity,  of  the  ad- 
joining country  southward  to  Glen  wood  and  northwest  to  Fergus  Falls, 
and  their  landscapes  of  alternating  woods  and  small  openings  of  prairies, 
have  given  the  name  Park  Region  to  that  district,  lying  between  the  un- 
broken northeastern  forest  and  the  limitless  prairie  on  the  west 

Another  area  of  many  lakes  and  streams,  having  somewhat  similar 
features  as  the  foregoing,  but  with  a  mainly  less  rolling  and  diversified 
contour,  excepting  the  valleys  and  inclosing  bluffs  of  its  rivers,  was  named 
by  Nicollet  the  Undine  Region,  comprising  the  country  of  the  Blue  Earth 
river  and  its  tributaries,  as  moticed  in  the  chapter  of  Blue  Earth  county. 

The  Name  of  the  State. 

Minnesota  received  its  name  from  the  largest  river  which  lies  wholly 
within  its  area,  excepting  only  that  its  sources  above  Big  Stone  lake  are 
in  South  Dakota.  During  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  up  to  the  time  of 
the  organization  of  Minnesota  Territory,  in  1849,  the  name  St.  Pierre,  tor 
St.  Peter,  had  been  generally  applied  to  this  river  by  French  and  Eng- 


GENERAL  FEATURES  3 

lisK*  explorers  and  writers.  March  6,  1852,  the  territorial  legislature 
adopted  a  memorial  to  the  Pres-ident  of  the  United  States,  requesting  that 
this  name  should  be  discontinued,  and  that  only  the  aboriginal  name  should 
be  used  for  the  river,  the  same  as  for  the  territory,  by  the  different 
government  departments;  and  this  was  so  decreed  on  June  19  of  the 
same  year,  by  an  act  of  Congress. 

The  old  name,  St.  Peter's  river,  of  French  derivation,  seems  prob- 
ably to  have  been  given  in  commemoration  of  its  first  exploration  by 
Pierre  Charles  Le  Sueur.  If  so,  however,  his  first  journey  up  the  Min- 
nesota river  was  more  than  ten  years  before  his  expedition  upon  it  in 
the  year  1700,  when  he  mined  what  he  supposed  to  be  an  ore  of  copper 
in  the  bluffs  of  the  Blue  Earth  river,  near  the  site  of  Mankato ;  for  the 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Croix  rivers  are  mentioned  by  these  names  in  Perrot's 
proclamation  at  his  Fort  St.  Antoine,  on  Lake  Pepin,  taking  possession 
of  this  region  for  France,  dated  May  8,  1689. 

The  Dakota  or  Sioux  name  Minnesota  means  sky-tinted  water 
(Minne,  water,  and  sota,  somewhat  clouded),  as  Neill  translated  it  on 
the  authority  of  Rev.  Gideon  H.  Pond.  The  river  at  its  stages  of  flood 
becomes  whitishly  turbid.  An  illustration  of  the  meaning  of  the  words 
was  told  to  the  present  writer  by  Mrs.  Moses  N.  Adams,  the  widow  of 
the  well  known  missionary  of  the  Dakotas.  She  stated  that  at  various 
times  the  Dakota  women  explained  it  to  her  by  dropping  a  little  milk  into 
water  and  calling  the  whitishly  clouded  water  "Minne  sota." 

Major  Long  in  1817  wrote  that  the  Mississippi  above  the  St.  Croix  had 
a  name  meaning  Gear  river,  and  Dr.  Folwell  in  1919  concludes  that  the 
Minnesota  means  this,  contrasted  with  the  very  muddy  Missouri. 

In  the  years  1846  to  1848,  Hon.  Henry  H.  Sibley  and  Hon.  Morgan  L. 
Martin,  the  delegate  in  Congress  from  Wisconsin,  proposed  this  name 
for  the  new  territory,  which  thus  followed  the  example  of  Wisconsin 
in  adopting  the  title  of  a  large  stream  within  its  borders.  During  the 
next  few  years,  it  displaced  the  name  St.  Peter  as  applied  in  common 
usage  by  the  white  people  to  the  river,  whose  euphonious  Dakota  title 
will  continue  to  be  borne  by  the  river  and  the  state  probably  long  after 
the  Dakota  or  Sioux  language  shalf  cease  to  be  spoken. 

Gen.  James  H.  Baker,  in  an  address  on  the  history  of  Lake  Superior, 
before  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  at  its  annual  meeting  in  1879, 
published  in  the  third  volume  of  its  Collections  (1880,  pages  333-355), 
directed  attention,  as  follows,  to  a  sonjewhat  comparable  Ojibway  name 
for  the  wooded  northern  part  of  this  state. 

"In  one  of  my  expeditions  upon  the  north  shore,  being  accompanied 
by  an  intelligent  Chippewa  chief,  I  found  the  shrub.  Balm  of  Gilead,  a 
small  tree  of  medicinal  virtue,  in  great  abundance.  He  gave  me  its 
Chippewa  name  as  Mah-nu-sa-tia,  and  said  it  was  the  name  given  by 
their  people  to  all  that  country  west  of  the  great  lake,  because  it  was 
the  country  yielding  the  Mah-nu-sa-tia.     In  conversing  with  other  in- 


4  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES. 

telligent  Chippewas,  I  found  this  statement  was  invariably  confirmed. 
They  claim  it  as  the  traditional  name  of  the  land  to  the  west  of  the  lake." 

This  Ojibway  word,  however,  had  no  influence  upon  the  selection  of 
our  territorial  and  state  name.  Indeed,  it  was  generally  unknown  to 
the  white  people  here  until  more  than  twenty  years  after  the  Sioux  name 
was  chosen. 

The  name  Itasca,  devised  in  1832  by  Schoolcraft  with  the  aid  of  Rev. 
William  T.  Boutwell  for  the  lake  at  the  head  of  the  Mississippi,  was 
urged  by  Boutwell  for  the  territory.  Other  names  were  suggested  in 
the  discussions  of  Congress,  as  Chippeway,  Jackson,  and  Washington. 
Final  choice  of  the  name  Minnesota  was  virtually  decided  in  the  con- 
vention held  at  Stillwater  on  August  26,  1848,  which  petitwned  to  Con- 
gress for  territorial  organization. 

Carver,  who  wintered  with  the  Sioux  on  the  Minnesota  river  in  1766- 
67,  was  the  earliest  author  to  record  its  Sioux  name.  He  spelled  it  Mene* 
sotor  in  his  Travels  and  Menesoter  on  the  accompanying  map.  It  was 
spelled  Menesota  by  Long  and  Keating;  Menisoth6  by  Beltrami;  Mini- 
sotah  by  Nicollet ;  Minnay  sotor  by  Featherstonhaugh ;  Minesota  by  Hon. 
M.  L.  Martin  and  Hon.  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  in  bills  introduced  by  them 
respectively  in  the  House  and  Senate  for  organization  of  the  territory; 
and  Minnesota  by  Hon.  H.  H.  Sibley  at  the  Stillwater  convention. 

Sobriquets  of  Minnesota. 

Like  Michigan,  which  is  frequently  called  the  Wolverine  state,  and 
Wisconsin,  the  Badger  state,  Minnesota  has  a  favorite  sobriquet  or  nick- 
name, the  Gopher  state.  Its  origin  has  been  given  by  the  late  Judge 
Flandrau,  who,  in  his  "History  of  Minnesota,"  says  that  the  beaver,  as 
well  as  the  gopher,  was  advocated  to  give  such  a  popular  title.  The  latter 
gained  the  ascendancy,  soon  after  the  a<dmission  of  Minnesota  to  state- 
hood, on  acoount  of  the  famous  "Gopher  cartoon,"  published  in  derision 
of  the  Five  Million  Loan  bill,  which  was  passed  by  the  first  state  legis- 
lature to  encourage  the  building  of  railroads.  The  striped  gopher,  com- 
mon throughout  our  prairie  region,  is  the  species  depicted  by  the  cartoon. 
(Minnesota  in  Three  Centuries,  1908,  vol.  I,  pages  75-76.) 

Minnesota  is  also  often  called  the  North  Star  state,  in  allusion  to  the 
motto,  "L'  Etoile  du  Nord,"  chosen  by  Governor  Sibley  for  the  state 
seal  in  1858. 

Another  epithet  for  our  fertile  commonwealth  more  recently  came 
into  use  from  the  Pan-American  Exposition  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  in  1901, 
where  the  superior  exhibits  of  wheat,  flour,  and  dairy  products  of  Min- 
nesota caused  her  to  be  called  "the  Bread  and  Butter  state." 

The  Mississippi. 

The  chief  river  of  Minnesota,  and  indeed  of  North  America,  bears 
for  all  time  the  Algonquian  name  which  it  received  from  the  Ojibways 


GENERAL  FEATURES  5 

who  paddled  their  birch  canoes  on  its  head  stream,  within  the  area  of 
this  state,  and  on  the  lakes  at  its  sources.  This  name,  Mississippi,  means 
simply  the  Great  River.  Such  it  is,  being  the  second  among  the  great 
rivers  of  the  world,  surpassed  only  by  the  Amazon. 

Jean  Nicolet,  the  first  white  explorer  of  Wisconsin,  in  the  winter  of 
1634-35,  went  from  Lake  Michigan  and  Green  bay  to  Lake  Winnebago 
and  the  upper  Fox  river,  and  learned  there  from  the  Indians  that  the 
sea,  as  he  understood  them  to  say,  was  within  three  days'  travel  farther 
to  the  southwest.    What  he  heard  of  was  the  Mississippi  river. 

It  was  first  made  known  by  name  to  Europeans  in  the  Jesuit  Relation 
of  1666-67,  published  in  Paris  in  1668,  which  mentions  "the  great  river 
named  Messipi."  The  Relation  of  1670-71  gave  a  more  definite  descrip- 
tion as  follows:  "It  is  a  Southward  course  that  is  taken  by  the  great 
river  called  by  the  natives  Missisipi,  which  must  empty  somewhere  in 
the  region  of  the  Florida  sea,  more  than  four  hundred  leagues  hence 
(from  the  upper  Great  Lakes)  ♦  *  ♦  Some  Savages  have  assured  us 
that  this  is  so  noble  a  river  that,  at  more  than  three  hundred  leagues' 
distance  from  its  mouth,  it  is  larger  than  the  one  flowing  before  Quebec ; 
for  they  declare  that  it  is  more  than  a  league  wide  [referring  probably 
to  its  expansion  in  Lake  Pepin].  They  also  state  that  all  this  vast  stretch 
of  country  consists  of  nothing  but  treeless  prairies." 

Earlier  names  had  been  given  by  the  Spaniards  to  this  river  in  its 
lower  part,  seen  by  their  expeditions.  Thus,  on  the  map  resulting  from 
Pineda's  exploration  of  the  Gulf  coast  in  1519,  the  Mississippi  is  named 
Rio  del  Espiritu  Santo  (River  of  the  Holy  Spirit)  ;  and  it  continued  to 
be  commonly  or  frequently  mapped  under  that  name  until  its  present 
Algonquian  designation  was  generally  adopted. 

Father  Marquette,  writing  of  his  canoe  voyage  on  this  river  in  1673, 
with  Joliet,  called  it  the  Missisipi,  but  his  map  named  it  "R.  de  la  Con- 
ception." 

Hennepin,  in  the  first  edition  of  his  travels,  published  in  Paris  in  1683, 
called  the  Mississippi  the  River  Colbert,  for  the  great  French  statesman 
who  died  that  year,  and  so  mapped  it;  but  later  editions  named  and 
mapped  it  as  "Le  Grand  Fleuve  Meschasipi." 

La  Salle,  writing  August  22,  1682,  designated  is  as  "the  river  Colbert, 
named  by  the  IroqtK>is  Gastacha,  and  by  the  Ottawas  the  Mississipy." 
Elsewhere,  however,  in  the  same  and  other  writings,  La  Salle  and  his 
companions  more  commonly  used  only  the  latter  name,  spelling  it 
MississipL 

Perrot,  after  spending  many  years  on  the  upper  part  of  this  river, 
in  his  Memoir  written  in  1718  or  within  two  or  three  years  later,  spoke 
of  "the  Micissypy,  which  is  now  named  the  Louisianne;"  and  a  French 
map  published  in  1718  gives  the  name  as  "the  Missisipi  or  St.  Louis." 

Carver,  who  traveled  into  the  area  of  Minnesota  in  1766,  described 
and  mapped  this  river  with  its  present  spelling,  Mississippi,  which  was 


6  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

followed  by  Pike,  Cass  and  Schoolcraft,  Long  and  Keating,  Beltrami, 
and  all  later  writers.  Before  this  form  became  fully  established,  the 
name,  as  printed  in  books  and  maps,  had  many  variations,  which,  accord- 
ing to  an  estimate  by  Dr.  Elliott  Coues,  number  probably  thirty  or  more. 

The  first  part  of  the  name,  Missi,  means  Great,  being  akin  to  the 
modern  Ojibway  word,  Kitchi,  great,  or  Gitche,  as  it  is  spelled  by  Long- 
fellow in  "The  Song  of  Hiawatha";  and  the  second  part,  sippi,  other- 
wise spelled  sipi  or  sebe,  or  zibi,  is  the  common  Algonquian  or  Ojibway 
word  for  a  river.  This  name,  received  from  the  Ojibways  and  other 
Algonquins  by  the  earliest  French  missionaries  and  traders  in  the  upper 
Mississippi  region,  though  used  by  these  Indians  only  for  the  upper  part 
of  the  river  as  known  to  them,  was  extended  by  Marquette  and  Joliet 
and  by  La  Salle  to  its  entire  course,  displacing  the  numerous  former  In- 
dian names  which  had  been  applied  to  its  lower  part 

Rev.  J.  A.  Gilfillan  wrote:  "Below  the  junction  of  Leech  Lake  river, 
it  is  called  Kitchi-zibi,  or  Great  river.  I  cannot  find  by  inquiry  that  the 
Chippewas  have  ever  called  it  Missizibi  (Mississippi)  or  Missazibi.  But 
I  consider  it  very  probable  that  in  remote  times  they  did,  for  Missa-zibi 
(Mississippi)  would  express  the  same  idea  in  their  language,  and  would 
be  proper,  as  witness  Missa-sagaiigun  (Mille  Lacs),  meaning  Great  lake. 
It  so  exactly  corresponds  with  tlieir  language  that  it  must  have  been 
taken  from  it." 

Endeavoring  to  translate  more  fully  the  aboriginal  significance  of 
Missi,  Gannett  says  that  Mississippi  means  "great  water,"  or  "gathering 
in  of  all  the  waters,"  and  "an  almost  endless  river  spread  out." 

The  phrase,  "Father  of  Waters,"  popularly  given  to  this  river;  has  no 
warrant  in  the  Algonquian  name.  In  1854  Schoolcraft  wrote:  "The 
prefixed  word  Missi  is  an  adjective  denoting  all,  and,  when  applied  to 
various  waters,  means  the  collected  or  assembled  mass  of  them.  ♦  ♦  ♦ 
It  is  only  symbolically  that  it  can  be  called  the  Father  of  American  riv- 
ers, unless  such  sense  occurs  in  the  other  Indian  tongues." 

Red  Lake  and  River. 

Red  lake  is  translated  from  its  Ojibway  name,  which,  like  Vermilion 
lake,  refers  to  the  red  and  vermilion  hues  of  the  smooth  water  surface 
reflecting  the  color  of  the  sky  at  sunset  on  calm  evenings  in  summer,  as 
noted  in  the  chapters  of  Red  Lake  county  and  St.  Louis  county.  The 
Red  river,  named  from  the  lake,  is  the  boundary  of  Minnesota  at  the 
west  side  of  six  counties,  flowing  thence  to  Lake  Winnipeg.  Its  more 
distinctive  name,  Red  river  of  the  North,  was  used  by  Nicollet  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  the  Red  river  tributary  to  the  lower  MississippL 

An  exceedingly  flat  plain  adjoins  the  Red  river,  having  an  impercep- 
tible descent  northward,  as  also  from  each  side  to  its  central  line.  Along 
the  axial  depression  the  river  has  cut  a  channel  twenty  to  sixty  feet 
deep.    It  is  bordered  by  only  few  and  narrow  areas  of  •  bottomland,  in- 


GENERAL  FEATURES  7 

stead  of  which  its  banks  usually  rise  steeply  on  one  side,  and  by  mod- 
erate slopes  on  the  other,  to  the  broad  valley  plain  which  thence  reaches 
nearly  level  ten  to  twenty-five  miles  from  the  river.  This  vast  plain, 
lying  half  in  Minnesota  and  half  in  North  Dakota,  with  continuation 
into  Manitoba  and  so  stretching  from  Lake  Traverse  and  Breckenridge 
north  to  Lake  Winnipeg,  a  distance  of  300  miles,  is  the  widely  famed 
Red  River  Valley,  one  of  the  most  productive  wheat-raising  districts  of 
the  world. 

Glacial  Lake  Agassiz  and  River  Warren. 

The  farmers  and  other  residents  of  this  fertile  plain  are  well  aware 
that  they  live  on  the  area  once  occupied  by  a  great  lake ;  for  its  beaches, 
having  the  form  of  smoothly  rounded  ridges  of  gravel  and  sand,  a  few 
feet  high,  with  a  width  of  several  rods,  are  observable  extending  hori- 
zontally long  distances  upon  each  of  the  slopes  which  rise  east  and  west 
of  the  valley  plain.  Hundreds  of  farmers  have  located  their  buildings 
on  the  beach  ridges  as  the  most  dry  and  sightly  spots  on  their  land^ 
affording  opportunity  for  perfectly  drained  cellars  even  in  the  most  wet 
spring  seasons,  and  also  yielding  to  wells,  dug  through  this  sand  and 
gravel,  better  water  than  is  usually  obtainable  in  wells  on  the  adjacent 
clay  areas. 

Numerous  explorers  of  this  region,  from  Long  and  Keating  in  1823, 
to  Gen.  G.  K.  Warren  in  1868  and  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell  in  1872,  ob- 
served the  lacustrine  features  of  the  valley;  and  the  last  named  geolo- 
gist first  gave  what  is  now  generally  accepted  as  the  true  explanation  of 
the  lake's  existence,  namely,  that  it  was  produced  in  the  closing  stage 
of  the  Glacial  period  by  the  dam  of  the  continental  ice-sheet  at  the  time 
of  its  final  melting  away.  As  the  border  of  the  ice-sheet  retreated 
northward  along  the  valley,  drainage  from  it  could  not  flow  as  now 
freely  to  the  north  through  Lake  Winnipeg  and  into  the  ocean  at  Hudson 
bay,  but  was  turned  southward  by  the  ice  barrier  to  the  lowest  place  on 
the  watershed  dividing  this  basin  from  that  of  the  Mississippi.  The 
lowest  point  is  found  at  Brown's  Valley,  on  the  western  boundary  of 
Minnesota,  where  an  ancient  watercourse,  about  125  feet  deep  and  one 
mile  to  one  and  a  half  miles  wide,  extends  from  Lake  Traverse,  at  the 
head  of  the  Bois  des  Sioux,  a  tributary  of  the  Red  river,  to  Big  Stone 
lake,  through  which  the  head  stream  of  the  Minnesota  river  passes  in 
its  course  to  the  Mississippi  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

Detailed  exploration  of  the  shore  lines  and  area  of  this  lake  was 
begun  by  the  present  writer  for  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey  in 
the  years  1879  to  1881,  under  the  direction  of  Professor  Winchell,  the 
state  geologist.  In  subsequent  years  I  was  employed  in  tracing  the  lake 
shores  through  North  Dakota  for  the  United  States  Geological  Survey, 
and  through  southern  Manitoba  to  the  distance  of  100  miles  north  from 
the  international  boundary  to  Riding  mountain,  for  the  Geological  Survey 


8  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

of  Canada.  For  the  last  named  survey,  also,  Mr.  J.  B.  Tyrrell  extended 
the  exploration  of  the  shore  lines  more  or  less  completely  for  200  miles 
farther  north,  along  the  Riding  and  Duck  mountains  and  the  Porcupine 
and  Pasquia  hills,  west  of  Lakes  Manitoba  and  Winnip^osis,  to  the 
Saskatchewan  river. 

This  glacial  lake  was  named  in  the  eighth  annual  report  of  the  Min- 
nesota Geological  Survey,  for  the  year  1879,  in  honor  of  Louis  Agassiz, 
the  first  prominent  advocate  of  the  theory  of  the  formation  of  the  drift 
by  land  ice.  The  outflowing  river,  whose  channel  is  now  occupied  by 
Lakes .  Traverse  and  Big  Stone  and  Brown's  Valley,  was  named,  in  a 
paper  read  before  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  at  its  Minneapolis  meeting  in  1883,  the  River  Warren,  in  com- 
memoration of  General  Warren's  admirable  work  in  the  United  States 
Engineering  Corps,  in  publishing  maps  and  reports  of  the  Minnesota  and 
Mississippi  river  surveys.  Descriptions  of  Lake  Agassiz  and  the  River 
Warren  were  partly  given  in  the  eighth  and  eleventh  annual  reports  of 
the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey,  and  in  the  first,  second,  and  fourth 
volumes  of  its  final  report.  Monograph  XXV  of  the  U.  S.  Geological 
Survey,  "The  Glacial  Lake  Agassiz,"  published  in  1896,  treats  of  its  en- 
tire explored  extent  (658  pages,  with  many  maps).  Its  area  exceeded 
that  of  the  state  of  Minnesota,  being  about  110,000  square  miles,  or  more 
dian  the  united  areas  of  the  five  Great  Lakes  that  outflow  to  the  St. 
Lawrence  river. 

Lake  Superior  and  other  Lakes  and  Rivers. 

The  name  of  Lake  county  refers  to  its  adjoining  the  Grand  Lac  of 
Champlain'^s  map  in  1632,  which  was  mapped  under  its  present  name. 
Lake  Superior,  by  Marquette  in  1673.  Its  being  the  greatest  lake  in  the 
series  flowing  to  the  St  Lawrence,  or  even  the  greatest  freshwater  lake 
in  the  world,  was  noted  in  the  name  used  by  Champlain,  in  translation 
from  Kitchigumi  of  the  Ojibways.  Superior  means  simply  the  Upper 
lake  in  that  series. 

Rainy  lake  and  river  are  likewise  translations  from  their  aboriginal 
and  early  French  names.  From  the  narration  of  a  French  voyageur, 
Jacques  de  Noyon,  who  was  there  in  1688  or  within  a  year  or  two  ear- 
lier or  later,  we  have  the  ^ame  Ouchichiq  or  Koochiching,  given  by  the 
Crees  to  this  river  and  adopted  by  the  Ojibways.  Joseph  la  France, 
traveling  there  in  1740,  noted  the  derivation  of  the  name  Lac  de  la  Pluie, 
meaning  in  English  the  Lake  of  the  Rain,  from  the  mist  of  the  falls  of 
Rainy  river  at  the  present  city  named  International  Falls.  Further  con- 
sideration of  these  names  is  given  for  Koochiching  county. 

On  the  sketch  map  drawn  in  1730  by  an  Assiniboine  named  Ochagach 
for  Verendrye,  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  is  unnamed,  but  the  country  at 
its  north  side  is  shown  as  inhabited  by  the  Crees.  In  1737  and  1754  it 
was  mapped  as  Lac  des  Bois,  from  which  the  English  name  is  translated. 


GENERAL  FEATURES  9 

La  France,  m  1740,  recorded  its  aboriginal  names,  in  translation,  as 
'Take  Du  Bois,  or  Des  Isles,"  that  is,  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  or  of 
the  Islands.  It  is  entirely  surrounded  by  woods,  though  the  border  of 
the  great  prairie  region  is  not  far  westward;  and  its  second  name  was 
given  for  the  multitude  of  islands  in  its  northern  part.  The  Ojibway 
name  of  its  broad  southern  part,  adjoining  Beltrami  and  Roseau  cotm- 
ties,  as  noted  by  Gilfillan  and  Verwyst,  refers  to  the  sand  dunes  of  Oak 
point  and  Sable  island,  at  the  mouth  of  Rainy  river,  whence  this  part 
was  frequently  called  Sand  Hill  lake  by  the  early  fur  traders. 

The  St  Louis  river  is  duly  noticed  for  the  county  named  from  it,  with 
mention  of  its  earlier  French  name  as  the  river  of  Fond  du  Lac,  so  called 
because  there  the  series  of  falls  and  rapids  along  its  last  fifteen  miles 
descends  to  the  level  of  Lake  Superior.  The  Ojibways  name  it  Kitchi- 
gumi  zibi.  Lake  Superior  river. 

Cass  lake,  early  known  as  Red  Cedar  lake  in  translation  from  the 
Ojibways,  was  renamed  in  honor  of  General  Lewis  Cass,  who,  with 
Schoolcraft  as  historian  of  his  expedition,  visited  it  in  1820,  regarding  it 
as  the  chief  source  of  the  Mississippi.  He  is  also  commemorated  by  Cass 
county,  for  which  the  names  of  this  lake  and  of  Winnebagoshish  and 
Leech  lakes  are  fully  noticed. 

Thief  river,  lying  mostly  in  Marshall  county  and  having  its  source  in 
Thief  lake,  is  translated  from  the  Ojibway  name,  which  is  explained  for 
the  city  at  its  mouth.  Thief  River  Falls,  in  Pennington  county. 

Gearwater  river,  lying  in  three  counties,  one  of  which  bears  this 
name,  is  again  a  translation  from  the  Ojibways,  like  Eau  Qaire,  of  the 
same  meaning,  which  designates  a  river,  a  county,  and  its  city  and  county 
seat,  in  Wisconsin. 

The  Wild  Rice  river,  and  the  lakes  so  named  near  its  source,  are 
translations  from  Manomin  or  Mahnomen,  the  native  grain  much  used 
and  highly  prized  by  the  Ojibway  people  as  a  staple  part  of  their  food, 
noted  more  in  detail  for  Mahnomen  county. 

Crow  Wing  river  and  the  county  named  from  it  present  another 
translation  from  these  Indians,  for  the  outline  of  an  island  at  the  junc- 
tion of  this  river  with  the  Mississippi,  which  they  fancifully  compared 
with  the  wing  of  a  raven.  Farther  south,  on  the  boundary  between 
Wright  and  Hennepin  counties,  they  applied  to  the  Crow  river  a  different 
name,  correctly  designating  our  American  crow,  the  marauder  of  newly 
planted  cornfields.  These  names,  with  the  Ojibway  words  from  which 
they  were  translated,  are  again  noticed  in  the  chapter  of  Crow  Wing 
county. 

Sauk  river  in  Todd  and  Steams  counties,  Osakis  lake  at  its  source, 
lying  partly  in  Douglas  county,  and  the  villages  and  cities  of  Osakis,  Sauk 
Center,  and  Sauk  Rapids,  the  last  being  on  the  east  side  of  the  Missis- 
sippi opposite  to  the  mouth  of  the  Sauk  river,  derived  their  names  from 
a  small  party  of  Sac  or  Sauk  Indians,  who  came  as  refugees  from  their 


10  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

own  country  in  Wisconsin  and  lived    near  Osakis  lake,  as  related  for  the 
township  and  village  of  Sauk  Rapids  in  Benton  county. 

Mille  Lacs,  as  named  by  the  French,  meaning  "a  thousand  lakes,"  bore 
a  Sioux  name,  'Mde  Wakan,  nearly  like  Mini  Wakan,  their  equivalent 
name  which  is  translated  Spirit  lake  in  Iowa.  Its  Ojibway  name  is  Minsi 
or  Missi  sagaigon,  as  spelled  respectively  by  Nicollet  in  1843  and  De  L' 
Isle  in  1703,  meaning  Great  lake,  just  as  the  Mississippi  is  the  Great  river. 
These  names  are  more  elaborately  reviewed  in  the  chapter  for  Mille  Lacs 
county,  which  also  notes  the  origin  of  the  name  Rum  river,  the  outlet 
of  this  lake. 

Kettle  river,  in  Carlton  and  Pine  counties,  is  noticed  for  the  latter  in 
explanation  of  the  name  of  Kettle  River  township. 

The  Pine  lakes  and  river  and  the  Ojibway  village  of  Qiengwatana, 
meaning  Pine  village,  gave  the  names  of  Pine  county  and  Pine  City,  its 
county  seat. 

Snake  river  is  translated  from  the  Ojibway  name,  Kanabec  sibi,  which 
has  several  other  spellings.  Kanabec,  retained  as  the  designation  of  a 
county,  with  its  accent  on  the  second  syllable,  is  widely  different  in  both 
pronunciation  and  meaning  from  the  Kennebec  river  in  Maine. 

St  Croix  river,  which,  with  the  expansion  of  its  lowest  twenty  miles 
in  Lake  St.  Croix,  forms  the  boundary  of  this  state  on  the  east  side  of 
Pine,  Chisago,  and  Washington  counties,  was  called  the  River  du  Tom- 
beau  (Tomb  or  Grave  river)  by  Hennepin  in  1680,  "R.  de  la  Magdeleine" 
on  Franquelin's  map  in  1688,  and  the  River  St.  Croix  (Holy  Cross)  by 
Perrot's  proclamation  in  1689  and  by  the  Relation  of  Penicaut  in  1700. 
A  cross  had  been  set  at  its  mouth,  as  noted  by  Penicaut,  probably  to 
mark  the  grave  of  some  French  trader -or  voyageur.  La  Harpe,  writing 
of  Le  Sueur's  expedition  in  1700,  which  was  the  theme  of  Penicaut's 
Relation,  described  this  stream  as  "a  great  river  called  St.  Croix,  because 
a  Frenchman  of  that  name  was  wrecked  at  its  mouth." 

Lake  Pepin  bears  this  name  on  De  L'  Isle's  map  of  Canada  or  New 
France,  published  in  1703.  It  may  have  been  chosen,  as  stated  by  Gan- 
nett, in  honor  of  Pepin  le  Bref ,  king  of  the  Franks,  who  was  born  in  714 
and  died  in  768.  He  was  a  son  of  Charles  M artel,  and  was  the  father  of 
Charlemagne.  Very  probably  the  name  was  placed  on  the  map  by  De  L* 
Isle  under  request  of  his  patron,  the  king  of  France.  Pepin  was  an  in- 
frequent personal  surname  among  the  French  settlers  of  Canada,  whence 
many  explorers  and  traders  came  to  this  region,  but  history  has  failed 
to  record  for  whom  and  why  this  large  lake  of  the  Mississippi  was  so 
named.  Hennepin,  in  his  narration  and  map,  had  called  it  Lac  dcs 
Pleurs  (Lake  of  Tears),  because  there,  as  he  wrote,  some  of  the  Sioux 
by  whom  he  had  been  taken  captive,  with  his  companions,  "wept  the  whole 
night,  to  induce  the  others  to  consent  to  our  death."  Penicaut  named  it 
Lac  Bon  Secours,  meaning  Lake  Good  Help,  apparently  in  allusion  to 
the  abundance  of  buffaloes  and  other  game  found  in  its  vicinity.     This 


GENERAL  FEATURES  11 

name,  Bon  Sccours,  and  another,  River  des  Boeufs,  that  is,  River  of 
Buffaloes,  were  early  applied  to  the  Chippewa  river  in  Wisconsin,  which 
was  the  geologic  cause  of  Lake  Pepin, by  bringing  much  alluvium  into 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  below  the  lake.  Its  origin  was  thus  like  that 
of  Lake  St.  Croix,  and  like  Lac  qui  Parle  on  the  Minnesota  river. 

Cannon  river,  joining  the  Mississippi  at  the  head  of  Lake  Pepin,  u 
changed  from  its  earlier  French  name,  River  aux  Canats,  meaning  Canoe 
river,  which  alluded  to  canoes  frequently  left  in  concealment  near  its 
mouth  by  Indians  and  by  French  traders,  especially  when  going  on  the 
hunt  for  buffaloes  in  the  adjoining  prairie  country.  The  present  erro- 
neous name,  losing  its  original  significance,  comes  from  the  narratives  of 
Pike's  expedition  in  1805-06  and  of  Long's  expeditions  in  1817  and  1823. 
Pike  used  both  names.  Canoe  river  when  telling  of  his  voyage  up  the 
Mississippi,  and  Cannon  river  in  the  journal  of  his  return.  Nicollet,  in 
his  report  and  map  published  in  1843,  called  it  Lahontan  river  and  also 
Cannon  river,  supposing  it  to  be  identifiable  as  the  Long  river  of  Baron 
Lahontan's  "New  Voyages  to  North  America,"  which  purported  to  relate 
his  travel  here  in  tlie  winter  of  1688-89.  That  stream,  however,  with  later 
knowledge  seems  instead  to  be  entirely  fictitious  (Minnesota  in  Three 
Centuries,  1908,  vol.  I,  pages  239-241). 

According  to  Nicollet,  the  name  given  by  the  Sioux  to  Cannon  river 
was  Inyan  bosndata,  in  translation  Standing  Rock.  It  referred  to  the 
unequally  eroded  rock  column  or  spire  called  by  the  white  settlers  Castle 
Rock,  whence  a  township  and  railway  station  near  this  river  in  Dakota 
county  are  named. 

Zumbro  river  bears  a  name  more  remarkably  changed  from  its  origi- 
nal form  than  the  Cannon  river,  being  derived  from  the  early  French 
name,  River  des  Embarras,  meaning  River  of  Difficulties.  Its  surface  in 
its  lower  course  and  on  the  Mississippi  bottomland  was  obstructed  by 
driftwood,  as  noted  by  Albert  Lea  in  the  expedition  with  Kearny  in 
1835.  This  burden  and  embarrassment  prevented  or  hindered  its  navi- 
gation by  the  canoes  of  the  French  voyageurs  for  the  fur  trade.  Two  vil- 
lages on  the  river  are  named  Zumbrota  and  Zumbro  Falls,  respectively  in 
Goodhue  and  Wabasha  counties,  for  which  these  names  are  more  fully 
considered.  In  St.  Louis  county,  the  large  river  whence  it  is  named 
receives  two  tributaries  that  were  likewise  each  named  River  des  Em- 
barras by  the  French,  because  of  their  burden  of  driftwood,  the  upper 
one  being  now  the  Embarrass  river,  and  the  lower  now  called  Floodwood 
river.    Forsyth  in  1819  noted  this  stream  as  Driftwood  river. 

Beside  the  Zumbro  in  Goodhue  county,  the  township  and  village  of 
Pine  Island  recall  its  Sioux  name,  Wazi  Oju,  as  the  river  is  called  on 
Nicollet's  map,  signifying  Pines  Planted,  in  allusion  to  the  grove  of  large 
white  pines  adjoining  this  village. 

Root  river,  the  most  southeastern  large  tributary  to  the  Mississippi 
in  this  state,  rising  in  Mower  county  and  flowing  through  Olmsted,  Fill- 


12  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

0 

more,  and  Houston  counties,  was  called  Racine  river  by  Pike,  Root  river 
by  Long  in  1817,  and  both  its  Sioux  name,  Hokah,  and  the  English  trans- 
lation, Root,  are  used  in  Keating's  Narrative  of  Long's  expedition  in 
1823.  With  more  strictly  accurate  spelling  and  pronunciation,  the  Sioux 
or  Dakota  word  is  Hutkan,  meaning  Racine  in  the  French  language  and 
Root  in  English,  while  the  Sioux  word  Hokah  means  a  heron.  Racine 
township  and  railway  village  in  Mower  county,  and  Hokah,  similarly  the 
name  of  a  township  and  village  in  Houston  county,  were  derived  from 
the  river. 

Tributaries  of  the  Minnesota  river  to  be  mentioned  here  are  the 
Pomme  de  Terre  and  Chippewa  rivers,  from  the  north ;  the  Lac  qui  Parle 
river,  having  the  French  name  of  a  lake  through  which  the  Minnesota 
flows,  and  the  Yellow  Medicine,  Redwood,  Cottonwood^  and  Blue  Earth 
rivers,  from  the  southwest  and  south;  and  Watonwan  and  Le  Sueur 
rivers,  which  flow  into  the  Blue  Earth.  Each  of  these  streams,  except- 
ing the  first,  is  nwst  fully  noticed  for  a  county  bearing  its  name;  and 
the  Pomme  de  Terre  lake  and  river,  translated  by  the  French  from  the 
Sioux,  are  noticed  for  a  township  so  named  in  Grant  county.  It  is  note- 
worthy that  our  names  of  all  these  rivers,  excepting  Le  Sueur,  which 
commemorates  the  early  French  explorer,  were  originally  received  from 
the  Sioux  or  Dakota  people,  who  had  long  inhabited  this  part  of  Min- 
nesota when  the  first  explorers  and  settlers  came.  Only  Watonwan, 
however,  retains  its  form  as  a  Sioux  word. 

Four  streams  that  have  their  sources  in  this  state  and  flow  into  Iowa, 
namely,  the  Rock,  Des  Moines,  Cedar,  and  Upper  Iowa  rivers,  will  com- 
plete this  list. 

Rock  river,  translated  fix>m  its  Sioux  name,  refers  to  the  prominent 
rock  hill,  commonly  now  called  '*the  Mound,"  which  rises  precipitously 
west  of  this  river  in  Mound  township  of  Rock  county,  the  most  south- 
western in  Minnesota.  Both  the  township  and  county,  like  the  river, 
were  named  for  this  high  outcrop  of  red  quartzite.  The  same  rock  for- 
mation, continuing  north  in  Pipestone  county,  includes  the  renowned 
Pipestone  Quarry,  whence  came  the  names  of  that  county,  its  county 
seat,  and  the  creek  that  flows  past  the  quarry. 

The  Des  Moines  river  flows  through  Murray,  Cottonwood,  and  Jack- 
son counties,  thence  crosses  Iowa,  gives  its  name  to  the  capital  of  that 
state,  and  joins  the  Mississippi  at  its  southeast  corner.  Franquelin  in 
1688  and  De  L'  Isle  in  1703  mapped  it  as  "R.  des  Moingona,''  the  name 
being  taken  from  an  Indian  village,  Moingona,  shown  by  Franquelin  not 
far  from  the  site  of  the  present  village  of  this  name  in  Boone  county, 
near  the  center  of  Iowa.  The  na;me  was  spelled  by  Pike  as  De  Moyen 
and  Des  Moyan ;  Long  called  it  De  Moyen ;  and  Beltrami,  Le  Moine  and 
Monk  river.  It  has  three  names  on  Nicollet's  map:  "Inyan  Shasha  of 
the  Sioux,"  meaning  Red  Stone,  in  allusion  to  its  flowing  through  a  gorge 
of  red  sandstone  in  Marion  county,  Iowa ;  "Moingonan  of  the  Algonkins," 


GENERAL  FEATURES  13 

from  the  early  maps;  and  '*Des  Moines  of  the  French/'  meaning  the 
River  of  the  Monks.  The  third  name,  which  has  been  too  long  in  use 
to  be  changed,  is  in  erroneous  translation  by  the  early  traders,  based 
merely  on  the  pronunciation  of  the  old  Algonquian  name.  An  interesting 
paper  on  its  origin,  by  Dr.  Charles  R.  Keyes,  is  in  the  Annals  of  Iowa 
(third  series,  vol.  Ill,  pages  554-9,  with  three  maps,  Oct.,  1898). 

Cedar  river,  flowing  from  Dodge  and  Mower  oounties  in  this  state, 
is  the  longest  stream  of  northeastern  Iowa.  Like  the  Missouri  river, 
which  exceeds  the  upper  Mississippi  in  length,  it  is  tributary  to  a  shorter 
stream,  the  Iowa  river,  about  twenty-five  miles  above  the  junction  of  the 
latter  with  the  Mississippi.  Red  cedar  trees,  whose  fragrant  red  wood 
is  much  esteemed  fior  chests  and  other  furniture,  growing  in  many  places 
along  the  bluffs  of  this  river,  supplied  its  aboriginal  name,  translated 
by  Nicollet  and  on  present  maps  as  Red  Cedar  river.  Its  upper  part,  in 
this  state,  is  more  commonly  called  simply  Cedar  river;  and  its  two 
chief  cities,  in  Iowa,  are  named  Cedar  Rapids  and  Cedar  Falls.  The 
same  name.  Red  Cedar,  was  derived  in  translation  from  the  O  jib  ways 
for  the  lake  of  the  upper  Mississippi  renamed  as  Cass  lake,  and  for  the 
present  Cedar  lake  in  Aitkin  county,  besides  numerous  other  relatively 
small  lakes,  streams,  and  islands,  in  various  parts  of  Minnesota.  Far 
northward  the  full  name  Red  Cedar  was  used  in  distinction  from  the 
arbor  vitae,  which  often  is  called  white  cedar,  having  similarly  durable 
wood  of  a  light  color. 

Upper  Iowa  river  begins  in  Mower  county,  runs  meanderingly  along 
parts  of  the  south  line  of  Fillmore  county,  and  passes  southeast  and  east 
in  Iowa  to  the  Mississippi  near  the  northeast  comer  of  that  state,  which 
is  named  from  the  larger  Iowa  river  flowing  past  Iowa  Falls  and  Iowa 
City.  The  application  of  the  name  to  a  district  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  later  to  the  territory  and  state,  as  first  used  for  the  district  by  Lieu- 
tenant Albert  M.  Lea  in  1836,  has  been  well  told  by  Prof.  Benjamin  F. 
Shambaugh  in  the  volume  of  Annals  of  Iowa  before  cited  for  the  Des 
Moines  river  (third  series.  III,  641-4,  Jan.,  1899),  with  fourteen  refer- 
ences to  preceding  papers  and  books  that  treat  of  the  origin  of  the  state 
name.  It  was  originally  the  name  of  a  Siouan  tribe  living  there,  whose 
hunting  grounds  extended  north  to  the  Blue  Earth  and  Minnesota  rivers 
at  the  time  of  Le  Sueur's  expedition  in  1700-01.  Their  tribal  name, 
spelled  in  many  ways,  was  translated  "sleepy  ones"  by  Riggs,  being  analo- 
gous with  the  name  of  the  Sioux  chief  Sleepy  Eye,  who  is  commemo- 
rated by  a  city  in  Brown  county.  The  Handbook  of  American  Indians 
gives  more  than  seventy-five  variations  in  the  former  spelling  of  the 
name  that  now  is'established  in  common  use  as  Iowa  (Part  I,  1907,  page 
614). 


AITKIN  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  May  23,  1857,  and  organized  June  30,  1871, 
was  named  for  William  Alexander  Aitkin,  a  fur  trader  with  the  Ojibway 
Indians.  He  was  born  in  Scotland  in  1785;  came  from  Edinburgh  to 
America  in  his  boyhood ;  and  about  the  year  1802  came  to  the  Northwest, 
being  in  the  service  of  a  trader  named  John  Drew.  Aitkin  married  into 
an  influential  Indian  family;  was  soon  a  trader  on  his  own  account;  and 
rapidly  advanced  until  in  1831  he  took  charge  of  the  Fond  du  Lac  de- 
partment of  the  American  Fur  G>mpany,  under  John  Jacob  Astor,  with 
headquarters  at  Sandy  Lake,  in  this  county,  adjoining  the  east  side  of  the 
Mississippi  river.  He  died  September  16,  1851,  and  is  buried  on  the  east 
bank  of  the  Mississippi,  opposite  to  the  mouth  of  Swan  river,  in  Morrison 
county,  where  he  had  a  trading  post  during  his  last  nine  years,  after  1842. 

The  name  of  Aitkin  county  was  at  first  erroneously  spelled  Aiken, 
with  which  it  is  identical  in  pronunciation,  and  it  was  changed  to  its  pres- 
ent spelling  in  1872  by  an  act  of  the  legislature. 

0 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  of  township  names  was  received  from 
Thomas  R.  Foley,  Jr.,  real  estate  and  insurance  agent,  and  Carl  £. 
Taylor,  court  commissioner,  both  of  Aitkin,  during  a  visit  there  in  May, 
1916. 

Aitkin  township  bears  the  same  name  as  the  county.  Its  village,  also 
bearing  this  name,  was  founded  in  1870,  as  a  station  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  railroad,  which  in  that  year  was  built  through  the  county ;  and  the 
next  year,  in  the  county  organization,  it  was  made  the  county  seat. 

Bain  township,  and  its  railway  station  of  the  same  name,  are  in  honor 
ot  William  Bain,  the  hotel  owner,  who  is  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the 
station  site. 

Ball  Bluff  township  should  be  Bald  Bluff,  being  for  the  conspicuous 
morainic  drift  hill  so  named,  having  a  bald  grassy  top  without  trees,  in 
section  32  of  this  township,  at  the  east  side  of  the  Mississippi. 

Balsam  township  is  from  two  species  of  trees  that  are  common  or 
frequent  in  this  county,  the  balsam  fir  and  the  balsam  poplar. 

Beaver  was  named  for  beavers  and  their  dams,  found  by  the  earliest 
settlers  on  the  head  streams  of  Split  Rock  river,  in  the  south  part  of 
this  township. 

Clark  township  had  ^arly  settlers  of  this  name,  one  being  Frank 
Dark,  who  removed  to  McGregor. 

Cornish  was  named  for  Charles  £.  and  Milo  F.  Cornish,  settlers  in 
section  34  of  this  township,  coming  from  southern  Minnesota. 


AITKIN  COUNTY  15 

Davidson  is  for  A.  D.  Davidson,  senior  partner  in  the  Davidson  and 
McRae  Stock  Farm  Company,  of  Duluth,  and  later  of  Winnipeg,  owners 
of  numerous  tracts  of  land  in  this  township.  He  died  in  Rochester, 
Minn.,  April,  1916. 

Dick  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Miss  Mildred  Dick,  assistant 
in  the  office  of  the  county  auditor. 

EsQUAGAMAH  townshjp  derived  its  name  from  Esquagamah  lake, 
crossed  by  its  east  side.  This  is  an  Ojibway  name,  meaning  the  last 
lake,  given  to  it  as  the  last  and  most  western  in  a  series  of  three  lakes 
lying  mainly  in  Waukenabo  township,  which  is  named  for  the  most  eastern 
of  these  lakes. 

Farm  Island  township  is  from  its  lake  of  this  name,  having  an  island 
of  29  acres,  on  which  the  Ojibways  formerly  had  large  cultivated  fields. 

Fleming  township  has  Fleming  lake,  in  section  22,  named  for  an  early 
settler  there. 

Glen  bears  a  euphonious  name  selected  by  its  settlers  at  the  time  of 
the  township  organization. 

Haugen  township  is  named  in  honor  of  Christopher  G.  Haugen. 
former  sheriff  of  this  county. 

Hazelton  is  for  Cutler  J.  Hazelton,  a  former  county  commissioner 
whose  homestead  was  on  Pine  lake  in  this  township.  Cutler  post  office, 
on  the  south  side  of  this  lake,  was  also  named  for  him. 

Nichols  post  office,  beside  Mille  Lacs  in  the  southwest  corner  of 
Hazelton,  was  named  for  Austin  R.  Nichols,  its  postmaster,  who  settled 
there  in  1879.  A  biographic  sketch  is  given  under  the  city  of  Austin, 
Mower  county,  also  named  in  his  honor. 

Hebron  township  was  doubtless  named  by  settlers  coming  from  a 
town  of  this  name  in  some  eastern  state.  The  original  Hebron  is  a  very 
ancient  town  in  Palestine. 

Hill  Lake  township,  and  its  village,  named  Hill  City,  as  also  its  Hill 
lake,  are  all  so  designated  from  the  prominent  hill  of  morainic  drift  in 
section  25.  This  is  the  culminating  point  of  a  very  knolly  and  broken 
tract  of  the  same  moraine  extending  into  the  adjoining  sections,  to  which 
locality,  and  especially  to  its  highest  part,  the  Ojibways  applied  the  name 
Pikwadina  (or  Piquadinaw),  "it  is  hilly."  Hence  came  the  common  name 
"Poquodenaw  mountain,"  used  by  the  lumbermen  and  given  to  this  hill 
on  the  map  of  Aitkin  county  in  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey. 

Idun  township  is  named  for  a  place  in  Sweden. 

Jevne  township  bears  the  surname  of  a  Scandinavian  family  early 
settling  there. 

Jewett  township  honors  D.  M.  Jewett,  a  pioneer  in  section  20. 

Kimberly  township  was  named  from  its  station  established  when  the 
Northern  Pacific  railroad  was  built  in  1870,  in  honor  "of  Moses  C.  Kim- 
berly, of  St.  Paul.  He  was  born  in  Sandisfield,  Mass.,  December  1,  1845 ; 
came  to  Minnesota  in  1870,  as  a  surveyor  and  engineer  for  this  railroad; 
was  during  many  years  its  general  superintendent. 


16  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Lakeside  township  is  at  the  east  side  of  Mille  Lacs. 

Lee  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Olaf  Lee,  a  pioneer  Norwegian 
farmer  in  section  18, 

Le  May  township  was  named  for  Frank  Le  May,  one  of  the  first  set- 
tlers. 

LiBBY  township  is  for  Mark  Libby,  who  long  ago  was  a  fur  trader 
chere  with  the  Indians,  on  the  outlet  of  Sandy  lake. 

Logan  township  was  named  for  the  long  and  narrow  lakes,  often 
shaped  like  a  horseshoe  or  ox-bow,  which  lie  in  abandoned  parts  of  the 
€^d  channels  of  the  Mississippi,  occurring  frequently  in  this  and  other 
townships.  For  these  lakes  of  the  alluvial  land  adjoining  the  river  the 
name  *1ogans"  has  been  in  common  use  in  Aitkin  county  during  the  fifty 
years  or  more  since  the  region  was  first  invaded  by  lumbermen.  (Geology 
of  Minn.,  vol.  IV,  pages  26-27.) 

McGregor  township  was  named  after  the  station  and  village  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  railroad  in  section  31,  which  also  became  a  station  and 
junction  of  the  Soo  line. 

Macville  township  is  for  pioneer  Scotch  settlers  there  named  McAninch 
and  McPheters. 

Malmo  township,  is  named  for  the  large  city  of  Malmo  in  southern 
Sweden,  on  the  Sound  opposite  to  Copenhagen. 

MiLLWARD  township  was  named  for  one  of  its  early  settlers. 

Morrison  township  was  named  for  Edward  Morrison,  one  of  its 
pioneer  farmers. 

NoRDLAND  township  bears  the  name  of  a  large  district  in  northern 
Norway. 

Pliny  township  has  the  name  of  a  celebrated  naturalist  of  ancient 
Rome. 

QuADNA  (each  syllable  having  the  sound  of  a  in  fall)  is  shortened  from 
the  earlier  name  of  Piquadinaw,  first  given  to  this  township  on  account 
of  its  tracts  of  knoUy  and  hilly  drift  extending  eastward  from  the  high 
hill  so  named  by  the  Ojibways,  as  before  mentioned,  in  Hill  Lake  township. 

Rice  River  township  received  its  name  from  its  being  crossed  by  the 
head  streams  of  the  Rice  river,  named,  like  the  large  Rice  lake,  from  wild 
rice  (Zizania  aquatica),  which  was  harvested  by  the  Indians  as  a  very 
valuable  natural  food  supply. 

Salo  township  was  named  by  its  Finn  settlers  for  a  town  in  south- 
western Finland. 

Seavey  township  was  named  for  a  family  residing  in  Aitkin,  one  of 
whom,  Frank  E.  Seavey,  has  been  during  many  years  the  clerk  of  the 
county  court. 

Shamrock  was  named  by  Irish  settlers  for  the  trifoliate  plant  long 
ago  chosen  as  the  national  emblem  of  Ireland. 

Shovel  Lake  township  and  its  railway  station  were  named  for  Shovel 
lake,  crossed  by  the  south  line  of  the  township. 


AITKIN  COUNTY  17 

Spalding  township  was  named  in  honor  of  John  L.  Spalding,  former 
treasurer  of  this  county. 

Spencer  township  is  for  William  Spencer,  who  was  a  druggist  in 
Aitkin,  but  removed  to  Texas. 

Tamarack  is  a  village  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad  in  Clark  town- 
ship. 

Turner  township  is  for  L.  E.  Turner,  formerly  a  county  commissioner. 

Verdon  township  and  post  office  were  named  for  Verdon  Wells,  son  of 
t£.  B.  Wells,  the  postmaster. 

Wagner  township  was  named  for  a  former  assistant  in  the  office  of 
the  county  register  of  deeds,  Bessie  Wagner,  who  now  is  Mrs.  Hammond, 
living  in  Montana. 

Waukenabo  township  (accented  on  the  syllable  next  to  the  last,  with 
the  sound  of  ah)  has  the  Ojibway  name  of  the  eastern  one  of  its  series 
of  three  lakes.  Gilfillan  wrote  it  with  a  somewhat  different  spelling: 
"^akonabo  sagaiigun,  the  lake  of  the  broth  of  wakwug  or  fish  milt,  or 
eggs-broth  lake;  or  Broth-of-moss-growing-on-rocks-or-trees  lake.  The 
Indians  use  the  latter  in  case  of  starvation.  Both  the  above  explanations 
are  given  by  different  Indians." 

Wealthwood  is  a  name  proposed  by  Mrs.  Daniel  J.  Knox,  of-  Aitkin, 
for  the  lakeside  summer  resort  platted  in  section  20  of  this  fractional 
township,  which  previously  was  a  part  of  Nordland. 

White  Elk  township  bears  the  name  of  the  lake  crossed  by  its  east 
line,  translated  from  its  Ojibway  name. 

Williams  township  was  named  in  honor  of  George  T.  Williams,  of 
Aitkin,  who  during  many  years  was  the  county  judge  of  probate. 

Workman  township  is  thought  to  be  named  for  a  pioneer  settler  there, 
who  later  removed  from  the  county. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Nicollet's  map,  published  in  1843,  gives  the  following  names  of  lakes 
4nd  streams  partly  or  wholly  within  the  area  of  Aitkin  county,  as  they 
have  since  continued  in  use:  the  Mississippi  river.  Willow  and  Little 
Willow  rivers.  West  and  East  Savanna  rivers.  Lake  Aitkin,  Sandy  lake, 
jind  Mille  Lacs. 

Other  names  which  survive  with  slight  changes  from  that  map  are 
Prairie  river,  tributary  to  the  West  Savanna,  called  Little  Prairie  river 
by  Nicollet;  Mud  lake  and  river,  tributary  to  the  Mississippi  at  Aitkin, 
which  were  called  Muddy  lakes  and  river ;  and  Cedar  lake,  Nicollet's  Red 
Cedar  lake,  which  Pike  in  1805-06  called  the  Lower  Red  Cedar  lake  (to 
distinguish  it  from  the  Upper  Red  Cedar  lake,  far  up  the  Mississippi, 
renamed  in  1820  Lake  Cassina,  now  Cass  lake). 

The  very  elaborate  "Historico-Geographical  Chart  of  the  Upper  Mis- 
sissippi River,"  published  by  Dr.  Elliott  Coues  in  1895  with  his  annotated 
edition  of  Pike's  Expeditions,  includes  interesting  notes  of  successive 
geographic  names  and  their  dates  in  Aitkin  county. 


18  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Willow  river  was  called  Alder  river  by  Schoolcraft  in  1820  and  like- 
wise in  1855.  It  flows  through  a  nearly  level  and  largely  swampy  area, 
which  bears  abundant  willows  and  alders.  Its  O  jib  way  name  is  translated 
Willow  river  by  GilflUan. 

West  Savanna  river  was  so  called  in  1820  by  Schoolcraft  The  Savanna 
rivers,  West  and  East,  retain  these  names  as  given  by  the  early  French 
voyageurs;  but  this  word,  nearly  equivalent  to  prairie,  was  originally 
of  American  origin.  It  was  a  Carib  word,  and  was  introduced  into  Euro- 
pean languages  by  Spanish  writers  near  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  By  the  Ojibways  the  East  Savanna  river  was  named  Mushki- 
gonigumi  sibi,  "the  marsh-portage  river,"  having  reference  to  the  very 
marshy  portage  made  on  this  much  used  canoe  route  in  passing  to  the 
West  Savanna  river  and  Sandy  lake. 

The  early  French  name  of  Sandy  lake  was  Lac  au  Sable  or  du  Sable. 
The  French  and  English  alike  translated  it  from  the  Ojibway  name, 
recorded  by  both  Gilfillan  and  Verwyst  as  Ga-mitawangagumag  Sagaiigun, 
*Hhe-place-of-bare-sand  lake."  The  Northwest  Company  established  a 
trading  post  on  the  west  shore  of  this  lake  in  1794,  which  was  visited  by 
David  Thompson  in  1798  and  by  Pike  in  January,  1806;  but  before  the 
time  of  Aitkin's  taking  charge  there  in  1831  the  old  post  had  been  aban- 
doned for  a  new  site  at  the  mouth  of  the  outlet  of  Sandy  lake,  on  the 
narrow  point  between  the  outlet  and  the  Mississippi  river. 

Rice  river  and  its  tributary  Rice  lake  (named  Lake  Dodge  by  Nicollet, 
probably  for  Governor  Henry  Dodge  of  Wisconsin),  also  another  Rice 
lake,  of  very  irregular  outline,  lying  close  south  of  Sandy  lake,  received 
their  names,  as  before  noted  in  connection  with  Rice  River  township,  from 
their  large  and  valuable  supplies  of  the  excellent  native  grain  called  wild 
rice.  The  Ojibway  name  of  the  wild  rice,  Manomin,  is  applied  to  this 
stream  on  Nicollet's  map,  in  the  common  form  of  its  spelling  as  given  in 
Baraga's  Dictionary.  Another  form  is  Mahnomen,  given  to  a  county  of 
this  state.  Its  French  translation  is  FoUe  Avoine,  meaning  in  our  lan^ 
guage  "false  or  fool  oat,"  nearly  like  the  name,  "Wild  Oats  river,"  used 
for  this  Rice  river  by  Beltrami  in  1823. 

White  Elk  brook  or  creek,  like  the  township  of  this  name,  is  so  called, 
in  the  Ojibway  usage,  for  the  lake  of  its  source. 

Moose  river,  tributary  to  Willow  river,  is  translated  from  its  Ojibway 
name,  given  by  Gilfillan  as  Moz-oshtigwani  sibi,  Moosehead  river.  It 
receives  the  outflow  of  several  small  lakes,  of  which  the  most  eastern, 
called  Moose  lake,  in  Macville,  has  been  mainly  drained. 

Little  Willow  river  is  named,  like  the  larger  stream  that  often  is  called 
Big  Willow  river,  for  its  plentiful  willows. 

Sisabagama  lake  (accented  on  the  middle  syllable,  with  the  long  vowel 
sound)  and  the  outflowing  creek  or  river  of  the  same  name,  close  east 
of  Aitkin,  have  had  various  spellings.  Gilfillan  spelled  and  defined  this 
Ojibway  name  as  Sesabeguma  lake,  "Every- which -way  lake,  or  the  lake 


AITKIN  COUNTY  19 

which  has  arms  running  in  all  directions";  but  such  description  is  not 
applicable  to  this  lake,  unless  it  be  considered  to  include  the  group  of 
several  neighboring  lakes  which  together  are  tributary  to  this  stream.  * 

Snake  and  Little  Snake  rivers,  having  their  sources  in  the  southeast 
part  of  Aitkin  county  and  flowing  south  into  Kanabec  county,  are  trans- 
lations from  their  Ojibway  names,  as  is  noted  in  the  chapter  on  that 
county,  which  bears  the  aboriginal  name  of  the  Snake  river. 

Cowan's  brook,  in  Williams  township,  tributary  to  the  Snake  river,  was 
named  for  an  early  lumberman  there. 

Pine  lake  and  Big  Pine  lake,  in  Wagner,  the  latter  extending  east  into 
Pine  county,  gave  their  name  to  the  outflowing  Pine  river.  These  lakes 
and  great  areas  around  them,  in  both  Aitkin  and  Pine  counties,  originally 
had  majestic  white  pine  forests. 

Dam  lake  and  brook,  in  Kimberly,  received  this  name  from  the  low, 
ice-formed  ridges  of  gravel  and  sand  on  the  shores  of  this  lake,  especially 
at  its  mouth. 

Sandy  river,  flowing  west  and  then  north  into  the  lake  of  this  name 
and  outflowing  by  a  very  crooked  course  of  more  than  two  miles,  though 
its  junction  with  the  Mississippi  is  only  about  a  half  mile  from  the  lake, 
follows  the  Indian  rule  of  nomenclature,  that  a  lake  gives  its  name  to  the 
stream  flowing  through  it  or  from  it. 

Prairie  river,  like  the  West  Savanna  river,  which  unites  with  it, 
received  its  name  from  its  small  open  spaces  of  grassy  and  bushy  land 
without  trees,  in  this  generally  wooded  region. 

Savanna  lake,  adjoining  the  old  portage  of  the  fur  traders,  and  the 
Lower  Savanna  lake,  through  which  their  canoes  passed  to  Sandy  lake, 
also  have  reference  to  such  small  savannas,  which  are  more  commonly 
called  prairies  excepting  in  the  southern  states. 

Tamarack  river,  flowing  into  Prairie  river,  was  named  for  its  plentiful 
growth  of  the  tamarack,  a  very  graceful  species  of  our  coniferous  trees 
(the  only  one  that  is  not  evergreen). 

Aitkin  lake,  in  sections  19  and  20,  Turner,  was  named  like  this  county 
for  William  A.  Aitkin,  the  fur  trader,  who  very  probably  often  fished  aixl 
hunted  there. 

Bald  Bluff  lake  lies  at  the  southern  base  of  the  hill  of  this  name. 

Birch  lake,  in  section  19,  Hazelton,  is  named  for  its  yellow  and  paper 
birches,  the  latter  being  the  species  used  for  the  Indian's  bark  canoe. 

Blind  lake,  in  T.  48,  R.  27,  is  mainly  inclosed  by  a  large  swamp  and 
has  no  outlet,  as  its  name  implies. 

Cedar  lake,  before  mentioned,  was  named  from  the  red  cedars  whicli 
in  scanty  numbers  are  found  on  its  hilly  shores  and  islands. 

Gear  lake,  in  sections  28  and  33,  Glen,  is  exceptionally  beautiful,  with 
very  clear  water  and  inclosed  by  high  shores. 

Elm  Island  Ul^e,  at  the  center  of  Nordland,  has  a  small  island  bearing 
elm  trees. 


20  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Farm  Island  lake  gave  its  name  to  that  township,  in  allusion  to  the 
farming  by  Ojibways.  The  outflowing  Mud  river  passes  in  the  next  two 
miles  through  Pine,  Hickory,  and  Spirit  lakes,  which  in  the  latest  atlas 
are  shown  to  be  connected  by  straits,  so  that  they  might  be  termed  a  series 
of  three  bays  continuous  with  the  first  named  large  lake. 

Fleming,  French,  Jenkins,  and  Wilkins  lakes,  in  Fleming  township, 
are  probably  named  for  early  settlers,  trappers  and  hunters,  or  lumbermen. 
A  larger  lake  of  this  group,  now  named  Gun  lake,  was  formerly  called 
Lake  Manomin  (i.  e..  Wild  Rice). 

Hanging  Kettle  lake,  translated  from  its  Ojibway  name,  in  sections 
13  and  14,  Farm  Island  township,  is  connected  eastward  by  straits  with 
Diamond  and  Mud  lakes. 

Horseshoe  lake,  in  sections  23  and  24,  Shamrock,  is  named  for  its 
curved  shape. 

Island  lake,  in  sections  11  to  14,  Turner,  has  a  large  central  island. 

Lone  lake,  in  sections  29  and  30,  Nordland,  has  no  visible  outlet ;  but  it 
probably  supplies  the  water  of  large  chalybeate  springs  which  issue  close 
south  of  the  road  near  the  middle  of  the  south  side  of  Mud  lake. 

Mallard  lake,  in  section  2,  Hazelton,  formerly  called  Rice  lake,  is 
named  for  its  mallard  ducks. 

Nelson  and  Douglas  lakes,  section  23,  Clark,  now  drained  away,  were 
named  for  M.  Nelson  and  £.  Douglas,  owners  of  adjoining  lands. 

The  name  of  Nord  lake,  in  Nordland,  is  of  similar  origin  with  the 
township  name,  meaning  north  and  given  by  Norwegian  settlers. 

Pine  lake,  named  for  its  pine  woods,  in  Hazelton  township,  was  earlier 
known  as  Hazelton  lake  or  Echo  lake. 

Portage  lake,  section  6,  Davidson,  was  at  the  end  of  a  portage  on  a 
former  canoe  route. 

Rabbit  lake,  in  Glen  township,  has  high  shores  of  irregular  outlines, 
an  excellent  hunting  ground. 

Rat  lake,  in  Workman,  and  Rat  House  lake,  in  sections  26  and  35, 
Cornish,  are  named  for  their  muskrats. 

Sugar  lake,  in  Malmo,  is  named  for  its  sugar  maple  trees,  this  species 
having  been  much  used  by  the  Ojibways  for  sugar-making. 

Twenty  lake,  in  Malmo,  is  named  from  the  number  of  its  section. 

Vladimirof  lake,  mainly  in  section  10,  Nordland,  was  formerly  known 
as  Section  Ten  lake,  but  has  been  renamed  for  a  settler  who  owns  lands 
close  north  and  east  of  the  lake. 

This  county  also  has  the  following  names  of  lakes,  which  are  of  fre- 
quent occurrence  elsewhere. 

Bass  lake,  in  section  28,  Aitkin;  another  of  this  name  in  section  10, 
Farm  Island  (lately  renamed  as  Hammallake)  ;  and  a  third  Bass  lake 
in  section  19,  Turner. 

Long  lake,  in  Glen  township. 


AITKIN  COUNTY  21 

Mud  lake,  in  Nordland;  another  in  the  north  part  of  Logan;  and  a 
third  and  fourth  in  section  10,  McGregor,  and  sections  14  and  23,  White 
Elk. 

Otter  lake,  in  section  34,  LeMay;  and  another  in  section  9,  Logan. 

Pickerel  lake,  in  section  27,  Aitkin. 

Round  lake,  in  section  31,  Hazelton ;  another  in  Jevne ;  a  third,  crossed 
by  the  line  between  Haugen  and  Shamrock;  and  a  fourth  between  Wau- 
kenabo  and  Esquagamah  lakes. 

Glacial  Lake  Aitkin. 

In  the  village  of  Aitkin  and  westward  a  beach  ridge  of  gravel  and  sand, 
having  a  height  of  three  to  five  feet,  marks  the  south  shore  of  a  glacial 
lake  which  existed  during  a  geologically  very  short  time  in  the  broad 
and  shallow  depression  of  this  part  of  the  Mississippi  valley.  It  was  first 
described  and  mapped  by  the  present  writer  in  Volume  IV  of  the  Final 
Report  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Minnesota,  published  in  1899,  being 
then  known  to  extend  from  the  edge  of  Crow  Wing  county  eastward  and 
northward  in  Aitkin,  Spencer,  and  Morrison  townships. 

Later  and  more  detailed  examinations,  by  Leverett  and  Sardeson,  show 
that  this  glacial  lake  reached  northward  along  the  Mississippi  to  the  mouth 
of  Swan  river,  in  the  north  edge  of  Aitkin  county  (Bulletin  No.  13, 
Minnesota  Geological  Survey,  published  in  1917).  The  length  of  Glacial 
Lake  Aitkin  was  about  fifty  miles,  but  it  had  only  a  slight  depth  of  water, 
nowhere  exceeding  twenty  feet,  above  the  Mississippi,  Willow,  and  Rice 
rivers,  and  above  the  Sandy  river  and  lake. 


ANOKA  COUNTY 

The  name  of  this  county,  established  May  23,  1857,  was  taken  from  the 
town  of  Anoka,  which  was  first  settled  in  1851-52  and  was  named  in  1853. 
It  is  a  Dakota  or  Sioux  word,  meaning,  as  Prof.  A.  W.  Williamson  wrote, 
"on  both  sides ;  applied  by  founders  to  the  city  laid  out  on  both  sides  of 
Rum  river,  and  since  applied  to  the  county,"  of  which  this  city  is  the 
county  seat.  Rev.  Moses  N.  Adams,  who  came  as  a  missionary  to  the 
Sioux  in  1848  and  learned  their  language,  stated  that,  as  a  Sioux  word, 
Anoka  means  "the  other  side,  or  both  sides." 

According  to  the  late  R.  I.  Holcombe  and  others,  including  Albert  M. 
Goodrich,  the  historian  of  this  county,  the  Ojibways  also  sometimes  used 
a  name  of  nearly  the  same  sound  for  the  Rum  river  and  for  the  site  of 
Anoka  near  its  mouth,  meaning  "where  they  work,"  on  account  of  the 
extensive  early  lumbering  and  logHdriving  on  this  stream.  The  Ojibway 
verb,  "I  work,"  is  Anoki,  as  given  in  Baraga's  Dictionary,  with  many 
inflected  forms  and  compound  words  from  this  root,  all  referring  to  work 
in  some  way  as  their  central  thought. 

But  the  selection  of  the  name  Anoka  had  reference  only  to  its  use  by 
the  Dakota  or  Sioux  people,  whose  language  is  wholly  unlike  that  of 
the  Ojibways.  A  newspaper  article  on  this  subject,  written  in  1873  by 
L.  M.  Ford,  is  quoted  by  Goodrich,  as  follows :  "The  name  for  the  new 
town  was  a  topic  of  no  little  interest,  ^nd  the  writer  had  something  to 
do  in  its  selection.  It  was  decided  to  give  it  an  Indian  name.  The 
Dakota  Lexicon,  just  published,  and  of  which  I  was  the  owner  of  a  copy, 
was  not  infrequently  consulted  and  at  length  the  euphonious  name  Anoka 
was  decided  upon.  ...  It  was  said  to  mean  'on  both  sides,'  when 
rendered  into  less  musical  English,  and  to  this  day  the  name  is  by  no 
means  inappropriate,  as  the  town  is  growing  up  and  extending  on  either 
side  of  the  beautiful  but  badly  named  river." 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  for  this  county  has  been  gathered  from  the  "History  of 
the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley,"  1881,  in  which  Anoka  county  and  its  civil 
divisions  are  treated  in  pages  222-293;  from  the  "History  of  Anoka 
county  and  the  Towns  of  Champlin  and  Dayton  in  Hennepin  County," 
320  pages,  1905,  by  Albert  M.  Goodrich;  and  from  Charles  W.  Lenfest, 
county  treasurer,  Frank  Hart,  clerk  of  the  court,  and  Clarence  D.  Green, 
real  estate  agent,  during  a  visit  to  Anoka  in  October,  1916. 

Anoka  was  founded  by  Orrin  W.  Rice,  Neal  D.  Shaw,  and  others,  by 
whom  its  name  was  adopted  in  May,  1853.  The  "City  of  Anoka"  was 
incorporated  by  the  state  legislature  July  29,  1858,  and  later  the  "Borough 

22 


ANOKA  COUNTY  23 

of  Anoka/'  March  5,  1869,  but  both  these  acts  failed  of  acceptance  by  the 
vote  of  the  township.  Finally,  under  a  legislative  act  of  March  2,  1878, 
this  city  was  set  off  from  the  township  of  the  same  name,  the  first  city 
election  being  held  on  March  12. 

Bethel  was  first  settled  in  1856  by  Quakers,  and  was  organized  the 
next  year.  Its  name  is  from  ancient  Palestine,  meaning  "House  of  God," 
and  was  selected  for  this  township  by  Moses  Twitchell,  who  settled  here 
as  an  immigrant  from  Bethel,  Maine. 

Blaine  township,  settled  in  1862,  was  the  east  part  of  Anoka  until 
1877,  when  it  was  separately  organized  and  was  named  in  honor  of  James 
Gillespie  Blaine,  a  prominent  Republican  statesman  of  Maine.  He  was 
born  in  Pennsylvania,  Jan.  31,  1830,  and  died  in  Washington,  D.  C,  Jan. 
27,  1893;  was  a  member  of  Congress  from  Maine,  1863-76,  being  the 
speaker  in  1869-75 ;  U.  S.  senator,  1876-81 ;  and  secretary  of  state,  March 
to  December,  1881,  and  1889-92.  In  the  presidential  campaign  of  1884 
he  was  an  unsuccessful  candidate.  He  wrote  "Twenty  Years  of  Con- 
gress," published  in  1884-86. 

Burns  township,  settled  in  1854  or  earlier,  was  a  part  of  St.  Francis 
until  1869,  being  then  organized  and  named,  probably  for  the  celebrated 
poet.  This  name  was  adopted  on  the  suggestion  of  James  Kelsey,  who 
was  elected  the  first  township  treasurer. 

Centerville,  settled  in  1850-52,  was  organized  in  1857.  Its  village  of 
this  name,  thence  given  to  the  township,  was  platted  in  the  spring  of 
1854,  having  a  central  situation  between  the  Mississippi  and  St.  Croix 
rivers.  The  settlers  in  the  village  and  vicinity  were  mostly  French,  and 
this  came  to  be  known  as  the  French  settlement,  while  numerous  Ger- 
man settlers  in  the  western  part  of  the  township  caused  that  to  be  called 
the  German  settlement. 

The  village  of  Columbia  Heights,  a  suburb  of  Minneapolis,  in  the 
south  edge  of  Fridley  tonwship,  was  platted  and  named  by  the  late 
Thomas  Lowry  of  that  city. 

Columbus  township,  settled  in  1855  and  organized  in  1857,  was  named 
for  Christopher  Columbus. 

Fridley,  a  fractional  township  comprising  only  about  sixteen  square 
miles,  was  established  by  legislative  act  as  Manomin  county  (meaning 
Wild  Rice),  on  the  same  date,  May  23,  1857,  with  the  establishment  of 
Anoka  county.  "John  Banfil  settled  in  what  is  now  Fridley  in  1847,  and 
kept  a  stopping  place  for  the  accommodation  of  travelers.  Two  years 
later  Henry  M.  Rice  acquired  considerable  land  and  built  a  country  resi- 
dence at  Cold  Springs,  giving  his  name  to  the  creek  which  fk>ws  through 
the  town.  ...  A  ferry  across  the  Mississippi  river  was  established  about 
1854."  (Goodrich,  pages  162-3).  This  very  small  county  continued 
nearly  thirteen  years,  until  in  1869-70  it  was  united  with  Anoka  county 
as  Manomin  township.    The  name  was  changed  to  Fridley  in  1879. 

Abram  McCormick  Fridley,  in  whose  honor  this  township  received  its 
name,  was  born  in  Steuben  county,  N.  Y.,  May  1,  1817;  came  to  Long 


24  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Prairie,  Minn.,  in  1851  as  agent  for  the  Winnebago  Indians;  was  after- 
ward a  farmer  in  this  township,  and  in  1869  opened  a  large  farm  in 
Becker,  Sherburne  county;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in 
1855,  1869-71,  and  1879.    He  died  in  Fridley  township,  March,  1888. 

Grow  township,  settled  about  1853,  was  organized  in  1857  with  the 
name  Round  Lake,  which  in  1859  was  changed  to  Grow,  in  honor  of 
Galusha  Aaron  Grow,  of  Pennsylvania.  He  was  born  in  1823,  and  died  in 
1907;  was  a  member  of  Congress,  1851-63,  and  again  in  18^-1902;  was 
the  speaker  of  the  House,  1861-3.  "For  ten  years,  at  the  beginning  of 
each  Congress,  he  introduced  in  the  House  a  free  homestead  bill,  until 
it  became  a  law  in  1862."  This  grand  public  service  has  caused  him  to  be 
remembered  gratefully  by  millions  of  homesteaders. 

Ham  Lake  township,  settled  in  1857,  was  attached  to  Grow  township 
till  1871,  when  it  was  separately  organized.  It  had  been  previously  called 
Glengarry,  a  name  from  Scotland,  which  its  Swedish  settlers  found  diffi- 
cult to  pronounce.  The  county  commissioners  therefore  named  the  new 
township  Ham  Lake,  from  its  lake  in  sections  16  and  17,  which  had  ac- 
quired this  name  on  account  of  its  form. 

LiNwooD  township,  first  settled  in  1855  and  organized  in  1871,  received 
its  name  from  Linwood  lake,  the  largest  and  most  attractive  one  in  a 
series  or  chain  of  ten  or  more  lakes  extending  from  northeast  to  south- 
west through  this  township  and  onward  to  Ham  lake.  The  name  doubt- 
less refers  to  the  lin  tree  or  linden.  Our  American  species  (Tilia  Ameri- 
cana), usually  called  basswood,  is  abundant  here,  and  is  common  or  fre- 
quent through  nearly  all  this  state. 

Oak  Grove  township,  settled  in  1855,  was  organized  in  1857.  "The 
name  is  derived  from  the  profuse  growth  of  oak  trees,  which  are  about 
equally  distributed  over  the  township."  (Upper  Mississippi  Valley,  page 
285). 

Ramsey,  first  permanently  settled  in  1850,  was  organized  in  1857, 
being  then  named  Watertown ;  but  in  November,  1858,  this  township  was 
renamed  in  honor  of  Alexander  Ramsey,  the  first  governor  of  Minnesota 
Territory,  1849-53,  and  later  the  second  governor  of  this  state,  1860-63. 

Itasca  was  the  name  given  by  Governor  Ramsey  and  others  to  a  town- 
site  platted  in  1852  on  sections  19  and  30  in  this  township,  near  an  Indian 
trading  post;  and  the  first  postoffice  of  Anoka  county  was  established 
there  and  named  Itasca  in  May  of  that  year.  The  name  was  copied  from 
Lake  Itasca,  at  the  head  of  the  Mississippi,  which  had  been  so  named 
by  Schoolctaft  in  1832.  It  was  later  applied  during  many  years,  after 
the  building  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad  through  this  county,  to  its 
station  near  the  former  Itasca  village  site.  Both  the  village  and  the  rail- 
way station  have  been  abandoned,  but  a  new  station,  named  Dayton,  for 
the  village  of  Dayton  at  the  opposite  side  of  the  Mississippi,  has  been 
established  on  the  Northern  Pacific  and  Great  Northern  railways  about  a 
mile  southeast  from  the  former  lusca  station.    This  old  village  name. 


ANOKA  COUNTY  25 

which  became  widely  known  sixty  years  ago,  is  now  retained  here  only 
by  the  neighboring  Lake  Itasca,  of  small  size,  scarcely  exceeding  a  half 
mile  in  diameter. 

St.  FRANas  township,  settled  in  1855  and  organized  in  1857,  bears  the 
name  given  by  Hennepin  in  1680  to  the  Rum  river.  It  was  triainsferred 
by  Carver  in  1766  to  the  Elk  river,  and  now  is  borne  by  the  chief  north- 
em  tributary  of  that  river.  The  name  is  in  commemoration  of  St.  Fran- 
cis of  Assisi,  in  Italy,  who  was  born  in  1181  or  1182  and  died  in  1226, 
founder  of  the  Franciscan  order,  to  which  Hennepin  belonged. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Th^  Mississippi  has  been  considered  in  the  first  chapter ;  and  the  origin 
of  the  name  Rum  river,  outflowing  from  Mille  Lacs,  is  noted  for  Mille 
Lacs  county. 

A  noteworthy  series  of  lakes  extends  through  Columbus  and  Cen- 
terville,  including,  in  their  order  from  northeast  to  southwest.  Mud  lake, 
Howard,  Columbia,  Tamarack,  Randeau,  Peltier,  Centerville,  George 
Watch,  Marshan,  Rice  (or  Traverse),  Reshanau,  Baldwin,  and  Golden 
lakes.  The  second  to  the  fifth  of  these  lakes  are  now  much  lowered  or 
wholly  drained  away. 

Peltier  lake  was  named  for  early  settlers,  Charles,  Paul,  and  Oliver 
Peltier,  the  first  of  whom  built  a  sawmill. 

Rice  lake  probably  received  its  name  from  its  wild  rice,  but  Rice 
creek,  flowing  through  this  series  of  lakes,  was  named  for  Hon.  Henry 
M.  Rice,  of  St.  Paul,  United  States  senator,  who  was  an  early  resident  in 
Fridley  township,  as  before  noted.  This  Rice  lake  has  been  also  known 
as  Traverse  lake,  for  F.  W.  Traverse,  living  at  its  northwest  side. 

Golden  lake,  the  most  southwestern  in  the  series,  lying  in  sections  25 
and  36,  Blaine,  was  named  for  John  Golden,  owner  of  land  adjoining  it, 
who  was  one  of  three  brothers,  early  immigrants  to  this  county  from 
Ireland. 

Another  series  of  lakes,  tributary  in  its  northern  part  to  the  Sunrise 
river,  and  at  the  south  to  Coon  creek,  lies  in  Linwood,  Bethel,  and  Ham 
Lake  townships.  This  series  includes,  from  northeast  to  southwest.  Typo 
lake  and  Lake  Martin;  Island  lake,  named  for  its  island;  Linwood  lake, 
giving  its  name  to  the  township;  Boot  lake,  named  from  its  outline; 
Rice  lake,  having  wild  rice;  Coon  lake  and  Little  Coon  lake,  named,  like 
the  creek,  for  raccoons,  formerly  much  hunted  here ;  and  Lake  Netta  and 
Ham  lake,  the  latter,  as  before  noted,  being  named  from  its  form,  and 
giving  name  also  to  its  township. 

Cedar  creek,  and  the  adjoining  Cedar  station  and  village  oi  the  Great 
Northern  railway,  are  named  for  the  white  cedar  or  arbor  vitae,  grow- 
ing there  in  swamps. 

Seeley,  Trott,  and  Ford  brooks,  on  the  west  side  of  Rum  river,  are 
named  for  their  early  settlers. 


"i 


26  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

In  Burns  township,  Norris  lake,  in  section  1,  was  likewise  named  for 
Grafton  Norris;  and  Hare  lake,  in  section  21,  now  drained,  for  James 
U.  Hare,  who  was  formerly  postmaster  of  Nowthen  postoffice,  lately 
discontinued,  near  this  lake.  (It  is  said  that  the  name  of  this  postofiice 
was  recommended  by  Mr.  Hare's  neighbors,  from  his  common  use  of  it, 
"Now  then,"  in  conversation). 

Other  lakes  named  for  pioneer  settlers  are  Minard  lake  and  Jones 
lake,  in  Bethel,  the  latter  (now  drained)  having  been  also  known  as  Lone 
Pine  lake;  Lake  George,  in  Oak  Grove  township;  Bunker  lake  in  section 
36,  Grow  township,  named  for  Kendall  Bunker,  a  homesteader  there ;  and 
Lake  Amelia,  in  section  35,  Centerville. 

The  following  lakes  bear  names  that  occur  somewhat  frequently  in 
many  other  counties : 

Cedar  lake,  in  sections  ZZ  and  34,  Centerville. 

Crooked  lake,  in  section  33,  Grow,  and  section  4,  Anoka. 

Deer  lake,  sections  15  and  22,  Bethel. 

Fish  lake,  in  the  north  part  of  Bethel. 

Goose  lake,  now  drained,  sections  15  and  16,  Burns. 

Grass  lake,  section  11,  Oak  Grove. 

Mud  lake,  in  section  16,  Bethel;  and  another  in  section  13,  Columbus. 

Otter  lake,  sections  35  and  26,  Centerville. 

Pickerel  lake,  mostly  drained,  section  22,  Burns. 

The  two  Rice  lakes,  occurring  in  the  series  before  noted. 

Round  lake,  sections  20  and  29,  Grow. 

Swan  lake,  now  drained,  in  section  25,  Oak  Grove. 

Twin  lake,  section  19,  Bums. 


BECKER  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  March  18,  1858,  but  not  organized  until  thir- 
teen years  later  by  a  legislative  act  approved  March  1,  1871,  was  named 
in  honor  of  George  Loomis  Becker,  of  St.  Paul.  He  was  born  in  Locke, 
Cayuga  county,  N.  Y.,  February  4,  1829 ;  was  graduated  at  the  University 
of  Michigan  in  1846;  studied  law,  came  to  Minnesota  in  1849,  and  began 
law  practice  in  St.  Paul ;  was  mayor  of  this  city  in  1856 ;  was  Democratic 
candidate  for  Governor  of  Minnesota  in  1859;  was  a  state  senator,  18'i8- 
71.  He  was  commonly  called  General  Becker,  having  been  appointed  by 
Governor  Sibley  on  his  military  staff  in  1858,  with  the  rank  of  brigadier 
general.  In  1862  he  became  land  commissioner  of  the  St.  Paul  and 
Pacific  railroad,  and  was  ever  afterward  occupied  in  advancing  the  rail- 
road interests  of  Minnesota,  being  a  member  of  the  state  railroad  and 
warehouse  commission  from  1885  to  1901.  He  died  in  St.  Paul,  January 
6,  1904. 

October  13,  1857,  Mr.  Becker  was  elected  as  one  of  three  members  of 
Congress,  to  which  number  it  was  thought  that  the  new  state  would  be 
entitled.  It  was  afterward  decided,  however,  that  the  state  could  have 
only  two  representatives;  and,  in  casting  lots  for  these  two,  Becker  was 
unsuccessful.  His  generous  acquiescence  was  in  part  rewarded  by  this 
county  name. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  has  been  gathered  from  "A  Pioneer  History  of  Becker 
County,"  by  Alvin  H.  Wilcox,  published  in  1907,  757  pages;  from  H.  S. 
Dahlen,  county  auditor,  George  D.  Hamilton,  editor  of  the  Detroit 
Record,  and  Charles  G.  Sturtevant,  formerly  county  surveyor,  interviewed 
during  a  visit  at  Detroit  in  August,  1909;  and  from  maps  in  the  office 
of  J.  A.  Narum,  county  auditor,  examined  during  a  second  visit  in  Sep- 
tember, 1916. 

Atlanta  township,  settled  in  1871,  was  organized  January  25,  1879, 
being  then  named  Martin,  perhaps  for  Martin  Hanson,  one  of  the  first 
settlers.  Two  months  afterward  it  was  renamed  Atlanta,  "from  the  re- 
semblance its  undulating  surface  bears  to  the  Atlantic  ocean." 

Audubon  township  was  organized  August  19,  1871,  but  was  nimed 
successively  Windom,  Colfax,  and  Oak  Lake,  holding  the  last  of  these 
names  from  1872  until  1881.  The  Northern  Pacific  station  and  village 
to  be  established  here,  also  the  small  lake  adjoining  the  village  site,  had 
received  the  name  Audubon  in  August,  1871,  in  honor  of  John  James 
Audubon  (b.  1780,  d.  1851),  the  great  American  ornithologist,  celebrated 
for  his  pictures  of  birds.    This  name  was  proposed  by  his  niece,  a  mem- 

27 


28  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

ber  of  a  party  of  tourists  who  "camped  where  the  Audubon  depot  now 
stands."  In  January,  1881,  the  township  name  was  changed  to  Audubon, 
and  on  February  23  of  that  year  the  village  was  incorporated. 

BuxLiNGTON,  organized  August  26,  1872,  "was  so  named  from  the  city 
of  Burlington  in  the  state  of  Vermont,  by  Mrs.  E.  L.  Wright,  a  Ver- 
monter^  whose  husband  took  a  leading  part  in  the  organization  of  the 
township." 

Frazee  village,  on  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad  in  this  township,  was 
platted  in  1873,  but  was  not  incorporated  until  1891.  It  was  named  in 
honor  of  Randolph  L.  Frazee,  owner  of  its  lumber  mill.  He  was  bom 
at  Hamden  Junction,  Ohio,  July  3,  1841 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1866,  and 
to  this  place  in  1872;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1875;  re- 
moved in  1890  to  Pelican  Rapids,  and  died  there  June  4,  1906. 

Callaway  township,  organized  March  30,  1906,  is  named  for  William 
R.  Callaway,  of  Minneapolis,  general  passenger  agent  of  the  Soo  rail- 
way, which  had  previously  established  a  station  and  village  of  this  name 
in  section  32. 

Caksonville  township,  organized  September  20,  1881,  was  named  by 
Alvin  H.  Wilcox,  then  county  treasurer,  in  honor  of  George  M.  Carson, 
a  prominent  pioneer,  who  in  June,  1879,  took  a  homestead  in  section  18, 
Osage  (the  east  part  of  Carsonville  till  its  separate  organization  in  1891). 

Cormorant  township,  organized  February  26,  1872,  received  this  name 
from  its  Big  Cormorant  and  Upper  Cormorant  lakes,  which  are  translated 
from  the  Ojibway  names.  Our  species  is  the  double-crested  cormorant, 
which  nests  plentifully  about  these  lakes. 

Cuba,  organized  in  the  winter  of  1871-72,  was  named  for  Cuba,  Alle- 
gany county,  N.  Y.,  the  native  place  of  Charles  W.  Smith,  who  came  as 
one  of  the  first  settlers  of  this  township  in  1871. 

Detroit  township,  settled  in  1868  and  organized  July  29,  1871,  derived 
its  name  from  Detroit  lake,  which,  according  to  the  History  of  Becker 
county,  had  been  so  named  by  a  French  traveler  here,  who  was  a  Catho- 
lic missionary.  Having  camped  for  a  night  on  the  north  shore  of  the 
lake  in  full  view  of  the  kmg  bar  which  stretches  nearly  across  it  and 
leaves  a  strait  (detroit,  in  French)  between  its  two  parts,  he  thence  ap- 
plied this  name  to  the  lake.  It  appeared  on  our  state  maps  in  1860.  The 
Ojibway  name  of  this  lake  refers  also  to  its  strait,  being  translated  by 
Gilfillan  as  "the  lake  in  which  there  is  crossing  on  the  sandy  place."  De- 
troit has  been  the  county  seat  of  Becker  county  from  its  organizatkm  in 
1871 ;  but  during  the  first  year  some  of  the  meetings  of  the  county  com- 
missioners were  held  at  or  near  Oak  lake,  a  few  miles  distant  to  the 
northwest  The  first  village  election  was  held  March  3,  1881;  and  the 
city  charter  was  adopted  February  23,  1903. 

Erie  township,  first  settled  in  1872-3  and  organized  August  18,  1878, 
was  named  for  Erie  county  in  New  York  by  settlers  who  came  from  the 
city  of  Buffalo,  which  is  in  that  county. 


BECKER  COUNTY  29 

Evergreen,  organized  January  4,  1888,  was  named  for  its  abundant 
evergreen  trees,  including  the  pines,  spruce,  balsam  fir,  and  the  red  and 
white  cedars.  It  is  estimated  that  in  1880  this  township  had  "about  five 
million  feet  of  standing  white  pine." 

Grand  Park  township,  organized  July  31,  1892,  was  so  named  for  its 
beautiful  scenery  of  rolling  and  hilly  woodland,  interspersed  with  lakes 
and  traversed  by  the  head  stream  of  the  Red  river. 

Green  Valley,  organized  May  3,  1886,  received  this  name  from  the 
valley  of  Shell  river,  which  crosses  the  northeast  part  of  this  township. 

Hamden  township,  organized  September  19,  1871,  was  named  for  Ham- 
den  in  one  of  the  eastern  states,  this  being  a  town  or  village  name  in 
Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Ohio. 

Height  op  Land  township,  organized  January  26,  1886,  bears  the  name 
of  the  large  lake  crossed  by  its  north  boundary.  The  Red  or  Otter  Tail 
river  flows  through  this  lake,  from  which  a  former  canoe  route  led  east- 
ward to  the  Shell  lake  and  river,  tributary  by  the  Crow  Wing  river  to  the 
Mississippi.  Gilfillan  translated  the  O  jib  way  name,  "Ajawewesitagun 
sagaiigun,  the  lake  where  the  portage  is  across  a  divide  separating  water 
which  runs  diflFerent  ways,  or  Height  of  Land  lake." 

HoLMESviLLE  township,  which  received  its  first  settlers  in  1871  and 
1873,  was  organized  March  19,  1889,  as  East  Richwood ;  but  this  was  soon 
changed  to  the  present  name,  in  honor  of  Elon  G.  Holmes.  He  was  bom 
in  Madison  county,  N.  Y.,  in  1841 ;  served  in  the  26th  New  York  regi- 
ment in  the  civil  war;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1865;  settled  in  Detroit  in 
1872,  and  was  president  of  the  First  National  Bank  there;  was  a  state 
senator,  1887-9. 

Lake  Eunice  township,  settled  in  1870  and  organized  September  3, 
1872,  'Vas  named  by  the  United  States  surveyors  in  honor  of  Eunice 
McGelland,  who  was  the  first  white  woman  to  settle  near  the  lake.  She 
was  the  wife  of  John  McGelland."  (He  was  elected  the  first  clerk  of 
this  township,  and  was  also  the  first  register  of  deeds  of  the  county, 
holding  the  latter  office  six  years). 

Lake  Park  township,  settled  in  1870,  was  organized  September  19, 

1871,  being  then  named  Liberty,  which  was  changed  to  the  present  name 
in  1876.  Its  many  lakes  were  collectively  named  by  the  O  jib  ways,  as 
translated  by  Gilfillan,  "the  lakes  where  there  are  streams,  groves,  prai- 
ries, and  a  beautiful  diversified  park  country." 

The  name  of  Lake  View,  settled  in  1870-71  and  organized  March  12, 

1872,  was  suggested  by  Mrs.  Charles  H.  Sturtevant,  "as  there  were  so 
many  lakes  in  the  township  and  so  many  pretty  views  from  them." 

Osage,  settled  in  1879,  was  united  in  township  government  .with  Car- 
sonville  until  May  4,  1891,  when  it  was  separately  organized,  deriving  this 
name  from  Osage,  the  county  seat  of  Mitchell  county,  Iowa.  It  is  also 
a  geographic  name  in  Arkansas,  Missouri,  Kansas,  and  Oklahoma;  but 
originally  it  was  adopted  for  the  Osage  tribe  of  Indians,  "the  most  im- 


30  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

portant  southern  Skman  tribe  of  the  western  division"  (F.  W.  Hodge, 
Handbook  of  American  Indians). 

RicEViLLE,  organized  in  1912,  derived  its  name  from  the  South  branch 
of  the  Wild  Rice  river,  which  flows  through  the  northwest  part  of  this 
township. 

Rich  WOOD  township,  organized  June  23,  1871,  was  named  from  Rich- 
wood  in  the  Province  of  Ontario,  Canada,  the  native  town  of  W.  W. 
McLeod,  who  settled  on  the  site  of  Richwood  village  in  May,  1871,  being 
one  of  the  owners  of  a  sawmill  there. 

RuNEBERG  township,  settled  in  1882  and  organized  May  24,  1887,  was 
named  in  honor  of  Johan  Ludwig  Runeberg,  the  great  Swedish  poet.  He 
was  bom  at  Jakobstad,  in  Finland,  February  5,  1804;  and  died  at  Borgi, 
near  Helsingf  ors,  May  6,  1877. 

Savannah  township,  organized  October  12,  1901,  was  named  for  its 
several  tracts  of  grassy  meadow  land  along  stream  courses,  "made  in  an 
early  day  by  the  backwater  from  the  dams  of  the  beavers."  (The  Ameri- 
can origin  of  this  word  has  been  noted  for  the  West  Savanna  river  in 
Aitkin  county). 

Shell  Lake  township,  first  settled  in  1881  and  organized  December 
7,  1897,  bears  the  name  of  its  large  lake,  the  source  of  the  Shell  river. 
These  English  names  were  derived  probably  from  the  shells  found  along 
the  shore  of  the  lake.  The  Ojibway  name  means,  as  translated  by  Gil- 
fiUan,  "the  lake  lying  near  the  mountain/'  having  reference  to  the  portage 
thence  across  the  water  divide  to  Height  of  Land  lake. 

SiLVEB  Leaf,  settled  in  1882-83,  was  organized  March  3,  1888,  receiv- 
ing its  name  ''from  the  silvery  appearance  of  the  leaves  of  the  poplar, 
with  which  the  township  abounds." 

Spring  Creek  township,  organized  in  1912,  is  named  for  its  small 
creeks  and  many  springs,  headwaters  of  the  South  branch  of  the  Wild 
Rice  river. 

Spruce  Grove  township,  settled  in  1880,  was  organized  January  19, 
1889.  "As  the  predominant  timber  in  the  town  was  evergreens,  it  was 
called  Spruce  Grove.  The  township  was  heavily  timbered  with  pine 
(five  million  feet),  spruce,  balsam,  oak,  poplar,  birch,  elm,  basswood, 
ironwood,  and  tamarack." 

Toad  Lake  township,  settled  in  1887  and  organized  January  5,  1892, 
received  this  name  from  its  large  lake,  a  translation  from  the  Ojibway 
name,  Mukuki  (or  Omakaki)  sagaiigun.  Thence  also  came  the  name  of 
the  outflowing  Toad  river,  and  of  the  prominent  morainic  drift  hill  in 
section  8,  on  the  west  side  of  this  lake,  called  "Toad  mountain,"  which 
commands  an  extensive  view  of  the  surrounding  country. 

Two  Inlets,  settled  in  1881  and  organized  September  20,  1898,  was 
named  from  Two  Inlets  lake,  in  the  east  part  of  this  township.  It  re- 
ceives two  inflowing  streams  close  together  at  its  north  end,  the  larger 
one  being  the  Fish  Hook  river,  which  flows  through  this  lake. 


BECKER  COUNTY  31 

Walworth  township,  settled  in  1879  and  organized  April  3,  1883,  was 
named  by  Albert  E.  Higbie,  one  of  its  first  pkmeers,  for  Walworth 
county,  Wisconsin.  He  came  from  the  adjoining  Jefiferson  county  in  that 
state. 

White  Earth  township,  organized  March  30,  1906,  was  named  for  its 
village  of  White  Earth,  the  location  of  the  United  States  government 
agency  of  the  White  Earth  Indian  Reservation,  which  lies  in  three  coun- 
ties, Becker,  Mahnomen,  and  Clearwater.  The  removal  of  the  Ojibways 
to  this  reservation  began  in  1868,  the  first  party  coming  to  the  site  of  the 
agency  on  June  14,  which  is  celebrated  there  each  year  as  a  great  anni- 
versary day. 

The  reservation  and  its  agency  were  named  from  White  Earth  lake, 
the  most  beautiful  one  of  the  many  fine  lakes  in  the  reservation,  lying 
about  five  miles  northeast  of  the  agency.  Its  Ojibway  name  is  given  by 
Gilfillan,  "Ga-wababigunikag  sagaiigun,  the-place-of-white-clay  lake,  so 
called  from  the  white  clay  which  crops  out  in  places  at  the  shore  of  the 
lake." 

Ogema  (with  accent  on  the  initial  long  o,  g  as  in  get,  and  a  like  ah), 
meaning  in  the  Ojibway  language  a  chief,  is  the  railway  village  of  this 
township. 

Wolf  Lake  township,  first  settled  in  1888  by  immigrants  from  Finland, 
was  organized  April  4,  1896,  receiving  this  name  from  its  large  lake, 
which  was  so  named  by  the  settlers  on  account  of  its  form.  Many  wolves, 
bears,  and  deer  were  killed  here  during  the  first  years  of  settlement. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  Otter  Tail  or  Red  river,  traversing  this  county,  received  its  name 
from  the  large  Otter  Tail  lake  in  the  next  county  on  the  south,  which  is 
named  from  that  lake  and  the  river,  as  noted  in  its  chapter.  Pelican 
river,  flowing  through  the  Detroit  series  of  lakes  to  Otter  Tail  river,  is 
noted  in  the  same  chapter,  for  Pelican  township  and  the  village  of  Peli- 
can Rapids,  named  like  this  river,  in  translation  of  the  Ojibway  name 
for  Lake  Lida,  which  adjoins  it  and  is  tributary  to  it  in  Otter  Tail  county. 

The  origins  of  the  names  of  several  lakes  of  Becker  county  are  noticed 
in  the  foregoing  list  of  its  townships.  These  are  the  Cormorant  lakes 
in  the  township  of  this  name,  to  which  may  be  added  the  Little  Cor- 
morant lake  in  Audubon  and  Lake  Eunice  townships ;  Detroit  lake.  Height 
of  Land  lake  and  Lake  Eunice ;  the  many  little  lakes  in  Lake  Park  town- 
ship; Shell  lake,  Toad  lake,  Two  Inlets  lake.  White  Earth  lake,  and  Wolf 
lake. 

Elbow  lake,  the  most  northern  in  the  series  through  which  the  Red 
or  Otter  Tail  river  flows,  is  noted  by  Gilfillan  as  a  translation  of  its 
Ojibway  name,  having  reference  to  its  sharply  bent  form.  The  next  lake 
in  this  series  is  Little  Bemidji  lake,  a  mile  long,  this  Ojibway  word  sig- 
nifying a  lake  that  is  crossed  by  a  stream. 


32  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Many  Point  lake  is  translated  from  the  aboriginal  name,  referring 
to  the  many  bays  and  intervening  points  of  the  shore.  Round  lake,  like- 
wise from  the  Ojibway  name,  requires  no  explanation,  being  one  of  our 
most  common  lake  names  throughout  the  state.  The  Upper  and  Lower 
Egg  lakes,  west  of  Round  lake,  and  the  outflowing  Egg  river,  are  again 
translations,  referring  to  nests  and  eggs  of  water-loving  birds. 

Flat  lake  is  another  name  of  Indian  origin,  which  perhaps  should  be 
better  translated  as  Shallow  lake.  Below  the  junction  of  the  Round  Lake 
and  Shallow  Lake  rivers,  as  they  are  named  by  the  Ojibways,  the  Red 
river  passes  through  a  small  lake  in  section  16,  Grand  Park,  which  Gil- 
fillan  translated  as  "the-blackbird-place-of-wild-rice  lake."  It  has  been 
more  simply  anglicized  as  Blackbird  lake. 

West  of  Height  of  Land  lake  are  Pine,  Tamarack,  and  Cotton  lakes, 
the  last  probably  named  for  a  pioneer. 

Other  lakes  whose  Ojibway  names  are  translated  include  Fish  Hook 
lake  (close  west  of  White  Earth  lake).  Big  Rat  lake,  Big  Rush  lake.  Ice 
Cracking,  Green  Water  and  Pine  Point  lakes,  Basswood  lake,  Juggler 
lake.  Lake  of  the  Valley,  Strawberry  lake,  the  Big  and  Little  Sugar  Bush 
lakes  (so  named  for  maple  trees  and  the  making  of  maple  sugar  by  the 
Indians),  and  Tulaby  lake  (named  for  a  species  of  whitef^h,  the  tul- 
libee),  these  being  in  the  White  Earth  Reservation.  Straight  lake  and 
river  are  likewise  translations  from  the  aboriginal  names. 

The  Buffalo  river  received  its  name  from  the  white  people,  for  a 
tributary  having  its  sources  in  Audubon,  which  was  called  by  the  Ojib- 
ways, as  translated,  "Buffalo  river,  from  the  fact  that  buffaloes  were 
always  found  wintering  there."  The  present  Buffalo  lake,  in  the  nomen- 
clature of  these  Indians,  is  "the  lake  where  it  keeps  crumbling  away  from 
the  gnawing  of  beavers ;"  and  they  apply  the  same  name,  as  stated  by  Gil- 
fillan,  to  what  we  call  Buffalo  river,  flowing  into  the  Red  river.  In  a 
word,  therefore,  the  Ojibway  name  in  translation  would  be  Beaver  lake 
and  river. 

Boot  lake,  in  Savannah,  and  Moon  lake,  in  sections  2  and  11,  Rich- 
wood,  are  so  named  for  their  outlines.  Mission  lake,  in  White  Earth, 
is  named  for  the  adjoining  Catholic  mission  and  church. 

The  following  lakes,  in  the  alphabetic  order  of  their  townships,  were 
named  for  settlers  on  or  near  them:  Balke  lake  and  Lake  Tilde,  in  At- 
lanta; Homstad,  McKinstry,  Marshall,  and  Reep  lakes  in  Audubon;  Chil- 
ton and  Pearce  lakes,  in  Burlington;  Anderson  and  Fairbanks  lakes,  in 
Callaway;  Floyd  and  Little  Floyd  lakes,  in  Detroit;  Howe  lake,  in  Erie; 
Collett  lake,  in  Evergreen  township;  Momb's  lake  in  Holmesville;  Boyer 
lake.  Lake  Labelle,  and  Stakke  lake,  in  Lake  Park  township ;  Lake  Abbey, 
Curfman,  Monson,  Reeves,  and  Sauer's  lakes,  in  Lake  View;  Campbell. 
Houg,  and  Sands  lakes,  in  Richwood;  Bisson  and  Trotochaud  lakes,  in 
Riceville;  Lake  Garence,  in  Spring  Creek  township;  and  Du  Forte  and 
Morri9(Mi  lakes,  in  White  Earth. 


BECKER  COUNTY  33 

Several  lakes  in  the  southwest  part  of  this  county  were  named  for  the 
wives  or  daughters  of  pioneer  settlers,  as  Lakes  Sallie  and  Melissa, 
through  which  the  Pelican  river  flows  below  Detroit  lake,  Lake  Eunice 
(giving  name  to  its  township),  Lake  Maud  and  Lake  Ida.  Excepting 
Lake  Eunice,  before  noticed  as  named  for  Mrs.  John  McQelland,  only 
one  other  of  these  has  been  identified  with  its  surname,  this  being  for 
Melissa  Swetland,  one  of  three  daughters  in  the  family  of  a  pioneer  from 
Canada,  well  remembered  by  Miss  Nellie  C.  Childs,  assistant  county  su- 
perintendent of  schools. 

This  county  has  other  lakes  bearing  the  following  names,  for  which 
their  origin  and  significance  have  not  been  ascertained:  Acorn  and  Eagle 
lakes,  in  Burlington;  Brandy  lake  and  St.  Clair  lake,  in  Detroit,  and 
another  St.  Gair  lake  in  sections  13  and  14,  Callaway;  Pearl  lake,  in 
Lake  Eunice  township;  Lake  Forget-me-not,  in  Lake  Park;  Dead  lake 
and  Hungry  lake,  in  Silver  Leaf  township;  Chippewa  lake,  in  Grand 
Park ;  and  Rock  lake,  in  Holmesville. 

Common  lake  names  which  need  no  explanation,  occurring  here,  are 
two  Bass  lakes,  in  the  White  Earth  Reservation;  Long  lake,  in  Detroit; 
Oak  lake,  the  locality  of  an  early  settlement,  between  Detroit  and 
Audubon;  Loon  lake,  in  section  24,  Lake  Eunice  township;  Fox  lake,  in 
section  7,  Lake  View;  Pickerel  lake  and  Perch  lake,  in  Erie,  Island  lake, 
in  Shell  Lake  township;  Mud  lake,  close  south  of  Toad  lake,  another  a 
mile  west  of  Little  Toad  lake,  and  a  third  in  section  2,  Silver  Leaf ;  four 
Rice  lakes,  in  Detroit,  Erie,  Grand  Park,  and  Holmesville;  Round  lake, 
before  noted,  in  the  White  Earth  Reservation,  and  another  in  Holmes- 
ville; Turtle  lake,  in  section  7,  Cormorant;  and  Twin  lakes,  in  sections 
11  to  13,  Height  of  Land. 

Hills. 

In  this  large  county  wholly  overspread  by  the  glacial  and  modified 
drift  deposits,  with  no  outcnop  of  the  underlying  rock  formations,  most 
of  the  surface  is  only  moderately  undulating  or  rolling  and  in  certain 
belts  knolly  and  hilly,  while  other  tracts  in  the  northwest  and  southeast 
parts  of  the  county  have  gentle  and  uniform  slopes  or  are  nearly  level. 

Two  marginal  moraine  hills  of  exceptional  height,  though '  rising  only 
about  150  or  200  feet  above  the  lowest  depressions  near  them,  are  popu- 
larly named  Detroit  mountain,  about  three  miles  east  from  the  city  of 
Detroit,  and  Toad  mountain,  close  west  of  Toad  lake.  The  former  was 
called  by  the  Ojibways,  as  noted  by  Gilfillan,  "Ashiwabiwin,  Looking  out, 
from  the  Sioux  having  been  always  there  on  top  of  the  mountain  looking 
out  for  the  Chippeways." 

Smoky  hill,  in  the  north  edge  of  section  15,  Carsonville,  is  a  steep  hill 
of  gravel  and  sand,  about  200  feet  above  the  mainly  level  surrounding 
country.  It  would  be  called  by  glacial  geologists  a  kame,  having  been 
amassed  where  a  drift-laden  stream  descended  from  the  border  of  the 
melting  and  departing  ice-sheet. 


BELTRAMI  COUNTY 

Thirty  years  intervened  between  the  estaUishment  of  Beltrami  county, 
February  28,  1866,  and  its  organization,  when  its  county  seat  and  earliest 
settlement,  Bemidji,  received  incorporation  as  a  village,  May  20,  1896. 

The  county  name  was  adopted  in  honor  of  Giacomo  Costantino  Bel- 
trami, the  Italian  explorer  in  1823  of  the  most  northern  sources  of  the 
Mississippi  river,  near  the  center  of  the  part  of  this  county  lying  south 
af  Red  lake.  Anglicized,  his  name  was  James  Constantine,  and  on  the 
title-page  of  his  published  works,  relating  his  travels,  it  is  given  by 
initials  as  J.  C  Beltrami.  Except  David  Thompson  in  1798,  he  was  the 
first  explorer  to  supply  descriptions  of  Red  and  Turtle  lakes,  though 
undoubtedly  they  had  been  previously  visited  by  roving  traders  and  their 
canoe  voyagers. 

Beltrami  was  born  at  Bergamo,  Italy,  in  1779.  His  father  advised  him 
to  the  profession  of  the  law,  and  he  held  numerous  official  positions  as 
a  chancellor  and  a  judge;  but  in  1821,  being  accused  of  implication  in 
plots  to  establish  an  Italian  republic,  he  was  exiled. 

After  traveling  in  France,  Germany,  and  England,  Beltrami  sailed 
from  Liverpool  to  Philadelphia,  and  arrived  there  February  21,  1823. 
About  a  month  later  he  reached  Pittsburgh,  there  made  the  acquaintance 
of  Lawrence  Taliaferro,  the  Indian  agent  at  the  new  Fort  St  Anthony 
(two  years  afterward  renamed  Fort  Snelling),  and  traveled  with  him  by 
steamboat  down  the  Ohio  and  up  the  Mississippi,  coming  on  May  10  to 
the  fort 

From  July  9  to  August  7,  Beltrami  traveled  to  Pembina  with  the  ex- 
ploring expedition  of  Major  Long,  to  whom  he  had  been  commended 
by  Snelling  and  Taliaferro.  He  left  that  expedition  at  Pembina,  and  went 
southeastward  along  an  Indian  trail,  with  two  Ojibways  and  a  half-breed 
interpreter,  to  the  junction  of  the  Thief  and  Red  Lake  rivers,  whence  his 
journey  was  by  canoe  up  the  latter  river  to  Red  lake.  From  an  Ojibway 
village  near  the  mouth  of  the  lake,  Beltrami  traveled  with  a  canoe  along 
its  southwestern  shore  to  the  Little  Rock  or  Gravel  river,  where  he 
stopped  at  the  hut  of  a  half-breed,  who  became  his  guide.  August  26 
and  27  were  spent  in  making  long  portages  with  the  half-breed  and  an 
Ojibway,  leaving  the  south  shore  of  Red  lake  a  short  distance  east  from 
the  site  of  the  Agency  and  going  south,  passing  small  lakes  and  coming 
at  last,  by  a  few  miles  of  canoeing,  to  Lake  Puposky,  now  also  called  Mud 
lake.  Proceeding  still  southward  the  next  morning,  Beltrami  soon  came 
to  a  lake  named  by  him,  f^M"  a  deceased  friend,  Lake  Julia,  which  he 
thought  to  have  no  visible  outlet,  .but  to  send  its  waters  by  filtration 
through  the  swampy  ground  both  northward  and  southward,  being  thus 

84 


BELTRAMI  COUNTY  35 

a  source  both  of  the  Red  Lake  river,  called  by  him  Bloody  river,  and  of 
the  Turtle  river,  the  most  northern  affluent  of  the  Mississippi  The  nar- 
rative of  Beltrami  shows  that  he  arrived  at  Lake  Julia  by  a  short  por- 
tage; but  on  the  map  of  the  United  States  land  surveys  it  is  shown  as 
having  an  outlet  into  Mud  lake,  thus  belonging  to  the  Red  river  basin. 

On  September  4  Beltrami  reached  Red  Cedar  lake,  since  known  as 
Cass  lake;  and  during  the  next  three  days  he  voyaged  down  the  Mis- 
sissippi to  the  mouth  of  Leech  Lake  river.  Thence  he  went  up  that  stream 
to  Leech  lake,  where  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Cloudy  Weather,  a 
leader  in  the  band  of  the  Pillager  Ojibways,  by  whom  he  was  accompa- 
nied in  the  long  canoe  voyage  of  return  to  the  Mississippi  and  down  this 
river  to  Fort  St  Anthony. 

The  next  winter  was  spent  by  Beltrami  in  New  Orleans,  where  he 
published  his  narration  in  1824,  written  in  French,  bearing  a  title  which 
in  English  would  be  "The  Discovery  of  the  Sources  of  the  Mississippi 
and  of  the  Bloody  River."  In  1828  he  published  in  London  his  most 
celebrated  work,  entitled  "A  Pilgrimage  in  Europe  and  America,  .leading 
to  the  Discovery  of  the  Sources  of  the  Mississippi  and  Bloody  River; 
with  a  Description  of  the  Whole  Course  of  the  former  and  of  the  Ohio." 
This  work  of  two  volumes  is  cast  in  the  form  of  a  series  of  letters,  ad- 
dressed to  an  Italian  countess.  Eight  letters,  in  pages  126  to  491  of  Vol- 
ume II,  contain  the  account  of  his  travels  in  Minnesota. 

During  his  later  years,  until  1850,  Beltrami  resided  in  various  cities 
of  France,  Germany,  Austria,  and  Italy ;  and  his  last  five  years  were  spent 
on  his  land  estate  at  Filotrano,  near  Macerata,  Italy,  where  he  died  in 
February,  1855. 

The  city  of  Bergamo,  his  birthplace,  in  1865  published  a  volume  of  134 
pages  commemorating  his  life  and  work,  dedicated  to  the  Minnesota 
Historical  Society.  In  translation  from  this  book,  Alfred  J.  Hill  presented 
in  the  second  volume  of  this  society's  Historical  Collections  a  biographic 
sketch  of  Beltrami,  together  with  a  communication  from  Major  Talia- 
ferro, giving  reminiscences  of  him. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  was  received  from  John  Wilmann,  county  auditor,  during 
a  visit  at  Bemidji  in  September,  1909;  and  from  H.  W.  Alsop,  deputy 
auditor,  in  a  second  visit  there,  August,  1916. 

Alaska  township  was  named  by  settlers  who  had  traveled  to  Alaska. 

Angle  township  received  this  name  from  its  being  bounded  on  the 
north  by  the  inlet  (about  ten  miles  long)  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  lead- 
ing to  its  Northwest  Angle,  or  "most  northwestern  point,"  as  it  was 
described  by  the  treaty  of  1783  and  by  later  treaties  defining  the  boundary 
between  this  country  and  Canada.  The  area  thus  named  Angle  comprises 
about  120  square  miles,  bounded  by  the  lake  on  the  south,  east,  and  north. 
Excepting  Alaska,  it  is  the  most  northern  tract  of  the  United  States,  as 
it  lies  between  10  and  26  miles  north  of  the  49th  parallel. 


36  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Arnesen  is  a  fishing  village  on  the  shore  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  in 
Lakewood  township.  Its  site  was  formerly  known  as  Rocky  Point  The 
village  was  founded  by  Bernard  A.  Arnesen,  who  settled  there  in  1897. 

Battle  township  is  named  for  Battle  river,  flowing  through  this  town- 
ship into  the  east  end  of  the  south  half  of  Red  lake.  The  stream  was  so 
named  by  the  Ojibways  on  account  of  their  having  fought  here  with  the 
Sioux. 

Baudettb  township  and  village  are  named  from  the  Baudette  river, 
there  tributary  to  the  Rainy  river.  It  is  an  early  French  name,  probably 
in  commemoration  of  a  fur  trader. 

Bemidji  township  and  city  were  named  for  an  Ojibway  chief  whose 
band  of  about  fifty  people  had  their  homes  on  and  near  the  south  end 
of  Lake  Bemidji  and  around  Lake  Irving,  including  the  site,  where  white 
settlers  founded  this  town.  The  chief  died  in  April,  1904,  at  the  age  of 
eighty-five  years.  His  name  was  taken  from  the  older  Ojibway  name  of 
this  lake,  crossed  by  the  Mississippi.  Gilfillan  translated  it  as  "the  lake 
where  the  current  flows  directly  across  the  water,  referring  to  the  river 
flowing  squarely  out  of  the  lake  on  the  east  side,  cutting  it  in  two  as  it 
were,  very  briefly  Cross  lake." 

Benville  township  was  probably  named  for  a  pioneer  settler. 

Big  Grass  is  named  from  the  South  branch  of  Roseau  river,  which  has 
its  sources  in  the  north  edge  of  this  township.  This  French  name,  Roseau, 
translated  from  the  Ojibway  name  of  the  Roseau  lake  and  river,  means 
the  very  coarse  grass  or  reed  (Phragmites  communis),  which  is  common 
or  frequent  in  the  edges  of  lakes  and  slow  streams  throughout  this 
northwestern  part  of  Minnesota. 

Birch  township  has  valuable  timber  of  the  paper  or  canoe  birch, 
and  also  of  the  yellow  or  gray  birch,  the  former  species  being  greatly 
used  by  the  Indians  for  making  their  birch  bark  canoes. 

Birch  Island  township,  on  the  north  side  of  the  north  half  of  Red 
lake,  is  named  for  its  having  a  well  wooded  tract  of  canoe  birch,  elm, 
oak,  ash,  basswood,  and  other  trees,  along  and  near  the  lake  shore  between 
the  Two  rivers  and  for  a  mile  eastward.  This  was  a  heavily  timbered 
island,  as  it  was  called,  rising  10  to  25  feet  above  the  lake,  in  remarkable 
contrast  with  nearly  all  other  parts  of  the  north  shore,  which  are  a  very 
extensive  tamarack  swamp  only  a  few  feet  above  the  lake  and  reaching 
thence  north  10  to  15  miles  or  more. 

Black  Duck  township  received  its  name  from  its  large  Black  Duck 
lake,  the  source  of  the  river  of  the  same  name  tributary  to  Red  lake.  The 
species  popularly  known  by  this  name  is,  according  to  Dr.  Thomas  S. 
Roberts,  the  ring-necked  duck  (Marila  collaris,  Donovan),  frequent  or 
common  throughout  the  state. 

Brook  Lake  township,  the  most  southeastern  of  this  county,  is  named 
from  a  small  lake  in  section  27,  Moose  Lake  township,  adjoining  this  on 
the  north,  and  a  brook  flows  from  it  into  section  3  of  this  township. 


BELTRAMI  COUNTY  37 

BuzzLE  township  and  Buzzle  lake,  in  its  section  21,  were  named  in 
honor  of  an  early  settler  beside  the  lake. 

Chilgren  township  was  named  for  Albert  Chilgren,  of  Swedish  de- 
scent, who  is  a  farmer  and  lawyer  there. 

Clementson,  a  small  village  on  Rainy  river  at  the  mouth  of  Rapid 
river,  in  Gudrid  township,  was  named  for  Helec  Clementson,  owner  of  a 
saw  mill  there,  formerly  a  county  commissioner,  who  came  in  May,  1896. 

CoRMANT  is  shortened  from  the  Comorant  river  which  flows  through 
this  township,  named  by  Beltrami  (in  translation  of  the  Ojibway  name) 
for  the  double-crested  cormorant,  frequent  in  many  parts  of  Minnesota. 
The  full  form  of  the  name  had  been  earlier  applied  to  a  township  of 
Becker  county,  preventing  its  use  elsewhere  in  this  state ;  with  the  abridged 
spelling,  however,  it  was  admitted  again  into  the  list  of  our  township 
names. 

DuRAND  township  is  in  honor  of  Charles  Durand,  a  homesteader  on  the 
northeast  side  of  Lake  Puposky. 

EcKLES  township  bears  the  name  of  an  early  landholder  interested  in 
the  building  of  its  branch  of  the  Great  Northern  railway. 

Eland  township  was  named  by  the  early  settlers,  perhaps  for  the  eland 
of  South  Africa,  a  large  species  of  antelope  or  elk  formerly  found  there 
in  immense  herds. 

Eugene  township  was  named  probably  for  Eugene  V.  Debs,  of  Indiana, 
candidate  of  the  Socialist  Party  for  president  of  the  United  States  in 
1904,  1908  and  1912. 

Farley,  a  railway  station  in  Port  Hope  township,  was  named  for  a 
lumberman  and  merchant  there,  who  removed  west  several  years  ago  and 
has  since  died. 

Frohn  was  named  for  a  district  of  Gudbrandsdalen,  Norway,  the  for- 
mer home  of  immigrants  in  this  township. 

Funkley,  a  railway  station  and  junction  in  Hornet  township,  was 
named  for  Henry  Funkley,  a  lawyer  in  Bemidji. 

Grant  Valley  township  and  its  Grant  lake,  in  section  4,  with  Grant 
creek,  its  outlet,  were  named  for  an  early  settler  or  lumberman. 

Gudrid  township  has  a  Norwegian  feminine  name,  probably  for  the 
wife  of  an  immigrant  homesteader. 

Hagali  was  named  for  an  early  Norwegian  settler  of  this  township. 

Hamre  township  derived  its  name  from  a  small  district  in  Norway, 
whence  some  of  its  settlers  came. 

Hines,  a  railway  station  in  Black  Duck  township,  was  named  for  Wil- 
liam Hines,  formerly  a  lumberman  there. 

Hornet  township  was  originally  named  Murray,  a  duplication  of  an 
older  Minnesota  township  name,  and  the  change  and 'selection  of  the 
present  name  caused  much  contention. 

Island  Lake,  a  village  in  the  east  part  of  Alaska  township,  at  the  end 
of  a  lumber  railway  branch,  was  named  for  the  adjoining  Island  lake, 
which  has  a  small  island  close  to  this  village. 


38  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

JoiTES  township  was  named  for  a  pioneer  there,  who  moved  away  many 
years  ago. 

Keil  township  was  probably  named  for  a  German  settler. 

KxLLiSEM.  township  and  its  village,  at  the  end  of  a  branch  railway 
boilt  for  lomberini^  were  named  for  A.  O.  Kelliher,  a  former  agent  here 
for  Imnber  companies.  ' 

KoHiG  township  was  named  for  a  settler  there  from  Germany. 

Lakewood  township  was  named  for  its  timber,  and  for  its  situation  oo 
the  south  shore  of  the  Lake  of  die  Woods. 

Lamkers  was  named  for  the  Lammers  Brothers  (George  A.  and 
Albert  J,)>  of  Stillwater,  who  engaged  in  real  estate  and  lumber  business 
in  this  township. 

Langor  township  received  its  name  in  honor  of  Henry  A.  Langord 
(the  final  letter  being  omitted),  a  settler  of  Norwegian  descent,  coming 
here  from  Wisconsin. 

Lee  township  was  named  for  settlers  from  Norway,  their  original 
name  having  been  changed  to  this  spelling. 

LiBEBTr  township  received  this  name  in  accordance  with  the  petition 
of  its  settlers. 

Mafix  Ridge  township  was  named  for  its  sugar  maple  trees,  and  for  its 
situation  at  the  sources  of  streams  descending  north  to  Red  lake.  Sugar 
Bush  township  is  also  named  for  the  maple  trees  and  sugar-making,  to  be 
more  fully  noted  in  a  later  page. 

McDouGALO  township  was  named  for  John  McDougald,  a  member  of 
the  first  board  of  county  commissioners,  now  engaged  in  real  estate  busi- 
ness at  Black  Duck. 

Meaoow  Land  township  is  named  for  its  grass  lands  along  streams, 
open  areas  used  for  hay-making  in  this  generally  wooded  region. 

Minnie  township  has  the  feminine  name  derived  from  the  name  of  this 
state,  perhaps  chosen  in  honor  of  the  wife  or  daughter  of  one  of  its 
pioneers. 

Moose  Lake  township  is  named  for  its  Moose  lake  and  Little  Moose 
lake,  which  are  probably  translated  from  their  Ojibway  names. 

Myhse  township  was  named  for  L.  O.  Myfare,  of  Norwegian  descent, 
a  former  member  of  the  board  of  county  commissioners,  residing  near 
Bemidji. 

Nebish  township  and  its  lake  of  this  name  are  from  the  Ojibway  word 
anibish,  tea,  the  much  relished  drink  alike  of  the  white  settlers  and  the 
Indians. 

NoBTHESN  township  received  this  name  because  it  includes  the  north 
part  of  Lake  BemidjL 

NoBTHwooD  township  was  named  for  its  timber  and  its  situation  in  the 
north  part  of  this  county. 

Nymore,  the  lumber  manufacturing  village  near  the  city  of  Bemidji, 
was  named  for  Martin  Nye,  a  Bemidji  pioneer,  who  was  a  veteran  of  the 
civil  war. 


BELTRAMI  COUNTY  39 

O'Brien  township  was  named  for  a  lumberman  there,  William  O'Brien, 
from  Stillwater,  Minn. 

Pioneer  township  received  this  name  in  compliment  to  its  pioneer 
settlers. 

PoNEMAH^  a  village  on  the  north  shore  of.  the  southern  half  of  Red 
lake^  having  a  United  States  government  school  for  the  Ojibway  children, 
bears  a  name  used  by  Longfellow  in  "The  Song  of  Hiawatha."  Minne- 
haha in  dying,  and  afterward  Hiawatha,  depart 

"To  the  Islands  of  the  Blessed, 
To  the  Kingdom  of  Ponemah, 
To  the  Land  of  the  Hereafter," 

Post  Hope  township  was  named  by  one  of  its  first  settlers,  Captain 
William  Wetzel,  a  veteran  of  the  Mexican  war  and  the  civil  war,  probably 
for  Port  Hope,  Canada,  on  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Ontario. 

PoTAHO  township  has  the  name  of  a  town  on  the  east  coast  of  the 
island  of  Corfu,  Greece. 

Prosper  township  received  this  name  of  good  promise  in  accordance 
with  the  petition  of  its  settlers. 

PuFOSKY  is  a  railway  village  in  Durand  township,  on  Lake  Puposky, 
an  Ojibway  name  recorded  and  translated  by  Beltrami,*  signifying  "the 
end  of  the  shaking  lands,"  that  is,  swamps  whose  surface  is  shaken  and 
sinks  when  walked  on.  It  has  been  also  translated  as  Mud  lake,  with 
Mud  river  outflowing  from  it. 

Quiring  township  needs  further  inquiry  to  learn  why  it  is  so  named. 

Rapid  River  township  was  named  for  the  stream  crossing  it,  a  tributary 
of  the  Rainy  river.  It  was  mapped  and  described  by  Keating  of  Major 
Long's  expedition  in  1823  as  the  River  of  Rapids,  "so  called  from  the  fine 
rapids  which  it  presents  immediately  above  its  mouth." 

Reoby,  a  village  on  the  south  shore  of  Red  lake  and  at  the  end  of  a 
railway  branch,  received  its  name  from  the  lake. 

Roosevelt  township,  including  the  greater  part  of  Qearwater  lake, 
crossed  by  the  west  line  of  this  county,  and  also  the  railway  village  of 
Roosevelt,  78  miles  farther  north  near  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  in  the 
east  edge  of  the  adjoining  Roseau  county,  were  named  in  honor  of 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  president  of  the  United  States,  1901-09. 

RuLiEN  township  was  named  for  William  Rulien,  who  is  engaged  in 
real  estate  business  in  Baudette. 

Shooks  township  was  named  for  Edward  Shooks,  who  was  a  mer- 
chant there  at  a  former  station  of  the  Kelliher  railway  branch. 

Shotley  township  was  probably  named  for  a  lumberman  on  its  Shotley 
brook,  here  flowing  into  the  north  half  of  Red  lake. 

SoLWAY,  a  railway  village  in  Lammers  township,  and  the  Solway 
Lumber  Company,  which  formerly  worked  in  its  vicinity,  were  named 
after  Solway  Firth,  the  wide  inlet  from  the  Irish  Sea  between  England 
and  Scotland. 


40  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Spooner  township  is  in  honor  of  Marshall  A.  Spooner,  of  Bemidji^ 
who  was  judge  in  this  Fifteenth  judicial  district,  1903-08. 

Sfeuce  Grove  township  was  named  for  its  spruce  timber,  abundant 
on  many  tracts  throughout  northern  Minnesota. 

Steenerson  township  was  named  for  Hon.  Halvor  Steenerson,  of 
Crookston,  representative  in  Congress  since  1903. 

Sugar  Bush  township  was  named,  like  Maple  Ridge  township  also  in 
this  county,  for  its  maple  trees  used  by  both  the  Indians  and  white  people 
for  sugar-making.  Beltrami  wrote  of  the  Ojibway  process  of  making 
maple  sugar,  as  follows  (in  his  "Pilgrimage,"  vol.  ll,  page  402)  :  "The 
whole  of  this  territory  abounds  with  innumerable  maple  or  sugar  trees, 
which  the  Indians  divide  into  various  sugaries.  The  sap  of  the  trees 
flows  through  incisions  made  in  them  by  the  Indians  in  spring  at  the  foot 
of  the  trunk.  It  is  received  in  buckets  of  birch  bark  and  conveyed  to  the 
laboratory  of  each  respective  sugary,  where  it  is  boiled  in  large  cauldrons 
iill  the  watery  parts  are  evaporated.  The  dregs  descend,  and  the  saccha- 
rine matter  remains  adhering  to  the  sides  of  the  vessel.  When  this  process 
is  completed  the  sugar  is  made." 

Summit  township  has  the  highest  land  crossed  by  the  Minnesota  and 
International  railway,  called  therefore  a  "summit"  by  its  surveyors. 

Swift  Water  received  its  name,  like  Rapid  River  township  before 
noted,  from  the  Rapid  river  flowing  through  these  townships. 

Taylor  township  was  named  in  honor  of  James  Taylor,  an  early 
homesteader  there,  now  a  merchant  at  Tenstrike,  the  village  on  the  west 
border  of  this  township. 

Tenstrike,  a  railroad  village  on  the  line  between  Port  Hope  and 
Taylor  townships,  was  platted  and  named  by  Almon  A.  White  of  St.  Paul, 
alluding  to  the  completely  successful  bowling  which  with  the  Rrst  ball 
knocks  down  all  the  ten  pins. 

Turtle  Lake  township  bears  the  name  of  its  large  lake,  translated, 
as  also  the  outflowing  Turtle  river,  from  the  Ojibway  name.  Thompson, 
who  .traveled  here  in  1798,  wrote  of  this  lake  that  "its  many  small  bays 
give  it  the  rude  form  of  a  turtle." 

Turtle  River  township  likewise  is  named  for  its  Turtle  River  lake, 
and  for  the  river  so  named  flowing  through  this  lake,  the  most  northern 
tributary  of  the  Mississippi. 

Wabanica  township  received  its  name  from  waban,  the  Ojibway  word 
for  the  east  and  also  for  the  twilight  or  dawn  of  the  morning. 

Walhalla  township  is  named  from  Norse  mythology,  for  the  hall  of 
Odin,  also  spelled  Valhalla,  into  which  were  received  the  souls  of  war- 
riors slain  in  battle. 

Washkish  township,  at  the  east  end  of  the  north  part  of  Red  lake,  is 
from  the  Ojibway  word,  wawashkeshi,  the  deer,  which  is  yet  common 
or  frequent  there,  though  much  hunted. 


BELTRAMI  COUNTY  41 

Wheeler  township,  at  the  west  side  of  the  mouth  of  Rainy  river,  was 
named  for  Alonzo  Wheeler,  a  pioneer  farmer  there. 

Wilton,  a  railway  village  and  junction  in  Eckles  township,  was  named 
for  some  one  of  the  fifteen  or  more  villages  and  towns  of  this  name  in  the 
eastern  states,  Canada,  and  England 

WooDROw  township  is  in  honor  of  the  president  of  the  United  States, 
Woodrow  Wilson. 

ZiPFEL  township  was  named  for  William  M.  Zippel,  of  German  de- 
scent, who  through  many  years  has  been  a  fisherman  on  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods,  living  in  this  township,  at  the  mouth  of  the  creek  which  was 
earlier  named  for  him.  The  aboriginal  name  of  this  stream,  which  con- 
tinued until  recently  in  use,  was  Sand  creek.  Mr.  Zippel  first  settled  at 
Rat  Portage  in  1884,  and  removed  three  years  afterward  to  the  mouth 
of  this  creek,  where  the  fishing  village  bearing  his  name  has  since  grown 
up. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  names  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  and  Rainy  and  Mississippi  rivers 
and  Cass  lake  have  been  considered  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  work; 
and  Red  lake  will  be  later  noticed  in  connection  with  Red  Lake  county. 

In  the  preceding  list  of  townships,  sufficient  mention  is  made  of  several 
lakes,  rivers,  and  creeks,  these  being  Battle  river,  Lake  Bemidji,  Black 
Duck  lake  and  river.  Brook  lake,  Buzzle  lake,  Cormorant  river,  Grant 
lake  and  creek.  Moose  lake  and  Little  Moose  lake,  Nebish  lake.  Lake 
Puposky  or  Mud  lake  and  the  outflowing  Mud  river,  Rapid  river,  Shotley 
brook,  Turtle  lake  and  river  and  the  Turtle  River  lake,  and  Zippel's  creek. 

The  longest  southern  tributary  of  Red  lake  on  the  canoe  route  of 
Beltrami  is  Mud  river,  the  outlet  of  Lake  Puposky  or  Mud  lake,  which 
he  called  "the  river  of  Great  Portage."  This  name,  as  he  wrote,  was  given 
by  the  Indians,  "because  a  dreadful  storm  that  occurred  on  it  blew  down 
a  vast  number  of  forest  trees  on  its  banks,  which  encumber  its  channel, 
and  so  impede  its  navigation  as  to  make  an  extensive  or  great  portage 
in  order  to  reach  it."  In  accordance  with  the  recommendation  of  Bel- 
trami, it  is  sometimes  called  Red  Lake  river,  indicating  it  to  be  the  upper 
part  of  the  river  that  outflows  from  Red  lake. 

Lake  Julia,  before  noted  as  the  highest  source  of  this  stream,  was 
thought  by  Beltrami  to  send  its  waters  partly  southward,  so  that  it  sup- 
plied to  him  the  title  of  "the  Julian  sources  of  Bloody  river  and  the 
Mississippi." 

Schoolcraft,  in  the  Narrative  of  his  expedition  to  Lake  Itasca  in  1832 
(published  in  1834),  wrote  the  name  of  Lake  Bemidji  as  "Pamitchi 
Gumaug  or  Lac  Travers."    On  Nicollet's  map,  1843,  it  is  "Pemidji  L." 

Lake  Irving,  closely  connected  with  Lake  Bemidji  by  a  strait  and 
forming  the  south  boundary  of  the  city  of  Bemidji,  was  named  by  School- 
craft for  Washington  Irving,  the  eminent  American  author   (1783-1859). 


42  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

It  was  frequently  called  Little  Bemidji  lake  by  the  early  settlers,  which 
name  has  passed  out  of  use. 

Lake  Marquette,  in  sections  29  to  31,  Bemidji,  was  also  named  by 
Schoolcraft,  for  the  zealous  French  missionary  and  explorer  of  the 
Mississippi  (1637-75).  It  is  on  the  Plantagenian  or  South  Fork  of  the 
Mississippi,  which  Schoolcraft  ascended  on  his  way  to  Lake  Itasca,  now 
named  Schoolcraft  river  (or  Yellow  Head  river,  for  his  Ojibway  guide), 
more  fully  noticed  in  the  chapter  of  Hubbard  county. 

The  Mississippi  for  about  six  miles  next  below  Lake  Bemidji  has  a 
series  of  rapids,  which  were  ascended  in  1832  by  Schoolcraft  and  were 
described  by  him  as  follows  in  his  ''Summary  Narrative"  (published  in 
1855).  "Boulders  of  the  geological  drift  period  are  frequently  encountered 
in  ascending  them,  and  the  river  spreads  itself  over  so  considerable  a 
surface  that  it  became  necessary  for  the  bowsmen  and  steersmen  to  get 
out  into  the  shallows  and  lead  up  the  canoes.  These  canoes  were  but 
of  two  fathoms  length,  drew  but  a  few  inches  of  water,  and  would  not 
bear  more  than  three  persons.  .  .  .  There  were  ten  of  these  rapids 
encountered  before  we  reached  the  summit  or  plateau  of  Lake  Pemidje- 
gumaug,  which  is  the  Lac  Traverse  of  the  French.  These  were  called 
the  Metoswa  rapids,  from  the  Indian  numeral  for  ten"  (Midasswi  in 
Baraga's  Dictionary). 

A  few  miles  below  these  rapids,  the  Mississippi  in  the  southeast  corner 
of  Frohn  township  flows  through  Wolf  lake,  which  was  called  Pamitas- 
codiac  by  the  Ojibways.  It  was  thought  by  Schoolcraft  to  be  so  named 
for  a  tract  of  prairie  adjoining  it,  "from  pemidj,  across,  muscoda,  a  prairie, 
and  ackee,  land." 

One  to  two  miles  farther  east  the  Mississippi  passes  through  the  south 
end  of  Lake  Andrusia,  named  by  Schoolcraft  in  1832  for  Andrew  Jackson, 
who  was  president  of  the  United  States,  1829  to  1837. 

For  the  next  two  miles  the  course  of  this  river  is  occupied  by  Allen's 
bay,  which  is  connected  with  Cass  lake  by  a  short  and  narrow  strait.  This 
body  of  water  was  named  also  by  Schoolcraft,  for  Lieutenant  James  Allen, 
a  member  of  the  expedition  of  1832,  "who,  on  his  return  down  the  Missis^ 
sippi,  was  the  first  to  explore  it."  Allen  was  born  in  Ohio,  1806;  was 
graduated  at  the  U.  S.  Military  Academy,  1829;  was  promoted  to  be 
captain.  First  Dragoons,  1837;  conducted  an  expedition  to  the  sources  of 
the  Des  Moines  and  Blue  Earth  rivers  in  1844 ;  and  died  at  Fort  Leaven- 
worth, Kansas,  August  23,  1846.  He  was  author  of  a  report  to  the  gov- 
ernment on  each  of  these  two  Minnesota  expeditions. 

David  Thompson's  map  of  the  international  boundary  survey  from 
Lake  Superior  to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  in  1826,  shows  the  mouths  of 
Rapid  river.  Riviere  Baudette,  and)  Winter  Road  river,  flowing  into  the 
Rainy  river  from  this  county.  The  first  was  named,  as  before  noted, 
for  its  picturesque  rapids  or  falls,  descending  about  20  feet,  close  above 
its  mouth;  and  the  second  is  thought  to  be  a  French  personal  surname. 


BELTRAMI  COUNTY  43 

The  third  of  these  streams  received  its  name,  as  noted*  by  Nathan 
Butler,  of  Minneapolis,  who  during  many  years  was  engaged  in  survey- 
ing and  land  examinations  in  northern  Minnesota,  for  "a  winter  road,  or 
dog  sled  trail,  leaving  the  Rainy  river  at  the  mouth  of  the  Winter  Road 
river  and  running  about  S.  20*^  W.  fifty  miles,  to  the  middle  of  the  north 
shore  of  the  north  Red  lake.  The  whole  distance  is  one  continuous  swamp, 
tamarack  and  open,  except  where  the  streams  have  cut  down  into  the 
ground  from  six  to  twelve  feet  below  the  surface,  thus  draining  the  land 
on  either  side  for  forty  or  fifty  rods."  (Geology  of  Minnesota,  voL  IV, 
1899,  page  160.) 

Winter  Road  lake,  in  Eugene  township,  is  translated,  like  this  out- 
flowing river,  from  their  Ojibway  name. 

Peppermint  creek,  tributary  to  the  Winter  Road  river,  is  named  for 
its  native  species  of  mint,  including  most  notably  the  wild  bergamot 
(Monarda  fistulosa). 

The  following  lakes  bear  names  of  early  settlers :  Campbell  lake.  Lake 
Erick,  and  Peterson  lake  (also  called  Mud  lake),  in  Liberty  township; 
M3rrtle  lake,  in  sections  4  and  9,  Roosevelt;  Buzzle  and  Funkley  lakes, 
in  Buzzle  township ;  Movil  lake,  in  Turtle  Lake  and  Northern  townships ; 
Robideau  and  Gilsted  lakes,  in  Birch  township;  and  Swenson  and  Grace 
lakes,  in  Frohn  township. 

Pimushe  lake,  in  Moose  Lake  township,  which  we  receive  from  Nicol- 
let's map,  bears  an  Ojibway  name,  but  it  has  not  been  identified  in 
Baraga's   Dictionary. 

Kichi  lake,  on  the  south  line  of  the  same  township,  also  mapped  with 
this  name  by  Nicollet,  now  spelled  Kitihi  lake,  means  in  the  Ojibway 
language  Big  lake.  Its  approved  form  is  Kitchi,  in  Baraga's  Dictionary, 
or  Gitche,  in  Longfellow's  "Song  of  Hiawatha."  It  is  thus  of  exactly 
the  same  meaning  as  a  second  Big  lake,  three  miles  distant  on  the  west, 
in  Sugar  Bush  township. 

Nearly  all  the  other  lakes  of  this  county,  not  already  noted,  chiefly 
occurring  only  in  its  southern  third  part,  have  names  of  common  or 
frequent  use  and  evident  origin,  many  indeed  being  translations  of  the 
aboriginal  names.  These  include  Moose  and  Turtle  lakes,  in  Alaska  town- 
ship ;  Bass  lake,  in  Nebish,  also  Bass  and  Little  Bass  lakes,  in  Turtle  River 
township ;  Gearwater  lake  and  river,  to  be  more  fully  noticed  for  Qear- 
water  county;  two  White  Fish  lakes,  in  Hagali  and  Buzzle  townships; 
Loon  lake  and  Medicine  lake,  in  Hagali,  the  latter  of  Ojibway  origin; 
Gull  lake,  in  Hagali  and  Port  Hope;  Deer,  Pony,  and  Long  lakes,  in 
Liberty  township,  and  another  Long  lake  in  Turtle  River  township ;  Black 
lake,  Fox,  Gnat,  and  Three  Island  lakes,  in  Turtle  Lake  township;  Twin 
lakes,  in  Taylor ;  Grass  lake,  on  the  line  between  Eckles  and  (jrant  Valley ; 
Rice  lake,  on  the  east  line  of  Sugar  Bush,  and  another  in  Jones  township, 
the  latter  more  commonly  known  by  its  Ojibway  name,  Manomin  lake, 
each  referring  to  the  luxuriant  growths  of  wild  rice;  Boot  and  Fern 


44  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

lakes,  in  Grant  Valley,  the  former  named  for  its  outline ;  and  School  lake, 
in  Frohn,  lying  partly  in  the  school  section  16. 

Points  and  Islands,  Lake  of  the  Woods. 

The  Rainy  river  enters  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  by  flowing  through 
Four  Mile  bay,  so  named  for  its  length  from  east  to  west.  This  bay  is 
separated  from  the  main  lake  by  Oak  point,  also  four  miles  long,  which  is 
a  narrow  sand  bar,  bearing  many  bur  oaks,  a  species  that  is  common  or 
abundant  throughout  Minnesota,  excepting  far  northeastward. 

On  the  Canadian  side,  opposite  Oak  point,  a  similar  wave-built  sand 
bar  or  barrier  beach,  named  Sable  island,  skirts  the  original  lake  shore 
for  about  six  miles  northeastward.  Its  French  name,  if  anglicized,  would 
be  Sand  island.  The  geologic  origin  or  formation  of  Oak  point  and  Sable 
island  is  the  same  with  Minnesota  point  and  Wisconsin  point,  which 
inclose  the  harbors  of  Duluth  and  Superior. 

The  sand  dunes  of  this  island  and  of  Oak  point  caused  this  large 
southwest  part  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  to  be  formerly  often  called 
Sand  Hill  lake. 

From  the  mouth  of  Rainy  river,  at  the  east  end  of  Oak  point,  the  in- 
ternational boundary  runs  nearly  due  north  across  the  main  southern  area 
of  the  lake,  passing  close  west  of  Big  island,  which  belongs  to  Canada. 
As  it  approaches  the  Northwest  Angle  inlet  (called  "Angle  river"  in  the 
latest  Minnesota  atlas),  which  has  been  noted  on  a  preceding  page  in  its 
relation  to  Angle  township,  the  boundary  sets  off' to  this  state,  on  its  west 
and  south  side.  Oak,  Flag,  and  Brush  islands,  in  this  orde/  from  south- 
east to  northwest,  besides  several  unnamed  islands  of  smaller  size. 

Eight  miles  south  of  Oak  island  is  Garden  or  Cornfield  island,  also 
belonging  to  Minnesota,  named  from  its  former  cultivation  by  the  Ojib- 
ways.  John  Tanner,  the  white  captive  who  lived  the  greater  part  of  his 
life  among  the  Ottawas  and  Ojibways,  had  his  home  for  some  time  on 
this  island,  as  told  in  his  Narrative,  published  in  1830. 

In  coasting  along  the  south  shore  westward  from  the  mouth  of  Rainy 
river,  Long  point  and  Rocky  point  are  passed  at  the  north  side  of  Lake- 
wood  township. 

Cormorant  Rock,  about  a  mile  north  from  Rocky  point,  is  a  small 
island  of  bare  rock,  named  from  its  being  the  nesting  place  of  multitudes 
of  the  double-crested  cormorant,  the  same  species  for  which  lakes  and  a 
township  in  Becker  county  are  named,  as  also  a  river  and  a  township 
in  this  county. 

Next  to  the  west,  Muskeg  bay,  mostly  adjoining  Roseau  county,  is  the 
most  southwestern  part  of  the  lake,  lying  between  Rocky  point  on  the 
east  and  Buffalo  point,  in  the  edge  of  Manitoba,  on  the  north.  The  bay 
received  this  Ojibway  name  from  tracts  of  swamp  on  its  shore,  and  the 
Buffalo  point  was  named  for  its  being  on  or  near  the  northeastern  limit 
of  the  former  geographic  range  of  the  buffalo. 


BELTRAMI  COUNTY  45 

The  site  of  Fort  St.  Charles,  which  was  established  by  Verendrye  in 
1752  and  named  by  him  in  honor  of  the  governor  of  Canada,  Charles  de 
Beauharnois,  was  discovered  in  1908,  on  the  Minnesota  shore  of  the 
Northwest  Angle  inlet,  nearly  three  miles  distant  from  the  bend  of  the 
boundary  at  American  point,  the  north  end  of  a  small  island,  where  it 
turns  from  its  north  course  to  run  westv^ard  up  the  inlet  From  this 
fort  the  eldest  son  of  Verendrye  and  a  Jesuit  missionary  named  Father 
Aulneau,  with  nineteen  French  voyageurs,  started  in  canoes  June  5,  1736, 
to  go  to  Mackinac  for  supplies.  Early  the  next  morning,  at  their  first 
camping  place,  they  were  surprised  and  murdered  by  a  war  party  of  the 
Prairie  Sioux.  This  massacre,  from  which  not  one  of  the  Frenchmen 
escaped)  was  on  a  small  island  of  rock,  since  called  Massacre  island,  in 
the  Canadian  part  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  about  twenty  miles  distant 
from  the  fort  by  the  canoe  route.  (Rev.  Francis  J.  Schaefer,  in  Acta  et 
Dicta,  published  by  the  St,  Paul  Catholic  Historical  Society,  vol.  11,  pp. 
114-133,  July,  1909,  with  two  maps  between  pages  240  and  241  in  the  same 
volume.) 

Tributaries  and  Points  of  Red  Lake. 

In  September,  1885,  the  present  writer  made  a  canoe  trip  for  geologic 
observations  along  the  entire  shore  line  of  Red  lake,  starting  east  from 
the  Agency.  The  journey,  more  than  a  hundred  miles  in  extent  and  occu- 
pying six  days,  was  wholly  within  the  Red  Lake  Indian  Reservation,  which 
has  since  been  greatly  reduced  in  its  area.  My  canoemen  were  two 
Ojibways,  Roderick  McKenzie  and  William  Sayers,  each  of  whom  had 
received  a  fair  education  and  could  converse  well  in  English.  Mr. 
McKenzie,  by  his  acquaintance  with  the  Indians  about  the  lake,  was  spe- 
cially serviceable  in  obtaining  information  of  the  names  applied  by  them 
to  streams  and  points  of  land  along  the  shore,  and  the  translations  of 
these  are  given  in  my  report,  published  by  the  Geological  and  Natural 
History  Survey  of  Minnesota  (vol.  IV,  18^,  pp.  155-165).  A  sketch  map 
of  Red  lake  and  its  vicinity  drawn  during  this  travel  and  published  by 
the  U.  S.  Geological  Survey,  is  Plate  XII  in  Monograph  XXV,  1896,  "The 
Glacial  Lake  Agassiz."  Much  abridged  from  the  report  cited,  the  follow- 
ing are  my  notes  of  translations  of  the  Ojibway  names  then  in  use. 

The  stream  at  the  Agency  is  Pike  creek,  rendered  Gold  Fish  creek  by 
Beltrami ;  but  by  the  English  residents  it  is  more  commonly  called  Mill 
creek.  A  saw  and  grist  mill,  having  ten  feet  head,  is  built  on  this  stream 
about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  its  mouth.  Its  sources,  according  to 
Rev.  F.  W.  Smith,  are  a  series  of  three  or  four  lakelets,  the  lowest  of 
which,  lying  on  the  southwest  side  of  the  road  to  Cass  lake,  is  called  by  the 
Indians  Little  lake,  but  by  the  white  men  Ten  Mile  lake,  being  about  ten 
miles  distant  from  the  Agency.  The  highest,  named  Cranberry  lake,  has 
quite  irregular  outlines,  lying  mostly  in  sections  34  and  35,  T.  150,  R.  34, 
in  the  east  part  of  Alaska  township. 


46  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Near  the  chief's  village,  about  five  miles  east  of  the  Agency,  is  a 
slightly  projecting  point,  called  the  Chiefs  point  It  rises  steeply  25  to 
30  feet  above  the  lake.  Indian  cornfields  were  seen  on  its  top,  in  small 
clearings  of  the  forest 

Mud  river,  called  the  Red  Lake  river  on  former  maps,  and  Great 
Portage  river  by  Beltrami,  enters  the  lake  about  a  half  mile  east  of  the 
Chief's  point.  This  is  larger  than  Pike  creek,  but  smaller  than  Sandy 
river  and  Black  Duck  river.  Its  head  stream  passes  through  Lake 
Puposky,  named  on  the  township  plats  Mud  lake,  and  through  two  lower 
small  lakes  called  Wild  Rice  lakes. 

Big  point,  a  broad  swell  of  the  shore,  standing  out  perhaps  an  eighth 
of  a  mile  beyond  the  general  outline  westward,  but  little  from  that  east- 
ward, is  nearly  a  mile  east  of  Mud  river. 

In  the  distance  of  six  miles  from  Big  point  to  Black  Duck  river,  four 
small  creeks  enter  the  lake,  bordered  by  tracts  of  marsh  grass  along  the 
k)wer  part  of  their  course.  On  these  meadows  we  saw  many  stacks  of 
hay  which  had  been  put  up  by  the  Indians,  and  the  name  Hay  creek  is 
applied  to  one  of  these  streams.  Hay  is  also  cut  by  the  Indians  on  the 
meadows  of  nearly  all  the  streams  about  Red  lake. 

Black  Duck  river  flows  into  the  most  southeast  part  of  the  southern 
half  of  the  lake.  It  is  called  Cakakisciou  river  on  Beltrami's  map,  and 
Cormorant  river  on  Nicollet's  and  later  maps;  but  it  is  known  to  the 
English-speaking  residents  only  by  the  name  of  Black  Duck  river.  Its 
principal  tributary,  coming  in  from  the  northeast,  is  now  named  the 
Cormorant  river. 

Battle  river,  from  which  a  township  is  named,  enters  the  lake  about 
four  miles  farther  north.  It  is  of  nearly  the  same  size  as  Big  Rock 
creek  and  Mud  river. 

In  canoeing  thence  to  the  Narrows,  only  one  small  tributary  was  seen, 
called  Sucker  creek.  About  three  miles  west  of  this  creek  is  Elm  point, 
and  nearly  two  miles  beycmd  this  we  passed  the  more  conspicuous  Un- 
inhabited point,  so  named  by  the  Indians  because  of  ancient  clearings 
along  the  shore  for  a  mile  to  the  east,  where  in  some  former  time,  prob- 
ably a  century  or  longer  ago,  the  Ojibway  people  had  a  village  and  cul-i 
tivated  fields.  Their  bark  lodges  and  more  permanent  log-houses,  with 
patches  of  com  and  potatoes,  were  seen  here  and  there  all  along  this 
shore  from  its  most  eastern  portion  to  the  Narrows. 

Beyond  the  Uninhabited  point  the  shore  trends  west-northwest  past 
Pelican,  Halfway,  and  Rabbit  points,  successively  about  three  fourths  of 
a  mile  apart  About  a  mile  northwestward  from  Rabbit  point  is  Sand 
Giff  point  The  base  of  this  is  the  usual  wall  of  boulders,  derived  from 
erosion  of  glacial  drift ;  but  its  upper  part,  rising  steeply  from  near  the 
lake  level  to  a  height  of  75  or  80  feet,  is  levelly  bedded  sand  and  fine 
graveL 


BELTRAMI  COUNTY  47 

Next  to  the  northwest  a  plain  of  sand  and  gravel,  bearing  no  forest, 
and  perhaps  in  part  natural  prairie,  about  25  feet  above  the  lake,  extends 
two  thirds  of  a  mile  or  more,  diminishing  from  a  third  to  an  eighth  of 
a  mile  in  width.  On  this  tract,  about  a  mile  south  of  the  Narrows,  is  the 
principal  Ojibway  village  of  Red  lake,  consisting  in  1885  of  forty  or  fifty 
lodges.  This  village  was  represented  on  Nicollet's  map  (1843),  which  was 
of  so  early  date  that  it  does  not  show  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  nor  any  other 
city  or  town  in  Minnesota. 

A  later  note  should  be  added,  that,  according  to  Miss  Frances  Dens- 
more,  of  Red  Wing,  Minn.,  who  has  visited  these  Indians  to  write  of  their 
music,  this  village  is  called  by  them  "Wabacing  (where  the  wind  blows 
from  both  sides)."  The  name  refers  to  the  exposed  situation,  between 
the  south  and  north  parts  of  the  lake. 

Big  Sand  Bar  creek  of  1885  is  now  named  Shotley  brook.  At  its  mouth 
it  has  deposited  a  delta  of  sand  and  fine  gravel,  which  projects  fifteen 
rods  into  the  lake.  About  three  miles  farther  northeast  is  Little  Sand  Bar 
creek,  in  section  31,  Washkish. 

Tamarack  river,  called  Sturgeon  or  Amenikaning  river  on  Beltrami's 
map,  comes  in  at  the  extreme  east  end  of  the  lake.  It  is  50  to  100  feet  wide 
near  its  mouth,  and  is  bordered  by  shores  of  alluvial  sand  only  three  or 
four  feet  high. 

Poplar  creek,  15  to  20  feet  wide  and  two  or  three  feet  deep,  comes^ 
in  about  ten  miles  from  the  east  end  of  the  lake ;  and  three  miles  farther 
west  the  Two  rivers,  each  30  feet  wide  and  three  or  four  feet  deep,  have 
their  mouths  about  a  half  of  a  mile  apart. 

Some  fifty  rods  west  from  the  west  one  of  the  Two  i*ivers  is  the  be- 
ginning of  the  "winter  road"  to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  a  trail  used,  as  be- 
fore noted,  by  the  Indians  in  winter,  when^he  vast  swamps  of  the  inter- 
vening country  are  frozen. 

Wild  Rice  river  (Manomin  creek  of  the  Ojibways)  joins  the  lake  at 
the  extreme  northwestern  portion  of  this  nort^  half,  where  the  shore 
turns  in  a  graceful  curve  to  the  south.  This  is  a  large  stream,  40  to  50 
feet  wide  and  five  to  seven  feet  deep  for  a  distance  of  at  leas:  fifty  rods 
from  its  mouth.  Wild  rice  grows  along  its  banks  for  a  width  of  six  to  ten 
feet.  About  a  mile  southwest  from  its  mouth  this  river  flows  through 
the  north  end  of  a  shallow  lake,  called  Wild  Rice  lake  from  its  rank 
growth  of  this  useful  grain,  which  supplies  a  large  part  of  the  winter 
food  of  the  Indians. 

From  the  West  Narrows  point  the  north  shore  of  the  south  half  of 
Red  lake  trends  west  and  southwest  about  four  miles  to  Starting  point, 
so  named  by  the  Indians  because  they  gather  there  for  starting  in  com- 
pany in  canoe  trips  to  the  outlet  and  down  the  Red  Lake  river. 

Oak  creek,  about  ten  feet  wide,  comes  in  some  six  miles  north  of  the 
outlet,  deriving  its  name  from  the  occurrence  of  several  large  oaks  on  the 
beach  near  its  mouth.    A  marsh,  destitute  of  trees,  but  with  tamarack  and 


48  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

spruce  swamp  beyond  it  westward,  1)orders  the  lak^  thence  about  two 
miles  to  Last  creek,  which  is  of  similar  small  size,  being  the  last  tribu- 
tary passed  in  approaching  the  outlet. 

Red  Lake  river  receives  no  tributary,  excepting  recent  drainage  ditches, 
till  it  reaches  the  mouth  of  Thief  river,  45  miles  distant  by  a  straight  line 
from  this  lake. 

Sandy  river,  which  comes  in  at  the  most  southwestern  portion  of  the 
lake,  is  about  35  feet  wide  and  four  feet  deep. 

Big  Rock  creek,  flowing  into  Red  lake  next  eastward,  is  also  called 
Shell  creek  for  Shell  lake  from  which  it  issues,  where  it  is  crossed  by 
the  road»  from  the  Red  Lake  agency  to  White  Earth.  It  takes  the  for- 
mer name  from  two  large  boulders,  each  about  eight  feet  in  diame- 
ter, which  lie  some  five  rods  apart  on  the  lake  shore,  one  on  each  side  of 
the  mouth  of  this  stream. 

About  four  and  a  half  miles  farther  east  we  passed  Little  Rock  point 
and  creek,  a  third  of  a  mile  apart,  so  called  because  of  the  beach  of  many 
little  boulders,  one  to  two  feet  in  diameter,  which  extends  an  eighth  of 
a  mile  each  way  from  the  mouth  of  the  creek.  It  was  called  Gravel  river 
by  Beltrami,  who  visited  and  named  a  series  of  eight  small  lakes  tributary 
to  it.  These  lakes,  which  cannot  now  be  exactly  identified,  he  named 
for  the  children  of  a  family  endeared  to  him  in  friendship,  Alexander. 
Lavinius,  Everard,  Frederica,  Adela,  Magdalena,  Virginia,  and  Eleonora. 

Red  Water  creek,  very  small,  probably  named  thus  in  allusion  to  the 
bog  iron  ore  of  its  springs,  enters  the  lake  between  the  Little  Rock 
creek  and  the  Agency.  A  pretty  lake  tributary  to  this  creek,  beside  the 
road  to  White  Earth,  is  called  Green  lake,  probably  from  its  reflection  of 
the  foliage  of  the  surrounding  woods. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  •the  Ojibway  name,  translated  Red  lake  may 
have  been  taken  from  this  Red  Water  creek,  or  from  other  inflowing 
streams  and  springs  whose  beds  are  made  reddish  and  yellow  by  the  rust- 
colored  bog  ore  of  iron.  Beltrami  imaginatively  translated  it  as  Bloody 
lake,  attributing  it  to  blood  shed  in  Indian  wars.  More  reliably,  Rev. 
Joseph  A.  Gilfillan,  -through  inquiries  among  the  Indians,  as  noted  for 
Red  Lake  county,  learned  that  the  aboriginal  name  was  from  the  redness 
of  the  lake  and  sky  reflected  at  evening  from  the  bright  red,  vermilion, 
and  golden  hues  of  the  sunset. 

Beltrami  Island  of  Lake  Agassiz. 

The  only  large  island  of  the  Glacial  Lake  Agassiz  was  between  Red 
lake  and  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  in  Beltrami  and  Roseau  counties.  The 
highest  parts  of  that  island,  which  was  named  in  1893  for  Beltrami,  are 
about  130  feet  above  Red  lake  and  1310  feet  above  the  sea.  When  the 
glacial  lake  had  fallen  to  the  contour  line  of  1200  feet,  the  higher  Bel- 
trami island  had  an  area  of  about  1160  square  miles.  (Journal  of  Geology, 
Vol.  XXIII,  pages  780^,  Nov.-Dec.,  1915.) 


BENTON  COUNTY 

This  county,  one  of  the  first  established  in  Minnesota  Territory,  Octo- 
ber 27,  1849,  and  organized  January  7,  1850,  was  named  for  Thomas 
Hart  Benton,  who  was  United  States  senator  from  Missouri  during 
thirty  years,  1821  to  1851.  He  was  born  near  Hillsborough,  N.  C,  March 
14,  1782;  and  died  in  Washington,  April  10,  1858.  He  studied  law,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  'Nashville  in  1811 ;  was  an  aide-de-camp  of 
General  Jackson  in  the  War  of  1812,  and  also  raised  a  regiment  of  vol- 
unteers ;  removed  to  St.  Louis  in  1815,  and  established  a  newspaper  which 
vigorously  advocated  the  admission  of  Missouri  to  the  Union;  and  in 
1820  he  was  elected  as  one  of  the  senators  of  the  new  state.  In  Congress 
his  work  for  the  original  enactment  of  homestead  land  laws,  in  1824-28, 
won  the  gratitude  .of  pioneer  settlers  throughout  the  West  He  is  also 
honored  by  Benton  township  in  Carver  county,  and  by  the  name  of  Lake 
Benton  in  Lincoln  county,  applied  by  Nicollet  in  his  expedition  of  1838. 
Seven  other  states  have  counties  named  for  him,  and  twenty  states  have 
cities,  villages,  and  post  offices  of  this  name.  In  1899  his  statue  was 
placed  in  the  National  Statuary  Hall,  at  the  Capitol,  Washington,  as  one 
of  the  two  representing  Missouri. 

Benton  was  the  author  of  "Thirty  Years*  View :  History  of  the  Ameri- 
can Government,  1820-1850/'  published  in  two  volumes,  1854  and  1856. 
During  the  last  two  years  of  his  life,  with  singular  literary  industry,  he 
iirepared  the  manuscript  of  his  ''Abridgment  of  the  Debates  of  Congress, 
from  1789  to  1856,"  which  was  published  in  sixteen  volumes,  1857  to 
1863.  Several  biographies  of  him  have  been  issued,  one  by  Theodore 
Roosevelt  in  1887  being  in  the  "American  Statesmen"  series. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information*  for  this  county  was  gathered  from  the  "History  of 
the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley,"  1881,  pages  340-369;  from  records  in  the 
office  of  J.  E.  Kasner,  county  auditor,  at  Foley,  in  a  visit  there  in  May, 
1916;  from  William  H.  Fletcher,  of  Sauk  Rapids,  chairman  of  the  board 
of  county  commissioners;  and  from  Hon.  Charles  A.  Gilman,  of  St 
Qoud,  who  was  a  prominent  pioneer  of  Benton  county. 

Alberta  township,  organized  in  1868,  was  named  for  one  of  its  earl> 
settlers,  a  farmer  whose  first  name  was  Albert. 

DuELM,  a  hamlet  in  section  34,  St.  George,  was  named  by  its  German 
settlers. 

East  St.  Cloud,  in  this  county,  is  a  part  of  the  city  of  St.  Cloud,  which 
is  mainly  in  Steams  county,  west  of  the  Mississippi,  but  also  reaches 
east  of  the  river  into  Benton  and  Sherburne  counties. 

49 


50  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Foley,  a  railway  village  and  the  county  seat,  was  named  for  John 
Foley,  its  founder,  one  of  five  brothers  who  came  to  this  state  from  Lan- 
ark county,  Ontario.  When  this  line  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  was 
built,  in  1882-4,  John  and  others  of  the  brothers  were  contractors,  camp- 
ing on  the  site  of  this  village,  and  he  acquired  lands  here.  Later  he 
led  in  the  effort,  1901-02,  of  transferring  the  county  seat  from  Sauk 
Rapids  to  this  place.    He  died  in  St  Paul,  August  11,  1908. 

GiLMANToN  township,  organized  in  1866,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Charles  Andrew  Gilman,  who  was  born  in  Gilmanton,  N.  H.,  February 
9,  1833;  came  to  Sauk  Rapids,  Minn.,  in  1855,  and  renK>ved  to  St  Qoud 
in  1861.  He  was  receiver,  and  afterward  register,  of  the  U.  S.  land  of- 
fice in  St  Qoud  for  several  years;  was  a  member  of  the  state  senate, 
1868-9,.  and  of  the  House,  1875-9,  being  speaker  the  last  two  years,  and 
again  was  a  member  of  the  House  in  1915 ;  was  lieutenant  governor,  1880- 
7;  andi  state  librarian,  1894-9.  During  about  thirty  years  he  was  much 
engaged  in  lumbering  in  Benton  and  Morrison  counties,  and  he  located 
many  permanent  settlers  in  this  township. 

Glendorado  township,  organized  September  20,  1868,  received  this 
name  (partly  Spanish,  meaning  the  golden  glen)  by  petition  of  its  settlers. 

Granite  Ledge  township  was  named  for  its  granite  rock  outcrops  in 
sections  17,  18,  20,  and  24,  the  last  being  on  the  West  branch  of  Rum 
river. 

Gbaham  township  was  named  for  one  of  its  pioneer  farmers. 

Lanoola  township,  organized  July  12,  1858,  has  a  unique  name,  un- 
known elsewhere,  proposed  by  its  petitioners  for  organization. 

Mayhew  Lake  township,  and  also  its  lake  and  creek  of  this  name,  are 
in  honor  of  George  V.  Mayhew,  who  was  born  in  St  Lawrence  county,  N. 
Y.,  February  18,  1824 ;  served  in  the  Mexican  War ;  came  to  Minnesota  in 
1854,  and  settled  in  the  present  Mindien  township  of  this  county,  beside  the 
creek  named  for  him ;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1861 ;  and 
served  in  the  Seventh  Minnesota  regiment  in  the  civil  war,  becoming  a 
first  lieutenant 

Maywood  township,  organized  in  1867,  received  this  euphonious  name 
on  the  request  of  its  settlers.  New  Jersey,  Kentucky,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Missouri,  and  Nebraska,  also  have  villages  so  named. 

MiNDEN  township,  organized  in  1858,  received  its  name  from  an  east- 
ern state,  or  more  probably  it  was  given  by  immigrants  from  Germany,  for 
the  ancient  city  of  Minden  in  Prussia. 

Oak  Park,  a  railway  village  in  Masnvood,  is  named  for  the  oak  groves 
of  its  vicinity. 

Parent,  a  small  railway  village  in  St  George  township,  was  named  for 
Auguste  Parent  and  others  of  his  family  there,  farmers,  of  French  de- 
scent 

Rice,  a  railway  village  in  Langola,  is  in  honor  of  George  T.  Rice,  who 
kept  a  hotel  about  three  fourths  of  a  mile  farther  west  for  the  stage  travel 


BENTON  COUNTY  51 

previous  to  the  building  of  this  railway.  His  name  was  also  given  to  an 
extensive  prairie  that  includes  the  western  two  thirds  of  LangoU  and  the 
]x>rthwest  part  of  Watab. 

RoNNEBY,  another  railway  village,  in  Maywood,  was  named  from  a  town 
near  Karlskrona  in  southern  Sweden,  on  the  River  Ronneby  near  its  mouth 
in  the  Baltic  Sea. 

St.  George  township,  organized  September  27,  1858,  was  named  in  com- 
pliment to  three  prominent  early  settlers  of  the  south  part  of  this  county, 
George  V.  Mayhew,  George  Mclntyre,  and  another  who  had  the  same  first 
name. 

Saktell,  a  railway  village,  organized  in  November,  1907,  adjoining  the 
Mississippi  in  Sauk  Rapids  township,  with  extension  west  of  the  river  in 
Le  Sauk,  Steams  county,  was  named  for  Joseph  B.  Sartetl,  who  was  the 
first  settler  of  the  west  side,  coming  in  1854  as  a  farmer.  Later  he  built 
and  operated  sawmills.  He  resided  there,  with  seven  sons,  until  his  death, 
January  27,  1913,  at  the  age  of  eighty-six  years. 

Sauk  Rapids  township  was  organized  in  1854,  and  the  village  was 
platted  in  that  year  but  was  not  separately  organized  until  1881.  This  vil- 
lage was  the  oounty  seat  from  the  organization  of  the  county  in  1850  until 
1902,  when  the  county  offices  were  removed  to  Foley,  as  before  noted 
Sauk  Rapids  derived  its  name  from  the  adjoining  rapids  of  the  Mississippi, 
called  Grand  Rapids  by  Pike  in  1805  and  mapped  by  him  as  Big  Falls,  fall- 
ing about  20  feet  in  the  first  mile  below  the  mouth  of  the  Sauk  river, 
mapped  by  Pike  as  Sack  river,  which  comes  in  from  Stearns  county. 

The  origin  of  the  names  of  Sauk  river  and  of  Osakis  lake  and  village 
at  its  source,  in  Todd  and  Douglas  cotmties,  as  also  of  the  Sauk  lakes  and 
Little  Sauk  township  in  Todd  county,  of  Sauk  Center  and  Le  Sauk 
townships  in  Steams  county,  of  %2x^i  Raptds,  and  of  Osauka,  an 
addition  recently  platted  at  the  northwest  edge  of  this  village,  was  from 
refugee  Sauk  or  Sac  Indians,  who  came  to  Osakis  lake  from  the  home  of 
this  tribe,  allied  with  the  Fox  Indians,  in  Wisconsin.  This  was  told  in  a 
historical  paper  by  the  late  Judge  Loren  W.  Collins,  as  follows.  "Five 
Sacs,  refugees  from  their  own  tribe  on  account  of  murder  which  they  had 
committed,  made  their  way  up  to  the  lake  [Osakis]  and  settled  near  the 
outlet  .upon  the  east  side.  .  .  On  one  of  the  excursions  made  by  some  of 
the  Pillager  bands  of  Chippewas  to  the  asylum  of  the  0-zau-kees,  it  was 
found  that  all  had  been  killed,  supposedly  by  the  Sioux."  (History  of 
Steams  county,  1915,  vol.  I,  page  24.) 

Watab  township,  organized  in  1858,  like  its  Indian  trading  post,  which 
had  been  established  ten  years  earlier,  was  named  for  the  Watab  river, 
called  Little  Sack  river  by  Pike,  tributary  to  the  Mississippi  from  the  west 
about  five  miles  north  of  St.  Cloud.  This  is  the  Ojibway  word  for  the  long 
and  very  slender  roots  of  both  the  tamarack  and  jack  pine,  which  were  dug 
by  the  Indians,  split  and  used  as  threads  in  sewing  their  birch  bark 
canoes.  Both  these  coniferous  trees  grow  on  or  near  the  lower  part  of 
the  Watab  river. 


52  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Rev.  F.  W.  Smith,  an  Ojibway  pastor,  of  Red  Lake  Agency,  informed 
the  present  writer  in  1885,  during  my  visit  there,  that  in  northern  Minne- 
sota the  Ojibways  principally  use  the  roots  of  the  jack  pine  as  watab,  al- 
though the  roots  of  both  tamarack  and  arbor  vitae  are  also  somewhat  used 
(Minn.  Geol.  and  Nat.  Hist.  Survey,  Bulletin  No.  3,  1887,  page  53).  The 
name  of  this  river  and  township  doubtless  refers  to  the  jack  pines  there, 
this  being  at  the  southwest  limit  of  that  species,  whereas  the  geographic 
range  of  the  tamarack  extends  considerably  farther  south  and  west 

The  trading  post  named  Watab  was  about  two  miles  and  a  half  north 
from  the  mouth  of  this  river  and  on  the  opposite  or  eastern  side  of  the 
Mississippi.  During  about  ten  years  next  following  its  establishment  in 
1848,  Watab  was  the  most  important  commercial  place  in  Minnesota  Terri- 
tory northwestward  from  St.  Paul,  but  later  it  was  superseded  by  Sauk 
Rapids  and  St  Qoud,  and  before  1880  the  village  of  Watab  entirely  dis- 
appeared. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  name  of  the  Mississippi  was  fully  noticed  in  the  first  chapter; 
the  Elk  and  St.  Francis  rivers  are  considered  in  the  chapter  for  Sher- 
burne and  Anoka  counties,  which  respectively  have  the  village  and  towa- 
ship  of  Elk  River  and  St  Francis  township;  and  a  preceding  page  gives 
the  origin  of  the  name  of  Mayhew  lake  and  creek. 

Donovan  lake,  in  section  34,  Minden,  named  for  John  Donovan,  a  farm- 
er near  it,  was  formerly  called  Minden  lake. 

Halfway  brook,  tributary  to  the  Mississippi  close  north  of  Sartell,  re- 
ceived this  name  for  its  being  nearly  midway  between  Sauk  Rapids  and 
Watab. 

The  southern  two  thirds  of  Watab  township  has  many  outa'ops  of 
granite  and  syenite,  continuing  from  their  much  quarried  area  in  Sauk 
Rapids  and  East  St  Cloud.  At  each  side  of  the  river  road,  in  the  vicinit>' 
of  the  Watab  railway  station,  small  hills  and  knobs  of  these  rocks  rise 
about  40  feet  above  the  road  and  75  to  90  feet  above  the  river.  One  of 
these  hills  of  rough,  bald  rock,  called  by  Schoolcraft  the  Peace  Rock,  rises 
directly  from  the  river's  edge  about  a  half  mile  south  from  the  moulh  of 
Little  Rock  creek,  which,  with  its  Little  Rock  lake,  was  thence  so  named. 
It  is  a  translation  of  the  Ojibway  name,  signifying,  as  more  elaborately 
stated  by  Gilfiillan,  "where  the  little  rocky  hills  project  out  every  once  in 
a  while,  here  and  there.''  Pike  noted  the  large  prairie  here  and  northward 
as  favorite  grazing  for  elk,  and  he  therefore  mapped  these  as  Elk  lake  and 
Lake  river. 

Peace  Rock  was  named  for  its  marking,  with  the  Watab  river,  a  part 
of  the  old  line  of  boundary  between  the  Ojibways  and  the  Sioux,  to  which 
agreement  was  made  by  their  chiefs  in  the  Treaty  of  1825  at  Prairie  du 
Chien. 


BIG  STONE  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  February  20,  1862,  and  organized  April  16, 
1874,  derived  its  name  from  Big  Stone  lake,  through  which  the  Minnesota 
river  flows  on  the  west  boundary  of  the  county  and  state.  It  is  a  transla- 
tion of  the  Dakota  or  Sioux  name,  alluding  to  the  conspicuous  outcrops  of 
granite  and  gneiss,  extensively  quarried,  which  occur  in  the  Minnesota 
valley  from  a  half  mile  to  three  miles  below  the  foot  of  the  lake.  The  city 
and  county  building  in  Minneapolis  is  constructed  of  the  stone  from  these 
quarries,  which  also  supplied  four  massive  columns  of  the  state  capitol 
rotunda,  on  its  north  and  south  sides.  The  Sioux  name,  poorly  pronounced 
and  indistinctly  heard,  was  written  Eatakeka  by  Keating  in  his  Narrative 
of  Long's  Expedition  in  1823 ;  but  Prof.  A.  W.  Williamson  more  correctly 
spelled  it  in  two  words,  Inyan  tankinyanyan,  the  first  meaning  stone, 
the  second  very  great,  as  shown  by  the  repetition  of  the  first  word  and 
duplication  of  its  final  syllable. 

Big  Stone  lake  extends  in  a  somewhat  crooked  course  from  northwest 
to  southeast  twenty-six  miles;  its  width  is  one  mile  to  one  and  a  half 
miles ;  and  its  greatest  depth  is  reported  to  be  from  15  to  30  feet. 

De  LTsle's  map  of  Canada  or  New  France  in  1703  calls  this  the  Lake 
of  the  Tintons,  that  is,  the  Prairie  Sioux.  The  same  name  is  given  by 
the  maps  of  Buache,  1754,  and  Bellin,  1755.  Carver,  who  was  on  the 
Minnesota  river  in  1766-7,  mapped  this  lake  but  left  it  unnamed.  Long's 
expedition  gave  its  earliest  correct  delineation,  with  its  present  name  and 
the  older  equivalent  Sioux  and  French  names. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  has  been  gathered  from  "History  of  the  Minnesota  Val- 
ley,"  1882,  pages  973-986;  and  from  Hayden  French,  of  Ortonville,  clerk 
of  the  court  for  this  county,  and  Martin  Irwin  Matthews,  who  for  many 
years  was  one  of  the  county  commissioners  and  later  has  been  the  muni- 
cipal judge  in  Ortonville,  each  being  interviewed  during  a  visit  there  in 
September,  1916. 

Akron  township,  first  settled  in  1872,  and  organized  July  25,  1881,  was 
named  for  Akron,  Ohio,  whence  some  of  its  pioneers  came. 

Almond  township,  organized  March  29,  1880,  was  named  for  the  town- 
ship and  village  of  this  name  in  Allegany  county,  New  York,  or  for  Al- 
mond township  and  village  in  Portage  county,  Wisconsin. 

Artichoke  township,  whose  first  settler  came  in  May,  1869,  received  its 
name  from  the  former  Artichoke  lake,  now  drained,  which  was  five  miles 
long,  stretching  from  section  11  south  to  section  36,  This  name  was  prob- 
ably translated  from  the  Sioux  name  of  the  lake,  referring  to  the  edible 

58 


54  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

tuber  roots  of  a  species  of  sunflower  (Helianthus  tuberosus),  which  was 
much  used  by  the  Indians  as  food,  called  pangi  by  the  Sioux,  abundant 
here  and  common  or  frequent  throughout  this  state. 

Bassy^  a  railway  village  in  Toqua  township,  was  named  in  honor  of 
the  Barry  brothers,  homesteading  farmers  there,  who  came  from  Lowell, 
Mass. 

Beakdsley,  the  railway  village  of  Brown's  Valley  township,  was  named 
for  W.  W.  Beard sley,  who  platted  it  in  November,  1880.  He  was  bom  in 
Schuyler  county,  New  York,  in  1852 ;  removed  to  Pennsylvania  at  the  age 
of  twenty-one  years,  and  to  Wisconsin  in  1875;  came  to  Minnesota  in 
1878,  homesteading  the  farm  which  included  the  site  of  this  village. 

Big  Stone  township,  organized  October  4,  1879,  received  its  name,  like 
the  county,  from  the  adjoining  lake. 

Brown's  Valley  township,  first  settled  in  1875  and  organized  April  5, 
1880,  was  named  by  Thomas  Bailey,  a  homesteader  there  who  came  from 
Tennessee.  The  name  was  taken  from  the  very  remarkable  valley  be- 
tween lakes  Big  Stone  and  Traverse,  in  which  a  trading  post  and  the  vil- 
lage of  this  name  had  been  established  by  Hon.  Joseph  R.  Brown,  situat- 
ed in  the  southwest  corner  of  Traverse  county.  Brown  county  was  named 
for  him,  and  biographic  notes  are  given  in  its  chapter. 

Clinton,  a  railway  village  at  the  center  of  Almond  township,  was 
named  probably  for  one  of  the  many  villages,  towns,  and  counties  bearing 
this  name,  which  are  found  in  our  eastern  and  southern  states. 

Correll,  a  village  on  the  main  line  of  the  Qiicago,  Milwaukee  and  St. 
Paul  railway,  bears  a  personal  name  given  by  the  officers  of  the  railway. 
Its  more  definite  derivation  has  not  been  learned. 

Foster,  a  village  of  summer  residences  on  the  shore  of  Big  Stone  lake, 
in  Prior  township,  was  platted  in  1880  on  the  pre-emption  claim  of  M.  I. 
Matthews,  who  settled  there  in  1872.  It  was  named  for  Foster  L.  Balch, 
of  Minneapolis,  president  of  the  Big  Stone  Lake  Navigation  and  Im- 
provement Company. 

Graceville  township  and  its  village,  which  was  founded  by  Catholic 
colonists  in  1877-8,  were  named  in  honor  of  Thomas  Langdon  Grace,  who 
during  twenty-five  years  was  the  bishop  of  St.  Paul,  1859  to  1884.  He  was 
bom  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  Nov.  15, 1814,  and  died  in  St  Paul,  Feb.  22^  1897. 

Malta  township,  organized  February  14,  1880,  was  at  first  named 
Qarksville^  for  David  K  J.  Qark,  its  first  settler,  who  came  in  June,  1876. 
It  was  renamed,  after  a  town  of  New  York  and  villages  in  Ohio  and  Illi- 
nois, for  the  island  of  Malta  in  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

Moonshine  township  took  its  name  from  its  Moonshine  lake  which  was 
named  by  D.  K.  J.  Qark,  mentioned  as  a  settler  in  Malta.  On  his  first 
coming  here  in  1876  from  Wabasha  county,  his  first  camp  was  beside  this 
lake,  which  he  then  named,  intending  to  call  it  Moon  lake  for  the  surname 
of  his  wife,  Mrs.  Mary  A.  (Moon)  Qark;  but  in  the  evening  the  bright 
moonlight  caused  the  name  to  be  thus  changed. 


BIG  STONE  COUNTY  55 

Odessa  township,  first  settled  in  June,  1870,  was  named  for  the  city  o£ 
Odessa  in  southern  Russia,  whence  seed  wheat  used  in  this  vicinity  was 
brought  The  railway  village  of  Odessa  was  platted  in  1879,  when  this 
railway  was  being  built 

Ortonville  township  received  its  first  settlers  in  1871,  and  in  Septem- 
ber of  the  next  year  its  village  was  platted  by  Cornelius  Knute  Orton,  for 
whom  the  village  and  township  were  named.  He  was  of  Norwegian  de- 
scent and  was  born  in  Dane  county,  Wisconsin,  in  1846;  came  to  Minne- 
sota in  1857 ;  settled  on  a  land  claim  here  in  1871 ;  engaged  in  real  estate 
business,  and  was  a  banker,  merchant,  and  a  member  of  the  board  of  coun- 
ty commissioners.  He  died  in  Ortonville,  December  24,  1890.  This  village 
was  organized  as  a  city  on  January  28, 1881. 

Otrey  township,  first  settled  by  Thomas  and  William  Otrey  from  Illi- 
nois in  June,  1869,  was  organized  February  14,  1880.  It  was  then  named 
Trenton,  but  later  was  renamed  in  honor  of  these  brothers,  who  had  served 
in  the  civil  war. 

Prior  township,  settled  in  1870  and  organized  in  1879,  was  named  in 
honor  of  Charles  H.  Prior,  of  Minneapolis,  superintendent  of  this  Hastings 
and  Dakota  division  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St  Paul  railway. 
He  had  large  land  interests  in  this  township  and  in  Ortonville. 

ToQUA  township  (formerly  spelled  Tokua),  first  settled  in  1877  and  or- 
ganized March  16,  1880,  received  its  name  from  the  two  Tokua  lakes  in 
Graceville  and  the  similar  pair  of  lakes  in  this  township,  which  latter  were 
called  by  the  Sioux,  as  translated,  the  Tokua  Brothers  lakes.  This  aborigi- 
nal name  is  spelled  Ta  Kara  on  Nicollet's  map,  1843,  Ta  being  the  Sioux 
word  for  the  moose,  while  Kara  doubtless  refers  to  the  Kahra  band  of  the 
Dakotas  or  Sioux. 

Keating,  the  historian  of  Long's  expedition  in  1823,  wrote  as  follows 
(in  his  Volume  I,  page  403),  describing  this  band  "Kahra  (Wild  Rice). 
These  Indians  dwell  in  very  large  and  fine  skin  lodges.  The  skins  are  well 
prepared  and  handsomely  painted.  They  have  no  permanent  residence,  but 
frequently  visit  Lake  Travers.  Their  hunting  grounds  are  on  Ked  river. 
They  follow  Tatankanaje  (the  Standing  Buffalo),  who  is  a  chief  by 
hereditary  right,  and  who  has  acquired  distinction  as  a  warrior." 

Nicollet  also  used  the  word  Kara  as  the  final  part  of  other  names,  Plan 
Kara  and  Manstitsa  Kara,  given  on  his  map  to  two  points  or  hillocks  of 
the  valley  bluff  east  of  the  northern  end  of  Lake  Traverse.  Riggs,  how- 
ever, in  his  Dakota  Dictionary,  published  in  1852,  rejected  all  use  of  the 
letter  r  in  that  language,  so  that  the  name  Kahra  or  Kara  may  not  be 
identifiable  in  that  work.  Tokua  (or  Toqua)  was  the  white  men's  endeavor 
to  spell  the  Sioux  name  for  these  pairs  of  lakes,  which  Nicollet  spelled  as 
TaKara. 

Samuel  J.  Brown,  of  the  village  of  Brown's  Valley,  has  stated  that  this 
namt  "was  taken  from  a  picture  carved  on  a  tree,  meaning  probably  some 
gn}nia)  so  pictured."  This  accords  well  with  the  meaning  of  the  name  given 


56  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

♦ 

by  Nicollet,  as  the  moose  of  the  Kara  or  Kahra  band  of  Sioux,  perhaps  a 
family  totem  or  their  mystic  patron  of  the  clan  (as  we  might  say,  a 
mascot) . 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Since  the  first  coming  of  the  homestead  farmers,  nearly  fifty  years 
ago,  the  area  of  this  county  has  witnessed  the  drying  up  of  many  of  its  for- 
mer shallow  lakes,  partly  because  plowing  and  cultivation  of  the  soil  per- 
mit  the  rains  and  the  water  from  the  melting  of  the  winter  snows  to  sink 
in  larger  proportion  into  the  ground,  not  running  oft  to  the  hollows,  in 
recent  years  others  of  the  lakes  have  been  drained  by  ditches,  the  lake  beds 
being  allotted  fractionally  to  the  adjoining  landowners.  The  map  of  Big 
Stone  county  published  by  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey  (vol.  I,  1884, 
Chapter  XXI)  has  more  than  fifty  lakes;  but  the  most  recent  Minnesota 
atlas,  in  191:6,  shows  only  four  or  five  yet  remaining,  these  )>eing  unnamed. 

Artichoke  and  Moonshine  lakes,  and  the  Tokua  lakes  and  Tokua  Broth- 
ers lakes,  noted  in  the  foregoing  list  of  townships,  have  disappeared  by 
drainage. 

Only  a  few  streams  of  noteworthy  size  and  bearing  names  flow  here  in- 
to the  Minnesota  river  and  Big  Stone  lake.  These  include  Five  Mile 
creek,  so  named  for  its  distance  west  of  the  Pomme  de  Terre  river  and 
the  village  of  Appleton,  in  the  adjoining  Swift  county;  Stony  run,  in  Big 
Stone  and  Odessa  townships,  named  for  the  plentiful  boulders  along  parts 
of  this  stream ;  and  Fish  creek,  tributary  to  Big  Stone  lake  at  the  north- 
west corner  of  Prior. 

The  Glacial  River  Warren. 

'  Big  Stone  lake,  flowing  south  in  the  Minnesota  river,  and  Lake  Trav- 
erse, flowing  north  in  the  Bois  des  Sioux  and  Red  rivers,  are  on  the  oppo^ 
site  sides  of  a  continental  water  divide,  one  of  these  lakes  sending  its  out- 
flow to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  other  to  Hudson  Bay.  But  they  lie 
in  a  continuous  valley,  one  to  two  miles  wide,  which  was  evidently  chan- 
neled by  a  great  river  formerly  flowing  southward.  The  part  of  Uie 
ancient  watercourse  between  these  lakes,  a  distance  of  nearly  five  miles, 
is  widely  known  as  Brown's  Valley.  As  noticed  in  the  first  chapter  the 
former  river  here  outflowing  from  the  Glacial  Lake  Agassiz  in  the  Red 
river  basin  has  been  named  the  River  Warren,  in  honor  of  General  G.  K. 
Warren. 

Fifteen  miles  below  Big  Stone  lake,  the  Minnesota  river  flows  through 
Marsh  lake,  on  the  south  side  of  Akron,  now  mainly  drained,  which  for- 
merly was  four  miles  long  and  about  a  mile  wide.  It  was  so  named  from 
its  being  shallow  and  full  of  reeds  and  grass. 


BLUE  EARTH  COUNTY 

This  county  was  established  March  5,  1853,  and  took  its  name  from  the 
Blue  Earth  river,  for  a  bluish  green  earth  that  was  used  by  the  Sisseton 
Sioux  as  a  pigment,  found  in  a  shaly  layer  of  the  rock  bluff  of  this  stream 
about  three  miles  from  its  mouth. 

The  blue  earth  was  the  incentive  and  cause  of  a  very  interesting  chap- 
ter of  our  earliest  history.  LeSueur,  the  French  explorer,  before  his  first 
return  to  France  in  1695,  had  discovered  the  locality  whence  the  savages 
procured  this  blue  and  green  paint,  which  he  thought  to  be  an  ore  of  cop- 
per, and  he  then  took  some  of  it  to  Paris,  submitted  it  to  L'Huillier,  one  of 
the  king's  assayers,  and  secured  the  royal  commission  to  work  the  mines. 
But  disasters  and  obstacles  deterred  him  from  this  project  until  four  years 
later,  when,  having  come  from  a  third  visit  in  France,  with  thirty  miners, 
to  Biloxi,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  he  ascended  this  river  in  the 
year  1700,  using  a  sailing  and  rowing  vessel  and  two  canoes.  Coming  for- 
ward along  the  Minnesota  river,  he  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Blue  Earth 
river  on  the  last  day  in  September  or  the  first  in  October. 

LeSueur  spent  the  ensuing  year  on  this  river,  having  built  a  camp  or 
post  named  Fort  L'Huillier,  and  in  the  spring  mined  a  large  quantity  of  the 
supposed  copper  ore.  Taking  a  selected  portion  of  the  ore,  amounting  to 
two  tons,  and  leaving  a  garrison  at  the  fort,  LeSueur  again  navigated  near- 
ly the  whole  length  of  the  Mississippi,  and  arrived  at  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
in  February,  1702.  Thence  with  Iberville,  the  founder  and  first  governor  of 
Louisiana,  who  was  a  cousin  of  LeSueur's  wife,  he  sailed  for  France  in 
the  latter  part  of  April,  carrying  the  ore  or  blue  earth,  of  which,  however, 
nothing  more  is  known. 

Thomas  Hughes,  of  Mankato,  historian  of  the  city  and  county,  identi- 
fied in  1904  the  sites  of  Fort  L'Huillier  and  the  mine  of  the  blue  or  green 
earth,  which  are  described  in  a  paper  contributed  to  the  Minnesota  Histori- 
cal Society  Collections   (^ol.  XII,  pages  283-5). 

Penicaut's  Relation  of  LeSueur's  expedition  was  translated  by  Alfred 
J.  Hill  in  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  Collections  (vol.  HI,  1880,  pages 
1-12)  ;  and  a  map  showing  the  locations  of  the  fort  and  mine,  ascertained 
by  Hughes,  was  published  in  1911  by  Winchell,  on  page  493,  "The  Abor- 
igines of  Minnesota."  From  that  expedition  and  the  mine,  we  have  the 
name  of  the  Blue  Earth  river  and  of  this  county,  and  also  of  the  town- 
ship and  city  of  Blue  Earth  in  Faribault  county. 

This  name  was  probably  received  by  LeSueur  and  his  party  from  that 
earlier  given  to  the  river  by  the  Sioux.  The  Relation  of  Penicaut,  how- 
ever, might  be  thought  to  indicate  otherwise,  as  follows :  "W^e  called  this 
Green  river,  because  it  is  of  that  color  by  reason  of  a  green  earth  which, 
loosening  itself  from  the  copper  mines,  becomes  dissolved  in  it  and  makes 

67 


58  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

it  green."  In  the  language  of  the  Sioux  the  same  word,  to,  is  used  both 
for  blue  and  green,  and  their  name  of  the  Blue  Earth  river  is  Makato 
(maka,  earth,  to,  blue,  or  green).  Keating  wrote,  in  the  Narrative  of 
Long's  expedition,  1823 :  "By  the  Dacotas  it  is  called  Makato  Osa  Watapa, 
which  signifies  *the  river  where  blue  earth  is  gathered.'" 

The  Sioux  name  is  retained,  with  slight  change,  by  the  township  and 
city  of  Mankato.  On  the  earliest  map  of  Minnesota  Territory,  in  1850,  it 
appeared  as  Mahkahta  for  one  of  its  original  nine  counties/ reaching  from 
the  Mississippi  above  the  Crow  Wing  west  to  the  Missouri. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  of  the  local  names  has  been  gathered  from 
"History  of  the  Minnesota  Valley,"  1882,  pages  532-637 ;  from  "The  Stand- 
ard Historical  and  Pictorial  Atlas  and  Gazetteer  of  Blue  Earth  County," 
1895,  147  pages;  from  the  "History  of  Blue  Earth  County,"  by  Thomas 
Hughes,  1909,  622  pages;  and  from  Evan  Hughes,  judge  of  probate,  An- 
drew G.  Johnson,  county  treasurer,  Thomas  Hughes,  and  Judge  Lorin 
Cray,  during  my  visits  in  Mankato  in  July  and  October,  1916. 

Amboy,  the  railway  village  of  Shelby  township,  was  platted  October  31, 
1879,  and  was  named  by  Robert  Richardson,  its  first  postmaster  and  mer- 
chant, for  the  town  of  his  former  home  in  Illinois. 

Beauforo  township  was  originally  established  under  the  name  of  Win- 
neshiek (the  Winnebago  chief  for  whom  a  county  of  Iowa  is  named), 
April  16,  1858,  when  it  was  in  the  Winnebago  Indian  Reservation.  It  was 
organized  March  13,  1866,  with  the  present  name,  suggested  by  Albert 
Gates,  "after  a  town  in  the  east,  from  which  some  of  the  settlers  had 
come."  (The  U.  S.  Postal  Guide  formerly  had  one  post  office  of  this 
name,  this  being  in  Floyd  county,  Virginia ;  but  it  was  discontinued  several 
years  ago.    Beaufort,  nearly  the  same,  is  a  frequent  geographic  name.) 

Braih^y  railway  station,  five  miles  north  of  Mankato,  was  named  for 
the  Bradley  crossing  of  the  Minnesota  river,  established  by  the  Bradley 
family,  on  whose  farm  this  station  was  located.     (Stennett,  p.  169.) 

Butternut  Valley  township,  established ,  January  6,  1857,  organ- 
ized in  May,  1858,  was  named  in  accordance  with  the  suggestion  of 
Colonel  Samuel  D.  Shaw,  who  had  come  from  the  town  of  Butternuts, 
in  Otsego  county.  New  York.  The  butternut  tree  is  common  or  frequent, 
especially  in  river  valleys,  through  the  southeastern  part  of  Minnesota. 

CAMBiaA  township,  first  settled  in  1855,  organized  June  3,  1867,  was 
named  by  Robert  H.  Hughes,  a  pioneer  homesteader,  who  had  come 
from  Cambria,  Wisconsin.  This  was  the  ancient  Latin  name  of  Wales, 
the  native  land  of  nearly  all  the  settlers  here,  or  of  their  parents. 

Ceresco  township,  established  July  8,  1857,  organized  May  11,  1858, 
was  named  by  Isaac  Slocum,  for  his  former  home  town  in  Wisconsin. 

Cray,  a  railway  station  eight  miles  west  of  Mankato,  was  named  for 
Judge  Lorin  Cray,  who  during  many  years  was  the  Mankato  attorney  of 
this  Chicago,  St  Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Omaha  railway  company. 


BLUE  EARTH  COUNTY  59 

DANynxE  township,  established  April  6,  1858,  was  then  named  Jack- 
son ;  but  because  an  earlier  township  of  Minnesota  had  that  name,  it  was 
changed  October  14,  1858,  in  compliment  to  Lucius  Dyer,  a  settler  who 
had  come  from  Danville,  Vermont. 

Decoria  township,  named  April  6,  1858,  was  in  the  Winnebago  reser- 
vation, and  it  remained  without  organization  till  October  8,  1867,  being 
the  latest  organized  township  of  this  county.  The  name  is  in  commem- 
oration of  a  Winnebago  chief,  called  "One-Eyed  Dekora,"  having  lost  an 
eye.  This  chief  and  the  tribe  aided  the  whites  during  the  Black  Hawk 
war  of  1832,  in  which  he  displayed  great  ability  and  courage.  He  lived 
through  the  removals  of  the  Winnebagoes  from  Wisconsin  to  northeast- 
ern Iowa  in  1837n38,  from  Iowa  to  Long  Prairie,  Minnesota,  in  1848,  thence 
to  Blue  Earth  county  in  1855,  next  to  a  reservation  in  Dakota,  1863,  and 
last  to  Nebraska  in  1866.  He  was  a  renowned  orator,  and  Irom  his 
prowess  in  war  and  influence  in  council  was  known  among  his  own  peo- 
ple as  Waukon  Decorah,  meaning  in  translation  "Wonderful  Decorah." 
Two  important  towns  of  Iowa,  Waukon  and  Decorah,  which  are  the 
county  seats  of  its  most  northeast  counties  on  the  border  of  Minnesota, 
were  named  for  him.  This  name,  variously  spelled*  also  as  De  Kaury, 
Day  Kauray,  Day  Korah,  De  Corrah,  etc.,  belonged  to  a  Winnebago  family 
of  hereditary  chiefs  through  four  generations  or  more,  who  had  descend- 
ed from  a  French  army  officer,  Sabrevoir  De  Carrie.  (Hodge,  Hand- 
book of  American  Indians,  vol.  I,  1907,  page  384;  Sparks,  History  of  Win- 
neshiek County,  Iowa,  1877;  Alexander,  History  of  Winneshiek  and  Alla- 
makee Counties,  Iowa,  1882.) 

Eagle  Lake,  a  railway  village  in  Le  Ray  township,  was  platted  in 
November,  1872,  and  received  its  name  from  the  neighboring  lake,  which 
had  been  so  named  by  the  United  States  land  surveyors  because  many 
bald  eagles  had  nests  in  high  trees  on  the  lake  shore. 

Garden  City  township  was  established  April  6,  1858,  but  was  then 
named  Watonwan  for  the  river.  The  village  had  been  platted  in  June, 
1856,  being  named  Fremont  for  John  C  Fremont,  the  Republican  can- 
didate for  president  in  the  campaign  of  that  year.  In  October,  1858, 
it  was  replatted  by  Simeon  P.  Folsom,  who  renamed  it  Garden  City,  hav- 
ing reference  to  the  native  floral  charms  of  the  place.  Steunett  wrote  of 
it,  "Even  to  this  day,  in  the  spring  the  surrounding  country  is  like  a  gar- 
den of  wild  flowers."  In  February,  1864,  the  township  was  changed  to 
Garden  City  by  an  act  of  the  state  legislature.  The  name  here  ante- 
dates it  on  Long  Island,  N.  Y.,  where  the  only  town  so  named  in  the 
eastern  states  was  founded  in  1869  by  A.  T.  Stewart,  the  multimillionaire 
merchant. 

Good  Thunder,  the  railway  village  of  Lyra  township,  platted  in  April, 
1871,  and  incorporated  March  2,  1893,  was  named  for  a  chief  of  the 
Winnebagoes,  whose  village  was  close  east  of  this  site.  The  ford  of  the 
Maple  river  here  had  been  previously  called  Good  Thunder's  ford.    He 


60  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

w^s  a  friend  of  the  white  people,  and  in  1862  refused  the  overtures  of 
the  Sioux  for  the  Winnebagoes  to  join  in  their  outbreak  and  massacre 
of  the  white  settlers.  He  died  several  years  later  on  the  Missouri  river, 
after  the  removal  of  his  tribe  to  Dakota. 

This  was  also  the  name  of  a  Sioux,  Wa-kin-yan-was-te,  in  translation 
Good  Thunder,  who  likewise  was  friendly  to  the  whites,  becoming  Gen- 
eral Sibley's  chief  of  scouts  during  his  expeditions  against  the  Sioux 
after  the  massacre.  He  was  converted  to  be  a  Christian  in  1861,  and 
was  the  first  Sioux  baptized  by  Bishop  Whipple,  receiving  then  the  name 
Andrew.  He  lived  as  a  farmer  at  the  mission  of  Birch  Cooley,  and  during 
many  years  was  the  warden  of  its  Sioux  church.  In  1889  he  was  a  guest 
of  the  village  of  Good  Thunder  at  its  celebration  of  the  Fourth  of  July, 
when  he  and  many  of  its  people  thought  the  name  of  the  village  to  have 
been  given  in  his  honor.  To  make  it  more  sure,  by  the  speeches  of  that 
day  it  was  so  rechristened.  (Good  Thunder  Herald,  Feb.  21,  1901.)  He 
died  at  the  Sioux  Agency  near  Redwood  Falls,  February  15,  1901.  Por- 
traits of  this  Good  Thunder  and  his  wife  are  given  in  "The  Aborigines 
of  Minnesota"  at  page  509,  but  he  is  there  erroneously  called  a  Winne- 
bago; and  another  portrait  of  him  is  in  Whipple's  "Lights  and  Shadows 
of  a  long  Episcopate,"  at  page  128. 

It  seems  most  probable  that  when  this  name  was  first  chosen  for  the 
village,  although  the  greater  number  of  those  naming  it  had  in  mind 
the  Winnebago  chief,  others  of  them  and  many  in  the  county  supposed 
it  to  be  for  the  Sioux  scout,  the  exemplary  Christian  convert.  Both 
these  Indians  certainly  were  very  well  known  by  the  people  of  this  town- 
ship and  county. 

Jamestown,  half  of  a  government  township,  first  settled  in  1856,  and 
organized  May  11,  1858,  then  including  also  Le  Ray  township,  was  named 
by  Enoch  G.  Barkhurst,  "in  honor  of  the  first  English  colony  of  Vir- 
ginia." The  name  there  was  given  to  honor  James  I,  King  of  England 
in  1603-25. 

JuDSON  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  "named  by  Robert  Pat- 
terson, in  honor  of  the  great  Baptist  missionary."  Patterson  had  earlier 
platted  and  named  Judson  village,  December  10,  1856.  Adoniram  Jud- 
son  was  born  in  Maiden,  Mass.,  August  9,  1788;  and  died  at  sea,  April 
12,  1850.  He  went  to  Burma  as  a  missionary  in  1812,  completed  the  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible  into  Burmese  in  1833,  and  completed  a  Burmese-Eng- 
lish dictionary  in  1849. 

Lake  Crystal,  a  railway  village  and  junction,  platted  in  May,  1869, 
incorporated  by  the  legislature  February  24,  1870,  was  named  by  Gen. 
Judson  W.  Bishop,  of  St.  Paul,  engineer  of  the  survey  and  construction 
of  this  railway,  for  the  adjoining  lake,  which,  according  to  Stennett, 
"was  named  by  John  C.  Fremont  and  J.  N.  Nicollet,  who  explored  the 
country  around  it  in  1838,  because  of  the  unusual  brilliancy  and  crystal 
purity  of  its  waters."  (This  lake  and  the  others  near  are  unnamed  on 
Nicollet's  map,  1843.) 


-    BLUE  EARTH  COUNTY  61 

Lb  Ray  township,  first  settled  in  1856,  organized  in  1860,  was  at  first 
named  Lake  and  was  renamed  Tivoli,  but  on  September  5,  1860,  received 
its  present  name.  The  only  use  of  this  name  elsewhere  is  for  a  township 
of  Jefferson  county,  N.  Y.,  whence  probably  some  of  the  settlers  here 
had  come. 

Lime  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  by  George  Stan- 
nard  for  its  extensive  outcrops  of  limestone,  which  have  since  been  much 
quarried. 

Lincoln  township,  settled  in  1856,  was  at  first  named  Richfield,  April 
6,  1858;  but  it  remained  without  separate  organization  until  September 
26,  1865,  when  it  was  renamed  for  the  martyred  War  President. 

Lyra  township,  at  first  named  Tecumseh,  April  16,  1858,  was  renamed 
Winneshiek  in  May,  1866;  but  at  the  time  of  its  organization,  September 
22,  1866,  it  was  finally  named  Lyra,  as  proposed  by  Rev.  J.  M.  Thurston, 
"after  a  town  he  had  come  from  in  the  east."  (It  appears  in  our  east- 
ern states  only  as  a  post  office  in  Scioto  cbunty,  Ohio.)  "It  comes  to  us 
from  ancient  mythology  and  was  originally  used  to  designate  a  northern 
constellation,  ...  as  it  was  supposed  to  represent  the  lyre  carried  by 
ApoUo." 

McPherson  was  at  first  named  Rice  Lake  township,  August  21,  1855 ; 
was  renamed  McQellan,  for  Gen.  George  B.  McQellan,  September  2, 
1863;  and  received  its  present  name  by  an  act  of  the  state  legislature  in 
February,  1865,  in  honor  of  Gen.  James  B.  McPherson.  He  was  bom  in 
Sandusky,  Ohio,  November  14,  1828;  was  graduated  at  West  Point. 
1853;  was  appointed  a  major  general  in  1862;  served  with  distinction  in 
the  siege  and  capture  of  Vicksburg;  became  commander  of  the  Arhiy 
of  the  Tennessee  in  the  spring  of  1864;  and  was  killed  near  Atlanta,  Ga., 
July  22,  1864. 

Madison  Lake^  a  railway  village  in  Jamestown,  was  named  for  the 
adjoining  lake,  which  had  been  so  named  by  the  government  surveyors 
in  honor  of  James  Madison,  fourth  president  of  the  United  States,  1809-17. 

Mankato  township  was  established  April  6,  1858,  and  was  organized 
in  connection  with  the  present  city  of  Mankato,  May  11,  1858.  The  city 
charter  was  adopted  March  24,  1868 ;  and  the  first  election  of  the  township, 
separate  from  the  city,  was  held  April  7,  1868.  The  first  settlement  of 
Mankato  and  of  this  county  was  in  February,  1852,  by  Parsons  King  John- 
son; and  on  the  14th  of  that  month  the  Blue  Earth  Settlement  Qaim  As- 
sociation was  organized  in  St.  Paul  by  Henry  Jackson,  P.  K.  Johnson, 
Col.  D.  A.  Robertson,  Justus  C.  Ramsey,  brother  of  the  governor  of  the 
Territory,  and  others.  Hughes  writes  of  their  choice  of  the  name  for 
the  settlement  to  be  founded,  as  follows:  "The  honor  of  christening 
the  new  city  was  accorded  to  Mrs.  P.  K.  Johnson  and  Mrs.  Henry  Jack- 
son, who  selected  the  name  'Mankato,'  upon  the  suggestion  of  Col.  Rob- 
ertson. He  had  taken  the  name  from  Nicollet's  book,  in  which  the  French 
explorer  compared  the  *Mahkato*  or  Blue  Earth  river,  with  all  its  tribu- 
taries, to  the  water  nymphs  and  their  uncle  in  the  German  legend  of 


62  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

'Undine'  .  .  .  No  more  appropriate  name  could  be  given  the  new  city, 
than  that  of  the  noble  river  at  whose  mouth  it  is  located.** 

Mapleton^  first  settled  in  April,  1856,  was  named  Sherman  in  1858  for 
Isaac  Sherman,  an  old  settler  of  Danville,  or  perhaps  for  Asa  P.  Sher- 
man of  this  township.  It  was  organized,  with  its  first  town  meeting, 
April  2,  1861,  taking  its  present  name  from  the  Maple  river,  which  re- 
ceived this  name  from  the  government  surveyors  in  1854,  for  its  plenti- 
ful maple  trees.  The  site  of  the  railway  village  of  Mapleton  was  platted 
January  21,  1871,  and  it  soon  superseded  the  older  village  which  had 
been  platted  in  June,  1856. 

Meoo,  a  township  of  the  Winnebago  reservation,  was  named  by  the 
county  commissioners  April  16,  1858,  but  it  was  not  organized  until 
September  2,  1863.  This  is  a  Sioux  word,  meaning  a  species  of  plant 
(Apios  tuberosa),  which  has  roots  that  bear  small  tubers  much  used  by 
the  Indians  as  food.  It  is  common  or  frequent  through  the  south  half 
of  this  state,  extending  north  to  the  upper  Mississippi  river.  Dr.  Parry, 
with  Owen's  geological  survey  in  1848,  wrote  of  it  as  "Pomme  de  Terre  of 
the  French  voyageurs;  Mdo,  or  wild  potato,  of  the  Sioux  Indians."  It 
is  also  called  ground-nut,  and  its  nutlike  tubers  grow  in  a  series  along  the 
root 

Perth,  a  railway  station  in  Lincoln  township,  was  named  in  1905  from 
the  city  in  Scotland.  It  had  formerly  been  called  Iceland,  for  the  native 
island  of  some  of  its  immigrants. 

Pleasant  Mound  township  was  first  named  Otsego,  April  6,  1858; 
but  on  October  14  of  that  year  it  was  renamed  Willow  Creek,  "probably 
an  eastern  name  familiar  to  some  old  settler."  There  is  a  creek  of  this 
name  in  the  east  part  of  the  township,  flowing  northeast  into  the  Blue 
Earth  river.  A  post  ofHce  named  Pleasant  Mound  was  established  in 
1863  at  the  home  of  F.  O.  Marks,  near  a  series  of  hills  of  drift  gravel, 
called  kames,  in  section  25.  The  Sioux  name  of  these  hills,  according  to 
Hughes,  was  Ichokse  or  Repah  Kichakse,  meaning  "to  cut  in  the  middle, 
perhaps  from  the  fact  that  the  ridge  is  divided  into  a  number  of  mounds, 
or  it  may  mean  'thrown  down  or  dumped  in  heaps,'  as  the  spelling  is  un- 
certain." September  6,  1865,  this  township  was  organized  and  was 
given  its  present  name,  on  the  suggestions  of  Mr.  Marks  and  John  S. 
Parks,  taken  like  that  of  the  post  office  from  the  knoUy  gravel  ridge. 

Rapodan  township,  which  was  in  the  Winnebago  reservation,  was  at 
first  named  De  Soto,  April  16,  1858;  but  at  its  organization,  April  15,  1865, 
it  received  the  present  name,  suggested  by  C.  P.  Cook,  from  the  civil 
war,  for  the  Rapidan  river  of  Virginia.  This  name  is  also  given  to  rapids 
and  a  dam  of  the  Blue  Earth  river  in  the  northwest  part  of  this  town- 
ship, about  two  miles  west  of  Rapidan  village  on  the  railway. 

St.  Clasr,  a  railway  terminal  village  in  McPherson  township,  is  on  the 
site  of  the  old  Winnebago  Agency,  where  after  the  removal  of  the  In- 
dians a  village  named  Hilton  was  platted  on  land  of  Aaron  Hilton  in 


BLUE  EARTH  COUNTY  63 

1865.  Its  name  was  changed  to  St.  Qair  by  officers  of  the  Chicago,  Mil- 
waukee and  St.  Paul  railway  company. 

Shelby  township,  established  by  the  county  commissioners  April  6, 
1858,  was  then  named  Liberty,  but  was  renamed  as  now  on  October  14, 
of  that  year.  Its  village  of  Shelbyville  had  been  platted  in  April,  1856, 
which  was  superseded  by  the  more  centrally  located  railway  village  of 
Amboy,  platted  in  1879,  so  that  the  Shelbyville  post  office  was  discontinued 
in  1881.  This  village  name  was  given  by  Rev.  John  W.  Powell,  who  came 
here  in  October,  1855,  from  Shelbyville,  Indiana. 

Isaac  Shelby,  whose  name  is  borne  by  nine  counties  in  our  central 
and  southern  states  and  also  by  numerous  towns  and  villages,  with  sev- 
eral other  cities  and  villages  named  Shelbyville,  was  born  in  Maryland, 
December  11,  1750;  and  died  near  Stanford,  Kentucky,  July  18,  1826. 
He  served  very  honorably  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  again  in  the 
War  of  1812;  was  the  first  governor  of  Kentucky,  1792-96,  and  also  in 
1812-16;  returned  from  each  period  of  his  governorship  to  the  cultivation 
of  his  farm;  was  six  times  a  presidential  elector,  but  declined  other  pub- 
lic service. 

South  Bend  township  "derived  its  name  from  the  fact  that  the  Minne- 
sota river  makes  its  great  southern  bend  on  its  northern  boundary." 
This  name  was  proposed  by  David  C.  Evans,  by  whom,  with  Captain 
Samuel  Humbertson  and  others,  the  village  of  South  Bend  was  founded 
in  the  summer  of  1853,  as  a  rival  of  Mankato.  Its  plat  was  recorded 
September  22,  1854.    The  township  was  organized  May  11,  1858. 

Sterling  township,  first  settled  in  1855,  was  organized  in  April  and 
May,  1858,  then  being  named  Mapleton ;  but  on  January  3,  1860,  the  county 
commissioners  granted  the  petition  of  the  settlers  in  this  township  to  re- 
name it  Sterling.  It  was  so  organized,  separate  from  the  present  Maple- 
ton,  April  3,  1860.  Robert  Taylor  proposed  the  name  for  the  city  and 
county  in  Scotland,  spelled  Stirling;  but,  as  Hughes  writes,  ''William 
Russell  contended  for  the  name  'Sterling,'  as  more  appropriate  and  ex- 
pressive of  the  quality  of  the  soil  and  people,  and  the  majority  sided  with 
him." 

Stone^  a  railway  station  three  miles  north  of  Mankato,  "was  origin- 
ally called  Quarry,  owing  to  stone  quarries  in  the  vicinity.  In  1902  the 
name  was  changed  to  Stone,  and  came  from  the  same  'stone  quarries'  that 
had  given  it  the  earlier  name.''  (Stennett,  Origin  of  the  Place  Names 
of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railways.) 

Vernon  Center  township,  settled  in  1855,  was  at  first  named  Monte- 
video by  the  county  commissioners,  April  6,  1858 ;  but  ten  days  later  they 
renamed  it  Vernon,  and  on  October  14  of  the  same  year  they  changed 
this  to  the  present  name.  A  village  had  been  platted  here  in  June,  1857, 
by  proprietors  who  came  from  Mount  Vernon,  Ohio,  two  of  whom,  Col. 
Benjamin  F.  Smith  and  Benjamin  McCracken,  gave  to  it  the  name  Ver- 
non. The  many  villages  and  cities  of  the  United  States  that  bear  this 
name,  including  the  home  of  Washington  in  Virginia,  received  it  primar- 


64  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

ily  in  honor  of  the  distinguished  English  admiral,  Edward  Vernon,  (1684- 
1757),  the  hero  of  the  expeditions  capturing  Porto  Bello  in  1739  and  at- 
tacking Cartagena  in  1741.  When  the  railway  was  built  through  this 
township  in  1879,  the  first  name  given  to  the  station  here  was  Edge  wood, 
for  -its  being  at  the  edge  of  a  grove ;  but  it  was  renamed  in  1885  for  the 
township,  although  neither  the  township  nor  tlie  station  is  quite  centrally 
situated. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Minneopa  creek,  its  falls,  and  the  State  Park,  are  noted  in  a  later  part 
of  the  present  chapter. 

In  the  foregoing  notes  of  townships  and  villages,  other  streams  and 
lakes  have  been  noticed,  namely,  Maple  river,  Willow  creek  in  Pleasant 
Mound  township,  Lake  Crystal,  and  Eagle  and  Madison  lakes. 

The  United  States  surveyors  named  Washington,  Jefferson,  and  Madi- 
son lakes,  in  commemoration  of  the  early  presidents.  These  are  notably 
large  in  a  group  of  many  lakes,  the  first  and  second  being  in  the  south  edge 
of  LeSueur  county,  adjoining  Jamestown,  and  the  third  in  Jamestown 
and  Le  Ray.  Hughes  records  the  Sioux  name  of  Lake  Washington  as 
Okapah,  meaning  the  Choke  Cherry  lake,  and  of  Lake  Madison  as  Wak<Mi- 
seche,  that  is,  the  Evil  Spirit,  or  Abundant  Mystery,  or  the  Sacred  Shade. 

Government  surveyors  also  named  the  Maple  river,  which  the  Sioux 
called  the  Tewapa-Tankiyan  river  (meaning  Big  Water-Lily  root),  and 
the  Big  Cobb  river,  which  bore  a  Sioux  name,  Tewapadan  (Little  Lily 
root.)  The  names  used  by  the  Indians,  copied  thus  from  Nicollet's  map 
(1843),  referred  to  the  roots  which  they  dug  for  food  in  the  shallow 
water  of  these  streams  and  their  tributary  lakes.  On  the  township  plats 
the  Big  Cobb  and  Little  Cobb  rivers  were  spelled  without  their  final 
letter,  though  probably  named  for  some  member  or  acquaintance  of  the 
surveying  party. 

Lake  Lura  is  said  to  have  been  so  designated  by  one  of  the  early 
settlers,  from  the  name  "Lura"  found  carved  on  a  tree  upon  its  shore, 
and  thence  »t  was  givtn  to  a  neighboring  township  in  Faribault  county. 
It  had  two  Sioux  names,  Tewapa  (Water  Lily)  and  Ata'kinyan  or  Ksan- 
ksan  (crooked  or  irregular). 

Jackson  lake,  on  the  east  line  of  Shelby,  named  for  Norman  L 
Jackson,  the  first  settler  of  that  township,  who  located  on  its  shore,  had 
the  Sioux  name  Sinkpe  (Muskrat).  Hughes  writes:  "The  southern  half 
of  its  bed,  being  shallow,  was  thickly  populated  by  these  animals,  whose 
rush-built  homes  literally  covered  that  portion  of  the  lake.  The  spot 
was  noted  among  both  the  Indians  and  pioneers  for  trapping  these  fur- 
bearing  rats." 

Wita  lake,  in  Lime  township,  retains  its  Sioux  name,  meaning  Island 
lake,  for  its  two  islands. 

The  aborigines  are  also  commemorated  by  two  Indian  lakes,  in  Le  Ray 
and  South  Bend  townships. 


BLUE  EARTH  COUNTY  65 

Names  of  pioneer  settlers  are  borne  by  Ballantyne  lake,  in  Jamestown, 
for  James  Ballantyne,  a  school  teacher  and  homesteader;  GilfilHn  lake, 
in  Jamestown  and  Le  Ray,  for  Joseph  Gilfillin,  who  left  his  home  near 
this  lake  to  join  the  Ninth  Minnesota  Regiment,  Company  £,  and  was 
killed  only  two  weeks  later  in  service  against  the  Sioux  near  New  Ulm, 
September  3,  1862;  Kilby  lake,  on  the  line  of  Judson  and  Butternut 
Valley,  for  Benjamin  £.  Kilby;  Armstrong,  Dackins,  Lieberg,  Solberg, 
and  Strom  lakes,  in  Butternut  Valley,  for  J(^n  Armstrong,  Edward 
Dackins,  Ole  P.  Lieberg,  Olens  Solberg,  and  Andrew  Strom,  the  largest 
of  these,  Solberg  lake,  and  also  Dackins  lake,  having  been  recently  drain- 
ed by  ditches ;  Mills  lake,  in  Garden  City  township,  for  Titus  Mills,  whose 
farm  bordered  on  this  lake ;  Morgan  creek,  in  Cambria,  for  Richard  Mo^~ 
gan,  also  sometimes  otherwise  named  for  others  of  the  settlers  along  its 
course;  Rogers  lake,  in  sections  7  and  18,  Danville,  for  John  £.,  Robert 
H.,  and  Josiah  Rogers,  early  settlers  on  its  shore;  Albert  and  George 
lakes,  in  Jamestown ;  and  Lake  Alice,  in  Le  Ray,  and  Ida  lake  in  Shelby, 
each  probably  named  for  the  wife  or  daughter  of  a  pioneer. 

Other  names  are  of  obvious  significance,  as  Cottonwood  lake,  in  Medo ; 
Duck  lake,  and  also  Long  and  Mud  lakes,  in  Jamestown;  another  Mud 
lake,  in  Le  Ray;  Fox  lake,  in  South  Bend;  Perch  lake,  and  Perch  creek; 
Lily  and  Loon  lakes,  adjoining  Lake  Crystal,  the  first  very  shallow 
and  filled  with  lilies,  water  grasses,  and  rushes ;  Rice  lake  in  McPherson, 
named  for  its  wild  rice,  like  many  other  lakes  throughout  this  state;  and 
Rush  lake,  in  Judson. 

The  Undine  Region. 

Nicollet  in  1841  gave  to  the  area  of  Blue  Earth  county,  with  parts  of 
other  counties  adjoining  it,  "the  name  of  Undine  Region  .  .  .  derived 
from  that  of  an  interesting  and  romantic  German  tale,  the  heroine  of 
which  belonged  to  the  extensive  race  of  water-spirits  living  in  the  brooks 
and  rivers  and  lakes,  whose  father  was  a  mighty  prince.  She  was  more- 
over the  niece  of  a  great  brook  (the  Mankato) ,  who  lived  in  the  midst  of 
forests,  and  was  beloved  by  all  the  many  great  streams  of  the  surround- 
ing country." 

The  author  of  "Undine,"  entitled  for  its  heroine,  published  in  1811,  was 
Friedrich  Fouqu^,  who  was  born  at  Brandenburg,  Prussia,  in  1777,  and 
died  at  Berlin  in  1843.  Her  name  is  from  the  Latin  unda,  a  wave,  whence 
we  derive  several  common  words,  as  undulation  and  inundate,  and  speak 
of  undulating  prairies,  where  they  have  a  broadly  wavy  surface. 

On  Nicollet's  map  the  Undine  Region  extends  from  the  Redwood  river 
east  to  the  upper  part  of  Cannon  river,  and  from  the  Minnesota  river 
south  to  the  north  edge  of  Iowa. 

MiNNEOPA  State  Park. 

The  state  legislature  in  1905  provided  for  the  purchase  of  land  con- 
taining the  Minneopa  Falls  on  the  creek  of  this  name  in  South  Bend 


66  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

township,  about  four  miles  west  of  liankato,  for  public  use  as  a  state 
park.  Its  area  is  about  sixty  acres,  comprising  the  falls,  two  near  to- 
gether, of  60  feet  descent,  with  the  gorge  below.  The  railway  station, 
and  townsite,  named  Minneopa,  close  to  the  falls,  had  been  platted  in 
September,  1870.  This  name  is  contracted  from  Sioux  words,  minne- 
hinhe-nonpa,  which  mean  "water  falling  twice"  or  "two  waterfalls."  An 
early  name  of  this  stream  was  Lyons  credc,  for  a  pioneer.  It  flows  from 
Strom,  Lily,  and  Crystal  lakes. 

The  Winnebago  Reservation. 

Green  bay,  of  Lake  Michigan,  was  known  to  the  French  in  Radisson's 
time  as  the  Bay  of  the  Puants,  or  Winnebagoes,  an  outlying  tribe  of  the 
Siouan  stock,  mainly  surrounded  by  Algonquian  tribes.  Their  name,  mean- 
ing the  People  of  the  Stinking  Water,  that  is,  of  the  Sea,  or  of  muddy  and 
ill-smelling  lakes,  roiled  by  winds,  was  adopted  by  the  French  from  its 
use  among  the  Algonquins.  In  1832  the  Winnebagoes  ceded  their 
country  south  and  east  of  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin  rivers  to  the  United 
States,  and  afterward  many  of  the  tribe  were  removed  to  northeastern 
Iowa.  Thence,  in  1848,  they  were  removed  to  Long  Prairie,  in  the  cen- 
tral part  of  what  is  now  Minnesota ;  and  in  1855  they  were  again  removed, 
to  a  reservation  in  Blue  Earth  and  Waseca  counties  of  this  state.  In  1863, 
after  the  Sioux  outbreak,  they  were  removed  to  a  reservation  in  Dakota ; 
and  in  1866  to  a  more  suitable  reservation  in  Nebraska. 

The  reservation  that  was  provided  here  for  this  tribe  by  a  treaty  made 
at  Washington,  on  February  27,  1855,  included  in  Blue  Earth  county  the 
townships  of  Rapidan,  Decoria,  McPherson,  Lyra,  Beauford,  and  Medo; 
and  it  continued  six  miles  east  in  Waseca  county,  there  including  Alton 
and  Freedom  townships.  By  a  later  treaty  at  Washington,  April  15,  1859, 
the  Winnebagoes  relinquished  the  west  half  of  this  Reservation,  ''to  be 
sold  by  the  United  States  in  trust  for  their  benefit;"  and  by  an  act  of 
Congress,  February  21,  1863,  the  east  half,  comprising  McPherson,  Medo, 
Alton,  and  Freedom,  was  directed  to  be  similarly  sold,  another  reserva- 
tion having  been  provided  in  Dakota. 

Glacial  Lake  Minnesota. 

In  the  basins  of  the  Blue  Earth  and  Minnesota  rivers,  flowing  north- 
ward from  the  edge  of  Iowa  to  the  Mississippi  at  Fort  Snelling,  a  glacial 
lake  was  held  by  the  barrier  of  the  departing  continental  glacier  during 
its  final  melting.  This  temporary  lake  was  mapped  and  named  in  my 
work  for  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  (Monograph  XXV,  **The 
Glacial  Lake  Agassiz,"  1896,  plates  III  and  XIII;  pages  254  and  264). 
To  the  later  and  reduced  condition  of  this  glacial  lake,  when  it  outflowed 
to  the  Cannon  river.  Professor  N.  H.  Winchell  in  1901  gave  the  name  of 
Lake  Undine  ("Glacial  Lakes  of  Minnesota,"  Bulletin  of  the  (^eoL  Society 
of  America,  vol.  12,  pages  109-128,  with  a  map). 


BROWN  COUNTY 

Established  by  legislative  act  February  20,  1855,  and  organized  Febru- 
ary 11,  1856,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of  Joseph  Renshaw  Brown, 
one.  of  the  most  prominent  pioneers  of  this  state.  He  was  bom  in  Har- 
ford county,  Maryland,  January  5,  1805 ;  and  died  in  New  York  City,  No- 
vember 9,  1870. 

In  his  boyhood  he  ran  away  from  an  apprenticeship  for  tlie  printing 
business  at  Lancaster,  Pa.;  enlisted  in  the  army  as  a  drummer  boy;  and  at 
the  age  of  fourteen  years  came  to  the  area  of  Minnesota,  with  the  troops 
who  built  Fort  St  Anthony  (in  1825  renamed  Fort  Snelling).  In  May, 
1822,  with  William  Joseph  Snelling,  son  of  the  commandant,  he  explored 
the  creek  and  lake  since  named  Minnehaha  and  Minnetonka. 

John  Fletcher  Williams,  secretary  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society, 
wrote  in  1871,  as  follows,  of  Brown's  varied  life  work  and  of  his  person- 
al qualities. 

"On  leaving  the  army,  somewhere  about  1825,  he  resided  at  Mendota, 
Saint  Croix,  and  other  points  in  the  State,  and  engaged  in  Ihe  Indian 
trade,  lumbering,  and  other  occupations.  His  energy,  industry  and  ability 
soon  made  him  a  prominent  character  on  the  frontier,  ard  no  man  in  the 
Northwest  was  better  known.  He  acquired  a  very  perfect  acquaintance 
with  the  Dakota  tongue,  and  attained  an  influence  among  that  nation 
(being  allied  to  them  by  marriage) ,  which  continued  unabated  to  his  death. 
He  held,  at  different  times  during  his  life,  a  number  of  civil  offices,  which 
he  filled  with  credit  and  ability.  .  .  .  He  was  also  a  leading  member  of  tlie 
famous  'Stillwater  Convention'  of  citixens  held  in  August,  1848,  to  take 
steps  to  secure  a  Territorial  organization  for  what  is  now  Minnesota. 
He  was  the  Secretary  of  the  Territorial  Councils  of  1849  and  1851,  and 
Chief  Gerk  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  1853,  a  member  of  the 
Council  in  1854  and  '55  and  House  in  1857,  and  Territorial  Printer  in 
1853  and  '54.  He  was  also  a  member  from  Sibley  county  in  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  ('Democratic  Wing*)  of  1857,  and  took  a  very  promi- 
nent part  in  the  formation  of  our  present  State  Constitution.  ...  He 
shaped  much  of  the  legislation  of  our  early  territorial  days,  and  chiefly 
dictated  the  policy  of  his  party,  of  whose  conventions  he  was  always  a 
prominent  member.  .  . . 

"But  it  is  as  a  journalist  and  publisher  I  desire  principally  to  speak  of 
him  here.  His  first  regular  entrance  into  the  printing  business  in  Minne- 
sota was  in  the  year  1852,  though  he  had  before  written  considerable  for 
the  press.  Shortly  after  the  death  of  James  M.  Goodhue,  which  occurred 
in  August  of  that  year,  Major  Brown  purchased  the  'Minnesota  Pioneer,' 
and  edited  and  published  it  under  his  own  name  for  nearly  two  years. 
In  the  spring  of  1854,  he  transferred  the  establishment  to  Col.  £.  S. 

07 


68  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Goodrich.  During  the  period  of  his  connection  with  the  paper,  he  estab- 
lished a  reputation  as  one  of  the  most  sagacious,  successful  and  able 
political  editors  in  the  Territory,  and  as  a  sharp,  interesting  and  sensible 
writer. 

"In  1857  he  established  at  Henderson,  which  town  had  been  founded 
and  laid  out  by  him  a  short  time  before,  a  journal  called  the  ^Henderson 
Democrat,'  which  soon  became  a  prominent  political  organ,  and  was 
continued  with  much  ability  and  success  until  1860  or  '61." 

Joseph  A.  Wheelock  wrote  in  the  St  Paul  Press,  November  12.  1870: 
"A  drummer  boy,  soldier,  Indian  trader,  lumberman,  pioneer,  speculator, 
founder  of  cities,  legislator,  politician,  editor,  inventor,  his  career — though 
it  hardly  commenced  till  half  his  life  had  been  wasted  in  the  obscure  soli- 
tudes of  this  far  Northwestern  wilderness — ^has  been  a  very  remarkable 
and  characteristic  one,  not  so  much  for  what  he  has  achieved,  as  for  the 
extraordinary  versatility  and  capacity  which  he  has  displayed  in  every 
new  situation." 

The  village  of  Brown's  Valley  in  Traverse  county,  founded  by  Jos- 
eph. R.  Brown  and  others,  was  the  place  of  his  trading  post  and  home 
during  his  last  four  years;  and  an  adjoining  township  of  Big  Stone  coun- 
ty also  bears  this  name. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  has  been,  gathered  from  ''History  of  the  Minnesota  Val- 
ley," 1882,  pages  698-762,  and  'History  of  Brown  County/'  L.  A.  Fritsche, 
M.  D.,  Editor,  two  volumes,  1916,  pages  519,  568;  from  Benedict  Juni, 
Richard  Pfefferle,  and  August  Schwerdtfeger,  each  of  New  Ulm,  and 
from  the  county  ofBces  of  the  register  of  deeds,  judge  of  probate,  and 
clerk  of  the  court,  during  a  visit  at  New  Ulm  in  July,  1916. 

Albin,  settled  in  1866,  was  organized  Jtrne  23,  1870.  *'The  preliminary 
meeting  for  the  organization  of  the  town  was  held  at  the  house  of  S. 
Rima;  a  name  for  the  town  could  not  be  agreed  upon,  and  Albin  was 
suggested  by  Mrs.  Rima."     (History,  Minnesota  Valley,  p.  758.) 

Bashaw  township,  organized  in  April,  1874,  was  named  for  Joseph 
Baschor  (or  Pascher),  a  Bohemian,  who  was  the  first  settler,  coming  in 
the  spring  of  1869.  He  was  yet  living  in  1916^  in  the  village  of  Spring- 
field The  name  was  changed  in  spelling,  to  give  a  more  easy  English 
pronunciation. 

BuRNSTOWN,  first  settled  in  1857,  was  named  for  J.  F.  Burns,  one  of  the 
early  settlers,  who  came  in  1858.  This  township  was  organized  October 
14,  1871.  "In  1877  the  village  of  Bums  was  surveyed  ...  on  the  line  of 
the  Winona  and  St  Peter  railroad. . .  February  21, 1881,  it  was  incorporat- 
ed under  the  name,  of  Springfield." 

CoBDBN^  a  railway  village,  was  originally  named  North  Branch,  from 
its  location  near  Sleepy  Eye  creek,  the  principal  north  branch  of  Cotton- 
wood river ;  but  in  1886  it  was  changed  to  Cobden,  for  the  English  states- 


BROWN  COUNTY  69 

man.  The  village  was  platted  February  16,  1901,  and  was  incorporated 
in  1905.  Richard  Cobden  was  born  in  Sussex,  England,  June  3,  1804; 
died  in  London,  April  2,  1865.  He  entered  Parliament  in  1841 ;  visited 
the  United  States  in  1854;  was  especially  noted  as  an  advocate  of  free 
trade  and  of  peace.  During  our  civil  war  he  was  a  supporter  of  the 
cause  of  the  North. 

CoMFREY,  the  railway  village  on  the  south  line  of  Bashaw  township, 
was  platted  in  1902,  taking  its  name  from  a  near  postoffice,  which  had 
been  established  in  1877.  That  had  been  so  named  "by  A.  W.  Pederson, 
the  first  postmaster,  from  the  plant,  comfrey  .  .  .  that  he  had  met  with  in 
his  reading."  (Stennett,  Origin  of  Place  Names  of  the  Chicago  apd 
Northwestern  Railways.) 

Cottonwood  township,  first  settled  in  1855,  organized  October  24,  1858, 
was  named  for  the  Cottonwood  river,  on  its  north  edge,  and  the  Little 
Cottonwood  river,  flowing  through  its  center,  their  names  being  transla- 
tions from  the  Sioux,  as  noted  more  fully  in  the  chapter  for  Cottonwood 
couftty. 

DoTSON  railway  station,  in  Stately  township,  established  in  1899,  was 
named  for  Enoch  Dotson,  an  early  settler  of  the  neighboring  village  ot 
Sanborn  in  Redwood  county. 

Eden  township,  which  was  a  part  of  the  Sioux  reservation  till  18j3, 
was  first  settled  by  white  immigrants  in  December,  1864,  and  was  organ- 
ized April  2,  1867.  Its  name  was  chosen  by  the  settlers  because  of  the 
beauty  of  its  scenery  and  fertility  of  the  soil.  Lone  Tree  postoffice  was 
established  in  Eden  township  in  1869,  being  named  for  the  neighboring 
lake,  which  had  received  this  name  from  a  large  lone  cottonwood  tree, 
once  a  famous  landmark. 

EssiG^  the  railway  village  in  Mil  ford,  "was  named  by  C.  C.  Wheeler, 
then  an  officer  of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railway,  to  honor  one 
of  the  Brothers  Essig,  who  erected  the  first  business  building  in  the 
place."  (Stennett.)  The  name  is  for  John  Essig,  a  farmer  here  since 
1882,  who  was  bom  in  Will  county,  Illinois,  May  29,  1851.  He  came  to 
Minnesota  in  1866,  with  his  parents,  who  settled  on  a  farm  in  Milford. 
His  father,  John  F.  Essig,  who  was  born  in  Germany,  lived  in  Milford 
till  1886,  and  later  in  Springfield,  where  he  died  in  1896. 

EvAN^  a  railway  village  in  section  8,  Prairieville,  was  first  platted  as 
Hanson  station  in  May,  1887,  by  Nels  Hanson,  and  became  an  incorporat- 
ed village  March  22,  1904.  A  postoffice  had  been  established  in  1886. 
named  Evan  by  the  first  postmaster,  Martin  Norseth,  for  his  wife,  Eva, 
and  its  name  was  transferred  to  this  village 

Hanska^  the  railway  village  in  the  east  edge  of  Lake  Hanska  town- 
ship, bears  as  its  name,  like  the  township,  the  common  Sioux  word  mean- 
ing long  or  tall,  which  these  Indians  gave  to  the  remarkably  long  and 
narrow  lake  in  this  township  and  Albin.  The  village  was  platted  October 
9, 1899,  and  was  incorporated  in  May,  1901. 


70  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Home,  the  largest  township  of  this  county,  settled  in  1857,  organized 
June  30,  1866,  was  so  named  in  accordance  with  the  petition  of  its  set- 
tlers. 

Iberia,  a  small  hamlet  near  the  center  of  Stark  township,  bears  the 
ancient  name  of  the  Spanish  and  Portugese  peninsula.  The  postoffice  of 
this  name  was  established  February  1,  1870,  and  was  finally  discontinued 
February  24,  1893. 

Lake  Hanska  township,  first  settled  in  1857,  organized  June  21,  1870, 
was  named  for  its  long  lake,  as  before  noted  for  its  village  of  Hanska. 

Leavenworth  township,  in  which  a  village  of  this  name  was  platted  in 
October,  1857,  was  organized  April  16,  1859.  It  was  probably  named  in 
honor  of  Henry  Leavenworth,  commander  of  the  troops  who  came  in 
1819  to  found  the  fort  at  first  called  Fort  St.  Anthony,  renamed  as  Fort 
Snelling  in  1825. 

Linden  township,  settled  in  1856,  organized  in  1859,  was  named  for  its 
groves  of  the  American  linden,  usually  called  basswood.  The  largest 
groves  here  bordered  Lake  Linden,  which  had  been  earlier  so  nam^. 

MiLFORD  township,  first  settled  in  1853,  set  apart  by  the  county  board 
for  organization  on  June  28,  1858,  was  named  from  a  sawmill  built  in 
1854-55  on  a  small  creek,  tributary  to  the  Minnesota  river,  where  it  was 
crossed  by  a  ford.  This  was  the  first  sawmill  in  the  upper  Minnesota 
valley. 

Mulligan  township,  settled  in  1865,  organized  April  26,  1871,  was 
named  for  an  early  pioneer,  probably  from  Ireland. 

New  Ulm,  the  county  seat,  founded  in  1854-55  by  German  colonists, 
coming  from  Chicago  and  Cincinnati,  was  named  for  Ulm  in  Gennany, 
near  the  village  of  Erbach,  which  was,  according  to  the  late  Hon.  William 
Pfaender,  the  place  of  emigration  of  twenty  in  thirty-two  of  the  first 
company  of  pioneer  settlers,  who  came  in  the  autumn  of  1854.  It  was 
incorporated  as  a  town  by  an  act  of  the  legislature,  March  6,  1857;  as  a 
borough,  February  19,  1870 ;  and  as  a  city,  February  24,  1876.  It  received 
its  present  charter  on  March  1,  1887.  Ulm  is  an  important  city  of  Wur- 
temberg,  in  southwestern  Germany,  sitilated  on  the  northwest  side  of  the 
Danube  at  the  head  of  navigation.  Its  population  in  1,900  was  nearly 
43,000.  On  the  opposite  Bavarian  side  of  the  Danube  is  Neu  Ulm,  which 
in  1900  had  a  population  of  9,215. 

North  Star  township,  first  settled  in  ljB58,  set  apart  for  organization 
on  January  9,  1873,  received  its  name  in  allusion  to  the  French  motto, 
**L'Etoile  du  Nord,"  on  our  state  seal,  whence  Minnesota  is  often  called 
the  North  Star  State. 

pRATRiEViLLE  towuship,  whosc  first  settlers  came  in  1866,  was  organ- 
ized in  March,  1870,  taking  this  name  because  it  consists  almost  wholly 
of  prairie  land. 

Searles,  a  railway  village  in  Cottonwood  township,  was  platted  Octo- 
ber 10,  1899,  being  named  by  officials  of  the  Minneapolis  and  St.  Louis 
Railway  Company. 


BROWN  COUNTY  71 

SiGEL  township,  settled  in  1856,  organized  April  28,  1862,  was  named  in 
honor  of  Franz  Sigel,  a  general  in  the  Civil  War.  He  was  born  at  Sins- 
heim,  Baden,  Germany,  November  18,  1824;  died  in  New  York  City,  Aug- 
ust 21,  1902.  He  came  to  the  United  States  in  1852 ;  settled  in  St  Louis, 
1858,  as  a  teacher  in  a  German  institute;  organized  a  regiment  of  U.  S. 
volunteers,  1861,  of  which  he  became  colonel ;  won  the  battle  of  Carthage, 
Mo.,  July  5,  1861;  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  major  general,  March, 
1862,  and  took  command  of  a  wing  of  the  army  of  Virginia ;  was  appoint- 
ed to  the  command  of  the  army  of  West  Virginia  in  February,  1864 ;  was 
U.  S.  pension  agent  in  New  York  City,  1885-89.  About  the  year  1873  Gen- 
eral Sigel  visited  New  Ulm  and  this  township. 

Sleepy  Eye,  the  city  and  railway  junction  in  Home  township,  platted 
September  18,  1872,  incorporated  as  a  village  February  14,  1878,  and  as  a 
city  in  1903,  was  named,  like  the  adjoining  lake,  for  a  chief  of  the  Lower 
Sisseton  Sioux.  His  favorite  home  and  village  during  some  parts  of  many 
years  were  beside  this  lake.  He  was  born  near  the  site  of  Mankato ;  be- 
came a  chief  between  1822  and  1825;  signed  the  treaties  of  Prairie  du 
Chien,  1825  and  1830,  of  St.  Peter's  in  1836,  and  Traverse  des  Sioux,  1851. 
Doane  Robinson  wrote :  ''Sleepy  Eyes  died  in  Roberts  county.  South  Da- 
kota, but  many  years  after  his  death  his  remains  were  disinterred  and  re- 
moved to  Sleepy  Eye,  Minn.,  where  they  were  buried  under  a  monument 
erected  by  the  citizens."  (Hodge,  Handbook  of  American  Indians,  Part 
U,  1910.)  The  monument,  close  to  the  railway  station,  bears  this  in- 
scription, beneath  the  portrait  of  the  chief  in  has  relief  sculpture:  "Ish- 
tak-ha-ba.  Sleepy  Eye,  Always  a  Friend  of  the  Whites.    Died  I860." 

An  interesting  biographic  sketch  of  "Sleepy  Eyes,  or  Ish-ta-hba,  which 
is  very  literally  translated,"  by  Rev.  Stephen  R.  Riggs,  in  the  Minnesota 
Free  Press,  St  Peter,  Jan.  27,  1858,  is  reprinted  in  the  Minnesota  History 
Bulletin,  vol.  2,  no.  8,  pp.  484-495,  Nov.,  19ia 

Springfield,  the  railway  village  in  Bumstown,  platted  in  1877,  was 
then  named  Bums,  but  at  its  incorporation,  February  21,  1881,  received 
its  present  name.  This  is  said  by  Stennett  to  be  derived  from  the  city  of 
Springfield,  Mass. ;  but  Juni  refers  its  origin  to  a  very  large  spring  there, 
CO  the  north  side  of  the  Cottonwood  river  and  high  above  it 

Stark  township,  settled  in  1858,  organized  April  7,  1868,  was  named 
for  August  Starck,  a  German  pioneer  farmer  there. 

Stately,  settled  in  1873,  was  the  last  township  organized  in  this  cotmty, 
April  7,  1879.  The  origin  of  its  name  has  not  been  ascertained,  but  as  an 
English  word,  of  frequent  use,  it  means  "having  a  grand  and  impressive 
appearance,  lofty,  dignified."  The  west  part  of  the  south  line  of  Stately 
crosses  the  highest  land  of  this  county,  commanding  a  far  prospect  north- 
ward and  eastward. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Cottonwood  and  Little  Cottonwood  rivers  are  noticed  in  connection  with 
Cottonwood  township,  and  most  fully  in  the  chapter  on  the  county  of 


72  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

that  name.  Lone  Tree  lake  is  mentioned  under  Eden  township,  and  Lakes 
Hanska  and  Linden  with  the  townships  so  named.  Sleepy  Eye  lake  and 
creek  received  their  names,  like  the  city,  from  the  Sioux  chief. 

Only  a  few  other  names  of  streams  remain  to  be  noticed.  Big  Spring 
creek,  also  called  Spring  Branch  creek,  in  Eden  and  Home  townships, 
takes  its  name  from  its  large  springs;  Mine  creek,  in  North  Star  town- 
ship, refers  doubtless  to  prospecting  or  mining  there;  and  Mound  creek 
in  Stately  may  have  been  named,  as  also  this  township,  in  allusion  to  the 
highland  on  its  upper  course. 

The  following  lakes  bear  names  of  early  pioneers,  whose  homes  were 
usually  beside  them  or  in  their  vicinity :  George  lake,  named  for  Captain 
Sylvester  A.  George,  and  Rose  lake,  for  Fred  Rose,  in  Home  township, 
the  former  having  been  earlier  called  Cross  lake  in  allusion  to  its  four 
bays  having  somewhat  the  outline  of  a  cross ;  Kruger  lake,  in  Prairieville, 
for  Louis  Kruger,  a  German  farmer;  Lake  Hummel,  also  named  Gear 
lake,  in  Sigel;  Lake  Emerson,  now  drained,  on  the  south  line  of  Linden; 
Broome  and  Omsrud  lakes,  in  Lake  Hanska  township;  and  Lake  Alter- 
matt,  in  Leavenworth,  for  John  B.  Altermatt,  a  Swiss  farmer. 

Lake  Juni,  in  section  26,  Sigel,  is  named  in  honor  of  Benedict  Juni, 
of  New  Ulm.  He  was  born  in  Switzerland,  January  12,  1852;  and  came 
to  the  United  States  when  five  years  old  with  his  parents,  who  settled  on 
a  farm  in  Milford.  In  1862  he  was  a  captive  of  the  Sioux,  from  August 
18  to  the  surrender  of  the  prisoners  at  Camp  Release,  as  narrated  by  him 
in  the  "History  of  Brown  County"  (vol.  I,  pages  111-122).  During  more 
than  thirty  years  he  was  a  teacher  in  the  public  schools  of  this  county. 

School  lake,  also  in  Sigel,  received  this  name  from  its  lying  mainly  in 
the  school  section  16. 

Dane  lake,  in  Linden,  was  named  for  its  several  Dane  settlers  in  a 
a  mainly  Norwegian  township. 

Bachelor  lake,  in  Stark,  was  named  for  a  lone  homesteader  there,  un- 
married ;  and  Rice  lake,  mostly  in  section  29  of  the  same  township,  for  its 
wild  rice,  a  name  that  formerly  was  also  applied  to  the  present  Lake  Al- 
termatt 

The  origin  of  the  name  of  Boy's  lake,  in  Leavenworth,  was  not  learned. 

Reed  lake,  in  section  6,  Bashaw,  was  named  for  its  abundant  growth 
of  reeds ;  and  Wood  lake,  crossed  by  the  south  line  of  Mulligan  and  lying 
mainly  in  Watonwan  county,  for  its  adjoining  groves,  the  source  of  fire- 
wood used  by  the  early  settlers. 


CARLTON  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  May  23,  1857,  with  a  further  legislative  act 
of  February  18,  1870,  and  organized  September  26,  1870,  was  named 
in  honor  of  Reuben  B.  Carlton,  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Fond  du  Lac, 
at  the  head  of  lake  navigation  on  the  St.  Louis  river,  near  the  line  be- 
tween St  Louis  and  Carlton  counties.  He  was  bom  in  Onondaga  county, 
New  York,  March  4,  1812;  came  to  Fond  du  Lac  in  1847,  as  a  farmer  and 
blacksmith  for  the  Ojibway  Indians;  was  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the 
townsite  of  Fond  du  Lac,  being  a  trustee  under  the  act  of  its  incorpor- 
ation in  1857;  and  was  a  member  of  the  first  state  senate,  1858.  He  owned 
about  eighty  acres  adjoining  that  village  and  the  river,  on  which  he  re- 
sided until  his  death,  December  6,  1863. 

The  village  of  Carlton,  the  county  seat  of  this  county  since  1886,  was 
also  named  for  him ;  and  he  is  further  commemorated  by  Carlton's  Peak, 
near  Tofte  in  Cook  county,  the  most  prominent  point  on  the  north  shore 
of  Lake  Superior  in  Minnesota,  forming  the  western  end  of  the  Saw- 
teeth Range. 

Fifty  years  after  Carlton's  death,  James  Bardon  of  Superior,  Wis., 
wrote  the  following  personal  remembrance  and  estimate  of  him  to  Henry 
Oldenburg  of  Carlton,  dated  September  10,  1913. 

"'Colonel'  Carlton,  as  he  was  called,  was  a  man  of  large  frame,  fully 
six  feet  in  height,  a  strong  personality,  of  good  looks  and  pleasing  man- 
ners, a  man  of  much  intelligence.  He  became  associated  with  the  bright 
and  enterprising  men  who  laid  out  and  established  Superior,  Duluth,  and 
other  places  about  the  head  of  Lake  Superior.  An  avenue  here  in  Supe- 
rior was  named  after  him.  .  .  .  Colonel  Carlton  was  more  prominently 
identified  with  the  westerly  part  of  St.  Louis  county,  now  Carlton  county, 
in  the  early  days,  than  any  other  man;  and  when  the  new  county  was 
projected  it  is  likely  that  all  men  agreed  that  Carlton  was  the  appropriate 
name  for  it, ...  a  really  noble  character." 

Townships  and  Villages. 

For  the  origins  and  significance  of  local  names  in  this  county,  infor- 
mation was  gathered  from  F.  A.  Watkins,  judge  of  probate,  visited  at 
Carhon  in  September,  1909,  and  again  in  August,  1916;  and  also  from 
Hon.  Spencer  J.  Searls,  in  the  second  of  these  visits. 

Atkinson  township  was  named  for  John  Atkinson,  an  early  settler 
there,  who  during  many  years  was  employed  as  a  land  examiner  for  the 
St.  Paul  and  Duluth  railroad  company. 

AuTOMBA  was  named  after  the  railway  station  of  the  Soo  line  in 
this  township,  but  the  origin  of  this  name  remains  to  be  ascertained. 

78 


74  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Barnum  township  received  its  name  in  honor  of  George  G.  Barnum, 
now  a  resident  of  Duluth,  who  was  paymaster  of  the  Lake  Superior  and 
Mississippi  railroad  (later  named  the  St  Paul  and  Duluth),  when  it  was 
being  built 

Besemann  township  was  named  for  a  former  German  landowner  there, 
Ernst  Besemann,  who  removed  to  Chaska. 

Black  Hoof  was  named  for  the  creek  which  flows  circuitously  through 
this  township  to  the  Nemadji  river.  It  is  translated  from  the  Ojibway 
name  of  the  creek. 

Casltovi  village,  the  county  seat,  took  its  name,  like  the  county,  in 
honor  of  Reuben  B.  Carlton.  During  about  fifteen  years  from  the  build- 
ing of  the  Northern  Pacific  railway,  in  1870,  this  place  was  called  Northern 
Pacific  Junction,  being  at  the  jtmction  of  that  transcontinental  line  with 
the  older  Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi  line. 

Cloquet  (retaining  the  French  pronunciation  of  its  last  syllable,  as 
in  bouquet  and  sobriquet),  incorporated  as  a  city,  was  named  for  the 
Qoquet  river,  from  which,  and  from  other  tributaries  of  the  St.  Louis 
river,  came  the  logs  of  its  lumber  manufacturing.  The  map  of  Long's 
expedition,  in  1823,  shows  that  stream  as  Rapid  river,  and  it  is  unnamed 
on  the  map  by  Thompson  in  1826  for  the  proposed  routes  of  the  interna- 
tional boundary ;  but  on  Nicollet's  map,  published  in  1843,  it  has  the  present 
title,  Qoquet  river.  It  is  not  used  outside  of  Minnesota  as  a  geographic 
name,  and  here  was  probably  derived  from  some  fur  trader.  It  is  ap- 
plied also  to  an  island  of  the  Mississippi  in  section  10,  Dayton  township, 
Hennepin  county. 

Corona,  the  Latin  word  meaning  a  crown,  was  first  given  to  a  station 
of  the  Northern  Pacific  railway,  perhaps  because  it  is  near  the  highest 
land  crossed  between  Lake  Superior  and  the  Mississippi;  and  thence  it 
was  given  to  the  township,  in  accordance  with  tlie  petition  of  the  settlers. 

Cromwell,  a  railway  village  in  the  south  edge  of  Red  Dover  township, 
was  organized  January  17,  1891,  receiving  its  name  from  the  Northern 
Pacific  railway  company. 

Eagle  township  was  named  for  its  Eagle  lake.  Our  common  species 
is  the  bald  eagle,  so  called  for  his  white  head,  found  throughout  Minne- 
sota, nesting  in  large  trees,  preferably  on  lake  shores  or  islands. 

HoLYOKB  township,  organized  in  1903,  received  its  name  from  the 
earlier  railway  station,  where  it  was  given  by  the  Great  Northern  rail- 
way company. 

IvERSON  station  was  named  by  the  Northern  Pacific  railway  company 
for  Ole  Iverson,  a  pioneer  settler  there. 

Kalevala  township  has  many  Finnish  settlers,  by  whom  it  was  given 
this  name  of  the  national  epic  poem  of  Finland,  meaning  "the  abode  or 
land  of  heroes."  English  translations  of  it  have  been  published  in  1888 
and  in  1907.  "The  elements  of  the  poem  are  ancient  popular  sdngs.  .  .  . 
The  poem  owes  its  present  coherent  form  to  Elias  Lonnrot  (1802-1884), 


CARLTON  CO  UNTY  75 

who  during  years  of  assiduous  labor  collected  the  material  in  Finland  prop- 
er, but  principally  in  Russian  Karelia  eastward  to  the  White  Sea.  .  .  .  The 
Kalevala  is  written  in  eight-syllabled  trochaic  verse,  with  alliteration,  but 
without  rime.  The  whole  is  divided  into  fifty  cantos  or  runes.  Its  sub- 
ject matter  is  mythical,  with  a  few  Christian  elements.  Its  central  hero 
is  Wainamoinen,  the  god  of  poetry  and  music.  It  is  the  prototype, 
in  form  and  contents,  of  Longfellow's  ^Hiawatha.' "  (Century  Cyclopedia 
of  Names.) 

Kettle  River,  the  railway  village  of  Silver  township,  is  named  for  the 
river,  a  translation  of  its  Ojibway  name,  Akiko  sibi. 

Knife  Falls  township  is  named  for  the  falls  of  the  St.  Louis  river, 
falling  16  feet,  in  the  west  part  of  section  13,  close  east  of  Cloquet  On 
the  canoe  route  used  by  fur  traders  during  a  hundred  years,  these  falls 
were  passed  by  a  portage  about  a  mile  long  on  the  south  side  of  the  riv- 
er, of  which  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell  wrote:  "It  is  well  named  Knife 
portage,  because  where  it  starts,  and  for  some  distance,  the  slates  are 
thin,  perpendicular,  and  sharp  like  knives." 

Lake  View  township,  having  Tamarack  lake,  nearly  two  miles  long, 
adjoining  tamarack  woods,  and  several  other  lakes  of  small  size,  received 
this  name  by  vote  of  the  settlers. 

Mahtowa  township  has  a  name  formed  from  the  Sioux  mahto  and 
the  last  syllable  of  the  Ojibway  makwa,  each  meaning  a  bear. 

Moose  Lake  itownship  has  reference  to  its  Moose  lake  and  Moose 
Head  lake,  each  probably  translated  from  their  original  Ojibway  names. 

Nemadji,  the  Soo  railway  station  in  Barnum  township,  received  this 
Ojibway  name  from  the  Nemadji  river,  meaning  Left  Hand  river.  The 
name  refers  to  its  being  next  on  the  left  hand  when  one  passes  from 
Lake  Superior  into  the  St.  Louis  river. 

Perch  Lake  township  is  named  for  its  Perch  lake,  which  is  somewhat 
larger  than  its  adjacent  Big  lake,  each  being  very  probably  translations  of 
the  aboriginal  names. 

Progress  has  a  euphonious  and  auspicious  name,  selected  by  the  peti- 
tioners for  the  township  organization. 

Red  Clover  township  was  named  similarly  with  the  last  noted.  This 
beautiful  and  highly  valued  species  of  clover  is  of  Old  World  origin,  but 
it  is  nearly  everywhere  cultivated  with  grasses  in  the  sowing  of  lands  for 
hay. 

Sawyer,  a  railway  station  in  Atkinson  township,  was  named  by  the 
officers  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad  company. 

ScANLON,  the  lumber  manufacturing  village  between  Qoquet  and  Carl- 
ton, was  named  for  M.  Joseph  Scanlon,  president  of  the  Brooks-Scanlon 
Company,  Minneapolis.  He  was  born  in  Lyndon,  Wis.,  August  24,  1861 ; 
settled  in  Minneapolis  in  1889,  and  has  engaged  in  many  large  enterprises 
of  logging,  the  manufacture  of  lumber,  and  building  and  operating  rail- 
roads to  supply  logs.    In  addition  to  his  company's  very  large  lumber  in- 


76  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

terests  at  this  village,  he  has  conducted  similar  lumbering  and  sawmills 
at  Cass  Lake,  and  also  in  Oregon  and  in  Louisiana  and  Florida. 

Silver  township  has  a  euphonious  name  chosen  by  its  settlers,  for  the 
Silver  creek  there  tributary  to  Kettle  river. 

Skelton  township  was  named  for  two  brothers,  John  and  Harry  E. 
Skelton,  who  lived  in  the  village  of  Barnum.  The  former  was  the  county 
surveyor  in  1897-1901,  and  the  latter  was  judge  of  probate  for  the  county, 
1901-04,  dying  in  office. 

Split  Rock  township  was  named  for  the  small  river  flowing  through 
it,  on  which  ledges  of  slates  and  schists  have  been  deeply  channeled  near 
its  mouth,  the  rocks  of  the  opposite  banks  appearing  therefore  as  if  split 
apart. 

Thomson  township  received  its  name  from  the  station  and  village 
of  the  St  Paul  and  Duluth  and  Northern  Pacific  railroads,  built  in 
1870..  This  village  was  the  county  seat  from  that  date  until  1886.  The 
name  was  given  by  officers  of  the  former  line,  in  honor  of  David  Thomp- 
son, the  Canadian  explorer  and  geographer;  but  it  has  been  generally 
spelled  as  if  for  James  Thomson  (1700-1748),  the  Scottish  poet,  author 
of  'The  Seasons." 

David  Thompson  was  born  in  Westminster  (now  a  part  of  London), 
England,  April  30,  1770;  and  died  in  Longueuil,  near  Montreal,  February 
10,  1857.  He  was  in  the  service  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  1784-97, 
and  of  the  Northwest  Fur  Company  the  next  eighteen  years.  In  the 
spring  of  1798  he  traveled  from  the  mouth  of  the  Assiniboine  river,  the 
site  of  the  city  of  Winnipeg,  to  Pembina;  thence  to  the  trading  house 
of  the  Northwest  Company  on  the  site  of  Red  Lake  Falls ;  thence  by  the 
Clearwater  and  Red  Lake  rivers  to  Red  lake;  thence  by  Turtle  lake  and 
river  to  Red  Cedar  lake  (now  Cass  lake) ;  thence  down  the  Mississippi 
to  the  Northwest  trading  post  on  Sandy  lake;  thence  by  the  Savanna 
rivers  and  portage  to  the  St.  Louis  river,  and  down  this  river,  past  the 
ske  of  Thomson,  to  the  trading  post  at  Fond  du  Lac;  and  theqce  along 
the  south  shore  of  Lake  Superior  to  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  Thompson's 
account  of  this  journey  through  northern  Minnesota,  with  descriptions 
of  the  rivers  and  lakes  and  the  country  traversed,  forms  Chapters  XVI  to 
XIX  in  his  "Narrative  of  Explorations  in  Western  America,  1784-1812," 
edited  by  J.  B.  Tyrrell,  published  in  1916  as  Volume  XII  (pages  xcviii, 
582,  with  maps  and  sketches),  Publications  of  the  Champlain  Society. 
This  work  is  reviewed,  with  a  biographic  sketch  of  Thompson,  in  the 
"Minnesota  History  Bulletin"  (vol.  I,  pages  522-7,  November,  1916). 

Twin  Lakes  township  was  named  for  its  two  small  lakes  in  section 
36,  on  the  first  road  laid  out  from  St.  Paul,  through  Chisago  and  Pine 
counties,  to  the  head  of  Lake  Superior.  A  map  of  Minnesota  in  1856, 
by  Silas  Chapman,  shows  this  road  with  a  small  settlement  named  Twin 
Lakes,  which  was  the  only  locality  indicated  as  having  inhabitants  in  (Carl- 
ton county.  It  was  nominally  the  county  seat  until  Thomson  was  so 
designated  by  the  legislative  act  of  February  18,  1870. 


CARLTON  COUNTY  77 

Wrbnshall  township  was  named  from  the  railway  station  and  village, 
which  received  this  name  from  the  Northern  Pacific  company.  It  is  for  C 
C  Wrenshall,  who  during  several  years  was  in  charge  of  maintenance  and 
repairs  of  bridges  for  this  railway. 

Wright^  a  railway  village  in  Lake  View  township,  recalls  the  work 
of  George  Burdick  Wright,  who  during  many  years  was  engaged  in 
land  examinations  and  locating  new  settlers  in  northern  and  western 
Minnesota.  He  was  born  in  Williston,  Vt.,  June  21,  1835;  and  died  at 
Fergus  Falls,  Minn.,  April  29,  1882.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1856 ;  and 
first  settled  in  Minneapolis;  was  the  principal  founder  of  Fergus  Falls, 
in  1871;  and  secured  the  building  of  a  branch  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
railroad  in  1881-2  from  Wadena  to  Fergus  Falls  and  Breckenridge. 

The  name  also  had  a  second  and  equal  reason  for  being  chosen,  to 
commemorate  Charles  Barstow  Wright  of  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  who  was  a 
director  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad  company  in  1870-74,  and  was  its 
president  from  1875  for  four  years,  during  a  period  of  restoration  of 
business  credit  and  prosperity  after  the  great  financial  panic  and  de- 
pression of  1873.  For  Minnesota,  in  1877-78  he  directed  the  construction 
of  the  Western  railroad,  a  line  between  St  Paul  and  Brainerd,  which 
became  a  part  of  the  Northern  Pacific  system. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  preceding  list  has  sufficiently  referred  to  Black  Hoof  creek,  Qo- 
quet  river  (north  of  Carlton  county),  Eagle  lake.  Knife  falls  and  port- 
age of  the  St  Louis  river.  Tamarack  lake,  Moose  and  Moose  Head  lakes, 
Nemadji  river.  Perch  lake  and  Big  lake,  Split  Rock  river,  and  the  Twin 
lakes. 

West  and  East  Net  rivers  (or  creeks)  in  Holyoke  are  probably  trans- 
lated from  their  O  jib  way  names,  referring  to  nets  for  catching  fish. 

Skunk,  Deer,  Mud,  and  Clear  creeks,  flowing  into  Nemadji  river,  need 
no  explanations;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  Otter  creek,  at  Carlton, 
probably  an  O  jib  way  name  translaited,  and  of  Midway  and  Hay  creeks 
in  Thomson,  the  former  being  midway  between  Thomson  and  Fond  du 
Lac. 

Stony  brook,  the  outlet  of  Perch  lake.  Tamarack  river,  flowing  west 
from  Tamarack  lake.  Moose  Horn  and  Dead  Moose  rivers  and  Otter 
brook  (now  called  Silver  creek),  each  flowing  from  the  west  into  the 
Ketde  river,  and  Moose  river,  its  tributary  from  the  east,  are  likewise 
of  obvious  or  simple  derivations,  some  or  all  of  them  being  translations  of 
the  Ojibway  names. 

Portage  river,  an  eastern  branch  of  Moose  river,  refers  to  the  portage 
from  it  to  the  head  stream  of  Nemadji  river,  being  an  ancient  aboriginal 
and  French  name. 

(jiUespie  brook,  in  Silver  township,  bears  probably  the  name  of  an 
early  lumberman  or  trailer. 


78  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

This  coun/ty  has  two  Silver  creeks,  one  flowing  to  Kettle  river  in  Sil- 
ver township,  the  other  a  smaller  stream  heading  about  a  mile  south  of 
Carlton  and  flowing  three  miles  east  to  the  St  Louis  river. 

In  Ahkeek  lake,  Corona,  lately  called  Kettle  lake,  we  have  the  O jib- 
way  name  and  its  English  translation,  this  lake  being  near  the  most  north- 
ern sources  of  Kettle  river. 

Other  names  of  lakes  in  this  county,  some  being  translations,  and  near- 
ly all  being  of  evident  origin  or  meaning,  include  Dead  Fish  lake,  in  sec- 
tion 12,  Progress;  White  Fish  lake  (lately  called  Big  lake),  one  to  two 
miles  south  of  Barnum  village;  Bear  lake,  close  east  of  Bamum,  and  an- 
other Bear  lake  in  section  4,  Black  Hoof ;  Coffee,  Echo,  and  Sand  lakes, 
in  the  south  part  of  Moose  Lake  township ;  Chub  and  Hay  lakes,  in  Twin 
Lakes  township;  Rocky  lake  (now  called  Park  lake),  in  Atkinson;  and 
Island  lake,  on  the  Northern  Pacific  railway,  whence  the  early  name  of 
its  station  there  was  Island  Lake,  later  changed  to  Cromwell. 

Cole  lake,  in  sections  7  and  8,  Lake  View,  was  named  for  James  Cole, 
a  civil  war  veteran,  who  was  a  homesteader  there;  and  Woodbury  lake, 
section  31,  Red  Qover,  similarly  commemorates  an  early  settler. 

Hanging  Horn  lake,  crossed  by  the  west  line  of  section  7,  Barnum, 
translates  its  Ojibway  name,  as  also  probably  Horn  lake  in  section  3, 
Atkinson. 

Moran  lake,  in  section  8,  Atkinson,  was  named  for  Henry  P.  Moran, 
an  early  Irish  homesteader  and  trapper. 

Venoah  lake  (formerly  called  Mink  lake),  three  miles  south  of  Carl- 
ton, received  its  present  name  in  compliment  to  the  daughters,  Winona 
and  Marie,  of  Judge  F.  A.  Watkins,  who  kindly  supplied  much  informa- 
tion for  this  chapter.  The  lake  name  was  coined  from  their  pet  names 
as  children  about  twenty  years  ago. 

Jay  Cooke  State  Park. 

In  the  years  1915  and  1916,  Minnesota  received  by  donation  from  the 
estate  of  Jay  Cooke  more  than*  2,000  acres  of  land,  bordering  each  side  of 
the  St  Louis  river  through  its  winding  course  of  about  ten  miles,  from  the 
Northern  Pacific  railway  at  Carlton  and  Thomson,  along  it  rapids  and 
falls  descending  395  feet  in  crossing  Range  16,  to  the  east  line  of  the 
county  and  state.  With  additional  adjoining  lands  of  equal  or  greater 
area,  expected  to  be  obtained  by  further  donations  and  by  purchases,  a 
large  state  park  is  planned,  to  preserve  these  Dalles  of  the  St.  Louis  for 
the  enjoyment  and  recreation  of  the  people. 

Jay  Cooke  was  born  in  Sandusky,  Ohio,  August  10,  1821 ;  and  died  at 
Ogontz,  near  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania,  February  16,  1905.  In  1861  he 
founded  in  Philadelphia  the  banking  house  of  Jay  Cooke  and  Company, 
and  during  the  next  four  years  of  the  civil  war  he  was  the  principal  finan- 
cial agent  of  the  Federal  government,  negotiating  loans  for  the  war  ex- 
penses to  a  value  of  about  $2,000,000,000.  In  1873  his  house  failed,  on 
account  of  too  heavy  investments  in  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad  bonds. 


CARLTON  COUNTY  79 

"Before  the  financial  crash  of  1873,  Mr.  Cooke  regarded  himself  as  one 
of  the  richest  men  of  the  country.  He  built  in  the  beautiful  suburbs  of 
Philadelphia  a  palace  which,  for  size  and  costliness,  had  scarcely  an  equal 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  In  this  palace,  called  'Ogontz,'  he  dispensed 
a  lavish  4iospitality.  He  had  also  a  summer  residence  named  'Gibraltar,' 
on  a  rocky  cape  at  the  entrance  of  Sandusky  Bay  on  Lake  Erie.  .  .  .  After 
the  crash  came  he  lived  for  a  long  time  in  retirement  in  a  little  cottage,  in 
the  country,  near  Philadelphia, — ^to  all  appearances  a  broken  man.  But 
after  getting  through  the  bankruptcy  courts,  he  reappeared  in  business 
circles  in  Philadelphia,  occupied  his  old  office  on  South  Third  street,  and 
began  to  build  up  a  second  fortune.  .  .  .  His  career  offers  the  rare  instance 
of  a  man  losing  one  fortune  and  making  another  when  past  the  meridian 
of  life."    (Smalley,  "History  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,"  1883.) 

Sixteen  years  later  than  the  writing  here  cited,  his  wealth  "was  esti- 
mated to  be  as  large  as  at  any  period  of  his  life."  He  was  a  generous 
patron  of  education,  of  churches,  and  of  charities;  and  in  his  later  years 
spent  much  of  his  time  in  the  recreations  of  hunting  and  fishing.  An  ex- 
cellent biography,  "Jay  Cooke,  Financier  of  the  Civil  War,"  by  Ellis  Pax- 
son  Oberholtzer,  was  published  in  1907  (two  vols.,  pages  658,  590,  with 
portraits  and  many  other  illustrations). 

Fond  du  Lac  Reservation. 

The  reservation  for  the  Fond  du  Lac  bands  of  the  Ojibway  people, 
established  by  a  treaty  at  La  Pointe,  Wisconsin,  September  30,  1854,  com- 
prises the  present  Knife  Falls  and  Perch  Lake  townships,  with  the  edges 
of  the  adjoining  townships  in  this  county,  and-  thence  reaches  north  to 
the  St  Louis  river,  thus  including  a  tract  in  St.  Louis  county  equivalent 
to  about  two  townships.  The  name  Fond  du  Lac,  meaning  the  farther  end 
or  head  of  the  lake,  was  applied  by  the  early  French  traders  and  voyageurs 
to  their  trading  post  on  the  north  side  of  the  St  Louis  river,  where  its 
strong  current  is  slackened  by  coming  nearly  to  the  level  of  Lake  Supe- 
rior, which,  in  its  extension  of  St.  Louis  bay,  is  about  two  miles  away.  The 
same  name  was  given  also  to  this  river,  called  "R.  du  Fond  du  Lac"  on 
Franquelin's  map,  1688,  renamed  St.  Louis  by  Vaugondy's  map  in  1755. 

Glacial  Lakes  St.  Louis,  Nemadji,  and  Duluth. 

Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell,  in  the  fourth  volume  (published  in  1899)  of  the 
Final  Report  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Minnesota,  gave  the  names 
St  Louis  and  Nemadji  to  two  early  and  relatively  small  glacial  lakes  in 
Carlton  county,  which  successively  outflowed  to  the  Moose  and  Kettle 
rivers  by  channels  in  Mahtowa  and  Barnum  townships,  respectively  about 
1125  and  1070  feet  above  the  sea.  They  were  followed  by  the  slightly 
lower  Glacial  Lake  Duluth,  named  by  Frank  B.  Taylor  of  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey,  which  in  its  maximum  stage  occupied  a  large 
area  of  the  Lake  Superior  basin,  with  outlet  at  the  head  of  the  Brul6 
river  in  Douglas  county,  Wisconsin,  to  the  Upper  St.  Croix  lake  and  river. 


CARVER  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  February  20,  1855,  was  named  for  Captain 
Jonathan  Carver,  explorer  and  author,  who  was  bom  in  Stillwater,  now 
Canterbury,  Conn.,  in  1732,  and  died  in  London,  England,  January  31, 
1780.  He  commanded  a  company  in  the  French  war,  and  in  1763,  when 
the  treaty  of  peace  was  declared,  he  resolved  to  explore  the  newly  ac- 
quired possessions  of  Great  Britain  in  the  Northwest.  In  1766  he  trav- 
eled from  Boston  to  the  upper  Mississippi  river,  and  spent  the  ensuing 
winter  with  the  Sioux  on  the  Minnesota  river  in  the  vicinity  of  the  site 
of  New  Ulm.  On  his  return,  according  to  statements  published  after  his 
death,  he  negotiated  a  treaty.  May  1,  1767,  at  Carver's  cave,  in  the  east 
edge  of  the  present  city  of  St  Paul,  by  which  the  Sioux  granted  to  him 
a  large  tract  of  land  on  the  east  side  of  the  Mississippi.  Carver  continued 
his  explorations  by  a  canoe  journey  along  the  north  and  east  coast  of 
Lake  Superior.  He  returned  to  Boston  in  October,  1768,  soon  sailed  to 
England,  and  spent  tiie  remainder  of  his  life  in  London. 

Carver's  'Travels  Through  the  Interior  Parts  of  North  America,"  a 
volume  of  543  pages,  with  two  maps,  was  published  in  London  in  1778, 
and  new  editions  were  issued  the  next  year  in  London  and  in  Dublin. 
After  the  author's  death,  his  friend.  Dr.  John  C.  Lettsom,  contributed 
to  the  third  London  edition,  in  1781,  a  biographic  account  of  Cap- 
tain Carver,  in  22  pages,  including  the  first  publication  of  the  deed  or 
grant  of  land  obtained  by  Carver  from  the  Sioux  chiefs. 

Several  American  editions  of  this  work,  with  abridgment  and  changes, 
were  published  during  the  years  1784  to  1838 ;  and  translations  of  it  into 
German,  French,  and  Dutch,  were  published  respectively  in  1780,  1784, 
and  1795. 

The  Minnesota  river  is  noted  on  Carver's  map  of  his  Travels  as  "River 
St  Pierre,  call'd  by  die  Natives  Wadapawmenesoter,"  this  being  one  of 
the  earliest  records  of  the  Sioux  name  of  this  river  and  state.  At  its  north 
side,  nearly  opposite  to  the  site  of  New  Ulm,  three  Sioux  teepees  are 
pictured,  with  the  statement  that  "About  here  the  Author  Winter'd  in 
1766.- 

Numerous  endeavors  made  by  heirs  of  Captain  Carver  and  by  others 
to  whom  tiieir  rights  were  assigned,  for  establishing  their  claims  and  own- 
ership of  the  large  tract  deeded  to  him  by  the  Sioux,  have  been  narrated 
by  Rev.  John  Mattocks  in  his  address  at  the  Carver  Centenary  cdebra- 
tion  in  1867,  published  in  Volume  II  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society 
Collections ;  by  John  Fletcher  Williams  in  his  "History  of  the  City  of  St 
Paul  and  of  the  County  of  Ramsey,"  forming  Volume  IV  in  the  same  series, 
published  in  1876;  and  most  fully,  with  many  documents  submitted  to  the 
United  States  Congress,  relating  to  the  Carver  claims,  in  an  article  by 

80 


CARVER  COUNTY  81 

Danid  S.  Durrie,  to  which  Lyman  C  Draper  added  important  foot-notes, 
in  Volume  VI,  pages  220-270,  o{  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society  Collec- 
tions, published  in  1872. 

Between  forty  and  forty-five  years  after  Carver's  death,  the  supposed 
rights  of  his  heirs  under  the  deed  were  denied  ^d  annulled  in  Congress  by 
the  Committees  on  Public  Lands  and  on  Private  Land  Claims.  One  of 
the  grounds  for  this  decision  was  that  no  citizens,  but  only  the  state, 
whether  Great  Britain,  as  in  1767,  or  the  United  States  after  the  treaty 
of  1783,  could  so  receive  ownership  of  lands  from  the  aborigines. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  origins  and  meanings  of  geographic  names  in  this 
county  has  been  gathered  from  "History  of  the  Minnesota  Valley,"  1882, 
pages  352-410;  from  ''Compendium  of  History  and  Biography  of  Carver 
and  Hennepin  Counties,"  R.  I.  Holcombe,  historical  editor,  1915,  pages 
187-342;  and  from  John  Glaeser,  judge  of  probate;  Albert  Meyer,  register 
of  deeds,  and  Hon.  Frederick  £.  Du  Toit,  Sr.,  each  of  Chaska,  interviewed 
during  a  visit  there  in  July,  1916. 

AssuMpnoN,  a  hamlet  in  section  18,  Hancock,  received  its  name  from 
that  of  the  Catholic  church  there,  referring  to  the  ascent  of  the  Virgin 
Mary  into  heaven  and  its  anniversary,  celebrated  on  August  15. 

Augusta,  a  railway  station  in  section  3,  Dahlgren,  was  named  in  honor 
of  the  wives  of  two  settlers  near,  each  having  this  name  and  having  come 
from  Augusta  in  Eau  Claire  county,  Wisconsin. 

Benton  township,  first  settled  in  May,  1855,  organized  May  11,  1858, 
was  named,  like  Benton  county,  in  honor  of  the  distinguished  United 
States  senator,  Thomas  Hart  Benton,  whose  life  and  public  services  are 
more  fully  noted  in  the  chapter  for  that  county.  He  died  April  10,  1858, 
a  month  before  this  township  was  organized  and  named.  The  village  of 
Benton,  on  the  northeast  shore  of  the  little  Lake  Benton,  and  a  half  mile 
north  of  Cologne,  platted  in  June,  1880,  was  incorporated  in  March,  1881. 

Camden  township,  settled  in  July,  1856,  had  a  village  platted  and  a  post- 
office  established  in  the  same  year;  but  this  township  was  not  organized 
until  the  spring  of  1859.  It  was  named  doubtless  for  some  one  of  the 
eighteen  villages  and  cities  of  this  name  in  the  older  eastern  and  southern 
states,  of  which  the  largest  is  the  city  of  Camden,  N.  J.,  on  the  Delaware 
river,  opposite  to  Philadelphia. 

Carver,  a  very  small  fractional  township  bordering  on  the  Minnesota 
river,  was  named,  like  this  county,  in  honor  of  Jonathan  Carver.  The 
first  settlers  came  in  1851-52,  and  the  township  was  organized  May  11, 
1858.  The  village  of  Carver  was  platted  in  February,  1857,  and  was  incor- 
porated February  17,  1877,  comprising  all  the  township.  Carver  creek, 
named  by  Captain  Carver  for  himself,  the  outlet  of  Qearwater  or  Wa- 
conia  lake  and  numerous  other  lakes  of  smaller  size,  here  joins  the  Min- 
nesota river.  On  Nicollet's  map  it  is  "Odowan  R.,"  which  is  the  Sioux 
word  for  a  song  or  hymn. 


82  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Chanhassen  township  received  its  earliest  settlers  in  June,  1852,  and 
was  organized  May  11,  1S58.  The  name,  adopted  on  the  suggestion  of 
Rev.  H.  M.  Nichols,  means  the  sugar  maple,  being  formed  of  two  Sioux 
words,  chan,  tree,  and  hassem  (for  hasan,  from  haza  or  hah-zah,  the 
huckleberry  or  blueberry),  thus  signifying  "the  tree  of  sweet  juice." 

Chaska  township  and  city,  the  cotmty  seat,  has,  unlike  the  preceding 
name,  the  French  sound  of  Ch  like  sh.  This  was  the  name  generally 
given  in  a  Sioux  family  to  the  first-born  child,  if  a  son,  as  Winona  was 
the  general  name  of  a  first-born  daughter.  The  earliest  permanent  set- 
tlers came  in  1853,  and  the  date  of  the  township  organization  was  May 
11,  1858.  The  village  was  founded  in  June,  1854,  by  the  Shaska  Company 
"(the  name  was  thus  misspelled  in  the  act  of  incorporation  of  the  com- 
pany)." March  6,  1871,  it  was  incorporated  as  a  village,  and  on  March 
3,  1891,  as  a  city.  A  small  lake  at  the  southwest  side  of  the  city  is  named 
Chaska  lake,  and  a  creek  here  tributary  to  the  Minnesota  river  is  likewise 
called  CThaska  creek. 

This  word  is  pronounced  by  the  Sioux,  and  by  Riggs*  Dictionary,  with 
the  English  sound  of  ch  (as  in  charm),  and  with  the  long  vowel  sound  in 
the  last  syllable,  as  if  spelled  kay ;  but  common  usage  of  the  white  people 
has  given  erroneously  the  French  pronunciation  (ch  as  in  charade),  with 
the  last  syllable  short,  like  Alaska. 

Cologne^  the  railway  village  of  Benton  township,  platted  in  August, 
1880,  and  incorporated  in  1881,  was  named  by  German  settlers  for  the 
large  and  ancient  city  of  Cologne  (the  (German  Koln)  on  the  Rhine. 

Coney  Island^  a  railway  hamlet  and  summer  resort  at  the  north  iiide 
of  Gearwater  lake,  was  named  from  the  island  of  thirty-seven  acres 
in  the  southern  part  of  the  lake  near  Waconia  village.  The  island  had 
been  named  for  the  popular  Coney  Island  beach  of  Long  Island  near 
New  York  City.  The  adoption  of  this  name,  however,  was  suggested  by 
its  similarity  in  sound  with  Waconia. 

Dahlgren  township,  settled  in  1854,  organized  April  5,  1864,  was  nam- 
ed Liberty  in  1863.  "May  9,  1864,  the  name  of  the  town  was  changed  .  .  . 
to  Dahlgren,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  state  auditor,  in  honor  of  our  dis- 
tinguished admiral,  because  the  name  Liberty  had  already  been  appropri- 
ated by  another  town  in  the  state."  (History  of  the  Minnesota  Valley.) 
John  Adolphus  Bernard  Dahlgren,  of  Swedish  parentage,  was  born  in 
Philadelphia,  November  13,  1809;  and  died  in  the  city  of  Washington, 
July  12,  1870.  He  became  a  lieutenant  in  the  U.  S.  Navy  in  1837 ;  was  as- 
signed to  ordnance  duty  in  Washington,  1847,  and  introduced  important 
improvements  in  the  naval  armament,  including  the  Dahlgren  gun,  which 
he  invented.  He  was  appointed  chief  of  the  bureau  of  ordnance,  July 
18,  1862,  became  rear-admiral  February  7,  1863,  and  gained  renown  for 
his  service  through  the  civil  war.  His  biography,  by  his  widow,  was  pub- 
lished in  1882  (660  pages,  with  two  portraits). 

(jOTHA,  a  hamlet  in  section  1,  Hancock,  was  named  for  the  ancient  city 
of  C^otha,  in  central  (Germany. 


CARVER  COUNTY  83 

Hambuig^  a  railway  village  in  sections  28  and  33,  Young  America,  was 
named  for  the  great  German  city  and  port  of  Hamburg,  on  the  River 
Elbe,  which  was  founded  and  fortified  by  Charlemagne  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  ninth  century. 

Hancock  township,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1856,  organized  March  23, 
1868,  was  named  in  honor  of  Winfield  Scott  Hancock.  He  was  bom  at 
Montgomery  Square,  Pa.,  February  14,  1824;  died  at  Governor's  Island, 
N.  Y.,  February  9,  1886.  After  graduation  at  West  Point,  1844,  he  served 
as  lieutenant  in  the  Mexican  War;  was  a  general  during  the  Civil  War; 
and  was  commander  of  the  military  department  of  the  Atlantic,  1872-86. 
In  tbe  presidential  campaign  of  1880,  he  was  the  unsuccessful  Democratic 
candidate. 

Hollywood  township,  settled  in  1856,  organized  April  3,  1860,  had  a 
small  village  near  it  southeast  corner,  platted  in  the  autumn  of  1856  and 
named  Helvetia  by  John  Buhler,  an  immigrant  from  Switzerland,  of 
which  this  was  the  ancient  Laitin  name.  Matthew  Kelly,  an  Irish  settler, 
proposed  the  township  name,  saying  that  he  had  seen  the  shrub  named 
holly,  which  is  common  in  Ireland,  growing  here  in  the  woods.  After  the 
name  had  been  adopted,  it  was  ascertained  that  the  European  holly  does 
not  occur  in  this  country;  but  Minnesota  has  two  species  of  this  family, 
found  rarely  on  bluffs  of  Lake  Pepin,  the  St  Croix  river,  and  northward. 

Laketown,  so  named  on  the  suggestion  of  John  Salter,  for  its  ten 
small  lakes  and  the  large  Qearwater  lake  on  its  west  boundary,  was  first 
settled  in  April,  1853,  and  was  organized  May  11,  1858.  It  was  at  first  called 
Liberty,  but  was  renamed  as  now  on  June  12,  1858,  a  month  after  the  or- 
ganization. The  Swedish  community  on  the  east  side  of  Clearwater  lake 
has  been  often  called  Scandia,  the  ancient  Roman  name  for  the  southern 
part  of  Sweden. 

Mayer^  a  railway  village  on  the  line  between  Camden  and  Waconia, 
was  named  by  officers  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  company. 

MiNNEWASHTA,  a  village  mainly  of  summer  homes,  on  the  northeast 
end  of  the  largest  lake  in  Chanhassen,  received  its  name  from  the  lake. 
It  consists  of  two  Sioux  words,  minne,  water,  and  washta,  good. 

New  Germany,  the  railway  village  in  sections  4  and  5,  Camden,  was 
named  in  compliment  to  the  many  German  settlers  in  its  vicinity.  In  the 
World  War,  1914-18,  this  name  was  changed  to  Motordale,  on  account  of 
popular  indignation  against  Germany. 

Norwood,  a  village  and  railway  junction  in  Young  America,  platted  in 
1872  and  incorporated  in  1881,  is  said  to  have  been  "named  by  Mr.  Slo- 
cum,  an  early  banker  there,  for  an  eastern  relative  or  friend  of  his  wife.** 
Fifteen  villages  and  postoffices  in  eastern  and  southern  states  have  this 
name. 

PiXASANT  View,  a  village  and  summer  resort  in  section  1,  Chanhassen, 
at  the  north  end  of  Long  lake,  was  thus  euphoniously  named  by  its  pro- 
prietors. 


84  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

San  FftANasco,  a  fractional  township  beside  the  Minnesota  river,  set- 
tled in  1854  and  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  by  William  Foster, 
who  in  1854  platted  and  so  named  a  village  site  on  his  claim,  taking  this 
name  from  the  metropolis  of  California.  The  village  flourished  only 
about  ten  years,  and  its  site  then  reverted  to  be  farming  land. 

VicTQSiA,  a  railway  village  in  sections  13  and  14,  Laketown,  was  named 
in  honor  of  the  queen  of  England. 

ViMLAND^  a  hamlet  of  summer  homes  in  section  2,  Chanhassen,  at  the 
south  end  of  Christmas  lake,  was  named  for  the  region  of  temporary 
Norse  settlement,  about  the  banning  of  the  eleventh  century,  on  the 
northeast  coast  of  North  America.  The  name  is  Icelandic,  meaning  wine- 
land,  bcause  grapes  were  found  there. 

Waconia  township,  settled  in  1855,  organized  May  11,  1858,  bears  the 
Sioux  name  of  its  large  lake,  meaning  a  fountain  or  spring.  The  village 
of  Waconia  was  platted  and  liamed  by  Roswell  P.  Russell  in  March,  1857. 
This  lake  is  also  called  Qearwater  lake.  'Tt  has  about  eighteen  miles  of 
shore,  most  of  which  is  high  with  a  gravelly  beach.  The  water  is  very 
clear,  hence  its  name,  and  well  stocked  with  fish." 

Watertown,  first  settled  in  1856,  organized  April  13,  1858,  received 
this  name  "because  of  the  township's  large  water  supply,"  by  five  or  six 
lakes  and  the  South  fork  of  Crow  river.  The  village  of  Watertown, 
platted  in  1858,  was  incorporated  February  26,  1877. 

In  Young  America  a  village  of  this  name  was  platted  in  the  fall  of 
1856,  which  was  incorporated  March  4,  1879.  The  same  name  is  also 
given  to  a  small  lake  there.  At  the  organization  of  the  township  in  1858,  it 
was  first  named  Farmington,  but  later  in  that  year  was  renamed  Florence ; 
and  in  1863  it  was  again  changed  to  the  present  name,  like  its  village. 
This  name  is  a  familiar  expression  for  the  vigor  i^d  progressiveness  of 
the  young  people  of  the  United  States.  Its  only  use  elsewhere  as  a  geo- 
graphic name  is  for  a  village  in  Cass  county,  Indiana. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

At  the  Little  Rapids  of  the  Minnesota  river,  adjoining  the  southeast 
quarter  of  section  31,  Carver,  a  ledge  of  the  Jordan  sandstone  running 
across  the  river  bed  causes  a  fall  of  two  feet ;  and  again  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  up  the  river  its  bed  is  similarly  crossed  by  this  sandstone,  having 
there  a  fall  of  slightly  more  tiian  one  foot  In  the  stage  of  low  water, 
these  very  slight  falls  prevent  the  passage  of  boats ;  but  at  a  fuller  stage 
the  river  wholly  covers  the  ledges,  with  no  perceptible  rapid  descent,  be- 
ing then  freely  navigable.  Fur  trading  posts  were  located  there  during 
many  years.    A  lake  there,  dose  west  of  the  river,  is  named  Rapids  lake. 

In  the  list  of  townships  and  villages,  the  origins  and  meanings  of  the 
names  of  several  lakes  and  streams  have  been  noted,  including  Lake  Ben- 
ton, Carver  creek,  Chaska  lake  and  creek,  Qearwater  or  Waconia  lake 
and  its  Coney  Island,  Lake  Minnewashta,  Long  lake  in  Chanhassen,  and 
Young  America  lake. 


CARVER  COUNTY  85 

Names  given  in  honor  of  early  settlers,  mostly  having  taken  home- 
steads on  or  near  the  lake  or  stream  so  designated,  include  Bevins  creek, 
flowing  through  San  Francisco  to  the  Minnesota  river ;  Lakes  Lucy,  Ann, 
and  Susan,  in  Chanhassen,  the  first  and  second  being  named  respectively 
for  the  wives  of  Burritt  S.  and  William  S.  Judd,  and  the  third  for  Susan 
Hazeltine,  who  taught  the  first  school  in  Carver  county  and  is  also  com- 
memorated here,  with  her  father,  by  Hazeltine  lake;  Virginia  lake,  in 
section  6,  and  Bradford  lake,  in  sections  24  and  25,  Qianhassen,  and 
Bavaria  lake,  crossed  by  the  west  line  of  that  township,  named  for  the 
native  land  of  settlers  near  it;  Pierson,  Reitz,  Schutz  (or  Goldschmidt), 
Stieger  (or  Herman),  and  Watermann's  lakes,  in  Laketown,  commemor- 
ating John  Pierson,  Frederick  Reitz,  Matthias  Schuetz,  Carl  Stieger,  and 
Michael  Wassermann,  settlers  near  these  several  lakes;  Buran's  lake,  for 
a  German  farmer  adjoining  it,  Adolph  Burandt,  Lake  Donders,  and  Hyde, 
Patterson,  and  Rutz  lakes,  in  Waconia,  the  last  three  being  for  Ernst 
Heyd,  the  first  county  surveyor,  who  owned  land  there,  William  Patter- 
son, one  of  the  earliest  settlers,  and  Peter  Rutz;  Berliner  lake,  in  section 
12,  Camden,  for  a  German  settler  from  Berlin;  Campbell  lake,  section  IS, 
Hollywood,  for  Patrick  Campbell  and  his  two  brothers,  Irish  settlers; 
Miller's  lake,  in  section  8,  Dahlgren,  for  Herman  Mueller;  Gruenhagen's, 
Heyer's,  Hoeffken's,  Maria,  and  Winkler's  lakes,  in  Benton,  the  first  for 
H.  F.  Gruenhagen,  the  second  for  Louis  Heyer,  the  third  for  Henry  Hoeff- 
ken,  and  the  last  for  Ignatz  Winkler ;  and  Barnes,  Brandt  and  Frederick's 
lakes,  in  Young  America,  respectively  for  William  Barnes,  the  earliest 
homesteader  there,  Leroy  Brandt,  and  Frederick  Ohland. 

Eagle  lake,  in  section  34,  Camden,  was  named  for  an  eagle's  nest  there, 
in  a  very  great  Cottonwood  tree. 

For  Lake  Auburn  and  Parley  and  Zumbra  lakes,  in  Laketown,  no  in- 
formation of  the  origin  of  their  names  has  been  learned. 

Swede  lake,  in  Watertown,  was  named  for  its  several  Swedish  settlers 
by  the  earliest  of  them,  Daniel  Justus,  in  August,  1856.  This  neighbor- 
hood was  known  as  C^otaholm  (Gota,  a  river  of  southern  Sweden,  holm, 
a  grove).  The  same  name,  Swede  lake,  was  also  formerly  borne  by  the 
present  Maria  lake,  section  36,  Benton. 

Tiger  lake,  in  Young  America,  has  reference  to  a  "mountain  lion,"  also 
named  the  cougar  or  puma,  seen  there  by  the  first  settlers.  This  species, 
very  rare  in  Minnesota,  more  frequent  in  the  region  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, was  mentioned  by  Carver  in  the  narration  of  his  Travels  as  **the 
Tyger  of  America,"  one  having  been  seen  by  him  on  an  island  of  the 
Chippewa  river,  Wisconsin. 

Several  other  lakes  of  this  county  have  names  of  frequent  occurrence 
and  evident  significance,  as  Rice  lake  on  the  north  line  of  Benton,  and  a 
second  Rice  lake,  section  36,  Chanhassen,  both  named  from  their  wild 
rice;  Marsh  lake,  in  section  26,  Laketown;  Mud  and  Oak  lakes,  Water- 
town;  and  (joose  and  Swan  lakes,  in  Waconia. 


CASS  COUNTY 

Established  September  1,  1851,  but  having  remained  without  organiza- 
tion till  1897,  this  county  commemorates  the  distinguished  statesman, 
Lewis  Cass,  who  in  1820  commanded  an  exploring  expedition  which  start- 
ed from  Detroit,  passed  through  lakes  Huron  and  Superior,  and  thence 
advanced  by  way  of  Sandy  lake  and  the  upper  Mississippi  as  far  as  to 
the  upper  Red  Cedar  lake.  This  name,  a  translation  from  the  Ojibway 
name,  was  changed  by  Schoolcraft,  the  narrator  of  the  expedition,  to  be 
Cassina  or  Cass  lake,  in  honor  of  its  commander.  He  was  born  in  Exeter, 
N.  H.,  October  9,  1782,  and  died  in  Detroit,  Mich.,  June  17,  1866.  At  the 
age  of  eighteen  years  he  came  to  Marietta,  the  first  town  founded  in 
southern  Ohio,  and  studied  law  there;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1803, 
and  began  practice  at  Zanesville,  Ohio ;  and  was  colonel  and  later  brigadier 
general  in  the  War  of  1812.  He  was  governor  of  Michigan  Territory, 
1813  to  1831 ;  negotiated  twenty-two  treaties  with  Indian  tribes ;  was  sec- 
retary of  war,  in  the  cabinet  of  President  Jackson,  1831-36,  including  the 
time  of  the  Black  Hawk  war;  minister  to  France,  1836-42;  United  States 
senator,  1845-48;  Democratic  candidate  for  the  presidency  in  the  cam- 
paign of  1848;  again  U.  S.  senator,  1849-57;  and  secretary  of  state,  in  the 
cabinet  of  President  Buchanan,  1857-60. 

To  voyage  along  the  upper  Mississippi  river  and  to  describe  and  map 
its  principal  source  were  the  motives  for  the  expedition  undertaken  m 
1820  by  Cass.  At  this  time  Michigan  Territory,  of  which  he  was  governor, 
included  the  northeastern  third  of  Minnesota,  east  of  the  Mississippi ;  and 
Missouri  Territory  extended  across  the  present  State  of  Iowa  and  west- 
em  two-thirds  of  Minnesota. 

The  report  of  this  expedition,  published  the  next  year,  is  entitled 
"Narrative  Journal  of  Travels  from  Detroit  northwest  through  the  Great 
Chain  of  American  Lakes  to  the  Sources  of  the  Mississippi  river  in  the 
year  1820,  by  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft.  .  .  Albany,  .  .  1821"  (424  pages, 
with  a  map  and  eight  copper-plate  engravings.)  This  title-page  is  en- 
graved and  is  followed  by  another  in  print,  which  states  that  the  author 
was  "a  member  of  the  Expedition  under  Governor  Cass."  The  explora- 
tions of  the  upper  Mississippi  by  Cass  and  Schoolcraft,  of  whom  the  lat- 
ter visited  and  named  Lake  Itasca  in  1832,  are  related  in  a  chapter  of 
'Minnesota  in  Three  Centuries"  (1908,  vol.  I,  pp.  347-356,  with  their  por- 
traits.) 

Several  extended  biographies  of  General  Cass  were  published  during 
his  lifetime,  in  1848,  1852,  and  1856,  the  years  of  successive  presidential 
campaigns.  In  1889  a  marble  statue  of  him  was  contributed  by  the  State 
of  Michigan  as  one  of  its  two  statues  for  the  National  Statuary  Hall  at 

86 


CASS  COUNTY  87 

the  Capitol  in  Washington;  and  the  proceedings  and  addresses  in  Con- 
gress upon  the  acceptance  of  the  statue  were  published  in  a  volume  of  106 
pages.  Two  years  afterward,  in  1891,  a  mature  study  of  his  biography, 
entitled  "Lewis  Cass,  by  Andrew  C.  McLaughlin,  Assistant  Professor  of 
History  in  the  University  of  Michigan"  (363  pages),  was  published  in  the 
"American  Statesmen''  series. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

For  the  origins  and  meanings  of  these  names,  information  has  been 
ga/thered  in  October,  1909,  from  Iver  P.  Byhre,  county  auditor,  and  in 
September  1916,  from  Nathan  J.  Palmer,  clerk  of  the  court.  Mack  Ken- 
nedy, sheriff,  James  S.  Scribner,  former  county  attorney,  and  M.  S.  Mori- 
cal,  all  of  Walker,  the  county  seat,  during  my  visits  there. 

Ansel  township  received  the  name  of  an  earlier  postoffice,  which  was 
given  by  its  postmaster,  Mjrron  Smith,  this  being  the  first  or  christening 
name  of  one  of  the  pioneers  there. 

Backus,  the  railway  village  in  Powers  township,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Edward  W.  Backus,  of  Minneapolis,  lumberman,  president  of  the 
Backus-Brooks  Company,  and  of  the  International  Falls  Lumber  Com- 
pany. 

Barclay  township  bears  the  surname  of  one  of  its  pioneers. 

Becker  township  was  named  for  J.  A.  Becker,  an  early  settler  there. 

Bena,  a  railway  village  adjoining  the  most  southern  bay  of  Lake  Win- 
nebagoshish,  is  the  Ojibway  word  meaning  a  partridge,  spelled  bin6  in 
Baraga's  Dictionary.  This  game  bird  species,  formerly  common  through- 
out the  wooded  region  of  this  state,  is  the  ruffed  grouse,  called  the  '*part- 
ridge"  in  New  England  and  in  Minnesota,  but  less  correctly  known  as  the 
"pheasant"  in  the  middle  and  southern  states.  Longfellow  used  this 
word  in  his  "Song  of  Hiawatha," 

"Heard  the  pheasant,  Bena,  drumming." 

Beulah  township  received  its  name  in  honor  of  Mrs.  Olds,  the  wife 
of  an  early  homesteader  there,  this  being  her  first  name,  a  Hebrew  word 
meaning  married. 

Birch  Lake  township  was  named  for  its  lake  adjoining  Hackensack 
village.  It  is  translated,  as  noted  by  Gilfillan,  from  the  Ojibway  "Ga-wig- 
wasensikag  sagaiigun,  the-place-of-little-birches  lake."  On  the  map  of 
the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey  it  is  called  Fourteen  Mile  lake,  indicat- 
ing its  distance  by  the  road  south  from  the  Leech  Lake  Agency. 

Boy  Lake  and  Boy  River  townships  were  named  from  their  large  lake 
and  river,  which  are  translations  of  the  Ojibway  names.  Gilfillan  wrote 
that  Woman  lake  and  Boy  lake  "are  so  called  from  women  and  boys,  re- 
spectively, they  having  been  killed  in  those  lakes  by  the  Sioux  during  an 
irruption  made  by  them."  The  date  and  origin  of  the  name  of  Boy  lake, 
whence  by  Ojibway  usage  the  outflowing  river  was  likewise  named,  are 
stated  by  Warren  in  his  "History  of  the  Ojibway  Nation"  (Minnesota 


88  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Historical  Society  Collections,  vol  V,  pages  222-252),  to  have  been  about 
the  year  1768,  within  a  few  years  after  the  Ojibways  had  driven  the 
Sioux  southward  from  Mille  Lacs.  A  war  party  of  Sioux  invaded  the  up- 
per Mississippi  region,  by  way  of  the  Crow  Wing  and  Gull  rivers,  and  by 
a  canoe  route,  with  portages,  through  White  Fish,  Wabedo,  and  the  Little 
Boy  and  Boy  lakes,  to  Leech  lake.  At  Boy  lake  they  '^killed  three  litde 
boys,  while  engaged  in  gathering  wild  rice.  .  .  .  From  this  circumstance, 
this  large  and  beautiful  sheet  of  water  has  derived  its  Ojibway  name  of 
Que-wis-ans  (Little  Boy)."  Warren's  narration  shows  that  this  attack 
was  on  the  lower  one  of  the  two  Boy  lakes,  lying  partly  in  the  township 
named  for  it  Gilfillan's  list  of  Ojibway  names  and  translations  has  ex- 
actly the  same  Ojibway  name  for  this  lake,  on  the  lower  part  of  Boy  river, 
and  for  the  lake  about  ten  miles  south  on  the  upper  part  of  the  river, 
which  our  maps  name  Little  Boy  lake. 

Nicollet  mapped  the  lower  Boy  lake  under  the  name  of  Lake  Hassler, 
in  honor  of  Ferdinand  Rudolph  Hassler  (b.  in  Switzerland,  1770,  d.  in 
Philadelphia,  1843),  who  was  superintendent  of  the  U.  S.  Coast  Surv^. 

Bull  Moose  township  was  named  in  compliment  to  the  Progressive 
or  "Bull  Moose''  division  of  the  Republican  party,  which  supported  form- 
er President  Roosevelt  as  its  candidate  in  the  presidential  campaign  of 
1912. 

Bunco  township  was  named  for  descendants  of  a  negro,  Jean  Bonga, 
who,  according  to  Dr.  Neill,  was  brought  from  the  West  Indies  and  was 
a  slave  of  Captain  Daniel  Robertson,  British  commandant  at  Mackinaw 
from  1782  to  1787.  His  family  intermarried  with  the  Ojibways,.  and  the 
name  became  changed  to  Bungo.  George  Bonga  was  an  interpreter  for 
Governor  Cass  in  1820  at  Fond  du  Lac,  and  he  or  another  of  this  family 
was  an  interpreter  for  the  Ojibway  treaty  in  1837  at  Fort  Snelling.  Rev. 
Joseph  A.  Gilfillan  wrote  in  1897  (M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  IX,  page 
56)  :  "About  Leech  lake  there  are  perhaps  a  hundred  descendants  of  the 
negro  Bungo;  nearly  all  these  are  very  muscular,  and  some  have  been  of 
unusually  fine  physique."  This  township  has  a  Bungo  brook,  which  was 
earlier  so  named,  flowing  out  at  its  northeast  comer. 

Byron  was  named  for  Byron  Powell,  the  first  white  boy  born  in  this 
township,  son  of  Philo  Powell,  who  later  removed  to  northwestern  Can- 
ada. 

Cass  LAiCE>  a  large  railway  village,  received  its  name  from  the  adjoin- 
ing lake,  which,  as  before  noted,  was  named,  like  this  county,  in  honor  of 
General  Cass. 

Crooked  Lake  township  took  this  name  from  its  Crooked  lake,  half 
of  which  extends  into  Crow  Wing  county.  It  is  a  translation  of  the  abor- 
iginal name,  Wewagigumag  sagaiigun.  By  a  resolution  of  the  state 
legislature,  March  6,  1919,  this  lake  was  renamed  Lake  Roosevelt,  in  honor 
of  President  Theodore  Roosevelt,  who  two  months  previously,  on  Jfl^iM* 
ary  6,  died  at  his  home.  Oyster  Bay,  N.  Y. 


CASS  COUNTY  89 

Cuba  and  Schley,  stations  of  the  Great  Northern  railway,  commem- 
orate the  Spanish-American  war  of  1898. 

Cyphers,  a  railway  station  five  miles  south  of  Walker,  was  named  for 
a  former  resident,  who  removed  into  Hubbard  county. 

Deekfield  township  was  named,  on  request  of  its  people,  for  the  plen- 
tiful deer  there ;  but  it  also  is  a  common  geographic  name,  borne  by  town- 
ships, villages  and  postoffices  in  fourteen  other  states. 

East  Gull  Lake  township  was  named  for  its  comprising  the  greater 
part  of  the  northeast  end  of  Gull  lake,  with  its  continuation  north  to  Up- 
per Gull  lake. 

Fairview  township  received  this  euphonious  name  in  accordance  with 
the  petition  of  its  people  for  organization. 

Federal  Dah  is  the  railway  village  at  the  reservoir  dam  built  by  the 
United  States  government  on  Leech  Lake  river. 

Gould  township  was  named  for  M.  I.  Gould,  logger  and  farmer,  who 
owned  hay  meadows  there. 

Gull  River  station  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railway,  formerly  a  place 
of  great  importance  for  its  lumber  manufacturing,  was  named  for  the 
Gull  lake  and  river,  each  a  translation  of  the  name  given  by  the  Ojibways, 
the  latter,  in  accordance  with  their  general  rule,  being  supplied  from  the 
name  of  the  lake.  This  aboriginal  name  is  noted  by  Gilfillan  as  ''Ga-* 
gaiashkonzikag  sagaiigun,  the-place-(of-young-gulls  lake." 

Hackensack,  a  railway  village,  was  named  for  an  earlier  postoffice 
there,  which  derived  its  name  from  the  town  of  Hackftnsack  in  New  Jer- 
sey, on  the  Hackensack  river,  given  by  James  Curo,  who  was  the  first 
postmaster,  ranchman,  and  merchant  there. 

HntAM  township  was  named  by  the  petition  for  organization,  in  honor 
of  Hiram  Wilson,  an  early  settler,  who  was  yet  living  there  in  1916. 

Home  Brook  township  received  the  name  of  a  postofiBce  earlier  estab- 
lished, which  had  taken  the  name  of  the  brook,  given  by  lumbermen. 
(Brook  and  creek  have  the  same  meaning  in  this  state,  the  latter  being 
the  more  common,  or  the  only  term  in  use,  through  the  greater  part  of  the 
state;  but  lumbermen  and  settlers  coming  from  Maine  and  others  of  the 
eastern  states  have  in  many  cases  named  the  small  streams  as  brooks, 
especially  in  the  wooded  northeastern  third  of  Minnesota.) 

Inguadona  township  has  a  name  of  probably  aboriginal  derivation,  but 
its  significance  has  not  been  learned.  It  was  given  to  the  township  from 
its  lake  so  named.  If  it  is  of  the  Ojibway  language,  its  original  form  and 
pronunciation  may  have  been  so  changed  as  to  be  now  unidentifiable. 
Gilfillan  gave  the  name  of  this  lake  as  ''Manominiganjiki,  or  The-rice- 
field."  It  was  called  Lake  Gauss  on  Nicollet's  map,  for  the  celebrated 
German  mathematician  (b.  1777,  d.  1855). 

Kego,  the  name  of  a  township  here,  is  a  common  Ojibway  word,  mean- 
ing a  fish,  used  as  a  general  term  for  any  fish  species.  This  is  spelled 
Gigo  in  Baraga's  Dictionary. 


90  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Leech  Lake  township  was  named  for  the  lake,  translated  from  the 
Ojibway  name,  noted  by  Gilfillan  as  "Ga-sagasquadjimekag  sagaiigun, 
the-place-of-the-leech-lake ;  from  the  tradition  that  on  first  coming  to  it, 
the  Chippeways  saw  an  enormous  leech  swimming  in  it."  Nicollet  wrote 
that  this  aboriginal  name  "implies  .  .  .  that  its  waters  contain  a  remark- 
able number  of  leeches." 

Lima  township  (pronounced  here  with  the  long  English  sound  of  i, 
unlike  Lima  in  Peru)  was  named  probably  for  the  city  of  Lima  in  Ohio, 
where  the  pronunciation  has  been  thus  anglicized.  Ten  other  states  have 
towns  and  villages  of  this  name. 

LooN  Lake  township  was  named  for  its  lake  in  section  20.  This  large 
water  bird  was  formerly  frequent  or  common  throughout  this  state,  and 
is  yet  common  in  its  wooded  northeast  part 

McKinley  township  was  named  in  honor  of  our  third  martyr  presi- 
dent, William  McKinley,  who  was  born  in  Niles,  Ohio,  January  29,  1843, 
and  died  in  Bu£Falo,  N.  Y.,  September  14,  1901,  assassinated  by  an  anar- 
chist.    He  was  president  of  the  United  States,  1897-1901. 

Maple  township  received  this  name  on  the  petition  of  its  people  for 
organization,  referring  to  its  plentiful  sugar  maple  trees,  a  species  that  is 
common  or  abundant  throughout  Minnesota,  excepting  near  its  west  side. 
The  sap  is  much  used  for  sugar-making,  in  the  early  spring,  both  by  the 
Indians  and  the  white  people.  Warren  wrote  of  this  Ojibway  work  about 
Leech  lake :  ''The  shores  of  the  lake  are  covered  with  maple  which  yields 
to  the  industry  of  the  hunters'  women,  each  spring,  quantities  of  sap  which 
they  manufacture  into  sugar." 

May  township  was  named  in  honor  of  May  Griffith,  daughter  of  a 
former  county  auditor,  Charles  Griffith,  in  whose  office  she  was  an  assist- 
ant Lake  May,  formerly  called  Lake  Frances,  in  the  southwest  edge  of 
Walker  village,  is  also  named  for  her. 

Meadow  Brook  township  took  its  name  from  a  brook  where  a  school-, 
house  was  built  and  so  named  before  the  township  was  organized. 

Mildred,  a  small  railway  village  in  Pine  River  township,  was  named 
in  honor  of  Mrs.  Mildred  Scofield,  first  postmistress  and  wife  of  the 
merchant  there,  who,  with  her  husband,  removed  to  the  west. 

Moose  Lake  township  was  named  for  its  small  lake  in  sections  10 
and  15. 

Mud  Lake  township  was  named  for  its  Mud  lake,  mostly  shallow 
with  a  muddy  bed  and  having  much  wild  rice,  through  which  the  Leech 
Lake  river  flows.  The  Ojibway  name  is  translated  by  Gilfillan,  "meaning 
shallow-mud-bottomed  lake."  Nicollet  mapped  it  as  Lake  Bessel,  in  honor 
of  Friedrich  Wilhelm  Bessel  (b.  1784,  d.  1846),  a  distinguished  Prussian 
astronomer. 

NusHKA,  a  Great  Northern  railway  station  in  the  Chippewa  Indian 
Reservation,  is  an  Ojibway  word  of  exclamation,  meaning  "Look!"  It 
is  used  by  Longfellow  in  "The  Song  of  Hiawatha." 


CASS  COUNTY  91 

Pike  Bay  township  includes  the  large  Pike  bay,  more  properly  a 
separate  lake,  which  is  connected  on  the  north  with  Cass  lake  by  a  very 
narrow  strait  or  thoroughfare.  The  name  commemorates  Zebulon  Mont- 
gomery Pike,  the  commander  of  the  expedition  sent  to  the  upper  Mis- 
sissippi in  1805-06  by  the  United  States  War  Department  Pike  came 
to  Cass  lake  (then  known  as  the  upper  Red  Cedar  lake)  on  February 
12,  1806,  by  a  land  march  from  Leech  lake  and  across  Pike  bay;  spent 
a  day  at  the  Northwest  Company's  trading  post  there;  and  returned  on 
the  14th  by  the  same  route.  His  biography  is  presented  in  the  chapter  of 
Morrison  county,  where  he  is  honored  by  the  names  of  a  creek,  a  town- 
ship, and  rapids  of  the  Mississippi,  beside  the  site  of  his  winter  stockade 
camp. 

Pillager,  a  village  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railway,  the  adjoining 
Pillager  creek,  and  the  lake  of  this  name  at  its  source,  are  derived  from 
the  term.  Pillagers,  applied  to  the  Ojibways  of  this  vicinity  and  of  the 
Leech  Lake  Reservation.  According  to  the  accounts  given  by  School- 
craft and  his  associate,  Dr.  Douglass  Houghton,  in  the  Narrative  of  the 
expedition  in  1832  to  Itasca  Lake  (pages  111,  112,  254),  this  name,  Muk- 
kundwais  or  Pillagers,  originated  in  the  fall  of  1767  or  1768,  when  a 
trader  named  Berti,  who  had  a  trading  post  at  the  mouth  of  Crow  Wing 
river,  was  robbed  of  his  goods. 

Warren  gave,  in  the  "History  of  the  Ojibway  Nation,"  written  in 
1852,  a  more  detailed  narration  of  the  robbery  or  pillage,  referring  it 
erroneously  to  the  year  1781.  The  name  Pillagers,  given  to  the  Leech 
Lake  band  of  the  Ojibways,  had  come  into  use  as  early  as  1775,  when 
the  elder  Henry  found  some  of  them  at  the  Lake  of  the  Woods. 

Pine  Lake  township,  bordering  the  most  southern  part  of  the  shore 
of  Leech  lake,  contains  eight  lakes,  with  others  crossed  by  its  boundaries. 
It  had  abundant  white  pine  timber,  and  thence  came  this  name  of  its 
lakes,  in  sections  17  and  18,  later  given  to  the  township.  Its  largest  lake, 
in  sections  28,  32,  and  33,  is  called  Boot  lake,  from  its  outline. 

Pine  River  township  is  on  the  upper  part  of  Pine  river,  which  flows 
eastward  through  White  Fish  lake  and  joins  the  Mississippi  near  the  cen- 
ter of  Crow  Wing  county.  This  township  has,  near  Mildred  station,  a 
second  but  smaller  Boot  lake,  named  for  its  having  a  bootlike  shape. 

PoNTX)  Lake  '  township  has  a  lake  of  this  name,  in  sections  3,  9,  and 
10;  and  an  adjoining  postoffice  is  named  Pontoria.  These  are  unique 
names,  not  in  use  elsewhere,  and  their  derivation  and  significance  remain 
to  pe  learned. 

Poplar  township  had  an  earlier  postoffice  of  this  name,  referring  to 
the  plentiful  poplar  groves. 

Portage  Lake,  a  station  of  the  Soo  line,  in  the  Chippewa  Indian 
Reservation,  and  the  lake  of  this  name,  a  half  mile  distant  to  the  north, 
as  also  the  neighboring  Portage  bay  of  the  large  north  arm  of  Leech 
lake,  refer  to  the  canoe  portage  there  between  the  waters  of  Leech  and 


92  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Winnebagoshish  lakes.  On  Nicollet's  map  this  Portage  lake  is  named  in 
honor  of  Duponceau  (b.  in  France,  1760,  d.  in  Philadelphia,  1844),  author 
of  a  "Memoir  on  the  Indian  Languages  of  North  America,"  published 
in  1835;  and  the  Portage  bay  bears  the  name  of  Pickering  bay  on  this 
map,  for  an  American  writer  of  another  work  on  the  same  subject,  pub- 
lished  in  1836. 

Powers  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Gorham  Powers,  of  Granite 
Falls,  who  was  a  landowner  there,  having  a  summer  home  on  Sanborn 
lake,  in  section  27.  He  was  born  in  Pittsfield,  Maine,  September  14,  1840 ; 
served  in  the  civil  war,  1862-5 ;  was  graduated  at  the  Albany  law  school, 
1866,  and  in  the  same  year  came  to  Minnesota,  settling  in  Minneapolis; 
,  removed  in  1868  to  Granite  Falls ;  was  county  attorney  of  Yellow  Medi- 
cine county,  1872-7,  and  1884-6;  was  a  representative  in  the  state  legis- 
lature, 1879;  and  was  judge  in  the  Twelfth  judicial  district  from  1890 
until  his  death,  at  Granite  Falls,  April  15, 1915. 

Remer  township,  and  the  earlier  Remer  postoffice  and  railway  village, 
were  named  in  honor  of  E.  N.  and  William  P.  Remer,  brothers,  of  whom 
the  former  is  treasurer  and  manager  of  the  Reishus-Remer  Land  Com- 
pany, of  Grand  Rapids,  and  the  latter  was  the  first  postmaster  here. 

Rogers  was  named  in  honor  of  William  A.  Rogers,  who  had  a  home- 
stead in  this  township,  coming,  as  also  his  brothers  Nathan  and  Frank, 
from  St  John,  N.  B.  He  engaged  in  logging  as  a  contractor,  resided  in 
Walker,  and  was  killed  by  an  elevator  accident  in  Duluth.  His  son, 
Edward  L.  Rogers,  has  been  the  county  attorney  of  Cass  county  since 
1913. 

Salem  was  named  by  its  settlers  in  their  petition  for  township  organ- 
ization. It  is  the  name  of  townships,  cities,  villages,  and  postoffices,  in 
thirty-two  states  of  our  Union. 

Schley,  a  Great  Northern  railway  station,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Winfield  Scott  Schley,  rear  admiral  of  the  United  States  Navy.  He  was 
bom  in  Frederick  county,  Maryland,  October  9,  1839;  was  graduated  at 
the  U.  S.  Naval  Academy  in  1860,  and  was  an  instructor  there  after  the 
civil  war;  commanded  the  "Flying  Squadron"  in  the  Spanish-IAmerican 
war,  1896,  and  directed  the  naval  battle  off  Santiago,  Cuba;  author  of 
an  autobiography,  **Forty-five  Years  under  the  Flag"  (1904,  439  pages)  ; 
died  in  New  York  City,  October  2,  1911. 

Three  successive  stations  and  sidings  of  this  railway  in  the  north 
edge  of  Cass  county,  established  in  1898-99,  are  commemorative  of  our 
short  and  decisive  war  with  Spain,  named  Schley,  Santiago,  and  Cuba.. 

Sbingobee  township  received  this  name  from  its  creek,  being  the  gen- 
eral Ojibway  word  for  the  spruce,  balsam  fir,  and  arbor  vitae,  species  of 
evergreen  trees  that  are  common  or  abundant  through  northern  Minne- 
sota, excepting  die  Red  River  valley.  It  is  spelled  jingob  in  Baraga's 
Dictionary. 

Slater  township  was  named  for  David  H.  Slater,  a  homestead  fanner 
in  section  6. 


CASS  COUNTY  93 

Smoky  Hollow  was  named  by  Levi  Morrow,  a  settler  who  came  from 
Missouri,  in  remembrance  of  his  former  home  in  the  state  of  New  York, 
near  a  locality  so  named  (or  perhaps  for  Sleepy  Hollow,  a  quiet  valley 
near  Tarrytown,  on  the  Hudson,  of  which  Irving  wrote  in  "The  Sketch 
Book").  This  township  has  in  part  a  surface  of  marginal  morainic  drift, 
remarkably  diversified  with  knolls,  ridges,  and  hollows. 

Sylvan  township  is  named  for  its  Sylvan  lake,  which  refers  to  the 
woods  or  groves  on  its  shores.  The  Ojibway  name,  noted  by  Gilfillan, 
means  Fish  Trap  lake. 

Thunder  Lake  township  is  derived  likewise  from  its  lake  of  this 
name,  which  is  probably  a  translation  of  the  aboriginal  name. 

Tbeufe  township  (pronounced  in  three  syllables,  with  accent  on  the 
first,  and  with  the  short  sound  of  each)  is  named,  with  variation  of  spell- 
ing, for  the  tullibee,  a  very  common  fish  in  the  lakes  of  northern  Minne- 
sota, having  a  wide  geographic  range  from  New  York  to  northwestern 
Canada.  This  species,  Argyrosomus  tullibee  (Richardson),  closely  re- 
sembles the  common  whitefish.  The  word  was  adopted,  as  noted  by 
Richardson,  from  the  Cree  language.  Tulaby  lake,  crossed  by  the  line 
between  Becker  and  Mahnomen  counties,  was  also  named  for  this  fish, 
supplying  another  way  of  its  spelling. 

Turtle  Lake  township  is  named  for  its  two  lakes  in  sections  22,  23, 
26,  and  27,  called  by  the  Ojibways,  as  recorded  by  Gilfillan,  "Mikinako- 
sagaiigunun,  or  Turtle  lakes." 

Wabedo  township  (accenting  the  first  syllable)  received  its  name 
from  its  Wabedo  lake.  Warren,  writing  in  1852  in  his  "History  of  the 
Ojibway  Nation"  (M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  V,  page  224),  related  that 
an  invading  war  party  of  the  Sioux,  about  the  year  1768,  came  "into 
Wab-ud-ow  lake,  where  they  spilt  the  first  Ojibway  blood,  killing  a 
hunter  named  Wab-ud-iow  (White  (jore),  from  which  circumstance  the 
lake  is  named'  to  this  day  by  the  Ojibways."  The  same  party,  advancing 
northward,  killed  three  boys  gathering  rice,  whence  Boy  lake  and  river 
received  their  name,  as  noted  on  a  preceding  page.  Gilfillan  spelled 
Wabedo  lake  as  "Wabuto  sagaiigun,  or  Mushroom  lake." 

Wahnena   (with  accent  on  the  second  syllable)  was  named  for  an. 
Ojibway  chief  who  died  about  the  year  1895. 

Walden  township  bears  the  name  of  a  pond  near  Concord,  Mass., 
beside  which  Henry  D.  Thoreau,  the  author,  built  a  hut  and  lived  about 
two  years,  1845-47,  as  told  in  his  book,  "Walden,  or  Life  in  the  Woods," 
published  in  1854.  This  is  also  the  name  of  a  town  in  northern  Vermont, 
and  of  a  large  manufacturing  village  in  Orange  county,  N.  Y. 

Walker  village,  the  county  seat,  was  named  in  honor  of  Thomas  Bar- 
low Walker,  who  has  large  lumbering  and  land  interests  in  (3ass  county 
and  in  several  other  counties  of  northern  Minnesota.  He  was  bom  in 
Xenia,  Ohio,  February  1,  1840;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1862,  and  was  the 
surveyor  of  parts  of  the  St.  Paul  and  Duluth  railway  line;  commenced 


94  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

in  1868  the  purchase  of  great  tracts  of  pine  lands,  and  later  built  and 
operated,  in  Crookston  and  elsewhere,  many  large  lumber  mills.  He 
resides  in  Minneapolis,  and  maintains  a  very  valuable  and  choice  art 
gallery  to  which  the  public  are  freely  welcomed.  An  autobiographic 
paper  by  Mr.  Walker  is  published  in  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society 
Collections  (vol.  XV,  1915,  pages  455-478,  with  his  portrait). 

Wilkinson  township  commemorates  Major  Melville  Gary  Wilkinson, 
who  was  killed  in  a  skirmish  with  the  Bear  Island  band  of  the  Pillager 
Indians,  at  Sugar  point  on  Leech  lake,  October  5,  1898.  He  was  born  in 
New  York,  November  14,  1835;  served  as  a  volunteer  in  the  civil  war, 
and  in  1866  entered  the  regular  army.  The  '^battle  of  Sugar  point,"  and 
dealings  with  these  Ojibways  preceding  and  following  it,  are  narrated  in 
Flandrau's  '*History  of  Minnesota"  (1900,  pages  229-234),  and  more  fully 
by  Holcombe  in  ''Minnesota  in  Three  Centuries"  (1908,  vol  IV,  pages 
245-254). 

WooDROW  township  received  its  name,  by  petition  of  its  citizens  for 
the  township  organization,  in  honor  of  President  Woodrow  Wilson.  He 
was  born  in  Staunton,  Va.,  December  28,  1856 ;  was  graduated  at  Prince- 
ton University,  1879;  was  professor  there,  of  finance  and  political  econo- 
my, 1890-1902,  and  president,  1902-10;  author  of  several  books  on  United 
States  history  and  politics;  was  governor  of  New  Jersey,  1911-13;  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  since  March  4,  1913. 

Bays^  Points^  and  Islands  of  Leech  Lake. 

The  origin  of  the  name  of  Leech  lake  has  been  noted  for  the  township 
so  named.  It  was  translated  from  the  Ojibway  name,  the  French  trans- 
lation being  Lac  Sangsue  (which  in  English  is  a  bloodsucker,  that  is,  a 
leech). 

This  lake  has  a  very  irregular  outline,  with  numerous  bays  and  pro- 
jecting points,  and  it  contains  several  islands.  On  the  east  is  Boy  River 
bay,  named  for  its  inflowing  river,  with  Sugar  point  at  its  west  entrance, 
named  for  its  sugar  maples,  the  site  of  the  battle  in  1898,  when  Major 
Wilkinson  lost  his  life,  as  noted  for  the  township  of  his  name.  Bear 
island  stretches  three  miles  from  north  to  south,  lying  in  front  of  this 
bay  and  of  Rice  bay  at  the  southeast,  and  Pelican  island  lies  far  out  in 
the  southern  central  part  of  the  broad  lake,  these  names  being  translations 
from  those  given  by  the  Ojibways. 

Big  point  and  Otter  Tail  point,  respectively  on  the  southwest  and 
northwest  borders  of  the  main  lake,  guard  the  entrance  to  the  more 
irregular  western  part.  The  Peninsula  juts  into  that  part  from  the  south, 
having  itself  a  small  Peninsula  lake,  and  bounded  on  the  southeast  by 
Agency  bay  and  on  the  west  by  the  South  arm  and  West  bay.  At  the 
south  end  of  the  Peninsula,  a  passage  called  the  Narrows  leads  from 
the  South  arm  to  Agency  bay ;  and  on  the  north  the  Peninsula  is  sepa- 
rated from  the  main  shore  by  the  North  Narrows,  and  it  terminates 


CASS  COUNTY  95 

northeastward  in  Pine  point  Nearly  all  these  names  are  self-explana- 
tory, having  an  obvious  significance.  The  Otter  Tail  point,  at  the  end  of 
a  tapering  tract  of  land  about  five  miles  long,  is  a  translation  of  the  O jib- 
way  name,  referring  to  its  outline,  which  resembles  an  otter's  tail,  simi- 
larly as  the  large  lake  and  county  of  this  name  have  reference  to  a  taper- 
ing point  of  land  adjoining  the  eastern  end  of  that  lake. 

On  the  north  end  of  the  Peninsula,  at  the  North  Narrows,  was  the 
village  of  Eshkebugecoshe  (Flat  Mouth,  b.  1774,  d.  about  1860),  the  very 
intelligent,  friendly,  and  respected  chief  of  the  Pillager  Ojibways;  and 
close  east  of  this  village,  at  the  time  of  Schoolcraft's  visit  there  in  1832, 
was  the  trading  house  of  the  American  Fur  Company.  In  the  time  of 
Pike's  visit,  1806,  the  Northwest  Company's  trading  post  was  about  two 
miles  distant  to  the  northeast  from  the  North  Narrows,  being  opposite 
to  Goose  island. 

West  bay  in  its  north  part  branches  westward  to  the  Northwest  arm, 
entered  by  a  very  narrow  and  short  strait,  and  opens  northward,  opposite 
to  tiie  North  Narrows,  into  Duck  bay,  which  is  entered  with  Prairie  point 
on  the  right,  and  with  Aitkin  point,  succeeded  westward  by  the  small 
Aitkin  bay,  on  the  left.  Proceeding  five  miles  up  the  Duck  bay,  past 
Duck  island  (called  in  the  latest  atlas  Minnesota  island),  one  comes  at 
the  northwest  corner  of  this  bay  to  the  mouth  of  the  Steamboat  river, 
"fringed  with  extensive  fields  of  wild  rice,"  whence  a  canoe  route  through 
several  little  lakes,  with  portages,  leads  to  Pike  bay  of  Cass  lake. 

Four  years  after  the  southward  journey  of  Schoolcraft  through  Leech 
lake  in  1832,  Rev.  William  T.  Boutwell,  his  companion  of  that  travel,  who 
a  year  later  had  established  a  mission  here  for  the  Ojibways,  befriended 
Nicollet  on  his  exploration  of  the  upper  Mississippi  country,  in  his  rela- 
tions with  these  Indians.  Nicollet  spent  a  week  on  Leech  lake  in  the  middle 
of  August,  1836,  having  his  camping  place  generally  on  Otter  Tail  point. 
Boutwell's  mission  house  was  on  or  near  the  isthmus  that  connects  the 
Peninsula  with  the  mainland  of  the  present  Leech  Lake  Agency.  On 
Nicollet's  return  from  Lake  Itasca,  by  way  of  the  Mississippi  and  Cass 
lake,  he  again  camped  on  Otter  Tail  point  during  the  first  week  of  Sep- 
tember, visited  with  Boutwell,  and  had  long  interviews  with  Flat  Mouth. 

Sucker  bay  lies  west  and  north  of  Otter  Tail  point,  and  receives  Sucker 
brook  at  its  north  end.  Flea  point,  called  Sugar  point  on  Schoolcraft's 
map  of  Leech  lake,  juts  into  the  southern  part  of  the  western  side  of  the 
bay ;  and  the  present  Sucker  brook  is  designated  on  that  map  by  the  nearly 
equivalent  name  of  Carp  river.  The  Sucker  Family  of  fishes,  Catostomi- 
dae,  includes  "some  15  genera  and  more  than  70  species,"  wholly  limited 
in  geographic  range  to  the  fresh  waters  of  North  America,  excepting 
that  two  species  occur  in  eastern  Asia.  Ulysses  O.  (3ox,  in  his  "Pre- 
liminary Report  on  the  Fishes  of  Minnesota,"  published  in  1897,  wrote 
of  this  family  that  "five  genera  and  eleven  species"  were  then  known  in 
this  state.    Our  most  plentiful  species,  known  as  the  "common  sucker," 


96  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

found  in  nearly  all  large  lakes  of  Minnesota,  "attains  a  length  of  18 
inches  or  more,  ...  a  food-fish  of  considerable  importance." 

On  the  northwest  side  of  the  northern  part  of  the  main  lake  are  the 
Two  points  and  Noon  Day  point ;  and  this  part  ends  in  the  little  Portage 
bay,  called  Rush  bay  on  Schoolcraft's  map,  whence  this  map  notes  the 
"Route  to  L.  Winnipeg^'  (that  is,  Winnebagoshish).  The  present  name 
of  the  bay,  refers,  as  before  mentioned,  to  that  canoe  route  and  its  port- 
age. Nicollet  named  this  most  northern  bay  of  Leech  lake  as  Pickering 
bay,  in  honor  of  John  Pickering  (b.  1777,  d.  1846),  of  Massachusetts,  a 
philologist,  who  in  1836  published  "Remarks  on  the  Indian  Languages  of 
North  America."  This  is  the  only  name  connected  with  Leech  lake  as 
mapped  in  much  crude  detail  by  Schoolcraft  and  Nicollet,  which  they  be- 
stowed otherwise  than  by  translation  of  the  Ojibway  names. 

Islands  of  Cass  Lake. 

Of  the  Ojibway  name  of  this  lake,  with  its  translation,  GilfUlan  wrote: 
"Cass  lake  is  Ga-misquawakokag  sagaiigun,  or  The-place-of-red-cedars 
lake,  from  some  red  cedars  growing  on  the  island ;  more  briefly,  Red  Cedar 
lake."  The  same  name  was  given  also  by  these  Indians  to  Cedar  lake  in 
Aitkin  county,  as  noted  in  the  chapter  for  that  county.  Until  the  adop- 
tion of  the  new  name,  Cassina  or  Cass  lake,  these  were  discriminated 
respectively  as  the  upper  and  lower  Red  Cedar  lakes. 

Gilfillan  further  wrote:  "The  large  island  in  the  lake  was  anciently 
called  Gamisquawako  miniss,  or  the  island  of  red  cedars.  It  is  now 
called  Kitchi  miniss,  or  Great  island."  Schoolcraft  in  1832  described 
and  mapped  it  as  "Colcaspi  or  Grand  island,"  having  coined  the  former 
word  from  parts  'of  the  names  of  its  three  explorers,  Schoolcraft,  Cass, 
and  Pike.  "The  town  of  Ozawindib"  (Yellow  Head,  who  was  the  guide 
of  Schoolcraft  and  his  party  in  their  expedition  to  Lake  Itasca)  was  on 
this  island,  being  a  village  of  157  people,  with  "small  fields  of  com  and 
potatoes,  cultivated  by  the  women."  It  is  now  commonly  called  Star 
island,  and  it  has  a  small  lake,  about  three-fourths  of  a  mile  long,  whidi 
is  called  Lake  Helen,  this  name  having  been  given  in  honor  of  Miss  Helen 
Gould,  of  New  York  City,  on  the  occasion  of  her  visit  here  about  the 
year  1900. 

Having  set  aside  the  Ojibway  name  of  Red  Cedar  island  for  the  new 
name,  Colcaspi,  Schoolcraft  gave  the  name,  "R.  Cedar  I."  on  his  map, 
to  a  small  island  on  the  southeast  Garden  and  Elm  islands  of  Allen's 
bay,  in  Beltrami  county,  each  of  very  small  area,  are  also  mentioned  by 
Schoolcraft,  the  former  doubtless  so  named  for  its  having  been  culti- 
vated by  the  Indians. 

Lake  Winnebagoshish. 

Thompson  in  1796  gave  this  name  as  Lake  Winepegoos  in  his  Narra- 
tive, published  under  editorial  care  of  J.  B.  Tyrrell  in  1916;  but  on 
Thompson's  map,  reproduced  in  facsimile  in  that  work,  it  is  Winnipeg 
Lake. 


CASS  COUNTY  97 

Schoolcraft's  Narrative  Journal  of  the  Expedition  in  1820  under  Gen- 
eral Cass,  published  in  1821,  called  it  Lake  Winnipec  in  the  text,  while 
the  map  spelled  it  Lake  Winnepec.  An  island  of  boulders  in  its  western 
part,  not  shown  on  maps  but  probably  lying  off  a  narrow  projecting  point, 
had  large  numbers  of  various  species  of  waterfowl,  one  of  which,  a 
pelican  found  dead,  caused  it  to  be  named  Pelican  island. 

The  map  in  the  Narrative  of  Long's  expedition,  1823,  notes  it  as 
"Lit  Winnepeek  L.;"  Beltrami  in  the  same  year  called  it  Lake  Winne- 
pec ;  and  Allen,  in  1832,  spelled  this  name  Lake  Winnipeg,  the  same  as  the 
lake  in  Manitoba.  Warren,  writing  in  1852  in  his  "History  of  the  Ojibway 
Nation,"  called  it  Lake  Winnepeg. 

In  Nicollet's  Report,  from  his  exploration  in  1836,  published  in  1843, 
it  appears  both  in  the  text  and  on  the  map  as  Lake  Winebigoshish ;  and 
this  form  has  continued  from  that  time  in  prevalent  use,  excepting  that 
the  letter  n  has  been  doubled.  The  accent  is  placed  by  the  white  people 
on  the  syllable  next  to  the  last,  with  the  long  o  sound. 

By  the  Ojibways  of  that  region,  however,  this  lake  name  is  generally 
pronounced  like  the  etymologically  cognate  name  of  the  Winnebago  In- 
dians and  Lake  Winnebago  in  Wisconsin  (which  is  accented  on  the  next 
before  the  final  syllable  and  has  the  English  long  sound  of  the  a),  with 
addidon  of  another  syllable,  shish.  GilfiUan  followed  the  orthography 
introduced  to  cartographers  by  Nicollet,  and  defined  the  meaning  as 
"miserable-wretched-dirty- water  (Winni,  filthy;  bi,  water;  osh,  bad,  an 
expression  of  contempt ;  ish,  an  additional  expression  of  contempt,  mean- 
ing miserable,  wretched)."  The  whole  lake  is  shallow,  with  a  mostly 
muddy  bed  at  a  depth  probably  nowhere  exceeding  20  or  25  feet,  so  that 
the  large  waves  of  storms  stir  up  the  mud  and  sand  of  the  lake  bottom 
and  shores,  roiling  the  water  upward  to  the  surface  upon  nearly  or  quite 
all  its  area. 

Similar  shallowness  and  general  muddiness  of  Lakes  Winnipeg  and 
Winnipegosis,  in  Manitoba,  also  caused  them  to  receive  these  Ojibway 
names,  the  former  meaning  muddy  water,  as  noted  by  Keating  in  1823 
(vol.  II,  page  77),  and  the  latter  meaning  "Little  Winnipeg,"  according 
to  Hind's  "Narrative  of  the  Canadian  Exploring  Expeditions"  (vol.  II, 
page  42). 

The  spelling  received  from  Nicollet,  mispronounced  by  our  white  peo- 
ple, has  been  corrected,  in  accordance  with  the  Ojibway  usage,  to  Win- 
nebagoshish,  by  treaties  of  the  United  States  with  the  Ojibways  under 
dates  of  May  7,  1864,  and  March  19,  1867,  and  in  an  executive  order  of 
President  Grant,  May  26,  *1874.  Rev.  S.  R.  Riggs,  in  a  paper  written  in 
1880,  spelled  the  name  as  "Lake  Winnebagooshish  or  Winnipeg"  (Minne- 
sota Historical  Society  Collections,  VI,  157,  158).  The  orthography  in 
the  treaties  here  cited  was  also  used  by  the  present  writer  in  the  U.  S. 
Geological   Survey   Monograph   XXV    ("The   Glacial   Lake   Agassiz"), 


> 


98  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

published  in  1896,  and  was  recommended  by  me  in  1899  for  general  adop- 
tion (Final  Report  of  the  Minn.  Geol.  Survey,  vol.  IV,  page  57).  It  still 
seems  to  me  desirable  that  the  corrected  spelling  and  pronunciation  be 
adopted  by  Minnesota  writers  and  speakers. 

Other  Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  fist  of  townships  and  villages  has  included  sufficient  mention  of 
numerous  lakes  and  streams,  including  Birch  lake.  Woman  lake,  the  Boy 
lakes  and  river,  Cass  lake.  Crooked  lake,  Gull  river  and  lake,  Home  brook, 
Inguadona  lake.  Leech  lake.  Loon  lake,  Lake  May,  Meadow  brook.  Moose 
lake  (in  ithe  township  of  this  name).  Mud  lake  and  the  Leech  Lake  river, 
Pike  bay  of  Cass  lake,  Pillager  creek  and  lake,  Pine  and  Boot  lakes  (in 
Pine  Lake  township) ,  Pine  river,  with  the  second  Boot  lake  in  Pine  River 
township,  Ponto  lake.  Portage  lake,  Shingobee  creek,  Sylvan  lake.  Thun- 
der lake,  the  Turtle  lakes  in  the  township  named  for  them,  and  Wabedo 
lake. 

On  the  canoe  route  from  Cass  lake  and  Pike  bay  to  Leech  lake,  School- 
craft named  the  first  lake,  in  sections  2  and  3,  Wilkinson,  Moss  lake,  for 
the  mosslike  water-plants  seen  growing  in  large  masses  on  the  lake  bot- 
tom, which  the  canoemen  "brought  up  on  their  paddles."  Thence  they 
made  a  portage  of  about  two  miles  soutiiwest  into  a  lake  at  the  center 
of  this  township,  which  Schoolcraft  named  Lake  Shiba,  spelled  by  "the 
initials  of  the  names  of  the  five  gentlemen  of  the  party,  Schoolcraft, 
Houghton,  Johnston,  Boutwell,  Allen."  About  a  mile  farther  southwest, 
they  came  into  "a  river  of  handsome  magnitude,  broad'  and  deep  but  with- 
out strong  current,"  since  named  Steamboat  river  because  it  is  ascended 
by  steamboats  from  Duck  bay  of  Leech  lake,  some  three  miles  distant. 
Steamboat  lake,  crossed  by  the  west  line  of  this  county,  lies  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  west  from  the  junction  of  the  outlet  of  Lake  Shiba  with  this  river. 

Going  from  Leech  lake  southwest  to  the  Crow  Wing  river,  School- 
craft took  a  somewhat  frequented  canoe  route,  starting  from  West  bay 
near  the  site  of  Walker  and  first  portaging  to  the  present  Lake  May 
(formerly  called  Lake  Frances),  then  named  the  Warpool  by  the  O jib- 
ways,  who  there  began  their  war  expeditions  to  the  country  of  the  Siotix. 
N^t  and  very  near  was  the  Little  Long  lake,  in  sections  33  and  34,  May, 
and  section  4,  Shingobee.  Thence  they  passed  up  a  little  inlet,  through 
its  four  lakelets,  and  by  portages  through  a  series  of  three  small  lakes, 
each  without  outlet,  coming  next  to  the  Long  Water  lake  in  Hubbard 
county,  at«ihe  head  of  the  Crow  Wing,  beginning  its  series  of  eleven 
lakes.  Schoolcraft's  Lake  of  the  Mountain  and  Lake  of  the  Island,  passed 
on  this  route  before  coming  to  the  Long  Water,  remain  unnamed  on  later 
maps. 

Distances  of  travel  south  from  the  Leech  Lake  Agency,  on  the  road 
to  Hackensack  and  Brainerd,  are  noted  by  Three  Mile  lake.  Four  Mile 
lake.  Six  Mile  lake.  Ten  Mile  lake,  Fourteen  Mile  lake  at  Hackensack 


CASS  COUNTY  99 

(called  now  Birch  lake,  translated  from  its  Ojibway  name),  with  the 
outflowing  Fourteen  Mile  creek,  the  head  of  Boy  river,  and  Twenty-<four 
Mile  credc,  which  outflows  from  Pine  Mountain  lake,  being  the  head 
stream  of  Pine  river.  These  names  are  recognized'  as  given  by  white 
pioneers,  being  unlike  the  majority  derived  by  translations. 

Gilfillan  wrote  that  the  long  lake  of  the  northwest  part  of  T.  144,  R. 
27,  in  the  Chippewa  Reservation,  between  Leech  Lake  river  and  Lake 
Winnebagoshish,  is  named  "Kitchi-bugwudjiwi  sagaiigun,  meaning  big- 
lake-in-the-wilderness  or  big-wilderness  lake." 

Bear  river  (also  called  Mud  river),  in  Salem,  flowing  into  the  south 
end  of  Mud  lake,  and  Grave  lake  at  its  head,  in  sections  10,  14,  and  15, 
Slater,  may  be  aboriginal  names  translated,  but  they  are  not  identified  in 
(xilfillan's  Hst.  Little  Sand  lake,  section  28,  Slater,  and  its  larger  com- 
panion, Sand  lake,  crossed  by  the  south  line  of  this  township,  probably 
origihated  as  white  men's  names,  for  Gilfillan  gave  the  Ojibway  name 
of  this  Sand  take  as  "Mikinako  sagaiigun,  Turtle  lake."  Its  outlet  is 
noted  on  the  map  of  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey  as  Swift  river, 
flowing  northwest  through  the  long  and  very  narrow  Swift  lake,  which 
the  Ojibways  name  "Ningitawonan  sagaiigun,  Separating-canoe-route 
lake," 

Big  and  Little  Vermilion  lakes,  the  Upper  Vermilion  lakes,  and  the 
larger  Sugar  lake  (on  recent  maps  noted  as  Little  Sugar  lake),  and  Ver- 
milion river  outflowing  from  them  to  the  Mississippi,  are  translations 
from  their  Ojibway  names. 

Willow  river,  Birch  brook  and  lake  in  Lima  township.  Big  Rice  lake. 
Thunder,  Little  Thunder,  and  Turtle  lakes,  and  the  long  and  narrow 
Blind  lake  in  Smoky  Hollow  township,  are  partly  or  all  of  Ojibway 
derivation. 

Lakes  George  and  Washburn,  Lawrence,  Leavitt,  and  Morrison,  in 
Crooked  Lake  and  Beulah  townships,  also  the  Washburn  brook,  were 
named  for  lumbermen  who  formerly  cut  pine  logs  in  these  originally  well 
forested  townships. 

Little  Norway  lake,  named  for  its  red  or  Norway  pines,  lying  five 
miles  south  of  Wabedo  lake,  outflows  westward  to  Ada  brook  and  Pine 
river.  This  brook  and  Lakes  Ada  and  Hattie,  also  Mitten  lake  and  Lake 
Laura,  outflowing  by  Laura  brook  to  Lake  Inguadona,  need  further  in- 
quiries for  the  origins  of  their  names. 

Mule  lake,  a  mile  west  of  Wabedo  lake,  is  said  to  have  been  named 
by  the  lumbermen  for  its  outline,  resembling  a  mule's  head.  Goose  lake, 
next  on  the  west,  was  named  for  the  wild  geese. 

C&tI  lake,  in  sections  33  and  34,  Kego,  and  Baby  lake,  in  sections  13, 
14,  23,  and  24,  Powers,  are  names  suggested  probably  by  Woman  and  Boy 
lakes,  which  latter  are  of  Ojibway  origin,  referring  to  persons  of  that 
tribe  slain  by  the  Sioux,  as  noted  in  the  foregoing  list  of  townships. 

Whitefish  and  Little  Whiteflsh  lakes,  on  the  Fourteen  Mile  creek  near 
Hackensack,  are  named,  like  the  larger  Whitefish  lake  on  the  Pine  river 


J 


100  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

in  Crow  Wing  county,  for  their  highly  valued  fish  of  this  species,  common 
or  abundant  in  many  lakes  of  northern  Minnesota.  The  Ojibway  fisheries 
of  Leech  lake  are  mentioned  by  Warren  as  follows:  "The  waters  of 
the  lake  abound  in  fish  of  the  finest  quality,  its  whitefish  equalling  in 
size  and  flavor  those  of  Lake  Superior,  and  they  are  easily  caught  at  all 
seasons  of  the  year  when  the  lake  is  free  of  ice,  in  gilUnets  made  and 
managed  also  by  the  women.'' 

The  Jack  Pine  lakes,  two  of  small  size  near  together,  in  sections  28, 
32,  and  33,  Hiram,  the  outflowing  Pine  Lake  brook,  the  large  Pine  Moun- 
tain lake,  which  receives  this  brook,  and  its  outlet,  called  Twenty-four  Mile 
creek  or  Norway  brook,  flowing  through  Norway  lake,  are  lumbermen's 
names  of  the  headwaters  of  Pine  river. 

On  the  west  side  of  section  31,  Bull  Moose,  is  Township  Comer  lake, 
so  named  from  its 'location;  and  on  the  west  line  of  sections  18  and  19, 
Bungo,  is  Spider  lake,  named  from  its  irregular  and  branching  shape. 

Stony  creek,  flowing  into  the  eastern  end  of  Wabedo  lake,  Stony  brook, 
tributary  to  the  Upper  Gull  lake,  and  Mosquito  brook  and  Swan  creek, 
respectively  emptying  into  Crow  Wing  river  about  seven  and  fourteen 
miles  west  of  Pillager,  are  names  that  need  no  explanations  for  their 
significance. 

A  few  other  names  of  lakes  remain  to  be  noted,  including  Lake  Kil- 
patrick,  through  which  Home  brook  flows,  probably  named  for  a  former 
lumberman  there;  War  Qub  lake,  in  sections  9  and  16,  Deerfield,  named 
for  its  shape;  Island  lake,  in  section  7,  Powers;  Portage  lake,  in  section 
28,  Shingobee,  smaller  than  the  other  Portage  lake  near  Lake  Winneba- 
goshish;  Bass  lake,  in  sections  24  and  25,  Shingobee;  Duck  or  Swamp 
lake,  a  mile  west  from  the  north  end  of  Duck  bay  of  Leech  lake;  and 
Long  lake,  in  the  east  half  of  Kego  township. 

PiLLSBURY  State  Forest. 

In  1899  a  tract  of  1,000  acres  of  non-agricultural  land,  from  which 
the  pine  timber  had  been  cut,  was  donated  to  the  State  of  Minnesota 
from  the  estate  of  the  late  Governor  John  S.  Pillsbury,  to  be  adminis- 
tered by  the  Forestry  Board  as  a  State  Forest.  In  honor  of  the  donors, 
this  tract,  lying  near  the  west  shore  of  Gull  lake,  has  been  named  the 
Pillsbury  Forest,  In  1904  and  later  years,  parts  of  this  area,  not  natur- 
ally reseeding  to  pine,  have  been  planted  with  white,  red  or  Norway,  jack, 
and  Scotch  pines,  and  with  Norway  and  white  spruce. 

Minnesota  National  Forest. 

By  an  act  of  Congress  approved  May  23,  1908,  the  Minnesota  National 
Forest  was  established,  comprising  an  area  of  about  fourteen  government 
survey  townships.  It  lies  mainly  in  the  north  part  of  Cass  county,  north 
of  Leech  lake  and  river,  extending  to  Cass  lake^  and  including  Lake 
Winnebagoshish,  with  about  four  townships  at  its  north  and  northwest 


CASS  COUNTY  101 

sides  in  Itasca  county.  This  large  tract  covers  the  Chippewa,  Cass  Lake, 
and  Winnebagoshish  Indian  Reservations,  which  had  been  long  previously 
established.  The  text  of  the  law  for  this  national  forest,  fully  safe- 
guarding the  rights  of  the  Indians  to  whom  it  had  been  reserved,  is 
published  in  the  Thirteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Forestry  Commissioner 
of  Minnesota,  Gen.  C  C.  Andrews,  for  the  year  1907. 

.  Indian  Reservations. 

Cass  county  has  the  Chippewa  Indian  Reservation,  as  it  is  officially 
named,  and  the  Leech  Lake  Indian  Reservation.  The  former  name  is 
not  clearly  definitive,  for  all  the  reservations  now  remaining  in  this  state 
have  been  set  apart  for  bands  of  the  Chippewas  (Ojibways),  excepting 
only  the  very  small  reservation,  a  mile  square,  at  the  red  pipestone  quarry 
in  Pipestone  county. 

The  Chippewa  reservation  adjoins  the  north  side  of  Leech  lake  and 
its  outlet,  the  Leech  Lake  river,  extending  thence  north  to  the  Mississippi, 
Cass  lake  and  Lake  Winnebagoshish,  and  it  also  extends  east  across  the 
Mississippi  to  include  a  tract  equal  to  about  four  townships  in  Itasca 
county.  It  was  set  apart  for  the  Ojibways  of  the  Mississippi,  in  a  treaty 
at  Washington,  March  19,  1867. 

The  Leech  Lake  reservation,  which  has  an  earlier  date,  borders  the 
south  and  east  shores  of  this  lake,  between  Shingobee  creek  and  Boy 
river.  It  includes  the  village  of  the  Leech  Lake  Agency,  at  the  east  side 
of  Agency  bay.  This  reservation,  and  another  at  the  north  side  of  Lake 
Winnebagoshish,  whence  it  is  named,  also  a  third  reservation,  on  the 
north  side  of  Cass  lake  and  including  all  its  islands,  named  therefore  the 
Cass  Lake  reservation,  were  set  apart  for  the  Pillager  and  Winneba- 
goshish bands  of  the  Ojibways  by  a  treaty  at  Washington,  February  22, 
1855 ;  but  their  areas  were  enlarged,  by  executive  orders  of  the  President, 
in  1873  and  1874. 

Boutwell  wrote  of  the  Pillager  band  at  Leech  lake  in  1832,  during 
the  expedition  with  Schoolcraft  to  Lake  Itasca :  "This  band  is  the  largest 
and  perhaps  the  most  warlike  in  the  whole  Ojibway  nation.  It  numbers 
706,  exclusive  of  a  small  band,  probably  100,  on  Bear  Island,  one  of  the 
numerous  islands  in  the  lake"  (Minn.  Hist  Soc.  Collections,  vol.  V,  page 
481).  The  national  census  in  1910  enumerated .  1,172  Ojibways  in  this 
county,  showing  decrease  of  257  from  the  census  of  1900. 


CHIPPEWA  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  February  20.  1862,  and  organized  March  5, 
1868,  is  named  for  the  Chippewa  river,  which  here  joins  the  Minnesota. 
The  river  was  called  Manya  Wakan  (of  remarkable  or  wonderful  bluflFs) 
by  the  Sioux.  Its  present  name  was  also  given  by  the  Sioux,  because 
the  country  of  their  enemies,  the  Chippewa  or  Ojibway  Indians,  extended 
southwestward  to  the  headwaters  of  this  stream,  at  Chippewa  lake  in 
Douglas  county.  As  the  Chippewa  river  of  Wisconsin  received  its  name 
from  war  parties  of  this  tribe  descending  it  to  the  Mississippi,  likewise 
the  river  in  Minnesota  was  named  for  this  tribe,  whose  warriors  some- 
times made  it  a  part  of  their  "war  road"  to  the  Minnesota  valley,  com- 
ing with  their  canoes  from  Leech  lake  and  Mille  Lacs  by  the  Crow  Wing, 
Long  Prairie,  and  Chippewa  rivers.  The  earliest  publication  of  the  name, 
Chippewa  river,  was  by  Keating  and  Nicollet,  though  only  the  other 
Sioux  name,  Manya  Wakan,  is  given  on  Nicollet's  map.  Ojibway  is  more 
accurately  the  aboriginal  tribal  title,  which  is  anglicized  as  Chippewa, 
with  the  final  vowel  long.  The  form  Ojibway  has  been  used  in  nearly 
all  the  publications  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society.  It  is  asserted 
by  Warren,  the  Ojibway  historian,  that  this  name  means  '*to  roast  till 
puckered  up,"  referring  to  the  torture  of  prisoners  taken  in  war. 

By  the  early  French  vojrageurs  and  writers  the  Ojibways  were  com- 
monly called  Saulteurs,  from  their  once  living  in  large  numbers  about 
the  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  Their  area,  however,  also  comprised  a  great  part 
of  the  shores  of  lakes  Huron  and  Superior,  with  the  adjoining  country 
to  variable  distances  inland.  During  the  eighteenth  century  they  much 
extended  their  range  southwestward,  driving  the  Sioux  from  the  wooded 
part  of  Minnesota,  and  also  spreading  across  the  Red  river  valley  to  the 
Turtle  mountain  on  the  boundary  between  North  Dakota  and  Manitoba. 

William  W.  Warren,  whose  mother  was  an  Ojibway,  prepared,  in 
1851-53,  an  extended  and  very  valuable  "History  of  the  Ojibway  Nation," 
chiefly  relating  to  its  part  in  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin,  which  was  pub-- 
lished  in  1885  as  Volume  V  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  Collec- 
tions. In  Volume  IX  of  the  same  series,  published  in  1901,  Rev.  Joseph 
A.  Gilfillan,  who  during  twenty-five  years  was  a  very  devoted  missionary 
among  the  Ojibways  in  the  White  Earth  Reservation  and  other  large  parts 
of  northern  Minnesota,  contributed  a  paper  of  74  pages,  vividly  portrasdng 
the  habits  and  mode  of  life  of  this  people,  their  customs  and  usages  in 
intercourse  with  each  other  and  with  the  white  people,  their  diverse 
types  of  physical  and  mental  development  and  characteristics,  and  much 
of  their  recent  history.    The  next  paper  in  the  same  volume,  14  pages,  is 

102 


CHIPPEWA  COUNTY  103 

by  Bishop  Whipple,  entitled  "Civilization   and   Christianization   of  the 
Ojibways  in  Minnesota." 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  derivations  and  meanings  of  names  in  this  county 
has  been  gathered  from  "History  of  the  Minnesota  Valley/'  1882,  in 
pages  913-937;  from  "History  of  Chippewa  and  Lac  qui  Parle  counties," 
by  L.  R.  Moyer  and  O.  G.  Dale,  joint  editors,  two  volumes,  1916;  and 
from  Frank  E.  Bentley,  judge  of  probate,  J.  J.  Stennes,  county  auditor, 
and  Elias  Jacobson,  clerk  of  the  court,  also  much  from  the  late  Lycurgus 
R.  Moyer,  court  commissioner  and  editor  of  the  recently  published  county 
history,  each  of  these  being  interviewed  during  my  visit  to  Montevideo 
in  July,  1916. 

AsBURY,  a  Great  Northern  railway  station,  was  named,  like  the  villages 

and  postoffices  of  this  name  in  nine  other  states,  in  honor  of  Francis 

-^jAghiiry   the  first  Methodist  Episcopal  bishop  in  the  United  States,  who 

was  bom  in  England,  1745,  and  died  in  Virginia,  1816.    He  was  sent  by 

John  Wesley  as  a  missionary'  to  the  American  Colonies  in  1771. 

Big  Bend  township,  first  settled  in  July,  1867,  organized  April  7,  1874, 
received  its  name  for  the  bend  of  the  Chippewa  river  in  the  north  part  of 
this  township. 

Claka  City,  a  railway  village  on  the  line  of  Rheiderland  and  Stone- 
ham,  founded  in  1887,  was  named  in  honor  of  the  wife  of  Theodor  F. 
Koch,  one  of  the  managers  for  a  Holland  syndicate  buying  farm  lands 
and  establishing  colonies  here. 

Crate  township  was  at  first  named  Willow  Lake,  for  the  lake,  now 
drained,  which  was  crossed  by  its  south  boundary.  That  name,  however, 
could  not  be  accepted  by  the  state  auditor,  because  it  had  been  previously 
given  to  another  township  of  this  state.  The  present  name  was  selected 
by  the  citizens  July  23,  1888,  in  compliment  to  Fanning  L.  Beasley,  an 
early  homesteader  in  section  4ythis  being  a  nickname  by  which  he  was 
generally  known.    It  had  reference  to  his  middle  name,  Lucretius. 

Grace  township,  first  settled  in  October,  1869,  and  organized  August 
9,  1880,  was  named  in  honor  of  Grace  Whittemore,  daughter  of  Augustus 
A.  Whittemore,  a  homesteader  in  section  8,  who  was  the  contractor  and 
builHer  of  the  court  house  in  Montevideo. 

Granite  Falls  township,  settled  in  1866,  set  apart  for  organization 
March  9,  1880,  received  its  name  from  the  rock  outcrops  and  falls  of  the 
Minnesota  river  here.  This  name  is  also  borne  by  the  adjoining  city  of 
Granite  Falls,  which  is  the  county  seat  of  Yellow  Medicine  county,  and 
which  extends  across  the  river  to  include  a  part  of  section  34  in  this  town- 
ship. 

Havelock  township,  settled  in  June,  1872,  organized  October  6,  1873, 
was  named  by  John  C.  and  Aaron  J.  MuUin,  brothers,  and  other  settlers 
from  the  eastern  provinces  of  Canada,  in  honor  of  the  English  general.  Sir 
Henry  Havelock  (b.  1795,  d.  1857),  the  hero  who  in  1857  relieved  the 
siege  of  Lucknow,  India. 


104  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Kragebo,  first'permanently  settled  in  1867-68,  organized  April  7,  1873, 
was  named  for  Hans  H.  Kragero,  a  pioneer  farmer  here,  whose  surname 
was  taken  from  his  native  town,  the  seaport  of  Kragero  in  southern  Nor- 
way, on  an  inlet  of  the  Skagerrak.  He  was  bom  June  17,  1841 ;  was  a 
sailor,  and  afterward  lived  in  Chicago,  1866-69;  and  came  to  Minnesota 
in  1870,  settling  in  section  12  of  the  south  part  of  this  township. 

The  trading  post  of  Joseph  Renville,  and  the  early  Presbyterian  mis- 
sion for  the  Sioux  conducted  by  Williamson  and  Riggs,  1835-1854,  were 
in  what  is  now  section  13  in  the  southern  corner  of  Kragero,  nearly 
opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Lac  qui  Parle  river  and  dose  southeast  from 
the  foot  of  the  lake.  The  site  of  the  old  mission  station  is  marked  by  a 
granite  block,  inscribed  "Lac  qui  Parle  Mission,  1835." 

Leenthrop  township,  settled  in  1870,  organized  January  20,  1872,  has 
probably  a  Swedish  name,  anglicized  in  spelling. 

Lone  Tree  township,  organized  August  5,  1878,  received  it  name  for 
a  lone  and  tall  cottonwood  tree  near  the  west  end  of  Bad  Water  or  Lone 
Tree  lake,  which  tree  was  a  landmark  for  the  first  immigrants. 

LouRiSTON,  settled  in  1867,  organized  September  18,  1877,  was  named 
in  compliment  for  Laura  Armstrong,  daughter  of  Henry  Armstrong,  who 
was  a  homesteader  on  section  8,  and  who  was  elected  in  the  first  town- 
ship meeting  as  one  of  its  justices  and  a  member  of  its  board  of  super- 
visors. 

Mandt^  first  settled  in  1869  and  organized  June  13,  1876,  was  named  in 
honor  of  Engelbreth  T.  Mandt,  an  early  settler  in  section  30,  at  whose 
house  the  first  town  meeting  was  held,  in  which  also  he  taught  the  first 
school  in  the  spring  of  1875. 

Maynard^  a  railway  village  in  Stoneham,  was  platted  in  1887  by  John 
M.  Spicer,  of  Willmar,  superintendent  of  this  division  of  the  Great 
Northern  railway,  and  was  named  "in  honor  of  his  sister's  husband." 

MiLAN^  the  railway  village  of  Kragero,  was  platted  December  1,  1880, 
and  was  incorporated  March  15,  1893.  This  name  of  the  great  city  in 
northern  Italy  is  borne  also  by  villages  in  twelve  other  states  of  our 
Union. 

Minnesota  Falls,  a  railway  station  in  the  southern  corner  of  this 
county,  established  in  1879,  bears  the  name  of  a  township  and  former 
village  in  Yellow  Medicine  county,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Minnesota 
river,  where  on  a  fall  or  rapids  of  the  river  a  dam  and  a  sawmill  and  a 
flouring  mill  were  built  in  1871-72. 

Montevideo^  the  county  seat,  was  platted  May  25,  1870,  was  incorpo- 
rated as  a  village  March  4,  1879,  and  as  a  city  June  30,  1908.  This  Latin 
name,  signifying  "from  the  mountain  I  see,"  or  "Mount  of  Vision,"  was 
selected,  according  to  the  late  L.  R.  Moyer,  by  Cornelius  J.  Nelson,  a 
settler  who  came  here  in  1870  from  the  state  of  New  York,  platted  addi- 
tions to  the  village  in  1876  and  1878,  and  was  its  president  in  1881  and 
1885-7.    The  village  and  future  city  "was  given  its  high-sounding  appella- 


CHIPPEWA  COUNTY  105 

tion  by  its  romantic  founders,  who  were  so  delighted  by  the  wonderful 
view  gained  from  the  heights  overlooking  the  interlocking  valleys  of  the 
Minnesota  and  Chippewa  rivers  at  that  point,  that  they  translated  their 
feeling  into  good,  mouth-filling  Latin."  But  this  name,  while  very  appro- 
priate on  account  of  the  view  here,  was  derived  by  Nelson  from  the 
large  South  American  city,  the  capital  of  Uruguay,  whence  the  mayor  of 
that  Montevideo  about  the  year  1905  presented  the  Uruguayan  flag  to  this 
municipality. 

Another  good  reason  for  the  choice  of  this  name,  in  allusion  to  the 
grand  prospect  seen  from  the  river  bluffs,  may  have  been  found  in  the 
aboriginal  Sioux  name  of  the  Chippewa  river,  before  noted  as  Manya 
Wakan  (meaning  wonderful  bluffs),  quite  probably  so  named  by  these 
observing  people  in  their  admiration,  like  our  own,  for  the  beautiful  and 
noble  panorama  here  spread  around  them. 

An  earlier  settlement  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Chippewa  river  had 
been  platted  and  named  Chippewa  City  in  the  autumn  of  1868,  and  the 
county  seat  was  there  tmtil  1870,  when  it  was  changed  to  the  new  town  of 
Montevideo  by  an  act  of  the  state  legislature. 

Rheiderland  township,  organized  August  15,  1887,  was  named  by  early 
settlers  from  Holland,  probably  taking  this  name  from  Rheydt  or  Rheidit, 
a  city  of  Rhenish  Prussia,  about  twelve  miles  east  of  the  Holland  boun- 
dary, which  had  a  population  of  34,000  in  1900. 

Rosewood,  first  settled  in  1869,  organized  September  2,  1871,  was,  named 
for  a  village  in  Ohio,  whence  several  German  settlers  of  this  township 
came. 

Sparta,  settled  in  1868-9,  organized  March  22,  1870,  was  earliest  called 
Chippewa,  for  the  river ;  was  renamed  by  petition  of  its  people,  several  of 
whom  had  come  from  Sparta  in  Wisconsin.  The  name  belonged  to  a 
renowned  city  of  ancient^  Greece,  extremely  heroic  in  wars,  and  it  is  re- 
tained by  a  modem  city  'partly  on  the  same  site,  which  has  about  4,000 
people.  This  township  ''received  the  first  permanent  white  settlement  in 
the  county,  it  being  within  its  limits  that  Chippewa  City  was  situated,  and 
a  little  later  Montevideo." 

Stoneham,  organized  August  9,  1880,  was  so  named  on  the  suggestion 
of  a  settler  who  came  from  the  town  of  Stoneham,  Mass.,  near  Boston. 
A  further  motive  for  adoption  of  this  name  was  to  honor  another  of  its 
citizens,  Hammet  Stone. 

TuNSBBRG,  first  settled  in  the  spring  of  1865,  organized  March  21,  1870, 
is  thought  to  have  been  named  for  a  locality  or  a  farm  in  Norway. 

Watson,  the  railway  village  of  Tunsberg,  platted  in  August,  1879,  was 
named  by  <^cers  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  railway  com- 
pany. 

Wegdabl,  a  railway  village  in  the  southeast  comer  of  Sparta  town- 
ship, was  named  in  honor  of  the  pioneer  farmer  on  whose  land  it  was 
platted.  Hemming  Amtzen  Wegdahl,  who  was  the  first  postmaster  there. 


106  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

His  surname  was  probably  derived  from  the  farm  of  his  native  place  in 
Norway. 

Woods  township,  settled  in  1876,  was  organized  in  1879.  "Most  of 
the  odd  sections  were  sold  to  a  land  syndicate  headed  by  Judge  William 
W.  Woods,  of  Ohio.  It  was  for  him  that  the  township  was  named." 
(History  of  Chippewa  County,  vol.  I,  page  214.) 

Streams  and  Lakes. 

The  origin  and  significance  of  the  name  of  the  Minnesota  river, 
adopted  by  the  state,  are  presented  in  the  first  chapter ;  the  lake  of  this 
river,  named  Lac  qui  Parle,  will  be  considered  in  the  chapter  for  the 
county  of  that  name;  and  the  Chippewa  river,  giving  its  name  to  this 
county,  is  fully  noticed  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  chapter. 

Hawk  creek  is  translated  from  the  Sioux  name,  "Chetambe  R.,"  given 
on  Nicollet's  map. 

Palmer  creek  was  named  for  Frank  Palmer,  one  of  the  first  settlers 
there  in  1866,  and  Brof ee's  creek  was  likewise  named  for  an  early  settler, 
these  being  tributary  to  the  Minnesota  river  between  Granite  Falls  and 
Montevideo. 

Spring  creek,.  Dry  Weather  and  Cottonwood  creeks,  flowing  into  the 
Chippewa  river,  need  no  explanation. 

Shakopee  creek  and  lake,  in  the  north  part  of  Louriston,  flowing  to 
the  Chippewa  river  in  Swift  county,  received  their  name,  the  Sioux  word 
meaning  six,  from  the  Six  Mile  grove,  which  borders  the  river  along  that 
distance  and  reaches  from  the  mouth  of  Shakopee  creek  northward  into 
Six  Mile  Grove  township  at  the  center  of  that  county.  Another  name 
of  the  Shakopee  lake,  in  somewhat  common  use,  is  Buffalo  lake. 

Black  Oak  lake,  which  was  mostly  in  section  12,  Sparta,  four  miles 
east  of  Montevideo,  has  been  drained.  It  was  mapped  by  Nicollet  with 
its  equivalent  Sioux  and  English  names^  "Hutuhu  Sapah,  or  Black  Oak 
L"  A  grove  of  about  forty  acres  bordered  it,  as  stated  by  the  late  L.  R. 
Moyer,  comprising  many  large  bur  oaks,  but  no  black  oaks,  although  the 
latter  is  generally  a  common  or  abundant  species  of  southeastern  Minne- 
sota. 

Willow  lake,  previously  mentioned  in  connection  with  Crate  town- 
ship, as  now  drained,  was  named  for  its  willows,  of  which  eight  species 
or  more  are  found  frequent  or  common  throughout  the  state,  ranging  in 
size  from  low  shrubs  to  small  trees.  Three  shrubby  willow  species  and 
one  of  tree  size  are  listed  in  Chapter  III  of  the  History  of  Chippewa 
County,  by  the  late  L.  R.  Moyer,  entitled  "The  Prairie  Flora  of  South- 
western  Minnesota." 

Lone  Tree  lake,  which  gave  its  name  to  a  township,  as  before  noted, 
has  also  been  known  as  Bad  Water  lake,  being  somewhat  alkaline. 

Epple  lake,  in  sections  20  and  29,  Woods,  and  Norberg  lake,  in  section 
26,  Stoneham,  bear  the  names  of  adjacent  pioneer  settlers. 


CHISAGO  COUNTY 

Established  September  1,  1851,  and  organized  October  14  of  that  year, 
this  county  bears  a  name  proposed  by  William  H.  C  Folsom,  of  Taylor's 
Falls,  who  wrote  of  its  organization  and  the  derivation  of  the  name,  as 
follows  ("Fifty  Years  in  the  Northwest,"  1888,  on  pages  298-9  and  306). 

"The  county  takes  the  name  of  its  largest  and  most  beautiful  lake. 
In  its  original,  or  rather  aboriginal  form,  it  was  Ki-chi-sago,  from  two 
Chippewa  words  meaning  Icichi,'  large  and  'saga,'  fair  or  lovely.  For 
euphonic  considerations  the  first  syllable  was  dropped. 

"This  lake  is  conspicuous  for  its  size,  the  clearness  of  its  waters,  its 
winding  shore  and  islands,  its  bays,  peninsulas,  capes,  and  promontories. 
It  has  fully  fifty  miles  of  meandering  shore  line.  Its  shores  and  islands 
are  well  timbered  with  maple  and  other  hard  woods.  It  has  no  waste 
swamps,  or  marsh  borders.  When  the  writer  first  came  to  Taylor's  Falls, 
this  beautiful  lake  was  unknown  to  fame.  No  one  had  seen  it  or  could 
point  out  its  location.  Indians  brought  fish  and  maple  sugar  from  a  lake 
which  they  called  Kichi-saga  sagiagan,  or  large  and  lovely  lake.'  This 
lake,  they  said,  abounded  with  'kego,'  fish.  .  .  . 

"The  movement  for  the  organization  of  a  new  county  from  the  north- 
em  part  of  Washington  commenced  in  the  winter  of  1851-52.  A  formid- 
able petition  to  the  legislature  to  make  such  organization,  drawn  up  and 
circulated  by  Hon.  Ansel  Smith,  of  Franconia,  and  the  writer,  was  duly 
forwarded,  presented  and  acquiesced  in  by  that  body.  The  writer  had 
been  selected  to  visit  the  capital  in  the  interest  of  the  petitioners.  Some 
difficulty  arose  as  to  the  name.  The  writer  had  proposed  'Chi-sa-ga.' 
This  Indian  name  was  ridiculed,  and  Hamilton,  Jackson,  Franklin,  and 
Jefferson,  were  in  turn  proposed.  The  committee  of  the  whole  finally 
reported  in  favor  of  the  name,  Chisaga,  but  the  legislature,  in  passing  the 
bill  for  our  county  organization,  by  clerical  or  typographical  error  changed 
the  last  'a'  in  'saga'  to  'o,'  which,  having  become  the  law,  has  not  been 
changed." 

In  Baraga's  Dictionary  the  second  of  the  two  Ojibway  words,  saga,  used 
by  Folsom  to  form  this  name,  is  spelled  sasega,  or  sasegamagad,  being 
defined,  "It  is  fair,  it  is  ornamented,  splendid."  In  pronunciation,  this 
name  Chisago  has  the  English  sound  of  Ch,  and  it  accents  the  second 
syllable,  preferably  with  a  as  in  father  (but  in  prevailing  use  taking  the 
broad  sound  as  in  fall.) 

Townships  and  Villages. 

The  sources  of  information  for  this  county  have  been  "Fifty  Years  in 
the  Northwest,"  by  William  H.  C.  Folsom,  1888,  pages  298-354;  and 
Edward  W.  Stark,  judge  of  probate,  Alfred  P.  Stolberg,  county  attorney, 

107 


108  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

and  John  A.  Johnson,  sheriff,  interviewed  during  my  visit  at  Center  City, 
the  county  seat,  in  May,  1916. 

Almelund,  a  hamlet  in  the  south  part  of  Amador,  founded  about 
1887,  means,  in  the  Swedish  language,  Elm  Valley.  The  name  was 
adopted  in  compliment  to  the  first  postmaster  there,  Mr.  Almquist,  whose 
name  means  an  elm  twig  or  branch. 

Amador,  settled  in  1846,  organized  in  1858,  bears  a  name  which  means, 
in  the  Spanish  language,  a  lover,  a  sweetheart.  It  is  the  name  of  a  county 
and  a  village  in  central  California,  whence  it  was  adopted  here  by  settlers 
of  this  township  who  had  previously  visited  California.  In  the  same  way, 
probably,  came  also  this  name  as  applied  to  small  villages  in  Iowa,  Kan- 
sas, and  Michigan. 

Branch,  named  from  the  North  Branch  of  Sunrise  river  flowing 
through  this  township,  "was  set  off  from  Stmrise  and  organized  in  1872." 

Center  City,  a  village  in  Chisago  Lake  township,  was  platted  in  May, 
1857,  and  has  been  the  county  seat  since  1875.  Its  name  refers  to  its 
central  position,  between  Chisago  City  and  Taylor's  Falls. 

Chisago  City,  also  a  village  in  Chisago  Lake  township,  was  platted  in 
1855,  taking  its  name  from  the  lake. 

Chisago  Lake  township,  likewise  named  for  the  beautiful  lake,  was 
settled  in  1851  and  was  organized  in  1858.  This  name,  given  to  the 
county,  has  been  fully  noticed  on  a  preceding  page. 

Fish  Lake  township,-  organized  in  1868,  having  formerly  been  a  part 
of  Sunrise,  is  named  for  its  lake  in  section  25  and  the  outflowing  creek, 
both  of  which  are  translated  from  their  Ojibway  names. 

FbANCx)NiA  township,  organized  in  1858,  received  its  name  from  the 
earlier  village,  which  was  first  settled  and  named  by  Ansel  Smith,  who 
came  from  Franconia,  N.  H.,  in  the  region  of  the  White  Mountains.  The 
village  was  platted  in  1858,  and  was  incorporated  in  1884.  This  is  an 
ancient  name  of  a  large  district  in  Germany. 

Harris  township,  first  settled  in  1856,  and  organized  in  1884,  received 
its  name  from  its  earlier  railway  village,  which  was  platted  in  May,  1873, 
and  was  incorporated  in  1882,  being  named  in  honor  of  Fhilip  S.  Harris, 
a  prominent  ofHcer  of  the  St  Paul  ^d  Duluth  railroad  company. 

Kost,  a  small  village  in  the  south  part  of  Sunrise,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Ferdinand  A.  Kost,  who  built  a  flouring  mill  there  in  1883. 

Lent  township,  organized  in  1872,  was  named  in  honor  of  Harvey  Lent, 
one  of  its  first  settlers,  who  came  in  1855. 

Lindstrom,  a  village  platted  in  1880  on  the  central  part  of  Chisago 
lake,  including  many  summer  homes  of  city  residents,  was  named  for 
Daniel  Lindstrom,  a  pioneer  farmer.  He  was  born  in  Hdsingland, 
Sweden,  in  1825;  came  to  the  United  States,  settling  here;  sold  the 
greater  part  of  his  farm  in  1878,  which  became  the  village  site,  and  con- 
tinued to  reside  here  until  his  death  in  1895. 

Nessel,  set  off  from  Rushseba  and  organized  in  1870,  bears  the  name 
of  its  earliest  pioneer  farmer,  Robert  Nessel,  who  was  born  in  Germany, 


CHISAGO  COUNTY  109 

1834,  came  to  the  United  States  in  1847  and  to  Minnesota  in  1854,  and 
settled  here  in  1856. 

North  Branch,  the  railway  village  of  Branch  township,  named  for  the 
North  branch  of  Sunrise  river,  was  platted  in  January,  1870. 

Rush  City  received  this  record  by  Folsom:  "In  1868,  at  the  com- 
pletion of  the  St.  Paul  and  Duluth  railroad,  a  depot  was  built  and  a 
station  established  at  the  crossing  of  Rush  river,  around  which  rapidly 
grew  up  the  village  of  Rush  City.  It  was  surveyed  and  platted  by  Ben- 
jamin W.  Brunson,  surveyor,  in  January,  1870,  .  .  .  was  incorporated  in 
1874." 

RusHSEBA  township,  organized  in  1858,  is  in  its  second  part  an  Ojib- 
way  name,  seba  or  sippi,  meaning  a  river.  Both  the  Rush  lake,  in  Nessd 
township,  and  its  outflowing  Rush  river,  are  translated  from  the  aboriginal 
name.  Several  species  of  bulrushes  and  other  rushes  are  common 
throughout  this  state,  one  of  which  (Scirpus  lacustris),  abundant  in  the 
shallow  borders  of  lakes,  was  "in  common  use  among  the  Indians  for 
making  mats." 

St.  Croix  River,  a  railway  station  in  the  east  edge  of  Rusheba,  is 
named  for  the  river  crossed  there,  of  which  an  extended  notice  in  respect 
to  the  origin  of  the  name  has  been  given  in  the  first  chapter. 

Shafer  toMmship  is  noticed  as  follows  by  Folsom:  "A  Swedish 
colony  settled  here  in  1853.  .  .  The  town  organized  first  as  Taylor's  Falls, 
but  the  name  was  changed  to  Shafer  in  1873.  ...  A  railroad  station  .  .  . 
bears  the  name  of  Shafer,  derived,  together  with  the  name  of  the  town- 
ship, from  Jacob  ^af er,  who,  as  early  as  1847,  cut  hay  in  sections  4  and 
5.  He  seems  to  have  been  in  no  sense  worthy  of  the  honor  conferred  upon 
him,  as  he  was  but  a  transient  inhabitant  and  disappeared  in  1849.  No 
one  knows  of  his  subsequent  career.  The  honor  ought  to  have  been  given 
to  some  of  the  hardy  Swedes,  who  were  the  first  real  pioneers,  and  the 
first  to  make  substantial  improvements." 

Stacy,  a  railway  village  established  in  1875,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Dr.  Stacy  B.  Collins,  an  early  resident 

Stark,  a  small  village  in  section  26,  Fish  Lake  township,  was  named 
in  honor  of  Lars  Johan  Stark,  who  was  the  first  postmaster  there.  He 
was  born  in  Westergotland,  Sweden,  July  29,  1826,  and  died  in  Harris, 
Minn.,  May  5,  1910.  He  came  to  the  United  States  in  1850,  and  settled 
at  Chisago  Lake,  Minn. ;  engaged  in  mercantile  business  and  farming ;  was 
a  representative  in  the  state  legislature  in  1865  and  1875.  His  son,  Edward 
W.  Stark,  born  in  Fish  Lake  township,  December  5,  1869,  was  a  merchant 
at  Harris,  1890-1905;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1901-03; 
and  has  been  judge  of  probate  for  this  county  since  1905,  residing  at 
Center  City. 

Sunrise  township,  organized  October  26,  1858,  had  earlier  a  village 
of  this  name,  on  the  Sunrise  prairie,  where  in  1853  a  hotel  and  store  were 
built  by  William  Holmes.    The  name  is  received  from  the  lake  and  river, 


no  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

whose  Ojibway  name,  Memokage  (pronounced  in  four  syllables),  is 
translated  by  GilfiUan  as  "Sun-keep-rising/' 

Taylor's  Falls,  a  village  at  the  head  of  the  Dalles  of  the  St  Croix 
river,  platted  in  1S50-51,  incorporated  in  1858,  during  many  years  the 
county  seat,  was  named  for  Jesse  Taylor,  who  came  in  1838,  and  Joshua 
L.  Taylor,  to  whom  the  former  sold  his  claim  in  1846.  Jesse  Taylor, 
pioneer,  was  bom  in  Kentucky;  was  employed  as  a  stone  mason  at  Fort 
Snelling;  was  the  first  settler  here,  in  1838^  and  owned  a  sawmill;  removed 
to  Stillwater  in  1846,  and  resided  there  until  1853;  was  a  representative 
in  the  territorial  legislature,  1851-2.  Joshua  Lovejoy  Taylor  was  born  in 
Sanbornton,  N.  H.,  in  1816;  and  died  in  Ashland,  Wis.,  April  27,  1901. 
He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1840,  settling  at  Taylor's  Falls ;  engaged  in  lum- 
bering; pre-empted  a  part  of  the  site  of  this  village;  lived  in  California, 
1849-56;  returned  here  in  1856;  removed  to  Ashland  in  1896. 

F(Hsom  wrote  of  this  village  and  the  adjacent  part  of  the  river,  at 
the  Interstate  bridge:  "'Many  of  the  later  residents  query  as  to  why  it 
was  ever  called  Taylor's  Falls.  It  takes  a  keen  eye  to  discover  any  fall 
in  the  river  at  the  point  named.  The  falls  indeed  were  once  far  more 
conspicuous  than  they  are  now,  owing  to  the  fact  that  a  large  rock  rose 
above  the  water  at  the  ordinary  stage,  around  which  the  crowded  waters 
roared  and  swirled.  That  rock,  never  visible  in  later  days,  was  called 
Death  Rock,  because  three  hapless  mariners  in  a  skiff  were  hurled  against 
it  by  the  swift  current  and  drowned." 

Wyoming  township,  organized  in  1858,  derived  its  name  from  the 
Wyoming  Valley  in  Ltueme  county,  Pennsylvania,  which  is  traversed  by 
the  North  branch  of  the  Susquehanna  river.  A  colony  from  that  region 
had  settled  in  the  western  part  of  this  township  in  1855,  and  the  eastern 
part  had  been  earlier  settled  by  Swedes.  The  village  of  Wyoming  was 
platted  in  1869,  the  next  year  after  the  completion  of  the  St.  Paul  and 
Duluth  railroad^  and  ten  years  later  the  branch  from  Wyoming  to  Tay- 
lor's Falls  was  built 

This  name,  given  also  to  the  Territory  of  Wyoming,  organized  in  1868 
and  admitted  to  the  Union  as  a  state  in  1890,  is  from  the  language  of 
the  Delaware  or  Lenape  Indians,  formerly  a  large  branch  of  the  Algon- 
quian  stock,  signifying  'large  plains,"  "extensive  meadows." 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

In  the  preceding  pages  attention  has  been  given  to  the  names  of 
several  lakes  and  streams,  including  Chisago  lake,  the  Sunrise  river  and 
its  North  branch,  Fish  lake,  and  the  Rush  lake  and  river.  The  St  Croix 
river,  belonging  to  several  counties,  is  considered  in  the  first  chapter 
with  the  large  rivers  of  this  state. 

Names  commemorating  pioneer  settlers  include  four  in  Fish  Lake 
township.  These  are  Alexis  lake,  in  sections  5  and  8,  for  John  P. 
Alexis;  Mandall  lake,  in  the  northwest  quarter  of  section  15,  for  Lars 


CHISAGO  COUNTY  111 

Mandall;  Molberg  lake,  in  the  northwest  quarter  of  section  22,  for  Erick 
Molberg;  and  Neander  kke,  section  11,  named  for  Nels  P.  Neander. 
All  of  these  settlers  came  as  farmers,  themselves  or  their  parents  being 
immigrants  from  Sweden. 

Browning  creek,  in  Harris,  was  named  for  John  W.  Browning,  a 
pioneer  farmer  from  the  eastern  states  and  of  English  descent 

Colby  lake,  about  a  mile  northwest  of  Taylor's  Falls,  was  named  for 
an  early  farmer  who  likewise  came  from  the  eastern  states. 

Bloom's  lake,  in  section  7,  Franconia,  was  named  in  honor  of  Gustaf 
Bloom,  from  Sweden,  whose  son,  David  Bloom,  has  been  since  1909  the 
county  register  of  deeds;  and  Ogren's  lake,  in  section  12  of  this  town- 
ship, for  Andrew  Ogren,  who  was  a  soldier  in  our  civil  war. 

Linn  lake,  adjoining  the  south  end  of  the  eastern  body  of  Chisago  lake, 
was  named  for  a  family  living  at  its  west  side. 

Lake  Comfort,  in  sections  22  and  27,  Wyoming,  bears  the  name  of 
I^.  John  W.  Comfort,  a  physician  who  lived  there  and  had  a  wide 
country  practice.    It  is  also  very  frequently  called  'Hhe  Doctor's  lake." 

Heim's  lake,  in  sections  29  and  50,  Wyoming,  mostly  drained,  received 
its  name  for  families  living  there,  especially  for  Conrad  Heim,  the 
pioneer. 

Martha  and  Ellen  lakes,  beside  the  railway  in  sections  1  and  12, 
Wyoming,  and  nearly  adjoining  the  north  end  of  Green  lake,  are  also 
commemorative  of  early  pioneers,  but  inquiries  have  failed  to  supply 
their  surnames. 

Other  lakes  and  creeks  in  this  county,  mostly  bearing  names  that 
scarcely  need  explanations  of  their  derivation,  are  Asp  lake,  in  the  north- 
west quarter  of  section  21,  Fish  Lake  township,  having  aspen  or  poplar 
groves;  Pine  lake,  in  sections  23  and  26,  Nessel,  for  its  white  pines; 
another  Pine  lake,  about  a  mile  south  from  the  most  southwestern  arm 
of  Chisago  lake,  situated,  like  the  foregoing,  near  the  southwestern  lunit 
of  the  geographic  range  of  our  pines ;  Grass  lake,  about  two  miles  north- 
east of  Harris,  shallow  and  having  much  marsh  grass  on  its  borders; 
tiie  Little  Duck  lake  in  section  19,  Franconia;  the  much  larger  Goose 
lake,  and  Goose  credk,  flowing  thence  eastward  to  the  St.  Croix  river; 
Spring  creek,  tributary  to  the  St  Croix  three  miles  farther  north;  Rock 
creek,  flowing  through  the  northeast  part  of  Rushseba,  named  for  the 
conspicuous  rock  outcrops  on  the  St.  Croix  river  about  a  half  mile 
northeast  from  ks  mouth;  Dry  creek,  in  section  2,  Shafer;  Hay  creek, 
flowing  into  the  Sunrise  river  three  miles  from  its  mouth;  the  Middle, 
West,  and  South  branches  of  Sunrise  river;  Leech  lake,  sections  35  and 
56,  Nessel,  named,  like  the  great  Leech  lake  in  Cass  county,  for  its 
plentiful  leeches;  Horseshoe  and  Little  Horseshoe  lakes,  respectively 
in  sections  23  and  22,  Fish  Lake  township,  named  for  their  form ;  Horse- 
shoe creek,  their  outlet;  Chain  lake,  in  section  6,  Branch,  named  for  its 
form  or  outline,  and  for  the  small  lakes  connected  with  it  southward  in 


112  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

a  chainlike  series;  Mud  lake,  in  section  28,  Lent,  shallow,  with  muddy 
shores  and  bottom;  School  lake,  in  the  school  section  36,  Lent;  Spring 
lake,  one  to  two  miles  west  of  Lindstrom ;  Little  lake,  a  misnomer  as  it  is 
nearly  a  mile  long,  lying  a  mile  and  a  half  northeast  from  Center  Qty; 
Ice  lake,  in  section  30,  Franconia ;  Swamp  lake,  sections  14  and  23,  Fran- 
conia;  Spider  lake,  named  for  its  branched  outline,  in  section  27,  near 
the  south  end  of  Chisago  Lake  township ;  First,  Second,  and  Third  lakes, 
consecutive  in  an  east  to  west  series,  in  sections  34  to  32,  about  a  mile 
south  and  southwest  of  Spider  lake;  Green  lake,  after  Chisago  lake  the 
second  in  size  in  this  county,  named  for  the  clearness  and  beauty  of  its 
water,  reflecting  the  verdure  of  the  grass  and  trees  on  its  banks;  and 
White  Stone  lake,  in  sections  11  and  14,  Wyoming,  named  for  its  white 
pebbles  or  boulders. 

Interstate  Park  at  the  Dalles  of  the  St.  Croix. 

The  Legislative  Manual  of  Minnesota,  for  1907  and  ensuing  sessions, 
gives  the  following  statement  of  the  origin  of  this  public  park. 

"In  1895  the  State  of  Minnesota,  by  a  legislative  act,  set  aside  a  tract 
of  about  110  acres  in  the  town  of  Taylor's  Falls,  Chisago  county,  as  a, 
public  park,  to  be  called  the  State  Park  of  the  Dalles  of  the  St  Croix. 
An  act  was  also  passed  by  the  Wisconsin  legislature  of  the  same  year, 
which  provided  a  commission  to  ascertain  the  probable  cost  of  acquir- 
ing  a  larger  tract  for  a  state  park  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  St.  Croix 
river;  and  in  1899  and  1901  the  State  of  Wisconsin  passed  acts  for  the 
purchase  of  lands  there,  amounting  to  about  600  acres.  The  original 
park  on  the  Minnesota  side  of  the  river  has  been  extended  to  an  area 
of  about  150  acres,  and  plans  are  under  consideration  for  further 
extension  to  a  total  of  about  500  acres  in  Minnesota.  The  two  states 
have  thus  established  an  Interstate  Park,  including  the  grand  and  pictur- 
esque rock  gorge  called  the  Upper  Dalles  of  the  St.  Croix,  where  the 
river  for  a  distance  of  two-thirds  of  a  mile,  at  and  just  south  of  the 
village  of  Taylor's  Falls,  flows  through  a  chasm  walled  by  cliffs  of  rock 
75  to  150  feet  high. 

"The  first  suggestion  for  devoting  this  tract  of  remarkable  natural 
beauty  to  such  public  use  was  made  by  George  H.  Hazzard,  a  pioneer 
of  Minnesota  Territory,  to  members  of  the  Minnesota  legislature  in 
1893.  His  idea  was  welcomed  with  enthusiasm  by  newspapers,  com- 
mercial bodies,  and  the  people  of  the  State." 

The  name  Dalles,  applied  by  the  early  French  vo3rageurs  to  rock- 
walled  gorges  of  the  Wisconsin  river,  the  St.  Croix  and  St.  Louis  rivers 
in  Minnesota,  and  the  Columbia  river  on  the  boundary  between  Oregon 
and  Washington,  came  from  a  French  word,  dalle,  meaning  a  flagstone 
or  slab  of  rock,  referring  in  this  name  to  the  vertical  and  jointed  rock 
cliffs  enclosing  the  rivers  at  the  localities  so  named,  where  in  most  in- 
stances (though  not  in  the  case  of  the  St.  Croix)  the  river  flows 
through  its  gorge  in  rapids  and  falls. 


CHISAGO  COUNTY  113 

In  the  Upper  Dalles,  at  Taylor's  Falls,  and  again  in  the  Lower 
Dalles,  situated  two  miles  farther  down  the  river  and  reaching  a  third 
of  a  mile,  close  above  the  village  of  Franconia,  the  rock  walls  of  trap, 
Keweenawan  diabase,  rise  almost  or  quite  perpendicularly  on  each  side 
of  the  river,  inclosing  it  at  each  place  by  a  very  picturesque  gorge. 

A  paper  entitled  "Giants'  Kettles  eroded  by  Moulin  Torrents,"  con- 
tributed by  the  present  writer  to  the  Bulletin  of  the  Geological  Society 
of  America  (vol.  12,  1900,  pages  25-44,  with  a  map),  was  partly  quoted 
as  follows  by  the  Legislative  Manual  in  1907  and  1909. 

"To  nearly  every  visitor  the  most  interesting  and  wonderful  feature 
of  the  Interstate  Park  consists  in  many  large  and  small  waterwom 
potholes,  which  are  also,  in  their  large  examples,  often  called  Veils.' 
The  languages  of  Germany,  Sweden,  and  Norway,  give  the  name  'giants' 
kettles'  to  such  cylindric  or  caldron-shaped  holes  of  stream  erosion, 
which  are  everywhere  characteristic  of  waterfalls  and  rapids,  especially 
in  crystalline  rocks.  These  potholes,  occurring  most  numerously  near 
the  steamboat  landing  of  Taylor's  Falls,  at  the  central  part  of  the  Upper 
Dalles,  anJ^ within  a  distance  of  fifty  rods  northward,  are  unsurpassed 
by  any  other  known  locality  in  the  world,  in  respect  to  their  variety 
of  forms  and  grouping,  their  great  number,  the  extraordinary  irregu- 
larity of  contour  of  the  much  jointed  diabase  in  which  they  are  eroded, 
and  the  difficulty  of  explanation  of  the  conditions  of  their  origin." 

Like  the  giants'  kettles  of  the  Glacier  Garden  at  Lucerne,  Switzer- 
land, these  larger  and  deeper  potholes  are  ascribed  "to  erosion  by  torrents 
of  water  falling  through  crevasses  and  vertical  tunnels,  called  moulins, 
of  an  ice-sheet  during  some  stage  of  the  Glacial  period.  In  this  park 
they  seem  referable  to  the  stage  of  final  melting  and  departure  of  the 
ice-sheet  from  this  area." 


CLAY  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  March  S,  1862,  and  organized  April  14, 
1872,  was  named  for  the  greatly  admired  statesman,  Henry  Clay,  of 
Lexington,  Kentucky.  He  was  born  in  Hanover  county,  Virginia,  April 
12,  1777;  died  in  Washington,  D.  C,  June  29,  1852.  He  began  to  study 
law  in  1796,  and  in  the  next  year,  being  admitted  to  practice,  he  removed 
to  Kentucky;  was  U.  S.  senator,  1806-7  and  1810-11;  was  a  member  of 
Congress,  1811-21  and  1823-25,  serving  as  speaker  in  1811-14,  1815-20, 
and  1823-25;  was  peace  commissioner  at  Ghent  in  1814;  was  candidate 
for  the  presidency  in  1824;  secretary  of  state,  1825-29;  again  U.  S. 
senator,  1831-42  and  1849-52;  was  Whig  candidate  for  the  presidency 
in  1832  and  1844;  was  the  chief  designer  of  the  ''Missouri  Compromise," 
1820,  and  of  the  compromise  of  1850;  was  the  author  of  the  compromise 
tari£F  of  1833;  said  in  a  speech  in  1850,  "I  would  rather  be  right  than 
be  President." 

Among  the  numerous  biograi^ies  of  Henry  Gay,  the  most  extended 
is  by  Rev.  Calvin  Colton,  six  volumes,  containing  speeches  and  corre- 
spondence, published  in  1846-57;  its  revised'  edition,  1864;  and  its  repub- 
lication in  1904,  ten  volumes,  with  an  introduction  by  Thomas  B.  Reed, 
and  a  History  of  Tariff  Legislation,  1812-1896,  by  William  McKinley. 

Carl  Schurz,  on  the  final  page  of  his  "Life  of  Henry  Gay,"  pub- 
lished in  1887  (two  volumes,  in  the  "American  Statesmen"  series), 
pointed  to  his  greatest  political  motive:  "It  was  a  just  judgment  which 
he  pronounced  upon  himself  when  he  wrote,  'If  any  one  desires  to  know 
the  leading  and  paramount  object  of  my  public  life,  the  preservation  of 
this  Union  will  furnish  the  key.'"  Near  the  end<  of  the  dark  first  year 
of  our  civil  war,  and  nearly  ten  years  after  Gay  had  died,  this  county 
was  named.  Minnesota  had  then  raised  four  regiments  for  the  defence 
of  the  Union. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  and  meanings  of  names  in  this  county 
has  been  received  from  "History  of  the  Red  River  Valley,"  two  volumes, 
1909,  pages  796-830;  from  Hon.  Solomon  G.  Comstock,  of  Moorhead, 
and  Andrew  O.  Houglum,  county  auditor,  interviewed  during  my  visit  in 
Moorhead  in  September,  1916;  and  from  Nathan  Butler,  of  Minneapolis, 
who  was  formerly  a  resident  in  Barnesville  during  twenty  years,  1883- 
1903. 

Alliance  township  was  named  for  the  Farmers'  Alliance,  a  political 
party  of  considerable  prominence  in  Minnesota  during  the  campaign 
of  1890.  Hon.  George  N.  Lamphere,  in  a  paper  entitled  "History  of 
Wheat  Raising  in  the  Red  River  Valley"  (Minn.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections, 

114 


CLAY  COUNTY  115 

vol.  X,  1905,  pages  1-33),  stated  that  the  agitation  for  lower  railroad 
freight  rates,  which  was  the  cause  of  the  formation  of  the  Farmers' 
Alliance,  began  in  1883-4  in  Clay  county,  spread  thence  throughout  the 
wheat-raising  districts  of  this  state,  and  developed  into  the  People's 
or  Populist  party. 

AvERiLL,  a  railway  village  on  the  boundary  line  of  Moland  and  Spring 
Prairie,  was  named  in  honor  of  Gen.  John  Thomas  Averill,  who  was 
born  in  Alma,  Maine,  March  1,  1825,  and  died  in  St  Paul,  Minn.,  October 
3,  1889.  He  was  graduated  at  Wesleyan  College;  settled  in  Lake  City, 
Minn.,  1857;  served  during  the  civil  war  in  the  Sixth  Minnesota  regi- 
ment, becoming  its  colonel  in  1864,  and  was  brevetted  a  brigadier  general 
in  1865.  After  the  war  he  founded  and  conducted  a  wholesale  paper 
house  in  St  Paul,  under  the  name  of  Averill,  Carpenter  and  Co.  In 
1858-60  he  was  a  state  senator;  and  in  1872-5  represented  his  district  in 
Congress. 

Baker,  a  railway  village  in  section  1,  Alliance,  was  named  for  Lester 
H.  Baker,  a  farmer  there,  who  removed  to  the  State  of  Washington. 

Barmesville  township  was  named  after  its  railway  village,  which 
was  established  in  1874  by  George  S.  Barnes,  a  farmer  and  wheat 
merchant,  who  owned  and  managed  a  very  large  farm  near  Gl3mdon 
and  died  there  about  the  year  1910.  The  village  was  incorporated 
November  4,  1881,  and  received  its  charter  as  a  city  April  4,  1889. 

CoMSTOCK,  the  railway  village  of  Holy  Cross  township,  was  named 
in  honor  of  Solomon  Gilman  Comstock,  of  Moorhead,  for  whom  also 
a  township  in  Marshall  county  was  named.  He  was  bom  in  Argyle, 
Maine,  May  9,  1842;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1869,  settling  in  Moorhead; 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1871 ;  was  a  representative  in  the  state  legis- 
lature, 1876-7  and  1879-81;  a  state  senator,  1883-7;  and  a  representative 
in  Congress,  1889-91. 

Cromwell  township,  settled  partly  by  immigrants  from  England, 
was  named,  in  accordance  with  the  petition  of  its  citizens,  for  Oliver 
Cromwell  (born  1599,  died  1658). 

DiLWORTH,  a  village  and  division  point  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railway, 
three  miles  east  of  Moorhead,  was  named  by  officers  of  that  railway 
company. 

DovGLAS,  a  Great  Northern  railway  station  two  miles  south  of 
Georgetown,  was  named  in  honor  of  James  Douglas,  one  of  the  first 
settlers  of  Moorhead.  He  was  born  in  Scotland,  March  13,  1821 ;  came 
with  his  parents  to  the  United  States  in  1832 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1871, 
settling  in  Moorhead,  where  he  was  a  merchant,  built  the  steamboats 
Manitoba  and  Minnesota  in  1875  for  the  Red  river  trade,  and  secured 
the  building  of  a  flouring  mill. 

Downer,  the  railway  village  of  Elkton  township,  was  named  by 
officers  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  company. 

Eglon  township  bears  the  name  of  a  city  of  ancient  Palestine,  also 
of  postoffices  in  West  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Washington. 


116  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

m 

Elkton  township  refers  to  the  elk  formerly  common  or  frequent 
here  and  in  many  parts  of  Minnesota. 

Elm  WOOD  township  received  this  euphonious  name  in  accordance  with 
its  petition  for  organization,  alluding  to  its  abundant  elm  trees  along 
the  South  fork  of  Buffalo  river. 

Felton  township  was  named,  after  its  railway  station,  in  honor  of 
S.  M.  Felton,  by  the  officers  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  company. 

FiNKLE,  a  railway  station  four  miles  south  of  Moorhead,  was  named 
in  honor  of  Henry  G.  Finkle,  an  early  pioneer,  of  the  firm  of  Bruns  and 
Finkle,  merchants  in  Moorhead. 

Flowing  township  has  chiefly  Scandinavian  settlers,  by  whom  this 
name  was  adopted,  but  its  significance  remains  to  be  ascertained,  unless 
it  refers  to  artesian  or  flowing  wells.  The  many  flowing  wells  in  the 
Red  river  valley,  of  which  Qay  county  and  this  township  have  a  good 
number,  are  the  subject  of  a  chapter  in  "The  Glacial  Lake  Agassiz," 
(Monograph  XXV,  U.  S.  Geological  Survey,  1896,  pages  523>581,  with 
a  map). 

Georgstown  waff  established  as  a  trading  post  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  in  1859;  was  abandoned  in  September,  1862,  during  the  Sioux 
outbreak;  and  was  reestablished  in  1864.  The  township  received  its 
name  from  the  trading  post. 

Glyndon  was  platted  as  a  railway  village  in  the  spring  of  1872, 
being  named  by  officers  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad  company,  and 
thence  the  township  was  named.  It  is  also  the  name  of  small  villages 
in  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland. 

Goose  Praxris  township  was  named  for  the  wild  geese  formerly 
plentiful  in  its  lakes  and  sloughs. 

Hagen  township  commemorates  an  early  Norwegian  settler  of  this 
surname.  A  large  manufacturing  city  in  western  Germany  bears  this 
name. 

Hawley^  a  railway  village  settled  by  an  English  colony  in  1871, 
incorporated  February  5,  1884,  and  its  township,  at  first  called  Bethel, 
were  renamed  in  honor  of  Gen.  Joseph  Roswell  Hawley,  of  Connecti- 
cut, one  of  the  original  stockholders  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad 
company.  He  was  born  in  Stewartsville,  N.  C,  October  31,  1826;  died 
in  Washington,  D.  C,  March  17,  1905.  He  was  graduated  at  Hamilton 
College,  1847;  was  admitted  to  practice  law,  1850;  became  editor  of  the 
Evening  Press,  Hartford,  Conn.,  1857;  served  as  a  brigade  and  division 
commander  in  the  Union  army  during  the  civil  war,  and  was  brevetted 
major  general  in  1865;  was  president  of  the  U.  S.  Centennial  Com- 
mission, 1873-77;  was  member  of  Congress,  1872-75  and  1879-81;  was 
U.  S.  senator,  1881-1905. 

Highland  Grove  township  received  its  name  for  its  location  on  the 
high  ascent  eastward  from  the  Red  river  valley,  and  for  the  groves 
beside  its  lakes  and  on  the  Buffalo  river,  the  surface  all  about  being  mainly 
prairie. 


CLAY  COUNTY  117 

HiTTESDAL^  a  railway  village  on  the  line  between  Goose  Prairie  and 
Highland  Grove,  is  named  for  a  valley  and  lake  in  southern  Norway. 

Holy  Cross  township  was  named  for  a  conspicuous  wooden  cross  set 
on  the  prairie  at  a  cemetery  about  a  half  mile  west  of  the  Red  river, 
in  North  Dakota,  amid  a  Catholic  community  of  French  Canadian  farm- 
ers. This  township  on  the  Minnesota;  side  was  settled  by  Norwegian 
farmers,  Lutherans,  and  both  sides  of  the  river  were  comprised  in  the 
"Holy  Cross  neighborhood." 

Humboldt  township,  settled  by  a  German  colony,  is  named  in  honor 
of  the  celebrated  German  scientist,  traveler,  and  author,  Alexander 
von  Humboldt,  who  was  born  in  1769  and  died  in  1859.  In  the  years 
1799  to  1804  he  traveled  in  South  America  and  Mexico,  and  later  he 
published  many  books  on  his  observations  of  natural  sciences,  history, 
and  political  affairs  of  this  continent. 

Keene  township  was  named  for  a  homesteader  there,  who  was  a 
veteran  of  the  civil  war. 

Kbagnes  was  named  in  honor  of  A.  O.  Kragnes,  a  prominent  Nor-i 
wegian  farmer,  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  that  township,  who  came 
from  Houston  county  in  1872.  He  was  born  in  Norway  and  came  to 
the  United  states  in  1852,  with  his  parents,  who  two  years  later  settled 
in  Houston  county. 

Kurtz  township  was  named  for  Thomas  C.  Kurtz,  formerly  cashier 
of  the  Merchants'  Bank,  Moorhead,  who  removed  to  Portland,  Oregon. 
He  is  a  son  of  Colonel  John  D.  Kurtz,  of  the  United  States  Engineer 
Corps,  who  served  with  distinction  during  the  civil  war,  and  later  was 
superintendent  of  the  engineering  works  of  Delaware  bay  and  river. 

Lambs^  the  railway  station  in  Oakport,  was  named  for  John  and 
Patrick  H.  Lamb,  brothers  from  Ireland,  who  were  early  settlers  and 
engaged  extensively  in  farming,  brick-making,  railroad  construction, 
and  banking. 

MoLAND  township  was  named  by  its  Norwegian  settlers. 

MooRHEAD,  first  settled  in  1871,  when  the  building  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  railroad  reached  its  site,  was  named  in  honor  of  William  G. 
Moorhead,  of  Pennsylvania,  who  was  a  director  of  that  railroad  com- 
pany. He  was  a  partner  of  Jay  Cooke,  the  Northern  Pacific  financial 
agent,  and  his  first  wife  was  a  sister  of  Cooke.  He  was  president  of  the 
Philadelphia  and  Erie  railroad,  and  his  brother,  Gen.  James  Kennedy 
Moorhead,  was  likewise  much  interested  in  railway  development,  espe- 
cially in  the  Northern  Pacific  finances.  Moorhead  was  incorporated  as  a 
city  February  24,  1881,  and  the  township  also  bears  this  name. 

The  adjoining  city  of  Fargo,  in  North  Dakota,  was  named  for  William 
George  Fargo,  (b.  1818,  d.  1881),  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  founder  of  the 
Wells,  Fargo  Express  Company  and  prominent  as  a  Northern  Pacific 
director. 

Cass  county.  North  Dakota,  adjoining  Gay  county,  and. also  its  city 
of  Casselton,  are  named  for  Gen.  George  W.  Cass,  of  Pennsylvania, 


1 18  MINNESO  TA  GEO  GRAPHIC  NAMES 

9 

who  was  president  of  the  Northern  Pacific  raUroad  company  in  1872-75. 
He  was  born  in  Ohio,  and  was  a  nei^ew  of  Governor  Lewis  Cass,  of 
Michigan;  was  graduated  at  the  U.  S.  Military  Academy,  West  Point, 
in  1832;  was  president  during  twentynfive  years  of  the  Pittsburg,  Fort 
Wayne  and  Chicago  railroad  company;  purchased  a  large  tract  adjoin- 
ing the  Northern  Pacific  line  between  fifteen  and  twenty  miles  west  of 
Fargo,  and,  employing  Oliver  Dalrymple  as  farm  superintendent,  was  the 
first  to  demonstrate  in  1876  the  high  agricultural  value  of  the  Red  river 
valley  lands  for  wheat  raising  on  a  large  scale. 

MoRK£N  township  was  named  in  honor  of  T.  O.  Morken,  its  first  home- 
steader, who  came  here  from  Houston  county  in  1875. 

MusKODA,  a  former  station  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railway  in  the  east 
edge  of  section  7,  Hawley,  had  an  Ojibway  name,  meaning  a  meadow 
or  tract  of  grass  land,  a  large  prairie.  It  is  spelled  Muskoday  in  Long- 
fellow's "Song  of  Hiawatha,"  with  accent  on  the  first  syllable.  In 
Baraga's  Dictionary  it  is  spelled  mashkode,  to  be  pronounced  in  three 
syllables  nearly  as  by  Longfellow.  A  few  miles  east  of  Clay  county, 
the  traveler  on  the  Northern  Pacific  line  passes  out  from  the  northeast 
forest  region,  and  thence  crosses  an  expanse  of  prairie  and  plain,  mainly 
treeless,  for  eight  hundred  miles  to  the  Rocky  mountains.  (By  a 
relocation  of  the  railroad  to  secure  an  easier  grade  in  the  next  seven 
miles  west  of  Hawley,  the  site  of  Muskoda  is  left  now  about  two-thirds 
of  a  mile  distant  at  the  north.) 

Oaxpobt  township  has  many  oaks  in  the  narrow  fringe  of  timber 
along  the  navigable  Red  river. 

pAiucE  township  was  named  probably  in  honor  of  a  pioneer  settler. 
A  county  in  western  Indiana  bears  this  name. 

RiVEBTON  township  has  reference  to  Buffalo  river,  which  flows  across 
its  northern  part 

RusTAD,  a  railway  village  in  Kurtz,  was  named  in  honor  of  Samuel 
Rustad,  a  Norwegian  merchant  there. 

RuTHRUFF^  a  railway  station  in  section  36,  Moorhead,  was  named  for 
an  adjoining  settler. 

Sabin,  a  railway  village  in  Elmwood,  is  in  honor  of  Dwight  May 
Sabin,'  who  was  born  in  Manlius,  111.,  April  25,  1844,  and  died  in  Chicago, 
December  23,  1902.  ile  came  to  Minnesota  in  1867,  and  the  next  year 
settled  in  Stillwater,  where  he  engaged  in  the  lumber  business,  and  in 
the  manufacture  of  machinery,  engines,  and  cars.  He  was  a  state  sena- 
tor, 1871-3,  and  a  United  States  senator,  1883-9. 

Skree  was  named  for  Mikkel  Skree,  a  Norwegian  farmer,  who  was 
the  first  settler  of  this  township. 

Sfbing  Prairie  township,  a  euphonious  name  selected  in  the  petition 
for  organization,  refers  to  its  springs  and  rivulets. 

Tansem  township  was  named  for  John  O.  Tansem,  one  of  its  pioneer 
fanners,  a  highly  respected  citizen.    He  was  bom  in  Eidsvold,  Norway, 


CLAY  COUNTY  119 

in  1842;  came  to  the  United  States  in  1961;  settled  here,  in  the  most 
southeastern  township  of  this  county,  in  1862. 

Ulen  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Ole  Ulen,  its  first  settler* 
He  was  bom  in  Norway,  April  18,  1818,  and  died  in  Ulen  village  Janu- 
ary 19,  1891.  He  came  to  the  United  States  in  1851,  and  to  Minnesota 
in  1853,  settling  in  Houston  county;  was  a  farmer  there  until  1867; 
removed  to  this  county  in  1872. 

VmiNG  township  was  named  for  a  Swedish  settler  there. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Bu£Falo  river  is  translated  from  the  Ojibway  name  of  its  southern 
tributary  flowing  from  lakes  in  and  near  Audubon,  in  Becker  county,  of 
which  Rev.  Joseph  A.  GilAUan  wrote  that  it  "is  called  Pijikiwi-zibi,  or 
BufiFalo  river,  from  the  fact  that  buffaloes  were  always  found  wintering 
there."  Hence  the  white  people  have  erroneously  called  the  whole 
river  Buffalo  river.  On  Nicollet's  map  it  is  named  "Pijihi  or  Buffalo  KT 
The  name  used  by  the  Ojibways  for  our  Buffalo  lake  in  Becker  couficy^ 
and  for  the  Buffalo  river,  flowing  thence  to  the  Red  river,  would  be 
correctly  translated  as  Beaver  lake  and  Beaver  river. 

Near  the  middle  of  the  west  side  of  Kragnes  township,  on  the  Red 
river  opposite  to  the  mouth  of  the  Sheyenne,  a  townsite  named  LaFay- 
ette  was  surveyed  in  March,  1859;  and  there  in  April  of  that  year,  '^tlie 
first  steamboat  on  the  Red  river  was  built  .  .  .  the  materials  for  whkh 
were  transported  across  the  country  from  Crow  Wing  on  the  Mississippi^' 
where  the  steamer  North  Star  was  broken  up  for  that  purpose.  The 
new  boat  was  named  the  Anson  Northup."  (Lamphere,  M.  H.  S.  Collec- 
tions, vol.  X,  1905,  pages  16,  17;  History  of  the  Red  River  Valley,  1909, 
pages  569-572.) 

The  Sheyenne  river  (here  spelled  unlike  the  Cheyenne  river  of  South 
Dakota  and  the  city  Cheyenne,  capital  of  Wyoming),  flowing  into  the 
Red  river  from  North  Dakota,  received  this  name,  given  by  Nicollet  as 
''Shayenn-oju  R.,"  from  the  Sioux,  designating  it  as  the  river  of  the 
Cheyenne  tribe,  meaning  "people  who  speak  a  strange  language."  Rev. 
T.  S.  Williamson  wrote  (M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  I,  pages  295-301)  that 
when  the  Sioux  first  came  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  the  lowas  occu- 
pied the  country  about  the  mouth  of  the  Minnesota  river,  and  the  Chey- 
ennes  had  their  villages  and  cultivated  fields  "on  the  Minnesota  between 
Blue  Earth  and  Lac  qui  Parle,  whence  they  moved  to  a  western  branch 
of  Red  river  of  the  North,  which  still  bears  their  name."  Thompson 
recorded  the  narration  in  1798  by  an  Ojibway  chief,  of  an  Ojibway 
war  party  who  attacked  and  destroyed  the  Cheyenne  village  west  of  the 
Red  river,  probably  about  1775  or  1780,  but  perhaps  five  or  ten  years 
later.  (Thompson's  Narrative,  edked  by  Tyrrell,  1916,  pages  236,  261-3). 
Next  this  tribe  removed  to  a  second  Cheyenne  river,  west  of  the  Missouri 
in  South  Dakota,  and  yet  later  they  migrated  farther  across  the  plains  to 
the  west  and  south. 


120  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Wild  Rice  river,  whose  South  branch  runs  through  Ulen  and  ELagen, 
and  the  river  of  the  same  name  in  North  Dakota,  tributary  to  the  Red 
river  nine  miles  south  of  Fargo  and  Moorhead,  are  translated  from  the 
Ojibway  names,  referring  |to  their  valued  native  grain,  the  wild  rice, 
much  harvested  by  the  Indian  women  for  food.  It  also  gave  the  name 
of  Mahnomen  county,  and  is  more  fully  noticed  in  the  chapter  for  that 
county. 

No  explanations  seem  needed  for  the  names  of  Hay  creek,  tributary  to 
the  Buffalo  river  in  section  33,  Highland  Grove,  and  a  second  Hay 
creek  in  Skree  and  Elkton;  Spring  creek,  tributary  to  the  last  and  join- 
ing it  two  miles  southeast  of  Downer;  and  Stony  and  Willow  creeks, 
flowing  through  Barnesville  township  to  the  South  branch  of  Buffalo 
river.  Each  of  the  two  creeks  last  named  has  been  sometimes  called 
Whiskey  creek,  in  allusion  to  a  great  spree  of  the  railway  graders  when 
the  former  railway  line  from  Breckenridge  to  Barnesville  was  com- 
pleted. Another  name  for  Stony  creek,  crossed  Sy  the  railway  two  miles 
north  of  the  city  of  Barnesville,  is  Sieber's  creek,  for  Rudolph  Sieber, 
who  had  a  milk  farm  at  its  north  side. 

Deerhom  creek,  in  Alliance  township,  flowing  northwestward  from 
Wilkin  county  to  the  South  branch  of  Buffalo  river,  received  its  name 
from  antlers  shed  by  deer  and  found  by  the  pioneer  settlers. 

The  east  margin  of  Gay  county,  above  the  Glacial  Lake  Agassiz,  has 
numerous  small  lakes,  but  only  a  few  have  received  names  on  maps. 
These  bearing  names  are  Silver  lake,  in  section  26,  Hawley,  in  allusion 
to  its  placid  and  shining  surface;  Moe  lake,  in  sections  2,  11,  and  12, 
Eglon,  for  Nels  R.  Moe,  the  farmer  on  its  west  side;  Sand  lake,  in 
the  east  half  of  section  12,  Eglon,  for  its  sandy  shore;  Solum  lake,  in 
the'  southwest  quarter  of  the  same  section,  for  H.  H.  Solum,  whose 
farm  adjoins  it;  Lee  lake,  in  sections  9  and  16,  and  Perch  lake  in  section 
17,  Eglon;  Turtle  lake,  crossed  by  the  east  line  of  section  12,  Parke; 
and  Grove  lake,  partly  in  section  36,  Tansem,  lying  mostly  in  Otter  Tail 
county. 

Buffalo  Delta  of  Lake  Agassiz. 

Where  the  Buffalo  river  enters  the  area  of  the  Glacial  Lake  Agassiz, 
a  delta  of  stratified  gravel  and  sand  was  deposited  during  tiie  earliest 
and  highest  stage  of  the  ancient  lake.  The  Herman  or  first  beach  and 
the  east  edge  of  the  delta  were  crossed  by  the  Northern  Pacific  rail- 
road at  Muskoda,  and  the  extent  of  the  delta  from  north  to  south,  on 
both  sides  of  the  river,  is  seven  miles,  with  a  width  from  two  to  three 
and  a  half  miles.  (U.  S.  Geological  Survey,  Monograph  XXV,  189^ 
pages  290-292,  with  map  and  section.) 


CLEARWATER  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  December  20,  1902,  received  its  name  from 
the  Qearwater  river  and  lake,  which  lie  partly  within  its  area.  For  the 
formerly  great  industry  of  pine  lumbering,  this  was  a  very  important 
river,  the  logs  being  floated  down  from  the  head  stream  and  its  tribu- 
taries into  Qearwater  lake  and  thence  to  the  Red  Lake  river  and  the 
sawmills  at  Crookston.  Another  Clearwater  river,  likewise  flowing 
through  a  lake  of  the  same  name,  empties  into  the  Mississippi  at  the 
town  of  Qearwater  in  Wright  county.  Both  of  these  rivers,  with  their 
lakes,  and  also  the  Eau  Qaire  or  Qearwater  river  in  Wisconsin,  derive 
their  names  by  translation  from  those  given  by  the  Ojibways  and  other 
Indian  tribes  long  before  the  coming  of  white  men.  According  to  Rev. 
Joseph  A.  Gilfillan,  the  Ojibway  name  of  this  river  and  the  county,  mean- 
ing Qearwater,  is  Ga-wakomitigweia.  The  name  Qear  Water  river 
was  used  by  Thompson  in  1798,  and  on  Nicollet's  map,  1843.  It  was 
called  Qear  river  on  the  map  of  Long's  Expedition,  1823. 

The  quality  denoted  by  this  term,  Qearwater,  is  in  contra3t  with  the 
more  or  less  muddy  and  silty  waters  of  the  Missouri,  Minnesota,  and 
most  other  rivers,  especially  when  they  are  in  high  flood  stages,  caused 
by  the  melting  of  winter  snows  at  the  return  of  spring  or  by  exception- 
ally heavy  rains,  the  inflowing  drainage  having  washed  down  much  mud, 
clay,  and  sand. 

Another  very  remarkable  contrast  to  clearness  in  river  and  lake 
waters  is  surprisingly  shown  by  other  streams  of  the  northern  woods 
and  swamps,  colored  dark  and  yellowish  by  the  drainage  to  them  from 
deca3ring  leaves,  fallen  branches  and  trunks  of  dead  trees,  and  peaty 
soil,  but  most  of  all  where  extensive  peat  swamps  and  bogs  supply 
water  in  any  time  of  considerable  drought,  long  saturated  with  the  peat 
and  decaying  vegetation.  In  some  cases,  as  the  Rat  Root  river  and 
Black  or  Rat  Root  bay  of  Radny  lake,  in  Koochiching  county,  seen  during 
my  travel  in  August,  1916,  the  very  dark  water,  nearly  or  quite  stagnant, 
although  containing  almost  no  mud  or  silty  matter,  is  yet  the  antithesis  of 
clearness  or  transparency,  being  too  dark  for  one  to  see  into  it  even  to 
a  depth  of  only  two  or  three  feet.  From  frequent  acquaintance  with 
similar  peat-rstained  streams,  the  observant  Ojibways  were  wont  to  dis- 
tinguish other  streams  of  opposite  character  by  naming  them  for  their 
crystal  clearness. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  and  meanings  of  names  was  gathered 
from  F.  A.  Norquist,  county  treasurer,  Frederick  S.  Kalberg,  editor 
of  the  Qearwater  Crystal,  and  Albert  Kaiser,  banker,  of  Bagley,  during 

121 


122  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

my  visit  in  September,  1909;  from  T.  L.  Tweite,  county  treasurer,  in 
my  second  visit,  September,  1916;  and  for  the  Itasca  State  Park,  lying 
mostly  in  this  county,  from  Volumes  VII  and  XI,  Minnesota  Historical 
Society  Collections,  1893  and  1905,  by  the  late  Hon.  J.  V.  Brower. 

Alida  (accented  on  the  second  syllable,  with  the  long  English  sound 
of  its  vowel),  a  village  in  section  10,  Bear  Creek,  was  named  by  Governor 
John  Lind.    Indiana  and  Kansas  also  have  postoffices  of  this  name. 

Bagley  village,  the  county  seat,  was  named  in  honor  of  Sumner  C 
Bagley,  an  early  lumberman  of  this  part  of  the  Clearwater  river,  who 
removed  to  Fosston  in  1885  and  died  there  in  1915. 

Bear  Ckeek  township  is  named  for  its  Bear  creek,  flowing  into  the 
Mississippi  river  in  section  26. 

Churnes^  a  former  postoffice  in  section  35,  Greenwood,  was  named 
for  its  postmaster,  Alexander  Churnes,  a  Norwegian  pioneer  farmer. 

Clearbrook,  the  railway  village  in  Leon,  took  its  name  from  the 
brook  there. 

Clover  township,  organized  in  1914,  received  this  name  on  the  sug- 
gestion of  James  N.  Vail,  an  early  settler. 

Copley  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Lafayette  Copley,  one  of  its 
first  pioneers,  who  removed  in  1916  to  western  Oregon.  He  came  from 
Massachusetts;  was  the  builder  of  five  dams  on  the  upper  Clearwater 
river,  used  by  T.  B.  Walker  for  log^riving. 

Dudley  was  named  in  honor  of  Frank  E.  Dudley,  who  was  a  county 
commissioner  of  Beltrami  county  when  this  township  was  organized, 
before  the  establishment  of  Qearwater  county.  He  was  born  in  Geauga 
county,  Ohio;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1881 ;  was  mayor  of  Bemidji,  1900-02. 

Ebro,  a  railway  station  seven  miles  west  of  Bagley,  has  the  name  of 
a  river  in  northeastern  Spain. 

Eddy  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Frank  M.  Eddy,  of  Sauk  Cen- 
ter, Minn.  He  was  born  in  Pleasant  Grove,  Minn,  April  1,  1856;  was 
a  school  teacher,  and  later  a  land  examiner  for  the  Northern  Pacific 
railroad  company;  was  clerk  of  the  district  court  of  Pope  county,  1884- 
94;  was  a  representative  in  Congress,  1895-1903. 

GoNViCK,  the  railway  village  of  Pine  Lake  township,  was  named  for 
Martin  O.  Gonvick,  an  early  Norwegian  settler  there. 

Greenwood  township  was  so  named  in  its  petition  ^or  organization, 
probably  in  allusion  to  the  verdure  of  its  woods. 

Hangaard  township  was  named  for  Gunder  G.  Hangaard,  its  first 
homesteader,  who  came  from  Norway.  Gunder  postoffice,  at  his  home 
in  section  19,  was  also  named  for  him. 

Holst  township  received  its  name  in  honor  of  H.  J.  Hoist,  a  Norwe- 
gian pioneer  farmer  there,  who  was  sheriff  of  this  county  in  1904-06. 

Itasca  township  lies  next  north  of  Itasca  lake  and  the  State  Park. 

Leon  township  is  for  Leon  Dickinson,  the  first  white  child  born  there, 
son  of  Daniel  S.  Dickinson,  who  later  removed  to  Montana. 


CLEARWATER  COUNTY  123 

Leonard^  the  railway  village  of  Dudley  township,  was  named  for 
Leonard  French,  first  child  of  an  early  settler,  George  H.  French,  who 
became  a  merchant  of  this  village. 

Mallasd,  a  village  in  sections  5  and  8,  Itasca,  received  it  name  for 
the  adjoining  lake,  having  many  mallard  ducks. 

Meadows,  a  former  postoffice  in  Greenwood,  now  discontinued,  was 
named  for  the  wide  natural  meadows  of  the  Qearwater  river. 

Minerva  township  was  named  for  the  Roman  goddess  of  wisdom,  by 
Frederick  S.  Kalberg,  owner  of  the  Pinehurst  farm  on  the  southeast 
side  of  Lake  Minerva,  section  13. 

Moose  Creek  township  has  the  small  creek  so  named,  flowing  from 
section  21  to  the  northeast  and  east. 

Neving,  a  postoffice  near  the  mouth  of  Clearwater  lake,  in  Sinclair 
township,  was  named  for  a  lumberman  and  farmer  there,  Robert  Neving, 
who  removed  to  Saskatchewan  about  the  year  1910. 

Nora  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Knut  Nora,  a  Norwegian 
pioneer  farmer  there,  who  was  a  member  of  the  first  board  of  county 
commissioners.    He  removed  to  North  Dakota  several  years  ago. 

Olberg,  a  former  small  village  in  the  north  edge  of  section  22,  Leon, 
named  for  Anton  Olberg,  a  pioneer  from  Norway,  was  superseded  by 
Qearbrook  when  the  railway  was  built  there. 

Pine  Lake  township  has  the  large  lake  of  this  name,  outflowing  by 
Pine  river,  a  tributary  of  Lost  river.  The  original  wealth  of  this  region 
consisted  in  its  timber  of  the  white  and  Norway  pines,  but  the  timber 
lands  are  now  largely  changed  into  farms. 

Popple  township  was  named  for  its  plentiful  poplar  woods,  misspelled 
and  mispronounced,  by  quite  common  usage,  in  this  name. 

Rice  township  refers  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Wild  Rice  river,  with 
the  Rice  lakes.  This  river  flows  through  the  northwest  corner  of  this 
township. 

Shevlin  township  and  railway  village  were  named  in  honor  of  the  late 
Thomas  Henry  Shevlin,  of  Minneapolis.  He  was  born  in  Albany,  N. 
Y.,  January  3,  1852;  died  in  Pasadena,  Cal.,  January  15,  1912.  He  came 
to  Minnesota  in  18S6,  settling  in  Minneapolis;  was  president  of  several 
logging  and  lumber  manufacturing  companies,  cutting  much  pine  timber 
in  this  county.  He  was  donor  of  the  Alice  A.  Shevlin  Hall,  University 
of  Minnesota,  built  in  1906. 

Sinclair  township  received  its  name  in  honor  of  an  early  land  sur- 
veyor. 

Weue  (pronounced  in  two  syllables),  a  small  hamlet  in  section  18, 
Eddy,  was  named  for  Hans  Weme,  a  Norwegian  merchant,  who  was  its 
first  postmaster. 

WiLLBORG,  a  former  postoffice  in  the  south  part  of  Eddy,  was  named 
for  a  Swedish  farmer,  Mart  E^Willborg,  who  was  the  first  postmaster 
and  was  the  county  judge  of  probate  in  the  years  1904-09. 


124  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

WiNSOR  township  is  in  honor  of  Hans  C.  Widness,  a  Norwegian 
farmer,  who  was  the  first  postmaster  there.  The  name  of  the  postoffice 
(now  discontinued)  and  township  was  thus  changed  and  anglicized  in 
accordance  with  his  suggestion. 

Among  names  of  discontinued  postoffices,  two  of  fanciful  or  romantic 
significance  were  Moonlight,  in  section  3,  Eddy,  and  Starlight,  in  section 
21,  Sinclair. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

In  the  foregoing  list  of  townships  and  villages,  attention  has  been 
given  to  Bear  creek,  Gear  brook,  Mallard  lake,  Moose  creek,  and  the 
Pine  lake  and  river. 

Rice  lake  and  the  Upper  Rice  lake,  and  the  Wild  Rice  river,  have 
probably  borne  these  names  in  four  successive  languages,  the  Dakota  or 
Sioux,  the  Ojibway,  French,  and  English.  The  oldest  printed  reference 
is  in  the  narrative  of  Joseph  La  France,  a  French  and  Ojibway  half- 
breed,  who  in  1740-42  traveled  and  hunted  with  the  Indians  of  a  large 
region  in  northwestern  Minnesota  and  in  Canada  northward  to  Lakes 
Winnipeg  and  Manitoba  and  Hudson  bay.  In  the  story  of  his  wandering, 
given  by  Dobbs  in  "An  Account  of  the  Countries  adjoining  to  Hudson's 
Bay,"  published  in  London  in  1744,  La  France  described  the  Upper  Rice 
lake,  in  Bear  Creek  and  Minerva  townships  of  this  county,  as  follows: 
"The  Lake  Du  Siens  is  but  small,  being  not  above  3  Leagues  in  Circuit; 
but  all  around  its  Banks,  in  the  shallow  Water  and  Marshes,  grows  a 
kind  of  wild  Oat,  of  the  Nature  of  Rice;  the  outward  Husk  is  black,  but 
the  Grain  within  is  white  and  clear  like  Rice;  this  the  Indians  beat  off 
into  their  Canoes,  and  use  it  for  Food."  (Minnesota  in  Three  Centuries, 
1906,  vol.  I,  pages  299h302.)  This  French  name,  Du  Siens,  seems  proba- 
bly to  be  from  the  Dakota  word,  psin,  meaning  wild  rice. 

Gilfillan  gave  the  present  Ojibway  name  of  this  Upper  Rice  lake  as 
"Ajawewesitagun  sagaiigun,  meaning  the  lake  where  there  is  a  portage 
from  water  running  one  way  to  waters  running  the  opposite  way,  or 
briefly,  Height-of-land  lake."  The  portage  was  from  the  Mississippi 
river  through  this  lake  into  the  Wild  Rice  river. 

Seven  miles  distant  westward,  lying  on  the  course  of  the  Wild  Rice 
river,  is  the  larger  Rice  lake,  in  T.  145,  R.  38,  of  this  county,  where  our 
names  of  both  the  river  and  lake  are  received  from  the  Ojibway  name, 
noted  by  Gilfillan  as  "Ga-manominiganjikawi  zibi,  The  river  where  wild 
rice  stalk  or  plant  is  growing;  so  called  from  the  last  lake  through 
which  it  flowed."  According  to  the  prevalent  usage  of  the  Ojibways, 
they  gave  to  the  river  their  name  of  the  lake  whence  it  flows. 

Nearly  all  the  area  of  this  lower  Rice  lake  has  only  shallow  water, 
one  to  five  feet  deep,  so  that  the  lake  is  filled  with  a  luxuriant  growth 
of  wild  rice.  It  presents  in  the  late  summer,  when  viewed  from  a 
distance,  the  appearance  of  a  grassy  marsh.    The  greater  part  of  this 


CLEARWATER  COUNTY  125 

valuable  grain  gathered  for  food  by  the  Indians  of  the  White  Earth 
reservation  is  obtained  from  this  lake  and  the  Upper  Rice  lake. 

Thompson's  map,  from  his  field  notes  in  1798,  has  Wikl  Rice  river; 
Long's  map,  1823,  has  this  name,  and  also  Rice  lake;  and  Nicollet's  map, 
1843,  has  "Manomin  R.  or  Wild  Rice  R."  and  "Rice  L." 

Four-legged  lake,  in  Dudley,  is  a  translation  of  its  Ojibway  name, 
given  by  Gilfillan  as  "Nio-gade  (pronounced  in  four  syllables)  .  .  . 
from  an  old  Indian  of  that  name  who  liyed  there."  Its  outlet  flows  west 
into  Ruffee  creek,  called  by  the  Ojibways  Four-legged  creek,  which  flows 
north  to  the  Qearwater  river.  Our  name  of  tJiis  creek  is  in  honor  of 
Charles  A.  Ruffee,  of  Brainerd,  who  was  appointed  in  1874  by  Governor 
Davis  to  make  inquiries  and  report  on  '^he  condition  of  the  several 
bands  of  Chippewa  Indians  of  Minnesota,"  with  recommendations  for 
state  legislation  toward  their  "ultimately  becoming  citizens  of  the  State." 
("Aborigines   of   Minnesota,"   1911,  pages   671-3.) 

Lost  river,  flowing  from  Hoist  and  Eddy  northwest  and  west  to  join 
the  Qearwater  river  in  Red  Lake  county,  received  its  name  for  its 
formerly  passing  in  section  17,  Winsor,  and  for  several  miles  onward, 
beneath  a  floating  bog  in  a  spruce  swamp ;  but  its  course  has  been  opened 
by  a  state  ditch,  with  reclamation  of  adjoining  lands  for  agriculture. 

Peterson  lake,  in  sections  4  and  5,  Hoist,  was  named  for  Nels  M. 
Peterson,  owner  of  the  land  on  its  south  side. 

Popple  township  has  Minnow  lake,  named  for  its  little  flshes,  in 
section  22,  near  the  sources  of  Qearwater  river;  and  Sabe  lake,  a 
name  whose  origin  was  not  ascertained,  on  the  south  side  of  section  24. 

Lake  Lomond,  adjoining  the  north  end  of  Bagley  village,  was  named 
by  Randolph  A.  Wilkinson,  of  St.  Paul,  general  solicitor  of  the  Great 
Northern  railway  company,  for  the  "bonny  Loch  Lomond"  of  Scotland, 
the  largest  and  most  beautiful  lake  in  Great  Britain. 

Walker  brook,  flowing  into  the  Qearwater  river  at  the  southeast  corner 
of  Bagley  village,  was  named  for  Thomas  B.  Walker,  of  Minneapolis, 
who  engaged  extensively  during  many  years  in  lumbering  on  the  Qear- 
water river  and  its  branches.  He  is  also  honored  by  the  name  of  the 
county  seat  of  Cass  county,  as  noted,  with  a  biographic  sketch,  in  its 
chapter. 

Nora  township  has  Walker  Brook  lake,  in  section  1 ;  Mud  lake,  crossed 
by  the  east  side  of  sections  25  and  36;  and  Mosquito  creek,  flowing  west 
and  southwest,  tributary  to  Rice  lake. 

Little  Mississippi  river,  beginning  in  the  north  part  of  Shevlin,  on 
a  nearly  level  tract  within  a  mile  south  of  the  Qearwater  river,  runs 
south  and  southeast  to  Manomin  or  Rice  lake  and  the  Mississippi  in 
the  southeast  part  of  Jones  township,  Beltrami  county.  It  was  called 
Piniddiwin  river  by  Schoolcraft  in  1832,  an  abbreviation  of  the  Ojibway 
name,  meaning  "the  place  of  violent  deaths,  in  allusion  to  an  inroad  and 
murder  committed  at  this  place,  in  former  times,  by  the  Sioux"  (that  is, 
at  or  near  the  mouth  of  this  stream). 


126  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Tamarack  lake,  in  sections  26  and  35,  T.  146,  R.  38,  is  named  for 
the  inclosing  woods,  consisting  largely  of  the  tamarack,  our  American 
larch. 

Long  lake,  in  section  24,  Rice,  extending  southeast  into  Itasca  town- 
ship, and  Heart  lake,  in  section  25,  Rice,  are  named  from  their  shape. 

Gill  and  Sucker  lakes,  in  sections  20  and  29,  Itasca,  are  named  for 
their  species  of  fish,  caught  in  gill  nets. 

Big  La  Salle  lake  is  crossed  by  the  east  line  of  sections  12  and  13, 
Itasca,  lying  partly  in  Hubbard  county.  It  is  tributary,  with  the  smaller 
La  Salle  lake,  a  mile  and  a  half  farther  north  in  that  .county,  to  the 
Mississippi  by  a  short  stream  flowing  north,  which  was  named  La  Salle 
river  by  Glazier  in  1881.  These  recent  names,  in  the  latest  atlas  of 
Minnesota,  are  adopted  to  preserve  in  this  region  one  of  the  historic  names 
used  by  Schoolcraft  and  Nicollet,  who  described  and  mapped  a  Lake  Mar- 
quette and  a  Lake  La  Salle  on  the  Schoolcraft  or  Yellow  Head  river, 
two  to  three  miles  south  of  the  site  of  Bemidji.  Only  one  lake  is  there, 
although  nearly  divided  into  two  by  a  strait,  and  both  parts  are  now 
named  together  as  Lake  Marquette. 

Itasca  State  Park. 

Lake  Itasca,  the  head  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
State  Park  inclosing  this  lake  lie  in  Qearwater  county.  Oldest  of  our 
state  parks,  its  place  at  the  source  of  the  greatest  river  of  North  America 
gives  to  it  national  significance  and  value,  geographic,  historic,  and 
educational. 

The  first  expedition  seeking  to  reach  the  head  of  the  Mississippi 
was  that  of  General  Lewis  Cass  in  1820,  penetrating  the  northern  forest 
to  Cass  lake,  which  seems  to  have  been  regarded  for  some  years  after- 
ward as  the  principal  source  of  the  river.  A  few  years  later,  in  1823, 
Beltrami  traversed  the  country  between  the  Red  River  valley  and  the 
upper  Mississippi,  crossing  Red  lake  and  entering  the  Mississippi  basin 
above  Cass  lake  by  way  of  the  Turtle  lake  and  river,  which,  from  his 
giving  the  name  Lake  Julia  to  a  little  lake  at  the  water  divide,  are  called 
the  Julian  sources  of  the  Mississippi.  But  another  stream,  somewhat 
larger  than  the  Turtle  river,  was  known  to  come  from  the  west  and 
southwest,  and  in  1832  Schoolcraft,  under  instructions  from  the  govern- 
ment, conducted  an  expedition  up  that  stream,  which  has  ever  since 
been  rightly  considered  the  main  Mississippi,  to  the  lake  at  its  head, 
which  the  Indians  called  Omushkos,  that  is,  Elk  lake.  Schoolcraft 
then  named  it  Itasca,  from  tiie  Latin  words  Veritas,  truth,  and  caput, 
head,  supplied  to  him  by  Boutwell,  the  name  being  made  by  writing  the 
words  together  and  cutting  off,  like  Procrustes,  the  first  and  last  sylla- 
bles. Four  years  later,  in  1836,  Nicollet  more  fully  explored  this  lake, 
and  claimed  that  its  largest  tributary,  the  creek  or  brook  Rowing  into  the 
extremity  of  its  southwest  arm,  is  ^'truly  the  infant  Mississippi." 


CLEARWATER  COUNTY  127 

Here  the  question  rested  until  Captain  Willard  Glazier  in  1881,  six 
years  after  the  Government  sectional  survey  of  that  area,  made  his 
expedition  to  Itasca  and  to  the  lake  in  section  22,  T.  143,  R.  36,  called 
by  the  Government  survey  plats  Elk  lake,  lying  close  southeast  of  the 
southwestern  arm  of  Itasca,  and  thence  voyaged  in  a  canoe  to  the 
mouths  of  the  Mississippi.  His  ridiculous  re-naming  of  Elk  lake  for 
himself,  with  assertion  that  it  should  be  regarded  as  the  main  source  of 
this  river,  in  his  subsequently  published  books  and  maps,  directed  the 
attention  of  geographers  anew  to  the  determination  of  the  source  of 
the  Great  River. 

Willard  Glazier  was  born  in  Fowler,  N.  Y.,  August  22,  1841;  and 
died  in  Albany,  N.  Y.,  in  1905.  He  served  in  New  York  regiments  in 
the  civil  war,  attaining  the  rank  of  captain,  and  published  several  books 
on  the  history  of  the  war.  His  biography,  entitled  "Sword  and  Pen," 
by  John  Algernon  Owens  (written  in  large  part  by  Glazier),  was  pub- 
lished in  1884,  516  pages,  including  80  pages  on  his  expedition  in  the 
summer  and  autumn  of  1881  by  the  canoe  route  from  Leech  lake  to 
Lake  Itasca  and  Elk  lake  and  thence  down  the  Mississippi,  with  a 
map  of  the  sources  of  this  river.  His  later  books  on  the  Mississippi, 
are  "Down  the  Great  River,"  1887,  4^3  pages,  with  the  map  redrawn, 
several  names  on  it  being  changed;  and  "Headwaters  of  the  Mississippi," 
1893,  527  pages,  with  six  maps,  including  the  narrative  of  Glazier's 
second  expedition,  going  again  in  1891,  with  a  large  party,  to  the  head 
of  the  river  for  reinforcement  of  the  claims  that  Lake  Glazier,  as 
named  in  1881,  is  the  geographic  head  and  chief  source.  In  this  expedi- 
tion -the  route,  both  in  going  and  returning,  was  by  the  wagon  road 
from  Park  Rapids  to  Lake  Itasca. 

On  account  of  the  claims  of  Glazier  and  his  friends,  for  Elk  lake, 
renamed  Lake  Glazier,  to  be  regarded  as  the  head  of  the  Mississippi, 
Hopewell  Qarke,  of  Minneapolis  and  later  of  St  Paul,  made  in  October, 
1886,  for  Ivison,  Blakeman,  Taylor  and  Co.,  publishers,  New  York,  a 
reconnoissance  of  Lake  Itasca  and  its  basin.  His  report,  which  appeared 
in  Science  for  December  24,  1886,  fully  sustained  the  work  and  con- 
clusion of  Nicollet,  before  noted. 

The  Minnesota  Historical  Society  next  took  up  an  investigation  of 
the  sources  of  this  river,  and  the  report  of  its  committee,  presented  by 
Gen.  James  H.  Baker  at  a  meeting  on  February  8,  1887,  repudiated 
Glazier's  claims,  and  refused  the  substitution  of  his  name  for  Elk  lake. 
But  a  good  result  from  this  controversy  was  the  great  increase  of 
public  interest  in  the  geography  and  history  of  the  Itasca  region,  which 
brought  within  a  few  years  the  establishment  of  this  State  Park.  In 
October,  1888,  Hon.  J.  V.  Brower  began  his  explorations  and  surveys 
of  Lake  Itasca  and  its  environs,  which  continued  through  four  years, 
being  commissioned  in  February,  1889,  to  this  work  by  the  Historical 
Society;  and  he  was  the  chief  factor  in  securing  the  establishment  of 


128  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

the  Park  by  an  act  of  the  state  legislature,  April  20,  1891,  followed  by 
an  act  of  Congress,  August  3,  1892,  which  granted  to  the  state  for  this 
Park  all  undisposed  lands  of  the  United  States  within  its  area. 

The  earliest  printed  proposal  for  the  Itasca  Park  was  a  letter  of 
Alfred  J.  Hill,  in  the  St.  Paul  Dispatch,  March  28,  1889.  Throughout 
the  work  of  Brower  in  examination  and  surveys  of  the  park  area.  Hill 
was  a  colaborer  with  him  concerning^  the  history  of  the  early  Spanish 
and  French  explorers  of  the  whole  extent  of  the  Mississippi,  contribut- 
ing much  of  his  excellent  Volume  VII  of  the  Minnesota  Historical 
Society  Collections,  entitled  "The  Mississippi  River  and  its  Source" 
(1893,  pages  xv,  360). 

The  claims  of  Glazier  are  effectually  cancelled  by  Brower  in  this 
work.  Emile  Levasseur  in  France,  and  N.  H.  Winchell,  state  geologist 
of  Minnesota,  followed  with  papers  indorsing  Brower's  conclusion,  that 
Nicollet's  "infant  Mississippi  ...  a  cradled  Hercules,"  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  State  Park,  above  Lake  Itasca,  is  the  veritable,  highest,  and 
farthest  source  of  this  river  (Minnesota  Historical  Society  Collections, 
vol.  VIII,  Part  II,  pages  213-231,  published  December  1,  1896). 

Jacob  Vradenberg  Brower,  archaeologist  and  author,  was  born  in 
York,  Mich.,  January  21,  1844;  and  died  in  St.  Cloud,  Minn.,  June  1, 
1905.  He  came  to  Long  Prairie,  Minn.,  in  1860 ;  served  in  the  First  Minne- 
sota cavalry,  1862-3;  served  in  the  U.  S.  navy,  1864-5;  studied  law  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1873;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature, 
1873;  was  register  of  the  U.  S.  land  office  in  St.  Cloud,  1874-9;  was  the 
first  commissioner  of  Itasca  Park,  1891-95;  explored  and  mapped  many 
aboriginal  mounds.  He  was  author  of  Volume  VII,  M.  H.  S.  Collec- 
tions, before  cited;  Volume  XI  in  the  same  series,  entitled  "Itasca 
State  Park,  an  Illustrated  History"  (1905,  285  pages);  "Prehistoric 
Man  at  the  Headwater  Basin  of  the  Mississippi"  (1895,  77  pages)  ;  "The 
Missouri  River  and  its  Utmost  Source"  (1896,  150  pages,  and  a  second 
edition,  1897,  206  pages) ;  Memoirs  of  Explorations  in  the  Basin  of  the 
Mississippi,  a  series  of  eight  quarto  volumes :  I.  Quivira,  1898,  96  pages ; 
IL  Harahey,  1899,  133  pages ;  III.  Mille  Lac,  1900,  140  pages ;  IV.  Kathio, 
1901,  136  pages;  V.  Kakabikansing,  1902,  126  pages;  VI.  Minnesota, 
Discovery  of  its  Area,  1903,  127  pages;  VII.  Kansas,  Monumental  Per- 
petuation of  its  Earliest  History,  1541-1896,  1903,  119  pages;  VIIL  Man- 
dan,  1904,  158  pages.  Biographic  sketches  and  portraits  of  Brower  and 
his  associates  in  archaeology,  Alfred  J.  Hill  and  Theodore  H.  Lewis, 
are  given  by  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell  in  "The  Aborigines  of  Minnesota," 
1911,  pages  vi-xiv. 

The  people  of  this  state  will  forever  remember  Brower  with  gratitude, 
as  the  founder  of  Itasca  Park,  and  its  defender  and  guardian,  amidst 
many  difficulties  and  discouragements,  through  his  last  years.  His 
heavy  cares  and  efforts  for  truthfulness  of  the  river  history,  and  to 
protect  the  Park  and  Lake  against  ruthless  damage  by  lumbermen,  are 


CLEARWATER  COUNTY  129 

shown  througihout  his  latest  book,  the  M.  H.  S.  Volume  XI;  but  in 
the  darkest  hour,  when  the  biennial  session  of  the  state  legislature  in 
1893  adjourned  without  providing  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Park,  with 
unfailing  courage  he  exclaimed,  "Itasca  State  Park  shall  live  for- 
ever !" 

The  Itasca  Moraine. 

Another  subject  of  much  interest  is  presented  by  the  admirable 
development  of  a  belt  of  marginal  moraine  hills,  knolls,  and  short  ridges, 
traversing  the  south  and  west  edges  of  the  Park.  This  is  part  of  a  very 
extensive  course  of  such  irregularly  hilly  deposits  of  glacial  and  modi- 
fied drift  crossing  Minnesota,  named  the  Itasca  or  Tenth  moraine.  It 
is  one  of  twelve  similar  marginal  moraines  traced  in  this  state  by  the 
present  writer,  formed  at  stages  of  temporary  halt  or  readvance  during 
the  general  recession  and  departure  of  the  continental  ice-sheet. 

Nomenclature  of  the  Park. 

Most  6f  the  information  for  this  list  is  from  Brower's  M.  H.  S. 
Volumes  VII  and  XI,  supplemented  with  various  details  from  other 
sources. 

The  Ojibways  call  Itasca  lake  Omushkos,  as  before  noted,  meaning 
Elk  lake,  which  also  is  their  name  of  the  river  thence  to  Lake  Bemidji, 
as  similarly  they  call  it  Bemidji  river  thence  to  Cass  lake.  In  translation 
of  the  Ojibway  name,  the  early  French  fur  traders  called  Itasca  Lac 
La  Biche,  and  Beltrami  in  like  manner  named  it  "Doe  lake,  west  source 
of  the  Mississippi."  Boutwell  wrote  in  his  Journal,  1832:  "This  is  a 
small  but  beautiful  body  of  water.  ...  Its  form  is  exceedingly  irregfu- 
lar,  from  which  the  Indians  gave  it  the  name  of  Elk,  in  reference  to  its 
branching  horns."  (M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  I.)  Brower  wrote  in 
Volume  VII,  page  119:  "The  topographical  formation  of  the  locality  in 
its  physical  features, — the  shape  of  an  elk's  head  with  the  horns  represent- 
ing the  east  and  west  arms, — ^no  doubt  gave  it  the  name  *Elk.' " 

Gen.  James  H.  Baker,  surveyor  general  for  Minnesota,  transferred 
the  name  Elk  lake  on  the  plats  of  the  government  survey,  in  1875-76,  to 
the  lake  at  the  east  side  of  the  Southwest  arm  of  Itasca,  designated  by 
the  Ojibways,  as  noted  by  Gilfillan,  "Pekegumag  sagaiigun,  the  water 
which  juts  off  from  another  water."  The  same  name  was  also  used  by 
the  Ojibways,  and  is  retained  without  translation  by  the  white  people, 
for  a  lake  and  falls  of  the  Mississippi  in  Itasca  county,  and  for  a  lake 
and  Indian  battle-ground  in  Pine  county,  being  for  those  places  com- 
monly spelled  Pokegama. 

This  lake  had  been  visited  by  Julius  Chambers  in  1872,  who  then 
called  it  "Dolly  Varden"  from  the  name  of  his  canoe;  and  in  1881 
Captain  Glazier's  party  applied  to  it  his  name,  which  he  endeavored 
strenuously  but  unavailingly  to  maintain,  as  related  in  preceding  pages. 
A  short  time  previous  to  Glazier's  visit.  Rev.  Joseph  A.  Gilfillan,  going 


130  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

there  in  May,  1881,  had  named  it  "Breck  lake,  in  honor  of  the  distinguished 
first  missionary  of  the  American  [Episcopal]  church  to  St  Paul  and 
vicinity,  who  was  afterwards  first  missionary  of  the  church  to  the 
Chippewa  Indians  around  the  sources  of  the  Mississippi."  Although 
worthily  renamed  for  James  Lloyd  Breck  (b.  1818,  d.  1876),  the  name 
Elk  lake  is  yet  more  desirably  retained,  because  it  preserves  'in  trans- 
lation the  aboriginal  title  which  was  superseded  by  Schoolcraft's  Itasca. 

The  only  island  of  Itasca  was  named  for  Schoolcraft  by  his  party, 
1832.  The  three  branches  or  arms  of  Itasca  are  called  by  Brower  the 
North,  East,  and  West  arms;  but  the  latter  two  are  also  known  as  the 
Southeast  and  Southwest  arms. 

The  largest  affluent,  Nicollet's  "infant  Mississippi,"  is  mapped  by 
Brower  as  "Mississippi  River"  in  "Nicollet  Valley."  This  stream  is 
also  often  called  Nicollet  creek,  as  by  Winchell,  in  1896,  and  the  map  of 
the  Mississippi  River  Commission,  1900.  Three  lakelets  noted  there 
by  Nicollet,  1836,  are  "Nicollet's  Lower,  Middle,  and  Upper  lakes."  The 
head'  stream  flowing  into  the  Upper  lake  rises  from  the  "Mississippi 
Springs,"  above  which,  with  underground  drainage  to  them,  is  Floating 
Moss  lake;  and  close  above,  and  flowing  into  it  from  the  south,  is 
Whipple  lake,  at  the  head  of  the  visible  surface  drainage.  This  last 
name  was  given  by  Gilfillan  in  1881,  to  honor  Bishop  Henry  B.  Whipple 
(b.  1822,  d.  1901),  renowned  for  his  interest  in  missions  for  both  the 
Ojibways  and  Sioux  of  this  state. 

Southward  from  Whipple  lake,  and  ensconced  in  hollows  among 
the  low  hills  and  ridges  of  the  Itasca  moraine,  are  the  three  little  Triplet 
lakes;  the  much  larger  Morrison  lake,  named  by  Brower  in  honor  of 
William  Morrison,  the  early  trader  who  was  at  Elk  lake  (since  named 
Itasca)  in  1804;  Little  Elk  lake;  Groseilliers  and  Radisson  lakes,  named 
by  Brower  for  the  first  white  men  in  Minnesota,  whose  travels  here, 
in  1655-56  and  again  in  1660,  are  the  theme  of  a  paper  by  the  present 
writer  (M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  X,  Part  II,  1905,  pages  449-594,  with 
a  map)  ;  the  Picard  lakes,  named  for  Anthony  Auguelle,  "called  the 
Pickard  du  Gay,"  a  companion  of  Hennepin,  1680;  Mikenna  lake,  named 
by  Alfred  J.  Hill,  of  undetermined  meaning;  and  the  large  Lake  Her- 
nando de  Soto,  commemorating  the  Spanish  discoverer  of  the  Mississippi, 
1541,  with  its  Brower  island,  named  in  honor  of  J.  V.  Brower  by  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society.  These  many  lakes  of  the 
morainic  belt  in  the  southwest  part  of  the  Park,  with  several  smaller 
lakelets  there  remaining  unnamed,  are  believed  to  send  seeping  waters 
northward  to  springs,  rivulets,  and  creeks,  which  are  tributary  to  the 
Mississippi  above  the  West  arm  of  Itasca  and  to  Elk  lake.  For  this 
reason  their  area  is  named  on  Brower's  maps  as  "the  Greater  Ulti- 
mate Reservoir  Bowl  at  the  source  of  the  Mississippi  river." 

Elk  lake  receives  four  small  streams.  At  the  west  is  Siegfried  creek, 
named  by  Brower  for  A.  H.  Si^fried,  a  representative  of  the  Louis- 


CLEARWATER  COUNTY  131 

ville  G)urier-Journal|  who  with  others  made  a  recreational  expedition 
to  Itasca  and  Elk  lakes  in  July,  1879.  Hall  lake,  on  the  upper  part  of 
this  creek,  was  also  named  by  B rower,  in  honor  of  Edwin  S.  Hall,  the 
U.  S.  surveyor  in  1875  for  several  townships  here,  including  the  Park 
area.  These  names  displace  the  Eagle  creek  and  Lake  Alice,  names  given 
in  1881  by  Glazier,  the  latter  being  for  his  daughter,  who  ten  years 
afterward,  in  1891,  was  a  member  of  the  second.  Glazier  expedition. 

The  three  other  tributaries  of  Elk  lake  are  from  the  south,  namely. 
Elk  creek,  on  the  southwest;  Clarke  creek,  commemorating  Hopewell 
Qarke,  before  mentioned  as'  a  surveyor  here  in  1886,  with  its  mouth 
at  the  head  of  Chambers  bay;  and  Gay-gued-o-say  creek,  named  for 
Nicollet's  Ojibway  guide  to  Itasca  in  1836.  Qarke  lake  and  Deer  Park 
lake  flow  into  the  last  of  these  creeks  at  stages  of  high  water. 

Chambers  bay  on  the  south  side  of  Elk  lake,  and  Chambers  creek, 
its  short  outlet  to  Lake  Itasca,  honor  Julius  Chambers,  the  journalist 
and  author,  whose  expedition  here  in  1872,  before  noted,  probably  became 
a  chief  incentive  for  his  publication  of  a  historical  and  descriptive  book 
in  1910,  entitled  "The  Mississippi  River  and  its  Wonderful  Valley"  (308 
pages,  with  80  illustrations  and  maps). 

At  the  south  end  of  the  East  arm  of  Itasca,  Mary  creek  brings  the 
inflow  from  a  series  of  lakes.  The  lowest,  Mary  lake,  is  named  like  the 
creek,  in  honor  of  the  wife  of  Peter  Turnbull,  a  land  surveyor  and  civil 
engineer  from  Canada,  who  opened  the  northern  part  of  the  road  from 
Park  Rapids  to  Itasca  in  1883,  and  resided  during  the  next  two  years  on 
the  east  side  of  its  East  arm.  In  1885  they  removed  to  Park  Rapids, 
where  Mrs.  Turnbull  died  in  May,  1889. 

The  higher  lakes  of  Mary  Valley,  in  their  order  from  north  to  south, 
are  the  small  Twin  lakes;  Danger  lake,  so  named  by  Mr.  Turnbull  on 
account  of  water  "flooding  the  ice  surface  in  winter  at  its  south  shore," 
renamed  Deming  lake  for  Hon.  Portius  C.  Deming,  of  Minneapolis,  a 
friend  and  promoter  of  the  interests  of  Itasca  Park,  who  later  was  the 
president  of  the  Minneapolis  Board  of  Park  Commissioners;  Ako  lake, 
named  for  one  of  Hennepin's  companions,  1680,  whose  name  is  also 
spelled  Accault ;  and  Josephine  lake,  in  honor  of  a  daughter  of  Commis- 
sioner Brower,  who  has  been  a  teacher  in  the  State  Normal  School  at 
St  Qoud,  and  in  the  public  schools  of  Minneapolis.  The  upper  part 
of  Mary  Valley,  holding  these  lakes,  was  called  by  Brower  "the  Lesser 
Ultimate  Reservoir  Bowl."  This  valley,  excepting  its  mouth  and  west 
border,  lies,  with  all  its  lakes,  in  the  edge  of  Hubbard  county,  into  which 
the  Itasca  Park  extends  a  mile  along  its  east  side. 

South  and  southwest  of  Josephine  lake,  and  beyond  the  water  divide, 
several  small  lakes  lie  in  the  southeast  corner  of  the  Park,  mostly  having 
no  surface  outlets  but  tributary  by  underground  seepage  to  the  basin  of 
Crow  Wing  river.  These  include  Sibilant  lake,  named  for  its  form 
resembling  the  letter  S;  Ni-e-ma-da  lake,  of  which  Brower  stated  that 


132  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

''the  name  is  composite  in  form,  not  of  Indian  origin ;"  a  narrow  northern 
arm  of  Little  Man  Trap  lake,  so  named,  like  the  larger  Man  Trap  lake  a 
dozen  miles  eastward,  because  many  peninsulas  and  the  tamarack  swamps 
at  the  head  of  its  bays  baffled  the  hunter,  or  in  former  times  the  "cruiser" 
in  search  for  pine  lands,  when  attempting  to  pass  around  it ;  Gilfillan  lake, 
in  honor  of  Rev.  Joseph  A.  Gilfillan  (b.  1838,  d.  1913),  Episcopal  missionary 
to  the  Ojibways  in  northern  Minnesota  during  twenty-five  years;  and 
Frazier  lake,  named  for  a  homesteader  whose  cabin  was  beside  it 

Other  streams  flowing  into  Lake  Itasca  include  Island  creek,  tributary  to 
the  west  side  of  the  North  arm,  opposite  to  Schoolcraft  island;  French 
creek,  between  Island  creek  and  Hill  point,  named  for  George  H.  French, 
of  the  survey  for  the  Mississippi  River  Commission,  1900 ;  Boutwell  creek, 
named  for  Rev.  William  Thurston  Boutwell  (b.  1803,  d.  1890),  who  accom- 
panied the  Schoolcraft  expedition  in  1832;  Sha-wun-uk-u-mig  creek,  com- 
memorating the  O  jib  way  guide  of  Rev.  J.  A.  Gilfillan  in  his  visit  to  the 
Itasca  basin  in  1881 ;  and  Floating  Bog  creek,  emptying  into  the  bay  of  this 
name  about  a  half  mile  east  of  the  island. 

Tributaries  from  the  west  to  the  Mississippi  river  above  Lake  Itasca 

#  

are  Demaray  creek,  named  in  honor  of  Mrs.  Georgiana  Demaray,  daughter 
of  William  Morrison,  Spring  Ridge  creek,  and  Howard  creek,  named  for 
Mrs.  Jane  Schoolcraft  Howard,  daughter  of  the  explorer  and  author, 
Henry  Rowe  Schoolcraft. 

Named  points  and  bays  of  the  Itasca  shore,  especially  observed  in 
canoeing,  are  Bear  point,  at  the  west  side  of  Floating  Bog  bay ;  TurnbuU 
point,  on  the  west  wde  of  the  East  arm,  commemorating  Peter  TurnbuU, 
before  mentioned ;  Comber  bay  and  point,  next  on  the  north,  for  W.  G. 
Comber,  assistant  in  the  survey  of  the  Park  area  for  the  Mississippi  River 
Commission,  1900;  O'Neil  point,  a  little  farther  northwest,  for  Hon.  John 
H.  O'Neil,  of  Park  Rapids ;  Chaney  bay  and  point,  next  south  of  TurnbuU 
point,  in  honor  of  Josiah  B.  Chaney  (b.  1828,  d.  1908),  newspaper  librarian 
of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  who  visited  the  Itasca  Park  in  1901 
and  1903;  Ray's  bay  and  point,  nearly  a  half  mile  farther  south,  for  Fred 
G.  Ray,  of  the  Mississippi  River  Commission  survey,  1900 ;  Ozawindib  or 
Yellow  Head  point,  at  the  entrance  to  the  West  arm,  for  the  Ojibway 
guide  of  Schoolcraft's  party  in  1832 ;  Tamarack  point,  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
southwest  from  the  last ;  Garrison  point,  on  the  west  side  of  the  West  arm, 
commemorating  Oscar  E.  Garrison  (b.  1825,  d.  1886),  who  examined  the 
Lake  Itasca  region  and  the  river  below  in  1880,  for  the  Forestry  Depart- 
ment of  the  United  States  Census ;  and  Hill  point,  on  the  west  side  of  the 
North  arm,  named  in  honor  of  Alfred  J.  Hill  (b.  1823,  d.  1895),  the  archae- 
ologist, who,  as  before  noted,  was  the  first  to  propose  the  establishment 
of  this  State  Park. 

Several  additional  names  of  lakes  are  to  be  noted:  Bohall  lake,  for 
Henry  Bohall,  an  assistant  with  Brower  in  1889 ;  Hays  lake,  for  an  assistant 
in  1891 ;  Kirk  lake,  for  Thomas  H.  Kirk,  author  of  an  "Illustrated  History 


CLEARWATER  COUNTY  133 

of  Minnesota"  (1887,  244  pages),  who  visited  Itasca  and  Elk  lakes  in 
1887 ;  Lyendecker  lake,  for  a  comrade  of  Brower  in  his  first  visit  to  Itasca, 
1888;  Allen  lake,  for  Lieut.  James  Allen  (b.  1806,  d.  1846),  who  accom- 
panied Schoolcraft's  expedition  in  1832,  and  whose  very  interesting  report 
of  it  was  published  twenty-eight  years  afterward  in  the  American  State 
Papers  (vol.  V,  Military  Affairs,  1860,  pages  312-344,  with  a  map)  ;  Budd 
lake,  "after  an  Ohio  family  name;"  McKay  lake,  for  Rev.  Stanley  A. 
McKay,  of  Owatonna,  Minn.,  "who  in  the  month  of  June,  1891,  celebrated 
the  ceremonies  of  baptism  at  Itasca  lake ;"  Green  lake,  close  west  of  Chaney 
bay;  Iron  Corner  lake,  near  the  iron  post  that  marks  the  northeast  corner 
of  Becker  county;  and  Augusta,  Powder  Horn,  and  Musquash  lakes, 
named  by  the  Mississippi  River  Commission,  1900,  adjoining  the  southwest 
side  of  Morrison  lake.  The  last  of  these  lakes.  Musquash,  has  the  Algon- 
quian  name  of  the  muskrat,  a  fur-bearer  whose  houses  dot  many  of  our 
shallow  lakes. 

Crescent  springs.  Elk  springs,  Nicollet  springs,  the  Mississippi  springs, 
and  Ocano  springs,  the  last  bearing  a  name  "found  in  Schoolcraft's  Nar- 
rative," arc  shown  on  Brower's  maps  of  the  Park. 

Rhodes  hill  was  named  for  for  D.  C.  Rhodes,  of  Verndale,  Minn., 
photographer  of  the  Brower  survey;  Morrison  hill,  like  Morrison  lake, 
for  the  first  recorded  white  visitor  at  Itasca;  Morrow  Heights,  in  honor 
of  A.  T.  Morrow,  director  of  the  survey  of  the  Itasca  basin  for  the 
Mississippi  River  Commission,  1900 ;  Ockerson  Heights,  for  J.  A.  Ockerson, 
also  a  surveyor  for  that  Commission ;  Aiton  Heights,  after  Prof.  George 
B.  Aiton,  of  Minneapolis  and  later  of  Grand  Rapids,  who  made  botanic 
examinations  of  the  Park  in  1891 ;  and  Comber  island  in  Morrison  lake, 
for  W.  G.  Comber,  who  has  thus  threefold  honors,  of  this  island  and 
of  a  point  and  a  bay  on  the  Itasca  shore. 

The  Lind  Saddle  Trail  was  named  in  honor  of  Governor  John  Lind, 
who  visited  Itasca  in  1899,  then  ordering  this  trail  to  be  cut  through  the 
woods,  as  his  personal  donation  for  the  improvement  of  the  Park. 

Qose  north  of  the  Park  limits.  Division  creek  (also  called  Sucker 
creek)  flows  into  the  Mississippi  from  the  heights  on  the  west,  "which 
divide  the  waters  flowing  to  Hudson's  Bay  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico." 

McMullen  lake  (formerly  known  as  Squaw  lake),  close  outside  the 
Park  at  the  northwest,  was  named  by  Brower  in  honor  of  William 
McMullen,  the  first  permanent  settler  at  Itasca  lake,  in  1889,  on  the  east 
side  of  the  North  arm.  The  former  name  is  from  the  Algonquian  word 
meaning  a  woman,  anglicized  as  "squaw,"  used  commonly  among  the 
Ojibways  as  the  ending,  qua,  of  feminine  names,  like  the  final  syllable, 
win,  of  the  same  use  among  the  Sioux. 

Kakabikans  rapids,  noted  by  Schoolcraft  in  1855  as  a  name  from  the 
the  Ojibway  language,  meaning  Little  falls  or  rapids,  are  formed  by  very 
abundant  glacial  boulders  in  the  channel  of  the  Mississippi  a  few  miles 
below  Itasca  lake. 


134  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Several  names  which  had  their  origin  from  the  expedition  of  Glazier 
in  1881  are  retained  by  popular  use  in  Hubbard  county,  but  only  one  has 
been  so  retained  within  the  limits  of  the  Itasca  Park,  this  being  La  Salle 
river,  in  the  northeast  comer,  named,  with  the  lakes  on  its  course  to 
the  north,  in  honor  of  the  renowned  early  French  explorer.  It  was 
called  Andrus  creek  by  Brower  in  1892,  "after  the  treasurer  of  the  Min- 
nesota Game  and  Fish  Commission."  Schoolcraft  in  1832  had  mapped  it 
as  "Cano  R."  and  on  the  map  of  his  "Summary  Narrative,"  published 
in  1855,  it  was  called  "De  Witt  Clinton's  R.,"  but  in  the  text  it  is  named 
"Chemaun  or  Ocano."  The  former  word,  Chemaun,  is  Ojibway  for  a 
birch  canoe,  as  used  in  Longfellow's  "Song  of  Hiawatha;"  and  the  latter 
word,  Ocano^  is  from  the  French  "aux  canots,"  -that  is,  at  or  of  canoes, 
which  was  the  ancient  and  original  form  that  became  anglicized  into  the 
name  of  Cannon  river,  in  southeastern  Minnesota. 

A  glacial  lake  was  held  temporarily  in  the  Itasca  basin  by  the  barrier 
of  the  departing  ice-sheet  at  the  end  of  the  Ice  Age,  with  an  area  "several 
times  the  present  size  of  Itasca  lake,"  named  by  Brower  in  Volume  XI, 
Winchell  lake,  in  honor  of  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell.  This  may  be  preferably 
called  Glacial  Lake  Winchell,  to  distinguish  it  from  Winchell  lake  in 
Cook  county. 

Newton  Horace  Winchell  was  born  in  Northeast,  Dutchess  county, 
N.  Y.,  December  17,  1839;  and  died  in  Minneapolis,  May  2,  1914.  Com- 
ing to  Minnesota  in  1872,  and  residing  in  Minneapolis,  he  was  state 
geologist  twenty-eight  years,  1872-1900;  was  editor  of  the  American 
Geologist,  1888-1905;  and  was  the  archaeologist  of  the  Minnesota  His- 
torical Society,  1906-14.  His  contribution  to  the  Itasca  Park  literature, 
entitled  "The  Source  of  the  Mississippi,"  is  in  the  M.  H.  S.  Volume  VIII 
(pages  226-231)  ;  a  biographic  memorial  of  him,  in  Volume  XV  (pages 
824-830,  with  a  portrait)  ;  and  a  more  full  memorial,  in  the  Bulletin  of 
the  Minnesota  Academy  of  Science  (Volume  V,  pages  73-116). 

Like  the  majestic  progress  of  an  epic  poem  or  a  grand  drama,  the 
history  of  the  gradual  discovery  of  the  Mississippi  river  runs  through 
four  centuries.  Begun  when  Amerigo  Vespucci  in  1498  mapped  the  delta 
and  mouths  of  this  mighty  stream  on  the  north  shore  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  it  continued  till  Brower  in  1889-92  mapped  the  shores  and  islands 
of  Lake  Hernando  de  Soto,  in  the  south  edge  of  Itasca  Park.  The 
moving  picture  of  this  history  is  portrayed  in  words  and  in  maps  by  the 
volumes  of  the  M.  H.  S.  Collections.  In  the  nomenclature  of  the  Park 
a  good  number  of  the  great  explorers  of  the  river  are  recalled,  De  Soto, 
Groseilliers  and  Radisson,  La  Salle,  Schoolcraft,  Nicollet  The  vain 
endeavors  of  Glazier  to  link  his  name  with  those  heroes  aroused  the  just 
indignation  of  geographers  and  the  officers  of  the  Minnesota  Historical 
Society.  During  a  decade  or  longer  a  great  strife  raged  concerning  the 
true  head  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  rightful  name  of  Elk  lake.  In  1905 
Glazier  and  Brower,  chief  opponents  in  the  strife,  died;  but  the  Itasca 
State  Park,  which  grew  from  it,  "shall  live  forever." 


COOK  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  March  9,  1874,  was  named  in  honor  of  Major 
Michael  Cook,  of  Faribault,  a  prominent  citizen  and  a  brave  soldier  in 
the  civil  war.  He  was  bom  in  Morris  county,  N.  J.,  March  17,  1828; 
came  to  Minnesota,  settling  in  Faribault,  in  1855,  and,  being  a  carpenter, 
aided  in  building  some  of  the  first  frame  houses  there;  and  was  a  terri- 
torial and  state  senator,  1857  to  1862.  In  September,  1862,  he  was 
mustered  into  the  Tenth  Minnesota  regiment,  in  which  he  was  appointed 
major,  and  served  until  he  fell  mortally  wounded  in  the  battle  of  Nash- 
ville, December  16,  1864,  his  death  occurring  eleven  days  later. 

Colonel  Charles  H.  Graves,  the  state  senator  from  Duluth,  introduced 
the  bill  to  establish  this  county  and  to  name  it  in  honor  of  Verendrye, 
the  pioneer  of  exploration  on  the  northern  boundary  of  Minnesota ;  but 
the  name  was  changed  before  the  bill  was  enacted  as  a  law.  It  has  been 
thought  by  some  that  the  name  adopted  was  in  commemoration  of  John 
Cook,  who  was  killed  by  Ojibway  Indians,  as  also  his  entire  family,  in 
1872,  his  house  at  Audubon,  Minn.,  being  burned  to  conceal  the  deed. 
Colonel  Graves  has  stated,  in  a  letter,  that  this  name  was  selected  to 
honor  Major  Cook. 

It  may  well  be  hoped  that  some  county,  yet  to  be  formed  adjoining  the 
north  line  of  Minnesota,  will  receive  the  name  Verendrye,  in  historic 
commemoration  of  the  explorations,  hardships,  and  sacrifices  of  this 
patriotic  and  truly  noble 'French  explorer.  He  was  the  founder  of  the 
fur  trade  in  northern  Minnesota,  in  Manitoba,  and  the  Saskatchewan 
region,  where  it  greatly  flourished  during  the  next  hundred  years;  and 
two  of  his  sons  were  the  first  white  men  to  see  the  Rocky  mountains, 
or  at  least  some  eastern  range  or  outpost  group  of  the  great  Cordilleran 
mountain  belt 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  of  geographic  names  in  Cook  county 
was  gathered  during  my  visit  in  August,  1916,  at  Grand  Marais,  the 
county  seat,  from  Thomas  I.  Carter,  the  county  auditor;  Axel  £.  Berg- 
lund,  county  surveyor;  George  Leng,  clerk  of  the  court;  William  J. 
Qinch,  superintendent  of  schools;  and  John  Drourillard  and  George 
Mayhew,  of  Grand  Marais. 

Each  of  the  organized  townships  in  this  county  comprises  several 
government  survey  townships ;  and  Grand  Marais  and  Rosebush  are  very 
irregular  in  their  outlines,  stretching  from  areas  adjoining  Lake  Superior 
to  areas  on  the  international  boundary,  with  narrow  strips  connecting 
their  southern  and  northern  parts. 

CoLvnxE  township,  organized  in  1906,  was  named  in  honor  of  Colonel 
William  Colvill,  to  whose  name  a  silent  e  is  added  for  the  township.  He  was 

135 


136  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

born  in  Forestville,  N.  Y.,  April  5,  1850;  and  died  in  Minneapolis,  June 
12,  1905.  He  came  to  Red  Wing,  Minn.,  in  1854,  and  the  next  year 
established  the  Red  Wing  Sentinel,  a  Democratic  newspaper.  He  served 
as  captain  and  colonel  of  the  First  Minnesota  regiment,  1861-4;  was 
colonel  of  the  First  Minnesota  Heavy  Artillery,  1865,  and  was  brevetted 
brigadier  general.  He  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1865, 
and  again  in  1878 ;  and  was  attorney  general  of  the  state,  1866-8.  In  the 
battle  of  Gettysburg,  1863,  he  led  his  regiment  in  a  famous  charge,  one 
of  the  noblest  sacrifices  to  duty  in  all  the  annals  of  warfare.  In  his 
later  years.  Colonel  Colvill  homesteaded  a  claim  on  the  Lake  Superior 
shore  in  this  township  (section  9,  T.  61,  R.  2  E.),  but  his  home  previously, 
and  also  afterward,  was  near  Red  Wing.  In  1909  his  statue  in  bronze 
was  placed  in  the  rotunda  of  the  state  capitol. 

Grand  Marais  township  received  this  French  name,  meaning  a  great 
marsh,  in  the  early  fur-trading  times,  referring  to  a  marsh,  twenty  acres 
or  less  in  area,  nearly  at  the  level  of  Lake  Superior,  situated  at  the  head 
of  the  little  bay  and  harbor  which  led  to  the  settlement  of  the  village 
there.  Another  small  bay  on  the  east,  less  protected  from  storms  is 
separated  from  the  harbor  by  a  slight  projecting  point  and  a  short  beach. 
In  allusion  to  the  two  bays,  the  Ojibways  name  the  bay  of  Grand  Marais 
as  "Kitchi-bitobig,  the  great  duplicate  water;  a  parallel  or  double  body 
of  water  like  a  bayou"  (Gilfillan). 

Grand  Portage,  a  village  and  formerly  a  very  important  trading 
place,  at  the  head  of  the  bay  of  this  name,  and  at  the  southeast  end  of 
the  Grand  portage,  nine  miles  long,  to  the  Pigeon  river  above  its  principal 
falls,  has  the  distinction  of  being  the  most  eastern  and  oldest  settlement 
of  white  men  in  the  area  of  Minnesota.  Probably  during  the  period  of 
Verendrye's  explorations,  this  place  became  the  chief  point  for  landing 
goods  from  the  large  canoes  used  in  the  navigation  of  the  Great  Lakes, 
and  for  their  being  dispatched  onward,  from  the  end  of  this  long  portage, 
in  smaller  canoes  to  the  many  trading  posts  of  all  the  rich  fur  country 
northwest  of  Lake  Superior.  In  1767,  when  Carver  went  there  in  the 
hope  of  purchasing  goods,  Grand  Portage  was  an  important  rendezvous 
and  trading  post.  At  the  time  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  as  Gen.  James 
H.  Baker  has  well  said,  it  was  the  "commercial  emporium"  of  the  north- 
western fur  trade. 

Fort  Charlotte  was  the  name  of  the  trading  post  and  station  of  the 
Northwest  Fur  Company  at  the  western  end  of  the  portage,  on  the  Pigeon 
river. 

HovLAND,  the  oldest  organized  township  of  this  county,  is  in  compli- 
ment to  a  pioneer  settler  named  Brunas,  for  his  native  place  in  Norway. 

LuTSEN  township  was  named  by  its  most  prominent  citizen,  Carl  A.  A. 
Nelson,  for  a  town  in  Prussian  Saxony,  made  memorable  by  the  battle 
there,  1632,  in  which  the  renowned  Gustavus  Adolphus,  king  of  Sweden, 
lost  his  life. 


COOK  COUNTY  137 

Mafle  Hill  township  has  extensive  sugar  maple  woods,  on  the  high- 
land five  to  ten  miles  back  from  Lake  Superior. 

Rosebush  township,  organized  in  1907,  took  its  name  from  Rose  Bush 
river,  as  it  is  popularly  known,  in  translation  of  its  Ojibway  name, 
Oginekan,  though  called  "Fall  river"  on  maps,  in  the  east  edge  of  T.  61, 
R.  1  W.  The  creek  a  mile  farther  west,  mapped  as  "Rose  Bush  river," 
has  no  recognized  name  among  the  settlers. 

ScHROEDER  towuship  and  village  are  in  honor  of  John  Schroeder,  presi- 
dent of  a  lumber  company  having  offices  in  Ashland  and  Milwaukee, 
Wis.,  for  whom  pine  logs  have  been  cut  and  rafted  away  from  the  neigh- 
boring Temperance,  Cross,  and  Two  Island  rivers. 

ToFTE,  Ukewise  the  name  of  a  township  and  village,  founded  in  1896, 
is  in  honor  of  settlers  having  this  surname,  derived  from  their  former 
home  in  the  district  of  Bergen,  Norway. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Gilfillan,  in  his  list  of  "Minnesota  Geographical  Names  derived  from 
the  Qiippewa  language,"  wrote:  "Pigeon  river  is  Omimi-zibi,  Omimi 
meaning  pigeon,  and  zibi  ....  river."  The  accent  of  Omimi  is  on  the 
second  syllable,  and  i  has  the  sound  of  the  English  long  e,  "The  Song 
of  Hiawatha"  correctly  anglicizes  it, 

"Cooed  the  pigeon,  the  Omemee." 

Until  1870  or  later,  the  passenger  pigeon  was  common  or  abundant 
throughout  Minnesota,  coming  early  in  April,  breeding  here,  and  returning 
southward  in  October  and  November.  During  the  next  thirty  years  they 
became  scarce,  and  about  the  year  1900  they  perished  utterly  from  all 
that  great  region,  eastern  North  America,  where  from  time  immemorial 
they  had  been  very  abundant.  The  species,  once  represented  by  countless 
millions,  undoubtedly  is  extinct. 

This  river,  which  is  the  boundary  between  the  United  States  and 
Canada,  was  delineated  on  '^he  oldest  map  of  the  region  west  of  Lake 
Superior,  ....  traced  by  a  chief  of  the  Assiniboines,  named  Ochagach, 
for  Verendrye,  in  1730,"  which  is  published  in  the  Final  Report  of  the 
Geology  of  Minnesota  (vol.  I,  1884,  pages  18,  19).  A  series  of  twelve 
lakes  is  shown  by  this  map  on  the  canoe  route  from  the  mouth  of  Pigeon 
river  to  "Lac  Sesakinaga"  (Saganaga),  the  fourth  and  eighth  being 
named  respectively  "Lac  Long"  and  "Lac  Plat."  Hence  came  the  name 
"Long  lake,"  given  to  the  lower  part  of  Pigeon  river  on  the  map  of  John 
Mitchell,  1755,  which  was  used  by  the  British  and  American  commis- 
sioners in  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  1783,  providing  that  the  international 
boundary  should  run  "through  the  middle  of  the  said  Long  lake  and  the 
water  communication  between  it  and  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  to  the  said 
Lake  of  the  Woods;  thence  through  the  said  lake  to  the  most  north- 
western point  thereof."  (M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  XV,  1915,  pages  379- 
392,  with  map.) 


138  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

In  1775  this  stream  was  called  "the  river  Aux  Groseilles/'  that  is, 
Gooseberry  river,  by  the  older  Alexander  Henry. 

Pigeon  Falls,  70  feet  high,  on  the  Pigeon  river  about  two  miles 
from  its  mouth,  are  pictured  in  the  "Geology  of  Minnesota"  (vol.  IV, 
1899,  plate  PP,  also  page  509).  About  a  mile  up  from  these  falls,  the 
river  has  a  sharp  angle  in  its  course,  pointing  northward,  called  "The 
Horn-" 

In  Split  Rock  Canyon,  noted  on  the  map  of  Cook  county  by  Jcwett 
and  Son,  1911,  about  a  half  mile  to  one  mile  below  (northeast  from) 
the  western  end  of  the  Grand  Portage  road,  Pigeon  river  has  "Falls, 
144  feet"  These  falls  were  called  "the  Great  (Cascades"  by  Norwood  in 
1852,  who  stated,  in  his  report  for  the  Owen  Geological  Survey,  that 
the  river  there  descends  144  feet  in  a  distance  of  400  yards,  through  a 
narrow  gorge  formed  by  perpendicular  walls  of  rock,  varying  from  40 
to  120  feet  in  height 

Partridge  falls,  an  upper  fall  30  feet  high,  and  a  lower  fall,  very  close 
below,  falling  10  feet,  are  on  this  river  about  two  miles  westward,  by  the 
zigzag  course  of  the  stream,  from  the  end  of  the  Grand  portage.  The 
height  of  these  falls  was  exaggerated  by  Mackenzie,  in  his  "Voyages 
from  Montreal,"  published  in  1801,  to  be  120  feet,  probably  confounding 
the  Partridge  falls  with  the  much  higher  falls  last  mentioned.  Dr. 
Alexander  Winchell  in  1887  called  these  falls  "the  Minnehaha  of  the 
boundary." 

Fowl  portage,  and  the  South  and  North  Fowl  lakes,  lowest  in  the 
series  of  lakes  on  the  Pigeon  river,  are  translated  from  their  early  French 
name,  Outarde  (a  bustard,  here  in  the  usage  of  the  voyageurs  applied  to 
the  (Canadian  goose,  Branta  canadensis,  our  most  common  wild  species), 
which  was  probably  a  translation  from  the  aboriginal  Ojibway  name. 
More  definitely,  therefore,  these  would  be  (joose  portage  and  lakes. 

Next  are  Moose  portage  and  Moose  lake,  which  Mackenzie  called 
Elk  portage  and  lake,  but  which  Thompson  mapped,  on  the  survey  for 
the  international  boundary,  1826,  as  "Moose  lake,  d'Original."  Both 
the  English  and  French  names  came  from  the  Ojibway,  "Mozo  sagaiigun" 
(Gilfillan), 

Big  Cherry  portage,  named  for  the  wild  cherries  growing  there,  the 
Lower  and  Upper  Lily  lakes,  "where  there  is  plenty  of  water  lilies,"  and 
the  Little  Cherry  portage,  translated  from  the  Erench  names  used  by 
Mackenzie,  lead  to  Mountain  lake,  called  Hill  lake  by  Norwood,  trans- 
lated from  its  Ojibway  name,  given  by  Gilfillan  as  "Gatdiigudjiwegumag 
sagaiigun,  the  lake  lying  close  by  the  mountain."  This  refers  to  Moose 
mountain,  shown  on  the  Jewett  map,  at  the  south  side  of  the  east  end 
of  this  lake. 

"The  small  new  portage"  of  Mackenzie,  next  west  of  Mountain  lake, 
was  called  Watap  portage  by  Thompson,  on  account  of  the  growth  of 
jack  pines,  which  also  are  referred  to  in  the  names  of  Watab  river  and 
township  (previously  noted  in  the  chapter  for  Benton  county). 


COOK  COUNTY  139 

Rove  lake,  called  Watab  lake  by  Norwood  and  by  Dr.  Cones,  through 
which  the  canoes  next  passed,  was  called  by  Mackenzie  ''a  narrow  line 
of  water,"  and  it  was  so  mapped  later  by  Thompson,  very  narrow  and 
somewhat  crooked,  whence  probably  came  the  name,  to  rove  or  wan- 
der; but  it  is  erroneously  mapped  as  a  rather  broad  lake  in  ''Geology 
of  Minnesota"  (vol.  IV,  plates  69  and  83),  which  error  is  retained  on 
the  maps  of  Cook  county  in  our  latest  atlas.  The  Ojibway  name  of 
tiiis  lake  means  "the  lake  lying  in  the  burnt  wood  country." 

A  very  rugged  and  difficult  portage,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  in  length, 
called  by  Mackenzie  "the  new  Grande  Portage"  (on  the  Geol.  Survey 
map,  "Great  New  Portage"),  leads  to  Rose  or  Mud  lake,  which  out- 
flows eastward  into  Arrow  lake  and  river  in  Canada,  being  thus  tribu- 
tary to  the  Pigeon  river.  In  the  language  of  the  Ojibways,  "Rose  lake 
is  Ga-bagwadjiskiwagag  sagaiigun,  or  the  shallow  lake  with  mud  bottom." 

From  Rose  lake  westward  two  short  portages,  named  Marten  and 
Perch  portages,  with  an  intervening  "mud  pond  covered  with  white 
lilies,"  as  noted  by  Mackenzie,  lead  to  South  lake,  as  it  was  named  by 
Thompson,  where,  wrote  Mackenzie,  '^he  waters  of  the  Dove  or  Pigeon 
river  terminate,  and  which  is  one  of  the  sources  of  the  great  St.  Law- 
rence in  this  direction." 

■ 

North  lake,  the  first  in  the  series  flowing  west  to  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods,  was  so  named  by  Thompson,  his  South  and  North  lakes  having 
that  relationship  to  the  portage  across  the  continental  water  divide. 
Mackenzie  called  North  lake  "the  lake  of  Hauteur  de  Terre"  (Height 
of  Land),  and  by  Norwood  is  was  named  "Mountain  lake.** 

Thence  the  canoes  went  down  the  outflowing  stream  into  Gunflint 
lake,  named  from  flint  or  chert  obtained  in  its  rocks,  also  occurring 
abundantly  as  pebbles  of  its  beaches,  sometimes  used  for  the  flintlock 
guns  which  long  preceded  the  invention  of  percussion  caps.  The  English 
name  is  translated  from  the  earlier  Ojibway  and  French  names. 

Northward  in  a  distance  of  ten  miles  from  the  mouth  of  Gunflint 
lake  to  Saganaga  falls  and  lake,  the  international  boundary  has  Mag- 
netic lake,  Pine  or  Gove  lake,  Granite  bay.  Gneiss  lake,  and  Maraboeuf 
lake,  with  intervening  stretches  of  the  stream,  broken  by  frequent  rapids 
and  low  falls,  past  which  portages  were  made.  The  varying  characters 
of  the  outcropping  rocks  supply  a  majority  of  these  lake  names.  The 
most  northern  is  a  Canadian  French  name,  used  by  Mackenzie,  1801,  and 
on  the  latest  maps  of  Cook  county,  1911  and  1916,  apparently  for  "marsh 
deer  or  buffalo"  if  it  were  anglicized;  but  this  name,  Maraboeuf,  is  not 
found  in  dictionaries.  Thompson  in  1826  mapped  it,  with  no  name,  as  a 
narrow  and  quite  irregularly  branched  lake,  nearly  four  miles  long  from 
south  to  north,  its  jagged  eastern  shoreline  in  Canada  being  wholly 
unlike  its  representation  in  our  Cook  county  maps. 

Maraboeuf  lake  was  called  Banks'  Pine  lake  by  Prof.  N.  H.  Win- 
chell  in  1880   (Ninth  Annual  Report,  page  84),  for  its  forest  of  jack 


140  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

pine  (Pinus  Banksiana) ;  but  in  the  later  reports  of  the  Minnesota 
Geological  Survey  it  is  mapped  as  Granite  lake,  for  its  l3dng  within  the 
area  of  Saganaga  granite. 

Mackenzie  wrote  that  Lake  Saganaga  "takes  its  name  from  its 
numerous  islands."  Thompson  mapped  it  as  "Kaseiganagah  lake."  Gilfil- 
lan  wrote,  "Saganaga  lake  is  Ga-sasuganagag  sagaiigun,  the  lake  sur- 
rounded by  thick  forests."  (The  pronunciation  places  the  principal  accent 
on  the  first  syllable,  and  a  secondary  accent  on  the  last.) 

Winchell,  from  information  given  by  the  Ojibways,  wrote  in  the 
report  before  cited:  "The  word  3aganaga  signifies  islands,  or  many 
islands,  and  seems  to  be  the  plural  of  Saginaw."  Verwyst,  however, 
defines  Saginaw  in  Michigan  (the  river,  bay,  city,  and  county),  as  from 
an  Ojibway  word,  "Saging  or  Saginang,  at  the  mouth  of  a  river."  Accord- 
ing to  Gannett,  Saginaw  means  "Sauk  place,"  referring  to  the  Sauk  or 
Sac  Indians.  The  Michigan  name  and  our  Saganaga,  therefore,  are 
probably  not  alike  in  their  origin  and  meaning. 

Three  miles  from  Grand  Portage  village  and  bay,  the  Grand  Portage 
road  crosses  Poplar  river,  tributary  to  Pigeon  river. 

Dutchman  lake  lies  two  miles  west  of  Grand'  Portage,  and  Teal 
lake  is  two  miles  northeast  of  that  village. 

"Mesqua-^awangewi  zibi,  or  Red  Sand  river,"  as  it  was  called  by 
Gilfillan,  and  a  lake  of  the  same  name,  form  the  greater  part  of  the  west 
boundary  of  the  Pigeon  River  Indian  Reservation.  This  stream  is  also 
called  Reservation  river,  and  the  lake  is  named  Swamp  lake  on  the 
latest  maps,  1911  and  1916.  In  the  treaty  of  September  30,  1854,  which 
established  the  reservation,  this  stream  is  mentioned  as  "called  by  the 
Indians  Maw-ske-gwaw-caw-maw-se-be,  or  Cranberry  Marsh  river." 

Tom  lake,  near  the  center  of  T.  63,  R.  3  £.,  is  at  the  head  of  Kamesh- 
keg  river,  meaning  Swamp  river,  which  flows  north  to  Pigeon  river. 

Devil  Fish  and  Otter  lakes  outflow  by  the  next  tributary  of  Pigeon 
river,  called  Portage  brook,  and  a  mile  farther  northwest  it  receives 
Stump  river.  Greenwood  lake,  west  of  the  Devil  Fish,  flows  south  to 
Brule    river. 

West  of  the  Fowl  lakes,  the  northern  tiers  of  townships  in  this  county 
have  a  multitude  of  lakes,  mostly  narrow  and  much  elongated  from 
east  to  west,  lying  in  eroded  hollows  of  the  bedrocks.  These  include 
Royal  lake,  John  lake,  McFarland  lake,  the  East  and  West  Pike  lakes. 
Pine  lake,  Long  lake,  and  Lakes  Fanny  and  Marinda;  Crocodile,  East 
Bear  Skin,  Caribou,  and  Clearwater  lakes,  in  Ts.  64  and  65,  R.  1  E.,  lying 
south  of  Rove  lake;  Morgan  lake,  Misquah  (Red)  lake,  Cross,  Horse- 
shoe, and  Swamp  lakes.  Aspen  and  Flour  lakes,  Hungry  Jack  lake, 
Leo  lake,  Poplar  lake,  tributary  by  Poplar  river  to  the  North  brandi 
of  Brule  river,  Daniels  lake.  Birch  or  West  Bear  Skin  lake,  Duncan's, 
Moss,  and  Partridge  lakes,  in  Ts.  64  and  65,  R.  1  W.,  lying  south  of 
Rose   lake;   Winchell   lake,   Cxaskan  and   Johnson   lakes,   Henson   lake, 


COOK  COUNTY  141 

Pittsburg  lake,  Stray  lake,  another  Caribou  lake,  Meeds  lake,  Moon 
lake,  Rush,  Lum,  and  Portage  lakes,  No  Name  or  Birch  lake,  Dunn 
lake,  Iron  and  Mayhew  lakes,  Pope  lake.  Crab  lake,  and  Lakes  Emma 
and  Louise,  in  Ts.  64  and  65,  R.  2  W.,  lying  south  of  the  South  and 
North  lakes;  Kiskadinna  or  Colby  lake,  Nebogigig  or  Onega  lake, 
Davis  lake.  Trap  and  Cliff  lakes,  Ida,  Jay,  and  Ash  lakes.  Long  Island 
lake,  Finn  lake,  Banadad  or  Banner  lake,  Ross,  George,  and  Karl 
lakes.  Tucker  lake  and  river,  and  Loon  lake,  in  Ts.  64  and  65,  R.  3  W., 
being  south  of  Gunfiint  lake;  Frost,  Irish,  Don,  Tuscarora,  Snipe,  and 
Copper  lakes,  in  T.  64,  R.  4  W.,  and  Ham,  Round  or  Bear,  Brant  or 
Charley,  Cloud,  Dingoshick,  Akeley,  Chub,  Arc,  and  Larch  lakes,  in  T. 
65,  R.  4  W.,  south  of  Maraboeuf  lake;  Hub  or  Mesabi,  East  and  West, 
Crooked  or  Greenwood  Island,  Bullis  or  Gill's,  Little  Saganaga,  Rattle, 
and  Fern  lakes,  in  T.  64,  R.  5  W.,  and  Gabimichigama,  Howard,  Peter 
or  Clothespin,  French  or  Kakfgo,  Bat  or  Muscovado  lake^  Fay  or  Paul- 
son lake  and  Chub  river  outflowing  from  it,  Jap  lake,  Ray,  Jasper  or 
Frog  Rock,  Alpine  or  West  Sea  Gull,  and  Red  Rock  lakes,  and  the  large 
and  very  irregularly  outlined  Sea  Gull  lake,  with  many  islands,  the 
largest  being  named  Cucumber  island,  in  T.  65,  R.  5  W.,  south  of  Lake 
Saganaga. 

Many  of  the  names  of  lakes  in  this  list  are  of  obvious  derivations,  as 
from  the  fish  in  them,  the  animals  and  birds  and  trees  adijoining  them, 
or  from  their  outlines,  as  long,  round,  crooked,  or  having  the  form  of 
a  horseshoe,  the  crescent  moon,  or  an  arc. 

The  origins  of  only  a  few  of  the  personal  names  borne  by  others  of 
these  lakes,  as  next  noted,  have  been  ascertained  by  the  present  writer. 

Hungry  Jack  lake  refers  to  an  assistant  on  the  government  surveys, 
Andrew  Jackson  Scott,  a  veteran  of  the  civil  war,  who  for  some  time 
at  this  lake  was  reduced  to  very  scanty  food  supplies. 

Winchell  lake  was  named  for  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell,  state  geologist, 
who  is  also  honored  by  the  Glacial  Lake  Winchell  in  the  Itasca  State 
Park. 

Meeds  lake  was  named  in  honor  of  Alonzo  D.  Meeds,  of  Minne- 
apolis, who  was  an  assistant  in  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey. 

Mayhew  lake  is  for  the  late  Henry  Mayhew,  of  Grand  Marais,  who 
aided  for  this  survey  in  Cook  county. 

Charley  lake  and  Bashitanequeb  lake,  the  latter  renamed  on  recent 
maps  as  Bullis  or  Gill's  lake,  are  for  an  Ojibway,  "Bashitanequeb 
(Charley  Sucker),  Indian  guide,  cook,  and  canoeman,"  in  this  survey 
("Geology  of  Minnesota,"  Final  Report,  vol.  IV,  1899,  page  522,  with 
his  portrait). 

Howard  lake  was  named  for  one  of  the  Howard  brothers,  mining 
prospectors,  of  Duluth,  and  Paulson  lake  for  the  owner  of  iron  mines 
near  it,  on  the  Port  Arthur,  Duluth  and  Western  railroad,  a  branch  of 
the  Canadian  Northern  railway. 


142  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

GilfiUan  recorded  the  following  Ojibway  names  for  several  of  these 
lakes,  which  have  been  translated  to  their  present  names  used  by  the 
white  people. 

"Pine  lake,  Shingwako  sagaiigun  .  .  .  Shingwak  is  a  pine;  o,  a  con- 
nective vowel ;  sagaiigun,  lake/' 

"Near  Rove  lake  is  Ga-wakomitigweiag  sagaiigun,  or  Clearwater  lake." 

"Iron  lake  is  Biwabiko  sagaiigun,"  the  same  with  the  town  of  Biwabik 
on  the  Mesabi  iron  range  in  St.  Louis  county. 

"Ushkakweagumag  sagaiigun,  or  Greenwood  lake,"  has  been  some- 
times called  East  Greenwood  lake,  to  distinguish  it  from  another  of 
this  name  in  Lake  county. 

"Muko-waiani  sagaiigun,  or  Bear-skin  lake." 

Baraga's  Dictionary  has  "Kishkadina  .  .  .  there  is  a  very  steep  hill, 
very  steep  ascent"  This  name,  with  slight  change  of  spelling,  is  applied 
on  recent  maps«to  a  lake  that  was  not  named  by  the  maps  of  the  Minne- 
sota Geological  Survey ;  and  the  lake  called  Kiskadinna  by  that  survey  is 
now  Long  Island  lake. 

The  two  Caribou  lakes  have  the  Canadian  French  name  of  the  Ameri- 
can reindeer,  dianged  from  kalibu  of  the  Micmac  Indians,  meaning 
"  *pawer  or  scratcher,'  the  animal  being  so  called  from  its  habit  of  shovel- 
ing the  snow  with  its  forelegs  to  find  the  food  covered  by  snow."  The 
reindeer  was  formerly  common  in  the  north  half  of  Minnesota. 

Flour  lake,  which  received  its  name  on  account  of  a  cache  of  flour 
placed  there  during  the  government  surveys,  is  erroneously  spdled 
Flower  on  recent  published  maps.  The  Ojibways  call  this  lake  Pakwe- 
jigan  (Bread  or  Flour),  in  allusion  to  this  cache. 

Sea  Gull  lake,  like  the  Gull  lake  in  Cass  county,  is  a  translation  from 
the  Ojibway  name,  referring  to  the  American  herring  gull  and  three 
other  species,  which  frequent  the  large  lakes  throughout  this  state. 

Turning  to  the  streams  and  lakes  tributary  to  Lake  Superior  from 
Cook  county,  in  their  order  from  southwest  to  northeast,  we  have  first 
the  Two  Island  river,  named  for  Gull  and  Bear  islands,  near  its  mouth. 

Cross  river,  at  Schroeder,  was  so  called  by  Thomas  Clark,  assistant 
state  geologist,  in  1864,  but  later  was  named  Baraga's  river  by  Whittle- 
sey in  1866.  It  had  previously  been  named  by  the  Ojibways,  as  GilfiUan 
relates,  "Tchibaiatigo  zibi,  i.  e.,  wood-of-the-soul-or-spirit  river;  they 
calling  the  Cross  wood  of  the  soul,  or  disembodied  spirit."  The  origin 
of  this  name  was  from  a  cross  of  wood  erected  by  Father  Baraga,  who, 
as  Verwyst  relates,  "landed  here  after  a  perilous  voyage  in  a  small  fish- 
ing boat,  across  l^ake  Superior,  1845-6."  Whittlesey,  in  his  report  of 
explorations,  published  in  1866,  wrote:  "At  the  mouth  of  this  creek 
there  was  in  1848  a  rough,  weather-beaten  cross  nailed  to  the  tall  stump 
of  a  tree,  on  which  was  written  in  pencil  the  following  words:  Tn 
commemoration  of  the  goodness  of  Almighty  God  in  granting  to  the 
Reverend  F.  R.  Baraga,  Missionary,  a  safe  traverse  from  La  Pointe  to 


COOK  COUNTY  143 

this  place,  August,  1843/  ...  I  have  endeavored  to  perpetuate  this  inci- 
dent, and  the  memory  of  Father  Baraga,  by  naming  the  stream  after 
him."  Bishop  Frederic  Baraga  was  bom  in  Austria,  June  29,  1797;  and 
died  in  Marquette,  Mich.,  January  19,  1868.  He  was  a  Catholic  missionary 
to  the  Indians  in  northern  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  and  northeastern 
Minnesota,  1835-68;  author  of  an  Ojibway  grammar  and  dictionary,  often 
quoted  in  this  book,  and  of  various  religious  works. 

Temperance  river  was  called  Kawimbash  river  by  Norwood,  of  Owen's 
geological  survey,  1848-52,  and  it  retained  that  name,  meaning  "deep 
hollow,"  in  Whittlesey's  report,  1866;  but  it  had  received  its  present 
name  in  Qark's  geological  report,  1864,  and  was  so  mapped  in  1871. 
Qark  explained  the  origin  of  the  name  Temperance  as  follows:  "Most 
of  the  streams  entering  the  lake  on  this  shore,  excepting  when  their 
volumes  are  swollen  by  spring  or  heavy  rain  floods,  are  nearly  or  quite 
dosed  at  their  mouths  by  gravel,  called  the  bar,  thrown  up  by  the 
lake's  waves;  this  stream,  never  having  a  'bar'  at  its  entrance,  to  incom- 
mode and  baffle  the  weary  voyageur  in  securing  a  safe  landing,  is  called 
no  bar  or  Temperance  river."  Its  sources  include  Temperance  lake, 
close  west  of  Brule  lake,  which  has  two  outlets,  the  larger  flowing  east 
to  Brul^  river,  and  the  other  flowing  west  to  Temperance  lake  and  river ; 
Cherokee  lake,  as  it  is  named  on  recent  maps,  called  Ida  Belle  lake  by 
the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey,  in  honor  of  a  daughter  of  Prof. 
Alexander  Winchell,  who  became  the  wife  of  Horace  V.  Winchell; 
Saw  Bill  lake,  named  for  a  species  of  duck;  and  Alton,  Kelso,  and  Little 
Saw  Bill  lakes. 

Below  Temperance  lake,  the  river  of  this  name  flows  through  Jack, 
Kelly,  Peterson,  and  Baker  lakes.  Other  lakes  near  its  course  and  tributary 
to  it  include  Vem  lake,  Pipe  lake,  named  for  its  outline,  Moore,  Marsh, 
and  Anderson  lakes,  on  the  east;  and  Cam  lake.  Odd,  Java,  Smoke,  and 
Burnt  lakes,  on  the  west 

Near  the  west  side  of  the  county,  and  ranging  from  the  northern* 
watershed  down  the  general  slope  toward  Lake  Superior,  are  Mesabi  lake. 
Dent,  Bug,   Poe,  Wind,  Duck,  and  Pie  lakes;   Grace,  Ella,  Beth,  and 
Phoebe  lakes;  and  Frear,  Elbow,  Whitefish,  Twohey,  Four  Mile,  and 
Cedar  lakes. 

Gilfillan  wrote  that,  in  the  Ojibway  language,  "Poplar  river  is  Ga- 
manazadika  zibi,  i.  e.,  place-of-poplars  river."  Qark  in  1864  definitely 
translated  it  as  "Balm  of  Gilead,"  a  variety  of  the  balsam  poplar,  common 
or  frequent  along  rivers  in  northeastern  Minnesota.  Lakes  tributary  to 
this  river  include  Gust  lake,  named  for  Gust  Hagberg,  a  Swede  home- 
steader near  it ;  Long,  Beaver,  Pine,  Rice,  Haberstead,  and  Barker  lakes ; 
Elbow  or  Tait  lake;  and  Lake  Qara,  Big,  and  Sucker  lakes,  the  last 
recently  renamed  Lake  Christine,  in  honor  of  the  daughter  of  William 
J.  Qinch,  county  superintendent  of  schools,  who  has  a  homestead  there. 
East  of  Poplar  river,  mostly  tributary  to  it,  are  the  Twin  lakes,  Mark, 
Pike,  Trout,  Bigsby,  and  Csuibou  lakes,  and  Lake  Agnes. 


144  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Small  streams  next  eastward,  flowing  into  Lake  Superior,  are  named 
False  Poplar,  Spruce,  and  Indian  Camp  rivers. 

Cascade  river,  named  from  its  series  of  beautiful  waterfalls  near  its 
mouth,  has  Cascade  and  Little  Cascade  lakes,  Swamp  lake,  Eagle  and  Zoo 
lakes,  and  the  large  Island  lake.  About  six  miles  above  its  mouth,  it 
receives  an  eastern  tributary  named  Bally  creek  in  honor  of  Samuel 
Bally,  a  member  of  the  board  of  county  commissioners,  who  has  a  home- 
stead there. 

Cut  Face,  Rose  Bush,  and  Fall  rivers,  small  streams  between  Cascade 
river  and  Grand  Marais,  have  no  considerable  lakes. 

"Devil  Track  river,"  wrote  Gilfillan,  "is  Manido  bimadagakowini  zibi, 
meaning  the  spirits  (or  God)  walking-place-on-the-ice  river."  The  Ojib- 
ways  applied  this  name  primarily  to  Devil  Track  lake,  and  thence,  accord- 
ing to  their  custom,  to  the  outflowing  river.  The  name  implies  mystery 
or  something  supernatural  about  the  lake  and  its  winter  covering  of  ice, 
but  without  the  supremely  evil  idea  that  is  given  in  the  white  men's 
translation.  The  wild  rock  gorge  of  the  river  below  this  lake  may  have 
suggested  the  aboriginal  name,  which  was  used  by  Norwood  in  1851 
and  Clark  in  1864.  Its  translation,  as  now  used,  dates  from  the  settle- 
ment of  Grand  Marais  by  Henry  Mayhew  and  others  in  1871. 

Tributary  to  Devil  Track  lake  and  river  are  Swamp  lake  and  creek, 
Gearwater  lake.  Elbow  lake,  named  like  numerous  others,  from  its  out- 
line, and  Monker  lake,  named  for  Claus  C.  Monker,  a  Norwegian  home- 
steader on  its  south  skle,  who  has  been  later  a  fisherman,  living  in  Grand 
Marais. 

Next  eastward  are  Durfee  and  Kimball  creeks,  the  latter  having 
Kimball  and  Pickerel  lakes.  Durfee  creek  was  named  in  honor  of  George 
H.  Durfee,  judge  of  probate  of  this  county.  Kimball  creek  was  named 
by  Thomas  Clark,  in  the  geological  exploration  of  1864,  for  Charles  G. 
Kimball,  a  member  of  the  party,  who  lost  his  life  near  this  stream  by 
drowning  in  Lake  Superior. 

Diarrhoea  river,  which  receives  the  outflow  of  Trout  lake,  has  this 
name  on  Norwood's  map  in  the  Owen  survey,  1851,  referring  to  illness 
thought  due  to  drinking  its  water;  and  it  is  so  named  by  Jewett's  map, 
1911.  The  maps  of  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey  call  it  Green- 
wood river. 

Brule  river,  called  Wisacode  by  Norwood,  is  given  by  Gilfillan  as 
'Wissakode  zibi  or  Half-burnt-^ood  river."  Its  largest  lake,  at  the 
source  of  its  South  branch,  is  Brul6  lake,  which,  as  before  mentioned, 
has  another  outlet  to  Temperance  river.  One  of  the  islands  of  Brule 
lake  is  called  Tamarack  island,  for  an  old  Ojibway,  John  Tamarack, 
who  lived  on  it.  (Brule,  the  French  word  meaning  burnt,  has  two  syl- 
lables, the  second  having  the  English  sound  of  lay ;  but  it  is  often  printed 
without  the  mark  of  accent  on  ;the  e,  so  that  it  is  liable  to  be  mispro- 
nounced in  only  one  syllable,  the  e  becoming  silent.) 


COOK  COUNTY  145 

Juno,  Homer,  Axe,  and  Star  lakes,  the  last  probably  named  for  its 
radiating  arms,  lie  close  south  of  Brule  lake. 

The  Soudi  branch  flows  through  Brule  bay,  which  is  a  separate  small 
lake,  Vernon,  Swan,  and  Lower  Trout  lakes.  It  receives  from  the  north 
the  outflow  of  Echo,  Vance,  and  Little  Trout  lakes;  and  on  the  south 
are  Abita,  Keno,  or  Qubfoot,  Pine,  and  Twin  lakes.  Abita  lake,  on  the 
southern  slope  from  Brule  mountain,  has  the  distinction  of  being  the 
highest  lake  in  Minnesota,  2,048  feet  above  the  sea. 

The  North  branch  of  Brule  river  receives  the  outflow  from  Poplar, 
Winchell,  and  Meeds  lakes,  and  a  large  number  more,  in  the  list  of  lakes 
before  noted  for  the  nwst  northern  townships  of  the  county. 

Below  the  junction  of  its  South  and  North  branches,  Brule  river 
flows  through  Elephant  lake,  as  it  is  named  on  our  maps,  more  commonly 
known  by  the  people  of  the  region  as  Northern  Light  lake;  and  it 
receives  Greenwood  river,  the  outlet  of  Greenwood  lake. 

Little  Brule  river  is  tributary  to  Lake  Superior  about  a  mile  west  of 
the  large  Brule  river. 

Between  Brule  and  Pigeon  rivers,  only  small  streams  enter  Lake 
Superior,  including,  in  order  from  west  to  east.  Flute  Reed  river,  Swamp 
river.  Red  Sand  or  Reservation  river,  and  Hollow  Rock  creek. 

Points,  Bays,  and  Islands  of  Lake  Superior. 

Sugar  Loaf  point  is  two  miles  northeast  from  the  southwest  corner  of 
this    county. 

Gull  and  Bear  islands  gave  the  name  of  Two  Island  river,  as  before 
noted.  At  the  mouth  of  this  river  the  village  of  Saxton  was  platted  by 
Commodore  Saxton,  Lyle  Hutchins,  and  others,  in  August,  1856,  but  was 
abandoned  two  years  later,  as  related  by  Robert  B.  McLean,  of  Duluth. 

Between  Poplar  and  Devil  Track  rivers  are  Caribou  point,  Black 
point.  Lover's  point  and  bay.  Terrace  point  and  Good  Harbor  bay,  and  the 
two  bays  at  Grand  Marais. 

Cow  Tongue  point,  as  named  in  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey,  a 
half  mile  southwest  of  Kimball  creek,  is  more  commonly  known  as 
Scott's  point,  for  Andrew  Jackson  Scott,  who  is  commemorated  also  by 
Hungry  Jack  lake  in  this  county,  before  noted. 

Fishhook  point  is  about  two  miles  and  a  half  southwest  of  the  mouth 
of  Brule  river. 

Chicago  bay,  into  which  the  Flute  Reed  river  flows  at  Hovland  village, 
was  called  Sickle  bay  in  the  Geological  Survey. 

Thence  northeastward  are  Horseshoe  and  Double  bays,  Cannon  Ball 
bay.  Red  Rock  bay.  Red  point,  and  Deronda  bay.  The  last  was  named 
by  Prof  N.  H.  Winchell  in  1880,  from  George  Eliot's  novel,  "Daniel 
Deronda,"  published  in  1876,  read  partly  in  camp  there. 

Two  small  unnamed  islands  lie  about  a  half  mile  and  one  mile  east 
of  Cannon  Ball  bay,  and  Arch  island  is  off  the  southwest  point  inclosing 
Deronda  bay. 


146  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Between  Red  Rock  bay  and  Red  point,  a  craggy  part  of  tiie  shore  is 
called  the  East  Palisades. 

Grand  Portage  island,  which  lies  in  front  of  the  bay  of  this  name,  is 
now  often  called  Ganon  island,  for  Peter  Canon,  who  has  a  supply  store 
on  its  northern  point. 

Hat  point,  in  front  of  Mt  Josephine,  projects  into  the  lake  between 
Grand  Portage  bay  and  Waus-wau-goning  bay.  The  name  of  the  latter 
bay,  considerably  changed  from  its  proper  Ojibway  form,  was  translated 
by  Gilfillan  as  ''making-a-light-by  torches,"  having  reference  to  the 
spearing  of  fish  at  night,  whence  Qark  in  1864  called  it  "Spear-fish  bay," 
a  more  free  translation. 

East  of  this  bay,  within  about  three  miles,  Qark  enumerated  twelve 
islands,  which  he  compared,  in  beauty  of  scenery  and  attractiveness  for 
sportsmen,  with  the  Apostle  Islands  near  La  Pointe,  Wisconsin.  The 
largest  was  named  Governor's  island  by  Dr.  Augustus  H.  Hanchett,  of 
New  York  City,  state  geologist  of  Minnesota  in  1864,  in  honor  of  Gov. 
Stephen  Miller,  and  this  name  is  retained  by  maps;  but  it  is  more  com- 
monly known  as  Susie  island,  a  name  used  by  the  later  state  geologist. 
Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell,  in  1880.  The  next  in  size,  whidi  rises  highest, 
named  by  Qark  as  High  island,  was  called  Lucille  island  by  WinchdL 
Others  of  this  group  were  named  Magnet  and  Syenite  islands  by  dark, 
and  Birch,  Belle  Rose,  Little  Brick,  and  Porcupine  islands,  by  Winchell. 

Northeast  of  these  islands  are  Morrison  and  Qark  bays,  the  latter 
named  by  Hanchett  in  honor  of  his  assistant,  Thomas  Qark,  author  of 
valuable  reports  on  the  geology  of  parts  of  Minnesota,  published  in  1861 
and  1865.  Qark  was  bom  in  Le  Ray,  Jefferson  County,  N.  Y.,  January 
6,  1814;  removed  to  Ohio  about  1835,  settling  in  Maumee;  removed  to 
Toledo  in  1851 ;  was  a  civil  engineer,  and  came  to  Superior,  Wis.,  in 
1854;  surveyed  the  orig^inal  site  of  that  city;  later  surveyed  and  settled 
at  Beaver  Bay,  Minn.,  his  home  when  a  state  senator,  1859-60;  died  in 
Superior,  Wis.,  December  20,  1878. 

Pigeon  point  and  bay,  named  from  the  river,  are  the  most  eastern 
part  of  this  state. 

Mountains  and  Hills. 

In  voyaging  along  the  north  side  of  Lake  Superior,  the  highland  in 
Cook  county  within  one  to  two  or  three  miles  back  from  the  shore  is 
seen  as  a  succession  of  serrate  hills  and  low  mountains,  the  peaks  being 
generally  about  two  miles  apart  for  distances  of  many  miles.  The 
visible  crest  line  thus  presents  a  remarkable  profile,  resembling  the  teedi 
of  an  immense  saw.  Between  Temperance  river  and  Grand  Marais, 
through  nearly  thirty  miles,  a  somewhat  regular  series  of  these  sharp 
outlines  on  the  verge  of  the  interior  plateau  has  received  the  name  of 
Sawteeth  mountains. 

The  most  conspicuous  and  highest  summit  of  this  range,  at  its  west 
end  dose  back  from  the  village  of  Tofte,  was  named  Carlton  peak  in  1848 


COOK  COUNTY  147 

by  Colonel  Charles  Whittlesey,  in  honor  of  Reuben  B.  Carlton,  of  Fond  du 
Lac,  Minnesota,  who  in  that  year  ascended  this  mountain  with  Whittlesey, 
for  the  geological  survey  of  this  region  by  David  Dale  Owen.  He  is 
likewise  honored  by  the  name  of  Carlton  county.  Another  peak  is  called 
Good  Harbor  hill,  rising  about  a  mile  west  of  the  bay  so  named. 

Farquhar  peak,  similarly  situated  near  the  lake  shore  two  miles  west 
of  Reservation  river,  was  named  in  honor  of  an  officer  of  the  U.  S. 
Survey  of  the  Great  Lakes. 

Mt.  Josephine,  at  the  east  side  of  Grand  Portage  bay,  was  named 
for  a  daughter  of  John  Godfrey,  of  Detroit,  Mich.,  who  had  a  trading 
post  at  Grand  Marais  during  several  years,  up  to  1858.  With  a  party  of 
young  people,  she  walked  from  Grandf  Portage  to  the  top  of  this  moun- 
tain, about  the  year  1853. 

Mountain  lake,  on  the  international  boundary,  has  Moose  mountain 
close  south  of  its  east  end,  and  Mt.  Reunion  a  mile  west  of  its  west  end, 
the  latter  being  a  name  given  for  its  being  a  place  of  meeting  for  parties 
on  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey. 

Brule  mountain  is  the  summit  of  the  highland  close  south  of  Lower 
Trout  lake  on  the  Brul^  river. 

Eagle  mountain  is  about  five  miles  southwest  of  Brule  mountain  and 
a  mile  east  of  Eagle  lake. 

Prospect  mountain  is  between  the  west  ends  of  Gunflint  and  Loon 
lakes. 

The  highest  lands  of  Minnesota  are  the  Misquah  hills,  an  east  to  west 
range  south  of  Cross  and  Winchell  lakes,  whose  hilltops  within  four 
miles  east  and  seven  miles  west  of  Misquah  lake  are  about  2,200  feet 
above  the  sea,  the  highest  being  2,230  feet.  The  name  of  the  Misquah 
lake  and  hills  is  the  Ojibway  word  meaning  red,  in  allusion  to  their  red 
granite  rocks  which  are  exposed  in  extensive  outcrops.  Prof.  N.  H. 
Winchell  wrote  in  1881 :  "Misquah  lake  is  flanked  on  the  northeast  and 
east  by  high  brick-red  hills,  some  of  them  being  500  or  600  feet  high. 
The  trees,  being  nearly  all  fire-killed  and  even  consumed,  allow  a  perfect 
view  of  the  rock." 

In  the  west  edge  of  this  county,  the  Mesabi  lake  marks  the  eastern 
extension  of  the  Mesabi  Iron  Range,  which  passes  by  Little  Saganaga 
lake  and  northeast  to  Gunflint  lake.  This  Ojibway  name  was  given  on 
Nicollet's  map  in  1843  as  "Missabay  Heights."  It  has  been  spelled  in 
several  ways,  Mesabi  being  its  form  in  the  report^  and  maps  of  the 
Minnesota  Geological  Survey.  Gilfillan  translated  it  as  "Giant  moun- 
tain," with  an  additional  note:  "'Missabe  is  a  giant  of  immense  size  and 
a  cannibal.  This  is  his  mountain,  consequently  the  highest,  biggest 
mountain."  Winchell  wrote  of  it,  "The  Chippewas  at  Grand  Portage 
represent  Missabe  as  entombed  in  the  hills  near  there,  the  various  hills  rep- 
resenting different  members  of  his  body."  Gunflint  and  North  lakes  lie 
in  the  course  of  continuation  of  the  Mesabi  Range,  about  ten  miles  north 
from  the  range  of  the  Misquah  hills,  with  which  it  is  parallel. 


148  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Superior  National  Forest. 

Large  tracts  in  Cook,  Lake,  and  St  Louis  counties,  exceeding  a 
million  acres,  deemed  chiefly  valuable  for  forestry,  were  set  apart  by  th^ 
United  States  government  as  a  public  reservation  and  named  the  Supe- 
rior National  Forest,  in  a  proclamation  of  President  Roosevelt,  February 
13,  1909,  to  which  subsequent  additions  through  similar  proclamations 
have  been  since  made.  The  initial  recommendation  for  forestry  reser- 
vation of  these  Minnesota  lands  was  addressed  to  the  commissioner  of 
the  U.  S.  General  Land  Office  by  Gen.  C.  C.  Andrews,  chief  forest  fire 
warden  of  this  state,  in  1902 ;  and  the  authority  for  such  national  reserva- 
tions had  been  vested  in  the  President  of  the  United  States  by  an  act 
of   Congress  in   1891. 

Pigeon   River   Indian   Reservation. 

An  area  of  about  65  square  miles,  including  the  trading  post  and 
village  of  Grand  Portage,  the  portage  road  to  Pigeon  river,  and  the  tract 
southward  to  the  lake  shore  and  west  to  Cranberry  Marsh  or  Red  Sand 
river,  now  commonly  known  as  Reservation  river,  was  set  apart  in  a 
treaty  with  the  Ojibways  at  La  Pointe,  Wis.,  September  30,  1854,  for  the 
Grand  Portage  band  of  these  Indians.  In  the  national  census  of  1910  the 
number  of  Indians  in  Cook  county,  nearly  all  of  whom  have  their  homes 
in  this  Reservation,  was  220. 

Glacial  Lakes  Duluth  and  Omimi. 

The  great  glacial  lake  which  was  held  by  the  barrier  of  the  depart- 
ing ice-sheet  in  the  western  part  of  the  basin  of  Lake  Superior,  forming 
beach  lines  at  Duluth  535  and  475  feet  above  Lake  Superior,  was  named 
by  the  present  writer  in  1893  as  the  "Western  Superior  glacial  lake."  In 
1897  and  1898,  respectively,  this  cumbersome  name  was  changed  by  Frank 
B.  Taylor  and  Arthur  H.  Elffman  to  be  Glacial  Lake  Duluth.  The  heights 
of  its  strand  lines  on  Mt.  Josephine  had  been  determined  by  leveling  in 
1891  by  Prof.  Andrew  C.  Lawson,  as  607  and  587  feet  above  Lake  Superior, 
which  is  602  feet  above  the  sea. 

A  somewhat  higher  and  much  smaller  glacial  lake,  existing  for  a 
relatively  short  time  in  the  Pigeon  river  basin  in  eastern  Cook  county  and 
extending  slightly  into  Canada,  was  described  and  named  Lake  Omimi 
by  Elftman,  as  follows  (Am.  Geologist,  vol.  XXI,  p.  104,  Feb.  1898)  : 
"Before  the  ice  had  receded  beyond  mount  Josephine  it  retained  a  lake 
of  about  40  square  miles  in  area  lying  in  the  upper  valley  of  the  present 
Pigeon  river.  The  lake  bed  has  an  altitude  of  1,255  to  1,360  feet  above 
the  sea.    Its  lowest  point  is  thus  about  50  feet  higher  than  the  upper 

stage  of  Lake  Duluth When  the  ice  receded  from  the  vicinity 

of  Grand  Portage,  Lake  Omimi  disappeared.  The  name  Omimi  is  taken 
from  the  Chippewa  name  for  Pigeon  river." 


COTTONWOOD  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  May  23,  1857,  organized  July  29,  1870,  de- 
rived its  name  from  the  Cottonwood  river,  which  touches  the  northeast 
corner  of  Germ^town  in  this  county,  and  to  which  its  northwest  town- 
ships send  their  drainage  by  several  small  streams  flowing  northward. 
It  is  a  translation  of  Waraju,  the  Dakota  or  Sioux  name,  noted  by 
Keating  and  by  Nicollet's  report  and  map.  Keating  wrote  that  the  river 
was  so  named  "from  the  abundance  of  this  tree  on  its  banks,"  and  Nicollet 
stated  that  the  most  important  village  of  the  Sisseton  Sioux  was  on  its 
north  bank  near  its  junction  with  the  Minnesota  river.  The  cotton  wood, 
also  called  the  necklace  poplar,  is  a  fast-growing,  tall  tree,  common  or 
frequent  through  the  south  half  of  this  state  and  along  the  Red  river 
valley,  but  reaches  its  northeastern  limit  on  the  headwaters  of  the  St. 
Croix  and  the  Mississippi.  It  is  extensively  planted  for  shade,  as  a 
shelter  from  winds,  and  for  fuel;  but  at  its  time  of  shedding  the  seed 
from  its  tassels,  which  is  in  the  spring,  "the  cotton  from  the  seeds  proves 
a  source  of  much  annoyance  to  the  tidy  housewife." 

The  Canadian  French  traders  and  voyageurs  gave  to  the  cottonwood 
the  name  Liard,  meaning  a  farthing,  perhaps  in  allusion  to  the  nearly 
worthless  quality  of  its  lumber  for  constructive  uses.  Their  translation 
of  this  Dakota  name  was  "Riviere  aux  Liards,"  as  recorded  by  Keating 
in  1823.  In  the  Journal  of  the  younger  Alexander  Henry,  published  in 
1897  as  edited  by  Dr.  Elliott  Coues,  Henry  wrote  in  1803-04  of  another 
Riviere  aux  Liards,  a  tributary  of  Red  Lake  river,  probably  the  Clear- 
water river,  ivhich  also  has  given  its  name  to  a  county  of  Minnesota. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

The  information  of  origins  and  meanings  of  geographic  names  in  this 
county  was  received  from  **History  of  Cottonwood  and  Watonwan 
Counties,"  John  A.  Brown,  editor,  two  volumes,  1916;  from  "A  History 
of  the  Origin  of  the  Place  Names  connected  with  the  Chicago  and  North- 
western and  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Omaha  Railways,"  by 
W.  H.  Stennett,  202  pages,  1908;  from  S.  A.  Brown,  county  auditor, 
S.  J.  Fering,  register  of  deeds,  and'  A.  W.  Annes,  judge  of  probate,  during 
a  visit  in  Windom,  July,  1916;  and  from  E.  C.  Huntington,  of  St.  Paul, 
who  for  thirty-six  years,  1871-1907,  was  editor  of  the  Windom  Reporter. 

Amboy  township,  organized  October  10,  1872,  was  named  by  settlers 
from  the  eastern  states.  Townships  or  villages  of  this  name  are  in  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  New  Jersey,  and  New  York. 

Amo  township,  organized  March  4,  1873,  was  named  by  W.  H.  Ben- 
bow,  then  clerk  of  court  for  the  county,  to  inculcate  the  principle  of 
friendship,  the  meaning  of  the  name,  in  Latin,  being  "I  love." 

149 


150  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Ann  township,  organized  in  1876,  was  named  in  honor  of  the  wife 
of  Hogan  Anderson,  then  a  member  of  the  board  of  county  commission- 
ers, who  was  a  homestead  farmer  in  this  township,  wagonmaker  and 
merchant 

Bingham  Lake,  a  railway  village,  platted  July  28,  1875,  and  incor- 
porated in  1900,  "was  named  from  a  nearby  lake.  The  lake  was  named 
by  the  United  States  surveyor,  for  Senator  K.  S.  Bingham,  of  Michi- 
gan." Kinsley  Scott  Bingham  was  born  at  Camillus,  N.  Y.,  December 
16,  1808;  removed  to  Michigan  in  1833,  and  engaged  in  farming;  was  a 
representative  in  the  state  legislature^  1836-40;  was  a  member  of  Con- 
gress, 1847-51 ;  governor  of  Michigan,  1855-59 ;  and  a  U.  S.  senator,  1859- 
61,  until  his  death  at  Oak  Grove,  Mich.,  October  5,  1861, 

Carson  township,  organized  in  July,  1871,  bears  the  name  of  the 
widely  known  frontiersman,  trapper,  guide,  soldier,  and  Indian  agent, 
Christopher  (commonly  called  Kit)  Carson  (b.  1809,  d.  1868),  for  whom 
Carson  City,  the  capital  of  Nevada,  was  named. 

Dale  township  was  organized  March  30,  1872,  having  a  name  sug- 
gested by  its  valley  and  lakes.  "When  first  discovered,  there  was  a  beau- 
tiful chain  of  lakes  in  the  central  eastern  portion  of  this  township. 
These  were  filled  in  their  season  with  wild  fowls,  and  many  fish  abounded 
in  their  waters.  With  the  settlement  of  the  country,  several  of  these 
lakes  have  been  drained  out  and  are  now  utilized  for  pasture  and  field 
purposes  by  the  farmers  who  own  the  property.  Some  of  the  lakes  are 
still  intact  and  are  highly  prized  by  the  citizens  of  the  county." 

Delft,  established  as  a  railway  station  in  1892  and  platted  as  a  village 
June  18,  1902,  "was  named  for  the  city  in  Holland  by  John  Bartsch  and 
Henry  Wieb.  Previous  to  adopting  this  name  the  village  was  called 
Wilhelmine,  a  female  name  common  in  Holland." 

Delton  township,  organized  September  17,  1872,  bears  the  same  name 
with  villages  in  Virginia,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin. 

Germantown,  organized  January  24,  1874,  received  its  name  from  its 
many  German  settlers,  who  were  a  large  majority  of  the  early  home- 
steaders in  this  township. 

Great  Bend  township,  organized  August  27,  1870,  "derives  its  name 
from  the  big  bend  in  the  Des  Moines  river  within  its  borders."  More 
exactly  the  apex  of  this  bend  or  angle  of  the  river  is  in  the  extreme 
southeast  comer  of  Amo  township. 

Highwater,  organized  January  24,  1874,  is  named  for  Highwater  creek, 
which  crosses  the  east  half  of  this  township,  so  called  by  the  pioneer 
settlers  "on  account  of  its  quick  rising  after  a  rain  storm." 

Jeffers,  platted  and  incorporated  in  September,  1899,  was  named  in 
honor  of  George  Jeffers,  now  a  wealthy  landowner,  from  whose  home- 
stead a  part  of  the  site  of  this  railway  village  was  purchased. 

Lakeside  township,  organized  August,  1870,  received  its  name  for 
its  several  fine  lakes,  including  Bingham,  Clear,  Cottonwood,  Fish,  and 


COTTONWOOD  COUNTY  151 

Wolf  lakes,  of  which  the  third  and  fifth  nearly  adjoin  the  village  of 
Windom.    Fish  lake  has  been  renamed  Willow  lake. 

Midway  township  was  organized  March  16,  1895,  having  previously 
been  a  part  of  Mountain  Lake  township.  Its  name  refers  to  its  situation 
on  the  railway,  equidistant  between  St.  Paul  and  Sioux  City. 

Mountain  Lake  township,  organized  May  6,  1871,  derived  its  name 
from  its  former  large  lake,  in  which  a  mountain-like  island  rose  with 
steep  shores  and  nearly  flat  top  about  40  feet  above  the  lake,  having 
similar  outlines  to  those  of  the  surrounding  bluffs  and  general  upland. 
"The  upper  part  of  the  island  was  covered  with  trees,  which  could  be  seen 
for  many  miles.    This  spot  served  as  a  landmark  and  a  guide  for  many 

of  the  early  settlers The  lake,  as  known  to  pioneers,  is  no  more ; 

it  has  long  since  been  drained,  and  grains  and  grasses  grow  in  its  old  bed" 
Mountain  Lake  village,  on  the  railway  in  the  south  ^ge  of  Midway 
township,  was  platted  May  25,  1872. 

Rose  Hill  township,  organized  April  5,  1879,  received  its  name  for  its 
plentiful  wild  prairie  roses  and  its  low  ridges  and  hills  of  morainic  drift 

Selma  township,  organized  April  4,  1874,  bears  a  Scandinavian  fem- 
inine Christian  name,  given  to  the  first  child  born  there. 

SouTHBROOK,  the  most  southwestern  township  of  this  county,  was 
organized  in  July,  1871.  It  is  crossed  by  the  Des  Moines  river,  to  which 
this  township  sends  small  brooks  and  rivulets  from  springs  in  the  river 
bluffs. 

Springfield,  organized  August  27,  1870,  was  named  by  settlers  from 
eastern  states,  many  of  which  have  townships,  villages,  and  cities  of  this 
name. 

Storden  township,  organized  March  30,  1875,  was  first  named  Norsk, 
for  its  many  Norwegian  pioneers,  but  later  was  renamed  in  honor  of  its 
first  settler,  Nels  Storden,  an  immigrant  from  Norway.  Its  railway 
village  of  the  same  name  was  platted  July  8,  1903. 

Westbrook,  organized  September  17,  1870,  was  named  for  the  west 
branch  of  Highwater  creek,  which  flows  across  the  southeast  part  of  this 
township.    The  railway  village  of  Westbrook  was  platted  June  8,  1900. 

Windom,  the  county  seat,  was  platted  June  20,  1871 ;  was  incorporated 
as  a  village  in  the  spring  of  1875,  the  first  ordinance  of  the  village  council 
being  passed  April  15;  and  was  re-incorporated  September  9,  1884.  It 
was  named  by  Gen.  Judson  W.  Bishop,  of  St  Paul,  chief  engineer  for 
construction  of  the  railway,  in  honor  of  the  distinguished  statesman, 
William  Windom,  of  Winona.  He  was  born  in  Belmont  county,  Ohio, 
May  10,  1827;  and  died  in  New  York  City,  January  29,  1891.  He  received 
an  academic  education,  and  studied  law ;  came  to  Winona,  Minn.,  in  1855 ; 
was  a  representative  in  Congress,  1859-69,  and  U.  S.  senator,  1871-81 ;  was 
a  member  of  the  cabinet  of  President  Garfield,  in  1881,  as  secretary  of 
the  treasury,  but  retired  on  the  accession  of  President  Arthur ;  was  again 
U.  S.  senator,  1881-83.    On  the  inauguration  of  President  Harrison,  in 


152  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

1889,  Windom  was  re-appointed  secretary  of  the  treasury,  and  held  the 
office  till  his  death,  which  was  very  sudden,  from  heart  failure,  just  after 
making  an  address  at  a  banquet  of  the  New  York  Board  of  Trade.  A 
volume  entitled  "Memorial  Tributes  to  the  Character  and  Public  Services 
of  William  Windom,  together  with  his  Last  Address,"  161  pages,  was 
printed  in  1891. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Little  Cottonwood  river,  and  several  streams  flowing  to  the  Cotton- 
wood, namely.  Mound,  Dry,  and  High  water  creeks,  and  Dutch  Charley's 
creek,  receive  the  drainage  of  the  northern  part  of  this  county.  Mound 
creek  was  named  in  allusion  to  the  massive  ridge  of  quartzite,  mainly 
overspread  with  the  glacial  drift,  whence  it  derives  its  highest  springs; 
Dry  creek,  because  it  becomes  very  small,  or  is  wholly  dried  up,  in  severe 
droughts;  Highwater  creek,  as  before  noted,  for  its  sudden  rise  after 
heavy  rains ;  and  Dutch  Charlesr's  creek,  for  the  earliest  settler  of  Cotton- 
wood county,  Charles  Zierke,  whom  the  government  surveyors  found 
living  beside  that  creek  when  they  first  came^ 

Several  lakes  have  been  sufficiently  noticed  in  the  foregoing  list  of 
townships,  including  Mountain  lake,  Bingham  lake,  and  others  in  Lake- 
side. 

The  former  Glen  and  Summit  lakes,  about  two  miles  east  of  Windom, 
are  now  dry. 

Bartsch,  Eagle,  Long,  Maiden,  and  Rat  lakes  are  in  Carson,  the  first 
named  for  Jacob  Bartsch,  a  farmer  there,  and  the  last  named  for  its 
muskrats. 

Swan,  Lenhart's,  and  Wilson's  lakes,  in  Dale,  have  been  drained.  The 
latter  two,  named  respectively  for  John  F.  Lenhart  and  Samuel  Wilson, 
settlers  adjoining  them,  and  a  third,  named  Harder's  lake,  were  formerly 
called  "the  Three  lakes."  Arnold's  lake,  close  north  of  these,  was  named 
for  a  settler  who  came  from  Owatonna. 

Lake  Augusta  was  named  in  honor  of  the  wife  of  a  pioneer  home- 
steader adjoining  it.  The  outlet,  Harvey  creek,  flowing  south  to  the 
Des  Moines,  commemorates  Harvey  Carey,  like  the  lake  to  be  later 
mentioned. 

Hurricane  lake,  now  drained,  had  reference  to  a  tornado  which  pros- 
trated trees  on  its  shore. 

Bean  lake  was  named  for  an  early  settler,  Joseph  F.  Bean,  who  had 
remarkable  talent  of  memorizing  what  he  read. 

Double  lakes,  a  mile  south  of  the  last,  are  separated  only  by  space 
for  a  road. 

Berry  and  Carey  lakes  were  named  for  settlers  near  them,  the  latter 
for  the  brothers  Harvey,  John,  and  Ralph  Carey. 

Long  lake,  a  half  mile  west  of  Carey  lake,  was  formerly  called  the 
Twin  lakes. 


COTTONWOOD  COUNTY  153 

Oaks  lake  may  have  been  so  called  by  the  early  surveyors,  to  preserve 
the  name,  "Lake  of  the  Oaks/'  which  Allen  in  1844  applied  to  Lake 
Shetek,  sixteen  miles  distant  up  the  Des  Moines  river. 

The  two  String  lakes,  in  the  southwest  part  of  the  Great  Bend  town- 
ship, are  named  for  their  lying  in  a  single  winding  string-like  course, 
scarcely  separated. 

Gear  lake,  crossed  by  the  south  line  of  Southbrook,  like  another  Gear 
lake  before  mentioned  in  Lakeside,  refers  to  the  clearness  of  its  deep 
water,  not  covered  by  grass  and  water  plants  as  many  shallow  lakes. 

Talcott  lake,  through  which  the  Des  Moines  river  flows  in  Southbrook, 
is  one  of  the  names  placed  by  Nicollet  on  his  map,  published  in  1843, 
to  commemorate  friends  and  prominent  men  of  science.  His  generous 
use  of  such  names  in  the  upper  Mississippi  region  has  been  noticed  in  the 
chapter  of  Cass  county.  On  and  near  the  upper  Des  Moines  river,  he  has 
Lakes  Talcott  and  Graham,  of  which  the  latter  is  preserved  as  the  name 
of  two  lakes  and  a  township  in  Nobles  county.  These  names  are  in  honor 
of  Andrew  Talcott  and  James  D.  Graham,  who,  with  James  Renwick, 
were  commissioners,  in  1840-43,  to  survey  the  disputed  northeastern 
boundary  of  the  United  States.  Andrew  Talcott  was  born  in  Glastonbury, 
Conn.,  April  20,  1797;  and  died  in  Richmond,  Va.,  April  22,  1883.  He  was 
graduated  at  the  U.  S.  Military  Academy,  West  Point,  1818 ;  was  engineer 
on  many  government  works ;  was  astronomer  in  surveys  of  the  boundary 
between  Ohio  and  Michigan,  1828-35 ;  was  chief  engineer  of  railway  work 
in  Mexico  during  the  civil  war. 

The  upper  Des  Moines  river  and  adjoining  region  were  explored  in 
1844  by  Captain  James  Allen  and  a  company  of  dragoons,  of  which  he 
presented  a  report  and  journal,  published  by  Congress  in  1846.  Morainic 
drift  hills  along  the  southwest  side  of  the  Des  Moines,  two  to  five  miles 

northwest  of  Windom,  were  noted  by  Allen  as  "high  bluffs, 150 

or  200  feet  above  the  general  level  of  the  country."  These  are  named 
Blue  Mounds  in  the  description  and  map  of  this  county  by  the  Minnesota 
Geological  Survey  (vol.  I,  1884,  chapter  XVI). 


CROW  WING  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  May  23,  1857,  organized  March  3,  1870,  was 
named  for  the  Crow  Wing  river,  translated  from  the  Ojibway  name, 
spelled  Kagiwigwan  on  Nicollet's  map,  and  Gagagiwigwuni  by  Gilfillan, 
who  would  preferably  translate  it,  following  Schoolcraft,  as  "Raven 
Feather  river." 

Pike  in  1805  and  Schoolcraft  in  1820  and  1832  used  the  French  name 
of  this  river,  de  G)rbeau,  meaning  of  the  Raven;  but  its  more  complete 
name  in  French  was  riviere  i  TAile  de  Corbeau,  river  of  the  Wing  of  the 
Raven,  as  translated  by  the  voyageurs  and  traders  from  the  Ojibway 
name.  In  the  "Summary  Narrative,"  published  in  1855,  Schoolcraft 
referred  to  the  somewhat  erroneous  English  translation.  Crow  Wing 
river,  as  follows:  "The  Indian  name  of  this  river  is  Kagiwegwon,  or 
Raven's-wing  or  Quill,  which  is  accurately  translated  by  the  term  Aile 
de  Corbeau,  but  it  is  improperly  called  Crow-wing.  The  Chippewa  term 
for  crow  is  andaig,  and  the  French,  corneille, — ^terms  which  are  appro- 
priately applied  to  another  stream,  nearer  St  Anthony's  Falls." 

Mrs.  E.  Steele  Peake,  widow  of  an  early  missionary  in  1856-61  to  the 
Ojibways  at  the  mission  stations  of  Gull  Lake  and  Crow  Wing,  wrote 
in  a  letter  of  her  reminiscences  in  the  Brainerd  Dispatch,  Septemiber  22, 
1911,  concerning  the  aborigmal  name  of  Crow  Wing  river:  'Where  the 
river  joins  the  Mississippi  was  an  island  in  the  shape  of  a  crow's  wing, 
which  gave  the  name  to  the  river  and  the  town." 

The  North  American  crow,  common  or  frequent  throughout  the  United 
States,  has  been  confounded  in  this  name  with  "his  regal  cousin,  the 
raven,"  a  larger  bird,  not  addicted  like  the  crow  to  uprooting  and  eating 
newly  planted  com.  Our  American  variety  of  the  raven  inhabits  the 
country  "from  Arctic  regions  to  Guatemala,  but  local  and  not  common 
east  of  the  Mississippi  river."  Dr.  P.  L.  Hatch,  in  "Notes  on  the  Birds 
of  Minnesota,"  1892,  wrote  of  ravens,  '*they  are  rarely  seen  in  the  vicinity 
of  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul,  but  from  Big  Stone  lake  to  the  British 
Possessions  they  seem  to  become  increasingly  common."  Probably  be- 
cause the  early  English-speaking  travelers  and  employees  in  the  fur  trade 
came  from  the  eastern  states,  where  the  raven  is  practically  unknown, 
they  anglicized  this  name  as  Crow  Wing,  used  only  once  by  Schoolcraft 
in  his  "Narrative"  of  1832,  and  criticized  by  him  in  1855,  as  before  cited. 

After  the  adoption  of  the  English  name  of  the  river,  and  twenty 
years  or  more  before  the  county  was  outlined  and  named,  the  import- 
ant Crow  Wing  trading  post  was  established  on  the  east  side  of  the 
Mississippi  opposite  to  the  mouth  of  the  Crow  Wing  river  north  of  its 
island,  and  was  surrounded  by  a  village  of  the  Ojibways  and  white  men. 

154 


CROW  WING  COUNTY  155 

The  earliest  record  of  a  trader  near  this  site  is  in  the  list  of  licenses 
grranted  in  1826  by  Lawrence  Taliaferro,  as  Indian  agent,  one  of  these 
being  for  "Benjamin  F.  Baker,  Crow  Island,  Upper  Mississippi/'  in 
the  service  of  the  American  Fur  Company  (Minnesota  in  Three  Cen- 
turies, 1908,  vol.  II,  p.  54).  Among  the  traders  licensed  in  1833-34, 
none  is  mentioned  for  that  post,  which  seems  to  have  been  abandoned. 

There  was  again  a  station  of  the  fur  traders  at  Crow  Wing,  facing 
the  northern  mouth  of  the  Crow  Wing  river,  "about  the  year  1837," 
and  it  became  a  few  years  later  "the  center  of  Indian  trading  for  all 
the  upper  country,  the  general  supply  store  being  located  at  this  place. 
...  In  1866,  the  settlement  and  village  contained  seven  families  of 
whites,  and  about  twenty-three  of  half-breeds  and  Chippewas,  with  a 
large  transient  population.  .  .  .  The  entire  population  was,  from  reliable 
estimates,  about  six  hundred.  .  .  .  Crow  Wing,  as  a  business  point,  has 
passed  away,  most  of  the  buildings  having  been  removed  to  Brainerd, 
and  the  remaining  ones  destroyed."  (History  of  the  Upper  Mississippi 
Valley,  1881,  pages  637-a) 

By  an  act  of  the  Legislature,  February  18,  1887,  which  was  ratified 
by  the  vote  of  the  people  of  the  county  at  the  next  general  election,  the 
part  of  Crow  Wing  county  west  of  the  Mississippi  river,  previously 
bdonging  to  Cass  county,  was  annexed  to  this  county,  somewhat  more 
than  doubling  its  former  area. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  for  this  county  was  gathered  from  "History  of  the 
Upper  Mississippi  Valley,"  1881,  pages  637-659;  from  Anton  Mahlum, 
city  clerk  of  Brainerd,  Samuel  R.  Adair,  county  treasurer,  and  William 
H.  Andrews,  during  my  visit  in  Brainerd,  May,  1916;  and  by  corre- 
spondence from  John  F.  Smart,  former  county  auditor,  now  of  Fair- 
hope,  Alabama. 

Allen  township  was  named  for  its  first  settler,  a  pioneer  from  the 
eastern  states. 

Barrows  railway  station  and  the  Barrows  mine,  five  miles  southwest 
from  Brainerd,  are  named  for  W.  A.  Barrows,  Jr.,  of  Brainerd. 

Baxter  township  commemorates  the  late  Luther  Loren  Baxter,  of 
Fergus  Falls,  who  during  many  years  was  an  attorney  for  the  Northern 
Pacific  company.  He  was  bom  in  Cornwall,  Vt.,  in  1832;  was  admitted 
to  practice  law,  1854,  and  soon  afterward  settled  in  Minnesota;  enlisted 
in  the  Fourth  Minnesota  regiment,  served  at  first  as  captain,  and  was 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  colonel ;  was  a  state  senator  in  1865-8  and  1870-6, 
and  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1869  and  1877-82;  was  judge 
in  the  Seventh  judicial  district,  1885-1911.  He  died  at  his  home  in  Fer- 
gus Falls,  May  22,  1915. 

Bay  Lake  township  received  its  name  from  its  large  lake,  which 
was  so  named  for  its  irregular  outline,  with  many  bays,  projecting 
points,  and  islands.     Its  Ojibway  name,  like  that  of  another  lake  of 


156  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

similar  form  in  Aitkin  county,  was  Sisabagama  (accented  on  the  third 
syllable),  meaning,  according  tp  Gilfillan,  "Every-which-way  lake,  or 
the  lake  which  has  arms  running  in  all  directions." 

Brainerd,  founded  in  1870,  when  the  Northern  Pacific  survey  deter- 
mined that  the  crossing  of  the  Mississippi  should  be  here,  was  organized 
as  a  city  March  6,  1873;  but  an  act  of  the  legislature,  January  11,  1876, 
substituted  a  township  government.  It  again  became  a  city  November 
19,  1881.  "The  name  first  suggested  for'  this  place  was  *Ogemaqua,'  in 
honor  of  Emma  Beaulieu,  a  woman  of  rare  personal  beauty,  to  whom 
the  Indians  gave  the  name  mentioned,  meaning  Queen,  or  Chief  Woman. 
The  present  name  was  chosen  in  honor  of  the  wife  of  J.  Gregory  Smith, 
first  president  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  Mrs.  Smith's 
family  name  being  Brainerd."   (History,  Upper  Mississippi  Valley,  p.  640.) 

Mrs.  Ann  Eliza  (Brainerd)  Smith  was  a  daughter  of  Hon.  Lawrence 
Brainerd,  of  St.  Albans,  Vt.  Her  husband,  John  Gregory  Smith  (b. 
1818,  d.  1891),  also  a  resident  of  St.  Albans,  honored  by  the  name  of 
Gregory  Park  or  Square  in  Brainerd  and  by  Gregory  station  and  village 
in  Morrison  county,  was  governor  of  Vermont,  1863-65;  was  presidient 
of  the  Northern  Pacific  company,  1866-72;  and  later  was  president  of 
the  Vermont  Central  railroad  until  his  death.  Mrs.  Smith  was  author 
of  novels,  books  of  travel,  and  other  works.  Her  father,  Lawrence 
Brainerd  (b.  1794,  d.  1870),  was  a  director  of  the  St.  Albans  Steamboat 
Company,  a  builder  and  officer  of  railroads  in  northern  Vermont,  a 
noted  abolitionist,  and  was  a  United  States  senator,  1854-5. 

Portraits  of  Mrs.  Smith,  for  whom  Brainerd  was  named,  and  her 
father,  with  extended  biographic  notices,  are  in  "The  Genealogy  of  the 
Brainerd-Brainard  Family  in  America"  (three  volumes,  published  in 
1908),  The  biographic  sketch  of  her  is  in  Volume  II,  pages  162-3,  from 
which  the  following  is  quoted :  "She  was  president  of  the  board  of 
managers  for  the  Vermont  woman's  ex<hibit  at  the  Centennial  Exposi- 
tion of  1876,  at  Philadelphia,  and  was  frequently  chosen  in  similar  capaci- 
ties as  a  representative  Vermont  woman.  Her  patriotic  feeling  was 
shown  in  the  Civil  War,  at  the  rebel  raid  on  St.  Albans  and  the  plunder 
of  the  banks,  Oct.  19,  1864,  and  a  commission  as  Lieutenant-Colonel 
was  issued  to  her  for  gallantry  and  efficient  service  on  that  occasion  by 
Adjutant-General  P.  T.  Washburn."  She  was,  born  in  St.  Albans,  Vt., 
October  7,  1819 ;  and  died  at  her  home  there,  January  6,  1905. 

The  Northern  Pacific  railroad  ran  its  first  train  to  Brainerd,  a  special 
train,  on  March  11,  1871;  and  its  regular  passenger  service  began  the 
next  September.  The  first  passenger  train  from  the  Twin  Cities,  by  way 
of  Sauk  Rapids,  came  November  1,  1877.  Crow  Wing,  the  former  trad- 
ing post,  was  soon  superseded  by  Brainerd,  which  the  Ojibways  named 
"Oski-odena,  New  Town." 

Crosby,  a  mining  village  on  the  Cuyuna  Iron  Range  branch  of  the 
"Soo"  railway,  was  named  in  honor  of  George  H.  Crosby,  of  Duluth, 
manager  of  iron  mines. 


CROW  WING  COUNTY  157 

Crow  Wing  township  was  named  for  its  including  the  site  of  the 
early  Indian  village  and  trading  post  of  this  name. 

CuYUNA,  a  mining  village,  and  the  iron  ore  range  on  which  it  is  situ- 
ated, were  named  by  and  for  Cuyler  Adams,  of  Deerwood,  prospector, 
discoverer,  and  mine  owner  of  this  range,  and  for  his  dog,  Una,  who 
accompanied  him  in  many  lone  prospecting  trips,  so  that  he  affirmed 
that  the  discovery  of  workable  ore  deposits  here  should  be  credited 
jointly  to  himself  and  the  valuable  aid  of  Una.  This  iron  range  is  more 
fully  noticed  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 

Daggett  Brook  township  was  named  for  the  brook  flowing  through 
it  meanderingly  to  the  Nokasippi  river,  which  brook  commemorates 
Benjamin  F.  Daggett,  an  early  lumberman  who  cut  much  pine  timber 
there.  He  was  born  in  Wiscasset,  Maine,  September  31,  1821 ;  and  died 
in  Sauk  Rapids,  Minn.,  August  31,  1901.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1855, 
settling  at  Elk  River,  and  engaged  in  lumbering;  afterward  resided  at 
Little  Falls  and  Sauk  Rapids.  (Another  Daggett  brook,  likewise  named 
for  this  lumberman,  is  in  the  north  part  of  this  county,  outflowing 
from  Crooked  lake,  through  Mitchell,  Eagle,  Daggett,  and  Pine  lakes, 
to  Cross  lake.) 

Davenport  township  has  the  name  given  by  Nicollet  to  Cross  lake 
on  the  Pine  river,  in  honor  of  Colonel  William  Davenport  of  the  U. 
S.  Army.  He  was  a  captain  in  the  war  of  1812;  was  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  lieutenant  colonel,  1832,  and  colonel,  1842;  was  brevetted  colonel 
in  1838,  for  meritorious  service  in  Florida;  resigned  from  the  army,  1850; 
died  April  12,  1858.  He  was  commandant  of  Fort  Snelling  in  the  summer 
of  1836,  and  there  became  acquainted  with  Nicollet. 

Dean  Lake  township,  with  its  Dean  lake  and  brook  and  the  Upper 
Dean  lake,  bears  the  name  of  a  pioneer  lumberman,  Joseph  Dean  of  Min- 
neapolis, who  cut  its  pine  timber. 

Deerwood  railway  station  and  village,  at  first  called  Withington,  *'after 
the  maiden  name  of  the  wife  of  one  of  the  railway  officials,"  was 
renamed  for  the  plentiful  deer  in  its  woods,  the  name  being  thence  given 
to  the  township.  This  change  was  made  to  avoid  confusion  with  Worth- 
ington,  Nobles  county. 

Emily  township  was  named  from  Emily  lake,  one  of  its  group  of 
four  lakes  having  feminine  names,  Anna,  Emily,  Marj',  and  Ruth;  but 
whether  they  were  of  one  family,,  or  what  was  the  surname  of  any  of 
them,  has  not  been  ascertained.  Probably  they  were  the  daughters  or 
wives  of  early  lumbermen. 

Fairfield  township  has  a  euphonious  name,  perhaps  derived  from  the 
township  and  large  manufacturing  village  of  this  name  in  Maine.  It  is 
the  name  of  counties,  villages,  and  cities,  in  many  states. 

Fort  Ripley,  a  railway  village  near  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi, 
bears  the  name  of  the  fort  formerly  on  the  opposite  bank  of  this  river, 
from  1849  to  1878,  named  in  honor  of  Gen.  Eleazar  W.  Ripley,  more 
fully  noticed  in  the  chapter  for  Morrison  county. 


158  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Garrison  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Oscar  E.  Garrison,  a  land 
surveyor  and  civil  engineer,  who  was  born  at  Fort  Ann,  N.  Y.,  July  21, 
1825,  and  died  on  his  farm  in  this  township,  April  2,  1886.  He  came  to 
Minnesota  in  1850;  explored  Lake  Minnetonka,  and  platted  the  village 
of  Wayzata  in  1854;  removed  to  St.  Qoud  in  1860;  served  in  the  Northern 
Rangers  against  the  Sioux,  1862;  was  agent  of  the  United  States  Census, 
Department  of  Forestry,  1880,  examining  the  region  of  the  Upper  Mis- 
sissippi, on  which  his  observations  were  published  (49  pages)  in  the 
Ninth  Annual  Report  of  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey.  He  took  his 
homestead  claim  here  in  1882. 

Ideal  township,  a  fancy  name,  was  originally  called  White  Fish,  for 
the  large  lake  of  that  name  comprised  almost  wholly  in  this  township. 

Ironton  is  a  mining  and  railway  village  of  the  Cuyuna  Iron  Range. 

Jenkins  railway  village  and  township  were  named  for  George  W. 
Jenkins,  a  lumberman,  who  platted  this  village. 

Klondike  township  was  named  from  the  Klondike  placer-gold  region 
in  the  Yukon  district,  Canada,  discovered  in  1896,  which  took  its  name 
from  the  Klondike  river  (Indian,  "Throndiuk,  river  full  of  fish").  This 
name  was  adopted  in  allusion  to  the  large  and  valuable  deposits  of  iron 
ore  in  the  Cuyuna  Iron  Range,  discovered  by  Cu3der  Adams  in  1895  as 
the  result  of  magnetic  surveys,  several  of  the  best  mining  locations  being 
in  this  township. 

Lake  Edward  township  bears  the  name  of  the  largest  one  of  its  num- 
erous lakes,  given  at  the  time  of  the  government  survey,  probably  in  honor 
of  a  member  of  the  surveying  party. 

Leaks,  a  station  of  the  Minnesota  International  railway  about  three 
miles  north  of  Brainerd,  was  named  for  John  Leaks,  a  locomotive  en- 
gineer of  that  railway. 

Little  Pine  township  received  its  name  for  its  lake  and  river  of  this 
name,  tributary  to  the  Pine  river. 

Long  Lake  township  received  its  name  from  its  Long  lake,  through 
which  the  Nokay  river  flows.  Our  name  of  this  lake  is  a  direct  transla- 
tion of  its  Ojibway  name,  "Gaginogumag  sagaiigun." 

Manganese,  a  mining  village  in  Wolford,  has  reference  to  its  man- 
ganiferous  iron  ores,  which  have  from  1  to  25  per  cent  of  manganese. 
These  mines  are  on  the  northern  border  of  this  Cuyuna  district. 

Maple  Grove  township  has  groves  of  sugar  maple,  interspersed  with 
the  other  timber  of  its  general  forest. 

Merrifield,  a  railway  village  seven  miles  north  of  Brainerd,  bears 
the  name  of  the  former  owner  of  its  site. 

Mission  township  and  its  two  Mission  lakes  were  named  for  an  early 
missionary  station  there  for  the  Ojibways. 

NoKAY  Lake  township  has  the  lake  of  this  name  on  the  upper  course 
and  near  the  head  of  the  Nokasippi  or  Nokay  river,  as  it  is  spelled  on 
Nicollet's  map.     This  was  the  name  of  an  Ojibway  chief  and  noted 


CROW  WING  COUNTY  159 

hunter,  whom  the  "Handbook  of  Anierican  Indians"  (Part  II,  1910) 
mentions  as  follows:  "A  chief  of  the  western  Chippewa  in  the  latter 
half  of  the  18th  century,  who  attained  some  celebrity  as  a  leader  and 
hunter.  The  chief  incident  of  his  life  relates  to  the  war  between  the 
Mdewakanton  [Sioux]  and  the  Chippewa  for  possession  of  the  banks 
of  the  upper  Mississippi.  In  1769,  the  year  following  the  battle  of  Crow 
Wing,  Minn., — ^where  the  Chippewa,  though  maintaining  their  ground, 
were  hampered  by  inferior  numbers, — ^they  determined  to  renew  the 
attack  on  the  Mdewakanton  with  a  larger  force.  This  war  party,  under 
the  leadership  of  Noka,  referred  to  as  'Old  Noka'  evidently  on  account 
of  his  advanced  age,  attacked  Shakopee's  village  on  Minnesota  river,  the 
result  being  a  drawn  battle,  the  Chippewa  retiring  to  their  own  territory 
without  inflicting  material  damage  on  their  enemy."  Warren,  the  his- 
torian of  the  Ojibways,  wrote  of  Nokay's  skill  in  hunting  (M.  H.  S. 
Collections,  vol.  V,  page  266). 

Oak  Lawn  township  was  named  for  its  "oak  openings,"  tracts  occu- 
pied by  scattered  oak  trees  with  small  grassed  spaces,  somewhat  like 
a  prairie,  interrupting  the  general  woodland. 

Outing,  a  small  village  on  the  southeastern  shore  of  Crooked  lake, 
in  Emily  township,  was  platted  in  1907  by  William  H.  Andrews,  as  a  place 
for  "outings"  or  short  visits  of  dty  people  and  sportsmen  'in  summer. 

Pelican  township  was  named  for  its  large  Pelican  lake,  which  was 
first  mapped  by  the  United  States  government  surveys,  about  the  year 
1860.  The  remarkably  fine  group  of  large  lakes  m  this  county  between 
Gull  and  White  Fish  lakes  was  represented  on  earlier  maps  only  by  several 
quite  small  lakes,  one  of  which  is  named  Lake  Taliaferro  on  Nicollet's 
map,  in  honor  of  the  Indian  agent  at  Mendota.  As  Pelican  lake  is  the 
largest  in  this  group,  it  may  be  thought  to  be  the  one  so  designated.  It 
is  translated  from  the  Ojibway  name,  given  by  Gilfillan  as  "Shede  sagaii- 
gun.  Pelican  lake."  Longfellow's  "Song  of  Hiawatha"  spells  this  Ojibway 
word  Shada,  which  has  the  long  a  sound  in  both  syllables.  The  pelican, 
our  largest  bird  species  of  Minnesota,  was  formerly  common  or  frequent 
here^  as  attested  by  its  name  given  to  rivers,  lakes,  and  islands. 

Pequot,  a  railway  village  in  Sibley  township,  bears  the  name  of  a 
former  tribe  of  Algonquian  Indians  in  eastern  Connecticut  This  village 
is  the  sole  instance  of  its  use  as  a  geographic  name. 

Perry  Lake  township  and  its  lake  of  this  name  probably  commemo- 
rate an  early  lumberman. 

Platte  Lake  township  received  its  name  from  the  lake  at  its  southeast 
comer,  the  central  and  largest  one  of  a  group  of  several  lakes  forming 
the  headwaters  of  Platte  river.  This  is  a  French  word,  meaning  flat 
The  translation  of  the  Ojibway  name  of  this  lake,  according  to  Gilfillan, 
is  "Hump-as-made-by-a-man-lying-on-his-hands-and-knees." 

Rabbit  Lake  township  similarly  took  the  name  of  its  Rabbit  lake,  the 
head  of  Rabbit  river,  a  short  tributary  of  the  Mississippi.    The  Ojibway 


160  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

name  of  the  lake,  given  by  Gilfillan,  is  "Wabozo-wakaiiguni  sagaiigiin, 
Rabbit's-House  lake." 

RiVERTON  is  a  mining  village  of  the  Cujruna  Iron  Range,  beside  Little 
Rabbit  lake,  through  which  Rabbit  river  flows  just  before  joining  the 
Mississippi. 

Roosevelt  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Theodore  Roosevelt,  then 
President  of  the  United  States. 

Ross  Lake  township  and  its  lake  of  this  name  are  in  honor  of  a  pio- 
neer lumberman  there. 

St.  Mathias  township  was  named  from  its  Catholic  church,  dedi- 
cated to  Christ's  disciple  who  was  chosen  by  lot  to  be  one  of  the  twelve 
apostles,  in  the  place  of  Judas. 

Sibley  township  was  named  from  its  Lake  Sibley,  a  name  given  by 
Nicollet  on  his  map,  published  in  1843,  in  honor  of  Henry  Hastings 
Sibley,  for  whom  also  Sibley  county  was  named. 

Smiley  township,  having  a  common  English  or  American  surname, 
remains  of  undetermined  derivation. 

Timothy  township,  at  first  called  Clover,  received  the  popular  name 
of  a  European  species  of  grass,  much  cultivated  in  Europe  and  America 
for  hay,  more  commonly  called  "herd's  grass"  in  New  England.  The 
seed  of  this  grass  was  carried  from  New  England  to  Maryland  about 
the  year  1720  by  Timothy  Hanson,  whence  came  its  prevalent  American 
name.  It  grows  very  luxuriantly  under  cultivation  in  Minnesota,  and 
frequently  is  adventive  by  roadsides  and  about  logging  camps. 

Watertown  has  many  lakes  and  the  Pine  river.  In  the  central  part 
of  the  west  half  of  this  township,  the  river  flows  into  the  west  side  of 
Cross  lake  and  out  from  its  east  side,  whence  the  lake  received  this 
name.  It  is  translated  from  the  Ojibway  name,  meaning  the  same  as 
Lake  Bemidji,  "the  lake  which  the  river  flows  directly  across."  This 
lake  was  named  Lake  Davenport  on  Nicollet's  map  in  honor  of  Col. 
William  Davenport,  of  the  United  States  Array,  for  whom  also  a  town- 
ship in  this  county  is  named. 

WoLFORD  township,  recently  organized,  comprising  the  mining  villages 
of  Manganese  and  Iron  Mountain,  at  the  north  edge  of  the  Cuyuna 
Range,  was  named  in  honor  of  Robert  Wolford,  a  pioneer  farmer  there. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  preceding  pages  have  noticed  a  number  of  the  lakes  and  streams, 
including  several  given  by  Nicollet's  map.  Other  names  thus  applied 
by  Nicollet  are  Lake  Plympton,  now  called  Rush  lake,  crossed  by  the  Pine 
river  between  White  Fish  and  Cross  lakes,  in  honor  of  Captain  Joseph 
Plympton  (b.  1787,  d.  1860),  who  was  commandant  of  Fort  Snelling  in 
the  years  1837-41;  Lake  Gratiot  now  Upper  Hay  lake,  a  mile  east  of 
Jenkins  village,  named  in  honor  of  Gen.  Charles  Gratiot  (b.  1788,  d. 
1855),  in  charge  of  the  U.  S.  engineer  bureau  and  inspector  of  West 
Point;  Manido  river,  the  Ojibway  name  for  Spirit  river,  outflowing  from 


CROW  WING  COUNTY  161 

Lake  Gratiot  to  White  Fish  lake;  Lake  Stewart,  in  Timothy  township, 
for  the  gallant  U.  S.  naval  officer,  Charles  Stewart  (b.  1778,  d.  1869), 
famous  for  his  services  in  the  War  of  1812 ;  and  Lakes  Enke  and  Chanche, 
now  respectively  Lakes  Washburn  and  Roosevelt,  the  former  wholly  and 
the  latter  partly  in  Cass  county,  tributary  by  the  northern  Daggett  brook 
to  Cross  lake. 

White  Fish  lake  is  called  Kadikomeg  lake  on  Nicollet's  map,  an 
attempt  to  record  the  aboriginal  name,  which  Gilfillan  noted  more  fully, 
''Ga-atikumegokag,  the  place  of  white  fish."  Another  lake  of  this  name, 
much  smaller,  is  crossed  by  the  east  line  of  Roosevelt,  lying  partly  in 
Mille  Lacs  county.  The  next  lake  across  which  Pine  river  passes  below 
White  Fish,  named  Lake  Plympton  by  Nicollet,  now  known  as  Rush  lake, 
is  called  by  the  Ojibways  "Shingwakosagibid  sagaiigun,  the  lake  of  the 
pine  sticking  up  out  of  the  water."  Their  name  of  the  Pine  river,  which 
we  retain  in  translation,  is  "Shingwako  zibi;"  and  Serpent  lake  is  trans- 
lated from  "Newe  sagaiigun,  Blow-Snake  lake."  Pike  or  Borden  lake, 
named  for  David  S.  Borden,  an  adjacent  settler,  in  sections  10,  11,  and  14, 
Garrison,  is  called  "Wijiwi  sagaiigun,  the  lake  full  of  muskrat  houses 
or  beavers,"  as  noted  by  Gilfillan;  and  the  aboriginal  name  for  Round 
lake,  through  which  the  Nokay  river  flows  in  sections  11  and  14,  St. 
Mathias,  is  Nokay  lake.       * 

The  larger  Round  lake,  in  Smiley  township,  is  translated  from  **Ga- 
wawiiegumag ;"  and  the  Ojibway  name  of  Lake  Hubert,  recorded  by 
Gilfillan,  is  "Ga-manominiganjikag  sagaiigun.  Wild  Rice  lake."  Gull 
lake,  a-  translation  from  the  Ojibways,  has  been  more  fully  noticed  in 
the  chapter  on  Cass  county. 

In  this  region  of  plentiful  game,  finny,  furred,  and  feathered,  Lake 
Hubert,  and  the  adjoining  village  of  this  name,  may  well  have  been  so 
designated  in  honor  of  St.  Hubert,  the  patron  saint  of  huntsmen. 

An  enumeration  of  other  lakes  and  streams  in  this  county,  not  pre- 
viously noticed,  is  as  follows,  taking  first  the  part  southeast  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, in  the  order  of  townships  from  south  to  north,  and  of  ranges  from 
east  to  west,  and  next,  in  the  same  order,  taking  the  northwest  part  of 
the  county.  Personal  names,  applied  to  many  of  these  lakes,  are  nearly 
all  commemorative  of  early  settlers. 

Camp  or  Crooked  lake,  Erskine,  Mud,  Bass,  Rock,  and  Bull  Dog 
lakes,  in  Roosevelt  township. 

Sebie,  Mud,  and  Crow  Wing  (or  Thunder)  lakes,  in  Fort  Ripley 
township. 

Qearwater,  Miller,  Barber,  and  Holt  lakes,  in  Garrison. 

Chrysler  lake,  in  Maple  Grove  township. 

Russell  lake,  in  Long  Lake  township,  named  for  T.  P.  Russell,  a  settler 
Ijiere  at  its  north  side. 

Buffalo  creek,  in  Crow  Wing  township,  named  for  buffaloes  frequent- 
ing its  oak  openings  and  small  tracts  of  prairie. 


162  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

A  second  and  larger  Qearwater  lake,  Crooked,  Hanks,  Portage,  Rice, 
and  Birch  lakes,  and  a  small  Long  lake  in  section  1,  Bay  Lake  township. 

Eagle,  Pointon,  Perch,  and  Grave  lakes,  in  Nokay  Lake  township. 

Sand  and  Whitely  creeks,  and  Rice  or  Whitely  lake,  in  Oak  Lawn 
township. 

Agate  and  Black  lakes,  Cedar  creek  and  lake,  Shine  or  Shirt  lake,  and 
Hamlet,  Portage,  Rice,  and  Reno  lakes,  in  Deerwood.  The  last  was 
named  in  honor  of  Gen.  Jesse  Lee  Reno,  who  served  in  the  Mexican  and 
Civil  wars,  and  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  South  Mountain,  Md.,  Septem- 
ber 14,  1862. 

Manomin,  Portage,  Blackhoof,  Little  Rabbit,  Rice,  Crocker,  and 
Wolf  lakes,  in  Klondike. 

Black  Bear  lake,  in  Wolford 

Little  Sand  or  Perch  lake,  White  Sand,  Red  Sand,  and  Whipple  lakes, 
in  Baxter,  the  first  township  northwest  of  the  Mississippi.  The  last  is 
in  honor  of  the  eminent  Bishop  Whipple,  under  whose  direction  and 
care  were  many  missions  for  the  Ojibways  and  Sioux  in  Minnesota*, 
including  the  Ojibway  mission  of  St  Columba,  at  Gull  lake  in  the  adjoin- 
ing edge  of  Cass  county. 

Long  lake,  Love  lake,  Bass,  Carp  (or  Mud),  Gilbert,  and  Hartley 
lakes,  in  Township  134,  Range  28  and  the  east  half  of  Range  29. 

The  two  Mission  lakes,  named  for  an  early  Ojibway  mission  near 
them,  and  Perch,  Silver,  Bass,  Fawn,  Spider,  and  Camel  lakes,  in  T. 
135  N.,  R.  27  W. 

Markee*  and  Twin  lakes,  Garden,  Rice,  Qark,  Hubert  and  Little 
Hubert,  Gladstone,  Mollie,  and  Crystal  lakes,  in  Lake  Edward  township. 

CuUen,  Fawn,  Fish  Trap  (or  Marsh),  Roy,  and  Mud  lakes,  in  Smiley. 

Nelson  lake,  in  Dean  .Lake  township,  named  for  H.  M.  Nelson,  the 
first  settler  having  a  family  in  that  township. 

Bass  lake,  Fool's  lake,  and  Indian  Jack  lake,  in  Perry  Lake  township. 

Lizard,  Sandbar  or  Horseshoe,  and  Bass  lakes,  and  the  northern  Mis- 
sion lake,  in  Mission  township. 

Long,  Schaffer,  and  Upper  Cullen  lakes,  in  Pelican. 

Twin  lakes,  in  Sibley. 

Island,  Mud,  and  Rogers  lakes,  Upper  Dean  lake.  Twin  lakes,  and 
Stark  lake,  in  Ross  Lake  township. 

Grass,  Pickerel,  and  Trout  lakes,  Dolney's  lake,  Mud,  Bass,  and  Adney 
lakes,  in  Fairfield. 

Ox,  Island,  Hen,  Rush,  Daggett,  Bass,  Goodrich,  O'Brien,  Phelps, 
Big  Bird,  and  Greer  lakes,  in  Watertown,  with  two  Pine  lakes,  one  in  the 
northeast  part  of  this  township,  and  the  other  in  sections  32  to  34. 

Big  Trout,  Mud,  Bertha,  Pig,  Star,  Bass,  Kimball,  Long,  and  Gear 
lakes,  in  White  Fish' township. 

The  Upper  and  Lower  Hay  lakes,  and  Nelson  lake,  in  Jenkins. 

Little  Pine  lake.  Low's,  Duck,  Moulton,  Bass,  and  Birchdale  lakes, 
in  Little  Pine  township. 


CROW  WING  COUNTY  163 

Papoose,  Butterfield,  and  Dahler  lakes,  in  Emily  township. 

Mitchell,  Eagle,  East  Fox,  West  Fox,  and  Kego  lakes,  in  Allen,  the 
last  an  Ojibway  name  meaning  Fish  lake. 

Jale,  Big  Rice,  and  Swede  lakes,  in  the  east  half  of  T.  138,  R.  29,  the 
most  northwestern  in  this  county. 

The  Mississippi  has  "an  island  in  the  mouth  of  Pine  river,  well  tim- 
bered with  pine,  elm,  and  maple,"  as  described  by  Schoolcraft  in  1820; 
French  rapids,  shown  on  Nicollet's  map,  about  three  miles  north  of 
Brainerd;  Whitely  island,  close  below  these  rapids;  three  or  four  other 
small  islands  between  this  and  the  Crow  Wing  river;  and,  at  the  mouth 
of  that  river,  Crow  Wing  island.  Another  name  sometimes  given  to 
the  last  is  McArthur's  island,  as  on  the  map  accompanying  the  chapter 
for  this  county  by  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey,  having  reference 
to  a  Scotch  trader,  named  McArthur. 

In  the  vicinity  of  the  Buffalo  creek  and  the  mouth  of  Crow  Wing 
river,  as  Schoolcraft  wrote  in  1820,  "the  Buffalo  Plains  commence  and 
continue  downward,  on  both  banks  of  the  river,  to  the  falls  of  St.  An- 
thony. These  plains  are  elevated  about  sixty  feet  above  the  summer 
level  of  the  water,  and  consist  of  a  sandy  alluvion  covered  with  rank 
grass  and  occasional  clumps  of  the  dwarf  black  oak." 

Ahrens  Hill. 

A  remarkable  series  of  gravel  knolls  and  ridges,  called  kames  and 
eskers,  borders  the  Mississippi  on  its  northwest  side  at  Brainerd  and  for 
a  distance  of  about  three  miles  up  the  river.  Its  culmination  and  north- 
em  end  is  a  hill  that  rises  about  175  feet  above  both  the  river  on  its 
east  side  and  Gilbert  lake  on  the  west,  being  100  feet  higher  than  the 
mainly  level  sand  and  gravel  plain  of  the  river  valley.  This  high  and 
short  esker  was  named  Ahrens  hill  in  the  Geological  Survey  (vol.  IV, 
1899,  p.  73),  for  Charles  Ahrens,  the  farmer  of  its  southern  and  western 
slopes. 

CuYUNA  Iron  Range. 

The  origin  of  the  name  of  this  belt  of  iron  ore  deposits  has  been 
noted  for  the  village  of  Cuyuna,  in  the  preceding  list;  and  the  date  of 
discovery  of  these  beds  of  ore  by  Cuyler  Adams,  in  1895,  was  mentioned 
in  the  notice  of  Klondike  township.  Mining  and  shipments  of  ore  from 
the  Cuyuna  range  were  begun  in  the  years  1910  to  1912,  and  its  production 
in  1915  was  1,137,043  tons.  The  explored  extent  of  this  iron  ore  district 
lying  in  Crow  Wing  and  Aitkin  counties,  has  no  prominent  hills  or  high- 
lands, and  only  very  scanty  outcrops  of  the  bed-rocks,  which,  with  the 
ore  deposits,  are  deeply  covered  by  the  glacial  and  modified  drift 


DAKOTA  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  October  27,  1849,  was  named  for  the  Dakota 
people,  meaning  an  alliance  or  league.  Under  this  name  are  comprised  a 
large  number  of  allied  and  affiliated  Indian  tribes,  who  originally  occu- 
pied large  parts  of  Minnesota  and  adjoining  states.  The  Dakotas  called 
themselves  collectively  by  this  name,  but  they  have  been  more  frequently 
termdd  Sioux,  this  being  a  contraction  from  the  appellation,  Nadouesioux, 
given  with  various  spellings  by  Radisson,  Hennepin,  and  LaSalle,  a  term 
evidently  of  Algonquian  origin,  adopted  by  the  early  French  explorers 
and  traders. 

Radisson  says  (Voyages,  p.  154)  that  the  first  part  of  the  Algonquian 
name,  for  the  Dakotas,  spelled,  in  the  translation  of  his  manuscript, 
Nadoneceronons,  means  an  enemy. 

Rev.  Moses  N.  Adams  informed  me  that  the  Dakotas  dislike  to  be 
called  Sioux,  and  much  prefer  their  own  collective  name,  borne  by  this 
county,  which  implies  friendship  or  even  brotherly  love. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

For  the  origins  and  meanings  of  the  names  of  townships,  villages, 
post  offices,  lakes,  creeks,  etc,  in  this  county,  we  are  mainly  indebted  to 
its  three  published  histories:  "Dakota  County,  Its  Past  and  Present, 
Geographical,  Statistical,  and  Historical,"  by  W.  H.  Mitchell,  1868,  in 
162  pages;  "History  of  Dakota  County,"  by  George  E.  Warner  and 
Charles  M.  Foote,  1881,  551  pages ;  and  "History  of  Dakota  and  Goodhue 
Counties,"  edited  by  Franklyn  Curtiss-Wedge,  1910,  two  volumes,  the 
first,  in  662  pages,  being  for  this  county.  Especial  acknowledgment  is 
due  to  the  excellent  contribution  by  the  late  Judge  Francis  M.  Crosby, 
of  Hastings,  entitled  "Origin  of  Names,"  in  the  third  of  these  historie.s, 
pages  131-133. 

BuRNsviLLE  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  for  its 
first  settlers,  "William  Burns  and  family,  consisting  ot  his  wife  and 
five  sons,  who  emigrated  from  Canada  the  same  year  [1853].  He  settled 
in  the  northwest  corner  of  the  town,  near  the  mouth  of  Credit  river." 

Castle  Rock  township,  organized  April  6,  1858,  was  named,  on  the 
suggestion  of  Peter  Ayotte,  an  early  settler,  for  a  former  well  known 
landmark,  a  pillar  or  towerlike  remnant,  spared  by  erosion  and  weath- 
ering, of  "a  sandstone  rock  which  stands  alone  on  a  prairie  in  that  town. 
This  geologic  formation,  before  its  partial  disintegration  which  left  it  in 
ruins, .  closely  resembled  a  castle."  Nicollet's  Report,  in  1843,  gives  its 
Sioux  name,  Inyan  bosndata.  Standing  Rock,  which,  he  adds,  on  the 
authority  of  LeSueur  in  the  year  1700,  was  the  Sioux  name  also  of  the 

164 


DAKOTA  COUNTY  165 

Cannon  river.  Prof.  N.  H.  WincheH's  Final  Report  of  the  Geology  of 
Minnesota,  in  Volume  II,  1888,  has  a  good  description  and  historical 
notice  of  Castle  Rock,  pages  76-79  in  Chapter  III,  "The  Geology  of  Dakota 
County,"  with  three  pictures  of  it  from  photographs.  Its  height  was  44 
feet  above  the  ground  at  its  base,  and  70  feet  above  an  adjoining  hollow ; 
but  the  slender  pillar,  19  feet  high,  forming  its  upper  part,  has  since 
fallen,  about  twenty  years  ago. 

Douglass  township,  established  April  6,  1858,  "was  named  for  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  the  statesman."  Its  earliest  spelling  by  the  petitioners  and 
county  commissioners  has  been  continued,  though  differing  from  that 
of  the  great  politician  and  orator.  He  is  also  commemorated  by  the  name 
of  Douglas  county. 

Eagan  township,  established  by  legislative  act  in  1861,  was  named  for 
Patrick  Eagan,  one  of  the  first  settlers,  coming  in  1853. 

Empise  was  named  "for  Empire,  N.  Y.,  the  native  place  of  Mrs.  A.  J. 
Irving,  wife  of  one  of  the  early  settlers."  This  township,  organized  and 
named  May  11,  1858,  had  previously  an  early  neighborhood  settlement, 
which  in  1854-55  was  called  "Empire  City." 

Eureka  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  has  for  its  name  a  (jreek 
word,  meaning  "I  have  found  it !"  This  was  the  exclamation  of  members 
of  its  "Indiana  settlement,"  when  they  first  arrived,  in  1854. 

Green  VALE,  also  organized  May  11,  1858,  "probably  received  its  name 
from  the  name  given  to  a  Sunday  School  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
township.  The  name  was  doubtless  inspired  by  the  picturesque  surround- 
ings." 

Hampton  township,  established  April  6,  1858,  was  named  for  "a  place 
of  that  name  in  Connecticut.  This  appellation  was  suggested  by  Nathan- 
iel Martin  in  honor  of  his  birthplace." 

Hastings,  the  county  seat,  platted  as  a  village  in  1853  and.  incorporated 
as  a  city  in  1857,  was  named  in  drawing  lots  by  its  several  proprietors, 
this  second  name  of  Henry  Hastings  Sibley,  later  governor  and  general, 
having  been  his  preference.  "Judge  Solomon  Sibley,  of  Detroit,  Mich., 
studied  law  in  Massachusetts  with  Judge  Hastings,  whom  he  greatly 
admired,  and  gave  this  name  to  his  son." 

Before  the  platting  and  naming  of  Hastings,  this  locality  had  been 
known  during  thirty-three  years  as  Oliver's  Grove,  often  ignorantly 
changed  to  "Olive  Grove."  The  origin  of  this  early  name  is  told  by 
John  H.  Case  in  Volume  XV  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  Col- 
lections (page  377) f  as  follows:  "The  site  of  the  city  of  Hastings  was 
earlier  called  Oliver's  Grove,  after  Lieut.  William  G.  Oliver,  who  was 
ascending  the  Mississippi  with  one  or  more  keel  boats  in  the  autumn  of 
1819,  but  was  prevented  from  going  farther  by  a  gorge  of  ice  in  the  bend 
of  the  river  opposite  to  this  city.  The  boat  or  boats  were  probably  run 
up  to  the  outlet  of  Lake  Rebecca,  to  be  out  of  the  way  of  the  ice  when  the 
river  broke  up  in  the  spring  of  1820.    Lieutenant  Oliver  was  on  his  way 


166  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

from  Fort  Crawford  at  Prairie  du  Chien  with  supplies  for  the  soldiers 
at  St  Peter's  camp,  now  Fort  Snelling,  among  whom  was  the  first  settler 
of  Hastings,  Joe  Brown,  the  drummer  boy,  then  about  fourteen  years  of 
age." 

Inver  Grove  township  was  organized  May  11,  1858.  "The  town  was 
named  by  John  McGroarty,  the  name  Inver  Grove  being  given  in  recollec- 
tion of  a  place  in  Ireland  from  which  many  of  the  settlers  came." 

Lakeville  township,  established  April  6,  1858,  was  named  for  Prairie 
lake,  which  about  fifteen  years  ago  was  renamed  Lake  Marion,  as  is 
further  noted  in  the  list  of  lakes  of  this  county. 

Lebanon  received  its  name  "from  Lebanon,  N.  H.,  from  whence  came 
Charles  and  H.  J.  Verrill,  early  settlers."    It  was  organized  May  11,  1858. 

Marsh  AN  township  "was  named  for  Michael  Marsh  and  his  wife, 
Ann."  Previous  to  its  organization.  May  11,  1858,  it  was  known  as  Bell- 
wood,  for  Joseph  Bell,  who  took  a  claim  there  in  1854.  It  then  had  a 
small  village,  called  Bellwood,  with  the  first  hotel  of  the  township  and 
a  Catholic  church ;  but  the  site  "soon  was  abandoned." 

Mendota  township,  established  in  April,  1858,  bears  a  Sioux  name, 
meaning  the  mouth  of  a  river,  because  here  the  Minnesota  river  joins 
the  Mississippi.  This  name  was  adopted  about  the  year  1837,  instead 
of  the  former  name  St  Peter's,  taken  from  the  St.  Peter's  or  Minnesota 
river,  as  applied  to  the  early  settlement  of  traders  opposite  to  Fort 
Snelling. 

NiNiNGER  township,  established  April  6,  1858,  was  named  from  its 
earlier  "city  of  Nininger,"  which  was  platted  in  the  summer  of  1856  by 
John  Nininger,  for  whom  it  was  named.  He  resided  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  was  a  brother-in-law  of  Governor  Ramsey.  In  the  winter  of  1857-8 
an  act  of  incorporation  of  this  city  was  passed  by  the  legislature.  In  the 
spring  of  1858,  when  it  reached  the  height  of  its  progress,  Nininger 
"numbered  nearly,  if  not  quite,  1,000  inhabitants,  and  cast  a  vote  of 
over  200." 

Randolph  township,  established  April  20,  1858,  was  then  named 
Richmond,  "in  honor  of  John  Richmond,  the  first  settler  within  its  limits." 
This  name  was  rejected  September  18,  1858,  because  there  was  another 
Richmond  in  the  state;  and  on  October  30,  1858,  it  was  renamed  Ran- 
dolph. "D.  B.  Hulburt,  an  admirer  of  the  Virginia  statesman,  John 
Randjolph,  suggested  that  his  distinguished  surname  be  given  to  the 
town."  This  was  "Randolph  of  Roanoke,"  as  he  was  generalb'^  known, 
who  was  bom  in  1773  and  died  in  1833. 

Ravenna  township,  separated  from  the  city  of  Hastings  on  June  5, 
1860,  was  named  by  Albert  T.  Norton  for  Ravenna,  Ohio,  where  his 
wife  had  taught  school. 

Rosemount  township,  established  April  6,  1858,  "was  named  by  Andrew 
Keegan  and  Hugh  Derham,  from  the  picturesque  village  of  that  name 
in  Ireland." 


DAKOTA  COUNTY  167 

SaoTA  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  '*was  named  from  Sciola, 
Ohio,"  as  related  by  Judge  Loren  W.  Collins. 

South  St.  Paul  and  West  St.  Paul,  recently  incorporated  cities, 
received  their  names  from  their  situation  "in  reference  to  the  city  of  St 
Paul."  West  St  Paul  township  was  organized  May  11,  1858,  and  by  an 
act  of  the  legislature,  approved  March  9,  1874,  its  village  (as  it  then  was) 
of  this  name  was  detached  from  Dakota  county  and  annexed  to  Ramsey 
county,  being  made  a  part  of  St  Paul. 

Vermillion  township,  organized  April  5,  1858,  was  named  for  tlic 
Vermillion  river,  which  bears  a  translation  of  its  Sioux  nam<*,  as  more 
fully  noted  on  an  ensuing  page. 

Waterfchu)  township,  established  April  20,  1858,  "received  its  name 
from  the  fact  that  there  was  a  ford  across  Cannon  river  within  Its  'imits. 
This  ford  was  on  the  old  trail  from  St  Paul  to  Faribault" 

The  villages  of  this  county,  in  alphabetic  order,  are  as  follows : 

Castle  Rock,  a  railway  station,  named  like  its  township. 

Etter,  a  railway  station,  named  for  Alexander  Etter,  its  first  merchant 

Farmington,  incorporated  in  March,  1872,  an  impoitant  railway  town, 
"received  its  name  from  its  situation  in  a  district  exclusively  devoted 
to  farming." 

Hampton  and  Inver  Grove  railway  villages  are  named  for  their  town- 
ships. 

Laxeville,  named  like  the  township,  received  its  first  settlers  in  1855. 
When  the  Hastings  and  EHikota  railroad  was  built  there,  in  1869,  a  new 
village  site  was  chosen,  at  first  called  Fairfield.  This  village  superseded 
die  older  Lakeville  and  adopted  that  name  in  its  act  of  incorporation, 
March  28,  187a 

Mendota^  the  oldest  village  of  this  county,  gave  its  name  to  a  town- 
ship. 

MiESViLLE  was  named  for  John  Mies,  by  whom  this  little  village  was 
founded  in  1874. 

New  Trier  was  "named  for  Trier,  Germany,  the  native  place  of  some 
of  the  early  settlers  in  this  vicinity." 

NicoLS^  a  railway  station,  was  named  for  John  Nicols,  of  St  Paul, 
the  former  owner  of  its  site. 

NiNiNGER,  once  a  large  village  and  incorporated  as  a  city,  but  now 
nearly  deserted,  has  been  noticed  for  the  township  named  from  it. 

Pine  Bend,  on  the  Mississippi  river,  includes  the  site  of  the  village  of 
a  Sioux  chief,  Medicine  Bottle,  who  seceded  from  the  Kaposia  village. 
"It  is  named  from  the  fact  that  pine  trees  stand  on  the  banks  where  the 
river  makes  a  decided  turn  or  bend."  This  is  also  the  name  of  a  station, 
on  the  upland,  of  the  new  St.  Paul  Southern  electric  railway. 

Randolph,  a  railway  junction,  is  named  for  its  township. 

Rich  Valley  was  named  "from  its  location  in  a  valley  of  very  fertile 
soil." 


168  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

RosEMOUNT,  Vermillion,  and  Waterforo^  railway  villages,  bear  the 
names  of  their  townships. 

Wescott,  a  railway  station,  usually  spelled  Westcott,  was  named  for 
a  prominent  pioneer,  James  Wescott,  who  settled  there  in  1854.  He  served 
in  the  First  Minnesota  heavy  artillery  in  the  civil  war;  was  treasurer  of 
this  county  in  1860-62 ;  and  died  on  his  farm  near  this  station,  May  4,  1910. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Three  small  lakes  lying  within  about  a  mile  south  of  the  village  of 
Mendota  were  named  lakes  Charlotte,  Lucy,  and  Abigail,  on  the  earliest  map 
of  the  vicinity  of  Fort  St.  Anthony,  which  in  1825  was  renamed  Fort  SncU- 
ing.  These  names  were  given  respectively  in  honor  of  the  wives  of  Lieu- 
tenant Nathan  Gark,  Captain  George  Gooding,  and  Colonel  Josiah  Sndl- 
ing.  None  of  these  names  is  retained  at  the  present  time.  The  most 
northeastern  and  largest  of  these  lakes  now  bears  the  name  Lake  Augusta, 
which  was  given  to  it  probably  more  than  fifty  years  ago,  in  honor  of 
the  eldest  daughter  of  General  Sibley,  who  later  was  married  to  Captain 
Douglas  Pope.  It  is  the  lake  that  was  named  at  first  for  Mrs.  Abigail 
Snelling. 

Chub  lake  and  Chub  creek  (or  river)  are  named  for  the  well  known 
species  of  fish,  being  quite  probably  a  translation  of  their  Sioux  name. 

Of  Crystal  lake  it  is  said  that  "when  the  government  survey  was  made, 
its  clear  shining  surface  led  to  the  adoption  of  its  present  name." 

Black  Dog  lake,  four  miles  long,  lying  in  the  bottomland  of  the  Min- 
nesota river  and  occupving  a  deserted  rivercourse,  was  named  for  a 
Sioux,  Black  Dog,  whose  village  was  near  the  northeast  end  of  the  lake. 

For  the  Big  Foot  creek  and  Black  Hawk  lake,  apparently  translations 
of  ancient  Sioux  names,  no  definite  information  has  been  obtained. 

Lake  Farquhar  was  named  for  John  Farquhar,  a  pioneer  who  took 
a  land  claim  near  it. 

Lake  Isabel,  adjoining  the  east  edge  of  the  city  of  Hastings,  was 
stated  by  the  late  Gen.  William  G.  Le  Due  to  be  named  in  honor  of  a 
daughter  of  Alexis  Bailly,  one  of  the  original  proprietors  of  this  city. 
The  Sioux  name  of  this  lake  was  Mahto-waukan,  Spirit  Bear. 

Keegan  lake  was  named  for  Andrew  Keegan,  owner  of  a  farm  there. 

Le  May  lake  commemorates  settlers  who  lived  near  it. 

Lake  Earley  was  named  for  "William  Earley,  who  settled  on  its 
western  shore  in  1854." 

Orchard  lake,  formerly  called  Round  lake,  is  named  for  the  native 
crab-apple  trees  and  wild  plum  trees  in  the  woods  of  its  vicinity. 

Lake  Marion,  formerly  Prairie  lake,  was  renamed  in  honor  of  the 
late  Marion  W.  Savage,  owner  of  the  famous  trotting  stallion  "Dan 
Patch,"  and  president  of  the  Minneapolis,  St  Paul,  Rochester  and 
Dubuque  Electric  Traction  Company,  whose  railway  line,  (commonly 
called  "the  Dan  Patch  line")  passed  by  the  east  side  of  this  lake.    At  its 


'  DAKOTA  COUNTY  169 

southeast  end  are  summer  homes  and  pavilions  for  picnics  and  for  boat- 
ing, fishing,  and  hunting  parties,  this  station  being  named  Antlers  Park, 
in  allusion  to  the  former  abundance  of  deer  in  this  region.  For  the  vil- 
lage named  Savage,  beside  the  Minnesota  river  in  Scott  county,  a  bio- 
graphic sketch  of  Mr.  Savage  is  presented,  with  a  note  of  the  recently 
changed  ownership  of  this  electric  railway. 

Rice  lake,  on  the  west  line  of  Eureka  apd  crossed  by  the  line  dividing 
Dakota  and  Scott  counties,  was  named  for  its  wild  rice. 

Lake  Rebecca,  nearly  two  miles  long,  lying  close  northwest  of  Hast- 
ings, occupying  a  deserted  channel  of  the  Mississippi,  was  named,  as  told 
by  General  Le  Due,  for  Miss  Rebecca  Allison,  daughter  of  a  pioneer 
settler,  who,  after  a  few  years  residence  here,  returned  to  the  east. 

Spring  lake,  on  the  southwest  edge  of  the  Mississippi  bottomland,  is 
named  for  its  contiguous  springs  issuing  from  the  base  of  the  river  bluffs. 

Sunfish  lake  is  named  for  this  species  of  fish;  and  Pickerel  lake, 
similarly,  for  its  large  and  abundant  pickerel. 

Rogers  lake  commemorates  E.  G.  Rogers,  who  owned  a  farm  on  its 
southeast  side. 

Vermillion  lake,  quite  small,  in  section  18,  Eureka,  and  the  Vermillion 
river,  which  lies  wholly  in  this  county,  are  a  translation,  first  published 
by  Nicollet's  map  in  1843,  of  the  Sioux  name.  Its  origin  was  probably 
from  the  very  bright  red  and  orange-colored  ocher  obtained  by  the  Sioux 
in  seams  of  Chimney  Rock  in  Marshan,  more  fully  noted  on  an  ensuing 
page,  and  of  other  outcrops  of  the  St.  Peter  sandstone  beside  or  near 
the  course  of  this  river. 

The  lower  parts  of  the  Vermillion  river,  after  it  reaches  the  Mississippi 
bottomland,  there  flowing  in  two  streams  northwestward  and  southeast- 
ward to  the  great  river,  are  named  the  Vermillion  slough.  Four  miles 
southeast  of  Hastings,  this  slough  or  river  is  joined  by  the  Truedell 
slough,  named  for  a  pioneer  settler,  by  which  it  is  connected  with  the  Mis- 
sissippi. Thence  southeastward  these  two  rivers,  the  Vermillion  and  the 
Mississippi,  inclose  Prairie  island,  ten  miles  long,  lying  mostly  in  Good- 
hue county,  under  which  its  name  and  history  arc  again  noticed.  The 
name  is  a  translation  of  its  earliest  French  name,  Isle  Pelee,  called  by 
Radisson  ''the  first  landing  isle."  (Minnesota  Historical  Society  G)llec- 
tions,  vol.  X,  part  II,  pages  4^-473,  with  a  map  oi  this  island.) 

Dudley  island,  in  the  Mississippi  between  one  and  two  miles  cast 
of  Hastings,  belonging  to  Ravenna  township,  was  named,  as  stated  by 
Irving  Todd,  Sr.,  for  John  Dudley,  of  Prescott,  Wis.,  owner  of  sawmills 
adjoining  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Croix  river. 

Belanger  island,  in  Nininger,  south  of  the  main  channel  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, bears  the  name  of  the  first  settler  in  this  township,  a  French 
Canadian,  whose  cabin  was  on  the  bank  of  Spring  lake. 

Pike  island,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Minnesota  river  and  adjoining  Men- 
dota,  is  named  for  Lieutenant  (later  General)  Zebulon  M.  Pike,  who  in 
1805  on  the  west  end  of  this  island  made  a  treaty  with  the  Sioux  for  the 


170  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

tract  on  which  Fort  St  Anthony,  later  named  Fort  Snelling,  was  built 
in  the  years  1820-24. 

Kaposia,  the  village  of  the  successive  hereditary  Sioux  chiefs,  named 
Little  Crow,  was  situated  from  1837  to  1862  on  a  part  of  the  site  of  South 
Park,  a  suburb  of  South  St  Paul.  Previously,  in  the  time  of  the  expedi- 
tions of  Pike,  Cass,  and  Long,  this  movable  Indian  village  had  been  located 
on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Mississippi,  as  noted  for  Ramsey  county.  In  1820 
and  till  1833  or  later,  it  was  on  the  upper  side  of  Dayton's  blu£F,  within 
the  area  of  St  Paul;  but  earlier,  during  a  dozen  years  or  more,  in  1805 
and  in  1817,  it  was  at  the  Grand  Marais,  one  to  two  miles  south  of  that 
bluff.  *  Concerning  the  name  Keating  wrote:  "The  Indians  designate 
this  band  by  the  name  of  Kapoja,  whidi  implies  that  they  are  deemed 
lighter  and  more  active  than  the  rest  of  the  nation."  (Minnesota  in 
Three  Centuries,  vol.  I,  pages  366-368.) 

Hills  and  Rocks. 

««. 

The  hilly  tracts  or  belts  of  Dakota  county  consist  of  moratnic  glacial 
drift,  amassed  in  abundant  knolls,  short  ridges,  and  small  hills,  of  which 
only  a  few  rise  to  such  prominence  that  they  are  named. 

The  most  conspicuous  hill,  rising  to  about  1175  feet  above  the  sea, 
being  about  a  hundred  feet  above  any  point  in  the  view  around  it,  is  Buck 
hill,  near  Crystal  lake,  described  as  follows  in  the  History  of  this 
county  published  in  1881 :  "At  the  west  end  of  the  lake  is  a  high  hill,  .  .  . 
called  by  the  early  settlers  'Buck  Hill.'  From  the  top  of  this  high  emin- 
ence the  Indians  would  watch  the  deer  as  they  came  to  drink  from  the 
cool  waters  of  the  lake." 

Another  conspicuous  height,  near  Mendota,  is  commonly  called  Pilot 
Knob;  but  on  the  oldest  map  of  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Snelling,  before 
mentioned,  it  is  more  properly  named  Pilot  hill. 

In  section  1,  Marshan,  are  two  prominent  drift  hills,  which  have  been 
long  known  as  '^e  Mounds." 

Besides  the  Castle  Rock,  in  the  township  so  named,  this  county  has 
several  other  somewhat  similar  castlelike  or  columnar  rock  masses.  One 
of  these,  about  ten  miles  north  of  the  Castle  Rock,  is  called  Castle  Hill 
on  Nicollet's  map,  but  since  the  settlement  of  the  county  it  is  named 
Lone  Rock.  About  a  mile  and  a  half  east  of  this  is  a  Chimney  Rock. 
Again,  about  eight  miles  distant  east-southeast  from  the  last,  ihere  is 
another  and  more  remarkable  Chimney  Rock.  This  is  in  the  east  edge 
of  section  31,  Marshan,  about  seven  miles  south  of  Hastings.  As  de- 
scribed in  1905  by  the  present  writer  (Bulletin  of  the  Minnesota  Academy 
of  Sciences,  vol.  IV,  page  302,  with  a  view  from  a  photograph  which  well 
shows  the  reason  for  its  name),  this  Chimney  Rock  "is  the  most  pictur- 
esque and  perfect  example  of  columnar  rock  weathering  in  Minnesota. 
.  .  .  It  is  a  vertical  pillar,  measuring  34  feet  in  height  and  about  6  and 
12  feet  in  its  less  and  greater  diameters,  being  no  thicker  near  the  base 
than  in  its  upper  part" 


DODGE  COUNTY 

Established  February  20,  1855,  this  county  received  its  name  in  honor 
of  Henry  Dodge,  governor  of  Wisconsin,  and  his  son,  Augustus  C 
Dodge,  of  Iowa. 

Henry  Dodge  was  born  in  Vincennes,  Indiana,  October  12,  1782;  and 
died  in  Burlington,  Iowa,  June  19,  1867.  He  served  in  the  war  of  1812; 
was  a  colonel  of  volunteers  in  the  Black  Hawk  war,  1832;  commanded 
an  expedition  to  the  Rocky  mountains  in  1835;  was  governor  of  Wiscon- 
sin territory  and  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs,  1836-41;  delegate  in 
Congress  for  Wisconsin,  1842-6 ;  agam  governor  of  that  territory,  1845-8 ; 
and  was  one  of  the  first  U.  S.  senators  from  the  state  of  Wisconsin, 
1848-57. 

Governor  Dodge  on  July  29,  1837,  at  Fort  Snelling,  then  in  Wisconsin, 
made  a  treaty  with  the  Ojibways,  by  which  they  ceded  to  the  United 
States  all  their  pine  lands  and  agricultural  lands  on  the  upper  part  of 
the  St  Croix  river  and  its  tributaries,  in  the  present  states  of  Wis- 
consin and  Minnesota.  The  tract  ceded  also  reached  west  to  include 
the  upper  part  of  the  basin  of  Rum  river,  and  onward  to  the  Mississippi 
between  Sauk  Rapids  and  the  mouth  of  Crow  Wing  river.  In  Septem- 
ber of  the  same  year,  under  direction  of  Governor  Dodge,  about  twenty 
chiefs  and  braves  of  the  Sioux  went  with  the  agent,  Major  Taliaferro, 
to  the  city  of  Washington  and  there  made  a  treaty  ceding  all  their  lands 
east  of  the  Mississippi,  together  with  the  islands  in  this  river.  By  these 
treaties  a  large  tract  of  eastern  Minnesota  (then  a  part  of  Wisconsin), 
including  the  sites  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  Anthony,  was  opened  to  white 
settlement. 

Augustus  Caesar  Dodge  was  born. in  St.  Genevieve,  Missouri,  Janu- 
ary 12,  1812;  and  died  in  Burlington,  Iowa,  November  20,  1883.  He  was 
the  delegate  in  Congress  for  Iowa  territory,  1840-7;  was  one  of  the  first 
U.  S.  senators  of  Iowa,  1848-55,  his  father  being  also  a  senator  at  the 
same  time;  and  was  minister  representing  this  country  in  Spain  during 
four  years,  1855-9. 

Biographies  of  both  the  father  and  son,  with  their  portraits,  by 
Louis  Pelzer,  have  been  published,  respectively  in  1911  and  1908,  by  the 
State  Historical  Society  of  Iowa,  in  its  Iowa  Biographical  Series. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

For  the  origins  and  meanings  of  the  geographic  names  of  this  county, 
information  has  been  gathered  from  "An  Historical  Sketch  of  Dodge 
County,"  by  W.  H.  Mitchell  and  U.  Curtis.  1870,  125  pages ;  ''History  of 
Winona,  Olmsted,  and  Dodge  Counties,"  1884  (this  county  having  pages 

i7i 


172  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

769-1266)  ;  "Atlas  of  Dodge  County,"  by  R.  L.  Polk  and  Co.,  1905,  having 
pages  61-129  of  text,  historical  and  biographic,  with  illustrations;  and 
from  the  offices  of  George  L.  Taylor,  county  auditor,  and  George  H. 
Slocum,  editor  of  the  Mantorville  Express,  visited  in  April,  1916. 

Ashland  township,  first  settled  in  May,  1854,  organized  June  15, 
1858,  was  named  from  its  original  village  plat  in  1855  by  William  Windom, 
Thomas  Wilson,  and  Daniel  S.  Norton,  of  Winona,  with  others.  Each  of 
the  three  proprietors  here  noted,  then  new  immigrants  to  this  territory, 
afterward  attained  great  prominence  in  Minnesota  history.  This  name, 
applied  to  townships,  villages,  cities,  and  counties,  occurs  in  twenty-six 
other  states  of  our  Union. 

Bern,  a  former  post  office  in  Milton,  established  in  1858,  was  named 
for  the  capital  of  Switzerland. 

Buchanan,  formerly  a  small  village  having  a  sawmill,  on  the  North 
Middle  branch  of  the  Zumbro  river,  was  named  in  honor  of  James 
Buchanan,  elected  in  1856  to  the  presidency  of  the  United  States. 

Canisteo  township,  settled  in  1854  and  organized  in  1858,  was  named 
by  its  numerous  immigrants  from  Canisteo,  a  village  and  a  township  in 
Steuben  county,  N.  Y.,  on  the  Canisteo  river,  which  is  about  sixty  miles 
long,  flowing  to  the  Tioga  and  Chemung  rivers,  the  latter  a  tributary 
of  the  Susquehanna.  An  early  village  there,  of  the  Delaware  tribe  of 
Indians,  was  called  Canisteo,  being  the  origin  of  this  name,  said  to 
mean  ''board  on  the  water."  This  Indian  village  was  described  as  "the 
largest  of  the  Delaware  towns,  consisting  of  sixty  good  houses  with 
three  or  four  fire-places  in  each."  (Roberts,  Historical  Gazetteer  of 
Steuben  County,  1891,  pages  15-17.) 

Cheney,  the  post  office  at  Eden  railway  station,  in  Wasioja,  was  named 
in  honor  of  B.  P.  Cheney,  a  farmer  there. 

Claremont  township,  first  settled  in  September,  1854,  organized  May 
11,  1858,  was  named  for  the  town  of  Claremont,  N.  H.,  whence  several 
of  its  settlers  came,  including  George  Hitchcock,  its  first  postmaster. 
Claremont  village  was  incorporated  in  1878. 

Concord  township,  settled  in  April,  1854,  organized  May  11,  1858, 
was  named  in  like  manner  for  the  city  of  Concord,  N.  H.,  the  capital  of 
that  state.    The  village  plat  was  recorded  June  7,  1856. 

Dodge  Center,  the  railway  village  in  the  south  edge  of  Wasioja, 
founded  in  1866,  was  platted  in  July,  1869,  and  was  incorporated  Febru- 
ary 29,  1872.  This  name  was  proposed  by  D.  C.  Fairbank,  on  account  of 
the  location  at  the  center  of  the  county.  The  first  passenger  train  arrived 
here,  on  the  Winona  and  St.  Peter  railroad,  July  13,  1866. 

Eden,  the  railway  station  and  village  having  Cheney  post  office,  was 
named  by  officers  of  the  Chicago  Great  Western  Railway  Company. 

Ellington  township,  settled  in  July,  1855,  organized  May  11,  1858, 
had  been  at  6rst  named  Pleasant  Grove,  but  was  renamed  for  the  town 
of  Ellington  in  Connecticut.  Mrs.  John  Van  Buren,  who  proposed  this 
change  of  name,  "wrote  the  votes  by  which  the  matter  was  decided." 


DODGE  COUNTY  173 

Hayfield  township  was  organized  March  30,  1872,  having  previously 
been  a  part  of  Vernon.  Its  name  was  adopted  from  a  township  of  Craw- 
ford county  in  northwestern  Pennsylvania.  The  railway  village  of  Hav- 
field  was  incorporated  January  7,  1896. 

Kasson,  a  railway  village  in  the  south  edge  of  Mantorville,  was 
named  in  honor  of  Jabez  Hyde  Kasson,  owner  of  the  original  town  site. 
He  was  born  in  Springville,  Pa.,  January  17,  1820,  and  came  to  Minne- 
sota in  1856,  settling  on  a  farm  in  this  township.  When  the  Winona  and 
St.  Peter  railroad  reached  this  place,  in  the  fall  of  1865,  this  village  was 
laid  out  by  Mr.  Kasson  and  others,  the  plat  being  recorded  October  13, 
1865,  and  in  November  the  first  passenger  train  came. 

Mantorville  township  was  first  settled  in  April,  1854;  was  incor- 
porated under  legislative  acts  of  1854  and  1857 ;  and  was  organized  under 
the  state  government.  May  11,  1858.  The  village  was  platted  March  26, 
1856,  by  Peter  Mantor,  H.  A.  Pratt,  and  others,  and  in  1857  it  was  desig- 
nated by  a  vote  of  the  county  to  be  the  county  seat.  This  name  was 
adopted  in  honor  of  three  brothers,  Peter,  Riley,  and  Frank  Mantor, 
who  came  here  in  1853  and  1854  from  Linesville,  Crawford  county.  Pa. 
Peter  Mantor,  the  oldest  of  these  brothers  and  the  leader  in  founding 
this  town,  was  born  in  Albany  county,  N.  Y.,  December  15,  1815 ;  settled 
on  the  site  of  the  village  of  Mantorville,  April  19,  1854,  and  built  a  saw- 
mill and  gristmill  there;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature,  1859-60; 
was  captain  of  Company  C,  Second  Minnesota  Regiment,  1861 ;  removed 
to  Bismarck,  Dakota,  in  1874,  where  he  was  register  of  the  U.  S.  land 
office  until  1880;  died  in  Mantorville,  September  23,  1888. 

Milton  township,  settled  in  May,  1854,  organized  May  20,  1858,  had 
been  successively  called  Watkins,  Buchanan,  and  Berne.  Georgia  has 
a  Milton  county,  ahd  thirty  other  states  have  townships,  villages,  and 
cities  of  this  name,  honoring  the  grand  poet  and  patriot  of  England 
(b.  1608,  d.  1674). 

OsLO^  a  hamlet  at  the  center  of  Vernon  township,  was  made  a  post 
office  in  1879,  lately  discontinued.  This  name  is  now  borne  by  a  village 
of  the  Soo  railway  in  the  southwest  comer  of  Marshall  county.  It  was 
the  name  of  the  original  city  founded  in  1048  by  Harald  Sigurdsson  near 
the  site  of  Christiania,  the  capital  of  Norway.  Oslo  (or  Opslo)  became 
the  chief  city  of  Norway,  but  it  was  built  mainly  of  wood,  and  after  a 
great  conflagration  the  city  was  refounded  on  the  present  site  by  the 
king.  Christian  IV,  who  gave  his  name  to  it  in  1624. 

Rice  Lake,  a  village  in  the  northwest  corner  of  Claremont,  received 
its  name  from  the  neighboring  lake,  crossed  by  the  west  line  of  this 
county.  It  refers  to  the  growth  of  wild  rice  in  this  shallow  lake,  which 
was  used  as  an  important  food  supply  by  the  Indians. 

Ripley  township,  first  settled  in  September,  1854,  organized  May  14, 
1858,  may  probably  have  been  named  for  some  eastern  township  or  vil- 
lage, as  in  Maine,  New  York,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  or  West  Virginia, 
in  each  of  which  states  this  name  is  found. 


174  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Sacramento  was  a  village  platted  in  the  fall  of  1855,  on  the  Zumbro 
river  in  the  west  edge  of  Mantorville,  against  which  it  was  a  rival  for 
election  as  the  county  seat,  but  it  was  defeated  by  the  popular  vote  in 
1857.  Within  the  next  decade  its  buildings  were  removed,  and  its  site 
reverted  to  farm  use.  The  name,  from  California,  had  reference  to  scanty 
occurrence  of  placer  gold  in  the  drift  of  some  localities  on  branches  of 
the  Zumbro  and  Root  rivers,  as  noted  in  reports  of  the  Minnesota  Geolog- 
ical Survey.  One  of  the  places  of  ill  repaid  gold  washing  by  the  early 
settlers  was  near  the  site  occupied  a  few  years  by  this  "deserted  village.** 

Vernon  township,  settled  in  October,  1855,  organized  March  4,  1858, 
was  named  from  Mount  Vernon,  Virginia,  the  home  of  Washington, 
for  Admiral  Edward  Vernon  (b.  1684,  d.  1757),  of  the  British  navy. 

Vlasaty^  a  railway  station  in  Ashland,  was  named  by  officers  of  the 
Chicago  Great  Western  railway. 

Wasioja  township,  settled  in  October,  1854,  organized  in  1858»  bears 
the  Sioux  name  of  the  Zumbro  river,  spelled  Wazi  Oju  on  Nicollet's 
map  in  1843.  It  is  translated  as  "Pine  river**  by  Nicollet,  and  is  defined 
as  meaning  "pine  clad."  Large  white  pines,  far  west  of  their  general 
geographic  range,  grow  on  the  Zumbro  bluffs  in  the  east  part  of  this 
township,  as  also  in  Mantorville,  and  at  Pine  Island  in  Goodhue  county. 
The  village  of  Wasioja  was  platted  May  24,  1856. 

West  Concord,  a  village  of  the  Chicago  Great  Western  railway,  was 
platted  June  1,  1885. 

Westfield  township,  settled  in  1855,  organized  March  22,  1866,  proba- 
bly commemorates  an  eastern  village  or  township  whence  some  of  its 
settlers  had  come.  The  name  is  so  used  in  a  dozen  eastern  states,  and 
it  is  also  borne  by  a  river  in  Massachusetts. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  North  Middle  branch  of  Zumbro  river,  its  South  Middle  branch, 
and  its  South  branch,  gather  their  head  streams  in  this  county;  and 
from  Hayfield  and  Westfield  the  Cedar  river,  a  long  and  large  stream 
of  Iowa,  receives  its  highest  sources,  its  East,  Middle,  and  West  forks. 

Milliken  and  Harkcom  creeks,  in  Concord  and  Milton,  flowing  into  the 
North  Middle  Zumbro,  were  named  for  pioneer  settlers,  as  also  Maston*s 
branch,  flowing  northeastward  past  Kasson  to  the  South  Middle  fork. 

La  Due's  bluff,  the  site  of  the  quarries  in  Mantorville,  was  named  for 
Hon.  A.  D.  La  Due,  a  prominent  early  citizen,  who  died  at  Mantorville 
on  January  12,  1899. 

On  the  South  branch  of  the  Zumbro,  in  the  southwest  quarter  of  sec- 
tion 12,  Vernon,  was  the  Indian  Grove,  named  for  a  large  number  of 
Sioux  who  had  their  camp  there  in  the  winter  of  1856-7. 

Hammond  or  Manchester  lake  and  Prince  lake,  in  Ripley,  were  named 
for  adjoining  farmers. 

The  origins  of  the  names  of  Zumbro  and  Cedar  rivers  are  noticed 
in  the  first  chapter,  treating  of  the  large  rivers  of  this  state. 


\ 
\ 


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\ 

\ 


DOUGLAS  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  March  8,  1858,  and  organized  June  15,  1866, 
was  named  in  honor  of  Stephen  Arnold  Douglas,  statesman  and  leader 
in  the  Democratic  party,  eminent  in  his  patriotic  loyalty  to  the  Union  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War.  He  .was  bom  in  Brandon,  Vermont, 
April  23,  1813;  and  died  in  Chicago,  June  3,  1861.  He  lived  in  Vermont 
to  the  age  of  seventeen  years;  studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to  practice 
in  Illinois  in  1834;  was  elected  to  the  state  legislature  in  1835,  and  won 
there  the  sobriquet  of  "the  Little  Giant,"  by  which  he  was  ever  afterward 
well  known;  was  elected  a  judge  of  the  state  supreme  court  in  1841; 
was  a  member  of  Congress,  1843-47;  and  U.  S.  Senator,  1847-61.  On  the 
application  of  Minnesota  to  be  admitted  as  a  state,  in  1857-58,  Douglas 
earnestly  advocated  it,  being  then  chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee  on 
Territories. 

In  a  series  of  debates  in  Illinois  in  1858,  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  his 
Republican  opponent,  nominated  for  the  United  States  senate,  Douglas 
defended  his  view  that  Congress  had  no  authority  for  exclusion  of 
slavery  from  territories  not  yet  received  into  the  Union  as  states.  Each 
of  these  great  political  leaders  then  aroused  extraordinary  interest 
throughout  the  nation,  and  two  years  later  they  were  opposing  candidates 
for  the  presidency,  Lincoln  was  elected,  the  southern  states  seceded, 
and  in  1861  the  great  Civil  War  began. 

Several  biographies  of  Douglas  have  been  published,  in  the  presidential 
campaign  of  1860,  again  new  editions  of  one  of  these  in  the  midst  of  the 
Civil  War  and  at  its  close,  and  more  complete  and  dispassionate  studies 
in  recent  years.  The  influence  of  his  loyalty  for  preservation  of  the 
Union  was  an  inestimable  contribution  to  the  making  of  history  and  the 
welfare  of  the  world. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  for  this  county  was  gathered  from  the  ''History  of 
Douglas  and  Grant  Counties,"  Constant  Larson,  editor,  1916,  two  volumes, 
509,  693  pages ;  'Tlat  Book  of  Douglas  County,"  1886,  82  pages,  includ- 
ing a  "Historical  Sketch"  in  four  pages;  and  from  George  P.  Craig, 
judge  of  probate,  Gustav  A.  Kortsch,  president  of  the  Douglas  County 
Bank,  R.  C.  Bondurant,  local  editor  of  the  Alexandria  Post  News,  Mrs. 
Charles  F.  Canfield,  and  Mrs.  James  H.  Van  Dyke,  interviewed  during 
a  visit  at  Alexandria,  the  county  seat,  in  May,  1916. 

Alexandbia,  settled  in  1858,  established  as  a  township,  June  15,  1866, 
was  named  in  honor  of  Alexander  Kkikaid,  because  he  and  his  brother 
William  were  its  first  settlers,  coming  from  Maryland.     The  form  of 

175 


176  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

the  name  follows  that  of  the  large  city  in  Egypt,  which  was  founded 
in  the  year  332  B.  C.  by  Alexander  the  Great.  Fifteen  other  states  have 
villages  or  cities  of  this  name.  The  village  of  Alexandria  was  incorpo- 
rated February  20,  1877;  and  its  charter  as  a  city  was  adopted  in  1908. 
The  first  passenger  train  on  the  railroad  reached  this  place  November 

5,  1878. 

Alexander  Kinkaid  removed  to  California,  and  additional  record  of 
him  has  not  been  learned.  William  Kinkaid  was  born  in  Elkton,  Md., 
December  3,  1835;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1856;  served  in  the  Second 
Minnesota  Battery,  1862-3;  was  afterward  chief  clerk  in  the  hospital  at 
Washington  for  returned  prisoners  of  war;  died  in  St.  Goud,  Minn., 
May  22.  1868. 

Belle  River  township,  settled  in  1865,  was  established  March  8,  1870, 
being  then  named  Riverdale.  January  4,  1871,  the  present  name  was 
chosen  by  vote  of  the  people.  Each  of  these  names  was  suggested  by 
the  Long  Prairie  river,  which  flows  meanderingly  through  the  north  half 
of  this  township,  on  its  way  toward  the  Long  Prairie  that  borders  it  in 
Todd  county,  being  what  the  French  first  word  of  the  township  name 
signifies,  beautiful. 

Brandon,  settled  in  1860,  was  established  as  a  township  September  3, 
1867,  and  was  then  called  Chippewa,  for  its  lakes  and  river  of  that  name, 
used  as  a  "road  of  war"  by  the  Ojibways  in  their  forays  to  the  Sioux 
country.  Previously  it  had  a  station,  named  Chippewa,  of  the  Burbank 
stage  route  from  St.  Goud  to  the  Red  river,  at  the  home  and  hotel  of 
Ole  Brandon,  on  a  low  hill  about  two  miles  north  of  the  present  railway 
village,  which  received  his  nkme,  whence  also  the  township  was  renamed. 
The  village  was  incorporated  November  22,  1881. 

Cari^Ds,  first  settled  in  1863,  was  made  a  township  May  1,  1868.  Its 
railway  village  was  incorporated  July  7,  1904.  The  name  was  adopted 
from  the  beautiful,  large  and  deep  Lake  Carlos,  which  had  received  it 
before  1860,  given  by  Glendy  King,  a  homesteader  adjoining  Alexandria, 
who  had  been  a  student  at  West  Point.  Lakes  Carlos  and,  Le  Homme 
Dieu  were  named  by  him  for  two  of  his  friends  in  the  eastern  states. 

EvANSViLLE,  permanently  settled  in  1865,  established  as  a  township 
January  7,  1868,  commemorates  the  first  mail  carrier,  named  Evans,  of 
the  route  opened  in  1859  from  St.  Goud  to  Fort  Abercrombie,  who  had 
a  log  cabin  here  for  staying  over  night  He  was  killed  in  the  Sioux  out- 
break of  1862.  The  village  of  Evansville  was  platted  in  the  fall  of  1879, 
with  the  coming  of  the  first  railway  train,  and  was  incorporated  in  1881. 

FoRADA,  the  railway  village  in  Hudson,  platted  in  July,  1903,  by  Cyrus 
A.  Campbell,  of  Parker's  Prairie,  Otter  Tail  county,  incorporated  April 

6,  1905,  has  the  first  name  of  Mrs.  Campbell,  Ada;  but  that  name  was 
already  widely  known  as  the  county  seat  of  Norman  county,  and  there- 
fore it  received  the  prefixed  syllable. 

Garfield,  the  railway  village  of  Ida  township,  platted  February  17, 
1882,  incorporated  September  9,  1905,  was  named  in  honor  of  President 


DOUGLAS  COUNTY  177 

Garfield,  who  was  shot  July  2,  1881,  by  the  assassin  Guiteau,  and  died  ai 
Elberon,  N.  J.,  our  second  martyr  president,  September  19,  a  few  months 
before  this  village  was  founded. 

Geneva  Beach,  a  village  of  summer  homes  at  the  south  end  of  Lake 
Geneva,  received  its  name  from  this  lake,  which,  as  also  the  adjoining 
Lake  Victoria,  was  named  by  Walter  Scott  Shotwell.  The  former  name 
was  derived  from  the  lake  and  historic  city  in  Switzerland;  the  latter  is 
in  honor  of  Queen  Victoria.  The  sponsor  of  these  names  was  a  son  of 
Daniel  Shotwell  from  New  Jersey,  whose  homestead  claim,  taken  in  1859, 
was  between  these  lakes.  The  son  studied  medicine,  traveled  to  Cali- 
fornia, and  died  many  years  ago. 

Holmes  City^  settled  in  1858,  established  as  a  township  October,  4, 
1866,  was  named  in  honor  of  Thomas  Andrew  Holmes,  leader  of  its 
first  group  of  settlers.  He  was  born  in  Bergerstown,  Pa.,  March  4, 
1804;  and  died  in  Cullman,  Ala.,  July  2,  1888.  He  established  an 
Indian  trading  post  in  1839  at  Fountain  City,  Wis.,  and  in 
1849  removed  to  Sauk  Rapids,  Minn.;  was  a  member  of  the  first  terri- 
torial legislature;  fotmded  the  towns  of  Shakopee  and  Chaska  in  1851. 
Before  engaging  in  the  Indian  trade,  he  had  been  one  of  the  founders  of 
Janesville,  Wis.,  in  1836.  Following  the  receding  frontier,  he  went  to 
Montana  in  1862,  and  there  participated  in  founding  Bannack  City, 
at  an  early  locality  of  placer  gold  mining,  which  became  the  first  capital 
of  Montana  Territory. 

Hudson  township,  first  settled  in  1864,  organized  April  16,  1869, 
was  named  from  Hudson,  Wis.,  whence  some  families  of  ks  pioneers 
came,  including  Mrs.  S.  B.  Childs,  who  proposed  this  name. 

Ida  township,  settled  in  1863,  organized  April  7,  1868,  received  the 
name  of  its  large  Lake  Ida,  which  had  been  so  named  by  Myron  Coloney, 
one  of  its  first  settlers,  for  a  friend,  probably  residing  in  an  eastern  state. 

Interlachen  Park,  a  summer  village  in  Carlos  township,  bordering 
the  north  shore  of  Lake  Le  Homme  Dieu  and  having  its  western  end 
beside  Lake  Carlos,  derived  this  name,  with  a  slight  change  of  spelling, 
from  Interlaken,  Switzerland,  much  visited  by  tourists,  between  Lakes 
Thun  and  Brienz.    It  means  "between  the  lakes." 

Kensington,  the  railway  village  of  Solem  township,  was  platted  by 
Hon.  William  D.  Washburn  in  March,  1887,  and  was  incorporated  June 
6,  1891.  This  is  the  name  of  a  western  section  of  the  city  of  London,  and 
it  is  also  borne  by  villages  and  townships  in  seven  other  states.  On  the 
farm  of  Olof  Ohman,  about  three  miles  northeast  from  this  village,  the 
famous  Kensington  rune  stone  was  found  in  November,  1898.  It  is 
described  in  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  Collections,  volume  XV, 
pages  221-286,  with  illustrations  and  maps. 

La  Grand  township,  first  settled  in  1860,  was  organized  September 
23,  1873,  being  then  called  West  Alexandria;  but  in  December  of  that 
year  it  was  changed  to  La  Grand,  taking  the  name  of  an  early  resident 
of  Alexandria. 


178  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Lake  Mary  township,  settled  in  1863,  established  September  3,  1867, 
was  named  for  its  large  lake,  which  commemorates  Mary  A.  Kinkaid, 
a  homesteader  of  1861  in  section  24,  La  Grand,  sister  of  Alexander  and 
William  Kinkaid,  before  mentioned  as  the  first  settlers  in  Alexandria. 
Her  homestead  adjoined  Lake  Winona,  which  she  probably  named. 

Leaf  Valley,  to  which  the  first  settler  came  in  1866,  was  established 
as  a  township  November  23,  1867.  Its  name  refers  to  its  situation  at 
the  southern  border  of  the  Leaf  hills,  commonly  called  "mountains,"  which 
rise  conspicuously  in  the  adjoining  edge  of  Otter  Tail  county. 

Lund,  first  settled  in  1866,  made  a  township  March  1,  1872,  is  named 
for  the  very  ancient  city  of  Lund  in  southern  Sweden,  which  has  a 
famous  university  founded  in  1666.  In  pagan  times  Lund  attained  great 
importance,  and  during  a  long  period  of  the  Middle  Ages  it  was  the 
seat  of  an  archbishopric  and  was  the  largest  city  of  Scandinavia. 

Melby,  the  railway  village  of  Lund,  was  platted  in  April,  1902,  being 
named  probably  for  a  farming  locality  in  Sweden,  whence  some  of  the 
adjoining  settlers  came,  receiving  from  it  their  own  personal  surnames. 

MiLLERViLLE,  established  as  a  township  November  23,  1867,  was  named 
for  John  Miller,  an  early  and  prominent  German  settler.  Its  village  was 
incorporated  June  29,  1903. 

Milton  A  township  was  established  December  19,  1871,  receiving  its 
name  from  the  large  Lake  Miltona,  which  occupies  more  than  a  sixth 
part  of  its  area.  The  lake  was  named  for  Mrs.  Florence  Miltona  Road- 
ruck,  wife  of  Benjamin  Franklin  Roadruck,  who  had  a  homestead  in  sec- 
tion 22,  Leaf  Valley,  at  the  west  end  of  this  lake.  In  1877  they  returned 
to  their  former  home  in  Indiana.  (Letter  from  George  L.  Treat,  of 
Alexandria.)  Tradition  tells  that  her  family  washing  was  often  done  on 
the  lake  shore. 

MoE,  settled  in  1863,  was  established  as  a  township  September  3,  1867, 
being  at  first  called  Adkinsville  in  honor  of  Thomas  Adkins,  one  of  the 
first  settlers.  "Later  the  name  was  changed  to  Moe,  in  memory  of  a 
district  in  Norway,  from  which  a  number  of  the  pioneers  came." 

Nelson,  a  railway  village  on  the  east  line  of  Alexandria  township, 
founded  about  the  year  1875,  was  incorporated  August  31,  1905.  The 
post  office  and  village  were  at  first  named  Dent,  in  honor  of  Richard 
Dent,  who  settled  at  Alexandria  in  1868,  and  died  in  Spokane,  Wash., 
May  19,  1915.  The  name  was  changed  to  Nelson,  after  1881,  in  honor  of 
Senator  Knute  Nelson,  the  most  eminent  citizen  of  this  county.  He  was 
born  in  Vossvangen,  Norway,  February  2,  1843;  came  to  the  United 
States  when  six  years  old,  with  his  mother;  served  in  the  Fourth  Wis- 
consin Regiment,  1861-4 ;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1867 ;  came  to  Minne- 
sota in  1871,  and  settled  on  a  farm  near  Alexandria;  practiced  law  in 
Alexandria  after  1872;  was  a  state  senator,  1875-8;  representative  in 
Congress,  1883-9;  governor  of  Minnesota,  1893-5;  and  resigned  to  accept 
the  office  of  U.  S.  senator,  which  position  he  has  since  filled  with  very 
distinguished  ability  and  grand  loyalty  to  this  state  and  the  nation.    His 


DOUGLAS  COUNTY  179 

biography  is  in  "Lives  of  the  Governors  of  Minnesota/'  by  Gen.  James 
H.  Baker  (M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  XIII,  1908,  pp.  327-355,  with  portrait). 

Orange  was  settled  in  1863-4,  and  was  established  as  a  township 
January  7,  1868.  Eight  states  have  counties  of  this  name,  and  it  is  borne 
in  twenty  states  by  cities,  villages,  and  townships. 

OsAKis,  first  settled  in  1859,  was  established  June  15,  1866;  this  and 
Alexandria  being  the  oldest  townships»of  the  county.  The  name  was 
received  from  Osakis  lake,  which,  as  also  the  Sauk  river  outflowing  from 
it,  has  reference  to  Sauk  Indians  formerly  living  here,  as  narrated  in 
connection  with  Sauk  Rapids  in  the  chapter  of  Benton  county.  In  1859 
the  stages  running  to  Fort  Abercrombie  had  a  station  on  the  site  of 
Osakis  village,  and  the  earliest  settlers  took  claims;  but  the  Sioux  out- 
break in  1862  caused  these  claims  to  be  abandoned.  The  village  was 
founded  in  1866,  and  was  incorporated  February  21,  1881.  The  date  of 
the  first  passenger  train  was  November  1,  1878. 

SoLEM^  settled  in  1866,  was  established  as  a  township  March  10,  1870. 
"The  township  takes  its  name  from  a  district  in  Norway,  from  which 
place  many  of  the  pioneers  came." 

Spruce  Hill  township,  the  latest  established  in  this  county,  was  organ- 
ized March  9,  1875.  Its  low  timbered  hills  of  morainic  drift  bear  the 
black  spruce,  balsam  fir,  white  pine,  paper  or  canoe  birch,  balsam  poplar, 
and  blueberries,  with  other  trees  and  shrubs,  the  several  species  thus 
named  reaching  here  the  southwestern  limits  of  their  geographic  range. 
This  township  has  two  hamlets,  named  Spruce  Hill  and  Spruce  Center. 

Urness,  first  settled  in  1862-3,  was  established  as  a  township,  March 
22,  1869,  to  be  called  Red  Rock,  from  its  lake  of  that  name,  referring 
to  reddish  boulders  on  its  shore,  one  being  especially  noteworthy  on  the 
northeast  shore  of  the  main  lake.  On  February  7,  1871,  the  commission- 
ers received  a  petition  requesting  that  the  name  of  the  township  be 
changed  to  Urness,  "in  memory  of  a  certain  district  in  Norway."  Two 
of  its  pioneer  farmers,  Andrew  J.  and  Ole  J.  Urness,  respectively  in 
sections  24  and  12,  coming  in  1865,  were  immigrants  from  that  district. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  foregoing  list  of  the  names  of  townships  has  included  sufficient 
references  to  several  rivers  and  lakes. 

Only  a  few  other  names  of  streams  are  to  be  noticed,  as  Spruce  and 
Stormy  creeks  in  Spruce  Hill  township,  and  Calamus  creek  named  for 
its  growth  of  the  calamus  or  sweet  flag  (Acorus  Calamus,  L.),  in  Osakis 
and  Belle  River  townships.  More  recently  the  last  has  been  named  Fair- 
field creek,  in  honor  of  Edwin,  George,  and  Lloyd  D.  Fairfield,  early 
settlers  in  Osakis  and  Orange,  having  homesteads  near  the  farthest 
sources  of  this  stream. 

But  there  remains  a  multitude  of  lakes,  unsurpassed  in  beauty  and 
diversity.  Some  of  these  are  named  for  pioneers  whose  homes  adjoined 
the  lakes;  others  for  their  outlines,  as  Horseshoe  lake.  Moon  lake,  two 


180  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Crooked  lakes,  Lobster  lake,  and  several  Long  lakes;  and  othcfrs  for 
their  trees  and  animals,  as  Maple  lake,  Elk,  and  Turtle  lakes. 

The  complex  and  recurving  series  or  chain  of  lakes,  large  and  small, 
through  which  the  head  stream  of  Long  Prairie  river  takes  it  course, 
consists  in  descending*  order  of  Lake  Irene,  earlier  called  Reservation 
lake ;  Lakes  Miltona  and  Ida,  respectively  the  largest  and  the  next  in  size 
in  this  series ;  Lakes  Charlie  and  Louise,  named  for  a  son  and  a  daughter 
of  Charles  Cook,  who  settled  in  Alexandria  in  1858,  had  been  a  fur 
merchant  in  London  and  a  member  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  was 
the  first  postmaster  of  Alexandria,  and  after  a  few  years  returned  to  the 
eastern  states  and  later  to  London,  where  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his 
life;  Union  lake,  where  this  series  receives  an  important  inflowing  stream 
from  another  large  series  of  lakes  at  the  west  and  south;  Stone  and 
Lottie  lakes;  Lake  Cowdry,  named  for  Samuel  B.  Cowdry,  a  pioneer 
farmer  in  Alexandria,  who  removed  in  1862,  later  attended  the  Seabury 
Divinity  School,  Faribault,  and  became  an  Episcopal  rector  in  southern 
Minnesota;  Lake  Darling,  commemorative  of  Andrew  Darling,  a  pioneer 
who  settled  on  the  shore  of  this  lake  in  1860,  an  exceptionally  successful 
farmer;  and  Lake  Carlos,  lowest  of  this  series,  sounded  by  Rev.  C.  M. 
Terry  and  found  to  have  in  some  places  a  depth  of  150  feet,  being  the 
deepest  lake  of  this  state. 

Lake  Irene,  in  sections  14,  22,  and  23,  Miltona,  is  in  honor  of  Irene 
Roadruck,  for  whose  mother  Lake  Miltona  is  named,  as  noted  for  this 
township. 

A  second  series,  mentioned  as  tributary  to  Union  lake  of  the  preceding 
series,  has,  in  like  descending  order.  Lake  Andrews,  named  probably  in 
honor  of  the  first  physician  of  Alexandria;  Lake  Mary,  largest  in  this 
series;  Mill  and  Lobster  lakes,  the  latter  having  numerous  arms  or 
claws;  and  Lake  Mina,  Berglin's  lake,  and  Fish  lake  (the  last  formerly 
called  Mill  lake).    Lake  Mina  is  again  noticed  on  page  182. 

A  third  series  of  lakes,  tributary  to  Lake  Carlos,  includes  another 
and  smaller  Union  lake,  covering  parts  of  four  sections  in  Hudson: 
Burgan's  lake,  named  for  William  P.  Burgan,  a  farmer  who  settled  near 
its  southwest  shore  in  1869;  and  Lakes  Victoria,  Geneva,  and  Le  Homme 
Dieu,  each  having  many  summer  homes  along  the  shores. 

To  the  eastern  arm  of  Lake  Victoria  a  fourth  series  sends  its  out* 
flow,  comprising  Lover's  lake,  Childs  lake,  and  Lake  Jessie,  the  second 
being  for  Edwin  R.  Childs,  who  came  there  as  a  homesteader  in  1867. 

Many  lakes  yet  remain,  not  hereinbefore  noticed.  In  the  order  of 
townships  from  south  to  north,  and  of  ranges  from  east  to  west,  these 
are  listed  as  follows,  so  far  as  they  have  names  on  our  maps  and  atlases. 
A  goodly  number  having  relatively  small  areas  lack  published  names. 

Swims  or  Clifford  lake,  Myer's,  O wings,  and  English  Grove  lakes, 
in  Orange,  the  last  named  for  its  grove  on  the  homestead  of  William 
T.  English,  who  settled  there  in  1863.  These  lakes  are  shallow,  and  in 
the  latest  atlas,  of  1916,  they  are  mapped  as  drained. 


DOUGLAS  COUNTY  181 

Maple  lake,  in  Hudson. 

Turtle,  Long,  and  Mud  lakes,  in  Lake  Mary  township,  the  last  recently 
drained. 

Van  Loon's  lake,  Grubb  lake,  Lake  Rachel,  Echo  lake.  Grant's  and 
Blackwell  lakes,  Holmes  City  lake,  Oscar  lake,  South  Oscar  lake,  and 
Freeborn,  Mattson,  and  Olaf  lakes,  in  Holmes  City  township.  Early 
settlers  commemorated  in  these  names  include  Noah  Grant,  who  settled 
on  section  2  in  1858,;  George  Blackwell,  on  section  3,  1868;  Miner  Van 
Loon,  section  24,  1865;  John  Freeborn,  section  30,  1868;  and  John  Matt- 
son,  sectipn  32,  1868.  (For  the  origin  of  the  name  of  Lake  Oscar,  see 
the  end  of  this  chapter.) 

Long  lake,  Eng,  Hegg,  and  Roland  lakes,  in  Solem.  Among  the 
pioneer  settlers  in  this  township  were  Erick  Pehrson  Eng,  Erick  Hegg, 
and  John  Roland,  for  whom  these  lakes  were  named. 

Lake  Smith,  Bird  lake,  Crooked  and  Han  ford  lakes,  in  Osakis  town- 
ship, the  last  two  now  drained. 

Lakes  Agnes  and  Henry,  close  north  of  the  city  of  Alexandria,  the 
former  named  for  the  eastern  "lady  love"  of  William  Kinkaid  by  Mrs. 
Caroline  Cook,  wife  of  Charles  Cook,  the  merchant  pioneer  from  Lon- 
don, and  the  latter  for  one  of  their  children,  brother  of  Charlie  and 
Louise  Cook  (for  whom  other  small  lakes,  previously  noted,  are  named), 
and  of  Fanny  Cook,  who  became  the  wife  of  James  Henry  Van  Dyke, 
first  merchant  of  Alexandria;  Lake  Winona,  at  the  west  side  of  Alex- 
andria, and  extending  into  La  Grand,  for  which  lake  and  for  this  county 
the  first  white  child  born  here  was  named  Winona  Douglas  James, 
daughter  of  Joseph  A.  James,  a  settler  who  came  from  Philadelphia  in 
1858;  Lake  Conie,  at  the  southeast  edge  of  the  city,  and  Shadow  lake  in 
section  23,  these  all  being  in  Alexandria  township. 

Lake  Alvin,  Lake  Latoka,  (of  origin  and  meaning  yet  to  be  ascer- 
tained). Nelson  lake  (for  O.  W.  Nelson,  an  adjoining  farmer),  and 
Lake  Cook,  in  Le  Grand,  the  last  being  in  honor  of  Charles  Cook. 

Elk  lake.  Lakes  Elizabeth,  Gilbert,  and  William,  Crooked  lake,  Lake 
Brandon  (named  for  John  Brandon,  a  farmer  whose  home  is  at  its  east 
side),  Thorstad  and  Minister  lakes,  in  Moe,  the  last  being  near  a  Nor- 
wegian Lutheran  church. 

Amos  lake,  for  Amos  Johnson,  Thorson  lake,  Barsness  lake,  for  Albert 
and  Oscar  Barsness,  Holleque  lake,  Quam  lake,  for  P.  J.  Quam,  and 
Lake  Venus,  with  the  much  larger  Red  Rock  lake,  before  noticed,  in 
Umess. 

Mud  lake,  at  the  comer  of  sections  27,  28,  33,  and  34,  Carlos. 

Baumbach,  Hunt,  Stowe's,  and  Grassy  lakes.  Long  and  Moon  lakes, 
Lakes  Aldrich  and  Nelson,  Burrows,  Whiskey,  and  Devil's  lakes,  in 
Brandon.  The  first  was  named  in  honor  of  Frederick  von  Baumbach,  who 
was  born  in  Prussia,  August  30,  1838 ;  and  died  at  his  home  in  Alexandria, 
Minn.,  Nov.  30,  1917.    He  came  to  the  United  States  with  his  father  in 


J 


182  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

1848 ;  served  in  the  Fifth  and  Thirty-fifth  Wisconsin  regiments  during  the 
civil  war,  attaining  the  rank  of  major;  came  to  Minnesota,  settling  at 
Alexandria,  in  1867;  was  auditor  of  this  county,  1872-78,  and  again  in 
1889-98;  secretary  of  State  of  Minnesota;  1880-87;  and  internal  revenue 
collector  for  this  state,  1898-1914.  Lake  Mina,  before  noted  in  the  second 
series  tributary  to  Long  Prairie  river,  was  named  for  his  mother. 

Others  of  these  Brandon  lakes  were  named  for  Joseph  Hunt,  home- 
steader on  section  6  in  1867;  Martin  Stowe,  on  section  18  in  1862;  John 
D.  Aldrich,  section  23,  1868;  and  John  Nelson,  section  26,  1865. 

Another  Long  lake,  Jennie,  Erwin,  Alberts,  Solberg,  Hubred,  Davidson, 
Mahla,  and  Fanny  lakes,  in  Evansville.  Adjacent  farmers  commemorated 
by  these  names  include  George  Erwin,  Ole  Alberts,  A.  H.  Solberg,  Oliver 
Hubred,  D.  J.  Davidson,  and  M.  H.  Mahla. 

Vermont  and  Wood  lakes,  in  Miltona,  the  former  named  by  settlers 
from  that  state. 

Spring  and  Kelly's  lakes,  in  Leaf  Valley,  the  latter  in  honor  of  Patrick 
Kelly,  an  Irish  homesteader  at  its  east  side  in  1873. 

Lakes  Moses  and  Aaron,  Lorsung,  Wilken,  Stockhaven,  and  Stock- 
housen  lakes,  in  Millerville.  The  first  two  were  named  for  the  great 
Hebrew  lawgiver  and  his  brother,  deliverers  of  their  nation  from 
Egyptian  bondage  and  leaders  toward  the  promised  land  of  Palestine. 
The  third  and  fourth  of  these  lakes,  named  for  Joseph  Lorsung  and 
John  and  William  Wilken,  have  been  drained,  the  bed  of  each  being 
subdivided  to  the  adjoining  farms.  The  last  was  named,  with  change 
of  spelling,  in  honor  of  Hans  G.  von  Stackhausen,  who  took  a  home- 
stead claim  there  in  1870. 

Lund,  the  most  northwestern  township,  has  the  large  but  shallow 
Lake  Christina,  the  small  Lakes  Anka  and  Ina,  bordering  the  south 
shore  of  that  large  lake,  and  Horseshoe  lake  and  Lake  Sina.  The  last, 
in  section  25,  bears  on  maps  of  thirty  to  forty  years  ago  this  name  of 
Mount  Sinai  (called  Sina  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  the  Acts),  where  the 
Decalogue  and  other  laws  were  received,  the  name  being  suggested  by 
Lakes  Moses  and  Aaron,  a  few  miles  distant. 

Lake  Christina  and  its  companion,  the  large  Pelican  lake  in  the  adjoin- 
ing comer  of  Grant  county,  appear,  though  with  inaccurate  outlines,  on 
an  early  map  of  this  state,  dated  January  1,  1860,  their  names  being  given 
as  Lakes  Christina  and  EUenora.  These  were  probably  names  of  pioneer 
women,  the  first  and  perhaps  both  being  from  Sweden.  It  may  be  true, 
however,  that  the  first  was  bestowed  in  honor  of  Queen  Christina,  who 
was  regent  of  Sweden  in  1632-44  and  queen  during  the  next  ten  years. 

Similarly  the  name,  of  Lake  Oscar,  in  Holmes  City  township,  though 
a  common  christening  name,  was  quite  surely  not  adopted  to  honor  any 
settler  there,  but  for  Oscar  I,  the  king  of  Sweden  and  Norway  in  1844-59, 
father  of  Oscar  II,  who  was  the  king  in  1872-1907. 


FARIBAULT  COUNTY 

This  county  was  established  February  20,  1855,  being  named  in  honor 
of  Jean  Baptiste  Faribault,  who  was  engaged  during  the  greater  part  of 
his  long  life  as  a  trader  among  the  Sioux,  at  first  for  the  Northwest 
Fur  Company.  He  was  bom  at  Berthier,  Province  of  Quebec,  in  1774, 
and  came  .to  the  Northwest  in  1798,  taking  charge  of  a  trading  post  on  the 
Kankakee  river  near  the  south  end  of  Lake  Michigan.  During  the  years 
1799  to  1802,  he  was  stationed  at  the  Redwood  post,  situated  on  the  Des 
Moines  river,  "about  two  hundred  miles  above  its  mouth,"  being  in  what 
is  now  the  central  part  of  Iowa.  Coming  to  Minnesota  in  1803,  he  took 
charge  of  a  post  at  Little  Rapids,  on  the  Minnesota  river  a  few  miles 
above  the  present  sites  of  Chaska  and  Carver,  where  he  remained  several 
years.  Afterward  he  was  a  trader  on  his  own  account  at  Prairie  du 
Chien,  Wis.,  whence  he  removed  to  Pike  island,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Minnesota  river,  in  the  spring  of  1820,  having  been  promised  military 
protection  by  Colonel  Leavenworth,  who  had  come  there  with  troops  in 
the  preceding  August  for  building  the  fort  which  in*  1825  was  named 
Fort  Snelling.  After  1826  Faribault  and  his  family  lived  in  Mendota, 
having  built  there  a  substantial  stone  house,  the  first  in  Minnesota,  and 
in  the  winters  during  many  years  he  traded  with  the  Sioux  at  Little 
Rapids.  His  influence  with  the  Indian  tribes  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
from  the  Missouri  to  the  Red  river,  was  very  great  He  endeavored  to 
teach  them  agriculture,  and  was  the  first  white  settler  to  cultivate  the 
soil  in  this  state.  He  spent  bis  last  years  in  the  town  of  Faribault,  in 
Rice  county,  founded,  at  first  as  an  Indian  trading  post,  by  his  eldest 
son,  Alexander  Faribault,  for  whom  it  was  named.  He  died  at  the  home 
of  his  daughter  there,  August  20,  1860. 

An  appreciative  memoir  of  him,  by  Gen.  Henry  H.  Sibley,  in  the  Min- 
nesota Historical  Society  Collections  (vol.  Ill,  pages  168-179),  closes 
with  these  words:  "Among  the  pioneers  of  Minnesota,  there  are  none 
whose  memory  and  whose  name  better  deserve  to  be  respected  and  per- 
petuated." 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  and  meanings  of  the  geographic  names  in 
this  county  was  received  from  "The  History  of  Faribault  County  .  .  . 
to  the  close  of  the  year  1879,"  by  Judge  J.  A.  Kiester,  1896,  687  pages ; 
and  from  John  Siverson,  register  of  deeds,  and  Henry  P.  Constans, 
proprietor  of  the  Constans  Hotel,  interviewed  at  Blue  Earth  during  my 
visit  there  in  July,  1916. 

Barber  township,  settled  in  June,  1857,  established  September  27, 
1858^  and  organized  June  10,  1864,  was  named  in  honor  of  Chauncey 

183 


184  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Barber,  whom  the  commissioners  supposed  to  be  a  resident  of  this  town- 
ship. He  came  from  Pennsylvania  to  Wisconsin,  and  in  1S56  to  this 
county,  settling  in  Minnesota  Lake  township,  was  its  first  hotelkeeper,  and 
platted  its  railway  village  on  his  lands  in  1866.  About  twelve  or  fifteen 
years  later  he  removed  to  Oregon. 

Blue  Earth  township,  first  settled  in  May,  1855,  organized  October 
20,  1858,  derived  its  name  from  its  village,  called  Blue  Earth  City,  which 
had  been  platted  in  July,  1856,  and  has  ever  since  been  the  county  seat. 
The  village  was  named  from  the  river,  which  the  Sioux  called  Mahkahto, 
meaning  green  or  blue  earth,  as  more  fully  noticed  in  the  chapter  of 
Blue  Earth  county.  By  an  act  of  the  legislature,  March  1,  1872, 
the  village  was  incorporated;  it  received  a  new  and  improved  charter  by 
a  second  act,  January  27,  1879;  and  it  adopted  the  city  form  of  govern- 
ment in  1900. 

Bricelyn,  the  railway  village  in  Seely  township,  was  named  for 
John  Brice,  who  owned  and  platted  it. 

Brush  Creek  township,  settled  in  May,  1856,  and  established  Sep- 
tember 27,  1858,  received  the  name  of  its  small  creek  which  joins  the 
East  fork  of  Blue  Earth  river  in  section  26.  The  reason  for  the  applica- 
tion of  this  name  to  the  creek  was  "the  thick  growth  of  small  trees, 
thickets   and  brush   along  its  banks." 

Clark  township,  settled  in  June,  1862,  and  organized  September  7, 
1869,  had  been  named  Cobb  by  the  county  commissioners  in  1858,  from 
their  erroneous  supposition  that  the  Cobb  river  (of  Blue  Earth  county) 
received  a  portion  of  its  headwaters  in  this  township.  At  its  organiza- 
tion, in  1869,  the  name  was  changed  to  Thompson,  in  honor  of  Clark  W. 
Thompson,  "the  largest  land  owner  of  the  town  and  county."  Because 
that  name,  however,  was  already  in  use  for  another  township  in  Minne- 
sota, it  was  renamed  Qark,  March  24,  1870,  taking  his  first  name.  He 
was  bom  near  Jordan,  Canada,  July  23,  1825;  and  died  at  Wells,  the 
railway  village  of  this  township,  October  11,  1885.  He  came  to  Minne- 
sota in  1853 ;  engaged  in  milling  in  Houston  county  until  1861 ;  was 
Indian  agent,  by  appointment  of  President  Lincoln,  1861-5;  built  the 
Southern  Minnesota  railroad  from  the  Mississippi  river  to  Winnebago 
City,  and  afterward  owned  an  extensive  farm  at  Wells;  was  a  repre- 
sentative in  the  territorial  legislature,  1855;  member  of  the  state  con.- 
stitutional  convention,  1857;  a  state  senator,  1871;  and  president  of  the 
State  Agricultural  Society,  1880-85. 

Delavan,  settled  in  May,  1856,  organized  October  20,  1858,  was  at 
first  named  Guthrie,  in  honor  of  Sterrit  Guthrie,  one  of  the  pioneer  set- 
tlers. May  1,  1872,  the  name  was  changed  to  Delavan,  to  agree  with 
that  of  the  railway  village  which  had  been  platted  October  11,  1870,  in 
the  southeast  corner  of  this  township.  The  proprietors  of  the  village 
were  Henry  W.  HoUey,  chief  engineer  of  this  Southern  Minnesota  rail- 
road, and  Oren  Delavan  Brown,  in  whose  honor  the  village  name  was 


FARIBAULT  COUNTY  185 

suggested  by  Mrs.  Holley.  He  was  born  in  Jefferson  county,  N.  Y.,  in 
1837;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1856  with  his  father,  Orville  Brown,  a  promi- 
nent newspaper  editor;  was  an  engineer  on  the  surveys  for  the  Southern 
Minnesota  railroad,  1865-75,  and  later  for  the  St.  Paul  and  Sioux  City 
railroad;  afterward  resided  in  Luveme,  Minn.  The  first  passenger  train 
arrived  here  December  19,  1870.  The  village  was  incorporated  February 
7,  1877. 

Dunbar,  settled  in  1856,  organized  April  3,  1866,  was  named  Douglas 
by  the  county  commissioners  September  27,  1858,  in  honor  of  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  for  whom  also  Douglas  county  had  been  earlier  named  in  the 
same  year.  But  this  name  had  been  previously  given  to  another  Minne- 
sota township,  hence  it  was  changed  January  4,  1859,  to  be  in  honor  of 
William  Franklin  Dunbar,  then  the  state  auditor.  He  was  born  in 
Westerly,  R.  I.,  November  10,  1820;  and  died  in  Caledonia,  Minn.  He 
came  to  Minnesota  in  1854,  settling  in  Caledonia,  and  opened  a  farm  near 
that  itown;  was  a  member  of  the  territorial  legislature,  1856;  and  was 
the  first  state  auditor  of  Minnesota,  1858-60. 

Easton,  the  railway  village  in  Lura  township,  patted  in  September, 
1873,  and  incorporated  March  9,  1874,  was  named  for  Jason  Clark  Easton, 
one  of  the  original  proprietors.  He  was  born  in  West  Martinsburg,  N. 
Y.,  May  12,  1823;  and  died  in  La  Crosse,  Wis.,  April  25,  1901.  He  came 
to  Minnesota  in  1856,  and  settled  at  Chatfield.  There  and  in  several  other 
towns  of  southern  Minnesota  he  had  extensive  interests  in  banking,  farm 
lands,  and  railways.    He  removed  to  La  Crosse  in  1883. 

Elmore,  first  settled  in  November,  1855,  and  organized  in  1858,  was 
then  named  Dobson,  in  honor  of  James  Dobson,  who  came  from  Indiana, 
settling  here  as  a  homesteader  in  April,  1856.  This  name  was  changed  to 
Elmore  in  1862,  commemorating  Andrew  E.  Elmore,  a  prominent  citizen 
of  Wisconsin,  who  numbered  among  his  friends  several  early  settlers  of 
this  township.  He  was  born  in  Ulster  county,  N.  Y.,  May  8,  1814;  and 
died  at  Fort  Howard,  Wis.,  January  13,  1906.  He  came  to  Wisconsin  in 
1839,  settling  in  Mukwonago,  Waukesha  county,  where  he  was  a  merchant 
during  twenty-five  years.  In  1864  he  removed  to  Green  Bay,  and  after 
1868  he  resided  at  Fort  Howard,  near  Green  Bay.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  Wisconsin  territorial  legislature,  1842-44;  of  the  first  constitutional 
convention,  1846;  the  state  legislature,  1859-60;  and  was  during  many 
years  president  of  the  State  Board  of  charities  and  reform.  He  was 
commonly  called  "the  Sage  of  Mukwonago." 

Emerald,  settled  in  1856,  organized  April  3,  1866,  was  named  by  the 
county  commissioners  for  Ireland,  the  "Emerald  Isle,"  supposing  erron- 
eously that  it  had  Irish  settlers. 

Foster,  settled  in  June,  1856,  organized  September  24,  1864,  was  named 
in  honor  of  Dr.  Reuben  R.  Foster,  one  of  the  earliest  settlers  of  the 
county.  He  was  born  in  Jefferson  county,  N.  Y.,  in  1808 ;  came  to  Minne- 
sota in  1856,  settling  in  Walnut  Grove  township;   removed  in   1858  to 


186  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Blue  Earth  City,  and  was  its  first  resident  physician;  removed  to  Jack- 
son, Minn.,  in  1869,  and  to  St.  Paul,  about  1880,  where  he  died. 

Frost,  a  railway  village  in  the  north  edge  of  Rome,  "was  named  for 
Charles  S.  Frost,  an  architect  of  Chicago."  (Stennett,  Place  Names  of 
the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railways,  1908.) 

Huntley,  a  railway  village  in  Verona,  founded  in  August,  1879,  is 
named  for  Hon.  Henry  M.  Huntington,  a  pioneer  farmer.  He  was  bom 
in  Yates  county,  N.  Y.,  in  1835;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1857,  settling  in 
this  township;  served  in  the  Sixth  Minnesota  Regiment  during  the  civil 
war;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1872;  removed  to  his  old 
home  in  New  York  in  1879,  but  returned  in  1892,  and  afterward  resided 
in  Winnebago  City.  Because  the  name  Huntington  was  previously  in  use 
in  Minnesota,  this  shorter  form  was  adopted. 

Jo  Daviess  township,  (pronounced  as  Davis,  and  on  recent  maps  so 
spelled  erroneously),  settled  in  1855,  organized  January  26,  1864,  was 
named  Johnson  in  1858  by  the  county  commissioners,  in  honor  of  James 
and  Alexander  Johnson,  who  were  early  settlers  of  the  county.  It  was 
found,  however,  that  this  name  had  been  before  given  to  another  Minne- 
sota township,  and  it  was  accordingly  changed,  the  present  name  being 
adopted  Janu^u^  4,  1859,  on  the  suggestion  of  James  L.  McCrery,  one 
of  the  commissioners  and  the  first  settler  in  this  township,  a  native  of 
Kentucky.  It  is  the  name  of  the  most  northwestern  county  of  Illinois; 
and  Kentucky,  Indiana  and  Missouri  have  each  a  county  named  Daviess. 
It  commemorates  Joseph  Hamilton  Daviess,  a  brave  soldier  and  an  able 
lawyer  and  orator,  who  ''in  the  early  days  of  Kentucky  ranked  with  her 
most  gifted  and  honored  names."  He  was  born  in  Bedford  county,  Vir- 
ginia, March  4,  1774;  and  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe,  Novem- 
ber 7,  1811. 

KiESTER  township,  settled  in  May,  1866,  organized  in  January,  1872, 
was  named  Lake  by  the  county  commissioners  in  1858,  from  their  sup- 
position that  it  had  a  number  of  lakes.  Because  another  Minnesota  town- 
ship had  previously  received  this  name,  it  was  changed  January  4,  1859, 
in  honor  of  Jacob  Armel  Kiester,  who  later  became  the  historian  of  this 
county.  He  was  born  at  Mount  Pleasant,  Pa.,  April  29,  1832;  and  died 
in  Blue  Earth  City,  December  13,  1904.  He  was  a  student  in  Mt  Pleas- 
ant and  Dickinson  colleges.  Pa.;  studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to  prac- 
tice, 1855 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1857,  settling  in  Blue  Earth  City,  which 
ever  afterward  was  his  home;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in 
1865,  and  during  many  years  was  an  officer  of  this  county,  being  succes- 
sively cotmty  surveyor,  register  of  deeds,  county  attorney,  and  from 
1869  to  1890  was  judge  of  probate;  was  a  state  senator,  1891-3.  He  col- 
lected materials  during  more  than  twenty  years  for  "The  History  of  Fari- 
bault County,"  before  mentioned  as  the  source  of  much  information  for 
this  chapter;  and  he  also  wrote  a  continuation  of  that  work,  from  1880 
to  1904  inclusive,  of  which  typewritten  copies   (717  pages)   are  in  the 


FARIBA  ULT  CO  UNTY  187 

Etta  Ross  Memorial  Library,  Blue  Earth,  and  the  Library  of  the  Minne- 
sota Historical  Society,  St.  Paul. 

LuRA,  settled  in  May,  1856,  organized  September  7,  1864,  derived  its 
name  from  .Lake  Lura,  crossed  by  the  north  line  of  the  county  about  a 
mile  west  from  the  northwest  corner  of  this  township.  Its  name  is  said 
to  have  been  given  'Ijy  one  of  the  early  settlers,  from  the  name  *Lura' 
being  carved  on  a  tree  upon  its  shore."  In  the  chapter  of  Blue  Earth 
county,  its  Sioux  names  are  also  noted. 

Minnesota  Lake  township,  settled  in  1856,  was  organized  in  1858, 
and  was  then  named  Marples  by  the  commissioners,  in  honor  of  Charles 
Marples,  an  early  settler.  He  was  an  Englishman,  and  had  served  seven 
years  in  the  British  army.  After  long  residence  here,  he  removed  to 
Missouri.  This  township  name  was  changed  February  23,  1866,  to  Minne- 
sota Lake,  for  the  former  large  lake,  which  has  been  lately  drained  and 
apportioned  to  the  adjoining  farms.  It  is  a  name  received  from  the 
Sioux  or  Dakotas,  meaning  slightly  whitish  water,  which  they  also  applied 
to  the  Minnesota  river,  thence  adopted  by  this  state.  The  railway  village 
of  Minnesota  Lake  was  platted  in  October,  1866,  and  was  incorporated 
February  14,  1876. 

Pilot  Grove  township,  first  settled  in  June,  1856,  organized  in  Janu- 
ary, 1864,  "was  so  named  because  of  the  fine  grove  of  native  timber  on 
the  northern  boundary  of  the  town;  and  this  grove  was  named  Pilot 
Grove  because  in  the  early  days,  before  roads  were  established,  this 
grove  was  a  sort  of  landmark,  on  the  wide  prairies,  by  which  the  immi- 
grant was  piloted  on  his  way  westward.  It  may  be  added,  too,  that  this 
grove,  with  its  fine  lake  of  sparkling  waters  and  rich  grasses  surrounding 
it,  was,  in  the  days  of  immigrants,  a  sort  of- capacious  inn,  or  caravansary, 
or  camping  ground."  (Kiestcr's  History.)  We  regret  to  note  that  Pilot 
Grove  lake  has  in  recent  years  been  wholly  drained  away. 

Prescott>  settled  in  September,  1855,  organized  September  16,  1861, 
received  its  name  in  1858  for  a  settler  who  soon  afterward  moved  away. 
"All  that  has  been  ascertained  of  him  is,  that  he  was  a  carpenter  by 
trade,  and  that  he  was  known  by  the  name  of  *01d  Honesty.' " 

Rome  township,  settled  in  March,  1863,  organized  in  1868,  was  named 
Campbell  by  the  commissioners  in  1858,  for  James  Campbell,  one  of  the 
first  settlers  in  Elmore  township.  At  its  organization,  it  was  renamed 
Grant,  in  honor  of  General  Grant,  who  later  in  that  year  was  elected 
president  of  the  United  States.  This  name,  however,  had  been  earlier 
given  to  another  Minnesota  township,  wherefore  it  was  again  changed 
in  March,  1868,  the  present  name  being  adopted,  for  the  city  of  Rome,  N. 
Y.,  on  the  suggestion  of  Fred  Everton,  the  second  settler  in  this  town- 
ship, who  during  many  years  was  chairman  of  its  board  of  supervisors. 

Seely,  settled  in  June,  1856,  organized  in  1858,  commemorates  Philan- 
der C.  Seely,  one  of  its  earliest  settlers.  He  was  born  in  Cayuga  county, 
N.  Y.,  in  1823;  came  to  Minnesota  and  to  this  county  in  1857;  was 
elected  sheriff  in  1861,  receiving  every  vote  polled;  served  in  the  civil 


188  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

war;  resided  several  years  in  this  township,  and  later  in  Blue  Earth 
City. 

Verona^  settled  in  June,  1855,  organized  in  October,  1858,  was  named 
after  its  post  office,  established  in  1856  at  the  home  of  Henry  T.  Stod- 
dard, in  the  southeast  quarter  of  section  11,  the  name  having  been  pro- 
posed by  A.  B.  Cornell,  of  Owatonna,  for  this  terminus  of  the  mail  route. 
It  is  the  name  of  an  important  province  in  northern  Italy,  and  of  its  chief 
city,  whence  came  the  title  of  the  Shakespeare  drama,  *Two  Gentlemen 
of  Verona."  Seventeen  other  states  of  our  Union  have  villages  or  town- 
ships of  this  name. 

Walnut  Lake  township,  settled  in  June,  1856,  organized  in  1861, 
bears  the  name  of  its  large  lake,  referring  to  its  butternut  trees,  also 
called  oil-nut  and  white  walnut.  It  is  translated  from  the  Sioux  name 
Tazuka. 

Walters,  the  railway  village  of  Foster,  was  named  by  officers  of  the 
Chicago,  Rock  Island  and  Pacific  railway  company. 

Wells,  the  railway  village  of  Gark  township,  was  founded  and 
named  July  1,  1869,  receiving  the  maiden  surname  of  Mrs.  Gark  W. 
Thompson.  The  Southern  Minnesota  railroad  was  completed  to  this 
place  in  January,  1870,  and  the  railroad  from  Mankato  to  Wells  in  1874. 
This  village  was  incorporated  March  6,  1871.  Within  the  next  few  years 
numerous  flowing  wells,  twenty  or  more,  were  obtained  in  and  near  this 
village,  by  boring  through  the  glacial  drift  to  depths  of  110  to  120  feet, 
securing  excellent  water  which  rises  from  the  bottom  to  a  height  of  five 
to  fifteen  feet  above  the  surface.  These  are  the  most  remarkable  wells 
of  a  large  region  in  southern  Minnesota,  but  the  presence  of  artesian 
water  here  was  unknown  when  the  village  was  named. 

Winnebago  township,  settled  in  June,  1855,  organized  in  October, 
1858,  was  then  named  Winnebago  City,  after  the  village  of  this  name 
which  was  founded  here  by  Andrew  C.  Dunn  and  others  in  September, 
1856.  The  townsite  was  platted  in  January,  1857,  being  named  for  the 
Winnebago  tribe  of  Indians,  whose  reservation  during  the  years  1855  to 
1863  was  in  the  adjoining  Blue  Earth  county.  It  was  named  ''City"  for 
discrimination  from  the  Winnebago  Agency  near  Mankato,  but  this  part 
of  the  name  was  discontinued  in  1905. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

In  the  preceding  list,  sufficient  mention  has  been  made  for  the  Blue 
Earth  river.  Brush  creek,  Cobb  river  (flowing  through  the  northeast 
comer  of  this  county),  Lura  lake,  Minnesota  lake,  and  Pilot  Grove  and 
Walnut  lakes. 

Maple  river,  named  for  the  maple  trees  along  its  course,  flowing 
northward  into  Blue  Earth  county,  gave  the  name  there  of  '  Mapleton 
township  and  village.  Rice  lake,  in  Delavan,  near  the  head  of  the  west 
branch  of  this  river,  was  named  Maple  lake  on  the  state  map  of  1860.  Its 
present  name  refers  to  its  wild  rice,  like  another  Rice  lake  in  Foster. 


FARIBA  ULT  CO  UNTY  189 

Bass  lake,  in  section  9,  Delavan,  was  named  for  the  well  known  fish, 
and  it  gave  the  name  of  the  first  post  ofHce  in  this  township,  Bass  Lake, 
which  was  established  about  the  year  1859,  but  was  discontinued  after  the 
Delavan  railway  village  was  founded.  An  oak  grove  overlooking  Bass 
lake  is  named  ''Camp  Comfort/'  much  used  in  summers  for  picnics, 
reunions  of  the  old  settlers,  and  other  meetings. 

Hart  lake,  in  section  28,  Delavan,  commemorates  John  and  George 
Hart,  who  were  pioneer  farmers  there. 

Gorman's  lake,  now  drained,  in  section  17,  Jo  Daviess,  was  named  m 
honor  of  Patrick  Gorman,  an  early  Irish  settler  beside  it. 

Goose  and  Swan  lakes  were  in  sections  11  and  14,  Brush  Creek  town- 
ship, but  have  been  drained.  Another  Swan  lake,  in  section  15,  Barber, 
was  called  Lake  Kanta  in  1860,  a  Sioux  name,  meaning  Plum  lake,  for 
its  wild  plum  trees. 

The  two  largest  lakes  of  this  county,  Minnesota  lake,  before  noticed, 
and  Ozahtanka  lake  in  Barber  and  Emerald  townships,  have  been  drained, 
their  beds  being  now  cultivated  farm  lands.  Both  these  names  are  on 
the  map  of  1860,  each  being  the  Sioux  language.  Tatfka,  like  tonka,  means 
great,  but  Ozah  is  not  defined  in  Riggs'  Dakota  Dictionary. 

The  former  Mud  lake  in  section  23,  Lura,  is  now  traversed  by  a  ditch 
and  drained. 

Jones  creek,  in  Foster,  commemorates  a  settler  or  a  trapper. 

Coon  creek,  tributary  to  the  Blue  Earth  river  from  the  east,  and 
Badger  creek  from  the  west,  are  named  for  fur-bearers,  the  first  formerly 
common  here,  but  the  latter  rare  in  Minnesota,  though  common  in  parts 
of  Wisconsin,  giving  its  name  as  the  sobriquet  of  that  state. 

Elm,  Center,  and  South  creeks,  in  Verona,  flowing  to  the  Blue  Earth 
river  from  Martin  county,  are  to  be  noticed  in  the  chapter  for  that 
county. 

The  Kiester  Moraine  and  Glacial  Lake  Minnesota. 

The  fourth  in  the  series  of  twelve  terminal  and  marginal  moraines 
formed  in  Minnesota  by  the  continental  ice-sheet  during  its  wavering 
departure,  at  the  close  of  the  Glacial  period,  is  called  the  Kiester  moraine, 
from  its  prominent  Kiester  hills  in  the  township  of  this  name.  These 
marginal  drift  hills  and  the  continuation  of  their  morainic  belt  north- 
westerly in  this  county  and  onward  through  the  state,  probably  passing 
into  South  Dakota  in  the  vicinity  of  Big  Stone  lake,  were  noted  in  Volume 
I  of  the  Final  Reports  of  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey,  published  in 
1884. 

At  the  time  of  formation  of  the  Kiester  moraine,  the  Glacial  Lake 
Minnesota,  described  in  the  chapter  of  Blue  Earth  county,  overspread 
the  greater  part  of  Faribault  county,  reaching  thence  northwestward 
along  its  ice  border,  and  outflowing  south  by  the  Union  slough  in  Iowa, 
at  the  headi  of  the  Blue  Earth  river,  being  thence  tributary  to  the  Des 
Moines  river. 


FILLMORE  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  March  5,  1853,  was  named  for  Millard  Fill- 
more, who  was  president  of  the  United  States,  1850  to  1853,  retiring  from 
office  on  the  day  previous  to  the  approval  of  the  act  creating  this  coimty. 
He  was  born  at  Summer  Hill,  Cayuga  county,  N.  Y.,  February  7,  1800; 
and  died  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  March  8,  1874.  He  studied  law,  and  was 
admitted  to  practice  in  1823;  was  a  member  of  Congress,  1833-35  and 
1837-43;  was  comptroller  of  the  state  of  New  York,  1847-49;  was  elected 
vice  president  on  the  Whig  ticket  headed  by  Zachary  Taylor,  1848;  and 
succeeded  to  the  presidency  by  the  death  of  Taylor,  July  9,  1850.  Fill- 
more visited  St.  Paul  in  a  large  excursion  of  eastern  people,  June  8, 
1854,  as  noted  in  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  Collections  (vol.  VUI, 
pages  395-400). 

Biographies  of  Fillmore  were  published  in  1856,  when  he  was  nomi- 
nated as  presidential  candidate  of  the  American  party;  and  in  1915 
Rev.  William  Elliot  Griffis  published  a  memorial  review  of  his  life  and 
character,  159  pages,  entitled  "Millard  Fillmore,  Constructive  States- 
man, Defender  of  the  Constitution,  President  of  the  United  States." 
He  is  also  commemorated  by  Fillmore  county  in  Nebraska,  by  Millard 
county  in  Utah,  and  by  villages  named  Fillmore  in  a  dozen  states. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  these  names  has  been  gathered  from  "History  of  Fill- 
more County,"  by  Ellis  C.  Turner  and  others,  1882,  626  pages;  the  later 
History  of  this  county,  compiled  by  Frankljm  Curtiss-Wedge,  1912,  two 
volumes  (continuously  paged),  1170  pages;  and  from  Archibald  D.  Gray 
and  Andrew  W.  Thompson,  of  Preston,  and  Calvin  E.  Huntley,  of 
Spring  Valley,  interviewed  in  April,  1916. 

Amherst,  settled  in  1853,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  by  one 
of  its  pioneer  colonists,  E.  P.  Eddy,  "in  honor  of  the  place  in  which  his 
wife  was  born."  This  was  Amherst  in  Lorain  county,  Ohio,  where  her 
father,  Henry  Onstine,  leader  of  these  colonists,  formerly  lived.  The 
settlers  of  the  Ohio  township  came  from  New  England,  where  towns  of 
New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts  had  been  named  Amherst  in  honor 
of  General  Jeffery  Amherst,  the  English  commander  and  hero  of  the 
siege  and  capture  of  Louisburg  from  the  French  in  1758. 

Arendahl,  first  settled  in  1854,  organized  April  1,  18611,  was  named 
by  Isaac  Jackson,  a  Norwegian  immigrant,  who  had  lived  twelve  years 
in  Dane  county,  Wisconsin,  and  came  to  this  township  in  1856,  ihe  name 
being  for  the  seaport  city  of  Arendal  on  the  southeast  coast  of  Nor- 
way. "He  named  the  town  in  remembrance  of  old  associations,  secured 
a  post  office,  and  was  the  first  postmaster." 

190 


FILLMORE  COUNTY  191 

Beaver,  settled  in  1854,  organized  May  11,  1858,  received  its  name 
from  the  Beaver  creek  (doubtless  a  home  of  beavers),  which  flows 
through  this  township,  joining  the  Upper  Iowa  river  in  section  34.  A 
former  post  office  near  its  center,  established  in  1859,  was  called  Alba, 
meaning  white,  because  the  name  was  ''short,  eastern,  and  ancient." 

Bellville,  a  former  village  in  Newburg  township,  was  founded  in 
1853  by  two  brothers,  Edmund  and  Henry  Bell. 

Bloomfield,  first  settled  in  1854,  was  organized  May  11, 1858.  Eighteen 
other  states  have  villages  or  cities  of  this  "spring  reminding  name." 

Bratsberg,  a  hamlet  in  the  southeast  corner  of  section  10,  Norway, 
bears  the  name  of  a  district  in  southern  Norway,  comprising  an  area  of 
about  5,500  square  miles. 

Bristol,  settled  in  July,  1853,  organized  May  11,  1858,  has  the  name 
of  a  large  city  in  England,  near  the  head  of  the  Bristol  channel.  It  is 
also  the  name  of  counties  in  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island,  and  of 
villages  and  townships  in  twenty  other  states  of  our  Union. 

Canfield,  a  hamlet  on  the  east  line  of  section  21,  York,  was  named 
for  S.  G.  Canfield,  who  established  a  store  there  in  1876. 

Canton,  first  settled  in  March,  1851,  was  organized  May  11,  1858. 
"There  was  a  spirited  contest  over  the  name,  and  quite  a  number  were 
suggested,  but  the  struggle  was  finally  narrowed  down  to  two  names, 
*El3rria,'  suggested  by  E.  P.  Eddy,  and  that  of  'Canton,'  proposed  by 
Fred  Flor.  The  vote  declared  in  favor  of  Canton,  but  the  Elyria  party 
gave  up  reluctantly.  ....  On  the  records  up  to  1860,  the  name  Elsrria 
is  carried  along  in  the  town  books,  when  it  dropped  out  of  sight."  These 
are  names  of  cities  in  northeastern  Ohio,  near  the  former  homes  of  many 
settlers  in  this  township.  Canton  is  a  large  and  very  ancient  city  of 
southeastern  China,  and  thence  twenty-three  states  of  our  Union  have 
given  this  name  to  villages,  cities  and  townships.  The  railway  village 
of  Canton  was  incorporated  April  29,  1887. 

Carimona,  first  settled  in  1852,  organized  May  11,  1858,  has  the  village 
of  this  name,  founded  in  1853-4,  which  was  the  county  seat  in  1855-56, 
being  succeeded  by  Preston.  During  several  years  this  village  was  a 
busy  station  of  the  stage  route  from  Galena  and  Dubuque  to  St  Paul, 
as  shown  by  the  hotel  register  of  the  Carimona  House,  1855-59,  pre- 
sented to  the  Library  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society.  This  was  the 
name  of  a  prominent  chief  of  the  Winnebagoes,  who  signed  by  his  mark 
seven  successive  treaties  of  the  United  States  with  this  tribe,  in  1816, 
1825,  '27,  '28,  '29,  1832,  and  1837.  His  name,  borne  also  by  his  son,  had 
much  variety  of  spellings,  and  is  translated  as  "Walking  Turtle."  Dr. 
L.  C  Draper  wrote  of  him:  "Naw-Kaw,  or  Car-a-mau-nee,  or  The 
Walking  Turtle,  went  on  a  mission  with  Tecumseh  in  1809  to  the  New 
York  Indians,  and  served  with  that  chief  during  the  campaign  of  1813, 
and  was  present  at  his  death  at  the  Thames."  (See  Wisconsin  Historical 
Society  Collections,  vols.  II,  III,  V,  VII,  and  VIII;  Minnesota  H.  S. 


^4 


192  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Collections,  vol.  IV,  Williams*  History  of  St.  Paul,  page  256;  and  "Wau- 
bun,  the  'Early  Day'  in  the  North-West,"  by  Mrs.  John  H.  Kinzie,  1856, 
page  89.) 

At  a  grand  council  held  by  Governor  Ramsey  in  St.  Paul,  March  14, 
1850,  with  Winnebago  chiefs  who  had  come  from  their  reservation  at 
Long  Prairie,  Carimona  was  one  of  the  seven  chiefs  whose  names  are 
given  by  Williams.  This  chief,  doubtless  a  son  of  the  older  Carimona, 
removed  from  Wisconsin  to  Iowa,  later  to  Minnesota,  and  died,  after 
1850,  on  the  Yellow  river  in  Allamakee  county,  Iowa.  For  him  this 
village  and  township  were  named. 

Carrollton,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1854,  organized  May  11,  1858, 
received  its  name  in  honor  of  Charles  Carroll,  of  Carrollton,  in  Maryland, 
the  last  survivor  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  He 
was  born  in  Annapolis,  Md.,  September  20,  1737;  and  died  in  Baltimore, 
November  14,  1832. 

Chatfield,  settled  in  1853,  organized  in  1858,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Judge  Andrew  Gould  Chatiield,  who  presided  here  at  the  first  court 
held  in  the  county,  June  27,  1853.  He  was  born  in  Butternuts,  Otsego 
county,  N.  Y.,  January  27,  1810;  and  died  in  Belle  Plaine,  Minn., 
October  3,  1875.  He  was  an  associate  justice  of  the  supreme  court 
of  Minnesota  Territory,  1853-7;  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  town 
of  Belle  Plaine,  and  practiced  law  there,  1857-71 ;  was  judge  of  the 
Eighth  judicial  district,  1871-5.  The  village  of  Chatfield,  platted  in 
the  spring  of  1854  and  incorporated  in  1857,  was  the  first  county  seat 
for  two  years,  but  was  succeeded  in  1855  by  Carimona,  and  by  Preston 
since  1856.  This  village  was  incorporated  as  a  city,  by  the  legislature, 
Februry  19,  1887. 

Clear  Grit,  a  former  hamlet  on  the  South  branch  of  Root  river,  in 
section  21,  Carrollton,  took  the  name  given  by  John  Kaercher  to  a  flouring 
mill  operated  there  by  him  with  much  success,  1872-81,  retrieving  ill  for- 
tune and  losses  that  he  had  experienced  through  panics,  fire,  and  flood, 
from  1857  onward  in  Preston,  Chatfield,  Fillmore,  etc.  (M.  H.  S.  Collec- 
tions, vol.  X,  page  42.) 

Elliota,  a  former  village  in  section  32,  Canton,  was  laid  out  in  1853 
by  Captain  Julius  W.  Elliott,  its  earliest  settler  and  first  postmaster  and 
blacksmith.  He  was  born  in  Vermont  in  1822 ;  came  to  this  county  from 
Moline,  Illinois,  in  1853,  bringing  thence  a  company  of  the  first  settlers. 
In  1871  he  removed  to  Missouri,  where  he  died  in  1876. 

Etna,  a  hamlet  in  section  25,  Bloomfield,  received  its  name,  from 
several  that  were  suggested,  by  drawing  lots  when  its  post  ofHce  was 
established  in  1856,  now  discontinued.  This  name  of  the  lofty  volcano  in 
Sicily  is  borne  by  villages  and  post  offices  in  sixteen  other  states. 

Fillmore  township,  settled  in  August,  1854,  organized  May  11,  1858, 
was  named,  like  the  county,  in  honor  of  President  Fillmore,  taking  this 
name  from  its  village,  which  had  been  founded  in  1855. 


FILLMORE  COUNTY  193 

FoRESTViLLE  township,  first  settled  in  1852  and  organized  in  1855,  re- 
ceived its  name  in  honor  of  Forest  Henry,  the  first  probate  judge  of  the 
county,  who  settled  here  in  1854  and  in  the  next  year  was  the  first  post- 
master here.  He  was  also  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  village  of  Forest- 
ville,  platted  in  1854. 

Fountain,  settled  in  1853,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  for  its 
large  "Fountain  Spring"  in  section  4,  whence  the  railway  village  of  Foun- 
tain, platted  when  the  railway  was  built,  in  1870,  derives  its  water  supply. 
The  village  was  incorporated,  by  an  act  of  the  legislature,  in  1876. 

Granger,  a  village  in  the  south  edge  of  Bristol,  was  platted  in  1857 
by  C.  H.  Lewis  and  B.  Granger,  of  Boston,  Mass.,  who  also  opened  its 
first  store. 

Greenleafton,  a  little  hamlet  in  section  1,  York,  "was  named  in  honor 
of  Miss  Mary  Greenleaf,  of  Philadelphia,  who  generously  gave  three 
thousand  five  hundred  dollars  to  build  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church 
edifice." 

Hamilton,  a  small  village  in  the  southwest  corner  of  Sumner,  was 
platted  in  1855.  Ten  states  have  Hamilton  counties,  and  twenty-six 
states  have  townships,  villages,  or  cities  of  this  name,  mostly  in  honor  of 
Alexander  Hamilton,  patriot  in  our  American  Revolution,  and  first 
secretary  of  the  treasury  of  the  United  States,  1789-95. 

Harmony  township,  settled  in  the  fall  of  1852,  was  organized.  May 
11,  1858.  Its  village  was  founded  in  1880.  This  name  is  borne  by  villages 
and  townships  in  fifteen  states  of  our  Union. 

Henrytown,  a  hamlet  in  Amherst,  platted  in  1854,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Henry  Onstine,  who  was  the  leader  in  the  settlement  of  that  town- 
ship, as  before  noted. 

Highland,  a  hamlet  in  sections  35  and  36,  Holt,  received  the  name  of 
its  former  post  office,  established  in  1857,  referring  to  its  elevation  which 
gives  broad  views  over  the  valleys  on  the  north  and  south. 

Holt,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1854,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  at 
first  called  Douglas,  in  honor  of  the  statesman,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  for 
whom  a  county  of  this  state  is  named.  Because  that  name  had  been 
applied  to  another  Minnesota  township,  it  was  changed  to  Holt  in  1862, 
honoring  Gilbert  Holt,  a  pioneer  farmer  in  section  30,  who  "early  in  the 
seventies"  removed  to  Dakota. 

IsiNouRS,  a  railway  station  in  Carrollton,  established  about  1870,  was 
named,  with  change  of  spelling,  for  George  Isenhour,  on  whose  land  it 
was  located. 

Jordan  township,  settled  in  1853,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named 
for  its  North  and  South  Jordan  creeks,  which  unite  and  flow  into  the 
Middle  branch  of  Root  river.  The  name  was  given  to  these  small  streams 
by  John  Maine,  one  of  the  first  settlers,  who  came  from  New  England, 
fancifully  deriving  it  from  the  River  Jordan  in  Palestine. 

Lanesboro,  the  railway  village  in  Carrollton,  was  platted  in  the  spring 
of  1868.     Some  of  its  early  settlers  came  from  Lanesboro  township  in 


194  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Berkshire  county,  Mass.,  and  F.  A.  Lane  was  one  of  the  stockholders  in 
the  townsite  company. 

Lenora,  a  village  in  sections  2  and  11,  Canton,  was  founded  in  1855 
by  Rev.  John  L.  Dyer.  It  was  named  by  him  for  one  of  his  family  or 
for  a  friend.  ^ 

Mabel,  a  railway  village  in  Newburg,  was  platted  by  Frank  Adams, 
chief  engineer  of  this  railway,  giving  it  the  name  of  his  little  daughter 
who  had  died. 

Newburg,  first  settled  in  1851,  was  organized  May  11,  1858,  taking  the 
name  of  its  village  in  section  8,  which  had  been  founded  and  named  in 
1853  by  Hans  Valder,  a  native  of  Norway,  who  with  others  came  to  this 
place  from  LaSalle  county,  Illinois.  Eighteen  states  of  our  Union  have 
villages  and  post  offices  of  this  name. 

Norway,  settled  in  1854,  was  organized  April  3,  1860.  '^The  name  of 
the  town  is  said  to  have  been  suggested  by  John  Semmen,  in  honor  of 
the  native  country  of  almost  every  inhabitant  of  the  township." 

OsTRANDER,  the  railway  village  of  Bloomfield,  platted  in  1890,  was 
named  for  William  and  Charles  Ostrander,  who  gave  to  the  railway 
company  parts  of  the  village  site.  William  Ostrander  was  bom  in  the 
state  of  New  York,  in  1819;  and  came  to  Minnesota  in  1857,  settling  here 
as  a  farmer. 

Peterson,  a  railway  village  in  section  30,  Rushford,  was  founded  in 
1867,  when  the  railway  was  built,  on  land  donated  for  this  use  by  Peter 
Peterson  Haslerud,  who  settled  here  in  July,  1853.  It  was  incorporated 
in  February,  1909.  He  was  born  in  Norway,  July  21,  1828;  came  to  the 
United' States  in  1843;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature,  1862;  died 
September  23,  1880. 

Pilot  Mound  township,  settled  in  1854,  organized  May  11,  1858,  is 
named  for  a  flat-topped  limestone  hill  in  the  southwest  part  of  section 
11.  "It  forms  a  prominent  and  striking  object  in  the  landscape,  and 
formerly  guided  many  a  weary  traveler  as  he  wended  his  way  toward 
the  West." 

Preble,  settled  in  1853-4,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Edward  Preble  (b.  1761,  d.  1807),  of  the  United  States  Navy,  com- 
mander of  the  expedition  against  Morocco  and  Tripoli  in  1803-4. 

Preston,  first  settled  in  1853,  organized  May  11,  1858,  received  the  name 
which  had  been  given  to  its  village,  platted  in  the  spring  of  1855,  by  John 
Kaercher,  its  founder  and  mill  owner,  "in  honor  of  his  millwright,  Luther 
Preston."  In  the  same  year  a  post  office  bearing  this  name  was  estab- 
lished, and  Preston  was  appointed  the  first  postmaster.  This  village, 
situated  at  the  center  of  the  county,  has  been  the  county  seat  since  1856. 
It  was  incorporated  March  4,  1871. 

Prosper  is  a  railway  village  in  sections  35  and  26^  Canton,  auspiciously 
named. 

Rushford,  settled  in  July,  1853,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named 
on  Christmas  day,  1854,  by  unanimous  vote  of  the  pioneer  settlers,  tak- 


FILLMORE  COUNTY  195 

ing  the  name  from  Rush  creek  here  tributary  to  the  Root  river.  The 
men  and  women  so  voting  numbered  nine,  these  being  all  the  settlers  at 
that  date.  "Rush  creek  was  so  called  on  account  of  the  tall  rushes  that 
grew  along  its  banks,  where  cattle  and  ponies  could  obtain  a  subsistence 
all  winter."  The  village  of  Rush  ford,  founded  in  1854,  was  named  at 
the  same  time  with  the  township.  It  was  incorporated  as  a  city  in  1868, 
and  often  was  called  "the  Trail  City,  on  account  of  the  intersection  of 
several  Indian  foot  paths." 

Spring  Valley  township,  settled  in  1852,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was 
named  for  its  several  very  large  springs,  one  being  about  a  mile  east  of 
the  village,  and  two  nearly  as  large  within  the  townsite  limits,  one  of 
these  being  walled  up  and  used  as  a  pumping  supply  for  the  water  works. 
This  village,  founded  in  1855,  incorporated  in  1872,  has  become  a  junction 
of  railways. 

Stungtown  village,  begun  in  1860,  in  section  27,  Amherst,  has  its 
name  "from  the  fact  that  all  the  settlers  built  their  houses  along  the 
road  in  the  ravine  in  which  the  would  be  village  is  located,  thus  stringing 
it  out  for  some  distance." 

Sumner^  settled  in  May,  1853,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named 
by  the  earliest  settlers  in  honor  of  the  statesman,  Charles  Sumner  (b. 
1811,  d.  1874),  United  States  senator  for  Massachusetts  from  1851  till 
his  death,  an  uncompromising  opponent  of  slavery,  and  during  and  after 
the  civil  war  chairman  of  the  senate  committee  on  foreign  affairs,  1861-71. 

Waukopes,  a  former  hamlet  in  section  25,  Carimona,  founded  in  1853, 
derived  its  name  "from  an  Indian  chief,  who  used  to  have  a  fishing  and 
hunting  camp  at  this  place." 

Whalan,  the  railway  village  in  Holt,  founded  in  1868,  is  on  land 
previously  owned  by  John  Whaalahan,  "but  usage  dropped  the  redundant 
a's  and  an  h,  and  it  became  Whalan."    It  was  incorporated  in  March,  1876. 

Wykoff,  another  railway  village,  in  Fillmore,  platted  in  1871,  and  in- 
corporated March  8,  1876,  commemorates  Cyrus  G.  Wykoff,  of  LaCrosse, 
Wis.,  who  was  the  surveyor  for  construction  of  this  railway  and  was,  one 
of  the  proprietors  of  this  townsite. 

York,  settled  in  1854,  organized  May  11,  1858,  bears  the  name  of  a 
very  ancient  walled  city  in  England,  which  was  one  of  the  principal  seats 
of  Roman  dominion  there.  Thence  came  the  name  of  the  city  and  state 
of  New  York,  and  numerous  villages,  cities,  and  counties,  in  seventeen 
states  of  the  Union  are  named  York,  this  being  the  Saxon  form  derived 
from  Eboracum,  the  Latin  name. 

Rivers  and  Creeks. 

A  large  area  of  southeastern  Minnesota,  comprising  Fillmore  county, 
also  Houston  county  on  the  east,  Winona  and  Olmsted  counties  on  the 
north,  Wabasha  and  Goodhue  counties,  farther  north,  and  Mower  county 
on  the  west,  has  no  lakes,  being  strongly  contrasted  with  the  abundance 


196  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

of  lakes  in  nearly  all  other  parts  of  this  state.  The  southeastern  lakeless 
area  includes  the  edge  of  the  great  Driftless  Area  of  Wisconsin,  which 
reaches  into  Houston  and  Winona  counties.  On  its  other  and  larger 
part,  in  Fillmore  county  and  the  other  counties  named,  the  formations  of 
glacial  and  modified  drift,  spread  by  the  continental  ice-sheet  and  by 
waters  from  its  melting,  are  relatively  ancient  and  thin,  not  dominating 
the  surface  outlines.  The  region  therefore  lacks  the  more  or  less  uneven 
contour  of  alternate  swells  and  depressions,  or  sometimes  more  noteworthy 
ridges,  hills,  and  hollows,  which  elsewhere  are  characteristic  of  the  drift, 
causing  it  generally  to  have  plentiful  lakes. 

Root  river,  more  fully  noticed  in  the  first  chapter,  is  translated  from 
the  Dakota  or  Sioux  name,  Hokah,  both  being  used  on  Nicollet's  map  in 
1843.  This  river  may  be  said  to  be  formed  by  the  union  of  its  North  and 
'  Middle  branches  in  Chatfield  township.  A  mile  and  a  half  below  Lanes- 
boro  it  receives  the  South  branch.  Another  large  southern  affluent,  called* 
the  South  fork  of  Root  river,  drains  southeastern  Fillmore  county  and 
joins  the  main  stream  in  Houston  county. 

On  the  state  map  published  in  1860,  the  Middle  and  South  branches 
and  the  South  fork  were  respectively  called  Fillmore,  Carimona,  and 
Houston  rivers,  taking  these  names  from  the  three  villages. 

Tributaries  of  the  Root  river  from  the  north  in  this  county  include 
Rush  creek,  before  noted,  in  Rushford;  Pine  creek,  in  the  north  edge  of 
Arendahl,  which  is  a  branch  of  Rush  creek;  and  Money  and  Trout  creeks, 
in  Pilot  Mound  township. 

Houston  county  has  another  Money  creek,  for  which  .a  township  is 
named.  There  it  originated  from  an  incident  of  the  early  history;  but 
the  reason  for  its  duplication  in  Fillmore  county  has  not  been  ascertained, 
though  the  two  are  believed  to  have  some  relationship. 

Lost  creek,  tributary  to  the  Middle  branch,  is  so  named  because  it 
flows  underground  in  the  creviced  limestone  beds  for  two  miles,  through 
sections  14  and  13,  Jordan. 

The  North  and  South  Jordan  creeks,  before  mentioned  as  giving  the 
township  name,  and  the  Brook  Kedron,  flowing  into  the  Middle  branch 
in  Suipner,  are  names  from  the  Bible,  the  latter  being  a  very  small 
stream  with  a  deep  valley  at  the  east  side  of  Jerusalem. 

Bear,  Deer,  and  Spring  Valley  creeks  flow  into  the  Middle  branch 
from  the  southwest 

Sugar  creek,  named  for  its  sugar  maples,  is  tributary  to  Root  river 
in  section  13,  Chatfield. 

The  South  branch  receives  Watson  creek  near  the  center  of  Carroll- 
ton,  commemorating  Thomas  and  James  Watson,  pioneers  of  Fountain 
township;  and  from  the  south  it  receives  Canfield,  Willow,  and  Camp 
creeks,  the  first  (which  in  two  parts  of  its  course  flows  underground) 
b^ing  named  for  S.  G.  Canfield,  of  York,  and  the  last  having  been  a 
favorite  camping  place  for  immigrants.     A  small  eastern  tributary  of 


FILLMORE  COUNTY  197 

Camp  creek  was  formerly  called  Duxbury  creek,  for  pioneer  families 
there;  but  on  recent  maps  it  is  named  Partridge  creek,  for  the  well  known 
game  birds. 

Weisel  creek,  flowing  into  the  South  fork  of  Root  river  in  Preble, 
was  named  for  David  Weisel,  who  in  1855  built  a  sawmill  and  gristmill 
near  its  mouth.  The  mill  was  carried  away,  and  himself  and  family 
were  drowned^  by  a  flood  of  this  stream,  August  6,  1866. 

Beaver  creek,  before  noticed  as  the  soured  of  the  name  of  Beaver 
township,  was  called  Slough  creek  on  the  map  of  1860. 

The  head  stream  of  Upper  Iowa  river,  to  which  Beaver  creek  is 
tributary,  flows  meanderingly  past  the  south  side  of  Beaver,  York,  and 
Bristol,  several  times  crossing  the  state  boundary.  Its  name,  previously 
considered  in  the  first  chapter,  like  that  of  the  state  of  Iowa  and  of  the 
larger  Iowa  river,  farther  south,  commemorates  a  Siouan  tribe  who  lived 
on  these  rivers,  nearly  related  with  the  Winnebagoes. 

Eagle  Rocks  and  Chimney  Rock 

are  craggily  eroded  and  weathered  forms  of  the  limestone  strata,  left  in 
the  process  of  very  slow  channeling  of  the  valley  of  the  South  branch 
of  Root  river  in  section  27,  Forestville.  The  Eagle  Rocks  are  pictured 
in  the  Final  Report  of  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey  (vol.  I,  1884,  page 
296)  ;  and  on  the  same  page  the  Chimney  Rock  is  described,  "on  the 
side  of  the  bluff  of  a  ravine,  .  .  .  having  a  fancied  resemblance  to  an 
oven  with  a  low  chimney." 


FREEBORN  COUNTY 

Established  February  20,  1855,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of 
William  Freeborn,  member  of  the  Council  in  the  Territorial  Legislature 
for  the  years  1854  to  1857.  He  was  born  in  Ohio  in  1816;  came  to  St 
Paul  in  1848,  and  removed  to  Red  Wing  in  1853,  where  he  had  large 
interests,  as  also  at  Cannon  Falls;  emigrated  in  1864  to  the  Rocky  moun- 
tains, and  spent  the  next  winter  as  a  gold  miner  in  Montana ;  was  engaged 
three  years  in  fruit  culture  in  Oregon;  and  finally,  in  1868,  settled  in 
California,  on  a  ranch  at  Santa  Margarita,  in  San  Luis  Obispo  county. 
He  was  the  second  mayor  of  Red  Wing,  in  1858,  but  resigned  before  the 
end  of  the  year.  Although  he  had  traveled  much,  he  wrote  in  1899  from 
his  California  home  that  he  had  never  ridden  on  a  railroad  train.  New- 
son,  in  his  "Pen  Pictures  of  St.  Paul"  (1884),  wrote  of  Freeborn  as  fol- 
lows: "He  was  a  man  of  progressive  and  speculative  ideas,  energetic, 
always  scheming,  and  had  a  happy  faculty  of  getting  other  parties  inter- 
ested in  his  enterprises.  He  was  a  quietly  spoken  man,  of  rugged  appear- 
ance; self-possessed,  and  never  was  afraid  to  venture."  This  county 
was  organized  March  4,  1857,  with  Albert  Lea  as  the  county  seat. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Notes  of  the  origins  of  geographic  names  have  been  gathered  from 
"History  of  Freeborn  County,"  1882,  548  pages,  including  the  "Centen- 
nial History,"  by  Daniel  G.  Parker  (forming  pages  281-292) ;  the  later 
History  of  this  county,  compiled  by  FranWyn  Curtiss- Wedge,  1911,  883 
pages;  and  from  Martin  Van  Buren  Kellar,  of  Albert  Lea,  interviewed 
in  April,  1916. 

Albert  Lea  township,  first  settled  in  the  summer  of  1855,  organized  in 
1857,  took  the  name  of  its  village,  which  was  platted  in  October,  1856, 
and  was  incorporated  as  a  city  March  11,  1878.  The  name  was  adopted 
from  the  large  adjoining  lake  on  the  southeast,  to  which  Nicollet  gave 
it  in  honor  of  Albert  Miller  Lea  who  in  1835  explored  and  mapped  streams 
and  lakes  in  this  county. 

Lea  was  bom  in  Richland,  Grainger  county,  Tennessee,  July  23,  1808; 
was  graduated  at  West  Point  in  1831 ;  aided  Major  Long  in  1832,  in 
surveys  of  the  Tennessee  river;  was  an  assistant  on  surveys  of  Lake 
Michigan  in  1833 ;  was  in  military  service  on  the  Missouri  and  Mississippi 
rivers  during  1834;  and  in  the  summer  of  1835  was  second  lieutenant 
of  a  company  on  the  exploring  expedition  here  noticed,  in  which  he  was 
designated  as  ordnance  officer  and  volunteered  his  services  as  topographer 
and  chronicler. 

The  expedition,  under  the  command  of  Lieut.  Col.  Stephen  Watts 
Kearny,  traveled  along  the  northeast  side  of  the  Des  Moines  river  from 


FREEBORN  COUNTY  199 

the  Mississippi  to  the  mouth  of  Boone  river,  thence  northeast  to  the 
Mississippi  at  the  mouth  of  Zumbro  river,  (named  Embarras  river  by 
Lea,  because  it  was  encumbered  by  a  raft  of  driftwood  near  its  mouth), 
thence  southeast  to  Wabasha's  village  and  the  site  of  Winona,  and  thence 
westward  to  headwaters  of  the  Cedar  and  Blue  Earth  rivers,  and  south- 
westward  through  the  present  Winnebago  and  Kossuth  counties  in  Iowa, 
to  the  Des  Moines  river.  Descending  the  Des  Moines  in  a  canoe  from 
the  site  of  the  city  of  this  name  to  its  mouth.  Lea  mapped  it  and  described 
it  in  his  journal  of  the  expedition,  which  was  the  basis  of  an  unpublished 
report  to  the  War  Department,  and  of  a  pamphlet  in  53  pages,  with  a 
map,  published  the  next  year  in  Philadelphia.  In  this  publication,  Lea 
first  gave  the  name  Iowa  to  the  district  obtained  by  treaty  at  the  close 
of  the  Black  Hawk  war,  in  1852.  It  was  an  eastern  part  of  the  large  area 
later  called  Iowa  as  a  territory  and  state,  having  reference  to  the  Iowa 
Indians  and  the  river  bearing  their  name. 

An  extended  autobiographic  sketch,  written  by  Albert  M.  Lea  for  the 
Minnesota  Historical  Society,  was  published  in  the  Freeborn  County 
Standard,  March  13,  1879.  He  resigned  from  the  army  in  1836;  resided 
in  Tennessee,  was  a  civil  engineer,  and  in  1838  was  U.  S.  commissioner 
for  the  survey  of  the  southern  boundary  of  the  Territory  of  Iowa ;  was 
professor  of  mathematics  in  the  East  Tennessee  University,  at  Knox- 
ville,  1844-51 ;  removed  to  Texas  in  1857 ;  was  an  engineer  of  the  Confed- 
erate service  during  the  civil  war;  lived  in  Galveston,  1865-74,  and  later 
in  Corsicana,  Texas,  where  he  died,  January  17,  1891.  Two  of  his  broth- 
ers were  Pryor  Lea,  a  member  of  Congress,  and  Luke  Lea,  who,  as 
Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  was  associated  with  Governor  Ramsey 
in  1851  in  making  the  treaties  of  Traverse  des  Sioux-  and  Mendota. 

Further  details  of  this  expedition,  and  notes  of  the  names  applied  by 
Lea  to  lakes  and  streams  in  Freeborn  county,  are  given  in  the  later  part 
of  this  chapter. 

Alden,  settled  in  1858,  was  organized  April  3,  1866.  The  railway  vil- 
lage was  platted  in  1869,  and  the  track  was  completed  tp  this  place  Janu- 
ary 1,  1870.  It  was  incorporated  in  1879.  This  name  is  borne  by  villages 
and  townships  in  seven  other  states. 

Armstrong^  a  railway  station  in  section  4,  Pickerel  Lake,  was  estab- 
lished in  1878,  and  was  named  for  Hon.  Thomas  Henry  Armstrong, 
who  in  that  year  erected  a  grain  elevator  there.  He  was  born  in  Milan, 
Ohio,  February  6,  1829;  was  graduated  at  Western  Reserve  College, 
1854;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1855,  settling  in  High  Forest,  Olmsted  county; 
and  in  1874  removed  to  Albert  Lea,  where  he  died,  December  29,  1891. 
He  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature,  1864-5,  being  speaker  in  1865; 
was  lieutenant  governor,  1866-70 ;  and  a  state  senator,  1877-8. 

Bancroft,  first  settled  in  July,  1855,  organized  May  11,  1858,  had  a 
temporary  village  of  this  name,  platted  in  the  fall  of  1856,  in  sections  28 
and  29,  which  on  March  4,  1857,  was  an  unsuccessful  candidate  for  the 


200  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

county  seat.  The  name  was  chosen  in  honor  of  George  Bancroft  (b. 
1800,  d.  1891),  who  was  author  of  "History  of  the  United  States,"  ten 
volumes,  published  1834-74;  U.  S.  secretary  of  the  navy,  1845-6,  and 
founder  of  the  Naval  Academy,  Annapolis;  minister  to  Great  Britain, 
1846-49,  and  to  Berlin,  1868-74. 

Bath,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1856,  was  organized  in  January,  1858, 
under  the  name  of  Porter,  but  was  renamed  Bath,  April  15,  1859,  after 
the  name  of  the  county  seat  of  Steuben  county.  New  York,  the  native 
town  of  Frederick  W.  Calkins,  who  had  settled  here  in  1857. 

Carlston,  first  settled  in  August,  1855,  was  organized  in  January, 
1858,  being  then  named  Stanton,  in  honor  of  Elias  Stanton,  a  settler  on 
the  shore  of  Freeborn  lake,  who  had  suffered  amputation  of  his  feet 
because  of  their  being  frozen,  and  who  died  in  the  spring  of  1858.  This 
name  was  earlier  used  for  another  Minnesota  township,  so  that  in  Sep- 
tember, 1859,  it  was  changed,  the  present  name  being  adopted  "in  respect 
to  the  memory  of  a  distinguished  Swede  of  that  name,  who  settled  in 
that  town  in  an  early  day,  and  who  was  drowned  in  Freeborn  lake." 
He  was  Theodore  L.  Carlston  (or  Carlson),  the  second  settler,  drowned 
in  185a 

Clark's  Grove,  the  railway  village  in^Bath,  was  founded  in  1890,  ten 
years  before  the  railway  was  built.  Its  name  had  been  long  borne  by  a 
grove  a  mile  east  of  the  present  village,  in  which  grove  J.  Mead  Qark 
settled  "in  the  early  days." 

Conger,  a  railway  village  in  the  east  edge  of  Alden,  was  named  by 
officers  of  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  and  Pacific  railway. 

Emmons,  a  railway  village  in  the  south  edge  of  Nunda,  on  the  state 
line,  was  incorporated  March  14,  1899.  Here  Henry  G.  Emmons  settled 
in  1856,  and  "in  1880  his  sons  started  a  store  on  the  present  site  of  the 
village."  He  was  born'  in  Norway,  October  16,  1828;  came- to  the  United 
States  in  1850,  settling  at  first  in  Wisconsin ;  was  postmaster  of  the  State 
Line  post  office  here  fifteen  years ;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature, 
1877-8 ;  died  in  this  village,  October  2,  1909. 

Freeborn  township  was  first  settled  in  July,  1856,  and  was  organized 
May  11,  1858.  Its  village,  platted  in  June,  1857,  and  the  lake  beside  which 
it  lies,  were  named  like  the  county,  in  honor  of  William  Freeborn,  whence 
also  the  township  received  this  name. 

Freeman,  first  settled  in  1854,  organized  April  2,  1861,  was  named  in 
honor  of  John  Freeman,  a  native  of  Northampton,  England,  who  in  1855 
"secured,  under  the  pre-emption  law,  the  whole  of  section  fifteen  for 
himself  and  three  sons." 

Geneva,  settled  in  1855-6,  was  organized  May  11,  1858.  Its  village, 
platted  in  the  winter  of  1856-7,  had  been  named  by  Edwin  C.  Stacy,  the 
first  postmaster  here  and  the  first  probate  judge  for  the  county,  "in 
remembrance  of  Geneva,  N.  Y.,"  whence  the  large  adjoining  lake  and 
the  township  received  the  same  name. 


FREEBORN  COUNTY  201 

Glenville,  the  railway  village  and  junction  in  Shell  Rock  township, 
was  named  by  officers  of  the  railway  company.  It  was  incorporated  in 
1898.  Previous  to  the  building  of  the  railway  here  in  1877,  this  had  been 
the  site  of  a  smaller  village,  platted  in  1856,  bearing  the  name  Shell  Rock, 
for  the  river  on  which  it  is  situated,  thence  given  also  to  the  township. 

GoROONsviLLE,  a  railway  village  in  section  Z2,  Shell  Rock,  platted  in 
1880,  received  its  name  from  a  post  office  that  was  established  about 
1860  or  earlier,  of  which  T.  J.  Gordon  and  his  son,  W.  H.  H.  Gordon, 
were  successively  postmasters  after  1865,  residing  as  farmers  in  section 
28,  near  the  site  of  this  village. 

Hartland,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1857,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was 
named  for  Hartland  in  Windsor  county,  Vermont,  whence  some  of  its 
early  settlers  came.  This  name  was  proposed  by  the  wife  of  O.  Sheldon, 
the  first  postmaster.  The  railway  village  of  Hartland  was  platted  in 
1877,  and  was  incorporated  in  1893. 

Hayward^  settled  in  1856,  organized  April  5,  1859,  was  named  in  honor 
of  David  Hayward,  one  of  its  earliest  settlers,  who  came  from  Postville, 
Iowa,  and  returned  to  that  state  after  living  here  only  two  years.  The 
railway  village,  founded  in  1869,  was  replatted  in  1886. 

Itasca  was  a  small  village  or  hamlet  in  section  31,  Bancroft,  platted  in 
the  winter  of  1855-6,  adjoining  a  lakelet  which  also  was  named  Itasca. 
In  1857  it  was  an  aspirant  to  be  designated  as  the  county  seat,  but,  failing 
in  that  ambition,  it  lasted  only  a  few  years.  The  name  was  derived  from 
that  given  by  Schoolcraft  to  the  source  of  the  Mississippi  river. 

London,  settled  in  1855,  organized  in  1858,  received  its  name  for  the 
city  and  county  of  New  London,  Connecticut.  It  was  proposed  by  William 
N.  and  James  H.  Goslee,  natives  of  Hartford  county  in  that  state,  who 
settled  here  respectively  in  1856  and  1857.  The  railway  village  of  Lon- 
don was  platted  in  October,  1900. 

Manchester,  first  settled  in  June,  1856,  organized  in  January,  1858, 
was  then  named  Buckeye,  but  in  May  it  was  renamed  Liberty.  In  October 
of  that  year  it  received  the  present  name,  suggested  by  Mathias  Ander- 
son, who  came  here  in  1857  from  a  township  of  this  name  in  Illinois.  Its 
railway  village,  founded  in  1877-8,  was  platted  in  1882. 

Mansfield,  settled  in  June,  1856,  was  organized  in  January,  1866,  being 
the  latest  township  of  this  county.  Its  name,  suggested  by  Captain  George 
S.  Ruble,  founder  of  the  city  of  Albert  Lea,  is  borne  by  a  city  in  Ohio, 
near  his  former  home,  and  by  villages  and  townships  in  fourteen  states 
of  our  Union.  Originally  the  name  is  from  a  town  of  Nottinghamshire 
in  England,  whence  the  first  Earl  of  Mansfield  (b.  1705,  d.  1793),  a  dis- 
tinguished British  jurist  and  statesman,  received  his  title.  The  History 
of  this  county  (1882)  refers  to  him  as  commemorated  by  tlhis  township 
name. 

Moscow,  first  settled  in  May,  1855,  was  organized  in  January,  1858. 
"Some  years  previous  to  settlement,  the  heavy  body  of  timber   which 


202  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

covered  section  seventeen,  in  Moscow,  was  set  on  fire  in  a  dry  season, 
creating  such  a  conflagration  as  to  suggest  scenes  in  Russia  under  the 
great  Napoleon.  From  that  time  it  was  known  as  the  Moscow  timber, 
and  thus  the  name  of  the  town  had  its  origin."  (History,  1882,  page 
292.)     The  little  village  of  this  name  was  platted  in  June,  1857. 

Myrtle,  the  railroad  village  in  section  7,  London,  was  founded  "in 
1900,  when  the  railroad  came  through." 

NEWRYy  settled  in  1854,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  on  the 
suggestion  of  Thomas  Fitzsimmons,  who  was  the  first  township  clerk, 
for  a  seaport  and  river  in  northern  Ireland,  whence  several  pioneers  of 
this  township  came. 

NuNDA,  settled  in  1856,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  by  Pat- 
rick Fitzsimmons,  a  native  of  Ireland,  who  was  one  of  the  first  settlers 
and  a  prominent  citizen,  '*in  honor  of  towns  of  the  same  name  in  which 
he  had  lived  in  New  York  and  Illinois."  This  name  is  "derived  from  the 
Indian  word  nundao,  meaning  'hilly,'  or  according  to  another  authority, 
'potato  ground.'"  (Gannett,  The  Origin  of  Certain  Place  Names  in  the 
U.  S.,  1905.) 

Oakland,  settled  in  1855,  organized  April  5,  1857,  received  its  name 
from  the  small  and  scattered  oak  trees,  with  occasional  groves,  which 
originally  occupied  fully  half  of  its  area,  commonly  called  "oak  open- 
ings," while  the  remainder  consisted  of  prairie  land  and  grassy  sloughs. 

Pickerel  Lake  township,  first  settled  in  1855,  organized  September 
8,  1865,  bears  the  name  of  the  lake  crossed  by  its  east  boundary,  widely 
known  for  its  abundance  of  this  fish.  The  lake  had  been  called  Bear 
lake  by  the  Indians  because  previous  to  the  coming  of  white  settlers  they 
killed  a  large  bear  near  it.  The  present  name  was  given  by  Austin  R. 
Nichols,  through  whose  mistake  in  1854  the  former  names  of  Pickerel 
and  Bear  lakes  became  transposed.     (History,  1882,  page  291.) 

Riceland,  settled  in  August,  1856,  organized  in  January,  1858,  was  at 
first  named  Beardsley,  in  honor  of  Samuel  A.  Beardsley,  one  of  the  first 
pioneers,  who  "came  by  ox  team  from  Illinois,  brought  considerable 
stock,  and  settled  on  the  south  side  of  Rice  lake."  This  large  but  shallow 
lake,  well  filled  with  wild  rice,  for  which  the  township  was  soon  renamed, 
covered  some  2,000  acres,  but  it  has  been  wholly  drained  away,  the  lake 
bed  being  now  farm  lands. 

St.  Nicholas  was  the  first  village  in  this  county,  platted  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1856,  on  the  south  side  of  Lake  Albert  Lea,  in  sections  25  and  26 
of  Albert  Lea  township.  In  March,  1857,  it  aspired  to  be  elected  as  the 
county  seat,  but,  after  the  failure  of  that  hope,  its  buildings  were  removed 
and  the  village  site  became  farming  land. 

Shell  Rock  township,  settled  in  June,  1853,  organized  in  1857,  received 
the  name  of  its  river,  the  outlet  of  Lake  Albert  Lea,  which  along  its 
course  in  Iowa  is  bordered  by  rock  strata  containing  fossil  shells. 
The  early  village  of  Shell  Rock  has  been  noticed  in  this  list  as  Glenville, 
its  present  name. 


FREEBORN  COUNTY  203 

Twin  Lakes,  a  railway  village  in  section  12,  Nunda,  was  partly  platted 
in  1858,  being  the  site  of  a  sawmill  and  a  flouring  mill  many  years  previ- 
ous to  the  building  of  the  railway  in  1877-^.  The  fall  of  Goose  creek, 
outflowing  from  the  neighboring  Twin  lakes,  supplies  valuable  water 
power. 

L>AK£s  AND  Streams^  with  Notes  of  the  Expedition  in  1835. 

The  pamphlet  before  mentioned  as  published  by  Lieut.  Albert  M. 
Lea,  entitled  "Notes  on  the  Wisconsin  Territory,  particularly  with  refer- 
ence to  the  Iowa  District  or  Black  Hawk  Purchase"  (53  pages,  1836),  has 
a  folded  map  of  the  country  extending  from  northern  Missouri  to  the 
foot  of  Lake  Pepin  and  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Missouri  river,  com- 
prising the  present  southeast  part  of  Minnesota  and  nearly  all  of  Iowa. 
In  the  area- of  Freeborn  county  Lea  mapped  and  named  five  lakes,  each 
of  which  is  clearly  identified  on  the  present  more  accurate  maps. 

Fox  lake,  doubtless  named  for  a  fox  seen  there,  is  the  largest  of  these 
lakes,  to  which  Nicollet's  map  in  1843  gave  its  present  title,  Lake  Albert 
Lea."  The  outflowing  Shell  Rock  river  received  this  name  on  Lea's  map, 
which  Nicollet  copied  but  called  it  a  creek.  Where  Lea  crossed  it  on  the 
outward  journey  of  the  expedition,  "limestone  filled  with  petrifications 
was  abundant,"  whence  he  derived  the  name.  (Iowa  Historical  Record, 
vol.  VI,  page  548.) 

Chapeau  lake,  meaning  in  French  a  hat,  so  named  by  Lea  for  its  out- 
line, which  reminded  him  of  the  old-fashioned  three-cornered  hat,  left 
unnamed  by  Nicollet,  is  now  White  Lake,  commemorating  Captain  A.  W. 
White,  an  early  settler  who  lived  beside  it  till  1861,  then  removing  into  the 
village  of  Albert  Lea. 

Fountain  lake,  adjoining  the  north  side  of  the  city  of  Albert  Lea, 
is  produced  by  a  dam,  so  that  it  does  not  appear  on  early  maps. 

Council  lake  of  Lea's  map,  referring  to  some  parley  there  with  "a 
few  straggling  Indians,"  as  mentioned  in  his  autobiographic  letter  to  the 
Minnesota  Historical  Society,  is  now  Freeborn  lake,  outflowing  by  the 
Big  Cobb  river  northwesterly  to  the  Blue  Earth  and  Minnesota  rivers. 
This  lake  and  two  others  continuing  northward  are  mapped  by  Nicollet 
as  Ichiyaza  lakes,  a  Sioux  name  meaning  a  row  or  series. 

Trail  lake,  named  probably  for  an  Indian  trail  passing  by  it,  mapped 
too  large  by  Lea,  copied  by  Nicollet,  but  without  a  name,  is  the  Upper 
Twin  lake,  outflowing  by  Lime  creek,  which  was  also  named  by  Lea,  now 
Goose  creek.  A  very  little  lakelet  of  Lea's  map,  northwest  of  Trail  lake, 
represents  the  Little  Oyster  lakes  in  sections  23  and  26,  Pickerel  Lake 
township,  "so  called  because  of  their  shape." 

Lake  Boone,  named  by  Lea  in  honor  of  Nathan  Boone,  captain  of  one 
of  the  companies  of  dragoons  in  this  ocpedition,.  is  now  Bear  lake  in 
Nunda,  which  was  at  first  called  Pickerel  lake  in  1853  by  the  white  settlers, 
as  noted  in  the  History  of  this  county  (1882,  page  291).    Lea  mapped  it 


204  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

erroneously  as  the  source  of  Boone  river  in  Iowa,  named  on  his  map 
likewise  for  Captain  Boone.  In  this  error  he  was  followed  by  Nicollet, 
whose  map,  however,  leaves  both  the  lake  and  river  unnamed.  Nathan 
Boone  (b.  1780,  d.  1857),  was  the  youngest  of  the  nine  children  of  the 
renowned  frontiersman,  Daniel  Boone. 

"Paradise  Prairie,"  noted  by  Lea,  northward  of  his  Chapeau  lake, 
was  described  in  the  History  of  the  county  in  1882,  that  it  enters  Ban- 
croft township  "in  the  southwestern  corner  and  extends  northeasterly 
almost  across  the  entire  town,  gradually  disappearing  towards  Clark's 
Grove,  in  the  northeast  corner." 

In  the  list  of  townships,  sufficient  reference  has  been  made  to  several 
lakes,  besides  those  noted  by  Lea,  namely,  Geneva  lake,  Itasca  lake, 
Pickerel  and  Rice  lakes,  and  the  Twin  lakes. 

Nicollet's  Ichiyaza  lakes,  before  noticed,  doubtless  included  Lake 
George,  and  Spicer  and  Tren>ton  lakes,  in  Freeborn,  named  for  and  by 
early  settlers.  Another,  the  little  Prairie  lake,  also  named  Penny  lake, 
is  in  section  31  of  this  township. 

Le  Sueur  or  Mule  lake,  in  the  east  part  of  Hartland,  lies  at  the  head 
of  Le  Sueur  river.  Its  second  name  alludes  to  the  loss  of  "a  fine  span 
of  mules  belonging  to  B.  J.  Boardman,"  drowned  there  in  1857. 

Lake  George,  in  section  22,  Bath,  was  named  in  honor  of  George  W. 
Skinner,  Jr.,  son  of  a  prominent  pioneer  there. 

Newry  lake  derived  its  name  from  its  location,  in  section  2,  Newry 
township. 

Deer  and  Turtle  creeks,  in  Newry  aad  Moscow,  Goose  lake  in  section 
3,  Albert  Lea,  and  Elk  lake,  section  21,  London,  need  no  explanations. 

Spring  lake,  in  the  city  of  Albert  Lea,  and  Fountain  lake  at  its  north 
side,  the  latter  a  mill  pond,  are  named  for  springs  on  their  shores. 

Bancroft  creek  is  in  the  township  of  this  name. 

Manchester  had  a  notable  group  of  small  lakes,  namely.  Lake  Peter- 
son, Silver,  Sugar,  and  Spring  lakes ;  but  the  first  two  have  been  drained. 

Peter  Lund  creek,  in  Hayward,  commemorates  a  pioneer  farmer,  an 
immigrant  from  Norway,  who  came  to  America  in  1850,  settled  here  in 
1856,  and  was  the  first  township  treasurer. 

Steward's  creek,  in  Alden  and  Mansfield,  was  named  in  honqr  of  Hiram 
J.  Steward,  who  was  bom  near  Bangor,  Maine,  September  21,  1831 ;  served 
in  the  civil  war,  1862,  being  severely  wounded;  came  west,  and  in  1869 
settled  as  a  farmer  in  section  12,  Mansfield. 

Lime  creek  is  the  outlet  of  Bear  lake  and  State  Line  lake,  flowing 
into  Iowa  and  there  tributary  to  Shell  Rock  river.  It  was  thought  by 
Lea  to  be  the  head  stream  of  Boone  river,  as  before  noted. 

Grass  lake,  in  sections  26  and  35,  Freeman,  now  drained,  was  named 
for  the  grasses  and  sedges  growing  in  its  shallow  water. 

Woodbury  creek,  in  Oakland  and  London,  flowing  into  Mower  county, 
received  the  name  of  a  settler  there. 


GOODHUE  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  March  5,  1853,  was  named  in  honor  of  James 
Madison  Goodhue,  who  was  the  first  printer  and  editor  in  Minnesota, 
beginning  the  issue  of  the  Minnesota  Pioneer  on  April  28,  1849.  He  was 
born  in  Hebron,  N.  H.,  March  31,  1810,  and  died  in  St.  Paul,  August 
27,  1852;  was  graduated  at  Amherst  College  in  1833;  studied  law  in  New 
York  City,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  about  1840;  afterward  was  a 
farmer  three  years  in  Plainfield,  111. ;  practiced  law  in  Galesburg,  III.,  and 
in  Platteville  and  Lancaster,  Wis. ;  became  editor  of  the  Wisconsin  Herald, 
published  in  Lancaster;  removed  to  St.  Paul  in  the  spring  of  1849,  and 
was  a  most  earnest  and  influential  journalist  here  during  the  three  remain- 
ing years  of  his  life. 

Goodhue  was  a  man  of  very  forcible  character  and  of  high  moral 
principles.  .As  a  vigorous  writer,  he  did  much  to  upbuild  St.  Paul  and 
Minnesota,  and  made  strong  personal  friends  and  enemies.  Because  of 
his  scathing  editorial  against  the  U.  S.  marshal,  Alexander  Mitchell,  and 
Judge  David  Cooper,  a  brother  of  the  latter  attacked  Mr.  Goodhue, 
January  15,  1851,  on  the  street  in  front  of  the  building  in  which  the 
legislature  was  in  session,  and  stabbed  him  twice,  severely  wounding  him, 
and  being  shot  in  return.    From  that  injury  he  never  fully  recovered. 

Biographic  sketches  of  Goodhue  as  founder  and  editor  of  the  first 
newspaper  of  the  new  Minnesota  Territory  are  in  the  Minnesota  Histori- 
cal Society  Collections,  by  Col.  John  H.  Stevens  (vol  VI,  pages  492- 
501)  and  D.  S.  B.  Johnston  (X,  247-253).  His  successor  as  editor  of  the 
Pioneer,  Joseph  R.  Brown,  wrote  of  him  in  an  editorial  tribute  a  year 
after  he  died :  "J^n^^s  M.  Goodhue  was  a  warm  and  fast  friend  of  Min- 
nesota to  the  day  of  his  death.  He  will  be  remembered  with  the  small 
band  of  sturdy  men  who  labored  constantly  and  with  iron  resolution  to 
establish  the  pillars  of  society  in  our  Territory  upon  a  sound  moral  basis. 
His  press  was  always  found  on  the  side  of  law,  order,  temperance,  and 
virtue." 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  origins  and  meanings  of  these  names  has  been  gathered 
from  the  "Geographical  and  Statistical  Sketch  ...  of  Goodhue  County," 
by  W.  H.  Mitchell,  1869,  191  pages ;  "History  of  Goodhue  County,"  1878, 
664  pages ;  "Goodhue  County,  Past  and  Present,  by  an  Old  Settler"  (Rev. 
Joseph  W.  Hancock),  1893,  349  pages;  the  later  History,  edited  by 
Franklyn  Curtiss-Wedge,  1909,  1074  pages;  and  from  Dr.  William  M. 
Sweney,  Albert  £.  Rhame,  city  engineer,  and  Charles  S.  Dana,  clerk  of 
the  court,  interviewed  at  Red  Wing  in  April,  1916. 


206  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Belle  Creek  township,  settled  in  1853,  organized  in  1858,  received 
this  French  name  of  ks  creek,  meaning  beautiful. 

Belvidere^  settled  in  the  spring  of  1855,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was 
at  first  called  York,  and  later  Elmira,  the  present  name  being  adopted 
December  28,  1858.  Illinois  has  a  city  of  this  name,  which  also  is  borne 
by  villages  and  townships  in  seven  other  states. 

BuRNsiDE^  settled  in  1854,  organized  in  1858,  was  known  at  first  as 
Union,  and  in  1859-61  as  Milton,  but  was  renamed  as  now  in  March, 
1862,  in  honor  of  Ambrose  Everett  Bumside  (b.  1824,  d.  1881),  a  dis- 
tinguished general  in  the  civil  war,  1861-65,  governor  of  Rhode  Island, 
1866-9,  and  United  States  senator,  1875-81. 

Cannon  Falls  township,  settled  in  1854,  organized  in  1858,  derived 
its  name  from  the  falls  of  Cannon  river,  as  it  was  named  by  Pike  in  1806, 
by  Keating's  Narrative  of  Long's  expedition  in  1823,  and  on  Nicollet's 
map,  1843,  erroneously  changed  from  the  early  French  name,  Riviere 
aux  Canots,  which  alluded  to  canoes  left  near  its  mouth  by  parties  of 
Indians  on  war  or  hunting  expeditions.  Cannon  Falls  village,  platted 
August  27,  1855,  was  incorporated  March  10,  1857,  and  adopted  its  city 
charter  in  February,  1905. 

Central  Point,  a  township  of  very  small  area,  settled  about  1850, 
was  organized  in  1858.  Its  name  refers  to  a  point  of  land  here  extending 
into  Lake  Pepin,  about  midway  between  the  head  and  foot  of  the  lake. 

Cherry  Grove,  settled  in  1854,  organized  in  1858,  received  its  name 
from  a  cherry  grove  in  the  central  part  of  this  township,  where  a  log 
schoolhouse  was  built  in  1857.  The  wild  red  cherry  (also  called  bird 
cherry)  and  the  wild  black  cherry  are  common  throughout  the  greater 
part  of  this  state. 

Clay  Bank,  Clay  Pits,  and  Belle  Chester,  in  Goodhue  township, 
are  railway  stations  for  supply  of  pottery  clay,  used  extensively  in  Red 
Wing  for  manufacture  of  stoneware  and  sewer  pipe. 

Dennison,  a  railway  village  in  the  west  edge  of  Warsaw,  on  the 
county  line,  was  named  in  honor  of  Morris  P.  Dennison,  a  settler  near 
its  site  in  1856,  on  whose  land  the  village  was  located. 

Eggleston,  a  railway  station  in  Welch,  was  likewise  named  for  an 
early  settler  and  laiid  owner.  John  £.  and  Joseph  Eggleston  settled  in 
the  adjoining  township  of  Burnside  in  the  spring  of  1855,  and  Harlan 
P.  and  Ira  E.  Eggleston  were  volunteers  in  the  civil  war  from  that  town- 
ship, which  included  Welch  until  1864. 

Fairfoint,  a  small  village  euphoniously  named,  in  section  ZZ,  Cherry 
Grove,  was  platted  in  1857. 

Featherstone,  first  settled  in  1855,  organized  in  1858,  "derived  its  name 
from  William  Featherstone,  who  with  a  large  family  settled  there  in 
1855." 

Florence,  settled  in  1854,  organized  1858,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Florence  Graham,  oldest  child  of  Judge  Christopher  C.  Graham,  of  Red 
Wing.    She  was  married  January  8^  1872,  to  David  M.  Taber,  who  died 


GOODHUE  COUNTY  207 

April  1,  1880.  Mrs.  Taber,  yet  living  in  Red'  Wing  in  1916,  "is  known 
for  her  interest  in  all  matters  which  tend  toward  the  betterment  of  the 
city  and  county."  Her  father  (b.  1806,  d.  1891)  served  in  the  Mexican 
war ;  came  to  Red  Wing  in  1854,  as  receiver  of  the  U.  S.  land  office,  and 
filled  that  position  until  1861 ;  was  the  municipal  judge  after  1869. 

Frontenac,  a  railway  village  and  neighboring  lakeside  village  of 
summer  homes,  in  Florence  township,  had  the  early  Indian  trading  post 
of  James  Wells,  before  1850,  and  was  permanently  settled  in  1854-57. 
The  name  commemorates  Louis  de  Buade  de  Frontenac,  who  was  born 
in  Paris,  1622,  and  died  in  Quebec,  November  28,  1698.  He  was  the  French 
colonial  governor  of  Canada  in  1672-82  and  1689-98.  There  is  no  record 
of  his  traveling  to  the  Mississippi  river. 

Goodhue  township,  settled  in  1854,  organized  September  13,  1859,  was 
then  named  Lime,  but  was  renamed  as  now  in  January,  1860,  honoring 
James  M.  Goodhue,  like  the  county  name.  The  village  was  incorporated 
April  26,  1897. 

Hay  Ck£&k  township,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1854,  organized  in  1858, 
received  its  name  from  the  stream,  which  had  natural  hay  meadows. 

HoLDEN,  settled  in  1854-5,  organized  in  1858,  has  a  name  that  is  borne 
by  townships  in  Maine  and  Massachusetts,  and  by  a  city  in  Missouri. 

Kenyon,  settled  in  1855,  organized  in  1858,  was  named  for  a  pioneer 
merchant,  who  in  1856  built  the  first  store  there.  The  village,  now  a 
railway  junction,  was  also  originally  platted  in  1856. 

Leon,  settled  in  the  fall  of  1854,  organized  in  1858,  bears  a  for^igrn 
name,  that  of  a  medieval  kingdom,  which  was  later  a  province  of  Spain. 
It  is  also  the  name  of  townships  in  New  York  and  Wisconsin. 

MiNNEOLA,  settled  in  May  1855,  organized  December  15,  1859,  has  a 
name  from  the  Dakota  or  Sioux  language,  meaning  much  water. 

'Pine  Island,  settled  in  1854,  organized  in  1858,  took  the  name  of  its 
village,  which  was  platted  in  the  winter  of  1856-7.  "The  island  proper 
is  formed  by  the  middle  branch  of  the  Zumbro,  which  circles  around 
the  present  village,  enclosing  a  tract  once  thickly  studded  with  tall  pine 
trees.  .  .  .  This  spot  was  one  of  the  favorite  resorts  of  the  Dakota 
Indians.  They  called  it  Wa-zee-wee-ta,  Pine  Island,  and  here  in  their 
skin  tents  they  used  to  pass  the  cold  winter  months,  sheltered  from  the 
winds  and  storms  by  the  thick  branches  of  lofty  pines.  The  chief  of 
Red  Wing's  village  told  the  commissioners  of  the  United  States,  when 
asked  to  sign  the  treaty  that  would  require  his  people  to  relinquish  their 
home  on  the  Mississippi  river,  that  he  was  willing  to  sign  it  if  he  could 
have  his  future  home  at  Pine  Island."  (Hancock,  page  288.)  "Between 
the  two  branches  of  the  Zumbro  river,  which  unite  a  short  distance 
below,  there  was  quite  a  forest  of  pine,  which  could  be  seen  for  a  long 
distance  over  the  prairie,  giving  it  quite  the  appearance  of  an  Island  in 
the  sea."     (Mitchell,  page  118.) 

Red  Wing,  the  location  of  a  mission  to  the  Sioux  in  1837  by  two 
Swiss  missionaries,  Samuel  Denton  and  Daniel  Gavin,  was  first  settled 


208  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

for  farming  and  Indian  trading  in  1850-52;  was  chosen  to  be  the  county 
seat  in  1853 ;  was  incorporated  as  a  city  March  4,  1857 ;  and  received  new 
municipal  charters  on  March  3,  1864,  and  February  21,  1887. 

Doane  Robinson,  historian  of  the  Sioux,  writes  in  the  "Handbook  of 
American  Indians"  (Hodge,  Part  II,  1910,  page  365) :  "Red  Wing. 
The  name  of  a  succession  of  chiefs  of  the  former  Khemnichan  band  of 
Mdewakanton  Sioux,  residing  on  the  west  shore  of  Lake  Pepin,  Minn., 
where  the  city  of  Red  Wing  now  stands.  At  least  four  chiefs  in  suc- 
cession bore  the  appellation,  each  being  distinguished  by  another  name. 
The  elder  Red  Wing  is  heard  of  as  early  as  the  time  of  the  Pontiac  war, 
when  he  visited  Mackinaw,  and  was  in  alliance  with  the  English  in  the 
Revolution.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son.  Walking  Buffalo  (Tatanka- 
mani),  who  enlisted  in  the  British  cause  in  1812.  The  name  was  main- 
tained during  two  succeeding  generations,  but  disappeared  during  the 
Sioux  outbreak  of  1862-65.  The  family  was  less  influential  than  the 
Little  Crows  or  the  Wabashas  of  the  same  tribe." 

Colonel  William  Colvill,  in  a  letter  to  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell,  wrote 
(Geology  of  Minnesota,  Final  Report,  vol.  II,  1888,  page  60)  :  "Red 
Wing's  titular  name  was  Wacouta — 'the  shooter.'  This  was  always  the 
head  chief's  title, — the  same  as  that  of  the  chief  who  captured'  Henne- 
pin. He  had  the  name  of  Red  Wing,  Koo-poo-hoo-sha  [Khupahu,  wing, 
sha,  red],  from  the  swan's  wing,  dyed  scarlet,  which  he  carried." 

Pike  in  1805-06  called  the  second  of  these  hereditary  chiefs  Talanga- 
mane,  which  should  be  more  correctly  written  Tatanka  mani,  meaning 
Buffalo  walking ;  and  he  also  gave  his  titled  name  in  French,  Aile  Rouge, 
with  its.  direct  English  translation,  Red  Wing. 

The  Sioux  name  of  this  place  was  Rhemnicha  or  Khemnicha,  applied 
by  Nicollet's  map  to  the  present  Hay  creek  as  Remnicha  river.  It  means 
the  Hill- Water- Wood  place,  formed  by  three  Sioux  words,  Rhe,  a  high 
hill  or  ridge,  mini,  water,  and  chan,  wood,  referring  to  the  Barn  bluff 
and  other  high  river  bluffs,  and  to  the  abundance  of  water  and  wood, 
which  made  it  an  ideal  camp  ground. 

«  

RoscoE,  settled  in  1854,  organized  in  1858,  was  named  by  Charles  Dana, 
one  of  the  pioneers,  "from  the  township  of  Roscoe,  Illinois,  where  he 
had  previously  lived." 

Stanton,  settled  in  the  fall  of  1854,  organized  in  1858,  was  named  in 
honor  of  William  Stanton,  who,  with  his  son  of  the  same  name  and 
others,  immigrants  from  New  Elngland,  came  in  1855,  settling  on  Pnairie 
creek.  Rev.  J.  W.  Hancock,  who  conducted  the  first  religious  services 
of  this  township  at  his*  home  in  the  winter  of  1855-6,  wrote:  "The 
log  house  built  by  William  Stanton,  Sr.,  near  the  road  leading  to  Fari- 
bault from  the  nearest  Mississippi  towns,  was  for  several  years  the  only 
place  for  the  entertainment  of  travelers  between  Cannon  Falls  and 
further  west.  Mr.  Stanton's  latch  string  was  always  hanging  out,  and 
every  civil  appearing  stranger  was  welcome  to  such  accommodations  as  he 
had.    He  frequently  entertained  fifty  persons  the  same  night." 


GOODHUE  COUNTY  209 

Vasa,  settled  in  1853,  organized  in  1858,  ''was  named  in  honor  of  Gus- 
tavus  Vasa,  king  of  Sweden,  more  generally  known  as  Gustavus  I,  the 
Christian  king,  and  the  founder  of  the  Lutheran  Church."  (History, 
1878,  page  428.)  He  was  bom  in  Lindholmen,  Upland,  Sweden,  May  12, 
1496,  and  died  in*  Stockholm,  September  29,  1560;  was  king  1523-60. 

Wacouta,  settled  in  1850,  organized  1858,  was  named  by  George  W. 
Bullard,  the  first  settler,  who  was  an  Indian  trader  and  in  1853  platted 
a  village  around  his  trading  post,  which  was  a  rival  of  Red  Wing  for 
designation  as  the  county  seat.  Hancock  wrote  as  follows  of  the  last 
chief  bearing  this  name,  commemorated  by  this  little  township. 

"The  nephew  of  Scarlet  Wing  [Red  Wing]  was  the  last  reigning 
chief  of  this  band  of  Dakotas.  His  name  was  Wacouta,  the  shooter. 
It  was  this  chief  who  informed  the  writer  that  his  uncle,  the  Scarlet 
Wing,  was  buried  on  a  bluff  near  Wabasha.  Wacouta  was  a  man  of 
peac^.  He  was  not  accustomed  to  lead  in  the  warpath,  although  his 
braves  had  the  privilege  of  forming  war  parties  and  making  raids  against 
their  enemies  whenever  they  desired. 

"Wacouta  was  very  tall,  straight,  and  dignified  in  his  demeanor.  He 
was  also  a  man  of  good  judgment.  His  authority  was  not  absolute.  He 
rather  advised  his  people  than  commanded  them.  He  encouraged  in- 
dustry and  sobriety;  was  a  friend  to  the  missionaries,  and  sent  his  own 
children  to  their  schools  when  he  was  at  home  himself." 

As  before  mentioned  by  Colvill  in  the  notice  of  Red  Wing,  this  name 
was  borne  as  a  title  of  chieftaincy.  With  slight  difference,  it  was  the 
name  of  the  head  chief  of  the  Issati  Sioux  about  Mille  Lacs  at  the  time 
of  the  captivity  of  Hennepin  and  his  companions  in  1680.  Hennepin  wrote 
of  him  as  "Ouasicoude,  that  is,  the  Pierced-pine,  the  greatest  of  all  the 
slati  chiefs." 

Keating  in  1823,  as  historian  of  Major  Long's  expedition,  gave  this 
name,  under  another  spelling,  "Wazekota  (Shooter  from  the  pine-top)," 
for  the  old  Red  Wing  chief.  Walking  Buffalo,  whom  Pike  had  met 
eighteen  years  before.  It  is  from  two  Dakota  words,  wazi,  pine,  and 
kute,  to  shoot. 

Wai^amingo,  settled  in  1854,  organized  in  1858,  is  almost  wholly 
occupied  by  prosperous  Norwegian  farmers.  The  origin  and  meaning  of 
the  name  remain  to  be  learned.  It  appears  to  be  of  Indian  derivation,  "the 
name  of  a  heroine  of  a  novel  popular  in  those  days."  (History,  1910,  p.  222.) 

Warsaw  was  first  settled  in  June,  1855,  and  was  organized  in  1858. 
Indiana  has  a  city  of  Warsaw,  and  twelve  states  of  our  Union  have 
villages  and  townships  that  bear  this  name  of  the  large  capital  of  the 
former  kingdom  of  Poland. 

Welch,  settled  in  1857,  organized  March  23,  1864,  was  then  named 
Grant,  in  honor  of  (General  U.  S.  Grant;  but  it  was  renamed  as  now  in 
January,  1872,  to  commemorate  Abraham  Edwards  Welch,  of  Red  Wing. 
He  was  born  at  Kalamazoo,  Mich.,  August  16,  1839;  and  died  in  the  army 
at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  February  1,  1864.    He  volunteered  at  Lincoln's  first 


210  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

call  for  troops,  and  was  first  lieutenant  in  the  First  Minnesota  r^ment; 
was  taken  prisoner,  paroled,  and  served  as  major  against  the  Sioux 
in  1862.  Later  he  was  major  in  the  Fourth  Minnesota  regiment,  and  died 
from  the  effect  of  wounds  received  at  Vicksburg.  He  was  the  son  of 
William  H.  Welch,  jurist,  who  was  born  in  Connecticut  about  1812,  was 
a  graduate  of  Yale  College  and  later  of  its  law  school,  came  to  Minne- 
sota in  1850,  and  resided  at  first  in  St.  Anthony  and  afterward  in  St 
Paul.  He  was  chief  justice  of  the  supreme  court  of  Minnesota  Territory, 
1853-58,  removed  in  1858  to  Red  Wing,  and  died  there  January  22,  1863. 

ZuMBROTA,  settled  in  1854,  organized  in  1858,  received  the  name  of 
its  village,  platted  in  September,  1856,  on  the  Zumbro  river,  which  flows 
across  the  southern  part  of  this  township.  The  Sioux  named  this  river 
Wazi  Oju,  meaning  Pines  Planted,  having  reference  to  the  grove  of 
great  white  pines  at  Pine  Island,  before  noticed;  and  it  bears  this  name 
on  Nicollet's  map,  1843,  and  the  map  of  Minnesota  Territory  in  1850.  It 
was  called  Riviere  d'Embarras  and  River  of  Embarrassments  by  Pike, 
1805-6,  adopting  the  name  given  it  by  the  early  French  traders  and 
voyageurs;  Embarrass  river  by  Major  Long,  1817;  and  Embarras,  the 
more  correct  French  spelling,  by  Lea's  map,  1836.  From  the  reminis- 
cences written  by  Lea  in  1890,  of  his  explorations,  we  learn  that  the 
French  name  referred  to  obstruction  of  the  river  near  its  mouth  by  a 
natural  raft  of  driftwood.  Pronounced  quickly  and  incompletely,  with 
the  French  form  and  accent^  as  heard  and  written  down  by  the  English- 
speaking  immigrants,  this  name,  Riviere  des  Embarras,  was  unrecogniz- 
ably transformed  into  Zumbro,  which  is  used  on  the  map  of  Minnesota 
in  1860.  The  village  and  township  name  adds  a  syllable,  the  Sioux 
suffix,  ta,  meaning  at,  to,  or  on,  that  is,  the  town  on  the  Zumbro,  being 
thus  a  compound  from  the  French  and  Dakota  languages. 

Lakes,  Streams,  Islands,  and  Bluffs. 

The  Mississippi  river,  which  has  the  large  Prairie  Island  at -its  west 
side  above  Red  Wing  and  extending  into  Dakota  county,  and  the  en- 
largement of  the  Mississippi  named  Lake  Pepin,  adjoining  Goodhue  and 
Wabasha  counties,  have  been  considered  in  the  first  chapter.        * 

Cannon  and  Zumbro  rivers  are  also  noticed  in  that  chapter,  the 
former  especially  in  its  presumed  identification  with  the  fictitious  Long 
river  of  Lahontan ;  but  the  origins  and  significance  of  the  names  of  these 
streams  are  again  mentioned  in  the  foregoing  pages  for  Cannon  Falls 
and  Zumbrota  townships. 

Other  names  of  streams,  etc.,  whose  origins  are  presented  in  the  list 
of  townships,  include  Belle  creek.  Central  Point  of  Lake  Pepin,  Hay 
creek,  and  the  so-called  Pine  Island  of  Zumbro  river. 

Excepting  Lake  Pepin,  Silver  lake  (very  small)  in  Red  Wing,  and 
the  few  small  lakes  on  Prairie  Island,  this  county  is  destitute  of  lakes. 

Several  streams  need  no  explanations  for  their  names,  as  Pine  creek, 
tributary  to  Cannon  river   from  the  north  in  Cannon  Falls  township. 


GOODHUE  COUNTY  211 

Prairie  creek  in  Stanton,  Little  Cannon  river,  Spring  creek  in  Feather- 
stone  and  Burnside,  and  the  North  and  South  branches  of  the  Zumbro. 

Bullard  creek,  in  Hay  Greek  township  and  Wacouta,  was  named  in 
honor  of  George  W.  Bullard,  early  trader,  founder  of  the  former  village 
of  Wacouta. 

Wells  creek  commemorates  James  Wells,  often  called  "Bully"  Wells, 
an  early  fur  trader  on  Lake  Pepin  near  the  site  of  Frontenac,  who  was  a 
member  of  the  Territorial  Legislature  in  1849  and  1851. 

"Rest  Island,"  at  the  west  side  of  Lake  Pepin  near  the  Central  Point, 
was  the  location  of  a  home  for  reform  of  drunkards,  founded  in  1891 
under  the  earnest  work  of  John  G.  Woolley,  of  Minneapolis,  who  in  1888 
entered  the  lecture  field  as  an  advocate  of  national  prohibition. 

Prairie  Island,  translated  from  its  early  French  name,  Isle  Pel6e, 
visited  by  Groseilliers  and  Radisson  in  1655-56,  as  narrated  in  the  M.  H. 
S.  Collections  (vol.  X,  part  II,  pages  449-594,  with  maps),  has  Sturgeon 
lake,  Buffalo  slough,  North  lake,  Clear  and  Goose  lakes,  and  the  Ver- 
milion river  or  slough,  continuing  from  this  river  in  Dakota  county  and 
being  the  western  boundary  of  this  large  island,  which  forms  mainly  the 
northern  parts  of  Bumside  and  Welch  townships.  Buffalo  slough  recalls 
the  old  times,  long  before  agricultural  settlements  here,  when  buffaloes 
sometimes  grazed  on  the  extensive  prairie  of  this  island. 

Sturgeon  lake  was  named  for  the  shovel-nosed  sturgeon,  frequent  in 
the  Mississippi  here  and  in  this  lake,  a  very  remarkable  and  large  species 
of  fish,  esteemed  for  food,  having  a  projecting  snout,  broad  and  flat, 
resembling  a  shovel  or  a  canoe  paddle,  which  was  particularly  described 
by  Radisson  and  Hennepin,  the  first  writers  on  the  upper  Mississippi. 

Assiniboine  bluff  in  Burnside,  nearly  isolated  from  the  general  upland 
by  the  erosion  of  the  Mississippi  and  Cannon  valleys,  commemorates 
the  former  presence  of  Assiniboine  Indians  here,  of  whom  Col.  William 
Colvill  wrote  in  the  Final  Report  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  this  state 
(vol.  II,  1888,  pages  57-60). 

Bam  bluff,  at  Red  Wing,  is  translated  from  its  early  French  name, 
La  Grange,  meaning  the  Bam,  which  refers  to  its  prominence  as  a 
lone,  high,  and  nearly  level-crested  bluff,  quite  separated  from  the  side 
bluffs  of  the  valley,  and  therefore  conspicuously  seen  at  a  distance  of 
many  miles  up  the  valley  and  yet  more  observable  from  boats  passing 
along  Lake  Pepin.  Major  Stephen  H.  Long  in  1817  ascended  this  hill 
or  bluff,  called  in  his  journal  "the  Grange  or  Bam,"  of  which  he  wrote: 
"From  the  summit  of  the  Grange  the  view  of  the  surrounding  scenery 
is  surpassed,  perhaps,  by  very  few,  if  any,  of  a  similar  character  that  the 
country  and  probably  the  world  can  afford.  The  sublime  and  beautiful 
are  here  blended  in  the  most  enchanting  manner."  (M.  H.  S.  Collections, 
vol.  II,  page  45.) 

Other  bluffs  in  Red  Wing,  adjoining  the  western  border  of  the  river 
valley  or  forming  a  part  of  it,  include  Sorin's  bluff,  named  in  honor  of 


212  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Rev.  Matthew  Sorin,  who  settled  here  in  1853,  was  the  first  treasurer  of 
this  county  and  the  second  president  of  the  trustees  of  Hamline  Uni- 
versity, later  was  a  pastor  in  Missouri  and  Colorado,  and  died  in  1879; 
the  Twin  bluffs,  on  opposite  sides  of  a  street  leading  southwestward ; 
and  College  hill,  the  site  of  the  Red  Wing  Seminary. 

Jordan  bluff  in  Wacouta,  and  a  short  stream  and  ravine  called  Jordan 
creek  in  Red  Wing,  were  probably  named  for  a  pioneer. 

Post  bluff,  next  eastward  in  Wacouta,  commemorates  Abner  W.  and 
George  Post,  early  settlers  there. 

Waconia  bluff,  in  Florence,  rising  on  the  valley  side  west  of  Frontenac, 
bears  a  Sioux  name  meaning  a  fountain  or  spring,  from  a  spring  at 
its  base. 

Near  this  southeastward  is  Point  No-point,  "from  whose  summit  one 
may  see  the  whole  length  of  the  lake.  .  .  .  Persons  going  in  boats  down 
the  river  see  this  point  for  six  or  eight  miles,  while  the  boat  seems  all 
the  time  approaching  it,  yet  none  of  the  time  getting  any  nearer  till  just 
as  they  arrive  at  Fronteriac."    (Mitchell,  1869,  pages  96-97.) 

Sand  point,  translated  from  the  French  name,  Pointe  au  Sable,  is  a 
wave-built  spit  of  sand  and  gravel,  a  narrow  projection  of  the  shor^ine 
jutting  half  a  mile  into  Lake  Pepin,  adjoining  Frontenac.  Wells  creek, 
here  flowing  into  the  lake,  was  called  *'Sand  Point  R."  on  Nicollet's. map  in 
1843. 

Westward  from  Point  No-point,  the  large  and  high  area  of  Garrard 
bluff  in  the  northern  part  of  Florence,  between  the  railway  and  the  lake, 
was  named  in  honor  of  the  Garrard  brothers,  who  founded  and  named 
Frontenac  village.  After  they  had  first  visited  this  place  in  1854  on  a 
hunting  trip,  they  purchased  large  tracts  of  land  here,  several  thousand 
acres. 

Louis  H.  Garrard  settled  at  Frontenac  in  1858,  and  engaged  in  farm- 
ing and  development  of  this  estate;  was  a  representative  in  the  legisla- 
ture in  1859 ;  removed  to  Lake  City  in  1870,  and  was  for  three  years  presi- 
dent of  the  First  National  Bank  there;  resided  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  his 
native  city,  after  1880;  and  died  at  Lakewood,  N.  Y.,  July,  1887,  aged 
fifty-eight  years. 

The  older  brother,  Israel  Garrard,  was  born  in  Lexington,  Ky.,  Octo- 
ber 22,  1825;  and  died  at  his  home  in  Frontenac,  Minn.,  September  21, 
1901.  He  was  graduated  at  the  Harvard  law  school ;  settled  here  in  1854, 
and  after  the  completion  of  the  land  purchase,  in  1857-8,  built  the  family 
home,  St.  Hubert's  Lodge,  named  for  the  patron  saint  of  huntsmen.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  civil  war,  he  raised  a  troop  of  cavalry  in  Cincinnati ; 
served  as  colonel  of  the  Seventh  Ohio  Cavalry  regiment,  and  was  pro- 
moted to  be  brigadier  general;  returned  here  in  1865,  and  was  widely 
known  for  his  liberality. 


GRANT  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  March  6,  1868,  and  organized  in  1874,  was 
named  in  honor  of  Ulysses  Simpson  Grant,  whose  generalship  terminated 
the  Civil  War,  in  1865,  with  preservation  of  the  Union,  after  which  he 
was  president  of  the  United  States,  1869  to  1877.  He  was  born  at  Point 
Pleasant,  Germont  county,  Ohio,  April  1^^  1822;  and  died  at  Mount  Mc- 
Gregor, near  Saratoga,  N.  Y.,  July  23,  1885.  Having  been  graduated  at 
West  Point  in  1843,  he  served  through  the  Mexican  war  of  1846-48;  left 
the  army  in  1854,  and  settled  in  St  Louis ;  and  removed  to  Galena,  Illi- 
nois, in  1860.  He  entered  the  Civil  War  in  June,  1861,  as  a  colonel,  and 
on  April  9,  1865,  received  the  surrender  of  Lee,  which  ended  the  war. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  completion  of  the  building  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  railroad  across  the  continent.  General  Grant  visited  Minnesota, 
and  was  present  at  the  g^rand  celebration  held  in  St.  Paul  and  Minne- 
apolis, September  3,  1883. 

Many  excellent  biographies  of  Grant  have  been  published.  One  of  his 
latest  biographers,  Louis  A.  Coolidge  in  1917,  writes:  "His  success  as 
President  in  setting  our  feet  firmly  in  the  paths  of  peace,  and  in  estab- 
lishing our  credit  with  the  nations  of  the  world,  is  hardly  less  significant 
than  his  success  in  war." 

The  grand  courage  displayed  in  his  last  severe  and  incurable  illness, 
when  during  the  final  months  of  his  life  he  diligently  toiled  with  the 
pen  in  the  completion  of  his  Memoirs,  to  win  a  competence  for  his  family, 
and  to  aid  toward  payment  of  creditors  after  great  financial  disaster, 
revealed  heroic  traits  of  his  character  which  could  never  otherwise  have 
found  expression. 

In  twelve  states  of  our  Union  counties  have  been  named  for  him.  In 
New  York  City  his  Tomb,  completed  in  1897,  has  been  rightly  called 
"the  most  imposing  memorial  structure  on  the  Western  Continent." 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  geographic  names  in  this  county  has  been  gathered 
from  the  "Illustrated  Souvenir  of  Grant  County,"  by  W.  H.  Goetzinger, 
1896,  42  pages ;  "History  of  Douglas  and  Grant  Counties,"  Constant  Lar- 
son, editor,  1916,  two  volumes  (pages  361-509  in  Volume  I  being  descrip- 
tion and  history  of  this  county)  ;  and  from  C.  M.  Nelson,  county  auditor, 
and  Hon.  Ole  O.  Canestorp,  interviewed  during  a  visit  at  Elbow  Lake, 
the  county  seat,  in  May,  1916. 

AsHBY,  the  railway  village  of  Pelican  Lake  township,  platted  in  1879, 
was  named  in  honor  of  Gunder  Ash,  a  pioneer  farmer  from  Norway, 
who  lived  close  east  of  the  village  site. 

213 


214  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES- 

Barrett^  a  railway  village  in  section  12,  Lien,  platted  in  May,  1887, 
and  incorporated  in  1889,  and  the  adjoining  Barrett  lake,  commemorate 
Gen,  Theodore  Harvey  Barrett,  who  after  the  civil  war  owned'  and  con- 
ducted an  extensive  farm  in  Grant  and  Stevens  counties,  residing  near 
Moose  Island  station  in  Stevens  county.  He  was  born  in  Orangeville, 
Wyoming  county,  N.  Y.,  August  27,  1834 ;  and  died  in  this  county  at  Her- 
man, July  20,  1900.  He  settled  in  St  Qoud,  Minn.,  1856;  was  a  captain  in 
the  Ninth  Minnesota  regiment,  1862-3;  was  colonel  of  the  62d  U.  S. 
Colored  Infantry,  1864-5,  and  was  breveted  brigadier  general,  March 
13,  1865. 

Canestoslp,  a  railway  station  one  mile  west  of  Elbow  Lake,  platted 
in  March,  1887,  was  named  for  Hon.  Ole  O.  Canestorp,  who  was  born 
in  Sweden,  May  21,  1847;  came  to  the  United  States  in  1862,  and  to  Min- 
nesota in  1871,  settling  at  Elbow  Lake;  was  judge  of  probate  of  this 
county,  1878-82,  county  treasurer,  1882^,  and  a  state  senator,  1891-3  and 
1907-09.  He  died  at  his  home  March  24,  1917.  The  place  is  also  frequent- 
ly called  West  Elbow  Lake. 

Delaware  township,  organized  October  6,  1879,  was  named  by  pioneer 
settlers  from  that  state. 

Elbow  Lake  township,  organised  April  3,  1877,  received  its  name  from 
the  adjacent  lake  in  Sanford,  shaped  like  an  arm  bent  at  the  elbow,  to 
which  this  name  had  been  given  many  years  previously  by  early  traders 
and  immigrants.  Major  Samuel  Woods  and  Captain  John  Pope,  in  their 
expedition  in  the  summer  of  1849,  were  the  earliest  to  apply  this  name, 
which  they  each,  in  their  official  reports,  derived  from  the  shape  of  the 
lake. 

Elbow  Lake  village,  on  a  site  chosen  in  1874  to  be  the  county  seat, 
in  Sanford  township,  was  also  named  from  this  lake,  was  platted  October 
28,  1886,  and  was  organized  September  13,  1887. 

Elk  Lake  township,  organized  January  4,  1876,  was  named  for  its 
Elk  lake  and  Lower  Elk  lake,  tributary  to  the  Chippewa  river,  where  elk 
were  plentiful  before  agricultural  settlers  came.  The  route  of  Woods 
and  Pope  in  1849  passed  this  Elk  lake,  named  by  the  former  in  his  report, 
writing  "Here  we  saw  an  elk,  .   .   .  the  first  one  that  crossed  our  path." 

Erdahl,  organized  July  30,  1877,  was  ''named  in  remembrance  of  a 
district  in  Norway,  from  which  some  of  the  early  settlers  had  come." 
The  same  name  was  borne  also  by  a  pioneer  Lutheran  pastor  of  this 
county,  Gullik  M.  Erdahl,  who  was  born  in  Hardanger,  Norway,  October 
5,  1840,  and  came  to  America  at  the  age  of  seven  years  with  his  parents 
who  settled  in  Madison,  Wisconsin.  He  was  graduated  at  Luther  College, 
Decorah,  Iowa,  1866,  and  at  the  Concordia  Seminary,  St.  Louis,  1869; 
was  a  missionary  and  founder  of  churches  in  Kansas,  Nebraska,  and 
Iowa;  was  pastor  of  five  congregations  in  this  county,  1875  to  1900,  and 
later  of  two  until  his  death  at  his  home  near  Barrett  on  March  25,  1914. 
The  railway  village  of  Erdahl  was  platted  in  October,  1887. 


GRANT  COUNTY  215 

Gorton,  organized  July  21,  1879,  received  the  name  given  by  officials 
of  the  railway  to  a  former  siding  in  this  township,  northwest  of  Nor- 
cross. 

Hereford,  a  railway  village  in  section  1,  North  Ottawa,  was  platted  in 
September,  1887.  The  History  of  the  county  notes  the  origin  of  this  name 
as  follows :  "In  1886,  when  the  railroad  was  about  to  establish  a  station 
at  this  point,  it  was  the  intention  to  call  the  place  Culbertson,  in  honor  of 
the  man  who  owned  a  tract  of  land  there,  but  the  modest  man  said  that 
if  they  wished  to  compliment  him  in  any  way  to  call  the  place  'Hereford,* 
after  his  beautiful  herd  of  white-faced  cattle  kept  on  his  farm,  'Hereford 
Park,'  near  Newman,  Illinois.  Accordingly  the  place  was  so  christened." 
The  breed  of  cattle  came  from  a  county  so  named  in  western  England. 

Herman,  the  railway  village  in  Logan,  platted  in  September,  1875, 
was  incorporated  March  15,  1881,  and  would  doubtless  have  been  chosen 
as  the  county  seat  if  its  location  were  near  the  center  of  the  county.  In 
1914  it  was  selected  by  the  State  Municipality  League,  on  account  of  its 
civic  merit,  as  the  "model  town"  of  Minnesota.  Its  name  was  given  by 
the  railway  officials,  in  honor  of  Herman  Trott,  land  agent  of  the  St. 
Paul  and  Pacific  railroad  company.  He  was  born  in  Hanover,  Germany, 
February  25,  1830 ;  and  died  in  St.  Paul,  December  29,  1903.  He  came  to 
this  state  in  1856,  an-d  settled  in  St  Paul  two  years  later ;  removed  to  the 
state  of  Washington  in  1890,  but  returned  to  reside  in  St  Paul  after  1899. 

Hoffman,  a  railway  village  in  Land  township,  platted  in  April,  1887, 
incorporated  June  23,  1891,  was  named  in  honor  of  Robert  C.  Hoffman, 
of  Minneapolis,  who  durjng  many  years  has  been  chief  engineer  of  the 
Minneapolis,  St.  Paul  and  Sauk  Ste.  Marie  railway. 

Land  township,  organized  March  6,  1878,  was  named,  on  the  sugges- 
tion of  Erik  Olson,  a  Norwegian  farmer  there,  "for  the  town  of  Land, 
Wisconsin,  whence  some  of  the  early  settlers  had  come."  In  the  Nor- 
wegian language,  it  is  a  general  word  meaning  land  or  country. 

Lawrence  was  organized  March  29,  1880.  "The  first  settlers  .  .  . 
came  here  in  1870  from  St.  Lawrence  county.  New  York.  It  was  they  who 
gave  the  township  its  name  in  remembrance  of  their  former  home." 

Lien,  organized  July  28,  1874,  was  named  in  honor  of  Ole  E.  Lien, 
who  was  one  of  its  first  settlers,  coming  in  1867  or  1868.  He  was  born 
in  Norway;  came  to  the  United  States  in  1861,  settling  in  Minnesota, 
and  served  during  the  civil  war  in  the  Tenth  Minnesota  regiment 

Logan,  first  settled  in  1871,  organized  July  29,  1874,  commemorates 
John  Alexander  Logan,  who  was  born  in  Jackson  county,  Illinois,  February 
9,  1826,  and  died  in  Washington,  D.  C,  December  26,  1886.  He  served  in 
the  Mexican  war ;  was  a  member  of  Congress  from  Illinois,  1859-61 ;  was 
a  general  in  the  civil  war,  1861-5 ;  was  again  a  representative  in  Congress, 
1867-71,  and  a  senator,  1871-77  and  1879-86.  In  1884  he  was  the  Republican 
candidate  for  vice  president. 

Macsville,  organized  September  23,  1878,  was  named  in  compliment 
for  Francis  McNabb,  an  early  settler  and  chairman  of  the  first  board 


216  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

of  supervisors,  and  for  John  McQuillan,  another  early  settler,  who  was 
the  first  township  clerk,  also  for  Coll  McClellan,  who  in  1875  was  chair- 
man of  the  board  of  county  commissioners. 

NoRCRoss,  the  railway  village  in  Gorton,  platted  in  December,  1881, 
and  incorporated  in  1903,  received  its  name  from  Henry  AUyn  Norton 
and  Judson  Newell  Cross,  of  Minneapolis,  proprietors  of  the  village  site. 
Norton  was  born  in  Byron,  111.,  October  17,  1838;  died  in  Minneapolis, 
February  3,  1906.  He  served  in  the  army,  1861-5,  attaining  the  rank  of 
major;  resided  in  Chicago  until  1882,  when  he  r^oved  to  Minneapolis. 
Cross  was  born  in  the  state  of  New  York,  January  16,  1838;  died  in 
Minneapolis,  August  31,  1901.  He  was  a  student  at  Oberlin  College 
when  the  civil  war  began;  enlisted  in  the  Seventh  Ohio  regiment,  and 
during  the  first  year  in  service  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  captain ;  in 
1864  was  made  adjutant  general  of  the  military  district  of  Indiana.  After 
the  war  he  studied  law,  and  in  1875  settled  in  Minneapolis. 

North  Ottawa  was  organized  July  24,  1882.  "Thomas  H.  Toombs, 
from  Ottawa,  Illinois,  gave  the  township  its  name."  The  first  township 
meeting  was  held  at  his  house,  an<i  he  was  then  elected  chairman  of  the 
supervisors. 

Pelican  Lake  township,  organized  January  4,  1876,  has  an  extensive 
lake  of  this  name,  which  "was  noted  for  the  large  flocks  of  pelicans  found 
there  in  the  early  days."  It  was  named  Lake  EUenora  on  the  earliest 
sta(e  map,  in  1860. 

Pom  ME  DE  Terre  township,  organized  July  17,  1877,  took  the  name  of 
the  large  lake  at  its  southeast  border,  whence  also  the  Pomme  de  Terre 
river,  flowing  from  it  to  the  Minnesota  river,  was  named.  It  is  received 
from  the  early  French  voyageurs  and  traders,  meaning  literally  apple  of 
the  earth,  that  is,  a  potato;  but  it  was  here  applied  to  the  edible  ovoid- 
shaped  root  of  the  Dakota  turnip  (Psoralea  esculenta),  called  Tipsinah 
by  the  Dakota  or  Sioux  people.  This  much  esteemed  aboriginal  food 
plant,  very  valuable  to  these  Indians,  formerly  was  common  on  dry  and 
somewhat  gravelly  parts  of  upland  prairies  throughout  southwestern 
Minnesota.  The  old  village  of  Pomme  die  Terre,  in  section  24,  platted  in 
1874,  was  the  first  village  in  the  county,  now  superseded  by  railway  towns. 

Roseville  was  organized  July  24,  1878.  "Many  names  were  suggested 
.  .  .  but  the  settlers  finally  decided  upon  a  name  which  would  remind 
them  of  the  appearance  of  the  virgin  prairie  when  they  located  there, 
beautiful  with  thousands  of  wild  roses."     (History,  1916,  page  383.) 

Sanford,  organized  July  24,  1882,  was  named  by  the  county  commis- 
sioners in  honor  of  Henry  F.  San  ford,  who  was  the  first  settler  in  the 
township,  coming  here  in  1869.  He  was  born  in  Pleasantville,  Pa.,  June 
2,  1845 ;  came  to  Minnesota,  and  served  in  Hatch's  Battalion  of  cavalry 
against  the  Sioux,  1863-6;  was  chairman  of  the  first  board  of  county 
commissioners,  1873;  and  was  county  auditor  in  1875-8  and  1887-91.  He 
was  killed  by  an  accident  in  New  Mexico  in  1914. 


GRANT  COUNTY  217 

Stony  Brook  township,  first  settled  in  1870,  organized  July  30,  1877, 
derived  its  name  from  the  small  Stony  brook  and  lake  in  its  north  part, 
which  are  headwaters  of  Mustinka  river. 

Wendell,  the  railway  village  in  Stony  Brook,  platted  in  July,  1889, 
and  incorporated  in  April,  1904,  received  its  name  from  the  railway 
officials  when  the  road  was  being  built,  with  location  of  a  depot  here,  in 
1887.  It  is  also  the  name  of  a  town  in  Massachusetts  and  a  village  in 
North  Carolina. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  foregoing  pages  have  noticed  Barrett  lake,  Elbow  and  Elk  lakes, 
Pelican  lake,  the  Pomme  de  Terre  river  and  lake,  and  Stony  brook. 

Mustinka  river  has  a  Dakota  or  Sioux  name,  meaning  a  rabbit,  the 
reference  being  to  the  common  white  rabbit,  which  also  is  called  the 
"varying  hare,"  because  its  fur  is  gray  in  summer  and  white  in  winter. 
The  Dakota  dictionaries  by  S.  R.  Riggs  (1852)  and  John  P.  Williamson 
(1902)  give  it  as  Mashtincha.  The  larger  jack  rabbit  or  hare,  also 
formerly  common  on  the  prairies  of  western  Minnesota  and  on  the  great 
plains  farther  west,  was  called  mashtintanka,  which  means  great  rabbit. 

Another  stream  of  this  county  is  named  Rabbit  river,  having  its  sources 
in  Lawrence  and  flowing  west  in  Wilkin  county  to  Bois  des  Sioux  river. 

Two  early  routes  or  trails  of  traders,  traveling  with  trains  of  Red 
river  carts  from  the  Selkirk  and  Pembina  settlements,  in  the  lower  Red 
river  valley,  to  St.  Cloud  and  St.  Paul,  passed  across  the  area  of  Grant 
county.  Both  are  delineated  on  the  state  map  of  1860,  the  more  northern 
passing  by  Pelican  lake,  then  called  Lake  Ellenora,  and  the  central  route 
by  Elbow  lake.  A  more  southwestern  route  led  from  the  Red  and  Bois 
des  Sioux  rivers  to  the  Minnesota  valley  and  past  Swan  lake  and 
Traverse  des  Sioux  to  St.  Paul. 

Woods  and  Pope,  in  the  expedition  of  1849,  before  mentioned,  took 
the  middle  route,  passing  Elk  lake,  the  Little  Pomme  de  Terre  lake  (now 
named  Barrett  lake),  and  onward  northwest,  having  on  the  left  hand, 
successively.  Long,  Worm,  Elbow,  and  Lightning  lakes.  Three  of  these 
last  have  been  named  for  their  shape  or  outline,  the  most  remarkable 
being  Worm  lake,  of  very  irregular  and  wormlike  form. 

Lightning  lake,  in  Stony  Brook  township,  and  Upper  Lightning  lake, 
a  few  miles  farther  northwest,  in  the  edge  of  Otter  Tail  county,  perhaps 
derived  their  names  from  an  incident  during  the  expedition  of  Woods  and 
Pope,  when  they  so  named  two  lakes  where  they  had  camped,  in  reference 
to  "a  stroke  of  lightning,  which  tore  in  pieces  one  of  the  tents,  and  pros- 
trated nearly  all  the  persons  who  were  in  the  camp."  (Pope's  Report, 
1850,  pages  18-19.)  But  the  detailed  narration  of  Pope  shows  that  their 
Lightning  lakes  were  those  now  named  Grove  lake  and  McGoud's  lake, 
in  Pope  county,  on  a  more  southeastern  part  of  the  route,  distant  about 
two  or  three  days'  journey  from  these  fakes.  In  a  paper  by  D.  S.  B. 
Johnston,  who  went  over  this  route  in  1857,  it  is  stated  that  the  Light- 


218  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

ning  lake  of  Grant  county,  according  to  Pierre  Bottineau,  the  famous 
guide,  "took  its  name  from  a  man  in  a  former  expedition  being  struck 
by  lightning  and  killed."  (M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  XV,  1915,  page 
417.)  In  the  tradition  of  guides,  possibly  the  experience  of  the  expedi- 
tion in  1849  had  given  origin  to  a  misplaced  Lightning  lake  in  1857,  which 
has  been  permanently  retained. 

A  large  number  of  other  lakes  are  named  mostly  in  honor  of  early  set- 
tlers near  them,  or  for  trees,  as  Cottonwood  lake,  birds,  as  Cormorant  lake, 
or  other  animals,  as  Turtle  lake ;  or  for  their  size  or  outlines,  as  Big,  Horse- 
shoe, and  Round  lakes.  These  are  noted  in  the  following  list,  arranged 
in  the  numerical  order  of  the  townships  and  ranges,  but  omitting  many 
lakes  of  relatively  small  size,  for  which  the  maps  have  no  names. 

Patchen,  Shauer,  and  Silver  lakes,  in  Roseville. 

Big  and  Cottonwood  lakes.  Burr,  Johnson,  Olstrud,  Neimackl,  Bar- 
rows, Graham,  and  Nelson  lakes,  in  Macsville. 

Pullman  lake,  adjoining  Herman,  named  for  Charles  Pullman,  pro- 
prietor of  the  first  hotel  there. 

Lake  Katrina  or  Sylvan  lake,  (bordered  by  a  grove),  Peterson,  Thomp- 
son, Torstenson,  Ellingson,  Olson,  and  Retzhoff  lakes.  Round  lake.  Spring 
and  Turtle  lakes,  Church  lake  (beside  a  church),  and  Island  lake,  in  Elk 
Lake  township. 

Cormorant  lake,  Eide,  Huset,  and  Jones  lakes,  in  Lien. 

Moses  lake  or  slough,  in  Delaware. 

Island  and  Round  lakes,  in  San  ford. 

Four  Mile  lake  (so  far  from  the  old  Pomme  de  Terre  stage  station), 
Field,  Horseshoe,  and  Scott's  lakes,  in  Pomme  de  Terre  township,  of  which 
the  second  and  fourth  were  named  for  adjacent  farmers. 

Stony  Brook  lake,  in  sections  3  and  10  of  Stony  Brook  township. 

Stony  lake,  in  section  12,  Lawrence,  and  Ash  lake  in  sections  24  and  25 
of  this  township,  the  last  being  named  for  an  early  immigrant  farmer 
from  England. 

Herman  and  Norcross  Beaches  of  Lake  Agassiz. 

From  their  excellent  development  near  Herman  and  at  Norcross,  the 
first  and  uppermost  beach  and  the  second*  beach,  which  is  next  lower,  of 
the  Glacial  Lake  Agassiz,  received  their  names  as  respectively  the  Her- 
man and  Norcross  beaches  or  shore  lines.  Along  northern  parts  of  this 
great  ancient  lake,  which  filled  the  Red  river  valley,  as  more  fully  noticed 
in  the  first  chapter  of  this  volume  (pages  7,  8),  each  of  these  beaches  is 
divided,  on  account  of  the  northward  uplift  of  the  land  during  the  existence 
of  the  lake,  into  two  or  several  beaches,  distinct  and  separate  strand  lines 
at  small  vertical  intervals,  which  there  are  distinguished  as  the  upper  and 
lower  Herman  beaches,  or  the  first,  second,  third,  etc.,  and  likewise  the 
upper  and  lower  Norcross  beaches.  The  earliest  published  use  of  these 
names  is  in  the  Eleventh  Annual  Report  of  the  Geological  Survey  of 
Minnesota,  for  1882. 


HENNEPIN  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  March  6,  1852,  commemorates  Louis  Henne- 
pin, the  Franciscan  missionary,  explorer,  and  author,  who  was  born  in 
Ath,  Belgium,  about  1640,  and  died  in  Holland  about  1701.  He  entered 
the  order  of  the  Recollects  of  St.  Francis,  probably  in  his  early  youth; 
spent  many  years  in  services  of  that  order  in  France,  Belgium,  Holland, 
Italy,  and  Germany;  and  was  present,  as  a  regimental  chaplain,  at  the 
battle  of  Senef,  in  1674.  The  next  year  he  sailed  to  Canada,  in  the  same 
ship  with  Laval,  ^>t)i5hop  of  the  newly  established  see  of  Quebec,  and 
La  Salle,  destined  to  be  the  grealest  French  explorer  of  the  New  World, 
arrivii^g.at  Quebec  in  September.  In  1678  Hennepin  joined  La  Salle's 
expedition  for  exploration  of  lakes  Ontario,  Erie,  Huron,  and  Michigan, 
and  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi  rivers. 

By  direction  of  La  Salle,  whom  he  left  near  the  site  of  Peoria,  Hen- 
nepin descended  the  Illinois  river  with  two  companions  in  a  canoe,  and 
thence  ascended  the  Mississippi.  On  their  way  up  the  Mississippi  they 
were  captured  by  a  band  of  Sioux,  living  near  Mille  Lacs,  spent  eight 
months  with  them,  and  were  rescued  by  Du  Luth,  who  enabled  Hennepin 
to  reach  Green  Bay.  In  the  midsummer  of  1680,  after  the  early  part  of 
their  captivity  by  the  Sioux  in  the  region  of  Mille  Lacs,  Hennepin  and 
one  of  his  French  companions,  Anthony  Auguelle  (also  called  the  Pickard 
du  Gay),  were  the  first  white  men  to  see  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  which 
Hennepin  named  in  honor  of  his  patron  saint,  Anthony  of  Padua. 

He  returned  to  Quebec  in  1682,  and  to  Europe  soon  afterward.  In 
1683  he  published  in  Paris  an  account  of  his  explorations,  entitled  "De* 
scription  de  la  Louisiane."  A  translation  of  it,  by  John  Gilmary  Shea, 
was  published  in  New  York  in  1880,  with  dedication  to  Archbishop  Ire- 
land and  John  Fletcher  Williams,  who  were  respectively  the  president 
and  secretary  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society.  This  volume  has  an 
introductory  notice  of  Father  Hennepin  and  an  account  of  his  published 
works,  in  45  pages;  and  the  main  translation  is  followed  by  others  from 
La  Salle  and  Du  Luth,  and  by  a  bibliography  of  Hennepin's  works  and 
their  many  editions  and  translations. 

Extensive  quotations  from  Shea  are  given  in  chapter  VII  (pages  205- 
241)  in  volume  I  of  "Minnesota  in  Three  Centuries,"  published  in  1908, 
which  narrates  the  explorations  of  Du  Luth  and  Hennepin  in  the  area  of 
this  state,  with  biographic  sketches  of  these  great  pioneers  of  New  France. 

Two  hundred  years  after  Hennepin  visited  and  named)  the  falls  of 
the  Mississippi  at  the  center  of  the  present  city  of  Minneapolis,  a  great 
celebration  was  held  there  by  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  and  the 

210 


220  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

people  of  the  Twin  Cities,  on  the  grounds  of  the  State  University,  within 
view  of  the  falls,  on  Saturday,  July  3,  1880.  The  description  of  this  Hen- 
nepin Bi-Centenary  celebration,  and  the  addresses  of  Governor  C.  -K. 
Davis,  Governor  Ramsey,  General  W.  T.  Sherman,  and  Archbishop  Ire- 
land, with  a  poem  by  A.  P.  Miller,  are  published  in  the  M.  H.  S.  Collec- 
tions (vol.  VI,  pages  29-74).. 

The  name  of  Hennepin,  instead  of  Snelling,  which  latter  had  been 
proposed  by  Colonel  John  H.  Stevens  in  the  original  bill,  was  adopted 
for  this  county  on  request  of  Martin  McLeod,  member  of  the  Territorial 
Council. 

Townships,  Villages,  and  Minneapolis. 

The  origins  and  meanings  of  these  names  have.«bi^i|  gathered  mostly 
from  the  "Geographical  and  Statistical  Hfstoi^  of  the  C^ouJUjjof  Henne- 
pin," by  W.  H.  Mitchell  and  Col.  John  H.  Stevens,  1868,  R9  e^ges; 
"History  of  Hennepin  County  and  the  City  of  Minneapolis,"  by  George 
E.  Warner  and  Charles  M.  Foote,  1881,  713  pages ;  "History  of  Minneapo- 
lis, edited  by  Judge  Isaac  Atwater,  and  Hennepin  County,  edited  by 
Colonel  John  H.  Stevens,"  1895,  two  volumes,  continuously  paged,  1497 
pages ;  "Compendium  of  History  and  Biography  of  Minneapolis  and  Hen- 
neoin  County,"  by  Return  I.  Holcombe  and  William  H.  Bingham,  1914, 
584  pages ;  and  from  Hon.  John  B.  Giliillan,  Dr.  Lysander  P.  Foster,  and 
Major  Edwin  Qark,  each  of  Minneapolis,  the  second  and  third  being 
respectively  president  and  secretary  of  the  Hennepin  County  Territorial 
Pioneers*  Association. 

Bloom iNGTON  township,  first  settled  in  1843,  organized  May  11,  1858, 
was  the  home  of  bands  of  the  Dakotas,  "those  of  Good  Road  and  Man 
of  the  Clouds.  They  occupied  the  bluff  on  the  river  near  the  residence 
of  Rev.  G.  H.  Pond."  The  name  was  given  by  settlers  from  Illinois, 
who  came  in  1852.  Twelve  other  states  have  villages  and  cities  of  this 
name,  the  two  largest  being  in  Illinois  and  Indiana. 

Brooklyn  township,  settled  in  1852,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was 
named  by  pioneers  from  southern  Michigan,  who  came  in  1853,  for  the 
former  township  and  present  railway  village  of  Brooklyn  in  that  state, 
about  twenty  miles  northwest  of  Adrian. 

Brooklyn  Center  is  an  incorporated  village,  mainly  a  farming  area, 
adjoining  the  northwest  corner  of  Minneapolis. 

Champlin,  first  settled  in  1852,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named 
from  its  village,  platted  in  1853,  opposite  to  Anoka  and  the  mouth  of 
Rum  river.  It  bears  a  personal  surname,  but  why  it  came  to  be  applied 
to  this  village  and  the  township  remains  to  be  learned.  No  other  place 
in  the  United  States  is  so  named.  A  farmer  of  Vernon  Center,  in  Blue 
Earth  county,  Ezra  T.  Champlin,  born  in  Ferrisburg,  Vt,  April  2,  1839, 
came  to  this  state  in  1860;  served  in  the  Third  Minnesota  regiment  in 
the  civil  war,  attaining  the  rank  of  captain ;  and  was  a  representative  in 
the  legislature  in  1875,  1887,  and  1891,  being  speaker  of  the  House  in 
1891. 


HENNEPIN  COUNTY  221 

CcACORAN,  settled  in  1855,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Patrick  B.  Corcoran,  who  was  the  first  school  teacher  here,  the  first 
merchant,  and  first  postmaster.  He  was  highly  commended  as  a  good 
oitizen  by  Colonel  Stevens.  He  was  born  in  Ireland,  1825;  came  to  the 
United  States  in  1847,  and  to  this  county  in  1855,  being  one  of  the  earliest 
settlers  of  this  township. 

Crystal  village,  as  it  is  now  named,  incorporated  January  11,  1887, 
would  be  more  suitably  termed  a  small  township,  under  which  form  of 
government  it  was  organized  April  3,  1860,  being  then  called  Crystal 
Lake.  It  has  the  Twin  lakes  and  the  smaller  Crystal  lake,  which  boasts 
"a  good  depth  of  water  and  better  shores."  Besides  the  title  of  the  town- 
ship and  village,  its  Crystal  prairie,  four  miles  long  and  a  mile  wide,  but 
dotted  originally  with  many  small  groves,  like  islands,  was  also  named 
from  the  lake. 

Dayton  township,  settled  in  1851,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named, 
like  its  village,  platted  in  1855,  in  honor  of  Lyman  Dayton,  of  St.  Paul, 
one  of  the  original  proprietors.  He  was  born  in  Southington,  Conn., 
August  25,  1810;  and  died  in  St.  Paul,  October  20,  1865.  He  came  to 
Minnesota  in  1849,  and  invested  largely  in  real  estate;  was  the  projector 
and  president  of  the  Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi  railroad  (later  named 
St.  Paul  and  Duluth). 

Deephaven,,  a  village  in  Excelsior  and  Minnetonka,  founded  about 
1880,  was  named  for  its  excellent  harbor. 

Eden  Prairie  township,  settled  in  1852,  organized  in  1858,  had  a  fine 
natural  prairie  in  its  southern  portion.  *'The  town  was  named,  in  1853, 
by  a  Mrs.  Elliot,  who  gave  it  the  name  Eden,  in  expressing  her  admir- 
ation of  this  beautiful  prairie."  (History,  1881,  page  231.)  The  reference 
should  be  for  Mrs.  Elizabeth  F.  EUet,  an  author  of  national  reputation, 
who  visited  Lake  Minnetonka  in  August,  1852,  less  than  three  months 
after  it  was  visited  and  named  by  Governor  Ramsey.  Other  names 
proposed  by  her,  for  bays  and  a  point  of  Minnetonka  are  noted  on  a  later 
page  in  this  chapter. 

Edina,  a  southwestern  village  suburb  of  Minneapolis,  was  incorpo- 
rated December  18,  1888,  having  been  previously  a  part  of  Richfield.  Its 
name  was  derived  from  the  Edina  flouring  mill,  owned  by  Andrew  and 
John  Craik,  who  so  named  the  mill  in  memory  of  their  boyhood  home, 
in  or  near  Edinburgh,  Scotland. 

Excelsior,  organized  May  11,  1858,  "owes  its  name  and  settlement  to 
a  colony,  under  the  title  of  the  Excelsior  Pioneer  Association,"  which 
was  formed  in  New  York  City,  November  12,  1852.  "They  were  headed 
by  George  M.  Bertram  and  arrived  in  the  summer  of  1853."  The  colouy 
adopted  this  name  in  allusion  to  Longfellow's  world-famous  short  poem, 
"Excelsior,"  which  was  written  September  28,  1841,  and  was  published  a 
few  days  later. 

(jOLDEN  Valley,  a  western  suburb  of  Minneapolis,  euphoniously  named 
for  its  beautiful  valley  inclosing  a  small  and  narrow  lake,  was  incorpo- 


222  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

rated  December  17,  1886,  under  a  village  charter,  though  it  is  chiefly  a 
farming  community.  It  had  been  formerly  the  northwest  part  of  Min- 
neapolis township. 

Greenwood,  settled  in  1855,  organized  May  11,  1858,  took  fhe  name  of 
a  former  village,  which  aspired  to  be  a  city,  platted  by  Thomas  A.  Holmes 
(founder  of  many  towns)  and  others  in  the  winter  of  1856-7.  It  was 
soon  superseded  by  Rockford,  on  the  Wright  county  side  of  the  Crow 
river  about  a  mile  below  the  Greenwood  city  site.  "The  origin  of  the 
name  was  the  charming  appearance  of  the  woodlands,  as  seen  by  the  first 
settlers,  in  the  early  days  of  summer."    (History,  1881,  page  311.) 

Hamel,  a  railway  village  in  section  12,  Medina,  founded  in  1886,  was 
named  for  J.  O.  and  William  Hamel,  merchants  there. 

Hassan,  first  settled  in  1854,  organized  April  3,  1860,  received  its  name 
from  a  Dakota  or  Sioux  word,  chanhasan,  meaning  the  sugar  maple  tree 
(chan,  tree;  hasan,  from  haza,  the  whortleberry  or  huckleberry,  also 
blueberries;  that  is,  the  tree  having  similarly  sweet  sap).  Carver  county 
has  a  township  named  Chanhassen,  close  south  of  Lake  Minnetonka,  set- 
tled two  years  earlier  and  organized  in  1858.  Not  to  conflict  with  that 
name,  the  syllable  meaning  tree  was  here  omitted. 

Hennepin,  a  short-lived  village  platted  in  1852,  in  sections  34  and  35, 
Eden  Prairie,  on  the  Minnesota  river,  was  during  several  years  a  shipping 
point  for  grain. 

Hopkins,  a  railway  village  in  St.  Louis  Park,  Edina,  and  Minnetonka, 
was  named  in  honor  of  Harley  H.  Hopkins,  its  postmaster.  He  was  bom 
in  1824;  came  to  this  county  in  1855;  engaged  in  farming  on  a  part  of  the 
village  site;  diied  in  Minneapolis,  February  19,  1882. 

Independence,  settled  in  1854-5,  organized  May  11,  1858,  bears  the  name 
of  the  largest  one  of  its  several  lakes.  'The  lake  derived  its  name  from 
a  party  of  Fourth  of  July  excursionists.  Kelsey  Hinman,  one  of  the 
party,  named  it  Lake  Independence,  in  honor  of  the  national  holiday." 
(History,  1881,  page  263.) 

Long  Lake,  a  Great  Northern  railway  village  in  Orono,  was  named 
for  the  adjoining  Long  lake,  one  of  our  most  abundant  lake  names. 

LoRETTo,  a  Soo  railway  village  in  section  6,  Medina,  founded  in  1886, 
was  named  from  a  Roman  Catholic  mission  for  refugees  of  the  Huron 
Indians  near  Quebec,  Canada,  called  Lorette,  founded  and  named  in  1673, 
and  from  the  village  of  Loretto,  Kentucky,  where  a  society  of  Catholic 
"Sisters  of  Loretto  at  the  Foot  of  the  Cross"  was  founded  in  1812.  Many 
schools  are  conducted  by  members  of  this  society  in  the  central  and 
southern  United  States.  The  original  source  of  the  name  is  Loreto,  a 
small  town  in  Italy,  which  has  a  noted  shrine  of  pilgrimage.  (Catholic 
Encyclopedia,  vol.  IX,  1910,  pages  360-361 ;  vol.  XIII,  1912.  pages  454-6.) 

Maple  Ghove  township,  first  settled  in  1851,  organized  May  11,  1858, 
and  Maple  Plain,  a  railway  village  in  Independence,  platted  in  1868, 
when  the  railway  construction  was  completed  to  that  station,  were  both 
named  for  the  abundance  of  the  hard  or  sugar  maple  in  their  forests. 


HENNEPIN  CO  UNTY  223 

Medina,  settled  in  1854,  organized  May  11,  1858,  had  been  previously 
called  Hamburg  by  the  county  commissioners,  which  name  was  then 
changed  to  Medina  by  a  unanimous  vote  of  the  thirty-seven  settlers 
present  This  name  of  a  city  in  Arabia,  where  Mohammed  spent  his 
last  ten  years  and  died,  is  borne  by  villages  and  townships  in  eight  states 
of  our  Union,  and  by  counties  in  Ohio  and  Texas. 

MiNNEAP(».is,  founded  by  Col.  John  H.  Stevens,  builder  of  the  first 
house  on  the  west  side  of  the  Mississippi  here  in  1849-50,  organized  as  a 
township  May  11,  1858,  was  transformed  in  1886  to  the  village  organiz- 
ations of  Golden  Valley  and  St.  Louis  Park,  excepting  the  eastern  part 
of  the  township,  which  had  been  comprised  in  the  city  area.  On  the 
original  site  of  this  city,  platting  of  village  lots  was  begun  in  the  spring  of 
1854  by  Stevens,  to  which  other  plats  were  added  in  1854-5.  The  state 
legislature,  in  an  act  approved  March  1,  1856,  authorized  a  town  govern- 
ment with  a  council,  which  was  inaugurated  July  20,  1858.  The  city  of 
Minneapolis  was  incorporated  under  an  act  of  March  2,  1866,  and  its 
first  election  of  ofHcers  was  held  February  19,  1867.  It  was  enlarged, 
through  union  of  the  former  cities  of  Minneapolis  and  St  Anthony,  by 
a  legislative  act  approved  February  28,  1872,  and  the  new  city  council 
was  organized  April  9,  1872. 

The  earliest  announcement  and  recommendation  of  this  name  was 
brought  by  Charles  Hoag  to  the  editor  of  the  St  Anthony  Express, 
George  D.  Bowman,  on  the  day  of  its  publication,  November  5,  1852. 
It  was  then  published,  without  time  for  editorial  comment,  which  was 
very  favorably  given  in  the  next  issue,  on  November  12.  Soon  this  new 
name,  compounded  from  Minnehaha  and  the  Greek  "polis,"  city,  dis- 
placed the  various  earlier  names  which  had  attained  more  or  less  temporary 
acceptance,  including  All  Saints,  proposed  by  James  M.  Goodhue  of  the 
Minnesota  Pioneer,  Hennepin,  Lowell,  Brooklyn,  Albion,  and  others. 

The  distinguished  parts  borne  by  both  Hoag  and  Bowman  in  this  oppor- 
tune coinage  of  the  name  Minneapolis  have  been  many  times  related,  with 
gratitude  to  Hoag  for  the  bright  idea  and  to  Bowman  for  his  effective 
advocacy  of  it  by  his  newspaper. 

But  a  new  claim,  for  the  origination  of  the  name  by  Bowman  during 
a  horseback  ride  from  St  Anthony  to  Marine  Mills,  on  the  St  Croix 
river,  was  published  in  the  summer  of  1915  by  a  posthumous  letter  of 
Benjamin  Drake,  Sr.,  a  cousin  of  Bowman,  printed  on  page  1583  in 
Volume  III  of  the  late  Captain  Henry  A.  Castle's  History  of  Minnesota. 
The  circumstantial  evidences  of  truthfulness  there  shown  for  Bowman,  as 
the  first  to  receive  the  inspiration  of  uniting  "Minnehaha"  and  "polis" 
to  form  this  city  name,  seem  quite  conclusive. 

It  is  probable,  however,  that  Bowman  had  mentioned  this  idea  to  his 
friend,  Mr.  Hoag,  and  that  some  days  or  weeks  later,  when  Hoag  had 
entirely  forgotten  tiiis,  it  may  have  come  again  to  his  mind  arid  been 
thought  new  and  original  with  himself,  immediately  before  his  writing 
the  short  article  by  which  this  name  was  proposed  in  November,  1852. 


224  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

So  each  of  these  excellent  early  citizens  of  Minneapolis  may  have  honestly 
believed  himself  the  favored  first  originator  of  the  city's  name.  They 
worked  together  unselfishly  and  successfully  for  its  adoption,  and  they 
seem  equally  deserving  of  enduring  fame  for  this  service  to  the  young 
city. 

The  claims  for  each  are  quite  fully  stated  and  discussed  in  the  Min- 
neapolis Journal,  by  Hon.  John  B.  Gilfillan,  January  7,  1917,  and  by  the 
present  writer  a  week  later,  on  January  14. 

MiNNETONKA  township,  first  settled  in  the  spring  of  1852,  organized 
May  11,  1S58,  received  the  name  of  the  adjoining  large  lake.  The  earliest 
recorded  exploration  of  this  lake  by  white  men  was  in  1822,  by  two  youths, 
Joseph  R.  Brown,  who  became  a  leading  figure  in  Minnesota  history, 
and  William  Joseph  Snelling,  son  of  the  commandant  of  the  fort,  accom- 
panied by  two  soldiers.  From  their  meager  and  magnified  description, 
Keating,  the  historian  of  the  United  States  exploring  expedition  under 
Major  Stephen  H.  Long,  in  1823,  mentioned  this  lake,  though  it  was  not 
named  nor  shown  on  their  map. 

Twenty  years  later,  in  1843,  Nicollet's  map  and  report  of  this  region, 
based  on  preceding  maps  and.  filled  out  by  much  information  from  his 
own  explorations  and  from  Indians  and  white  voyageurs  whom  he  ques- 
tioned, had  no  intimation  of  the  existence  of  Minnetonka.  It  seems  to 
have  been  entirely  forgotten  by  the  officers  of  the  fort,  with  whom  Nicol- 
let was  intimately  acquainted.  Because  it  was  in  the  Sioux  country,  not 
ceded  for  white  immigration  until  the  treaties  of  Traverse  des  Sioux  and 
Mendota  in  1851,  ratified  by  Congress  the  next  year,  this  fairest  one  of 
our  myriad  lakes  remained  to  be  named  and  published  when  its  first  white 
settlers  came. 

In  the  chapter  on  this  township,  contributed  by  Judge  Henry  G.  Hicks 
to  the  History  of  the  county  in  1895,  the  exploration  of  the  lower  part 
of  this  lake  by  Simon  Stevens  and  Calvin  A.  Tuttle  in  April,  1852,  is 
well  narrated.  Two  days  after  their  return,  the  St.  Anthony  Express, 
for  April  16,  published  an  article  entitled  "Peninsula  Lake,"  in  which  it  is 
truly  remarked  that  "almost  the  entire  shore  appears  to  be  a  succession  of 
bays  and  peninsulas." 

The  present  more  felicitous  name  was  coined  about  six  weeks  later 
by  Governor  Alexander  Ramsey,  when,  near  the  end  of  May,  he  made 
a  journey  to  this  lake  in  a  company  of  several  prominent  citizens  from  St. 
Anthony  and  St.  Paul.  An  article  by  Goodhue  in  his  newspaper,  the 
Minnesota  Pioneer,  for  July  1,  says :  "The  lake  was  named-  by  Governor 
Ramsey,  Minnetonka,  or  *Big  Water,'  who  expressed  great  admiration 
of  the  beauties  of  the  country  surrounding." 

Minne  (also  spelled  mini)  is  the  common  Sioux  word  for  water,  and 
tonka  (also  spelled  tanka)  is  likewise  their  common  word  meaning  big  or 
great ;  but  the  name  thus  compounded  seems  not  to  have  been  used  by  the 
Sioux  till  Ramsey  coined  it  for  the  lake.    So  far  as  we  have  records,  in- 


HENNEPIN  COUNTY  22S 

deed,  the  Sioux  or  Dakota  people  appear  to  have  had  no  term  for  this 
large  and  many- featured  body  of  water. 

MiNNETONKA  Beach  IS  a  railway  village  of  summer  hotels  and  homes, 
on  the  north  side  of  the  lake,  between  Crystal  and  Lafayette  bays,  in 
Orono. 

MiNNETsisTA^  Settled  in  1854,  organized  in  the  spring  of  1859,  was  at 
first  named  German  Home  by  the  county  commissioners,  but  was  changed 
to  the  present  name  by  vote  of  the  settlers  at  the  date  of  organization. 
"Several  names  were  proposed  and  rejected.  The  name  of  Minnetrista 
was  finally  proposed  and  accepted,  Minne  (meaning  waters)  and  trista 
(meaning  crooked) ;  and  from  the  fact  that  the  town  contained  so  many 
crooked  lakes,  this  name  was  considered  a$  the  most  appropriate."  (His- 
tory, 1881,  page  260.)  '  * 

To  be  more  definite,  this  name  seems  to  have  been  chosen  primarily  in 
allusion  to  the  very  irregular  and  curiously  zigzag  outline  of  Whale 
Tail  lake,  which  thus  not  only  suggested  its  own  name,  but  also  this 
name  for  the  township.  Another  lake  of  curious  crookedness,  in  sections 
5  and  6,  is  called  Ox  Yoke  lake,  from  its  shape.  Minnetrista  is  partly  of 
Dakota  derivation,  in  its  first  half;  but  trista  is  not  found  in  either  the 
Dakota  or  Ojibway  languages.  It  is  another  example  of  words  coined 
by  white  men,  as  if  used  by  Indians.  The  letter  r,  occurring  in  trista,  is 
not  employed  by  Riggs  or  Baraga  in  their  dictionaries  of  these  aboriginal 
languages;  nor  are  their  words  meaning  crooked  similar  in  sound  with 
trista,  which  we  may  therefore  think  to  be  of  Yankee  invention,  to  signify 
twisted  or  twister. 

Mound,  a  railway  village  of  summer  homes,  with  other  homes  of  per- 
manent residents,  in  Minnetrista,  on  and  near  the  northwestern  shore  of 
Lake  Minnetonka,  is  named  for  its  aboriginal  mounds.  Three  groups  of 
these  mounds  within  the  area  of  the  village,  mapped  by  Winchell,  have 
respectively  four,  eighteen,  and  nine  mounds ;  and  at  the  distance  of  about 
a  mile  westward  is  a  remarkable  series  of  sixty-nine  mounds,  on  the 
north  side  of  Halsted's  bay.  (Aborigines  of  Minnesota,  1911,  pages  224-6, 
with  maps  of  these  mound  groups.) 

Around  all  the  shores  of  Lake  Minnetonka,  and  on  some  of  its  islands, 
are  many  mounds,  mostly  in  groups.  The  aggregate  number  of  these 
mounds  mapped  and  described  by  Winchell,  in  the  work  cited  (pages  224- 
242,  with  36  maps  or  plats),  is  495,  in  more  than  thirty  groups,  which 
range  in  their  separate  numbers  from  two  or  three  up  to  98  mounds. 

Okono  township  was  organized  in  1889,  having  previously  been  the 
south  half  of  Medina.  The  name,  adopted  from  the  township  and  village 
of  the  same  name  in  Maine,  was  suggested  by  citizens  who  had  come  to 
Minnesota  from  that  state.  Several  years  before  this  township  was  organ- 
ized and  named,  George  A.  Brackett,  of  Minneapolis,  purchased  for  his 
summer  home  a  point  on  this  part  of  the  lake  shore,  before  called  Star- 
vation point,  which  he  then  renamed  as  Orono  point.  In  an  address  by 
Hon.  Israel  Washburn,  Jr.,  at  the  centennial  celebration  of  Orono,  Maine, 


226  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

on  March  3,  1874,  this  name  is  stated  to  have  been  borne  by  a  prominent 
chief  of  the  Penobscot  Indians,  who  was  bom  in  1688  and.  died  February 
5,  18Q1,  aged  113  years.  Washburn  wrote:  "Orono  was  always  inclined 
to  peace  and  good  neighborhood  .  .  .  What  the  grand  and  sonorous 
name  he  bore  signified,  or  whence  it  was  derived,  I  have  never  heard," 

OssEO^  a  village  in  Brookl}^  and  Maple  Grove  townships,  platted  in 
1856,  occupies  a  part  of  Bottineau  prairie,  where  Pierre  Bottineau,  the 
noted  half-breed  guide,  took  his  land  claim  in  1852.  The  village  "remained 
under  the  township  governments  .  .  .  until  the  spring  of  1875,  when  it 
was  incorporated  by  act  of  Legislature."  The  source  of  the  name  is 
"The  Song  of  Hiawatha,"  by  Longfellow,  published  in  1855,  which  pre- 
sents the  story  of  Osseo,  "son  of  the  Evening  Star,"  told  by  lagoo  at  the 
wedding  of  Hiawatha  and  Minnehaha.  This  name,  received  likewise 
from  Longfellow,  is  borne  also  by  villages  in  Michigan  and  Wisconsin. 

Plymouth^  first  settled  in  October,  1853,  organized  May  11,  1858,  took 
the  name  of  its  village  previously  platted*  on  Parker's  lake,  in  1856;  but 
the  village  was  only  of  short  duration,  in  contrast  with  the  township 
name,  which,  however,  some  of  the  settlers  at  first  wished  to  change  to 
Medicine  Lake.  Like  all  the  many  Plymouths  of  the  United  States,  it 
commemorates  the  city  of  Plymouth  at  the  mouth  of  the  River  Plym  in 
Devonshire,  England,  whence  the  Pilgrims  in  the  Mayflower  sailed  in 
1620  to  the  site  of  Plymouth,  Mass.,  landing  there  on  a  boulder  of  world 
renown,  called  Plymouth  Rock. 

Richfield,  settled  in  1849-52,  organized  May  11, 1858,  was  then  so  named 
by  vote  of  the  people,  in  preference  to  Richland,  its  previous  name. 
Twelve  other  states  have  Richfield  townships,  villages,  or  cities. 

RoBBiNSDALE,  a  Suburban  village  adjoining  Minneapolis  on  the  north- 
west, was  named  for  Andirew  B.  Robbins,  who  purchased  lands  there  in 
1887  and  platted  the  village,  which  a  few  years  later  was  incorporated. 

Rogers,  the  railway  village  of  Hassan,  was  named  by  officers  of  the 
Great  Northern  railway  company. 

St.  Anthony,  incorporated  as  a  city  March  3,  1855,  and  its  outlying 
area  which  was  organized  as  a  township  May  11,  1858,  received  the  name 
of  the  adjacent  falls  of  the  Mississippi,  which  Hennepin  in  1680,  as  he 
wrote,  "called  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  of  Padua,  in  gratitude  for  the 
favors  done  me  by  the  Almighty  through  the  intercession  of  that  great 
saint,  whom  we  had  chosen  patron  and  protector  of  all  our  enterprises." 
St  Anthony  was  born  in  Lisbon  in  1195,  became  a  Franciscan  friar  at  the 
age  of  twenty-three  years,  and  spent  his  last  five  years  in  a  convent  at 
Padua,  Italy,  where  he  died  in  1231. 

St.  Anthony  Falls  was  platted  as  a  village  in  1849,  and  was  included 
in  Ramsey  county  until  March  4,  1856.  Another  plat,  in  1848-9,  named 
St  Anthony  City,  comprised  the  site  of  the  State  University  and  adjoin- 
ing area  southeastward,  which  later  was  popularly  called  "Cheevertown," 
in  honor  of  William  A.  Cheever,  a  pioneer  who  settled  there  in  1847, 
builder  of  an  observatory  tower. 


HENNEPIN  COUNTY  227 

An  act  of  the  Legislature,  "consolidating  the  cities  of  St.  Anthony 
and  Minneapolis,  and  incorporating  the  same  into  one  city  by  the  name 
of  Minneapolis/'  was  approved  February  28,  1872. 

St.  BoNiFAcrus,  a  railway  village  in  Minnetrista,  was  named  from  its 
Catholic  church,  consecrated  to  St.  Boniface,  the  Apostle  of  the  Germans. 
He  was  born  in  Devonshire,  England,  about  680,  the  son  of  a  West 
Saxon  chieftain;  was  ordained  to  the  priesthood  in  710;  went  as  a  mis- 
sionary to  Bavaria  in  720,  and  became  archbishop  of  Mentz ;  resigned  that 
position  as  primate  of  Germany  at  the  age  of  seventy-four  years,  resumed 
his  missionary  work,  and  in  the  next  year  suffered  "martyrdom  at  the 
hands  of  the  pagans  of  Utrecht."  The  name  Bonifacius  is  Latin,  mean- 
ing "of  good  fate  or  fortune." 

St.  Louis  Park,  a  suburban  village  adjoining  the  west  side  of  Minne- 
apolis, was  formerly  included  in  Minneapolis  township.  It  was  incor- 
porated October  4,  1886,  being  named  in  allusion  to  the  Minneapolis  and 
St.  Louis  railway. 

Tonka  Bay,  a  summer  village  having  a  large  hotel,  north  and  west 
of  Gideon  bay,  in  Excelsior,  bears  a  name  abbreviated  from  Minnetonka. 

Wayzata,  a  village  in  sections  5  and  6,  Minnetonka,  l3ring  on  the  north 
side  of  Wayzata  bay,  was  platted  in  1854,  and  was  incorporated  in  1884. 
This  name  was  formed  by  slight  change  from  Waziyata,  a  Dakota  (Sioux) 
word,  meaning  "at  the  pines,  the  north."  Wazi  is  defined  as  "a  pine, 
pines";  and  Waziya,  "the  northern  god,  or  god  of  the  north;  a  fabled 
giant  who  lives  at  the  north  and  blows  cold  out  of  his  mouth.  He  draws 
near  in  winter  and  recedes  in  summer."  The  suffix  ta,  denotes  "at,  to, 
on."  (Riggs,  Dictionary  of  the  Dakota  Language,  1852,  pages  192,  239.) 
The  name  Wayzata,  originated  by  white  men,  refers  to  the  location,  at 
the  north  side  of  the  east  end  of  Lake  Minnetonka;  not  to  pine  trees, 
which  are  found  nearest,  in  very  scanty  numbers,  on  the  Mississippi 
bluffs  at  Dayton,  and  on  Bassett's  and  Minnehaha  creeks  in  Minneapolis. 

Fort  Snelling^  at  first  named  Fort  St.  Anthony. 

The  naming  of  Fort  Snelling  was  preceded  by  three  or  four  other 
names.  First,  when  the  troops  came  in  August  and  September,  1819, 
with  Colonel  Leavenworth,  for  construction  of  the  fort,  they  spent  the 
fall  and  winter,  as  also  two  succeeding  winters,  in  a  cantonment  or 
barracks  of  log-houses,  on  the  southeastern  or  Dakota  county  side  of  the 
Minnesota  river,  about  a  third  of  a  mile  southeast  from  the  site  of  the 
fort.  St.  Peter's  Cantonment  took  the  French  and  English  name  of  the 
river.  It  was  also  called  New  Hope,  noting  cheer  and  trust  for  the 
future  of  this  outpost  in  the  wilderness,  far  from  civilized  settlements. 

At  the  time  of  high  water  of  the  river  in  the  spring,  they  were  com- 
pelled to  remove  to  another  camping  place,  which  was  selected  on  the 
upland  prairie,  about  a  mile  northwest  from  the  fort  site.  Copious 
springs  of  clear  and  cool  water  issue  on  the  face  of  the  river  bluff  below 


228  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

that  second  camp  ground,  which  was  mostly  of  tents,  named  Camp 
Cold  Water. 

After  three  years  of  alternation  in  cabin  and  tent  life  .at  New  Hope 
and  Camp  Cold  Water,  the  troops  moved  into  their  barracks  within  the 
indosure  of  the  fort,  in  the  late  autumn  of  1822.  Its  comer  stone  had 
been  laid  September  10,  1820,  soon  after  Colonel  Snelling  succeeded 
Leavenworth  in  the  command;  and  its  construction  was  well  completed 
in  1824,  when  General  Winfield  Scott  visited  it  in  May  or  early  June, 
on  a  tour  of  inspection  of  western  army  posts.  Up  to  that  time  and  till 
the  beginning  of  1825,  it  was  called  Fort  St  Anthony,  in  allusion  to  the 
neighboring  St  Anthony  falls. 

In  the  report  of  the  tour  of  review  and  inspection,  dated  at  West 
Point,  November,  1824,  General  Scott  wrote  in  part  as  follows,  concern- 
ing Fort  St  Anthony:  "I  wish  to  suggest  to  the  general-in-chief,  and 
through  him  to  the  War  Department,  the  propriety  of  calling  this  work 
Fort  Snelling,  as  a  just  compliment  to  the  meritorious  officer  under  whom 
it  has  been  erected.  The  present  name  is  foreign  to  all  our  associations, 
and  is,  besides,  geographically  incorrect,  as  the  work  stands  at  the  junc- 
tion of  the  Mississippi  and  Saint  Peter's  rivers,  eight  miles  below  the 
great  falls  of  the  Mississippi,  called  after  Saint  Anthony.  Some  few 
years  since  the  Secretary  of  War  directed  that  the  work  at  the  Council 
Bluffs  should  be  called  Fort  Atkinson  in  compliment  to  the  valuable 
services  of  General  Atkinson  on  the  upper  Missouri.  The  above  propo- 
sition is  made  on  the  same  principle." 

In  accordance  with  this  recommendation,  "it  was  directed  in  War 
Department  General  Orders  No. « 1,  dated  January  7,  1825,  that  the  mili- 
tary post  on  the  Mississippi  at  the  mouth  of  the  Saint  Peter's,  theretofore 
called  Fort  Saint  Anthony,  be  thereafter  designated  and  known  as  Fort 
Snelling."  (Letter  of  Gen.  Henry  P.  McCain,  U.  S.  Adjutant  General, 
Sept  24,  1915.) 

Josiah  Snelling  was  born  in  Boston,  Mass.,  1782;  and  died  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  August  20,  1828.  He  was  commissioned  first  lieutenant  in 
the  Fourth  Infantry,  U.  S.  Army,  1808;  served  in  the  War  of  1812;  was 
promoted  to  be  colonel  of  the  Fifth  Infantry,  1819;  took  command  of 
Fort  St  Anthony  in  1820,  and  in  the  next  three  years  erected  its  perma- 
nent buildings.  In  1827  his  regiment  was  removed  to  St  Louis.  (Much 
history  of  the  officers  and  their  families  at  Fort  St.  Anthony,  especially  for 
Col.  and  Mrs.  Snelling,  is  given  in  a  paper  contributed  by  the  present 
writer  to  the  Magazine  of  History,  vol.  XXI,  pages  25-39,  July,  1915.) 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  first  chapter  has  given  attention  to  the  origins  of  the  names  of  the 
Mississippi,  Minnesota,  and  Crow  rivers,  which  together  form  two-thirds 
of  the  boundary  inclosing  this  county. 

Islands  of  the  Mississippi  in  the  area  of  Minneapolis,  in  their  descend- 
ing order,  include  Boom  island,  where  log  booms  formerly  retained  the 


HENNEPIN  COUNTY  229 

lumbermen's  logs  until  they  were  gradually  supplied  to  the  sawmills; 
Nicollet  island,  a  residential  portion  of  the  city,  named,  like  an  avenue, 
in  honor  of  the  French  explorer  and  geographer,  Joseph  Nicolas  Nicollet ; 
Hennepin  island,  named  also  like  an  avenue  and  like  this  county;  Catar- 
act island  and  Carver's  island,  just  below  the  falls,  the  latter  being  named 
for  Captain  Jonathan  Carver,  who  visited  the  falls  in  1766;  Spirit  island, 
close  below  the  preceding,  formerly  a  high  remnant  of  the  rock  strata, 
held  in  awe  by  the  Indians ;  and  Meeker  island,  an  alluvial  tract  between 
the  Franklin  Avenue  bridge  and  the  Milwaukee  Railway  bridge,  which 
was  owned  by  Judge  Bradley  B.  Meeker,  for  whom  also  a  county  is 
named 

In  the  preceding  list  of  townships,  sufficient  mention  has  been  made 
for  Crystal  lake  and  Lake  Independence,  Long  lake  in  Orono,  Lake  Min- 
netonka.  Whale  Tail  and  Ox  Yoke  lakes,  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  and 
Wayzata  bay. 

The  earliest  detailed  map  of  any  part  of  this  state  was  drafted  during 
the  building  of  the  fort,  in  1823,  entitled  "A  Topographical  View  of  the 
Site  of  Fort  St.  Anthony,"  as  described  in  the  historical  paper  before 
cited.  Lakes  Harriet  and  Calhoun  and  the  Lake  of  the  Isles,  in  the 
series  at  the  west  side  of  Minneapolis,  are  there  mapped  and  named,  with 
numerous  others  of  the  lakes,  rivers  and  creeks,  in  the  contiguous  parts 
of  Hennepin,  Ramsey,  and  Dakota  counties.  The  region  east  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi river  was  designated  as  Michigan,  and  that  on  the  west  as  Mis- 
souri. 

Lake  Harriet  was  named  for  the  wife  of  Colonel  Leavenworth.  Her 
maiden  name  was  Harriet  Love  joy,  her  home  being  in  Blenheim,  Scho- 
harie county,  N.  Y.  She  was  born  in  1791 ;  was  married  to  Leavenworth 
in  the  winter  of  1813-14;  and  died  at  Barrytown,  N.  Y.,  September  7, 
1854.  She  came  here  with  her  husband  and  the  first  troops,  August  24, 
1819,  and  was  here  about  one  year.  Leavenworth  received  the  brevet 
rank  of  brigadier  general  in  1824,  and  died  at  the  age  of  fifty-one,  July 
21,  1834,  in  an  expedition  against  the  Pawnees  and  Comanches.  Fort 
Leavenworth,  in  Kansas,  and  a  city  and  county  there,  were  named  in  his 
honor. 

Lake  Calhoun  commemorates  John  Caldwell  Calhoun  (b.  1782,  d. 
1850),  the  eminent  statesman  of  South  Carolina,  who  was  Secretary  of 
War  from  1817  to  1825.  He  was  vice  president  of  the  United  States, 
1825-32;  was  U.  S.  senator,  1833-43;  and  was  Secretary  of  State  under 
President  Tyler,  1844-5,  when  he  was  again  elected  to  the  Senate,  of 
which  he  remained  a  member  until  his  death.  The  Dakota  or  Sioux  name 
of  this  lake  is  given  as  "Mde  Medoza,  Lake  of  the  Loons,"  by  Major  T. 
M.  Newson  in  his  "Indian  Legends  of  Minnesota  Lakes"  (No.  1,  1881, 
page  18). 

The  Lake  of  the  Isles  was  named  for  its  islands  (now  two,  but  form- 
erly fot^r,  as  mapped  in  Andreas'  Atlas,  1874)  ;  and  Cedar  lake,  for  the 
red  cedar  trees  of  its  shores. 


230  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Minnehaha  Falls  received  the  name  of  Brown's  Falls  on  the  Fort  map 
of  1823,  in  honor  of  Jacob  Brown,  major  general  and  commander  in  chief 
of  the  army  from  1814  until  his  death,  February  24,  1828 ;  but  Minnehaha 
creek  on  that  map,  quite  erroneous  in  its  course,  bears  no  name.  A  jour- 
ney up  this  creek  to  Lake  Minnetonka,  which  was  made,  as  before  men- 
tioned, by  Joseph  R,  Brown  and  William  J.  Snelling  in  May,  1822,  when 
they  were  each  only  seventeen  years  old,  could  scarcely  have  caused  the 
name  of  that  Isubsequently  prominent  citizen  of  Minnesota  to  be  so  applied 
on  a  map  drafted  by  an  army  officer. 

The  name  Minnehaha  is  cited  by  Longfellow's  "Song  of  Hiawatha," 
published  in  1855,  as  used  by  Mrs.  Mary  H.  Eastman  in  the  introduction 
of  her  book,  "Dakotah,  or  Life  and  Legends  of  the  Sioux  around  Fort 
Snelling,"  published  in  1849.  She  there  wrote :  "The  scenery  about  Fort 
Snelling  is  rich  in  beauty.  The  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  are  familiar  to 
travelers,  and  to  readers  of  Indian  sketches.  Between  the  fort  and  these 
falls  are  the  'Little  Falls,'  40  feet  in  height,  on  a  stream  that  empties  into 
the  Mississippi.  The  Indians  call  them  Mine-hah-hah,  or  laughing 
waters.' " 

The  common  Sioux  word  for  waterfall  is  "haha,"  which  they  applied 
to  the  falls  of  St.  Anthony,  to  Minnehaha,  and  in  general  to  any  water- 
fall or  cascade.  To  join  the  words  "minne,"  water,  and  "haha,"  a  fall, 
seems  to  be  a  suggestion  of  white  men,  which  thereafter  came  into  use 
among  the  Indians. 

The  late  Samuel  W.  Pond,  Jr.,  in  his  admirable  book,  "Two  Volunteer 
Missionaries,"  narrating  the  lives  and  work  of  his  father  and  uncle, 
Samuel  W.  and  Gideon  H.  Pond,  wrote:  "The  Indian  name,  'Little 
Waterfall,'  is  given  ...  in  speaking  of  the  falls  now  called  by  white 
people  'Minnehaha.'  The  Indians  never  knew  it  by  the  latter  name,  be- 
stowed upon  it  by  the  whites." 

Somewhat  nearly  this  name,  however,  was  used  in  1835  by  Charles 
J.  Latrobe,  in  his  book,  "The  Rambler  in  North  America,"  telling  of  his 
travels  in  1832-3,  in  which  he  wrote  as  follows,  applying  it,  with  parts  of 
the  name  transposed,  to  the  larger  falls  of  the  Mississippi:  "But  the 
Falls  of  St.  Anthony!  ...  the  Hahamina!  'the  Laughing  Water,' 
as  the  Indian  language,  rich  in  the  poetry  of  nature,  styles  this  remote 
cataract." 

.Another  early  book  of  travel  using  the  same  form  of  the  name,  under 
a  different  spelling,  is  "A  Summer  in  the  Wilderness ;  embracing  a  Canoe 
Voyage  up  the  Mississippi  and  around  Lake  Superior,"  by  Charles  Lan- 
man,  1847  (208  pages).  He  described  the  present  Minneh?iha  creek  as 
"a  small  river,  without  a  name,  the  parent  of  a  most  beautiful  waterfall." 
Of  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  he  wrote :  "Their  original  name,  in  the  Sioux 
language,  was  Owah-Menah,  meaning  falling  water."  The  same  spelling 
and  translation  had  been  given  in  Schoolcraft's  Narrative,  1820. 

Soon  this  Sioux  or  Dakota  name  took  its  present  form,  an  improve- 
ment devised  by  white  people,  probably  first  published  in  Mrs.  Eastman's 


HENNEPIN  COUNTY  231 

book,  in  1849,  previously  quoted.  It  was  more  elaborately  presented  by 
Rev.  John  A.  Merrrick,  in  a  paper  describing  the  Falls  of  St  Anthony, 
contributed  to  the  Minnesota  Year  Book  for  1852,  published  by  William 
G.  LeDuc.  Merrick  wrote:  "By  the  Dahcota  or  Sioux  Indians  they  are 
called  Minne-ha-hah  or  Minne-ra-ra  (Laughing  water),  and  also  Minne- 
owah  (Falling  water),  general  expressions,  applied  to  all  waterfalls;  but 
Par  eminence  Minne-ha-hah  Tonk-ah  (the  great  laughing  water).  By  the 
Ojibways  they  are  termed  Kakah-Bikah  (the  broken  rocks)." 

The  noble  American  epic  of  Longfellow,  in  which  he  pictured  Hiawa- 
tha, "skilled  in  all  the  crafts  of  hunters,"  and 
.   .   .  "the  Arrow-maker's  daughter, 
Minnehaha,  Laughing  Water, 
Handsomest  of  all  the  Women," 
so  well  appealed  to  the  imagination  of  both  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain,  indeed  of  all  where  English  is  spoken,  that  soon  after  its  publi- 
cation, in  1855,  this  name  became  known  around  the  world,  the  most  wide- 
ly honored  and  loved  name  in  Minnesota  history  and  legends. 

The  names  of  other  streams  and  lakes  in  this  county  are  noted  in 
their  order  from  south  to  north  and  from  east  to  west,  this  being  the 
numerical  order  of  the  townships  and  ranges  in  the  government  surveys. 

Rice  lake,  through  which  Minnehaha  creek  flows,  was  named  for  its 
wild  rice,  formerly  gathered  for  food  by  the  Indians. 

Lake  Nokomis  was  called  Lake  Amelia  by  the  Fort  map  in  1823, 
probably  for  the  wife  or  daughter  of  Captain  George  Gooding,  who  came 
with  the  first  troops  in  1819.  The  name  was  changed  to  Nokomis  by 
the  Park  Commissioners  of  Minneapolis  in  1910,  for  the  grandmother  of 
Hiawatha. 

Next  to  the  south  and  southwest  are  Mother  lake  (lately  drained). 
Diamond,  Pearl,  Mud,  and  Wood  lakes. 

Nine  Mile  credc  received  its  name  from  its  distance  southwest  from 
Fort  Snelling. 

Long  lake  (now  mostly  drained).  Grass  lake  (on  a  recent  map  named 
Terrell  lake),  and  Rice  lake  (having  wild  rice),  are  on  the  bottomland  of 
the  Minnesota  river  in  Bloomington  and  Eden  Prairie. 

On  the  upland  in  these  townships  are  another  Long  lake  (also  named 
Bryant's  lake),  Anderson,  Bush,  Hyland,  Neill,  Staring,  Red  Rock,  and 
Moran  lakes.  Lake  Riley,  Mitchell,  Round,  and  Duck  lakes,  mostly  named 
for  farmers  adjoining  them. 

Minnetonka  township  has  Shady  Oak  lake,  in  section  26,  and  Glen 
lake  in  section  34. 

In  Excelsior  are  Galpin's  lake,  Christmas  lake,  and  Silver  lake,  the 
first  named  for  Rev.  Charles  Galpin,  the  first  pastor  there,  and  the  second 
for  Charles  W.  Christmas,  of  Minneapolis,  the  first  county  surveyor. 

Minnetrista,  named  for  its  two  remarkably  crooked  lakes,  has  also 
Dutch  lake,  adjoining  a  German  settlement;  Lake  Langdon,  which  com- 


232  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

memorates  R.  V.  Langdon,  the  first  township  clerk;  and  Long  lake,  in 
sections  9,  15,  and  16. 

Minneapolis,  in  addition  to  its  western  series  of  lakes  before  noted, 
has  Sandy  lake,  northeast  of  the  Mississippi;  Powderhom  lake,  named 
for  its  original  shape,  now  changed  as  the  center  of  a  park;  and  Loring 
Park  lake,  named  in  honor  of  Charles  M.  Loring,  who  was  prominent 
during  more  than  thirty  years  in  the  development  of  the  Minneapolis 
system  of  parks  and  public  grounds.  Glenwood  park,  on  the  west  border 
of  this  city,  includes  Glenwood  and  Brownie  lakes. 

Bassett  creek,  flowing  through  the  village  area  of  Golden  Valley  and 
the  city  of  Minneapolis,  was  named  for  Joel  Bean  Bassett,  an  early  settler 
and  lumberman,  who  was  born  in  Wolf  borough,  N.  H.,  March  17,  1817, 
and  died  in  Los  Angeles,  Gal.,  Feb.  1,  1912.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in 
1849,  settling  in  St  Paul,  but  soon  pre-empted  a  tract  adjoining  the  Mis- 
sissippi in  Minneapolis,  near  the  mouth  of  this  creek;  removed  there  in 
1852,  and  afterward  engaged  in  lumbering  and  flour  milling ;  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Territorial  Council,  1857;  was  Indian  agent  for  Minnesota 
1865-^. 

The  village  area  of  Golden  Valley  has  Virginia  lake,  Sweeney  lake, 
and  Twin  lake. 

Again  Twin  lakes  are  found  three  to  four  miles  farther  north,  in  the 
area  of  Crystal  village,  which  was  named,  as  before  noted,  for  its  Crystal 
lake. 

Shingle  creek,  which  crosses  Brooklyn  township  and  the  Brooklyn 
Center  village,  joining  the  Mississippi  in  the  north  edge  of  Minneapolis, 
had  near  its  mouth  the  first  shingle  mill  in  this  county,  built  in  185Z 
It  flows  through  Palmer  lake,  named  for  a  pioneer. 

Plymouth  has  Bass  lake,  Pomerleau,  Smith,  and  Turtle  lakes,  in  its 
northern  half.  The  much  larger  Medicine  lake,  in  its  southeastern  part, 
was  named  by  the  Indians  after  one  of  their  number  was  drowned  there 
by  the  capsizing  of  his  canoe  in  a  sudden  storm.  This  name,  in  their  use, 
means  mysterious,  and  was  given  to  the  lake  because  they  could  not  find 
his  body.  Parker's  lake,  and  Gleason  and  Kraetz  lakes,  in  the  southwest 
part  of  Plymouth,  were  named  for  adjoining  settlers,  the  first  being  for 
six  Parker  brothers  who  came  from  Maine,  in  1855  and  later,  opening 
farms  around  this  lake. 

Medina  township  has  Medina  lake  in  section  2;  Lake  Peter  in  sections 
4  and  5 ;  School  lake  in  the  school  section  16 ;  Seig  and  Half  Moon  lakes, 
in  sections  17  and  18;  Hausmann  lake,  in  section  24;  Wolsfeld  lake,  in 
sections  22  and  Z?\  and  Lake  Katrina,  in  sections  19,  20,  29,  and  30. 

Orono  has  Lydiard  lake,  close  east  of  Long  lake;  Gassen  lake,  a 
mile  and  a  half  west  of  Long  Lake  village ;  and  French  and  Forest  lakes, 
adjoining  the  bays  and  arms  of  Lake  Minnetonka. 

Independence  has  Mud  lake,  Haughey,  and  Fox  lakes;  and  Pioneer 
creek,  the  outlet  of  Lake  Independence,  flows  south  westward  across  this 
township. 


HENNEPIN  COUNTY  233 

Elm  creek  flows  through  Rice  lake,  at  the  center  of  Maple  Grove  town- 
ship, and  Hayden's  lake,  in  the  southeast  corner  of  Dayton.  Midway 
between  these  lakes,  Rush  creek  is  tributary  to  it  from  the  west 

Maple  Grove  also  has  Mud  lake,  in  section  2 ;  Weaver  lake,  in  sections 
17  to  20;  and  Fish  lake,  Cedar  Island,  and  Eagle  lakes,  the  last  being  the 
largest  in  the  township. 

Corcoran  has  only  very  small  lakes,  the  largest  (which  alone  is  named 
on  maps)  being  Jubert's  lake,  in  sections  29  and  Z2. 

Lake  Sarah,  the  largest  in  Greenwood,  outflowing  to  the  Crow  river 
by  Edgar  creek,  was  named  in  1855  for  the  wife  or  sweetheart  of  a  pio- 
neer; and  in  the  same  year  Lake  Rebecca  received  its  name  in  honor  of 
Mrs.  Samuel  Allen.  Sections  23  and  24  of  this  township  had  a  series  of 
small  lakes,  recently  drained,  which  were  named  Hafften,  Schendel, 
Schauer,  and  Schnappauf  lakes,  for  German  farmers. 

Besides  Hayden's  lake,  before  mentioned,  Dayton  has  French  lake, 
named  for  a  settlement  of  French  families  there,  who  came  in  1853 ;  Grass, 
Diamond,  and  Lura  lakes,  next  northward;  Goose  lake,  at  the  southeast 
comer  of  this  township ;  and  Powers  lake,  in  section  34. 

Hassan  has  Lake  Harry,  Sylvan  lake,  and  Cowley  lake.  The  last  is 
also  known  as  Parslow's  lake,  in  honor  of  Septimus  Parslow,  who  in  1856 
was  appointed  the  first  postmaster  of  Hassan,  and  held  the  oflice  twenty- 
five  years  or  more. 

Bays,  Points,  and  Islands  of  Lake  Minnetonka. 

The  origin  of  the  name  of  this  lake,  and  also  the  story  of  its  early 
white  explorers,  have  been  told  for  Minnetonka  township.  Shortly  after 
its  exploration  and  naming  in  1852,  it  was  visited  on  August  11  of  that 
summer  by  a  prominent  author,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Fries  Ellet,  of  New  York 
City,  who  gave  to  Minnesota  and  Minnetonka  nearly  twenty  pages  in 
her  "Summer  Rambles  in  the  West."  Besides  her  notes  of  the  journey  to 
this  lake,  she  named  Eden  Prairie,  which  gave  its  title  to  a  township. 

Her  name  for  the  first  water  sheet  at  the  east  end  of  Minnetonka, 
now  named  Gray's  lake  or  bay,  was  Lake  Browning,  for  the  poet,  Eliza- 
beth Barrett  Browning.  The  next  part,  wider  and  larger,  which  was  soon 
afterward  named  Wayzata  bay,  as  before  noted,  Mrs.  Ellet  called  Lake 
Bryant,  for  our  American  poet,  from  whom  she  "read  aloud  a  few  lines 
.  .  .  appropriate  to  the  scene." 

Between  her  Lake  Bryant  and  the  third  large  sheet  of  water,  "an  ex- 
tremely narrow  .  .  .  headland  half  a  mile  in  length,  running  out  from 
the  southern  shore,"  since  named  Breezy  point,  was  by  her  named  Point 
Wakon,  "the  Dakota  term  for  anything  spiritual  or  supernatural."  There 
an  oval  stone,  a  waterworn  boulder  about  a  foot  in  diameter,  had  been 
found,  which  the  Dakotas  had  "painted  red,  and  covered  with  small  yel- 
low spots,  some  of  them  faded  to  a  brown  color,"  around  which  stone  the 
Dakota  or  Sioux  braves  were  accustomed,  after  raids  against  the  O jib- 
ways,  to  celebrate  their  scalp  dance. 


234  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Cedar  point  projects  into  Wajrzata  bay  from  the  south,  named  for  its 
red  cedar  trees. 

Proceeding  westward  along  the  south  side  of  the  lake,  we  pass  Robin- 
son's bay,  with  Sunset  point  southwest  of  it ;  Carson's  bay  at  Deephaven ; 
and  St  Alban's  bay  and  Gideon's  bay,  respectively  east  and  west  of  Ex- 
celsior. 

Hotel  Keewaydin,  a  name  from  Longfellow's  "Song  of  Hiawatha," 
meaning  "the  Northwest  wind,  the  Home  wind,"  war  at  Cottagewood, 
close  west  of  Carson's  bay.  Keewaydin  is  the  same  name  as  the  differ- 
ently spelled  Keewatin,  a  former  large  province  of  northwestern  Canada, 
lying  west  of  Hudson  bay. 

Gluek's  point  and  Solberg's  point  are  passed  southwestward,  before 
coming  to  Excelsior. 

A  summer  village  that  failed  to  grow,  called  St  Albans,  was  platted  in 
1856  on  the  north  shore  of  the  bay  which  thence  took  its  name. 

Gideon's  bay  (also  called  Tonka  bay)  commemorates  Peter  M.  Gideon, 
the  horticulturist,  who  there  originated'  the  renowned  Wealthy  apple, 
named  by  him  in  honor  of  his  wife.  He  was  born  in  Champaign  county, 
Ohio,  February  9,  1820;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1853,  settling  beside  this 
bay,  where  later  he  was  superintendent  of  the  State  Fruit  Farm.  A  small 
memorial  park  and  a  tablet  in  his  honor,  at  Manitou  Junction,  about  a 
mile  west  of  Excelsior,  were  dedicated  June  16,  1912. 

Hull's  Narrows,  joining  the  lower  and  upper  parts  of  Minnetonka, 
received  this  name  for  Rev.  Stephen  Hull,  who  settled  on  a  farm  there  in 
February,  1853.  Originally  a  short  creek,  it  was  widened  and  deepened 
as  a  canal,  and  was  opened  to  steamboat  navigation  in  1873. 

On  the  south  side  of  the  upper  lake  are  Lock's  point,  Howard's  point, 
and  a  less  noteworthy  projection  of  the  shore  at  Zumbra  Heights,  west  of 
Smithtown  bay. 

Hard  Scrabble  point  on  the  west,  and  Cedar  point  on  the  east,  divide 
this  upper  lake  from  Cook's  and  Priest's  bays,  at  the  west  end  of  Minne- 
tonka. 

Yet  farther  west,  connected  by  a  strait  with  Priest's  bay,  is  Halsted's 
bay,  named  for  Frank  William  Halsted,  who  was  born  in  Newark,  N.  J., 
in  1833,  and  died  here  in  June,  1876.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1855; 
served  in  the  U.  S.  navy  during  the  civil  war;  resided  in  a  picturesque 
house  near  the  shore  of  this  bay,  called  the  Hermitage.  His  older 
brother,  George  Blight  Halsted,  was  born  in  Elizabethtown,  N.  J.,  March 
17,  1820;  and  died  here  September  6,  1901.  He  was  graduated  at  Princeton 
college;  studied  law;  served  in  the  navy,  and  later  in  the  army,  through 
the  civil  war;  came  to  this  state  in  1876,  and  afterward  resided  in  the 
home  where  his  brother  had  lived. 

Phelps  island  (originally  a  peninsula)  lies  east  of  Cook's  bay,  and 
is  indented  on  its  southeast  side  by  Phelps  bay.  These  names  were  given 
in  honor  of  Edmund  Joseph  Phelps,  of  Minneapolis,  who  was  bom  near 
Brecksville,  Ohio,  January  17,  1845.    He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1878,  set- 


HENNEPIN  COUNTY  235 

tling  in  Minneapolis;  organized,  with  others,  the  Minneapolis  Loan  and 
Trust  Company  in  1883,  of  which  he  was  secretary  and  treasurer. 

Pelican  point  and  Casco  point  are  respectively  west  and  east  of  Spring 
Park  bay,  on  the  north  side  of  the  upper  lake. 

Carman's  bay,  named  for  a  farmer,  John  Carman,  who  settled  here  in 
September,  1853,  and  Lafayette  bay,  named  from  the  Hotel  Lafayette, 
arc  respectively  west  and  east  of  the  Narrows,  on  the  north  side. 

Huntington  point  and  Starvation  or  Orono  point  jut  into  the  lower 
lake  from  the  north,  respectively  west  and  east  of  Smith's  bay. 

Branching  off  from  Smith's  bay  westward  is  Crystal  bay,  and  con- 
nected with  the  latter  are  Maxwell  and  Stubbs  bays,  the  Nortii  Arm,  and 
the  West  Arm  and  Harrison's  bay. 

East  of  Orono  point  is  Brown's  bay,  and  next  east  are  Lookout  point 
and  an  upland  with  fine  residences,  named  Ferndale,  which,  with  the 
opposite  Breezy  point,  before  noted,  are  at  the  entrance  of  Wayzata  bay. 

So  we  have  traversed  the  entire  shore  line,  with  its  multitude  of  in- 
denting bays  and  projecting  points,  of  this  exceedingly  attractive  lake, 
of  which  I  wrote  in  1917  that  it  "may  well  be  called  the  Kohinoor  of  Min- 
nesota's ten  thousand  lakes."  For  the  archaeologist  and  historian,  this 
lake  has  great  interest  in  its  many  groups  of  aboriginal  mounds,  before 
noticed  in  connection  with  the  village  named  Mound.  For  the  naturalist, 
in  addition  to  its  beautiful  scenery,  it  has  treasures  of  the  native  flora 
and  fauna,  notably  its  abundant  species  of  trees  and  shrubs'  and  its  many 
kinds  of  fishes  and  birds.  Two  points,  one  near  the  east  end  of  the  lake 
and  another  near  the  west  end,  are  named  for  their  red  cedars;  and 
islands  in  the  upper  part  of  the  lake  received  names  from  their  formerly 
plentiful  cranes  and  more  rare  nests  of  the  bald  eagle. 

The  islands  of  Minnetonka  include  Big  island  in  the  lower  lake,  which 
at  first  was  known  as  Meeker's  island,  for  Judge  Bradley  B.  Meeker,  of 
Minneapolis,  who  visited  this  lake  with  Governor  Ramsey  and  others  in 
1852;  Gale  island,  near  the  southwest  shore  of  Big  island,  named  for 
Harlow  A.  Gale  (b.  1832,  d.  1901),  of  Minneapolis,  whose  summer  home 
was  there;  and,  in  the  upper  lake,  Wild  Goose  island.  Spray  island, 
Shady,  Enchanted,  Wawatasso,  Eagle,  and  Crane  islands.  The  longest 
of  these  names  may  be  akin  with  one  in  Longfellow's  "Song  of  Hia- 
watha," 

"Wah-wah-taysee,  little  firefly." 

"Picturesque  Lake  Minnetonka,"  published  in  yearly  editions  by  S.  £. 
Ellis  (1906,  102  pages),  referred  the  name  of  Enchanted  island  to  its 
being  long  ago  a  favorite  place  of  Dakota  or  Sioux  medicine  dances, 
■with  wierd  incantations ;  and  related  that  Wawatasso  was  a  young  Dako- 
ta brave  who  rescued  the  daughter  of  a  white  pioneer  trapper  from  drown- 
ing. Other  Dakota  legends  about  Minnetonka  have  been  written  in  prose 
by  Thomas  M.  Newson,  in  1881,  and  in  poetry  by  Hanford  L.  Gordon  ("In- 
dian Legends  and  Other  Poems,"  1910,  406  pages).  Like  Hiawatha  and 
Minnehaha,  and  like  the  geographic  names  in  this  county  that  are  partly 


236  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

of  Dakota  derivation,  these  writings  present  more  white  than  red  ways 
of  thought  and  imagery. 

The  Fort  Snelling  Military  Reservation  in  1839. 

A  map  of  "Fort  Snelling  and  Vicinity,"  surveyed  and  drafted  by  Lieut 
£.  K.  Smith  in  October,  1837,  comprises  the  near  vicinity  of  the  fort, 
Camp  Cold  Water,  and  the  post  of  the  American  Fur  Company,  on  the 
site  of  Mendota,  having  probably  been  made  mainly  to  show  the  cabins 
and  fields  of  settlers  permitted  to  locate  on  the  Military  Reservation. 

Two  years  later  a  more  extended  survey  and  map,  for  the  U.  S.  War 
Department,  by  Lieut  James  L.  Thompson,  showed  the  boundaries  estab- 
lished or  adopted  for  the  Military  Reservation,  "done  at  Fort  Snelling, 
October  and  November,  1839,  by  order  of  Major  Plympton." 

This  mai^,  on  the  scale  of  two  inches  to  a  mile,  is  limited  to  the 
Reservation  area,  reaching  west  to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  (now  called 
Wood  lake),  the  series  of  Harriet,  Calhoun,  and  the  Lake  of  the  Isles, 
and  northwest  to  the  lower  part  of  Nine  Mile  creek  (now  Bassett's 
creek).  On  the  east  the  Reservation  was  bounded  by  the  middle  of  the 
channel  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  island  next  below  the  present  Meeker 
island.  From  the  upper  end  of  that  island,  the  boundary  on  the  north  side 
of  the  part  of  the  Reservation  east  and  north  of  the  Mississippi  extended 
due  east  five  miles,  to  a  point  near  the  present  intersection  of  St  Peter 
and  Tenth  streets  in  the  city  of  St.  Paul.  Next  it  extended  due  south 
two  miles  and  ten  chains,  crossing  the  Mississippi  very  close  west  of  the 
upper  end  of  Harriet  island,  to  a  point  near  the  present  corner  of  Annapo- 
lis street  and  Manomin  avenue  in  West  St  Paul.  Thence  the  south- 
eastern boundary  of  the  Reservation  ran  eight  miles  and  42  chains  south- 
westward,  nearly  in  parallelism  with  the  Mississippi  and  Minnesota  rivers 
and  about  a  mile  distant  from  them.  Finally  the  most  southern  line  of 
this  area  ran  due  west  one  mile  and  75  chains,  to  the  Minnesota  river  at 
the  place  of  beginning,  about  six  miles  distant  from  the  fort. 

Reserve  township  of  Ramsey  county,  now  included  in  the  city  of  St 
Paul,  had  its  north  boundary  very  near  the  north  line  of  the  Reservation, 
whence  the  township  was  named. 

The  history  of  the  opening  for  settlement  of  the  greater  parts  of  the 
Reservation,  in  1852-55,  including  the  southwestern  areas  of  St  Paul  and 
Ramsey  county,  and  the  area  of  Minneapolis  west  of  the  river,  has 
been  related  by  Dr.  Folwell  in  a  paper,  "The  Sale  of  Fort  Snelling,  1857/' 
in  the  M.  H.  S.  Collections  (vol.  XV,  1915,  pp.  393-410). 

On  the  Reservation  map  of  1839,  "Land's  End"  is  a  part  of  the  bluff 
on  the  northwest  side  of  the  Minnesota  river,  nearly  two  miles  south- 
west from  the  fort,  where  the  bluff  is  intersected  by  a  tributary  ravine; 
Minnehaha  falls  and  creek  were  called  Brown's  falls  and  Brown's  creek; 
an  "Indian  Village"  adjoined  the  southeast  shore  of  Lake  (Calhoun;  and 
the  "Mission."  with  three  cultivated  fields,  comprising  probably  30  acres, 
was  on  the  northwest  side  of  Lake  Harriet 


HOUSTON  COUNTY 

Established  February  23,  1854,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of 
Samuel  Houston,  who  was  president  of  Texas  before  its  annexation 
to  the  United  States  and  afterward  was  a  senator  from  that  state.  He 
was  born  near  Lexington,  Virginia,  March  2,  1793;  and  died  in  Hunts- 
ville,  Texas,  July  26,  1863.  In  his  youth  he  lived  several  years  with  the 
Cherokee  Indians,  near  his  home  in  eastern  Tennessee;  later  he  served 
in  the  Creek  war,  1813-14,  winning  the  admiration  of  Gen.  Andrew  Jack- 
son by  his  bravery  in  a  battle,  after  being  severely  wounded ;  studied  law, 
and  was  admitted  to  practice,  1818-19;  was  a  member  of  Congress  from 
Tennessee,  1823-7;  and  was  governor  of  that  state,  1827-9. 

On  account  of  an  uncongenial  marriage,  he  resigned  the  governorship, 
retired  to  savage  life  in  the  Arkansas  Territory,  whither  the  Cherokees 
had  been  removed,  and  again  lived  with  them,  becoming  an  Indian  trader. 
In  December,  1832,  he  went  to  Texas  under  a  commission  from  President 
Jackson,  looking  toward  its  purchase  for  the  United  States.  In  1835 
he  was  elected  commander-in-chief  of  the  Texans,  and  in  the  battle  of 
San  Jacinto,  April  21,  1836,  he  defeated  the  Mexicans  and  captured  their 
general,  Santa  Anna,  ending  the  war. 

Houston  was  president  of  the  Texas  republic,  1836-8  and  1841-4. 
Texas  was  annexed  to  the  United  States  in  1845,  being  admitted  as  a 
state,  and  Houston  was  elected  one  of  its  senators,  which  position  he  held 
by  re-elections  for  thirteen  years,  until  1859.  Later  he  was  governor  of 
Texas,  1859-61,  being  an  opponent  of  secession. 

In  the  years  1854-6,  when  antagonism  between  the  North  and  South 
on  slavery  questions  gave  presages  of  the  civil  war,  Houston  aspired  to 
nomination  as  the  Democratic  candidate  for  the  national  presidency;  and 
in  October,  1854,  the  general  Democratic  committee  of  New  Hampshire 
earnestly  recommended  him  to  be  "the  people's  candidate"  for  the  cam- 
paign in  1856.  His  popularity  ih  Minnesota  at  that  time  is  attested  by 
the  name  of  this  county ;  and  he  is  likewise  commemorated  by  counties  in 
Tennessee  and  T^as,  and  by  names  of  cities  and  villages  in  Texas,  Mis- 
sissippi, Missouri,  and  other  states. 

Several  biographies  of  Sam  Houston,  as  he  always  styled  himself, 
have  been  published  from  1846  to  1900. 

Marble  statues  of  him  and  Stephen  F.  Austin,  sculptured  by  Elisabet 
Ney,  of  Texas,  and  erected  as  the  gift  of  that  state  in  Statuary  Hall  of 
the  national  capitol,  were  accepted  February  25,  1905,  with  memorial 
addresses  by  members  of  Congress  representing  Texas,  Tennessee,  Mis- 
souri, and  Arkansas. 

237 


238  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  for  the  origins  of  geographic  names  in  this  county  has 
been  gathered  from  the  "History  of  Houston  County,"  1882,  526  pages; 
and  from  Charles  A.  Dorival,  judge  of  probate,  interviewed  during  a 
visit  at  Caledonia,  the  county  seat,  in  April,  1916. 

Black  Hammer  township,  first  settled  in  1852,  organized  in  April, 
1859,  received  this  name,  meaning  Black  Bluff,  from  an  exclamation  of 
Knud  Olson  Bergo,  an  early  Norwegian  settler  in  the  adjoining  township 
of  Spring  Grove,  on  seeing  a  prairie  bluff  here  blackened  by  a  fire.  It 
was  the  name  of  a  bluff  at  his  birthplace  in  Norway.  Hammer,  as  a 
Norwegian  word,  has  the  same  spelling  and  meaning  as  in  English. 
Doubtless  the  name  was  suggested,  both  in  Norway  and  here,  by  the 
shape  of  the  bluff  or  hill. 

Brownsville,  first  settled  in  November,  1848,  organized '  May  11,  1858, 
was  named  for  its  steamboat  landing  and  village,  platted  in  1854,  by 
Job  and  Charles  Brown,  brothers,  who  came  to  Minnesota  in  1848  from 
the  state  of  New  York.  Biographic  notes  of  both  are  in  the  M.  H.  S. 
Collections,  volume  XIV.        , 

Caledonia,  settled  in  1851,  organized  May  11,  1858,  took  the  name  of 
its  village,  which  was  platted  and  named  in  1854-5  by  Samuel  McPhail, 
who  had  served  in  the  Mexican  war  and  later  was  colonel  of  the  First 
Minnesota  mounted  rangers  in  the  Sioux  war,  1862-3.  This  was  the 
ancient  Roman  name  of  Scotland  north  of  the  firths  of  Clyde  and  Forth, 
and  in  modern  use  it  is  the  poetic  name  of  Scotland.  Caledonia  village 
was  incorporated  by  a  legislative  act,  Feb.  25,  1870. 

Crooked  Creek  township,  settled  in  1852-3,  organized  May  11,  1858, 
was  named  for  the  creek  which  flows  through  it  in  an  exceptionally 
crooked  course,  entering  a  western  channel  of  the  Mississippi  at  Reno. 
Its  valley  is  the  route  of  the  railway  from  Reno  nearly  to  Caledonia. 

EiTZEN,  a  village  in  section  32,  Winnebago,  was  named  for  a  place  in 
Germany  whence  some  of  the  early  settlers  came. 

Freeburg,  a  railway  village  in  section  30,  Crooked  Creek  township, 
was  named  by  German  settlers,  for  the  city  of  Freiburg  in  the  Black 
Forest  region  of  Germany. 

HoKAH  township,  settled  in  1851,  organized  May  11,  1858,  bears  the 
Dakota  or  Sioux  name  of  the  Root  river,  which  is  its  English  translation. 
Hutkan  is  the  spelling  of  the  word  by  Riggs  and  Williamson  in  their  Da- 
kota dictionaries,  1852  and  1902;  but  it  is  spelled  Hokah  on  the  map  by 
Nicollet,  published  in  1843,  and  on  the  map  of  Minnesota  Territory  in 
1850.  A  part  of  the  site  of  the  village,  which  was  platted  in  March,  1855, 
had  been  earlier  occupied  by  the  village  of  a  Dakota  chief  named  Hokah. 
This  railway  village  was  incorporated  March  2,  1871. 

Houston  township,  settled  in  1852  and  organized  in  1858,  was  named, 
like  the  county,  for  General  Sam  Houston,  of  Texas.  The  village  was 
incorporated  April  7,  1874. 


^ 


HOUSTON  COUNTY  239 

Jbpferson  township,  organized  in  1858,  received  its  name,  on  the  sug- 
gestion of  Eber  D.  Eaton,  of  Winnebago  township,  for  Jefferson  county, 
New  York,  whence  he  came  to  Minnesota.  Jefferson  village,  on  the  west 
channel  of  the  Mississippi,  was  at  first  called  Ross's  Landing  for  John 
and  Samuel  Ross,  brothers,  who  came  here  as  the  first  settlers  in  1847. 

La  Crescent  township,  settled  in  1851,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was 
named,  like  its  village,  platted  in  June,  1856,  in  allusion  to  the  town  of 
La  Crosse,  Wisconsin,  which  had  been  previously  founded  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  Mississippi.  That  French  name,  meaning  the  bat  used 
in  playing  ball  and  thence  applied  to  the  ball  game  often  played  by  the 
Indians,  had  been  given  to  La  Crosse  prairie  before  the  settlement  of  the 
town,  because  the  ground  was  a  favorite  place  for  their  meeting  to  play 
this  game.  The  origin  and  meaning  of  the  Wisconsin  name,  however, 
were  disregarded,  if  known,  by  the  founders  of  La  Crescent,  who  con- 
fused it  with  La  Croix,  the  Cross.  "Recalling  the  ancient  contests  of 
the  Crusaders  against  the  Saracens  and  Turks  in  their  efforts  to  recap- 
ture the  Holy  Sepulchre,  where  the  Cross  and  the  Crescent  were  raised 
aloft  in  deadly  strife,  and  being  mindful  of  the  fate  that  overtook  those  who 
struggled  under  the  banner  of  La  Crosse,  they  resolved  to  challenge  their 
rival  by  raising  the  standard  of  La  Crescent,  and  thus  fight  it  out  on  that 
line."    (History  of  Houston  County,  1882,  page  426.) 

Mayville^  settled  in  1855  and  organized  in  1858,  was  named  for  May- 
ville,  N.  Y.,  the  county  seat  of  Chautauqua  county,  whence  Dr.  John  E. 
Pope  and  others  of  the  early  settlers  of  this  township  came. 

Money  Cseek  township,  settled  in  1853-4,  organized  May  11,  1858, 
and  its  village,  which  was  platted  in  the  autumn  of  1856,  received  their 
names  from  the  creek  here  tributary  to  the  Root  river.  "Some  man 
having  got  his  pocket-book  and  contents  wet  in  the  creek,  and  spreading 
out  the  bank  notes  on  a  bush  to  dry,  a  sudden  gust  of  wind  blew  them 
into  the  water  again,  and  some  of  it  never  was  recovered,  so  this 
circumstance  suggested  the  name  of  the  stream,  after  which  the  town 
was  named."    (History,  1882,  page  436.) 

Mound  Prairie  township,  settled  in  1853-4,  was  organized  in  April, 
1860.  "The  name  of  the  town  was  suggested  by  Dr.  Chase,  an  old  resident, 
in  remembrance  of  a  remarkable  rounded  bluff  in  section  four,  surround- 
ed by  a  wide  valley  on  all  sides." 

Reno,  a  railway  village  and  junction  in  Crooked  Creek  township,  at 
first  called  Caledonia  Junction;  was  renamed  by  Capt.  William  H.  Harries, 
of  Caledonia,  in  honor  of  Jesse  Lee  Reno.  He  was  born  at  Wheeling, 
West  Virginia,  June  30,  1823;  was  graduated  at  West  Point  in  1846; 
served  in  the  Mexican  war;  was  a  brigadier  general,  and  later  a  major 
general,  of  United  States  volunteers  in  the  civil  war;  was  killed  in  the 
battle  of  South  Mountain,  Md.,  September  14,  1862. 

RiCEFORO,  a  village  in  section  6,  Spring  Grove  township,  platted  in 
1856,  was  named  in  honor  of  Henry  M.  Rice,  of  St.  Paul,  who  also  is 


240  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

cooimcmorated  by  the  name  of  Rke  county.  He  visited  this  place  in 
18S6»  followmg  an  Indian  trail  and  fording  the  crcdc  here,  which  thence 
is  called  Ricef ord  creek. 

Shixoon,  settled  in  June,  1853,  organized  May  11,  1858,  took  the  name 
of  its  village,  founded  in  1854-7,  of  which  Jnlins  C  Sheldc«,  who  came 
from  Stiffield,  Conn.,  was  one  of  the  proprietors. 

Sfring  Gsove  township,  settled  in  1852  and  organized  in  1858»  received 
the  name  of  its  first  post  ofi&ce,  which  was  established  in  1854  at  the 
home  of  James  Smith,  the  earliest  settler,  beside  a  spring  and  a  grove. 

Union  township,  settled  m  1853,  was  organized  April  5,  1859.  Thirty 
other  states  have  townships  and  villages  of  this  name. 

Wilmington,  first  settled  m  June,  1851,  organized  May  11,  1858;  has 
a  name  that  is  likewise  borne  in  fourteen  other  states  by  townships, 
villages,  and  cities. 

Winnebago,  settled  in  March,  1851,  organized  May  11,  1858,  is  drained 
by  Winnebago  creek,  which,  with  the  township,  received  its  name  from 
the  Winnebago  Indians,  many  of  whom,  after  the  cession  of  their  Wis- 
consin lands,  in  1832,  were  removed  to  northeastern  Iowa.  Their  hunting 
grounds  then  extended  into  this  adjoining  edge  of  Minnesota,  until  they 
were  again  removed  in  1848  to  Long  Prairie,  in  central  Minnesota. 

The  head  chief  of  the  Winnebagoes,  Winneshiek,  for  whom  an 
adjacent  county  in  Iowa  is  named,  lived  and  hunted  much  in  this  county. 
"His  principal  home  was  about  seven  miles  west  of  the  village  of  Houston, 
on  the  Root  river,  Houston  county,  Minnesota;  here  he  lived,  during  the 
winter,  in  a  dirt  wigwam.'*  (History  of  Winneshiek  County,  Iowa,  by 
Edwin  C  Bailey,  1913,  vol.  I,  p.  34.) 

Yucatan,  settled  probably  in  1852  and  organized  in  1858,  was  at  first 
called  Utica;  but  to  avoid  confusion  with  other  places  of  that  name, 
which  are  found  in  sixteen  states,  one  being  Utica  township  in  Winona 
county,  it  was  changed  to  the  present  name  of  somewhat  similar  sound, 
which  is  used  nowhere  else  in  the  United  States.  It  was  taken  from  the 
large  peninsula  of  Yucatan,  forming  the  most  southeastern  part  of  Mexi- 
co, and  from  the  Yucatan  channel,  between  that  country  and  Cuba. 

Lakes,  Rivers,  Creeks,  and  Bluffs. 

Houston  county  lies  in  a  large  Driftless  Area,  exempted  from  glacia- 
tion  and  therefore  having  none  of  the  glacial  and  modified  drift  for- 
mations by  which  it  is  wholly  surrounded.  This  area  also  includes 
parts  of  several  other  counties  of  southeastern  Minnesota,  but  its  great- 
est extent  is  in  Wisconsin,  with  small  tracts  of  northeast  Iowa  and  north- 
west Illinois.  Its  length  is  about  150  miles  from  north  to  south,  with  a 
maximum  width  of  about  100  miles.  It  is  characterized  by  absence  of 
lakes,  excepting  on  the  bottomlands  of  rivers,  where  they  fill  portions  of 
deserted  watercourses.  Such  lakes  occur  in  this  county  along  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  Root  rivers,  one  of  which,  two  to  three  miles  southeast  of 
La  Crescent,  is  named  Target  lake,  from  former  rifle  practice  there. 


HOUSTON  COUNTY  241 

-The  preceding  pages  have  noted  the  origins  of  the  names  of  Crooked 
creek,  Root  river,  Money  creek,  and  Riceford  and  Winnebago  creeks. 

Pine  creek,  flowing  through  La  Crescent  to  the  Mississippi,  has  here 
and  there  a  few  white  pines  on  its  bluffs,  this  region  being  at  the  south- 
western limit  of  this  tree. 

Tributaries  of  the  Root  river  from  the  north  are  Storer,  Silver,  and 
Money  creeks;  and  from  the  south,  in  similar  westward  order,  Thomp- 
son creek  (formerly  also  known  as  Indian  Spring  creek).  Crystal  creek, 
and  Badger,  Beaver,  and  Riceford  creeks.  Thompson  creek  was  named 
in  honor  of  Edward  Thompson  and  his  brother,  Clark  W.  Thompson, 
the  principal  founders  of  Hokah,  for  whom  -  biographic  notices  are  given 
in  the  M.  H.  S.  Collections,  volume  XIV. 

A  prominent  blu£F  of  the  Root  river  valley  at  Hokah  is  named  Mt.  Tom. 

Wild  Cat  creek  flows  into  the  Mississippi  at  Brownsville,  and  Wild 
Cat  bluff  is  a  part  of  the  adjacent  high  bluffs  forming  the  west  side  of  the 
Mississippi  valley.  These  names,  and  those  of  Badger  and  Beaver  creeks, 
tell  of  early  times,  when  the  fauna  of  this  region  included  many  fur- 
bearing  animals  that  have  since  disappeared  or  become  very  scarce. 


HUBBARD  COUNTY 

This  cotinty,  established  February  26,  1883,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Lucius  Frederick  Hubbard,  governor  of  Minnesota  from  1882  to  1887. 
He  was  born  in  Troy,  N.  Y.,  January  26,  1836 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1857, 
established  the  Red  Wing  Republican,  and  was  its  editor  till  1861 ;  enlisted 
in  December,  1861,  as  a  private  in  the  Fifth  Minnesota  regiment;  within 
a  year  was  promoted  to  be  its  colonel;  and  in  December,  1864,  was 
breveted  brigadier  general.  In  the  Spanish-American  war,  1898,  he  again 
served  as  brigadier  general.  In  1866  he  engaged  in  the  grain  business  at 
Red  Wing,  and  after  1870  also  in  flour  milling.  From  1877  to  1890  he 
took  a  leading  part  in  the  construction  and  management  of  new  railway 
lines,  built  to  promote  the  business  development  of  Red  Wing  and  Good- 
hue county.  He  was  a  state  senator,  1872-5;  and  was  governor,  1882-7, 
his  second  term  consisting  of  three  years  on  account  of  the  change  to 
biennial  sessions  of  the  legislature.  He  removed  to  St  Paul  in  1901, 
and  afterward  lived  there,  except  that  his  home  during  the  last  two 
years  was  with  his  son  in  Minneapolis,  where  he  died  February  5,  1913. 

In  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  Collections,  volume  XIII  ("Lives 
of  the  Governors  of  Minnesota,"  by  Gen.  James  H.  Baker,  published  in 
1908),  pages  251-281  give  the  biography  and  portrait  of  Governor  Hub- 
bard, with  extracts  from  his  messages. 

By  an  act  of  the  Legislature,  April  16,  1889,  Hubbard  was  appointed 
a  member  of  a  board  of  commissioners  for  preparing  and  publishing  a 
history  entitled  "Minnesota  in,  the  Civil  and  Indian  Wars,  1861-1865." 
In  this  work  of  two  volumes  he  contributed  the  "Narrative  of  the  Fifth 
Regiment,"  forming  pages  243-281,  and  followed  by  the  roster  of  this  regi- 
ment in  pages  282-299,  of  volume  I,  published  in  1890. 

Five  other  papers  by  Hubbard,  relating  to  campaigns,  expeditions,  and 
battles  of  the  Civil  War,  are  in  the  M.  H.  S.  Collections,  volume  XII, 
1908,  pages  531-638;  and  the  same  volume  has  also  an  article  by  him,  in 
pages  149-166,  entitled  "Early  Days  in  Goodhue  County." 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  for  these  names,  and  for  lakes  and  streams  in  this  county, 
was  gathered  from  Joseph  F.  Delaney,  who  was  the  county  auditor  from 
1907  to  1915,  M.  M.  Nygaard,  register  of  deeds,  and  Dr.  Pearl  D.  Win- 
ship,  a  resident  since  1887  at  Park  Rapids,  the  county  seat,  interviewed 
during  visits  there  in  October,  1909,  and  September,  1916. 

Akeley  township  and  its  railway  village  were  named  in  honor  of 
Healy  Cady  Akeley,  who  built  large  sawmills  here  and  during  many  years 
engaged  very  extensively  in  logging  and  manufacture  of  lumber.  He 
was  born  in  Stowe,  Vt,  March  16,  1836;  and  died  in  Minneapolis,  July 

242 


HUBBARD  COUNTY  -      243 

JO,  1912.  He  was  admitted  to  practice  law  in  1858;  served  in  the 
Second  Michigan  cavalry  in  the  civil  war;  settled  in  Minneapolis  in 
1887,  as  a  lumber  merchant;  was  president  of  the  Flour  City  National 
Bank,  and  of  the  Akeley  Lumber  Company.  In  1916  these  sawmills 
were  closed,  having  exhausted  the  available  supplies  of  pine  timber. 

Arago  township  received  its  name  from  Lake  Arago  on  Nicollet's  map, 
of  1843,  at  the  place  of  the  present  Potato  lake,  in  the  southeast  part  of 
this  township.  The  name  commemorates  Dominique  Francois  Arago, 
an  eminent  French  physicist  and  astronomer,  who  was  born  at  Estagel, 
France,  February  26,  1786,  and  died  in  Paris,  October  2,  1853. 

Badoura  township  was  named  for  Mrs.  Mary  Badoura  Mow,  wife 
of  David  Mow.  They  were  pioneer  settlers  on  the  Hubbard  prairie, 
where  she  died  a  few  years  ago,  after  which  he  removed  to  southern 
Minnesota.    This  was  the  name  of  a  princess  in  "Arabian  Nights." 

Benedict,  a  railway  station  in  section  35,  Lakeport,  and  Benedict  lake, 
about  two  miles  distant  to  the  south,  were  named  for  a  homestead  farmer. 

Clay  township  was  named  for  its  generally  clayey  soil  of  glacial  drift, 
in  contrast  with  other  tracts  having  more  sandy  and  gravelly  soil. 

Clover  township  derived  its  name  from  its  abundance  of  white  clover, 
growing  along  the  old  logging  roads  of  the  lumbermen. 

Crow  Wing  Lake  township  was  named  for  its  group  of  nine  lakes 
on  and  near  the  Crow  Wing  river,  in  its  course  through  this  township. 

Dorset^  a  railway  village  in  sections  10  and  11,  Henrietta,  was  named 
by  officers  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  company.  This  is  the  name  of 
a  county  in  southern  England,  a  town  in  Vermont,  and  a  village  in  Ohio. 

Farden  township  was  named  for  Ole  J.  Farden,  a  Norwegian  home- 
steader there,  who  removed  to  West  Hope  in  Saskatchewan. 

Farris  is  a  railway  village  of  the  Great  Northern  and  Soo  lines  in  sec- 
tions 14  and  15,  Farden.  ^ 

Fern  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Richard  Fern,  who  owned  a 
homestead  in  Lake  Emma  township,  but  in  1916  removed  to  Park  Rapids. 

Guthrie  township,  named  after  its  railway  village,  commemorates 
Archibald  Guthrie,  a  contractor  for  the  building  of  this  Minnesota  and 
International  railway. 

Hart  Lake  township  was  named  for  its  heart-shaped  lake  in  section 
17,  but  the  names  of  the  lake  and  township  are  misspelled. 

Helga  bears  the  name  of  a  daughter  of  John  Snustad,  probably  the 
first  white  child  born  in  that  township. 

Hendrickson  township  commemorates  John  C.  Hendrickson,  the 
former  owner  of  a  sawmill  there,  who  removed  to  Sauk  Center. 

Henrietta  township  was  named  for  the  wife  of  William  H.  Martin, 
whose  homestead  adjoined  the  southwest  end  of  Elbow  Lake.  He  served 
during  the  civil  war  in  an  Ohio  regiment,  attaining  the  rank  of  lieutenant 
colonel;  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  county  commissioners  when  this 
township  was  organized;  and  later  returned  to  his  former  home  in  Day- 
ton, Ohio,  where  he  died  several  years  ago. 


244  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

HoRTON,  a  station  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  in  section  34, 
Straight  River  township,  was  named  for  Edward  H.  Horton,  a  cruiser 
selecting  lands  for  lumbering,  who  lived  many  years  in  Park  Rapids, 
but  removed  to  Montana  in  1908. 

HuBBABD  township,  notable  for  its  large  prairie,  was  named,  like  the 
county,  for  General  Hubbard. 

Lake  Alice  township  received  its  name  from  a  lake  which  was  called 
Lake  Elvira  by  Captain  Willard  Glazier,  in  memory  of  his  eldest  sister,  on 
the  maps  of  his  expeditions  to  Lake  Itasca  in  1881  and  1891.  The  lake  was 
renamed  by  the  pioneer  settlers  to  commemorate  Alice  Glazier,  who 
accompanied  her  father  in  the  large  party  of  his  second  expedition,  and 
to  whom  his  book,  "Headwaters  of  the  Mississippi"  (1893,  527  pages), 
was  dedicated. 

Lake  Emma  township  was  named  for  a  beautiful  though  small  lake 
in  the  north  half  of  section  23,  which  is  much  surpassed  in  size  by  several 
others  in  this  township. 

Lake  George  township  has  a  large  lake  at  its  center,  which  was  thus 
named  by  Glazier  in  1881  for  his  brother,  a  member  of  his  first  expedi^ 
tion  to  Lake  Itasca,  in  July  of  that  year. 

Lake  Hattie  township  bears  the  name  of  its  largest  lake,  derived  from 
Glazier's  map  in  1881. 

Lakeport  township  was  named,  with  a  change  of  spelling,  for  its  rail- 
way village,  Laporte  (meaning,  in  French,  the  door  or  gate),  which  is 
the  name  of  a  city  and  county  in  Indiana,  and  of  villages  in  seven  other 
states. 

Latona  was  the  name  of  the  post  office,  now  discontinued,  at  Horton 
railway  station. 

Mantrap  township  was  named  for  the  large  Mantrap  lake  at  its  north- 
west corner,  whichpby  its  many  bays  and  peninsulas,  entrapped  and  baffled 
travelers  through  this  wooded  country  in  their  endeavors  to  pass  by  it  or 
around  it.  Crooked  and  Spider  lakes,  in  this  township,  were  also  named 
for  their  similarly  winding  and  branched  outlines. 

Nary,  a  railway  station  in  Helga  township,  was  named  for  Thomas  J. 
Nary,  of  Park  Rapids,  who  during  many  years  was  a  cruiser  selecting 
timber  lands  for  purchase  by  lumber  manufacturers  in  Minneapolis. 

Nevis  township  and  its  railway  village  were  probably  named  for  Ben 
Nevis  in  western  Scotland,  the  highest  mountain  of  Great  Britain. 

Park  Rapids,  the  county  seat,  was  named  by  Frank  C.  Rice,  proprietor 
of  the  townsite,  who  came  from  Riceville,  Iowa,  a  railway  village  which 
he  had  previously  platted.  The  name  was  suggested  by  the  parklike 
groves  and  prairies  here,  beside  the  former  rapids  of  the  Fish  Hook  river, 
now  dammed  and  supplying  valuable  water  power. 

Rock  WOOD  township  was  at  first  named  Rockwell,  in  honor  of  Charles 
H.  Rockwell,  a  homesteader  there.  A  lake  also  bears  his  name  in  sections 
16  and  17,  Henrietta,  where  likewise  he  had  a  farm. 


HUBBARD  COUNTY  245 

RosBY^  a  station  of  the  Great  Northern  and  Soo  railways  in  the  north- 
east corner  of  Helga  township,  was  named  for  Ole  Rosby,  an  adjoining 
Norwegian  farmer. 

Schoolcraft  township  was  named  for  its  river,  along  which  Henry 
Rowe  Schoolcraft  and  his  party  canoed  in  1832,  ascending  and  portaging 
to  Elk  lake,  which  he  then  renamed  Lake  Itasca.  He  was  born  in  Albany 
county,  N.  Y.,  March  28,  1793;  and  died  in  Washington,  D.  C,  December 
10,  1864.  He  was  educated  at  Middlebury  college,  Vt,  and  Union  college, 
Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  giving  principal  attention  to  chemistry  and  mineral- 
ogy. In  1817-18  he  traveled  in  Missouri  and  Arkansas ;  in  1820  was  in  the 
expedition  of  General  Lewis  Cass  to  the  upper  Mississippi  river,  which 
turned  back  at  Cass  lake,  regarded  then  as  the  principal  source  of  the 
river ;  in  1822  was  appointed  the  Indian  agent  for  the  tribes  in  the  region 
of  the  Great  Lakes,  with  headquarters  at  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  and  after- 
ward at  Mackinaw;  and  in  1832  he  led  a  government  expedition  to  the 
head  of  the  Mississippi  in  Lake  Itasca.  He  published,  in  1821,  1834,  and 
1855,  narrative  reports  and  maps  of  the  two  expeditions  up  the  Mississippi, 
which  supplied  many  geographic  names.  During  the  greater  part  of  his 
life,  Schoolcraft  held  various  official  positions  connected  with  Indian 
affairs;  and  in  1851-57,  under  the  auspices  of  the  United  States  govern- 
ment, he  was  the  author  and  compiler  of  a  most  elaborate  work  in  six 
quarto  volumes,  finely  illustrated,  entitled  "Historical  and  Statistical 
Information  respecting  the  History,  Condition,  and  Prospects  of  the 
Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States." 

Straight  River  township  was  named  for  the  river  flowing  from 
Straight  lake  in  Becker  county  eastward  through  the  north  part  of  this 
township.  In  the  usage  of  the  Ojibways,  from  whom  these  are  trans- 
lations, the  river  took  the  name  of  the  lake  whence  it  flows. 

Thorpe  was  named  for  Joseph  Thorpe,  an  early  schoolteacher  of  Hub- 
bard county,  who  took  a  homestead  claim  in  this  township. 

Todd  was  named,  as  proposed  by  Frank  C.  Rice,  of  Park  Rapids,  which 
is  situated  in  this  township,  for  Smith  Todd,  a  homesteader  here.  He 
served  during  the  civil  war  in  the  Eighth  Maine  regiment;  removed 
about  1910  to  Spokane,  Wash.,  and  died  there  in  1915. 

White  Oak  township  was  named  for  this  species  of  oak,  having 
"strong,  durable,  and  beautiful  timber,"  which  is  frequent  or  common  in 
southeastern  and  central  Minnesota.  Its  geographic  range  continues 
northwest  through  this  county  to  the  upper  Mississippi  river  and  the 
White  Earth  reservation. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  foregoing  pages  have  noted  the  names  of  Benedict  lake  and  rail- 
way station,  and  of  Hart  lake.  Lakes  Alice,  Emma,  George,  and  Hattie, 
Mantrap  lake,  and  Straight  river,  for  each  of  which  a  township  is  named. 

The  remarkable  series  or  chain  of  lakes  along  the  head  stream  of 
Crow  Wing  river,  in  the  southeast  part  of  this  county,  was  mapped  by 


246  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Schoolcraft  in  1832.  On  his  return  from  the  expedition  to  Lake  Itasca, 
his  party  traveled  by  canoes  from  Leech  lake  southwest  to  the  head  of 
the  Crow  Wing  and  through  its  lakes,  this  being  a  route  well  known  to 
the  Ojibways  and  frequently  used  in  their  war  raids  against  the  Sioux. 
In  the  descending  order,  these  eleven  lakes  on  Schoolcraft's  map,  pub- 
lished in  1834  with  his  Narrative  of  this  expedition,  are  Kaginogumag, 
Little  Vermilion,  Birch  lake,  Lac  Pie,  Ossowa  lake,  Lac  Vieux  Desert, 
Summit  lake.  Long  Rice  lake,  Allen's  and  Johnston's  lakes,  and  Lake 
Kaichibo  Sagitowa.  Two  of  these  names  were  given  in  honor  of  Lieu- 
tenant James  Allen  and  George  Johnston,  members  of  the  expedition. 

On  the  map  of  Hubbard  county  by  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey 
(in  Volume  IV,  1899),  this  series  of  names  is  copied,  excepting  that  the 
first  is  Longwater  lake,  as  it  was  translated  by  Schoolcraft's  Narrative^ 

Lac  Pie  (or  Pele)  was  named  in  allusion  to  its  being  partly  bordered 
by  a  prairie.  Lake  Ossowa  of  the  map  is  named  Lake  Boutwell  in  the 
Narrative,  in  honor  of  Rev.  William  T.  Boutwell,  of  this  expedition. 
Lac  Vieux  Desert  is  there  translated  from  its  French  name,  as  "the  Lake 
of  the  Old  Wintering  Ground."  Summit  lake  was  named  "from  its 
position,"  where  the  river  turns  southeastward  from  its  previous  southwest 
course.  The  lowest  lake  of  the  series  is  translated  as  "the  lake  which  the 
river  passes  through  at  one  end." 

In  the  latest  atlas  of  Minnesota,  published  in  1916,  these  original  names 
are  replaced  by  a  numerical  list,  which  came  into  use  by  lumbermen  and 
the  pioneer  settlers.  The  lowest  is  called  First  or  Sibley  lake,  and  the 
Third  and  Fourth  lakes  are  also  named  respectively  Swift  and  Miller 
lakes,  these  names  being  for  early  governors  of  Minnesota.  The  other 
lakes  are  designated  only  by  their  numbers,  up  to  the  Eleventh  lake, 
which,  as  noted  by  Schookraft,  is  called  Kaginogumag  by  the  Ojibways, 
meaning  Longwater  lake. 

The  stream  now  named  Schoolcraft  river  was  called  by  him  the 
"Plantagenian  or  South  fork  of  the  Mississippi."  Lake  Plantagenet, 
through  which  it  flows  in  the  north  edge  of  this  county,  retains  the  name 
that  he  gave  in  1832.  These  names,  for  a  line  of  kings  of  England,  who 
reigned  from  1154  to  1399,  were  derived  from  the  flowering  broom  (in 
Latin,  planta  genista),  chosen  as  a  family  emblem  by  Geoffrey,  count  of 
Anjou,  whose  son  was  Henry  II,  the  first  of  the  Plantagenet  kings.  An- 
other name  sometimes  given  to  this  river  is  Yellow  Head,  for  School- 
craft's guide,  whose  Ojibway  name,  Oza  Windib,  has  this  meaning.  It 
was  called  River  Laplace  by  Nicollet's  map  in  1843,  for  the  great  French 
astronomer,  who  was  born  in  1749  and  died  in  1827. 

Hennepin  lake  and  river.  La  Salle  river,  and  its  Lake  La  Salle,  tribu- 
tary to  the  Mississippi  from  the  northwest  part  of  this  county,  bear  names 
given  in  honor  of  these  early  French  explorers  by  Glazier  in  his  first 
expedition  to  Lake  Itasca,  in  1881. 

Other  names  received  from  Glazier's  map  of  his  route  in  that  year, 
passing  from  Leech  lake  west  to  Itasca,  are  Garfield  lake,  for  the  presi- 


HUBBARD  COUNTY  247 

dent,  James  Abram  Garfield  (b.  1831,  d.  1881)  ;  Lake  Sheridan,  in  sec- 
tions 24  and  25,  Lake  George  township,  for  Philip  Henry  Sheridan,  (b. 
1831,  d.  1888),  the  renowned  cavalry  commander  in  the  civil  war;  and 
Lake  Paine,  for  Barrett  Channing  Paine,  who  accompanied  Glazier  in  that 
expedition. 

Steamboat  river  and  lake  were  named  for  their  being  ascended  by 
steamboats  from  Leech  lake. 

Fish  Hook  river  and  lake  are  translations  from  their  Ojibway  name, 
given  by  Rev.  J.  A.  Gilfillan  as  Pugidabani. 

Elbow  lake,  named  by  the  white  settlers  for  its  sharply  bent  outlines, 
has -an  Ojibway  name  which  means,  as  translated  by  Gilfillan,  "the  lake 
into  which  the  river  pitches  and  ceases  to  flow, — dies  there."  It  has  no 
visible  outlet,  the  inflow  being  discharged  south  to  the  Crow  Wing 
river  by  springs,  or  perhaps  westward  to  the  north  part  of  Long  lake,  in 
Henrietta  and  Hubbard  townships. 

Kabekona,  the  Ojibway  name  of  a  lake  and  river  tributary  to  Leech 
lake,  is  defined  by  Gilfillan  as  "the  end  of  all  roads,"  which  may  be  nearly 
equivalent  with  Schoolcraft's  earlier  translation,  "the  rest  in  the  path." 

Many  other  lakes  remain  to  ])e  noted  as  follows,  in  the  order  of  the 
townships  from  south  to  north  and  of  ranges  from  east  to  west. 

Badoura  has  Wolf  lake  in  sections  17  and  18,  and  Tripp  lake  on  the 
south  line  of  section  20,  the  last  being  named  for  Charles  Tripp,  an  early 
settler  beside  it 

Crow  Wing  lake  township,  in  addition  to  the  four  lower  lakes  of  the 
Crow  Wing  river  series,  has  another  Wolf  lake ;  Bladder  and  Ham  lakes, 
named  for  their  shape;  Palmer  lake,  in  section  29;  and  Duck  lake,  in 
section  31. 

Hubbard  has  Stony  lake  in  sections  1  and  2,  and  Little  Stony  lake  on 
the  east  side  of  section  1,  named  for  ice-formed  ridges  of  boulders  and 
gravel  on  their  shores;  Long  lake,  extending  north  from  the  village  six 
miles;  and  Upper  Twin  lake,  partly  in  section  31,  Ijring  on  the  Wadena 
county  line. 

Straight  River  township  has  Lake  Moran,  nearly  three  miles  long  and 
very  narrow,  reaching  from  section  13  to  section  27,  named  for  an  early 
settler;  and  Bass  lake  and  Hinds  lake  in  section  24,  the  last  being  named 
for  Edward  R.  Hinds,  of  Hubbard,  representative  of  this  county  in  the 
legislature  in  1903-S,  1909,  and  1915-19,  who  about  thirty  years  ago  had 
a  logging  camp  at  this  lake. 

White  Oak  township  has  Williams  lake  in  section  13,  Hay  lake  in 
section  10,  and  Loon  lake  in  section  30. 

Nevis  has  the  Fifth  to  the  Eighth  lakes  of  the  Crow  Wing  series; 
Elbow  lake,  before  noted;  and  Deer  lake.  Shallow  lake,  and  Clausen's 
lake,  in  sections  4,  5,  and  6. 

Henrietta  has  Bull  lake,  named  by  the  Ojibways  for  a  bull  moose 
killed  there;  and  Swietzer,  Rockwell,  and  Peysenski  lakes,  named  for 
pioneer  farmers. 


248  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Portage  lake,  in  Todd  township,  was  named  for  a  portage  from  it 
westward  on  an  Ojifoway  canoe  ronte. 

Shingob  lake,  in  sections  25  and  26,  Akeley,  and  the  cxeek  flowing 
thence  to  Leech  lake,  are  named,  like  the  adjoining  Shingobee  townsh^ 
in  Cass  county,  from  die  Ojibway  word,  jingob,  applied  as  a  general 
term  to  several  species  of  evergreen  trees,  including  the  balsam  fir, 
spruce,  and  arbor  vitae: 

Mantrap  township,  with  its  Mantrap,  Crooked,  and  Spider  lakes^  be- 
fore noticed,  has  Waboose  lake  in  section  2,  meaning  a  rabbit  in  die  Ojib- 
way language;  and  Dead  lake  in  section  18,  which,  though  receiving  an 
inlet  from  Crooked  lake,  has  no  outlet. 

Lake  Emma  township,  besides  the  small  lake  of  diis  name,  has 
Botde  lake,  named  for  the  narrow  strait,  like  the  neck  of  a  bottle  or 
hourglass,  connecting  its  two  broad  areas;  Stocking  lake,  named  for  its 
shape ;  Pidcerel  lake,  having  many  fish  of  this  species ;  Rice  lake,  having 
much  wild  rice;  Blue  lake,  named  for  its  d^th.  and  color;  Big  Sand 
lake,  and  Little  Sand  lake ;  and  Gilmore  and  Thomas  lakes,  the  last  being 
named  for  the  owner  of  a  hotel  there,  frequented  for  hunting  and  fishing 

Arago  has  Potato  lake,  named  for  the  wild  artichoke,  a  species  of 
sunflower  with  tuberous  roots,  much  used  as  food  by  the  Indians;  Ea^e 
lake,  named  by  timber  cruisers  for  a  nest  in  a  large  tree  near  the  middle 
of  its  east  shore;  Island  lake;  and  Sloan  lake,  in  section  52,  named  for 
John  Sloan,  an  adjacent  farmer. 

Mud  lake  is  in  sections  19  and  30,  Thorpe. 

Qay  township  has  Schoolcraft  lake,  crossed  by  its  north  line,  near  the 
highest  sources  of  Schoolcraft  river;  Fawn  lake,  on  the  west  side  of 
section  6;  Skunk  lake,  in  sections  29,  30,  and  22-,  and  Bad  Axe  lake,  in 
sections  26  and  35. 

Qover  township  has  Little  Mantrap  lake  on  its  west  boundary,  named 
for  its  irregularly  branching  bays,  lying  about  ten  miles  west  of  the 
larger  Mantrap  lake. 

Lakeport,  with  Garfield  and  Kabekona  lakes,  before  noted,  has  also 
Mirage  lake. 

Lake  Alice  township,  including  the  eastern  edge  of  the  Itasca  State 
Park,  which  reaches  one  mile  iuto  this  cotmty,  has  Lake  Alice  in  sectioiis 
2  and  11,  Beauty  lake  in  section  ,28^  and  numerous  other  litde  lakes  not 
yet  named. 

Dow's  lake,  in  section  32,  Schoolcraft,  was  named  for  William  Dow, 
who  built  a  sawmill  on  the  Schoolcraft  river  near  this  lake,  taking  a  home- 
stead there,  but  later  removed  to  Laporte. 

Farden  has  Midge,  Grace,  Wolf,  Mud,  and  Long  lakes,  all  lying  in  the 
northeast  part  of  this  township. 

Rockwood,  with  the  large  Plantagenet  and  Hennepin  lakes^  befcure 
noticed,  has  Spearhead  and  Little  Spearhead  lakes,  probably  named  for 
their  shape. 

Fern  township  has  Diamond  lake  and  Lake  La  Salle. 


ISANTI  COUNTY 

Established  February  13,  1857,  this  county  bears  the  former  name, 
now  obsolete,  of  a  large  division  of  the  Dakotas  or  Sioux,  anciently 
Izatys,  now  Santees,  who  lived  two  hundred  years  ago  in  the  region  of 
the  Rum  river  and  Mille  Lacs,  called  by  Hennepin  respectively  the  river 
and  lake  of  the  Isantis.  Under  different  forms  of  spelling,  this  name 
was  used  by  DuLuth,  Hennepin  and  La  Salle,  the  first  two  seeing  these 
Indians  in  1679  and  1680;  and  the  name,  spelled  Issati,  appears  on  Fran- 
quelin's  map  of  1688. 

Prof.  A.  W.  Williamson  wrote  of  this  word,  and  of  its  probable 
derivation  from  the  Sioux  name  of  Knife  lake  in  Kanabec  county: 
"Isanti  (isanati  or  isanyati),  — isan,  knife;  ati,  dwell  on  or  at;  the  Dakota 
name  of  the  part  of  the  nation  occupying  Minnesota,  and  comprising  the 
Sissetons  as  well  as  those  now  known  as  Santees;  it  is  supposed  the 
name  was  given  as  this  lake  was  their  chief  location  for  a  time  on  their 
westward  journey." 

Neill's  History  of  Minnesota  (page  51)  mentions  the  Isanti  division 
of  the  Dakota  people  as  follows :  "From  an  jearly  period,  there  have  been 
three  great  divisions  of  this  people,  which  have  been  subdivided  into 
smaller  bands.  The  first  are  called  the  Isan3rati,  the  Issati  of  Hennepin, 
after  one  of  the  many  lakes  at  the  head  waters  of  the  river  marked,  on 
modem  maps,  by  the  unpoetic  name  of  Rum.  It  is  asserted  by  Dahkotah 
missionaries  now  living,  that  this  name  was  given  to  the  lake  because 
the  stone  from  which  they  manufactured  the  knife  (isan)  was  here  ob- 
tained. The  principal  band  of  the  Isanti  was  the  M'dewakantonwan. 
In  the  journal  of  Le  Sueur,  they  are  spoken  of  as  residing  on  a  lake  east 
of  the  Mississippi.  Tradition  says  that  it  was  a  day's  walk  from  Isan- 
tamde  or  Knife  lake."  The  two  lakes  so  referred  to  are  doubtless  Mille 
Lacs  (the  lake  of  the  Isantis)  and  Knife  lake,  on  the  Knife  river,  fifteen 
miles  distant  southeastward. 

Hon.  J.  V.  Brower  has  shown  that  the  Knife  lake  and  the  Isanti  or 
Knife  Sioux  probably  derived  their  name  from  the  first  acquirement  of 
iron  or  steel  knives  there  by  these  Indians,  in  the  winter  of  1659-60, 
through  their  dealings  with  Groseilliers  and  Radisson,  and  with  the 
Hurons  and  Ottawas  of  their  company.  (Memoirs  of  Explorations  in 
the  Basin  of  the  Mississippi,  Volume  VI,  entitled  "Minnesota,"  1903, 
pages  119-123.), 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  for  this  county  was  received  from  Hans  Engberg,  presi- 
dent of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Cambridge,  who  was  the  county  audi- 
tor during  the  years  1878-88,  from  Sidney  S.  Bunker,  an  early  pioneer, 

349 


250  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

and  G.  G.  Goodwin,  county  attorney,  each  a  resident  of  Cambridge,  the 
county  seat,  interviewed  during  a  visit  there  in  August,  1916. 

Athens  township  bears  the  name  of  the  most  renowned  city  of  ancient 
Greece,  which  is  now  the  largest  city  and  capital  of  that  country.  An 
Ohio  county  and  its  county  seat,  townships  in  Maine,  Vermont,  and  New 
York,  and  cities  and  villages  in  fourteen  other  states  of  our  Union,  are 
also  named  Athens.  Probably  settlers  coming  from  one  or  more  of  these 
states  proposed  this  name. 

Bradford  was  named  by  Rev.  Charles  Booth,  an  Episcopal  pastor 
who  took  a  homestead  claim  in  this  township,  for  his  native  city  of  Brad- 
ford in  Yorkshire,  England. 

Braham,  a  railway  village  in  Stanchfield,  was  named  by  officers  of  the 
Great  Northern  railway  company. 

Cambridge  township  was  named  by  settlers  from  Maine,  for  the  town- 
ship of  Cambridge  in  the  central  part  of  that  state.  The  village  was 
incorporated  in  1876.  The  old  university  city  of  Cambridge  in  England, 
whence  we  have  the  names  of  several  cities  and  villages  in  the  United 
States,  is  built  on  both  sides  of  the  little  River  Cam. 

Dalso  township  has  a  Swedish  name,  meaning  the  home  of  people 
from  the  former  province  of  Dalarne,  also  called  Dalecarlia,  in  central 
Sweden. 

Grandy  is  a  Great  Northern  railway  village  in  Cambridge. 

Isanti  township  and  its  railway  village  were  named,  like  the  county, 
for  the  eastern  Sioux  who  inhabited  this  region  when  the  first  white  ex- 
plorers and  traders  came. 

Maple  Ridge  township  was  named  for  its  broad  low  ridge  and  the 
plentiful  maples  of  its  original  forest. 

North  Branch  township  is  crossed  by  the  North  branch  of  the  Sun- 
rise river. 

Oxford  township  was  named  by  its  settlers,  for  Oxford  county,  town- 
ship, and  village  in  Maine.  Twenty-five  states  of  our  Union  have  Oxford 
townships  or  villages,  the  earliest  having  derived  the  name  from  the 
ancient  city  and  university  of  Oxford  in  England.  It  is  of  Anglo-Saxon 
origin,  meaning  the  oxen's  ford. 

Spencer  Brook  township  received  the  name  of  its  brook,  on  which  a 
pioneer  from  Maine,  commonly  called  Judge  Spencer,  opened  a  farm. 

Springvale  township  has  a  euphonious  name  that  is  also  borne  by  a 
village  in  Maine,  and  by  townships  and  villages  in  seven  other  states. 

Stanchfield  township,  the  Lower  Stanchfield  brook  and  lake,  and 
Stanchfield  creek  or  upper  brook,  with  its  two  Upper  Stanchfield  lakes, 
are  named  in  honor  of  Daniel  Stanchfield,  who  was  the  first,  in  Septem- 
ber, 1847,  to  explore  the  extensive  pineries  of  Rum  river.  He  was  born 
in  Leeds,  Maine,  June  8,  1820;  and  died  at  Fort  Logan,  Colorado,  May 
23,  1908.  He  settled  at  St.  Anthony  in  184>^;  engaged  in  logging  on  this 
river,  and  in  mercantile  business  at  St.  Anthony ;  was  a  representative  in 
the  territorial  legislature  in  1853 ;  removed  to  Iowa  in  1861 ;  and  returned 


ISANTI  COUNTY  251 

to  Minneapolis  in  1889,  which  was  afterward  his  home.  He  contributed 
to  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  Collections,  volume  IX,  1901,  a  paper 
entitled  "History  of  Pioneer  Lumbering  on  the  Upper  Mississippi  and  its 
Tributaries,  with  Biographic  Sketches"  (pages  325-362,  with  his  portrait.) 

Stanford  township  has  the  name  of  a  township  in  New  York,  villages 
in  Indiana  and  Illinois,  and  a  small  city  in  Kentucky. 

Wyanett  township  was  Jiamed  after  a  village  in  northern  Illinois, 
which  was  platted  in  1856.  It  is  noted  by  Gannett  as  an  Indian  word, 
meaning  beautiful. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  foregoing  list  has  referred  to  the  North  branch  of  the  Sunrise 
river,  Spencer  brook,  and  the  Stanchfield  brooks  and  lakes. 

Sunrise  river  is  translated  from  its  Ojibway  name,  given  by  Gilfillan 
as  "Memokage  zibi.  Keep  sunrising  river." 

Rum  river  is  noticed  in  the  chapter  on  Mille  Lacs  county,  the  name  of 
this  river  having  been  suggested  by  the  Sioux  name  of  Mille  Lacs. 

Oxford  has  Horse  Shoe  lake  and  Horse  Leg  lake,  the  latter  extend- 
ing into  North  Branch,  each  named  for  their  shape;  Twin  lakes,  and 
Upper  and  Lower  Birch  lakes ;  and  Hoffman,  Tamarack,  Long,  and  Typo 
lakes. 

Athens  has  Stratton  lake  in  section  18,  named  for  an  early  settler. 

Marget  lake,  of  section  3  in  the  east  part  of  Stanford,  named  for 
farmers  adjoining  it,  has  been  drained.  Seelye  creek,  flowing  south 
from  section  12,  Stanford,  was  named  for  Moses  Seelye,  a  pioneer  settler 
who  came  from  New  Brunswick. 

North  Branch  has  Big  Pine  lake  in  sections  4  and  9,  named  for  a  large 
white  pine  there,  near  the  southern  limit  of  its  geographic  range. 

Isanti  township  has  Lakes  Fanny  and  Florence,  named  for  wives  or 
children  of  pioneers. 

Bradford  has  Lakes  Elizabeth  and  Francis,  Long  lake,  and  German 
lake,  the  last  being  named  for  German  settlers  there.  The  second  and 
third  have  been  also  called  respectively  Lake  St.  Francis,  from  the  old 
French  name  of  Rum  river,  and  Lake  Henrietta. 

In  Spencer  Brook  township  are  Tennyson,  Baxter,  Blue,  and  Mud  lakes. 

Cambridge  has  Skogman's  lake,  named  for  an  early  Swedish  settler 
beside  it.  This  township  has  two  Long  lakes,  one  in  sections  4  and  9,  and 
another  in  sections  12  and  13. 

Green  lake  in  Wyanett  is  mainly  shallow,  named  for  its  green  scum 
in  summer;  and  the  smaller  but  deeper  Spectacle  lake  is  named  for  its 
shape,  like  a  pair  of  eyeglasses. 

Troolin  and  Linderman  lakes,  in  Stanchfield,  were  named  respectively 
for  a  blacksmith  and  a  farmer  near  them;  Mud  lake,  for  its  muddy 
shores ;  and  the  Upper  and  Lower  Rice  lakes,  for  their  wild  rice. 

Lory  lake,  in  section  5,  Maple  Ridge,  was  named  for  H.  A.  Lory,  the 
former  owner  of  the  east  half  of  that  section. 


ITASCA  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  October  27,  1849,  having  originally  a  much 
greater  area  than  now,  derived  its  name  from  Itasca  lake,  which  was 
named  by  Schoolcraft  in  his  expedition  to  this  source  of  the  Mississippi 
in  1832.  The  translation  of  its  previous  Ojibway  and  French  names  is 
Elk  Lake.  Schoolcraft  gave  no  explanation  of  the  origin  and  meaning  of 
the  name  Itasca  in  his  narrative  of  this  expedition  published  in  1834;  but 
in  his  later  book,  on  the  Cass  expedition  of  1820  and  this  of  1832,  pub- 
lished in  1855,  the  following  statement  is  made,  relating  to  the  meaning 
of  Itasca  lake.  "I  inquired  of  Ozawindib  fhe  Indian  name  of  this  lake; 
he  replied  Omushkos,  which  is  the  Chippewa  name  of  the  Elk.  Having 
previously  got  an  inkling  of  some  of  their  mythological  and  necromantic 
notions  of  the  origin  and  mutations  of  the  country,  which  permitted  the 
use  of  a  female  name  for  it,  I  denominated  it  Itasca." 

The  existence  of  this  lake,  and  its  French  name,  Lac  la  Biche,  were 
known  to  Schoolcraft  by  information  from  Indians  and  voyageurs,  be- 
fore this  expedition ;  an-d  the  actual  history  of  his  coining  this  new  word, 
as  narrated  fifty  years  afterward  by  his  companion  in  the  expedition. 
Rev.  William  T.  Boutwell,  is  told  by  Hon.  J.  V.  Brower  in  the  Minnesota 
Historical  Society  Collections  (vol.  VII,  pp.  144,  145). 

''Schoolcraft  and  Boutwell  were  personal  associates,  voyaging  in  the 
same  canoe  through  Superior,  and  while  conversing  on  their  travels  along 
the  south  shore  of  the  great  lake,  the  name  'Itasca'  was  selected  in  the 
following  manner,  in  advance  of  its  discovery  by  Schoolcraft's  party. 

"Mr.  Schoolcraft,  having  uppermost  in  his  mind  the  source  of  the 
river,  expecting  and  determined  to  reach  it,  suddenly  turned  and  asked 
Mr.  Boutwell  for  the  Greek  and  Latin  definition  of  the  headwaters  or 
true  source  of  a  river.  Mr.  Boutwell,  after  much  thought,  could  not 
rally  his  memory  of  Greek  sufficiently  to  designate  the  phrase,  but  in 
Latin  selected  the  strongest  and  most  pointed  expressions,  'Veritas,'  and 
'Caput,' — ^Truth,  Head.  This  was  written  on  a  slip  of  paper,  and  Mr. 
Schoolcraft  struck  out  the  first  and  last  three  letters,  and  announced  to 
Mr.  Boutwell  that  'Itasca  shall  be  the  name.' " 

The  origin  of  this  name  had  perplexed  experts  acquainted  with  the 
Ojibway  and  Sioux  languages,  as  related  by  Charles  H.  Baker  in  the  St. 
Paul  Pioneer,  May  26,  1872.  Three  weeks  later  the  same  newspaper  for 
June  16  published  letters  received  by  Alfred  J.  Hill,  from  Gideon  H. 
Pond,  the  missionary  to  the  Sioux ;  Mrs.  Mary  H.  Eastman,  citing  a  sup- 
posed Ojibway  myth  or  tradition  in  her  "Aboriginal  Portfolio ;"  and  Rev. 
William  T.  Boutwell,  telling  how  Schoolcraft  coined  the  name  by  using 

252 


ITASCA  COUNTY  253 

parts  of  the  two  Latin  words,  Veritas,  Caput.  Twenty  years  later, 
Brower's  publication  of  his  interview  with  Boutwell,  as  here  cited,  settled 
this  very  interesting  question  beyond  any  further  doubt. 

The  chapter  of  Qearwater  county  contains  a  review  of  the  explora- 
tions of  the  sources  of  the  Mississippi,  which  were  completed  by  detailed 
surveys  of  the  Itasca  State  Park,  lying  -mainly  in  that  county. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  names  in  this  county  was  received  from  Edward 
J.  Luther,  deputy  county  auditor,  and  John  A.  Brown,  county  surveyor, 
during  a  visit  at  Grand  Rapids,  the  county  seat,  in  September,  1909;  and 
from  Hugh  McEwen,  deputy  auditor,  during  a  second  visit  there  in 
August,  1916. 

Alvwood  township  is  mainly  occupied  by  Swedish  settlers,  and  the 
first  part  of  its  name  is  probably  derived  from  Sweden. 

Arbo  township  was  named  for  an  early  lumberman,  John  Arbo,  who 
settled  there. 

Arden HURST,  at  first  called  Island  Lake  township,  was  renamed  by  its 
settlers  from  England.  The  first  part  of  this  name  refers  to  the  ancient 
Ardennes  forest,  which  covered  a  large  area  in  northern  France,  Bel- 
gium, and  western  Germany;  and  hurst  is  an  Anglo-Saxon  word,  mean- 
ing a  grove  or  a  wooded  hill. 

Ball  Club  is  the  name  of  a  railway  village  at  the  south  end  of  Ball 
Qub  lake,  which  is  translated  from  its  Ojibway  name,  suggested  by  the 
form  of  the  lake.  The  Indians  were  fond  of  playing  ball,  and  their  club 
or  bat  used  in  this  game  was  called  La  Crosse  by  the  French,  being  the 
source  of  the  name  given  to  a  city  and  county  in  Wisconsin. 

Balsam  township  was  named  for  the;  Balsam  lake  and  creek,  and 
for  its  abundance  of  the  balsam  fir,  which  also  is  common  throughout 
northeastern  Minnesota.  The  bark  of  this  tree  supplies  a  transparent 
liquid  resin  or  turpentine,  called  Canada  balsam,  used  in  mounting  objects 
for  the  microscope  and  in  making  varnish. 

Bass  Brook  township  and  Bass  Lake  township  were  named  for  their 
brook  and  lake,  having  many  fish  of  our  well  known  bass  species.  The 
Ojibway  name  of  the  lake  is  noted  by  Gilfillan  as  Ushigunikan,  "the  place 
of  bass,"  and  the  outflowing  brook,  according  to  the  Ojibway  usage,  bears 
the  same  name. 

Bearville  township  is  named  for  its  principal  stream.  Bear  river,  flow- 
ing from  Bear  lake. 

Big  Fork  township  and  its  railway  village  are  named  from  their  loca- 
tion on  the  Big  fork  of  Rainy  river. 

Blackberry  township  and  its  railway  station  are  similarly  named  for 
the  Blackberry  lake  and  brook. 

Bowstring,  township  adjoins  the  east  side  of  Bowstring  lake,  which  is 
a  translation  of  its  Ojibway  name,  noted  as  Atchabani  or  Busatchabani 


254  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

by  Gilfillan.    This  name  is  also  applied  by  the  Ojibways  to  the  Big  fork, 
because  the  Bowstring  lake  is  its  source. 

BusTicoGAN,  a  township  name,  is  probably  of  Ojibway  derivation. 

Calumet,  a  mining  railway  village  of  the  Mesabi  iron  range,  bears 
the  French  name  (from  the  Latin  calamus,  a  reed)  of  the  ceremonial 
pipe  used  by  the  Indians  in  making  treaties  or  other  solemn  engagements. 
Assent  was  expressed  by  smoking  the  calumet,  which,  from  treaties  pre- 
venting or  terminating  wars,  was  often  called  the  peace  pipe. 

Carpenter  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Seth  Carpenter,  an  aged 
homesteader,  who  in  1906  headed  the  petition  for  its  organization. 

CoHASSET,  the  railway  village  of  Bass  Brook  township,  received  its 
name  from  the  town  of  Cohasset  on  the  east  coast  of  Massachusetts.  It 
is  an  Indian  word,  meaning,  as  noted  by  Gannett,  "fishing  promontory," 
"place  of  pines,"  or  **young  pine  trees." 

Gx-ERAiNE,  a  mining  railway  village  at  the  west  end  of  the  Mesabi 
range,  bears  the  name  of  a  township  in  western  Massachusetts.  It  was 
chosen  in  honor  of  Thomas  F.  Cole,  who  was  prominent  in  the  early 
development  of  these  iron  mines,  but  later  removed  to  Arizona,  becoming 
president  of  a  copper  mining  company  there. 

Deer  Lake  township  and  Deer  River  township  and  railway  village 
are  named  for  this  lake  and  river,  which  are  translated  from  the  Ojib- 
way name,  Wawashkeshiwi,  as  noted  by  Gilfillan. 

Dewey  township  was  named  in  honor  of  George  Dewey,  victor  in  the 
battle  of  Manila  Bay,  May  1,  1898.  He  was  born  in  Montpelier,  Vt, 
December  26,  1837;  was  graduated  at  the  United  States  Naval  Academy, 
1858;  served  in  the  civil  war;  was  promoted  as  lieutenant  commander 
in  1865,  captain  in  1884,  commodore  in  1896,  and  admiral  in  1899. 

Effie,  a  station  of  the  Minneapolis  and  Rainy  River  railway,  was 
named  for  Efiie  Wenaus,  daughter  of  the  postmaster  there. 

Fairview  township  has  the  euphonious  name  chosen  by  its  settlers  in 
their  petition  for  organization. 

Feeley  township  was  named  for  Thomas  J.  Feeley,  of  Aitkin,  who  had 
logging  camps  there  during  several  years.  He  has  lived  in  this  township 
since  1899. 

Franklin  township,  like  the  counties  of  this  name  in  twenty-four 
states  of  the  Union,  and  townships,  villages,  or  cities,  in  thirty  states, 
commemorates  Benjamin  Franklin,  philosopher,  statesman,  and  diplo- 
matist, who  was  born  in  Boston,  January  17,  1706,  and  died  in  Phila- 
delphia, April  17,  1790. 

Good  Hope,  named  by  the  settlers  of  this  township,  is  also  the  name 
of  villages  in  eight  other  states. 

GooDLAND  township  has  another  auspicious  name,  found  likewise  in 
Indiana,  Michigan,  and  Kansas. 

Gran  township  was  named  for  an  early  settler. 

Grand  Rapids  township  received  its  name  from  the  location  of  its  vil- 
lage, the  county  seat,  beside  rapids  of  the  Mississippi,  having  a  fall  of 


ITASCA  COUNTY  255 

five  feet  in  a  third  of  a  mile.  The  river  is  ascended  to  this  place  by 
steamers  from  Aitkin. 

Grattan  township  was  named  for  the  Irish  orator  and  statesman, 
Henry  Grattan  (b.  1746,  d.  1820). 

Green  WAY  township  was  named  for  John  C.  Green  way,  who  formerly 
had  charge  of  iron  mining  at  Coleraine  for  the  Oliver  Mining  Company, 
but  removed  to  be  a  superintendent  of  copper  mining  in  Bisbee,  Arizona. 

Harris  township  was  named  for  Duncan  Harris,  who  took  a  homestead 
claim  there,  on  which  he  has  a  fruit  farm. 

Inger  township  was  named  for  one  of  its  pioneer  settlers. 

Iron  Range  township  contains  the  iron  mining  railway  villages  of 
Colerane,  Bovey,  and  Holman,  which  have  the  most  western  mines  of 
the  Mesabi  range. 

Keewatin,  an  iron  mining  town  in  the  east  edge  of  this  county,  has 
an  Ojibway  name,  spelled  giwedin  by  Baraga's  Dictionary,  meaning  north, 
also  the  north  wind.  It  was  the  name  of  a  former  large  district  of  Can- 
ada, at  the  west  side  of  Hudson  bay.  This  word  is  spelled  Keewaydin, 
as  it  should  be  pronounced,  in  Longfellow's  "Song  of  Hiawatha,"  with 
translation  as  "the  Northwest  wind,  the  Home  wind." 

KiNGHURSt  township,  formerly  called  Popple  (a  mispronunciation  of 
the  poplar  tree,  very  abundant  here),  was  renamed  in  honor  of  Cyrus  M. 
King,  of  Deer  River,  who  during  many  years  was  a  member  of  the  board 
of  county  commissioners.  (See  also  Ardenhurst,  before  noted  in  this 
list) 

Lake  Jessie  township  has  a  lake  of  this  name,  and  another  called 
Little  Jessie  lake,  probably  in  commemoration  of  the  wife  or  daughter 
of  one  of  the  early  lumbermen. 

La  Prairie,  a  railway  village  and  junction,  is  near  the  mouth  of 
Prairie  river,  which  flows  through  Prairie  lake. 

Long  Lake  township  is  similarly  named  for  one  of  its  lakes,  this 
name  and  also  Round  lake  being  of  very  frequent  occurrence  among  the 
almost  countless  lakes  of  Minnesota. 

McCoRMiCK  and  McLeod  townships,  and  McVeigh  railway  station, 
were  named  for  pioneers. 

Marcell  township  was  named  in  honor^of  Andrew  Marcell,  the  first 
conductor  of  trains  on  the  Minneapolis  and  Rainy  River  railway,  which 
was  originally  built  for  transportation  of  logs  to  sawmills. 

Moose  Park  township  received  this  name  by  the  suggestion  of  C.  H. 
Harper,  a  pioneer  farmer  there,  who  was  one  of  the  petitioners  for  its 
organization. 

Nashwauk  township  has  an  Algonquin  name,  from  Nashwaak  river 
and  village,  near  Fredericton,  New  Brunswick.  It  is  probably  allied  in 
meaning  with  Nashua,  "land  between,"  the  name  of  a  river  and  a  city 
in  New  Hampshire. 

Nore  township  was  named  for  Kittil  S.  and  Syver  K.  Nohre,  immigrant 
settlers  from  Norway. 


256  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Orth  is  a  railway  village  of  Nore,  in  the  north  edge  of  this  county. 

Oteneagen  was  named  by  William  Hulbert,  a  farmer  and  lumberman 
of  this  township,  who  came  from  Michigan.  In  a  different  spelling, 
Ontonagon,  it  is  the  name  of  a  river  in  northern  Michigan,  tributary  to 
Lake  Superior,  and  of  its  village  and  county.*  Gannett  has  defined  the 
Michigan  name  as  an  Ojibway  word,  meaning  "fishing  place,"  or,  in 
another  account  of  its  origin,  adopted  because  an  Indian  maiden  lost  a 
dish  in  the  stream  and  exclaimed  "nindonogan,"  which  in  her  dialect 
meant  "away  goes  my  dish." 

PoKEGAMA  township  derived  this  Ojibway  name  from  the  Pokegama 
lake,  translated  by  Gilfillan  as  "the  water  which  juts  off  from  another 
water,"  and  "the  lake  with  bays  branching  out."  This  large  lake,  having 
a  very  irregularly  branched  shape,  nearly  adjoins  the  Mississippi  river. 

The  Pokegama  falls  of  the  Mississippi,  named  from  this  lake,  about 
three  miles  above  Grand  Rapids,  had  a  descent  of  fifteen  feet  in  a  sixth 
of  a  mile ;  but  the  dam  built  there  in  the  Upper  Mississippi  reservoir  sys- 
tem increases  the  fall  to  twenty-one  feet,  raising  also  the  level  of  the 
lake.  Schoolcraft,  in  his  Narrative  of  the  expedition  with  Governor  Cass 
in  1820,  wrote :  "The  Mississippi  at  this  fall  is  compressed  to  eighty  feet 
in  width  and  precipitated  over  a  rugged  bed  of  sand  stone,  highly  inclined 
towards  the  northeast.  There  is  no  perpendicular  pitch,  but  the  river 
rushes  down  a  rocky  channel." 

Round  Lake  township  and  railway  station  are  named  for  the  central 
and  smallest  one  of  the  three  Round  lakes  in  the  north  half  of  this  county. 
The  next  in  size  closely  adjoins  Long  lake,  and  the  largest  is  at  the  east 
side  of  Good  Hope. 

Sago  township  received  this  name  after  several  others  had  been  suc- 
cessively chosen  but  found  inadmissible,  being  previously  used  elsewhere 
in  Minnesota.  It  was  suggested  by  one  of  the  county  commissioners  be- 
cause sago  pudding  was  served  at  their  dinner. 

Sand  Lake  township  bears  the  name  of  its  large  lake,  through  which 
the  Big  fork  flows,  next  below  Bowstring  lake. 

Spang  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Matthew  A.  Spang,  a  lum- 
ber manufacturer  at  Grand  Rapids,  who  was  the  county  auditor  when 
this  township  was  organized.  . 

Sfi.it  Hand  township  received  the  name  of  its  principal  lake  and 
creek,  translated  from  the  Ojibway  name  as  "Cut  Hand"  on  Nicollet*s 
map. 

Swan  River,  a  railway  village  and  junction,  is  named  for  the  river 
near  it,  which  flows  from  Swan  lake.  This  is  a  translatibn  of  the  Ojib- 
way name,  Wabiziwi,  noted  by  Gilfillan. 

Third  River  township  is  crossed  by  the  river  of  this  name,  the  third 
in  the  order  from  east  to  west,  tributary  to  the  north  side  of  Lake  Winne- 
bagoshish. 


ITASCA  COUNTY  257 

Trout  Lake  township  is  named  for  its  largest  lake,  translated  from 
Namegoss  or  Namegosi,  as  the  Ojibway  word  is  spelled  respectively  by 
Baraga  and  Gilfillan. 

Wakba,  a  railway  village  in  Feeley  township,  was  formerly  called 
Verna,  but  was  renamed  by  officers  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  com- 
pany, probably  for  Waiba,  the  Ojibway  word  meaning  soon. 

Wawina,  the  most  southeastern  township  of  this  county,  received  the 
name  of  its  earlier  railway  village,  an  Ojibway  word,  meaning  "I  name 
him  often,  .  .  .  mention  him  frequently,"  as  defined  in  Baraga's  Diction- 
ary. 

Weller's  Spur  is  a  railway  village  five  miles  southeast  of  Deer  River. 

WiNNEBAGosHiSH  is  a  towuship  of  the  Indian  Reservation  at  the  north 
side  of  the  large  lake  of  this  name,  which  has  been  fully  noticed  in  the 
chapter  for  Cass  county. 

Wirt  township  was  named  by  O.  £.  Walley,  its  first  settler,  probably 
for  a  township  in  New  York  or  a  county  in  West  Virginia,  where  the 
name  was  given  in  honor  of  William  Wirt  (b.  1772,  d.  1834),  who  was  the 
attorney  general  of  the  United  States  in  1817-29. 

Zemple  village  needs  further  inquiry  for  the  origin  of  its  name. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  preceding  pages  have  given  sufficient  mention  of  Ball  Qub  lake, 
Balsam  lake  and  creek,  Bass  brook  and  lake,  Bear  river  and  lake,  the  Big 
fork  of  Rainy  river.  Blackberry  lake  and  brook,  Bowstring  lake,  a  name 
that  is  also  given  to  the  Big  fork  by  the  Ojibways,  Deer  lake  and  river, 
Lake  Jessie  and  Little  Jessie  lake,  Prairie  river  and  lake,  Long  lake, 
Pokegama  lake  and  falls,  the  three  Round  lakes,  Sand  lake.  Split  Hand 
lake  and  creek.  Swan  river  and  lake.  Third  river,  and  Trout  lake. 

Lake  Winnebagoshish,  as  it  should  be  spelled  in  accordance  with  its 
Ojibway  pronunciation,  lies  in  the  course  of  the  Mississippi  on  the  boun- 
dary between  Cass  and  Itasca  counties,  so  that  it  has  previously  received 
attention. 

In  addition  to  the  southern  Deer  lake  and  river,  which  gave  their 
names  to  townships  and  a  large  village,  this  county  has  a  second  lake 
and  river  of  this  name,  tributary  to  the  Big  fork. 

The  following  lakes  remain  to  be  mentioned,  in  their  order  from  south 
to  north,  and  from  east  to  west. 

Cowhorn  lake  is  named  for  its  shape. 

Lake  Siseebakwet,  as  spelled  on  recent  maps,  but  given  by  Gilfillan 
as  Sinzi-ba-quat,  is  a  name  received  from  the  Ojibways,  meaning  Sugar 
lake,  having  reference  to  their  making  maple  sugar. 

Rice  lake,  in  Bass  Brook  township,  is  named  for  wild  rice. 

Southeast  of  Swan  lake  are  Hart,  Helen,  and  Beauty  lakes. 

Trout  Lake  township  has  Mud  lake,  one  of  our  most  frequent  lake 
names. 


< 


258  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Grand  Rapids  township  has  Horseshoe  lake,  Lily,  Hale,  and  Crystal 
lakes.  The  third  was  named  in  honor  of  James  T.  Hale,  a  member  of 
the  State  Tax  Commission,  who  formerly  lived  here. 

White  Oak  point  on  the  Mississippi,  a  lake  of  the  same  name,  and  the 
little  White  Oak  Indian  Reservation,  are  translated  from  the  Ojibway 
name  of  this  point,  Nemijimijikan,  as  noted  by  Gilfillan. 

Northwest  and  west  of  Swan  lake  are  Ox  Hide,  Snowball,  and  Panasa 
lakes.    The  last  is  an  Ojibway  name,  meaning  a  young  bird. 

Shoal  lake  lies  between  Prairie  and  Bass  lakes. 

Chase  lake,  near  the  west  end  of  Deer  lake,  was  named  for  Jonathan 
Chase,  who  was  bom  in  Sebec,  Maine,  Dec.  31,  1818,  and  died  at  his  home 
in  Minneapolis,  February  1, 1904.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1854,  engaged 
in  lumbering  in  Mille  Lacs  county,  and  later  owned  an  interest  in  the 
large  sawmills  at  Gull  River,  Cass  county. 

Crooked  lake  has  very  irregularly  branched  outlines. 

Lawrence  lake  was  named  for  Hugh  Lawrence,  a  Minneapolis  lum- 
berman who  had  a  logging  camp  there. 

Wabano  lake  and  the  Little  Wabano  lake  are  nearly  like  an  Ojibway 
word,  waban,  the  east,  the  morning  twilight  Wabun  is  its  spelling  m 
"The  Song  of  Hiawatha,"  and  Waupun  as  the  name  of  a  city  in  Wiscon- 
sin. Longfellow  also  used  another  word,  wabeno,  a  magician  or  juggler, 
spelled  Wabanow  by  Baraga,  which  is  more  directly  the  source  of  the 
name  of  these  lakes.  Wabeno  is  a  village  name  in  northeastern  Wis- 
consin, defined  by  Gannett  as  "men  of  the  dawn"  or  "eastern  men." 

Next  westward  are  Blue  lake,  Johnson,  Moose,  and  Island  lakes. 

Buck  lake  was  named  for  a  male  deer. 

Pioneer  lumbermen,  or  their  forest  cruisers  who  selected  tracts  of 
timber  for  purchase,  are  commemorated  by  Lake  Buckmarf,  King,  Gunn, 
Dick,  and  Smith  lakes. 

A  further  list  of  lakes,  with  those  last  named  and  westward,  com- 
prises another  Island  lake.  Ruby,  Spider,  and  Little  Long  lakes;  Wolf 
lake,  Carriboo  lake  (more  correctly  spelled  Caribou),  Dead  Horse  and 
Grave  lakes.  Little  Bowstring  lake,  and  Potato  lake;  and  Portage  lake, 
Ijring  between  Bowstring'  and  Sand  lakes. 

Northward  are  Eagle,  Coon,  and  Fox  lakes;  Turtle  and  Little  Turtle 
lakes ;  Cameron  and  Sandwick  lakes,  the  second  named  for  John  A.  Sand- 
wick,  a  pioneer  farmer;  Bustie's  lake  and  Shine  lake,  close  north  of  the 
most  eastern  bend  of  the  Big  fork;  Lakes  Bella  and  Dora;  Spring. 
East,  and  White  Fish  lakes ;  and  Four  Towns  lake,  of  small  area,  named 
for  its  lying  in  the  corner  of  four  townships. 

Cut  Foot  Sioux  lake  is  translated  from  its  Ojibway  name,  referring 
to  a  maimed  Sioux  who  was  killed  there  in  a  battle  in  1748.  (Warren, 
•history  of  the  Ojibway  Nation,"  M.  H.  S.  Collections,  voL  V,  p.  184; 
Winchell,  "The  Aborigines  of  Minnesota,"  1911,  p.  534.)  The  outlet  of 
this  lake  is  the  first  stream  found  flowing  into  the  north  side  of  Lake 


ITASCA  COUNTY  259 

Winnebagoshish,  in  the  order  from  east  to  west  Next  are  Pigeon  river 
and  Third  river,  the  last  giving  its  name  to  a  township. 

Downes  creek,  flowing  into  the  west  part  of  Round  lake,  is  the  most 
western  stream  of  the  Big  Fork  basin. 

Island'  lake  in  Ardenhurst,  the  third  so  named  in  this  county,  has  Elm- 
wood  island,  which  is  more  than  a  mile  long,  but  very  narrow,  indicating 
by  its  mapped  outline  that  it  is  an  esker  gravel  ridge  of  the  glacial  drift. 

Maple  Ridge. 

The  highest  point  of  Itasca  county  is  a  hill  four  miles  west  of  Grand 
Rapids,  in  sections  22  and  23,  Bass  Brook,  adjoining  the  north  part  of 
Pokegama  lake,  above  which  it  rises  about  350  feet.  It  is  commonly 
called  Maple  Ridge  or  Sugar  Tree  Ridge.  Other  hills  or  ridges  in  this 
county  rarely  have  even  a  third  of  this  height,  being  so  low  that  they  have 
not  been  named. 

Indian  Reservations. 

In  a  treaty  made  at  Washington,  February  22,  1855,  a  delegation  of  the 
Ojibways  of  the  upper  Mississippi  ceded  to  the  United  States  large  areas 
of  their  lands,  but  reserved  other  tracts.  The  Winnebagoshish  reserva- 
tion, lying  at  the  north  side  of  the  lake  of  this  name,  was  set  apart  by 
this  treaty  for  Pillager  and  Lake  Winnebagoshish  bands  of  these  Indians. 
Its  boundaries  reached  from  the  mouth  of  the  lake  north  to  the  head  of 
the  first  river  tributary  to  it,  thence  west  to  the  Third  river,  down  this 
river  to  the  lake,  and  thence  in  a  direct  line  across  the  lake  to  the  place 
of  beginning. 

Another  reservation  for  these  bands,  on  the  north  side  of  Cass  lake, 
also  made  in  the  same  treaty,  was  later  extended  eastward  to  the  west 
side  of  Lake  Winnebagoshish  and  to  Third  river,  including  about  fifty 
square  miles  in  the  present  Itasca  county. 

Again  in  a  treaty  at  Washington,  March  19,  1867,  a  large  tract  at  the 
south  side  of  these  lakes  and  reaching  to  the  Leech  lake  and  river,  was 
reserved  to  the  Ojibways.  This  reservation,  lying  mainly  in  Cass  county, 
continues  east  across  the  Mississippi  to  include  an  area  in  Itasca  county 
nearly  equal  to  four  townships. 

The  Winnebagoshish  reservation,  enlarged  under  executive  orders  by 
the  President  in  1873  and  1874,  is  wholly  in  Itasca  county.  The  other 
two  areas,  known  as  the  Cass  Lake  and  Chippewa  reservations,  extend 
partly  into  this  county,  so  that  the  three  together  reach  from  its  western 
border  past  Winnebagoshish  an<l  Ball  Gub  lakes  to  Deer  River  village. 

Adjoining  the  southeast  corner  of  the  Chippewa  reservation,  an  execu- 
tive order  of  October  29,  1873,  reserved  a  small  area  of  about  sixteen 
square  miles,  through  which  the  Mississippi  flows,  including  White  Oak 
point  and  the  lake  of  this  name,  whence  it  is  known  as  the  White  Oak 
reservation.  This  lies  in  Itasca  county,  excepting  about  a  quarter  part  in 
Cass  county,  on  the  southwest  side  of  the  river. 


JACKSON  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  May  23,  1857,  is  stated  by  its  best  informed 
old  citizens,  as  also  by  J.  Fletcher  Williams,  who  from  1867  to  1893  was 
secretary  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  and  by  Return  I.  Hol- 
combe,  writing  in  the  Pioneer  Press  Almanac  of  1896,  to  be  named  ''for 
Hon.  Henry  Jackson,  the  first  merchant  in  St.  Paul."  He  was  bom  in 
Abingdon,  Virginia,  February  1,  1811;  came  to  St.  Paul  in  June,  1842; 
was  appointed  the  first  justice  of  the  peace,  1843;  was  the  first  postmaster, 
1846-49;  was  a  member  of  the  first  Territorial  Legislature,  and  a  charter 
member  of  the  Historical  Society;  removed  to  Mankato  in  1853,  where 
he  was  one  of  the  first  settlers;  and  died  there,  July  31,  1857.  In  the 
summer  of  1842  he  opened  the  first  store  at  St.  Paul,  in  a  cabin  built  of 
tamarack  logs  on  the  river  bank  near  Jackson  street,  which  was  named 
for  him. 

The  late  William  P.  Murray,  who  was  a  member  of  the  legislature 
in  1857,  at  the  time  of  formation  of  Jackson  county,  dissented  from  this 
derivation  of  the  name,  asserting  that  according  to  his  recollection  it  was 
their  intention  to  commemorate  Andrew  Jackson,  the  seventh  president 
of  the  United  States. 

The  county  seat  also  has  this  name,  with  which  its  site  was  christened 
a  few  weeks  before  the  legislative  act  forming  the  county  was  passed. 
So  it  appears  that  the  name  was  first  adopted  by  pioneers  on  the  ground, 
but  whether  they  meant  to  honor  Andrew  Jackson,  the  military  hero  and 
statesman,  or  Henry  Jackson,  a  founder  of  St.  Paul  and  Mankato,  on 
their  route  from  the  east  to  this  area,  is  not  certainly  determined. 

Counties  in  twenty  other  states  of  the  Union  are  named  Jackson,  which 
with  only  one  exception,  are  noted  by  Gannett  as  in  honor  of  the  presi- 
dent Twenty-four  states  have  townships,  villages,  or  cities  of  this  name. 
Pennsylvania,  the  previous  home  of  some  of  the  pioneers  of  this  county 
and  of  Jackson,  its  county  seat,  has  seventeen  townships  thus  named,  in 
so  many  different  counties,  surpassing  any  other  state  in  such  expression 
of  admiration  of  Andrew  Jackson. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  for  this  county  was  gathered  from  "An  Illustrated  His- 
tory of  Jackson  County,  Minnesota,"  by  Arthur  P.  Rose,  586  pages,  1910; 
and  from  I.  W.  Mahoney,  county  abstractor,  at  the  office  of  the  register 
of  deeds,  and  Alexander  Fiddes,  an  early  settler,  who  was  the  postmaster 
many  years  at  Jackson,  interviewed  during  a  visit  there  in  July,  1916. 

260 


JACKSON  COUNTY  261 

Alba  township,  organized  September  21,  1872,  has  a  Latin  name, 
meaning  white,  which  is  also  the  name  of  villages  in  Pennsylvania, 
Michigan,  Missouri,  Texas,  and  Oregon. 

Alpha,  a  railway  village  in  Wisconsin  township,  platted  in  1895,  and 
incorporated  July  25,  .1899,  bears  the  name  of  our  letter  A  in  the  Greek 
alphabet,  which  word  is  formed  from  the  first  and  second  Greek  letters. 
It  is  also  the  name  of  villages  in  Maryland,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  other 
states. 

Belmont  township  was  organized  January  5,  1867,  receiving  its  name 
from  a  settlement  of  Norwegian  immigrants  who  came  here  in  1860.  One 
of  their  leaders,  Anders  Olson  Slaabaken,  was  also  often  called  Anders 
Belmont,  probably  for  a  locality  in  Norway.  This  is  also  a  frequent 
English  name  of  villages  and  townships  in  many  other  states. 

Christiania  township,  organized  March  4,  1871,  was  named  by  its 
settlers  for  the  capital  city  and  chief  seaport  of  Norway.  This  name  was 
given  to  the  city  in  honor  of  Christian  IV,  king  of  Denmark  and  Norway, 
by  whom  it  was  founded  in  1624. 

Delafield  township,  finally  so  named  March  4,  1871,  was  organized 
October  11,  1870,  being  then  called  Pleasant  Prairie  and  afterward  Orwell 
and  Bergen,  which  names  were  not  accepted  because  they  had  been  earlier 
given  to  townships  elsewhere  in  Minnesota.  This  name  is  borne  by  vil- 
lages in>Illinois  and  Wisconsin. 

Des  Moines  township,  organized  April  2,  1866,  was  at  first  called 
Jackson,  for  the  county  seat  thus  named  in  the  eastern  part  of  this  town- 
ship. About  six  weeks  later,  on  May  16,  it  was  renamed  as  now  by  the 
county  commissioners,  for  the  river  which  flows  through  the  township 
and  county.  The  very  interesting  origin  of  this  name  has  been  noted  in 
the  first  chapter. 

Enterprise,  organized  March  4,  1871,  was  named  in  accordance  with  the 
suggestion  of  Samuel  D.  Lock  wood  and  Anders  Roe,  early  settlers  of 
this  township. 

EwiNGTON,  organized  March  2&,  1873,  was  named  in  honor  of  Thomas 
C.  Ewing  and  family,  who  were  its  first  settlers. 

Heron  Lake  township,  organized  September  7,  1870,  was  named  for 
the  large  lake  on  its  west  side,  which,  as  noted  by  Prof.  A.  W.  Williamson, 
is  translated  from  its  Sioux  or  Dakota  name,  Okabena,  (hokah,  heron; 
be,  nests ;  na,  diminutive  suffix) ,  meaning  the  nesting  place  of  herons.  Min- 
nesota has  three  common  species,  the  great  blue  heron  or  crane,  from 
which  Crane  island  of  Lake  Minnetonka  was  named,  the  green  heron,  and 
the  black-crowned  night  heron.  The  last,  found  by  Dr.  Thomas  S.  Roberts 
in  considerable  numbers  at  Heron  lake,  was  formerly  plentiful  or  fre- 
quent through  the  greater  part  of  this  state. 

Hunter,  organized  February  13,  1872,  was  named  in  honor  of  James 
Wilson  Hunter,  a  pioneer  merchant  of  Jackson,  who  at  that  time  was  the 
county  auditor.    He  was  born  in  Scotland,  August  16,  1837;  came  to  the 


262  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

United  States  in  1855,  and  to  Minnesota  in  1858;  settled  at  Jackson  in 
1868,  where  he  died  August  13,  1900.  He  was  a  representative  in  the 
state  legislature  in  1869. 

Jackson  village,  the  county  seat,  is  on  the  site  of  the  earliest  white 
settlement  within  the  area  of  this  county,  founded  and  named  Spring- 
field in  the  summer  of  1856.  It  consisted  of  a  log  store  building  on  the 
west  side  of  the  Des  Moines  river  and  a  few  cabins,  quite  scattered,  on 
the  east  side.  Several  of  its  settlers  were  killed,  March  26,  1857,  by  a 
marauding  band  of  Sioux  under  the  leadership  of  Inkpaduta,  coming 
from  their  massacre  of  many  settlers  at  Spirit  Lake,  Iowa.  Soon  after- 
ward the  site  of  Springfield  was  renamed  Jackson,  and  on  May  23  of  that 
year  it  was  designated  to  be  the  county  seat  by  the  act  establishing  this 
county.  But  the  financial  panic  of  1857  checked  immigration,  the  civil 
war  followed,  and  the  village  wa§  not  platted  until  the  fall  of  1866.  It 
was  incorporated  April  19,  1881.  The  origin  of  this  name,  which  was 
adopted  for  the  county,  is  discussed  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter. 

Kimball  township,  organized  March  23,  1872,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Wilbur  S.  Kimball,  the  pioneer  hardware  merchant  of  Jackson.  He  was 
born  in  Chelsea,  Vt,  in  1835;  came  to  Minnesota  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  years,  engaging  in  hardware  business  at  Austin;  served  in  the 
Fourth  Minnesota  regiment  during  the  civil  war;  removed  to  Jackson 
in  1867,  and  was  a  merchant  there  many  years;  was  later  a  traveling 
salesman;  and  died  in  Jackson,  December  13,  1892. 

La  Crosse  township,  organized  in  September,  1872,  was  named  for  the 
city  of  La  Crosse,  Wisconsin,  whence  many  of  its  settlers  came.  This 
name  refers  to  the  favorite  game  of  ball  often  played  there  by  the  Indians, 
the  stick  or  club  used  to  catch  and  throw  the  ball  being  called  la  crosse 
by  the  French. 

Lakefield,  a  railway  village  founded  in  1879  with  the  completion  of 
the  railway  to  this  point,  was  named  for  the  adjoining  Heron  lake.  It 
was  incorporated  September  1,  1887. 

.MiDDLETOWN,  lying  between  Petersburg  and  Minneota,  was  organized 
May  10,  1869.  "The  fact  that  the  township  was  situated  between  the  two 
older  organized  townships  suggested  the  name." 

MiLOMA,  the  station  at  the  intersection  of  the  Milwaukee  and  Omaha 
railways,  has  a  compound  name,  recently  formed  by  putting  together  the 
first  three  letters  of  each.  This  crossing  was  laid  August  1,  1879,  and  for 
about  twenty-five  years  it  was  called  Prairie  Junction. 

Minneota  township,  organized  October  15,  1866,  has  a  Sioux  or  Dako- 
ta name,  meaning  "much  water,"  given  partly  for  its  group  of  several 
small  lakes,  but  mainly  for  the  adjoining  large  Spirit  lake  and  Lake 
Okoboji  in  the  edge  of  Iowa. 

Okabena,  a  railway  station  in  West  Heron  Lake  township,  was  found- 
ed in  September,  1879,  taking  the  Sioux  name  of  the  lake,  which  means, 
as  before  noted,  "the  nesting  place  of  herons." 


JACKSON  COUNTY  263 

Petersburg,  organized  April  2, 1866»  received  its  name  in  honor  of  Rev. 
Peter  Baker,  a  pioneer  Methodist  minister,  who  settled  in  this  township 
in  1860  and  was  its  first  postmaster. 

RosT  township,  organized  February  3,  1874,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Frederick  Rost,  an  early  settler  who  came  there  in  1869.  It  was  at  first 
erroneously  spelled  RuU  in  the  record  of  the  county  commissioners  and 
on  maps. 

Round  Lake  township,  organized  in  October,  1869,  was  named  for  the 
beautiful  lake  in  its  western  part. 

Sioux  Valley  township,  organized  February  27,  1874,  the  latest  in 
this  county,  was  named  for  the  Little  Sioux  river,  which  flows  through 
it  and  continues  south  across  northwestern  Iowa  to  the  Missouri  river. 
The  Little  and  Big  Sioux  rivers,-  the  latter  forming  the  northwest  bound- 
ary of  Iowa,  were  named  for  the  Dakota  or  Sioux  Indians,  who  inhabited 
this  region.  The  name  Sioux  is  the  terminal  part  of  Nadouesioux,  a 
term  of  hatred,  meaning  snakes,  enemies,  which  was  applied  by  the 
Ojibways  and  other  Algonquins  to  this  people. 

Weimer,  organized  May  27,  1871,  was  then  named  Eden,  which  was 
changed  to  the  present  name  October  20,  1871.  "Charles  Winzcr,  the 
township's  first  settler,  selected  the  name  in  honor  of  his  home  town  in 
Germany,  Saxe-Weimar.*'  It  was  correctly  spelled  in  the  petition  for  its 
adoption,  but  was  copied  erroneously  in  the  county  records. 

West  Heron  Lake  township  was  organized  January  7,  1874,  "its  geo- 
graphical location  suggesting  the  name." 

Wilder,  a  railway  station  in  Delafield,  was  located  and  named  in 
November,  1871,  in  honor  of  Amherst  Holcomb  Wilder,  of  St.  Paul. 
He  was  born  in  Lewis,  N.  Y.,  July  7,  1828;  and  died  in  St  Paul,  Novem- 
ber 11,  1894.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1859,  and  engaged  in  mercantile 
business  ^nd  also,  in  stage  and  steamboat  transportation.  Later  he  was 
interested  in  building  numerous  railways  in  Minnesota  and  adjoining 
states.  By  his  will,  and  by  the  later  wills  of  his  widow  and  daughter, 
the  Amherst  H.  Wilder  Charity  was  founded,  providing  a  fund  of  about 
$3,000,000,  of  which  the  income  is  used  to  aid  the  worthy  poor  of  St. 
Paul.  The  building  of  this  village  was  begun  in  1885.  It  was  platted 
December  7,  1886,  and  was  incorporated  March  28,  1899. 

Wisconsin  township,  organized  April  10,  1869,  was  named  in  honor  of 
the  state  from  which  a  majority  of  its  settlers  came.  This  name,  given 
to  the  state  from  its  large  river,  is  noted  by  Gannett  as  "a  Sauk  Indian 
word  having  reference  to  holes  in  the  banks  of  a  stream,  in  which  birds 
nest" 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  preceding  pages  have  noticed  the  Des  Moines  river.  Heron  lake. 
Round  lake,  and  the  Little  Sioux   river. 

Elm  creek,  draining  the  northeastern  part  of  this  county,  flows  east 
across  Martin  county  to  the  Blue  Earth  river. 


264  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Independence  lake,  on  the  south  line  of  Christiania,  was  named  by 
the  United  States  surveyors,  who  came  to  it  on  the  fourth  of  July.  Long 
lake  and  Fish  lake  are  crossed  respectively  by  the  east  and  north  bound- 
aries of  this  township.  Lower's  lake,  in  sections  15  and  22,  has  been 
drained. 

The  east  part  of  Wisconsin  township  has  small  creeks  flowing  into 
Martin  county,  which  are  sources  of  the  East  fork  of  Des  Moines  river. 

Minneota  has  Loon  lake,  Pearl,  Rush,  and  Little  Spirit  lakes.  The 
last  is  named  in  contrast  with  the  much  larger  Spirit  lake  in  Iowa,  which 
is  translated  from  its  Sioux  name,  Mini  wakan,  noted  by  Nicollet.  In 
its  most  northern  part.  Spirit  lake  touches  the  boundary  of  the  state  and 
of  this  township  at  the  south  side  of  section  36. 

Tributary  to  the  West  fork  of  the  Little  Sioux  river  are  Skunk  and 
Rush  lakes  in  Spring  Valley,  Round  lake  in  the  township  bearing  its  name, 
and  also  Illinois  lake,  Plum  Island  lake,  named  for  the  grovt  of  native 
plum  trees  on  its  island,  and  Iowa  or  State  Line  lake,  crossed  by  the 
Iowa  boundary  at  the  southwest  comer  of  this  county. 

Des  Moines  township  has  Clear  lake  at  the  middle  of  its  west  side, 
remarkable  for  the  depth  and  purity  of  its  water. 

Heron  Lake  township  has  Lake  Flaherty,  an  early  name,  but  for  whom 
it  was  given  remains  to  be  ascertained. 

Timber  lake,  named  for  its  lone  grove  in  this  broad  prairie  region, 
adjoins  the  south  side  of  Wilder  village.  It  has  been  also  called  Lake 
Minneseka,  a  Sioux  name  meaning  "bad  water.'' 

Lake  Carroll,  formerly  mapped  in  section  4,  Delafield,  has  been  drained. 

Jack  and  Okabena  creeks  flow  into  the  west  side  of  Heron  take,  the 
former  being  probably  named  from  jack  rabbits,  and  the  latter  bearing 
the  Sioux  name  for  Heron  lake. 


KANABEC  COUNTY 

Established  March  13,  1858,  and  organized  in  1882,  this  county  bears 
a  name  proposed  by  William  H.  C  Folsom,  of  Taylor's  Falls,  who,  as  a 
member  of  the  state  senate  in  1858,  introduced  the  legislative  bill  for  the 
formation  of  the  county.  Kanabec  is  the  usual  word  for  a  snake  in  the 
language  of  the  Ojibways,  given  by  them  to  the  Snake  river  flowing 
through  Kanabec  and  Pine  counties  to  the  St.  Croix.  It  has  a  heavy 
accent  on  the  second  syllable,  with  the  English  long  sound  of  the  vowel, 
being  thus  pronounced  quite  unlike  the  name  of  the  Kennebec  river  in 
Maine.  The  latter  name,  accented  on  the  first  syllable,  is  of  different 
etymology,  meaning  "long  lake, — ^a  name  of  Moosehead  lake  transferred 
to  the  river." 

This  Ojibway  word  is  variously  spelled,  but  has  only  slight  difference 
of  pronunciation.  On  Nicollet's  map  it  is  Kinebik;  in  Wilson's  Manual 
of  this  language,  kenabig;  and  in  Baraga's  Dictionary,  which  is  followed 
by  Gilfillan  and  Verwyst  in  their  lists  of  Ojibway  names,  it  is  ginebig, 
but  this  is  pronounced,  in  French  style,  nearly  like  our  English  form  of 
the  word  in  the  county  name. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  geographic  names  in  this  county  has  been  received 
from  "Fifty  Years  in  the  Northwest,"  by  W.  H.  C.  Folsom,  763  pages, 
1888;  and  from  A.  V.  Sander,  county  auditor,  A.  M.  Anderson,  register 
of  deeds,  Olof  P.  Victorien,  judge  of  probate,  and  Hon.  J.  C.  Pope, 
each  of  Mora,  the  county  seat,  interviewed  during  a  visit  there  in  May, 
1916. 

Ann  Lake  township,  its  lake  of  this  name,  and  the  outflowing  Ann 
river,  tributary  to  the  Snake  river,  commemorate  an  Ojibway  woman 
who  lived  beside  the  lake.     ("Kathio,"  by  J.  V.  Brower,  1901,  page  114.) 

Arthur  township,  organized  in  1883,  was  named  by  Charles  E.  Wil- 
liams, of  Mora,  in  honor  of  Chester  Alan  Arthur,  the  twenty-first  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  who  was  born  in  Fairfield,  Vt.,  October  5, 
1830,  and  died  in  New  York  city,  November  18,  1886.  He  was  graduated 
at  Union  College  in  1848 ;  practiced  law  in  New  York  city ;  was  inspector 
general  of  state  troops  during  the  civil  war ;  was  collector  of  the  port  of 
New  York,  1871-78;  was  elected  Vice-President  in  1880,  and  succeeded 
Garfield,  who  died  September  19,  1881.  His  term  as  President  extended 
to  March  4,  1885. 

Brunswick  township,  organized  in  1883,  received  its  name  from  Bruns- 
wick village  and  township  in  Maine,  at  the  head  of  navigation  on  the 
Androscoggin  river,  whence  many  pioneer  lumbermen  came  to  the  pin- 

265 


266  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

eries  of  the  St  Croix  and  Snake  rivers.  A  village  of  this  name,  platted  in 
1856  in  section  1  of  this  township,  was  the  first  county  seat. 

Comfort  township  bears  a  surname  of  early  settlers. 

Ford  township,  organized  in  1916,  the  latest  in  this  county,  was  former- 
ly included  in  Peace  township.  It  was  named  for  Henry  Ford,  of  Detroit, 
Mich.,  a  wealthy  manufacturer  of  automobiles,  who  conducted  a  large 
delegation  from  this  country  to  Europe  in  December,  1915,  to  confer 
with  the  nations  at  war  and  to  intercede  for  restoration  of  peace. 

Grass  Lake  township,  organized  in  1883,  formerly  had  a  small  lake 
of  this  name,  now  drained,  in  sections  13  and  24,  which  was  mostly  filled 
with  tall  marsh  grass,  the  water  being  very  shallow.  From  this  lake  was 
also  derived  the  name  of  Grasston,  the  railway  village  in  section  12. 

Hay  Brook  township  was  named  for  the  brook  flowing  through  it, 
having  meadows  which  supplied  hay  for  winter  logging  camps. 

HiLLMAN  township  was  named  in  honor  of  William  F.  Hillman,  a 
pioneer  farmer  there. 

Kanabec  township,  like  the  county,  bears  the  Ojibway  name  of  the 
Snake  river. 

Knife  Lake  township  received  its  name  from  the  Knife  lake  and 
river,  which  are  translated  from  their  Sioux  and  Ojibway  names.  The 
first  knives  of  iron  or  steel  obtained  by  the  Sioux,  in  the  winter  of  1659- 
60,  were  brought  here  by  Groseilliers  and  Radisson  and  the  Huron  and 
Ottawa  Indians  who  accompanied  them,  as  noted  for  Isanti  county. 

Kroschel  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Herman  Kroschel,  one 
of  its  first  settlers. 

Mora,  a  village  on  the  railway  in  Arthur  township,  was  platted  in 
1882,  when  by  popular  vote  it  succeeded  Brunswick  as  the  county  seat 
It  was  named  by  Myron  R.  Kent,  owner  of  its  site,  for  the  city  of  Mora 
at  the  northwest  end  of  Siljan  lake  in  central  Sweden. 

Ogilvie,  the  railway  village  of  Kanabec  township,  commemorates  Oric 
Ogilvie  Whited,  for  whom  also  Whited  township  was  named. 

Peace  township  was  named  by  vote  of  its  people,  this  name  being  sug- 
gested in  contrast  with  its  village  of  Warman. 

PoMROY  township  was  named,  as  also  Pomroy  lake,  crossed  by  its  west 
line,  in  honor  of  John  Pomroy,  a  pioneer  lumberman  who  had  a  logging 
camp  beside  the  lake. 

QuAMBA,  a  railway  village  in  Whited,  was  named  by  officers  of  the 
Great  Northern  railway  company. 

South  Fork  township  is  crossed  by  the  South  branch  or  fork  of  the 
Ground  House  river. 

Warman,  a  village  in  sections  5  and  6,  Peace,  having  granite  quarries, 
was  named  in  honor  of  S.  M.  Warman,  a  quarry  owner  there,  who  was 
killed  by  the  fall  of  a  derrick. 

Whited  township,  like  Ogilvie  village,  was  named  in  honor  of  Oric 
Ogilvie  Whited,  of  Minneapolis.  He  was  bom  in  Fitckville,  Ohio,  Janu- 
ary 20,  1854;  was  graduated  at  the  State  Normal  School,  Winona,  Minn., 


KANABEC  COUNTY  267. 

1872;  taught  school  several  years  in  Olmsted  county,  and  later  was  the 
county  superintendent  of  schools;  was  admitted  to  practice  law,  1884; 
settled  in  Minneapolis  in  1890,  engaged  in  real  estate  business  and  law 
practice,  and  owned  numerous  tracts  of  land  in  this  county.  He  died  in 
Minneapolis,  August  6,  1912. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  foregoing  pages  have  noted  the  Snake  river,  Ann  lake  and  river, 
Grass  lake.  Hay  brook.  Knife  lake  and  river,  Pomroy  lake,  and  the  South 
fork  of  Ground  House  river. 

A  tradition  among  the  Sioux  and  Ojibways,  cited  by  Winchell  in  "The 
Aborigines  of  Minnesota"  (page  67),  told  of  Hidatsa  Indians,  a  branch 
of  the  great  Dakotan  stock,  anciently  living  in  Minnesota,  who  were 
driven  westward  to  the  Missouri  river  by  the  coming  of  the  Sioux.  These 
Indians  lived  in  wooden  huts  covered  with,  earth,  whence  probably  came 
the  aboriginal  name  that  we  retain  in  translation  as  the  Ground  House 
river,  draining  the  southwest  part  of  this  county.  It  is  called  Earth  Fort 
river  on  the  map  of  Owen's  Geological  Report,  published  in  1852. 

Tributaries  of  the  Snake  river,  in  their  order  from  south  to  north  in 
this  county,  include,  on  its  east  side,  Mud  creek,  flowing  through  Mud 
lake,  Chesley  brook,  also  called  Little  Snake  river,  and  Cowan's  brook, 
the  second  and  third  being  named  for  pioneer  lumbermen;  and,  on  the 
west  side.  Rice  creek,  named  for  its  wild  rice,  Ground  House,  Ann,  and 
Knife  rivers,  previously  noticed.  Moccasin  brook,  into  which  Snow  Shoe 
brook  flows.  Hay  brook,  and  Bergman's  brook,  near  the  north  line  of  the 
county.  The  last  bears  the  name  of  a  lumberman  whose  logging  camp 
was  on  this  brook. 

The  picturesque .  Upper  falls  and  Lower  falls  of  the  Snake  river  are 
respectively  about  two  miles  and  three  miles  south  of  the  north  boundary 
of  this  county. 

Among  the  few  lakes  that  remain  to  be  mentioned,  Brunswick  has 
Devil's  lake,  in  section  4;  Pennington  lake,  in  section  13,  now  drained, 
named  for  James  Pennington,  who  near  it  opened  the  first  farm  in  the 
county;  and  Lewis  lake,  in  the  southwest  corner  of  this  township,  named 
for  a  pioneer  settler  beside  it. 

Arthur  township  has  Spring  lake,  in  sections  1  and  12 ;  Lake  Mora,  in 
the  village  of  this  name;  Kent  lake,  in  sections  16  and  21,  commemorating 
Myron  R.  Kent,  who  platted  and  named  this  village;  and  Fish  lake, 
through  which  Ann  river  flows,  in  sections  33  and  34. 

A  lake  beside  Snake  river  in  sections  10  and  15,  Peace,  is  mapped 
as  'Tull  of  Fish  lake,"  a  translation  from  its  Ojibway  name. 

Kroschel  has  Bass  lake,  in  section  1 ;  Loon  lake,  in  sections  3  and  4 
Long  lake  and  Bland  lake,  in  sections  4  and  5 ;  Beauty  lake,  in  section  10 
Lake  Eleven,  in  the  section  having  this  number ;  Pike  lake,  in  section  13 
Feathery  lake  and  Muskrat  lake,  in  section  24;  and  White  Lily  lake,  in 
section  27,  named  for  its  abundance  of  the  fragrant  white  water-lily. 


KANDIYOHI  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  March  20,  1858,  bears  the  Dakota  or  Sioux 
name  of  one  or  several  of  its  lakes,  meaning  "where  the  buffalo  fish 
come."  Williamson  states  that  it  is  from  "kandi,  buffalo  fish ;  y,  euphonic ; 
ohi,  arrive  in."  Our  three  species  of  buffalo  fish,  Ictiobus  cyprinella, 
I.  urus,  and  I.  bubalus,  at  their  spawning  season  in  May  and  June 
leave  the  large  rivers,  in  which  they  live  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  and 
come,  sometimes  in  immense  numbers,  to  the  lakes  at  the  head  of  the 
small  streams.  The  first  named  species,  when  mature,  often  attains  the 
weight  of  30  to  40  pounds ;  and  the  second  and  third  are  about  two  thirds 
as  large. 

Lawson,  the  historian  of  the  county,  writes : 

**It  is  believed  that  in  early  times  the  Indians  applied  this  name  to  the 
entire  group  of  lakes  which  form  the  sources  of  the  Crow  river.  Until 
very  recent  years  buffalo  fish  and  other  kindred  species  came  up  the 
rivers  and  small  streams  every  spring  to  find  spawning  places  in  these 
waters.  .   .   . 

"The  name  Kandiyohi  was  first  made  known  to  white  men  by  Joseph 
Nicholas  Nicollet,  who  in  1836-41  explored  the  region  now  comprising 
Minnesota.  .  .  .  He  did  not  personally  visit  this  section,  but  secured  his 
information  about  the  sources  of  the  Crow  from  Indians.  ...  It  was 
not  until  1856  that  white  men  acquired  any  definite  knowledge  as  to  the 
extent  and  character  of  these  lakes.  In  that  year  four  different  parties 
of  townsite  promoters  visited  the  region  now  embraced  within  the  boun- 
daries of  our  county  and  gave  separate  names  to  the  different  lakes  which 
attracted  their  attention.  The  name  Kandiyohi  was  appropriated  by  one 
of  these  companies,  and  two  of  the  lakes  in  the  southern  group  were  by 
them  named  Big  and  Little  Kandiyohi.  When  a  new  county  was  organ- 
ized the  historic  Indian  name  was  adopted." 

In  the  accepted  pronunciation,  which  differs  somewhat  from  the  Dako- 
ta usage,  this  name  accents  its  first  and  last  syllables,  the  last  having  the 
English  long  sound  of  the  vowel. 

At  first  the  area  of  this  county  was  divided  under  legislative  acts  of 
March  8  and  20,  1858,  in  two  counties,  each  comprising  twelve  congres- 
sional townships.  The  north  half  was  named  Monongalia  county,  and 
during  twelve  years  Kandiyohi  county  had  only  the  south  half  of  its 
present  area,  until  in  1870  they  were  united.  The  name  Monongalia  was 
derived  from  the  county  so  named  in  Virginia  (now  in  West  Virginia), 
being  Latinized  from  the  Delaware  Indian  word,  Monongahela,  "river 
with  the  sliding  banks,"  given  to  the  stream  which  unites  with  the 
Allegheny  at  Pittsburg,  forming  the  Ohio  river. 

268 


KANDIYOHI  COUNTY  2l&) 

Townships  and  Villages. 

The  origins  and  meanings  of  the  geographic  names  in  this  county  have 
been  learned  from  the  "Illustrated  History  and  Descriptive  and  Biograph- 
ical Review  of  Kandiyohi  County,"  by  Victor  E.  Lawson  and  Martin  E. 
Tew,  446  pages,  1905;  and  from  interviews  with  Samuel  Nelson,  county 
auditor,  and  Mr.  Lawson,  editor  of  the  Willmar  Tribune  and  principal 
author  of  the  admirable  folio  History  here  cited,  during  a  visit  at  Will- 
mar,  the  county  seat,  in  May,  1916. 

Arctander  township,  organized  April  4,  1879,  was  named  in  honor  of 
John  W.  Arctander,  who  during  ten  years,  1876-86,  was  a  resident  of  this 
county,  being  an  attorney  in  Willmar,  and  thence  removed  to  Minneapolis. 
He  was  born  in  Stockholm,  Sweden,  October  2,  1849;  was  graduated  at 
the  Royal  University  of  Norway,  1870,  and  the  same  year  came  to  the 
United  States;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1874,  and  soon  afterward  was  ad- 
mitted to  practice  law.  In  1875  he  published  a  handbook  of  the  laws  of 
Minnesota  in  the  Norwegian  language. 

Atwater,  thtf  railway  village  in  Gennessee,  founded  in  1869,  was  named 
in  honor  of  E.  D.  Atwater,  secretary  of  the  land  department  of  the  St. 
Paul  and  Pacific  railway.    It  was  incorporated  February  17,  1876. 

BuRBANK  township,  organized  in  August,  1866,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Henry  Clay  Burbank,  a  well  known  merchant  in  St.  Paul  and  St.  Qoud 
"held  in  high  esteem  by  the  early  settlers  for  favors  extended."  He  was 
born  in  Lewis,  N.  Y.,  May  4,  1835 ;  and  died  in  Rochester,  Minn.,  February 
23,  1905.  At  the  age  of  eighteen  years  he  came  to  St.  Paul,  and  with  his 
brother,  James  C.  Burbank,  engaged  in  forwarding  and  commission  busi- 
ness and  wholesale  grocery  trade.  The  firm  transported  supplies  and  furs 
for  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  and  owned  wagon  trains  and  steamboats 
on  the  Red  river.    He  was  a  state  senator  in  1873. 

Colfax  township,  organized  June  24,  1871,  was  at  first  called  I^ke 
Prairie,  but  in  September  of  the  same  year  it  was  renamed  in  honor  of 
Schuyler  Colfax  (b.  1823,  d.  1885),  who  in  1869-73  was  Vice-President 
of  the  United  States. 

DovRE  township,  organized  April  6,  1869,  received  its  name  from  its 
prominent  morainic  hills  in  sections  20  and  21,  which  the  early  Norwegian 
settlers  called  the  Dovre  hills,  in  remembrance  of  the  Dovrefjeld  moun- 
tains and  high  plateau  on  the  boundary  between  Norway  and  Sweden. 

East  Lake  Lillian  township,  organized  March  6,  1893,  had  been  since 
1872  the  east  half  of  Lake  Lillian,  named  for  the  lake  crossed  by  the 
boundary  between  these  townships. 

Edwards  township,  established  September  7,  1871,  was  named  in  honor 
of  S.  S.  Edwards,  a  pioneer  settler  who  was  the  leader  for  its  organiza- 
tion. 

Fahlun,  established  March  20,  1877,  bears  "the  popular  name  of  the 
home  county  in  Sweden  of  a  number  of  the  early  settlers."    The  chief 


270  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

city  of  that  district,  also  named  Fahltin  or  Falun,  is  sometimes  called 
'^e  Treasury  of  Sweden,"  having  mines  of  copper,  silver,  and  gold. 

Gennessee,  organized  in  1858,  was  named  (with  changed  spelling) 
for  the  Genesee  river  in  New  York,  whence  several  of  its  first  pioneers 
had  come  in  1857.  This  name  means,  according  to  Gannett,  "shining 
valley"  or  ''beautiful  valley,"  in  its  native  Indian  language  of  New  York ; 
but  the  too  liberal  spelling  here  used,  yet  without  change  in  pronunciation, 
came  from  Tennessee. 

Green  Lake  township,  established  in  January,  1868^  received  its  name 
from  the  large  lake  on  its  north  boundary,  which  was  named  August  10, 
1856,  by  the  first  party  of  settlers.  On  that  day  they  selected  a  town- 
site  on  the  southwestern  shore  of  this  lake,  now  occupied  by  the  village 
of  Spicer,  in  sections  3  and  4  of  this  township.  "They  were  enraptured 
by  the  beautiful  sheet  of  water,  and  from  its  peculiar  shade  of  bottie 
green  christened  it  Green  lake.  To  their  future  city  they  gave  the  name 
of  Columbia." 

Hakeison  township,  established  April  25,  1858,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Joseph  D.  Harris,  who  setUed  here  in  August,  1857,  and  was  the  first 
postmaster  and  the  first  town  cleric  He  was  bom  in  Nova  Scotia  in 
May,  1834,  and  died  May  7,  187a 

Holland  township  was  established  July  23,  1888.  Its  settlers  "w^re 
principally  Hollanders,  or  of  Holland  descent,  but  with  a  sprinkling  of 
Swedes  and  Germans." 

Ieving  township,  organized  March  2!7,  1868,  took  its  name  from  a 
townsite  platted  on  the  east  side  of  Green  lake  in  1856  by  Eugene  M. 
Wilson,  of  Minneapolis,  who  later  was  a  congressman,  and  others.  This 
name  was  probably  selected  in  honor  of  the  distinguished  American 
author,  Washington  Irving  (b.  1783,  d.  1859). 

Kandiyohi  township  was  established  March  1,  1868,  then  including 
also  the  present  townships  of  Fahlun,  Whitefield,  and  Willmar.  It  was 
named,  like  the  county,  for  the  Kandiyohi  lakes.  The  railway  village, 
named  for  the  township,  was  founded  when  the  railway  was  built,  in 
1869,  and  was  incorporated  May  7,  1904. 

An  earlier  townsite  of  this  name,  platted  in  October,  1856,  in  section 
25  of  this  township  and  the  adjoining  section  30  of  Gennessee,  at  the 
north  side  of  Lakes  Kasota  and  Minnetaga,  aspired  to  become  the  capital 
of  Minnesota,  for  which  purpose  a  bill  was  passed  by  the  legislature  in 
March,  1869,  but  was  vetoed  by  Governor  Marshall.  This  project  was 
again  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  legislature  in  1871,  and  also  in  1891 
and  1893,  but  received  no  favorable  action.  In  1901  the  "capitol  lands," 
which  had  been  acquired  here  by  the  state  in  1858,  were  sold  for  use  in 
farming. 

Lake  Andrew  township,  organized  March  19,  1872,  received  the  name 
given  to  this  lake  in  the  summer  of  1857  by  Andrew  Holes,  one  of  the 
first  two  settiers,  being  carved  by  him  "in  large,  plain  letters  upon  one  of 
the  Cottonwood  trees"  of  its  south  shore. 


KANDIYOHI  COUNTY  271 

Lake  Elizabeth  township,  organized  April  16,  1869,  bears  the  name 
of  the  lake  crossed  by  its  north  boundary,  given  "in  honor  of  the  wife  of 
A.  C.  Smith,  the  early  lawyer  and  receiver  at  the  United  States  land 
office  at  Forest  City."  Lakes  Ella  and  Carrie,  closely  adjoining  the  north 
side  of  this  lake,  in  Gennessee,  were  named  for  her  daughters. 

Lake  Liluan  township  was  organized  January  2^,  1872.  The  lake 
was  named  in  honor  of  the  wife  of  an  artist  and  author,  Edwin  White- 
field,  who  accompanied  the  first  exploring  party  to  the  Kandiyohi  lakes 
in  the  summer  of  1856. 

Mamre  township,  organized  April  6,  1870,  took  the  name  given  in  1866 
to  the  lake  in  sections  11,  12,  and  14,  by  one  of  the  first  three  settlers, 
John  Rodman,  whose  homestead  claim  was  on  the  southwest  arm  of  this 
lake.  "He  gave  the  name  Mamre  to  his  new  home  locality,  from  the 
Biblical  reference  to  the  home  of  Abram  in  the  Promised  Land." 

New  London  township,  organized  August  25,  1866,  derived  its  name 
from  the  village,  which  was  founded  in  1865,  by  building  a  sawmill,  and 
was  incorporated  April  8,  1889.  The  name  was  chosen  by  Louis  Larson, 
"from  a  similarity  he  saw  with  the  location  of  New  London,  Wis.,  a 
prospering  village  of  his  old  home  county." 

Norway  Lake  township,  organized  in  August,  1866,  at  first  included 
also  the  present  townships  of  Arctander,  Lake  Andrew,  Mamre,  and 
Dovre.  It  was  named  for  the  largest  lake  of  its  original  area,  lying  main- 
ly in  Lake  Andrew  township,  around  which  many  Norwegian  immigrants 
settled. 

Pennock^  the  railway  village  of  St.  John's  township,  founded  in  1870- 
71,  with  the  building  of  this  railway,  ait  first  bore  the  township  name.  In 
the  fall  of  1891  it  was  renamed  in  honor  of  George  Pennock,  of  Willmar, 
superintendent  of  this  division  of  the  Great  Northern  railway. 

Prinsburg,  a  hamlet  at  the  center  of  Holland  township,  platted  in 
1886,  commemorates  Martin  Prins,  member  of  a  land  firm  in  Holland, 
who  came  here  and  in  1884  acquired  about  35,000  acres  of  railroad  lands, 
mostly  in  this  county.    He  died  in  1887. 

Raymond,  a  railway  village  in  Edwards,  platted  in  1887,  was  named 
for  Raymond  Spicer,  a  son  of  John  M.  Spicer,  of  Willmar,  who  was  the 
founder  of  Spicer  village. 

RosELAND  township  was  organized  March  16,  1889,  its  name  being 
chosen  by  Peter  Lindquist,  the  first  settler,  who  same  in  the  spring  of 
1869.  "In  Swedish  the  name  is  the  usual  designation  for  a  flower  gar- 
den." 

RosEvnxE  township,  organized  August  25,  1866,  was  named  as  sug- 
gested by  Joseph  Cox,  "on  account  of  the  profusion  of  wild  roses  growing 
and  in  bloom  upon  the  prairie." 

St.  John's  township,  first  settled  in  1868,  was  established  by  a  special 
act  of  the  legislature,  February  77^  1872,  and  was  organized  a  month 
later.    It  bears  a  name  given  to  a  locality  on  its  north  line  by  an  early 


272  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

map  of  the  state,  published  in  1860,  probably  noting  a  proposed  site  for  a 
Catholic  colony,  whence  the  lake  in  sections  1  and  2  became  known  as 
St  John's  lake. 

Spicer,  a  railway  village  in  the  north  edge  of  Green  Lake  township, 
was  platted  in  1886,  on  the  deserted  early  townsite  of  Columbia,  and  was 
named  in  honor  of  John  M.  Spicer,  its  founder  and  owner  of  the  site, 
who  was  the  president  of  the  company  building  this  railway  line.  Ray- 
mond village  was  named  for  his  son,  as  before  noted. 

Whitefield  township  was  established  June  6,  1870.  Its  name  is  from 
a  proposed  townsite  selected  by  an  exploring  party  in  the  early  autumn 
of  1856,  on  the  northwest  shore  of  Lake  Wagonga,  in  sections  1  and  11, 
named  in  honor  of  Edwin  Whitefield,  a  landscape  artist,  who  was  a 
member  of  the  party.  Lake  Lillian,  named  for  his  wife,  is  the  source  of 
another  township  name,  as  before  noted. 

WiLLMAR  township,  established  January  4,  1870,  took  the  name  of  its 
village,  platted  in  1869  when  the  railroad  here  was  built.  The  townsite 
was  selected  and  named  by  George  F.  Becker,  president  of  the  railroad. 
"Leon  Willmar,  a  native  of  Belgium,  at  that  time  residing  in  London, 
was  the  agent  for  the  European  bondholders  of  the  St  Paul  and  Pacific 
railroad  company,  and  it  was  in  his  honor  that  the  town  was  named.  He 
af<terwards  secured  several  hundred  acres  of  land  around  the  northeast- 
ern shores  of  Foot  lake,  and  presented  the  same  to  his  son,  Paul  Willmar, 
who  a  few  years  before  had  served  as  a  soldier  of  fortune  under  Maxi- 
milian, the  adventurous  invader  of  Mexico."  Expensive  buildings  were 
erected  in  1871  for  the  Willmar  farm,  on  section  1  of  this  township, 
where  during  ten  years  Paul  Willmar  conducted  operations  on  an  ex- 
tensive scale.  In  1881  he  sold  this  large  farm  and  returned  to  Belgium, 
his  native  land.  Willmar  village  was  incorporated  January  16,  1874;  and 
its  city  charter  was  adopted  November  19,  1901. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  foregoing  pages  have  noted  the  names  of  the  Kandiyohi  lakes, 
Green  lake,  Lakes  Andrew,  Elizabeth,  and  Lillian,  Lakes  Ella  and  Carrie, 
Lake  Mamre,  Norway  lake,  and  St.  John's  lake. 

Shakopee  creek,  flowing  west  to  the  lake  of  this  name  in  Chippewa 
county,  is  noticed  in  the  chapter  for  that  county ;  and  Hawk  and  Chetamba 
creeks,  having  their  sources  here,  are  noticed  under  Renville  county. 

Many  lakes  remain  to  be  mentioned,  but  a  considerable  number  have 
names  that  require  no  explanation,  and  others  of  small  size  are  unnamed. 
The  list  follows  the  numerical  order  of  the  townships  from  south  to 
north,  and  of  the  ranges  from  east  to  west. 

Dog  lake,  in  East  Lake  Lillian  township,  and  others  smaller  and  with- 
out names,  have  been  drained  and  are  now  farm  lands. 

Fox  lake,  crossed  by  the  south  line  of  Lake  Lillian  township,  and 
Grove  lake  on  its  west  side,  named  for  the  grove  on  its  island,  have  been 
drained. 


KANDIYOHI  COUNTY  273 

Lake  Elizabeth  township  has  Johnson  lake  in  sections  10  and  11,  and 
Otter  lake  in  sections  10  and  15.  Lakes  Charlotte  and  Mary,  now  drained, 
were  in  its  southwest  part. 

Fahlun  has  Lake  Fanny  and  Wagonga  lake,  which  was  formerly  called 
Grass  lake,  in  translation  of  this  Dakota  or  Sioux  name.  The  latter, 
reaching  west  into  Whitefield,  is  erroneously  spelled  Waconda  by  some 
maps. 

Lake  Milton  was  in  sections  7  and  18,  Whitefield,  and  Stevens  lake  in 
section  20,  but  both  are  drained. 

Edwards  has  Bad  Water  lake,  through  which  Hawk  creek  flows  at 
Raymond;  Olson  lake,  in  section  26;  and  Vick  lake,  drained,  in  sections 
29  and  JO. 

Gennessee  has  Summit  lake,  in  sections  9  and  10,  referring  to  the 
building  of  the  railroad,  which  very  near  the  west  line  of  this  township 
crosses  its  highest  land  between  St.  Paul  and  Breckenridge ;  Pay  lake, 
of  smaller  size,  in  section  10,  where  the  paymaster  in  that  work  had  his 
camp;  Lakes  Ella  and  Carrie,  before  noticed  in  their  relationship  with 
Lake  Elizabeth;  and  Lake  Minnetaga,  compounded  of  Dakota  words, 
mifme,  water,  and  taga,  froth,  foam. 

In  Kandiyohi  township  are  Lake  Kasota,  a  Dakota  name,  meaning  a 
cleared  place,  and  Swan  lake,  each  lyitfl^  close  to  the  north  side  of  Little 
Kandiyohi  lake,  with  which  Lake  Kasota  is  connected  by  a  strait. 

Willmar  has  Foot  lake,  adjoining  the  city,  named  in  honor  of  the  first 
settler  here;  Willmar  lake,  which  adjoins  the  former  Willmar  farm,  be- 
ing a  northeastern  bay  of  Foot  lake,  connected  therewith  by  a  narrow 
passage;  and  Grass  lake,  which  was  shallow  and  mostly  filled  with 
marsh  grass,  but  is  now  drained. 

Solomon  R.  Foot,  commemorated  by  the  lake  bearing  his  name,  was 
bom  in  Dover,  Ohio,  May  30,  1823;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1857,  and  in 
June  took  a  homestead  claim  on  the  shore  of  this  lake,  being  the  first 
settler  of  Willmar  township;  removed  about  six  years  later  to  Melrose, 
in  Steams  county,  where  he  built  a  hotel  and  was  the  first  postmaster; 
removed  to  Minot,  N.  D.,  in  1888;  spent  his  last  few  years  in  California, 
with  his  children,  and  died  March  15,  1903.  Another  lake,  in  Dovre,  is 
also  named  for  him. 

The  largest  lake  in  Harrison  was  visited  in  September,  1856,  by  a 
party  of  explorers  who  came  from  St.  Peter.  "The  crystal  brightness 
of  the  lake  impressed  them,  and  they  named  it  Diamond  lake."  Other 
lakes  in  this  township  are  Jessie  lake,  crossed  by  the  north  line  of  section 
6;  Rieff  and  Swenson  lakes,  drained,  in  section  15;  Sperry  lake,  section 
16;  Tait's  lake,  section  19;  Thomas  lake,  drained,  in  sections  21  and  22; 
Schultz  lake,  in  sections  23  and  26 ;  and  Wheeler  lake,  in  sections  26,  27, 
and  34. 

Green  Lake  township  has  Henderson  lake  in  section  6;  Twin  lakes, 
sections  7  and  8;  Elk  Horn  lake,  sections  9  and  16,  where  a  pair  of  very 


274  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

large  elk  antlers  were  found  in  1857;  Eagle  lake,  crossed  by  the  west  line 
of  this  township ;  and  Bur  Oak  lake,  in  section  33. 

Dovre  has  Ringo  lake,  Florida  Slough  lake,  and  Long  or  Nevada  lake, 
each  of  large  size,  in  its  northeast  part;  Point  lake,  King,  Skataas,  and 
Swan  lakes,  at  the  southeast,  the  second  and  third  being  named  for  pioneer 
farmers;  and  Solomon  lake  at  the  southwest,  named,  like  Foot  lake  in 
Willmar,  for  Solomon  R.  Foot,  who  often  visited  this  lake  as  a  hunter 
and  trapper. 

In  Mamre  township,  besides  the  lake  of  this  name,  are  Swan  lake, 
of  clear  water,  in  sections  9  and  10,  and  Church  and  Lindgren  lakes, 
respectively  in  sections  23  and  26,  which  are  shallow  and  grassy. 

Irving  has  Calhoun  lake,  named  for  an  early  settler  who  raised  cattle 
there;  Otter  lake,  very  small,  in  section  4,  and  Shoemaker  lake,  crossed 
by  the  south  line  of  section  6,  both  drained;  and  Long  lake,  in  the  north 
part  of  section  6,  extending  into  Roseville. 

New  London  has  Bear  lake,  in  section  7;  Cedar  Island  lake,  in  section 
17,  named  for  its  red  cedar  tree$;  Nest  lake,  in  sections  28  and  29,  re- 
markable for  the  former  abundance  of  nests  of  double-crested  cormor- 
ants,' commonly  called  'l)lack  jacks,'^  on  the  trees  of  its  larger  island; 
and  George  and  Woodcock  lakes,  respectively  in  sections  Z2  and  33,  ex- 
tending south  into  Green  Lake  township.  The  last  was  named  for  Elijah 
T.  Woodcock,  the  first  settler  near  it  Lake  Eight,  in  sections  5  and  8, 
translated  from  the  name  given  by  Swedish  settlers,  is  a  marsh,  only 
covered  by  water  in  wet  seasons. 

Lake  Andrew  township,  with  its  lake  so  named,  has  also  Middle  lake 
and  Norway  lake;  Lake  Mary,  on  the  west  line  of  section  19;  Norstedt 
lake,  small  and  shallow,  in  section  24;  and,  near  the  south  side  of  the 
township.  Lake  Florida  and  Crook  lake,  the  last  being  named  from  its 
crooked  outline.  ''Lake  Florida  is  said  to  have  been  first  so  designated 
by  the  early  settlers  of  Norway  Lake  on  account  of  its  location  to  the 
south." 

Arctander  has  Swenson  lake,  in  sections  24  and  25.  West  and  Sand 
lakes,  in  sections  16  and  17,  have  been  drained. 

Burbank  has  Lake  Twenty,  in  the  section  so  numbered-,  and  Mud  lake, 
on  the  south  line  of  this  township. 

Colfax  has  Prairie  and  Stauffer  lakes,  shallow,  or  sometimes  dry,  in 
its  southeast  part;  Timber  lake,  Skull  and  Swan  lakes,  find  Games  lake, 
at  the  southwest;  and  Sand,  Thompson,  and  Hystad  lakes,  in  its  north 
half,  the  last  being  named  for  Andrew  O.  Hystad,  an  early  fanner  there. 

In  Norway  Lake  township  are  Lake  Bertha  and  Even's  or  Glesne  lake, 
near  its  center;  and  Deer  lake,  Lake  Ole,  Lake  of  Hefta,  and  Brenner 
lake  in  its  north  part,  with  Crook  lake  on  its  north  line.  Glesne  lake  was 
named  for  Even  O.  Glesne,  a  pioneer  farmer  beside  it,  and  Lake  Bertha 
for  his  daughter.  "Lake  of  Hefta  was  so  called  in  honor  of  Mrs.  Marie 
Hefta,  .  .  .  who  was  born  on  a  place  of  that  name  in  Norway;"  and 


KANDIYOHI  COUNTY  275 

Brenner  lake  was  named  for  Andreas  Hanson  "Brenner,"  the  added 
surname  having  reference  to  'liis  vocation  in  Norway  as  manufacturer 
of  tar." 

When  the  first  pioneers  came,  their  settlements  or  small  neighborhoods 
preceding  the  organization  of  townships  were  designated  by  the  adjoining 
lakes,  as  the  Diamond  Lake,  Eagle  Lake,  and  Nest  Lake  settlements. 
Finally  nine  townships,  among  them  being  Kandiyohi,  Mamre,  and  Si 
John's,  were  thus  named  for  their  lakes. 

Hills  of  the  Waconia  and  Dovre  Moraines. 

The  north  half  of  this  county  is  crossed  by  two  belts  of  morainic 
drift  hills,  very  irregular  in  contour  and  attaining  heights  of  100  to  200 
feet  above  the  lowlands  and  lakes.  Names  applied  to  parts  of  these 
hilly  tracts,  and  to  some  of  the  more  conspicuous  separate  elevations,  are 
Cape  Bad  Luck  and  Sugarloaf,  in  the  south  edge  of  Roseville;  the  Blue 
hills,  culminating  in  Mount  Tom,  about  a  mile  north  of  Lake  Andrew; 
the  hills  before  noted  as .  giving  their  name  to  Dovre  township ;  and 
Ostlund's  hill,  in  section  22,  Mamre,  named  for  Lars  Ostlund,  a  farmer 
at  its  west  side. 

Derived  from  the  hills  in  Dovre,  this  name  is  extended  to  the  seventh 
or  Dovre  moraine  in  the  series  of  twelve  marginal  moraine  belts  formed 
successively  along  the  receding  border  of  the  continental  ice-sheet  during 
its  final  melting  in  Minnesota. 

Eastward  in  New  London,  Irving,  and  the  edge  of  Roseville,  the  drift 
hills  are  referred  to  a  somewhat  earlier  stage  of  the  glacial  retreat,  being 
a  part  of  the  sixth  or  Waconia  moraine,  named  from  Waconia  in  Carver 
county.  At  Mount  Tom,  and  thence  northwest  for  about  twenty-five 
miles,  the  Waconia  and  Dovre  moraines  are  merged  in  a  single  belt  of 
drift  hills,  knolls,  and  short  ridges. 

Sibley  State  Park. 

Adjoining  Lake  Andrew  with  a  shore  line  of  one  and  a  half  miles, 
this  park,  named  in  honor  of  Governor  Henry  Hastings  Sibley,  was  pro- 
vided through  purchase  by  the  state  in  July,  1919.  It  is  a  tract  of  3S6 
acres,  consisting  of  high  morainic  hills,  short  ridges,  and  hollows,  sprinkled 
with  drift  boulders  and  covered  with  hardwood  timber.  Its  acquirement 
as  a  state  park  was  advocated  by  Victor  E.  Lawson,  of  Willmar,  and 
Peter  Broberg,  of  New  London;  and  its  supervision  and  development 
are  to  be  directed  by  Carlos  Avery,  state  game  and  fish  commissioner. 


KITTSON  COUNTY 

Forming  the  northwest  corner  of  this  state,  Kittson  county  was  estab- 
lished by  being  thus  renamed,  March  9,  1878,  and  by  reduction  from  its 
area,  making  Marshall  county,  February  25,  1879.  Previously  it  had  been 
a  part  of  Pembina  county,  one  of  the  nine  large  counties  into  which  the 
new  Minnesota  Territory  was  originally  divided,  October  27,  1849.  It 
was  named  in  honor  of  Norman  Wolfred  Kittson,  one  of  the  leading 
pioneers  of  the  territory  and  state.  He  was  born  in  Sorel,  Canada,  March 
5,  1814 ;  came  to  the  area  that  afterward  was  Minnesota  in  1834,  and  dur- 
ing four  years  was  engaged  in  the  sutler's  department  at  Fort  Snelling; 
was  later  a  fur  trader  on  his  own  account,  and  became  manager  for  the 
American  Fur  Company  in  northern  Minnesota;  engaged  in  transporta- 
tion business,  at  Fort  Snelling,  Pembina,  and  St.  Paul;  was  a  member 
of  the  territorial  legislature,  1851-55,  and  mayor  of  St.  Paul,  1858;  be- 
came director  of  steamboat  traffic  on  the  Red  river  for  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  in  1864;  and  established  a  line  of  steamers  and  barges  known  as 
the  Red  River  Transportation  Company,  whence  he  was  often  called 
"Commodore."  He  died  suddenly.  May  11,  1888,  on  ja  railway  train  in 
his  journey  of  return  to  Minnesota  from  the  east.  The  Catholic  Cathe- 
dral in  St.  Paul  is  built  on  the  site  of  his  home. 

With  the  adoption  of  the  present  name  of  Kittson  county,  the  former 
Pembina  county  ceased  to  exist  in  Minnesota,  but  it  is  still  represented 
by  a  North  Dakota  county  bearing  that  name,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
Red  river.  It  was  first  the  name  of  a  river  there,  was  thence  applied  to 
an  early  fur  trading  post  at  the  junction  of  this  stream  with  the  Red  river, 
was  given  in  1849  to  the  great  Pembina  county,  and  later  to  the  town 
that  became  the  county  seat  of  its  part  in  Dakota  Territory,  near  the  site 
of  the  old  trading  post.  Keating  wrote,  in  his  Narrative  of  Long's  expedi- 
tion in  1823,  that  it  was  derived  from  the  Ojibway  word  for  the  fruit 
of  the  bush  cranberry,  "anepeminan,  which  name  has  been  shortened 
and  corrupted  into  Pembina."  This  tall  bush  (Viburnum  Opulus,  L.)  is 
common  along  the  Pembina  and  Red  rivers,  as  also  through  the  north  half 
of  Minnesota,  and  its  fruit  is  much  used  for  sauce  by  the  Ojibways  and  the 
white  people.  Neill  translated  the  name  as  follows  (History  of  Minne- 
sota, p.  868)  :  "The  Pembina  river,  called  by  Thompson  'Summer  Berry,' 
was  named  after  a  red  berry  which  the  Chippeways  call  Nepin  (summer) 
Minan  (berry),  and  this  by  the  voyageurs  has  been  abbreviated  to  Pem- 
bina, which  is  more  euphonious." 

276 


KITTSON  COUNTY  277 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  has  been  gathered  from  "History  of  the  Red  River  Val- 
ley," two  volumes,  1909,  the  chapter  for  this  county,  by  Edward  Nelson, 
former  register  of  deeds,  being  pages  923-966;  and  from  interviews  with 
Mr.  Nelson  and  Axel  Lindegard,  a  merchant  in  Hallock,  the  county  seat, 
during  a  visit  there  in  August,  1909,  and  Edward  A.  Johnson,  clerk  of 
court,  and  again  with  Mr.  Lindegard,  in  a  second  visit  there,  September, 
1916. 

Arveson  township,  organized  July  14,  1902,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Arve  Arveson,  a  settler  in  Davis,  who  was  then  chairman  of  the  county 
commissioners. 

Bronson,  a  railway  village  in  Percy,  was  named  for  Giles  Bronson,  an 
early  farmer  in  section  32  of  that  township,  well  known  for  entertaining 
sportsmen  at  his  home. 

Cannon  township,  organized  July  11,  1904,  was  named  for  Thomas 
Cannon,  a  merchant  in  Northcote,  who  was  one  of  the  county  commis- 
sioners. 

Caribou  township,  organized  January  8,  1908,  had  a  few  reindeer,  of 
geographic  limitation  in  the  wooded  and  partly  swampy  region  of  northern 
Minnesota  and  Canada,  named  Rangifer  caribou.  The  second  word  of  the 
name  is  of  Algonquin  Indian  origin,  meaning  a  pawer  or  scratcher,  in 
allusion  to  the  habit  of  this  animal  in  winter,  pawing  in  the  snow  to  eat 
the  reindeer  moss  beneath. 

Clow  township  commemorates  several  brothers  of  that  name,  early 
settlers  there,  who  came  from  Prince  Edward  Island. 

Davis  township,  organized  July  24,  1882,  was  named  in  honor  of  Ed- 
ward N.  Davis  a  settler  in  section  30,  who  was  a  county  commissioner, 
but  removed  to  Georgia. 

Deerwood  was  organized  July  23,  1888, -receiving  this  name  from  its 
deer  and  its  tracts  of  woodland. 

Donaldson^  the  railway  village  of  Davis  township,  was  named  for 
Captain  Hugh  W.  Donaldson,  a  veteran  of  the  civil  war,  manager  of  an 
adjoining  farm  of  several  thousand  acres,  owned  by  the  Kennedy  Land 
Company. 

Granville  township,  organized  July  27,  1885,  took  a  name  that  is  borne 
by  villages  and  townships  in  twelve  other  states. 

Hallock  township,  which  includes  the  county  seat,  was  organized 
August  2,  1880,  and  was  named  in  honor  of  one  of  the  founders  of  its 
village,  Charles  Hallock,  the  widely  known  sportsman,  journalist,  and 
author.  He  was  born  in  New  York  city,  March  13,  1834;  was  graduated 
at  Amherst  college,  1854;  was  during  many  years  editor  of  'Torest  and 
Stream,"  which  he  founded  in  1873;  erected  a  large  hotel  here  in  1890, 
which  was  a  noted  resort  of  sportsmen  until  it  was  burned  in  1892;  is 
author  of  many  magazine  articles  and  books  on  hunting,  fishing,  travel 


278  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

in  Alaska,  Florida,  etc. ;  now  resides  in  Washington,  D.  C  Hallock  vil- 
lage, platted  in  1879-^,  was  incorporated  June  11,  1887. 

Hal^a  is  the  railway  village  of  Norway  township. 

Hampden  township  was  the  earliest  organized  in  this  county,  July  28, 
1879.  It  was  named  on  the  suggestion  of  officers  of  its  railway,  for  John 
Hampden  (b.  1594,  d.  1643),  the  celebrated  statesman  and  patriot  of  Eng- 
land. 

Hazelton  township,  organized  July  23,  1888,  was  probably  named  for 
its  plentiful  growth  of  wild  hazelnut  bushes.  Minnesota  has  two  species, 
each  being  common  through  its  northern  part. 

Hill  township,  organized  January  11,  1901,  is  named  in  honor  of  the 
distinguishd  railway  builder  and  president,  James  Jerome  Hill,  who  owned 
.and  farmed  large  tracts  in  and  adjoining  this  township.  He  was  bom 
near  Guelph,  Ontario,  September  16,  1838;  and  died  at  his  home  in  St. 
Paul,  May  29,  1916.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1856,  and  engaged  in 
steamboat  and  railway  transportation.  In  1871  he  consolidated  the  trans- 
portation business,  of  Norman  W.  Kittson  in  the  Red  river  region  with  his 
own;  and  Donald  A.  Smith  (since  Lord  Strathcona)  managed  the  com- 
pany jointly  with  himself.  He  was  the  prime  mover  in  the  effort  to  secure 
the  bonds  of  the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  railroad,  successfully  accomplishing 
this  in  1878,  with  reorganization  under  the  name  of  the  St.  Paul,  Minne- 
apolis and  Manitoba  Railway  Co.,  of  which  he  was  general  manager,  1879- 
82;  and  president,  1883-90.  This  railway  and  its  new  branches  were  again 
changed  in  name  in  1890  to  be  the  Great  Northern  railway  system,  of  which 
Mr.  Hill  continued  as  president  till  1907,  becoming  then  chairman  of  its 
board  of  directors.  His  biography,  by  Joseph  G.  Pyle,  in  two  volumes, 
with  portraits,  was  published  in  1917.  The  extensive  Hill  fatm,  compris- 
ing about  15,000  acres  in  Hill  and  St.  Vincent  townships,  was  sold  during 
the  summer  of  1917,  in  127  parts,  to  make  small  farms  for  settlers. 

HuMB(X.DT  is  a  Great  Northern  railway  village  in  the  southeast  part  of 
St  Vincent  township.  This  name,  borne  by  counties  in  Iowa,  Nevada, 
and  California,  and  by  villages  or  small  cities  in  seven  states,  commem- 
orates Baron  Alexander  von  Humboldt  (b.  1769,  d.  1859),  an  eminent 
German  scientist  and  author,  who  in  1799  to  1804  traveled  in  South  Ameri- 
ca and  Mexico. 

Jupiter  township,  organized  November  10,  1883,  was  named  for  the 
planet  Jupiter  by  Nels  Hultgren,  an  early  Norwegian  settler  there,  who 
had  been  a  sea  captain. 

Karlstad,  a  Soa  railway  village  in  the  east  edge  of  Deerwood,  was 
named  for  the  city  of  Karlstad  in  Sweden. 

Kennedy,  a  Great  Northern  railway  village,  was  named  in  honor  of 
John  Stewart  Kennedy  (b.  1830,  d.  1909).  From  his  former  home  in  Scot- 
land he  came  to  America  in  1856,  settled  in  New  York  city,  and  was  an 
iron  merchant,  banker,  and  railway  director.  He  was  a  generous  donor  to 
many  public  charities,  and  for  educational  and  religious  work. 


KITTSON  COUNTY  279 

Lancaster  is  a  Soo  railway  village  in  the  east  edge  of  Granville. 
Eighteen  states  have  villages,  cities,  or  townships  of  this  name,  derived 
from  a  city  and  county  of  England. 

McKiNLEY  township,  organized  July  14,  1902,  was  named  in  honor  of 
William  McKinley  (b.  1843,  d.  1901),  who  was  a  member  of  Congress  from 
Ohio,  1877-91 ;  governor  of  Ohio,  1892-6 ;  and  president  of  the  United 
States,  1897-1901. 

NoRTHCotE,  the  railway  village  in  Hampden,  was  named  in  honor  of  Sir 
Stafford  Henry  Northcote  (b.  1818,  d.  1887),  an  eminent  English  statesman 
and  financier.  He  was  a  commissioner  at  the  treaty  of  Washington  in 
1871,  which  referred  the  Alabama  claims  of  the  United  States  against 
England  to  an  international  tribunal  of  arbitration. 

Norway  township,  organized  January  9, 1901,  was  named  for  the  coun- 
try from  which  nearly  all  its  settlers  came. 

NoYES,  a  station  of  the  Great  Northern  and  Soo  railways  adjoining 
the  international  boundary,  was  named  in  honor  of  J.  A.  Noyes,  the  U.  S. 
customs  collector  there. 

Orleans^  a  Soo  railway  village  in  the  east  edge  of  Qow,  was  named 
by  officers  of  that  railway.  Derived  from  the  city  of  Orleans  in  France, 
this  name  is  borne  by  counties  in  Vermont  and  New  York,  and  by  town- 
ships and  villages  in  Massachusetts  and  seven  other  states. 

Pelan  township,  organized  April  20,  1900,  was  named  for  Charles  H. 
Pdan,  a  pioneer  settler  there. 

Percy  township,  organized  July  9,  1900,  was  named  for  Howard  Percy, 
an  early  trapper  axKl  hunter. 

PoPFLETON^  organized  April  8,  1893,  received  its  name,  by  a  common 
mispronunciation,  for  the  plentiful  poplar  trees  and  groves  in  this  town- 
ship. 

Red  River  township,  organized  January  5,  1881,  having  a  length  of 
twelve  miles  from  south  to  north,  is  named  for  the  river  that  is  its 
western  boundary. 

RicHARDvnxE  township,  organized  January  8,  1895,  was  named  for 
George  Richards,  one  of  its  first  settlers,  whose  homestead  claim  is  the 
southwest  quarter  of  section  30. 

St.  Joseph  township,  organized  January  9,  1901,  was  named  by  its  set- 
tlers, including  Catholic  immigrants  from  Poland,  for  St.  Joseph,  hus- 
band of  the  Virgin  Mary.  The  north  part  sends  its  drainage  west  to  the 
Joe  river,  a  small  stream  so  named  by  the  early  fur  traders  and  voyageurs. 

St.  Vincent  township,  organized  March  19,  1880,  is  opposite  to  Pem- 
bina, N.  D.  Its  name  had  been  earlier  given,  before  1860,  to  a  post  of 
fur  traders  here,  in  honor  of  the  renowned  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  founder 
of  missions  and  hospitals  in  Paris,  who  died  September  27,  1660,  at  the 
age  of  eighty  years. 

Skane  township,  organized  May  10,  1887,  was  named  for  the  old 
province  of  Scania,  the  most  southern  part  of  Sweden. 


280  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Spring  Brook  township,  organized  January  2,  1884,  received  the  name 
of  a  brook  flowing  through  its  southern  part 

SvEA  township,  organized  February  15,  1884,  bears  a  name  given  in 
poetry  to  Sweden,  the  native  country  of  many  of  its  settlers. 

Tegner,  organized  July  24,  1882,  was  named  in  honor  of  Esaias  Teg- 
ner  (b.  1782,  d.  1846),  a  famous  Swedish  poet.  In  1811  he  was  awarded 
the  prize  of  the  Academy  of  Sweden  for  a  long  poem  entitled  "Svea;" 
and  in  1825  he  published  his  most  celebrated'  work,  'Trithjofs  Saga," 
based  on  the  old  Norse  saga  of  this  name. 

Teien,  organized  April  5,  1882,  was  named  for  Andrew  C  Teien,  an 
early  Norwegian  homesteader  in  section  4. 

Thompson,  organized  July  24,  1882,  was  named  for  William,  Robert, 
and  George  Thompson,  brothers,  who  took  homestead  claims  in  this  town- 
ship as  pioneer  farmers. 

Townships  161  and  162,  in  Range  45,  are  yet  unorganized. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

This  county,  lying  wholly  within  the  great  area  of  the  Glacial  Lake 
Agassiz,  has  now  only  very  few  and  very  small  lakes.  These  are  the 
Twin  lakes  in  Arveson,  Scull  lake  in  section  22,  St.  Joseph,  and  Lake 
Stella  (a  star),  adjoining  the  village  of  St.  Vincent.  The  last  was  called 
"Lac  du  Nord  Quest"  on  the  map  of  Minnesota  in  1860,  meaning,  in  its 
use  by  the  French  voyageurs,  "Lake  of  the  Northwest"  corner  of  this 
North  Star  State. 

Spring  brook,  giving  its  name  to  a  township,  is  one  of  the  sources 
of  Tamarack  river,  (a  translation  of  the  Ojibway  name),  which,  after 
flowing  through  large  swamps,  joins  the  Red  river  in  the  southern  half 
of  Red  River  township. 

The  South  branch  of  Two  rivers  receives  the  Middle  branch  at  Hal- 
lock,  and  it  unites  with  the  North  branch  about  two  miles  above  the 
mouth  of  the  united  stream.  The  Ojibway  name,  given  by  Gilfillan, 
''is  Ga-nijoshino  zibi,  or  the  river  that  lies  two  together  as  in  a  bed;  no 
doubt,  from  its  two  branches  running  parallel." 

Joe  river,  before  noted,  deriving  its  headwaters  from  St.  Joseph  town- 
ship, and  flowing  through  Richardville,  Clow,  and  the  northeast  part  of 
St.  Vincent,  reaches  the  Rod  river  about  three  miles  north  of  the  inter- 
national boundary.  In  Qow  the  channel  is  lost  for  several  miles  in  a 
wide  swamp. 


KOOCHICHING  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  December  19,  1906,  bears  the  Cree  name 
applied  by  the  Ojibways  to  Rainy  lake,  and  also  to  the  Rainy  river  and  to 
its  great  falls  and  rapids  at  International  Falls.  It  is  translated  by  Rev. 
J.  A.  Gilfillan  as  Neighbor  lake  and  river,  or,  under  another  interpretation, 
a  lake  and  river  somewhere.  He  remarked  that  this  word  is  of  difficult 
or  uncertain  meaning,  and  that,  although  in  common  Ojibway  use,  it  does 
not  strictly  belong  to  that  language. 

Jacques  de  Noyon,  a  French  Canadian  voyageur,  who  was  probably 
the  first  white  man  to  traverse  any  part  of  the  northern  boundary  of  Min- 
nesota, about  the  year  1688,  found  this  name  used  in  the  Cree  language 
for  the  Rainy  river.  As  narrated  by  an  official  report  of  the  Intendant 
Begon,  written  at  Quebec,  November  12,  1716,  published  in  the  Margry 
Papers  (vol.  VI,  pages  495-8),  DeNoyon,  about  twenty-eight  years  pre- 
vious to  that  date,  had  set  out  from  Lake  Superior  by  the  canoe  route  of 
the  Kaministiquia  river,  under  the  guidance  of  a  party  of  Assiniboine 
Indians,  in  the  hope  of  coming  to  the  Sea  of  the  West.  He  passed 
through  Rainy  lake,  called  the  Lake  of  the  Crees,  and  wintered  on  its 
outflowing  river,  the  Takamaniouen,  "otherwise  called  Ouchichiq  by  the 
Crees,"  evidently  the  Koochiching  or  Rainy  river  and  falls,  from  which 
this  county  is  named. 

Another  early  narrative  of  travel,  1740-42,  by  a  French  and  Ojibway 
half-breed  named  Joseph  la  France,  containing  a  description  of  the  Rainy 
lake  and  river,  is  given  in  a  book  published  by  Arthur  Dobbs  in  London 
in  1744,  entitled  *'An  Account  of  the  Countries  adjoining  to  Hudson's 
Bay."  La  France  passed  through  Rainy  lake  in  the  later  part  of  April 
and  early  May,  1740,  and  staid  ten  days  at  the  Koochiching  falls  on  the 
Rainy  river  near  the  outlet  of  this  lake.  For  the  purpose  of  fishing,  the 
Moose  band  of  Ojibways  had  "two  great  Villages,  one  on  the  North 
Side,  and  the  other  on  the  South  Side  of  the  Fall,"  being  respectively  on 
or  near  the  sites  of  Fort  Frances  and  International  Falls.  The  narra- 
tive tells  the  origin  of  the  French  name,  Lac  de  la  Pluie  (Lake  of  the 
Rain),  which  in  English  is  Rainy  lake,  that  it  "is  so  called  from  a  per- 
pendicular Water-fall,  by  which  the  Water  falls  into  a  River  South-west 
of  it,  which  raises  a  Mist-like  Rain."  This  refers  to  the  outflowing 
Rainy  river,  in  its  formerly  mist-covered  falls,  since  1908  dammed  and 
supplying  water-power  in  the  city  of  International  Falls  for  the  largest 
paper-making  mills  in  the  world. 

The  original  meanings  of  Ouchichiq  (for  Koochiching,)  the  Cree 
name  of  Rainy  river  two  hundred  years  ago,  and  Takamaniouen,  vari- 
ously spelled,  an  equally  ancient  Indian  name  of  the  Rainy  river  and  lake, 

281 


282  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

are  uncertain ;  but  it  may  be  true  that  one  or  both  gave  in  translation  the 
French  and  English  names,  which  refer  to  the  mists  of  the  falls,  resemb- 
ling rain. 

Takamaniouen,  as  written  by  Begon  in  1716,  placed  in  another  spelling 
on  the  map  drawn  by  Ochagach  for  Verendrye  in  1728»  was  received 
from  the  Assiniboines.  It  is  thought  by  Horace  V.  Winchell  and  U.  S. 
Grant  (Geology  of  Minnesota,  vol.  IV,  p.  192),  that  this  name  was  trans- 
lated to  Lac  de  la  Pluie. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  for  this  county  was  gathered  from  Louis  A.  Ogaard, 
county  surveyor,  during  a  visit  at  International  Falls,  the  county  seat,  in 
September,  1909;  and  from  L.  H.  Slocum,  county  auditor,  during  a  second 
visit  there  in  August,  1916. 

Baldus  is  a  recently  organized  township,  probably  named  for  a  pioneer 
settler. 

Bannock  township  received  this  Gaelic  name  from  Scotland  by  vote 
of  its  bachelor  settlers,  for  their  bannock  bread,  "in  shape  flat  and  round- 
ish, .   .   .  baked  on  an  iron  plate  or  griddle." 

Bear  River  township  is  crossed  by  a  little  river  of  this  name,  flowing 
north  to  the  Big  fork. 

Beaver  township  had  formerly  many. beaver  dams  on  its  Beaver  brook, 
a  tributary  of  the  Little  fork. 

Big  Falls  township  includes  the  railway  village  of  this  name  near  its 
northeast  comer,  at  the  Grand  falls  of  the  Big  fork.  Its  north  side 
adjoins  Grand  Falls  township. 

Bridgie  township  was  named  for  a  girl,  Bridgie  Moore,  the  first  white 
child  born  there. 

Caldwell  township  and  the  Caldwell  brook,  flowing  to  the  Big  fork, 
were  named  for  an  early  pioneer. 

CiNGMARS  township  was  named  for  £.  F.  Cingmars,  a  French  settler 
there,  who  removed  to  the  west. 

Cross  River  township  was  named  for  this  small  stream,  flowing  north- 
eastward through  it  to  the  Little  fork. 

Dentaybow  township  uniquely  honors  three  of  its  homestead  farmers, 
named  Densmore,  Taylor,  and  Bowman,  each  represented  by  a  syllable  in 
the  name. 

Dinner  Creek  township  is  crossed  by  a  creek  so  named,  where  timber 
cruisers  and  estimators  had  a  meeting  place  for  dinner,  tributary  north- 
westward to  the  Sturgeon  river. 

Engelwood  township  received  its  name  in  compliment  to  its  numerous 
settlers  named  Engelking,  who  came  from  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Ridgely, 
Nicollet  county. 

Ericsburg,  a  railway  village  on  the  Rat  Root  river,  was  named  in 
honor  of  the  late  Eric  Franson,  of  International  Falls,  a  real  estate 
dealer,  by  whom  it  was  platted. 


KOOCHICHING  COUNTY  283 

Evergreen  township  has  a  general  forest  of  the  evergreen  trees,  in- 
cluding black  and  white  spruce,  balsam  fir,  arbor  vitae  or  white  cedar, 
and  our  three  species  of  pines. 

Feldman,  a  township  organized  in  1916,  is  named  for  one  of  its  first 
settlers. 

Forest  Grove  township  received  this  descriptive  name  by  the  vote  of 
its  people. 

Gei£mell,  the  railway  village  of  Evergreen  township,  was  named  in 
honor  of  W.  H.  Gemmell,  of  Brainerd,  general  manager  of  the  Minne- 
sota and  International  railway. 

GowDY  township  commemorates  its  several  pioneers  of  this  name, 
who  took  homestead  claims  on  and  near  the  Big  fork. 

Grand  Falls  township  is  crossed  meanderingly  by  the  Big  fork.  Its 
Grand  falls,  in  the  southeast  edge  of  this  township,  with  descent  of  29 
feet  over  ledges  of  gneiss  and  mica  schist,  gave  also  the  name  Big  Falls 
to  the  adjoining  railway  village  and  township  on  the  south. 

Harrigan  and  Henry  were  named  for  prominent  pioneers  in  these 
townships. 

Indus  township  received  this  name  of  a  great  river  in  western  India 
by  the  suggestion  of  Rev.  M.  F.  Smootz,  a  homesteader  beside  the  Rainy 
river  here,  who  had  been  a  missionary  in  that  country. 

International  Falls,  the  county  seat,  founded  as  Koochiching  vil- 
lage in  the  township  of  this  na,me,  was  incorporated  as  a  city  in  1909.  Its 
name  notes  its  location  on  the  international  boundary  at  the  Koochiching 
falls  of  Rainy  river.  The  descent  of  the  river  here,  in  broken  rapids  on 
irregularly  jutting  ledges  of  granitoid  gneiss,  was  23  feet,  mainly  within 
a  distance  of  about  300  feet ;  but  a  dam  close  above  the  falls,  completed 
in  1908,  increased  their  head  to  26  feet,  raising  the  river  to  the  level  of 
Rainy  lake  and  permitting  the  lake  steamboats  to  come  to  this  city.  Be- 
fore the  stream  was  thus  used  for  its  water-power,  operating  the  great 
paper  mills  of  International  Falls,  the  plentiful  mists  and  spray  of  the 
falls,  which  nearly  always  formed  a  rainbow  in  the  sunshine,  well  account- 
ed for  the  aboriginal  origin  of  the  names  of  Rainy  lake  and  river. 

Fort  Frances,  the  village  on  the  Canadian  side  of  Rainy  river  opposite 
to  this  city,  was  built  around  a  former  fur  trading  post,  which  was  so 
named  in  honor  of  Frances  Ramsey  Simpson  (d.  1853),  wife  of  Sir 
George  Simpson  (b.  1792,  d.  1860).  He  was  governor  for  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  in  Canada  nearly  forty  years,  from  1821  until  his  death,  Sep- 
tember 7,  1860,  at  his  home  in  Lachine,  near  Montreal. 

Jameson  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Charles  S.  Jameson,  a  home- 
steader on  the  site  of  the  village  of  Little  Fork  in  this  township.  He  came 
from  Northfield,  Minn.;  founded  the  first  newspaper  of  Koochiching 
(now  International  Falls)  ;  is  editor  of  the  Little  Fork  Times. 

Kline  township,  recently  organized,  was  named  for  a  pioneer  settler. 

Koochiching  township,  like  the  county,  took  this  name  from  the  falls 
of  Rainy  river. 


284  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

LiNDFOHD  township  was  named  in  honor  of  L.  A.  Lindwall,  a  Swedish 
farmer  beside  the  Big  fork  in  section  13,  who  also  owned  a  store  and 
was  the  Lindford  postmaster. 

Little  Fork,  the  railway  village  of  Jameson,  is  named  for  its  location 
on  the  Little  fork  of  the  Rainy  river. 

Manitou  received  its  Ojibway  name,  meaning  a  spirit,  from  the  Mani- 
tou  rapids  of  Rainy  river,  which  forms  the  north  boundary  of  this  town- 
ship. The  river  falls  about  three  feet  in  these  rapids,  "a  short  pitch  over 
solid  rock  on  the  bottom  and  in  both  banks." 

Meadow  Brook  township  has  a  small  stream  of  this  name,  tributary  to 
the  Bear  river. 

Meding  township  was  named  for  Paul  Meding,  an  early  German  farm- 
er here. 

MizpAH,  the  name  of  a  railway  village  in  Engelwood,  is  the  Hebrew 
word  for  a  watchtower.  It  is  used  as  a  parting  salutation,  meaning  *'The 
Lord  watch  between  me  and  thee,  when  we  are  absent  one  from  another" 
(Genesis,  xxxi,  49). 

Murphy  township  was  named  in  honor  of  an  Irish  pioneer,  whose 
homestead  farm  here  nearly  adjoined  the  Rainy  river. 

Net  Lake  township  and  Net  River  township  border  on  the  Bois  Fort 
or  Net  Lake  Indian  Reservation,  which  is  more  fully  noticed,  with  the 
origin  of  these  names,  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 

NoRDEN  township  and  its  earlier  Norden  post  office  were  named  for 
Norwegian  settlers. 

NoRTHOME,  a  railway  village  near  the  southwest  corner  of  the  county, 
was  named  North  Hon^  by  Harris  Richardson,  of  St.  Paul,  who  with 
others  platted  this  village.  The  name  was  changed  to  its  present  form 
by  request  of  the  U.  S.  Post  Office  Department. 

Pelland,  a  hamlet  at  the  mouth  of  the  Little  fork,  was  named  for 
Joseph  Pelland,  a  French  farmer,  who  was  its  postmaster. 

Pine  Top  township  was  named  for  an  exceptionally  tall  white  pine, 
which  had  at  its  top  a  peculiar  cluster  of  small  branches. 

Plum  Creek  township  has  a  little  stream  so  named  for  its  wild  plum 
trees. 

"Rainy  Lake  City"  was  a  gold  mining  station,  during  a  few  years,  at 
the  east  side  of  the  strait  between  Rainy  lake  and  Black  bay  (also  called 
Rat  Root  lake).  A  stamp  mill  was  built  there  in  1894  for  crushing  the 
ore  mined  on  the  southwest  end  of  Dryweed  island,  less  than  a  mile  dis- 
tant; but  the  work  failed  to  repay  its  expenses,  and  about  fifteen  years 
later  the  proposed  city  site  was  abandoned. 

Ranier  is  a  village  of  the  Duluth,  Winnipeg  and  Pacific  railway  at  the 
mouth  of  Rainy  lake,  named  by  officers  of  this  railway. 

Rapid  River  township  contains  the  sources  of  the  East  fork  of  the 
river  so  named,  flowing  thence  north  to  the  Rapid  and  Rainy  rivers. 

Rat  Root  township  is  crossed  by  the  circuitous  course  of  the  river  so 
named,  tributary  to  Rat  Root  lake,  which  also  is  very  commonly  called 


KOOCHICHING  COUNTY  285 

Black  bay,  connected  with  Rainy  lake  by  a  strait  The  name  of  the 
river  and  lake,  adopted  for  the  township,  is  a  translation  of  the  Ojibway 
name,  referring  to  roots  eaten  by  muskrats.  All  the  streams  in  this  dis- 
trict become  somewhat  darkly  stained  by  the  peaty  swamps  through 
which  they  sluggishly  flow,  so  that  they  give  the  same  dark  color  to  the 
water  of  the  Rat  Root  lake,  whence  came  its  other  name.  Black  bay. 

The  muskrat  is  the  most  abundant  fur-bearing  animal  of  the  northern 
United  States  and  Canada,  a  small  brother  or  cousin  of  the  beaver,  which 
it  almost  equals  in  its  industry  and  skill  for  house-building.  Its  favorite 
food,  stored  for  winter  use  in  the  houses  of  mud  and  rushes  built  in  shal- 
low lakes,  consists  of  the  roots  of  the  common  yellow  water-lilies,  which 
gave  the  name  of  Rat  Root.  Another  place  named  for  the  muskrat  is 
Rat  Portage,  now  Kenora,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods. 

Ray  township  was  named  for  Edwin  Ray  Lewis,  of  Grand  Rapids,  who 
was  a  land  surveyor  and  timber  cruiser,  often  traversing  this  region. 

Reedy  township  commemorates  David  Reedy,  its  first  settler,  an  immi- 
grant from  Ireland,  who  took  a  land  claim  at  the  west  side  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Big  fork. 

Sault  township  received  its  name,  the  French  word  for  a  leap  or 
jump,  from  the  Long  Sault  rapids  of  Rainy  river,  which  is  its  north 
boundary.    The  rapids  are  about  a  mile  long,  falling  about  seven  feet. 

Scarlett  and  Steffes  townships  were  named  in  honor  of  pioneers. 

Sturgeon  River  township  is  traversed  in  its  south  part  by  this  river, 
flowing  east  to  the  Big  fork.  The  name,  probably  translated  from  the 
Ojibway s,  refers  to  the  ascent  of  the  lake  or  rock  sturgeon  to  this  stream. 

SuMMERViLLE  township  was  named  by  vote  of  its  people.  There  are 
villages  or  townships  of  this  name  in  Pennsylvania,  North  and  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  and  other  states  of  the  Union,  and  also  in  Nova  Scotia 
and  Ontario. 

Warren  township,  organized  in  1916,  has  a  name  that  is  borne  by 
counties  in  fourteen  states,  and  by  townships,  villages  and  cities  in  twenty- 
four  states,  a  large  majority  being  in  commemoration  of  Joseph  Warren, 
who  fell  in  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill. 

Watrous  township  was  named  for  Charles  B.  Watrous,  from  Pennsyl- 
vania, who  was  a  farmer  here  and  owned  a  large  sawmill  on  the  Rainy 
river  near  the  east  line  of  this  township. 

White  Birch  township  has  an  abundance  of  the  paper  or  canoe  birch, 
used  by  the  Indians  to  make  their  birch  bark  canoes. 

Wicker  township  was  named  for  Harry  Wicker,  a  homesteader  in  its 
sections  10  and  11,  on  the  Big  fork. 

WiLDWOOD  township  received  this  name  in  the  petition  of  its  people 
for  organization. 

Williams  township  was  named  in  honor  of  James  Williams,  well 
known  for  his  operating  a  portable  sawmill,  whose  homestead  farm  on  the 
Rainy  river  is  in  sections  6  and  7,  at  the  northwest  corner  of  this  town- 
ship and  of  the  county. 


286  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Foregoing  pages  have  sufficiently  noted  the  names  of  the  Rainy  lake 
and  river,  the  Koochiching  or  International  falls,  the  Big  and  Little  forks 
of  Rainy  river,  Bear  river,  Beaver  brook,  Caldwell  brook,  Cross  river, 
Dinner  creek,  the  Grand  falls  of  the  Big  fork,  the  Manitou  and  Long 
Sault  rapids  of  Rainy  river,  Meadow  brook,  Plum  creek,  the  East  fork 
of  Rapid  river,  the  Rat  Root  river  and  lake  (this  lake,  united  to  Rainy 
lake  by  a  strait,  being  also  named  Black  bay),  and  the  Sturgeon  river. 

Names  of  islands,  bays,  and  points  of  the  part  of  Rainy  lake  belonging 
to  this  county,  in  their  order  from  east  to  west,  are  Dryweed  island  before 
mentioned  for  its  gold  mining,  Sha  Sha  point  and  Black  bay.  Grindstone 
island.  Grassy  island  and  Grassy  narrows  separating  it  from  the  soulJi 
shore.  Red  Sucker  island,  Jackfish  island  and  bay.  Stop  island,  Kingston 
island,  and  Sand  bay  and  Pither's  point  at  the  mouth  of  the  lake. 

The  Big  fork  is  known  by  the  Ojibways  as  Bowstring  river,  from  its 
source  in  the  large  Bowstring  lake,  which  is  translated  from  the  name 
Atchabani  or  Busatchabani,  given  by  them  to  the  lake  and  its  outflowing 
stream,  before  noticed  in  the  chapter  for  Itasca  county. 

The  Little  fork  bears  a  peculiarly  descriptive  Ojibway  name,  recorded 
by  Gilfillan  as  Ningtawonani  zibi,  *'the  river  separating  canoe  routes," 
which  name  is  also  applied,  with  a  slight  change,  to  the  Net  river.  In  the 
thought  of  these  Indians,  expressed  by  the  name,  canoe  vosrageurs  ascend- 
ing the  Little  fork  may  go  forward  to  its  source  or  may  turn  aside  and  go 
up  Net  river,  having  thus  the  choice  of  separate  routes. 

The  Ojibway  name  of  Net  lake  was  written  Asubikone  by  Gilfillan, 
meaning  ''taken  or  entangled  in  the  net."  Its  origin,  as  told  by  the  Bois 
Fort  Ojibways,  is  presented  in  the  notice  of  their  reservation. 

Only  a  few  other  names  of  streams  and  lakes  in  this  county  remain 
to  be  listed. 

South  of  Net  lake,  Prairie  creek  and  Willow  creek  flow  into  the 
Little  fork  from  the  east;  Reilly  creek  is  a  small  eastern  tributary  of  the 
Big  fork,  about  ten  miles  south  of  Big  Falls ;  Black  river,  named  for  its 
peat-stained  water,  joins  Rainy  river  about  three  miles  west  of  the  Big 
fork;  Tamarack  river  flows  from  Gemmell  northwestward  to  the  north 
part  of  Red  lake;  and  the  headstream  of  Battle  river,  (formerly  mapped 
here  as  Armstrong  creek) ,  tributary  to  the  south  part  of  that  lake,  crosses 
Bridgie  township,  in  the  southwest  corner  of  this  county. 

Among  the  few  and  little  lakes,  limited  to  the  south  edge  of  the  county 
above  the  highest  shoreline  of  Lake  Agassiz,  only  Bartlett  lake,  at  North- 
ome,  and  Battle  lake,  through  which  the  Battle  river  flows,  are  named  on 
maps. 

Bois  Fort  or  Net  Lake  Indian  Reservation. 

This  small  Ojibway  reservation,  comprising  the  whole  or  parts  of  nine 
surveyed  townships  and  inclosing  Net  lake,  lies  in  Koochiching  and  St. 


KOOCHICHING  COUNTY  2&7 

Louis  counties.  By  a  census  in  1909  the  number  of  the  Bois  Fort  band 
was  641.  They  call  themselves  Sugwaundugah  wininewug,  meaning  "Men 
of  the  thick  fir  woods;"  but  the  early  French  traders  named  them  Bois 
Forts,  "Hard  Wood  Indians." 

In  the  treaty  at  Washington,  April  7,  1866,  providing  this  reservation, 
thp  name  given  to  Net  lake  by  the  Ojibways  was  spelled  As-sab-a-co-na. 
Albert  B.  Reagan,  who  was  the  United  States  agent  here  in  1909-14,  writes 
the  traditional  origin  of  this  name,  received  as  a  myth  of  the  Bois  Fort 
medicine  men.  The  Ojibways,  coming  first  by  the  route  of  Vermilion  and 
Pelican  lakes,  are  said  to  have  found  on  the  little  island  of  Net  lake  many 
strange  beasts,  'lialf  sea^lion  and  half  fish,"  who  fled  westward  by  swim- 
ming and  wading  though  the  shallow  and  mostly  rice-filled  lake.  ''On 
coming  to  the  island  the  canoemen  paddled  around  it,  and  by  the  track  of 
the  muddied  water  pursued  the  beasts  across  the  lake  and  up  a  creek 
till  they  found  where  the  earth  had  swallowed  them,  as  if  they  had  been 
caught  in  a  net."  The  myth  is  thought  to  refer  to  the  flight  and  escape 
of  a  party  of  their  enemies,  the  Sioux,  whom  the  Ojibways  by  many  raids 
and  battles  drove  away  from  the  wooded  north  part  of  Minnesota. 

The  northeast  side  of  this  island,  which  is  named  Picture  island  by 
the  white  people,  but  Drum  island  by  the  Ojibways,  has  a  smoothly 
glaciated  rock  surface,  as  described  by  Reagan,  "covered  with  crudely 
made  pictographs  of  human  beings,  dance  scenes,  and  outlines  of  the 
animal  gods  worshipped  by  the  men  making  the  pictures.  .  .  .  The  draw- 
ings seem  to  be  similar  to  those  at  Pipestone,  Minnesota,  which  are 
known  to  be  Siouan.  Furthermore,  the  Ojibways  say  that  their  people 
did  not  make  the  rock  pictures." 

COUTCHICHING  RoCK  FORMATION. 

Reports  on  the  geology  of  the  parts  of  Canada  and  Minnesota  sur- 
rounding Rainy  lake,  published  in  1889-1901,  give  the  name  Coutchiching 
to  a  large  series  of  Archaean  mica  schists,  outcropping  in  this  county  on 
Rainy  lake,  around  Black  bay,  and  southward  on  the  Little  and  Big  forks 
and  at  and  near  Net  lake.  (Geology  of  Minnesota,  Final  Report,  vol. 
IV,  1899,  chapter  VIII,  pages  166-211,  with  maps  and  sections ;  vol.  VI, 
1901,  plate  LXV.)  This  name  is  a  variant  form  of  the  Cree  and  Ojib- 
way  name  of  Rainy  lake  and  river,  which  is  applied  to  this  county  and  a 
township,  the  pronunciation  in  the  two  forms  being  alike. 


LAC  QUI  PARLE  COUNTY 

This  county  was  established  March  6,  1871.  Nine  years  earlier  a  county 
bearing  this  name,  but  of  entirely  different  area,  situated  north  of  the 
Minnesota  river,  had  been  authorized  by  a  legislative  act,  February  20, 
1862,  but  it  was  not  ratified  by  the  people.  This  French  name,  meaning 
"the  Lake  that  Talks,"  is  translated  from  the  Dakota  or  Sioux  name, 
Mde  lyedan  (mde,  lake;  iye,  speaks;  dan,  a  diminutive  sufiix),  applied 
to  the  adjacent  lake,  which  is  an  expansion  of  the  Minnesota  river.  The 
lake,  nearly  ten  miles  long  with  a  maximum  width  of  one  mile  and  a 
maximum  depth  of  twelve  feet,  owes  its  existence  to  the  deposition  of 
alluvium  from  the  Lac  qui  Parle  river,  which  enters  the  Minnesota  valley 
near  the  foot  of  the  lake.  Its  name  most  probably  was  suggested  to  the 
Indians  by  echoes  thrown  back  from  its  bordering  bluffs.  Prof.  Andrew 
W.  Williamson  wrote:  'Tt  is  very  uncertain  how  it  received  the  name; 
one  tradition  says  from  an  echo  on  its  shores,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  any 
such  existed ;  another  tradition  is  that  when  the  Dakotas  first  came  to  the 
lake  voices  were  heard,  but  they  found  no  speakers ;  some  think  the  word 
has  changed  its  form."  The  Qu*  Appelle  river  in  Saskatchewan,  also  a 
French  translation  of  its  Indian  name,  having  nearly  the  same  significance, 
''the  River  that  Calls,"  is  similarly  inclosed  by  somewhat  high  bluffs, 
likely  to  reply  to  a  loud  speaker  by  echoes. 

Rev.  Moses  N.  Adams,  who  during  our  territorial  period  resided  as  a 
missionary  at  Lac  qui  Parle,  told  of  a  very  remarkable  creaking,  groan- 
ing, and  whistling  of  the  ice  on  the  lake  in  winter  and  spring,  due  to 
fluctuations  of  the  water  level  allowing  the  ice  to  rise  and  fall,  grating 
upon  the  abundant  boulders  of  the  shores.  At  the  same  time  these 
strange  sounds  are  echoed  and  reverberate  from  the  inclosing  bluffs.  To 
these  "voices"  he  ascribed  the  Dakota  and  French  name. 

In  the  History  of  the  county  (1916,  page  99),  a  different  explanation 
is  offered,  "that  at  times  when  the  wind  was  from  the  right  quarter  the 
breaking  of  waves  against  the  stones  on  the  shore  gave  off  a  distinct 
musical  note,  or  sound,  which  accounted  for  the  giving  of  the  name  to 
the  lake  by  the  early  voyageurs." 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  and  meanings  of  these  names  has  been  gath- 
ered from  "History  of  the  Minnesota  Valle/'  (1882,  1016  pages),  in  which 
pages  937-955  relate  to  this  county;  "History  of  Chippewa  and  Lac  qui 
Parle  Counties"  (1916,  two  volumes,  605  and  821  pages),  edited  by  Lycur- 
gus  R.  Meyer  and  Hon.  Ole  G.  Dale;  and  from  interviews  with  these 

288 


LAC  QUI  PARLE  COUNTY  289 

editors  and  Hon.  J.  F.  Rosen wald,  of  Madison,  the  county  seat,  during  a 
visit  there  in  July,  1916. 

Agassiz  township,  settled  in  1870,  organized  April  12,  1887,  was  named 
for  the  Glacial  Lake  Agassiz,  in  the  basin  of  the  Red  river  and  of  Lake 
Winnipeg,  which  outflowed  by  the  River  Warren  along  the  Minnesota 
valley  at  the  north  side  of  this  township.  Jean  Louis  Rudolphe  Agassiz, 
in  whose  honor  that  ancient  lake  received  its  name,  was  born  in  Motier, 
Switzerland,  May  28,  1807,  and  died  in  Cambridge,  Mass.,  December 
14,  1873.  His  observations  of  the  Swiss  glaciers  and  his  principal  writings 
concerning  them  and  the  glacial  origin  of  the  drift  were  during  the  years 
1836  to  1846.  In  the  autumn  of  1846  Agassiz  came  to  the  United  States, 
and  the  remainder  of  his  life  was  mostly  spent  here  in  zoological  researches 
and  in  teaching  in  Harvard  College,  where  he  founded  the  Museum  of 
Comparative  Zoology. 

Arena,  a  Latin  word  meaning  sand,  is  the  name  of  a  township  settled 
in  1878,  organized  January  3,  1880.  Its  earliest  pioneers  came  from  south- 
em  Wisconsin,  where  this  name  was  earlier  given  to  a  township  and  vil- 
lage on  the  Wisconsin  river  in  Iowa  county. 

Augusta  township,  organized  February  5,  1880,  was  named  for  Augus- 
ta in  £au  Claire  county,  Wisconsin,  the  former  home  of  its  first  settlers, 
a  party  of  eleven  families,  who  came  in  April,  1879. 

Baxter  township,  settled  in  the  summer  of  1870  and  organized  Sep- 
tember 30,  1871,  was  named  in  honor  of  Hiram  A.  Baxter,  at  whose 
home  the  township  meeting  for  organization  was  held. 

Belungham,  a  Great  Northern  railway  village,  platted  September  12, 
1887,  was  named  for  Robert  Bellingham,  one  of  the  original  owners  of  its 
site,  who  came  from  Dane  county,  Wisconsin. 

Boyd,  a  railway  village  in  Ten  Mile  Lake  township,  platted  in  1884 
and  incorporated  in  1893,  was  named  by  officers  of  the  Minneapolis  and 
St.  Louis  railway  company. 

Camp  Release  township,  first  settled  in  1868,  organized  April  5,  1871, 
has  the  site  of  Camp  Release,  marked  by  a  monument,  where  the  captives 
taken  by  the  Sioux  in  the  outbreak  of  1862  were  surrendered  on  Sep- 
tember 26  to  General  Sibley. 

Cerro  Gordo  township,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1868,  organized  April 
7,  1871,  received  this  Spanish  name,  meaning  "Big  Mountain,"  in  accord- 
ance with  the  suggestion  of  Cdlonel  Samuel  McPhail,  who  participated 
in  the  battle  of  Cerro  Gordo  in  the  Mexican  war,  April  18,  1847. 

Dawson,  a  railway  city  near  the  center  of  Riverside  township,  platted 
in  1884,  incorporated  as  a  village  in  1885  and  as  a  city  in  1911,  was  named 
in  honor  of  William  Dawson,  a  banker  of  St  Paul,  who  was  one  of  the 
proprietors  of  its  site.  He  was  born  in  County  Cavan,  Ireland,  October 
1,  1825;  came  to  America  in  1846;  settled  in  St.  Paul  in  1861,  was  its 
mayor,  1878-81,  and  died  there  February  19,  1901. 

Freeland  was  settled  in  1877  and  organized  in  March,  1880.  The  peti- 
tioners at  first  requested  that  the  name  Freedom  be  given  to  the  new  town- 


290  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

ship,  m  compliment  to  J.  P.  Free,  one  of  its  pioneers ;  but  this  was  change 
ed,  because  another  township  of  the  state  was  earlier  so  named. 

Garfield  township,  settled  in  1873,  organized  January  24,  1881,  was 
named  in  honor  of  James  Abram  Garfield,  President  of  the  United  States. 
He  was  born  at  Orange,  Ohio,  November  19,  1831 ;  was  an  instructor  and 
later  president  of  Hiram  College,  Ohio,  1856-61;  served  in  the  civil  war, 
and  was  promoted  major  general  in  1863;  was  a  member  of  Congress 
from  Ohio,  1863-1880;  was  elected  President  in  1880,  and  was  inaugurated 
March  4,  1881 ;  was  shot  at  Washington  by  Guiteau,  July  2,  and  died  at 
Elbcron,  N.  J.,  September  19,  1881. 

Hamlin  township,  settled  in  April,  1874,  and  organized  September  10, 
1879,  commemorates  its  first  settler,  Jdhn  R.  Hamlin,  who  died  in  1876l 

Hantho  township,  organized  November  4,  1878,  was  also  named  lor  its 
first  settler,  Halvor  H.  Hantho,  an  immigrant  from  Norway,  who  took  a 
fcomestead  on  section  15  in  1872.  Later  in  the  same  year  his  brothers, 
Nels  and  Ole,  located  on  section  13. 

Haydenville,  a  railway  station  in  section  20,  Arena,  platted  October 
10,  1910,  was  named  in  honor  of  Herbert  L.  Hayden,  owner  of  the  site. 
He  was  born  in  Onondaga  county,  N.  Y.,  March  23,  1850;  and  died  in 
Madison,  Minn.,  November  20,  1911.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1875; 
settled  at  Lac  qui  Parle  in  1878;  was  admitted  to  practice  law,  1881;  re« 
moved  to  Madison  in  1884,  was  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  townsite 
company,  and  engaged  in  banking  and  farming;  was  county  attorney, 
1891-2  and  1895-6. 

Lac  qui  Parle  township,  first  settled  by  homesteaders  in  1868^  organ- 
ized January  12,  1873,  took  its  name,  like  the  county,  from  the  lake  on  its 
northern  boundary.  Its  village  was  the  county  seat  until  May,  1889,  when 
the  county  offices  were  permanently  located  in  Madison. 

Lake  Shore  township,  settled  in  1874,  organized  March  11,  1879,  re- 
ceived this  name  because  it  borders  on  Marsh  lake,  four  miles  long, 
through  which  the  Minnesota  river  flows,  a  body  of  shallow  water,  or 
more  generally  in  the  summer  a  grassy  marsh. 

LouiSBURG,  a  Great  Northern  railway  village,  platted  September  12, 
1887,  was  named  by  officers  of  that  railway  company. 

Madison  township,  first  settled  in  1877,  organized  in  October,  1879, 
was  named  on  the  suggestion  of  C.  P.  Moe,  "in  memory  of  his  former 
home  at  Madison,  Wisconsin."  Its  railway  village,  which  became  the 
county  seat  in  1889,  was  platted  in  October,  1884,  was  incorporated  in 
1886,  and  adopted  its  city  charter  March  12,  1902. 

Mantred  township,  settled  in  1876,  was  organized  March  11,  1879, 
being  then  named  Custer,  in  honor  of  General  George  A.  Custer  (b.  1839, 
d.  1876).  The  name  was  changed  to  Manfred  in  1884,  for  the  principal 
character  in  a  wild  and  weird  dramatic  poem  by  Byron,  having  its  scenes 
in  the  Alps  of  Switzerland. 

Marietta,  a  railway  village  in  Augusta,  platted  in  1884  and  incorpo- 
rated in  1899,  was  named  by  officers  of  the  Minneapolis  and  St.  Louis  rail- 


LAC  QUI  PARLE  COUNTY  291 

way  company.  This  name  is  borne  by  cities  in  Ohio  and  Georgia,  and  by 
villages  in  eleven  other  states.  Pioneers  from  Marietta,  Ohio,  had  settled 
here. 

Maxwell  township,  settled  in  1871  and  organized  in  1878,  was  named 
in  honor  of  Joseph  Henry  Maxwell,  one  of  its  earliest  pioneers.  He  was 
born  in  West  Virginia,  March  5,  1840;  served  in  a  West  Virginia  regiment 
during  the  civil  war;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1871,  taking  a  homestead  claim 
in  this  township;  died  in  Minneapolis,  January  27,  1916. 

Mehurin  township,  organized  October  14,  1879,  was  named  in  honor 
of  its  first  homesteader,  Lucretia  S.  Mehurin,  and  her  father,  Amasa 
Mehurin,  who  each  came  to  this  township  in  1877.  He  was  born  in  Rut- 
land county,  Vermont,  June  28,  1806;  lived  in  Iowa  twenty-one  years, 
1833-54,  and  later  in  Freeborn  county,  Minn. ;  came  to  Lac  qui  Parle  county 
in  1873,  being  the  first  settler  in  Garfield. 

Nassau,  a  Great  Northern  railway  village  in  the  west  edge  of  this 
county,  was  platted  in  December,  1893.  This  name,  received  from  Ger- 
many, is  borne  by  counties  of  New  York  and  Florida. 

Perry  township  was  settled  in  1878  and  organized  in  1880.  Its  name 
is  borne  by  counties  of  ten  states  of  our  Union,  and  by  townships  and 
villages  or  cities  in  nineteen  states,  mostly  in  honor  of  Oliver  Hazard 
Perry  (b.  1785,  d.  1819),  victor  in  the  celebrated  battle  of  Lake  Erie, 
September  10,  1813.  Some  of  the  first  settlers  here  had  come  from  a 
township  of  this  name  in  Dane  county,  Wisconsin. 

Providence  township,  settled  in  1877,  organized  October  31,  1878,  re- 
ceived its  name  from  the  large  city  and  capital  of  Rhode  Island,  founded 
by  Roger  Williams  in  1636.  Villages  and  townships  in  twelve  other 
states  also  bear  this  name. 

Riverside,  settled  in  1868  and  organized  September  21,  1872,  took  its 
name  from  Lac  qui  Parle  river,  which  traverses  this  township,  being 
formed  here  by  the  union  of  its  West  and  East  branches. 

Ten  Mile  Lake  township,  first  settled  in  1876,  organized  November 
4,  1878,  was  named  for  its  former  lake,  now  drained,  which  was  ten  miles 
distant  from  the  Lac  qui  Parle  mission  and  trading  post.  The  lake  out- 
flowed by  Three  Mile  creek,  so  named  because  it  joins  Lac  qui  Parle 
river  about  three  miles  south  of  the  mission  site. 

Walter  township,  settled  in  1878  and  organized  October  18,  1884,  was 
named  in  honor  of  Henry  Walter,  who  was  its  first  settler,  served  as  a 
county  commissioner,  and  after  living  here  about  thirty  years  removed 
to  the  state  of  Washington  and  died  there. 

Yellow  Bank  township,  organized  January  28,  1878,  received  the  name 
of  Yellow  Bank  river,  referring  to  the  yellowish  glacial  drift  seen  in  its 
newly  eroded  bluffs.  This  stream,  having  its  sources  on  the  high  Coteau 
^es  Prairies,  was  called  by  Keating  the  Spirit  Mountain  creek,  trans- 
lated from  its  Sioux  name,  in  the  narrative  and  map  of  Long's  expedi- 
tion in  1823.  It  is  Yellow  Earth  river  on  the  map  of  Minnesota  published 
in  1860. 


292  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Keating  mapped  Lac  qui  Parle  river  as  Beaver  creek,  adopting  this 
name  from  the  fur  traders.  His  narrative  adds  that  the  Sioux  called  it 
Watapan  intapa,  'the  river  at  the  head,"  because  they  considered  Lac  qui 
Parle  as  the  head  of  the  Minnesota  river,  probably  referring  rather  to 
the  limit  of  favorable  canoe  travel  during  the  usually  low  stage  of  water 
in  the  summer.  Its  name  on  Nicollet's  map,  published  in  1843,  is  Intpah 
river;  and  this  is  repeated  on  maps  of  Minnesota  in  1850  and  1860. 

Canby  or  Lazarus  creek,  which  flows  past  Canby  in  Yellow  Medicine 
county,  crosses  several  sections  in  Freeland  and  Providence,  thence  being 
tributary  southeastward  to  the  East  branch  of  the  Lac  qui  Parle  river; 
and  Cobb  or  Florida  creek,  from  sources  in  Florida  township.  Yellow 
Medicine  county,  flows  north  to  the  West  branch. 

Salt  lake,  also  called  Rosabel  lake,  is  crossed  by  the  state  boundary  at 
the  west  side  of  sections  5  and  8,  Mehurin. 

Emily  creek,  in  Hantho  township,  flows  to  Lac  qui  Parle. 

Yellow  Bank  river  has  South  and  North  forks. 

Whetstone  river  flows  from  South  Dakota  through  the  northmost 
comer  of  this  county,  being  tributary  to  the  Minnesota  at  Ortonvllle.  It 
is  a  translation  of  the  Sioux  name,  given  as  Izuzah  river  by  Nicollet. 

Antelope  Hills  and  Moraines. 

Through  the  west  border  of  this  county  runs  a  narrow  belt  of  low 
morainic  bills,  knolls,  and  irregular  short  ridges.  In  Freeland  the  most 
prominent  of  these  glacial  drift  accumulations  are  named  the  Antelope 
hills.  Northward  in  Mehurin  and  Augusta  the  belt  is  called  Stony  Ridge, 
one  of  its  knolls  or  hillocks  at  the  north  side  of  the  West  branch  of  Lac 
qui  Parle  river  being  styled  Mt.  Wickham.  Farther  north  it  is  known  as 
Yellow  Bank  hills,  cut  through  by  the  river  of  that  name. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  Antelope  or  Third  moraine  of  the  continental  ice- 
sheet,  in  the  series  of  twelve  mapped  in  Minnesota.  At  its  west  side  in 
this  county  a  wider  tract  of  lowlands  is  known  as  the  Antelope  Valley, 
^named,  like  this  moraine,  for  their  once  frequent  antelope  herds. 

The  only  American  species  of  these  graceful  deerlike  animals  is 
Antilocapra  americana,  the  prong-horn  antelope,  proverbially  timid  and 
fleet  in  escape  from  pursuers.  Prof.  Clarence  L.  Herrick  wrote  of  their 
geographic  range  as  follows,  in  his  "Mammals  of  Minnesota,"  published 
in  1892.  **The  habitat  is  limited  to  the  temperate  parts  of  North  America 
west  of  the  Mississippi  river.  Formerly  their  range  included  all  of  the 
territory  between  the  tropics  and  about  fifty-four  north  latitude  and  from 
the  Mississippi  to  the  coast,  except  in  the  wooded  and  mountainous  por- 
tions. At  the  present  time  they  are  restricted  to  the  less  accessible  and 
arid  regions  between  the  Missouri  river  and  the  Mountains  and  south- 
ward. Southwestern  Minnesota  once  furnished  them  congenial  pastur- 
age, but  they  have  long  since  retired  beyond  the  MissourL" 


LAKE  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  March  1,  1856,  received  its  name  from  its 
being  bounded  on  the  southeast  by  Lake  Superior,  which  the  Ojibways 
call  "Kitchigumi,  meaning  great  water/'  as  spelled  by  Gilfillan,  or  ''Gitche 
Gumee,  the  Big-Sea-Water,"  of  Longfellow  in  "The  Song  of  Hiawatha." 
Its  very  early  French  name,  Lac  Superieur,  used  by  Marquette,  Henne- 
pin, and  Franquelin,  denotes  its  situation  as  the  highest  in  the  series  of 
five  great  lakes  tributary  to  the  St.  Lawrence  river,  which  are  named 
collectively  the  Laurentian  lakes.  This  largest  body  of  fresh  water  in 
the  world  has  a  mean  level  602  feet  above  the  sea,  and  a  maximum 
depth  of  1,026  feet. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  origins  and  meanings  of  the  geographic  names  was 
gathered  from  John  P.  Paulson,  county  auditor,  and  A.  E.  HoUiday, 
assistant  superintendent  of  the  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railroad,  each  be- 
ing interviewed  during  a  visit  at  Two  Harbors,  the  county  seat,  in  August, 
1916. 

Algeh,  a  railroad  station  and  junction,  nine  miles  north  of  Two  Har- 
bors, was  named  for  Hon.  Russell  A.  Alger,  senior  member  of  a  lumber- 
ing firm  in  Saginaw,  Mich.,  formerly  owning  much  pine  timber  in  this 
county  and  large  sawmills  in  Duluth.  He  was  bom  in  Medina  county, 
Ohio,  February  27,  1836;  served  in  the  Union  army  during  the  civil  war, 
and  was  breveted  major  general  in  1865 ;  was  governor  of  Michigan,  1885- 
87;  was  secretary  of  war,  1897-9,  and  United  States  senator  from  'Michi- 
gan, 1902-07;  and  died  in  Washington,  D.  C,  January  24,  1907. 

Beaver  Bay  township,  the  first  organized  in  this  county,  before 
1885,  received  its  name  from  Beaver  Bay  village,  platted  in  1856  by 
Thomas  Qark,  on  the  west  side  of  the  small  bay  bearing  this  name, 
where  the  Beaver  river  flows  into  Lake  Superior.  The  Ojibway  name 
of  this  bay  is  noted  by  Gilfillan  and  Verwyst  alike,  "Ga-gijikensikag,  the 
place  of  little  cedars."  The  village  was  the  first  county  seat  until  1888, 
when  it  was  succeeded  by  Two  Harbors. 

Button^  a  railroad  junction  eight  miles  northwest  of  Two  Harbors, 
was  named  for  a  superintendent  of  logging  in  its  vicinity. 

Cramer  township,  organized  July  14,  1913,  and  its  railway  village, 
were  named  in  honor  of  J.  N.  Cramer,  a  homesteader  and  later  a 
merchant  in  the  village,  who  removed  to  Pennsylvania. 

Crystal  Bay  township,  organized  April  26,  1904,  received  this  name 
from  a  very  little  bay  of  Lake  Superior,  having  such  crystalline  rocks  as 
were  formerly  worked  at  two  localities  farther  southwest  on  the  lake 

293 


294  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

shore  in  this  county  to  supply  emery,  a  variety  of  corundum,  used  for 
grinding  and  polishing. 

Drum  MONO,  a  railroad  station  twelve  miles  northwest  of  Two  Har- 
bors, was  named  for  the  owner  of  adjacent  logging  camps. 

Fall  Lake  township,  organized  April  4,  1899,  comprising  the  northern 
quarter  of  this  county,  received  its  name  from  Fall  lake,  in  the  southwest 
part  of  the  township  area.  The  Ojibways  apply  the  name  Kawasacfaong 
to  this  lake,  meaning  mist  or  foam  lake,  referring  to  the  mist  and  spray 
rising  from  rapids  and  falls  of  the  Kawishiwi  river,  which  descends 
about  70  feet  in  a  short  distance  between  Garden  lake  and  Fall  lake. 
This  aboriginal  name  of  the  falls  and  lake,  noted  by  Prof.  N.  11.  Win- 
chell  (Geology  of  Minnesota,  vol.  IV,  p.  408),  is  in  origin  and  meaning 
like  the  French  and  English  names  of  Rainy  lake*  and  river,  and  in  form 
it  is  somewhat  like  Koochiching,  their  Cree  and  Ojibway  name. 
,  Finland^  a  railroad  village  in  Crystal  Bay  township,  was  named  for 
the  native  country  of  many  of  its  settlers,  including  some  whose  parents 
came  there  from  Sweden. 

HiGGiNS^  a  railroad  station  in  Two  Harbors  township,  was  named  for 
a  former  owner  of  an  adjacent  tract  of  pine  timber. 

Highland,  a  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railroad  station,  is  near  the  highest 
land  crossed  between  Lake  Superior  and  the  Cloquet  river. 

Knife  River,  a  railroad  village  in  the  southwest  comer  of  this  county, 
incorporated  October  2,  1909,  is  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  of  this  name, 
which  is  translated  from  Mokomani  zibi  of  the  Ojibways. 

Larsmont,  a  railroad  station  between  Knife  River  and  Two  Harbors, 
was  named  for  an  adjoining  settler,  who  is  a  farmer  and  fisherman. 

Lax  Lake,  a  railroad  station  in  Beaver  Bay  township,  and  its  lake  of 
this  name,  commemorate  John  Waxlax,  a  Swedish  immigrant  from  Fin- 
land, whose  homestead  farm  adjoined  the  lake. 

Little  Marais,  a  small  village  port  of  Lake  Superior,  in  Cramer  town- 
ship, was  named  by  the  early  French  voyageurs  for  its  little  marsh,  in 
contrast  with  the  larger  marsh  of  Grand  Marais,  in  Cook  county. 

Silver  Creek  township,  organized  May  3,  1905,  received  the  name  of 
a  creek  flowing  into  Lake  Superior  four  miles  northeast  of  Two  Harbors, 
translated  from  the  Ojibway  name. 

Two  Harbors  township,  organized  February  20,  1894,  was  named  after 
the  lake  port  of  the  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railroad,  bearing  the  same 
name,  which  was  incorporated  as  a  village  March  9,  1888,  and  as  a  city 
February  26,  1907.  The  city  lies  on  two  little  bays,  natural  harbors,  named 
Agate  and  Burlington  bays,  the  ore  docks  being  on  the  western  Agate 
bay.  Beach  sand  and  gravel  here  contains  frequent  pebbles  of  banded 
chalcedony,  called  agate. 

Walix)  township,  organized  August  3,  1909,  took  its  name  from  an 
earlier  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railroad  station.  This  is  also  the  name  of 
a  county  in  Maine,  and  of  villages  and  townships  in  nine  other  states. 


LAKE  COUNTY  295 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Much  aid  for  the  following  pages  has  been  received  from  the  de- 
scriptions and  maps  of  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey,  which  in  the 
fourth  volume  of  its  Final  Report  has  a  long  chapter  on  Lake  county 
and  three  other  chapters  on  its  parts  of  the  Vermilion  and  Mesabi  iron 
ranges. 

The  coast  of  Lake  Superior  in  this  county  has  the  following  islands, 
points,  bays,  and  tributary  streams  bearing  names,  in  their  order  from 
southwest  to  northeast:  Knife  island  and  Granite  point,  near  the  mouth 
of  Knife  river;  Agate  and  Burlington  bays,  before  mentioned,  at  Two 
Harbors;  Burlington  point,  at  the  east  side  of  the  latter  bay,  which  re- 
ceived its  name  from  a  townsite  platted  on  its  shore  in  1856;  Flood  bay, 
named  for  a  man  who  took  a  land  claim  there  in  the  same  year;  Stewart 
river,  where  likewise  in  1856  John  Stewart  and  others  took  claims ;  Silver 
creek,  which  gave  its  name  to  a  township;  Encampment  river,  and  an 
island  of  this  name,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  farther  east,  named  in  Nor- 
wood's geological  report,  as  assistant  with  Owen,  published  in  1852; 
Gooseberry  river,  a  name  given  on  the  map  of  Long's  expedition  in  1823, 
noted  by  Gilfillan  as  a  translation  of  the  Ojibway  name;  Split  Rock  river 
and  point,  named  from  the  rock  gorge  of  the  stream  near  its  mouth;  Two. 
Harbor  bay  (not  to  be  confounded  with  the  bays  at  the  city  of  Two  Har- 
bors) ;  Beaver  river  and  bay,  whence  the  village  and  township  of  Beaver 
Bay  are  named;  the  Great  Palisades,  turretlike  rock  cliffs,  rising  verti- 
cally 200  to  300  feet  at  the  lake  shore ;  Baptism  river,  named  Baptist  river 
on  Long's  map;  Cathedral  bay,  bordered  by  rock  towers  and  pinnacles; 
Crystal  bay,  source  of  the  name  of  a  township;  an  unnamed  bay  and 
point  at  Little  Marais;  Manitou  river,  retaining  its  Ojibway  name,  which 
means  a  spirit;  and  Pork  bay,  in  notable  contrast  with  the  grandeur  and 
awe  of  some  of  the  preceding  names. 

Lakes  tributary  to  Lake  Superior  include  Stewart  lake  and  Twin 
lakes,  sources  of  Stewart  river;  Highland  lake,  close  west  of  Highland 
station;  Thomas,  Christensen,  Amberger,  Qark,  Kane,  and  Spruce  lakes, 
mostly  named  for  cruisers  selecting  tracts  of  timber,  or  for  lumbermen 
in  charge  of  logging  camps;  Bear  lake,  three  miles  northwest  of  Beaver 
Bay;  Lax  lake  (formerly  called  Sohaff's  lake),  for  which  a  railroad 
station  is  named,  as  before  noted;  Nicado,  Micmac,  and  Nipissiquit  lakes, 
having  aboriginal  names;  Moose,  Nine  Mile,  and  Echo  lakes,  outflowing 
south  to  Manitou  river;  Long  lake,  Shoepack,  Crooked,  Artlip,  and  East 
lakes;  and,  farther  north,  Harriet  lake,  Wilson  lake  and  Little  Wilson 
lake.  Windy  lake,  Elbow,  Lost,  and  Frear  lakes,  the  last  three  being 
crossed  by  the  east  line  of  the  county. 

On  the  north,  the  basin  of  Rainy  lake  comprises  about  three  fifths  of 
Lake  county.  Its  chief  streams,  sending  their  waters  to  the  series  of 
lakes  on  the  international  boundary,  are  Isabella  river,  Stony  and  Birch 


296  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

rivers,  and  Kawishiwi  river.  The  last  is  an  Ojibway  name,  meaning, 
as  defined  by  Giliillan,  "the  river  full  of  beavers'  houses,  or,  according  to 
some,  muskrats'  houses  also." 

The  abundant  lakes  of  this  nor^ern  district  include  Bellissima  or 
Island  lake,  Parent  and  Syenite  lakes,  Lake  Isabella,  Gull,  Bald  Eagle, 
and  Gabbro  lakes,  ^e  last  being  named  from  the  rock  formation  of  its 
shores;  Copeland's  lake,  Clearwater,  Pickereland  Friday  lakes;  Green- 
wood lake,  named  for  George  C.  Greenwood,  who  was  a  hardware 
merchant  in  Duluth,  often  called  West  Greenwood  lake,  in  distinction 
from  a  lake  of  this  name  in  Cook  county ;  Sand,  Slate,  Birch,  White  Iron, 
Farm,  and  Garden  lakes,  the  last  two  noting  that  the  Ojibways  had  culti- 
vated ground  adjoining  ^em;  Fall  lake,  called  Kawasachong  lake  by 
the  Ojibways,  noticed  on  a  preceding  page  for  the  township  named  from 
it;  Boulder  lake,  Lake  Polly,  Lake  Alice,  and  Wilder  lake;  Fraser  and 
Thomas  lakes,  named  for  John  Fraser  and  Maurice  Thomas,  who  selected 
timber  lands  and  engaged  in  lumbering  near  these  lakes;  Gabimichigama 
and  Agamok  lakes,  each  extending  into  Cook  county;  Ogishke  Muncie 
lake,  somewhat  changed  from  its  Ojibway  name,  meaning  a  king^sher, 
spelled  ogishkimanissi  by  Baraga's  Dictionary;  Cacaquabic  or  Kekequabic 
lake,  translated  by  Gilfillan  as  "Hawk-iron  lake;"  Marble  lake.  Cherry, 
Currant,  Doughnut,  Spoon,  Pickle,  and  Plum  lakes ;  Lake  Vira  and  Ima 
lake,  the  latter  named  in  honor  of  the  eldest  daughter  of  Prof.  N.  H. 
Winchell,  the  state  geologist ;  Illusion  lake,  Jordan,  Alworth,  Disappoint- 
ment, and  Round  lakes;  Ensign  lake,  named  in  honor  of  Josiah  D.  En- 
sign, of  Duluth,  judge  in  this  district  since  1889;  Snowbank  lake,  a 
translation  of  its  Ojibway  name,  which  means,  as  Gilfillan  defined  it, 
"snow  blown  up  in  heaps  lying  about  here  and  there;"  Newfound  lake, 
Moose,  Jasper,  Northwestern,  and  Crab  lakes;  Manomin  lake,  meaning 
wild  rice;  Wood  or  Wind  lake,  Pine,  Sucker,  Oak  Point,  and  Satur- 
day lakes;  Triangle  and  Urn  lakes,  whose  names  were  suggested  by 
their  outlines;  Newton  lake,  named  by  Dr.  Alexander  Winchell  in 
honor  of  his  brother,  Newton  H.  Winchell;  and,  near  the  northwest 
comer  of  the  county.  Horse  lake  and  Jackfish  lake. 

Snowbank  lake  has  Boot  and  Birch  islands,  the  first  being  named  for 
its  shape;  and  a  small  lake  between  Ensign  and  Snowbank  lakes  is  for 
a  like  reason  named  Boot  lake. 

During  the  examination  of  this  region  for  the  Minnesota  Geological 
Survey,  much  care  was  taken  to  secure  correctly  the  Ojibway  names  of 
the  streams  and  lakes.  Their  translations  were  commonly  used  in 
that  survey,  as  also  by  the  earlier  explorers  and  fur  traders,  govern- 
ment surveyors,  and  lumbermen.  But  nearly  all  the  lakes  of  relatively 
small  size  lacked  aboriginal  names,  and  in  many  instances  they  yet 
are  unnamed.  The  need  for  definite  description  and  location  of  geo- 
logic observations  led  frequently  to  arbitrary  adoption  of  names,  where 


LAKE  COUNTY  297 

none  before  existing  couM  be  ascertained.  For  example,  Dr.  Alexan- 
der Winchell  in  1886  gave  to  six  little  lakes  on  the  canoe  route  between 
Kekequabic  and  Ogishke  Muncie  lakes,  occurring  within  that  distance 
of  less  than  two  miles,  the  names  of  the  first  six  letters  of  the  Greek 
alphabet,  the  series  being  Alpha,  Beta,  Gamma,  Delta,  Epsilon,  and 
Zeta  lakes.  When  farmers  and  other  permanent  settlers  come,  new 
names  will  doubtless  replace  some  that  have  been  llius  used  or  pro- 
posed without  local  or  historical  significance. 

The  lakes  on  the  north  side  of  this  county  were  surveyed  and  mapped, 
with  full  details  of  their  shores  and  islands,  by  David.  Thompson  in 
1822-3,  for  determination  of  the  course  of  the  international  boundary, 
following  a  canoe  route  that  had  been  long  used  by  the  fur  traders. 
An  excellent  description  of  this  route,  from  Grand  Portage  to  the 
Lake  of  the  Woods,  was  published  in  1801  by  Sir  Alexander  Mackenzie 
in  his  "Geperal  History  of  the  Fur  Trade  from  Canada  to  the  North- 
west" 

Cypress  or  Otter  Track  lake  is  the  most  eastern  in  this  series  bor- 
dering Lake  county.  Its  first  name,  used  by  Thompson,  refers  to  its 
plentiful  cypress  trees,  now  commonly  called  arbor  vitae  or  white  cedar. 
Otter  Track  is  for  the  Ojibway  name,  noted  by  Gilfillan,  "Nigig-bimi- 
kawed  sagaiigun,  the  lake  where  the  otter  make  tracks,  from  four  tracks 
of  an  otter  on  the  rocks  by  the  side  of  the  lake,  as  if  he  had  jumped 
four  times  there."  More  probably,  however,  the  name  alludes  to  peculiar 
slides  where  otters  took  amusement  by  sliding  into  the  water  from  a 
bank  of  snow  or  rock  or  mud,  as  described  in  Herrick's  "Mammals 
of  Minnesota"  (pages  129-135). 

Next  westward  is  Knife  lake,  having  several  branches  or  arms,  trans- 
lated from  Mokomani  sagaiigun  of  the  Ojibways.  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell 
in  1880  wrote  of  their  reason  for  this  name,  derived  from  an  adjoining 
rock  formation,  "a  blue-black,  fine-grained  siliceous  rock,  approaching 
flint  in  hardness  and  compactness,  with  conchoidal  fracture  and  sharp 
edges;  sometimes  it  is  nearly  black.  It  is  this  sharp-edged  rock  that 
gave  name  to  Knife  lake.  It  is  only  local,  or  in  beds,  or  sometimes  in 
ridges." 

The  outlet  of  Knife  lake  flows  through  three  little  lakes,  which  Dr. 
Alexander  Winchell  named  in  1886,  from  east  to  west.  Potato,  Seed,  and 
Melon  lakes.  Next  are  Carp  lake  (also  called  Pseudo-Messer  lake) 
and  Birch  or  Sucker  lake,  named  for  their  fish  and  trees,  succeeded  west- 
ward by  the  large  and  much  branched  Basswood  lake,  on  the  northern 
limit  of  the  geographic  range  of  this  tree,  which  is  generally  common 
throughout  Minnesota  and  is  very  abundant  in  the  Big  Woods. 

For  the  last  of  these  lakes  Mackenzie  used  the  French  name  of  the 
basswood,  Lac  Bois  Blanc  (white  wood),  adding,  "but  I  think  improper- 
ly so  called,  as  the  natives  name  it  the  Lake  Pascau  Minac,  or  Dry 
Berries."    This  Ojibway  name  was  spelled  Bassimenan  by  Prof.  N.  H. 


298  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Winchell,  and  Bassemenani  by  Gilfillaii,  whose  translatioii  of  it  is  1>ried 
blueberry  lake"  Althou^  the  first  sjilable  may  have  suggested  the 
Knglish  name,  Basswood,  which  is  a  translation  from  that  given  fagr  the 
early  French  voyagenrs,  the  Indians  had  no  reference  to  the  tree,  but 
only  to  their  gathering  and  drying  berries  here  for  winter  use. 

Adjoining  the  northwest  part  of  Lake  county,  the  river  flowing  from 
Basswood  lake  along  the  boundary  enters  Crooked  lake,  translated  from 
its  old  French  name,  with  reference  to  its  very  irregularly  crooking  and 
branching  ontliDes. 

Hunter's  Island. 

Nicollet's  map,  published  in  1643,  shows  a  more  northern  route  of 
canoe  travel  from  Saganaga  lake  west  to  Lac  la  Croix,  which  follows 
the  stream  and  series  of  lakes  outflowing  from  Saganaga,  whereas  the 
international  boundary  crosses  a  water  divide  between  Sa^^uiaga  and 
CjTpress  or  Otter  Track  lake,  thence  passing  westward  along  a  continnoas 
stream  and  its  lakes.  The  tract  between  that  northern  route  of  water- 
flow  and  the  southern  or  boundary  route,  bordering  the  north  side  of 
Lake  county,  is  named  Hunter's  Island  by  Nicollet's  and  later  maps.  It 
is  estimated  by  Dr.  U.  S.  Grant  to  have  an  area  of  about  800  square  miles. 
(M.  H.  S.  Collections,  voL  VIII,  1896,  pages  1-10.) 

Greenwood  Mountain  and  other  Hills. 

This  county  is  traversed  from  southwest  to  northeast  by  the  con- 
tinuations of  the  Vermilion  and  Mesabi  iron  ranges,  belts  of  rode  for- 
mations more  fully  noticed  in  the  chapter  for  St  Louis  county,  where 
they  contain  vast  deposits  of  iron  ores.  These  belts  are  not  marked  by 
ridges  or  hills  along  large  parts  of  .their  course,  and  they  nowhere  attain 
heights  worthy  to  be  called  mountains. 

The  general  highland  rises  about  1,000  feet  above  Lake  Superior,  or 
1,600  feet  above  the  sea,  within  eight  or  ten  miles  north  from  the  lake 
shore.  Onward  this  average  height,  much  diversified  by  valleys,  low  ridges, 
and  hills,  reaches  nearly  to  the  international  boundary^  on  which  Otter 
Track  and  Crooked  lakes  are  respectively  1,387  feet  and  1,245  feet  above 
the  sea.  Names  have  been  given  to  only  a  few  of  the  highest  lulls. 
Thou^  these  vary  in  their  altitude  to  about  500  feet  above  the  adjoin- 
ing lowlands  and  lakes,  they  are  unduly  dignified  by  being  called  moun- 
tains and  peaks. 

Greenwood  mountain  is  only  145  feet  above  the  lake  of  this  name  at 
its  north  side. 

Disappointment  hill,  a  mile  east  of  the  lake  so  named,  has  a  height 
of  350  feet  above  it 

Mallmann's  peak,  named  for  John  Mallmann,  employed  by  the  Min- 
nesota Geological  Survey,  situated  dose  north  of  the  east  end  of  Kdce- 
quabic  lake,  rises  steeply  to  the  height  of  230  feet 


LAKE  COUNTY  299 

About  two  miles  southeast  from  the  last  are  the  Twin  peaks,  and 
nearly  two  miles  farther  east  is  Mount  Northrop,  named  in  honor  of 
Cyrus  Northrop,  president  of  the  University  of  Minnesota  from  1884 
to  1911,  attaining  altitudes  about  2,000  feet  above  the  sea,  or  500  feet 
above  Kekequabic  lake. 

Superior  National  Forest. 

A  great  part  of  the  north  half  of  Lake  county  is  included  in  this 
National  Forest,  which  also  comprises  considerable  areas  in  Cook  and 
St.  Louis  counties.  The  date  of  its  establishment,  in  1909,  and  the  steps 
taken  by  an  act  of  Congress  and  by  a  special  recommendation  from  Min- 
nesota, leading  to  the  designation  of  these  lands  as  a  public  reservation 
for  forestry  uses,  have  been  noted  in  the  chapter  for  Cook  county. 

Glacial  Lake  Elftman. 

When  the  continental  ice-sheet  of  the  Glacial  period  was  finally 
melting  away  from  this  area,  its  northwardly  receding  border  held  tem- 
porarily an  ice- dammed  lake  in  the  basin  of  Kawishiwi  river,  with  out- 
flow southward  and  westward.  This  ancient  Ilike,  first  described  by 
Arthur  H.  Elftman,  an  assistant  of  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey, 
was  named  in  his  honor  by  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell  in  the  Bulletin  of  the 
Geological  Society  of  America  (vol.  XII,  1901,  page  125).  "It  had  an 
area  of  about  100  square  miles  at  the  time  of  its  greatest  extent  and  an 
elevation  of  about  1,700  feet  above  the  sea.** 


LE  SUEUR  COUNTY 

Established  March  5,  1853,  this  county  commemorates  a  Canadian 
French  trader  and  explorer,  Pierre  Charles  Le  Sueur,  before  mentioned 
in  the  chapter  for  Blue  Earth  county  as  mining  a  supposed  copper  ore 
there  in  1701,  whence  the  name  of  the  Blue  Earth  river  and  of  that 
county  was  derived.  He  was  bom  in  1657,  of  parents  who  had  emi- 
grated to  Canada  from  the  ancient  province  of  Artois  in  northern 
France.  At  the  age  of  twenty-six  years,  in  1683,  he  came  to  the  Missis- 
sippi by  way  of  the  Wisconsin  river.  The  remaining  years  of  the  cen- 
tury, excepting  expeditions  for  the  sale  of  furs  in  Montreal  and  absence 
in  voyages  to  France,  he  spent  principally  in  the  country  of  the  Sioux  or 
Dakotas.  He  was  at  Fort  St  Antoine,  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake 
Pepin,  with  Perrot  at  the  time  of  his  proclamation  in  1689,  which  he 
signed  as  a  witness.  At  some  time  within  a  few  years  preceding  or  fol- 
lowing that  date  he  made  a  canoe  trip  far  up  the  Mississippi,  this  being 
Uie  first  recorded  exploration  of  its  course  through  the  central  part  of 
Minnesota. 

Within  the  first  few  years  after  Le  Sueur  came  to  the  area  of  this 
state,  he  had  acquired  acquaintance  with  the  language  of  the  Sioux,  and 
had  almost  certainly  traveled  with  them  along  the  Minnesota  river. 
From  his  first  Christian  name,  Pierre,  as  Neill  and  Winsor  think,  came 
the  French  name  St  Pierre,  in  English  the  St  Peter,  by  which  this  river 
was  known  to  the  white  people  through  more  than  a  century  and  a  half, 
until  its  aboriginal  Sioux  name  was  adopted  for  the  new  Minnesota 
Territory. 

A  letter  of  Cadillac,  written  in  1712,  cited  in  the  Margry  Papers, 
states  that  after  the  appointment  of  Iberville,  a  cousin  of  Le  Sueur's 
wife,  to  be  the  first  governor  of  Louisiana,  LeSueur  had  his  family  re- 
move there,  and  that  his  wife  and  children  were  then  living  in  Louisi- 
ana, where  he  had  died.  Another  account  indicates  that  he  died  during 
the  return  voyage  from  France,  after  his  visit  there  in  1702,  carrying 
the  green  or  blue  earth,  supposed  to  be  an  ore  of  copper,  which  he  mined 
on  the  Blue  Earth  river. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  for  these  names  was  gathered  from  "History  of  the  Min- 
nesota Valley"  (1882,  1016  pages),  having  pages  477-532  for  this  county, 
and  "History  of  Nicollet  and  Le  Sueur  Counties"  (1916,  two  volumes, 
544  and  538  pages,  edited  by  Hon.  William  G.  (jresham;  and  from  Ed- 
ward Solberg,  register  of  deeds,  who  has  made  many  land  surveys 
throughout  the  county,  Frank  Moudry,  former  register  of  deeds,  and 

300 


LE  SUEUR  COUNTY  301 

Patrick  G.  Galagan,  former  judge  of  probate,  each  being  interviewed 
during  a  visit  at  LeSueur  Center,  the  county  seat,  in  July,  1916. 

CLEVELAND  township,  organized  in  1858,  was  named  for  the  city  of 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  several  of  the  first  settlers  here,  in  1855-6,  having 
come  from  that  state.  The  village,  founded  and  thus  named  in  1857, 
was  the  county  seat  during  one  year,  1875-6,  being  succeeded  by  Le 
Sueur  Center.  In  Ohio  this  name  refers  to  General  Moses  Cleaveland 
(b.  1754,  d.  1806),  agent  of  the  Connecticut  company  that  colonized 
the  Western  Reserve,  under  whose  direction  the  site  of  the  city  named 
in  his  honor  was  surveyed  in  1796. 

CoBDovA  township,  settled  in  1856  and  organized  in  1858,  bears  the 
name  of  an  ancient  city  of  Spain,  renowned  for  its  Moorish  antiquities, 
which  in  the  middle  ages  was  "the  most  splendid  seat  of  the  arts, 
sciences,  and  literature  in  the  world."  The  village  of  this  township 
was  platted  September  28,  1867. 

Derrynane  township,  organized  in  1858,  was  settled  partly  by  immi- 
grants from  Ireland.  Its  name  was  derived  from  Derrynane  Abbey 
beside  the  little  bay  of  this  name  on  the  southwest  coast  of  Ireland. 
It  is  also  borne  by  a  village  in  the  province  of  Ontario,  Canada. 

East  Henderson,  platted  December  22,  1877,  and  East  St.  Peter, 
platted  October  1,  1856,  are  small  villages  with  railway  stations  at  the 
east  side  of  the  Minnesota  river,  opposite  to  Henderson  in  Sibley 
county  and  St.  Peter  in  Nicollet  county. 

Elysian  township,  organized  in  1858,  received  this  name  from  its 
village  which  had  been  platted  September  20,  1856,  and  was  incorporated 
in  January,  1884.  It  was  adopted  from  Greek  names,  Elysium  and  the 
Elysian  Fields,  "the  dwelling  place  of  the  happy  souls  after  death, 
placed  by  Homer  on  the  western  margin  of  the  earth,  by  Hesiod  and 
Pindar  in  the  Isles  of  the  Blessed  in  the  Western  Ocean."  The  village 
adjoins  the  northeast  end  of  Lake  Elysian,  called  Okaman  lake  on 
Nicollet's  map  in  1843,  which  is  crossed  by  the  county  line  and  lies  al- 
most wholly  in  Waseca  county. 

Heidelberg,  platted  December  4,  1878,  is  a  hamlet  four  miles  south- 
west of  New  Prague,  named  by  its  German  people  for  the  city  of  Heidel- 
berg in  Germany,  widely  known  for  its  great  university  which  was 
founded  in  1386. 

Kasota  township,  settled  in  1851,  organized  May  11,  1858,  took  the 
Sioux  name  of  its  village,  which  was  platted  March  23,  1855,  and  was 
incorporated  in  April,  1890.  It  means,  as  noted  by  Prof.  A.  W.  Wil- 
liamson, "clear,  or  cleared  off;  the  name  sometimes  applied  by  the 
Dakotas  to  the  naked  ridge  or  prairie  plateau  south  of  the  village." 
This  Kasota  terrace  of  the  valley  drift,  three  miles  long  from  north  to 
south  and  averaging  a  half  mile  wide,  is  about  150  feet  above  the  river 
and  75  feet  lower  than  the  general  upland. 

Kilkenny  township,  settled  in  1856,  was  named  by  its  Irish  people 
for  a  city  and  county  of  southeastern  Ireland.    Its  village  on  the  Min- 


302  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

f 

neapolis  and  St.  Louis  railwsQr  was  platted  ia  1^77,  and  was  incorporated 
June  3,  1883. 

Lanesbubg  township  was  named  in  honor  of  its  first  settler,  Charles 
Ia  Lane,  who  came  in  1854  and  opened  a  farm  in  section  33. 

Le  Sueuk  township  and  dty  were  founded  in  1852,  with  the  village 
plats  bearing  this  name,  which  in  the  next  year  was  given  to  the  new 
cotmty.  Two  rival  villages,  one  called  Le  Sueur  and  the  other  Le  Sueor 
City,  were  incorporated  respectively  on  June  10  and  17,  185&.  Nine 
years  later,  by  an  act  of  the  state  legislature,  March  9,  1867,  they  were 
united  in  a  borough  town,  Le  Sueur,  which  was  incorporated  as  a  city 
March  16,  189L  It  was  the  first  county  seat  until  1875,  being  then 
succeeded  by  Cleveland  for  (me  year,  and  by  Le  Sueur  Center  since 
1876. 

A  stream  here  tributary  to  the  Minnesota  river  is  called  LeSoeur 
creek  or  river,  and  its  northern  branch  is  known  as  Little  LeSueur 
creek  or  "Forest  and  Prairie  creek."  The  last  name  refers  to  its  course 
through  an  originally  wholly  wooded  area,  but  near  its  mouth  coming 
to  the  north  end  of  the  extensive  LeSueur  prairie,  five  miles  long  and 
two  to  four  miles  wide,  which  is  a  terrace  of  valley  drift  similar  to  the 
much  smaller  Kasota  prairie  terrace,  previously  noted. 

Lb  Subuk  Center,  a  village  platted  December  2,  1876^  at  the  geographic 
center  of  the  county,  in  sections  28  and  39,  Lexington,  has  been  the 
county  seat  from  that  date,  its  site  being  "cut  out  of  a  dense  forest 
growth  in  1876-77."    It  was  incorporated  in  the  spring  of  1890. 

Lexington  township,  settled  in  1855  and  organized  in  1858^  was  named 
after  its  village,  which  was  platted  by  pioneers  from  New  England  in 
1857.  This  name  is  borne  by  a  village  of  Massachusetts,  where  the 
battle  of  Lexington  was  fought,  beginning  the  Revolutionary  War, 
April  19,  1775,  by  cities  in  Kentucky  and  Missouri,  and  villages  and 
townships  in  nineteen  other  states. 

Mastsbueg,  a  hamlet  in  the  south  edge  of  Washington  township, 
platted  January  24,  1859,  was  named  by  its  first  settler,  John  L.  Meagher, 
an  immigrant  from  Ireland,  who  was  its  postmaster  during  many  years 
and  was  also  the  probate  judge  for  this  county. 

Montgomery  township  was  settled  in  1856  and  organized  in  1&S9. 
Its  city,  incorporated  in  1902,  was  platted  as  a  village  September  5, 
1877,  when  the  Minneapolis  and  St  Louis  railway  was  built  there,  its 
site  being  ''in  the  midst  of  a  dense  forest  of  very  heavy  timber."  Fif- 
teen states  of  the  Union  have  counties  of  this  name,  and  it  is  borne  also 
by  a  similar  number  of  villages  and  townships,  commemorating  Gen- 
eral Richard  Montgomery,  who  in  the  American  Revolution  command- 
ed an  expedition  invading  Canada,  in  which  he  was  killed  December 
31,  1775,  while  leading  an  attack  on  Quebec. 

New  Prague,  incorporated  as  a  village  in  March,  1877,  and  as  a  city 
in  April,  1891,  is  crossed  akmg  its  main  street  by  the  line  of  Le  Sueur 


LE  SUEUR  COUNTY  303 

and  Scott  counties.  It  was  named  for  the  ancient  cHy  of  Prague,  the 
capital  of  Bohemia,  from  which  part  of  Austria  many  immigrants  came 
here. 

Okaman,  at  the  east  side  of  the  northern  end  of  Lake  Elysian,  was 
aa  eariy  village,  platted  March  30,  1857,  lying  partly  in  Waseca  county. 
Its  site  was  vacated  in  1867  and  reverted  to  farm  uses.  The  name 
Okaman,  supplied  by  the  Sioux,  was  given  to  this  lake  by  Nicollet,  de- 
rived, according  to  Williamson,  from  hokah,  heron,  man,  nests.  It  thus 
had  the  same  meaning  as  the  Okabena  creek  and  lakes  in  Jackson  and 
Nobles  counties. 

Ottawa  township  was  settled  in  1853  and  organized  in  1858.  Its 
village,  platted  April  4,  1855,  was  then  named  Minnewasbta,  from  Sioux 
words  meaning  water  and  good,  in  allusion  to  its  excellent  springs. 
June  20,  1856,  it  was  surveyed  anew  and  renamed  Ottawa,  for  a  tribe 
of  the  great  Algonquian  family,  nearly  related  to  the  Ojibways.  Their 
name,  originally  meaning  traders,  is  given  to  the  Ottawa  river  and  the 
capital  of  Canada,  to  cities  in  Illinois  and  Kansas,  a  village  in  Ohio,  and 
a  township  in  Wisconsin. 

Sbaron  township  was  settled  in  1854  and  organized  in  1858.  Its 
name,  derived  from  the  fertile  plain  of  Sharon  in  Palestine,  is  borne 
also  by  villages  and  townships  in  nineteen  other  states  of  the  Union. 

Tyrone  township,  settled  in  1855-6  and  organized  in  1858,  was  named, 
on  the  suggestion  of  Irish  immigrants,  for  a  county  in  northern  Ire- 
land.   New  York  and  Pennsylvania  have  townships  of  this  name. 

Washington,  first  settled  in  1858  and  in  the  same  year  designated 
as  a  township,  has  two  large  lakes  which  the  government  surveyors 
had  named  in  honor  of  Washington  and  Je£Ferson,  presidents  of  the 
United  States. 

Wateryille  township,  settled  in  1855  and  organized  in  1858,  received 
this  name  from  its  village  platted  December  5,  1856,  which  was  incor- 
porated as  a  village  in  1878  and  as  a  city  in  1898.  It  is  also  the  name 
of  a  city  in  Maine,  and  of  villages  and  townships  in  ten  other  states. 
The  choice  of  the  name  had  reference  chiefly  to  the  adjoining  Lakes 
Tetonka  and  Sakata  (Sioux  names,  used  by  Nicollet),  through  which 
the  Cannon  river  flows,  and  to  White  Water  creek,  here  tributary  to 
Lake  Sakata. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Lakes  Elysian,  Washington,  Jefferson,  Tetonka,  and  Sakata,  Le  Sueur 
creek  or  river,  the  Little  Le  Sueur  creek,  and  White  Water  creek,  are 
noted  in  the  preceding  list  of  townships. 

Other  lakes  and  creeks  of  this  county  are  as  follows,  in  the  order 
of  the  townships  and  ranges,  from  south  to  north  and  from  east  to 
west 

Horseshoe  lake  is  crossed  by  the  east  line  of  Waterville,  and  Goose 
lake  is  in  its  section  2. 


296  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

rivers,  and  Kawishiwi  river.  The  last  is  an  Ojibway  name,  meaning, 
as  defined  by  Gilfillan,  "the  river  full  of  beavers'  houses,  or,  according  to 
some,  muskrats'  houses  also." 

The  abundant  lakes  of  this  northern  district  include  Bellissima  or 
Island  lake,  Parent  and  Syenite  lakes.  Lake  Tsabella,  Gull,  Bald  Eagle, 
and  Gabbro  lakes,  the  last  being  named  from  the  rock  formation  of  its 
shores;  G>peland's  lake,  Qearwater,  Pickerel  and  Friday  lakes;  Green- 
wood lake,  named  for  George  C.  Greenwood,  who  was  a  hardware 
merchant  in  Duluth,  often  called  West  Greenwood  lake,  in  distinction 
from  a  lake  of  this  name  in  Cook  county ;  Sand,  Slate,  Birch,  White  Iron, 
Farm,  and  Garden  lakes,  the  last  two  noting  that  the  Ojibways  had  culti- 
vated ground  adjoining  them;  Fall  lake,  called  Kawasachong  lake  by 
the  Ojibways,  noticed  on  a  preceding  page  for  the  township  named  from 
it;  Boulder  lake,  Lake  Polly,  Lake  Alice,  and  Wilder  lake;  Fraser  and 
Thomas  lakes,  named  for  John  Fraser  and  Maurice  Thomas,  who  selected 
timber  lands  and  engaged  in  lumbering  near  these  lakes;  Gabimichigama 
and  Agamok  lakes,  each  extending  into  Cook  county;  Ogishke  Muncie 
lake,  somewhat  changed  from  its  Ojibway  name,  meaning  a  king^sher, 
spelled  ogishkimanissi  by  Baraga's  Dictionary;  Cacaquabic  or  Kekequabic 
lake,  translated  by  Gilfillan  as  "Hawk-iron  lake;"  Marble  lake.  Cherry, 
Currant,  Doughnut,  Spoon,  Pickle,  and  Plum  lakes;  Lake  Vira  and  Ima 
lake,  the  latter  named  in  honor  of  the  eldest  daughter  of  Prof.  N.  H. 
Winchdl,  the  state  geologist;  Illusion  lake,  Jordan,  Alworth,  Disappoint- 
ment, and  Round  lakes;  Ensign  lake,  named  in  honor  of  Josiah  D.  En- 
sign, of  Duluth,  judge  in  this  district  since  1889;  Snowbank  lake,  a 
translation  of  its  Ojibway  name,  which  means,  as  Gilfillan  defined  it, 
"snow  blown  up  in  heaps  lying  about  here  and  there;"  Newfound  lake. 
Moose,  Jasper,  Northwestern,  and  Crab  lakes;  Manomin  lake,  meaning 
wild  rice;  Wood  or  Wind  lake.  Pine,  Sucker,  Oak  Point,  and  Satur- 
day lakes;  Triangle  and  Urn  lakes,  whose  names  were  suggested  by 
their  outlines;  Newton  lake,  named  by  Dr.  Alexander  Winchell  in 
honor  of  his  brother,  Newton  H.  Winchell;  and,  near  the  northwest 
corner  of  the  county.  Horse  lake  and  Jackfish  lake. 

Snowbank  lake  has  Boot  and  Birch  islands,  the  first  being  named  for 
its  shape;  and  a  small  lake  between  Ensign  and  Snowbank  lakes  is  for 
a  like  reason  named  Boot  lake. 

During  the  examination  of  this  region  for  the  Minnesota  Geological 
Survey,  much  care  was  taken  to  secure  correctly  the  Ojibway  names  of 
the  streams  and  lakes.  Their  translations  were  commonly  used  in 
that  survey,  as  also  by  the  earlier  explorers  and  fur  traders,  govern- 
ment surveyors,  and  lumbermen.  But  nearly  all  the  lakes  of  relatively 
small  size  lacked  aboriginal  names,  and  in  many  instances  they  yet 
are  unnamed.  The  need  for  definite  description  and  location  of  geo- 
logic observations  led  frequently  to  arbitrary  adoption  of  names,  where 


LAKE  COUNTY  297 

none  before  existing  could  be  ascertained.  For  example,  Dr.  Alexan- 
der Winchell  in  1886  gave  to  six  little  lakes  on  the  canoe  route  between 
Kekequabic  and  Ogishke  Muncie  lakes,  occurring  within  that  distance 
of  less  than  two  miles,  the  names  of  the  first  six  letters  of  the  Greek 
alphabet,  the  series  being  Alpha,  Beta,  Gamma,  Delta,  Epsilon,  and 
Zeta  lakes.  When  farmers  and  other  permanent  settlers  come,  new 
names  will  doubtless  replace  some  that  have  been  thus  used  or  pro- 
posed without  local  or  historical  significance. 

The  lakes  on  the  north  side  of  this  county  were  surveyed  and  mapped, 
with  full  details  of  their  shores  and  islands,  by  David  Thompson  in 
1822-3,  for  determination  of  the  course  of  the  international  boundary, 
following  a  canoe  route  that  had  been  long  used  by  the  fur  traders. 
An  excellent  description  of  this  route,  from  Grand  Portage  to  the 
Lake  of  the  Woods,  was  published  in  1801  by  Sir  Alexander  Mackenzie 
in  his  "Gejieral  History  of  the  Fur  Trade  from  Canada  to  the  North- 
west" 

Cypress  or  Otter  Track  lake  is  the  most  eastern  in  this  series  bor- 
dering Lake  county.  Its  first  name,  used  by  Thompson,  refers  to  its 
plentiful  cypress  trees,  now  commonly  called  arbor  vitae  or  white  cedar. 
Otter  Track  is  for  the  Ojibway  name,  noted  by  Gilfillan,  "Nigig-bimi- 
kawed  sagaiigun,  the  lake  where  the  otter  make  tracks,  from  four  tracks 
of  an  otter  on  the  rocks  by  the  side  of  the  lake,  as  if  he  had  jumped 
four  times  there."  More  probably,  however,  the  name  alludes  to  peculiar 
slides  where  otters  took  amusement  by  sliding  into  the  water  from  a 
bank  of  snow  or  rock  or  mud,  as  described  in  Herrick's  "Mammals 
of  Minnesota"   (pages  129-135). 

Next  westward  is  Knife  lake,  having  several  branches  or  arms,  trans- 
lated from  Mokomani  sagaiigun  of  the  Ojibways.  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell 
in  1880  wrote  of  their  reason  for  this  name,  derived  from  an  adjoining 
rock  formation,  "a  blue-black,  fine-grained  siliceous  rock,  approaching 
flint  in  hardness  and  compactness,  with  conchoidal  fracture  and  sharp 
edges;  sometimes  it  is  nearly  black.  It  is  this  sharp-edged  rock  that 
gave  name  to  Knife  lake.  It  is  only  local,  or  in  beds,  or  sometimes  in 
ridges." 

The  outlet  of  Knife  lake  flows  through  three  little  lakes,  which  Dr. 
Alexander  Winchell  named  in  1886,  from  east  to  west,  Potato,  Seed,  and 
Melon  lakes.  Next  are  Carp  lake  (also  called  Pseudo-Messer  lake) 
and  Birch  or  Sucker  lake,  named  for  their  fish  and  trees,  succeeded  west- 
ward by  the  large  and  much  branched  Basswood  lake,  on  the  northern 
limit  of  the  geographic  range  of  this  tree,  which  is  generally  common 
throughout  Minnesota  and  is  very  abundant  in  the  Big  Woods. 

For  the  last  of  these  lakes  Mackenzie  used  the  French  name  of  the 
basswood,  Lac  Bois  Blanc  (white  wood),  adding,  "but  I  think  improper- 
ly so  called,  as  the  natives  name  it  the  Lake  Pascau  Minac,  or  Dry 
Berries."    This  Ojibway  name  was  spelled  Bassimenan  by  Prof.  N.  H. 


296  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

rivers,  and  Kawishiwi  river.  The  last  is  an  Ojibway  name,  meaning, 
as  defined  by  Gilfillan,  "the  river  full  of  beavers'  houses,  or,  according  to 
some,  muskrats'  houses  also." 

The  abundant  lakes  of  this  nortiiern  district  include  Bellissima  or 
Island  lake.  Parent  and  Syenite  lakes,  Lake  Isabella,  Gull,  Bald  Eagle, 
and  Gabbro  lakes,  the  last  being  named  from  the  rock  formation  of  its 
shores;  Copeland's  lake,  Clearwater,  Pickerel  and  Friday  lakes;  Greta- 
wood  lake,  named  for  George  C.  Greenwood,  who  was  a  hardware 
merchant  in  Duluth,  often  called  West  Greenwood  lake,  in  distinction 
from  a  lake  of  this  name  in  Cook  county ;  Sand,  Slate,  Birch,  White  Iron, 
Farm,  and  Garden  lakes,  the  last  two  noting  that  the  Ojibways  had  culti- 
vated ground  adjoining  them;  Fall  lake,  called  Kawasachong  lake  by 
the  Ojibways,  noticed  on  a  preceding  page  for  the  township  named  from 
it;  Boulder  lake.  Lake  Polly,  Lake  Alice,  and  Wilder  lake;  Fraser  and 
Thomas  lakes,  named  for  John  Fraser  and  Maurice  Thomas,  who  selected 
timber  lands  and  engaged  in  lumbering  near  these  lakes;  Gabimichigama 
and  Agamok  lakes,  each  extending  into  Cook  county;  Ogishke  Muncie 
lake,  somewhat  changed  from  its  Ojibway  name,  meaning  a  kingfisher, 
spelled  ogishkimanissi  by  Baraga's  Dictionary;  Cacaquabic  or  Kekequabic 
lake,  translated  by  Gilfillan  as  "Hawk-iron  lake;"  Marble  lake.  Cherry, 
Currant,  Doughnut,  Spoon,  Pickle,  and  Plum  lakes;  Lake  Vira  and  Ima 
lake,  the  latter  named  in  honor  of  the  eldest  daughter  of  Prof.  N.  H. 
Winchell,  the  state  geologist;  Illusion  lake,  Jordan,  Alworth,  Disappoint- 
ment, and  Round  lakes;  Ensign  lake,  named  in  honor  of  Josiah  D.  En- 
sign, of  Duluth,  judge  in  this  district  since  IB89;  Snowbank  lake,  a 
translation  of  its  Ojibway  name,  which  means,  as  Gilfillan  defined  it, 
"snow  blown  up  in  heaps  lying  about  here  and  there;"  Newfound  lake, 
Moose,  Jasper,  Northwestern,  and  Crab  lakes;  Manomin  lake,  meaning 
wild  rice;  Wood  or  Wind  lake,  Pine,  Sucker,  Oak  Point,  and  Satur- 
day lakes;  Triangle  and  Urn  lakes,  whose  names  were  suggested  by 
their  outlines;  Newton  lake,  named  by  Dr.  Alexander  Winchell  in 
honor  of  his  brother,  Newton  H.  Winchell;  and,  near  the  northwest 
corner  of  the  county.  Horse  lake  and  Jackfish  lake. 

Snowbank  lake  has  Boot  and  Birch  islands,  the  first  being  named  for 
its  shape;  and  a  small  lake  between  Ensign  and  Snowbank  lakes  is  for 
a  like  reason  named  Boot  lake. 

During  the  examination  of  this  region  for  the  Minnesota  Geological 
Survey,  much  care  was  taken  to  secure  correctly  the  Ojibway  names  of 
the  streams  and  lakes.  Their  translations  were  commonly  used  in 
that  survey,  as  also  by  the  earlier  explorers  and  fur  traders,  govern- 
ment surveyors,  and  lumbermen.  But  nearly  all  the  lakes  of  relatively 
small  size  lacked  aboriginal  names,  and  in  many  instances  they  yet 
are  unnamed.  The  need  for  definite  description  and  location  of  geo- 
logic observations  led  frequently  to  arbitrary  adoption  of  names,  where 


LAKE  COUNTY  297 

none  before  existing  couM  be  ascertained.  For  example,  Dr.  Alexan- 
der Winchell  in  1886  gave  to  six  little  lakes  on  the  canoe  route  between 
Kekequabic  and  Ogishke  Muncie  lakes,  occurring  within  that  distance 
of  less  than  two  miles,  the  names  of  the  first  six  letters  of  the  Greek 
alphabet,  the  series  being  Alpha,  Beta,  Gamma,  Delta,  Epsilon,  and 
Zeta  lakes.  When  farmers  and  other  permanent  settlers  come,  new 
names  will  doubtless  replace  some  that  have  been  thus  used  or  pro- 
posed without  local  or  historical  significance. 

The  lakes  on  the  north  side  of  this  county  were  surveyed  and  mapped, 
with  full  details  of  their  shores  and  islands,  by  David  Thompson  in 
1822-3,  for  determination  of  the  course  of  the  international  boundary, 
following  a  canoe  route  that  had  been  long  used  by  the  fur  traders. 
An  excellent  description  of  this  route,  from  Grand  Portage  to  the 
Lake  of  the  Woods,  was  published  in  1801  by  Sir  Alexander  Mackenzie 
in  his  "Geperal  History  of  the  Fur  Trade  from  Canada  to  the  North- 
west" 

Cypress  or  Otter  Track  lake  is  the  most  eastern  in  this  series  bor- 
dering Lake  county.  Its  first  name,  used  by  Thompson,  refers  to  its 
plentiful  cypress  trees,  now  commonly  called  arbor  vitae  or  white  cedar. 
Otter  Track  is  for  the  Ojibway  name,  noted  by  Gilfillan,  "Nigig-bimi- 
kawed  sagaiigun,  the  lake  where  the  otter  make  tracks,  from  four  tracks 
of  an  otter  on  the  rocks  by  the  side  of  the  lake,  as  if  he  had  jumped 
four  times  there."  More  probably,  however,  the  name  alludes  to  peculiar 
slides  where  otters  took  amusement  by  sliding  into  the  water  from  a 
bank  of  snow  or  rock  or  mud,  as  described  in  Herrick's  "Mammals 
of  Minnesota"   (pages  129-135). 

Next  westward  is  Knife  lake,  having  several  branches  or  arms,  trans- 
lated from  Mokomani  sagaiigun  of  the  Ojibways.  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell 
in  1880  wrote  of  their  reason  for  this  name,  derived  from  an  adjoining 
rock  formation,  "a  blue-black,  fine-grained  siliceous  rock,  approaching 
flint  in  hardness  and  compactness,  with  conchoidal  fracture  and  sharp 
edges;  sometimes  it  is  nearly  black.  It  is  this  sharp-edged  rock  that 
gave  name  to  Knife  lake.  It  is  only  local,  or  in  beds,  or  sometimes  in 
ridges." 

The  outlet  of  Knife  lake  flows  through  three  little  lakes,  which  Dr. 
Alexander  Winchell  named  in  1886,  from  east  to  west,  Potato,  Seed,  and 
Melon  lakes.  Next  are  Carp  lake  (also  called  Pseudo-Messer  lake) 
and  Birch  or  Sucker  lake,  named  for  their  fish  and  trees,  succeeded  west- 
ward by  the  large  and  muoh  branched  Basswood  lake,  on  the  northern 
limit  of  the  geographic  range  of  this  tree,  which  is  generally  common 
throughout  Minnesota  and  is  very  abundant  in  the  Big  Woods. 

For  the  last  of  these  lakes  Mackenzie  used  the  French  name  of  the 
basswood,  Lac  Bois  Blanc  (white  wood),  adding,  "but  I  think  improper- 
ly so  called,  as  the  natives  name  it  the  Lake  Pascau  Minac,  or  Dry 
Berries."    This  Ojibway  name  was  spelled  Bassimenan  by  Prof.  N.  H. 


308  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Lake  Benton  township,  the  first  organized  in  the  area  of  Lincohi 
county,  and  its  village,  which  was  the  county  seat  for  twenty  years, 
1882-19Q2,  succeeding  Marshfidd,  bear  the  name  given  to  the  lake  on 
Nicollet's  map,  published  in  1843.  In  his  journey  to  the  Pipestone  Quarry 
and  to  this  lake  in  the  summer  of  1838,  Nicollet  was  accompanied  by 
John  C.  Fremont,  then  a  young  man,  who  afterward  was  known  as  '^e 
Path  Finder,"  for  his  explorations  of  the  Rocky  mountains,  and  who  in 
1856  was  the  presidential  candidate  of  the  newly  organized  Republi- 
can  party.  Lake  Benton  was  named  by  Fremont  and  Nicollet  for  Sen- 
ator Benton,  whose  daughter  Jessie  was  married  to  Fremont  in  1841; 
and  a  lake  in  North  Dakota  was  named  Lake  Jessie  in  honor  of  her  on 
this  map.  Thomas  Hart  Benton  was  bom  near  Hillsborough,  N.  C, 
March  14,  1782;  and  died  in  Washington,  D.  C,  April  10,  1858.  He  was 
United  States  senator  from  Missouri  during  thirty  years,  1821-1851. 

The  depth  and  area  of  Lake  Benton  vary  much  with  fluctuations  of 
average  moisture  or  dryness  during  successive  years.  At  its  high 
stage  the  water  surrounds  an  island  in  the  east  part,  called  Bird  island. 

Lake  Stay  township  has  a  lake,  adjoining  Arco  village,  named  in 
honor  of  Frank  Stay,  who  was  wounded  there  in  1865,  near  the  end  of 
his  service  of  three  years  in  campaigns  against  the  Sioux  after  their 
outbreak  in  1862.  He  was  bom  in  Canada,  June  10,  1837;  came  to  Min- 
nesota in  1854;  was  farming  on  the  site  of  Hanley  Falls,  Yellow  Medi- 
cine county,  at  the  time  of  the  Sioux  massacre,  in  August,  1862,  and 
only  escaped  after  great  exposure  and  suffering.  Since  1868  he  has 
lived  on  his  homestead  farm  in  the  township  of  Camp  Release,  Lac 
qui  Parle  county,  where  he  was  the  first  settler. 

Limestone  township,  occupied  in  its  greater  part  by  the  knolly  and 
hilly  glacial  drift  of  the  Gary  moraine,  which  is  more  fully  noticed  near 
the  end  of  this  chapter,  received  its  name  in  allusion  to  the  plentiful 
limestone  boulders,  with  many  others  of  granite  and  gneiss. 

Marble  township,  likewise  mainly  belonging  to  the  Gary  moraine, 
was  similarly  named  for  its  light  yellowish  magnesian  limestone  boul- 
ders, some  of  which  resemble  marble  an  hardness,  durability,  and  adapta- 
tion to  be  polished  for  building  or  ornamental  uses. 

Marshfield  township  received  the  name  of  its  village,  previously  platted 
in  1873  in  the  northeast  quarter  of  section  30,  which  was  the  first  county 
seat  until  1882,  being  then  succeeded  by  Lake  Benton.  It  was  named  in 
honor  of  Charles  Marsh  and  Ira  Field,  pioneer  settlers.  The  former,  who 
came  here  in  1871,  was  the  owner  of  its  site,  and  was  appointed  the  first 
auditor  of  the  county  in  January,  1874.  ^  The  village  site  is  now  farming 
land. 

Royal  township  was  so  named,  signif3ring  kingly,  to  express  the  satis- 
faction and  pride  and  loyalty  of  its  people  for  their  new  homes  here. 

Shaokatan  township  has  the  Sioux  name  of  its  lake,  found  on  an 
early  map  of  this  state,  before  mentioned  for  Lake  Hendricks,  published 
January  1,  1860.    Its  origin  and  meaning  remain  to  be  learned. 


LINCOLN  COUNTY  309 

Tyler,  a  railway  village  platted  in  1879,  was  named  in  honor  of  C 
B.  Tyler,  who  was  bom  in  Montrose,  Pa.,  September  2,  1835;  came  to 
Minnesota  in  1857;  was  register  of  the  United  States  land  office  in  New 
Ulm  after  1873;  owned  and  edited  the  New  Ulm  Herald,  1875-8;  removed 
to  Tracy  in  1880  and  later  to  Marshall,  where  he  engaged  in  banking. 

Vekdi  township  was  named  for  the  renowned  Italian  operatic  compos- 
er, Giuseppe  Verdi  (b.  1813,  d.  1901).  This  name  means  verdant  or 
verdure,  descriptive  of  the  greenness  of  the  township,  which  in  all  its 
extent  is  during  the  spring  and  summer  a  far-reaching  green  prairie. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  preceding  pages  have  noticed  Ash  and  Diamond  lakes ;  three  lakes 
of  special  geological  interest,  named  Benton,  Shaokatan,  and  Hendricks, 
which  will  be  again  noticed  at  the  end  of  this  chapter;  and  Lake  Stay, 
which  in  dry  seasons  is  represented  by  two  lakelets. 

Other  lakes  bearing  names  to  be  listed  are  Swan  lake,  a  mile  south 
of  Tyler ;  Cottonwood  lake,  which  has  been  drained,  close  north  of  Tyler ; 
Lake  Nova  or  Dead  Coon  lake,  in  the  northeast  corner  of  Marshfield; 
Blackman  and  Rush  lakes,  in  sections  9  and  16  of  Diamond  Lake  town- 
ship; Perch  lake  in  section  17,  Rojral,  and  Eagle  lake  in  sections  25  and 
36,  which  are  the  only  lakes  named  among  the  several  of  that  township, 
most  of  them,  however,  being  marshes  or  mainly  dry  in  years  of  deficient 
rainfall;  and  the  Twin  lakes,  in  sections  28  and  29,  Hansonville. 

The  streams  of  this  county  are  named  only  as  branches  of  the  Red- 
wood, Yellow  Medicine,  and  Lac  qui  Parle  rivers. 

Altamont  and  Gary  Moraines. 

The  description  and  map  of  Lincoln  county  in  the  Final  Report  of 
the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey  (vol.  I,  1884,  chapter  XX,  pages  589- 
612)  direct  attention  to  its  two  well  developed  belts  of  marginal  drift 
hills  and  short  low  ridges  and  knolls,  abundantly  sprinkled  with  boulders. 
The  western  or  outer  moraine,  lying  on  the  crest  of  the  great  highland 
called  the  Coteau  des  Prairies,  extends  north-northwestward  through  the 
southwestern  part  of  the  county,  past  the  western  ends  of  Lakes  Benton, 
Shaokatan,  and  Hendricks;  and  thence  it  continues  in  South  Dakota,  to 
cross  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  railway  at  Altamont,  a  dozen  miles 
west  of  the  interstate  boundary.  Parallel  with  this  and  about  fifteen  miles 
distant  to  the  northeast,  the  similar  but  broader  second  moraine  passes 
across  the  northeast  part  of  this  county,  where  its  profusion  of  limestone 
boulders  gave  the  names  of  Limestone  and  Marble  townships.  It  crosses 
the  same  railway  at  and  west  of  Gary,  in  the  east  edjge  of  South  Dakota. 

From  these  localities,  described  by  the  Minnesota  reports,  these  first 
and  second  marginal  moraines  of  the  continental  ice-sheet,  in  a  successive 
series  of  twelve  traced  partly  in  this  state,  were  named  in  1883  by  Prof. 
T.  C.  Chamberlin  as  the  Altamont  and  Gary  moraines.     Next  north- 


310  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

eastward,  being  also  parallel  with  these,  is  the  Antelope  or  Third  moraine, 
also  named  by  him  in- 1883,  noted  in  iht  chapter  for  Lac  qui  Parle  county. 

The  Hole  in  the  Mountain. 

The  outer  or  Altamont  moraine  belt,  and  the  thick  sheet  of  till  thai 
descends  thence  westward,  are  cut  in  the  west  part  of  Lake  Benton  town- 
ship by  a  deep  channel  or  valley,  which  is  called,  translating  the  Sioux 
name,  the  ''Hole  in  the  Mountain."  The  railroad  between  Lake  Benton  and 
Verdi  village  goes  south-southwest  four  miles  through  this  gap,  bounded 
on  each  side  by  picturesque  bluffs.  Its  depth,  wholly  in  the  glacial  drift, 
is  from  150  to  200  feet  below  the  knolly  surface  of  the  moraine,  and  its 
highest  point  is  about  ten  feet  above  Lake  Benton,  which  has  its  outlet 
eastward  into  the  Redwood  river.  This  valley,  from  an  eighth  to  a  fourth 
of  a  mile  wide,  was  evidently  excavated  by  a  river  that  flowed  from  north- 
east to  southwest  across  this  great  ridge,  which  is  the  highest  land  in 
southwestern  Minnesota,  being  1,000  feet  above  the  Minnesota  river  on 
the  northeast,  350  feet  above  the  Big  Sioux  river  on  the  west,  and  about 
1,960  feet  above  the  sea. 

At  three  other  places,  11,  14,  and  18  miles  northwest  from  Lake  Ben- 
ton, similar  channels  have  been  eroded  through  the  massive  ridge  of  this' 
moraine  and  through  the  smooth  sheet  of  drift  that  slopes  downward 
from  its  west  side.  The  first  of  these  channels  begins  at  the  southwest 
end  of  Lake  Shaokatan,  and  extends  about  two  miles  southwest  in  the 
same  course  with  this  lake,  through  the  knolly  belt  of  the  moraine,  be- 
yond whidi  its  course  for  the  next  three  miles  is  northwest  along  its 
west  side,  crossing  the  state  line.  Lake  Shaokatan  outflows  northeast- 
ward to  the  Yellow  Medicine  river,  but  the  highest  part  of  the  valley 
that  extends  from  it  westerly  is  only  slightly  elevated  above  the  lake; 

The  most  northwestern  of  these  remarkable  channels  or  valleys,  lying 
in  Brookings  county.  South  Dakota,  and  extending  southward  from  the 
southwest  end  of  Lake  Hendricks,  was  called  by  the  Sioux  '^e  Brother 
of  the  Hole  in  the  Mountain,"  because  of  its  close  likeness  to  the  pass 
southwest  from  Lake  Benton. 

While  the  ice-sheet  covered  the  basin  of  the  Minnesota  river  and  deep- 
ly overspread  all  the  country  northward,  rising  high  above  the  Coteau 
des  Prairies,  streiams  outflowed  from  its  meking  border  in  the  courses  of 
these  channels,  at  the  same  time  with  the  accumulation  of  the  Altamont 
moraine.  Much  glacial  drift  was  borne  away  by  the  streams  from  the 
lower  part  of  the  ice  in  which  it  had  been  held,  producing  hollows  when 
that  drift  was  deposited,  in  which  lie  the  Lakes  Benton,  Shaokatan,  and 
Hendricks,  respectively  about  10,  15,  and  20  feet  in  depth.  The  general 
surface  of  the  drift  is  about  10  feet  above  these  lakes,  showing  that  the 
drift  inclosed  in  the  basal  part  of  the  ice-sheet  adjoining  the  outermost 
moraine,  measured  by  the  action  of  the  glacial  rivers  and  the  resulting 
hoUows  of  the  three  lakes,  was  equal  to  a  thickness  of  20  to  30  feet. 


LYON  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  by  two  legislative  acts,  March  6,  1868,  and 
March  2,  1869,  was  named  in  honor  of  General  Nathaniel  Lyon,  who  was 
born  in  Ash  ford.  Conn.,  July  14,  1818,  and  was  killed  in  the  battle  of 
Wilson's  Creek,  Mo.,  August  10,  1861.  He  was  graduated  at  the  United 
States  Military  Academy  in  1841 ;  served  in  Florida  during  the  later  part 
of  the  Seminole  war,  1841-2,  and  also  served  in  the  Mexican  war,  1846-7; 
was  promoted  captain  in  1851,  and  was  on  frontier  duty  during  the 
years  1853-61  in  Kansas,  Dakota,  Minnesota,  and  Nebraska.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  civil  war  he  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  contest  against 
secession  in  Missouri,  rendered  efficient  aid  to  the  national  government 
as  commander  of  the  United  States  arsenal  in  St.  Louis,  and  was  appointed 
general  of  the  Department  of  Missouri  in  June,  1861. 

A  series  of  his  letters  in  1860,  in  which  he  advocated  the  election  of 
Lincoln  as  president,  entitled  "The  Last  Political  Writings  of  Gen.  Nathan- 
iel Lyon,"  was  published  in  1861,  soon  after  his  death  (275  pages,  includ- 
ing a  memoir  of  his  life  and  military  services).  His  biography  was  more 
fully  written  by  Dr.  Ashbel  Woodward  (360  pages,  1862)  ;  and  his  devo- 
tion to  the  Union,  for  which  he  gave  his  life,  is  the  theme  of  a  volume 
by  James  Peckham,  "Gen.  Nathaniel  Lyon  and  Missouri  in  1861,  a  Mono- 
graph of  the  Great  Rebellion"  (447  pages,  1866).  He  is  also  commemo- 
rated by  the  names  of  counties  in  Iowa,  Kansas,  and  Nevada. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  of  names  was  gathered  from  "History  of 
the  Minnesota  Valley"  (1882,  1016  pages),  having  pages  848-882  for  this 
county,  "History  and  Description  of  Lyon  County,"  by  C.  F.  Case,  (1884, 
98  pages),  and  "An  Illustrated  History  of  Lyon  County,"  by  Arthur  P. 
Rose  (1912,  616  pages)  ;  and  from  interviews  with  Mr.  Rose,  author  of 
the  later  work,  and  Richard  R.  Bum  ford,  former  register  of  deeds,  visited 
at  Marshall,  the  county  seat,  in  September,  1916. 

Amiret  township,  settled  in  1868  and  organized  March  17,  1874,  was  at 
first  called  Madison,  which  was  changed  in  1879  to  the  present  name,  taken 
from  its  railway  village.  The  name  was  chosen  in  honor  of  Amiretta 
Sykes,  wife  of  M.  L.  Sykes,  vice  president  of  the  Chicago  and  Northwest- 
em  railway  company.  The  first  townsite  in  the  area  of  Lyon  county  had 
been  platted  in  1857  about  three  miles  southwest  from  the  site  of  this  vil- 
lage and  was  named  Saratoga,  which  name  was  given  in  1874  to  the  rail- 
way village  then  platted.  When  the  railway  was  being  built,  in  1872,  a 
post  office  had  been  established  here  and  naoied  Coburg,  in  honor  of  Wil- 

811 


312  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Ham  Coburn,  the  pioneer  merchant  and  first  postmaster.  In  1879  the 
name  Amiret  was  chosen,  superseding  both  these  names  and  the  former 
township  name  of  Madison. 

Balaton,  the  railway  village  of  Rock  Lake  township,  platted  in  July, 
1879,  and  incorporated  in  1892,  was  named  for  the  large  and  picturesque 
Lake  Balaton  in  western  Hungary. 

BuRCHARD,  a  railway  station  in  Shelburne,  received  this  name  in  1886, 
in  honor  of  H.  M.  Burchard,  a  Chicago  and  Northwestern  land  agent  at 
Marshall. 

Clifton  township,  settled  in  1872  and  organized  October  7,  1876,  bears 
a  name  proposed  by  Christopher  Dillman,  which  is  also  borne  by  villages 
and  townships  in  twenty-one  other  states. 

Coon  Creek  township,  organized  August  4,  1883,  has  a  creek  so  named 
from  Dead  Coon  lake  near  its  source,  in  Lincoln  county,  to  which  that 
name  was  given  by  the  early  government  surveyors  because  they  found  a 
dead  raccoon  there. 

Cottonwood,  a  Great  Northern  railway  village  in  Lucas  township, 
platted  in  July,  1888,  received  its  name  from  the  adjacent  lake,  which  has 
Cottonwood  trees  on  its  shore. 

Custer  township,  settled  in  1868  and  organized  October  14,  1876,  was 
named  in  honor  of  George  Armstrong  Custer,  who  was  bom  in  Ohio, 
December  5,  1839;  was  graduated  at  the  United  States  Military  Academy 
in  1861 ;  served  through  the  civil  war ;  was  brevetted  a  major  general  in 
1866;  commanded  an  exploring  expedition  to  the  Black  Hills  in  1874;  and 
was  killed  with  all  his  attacking  troops,  by  the  Sioux  in  Montana,  June 
25,  1876. 

Dudley,  a  railway  station  in  Qifton,  platted  December  20,  1901,  was 
named  for  Dudley  village  and  township  in  Massachusetts. 

EmsvoLD  township,  first  settled  in  June,  1871,  and  organized  September 
20,  1873,  was  named  by  vote  of  its  Norwegian  settlers  for  a  parish  in  Nor- 
way, noted  as  the  meeting  place  of  the  National  Assembly  in  1814. 

Fairview,  settled  in  June,  1870,  organized  April  1,  1873,  was  described 
by  Case  in  1884,  "as  its  name  implies,  a  beautiful  prairie  township,  which, 
especially  in  early  summer,  spreads  out  a  landscape  of  loveliness  nowhere 
else  equalled  but  on  the  green,  rolling  prairies,  and  under  the  clear  atmo- 
sphere of  Minnesota." 

Florence,  a  Great  Northern  railway  village  in  Shelbume,  platted  Octo- 
ber 9,  1888,  was  named  for  Florence  Sherman,  daughter  of  its  founder. 

Garvin,  a  Chicago  and  Northwestern  railway  village  in  Custer,  platted 
April  30,  1886,  was  at  first  called  Terry  and  afterward  Kent,  which  was 
changed  to  the  present  name  in  July,  1891,  in  honor  of  H.  C  Garvin,  trav- 
eling freight  agent  of  this  railway. 

Ghent,  the  railway  village  of  Grandview,  platted  in  June,  1878,  and 
incorporated  May  15,  1899,  at  first  bore  the  name  of  the  township,  but 
was  renamed  in  September,  1881,  for  the  ancient  city  of  Ghent  in  Bel- 


LYON  COUNTY  313 

gittm,  in  compliment  to  Belgian  colonists  coming  in  1880-81 ,  who  were  led 
by  Bishop  Ireland  to  settle  in  this  part  of  the  county. 

Grandview  township,  first  settled  in  Aiigust,  1871,  and  organized  two 
years  later,  was  named,  like  Alta  Vista  in  Lincoln  county,  for  the  exten- 
sive outlook  northeastward  from  the  Coteau  des  Prairies. 

Green  Valley,  a  railway  village  in  Fairview  township,  platted  in  May, 
1888,  refers  to  the  vast  green  prairie  there  traversed  by  the  Redwood  river. 

Heckman,  a  station  of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  railway,  five 
miles  southeast  of  Marshall,  was  named  for  a  dining-car  superintendent 

Island  Lake  township,  first  settled  about  the  year  1868,  organized  in 
March,  1879,  was  named  for  its  lake  in  section  34,  having  a  small  wooded 
island. 

Lake  Marshall  township,  settled;  in  1869  and  organized  March  8, 
1872,  received  the  name  of  its  lake,  given  in  honor  of  Governor  William 
Rainey  Marshall,  for  whom  also  a  county  is  named. 

Lucas  was  settled  in  1871.  "The  town  was  set  o£F  for  organization  in 
July,  1873,  as  Canton,  which  was  changed  to  Lisbon,  and  again  to  Moe, 
and  lastly  to  Lucas.  The  first  town  meeting  was  held  August  5,  1873." 
(History,  Minnesota  Valley,  p.  865.)  This  name  is  borne  by  counties  in 
Ohio  and  Iowa,  a  township  in  Wisconsin,  and  villages-  in  these  and  other 
states. 

Lynd  township,  settled  in  1867,  organized  January  9,  1873,  was  named 
in  honor  of  James  W.  Lynd,  who  had  a  fur  trading  station  in  section  5, 
Lyons,  during  1855-57,  and  afterward  removed  one  or  two  miles  down 
the  Redwood  river  to  the  northeast  quarter  of  section  33  in  this  town- 
ship. He  was  bom  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  November  25,  1830;  and  was  killed 
in  the  Indian  massacre  at  the  Lower  Sioux  Agency,  August  18,  1862. 
He  came  to  Minnesota  about  1853,  and  lived  among  the  Sioux  to  learn 
their  language,  habits,  and  characteristics,  on  which  he  intended  to  pub- 
lish a  book.  The  manuscript  for  it  was  completed,  but  was  mostly  de- 
stroyed in  the  Sioux  outbreak,  of  which  Mr.  Lynd  was  the  first  victim. 
He  was  a  state  senator  in  1861.  L3md  railway  village,  near  the  site  of 
his  second  trading  post,  was  platted  November  6,  1888. 

Lyons  township,  first  settled  in  January,  1868,  organized  April  1,  1873, 
received  its  name  from  that  of  the  county,  with  an  added  letter  which  gives 
to  it  the  English  form  of  the  name  of  the  ancient  and  large  city  of  Lyon 
in  France. 

Marshall^  the  county  seat,  platted  in  August,  1872,  with  the  building  of 
the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  railway,  incorporated  as  a  village  March 
18,  1876,  and  as  a  city  February  20,  1901,  was  named  for  Governor  Mar- 
shall, like  Lake  Marshall  township,  in  which  it  is  situated. 

Minkeota,  a  railway  village  in  Eidsvold,  platted  in  1881,  has  a  Sioux 
name,  meaning  "much  water."  Prof.  A.  W.  Williamson  wrote  of  its  origin, 
that  it  is  "said  to  be  so  named  by  an  early  settler  on  account  of  an  abun- 
dance of  water  flowing  into  his  well." 


314  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Monroe  township,  first  settled  in  1871,  organized  January  5,  1874, 
was  named  by  Louis  and  Ole  Rialson,  pioneers  who  came  from  Monroe, 
the  county  seat  of  Green  county  in  southern  Wisconsin.  Seventeen  states 
of  the  Union  have  counties  of  this  name,  and  a  larger  number  have  town- 
ships and  villages  or  cities,  including  eight  townships  in  Pennsylvania,  all 
being  named  in  honor  of  James  Monroe  (b.  1758,  d.  1831),  who  was  the 
fifth  president  of  the  United  States,  1817-25. 

N0RIH.AND  township,  settled  in  1870,  organized  May  9,  1873,  has  the 
name  of  a  northern  district  of  Norway,  crossed  by  the  Arctic  circle. 
Nearly  all  its  settlers  came  from  that  country. 

Rock  Lake  township,  organized  October  26,  1876,  took  its  name  from 
the  lake  in  its  northwest  corner,  which  refers  to  the  abundance  of  boul- 
ders around  the  shore,  pushed  up  in  some  places  by  the  lake  ice  to  form 
a  rock  wall. 

Russell^  a  Great  Northern  village  in  Lyons,  founded  in  May,  1888, 
and  incorporated  August  30,  1898,  was  named  for  Russell  Spicer,  son  of 
a  promoter  of  the  building  of  this  branch  railway. 

Shelburne  township,  settled  in  1871,  organized  September  6,  1879,  has 
a  name  that  is  borne  also  by  townships  and  villages  in  New  Hampshire, 
Vermont,  and  Massachusetts,  and  by  a  county  and  its  county  seat  in  Nova 
Scotia. 

SoDus  township,  first  settled  in  the  spring  of  1871,  organized  October 
27,  1876,  was  named  for  Sodus  township  and  village  in  Wayne  county,  N. 
Y.,  adjoining  Sodus  bay  of  Lake  Ontario.  This  name  is  of  Indian  origin, 
but  its  meaning  is  uncertain. 

Stanley  township,  settled  in  1867,  was  organized  in  March,  1877. 
A  city  in  Wisconsin,  villages  and  post  offices  in  a  dozen  other  states,  and 
a  county  in  South  Dakota,  bear  this  name. 

Taunton,  a  Chicago  and  Northwestern  railway  village  in  Eidsvold, 
platted  in  April,  1886,  and  incorpora/ted  June  5,  1900,  was  named  by  C 
C.  Wheeler,  an  officer  of  this  railway  company,  for  the  city  of  Taunton 
in  Massachusetts. 

Tracy,  a  village  and  junction  of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  rail- 
way, platted  in  1875,  incorporated  as  a  village  February  5,  1881,  and  as  a 
city  August  3,  1893,  was  named  in  honor  of  John  F.  Tracy,  a  former 
president  of  this  railway  company. 

Vallers  township,  organized  October  7,  1876,  was  named  by  Ole  O. 
Brenna,  a  pioneer  settler  from  Norway.  **His  desire  was  to  name  it 
Valla,  a  Norwegian  word,  meaning  valley,  but  because  of  incorrect  spell- 
ing in  the  petition  or  illegibility  the  county  commissioners  made  the  name 
read  Vallers."    (History  of  Lyon  County,  by  Rose,  p.  57.) 

Westerheim  township,  first  settled  in  June,  1871,  and  organized  May 
9,  1876,  received  this  Norwegian  name,  meaning  western  home,  by  vote  of 
its  people,  mostly  immigrants  from  Norway. 


LYON  COUNTY  315 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Coon  creek,  Cottonwood  lake,  Island  lake,  Lake  Marshall,  and  Rock 
lake,  giving  their  names  to  townships,  a  city,  and  a  village,  have  been  duly 
noticed  in  the  foregoing  list. 

Meadow  creek  is  a  name  given  on  a  recent  map  to  the  stream  flowing 
from  Lake  Marshall  to  the  Cottonwood  river. 

Three  Mile  creek  is  a  northern  tributary  of  the  Redwood  river,  with 
which  it  is  nearly  parallel  and  three  to  five  miles  distant  along  all  its 
course. 

Monroe  has  Lake  Sigel  and  the  shallow  or  sometimes  dry  Twin  lakes, 
the  former  being  named  in  honor  of  General  Franz  Sigel  (b.  1824,  d. 
1902),  distinguished  for  his  service  in  the  civil  war. 

The  Lake  of  the  Hills,  often  dry,  is  in  sections  20  and  21,  Custer. 
Long  lake,  on  the  south  line  of  this  township,  and  Lake  Yankton,  named 
for  a  division  of  the  Sioux  or  Dakota  people,  adjoining  Balaton,  outflow 
southeastward  to  Lake  Shetek  and  the  Des  Moines  river. 

Black  Rush  lake,  recently  drained,  was  in  Lyons ;  Marguerite  or  Wood 
lake  is  in  Coon  Creek  township ;  and  Goose  lake  lies  about  a  mile  west  of 
Island  lake. 

Swan  lake  is  on  the  east  side  of  section  12,  Stanley. 

School  Grove  lake  was  in  the  school  section  36  of  Lucas ;  Lady  Slipper 
and  Lady  Shoe  lakes  were  in  the  south  half  of  this  township,  having 
species  of  the  Minnesota  state  flower,  commonly  known  by  these  names, 
also  called  moccasin  flower;  and  Sham  lake  was  in  section  3.  These 
former  lakes,  however,  have  lately  been  drained.  Only  Cottonwood 
lake,  beside  the  village  named  from  it,  and  Lone  Tree  lake,  in  sections  5 
and  6,  remain  in  Lucas  township. 

Between  the  lakes  of  Stanley  and  Lucas,  in  the  northeast  comer  of  this 
county,  and  the  numerous  lakes  before  mentioned,  in  its  higher  south- 
west part,  a  wide  tract  extending  from  southeast  to  northwest  through 
its  center  is  destitute  of  lakes,  excepting  Lake  Marshall,  named  for  a 
governor  of  this  state  and  giving  his  name  to  the  county  seat. 


McLEOD  COUNTY 

Established  March  1,  1856,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of  Martin 
McLeod,  a  pioneer  fur  trader  of  Minnesota,  who  was  bom  in  Montreal, 
August  50,  1813,  of  Scotch  parentage,  and  there  received  a  good  education. 
In  1856  he  came  to  the  Northwest,  voyaging  in  an  open  boat  on  Lake 
Superior  from  its  mouth  to  La  Pointe,  Wisconsin,  and  thence  walking 
more  than  six  hundred  miles  to  the  Pembina  settlement  on  the  Red  river, 
where  he  arrived  in  December.  The  next  March,  having  set  out  with  two 
companions,  young  British  officers,  and  Pierre  Bottineau  as  guide,  he 
came  to  the  trading  post  of  Joseph  R.  Brown  at  Lake  Traverse,  arriving 
March  21,  after  a  journey  of  nineteen  days  and  a  most  perilous  experi- 
ence  of  hunger  and  cold  due  to  successive  blizzards,  by  one  of  which  the 
two  officers  perished.  Coming  forward  to  Fort  Snelling  in  April,  1857, 
he  was  afterward  during  many  years  engaged  as  a  fur  trader  for  Chou- 
teau and  Company,  under  the  direction  of  General  Sibley,  being  in  charge 
of  trading  posts  successively  on  the  St.  Croix  river,  at  Traverse  des  Sioux, 
Big  Stone  lake,  Lac  qui  Parle,  and  Yellow  Medicine. 

McLeod  was  a  member  of  the  Council  in  the  Territorial  legislature, 
1849-55,  being  president  of  the  Council  in  1855.  With  Colonel  John  H. 
Stevens  and  others,  he  was  one  of  the  founders  of  Glencoe  in  1855.  He 
died  November  20,  1860,  on  his  farm  to  which  he  had  removed  his  family 
in  1849,  at  Oak  Grove,  in  Bloomington,  Hennepin  county.  He  was  a 
charter  member  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  and  was  one  of  its 
two  vice  presidents  elected  at  the  time  of  its  organization,  November  15, 
1849.  (The  name  is  pronounced  as  if  spelled  McLoud,  with  English  sound 
of  the  diphthong.) 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  of  geographic  names  has  been  received  from 
an  address  by  R.  H.  McQelland  at  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  found- 
ing of  Hutchinson,  October  4,  1905;  "History  of  McLeod  County,"  862 
pages,  1917,  edited  by  Franklyn  Curtiss-Wedge  and  Return  I.  Holcombe; 
and  interviews  with  Captain  Axel  H.  Reed,  Henry  L.  Simons,  and  Henry 
Wadsworth,  each  of  Glencoe,  the  county  seat,  during  a  visit  there  in 
July,  1916. 

AooMA  township  was  named  by  Dr.  Vincent  P.  Kennedy,  for  the  In- 
dian pueblo  village  of  Acoma  in  western  New  Mexico,  about  fifty  miles 
west  of  Albuquerque. 

Besigen  township  was  named  by  its  Norwegian  settlers,  for  the  large 
city  and  seaport  of  Bergen  in  southwestern  Norway. 

316 


MCLEOD  COUNTY  317 

Biscay,  a  railway  village  in  Hassan  Valley  township,  received  its  name 
from  the  large  Bay  of  Biscay  adjoining  Spain  and  France. 

Brownton,  a  railway  village  in  Sumter,  platted  October  15,  1877,  in- 
corporated February  12,  1886,  was  named  in  honor  of  Alonzo  L.  Brown, 
whose  farm  included  this  townsite.  He  was  bom  in  Auburn,  N.  Y., 
November  8,  1838;  and  died  at  his  home  in  Brownton,  October  11,  1904. 
He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1857,  settling  here ;  served  in  the  Fourth  Minne- 
sota regiment  in  the  civil  war,  and  became  captain  in  a  colored  regiment ; 
was  author  of  the  History  of  the  Fourth  Regiment,  Minnesota,  594  pages, 
published  in  1892. 

Collins  township  was  named  in  honor  of  one  of  its  early  settlers. 
This  name  is  borne  by  a  township  in  New  York,  and  by  villages  in  ten 
other  states. 

Glencoe  township  received  the  name  of  its  village,  founded  in  June  11, 
1855.  It  was  chosen  by  Martin  McLeod,  for  whom  this  county  was  named, 
and  who  was  a  member  of  the  townsite  company,  in  commemoration  of  the 
historic  valley  called  Qencoe  in  Scotland,  where  the  MacDonakis  were 
massacred  in  February,  1692.  This  village  was  incorporated  in  1873  and 
adopted  its  charter  as  a  city  March  4,  1909.  From  the  beginning  of  the 
county,  it  has  been  continuously  the  county  seat. 

Hale  township  "was  named  either  for  an  early  settler  or  for  John  P. 
Hale,  of  New  Hampshire,  a  distinguished  American  statesman  and  the 
Free  Soil  candidate  for  president  in  1852.  It  is  said  that  the  Hutchin- 
sons  and  other  anti-slavery  men  of  the  county  induced  the  county  board 
to  name  the  township  for  the  eminent  New  England  Free  Soiler.-'  (His- 
tory of  this  county,  page  264.)  John  Parker  Hale  was  born  in  Rochester, 
N.  H.,  March  31,  1806 ;  and  died  in  Dover,  N.  H.,  November  19,  1873.  He 
was  a  member  of  Congress  from  New  Hampshire,  1843-45 ;  United  States 
senator,  1847-53  and  1855-65;  and  was  minister  to  Spain  in  1865-69. 

Hassan  Vallby  township,  the  last  organized  in  this  county,  is  crossed 
by  the  Hassan  river,  as  it  was  named  on  maps  of  Minnesota  in  1860  and 
1869,  but  on  later  maps  called  the  South  fork  of  Crow  river.  This  Sioux 
word,  hassan,  is  derived  from  haza  or  hah-zah,  the  huckleberry  or  blue- 
berry. With  another  Sioux  word,  chan,  tree,  it  supplied  the  name  of  the 
sugar  maple,  chanhassan,  "the  tree  of  sweet  juice,"  whence  came  the  name 
of  Chanhassen  township  in  Carver  county,  and  Hassan  township  in  Hen- 
nepin county. 

Helen  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Mrs.  Helen  Armstrong,  its 
first  white  woman  resident,  whose  husband,  J.  R.  Armstrong,  was  sheriff 
of  the  county. 

Hutchinson  township  took  the  name  of  its  village,  founded  November 
19,  1855,  by  the  brothers,  Asa,  Judson,  and  John  Hutchinson,  with  others. 
These  brothers  were  members  of  the  famous  family  of  many  singers,  born 
in  Milford,  N.  H.,  who  gave  concerts  of  popular  and  patriotic  songs 
throughout  the  United  States  after  1841  until  the  close  of  the  civil  war. 


318  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Hutchinson  was  incorporated  as  a  village  Febroary  9,  1881,  and  as  a 
city  in  1904. 

Asa  Burnham  Hutchinson,  youngest  of  the  brothers  founding  Hutchin- 
son, where  he  afterward  lived,  was  born  March  14,  1823,  and  died  at  his 
home  here  November  25,  1884.  Adoniram  Judson  Joseph  Hutchinson, 
commemorated  by  the  name  of  Judson  lake,  recently  drained,  about  a  auie 
north  of  this  city,  was  born  March  14,  1817,  and  died  in  Lynn,  Mass^ 
January  10,  1859.  John  Wallace  Hutchinson,  born  January  4,  1821,  re- 
sided many  years  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  and  was  author  of  the  ''Story  of  tfaf 
Hutchinsons,"  two  volumes,  495  and  416  pages,  published  in  1896. 

KoNiSKA^  a  village  platted  in  1856  on  the  South  fork  of  Crow  river, 
for  utilization  of  its  water-power,  has  been  mainly  superseded  by  the  vil- 
lages and  cities  on  railways. 

Lester  Prairie,  a  railway  village  in  Bergen,  platted  in  1886  and  incor- 
porated in  1888,  was  named  in  honor  of  John  N.  Lester  and  his  wife, 
Maria  Lester,  whose  homestead  farm  included  a  part  of  its  site, 

Lynn  township  was  named  probably  by  recommendation  of  the 
Hutchinson  brothers,  for  the  city  of  Lynn  in  Massachusetts. 

Penn  township,  settled  largely  by  Germans  from  Pennsylvania,  was 
named  for  William  Penn,  the  founder  of  that  state. 

Plato,  a  railway  village  of  Helen  township,  bears  the  name  of  a  re- 
nowned Greek  philosopher  (d.  347  B.  C),  who  was  a  disciple  of  Socrates 
and  the  teacher  of  Aristotle.  This  is  also  the  name  of  small  villages  in 
New  York,  Illinois,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri. 

Rich  Valley  was  named  on  the  suggestion  of  A.  B.  White,  an  early 
settler  at  its  village  of  Koniska,  for  the  fertility  of  its  soil  and  for  the 
South  fork  of  Crow  river  flowing  through  this  township. 

Round  Grove  township  was  named  for  the  large  grove  in  the  north- 
west quarter  of  its  section  6,  adjoining  the  east  side  of  Round  Grove 
lake,  less  than  a  mile  southwest  from  Stewart  village. 

St.  George  is  a  hamlet  on  the  South  fork  of  Crow  river  in  the  east 
edge  of  Rich  Valley. 

Silver  Lake^  a  village  platted  in  1881  and  incorporated  in  1889,  is  situ- 
ated at  the  north  side  of  Silver  lake,  in  sections  ZZ  and  34,  Hale,  about  a 
mile  north  of  its  Great  Northern  railway  station. 

Stewart,  a  village  on  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St  Paul  railway  in 
section  31,  Collins,  platted  in  1878  and  incorporated  in  1888,  was  named  in 
honor  of  its  founder.  Dr.  D.  A.  Stewart,  of  Winona. 

Sumter  township  was  named  for  Fort  Sumter,  built  on  a  small  arti- 
ficial island  three  miles  southeast  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  as  a  defence  of  its 
harbor.  The  bombardment  of  this  fort  by  the  Confederates,  April  12  and 
13,  1861,  with  its  evacuation  by  Major  Anderson  on  April  14,  began  the 
civil  war. 

Winsted  township,  its  village,  and  the  adjoining  Winsted  lake,  received 
their  name  from  Winsted  in  Connecticut,  one  of  the  county  seats  of 


MC  LEOD  CO  UNTY  319 

Litchfield  county,  the  native  place  of  Eli.F.  Lewis,  founder  of  this  'vUlage. 
The  lake  was  originally  named  1^  him  Lake  Eleanor,  in  honor  of  his  wife. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Crow  river,  belonging  to  several  counties,  has  been  considered  in  the 
first  chapter.  McLeod  county  lies  mostly  in  the  basin  of  its  South  fork, 
whdch  in  early  years  of  the  county  was  called  Hassan  river,  as  before 
noted.  That  name,  received  from  the  Sioux  and  meaning  sugar  maple, 
is  applied  to  a  township,  Hassan  Valley;  and  the  next  township  on  this 
stream,  also  named  from  it,  is  Rich  Valley.  Its  chief  tributary,  flowing 
across  the  south  half  of  the  county,  is  Buffalo  creek,  named  for  abundant 
buffalo  bones  found  throughout  the  area  when  it  was  first  settled  and 
brought  under  cultivation. 

Silver  creek,  in  Bergen  township,  is  a  smaller  southern  tributary  of 
the  South  fork;  and  from  the  north  it  receives  Crane,  Otter,  and  Bear 
creeks,  the  last  being  the  outlet  of  Bear  lake,  Lake  Harrington,  and  Silver 
take. 

High  Island  creek,  crossing  the  two  most  southern  townships,  flows 
eastward  through  Sibley  county  to  the  Minnesota  river,  passing  High 
Island  lake,  whence  came  its  name,  as  noted  for  that  county. 

The  list  of  townships  and  villages  contains  due  notice  of  Judson  lake, 
near  Hutchinson,  Round  Grove  lake,  Sdlver  lake,  and  Winsted  lake. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  long  and  narrow  Otter  lake,  intersected  by 
the  course  of  the  South  fork  or  Hassan  river.  Lake  Marion  in  the  north- 
east edge  of  Collins,  Lake  Addie  at  Brownton,  and  Baker's  -  lake,  crossed 
by  High  Island  creek  in  Penn  township,  form  together  an  almost  straight 
series,  extending  seventeen  miles  from  north  to  south,  more  than  half  of 
which  is  water.  This  series  of  lakes  may  be  of  similar  origin  with  the 
three  very  remarkable  series  or  chains  of  lakes  in  Martin  county,  de- 
scribed and  named  in  its  chapter. 

Lakes  Addie  and  Marion  were  named  before  1860  by  Charles  Hoag, 
for  his  two  daughters.  He  lived  here  during  a  few  years,  though  previous- 
ly and  also  afterward  his  home  was  in  Minneapolis,  where  in  1852  he 
bore  a  principal  part  in  naming  that  city. 

Baker's  lake  was  named  in  honor  of  Augustus  C.  Baker,  who  settled 
here  as  a  farmer  in  1865.  He  was  born  in  Freedom,  Ohio,  December 
19,  1838;  came  to  Minnesota,  and  served  during  the  last  year  of  the  civil 
war  in  the  Fourth  Minnesota  regiment ;  engaged  in  mercantile  business  in 
Brownton  after  1878^  and  in  recent  years  was  its  postmaster. 

King's  lake,  in  sections  10  and  15,  Penn,  and  Ward's  lake,  crossed  by 
the  south  line  of  Round  Grove  township,  were  named  for  6arly  settlers. 

Helen  township  formerly  had  Kennison  lake  in  sections  1  and  12,  and 
Bear  and  Brian  lakes  in  section  32,  but  they  have  been  recently  drained. 

Glencoe  has  Rice  and  Swan  lakes  in  sections  7  and  8,  and  Brewster  and 
Thoeny  lakes  in  its  southwest  part.    Mathias  Thoeny,  for  whom  the  last 


320  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

is  named,  was  born  in  Switzerland,  September  28,  1837;  served  through 
the  civil  war  in  the  Second  Minnesota  regiment,  rising  to  the  rank  of 
captain ;  was  a  merchant  in  Glencoe,  1865-70,  auditor  of  this  county  in  1873- 
83,  and  afterward  was  cashier  of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Glencoe 
during  thirty  years. 

Sumter,  with  Lake  Addie  before  noted,  has  Lake  Mary  in  section  17, 
Clear  lake  in  section  13,  and  Nobles  lake  adjoining  Sumter  village.  The 
last  was  named  for  three  brothers,  Alexander,  Daniel,  and  Jeremiah 
Nobles,  whose  homesteads  were  on  or  near  this  lake. 

In  Collins,  with  Lake  Marion,  are  Eagle  lake  and  Lake  Whitney,  the 
last  being  named  for  a  pioneer  farmer. 

Lake  Barber,  similarly  named,  is  in  sections  26  and  27,  Lynn ;  but  Lake 
Allen,  formerly  in  its  sections  22  and  23,  and  another  shallow  lake,  un- 
named, in  section  34,  have  been  drained. 

Winsted  has  South  lake,  lying  a  half  mile  south  of  Winsted  lake; 
Roach  and  Higgins  lakes,  each  recently  drained,  in  the  east  edge  of  this 
township;  Grass  lake  in  sections  3  and  10;  Coon  lake,  crossed  by  the 
north  line  of  section  5 ;  and  Qoustier  lake,  in  section  31.  Crane  and  Otter 
creeks,  in  the  south  half  of  Winsted,  flow  southeastward  to  the  South 
fork  of  Crow  river. 

With  Silver  lake,  beside  the  village  of  this  name  in  Hale  township, 
are  Mud  lake,  on  the  east,  and  Swan  lake,  about  a  mife  distant  northwest- 
ward. Another  Mud  lake,  in  sections  23,  24,  and  26,  Hale,  has  been 
drained,  as  also  the  former  Bullhead  lake,  in  section  21,  named  for  its 
small  species  of  catfish,  called  the  bullhead  or  horned  pout. 

Hutchinson  township  has  Lake  Byron,*  in  section  2,  and  a  group  of  a 
dozen  other  lakes  in  its  northern  half,  including  Bear  and  Little  Bear 
lakes,  Emily  and  Echo  lakes.  Lakes  Harrington,  Hook,  and  Todd,  and 
Loughnan's  lake,  with  others  unnamed. 

Lewis  Harrington,  honored  by  one  of  these  lakes,  was  born  in  Greene, 
Ohio,  November  22,  1830;  was  surveyor  of  the  townsite  of  Hutchinson, 
1855-56,  and  its  first  postmaster;  was  captain  of  a  company  defending 
this  place  against  the  Sioux  in  1862 ;  was  a  representative  in  the  state  legis- 
lature, 1866-68;  and  died  by  an  accidental  fall,  August  14,  1884,  while  en- 
gaged on  government  surveys  in  the  state  of  Washington. 

Lake  Hook  was  named  for  Isaac  Hook,  who  came  in  the  spring  of 
1856  and  lived  beside  this  lake  many  years  as  a  recluse. 

Lake  Todd  commemorates  Daniel  S.  Todd,  a  pioneer  farmer. 

Walker's  lake,  two  miles  northeast  from  the  city  of  Hutchinson,  and 
Judson  lake,  before  noticed,  have  been  drained  for  use  of  their  beds  as 
farming  land. 

In  the  north  half  of  Acoma  are  Cedar  and  Belle  lakes,  crossed  by  the 
north  line  of  the  township  and  county,  and  Stahl's  lake,  in  sections  10  and 
11,  named  for  Charles  Stahl,  a  German  farmer,  who  settled  there  in  June, 
1857.    Ferrel  lake,  formerly  in  sections  16  and  17,  is  drained. 


MAHNOMEN  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  December  27,  1906,  was  previously  the  east 
part  of  Norman  county.  It  comprises  half  the  area  of  the  White  Earth 
Indian  Reservation,  which  also  extends  south  into  Becker  county  and  east 
into  Qearwater  county,  the  name  of  the  reservation  as  noted  in  the  chap- 
ter for  Becker  county,  being  derived  from  White  Earth  lake.  The  south 
line  of  Mahnomen  county  crosses  the  north  end  of  this  lake,  and  its  out- 
let, the  White  Earth  river,  flows  through  the  south  half  of  this  county 
to  the  Wild  Rice  river. 

Mahnomen  is  one  of  the  various  spellings  of  the  Ojibway  word  for 
the  wild  rice.  From  this  excellent  native  grain  we  receive  the  English  name, 
through  translation,  of  the  Wild  Rice  lakes,  in  Clearwater  county,  and  of 
the  Wild  Rice  river,  which  has  its  source  in  these  lakes  and  flows  across 
Mahnomen  and  Norman  counties  to  the  Red  river.  The  same  word  has 
been  more  commonly  written  Manomin,  as  in  Baraga's  Dictionary  of  the 
Ojibway  language,  and  in  this  spelling  it  was  the  name  of  a  former  very 
small  county  in  this  state,  between  Anoka  and  St.  Anthony  (the  east  part 
of  Minneapolis),  existing  from  1857  to  1869.  With  other  orthographic 
variations,  it  gave  the  names  of  the  Menominee  tribe  of  Indians,  Menom- 
inee river,  county,  and  city,  in  Michigan,  and  Menomonee  river,  as  well 
as  the  towns  of  Menomonee  Falls  and  Menomonie,  in  Wisconsin. 

The  county  seat  of  Mahnomen  county  has  the  same  name,  which  was 
given  to  this  railway  village  before  the  county  was  established.  Its  spell- 
ing here  adopted  is  similar  to  Mahnomonee,  written  by  Longfellow  in 
"the  Song  of  Hiawatha." 

In  the  Dakota  or  Sioux  language,  according  to  its  Dictionary  by  Riggs, 
wild  rice  is  called  psin.  From  that  word  probably  came  the  earliest  pub- 
lished name,  Du  Siens,  for  the  Wild  Rice  lake  and  river,  given  by  the 
narration  of  Joseph  la  France  in  1744,  as  noted  in  the  chapter  for  Qear- 
water county.  He  described  the  plant  as  "a  kind  of  wild  Oat,  of  the  Nature 
of  Rice."  It  was  commonly  known  by  the  early  French  traders  and  voy- 
ageurs  as  folle  avoine,  meaning  fool  oat  or  false  oat;  and  thence  their 
name  for  the  Menominee  tribe,  living  in  the  north  part  of  Wisconsin  and 
Michigan,  was  Folles  Avoines,  and  that  region  of  many  lakes  and  streams, 
having  abundance  of  wild  rice,  was  named  the  Folle  Avoine  country. 
Dr.  Douglas  Houghton,  writing  in  1832  as  a  member  of  Schoolcraft's  ex- 
pedition to  Lake  Itasca,  defined  this  term  to  comprise  '^hat  section  of 
country  lying  between  the  highlands  southwest  from  Lake  Superior  and 
the  Mississippi  river." 

A  very  interesting  monograph,  entitled  "The  Wild  Rice  Gatherers  of 
the  Upper  Lakes,"  was  contributed  by  Prof.  Albert  E.  Jenks  in  the  Nine- 
teenth Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  for  1897-98, 

321 


322  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

published  in  1900,  forming  its  pages  1013-1137,  illustrated  with  thirteen 
plates.  Derived  mainly  from  that  elaborate  work,  a  summary  notice  of  the 
wild  rice  and  its  use  by  the  Ojibways  was  given  by  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell, 
in  part  as  follows.  "The  plant  is  an  annual,  springing  from  seed  every 
year,  growing  in  lakes  and  slow-flowing  streams  which  have  a  mud-alluvial 
bottom.  The  grain  is  from  about  a  half  an  inch  to  nearly  an  inch  in 
length,  cylindrical,  dark  slate  color  when  ripe,  and  is  embraced  in  glumes, 
or  husks,  arranged  in  an  appressed  panicle  at  the  top  of  the  long  stem.  .  .  . 
Its  leaves  are  broad  (for  a  grass)  and  numerous.  Its  botanical  name 
in  Zizania  aquatica.  The  fruit  is  ripe  in  September.  While  it  is  per- 
petual when  once  established  in  favorable  situations,  it  becomes  necessary 
to  sow  it  artificially  when  it  is  destructively  gathered  either  by  wild  fowl 
or  by  Indians.  ...  In  August  the  green,  standing,  rice  stalks  are  tied 
into  bunches  by  the  women.  This  is  for  protecting  the  grain  from  injury 
and  loss  by  water-fowl  as  well  as  by  winds,  and  also  to  facilitate  the  sub- 
sequent harvesting.  The  twine  used  is  the  pliable  inner  bark  of  the  bass- 
wood.  .  .  .  Much  rice  is  gathered,  however,  without  previous  tying. 
When  it  is  ripe  it  is  gathered  in  canoes  which  are  pushed  through  the 
rice-field,  one  woman  acting  as  canoeman  and  the  other  as  harvester.  The 
stalks,  whether  tied  in  bundles  or  hot,  are  bent  over  the  gunwale  and  beat- 
en with  a  stick  so  as  to  dislodge  the  grain.  As  the  fruit  is  easily  loosened, 
whether  by  the  wind  or  by  birds,  as  well  as  by  handling,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  gather  it  just  before  maturity,  and  subsequently  subject  it  to  a 
process  of  drying  and  ripening."  (The  Aborigines  of  Minnesota,  1911, 
pages  592-4.) 

About  10,000  bushels  of  wild  rice  were  formerly  harvested  yearly  by 
the  Ojibways  in  northern  Minnesota,  being  an  average  of  a  bushel  or  more 
for  each  of  the  population.  Since  many  have  adopted  in  later  years  the 
ways  of  civilization,  making  farms  and  permanent  homes  on  the  White 
Earth  reservation,  the  amount  of  wild  rice  used  is  much  diminished.  Its 
salable  value,  as  partly  purchased  by  white  people,  is  five  to  ten  cents  per 
pound,  or  from  three  to  six  dollars  per  bushel. 

Rev.  Joseph  A.  Gilfillan,  in  his  paper  on  "The  Ojibways  in  Minnesota" 
(M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  IX,  1901,  pp.  55-128),  presented  a  vivid  de- 
scription of  the  gathering  of  wild  rice,  as  seen  at  a  large  rice  lake  in  the 
north  part  of  this  reservation. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  and  meanings  of  names  in  this  county  was 
received  from  Alfred  Aamoth,  auditor,  and  Arthur  J.  Andersen,  treasurer, 
during  a  visit  at  Mahnomen,  the  county  seat,  in  September,  1909 ;  and  from 
John  W.  Carl,  auditor,  and  Martin  M.  Bowman,  clerk  of  the  court,  in  a 
second  visit  there  in  September,  1916. 

Beaulieu  township  and  village  were  named  for  Henry  and  John 
Beaulieu,  who  served  in  the  civil  war  and  afterward  owned  farms  here. 


MAHNOMEN  COUNTY  323 

* 

John  Beaulieu  was  during  many  years  the  village  postmaster.  Records 
of  the  Beaulieu  family  and  allied  families,  prominent  in  the  history  of  the 
Ojibways  in  this  state,  descendants  of  a  French  fur  trader,  Bazille  Beau- 
lieu, and  his  Ojibway  wife,  "Queen  of  the  Skies,"  are  given  by  Winchell 
in  "The  Aborigines  of  Minnesota,"  page  722. 

Bejou  township  and  its  railway  village  received  this  name,  changed 
in  pronunciation  and  spelling,  from  the  French  words,  Bon  jour  ("Good 
day"),  of  the  former  fur  traders  and  voyageurs.  It  is  the  common 
Ojibway  salutation  on  meeting  friends  or  even  strangers,  used  like  the 
familiar  English  and  American  greeting,  "How  do  you  do?" 

Chief  township  was  named  in  honor  of  May-sha-ke-ge-shig  (also 
spelled  Me-sha-ki-gi-zhig) ,  the  principal  chief  of  the  Ojibways  on  the 
White  Earth  Reservation,  described  by  Winchell  as  "a  man  revered  for 
many  noble  qualities  and  for  his  distinguished  presence."  He  died  "nearly 
100  years  old,"  August  29,  1919,  at  the  Old  Folks  Home  in  Beaulieu ;  had 
Uved  as  a  farmer  on  this  reservation  since  1868. 

Gregory  was  named  for  Joseph  Gregory,  an  early  farmer  here,  who  was 
one  of  the  first  taking  an  allotment  of  land  in  this    township. 

Heier  township  commemorates  Frank  Heier,  who  was  teacher  of  an 
Ojibway  school  in  this  township,  and  later  was  superintendent  of  the 
government  school  at  Pine  Point,  Becker  county,  near  the  southeast  cor- 
ner of  the  White  Earth  Reservation. 

Island  Lake  township  has  a  large  lake  of  this  name,  containing  an 
island  of  many  acres.  • 

Lagarde  township  was  named  for  Moses  Lagarde,  who  served  in  the 
civil  war,  received  a  farm  allotment  here,  and  was  owner  of  a  hotel  in 
Beaulieu  village. 

Lake  Grove  township  is  mostly  a  broadly  undulating  and  rolling  prairie, 
but  has  several  small  lakes  bordered  with  groves. 

Mahnomen,  the  county  seat,  is  a  railway  village  close  north  of  the 
Wild  Rice  river,  whence  came  tJhis  Ojibway  name,  later  given  to  the 
county. 

Marsh  Creek  township  bears  the  name  of  the  creek  flowing  across  it. 

Pembina  township,  like  Pembina  river  and  county  in  North  Dakota,  is 
named  from  the  bush  cranberry,  excellent  for  making  sauce  and  pies,  called 
by  the  Ojibways  nepin  ninan,  summer  berry.  The  Ojibway  words  were 
transformed  into  this  name  by  the  French  voyageurs  and  traders. 

Popple  Grove  township  has  mainly  a  prairie  surface,  interspersed  with 
occasional  groves  of  the  common  small  poplar,  often  mispronounced  as  in 
this  name. 

Rosedale  township,  consisting  partly  of  prairie  and  partly  of  wood- 
land, was  named  for  its  plentiful  wild  roses.' 

Schneider  Lake  township  has  a  lake  of  this  name,  beside  which  Frank 
Schneider,  a  German  married  to  an  Ojibway,  formerly  lived  as  a  farmer, 
but  later  removed  to  Waubun  village. 

Twin  Lakes  township  is  named  for  its  two  lakes,  separated  by  a  nar- 
row strip  of  land  with  a  road. 


324  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Waubun,  a  railway  village,  has  an  Ojibway  name,  meaning  the  cast, 
the  morning,  and  the  twilight  of  dawn.  It  is  spelled  waban  in  Baraga's 
Dictionary,  and  wabun  by  Longfellow  in  "The  Song  of  Hiawatha,"  with 
definition  as  the  east  wind.  Another  spelling  of  this  name  is  borne  by 
Waupun,  a  city  in  eastern  Wisconsin. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  foregoing  pages  have  sufficiently  noticed  the  White  Earth  and 
Wild  Rice  rivers.  Island  lake.  Marsh  creek,  Schneider  lake,  and  the  Twin, 
lakes. 

The  origins  of  the  names  of  White  Earth  and  Tulaby  lakes,  crossed  by 
the  south  line  of  this  county,  are  given  in  the  chapter  for  Becker  county. 

Numerous  other  lakes  are  to  be  here  listed,  in  the  order  of  townships 
from  south  to  north  and  of  ranges  from  east  to  west;  but  many  lakes  of 
relatively  small  size  are  yet  unnamed. 

Big  Bass  lake  was  named  for  its  fish,  and  Little  Elbow  lake  for  its  bent 
form. 

Simon  lake,  crossed  by  the  middle  part  of  the  east  boundary  of  the 
county,  commemorates  Simon  Roy,  who  had  a  cattle  farm  there  and  died 
many  years  ago,  leaving  several  sons  yet  living  in  the  White  Earth  Reser- 
vation. 

Lake  Erie  is  in  section  7,  Lagarde.  Why  it  received  this  name  re- 
mains to  be  learned. 

Rosedale  has  Gardner,  Sandy,  and  Fish  lakes.  The  first  was  named 
for  Charles  Gardner,  who  was  a  log  driver  on  the  Snake  and  Pine  rivers 
and  later  was  a  successful  farmer  at  this  lake. 

Lone  lake  is  two  miles  north  of  Simon  lake,  and  Washington  lake  lies 
four  miles  northwest  of  Lone  lake,  being  close  north  of  Wild  Rice  river. 

Aspinwall,  Vanoss,  and  Warren  lakes,  in  Chief  township,  were  named 
respectively  for  Henry  Aspinwall,  a  farmer  beside  the  lake  of  his  name, 
Francis  Vanoss,  of  Canadian  French  and  Ojibway  descent,  who  in  his  old 
age  took  a  land  allotment,  and  Budd  Warren,  a  nephew  of  William  W. 
Warren,  the  historian  of  the  Ojibways.  This  township  also  has  Chief 
lake,  named,  like  the  township,  for  the  Ojibway  chief. 

Sugar  Bush  lake,  in  section  7,  Island  Lake  township,  received  its  name 
from  its  maple  trees  used  for  sugar-making. 

Gregory  township  has  Lake  Beaulieu  and  Church  lake.  The  first  was 
named  for  Alexander  H.  Beaulieu,  who  long  ago  was  allotted  land  there, 
which  he  farmed  until  1916,  then  removing  to  Fosston.  Church  lake  was 
named  for  Charles  Church,  an  American  farmer  there,  having  an  Ojibway 
wife. 

Tamarack  lake,  in  section  29,  Bejou,  is  partly  bordered  by  tamarack 
woods.  Sand  Hill  river,  flowing  through  the  northwest  part  of  this  town- 
ship, is  named  from  the  dunes  or  wind-blown  sand  hills  of  its  delta,  in 
Polk  county,  which  was  deposited  at  the  highest  stage  of  the  Glacial  Lake 
Agassiz. 


MAHNOMEN  COUNTY  325 

White  Eablth  Reservation. 

Because  Mahnomen  county  is  wholly  included  within  this  Reservation, 
special  attention  should  be  here  directed  to  the  concise  notice  of  its  name 
and  date  before  given  for  Becker  county,  in  which  are  the  Reservation 
Agency,  at  White  Earth,  and  the  lake  whence  the  name  is  taken.  It  is 
the  largest  of  the  several  Ojibway  reservations  that  remain  in  this  state, 
having  an  area  of  thirty-two  townships.  Aside  from  its  many  lakes,  most- 
ly of  small  size,  it  has  space  for  about  4,000  farms  like  the  usual  home- 
stead of  white  settlers,  measuring  160  acres  or  a  quarter  of  a  section  In 
the  government  survey. 

The  Ojibway  name  of  the  White  Earth  lake,  which  is  retained  in  its 
translation,  being  given  also  to  the  Reservation,  is  noted  on  page  31  of 
the  Becker  county  chapter. 

The  White  Earth  reservation  was  established  by  a  treaty  at  Washing- 
ton, March  19,  1867.  In  the  summer  of  the  next  year  many  Ojibways 
of  the  Mississippi  and  Gull  Lake  bands,  led  respectively  by  their  chiefs, 
Wa-bon-a-quot  (White  Cloud)  and  Na-bun-ash-kong,  removed  there. 
June  14,  1868,  was  the  day  of  arrival  of  the  pioneers  in  the  removal,  and 
its  anniversary  is  celebrated  at  White  Earth  each  year.  Twelve  town- 
ships in  Becker  county,  the  entire  sixteen  townships  of  Mahnomen  county, 
and  the  next  four  of  Range  2^  in  Gearwater  county,  are  included  in  the 
reservation  area,  being  as  fertile  farming  land  as  is  found  in  any  part  of 
Minnesota. 


MARSHALL  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  February  25,  1879,  was  named  in  honor  of 
William  Rainey  Marshall,  governor  of  Minnesota.  He  was  bom  near 
Columbia,  Missouri,  October  17,  1825;  but  his  boyhood  was  spent  in 
Quincy,  Illinois,  to  which  place  his  parents  removed  in  1830.  At  the  age 
of  fifteen  years,  in  company  with  his  older  brother  Joseph,  he  went  to 
the  lead  mines  of  Galena,  where  he  worked  several  years  and  learned 
land  surveying. 

In  1847  he  came  to  St.  Croix  Falls,  Wisconsin,  and  in  1849  to  Minne- 
sota, settling  at  St.  Anthony  Falls  and  opening  a  general  hardware  busi- 
ness, with  his  brother  Joseph.  For  Franklin  Steele  and  others  he  sur- 
veyed the  St.  Anthony  Falls  townsite,  his  plat  being  dated  October  9, 
1849.  Two  years  later  he  removed  to  St.  Paul,  which  thenceforward  was 
his  home,  and  became  its  pioneer  hardware  merchant.  In  1855  he  founded 
a  banking  business,  which  failed  in  the  financial  panic  of  1857;  and  sub- 
sequently he  engaged  in  farming  and  stock-raising,  and  brought  to  Minne- 
sota its  earliest  high-bred  cattle. 

Marshall  was  commissioned  in  August,  1862,  as  lieutenant  colonel  of 
the  Seventh  Minnesota  regiment;  aided  in  the  suppression  of  the  Sioux 
outbreak,  and- in  the  expedition  of  1863  against  the  Sioux  in  North  Dako- 
ta; and  afterward  served  through  the  civil  war  in  the  South,  being  pro- 
moted colonel  of  his  regiment  in  November,  1863,  and  brevetted  briga- 
dier general  March  13,  1865.  He  was  governor  of  Minnesota  during  two 
terms,  1866-70,  being  "one  of  the  best  chief  magistrates  the  state  has  ever 
had."    In  1876-82  he  served  as  the  state  railroad  commissioner. 

In  1893  he  was  elected  secretary  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society, 
of  which  he  had  been  president  in  1868;  but  he  resigned  in  1894,  on  ac- 
count of  ill  health,  and  went  in  hope  of  recovery  to  Pasadena,  California, 
where  he  died  January  8,  1896.  An  obituary  sketch,  by  Rev.  Edward  C. 
Mitchell,  was  published  in  the  eighth  volume  of  this  society's  Historical 
Collections  (1898,  pages  506-510,  with  a  portrait)  ;  and  the  thirteenth 
volume  of  this  series,  "Lives  of  the  Governors  of  Minnesota,"  by  General 
James  H.  Baker,  published  in  1908,  has  a  more  extended  biography  (pages 
145-165,  with  a  portrait),  including  extracts  from  his  addresses  and  mes- 
sages as  governor. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  of  names  was  received  from  "History  of 
the  Red  River  Valley,"  two  volumes,  1909,  having  pages  831-859  for  this 
county;  from  August  G.  Lundgren,  county  auditor,  and  Peter  Holan, 
deputy  auditor,  John  P.  Mattson,  editor  of  the  Warren  Sheaf,  and  Hon. 

326 


MARSHALL  COUNTY  327 

Andrew  Grindeland,  district  judge,  each  being  interviewed  during  a  visit 
at  Warren,  the  county  seat,  in  August,  1909;  and  again  from  Mr.  Lund- 
gren,  also  from  Alfred  C.  Swandby,  clerk  of  the  court,  R.  C.  Math  wig, 
Albert  P.  Mclntyre,  and  Charles  L.  Stevens,  editor  of  the  Warren  Regis- 
ter, during  a  second  visit  there  in  September,  1916. 

Agder  township,  organized  in  1902,  has  the  name  of  a  district  in  south- 
ern Norway,  southwest  of  Giristiania. 

Alma^  organized  in  1882,  was  named  for  Alma  Dahlgren,  the  first 
child  born  in  this  township,  daughter  of  Peter  O.  Dahlgren,  who  during 
several  years  was  the  county  treasurer. 

Alvasado,  a  railway  village  in  Vega  township,  has  the  name  of  a  sea- 
port and  river  in  Mexico,  about  forty  miles  southeast  of  Vera  Cruz.  It 
is  also  the  name  of  a  small  city  in  Texas,  and  of  villages  in  Indiana  and 
California. 

Argyle^  a  large  railway  village  in  Middle  River « township,  bears  the 
name  of  a  county  in  western  Scotland,  which  is  borne  also  by  a  township 
in  Maine  and  by  villages  in  nine  other  states.  This  name  was  proposed  by 
Hon.  S.  G.  Comstock,  for  whom  a  township  of  this  county  is  named. 

Augsburg  township,  organized  in  1884,  was  named  by  its  Lutheran 
people  for  the  ancient  city  of  Augsburg  in  Bavaria,  Germany.  The  chief 
Lutheran  creed,  called  the  Augsburg  confession,  was  submitted  to  the 
Diet  of  Augsburg  in  1530;  and  a  treaty  was  made  there  between  the 
Lutheran  and  Catholic  states  of  Germany,  September  25,  1555,  which 
secured  the  triumph  of  the  Reformation  by  granting  authority  for  the 
separate  states  to  prescribe  the  form  of  worship  within  their  limits. 

Big  Woods  township,  organized  in  1882,  has  a  wide  border  of  timber 
along  the  Red  river. 

Bloomer  township,  also  organized  in  1882,  received  its  name  from  the 
village  of  Bloomer  in  Chippewa  county,  Wisconsin,  whence  some  of  its 
settlers  came. 

BoxvnxE  township,  organized  in  1884,  was  named  for  William  N. 
Box,  an  early  homesteader  there,  who  removed  to  Northfield,  Minn.,  and 
later  to  the  Pacific  coast. 

Cedar  township,  organized  in  1892,  has  groves  of  the  arbor  vitae,  more 
often  called  white  cedar. 

Couo  township,  organized  in  1900,  received  its  name  from  Lake  Como 
in  St.  Paul,  as  probably  proposed  by  George  F.  Whitcomb,  a  land  owner 
here  who  lived  in  that  city.  Seven  states  of  the  Union  have  villages  of 
this  name,  derived  from  the  Italian  city  and  province  and  their  moun- 
tain-bordered lake  so  named  at  the  south  side  of  the  Alps. 

Comstock  township,  organized  in  1881,  was  named  in  honor  of  Solomon 
G.  Comstock,  an  attorney  for  the  Great  Northern  railway  company,  who 
named  the  village  of  Argyle.  He  was  born  in  Argyle,  Maine,  May  9, 
1842;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1869,  settling  in  Moorhead;  was  admitted  to 
practice  law  in  1871 ;  was  a  representative  in  the  state  legislature,  1876-7 


328  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

and  1879-81 ;  a  state  senator,  1883-7 ;  and  a  representative  in  Congress, 
1889-91. 

Donnelly  township,  organized  in  1895,  commemorates  Ignatius  Don- 
nelly; who  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  November  3,  1831,  and  died  in  Min- 
neapolis, January  1,  1901.  He  was  admitted  to  practice  law  in  his  native 
city ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1857 ;  was  lieutenant  governor,  1860-3,  and  a 
representative  in  G)ngress,  1863-9;  later  served  several  terms  in  the 
state  legislature,  and  was  a  national  leader  in  the  Farmers'  Alliance 
movement,  and  in  the  Populist  party;  author  of  many  published  speeches 
and  addresses,  and  of  numerous  books.  He  lived  many  years  at  Nininger, 
a  few  miles  west  of  Hastings,  and  was  often  called  "the  Sage  of  Nin- 
inger." 

Eagle  Point^  organized  in  1890,  was  named  from  an  eagle's  nest  near 
the  center  of  this  township,  at  a  point  of  the  woods  which  reached  east- 
ward from  the  Red  river. 

East  Paiik,  organized  in  1899,  is  the  second  township  east  of  Nelson 
Park)  previously  organized,  whence  this  name  was  suggested. 

East  Valley  township,  organized  in  1896,  crossed  by  the  Thief  river, 
had  settlers  from  the  earlier  West  Valley  township  on  the  Middle  river. 

EcKVOLL  township,  organized  in  1901,  received  this  .Norwegian  name, 
meaning  "Oak  Vale,"  in  allusion  to  its  abundant  oak  groves.  It  was 
proposed  by  Nels  K.  Nelson,  previously  a  resident  of  Warren,  being  taken 
from  a  former  Eckvoll  post  office  in  Oak  Park  township. 

Espelee  township,  organized  in  1903,  is  likewise  named  from  Norwegian 
words,  meaning  "Poplar  Slope,"  for  its  many  groves  of  poplars. 

Excel  township,  organized  in  1884,  was  named  from  the  village  and 
township  of  Excelsior  in  Hennepin  county,  being  shortened  to  avoid  exact 
repetition  of  that  name,  which  was  taken  from  the  well  known  poem  en- 
titled "Excelsior,"  written  by  Longfellow  in  1841. 

FoLDAHL^  organized  in  1883,  is  named  for  a  locality  in  Norway,  the 
country  from  which  most  of  the  settlers  in  this  township  came. 

Fork  township,  organized  in  1896,  was  so  named  because  the  Red 
river  receives  the  Snake  river  at  its  west  side.  Boatmen  ascending 
the  Red  river  may  here  take  either  one  of  two  routes,  like  prongs  or  tines 
of  a  fork. 

Grand  Plain  township,  organized  in  1898,  is  in  the  nearly  level  and 
plainlike  east  part  of  the  county. 

Holt  township,  organized  in  1890,  and  its  railway  village,  were  named  in 
honor  of  a  pioneer  Norwegian  settler.  This  is  an  ancient  Anglo-Saxon 
and  Scandinavian  word,  meaning  a  grove  or  a  wooded  hill. 

Huntley  township,  organized  in  1902,  having  been  a  noted  hunting 
ground  for  moose,  was  at  first  called  Huntsville,  which  was  changed  be- 
cause an  earlier  township  in  Polk  county  had  received  that  name. 

Lincoln  township,  organized  in  1892,  was  named  in  honor  of  the 
martyr  president  of  the  United  States  in  the  civil  war. 


MARSHALL  COUNTY  329 

LiNSELL,  the  most  northeastern  township  of  this  county  and  one  of  the 
latest  organized,  in  1908,  was  named  by  its  Swedish  people  for  the  town 
of  Linsell  in  central  Sweden. 

McCrea  township,  organized  in  1882,  was  named  for  Hon.  Andrew 
McCrea,  farmer  and  lumberman,  who  had  land  interests  in  this  county, 
and  whose  sons  were  residents  of  Warren  during  many  years,  thence 
removing  to  the  west.  He  was  bom  in  New  Brunswick  in  1831 ;  came  to 
St.  Paul  in  1854;  afterward  lived  in  Colorado  and  other  states,  but  in 
1870  settled  in  Perham,  Minn. ;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in 
.1877,  and  a  state  senator  in  1879. 

Marsh  Grove  township,  organized  in  1884,  formerly  had.  numerous 
marshes  and  poplar  groves,  now  mostly  changed  to  well  cultivated  farms. 

Middle  River  township,  the  earliest  organized  in  this  county,  Octo- 
ber 14,  1879,  and  the  railway  village  of  this  name,  in  Spruce  Valley  town- 
ship, are  on  the  stream  so  named,  which  flows  through  the  central  and 
western  part  of  this  county,  being  tributary  to  the  Snake  river  near  its 
mouth. 

Moose  River  township,  organized  in  1904,  took  the  name  of  its  river, 
flowing  into  Thief  lake. 

MoYLAN  township,  organized  in  1902,  was  named  for  Patrick  Moylan, 
an  Irish  settler,  who  removed  to  Oregon  or  Washington. 

Mud  Lake  township,  organized  in  1914,  includes  the  east  half  of  th^ 
area  of  Mud  lake,  tributary  to  Thief  river,  now  mainly  drained. 

Nelson  Park  township,  organized  in  1884,  was  named  for  James  Nel- 
son, a  Yankee  hunter  and  trapper,  who  was  its  earliest  homesteader, 
and  for  several  other  settlers  named  Nelson,  immigrants  from  Sweden 
and  Norway. 

New  Folden  township,  organized  in  1884,  and  its  railway  village,  re- 
ceived their  name  from  a  seaport  in  northern  Norway,  on  the  south  branch 
of  the  Folden  fjord. 

New  Maine  township,  organized  in  1900,  was  named  in  compliment  to 
settlers  from  the  state  of  Maine. 

New  Solum  township  organized  in  1884,  is  named  for  a  district  in 
Norway. 

Oak  Park  township,  organized  in  1883,  has  many  oaks  in  its  woods 
bordering  the  Red  river.  The  name  of  a  discontinued  post  office  of  this 
township,  Eckvoll,  meaning  "Oak  Vale,"  was  transferred,  as  before  noted, 
to  a  township  in  the  east  part  of  this  county. 

OsLO^  the  railway  village  of  Oak  Park,  bears  the  name  of  a  large  medie- 
val city  which  occupied  the  site  of  Christiania,  Norway.  The  old  city 
was  mostly  burned  in  1547  and  again  in  1624,  and  the  new  city  was 
founded  and  named  at  the  later  date  by  Christian  IV,  king  of  Denmark 
and  Norway. 

Parker  township,  organized  in  1884,  was  named  for  George  L.  Parker, 
a  pioneer  settler  there,  who  after  several  years  moved  away. 


330  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Radium  is  a  small  village  of  the  Soo  railway  in  Comstock  township, 
named  for  the  very  wonderful  metallic  element,  radium,  discovered  in 
1902 ;  and  Rosewood  is  another  station  of  the  Soo  railway,  in  New  Solum. 

RoLLis,  organized  in  1899,  was  named  for  Otto  RoUis,  formerly  of 
Warren,  who  became  a  storekeeper  in  this  township,  but  later  removed  to 
Colorado. 

SiNNOTT  township,  organized  in  1883,  had  two  settlers  of  this  name, 
J.  P.  Sinnott  in  section  8  and  P.  J.  Sinnott  in  section  20. 

Spruce  Valley  township,  organized  in  1888,  is  named  for  its  spruce 
trees  along  the  Middle  river,  which  are  common  or  abundant  throughout 
northeastern  Minnesota,  but  here  reach  their  southwestern  limit 

Stephen,  a  village  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  in  Tamarac  town- 
ship and  close  north  of  Tamarac  river,  was  named  in  honor  of  George 
Stephen,  a  prominent  financial  associate  of  James  J.  Hill  in  the  building 
of  this  railway  system.  He  was  born  at  Dufftown,  in  Banffshire,  Scot- 
land, June  5,  1829;  came  to  Canada  in  1850,  settling  in  Montreal,  and  en- 
gaged in  dry  goods  business  and  manufacturing  cloth;  was  president  of 
the  Bank  of  Montreal,  1876-81,  and  president  of  the  Canadian  Pacific 
railway  company,  1881-87;  was  knighted  by  Queen  Victoria  in  1886;  was 
a  founder  in  1887,  with  Sir  Donald  Smith,  of  the  Royal  Victoria  Hos- 
pital, Montreal;  removed  to  England  in  1888,  and  has  since  resided  in 
London.  In  1891  he  received  the  title  of  Baron  Mount  Stephen,  referring 
to  a  peak  of  the  Rocky  mountains  named  for  him  during  the  construction 
of  the  Canadian  Pacific  railway. 

Stbakdquist^  a  Soo  railway  village  in  Lincoln  township,  was  named  in 
honor  of  J.  £.  Strandquist,  a  merchant  there,  who  was  born  in  Sweden 
in  1870  and  settled  in  this  county  in  1892. 

Tamarac  township,  organized  in  1879,  received  its  name  from  the 
Tamarac  river,  here  crossed  by  the  Great  Northern  railway. 

Thief  Lake  township,  organized  in  1896,  is  named  for  its  large  lake, 
the  source  of  the  Thief  river.  The  origin  of  these  n'ames,  related  by  War- 
ren in  the  "History  of  the  Ojibways,"  is  given  in  the  chapter  for  Pen- 
nington county,  which  has  its  county  seat  at  Thief  River  Falls. 

Valley  township,  organized  in  1900,  is  crossed  by  Mud  river  or 
creek,  tributary  to  Mud  lake  by  a  valley  scarcely  below  the  general  level. 

Vega  township,  organized  in  1883,  bears  the  name  of  the  ship  in  which 
Baron  Nordenskjold,  the  Swedish  explorer,  in  1878-9  traversed  the  Arctic 
ocean  along  the  north  coast  of  Russia  and  Siberia,  passed  through  Bering 
strait  to  the  Pacific,  and  returned  around  Asia  and  through  the  Suez  canal. 

Veldt  township,  organized  in  1902,  was  at  first  called  Roosevelt,  for 
the  president  of  the  United  States.  Because  that  name  had  been  earlier 
given  to  another  township  of  Minnesota,  it  was  changed  to  this  Dutch 
word,  used  in  South  Africa,  meaning  "a  prairie  or  a  thinly  wooded  tract** 

Viking  township,  organized  in  1884,  was  named  by  Rev.  Hans  P.  Han- 
sen, a  Norwegian  Lutheran  pastor  in  Warren.  This  Scandinavian  word, 
often  translated  as  a  sea  king,  more  correctly  denoted  any  member  of  the 


MARSHALL  COUNTY  331 

early  medieval  pirate  crews  of  Northmen  who  during  several  centuries 
ravaged  the  coasts  of  western  and  southern  Europe. 

Wangek  township,  organized  in  1882,  was  named  for  a  German  hunter 
and  trapper  who  lived  there  before  the  coming  of  agricultural  settlers. 

Wasren,  the  county  seat,  platted  in  1879-80,  incorporated  as  a  village 
in  1883,  and  as  a  city  April  3,  1891,  was  named  in  honor  of  Charles  H. 
Warren,  general  passenger  agent  of  the  St  Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Mani- 
toba railway  company,  which  in  1890  was  renamed  the  Great  Northern 
company.  The  railway  was  built  to  the  site  of  Warren  in  the  summer 
of  1878,  and  in  November  of  that  year  trains  ran  through  to  Winnipeg. 

Wasrenton  township,  organized  in  1879,  has  a  name  of  the  same  ori- 
gin as  the  city  of  Warren,  which  is  at  its  southeast  corner. 

West  Valley  township,  organized  in  1884,  is  named  from  the  Middle 
river,  which  here  is  inclosed  by  low  bluffs. 

Whiteford  township,  organized  in  1910,  has  a  name  that  is  borne  also 
by  small  villages  in  Maryland  and  Michigan. 

Wright  township,  organized  in  1884,  probably  received  this  name  in 
honor  of  one  of  its  first  settlers. 

Streams  and  Lakes. 

Middle  river  was  named  by  the  fur  traders,  whose  trains  of  Red  river 
carts  crossed  it  on  the  old  Pembina  trail  about  halfway  between  Pembina 
and  their  crossing  of  the  Red  Lake  river. 

Snake  river  is  translated  from  its  Ojibway  name,  written  by  Gilfillan 
as  Ginebigo  zibi. 

Tamarac  river  is  also  noted  by  him  as  a  similar  translation,  from  Ga- 
mushkigwatigoka  zibi.  Tamarack  is  elsewhere  the  common  spelling  for 
the  tree  and  geographic  names  derived  from  it. 

In  the  place  of  these  three  streams,  only  one  is  found  on  the  map  of 
Long's  expedition  in  1823,  named  Swamp  creek,  where  the  present  Tam- 
arac ditch  in  Donnelly  and  Eagle  Point  townships  carries  to  the  Red  river 
the  drainage  of  a  large  swamp  area,  in  which  Tamarac  river  was  formerly 
lost,  thence  emerging  northward  and  joining  the  Red  river  in  the  south- 
west part  of  Kittson  county.  Swamp  creek,  translated  from  the  Ojib- 
way name  of  Tamarac  river,  was  copied  on  Nicollet's  map  in  1843  and  on 
the  map  of  Minnesota  Territory  in  1850;  but  the  state  map  of  1860  has 
the  present  Tamarac,  Middle,  and  Snake  rivers,  although  their  courses 
are  erroneously  drawn. 

Preceding  pages  have  noticed  Moose  river.  Thief  lake  and  river,  and 
Mud  river  and  lake,  whence  three  townships  are  named. 

Green  Stump  lake  and  Elm  lake,  each  shallow  and  drained  for  use  as 
farm  lands,  were  respectively  about  one  mile  and  three  miles  southwest 
of  Mud  lake,  which,  as  before  noted,  is  also  mainly  drained. 

Whiteford  has  two  little  lakes,  about  midway  between  Thief  and  Mud 
lakes,  of  which  the  eastern  one  is  named  Olson  lake. 

Marshall  county  is  wholly  in  the  area  of  the  Glacial  Lake  Agassiz. 


MARTIN  COUNTY 

This  county  was  established  May  23,  1857,  being  named,  according  to 
the  concurrent  testimony  of  its  best  informed  early  citizens  yet  living, 
in  honor  of  Henry  Martin,  of  Wallingford,  Conn.,  who  then  was  a  resi- 
dent of  Mankato,  having  land  interests  here  and  probably  expecting  to 
live  permanently  in  Minnesota.  He  was  born  in  Meriden,  Conn.,  Febru- 
ary 14,  1829;  went  to  California  in  1849,  and  engaged  in  auction  business 
in  San  Francisco  until  1851 ;  returned  to  Connecticut,  and  was  state  bank 
commissioner,  1854-56;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1856,  and  selected  and 
purchased,  for  eastern  associates  and  himself,  about  2,000  acres  of  lands 
in  Mower,  Fillmore,  and  other  counties,  including  the  area,  then  in  Brown 
county,  which  in  1857  was  set  apart  as  Martin  county;  resided  temporarily 
in  Mankato,  and  visited  the  chains  of  lakes  in  this  county  for  hunting 
and  fishing,  one  of  which,  Martin  lake  in  the  northwest  comer  of  Rut- 
land township,  was  named  for  him.  Beside  this  lake  he  built  a  house,  and 
partly  planned  to  settle  here.  Within  about  one  year  he  returned  to  Wal- 
lingford, Conn.,  where  his  family  had  continuously  resided,  and  that 
town  was  ever  afterward  his  home.  He  engaged  in  manufacturing  there, 
was  deputy  sheriff  of  New  Haven  county,  1884-87,  and  after  1895  was 
assistant  town  derk.  (These  biographic  notes  are  in  a  letter  and  personal 
sketch  received  from  him  in  1905.)  He  died  in  Walling£ord,  July  18, 
1906,  in  the  home  to  which  he  brought  has  bride  in  1853. 

Members  of  the  Territorial  legislature,  who  passed  the  act  establishing 
Martin  county,  may  have  been  partly  influenced  in  favor  of  this  name  by 
remembering  that  Morgan  Lewis  Martin,  of  Green  Bay,  Wis.,  as  delegate 
in  Congress  from  Wisconsin  Territory,  on  December  23,  1846,  introduced 
the  bill  for  the  organization  of  the  Territory  of  Minnesota.  He  was  born 
in  Martinsburg,  Lewis  county,  N.  Y.,  March  21,  1805;  was  graduated  at 
Hamilton  College,  1824;  came  to  Green  Bay  in  1827,  and  during  his  long 
Hfe  resided  there,  being,  as  a  lawyer  and  judge,  prominently  identified  with 
the  history  of  his  state.  He  died  December  10,  1887.  An  autobiographic 
narrative  by  him,  with  notes  by  R.  G.  Thwaites,  was  published  in  the  Wis- 
consin Historical  Society  Collections,  vol.  XI,  1888,  pages  580-415;  and 
his  portrait  is  given  in  vol.  IX  of  that  series,  facing  page  397. 

The  honor  of  the  county  name,  ascribed  to  Henry  Martin  by  William 
H.  Budd  (History,  page  114),  was  again  so  stated,  with  historical  details 
given  by  (George  S.  Fowler,  in  an  article  published  by  the  Martin  County 
Sentinel,  July  IS,  1904.  Two  weeks  later,  a  second 'article  on  this  subject, 
by  A.  N.  Fancher,  presented  the  rival  claim  that  the  honor  belongs  in  an 
equal  or  larger  degree  to  Morgan  L.  Martin. 

332 


MARTIN  COUNTY  333 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  geographic  names  has  been  gathered  from  "History  of 
Martin  County,"  by  William  H.  Budd,  published  in  1897,  124  pages ;  from 
George  S.  Fowler  and  Christian  N.  Peterson,  interviewed  during  a  visit 
at  Fairmont,  the  county  seat,  in  October,  1910;  and  from  R.  M.  Tyler, 
clerk  of  the  probate  court,  Hon.  Albert  L.  Ward,  state  senator,  Hon. 
Frank  A.  Day,  and  Miss  Minnie  Bird,  librarian,  during  a  second  visit  at 
Fairmont,  in  July,  1916. 

Cedar  township,  established  January  2,  1872,  was  named  for  Cedar  lake, 
at  its  east  side,  which  has  red  cedar  trees  on  its  shores. 

Center  Creek  township  bears  the  name  of  the  creek  flowing  through  it 
from  the  Central  Chain  of  lakes. 

Ceylon,  a  railway  village  in  Lake  Belt  township,  has  the  name  of  a 
large  island  adjoining  India.  It  is  also  the  name  of  villages  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Ohio. 

Dun  NELL,  the  railway  village  of  Lake  Fremont  township,  was  named 
in  honor  of  Mark  H.  Dunnell,  congressman,  who  was  born  in  Buxton, 
Maine,  July  2,  1823,  and  died  in  Owatonna,  Minn.,  August  9,  1904.  He 
was  graduated  at  Waterville  college  in  1849,  and  was  admitted  to  prac- 
tice law  in  1856;  was  appointed  United  States  consul  to  Vera  Cruz  in 
1861 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1865,  settling  at  Winona,  ^nd  later  removed  to 
Owatonna;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1867;  state  superin- 
tendent of  public  instruction,  1868-71 ;  and  a  member  of  Congress,  1871- 
83,  and  again  in  1889-91. 

East  Chain  township  was  named  for  the  East  Chain  of  lakes,  described 
in  the  later  part  of  this  chapter. 

Elm  Creek  township,  established  in  March,  1867,  is  crossed  by  the 
creek  of  this  name,  which  flows  through  the  north  half  of  the  county, 
having  many  elms  in  the  woods  along  its  course. 

Fairmont,  the  county  seat,  platted  as  a  village  in  October,  1857,  from 
which  the  township  also  took  this  name,  was  incorporated  February  28, 
1878,  and  adopted  its  city  charter  in  1902.  It  was  at  first  called  Fair 
Mount,  referring  to  its  situation  beside  and  above  the  Central  Chain  of 
lakes,  having  a  fine  outlook  across  the  lakes  and  the  adjoining  county. 

Fox  Lake  township,  established  January  2,  1872,  is  named  for  the  long 
and  narrow  lake  at  its  south  side,  which  also  gave  this  name  to  the  railway 
village  at  its  east  end,  platted  in  1899. 

Fraser  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Abraham  N.  Eraser,  who  took 
one  of  its  first  homestead  claims,  on  Elm  creek. 

Galena  township  was  named  by  settlers  from  the  city  of  Galena  in 
Illinois,  which  received  this  name  from  mines  of  galena,  a  lead  ore. 

Granada,  the  railway  village  of  Center  Creek  township,  bears  the 
name' of  a  renowned  medieval  Moorish  city  and  kingdom  in  Spain. 

Imogen,  a  railway  village  in  Pleasant  Prairie  township,  platted  in  1900, 
has  the  name  of  the  daughter  of  Cymbeline,  in  ohe  of  the  Shakespearean 
plays. 


334  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Jay  township,  established  January  2,  1872,  has  the  name  of  a  county  in 
Indiana,  and  of  villages  and  townships  in  Maine,  Vermont,  and  New  York, 
commemorating  John  Jay  (b.  1745,  d.  1829),  who  was  an  eminent  states- 
man of  the  American  Revolution,  first  chief  justice  of  the  United  States 
supreme  court,  1789-95,  and  governor  of  New  York,  1795-1801. 

Lake  Belt  township,  established  in  March,  1867,  was  named  for  its 
series  of  three  lakes,  to  be  again  noticed  in  the  later  part  bf  this  chapter. 

Lake  Fremont  township,  established  January  2,  1872,  formerly  had  a 
small  lake,  now  drained,  in  the  west  part  of  section  34,  which  was  named 
in  honor  of  John  C.  Fremont  (b.  1813,  d.  1890),  assistant  with  Nicollet  in 
his  expedition  through  this  region  in  1838.  He  was  later  called  ''the 
Pathfinder,"  from  explorations  of  the  Rocky  mountains  and  the  Pacific 
slope  in  1842-45,  and  was  the  Republican  candidate  for  the  presidency  of 
the  United  States  in  1856. 

Manyaska  township  bears  a  Sioux  name,  given  to  lakes  of  this  vicin- 
ity on  Nicollet's  map,  probably  meaning  white  bank  or  bluff,  but  to  be  then 
more  correctly  spelled  mayaska.  It  has  been  otherwise  translated  as 
"white  iron"  or  silver,  from  maza,  iron,  ska,  white.  This  name  is  also 
borne  by  a  lake  in  section  19,  and  by  a  railway  station. 

Monterey,  a  railway  village  on  the  south  line  of  Galena,  has  a  Spanish 
name,  meaning  "king  mountain,"  from  the  city  of  Monterey  in  Mexico, 
captured  September  ^4,  1846,  after  severe  fighting,  by  the  United  States 
army  under  General  Zachary  Taylor.  Thence  a  city  and  county  in  Cali- 
fornia are  also  named,  and  villages  in  fifteen  other  states. 

Nashville  was  named  in  honor  of  A.  M.  Nash,  a  pioneer  farmer,  at 
whose  home  this  township  was  organized.  May  3,  1864. 

Northrop^  a  railway  village  in  Rutland,  platted  in  1899,  was  named  in 
honor  of  C)rrus  Northrop,  who  was  born  in  Ridgefield,  Conn.,  Sept.  30, 
1834 ;  was  prof e;5sor  of  rhetoric  and  English  literature  in  Yale  University, 
1863-84;  and  was  president  of  the  University  of  Minnesota,  1884-1911. 

Ormsby  is  a  railway  village  on  the  north  line  of  Galena. 

Pleasant  Prairie  township,  organized  March  7,  1865,  has  a  euphoni- 
ously descriptive  name,  chosen  by  its  settlers. 

R(X.LiNG  Green  township  bears  a  name  similarly  chosen,  for  its  undulat- 
ing and  rolling  contour  of  the  green  and  far-viewing  prairie, 

Rutland  township  was  named,  on  the  suggestion  of  one  of  its  early 
settlers,  Amasa  Bowen,  register  of  deeds,  for  the  city  and  county  of  Rut- 
land in  Vermont. 

Sherburn^  a  railway  village  and  junction,  was  named  in  honor  of  the 
wife  of  an  officer  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  railway  com- 
pany, living  in  McGregor,  Iowa. 

Silver  Lake  township  has  the  South  and  North  Silver  lakes  in  the 
Central  Chain. 

Tenhassen  township,  established  March  7,  1865,  received  this  Sioux 
name,  changed  in  form,  from  the  "Tchan  Hassan  lakes,"  mapped  in  this 
vicinity  by  Nicollet     More  correctly  spelled,  it  is  the  name  of  Chan- 


MARTIN  COUNTY  335 

hassen  township  in  Carver  county,  meaning  the  sugar  maple,  from  chan, 
tree,  and  hassen,  related  to  haza,  huckleberry  or  blueberry,  thus  denoting 
"the  tree  of  sweet  juice." 

Triumph,  a  railway  village  platted  in  1899,  on  the  line  between  Galena 
and  Fox  Lake  townships,  was  named  by  John  Stein,  in  compliment  for 
the  Triumph  Creamery  company. 

Truman,  a  railway  village  in  Westford,  platted  in  1899,  was  named  for 
Truman  Clark,  a  son  of  J.  T.  Qark,  who  was  then  the  second  vice  presi- 
dent of  the  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Omaha  railway  company. 
Several  families  named  True  live  near  this  village. 

Waverly  township  was  named  by  a  pioneer  settler,  from  the  large  vil- 
lage of  Wavtrly  in  Tioga  county.  New  York. 

Welcome,  a  railway  village  eight  miles  west  of  Fairmont,  was  named 
in  honor  of  Alfred  M.  Welcome,  whose  farm  lies  at  its  southwest  side. 

Westford  township  has  a  name  that  is  borne  also  by  villages  and 
townships  in  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  Wisconsin. 

Chains  of  Lakes. 

Three  remarkable  series  of  lakes  in  this  county,  named  the  East,  Cen- 
tral, and  West  chains,  are  of  great  interest  in  glacial  geology,  because  they 
give  evidence  of  a  prolonged  warm  or  temperate  interglacial  stage  or 
epoch,  preceded  and  followed  by  long  stages  of  severe  cold,  when  the 
continental  ice-sheet  covered  this  area  and  extended  far  to  the  south. 

The  East  chain  extends  in  a  somewhat  irregular  northerly  course  for 
12  miles  from  the  Iowa  line,  with  outflow  northeastward  by  South  creek. 
This  chain  comprises  eight  lakes,  varying  from  a  half  mile  to  two  miles 
in  length,  with  a  half  to  two-thirds  as  great  widths.  The  lakes  are  bor- 
dered by  rolling  areas  of  till,  to  which  their  shores  ascend  30-40  feet, 
mostly  by  quite  steep  slopes.  Between  the  lakes  are,  in  some  cases,  marshes 
as  wide  as  the  narrower  parts  of  the  lakes;  but  some  of  the  adjoining 
lakes  are  connected  by  contracted  channels,  such  as  may  have  been  cut  by 
the  outflowing  stream.  Thus  the  series  does  not  occupy  depressions  in 
any  well-marked  continuous  valley. 

About  20  lakes  form  the  Central  chain,  which  extends  22  miles  in  an 
almost  perfectly  straight  course  from  south  to  north,  lying  three  to  six 
mile»west  of  the  East  chain.  Its  outlets  are  South,  Center,  Elm  and  Perch 
creeks,  all  flowing  eastward.  The  shores  and  the  country  on  both  sides 
consist  of  till,  which  rises  to  a  moderately  undulating  expanse  30  to  40 
or  50  feet  ab6ve  the  lakes.  Though  forming  a  very  distinct,  straight  series, 
these  lakes  do  not  occupy  a  well-defined  valley,  for  its  width  varies  from 
one  mile  or  more  to  less  than  an  eighth  of  a  mile,  and  it  is  interrupted  in 
three  places  by  water-divides,  their  lowest  points  being  10  to  15  feet  above 
the  adjoining  lakes. 

The  West  chain  is  less  distinctly  connected  than  the  East  and  Central 
chains,  from  which  it  also  differs  in  having  the  longer  axes  of  some  of 


336  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

its  lakes  transverse  to  the  course  of  the  chain,  and  in  having  shorter  series 
of  lakes  joined  with  it  as  branches.  Tuttle  lake  at  the  south  end  of  the 
chain  lies  on  the  state  line,  about  four  miles  west  of  Iowa  lake,  the  south 
end  of  the  Central  chain.  Thence  the  West  chain  reaches  20  miles  north- 
westerly, then  nine  miles  northerly,  and  then  northwest  and  west  for  eight 
miles  to  Mountain  lake  in  G>ttonwood  county,  its  whole  extent  being  37 
miles.  Its  successive  portions  from  south  to  north  are  tributary  to  the 
East  fork  of  Des  Moines  river,  to  Center  and  Elm  creeks,  and  to  the 
South  fork  of  Watonwan  river.  This  West  chain  comprises  about  25 
lakes,  extending  through  a  region  of  undulating  till,  the  direct  deposit 
of  the  ice-sheet,  with  no  noteworthy  areas  nor  unusually  thick  included 
layers  of  water^eposited  gravel  and  sand,  as  is  true  of  all  this  county. 

A  series  of  three  lakes  in  Lake  Belt  township  lies  somewhat  west  of 
the  direct  course  of  the  West  chain,  and  may  be  regarded  as  a  branch  of 
it;  and  three  miles  east  of  this  lake  belt,  another  series  of  seven  lakes, 
very  plainly  a  branch  of  the  West  chain,  diverges  from  it,  and  reaches 
almost  due  north  12  miles  from  Tuttle  and  Alton  lakes.  To  these,  as  a 
continuation  of  the  same  branch,  ought  perhaps  to  be  added  four  other 
lakes,  which  are  situated  four  to  nine  miles  farther  north. 

The  explanation  of  these  series  of  lakes  which  appears  most  probable 
is  that  they  mark  interglacial  avenues  of  southward  drainage  and  occupy 
portions  of  valleys  that  were  excavated  in  the  till  after  ice  had  long 
covered  this  region  and  had  deposited  most  of  the  drift  sheet,  but  before 
the  later  Glacial  stage  or  epoch  again  enveloped  this  area  beneath  a  lobe 
of  the  continental  glacier,  partially  refilling  these  valleys,  and  leaving 
along  their  courses  the  present  chains  of  lakes. 

In  the  order  from  north  to  south,  the  East  chain  includes  Lone  Tree 
lake,  named  for  a  tall  Cottonwood  tree  beside  it,  which  was  a  landmark 
for  travelers;  Lake  Imogene,  whence  the  neighboring  railway  village 
was  named;  Rose  lake,  having  many  roses  along  its  shores;  Sager  lake, 
named  for  a  pioneer  settler;  and  Gear  lake  and  East  Chain  lake.  This 
chain  also  has  two  lakes  of  small  size  that  are  mapped  without  names. 

In  the  same  order,  the  Central  chain  has  Perch  lake,  outflowing  north- 
ward by  Perch  creek;  Murphy  lake,  named  for  John  Murphy,  an  early 
Irish  homesteader;  Martin  lake,  named  for  Henry  Martin,  as  before 
noted ;  High  lake,  Lake  Charlotte,  Twin  lakes,  Canright  lake,  and  Buffalo 
lake,  in  Rutland,  the  last  being  named  for  its  buffalo  fish;  Lake  George, 
named  for  George  Tanner,  a  settler  there  in  the  north  edge  of  the  present 
city  of  Fairmont ;  Lake  Sisseton,  bearing  the  name  of  a  tribal  division  of 
the  Sioux,  this  region  being  noted  on  Nicollet^s  map  as  the  "Sissiton 
Country;"  Budd  lake,  named  in  honor  of  William  H.  Budd,  historian 
of  the  county,  who  took  a  land  claim  here  in  July,  1856 ;  Hall  lake,  com- 
memorating E.  Banks  Hall,  who  also  came  in  the  summer  of  1856;  Amber 
lake,  Mud  lake,  and  Bardwell  and  Wilmert  lakes;  North  and  South  Sil- 
ver lakes,  the  former  also  called  Summit  lake ;  and  Iowa  lake,  crossed  by 
the  Iowa  line. 


MARTIN  COUNTY  337 

The  West  chain  comprises  in  this  county,  besides  several  nameless 
small  lakes,  Fish,  Buffalo,  and  North  lakes,  the  second  named  for  the 
buffalo  fish;  Cedar  lake,  which  gave  the  name  of  a  township;  Big  Twin 
lakes,  the  smaller  one  of  which  has  been  drained ;  Seymour  and  McGowan 
lakes,  the  latter  now  dry,  named  respectively  for  W.  S.  Seymour  and 
Daniel  McGowan,  pioneers;  Fox  lake,  naming  a  township;  Temperance 
lake,  Munger  lake,  now  drained,  named  for  Perry  Munger,  an  early 
farmer,  and  Manyaska  and  Prairie  lakes,  the  latter  lately  drained,  in 
Manyaska  township;  Smith  lake,  formerly  called  Goose  lake,*  and 
Holmes  lake,  each  recently  drained,  on  the  north  line  of  Lake  Belt; 
and  Alton  or  Inlet  lake  and  Tuttle  lake,  in  Tenhassen.  The  last,  crossed 
by  the  state  line,  is  named  in  honor  of  Calvin  Tuttle,  one  of  the  earliest 
settlers  in  Martin  county,  who  came  in  March,  1856.  This  lake  was  called 
Okamanpidan  lake  on  Nicollet's  map,  a  Sioux  name  referring  to  its  nests 
of  herons. 

A  western  branch  of  the  West  chain,  before  noted,  giving  the  name 
of  Lake  Belt  township,  consists  of  Susan,  Fish,  and  Gear  lakes. 

Between  the  Central  and  West  chains,  a  longer  but  less  continuous 
branch  of  the  latter  includes,  with  several  small  lakes  unnamed  and  sev- 
eral lately  drained.  Long  and  Round  lakes  in  Waverly;  Patten  lake  in 
section  25,  Galena,  and  Creek  lake  on  Elm  creek,  crossed  by  the  south 
line  of  section  J6;  Eagle  and  Swan  lakes,  in  Eraser;  Pierce  and  Mud 
lakes,  in  Rolling  Green;  and  a  second  Mud  lake  or  Rice  lake,  Babcock 
or  Bright  lake,  and  Clayton  lake,  in  Tenhassen. 

Other  Lakes  and  Streams. 

Only  a  few  lakes  and  fewer  streams  remain  to  be  noted,  in  addition 
to  the  chains  of  lakes  and  the  streams  outflowing  from  them. 

Burnt  Out  lake,  adjoining  a  burned  peat  bed,  in  sections  21  and  28,  East 
Chain,  was  formerly  called  Calkins  lake,  for  pioneer  farmers  of  this 
name  at  its  east  side.  Ash  lake,  shown  by  early  maps  in  sections  26  and 
27  of  this  township,  has  been  drained. 

Timber  lake  or  marsh,  mostly  in  section  2,  Rolling  Green,  is  named 
for  its  grove. 

The  head  stream  of  the  East  fork  of  the  Des  Moines,  flowing  across 
Jay  and  Lake  Belt  townships,  and  through  Alton  lake  to  Tuttle  lake,  has 
given  to  the  former  of  these  lakes  a  second  name,  Inlet  lake. 

Lily  creek,  having  water  lilies,  is  the  outlet  of  Fox  lake,  flowing  east 
into  Swan  and  Eagle  lakes. 

Qam  lake  is  in  sections  15  and  16,  Fox  Lake  township. 

Badger  lake,  shallow  and  to  be  drained,  in  sections  17  to  20,  Galena, 
now  crossed  by  a  road,  was  named  for  its  badgers,  formerly  frequent 
here,  but  more  common  in  Wisconsin,  "the  Badger  State." 

Duck  lake,  once  noted  for  its  wild  ducks,  in  sections  2  and  11,  Elm 
Creek  township,  and  Watkins  lake,  in  sections  8,  9,  and  16,  have  been 
drained. 


MEEKER  COUNTY 

Established  February  23,  1856,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of 
Bradley  B.  Meeker,  of  Minneapolis,  who  was  an  associate  justice  of  the 
Minnesota  supreme  court  from  1849  to  1853.  He  was  born  in  Fairfield, 
Conn.,  March  13,  1813;  studied  at  Yale  College;  practiced  law  in  Rich- 
mond, Ky.,  1838  to  1845,  and  later  in  Flemingsburg,  Ky.;  was  appointed 
judge  in  the  new  territory  of  Minnesota  in  1849,  and  presided  at  the  first 
term  of  court  on  the  site  of  Minneapolis,  which  was  held  in  the  old 
government  grist  mill  on  the  west  side  of  the  river  below  the  falls,  August 
20,  1849.  Judge  Meeker  was  a  charter  member  of  the  Minnesota  Histori- 
cal Society,  1849;  and  was  one  of  the  first  Board  of  Regents  of  the 
University  of  Minnesota,  elected  by  the  Territorial  Legislature  in  1851. 
After  leaving  the  bench,  he  engaged  in  real  estate  business  and  was  a 
member  of  the  constitutional  convention,  1857.  He  purchased  a  large 
tract  of  land  on  the  Mississippi  below  St.  Anthony,  including  Meeker 
island  and  extending  eastward;  and  he  foresaw  and  often  spoke  of  the 
coming  great  prosperity  of  Minneapolis.  He  died  very  suddenly  in  Mil- 
waukee, where  he  had  halted  on  a  journey  to  the  east,  February  20,  1873. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origin  and  meaning  of  names  has  been  gathered 
from  "A  Random  Historical  Sketch  of  Meeker  County,"  by  A.  C.  Smith, 
1877,  161  pages;  "Album  of  History  and  Biography  of  Meeker  County," 
1888,  610  pages ;  and  from  Norris  Y.  Taylor,  who  during  many  years  was 
county  surveyor,  J.  W.  Wright,  who  was  county  superintendent  of  schools, 
1879-87,  and  a  state  senator,  1907-09,  and  William  H.  Greenleaf ,  for  whom 
a  village  and  township  are  named,  each  being  interviewed  during  a  visit  at 
Litchfield,  the  county  seat,  in  May,  1916. 

Acton,  organized  in  April,  1858,  was  named  for  the  village  of  Acton 
in  Ontario,  Canada,  whence  the  Ritchie  family  came  to  settle  in  this 
township  in  1857. 

Ceoar  Mills  township,  organized  January  25,  1870,  received  the  name 
of  its  village  founded  in  1860,  which  was  named  from  the  large  Cedar 
lake,  about  two  miles  distant  to  the  east.  This  lake  has  many  red  cedars 
on  its  shores  and  islands,  as  noted  by  its  name  on  Nicollet's  map,  Rantesha 
Wita  or  Red  Cedar  Island  lake. 

CoLLiNwooD,  organized  May  8,  1866,  bears  the  name  (changed  in  spell- 
ing) of  Collingwood,  a  port  on  the  southern  part  of  Georgian  bay  in 
Ontario.  This  township  was  at  first  called  New  Virginia,  but  was  re- 
named as  now  in  1868,  taking  the  name  of  the  village  platted  in  its  north- 

338 


MEEKER  COUNTY  339 

east  corner  by  Canadian  settlers  in  1866,  beside  Lake  CoUinwood,  Y/hich 
is  crossed  by  its  east  line. 

Cosh  OS  township,  organized  January  25,  1870,  has  a  name  proposed 
by  Daniel  Hoyt,  one  of  its  first  settlers,  who  came  in  1867,  was  a  sur- 
veyor, and  was  elected  the  first  township  clerk.  It  is  an  ancient  Greek 
word,  meaning  order,  harmony,  and  thence  the  universe  as  an  orderly  and 
harmonious  system. 

Danielson,  settled  in  1857,  organized  March  12,  1872,  was  named  for 
Daniel  Danielson,  its  first  township  clerk  and  assessor,  and  for  Nels 
Danielson,  an  immigrant  from  Norway,  wha  took  a  land  claim  here  in 
1861  and  died  in  1870. 

Darwin  township,  organized  April  5,  1858,  was  then  called  Rice  City, 
which  was  changed  in  1869  to  the  name  of  its  railway  village,  platted  in 
October  of  that  year.  It  was  chosen  in  honor  of  £.  Darwin  Litchfield, 
of  London,  England,  a  principal  stockholder  and  promoter  of  the  St. 
Paul  and  Pacific  (now  the  Great  Northern)  railroad,  for  whom  also,  as 
well  as  for  his  wife  and  his  brothers,  the  village  and  township  of  Litch- 
field were  named. 

Dassel  township,  first  settled  in  1856,  was  organized  in  the  fall  of 
1866  under  the  name  of  Swan  Lake,  from  the  Big  Swan  lake  in  its  north- 
east part;  but  it  was  renamed  in  1871  for  its  railway  village,  platted  in 
1869,  which  was  incorporated  March  4,  1878.  The  village  and  township 
thus  commemorate  Bernard  Dassel,  who  in  1869  was  secretary  of  the 
St.  Paul  and  Pacific  railroad  company. 

Eden  Valley,  a  railway  village  in  the  north  edge  of  Manannah,  platted 
in  1886,  was  euphoniously  named  by  officers  of  the  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis 
and  Sault  Ste.  Marie  railway  company. 

Ellsworth  township,  first  settled  in  June,  1856,  organized  September 
1,  1868,  was  named  at  the  suggestion  of  Jesse  V.  Branham,  Jr.,  in  honor  of 
Ephraim  Elmer  Ellsworth,  colonel  of  a  Zouave  regiment  from  New 
York  city,  who  soon  after  the  beginning  of  the  civil  war  was  killed  in 
Alexandria,  Va.,  May  24,  1861. 

Forest  Crrv  township,  on  the  west  border  of  the  Big  Woods,  organ- 
ized April  5,  1858,  received  the  name  of  its  village,  platted  in  the  summer 
of  1857,  which  was  the  county  seat  until  the  autumn  of  1869,  being  then 
succeeded  by  Litchfield. 

Forest  Prairie  township,  consisting  mainly  of  woodland  but  having 
a  small  prairie  nearly  a  mile  long  in  its  northwest  comer,  was  organized 
in  the  summer  of  1867. 

Greenleaf  township,  settled  in  1856  and  organized  August  27,  1859, 
was  named,  like  the  village  on  its  east  border,  in  section  30,  Ellsworth, 
platted  in  1859,  in  honor  of  William  Henry  Greenleaf,  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  village.  He  was  born  in  Nunda,  N.  Y.,  December  7,  1834 ;  came  to 
Minnesota  in  1858,  settling  here;  was  county  treasurer,  1860-2;  county 
surveyor,  1864-70;  and  a  representative  in  the  legislature,  1871-3.  He 
removed  to  Litchfield  in  1872,  where  he  has  since  lived,  excepting  several 


340  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

years,  next  after  1S78,  of  absence  as  receiver  of  the  United  States  land 
office  in  Benson. 

Grove  City,  a  railway  village  in  the  north  edge  of  Acton  and  adjoin- 
ing Swede  Grove  township,  was  platted  in  the  sumraer  of  1870  and  was 
incorporated  February  14,  1878. 

Hasvey  township,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1856,  organized  in  1867,  was 
named  for  James  Harvey,  who  took  a  homestead  claim  here  in  1860. 

Kingston,  settled  in  1856  and  organized  April  5,  1858,  took  the  name 
of  its  village,  platted  in  the  fall  of  1857,  proposed  by  George  A.  Nourse, 
a  lawyer  of  St.  Anthony.  Twenty-five  other  states,  and  also  the  Canadian 
provinces  of  Ontario  and  New  Brunswick,  have  villages  or  cities  and 
townships  of  this  name. 

Litchfield  township,  organized  April  5,  1858,  was  at  first  named  Ness, 
in  honor  of  Ole  Halvorson  Ness,  one  of  its  original  party  of  Norwegian 
settlers,  who  came  in  July,  1856.  It  continued  to  bear  that  name  until  its 
village  was  platted  in  1869  on  the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  railroad,  then  being 
built  By  petition  of  its  citizens,  the  township  received  the  village  name, 
Litchfield,  in  honor  of  a  family  who  prominently  aided  in  the  construc- 
tion and  financing  of  the  railway,  including  three  brothers,  Egbert  S., 
Edwin  C,  and  E.  Darwin  Litchfield.  They  were  the  contractors  by 
whom  the  line  from  St.  Paul  to  St.  Goud  and  Watab  was  built  in  1862  to 
1864,  and  later  they  aided  to  provide  the  means  for  building  this  more 
southern  line  through  Meeker  county  to  Breckenridge.  (Life  of  James 
J.  Hill,  by  J.  G.  Pyle,  1917,  two  volumes.)  Partly  in  appreciation  of  the 
honor  of  the  name  given  to  the  village  and  township,  generous  donations 
to  the  Episcopal  church  here  were  received  from  Mrs.  E.  Darwin  Litch- 
field in  London.  Another  of  this  family,  William  B.  Litchfield,  was  in 
1869  the  general  manager  of  this  railroad ;  and  his  son,  Electus  D.  Litch- 
field, was  the  architect,  in  1915-17,  of  the  new  building  of  the  St.  Paul  Pub- 
lic Library  and  the  Hill  Reference  Library.  Litchfield  village  succeeded 
Forest  City  as  the  county  seat  in  the  fall  of  1869,  and  was  incorporated 
February  29,  1872. 

Man  ANN  AH  township,  organized  October  13,  1857,  took  the  name  of 
its  early  village,  which  was  platted  and  named  by  Ziba  Caswell  and  J.  W. 
Walker  in  December,  1856.  ''Search  in  an  old  Scottish  history  gave  them 
the  name  of  Manannah."  (Album  of  History,  1888,  p.  554.)  The  present 
village  of  this  name  was  platted  in  1871. 

Swede  Grove  township,  organized  March  15,  1868,  bears  the  name  of 
a  post  office  established  there  in  1864,  referring  to  its  many  Swedish  set- 
tlers and  the  frequent  tracts  of  woodland. 

Union  Grove  township,  settled  in  1856  and  organized  April  18,  1866, 
received  its  name  from  the  grove  where  a  union  church  had  been  built,  this 
name  for  the  settlement  being  proposed  by  Lyman  Allen,  one  of  its  pioneer 
farmers,  who  came  from  Massachusetts  in  1856  and  returned  there  in  1860. 

Watkins,  a  railway  village  in  Forest  Prairie  township,  was  named  by 
officers  of  the  Soo  railway  company. 


MEEKER  COUNTY  341 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  foregoing  pages  have  noticed  Cedar  lake,  crossed  by  the  south 
line  of  Ellsworth,  which  gave  a  part  of  the  name  of  Cedar  Mills  town- 
ship; Collinwood  lake,  adjoining  the  township  of  this  name;  and  Big 
Swan  lake,  whence  Dassel  township  was  originally  named. 

Crow  river,  having  its  North,  Middle,  and  South  forks  in  Meeker 
county,  is  considered  in  the  first  chapter,  treating  of  rivers  and  lakes  that 
belong  partly  to  several  counties. 

In  the  order  of  the  townships  from  south  to  north,  and  of  the  ranges 
from  east  to  west,  this  county  has  the  following  many  lakes  and  creeks. 

The  north  line  of  Cedar  Mills  crosses  Harding,  Coombs,  and  Atkinson 
lakes,  named  for  pioneers,  extending  also  into  Greenleaf,  the  first  being 
in  honor  of  Rev.  W.  C.  Harding,  who  later  was  a  Presbyterian  pastor  in 
Litchfield.  Vincent  Coombs  and  John  Atkinson  were  farmers  beside  the 
lakes  bearing  their  names.  Hoff  lake  is  in  section  1,  and  Pipe  lake,  named 
for  its  shape,  was  in  sections  16  and  21,  but  has  been  drained.  Mud  lake, 
also  drained,  was  crossed  by  the  west  line  of  this  township. 

Cosmos  has  Thompson  lake,  named  for  an  early  homesteader,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  dry  bed  of  Mud  lake. 

Collinwood  has  Butternut  lake,  named  for  its  trees,  in  section  3 ;  Wash- 
ington lake,  on  the  northwest,  named  for  the  first  president  of  the  United 
States,  extending  into  Dassel,  Darwin,  and  Ellsworth;  Pigeon  or  Todd 
lake  and  Spencer  lake,  each  lately  drained;  Maple,  Long,  and  Wolf  lakes, 
and  Lakes  Byron  and  Jennie.  Silver  creek  flows  into  Collinwood  lake 
from  this  township. 

Belle  lake  and  Cedar  lake,  named  for  its  red  cedars,  as  before  noted, 
are  crossed  by  the  south  line  of  Ellsworth,  continuing  into  McLeod 
county.  Fallon  lake,  mostly  drained,  a  small  Long  lake,  in  section  23,  Lake 
Erie,  Sioux  lake,  and  Greenleaf  and  Willie  lakes  are  in  the  south  half  of 
the  township,  the  last  two  being  named  for  William  H.  Greenleaf,  like  the 
next  township,  and  for  U.  S.  Willie  (or  Wiley),  a  young  lawyer,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  legislature  in  1859,  who  lived  a  year  or  two  at  Forest  City  and 
died  there.  In  the  north  half  are  Birch,  Hurley,  Benton,  and  Manuella 
lakes ;  and  Stella  lake  is  on  the  north  line,  reaching  into  Darwin. 

In  Greenleaf,  besides  the  three  lakes  on  its  south  side,  l3ring  partly  in 
Cedar  Mills  township,  are  Goose  and  Mud  lakes,  the  second  now  drained. 
Lake  Minnie  Belle,  Evenson  lake,  Hoosier  lake,  and  Star  lake,  the  last, 
extending  into  Litchfield,  being  named  for  its  arms  like  rays  of  a  star. 

Danielson  has  King  lake,  beside  which  Hon.  Williatn  S.  King,  of  Min- 
neapolis, had  a  large  stock  farm,  raising  Durham  cattle,  later  called  March 
lake  for  a  subsequent  owner  of  this  farm,  with  King  creek  outflowing 
to  the  South  fork  of  Crow  river ;  and  Bell  lake  and  creek,  similarly  named 
for  another  farmer. 

In  Dassel  township  are  Spring  and  Little  Spring  lakes.  Long  lake, 
Sellards  lake,  named  for  Thomas  Sellards,  a  settler  from  Kentucky,  Big 


342  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Swan  lake,  before  noted,  Lake  Arvilla,  and  Maynard  lake,  with  Washing- 
ton creek,  outflowing  from  Washington  lake  to  the  North  fork. 

Darwin  township  has  Lake  Darwin,  Stevens  and  Casey  lakes,  Rush 
lake,  Mud  lake  (drained),  and  Round  lake,  the  last  being  crossed  by  the 
west  line  of  sections  JO  and  31. 

Adjoining  Litchfield  village  is  Lake  Ripley,  which  commemorates  Dr. 
Frederick  N.  Ripley,  frozen  to  death  there  in  the  winter  of  1855-6.  The 
township  has  also  Stone  lake,  in  section  3,  and  Lake  Harold,  in  sections 
19  and  30,  with  five  or  six  other  small  lakes  mapped  and  named,  which 
are  merely  marshes  or  dry  lake  beds,  excepting  in  the  spring  or  in  very 
rainy  summers. 

Acton  has  a  large  Long  lake,  most  frequent  of  our  geographic  names ; 
Hoop  lake  (mapped  wrongly  as  Lake  Hope),  named  because  its  water, 
like  a  hoop,  surrounds  a  central  island;  and  fully  a  dozen  marshes  that 
sometimes  become  shallow  lakes,  including  Kelly,  Butter,  and  Lund  lakes. 

Lake  Francis,  outflowing  by  Eagle  creek  to  the  North  fork,  and  Lake 
Betty,  on  the  Qearwater  river,  are  in  Kingston. 

Powers,  Dunn,  Richardson,  Plum,  Rice,  and  Mud  lakes,  are  in  Forest 
City  township,  besides  the  Mill  pond,  formed  by  a  dam  on  the  North  fork 
of  Crow  river.  Michael  Powers,  Timothy  Dunn,  and  William  Richard- 
son, were  pioneer  farmers  adjoining  the  lakes  named  for  them. 

Harvey  has  Schultz  lake,  Lake  Mary,  Half  Moon  lake,  named  for  its 
shape,  and  Tower  lake.  The  flrst  was  named  for  three  brothers,  C^erman 
farmers,  and  the  last  for  an  early  homesteader  who  was  killed  by  the 
Sioux  in  1862.  Jewett  and  Battle  creeks  here  flow  to  the  North  fork  of 
Crow  river,  the  second  being  translated  from  its  Indian  name. 

In  Swede  Grove  township  are  Helga  lake  or  marsh,  Peterson  lake,  and 
Wilcox,  Miller,  and  Mud  lakes,  the  last  two  being  shallow  and  mainly 
drained.  Peterson  lake  was  named  for  Hans  Peterson,  an  adjoining  set- 
tler, father  of  the  late  Hon.  Peter  £.  Hanson,  of  Litchfield,  who  was  a 
state  senator,  1895-7,  and  secretary  of  this  state,  1901-07. 

Gear  lake,  named  for  its  deep  and  clear  water,  situated  in  the  center 
of  Forest  Prairie  township,  is  the  chief  source  of  Clearwater  river,  which 
flows  thence  eastward  to  the  Mississippi.  This  is  a  translation  from  the 
Ojibways,  who  named  the  river  for  the  lake  at  its  source,  their  name  of 
each  being  Kawakomik,  as  spelled  on  Nicollefs  map,  Ga-wakomitigweia 
in  the  lists  of  Gilfillan  and  Verwyst.  It  was  a  frequent  Ojibway  name, 
being  retained  in  Wisconsin  by  the  equivalent  French  name  of  the  Eau 
Qaire  lakes,  river,  city,  and  county. 

Manannah  has  Swift's  lake,  in  section  33,  and  Pigeon  lake,  crossed  by 
its  west  line.  Stag  creek  runs  south  in  this  township  to  the  North  fork. 
Horseshoe  lake,  formerly  in  section  23,  nearly  adjoining  the  north  side 
.of  Tyrone  prairie,  has  been  drained. 

Union  Grove  township  comprises  a  part  of  Pigeon  lake,  on  its  east  side ; 
Lake  Emma  and  Mud  lake,  mostly  in  section  10;  and  a  part  of  the  large 
Lake  Koronis  on  the  north,  which  lies  mainly  in  Paynesville,  Steams 
county. 


MILLE  LACS  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  May  23,  1857,  was  named  for  the  large  lake, 
called  Mille  Lacs,  meaning  a  thousand  lakes,  which  is  crossed  by  the  north 
boundary  of  the  county.  It  was  named  Lac  Buade  by  Hennepin  in  1680, 
for  the  family  name  of  Count  Frontenac.  By  the  Sioux  it  was  called 
Mde  Wakan,  that  is,  Wonderful  lake  or  Spirit  lake.  Le  Sueur's  journal, 
written  in  1700  and  1701  and  transcribed  by  La  Harpe,  states  that  the  large 
part  of  the  Sioux  who  lived  there  received  from  this  lake  their  distinctive 
tribal  name,  spelled,  by  La  Harpe,  Mendeouacantons.  The  same  name, 
with  better  spelling,  was  given  by  Keating  in  1823,  and  the  lake,  on  the 
map  accompanying  his  Narrative,  is  named  Spirit  lake ;  but  this  group  of 
the  Sioux,  the  Mdewakantons,  had  before  that  time  been  driven  from  the 
Mille  Lacs  region  by  the  Ojibways,  and  then  lived  along  the  Mississippi. 

Wakan  island,  noted  on  a  following  page  for  the  present  village  of 
Wahkon,  was  the  source  of  the  name  Mde  Wakan,  given  to  the  lake  and 
to  this  great  subtribe  of  the  Siouan  people,  and  was  also  accountable,  by 
a  punning  translation,  for  the  Rum  river,  the  outlet  of  this  lake. 

The  Ojibway  name  of  the  lake,  as  given  by  Nicollet,  is  Minsi-sagaigon, 
which  is  also  applied  to  the  adjoining  country,  ''from  ffttn^',  all  sorts,  or 
everywhere,  etc.,  sagaigon,  lake."  He  adds  that  the  first  is  an  obsolete 
word,  "pronounced  mist  or  rnvsi"  Gilfillan  gave  the  meaning  of  the 
Ojibway  name  as  "Everywhere  lake  or  Great  lake."  This  name,  spelled 
Mississacaigan,  appeared  on  Delisle's  map  in  1703.  It  is  evidently  of  the 
same  etymology  as  Mississippi  (great  river). 

The  French  voyageurs  and  traders,  as  Nicollet  states,  following  their 
usual  practice  of  translating  the  Indian  name,  called  the  country,  having 
"all  sorts  of  lakes,"  the  Mille  Lacs  [Thousand  Lakes] region;  whence  this 
name  came  to  be  applied  more  particularly  to  this  largest  lake  of  the 
region.  It  was  used  by  Pike,  in  application  to  the  lake,  being  well  known 
at  the  time  of  his  expedition  in  1805;  and  Carver  learned  much  earlier, 
in  1766,  of  the  name,  but  supposed  it  to  refer  to  "a  great  number  of  small 
lakes,  none  of  which  are  more  than  ten  miles  in  circumference,  that  are 
called  the  Thousand  Lakes." 

Dr.  Elliott  Coues  discussed  this  name  somewhat  lengthily  in  his  edi- 
tion of  Pike  (vol.  I,  pp.  311-314). 

Mille  Lacs  has  an  area  of  about  200  square  miles,  slightly  exceeding 
Leech  and  Winnebagoshish  lakes,  but  much  surpassed  by  Red  lake.  It  is 
shallow  near  the  shore,  and  there  it  is  often  made  muddy  by  the  waves 
of  storms ;  but  its  large  central  part  is  always  clear  water,  varying  mainly 
from  20  to  50  feet  in  depth,  with  a  maximum  depth  of  84  feet 

343 


344  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  geographic  names  ha&  been  received  from  "History  of 
the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley/'  1881,  having  pages  663-680  for  Mille  Lacs 
county;  "Memoirs  of  Explorations  in  the  Basin  of  the  Mississippi/'  by 
Hon.  J.  V.  Brower,  vol.  Ill,  Mille  Lac,  1900,  pages  140,  and  vol.  IV, 
Kathio,  1901,  pages  136,  each  having  maps  and  many  other  illustrations; 
and  from  Hon.  Robert  C.  Dunn,  Judge  Charles  Keith,  and  Joseph  C. 
Borden,  deputy  county  treasurer,  each  being  interviewed  during  a  visit 
at  Princeton,  the  county  seat,  in  October,  1916. 

Bock,  the  railway  village  of  Borgholm,  was  named  by  officers  of  the 
Great  Northern  railway  company. 

Bogus  Brook  township  bears  the  name  of  its  large  eastern  tributary 
of  Rum  river,  derived  from  the  early  Maine  lumbermen;  but  the  reason 
for  the  adoption  of  this  name,  meaning  spurious  and  originally  referring 
to  counterfeit  money,  remains  to  be  learned. 

Borgholm  township  has  the  name  of  a  seaport  of  Sweden,  on  the  island 
of  Oeland,  whence  some  if  its  settlers  came.  ^ 

Brickton,  a  railway  village  about  two  miles  north  of  Princeton,  has 
several  brickjrards,  making  excellent  cream-colored  bricks. 

Dailey  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Asa  R.  Dailey,  an  early  settler 
there,  who  removed  to  Montana. 

East  Sii^  township  adjoins  the  east  shore  of  Mille  Lacs. 

Foreston,  a  railway  village  about  three  miles  west  of  Milaca,  is  partly 
surrounded  by  a  hardwood  forest. 

Greenbush  township,  settled  in  1856,  organized  in  1869,  was  named  for 
the  township  of  Greenbush  adjoining  the  east  side  of  Penobscot  river  in 
Maine.  Many  of  the  settlers  in  this  county,  both  for  its  pine  lumbering 
and  for  farming,  came  from  that  "Pine  Tree  State/'  being  therefore  com- 
monly called  "Mainites." 

Hayland  township  was  named  for  the  natural  meadows  on  its  several 
brooks,  supplying  hay  for  oxen  and  horses  of  winter  logging  camps. 

Isle,  a  railway  village  and  port  of  Mille  Lacs,  and  its  Isle  HARBcxt 
township,  are  named  from  their  excellent  harbor,  partly  inclosed  and 
sheltered  in  storms  by  Great  or  Big  island. 

IzATYS,  a  lakeside  village  of  summer  homes  in  South  Harbor  town- 
ship, has  the  name  given  by  Du  Luth  in  the  report  of  his  service  to  France, 
writing  of  his  first  visit  to  the  Sioux  at  Mille  Lacs :  "On  the  2d  of  July, 
1679,  I  had  the  honor  to  plant  his  Majesty's  arms  in  the  great  village  of 
the  Nadouecioux,  called  Izatys,  where  never  had  a  Frenchman  been."  It 
is  a  variation  of  Issati  or  Isanti,  noting  this  division  of  the  Sioux. 

Kathio  township,  adjoining  the  southwest  shore  of  Mille  Lacs  and 
including  its  outlet.  Rum  river,  here  flowing  through  three  small  lakes, 
bears  an  erroneously  transcribed  form  of  the  foregoing  name,  Izatys, 
published  by  Brodhead  in  1855  (Documents  relating  to  the  Colonial  His- 
tory of  New  York,  vol.  IX,  page  795).     In  the  original  manuscript  of 


MILLE  LACS  COUNTY  345 

Du  Lath's  report,  before  cited,  Brodhead  copied  Iz  of  Izatys  as  ''K,"  and 
ys  as  "hio/'  giving  to  that  name  a  quite  new  form,  Kathio,  which  error 
was  followed  by  Neill,  Winchell,  Hill,  Brower,  Coues,  and  others.  It  has 
been  so  much  used,  indeed,  that  it  will  be  always  retained  as  a  synonym 
of  Izatys  or  Isanti.  (Minnesota  Historical  Society  Collections,  vol.  X, 
Part  II,  1905,  page  531.) 

Long  Siding,  a  railway  village  about  four  miles  north  of  Princeton, 
was  named  for  Edgar  C.  Long,  a  lumberman  and  landowner. 

MiLACA  village  and  railway  junction,  at  first  called  Oak  City,  and 
MiLACA  township,  organized  after  the  village  was  platted,  have  a  shortened 
and  changed  name  derived  from  Mille  Lacs. 

MiLo  township,  settled  in  1856  and  organized  in  1869,  received  its 
name  from  a  township  and  its  manufacturing  village  in  the  central  part 
of  Maine,  on  the  Sebec  river. 

MuDGETT  township,  organized  in  1916,  was  named  in  honor  of  Isaiah 
S.  Mudgett,  who  was  born  in  Penobscot  county,  Maine,  June  7,  1839,  came 
to  Minnesota  in  1858,  settled  at  Princeton  in  1865,  and  was  during  several 
years  the  county  auditor.  His  son,  Harold  Mudgett,  is  a  farmer  in  section 
30  of  this  township. 

Onamia  township  bears  the  name  given  on  the  government  survey 
plats  by  Oscar  E.  Garrison,  surveyor,  to  the  third  and  largest  of  the  three 
lakes  through  which  Rum  river  flows  next  below  the  mouth  of  Mille  Lacs. 
A  railway  village  on  the  south  side  of  Onamia  lake  also  has  this  name. 
It  was  received  from  the  Ojibways,  but  its  meaning  is  uncertain,  unless 
it  be  like  Onamani,  noted  in  Baraga's  Dictionary,  whence  Vermilion  lake 
in  St.  Louis  county  is  a  translation. 

Opstead  is  the  name  of  a  post  office  and  a  hamlet  of  Swedish  settlers 
in  East  Side  township. 

Page  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Charles  H.  and  Edwin  S.  Page, 
lumbermen  there,  who  came  from  Maine.  .  ^ 

Pease^  a  railway  village  in  section  13,  Milo,  was  named  by  officers  of 
the  Great  Northern  railway  company. 

Princeton  village,  the  county  seat,  which  received  its  first  permanent 
settlers  in  1854,  was  named  in  honor  of  John  S.  Prince,  of  St.  Paul,  who 
with  others  platted  this  village  in  the  fall  or  winter  of  1855,  the  plat  being 
recorded  April  19,  1856.  He  was  born  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  May  7,  1821 ; 
came  to  St.  Paul  in  1854  as  agent  of  the  Chouteau  Fur  Company;  after- 
ward engaged  in  insurance,  real  estate,  and  banking;  was  a  member  of 
the  constitutional  convention  of  Minnesota,  1857;  mayor  of  St.  Paul, 
1860-2  and  1865-6;  was  president  of  the  Savings  Bank  of  St.  Paul  for 
many  years ;  and  died  in  that  city,  September  4,  1895.  Princeton  township 
was  organized  in  1857,  and  the  village  was  incorporated  March  3,  1877. 

South  Harbor  township  was  named  for  its  good  harbor  on  the  south 
side  of  Mille  Lacs. 

ViNELAND^  a  village  and  port  of  Mille  Lacs  near  its  outlet,  in  Kathio, 
was  named  for  the  early  Norse  settlement  on  the  northeast  coast  of  North 


346  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

America  icr  the  year  1000,  visited  by  nmneroas  later  Toyages,  which  was 
called  in  the  Icelandic  language  Vinland,  meaning  Wineland,  from  grapes 
found  there. 

Wahkon,  a  railway  village  and  port  in  Isle  Harbor  township,  bears  the 
Sioux  or  Dakota  name  of  Mille  Lacs,  spelled  wakan  in  the  Dakota  Dic- 
tionary by  Riggs,  defined  as  "spiritual,  sacred,  consecrated,  wonderful,  in- 
comprehensible." The  Sioux  applied  this  name  especially  to  a  very  re- 
markable but  small  island  far  out  in  the  lake,  about  seven  miles  northwest 
from  Wahkon,  consisting  of  rock,  granitic  boulders  piled  by  the  ice  of 
the  lake  to  a  height  of  nearly  20  feet,  a  noted  resort  of  gulls  and  pelicans, 
called  on  maps  Spirit  island  or  Pelican  island.  Only  one  or  two  feet  below 
the  lake  level,  and  visible  under  the  water  for  100  feet  or  more  to  the  north 
and  east,  is  a  ledge  of  the  bedrock,  described  by  David  L  BnshneU  in 
Brewer's  memoir  of  Mille  Lac  (page  121,  with  a  picture,  on  page  118^ 
of  the  heaped  rock  masses  forming  the  island.)  Wonderful  as  the  island 
is,  it  was  the  origin  of  the  Sioux  name  of  the  lake,  of  this  village,  and,  by 
a  punning  perversion  noted  on  a  later  page,  the  name  of  Rum  river. 

Bays,  Points,  and  Islands  of  Mille  Lacs. 

From  the  map  and  descriptive  notes  of  this  lake  by  Hon.  J.  V.  Brower, 
in  his  memoirs  entitled  "Mille  Lac"  and  ''Kathio,"  the  following  names 
are  copied  for  its  south  half  in  Mille  Lacs  county,  with  their  derivations 
or  significance,  and  with  notes  of  more  recent  names. 

Halfway  point,  now  called  Hunter's  point,  is  in  the  north  tAf^^  of  Mille 
Lacs  county,  near  the  middle  of  the  east  shore. 

Accault  bay  is  next  south,  named  for  one  of  the  two  Frenchmen  who 
were  at  Mille  Lacs  with  Hennepin  in  1680. 

Big  point  and  Cedar  point  are  the  northwest  and  southeast  limits  of 
RadisscMi  bay,  named  for  the  earliest  writer  of  travels  in  the  area  of 
Minnesota,  who  came  with  Groseilliers  to  Prairie  island  in  1655  and  to 
the  region  of  Kanabec  county,  not  far  southeast  of  Mille  Lacs,  in  the  mid- 
winter of  1659-60. 

Next  in  order  southward  are  Cedar  bay  and  island,  Ojibway  point. 
North  and  South  Courage  bays,  now  renamed  Twin  bays,  with  Courage 
point  between  them,  Boulder  point,  now  named  Hawk  Bill  point,  Big 
island,  and  Gim-i-nis-sing  bay.  The  Courage  bays  and  point  were  named 
for  an  Ojibway,  "A-ya-shintang,  He-is-encouraged ;"  and  the  bay  last 
named,  now  called  Isle  Harbor,  bears  on  Brower's  map  the  Ojibway  name 
which  is  translated  for  Big  island.  On  a  recent  map  this  island  is  named 
Malone  island,  for  Charles  Malone,  a  resident  of  Isle  village. 

West  of  Isle  Harbor  are  Be-dud,  Na-gwa-na-be,  and  Wadena  points, 
named  for  Ojibways  of  Mille  Lacs,  the  second  a  medicine  chief,  and  the 
third  a  chief  who  was  severely  wounded  in  their  last  battle  against  the 
Sioux,  near  Shakopee,  May  27,  1858. 

Wahkon  bay,  adjoining  the  village  of  this  name,  was  mapped  by  Brower 
as  Sa-ga-wa-mick  bay,  meaning  a  long  shoal  or  sand  bar,  which  in  this 


MILLE  LACS  COUNTY  347 

bay  extends  from  its  shore  to  Mulvey  island,  named  for  a  lumberman  of 
the  Snake  river  and  Stillwater.  Other  islands  farther  north  in  this  bay, 
named  by  Brower  as  Sumac  and  Pelican  islands,  are  on  a  later  map  called 
Half  Moon  island,  for  its  shape,  and  Wilson  island,  for  its  owner,  Guy 
G.  Wilson,  of  Mora.    Northeast  from  the  last  is  Pine  or  Spider  island. 

Between  Wahkon  bay  and  Cove  bay  or  South  Harbor,  called  South 
End  bay  by  Brower,  are  Coming-in-sight  point,  translated  from  its  Ojib- 
way  name,  Camelian  beach,  named  from  its  carnelian  pebbles.  Maple 
point,  and  Mo-zo-ma-na  point,  named  for  a  former  Mille  Lacs  chief, 
signer  of  treaties  in  1863  and  1889. 

Portage  bay,  next  westward,  was  the  usual  starting  place  for  canoe 
journeys  down  the  Rum  river,  making  first  a  portage  about  a  mile  long 
from  the  south  side  of  Mille  Lacs  to  the  east  end  of  Lake  Onamia. 

Anderson  point,  next  west  of  Portage  bay,  is  named  for  a  recent 
Swedish  settler,  owner  of  its  summer  hotel.  Thence  to  Sah-ging  point  and 
Outlet  l)ay,  a  nearly  straight  shore  reaches  four  miles,  named  Rogers 
shore  by  Brower  for  Oren  S.  Rogers,  drowned  near  there  Tune  27,  1896. 

Sah-ging,  the  Ojibway  word  meaning  an  outlet,  was  applied  by  Brower 
to  the  point  southeast  of  Outlet  bay;  but  later  maps  rename  these  as 
Libby's  point  and  Vineland  bay.  Hay  island  and  the  small  Robbins  bay 
adjoin  Vineland  village,  and  at  the  north  limit  of  Vineland  bay  is  Cor- 
morant point,  with  Robbins  island,  named  by  Brower  for  David  H.  Rob- 
bins,  which  is  recently  called  Rainbow  island. 

Shore  View  bay  and  Sa-gutch-u  point,  next  northward,  as  they  were 
mapped  by  Brower,  the  latter  being  named  for  an  Ojibway  living  there, 
are  called  on  a  recent  map  Sha-bosh-kung  bay  and  point,  commemorating 
a  former  head  chief  of  Mille  Lacs,  who  signed  treaties  in  1863,  1867,  and 
1889.  This  name,  spelled  in  several  ways,  is  translated  "Who  passes  un- 
der."   (Aborigines  of  Minnesota,  pages  726-7.) 

Wigwam  bay,  west  of  the  last  named  point,  is  succeeded  northward  by 
Reel  point,  Fenley  shore,  named  for  William  E.  Fenley,  and  Aitkin  and 
Crow  Wing  points,  which  adjoin  the  corner  of  the  counties  so  named. 

Hennepin  island,  also  named  Prisoner's  island,  alluding  to  the  cap- 
tivity of  Hennepin,  who  probably,  however,  never  came  to  this  island, 
l3ring  nearly  five  miles  north  of  Wahkon  village,  is  a  small  and  low  reef 
of  boulders,  called  Deception  Crest  by  Brower.  The  only  other  island  far 
from  the  shore  is  the  Wakan  or  Spirit  island,  before  noted  as  the  source 
of  the  old  Sioux  name  for  Mille  Lacs,  Mde  Wakan,  and  the  differently 
spelled  village  name,  Wahkon.  By  proclamation  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States  in  1915,  Spirit  island  is  a  bird  refuge  or  reservation,  for 
protection  of  water-loving  birds  that  have  resting  places  and  nests  there. 

A  very  interesting  and  reliably  historic  locality,  identified  and  named 
by  Brower,  is  Aquipaguetin  island,  a  tract  of  hard  ground  about  a  half 
mile  long  and  a  quarter  of  a  mile  wide,  in  the  northeast  part  of  section 
25,  Kathio,  inclosed  by  Rum  river  on  the  east,  the  western  part  of  Third 
or  Onamia  lake  on  the  south,  and  a  swamp  on  the  west  and  north. 


348  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

In  a  Sioux  village  there  the  chief  Aquipaguetin  lived,  who  adopted  Hen- 
nepin as  his  son  and  befriended  him  during  his  enforced  stay  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  Mille  Lacs  from  May  to  September  in  1680,  excepting  their  mid- 
summer absence  on  a  great  hunting  expedition  far  down  the  Mississippi. 
Brower  mapped  twenty-two  ancient  village  sites,  scattered  around  the 
entire  circuit  of  Mille  Lacs,  which  were  probably  all  occupied  for  some 
time  by  the  Sioux  or  Dakota  people.  They  are  most  frequent  about  the 
southwestern  third  of  the  lake,  from  Wahkon  to  Aquipaguetin  island, 
Vineland,  and  the  west  side  of  Wigwam  bay,  thirteen  sites  of  the  former 
villages  being  found  in  that  distance  of  about  twenty  miles.  "The  great 
village,"  called  Izatys  by  Du  Luth,  misread  "Kathio"  by  Brodhead,  is 
thought  to  have  been  near  the  present  Vineland. 

Other  Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  name  of  Rum  river,  which  Carver  in  1766  and  Pike  in  1805  found 
in  use  by  English-speaking  fur  traders,  was  indirectly  derived  from  the 
Sioux.  Their  name  of  Mille  Lacs,  Mde  Wakan,  translated  Spirit  lake, 
was  given  to  its  river,  but  was  changed  by  the  white  men  to  the  most 
common  spirituous  liquor  brought  into  the  Northwest,  rum,  which  brought 
misery  and  ruin,  as  Du  Luth  observed  of  brandy,  to  many  of  the  Indians. 
The  map  of  Long's  expedition  in  1823  has  these  names,  Spirit  lake  and 
Rum  river.  Nicollet's  map,  published  in  1843,  has  "Iskode  Wabo  or  Rum 
R.,"  this  name  given  by  the  Ojibways,  but  derived  by  them  from  the  white 
men's  perversion  of  the  ancient  Sioux  name  Wakan,  being  in  more  exact 
translation  "Fire  Water."  More  frequently,  as  noted  by  Gilfillan,  the 
Ojibway  name  for  Rum  river  was  taken  from  their  name  for  the  lake  and 
meant  simply  the  Great  Lake  river. 

Three  lakes  on  the  course  of  the  Rum  river  in  its  first  eight  miles 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Mille  Lacs  were  called  Rice  lakes  by  Daniel 
Stanchfield  in  the  autumn  of  1847,  for  their  abundance  of  wild  rice  then 
being  harvested  by  the  Ojibway  women.  On  a  map  of  Minnesota  pub- 
lished in  1850  they  are  Roberts'  lakes.  In  the  government  survey,  by 
Oscar  E.  Garrison,  they  were  named  Ogechie,  Nessawae,  and  Onamia 
lakes.  The  first  was  from  the  Ojibway  word  for  an  intestinal  worm,  re- 
ferring to  its  long,  narrow,  and  curved  shape ;  but  its  more  common  name 
used  by  the  Ojibways,  as  noted  by  Gilfillan,  is  "Netumigumag,  meaning 
First  lake."  In  the  Ojibway  Dictionary  the  second  name  is  spelled  Nas- 
sawaii,  meaning  "in  the  middle;"  but  on  recent  maps  this  is  called  Shako- 
pee  lake.  The  third  name,  Onamia,  meaning  Vermilion  lake,  given  to  a 
township  and  village,  probably  referred,  like  the  larger  Vermilion  lake  and 
Red  lake  in  northern  Minnesota,  to  the  vermilion  and  red  hues  of  the 
western  sky  and  of  the  lake  at  sunset,  as  seen  from  the  eastern  shore. 
According  to  Gilfillan,  however,  the  Ojibways  commonly  call  this  "Esh- 
quegumag,  the  Last  lake." 

Whitefish  lake  is  a  half  mile  west  of  Wigwam  bay,  to  which  it  out- 
flows. 


MILLE  LACS  COUNTY  349 

Chase  brook,  named  for  Jonathan  Chase,  of  Minneapolis,  who  had 
a  logging  camp  there,  flows  into  Mille  Lacs  from  East  Side  township. 
He  was  born  in  Sebec,  Maine,  December  31,  1818;  came  to  Minnesota  in 
the  spring  of  1854,  and  engaged  in  lumbering  on  Rum  river;  later  owned 
an  interest  in  the  large  sawmills  at  Gull  River  in  Cass  county;  died  in  . 
Minneapolis,  February  1,  1904. 

Tributaries  to  Rum  river  from  the  east  include,  in  their  order  from 
north  to  south.  Black  brook,  darkly  colored  by  peat  swamps;  Whitney, 
Mike  Drew,  O'Neill,  and  Vondel  brooks,  named  for  early  lumbermen ;  and 
Bogus  brook,  before  noticed  for  its  naming  a  township. 

From  the  west,  Rum  river  receives  Bradbury  brook,  having  North  and 
South  forks;  Hanson  brook,  named  for  Gilbert  S.  Hanson,  a  lumberman 
from  Maine;  Burnt  Land,  Whiskey,  and  Tibbetts  brooks,  the  last  being 
named  for  two  brothers,  lumbermen,  who  lived  in  Princeton;  Chase 
brook,  named  for  Nehemiah  Chase  (a  brother  of  Jonathan,  before  men- 
tioned), killed  by  an  accident  when  breaking  a  log  jam  on  the  Rum  river 
at  the  mouth  of  this  brook. 

The  West  branch  of  Rum  river  receives  Stony  brook,  Estes  brook, 
named  for  Jonathan  Estes,  of  St.  Anthony,  and  Prairie  brook. 

Battle  brook,  in  Greenbush,  named  from  a  fight  there  between  em- 
ployees of  Sumner  W.  Farnham,  a  Minneapolis  lumberman,  flows  through 
Rice  lake,  named  for  its  wild  rice,  and  thence  is  tributary  southward  to 
the  St.  Francis  an-d  Elk  rivers  in  Sherburne  county. 

Mud  lake  is  crossed  by  the  north  line  of  section  1,  Princeton;  Fogg 
lake  is  at  the  southeast  corner  of  section  17,  named  for  Frederick  A. 
Fogg,  an  early  homesteader,  who  removed  to  Sauk  Rapids;  and  Silver 
lake  is  a  mile  east  of  Princeton  village. 

Branches  of  the  Ground  House  river,  and  of  Ann  and  Knife  rivers, 
drain  eastern  parts  of  this  county,  being  tributary  to  Snake  river. 

MiLLE  Lacs  Indian  Reservation. 

By  a  treaty  in  Washington,  February  22,  1855,  the  three  surveyed 
townships  adjoining  the  south  side  of  Mille  Lacs,  with  their  islands,  and 
the  small  fractional  township  at  its  west  side,  all  lying  in  the  later  area 
of  this  county,  were  reserved  to  the  Ojibways  living  on  this  excellent  hunt- 
ing ground,  with  its  abundant  wild  rice  and  fine  fishing  in  the  great  lake. 

Nine  years  afterward,  in  another  treaty  at  Washington,  May  7,  1864, 
this  tract  was  conditionally  ceded  to  the  United  States,  except  one  section 
granted  to  Sha-bosh-kung,  for  whom  a  bay  and  point  on  the  west  side  of 
Mille  Lacs  are  named,  as  before  noted.  But  according  to  article  12  of 
this  treaty  the  Ojibway  people  were  accorded  the  right  to  occupy  the 
reservation  so  long  as  they  would  not  molest  the  persons  and  property  of 
adjoining  white  settlers.  Under  this  condition  they  continued  here  dur- 
ing thirty-six  years,  and  were  reluctantly  persuaded  in  the  year  1901  and 
later  to  remove  to  the  White  Earth  reservation. 


MORRISON  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  February  25,  1856,  was  named  in  honor  of 
William  and  Allan  Morrison.  The  older  of  these  brothers,  William,  was 
born  in  Montreal,  March  7,  1785,  and  died  on  Morrison's  Island,  near 
Sorel,  Canada,  August  7,  1866.  He  entered  the  service  of  the  XY  fur 
company  in  1802,  coming  to  Grand  Portage,  Leech  lake,  and  the  head- 
waters of  Crow  Wing  river.  From  1805  to  1816  he  was  engaged  here  for 
a  new  company  formed  by  the  coalition  of  the  XY  and  Northwest  com- 
panies. Later,  through  ten  years,  he  was  in  service  of  the  American  Fur 
Company,  under  John  Jacob  Astor,  and  established  a  series  of  trading 
posts  on  or  near  the  northern  boundary  of  Minnesota  from  Grand  Portage 
west  to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods.  In  1826  he  retired,  and  afterward  lived 
in  Canada.  During  his  journeys  as  a  fur  trader  he  explored  a  large 
region  of  northern  Minnesota.  In  1804  he  visited  Lake  Itasca,  then  called 
Lac  La  Biche  or  Elk  lake,  thus  long  preceding  Schoolcraft  in  the  dis- 
covery of  the  source  of  the  Mississippi,  as  is  related  by  Hon;  J.  V. 
Brower  in  Volume  VII  of  the  Minnesota  Histdrical  Society  Collections, 
with  publication  of  the  full  text  of  a  letter  on  this  subject,  which  William 
Morrison  wrote  to  his  brother  Allan,  January  9,  1856.  This  letter  was 
forwarded  to  Governor  Ramsey,  then  president  of  the  Historical  Society, 
a  few  days  before  the  act  was  passed  establishing  this  county. 

Allan  Morrison,  who  is  also  commemorated  by  this  name,  was  bom 
at  Terrebonne,  near  Montreal,  June  3,  1803,  and  died  at  White  Eartfi, 
Minn.,  November  21, 1877.  He  came  to  Fond  du  Lac  and  northern  Minne- 
sota, in  the  fur  trade,  associated  with  his  brother  William,  in  1820; 
had  charge  of  trading  posts  at  Sandy  lake,  Leech  lake,  Red  lake,  and 
Mille  Lacs;  was  the  first  trader  at  Crow  Wing,  continuing  there  many 
years;  and  finally  removed  in  1874  to  the  White  Earth  reservation.  He 
was  a  representative  in  the  first  territorial  legislature. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  has  been  gathered  from  "History  of  the  Upper  Mississippi 
Valley,"  1881,  having  pages  586-636  for  this  county;  "The  History  of 
Morrison  County,"  by  Nathan  Richardson,  a  series  of  weekly  articles  in 
the  Little  Falls  Transcript  during  1876,  collected  in  a  scrap-book  in  the 
Public  Library  of  Little  Falls ;  "History  of  Morrison  and  Todd  Counties," 
by  Qara  K.  Fuller,  1915,  two  volumes,  708  pages;  and  from  Edward  F. 
Shaw,  judge  of  probate,  interviewed  during  a  visit  at  Little  Falls,  the 
county  seat,  in  May,  1916. 

Agram  township  received  this  name  by  request  of  its  settlers,  in  July, 
1886,  for  the  city  of  Agram  in  Austria-Hungary,  the  capital  of  Croatia 
and  Slavonia. 

S50 


MORRISON  COUNTY  351 

Belle  Prairie  township,  first  settled  in  1849,  organized  April  6,  1858, 
adopted  this  name,  meaning  "beautiful  prairie,"  from  the  French  fur 
traders  and  voyageurs,  for  its  tract  of  grassland  five  miles  long  and 
averaging  about  a  mile  in  width,  nearly  adjoining  the  Mississippi  river. 

Bellevue  township,  settled  in  1852,  organized  in  the  spring  of  1858, 
has  another  French  name,  meaning  "beautiful  view,"  in  reference  to  the 
outlook  from  its  prairie  beside  the  Mississippi,  which  reaches  south  into 
Benton  county. 

Bowlus,  a  railway  village  in  Two  Rivers  township,  platted  in  July, 
1907,  was  named  by  officers  of  the  Minneapolis,  St.  Paul  and  Sault  Ste. 
Marie  railway  company. 

BucKMAN  township,  organized  in  1874,  was  named  in  honor  of  Clar- 
ence B.  Buckman,  one  of  its  first  settlers.  He  was  born  in  Bucks  county. 
Pa.,  April  1,  1850;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1872,  settling  here  as  a  farmer 
and  lumberman;  removed  to  Little  Falls  in  1880;  was  a  representative 
in  the  legislature,  1881,  and  a  state  senator  in  1889  and  1899-1901;  was 
a  member  of  Congress  in  1903-07;  and  died  in  a  sanitarium  at  Battle 
Creek,  Mich.,  March  1,  1917. 

BuH  township,  organized  in  July,  1895,  was  named  in  honor  of  Joseph 
Francis  Buh,  a  Catholic  priest,  who  was  born  in  Austria,  March  17,  1833 ; 
came  to  the  United  States  in  1864 ;  was  a  missionary  in  Minnesota  during 
eighteen  years,  until  1882 ;  and  later  through  more  than  twenty  years  was 
a  pastor  at  various  places  in  this  state. 

Clough  township,  organized  in  October,  1890,  was  named  in  honor  of 
David  Marston  Clough,  who  engaged  extensively  in  lumbering  here,  with 
sawmills  and  manufacturing  in  Minneapolis.  He  was  born  in  Lyme,  N. 
H.,  December  27,  1846 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1857  with  his  father's  fami- 
ly, who  settled  at  Spencer  Brook,  Isanti  county;  removed  to  Minneapolis 
in  1866;  was  a  state  senator,  1886-90;  lieutenant  governor,  1893-5,  and 
governor  of  Minnesota,  1895-99;  removed  in  1899  to  Everett,  Washington, 
and  there  also  engaged  in  a  large  lumber  business. 

Culdrum  township,  organized  June  2,  1870,  was  named  by  John  Work- 
man, who  had  previously  lived  at  Little  Falls  and  settled  here  soon  after 
the  civil  war,  this  being  the  name  of  his  birthplace  in  Ireland. 

CusHiNG  township,  organized  October  30,  1891,  and  its  railway  village, 
platted  in  December,  1907,  probably  were  named  for  an  eminent  jurist, 
congressman,  and  diplomatist,  Caleb  Cushing  (b.  1800,  d.  1879),  of  Massa- 
chusetts, who  in  1847  was  financially  associated  with  Franklin  Steele  and 
others  in  founding  St  Anthony  and  beginning  the  great  lumber  industries 
of  the  upper  Mississippi. 

Darling  township,  established  January  7,  1891,  at  first  called  Randall, 
which  continues  as  the  name  of  its  railway  village,  in  section  7,  was  re- 
named in  October,  1907,  for  William  L.  Darling,  of  St.  Paul.  He  was 
born  in  Oxford,  Mass.,  March  24,  1856;  was  graduated  at  Worcester 
Polytechnic  Institute,  1877;  settled  in  St.  Paul,  engaged  in  railway  engin- 


352  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

eering,  and  since  1905  has  been  chief  engineer  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
railway.    This  is  also  the  name  of  a  railway  station  in  section  35. 

EIlm  Dale  township,  settled  in  1865,  organized  April  11,  1881,  has 
abundant  elms  in  its  woods,  and  its  western  part  has  many  low  morainic 
hills  and  dales. 

Flensburg,  a  railway  village  in  Culdrum,  platted  in  March,  1890,  was 
named  for  a  seaport  and  fjord  of  Schleswig,  a  province  of  Prussia,  ad- 
joining Denmark. 

Genola  is  a  railway  village  in  Pierz  township,  platted  in  August,  1908, 
at  first  called  New  Pierz,  but  in  1915  taking  this  name  of  a  village  in 
Piedmont,  Italy. 

Granite  township,  organized  in  July,  1902,  has  in  its  section  21  many 
outcrops  of  a  granitic  rock,  coarse  gray  gneiss,  adjoining  the  Skunk  river 
for  a  half  mile  or  more,  where  a  village  named  "Granite  City"  was  found- 
ed by  Tallmadge  Elwell  in  1858.  It  had  a  sawmill,  hotel,  and  other  build- 
ings, which  were  deserted  in  1861-62,  on  account  of  the  civil  war  and  the 
Sioux  war,  the  site  being  permanently  abandoned. 

Gravelville,  a  former  village  on  the  Platte  river  in  the  southeast  cor- 
ner of  Belle  Prairie  township,  was  founded  in  1876  by  Charles  Gravel, 
who,  with  his  older  brother  Narcisse,  built  a  sawmill  and  gristmill  here 
and  also  engaged  in  mercantile  business. 

GttEEN  Prairie  township,  organized  in  the  spring  of  1868,  was  named  in 
honor  of  its  first  settler,  Charles  H.  Green,  a  native  of  Glens  Falls,  N. 
Y.,  who  came  here  in  1855,  enlisted  in  the  Third  Minnesota  regiment,  1861, 
and  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  Murfreesboro,  July  13,  1862.  The  prairie 
in  this  township,  bordering  the  Mississippi,  was  about  three  miles  long 
and  nearly  a  mile  wide. 

Gregory  is  a  station  and  small  village  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railway 
in  the  north  edge  of  Bellevue,  named  for  John  Gregory  Smith,  of  Ver- 
mont, president  of  the  Northern  Pacific  company  in  1866-72,  more  fully 
noticed  in  the  chapter  for  Crow  Wing  county,  where  the  city  of  Brainerd 
was  named  in  honor  of  his  wife. 

HiLLMAN  township,  organized  July  7,  1902,  the  railway  village  of  this 
name  in  Leigh  township,  platted  in  July,  1908,  and  the  brook  much  earlier 
so  named,  with  its  southern  tributary.  Little  Hillman  brook,  commemo- 
rate a  pioneer  of  the  county. 

Lakin  township,  organized  July  6,  1903,  was  named  for  Fred  H.  Lakin, 
a  settler  from  Maine,  who  during  many  years  was  one  of  the  county  com- 
missioners, living  in  Royalton. 

Leigh  township,  organized  February  15,  1908,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Joseph  P.  Leigh,  a  pioneer  farmer  there,  who  came  from  Maine. 

Lincoln,  a  railway  village  in  Scandia  Valley  township,  platted  in  Sep- 
tember, 1893,  having  numerous  summer  homes  beside  Fish  Trap  lake,  was 
named  for  the  martyr  president  of  the  United  States  in  the  civil  war. 

Little  Falls,  the  county  seat,  first  settled  in  1848  and  platted  in  1855, 
was  incorporated  as  a  village  February  25,  1879,  and  as  a  city  in  July, 


MORRISON  COUNTY  353 

1890.  The  city  area  mainly  belonged  to  Little  Falls  township,  which  was 
organized  May  11,  1858;  but  it  extends  also  into  the  adjoining  Belle 
Prairie  township,  and  its  part  west  of  the  Mississippi  is  in  Pike  Creek 
township.  Pike  in  1805-06  called  the  rapids  or  falls  of  the  river  here 
"Painted  Rock  or  Little  Falls,"  the  first  of  these  names  being  translated 
from  the  French  traders.  Mill  island,  a  slate  outcrop  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
long,  divides  the  river  into  east  and  west  channels ;  and  the  original  descent 
of  the  rapids  at  this  island  and  southward  was  11  feet  in  three-fourths  of 
a  mile.  About  the  year  1890  a  dam  was  built,  which  raises  the  river  nine 
feet  above  the  former  head  of  the  rapids,  giving  thus  a  total  fall  of  20 
feet  and  holding  the  river  as  a  mill  pond  for  about  three  miles  to  the 
middle  of  the  Little  Elk  rapids,  which  previously  had  a  descent  of  seven 
feet  in  one  mile. 

During  an  exceptionally  high  flood  stage  of  the  Mississippi  in  June, 
1858,  the  steamboat  North  Star  from  Minneapolis  passed  over  the  Sauk 
rapids  and  the  Little  falls,  and  made  a  pleasure  trip  to  the  Grand  rapids 
in  Itasca  county.     (M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol  IX,  page  48.) 

The  discovery  in  1878  by  Miss  Frances  £.  Babbitt,  a  school  teacher  at 
Little  Falls,  of  artificially  flaked  quartz  fragments  in  the  Mississippi  val- 
ley drift,  gave  evidence  of  the  presence  of  primitive  men  here  during  the 
closing  part  of  the  Ice  Age.  ''Kakabikansing,"  the  Ojibway  name  of  Little 
Falls,  meaning  "the  place  of  the  little  squarely  cut-off  rock,"  is  the  title 
of  a  memoir  on  this  subject,  by  Hon.  J.  V.  Brower,.  published  in  1902 
(126  pages,  with  maps  and  many  illustrations  from  photographs). 

Morrill  township,  settled  in  1874,  organized  April  11,  1881,  was  at  first 
called  Oakwood,  but  after  a  few  years  was  renamed  in  honor  of  Ashby 
C.  Morrill,  a  member  of  the  board  of  county  commissioners.  He  was 
bom  in  Canterbury,  N.  H.,  January  9,  1830;  was  graduated  in  the  law 
school  of  Harvard  College ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1857,  settling  in  Minne- 
apolis; engaged  after  1868  in  milling  and  lumbering,  and  had  a  farm  in 
Buckman  township;  resided  after  1884  at  Little  Falls,  where  he  erected 
the  Little  Elk  mills ;  and  died  in  Minneapolis,  May  5,  1904. 

Motley  township,  organized  in  the  spring  of  1879,  took  the  name  of 
its  railwaj^  village,  founded  in  1874,  which  was  named  by  officers  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  railway  company. 

Mount  Morris  township,  organized  March  17,  1897,  was  named  by 
Dunkard  settlers  who  came  from  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio.  This  name  is 
borne  also  by  townships  and  villages  in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Illinois, 
Michigan,  and  Wisconsin. 

North  Prairie,  a  small  village  in  Two  Rivers  township,  platted  in  the 
summer  of  1885,  is  in  the  oldest  Polish  settlement  of  this  county,  founded 
by  its  pioneer  immigrants  in  1868-70. 

Parker  township,  organized  in  the  spring  of  1880,  was  named  in  honor 
of  George  F.  Parker,  its  first  settler.  He  was  born  in  Bridgewater,  Mass., 
December  26,  1846;  served  during  the  civil  war  in  Massachusetts  regi- 
ments ;  and  came  here  as  a  homesteader,  April  17,  1879. 


354  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

PiERz  township,  organized  March  9,  1869,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Francis  Xavier  Pierz  (or  Pirec),  a  Catholic  missionary.  He  was  born 
in  Godic,  Carniola,  Austria,  November  20,  1785 ;  was  ordained  a  priest  in 
1813 ;  came  to  the  United  States  in  1835 ;  was  a  missionary  to  the  Ottawa 
Indians  in  Michigan,  and  from  1852  to  1873  labored  mainly  among  the 
Ojibways  in  northern  Minnesota;  was  a  leader  in  forming  the  Bene- 
dictine community  of  St.  John's,  Collegeville,  and  in  bringing  German 
colonists  to  Stearns  and  Morrison  counties;  returned  to  Austria  in  1873, 
and  died  in  Laibach,  Carniola,  January  22,  1880.  The  village  of  Pierz  was 
platted  in  1891,  and  was  incorporated  in  January,  1892.  The  railway  vil- 
lage, formerly  New  Pierz,  has  been  renamed  Genola,  as  before  noted. 

Pike  Creek  township,  organized  in  1880,  with  its  creek  of  this  name, 
commemorates  Zebulon  Montgomery  Pike,  explorer  of  the  upper  Missis- 
sippi, whose  stockade  camp  in  the  winter  of  1805-06  was  on  its  west  bank 
in  Swan  River  township,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  south  from  the  mouth 
of  Swan  river.  He  was  born  in  Lamington,  N.  J.,  January  5,  1779 ;  entered 
the  United  States  army  in  1799,  and  became  a  captain  in  1806;  conducted 
an  expedition  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Mississippi  in  1805-06,  being  over- 
taken by  an  early  snow  and  cold  on  October  16,  so  that  his  party  then  made 
their  winter  encampment,  as  noted,  at  the  west  side  of  Pike  rapids;  ad- 
vanced thence  afoot  in  the  midwinter,  with  a  few  of  his  men,  to  Sandy, 
Leech,  and  Cass  lakes ;  discovered  Pike's  peak  of  the  Rocky  mountains  in 
the  next  year,  on  an  expedition  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Arkansas  and 
Red  rivers;  was  promoted  in  the  War  of  1812  to  the  rank  of  brigadier 
general,  and  was  killed  April  27,  1813,  while  commanding  an  attack 
at  York  (now  Toronto),  Canada.  In  1807  and  1810  he  published  accounts 
of  his  explorations  in  Minnesota  and  in  the  Southwest.  His  journals  and 
reports  of  these  expeditions  were  more  fully  published  in  1895,  edited  and 
annotated  by  Dr.  Elliott  Cbues,  in  three  volumes.  A  paper  in  the  Somer- 
set Cx)unty  (N.  J.)  Historical  Quarterly,  October,  1919  (vol.  VIII,  pp. 
241-251),  shows  that  Pike's  birthplace  was  at  Lamington  in  that  county. 

Platte  township,  organized  January  24,  1899,  was  named  for  the  Platte 
river,  which  crosses  it  This  stream  has  its  main  source  in  a  large  Platte 
lake  on  the  north  line  of  the  county,  and  it  flows  through  a  smaller  Platte 
or  Rice  lake  in  the  east  part  of  Little  Falls  township.  Its  name,  given  by 
the  early  French  fur  traders,  meaning  "dull,  flat,  shallow,"  is  borne  also 
by  a  remarkably  shallow  river,  though  long,  in  Nebraska  and  Colorado. 

Pulaski  township,  organized  in  January,  1899,  was  named  in  honor  of 
the  Polish  general,  Casimir  Pulaski,  who  greatly  aided  Washington  in 
the  Revolutionary  War.  He  was  born  in  Poland,  March  4,  1748 ;  entered 
the  American  service  in  1777;  formed  a  corps  called  "Pulaski's  Legion" 
m  1778;  defended  Charleston  in  1779;  was  mortally  wounded  near  Savan- 
nah, Ga.,  October  9,  1779,  and  died  two  days  later. 

Rail  Prairie  township,  organized  January  27,  1890,  was  named  in 
honor  of  Case  Rail,  a  pioneer  farmer  in  section  18,  beside  the  Mississippi, 
whose  homestead  was  mostly  a  prairie. 


MORRISON  COUNTY  355 

Randall,  a  railway  village  in  Darling  township,  platted  in  March, 
1890,  and  incorporated  in  July,  1900,  was  named  in  honor  of  John  H. 
Randall,  of  St  Paul.  He  was  bom  in  Roxbury,  Mass.,  in  1831;  came  to 
Minnesota  in  1856;  engaged  in  official  service  for  the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific 
railway  company,  and  from  1887  to  1907  for  the  Northern  Pacific  company ; 
and  died  in  St.  Paul,  March  11,  1916.  This  township  was  originally  named 
Randall  in  1891,  after  the  village,  and  received  its  present  name  in  1907, 
as  before  noted. 

Richardson  township,  organized  January  7,  1903,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Nathan  Richardson,  who  was  the  author  of  a  newspaper  history  of  this 
county  in  1876.  He  was  born  in  Qyde,  N.  Y.,  February  24,  1829 ;  came  to 
Minnesota  in  1854,  and  in  the  next  year  settled  at  Little  Falls ;  was  during 
many  years  register  of  deeds  for  the  county,  and  later  was  judge  of  pro- 
bate; was ' postmaster  of  Little  Falls  for  about  ten  years;  was  a  repre- 
sentative in  the  legislature  in  1867,  1872,  and  1878;  and  died  at  his  home 
in  Little  Falls,  January  9,  1908. 

Ripley  township  received  its  name  from  Fort  Ripley,  built  in  1849-50 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi  in  the  eastern  section  7  of  Qough 
township,  opposite  to  the  mouth  of  Nokasippi  river,  which  continued  in 
use  as  a  military  post  of  the  United  States  until  July,  1878.  It  was  at  first 
named  Fort  Gaines,  in  honor  of  Edmund  Pendleton  Gaines  (b.  1777,  d. 
1849),  who  served  in  the  War  of  1812  as  a  colonel  and  later  as  a  brigadier 
general.  Eleazar  Wheelock  Ripley,  for  whom  this  fort  was  renamed 
November  4,  1850,  was  born  in  Hanover,  N.  H.,  April  15,  1782;  served  in 
the  War  of  1812,  being  promoted  to  the  rank  of  brigadier  general,  and 
was  brevetted  major  general;  was  a  member  of  Congress  from  Louisi- 
ana, 1835-9;  and  died  in  Louisiana,  March  2,  1839. 

Rosing  township,  organized  July  7,  1902,  was  named  in  honor  of  Leo- 
nard August  Rosing,  who  in  that  year  was  the  Democratic  candidate  for 
governor  of  Minnesota.  He  was  born  in  Malmo,  Sweden,  August  29, 
1861 ;  came  to  the  United  States  in  1869  with  his  parents,  who  settled  in 
Goodhue  county,  Minn.;  resided  in  Cannon  Falls  after  1881,  being  a  mer- 
chant there ;  was  private  secretary  of  Governor  Lind,  1899-1901 ;  was  a 
member  of  the  State  Board  of  Control,  1905-09;  and  died  in  St.  Paul, 
April  14,  1909. 

Royalton,  a  railway  village  in  Bellevue,  platted  in  1878  and  incorporated 
in  October,  1887,  was  named  by  settlers  from  the  township  and  village  of 
Royalton  in  Vermont 

ScANDiA  Valley  township,  organized  in  October,  1893,  was  named  by 
its  Scandinavian  settlers.  In  ancient  times  the  name  Scandia  designated 
what  was  supposed  to  be  a  large  island  north  of  the  Baltic  sea,  before 
exploration  made  it  known  as  the  south  part. of  the  peninsula  of  Sweden 
and  Norway. 

Swan  River  township,  organized  in  December,  1874,  bears  the  name  of 
the  stream  flowing  through  its  northern  part  to  the  Mississippi.    Its  source 


356  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

18  Swan  lake  in  Todd  county,  the  name  of  both  the  lake  and  river  t)eing 
received  by  translation  from  their  Ojibway  name,  spelled  Wabisi  by  Bar- 
aga and  Wabizi  by  Gilfillan.  When  the  first  settlers  came,  Minnesota 
had  two  species  of  swans,  the  whistling  swan,  which  is  yet  rarely  seen 
here,  and  the  trumpeter  swan,  believed  now  to  be  extinct,  like  the  passen- 
ger pigeon. 

SwAJ^viLLE  township,  organized  October  12,  1892,  likewise  crossed  by 
the  Swan  river,  took  the  name  of  its  railway  village,  platted  in  November, 
1882,  and  incorporated  May  24,  1893. 

Two  Rivers  township,  first  settled  in  1855  and  organized  in  Septem- 
ber, 1865,  received  the  name  of  its  streams  tributary  to  the  Mississippi, 
a  translation  from  the  Ojibways,  as  noted  by  Gilfillan.  The  larger  one  of 
the  Two  rivers  is  formed  by  the  South  and  North  Two  rivers,  which  unite 
about  three  miles  above  its  mouth,  the  former  being  the  outlet  of  Two 
River  lake  in  Steams  county.  Little  Two  river  flows  into  the  Mississippi 
a  third  of  a  mile  north  from  the  mouth  of  the  larger  stream. 

Upsala  is  a  hamlet  in  Elm  Dale  township,  named  from  the  ancient  city 
of  Upsala  in  Sweden,  renowned  for  its  university  founded  in  1477. 

Vawter,  a  small  village  of  the  Soo  railway  in  the  north  edge  of  Belle- 
vue,  was  platted  in  the  summer  of  1908. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  preceding  pages  have  noticed  the  Hillman  and  Little  Hillman 
brooks.  Pike  creek,  Platte  lake  and  river.  Swan  lake  and  river,  and  the 
Two  rivers. 

Near  the  northwest  comer  of  the  county,  Scandia  Valley  township  has 
a  fine  group  of  lakes,  beautiful  for  their  hilly  and  wooded  shores,  num- 
erous points,  bays,  and  islands,  and  abounding  in  fish  and  water-fowl. 
Lake  Alexander,  the  largest  of  this  group,  named  before  1860  for  Captain 
(and  later  Major)  Thomas  L.  Alexander,  stationed  at  Fort  Ripley,  has 
Crow,  Potato,  and  High  islands.  It  outflows  to  Fish  Trap  lake,  and 
thence  by  Fish  Trap  brook  to  the  Long  Prairie  and  Crow  Wing  rivers. 
Shamano  lake,  about  two  miles  farther  north,  has  this  spelling  on  the  map 
of  Minnesota  in  1860,  derived,  according  to  Gilfillan,  "from  an  old  Indian 
named  Shamanons,  who  lived  there  long  ago;"  but  on  the  most  recent 
maps  it  is  spelled  Shamineau,  a  French  form  of  this  Ojibway  name. 

Smaller  lakes  in  Scandia  Valley  are  Stanchfield  lake,  named  for  a 
lumberman,  on  the  south  line  of  sections  1  and  2;  Duck  lake,  in  sections 
9  and  10 ;  Round  lake,  in  section  13 ;  McDonald  lake,  section  17 ;  Lena  lake, 
section  18;  and  Ham  lake,  named  for  its  shape,  adjoining  the  northeast 
shore  of  Fish  Trap  lake. 

Mud  lake  is  in  section  36,  Rosing. 

Tamarack  and  Aiott  lakes  are  respectively  in  section  11  and  34,  Rail 
Prairie.  The  latter,  erroneously  printed  Mott  lake  on  a  recent  map,  was 
named  for  F.  Aiott,  a  pioneer  farmer  there. 


MORRISON  COUNTY  357 

Qough  township  has  Round  lake  in  section  27,  and  Goose  and  Qough 
lakes  in  sections  26  and  35. 

Lake  Madaline  is  in  sections  5  and  8,  Gushing. 

Fish  lake  is  on  the  east  line  of  Darling  township. 

In  the  northwest  part  of  Elm  Dale  are  Long,  Pine,  and  Cedar  lakes. 

little  Elk  river,  translated  from  its  Ojibway  name,  is  tributary  to 
the  Mississippi  from  the  west,  giving  name  to  Little  Elk  rapids  of  the 
great  river,  between  two  and  three  miles  north  of  Little  Falls.  Hay 
creek,  named  from  its  meadows  which  supplied  hay  for  winter  logging 
teams,  flows  into  the  North  fork  of  Little  Elk  river ;  and  the  South  fork 
receives  Tidd,  Shingle,  and  Sturgis  brooks. 

Another  Hay  creek  flows  to  the  Mississippi  from  the  south  part  of 
Swan  River  township. 

Below  the  Little  Elk  river  and  rapids,  the  Mississippi  has  Big  island, 
a  mile  north  of  Mill  island  at  Little  Falls;  Newton  and  Hobart  islands, 
about  a  mile  north  of  Pike  rapids ;  and  between  three  and  five  miles  south 
of  Swan  river  are  Cash's,  Muncy's,  and  Blanchard's  rapids. 

On  its  east  side  the  Mississippi  receives  Fletcher  Boundary  creek  from 
Ripley  and  Belle  Prairie. 

At  the  head  of  Platte  river  are  Platte  lake,  before  noted,  and  Sullivan 
lake,  the  latter  crossed  by  the  east  line  of  Pulaski.  Skunk  river,  the  large 
eastern  tributary  of  the  Platte,  was  called  Little  Platte  river  on  the  map 
of  Minnesota  in  1860.  Nicollet  mapped  the  Platte  as  "Pekushino  river;" 
it  was  named  "Flat  river"  on  the  map  of  Minnesota  territory  in  1850; 
and  Norwood's  map  in  Owen's  geological  report,  published  in  1852,  first 
presented  its  French  name,  Platte  river. 

Four  small  lakes  are  tributary  to  the  lower  part  of  this  river,  namely. 
Fish  lake,  in  sections  13  and  14,  Agram ;  Pelkey  lake,  bearing  the  name  of 
pioneer  farmers  beside  it,  in  sections  34  and  35,  Belle  Prairie;  Rice  lake, 
formerly  mapped  as  Platte  lake,  having  much  wild  rice,  through  which 
the  river  flows  in  Little  Falls  township;  and  Skunk  lake,  closely  adjoin- 
ing this  Rice  lake  and  also  very  near  the  mouth  of  Skunk  river. 

Little  Rock  creek  flows  into  Benton  county. 

Mount  Morris  and  Lakin  townships  are  drained  to  the  Rum  river  by  its 
West  Branch  and  Tibbetts  brook. 

Prairies  and  Hills. 

Four  townships  of  this  county.  Belle  Prairie,  Bellevue,  Green  Prairie, 
and  Rail  Prairie,  are  named  for  small  natural  prairies  on  the  valley  drift 
bordering  the  Mississippi.  A  larger  area,  called  Rich  prairie,  consisting 
mainly  of  similar  valley  drift,  adjoins  the  Platte  and  Skunk  rivers  in  Buh, 
Pierz,  Agram,  and  the  southeast  part  of  Little  Falls  township.  With  the 
exception  of  these  and  some  other  such  limited  grasslands,  Morrison 
county  originally  was  well  wooded,  and  amidst  its  principally  hardwood 
forests  it  had  numerous  extensive  tracts  of  valuable  white  pine  timber. 


358  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Considerable  parts  of  this  county  are  occupied  by  belts  of  low  morainic 
drift  hills,  but  only  two  hills  are  named  on  maps.  One  is  widely  known 
as  "Hole-in-the-Day's  bluff,"  because  the  second  hereditary  Ojibway 
chief  of  this  name  was  buried  on  its  top.  He  was  bom  in  1828,  and  died 
at  Crow  Wing,  June  27,  1868,  being  assassinated  by  three  of  his  own  peo- 
ple, members  of  the  Pillager  band.  This  hill  is  on  the  south  edge  of  Belle 
Prairie,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  northeast  of  Little  Falls.  It  rises  40 
feet  above  the  average  height  of  neighboring  hillocks  in  the  same  belt, 
being  about  150  feet  above  the  Mississippi,  but  even  this  slight  elevation 
commands  a  wide  prospect  of  the  adjoining  valley  plain. 

The  second  morainic  hill  distinguished  by  a  name  is  in  the  eastern 
section  26  of  Belle  Prairie,  known  as  Tanner's  hill,  which  has  a  height 
of  only  about  100  feet  above  the  country  around  it 

Pike's  Wintering  Place. 

The  site  of  log  houses  and  a  stockade  built  by  Pike  and  his  soldiers 
as  their  winter  quarters,  in  1805-06,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi  at 
Pike  rapids,  before  noticed  for  Pike  Creek  township,  is  marked  by  a 
bronze  memorial  tablet,  upon  a  cairn  of  stones,  given  by  the  Daughters 
of  the  American  Revolution  and  unveiled  September  27,  1919,  with  an 
address  by  Mrs.  James  T.  Morris,  of  Minneapolis,  state  regent 

The  Mississippi  at  its  stage  of  low  water  falls  three  feet  by  its  rapids 
in  the  distance  between  about  a  quarter  and  an  eightii  of  a  mile  north  of 
this  site.  Its  bed,  strewn  with  boulders,  has  many  low  outcrops  of 
staurolite-bearing  mica  schist 


MOWER  COUNTY 

Established  February  20,  1855,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of 
John  £.  Mower,  who  was  born  in  Bangor,  Maine,  September  15,  1815,  and 
died  in  Areola,  Minn.,  June  11,  1879.  He  came  to  St.  Croix  Falls,  Wis., 
in  1842;  removed  to  Stillwater,  Minn.,  in  1844;  and  settled  at  Areola, 
near  Stillwater,  in  1847,  where  he  afterward  resided,  being  chiefly  en- 
gaged in  lumbering.  He  was  a  member  of  the  council  of  the  territorial 
legislature,  1854-5,  and  a  representative  in  the  state  legislature,  1874-5. 
His  brother,  Martin  Mower,  born  in  Stark,  Maine,  in  1819,  came  to  Still- 
water in  1843;  had  large  business  interests  of  building,  manufactures, 
and  lumbering,  in  Stillwater  and  Areola;  selected  the  latter  place  as  his 
home  in  1846 ;  and  died  there  in  July,  1890. 

The  family  name  here  has  been  pronounced  with  the  long  sound  of  o, 
as  for  one  mowing  grass,  not  like  a  mow  of  hay  in  a  barn ;  but  tSie  county 
title,  by  comnxm  usage,  is  divergently  spoken  in  both  ways. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origin  and  meaning  of  names  has  been  gathered 
from  "History  of  Mower  County,"  1884,  610  pages;  the  later  History  of 
this  county,  edited  by  Franklyn  Curtiss-Wedge,  1911,  1006  pages;  and  from 
Henry  Weber,  Jr.,  judge  of  probate,  Eugene  Wood,  register  of  deeds,  and 
Mrs.  Flora  Crane  Conner,  librarian,  each  interviewed  during  a  visit  at 
Austin,  the  county  seat,  in  April,  1916. 

Adams  township  was  organized  in  May,  1858.  Its  railway  village  of  the 
same  name  was  platted  January  30,  1868,  and  was  incorporated  March 
2,  1887.  This  name  is  borne  by  counties  in  nine  states  of  the  Union,  and 
by  villages  and  townships  in  fourteen  states,  mostly  in  honor  of  John 
Adams,  the  second  president  of  the  United  States  in  1797-1801,  and  his 
son,  John  Quincy  Adams,  the  sixth  president,  1825-29. 

Austin,  the  county  seat,  platted  in  the  spring  of  1856,  incorporated  as 
a  village  in  1868  and  as  a  city  in  1873,  and  also  Austin  township,  organized 
in  1858,  were  named  for  Austin  R.  Nichols,  their  first  settler.  He  was  born 
in  Lawrence  county,  N.  Y.,  June  13,  1814;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1851, 
and  took  a  land  claim  in  1853  on  the  site  of  this  city ;  built  a  sawmill  here 
in  1854,  but  sold  this  claim  later  in  the  same  year ;  was  a  pioneer  farmer 
subsequently  at  several  other  places  in  this  state ;  removed  to  Minneapolis 
in  1865,  and  to  the  northwest  shore  of  Mille  Lacs  in  1879,  where  Nichols 
-post  office,  named  in  his  honor,  was  established  at  his  home,  in  the  west 
edge  of  Aitkin  county.    He  died  there,  almost  a  century  old,  April  5,  1914. 

Bennington  township,  at  first  named  Andover  by  the  county  commis- 
sioners in  1858,  was  organized  in  the  autumn  of  1860,  then  receiving  its 
present  name  from  Bennington,  Vermont,  renowned  for  a  battle  of  the 

359 


360  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Revolutionary  War,  August  16,  1777,  in  which  the  British  were  defeated 
by  the  Americans. 

Brownsdale,  the  village  of  Red  Rock  township,  was  platted  in  the 
summer  of  1856  by  Andrew  D.  and  Hosmer  A.  Brown,  and  was  incorpo- 
rated in  February,  1876.  Andrew  D.  Brown  was  bom  in  North  Stoning- 
ton.  Conn.,  in  1818 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1856,  settling  here,  and  engaged 
in  lumber  business  and  milling;  died  in  Minneapolis  in  May,  1911.  Hosmer 
A.  Brown  was  bom  in  North  Stonington,  G)nn.,  September  30,  1830; 
came  to  this  state  in  1855,  settling  on  the  site  of  Brownsdale  as  a  farmer 
and  carpenter;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1870  and  1877. 

Clayton  township,  originally  named  Providence  in  1858,  was  organ- 
ized June  20,  1873.  being  then  renamed  in  honor  of  William  Z.  Qayton, 
owner  of  a  large  tract  of  land  in  this  township.  He  was  born  in  Free- 
man, Maine,  in  1837;  came  to  Minnesota  about  1857;  served  in  the  First 
Minnesota  Battery  of  Light  Artillery,  1861-5,  becoming  its  captain;  later 
resided  in  Winona  county,  and  during  several  summers  in  this  township, 
being  a  farmer  and  dealer  in  real  estate ;  removed  to  Bangor,  Maine. 

Dexter  township,  organized  June  6,  1870,  was  named  for  Dexter  Par- 
ritt,  who  came  from  Ohio  with  his  father,  Mahlon  Parritt,  in  1857,  these 
being  the  first  settlers.  Dexter  railway  village  was  platted  in  1874,  and 
was  incorporated  February  28,  1878. 

Elkton,  a  village  of  the  Chicago  Great  Western  railway  in  Marshall, 
platted  January  25,  1887,  has  a  name  of  villages  in  eleven  other  states. 

Frankford  township  was  organized  May  11,  1858,  taking  the  name  of 
its  village  which  had  been  platted  in  1856.  It  is  the  name  of  a  township 
in  New  Jersey,  and  of  villages  in  Delaware,  West  Virginia,  and  other 
states,  and  in  Ontario,  Canada. 

Grand  Meadow  township,  named  by  the  county  commissioners  in  1858, 
in  allusion  to  its  being  an  extensive  prairie,  was  organized  April  20,  1862. 
Its  village  of  this  name,  on  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  railway, 
was  platted  in  1870,  when  this  railway  line  was  built  through  the  county. 

Hamilton,  a  former  village  on  the  east  line  of  Racine,  lying  mainly 
in  Fillmore  county,  was  platted  in  1855,  as  noted  for  that  county. 

Lansing  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  received  this  name  from 
the  capital  of  Michigan,  in  compliment  to  Alanson  B.  Vaughan,  a  pioneer 
settler,  on  account  of  its  similarity  in  sound  with  his  first  name.  Lans- 
ing village,  of  which  he  was  the  first  proprietor,  was  also  platted  in  1858. 
He  was  born  in  Qinton  cotmty,  N.  Y.,  June  6,  1806;  removed  to  Rock 
county,  Wisconsin,  in  1843 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1854,  and  settled  in  this 
township,  with  his  five  sons,  in  1855;  was  the  first  merchant  and  first 
post  master  in  the  adjoining  village  of  Austin;  was  a  member  of  the 
state  constitutional  convention  in  1857,  and  the  first  judge  of  probate  in 
this  county;  died  October  3,  1876l 

Le  Roy  township  was  organized  May  11,  1858.  Its  railway  village, 
bearing  the  same  name,  was  platted  in  1867,  when  this  Iowa  and  Minne- 


MOWER  COUNTY  361 

sota  division  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  railway  was  being 
built    Fourteen  other  states  have  villages  and  townships  of  this  name. 

LoDi  township,  organized  in  February,  1874,  had  received  this  name 
from  the  county  commissioners  in  1858.  It  is  borne  by  villages  and  town- 
ships in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Wisconsin,  and  several  other  states,  being 
derived  from  a  medieval  city  of  Lombardy  in  Italy,  made  famous  by  a 
victory  won  at  the  bridge  of  Lodi,  by  Napoleon  against  the  Austrians, 
May  10,  1796. 

Lyle  township,  organized  in  1858,  was  named  in  honor  of  Robert  Lyle, 
a  native  of  Ohio,  who  settled  here  in  November,  1856,  was  judge  of  pro- 
bate for  the  county,  and  in  1868  removed  to  Missouri.  Lyle  railway  village, 
platted  in  1870,  was  incorporated  March  9,  1875. 

Marshall  township,  which  had  been  called  York  by  the  county  com- 
missioners in  1858,  was  organized  June  6,  1870,  being  named  in  honor  of 
William  Rainey  Marshall,  who  was  governor  of  this  state  from  1866  to 
1870. 

Nevada  township,  first  settled  in  1854,  was  organized  in  May,  1858,  re- 
ceiving this  name  from  the  Sierra  Nevada,  meaning  "Snowy  Range," 
which  forms  the  eastern  border  of  the  great  valley  of  California.  Nevada 
Territory  was  organized  three  years  later,  in  1861,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
Union  as  a  state  in  1864. 

Pleasant  Valley  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  by 
Sylvester  Hills,  its  pioneer  settler,  who  came  here  in  1854  from  the  vil- 
lage and  township  of  Pleasant  Valley  in  Dutchess  county.  New  York. 

Raone  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  bears  the  French  name, 
meaning  root,  of  the  Hokah  or  Root  river,  which  receives  tributaries  from 
this  township.    Racine  railway  village  was  platted  October  3,  1890. 

Ramsey,  a  railway  junction  and  small  village  three  miles  north  of  Aus- 
tin, was  named  in  honor  of  Governor  Ramsey,  for  whom  a  biographic 
sketch  is  presented  in  the  chapter  of  Ramsey  county. 

Red  Rock  township,  organized  in  1858,  was  named  by  its  first  settler, 
John  L.  Johnson,  who  came  from  Rock  county,  Wisconsin,  in  October, 
1855.  His  first  home  here  was  in  Red  Rock  grove  in  section  4,  this  name 
being  suggested  "by  a  large  red  rock  in  the  grove,  the  only  one  of  the 
kind  to  be  found  for  miles  around." 

Renova,  a  little  village  of  the  Chicago  Great  Western  railway  in  Dex- 
ter, was  platted  March  30,  1900. 

Rose  Creek^  a  railway  village  in  Windom,  founded  as  a  flag  station  in 
1868,  was  incorporated  February  14,  1899.  It  is  situated  beside  the  creek 
of  this  name,  which  is  the  largest  eastern  tributary  of  Cedar  river  in  this 
county. 

Sargeant  township,  organized  September  16,  1873,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Harry  N.  Sargeant,  one  of  its  pioneer  farmers.  He  was  bom  in  the 
Province  of  Quebec,  June  19,  1817;  came  to  Wisconsin  in  1858,  and  to 
this  county  in  1865,  settling  in  section  11  of  this  township;  was  elected 


362  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

the  first  township  derk;  died  January  25,  1884.  Sargeant  railway  village 
was  platted  September  7,  1894,  this  railway  having  been  built  in  1887. 

Taopi,  a  railway  village  and  junction  in  Lodi  township,  platted  in  1875, 
incorporated  in  1909,  was  named  in  honor  of  Taopi  (Wounded  Man), 
chief  of  the  Farmer  band  of  the  Santee  Sioux,  who  died  in  March,  1869. 
He  was  one  of  the  first  converts  to  Christianity  at  the  Redwood  mission 
on  the  Minnesota  river,  and  at  the  time  of  the  Sioux  outbreak,  1862,  was 
friendly  to  the  whites  and  aided  in  the  rescue  of  many.  He  is  commem- 
orated in  a  book,  'Taopi  and  His  Friends,  or  the  Indians'  Wrongs  and 
Rights,"  by  Rev.  S.  D.  Hinman,  Bishop  Whipple,  and  others,  125  pages, 
with  his  portrait,  published  in  1869. 

Udolpho  township,  organized  in  1858,  was  named  by  one  of  its  pioneers, 
Col.  Henry  C.  Rogers,  from  his  having  read  "The  Mysteries  of  Udolpho," 
by  Mrs.  Ann  Ward  Radcli£fe  of  England,  published  in  1794.  This  is  a 
highly  fanciful  and  weird  romance  of  Italy  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
representing  Udolpho  as  a  medieval  castle  in  the  Apennines. 

Vabco,  a  railway  station  four  miles  south  of  Austin,  was  platted 
November  17,  1875,  on  the  farm  of  Thomas  Varco,  in  whose  honor  it 
was  named.  He  was  bom  in  England,  came  to  Minnesota  in  1856,  set- 
tling here,  and  died  February  12, 1893. 

Waltham  township,  organized  June  4,  1866,  had  been  named  April  16, 
1858,  at  a  meeting  of  the  cotmty  commissioners,  one  of  whom,  Charles  F. 
Hardy,  of  Red  Rock,  was  a  native  of  Waltham  in  Massachusetts.  Wal- 
tham railway  village  was  platted  September  8,  1885. 

WiNDOM  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  at  first  called  Brooklyn 
and  later  Canton,  was  renamed  in  May,  1862,  in  honor  of  William  Win- 
dom,  of  Winona,  who  then  was  a  member  of  Congress.  His  name  is 
borne  also  by  the  county  seat  of  Cottonwood  county,  for  which  a  bio- 
graphic notice  of  him  is  presented. 

Rivers  and  Creeks. 

Mower  county,  with  a  large  adjoining  tract  of  southeastern  Minne- 
sota, differs  from  nearly  all  other  parts  of  this  state  by  the  absence  of 
lakes. 

The  North  and  South  branches  of  Root  river,  and  Bear  and  Deer 
creeks,  head  streams  of  its  Middle  branch,  drain  the  northeast  part  of  the 
county,  the  French  name  of  this  river,  Racine,  being  given  to  its  most 
northeastern  township. 

Upper  Iowa  river  flows  eastward  from  Lodi,  receives  the  Little  Iowa 
river  in  Le  Roy,  and  crosses  the  state  line  at  the  southeast  comer  of  this 
county. 

Cedar  river,  called  Red  Cedar  river  on  Nicollet's  map  in  1843,  flows' 
through  the  west  part  of  this  county.    Its  tributaries  here  received  from 
the  east,  in  the  order  from  north  to  south,  are  Wolf  creek,  Dobbin's 
creek.  Rose  creek,  before  noted  as  giving  its  name  to  a  railway  village. 


MOWER  COUNTY  363 

and  Otter  creek.  Little  Cedar  river,  another  of  its  eastern  tributaries, 
which  joins  the  Cedar  river  much  farther  south  in  Iowa,  has  its  sources 
in  Marshall,  Clayton,  and  Adams  townships.  From  the  west.  Cedar  river 
in  this  county  receives  Turtle,  Orchard,  and  Woodbury  creeks. 

Horace  Austin  State  Park. 

In  the  northern  part  of  the  city  of  Austin  a  tract  of  fifty  acres,  includ- 
ing ''water  of  the  Red  Cedar  river  and  a  number  of  deeply  wooded 
islands,"  was  acquired  by  the  state  in  1914  as  a  public  park,  named  in  honor 
of  the  sixth  governor  of  this  state.  An  expedition  of  three  companies 
of  the  First  United  States  Dragoons,  under  Lt.  Col.  Stephen  W.  Kearny, 
whose  route  was  sketched  by  Albert  M.  Lea,  camped  here  in  1835.  Later 
the  site  of  this  park  was  a  camping  ground  of  parties  of  hunters  and 
trappers  in  1836,  1841,  and  1846,  including  Major  Taliaferro,  Henry  H. 
Sibley,  Alexander  Faribault,  William  H.  Forbes,  and  others  prominent  in 
the  history  of  Fort  Snelling  and  of  the  fur  trade  within  the  area  that 
afterward  was  Minnesota. 

Horace  Austin  was  born  in  Canterbury,  Conn.,  October  15,  1831,  and 
died  in  Minneapolis,  November  7,  1905.  He  settled  in  St.  Peter,  Minn., 
in  1854;  served  in  the  Indian  war,  1863,  as  captain  of  cavalry;  was  judge 
of  the  Sixth  judicial  district,  1865-9;  governor  of  Minnesota,  1870-4;  later 
was  third  auditor  of  the  U.  S.  Treasury,  and  afterward  was  connected 
with  the  Department  of  the  Interior  seven  years.  In  1887-9  he  was  chair- 
man of  the  railroad  commissioners  of  Minnesota.  He  resided  at  Lake 
Minnetonka,  and  during  his  last  years  engaged  in  mining  in  California. 


MURRAY  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  May  23,  1857,  and  organized  June  17,  1872, 
was  named  in  honor  of  William  Pitt  Murray,  who  was  born  in  Hamilton, 
Ohio,  June  21,  1825,  and  died  in  St  Paul,  June  20,  1910.  He  studied  at 
Miami  University,  Oxford,  Ohio ;  was  graduated  in  law  at  the  State  Uni- 
versity of  Indiana,  1849,  and  came  to  Minnesota  the  same  year,  settling  in 
St  Paul;  was  a  member  of  the  territorial  legislature  in  1852-3  and  in 
1857,  and  of  the  council,  1854-5,  being  its  president  in  1855;  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  state  constitutional  convention,  1857;  a  representative  in  the 
state  legislature  in  1863  and  1868;  and  a  state  senator,  1866-7  and  1875-6. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  St  Paul  city  council,  1861-8  and  1870-79,  being 
six  years  its  president ;  and  for  thirteen  years  was  the  city  attorney,  1876- 
89.  He  contributed  a  paper,  "Recollections  of  Early  Territorial  Days 
and  Legislation,"  in  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  Collections  (vol. 
Xn,  1908,  pages  103-130,  with  his  portrait)  ;  and  was  a  member  of  the 
board  of  editors  of  "Minnesota  in  Three  Centuries,"  four  volumes,  pub- 
lished in  1908.  During  more  than  sixty  years  he  was  an  eminently  use- 
ful and  greatly  beloved  citizen  of  the  capital  of  this  state. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  geographic  names  in  Murray  county  was  received 
from  Alfred  Terry,  of  Slayton,  during  many  years  a  dealer  in  real  estate 
here,  E.  V.  O'Brien,  county  auditor,  W.  J.  McAllister,  judge  of  probate, 
and  Robert  Hyslop,  clerk  of  the  court,  each  being  interviewed  during  a 
visit  at  Slayton,  the  county  seat,  in  July,  1916;  and  from  Neil  Currie, 
interviewed  several  times  in  St  Paul,  in  1918. 

AvocA,  a  railway  village  in  Lime  Lake  township,  was  named  in  1879  by 
Archbishop  Ireland,  who  founded  near  it  a  Catholic  colony  of  immigrant 
farmers.  The  name  is  taken  from  a  river  in  County  Wicklow,  Ireland, 
about  forty  miles  south  of  Dublin,  noted  for  the  picturesque  beauty  of  its 
valley,  called  "Sweet  Vale  of  Avoca"  in  a  poem  by  Thomas  Moore. 
From  the  fame  given  by  the  poet's  praise,  this  name  also  has  been  chosen 
for  villages  in  thirteen  other  states  of  the  Union. 

Belfast  township,  organized  July  19  and  September  3,  1878,  bears  the 
name  of  a  large  seaport  city  in  northern  Ireland,  whence  the  city  of  Bel- 
fast in  Maine,  on  Penobscot  bay,  was  named,  as  also  villages  of  eight 
other  states  and  townships  in  New  .York  and  Pennslyvania. 

BoNDiN  township,  organized  November  2,  1874,  received  the  name  of 
a  post  office  previously  established  at  the  home  of  William  M.  Davis,  a 
pioneer  farmer  in  the  northwest  quarter  of  its  section  24. 


MURRAY  COUNTY  365 

Cameron  township,  organized  September  10,  1878,  has  a  name  that  is 
borne  also  by  villages  or  cities  or  townships  in  fourteen  other  states.  It 
was  selected  here  in  compliment  for  Charles  Cameron  Cole,  an  early 
settler. 

Chanarambie  township,  organized  July  25,  1879,  is  drained  by  the 
head  streams  of  "Hidden  Wood  creek  or  Tchan  Narambe  creek,"  as  it 
is  named  on  Nicollet's  map,  published  in  1843.  This  Sioux  name  referred 
to  trees  or  a  grove  in  its  valley  concealed  from  any  distant  view,  called 
"Lost  Timber"  by  the  early  settlers. 

Chandler,  a  railway  village  in  the  northeast  corner  of  Moulton,  was 
named  in  honor  of  John  Alonzo  Chandler,  who  was  in  official  service  of 
the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  railway  company  more  than  forty 
years,  beginning  this  service  in  1856.  He  was  born  in  West  Randolph, 
Vt,  January  18,  1831;  was  captain  in  the  Nineteenth  Wisconsin  regi- 
ment, 1861-2,  and  a  state  senator  in  Wisconsin,  1864-5;  came  to  Minne- 
sota in  1870,  settling  in  St.  Paul,  where  he  died  March  31,  1902. 

CuRRiE,  the  village  of  Murray  township,  was  founded  in  1872,  when 
Neil  Currie  and  his  father,  Archibald  Currie,  built  a  fiour  mill  here,  using 
water  power  of  the  Des  Moines  river  about  a  mile  below  the  mouth  of 
Lake  Shetek.  Archibald  Currie  was  born  in  Argyllshire,  Scotland, 
November  13,  1816;  came  with  his  parents  to  America  when  five  years 
old,  and  to  Minnesota  in  1862;  was  a  merchant  in  Winona  county  until 
1874;  then  removed  to  Currie,  where  he  engaged  in  merchandising  and 
milling;  was  treasurer  of  this  county,  1879-83;  died  July  15,  1904.  This 
village,  which  was  the  first  county  seat,  from  1872  to  1889,  being  succeeded 
by  Slayton,  was  named  in  honor  of  him  and  of  Neil  Currie,  who  was  born 
in  Canada,  December  15,  1842.  He  built  the  first  store  here  in  1872,  and 
aided  ia  organizing  the  Murray  County  Bank  in  1874;  was  postmaster 
of  Currie,  1872-90,  and  clerk  of  the  court,  1874-87;  resided  here  as  a 
merchant  until  1905,  when  he  removed  to  St.  Paul. 

Des  Moines  River  township,  organized  May  31,  1878,  is  crossed  by  the 
river  of  this  name,  which  has  its  sources  in  the  west  edge  of  this  county. 

DovRAY  township,  organized  March  18  and  April  22,  1879,  was  named 
for  Dovre,  a  village  in  Norway,  and  for  the  Dovrefjeld,  a  high  moun- 
tainous plateau  of  that  country,  this  name  being  given  by  Nels  S.  Taarud^ 
the  county  treasurer.  Ten  years  earlier,  in  1869,  a  township  of  Kandi- 
yohi county  received  the  name  Dovre,  having  the  same  derivation,  for 
which  reason  the  spelling  was  changed  here,  while  retaining  nearly  the 
original  pronunciation.    Dovray  railway  village  was  platted  in  1904. 

Ellsborough  township,  organized  March  21,  1874,  has  an  unusual 
name,  unknown  elsewhere  either  as  a  place  name  or  a  surname,  which  was 
adopted  in  honor  of  Knut  Ellingson,  one  of  its  first  settlers. 

Fbnton  township,  the  latest  organized  in  this  county,  March  19,  1886, 
was  named  in  honor  of  P.  H.  Fenton,  a  pioneer  farmer,  who  removed  to 
the  state  of  Washington. 


366  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

FuLDA,  the  railway  vdllage  in  Bondia,  was  named  for  an  ancient  city 
in  central  Germany,  on  the  river  Fulda,  noted  for  its  early  medieval 
abbey,  founded  in  744,  and  its  beautiful  cathedral,  built  in  1704-12. 

Hadley^  a  railway  village  in  Leeds,  has  a  name  that  is  borne  by  vil- 
lages and  townships  in  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and 
other  states. 

Holly,  the  name  of  one  of  the  oldest  townships  of  this  county,  organ- 
ized June  17,  1872,  was  chosen  in  honor  of  John  Z.  Holly,  one  of  its  early 
pioneers,  who  after  a  few  years  returned  to  Illinois. 

loNA  township,  organized  March  17,  1880,  was  named  after  its  railway 
village,  platted  in  1878  by  Rev.  Martin  McDonnell,  who  here  founded  a 
Catholic  industrial  school  for  orphans.  This  is  the  name  of  a  small  island 
on  the  west  coast  of  Scotland,  celebrated  for  its  ancient  abbey,  founded 
by  St.  Columba  in  the  sixth  century,  and  for  a  ruined  cathedral,  which 
was  founded  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

Lake  Sarah  township,  organized  March  11,  1873,  was  named  for  its 
largest  lake,  doubtless  commemorating,  like  the  companion  Lake  Maria, 
the  wife  or  daughter  of  one  of  the  government  land  surveyors  or  of  a 
pioneer  settler,  but  surnames  for  these  lakes  remain  to  be  learned. 

Lake  Wilson,  the  railway  village  in  Chanarambie,  platted  in  1883,  was. 
named  by  Jonathan  £.  Wilson,  "formerly  of  Chicago,  Illinois,  who  also 
named  the  nearby  lake  for  himself.  He  owned  at  one  time  seventeen 
thousand  acres  of  land  in  this  vicinity."  (W.  H.  Stennett,  Place  Names 
of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  and  the  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis 
and  Omaha  Railways,  1908,  p.  180.) 

Leeds  township,  organized  March  11,  1873,  received  its  name  from 
Leeds  township  and  village  in  Columbia  county,  Wisconsin.  It  is  near 
Lowville  in  that  county,  whence  the  Low  brothers  came  to  Murray  county. 

Lime  Creek,  a  little  railway  village  in  Belfast,  and  Lime  Lake  town- 
ship, organized  September  24,  1873,  are  named  from  this  creek  and  lake, 
which  have  plentiful  boulders  of  limestone,  especially  abundant  around 
the  lake  and  pushed  up  by  its  ice  into  ridges  along  parts  of  its  shore. 

Lowville  township,  organized  September  2,  1873,  was  named  for  John 
H.  and  Bartlett  M.  Low,  brothers,  who  came  here  from  New  York  and 
Wisconsin.  Each  of  these  states  has  a  township  named  Lowville  in  honor 
of  their  family.  John  H.  Low  came  first  in  the  winter  of  1865-6,  for 
trapping  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Bear  lakes.  In  1866  the  brothers  took  land 
claims  in  and  adjoining  "the  Great  Oasis'^  of  timber,  as  the  extensive 
grove  beside  these  lakes  was  named  on  Nicollet's  map,  in  allusion  to  the 
surrounding  region  of  treeless  prairie.  John  H.  Low  was  the  county 
auditor  in  1881-84;  continued  as  a  farmer  on  his  homestead  forty-eight 
years;  and  removed  to  Slayton  in  1914.  Bartlett  Marshall  Low  was  bom 
in  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  in  1839;  served  in  the  42d  Wisconsin  regiment 
during  the  civil  war ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1865,.  and  settled  here  a  year 
later;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature,  1887-89.  (The  family  and 
township  names  here  have  an  exceptional  pronunciation,  like  how,  now.) 


MURRAY  COUNTY  367 

Mason  township,  organized  July  20,  1872,  was  at  first  called  Okcheeda, 
but  in  1879  was  renamed  in  honor  of  Milo  D.  Mason,  one  of  its  pioneer 
settlers,  who  was  a  mail  carrier  between  Currie  and  Pipestone. 

MouLTON  township,  organized  October  28  and  November  18,  1879,  was 
named  in  honor  of  Justin  P.  Moulton,  of  Worthington.  He  was  bom  in 
Gilbertsville,  N.  Y.,  July  4,  1828 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1855 ;  kept  a  hotel 
in  Saratoga,  Winona  «ounty,  and  later  engaged  in  mercantile  business  in 
Rochester;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature,  1862-3;  was  receiver 
of  the  United  States  land  office  in  Worthington,  1875-81. 

Murray  township,  organized  July  20,  1872,  was  named,  like  this  county, 
for  William  Pitt  Murray,  of  St.  Paul. 

OwANKA,  a  Sioux  or  Dakota  word,  meaning  a  camping  place,  is  the 
name  of  grounds  platted  for  summer  homes  in  Shetek  township,  on  and 
near  the  northeastern  shore  of  Lake  Shetek.  A  part  in  the  southwest 
quarter  of  section  29  had  been  earlier  named  Tepeeota,  meaning  a  place 
of  Sioux  tents  or  tepees.  About  a  mile  southward,  in  the  center  and  south- 
west part  of  section  32,  the  high  shore  is  called  "Ball's  bluff,"  for  Ezra 
Ball,  a  pioneer  settler  there,  on  whose  land  a  party  of  state  cavalrymen 
camped  as  rangers  through  this  region  after  the  Sioux  massacre  in  1862. 

Shetek  township,  at  first  called  Lake  Shetek,  organized  July  20,  1872, 
was  named  for  its  large  lake,  of  which  the  broadest  expanse  is  in  the 
southwest  part  of  this  township,  and  which  also  reaches  south  into  Mason 
and  Murray.  Nicollet  wrote  of  his  visit  here  in  the  summer  of  1838: 
"I  pitched  my  tents,  during  three  days,  about  the  group  of  Shetek  or  Peli- 
can lakes,  that  occupy  a  portion  of  the  space  forming  the  Coteau,des 
Prairies.  This  name  belongs  to  the  language  of  the  Chippewas  and  has 
been  given  to  them  by  the  voyageurs.  The  Sioux  call  this  group  of  lakes 
the  Rabechy,  meaning  the  place  where  the  pelicans  nestle"  [have  nests]. 
(Rei>ort,  1843,  page  13.)  Shetek  is  thus  noted  as  an  Ojibway  word, 
meaning  a  pelican,  but  it  differs  somewhat  from  its  original  form.  It  is 
spelled  Shada  in  Longfellow's  "Song  of  Hiawatha,"  Shede  (each  vowel 
being  pronounced  like  long  a)  by  GilRllan,  and  jede  (nearly  the  same  as 
each  of  the  preceding  in  pronunciation)  by  Verwyst. 

Six  years  after  Nicollet  was  here,  Captain  James  Allen,  with  a  com- 
pany of  dragoons,  explored  the  Des  Moines  valley  in  August  and  Sep- 
tember, 1844,  from  its  junction  with  the  Mississippi  to  Lake  Shetek,  which, 
not  having  Nicollet's  report  and  map,  he  called  "the  Lake  of  the  Oaks, 
.  .  .  the  highest  source  of  the  Des  Moines  that  is  worth  noticing  as 
such." 

Skandia  township,  first  settled  in  1870  and  organized  January  7,  1873, 
bears  the  ancient  name  of  southern  Sweden,  whence  a  longer  form  of  the 
same  name,  Scandinavia,  is  used  to  designate  the  great  peninsula  of 
Sweden  and  Norway,  or,  in  a  wider  sense,  to  include  also  Denmark  and 
Iceland. 

Slayton  township,  organized  July  20,  1872,  was  then  called  Center,  for 
its  central  position  in  the  county;  but  in  1882,  a  year  after  Slajrton  rail- 


368  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

way  village  was  platted,  the  township  was  thus  renamed,  in  honor  of 
Charles  W.  Slayton,  its  founder  and  chief  proprietor.  He  was  a  real 
estate  dealer,  lived  in  this  village  about  two  years,  1881-2,  removed  after- 
ward to  New  Mexico,  but  returned  to  Minnesota  and  lived  in  St.  Paul 
several  years.  The  county  seat  was  removed  from  Currie  to  Slayton,  by 
a  vote  of  the  county,  June  11,  1889. 

Charles  Wesley  Slayton  was  born  at  West  Potsdam,  N.  Y.,  August 
24,  1835 ;  came  to  Wisconsin,  with  his  parents,  in  1855 ;  was  a  farmer,  and 
after  1868  a  manufacturer  of  furniture  in  Berlin,  Wis.,  and  a  traveling 
salesman ;  removed  to  Minnesota  in  1878,  settling  in  St.  Paul  as  a  land  agent 
of  the  St.  Paul  and  Sioux  City  railroad  company;  platted  Slayton  village 
in  1881 ;  went  to  England  early  in  1882,  and  returned  in  April  with  67  colo- 
nists, most  of  whom  settled  in  or  near  this  village;  was  a  partner  after 
1882  in  gold  and  silver  mining  in  New  Mexico,  but  thereby  in  failure  of 
his  associates  he  lost  his  entire  property;  removed  in  1892  to  Phoenix, 
Arizona,  there  engaging  again  in  real  estate  business  and  in  mining. 
(History  of  the  Slayton  Family,  1898,  pages  123-124,  with  his  portrait.) 
On  account  of  failing  health,  he  went  in  hope  of  recovery  to  Little  Rock, 
Arkansas,  and  died  there,  June  5,  1906. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  foregoing  pages  have  noticed  the  Des  Moines  river,  Chanarambie 
creek.  Lakes  Sarah  and  Maria,  Lake  Wilson,  Lime  lake  and  creek,  and 
Lake  Shetek. 

Okshida  creek,  as  named  on  Nicollet's  map,  called  also  Oksida  or 
Beaver  creek  on  later  maps,  being  the  head  stream  of  Des  Moines  river, 
gave  its  name  in  the  early  years  to  Okcheeda  township,  from  1872  to  1879, 
since  called  Mason.  This  is  evidently  the  same  Sioux  word  that  in  Nobles 
county  is  applied  to  Lake  Ocheeda  and  Ocheyedan  creek  or  river,  south 
of  Worthington.  Its  meaning  is  indicated  by  Nicollet  on  his  map,  which, 
in  the  belt  of  morainic  drift  hills  that  is  intersected  by  this  lake  and  its 
outflowing  stream,  has  "Ocheyedan  Hillock  or  Mourning  Ground."  In 
the  Dakota  Dictionary  by  Riggs,  1852,  acheya  and  akicheya  are  verbs 
meaning  to  mourn,  as  for  a  dead  relative,  these  words  being  allied  closely 
with  the  names  cited  in  Nobles  county,  and  with  Okshida,  variously 
spelled,  in  Murray  county.  Here  the  name  commemorates  the  mourn- 
ing for  two  boys  killed  by  a  war  party  of  enemies. 

The  southeast  part  of  Moulton  is  drained  by  Champepadan  creek, 
flowing  southward  into  Nobles  and  Rock  counties.  Its  Sioux  or  Dakota 
name,  given  by  Nicollet,  with  translation,  as  "Tchan  Pepedan  river,  or 
Thorny  Wood  river,"  was  derived  from  its  thorn  bushes  and  small  trees. 

Currant  lake,  on  the  west  line  of  Skandia,  and  Plum  creek,  in  Holly 
township,  each  flowing  northeast  to  the  Cottonwood  river,  received  these 
names  from  their  wild  currants  and  wild  plum  trees. 

Skandia  also  has  Iron  lake  and  Lake  Oscar. 


MURRAY  COUNTY  369 

Hawk  or  Rush  lake,  crossed  by  the  south  line  of  Skandia,  was  the 
most  northeastern  of  the  group  of  Bear  lakes,  four  in  number,  lying  mainly 
in  Lowville,  the  others  being  Crooked  and  Bear  lakes  and  Tibbetts  or- 
Great  Oasis  lake.  The  first  and  third  are  now  represented  by  dry  lake 
beds,  having  become  valuable  farming  lands.  The  fourth  is  called  Great 
Oasis  lake  on  recent  maps,  from  this  name  applied  by  Nicollet  to  the 
adjoining  grove,  which  had  an  area  of  more  than  300  acres,  before  noted 
for  Lowville  township. 

Lake  Wilson,  close  east  of  the  railway  village  so  named,  was  earlier 
called  Sand  lake.  It  is  shallow  and  becomes  dry  in  seasons  of  scanty 
rainfall.  !  t 

Summit  lake  adjoins  Hai^ey  village,  whence  the  railway  descends 
both  to  the  east  and  west. 

Lake  Elsie,  now  drained  and  in  cultivation,  in  the  east  part  of  Slay- 
ton  village,  was  named  for  a  daughter  of  Arthur  Simpson,  a  settler 
beside  it,  who  came  from  England,  was  the  first  owner  of  the  Park  hotel, 
and  removed  to  southern  California. 

Lake  Cora  Belle,  in  lona,  and  Lake  Iva  Delle,  (spelled  Ivedalle  on 
recent  maps) ,  iir  EUsborough,  were  named  by  the  United  States  surveyors, 
in  honor  of  daughters  of  the  proprietor  of  the  principal  hotel  in  Worth- 
ington. 

The  Badger  lakes,  in  the  northeast  corner  of  lona,  named  for  badgers 
formerly  found  here,  are  expected  soon  to  be  drained. 

In  the  southeast  part  of  Mason  are  Lake  Beauty,  so  called  by  Henry 
Edwards,  a  settler  near  it,  and  Mud  and  Qear  lakes,  which  are  described 
by  their  names. 

Another  Clear  lake,  now  dry,  was  crossed  by  the  west  line  of  section 

6,  Shetek;  and  James  lake,  named  for  James  P.  Corbin  and  James 
W.  Matthews,  early  settlers  beside  it,  is  in  the  east  half  of  section  4, 
outflowing  eastward  to  Plum  creek. 

'The  Inlet"  is  a  long  and  narrow  northwestern  arm  or  branch  of  Lake 
Shetek,  receiving  a  tributary  creek  from  Long  lake,  which  is  crossed  by 
the  north  line  of  this  county. 

Several  small  lakes  adjoin  the  northeast  end  of  Lake  Shetek,  named 
Bloody  lake,  for  victims  of  the  Sioux  massacre  in  1862,  Fox  lake,  Isabella 
or  Round  lake,  and  Lake  Fremont.  The  last  commemorates  John  C. 
Fremont  (b.  1813,  d.  1890),  who  was  here  with  Nicollet  in  1838,  renowned 
later  as  an  explorer,  and  as  the  Republican  candidate  in  1856  for  the 
presidency  of  the  United  States. 

Smith  lake,  named  for  Henry  Watson  Smith,  a  pioneer  farmer,  at  its 
west  side,  is  near  the  southeast  shore  of  Lake  Shetek,  in  sections  6  and 

7,  Murray.  He  settled  here  before  the  Sioux  massacre,  left  his  claim  at 
that  time,  and  never  returned. 

In  Dovray  are  Skow  lake,  in  section  1 ;  Long  lake,  on  the  west  side 
of  sections  3  and  10;  Rush  lake,  in  section  15;  Lake  Buffalo,  in  section  18; 


370  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Duck  lake,  a  half  mile  southeast  of  Dovray  village ;  and  Star  lake,  at  the 
middle  of  the  south  line  of  this  township. 

Lake  Louisa  (earlier  mapped  as  Lake  Eliza)  is  in  sections  11  and  12, 
Des  Moines  River. 

Seven  Mile  lake,  close  south  of  Fulda,  was  named  for  its  distance  on  an 
old  trail  from  the  Graham  lakes  in  Nobles  county. 

Center  lake,  also  called  Central  lake,  is  at  the  center  of  Belfast.  Tal- 
cott  lake,  on  the  east  line  of  its  sections  24  and  25,  was  named  by  Nicollet 
in  honor  of  Andrew  Talcott  (b.  1797,  d.  1883),  as  noted  in  the  chapter  of 
Cottonwood  county. 

Buffalo  Ridge. 

The  highest  land  in  this  county,  extending  about  two  miles  along  the 
crest  of  the  Coteau  des  Prairies  in  the  central  part  of  Chanarambie,is  called 
Buffalo  Ridge,  in  translation  of  its  Sioux  name.  It  rises  100  to  200  feet 
above  the  lowest  adjoining  valleys.  On  its  highest  knoll  the  Sioux  had 
delineated  various  animals  by  "a  series  of  boulder  outlines,  mostly  formed 
of  small  stones.  The  best  preserved  of  these  figures  apparently  represents 
a  buffalo.  ...  It  heads  to  the  northeast,  and  its  greatest  length  is  nearly 
12  feet."  (T.  H.  Lewis,  in  the  American  Anthropologist,  July,  1890,  quot- 
ed in  "The  Aborigines  of  Minnesota,"  1911,  pages  106-108,  with  a  diagram 
of  the  buffalo  outline.) 


NICOLLET  COUNTY 

Established  March  5,  1853,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of  Joseph 
Nicolas  Nicollet,  geographer  and  explorer,  whose  admirable  map  and  re- 
port of  the  region  that  now  comprises  Minnesota  and  the  eastern  parts 
of  North  and  South  Dakota  were  published  in  1843,  soon  after  his  death. 
His  name  is  also  commemorated  by  an  island  of  the  Mississippi  at  Minne- 
apolis, and  by  a  principal  avenue  of  that  city.  (In  pronunciation  the 
name  is  anglicized,  with  accent  on  the  first  syllable,  and  sounding  the 
final  letter.) 

Nicollet  was  born  July  24,  1786,  at  Quses,  in  Savoy;  completed  his 
studies  in  Paris,  where  in  1817  he  was  appointed  an  officer  of  the  astro- 
nomical observatory;  in  1819  he  became  a  citizen  of  France,  and  in  1825, 
or  earlier,  he  received  the  Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor.  He  was  finan- 
cially ruined  by  results  of  the  Revolution  of  1830,  and  came  to  the  United 
States  in  1832,  to  travel  in  unsettled  parts  of  the  South  and  West.  Under 
the  direction  of  the  U.  S.  War  Department  and  Bureau  of  Topographical 
Engineers,  he  made  a  canoe  journey  in  1836,  from  Fort  Snelling  up  the 
Mississippi  to  Itasca  lake,  and  in  1838  a  trip  up  the  Minnesota  river 
and  past  Lake  Shetek  to  the  red  pipestone  quarry.  He  died  in  Washing- 
ton, D.  C,  September  11,  1843. 

In  the  United  States  government  reports  and  maps  of  his  work,  his 
name  appears  varyingly  as  I.  N.  or  J.  N.  Nicollet ;  and  it  is  given  as 
Jean  N.  by  General  Sibley,  Dr.  Neill,  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell,  and  other 
writers  of  Minnesota  history.  Researches  by  Horace  V.  Winchell,  how- 
ever, in  1893,  published  in  the  American  Geologist  (vol.  XIII,  pages  126- 
128,  for  February,  1894) ,  show  that  his  name  was  Joseph  Nicolas  Nicollet. 
A  biographic  sketch  of  him,  with  a  portrait,  was  given  by  N.  H.  Winchell 
in  the  American  Geologist  (vol.  VIII,  pages  343-352,  December,  1891)  ; 
and  additional  details  were  given  by  H.  V.  Winchell  in  the  article  before 
cited. 

The  error  of  this  name,  during  half  a  century  so  generally  mistaken, 
may  have  come  from  its  being  confounded  with  that  of  the  much  earlier 
French  explorer,  Jean  Nicolet  (also  spelled  Nicollet),  who  came  to  Cana- 
da in  1618,  and  who  was  a  most  energetic  and  honored  agent  of  the  pro- 
prietors of  Canada  for  the  promotion  of  the  fur  trade.  In  1634  this 
Nicolet  visited  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  and  thence  came  to  Green  bay  in 
eastern  Wisconsin,  being  the  first  white  man  known  to  explore  any  part 
of  that  state.  He  died  on  the  last  day  of  October,  1642,  being  drowned 
by  shipwreck  on  the  St.  Lawrence  river  near  Quebec. 

371 


372  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  geographic  names  has  been  gathered  from  'History 
of  the  Minnesota  Valley/'  1882,  having  pages  637-697  on  this  comity; 
**History  of  Nicollet  and  Lc  Suenr  Counties,"  edited  by  Hon«  William  G. 
Gresham,  two  volumes,  pages  544  and  538,  1916 ;  and  from  Judge  Gresham, 
the  editor  here  cited;  Z.  S.  Gauk,  cashier  of  the  Nicollet  County  Bank, 
Henry  Moll,  judge  of  probate,  and  Mrs.  Mary  Briggs  Alton,  widow  of 
Rev.  John  F.  Alton,  each  being  interviewed  during  a  visit  at  St.  Peter, 
the  county  seat,  in  July,  1916. 

Belgrade  township,  first  settled  in  1854  and  organized  in  1858,  was 
named  from  a  township  and  village  in  Kennebec  county,  Maine,  and 
from  the  ancient  city  of  Belgrade,  the  capital  of  Serbia,  on  the  River 
Danube. 

Bernadotte  township,  settled  in  1859,  organized  January  23,  1869,  re- 
ceived this  name  at  the  suggestion  of  John  Miller,  one  of  its  pioneer  set^ 
tiers,  in  honor  of  Charles  XV  (b.  1826,  d.  1872),  Idng  of  Sweden  and 
Norway.  He  was  the  son  of  Oscar  I,  and  was  the  grandson  of  a  French 
general,  Jean  Baptiste  Jules  Bernadotte  (b.  1764,  d.  1844),  who  was  elected 
crown  prince  of  Sweden  in  1810  and  became  the  king  in  1818^  with  the 
title  Charles  XIV.    A  township  and  village  in  Illinois  also  bear  this  name. 

Bkightok,  settled  in  1855,  but  the  latest  township  organized  in  this 
county,  October  16,  1877,  had  'several  families  who  came  from  Brighton 
township  in  Kenosha  county,  Wisconsin. 

CouRTLAND  towuship,  organized  in  1858,  was  then  called  Hilo,  from  its 
post  office  established  in  1856,  which  received  that  name  from  a  bay  and 
town  in  Hawaii.  It  was  renamed  in  1865,  for  Cortland  county  and  its 
county  seat  in  New  York,  whence  some  of  its  settlers  came.  The  vil- 
lage of  this  township,  having  the  same  name,  designated  as  a  railway  sta- 
tion in  1872,  was  platted  February  14,  1882. 

Granby  township,  settled  in  May,  1855,  organized  May  11,  1858,  has 
the  name  of  townships  and  villages  in  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  Connecti- 
cut, New  York,  and  the  Province  of  Quebec. 

Klossner,  a  railway  village  in  Lafayette,  platted  in  October,  1897,  was 
named  for  Jacob  Klossner,  proprietor  of  its  site.  He  was  bom  in  Switzer- 
land, December  23,  1846;  came  with  his  parents  to  the  United  States 
when  three  years  old,  and  to  Minnesota  in  1856 ;  served  against  the  Sioux, 
with  the  First  Minnesota  Mounted  Rangers,  1862-3;  owned  a  farm  in 
New  Ulm ;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1878. 

Lafayette  township,  settled  in  1853  and  organized  May  11,  1858,  was 
named,  like  townships  and  villages  or  cities  of  twenty  other  states  of  the 
Union,  with  counties  of  six  states,  in  honor  of  the  Marquis  de  Lafayette 
(b.  1757,  d.  1834),  of  France,  who  came  to  America  and  greatly  aided 
Washington  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  later  was  an  eminent  French 
statesman  and  general.  The  railway  village  of  this  name,  in  the  northeast 
comer  of  the  township,  was  platted  in  1897. 


NICOLLET  COUNTY  373 

Lajce  Prairie  township,  settled  in  the  summer  of  1853,  organized  in 
1858,  was  mainly  an  extensive  prairie,  with  numerous  small  lakes,  some  of 
which  have  been  drained. 

New  Sweden  township,  organized  January  25,  1864,  has  many  Swedish 
settlers;  but  its  earliest  settlement,  in  1855-57,  was  by  immigrants  from 
Norway,  taking  homesteads  near  a  grove  in  its  north  part,  which  there- 
fore was  named  Norwegian  Grove. 

Nicollet  township,  named  after  the  county,  was  first  settled  in  the 
spring  of  1854  and  was  organized  May  11,  1858.  An  early  village  of  this 
name,  in  section  17,  was  platted  in  1857,  but  lasted  only  three  years.  The 
present  Nicollet  railway  village  was  incorporated  November  17,  1881. 

North  Mankato,  in  Belgrade  township,  is  a  village  on  the  Minnesota 
river,  opposite  to  the  city  of  Mankato,  Blue  Earth  county. 

OsHAWA  township,  first  settled  in  1852,  organized  in  1858,  received  its 
name  from  the  Canadian  town  of  Oshawa  on  the  northwest  shore  of 
Lake  Ontario,  noted  by  Gannett  as  an  Indian  word,  meaning  "ferry  him 
over,"  or  "across  the  river." 

Redstone,  a  village  site  platted  in  1856,  on  sections  34  and  35  in  the 
west  part  of  the  present  Courtland  township,  was  named  for  adjacent 
outcrops  of  red  quartzite  beside  the  Minnesota  river.  A  few  years  later 
this  site  was  mostly  vacated  by  removal  of  its  settlers  to  New  Ulm,  Brown 
county. 

Ridgely  township,  organized  September  26,  1871,  was  named  for  Fort 
Ridgely,  in  its  section  6,  built  in  1853-54,  which  was  used  as  a  United 
States  military  post  until  the  spring  of  1867.  The  fort  was  named  in 
1854  by  Jefferson  Davis,  then  secretary  of  war,  in  honor  of  three  army 
officers  from  Maryland  who  died  in  the  Mexican  war,  Lieut.  Henderson 
Ridgely,  Captain  Randolph  Ridgely,  and  Captain  Thomas  P.  Ridgely. 
During  thirteen  years  before  its  organization,  from  1858  to  1871,  this 
township  was  a  part  of  West  Newton,  which  was  named  from  the  steam- 
boat that  brought  the  first  troops  and  supplies  to  build  Fort  Ridgely,  as 
noted  for  that  township. 

St.  Peter,  the  county  seat,  first  settled  in  the  fall  of  1853  by  Captain 
William  B.  Dodd,  platted  in  June,  1854,  was  incorporated  as  a  borough 
March  2,  1865,  and  as  a  city  January  7,  1873.  It  was  named  for  the  St. 
Pierre  or  St.  Peter  river,  as  the  Minnesota  river  was  called  by  the  early 
French  and  English  explorers  and  fur  traders,  probably  in  honor  of 
Pierre  Charles  Le  Sueur,  whose  surname  is  borne  by  the  adjoining  county 
on  the  east  side  of  this  river. 

Traverse  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  took  the  name  of  its  vil- 
Istge,  platted  in  1852,  commonly  called  Traverse  des  Sioux,  "Crossing  of 
the  Sioux,"  because  the  Minnesota  river  was  crossed  here  on  a  much  used 
trail  from  St..  Paul  and  Fort  Sneliing  to  the  upper  Minnesota  valley  and 
the  Red  river  valley.  In  1823  this  place  was  named  "the  Crescent"  by 
Long's  expedition,  referring  to  a  bend  of  the  river ;  but  before  1838,  when 
Nicollet  was  here,  it  had  received  this  French  name,  Traverse  des  Sioux. 


374  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

The  Dakota  Dictionary,  published  in  1852,  note^  its  Sioux  name  as  Oiyu- 
wege,  meaning  "the  place  of  crossing,  a  ford." 

West  Newton  township,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1856  and  organized 
May  11,  1858,  originally  included  Fort  Ridgely  and  the  present  Ridgely 
township.  It  was  named  partly  in  compliment  to  James  Newton,  one  of 
its  first  settlers,  who  was  born  in  Kentucky  in  1829,  took  a  homestead 
claim  here  in  1856,  and  served  in  the  Second  Minnesota  regiment  in  the 
civil  war.  A  further  and  principal  reason  for  the  choice  of  this  township 
name  was  the  steamboat  named  West  Newton,  under  command  of  Captain 
D.  S.  Harris,  which  made  the  trip  from  Fort  Snelling  to  the  site  of  Fort 
Ridgely  in  the  last  four  days  of  April,  1853,  bringing  two  companies  of 
the  Sixth  regiment,  with  lumber  and  supplies  for  building  the  fort  'This 
was  the  first  steamer  that  had  ascended  the  Minnesota  river  any  distance 
above  the  mouth  of  the  Blue  Earth,"  as  Major  Benjamin  H.  Randall 
wrote  in  a  paper  on  the  history  of  Fort  Ridgely,  especially  narrating  its 
defence  against  the  Sioux,  August  18-22,  1862,  published  in  the  Winona 
Republican,  1892. 

The  steamboat,  West  Newton,  150  feet  long  and  of  JOO  tons  burden, 
was  built  for  Captain  Harris  in  1852,  for  the  Mississippi  river  traffic  be- 
tween Galena  and  St  Paul.  It  was  the  earliest  boat  arriving  at  St  Paul 
in  the  spring  of  1853,  on  April  11,  and  during  that  season  it  made  twenty- 
seven  trips  to  and  from  St.  Paul,  until  in  September  it  was  sunk  near 
Alma,  Wisconsin.  (George  B.  Merrick,  "Old  Times  on  the  Upper  Missis- 
sippi," 1909,  page  293.) 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  Sioux  name.  Mini  Sotah,  borne  with  changed  spelling  by  the  river 
which  borders  this  county  and  by  the  state,  is  also  applied  on  Nicollet's 
map  to  the  lake  crossed  by  the  county  line  on  the  north  side  of  West  New- 
ton, translated  as  Clear  lake.  The  outlet  of  Gear  lake  is  Eight  Mile 
creek,  crossed  eight  miles  from  Fort  Ridgely  on  the  road  to  Traverse  des 
Sioux. 

Little  Rock  creek  or  river,  also  called  Mud  creek,  joins  the  Minnesota 
river  near  the  east  line  of  Ridgely.  About  three  miles  northwest  from 
its  mouth  is  an  outcrop  of  gneiss  and  granite  in  the  Minnesota  valley, 
adjoining  the  site  of  a  former  Indian  trading  post,  called  Little  Rock  in 
translation  of  the  French  name.  Petite  Roche,  given  to  it  by  the  early 
traders  and  voyageurs. 

Fort  creek,  flowing  past  the  east  side  of  the  site  of  Fort  Ridgely,  is  the 
most  western  tributary  of  the  Minnesota  river  in  this  county. 

Nicollet  creek,  flowing  south  through  Nicollet  township  to  the  Minne- 
sota, is  the  outlet  of  the  large  Swan  lake,  which  Nicollet  mapped  as 
Marrah  Tanka  (for  maga,  goose,  tonka,  great),  the  Sioux  name  of  the 
swan.  Keating,  in  the  Narrative  of  Long's  expedition  in  1823,  wrote  of 
this  lake,  'The  Indian  name  is  Manha  tanka  otamenda,  which  signifies  the 


NICOLLET  CO  UNTY  375 

lake  of  the  many  large  birds."  Two  species,  the  trumpeter  swan  and  the 
whistling  swan,  were  formerly  found  in  Minnesota.  The  first,  which  now 
is  extinct,  nested  here;  but  the  second,  which  yet  is  rarely  seen  in  this 
state,  has  its  breeding  grounds  far  north  of  our  region. 

Eastward  from  Swan  lake  are  Middle  lake.  Little  lake,  Horseshoe 
lake,  named  for  its  shape.  Timber  lake,  having  trees  and  groves  on  its 
shores  and  on  its  large  island,  Fox  lake,  and  Rogers  lake,  the  last,  in 
section  3,  Traverse,  being  named  for  a  pioneer  farmer. 

Oak  Leaf  lake,  formerly  called  Cowan's  lake,  in  section  25,  Oshawa, 
received  its  present  name  in  honor  of  H.  J.  Eckloff,  an  adjoining  Swedish 
farmer,  whose  name  has  this  meaning. 

Goose  lake,  named  for  its  wild  geese,  on  the  line  between  Traverse  and 
Oshawa,  has  been  drained. 

Several  small  creeks  flowing  to  the  Minnesota  river,  mostly  in  the 
east  part  of  the  county,  remain  unnamed  on  maps. 

Site  of  the  Sioux  Treaty^  185  L 

Near  the  ford  of  the  Minnesota  river,  called  the  Traverse  des  Sioux, 
whence  Traverse  village  and  township  were  named,  a  treaty  with  the 
Dakotas  or  Sioux  had  been  made  in  1841  by  Governor  James  D.  Doty  of 
Wisconsin,  which,  however,  failed  of  ratification  in  the  United  States 
Senate.  Ten  years  later,  on  July  23,  1851,  a  treaty  with  the  Wahpeton 
and  Sisseton  Sioux  of  the  Minnesota  valley  was  concluded  here  by  Gov- 
ernor Ramsey  and  Colonel  Luke  Lea,  whereby  these  Indians  ceded  to 
the  United  States,  for  white  settlement,  the  greater  part  of  their  lands 
in  southern  Minnesota.  A  year  later  this  treaty,  with  changes  afterward 
accepted  by  the  Sioux,  received  ratification  by  the  Senate,  and  it  was 
proclaimed  by  President  Fillmore  on  February  24,  1853.  (See  the  account 
of  these  Treaties,  by  Thomas  Hughes,  M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  X,  1905, 
pages  101-129.) 

The  site  of  the  Treaty  of  Traverse  des  Sioux  in  1851  was  appropriately 
marked  June  17,  1914,  by  a  brass  tablet  on  a  granite  boulder,  unveiled  by 
Mrs.  Mary  B.  Aiton.  This  historic  memorial  was  presented  to  the  state, 
from  the  Captain  Richard  Somers  Chapter  of  the  Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution,  St.  Peter,  by  Mrs.  H.  L.  Stark,  regent.  (St.  Peter 
Herald,  June  19,  1914.) 


NOBLES  COUNTY 

Established  May  23,  1857,  and  organized  October  27,  1870,  this  county 
was  named  for  William  H.  Nobles,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Minnesota 
territorial  legislature  in  1854  and  1856.  In  the  autumn  of  the  latter  year 
he  began  the  construction  of  a  wagon  road  for  the  United  States  govern- 
ment, crossing  southwestern  Minnesota  and  this  county,  to  extend  from 
Fort  Ridgely  to  the  South  pass  in  the  Rocky  mountains.  This  work  was 
continued  in  1857,  but  was  not  completed. 

Nobles  was  born  in  New  York  state  in  1816;  was  a  machinist  by  trade, 
and  came  to  St.  Croix  Falls,  Wisconsin,  in  1841,  to  assist  in  building  the 
first  mill  there,  but  soon  removed  to  Hudson,  Wis.,  then  called  Willow 
River;  in  1843  he  began  his  residence  in  Minnesota,  at  Stillwater;  and  in 

1848  came  to  St.  Paul,  where  he  commenced  wagon-making  and  black- 
smithing,  building  for  Henry  H.  Sibley  the  first  wagon  made  here.    In 

1849  he  went  to  California,  and  lived  there,  in  Shasta  county,  until  May, 
1852,  when  he  led  a  party  of  citizens  to  inspect  a  pass  which  he  had  dis- 
covered, crossing  the  Sierra  Nevada,  since  bearing  his  name.  Returning 
to  Minnesota,  he  earnestly  advocated  the  building  of  an  immigrant  road 
(and  ultimately  a  railroad)  from  St.  Paul,  by  way  of  the  South  pass  and 
Nobles  pass,  to  San  Francisco.  He  served  as  lieutenant  colonel  in  the 
79th  New  York  regiment  during  a  part  of  the  civil  war,  and  afterward 
held  several  government  positions.  A  few  years  of  ill  health  ensued, 
and  he  died  in  St.  Paul,  December  28,  1876,  having  returned  a  few  days 
previous  from  seeking  in  vain  for  recovery. 

The  United  States  steamship  Nobles,  named  in  honor  of  this  county's 
Liberty  Loan  record  in  the  World  War,  was  launched  August  23,  1919. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  geographic  names  has  been  received  from  ''An  Illus- 
trated History  of  Nobles  County,"  by  Arthur  P.  Rose,  637  pages,  1908; 
and  from  Dr.  George  O.  Moore,  president  of  the  State  Bank  of  Worth- 
ington,  and  Julius  A.  Town,  attorney,  who  came  here  as  pioneer  settlers 
in  1872,  interviewed  at  Worthington,  the  county  seat,  in  July,  1916. 

Adrian,  a  village  in  Olney  and  West  Side  townships,  platted  in  May, 
1876,  and  incorporated  November  17,  1881,  was  named  in  honor  of  Adrian 
Iselin,  who  was  the  mother  of  Adrian  C.  Iselin,  one  of  the  directors  of  the 
St  Paul  and  Sioux  City  railroad  company.  In  the  vicinity  of  Adrian  a 
Catholic  colony  of  immigrant  farmers  was  founded  by  Archbishop  Ire- 
land in  1879. 

BiGELow  township,  organized  May  20,  1872,  and  its  railway  village, 
platted  in  the  same  year,  were  named  in  honor  of  Charles  Henry  Bige- 
low,  who  was  born  in  Easton,  N.  Y.,  June  4,  1835,  and  died  in  St  Paul, 

376 


NOBLES  COUNTY  177 

Minn.,  July  31,  1911.  He  settled  at  St  Paul  in  1864,  engaged  in  lumber 
business  and  insurance,  and  was  president  of  the  St  Paul  Fire  and  Marine 
Insurance  Company,  1876-1911.  This  village  was  incorporated  March  14, 
1900. 

Bloom  township,  organized  in  April,  1879,  was  named  in  honor  of  Peter 
Bloom  and  his  family,  including  three  sons,  who  were  its  first  settlers, 
locating  on  section  22  in  1874. 

Brewster,  the  railway  village  of  Hersey  township,  platted  April  22, 
1872,  was  called  Hersey  until  August,  1880,  being  then  renamed  for  the 
village  and  township  of  Brewster  in  Barnstable  county,  Mass.  William 
Brewster,  honored  in  the  name  of  that  township,  was  bom  in  Scrooby, 
England,  about  1560,  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Plymouth  colony  in 
Massachusetts,  coming  on  the  Mayflower  in  1620,  and  died  in  Plymouth, 
Mass.,  April  10,  1644. 

Dewald  township,  organized  September  20,  1872,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Amos  and  Hiram  Dewald,  pioneer  settlers,  who  came  in  April,  1872. 

Dundee,  a  railway  village  in  the  northeast  comer  of  Graham  Lakes 
township,  platted  in  1879  and  incorporated  February  15,  1898,  has  the 
name  of  a  city  in  Scotland,  which  is  also  borne  by  villages  in  twelve  other 
states. 

Elk  township,  established  September  16,  1872,  took  the  name  given  by 
early  trappers  to  the  creek  which  has  its  sources  here,  flowing  eastward. 
A  lone  elk  was  seen  in  this  township  ten  days  before  the  petition  for  its 
organization  was  granted  by  the  county  commissioners. 

Ellsworth,  the  railway  village  and  junction  in  Grand  Prairie  town- 
ship, platted  in  September,  1884,  and  incorporated  Janukry  13,  1887,  was 
named  in  honor  of  Eugene  Ellsworth,  of  Cedar  Falls,  Iowa. 

Graham  Lakes  township,  organized  April  21,  1871,  received  this  name 
from  its  East  and  West  Graham  lakes,  mapped  as  Lake  Graham  by  Nicol- 
let James  Duncan  Graham  and  Andrew  Talcott,  for  whom  Nicollet  named 
Lake  Talcott  in  the  southwest  corner  of  Cottonwood  county,  were  com- 
missioners in  1840-43,  with  James  Renwick,  for  the  survey  of  the  north- 
eastern part  of  the  international  boundary  between  the  United  States  and 
Canada.  Graham  was  born  in  Virginia,  April  4,  1799;  and  died  in  Boston, 
Mass.,  December  28,  1865.  He  was  graduated  at  the  United  States  Mili- 
tary Academy  in  1817,  served  in  the  corps  of  topographical  engineers 
after  1829,  and  was  brevetted  lieutenant  colonel  for  his  valuable  work  on 
the  northeastern  boundary  survey. 

Grand  Prairie  township,  organized  October  30,  1873,  is  in  a  very  ex- 
tensive prairie  region,  which  has  mostly  an  undulating  or  rolling  surface, 
but  the  greater  part  of  this  township  is  nearly  level. 

Hersey  township,  organized  June  11,  1872,  took  the  early  name  of  its 
railway  village,  which  was  changed  to  Brewster  in  1880,  as  before  noted. 
The  township  name  commemorates  Samuel  Freeman  Hersey,  of  Bangor, 
Maine,  who  was  a  director  of  the  St  Paul  and  Sioux  City  railroad  com- 
pany.   He  was  born  in  Sumner,  Maine,  April  12,  1812 ;  engaged  in  lumber 


378  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

business  and  banking  in  Maine,  Minnesota,  and  Wisconsin,  and  established 
large  sawmills  in  Stillwater,  Minn.;  was  a  member  of  Congress  from 
Maine,  1873-75 ;  and  died  in  Bangor,  February  3,  1875. 

Indian  Lake  township,  established  April  22,  1871,  bears  the  name  of 
its  lake  in  sections  27  and  34,  where  the  first  white  settlers,  coming  in 
1869,  found  the  camp  of  a  considerable  band  of  Sioux  who  remained  in 
this  vicinity  during  several  years. 

KiNBRAE  village,  in  Graham  Lakes  township,  founded  in  1879  by  the 
Dundee  Land  Company  of  Scotland,  w'as  at  first  called  Airlie  and  later 
De  Forest,  but  received  the  present  Scottish  name  in  August,  1883.  It 
was  incorporated  February  17,  1896. 

Larkin  township,  the  latest  organized  in  this  county,  March  27,  1883, 
was  named  in  honor  of  John  Larkin,  of  New  York  city,  a  prominent 
worker  in  the  Catholic  colonization  association  which  brought  many  set- 
tlers to  southwestern  Minnesota. 

Leota  township  was  organized  April  5,  1879.  "The  name  was  sug- 
gested by  W.  G.  Barnard,  one  of  the  township's  earliest  settlers.  It  is 
the  only  township,  village  or  physical  feature  in  Nobles  county  named  in 
honor  of  an  Indian.  Leota  was  an  Indian  maiden  who  figured  in  a  story 
of  Indian  adventure."     (History  of  this  county  by  Rose,  p.  102.) 

LiSMORE  township,  organized  August  9,  1880,  to  which  many  Irish 
Catholic  settlers  came  during  that  year,  was  named  after  a  village  of 
County  Water  ford  in  Ireland,  noted  for  a  fine  baronial  castle.  Lismore 
railway  village  was  platted  in  the  summer  of  1900,  and  was  incorporated 
May  27,  1902. 

Little  Rock  township,  organized  September  20,  1872,  is  crossed  by  the 
Little  Rock  river,  which  here  receives  its  West  branch.  Thence  it  flows 
southwestward  through  Lyon  county  in  Iowa  to  the  Rock  river,  which 
is  named,  like  Rock  county  of  Minnesota,  from  the  Mound,  a  precipitous 
hill  of  red  quartzite  near  Luverne  in  that  county. 

Lorain  township  was  organized  September  20,  1872,  being  then  named 
Fairview,  from  its  beautiful  panoramic  outlook  over  this  great  prairie 
region,  but  was  renamed  June  15,  1874,  "after  the  town  of  Loraine,  Adams 
county.  111.,  the  superfluous  V  being  dropped."  This  name  in  Ohio  and 
Illinois  came  from  the  ancient  large  district  of  Lorraine  in  France  and 
Germany. 

Olney  township,  established  July  10,  1873,  was  at  first  called  Hebbard 
in  honor  of  William  F.  Hebbard,  an  early  settler.  June  15,  1874,  it 
received  the  present  name,  after  the  county  seat  of  Richland  county, 
Illinois,  which  was  namd  for  Nathan  Olney  of  Lawrenceville  in  that  state. 

Org,  a  railway  station  and  junction  about  four  miles  southwest  of 
Worthington,  was  formerly  Sioux  Falls  Junction,  but  received  this  name, 
of  unknown  derivation,  in  1890,  the  change  being  ordered  by  W.  A.  Scott, 
then  general  manager  of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  railway. 

Ransom  township,  organized  September  20,  1872,  was  at  first  named 
Grant,  for  General  and  President  Grant,  but  was  changed  because  h^  had 


NOBLES  COUNTY  379 

been  thus  honored  earlier  by  another  Minnesota  township.  July  10,  1873, 
the  present  name  was  given  by  the  county  commissioners,  in  honor  of 
Ransom  F.  Humiston,  the  founder  of  Worthington.  He  was  born  in 
Great  Barrington,  Mass.,  July  3,  1822;  was  educated  in  the  Western 
Reserve  College,  Ohio,  and  was  principal  of  a  classical  school  which  he 
established  in  Cleveland,  Ohio;  organized  the  National  Colony  Company 
in  1871,  and  brought  many  settlers  to  Worthington  and  other  parts  of  this 
county ;  returned  to  live  in  the  east,  and  died  in  April,  1889. 

Reading,  the  railway  village  of  Summit  Lake  township,  platted  in  June, 
1900,  was  named  in  honor  of  a  pioneer  farmer,  Henry  H.  Read,  the  orig- 
inal owner  of  a  part  of  the  village  site. 

Round  Lake  village,  on  the  railway  in  Indian  Lake  township,  founded 
in  1882,  was  named  for  the  adjoining  Round  lake,  in  Jackson  county,  on 
request  of  O.  H.  Roche,  who  owned  a  ranch  of  nearly  2,000  acres  sur- 
rounding that  lake.    It  was  incorporated  August  10,  1898. 

Rush  MORE  village,  platted  in  July,  1878,  on  the  Sioux  Falls  branch  of 
the  Omaha  railway,  bears  the  name  of  its  pioneer  merchant,  S.  M.  Rush- 
more.    It  was  incorporated  March  27,  1900. 

Sewakd  township,  organized  October  30,  1872,  commemorates  William 
Henry  Seward,  the  noted  statesman,  who  was  born  in  Florida,  N.  Y., 
May  16,  1801,  and  died  in  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  October  10,  1872.  He  was 
governor  of  New  York,  1839-42,  and  a  United  States  senator,  1849-61 ;  was 
secretary  of  state,  1861-69,  and  concluded  the  purchase  of  Alaska  from 
Russia  in  1867. 

Summit  Lake  township,  organized  June  5,  1873,  was  first  called  Wil- 
son, later  Akin,  and  received  its  present  name  July  27,  1874,  from  its  for- 
mer lake  in  section  11,  whence  the  general  surface  descends  in  very  gentle 
slopes  both  eastward  and  westward. 

West  Side  township,  organized  February  24,  1877,  is  at  the  west  side 
of  the  county. 

WiLLMONT  township  was  organized  December  12,  1878.  "One  faction 
wanted  the  township  named  Willumet,  the  other  Lamont  When  the 
commissioners,  on  November  22,  provided  for  the  organization,  they 
named  the  township  Willmont,  a  combination  of  parts  of  the  names  sug- 
gested by  the  two  factions."    (History  by  Rose,  p.  100.) 

WiLMONT  railway  village,  platted  in  December,  1899,  omitting  one 
letter  of  the  township  name,  was  incorporated  May  29,  1900. 

Worthington,  the  county  seat,  platted  in  the  summer  of  1871,  was 
incorporated  as  a  village  March  8,  1873,  and  as  a  city  in  1912.  Its  site 
had  been  called  Okabena  during  the  grading  of  the  railway  in  1871,  for 
the  two  adjoining  lakes,  meaning  the  nesting  place  of  herons,  a  Sioux 
name  from  hokah,  heron,  be,  nests,  and  na,  a  diminutive  suffix,  as  noted 
by  Prof.  A.  W.  Williamson.  In  the  autumn  of  1871  that  name  was 
changed  to  Worthington,  in  honor  of  the  mother  of  Mrs.  Mary  Dorman 
Miller,  wife  of  Dr.  A.  P.  Miller,  who  was  intimately  associated  with 
Ransom  F.  Humiston  in  forming  the  National  Colony  Company  and  found- 


380  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

ing  Worthington,  before  noticed  because  Ransom  township  was  named  for 
him.  Mrs.  Miller  in  1888  wrote  of  the  origin  of  this  name :  "My  moth- 
er's maiden  name  was  Worthington.  Her  father  was  Robert  Worthington, 
of  Qiillicothe,  Ohio,  who  was  the  brother  of  Thomas  Worthington,  gover- 
nor of  Ohio;  and  the  now  beautiful,  prosperous  town  of  Worthington, 
Minn^  was  named  for  the  Chillicothe  family."  Worthington  township 
was  organized  May  20,  1872. 

Dr.  A.  P.  Miller,  whose  wife  and  her  family  were  thus  honored,  came 
from  Ohio  to  Minnesota  in  1871 ;  was  editor  and  owner  of  the  Worthing- 
ton Advance,  1872-87;  removed  to  California,  and  in  1908  was  in  news- 
paper business  at  Los  Angeles.  He  is  author  of  an  excellent  poem  read 
at  the  Hennepin  Bi-Centenary  celebration  in  Minneapolis,  1880  (M.  H.  S. 
Collections,  vol.  VI,  pages  55-61). 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  foregoing  pages  have  noticed  Elk  creek,  from  which  Elk  town- 
ship is  named,  the  Graham  lakes,  Indian  lake,  Little  Rock  river,  and  Sum- 
mit lake,  all  of  which  likewise  give  their  names  to  townships.  The  rail- 
way village  of  Round  I^e  is  for  a  lake  and  township  of  Jackson  county. 

Another  Elk  creek,  formed  by  small  streams  from  Lismore  and  West 
Side  townships,  flows  southwest  into  Rock  county,  to  the  Rock  river. 

Okabena  creek,  flowing  east  from  Worthington  to  Heron  lake  in 
Jackson  county,  is  the  outlet  of  the  West  Okabena  lake,  whence  the  site 
of  Worthington  was  at  first  n&med  Okabena,  as  before  noted.  From  this 
name,  given  to  Heron  lake  on  Nicollet's  map  in  1843,  the  present  name  of 
that  lake  was  translated,  while  the  Sioux  name,  referring  to  these  lakes 
and  the  creek  as  "the  nesting  place  of  herons,"  was  retained  for  the  creek 
and  for  two  lakes  at  Worthington,  of  which  the  east  one  has  been  drained. 

Jack  creek,  in  the  northeast  part  of  this  county,  probably  named  for  its 
jack  rabbits,  also  flows  into  Heron  lake. 

Lake  Ocheeda  (or  Ocheda  lake),  its  outflowing  Ocheyedan  creek,  and 
Okshida  creek  in  Murray  county,  are  names  received  by  Nicollet  from 
the  Sioux,  having  reference  to  their  mourning  for  the  dead,  as  before 
noted  in  the  chapter  of  Murray  county. 

Kanaranzi  creek,  which  gathers  its  head  streams  from  the  central  part 
of  Nobles  county,  running  southwest  to  the  Rock  river  and  giving  ks 
name  to  a  township  in  Rock  county,  was  mapped  by  Nicollet  as  "Karanzi 
R.,  or  R.  where  the  Kansas  were  killed,"  referring  to  Kansas  or  Kaw 
Indians  who  had  ventured  thus  far  into  the  Dakota  or  Sioux  country. 

Champepadan  creek,  crossing  the  northwest  corner  of  this  county,  is 
likewise  a  Sioux  name  given  by  Nicollet,  somewhat  transformed  in  spell- 
ing, which  his  map  translates  as  "Thorny  Wood  river,"  from  its  having 
thorn  bushes  and  trees. 

Eagle  lake,  formerly  in  sections  4  and  9,  Graham  Lakes  township,  has 
been  recently  drained.  Gear  lake  adjoins  Kinbrae  village  in  this  town- 
ship, and  State  Line  lake  is  at  the  southeast  comer  of  this  county. 


NORMAN  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  February  17,  1881,  has  been  thought  by  R.  I. 
Holcombe  and  others  to  be  named,  like  Kittson  county  three  years  before, 
in  honor  of  Norman  W.  Kittson,  who  accomplished  much  for  the  exten- 
sion of  commerce  and  immigration  to  the  Red  River  valley.  The  actual 
choice  of  this  name,  however,  as  better  known  by  residents  of  the  county 
and  by  surviving  members  of  the  convention  held  at  Ada  for  securing 
its  establishment  by  the  state  legislature,  was  for  commemoration  of  the 
great  number  of  Norwegian  (Norseman  or  Norman)  immigrants  who 
had  settled  there.  Norse  delegates  were  a  majority  in  the  convention,  and 
the  name  was  selected  on  account  of  patriotic  love  and  memories  of  their 
former  homes  across  the  sea.  Similarly  a  township  organized  in  March, 
1874,  in  Yellow  Medicine  county,  had  been  named  Norman ;  and  another 
township  there  in  the  same  year  received  the  name  Normania.  "In 
Norway  a  native  is  referred  to  as  a  Norsk  or  Norman." 

By  the  census  of  1910,  in  a  total  population  of  13,446  in  Norman  county, 
2,957  were  born  in  Norway ;  and  both  parents  of  4,651  others,  among  those 
bom  in  America,  were  Norwegian.  No  other  county  of  Minnesota  has  so 
large  a  proportion  of  Norwegian  people. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  and  meanings  of  names  has  been  gathered 
from  '^History  of  the  Red  River  Valley,"  two  volumes,  1909,  having  pages 
967-972  for  Norman  county;  and  from  David  E.  Fulton,  county  auditor, 
historian  for  the  Norman  County  Old  Settlers'  Association,  and  Con- 
rad K,  Semling,  clerk  of  the  court,  interviewed  during  visits  at 
Ada,  the  county  seat,  in  September,  1909,  and'  again  in  September,  1916. 
Additional  notes  lyere  also  received  in  1916  from  Alexander  Holden,  of 
Ada,  and  Anund  K.  Strand,  of  Lake  Ida  township,  pioneers  who  came 
respectively  in  1872  and  1880. 

Ada,  the  county  seat,  founded  in  1874,  and  incorporated  as  a  village 
February  9,  1881,  was  named  in  honor  of  a  daughter  of  William  H. 
Fisher,  of  St.  Paul,  then  attorney  and  superintendent  of  the  St.  Paul 
and  Pacific  railroad,  under  whose  superintendency  this  line  of  the  Red 
river  valley  was  constructed.  A  biographic  notice  of  him  is  given  in  the 
chapter  of  Polk  county,  where  his  name  is  borne  by  Fisher  township  and 
village.  Ada  Nelson  Fisher  died  at  the  age  of  six  years,  in  1880,  but  this 
prosperous  and  beautiful  village  and  the  county  perpetuate  her  name  and 
memory. 

Anthony  township,  organized  in  1879,  was  named  for  Anthony  Scheie, 
one  of  its  first  settlers,  who  came  here  in  1872.    His  father,  Andreas  A. 

381 


382  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Scheie,  the  first  pastor  in  this  county,  was  bom  in  Vigedal,  Norway, 
February  17,  1818;  came  to  the  United  States  in  1840;  was  ordained  to 
the  ministry  in  1855;  was  pastor  in  Fillmore  county,  Minn.,  1857-76,  and 
afterward  in  Ada;  died  in  1885. 

Bear  Park  township,  organized  in  1881,  received  this  name  in  accord- 
ance with  the  request  of  its  settlers  in  the  petition  for  organization. 

BoRUP,  a  railway  village  in  Winchester  township,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Charles  William  Wulff  Borup,  who  was  bom  in  Copenhagen,  Den- 
mark, December  20,  1806,  and  died  in  St  Paul,  July  6,  1859.  He  came  to 
the  United  States  in  1828,  and  to  St.  Paul  in  1848,  where  in  1854  he 
established  the  banking  house  of  Borup  and  Oakes,  the  first  in  Minne- 
sota. His  sons,  Gustav  J.  and  Theodore  Borup,  were  also  prominent 
business  men  in  St  Paul. 

Flaming  is  a  Northern  Pacific  railway  village  in  Sundahl. 

Flom  township,  at  first  called  Springfield,  organized  in  1881,  was  named 
for  Erik  Flom,  a  native  of  Norway,  who  came  here  as  a  pioneer  farmer 
in   1871. 

FossuM  township,  settled  in  1872  and  organized  in  1881,  was  named 
for  a  village  in  southern  Norway. 

Gary,  the  railway  village  of  Strand  township,  founded  in  1883,  re- 
ceived this  name  in  compliment  to  Garrett  L.  Thorpe,  its  first  merchant, 
who  came  here  from  Manchester,  Iowa,  became  an  extensive  land  owner 
in  this  county,  and  settled  at  Ada. 

Good  Hope  township  was  the  latest  organized,  in  1892,  its  auspicious 
name  being  chosen  by  vote  of  its  people. 

Green  Meadow  township,  organized  in  1880,  bears  a  name  that  was 
likewise  chosen  by  its  people,  having  reference  to  the  summer  verdure 
of  its  prairie  surface. 

Hadler,  a  railway  village  in  Pleasant  View  township,  was  named  for 
Jkcob  Hadler,  an  early  settler  there,  who  in  1909-15  was  a  member  of 
the  board  of  county  commissioners. 

Halstad  township,  organized  in  1879,  and  its  railway  village,  were 
named  for  Ole  Halstad,  a  pioneer  farmer,  who  came  from  Norway.  Dur- 
ing many  years  he  was  the  postmaster  of  Marsh  River  post  office  in  this 
township,  now  discontinued. 

Hegne  township,  organized  in  1881,  was  named  for  Andrew  E.  Hegne, 
one  of  its  first  settlers,  coming  from  the  district  of  Stavanger,  Norway, 
who  removed  to  Evansville,  Minn.,  and  was  a  hardware  merchant  there. 

Heiberg,  a  railway  village  in  Wild  Rice  township,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Jorgen  F.  Heiberg,  owner  of  its  flour  mill. 

Hendrum  township,  organized  in  1880,  and  its  railway  village,  founded 
in  1881,  are  Jiamed  from  a  district  or  group  of  farms  in  Norway,  whence 
some  of  the  early  settlers  of  this  township  came. 

Home  Lake  township,  organized  in  1881,  has  two  lakelets  in  section 
13,  to  which  this  name  was  given  as  a  compliment  for  John  Homelvig, 
the  former  clerk  of  this  township. 


NORMAN  COUNTY  383 

Lake  Ida  township,  organized  in  1S79,  bears  the  name  of  a  small  lake 
in  its  sections  7  and  8,  given  in  honor  of  Ida  Paulson,  daughter  of  an 
early  homesteader  in  Anthony  township. 

Lee  township,  at  first  called  Norman,  organized  in  1882,  was  named 
for  Ole  Lee,  a  pioneer  settler,  who  came  from  Kongsberg,  Norway.  His 
son,  B.  O.  Lee,  of  this  township,  was  in  1909-17  a  member  of  the  board  of 
county  commissioners. 

LocKHART  township,  organized  in  1S82,  was  named  for  its  very  large 
Lockhart  farm,  which  bore  the  name  of  the  owner,  a  resident  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. Lockhart  railway  village,  in  the  north  edge  of  section  29,  has 
superseded  the  former  Rolette  station  and  village  in  section  17. 

McDoNALDSviLLE  township.  the  first  organized  in  the  area  of  this 
county,  in  1874,  was  named  in  honor  of  one  of  its  pioneer  farmers,  Finnen 
McDonald,  a  native  of  Scotland,  who  came  to  Minnesota  from  Glengarry,. 
Ontario,  settling  here  beside  the  Wild  Rice  river. 

Mary  township,  organized  about  the  year  1880,  was  named  in  honor  of 
the  wife  of  Jacob  Thomas,  an  early  settler  here. 

Perley^  the  railway  village  of  Lee  township,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Greorge  Edmund  Perley,  of  Moorhead.  He  was  born  in  Lempster,  N. 
H.,  August  19,  1853;  was  graduated  at  Dartmouth  College,  1878;  was 
admitted  to  practice  law  in  1883,  and  came  to  Minnesota  the  next  year, 
settling  in  Moorhead;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1903-05. 

Pleasant  View  township,  organized  in  1880,  received  this  euphonious 
name  by  suggestion  of  James  Preston,  one  of  its  pioneers,  who  later  re- 
moved to  Duluth. 

Rockwell  township,  at  first  called  Wheatland,  organized  in  1882,  was 
named  by  settlers  who  came  from  Rockwell  in  Cerro  Gordo  county,  Iowa. 

Rolette,  a  former  railway  village  in  Lockhart  township,  was  supersed- 
ed by  Lockhart  village.  Its  name  commemorated  Joe  Rolette,  who  was 
born  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  Wis.,  October  23,  1820,  and  died  at  Pembina, 
Dakota,  May  16,  1871.  He  was  employed  by  the  American  Fur  Company 
at  their  trading  post  at  Pembina  in  1840;  established  a  cart  route  from 
the  Red  river  to  St.  Paul,  extending  the  fur  trade  of  that  city  into  a 
large  region  in  competition  with  the  Hudson  Bay  Company;  was  a  repre- 
sentative in  the  territorial  legislature  of  Minnesota,  1853-5,  and  a  member 
of  the  territorial  council,  1856-7.  During  the  latter  year  occurred  his 
notorious  exploit  of  carrying  away  the  bill  to  remove  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment to  St.  Peter,  and  thus  he  saved  the  capital  to  St.  Paul. 

Shelly  township,  organized  in  1879,  was  named  for  John  Shelly,  a 
trapper,  who  was  the  first  homestead  farmer  of  this  township,  was  later 
a  wheat  buyer  at  Ada,  and  thence  removed  to  Duluth  as  an  assistant 
grain  inspector  for  the  state.    Shelly  railway  village  was  platted  in  1896. 

Spring  Creek  township,  organized  in  1880,  was  named  for  the  creek 
flowing  through  it,  a  tributary  of  the  Marsh  river. 

Strand  township,  organized  in  1880,  was  so  named  by  the  Norwegian 
settlers  because  its  poplar  groves  bordering  the  beaches  of  the  glacial 


384  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Lake  Agassiz,  seen  at  a  long  distance  from  the  vast  prairie  of  the  Red 
river  valley,  resembled  an  ocean  strand  or  shore. 

SuNDAHL^  organized  in  1880,  received  its  name  from  a  village  and  a 
river  in  Norway. 

Syre  is  the  railway  village  of  Home  Lake  township. 

Twin  Valley,  a  railway  village  in  Wild  Rice  township,  was  named 
from  its  situation  between  the  Wild  Rice  river  and  a  tributary  creek. 

Waukon  township,  organized  in  1880,  has  a  Dakota  or  Sioux  name, 
meaning  "spiritual,  sacred,  wonderful."  It  probably  refers  to  the  gran- 
deur of  the  view  westward  over  the  broad  Red  river  valley,  this  township 
being  crossed  by  the  highest  shoreline  of  Lake  Agassiz. 

Wheatville  is  a  railway  village  in  Winchester. 

Wild  Rice  township,  organized  in  1881,  is  crossed  by  the  Wild  Rice 
•river,  translated  from  its  Ojibway  name,  Manomin  or  Mahnomen. 

Winchester  township,  organized  in  1854,  was  named  by  settlers  from 
Winchester  in  Van  Buren  county,  Iowa.  This  name  is  borne  by  townships 
and  villages  or  cities  of  twenty-one  states  of  the  Union. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  Red  river  has  been  considered  in  the  first  chapter,  and  the  Wild 
Rice  river  is  most  fully  noticed  for  Mahnomen  county,  which  bears  the 
aboriginal  name  of  that  river  and  of  the  lakes  at  its  source. 

Marsh  river,  which  diverges  from  the  Wild  Rice  river  about  two 
miles  southeast  of  Ada,  flowing  thence  northwest  to  the  Red  river,  is 
a  sluggish  and  marshlike  stream  in  dry  seasons,  but  carries  a  great  part 
of  the  Wild  Rice  waters  during  flood  stages. 

Spring  creek,  for  which  a  township  is  named,  receives  a  tributary, 
South  Spring  creek,  from  Green  Meadow  township. 

Two  tributaries  of  the  Wild  Rice  river  in  this  county  are  named  on 
maps,  these  being  its  South  branch,  a  considerable  stream,  and  the  little 
Marsh  creek  in  Fossum. 

With  Lake  Ida  and  Home  lake,  in  the  townships  so  named,  only  two 
other  lakes  are  mapped  with  names,  these  being  Long  lake,  close  east  of 
Ada,  and  Love  lake,  a  former  rivercourse  in  the  northwest  corner  of  Lee. 

Several  other  lakelets  are  found  in  the  most  eastern  townships,  above 
the  highest  beach  of  Lake  Agassiz ;  but  for  these  no  names  were  learned, 
excepting  Stene  lake  on  the  farm  of  Mons  L.  Stene,  in  section  35,  Fossum. 

Frenchman's  Bluff. 

The  first  settlers  of  Flom,  coming  in  1871,  found  three  old  log  cabins, 
long  deserted,  in  a  grove  adjoining  a  prominent  and  irregularly  outlined 
hill  of  morainic  drift  near  the  center  of  the  area  of  that  township. 
Thinking  the  cabins  to  have  been  built  by  early  fur  traders,  they  named 
the  hill  "Frenchman's  bluflF."  It  rises  150  feet  or  more  above  the  upper 
shoreline  of  the  former  Lake  Agassiz,  about  three  miles  distant  at  the 
northwest,  and  affords  a  wide  view  on  all  sides. 


OLMSTED  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  February  20,  1855,  was  named  in  honor  of 
David  Olmsted,  first  mayor  of  St.  Paul,  in  1854,  who  in  1855  removed 
to  Winona,  in  the  county  of  that  name,  adjoining  Olmsted  county.  He 
was  bom  in  Fairfax,  Vt,  May  5,  1822;  came  to  the  Northwest,  first  to 
the  Wisconsin  lead  mining  region,  in  1838;  was  a  pioneer  settler  of 
Monona,  Iowa,  in  1840;  engaged  in  trading  with  the  Indians  at  Fort 
Atkinson,  Iowa,  in  1844;  was  a  member  of  the  convention  which  framed 
the  state  constitution  of  Iowa,  in  1846;  came  in  1848  to  Long  Prairie, 
Minn.,  when  the  Winnebago  Indians  were  transferred  there,  and  estab- 
lished a  trading  post  which  he  continued  several  years.  He  was  a  char- 
ter member  of  Vie  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  and  a  member  of  the 
council  of  the  first  territorial  legislature,  1849  and  1850,  being  its  first 
president  In  1853,  having  removed  to  St.  Paul,  he  became  proprietor 
and  editor  of  the  Minnesota  Democrat,  which  under  his  management  be- 
gan its  issue  as  a  daily  newspaper  in  May,  1854.  After  his  removal  to 
Winona,  ill  health  compelled  him,  in  1857,  to  give  up  business,  and  he 
then  returned  to  his  old  home  in  Vermont,  where  he  died  February  2, 
1861. 

Another  prominent  citizen  of  this  name,  but  of  another  family,  with 
slightly  different  spelling,  for  whom,  however,  some  have  supposed  this 
county  to  be  named,  was  S.  Baldwin  Olmstead,  a  farmer  and  contractor, 
of  Belle  Prairie  and  Fort  Ripley,  who  was  a  member  of  the  territorial 
council  in  1854  and  1855,  when  this  county  was  created,  having  been  presi- 
dent of  the  council  in  the  former  year.  He  was  born  in  Otsego  county, 
N.  Y.,  in  1810;  came  to  the  Northwest  in  early  manhood,  and  resided  in 
Iowa  and  Minnesota;  ¥^as  engaged  with  government  contracts  about  Fort 
Ripley  for  a  time;  removed  to  Texas  at  the  close  of  the  civil  war,  and 
settled  on  a  farm  in  Burnett  county,  where  he  died,  January  27,  1878. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  geographic  names  has  been  gathered  from  the  "Geo- 
graphical and  Statistical  History  of  the  County  of  Olmsted,"  by  W.  H. 
Mitchell,  121  pages,  published  in  1867;  "History  of  Olmsted  County," 
pages  617-1148,  in  the  "History  of  Winona  and  Olmsted  Counties,"  1883; 
"History  of  Olmsted  County,"  by  Hon.  Joseph  A.  Leonard  and  others, 
674  pages,  1910;  and  from  Hon.  Charles  C.  Willson  and  Timothy  H. 
Bliss,  each  of  Rochester,  the  county  seat,  interviewed  during  a  visit  there 
4n  April,  1916. 

Byron,  a  railway  village  in  Kalmar  township,  platted  in  1864  and  in- 
corporated in  1873,  was  named  at  the  suggestion  of  .G.  W.  Van  Dusen, 

3B5 


386  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

an  early  grain  buyer,  for  his  former  home,  Port  Byron,  N.  Y.  (W.  H. 
Stennett,  Origin  of  the  Place  Names  of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern 
Railway,  1908,  page  50.) 

Cascade  township,  organized  in  1859,  was  named  for  the  beautiful 
Cascade  creek,  which  flows  through  the  south  edge  of  this  township,  join- 
ing the  Zumbro  river  in  the  city  of  Rochester. 

Chatfield  village,  of  Fillmore  county,  reaches  north  into  the  south- 
west corner  of  Elmira  townsip. 

Chester,  a  railway  village  six  miles  east  of  Rochester,  has  a  name  that 
is  also  borne  by  townships  and  villages  or  cities  in  twenty-five  other  states. 

CuMMiNGSViLLE,  a  former  village  on  the  North  branch  of  Root  river, 
in  Orion  township,  was  platted  by  Francis  H.  Cummings,  who  settled  here 
in  1855,  building  a  sawmill. 

Douglass,  a  railway  village  eight  miles  northwest  of  Rochester,  was 
named  for  Harrison  Douglass,  owner  of  its  site.  He  was  born  in  Macedon, 
N.  Y.,  March  21,  1825;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1855,  settling  here  as  the 
first  blacksmith  in  the  county;  built  a  grain  elevator  at  this  village  in  1878; 
died  in  Fargo,  N.  D.,  March  7,  1902. 

Dover  township,  originally  named  Whitewater  in  1858,  for  its  river 
flowing  east  into  Winona  county,  was  organized  in  May,  1859,  being  then 
renamed  for  Dover  in  New  Hampshire,  whence  some  of  its  settlers  came. 
The  railway  village  of  this  name,  platted  in  the  spring  of  1869,  was  at 
first  called  Dover  Center,  from  its  location  at  the  center  of  this  township. 

Elmira  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  by  settlers  from 
the  vicinity  of  Elmira,  New  York, 

Eyota  township,  organized  in  1858,  was  at  first  named  Springfield, 
which  was  changed  in  1859  to  this  Dakota  or  Sioux  word,  spelled  iyotan 
by  Riggs  in  the  Dakota  Dictionary,  meaning  "greatest,  most."  Eyota  rail- 
way village,  platted  in  November,  1864,  was  incorporated  March  9,  1875. 

Farmington,  organized  in  1858,  is  an  excellent  farming  township, 
whence  it  received  this  name,  borne  also  by  a  railway  village  in  Dakota 
county,  and  by  townships  and  villages  or  cities  in  twenty-five  other  states 
of  the  Union.  Five  counties  in  Wisconsin  have  each  a  Farming^on  town- 
ship. 

Genoa^  a  little  village  in  section  34,  New  Haven,  first  settled  in  1856 
and  platted  in  1865,  bears  the  name  of  an  ancient  seaport  in  northern 
Italy,  the  birthplace  of  Columbus.  Nine  other  states  of  the  Union  have 
villages  of  this  name. 

Haverhill  township,  organized  in  1858,  originally  called  Zumbro  for 
the  principal  river  of  this  county,  was  renamed  Sherman  in  1865  and 
Haverhill  in  1866,  this  name  being  suggested  by  settlers  who  had  come 
from  Haverhill  in  Massachusetts. 

High  Forest  township,  organized  in  1858,  took  the  name  of  its  village, 
platted  in  1855,  on  high  land  partly  surrounded  by  forest  trees  growing 
along  the  North  branch  of  the  Root  river. 


OLMSTED  COUNTY  387 

HoBTON  railway  station,  in  the  south  part  of  Eyota,  was  named  for 
Charles  Horton,  a  lumber  merchant  of  Winona.  He  was  born  in  Niles, 
N.  Y.,  March  31,  1836;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1858,  settling  in  Winona; 
founded  the  Empire  Lumber  Company  in  1858,  and  was  its  president; 
died  in  Winona,  May  15,  1913. 

Judge,  a  railway  station  in  High  Forest  township,  was  located  on  the 
farm  of  Edward  Judge,  a  native  of  Ireland,  who  came  here  as  a  pioneer 
settler  in  1854,  and  died  in  September,  1904. 

Kalmar  township,  organized  in  May,  1858,  bears  the  name  of  a  seaport 
in  southern  Sweden,  noted  for  a  treaty  made  there  July  20,  1397,  uniting 
the  kingdoms  of  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Denmark. 

Laird^  a  railway  station  in  section  26,  Eyota,  was  named  in  honor  of 
William  Harris  Laird,  of  Winona,  who  was  born  in  Union  county.  Pa., 
February  24,  1833,  and  died  at  a  hospital  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  February  5, 
1910.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1855,  settling  in  Winona,  and  in  the  firm 
of  Laird,  Norton  and  Co.,  formed  in  1856,  engaged  extensively  in  lum- 
bering and  lumber  manufacturing.  He  was  donor  of  the  Public  Library 
building  in  Winona,  and  president  of  the  trustees  of  Carleton  College. 

Marion  township,  organized  in  1858,  received  the  name  of  its  village, 
founded  in  1855-6.  Seventeen  states  of  the  Union  have  counties  of  this 
name,  and  it  is  borne  also  by  townships  and  villages  or  cities  of  twenty- 
five  states,  in  honor  of  Francis  Marion  (b.  1732,  d.  1795),  of  South  Caro- 
lina, a  distinguished  general  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 

New  Haven  township,  organized  in  May,  1858,  was  named  for  the  city 
of  New  Haven  in  Connecticut. 

Orion  township,  organized  in  1858,  received  this  name  of  a  con- 
stellation from  a  township  and  village  in  Richland  county,  Wisconsin. 

Oronoco  township,  organized  in  1858,  was  named  for  its  village, 
founded  in  1854,  which  Dr.  Hector  Galloway,  one  of  its  first  settlers, 
named  for  the  large  Orinoco  river  (differently  spelled)  in  South  Ameri- 
ca, in  allusion  to  the  valuable  water  power  of  the  Middle  branch  of  Zum- 
bro  river  at  this  village. 

Pleasant  Grove  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  and  its  village, 
platted  in  1854,  derived  their  name  "from  a  beautiful  grove  of  oaks,  where 
the  little  village  is  located." 

Potsdam,  a  village  in  Farmington,  founded  about  the  year  1860,  was 
named  by  its  German  settlers  for  the  Prussian  city  of  Potsdam,  noted  for 
its  royal  palace  and  beautiful  parks,  sixteen  miles  southwest  of  Berlin. 

pREDMORE,  a  railway  station  in  the  southeast  corner  of  Marion,  estab- 
lished in  1891,  was  named  for  J.  W.  Predmore,  who  came  in  1854  as  one 
of  the  pioneer  settlers  of  this  township. 

QuiNCY  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  bears  the  name  of  cities  in 
Massachusetts  and  Illinois,  and  of  villages  and  townships  in  fourteen 
other  states. 

Rochester^  the  county  seat,  often  called  "the  Queen  City,"  was  platted 
in  October,  1855,  and  was  incorporated  as  a  city  August  5,  1858.    It  was 


388  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

named  for  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  by  George  Head,  a  pioneer  settler,  who  had 
lived  there  and  afterward  in  Wisconsin  before  coming  to  this  place  in 
July,  1855.  The  rapids  of  the  Zumbro  river  here  reminded  him  of  the 
Genesee  river  in  New  York  and  its  great  water  power  at  Rochester,  hav- 
ing a  vertical  fall  of  95  feet     (Leonard,  History  of  this  county,  p.  185.) 

Rock  Dell  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  has  narrow  gorges  or 
dells,  with  ragged  cliffs  of  limestone,  eroded  by  little  streams  flowing 
northward  to  the  South  branch  of  the  Zumbro  river. 

Salem  township,  organized  in  1858,  was  named  by  Cyrus  Holt,  a  pio- 
neer who  came  here  in  1855  and  was  appointed  postmaster  of  an  office 
established  in  the  winter  of  that  year.  The  post  office,  and  later  the  town- 
ship, received  this  name  from  Salem,  the  county  seat  of  Marion  county, 
Illinois. 

Simpson^  a  railway  village  and  junction  in  Pleasant  Grove  township, 
platted  in  1890,  was  named  in  honor  of  Thomas  Simpson,  of  Winona, 
Minn.,  secretary  of  the  Winona  and  Southwestern  railroad  company.  He 
was  born  in  Yorkshire,  England,  May  31,  1836 ;  came  to  the  United  States 
with  his  parents  while  quite  young;  studied  surveying,  and  in  1853  took 
the  government  contract  for  running  the  meridian  and  parallel  lines  in 
the  southeast  part  of  Minnesota  Territory;  settled  in  Winona  in  1856; 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1858;  practiced  law,  engaged  in  many  impor- 
tant business  enterprises,  and  during  many  years  was  president  of  the  State 
Normal  School  board;  died  in  Winona,  April  26,  1905. 

Stewartville,  in  High  Forest  township,  was  founded  by  Charles 
Stewart,  who  came  from  the  state  of  New  York  in  the  spring  of  1857  and 
built  a  mill  here  in  1858.  When  the  railroad  passing  this  place  was  con- 
structed, in  1891,  additions  to  the  village  were  platted  by  Charles  N. 
Stewart  and  others. 

Viola  township,  at  first  named  Washington,  organized  in  May,  1858, 
was  renamed  at  the  suggestion  of  Irwin  N.  Wetmore,  for  the  village  of 
Viola  in  Wisconsin,  about  forty  miles  southeast  of  La  Crosse.  The  rail- 
way village  in  this  township,  bearing  the  same  name,  was  platted  in  Sep- 
tember, 1878. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Olmsted  county  is  drained  by  the  Zumbro,  Whitewater,  and  Root 
rivers,  flowing  to  the  Mississippi. 

The  origin  and  meaning  of  the  first  of  these  names  are  fully  noticed 
in  the  chapter  of  Goodhue  county,  where  a  village  and  township  on  this 
river  are  named  Zumbrota.  Its  earlier  Sioux  name,  Wazi  Oju,  applied  to 
the  river  by  Nicollet,  referring  to  its  large  grove  of  white  pines  at  the 
village  of  Pine  Island,  is  also  duly  explained  for  that  village  and  town- 
ship in  Goodhue  county. 

Large  affluents  of  the  Zumbro  in  Olmsted  county  are  its  Middle 
branch,  formed  at  Oronoco  village  by  union  of  the  North  and  South  Middle 


OLMSTED  COUNTY  389 

branches,  Cascade  creek,  whence  a  township  is  named,  the  South  branch, 
Silver  creek,  Bear  creek,  to  which  Badger  run  is  a  tributary,  and  Willow 
creek. 

Bear  creek  has  its  farthest  source  in  a  spring  on  the  farm  in  Eyota 
which  was  taken  as  a  homestead  claim  in  1853  by  Benjamin  Bear,  a 
pioneer  from  Pennsylvania,  the  first  settler  in  that  township,  for  whom 
the  creek  received  this  name. 

Whitewater  river,  having  in  this  county  its  North,  Middle,  and  South 
branches,  is  translated  from  its  Sioux  name,  Minneiska,  borne  by  a  town- 
ship and  village  in  Wabasha  county  at  the  mouth  of  this  stream. 

.  Root  river,  to  which  its  North  branch  flows  through  the  south  edge 
of  Olmsted  county,  is  also  a  translation  of  the  Sioux  name,  Hutkan, 
spelled  Hokah  on  Nicollet's  map,  which  gave  the  name  Hokah  of  the  vil- 
lage and  township  adjoining  the  mouth  of  Root  river  in  Houston  county. 

Partridge  creek  is  a  small  tributary  to  this  branch  of  Root  river  from 
the  south  in  Pleasant  Grove  township. 

The  only  lakes  in  this  county  are  two  picturesque  mill  ponds  formed  by 
dams.  Shady  lake  at  the  village  of  Oronoco,  and  Lake  Alice  or  Florence 
at  Stewartville.  The  second  "was  named  Lake  Alice  by  Charles  N.  Stew- 
art, in  compliment  to  his  wife*'  (as  noted  in  the  History  of  this  county 
by  Leonard,  1910,  page  270) ;  but  in  the  latest  atlas  of  the  state,  1916,  it  is 
called  Lake  Florence. 

Hills. 

The  bed  rocks,  sculptured  by  rains  and  streams  before  the  Ice  Age  and 
only  thinly  overspread  by  the  glacial  drift,  present  beautiful  valleys  and 
ravines,  most  noteworthy  in  Rock  Dell  township,  and  in  some  places  form 
hills  or  small  and  low  plateaus.  College  hill  is  such  a  plateau,  about  75 
feet  high,  in  the  west  part  of  the  city  of  Rochester;  Sugarloaf  Mound, 
more  conspicuously  seen,  rises  close  south  of  the  railroad  two  miles  east 
of  this  city;  and  Lone  Mound  is  in  section  11,  Farmington. 


OTTER  TAIL  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  March  18,  1858,  and  organized  September  12, 
1868,  received  its  name  from  the  Otter  Tail  lake  and  river.  The  lake, 
from  which  the  river  was  named,  derived  its  peculiar  Ojibway  designa- 
tion, thus  translated,  from  a  long  and  narrow  sand  bar,  having  an  out- 
line suggestive  of  the  tail  of  an  otter,  formed  very  long  ago  and  now 
covered  with  large  woods,  which  extends  curvingly  southeast  and  south 
between  the  last  mile  of  the  inflowing  Otter  Tail  or  Red  river  and  the 
lake,  at  its  eastern  end,  in  section  10  of  Otter  Tail  township.  At  its 
northwestern  base  the  bar  is  connected  with  the  main  shore  by  a  gradually 
widening  higher  tract  between  the  river  and  lake,  to  which,  with  the  pro- 
longed bar,  the  Indians  very  fittingly,  in  view  of  their  geographic  out- 
lines, gave  this  name.  Its  Ojibway  form  is  given  by  the  late  Rev.  J.  A. 
Gilfillan  as  Nigigwanowe,  that  is,  Otter  Tail,  both  for  the  lake  and  for  the 
outflowing  river  to  its  junction  with  the  Bois  des  Sioux  river.  The  otter 
was  formerly  frequent  or  common  in  and  near  the  rivers  and  lakes  of 
all  parts  of  this  state,  but  is  now  rare.  It  subsists  on  fish,  capturing  them 
by  rapid  and  expert  swimming. 

The  late  Hon.  J.  V.  Brower,  who  visited  the  locality  three  times,  in 
1863,  1882,  and  1899,  on  the  latter  occasion  giving  it  a  careful  examination 
as  a  part  of  his  archaeologic  survey  of  the  region,  stated  that  the  height 
of  the  bar  varies  from  10  to  25  feet  above  the  lake ;  that  its  length  slightly 
exceeds  a  mile,  while  its  width,  somewhat  uniform,  is  only  about  50  to 
75  feet;  and  that  it  appears  to  have  been  amassed  by  wave  and  ice 
action  of  the  lake.  It  was  probably  built  by  the  waves  during  storms, 
nearly  to  its  present  extent  and  form,  within  the  first  few  centuries  after 
the  lake  began  its  existence,  which  was  at  the  time  of  uncovering  this 
region  from  the  receding  ice-sheet  at  the  close  of  the  Glacial  period. 

Otter  Tail  City,  which  about  the  years  1850  to  1860  was  an  important 
trading  post  on  the  route  from  the  then  flourishing  town  of  Crow  Wing 
to  Pembina  and  the  Selkirk  settlements,  stood  on  the  main  shore  at  the 
northeastern  end  of  Otter  Tail  lake,  adjoining  the  mouth  of  the  river  and 
the  end  of  the  Otter  Tail  bar.  The  United  States  Land  Office  for  this 
district  was  located  there  during  several  years,  and  was  thence  removed 
to  Alexandria  in  1862.  But  all  the  buildings  of  the  "city"  were  long  since 
removed  or  destroyed,  and  only  the  cellar  holes  now  remain. 

The  Red  river  was  known  to  the  Ojibways  at  the  time  of  Owen's 
geological  exploration,  in  1848,  as  the  Otter  Tail  river  from  this  lake  to 
its  junction  with  the  Red  Lake  river  at  Grand  Forks.  Present  usage  by 
many  of  the  older  white  people  retains  the  name  Otter  Tail  for  the  river 

390 


OTTER  TAIL  COUNTY  391 

above  the  lake  of  this  name  (though  other  names,  derived  from  suc- 
cessive lakes,  are  used  there  by  the  Ojibways)  ;  and  indeed  occasionally 
it  is  still  called  Otter  Tail  river  along  its  portion  continuing  below  this 
lake  to  the  axis  of  the  Red  River  Valley  at  Breckenridge  and  Wahpeton, 
where  it  receives  the  Bois  des  Sioux  river  and  turns  from  a  westward 
to  a  northward  course. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  and  meanings  of  geographic  names  has  been 
supplied  by  the  "History  of  Otter  Tail  County/'  edited  by  John  W.  Mason, 
1916,  two  volumes,  pages  694,  1009;  from  William  Lincoln,  county  auditor, 
and  P.  A.  Anderson,  register  of  deeds,  interviewed  during  visits  at  Fergus 
Falls,  the  county  seat,  in  September,  1909,  and  again  in  September,  1916; 
and  from  Hon.  E.  E.  Corliss,  formerly  of  Fergus  Falls,  custodian  of  the 
state  capitol,  1910-17. 

Aastad  township,  organized  March  14,  1871,  was  named  for  Gilbert 
Aastad,  one  of  its  early  settlers,  a  native  of  Norway. 

Almora  is  a  Soo  railway  village  in  Elmo  township. 

Amor,  organized  April  5,  1879,  has  a  Latin  name,  meaning  love,  adopt- 
ed in  the  Norwegian  language  of  the  settlers  of  this  township  as  the  name 
of  Cupid,  the  god  of  love  in  the  ancient  Roman  mythology. 

AuRDAL  township,  organized  January  24,  1870,  was  named  for  a  village 
in  Norway,  80  miles  northwest  of  Christiania. 

Balmoral,  a  lakeside  village  of  summer  homes  in  section  31,  Otter 
Tail  township,  received  its  name  from  Balmoral  Castle  in  Scotland,  which 
was  a  favorite  summer  residence  of  Queen  Victoria. 

Battle  Lake^  a  railway  village,  platted  October  31,  1881,  and  incorpo- 
rated April  28,  1891,  adjoins  the  western  end  of  the  large  West  Battle 
lake,  which  lies  mainly  in  Everts  and  Girard  townships.  Near  this  lake 
and  the  East  Battle  lake,  in  the  southeast  part  of  Girard,  a  desperate 
battle  was  fought,  about  the  year  1795,  by  a  war  party  of  fifty  Ojibways, 
coming  from  Leech  lake,  against  a  much  greater  number  of  Sioux.  A 
graphic  narration  of  the  battle,  in  which  more  than  thirty  of  the  Ojibways 
were  killed,  is  given  in  Warren's  "History  of  the  Ojibways"  (M.  H.  S. 
Collections,  vol.  V,  1885,  pp.  ZZ^-M^), 

Blowers  township,  organized  April  9,  1884,  was  named  "in  honor  of  A. 
S.  Blowers,  one  of  the  prominent  citizens  of  the  early  history  of  the 
county,  and  a  member  of  the  board  of  commissioners  for  many  years." 

Bluffton  township,  organized  July  17,  1878,  and  its  railway  village, 
platted  in  March,  1880,  incorporated  February  24,  1903,  received  this  name 
in  allusion  to  the  high  banks  or  bluffs  of  the  Leaf  river  along  its  course 
in  the  south  edge  of  this  township.  North  BluflF  creek  is  tributary  here 
to  the  Leaf  river  from  the  north,  and  South  Bluff  creek  from  the  south. 

BusE  was  organized  October  3,  1870.  "Ernest  Buse,  in  whose  honor 
the  township  was  named,  was  one  of  the  earliest  settlers  and  became  one 
of  the  most  influential  men  of  the  county."    He  was  bom  in  1836;  came 


392  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

to  Minnesota  in  1857,  when  his  parents  settled  at  Red  Wing;  served  in 
the  Third  Minnesota  regiment,  1864-5;  was  the  first  homesteader  on  the 
site  of  Fergus  Falls,  1869;  removed  to  Vancouver,  B.  C;  returned  to 
Minnesota,  and  resided  at  Red  Lake  Falls;  died  during  a  visit  in  Lodi, 
California,  February  1,  1914. 

Buhner  township,  organized  August  15,  1883,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Stephen  Butler,  of  Fergus  Falls,  who  during  many  years  was  the  county 
treasurer. 

Candor  township,  organized  January  8,  1880,  has  a  name  that  is  also 
borne  by  a  township  and  village  in  New  York,  and  by  villages  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  North  Carolina. 

Casusle  township,  organized  February  24,  1881,  received  the  name  of 
its  village  on  the  Great  Northern  railway,  which  was  platted  in  December, 
1879.  A  city  in  England,  a  county  in  Kentucky,  and  villages  and  town- 
ships in  eleven  other  states,  bear  this  name. 

QJTHERALL  township,  the  first  organized  in  this  county,  October  24, 
1868,  and  Qitherall  village,  in  Nidaros  township,  settled  in  1865,  platted  in 
October,  1881,  and  incorporated  October  4,  1898,  received  their  name 
from  Qitherall  lake,  lying  in  these  townships  and  adjoining  the  village. 
*'The  lake  took  its  name  from  Major  George  B.  Qitherall,  who  was  regis- 
ter of  the  United  States  land  office  at  Otter  Tail  City  from  1858  to  1861." 
(History  of  this  county,  1916,  page  169.)  He  was  born  at  Fort  Johnson, 
N.  C,  June  13,  1814;  and  died  in  Mobile,  Ala.,  October  21,  1890.  He  is 
well  remembered  by  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  for  his  donation  to 
its  museum,  a  carved  mahogany  armchair  that  was  owned  by  Washing- 
ton in  his  home  at  Mount  Vernon. 

CoMFTON  township,  organized  July  31,  1875,  commemorates  James 
Compton,  an  early  pioneer  of  this  county.  He  was  bom  near  MeadviUe, ' 
Pa.,  January  14,  1840;  served  during  the  civil  war  in  Pennsylvania  and 
Illinois  regiments,  attaining  the  rank  of  captain;  came  to  Minnesota  in 
1872,  settling  at  Fergus  Falls;  assisted  in  organizing  the  First  National 
Bank  there,  and  was  its  cashier  until  1891 ;  was  a  state  senator,  1883-9 ;  was 
commandant  of  the  Minnesota  Soldiers'  Home,  at  Minnehaha,  after  1900; 
and  died  in  Minneapolis,  January  14,  1908. 

Corliss  township,  organized  January  3,  1884,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Eben  Eaton  Corliss,  of  Fergus  Falls,  who  was  born  in  Fayston,  Vt., 
September  1,  1841,  and  died  in  St  Paul,  July  21,  1917.  He  came  to  Minne- 
sota in  1856,  when  his  parents  settled  in  Winona  county ;  served  during  the 
civil  war  in  the  Second  Minnesota  regiment;  was  admitted  to  practice 
law  in  1870,  and  in  the  same  year  settled  near  Battle  Lake,  building  the  ' 

first  frame  house  in  Otter  Tail  county;  removed  to  Fergus  Falls  in  1874;  J 

was  the  first  county  attorney,  1871-75,  and  again  held  this  office  in  1879-  t 

85 ;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1872 ;  was  a  member  of  the 
State  Capitol  Commission,  1893-1908;  and  after  1910  was  custodian  of  the 
capitoL 


OTTER  TAIL  COUNTY  393 

Dalton,  a  Great  Northern  railway  village  in  Tumuli  township,  platted 
in  1882  and  incorporated  May  2,  1905,  was  named  in  compliment  for  Ole 
C.  Dahl,  proprietor  of  its  site. 

Dane  Prairie  township,  organized  May  10,  1870,  received  this  name  by 
choice  of  its  people,  nearly  all  being  natives  of  Denmark.  It  has  much 
timber  beside  its  many  lakes,  with  small  intervening  prairies. 

Dayton,  probably  named  for  Lsrman  Dayton,  of  St.  Paul,  was  a  village 
founded  before  1860  with  the  building  of  a  sawmill  on  the  Red  river, 
about  four  miles  southwest  from  the  site  of  Fergus  Falls,  and  its  post 
office  was  named  Waseata ;  but  this  settlement  was  permanently  abandoned 
in  August,  1862,  on  account  of  the  Sioux  outbreak. 

Dead  Lake  township,  the  last  organized  in  this  county,  April  10,  1897, 
took  the  name  of  its  large  lake,  which  extends  west  into  the  townships  of 
Star  Lake  and  Maine.  It  is  translated  from  the  Ojibway  name,  referring 
to  a  grave,  given  by  Gilfillan  as  Tchibegumigo,  ''House  of  the  Dead,  .  .  . 
from  the  custom  of  the  Indipns  to  build  the  resemblance  of  a  little  house 
over  a  grave."    Dead  river,  iiamed  from  the  lake,  is  its  outlet 

About  the  year  1843,  beside  the  eastern  part  of  this  lake,  some  thirty 
or  forty  Ojibwasrs,  comprising  only  old  men,  women,  and  children,  were 
killed  by  a  war  party  of  Sioux,  whence  the  lake  and  river  were  named. 
(History  of  Becker  county,  by  Wilcox,  1907,  pages  212-214.) 

Deer  Creek  township,  organized  July  1,  1873,  and  its  railway  village, 
platted  in  May,  1882,  and  incorporated  December  26,  1899,  are  named  for 
the  creek  flowing  north  through  the  east  part  of  this  township  to  the  Leaf 
river. 

Dent,  a  village  on  the  Soo  railway  in  Edna  township,  platted  August 
19,  1903,  was  incorporated  September  6,  1904. 

Dofelius,  a  village  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railway  in  Newton,  was 
platted  in  the  summer  of  1901.  With  change  of  the  initial  letter,  this 
was  the  name  of  a  distinguished  Swedish  editor,  educator,  historian,  poet, 
and  novelist,  Zachris  Topelius  (b.  1818,  d.  1898),  of  Helsingfors,  Finland. 

Dora  township,  organized  August  9,  1879,  was  probably  named  in  honor 
of  the  wife  or  daughter  of  a  pioneer  homesteader,  but  her  surname  re- 
mains to  be  learned. 

Dunn  township,  organized  March  16,  1880,  was  named  in  honor  of 
George  W.  Dunn,  at  whose  home  the  first  election  was  held. 

Eagle  Lake  township,  organized  September  5,  1870,  has  the  name  of 
its  largest  and  deepest  lake. 

Eastern,  organized  July  29,  1875,  is  the  most  southeastern  township  of 
this  county.  Its  name  was  chosen  with  reference  to  Western,  the  town- 
ship forming  the  southwest  corner  of  the  county,  which  had  been  organ- 
ized in  January,  1873. 

Edna  township,  organized  March  21,  1882,  was  named  probably  for 
one  of  its  pioneer  women. 


394  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Effington^  organized  March  21,  1872,  received  its  name  on  the  sugges- 
tion of  Matthew  Evans,  an  early  settler,  who  had  found  it  in  a  novel. 
(History  of  this  county,  1916,  pages  216-218.) 

Elizabeth  township,  organized  September  5,  1870,  was  named  in  honor 
of  the  wife  of  Rudolph  Niggler,  a  pioneer  merchant,  at  whose  store  the 
first  township  meeting  was  held.  Its  railway  village,  bearing  this  name, 
platted  in  1872,  was  incorporated  November  21,  1884. 

Elmo  township,  organized  March  16,  1880,  has  a  name  that  is  borne 
also  by  villages  in  Wisconsin,  Missouri,  and  other  states,  and  by  a  lake 
near  Stillwater  in  this  state,  with  the  railway  village  of  Lake  Elmo  be- 
side it. 

Erhard's  Grove,  a  township  organized  September  24,  1870,  was  named 
for  Alexander  E.  Erhard,  a  signer  of  the  petition  for  organization,  at 
whose  house  the  first  election  was  held.  Erhard  village,  on  a  branch  of 
the  Great  Northern  railway,  was  platted  in  July,  1882. 

Everts  township,  organized  July  22,  1879,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Rezin  Everts  and  his  son,  Edmund  Al  Everts,  pioneers  of  this  township. 

■ 

A  biographic  sketch  of  the  latter,  contributed  by  K  E.  Corliss  in  the. 
History  of  Otter  Tail  county,  notes  that  he  was  born  in  Carroll  county, 
Illinois,  November  12,  1840;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1855  with  his  parents, 
who  settled  in  Winona  county;  served  in  the  Second  Minnesota  regiment 
during  the  civil  war;  settled  as  a  homestead  farmer  in  section  27  of  this 
township  in  the  spring  of  1871 ;  removed  to  Battle  Lake  village  in  1881, 
and  was  a  merchant  there  until  his  death,  March  9,  1915. 

Fergus  Falls,  platted  in  August,  1870,  on  a  site  that  had  been  selected 
and  named  in  1857,  was  incorporated  as  a  village  February  29,  1872,  and  as 
a  city  March  3,  1881.  Within  the  city  limits,  along  a  course  of  about  three 
miles,  the  Red  river  descends  nearly  70  feet,  having  originally  comprised 
here  a  nearly  continuous  series  of  rapids,  flowing  over  boulders  of  the 
glacial  drift.  The  county  seat  was  first  located  in  1868  at  Otter  Tail  City, 
and  was  removed  to  Fergus  Falls  in  the  later  part  of  1872.  The  town- 
ship of  this  name,  which  included  the  north  half  of  the  present  city  area, 
was  organized  June  29,  1870. 

James  Fergus,  for  whom  the  township  and  city  were  named,  was  born 
in  Lanarkshire,  Scotland,  October  8,  1813.  "At  the  age  of  nineteen  he 
came  to  America  with  the  idea  of  improving  his  fortune.  He  located  in 
Canada  at  first,  where  he  spent  three  years  and  learned  the  trade  of  mill- 
wright. ...  In  1854  he  removed  to  Little  Falls,  Minnesota,  and,  in 
company  with  C.  A.  Tuttle,  built  a  dam  across  the  Mississippi  and  platted 
a  village.  Here  he  remained  for  two  or  three  years!  During  the  town- 
site  speculation  fever,  in  the  winter  of  1856  and  1857,  Joseph  Whitford, 
a  blacksmith  and  steamboat  engineer,  a  natural  frontiersman,  possessed 
of  uncommon  courage,  energy  and  pfudence,  proposed  to  go  out  and  take 
up  a  townsite  at  what  was  known  as  Graham's  Point,  on  the  Red  river. 
Mr.  Fergus  furnished  the  necessary  outfit  for  this  expedition.  Procuring 
a  dog  train  and  a  half-breed  guide,  Whitford  went  to  Graham's  Point 


OTTER  TAIL  COUNTY  395- 

and  staked  out  a  town.  On  their  way  back,  at  Red  river,  an  Indian  fami- 
ly told  them  of  a  better  place  for  a  town  twenty  miles  distant  Leaving  his 
half-breed  to  recruit,  Whit  ford  took  an  Indian  as  a  guide  and  went  to  the 
place  designated  and  staked  off  what  is  now  Fergus  Falls,  the  name  being 
given  by  the  exploring  party  in  honor  of  the  man  who  had  furnished  the 
outfit  for  the  expedition.    Mr.  Fergus  himself  never  visited  the  place." 

"In  1862  Mr.  Fergus  drove  his  own  team  from  Little  Falls,  Minnesota, 
to  Bannock,  Montana  territory.  He  became  quite  prominent  in  territorial 
affairs  and  was  influential  in  the  organization  of  the  new  county  of  Madi- 
son in  that  territory,  and  held  many  positions  of  trust  and  responsibility. 
He  served  two  terms  in  the  Montana  legislature,  and  was  a  member  of 
the  constitutional  convention  of  1887."  (History  of  Otter  ,Tail  County, 
1916,  pages  479,  480.) 

Fergus  county  in  Montana  was  named  in  his  honor.  He  died  near 
Lewistown.in  that  county,  June  25,  1902. 

FoLDEN  township,  organized  February  24,  1881,  bears  the  name  of  a 
seaport  on  the  Folden  fjord  in  Norway,  about  70  miles  north  of  the 
Arctic  circle. 

French  is  a  station  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railway  in  Carlisle,  six 
miles  west  of  Fergus  Falls. 

Friberg  township,  organized  January  6,  1874,  was  at  first  called 
Florence  and  later  Woodland,  but  was  renamed  June  1,  1874,  for  the  city 
of  Germany,  spelled  Freiberg,  in  Saxony. 

GntARD  township,  organized  March  21,  1882,  has  a  name  that  is  borne  by 
townships  and  villages  or  cities  in  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Illinois,  Kansas, 
and  other  states,  in  honor  of  Stephen  Girard  (b.  1750,  d.  1831),  of  Phila- 
delphia, a  wealthy  merchant  and  philanthropist,  founder  of  Girard  Col- 
lege. 

Gorman  township,  organized  September  4,  1873,  was  named  in  honor 
of  John  O.  Gorman,  at  whose  home  the  first  township  election  was  held. 
Henning  township,  organized  July  17,  1878,  was  at  first  called  East 
Battle  Lake,  which  was  changed  August  1,  1884,  to  the  present  name, 
borne  also  by  villages  in  Illinois  and  Tennessee.  The  railway  village  of 
this  township,  incorporated  September  17,  1887,  had  several  years  earlier 
received  this  name,  in  honor  of  John  O.  Henning,  of  Hudson,  Wis.,  who 
during  many  years  was  a  druggist  there  and  died  April  15,  1897. 

HoBART  township,  organized  July  10,  1871,  and  its  village  on  the  North- 
ern Pacific  railway,  platted  in  the  spring  of  1873,  have  a  name  that  is 
borne  also  by  villages  and  post  offices  in  New  York,  Indiana,  and  several 
other  states. 

Homestead  township,  organized  July  26,  1880,  received  this  name  in 
allusion  to  the  many  homestead  farms  received  by  its  settlers  from  the 
United  States  government. 

Inman  township,  organized  March  18,  1878,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Thomas  Inman,  a  pioneer  homesteader  from  Indiana,  noted  as  a  deer 
htmter,  at  whose  house  the  first  township  election  was  held. 


396  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Leaf  Lake  township,  organized  July  22,  1879,  was  named  for  its  West 
and  East  Leaf  lakes,  further  noticed  also  for  the  next  township. 

Leaf  Mountain  township,  organized  January  7, 1874,  was  at  first  called 
Dovre  Fjeld,  for  the  mountainous  plateau  of  that  name  in  Norway.  It 
was  renamed  March  18,  1874,  for  its  Leaf  hills  or  "mountains,"  a  belt  of 
conspicuous  morainic  drift  hills,  more  fully  noticed  at  the  end  of  this 
chapter.  Their  aboriginal  name,  given  by  Gilfillan  as  Gaskibugwudjiwe. 
translated  as  "Rustling  Leaf  mountain,"  was  applied  alike  by  the  O jib- 
ways  to  these  drift  hills,  the  two  Leaf  lakes,  and  their  outflowing  Leaf 
river,  the  lakes  and  river  being  named  from  the  hills. 

LiDA  township,  organized  March  19,  1879,  bears  the  name  of  its  largest 
lake,  which  probably  commemorates  the  wife  or  daughtetr  of  a  pioneer 
settler,  or  of  the  government  surveyor  of  the  sections  in  this  township. 
On  the  early  state  maps  published  in  1860-70,  Lake  Lida  is  incorrectly 
outlined  and  named  Lake  Anna ;  but  it  is  rightly  mapped,  with  the  present 
name,  in  the  first  Atlas  of  Minnesota,  1874. 

Lues,  a  village  on  the  Northern  Pacific  railway  in  Gorman  township, 
was  platted  in  May,  1884,  and  was  incorporated  June  13,  1905. 

Maine  township,  organized  September  5,  1871,  was  named  at  the  re- 
quest of  R.  F.  Adley,  one  of  its  first  settlers,  a  native  of  the  state  of 
Maine,  at  whose  home  the  first  election  of  this  township  was  held. 

Mapl£W0(h>  township,  organized  July  26,  1880,  was  then  called  St. 
Agnes,  but  was  renamed  May  2,  1882.  The  sugar  maple  is  a  common  or 
abundant  tree  throughout  nearly  all  of  the  forested  region  of  this  state. 

Newton  township,  organized  March  22,  1877,  was  at  first  called  New 
York  Mills,  which  remains  as  the  name  of  its  principal  village  on  the 
Northern  Pacific  railway,  platted  in  1883  and  incorporated  May  27,  1884. 
The  township  name  was  changed  July  26,  1883,  the  present  name  being 
adopted  for  its  having  the  same  first  syllable  as  before. 

NiDAKOS  township,  organized  September  5,  1871,  bears  an  ancient  name 
for  the  city  of  Trondhjem  in  Norway,  derived  from  Nidrosia,  its  medie- 
val Latin  name,  which  has  reference  to  its  situation  at  the  mouth  of  the 
River  Nid. 

Norwegian  Grove  township,  organized  January  7,  1873,  was  settled  en- 
tirely by  people  from  Norway. 

Oak  Valley  township,  organized  January  2, 1877,  is  drained  northward 
to  the  Leaf  river  by  two  small  streams,  named  Oak  and  South  Bluff 
creeks. 

Orwell  township,  organized  July  27,  1886,  had  been  previously  known 
as  West  Buse,  but  was  then  called  Liberty,  which  was  changed  November 
3,  1886,  to  the  present  name.  This  is  borne  also  by  townships  and  vil- 
lages in  Vermont,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio.  It  was  adopted 
here  in  compliment  to  Charles  D.  Wright,  who  was  born  in  Orwell,  Vt, 
November  8,  1850;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1869,  and  was  employed  seven 
years  in  the  office  of  the  U.  S.  surveyor  general  in  St.  Paul;  settled  in 


OTTER  TAIL  COUNTY  397 

Fergus  Falls  in  1877;  was  mayor  in  1885  and  1888,  and  president  of  the 
First  National  Bank,  1882-1912. 

Oscar  township,  organized  July  1,  1873,  was  named  in  honor  of  Oscar 
II,  who  was  born  in  Stockholm,  January  21,  1829,  and  was  the  king  of 
Sweden  and  Norway  from  1872  until  his  death,  December  8,  1907,  ' 

Otter  Tail  township,  organized  September  5,  1870,  and  its  railway 
village,  platted  in  the  summer  of  1903  and  incorporated  May  3,  1904,  were 
named  like  this  county,  for  its  largest  lake.  Otter  Tail  City,  the  early 
station  on  a  route  of  fur  traders  in  going  from  St.  Paul  and  Crow  Wing 
to  the  Red  river  valley,  noted  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  was  in  the 
area  of  this  township,  being  for  several  years  the  place  of  the  U.  S.  land 
office,  and  later  it  was  the  first  county  seat. 

Otto  township,  organized  March  22,  1883,  was  named  thus  by  the 
county  commissioners,  who  disregarded  the  request  of  the  petitioners  that 
it  be  called  Lake  View.  Whether  the  commissioners  intended  to  honor  a 
pioneer,  or  derived  it  from  the  county  name,  was  not  recorded,  flight 
other  states  have  Otto  townships  and  post  offices. 

Paddock  township,  organized  March  21,  1882,  was  named  for  L.  A. 
Paddock,  at  whose  sawmill  the  first  election  was  held. 

Parkdale,  a  small  village  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  in  section  3, 
Tumuli,  was  platted  in  1876  as  Hazel  Dell,  which  was  changed  to  the 
present  name  by  an  act  of  the  state  legislature,  February  7,  1878. 

Parker's  Prairie  township,  organized  January  4,  1870,  being  then 
called  Jasper,  was  renamed  March  1,  1873,  for  an  early  settler  on  its 
principal  tract  of  prairie.  Its  railway  village  of  the  same  name,  platted 
in  the  summer  of  1880,  was  incorporated  November  17,  1903. 

Parkton  is  a  railway  station  in  section  5,  Inman.' 

Pelican  township,  organized  September  5,  1870,  took  its  name  from 
the  Pelican  river  fk)wing  through  it  In  sections  22  and  27,  where  the 
river  descends  with  rapids  over  drift  boulders,  Pelican  Rapids  village 
was  platted  in  1872  and  incorporated  May  16,  1882.  The  Ojibways  gave 
to  Lake  Lida  their  name  of  the  pelican,  spelled  Shada  by  Longfellow's 
''Song  of  Hiawatha,"  and  they  applied  the  same  name  to  the  Pelican  river 
from  this  lake  and  Lake  Lizzie  to  its  junction  with  Red  river. 

Perham  township,  organized  March  19,  1872,  was  then  called  Marion 
Lake  township,  for  the  lake  adjoining  its  southwest  corner;  but  March  1, 
1877,  it  was  renamed,  to  be  like  its  village,  by  an  act  of  the  legislature. 
Josiah  Perham,  commemorated  in  this  name,  was  the  first  president  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  railroad  company,  in  1864-65.  He  was  born  in  Wilton, 
Maine,  in  1803,  and  died  in  Boston,  Mass.,  in  1868.  Very  interesting 
biographic  notes,  with  narration  of  his  enthusiastic  efforts  for  construc- 
tion of  this  transcontinental  railway  line,  are  given  in  Eugene  V.  Smalle/s 
"History  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad"  (1883,  chapters  XI-XV,  pp. 
97-132).  Perham  village,  on  this  railroad,  platted  March  6,  1873,  was  in- 
corporated February  14,  1881. 


398  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

PiNB  Lake  township,  organized  January  5,  1683,  was  named  for  its 
large  Pine  lake,  through  which  the  Red  river  flows,  originally  bordered 
by  valuable  white  pine  timber.  The  three  pine  species  of  this  state,  each 
common  or  frequent  through  northeastern  Minnesota,  reach  the  south- 
western limit  of  their  geographic  range'  in  the  east  part  of  this  county. 

RiCHDALE,  the  railway  village  of  Pine  Lake  township,  was  platted  in 
September,  1899.  This  village  and  the  next  were  named  in  honor'  of 
Watson  Wellman  Rich,  civil  engineer,  who  was  born  in  Dayton,  N.  Y., 
March  9,  1841,  and  died  in  Shanghai,  China,  January  12,  1903.  He  served 
in  the  Fourth  Minnesota  regiment  in  the  civil  war,  attaining  the  rank  of 
captain;  engaged  in  engineering  work  for  several  railroad  lines  in  Min- 
nesota, and  after  1897  was  chief  consulting  engineer  of  the  Imperial 
Chinese  Railway  Administration. 

RiCHvnxE,  on  the  Soo  railway  in  Rush  Lake  township,  platted  in  the 
fall  of  1903,  was  incorporated  October  25,  1904.  Under  Richdale,  pre- 
ceding, the  origin  of  this  name  has  been  noted.- 

Rush  Lake  township,  organized  January  3,  1871,  bears  the  name  of  its 
large  lake,  which  is  translated  from  the  name  given  to  it  by  the  O  jib  ways, 
used  also  by  them  for  the  Roseau  lake  and  river.  Rush  lake  gives  its 
name,  in  the  usage  of  the  Ojibways,  to  the  part  of  the  Red  river  flowing 
from  it  to  Otter  Tail  lake. 

Saint  Olaf  township,  organized  March  20,  1869,  was  at  first  called 
Oxford,  but  was  renamed  May  10,  1870,  in  honor  of  St  Olaf,  born  in  995, 
an  early  king  of  Norway,  in  1015-30,  who  consolidated  the  kingdom  and 
aided  the  establishment  of  Christianity,  but  was  killed  in  a  battle  with  his 
rebellious  subjects,  July  29, 1030.  He  is  the  patron  saint  of  Norway,  and  is 
regarded  by  its  people  as  the  great  champion  of  national  independence. 

Scambler  township,  organized  August  8,  1871,  was  named  for  Robert 
Scambler,  a  homesteader,  at  whose  house  the  first  township  election  was 
held. 

Star  Lake  township,  organized  January  18,  1880,  has  a  large  and  re- 
markably branched  Star  lake  in  its  northern  part,  ''which  in  shape  bears 
a  striking  resemblance  to  a  star  fish." 

SvERDRUP  township,  organized  March  18,  1878,  was  at  first  called  Nor- 
man. Because  that  name  had  been  previously  given  to  another  Minnesota 
township,  it  was  renamed  July  17,  1878,  in  honor  of  George  Sverdrup, 
president  of  Augsburg  Seminary,  Minneapolis.  He  was  born  in  Bale- 
strand,  Norway,  December  16,  1848;  was  graduated  in  theology  at  the 
University  of  Norway,  1871 ;  became  a  professor  of  Augsburg  Seminary 
in  1874,  and  its  president  in  1876 ;  died  in  Minneapolis,  May  3,  1907. 

ToRDENSKjOLD  township,  organized  September  8,  1869,  as  Blooming 
Grove,  was  renamed  May  10,  1870,  in  honor  of  Peder  Tordenskjold,  a 
renowned  Norwegian  admiral  in  the  Danish  service.  He  was  bom  in 
Trondhjem,  Norway,  October  28,  1691 ;  and  was  killed  in  a  duel  at  Han- 
over, Germany,  November  20,  1720.     His  original  surname  was  Wessel, 


OTTER  TAIL  COUNTY  399 

and  the  name  of  this  township,  meaning  "Thunder  Shield/'  was  conferred 
on  him  by  the  king  of  Denmark  as  a  title  of  nobility. 

Trondhjem  township,  organized  July  7,  1873,  bears  the  name,  mean- 
ing "Throne  Home,"  of  an  ancient  city  in  Norway,  on  the  south  side 
of  the  great  Trondhjem  fjord,  noted  for  its  cathedral,  an  early  burial 
place  for  the  kings  of  Norway  and  in  later  times  the  place  of  their  coro- 
nation. 

Tumuli  township,  organized  September  8,  1869,  was  then  called  Union, 
but  on  May  10,  1870,  received  this  Latin  name,  meaning  mounds,  as  of 
burial,  having  reference  probably  to  the  morainic  drift  hills  in  the  east 
part  of  this  township. 

Underwood^  a  railway  village  in  Sverdrup,  platted  in  the  fall  of  1881 
and  incorporated  November  2,  1912,  was  named  in  honor  of  Adoniram 
Judson  Underwood,  who  was  born  in  Qymer,  N.  Y.,  May  26,  1832,  and 
died  in  Fergus  Falls,  December  21,  1885.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1854 ; 
served  in  the  First  Minnesota  and  other  regiments  in  the  civil  war;  was 
a  representative  in  the  legislature,  1871-72;  settled  at  Fergus  Falls  in 
1873,  and  was  the  founder  and  editor  of  the  Journal,  1873-85. 

Vergas,  a  Soo  railway  village  in  Candor  township,  was  platted  under 
the  name  of  Altona  in  the  fall  of  1903,  and  was  so  incorporated  February 
21,  1905.  Its  present  name,  adopted  November  6,  1906,  is  not  found  re- 
corded elsewhere,  either  as  a  geographic  name  or  a  personal  surname. 

ViNiNG,  a  railway  village  in  Nidaros,  platted  in  the  fall  of  1882  and 
incorporated  April  20,  1909,  has  a  name,  given  by  officers  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  company,  which  is  borne  also  by  villages  in  Georgia,  Iowa,  and 
Kansas. 

Wall  Lake,  a  Northern  Pacific  station  in  Aurdal,  is  near  the  north 
end  of  the  lake  so  named  for  a  low  and  flat-topped  gravel  ridge,  like  a 
wall,  on  its  west  side,  through  which  the  lake  has  cut  its  outlet,  leaving  a 
distinct  old  shoreline  at  its  formerly  higher  level. 

Western,  organized  January  7,  1873,  received  its  name  as  the  most 
southwestern  township  in  the  county.  Eastern  township  was  named  simi- 
larly, in  July,  1875,  at  its  southeast  comer. 

WooDsmE,  organized  January  2,  1877,  was  then  called  Wrightstown, 
for  several  pioneer  settlers  named  Wright,  which  remains  as  the  name  of 
a  hamlet  in  section  2.  The  present  name  of  the  township  was  adopted 
March  22,  1877,  referring  to  its  original  woodlands  and  its  situation  at  the 
east  side  of  the  county. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  preceding  pages  have  considered  the  names  of  Otter  Tail  lake 
and  river,  the  Red  river,  the  West  and  East  Battle  lakes,  the  North  and 
South  Bluflf  creeks,  Qitherall  lake,  Dead  lake  and  river.  Deer  creek.  Eagle 
lake,  the  West  and  East  Leaf  lakes  and  Leaf  river,  Lake  Lida,  Oak  creek, 
Pelican  river,  and  Pine,  Rush,  Star,  and  Wall  lakes. 


/ 


400       ■     MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  hfAMES 

Pomme  de  Terre  river,  receiving  its  headwaters  in  the  south  part  of 
this  county,  has  been  previously  noted,  with  derivation  of  its  name,  in  the 
chapter  for  Grant  county,  which  has  a  township  named  from  it. 

Wing  river,  flowing  from  southeastern  Otter  Tail  county  northward  to 
join  the  Leaf  river  in  Wadena  county,  gives  its  name  to  a  township  there, 
so  that  it  is  to  be  better  noticed  for  that  county. 

Similarly  the  Red  Eye  river,  crossing  the  northeast  corner  of  Otter 
Tail  county,  passes  a  township  that  bears  this  name  in  Wadena  county, 
and  is  to  be  again  mentioned  there,  with  the  origin  of  the  name  from 
species  of  fish  in  this  stream. 

Toad  river,  the  outlet  of  Toad  lake  in  a  township  of  that  name  in 
Becker  county,  each  translated  from  their  Ojibway  name,  flows  into  the 
north  end  of  Pine  lake. 

Only  a  few  other  streams  remain  for  notation,  as  Willow  creek,  trib- 
utary from  Henning  to  the  East  Leaf  lake;  Belle  river,  flowing  from 
Eastern  township  into  Douglas  county,  and  there  giving  the  name  of  Belle 
River  township;  Pelican  creek,  which  flows  from  St.  Olaf  southwest 
through  Pelican  Lake  township  of  Grant  county  to  the  Pomme  de  Terre 
river;  and  the  head  stream  of  Mustinka  river,  running  south  across 
Aastad  into  Grant  county.  The  last  name  is  from  a  Dakota  or  Sioux 
word,  mashtincha,  meaning  a  rabbit. 

"According  to  Rev.  J.  B.  Hingeley,  there  are  1,029  lakes,  by  actual  count, 
in  Otter  Tail  county,  not  including  sloughs  and  ponds."  (Geology  of 
Minnesota,  vol.  II,  1888,  page  535.)  A  large  majority  of  these  lakes,  how- 
ever, are  yet  unnamed.  To  give  a  systematic  enumeration  of  such  as  are 
named  on  maps,  excepting  those  on  the  courses  of  the  Red  and  Pelican 
rivers,  they  may  well  be  arranged  in  the  order  of  the  townships  from 
south  to  north,  and  of  ranges  from  east  to  west. 

The  Red  river,  also  called  Otter  Tail  river,  as  stated  at  the  beginning 
of  this  chapter,  runs  through  Rice  lake  in  Hobart,  Mud  lake  and  Little 
Pine  lake  in  the  southeast  comer  of  Gorman,  Big  Pine  lake  in  the  town- 
ship named  for  it.  Rush  and  Otter  Tail  lakes,  Deer  lake  in  the  northwest 
corner  of  Everts,  East  Lost  lake  in  the  northeast  comer  of  Sverdrup, 
West  Lost  lake  in  Maine  township,  and  three  smaller  unnamed  expansions 
of  the  river,  which  might  well  be  termed  lakes,  in  sections  25  and  27 
to  29,  Friberg. 

On  the  Pelican  river  in  this  county  are  Pelican  lake,  as  it  is  named 
by  the  white  people,  called  by  the  Ojibways,  in  Gilfillan's  translation, 
"the  lake  with  the  smooth-shorn  prairie  coming  down  to  it  on  one  side;" 
Lake  Lizzie,  probably  commemorating  a  pioneer  woman,  possibly  the 
Elizabeth  who  is  honored  by  the  name  of  a  township  on  this  river,  but 
here  lacking  knowledge  of  her  surname ;  and  Prairie  lake,  in  Pelican  town- 
ship, Isring  in  the  eastern  edge  of  the  great  prairie  region. 

Eastern  township  has  Lake  Annalaide,  Long  lake,  Lake  Mary,  Rice 
lake,  named  for  its  wild  rice,  and  North  and  South  Maple  lakes. 


OTTER  TAIL  COUNTY  401 

Parker's  Prairie  township  has  Horsehead  lake,  Cora  lake  and  Lake 
Augusta,  Rainy  lake,  Lake  Adley,  and  Qarino,  Resser,  Nelson,  and  Fish 
lakes. 

In  Effington  are  Mud  lake,  Meyer,  Arken,  Block,  and  Stemmer  lakes. 

In  Leaf  Mountain  township  are  Jessie's  lake,  Lake  George,  Tom's  lake, 
Johnson,  Samson,  and  Spitser's  lakes. 

In  Eagle  Lake  township,  besides  the  lake  of  that  name  and  several 
others  unnamed.  Lake  Jolly  Ann  is  crossed  by  its  west  line. 

St.  Olaf  township  has  Long  lake.  Lakes  Johannes,  Johnson,  Lacy,  and 
Sewell,  Vinge  lake,  and  Sonmer  lake. 

In  Tumuli  the  Pomme  de  Terre  river  runs  through  Rose  and  Ten 
Mile  lakes,  the  second  being  the  largest  of  this  township,  which  also  has 
Gear  lake,  Hansel  lake,  and  Mineral  and  Alkali  lakes.  The  last  two  are 
sometimes  reduced  to  mostly  dry  lake  beds,  with  alkaline  crystals  result- 
ing from  evaporation.  Ten  Mile  lake  tells,  by  its  name,  the  distance  on  an 
old  Indian  trail  from  the  lake  to  the  crossing  of  the  Red  river. 

Aastad  has  Mud  lake  in  sections  23  and  24. 

Western  township  has  Upper  Lightning  lake,  more  than  three  miles 
long,  lying  about  four  to  seven  miles  northwest  from  Lightning  lake  of 
the  Mustinka  river  in  Grant  county.  The  chapter  of  that  county  has 
comments  on  the  origin  of  these  names. 

Woodside,  which  is  township  132  in  the  most  eastern  range,  has  no 
lakes  named  on  maps. 

Elmo  township,  next  westward,  has  Wing  River  lake,  the  largest  and 
the  only  one  named  among  severar  little  lakes  near  the  sources  of  this 
stream. 

Folden  has  about  twenty  small  lakes  or  lakelets,  but  none  of  sufficient 
size  to  be  named. 

In  Nidaros  are  Stuart,  Bredeson,  Siverson,  Johnson,  and  Belmont 
lakes;  Bullhead  lake,  having  the  small  species  of  catfish  known  by  this 
name,  also  called  the  horned  pout;  and  the  northeast  end  of  Clitherall 
lake. 

In  Clitherall  township,  besides  the  large  lake  of  this  name  and  the 
southwest  edge  of  West  Battle  lake,  are  Crane  lake  and  Lake  Lundeberg, 
the  last  shallow  and  being  drained. 

Tordenskjold  has  German  and  Dane  lakes,  named  from  the  nationality 
of  their  first  settlers,  and  Fiske,  Tamarack,  Long,  Volen,  Black,  Stalker, 
and  Sugar  lakes. 

In  Dane  Prairie  township,  with  Wall  lake,  before  noted  for  the  rail- 
way station  so  named,  are  Stang  lake,  recently  drained,  Rosvold  and  Lar- 
son lakes,  Indian  lake,  Bronseth,  Fossen,  Lye,  and  Swan  lakes,  with  many 
others  unnamed. 

Buse  township  has  One  Mile  lake,  at  the  southeast  edge  of  Fergus 
Falls,  Pebble,  Horseshoe,  and  Iverson  lakes.  In  the  southeast  part  of  the 
city  area  of  Fergus  Falls,  originally  belonging  to  this  township,  are  Lake 
Charles  and  Grotto  lake. 


402  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Orwell  has  Rush  lake  in  section  12,  and  an  unnamed  lake  is  crossed  by 
the  west  line  of  sections  6  and  7. 

Oak  Valley,  Inman,  and  Henning,  the  townships  numbered  133  in  the 
three  eastern  ranges,  have  no  lakes  bearing  names,  except  that  East  Battle 
lake,  before  noted,  lies  partly  in  Henning. 

Girard,  with  the  East  and  West  Battle  lakes,  has  Beauty  Shore  lake, 
shallow  and  in  prospect  of  being  drained,  Mason,  Tamarack,  and  Hanson 
lakes,  and  Lakes  Emma  and  Ethel. 

In  the  eastern  edge  of  Everts,  the  outlet  of  West  Battle  lake  flows 
through  the  Mollie  Stark  lake,  Annie  Battle  lake,  and  Lake  Blanche,  the 
first  being  named  for  the  wife  of  John  Stark,  a  noted  general  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary War,  who  won  the  victory  of  Bennington,  August  16,  1777.  In 
the  west  part  of  this  township  are  Elbow  lake,  the  two  Silver  lakes,  and 
Round  and  Deer  lakes. 

Sverdrup  has  the  South  and  North  Turtle  lakes,  Bass  lake,  Lake  On- 
stad,  Norway  lake,  Crooked  and  Horseshoe  lakes,  East  Lost  lake,  Lake 
John,  Anna  and  Little  Anna  lakes,  and  Pleasant  lake. 

Aurdal  has  Loon,  Mud,  and  Nelson  lakes,  Little  lake,  and  Spring  lake. 
Its  formerly  large  but  shallow  Fish  lake  has  been  mostly  drained. 

Fergus  Falls  township  has  Lake  Alice  in  the  city  area,  Opperman  and 
Hoot  lakes,  nearly  adjoining  the  city,  and  Wedell  lake  in  section  6. 

Carlisle,  with  several  unnamed  lakes  in  its  northeast  part,  has  also 
Oscar  lake,  crossed  by  its  north  line  and  extending  into  Oscar  township. 

Compton  and  Deer  Creek  townships,  numbered  134  in  the  two  eastern 
ranges,  have  no  lakes. 

Leaf  Lake  township,  in  addition  to  the  East  and  West  Leaf  lakes, 
whence  it  is  named,  has  Grass  lake  in  section  19,  and  Portage  lake,  to 
which  the  traders  and  canoemen  made  a  portage  from  the  West  Leaf 
lake  on  their  route  to  the  Red  river  valley. 

Otter  Tail  township,  with  the  west  part  of  Portage  lake  and  the  north- 
eastern half  of  Otter  Tail  lake,  has  Lake  Buchanan,  named  by  Major 
Clitherall  in  honor  of  President  James  Buchanan  (b.  1791,  d.  1868),  two 
Long  lakes,  respectively  northwest  and  southeast  of  the  old  Otter  Tail 
City,  Donald's  lake.  Gourd  lake,  named  for  its  curved  outline,  with  a 
strait  connecting  its  larger  and  smaller  parts,  and  Pickerel  and  Round 
lakes. 

Amor  has  Walker  lake,  through  which  Dead  river  flows,  close  above 
its  mouth,  Mud  lake,  and  the  eastern  one  of  the  Twin  lakes. 

Maine  township  has  the  western  Twin  lake.  Pickerel  and  Peterson 
lakes,  Leon  lake,  and  the  West  Lost  lake,  the  last  being  on  the  course  of 
the  Red  river. 

Friberg,  although  containing  nearly  forty  lakes  from  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  up  to  more  than  a  mile  in  length,  yet  lacks  any  so  distinctly  note- 
worthy as  to  be  named  on  maps. 

Elizabeth  township  has  Long  lake,  Reed  and  Zimmerman  lakes.  Lakes 
Jewett  and  Mason,  the  last  having  been  recently  drained,  and  Devil's  lake. 


OTTER  TAIL  COUNTY  403 

Oscar  township  contains  about  a  dozen  lakes  on  its  map,  but  only 
one  is  named,  this  being  Oscar  lake,  which  commemorates  King  Oscar  II, 
like  this  township.  Its  southern  part,  lying  in  Carlisle,  has  an  island  of 
twenty-nine  acres. 

Bluffton  and  Newton,  the  two  most  eastern  townships  numbered  135, 
have  no  lakes ;  and  Otto,  next  westward,  has  none  named,  excepting  the 
east  half  of  the  large  Rush  lake,  which  gave  its  name  to  the  fourth  town- 
ship of  this  tier. 

In  Rush  Lake  township,  besides  the  west  half  of  the  lake  so  named, 
are  Round  and  Head  lakes,  the  greater  eastern  part  of  Marion  lake,  and 
Rice  and  Boedigheimer  lakes,  the  last  two  being  on  the  outlet  of  Marion 
lake. 

In  Dead  Lake  township,  with  the  eastern  part  of  that  large  lake  and 
the  west  part  of  Marion  lake,  are  seven  small  lakes,  unnamed  by  maps. 

Star  Lake  township,  with  the  great  and  triply  branched  Star  lake, 
includes  a  major  part  of  the  western  body  of  Dead  lake  and  much  of 
Mud  lake,  both  being  crossed  by  the  south  line  of  the  township.  Fifteen 
smaller  lakes,  or  more,  remain  without  names. 

Maplewood  township  has  Beers  lake.  Twin  and  Crystal  lakes,  and 
Lake  21,  named  from  its  section,  besides  a  great  number  of  unnamed  lakes. 

Erhard's  Grove  township  has  Sandberg  and  Grandrud  lake,  and  Lake 
Knobel,  with  about  thirty  others  that  are  smaller  and  wait  to  be  named  on 
maps. 

In  Trondhjem  nine  lakes,  from  a  third  of  a  mile  to  more  than  a  mile 
long,  thus  wait  for  names. 

Returning  again  to  the  east  side  of  the  county,  we  find  no  lakes  in 
Blowers  and  Homestead,  the  townships  numbered  136  in  the  two  eastern 
ranges. 

Pine  Lake  township  has  the  Big  Pine  lake,  but  only  three  additional 
lakelets,  each  unnamed. 

Perham  has  the  southern  parts  of  Little  Pine  lake  and  Mud  lake,  also 
the  southeast  part  of  Devil's  lake,  each  of  which  reaches  north  into  Gor- 
man. 

In  Edna  township  are  the  Big  and  Little  McDonald  lakes,  Pickerel, 
Rice,  Wolf,  Paul,  Ceynowa,  Moenkedick,  Grunard,  Wendt,  and  Mink 
lakes,  with  a  part  of  Lake  Sibyl  (incorrectly  spelled  Sybil)  in  the  north 
edge  of  sections  5  and  6. 

Dora  township  has  the  western  continuation  of  Lake  Sibyl,  the  south 
half  of  Loon  lake,  which  reaches  north  into  Candor,  and  Spirit  lake,  these 
being  in  its  northern  half,  and  the  two  long  Silent  lakes  in  its  southern 
border,  with  about  fifteen  smaller  lakes  waiting  for  names. 

Lida  township  has  the  large  Lakes  Lida  and  Lizzie,  before  noted,  with 
several  nameless  lakelets. 

In  Pelican  township  are  Prairie  lake,  the  lowest  through  which  the 
Pelican  river  flows,  and  numerous  unnamed  lakelets,  the  largest  of  these 
being  in  section  19. 


404  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Norwegian  Grove  township  has  Grove  lake  at  its  northeast  corner, 
reaching  northeastward  into  Scambler  and  Pelican,  and  having  a  grove 
on  its  large  island,  which  is  mostly  in  section  1,  of  this  township;  also 
Lakes  Alfred,  Olaf,  Jacob,  and  Annie,  with  many  others  that  are  smaller 
and  without  names. 

Paddock,  the  most  northeastern  township,  has  Mud  lake,  one  of  our 
most  abundant  names,  likely  to  be  given  to  any  lake  with  mainly  muddy 
shores. 

Butler  has  Bear  and  Edna  lakes,  each  crossed  by  its  west  line. 

Corliss,  with  parts  of  the  two  lakes  last  noted  and  also  parts  of  Big 
and  Little  Pine  lakes,  has  also  Indian  lake  in  its  sections  8  and  9. 

Gorman,  in  addition  to  the  three  lakes  on  its  south  side,  reaching 
into  Perham,  as  already  mentioned,  has  a  small  Dead  lake  in  section  1, 
and  Silver  lake  in  sections  6  and  7. 

In  Hobart  are  Gray  and  Keyes  lakes.  Rice  lake  on  the  Red  river, 
Graham,  Wimer,  and  Fairy  lakes,  Five  and  Six  lakes,  named  from  their 
being  in  sections  5  and  6,  Scalp  lake,  and  Rose,  Jim,  and  Long  lakes. 

Candor  township  has  Sauer  lake,  crossed  by  its  north  line,  Cook's 
and  Schram  lakes.  Hand  lake  and  T  lake,  named  from  their  outlines, 
and  Leek,  Lawrence,  Hook,  and  Otter  lakes. 

Dunn  township,  with  the  northwest  part  of  Lake  Lizzie,  Pelican  lake, 
and  Little  Pelican  lake,  which  are  on  the  Pelican  river,  has  also  Lake 
Emma,  Elbow  lake,  and  Franklin  lake. 

Scambler,  at  the  west  end  of  this  northern  tier  of  townships,  with 
the  west  part  of  Pelican  lake,  has  Tamarack  and  Sand  lakes,  Lake  Har- 
rison, Ranklev,  Pete,  and  Grove  lakes.  ^  The  last  has  been  earlier  men- 
tioned for  its  reaching  southwest  into  Norwegian  Grove  township. 

While  only  a  relatively  small  portion  of  the  lakes  in  this  county  are 
named  and  here  listed,  it  is  evident  that  if  we  could  narrate  the  stories 
of  pioneers  by  whom  or  for  whom  they  were  named,  with  origins  also 
of  the  many  impersonal  names,  the  interesting  information  so  to  be 
recorded  would  require  a  long  search  to  gather  it  somewhat  fully, 
and  would  Bll  many  printed  pages.  In  general,  only  the  rivers  and  a 
few  large  lakes  retain  names  used  by  the  Indians,  or  translations  from 
them.  Nearly  all  the  other  names,  of  townships,  villages,  and  lakes, 
numbering  hundreds  in  this  very  large  county,^  were  selected  or  invented 
by  the  incoming  white  agricultural  settlers. 

Hills  of  the  Marginal  Moraines. 

In  the  series  of  twelve  marginal  moraines  of  the  continental  ice- 
sheet  mapped  for  parts  of  their  courses  across  Miunesota,  the  eighth 
and  ninth  are  very  prominently  developed  in  this  county,  being  thence 
named  respectively  the  Fergus  Falls  and  Leaf  Hills  moraines.  These 
belts  of  drift  hills,  extend  in  a  semicircle  from  Fergus  Falls  southeast 
to  the  south  line  of  the  county  and  thence  east  and  northeast  to  East 


OTTER  TAIL  COUNTY  405 

Leaf  lake,  a  distance  of  fifty  miles.  Through  five  townships,  Tordens- 
kjold,  St  Olaf,  Eagle  Lake,  Leaf  Mountain,  and  Effington,  the  two 
moraines  are  merged  together  and  form  a  range  five  to  three  miles  wide, 
composed  of  very  irregular,  roughly  outlined  hills,  100  to  300  feet  high, 
commonly  called  the  "Leaf  mountains."  This  is  a  translation  from  the 
Ojibways,  as  was  noted  for  Leaf  Mountain  township,  and  they  also 
applied  their  name  of  the  hills  to  the  Leaf  lakes  and  river.  The  com- 
mon designation  as  "mountains''  has  currency  because  they  are  the  only 
hills  in  this  part  of  Minnesota  which  are  conspicuously  seen  at  any  great 
distance.  In  the  highest  portions  they  rise  200  to  350  feet  above  the 
adjoining  country,  which  is  itself  deeply  covered  with  drift.  (Geology  of 
Minnesota,  Final  Report,  vol.  II,  1888,  pages  544-55L) 

From  the  crests  of  the  Leaf  hills,  extensive  views  are  obtained  north- 
ward over  the  greater  part  of  this  county,  and  southward  across  Doug- 
las and  Grant  counties;  but  the  separate  hills,  of  which  there  are  many 
supplying  such  wide  and  grand  views,  have  not  received  names  on  maps. 

Indian  hill,  in  section  9,  Oscar,  near  the  middle  of  the  west  side  of 
this  county,  has  a  fine  outlook  eastward  upon  that  part  of  the  Fergus 
Falls  fnoraine;  and  at  the  west  it  overlooks  the  plain  of  Wilkin  county, 
which  was  the  bed  of  the  Glacial  Lake  Agassiz,  stretching  with  a  slight 
descent  twenty  miles  to  the  Red  river. 


PENNINGTON  COUNTY 

This  county,  the  latest  established  in  the  state,  November  23,  1910, 
was  named  in  honor  of  Edmund  Pennington,  of  Minneapolis.  He  was 
bom  in  La  Salle,  Illinois,  September  16,  1848;  began  his  life  work  in 
railroad  service  in  1869;  was  since  1888  successively  superintendent, 
general  manager,  and  vice  president  of  the  Minneapolis,  St  Paul  and 
Sault  Ste.  Marie  railway  company,  and  since  1909  has  been  its  president 

From  1858  to  1896  this  area  was  included  in  Polk  county,  and  from 
1896  to  1910  it  was  a  part  of  Red  Lake  county. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  geographic  names  in  Pennington  county  was  received 
from  Edward  L.  Healy,  real  estate  dealer,  of  Red  Lake  Falls,  interviewed 
during  a  visit  there  in  August,  1909;  and  from  Harry  E.  Ives,  clerk  of 
the  court,  Lars  Backe,  former  mayor,  and  Joseph  Johnson,  each  of  Thief 
River  Falls,  the  county  seat,  interviewed  there  in  September,  1916. 

Black  River  township  slopes  mostly  southwestward,  sending  its 
drainage  to  the  stream  of  this  name,  given  on  Nicollet's  map  in  1843, 
which  alludes  to  its  dark  water,  stained  by  the  peaty  soil  of  some  parts 
of  its  course. 

Bray  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Damase  Simon  Bray,  one  of 
its  pioneer  farmers.  He  was  born  at  Cedars,  near  Montreal,  Canada, 
March  17,  1828;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1880,  settling  on  a  homestead  in 
this  township,  as  it  was  later  organized;  removed  to  Red  Lake  Falls, 
1886;  and  died  there,  September  24,  1908. 

Clover  Leaf  township  was  named  for  its  white  clover,  growing 
abundantly  in  many  places  beside  roads  and  on  pastured  lands. 

Deer  Park  township  was  formerly  a  favorite  hunting  ground  for 
deer,  which  under  legal  protection  continue  to  be  found  sparingly  in  this 
eastern  part  of  the  county. 

Erie  post  office,  in  Star  township,  was  named  by  the  late  Alex  F. 
Latimore,  who  came  from  near  Erie,  Pa.  He  was  editor  of  "The  Eleven 
Towns,"  a  newspaper  especially  representing  a  group  of  eleven  town- 
ships in  the  eastern  part  of  this  county,  formerly  in  the  Red  Lake  Indian 
Reservation,  but  opened  to  white  settlers  June  20,  1906. 

Good  Ridge  township  and  its  village  on  an  electric  railway,  in  section 
21,  are  named  for  a  broad  but  very  low  ridge,  only  a  few  feet  above  the 
adjoining  areas  at  each  side,  which  reaches  from  the  village  about  four 
miles  southeastward. 

Hazel  is  a  village  of  the  Soo  railway  in  section  1,  River  Falls.  Two 
species  of  hazel,  much  sought  by  children  and  squirrels  for  their  ex- 

406 


PENNINGTON  COUNTY  407 

cellent  nuts,  are  generally  common  in  this  county  and  throughout  north- 
ern Minnesota. 

Hickory  township,  the  most  southeastern  in  the  county,  is  at  or  near 
the  northwestern  limit  of  the  swamp  hickory  or  bitternut  This  species 
furnished  nearly  all  the  hoop-poles  for  flour  barrels  cut  in  the  southern 
and  central  parts  of  the  state. 

High  Landing  township  and  its  village,  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Red 
Lake  river,  are  named  from  the  relatively  high  ground  there  adjoining 
the  stream,  which  makes  this  a  favorable  place  for  the  landing  of  steam- 
boats on  their  passage  between  Thief  River  Falls  and  Red  lake. 

Hilda,  a  post  office  in  section  1,  Deer  Park,  was  named  in  honor  of 
the  wife  of  Olaf  Hanson,  a  pioneer  farmer,  who  was  its  first  postmaster. 

Kratka  township  and  village,  beside  Red  Lake  river,  were  named 
in  honor  of  Frank  H.  Kratka,  an  early  merchant  of  this  county.  He  was 
born  at  Sugar  Island,  Wis.,  May  21,  1850;  settled  in  1884  at  the  site  of 
Thief  River  Falls,  then  called  Rockstad  as  a  trading  post  for  the  O jib- 
ways  of  the  adjacent  Red  Lake  and  Pembina  Indian  Reservation;  learned 
their  language,  and  was  an  interpreter ;  was  the  first  postmaster  of  Thief 
River  Falls,  inr  1887-88,  when  the  village  was  platted  and  named;  was 
its  president  in  1891  and  1893,  the  first  mayor  after  its  incorporation  as  a 
city,  1896-97,  and  again  in  1902-03;  likewise  for  a  second  time  was  the 
postmaster,  1907-14;  removed  to  Pasadena,  Cal.,  where  he  died  January 
27,  1915.  The  Ojibways  called  him  Ogema,  meaning  a  chief;  but  in 
1896  he  opposed  an  endeavor  to  rename  this  city  as  Ogema  Falls. 

Mavie  is  a  village  on  the  electric  railway  in  Qover  Leaf  township. 

Mayfield  township  was  named  in  honor  of  A.  C.  May  field,  who  was 
one  of  its  early  homesteaders,  coming  from  Wisconsin. 

NosDEN  township,  at  the  north  side  successively  of  Polk,  Red  Lake, 
and  Pennington  counties,  received  this  name,  meaning  northern,  from 
the  languages  of  its  Norwegian  and  Swedish  settlers. 

North  township,  next  east  of  Nor  den,  is  named  similarly  for  its  loca- 
tion, and. for  its  including  the  most  northern  part  of  the  Red  Lake  river, 
at  the  city  of  Thief  River  Falls. 

NuMEDAL  township  bears  the  name  of  a  river  in  Norway,  and  of  the 
series  of  farms  and  pasture  lands  along  its  valley. 

Polk  Center  township,  the  most  southwestern  in  this  county,  was 
named  for  its  situation  near  the  center  of  the  orginal  area  of  Polk 
county. 

Reiner  township  was  named  in  compliment  for  Reinhart  Johnsrud, 
who  later  was  the  township  treasurer. 

River  Falls  township  has  rapids  of  the  Red  Lake  river,  flowing  over 
glacial  drift  boulders,  at  St.  Hilaire  village,  and  in  other  parts  of  its 
course  through  this  township. 

RocKSBURY  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Martin  Rockstad,  one 
of  its  first  settlers,  whose  homestead  farm  in  section  4  nearly  adjoined 
Thief  River  Falls.    Rockstad,  more  exactly  bearing  his  name,  was  the 


408  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

earliest  post  office  there,  established  about  the  year  1882,  at  a  trading 
station  in  or  near  the  south  edge  of  the  present  city  area,  as  before 
mentioned  in  the  notice  for  Kratka  township. 

St.  Hilaire^  a  Great  Northern  railway  village,  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Red  Lake  river  in  the  northwest  corner  of  River  Falls,  platted  in  1882, 
was  named  by  Hon.  Frank  Ives  for  the  French  statesman  and  author, 
Jules  Barthelemy-Saint-Hilaire,  who  was  bom  in  Paris,  August  19, 
1805,  and  died  November  24,  1895.  The  former  railway  branch  from 
Crookston  to  St.  Hilaire  began  its  regular  train  service  on  July  4,  1883. 

Sanders  township  was  named  in  compliment  for  Sander  Engebretson, 
a  native  of  Hallingdal,  Norway,  who  was  one  of  its  pioneer  farmers. 

SiLVERTON  township  received  this  euphonious  name  by  vote  of  its  peo- 
ple. It  is  near  the  eastern  limit  of  the  silverberry,  a  shrub  having  whit- 
ish leaves  and  bearing  edible  berries  of  the  same  silvery  color,  common 
along  the  Red  river  valley  and  thence  far  westward. 

Smiley  township  was  named  in  honor  of  William  C  Smiley,  who  in 
1904  was  the  county  surveyor  of  Red  Lake  county  and  in  recent  years 
has  practiced  law  in  St.  Paul. 

Star  township,  for  which  the  name  Zenith  had  been  proposed  by 
Joseph  Johnson,  received  its  name  by  vote  of  its  people,  who  thought 
Zenith  difficult  to  pronounce.  It  has  reference  to  the  polar  or  north 
star,  in  the  French  language  ^'L'Etoile  du  Nord"  of  the  state  seal,  whence 
Minnesota  is  popularly  called  "the  North  Star  State." 

Sunbeam,  a  post  office  in  High  Landing  township,  was  named  by  W. 
G.  Hunt,  publisher  of  its  local  newspaper,  which  has  the  same  name. 

Thief  River  Falls,  the  county  seat,  in  North  township,  was  platted 
as  a  village  in  1887,  and  was  incorporated  as  a  city  September  15,  1896. 
The  Red  Lake  river  within  the  city  area  originally  flowed  in  rapids  over 
boulders.  Above  the  present  dam,  which  has  a  head  of  15  feet,  supply- 
ing valuable  water  power,  this  river  is  navigable  by  steamboats  to  Red 
lake.  On  the  northeast  side  of  the  city  it  receives  Thief  river,  which 
is  translated  from  the  Ojibway  name,  noted  by  Gilfillan  as  ''Kimod- 
akiwi  zibi,  the  Stolen  Land  river  or  Thieving  Land  river.'*  The  map 
of  Long's  expedition,  in  1823,  and  Nicollet's  map,  published  in  1843,  give 
the  present  name. 

Warren's  "History  of  the  Ojibwa3rs"  (Minnesota  Historical  Society 
Collections,  vol.  V)  explains  the  origin  of  this  name  and  notes  its  true 
translation,  as  it  was  at  first  used.  "For  a  number  of  years,  on  the  head- 
waters of  Thief  river  ...  a  camp  of  ten  Dakota  lodges  succeeded  in 
holding  the  country  by  evading  or  escaping  the  search  of  the  Ojibway 
war  parties.  Here,  loath  to  leave  their  rich  hunting  grounds,  they  lived 
from  year  to  year  in  continual  dread  of  an  attack  from  their  conquering 
foes.  They  built  a  high  embankment  of  earth,  for  defence,  around  their 
lodges,  and  took  every  means  in  their  power  to  escape  the  notice  of  the 
Ojibways— even  discarding  the  use  of  the  gun  on  account  of  its  loud 
report,  and  using  the  primitive  bow  and  arrows,  in  killing  such  game  as 


PENNINGTON  COUNTY  409 

they  needed.  They  were,  however,  at  last  discovered  by  their  enemies. 
The  Crees  and  Assiniboines,  during  a  short  peace  which  they  made  with 
the  Dakotas,  learned  of  their  existence  and  locality,  and,  informing  the 
Ojibways,  a  war  party  was  raised,  who  went  in  search  of  them.  They 
were  discovered  encamped  within  their  earthen  inclosure,  and  after  a 
brave  but  unavailing  defence  with  their  bows  and  arrows,  the  ten 
lodges,  with  their  inmates,  were  entirely  destroyed."  From  the  Sioux 
earthwork,  constructed  for  concealment  and  defence,  the  Ojibways 
gave  to  the  stream  its  early  name,  meaning  "Secret  Earth  river,"  as 
translated  by  Warren,  in  allusion  to  the  hiding  and  protecting  earth 
embankment.  Through  erroneous  pronunciation  of  the  name,  however, 
with  a  misunderstanding  of  its  intended  significance,  the  French  and 
English  fur  traders,  and  afterward  also  the  Ojibways,  changed  it  to 
"Stealing  Earth  river,"  and  thence  to  Thief  river.  The  same  name 
is  applied  by  the  Ojibways  to  Thief  lake,  the  head  of  this  stream,  the 
lake  and  nearly  all  the  course  of  the  river  being  in  Marshall  county. 

ToRGERSON,  a  post  office  in  Reiner,  was  named  for  Mikkel  Torgerson, 
a  homestead  farmer,  who  was  the  first  clerk  of  this  township. 

Wyandotte  township  bears  the  aboriginal  name  of  a  confederation 
of  four  Iroquoian  tribes,  called  Hurons  by  the  French,  who  lived  in  the 
part  of  Canada  southeast  of  Lake  Huron  and  the  Georgian  bay.  It  is 
also  the  name  of  counties  in  Ohio,  Michigan,  and  Kansas.  In  the  year 
1655,  Huron  and  Ottawa  exiles,  driven  from  their  homes  by  raids  of  the 
Iroquois,  accompanied  Groseilliers  and  Radisson  to  Prairie  island  of  the 
Mississippi  on  the  southeast  boundary  of  the  present  state  of  Minnesota. 

Rivers. 

Black  river  and  Thief  river  have  been  noted  in  the  preceding  pages, 
for  the  township  and  city  named  for  them. 

Red  lake  and  the  streams  to  which  its  name  is  given.  Red  Lake  river, 
crossing  this  county,  and  the  Red  river  on  the  west  boundary  of  the 
state,  are  considered  in  the  first  chapter,  which  treats  of  lakes  and  rivers 
that  belong  partly  to  sev^al  counties,  and  they  are  again  somewhat  fully 
noticed  in  the  chapter  of  Red  Lake  county. 

The  glacial  and  modified  drift  in  Pennington  county,  and  the  rela- 
tively thin  lacustrine  and  alluvial  beds  which  in  some  parts  of  this  area 
cover  the  drift,  were  spread  very  evenly  on  the  bed  of  the  Glacial  Lake 
Agassiz,  so  that  the  surface  has  no  hollows  holding  lakes. 


PINE  COUNTY 

Established  March  1,  1856,  and  organized  in  1872,  this  county  was 
named  with  reference  to  the  extensive  pineries,  of  white  and  red  (Nor- 
way) pine,  in  various  parts  of  this  district,  since  much  worked  and  prac- 
tically all  cut  off  by  lumbermen.  Perhaps  also  this  name  was  adopted 
partly  for  the  Pine  lakes  and  river,  here  tributary  from  the  west  to 
the  Kettle  river.  Pine  City,  the  county  seat,  received  its  name  from  that 
of  the  county,  and  also  from  the  adjacent  O  jib  way  village,  Qiengwatana. 

Minnesota  has  three  pine  species,  each  limited  to  its  northeastern 
part  The  white  pine  is  the  most  abundant,  and  is  commercially  the  most 
valuable  for  its  excellent  lumber;  the  red  pine,  more  commonly  but 
wrongly  called  the  Norway  pine,  is  also  plentiful  in  many  large  tracts, 
preferring  a  more  sandy  soil,  and  is  nearly  as  much  esteemed  for  its 
lumber  as  the  foregoing;  and  the  jack  pine,  of  smaller  size,  grows  on 
areas  of  yet  more  sandy  and  gravelly  soil,  being  least  valued  for  lumber 
and  commonly  utilized  only  as  fuel. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  in  Pine  cotmty  has  been  gathered  from  "Fifty 
Years  in  the  Northwest,"  by  William  H.  C.  Folsom,  1888,  having  pages 
260-285  for  this  county;  and  from  W.  H.  Hamlin,  county  auditor,  and 
Robert  Wilcox,  judge  of  probate,  interviewed  during  a  visit  at  Pine 
City,  the  county  seat,  in  May,  1916. 

AsLONE  township,  organized  May  22,  1911,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Lois  Arlone  Hamlin,  daughter  of  the  county  auditor. 

Arna  township,  organized  March  11,  1910,  has  a  name  proposed  by 
W.  H.  Hamlin,  county  auditor,  not  known  in  use  elsewhere,  either  as  a 
personal  or  place  name. 

AsKOV  is  a  Great  Northern  railway  village  in  Partridge. 

Banning  is  a  hamlet  on  a  branch  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railway,  in 
section  34,  Finlayson,  having  sandstone  quarries  beside  the  Kettle  river. 
It  was  named  in  honor  of  William  L.  Banning,  who  was  bom  in  Wil- 
mington, Del.,  Jan.,  1814;  settled  in  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  1855,  and  engaged  in 
banking;  served  in  the  Third  Minnesota  regiment  in  the  civil  war;  after- 
ward was  a  contractor  in  railroad  construction ;  died  in  St  Paul,  Novem- 
ber 26,  1893. 

Barry  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Edward  Barry,  a  heroic  en- 
gineer of  the  Great  Northern  railway  train  which  rescued  nearly  five 
hundred  people  of  Hinckley  and  its  vicinity  from  death  in  a  great  forest 
fire,  September  1,  1894,  carrying  them  to  West  Superior,  when  the  vil- 

410 


PINE  COUNTY  411 

lages  of  Hinckley  and  Sandstone  were  burned.  ("Memorials  of  the  Min- 
nesota Forest  Fires,"  by  Rev.  William  Wilkinson,  1895,  pages  127-187.) 

Belden  is  a  station  of  the  Soo  railway,  sixteen  miles  north  of  Mark- 
ville. 

Beroun  is  a  Northern  Pacific  railway  village,  six  miles  north  of 
Pine  City. 

Birch  Creek  township,  the  most  northwestern  in  this  county,  was 
named  for  the  creek  that  flows  through  it,  tributary  to  the  Kettle  river. 

Bremen  township  was  named  by  its  German  settlers,  for  t^e  city  of 
Bremen   in   Germany. 

Brook  Park  township  and  its  village  on  the  Great  Northern  railway 
have  a  euphonious  name  suggested  by  its  brook  tributary  to  Pokegama 
creek. 

Bruno  township  and  its  railway  village  were  named  in  honor  of  an 
early  hotel  owner  there. 

Chengwatana  township,  organized  in  1874,  bears  an  Ojibway  name, 
stated  by  Folsom  to  be  formed  by  the  words  meaning  pine  and  city, 
which  are  spelled  jingwak  and  odena  in  Baraga's  Dictionary.  It  was  the 
name  of  "an  Indian  village  which  from  time  immemorial  had  been  locat- 
ed near  the  mouth  of  Cross  lake.  This  locality  had  long  been  a  rallying 
point  for  Indians  and  traders.'' 

Clover  township  was  named  for  its  profuse  growth  of  the  cultivated 
red  clover  in  fields  and  of  the  native  white  clover  in  pastures  and  beside 
roads,  both  giving  evidence  of  a  rich  clayey  soil. 

Cloverton  is  a  station  of  the  Soo  railway,  Ave  miles  north  of  Mark- 
ville. 

Crosby  was  named  in  honor  of  Ira  Crosby,  a  pioneer  farmer  in  this 
township. 

Danforth  was  named  for  N.  H.  Danforth,  of  Sandstone,  a  landowner 
in  this  township,  who  removed  to  the  state  of  Washington. 

Dell  Grove  township  was  named  for  the  valley  of  Grindstone  lake 
and  the  North  branch  of  Grindstone  river,  and  for  its  groves  of  pines 
which  were  burned  by  the  forest  fires  in  September,  1894. 

Denham  is  a  Soo  railway  village  in  Birch  Creek  township. 

Dosey  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Julius  Dosey,  a  former 
lumberman  there,  who  in  1916  was  the  mayor  of  Pine  City. 

Duquette  is  a  village  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  in  the  east  edge 
of  Kerrick  township. 

FiNLAYSON  township,  and  its  village,  on  the  Northern  Pacific  rail- 
way, were  named  in  honor  of  David  Finlayson,  the  former  proprietor  of 
a  sawmill  in  this  village. 

Fleming  township  was  named  for  a  lumberman  from  Stillwater,  who 
had  logging  camps  there. 

FbiESLAND^  named  for  a  province  of  Holland,  is  a  Northern  Pacific 
railway  station,  five  miles  north  of  Hinckley. 


412  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Groningen,  the  next  Northern  Pacific  station,  in  the  northeast  cor- 
ner of  Del!  Grove  township,  bears  the  name  of  the  most  northeastern 
province  of  Holland,  adjoining  the  east  side  of  Friesland. 

Harlis  is  a  Soo  railway  station  in  the  northeast  corner  of  this  county. 

Henriette  village,  formerly  called  Cornell,  is  on  the  Great  Northern 
railway  in  Pokegama. 

Hinckley  township,  organized  in  1872,  and  its  railway  village,  incor- 
porated in  1885,  were  named  in  honor  of  Isaac  Hinckley,  who  was  born 
in  Hingham,  Mass.,  in  1815,  and  died  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  March  28, 
1885.  During  sixteen  years,  from  1865  to  1881,  he  was  president  of  the 
Philadelphia,  Wilmington  and  Baltimore  railroad  company.  He  was  a 
stockholder  for  building  the  St.  Paul  and  Duluth  railroad,  now  owned 
by  the  Northern  Pacific  company. 

Kerrick  township  and  its  Great  Northern  railway  village  have  a  name 
that  is  borne  also  by  a  village  in  central  Illinois.  It  was  chosen  in  honor 
of  Cassius  M.  Kerrick,  who  was  bom  at  Greensburg,  Ind.,  in  1847;  came 
to  Minnesota,  settling  in  Minneapolis,  as  master  mechanic  for  the  Great 
Northern  railway ;  later  was  a  contractor,  erecting  many  railway  bridges ; 
removed  to  Pasadena,  Cal.,  in  1913,  and  died  there  March  12,  1918. 

Kettle  River  township,  organized  in  1874,  received  the  name  of  the 
river  flowing  through  it,  a  translation  from  the  Ojibway  name,  noted  by 
Gilfillan,  "Akiko  zibi;  Akik,  kettle,  ziibi,  river,  and  o,  connective."  This 
name  was  given  to  the  river  in  allusion  to  the  waterworn  rocks,  cop- 
per-bearing trap  rock  and  conglomerate,  of  its  rapids  along  a  distance  of 
five  miles  next  above  its  junction  with  the  St.  Croix  river.  Through 
the  central  part  of  the  county,  from  the  south  line  of  this  township  to  the 
mouth  of  Grindstone  river,  the  Kettle  river  flows  fifteen  miles  in  a  valley 
or  gorge  about  a  quarter  to  two-thirds  of  a  mile  wide,  eroded  in  hori- 
zontally bedded  sandstone  which  forms  bluffs  on  each  side  75  to  100  feet 
high,  their  upper  half  being  usually  vertical  cliffs. 

KiNGSDALE  is  a  Soo  railway  village  five  miles  north  of  Qoverton. 

Markville  is  on  the  Soo  railway  in  Arna  township. 

Mission  Creek  township,  organized  in  1880,  and  its  railway  station 
in  section  10,  bear  the  name  of  the  creek  flowing  through  the  east  part 
of  this  township.  It  joins  the  Snake  river  close  east  of  Lake  Pokegama, 
and  received  its  name  from  a  mission  to  the  Ojibways  founded  beside 
that  lake  in  1836,  which  was  broken  up  by  the  attack  of  a  large  war  party 
of  the  Sioux,  May  24,  1841. 

Munch  township  was  named  in  honor  of  three  brothers,  natives  of 
Prussia,  who  were  lumbermen  in  this  county.  Adolph  Munch,  bom  in 
1829,  came  to  the  United  States  in  1850,  and  to  Minnesota  in  1854; 
resided  at  Taylor's  Falls,  Chisago  county,  and  at  Pine  City;  removed 
to  St  Paul  in  1871,  and  died  there  November  26,  1901.  Emil  Munch, 
born  in  1831,  came  to  this  country  in  1849,  and  settled  at  Taylor's  Falls 
in  1852 ;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature,  1860-1 ;  was  captain  of  the 
First  Minnesota  Battery,   1861-5;   was  state  treasurer,   1868-72;   owned 


PINE  COUNTY  413 

a  flouring  mill  at  Afton,  Washington  county^  after  1875;  died  August 
30,  1887.  Paul  Munch,  born  in  1833,  came  to  the  United  States  in  1854, 
settling  at  Taylor's  Falls;  served  in  the  First  Minnesota  light  artillery 
in  the  civil  war,  attaining  the  rank  of  first  lieutenant;  removed  to 
Chengwatana,  where  he  died  July  26,  1901. 

NiCKERSON  township  and  its  railway  village  were  named  in  honor  of 
John  Quincy  Adams  Nickerson,  M  Elk  River,  Sherburne  county,  who  pro- 
moted the  building  of  this  line  of  the  Great  Northern  railway.  He  was 
born  in  New  Salem,  Maine,  March  30,  1825;  came  to  St.  Anthony,  Minn., 
in  1849,  and  four  years  later  settled  at  Elk  River,  buying  land  on  which 
a  part  of  that  village  was  afterward  built;  conducted  a  hotel,  and  also 
engaged  in  lumbering;  was  postmaster  of  Elk  River,  and  treasurer  of 
Sherburne  county. 

Norman  township  was  named  by  its  Swedish  and  Norwegian  settlers 
to  commemorate  their  Scandinavian  origin  as  Northmen,  being  thus  like 
the  names  of  Norman  county  and  Norman  township  in  Yellow  Medicine 
county. 

Ogema  township,  organized  in  1915,  has  an  Ojibway  name,  meaning  a 
chief. 

Partridge  township  was  named  in  honor  of  one  of  its  first  settlers. 
Piz^  City  township,  organized  in  1874,  and  its  railway  village,  the 
county  seat,  platted  in  1869  and  incorporated  February  14,  1881,  were 
named  from  the  county.  It  is  also  especially  significant  that  the  name  of 
the  nearly  adjacent  Ojibway  village,  Chengwatana,  was  derived,  as  be- 
fore noted,  from  the  two  words  for  pine  and  city.  Probably  this  abo- 
riginal village,  as  well  as  the  pine  forests,  shared  in  the  naming  of  the 
village  and  township  of  Pine  City,  and  also  in  the  earlier  selection  of  the 
county  name. 

Pine  Lake  township  has  the  Big  Pine  lake  and  the  Upper  and  Lower 
Pine  lakes,  which  outflow  northeastward  by  the  Pine  river,  all  these 
names,  as  likewise  of  the  county  and  of  its  ancient  Ojibway  village,  be- 
ing derived  from  the  majestic  pine  woods. 

PoKEGAMA  township  bears  the  Ojibway  name  of  its  creek  and  lake, 
meaning  "the  water  which  juts  off  from  another  water,"  applied  to  this 
lake  because  its  south  end  is  very  near  the  Snake  river.  It  is  also  the 
name  of  a  large  lake  beside  the  Mississippi  in  Itasca  county,  and  like- 
wise was  given  by  the  Ojibways  to  the  little  lake  now  called  Elk  lake, 
closely  adjoining  Lake  Itasca. 

Rock  Creek  township,  settled  in  1872,  organized  in  March,  1874,  and 
its  railway  village,  bear  the  name  of  the  creek  that  here  flows  south  into 
the  northeast  corner  of  Chisago  county,  tributary  to  the  St.  Croix  river. 
RoYALTON,  the  most  southwestern  township  of  Pine  county,  was  named 
in  honor  of  Royal  C.  Gray,  who  in  1854  settled  on  section  15,  at  the 
south  side  of  the  Snake  river,  on  a  farm  that  had  been  dpened  in  1849 
by  Elam  Greeley,  a  pioneer  lumberman. 


414  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

RuTLEDGE  is  a  railway  village  in  section  28,  Kettle  River. 

Sandstone  township  and  its  railway  village,  platted  in  June,  1887, 
were  named  for  their  extensive  quarries  of  sandstone  in  the  bluffs  of 
the  Kettle  river,  which  were  first  worked  in  August,  1885. 

Sturgeon  Lake  township  and  its  railway  village  were  named  for  the 
large  lake  in  Windemere*  township,  two  miles  east  of  this  village. 

Willow  River,  a  village  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railway,  is  at  its 
crossing  of  this  stream,  the  largest  eastern  tributary  of  the  Kettle  river. 

WiLMA  township,  organized  October  22,  1907,  was  named  in  honor 
of  a  daughter  of  William  H.  Abbott,  a  former  resident  of  this  town- 
ship, who  removed  to  Caledonia,  Minn. 

Windemere  township,  organized  January  3,  1882,  received  its  name, 
with  change  in  spelling,  from  Lake  Windermere,  the  largest  lake  in 
England. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  foregoing  list  has  noticed  Birch  creek,  Kettle  river,  Mission  creek, 
the  Pine  lakes  and  river,  Pokegama  creek  and  lake,  Rock  creek.  Sturgeon 
lake,  and  Willow  river,  from  which  seven  townships  and  four  villages 
in  this  county  received  their  names. 

The  St.  Croix  and  Snake  rivers  are  considered  in  the  first  chapter, 
treating  of  large  rivers  and  lakes  that  are  partly  included  in  several 
counties;  and  the  Snake  river,  translated  from  Kanabec,  its  Ojibway 
name,  is  also  noticed  in  the  chapter  of  Kanabec  county. 

Cross  lake,  so  named  from  its  being  crossed  by  the  Snake  river,  is  a 
translation  of  its  Ojibway  name,  Bemidji.  The  same  aboriginal  name  is 
borne  by  a  lake  and  city  on  the  upper  Mississippi,  in  Beltrami  county. 
In  each  case,  the  name  alludes  to  the  river  flowing  across  the  lake. 

Grindstone  river,  formed  by  union  of  its  South  and  North  branches, 
and  Grindstone  lake,  outflowing  by  the  North  branch,  are  named  from 
the  finely  gritty  sandstone  outcrop  at  the  north  side  of  this  river  adjoin- 
ing Hinckley  village,  which  was  used  for  sharpening  iron  and  steel  tools 
by  the  Ojibways  and  early  fur  traders.  Quarrying  to  supply  stone  for 
bridge  masonry  and  other  building  uses  was  begun  there  in  1878,  and 
seven  years  later  more  extensive  quarries  were  opened  in  the  similar 
rock  beds  at  the  village  of  Sandstone. 

Other  lakes  and  streams  in  this  county,  mostly  needing  no  explana- 
tions of  the  derivations  and  meanings  of  their  names,  include  Rock  lake, 
one  of  the  sources  of  Rock  creek,  and  Devil's  lake,  of  small  area,  re- 
spectively about  two  miles  and  one  mile  south  of  Pine  City,  each  bor- 
dered by  "low  morainic  drift  hills,  abundantly  strewn  with  boulders; 
Hay  creek,  in  the  west  part  of  Royalton,  flowing  north  to  the  Snake, 
river;  Cedar  lake,  in  Munch  township;  Deer  and  Skunk  creeks,  tributary 
to  the  Kettle  river  from  the  west  in  Barry  and  Sandstone  townships; 
Elbow  and  Bass  lakes,  crossed  by  the  north  line  of  Dell  Grove  township ; 


PINE  COUNTY  415 

Indian  and  Fish  lakes,  in  the  east  edge  of  Pine  Lake  township;  Little 
Pine  river,  flowing  through  the  Upper  and  Lower  Pine  lakes;  Moose 
river,  a  large  eastern  branch  of  Kettle  river,  coming  from  several  lakes 
in  Carlton  county  which  are  named  from  moose  formerly  abundant  in 
this  region;  Island  and  Grass  lakes,  in  the  north  edge  of  Windemere; 
Oak  lake  in  Kerrick,  near  the  head  of  Willow  river;  Net  lake  and  river, 
flowing  northeastward  into  Carlton  county;  Bear  creek,  Sand  river,  its 
East  fork,  and  Hay  creek,  also  flowing  to  Sand  river  from  the  east, 
Crooked  creek,  with  its  West  and  East  forks.  Tamarack  river,  with 
its  West  fork,  and  Spruce  river,  these  numerous  streams,  in  their  order 
from  west  to  east,  being  tributary  to  the  St.  Croix  between  the  Kettle 
river  and  the  east  line  of  the  county  and  state;  and  Rock  lake,  Lake 
Lena,  and  fourteen  other  little  lakes  that  are  mapped  without  names,  in 
Ogema. 

The  Kettle  river  at  its  Upper  falls  or  Dalles,  close  east  of  Banning, 
flows  in  rapids  about  a  half  mile,  through  a  narrow  gorge  formed  by 
ragged  cliffs  of  sandstone,  50  to  100  feet  high.  Its  Lower  falls,  on  each 
side  of  an  island  a  half  mile  southeast  of  Sandstone  village,  descend 
about  eight  feet  within  a  distance  of  an  eighth  of  a  mile.  In  the  three 
miles  between  these  falls  the  river  flows  with  a  gentle  current. 

Opposite  the  mouth  of  this  river,  and  for  three  miles  above  and  one 
mile  below,  the  St.  Croix  river  is  turned  in  two  channels  by  three  long 
islands,  which  together  are  called  the  "Big  island."  The  eastern  large 
channel  is  the  state  boundary,  and  the  western  is  commonly  called  "the 
Slough."  In  both  the  river  has  a  strong  current,  with  numerous  rapids, 
so  that  this  extent  of  four  miles  on  the  St.  Croix  is  named  Kettle  River 
rapids. 

Between  four  and  five  miles  farther  south,  the  St.  Croix  has  its 
Horse-race  rapids,  a  half  mile  long,  over  a  smooth  rock  bed,  not  broken 
by  boulders. 


PIPESTONE  COUNTY 

This  countyi  established  May  23,  1857,  was  organized  twenty-two 
years  later,  by  a  legislative  act  approved  January  27,  1879.  Its  name  was 
at  first  applied,  however,  by  an  error  of  the  original  act  in  1857,  to  the 
area  that  is  now  Rock  county,  while  that  name  was  given  to  the  present 
county  of  Pipestone.  These  counties  therefore  exchanged  names  by  an 
act  of  the  legislature,  February  20,  1862.  The  transposition  was  need- 
ful, as  Pipestone  county  now  includes  the  celebrated  Indian  quarry  of 
red  pipestone,  to  which  its  name  refers;  and  Rock  county  now  has  the 
prominent  rock  mound  near  Luverne,  which  similarly  was  the  source  of 
its  name. 

Carver,  wintering  in  1766-7  with  the  Sioux  on  the  Minnesota  river, 
near  the  site  of  New  Ulm,  learned  of  the  highland  farther  west,  since 
named  Coteau  des  Prairies,  as  "a  mountain,  from  which  the  Indians  get 
a  sort  of  red  stone,  out  of  which  they  hew  the  bowls  of  their  pipes." 
George  Catlin,  the  painter  of  Indian  portraits,  wrote  the  earliest  print- 
ed description  of  this  quarry,  which  he  visited  in  the  summer  of  1836. 
Two  years  later  it  was  visited  by  Nicollet,  as  noted  in  the  report  with 
his  map  of  the  upper  Mississippi  region.  These  descriptions  are  re- 
printed in  the  Final  Report  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Minnesota 
(vol.  I,  1884,  pages  62-70).  The  great  veneration  of  many  tribes  of 
Indians  for  the  stone  here  quarried,  and  the  legend  of  its  first  use  to 
make  the  peace  pipe  or  calumet,  are  known  to  all  readers  of  Longfel- 
low's "Song  of  Hiawatha,"  published  in  1855,  which  derived  its  account 
of  the  pipestone  from  Catlin  and  Nicollet. 

The  red  pipestone,  also  called  catlinite,  occurs  as  a  layer  about  eigh- 
teen inches  thick,  inclosed  in  strata  of  red  quartzite.  It  has  been  quarried 
by  the  Indians  along  an  extent  of  nearly  a  mile  from  north  to  south, 
their  earliest  quarrying  having  been  done  hundreds  of  years  ago.  This 
tract  is  now  comprised  in  an  Indian  reservation,  one  mile  square,  which 
was  set  apart  for  the  Yankton  Sioux  in  accordance  with  a  treaty  made 
in  Washington,  April  19,  1858.  The  reservation  was  provided  solely  for 
this  quarrying  by  the  Indian  tribes,  and  no  trespassing  there  by  white 
men  is  permitted.  Pipestone,  the  county  seat,  is  a  flourishing  city  about 
a  mile  south  of  the  quarry. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origin  and  meaning  of  names  has  been  gathered 
from  "An  Illustrated  History  of  the  Counties  of  Rock  and  Pipestone," 
by  Arthur  P.  Rose,  1911,  having  pages  241-421  and  657-802  for  this  coun- 
ty ;  and  from  Charles  H.  Bennett,  Warrington  B.  Brown,  and  L.  G.  Jones, 

416 


PIPESTONE  COUNTY  417 

the  county  treasurer,  each  of  Pipestone,  interviewed  during  a  visit  there 
in  July,  1916. 

Aetna  township,  the  latest  organized,  July  19,  1880,  was  named  in 
honor  of  Aetna  Johnson,  a  step-daughter  of  Christ  Gilbertson,  an  immi- 
grant from  Norway,  who  settled  in  this  township  in  1878. 

AntLiE,  a  railway  village  six  miles  west  of  Pipestone,  was  founded  in 
1879  by  a  land  corporation  of  Scotland,  being  named. in  honor  of  the 
earl  of  Airlie,  who  was  its  president. 

Altona  township,  organized  February  28,  1880,  received  its  name  by 
vote  of  its  settlers,  for  the  city  of  Altoona  in  Pennsylvania;  but  an 
error  in  spelling  changed  it  to  the  name  of  a  city  in  Germany,  adjoining 
Hamburg.  Altona  is  also  the  name  of  a  village  and  township  in  New 
York,  and  of  villages  in  Michigan,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Missouri. 

Burke  township,  organized  April  26,  1879,  was  at  first  called  Erin, 
but  was  renamed  a  few  weeks  later  in  honor  of  Rev.  Thomas  N.  Burke, 
of  Ireland,  who  in  1871  had  visited  America  on  a  lecturing  tour  in  de- 
fence of  the  political  rights  of  that  country. 

Cazenovia,  a  railway  village  in  Troy,  founded  in  1884,  was  named  for 
a  town  and  lake  in  Madison  county,  N.  Y.,  whence  many  farmers  of  this 
vicinity  had  come. 

Eden  township,  organized  September  27,  1879,  was  named  by  a  popu- 
lar vote,  on  the  recommendation  of  Richard  O'Connell,  after  much  dis- 
cussion of  other  proposed  names.  "The  beautiful  stretch  of  country 
comprising  the  township  suggested  the  Garden  of  Eden  to  the  pioneers." 

Edgerton,  the  railway  village  of  Osborne  township,  platted  in  Sep- 
tember, 1879,  and  incorporated  October  14,  1887,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Gen.  Alonzo  J.  Edgerton,  who  was  born  in  Rome,  N.  Y.,  June  7,  1827, 
and  died  in  Sioux  Falls,  S.  D.,  August  9,  1896.  He  was  graduated  at 
Wesleyan  University  in  1850 ;  came  to  Mantorville,  Minn.,  in  1^5,  and  was 
there  admitted  to  practice  law;  served  as  captain  of  the  Tenth  Minne- 
sota regiment,  1862-4,  and  in  1865  was  brevetted  brigadier  general;  re- 
moved to  Kasson  in  1878;  was  a  state  senator  in  1859,  and  again  in 
1877-8;  and  was  a  United  States  senator  by  appointment  from  March  to 
December,  1881. 

Elmer  township,  organized  August  28,  1879,  has  a  name  that  is  also 
borne  by  villages  in  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Michigan,  and  Missouri. 

Eton,  a  railway  station  in  Gray  township,  established  in  1895  as  Gray 
siding,  was  renamed  in  November,  1906,  for  the  town  of  Eton  in  Eng- 
land, having  a  celebrated  school  where  founders  of  an  English  colony  of 
this  county  were  educated. 

Fountain  Prairie,  organized  June  2,  1879,  was  named  by  Charles 
Heath,  one  of  its  early  settlers,  for  his  former  home  township  in  Colum- 
bia county,  Wisconsin. 

Grange  township,  organized  April  26,  1879,  received  this  name  in 
compliment  to  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry,  a  secret  agricultural  order 
whose  lodges  are  called  granges,  from  French  words,  grange,  a  bam. 


418  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

and  grangier,  a  farmer.  This  order  was  founded  in  1867  by  Oliver 
H.  Kelley  (b.  1826,  d.  1913),  who  since  1849  had  been  a  Minnesota 
farmer  in  Sherburne  county. 

Gray  township,  organized  June  28,  1879,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Andrew  O.  Gray,  its  first  permanent  settler. 

Hatfield,  a  railway  village  in  the  southeast  part  of  Gray,  founded  in 
1880,  has  a  name  that  is  borne  by  a  township  and  village  in  Massachu- 
setts, and  by  villages  of  Pennsylvania,  Wisconsin,  and  other  states. 

Holland,  a  Great  Northern  railway  village  nine  miles  northeast  of 
Pipestone,  founded  in  1888,  was  incorporated  May  10,  1898,  being  named 
for  "a  large  colony  of  Hollanders  in  that  vicinity." 

Ihlen^  a  railway  village  in  section  9,  Eden,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Carl  Ihlen,  on  whose  land  it  was  platted  in  July,  1888. 
'  Jasper,  a  railway  village  in  the  south  edge  of  Eden,  extending  also 
into  Rock  county,  platted  in  April,  1888,  and  incorporated  May  9,  1889, 
was  named  for  its  quarries  of  red  quartzite,  commonly  called  jasper,  an 
excellent  building  and  paving  stone. 

Osborne  township,  organized  March  31,  1879,  was  named  on  the  sug- 
gestion of  William  J.  Dodd,  an  early  settler,  in  honor  of  his  cousin,  J. 
C.  Osborne,  of  Newark,  New  Jersey. 

Pipestone,  the  county  seat,  at  first  named  Pipestone  City,  platted  in 
October,  1876,  was  incorporated  as  a  village  February  10,  1881,  and  as  a 
city  July  23,  1901.  Its  area  was  mostly  in  section  12  of  Sweet  township, 
adjoining  the  south  border  of  the  Pipestone  Reservation  and  Indian 
quarry,  before  noted  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  which  are  mostly 
comprised  in  section  1. 

Rock  towns'hip,  organized  June  2,  1879,  has  several  small  streams, 
sources  of  the  Rock  river  flowing  southward  past  '"the  Mound"  of  red 
quartzite  in  Rock  county,  whence  the  river  and  that  county  received  their 
name,  given  also  to  this  township  for  its  location  at  the  head  of  the  river. 

RuTHTON,  the  railway  village  of  Aetna  township,  platted  in  June, 
1888,  and  incorporated  November  2,  1897,  was  named  in  honor  of  the 
wife  of  W.  H.  Sherman,  one  of  the  townsite  proprietors. 

Sweet  township,  organized  February  20,  1879,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Daniel  E.  Sweet,  the  first  settler  of  this  county.  He  was  bom  in 
Pennsylvania,  April  10,  1838;  came  to  Wisconsin  with  his  parents,  and 
in  1860  removed  to  Iowa;  served  in  the  Eleventh  Iowa  regiment  during 
the  civil  war ;  took  a  land  claim  on  the  site  of  Pipestone  in  1874 ;  platted 
Pipestone  city,  in  company  with  Charles  H.  Bennett,  in  1876,  was  its 
first  postmaster,  and  later  was  the  county  surveyor  and  probate  judge; 
removed  to  Louisiana  in  1886,  where  he  had  charge  of  a  steamboat  line 
and  engaged  in  other  business  enterprises;  died  at  Siloam  Springs,  Ark., 
October  2,  1902. 

Trosky,  the  railway  village  of  Elmer  township,  platted  in  September, 
1884,  was  incorporated  June  10,  1893.  The  significance  of  this  name, 
not  found  elsewhere  in  the  United  States,  remains  to  be  ascertained. 


PIPESTONE  COUNTY  419 

Troy  township,  organized  December  3,  1879,  received  its  name  from 
Troy,  N.  Y.,  by  vote  of  the  settlers  after  many  other  names  had  been 
proposed  and  rejected.  Daniel  B.  Whigam,  at  whose  home  in  section  10 
the  township  meeting  was  held,  finally  suggested  this  name  from  its 
being  stamped  on  his  kitchen  stove  as  its  place  of  manufacture.  "The 
stove  instrumental  in  supplying  the  name  of  the  township  had  a  history 
of  its  own.  It  was  the  first  stove  sold  by  the  first  dealer  in  Pipestone 
county,  and  came  from  the  store  of  William  Wheeler,  of  Pipestone." 
(Rose,  History  of  this  county,  page  277.)  ^ 

Woodstock,  the  railway  village  of  Burke,  platted  in  September,  1879, 
and  incorporated  June  23,  1892,  "was  named  after  Woodstock,  the 
county  seat  of  McHcnry  county,  Illinois,  which  was  named  after  Wood- 
stock, Vermont,  and  that  after  a  town  in  England." 

Streams  and  Lakes. 

The  Rock  river  has  been  noticed  in  the  first  chapter,  and  again  for 
the  township  in  t^is  county  named  from  it. 

Redwood  river,  having  sources  in  Aetna,  the  most  northeastern  town- 
ship of  this  county,  is  fully  noticed  in  the  chapter  for  Redwood  county. 

Flandreau  creek,  in  Fountain  Prairie  and  Altona  townships,  flowing 
southwest  to  the  Big  Sioux  river  in  South  Dakota,  and  the  village  of 
this  name  near  its  mouth,  commemorate  Charles  Eugene  Flandrau  (but 
with  a  change  in  spelling),  who  was  born  in  New  York  city,  July  15, 
1828,  and  died  in  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  September  9,  1903.  He  was  admitted 
to  practice  law  in  1851 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1853,  settling  in  St.  Paul ; 
was  a  member  of  the  state  constitutional  convention,  1857;  was  associate 
justice  of  the  supreme  court  of  Minnesota,  1857-64;  author  of  *The 
History  of  Minnesota  and  Tales  of  the  Frontier"  (408  pages,  1900),  and 
many  papers  in  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  Collections.  During 
the  Sioux  outbreak,  in  August,  1862,  Judge  Flandrau  commanded  the 
volunteer  forces  in  their  defence  of  New  Ulm  against  the  attacks  of  the 
Sioux,  and  on  account  of  his  important  services  received  from  Governor 
Ramsey  the  commission  of  colonel. 

Pipestone  creek,  named  from  its  flowing  past  the  red  pipestone  quarry, 
has  a  series  of  four  little  lakes  on  its  course,  Pipestone,  Crooked,  Duck, 
and  Whitehead  lakes,  the  first  being  in  the  east  part  of  the  reservation 
and  the  others  within  about  a  mile  west  from  the  quarry.  These  are 
the  only  lakes  in  the  county. 

At  the  quartzite  bluff  between  Pipestone  lake  and  the  quarry,  this 
stream  "passes  over  the  ledge  from  the  upper  prairie  to  the  lower  with 
a  perpendicular  fall  of  about  18  feet,"  as  noted  by  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell 
(Geology  of  Minn.,  Final  Report,  vol.  I,  1884,  p.  539).  His  later  map  of 
the  pipestone  quarry  names  this  cascade  as  Winnewissa  falls  (Aborigines 
of  Minn.,  1911,  plate  at  page  564),  from  a  Sioux  verb,  winawizi,  to  be 
jealous  or  envious.    The  name  had  been  used  much  earlier  in  an  excellent 


420  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

poem  by  Mrs.  Adelaide  George  Bennett,  of  Pipestone,  entitled  The 
Peace-pipe  Quarry,"  first  read  at  a  celebration  there  July  4,  1878,  which 
was  reprinted  as  pages  77-85  in  "Indian  Legends  of  Minnesota,"  com- 
piled by  Mrs.  Cordenio  A.  Severance  and  published  in  1893.  In  the  re- 
print Mrs.  Bennett  inserted  new  lines  with  this  name,  "Falls  of  Winne- 
wissa," 

Close  west  of  the  falls  are  Leaping  rock,  a  little  columnar  cliff  left 
by  erosion  in  front  of  the  verge  of  the  bluff  and  within  leaping  distance 
from  it,  amd  Inscription  rock,  bearing  the  name  of  J.  N.  Nicollet  and 
initials  of  five  members  of  his  exploring  party,  inscribed  when  they  vis- 
ited the  pipestone  quarry  in  July,  1838. 

Nearly  on  the  south  line  of  the  reservation,  about  a  half  mile  south 
from  the  falls  and  the  present  quarry  pits,  an  exceptionally  huge  granite 
boulder,  the  largest  known  in  Minnesota,  lying  on  the  quartzite,  has  fallen 
in  six  pieces  under  the  action  of  frost,  separating  it  along  the  natural 
seams  or  joints.  'The  largest  three  pieces,  each  about  twenty  feet  long 
and  twelve  feet  high,  are  the  Three  Maidens,  so  called  .  .  .  from  the 
tradition  that  after  the  destruction  of  all  the  tribes  in  war,  the  present 
Indians  sprang  from  three  maidens  who  fled  to  these  rocks  for  refuge." 
(Geology  of  Minn.,  vol.  I,  page  546.) 

Splft  Rock  creek,  named  from  its  flowing  through  gorges  eroded!  in  the 
quartzite  at  Jasper  and  on  lower  parts  of  its  course,  in  Rose  Dell  town- 
ship of  Rock  county  and  in  South  Dakota,  receives  i-ts  head  streams  from 
Sweet  and  Eden  townships  in  the  southwest  comer  of  Pipestone  county. 

In  Osborne,  the  most  southeastern  township,  the  West  fork  of  Rock 
river  flows  to  it  from  Elmer;  and  nearly  opposite  to  that  stream  it  re- 
ceives Chanarambie  creek,  bearing  a  Sioux  name  ^that  means  "hidden 
wood,"  as  noted  for  Murray  county,  which  has  a  township  of  this  name. 

The  Altamont  moraine,  the  outermost  marginal  belt  of  knolly  and 
ridged  glacial  drift,  forms  the  crest  of  the  Coteau  des  Prairies  in  the 
northeast  part  of  this  cotmty,  extending  acr-oss  Rock  and  Aetna  town- 
ships, with  the  sources  of  the  Des  Moines  and  Redwood  rivers  on  its 
slope  declining  eastward  and  the  highest  springs  of  Rock  river  on  its 
western  slope. 


POLK  COUNTY 

Established  July  20,  1858,  and  organized  in  1872-73,  this  county  was 
named  in  honor  of  James  Knox  Polk,  the  eleventh  president  of  the  United 
States.  He  was  bom  in  Mecklenburg  county,  N.  C,  November  2,  1795, 
and  died  in  Nashville,  Tenn.,  June  15,  1849.  His  home  was  in  Tennessee 
after  he  was  eleven  years  old.  He  was  admitted  to  practice  law  in 
1820;  was  a  member  of  Congress,  1825-39,  and  served  as  speaker  the 
last  four  years;  was  governor  of  Tennessee,  1839-41;  and  as  Demo- 
cratic candidate  for  president  was  elected  in  1844.  On  March  3,  1849, 
the  next  to  the  last  day  of  his  presidential  term,  he  approved  the  act 
of  Congress  which  organized  Minnesota  Territory. 

Holcombe,  in  the  History  of  this  county,  wrote  of  Polk  as  follows: 
'He  advocated  the  war  against  Mexico  and  was  an  efficient  President 
during  that  contest.  But  he  was  opposed  to  wars  in  gen<iral,  and  it  was 
largely  his  great  influence  during  his  administration  which  prevented  war 
with  Great  Britain  in  1846  over  the  Oregon  question — a  war  of  which 
many  unwise  Americans  were  decidedly  in  favor — and  when  he  was  in 
Congress  he  and  some  other  Congressmen  prevented  a  war  with  Spain. 
He  was  a  man  of  pure  and  high  character  and  personally  popular.  This 
county  need  be  well  satisfied  with  its  name." 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  has  been  gathered  from  "History  of  the  Red 
IGver  Valley,"  1909,  two  volumes,  continuously  paged,  having  a  chapter 
for  this  county,  pages  860-886,  by  Judge  William  Watts  and  Arthur 
A.  Miller;  "Compendium  of  the  History  an^  Biography  of  Polk  Coun- 
ty," by  Return  I.  Holcombe  and  William  H.  Bingham,  1916,  487  pages; 
interviews  with  Judge  Watts  and  Arthur  A.  Miller,  of  Crookston,  the 
county  seat,  during  a  visit  there  in  August,  1909;  from  Henry  J.  Welte, 
county  auditor,  Amund  L.  Hovland,  judge  of  probate,  Hans  L.  Waage, 
clerk  of  court,  Elias  Steenerson,  David  H.  Turner,  and  Judge  Watts, 
during  a  second  visit  at  Crookston  in  September,  1916;  and  from  A.  F. 
Cronquist  and  Thomas  VoUen,  of  Erskine,  interviewed  there  in  Septem- 
ber, 1916,  for  the  southeast  part  of  this  county. 

Andover  township,  organized  in  1877,  has  a  name  that  is  also  borne 
by  townships  and  villages  in  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts, 
and  ten  other  states. 

Angus  township,  organized  in  1879,  and  its  earlier  railway  village, 
were  named  in  honor  of  Richard  Bladworth  Angus,  a  banker  of  Mon- 
treal, who  financially  aided  the  construction  of  this  line  of  the  Great 

421 


422  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Northern  railway.  He  was  born  in  Bathgate,  Scotland,  May  28,  1831; 
came  to  Canada  in  1857;  was  successively  a  director,  general  manager, 
and  president  in  1910-14,  of  the  Bank  of  Montreal;  was  a  principal  pro- 
moter for  building  the  Canadian  Pacific  railway,  which  was  completed  in 
1885. 

Badger  township  has  a  lake  of  this  name,  adjoining  Erskine  village, 
and  its  outlet.  Badger  creek,  flows  northwest  through  this  township.  The 
lake  and  creek  were  named  for  the  burrowing  animal,  formerly  frequent 
in  Minnesota,  which  gave  to  Wisconsin  its  sobriquet  as  the  "Badger 
State." 

Belgium  township,  organized  in  1880,  had  immigrants  from  Belgium 
as  its  first  settlers. 

Beltrami,  the  railway  village  in  Reis  township,  was  named  i^  honor 
of  Giacomo  Costantino  Beltrami  (b.  1779,  d.  1855),  an  Italian  exile,  who 
traveled  to  the  Red  river  and  the  upper  Mississippi  in  1823,  as  narrated 
in  the  chapter  of  Beltrami  county. 

Brandsvold  township  was  named  in  honor  of  one  of  its  pioneer  set- 
tlers, an  immij^ant  from  Norway. 

Brandt  township  has  a  name  that  is  borne  by  villages  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio,  and  South  Dakota. 

Brislet  township,  organized  in  1880,  was  probably  named  for  one  of 
its  early  settlers. 

Buffi NGTON  is  a  station  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railway  on  the  south 
line  of  Euclid. 

Bygland  township,  organized  in  1877,  was  named  for  a  village  in 
southern  Norway,  whence  several  of  its  pioneer  settlers  came. 

Chester  township  has  a  name  that  is  borne  also  by  townships  and 
villages  or  cities  in  twenty-five  other  states,  by  counties  in  Pennsylvania, 
South  Carolina,  and  Tennessee,  and  by  a  city  and  county  in  England. 

Climax,  a  railway  village  in  Vineland,  is  named  with  an  ancient 
Greek  word,  meaning  a  ladder  or  a  stairway,  hence  the  highest  point 
attained  in  an  oration  or  in  any  series  of  endeavors,  chosen  here  from 
its  use  in  an  advertisement  of  "Qimax  Tobacco." 

Ccx^UMBiA  township  has  a  name  borne  by  counties  in  eight  states, 
townships  and  villages  or  cities  in  twenty-seven  states,  and  the  largest 
river  of  our  Pacific  coast,  in  honor  of  Christopher  Columbus,  the  dis- 
coverer of  America. 

In  1896  several  propositions  for  the  establishment  of  new  counties 
from  the  eastern  part  of  Polk  county  were  submitted  to  the  vote  of  the 
people,  resulting  in  the  formation  of  Red  Lake  county.  One  of  the 
petitions  had  sought  to  form  a  county  named  Columbia,  and  this  was 
again  attempted  in  1902,  for  the  southeast  part  of  the  present  Polk 
county,  which  then  received  a  large  vote  in  its  favor.  Columbia  county 
was  proclaimed  by  the  governor  in  December,  1902,  as  established;  but 
the  proceedings  in  the  popular  vote,  when  three  different  names.  Nel- 
son, Columbia,  and  Star,  had  been  submitted  and  adopted  to  be  applied 


POLK  COUNTY  423 

to  the  new  county,  were  declared  invalid  and  of  no  effect  by  a  decision 
of  the  state  supreme  court,  April  16,  1903. 

Crookston,  the  county  seat,  first  settled  in  1872,  incorporated  as  a  city 
February  14,  1879,  was  named  in  honor  of  Colonel  William  Crooks,  of 
St  Paul,  who  was  the  chief  engineer  in  locating  the  first  railroad  here, 
then  known  as  the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  railroad,  which  was  constructed 
in  1872  from  Glyndon  through  Crookston  to  the  Snake  river  at  the  site 
of  Warren  in  Marshall  county.  He  was  born  in  New  York  city,  June 
20,  1832;  was  graduated  from  the  department  of  civil  engineering  at 
West  Point  military  academy;  settled  in  St.  Paul  in  1857,  as  engineer 
for  this  railroad;  served  as  colonel  of  the  Sixth  Minnesota  regiment  in 
the  civil  war;  was  a  representative  in  the  state  legislature,  1875-7,  and  a 
state  senator,  1881;  died  in  Portland,  Oregon,  December  17,  1907.  The 
first  locomotive  used  in  Minnesota,  in  1862,  was  named  William  Crooks 
in  his  honor. 

His  father,  Ramsay  Crooks,  who  was  bom  in  Greenock,  Scotland, 
January  2,  1787,  and  died  in  New  York  city,  June  6,  1859,  was  probably 
also  intentionally  honored  by  the  adoption  of  this  name  for  the  largest 
Minnesota  city  in  the  Red  river  valley.  As  a  member,  and  subsequently 
president,  of  the  American  Fur  Company,  he  was  well  known  through- 
out the  Northwest  During  many  years  he  was  identified  with  the  fur 
trade  in  Minnesota,  and  had  great  influence  with  the  Indians. 

Crookston  township  was  organized  March  28,  1876.  The  city  area 
was  taken  partly  from  this  township,  and  also  from  Lowell,  Andover, 
and  Fairfax. 

DuGDALE  is  a  railway  village  in  Tilden. 

East  Grand  Forks,  incorporated  as  a  city  March  7,  1887,  is  at  the 
east  side  of  the  Red  river,  opposite  the  city  of  Grand  Forks,  N.  D., 
where  the  confluence  of  the  large  Red  Lake  river  with  the  upper  part  of 
the  Red'  river  presents  two  navigable  courses  or  forks  for  ascending 
boats. 

Eden  township,  was  named,  like  a  township  of  Pipestone  county  and 
Eden  Prairie  township  in  Hennepin  county,  for  the  Garden  of  Eden, 
to  express  the  happiness  of  the  settlers  in  their  new  homes. 

Eldred,  a  Great  Northern  railway  village  in  Roome  township,  bears 
the  name  of  a  village  in  New  York  and  six  townships  of  different 
counties  in  Pennsylvania,  commemorating  Judge  Nathaniel  B.  Eldred,  of 
Bethany,  Pa.  He  was  born  in  Orange  county,  N.  Y.,  in  1795;  was  ad- 
mitted to  practice  law  in  1816,  and  in  the  same  year  settled  at  Bethany, 
Pa.;  was  a  district  judge,  1835-57;  and  died  in  January,  1867. 

Erskine,  a  Great  Northern  village  in  Knute  township,  founded  in 
1889,  was  named  in  honor  of  John  Quincy  Erskine,  who  was  bom  in 
Vermont  in  December,  1827,  and  died  at  Crookston  in  January,  1908.  He 
came  from  Racine,  Wis.,  to  this  county  about  1885,  and  was  president  of 
the  First  National  Bank  of  Crookston. 


424  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Esther  township  was  named  in  honor  of  the  daughter  of  Grover 
Qeveland,  president  of  the  United  States. 

Euclid  township,  organized  in  1879,  and'  its  railway  village,  were 
named  by  Springer  Harbaugh,  manager  of  the  large  Lockhart  farm  in 
Norman  county,  for  the  beautiful  Euclid  avenue  in  Qevdand,  Ohio, 
where  he  had  formerly  lived. 

Fairfax  township,  organized  in  1879,  bears  the  name  of  a  county  in 
Virginia,  and  of  townships  and  villages  in  Vermont,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Iowa, 
and  several  other  states. 

Fanny  township,  organized  in  1880,  commemorates  the  wife  or  daugh- 
ter of  a  pioneer,  but  her  surname  remains  to  be  learned. 

Farley  township,  organized  in  1878,  was  named  in  honor  of  Jesse  P. 
Farley,  who  was  bom  in  Tennessee  in  1813,  and  died  in  Dubuque,  Iowa, 
May  9,  1894.  He  was  a  merchant  in  Dubuque,  and  established  a  steam- 
boat line  to  St.  Paul;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1873,  as  receiver  of  the  St. 
Paul  and  Pacific  railroad;  resided  in  St.  Paul  several  years,  engaging 
in  railroad  enterprises. 

Fertile,  a  Northern  Pacific  railway  village  in  Garfield,  was  named  for 
Fertile  village  of  Worth  county  in  northern  Iowa,  whence  some  of  its 
first  settlers  came. 

Fisher  township,  organized  in  1876,  and  its  railway  village  of  the  same 
name,  received  it  from  the  earlier  railway  terminal  village  of  Fisher's 
Landing,  founded  here  in  the  fall  of  1875  on  the  Red  Lake  river  at  its 
head  of  practicable  steamboat  navigation.  During  a  few  years,  until 
the  railway  lines  to  Winnipeg  and  Grand  Forks  were  completed,  re- 
spectively in  1878  and  1879,  Fisher's  Landing  surpassed  Crookston  in 
population  and  business.  It  closely  adjoined  the  site  of  the  present  vil- 
lage, by  which  it  was  superseded,  so  that  the  old  Landing  village  area 
'^as  changed  to  an  unpretentious  cow  pasture."  These  names  were 
adopted  in  honor  of.  William  H.  Fisher,  who  was  bom  in  Hunterdon 
county,  N.  J.,  December  24,  1844;  engaged  in  railroad  business  after 
1864;  settled  in  St.  Paul  in  1873,  as  attorney  for  the  receiver  of  the  St 
Paul  and  Pacific  railroad,  and  as  its  assistant  manager  and  superinten- 
dent; later  was  president  and  manager  of  the  St  Paul  and  Duluth  rail- 
road company,  1883-99;  was  vice  president  and  general  manager  of  the 
Duluth  and  Winnipeg  railroad  company,  1888-93. 

FossTON,  the  railway  village  in  Rosebud  township,  was  named  in 
honor  of  Louis  Foss,  its  earliest  merchant,  who  removed  to  Tacoma, 
Wash. 

Garden  township,  organized  in  1881,  was  named  by  its  people  for  its 
beauty  and  fertility,  like  Eden  before  noted. 

Garfield  township,  organized  in  1880,  commemorates  James  Abram 
Garfield,  who  was  bom  at  Orange,  Ohio,  November  19,  1831,  and  died  at 
Elberon,  N.  J.,  Septemi>er  19,  1881.  He  was  an  ihstmctor  and  later 
president  of  Hiram  College,  Ohio,  1856-61;  served  in  the  civil  war,  and 


POLK  COUNTY  425 

was  promoted  major  general  in  1863;  was  a  member  of  Congress,  1861- 
80;  was  president  of  the  United  States  in  1881. 

Gentilly  township,  organized  in  1879,  received  its  name  from  a  vil- 
lage on  the  St.  Lawrence  river  in  the  Province  of  Quebec,  which  was 
named  for  the  town  of  Gentilly  in  France,  a  southern  suburb  of  Paris. 

GiRARD  is  a  Great  Northern  railway  station  in  Andover. 

Godfrey  township,  organized  in  1881,  was  named  in  honor  of  Warren 
N.  Godfrey,  an  early  settler  at  the  southwest  end  of  Maple  lake  in  this 
township,  who  removed  to  the  state  of  Washington. 

Grand  Forks  township,  organized  in  1882,  has  a  translated  name,  like 
the  adjoining  city  of  East  Grand  Forks  and  the  city  in  North  Dakota 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Red  river,  from  the  Ojibway  name  of  the 
junction  of  the  Red  river  and  the  Red  Lake  river,  noted  by  Gilfillan  as 
"Kitchi-madawang,  the  big  forks,  that  is,  where  the  rivers  are  so  large 
in  either  fork  that  you  don't  know  which  to  go  into." 

Grove  Park  township,  organized  in  1880,  has  groves  bordering  the 
northeast  part  of  Maple  lake,  with  Lakeside  Park  on  the  shore  of  this 
lake  in  the  adjoining  edge  of  Woodside  township. 

Gully  township  and  its  railway  village  are  named  for  a  gully  or  ravine 
there  crossed  by  the  railway,  adjoining  the  highest  beach  ridge  of  the 
Glacial  Lake  Agassiz. 

Hammond  township,  organized  in  1880,  was  named  in  honor  of  one 
of  its  early  settlers. 

Helgeland  township  was  so  named  by  its  Norwegian  people  for  the 
district  of  Helgeland  in  the  north  part  of  Norway. 

Higdem  township,  organized  in  1879,  was  named  in  honor  of  Ame 
O.  HigdeiTit  a  pioneer  farmer  there,  who  was  a  member  of  the  board 
of  county  commissioners. 

Hill  River  township  has  a  stream  that  was  so  named  for  morainic 
hills  adjoining  its  course  near  the  north  line  of  this  township.  It  has 
also  been  called  the  South  fork  of  Qearwater  river. 

Hubbard  township,  settled  in  1871  and  organized  in  1882,  was  named 
in  honor  of  Lucius  Frederick  Hubbard,  governor  of  Minnesota  in 
1882-87,  for  whom  a  biographic  notice  is  presented  in  the  chapter  of 
Hubbard  county. 

HuNTSViLLE^  the  first  township  organized  in  the  county,  March  17, 
1874,  was  named  in  honor  of  Bena  Hunt,  one  of  its  first  settlers,  who 
came  here  from  Winona  in  1871. 

Johnson  township,  organized  in  1898,  was  named  in  honor  of  John 
O.  Johnson,  a  Norwegian  homesteader  in  Columbia,  who  then  was  one 
of  the  county  commissioners. 

Kertsonville  township,  organized  in  1881,  was  named  for  one  of  its 
pioneer  settlers. 

Keystone  township,  also  organized  in  1881,  had  the  very  large 
Keystone  farm,  owned  by  capitalists  in  Pittsburg,  Pa.  This  farm  was 
named  for  Pennsylvania,  the  "Keystone  State,"  which  was  at  the  center 


426  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

in  the  series  of  the  thirteen  original  states,  like  the  keystone  of  an  arch. 

King  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Ephraim  King,  an  early  set- 
tler, who  was  the  first  postmaster  there. 

Kittson,  a  station  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  seven  miles  south 
of  Crooks  ton,  was  named  for  Norman  W.  Kittson,  of  whom  a  biographic 
sketch  has  been  given  in  the  chapter  for  Kittson  county. 

Knute  township  was  named  for  Knute  Nelson,  a  Norwegian  farmer 
near  Fertile,  who  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  county  commissioners. 
He  had  the  same  name  as  Governor  Nelson,  who  since  1895  has  been  a 
United  States  senator. 

Lakeside  Park  is  a  village  of  summer  homes  in  Woodside,  on  the 
northwest  shore  of  Maple  lake. 

Lengby  is  a  railway  village  in  Columbia. 

Lessor  township  received  its  name,  changed  in  spelling  from  Lessard, 
in  honor  of  a  French  Canadian  pioneer  farmer. 

Liberty  township,  organized  in  1880,  was  named  by  its  people  in  the 
petition  for  township  organization. 

Lowell  township,  organized  in  1877,  was  named  for  the  city  of 
Lowell  in  Massachusetts,  whence  some  of  its  settlers  came. 

McIntosh,  the  railway  village  of  King  township,  was  named  for 
the  owner  of  a  part  of  the  village  site,  who  kept  a  hotel  there.  He  was 
of  Scotch  and  Ojibway  descent,  and  removed  to  the  White  Earth  reser- 
vation. 

Mallory,  a  railway  village  in  Huntsville,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Charles  P.  Mallory,  a  lumber  merchant  in  Fisher.  He  was  born  in  the 
Province  of  Quebec,  March  7,  1844;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1871,  settling 
in  Minneapolis ;  and  removed  to  Fisher  in  1878. 

Maple  Bay  is  a  village  of  summer  homes  at  the  southwest  end  of 
Maple  lake,  in  Godfrey  township. 

Mentor,  a  railway  village  in  Grove  Park  township,  was  named  for 
the  village  of  Mentor  in  northeastern  Ohio,  where  President  Garfield 
purchased  a  farm  which  was  his  country  home  during  his  last  three 
years. 

Nesbit  township,  organized  in  1880,  was  named  in  honor  of  James 
and  Robert  Nesbit,  brothers,  bom  in  Lanark  county,  Canada,  who  set- 
tled here  in  1875. 

Nielsville  is  a  Great  Northern  railway  village  in  Hubbard. 

Northland  township  was  named  for  Norway,  the  native  land  of 
many  of  its  settlers. 

Onstad  township,  organized  in  1882,  was  named  in  honor  of  Ole  P. 
Onstad,  one  of  its  pioneer  farmers,  an  immigrant  from  Norway. 

Parnell  township  was  named  by  settlers  from  Ireland,  in  honor  of 
Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  the  Irish  statesman.  He  was  bom  in  Avondale, 
Ireland,  in  1846;  was  a  member  of  Parliament,  1875-91;  visited  the  Unit- 
ed States  in  the  interest  of  the  Irish  agitation  for  home  rule,  in  1879-80; 
and  died  in  Brighton,  England,  October  6,  1891. 


POLK  COUNTY  427 

Queen  township  is  the  second  east  of  King  township,  which  suggested 
this  name. 

Reis  township,  organized  in  1880,  was  named  in  honor  of  George 
Reis,  an  early  settler,  who  came  here  from  Pennsylvania,  and  after  a 
residence  of  several  years  removed  to  Michigan. 

Rhinehast  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Captain  A.  C.  Rhine- 
hart,  of  East  Grand  Forks,  who  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  county 
commissioners. 

RooME  township,  organized  in  1879,  was  named  for  one  of  its  pioneer 
farmers. 

Rosebud  township  has  a  name  that  is  borne  also  by  villages  in  Penn- 
sylvania, Illinois,  Missouri,  South  Dakota,  and  other  states.  Wild 
roses  are  common,  or  in  many  places  abundant,  throughout  this  state. 

Russia  township,  organized  in  1882,  and  its  railway  village,  bear  the 
name  of  the  largest  country  of  Europe;  and  of  a  township  and  village 
in  New  York. 

Sandsville  township,  organized  in  1882,  was  named  in  honor  of  Cas- 
per and  Martin  Sand,  brothers,  natives  of  Norway,  who  came  here  as 
homesteaders  in  1880,  opening  a  large  stock  farm.  After  1888  they 
also  conducted  a  meat  market  in  Crookston. 

ScANDiA  township  bears  the  ancient  name  of  the  southern  part  of  the 
peninsula  of  Sweden  and  Norway,  whence  those  countries,  and  also  Den- 
mark and  Iceland,  are  together  named  Scandinavia. 

Shirley^  a  station  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  seven  miles  north 
of  Crookston,  has  a  name  that  iai  borne  by  townships  and  villages  in 
Maine,   Massachusetts,  and   several  other  states. 

Sletten  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Paul  C.  Sletten,  who  was 
receiver  of  the  United  States  land  office  in  Crookstop. 

Sullivan  township,  organized  in  1880,  was  named  in  honor  of  Timo- 
thy Sullivan,  municipal  judge  in  East  Grand  Forks. 

Tabor  township,  settled  by  Bohemians,  was  named  for  a  city  of 
Bohemia,  about  fifty  miles  south  of  Prague. 

TiLDEN  township,  organized  in  1882,  was  named  in  honor  of  Samuel 
J.  Tilden,  who  was  born  in  New  Lebanon,  N.  Y.,  February  9,  1814,  and 
died  at  Greystone,  near  Yonkers,  N.  Y.,  August  4,  1886.  He  was  governor 
of  New  York  in  1875-76,  and  was  the  Democratic  candidate  for  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  in  1876. 

TltAiL^  a  Soo  railway  village  in  Gully  township,  was  named  for  its 
location  where  a  former  trail  between  the  Red  river  valley  and  the  Red 
Lake  Indian  Agency  was  crossed  by  the  railway. 

Tynsid  township,  settled  in  1871,  and  organized  in  1879,  was  named  for 
Tonset,  a  railway  village  in  Norway,  about  100  miles  south  of  Trondhjem. 
It  was  thus  incorrectly  written  in  the  petition  for  the  township  organiza- 
tion. 

ViNELAND  township,  organized  in  1876,  was  named  in  compliment  to 
Leif  Steenerson,  its  first  settler,  who  took  a  homestead  claim  here  in 


428  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

May,  1871.  The  name  refers  to  the  voyage  of  Leif  Ericson  from  Green- 
land, about  the  year  1000,  when  he  discovered  a  country  to  which  he  gave 
the  name  Vinland  or  Wineland,  for  its  grape  vines,  having  sailed  proba- 
bly to  the  coast  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts. 

Winger  township  was  named  by  Norwegian  settlers,  for  a  group  of 
farms  in  the  valley  district  called  Gudbrandsdal  in  central  Norway. 

WooDSiDE  township,  organized  in  1882,  lies  mainly  on  the  wooded 
southeastern  side  of  Maple  lake,  which  is  bordered  westward  by  the  vast 
prairie  area  of  the  Red  river  valley. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  Red  river  and  the  Red  Lake  river  are  noticed  in  the  first  chapter, 
and  they  are  more  fully  considered  in  the  chapter  of  Red  Lake  county. 

An  older  channel  of  the  Red  Lake  river,  branching  from  it  in-  Fisher, 
extending  about  twenty-five  miles  northwestward,  and  joining  the  Red 
river  near  the  north  line  of  Esther,  was  named  the  Grand  Marais,  mean- 
ing Great  marsh,  by  the  early  French  fur  traders  and  voyageurs.  Like 
Marsh  river,  which  similarly  extends  from  the  Wild  Rice  river  at  Ada 
northwest  to  the  Red  river,  in  Norman  county,  it  has  during  most  of  the 
year  only  a  small  and  nearly  stagnant  stream,  which  is  changed  into  a 
great  river  with  the  snow  melting  of  spring  and  at  times  of  heavy  rains. 

The  Snake  river,  translated  from  Kanabec,  its  Ojibway  name,  crosses 
the  north  line  of  this  county  for  a  few  miles  in  Sandsville,  and  by  several 
unnamed  creeks  receives  the  drainage  of  its  northeastern  townships,  from 
Belgium  and  Euclid  northward. 

Lost  river,  in  Gully  and  Chester,  flowing  west  to  the  Qearwater  river 
in  Red  Lake  county,  was  formerly  lost  in  a  large  swamp  along  a  part  of 
its  lower  course. 

Hill  river,  from  which  a  township  received  its  name,  was  translated 
from  Peqwudina  zibi  of  the  Ojibways,  as  written  by  Gilfillan. 

Poplar  river,  having  its  sources  in  Columbia  and  joining  the  Gear- 
water  river  near  the  northwest  comer  of  Poplar  River  township  in  Red 
Lake  county,  is  a  translation  of  the  Ojibway  name,  Asadi  zibi. 

Badger  lake  and  creek,  giving  their  name  to  a  township  of  Polk  coun- 
ty, have  been  before  noticed. 

Bumham  and  Anderson  creeks  are  southern  tributaries  of  the  Red 
Lake  river  in  Fisher. 

Sand  Hill  river,  flowing  westward  through  the  south  edge  of  this 
county  from  unnamed  lakes  near  its  sources  in  Rosebud  township,  is 
another  translation  from  the  Ojibways,  given  more  fully  by  Gilfillan  as 
'*Ga-papiqwutawangawi  zibi,  or  the  river  of  sand  hills,  scattered  here 
and  there  in  places."  The  short  English  name  is  used  on  the  map  of 
Long's  expedition  in  1823.  Plentiful  dunes  of  wind-blown  sand,  forming 
hillocks  25  to  75  or  100  feet  high,  to  which  this  name  refers,  occur  within 
two  miles  west  of  Fertile  and  thence  for  a  distance  of  five  miles  south- 


POLK  COUNTY  A29 

ward,  lying  on  the  sand  delta  deposited  here  at  the  highest  level  of  the 
ancient  Lake  Agassiz. 

The  southeastern  part  of  this  county,  above  the  highest  shoreline  of 
Lake  Agassiz,  has  abundant  lakes,  but  they  are  mostly  unnamed  on  maps. 

Maple  lake,  before  noticed  for  its  villages  of  Lakeside  Park  and  Maple 
Bay,  has  many  sugar  maple  trees  in  the  forest  at  its  southeast  side. 

Cable  lake  is  about  a  mile  west  of  Lakeside  Park. 

Union  lake,  in  Woodside  and  Knute  townships,  was  named  for  its 
comprising  three  wide  parts  united  by  straits. 

Crystal  lake,  in  Woodside,  has  exceptionally  transparent  water. 

Lake  Sarah,  in  the  southwest  part  of  Knute  township,  adjoins  the 
east  end  of  Union  lake.  In  the  north  part  of  this  township  are  Lake 
Cameron  beside  Erskine  village,  named  for  Daniel  Cameron,  an  early 
homesteader  on  the  site  of  this  village,  and  Oak  lake,  named  for  its  oak 
groves. 

Lake  Arthur,  in  Garfield  township,  was  named  in  honor  of  Chester 
Alan  Arthur  (b.  1830,  d.  1886),  who  succeeded  Garfield  as  president  of 
the  United  States,  1881-85. 

Cross  lake,  named  from  its  outline,  on  the  head  stream  of  Hill  river 
in  the  central  part  of  Queen  township,  had  a  very  long  Ojibway  name, 
translated  by  Gilfillan  as  "the  lake  with  pines  on  one  side  of  tiie  water." 

Turtle  lake,  a  mile  west  of  Cross  lake,  is  translated  from  the  Ojib- 
ways,  their  name,  noted  by  Gilfillan,  being  "Mekinako  sagaiigun,  or  Tur- 
tle lake,  from  its  form,  which,  seen  from  a  canoe  in  the  middle,  closely 
resembles  a  turtle." 

Perch  lake  adjoins  the  west  side  of  Cross  lake,  and  Connection  lake 
forms  the  greater  part  of  a  canoe  route  between  Cross  and  Turtle  lakes. 

White  Fish  lake,  on  the  south  line  of  Queen  township,  a  mile  south 
of  Turtle  lake,  is  one  of  the  sources  of  the  Poplar  river,  which  also 
receives  the  outflow  of  six  smaller  lakes  mapped  without  names  in  the 
west  part  of  Columbia. 


POPE  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  February  20,  1862,  and  organized  September 
4,  1866,  was  named  in  honor  of  General  John  Pope,  who  was  born  in 
Louisville,  Ky.,  March  16,  1822,  and  died  in  Sandusky,  Ohio,  September 
23,  1892^  He  was  graduated  at  West  Point  in  1842,  and  served  as  a 
lieutenant  in  the  Mexican  war.  In  the  summer  of  1849  he  was  a  member 
of  an  exploring  expedition,  under  the  command  of  Major  Samuel 
Woods,  which  went  from  Fort  Snelling  up  the  Mississippi  and  Sauk 
rivers  and  past  White  Bear  lake  (since  named  Lake  Minnewaska),  in 
the  present  Pope  county,  to  the  Red  river,  and  thence  northward  by  a 
route  at  a  considerable  distance  west  of  the  river  to  Pembina.  On  the 
return,  in  order  to  make  a  thorough  examination  of  the  Red  river,  Pope 
and  a  small  number  of  the  party  embarked  in  canoes  and  ascended  this 
river  to  Otter  Tail  lake,  made  the  portage  to  Leaf  lakes,  and  thence 
descended  the  Leaf,  Crow  Wing,  and  Mississippi  rivers.  He  wrote  in 
his  report:  "On  the  27th  of  September  we  arrived  at  Fort  Snelling, 
and  completed  a  voyage  of  nearly  one  thousand  miles,  never  before  made 
by  any  one  with  a  like  object." 

At  the  time  of  this  expedition,  Pope  was  a  captain.  He  was  after- 
ward, in  1853  to  1859,  commander  of  the  expedition  making  surveys  for 
a  Pacific  railroad  near  the  32d  parallel.  In  the  civil  war  he  was  a  most 
energetic  defender  of  the  Union,  and  early  in  1862  was  commissioned 
major  general  of  volunteers.  September  6,  1862,  shortly  after  the  out- 
break of  the  Sioux  war  in  Minnesota,  General  Pope  was  appointed  com- 
mander of  the  Department  of  the  Northwest,  with  headquarters  at  St. 
Paul,  and  he  continued  in  charge  of  this  department  until  January,  1865. 
To  his  efficient  direction  and  cooperation  was  due,  in  a  large  degree,  the 
success  of  Generals  Sibley  and  Sully  in  their  campaigns  of  1863  and 
1864  against  the  Sioux. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  and  meanings  of  names  was  received 
from  the  "Illustrated  Album  of  Biography  of  Pope  and  Stevens  Coun- 
ties," 1888,  having  pages  145-364  for  Pope  county;  and  from  Ole  Irgens, 
county  auditor,  Casper  T.  Wollan,  a  pioneer  merchant,  and  his  brother, 
M.  A.  Wollan,  president  of  the  Pope  County  State  Bank,  each  of  Glen- 
wood,  the  county  seat,  interviewed  during  a  visit  there  in  May,  1916. 

Bangor  township  bears  the  name  of  a  city  in  Maine,  and  of  villages 
and  townships  in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and 
several  other  states. 

430 


POPE  COUNTY  431 

Barsness  township  was  named  in  honor  of  three  brothers,  Nels  N., 
Erik  N.p  and  Ole  N.  Barsness,  born  in  Norway  respectively  in  1835,  1842, 
and  1844,  who  settled  in  this  township  in  1865-66. 

Ben  Wade  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Benjamin  Franklin  Wade, 
who  was  born  near  Springfield,  Mass.,  October  27,  1800,  and  died  in 
Jefferson,  Ohio,  March  2,  1878.  He  removed  to  Ohio,  with  his  parents, 
about  1820;  began  law  practice  in  1827;  was  a  district  judge,  1847-51; 
and  was  a  United  States  senator,  1851-69.  He  was  an  anti-slavery  leader, 
and  favored  the  Homestead  bill. 

Blue  Mounds  township  is  crossed  by  a  belt  of  low  morainic  drift 
hills,  to  which  this  name  was  given  by  settlers  from  Blue  Mounds  vil- 
lage in  Dane  county,  Wisconsin.  The  hills  thus  named  in  each  of  these 
states  appear  bluish  when  seen  from  a  distance. 

Chippewa  Falls  township  was  named  for  its  falls  in  Terrace  village, 
descending  16  feet,  on  the  East  branch  of  the  Chippewa  river,  supplying 
water  power  for  a  flour  mill.  This  village  and  its  post  office  at  first  were 
called  Chippewa  Falls,  but  were  renamed  by  request  of  the  settlers  to 
prevent  their  mail  from  going  to  the  City  of  Chippewa  Falls  in  Wisconsin. 

Cyrus  is  the  railway  village  of  New  Prairie  township,  platted  in  the 
spring  of   1882. 

Farwell,  a  railway  village  in  the  northwest  comer  of  Ben  Wade 
township,  platted  in  April,  1887,  has  a  name  that  is  borne  also  by  villages 
in  Michigan  and  Nebraska. 

Gilchrist  township  was  probably  named  in  honor  of  a  pioneer  settler 
beside  its  Lake  Gilchrist,  which  lies  mainly  in  section  7. 

Glenwood  township,  on  the  southeast  side  of  Lake  Minnewaska,  was 
named  for  the  great  glen  or  valley  occupied  by  this  lake  and  for  the 
woods  around  its  shores,  contrasted  with  the  prairies  that  form  the  far 
greater  part  of  this  county.  The  city  of  Glenwood,  the  county  seat  at 
the  northeast  end  of  the  lake,  in  Glenwood  and  Minnewaska  townships, 
first  platted  in  part  on  September  26,  1866,  was  incorporated  as  a  village 
February  23,  1881,  and  as  a  city  in  1912.  This  name  is  borne  also  by 
cities  in  Wisconsin  and  Iowa,  and  by  villages  and  townships  in  twenty 
other  states. 

Grove  Lake  township  has  Grove  lake  and  McQoud  lake  near  its 
south  side,  which  are  more  fully  noticed  in  the  later  part  of  this  chapter. 

HoFF  township  was  named  for  the  village  of  Hof  in  Norway,  about 
50  miles  north  of  Christiania. 

Lake  Johanna  township  bears  the  name  given  to  its  large  lake  on  the 
map  of  Minnesota  in  1860,  probably  in  honor  of  the  wife  or  daughter  of 
an  early  settler,  but  her  surname  remains  to  be  learned. 

Langhei  township  has  a  Norwegian  name,  meaning  "a  long  highland." 
Its  northeastern  part  gradually  rises  to  an  elevation  about  300  feet  above 
Lake  Minnewaska,  being  the  highest  land  in  the  south  half  of  the  county, 
with  a  very  extensive  prospect  on  all  sides. 


432  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Leven  township  was  named  for  a  loch  or  lake  in  eastern  Scotland,  the 
Leven  river  outflowing  from  it,  and  the  seaport  at  its  mouth,  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Firth  of  Forth. 

LowRY,  a  Soo  railway  village  in  the  east  edge  of  Ben  Wade  town- 
ship, platted  in  March,  1887,  was  named  in  honor  of  Thomas  Lowry, 
who  was  born  in  Logan  county,  Illinois,  February  27,  1843,  and  died  in 
Minneapolis,  February  4,  1909.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1867,  and 
in  the  same  year  came  to  Minnesota,  settling  in  Minneapolis,  where  he 
practiced  law  and  dealt  in  real  estate ;  was  president  and  principal  stock- 
owner  of  the  company  operating  the  street  railways  of  Minneapolis  and 
St.  Paul,  called  the  Twin  City  Rapid  Transit  Company. 

MiNNEWASKA  towuship,  adjoining  the  northern  shore  of  the  largest 
lake  in  this  county,  bears  the  name  given  to  the  lake  by  the  white  set- 
tlers made  from  two  Dakota  or  Sioux  words,  mini  or  minne,  water,  and 
washta  or  waska,  good.  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell  wrote  of  the  lake  and  its 
successive  names,  as  follows:  'This  lake,  according  to  statements  of 
citizens  of  Glenwood,  was  originally  designated  by  an  Indian  name, 
meaning  Dish  lake,  because  of  its  being  in  a  low  basin.  After  that,  when 
the  chief.  White  Bear,  was  buried  in  a  high  hill  on  the  north  shore,  it 
was  called  White  Bear  lake.  After  a  time  it  was  changed  to  Lake 
Whipple,  from  Bishop  Whipple,  of  Faribault,  and  by  act  of  the  state 
legislature  in  1883  it  was  again  changed  to  Minnewaska,  or  Good-water. 
It  is  said  to  be  85  feet  deep  in  its  deepest  part  and  averages  about  40 
feet,  and  there  is  no  known  evidence  of  its  having  ever  stood  at  a  higher 
level."  (Geological  Survey  of  Minnesota,  Thirteenth  Annual  Report,  for 
1884,  p.  14.) 

Nicollet's  map,  published  in  1843,  has  no  delineation  nor  name  for 
this  lake,  which,  with  its  grandly  picturesque  basin  and  inclosing  bluffs, 
is  the  most  noteworthy  topographic  feature  of  the  county.  Major  Woods 
and  Captain  Pope,  in  their  exploration  in  1849,  first  mapped  it  as  White 
Bear  lake.  The  name  Lake  Whipple,  in  honor  of  Henry  Benjamin 
Whipple  (b.  1822,  d.  1901),  the  revered  and  beloved  Episcopal  bishop  of 
Minnesota,  was  applied  to  it  during  several  years,  when  it  was  confident- 
ly expected  that  an  Episcopal  school  would  be  founded  at  Glenwood. 

New  Prairie  township  was  named  by  its  settlers,  as  their  new  home 
in  the  great  prairie  area  of  western  Minnesota. 

Nora  township  is  reputed  to  have  been  named  for  Norway,  the  native 
country  of  many  of  its  people. 

Reno  township  received  the  name  of  its  large  lake,  commemorating 
Jesse  Lee  Reno,  major  general  of  United  States  volunteers,  who  was 
bom  in  Wheeling,  West  Virginia,  June  20,  1823,  and  was  killed  in  the 
battle  of  South  Mountain,  Md.,  September  14,  1862.  He  was  graduated 
at  West  Point  in  1846;  served  in  both  the  Mexican  and  civil  wars;  and 
made  a  survey  in  1853  for-  a  military  road  from  Mendota,  Minn.,  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Big  Sioux  river. 


POPE  COUNTY  433 

Rolling  Fgblks  township  was  named  for  its  contour  as  an  undulating 
and  rolling  prairie,  crossed  by  the  East  branch  or  fork  of  the  Chippewa 
river,  which  here  receives  a  considerable  tributary  from  the  north. 

Sedan,  a  Soo  railway  village  in  the  northwest  corner  of  Bangor 
township,  is  named  for  a  city  of  France,  famous  for  the  battle  fought 
on  September  1,  1870,  between  the  Germans  and  the  French,  which 
resulted  in  the  surrender  of  the  French  army,  leading  directly  to  the 
establishment  of  France  as  a  republic. 

Starbuck,  platted  in  the  spring  of  1882,  is  a  village  of  the  Northern 
Pacific  railway,  adjoining  the  western  end  of  Lake  Minnewaska. 

Terrace  is  a  village  formerly  called  Chippewa  Falls,  in  the  township 
of  that  name,  platted  in  June,  1871.  The  village  is  built  on  a  terrace 
plain  of  the  valley  drift  bordering  both  sides  of  the  Chippewa  river. 

ViLLARD,  a  village  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railway  in  the  east  edge  of 
Leven,  platted  in  August,  1882,  was  named  in  honor  of  Henry  Villard, 
who  was  born  in  Bavaria,  April  11,  1835,  and  died  at  Dobbs  Ferry,  N.  Y., 
November  12,  1900.  He  came  to  the  United  States  in  1853;  engaged  in 
journalism,  and  in  the  management  of  railroads;  and  was  president  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  railroad  company  in  1881-83,  when  the  construction 
of  its  transcontinental  line  was  completed.  K  V.  Smalley,  in  his  History 
of  this  railroad,  devoted  two  chapters  (pages  245-276)  to  the  very  re- 
markable career  of  Villard,  up  to  the  time  of  its  publication  in  1883. 

Walden  township  has  the  name  of  a  township  and  village  in  Ver- 
mont, and  of  villages  in  New  York,  Georgia,  and  Colorado.  Henry  D. 
Thoreau  lived  alone  in  1845-47  beside  Walden  pond,  near  Concord, 
Mass.,  as  narrated  in  his  book,  **Walden,  or  Life  in  the  Woods,"  pub- 
lished  in  1854.  • 

Westport  township  and  its  railway  village,  which  was  platted  in 
October,  1882,  have  a  name  that  is  borne  by  townships  and  villages  in 
Maine,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  Wisconsin,  and  ten 
other  states. 

White  Bear  Lake  township  includes  the  western  end  of  this  lake, 
which  has  been  known  by  several  names,  before  mentioned  for  Minne- 
waska township.  The  grave  of  the  Ojibway  chief.  White  Bear,  is  an 
elongated  mound  on  a  knoll  in  the  south  edge  of  section  3,  Minne- 
waska, about  90  feet  above  the  lake,  as  described  by  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell 
(Aborigines  of  Minnesota,  1911,  p.  298). 

'^aube-Mokwa  (the  White  Bear),  who  was  a  chief  among  the 
Ojibways  and  dwelt  by  these  waters,"  is  represented  to  have  lived  here 
more  than  two  centuries  ago  by  "The  Tribe  of  Pezhekee,  a  Legend  of 
Minnesota"  (1901,  232  pages),  written  by  Alice  Otillia  Thorson,  of  Glen- 
wood.  It  is  known  in  history,  however,  that  the  warfare  of  the  Ojib- 
ways against  the  Dakotas,  acquiring  the  region  of  northern  Minnesota 
by  conquest,'  took  place  much  later. 


434  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Excepting  its  eastern  border,  this  county  is  drained  by  the  Chippewa 
river,  which  is  ftdly  noticed,  for  the  origin  of  its  name,  in  the  chapter  of 
Chippewa  county.  Its  tributaries  in  Pope  county  are  the  Little  Chippewa 
river.  Outlet  creek,  which  flows  from  Lake  Minnewaska  and  through 
Lake  Emily,  and  the  East  branch,  from  which  Chippewa  Falls  and 
Rolling  Forks  townships  are  named,  flowing  into  Swift  county. 

Signalness  creek,  tributary  to  Outlet  creek  from  the  north  side  of 
the  Blue  mounds,  and  a  small  lake  crossed  by  the  south  line  of  section 
14  in  Blue  Mounds  township,  were  named  in  honor  of  Olaus  Signalness, 
a  pioneer  farmer  in  the  northwest  quarter  of  that  section.  He  was 
born  in  Norway,  November  12,  1851 ;  came  to  the  United  States  in  1864, 
with  his  parents,  who  settled  in  Wisconsin;  and  in  1869  they  removed 
to  this  county,  being  the  first  settlers  in  this  township. 

Mud  creek  flows  from  Lake  Johanna  township  southwestward  to  the 
East  branch. 

Grove  lake,  having  a  grove  beside  it,  which  gives  its  name  to  a  town- 
ship, and  McQoud  lake,  closely  adjoining  its  west  end,  are  at  the  head 
of  the  North  fork  of  Crow  river,  flowing  east  into  Stearns  county. 
These  lakes  were  on  the  route  of  Woods  and  Pope,  for  the  latter  of 
whom  this  county  is  named,  in  the  expedition  to  the  Red  river  in  1849, 
and  their  party  camped  here  during  a  week,  from  June  27  to  July  3; 
but  they  were  then  named  Lightning  lakes,  referring  to  a  severe  thun- 
*derstorm,  with  "a  stroke  of  lightning,  which  tore  in  pieces  one  of  the 
tents,  and  prostrated  nearly  all  the  persons  who  were  in  the  camp."  The 
name  of  the  Lightning  lakes,  however,  although, clearly  shown  by  Pope's 
journal  to  belong  to  the  Grove  and  McGoud  lakes,  has  been  transferred 
to  two  other  lakes  much  farther  west  on  their  course,  in  Grant  county 
and  southwestern  Otter  Tail  county. 

Westport  lake,  in  the  township  of  this  name,  is  the  source  of  Ashley 
creek,  which  flows  into  Steams  county  and  is  a  tributary  of  Sauk  river. 

The  other  lakes  of  Pope  county,  including  many  named  for  pioneer 
settlers,  are  noted  as  follows,  in  the  order  of  the  townships  from  south 
to  north,  and  of  the  ranges  from  east  to  west. 

Lake  Johanna  township,  with  the  large  lake  of  this  name,  has  several 
of  small  size  not  yet  named  on  published  maps. 

Gilchrist  township  has  ^  Lakes  Gilchrist,  Linka,  Nilson,  and  Johnson, 
Scandinavian  lake,  and  Goose  and  Simon  lakes.  Lake  Linka  was  named 
in  honor  of  the  wife  of  Rev.  Peter  S.  Reque,  a  Lutheran  pastor. 

Rolling  Forks  township  has  Lakes  Hanson,  Helge,  Anderson  and  Ras- 
musson.  The  first  named,  which  is  the  largest,  was  formerly  called  Wood- 
pecker lake. 

Langhei  has  Lake  Benson  and  Swan  lake. 

Hoff,  the  most  southwestern  township,  and  Bangor,  the  most  eastern 
of  the  townships  numbered  124,  have  no  lakes. 


POPE  COUNTY  435 

Chippewa  Falls  township  has  Round  lake  and  Lakes  Swenoda  and  An- 
derson. The  second  is  a  composite  name,  for  its  adjoining  Swedish, 
Norwegian,  and  Danish  settlers;  and  Swenoda  township,  25  miles  distant 
to  the  southwest,  in  Swift  county,  was  named  in  the  same  way. 

Barsness  has  Lakes  Stenerson,  Gilbertson,  Ben,  Mary,  Celia,  Nelson, 
and  Edwards. 

Lake  Emily,  on  Outlet  creek  in  Blue  Mounds  and  Walden  townships, 
quite  surely  commemorates  the  wife  or  daughter  of  a  pioneer;  but  her 
surname,  as  for  other  feminine  names  of  lakes  in  this  county,  remains 
to  be  ascertained  for  a  more  definite  historical  record. 

Grove  Lake  township,  beginning  the  tier  numbered  125,  has  Lake 
Lincoln  and  Mud  lake,  with  Grove  and  McQoud  lakes,  which  earlier  had 
been  named  Lightning  lakes,  as  before  noted. 

Lake  Alice  is  mainly  in  section  12,  Glenwood,  and  Camp  lake  is  crossed 
by  the  west  line  of  its  sections  50  and  31. 

Minnewaska  township,  with  its  large  and  beautiful  lake  of  this  name, 
has  also  Pelican  lake. 

White  Bear  Lake  township  has  Lake  Malmedard,  crossed  by  its  north 
line,  named  for  Christian  Malmedard,  a  pioneer  Norwegian  farmer  there ; 
and  several  smaller  lakes  are  mapped  without  names. 

On  the  west  line  of  New  Prairie  township  are  Lakes  Charlotte  and 
Cyrus,  the  latter  being  close  southwest  of  Cyrus  village. 

In  Westport,  the  most  northeastern  township,  Westport  lake,  as  before 
mentioned,  is  connected  southward  by  a  strait  with  the  wider  Swan  lake. 

Leven  has  a  series  of  four  lakes,  the  most  southern  being  Lake  Amelia, 
the  source  of  the  East  branch  of  the  Chippewa  river;  Lake  Villard,  next 
northward,  adjoining  the  village  of  this  name;  and  Lakes  Leven  and 
Ellen.    Rice  lake,  close  west  of  Lake  Villard,  is  named  for  its  wild  rice. 

In  Reno  township,  with  its  lake  so  named,  are  Lakes  Ann  and  John, 
Mud  lake,  crossed  by  its  north  boundary,  and  a  dozen  unnamed  lakelets. 

Ben  Wade  township  has  Lake  Jorgenson,  but  its  six  other  small  lakes 
are   nameless   on   maps. 

Nora,  the  most  northwestern  township,  has  Pike  lake,  named  by 
Woods  and  Pope  in  1849  for  many  pike  fish  caught  there;  and  in  this 
township  are  also  ten  lakelets  that  have  no  names. 

Hills. 

The  Blue  mounds,  before  mentioned  for  the  township  named  for 
them,  are  overtopped  by  the  great  highland  of  Langhei,  also  before  noted 
in  the  list  of  townships.  The  very  massive  Langhei  hill  and  the  deep 
basin  and  high  bluffs  of  Lake  Minnewaska  are  undoubtedly  due  to  the 
contour  of  the  bedrocks,  though  no  outcrop  of  them  is  seen  because- of 
their  concealment  under  the  glacial  drift. 


RAMSEY  COUNTY 

Established  October  27,  1849,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of 
Alexander  Ramsey,  the  first  governor  of  Minnesota  Territory.  He  was 
bom  near  Harrisburg,  Pa.,  September  8,  1815;  studied  at  Lafayette  Col- 
lege; was  admitted  to  the  practice  of  law  in  1859;  was  a  Whig  member  of 
Congress  from  Pennsylvania,  1843  to  1847;  was  appointed  by  President 
Taylor,  April  2,  1849,  as  governor  of  this  Territory;  arrived  in  St  Paul, 
May  27;  and  commenced  his  official  duties  here  June  1,  1849.  He  con- 
tinued in  this  office  to  May  15,  1853.  In  1851  Governor  Ramsey  nego- 
tiated important  treaties  with  the  Sioux  at  Traverse  des.  Sioux  and  Men- 
dota,  and  in  1863  with  the  Ojibways  where  the  Pembina  trail  crossed  the 
Red  Lake  river,  by  these  treaties  opening  to  settlement  die  greater  part 
of  southern  and  western  Minnesota.  He  was  the  second  mayor  of  St. 
Paul  in  1855.  After  the  admission  of  Minnesota  as  a  state,  he  was  elect- 
ed its  second  governor,  and  held  this  office  from  January  2,  1860,  to  July 
10,  1863,  during  the  very  trying  times  of  the  civil  war  and  the  Sioux 
war.  Being  in  Washington  on  business  for  the  state  when  the  news  of 
the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter  was  received,  he  at  once  tendered  to  President 
Lincoln  a  regiment  of  one  thousand  men  from  Minnesota,  this  being  die 
first  offer  of  armed  support  to  the  government  Ramsey  was  United 
States  senator,  1863  to  1875;  and  secretary  of  war,  in  the  cabinet  of 
President  Hayes,  1879  to  1881.  He  was  president  of  the  Minnesota  His- 
torical Society,  1849-63,  and  from  1891  until  his  death  in  St  Paul,  April 
22,  1903.  The  Minnesota  legislature  has  provided  that  his  statue  will  be 
placed  in  the  Statuary  Hall  of  the  national  capitol,  being  one  of  the  two 
in  this  state  thus  honored. 

When  this  county  was  first  established  in  1849,  as  one  of  the  nine 
counties  into  which  the  new  territory  was  originally  divided,  it  reached 
north  to  Mille  Lacs  and  to  the  upper  Mississippi  in  the  present  Aitkin 
county.  In  1857,  with  the  formation  of  Anoka,  Isanti,  Mille  Lacs,  and 
Aitkin  counties,  Ramsey  retained  only  a  small  part  of  its  former  area 
and  became  the  smallest  county  of  Minnesota.  Its  county  seat,  St  Paul, 
has  been  continuously  the  capital  of  the  territory  and  state. 

Townships,  Villages,  and  St.  Paul. 

Information  of  the  origins  of  names  has  been  gathered  in  "A  History 
of  the  City  of  St  Paul  and  of  the  County  of  Ramsey,**  by  John  Fletcher 
Williams,  published  in  1876  as  Volume  IV  of  the  Minnesota  Historical 
Society  Collections,  475  pages;  "History  of  Ramsey  County  and  the  City 
of  St  Paul,"  1881,  650  pages ;  "Fifty  Years  in  the  Northwest,"  by  Wil- 

436 


RAMSEY  COUNTY  437 

liam  H.  C  Folsom,  1888,  having  pages  532-590  for  this  county;  and 
"History  of  St  Paul,"  edited  by  Gen.  C.  C.  Andrews,  1890,  603  pages, 
with  biographical  sketches,  217  pages,  by  R.  I.  Holcombe. 

Bald  Eagle  is  a  village  on  the  southern  shore  of  Bald  Eagle  lake,  in 
White  Bear  township,  consisting  largely  of  summer  homes  and  also  hav- 
ing permanent  residents.  The  lake  was  so  named  because  "a  small  island 
near  the  center  was  the  home  of  several  bald  eagles  at  the  time  of  the 
government  surveys." 

Gladstone,  a  village  and  junction  of  the  Northern  Pacific  and  Soo 
railways,  in  New  Canada,  was  named  in  honor  of  William  Ewart  Glad- 
stone (b.  1809,  d.  1898),  the  eminent  British  statesman,  for  whom  villages 
are  also  named  in  New  Jersey,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  other  stiates. 

Hazel  Park,  a  railway  station  nearly  four  miles  northeast  from  the 
Union  station  in  St  Paul,  "was  so  named  because  it  .was  located  in  the 
midst  of  a  dense  hazel  shrubbery."  (Stennett,  Place  Names  of  the  Chi- 
cago and  Northwestern  Railways,  1908;  p.  178.) 

HiGHwooD  is  a  railway  station  in  the  southeast  part  of  the  area  of 
St  Paul,  having  the  same  name  with  villages  in  Connecticut,  New  Jer- 
sey, and  Illinois. 

McLean  township,  organized  in  April,  1858,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Nathaniel  McLean,  who  in  1853  settled  on  its  sections  3  and  4,  close  east 
of  Da3rton's  bluff  adjoining  the  Mississippi.  He  was  born  in  Morris 
county,  N.  J.,  May  16,  1787;  came  to  St  Paul  in  1849;  was  the  Sioux 
agent  at  Fort  Snelling,  1849-53;  and  died  in  St.  Paul,  April  11,  1871. 
This  former  township  was  annexed  to  the  city  of  St.  Paul  in  1887. 

Merriam  Park,  a  large  residential  district  in  the  western  part  of  St 
Paul,  was  named  for  Hon.  John  L.  Merriam  (b.  1825,  d.  1895)  and  his 
son.  Governor  William  R.  Merriam,  who  with  others  were  the  original 
proprietors  of  this  addition  to  the  city. 

Mounds  View  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  has  a  tract  of  hills 
of  morainic  drift  extending  from  south  to  north  about  three  miles  through 
its  central  part,  affording  a  fine  panoramic  view  from  their  northern  and 
highest  points,  which  are  about  200  feet  above  the  surrounding  country. 

New  Brighton^  a  railway  village  of  Mounds  View,  having  stock- 
yards and  meat-packing  business,  was  named  from  Brighton,  Mass., 
which  formerly  was  an  important  cattle  market  with  'abattoirs,  now  a 
suburban  district  of  Boston. 

New  Canada  township,  also  at  first  called  Little  Canada,  organized 
May  11,  1858^  was  named  in  compliment  for  its  French  Canadian  settlers. 

North  St.  Paul^  a  railway  village  in  New  Canada,  adjoining  Silver 
lake,  was  at  first  named  Castle,  in  honor  of  Captain  Henry  Anson  Castle 
(b.  1841,  d.  1916),  of  St  Paul,  by  whom  it  was  founded  in  1887,  the 
next  year  after  the  Wisconsin  Central  railroad  was  built  there. 

Reserve  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  had  been  until  1853  a 
part  of  the  Fort  Snelling  military  reserve.  The  north  line  of  this  reser- 
vation east  of  the  river,  surveyed  in  1839,  as  noted  in  the  chapter  of 


-1 


438  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Hennepin  county,  coincided  nearly  with  the  north  line  of  this  township, 
and  with  the  present  Iglehart  avenue  of  St  Paul.  In  1887,  with  the 
enlargement  of  St.  Paul  to  the  present  area,  this  township  became  a 
suburban  part  of  the  city,  but  much  of  it  yet  is  a  fanning  district 

RiVERViEw,  formerly  called  West  St  Paul  or  simply  the  West  Side, 
being  the  part  of  the  city  on  the  western  (but  here  really  the  southern) 
side  of  the  Mississippi,  received  this  name  February  15,  1918,  by  action 
of  the  city  council.  Its  high  river  bluffs,  in  part  known  as  Cherokee 
Heights,  give  very  extensive  and  grand  views  of  this  valley.  The  peti- 
tion for  the  change  to  the  name  Riverview  bore  3,434  signatures,  while 
50  opposing  it  preferred  that  the  new  name  should  be  South  Side. 

Rose  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  in  honor  of  Isaac 
Rose,  who  settled  here  in  the  summer  of  1843,  purchasing  170  acres  of 
land,  which  included  the  site  of  Macalester  College.  He  was  born  in  New 
Jersey,  in  1802;  was  a  land  agent,  selecting  farms  for  immigrants;  died 
at  Traverse  des  Sioux,  Minn.,  in  February,  1871. 

St.  Anthony  Pakk,  the  most  northwestern  part  of  St-  Paul,  includes 
a  residential  area  of  nearly  two  square  miles,  adjoining  the  Minnesota 
Agricultural  College  and  Experimental  Farm,  departments  of  the  State 
University,  with  the  State  Fair  Ground,  which  are  in  Rose  township. 
The  name  was  applied  to  additions  of  the  city  area,  in  allusion  to  the 
former  city  of  S^  Anthony,  now  the  east  part  of  Minneapolis,  bordering 
the  west  side  of  St  Anthony  Park.  Both  refer  to  St.  Anthony  falls  of 
th«  Mississippi,  named  by  Fa/ther  Hennepin  in  1680  after  his  patron  saint 

St.  Paul,  the  county  seat  and  the  capital  of  Minnesota,  first  settled 
by  Pierre  Parrant  in  1838,  received  its  name  from  a  little  Catholic  chapel 
built  in  1841  under  the  direction  of  Father  Lucian  Galtier,  who  in  the 
preceding  year  had  come  to  Mendota,  near  Fort  Snelling.  The  history 
of  the  building  and  naming  of  the  chapel,  with  the  adoption  of  the  name 
for  the  village  and  city,  was  written  in  part  as  follows  by  Galtier  in 
1864,  at  the  request  of  Bishop  Grace. 

"In  1841,  in  the  month  of  October,  logs  were  prepared  and  a  church 
erected,  so  poor  that  it  would  well  remind  one  of  the  stable  at  Bethle- 
hem. It  was  destined,  however,  to  be  the  nucleus  of  a  great  city.  On 
the  1st  day  of  November,  in  the  same  year,  I  blessed  the  new  basilica, 
and  dedicated  it  to  'Saint  Paul,  the  apostle  of  nations.'  I  expressed  a 
wish,  at  the  same  time,  that  the  settlement  would  be  known  by  the  same 
name,  and  my  desire  was  obtained.  I  had,  previously  to  this  time,  fixed 
my  residence  at  Saint  Peter's  [Mendota],  and  as  the  name  of  Paul  is 
generally  connected  with  that  of  Peter,  and  the  gentiles  being  well 
represented  in  the  new  place  in  the  persons  of  the  Indians,  I  called  it 
Saint  Paul.  The  name  'Saint  Paul,'  applied  to  a  town  or  city,  seemed 
appropriate.  The  monosyllable  is  short,  sounds  well,  and  is  understood 
by  all  denominations  of  Christians.  .  .  .  Thenceforth  the  place  was 
known  as  'Saint  Paul  Landing,'  and,  later  on,  as  'Saint  Paul.'"  (History 
of  the  City  of  St  Paul,.by  Williams,  1876,  pages  111-112.) 


RAMSEY  COUNTY  439 

Lucian  Galtier  was  born  in  France  in  1811,  and  died  at  Prairie  du 
Chien,  Wis.,  February  21,  1866.  He  studied  theology  in  his  native  land; 
came  to  the  United  States  in  1838,  with  a  band  of  missionaries;  was  or- 
dained a  priest  at  Dubuque,  Iowa,  in  1840,  and  the  same  year  settled  at 
Mendota.  In  1844  he  removed  to  Keokuk,  Iowa,  and  four  years  later 
returned  to  France.  Afterward  he  again  came  to  America,  and  resided 
at  Prairie  du  Chien  until  his  death. 

St.  Paul  was  organized  as  a  village  or  town  November  1,  1849,  and 
was  incorporated  as  a  city  March  4,  1854,  then  having  an  area  of  2,560 
acres,  or  four  square  miles.  It  received  a  new  city  charter  March  6, 
1868,  when  its  area  was  5.45  square  miles,  to  which  about  seven  square 
miles  were  added  February  29,  1872,  and  again  three  square  miles  March 
6,  1873.  West  St.  Paul,  now  Riverside,  which  had  belonged  to  Dakota 
county,  was  annexed  November  16,  1874,  by  proclamation  of  the  popular 
vote  ratifying  the  legislative  act  of  March  5,  1874,  whereby  the  total 
area  of  the  city  was  increased  to  20  square  miles.  Further  large  annex- 
ations, March  4,  1885,  and  February  8,  1887,  adding  the  former  McLean 
and  Reserve  townships,  extended  St.  Paul  to  its  present  area,  55.44  square 
miles,  which  is  very  nearly  the  same  as  the  area  of  Minneapolis. 

Prof.  A.  W.  Williamson,  in  his  list  of  geographic  names  in  this 
state  received  from  the  Sioux,  wrote:  "Imnizha  ska, — imnisha,  ledge; 
ska,  white;  the  Dakota  name  of  St.  Paul,  given  on  account  of  the  white 
sandstone  cropping  out  in  the  bluffs."  In  the  simplest  words,  this  Sioux 
name  means  "White  Rock." 

As  a  familiar  sobriquet,  St.  Paul  is  often  called  "the  Saintly  City;" 
Minneapolis  similarly  is  *^he  Mill  City"  or  **the  Flour  City;"  and  the 
two  are  very  widely  known  as  "the  Twin  Cities." 

A  few  districts  of  St.  Paul  have  been  noted  in  the  preceding  list, 
namely  Merriam  Park,  Riverview,  and  St.  Anthony  Park;  and  the  rail- 
way stations  of  Hazel  Park  and  Highwood,  likewise  before  noted,  also 
are  in  St.  Paul.  This  city  has  numerous  other  residential  or  partially 
mercantile  and  manufacturing  districts,  which  may  properly  be  briefly 
mentioned  here,  in  advance  of  more  definite  notice  in  a  later  chapter, 
which  will  treat  especially  of  the  streets,  avenues,  and  parks.  Several 
districts  designated  as  parks,  however,  are  wholly  or  partly  occupied  by 
residences,  this  being  the  case  with  each  of  the  districts  called  parks  in 
the  following  list 

Dayton's  bluff,  at  the  east  side  of  the  Mississippi  in  the  southeast 
part  of  St.  Paul,  has  a  large  residence  district  on  the  plateau  extending 
backward  from  its  top.  The  name  commemorates  Lyman  Dayton,  a 
former  landowner  there  for  whom  a  village  and  township  in  Hennepin 
county  were  named.  On  the  edge  of  the  southern  and  highest  part  of 
the  bluff,  in  Mounds  Park,  is  a  series  of  seven  large  aboriginal  mounds, 
4  to  18  feet  high,  from  which  a  magnificent  prospect  is  obtained,  over- 
looking the  river  and  the  central  part  of  the  city.    Dayton  was  born  in 


440  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Southington,  Conn.,  August  25,  1810,  and  died  in  St  Paul,  October  20, 
1865.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1849,  settling  in  this  city,  and  invested 
largely  in  real  estate;  was  the  projector  and  president  of  the  Lake 
Superior  and  Mississippi  railroad. 

Arlington  Hills  and  Phalen  Park  are  northeastern  districts,  the 
second  being  named  from  Phalen  lake  and  creek,  for  Edward  Phelan 
(whose  name  was  variously  spelled),  one  of  his  successive  land  claims,  in 
the  earliest  years  of  St  Paul,  having  been  on  this  creek. 

Como  Park,  the  largest  public  park  of  the  city,  with  adjoining  resi- 
dences, incloses  Lake  Como,  named  by  Henry  McKenty  in  1856  for  the 
widely  famed  Lake  Como  adjoining  the  south  side  of  the  Alps  in  Italy. 
He  was  born  in  Pennsylvania  in  1821,  settled  in  St  Paul  at  the  age  of 
thirty  years,  dealt  largely  in  city  lots  and  farm  lands,  and  died  in  this 
city  August  10,  1869. 

Lexington  Park  is  a  western  central  district,  named  from  Lexington, 
Mass.,  where  the  first  battle  of  the  Revolutionary  War  was  fought,  April 
19,  1775. 

Farther  northwest  and  southwest,  respectively,  are  the  districts  of 
Hamline  and  Macalester  Park,  having  the  Methodist  Hamline  University 
and  the  Presbyterian  Macalester  College,  named  in  honor  of  Bishop 
Leonidas  Lent  Hamline  (b.  1797,  d.  1865),  of  Ohio,  and  Charles  Macal- 
ester (b.  1798,  d.  1873),  of  Philadelphia,  a  generous  donor  to  this  col- 
lege. 

In  and  near  Groveland  Park,  a  district  at  the  west  side  of  the  city, 
bordering  on  the  Mississippi,  are  three  large  Catholic  institutions,  St 
Paul  Seminary,  St  Thomas  College  and  St  Catherine's  College. 

St  Anthony  Hill,  often  called  simply  the  Hill  district,  comprises  a 
large  residential  area  on  a  broad  plateau  that  was  crossed  by  the  earliest 
road  leading  from  the  central  part  of  St  Paul  to  the  Falls  of  St  An- 
thony and  the  city  of  this  name,  which  in  1872  was  united  with  Minne- 
apolis. 

At  Seven  Corners,  close  southwest  from  the  business  center  of  St 
Paul,  streets  radiate  in  seven  directions,  with  buildings  on  the  inter- 
vening comers  of  the  city  blocks. 

West  St.  Paul,  which  had  been  incorporated  as  a  city  in  Dakota 
county,  March  22,  1858,  returned  to  township  government  in  1862,  but  was 
annexed  to  Ramsey  county  in  1874,  becoming  a  ward  of  the  city  of  St 
Paul,  and  was  renamed  Riverview  in  1918,  as  before  noted. 

White  Bear  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  and  its  village,  which 
was  incorporated  in  1881,  received  the  name  of  the  large  White  Bear 
lake,  ''from  an  old  Indian  legend,  in  which  they  suppose  it  to  be  pos- 
sessed with  the  spirit  of  a  white  bear,  which  was  about  to  spring  on  the 
wife  of  one  of  their  young  braves,  but  was  shot  by  him,  and  its  spirit 
had  haunted  the  island  and  lake  since  and  had  mysteriously  disposed  of 
several  of  their  braves.     The  island,  which  they  named  Spirit  island. 


RAMSEY  COUNTY  441 

is  located  near  its  northwestern  shore  and  has  about  fifty-four  acres 
of  land,  covered  with  quite  a  heavy  growth  of  timber."  (History  of  this 
county,  1881,  p.  281.)  It  is  now  commonly  called  Manitou  island,  its 
original  O  jib  way  name. 

William  H.  C.  Folsom,  in  his  "Fifty  Years  in  the  Northwest"  (1888, 
on  its  page  545),  wrote  of  the  Dakota  or  Sioux  name,  as  follows:  'The 
Indians  called  this  a  grizzly,  polar,  or  white  bear,  and  named  an  adjacent 
locality  [now  a  village  on  the  northeastern  shore,  in  Washington  county] 
'Mah-to-me-di,'  or  'M'de,  i.  e.,  Mahto,  gray  polar  bear,  and  M'de,  lake. 
It  is  not  probable,  however,  that  a  polar  bear  ever  reached  this  spot,  and 
a  visit  from  a  grizzly  is  nearly  as  improbable.  Indian  legends  are  very 
frequently  made  to  order  by  those  who  succeed  them  as  owners  of  the 
soil." 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Pike  island,  on  the  Dakota  county  side  of  the  Mississippi  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Minnesota  river,  adjoining  the  former  Reserve  township  (now  the 
most  southwestern  part  of  St.  Paul),  was  named  in  honor  of  Zebulon 
Montgomery  Pike,  who  in  1805  there  purchased  from  the  Dakotas  or 
Sioux,  for  the  United  States,  a  large  tract  as  a  military  reserve,  on 
which  Fort  Snelling  (at  first  called  Fort  St.  Anthony)  was  built  in 
1820-24. 

Beside  the  center  of  St  Paul,  at  the  foot  of  the  bluff  of  Riverview, 
are  Harriet  and  Raspberry  islands  of  the  Mississippi.  Harriet  island, 
c(Mitaining  28  acres,  donated  to  this  city  by  Dr.  Justus  Ohage,  May  26, 
1900,  is  used  as  a  public  playground,  bathing  place,  and  zoological  park. 
It  was  named  very  long  ago  in  honor  of  Harriet  E.  Bishop,  who  was 
bom  in  Vergennes,  Vt.,  January  1,  1817,  and  died  in  St.  Paul,  August 
8,  1883.  She  came  to  St  Paul  in  1847,  to  open  the  first  permanent  school 
in  this  city.  Through  her  influence  a  Sunday  school  also  was  soon  or- 
ganized, and  in  the  next  year  a  public  building  was  erected  to  accommo- 
date the  school,  preaching  services,  etc.  She  was  the  author  of  "Floral 
Home,  or  First  Years  of  Minnesota"  (1857),  and  other  books. 

The  little  Cozy  lake,  in  Como  park,  adjoins  Lake  Como. 

Rice  creek,  the  outlet  of  White  Bear  and  Bald  Eagle  lakes,  flows 
through  shallow  lakes  having  much  wild  rice  in  Centerville  township, 
Anoka  county,  thence  passing  into  Mounds  View,  and  reaching  the 
Mississippi  in  Fridley,  Anoka  county,  a  few  miles  north  of  Minneapolis. 
Hon.  Henry  M.  Rice,  of  St.  Paul,  was  an  early  landowner  and  summer 
resident  near  the  lower  course  of  this  creek,  in  Fridley  township,  the 
stream  being  named  in  his  honor,  as  noted  in  the  chapter  for  that  county. 

Shadow  Falls  creek,  a  very  little  stream,  is  named  for  its  cascade  in 
springtime  or  after  any  heavy  rains,  on  its  descent  to  the  great  river, 
close  north  of  the  St.  Paul  Seminary.  Finn's  glen,  having  a  similar 
brooklet,  is  about  a  mile  farther  south,  named  for  William  Finn,  the 
first  permanent  settler  in  Reserve  township. 


442  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Trout  brook,  flowing  through  St  Paul,  which  was  tributary  to  Phalen 
creek  just  before  their  united  waters  reached  the  Mississippi,  is  the  out- 
let of  McCarron  lake,  in  Rose  township.  John  E.  McCarron,  a  farmer 
who  lived  beside  this  lake,  was  bom  in  1839;  came  there  in  1849;  served 
in  the  Fourth  Minnesota  regiment  in  the  civil  war;  and  died  in  St  Paul, 
March  27,  1897. 

Phalen  creek  and  lake  have  been  previously  noted  for  the  north- 
eastern district  and  public  park  of  St.  Paul  adjoining  this  lake,  which 
was  the  original  source  of  the  city  water  supply.  Northward  a  series  of 
lakes  has  been  added  to  that  first  source,  partly  by  artificial  channels,  in- 
cluding Spoon  lake,  named  for  its  outline,  Gervais,  Fitzhugh  (or  Kohl- 
man),  Bass,  Vadnais,  Lambert,  Pleasant,  and  Charles  lakes,  Long  and 
Deep  lakes,  and  Wilkinson  and  Otter  lakes,  reaching  to  the  north  line  of 
the  county. 

Gervais  lake  commemorates  Benjamin  Gervais,  a  pioneer  French 
Canadian  farmer,  who  was  born  at  Riviere  du  Loup,  Canada,  July  15, 
1786,  and  died  here  in  January  1876.  He  settled  on  the  Red  river  in  the 
Selkirk  Colony  in  1812;  came  to  Fort  Snelling  in  1827;  and  when  set- 
tlers were  ordered  to  leave  the  military  reservation,  in  1838,  he  opened  a 
farm  in  the  central  part  of  the  present  area  of  St  Paul.  In  1844  he 
removed  to  this  lake,  being  the  first  settler  in  the  area  of  New  Canada. 

Vadnais  lake  was  named  "for  John  Vadnais,  who  made  a  claim  on 
its  banks  as  early  as  1846;"  Lambert  lake,  for  Louis  Lambert,  who  pur- 
chased a  part  of  its  island;  and  Wilkinson  lake,  for  "Ross  Wilkinson, 
who  first  took  up  a  claim  on  its  shores." 

Pig's  Eye  lake  and  marsh,  on  the  alluvial  bottomland  of  the  Missis- 
sippi about  two  miles  southeast  from  Dayton's  bluff  and  the  Indian 
Mounds,  were  named  in  allusion  to  Pierre  Parrant,  a  whiskey  dealer, 
before  mentioned  as  the  first  settler  in  St  Paul,  who  about  the  year 
1842  removed  to  the  vicinity  of  that  lake.  He  had  a  defective  eye, 
whence  he  received  this  nickname,  applied  also  to  the  village  of  St 
Paul  at  its  beginning,  until  displaced  by  the  present  name  in  1841.  Pig's 
Eye  lake  had  been  previously  called  Grand  Marais,  meaning  the  Great 
marsh,  by  the  early  French  fur  traders  and  voyageurs.  (History  of 
Saint  Paul,  by  Williams,  1876,  pages  64-8a) 

Battle  creek,  named  for  the  battle  of  Kaposia  in  1842,  between  the 
Ojibways  and  Sioux,  flows  into  Pig's  Eye  lake  from  the  high  land  east 
of  the  river  valley.  Another  great  ravine  there,  having  numerous  tall 
white  pines,  is  named  Pine  Cooley,  from  a  French  word,  coulee,  mean- 
ing a  ravine  or  run.     (History  by  Williams,  pages  122-125.) 

Kaposia,  the  Sioux  or  Dakota  village  of  the  successive  hereditary 
chiefs  named  Little  Crow,  early  located  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Missis- 
sippi near  the  Grand  Marais,  where  Pike  saw  it  in  1805  and  Long  in  1817, 
was  several  times  changed  in  place,  being  even  removed  to  the  vicinity  of 
the  mouth  of  Phalen  creek  or  near  the  site  of  the  union  depot  in  St  Paul, 


RAMSEY  COUNTY  443 

as  known  by  the  narratives  of  Cass  and  Schoolcraft  at  this  village  in  1820, 
Long  and  Keating  in  1823,  and  Latrobe  in  1833.  Again  in  1835  it  was 
near  the  Grand  Marais,  as  noted  by  Featherstonhaugh.  After  the  treaty  at 
Washington  in  1837,  by  which  the  Sioux  ceded  their  lands  east  of  the 
Mississippi  here,  the  Kaposia  band  had  their  village  at  its  west  side, 
occupying  a  part  of  South  Park,  a  suburb  of  South  St.  Paul  in  Dakota 
county,  which  was  its  site  at  the  time  of  the  battle.  The  approach  of 
the  Ojibways  for  the  attack,  and  the  course  of  their  retreat,  were  by 
way  of  these  ravines  of  Battle  creek  and  Pine  Cooley. 

The  name  Kaposia,  changed  from  Kapozha  in  the  Dakota  language, 
means  light  or  swift  of  foot  in  running,  as  defined  by  Williamson  in  his 
list  of  Sioux  geographic  names,  before  cited  for  the  city  of  St.  Paul. 
Little  Crow's  band  had  received  this  name,  which  thence  was  applied  to 
their  village,  "in  honor  of  their  skill  in  the  favorite  game  of  lacrosse." 

The  following  lakes  remain  to  be- noticed  in  this  county. 

Beaver  lake  is  about  two  miles  east  from  the  south  end  of  Lake  Phalen. 

New  Canada  has  Silver  lake,  adjoining  North  St.  Paul,  and  Savage 
lake  in  sections  6  and  7,  the  latter  being  so  named  because  '^he  Indians 
frequented  its  shores  in  large  numbers." 

White  Bear  township,  with  its  numerous  lakes  before  noted,  has  also 
Birch,  Black,  Poplar,  Sucker,  and  Gilfillan  lakes,  the  last  being  named  in 
honor  of  Charles  D.  Gilfillan,  of  St  Paul. 

The  north  line  of  Rose  township  crosses  Lake  Owasso,  formerly  called 
Big  Bass  lake,  and  Lake  Josephine.  The  first  of  these  names  is  nearly 
like  "the  bluebird,  the  Owaissa,"  in  Longfellow's  "Song  of  Hiawatha." 
For  the  companion  lakes  Josephine  and  Johanna,  the  latter  l3dng  in 
Mounds  View  township,  Judge  Bazille  states  that  the  surname  McKenty 
may  be  added,  these  names  being  in  honor  respectively  of  the  daugh- 
ter and  wife  of  Henry  McKenty,  by  whom  Lake  Como  was  named. 

Other  lakes  in  Mounds  View  are  Turtle,  Maryland  (formerly  Snail), 
Grass,  Island,  Valentine,  Long,  and  Silver  lakes.  Marsden  and  Round 
lakes  have  been  drained. 

Hills  and  Caves. 

The  Mounds  View  hills,  in  the  township  named  for  them,  are  the 
highest  points  in  the  county. 

The  Arlington  hills,  in  a  district  of  St.  Paul  platted  with  that  name, 
are  merely  an  undulating  and  somewhat  prominently  rolling  tract  of  mo- 
rainic  drift.  St.  Anthony  hill,  another  district  in  this  city,  is  an  extensive 
plateau  about  225  to  240  feet  above  the  Mississippi.  Dayton's  bluff  and 
Cherokee  heights,  respectively  east  and  west  or  south  of  this  river  in 
St.  Paul,  are  parts  of  the  prolonged  series  of  river  bluffs  which  bound 
the  valley  on  each  side,  rising  from  its  bottomlands  to  the  general  level 
of  the  adjoining  country. 

Carvers'  cave,  in  the  lower  part  of  Dayton's  bluff,  was  named  for 
Captain  Jonathan  Carver,  who  there  on  May  1,  1767,  received  a  deed 


444  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

written  by  himself  and  signed  by  two  Sioux  chiefs,  granting  to  him  and 
his  heirs  a  large  tract  of  land  in  the  present  states  of  Minnesota  and 
Wisconsin.  This  cave  was  well  known  to  the  Sioux  or  Dakota  people, 
whose  name  for  it,  as  noted  by  Gtrver,  was  "Wakon-teebe,  that  is,  the 
Dwelling  of  the  Great  Spirit'' 

A  biographic  sketch  of  Carver  is  given  in  the  chapter  for  the  county 
bearing  his  name.  All  the  vast  inheritance  that  had  been  claimed  for 
his  heirs  and  others,  under  the  Sioux  deed,  was  denied  and  annulled  in 
1821-1825  by  the  United  States  Congress.  Long  afterward  Carver's  lake, 
which  is  in  the  edge  of  Washington  county,  five  miles  southeast  from 
Carver's  cave  and  the  Mound  Park,  was  named  for  one  of  his  descend- 
ants who  settled  as  a  farmer  beside  it. 

Fountain  cave,  about  four  miles  farther  up  the  Mississippi,  at  the  base 
of  its  bluff  in  the  southwest  part  of  St.  Paul,  was  discovered  in  1811. 
Major  Long  explored  and  described  it  in  1817,  giving  to  it  this  name  be- 
cause a  brook  runs  through  the  cavern  and  issues,  like  a  fountain,  at  its 
mouth.  Cass  and  Schoolcraft  examined  it  in  1820,  but  erroneously  called 
it  Carver's  cave. 

Glacial  Lake  Hamline. 

A  map  and  description  of  a  glacial  lake,  l3ring  mostly  within  the  area 
of  St.  Paul,  are  presented  by  the  present  writer  in  the  Bulletin,  of  the 
Geological  Society  of  America  (vol.  VIII,  1897,  pages  183-196).  Its  de- 
posits form  nearly  level  sand  and  gravel  plains  and  plateaus,  260  to  225 
feet  above  the  river,  extending  from  near  the  State  Agricultural  College 
eastward  to  the  northwest  end  of  Lake  Como,  thence  southward  past 
Hamline  University,  with  a  narrow  connection  southeast  to  another  wide 
expanse  in  the  Hill  district  or  plateau  crossed  by  Summit  avenue.  The 
length  of  the  glacial  Lake  Hamline  was  thus  about  six  miles,  with  maxi- 
mum widths  exceeding  one  mile. 


RED  LAKE  COUNTY 

Established  December  24,  IB96,  this  county  received  its  name  from 
the  Red  Lake  river,  which  flows  through  it,  giving  also  its  name  to  Red 
Lake  Falls,  the  county  seat.  The  river  derives  its  name,  in  turn,  from 
Red  lake,  these  both  being  translations  of  their  Ojibway  names. 

Why  these  Indians  originally  so  designated  the  lake  was  uncertain 
until  it  was  ascertained  by  the  late  Rev.  Joseph  A.  Gillillan.  It  had  been 
affirmed,  with  poetic  license,  by  Beltrami,  who  traveled  here  in  1823, 
publishing  in  1824  and  1828,  that  the  aboriginal  names  of  Red  lake  and  its 
outflowing  river,  the  latter  translated  by  him  Bloody  river,  refer  to  the 
**blood  of  the  slain,"  in  the  wars  between  the  Ojibways  and  Dakotas. 
Gilfillan,  who  was  a  missionary  to  the  Ojibways  of  northwestern  Minne- 
sota from  1873  to  1896,  wrote  in  1885  that  the  Ojibway  name  of  this 
lake,  written  by  him  "Misquagumiwi  sagaiigun.  Red- water  lake,"  per- 
haps alludes  to  "reddish  fine  gravel  or  sand  along  the  shore  in  places, 
which  in  storms  gets  wrought  into  the  water  near  the  edges,"  or  to  the 
reddish  color  of  streams  flowing  into  the  lake  from  bogs  on  its  north 
side,  probably  reddened  by  bog  iron  ore.  He  later  wrote,  however,  in  a 
letter  of  February,  1899,  that  these  are  erroneous  conjectures  of  some  of 
the  Ojibways,  and  that  he  had  obtained  more  reliable  information,  so  that 
he  could  then  confidently  state  the  origin  of  this  name,  as  follows :  "Red 
lake  is  so  called  from  the  color  of  the  lake  [reflecting  the  redness  of 
sunset]  on  a  calm  summer  evening,  when  unruffled  by  wind  and  in  a 
glassy  state,  at  which  times  it  is  of  a  distinctly  wine  color.  .  .  .It  is  not 
called  Red  lake  from  any  battle  fought  on  its  shores." 

Red  lake  and  Red  river  appear  with  these  names,  in  French,  on  the 
map  by  Verendrye  (1737)  and  on  Buache's  map  (1754)  ;  and  the  lake 
is  so  named  on  the  somewhat  later  maps  of  Jefferys  and  Carver.  From 
information  obtained  during  his  travels  in  Minnesota  in  1766  and  1767, 
Carver  mapped  Red  lake  and  the  Red  Lake  river,  giving  them  exactly 
their  present  names.  Their  earliest  delineation,  however,  from  personal 
examination,  was  by  Thompson  (in  1813-14),  who  in  April,  1798,  reached 
Red  lake,  coming  by  way  of  the  Red  Lake  and  Gear  water  rivers,  and 
thence  going  onward  to  Turtle  and  Cass  lakes. 

It  tells  us  something  of  the  appreciation  of  natural  beauty  and  grand- 
eur by  the  Indians,  that  they  took  from  the  hues  of  sunset  the  name  of 
the  largest  lake  in  Minnesota,  whence  we  now  have,  by  derivation,  the 
names  of  two  large  rivers,  of  a  county,  and  its  county  seat. 

445 


446  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  was  received  from  Edward  L.  Healy,  real 
estate  dealer,  Z.  A.  Chartier,  deputy  county  auditor,  Ovidc  Emard,  coun- 
ty treasurer,  and  Frank  Jeffers,  register  of  deeds,  each  of  Red  Lake 
Falls,  interviewed  during  visits  there,  the  first  in  August,  1909,  and  the 
others  in  September,  1916. 

Brooks  is  a  village  of  the  Soo  railway  in  Poplar  River  township. 
This  name  is  borne  also  by  a  township  and  village  in  Maine,  and  by 
villages  and  post  offices  in  twelve  other  states. 

Brown's  Creek  township  has  a  stream  so  named,  tributary  to  the 
Black  river,  probably  commemorating  a  pioneer  settler  or  an  early  hun- 
ter and  trapper. 

Delorme,  a  station  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railway  in  the  south  edge 
of  Lake  Pleasant  township,  was  named  for  Ambrose  Delorme,  an  adjoin- 
ing homestead  farmer. 

Dorothy,  a  Northern  Pacific  station  in  Louisville,  was  named  by  J. 
F.  Matthews  of  Red  Lake  Falls.  This  feminine  name,  derived  from  the 
ancient  Greek  language,  means  *Hhe  gift  of  God." 

Emardville  township  received  its  name  in  honor  of  Pierre  Emard, 
who  was  born  in  Longueuil  on  the  St  Lawrence  river  in  Canada,  oppo- 
site to  Montreal,  in  1835,  and  came  to  Minnesota  in  1878,  settling  as  a 
homesteader  in  section  24,  Red  Lake  Falls.  One  of  his  sons  is  the 
county  treasurer. 

Equality  township  was  named  by  its  people  in  the  petition  for  its 
organization. 

Garnes  township  bears  the  name  of  one  of  the  earliest  settlers,  E.  iC 
Games,  an  immigrant  from  Norway. 

Gervais  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Isaiah  Gervais,  who  was 
bom  at  Fort  Garry  (now  Winnipeg),  Manitoba,  December  10,  1831 ;  came 
to  Minnesota,  and  lived  in  St.  Paul;  settled  as  a  homestead  farmer  in 
section  26,  Red  Lake  Falls,  in  1876;  and  died  there,  November  2,  1888w 

HuoT  is  a  little  village  on  the  Red  Lake  river  in  section  28,  Louis- 
ville. The  village  and  township  were  each  named  for  Louis  Huot,  an 
early  French  Canadian  homesteader  there. 

Lake  Pleasant  township  was  named  for  the  former  lake  and  marsh 
in  its  section  18,  now  drained. 

Lambert  township  was  named  for  Francois  Lambert,  who  was  bom 
at  St.  Ursule,  P.  Q.,  March  10,  1847.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1881, 
settling  as  a  farmer  on  section  10  in  this  township,  of  which  he  was  the 
treasurer  during  many  years. 

Louisville  township,  like  its  village  of  Huot,  before  noted,  com- 
memorates Louis  Huot,  a  pioneer  farmer. 

Oklee^  a  Soo  railway  village  in  Lambert,  bears  the  name  of  Ole  K  Lee, 
a  Scandinavian  settler,  on  whose  farm  the  village  was  built 


RED  LAKE  COUNTY  447 

PesraulTj  a  Northern  Pacific  station  near  the  center  of  Lake  Pleasant 
township,  was  named  for  Charles  Perrault,  an  adjacent  homestead  farmer, 
who  died  in  1915.  His  son,  Joseph  Perrault,  is  the  county  judge  of  pro- 
bate. 

Plummer,  the  Soo  railway  village  and  junction  in  Emardville,  re- 
ceived its  name  in  honor  of  Charles  A.  Plummer,  who  about  the  year 
1881  built  a  sawmill  and  gristmill  on  the  Clearwater  river  near  the  site 
of  this  village.    He  removed  to  Iowa. 

Poplar  River  township  is  crossed  by  this  stream,  tributary  to  the 
Qearwater  river.  Its  name,  which  is  translated  from  the  Ojibways,  ap- 
pears as  Aspen  brook  on  Thompson's  map  from  his  travel  here  in  1798. 
Two  species  of  poplar  or  aspen  are  common  throughout  most  of  this 
state,  one  of  them  being  especially  plentiful  northward. 

Red  Lake  Falls,  the  county  seat,  near  the  center  of  a  township  bear- 
ing this  name,  was  incorporated  as  a  village  February  28,  1881,  and  as  a 
city  in  1898.  The  name  has  reference  to  rapids  and  falls  within  the  city 
area,  supplying  valuable  water  power,  on  both  the  Red  Lake  and  Qear- 
water rivers.  These  are  translations  of  their  Ojibway  names,  received 
from  the  lakes  whence  they  flow. 

River  township  is  named  for  the  Red  Lake  river  flowing  through  it. 

Terrebonne  township  has  a  French  name,  meaning  good  land,  re- 
ceived from  the  county  and  town  of  this  name  in  the  Province  of  Quebec. 

Wylie  township  and  its  railway  village  were  named  in  honor  of  an 
early  farmer  there. 

Streams  and  Lakes. 

Lost  river.  Hill  river,  Poplar  river,  and  Badger  creek,  southern  tribu- 
taries of  Clearwater  river  in  this  county,  have  their  headwaters  in  the 
southeast  part  of  Polk  county,  so  that  the  origins  and  meaning  of  their 
names  have  been  given  ip  the  chapter  for  that  county.  The  second  of 
these  streams  was  mapped  by  Thompson  in  1798  as  'Wild  Rice  rivulet," 
for  several  small  lakes  of  its  upper  course,  having  much  wild  rice. 

Black  river,  flowing  from  the  north  through  Wylie  and  Louisville 
to  the  Red  Lake  river  at  Huot,  is  named  from  the  dark  color  of  its  water 
received  from  peaty  swamps.  Its  largest  tributary  is  Brown's  creek,  for 
which  a  township  is  named. 

This  county,  like  others  lying  within  the  area  of  the  Glacial  Lake 
Agassiz,  has  a  smoothed  surface  of  its  drift  sheet,  with  no  hollows  hold- 
ing lakes.  Formerly  it  had  a  single  lake,  which  gave  the  name  of  Lake 
Pleasant  township;  but  that  was  rather  a  marsh,  becoming  occasionally 
a  shallow  lake,  which  has  been  drained,  its  bed  being  now  good  farming 
land. 


REDWOOD  COUNTY 

Established  February  6,  1862,  this  county  was  named  for  the  Red- 
wood river,  whence  also  comes  the  name  of  the  county  seat.  Redwood 
Falls,  situated  on  a  series  of  cascades  and  rapids  of  the  river.  Prof. 
A.  W.  Williamson  wrote  of  this  name:  "Qianshayapi ; — chan,  wood; 
shOf  red;  ayapi,  are  on;  Redwood  river;  so  called  by  the  Dakotas  on 
account  of  the  abundance  of  a  straight  slender  bush  with  red  bark,  which 
they  scraped  off  and  smoked,  usually  mixed  with  tobacco.  This  name 
is  spelled  by  Nicollet  Tchanshajrapi."  Keating  and  Featherstonhaugh 
each  gave  both  the  Dakota  and  English  names  of  this  river;  and  the 
latter  traveler  expressly  defined  their  meaning,  as  follows:  'This  red 
wood  is  a  particular  sort  of  willow,  with  an  under  bark  of  a  reddish 
colour,  which  the  Indians  dry  and  smoke.  When  mixed  with  tobacco 
it  makes  what  they  call  Kinnee  Kinnik,  and  is  much  less  offensive  than 
common  tobacco." 

The  inner  bark  of  two  Comus  species,  C.  sericea,  the  silky  cornel, 
and  C.  stolonifera,  the  red-osier  dogwood,  were  used  by  the  Indians,  both 
the  Sioux  and  the  Ojibways,  to  mix  with  their  tobacco  for  smoking.  The 
Algonquian  word,  kinnikinnick,  for  such  addition  to  the  tobacco,  in- 
cluded also  the  leaves  of  the  bearberry  and  leaves  of  sumach,  gathered 
when  they  turn  red  in  the  autumn,  which  were  similarly  used. 

Cornus  sericea  is  frequent  throughout  Minnesota,  excepting  far 
northward;  and  C.  stolonifera  abounds  through  the  north  half  of  this 
state,  and  is  common  southward  to  Winona,  Mower,  and  Blue  Earth 
counties,  but  its  southward  geographic  range  scarcely  reaches  into  Iowa. 
Dr.  C.  C.  Parry  stated  that  the  bark  of  the  former  species,  wherever  it 
is  found,  is  preferred  for  use  as  kinnikinnick;  and  that  the  bark  of  the 
latter  is  commonly  substituted  for  it  by  the  Indians  about  Lake  Superior. 

It  has  been  supposed  also  that  the  Dakota  name  of  the  Redwood 
river  alludes  to  the  red  cedar  trees  on  its  bluffs  at  Redwood  Falls,  or 
to  trees  there  marked  by  spots  of  red  paint  for  guidance  of  a  war  party 
at  some  time  during  the  ancient  warfare  between  the  Ojibways  and  the 
Sioux  for  ownership  of  this  region,  as  told  in  a  Sioux  l^end  to  early 
white  settlers  (History  of  this  county,  1916,  pages  613-614).  Either  of 
these  alternative  suggestions  has  seemed  to  many  of  the  settlers  more 
probable  than  the  testimony  for  the  kinnikinnick,  which  was  received 
from  an  earlier  and  more  intimate  knowledge  of  the  Dakota  people  and 
their  language.  Chan,  as  a  Dakota  word,  may  mean  a  tree  or  any  woody 
shrub,  being  a  more  general  word  than  wood  in  our  language,  which  in 
its  most  common  use  is  applied  only  to  trees. 

448 


REDWOOD  COUNTY  449 

But  two  or  even  all  three  of  these  reasons  for  the  naming  of  the 
river  may  be  included  together  as  each  contributing  to  its  origin,  namely» 
the  kinnikinnick,  the  red  cedars,  and  also  painted  trees.  In  support  of 
the  third  as  a  part  of  the  origin,  we  should  quote  from  Beltrami  'who  was 
here  in  1823,  accompanying  Major  Long's  expedition,  for  he  wrote  that 
the  Redwood  river  was  "so  called  from  a  tree  which  the  savages  paint 
red  every  year  and  for  which  they  have  a  peculiar  veneration."  (Bel- 
trami's Pilgrimage,  vol.  II,  p.  316.) 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  and  meanings  of  names  has  been  gathered 
from  "History  of  the  Minnesota  Valley,"  1882,  having  pages  762-798  for 
this  county;  "The  History  of  Redwood  County,"  compiled  by  Franklyn 
Curtiss-Wedge,  reviewed  by  Julius  A.  Schmahl,  1916,  two  volumes,  1016 
pages;  and  William  H.  Gold,  Hiram  M.  Hitchcock,  Major  M.  £.  Powell, 
and  Hon.  Orlando  B.  Turrell,  each  of  Redwood  Falls,  the  county  seat, 
interviewed  during  a  visit  there  in  July,  1916. 

Belview,  a  village  of  the  Minneapolis  and  St.  Louis  railway  in  Kin- 
tire,  platted  in  1889  and  incorporated  January  3,  1893,  has  a  name  derived 
from  French  words,  meaning  a  beautiful  view. 

Brookville  township,  settled  in  1869  and  organized  April  19,  1873,  has 
a  name  that  is  borne  also  by  villages  in  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and  six  other  states. 

Charlestown^  organized  May  25,  1872,  was  named  in  honor  of  Charles 
Porter,  who  was  the  first  settler  in  this  township,  coming  in  1864. 

Clements,  a  railway  village  in  Three  Lakes  township,  platted  in  1902, 
was  named  in  honor  of  Peter  O.  Qements,  an  adjoining  farmer.  He  was 
bom  in  Sweden,  April  17,  1847;  came  to  the  United  States,  settling  first 
in  Washington  county,  Minn. ;  and  removed  in  1877  to-  section  32  in  this 
township.  One  of  his  sons,  Arthur  E.  Qements,  born  April  13,  1878, 
is  a  hardware  merchant  here. 

Delhi  township,  first  settled  in  1865,  organized  February  19,  1876, 
was  named  by  Alfred  M.  Cook,  builder  and  owner  of  a  flour  mill  at 
Redwood  Falls,  who  came  from  Delhi,  a  village  in  Ohio,  near  Cincinnati. 
Six  other  states  have  villages  of  this  name,  derived  from  the  large  city 
of  Delhi  in  India.  The  railway  village  of  this  township,  bearing  the 
same  name,  was  platted  in  1884,  and  was  incorporated  November  25,  1902. 

Gales  township,  organized  July  18,  1876,  received  its  name  in  honor  of 
its  first  settlers,  A.  L.  and  Solon  S.  Gale,  who  came  in  May,  1872.  - 

GiLFiLLAN,  a  railway  station  in  Paxton,  eight  miles  southeast  of  Red- 
wood Falls,  was  named  in  honor  of  Charles  Duncan  Gilfillan,  owner  of 
a  very  large  farm  there,  comprising  about  8,000  acres,  who  was  bom  in 
New  Hartford,  N.  Y.,  July  4,  1831,  and  died  in  St.  Paul,  December  18, 
1902.  He  came  to  this  state  in  1851,  and  settled  in  St.  Paul  in  1854;  was 
for  three  terms  a  representative  in  the  legislature,  and  a  state  senator  in 
1878-85.     During  his  later  years  he  engaged  largely  in  farming  in  this 


450  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

county,  and  was  president  of  the  Minnesota  Valley  Historical  Society,  in- 
terested in  the  erection  of  monuments  and  tablets  commemorating  events 
of  the  Sioux  massacre  and  war  in  1862. 

Granite  Rock  township,  first  settled  in  1871-2  and  organized  in  1890, 
has  small  outcrops  of  the  granitic  bedrock  in  sections  6  and  12.  Except- 
ing these  outcrops  and  the  similar  but  far  more  extensive  rock  exposures 
along  the  Minnesota  valley  and  in  the  adjacent  gorge  of  the  Redwood 
river  at  and  below  its  falls,  all  the  surface  of  the  county  is  a  moderately 
undulating  sheet  of  glacial  drift,  which  deeply  covers  the  bedrocks. 

HoNNER  township,  first  settled  in  1864  and  organized  January  24,  1880, 
was  named  for  J.  S.  G.  Honner,  who  was  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Red- 
wood Falls  and  later  took  a  claim  on  the  Minnesota  river  in  this  town- 
ship. He  was  born  in  New  York  in  1831 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1856, 
and  to  this  county  in  1864;  was  the  first  register  of  deeds  for  the  county, 
and  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1865  and  1870,  and  a  state 
senator  in  1872. 

JoHNSONViLLE  township,  settled  in  1872,  organized  January  9,  1879, 
"was  named  for  the  Johnsons  living  in  it."  Four  members  of  the  first 
board  of  township  officers  had  this  surname. 

KiNTiRE  township,  first  settled  in  the  summer  of  1872  and  organized 
May  25,  1880,  received  its  name  from  the  large  peninsula  of  Kintyre,  40 
miles  long,  on  the  southwestern  coast  of  Scotland. 

Lamberton  township,  settled  in  July,  1864,  organized  April  1,  1874, 
and  its  railway  village,  founded  in  1873  and  incorporated  March  3,  1879, 
commemorate  Henry  Wilson  Lamberton,  who  was  born  in  Carlisle,  Pa., 
March  6,  1831,  and  died  in  Winona,  Minn.,  December  31,  1905.  He  set- 
tled there  in  1856;  became  president  of  the  Winona  Deposit  Bank  in 
1868 ;  was  elected  president  of  the  Winona  and  Western  railway  company 
in  1894;  and  was  one  of  the  state  capitol  commissioners  from  the  organ- 
ization of  that  board  until  his  death. 

Lower  Sioux  Agency^  established  in  1853-4,  on  the  southern  bluff  of 
the  Minnesota  river  in  the  present  northwest  quarter  of  section  8,  Sher- 
man, had  several  government  buildings  and  became  a.  considerable  vil- 
lage before  its  abandonment  on  account  of  the  Sioux  outbreak  and 
massacre,  August  18,  1862. 

LucAN,  the  railway  village  of  Granite  Rock,  platted  in  January,  1902, 
and  incorporated  March  29,  1904,  was  named  for  a  village  in  Ireland,  seven 
miles  west  of  Dublin. 

MiLROY,  a  railway  village  in  Westline,  next  west  of  Lucan,  platted  in 
March,  1902,  and  incorporated  on  November  15  of  the  same  year,  "was 
named  for  Major  General  Robert  H.  Milroy,  a  gallant  Union  soldier 
during  the  early  days  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion"  (Stennett,  Place  Names 
of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railways,  1908,  p.  102).  He  was  bom 
near  Salem,  Ind.,  June  11,  1816;  was  graduated  at  Norwich  University, 
Vermont,  1843;  served  in  the  Mexican  war  and  in  the  civil  war;  was 


I 


I 


I 


REDWOOD  COUNTY  451 

superintendent  and  agent  for  Indian  affairs  in  Washington  Territory, 
1872-85;  and  died  in  Olympia,  Wash.,  March  29,  1890. 

Morgan  township,  organized  in  May,  1880,  and  its  railway  village, 
platted  in  August,  1878,  and  incorporated  February  23,  1889,  were  named 
in  honor  of  Lewis  Henry  Morgan,  the  eminent  soldier,  explorer  and 
author,  who  has  been  called  "the  Father  of  American  anthropology." 
He  was  born  near  Aurora,  N.  Y.,  November  21,  1818,  and  died  in  Roches- 
ter, N.  Y.,  December  17,  1881.  Among  the  numerous  books  of  his  author- 
ship is  a  history  of  the  American  beaver  and  its  works,  for  which  in 
1861  he  traveled  through  Minnesota  to  the  Red  river  settlements  in 
Manitoba,  and  in  1862  for  this  research  he  ascended  the  Missouri  river 
to  the  Rocky  mountains. 

MoKTON  village,  lying  mainly  in  Renville  county,  includes  also  a  suburb 
on  the  south  side  of  the  Minnesota  river  in  the  extreme  eastern  comer 
of  Honner. 

New  Avon  township,  first  settled  in  March,  1870,  organized  Septem- 
ber 5,  1872,  was  named  in  compliment  to  Joshua  S.  and  Jonathan  P. 
Towle,  early  settlers  there,  who  had  come  from  Avon  township  in  Maine. 

NoKTH  Hero  township,  settled  in  1871  and  organized  September  27, 
1873,  "was  named  by  Byron  Knight,  after  his  old  home,  the  island  of 
North  Hero  in  Lake  Champlain,  Vermont.  This  island  was  named  in 
honor  of  Ethan  Allen,  of  Revolutionary  fame."  (History  of  this  county, 
1916,  p.  360.) 

North  Redwood,  a  railway  village  in  Honner,  two  miles  distant  from 
Redwood  Falls,  was  platted  in  the  autumn  of  1884,  and  was  incorporated 
August  14,  1903. 

Paxton  township,  organized  September  13,  1879,,  was  named  in  honor 
of  James  Wilson  Paxton,  a  lawyer  of  Redwood  Falls,  who  became 
owner  of  a  large  tract  of  land  in  this  township,  but  removed  to  Tacoma, 
Wash.  He  was  born  in  Pennsylvania,  December  21,  1827,  and  died 
January  6,  1892.    (The  Paxton  Family,  1903,  p.  399). 

Redwood  Falls,  the  county  seat,  first  settled  by  Col.  Samuel  McPhail, 
J.  S.  G.  Honner,  and  others,  in  the  spring  and  summer  of  1864,  was  plat- 
ted October,  1865,  and  was  incorporated  as  a  village  March  9,  1876,  and  as 
a  city  April  1,  1891.  The  name  is  taken  from  the  falls  of  the  Redwood 
river,  which  descends  about  140  feet  by  vertical  falls  and  by  rapids  in  its 
last  three  miles.  The  greater  part  of  this  descent  takes  place  in  a  pic- 
turesque gorge  close  below  the  city  area,  within  a  distance  of  less  than 
a  half  mile.  The  township  of  this  name,  having  the  city  in  its  northeast 
comer,  was  organized  January  22,  1880. 

Revere,  a  railway  village  in  the  east  edge  of  North  Hero,  platted  in 
May,  1886,  and  incorporated  February  17,  1900,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Paul  Revere,  a  patriot  in  the  American  Revolution,  renowned  for  his 
ride  from  Boston  to  Lexington,  April  18-19,  1775,  to  arouse  the  minute- 
men,  as  told  by  Longfellow  in  *The  Midnight  Ride  of  Paul  Revere."  He 
was  born  in  Boston,  January  1,  1735,  and  died  there  May  10,  1818. 


452  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

RowENA,  the  railway  village  of  New  Avon,  platted  in  March,  ISKC, 
bears  the  name  of  a  ward  of  Cedric  in  Scott's  "Ivanhoe."  She  is  the 
rival  of  Rebecca  the  Jewess,  and  marries  Ivanhoe. 

Sanborn,  a  village  and  junction  of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern 
railway  in  Charleston,  platted  in  October,  1881,  and  incorporated  Novem- 
ber 17,  1891,  was  named  in  honor  of  Sherburn  Sanborn,  who  during  many 
years  was  an  officer  of  this  railway  company. 

Seaforth,  the  railway  village  in  Sheridan,  platted  in  October,  1899, 
and  incorporated  in  December,  1900,  received  its  name  from  Loch  Sea- 
forth,  an  arm  of  the  sea  in  the  Hebrides,  which  partially  divides  Lewis 
from   Harris. 

Sheridan  township,  organized  January  22,  1870,  was  named  for  Philip 
Henry  Sheridan  (b.  1831,  d.  1888),  a  famous  Union  general  in  the  civil 
war. 

Sherman  township,  organized  October  4,  1869,  was  named  for  Wil- 
liam Tecumseh  Sherman  (b.  1820,  d.  1891),  a  heroic  general  of  the  civil 
war,  renowned  for  his  march  through  Georgia,  "from  Atlanta  to  the  sea," 
November  IS  to  December  21,  1864. 

Sfringdale  township,  at  first  called  Summit,  having  the  highest  land 
of  this  county,  at  its  southwest  corner,  was  first  settled  in  June,  1867, 
and  was  organized  November  21,  1873,  being  named  for  its  numerous 
springs  and  brooks  or  creeks,  flowing  in  dales  and  ravines. 

Sundown  township,  settled  in  1871  and  organized  in  1873,  has  an  al- 
most unique  name  meaning  the  sunset.  It  is  also  the  name  of  a  village  in 
Ulster  county.  New  York. 

Swede's  Forest  township,  first  settled  in  September,  1865,  and  organ- 
ized September  21,  1872,  was  named  in  compliment  to  its  many  immi- 
grant settlers  from  Sweden.  It  is  mostly  prairie,  but  has  a  continuous 
forest  along  the  bluff  fronting  the  Minnesota  river  valley. 

Three  Lakes  township,  settled  in  1868,  organized  April  4,  1876,  de- 
rived this  name  from  the  former  group  of  three  lakes  in  its  northern  part, 
now  drained. 

Underwood  township,  settled  in  August,  1869,  organized  May  2,  1876, 
has  a  name  that  is  borne  also  by  a  village  in  Otter  Tail  county,  and  by 
villages  in  Iowa  and  North  Dakota. 

Vail  township,  first  settled  in  1869  and  organized  September  16,  1879, 
was  named  in  compliment  for  Fred  Vail  Hotchkiss,  who  was  chairman 
of  the  board  of  county  commissioners. 

Vesta  township,  settled  in  1868,  organized  May  29,  1880,  was  named 
on  the  suggestion  of  F.  V.  Hotchkiss  for  the  goddess  Vesta  of  ancient 
Roman  mythology,  who  guarded  the  home  hearth  fire  and  thence  was  a 
guardian  of  the  city  and  the  nation.  Vesta  railway  village  was  platted 
in  1899,  and  was  incorporated  February  6,  1900. 

Wabasso,  a  railway  village  and  junction  in  Vail  township  platted  in 
September  1899,  was  incorporated  April  28,  1900.    Its  name  is  from  Long- 


REDWOOD  COUNTY  453 

fellow's  "Song  of  Hiawatha/'  for  the  Ojibway  word,  wabos  (pronounced 
wahbose),  meaning  a  rabbit. 

Walnut  Grove,  a  railway  village  in  the  west  edge  of  North  Hero, 
platted  in  April,  1874,  and  incorporated  March  3,  1879,  was  named  for  a 
grove  of  about  100  acres,  including  many  black  walnut  trees,  on  Plum 
creek  in  the  southeast  corner  of  Springdale,  from  one  to  two  miles  south- 
west of  this  village.  It  is  at  the  northern  Itjmt  of  the  geographic  range 
of  this  tree. 

Wanda,  the  railway  village  of  Willow  Lake  township,  platted  in 
September,  1899,  and  incorporated  April  10,  1901,  is  named  from  "the 
Ojibway  Indian  word  wanenda,  and  means  'to  forget'  or  'f orgetfulness' " 
(Stennett,  Place  Names  of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railways, 
p.  135). 

Waterbury  township,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1872  and  organized  April 
9,  1878,  was  named  for  the  township  and  large  village  of  Waterbury  in 
Vermont. 

Wayburne,  a  railway  station  in  the  north  edge  of  Brookville,  was 
platted  in  1902. 

Westline  township,  settled  in  1872  and  organized  October  14,  1878, 
was  named  for  its  situation  on  the  west  side  of  the  county. 

Willow  Lake  township,  first  settled  in  1871,  organized  September 
27,  1873,  was  named  for  its  lake  adjoining  Wanda  village. 

Streams  and  Lakes. 

*  Tributaries  of  the  Minnesota  river  in  this  county  include  Big  Spring 
creek,  in  Swede's  Forest;  Rice  creek,  in  Delhi;  the  Redwood  river, 
noticed  in  the  first  pages  of  this  chapter;  Crow  creek,  five  miles  farther 
east;  and  Wabasha  creek,  in  Sherman.  Beside  Crow  creek  were  the 
villages  of  Little  Crow  and  Big  Eagle,  after  their  removal  from  the 
Mississippi,  till  the  time  of  the  Sioux  outbreak  in  1862;  and  the  villages 
of  two  other  Sioux  chiefs,  Wabasha  and  Wacouta,  adjoined  Wabasha 
creek.  The  Lower  Sioux  Agency,  before  noticed,  was  nearly  midway 
between  these  creeks. 

The  Redwood  river  receives  Ramsey  creek  from  .the  south  edge  of 
Delhi,  flowing  from  Ramsey  lake  (now  drained),  each  named  in  honor 
of  Governor  Alexander  Ramsey;  and  an  unnamed  southern  tributary, 
from  Granite  Rock  township,  joins  this  river  at  Seaforth. 

The  Cottonwood  river,  crossing  the  southern  part  of  this  county,  has 
been  well  noted  in  the  chapter  of  Cottonwood  county.  It  may  be  here 
added  that  a  very  large  and  lone  cottonwood  tree  beside  this  stream, 
about  seven  miles  northwest  of  Lamberton  village,  was  reputed  to  be 
a  chief  reason  for  its  name;  but  the  Sioux  had  used  the  name,  Waraju 
in  their  language,  as  spelled  by  Nicollet,  which  the  white  traders  and 
explorers  translated,  for  probably  more  than  a  century  before  the  growth 
of  that  tree  began. 


454  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Sleepy  Eye  creek,  flowing  from  this  county  east  to  join  the  Cotton- 
wood river  in  Brown  county  a  few  miles  south  of  the  city  of  Sleepy 
Eye,  has  been  noticed  under  that  county. 

On  its  north  side  the  Cottonwood  river  receives  no  tributary  in  Red- 
wood county.  On  the  south  it  receives  three  creeks  from  Gales  town- 
ship, unnamed  on  maps;  Plum  creek,  from  Springvale  and  North  Hero, 
named  for  its  wild  plums;  and  farther  east,  flowing  from  Cottonwood 
county.  Pelt  creek,  Dutch  Charley's  creek,  to  which  High  water  creek  is 
a  tributary,  and  Dry  creek,  so  named  from  its  being  often  dried  up 
during  summer  droughts. 

The  preceding  pages  have  noticed  the  former  Ramsey  lake,  in  Delhi; 
the  Three  lakes,  now  drained,  which  were  formerly  in  the  township  named 
for  them;  and  Willow  lake,  also  giving  its  name  to  a  township. 

Only  a  few  other  lakes  remain  to  be  listed,  as  Hackberry  lake  in 
Brookville,  now  drained,  which  was  named  for  its  hackberry  trees; 
Snyder  lake  in  section  ZZ,  Morgan,  now  dry;  Rush  lake,  also  now  dry, 
two  miles  southeast  of  Willow  lake;  Nettiew3mnt  lake  (formerly  Hall 
lake),  now  drained,  in  Gales  township,  bearing  the  fanciful  name  of  a 
large  farm  that  adjoins  it  and  extends  more  than  two  miles  south,  con- 
taining about  3,000  acres ;  Horseshoe  lake,  of  curved  shape,  now  drained, 
in  Westline;  Goose  and  Swan  lakes,  in  the  northwest  part  of  Under- 
wood; and  Tiger  lake,  on  the  Minnesota  bottomland  in  Honner,  named 
probably  for  a  puma  or  "mountain  lion.**  This  animal,  also  often  called 
a  panther,  was  described  by  Captain  Jonathan  Carver  as  "the  Tyger  of 
America." 

Ramsey  State  Park. 

Adjoining  the  city  of  Redwood  Falls,  a  mainly  wooded  tract  of  about 
a  hundred  acres  was  acquired  by  the  state  of  Minnesota  in  1911  as  a 
public  park.  It  includes  a  half  mile  of  the  picturesque  gorge  of  the  Red- 
wood river  below  its  falls,  with  the  tributary  gorge  of  Ramsey  creek, 
which  in  this  park  has  a  waterfall  descending  nearly  fifty  feet.  The 
Redwood  river  flows  one  and  a  half  miles  in  its  gorge  before  it  opens 
into  the  broad  bottomland  of  the  Minnesota  valley,  being  quite  unique  in 
its  grand  and  beautiful  scenery.  The  state  park  is  named  in  honor  of 
Governor  Alexander  Ramsey,  who  was  prominent  in  making  treaties  in 
1851  with  the  Sioux,  by  which  they  ceded  the  great  prairie  region  of 
southwestern  Minnesota  for  white  settlers  and  agricultural  development. 
Soon  after  the  establishment  of  the  Lower  Sioux  Agency,  about  eight 
miles  east  of  Redwood  Falls,  it  was  visited  by  Governor  Ramsey,  for 
whom  then  Ramsey  creek  and  lake  were  named. 


RENVILLE  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  February  20,  1855,  and  organized  March  1 
and  November  8,  1866,  was  named  for  Joseph  Renville,  a  **bois  brule*' 
(son  of  a  French  father  and  Indian  mother),  of  whom  Dr.  E.  D.  Neill 
gave  an  appreciative  sketch  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Minnesota  His- 
torical Society  Collections.  Renville  was  bom  at  or  near  the  Kaposia 
village  of  the  Sioux,  on  the  Mississippi  a  few  miles  below  St.  Paul,  about 
the  year  1779.  After  a  few  years  at  school  in  Canada,  he  became  a  voyageur 
for  an  English  company  in  the  fur  trade  of  the  Northwest.  In  the  war  of 
1812  he  received  the  appointment  and  rank  of  a  captain  in  the  British 
army,  and  led  a  company  of  Sioux  warriors  against  the  United  States 
frontier.  He  was  employed  by  Long  as  the  interpreter  of  his  expedition 
to  the  Red  river  and  Lake  Winnipeg,  in  1823;  and  Keating,  the  histo- 
rian of  the  expedition,  derived  from  him  a  large  amount  of  information 
relating  to  the  Sioux  people.  Afterward,  having  become  an  agent  of 
the  American  Fur  Company,  Renville  erected  a  trading  house  at  Lac 
qui  Parle,  and  resided  there  until  his  death,  which  was  in  March,  1846. 

He  was  a  friend  of  Rev.  T.  S.  Williamson,  who  came  as  a  missionary 
to  the  Sioux  of  the  Minnesota  valley  in  1835.  "Renville  warmly  wel- 
comed him,"  wrote  Dr.  Neill,  "and  rendered  invaluable  assistance  in  the 
establishment  of  the  missions.  Upon  the  arrival  of  the  missionaries  at 
Lac  qui  Parle,  he  provided  them  with  a  temporary  home.  He  acted  as 
interpreter,  he  assisted  in  translating  the  Scriptures,  and  removed  many 
of  the  prejudices  of  the  Indians  against  the  white  man's  religion." 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  has  been  gathered  in  "History  of  the  Minne- 
sota Valley,"  1882,  having  pages  798-848  for  this  county;  "The  History 
of  Renville  County,"  compiled  by  Franklyn  Curtiss-Wedge,  1916,  two 
volumes,  1376  pages;  and  from  Charles  N.  Matson,  judge  of  probate,  and 
Hon.  Darwin  S.  Hall,  each  of  Olivia,  the  county  seat,  interviewed  during 
a  visit  there  in  July,  1916. 

Bandon  township,  first  settled  in  April,  1869,  and  organized  January 
4,  1871,  was  named  by  its  Irish  settlers  for  a  town  in  southern  Ireland, 
on  the  River  Bandon,  about  twenty  miles  southwest  of  Cork. 

Beaver  Falls  township,  organized  April  2,  1867,  and  its  village, 
platted  July  25,  1866,  and  incorporated  January  21,  1890,  received  their 
name  from  Beaver  creek,  which  is  a  translation  of  the  Sioux  name, 
Chapah  river,  noted  on  Nicollet's  map  in  1843.  This  village  was  the  first 
county  seat,  until  a  very  long  contest,  begun  in  1885,  was  finally  decided 
in  October,  1900,  by  removal  of  the  county  offices  to  Olivia. 

455 


456  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

BncH  CooLET  township,  organized  April  2,  1867,  and  its  former  vil- 
lage, platted  in  Jnne,  1866,  but  burned  in  1871,  were  named  for  their 
small  stream.  "Coulee  is  a  French  word  meaning  the  bed  of  the  stream, 
even  if  dry,  when  deep  and  having  inclined  sides.  The  original  name  of 
the  stream  in  the  coulee  was  La  Croix  creek,  but  the  vicinity  was  known 
from  the  early  dajrs  as  Birch  coulee,  and  this  was  finally  corrupted  to 
Birch  G>oley,  now  the  o£Bcial  name  of  the  township."  (History  of  this 
county,  1916,  p.  1290.)  This  name  was  translated  from  Tampa  creek 
of  the  Sioux,  as  it  was  mapped  by  Nicollet,  referring  to  its  many  trees 
of  the  paper  or  canoe  birch,  which  in  this  vicinity  reaches  the  southwest 
limit  of  its  geographic  range. 

BiBD  IsLAin>  township,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1872,  was  organized 
October  21,  1876;  and  its  railway  village  of  the  same  name,  platted  in 
July,  1878,  was  incorporated  March  4,  1881.  The  name  was  derived  from 
a  grove  of  large  trees,  including  many  of  the  hackberry,  in  section  15, 
about  a  mile  west  of  the.  village  and  on  the  south  side  of  the  railway, 
surrounded  by  sloughs,  like  an  island,  whereby  it  was  protected  from 
prairie  fires.  This  grove,  named  Bird  Island  for  its  plentiful  wild  birds, 
was  a  favorite  camping  place  of  Indians  and  trappers,  and  it  supplied 
timber  for  the  early  settlers. 

Boon  Lake  township,  organized  September  6,  1870,  bears  the  name  of 
its  largest  lake,  probably  given  in  honor  of  a  pioneer  settler. 

Brookfield  township,  settled  in  1871  and  organized  April  7,  1874,  has  a 
name  that  is  borne  also  by  a  city  in  Missouri  and  by  villages  and  townships 
in  twelve  other  states. 

BxTFFALo  Lake,  the  railway  village  of  Preston  Lake  township,  platted 
in  1881,  is  a  half  mile  south  of  the  picturesque  little  lake  whence  it  re- 
ceived this  name. 

Cairo  township,  settled  in  1859  and  after  the  Sioux  war  again  settled 
in  1864,  was.  organized  April  7,  1868.  It  was  at  first  called  Mud  Lake 
township,  for  its  lake  on  Mud  creek,  but  received  its  present  name  July 
8,  1869.  This  name,  derived  from  the  capital  of  Egypt,  is  borne  also  by  a 
city  of  Illinois  and  by  villages  and  townships  in  ten  other  states. 

Camp  township,  organized  April  2,  1867,  needs  further  inquiry  for  the 
origin  of  its  name. 

Crooks  township,  the  latest  organized  in  this  county,  December  9, 
1884,  was  named  in  honor  of  H.  S.  Crooks,  who  settled  here  as  a  home- 
stead farmer  in  1870. 

Danube  is  a  railway  village  in  Troy  township,  founded  in  1899  and  in- 
corporated in  1901.  This  name,  received  from  the  large  river  in  Europe, 
is  borne  also  by  a  township  and  village  in  New  York. 

Emmet  township,  first  settled  in  June,  1869,  and  organized  September 
21,  1870,  was  named  in  honor  of  Robert  Emmet  (b.  1778,  d.  1803),  the 
Irish  patriot 

Ericson  township,  settled  in  1871  and  organized  January  27,  1874,  was 
named  in  honor  of  Eric  Ericson,  a  prominent  pioneer  of  this  county,  who 


RENVILLE  COUNTY  457 

served  as  county  auditor  and  during  many  years  was  the  county  superin- 
tendent of  schools. 

Fairfax,  the  railway  village  of  Cairo,  platted  August  22,  1882,  and  in- 
corporated January  18,  1888,  was  named  by  Eben  Ryder,  president  of  the 
Minneapolis  and  St.  Louis  railway  company,  for  his  native  county  in 
Virginia. 

Flora  township,  first  settled  in  the  spring  of  1859  and  again  (after  the 
Sioux  war)  in  1865,  was  organized  April  2,  1867,  receiving  the  name  of 
"the  first  horse  brought  here  after  the  massacre  by  Francis  Shoemaker." 

Franklin  is  a  railway  village  in  Birch  Cooley  township,  platted  in  1882. 
Eighteen  townships  in  so  many  counties  of  Pennsylvania,  and  also  town- 
ships and  villages  or  cities  in  twenty-nine  other  states,  bear  this  name, 
with  counties  in  twenty-four  states,  mostly  in  honor  of  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin (b.  1706,  d.  1790). 

Hawk  Creek  township,  organized  April  2,  1867,  received  the  name 
of  its  creek,  translated  from  its  Sioux  name,  Chetambe,  noted  on  Nicol- 
let's map. 

Hector  township,  settled  in  1873  and  organized  June  30,  1874,  was  at 
first  called  Milford,  but  was  renamed  a  month  later  for  the  township 
and  village  of  Hector  in  Schuyler  county.  New  York,  whence  many  of  its 
settlers  had  come.  The  railway  village  of  this  township,  bearing  the 
same  name,  was  platted  in  September,  1878,  and  was  incorporated  Feb- 
ruary 23,  1881.  i    Ui  ;^;»!i*( 

Henryville  township,  settled  in  May,  1866,  and  organized  March  16, 
1871,  was  named  in  honor  of  Peter  Henry,  one  of  its  pioneer  farmers. 

Kingman  township,  settled  in  May,  1877,  organized  September  3, 
1878,  was  named  by  S.  T.  Salter,  the  first  township  clerk,  in  honor  of 
W.  H.  Kingman,  his  former  fellow  townsman  in  Winn,  Maine,  who  re- 
moved to  Wisconsin  and  purchased  much  land  in  this  township,  but  did 
not  settle  here. 

Martinsburg  township,  settled  in  1873,  organized  September  3,  1878, 
was  named  for  Martin  Grummons,  whose  father,  W.  F.  Grummons,  of 
this  township,  was  then  a  member  of  the  board  of  county  commissioners. 

Melville  township,  settled  in  1872  and  organized  January  1,  1878, 
needs  further  search  to  learn  the  reason  for  its  name. 

Morton,  a  railway  village  adjoining  the  Minnesota  river  in  Birch 
Cooley  township,  platted  in  1882  and  incorporated  in  September,  1887, 
was  named  by  officers  of  the  Minneapolis  and  St.  Louis  railway  com- 
pany, ■■f^ti:'''^'!*!    ':!**. 

Norfolk  township,  settled  in  the  fall  of  1868  and  organized  July  26, 

1869,  was  at  first  called  Houlton,  but  on  January  4,  1871,  was  renamed 
Marschner,  which  in  1874  was  changed  to  Norfolk.  This  name,  derived 
from  a  county  in  England,  is  borne  also  by  counties  in  Massachusetts 
and  Virginia,  and  by  townships  and  villages  or  cities  in  these  states  and 
in  Connecticut,  New  York,  and  Nebraska. 


458  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Olivia,  the  county  seat,  a  railway  village  in  the  west  edge  of  Bird 
Island  township,  platted  in  September,  1878,  and  incorporated  March 
4,  1881,  was  named  by  Albert  Bowman  Rogers,  an  eminent  civil  engineer, 
who  located  this  railway.  "The  first  station  agent  to  be  placed  at  Orton- 
ville,  Minn.,  was  a  woman.  Her  name  was  Olive.  She  was  a  particu- 
lar friend  of  Chief  Engineer  Rogers,  and  it  was  for  her  he  named 
Olivia."  (History  of  this  county,  p.  1359.)  After  much  contention  ex- 
tending through  fifteen  years  for  removal  of  the  county  seat  from  Beaver 
Falls  to  Olivia,  this  was  finally  provided  by  a  vote  of  the  county  October 
25,  1900. 

Osceola  township,  settled  in  1875  and  organized  September  30,  1879, 
was  named  by  L.  L.  Tennis,  then  a  county  commissioner,  for  the  village 
of  Osceola  in  Wisconsin.  Counties  in  Florida,  Michigan,  and  Iowa,  and 
townships  and  villager  or  cities  in  fifteen  states  of  our  Union,  are  named 
in  commemoration  of  a  patriot  Seminole  chief,  Osceola,  who  was  born 
in  Georgia  in  1804,  and  died  at  Fort  Moultrie,  S.  C,  January  30,  1838. 

Palmyra  township,  organized  January  2,  1872,  was  named  by  settlers 
who  came  from  Palmyra  in  southeastern  Wisconsin.  Sixteen  other  states 
also  have  villages  and  townships  named  from  the  ancient  Palmyra,  "city 
of  palms,"  which  was  in  an  oasis  of  the  Syrian  desert. 

Preston  Lake  township,  settled  in  1866  and  organized  September 
7,  1869,  was  named  for  its  largest  lake,  probably  commemorating  a  pio- 
neer settler  or  a  hunter  and  trapper. 

Renville,  a  railway  village  in  Emmet  township,  platted  in  September, 
1878,  and  incorporated  February  19,  1881,  was  named  in  honor  of  Joseph 
Renville,  like  this  county. 

Sacred  Heart  township,  organized  April  6,  1869,  was  settled  mostly 
by  Lutherans,  so  that  the  adoption  of  a  name  apparently  Roman  Catholic 
in  origin  seems  surprising.  It  was  derived,  however,  from  the  name 
given  by  the  Sioux  or  Dakota  people  to  an  early  trader,  Charles  Patter- 
son, who  about  1783  established  a  trading  post  at  the  rapids  of  the  Min- 
nesota river  in  the  present  section  29,  Flora,  since  called  Patterson's 
rapids.  He  wore  a  bearskin  hat,  whence,  "the  bear  being  a  sacred  ani- 
mal to  the  Indians,  they  called  him  the  *Sacred  Hat'  man,  which  gradually 
became  Sacred  Heart"  (History  of  the  Minnesota  Valley,  p.  817).  The 
name  so  applied  to  the  trader  was  afterward  used  by  the  Sioux  for  the 
site  of  his  trading  post,  and  thence  it  was  given,  in  this  accepted  trans- 
lation, to  the  adjacent  township. 

Another  explanation  for  the  origin  of  this  name  has  been  told  by 
Louis  G.  Brisbois,  a  French  pioneer  of  Hawk  Creek  township.  "He 
declared  that  in  the  early  days  the  mouth  of  the  Sacred  Heart  creek 
formed  in  the  shape  of  a  heart,  and  that  a  French  missionary  priest,  in- 
spired by  this,  had  given  the  name  of  Sacred  Heart  to  a  mission  of 
French  half-breeds  and  Indians  that  he  had  established  here,  and  that 
the  locality  gradually  took  the  name  of  this  early  mission,  still  retaining 


RENVILLE  COUNTY  459 

it  long  after  the  mission  had  passed  into  oblivion."  (History  of  this 
county,  p.  1332). 

Sacred  Heart  railway  village  was  platted  in  October,  1878^  and  was 
incorporated  in  1883. 

Troy  township,  settled  in  1871-72,  organized  March  21,  1876,  has  the 
name  of  a  very  ancient  city  in  Asia  Minor,  renowned  as  the  scene  of  the 
Trojan  war,  the  theme  of  the  Iliad  of  Homer.  It  is  also  the  name  of  a 
large  city  in  New  York,  and  of  townships  and  villages  or  small  cities  in 
twenty-five  other  states. 

ViCKSBURG,  a  former  village  in  section  19,  Flora,  platted  in  1867,  was 
superseded  in  1878  by  the  railway  village  of  Sacred  Heart,  to  which  its 
buildings  were  removed.  Its  name  wa»  from  Vicksburg,  Miss.,  which 
was  besieged  in  the  civil  war  and  surrendered  July  4,  1863. 

Wang  township,  settled  in  1867  and  organized  July  28,  1875,  was 
named  for  a  district  or  group  of  farms  in  Norway. 

Wellington  township,  settled  in  1868  and  organized  June  4,  1873,  com- 
memorates the  Duke  of  Wellington  (b.  1769,  d.  1852),  victor  over  Napol- 
eon at  Waterloo  in  1815.  A  city  of  Kansas  and  villages  and  townships 
in  ten  other  states  bear  this  name. 

WiNFiELD  township,  settled  in  1872,  organized  December  27,  1878,  was 
named  in  honor  of  General  WinfieW  Scott  (b.  1786,  d.  1866),  chief  com- 
mander in  the  Mexican  war.  Winfield  is  the  name  also  of  a  city  in 
Kansas  and  of  villages  and  townships  in  sixteen  other  states. 

Streams  and  Lakes. 

The  Minnesota  river  flows  in  strong  rapids  over  a  bed  of  glacial 
drift  boulders  adjoining  section  29,  Flora,  named  Patterson's  rapids  for 
a  fur  trader,  as  was  noted  under  Sacred  Heart  township.  The  descent 
here  is  about  five  feet  within  a  third  of  a  mile. 

On  the  southwest  border  of  this  county  the  Minnesota  river  receives 
Hawk  creek  and  Sacred  Heart  creek  in  the  townships  bearing  these 
names,  the  first  being  a  translation  from  its  Sioux  name,  Chetamba, 
which  is  now  given  to  a  creek  flowing  into  it  from  Ericson  and  Wang; 
Middle  creek,  in  Flora;  Beaver  creek,  with  West  and  East  forks,  trans- 
lated from  the  Sioux,  as  noted  for  Beaver  Falls  township;  Birch  cooley 
or  creek,  also  from  the  Sioux  and  before  noticed  for  the  township  named 
from  it;  and  Three  Mile  creek,  in  Camp,  so  named  for  its  distance 
northwest  from  the  former  Fort  Ridgely.  Farther  east,  in  Cairo,  are 
Fort  creek  and  Mud  or  Little  Rock  creek,  flowing  into  Nicollet  county 
and  there  tributary  to  the  Minnesota  river  respectively  near  Fort  Ridge- 
ly and  near  the  site  of  a  former  trading  post  called  Little  Rock,  adjoin- 
ing an  extensive  rock  outcrop  in  the  Minnesota  valley. 

Buffalo  xrreek  flows  eastward  into  McLeod  county,  from  Brookfield 
and  Preston  Lake  townships. 


460  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Besides  Boon,  Buffalo,  and  Preston  lakes,  whence  two  townships  and 
a  village  are  named,  these  townships  have  Hodgson,  Phare,  and  Allie 
(or  Alley)  lakes,  named  for  early  settlers. 

In  section  23,  Brookfield,  Boot  lake,  named  from  its  outline,  has 
been  drained;  and  a  lake  formerly  in  the  central  part  of  Wellington  has 
also  been  drained 

Mud  lake  is  on  Mud  or  Little  Rock  creek,  in  Cairo. 

Fox  lake,  formerly. about  four  miles  long,  crossed  by  the  county  line 
at  the  north  side  of  Kingman,  and  another  lake  on  the  north  line  of 
Erxcson,  have  been  drained.  Thus  too  the  former  Pelican  lake,  adjoin- 
ing the  southeast  side  of  Bird  Island  village,  and  Long  or  Lizard  lake 
in  Winfield,  have  disappeared. 

Monuments  of  the  Sioux  War,  1862. 

Through  the  work  of  the  Minnesota  Valley  Historical  Society,  under 
the  direction  of  its  president,  Hon.  Giarles  D.  Gilfillan,  many  localities 
in  Renville  and  Redwood  counties,  of  great  historical  interest  in  events 
of  the  Sioux  outbreak  and  massacre  in  August,  1862,  and  of  the  war 
against  these  Sioux  in  1862-63,  were  carefully  identified  and  marked  in 
1895-1902  by  granite  monuments  and  tablets.  A  report  of  this  work, 
including  many  illustrations  and  much  history  and  biography,  written 
by  Return  I.  Holcombe,  was  published  in  1902  (79  pages). 

Two  of  these  monuments  are  erected  beside  the  railway  close  south- 
east of  Morton  village,  one  being  in  memory  of  the  soldiers  killed  in  the 
battle  of  Birch  Cooley,  September  2,  1862,  and  the  other  in  memory  of 
several  Sioux  who  were  friendly  to  the  white  people,  doing  all  they  could 
to  rescue  them  from  the  massacre. 

In  Redwood  county,  this  society  erected  numerous  tablets  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Lower  Sioux  Agency,  and  also  similarly  marked  the  site 
of  Camp  Pope,  about  a  mile  northwest  from  the  present  city  of  Redwood 
Falls,  named,  like  Pope  county,  in  honor  of  General  John  Pope.  There 
General  Sibley  and  his  troops  were  encamped  from  April  19  to  June  16, 
1863,  in  preparation  for  his  expedition  against  the  Sioux  in  the  present 
area  of  North  Dakota. 


RICE  COUNTY 

Established  March  5,  1853,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of  Henry 
Mower  Rice,  one  of  the  two  first  United  States  senators  of  Minnesota, 
1858  to  1863.  He  was  born  in  Waitsfield,  Vt,  November  29,  1816;  came 
west,  to  Detroit,  in  1835,  and  four  years  later  to  Fort  Snelling;  was  dur- 
ing many  years  an  agent  of  the  Chouteau  Fur  Company;  aided  in  the 
negotiation  of  several  Indian  treaties,  by  which  lands  were  ceded  for 
white  immigration  in  Minnesota ;  and  was  the  delegate  from  this  territory 
in  Congress,  1853  to  1857.  Excepting  when  absent  in  Washington,  he  re- 
sided in  St.  Paul  from  1849  onward,  and  was  a  most  generous  bene- 
factor of  this  city.  To  Rice  county  he  presented  a  valuable  political  and 
historical  library.  Mr.  Rice  was  a  charter  member  of  the  Minnesota 
Historical  Society,  and  was  its  president  for  the  years  1864  to  1866.  He 
died  in  San  Antonio,  Texas,  while  spending  the  winter  months  there, 
January  15,  1894.  His  portrait  and  a  sketch  of  his  life  and  public  ser- 
vices, written  by  Governor  Marshall,  are  published  in  the  M.  H.  S.  Col- 
lections (vol.  IX,  1901,  pages  654-8). 

In  accordance  with  the  state  enactment,  a  statue  of  Senator  Rice 
is  one  of  the  two  selected  to  represent  Minnesota  in  the  Statuary  Hall 
of  the  U.  S.  capitol  in  Washington,  as  unveiled  February  8,  1916. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origin  and  significance  of  names  has  been  gathered 
from  "History  of  Rice  County,"  1882,  603  pages ;  "History  of  Rice  and 
Steele  Counties,"  compiled  by  Franklyn  Curtiss- Wedge,  1910,  two  vol- 
umes, in  which  pages  1-628,  in  vol.  I,  are  the  history  of  this  county;  and 
from  Frank  M.  Kaisersatt,  county  auditor,  and  Martin  M.  Shields,  judge 
of  probate,  interviewed  at  Faribault,  the  county  seat,  during  a  visit  there 
in  April,  1916. 

All  the  townships  of  this  county  were  organized  May  11,  1858,  on  the 
date  of  admission  of  Minnesota  as  a  state. 

Bridgewater  township,  first  settled  in  1853,  has  a  name  that  is  borne 
by  a  seaport  city  in  southern  England,  and  by  townships  and  villages 
in  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  and  ten  other  states. 

Cannon  City  township,  settled  in  October,  1854,  was  named  like  its 
village,  platted  in  the  fall  of  1855,  for  the  Cannon  river,  flowing  across 
the  west  part  of  the  township.  Ambitiously  called  a  city,  this  village 
had  the  honor  of  being  the  first  place  of  meeting  of  the  county  com- 
missioners, in  1855,  but  within  that  year  Faribault  was  selected  as  the 
county  seat.  The  village  and  its  vicinity  were  the  scene  of  a  widely  read 
story  by  Edward  Eggleston,  "The  Mystery  of  Metropolisville,"  published 
in   1873. 

461 


462  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Dean  was  the  name  of  the  post  office  at  Cannon  City  after  1880,  in 
honor  of  J.  W.  Dean,  an  early  merchant  there,  and  this  name  is  borne 
by  the  present  hamlet  on  the  site  of  that  formerly  large  village ;  but  the 
post  office  was  discontinued  in  1901,  by  free  delivery  from  Faribault. 

Dennison  is  a  village  of  the  Chicago  Great  Western  railway  on  the 
east  line  of  Northfield,  lying  mostly  in  Goodhue  county.  It  was  named 
for  the  previous  owner  of  its  site,  Morris  P.  Dennison,  a  farmer,  who 
removed  to  the  city  of  Northfield. 

DuNDAS,  a  railway  village  in  Bridgewater,  platted  in  1857  and  char- 
tered in  1879,  bears  the  name  of  a  large  town  in  Ontario,  and  of  villages 
in  Ohio,  Illinois,  and  Wisconsin,  commemorating  Henry  Dundas  (b. 
1742,  d.  1811),  an  eminent  British  statesman.  This  village  was  named  by 
its  founders,  Edward  T.  and  John  M.  Archibald,  who  came  from  Dun- 
das in  Ontario,  built  a  flour  mill  here  and  made  the  best  flour  in  the  state. 
(M.  H.  S.  CoMections,  vol.  X,  1905,  Part  I,  p.  41 ;  XIV,  1912,  p.  19.) 

Erin  township,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1855,  received  this  ancient 
and  now  poetic  name  of  Ireland  at  the  time  of  its  organization,  in  1858, 
by  vote  of  its  people,  many  of  whom  were  Irish  immigrants. 

Faribault,  the  county  seat,  platted  in  February,  1855,  organized  as  a 
township  of  small  area  May  11,  1858,  and  incorporated  as  a  city  Febru- 
ary 29,  1872,  was  named  in  honor  of  Alexander  Faribault,  the  eldest  son 
of  Jean  Baptiste  Faribault,  who  is  commemorated  by  the  county  of  this 
name.  Alexander  was  bom  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  Wis.,  June  22,  1806,  and 
died  in  this  city  which  he  had  founded,  November  28,  1882.  He  came  to 
the  Cannon  river  as  a  trader  among  the  Indians  in  1826,  and  during  the 
next  eight  years  he  established  trading  posts  on  the  sites  of  Waterville 
in  LeSueur  county  and  Morristown  in  this  county,  and  also  at  a  large 
Sioux  village  on  the  northwest  shore  of  Cannon  lake.  In  1834-55  he 
persuaded  these  Sioux  to  remove  their  village  to  the  site  of  Faribault.  Th« 
next  white  settlers,  Peter  Bush  and  Luke  Hulett,  came  in  1853. 

Forest  township,  first  settled  in  1854,  was  named  probably  for  the 
originally  wooded  condition  of  nearly  all  its  area.  Townships  and  vil- 
lages in  ten  other  states,  and  counties  in  Pennsylvania  and  Wisconsin, 
bear  this  name. 

Lonsdale  is  a  railway  village  in  Wheatland,  founded  in  1903,  having 
the  same  name  as  villages  in  Rhode  Island  and  Arkansas. 

MiLLERSEURG,  a  village  in  Forest  township,  was  platted  in  1857  by 
George  W.  Miller.  Its  post  office  was  discontinued  in  1901,  and  the  vil- 
lage site  is  now  mostly  farming  land. 

Morristown,  a  village  platted  in  the  autumn  of  1855,  and  its  town- 
ship, organized  May  11,  1858,  received  this  name  in  honor  of  Jonathan 
Morris,  who  was  bom  in  Pennsylvania,  January  9,  1804,  and  died  here 
November  27,  1856.  After  being  for  twenty-five  years  a  minister  of 
the  denomination  called  Christians  or  Disciples,  in  Indiana  and  Ohio,  he 
came  to  Minnesota  in  1853  and  settled  here  in  1855.  Hard  work  and  ex- 
posure in  building  a  sawmill  caused  the  illness  in  which  he  died. 


RICE  COUNTY  463 

Nerstrand^  the  railway  village  of  Wheeling  township,  platted  in  1855 
and  incorporated  January  50,  1897,  bears  the  name  of  an  earlier  post 
office,  established  in  1878,  which  was  named  by  Osmund  Osmundson  for 
his  former  home  in  Norway. 

NoRTHFiELD,  platted  in  October,  1855,  incorporated  as  a  village  in 
1871  and  as  a  city  February  26,  1875,  and  the  adjoining  township  of  this 
name,  organized  in  1858,  commemorate  John  W.  North,  principal  foun- 
der of  the  village,  who  was  born  in  Onondaga  county,  N.  Y.,  in  February, 
1815,  and  died  in  Oleandar,  Cal.,  February  22,  1890.  He  was  educated  at 
Wesleyan  University,  Middletown,  Conn.;  was  admitted  to  practice  law 
in  1845 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1849,  and  settled  here  in  1855 ;  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  territorial  legislature  in  1851,  and  presided  over  the  Republi- 
can wing  of  the  convention  in  1857  that  framed  the  state  constitution; 
was  influential  in  founding  the  University  of  Minnesota,  and  was  treas- 
urer of  its  board  of  regents,  1851-60.  in  1861  he  removed  to  Nevada, 
being  appointed  by  President  Lincoln  surveyor  general  of  that  territory. 
He  presided  over  the  convention  that  formed  the  state  constitution  of 
Nevada,  in  1864,  and  was  one  of  the  judges  of  its  supreme  court.  Later 
he  organized  the  company  that  established  the  fruit-growing  settlement 
of  Riverside,  near  Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  and  was  United  States  judge  for 
that  state. 

Another  citizen  of  Northfield,  who  has  been  thought  to  be  included 
in  the  honor  of  this  name,  was  Ira  Stratton  Field,  born  in  Orange,  Mass., 
January  25,  1813,  who  came  to  Minnesota  eiarly  in  1856,  settling  in  North- 
field  as  a  blacksmith  and  farmer,  and  died  here  June  2,  1892.  For  twenty 
years  before  his  coming  here,  he  had  lived  in  Jamaica,  Vti  and  had 
been  elected  twice  to  the  Vermont  legislature.  He  was  an  earnest  advo- 
cate for  temperance  and  for  abolition  of  slavery.  His  removal  to  North- 
field  with  his  family  very  soon  after  the  village  was  platted  and  received 
its  name,  and  the  tradition  that  the  name  was  intended  to  honor  each  of 
these  prominent  early  settlers,  may  be  explained  by  acquaintance  between 
North  and  Field  before  the  latter  came  west.  An  obituary  sketch  of 
Field  in  the  Northfield  Independent,  June  9,  1892,  states  that  "early  in 
1856  ...  he  was  gladly  welcomed  by  Mr.  North  and  the  other  few 
here  at  that  time." 

Richland  township,  settled  in  1854,  has  a  name  borne  by  counties  in 
Wisconsin  and  five  other  states,  and  by  villages  and  townships  in  twenty 
states. 

Shieldsville  township,  settled  in  1855,  was  named  in  honor  of  Gen- 
eral James  Shields,  who  induced  many  Irish  colonists  to  take  homestead 
farms  in  this  township  and  in  Erin.  He  was  born  in  Atmore,  T3rrone 
county,  Ireland,  December  12,  1810;  came  to  the  United  States  in  1826; 
studied  law,  and  in  1832  began  practice  in  Kaskaskia,  111.;  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  legislature  in  that  state,  1836-39,  state  aduitor  in  1840-43,  and 
a  judge  in  its  supreme  court,  1843-5 ;  served  in  the  Mexican  war,  attain- 
ing the  brevet  rank  of  major  general;  was  United  States  senator  from 


456  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

BoLCH  CooLEY  towtiship,  organized  April  2,  1867,  and  its  former  vil- 
lage, platted  in  June,  1866,  but  burned  in  1871,  were  named  for  their 
small  stream.  "Coulee  is  a  French  word  meaning  the  bed  of  the  stream, 
even  if  dry,  when  deep  and  having  inclined  sides.  The  original  name  of 
the  stream  in  the  coulee  was  La  Croix  creek,  but  the  vicinity  was  known 
from  the  early  days  as  Birch  coulee,  and  this  was  finally  corrupted  to 
Birch  Cooley,  now  the  official  name  of  the  township."  (History  of  this 
county,  1916,  p.  1290.)  This  name  was  translated  from  Tampa  creek 
of  the  Sioux,  as  it  was  mapped  by  Nicollet,  referring  to  its  many  trees 
of  the  paper  or  canoe  birch,  which  in  this  vicinity  reaches  the  southwest 
limit  of  its  geographic  range. 

Bird  Island  township,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1872,  was  organized 
October  21,  1876;  and  its  railway  village  of  the  same  name,  platted  in 
July,  1878>,  was  incorporated  March  4,  1881.  The  name  was  derived  from 
a  grove  of  large  trees,  including  many  of  the  hackberry,  in  section  15, 
about  a  mile  west  of  the.  village  and  on  the  south  side  of  the  railway, 
surrounded  by  sloughs,  like  an  island,  whereby  it  was  protected  from 
prairie  fires.  This  grove,  named  Bird  Island  for  its  plentiful  wild  birds, 
was  a  favorite  camping  place  of  Indians  and  trappers,  and  it  supplied 
timber  for  the  early  settlers. 

Boon  Lake  township,  organized  September  6,  1870,  bears  the  name  of 
its  largest  lake,  probably  given  in  honor  of  a  pioneer  settler. 

Brookfield  township,  settled  in  1871  and  organized  April  7, 1874,  has  a 
name  that  is  borne  also  by  a  city  in  Missouri  and  by  villages  and  townships 
in  twelve  other  states. 

Buffalo  Lake^  the  railway  village  of  Preston  Lake  township,  platted 
in  1881,  is  a  half  mile  south  of  the  picturesque  little  lake  whence  it  re- 
ceived this  name. 

Cairo  township,  settled  in  1859  and  after  the  Sioux  war  again  settled 
in  1864,  was.  organized  April  7,  1858.  It  was  at  first  called  Mud  Lake 
township,  for  its  lake  on  Mud  creek,  but  received  its  present  name  July 
8,  1869.  This  name,  derived  from  the  capital  of  Egypt,  is  borne  also  by  a 
city  of  Illinois  and  by  villages  and  townships  in  ten  other  states. 

Camp  township,  organized  April  2,  1867,  needs  further  inquiry  for  the 
origin  of  its  name. 

Crooks  township,  the  latest  organized  in  this  county,  December  9, 
1884,  was  named  in  honor  of  H.  S.  Crooks,  who  settled  here  as  a  home- 
stead farmer  in  1870. 

Danube  is  a  railway  village  in  Troy  township,  founded  in  1899  and  in- 
corporated in  1901.  This  name,  received  from  the  large  river  in  Europe, 
is  borne  also  by  a  township  and  village  in  New  York. 

Emmet  township,  first  settled  in  June,  1869,  and  organized  September 
21,  1870,  was  named  in  honor  of  Robert  Emmet  (b.  1778,  d.  1803),  the 
Irish  patriot 

Ericson  township,  settled  in  1871  and  organized  January  27,  1874,  was 
named  in  honor  of  Eric  Ericson,  a  prominent  pioneer  of  this  county,  who 


RENVILLE  COUNTY  457 

served  as  county  auditor  and  during  many  years  was  the  county  superin- 
tendent of  schools. 

Fairfax,  the  railway  village  of  Cairo,  platted  August  22,  1882,  and  in- 
corporated January  18,  1888,  was  named  by  Eben  Ryder,  president  of  the 
Minneapolis  and  St.  Louis  railway  company,  for  his  native  county  in 
Virginia. 

Flora  township,  first  settled  in  the  spring  of  1859  and  again  (after  the 
Sioux  war)  in  1865,  was  organized  April  2,  1867,  receiving  the  name  of 
"the  first  horse  brought  here  after  the  massacre  by  Francis  Shoemaker." 

Franklin  is  a  railway  village  in  Birch  Cooley  township,  platted  in  1882. 
Eighteen  townships  in  so  many  counties  of  Pennsylvania,  and  also  town- 
ships and  villages  or  cities  in  twenty-nine  other  states,  bear  this  name, 
with  counties  in  twenty-four  states,  mostly  in  honor  of  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin (b.  1706,  d.  1790). 

Hawk  Creek  township,  organized  April  2,  1867,  received  the  name 
of  its  creek,  translated  from  its  Sioux  name,  Chetambe,  noted  on  Nicol- 
let's map. 

Hector  township,  settled  in  1873  and  organized  June  30,  1874,  was  at 
first  called  Mil  ford,  but  was  renamed  a  month  later  for  the  township 
and  village  of  Hector  in  Schuyler  county.  New  York,  whence  many  of  its 
settlers  had  come.  The  railway  village  of  this  township,  bearing  the 
same  name,  was  platted  in  September,  1878,  and  was  incorporated  Feb- 
ruary 23,  1881.  I    Ij!    i^f^iHl 

Henryville  township,  settled  in  May,  1866,  and  organized  March  16, 
1871,  was  named  in  honor  of  Peter  Henry,  one  of  its  pioneer  farmers. 

Kingman  township,  settled  in  May,  1877,  organized  September  3, 
1878,  was  named  by  S.  T.  Salter,  the  first  township  clerk,  in  honor  of 
W.  H.  Kingman,  his  former  fellow  townsman  in  Winn,  Maine,  who  re- 
moved to  Wisconsin  and  purchased  much  land  in  this  township,  but  did 
not  settle  here. 

Martinsburg  township,  settled  in  1873,  organized  September  3,  1878, 
was  named  for  Martin  Grummons,  whose  father,  W.  F.  Grummons,  of 
this  township,  was  then  a  member  of  the  board  of  county  commissioners. 

Melville  township,  settled  in  1872  and  organized  January  1,  1878, 
needs  further  search  to  learn  the  reason  for  its  name. 

Morton,  a  railway  village  adjoining  the  Minnesota  river  in  Birch 
Cooley  township,  platted  in  1882  and  incorporated  in  September,  1887, 
was  named  by  officers  of  the  Minneapolis  and  St.  Louis  railway  com- 
pany, ■''ni'*'^^'!*'  'J^'^' 

Norfolk  township,  settled  in  the  fall  of  1868  and  organized  July  26, 
1869,  was  at  first  called  Houlton,  but  on  January  4,  1871,  was  renamed 
Marschner,  which  in  1874  was  changed  to  Norfolk.  This  name,  derived 
from  a  county  in  England,  is  borne  also  by  counties  in  Massachusetts 
and  Virginia,  and  by  townships  and  villages  or  cities  in  these  states  and 
in  Connecticut,  New  York,  and  Nebraska. 


ROCK  COUNTY 

This  county  was  established  May  23,  1857,  and  was  oganized  by  a  legis- 
lative act  March  5,  1870.  Its  name  and  also  that  of  the  Rock  river  refer 
to  the  prominent  rock  outcrop  (called  "The  Rock"  on  Nicollet's  map  in 
1843)  of  reddish  gray  quartztte,  forming  a  plateau  of  gradual  ascent 
from  the  west  and  north,  but  terminated  precipitously  on  the  east  and 
south,  which  occupies  an  area  of  three  or  four  square  miles,  situated 
about  three  miles  north  of  Luveme,  on  the  west  side  of  the  Rock  river, 
above  which  it  has  a  height  of  about  175  feet.  In  this  generally  prairie 
region,  "the  Mound,"  as  this  plateau  is  now  called,  commands  an  ex- 
tensive prospect.  The  name  is  translated  from  the  Sioux  "Inyan  Reakah 
or  River  of  the  Rock,"  as  it  was  mapped  by  Nicollet. 

By  the  original  legislative  act  of  1857,  the  names  of  Rock  and  Pipe- 
stone counties  were  respectively  transposed  from  their  intended  and  appro- 
priate areas,  which  error  was  corrected  by  the  legislature  in  1862. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  has  been  gathered  from  "History  of  Rock 
County,"  pages  5-8  in  a  Plat  Book  of  this  county,  published  in  1886; 
"An  Illustrated  History  of  the  Counties  of  Rock  and  Pipestone,"  by 
Arthur  P.  Rose,  1911,  having  pages  31-239  on  this  county,  with  pages 
423-655  for  its  biographical  history;  and  from  Joseph  H.  Adams,  county 
register  of  deeds,  Charles  O.  Hawes,  and  Mrs.  Caroline  M.  Watson,  each 
of  Luverne,  the  county  seat,  interviewed  during  a  visit  there  in  July, 
1916. 

Ash  Creek^  a  railway  village  in  Ointon,  platted  in  August,  1883,  is 
near  the  mouth  of  the  creek  so  named  for  its  ash  trees.  The  owner  of 
this  townsite.  Colonel  Alfred  Grey,  an  English  capitalist  and  an  extensive 
landowner  in  this  section  of  Minnesota  and  Iowa,  "was  fully  honored  in 
the  names  bestowed  upon  the  streets  running  east  and  west,  which  were 
Colonel,  Grey,  and  Alfred"  (History  of  this  county,  1911,  p.  209). 

Battle  Plain  township,  organized  July  16,  1877,  was  at  first  called 
Riverside,  but  was  renamed  March  19,  1878,  for  "the  Indian  battlefield 
located  within   its  boundaries." 

Beaver  Creek  township,  organized  September  16,  1872,  received  this 
name  from  its  creek,  on  the  suggestion  of  James  Comar,  a  homesteader 
on  section  14.  Rose,  in  the  History  of  the  county  (page  234),  gives  an 
interesting  account  of  the  former  great  abundance  of  the  beaver,  as  fol- 
lows: "Beaver  and  other  fur-bearing  animals  were  taken  along  the 
streams  for  many  years  after  the  county  was  settled.  During  the  early 
seventies  quite  a  number  of  beaver  were  trapped  by  the  settlers  along 

466 


ROCK  COUNTY  A67 

Beaver  creek  in  the  township  of  the  same  name.  A  pioneer  settler  of 
the  precinct  tells  me  that  at  the  mouths  of  the  many  deep  holes,  which 
are  a  feature  of  the  stream,  these  cunning  animals  would  cut  down  the 
willows  and  build  formidable  dams  within  a  few  days  if  unmolested  The 
local  press  in  the  fall  of  1876  reported  Rock  river  lined  with  implements 
of  destruction  for  the  taking  of  the  valuable  pelts.  Beaver  were  taken 
along  this  stream  up  into  the  eighties."  The  railway  village  of  Beaver 
Creek  was  platted  in  October,  1877,  and  was  incorporated  October  2,  1884. 

Bruce,  a  railway  station  in  Martin  township,  platted  in  May,  1888,  was 
named  in  honor  of  one  of  the  chief  officials  of  the  Illinois  Central  rail- 
way company. 

Clinton  township,  organized  February  18,  1871,  was  named  by  vote  of 
its  people,  for  the  village  of  Ginton  in  Oneida  county.  New  York,  the 
seat  of  Hamilton  College. 

Denver  township,  the  latest  organized  in  this  county,  July  24,  1878, 
was  at  first  called  Dover  until  January  6,  1880.  It  was  renamed  with  this 
slight  change  in  spelling,  after  the  capital  of  Colorado,  "Queen  City  of 
the  Plains,"  because  another  township  of  Minnesota  had  been  earlier 
named    Dover. 

Hardwick,  the  railway  village  of  Denver,  platted  in  September,  1892, 
and  incorporated  October  10,  1898,  was  named  in  honor  of  J.  L.  Hard- 
wick,  the  master  builder  of  the  Burlington  railway  company. 

Hills,  a  railway  village  and  junction  in  Martin,  platted  in  November, 
1889,  and  incorporated  November  15,  1904,  was  at  first  called  Anderson, 
in  honor  of  Goodman  Anderson,  a  resident  there,  but  was  renamed  March 
1,  1890,  for  Frederick  C.  Hills,  who  then  was  president  of  the  Sioux 
City  and  Northern  railroad  company. 

Jasper,  a  railway  village  on  the  north  line  of  Rose  Dell  and  reaching 
into  Pipestone  county,  platted  April  19,  1888,  and  incorporated  May  9, 
1889,  was  named  for  its  excellent  quarries  of  "jasper,"  more  correctly 
to  be  termed  red  quartzite. 

Kanaranzi  township,  organized  January  15,  1873,  bears  the  name  of 
its  creek,  which  is  spelled  Karanzi  on  Nicollet's  map,  a  Sioux  word,  trans- 
lated as  meaning  ''where  the  Kansas  were  killed."  The  railway  village 
of  this  name  was  platted  in  August,  1885. 

Kenneth,  a  railway  village  in  the  northeast  corner  of  Vienna,  platted 
in  July,  1900,  was  named  for  a  son  of  Jay  A.  Kennicott,  owner  of  'la 
section  farm  half  a  mile  south  of  the  new  town." 

Luverne,  the  county  seat,  first  settled  in  1867-68,  platted  as  a  village 
in  1870,  was  incorporated  by  a  legislative  act  February  14,  1877,  and  by 
*  vote  of  its  people  November  12,  1878.  Nearly  twenty-six  years  later,  on 
September  7,  1904,  it  was  organized  as  a  city.  This  name  was  adopted 
for  the  post  office  in  the  winter  of  1868,  being  in  honor  of  Eva  Luverne 
Hawes,  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  first  settler  here,  Philo  Hawes.  She 
was  born  at  Cannon  Falls  in  Goodhue  county,  November  14,  1857;  ac- 


468  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

companied  her  parents  to  the  Rock  river  home  in  1868;  was  married  to 
P.  F.  Kelley,  September  5,  1876;  and  died  in  Luverne,  June  9,  1881.  In 
the  early  years  the  name  was  spelled  as  two  words,  Lu  Verne,  "but  the 
style  was  gradually  replaced  by  the  present  form."  The  personal  name 
was  found  in  a  novel  or  romance,  then  probably  a  new  book  or  pub- 
lished in  a  magazine,  which  was  read  by  Philo  Hawes'  cousin,  Lucy 
Cotter,  of  Red  Wing,  at  whose  request  the  baby  Luverne  was  so  named. 

As  her  father  and  mother  are  also  honored  by  the  name  of  the  village 
and  city,  this  notice  may  desirably  add  that  he  was  born  in  Danby,  N. 
Y.,  December  18,  1830,  and  died  at  Luverne,  August  10,  1906.  He  came 
to  Minnesota  in  1853;  served  as  second  lieutenant  in  the  Eleventh  Min- 
nesota regiment  in  the  civil  war;  was  a  mail-carrier  in  1867  between 
Blue  Earth,  Minn.,  and  Yankton,  Dakota  territory;  settled  on  the  site 
of  Luverne  in  March,  1868;  was  chairman  of  the  board  of  county  com- 
missioners, 1871-73;  was  postmaster  of  Luverne,  1871-74  and  1888-93; 
and  engaged  in  real  estate  and  insurance  business. 

Luverne  township,  named  from  its  earlier  village,  was  organized  Feb- 
ruary 16,  1871.    Villag;es  in  Alabama  and  Iowa  also  have  this  name. 

Magnolia  township,  organized  November  27,  1872,  was  named  for 
the  township  and  village  of  Magnolia  in  Rock  county,  Wisconsin,  on 
suggestion  of  Philo  Hawes,  who  had  lived  there.  The  railway  village  of 
this  name,  platted  in  October,  1891,  was  incorporated  September  4,  1894. 
When  first  established  as  a  station,  in  1877,  it  was  called  Drake,  for  Hon. 
Elias  F.  Drake,  of  St.  Paul,  president  of  the  Omaha  railway  company, 
who  owned  a  large  farm  here;  but  May  2,  1886,  the  name  was  officially 
changed  to  that  of  the  township'. 

Manley,  a  railway  station  in  the  south  edge  of  Beaver  Creek  town- 
ship, platted  in  October,  1889,  was  named  in  honor  of  W.  P.  Manley, 
cashier  of  the  Security  National  Bank  in  Sioux  City,  Iowa,  one  of  the 
leading  stockholders  of  the  Sioux  City  and  Northern  railroad  company. 
The  former  village  has  dwindled,  until  it  remains  only  as  a  wheat-buying 
station. 

Martin  township,  organized  March  12,  1873,  was  named  for  John 
Martin,  its  first  settler,  who  located  on  section  13  in  1869  and  built  the 
first  house  in  this  township. 

Mound  township,  established  April  21,  1877,  contains  the  large  plateau 
of  rock,  called  "the  Mound"  by  the  white  settlers,  whence  the  Rock  river 
and  this  county  are  named,  as  before  noted.  An  earlier  township,  named 
Gregory,  at  first  including  all  the  north  half  of  the  county,  had  been  or- 
ganized May  2,  1873,  at  the  home  of  Horace  G.  Gregory  in  section  35 
of  the  present  Mound  township;  but  the  six  surveyed  townships  origin- 
ally forming  Gregory  were  later  separately  organized  under  other  names. 
The  quarries  of  the  Mound,  worked  since  1875,  have  supplied  to  Luverne 
the  stone  used  in  building  the  court  house,  high  school,  and  numerous 
other  buildings. 


ROCK  COUNTY  469 

Rose  Dell  township,  organized  August  17,  1877,  bears  a  name  pro- 
posed by  W.  T.  Vickerman,  for  ''a  rocky  gorge,  filled  in  the  summer 
months  with  beautiful  wikl  roses/'  This  gorge  is  about  200  feet  wide 
and  40  feet  deep,  on  section  25,  "a  few  rods  west  of  Mr.  Vickerman's 
pioneer  home."     (History  of  the  county,  1911,  p.  67.) 

Springwater  township,  organized  May  5,  1874,  was  then  called  Al- 
bion, but  was  renamed  as  now  on  June  15  in  that  year.  "Mike  Mead  had 
immigrated  to  the  township  from  Springwater,  New  York,  and  when  he 
discovered  a  large  spring  on  section  32  it  doubtless  suggested  to  him  the 
appropriateness  of  Springwater  for  the  township,  which  through  his 
eloquence  he  persuaded  the  majority  of  the  citizens  to  accept."  (History 
of  the  county,  p.  65.) 

Steen,  a  railway  village  in  Clinton,  platted  in  the  summer  of  1888, 
was  named  in  honor  of  John  P.  Steen  and  his  brother,  Ole  P.  Steen, 
immigrants  from  Norway,  who  were  respectively  homesteaders  of  its 
site  and  an  adjoining  quarter  section. 

Vienna  township,  organized  February  10,  1874,  was  named  by  D.  A. 
Hart,  at  whose  home  the  first  township  meeting  was  held.  This  name, 
received  from  the  large  capital  city  of  Austria-Hungary,  is  borne  by 
villages  and  townships  in  Maine,  New  York,  Ohio,  Wisconsin,  and  thir- 
teen other  states  of  our  Union. 

Rivers  and  Creeks. 

This  is  one  of  the  very  few  counties  in  Minnesota  having  no  lakes. 
It  lies  south  and  west  of  the  remarkable  marginal  moraines  referable  to 
the  later  part  of  the  Ice  Age,  and  therefore  it  has  a  relatively  smooth 
drift  sheet  destitute  of  low  hills  or  swells,  with  hollows  and  lakes,  which 
are  characteristic  of  the  drift  generally  in  this  state. 

The  Rock  river.  Ash  creek,  Beaver  creek,  and  Kanaranzi  creek,  have 
been  already  noticed. 

Elk  creek,  flowing  through  Magnolia,  testifies  of  former  pasturage  of 
elk  there. 

Champepadan  creek  in  Vienna,  flowing  from  Nobles  county,  has  a 
Sioux  name,  translated  "Thorny  Wood"  on  Nicollet's  map. 

Mud  creek  flows  south  from  Martin  into  Iowa,  and  Brush  and  Four 
Mile  creeks  flow  south  west  ward  into  South  Dakota. 

Beaver  creek  receives  Little  Beaver  and  Springwater  creeks  as  tribu- 
taries. 

In  Rose  Dell  township  are  Split  Rock  and  Pipestone  creeks,  which 
have  been  noted  in  the  chapter  of  Pipestone  county. 


ROSEAU  COUNTY 

This  county  was  established  December  31,  1894,  and  received  an  addi- 
tion from  Beltrami  county,  February  10,  1896.  It  is  named  from  the 
Roseau  lake  and  river,  of  which  the  former  appears,  with  this  name,  on 
Verendrye's  map  (1737).  The  river  is  shown  on  Thompson's  map  (1814), 
with  the  name  Reed  river,  translated  from  this  French  name,  which  is  in 
turn  a  translation  of  the  Ojibway  name.  Gilfillan  wrote  it,  "Ga-shash- 
agunushkokawi-sibi  or  the-place-of-rushes-river,  or  briefly,  Rush  river." 
It  is  more  accurately  called  Reed-grass  river  on  Long's  map  (1823)  and 
on  Pope's  map  (1849).  The  very  coarse  grass,  or  reed,  referred  to  is 
Phragmites  communis,  which  is  common  or  frequent  in  the  shallow 
edges  of  lakes  throughout  the  prairie  region  of  Minnesota  and  Manito- 
ba. During  a  canoe  trip  around  all  the  shore  of  Red  lake  in  September, 
1885,  this  species  was  observed  in  great  abundance  at  many  places,  grow- 
ing 8  to  12  feet  in  height. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  and  meanings  of  geographic  names  has 
been  received  from  Syver  G.  Bertilrud,  county  auditor,  interviewed  at 
Roseau,  the  county  seat,  during  a  visit  there  in  September,  1909;  and 
from  him  a  second  time,  also  from  D.  H.  Benson,  dealer  in  real  estate, 
and  J.  W.  Durham,  janitor  of  the  High  School,  each  of  Roseau,  inter- 
viewed  there  in  September,  1916. 

Algoma  township  bears  a  name  of  Indian  derivation,  "formed  by 
Schoolcraft  from  Algonquin  and  gotna  meaning  'Algonquin  waters."' 
It  designates  a  large  district  in  Canada,  bordering  Lakes  Huron  and 
Superior. 

America  township  was  named  by  its  settlers,  mostly  bom  in  the  more 
eastern  states  and  thence  called  Americans,  in  distinction  from  the  for- 
eign immigrants  who  settled  many  townships  of  this  county. 

Badger,  a  railway  village  in  the  east  edge  of  Skagen,  took  its  name 
from  the  Badger  creek,  flowing  northwestward,  tributary  to  the  Roseau 

river. 

Barnett  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Msrron  E.  Barnett,  one  of 

its  American  homesteaders. 

Barto  township  was  named  for  a  Bohemian  settler  there. 

Beaver  township  was  named  for  its  former  colonies  of  beavers,  living 
on  the  head  streams  of  the  North  fork  of  Roseau  river. 

Blooming  Valley  is  the  most  northwestern  township  of  the  county, 
named  for  its  prairie  and  woodland  flowers  in  the  slight  depression  of  the 
Roseau  valley. 

470 


ROSEAU  COUNTY  471 

Casperson  post  office,  in  Golden  Valley  township,  was  named  for 
brothers  who  took  homestead  claims  near  it. 

Cedar  Bend  township  has  a  bend  of  the  West  branch  of  War  Road 
river,  bordered  by  many  trees  of  white  cedar,  also  known  as  the  Ameri- 
can arbor  vitae. 

Clear  River  township  received  this  name  in  allusion  to  the  clearness 
of  the  West  branch  of  War  Road  river  in  its  southwestern  part,  contrasted 
with  the  frequently  dark  color  of  streams  in  this  region,  stained  by  seep- 
age from  peaty  ground. 

Deer  township  had  formerly  many  deer,  being  a  favorite  hunting 
ground. 

Dewey  township  commemorates  Admiral  George  Dewey,  hero  in  the 
Spanish-American  war,  1898,  who  was  bom  in  Montpelier,  Vt.,  Decem- 
ber 26,  1837,  and  died  in  Washington,  D.  C,  January  16,  1917.  He  was 
graduated  at  the  U.  S.  Naval  Academy,  1858;  served  in  the  civil  war; 
was  promoted  to  be  a  captain,  1884,  commodore  in  1896,  and  admiral  in 
1899.  Soon  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war  with  Spain,  he  destroyed  the 
Spanish  fleet  off  Cavite  in  the  Bay  of  Manila,  May  1,  1898;  and  on 
August  13  his  fleet  aided  the  troops  under  General  Merritt  in  the  cap- 
ture of  Manila. 

Dieter  township  was  named  in  honor  of  a  German  settler,  Martin 
Van  Buren  Dieter,  who  later  removed  to  Montana. 

DuxBY  post  office,  in  Pohlitz,  was  named  for  its  flrst  postmaster. 

Eddy  post  office,  in  Stafford,  was  named  in  honor  of  Frank  Marion 
Eddy,  of  Sauk  Center.  He  was  bom  in  Pleasant  Grove,  Minn.,  April 
1,  1856;  taught  school  a  few  years,  and  was  land  examiner  for  the 
Northern  Pacific  railroad  company;  was  clerk  of  the  district  court  of 
Pope  county,  1884-94;  representative  in  Congress,  1895-1903;  and  later 
was  editor  of  the  Sauk  Center  Herald. 

ELkwood  township  had  elk  formerly  on  its  small  prairie  tracts,  but 
most  of  its  area  is  woodland. 

Enstkom  township  received  its  name  in  honor  of  Louis  Enstrom,  a 
homestead  farmer  and  lawyer  in  Malung,  who  was  a  member  of  the 
board  of  county  commissioners.  He  was  born  in  Sweden  in  1873,  and 
settled  here  in  1889. 

Falun  township  bears  the  name  of  an  important  mining  town  in  cen- 
tral Sweden,  famous  for  its  mines  of  copper,  silver,  and  gold,  whence  it 
is  sometimes  called  "the  Treasury  of  Sweden." 

Fox  is  a  railway  village  in  Ross,  named  for  foxes,  as  the  next  village 
and  creek  westward  are  named  for  badgers. 

Golden  Valley  township,  crossed  by  the  South  fork  of  Roseau  river, 
was  thus  auspiciously  named  by  vote  of  its  settlers. 

Greenbush,  a  railway  village  in  Hereim,  was  named  for  the  first  ever- 
green trees  seen  near  the  "ridge  road,"  as  one  comes  eastward  from  the 
Red  river  valley.    These  are  spruce  trees,  about  two  miles  northeast  of 


472  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

the  village.  An  early  trail,  later  a  wagon  road,  and  latest  the  railway, 
here  began  a  curving  course  along  a  gravel  beach  ridge  of  the  glacial 
Lake  Agassiz,  following  this  beach  for  about  twenty  miles,  or  nearly  to 
the  site  of  Roseau. 

Grimstad  township  was  named  for  John  Grimstad,  a  Norwegian 
homesteader  there,  who  removed  several  years  ago  to  North  Dakota. 

Haug  post  office,  in  Soler,  was  named  for  Theodore  £.  Haug,  a  home- 
stead farmer  from  Norway. 

Heseim  township  was  named  for  another  Norwegian  farmer,  Ole 
Hereim. 

HoMOLKA  post  office,  in  the  south  edge  of  Poplar  Grove  township, 
was  named  for  Anton  Homolka,  a  Polish  settler. 

Huss  township  bears  the  name  of  the  great  Bohemian  religious  re- 
former and  martyr,  John  Huss  (b.  1369,  d.  1415).  He  followed  Wydif 
of  England,  "the  Morning  Star  of  the  Reformation." 

Jadis,  the  township  in  which  Roseau  is  situated,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Edward  W.  Jadis,  agent  for  the  Sprague  Lumber  Company  of  Win- 
nipeg. He  was  born  in  England,  and  received  a  liberal  education  there; 
came  from  eastern  Canada  to  Minnesota  before  1875,  and  was  a  lum- 
berman on  Mud  and  Pine  creeks,  floating  the  logs*  down  the  Roseau  and 
Red  rivers  to  Winnipeg;  removed  to  Hallock,  was  auditor  of  Kittson 
county,  1887-92,  and  died  November  1,  1892. 

>  JuNEBERRY  post  officc,  in  T.  162,  R.  44,  is  named  for  a  small  tree,  vari- 
ously called  Juneberry,  service  berry,  or  shad  bush,  which  is  common  or 
frequent  throughout  Minnesota. 

Laona  township  was  at  first  called  Roosevelt,  like  its  railway  village, 
but  was  renamed  because  another  Minnesota  township,  in  Beltrami  coun- 
ty, had  earlier  received  that  name. 

Leo  post  office,  in  Barto,  was  named  in  honor  of  Leo  XHI  (b.  1810, 
d.  1903),  who  was  the  Pope  twenty-five  years,  from  1878  until  his  death. 

LiND,  the  most  southwestern  township,  is  in  honor  of  John  Lind,  the 
fourteenth  governor  of  this  state.  He  was  born  in  Kanna,  Sweden, 
March  25,  1854 ;  came  to  the  United  States  in  1867  with  his  parents,  who 
settled  in  Goodhue  county,  Minn.  He  attended  the  University  of  Minne- 
sota in  1875-6;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  New  Ulm  in  1877,  and  prac- 
ticed there,  excepting  terms  of  absence  in  official  duties,  until  1901 ;  repre- 
sented his  district  in  Congress,  1887-93;  was  governor  of  Minnesota, 
1899-1901 ;  removed  to  Minneapolis  in  1901,  and  was  again  a  member  of 
Congress,  1903-05;  president  of  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  University 
of  Minnesota,  1908-13 ;  was  envoy  of  President  Wilson  in  Mexico,  1913-14. 

LoNGWORTH,  a  railway  station  in  Algoma,  six  miles  north  of  Warroad, 
is  named  in  honor  of  Nicholas  Longworth,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  where 
he  was  born  November  5,  1869.  He  was  graduated  at  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, 1891,  and  in  its  Law  School,  1893;  was  married  to  Alice  Lee 
Roosevelt,  daughter  of  President  Roosevelt,  in  1906;  was  a  member  of 
Congress,  1903-13;  and  since  1916. 


ROSEAU  COUNTY  473 

Malung  township  and  village  have  the  name  of  a  town  in  western 
central  Sweden. 

Mandus  railway  station,  formerly  called  Lucan,  was  named  for  Man- 
dus  Erickson,  an  adjoining  Swedish  farmer. 

MicKiNocK  township  commemorates  a  petty  chief  of  the  Ojibways, 
whose  home  was  near  Ross  post  office,  west  of  Roseau  lake.  He  was  de- 
scribed as  "one  of  the  best  Indians  that  ever  lived,  intelligent,  sociable, 
and  honest." 

Moose  township  was  named  for  its  formerly  frequent  moose.  This  is 
one  of  our  few  English  words  received,  with  slight  change,  from  the 
Algonquian  languages. 

MoRANviLLE  towuship  received  its  name  in  compliment  for  Patrick  W. 
Moran,  its  first  settler,  who  came  here  in  18^. 

Neresen  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Knut  Neresen,  one  of  its 
Norwegian   homesteaders. 

Norland  township,  meaning  Northland,  adjoins  the  international  boun- 
dary. 

Oaks  township  was  named  for  Charles  Oaks,  an  American  homestead- 
er near  the  center  of  this  township,  who  was  a  stage-driver  between 
Stephen  and  Roseau  but  removed  several  years  ago  to  the  Peace  river 
valley  in  Alberta. 

Palmville  township  was  named  in  compliment  for  Louis  Palm,  a 
Swedish  homesteader  there. 

Pencer,  a  post  office  in  Mickinock,  was  intended  to  honor  John  C 
Spencer,  a  traveling  salesman  from  St.  Paul,  but  the  proposed  name  was 
thus  changed  by  the  U.  S.  postal  department.  He  took  a  homestead 
claim  near  Wannaska,  about  six  miles  distant  to  the  southwest. 

PoHLrrz  township  was  named  for  one  of  its  pioneer  homesteaders, 
an  immigrant  from  Iceland. 

PoLONiA  township  was  settled  mostly  by  immigrants  froni  Poland. 

Poplar  Grove  township  was  named  by  vote  of  its  people,  this  being 
chosen  from  the  ten  or  more  names  proposed. 

Roosevelt,  a  railway  village  in  the  southeast  corner  of  Laona,  adjoin- 
ing the  east  boundary  of  the  county,  was  named  in  honor  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  the  eminent  author  and  statesman.  He  was  born  in  New 
York  City,  October  27,  1858;  served  as  a  colonel  in  the  Spanish- Ameri- 
can war,  1898;  was  governor  of  New  York,  1899-1900;  president  of  the 
United  States,  1901-09;  was  later  an  editor  of  'The  Outlook;"  died  at 
his  home.  Oyster  Bay,  N.  Y.,  January  6,  1919. 

Roseau,  the  county  seat,  a  village  in  Jadis,  was  named  like  this  county, 
for  the  Roseau  lake  and  river. 

Ross,  one  of  the  earliest  townships  organized,  needs  further  inquiry 
for  the  selection  of  its  name,  which  is  borne  by  a  county  in  Ohio,  and 
by  villages  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  Iowa,  and  other  states. 

Salol^  a  railway  village  in  Enstrom,  was  named  by  Louis  P.  Dahl- 
quist,  formerly  a  druggist  clerk,  who  was  county  superintendent  of  schools 


474  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

and  later  the  county  treasurer.  Salol  is  a  white  crystalline  powder,  used 
as  a  remedy  for  rheumatism  and  neuralgia. 

San  WICK,  a  former  post  office  in  Dewey,  was  named  for  Aven  San- 
wick,  a  Norwegian  settler. 

Skagen  township  is  in  honor  of  Albert  O.  Skagen,  of  Ross,  who  was 
chairman  of  the  county  commissioners.  This  is  the  name  of  a  seaport 
and  cape  at  the  north  extremity  of  Denmark. 

SoLER  township  is  named  for  the  district  of  Solor  in  Norway. 

Spruce  township  had  formerly  much  spruce  timber.  Our  larger 
species,  called  black  spruce,  attaining  a  height  of  70  feet  and  diameter  of 
one  to  two  feet,  is  much  used  for  paper-making;  but  the  white  spruce, 
of  somewhat  more  northern  range,  is  a  smaller  tree,  here  growing  to  the 
height  of  about  20  feet,  with  a  diameter  of  six  to  eight  inches.  Both  are 
common  in  northern  Minnesota,  extending  westward  to  the  Roseau  river. 

Stafford  township  was  named  for  William  Stafford,  a  settler  who 
came  from  Michigan. 

Stokes  township  was  named  for  George  Stokes,  who  lived  in  Badger 
village,  adjoining  the  west  line  of  this  township. 

Strathcona,  a  railway  village  in  Deer  township,  commemorates  Don- 
ald Alexander  Smith,  later  Lord  Strathcona,  who  was  born  in  Forres, 
Scotland,  August  6,  1820,  and  died  in  London,  January  21,  1914.  He 
came  to  Canada  in  1838  in  the  service  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company;  was 
stationed  during  thirteen  years  at  trading  posts  on  the  Labrador  coast, 
and  later  in  the  Canadian  Northwest;  was  promoted  to  be  resident  gov- 
ernor for  that  company;  was  one  of  the  principal  financial  promoters 
for  construction  of  the  transcontinental  Canadian  Pacific  railway,  and 
was  a  friend  of  James  J.  Hill,  under  whose  leadership  the  Great  North- 
ern railway  was  built;  was  during  many  years  a  member  of  the  Domin- 
ion House  of  Commons;  after  1896  was  High  Commissioner  for  Canada 
in  London,  and  in  1897  was  raised  to  the  peerage  as  Baron  Strathcona 
and  Mount  Royal;  was  a  very  generous  donor  from  his  great  wealth  to 
many  institutions  of  education  and  charity. 

The  compound  title  of  his  peerage  referred  to  Glencoe,  his  summer 
home  in  the  county  of  Argyle,  Scotland,  and  to  Mount  Royal  in  Mon- 
treal, his  former  home  in  Canada.  "Glencoe,  the  glen  or  valley  of  Conan, 
has  its  equivalent  in  Strathcona."  (The  Life  of  Lord  Strathcona,  by 
Beckles  Willson,  1915,  vol.  II,  p.  265.) 

ToRFiN,  a  former  post  office  in  the  east  edge  of  Palmville,  was  named 
in  honor  of  Iver  Torfin,  a  Norwegian  pioneer,  who  was  the  first  clerk  of 
the  court  for  this  county,  1895-1905,  now  a  farmer  in  that  township. 

Wannaska^  a  hamlet  in  Grimstad,  on  a  camping  ground  of  the  chief 
Mickinock,  is  said  to  bear  an  early  Ojibway  name  of  the  Roseau  river. 
Probably  it  referred  rather  to  a  deep  place  of  the  river,  being  derived 
from  tvanashkobia,  defined  by  Baraga  as  "a  reservoir  or  basin  of  water." 

Warroad,  a  township  of  small  area  on  the  southwest  side  of  the  Lake 
of  the  Woods,  and  its  village  on  the  Warroad  river  near  its  mouth,  in- 


ROSEAU  COUNTY  475 

corporated  November  9,  1901,  are  named  from  this  river,  which  was  in 
a  neutral  tract  between  the  warring  Ojibways  and  Sioux.  Carver's  map 
from  his  travel  to  the  Minnesota  river  in  1766-67,  explains  this  term,  as 
follows:  "All  Countries  not  Possessed  by  any  one  Nation,  where  War 
Parties  are  often  passing,  is  called  by  them  the  Road  of  War." 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  name  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  is  fully  considered  in  the  first 
chapter,  treating  of  our  large  rivers  and  lakes;  and  Roseau  lake  and 
river  are  noticed  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter. 

An  unnamed  lake  near  the  international  boundary,  in  Algoma,  and 
Mud  lake,  quite  small,  in  sections  10  and  11,  T.  160,  R.  37,  complete  the 
meager  list  of  lakes  in  this  county,  which  lies  within  the  area  of  the  glacial 
Lake  Agassiz,  having  therefore  a  smoothed  surface,  with  few  hollows  for 
lakes  or  sloughs. 

Mud  and  Pine  creeks,  flowing  from  the  edge  of  Manitoba,  join  the 
Roseau  river  and  lake,  and  were  formerly  routes  of  driving  pine  logs  to 
Winnipeg. 

In  Laona  is  Willow  creek,  tributary  to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods;  and 
iu  Moranville  the  Warroad  river  is  formed  by  union  of  its  East  and 
West  branches,  having  also  between  them  a  small  affluent  called  Bull  Dog 
run. 

Roseau  river,  formed  by  its  North  and  South  forks,  which  unite  in 
Malung,  receives  also  Sucker  creek,  Hay  creek,  flowing  into  the  North 
fork,  and  Cow  creek,  these  being  tributaries  above  Roseau  lake;  and 
farther  west  it  receives  Badger  creek,  which  runs  in  a  drainage  ditch 
along  most  of  its  course. 

On  the  southwest,  the  head  stream  of  the  South  branch  of  Two  rivers 
flows  past  Greenbush,  and  thence  it  crosses  Kittson  county  to  the  Red 
river. 


ST.  LOUIS  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  by  legislative  acts  of  March  3,  1855,  and  March 
1,  1856,  is  named  from  the  St.  Louis  river,  the  largest  entering  Lake  Supe- 
rior, which  flows  through  this  county.  The  river  was  probably  so  named 
by  Verendrye  (born  1685,  died  1749),  who  was  a  very  active  explorer,  in 
the  years  1731  and  onward,  of  the  vast  country  from  Pigeon  river  and 
Rainy  lake  to  the  Saskatchewan  and  Missouri  rivers,  establishing  trading 
posts  and  missions.  The  king  of  France,  in  1749,  shortly  befofe  the  death 
of  Verendrye,  conferred  on  him  the  cross  of  St.  Louis  as  a  recognition  of 
the  importance  of  his  discoveries,  and  thence  the  name  of  the  St.  Louis 
river  appears  to  have  come.  On  Franquelin's  map  (1688)  and  Buache's 
map  (1754),  it  is  called  the  Riviere  du  Fond  du  Lac;  and  the  map  by 
Vaugondy  (1755)  and  Carver's  map  (1778)  are  the  earliest  to  give  the 
present  name.  St  Louis  county  has  the  distinction  of  being  the  largest 
county  in  this  state,  having  an  area  of  6,611.75  square  miles. 

Saint  Louis  was  born  at  Poissy,  France,  near  Paris,  April  25,  1215,  and 
died  near  Tunis,  Africa,  August  25,  1270.  From  1226  he  was  King  Louis 
IX  of  France,  his  mother  Blanche  being  regent  during  his  minority.  He 
undertook  a  crusade  to  the  Holy  Land  in  1248,  from  which,  after  a  terrible 
war,  he  returned  to  France  in  1254.  His  second  crusade  was  undertaken 
in  1267,  for  which  he  finally  sailed  from  France  on  July  1,  1270;  but  in 
this  expedition  he  died  by  an  illness,  less  than  two  months  later.  He  is 
commemorated  by  the  name  of  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  but  Louisiana  was 
named  for  Louis  XIV,  who  was  king  of  France  from  1643  to  1715. 

Townships^  Villages,  and  Cities. 

Information  of  names  has  been  gathered  from  "History  of  the  Upper 
Mississippi  Valley,"  1881,  having  pages  681-699  for  this  county ;  "History 
of  Duluth,  and  of  St  Louis  County,  to  the  Year  1870,"  by  Hon.  John  R. 
Carey,  in  the  M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  IX,  1901,  pages  241-278 ;  "History 
of  Duluth  and  St  Louis  County,"  edited  by  Dwight  E.  Woodbridge  and 
John  S.  Pardee,  1910,  two  volumes,  pages  1-412,  413-899;  and  from  J.  O. 
Walker,  deputy  county  auditor,  George  H.  Vivian,  county  treasurer,  Ed- 
ward K.  Coe,  county  engineer  of  roads,  J.  W.  Marvin,  of  the  Land  De- 
partment, Duluth,  Missabe  and  Northern  railway,  Hon.  Josiah  D.  Ensign, 
district  judge,  Hon.  William  E.  Culkin,  Jerome  E.  Cooley,  Leonidas  Mer- 
ritt,  and  John  G.  Williams,  each  of  Duluth,  the  county  seat,  and  James 
Bardon,  of  Superior,  Wis.,  and  J.  D.  Lamont,  of  the  Cole-McDonald  Ex- 
ploration Company,  Virginia,  all  being  interviewed  during  visits  in  Duluth, 
Superior,  and  Virginia,  in  August,  1916. 

476 


5^.  LOUIS  COUNTY  A77 

Adolph^  a  railway  village  in  Herman,  twelve  miles  west  of  Duluth,  has 
a  personal  name  derived  from  the  old  German  language,  meaning  "noble 
wolf,  that  is,  noble  hero." 

Alango  township  received  its  name,  probably  from  Finland,  by  choice 
of  its  settlers. 

Alborn  township  was  similarly  named  by  its  settlers,  the  Norwegians 
being  probably  more  numerous  than  those  of  any  other  nationality.  Its 
railway  station  was  at  first  named  Albert,  for  Albert  S.  Chase,  brother  of 
Kelsey  D.  Chase,  who  was  president  of  the  Duluth,  Missabe  and  Northern 
railway  company  in  1890-93. 

Alden  Lake  is  the  name  of  a  hamlet  on  the  Cloquet  river,  beside  a  lake 
through  which  the  river  flows. 

Alice,  a  Great  Northern  railway  station  one  mile  south  of  Ribbing, 
was  named  for  a  daughter  of  a  proprietor  of  its  site. 

Allen  township  was  named  in  honor  of  William  Prescott  Allen,  lum- 
berman, who  was  born  in  Thomaston,  Me.,  September  1,  1843,  and  died  in 
Portland,  Me.,  in  August,  1908.  He  served  in  the  First  Iowa  Cavalry, 
and  later  in  the  65th  U.  S.  Infantry,  attaining  the  rank  of  captain ;  settled 
in  Minnesota  at  the  close  of  the  war;  after  1881  resided  at  Coquet, 
and  was  general  manager  and  vice-president  of  the  C.  N.  Nelson  Lumber 
Company;  was  a  member  of  the  state  senate,  1891-5. 

Allen  station  and  Allen  Junction  are  railway  stations  about  seveti 
miles  east  of  Aurora,  named,  like  the  preceding  township,  which  is  12  to 
18  miles  distant  northward,  for  the  late  William  P.  Allen,  of  Qoquet. 

Angora  township  and  railway  village  bear  the  name  of  a  town  in  Asi- 
atic Turkey,  celebrated  for  its  long-haired  goats,  whose  wool  is  largely 
exported. 

Arbutus  is  the  most  northwestern  station  of  the  Duluth,  Winnipeg 
and  Pacific  railway  in  this  county,  named  for  the  fragrant  spring  flower, 
Epigaea  repens,  often  called  "trailing  arbutus,"  commonly  known  in  New 
England  as  the  Mayflower.  This  locality  is  near  the  western  limit  of  its 
geographic  range. 

Arthur  is  a  station  of  the  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railroad  about  three 
miles  east  of  French  River. 

Ash  Lake  is  a  station  of  the  Duluth,  Winnipeg  and  Pacific  railway, 
adjoining  a  small  lake  of  this  name,  about  eight  miles  north  of  Cusson  and 
Pelican  lake. 

Athens,  a  railway  station  six  miles  south  of  Tower,  was  named  for  the 
capital  city  of  Greece. 

AuLT  township  bears  the  name  of  a  village  on  the  coast  of  France  near 
the  mouth  of  Somme  river,  also  of  a  village  in  Colorado. 

Aurora,  founded  in  1898  and  incorporated  in  1903,  is  a  large  mining 
village  of  the  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railway,  about  six  miles  east  of 
Biwabik.  This  Latin  name,  meaning  the  morning,  is  borne  by  cities  in 
Illinois,  Indiana,  Missouri,  and  Nebraska,  a  township  of  this  state  in  Steele 
county,  and  villages  and  townships  in  thirteen  other  states. 


478  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Balkan  township  was  named  for  the  Balkan  mountains  of  Bulgaria. 

Bartlett  is  a  station  of  tiie  Duluth,  Winnipeg  and  Pacific  railway,  three 
miles  south  of  Qoquet  river. 

Bassett  township  was  named  for  William  Bassett,  a  cruiser,  who 
selected  tracts  valuable  for  their  pine  timber. 

Beatty  township  honors  five  brothers,  pioneers  there  in  lumbering 
and  farming. 

BntCH^  a  station  of  the  Duluth,  -Missabe  and  Northern  railway, 
four  miles  north  of  Alborn,  was  named  in  honor  of  Charles  J.  Birch, 
of  Proctor,  trainmaster  of  this  railway. 

BiwABiK  township  and  its  large  mining  village,  founded  in  1892,  on  the 
Mesabi  Iron  Range,  have  an  Ojibway  name,  meaning  iron. 

Breda,  a  station  of  the  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railroad,  four  miles 
southeast  of  Fairbanks,  was  named  for  one  of  its  Norwegian  settlers. 

Breitung  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Edward  Breitung,  of 
Negaunee,  Mich.,  who  opened  t^e  Minnesota  mine,  the  first  worked  on 
the  Vermilion  Iron  Range.  He  was  born  in  Schalkau,  Germany,  Novem- 
ber 10,  1831 ;  was  educated  at  the  College  of  Meiningen,  Germany ;  was 
mayor  of  Negaunee,  1879-82;  was  a  member  of  Congress  in  1883-85. 

Brevator  is  a  station  of  the  Great  Northern  railway,  eleven  miles 
northwest  of  Cloquet. 

Brimson,  a  village  of  the  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railroad,  near  its 
crossing  of  the  Cloquet  river,  was  named  in  honor  of  W.  H.  Brimson, 
who  was  superintendent  of  this  railroad  in  1888-89. 

Britt  is  a  station  of  the  Duluth,  Winnipeg  and  Pacific  railway, 
eight  miles  north  of  Virginia. 

Brooklyn  is  a  southeastern  suburb  of  Hibbing,  having  a  station  on 
the  Duluth,  Missabe  and  Northern  railway. 

Brookston  is  a  village  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  in  Culver 
township. 

Buchanan,  a  townsite  platted  in  October,  1856,  ''named  after  James 
Buchanan,  then  candidate  for  the  presidency  of  the  United  States,  .  .  . 
was  located  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Superior  south  west  ward  from  the 
mouth  of  Knife  river.  Like  many  other  paper  towns  on  the  north 
shore,  it  never  amounted  to  anything."  (Carey,  p.  272.)  It  had  the 
U.  S.  land  office  from  1857  until  May,  1859,  when  the  office  was  removed 
to  Portland,  later  a  part  of  Duluth. 

Buhl,  a  mining  village  of  the  Mesabi  range,  incorporated  in  1901, 
"was  named  in  honor  of  Frank  H.  Buhl,  of  Sharon,  Pa.,  president  of 
the  Sharon  Ore  Company,  which  corporation  opened  the  first  mines  in 
this  locality  in  the  spring  of  1900."  (History  of  the  county,  1910,  p. 
727.) 

Burnett^  a  station  of  the  Duluth,  Missabe  and  Northern  railway  in 
Industrial  township,  was  named  for  a  roadmaster  of  this  railway. 

BuYCK  township  was  named  for  one  of  its  pioneers,  Charles  Buyck, 
who  became  treasurer  of  this  township,  but  later  removed  to  Canada. 


ST,  LOUIS  COUNTY  479 

Canosia  township  was  named  for  a  lake  crossed  by  its  west  line, 
now  more  commonly  called  Pike  lake.  This  widely  used  Algonquian 
word  for  the  pike  6sh,  spelled  kinoje  in  Baraga's  Ojibway  Dictionary, 
is  the  same  with  Kenoza,  the  name  of  a  lake  in  Haverhill,  Mass.,  theme 
of  a  short  poem  by  Whittier,  who  translated  it  "Lake  of  the  pickerel." 
It  is  spelled  Kenosha  as  a  city  and  county  of  Wisconsin. 

Canyon  is  a  hamlet  in  the  north  edge  of  New  Independence  town- 
ship. 

Cedar  Valley  township  is  named  for  its  abundant  growth  of  the 
arbor  vitae,  more  frequently  called  "white  cedar,"  bordering  the  Flood- 
wood    river. 

Central  Lakes  is  a  village  of  the  Duluth,  Winnipeg  and  Pacific 
railway,  about  six  miles  south  of  the  St.  Louis  river. 

Chisholm,  a  very  large  mining  village,  which  was  incorporated  July 
23,  1901,  was  burned  September  5,  1906,  but  was  soon  rebuilt,  and  has 
a  population  of  about  10,000  people.  Its  great  mine,  first  worked  in 
1889,  and  the  village,  are  named  in  honor  of  Archibald  Mark  Chisholm, 
a  principal  explorer  of  the  Mesabi  range.  He  was  born  in  Alexandria, 
Ontario,  April  25,  1864;  came  to  Minnesota,  and  in  1888-94  was  pay- 
master of  the  Chandler  and  Ely  mines  on  the  Vermilion  range;  removed 
in  1894  to  Hibbing,  where  he  was  a  bank  cashier,  dealing  also  in  real 
estate  and  mining  properties;  was  discoverer  and  partner  of  several 
very  productive  Mesabi  mines,  including  this  one  bearing  his  name; 
has  large  interests  of  copper  mining  in  Arizona  and  New  Mexico;  re- 
moved in  1900  to  Duluth. 

Clifton  was  the  first  village  site  platted  in  this  county,  in  October, 
1855,  "on  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Superior  about  nine  or  ten  miles 
from  Duluth.  The  plat  of  the  townsite  showed  two  long  parallel  piers 
or  breakwaters  extending  for  hundreds  of  feet  into  the  lake,  indicating 
a  commodious  harbor;  but  it  was  all  on  paper;  the  name  was  the  only 
existence  that  Clifton  ever  had."  (Carey,  p.  253.)  A  railway  station 
of  this  name  is  on  the  old  village  site. 

Clinton  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Clinton  Markell,  who  was 
one  of  the  proprietors  of  Portland,  removed  from  Superior  to  Duluth 
in  1869,  was  mayor  of  Duluth  inr  1871-2,  and  aided  much  in  making  this 
city  a  market  for  shipment  of  grain. 

Colby  is  a  railway  station  three  miles  east  of  Aurora. 

CoLViN  township  was  named  for  Frank  S.  Colvin,  a  lumber  dealer 
in  Biwabik. 

Cook,  a  village  of  the  Duluth,  Winnipeg  and  Pacific  railway  in  Owens 
township,  platted  in  1903,  was  named  in  honor  of  Wirth  H.  Cook,  a 
lumber  dealer  of  Duluth,  chief  promoter  of  the  construction  of  this 
railway,  who  became  its  president 

CosTiN,  a  mining  townsite  near  the  large  village  of  Mountain  Iron, 
was  platted  about  1912  by  John  Costin,  Jr.,  of  Virginia,  who  was  born 
in  Hancock,  Michigan,  and  came  here  in  1893. 


482  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

DuNKA  is  a  railway  station  for  logging  on  the  Dunka  river  about 
a  tfiile  south  of  Birch  lake. 

Ellsburg  township  was  named  by  its  Swedish  settlers  for  a  place  in 
Sweden. 

Ellsmere  is  a  railway  station  in   Ellsburg. 

Elsdon  is  the  railway  station  next  north  of  Cusson. 

Ely^  a  city  on  the  Vermilion  range,  platted  as  a  village  in  1887,  in- 
corporated as  a  city  March  3,  18^1,  was  named  in  honor  of  Arthur  Ely, 
of  Qeveland,  Ohio,  one  of  the  financial  promoters  of  the  construction 
of  the  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railroad,  which  was  opened  to  traffic 
here  in  July,  1888.  He  also  was  prominent  in  the  development  of  the 
iron  mines  at  Tower. 

Another  citizen  distinguished  in  the  history  of  the  county,  for  whom 
this  city  has  been  thought  to  be  named,  was  Rev.  Edmund  Franklin  Ely, 
who  was  born  in  Wilbraham,  Mass.,  August  3,  1809,  and  died  in  Santa 
Rosa,  Cal.,  August  29,  1882.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1832,  as  a  mis- 
sionary to  the  Ojibways,  under  appointment  by  the  American  Board 
for  Foreign  Missions,  and  located  at  Sandy  lake.  In  1834  his  mission 
school  was  removed  to  Fond  du  Lac,  where  he  labored  until  May,  1839, 
then  removing  to  Pokegama.  In  1854  he  came  as  a  homesteader  to  the 
site  of  Superior,  Wis.,  and  in  the  next  year  he  settled  at  Oneota,  now  a 
part  of  Duluth.  He  platted  the  Oneota  townsite,  built  a  steam  saw- 
mill and  docks,  and  was  the  postmaster  six  years,  but  removed  in  1862 
to  St.  Paul. 

Embarrass  township  and  its  railway  station  received  this  name  from 
the  Embarrass  river,  referring  to  the  driftwood  formerly  on  some  parts 
of  this  stream,  which  was  a  difficulty  and  hindrance  to  canoes. 

Endion.  the  name  of  a  village  site  platted  in  1856,  now  a  part  of 
Duluth,  is  an  Ojibway  word,  meaning  "my,  your,  or  his  home." 

EvELBTH,  a  fnining  city  on  the  Mesabi  range,  founded  in  1894,  but 
mostly  removed  about  one  mile  in  1900,  was  given  this  name  "after  a 
woodsman  named  Eveleth  sent  up  here  from  Michigan  about  twenty 
years  ago,  in  the  interests  of  Robinson,  Flinn  and  Fowler,  to  pick  up 
pine  lands."     (History  of  the  county,  1910,  p.  705.) 

Fairbanks^  a  village  of  the  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railway,  former- 
ly called  Bassett  Lake,  eight  miles  south  of  the  St.  Louis  river,  was 
named  in  honor  of  Charles  Warren  Fairbanks,  of  Indiana.  He  was 
born  in  Union  county,  Ohio,  May  11,  1852;  was  graduated  at  the  Ohio 
Wcsle3ran  University,  1872;  was  admitted  to  practice  law,  1874,  and 
settled  in  Indianapolis;  was  U.  S.  senator,  1897-1905;  and  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  1905-09;  died  at  his  home  in  Indianapolis, 
June  4,  191& 

Fayal  township  and  the  great  Fayal  iron  mipe  were  named  for  the 
most  western  island  in  the  central  group  of  the  Azores,  which  has  an 
excellent   harbor. 


ST,  LOUIS  COUNTY  483 

Fermoy  is  a  station  and  junction  of  the  Great  Northern  railway, 
four  miles  north   of   Kelsey. 

Fern  township  received  its  name  by  vote  of  its  people,  who  repre- 
sent several  nationalities. 

Field  township  was  named  for  a  newspaper  editor,  one  of  the  or- 
ganizers of  the  township,  who  later  removed  to  Canada. 

Fine  Lakes  township  was  named  by  its  Scandinavian  people,  for  its 
numerous    little    lakes. 

Floodwood  township  and  its  railway  village,  at  the  mouth  of  Flood- 
wood  river,  received  their  name  from  the  stream,  which  formerly  was 
obstructed  by  natural  rafts  of  driftwood.  It  was  called  Embarras  river 
by  Nicollet's  map  in  1843,  which  designated  the  present  river  of  that 
name  as  Second  Embarras  river.  Both  these  streams,  like  the  Zumbro 
river  in  southeastern  Minnesota,  derived  their  old  French  name,  Em- 
barras, from  their  driftwood  hindering  canoe  travel. 

Fond  du  Lac,  bearing  a  French  name  that  signifies  "Farther  end  of 
the  lake,"  or,  as  we  should  commonly  say,  "Head  of  the  lake,"  was  a 
trading  post  of  the  Northwest  Fur  Company  in  1792,  being  then  on  the 
south  or  Wisconsin  shore  of  the  St.  Louis  river  where  it  comes  to  the 
still  water  level  of  Lake  Superior,  twelve  miles  distant  in  a  straight  line 
from  the  Minnesota  Point.  Later  the  post  of  this  name  occupied  by 
the  American  Fur  Company  was  on  the  opposite  or  Minnesota  side  of 
the  river  on  a  part  of  the  village  site  which  was  platted  in  1856,  now 
included  in  the  Duluth  city  area. 

Forbes  is  a  railway  village  in  the  north  edge  of  McDavitt  township. 

Fredenberg  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Jacob  Fredenberg,  one 
of  its  German  pioneer  settlers. 

French  township  was  named  for  William  A.  French,  an  early  home- 
steader, who  became  an  officer  of  this  township. 

French  River  is  a  village  of  the  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railroad, 
at  its  crossing  of  this  river  in  Duluth  township. 

Gheen,  a  village  of  the  Duluth,  Winnipeg  and  Pacific  railway,  six 
miles  southeast  of  Pelican  lake,  was  named  in  honor  of  Rear  Admiral 
Edward  Hickman  Gheen,  of  the  United  States  Navy,  who  was  born  in 
Delaware  county.  Pa.,  December  11,  1845.  His  wife  is  a  daughter  of 
the  late  Delos  A.  Monfort,  of  St.  Paul. 

Gilbert,  a  mining  village  of  the  Mesabi  range,  platted  in  August, 
1907,  and  incorporated  in  May,  1908,  was  named  in  honor  of  E.  A. 
Gilbert,  a  prominent  business  man  of  Duluth. 

Glendale  is  a  railway  station  about  two  miles  south  of  Orr. 

Gnesen  township  was  named  by  Polish  settlers  for  a  city  in  the 
province  of  Posen,  Prussia,  reputed  to  be  the  oldest  of  Polish  cities, 
where  until  1320  the  kings  of  Poland  were  crowned. 

Grand  Lake  township  and  railway  station  received  their  name  from 
a  lake,  which  is  large  or  grand  in  comparison  with  smaller  neighbor- 
ing lakes. 


484  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

GsEANEY^  a  hamlet  ten  miles  west  of  Gheen,  is  named  for  Patrick 
Greaney,    a   merchant    there. 

Great  Scott  township  was  named  by  the  board  of  county  commis- 
sioners, this  being  a  common  expletive  of  one  of  the  board  members. 

Halden  township  is  named  in  honor  of  Odin  Halden,  of  Duluth. 
He  was  born  in  Norway,  May  6,  1862;  came  to  the  United  States  in 
1881,  and  settled  at  Duluth  in  1882;  was  a  grocer,  1883-90;  was  deputy 
auditor  of  this  county,  1890-94,  and  has  since  been  the  county  auditor. 

Haley  is  a  railway  station  five  miles  northwest  of  Cook. 

Harris  Lake  is  a  railway  station  about  eight  miles  southwest  of 
Fairbanks,  adjoining  a  small  lake  of  this  name. 

Herman  township  was  named  by  German  settlers,  in  honor  of  the 
early  German  hero,  who  was  bom  in  the  year  17  B.  C.  and  died  in  21 
A.  D.,  renowned  for  his  defeating  the  Roman  troops  in  Germany. 

HiBBiNG,  a  large  mining  city  of  the  Mesabi  range,  yet  continuing 
under  a  village  government  as  incorporated  August  15,  1893,  was  named 
in  honor  of  Frank  Hibbing,  its  founder.  He  was  born  in  Germany  in 
1857;  came  to  the  United  States  with  his  parents  when  a  boy;  engaged 
in  lumbering  in  Duluth,  and  also  acquired  large  interests  in  the  Mesabi 
iron  mines;  discovered  the  Hibbing  ore  beds  in  the  autumn  of  1892; 
died  in  Duluth,  July  30,  1897. 

Hinsdale  is  a  railway  station  two  miles  north  of  Mesaba  village. 

Hornby,  a  railway  station  two  miles  south  of  Fairbanks,  and  Horn- 
by Junction,  a  station  eight  miles  southwest  of  the  preceding,  are 
named  for  Henry  Cook  Hornby,  of  Cloquet.  He  was  born  in  Gilbert, 
Iowa,  April  29,  1866;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1884,  and  since  1888  has 
been  in  employment  of  the  Cloquet  Lumber  Company,  being  assistant 
manager,  1897-1904,  and  afterward  manager  and  president. 

Hutter,  a  railway  station  in  the  west  part  of  Biwabik  township,  was 
named  for  H.  A.  Hutter,  of  Duluth,  an  ore  dock  agent. 

Idington  is  a  railway  station  in  Angora  township. 

Independence  is  the  name  of  a  hamlet  and  post  office  in  New  Inde- 
pendence township. 

Industrial  township  received  this  name  by  choice  of  its  settlers.  It 
is  also  the  name  of  a  village  in  West  Virginia. 

Iron  is  the  post  office  name  of  Iron  Junction,  a  village  of  the 
Duluth,  Missabe  and  Northern  railway  in  Qinton  township. 

Ironton  is  a  western  district  of  the  city  of  Duluth,  containing  the 
great   manufacturing  plant   of   the   United   States   Steel   Corporation. 

Island  is  a  Great  Northern  railway  station,  six  miles  northwest  of 
Floodwood  village,  named  for  its  having  a  tract  of  dry  farming  land, 
surrounded  by  a  very  extensive  swamp  region. 

Jones  is  a  railway  station  in  the  west  part  of  Biwabik  township, 
named  in  honor  of  John  T.  Jones,  one  of  the  discoverers  of  the  iron 
mines  of  Biwabik  and  Virginia. 


ST.  LOUIS  COUNTY  485 

Keenan  is  a  railway  station  in  the  south  part  of  Clinton,  named  for 
C  J.  Keenan,  a  station  agent. 

Kelly  Lake^  a  village  of  the  Great  Northern  railway,  four  miles 
southwest  of  Hibbing,  is  beside  a  little  lake  so  named. 

Kelsey  township  and'  its  railway  village  were  named  in  honor  of 
Kelsey  D.  Chase,  of  Faribault.  He  was  born  in  Little  Valley,  N.  Y., 
December  1,  1841 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1860 ;  served  in  the  Second 
Minnesota  regiment  during  the  civil  war;  engaged  in  mercantile  busi- 
ness, real  estate,  and  railway  and  mining  development,  residing  succes- 
sively in  Rochester,  Owatonna,  Duluth,  Crookston,  and  since  1887  in 
Faribault;  was  president  of  the  Duluth,  Missabe  and  Northern  Railway 
Co.,  1890-3;  president  of  the  Chase  State  Bank  in  Faribault. 

Kin  MOUNT  is  a  station  of  the  Duluth,  Winnipeg  and  Pacific  railway, 
five  miles  northwest  of  Ash  Lake. 

Kinney^  a  mining  village  three  miles  northeast  of  Buhl,  was  named 
in  honor  of  O.  D.  Kinney,  a  discoverer  of  the  iron  mines  of  Virginia 
and  a  founder  of   that  city. 

KiTZviLLE  is  a  mining  village  two  miles  southeast  of  Hibbing. 

KuGLER  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Fred  Kugler,  a  former 
member  of  the  board  of  county  commissioners. 

Lakeside  is  an  eastern  residential  district  in  the  city  of  Duluth. 

Lakewood  township,  beside  Lake  Superior,  is  an  area  of  woodland. 

Lavell  township  is  named  in  honor  of  a  French  homesteader,  who 
has  developed  a  good  farm. 

IIeander  is  a  railway  station  in  the  south  edge  of  Owens. 

Leiding  township  was  named  for  one  of  its  families  of  Scandina- 
vian settlers. 

Lester  Park,  a  residential  district  in  the  east  part  of  Duluth,  has  a 
small  public  park,  and  a  station  so  named  on  the  Duluth  and  Iron 
Range  railroad,  at  its  crossing  of  Lester  river. 

Linden  Grove  township  is  named  for  its  timber  of  basswood,  our 
American  linden  tree. 

LucKNOW  is  a  railway  station  for  freighting  iron  ore,  about  a  mile 
east  of  Buhl.  It  is  named  after  a  city  of  India,  where  the  British  gar- 
rison made  a  heroic  defence  against  the  Sepoy  mutineers  in  1857. 

Lynwood,  formerly  called  Stuart,  is  a  railway  station  twelve  miles 
southwest   of   Hibbing. 

McDavitt  township  was  named  for  J.  A.  McDavitt,  of  Duluth,  who 
was  a  pioneer  lumberman  here. 

McKiNLEY,  a  mining  village  of  the  Mesabi  range,  first  settled  in 
1890,  and  incorporated  in  the  autumn  of  1892,  is  named  from  the  mine 
developed  by  "the  McKinley  brothers,  John,  William,  and   Duncan," 

Maney,  a  station  of  the  Duluth,  Missabe  and  Northern  railway  in 
Alborn  township,  was  named  for  E.  J.  Maney,  of  Duluth,  general  super- 
intendent of  the   Shenango  Furnace  Company. 


486  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Markham  post  office,  near  a  lake  of  this  name,  in  Colvin  township, 
was  named  for  a  pioneer. 

Meadowlands  township  has  a  tract  of  natural  mowing  and  farming 
land,  called  meadows,  adjoining  the  White  Face  river  and  giving  the 
name  of  the  railway  village  and  the  township;  but  much  of  its  area 
consists  of  extensive  swamps,  called  muskegs. 

Merritt,  a  mining  townsite  one  mile  east  of  Biwabik,  was  named  in 
honor  of  Alfred  and  Leonidas  Merritt,  of  Duluth,  widely  known  for 
the  discovery  and  development  of  the  iron  ore  of  the  Mesabi  range, 
and  for  promoting  the  construction  of  the  Duluth,  Missabe  and  North- 
ern railroad,  and  of  the  great  ore  docks  in  Duluth.  Leonidas  Merritt, 
the  older  of  these  brothers,  commonly  called  "Lon,"  was  born  in  New 
York  state  in  1845;  served  in  Brackett's  Battalion,  Minnesota  Cavalry, 
in  the  civil  war;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1893;  and  is 
shown  as  one  of  the  statues  at  the  base  of  that  of  Governor  Johnson 
in  front  of  the  state  capitol,  being  the  prospector  carrying  a  pack  on 
his  back. 

Mesaba  township  and  mining  railway  village  were  named  from  the 
Mesabi  iron  range.  The  diverse  spellings  of  this  Ojibway  name,  and 
its  significance  as  "the  Giant's  range,"  are  considered  on  a  later  page 
of  this  chapter. 

Midway  township  is  named  from  Midway  creek,  halfway  between 
Fond  du  Lac  and  the  head  of  the  falls  and  rapids  on  the  St.  Louis  river. 

MiRBAT  is  a  Great  Northern  railway  station,  five  miles  southeast  of 
Floodwood  village. 

Missabe  Mountain  township  has  a  high  portion  of  the  Mesabi 
range,  with  the  large  mining  cities  of  Virginia  and  Eveleth  and  the  vil- 
lage of  Gilbert. 

Mitchell^  a  mining  railway  station  about  two  miles  east  of  Rib- 
bing, was  named  in  honor  of  Pentecost  Mitchell,  vice-president  of  the 
Oliver  Mining  Company. 

MoRCOM  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Elisha  Morcom,  of  Tow- 
er, a  Cornishman,  one  of  the  promoters  of  mining  development  on  the 
Vermilion  range,  being  the  first  superintendent  of  the  Soudan  mine, 
who  was  chairman  of  the  board  of  county  commissioners  when  the  new 
Court  House  was  built. 

Morse  township,  in  which  the  mining  city  of  Ely  is  situated,  was 
named  in  honor  of  the  late  J.  C.  Morse,  of  Chicago,  who  was  one  of  the 
members  of  the  Minnesota  Iron  Company. 

Mountain  Iron,  a  mining  village  of  the  Mesabi  range,  in  Nichols 
township,  first  settled  in  the  spring  of  1892,  was  incorporated  in  the 
fall  of  that  year.  Its  name  is  from  the  Mountain  Iron  mine,  the  earliest 
to  ship  ore  from  this  range,  in  August,  1892. 

Munger,  a  railway  village  in  Solway  township,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Roger  S.  Munger,  of  Duluth.  He  was  born  in  North  Madison, 
Conn.,  February  25,  1830;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1857,  and  was  partner 


ST.  LOUIS  COUNTY  487 

with  his  brother,  Russell  C.  Munger,  in  the  pioneer  music  store  of  St. 
Paul;  removed  to  Duluth  in  1869,  engaging  in  lumber  business;  in 
1872  organized  a  firm,  Munger,  Markell  and  Co.,  who  built  grain  eleva- 
tors and  made  this  city  a  great  grain  buying  and  shipping  market;  and 
was  president  of  the  Imperial  Mill  Company,  organized  in  1888,  and  of 
the  Duluth  Iron  and  Steel  Company,  organized  in  1898. 

Murray,  a  railway  station  five  miles  east  of  Tower,  was  named  for 
a  foreman  or  superintendent  of  the  Tower  Lumber  Company. 

Nagonab,  a  station  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  in  the  south  edge 
of  this  county,  bears  the  name  of  an  Ojibway,  the  head  chief  of  Fond 
du  Lac,  who  was  born  in  1795  and  died  at  Fond  du  Lac  in  June,  1894. 
He  was  influential  in  persuading  the  Ojibways  and  Sioux  to  sign  a 
treaty  at  Prairie  du  Chien  in  1825,  acknowledging  the  sovereignty  of 
the  United  States;  was  a  signer  of  a  treaty  at  La  Pointe,  Wis.,  in  1854, 
in  which  the  Ojibways  ceded  large  tracts  of  land  in  northern  Minnesota 
and  Wisconsin,  including  the  Vermilion  and  Mesabi  iron  ranges;  and 
in  1889,  at  the  age  of  ninety-four  years,  he  with  his  son  signed  further 
agreements  for  cessions  of  lands  and  rights  in  the  Fond  du  Lac  and 
Red  Lake  reservations.  His  name,  spelled  in  five  or  six  ways,  with 
accent  on  the  second  syllable,  is  translated  as  "Sitting  ahead."  (Abor- 
igines of  Minnesota,  1911,  pages  719,  720,  722.) 

New  Duluth  is  an  extreme  western  part  of  Duluth,  between  Spirit 
Lake  Park  and  Fond  du  Lac. 

New  Independence  township  was  named  by  choice  of  its  settlers, 
who  came  mostly  from  Norway  when  that  country  and  Sweden  had  the 
same  sovereign. 

Nichols  township  was  named  in  honor  of  James  A.  Nichols,  a  fore- 
man or  captain  of  ore  prospectors,  who  discovered  for  the  Merritt 
brothers  the  first  large  bed  of  iron  ore  found  on  the  Mesabi  range. 

Norman  is  the  post  ofiice  name  for  the  railway  village  of  Skibo,  five 
miles  southeast  of  Allen  Junction,  chosen  in  honor  of  Peter  Norman, 
foreman  of  a  railway  section. 

Normakna  township  was  named  in  compliment  for  immigrants  from 
Norway. 

Northland  township,  like  the  two  foregoing,  has  many  Norwegian 
settlers. 

Oneota,  a  village  on  the  northwest  shore  of  St.  Louis  bay,  platted 
in  1856  and  annexed  to  Duluth  in  1889,  received  its  name  from  a  book 
published  by  Schoolcraft  in  1845,  entitled  "Oneota,  or  Characteristics 
of  the  Red  Race  of  America."  In  the  preface  he  wrote:  "The  term 
Oneota  is  the  name  of  one  of  these  aboriginal  tribes  (the  Oneidas).  It 
signifies,  in  the  Mohawk  dialect,  the  people  who  are  sprung  from  a 
rock."  His  larger  work,  "History,  Condition,  and  Prospects  of  the 
Indian  Tribes"  (six  volumes,  1851-57),  has  an  article  of  Part  I  (pages 
176-180)  on  "An  Aboriginal  Palladium,  as  exhibited  in  the  Oneida 
stone,"  with  a  large  colored  picture  of  it.     This  stone,  named  Oneota, 


488  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

visited  by  Schoolcraft  in  the  summer  of  1845,  was  found  to  be  a  boul- 
der of  syenite  on  the  top  of  one  of  the  highest  hills  in  the  country  of 
the  Oneida  Indians  in  western  New  York. 

Orr,  a  village  at  the  east  end  of  Pelican  lake,  is  the  nearest  railway 
station  for  the  Bois  Fort  Indian  Reservation.  William  Orr  is  the  post- 
master and  owner  of  a  general  store. 

Owens  township  was  named  in  honor  of  three  brothers,  John  L., 
Samuel  H.,  and  Thomas  Owens.  The  first,  who  owns  a  farm  near 
Cook  village  in  this  township,  was  formerly  a  lumberman  and  owner 
of  a  sawmill  at  Tower,  was  one  of  the  first  to  ship  ore  from  the  Ver- 
milion range,  and  now  lives  at  Lakeside,  an  eastern  suburb  of  Duluth. 
The  second  came  to  Tower  in  1883,  was  engineer  at  its  first  sawmill, 
and  since  1902  has  been  3rardmaster  in  Eveleth  for  the  Fayal  mine 
Thomas  Owens,  of  Two  Harbors,  has  been  superintendent  of  the 
Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railroad  since  1892. 

Palmer's  is  a  post  office  and  hamlet  on  the  Duluth  and  Iron  Range 
railroad  about  two  miles  east  of  French  River. 

Palo,  a  Spanish  word  meaning  a  tree,  is  the  name  of  a  lumber-manu- 
facturing hamlet  about  ten  miles  south  of  Biwabik. 

Paufori,  a  Great  Northern  railway  village  eight  miles  west  of  Brook- 
ston,  is  diversely  spelled,  Poupore  (in  three  syllables)  being  the  post 
office  name.    The  postmaster,  Phil  Poupore,  and  the  railway  agent,  W. 

5.  Poupore,  arc  sons  of  an  Ojibway  farmer  who  is  yet  living  here. 
Payne,  a  station  of  the  Duluth,  Missabe  and  Northern  railway  nine 

miles  north  of  Alborn,  was  named  in  honor  of  a  former  secretary  of 
this  railway  company. 

Peaky  is  a  station  of  the  Duluth,  Winnipeg  and  Pacific  railway,  at 
its  crossing  of  the  St  Louis  river,  named  in  honor  of  Robert  Edwin 
Peary,  the  noted  Arctic  explorer.     He  was  born  at  Cresson,  Pa.,  May 

6,  1856;  traversed  the  inland  ice  of  northwestern  Greenland  in  1891; 
traced  the  northern  limit  of  the  Greenland  archipelago  in  1900;  and  on 
April  6,  1909,  he  reached  the  north  pole. 

Peyla  is  a  hamlet  in  Vermilion  Lake  township,  of  which  Peter 
Peyla   is   the   postmaster. 

Pike  township  has  Pike  river  flowing  through  it,  tributary  to  Ver- 
milion lake.  This  stream,  called  Vermilion  river  on  the  map  of  Owen's 
geological  survey,  published  in  1852,  is  named  from  the  fish. 

Portland^  a  townsite  platted  in  1855  on  the  north  shore  of  Lake 
Superior,  adjoined  the  original  plat  of  Duluth,  to  which  it  was  annexed 
in   1868. 

pRADUE  Lake  township  is  named  from  the  Prairie  lake  and  river, 
flowing  through  it,  tributary  to  Sandy  lake  in  Aitkin  county.  Mush- 
kodensiwi,  meaning  little  prairie,  is  the  Ojibway  name,  noted  by  Gil- 
fillan,  for  the  lake  and  river. 

Proctor  Knott,  a  village  adjoining  the  west  side  of  Duluth,  usually 
now    called    simply    Proctor,    commemorates    the    late   James    Proctor 


ST,  LOUIS  COUNTY  489 

Knott,  of  Kentucky,  before  mentioned  for  his  humorous  speech  in 
Congress  in  1871,  ridiculing  Duluth,  but  really  aiding  the  young  city 
much  by  its  advertisement.  He  was  born  near  Lebanon,  Ky.,  August 
29,  1830;  was  a  representative  in  Congress,  1867-71  and  1877-83;  gover- 
nor of  Kentucky,  1883-87;  professor  of  civics  and  law  in  Center  Col- 
lege, Danville,  Ky.,  1892-1901 ;  and  died  at  Lebanon,  Ky.,  June  18,  1911. 

Reno  is  a  railway  station  three  miles  north  of  Fairbanks. 

Rice  Lake  township  is  named  for  the  Wild  Rice  lake,  crossed  by  its 
west  line.  The  Ojibway  name  of  this  lake  means,  according  to  Gilfil- 
lan,   "the   place   of   wild   rice   amidst  the   hills." 

Rice's  Point,  a  district  of  Duluth,  between  the  harbor  and  St. 
Louis  bay,  was  named  in  honor  of  its  pioneer  landowner,  Orrin  Wheeler 
Rice,  of  Superior,  Wis.,  who  was  a  younger  brother  of  Henry  M.  and 
Edmund  Rice,  very  prominent  citizens  of  St.  Paul.  He  was  born  in 
Waitsfield,  Vt,  October  6,  1829,  and  died  in  Minneapolis,  March.  9, 
18S9.  He  filed  a  land  claim  for  this  point  in  1854,  and  was  a  member 
of  the  first  town  council  of  Duluth  in  1857.  The  first  election  in  St. 
Louis  county  was  held  at  his  house  on  this  point  in  September,  1855. 

Rivers  is  a  railway  station  about  two  miles  south  of  Tower,  named 
from  its  location  near  the  crossing  of  the  West  Two  rivers.  The 
eastern  one  of  these  rivers  flows  through  Tower. 

Robinson,  a  railway  station  nine  miles  west  of  Ely,  was  named  for 
a  lumberman  whose  logging  camp  was  beside  a  small  lake  there. 

Rollins,  a  railway  station  two  miles  southeast  of  Brimson,  was  like- 
wise named  for  an  adjacent  lumberman. 

Rush  Lass,  a  railway  station  for  logging  on  the  Duluth  and  North- 
eastern railroad,  is  beside  a  lake  of  this  name. 

Saginaw  is  a  railway  village  eight  miles  east  of  Brookston,  named 
probably  by  lumbermen  from  the  city  and  county  of  Saginaw  in  Michi- 
gan. 

St,  Louis  township  is  named  like  this  county,  for  the  St.  Louis  river, 
crossed  in  its  south  part  by  the  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railroad. 

Sandy  township  is  named  for  Sandy  lake  and  an  adjacent  Sand 
lake,  each  tributary  by  Pike  river  to  Vermilion  lake. 

Saxe,  a  railway  station  about  nine  miles  southeast  of  Buhl,  was 
named  for  Solomon  Saxe,  of  Eveleth,  who  was  a  landowner  there. 

Shaw  is  a  station  of  the  Duluth,  Winnipeg  and  Pacific  railway,  four 
miles  south  of  White  Face  river. 

Shenango,  a  mining  railway  station  two  miles  southeast  of  Chisholm, 
was  named  for  the  Shenango  Furnace  Company  of  Pennsylvania. 

Skibo,  a  station  of  the  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railway  at  its  crossing 
of  the  St.  Louis  river,  was  named  for  Skibo  Castle,  ^e  summer  home 
of  Andrew  Carnegie,  on  the  north  shore  of  Dornoch  Firth  in  the  north- 
ern part  of  Scotland. 

SoLWAY  township  was  named  for  the  Solway  Firth,  an  arm  or  inlet 
of  the  Irish  sea,  between  Scotland  and  England. 


490  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Soudan,  a  large  mining  village  near  Tower,  and  its  mine,  which  was 
the  first  in  this  state  to  ship  iron  ore,  in  1884,  were  so  named  by  D.  H. 
Bacon,  general  manager  of  this  mine,  because  the  severe  winter  cold 
here  is  very  strongly  contrasted  with  the  tropical  heat  of  the  Soudan 
(or  Sudan)   region  in  Africa. 

Sparta  is  a  mining  village  in  Missabe  Mountain  township,  incorpo- 
rated in  1897,  named  from  ancient  Greece,  like  Athens  station  near 
Tower,  but  probably  by  pioneers  coming  from  Sparta  in  Wisconsin. 

Spaulding  is  a  townsite  at  the  east  end  of  Long  lake,  between  Ely 
and  Winton. 

Stevenson  is  a  mining  village  of  the  Mesabi  range  in  the  west  edge 
of  this  county. 

Stroud  is  a  logging  station  of  the  Duluth  and  Northeastern  rail- 
way, six  miles  southwest  of  Rush  Lake. 

Stuntz  township,  which  includes  Ribbing,  was  named  in  honor  of 
George  R.  Stuntz,  of  Duluth.  He  was  born  in  Albion,  Erie  county,  Pa., 
December  11,  1820;  came  to  the  site  of  Duluth  in  1852;  was  a  land  sur- 
veyor and  civil  engineer,  and  made  extensive  surveys  in  northern  Wis- 
consin and  northeastern  Minnesota,  including  the  iron  ore  lands  along 
the  Mesabi  range;  died  in  Duluth,  October  23,  1902. 

Sturgeon  township  was  named  from  the  Sturgeon  river,  which  flows 
through  it  northwestward,  being  tributary  to  the  Little  fork  of  Rainy 
river.  The  rock  sturgeon  of  northern  Minnesota  attains  a  length  of 
six  feet  and  weight  of  a  hundred  pounds.  "On  portions  of  the  Lake 
of  the  Woods  sturgeon  fishing  is  the  chief  occupation,  thousands  of 
large  fish  being  taken  annually."  (Cox,  Fishes  of  Minnesota,  1897,  p^ 
13.) 

Taber  is  a  railway  station  six  miles  southeast  of  Angora. 

Taft  is  a  station  of  the  Duluth,  Winnipeg  and  Pacific  railway  three 
miles  north  of  the  Coquet  river,  named  in  honor  of  William  H.  Taft. 
He  was  born  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  September  15,  1857;  was  graduated 
at  Yale  University,  1878;  was  United  States  circuit  judge,  1892-1900: 
was  president  of  the  U.  S.  Philippine  Commission,  1900-01;  first  civil 
governor  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  1901-04;  U.  S.  secretary  of  war, 
1904-08;  and  president  of  the  United  States,  1909-13. 

ToivoLA  township  bears  a  Finnish  name,  equivalent  to  "Hopeville'* 
or  "Land  of  Promise,"  given  by  Thomas  Arkkola,  a  pioneer  immigrant 
from  Finland.    Toijala  is  a  village  in  the  southwest  part  of  that  country. 

Tower,  first  occupied  by  white  men  and  platted  as  a  townsite  in  18^, 
reached  by  the  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railroad  in  1884,  and  incorpo- 
rated as  a  city  March  13,  1889,  was  named  in  honor  of  Charlemagne 
Tower,  Sr.,  of  Philadelphia,  Pa.  He  was  born  in  Paris,  N.  Y.,  April 
IB,  1809;  was  graduated  at  Harvard  College,  1830;  studied  law,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1836;  practiced  law  in  Pennsylvania  twenty-five 
years;  was  captain  in  the  Sixth  Pennsylvania  regiment  in  the  civil  war; 
was  connected  with  the  Minnesota  Iron  Company  and  the  Duluth  and 


ST,  LOUIS  COUNTY  491 

Iron   Range  railroad  company,  and   was  thus   instrumental  in   opening 
in   1884  the  great  iron  industry  of  Minnesota. 

The  name  also  honors  Charlemagne  Tower,  Jr.,  who  was  born  in 
Philadelphia,  April  17,  1848;  was  graduated  at  Harvard  University, 
1872;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1878;  resided  in  Duluth,  1882-87,  where 
he  was  president  of  the  Duluth  and  Iron  Range  railroad  company,  and 
managing  director  of  the  Minnesota  Iron  Company;  was  U.  S.  ambas- 
sador to  Austria-Hungary,  1897-9,  to  Russia,  1899-1902,  and  to  Germany, 
1902-08;   resides   in   Philadelphia. 

Twig  is  a  railway  village  in  Grand  Lake  township. 

Van  Buren  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Martin  Van  Buren, 
who  was  born  at  Kinderhook,  N.  Y.,  December  5,  1782,  and  died  there, 
July  24,  1862.  He  was  United  States  senator  from  New  York,  1821- 
28;  governor  of  New  York,  1828-9;  secretary  of  state  under  President 
Jackson,  1829-31;  vice-president  of  the  United  States,  1833-7;  and 
president,   1837-41. 

Vermilion  Grove  is  a  proposed  village  site  for  summer  homes,  on 
the  south  side  of  Frazer  bay  (formerly  called  Birch  bay)  of  Vermilion 
lake. 

Vermilion  Lake  township,  adjoining  the  most  southern  arm  of  this 
lake,  thence  derived  its  name,  a  translation  of  Onamuni,  the  Ojibway 
name  of  the  lake.  George  H.  Vivian,  the  county  treasurer,  who  former- 
ly lived  in  Tower,  states  that  the  aboriginal  name  refers  to  the  red  and 
golden  reflection  from  the  sky  to  the  smooth  lake  surface  near  sunset, 
being  thus  of  the  same  significance  as  the  Ojibway  name  of  Red  lake. 

Virginia,  a  mining  and  lumber  manufacturing  city,  the  largest  of  the 
Mesabi  range  and  after  Duluth  the  largest  in  this  county,  having  a 
court  house  as  the  seat  of  the  judicial  district  for  the  north  part  of  the 
county,  was  founded  in  September,  1892,  and  was  incorporated  as  a  city 
in  1894,  after  having  been  almost  entirely  destroyed  by  a  fire  in  June, 
1893.  It  was  again  almost  wholly  burned  in  the  summer  of  1900,  from 
a  forest  fire.  This  nam^  was  proposed  by  a  lumberman  from  the  stavte 
of  Virginia,  living  in  Duluth,  who  was  a  cruiser  for  selecting  valuable 
tracts  of  pine  timber.    The  site  of  the  city  was  originally  heavily  wooded. 

Waasa  township  was  named  for  the  province  of  Vasa  (or  Waasa)  in 
western  Finland. 

Wagoner  is  the  post  office  in  Alango  township. 

Warlsten,  a  railway  station  in  Kugler  township,  was  named  for 
August  Wahlsten,  a  Swedish  lumberman  and  homesteader  in  this  town- 
ship. 

Wallace,  a  railway  station  four  miles  north  of  Kelsey,  was  named  for 
a  lumberman  there,  who  later  lived  in  Duluth. 

White  township  was  named  in  honor  of  a  mining  captain  on  the 
Mesabi  range,  in  the  employ  of  the  Kimberly  Mining  Company. 

Willow  Valley  township,  recently  organized,  needs  no  explanation  of 
its  name. 


492  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

WiLPEN  is  a  railway  village  five  miles  east  of  Hibbing. 

WiNTON,  a  large  mining  village  in  the  east  edge  of  this  county  four 
miles  northeast  of  Ely,  was  named  in  honor  of  William  C.  Winton,  a 
member  of  the  Knox  Lumber  Company  of  Duluth,  which  did  much  log- 
ging around  Ely  and  Winton.  He  was  superintendent  for  building  the 
first  sawmill  at  Winton  in  1898. 

Wolf  is  a  railway  station  and  junction,  two  miles  north  of  Iron  Junc- 
tion. 

WuoRi  township  has  a  Finnish  name,  meaning  a  mountain.  The 
southwest  part  of  this  township  has  an  exceptionally  high  and  massive 
hill  of  the  Mesabi  range,  culminating  in  section  28,  with  its  top  about 
2,150  feet  above  the  sea,  being  the  highest  land  in  this  county,  700  feet 
above  the  mining  city  of  Virginia,  three  miles  distant  to  the  southwest. 

Wyman,  a  railway  junction  three  miles  south  of  Mesaba  village,  was 
named  in  honor  of  an  old  sea  captain,  George  Wyman,  who  lived  at 
Two  Harbors. 

Ziu,  a  railway  village  in  McDavitt  township,  is  near  the  former  site 
of  the  logging  camp  of  a  lumberman  named  Zimmerman. 

Many  other  townships  in  this  county  yet  await  agricultural  settlements 
and  organization,  requiring  citation  therefore  by  the  township  number 
and  range  number. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  foregoing  pages  contain  notes  of  the  St.  Louis  river,  Alden  lake, 
Ash  lake,  Canosia  or  Pike  lake,  the  Central  lakes,  Dewey  and  Dinham 
lakes,  Dunka  river,  Embarrass  river,  the  Fine  lakes,  Floodwood  river, 
French  river,  Grand  lake,  Harris  and  Kelly  lakes,  Midway  creek.  Pike 
river,  Prairie  lake  and  river.  Wild  Rice  lake,  the  West  and  East  Two  riv- 
ers of  Tower,  Robinson  lake,  Rush  lake,  Sandy  and  Sand  lakes,  Sturgeon 
river,  and  the  large  Vermilion  lake. 

VICINITY  OF  DULUTH 

Knife  river,  having  its  sources  in  Duluth  township,  is  the  most  east- 
ern flowing  into  Lake  Superior  from  this  county.  Its  name  is  noted  by 
Gilfillan  as  translated  from  Mokomani  zibi  of  the  Ojibways. 

Sucker  river,  next  westward,  is  likewise  a  translation  from  the  O jib- 
way  name,  Namebini  zibi. 

French  river,  "R.  -des  Frangais"  of  Owen's  geological  report  in  1852,  is 
called  Angwassago  zibi  in  the  Ojibway  language,  meaning  Floodwood 
river,  the  aboriginal  name  being  thus  of  the  same  significance  with  two 
tributaries  of  the  St  Louis  river. 

Talmadge  river,  the  next  considerable  stream  westward,  was  named 
for  Josiah  Talmadge,  a  north  shore  pioneer  at  Clifton  in  1856. 

Lester  river,  named  by  the  white  people  in  honor  of  a  pioneer,  is  called 
Busabika  zibi  by  the  Ojibways,  meaning  "Rocky  Canyon  river,  or  the 


ST,  LOUIS  COUNTY  493 

river  that  comes  through  a  worn  hollow  place  in  the  rock,"  as  translated 
by  Gilfillan.  Its  aboriginal  name  comes  from  its  picturesque  gorge  in 
Lester  Park.    Amity  creek  is  tributary  to  it  from  the  west. 

Farther  west,  within  the  city  limits  of  Duluth,  are  Tischer's  creek,  Qies- 
ter  creek,  Miller,  Keene,  and  Kingsbury  creeks,  Knowlton's  creek,  Stewart 
creek,  Sargent's  creek,  and  Mission  creek.  The  last,  flowing  into  St.  Louis 
river  at  Fond  du  Lac,  was  named  from  the  early  mission  there  for  the 
Ojibways. 

Miller  creek  was  named  for  Robert  P.  Miller,  who  enlisted  from 
Duluth  in  the  Fourth  Minnesota  regiment  in  December,  1861,  and  was 
promoted  as  first  lieutenant  in  the  50th  U.  S.  Colored  Infantry  in  1863. 

Kingsbury  creek  was  named  in  honor  of  William  Wallace  Kingsbury, 
who  was  born  in  Towanda,  Pa.,  June  4,  1828,  and  died  April  17,  1892. 
He  settled  in  Endion  (later  a  part  of  Duluth)  ;  was  a  member  of  the 
Territorial  legislature,  1855-6,  and  of  the  constitutional  convention,  1857; 
was  delegate  to  Congress  from  Minnesota  Territory,  1857-8;  later  re- 
turned east 

On  the  Lake  Superior  shore  are  Knife  island,  very  small,  and  Granite 
point,  each  about  a  quarter,  of  a  mile  south  from  the  mouth  of  Knife 
river;  Stony  point  and  Sucker  bay,  adjoining  the  mouth  of  Sucker  river; 
Crystal  bay,  a  mile  northeast  from  Lester  river;  and  Minnesota  point, 
a  very  prolonged  and  somewhat  broad  sand  bar  beach  reaching  from  the 
north  shore  near  the  center  of  Duluth  about  seven  miles  southeastward, 
which,  with  the  similar  but  shorter  Wisconsin  point,  incloses  the  Duluth 
and  Superior  harbor,  also  known  as  the  Bay  of  Superior.  Through  the 
base  of  this  long  point  a  ship  canal  was  cut  in  1871,  which,  with  its  light- 
house and  the  long  piers  built  out  into  the  lake,  gives  a  protected  and  deep 
entrance  to  the  harbor. 

West  of  the  main  harbor  are  two  shorter  and  wider  sandbar  points, 
namely,  Rice's  point,  before  noted  on  the  Minnesota  side,  and  Connor's 
point  of  Superior,  Wisconsin,  which  divide  the  harbor  or  Bay  of  Supe- 
rior, from  St.  Louis  bay.  Proceeding  thence  up  the  St.  Louis  river,  one 
passes  Grassy  point,  the  large  Clough  island,  Spirit  lake  and  its  Spirit 
island.  Mud  lake,  and  Bear  island,  before  coming  to  Fond  du  Lac,  Nekuk 
island,  and  the  foot  of. the  long  series  of  rapids  and  falls  of  the  St 
Louis  river,  which  were  passed  in  the  former  canoeing  travel  by  a  port- 
age of  seven  miles  to  the  head  of  these  falls  near  Qoquet 

Along  a  distance  of  about  six  miles,  from  Thompson  and  Carlton 
nearly  to  Fond  du  Lac,  the  river  flows  in  a  rock-inclosed  gorge,  called 
the  Dalles  of  the  St.  Louis,  with  frequent  reaches  of  towering  cliffs.  It 
makes  a  descent  of  400  feet,  utilized  by  a  canal  and  penstocks  to  supply 
water  power  for  Duluth,  and  to  generate  for  the  Twin  Ports  electric 
power,  light,  and  heat  In  the  chapter  of  Chisago  county,  which  has  the 
Dalles  of  the  St  Croix  river,  the  derivation  and  significance  of  this 
French  name  have  been  previously  noted. 


494  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

BAYS^   POINTS,  AND  ISLANDS  OF  VERMILION   LAK£. 

For  Vermilion  Lake  township  the  aboriginal  origin  and  meaning  of 
this  name  have  been  stated,  being  the  same  as  for  Red  lake. 

In  the  Fifteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  geological  survey  of  Minnesota, 
for  1886,  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell  presented  a  large  map  of  Vermilion  lake, 
with  the  names  of  its  many  bays,  points,  and  islands,  noting  for  most  of 
these  features  both  the  Ojibway  name  and  its  translation.  It  will  be 
sufficient  here  to  note  the  translated  names,  and  to  designate  other  names 
that  are  applied  only  by  the  white  people,  either  on  that  map  or  in  later 
maps  and  atlases. 

Beginning  at  the  east  end.  of  the  lake  and  taking  the  names  in  their 
order  from  east  to  west,  we  have  Armstrong  river  flowing  into  Bear 
bay  and  Armstrong  bay,  the  river  and  bay  being  named  for  a  white  pio- 
neer, who  prospected  for  the  Minnesota  Iron  Company;  the  large  Bear 
island,  later  named  Ely  island  in  honor  of  Arthur  Ely,  like  the  city  of 
this  name;  the  very  little  Ant  island  and  Kid  island,  respectively  at  the 
northwest  side  and  west  end  of  Ely  island;  Stuntz  island,  named,  like  a 
township,  in  honor  of  George  R.  Stuntz,  at  the  entrance  of  Pelican  Rock 
bay,  which  has  Stuntz  bay  as  its  indented  southern  part ;  Beef  bay,  and  its 
western  part  called  Jones  bay,  names  from  white  men,  with  Basswood  and 
Birch  islands,  the  former  called  by  the  white  men  Whiskey  island;  Hoo- 
doo point,  projecting  into  the  east  part  of  Beef  bay,  and  Sucker  point, 
with  the  little  Fish  island,  the  last  two  names  being  from  the  Ojibways, 
at  the  north  side  of  its  entrance;  Mission  bay,  also  called  Sucker  bay, 
next  west  of  Beef  bay,  and  Beef  lake,  about  two  miles  farther  west, 
these  being  named  from  an  Indian  mission  school,  and  from  provisions 
used  by  mining  and  timber  prospectors ;  Birch  point,  three  miles  long  and 
narrow,  and  Black  Duck  point,  the  latter  a  wide  peninsula  of  very  irregu- 
lar outline;  Black  Duck  bay,  and  Tree  island;  and  Birch  bay,  called  in 
the  latest  atlas  Frazer  bay. 

The  foregoing  names  belong  to  the  southern  side  of  the  eastern  and 
relatively  broad  two-thirds  of  Vermilion  lake.  On  the  northern  side  of 
that  part,  in  the  same  order  from  east  to  west,  are  the  very  little  New- 
foundland island,  a  white  man's  name;  Cedar  island,  called  Key  island 
by  white  people  in  allusion  to  its  outline;  Brush  bay  and  river;  Spring 
and  Rice  lakes,  the  latter  connected  by  a  very  narrow  strait,  a  mile  long, 
with  the  main  lake;  Pine  island,  six  miles  long,  of  very  irregular  form, 
having  a  Narrows  north  of  its  east  end,  a  Little  portage  crossing  an  isth- 
mus of  this  island,  and  Porcupine  bay  and  island  north  of  its  western 
part;  Bear  Trap  creek,  a  mile  west  of  the  Narrows;  Trout  river,  Short 
portage,  at  its  rapids,  and  the  large  Trout  lake,  with  Pine  island  in  its 
northern  part;  Silver  island,  at  the  northeast  side  of  Birch  or  Frazer 
bay;  and  Menan  island,  the  most  eastern  in  a  series  of  five  islands  on 
the  north  side  of  Birch  bay. 


ST.  LOUIS  COUNTY  495 

Advancing  northward  and  westward  beyond  Birch  or  Frazer  bay,  one 
passes  Avis  island,  nearly  two  miles  long,  named  for  a  daughter  of  Prof. 
N.  H.  Winchell;  Birch  river  or  narrows  and  Oak  island,  coming  to  Out- 
let bay  and  the  rapids  in  the  Vermilion  river  at  the  mouth  of  this  lake; 
Bear  narrows,  leading  into  the  West  bay;  Farm  island,  named  from' its 
cultivation  by  the  Ojibways,  at  the  center  of  this  bay;  Long  bay,  its  north- 
east arm;  Partridge  bay  on  the  north,  connected  by  a  long  strait,  called 
the  Partridge  river,  with  the  West  bay;  and  Big  island.  Little  Farm 
island.  Little  Sucker  river,  and  Sturgeon  portage,  at  the  west  end  of  the 
lake. 

The  map  of  Long's  expedition,  in  1S23,  gives  the  name  of  Vermilion 
lake,  as  if  it  were  on  or  very  near  the  international  boundary;  Nicollet 
mapped  it  somewhat  correctly;  and  the  map  of  Owen's  survey,  published 
in  1852,  shows  both  the  lake  and  the  inflowing  Pike  river,  which  it  calls 
Vermilion  river,  a  name  now  restricted  to  the  outflowing  stream. 

On  a  later  map  of  Vermilion  lake  by  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell,  in  the 
Final  Report  of  the  geological  survey  (vol.  IV,  1899),  the  same  nomen- 
clature is  presented  as  in  1886,  excepting  omission  of  minor  details  and 
insertion  of  Wakemup's  village  on  the  southwest  shore  of  West  bay. 

A  very  large  drafted  map  of  the  county,  used  in  the  office  of  the 
county  auditor,  agrees  with  the  latest  atlas  of  the  state,  published  in  1916, 
by  designating  the  several  broad  parts  of  Vermilion  lake,  in  order  from 
east  to  west,  as  Armstrong  bay,  east  of  Ely  island;  Pike  bay,  close  west 
of  Tower,  formerly  called  Beef  bay,  into  which  the  Pil^  river  flows; 
Big  bay,  the  main  broad  body  of  the  lake;  Daisy  bay,  next  northwest 
of  the  very  long  and  narrow  Birch  point;  Frazer  bay,  called  Birch  bay 
by  the  Ojibways;  Niles  bay,  also  known  as  Outlet  bay;  and  Wakemup 
bay,  formerly  called  West  bay.  Armstrong,  as  before  noted,  was  a  min- 
ing prospector;  Frazer  bay  commemorates  the  late  John  Frazer,  of  Du- 
luth,  who  was  a  timber  explorer  or  cruiser;  and  Wakemup  was  the 
anglicized  name  of  an  Ojibway  chief,  Way-ko-mah-wub,  a  signer  of  the 
treaty  or  agreement  in  1889,  whose  village  was  at  the  southwest  side  of 
that  western  bay. 

Other  changes  from  Winchell's  map  in  1886  are  found  in  the  atlas  of 
1916,  including  Lost  lake,  instead  of  Beef  lake,  two  miles  west  of  Mission 
bay;  Hillsdale  island,  instead  of  Avis  island;  Norwegian  bay,  for  the 
Long  bay  of  the  Ojibways,  branching  off  northeast  from  Wakemup  bay; 
and  Black  bay,  for  Partridge  lake  and  river,  the  long  northern  arm  of 
Wakemup  bay.  Here  immigrants  from  Norway,  and  the  dark,  peat- 
stained  water,  have  given  the  newer  names  last  noted. 

Railway  advertising  pamphlets  claim  365  islands  in  Vermilion  lake, 
counting  many  formed  by  rock  ledges,  very  small  in  area;  but  nearly  all 
these  islands  are  unnamed. 


496  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

THE   INTERNATIONAL   BOUNDARY. 

Lakes  and  streams,  flowing  westward  to  Rainy  lake,  were  traversed  by 
the  former  canoe  route  on  the  boundary  of  St.  Louis  county  in  the  fol- 
lowing order  from  east  to  west  as  described  by  Sir  Alexander  Mackenzie 
in  his  "General  History  of  the  Fur  Trade  from  Canada  to  the  North- 
west" (forming  a  part  of  his  "Voyages  from  Montreal  ...  in  the 
Years  1789  and  1793"). 

Crooked  lake,  adjoining  also  the  northwest  corner  x>i  Lake  county,  is 
translated  from  its  old  French  name,  Croche,  meaning  crooked,  bent, 
given  by  the  early  voyageurs  and  traders  in  allusion  to  its  exceedingly 
irregular  outlines.  Next  was  the  Portage  de  Rideau,  meaning  Curtain 
portage,  400  paces  long,  named  "from  the  appearance  of  the  water,  falling 
over  a  rock  of  upwards  of  thirty  feet."  About  three  miles  farther,  after 
crossing  the  similarly  very  irregular  Iron  lake,  the  canoemen  passed  over 
the  Flacon  portage,  meaning  a  flagon  or  decanter,  hence  translated  as 
Bottle  portage,  "whidi  is  very  difficult,  is  400  paces  long,  and  leads  to  the 
Lake  of  La  Croix  [the  Cross],  so  named  from  its  shape." 

Thence  the  route  on  Lac  la  Croix,  for  nearly  thirty  miles,  was  first 
northward,  next  a  long  distance  westward,  and  at  last  southward,  to  the 
Portage  la  Croix,  600  paces  long.  Beyond  are  the  Loon  lake  and  river, 
the  latter  also  called  Little  Vermilion  river,  reaching  about  four  miles 
to  the  Little  Vermilion  lake,  narrow  and  riverlike,  "which  runs  six  or 
seven  miles  nprth-northwest,  and  by  a  narrow  strait  communicates  with 
Lake  Namaycan  [also  spelled  Namekan  or  Nemeukan,  an  Ojibway  word, 
meaning  Sturgeon],  which  takes  its  name  from  a  particular  place  at  the 
foot  of  a  fall,  where  the  natives  spear  sturgeon." 

Sand  Point  lake,  as  named  on  later  maps,  and  the  Lake  Namekan, 
connected  by  a  winding  and  riverlike  strait,  having  a  descent  of  only  a 
few  inches,  were  described  by  Mackenzie  as  a  single  lake,  spelled  by 
him  Namaycan.  Thence  the  descent  to  Rainy  lake  is  nine  feet,  at  the 
Chaudiere  falls  and  portage,  which  is  the  French  name  given  to  the  fall, 
meaning  a  great  boiling  kettle.  The  preferred  canoe  route,  however, 
passed  westward  a  few  miles  on  Lake  Namekan  and  thence  crossed  the 
Nouvelle  or  New  portage  as  a  more  expeditious  route  to  Rainy  lake. 

Early  maps  by  Long,  Nicollet,  Owen,  and  Andreas,  from  1823  to  1874, 
note  Namekan  or  Sturgeon  lake  as  reaching  far  west  toward  the  Black 
bay,  near  the  west  end- of  Rainy  lake;  but  on  later  maps  the  western  half 
of  this  irregular  and  partly  constricted  body  of  water  bears  another 
Ojibway  name,  Kabetogama  lake,  meaning,  as  defined  by  Gilfillan,  "the 
lake  that  lies  parallel  or  double,  namely  with  Rainy  lake."  Thompson,  in 
1826,  mapped  this  western  part  as  "Lac  Travere,"  (probably  meant  for 
Travcrs),  and  the  east  part  as  "Lake  Nemeukan."  The  French  name, 
"Travere"  or  Travers,  which  may  be  translated  as  "abreast  or  alongside," 
referred  doubtless  to  the  aboriginal  name,  Kabetogama. 


ST.  LOUIS  COUNTY  497 

Within  the  half  of  Rainy  lake  that  borders  St.  Louis  county,  it  is  near- 
ly divided  in  two  by  the  "Grande  Detroit/'  as  named  on  Thompson's 
boundary  map  in  1825-6,  meaning  the  Great  strait  The  part  of  the  lake 
east  of  this  strait  was  mapped  by  Thompson  with  an  aboriginal  name 
''Wapesskartagar  or  Rainy  lake,"  which  is  not  found  in  Baraga's  Ojib- 
way  Dictionary,  needing  therefore  additional  search  to  learn  its  origin 
and  meaning.  The  larger  part  west  of  the  strait  is  designated  by  his  map 
as  ''Koocheche  sakahagan  or  Rainy  lake,"  for  which  a  full  consideration 
has  been  presented  in  the  chapter  of  Koochiching  county. 

Returning  to  the  northeast  comer  of  this  county,  we  need  to  note 
that  it  borders  on  the  western  part  of  Hunter's  Island,  a  large  tract  of 
Canada,  as  before  explained  in  the  chapter  for  Lake  county. 

Adjoining  the  Flacon  or  Bottle  portage,  a  very  large  island  on  the 
Canadian  side  of  the  southeast  part  of  Lac  la  Croix  is  called  Shortiss 
island  by  the  latest  atlas,  but  it  was  named  Irving  island  on  the  map  of 
St.  Louis  county  in  the  Final  Report  of  the  Minnesota  geological  sur- 
vey. Next  northwestward  this  lake  has  Coleman  island,  about  four  miles 
long  and  irregularly  branched,  on  the  Minnesota  side  of  the  boundary. 

For  this  large  and  very  diversified  lake,  named  La  Croix  by  the  French, 
''from  it  shape,"  the  map  by  Thompson,  in  1826,  gives  also  an  Ojibway 
name,  Nequawkaun,  spelled  Nequowquon  on  recent  maps,  which  seems  to 
be  the  same  word  as  Negwakwan,  defined  by  Baraga  as  "a  piece  of  wood 
put  in  the  incision  of  a  maple  tree"  (apparently  the  spout  to  collect*  sap 
for  sugar-making).  Throughout  northern  Minnesota  the  Ojibways,  ac- 
cording to  Qark,  commonly  made  much  maple  sugar  at  the  time  of  sap- 
running  each  spring,  averaging  north  of  Lake  Superior  from  100  to  500 
pounds  for  each  lodge.  A  different  name  used  by  the  Ojibway  people 
for  this  lake  is  given  by  Giliillan,  "Sheshibagumag  sagaiigun,  the  lake 
where  they  go  every  which  way  to  get  through." 

Loon  lake  is  translated  from  its  Ojibway  name. 

Gilfillan  noted  their  name  of  the  river  north  of  Hunter's  Island,  "Ga- 
wasidjiwuni  zibi,  or  River  shining  with  foam  of  rapids."  This  stream, 
the  outlet  of  Lake  Saganaga,  lies  in  Canada;  and  the  international  boun- 
dary, following  the  canoe  route,  crosses  a  water  divide  between  Saganaga 
and  the  Otter  Track  or  Cypress  lake.  Thereby  Hunter's  Island,  an  area 
of  about  800  square  miles,  is  set  off  to  Canada,  although  it  lies  south  of 
the  continuous  watercourse  from  North  and  Saganaga  lakes  to  Rainy 
lake. 

Again  the  boundary,  if  it  followed  the  natural  waterflow,  instead  of 
the  established  route  of  canoe  travel,  would  lead  from  Lake  la  Croix  by 
its  outlet,  Namekan  river,  more  directly  westward  into  Namekan  lake, 
instead  of  taking  the  circuitous  course,  easier  for  canoes,  through  4^ on, 
Little  Vermilion,  and  Sand  Point  lakes,  thus  giving  to  Canada  a  tract  of 
about  125  square  miles  south  of  the  natural  and  uninterrupted  water- 
course.    These  and  other  features  of  our  northern  boundary  are  more 


498  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

fully  noted  in  two  papers  by  Dr.  U.  S.  Grant  and  Prof.  Alexander  N. 
Winchell  in  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  Collections  (vol.  VIII, 
1898,  pages  1-10  and  185-212,  with  a  map  at  page  40). 

Another  very  interesting  historical  paper,  with  references  to  early  sur- 
veys by  David  Thompson  and  his  admirable  detailed  maps,  published'  in 
1898,  is  also  included  in  these  Collections  (vol.  XV,  1915,  pages  379-392), 
entitled  "Northern  Minnesota  Boundary  Surveys  in  1822  to  1826,  under 
the  Treaty  of  Ghent,"  by  Hon.  William  E.  Culkin,  of  Duluth. 

BAYS,   POINTS,  AND  ISLANDS  OF  RAINY  LAKE. 

From  a  geological  map  of  Rainy  lake  by  Horace  V.  Winchell  and  Dr. 
U.  S.  Grant  (Final  Report,  Geol.  of  Minnesota,  vol.  IV,  1899,  p.  192). 
the  following  names  are  noted. 

Near  Kettle  falls,  between  Namekan  and  Rainy  lakes,  the  latter  lake 
has  Tierney  point.  Hale  bay,  and  a  large  Oak  Point  island,  these  being  on 
the  Canadian  side  of  the  boundary. 

Westward,  along  the  Minnesota  shore,  are  Lobstick  point.  Rabbit 
island,  and  Sand  Narrows;  a  nameless  coast  for  the  next  seven  miles; 
then  Big  island,  the  Pine  islands,  Saginaw  bay,  and  Point  Observe; 
Brule  Narrows,  which  Thompson  called  "Grande  Detroit,"  the  newer 
French  name  Brule  being  given  in  allusion  to  adjacent  burned  wood- 
lands; Cranberry  bay,  and  Dryweed  island,  which  has  its  east  extremity 
at  the  northwest  corner  of  St.  Louis  county  and  reaches  west  three  miles, 
beside  the  Itasca  county  shore. 

In  both  Namekan  and  Kabetogama  lakes  this  map  shows  many  islands, 
from  the  smallest  size  to  a  mile  or  more  in  length ;  but  only  one.  Big  Pine 
island  in  Kabetogama,  is  named. 

OTHER  PARTS  OF  THIS   COUNTY. 

There  remain  many  other  lakes  and  streams,  to  be  additionally  cata- 
logued, but  considerable  numbers  of  relatively  small  lakes  and  creeks  are 
yet  unnamed.  The  further  names  are  arranged  in  the  order  of  the  town- 
ships from  south  to  north,  and  of  the  ranges  from  east  to  west. 

White  Pine  creek  flows  from  Canosia  or  Pike  lake,  through  Mud  lake, 
to  the  St  Louis  river  about  a  mile  above  Nagonab. 

Lake  Antoinette  is  in  section  28,  Rice  Lake  township. 

Caribou  lake,  named  for  reindeer  formerly  frequent  here,  adjoins 
the  west  side  of  Canosia  township.  . 

Gose  south  of  Grand  lake  is  the  smaller  Second  Grand  lake,  and  the 
stream  flowing  thence  west  and  north  to  the  Qoquet  river  is  named  Grand 
Lake  river. 

Sunset  lake  is  in  section  15,  Industrial. 

Cloquet  river  received  this  French  surname  on  Nicollet's  map  in  1843, 
but  twenty  years  earlier  it  was  called  Rapid  river  on  the  map  of  Long's 
expedition. 


ST,  LOUIS  COUNTY  499 

Artichoke  river,  joining  the  St.  Louis  river  in  Culver,  is  named  from 
its  wild  artichokes,  a  sunflower  species  having  tuberous  roots,  much  used 
as  food  by  the  Indians,  which  is  common  or  frequent  throughout  this 
state. 

East  Savanna  river,  having  its  mouth  near  Floodwood  village,  was  a 
part  of  the  canoe  route  from  Lake  Superior  and  the  St.  Louis  river  to 
the  West  Savanna  river,  Sandy  lake,  and  the  upper  Mississippi.  The 
word  Savanna,  more  frequently  used  in  Georgia  and  Florida,  is  of  Ameri- 
can Indian  origin,  meaning  a  treeless  area,  and  it  is  here  applied  to  tracts 
of  partly  marshy  grassland,  over  which  the  portage  between  the  East 
and  West  Savanna  rivers  was  made. 

Gnesen  township  has  Eagle  lake,  named  for  nesting  eagles,  and  Dalka, 
Jacobs,  and  Schultz  lakes,  named  for  pioneer  farmers. 

Fredenberg  has  Cook's,  Gibson,  and  Orchard's  lakes,  each  named  for 
a  pioneer,  and  Beaver  river,  the  outlet  of  Wild  Rice  lake. 

In  New  Independence  township  are  Artichoke  or  Benson  lake  and 
Schelin's  lake;  and  in  Alborn  are  Crooked  lake  and  Olson  and  Schellin 
lakes. 

T.  52,  R.  19,  has  Spider  lake,  probably  named  for  its  small  tributary 
creeks,  reminding  one  of  the  legs  of  a  spider. 

White  Face  river,  joining  the  St.  Louis  in  the  east  edge  of  Van 
Buren,  was  first  mapped  and  named  by  Owen  in  1852,  the  name  being 
translated  from  the  Ojibways. 

T.  53,  R.  13,  has  Alden,  Barr's  and  Lienau  lakes,  named  for  lumber- 
men and  trappers. 

The  next  township  westward  has  Island  lake,  on  the  Cloquet  river,  and 
Boulder  and  Thompson  lakes,  the  last  being  named  for  an  early  lumber- 
man. 

T.  53,  R.  15,  has  Otter  lake  and  Boulder  creek,  flowing  southward  to 
Qoquet  river. 

T.  53,  R.  16,  is  crossed  by  Ushkabwahka  river,  and  Leora  lake  is  in 
its  northwest  corner.  The  Ojibway  name  of  the  river  is  translated  by 
GilflUan  as  "the  place  of  the  wild  artichokes,"  being  thus  of  the  same 
meaning  as  another  stream  before  noted,  tributary  to  the  St.  Louis  river. 

Northland  township  has  Nichols  lake. 

T.  54,  R.  12,  has  Pequaywan  lake,  an  Ojibway  name  of  undetermined 
meaning,  and  seven  other  lakes  of  smaller  size  unnamed. 

T.  54,  R.  16,  has  Witchel  lake,  with  three  others  larger  but  unnamed; 
and  Bug  creek  is  there  tributary  to  the  White  Face  river. 

T.  54,  R.  17,  has  Kaufit  and  Williams  lakes. 

Sand  creek  is  a  western  tributary  of  the  St.  Louis  river  in  Toivola. 

Floodwood  lake,  source  of  the  river  of  this  name,  which  was  earlier 
noted,  is  in  the  west  edge  of  this  county  in  T.  54,  R.  21. 

T.  55,  R.  12,  has  Brown,  White,  and  Stone  lakes. 

T.  55,  R.  14,  has  Sullivan  lake  in  sections  23  and  24. 


500  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

T.  55,  R.  15,  has  Comstock  and  Wasuk  lakes,  the  second  being  of 
small  area  in  sections  17  and  18. 

Among  seven  lakes  mapped  in  T.  55,  R.  16,  only  Dinham  lake  has  a 
name,  which  it  gave  also  to  the  adjacent  railway  station. 

The  next  township  westward  has  Young  lake,  and  these  townships  are 
crossed  by  Pale  Face  river,  tributary  to  the  White  Face. 

East  Swan  river,  and  its  tributary.  West  Swan  river,  are  translated 
from  the  Ojibway  name. 

T.  56,  R.  13,  has  Wolf  and  Harris  lakes  on  its  southern  border,  the 
latter  giving  its  name  to  a  railway  station. 

Linnwood  lake  is  in  T.  56,  R.  14,  and  Markham  lake  in  T.  56,  R.  15. 

Next  are  Mud  Hen  lake  and  creek,  and  Long  lake,  which  outflows 
westward  by  the  Water  Hen  river. 

T.  56,  R.  17,  has  in  its  southern  half  Elliott,  Fig,  Anchor,  Murphy,  and 
Stone  lakes.  The  singularly  branched  form  of  Anchor  lake  suggested  its 
name. 

McDavitt  has  eight  unnamed  lakes  in  its  east  edge ;  and  in  its  section 
18  the  St  Louis  river  receives  from  the  north  two  small  tributaries, 
named  the  East  and  West  Two  rivers. 

T.  57,  R.  12,  has  Bassett  and  Cadotte  lakes  in  its  southwest  comer, 
Pine  lake  at  its  northeast  corner,  and  its  north  line  crosses  Long  lake, 
which  also  has  been  called  Jack  Pine  lake. 

T.  57,  R.  16,  has  Bass  lake  in  its  sections  1  and  2. 

Fayal  township,  next  west,  has  Ely  lake,  which  was  formerly  called 
Cedar  Island  lake,  St.  Mary  lake,  and  Forbes  lake. 

Qinton  has  Elbow  lake,  named  from  its  shape;  and  the  next  town- 
ship has  McQuade  lake. 

Hibbing  and  its  vicinity  have  Carson  and  Kelly  lakes.  Lake  Alice,  and 
Carey  lake. 

T.  58,  R.  12,  has  Seven  Beaver  lake,  the  principal  head  of  the  St. 
Louis  river,  named  by  the  Ojibways  for  beavers  trapped  or  shot  there; 
Big  lake,  named  Dead  Fish  lake  on  Nicollet's  map,  but  on  some  recent 
maps  called  Devil  Fish  lake;  also  Swamp  and  Stone  lakes,  and  on  its 
south  line  are  Pine  and  Long  lakes,  before  noted. 

Partridge  river,  flowing  through  the  lake  of  this  name,  is  a  northern 
affluent  of  the  St.  Louis  river;  and  Sunfish  lake  lies  close  southwest  of 
Partridge  lake. 

Embarrass  river,  previously  noticed,  flows  through  a  series  of  three 
long  lakes,  where  it  intersects  the  Mesabi  range,  named  Wine,  Embarrass, 
and  Eshquaguma  lakes,  the  first  and  second  being  translated  from  their 
Ojibway  names.  The  first,  which  is  the  most  northern,  is  renamed  Sabin 
lake  on  several  maps;  but  the  people  of  the  Mesabi  mining  range  uni- 
versally know  it  by  the  translation  of  its  aboriginal  name,  given  by  Gil- 
fillan  as  "Showiminabo,  or  Wine  lake,  literally  Grape-liquid  lake."  The 
name  of  the  second  of  these  lakes,  as  of  the  river,  comes  through  the 


ST,  LOUIS  COUNTY  501 

French  language  of  the  former  fur  taders  and  voyageurs,  referring  to 
driftwood  which  obstructed  parts  of  the  river;  and  the  third  name, 
£»hquaguma,  means  "Last  water  or  Last  lake/' 

Wanan  lake  is  in  the  west  edge  of  Biwabik  township ;  and  in  the  south- 
east part  of  Missabe  Mountain  township  are  Crooked  and  Lost  lakes. 

In  the  city  of  Virginia  are  Silver  and  Virginia  lakes. 

Nichols  township  has  Manganika  and  Mashkenode  lakes,  Ojibway 
names  that  need  further  inquiry  for  their  meanings;  and  the  first  is  also 
called  on  some  maps  Three  Mile  lake. 

Longyear  lake,  at  Chisholm,  was  named  in  honor  of  brothers  superin- 
tending mines  there. 

T.  58,  R.  21,  has  Rock,  Day,  and  Moran  lakes. 

T.  59,  R.  15,  has  Little  Mesabi  lake. 

T.  59,  R.  20,  has  Long  lake;  and  in  the  next  township  are  Dewey, 
Island,  Hobson,  and  Gansey  lakes,  with  ten  other  small  lakes  that  are 
mapped  but  not  named. 

In  T.  60,  R.  13,  Iron  lake  has  been  also  called  Thevot  lake. 

Big  Rice  lake  is  in  T.  60,  R.  17,  outflowing  by  Rice  river  to  the  South 
branch  of  the  Little  Fork  of  Rainy  river. 

Sturgeon  lake,  on  the  west  line  of  the  county,  is  the  head  of  Sturgeon 
river,  tributary  to  the  Little  Fork;  and  adjoining  it  on  the  east  is  Side 
lake,  named  from  its  position. 

In  the  townships  numbered  61  are  Birch  lake,  Bear  Island  lake,  which 
is  called  Stuntz  lake  on  the  map  of  this  county  by  the  Minnesota  geo- 
logical survey,  Bear's  Head  lake,  and  Putnam  lake;  the  East  and  West 
Two  rivers,  tributary  to  Vermilion  lake;  and,  in  the  west  edge  of  the 
county,  Bear  river,  flowing  to  Sturgeon  river. 

T.  62,  R.  12,  has  White  Iron  lake  and  One  Pine  lake. 

T.  62,  R.  14,  has  the  Eagle  Nest  lakes;  Gem  lake,  in  section  29;  Sand 
or  Armstrong  lake,  flowing  west  to  Armstrong  bay  of  Vermilion  lake, 
before  noted ;  and  Mud  lake  and  river. 

T.  63,  R.  12,  has  Long  lake,  adjoining  Ely,  besides  several  unnamed 
lakes  in  its  northern  part. 

Bumtside  lake  and  river  are  translated  from  their  Ojibway  name, 
referring  to  burned  tracts  of  forest.  The  scenery  of  this  lake,  hav- 
ing more  than  sixty  islands  on  our  maps,  all  nameless,  was  highly  praised 
by  Prof.  Alexander  Winchell. 

T.  63,  R.  15,  has  Pine,  Long,  and  Crab  lakes,  the  last  being  named  from 
the  four  arms  or  claws  stretching  out  from  its  north  side. 

Trout  lake,  of  large  area,  has  been  noticed  in  connection  with  Ver- 
milon  lake. 

Next  westward  are  Sea  Gull  and  Wolf  lakes. 

In  T.  63,  R.  18,  Black  lake  and  creek  are  tributary  to  Black  bay  of 
Vermilion  lake,  each  being  named  from  the  peat-stained  water. 

Willow  river  and  Beaver  creek  How  westward  to  the  Little  Fork. 


502  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

m 

Many  unnamed  lakes  are  in  the  townships  numbered  64,  with  Gear 
lake,  very  irregularly  branched,  in  T.  64,  R.  14. 

Hawkinson  creek  is  a  western  tributary  of  Vermilion  river  in  T.  64, 
R.  17. 

Elbow  and  Susan  lakes  outflow  by  Elbow  river,  through  Rice  lake,  to 
the  Pelican  river  at  Glendale. 

Pelican  lake  and  river  are  tr^slated  from  their  Ojibway  name,  given 
as  Shetek  on  Owen's  map  in  1852,  which  also  is  the  name  of  a  large 
lake  in  Murray  county. 

T.  65,  R.  15,  has  in  its  east  part  the  Indian  Sioux  river,  also  called 
Loon  river,  which  flows  north  to  Loon  lake  on  the  international  boun- 
dary ;  and  in  its  west  part  are  Lakes  Crellin  and  Jeannette. 

Fensted  lake  is  in  section  30,  T.  65,  R.  16;  Olive  lake,  in  sections  27 
and  28,  T.  65,  R.  17;  Kjorstad  and  Myrtle  lakes  are  in  T.  65,  R.  18;  Moose 
lake,  in  sections  28  and  33^  T.  65,  R.  19;  and  Net  lake,  into  which  Lost 
creek  flows,  is  crossed  by  the  west  line  of  T.  65,  R.  21,  which  is  the  county 
boundary. 

The  townships  numbered  66  to  71,  extending  to  the  Canadian  line, 
have  many  lakes,  of  which  those  along  the  boundary  have  been  already 
noticed.  Others  bearing  names  on  maps  include  Shell  lake,  close  east 
of  Loon  river;  Rachel,  Herman,  Echo,  and  Rice  lakes,  east  of  the  Ver- 
milion river;  Crane  lake,  through  which  that  river  flows  near  its  mouth; 
Lake  Marion,  in  sections  16  and  17,  T.  67,  R.  18;  Elephant  and  Black 
Duck  lakes,  in  T.  66,  R.  19 ;  Ash  lake,  at  the  railway  station  of  that  name, 
with  Ash  river  running  thence  north  to  Kabetogama  lake;  Long  lake 
and  Moose  lake  and  river,  tributary  to  Namekan  lake;  Spring  and  John- 
son lakes,  flowing  by  the  small  Namekan  river  to  the  lake  so  named,  be- 
fore considered ;  and  a  little  Net  lake,  in  sections  4  and  9,  T.  68,  R.  18. 

Hills,  Mountains,  and  the  Iron  Ranges. 

The  highest  elevations  in  this  county,  popularly  designated  as  "moun- 
tains," would  be  classed  merely  as  hills  in  any  really  mountainous  region. 
Furthermore,  it  must  be  noted  that  the  so  called  "iron  ranges"  are  belts 
of  land  along  which  very  great  beds  of  iron  ore  have  been  found,  com- 
prising hills  and  ridges  in  parts  of  their  course,  but  in  other  large  parts 
having  no  considerable  height  above  the  adjoining  country  on  each  side. 

With  topographic  exaggeration,  Schoolcraft  in  1820  and  again  with 
Allen  in  1832  called  the  belt  of  highland  north  and  west  of  the  west  end 
of  Lake  Superior,  adjoining  the  sites  of  Duluth  and  Fond  du  Lac,  the 
Cabotian  mountains.  This  name  was  derived  from  Cabotia,  applied  by 
Bouchette,  a  French  author,  "to  all  that  part  of  North  America  lying 
north  of  the  Great  Lakes,"  in  honor  of  John  and  Sebastian  Cabot,  father 
and  son,  who  were  the  earliest  making  voyages  of  discovery  to  the  main- 
land of  this  continent,  in  1497  and  149a  The  Dalles  of  the  St.  Louis 
river,  before  noted,  are  in  the  westward  extension  of  this  range,  as 


ST,  LOUIS  COUNTY  503 

mapped  by  Allen,  but  his  delineation  of  its  continuation  farther  west  has 
no  warrant  in  the  land  contour.  Eastward  from  this  river,  the  Cabotian 
range  may  be  regarded  as  continuous  along  all  the  northwest  shore  of 
Lake  Superior  in  this  state,  since  practically  the  same  highland  adjoins 
all  the  lake  coast  to  the  Sawteeth  moimtains  and  Mt.  Josephine  in  Cook 
county.  Within  the  western  limits  of  Duluth,  about  a  mile  west  of 
Morgan  Park,  one  of  the  hills  of  the  range  is  called  Bar  don's  peak,  in 
honor  of  James  Bardon,  of  Superior,  Wis. 

Grandmother  hill  is  in  section  8,  T.  57,  R.  13. 

Bald  motmtain,  merely  a  hill,  is  in  section  23,  T.  64,  R.  19. 

The  Vermilion  iron  range,  named  from  Vermilion  lake  on  its  north 
side,  has  Sunset  peak  in  section  15,  T.  63,  R.  12,  about  two  miles  west  of 
Winton;  Chester  peak,  three  miles  east  of  Tower,  named  in  honor  of 
Prof.  A.  H.  Chester,  but  often  by  error  called  Jasper  peak;  and  the 
North  and  South  ridges,  respectively  near  Soudan  and  Tower. 

Albert  Huntington  Chester,  commemorated  by  Chester  peak,  was  born 
at  Saratoga  Springs,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  22,  1843;  was  graduated  at  the  Colum- 
bia School  of  Mines,  1868;  was  professor  of  chemistry,  mineralogy  and 
metallurgy  in  Hamilton  College,  1870-91,  and  later  in  Rutgers  College; 
and  died  in  1903.  For  the  Minnesota  Iron  Company  in  1875,  he  made 
explorations  of  both  the  Mesabi  and  Vermilion  ranges;  but  his  obser- 
vations remained  unpublished  until  1884,.  when  they  were  presented  in 
the  Eleventh  Annual  Report  of  the  Minnesota  Geological  Survey,  for 
1882  (pages  154-167). 

To  work  the  Vermilion  iron  mines,  the  construction  of  the  Duluth 
and  Iron  Range  railroad  was  completed  to  Tower  in  1884,  and  to  Ely  in 
1888.  The  first  trainload  of  ore  was  taken  from  Tower  to  Two  Harbors, 
the  Lake  Superior  port  of  this  railroad,  in  August,  1884. 

On  the  very  productive  central  part  of  the  Mesabi  iron  range,  the 
Mountain  Iron  mine  was  the  first  discovered,  November  16,  1890,  "by  a 
crew  of  workmen  under  Capt.  J.  A.  Nichols,''  for  whom  Nichols  town- 
ship, including  this  mine,  was  named,  as  before  noted.  '*In  August,  1891, 
the  next  large  deposit  was  discovered  by  John  McCaskill,  Capt  Nichols, 
and  Wilbur  Merritt;  this  has  since  developed  into  the  Biwabik  group  of 
mines.  In  1892  two  railroads  were  built  to  the  range,  and  in  1893  the  ship- 
ments amounted  to  620,000  gross  tons."  (Horace  V.  Winchell,  "Historical 
Sketch  of  the  Discovery  of  Mineral  Deposits  in  the  Lake  Superior  Region," 
23d  Annual  Report,  Minn.  Geol.  Survey,  for  1894,  pages  116-155.)  More 
full  description  and  history  of  this  range  are  presented  in  "The  Mesabi 
Iron-bearing  District  of  Minnesota,"  by  Charles  K.  Leith,  this  work  be- 
ing Monograph  XLIII,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  1903  (pages  316,  with  maps 
and  many  other  plates). 

Nicollet  mapped  this  highland  range  as  "Missabay  Heights,"  the 
earliest  published  form  of  the  name;  but  Dr.  Joseph  G,  Norwood,  who 
explored  the  St  Louis,  Embarrass,  and  Vermilion  rivers  in  1848,  for 


504  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Owen's  geological  survey,  wrote  it  ''Missab6  Wachu,  or  'Big  Man  Hills/ 
which  form  a  portion  of  the  dividing  highlands  between  the  waters  of 
Hudson's  Bay  and  Lake  Superior."  Gilfillan  noted  the  Ojibway  name  as 
"Missabe  wudjiu  or  Giant  mountain/'  in  which  spelling  the  final  e  is  to 
be  pronounced  with  the  English  sound  of  long  a,  as  if  having  the  accent 
given  by  Norwood,  being  thus  equivalent  to  Nicollet's  spelling.  Ver- 
wyst,  in  his  later  list  of  Ojibway  geographic  names,  uses  the  same  orthog- 
raphy ;  and  both  these  lists  copy  the  spelling  of  Baraga's  Dictionary,  pub- 
lished in  1880,  which  defines  this  word  as  "Giant;  also,  a  very  big  stout 
man."  Gilfillan  added  the  following  note  in  his  list:  "Missabe  is  a 
giant  of  immense  size  and  a  cannibal.  This  is  his  mountain,  consequently 
the  highest,  biggest  mountain." 

But  the  spelling  used  by  Norwood,  Baraga,  GilBtlan,  and  Verwyst, 
having  a  final  e  sounded  as  in  French  and  other  European  languages,  is 
apt  to  be  mispronounced  by  American  and  English  readers,  who  would 
in  analogy  wfth  the  usage  of  our  language  pronounce  Messabe  in  two 
syllables,  with  a  as  in  fate  or  babe.  Although  the  Duluth,  Missabe  and 
Northern  railway  company  adopted  that  form,  as  also  the  township  of 
Missabe  Mountain,  while  another  township  makes  it  Mesaba,  the  Minne- 
sota and  United  States  geological  surveys  use  the  preferable  form  of 
Mesabi,  which  readers  will  surely  pronounce  in  three  syllables.  Yet  they 
must  by  analogy  give  to  the  last  syllable  the  short  sound  of  i,  as  in  Mis- 
sissippi, whereas  Nicollet's  spelling  is  strictly  in  accordance  with  the 
Ojibway  pronunciation,  requiring  the  final  syllable  to  be  sounded  as 
hay.  More  satisfactory  would  be  Missabi,  if  we  should  not  fully  follow  the 
spelling  by  Nicollet,  for  then  the  name  would  show  its  meaning,  great, 
like  Mississippi,  Great  river. 

Henry  H.  Eames,  state  geologist  of  Minnesota  in  1865-66,  wrote  this 
name  as  Missabi  Wasju;  and  Col.  Charles  Whittlesey,  in  his  report  on 
the  "Mineral  Regions  of  Minnesota"  published  in  1866,  set  the  example 
of  spelling  it  as  "the  Mesabi  Range." 

Several  references  along  this  range  to  mountainous  heights  attained 
in  portions  of  its  extent,  including  Mesaba  (that  is,  Giant),  Wuori,  and 
Missabe  Mountain  townships,  and  the  village  of  Mountain  Iron,  would 
seem  to  imply  greater  altitudes  than  from  200  to  300  feet  above  the  aver- 
age of  the  adjoining  region,  up  to  the  exceptional  700  feet  in  Wuori 
above  Virginia  city.  Such  ridges  and  hills,  however,  are  very  note- 
worthy in  comparison  with  the  relatively  slight  elevations  found  generally 
throughout  this  state. 

Marginal  Moraines  and  Glacial  Lakes. 

In  the  series  of  twelve  successive  marginal  moraines  formed  along 
the  borders  of  the  continental  ice-sheet  at  pauses  that  slackened  or  in- 
terrupted its  final  melting,  the  latest  two  are  well  exhibited  on  or  near 
the  iron  ore  ranges.  Thence  they  are  named  the  Mesabi  or  Eleventh 
and  the  Vermilion  or  Twelfth  moraines. 


ST.  LOUIS  COUNTY  505 

Contemporaneous  with  the  wavering  retreat  of  the  ice-border,  the 
basins  of  the  Red  and  Rainy  rivers  and  of  Lake  Superior  were  filled 
by  great  ice-dammed  lakes,  called  glacial  lakes.  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell, 
the  state  geologist,  reviewed  the  evidences  of  these  glacial  lakes,  enum- 
erating twenty-six  for  this  state,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Geological 
Society  of  America  and  published  in  its  Bulletin  (vol.  XII,  1901,  pages 
109-128,  with  a  map). 

Within  the  basin  of  Lake  Superior  and  lying  partly  in  the  area  of 
St  Louis  county,  the  list  includes  Lake  Upham,  first  described  and  named 
in  1901  (Final  Report,  Geology  of  Minnesota,  vol.  VI,  plate  66),  which 
had  an  estimated  extent  of  about  1,000  square  miles  in  the  St.  Louis 
basin,  outflowing  past  Sandy  lake  to  the  Mississippi ;  and  Lakes  St.  Louis, 
Nemadji,  and  Duluth,  flowing  to  the  St.  Croix  river,  the  first  two  by  way 
of  Carlton  county  and  the  Kettle  river,  and  the  last  by  the  Brule  river 
in  Wisconsin  to  the  Upper  St.  Croix  lake  and  river.  Lakes  St.  Louis  and 
Nemadji  received  their  names  from  the  present  rivers,  of  which  the 
latter,  emptying  into  Lake  Superior  in  the  city  of  Superior,  was  called 
Nemadji  by  the  Ojibways,  meaning  Left  Hand,  because  in  entering 
Superior  bay,  west  of  the  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  points,  which  inclose 
the  harbor,  that  stream  was  on  the  left  hand,  the  St.  Louis  river  being  on 
the  right. 

The  basin  of  Lake  Winnipeg  held  a  much  larger  glacial  lake,  named 
Lake  Agassiz  in  1879,  described  most  fully  in  the  U.  S.  (ieol.  Sur.  Mono- 
graph XXV  (1896,  658  pages,  with  many  maps  and  other  plates).  In 
the  22d  Annual  Report  of  the  Minnesota  survey,  for  1893,  this  ancient 
lake  was  mapped  as  reaching  eastward,  during  its  highest  stage  on  the 
international  boundary,  to  the  west  part  of  Hunter's  Island.  By  the 
recent  field  work  and  map  of  Frank  Leverett  and  Frederick  W.  Sarde- 
son  for  the  Minnesota  and  United  States  geological  surveys,  published 
in  1917,  the  highest  shore  of  Lake  Agassiz  is  traced  eastward  in  the 
Little  Fork  valley  nearly  to  the  middle  of  the  south  side  of  Vermilion 
lake.  Other  observations  by  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell  imply  that  this  glacial 
lake  stood  about  10  or  15  feet  above  the  level  of  Vermilion  lake  (Final 
Report,  Geology  of  Minn.,  vol.  IV,  1899,  page  523).  Hence  we  know 
that  it  must  have  extended  east  along  the  boundary  to  Knife  and  Otter 
Track  lakes,  on  the  southeast  side  of  Hunter's  Island,  if  the  ice-sheet 
there  was  melted  away  before  Lake  Agassiz  receded  from  its  highest 
stage. 

Between  its  mouth,  at  Lakes  Traverse  and  Big  Stone,  and  Vermilion 
lake,  in  a  distance  of  240  miles,  the  old  lake  level  at  its  highest  or  Her- 
man stage  shows  now  an  ascent  from  1050  to  1370  feet  above  the  sea,  or 
an  average  gradient  of  one  foot  and  a  third  per  mile.  In  other  words, 
since  the  time  of  the  Herman  level  of  the  glacial  lake,  this  area  in  north- 
ern Minnesota  has  been  differentially  uplifted  or  tilted,  giving  now  to 
the  highest  and  earliest  lake  beach  an  ascent  of  320  feet  in  240  miles  from 
southwest  to  northeast. 


506  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

National  and  State  Forests. 

In  the  chapters  for  Cook  and  Lake  counties,  the  large  area  of  the 
Superior  National  Forest  has  been  previously  considered,  with  the  date, 
February  13,  1909,  when  its  earliest  part  was  reserved  by  the  United 
States  government  for  foresty  uses.  From  western  Cook  county  this 
public  forest  area  crosses  north  central  Lake  county,  and  it  continues 
halfway  across  northeastern  St.  Louis  county,  to  Echo  lake  and  nearly 
to  the  Vermilion  river. 

South  of  the  National  Forest,  this  state  owns  two  tracts,  comprising 
together  about  20,000  acres,  or  more  than  30  square  miles,  of  rocky  land, 
lying  in  T.  63,  R.  14,  and  T.  64,  R.  13,  close  west  and  north  of  Burnt- 
side  lake.  These  tracts,  named  the  Burntside  State  Forest,  were  "grant- 
ed to  the  state  by  act  of  Congress,  April  28,  1904,  for  tree  propagation  and 
playground  purposes.  .  .  .  The  forest  contains  forty-three  lakes,  all 
connected,  and  one  of  the  noted  canoe  routes  of  the  state  passes  through 
it.  The  entire  district  can  be  developed  into  a  splendid  playground.  The 
abundance  of  fish  and  big  game  make  it  especially  attractive."  (Legisla- 
tive Manual  of  Minnesota,  1917,  p.  223.) 

Indian  Reservations. 

By  a  treaty  at  La  Pointe,  Wis.,  September  30,*  1854,  the  Ojibways  ceded 
to  the  United  States  a  great  tract  in  northeastern  Minnesota,  including 
Cook  and  Lake  counties  and  the  greater  part  of  St.  Louis  county,  reach- 
ing west  to  the  St.  Louis,  East  Swan,  and  Vermilion  rivers.  Less  than 
a  year  later,  in  a  treaty  at  the  city  of  Washington,  February  22,  1855, 
they  ceded  lands  farther  west  and  southwest,  from  the  St.  Louis  and 
East  Swan  rivers  to  the  Red  river,  Otter  Tail  lake,  and  Crow  Wing  river ; 
and  in  another  treaty  at  Washington,  April  7,  1866,  the  Ojibway  lands  of 
northwestern  St.  Louis  county  and  eastern  Koochiching  county  were 
ceded,  excepting  the  Bois  Fort  reservation,  including  and  surrounding 
Net  lake.  This  reservation,  more  fully  noticed  under  Koochiching  county, 
reaches  three  miles  into  the  west  edge  of  St.  Louis  county,  with  an  ex- 
tent of  twelve  miles  from  north  to  south. 

The  Fond  du  Lac  reservation,  in  St.  Louis  and  Carlton  counties,  was 
provided  under  the  treaty  of  La  Pointe  in  1854,  comprising  a  tract  on 
the  southwest  side  of  the  St.  Louis  river,  reaching  from  Coquet,  Nagon- 
ab,  and  Brevator,  west  nearly  to  the  middle  of  Range  19. 

Latest  provided,  by  an  executive  order  of  the  President,  December 
20,  1881,  the  Vermilion  Lake  reservation  comprises  only  about  two  square 
miles,  being  an  irregular  tract  between  Pike  bay  and  Mission  or  Sucker 
bay,  between  two  and  four  miles  west  of  Tower. 


SCOTT  COUNTY 

Established  March  5,  1853,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of  Gen- 
eral Winfield  Scott,  who  was  commander  in  chief  of  the  United  States 
army  from  1841  to  1861.  He  was  born  near  Petersburg,  Va.,  June  13, 
1786,  and  died  at  West  Point,  N.  Y.,  May  29,  1866 ;  entered  the  army  as 
captain  in  1808;  served  with  distinction  in  the  War  of  1812,  and  was 
made  a  brigadier  general  and  brevet  major  general  in  1814;  was  chief 
commander  in  the  Mexican  war,  1847;  and  was  an  unsuccessful  Whig 
candidate  for  President  in  1852.  General  Scott  visited  Fort  St.  Anthony 
in  the  spring  of  1824,  for  inspection  of  its  construction,  then  completed, 
and  on  his  recommendation  its  name  was  changed  to  Fort  Snelling  by  a 
general   order   of  the  War   Department,  January  7,   1825. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  was  gathered  in   "History  of  the   Minnesota- 
Valley,"  1882,  having  pages  290-351  for  Scott  county ;  and  from  Nicholas 
Meyer,  judge  of  probate  since  1880,  and  William  F.  Duffy,  clerk  of  the 
court,  interviewed  at  Shakopee,  the  county  seat,  during  a  visit  there  in 
July,  1916. 

Harden,  a  railway  station  six  miles  east  of  Shakopee,  received  its 
name  in  1885,  in  honor  of  J.  W.  Barden,  "who  was  largely  interested  in 
grain  elevators  and  other  business  enterprises  here  and  hereabouts*' 
(Stennett,  Place  Names  of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railways, 
1908,  page  167). 

Belle  Plaine  township,  first  settled  in  1852-53,  and  its  village,  founded' 
in  1854,  were  named  by  Hon.  Andrew  G.  Chatfield,  an  associate  justice 
of  the  supreme  court  of  Minnesota  Territory,  who  settled  here  in  1854. 
It  is  a  French  name,  meaning  "beautiful  plain." 

Blakeley^  settled  in  1853  and  established  as  a  township  by  a  legis- 
lative act,  March  9,  1874,  received  the  name  of  its  railway  village, 
founded  in  1867  by  Elias  F.  Drake  and  I.  N.  Dean,  by  whom  it  was 
named  in  honor  of  Captain  Russell  Blakeley,  who  was  Wpn  in  North 
Adams,  Mass.,  April  19,  1815,  and  died  in  St.  Paul,  Febmry  4,  1901. 
His  connection  with  steamboating  from  Galena  to  St.  Paul  began  in  1847, 
and  he  continued  in  it,  sCs  clerk  and  afterward  as  captain  and  traffic 
manager,  during  many  years.  Later  he  engaged  in  staging  and  express^ 
ing  in  Minnesota  and  Dakota,  and  had  large  interests  in  banking,  in- 
surance, and  railway  companies.  He  settled  in  St.  Paul  in  1862.  He  was 
president  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  in  1871,  and  vice-president 
from  1876  until  his  death,  and  contributed  to  its  Collections  the  "History 
of  the  Discovery  of  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  Advent  of  Commerce 

507 


508  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

in  Minnesota"  (vol.  VIII,  1898,  pages  503-418,  with  his  portrait  and  eleven 
plates  of  early  steamboats).  A  biographic  sketch  of  him  is  in  these 
Collections  (vol.  IX,  1901,  pages  66S-670). 

Brentwood,  a  village  site  platted  in  September,  1860,  was  united 
with  Jordan  when  that  place  was  incorporated  as  a  village  in  1872. 

Cedar  Lake  township,  settled  in  1855  and  organized  April  11,  1858, 
was  named  from  the  lake  crossed  by  its  west  line,  having  red  cedar  trees 
on  its  shores. 

CkEDiT  River  township,  settled  in  1854  and  organized  in  1858,  bears 
the  name  of  the  stream  flowing  through  it,  called  Credit  or  Erakah 
river  on  Nicollet's  map  in  1843.  Twenty  years  earlier  it  was  named 
Elk  creek  on  the  map  of  Long's  expedition. 

Eagle  Creek  township,  first  settled  by  Rev.  Samuel  W.  Pond  in  the 
fall  of  1847,  was  organized  in  1858,  receiving  the  name  of  a  creek  which 
has  its  source  in  Pike  lake,  in  section  23,  and  flows  northeastward  to  the 
Minnesota  river. 

Elko,  a  railway  village  in  New  Market,  has  a  name  that  is  also  borne 
by  villages  in  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  and  by  a  county 
and  its  county  seat  in  Nevada. 

Glendale  township,  first  settled  in  the  spring  of  1852,  has  a  name 
borne  by  villages  in  Massachusetts,  Ohio,  Wisconsin,  and  fourteen  other 
states. 

Grainwood  is  the  name  of  a  railway  station,  with  a  village  mainly 
consisting  of  summer  homes,  between  Prior  and  Long  lakes,  in  the  south 
edge  of  Eagle  Creek  township. 

Helena  township,  first  settled  in  1854,  organized  May  12,  1858,  and 
the  railway  station  on  its  north  line,  bear  the  name  of  an  earlier  village 
platted  in  1856  on  section  11  by  John  C.  Smith.  It  is  the  name  also  of 
the  capital  of -Montana,  a  city  in  Arkansas,  and  villages  in  eight  other 
states. 

Jackson,  a  township  of  small  area,  adjoining  the  city  of  Shakopee, 
was  first  settled  in  the  spring  of  1851,  and  was  organized  May  11,  1858. 
It  was  called  Shakopee  township  until  the  incorporation  ef  the  city, 
when  the  remaining  part  of  the  township  was  renamed  Jackson  by  a 
legislative  act,  January  17,  1871.  Like  many  counties,  townships,  villages, 
and  cities,  throughout  the  United  States,  it  was  probably  named  in 
honor  of  President  Andrew  Jackson   (b.  1767,  d.  1845). 

Jordan,  platted  by  Thomas  A.  and  William  Holmes  in  1854,  incor- 
porated as  a  village  February  26,  1872,  and  as  a  city  March  11,  1891,  was 
named  by  William  Holmes  for  "the  River  Jordan  in  Palestine.  The 
name  was  given  at  the  end  of  a  somewhat  angry  and  prolonged  dis- 
cussion amongst  the  citizens  as  to  what  the  name  should  be.''  (Stennett, 
Place  Names  of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railways,  page  180.) 

Louisville  township,  named  like  its  former  village  for  the  large  city 
of  Louisville  in  Kentucky,  the  previous  home  of  H.  H*  Spencer,  who 


SCOTT  COUNTY  509 

settled  here  in  1853,  was  originally  a  part  of  Shakopee,  from  which  it 
was  set  off  April  13,  185a  The  village  of  Louisville,  platted  in  1854, 
grew  well  during  four  or  five  years,  until  it  had  thirty  houses  or  more; 
but  within  a  few  years  later  its  buildings  were  mostly  removed  to 
Carver,  or  were  torn  down,  and  the  site  is  now  farming  land. 

Merriam,  a  proposed  village  of  the  St.  Paul  and  Sioux  City  railroad, 
platted  in  1866  but  abandoned  in  1871,  and  the  present  station  of  Merriam 
Junction  in  Louisville,  established  in  1875,  were  named  by  Gen.  Judson 
W.  Bishop,  chief  engineer  of  this  railroad,  in  honor  of  John  L.  Merriam, 
who  was  bom  in  Essex,  N.  Y.,  February  6,  1825,  and  died  in  St.  Paul, 
January  12,  1895.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1860,  settling  in  St.  Paul, 
where  he  engaged  with  J.  C.  Burbank  and  Capt  Russell  Blakeley  in  the 
staging  and  expressing  business.  He  helped  to  organize  the  First  Na- 
tional Bank  and  the  Merchants'  National  Bank  of  St  Paul,  and  was 
president  of  the  latter.  In  1870-1  he  was  a  representative  in  the  legisla- 
ture, being  speaker  of  the  House. 

New  Market  township,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1856,  was  at  first 
named  Jackson,  when  it  was  organized  in  May,  1858 ;  but  it  was  renamed 
as  now  at  the  election  held  October  12,  1858.  The  name  is  thought  to 
have  been  adopted  from  the  town  of  New  Market  near  Cambridge  in 
England,  famous  for  its  horse  races.  Thirteen  other  states  have  villages 
of  this  name. 

New  Prague,  founded  in  1856,  incorporated  as  a  village  March  1, 
1877,  and  as  a  city  April  4,  1891,  was  named  for  the  ancient  city  of 
Prague,  the  capital  of  Bohemia,  whence  many  of  its  first  colony  of 
settlers  came.  This  city  lies,  in  about  equal  parts,  in  Scott  and  Le  Sueur 
counties;  the  main  street,  running  east  and  west,  is  on  the  county  line. 

Prior  Lake,  a  railway  village  near  the  lake  so  named,  in  the  north 
edge  of  Spring  Lake  township,  was  platted  in  1875,  taking  the  name  of 
a  post  office  that  had  been  established  in  1872.  The  lake,  post  office, 
and  village,  thus  successively  named,  are  in  honor  of  Charles  H.  Prior, 
of  Minneapolis,  who  in  1871-86  was  superintendent  of  the  Minnesota 
divisions  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  railway,  and  since  1886 
has  been  a  dealer  in  real  estate.  He  was  born  in  Norwich,  Conn.,  August 
1,  1832 ;  studied'  at  Oberlin  College  and  the  Ohio  State  University. 

St.  Lawrence  township,  first  settled  in  1854,  was  organized  May  11, 
1858.  Its  village,  platted  in  the  fall  of  1858,  was  all  vacated  for  farming 
uses  before  1882.  New  York  has  a  county  and  a  village  of  this  name, 
which  also  is  borne  by  villages  and  townships  in  five  other  states,  de- 
rived from  the  river  and  gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  The  name  was  first 
applied  by  Cartier  to  a  bay  at  the  north  side  of  the  gulf,  August  10, 
1536,  this  being  the  festal  day  of  St.  Lawrence,  who  suffered  martyrdom 
on  August  10,  A.  D.  258. 

Sand  Creek  township  was  first  named  Douglass  at  its  organization. 
May  11,   1858;  but  in   September  it  was  changed  to  St.  Mary,  and  in 


510  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

December  to  Jordan.  The  present  name  was  adopted  at  the  annual 
town  meeting,  April  5,  1859,  being  taken  from  the  stream  that  flows 
through  this  township  and  supplies  water  power  at  Jordan.  It  was 
mapped  by  Nicollet  as  "Batture  aux  fieves,"  meaning,  "shallow,  with 
fevers."  Next  on  the  map  of  Minnesota  dated  January  1,  1860,  it  is 
called  Fever  river,  and  also  has  a  Sioux  name,  Chankiyata  river,  of 
undetermined  meaning,  while  a  settlement  near  the  site  of  Jordan  is 
named  Sand  Creek.  Numerous  outcrops  of  soft  white  sandstone  occur 
there,  whence  the  stream  and  township  were  named. 

Savage,  a  railway  village  in  the  northeast  corner  of  Glendale,  after 
being  called  Hamilton  during  many  years,  was  renamed  in  honor  of  Mar- 
ion Willis  Savage,  who  here  owned  a  horse-training  farm,  with  a  covered 
track  for  practice  in  racing.  He  was  born  near  Akron,  Ohio,  March  26, 
1859;  removed  to  Minneapolis  in  1886,  and  engaged  in  manufacture  of 
stock  foods;  purchased  the  world's  champion  racing  horse,  Dan  Patch, 
for  $60,000,  in  1SH)2;  constructed  the  Dan  Patch  electric  railway,  from 
Minneapolis  to  Savage,  Northfield,  and  Faribaiilt;  died  in  Minneapolis, 
July  12,  1916,  on  the  next  day  after  his  famous  horse  died.  The  Dan 
Patch  railway  soon  afterward  became  insolvent,  but  in  July,  1918,  it  was 
purchased  by  a  reorganized  company,  being  renamed  the  Minneapolis, 
Northfield  and   Southern   railway. 

Shakopee,  the  county  seat,  was  founded  by  Thomas  A.  Holmes  in 
1851  as  an  Indian  trading  post,  to  which  he  gave  this  name  of  the  chief 
of  a  Sioux  band  living  here.  The  village,  platted  in  1854,  was  incorporated 
as  a  city  May  23,  1857,  but  surrendered  its  charter  in  1861,  returning  to 
township  government.  It  again  received  a  city  charter  March  3,  1870, 
and  the  former  township  of  Shakopee,  excepting  the  city  area,  was  re- 
named Jackson,  as  before  noted,  January  17,  1871.  The  Sioux  name  of 
their  village  here  was  Tintonwan,  signifying  "the  village  on  the  prairie;" 
and  Rev.  Samuel  W.  Pond,  who  settled  as  their  missionary  in  the  adja- 
cent edge  of  Eagle  Creek  township  in  1847,  translated  the  native  name  as 
Prairieville. 

Shakopee  (or  Shakpay,  as  it  was  commonly  pronounced),  meaning 
Six,  was  the  hereditary  name,  like  Wabasha,  of  successive  chiefs,  in  lin- 
eal descent  from  father  to  son.  The  first  of  whom  we  have  definite  know- 
ledge is  the  Shakopee  who  was  killed  when  running  the  gauntlet  at  Fort 
Snelling  in  June,  1827,  as  related  by  Mrs.  Charlotte  O.  Van  Qeve  ("Three 
Score  Years  and  Ten,"  1888,  pages  74-79).  The  second,  who  is  com- 
memorated by  the  name  of  this  city,  characterized  by  Samuel  W.  Pond, 
Jr.,  as  "a  man  of  marked  ability  in  council  and  one  of  the  ablest  and 
most  effective  orators  in  the  whole  Dakota  Nation,"  died  in  1860.  His 
son,  who  had  been  called  Shakpedan  (Little  Six),  born  on  the  site  of  the 
city  in  1811,  became  at  his  father's  death  the  chief  of  the  band,  number- 
ing at  that  time  about  4(X).  He  was  hung  at  Fort  Snelling,  November 
11,  1865,  for  participating  in  the  massacres  of  1862. 


SCOTT  COUNTY  511 

Spring  Lake  township,  first  settled  in  1853,  organized  May  11,  1858, 
was  named  from  "Spring  lake,  a  large  and  beautiful  body  of  water,  sit- 
uated in  the  northern  part  of  the  town,  which  in  turn  derives  its  name 
from  a  large  spring  tributary  to  it."  (History  of  the  Minnesota  Valley, 
p.  341.) 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

At  the  Little  Rapids,  in  the  north  part  of  the  southeast  quarter  of 
section  31,  Louisville,  the  Minnesota  river  has  a  descent  of  two  feet, 
very  nearly,  at  its  stage  of  low  water,  flowing  across  an  outcrop  of  the 
Jordan  sandstone.  About  a  quarter  of  a  mile  up  the  river,  which  turns 
at  a  right  angle  between  these  points,  there  is  another  rapid,  in  the  east 
part  of  the  same  quarter  section,  which  at  the  lowest  stage  of  water  has 
a  fall  of  one  foot. 

In  the  foregoing  pages  attention  has  been  directed  to  the  names  of 
Cedar  lake,  Credit  river,  Eagle  creek  and  Pike  lake,  Prior  lake,  Sand 
creek,  and  Spring  lake. 

Other  lakes  and  streams  to  be  noticed  are  arranged  in  the  order  of  the 
townships  from  south  to  north,  and  of  the  ranges  from  east  to  west. 

New  Market  has  Rice  lake,  crossed  by  its  east  line,  named  from  its 
wild  rice;  Goose  lake,  on  its  south  line;  and  Vermilion  lake,  in  section 

2a 

Cedar  Lake  township  is  crossed  from  southeast  to  northwest  by 
Porter  creek,  named  for  George  Porter,  a  pioneer  farmer  there,  which 
flows  through  Bradshaw  and  Mud  lakes.  This  township  also  has  Ready's 
or  Lennon  lake,  in  sections  11  and  12;  O'Connor's  lake,  in  section  22;  Mc- 
Mahon  or  Carl's  lake,  St.  Catherine's  lake,  and  Cynthia  lake,  on  its  north 
line;  and  Hickey's  and  Cedar  lakes  at  its  west  side. 

Helena  has  Pleasant  lake  and  Raven  stream,  a  tributary  of  Sand 
creek. 

Belle  Plaine  had  a  Rice  lake,  now  drained,  in  the  western  section  25 ; 
and  Brewery  creek  joins  the  Minnesota  river  close  east  of  the  village. 

From  Blakeley  the  Minnesota  river  receives  Robert  creek,  named  in 
honor  of  Captain  Louis  Robert,  of  St.  Paul,  who  established  an  Indian 
trading  post  on  this  creek  in  1852;  and  Big  and  Little  Possum  creeks, 
flowing  through  the  village,  but  it  seems  doubtful  that  the  geographic 
range  of  the  opossum,  common  in  the  southern  states,  reaches  into  Min- 
nesota. Clark's  lake,  near  the  center  of  this  township,  has  an  outlet  that 
flows  southward  into  Le  Sueur  county  and  joins  the  Minnesota  river  at 
East  Henderson.  Though  unnamed  on  later  maps,  this  stream  was  called 
Abert  river  on  Nicollet's  map  in  1843,  in  honor  of  Colonel  John  James 
Abert,  of  the  U.  S.  topographical  engineer  corps,  under  whose  com- 
mission Nicollet  conducted  his  surveys  in  the  Northwest. 

Credit  River  township  has  Murphy  lake  in  section  3  and  4,  and  Qeary 
lake  in  section  7,  the  last  being  named  for  John,  Peter,  and  Patrick 
Cleary,  who  settled  here  in  1855. 


512  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

4 

Spring  Lake  township  has  Klane's  and  Markley  lakes,  crossed  by  its 
east  line;  Crystal  and  Rice  lakes,  in  section  10  and  11;  Fish  lake,  in  sec- 
tions 27  and  28 ;  Spring,  Prior,  and  Little  Prior  lakes ;  and  Campbell  lake 
in  sections  5  and  6.  , 

In  Sand  Creek  township  are  Geis  and  Sutton  lakes. 

Glendale  has  Lake  Hanrahan,  named  for  a  farmer,  Edward  Hanra- 
han,  whose  home  was  near  its  western  end. 

Eagle  Creek  township  has  Long  lake,  the  most  northeast  and  longest 
in  a  noteworthy  series  of  three  lakes,  named  Long,  Prior,  and  Spring 
lakes.  The  first  two,  connected  by  a  strait,  have  been  sometimes  called 
Credit  lake,  from  the  Credit  river  to  which  they  have  probably  an  under- 
ground flow.  This  township  also  has  Howard,  O'Dowd,  Pike,  Dean's, 
Rice,  Fischer,  and  Blue  lakes.  O'Dowd  lake  was  named  for  three  broth- 
ers, farmers  near  it;  Dean's  lake  commemorates  Matthew  Dean,  a  settler 
who  came  there  in  1855;  and  the  last  three  lakes  are  on  the  bottomland 
of  the  Minnesota  river. 

Thole's  (or  Haam)  and  Gifford  lakes  are  in  Louisville. 

Strunk's  lake,  beside  the  Minnesota  river  in  Jackson,  was  named  in 
honor  of  H.  H.  Strunk,  an  adjacent  farmer,  who  afterward  was  a  drug- 
gist in   Shakopee. 

Spirit  Hill  and  Shakopee  Prairie. 

The  eastern  part  of  a  high  terrace  of  the  Minnesota  valley  drift,  ad- 
joining the  Sand  creek  at  Jordan,  was  named  Spirit  hill  by  the  Sioux, 
who  frequently  held  councils  and  medicine  dances  there. 

Another  remnant  of  this  valley  drift  is  the  plateau  called  the  "Sand 
prairie,"  which  lies  a  mile  north  of  Spirit  hill. 

Through  Jackson  and  Eagle  Creek  townships  a  similar  but  longer  and 
wider  valley  drift  terrace,  140  to  125  feet  above  the  Minnesota  river  and 
nearly  100  feet  below  the  crest  and  general  expanse  of  the  adjoining  up- 
land, has  a  width  from  a  half  mile  to  one  and  a  half  miles,  with  a  length 
of  about  ten  miles.  All  of  this  county  was  originally  wooded,  excepting 
much  of  the  bottomland  of  the  Minnesota  valley  and  large  parts  of  its 
terraces,  such  as  those  of  Belle  Plaine  and  near  Jordan  and  this  close 
south  of  Shakopee,  which  last  has  therefore  received  the  name  of  "Shak- 
opee prairie." 


SHERBURNE  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  February  25,  1856,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Moses  Sherburne,  who  was  an  associate  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Minnesota  Territory  from  1853  to  1857.  He  was  born  in  Mount  Vernon, 
Kennebec  county,  Maine,  January  25,  1808;  came  to  St.  Paul  in  April, 
1853,  and  resided  there  fourteen  years,  engaging  in  law  practice  after 
1857;  was  one  of  the  two  compilers  of  the  statutes  of  Minnesota,  pub* 
lished  in  1859;  removed  to  Orono,  in  Sherburne  county,  1867,  and  died 
there,  March  29,  1868. 

An  interesting  biographic  sketch  of  Judge  Sherburne,  with  his  por- 
trait, was  contributed  by  Rev.  Simeon  Mills  Hayes  in  the  M.  H.  S.  Col- 
lections (vol.  X,  part  n,  1905,  pages  863-6).  This  paper  includes  special 
notice  of  his  life  and  public  services  in  Maine  before  coming  to  Minne- 
sota. His  professional  and  personal  character  is  portrayed  as  follows: 
"Sherburne  was  a  successful  lawyer  from  the  beginning  of  his  practice. 
His  absolute  integrity,  imposing  presence,  accurate  learning,  and  oratori- 
cal endowments  drew  clients  from  neighboring  counties,  and  brought 
him  almost  immediately  into  prominence.  Although  never  an  office- 
seeker,  his  popularity  and  the  general  respect  felt  for  his  abililty  made 
him  a  Recipient  of  public  offices  during  the  greater  portion  of  his  pro- 
fessional life.  .  .  .  When  the  Territory  of  Minnesota  applied  for  ad- 
mission to  the  Union  as  a  state.  Judge  Sherburne  took  a  prominent  part 
in  the  deliberations  which  resulted  in  the  adoption  of  the  State  Consti- 
tution, and  his  remarks  during  the  Constitutional  Convention  are  among 
the  valuable  original  sources  to  which  the  future  historian  of  Minnesota 
will  apply  for  an  insight  into  the  problems  and  motives  of  the  Fathers 
of  the  North  Star  State." 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origin  and  meaning  of  geographic  names  has  been 
gathered  from  "History  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley,"  1881,  having 
pages  294-339  for  Sherburne  county;  "Fifty  Years  in  the  Northwest,"  by 
W.  H.  C.  Folsom,  noting  this  county  in  pages  453-459;  and  from  Charles 
S.  Wheaton,  attorney  at  Elk  River  since  1^72,  and  Hiram  H.  Mansur, 
photographer,  each  being  interviewed  during  a  visit  at  Elk  River,  the 
county  seat,  in  October,  1916. 

Bailey,  a  railway  station  in  Big.  Lake  township,  five  miles  west  of 
Elk  River,  was  named  in  honor  of  Orlando  Bailey,  a  pioneer  farmer  there. 
He  was  born  in  Chautauqua  county,  N.  Y.,  in  1820 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in 
1852,  settling  in  this  township;  kept  a  stage  station  and  hotel  nine  years; 

513 


514  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

was  the  first  sheri£F  of  this  county ;  and  his  son,  Albert  Bailey,  is  the  pres- 
ent probate  judge. 

Balbwin  township,  first  settled  in  1854  and  organized  September  13, 
1858,  received  this  name  in  honor  of  Francis  Eugene  Baldwin,  of  Clear 
Lake  township.  He  was  born  in  Wayne  county,  Pa.,  March  7,  1825; 
was  graduated  at  Illinois  College  in  1846;  was  admitted  to  practice  law 
in  1847;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1855,  and  resided  in  Minneapolis  and  at 
Qear  Lake  in  this  county ;  was  the  county  attorney  two  years,  and  owned 
a  farm;  was  a  state  senator  in  1859-60. 

Becker  township,  settled  in  1855,  organized  in  1871,  and  its  railway  vil- 
lage, founded  in  1867,  were  named  in  honor  of  George  Loomis  Becker, 
of  St  Paul,  for  whom  a  biographic  sketch  has  been  presented  in  the 
chapter  of  Becker  county. 

Big  Lake  township,  settled  in  1848,  organized  in  1858,  and  its  village, 
at  first  called  Humboldt,  are  named  from  the  lake  adjoining  the  village, 
a  favorite  place  for  picnics.  Humboldt  was  the  county  seat  until  1867, 
being  succeeded  by  Elk  River,  and  its  name  was  changed  to  that  of  the 
township  when  the  railroad  was  built,  in  1867. 

Blue  Hill  township,  settled  in  1857  or  earlier,  organized  March  20, 
1877,  had  previously  been  a  part  of  Baldwin.  It  has  a  lone  hill  of  glacial 
drift  in  the  northwest  quarter  of  section  28,  called  the  Blue  Mound  from 
its  appearance  when  seen  at  a  far  distance,  which  rises  about  75  feet 
above  the  surrounding  flat  plain  of  sand  and  gravel. 

Clear  Lake  township,  settled  in  1850,  organized  in  1858,  and  its  railway 
village,  founded  in  1867  and  platted  in  1879,  were  named  for  a  lake  in  sec- 
tions 10  and  11,  two  miles  west  of  the  village. 

Elk  River  township,  settled  in  1848  by  Pierre  Bottineau,  who  estab- 
lished an  Indian  trading  post  near  the  site  of  the  village,  received  its 
first  farming  settlement  in  1850.  Its  village  of  Orono,  to  be  again  noticed, 
was  platted  in  1855;  and  the  village  of  Elk  River,  platted  in  1865,  was 
incorporated  in  1881,  the  two  villages  being  united  under  the  latter  name. 
The  county  seat  was  first  established  at  Humboldt,  now  Big  Lake  village, 
as  before  noted;  but  its  offices  were  removed  in  1867  to  Elk  River  vil- 
lage, then  known,  in  distinction  from  Orono,  as  **the  Lower  Town." 

The  river,  whence  this  township  and  village  are  named,  was  called  the 
St.  Francis  river  by  Carver,  Pike,  Long,  and  Schoolcraft,  taking  the  name 
given  to  the  present  Rum  river  by  Hennepin.  Nicollet's  map,  in  1843, 
applied  the  name  St.  Franois  as  it  is  now  used,  for  the  chief  northern 
tributary  of  Elk  river.  Beltrami  and  Nicollet  used  an  Ojibway  name 
for  Elk  river,  translated  as  Double  river,  or  by  Allen  as  Parallel  river, 
alluding  to  its  course  nearly  parallel  with  the  Mississippi.  On  account  of 
the  herds  of  elk  found  there  by  Pike  and  later  explorers  and  fur  traders, 
the  present  name  was  given  to  this  river,  and  to  Elk  lake,  through  which 
it  flows,  on  the  first  map  of  Minnesota  Territory  in  1850. 

FiTZPATRiCK  is  a  railway  station  six  miles  north  of  Elk  River. 


SHERBURNE  COUNTY  515 

Haven  township,  first  settled  in  1846,  organized  in  1872,  had  previous- 
ly been  a  part  of  Briggs  (now  Palmer)  township.  Its  name  is  in  honor 
of  John  Ormsbee  Haven,  who  was  born  in  Addison  county,  Vermont, 
October  3,  1824,  and  died  at  his  home  in  Big  Lake  township,  September 
1,  1906.  He  was  graduated  at  Middlebury  College,  1852 ;  came  to  Minne- 
sota in  1854 ;  settled  on  a  farm  at  Big  Lake  in  1866 ;  was  register  of  deeds, 
county  auditor,  county  superintendent  of  schools,  and  clerk  of  the  district 
court.    In  1872-3  he  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature. 

HouLTON,  a  railway  station  about  three  miles  north  of  Elk  River,  was 
named  for  William  Henry  Houlton,  who  was  born  in  Houlton,  Maine, 
March  29,  1840,  and  died  at  his  home  in  Elk  River  township,  August, 
1915.  He  came  to  Monticello,  Minn.,  in  1856;  served  in  the  Eighth  Min- 
nesota regiment,  1862-5;  entered  partnership  with  his  brother  Horatio  at 
Elk  River  in  1866,  and  engaged  in  mercantile  business,  manufacture  of 
lumber  and  flour,  banking,  and  farming;  was  a  state  senator  in  1878  and 
1883-85;  was  superintendent  of  the  State  Reformatory,   1896-1900. 

Lake  Fremont,  a  village  on  the  Great  Northern  railway  in  Livonia, 
incorporated  in  1912,  is  called  Zimmerman  by  the  railway  company  and  as 
a  post  office,  in  honor  of  Moses  Zimmerman,  who  was  owner  of  the  farm 
on  which  the  village  was  located.  The  adjoining  lake  received  its  name  in 
1856,  when  John  Charles  Fremont  (b.  1813,  d.  1890).  was  the  Republican 
candidate  for  president  of  the  United  States.  He  was  the  assistant  of 
Nicollet,  1838-43,  in  the  surveys  and  mapping  of  the  upper  Mississippi 
region  including  Minnesota. 

Livonia  township,  settled  in  1856  and  organized  in  1866,  is  said  to 
bear  the  Christian  name  of  the  wife  of  Benjamin  N.  Spencer,  who  settled 
in  this  township  in  1864  and  was  the  probate  judge  of  the  county  for  two 
terms.  This  is  the  name  of  a  province  in  Russia,  adjoining  the  Gulf  of 
Riga. 

Orono,  a  village  that  in  1881  became  a  part  of  the  village  of  Elk 
River,  as  before  noted,  was  platted  in  May,  1855,  by  Ard  Godfrey  of 
Minneapolis,  who  named  it  for  his  native  town  in  Maine.  Much  inter- 
esting biographic  information  of  Orono,  the  Penobscot  chief,  for  whom 
the  Maine  town  and  village  are  named,  was  given  in  an  address  of  Hon. 
Israel  Washburn,  Jr.,  at  the  Centennial  Celebration  of  that  town,  March 
3,  1874.  Orono  was  born  in  1688  and  died  at  Oldtown,  Maine,  February 
5,  1801,  aged  113  years.  His  life  is  also  sketched  somewhat  fully  in  the 
"Handbook  of  American  Indians,"  edited  by  F.  W.  Hodge  (Part  II,  1910, 
p.   155). 

Orrock  township,  settled  in  1856  and  organized  in  1875,  after  being 
previously  a  part  of  Big  Lake,  was  named  in  honor  of  Robert  Orrock, 
its  earliest  settler.  He  was  born  in  Scotland,  July  15,  1805;  came  to 
America  in  1831 ;  settled  here  in  1856  as  a  farmer ;  and  died  at  his  home 
January  4,  1885. 

Palmer  township,  settled  in  1855,  "was  organized  in  1858,  with  the 
name  of  Briggs,  in  honor  of  Joshua  Briggs,  who  resided  on  the  west  bank 


516  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

oi  the  lake  bearing  his  name.  ...  A  few  years  afterwards,  the  name 
was  changed  to  Qinton  Lake,  and  subsequently  to  Palmer,  in  honor  of 
Robinson  Palmer,  the  father  of  Mrs.  Joshua  Briggs."  (History,  Upper 
Mississippi  Valley,  p.  336.) 

Benjamin  Robinson  Palmer,  physician,  was  born  in  South  Berwick, 
Maine,  March  15,  1815 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1856,  settling  in  St  Qoud ; 
was  assistant  surgeon  in  the  United  States  army,  1862-6,  being  stationed 
at  Sauk  Center  and  Fort  Ripley,  Minn. ;  lived  afterward  at  Sauk  Center, 
had  an  extensive  medical  practice,  and  died  there  May  6,  1882. 

St.  Cloud,  the  county  seat  of  Steams  county,  extends  also  as  an  in- 
corporated city  across  the  Mississippi  to  include  wards  5  and  6  in  Ben- 
ton county  and  ward  7  in  the  northwest  corner  of  Sherburne  county.  The 
State  Reformatory,  established  in  1889,  is  in  the  part  of  St.  Qoud  Ijrihg 
in  this  county.     Its  ground,  1,057  acres,  includes  a  large  granite  quarry. 

Santiago  township,  settled  in  1856,  organized  in  1868,  and  its  village, 
platted  in  April,  1857,  have  the  Spanish  name  for  St.  James,  borne  by  the 
capital  of  the  republic  of  Chile,  as  also  by  a  city  and  province  in  Cuba. 

Zimmerman,  the  railway  village  in  Livonia,  named  for  a  farmer  there, 
has  been  before  noticed  as  Lake  Fremont,  its  corporate  village  name. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

In  the  foregoing  pages,  attention  has  been  given  to  Big  lake,  Qear 
lake,  the  Elk  river  and  lake,  St.  Francis  river.  Lake  Fremont,  and  Briggs 
lake,  the  last  being  named  in  honor  of  Joshua  Briggs,  a  former  English 
sea  captain  who  settled  there. 

The  other  lakes  and  streams  bearing  names  on  maps  of  this  county 
include  Twin  lake,  on  the  east  line  of  Elk  River,  outflowing  by  Trott 
brook,  named  for  Joseph  Trott,  its  earliest  settler,  who  came  in  1854; 
Tibbetts  brook,  the  outlet  of  Lake  Fremont,  named  for  four  brothers 
from  Maine,  Joshua,  Nathaniel,  Ben,  and  Jim,  who  were  lumbermen  and 
farmers;  Battle  brook,  named  from  a  fight  of  two  white  men,  as  noted 
in  the  chapter  for  Mille  Lacs  county,  flowing  through  a  second  Elk  lake ; 
Rice  lake,  on  the  St.  Francis  river,  filled  with  wild  rice,  called  St.  Francis 
lake  on  old  maps ;  Catlin  and  Sandy  lakes,  in  the  south  part  of  Baldwin ; 
Stone  lake,  in  sections  25  and  36,  Livonia,  and  a  Lake  of  the  Woods  in 
its  section  30;  Lakes  Ann  and  Josephine,  Big  Mud  lake,  and  Eagle  lake, 
in  Orrock ;  Birch,  Mud,  and  Thompson  lakes,  in  Big  Lake  township ;  Lake 
Julia  and  Rush  lake,  joined  by  straits  with  Briggs  lake;  Rice  or  Strong 
creek,  in  Palmer,  flowing  through  a  lake  having  much  wild  rice ;  Pickerel 
and  Long  lakes,  crossed  by  the  south  line  of  Haven;  and  Biggerstaff 
creek  in  Haven,  named  for  a  pioneer  farmer,  Samuel  BiggerstaflF. 

Rapids  and  Islands  of  the  Mississippi. 

From  the  "Historico-Geographical  Chart  of  the  Upper  Mississippi 
River,"  accompanying  Coues*  edition  of  Pike's  Expeditions,  published  in 
1895,  the  following  names  are  listed,  in  the  descending  course  of   the 


SHERBURNE  COUNTY  517 

river  on  the  border  of  Sherburne  county,  from  St  Cloud  to  the  mouth  of 
Crow  river  at  Dayton. 

The  Thousand  Islands,  within  two  miles  south  of  St.  Clq)^d,  so  named, 
with  great  exaggeration,  in  allusion  to  the  Thousand  Islands  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  river  along  many  miles  next  below  the  mouth  of  Lake  Ontario, 
were  called  Beaver  islands  by  Pike  in  1805,  and  an  "archipelago"  by 
Beltrami  in  1823. 

Next  southward  are  Mosquito  rapids  and  Grand  island,  which  is 
more  than  a  mile  long. 

Boynton's  island  and  Smiler's  rapids  adjoin  the  south  side  of  Clear 
Lake   township. 

Bear  island,  Cedar  rapids,  Cedar  island,  and  Lane's  island,  are  at 
the  south  side  of   Becker. 

Boom  island.  Battle  rapids.  Brown's  island.  Spring  rapids,  and  Bak- 
ers' and  Dimick's  islands,  adjoin  Big  Lake  township.  The  Boom  island 
has  reference  to  booms  for  storing  logs.  Battle  rapids,  adjoining  section 
32,  received  this  name  in  commemoration  of  the  battles  of  Elk  river,  be- 
tween the  Ojibways  and  the  Sioux,  narrated  by  Warren  in  his  "History 
of  the  Ojibways"  (M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  V,  1885,  pages  235-241). 
These  battles  are  referred  by  Winchell  to  the  years  1772  and  1773  (Abor- 
igines of  Minnesota,  1911,  page  539).  "From  the  circumstances  of  two 
battles  having  been  fought  in  such  quick  succession  on  the  point  of  land 
betweeen  the  Elk  and  Mississippi  rivers,  this  spot  has  been  named  by  the 
Ojibways,  Me-gaud-e-win-ing,  or  'Battle  Ground'"  (Warren,  page  240). 

Next  are  Davis,  Wilson,  Jamesdn,  and  Nickerson  islands,  extending 
to  the  vicinity  of  the  mouth  of  the  Elk  river;  and  near  the  southeast 
corner  of  Elk  River  township  and  of  this  county  are  Dayton  island  and 
Da3rton  rapids,  named,  like  the  adjoining  village  and  township  in  Henne- 
pin county,  for  Lyman  Dayton  of  St.  Paul. 

Craig  Prairie. 

A  large  opening  in  the  woods  in  the  west  part  of  Orrock,  having  an 
area  of  about  two  square  miles,  is  named  Craig  prairie,  in  honor  of  Hugh 
E.  Craig,  its  pioneer  farmer.  Other  and  more  extended  open  tracts, 
originally  prairies  but  unnamed,  or  partly  brushland,  adjoined  the  Mis- 
sissippi through  this  county  and  are  now  mainly  occupied  by  farms. 


SIBLEY  COUNTY 

Establi^ed  March  5,  1853,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of  General 
Henry  Hastings  Sibley,  pioneer,  governor,  ind  military  defender  of  Min- 
nesota. He  was  born  in  Detroit,  Mich.,  February  20,  1811;  went  to 
Mackinaw,  entering  the  service  of  the  American  Fur  Company,  in  1829; 
came  to  what  is  now  Minnesota  in  1834,  as  general  agent  in  the  Northwest 
for  that  company,  with  headquarters  at  Mendota  (then  called  St.  Peter's), 
where  he  lived  twenty-eight  years;  removed  to  St.  Paul  in  1862,  and  re- 
sided there  through  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  was  delegate  in  Con- 
gress, representing  Minnesota  Territory,  1849  to  1853 ;  was  first  governor 
of  the  state,  1858  to  1860;  and  during  the  Sioux  war,  in  1862,  led  in  the 
suppression  of  the  outbreak,  and  in  the  next  year  commanded  an  expedi- 
tion against  these  Indians  in  North  Dakota.  He  was  during  more  than 
twenty  years  a  regent  of  the  State  University;  was  a  charter  member  of 
the  Minnesota  Historical  Society;  and  was  its  president  in  1867,  and 
from  1876  until  his  death,  at  his  home  in  St  Paul,  February  18,  1891. 

In  1835  Sibley  built  at  Mendota  the  first  stone  dwelling  house  of  Min- 
nesota, in  which  he  and  his  family  lived  until  their  removal  to  St  Paul. 
This  house  is  now  owned  by  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution, 
and  is  used  as  a  historical  museum. 

His  biography,  in  596  pages,  by  Nathaniel  West,  D.  D.,  was  published 
in  1889;  an  excellent  memoir  of  him,  by  J.  Fletcher  Williams,  is  in  the 
Minn.  Historical  Society  Collections  (vol.  VI,  pages  257-310) ;  and  a 
shorter  biography,  by  Gen.  James  H,  Baker,  is  in  his  "Lives  of  the  Gov- 
ernors of  Minnesota"  (M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  XIII,  pages  75-105). 

Among  the  Sioux  or  Dakota  people,  with  whom  Sibley  had  a  very  inti- 
mate and  wide  acquaintance,  he  was  called  "Wah-ze-o-man-ee,  Walker 
in  the  Pines,  a  name  that  had  a  potent  influence  among  then;  far  and 
near,  as  long  as  the  Dakota  race  dwelt  in  the  state."     (Williams,  p.  167.) 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  has  been  gathered  from  ''History  of  the  Min- 
nesota Valley,"  1882,  having  pages  410-477  for  Sibley  county;  and  from 
Florenz  Seeman,  register  of  deeds,  and  Julius  Henke,  a  pioneer  who  came 
here  in  1860,  during  a  visit  at  Gaylord,  the  county  seat,  in  July,  1916. 

Alfsborg  township,  organized  January  26,  1869,  received  this  name  of 
a  district  in  Sweden  by  vote  of  its  Scandinavian  settlers. 

Aklington  township,  settled  in  1855,  organized  May  11,  1858,  and  its 
village,  platted  in  1856  and  somewhat  changed  in  location  when  the 
railway  was  built  in  1881,  have  a  name  that  is  borne  also  by  a  village  in 
Virginia,  and  by  villages  and  townships  in  twenty-five  other  states. 

Bismarck  township,  settled  in  1867,  organized  July  24,  1874,  was  named 
by  its  German  settlers  in  honor  of  the  great  Prussian  statesman,  "the 

518 


SIBLEY  COUNTY  519 

creator  of  German  unity."  He  was  born  at  Schonhausen,  Prussia,  April 
1,  1815,  and  died  at  Friedrichsruh,  July  30,  189a 

Cornish  township,  settled  in  1868,  organized  January  25,  1871,  received 
this  name  on  the  recommendation  of  J.  B.  Wakefield,  who  settled  here 
in  1869,  "in  memory  of  his  native  town  in  New  Hampshire." 

Dryden  township,  settled  in  1854  and  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  at 
first  called  Williamstown,  but  was  renamed  by  request  of  Hamilton 
Beatty  and  others,  he  being  chairman  of  the  first  township  board  of  super- 
visors. This  name,  in  honor  of  the  celebrated  English  poet  and  drama- 
tist, John  Dryden  (b.  1631,  d.  1700),  is  borne  also  by  villages  and  town- 
ships in  Maine,  New  York,  Virginia,  Michigan,  and  Arkansas. 

Faxon  township,  first  settled  in  May,  1852,  organized  May  11,  1858, 
and  its  former  village,  platted  in  April,  1857,  were  named  for  a  member 
of  its  townsite  company. 

Gaylord,  a  railway  village  in  Dryden,  platted  in  1881,  and  Gibbon^  a 
railway  village  in  Severance,  were  named  by  officials  of  the  Minneapolis 
and  St. -Louis  railway  company.  Gaylord  succeeded  Henderson  in  1915  as 
the  county  seat  Edward  W.  Gaylord,  of  Minneapolis,  was  master  of  trans- 
portation for  this  railway,  1874-77,  and  its  superintendent,  1878-80.  Gen- 
eral John  Gibbon  (b.  1827;  d.  1896)  was  temporarily  stationed  at  Fort 
Snelling  in  1878,  and  was  its  commandant  during  parts  of  1880-82;  was 
commander-in-chief  of  the  Loyal  Legion  when  he  died. 

Grafton  township,  settled  in  1870  and  organized  in  September,  1873, 
has  a  name  that  is  borne  by  a  county  and  a  town  in  New  Hampshire,  and 
by  villages  and  townships  in  seventeen  other  states. 

Green  Isle  township,  settled  in  1857,  and  organized  May  11,  1858,  re- 
ceived its  name,  referring  to  Ireland,  "the  Emerald  Isle,"  by  suggestion 
of  Giristopher  Dolan,  an  Irish  immigrant.  The  railway  village  of  this 
liame,  in  the  adjacent  section  18  of  Washington,  was  platted  in  August, 
1881.  Lake  Erin,  next  eastward  from  this  village,  testifies  similarly  to 
the  loyal  spirit  of  its  settlers  from  Ireland. 

Henderson  township  and  its  village,  founded  in  1852  and  platted  in 
1855  by  Joseph  R.  Brown,  who  is  commemorated  by  Brown  county,  were 
named  by  him. in  honor  of  his  mother  and  of  her  father,  Andrew  Hen- 
derson, of  Frederick,  Pa.  During  several  years  this  village  was  Brown's 
home,  and  he  founded  and  edited  its  first  newspaper,  the  Henderson 
Democrat,  1857-61.  It  was  the  county  seat  until  1915,  when  the  county 
offices  were  removed  to  Gaylord.  It  was  incorporated  as  a  town  in  1855 ; 
as  a  borough,  January  23,  1866;  and  as  a  city,  March  2^^  1891. 

Jessenland  township,  settled  in  1853,  organized  May  11,  1858,  is  "sup- 
posed to  have  received  its  name  from  the  fact  that  Jesse  Cameron  was  the 
first  to  arrive;  it  was  for  some  time  known  as  "Jesse's  Land.'"  (History, 
Minn.  Valley,  p.  428.) 

Kelso  township,  settled  in  1855-6  and  organized  in  1858,  bears  a  name 
that  was  originally  given  by  A.  P.  Walker,  a  surveyor,  in  1854  or  1855, 


I 


520  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

which  "is  of  Scotch  derivation,"  being  the  name  of  a  town  on  the  Tweed 
river   in   southern   Scotland. 

MoLTKE  township,  settled  in  1875  and  the  latest  organized  in  this 
county,  August  21,  1878,  was  named  by  its  German  pioneers  in  honor  of 
the  famous  Prussian  general,  Count  von  Moltke  (b.  1800,  d.  1891). 

New  Auburn  township,  settled  in  1855,  organized  May  11,  1858,  and 
its  village,  platted  in  1856,  were  named  by  settlers  from  Auburn,  N.  Y. 

Severance  township,  settled  in  1867-8  and  organized  in  1870,  was  at 
first  called  Clear  Lake,  for  the  lake  crossed  by  its  south  line ;  but,  because 
that  name  had  been  earlier  given  to  another  Minnesota  township,  it  was  re- 
named in  honor  of  Martin  Juan  Severance,  of  Mankato.  He  was  bom 
at  Shelburne  Falls,  Mass.,  December  24,  1826,  and  died  in  Mankato,  Minn., 
July  11,  1907.  He  was  admitted  to  practice  law  in  1853;  came  to  this 
state  in  1856,  locating  at  Henderson ;  served  in  the  Tenth  Minnesota  regi- 
ment, 1862-5,  attaining  the  rank  of  captain;  afterward  lived  in  LeSueur 
till  1870,  then  removing  to  Mankato;  was  a  representative  in  the  legisla- 
ture in  1862;  judge  of  the  Sixth  judicial  district,  1881-1900. 

Sibley  township,  settled  in  1856  and  organized  July  9,  1864,  was  named 
like  the  county,  in  honor  of  General  Sibley. 

Transit  township,  settled  in  1858,  organized  in  1866,  has  a  unique 
name,  as  if  from  the  transit  instrument  used  for  railway  surveys. 

Washington  Lake  township,  settled  in  1854-5,  organized  May  11, 
1858,  bears  the  name  of  a  large  lake  at  its  center,  which  "was  so  called 
from  the  fact  that  two  of  the  first  settlers  on  its  borders  were  from  Wash- 
ington, D.  C."    (History,  Minn.  Valley,  p.  435.) 

WiNTHROP,  a  railway  village  in  Alfsborg  and  Transit  townships,  in- 
corporated as  a  village  before  1891  and  as  a  city  in  1910,  was  named  by 
officers  of  the  Minneapolis  and  St.  Louis  railway. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  Minnesota  river,  forming  the  east  border  of  Sibley  county,  and 
Clear  lake  in  Severance,  crossed  by  the  south  boundary,  had  the  same 
Dakota  or  Sioux  name,  printed  "Mini  sotah"  on  Nicollet's  map  (Mini, 
water,  sotah,  whitishly  clouded). 

High  Island  lake,  the  largest  in  the  county,  has  a  small  but  high  island 
of  glacial  drift  in  its  northern  part,  rising  20  or  30  feet  above  the  lake. 
The  same  name  is  given  likewise  to  the  outflowing  High  Island  creek, 
being  partly  a  translation  of  the  Sioux  name,  recorded  by  Nicollet  as 
Witakantu,  meaning  Plum  island  (Wita,  island,  kantu,  plum  trees). 

Nicollet  also  noted  the  Sioux  name,  Wanyecha  Oju  river,  and  its 
translation.  Rush  river,  which,  with  its  North  and  South  branches,  drains 
the  southern  part  of  the  county. 

Bevens  creek,  the  outlet  of  Washington  lake  in  the  township  of  that 
name,  flows  northeastward  into  Carver  county. 

Buffalo  creek,  lying  mainly  in  McLeod  county,  traverses  also  the 
north  edge  of  New  Auburn. 


SIBLEY  COUNTY  521 

Round  Grove  lake,  giving  its  name  to  a  township  of  McLeod  county, 
lies  partly  in  the  northeast  corner  of  Grafton. 

Other  lakes  having  names  on  maps  include  Rice's  lake,  in  section  34, 
Sibley,  named  for  Andrew  Rice,  a  homesteader  who  settled  at  its  east 
end  and  made  proof  of  his  claim  in  1860;  Sand  lake  and  Cummings  or 
Mud  lake,  on  the  west  line  of  Alfsborg,  lying  respectively  in  the  course 
of  the  South  and  North  branches  of  Rush  river,  the  latter  being  named 
for  A.  Cummings,  a  pioneer  who  built  a  hotel  there  for  travelers  on  the 
old  road  from  Henderson  to  Fort  Ridgely;  Cottonwood  and  Swan  lakes, 
respectively  in  the  west  parts  of  Cornish  and  Severance;  Alkali  lake, 
having  somewhat  bitter  water,  in  Moltke;  Ward's  lake,  on  the  north 
line  of  Bismarck;  Buck's  lake,  in  the  north  part  of  Grafton,  named  in 
honor  of  Adam  Buck,  of  Henderson;  Indian  lake,  in  section  21,  Transit; 
Titlow,  Mud,  Beatty,  DuflF,  and  Kirby  lakes,  in  Dryden;  Silver  lake,  in 
Jessenland;  Kerry  lake,  in  sections  20  and  21,  Faxon;  Lake  Erin,  or  Mud 
lake,  in  Washington ;  Lake  Severance,  in  Green  Isle,  named,  like  a  town- 
ship, in  honor  of  Judge  Severance,  who  in  June,  1858,  made  proof  for 
a  homestead  in  section  17,  beside  this  lake ;  and  Fadden,  Hahn,  and  Schill- 
ing lakes,  in  New  Auburn. 

Adam  Buck  was  born  in  Germany,  October  12,  1830;  came  to  the 
United  States,  and  in  1852  settled  as  a  farmer  in  this  county;  removed  to 
Henderson  in  1862,  and  opened  a  drug  store;  served  in  the  Sioux  war, 
1862,  and  as  a  captain  in  the  Eleventh  Minnesota  regiment,  1864-5;  was 
county  surveyor,  1868-79;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1862, 
1868,  and  1872,  and  a  state  senator  in  1867 ;  died  at  his  hothe.  in  Hender- 
son, about  1895. 

Robert  Beatty  was  born  in  the  north  of  Ireland  in  1803 ;  came  with  his 
parents  to  Pennsylvania;  and  removed,  with  his  several  sons,  in  1857  to 
Dryden  in  this  county.  His  son  Samuel  B.  Beatty,  born  in  Pennsylvania 
in  1841,  settled  in  Dryden  in  1857;  served  in  the  Tenth  Minnesota  regi- 
ment, 1863-5;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1877. 

Duff  lake  was  named  for  Bernard  Duff,  a  farmer  who  made  proof  on 
his  homestead  there  in  October,  1860. 

Joseph  Patterson  Kirby  was  born  in  Ireland,  August  6,  1838;  came  to 
the  United  States  when  very  young,  with  his  parents;  settled  as  a  home- 
stead farmer  in  New  Auburn,  1856;  served  in  the  Third  Minnesota  regi- 
ment, 1861-65,  attaining  the  rank  of  first  lieutenant;  lived  in  Le  Sueur, 
1865-74;  removed  to  Henderson  in  1874,  and  was  judge  of  probate  for 
Sibley  county,  1875-94. 

Fadden  lake  was  named  for  James  Fadden,  who  in  May,  1869,  made 
proof  of  his  homestead  at  its  north  side  in  section  14,  New  Auburn. 

Hahn  lake  was  similarly  named  for  William  Hahn,  who  was  born  in 
Prussia  in  1849;  came  to  America  at  the  age  of  five  years,  with  his  par- 
ents ;  and  settled  in  New  Auburn  in  1879,  beside  this  lake. 

Schilling  lake  commemorates  John  Schilling,  whose  homestead  was 
the  southwest  quarter  of  section  5  in  this  township. 


STEARNS  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  February  20,  1855,  was  named  for  Hon. 
Qiarles  Thomas  Stearns,  member  of  the  council  of  the  Territorial  Legis- 
lature, 1854  and  1855.  The  name,  however,  was  decided  by  a  mistake, 
told  in  the  "History  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley,"  as  follows :  "The 
bill,  as  originally  introduced,  bore  the  name  of  Stevens  county,  in  honor 
of  Governor  Stevens,  then  prominently  connected  with  the  survey  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  railroad  and  passed  both  branches  of  the  Legislature  in 
that  shape;  but  in  the  enrollment  of  the  bill  the  change  occurred  from 
Stevens  to  Stearns,  and  when  discovered,  it  was  concluded  best  to  let 
the  matter  stand,  as  the  name  was  still  in  the  line  of  honorable  mention, 
and  Mr.  Steams  well  entitled  to  public  recognition  in  this  way." 

Steams  was  bom  in  Pittsfield,  Mass.,  January  9,  1807;  came  from  Illi- 
nois to  Minnesota  in  1849,  and  first  settled  in  St.  Anthony ;  thence  removed 
in  1855  to  St.  Qoud,  the  county  seat  of  Stearns  county,  where  he  was 
proprietor  of  a  hotel  during  fourteen  years;  and,  about  the  year  1870, 
having  sold  his  hotel  to  be  one  of  the  buildings  of  the  State  Normal 
School,  he  removed  to  Mobile,  Ala.  Later  he  resided  in  New  Orleans, 
La.,  and  died  there  May  22,  1898.  He  was  the  last  survivor  of  the  foun- 
ders of  the  Masonic  Grand  Lodge  of  Minnesota. 

Townships,  Villages,  and  Cities. 

Information  of  the  origins  and  meanings  of  names  has  been  gathered 
from  "History  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley,"  1881,  which  has  pages 
369-483  for  this  county;  "History  of  Steams  County,"  by  William  Bell 
Mitchell,  1915,  1536  pages,  in  two  volumes,  continuously  paged ;  from  the 
author  of  this  county  history,  also  from  Hon.  Charles  A.  Gilman  and  John 
Coates,  each  of  St.  Qoud,  the  county  seat,  interviewed  during  a  visit 
there  in  May,  1916;  and  from  Edwin  Qark,  of  Minneapolis,  formerly 
of  Melrose  for  twenty-five  years,  1867-92. 

Albany  township,  settled  in  1863,  organized  in  1868,  and  its  railway 
village,  incorporated  in  January,  1890,  have  a  name  that  is  borne  by  the 
capital  of  New  York,  and  by  townships,  villages,  and  cities  in  seventeen 
other  states. 

Ashley,  the  most  northwestern  township,  settled  in  1865  and  organized 
in  1870,  received  its  name  from  Ashley  creek,  flowing  through  this  town- 
ship, which  was  named  in  1856  by  Edwin  Whitefield,  an  eastern  artist 
traveling  to  Stearns,  Todd,  and  Kandiyohi  counties,  in  honor  of  his 
friend,  O.  D.  Ashley,  of  Boston  and  New  York  city.  Ossian  Doolittle 
Ashley  was  born  in  Townshend,  Vt,  April  9,  1821 ;  was  a  member  of  the 
Boston  Stock  E^cchange,  1846-57,  being  its  president  in  1856-7 ;  removed  to 

522 


STEARNS  COUNTY  523 

New  York  city  in  1857,  and  was  a  member  of  its  Stock  Exchange;  was 
elected  president  of  the  Wabash  Western  railway  in  1887. 

Avon  township,  settled  in  1856  and  organized  in  1866,  and  its  railway 
village,  founded  in  1873  and  incorporated  in  February,  1900,  bear  the 
name  of  three  rivers  in  England  and  two  in  Wales,  and  of  villages  and 
townships  in  Maine,  Massachusetts,  Wisconsin,  and  twelve  other  states 
of  our  Union. 

Belgrade^  a  village  of  the  Soo  railway  in  the  west  edge  of  Crow  River 
township,  has  the  name  of  the  capital  of  Serbia,  of  a  township  and  its 
village  in  Maine,  and  of  villages  in  Missouri,  Nebraska,  and  Montana. 

Brock  WAY  township,  settled  in  1855  and  organized  in  1858,  was  then 
called  Winnebago,  but  was  renamed  as  now  in  1860,  after  a  post  office 
established  in  September,  1857,  honoring  a  lumberman  and  farmer  there. 

Brooten,  a  railway  village  in  North  Fork  township,  founded  with  the 
building  of  the  Soo  line  in  1886,  was  named  for  one  of  its  Scandinavian 
farmers. 

Clearwater,  a  village  lying  for  its  greater  part  in  the  township  of  this 
name  in  Wright  county,  reaching  also  into  Lynden  in  Stearns  county, 
received  its  name  from  the  river  there  tributary  to  the  Mississippi,  called 
on  Nicollet's  map  "Kawakomik  or  Clear  Water  R." 

Cold  Spring,  a  village  in  Wakefield,  was  platted  in  the  fall  of  1856. 
"The  vicinity  abounds  in  natural  mineral  springs,  and  the  two  companies 
that  have  made  the  water  famous  over  a  wide  territory  do  a  business 
amounting  to  some  $20,000  a  year."     (History  of  this  county,  p.  1333.) 

Collegeville  township,  settled  in  1858,  organized  in-  January,  1880,  is 
named  for  St.  John's  College,  which  was  chartered  by  the  legislature 
March  6,  1857.  The  college  was  opened  in  the  fall  of  that  year,  being  at 
first  in  St.  Cloud,  but  in  1867  it  was  removed  to  its  present  site,  in  section 
1,  Collegeville.  "In  1880  the  name  of  the  Monastery,  St.  Louis  on  the 
Lake,  was  changed  to  correspond  with  the  name  of  the  college,  .  .  . 
as  St.  John's  Abbey."  (History,  Upper  Mississippi  Valley,  p.  373.)  By 
an  act  of  the  legislature,  February  27,  1883,  the  legal  name  of  the  college 
was  changed  to  St.  John's  University.  Its  railway  village,  named  also 
Collegeville,  one  mile  and  a  half  distant,  is  in  section  32,  St.  Wendel. 

Crow  Lake  township,  settled  in  1861,  organized  in  1868,  and  Crow 
River  township,  settled  in  1860  and  organized  in  1877,  are  named  respec- 
tively for  Crow  lake,  in  the  former  township,  and  the  North  branch  of 
Crow  river,  which  Rows  across  the  township  bearing  that  name.  The 
stream,  belonging  partly  to  several  counties,  is  fully  noticed  in  the  first 
chapter  and  again  in  the  chapter  of  Crow  Wing  county. 

Eden  Lake  township,  settled  in  1856,  organized  February  16,  1867,  and 
Eden  Valley  railway  village,  on  the  south  line  of  this  township  and 
reaching  into  Manannah  in  Meeker  county,  received  these  names  by 
choice  of  their  people,  expressing  their  very  high  admiration.  The  lake 
of  this  name  lies  mostly  in  sections  25  and  26,  and  outflows  northward 
to  the  Sauk  river. 


524  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Elrosa  is  a  village  of  the  Soo  railway  in  Lake  George  township. 

Fair  Haven  township,  organized  April  5,  1859,  and  its  village,  platted 
in  May,  1856,  received  their  name  from  an  exclamation  of  Thomas  C. 
Partridge,  "This  is  a  fair  haven  1"  when  in  the  spring  of  1856  he  came 
there  in  an  exploring  tramp  from  Clearwater.    (County  History,  p.  1267.) 

Farming  township,  settled  in  1858  and  organized  March  11,  1873,  has 
a  rare  name,  adopted  in  allusion  to  the  occupation  of  all  its  people. 

Freeport,  a  Great  Northern  railway  village  in  Oak  township,  incorpo- 
rated in  September,  1892,  was  named  by  settlers  who  came  from  the  city 
of  Freeport  in  Illinois. 

Georgeville  is  a  Soo  railway  village  in  Crow  River  township. 

Getty  township  was  organized  in  1865.  "John  J.  Getty,  in  honor  of 
whom  the  town  is  named,  was  undoubtedly  the  first  permanent  settler. 
He  came  on  the  6th  of  July,  1857,  and  settled  on  section  nineteen,  in  what 
has  since  been  known  as  Gett/s  Grove."  (History,  Upper  Mississippi, 
p.  416.)     He  was  born  in  Onondaga  county,  N.  Y.,  September  15,  1821. 

Greenwald  is  a  village  of  the  Soo  railway  in  Grove  township.  Wald 
is  a  German  word,  meaning  a  grove. 

Grove  township,  settled  in  the  fall  of  1858,  was  organized  in  1867.  It 
had  previously  been  a  part  of  Oak  Grove  township,  organized  in  1860, 
which  included  this  surveyed  township  and  another  next  east.  When  they 
took  separate  organizations,  in  1867,  they  adopted  respectively  the  names 
Grove  and  Oak. 

Holding  township,  organized  in  1870,  was  named  in  honor  of  its  first 
permanent  settler,  who  made  a  homestead  claim  in  May,  1868.  Six  years 
later  he  platted  the  village  of  Holding's  Ford,  giving  it  this  name  from  its 
fording  place  of  the  South  stream  of  the  Two  rivers.  For  its  post  office 
the  name  is  printed  as  Holdingford,  and  the  village  now  includes  a  later 
village  site  platted  on  the  east  side  of  the  river,  which  was  at  first  named 
Wardeville.  Randolph  Holding  was  born  in  McHenry  county,  111.,  July 
27,  1844;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1861,  settling  at  Clearwater;  served  in 
the  Eighth  Minnesota  regiment,  1862-65;  engaged  in  freighting  from  St. 
Qoud  to  the  Red  river,  1866-8;  settled  in  this  township,  1868;  was  the 
township  clerk,  1870-81;  and  a  represehtative  in  the  legislature,  1872. 

Kimball  Prairie,  a  Soo  railway  village  in  Maine  Prairie  township, 
founded  in  1886,  incorporated  in  February,  1892,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Frye  Kimball,  an  early  farmer  there. 

Krain  township,  settled  in  1868,  and  organized  in  1872,  bears  the  name 
of  a  province  of  southern  Austria,  also  called  Carniola.  This  was  the 
native  province  of  Rev.  Francis  Xavier  Pirec  (or  Pierz),  who  was  a 
leader  in  founding  St  John's  College  and  in  bringing  German  colonists 
to  Stearns  county  and  other  adjoining  counties,  for  whom  Pierz  town- 
ship in  Morrison  county  was  named. 

Lake  George  township,  settled  in  1856  and  organized  in  1877,  has  a 
lake  so  named  in  honor  of  George  Kraemer,  one  of  its  pioneer  settlers. 
It  was  called  Lake  Henry  by  the  expedition  of  Woods  and  Pope  in  1849. 


STEARNS  COUNTY  525 

Lake  Henry  township,  settled  in  1855  and  organized  in  1869,  took  the 
name  of  a  lake  in  sections  10  and  15,  which  has  been  drained.  This  lake 
name,  as  noted  for  the  last  preceding  township,  was  received  from  the 
expedition  of  Woods  and  Pope,  whose  route  passed  the  north  ends  of 
Lakes  David  and  Henry,  named  by  their  journals  and  maps,  identifiable 
respectively  as  Lakes  Henry  and  George  of  later  maps. 

Le  Sauk  township,  settled  in  1854,  organized  in  1860,  received  this 
French  name,  meaning  "the  Sauk,"  from  the  same  derivation  as  Sauk 
Rapids,  the  Sauk  river,  Sauk  Center,  and  Lake  Osakis,  before  explained 
in  the  chapter  for  Benton  county. 

Luxemburg  township,  settled  in  1861  and  organized  in  1866,  was  named 
by  its  German  settlers  for  the  province  and  city  in  western  Germany. 

Luxemburg  village  or  hamlet  is  eight  miles  northeast  from  this  town- 
ship, being  in  the  west  part  of  St.  Augusta. 

Lynden  township,  settled  in  1853,  organized  January  15,  1859,  was 
then  named  Lyndon,  like  townships  in  Vermont  and  Wisconsin,  and  like 
townships  and  villages  in  five  other  states,  honoring  Josiah  Lyndon  (b. 
1704,  d.  1778),  governor  of  Rhode  Island  in  1768-69,  a  patriot  for  the 
American  revolution.  From  near  its  earliest  record,  however,  the  name 
has  been  spelled  Lynden,  in  analogy  with  the  linden  tree. 

Maine  Prairie  township,  organized  in  1858,  was  named  by  its  many 
pioneers  from  Maine,  who  came  as  its  first  settlers  in  1856.  One  of  its 
villages  or  hamlets,  named  Maine  Prairie  Corners,  founded  in  1865-6, 
is  on  the  site  of  a  stockade  and  fort  constructed  in  1862  as  a  refuge  from 
the  Sioux  outbreak.  The  name  of  this  township  was  proposed  by  Aaron 
Scribner,  who  came  from  Aroostook  county,  Maine,  and  who  later  re- 
moved to  Otter  Tail  county  and  there  proposed  the  name  of  Maine  town- 
ship.   He  died  in  Washington  state  in  March,  1916. 

Meire  Grove  is  a  village  in  Grove  township,  two  miles  north  of  Green- 
wald. 

Melrose  township,  settled  in  1857  and  organized  in  1866,  was  named 
by  Warren  Adley,  in  honor  of  Melissa  (or  Melvina)  and  Rose,  who  were 
his  daughters  or  were  other  near  kindred  or  friends.  The  village  of 
Melrose,  platted  in  December,  1871,  by  Edwin  and  William  H.  Clark, 
cousins,  was  the  terminus  of  the  railroad  from  November  18,  1872,  until 
1878,  was  incorporated  March  3,  1881,  and  received  a  city  charter  in  1896. 
This  is  elsewhere  a  frequent  name,  received  from  the  town  of  Melrose 
in  Scotland,  having  ruins  of  an  ancient  abbey,  near  the  home  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott.  It  is  the  name  of  a  city  in  Massachusetts,  and  of  villages 
and  townships  in  seventeen  other  states. 

Millwood  township,  settled  in  1866  and  organized  in  1871,  has  a  name 
that  is  borne  also  by  villages  in  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
and  seven  other  states. 

MuNSON  township,  settled  in  1856,  organized  in  1859,  has  the  name  of 
villages  in  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania. 


526  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

New  Munich,  a  village  in  Oak  township,  first  had  a  post  office  in 
1859.  "It  received  its  name  from  a  Bavarian  hunter,  who  came  from 
Munich,  Bavaria,  and  stayed  with  the  first  settlers  for  several  years." 
(History  of  the  county,  p.  1298.) 

New  Paynesville,  platted  as  a  village  on  the  Soo  railway,  was  organ- 
ized in  1890,  being  situated  about  a  mile  east  of  the  previous  village  of 
Paynesville.  In  the  fall  of  1904  it  received  the  old  townsite  by  annex- 
ation, and  in  1905  its  name  was  changed  to  Paynesville  by  popular  vote. 

North  Fork  township,  settled  in  1864  and  organized  in  1867,  is  crossed 
by  the  North  fork  of  Crow  river. 

Oak  township,  settled  about  1856,  organized  in  1860,  was  then  called 
Oak  Grove.  Its  present  name  dates  from  1867,  when  Grove  township, 
formerly  a  part  of  Oak  Grove,  was  separately  organized,  as  before  noted. 

Paynesville  township,  organized  September  20,  1867,  had  previously 
been  included  in  Verdale.  Edwin  £.  Payne  was  its  first  settler,  coming 
in  1857  and  making  a  homestead  claim,  on  which  in  the  same  year  he 
platted  and  named  the  first  village  site.  This  village,  incorporated  in 
1887,  was  annexed  to  New  Paynesville  in  1904;  and  the  resultant  village 
in  March,  1905,  dropped  ''New"  from  its  name. 

Pearl  Lake,  a  hamlet  adjoining  the  lake  of  this  name  in  the  north 
part  of  Maine  Prairie,  founded  by  the  building  of  a  church  in  1889-90, 
received  a  post  of!ice  in  1901,  named  Marty,  which  has  been  discontinued. 

Raymond  township,  settled  in  1860,  but  deserted  from  1862  to  1866, 
was  organized  in  1867,  being  named  in  honor  of  Liberty  B.  Raymond,  one 
of  its  early  settlers. 

Richmond,  a  village  on  the  Sauk  river  in  Munson,  bears  the  surname 
of  one  of  its  earliest  settlers;  and  it  also  partly  commemorates  Reuben 
Richardson,  by  whom  this  village  was  platted  in  1856. 

Rockville  township,  settled  in  1855,  organized  June  25,  1860,  and  its 
village,  platted  in  1856,  received  their  name  from  the  outcrops  of  granite 
adjoining  the  Sauk  river  and  Mill  creek. 

RoscoE,  a  Great  Northern  railway  village,  formerly  called  Zion,  is  on 
the  east  side  of  Zion  township. 

St.  Augusta  township,  settled  in  1854  and  organized  in  1859,  was  orig- 
inally called  Berlin  and  later  Neenah,  but  in  1863  adopted  the  present 
name,  which  had  been  given  by  Father  Pierz  in  1856  to  the  first  church 
here.  The  village  of  St.  Augusta,  first  platted  in  1855,  has  a  station  of 
the  Great  Northern  railway. 

St.  Cloud,  the  county  seat,  first  settled  in  October,  1851,  was  platted 
in  the  fall  of  1854  by  John  L.  Wilson,  "familiarly  called  the  'Father  of 
St.  Qoud.*"  The  History  of  the  county  says:  "The  choosing  of  St 
Ooud  as  the  name  for  his  new  town  was  due  to  the  fact  that  while 
reading  the  life  of  Napoleon  I,  Mr.  Wilson  had  observed  that  the  Empress 
Josephine  spent  much  of  her  time  at  the  magnificent  palace  at  St.  Qoud, 
a  few  miles  out  of  Paris,  a  circumstance  which  appealed  so  strongly  to 
his  fancy  that  he  adopted  it." 


STEARNS  COUNTY  527 

Saint  Qoud,  or  Clodvald  or  Chlodvald,  was  the  youngost  son  of 
Qodomir,  the  king  of  Orleans,  who  was  the  son  of  Qovis.  The  History 
of  France,  by  Guizot  (eight  volumes),  tells  in  its  first  volume  how  the 
two  brothers  of  Qodvald  were  murdered  by  their  uncles,  king  Childebert 
of  Paris  and  king  Qotaire  of  Soissons,  in  A.  D.  524.  The  murdered 
brothers  were  ten  and  seven  years  old,  and  they  were  greatly  mourned  by 
their  grandmother,  Queen  Clotilde.  Of  the  younger  brother.  Saint  Cloud, 
Guizot  wrote:  'The  third,  named  Qodvald  (who  died  about  the  year 
560,  after  having  founded,  near  Paris,  a  monastary  called  after  him  St. 
Cloud),  could  not  be  caught,  and  was  saved  by  some  gallant  men.  He, 
disdaining  a  terrestrial  kingdom,  dedicated  himself  to  the  Lord,  was  shorn 
by  his  own  hand,  and  became  a  churchman ;  he  devoted  himself  wholly  to 
good  works,  and  died  a  priest.  And  the  two  kings  divided  equally  be- 
tween them  the  kingdom  of  Qodomir." 

St.  Cloud  was  incorporated  as  a  town  March  1,  1856,  and  as  a  city 
March  6,  1868.  A  more  ample  city  charter  was  granted  by  the  legislature 
April  13,  1889.  This  township  was  organized  in  1858.  The  city  extends 
across  the  Mississippi,  including  wards  5  and  6  in  Benton  county,  and 
ward  7  in  Sherburne  county.  Alluding  to  the  granite  quarries  in  the 
wards  east  of  the  river,  St.  Cloud  is  called  "the  Granite  City;"  and  in 
1916  the  Street  Department  automobile,  used  for  street  sprinkling,  bore 
the  popular  slogan,  conspicuously  painted  in  large  letters,  "Busy,  gritty. 
Granite  City." 

St.  Joseph  township,  settled  in  1854,  organized  in  1858,  and  its  village, 
founded  in  1855  and  incorporated  January  29,  1890,  bear  the  name  of  its 
church. 

St.  Martin  township,  settled  in  1857  and  organized  in  1863,  and  its 
village,  founded  in  1866  and  incorporated  in  1891,  are  named  in  honor  of 
St.  Martin,  bishop  of  Tours,  who  was  born  about  the  year  316,  for  whom 
November  11  is  celebrated  as  Martinmas. 

St.  Stephen  is  a  village  in  Brockway,  incorporated  May  2,  1914,  in- 
cluding the  former  townsite  named  Brockway,  which  was  platted  in  1857. 

St.  Wendel  township,  settled  in  1854  or  earlier,  was  organized  under 
the  name  of  Hancock  in  the  spring  of  1868,  but  was  renamed  as  now  in 
the  summer  of  the  same  year. 

Sartell,  a  village  on  the  Mississippi  in  Le  Sauk,  at  the  mouth  of  Watab 
river,  opposite  to  the  great  paper  mill  of  the  Watab  Pulp  and  Paper  Com- 
pany, is  named  in  honor  of  Joseph  B.  Sartell,  the  first  settler  of  Le  Sauk, 
who  came  in  1854,  built  a  sawmill  in  1857,  and  continued  to  reside  here, 
with  seven  sons,  until  his  death,  January  27,  1913.  He  was  born  at  East 
Pepperell,  Mass.,  January  15,  1826.  The  paper  mill  and  dam  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi were  built  in  1905-07,  and  the  bridge  over  the  Mississippi  in  1914. 
This  village,  including  the  mill  and  railway  station  in  Benton  county  and 
the  workmen's  homes  mainly  in  Stearns  county,  was  incorporated  in 
November,  1907. 


528  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Sauk  Center  township,  settled  in  1856  and  organized  in  1858,  received 
this  name  in  allusion  to  its  central  location  on  the  Sauk  river,  between 
the  Sauk  rapids  of  the  Mississippi  and  Lake  Osakis,  which  likewise  was 
named  for  its  former  occupation  by  a  small  band  of  Sauk  Indians,  as 
related  in  the  chapter  of  Benton  county.  The  village  of  this  township, 
platted  in  1863,  was  incorporated  February  12,  1876,  and  received  a  city 
charter  March  5,  1889. 

Spring  Hill  township,  settled  in  1857,  organized  July  10,  1871,  was 
named  from  its  springs  and  low  morainic  hills. 

Stiles,  a  Great  Northern  station  in  Ashley,  five  miles  west  of  Sauk 
Center,  commemorates  A.  M.  Stiles,  a  pioneer  farmer.  He  was  born  in 
Steuben  county,  N.  Y.,  April  10,  1858;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1862,  set- 
tling first  in  Rochester;  was  a  miner  in  Idaho,  1864-6;  removed  in  1866 
to  the  farm  in  section  11,  Ashley,  which  was  afterward  his  home;  was 
chairman  of  the  first  board  of  township  supervisors,  1870,  and  was  town 
clerk,  1871-80;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature,  1879. 

Vesdale  was  a  large  township  or  district,  organized  in  1858,  originally 
including  St.  Martin,  Spring  Hill,  Lake  Henry,  Zion,  and  Paynesville. 
All  its  surveyed  townships,  when  separately  organized,  took  the  other 
names  here  noted. 

Watto  Park,  a  western  suburb  of  St.  Qoud,  containing  the  Great 
Northern  railway  shops,  which  were  built  in  1890-91,  was  incorporated 
as  a  village  March  20,  1893,  being  named  in  honor  of  Henry  Chester 
Waite,  of  St.  Cloud.  He  was  born  in  Rensselaerville,  N.  Y.,  June  30, 
1830;  was  graduated  at  Union  College,  Schenectady,  in  1851,  and  was 
admitted  to  practice  law  in  1853;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1855,  settling  in 
St.  Qoud  as  its  first  lawyer;  later  engaged  in  banking,  flour  milling,  and 
as  a  merchant;  was  register  of  the  U.  S.  land  ofHce,  1865-69;  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  state  constitutional  convention,  1857,  a  representative  in  the 
legislature,  1863,  and  a  state  senator  in  1870-71  and  1883-85;  died  on  his 
farm  near  the  city  of  St.  Qoud,  November  15,  1912.  He  owned  flouring 
mills  at  Cold  Spring  and  in  Clearwater. 

Wakefield  township,  settled  in  1855,  and  organized  May  27,  1858,  was 
at  first  called  Springfield,  but  was  renamed  as  now  in  1870,  in  honor  of 
Samuel  Wakefield,  chairman  of  its  first  board  of  supervisors  in  1858. 

Zton  townships  settled  in  1860  by  German  Lutherans,  organized  in 
1867,  is  named  from  the  hill  or  plateau  of  Mount  Zion,  the  highest  part 
of  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  praised  in  the  48th  psalm  for  the  beauty  of  its 
situation.  The  railway  village  of  this  township,  formerly  called  Zion,  is 
renamed  Roscoe. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  rapids  and  islands  of  the  Mississippi  at  St.  Goud  and  southeast- 
ward are  noted  in  the  chapter  for  Sherburne  county. 

In  the  foregoing  pages,  attention  has  been  gfiven  to  the  names  of 
Ashley  creek,  Clearwater  river,  Crow  lake  and  river,  with  the  North  fork 


STEARNS  COUNTY  529 

of  this  river,  Eden  lake,  the  South  stream  of  Two  rivers,  Lakes  George 
and  Henry,  Pearl  lake,  and  the  Sauk  river. 

Watab  river,  joining  the  Mississippi  at  Sartell,  received  this  name 
from  jack  pines  growing  near  its  mouth.  The  long  and  slender  roots 
of  this  pine,  as  also  of  the  tamarack,  were  called  watab  by  the  Ojibways 
and  were  used  for  sewing  their  birch  bark  canoes.  In  the  treaty  of  1825 
at  Prairie  du  Chien,  this  river  was  designated  as  a  part  of  the  boundary 
agreed  upon  to  be  a  dividing  line  between  the  country  of  the  Ojibways 
and  that  of  the  Sioux.  The  entire  course  of  this  boundary  was  noted  by 
Prof.  N.   H.  Winchell  in  "The  Aborigines  of  Minnesota"    (page  617). 

OthfiT  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi  in  this  county,  smaller  than  the 
Sauk,  Watab,  and  Clearwater  fivers,  include  the  southern  one  of  the  Two 
rivers,  which  was  crossed  by  'Holding's  ford,"  with  its  affluent  Hay 
creek;  Spunk  brook,  translated  from  the  Ojibway  name,  "Sagatagon  or 
Spunk  R."  on  Nicollet's  map  in  1843,  meaning  exceptionally  dry  and 
shredded  wood  or  punk,  used  as  tinder  for  making  a  fire;  St.  Augusta 
creek,  in  the  township  of  this  name,  also  called  Johnson's  creek,  in  honor 
of  L.  P.  Johnson,  a  pioneer  who  came  here  in  1854  and  was  the  first 
chairman  of  the  township  supervisors,  in  1859;  and  Plum  creek,  in  Lyn- 
den,  named  for  its  wild  plum  trees. 

Sauk  river  receives  from  its  north  side  Adley  and  Getchell  creeks, 
named  for  prominent  pioneers;  and  from  its  south  side  Silver  and  Ash- 
ley creeks,  in  Ashley  township,  Stony  creek  in  Spring  Hill,  another 
stream  which  is  the  outlet  of  Eden  lake  and  of  the  Rice  lakes,  and  Mill 
creek  at  the  village  of  Rockville. 

Warren  Adley  was  born  in  Maine  in  1822;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1856; 
served  in  the  Fourth  Minnesota  regiment  in  the  civil  war;  kept  a  hotel 
first  at  Melrose,  and  later  at  Osakis ;  was  a  representative  in  the  legisla- 
ture in  1873. 

Nathaniel  Getchell  was  born  in  Wesley,  Maine,  November  9,  1828; 
came  to  Minnesota  in  1852,  and  three  years  later  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  Brockway  township  in  this  county;  served  in  the  Minnesota  Mounted 
Rangers,  1862-3. 

From  the  township  of  Crow  Lake  flow  Skunk  river  or  creek,  the 
outlet  of  Skunk  or  Tamarack  lake,  and  the  Middle  fork  or  branch 
of  Crow  river,  having  its  source  in  Crow  lake. 

Lakes  that  are  named  on  the  maps,  in  addition  to  such  as  have 
already  been  noticed,  are  Lakes  Louisa,  Maria,  Caroline,  and  Aug^usta, 
and  Gearwater,  Grass,  and  Center  lakes,  a  series  through  which  the 
Qearwater  river  flows  on  the  southern  boundary  of  Fair  Haven  and 
Lynden;  another  Lake  Maria,  Crooked  and  Long  lakes,  Holman's  lake, 
and  Belle  and  Warner  lakes,  on  Plum  creek;  Beaver  and  Block  lakes, 
in  the  southwest  corner  of  St.  Augusta;  Lake  Lura  and  Otter  lake,  in 
Fair  Haven;  Goodner's  and  Day's  lakes,  Island  lake,  Carnelian  and 
Willow  lakes,  and  School  lake,  named  from  its  situation  in  the  school 


530  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

section  36,  all  being  in  Maine  Prairie;  Grand  and  Pleasant  lakes,  in 
Rockville;  Cedar  Island  lake,  Great  Northern,  Kra/s,  Park,  and  Knaus 
lakes,  on  the  course  of  the  Sauk  river  in  Wakefield;  Mud,  Eden, 
Brown's,  and  Long  lakes,  in  a  series  running  from  south  to  north 
through  the  east  part  of  Eden  Lake  township;  the  large  Rice  lake  and  a 
small  Pirz  lake,  in  the  west  part  of  that  township;  Big  lake,  Schroeder, 
Becker,  and  Horseshoe  lakes,  in  Munson,  the  last  being  on  the  Sauk 
river;  Lake  Koronis  in  Paynesville,  extending  south  into  Meeker  county; 
Fish,  Grass,  and  Halvorson  lakes,  in  Crow  Lake  township;  Sand  lake, 
in  the  southeast  corner  of  Raymond;  Lake  Isabelle,  and  Black  Oak  and 
Ellering  lakes,  in  Grove  township;  a  little  Lake  George,  in  the  city  of 
St.  Cloud ;  Kraemer  lake,  in  St.  Joseph ;  Lake  St  Louis  and  Stump  lakes, 
adjoining  St.  John's  University,  and  Island  lake.  Big  Fish  lake.  Long 
and  Sand  lakes,  Pitts,  Thomas,  and  Kreighl  lakes,  and  Big  Watab  and 
Little  Watab  lakes,  all  in  CoUegeville,  the  last  two  being  on  the  South 
fork  of  Watab  river;  another  Watab  lake,  on  the  middle  course  of  this 
river  in  St.  Wendel,  and  yet  another  and  smaller  Watab  lake,  on  a 
northern  tributary  of  this  river,  in  sections  8  and  17,  Le  Sauk;  Shepard 
lake,  in  Brockway;  Achman  and  Kepper  lakes.  Lakes  Anna  and  Lizzie, 
Linneman  and  Minnie  lakes,  and  the  Big,  Middle,  and  Lower  Spunk 
lakes,  in  the  south  half  of  Avon ;  Pelican  and  Pine  lakes,  in  northwestern 
Avon;  the  large  Two  River  lake,  in  Holding;  Qear  and  Mud  lakes,  Big 
and  Little  Rice  lakes.  Lake  Henn,  another  Mud  lake,  and  Sand  lake, 
in  Farming;  North  lake,  at  the  north  side  of  Albany  village;  Vos  lake, 
Lake  St.  Mary,  and  Lake  St.  Anna,  in  Krain;  Gravel  lake,  in  section  1, 
St.  Martin;  Sand  and  Getchell  lakes.  Lake  Maria,  Frevel's  and  Uhlen- 
kott's  lakes,  in  Oak  township;  King's  lake,  Long  lake,  Swamp,  Cedar, 
and  Wolf  lakes,  in  the  south  half  of  Millwood,  and  Lake  Mary  and 
Birch  Bark  lakes,  crossed  by  its  north  line ;  Lake  Sylvia  and  Middle  Birch 
lake,  in  the  northeast  part  of  Melrose,  the  former  being  named  for  the 
wife  of  Alfred  Townsend;  and  McCormick,  Cedar,  and  Sauk  lakes,  the 
last  being  on  the  Sauk  river,  in  Sauk  Center  township. 

Hills  and  Prairies. 

Among  many  morainic  hills  from  50  feet,  or  less,  to  about  100  feet 
in  height,  or  rarely  150  to  200  feet  high,  occurring  in  numerous  long  tracts 
or  belts  in  this  county,  maps  name  only  Cheney  hill,  in  section  1,  Melrose. 

Winnebago  prairie,  also  known  as  Brockway  prairie,  adjoins  the 
Mississippi  for  about  four  or  five  miles  in  Le  Sauk  and  Brockway;  and 
the  North  prairie  similarly  borders  the  river  in  the  northeast  part  of 
Brockway,  continuing  into  Morrison  county. 

Besides  these  relatively  small  prairie  areas  of  the  valley  drift  in  the 
generally  wooded  part  of  this  county,  it  has  a  large  area  of  prairie  west  of 
Richmond  and  southwest  of  the  Sauk  river,  continuous  with  the  great 
prairie  region  of  southern  and  western  Minnesota. 


STEELE  COUNTY 

Established  February  20,  1855,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of 
Franklin  Steele,  a  prominent  pioneer  of  Minneapolis.  He  was  born  in 
Chester  county,  Pennsylvania,  May  12,  1813;  came  to  Fort  Snelling  as 
sutler  of  that  frontier  post,  in  1838 ;  became  owner  of  valuable  lands  at  the 
falls  of  St.  Anthony ;  and  was  active  in  improvements  of  the  water  power, 
and  in  the  building  up  of  St  Anthony  and  Minneapolis.  He  was  a  charter 
member  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death 
was  chairman  of  its  Department  of  American  History.  In  1851  Mr. 
Steele  was  elected  by  the  Legislature  as  one  of  the  first  board  of  regents 
of  the  University  of  Minnesota ;  and  during  all  his  later  life  he  was  identi- 
fied with  the  promotion  of  many  public  interests,  but  never  held  political 
office.    He  died  in  Minneapolis,  September  10,  1880. 

Biographic  notes,  *  with  portraits,  of  Franklin  Steele  and  his  asso- 
ciates in  founding  the  lumber  industries  on  the  upper  Mississippi,  with 
the  sawmills  of  Minneapolis,  are  given  in  the  M.  H.  S.  Collections  (Vol- 
ume IX,  1901,  pages  325-362). 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  has  been  gathered  from  "History  of  Steele 
and  Waseca  Counties,"  1887,  756  pages;  "History  of  Rice  and  Steele 
Counties,"  by  Frankl3m  Curtiss-Wedge,  1910,  having  pages  629-1026  for  this 
county;  and  Hon.  Charles  S.  Crandall,  Jesse  Healey,  Willard  E.  Martin, 
and  W.  E.  Kenyon,  judge  of  probate,  these  being  interviewed  at  Owa- 
tonna,  the  county  seat,  during  visits  there  in  April  and  October,  1916. 

Anderson  is  a  railway  station  in  Havana,  seven  miles  east  of  Owa- 
tonna.  Its  village  or  hamlet  is  called  Lysne  (pronounced  in  two  sylla- 
bles).   Each  is  the  name  of  Scandinavian  residents  there. 

Aurora  township,  first  settled  in  1856,  organized  February  17,  1857, 
was  named  by  Hon.  Amos  Coggswell  for  the  city  of  Aurora  in  Illinois. 
He  was  bom  in  Boscawen,  N.  H.,  September  29,  1825;  settled  in  1856  on 
a  homestead  claim  in  this  township;  removed  to  Owatonna,  and  was  a 
lawyer  there ;  was  speaker  of  the  legislature  in  1859,  and  a  state  senator 
in  1872-75;  died  in  Owatonna,  November  15,  1892.  The  name  Aurora, 
from  the  Latin  language,  means  the  morning,  or  especially  the  redness 
of  the  dawning  light. 

Berlin  township,  organized  February  17,  1857,  was  named  from  the 
city  of  Berlin  in  Wisconsin.  Twenty-three  other  states  of  our  Union 
have  townships  and  villages  or  cities  likewise  named  after  the  capital 
of  Germany. 

531 


532  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

BixBY,  a  railway  village  in  the  south  edge  of  Aurora,  founded  about 
1890,  was  named  in  honor  of  John  Bixby,  who  was  born  in  Moretown,  Vt., 
January  28,  1814,  and  died  in  Aurora  January  15,  1890.  He  came  to 
Minnesota  in  1856,  settling  on  a  homestead  claim  a  mile  west  of  the  site 
of  this  village.  His  eldest  son,  Jacob  S.  Bixby,  on  whose  farm  the  new 
railway  station  was  located,  was  the  first  postmaster  there.  The  name 
Oak  Glen,  to  be  later  noticed,  was  proposed  for  the  post  office,  but  was 
changed  to  Bixby  by  Hon.  Mark  H.  Bunnell  of  Owatonna,  member  in 
Congress  for  this  district. 

Blooming  Prairie  township,  settled  in  1856,  was  organized  in  1867, 
being  then  called  Oak  Glen,  as  further  noted  in  this  list.  The  township 
was  renamed  as  now  in  January,  1873,  taking  the  name  of  its  railway 
village,  which  was  platted  in  1868.  It  is  euphonious,  referring  to  the 
abundant  flowers  of  this  prairie  region,  and  it  has  the  merit  of  unique- 
ness, no  other  village  or  post  office  in  the  world  having  adopted  this  name. 

Clinton.  Falls  township,  settled  in  1854,  organized  May  11,  1858,  and 
its  village,  platted  in  1855,  are  named  from  the  falls  of  the  Straight  river, 
having  10  feet  head  at  its  dam  here.  Nine  other*  states  have  counties 
named  Clinton,  and  thirty  states  have  townships  and  villages  or  cities 
of  this  name,  mostly  commemorating  George  and  DeWitt  Clinton,  who 
were  governors  of  New  York,  the  latter  being  also  the  projector  of  the 
Erie  canal. 

Deerfield  township,  first  settled  in  May,  1855,  and  organized  in  the 
spring  of  1858,  has  a  name  that  is  also  borne  by  townships  and  villages 
in  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Ohio,  Wisconsin,  and  nine 
other  states. 

Ellendale,  a  village  of  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  and  Pacific  railway 
in  Berlin,  was  platted  in  the  autumn  of  1900  and  was  incorporated 
August  15,  1901,  its  site  having  been  selected  by  the  railway  officials,  C. 
J.  Ives  being  president.  "The  name  was  given  in  memory  of  Mrs.  C. 
J.  Ives,  who  died  a  few  years  previous  to  this  time.  She  was  the  labor- 
ing man's  friend.  She  seemed  to  know  every  section  man  and  every 
brakeman  on  the  road;  and  her  many  acts  of  tender,  thoughtful  kind- 
ness endeared  her  to  the  hundreds  of  employees.  Her  maiden  name  was 
Ellen  Dale,  so  this  beautiful,  prosperous  village  will  perpetuate  the  mem- 
ory of  that  good  woman."    (History,  1910,  p.  944). 

Havana  township,  settled  in  1855,  was  organized  February  27,  1857, 
being  then  called  Lafayette.  In  September,  1858,  the  name  was  changed 
to  Freeman,  and  in  the  next  month  to  Dover.  Thus  it  continued  till 
1869,  when  it  was  renamed  Havana,  on  request  of  Elijah  Easton,  for 
Havana,  the  county  seat  of  Mason  county,  Illinois.  As  a  Spanish  word, 
meaning  a  haven,  a  harbor,  it  became  the  name  of  the  chief  city  and 
capital  of  Cuba.  The  village  of  Havana  was  founded  and  so  named  in 
1867,  with  the  completion  of  the  Winona  and  St.  Peter  railroad. 


STEELE  COUNTY  533 

Hope  is  a  station  of  the  Rock  Island  railway  in  the  west  edge  of 
Somerset. 

Lemond  township,  settled  in  1856  and  organized  in  April,  1858,  bears 
probably  a  personal  surname,  but  it  is  nowhere  else  used  as  a  geographic 
name,  excepting  a  railway  station  in  Queensland,   Australia. 

Lysne  is  a  Scandinavian  name,  in  two  syllables,  of  a  railway  village 
in  Havana,  before  noted  as  Anderson,  which  is  its  official  railway  name. 

Medford  township,  first  settled  in  1853,  was  organized  August  29, 
1855,  and  its  village  was  platted  in  1856.  The  first  township  meeting  was 
held  at  the  house  of  William  K.  Colling,  an  Englishman  who  had  come 
here  in  1854  and  taken  a  homestead  claim,  but  who  after  several  years 
residence  returned  finally  to  England.  "At  a  meeting  of  the  settlers  to 
consult  upon  a  name  wherewith  to  christen  the  town,  Mr.  Colling  said 
that  he  had  a  son  who  was  born  on  board  the  ship  Medford,  and  was 
named  Medford,  in  honor  of  the  ship,  and  proposed  that  the  town  should 
be  named  Medford  in  honor  of  the  boy,  which  proposition  was  unani- 
mously adopted."  (History,  1887,  p.  303.)  This  is  the  name  of  a  town- 
ship and  hamlet  in  Maine,  a  city  in  Massachusetts,  and  villages  and 
townships  in  five  other  states. 

Meriden  township,  settled  in  1855  and  organized  in  1857-58,  was  named 
by  F.  J.  Stephens,  one  of  its  founders,  from  the  city  of  Meriden  in  Con- 
necticut, which  is  famed  for  its  manufacture  of  silver  ware  and  thence  is 
sometimes  called  the  "Silver  City."  The  railway  village  of  Meriden  was 
founded  in  1867. 

Merton  township,  settled  in  1855,  was  at  first  called  Union  Prairie, 
but  was  organized  in  1857-8  as  Orion,  and  was  renamed  Merton  in  1862, 
probably  for  the  township  and  village  of  Merton  in  Wisconsin.  This  is 
the  name  of  a  village  in  Surrey,  England,  which  in  the  Middle  Ages  had 
a  famous  Augustinian  abbey. 

Oak  Glen  was  Si  stage  coach  station  at  the  lakes  of  this  name  in  the 
northeast  part  of  the  present  township  of  Blooming  Prairie,  where  a 
village  site  named  Oak  Glen  was  platted  in  1856.  Thence  the  towns^hip 
took  this  name  when  it  was  organized  in  1867,  but  it  was  renamed  Bloom- 
ing Prairie,  as  before  noted,  in  1873. 

OwATONNA,  the  county  seat,  earliest  settled  in  1854  and  platted  in  Sep- 
tember, 1855,  was  incorporated  as  a  town  August  9,  1858,  and  as  a  city 
February  23,  1865.  The  township  was  organized,  with  its  present  area, 
February  27,  1857.  This  was  the  Dakota  or  Sioux  name  of  the  Straight 
river,  which  is  its  translation.  The  river  was  mapped,  but  not  named,  on 
the  map  of  Minnesota  Territory  in  1855;  on  the  early  state  maps,  in 
1860  and  1869,  it  is  called  Owatonna  river ;  but  in  1870  it  is  named  Straight 
river. 

Pratt,  a  railway  hamlet  in  the  northwest  corner  of  Aurora,  was  named 
in  honor  of  William  A.  Pratt,  an  adjacent  farmer. 


534  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Saco  is  a  Rock  Island  railway  station  six  miles  south  of  Owatonna, 
named  from  the  Saco  river  and  city  in  Maine. 

Somerset  township,  first  settled  in  1855  and  organized  in  1857-8,  re- 
ceived the  name  of  its  first  post  office  which  was  established  in  1857,  with 
Dr.  Thomas  Kenyon  as  postmaster,  who  came  in  the  spring  of  1856.  The 
name  of  the  settlement  and  post  office  is  said  to  have  come  from  the 
overturning  of  his  tent  by  a  high  wind,  when  dinner  was  ready  in  it 
The  somersault  of  the  tent,  with  change  of  spelling,  became  the  township 
name.  It  is  a  common  geographic  name,  thus  spelled  Somerset,  for  a  county 
in  England,  counties  in  Maine,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland, 
and  villages  and  townships  in  fifteen  states  of  our  Union. 

Summit  township,  settled  in  the  summer  of  1856,  organized  May  10, 
1858,  has  near  its  south  line  the  summit  or  water  divide  between  the 
sources  of  Straight  river  and  Geneva  lake  in  Freeborn  county,  which 
outflows  southward  to  the  Cedar  river. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Straight  river,  translated  from  its  Sioux  name,  Owatonna,  as  before 
noted,  has  been  said  to  be  so  named  "in  derision,  as  it  is  about  the 
crookedest  river  in  the  state"  (Stennett,  Place  Names  of  the  Qiicago  and 
Northwestern  Railways,  1908,  p.  11)  ;  but,  while  the  stream  meanders,  the 
general  course  of  its  valley  is  remarkably  straight,  from  south  to  north. 

Its  tributaries  from  the  east  are  the  outlet  of  the  three  Oak  Glen  lakes 
and  of  Rickert  lake,  in  Blooming  Prairie;  Turtle  creek,  four  miles  south 
of  Owatonna;  Maple  creek,  flowing  from  Rice  lake,  named  for  its  wild 
rice,  crossed  by  the  east  line  of  Havana;  and  Rush  creek,  flowing  north- 
west into  Rice  county. 

From  the  west  this  river  receives  the  outlet  of  Lonergan,  Beaver,  and 
Mud  lakes,  in  Berlin,  and  Crane  creek,  which  flows  through  Bradley 
lake,  on  the  line  between  Meriden  and  Deerfield. 

Only  three  other  lakes  bearing  names  in  this  county  remain  to  be 
noted,  these  being  Wilker  or  Willert  lake  or  slough,  now  drained,  in  sec- 
tion 6,  Lemond,  and  Pelican  and  Swan  lakes  in  Deerfield.  The  last  two, 
with  the  adjacent  Crane  creek,  tell  of  large  wild  birds  that  formerly 
were  frequent  here. 


STEVENS  COUNTY 

Established  February  20,  1862,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of 
Isaac  Ingalls  Stevens,  who  in  1853  commanded  the  expedition  making 
the  northern  surveys  for  a  Pacific  railroad.  The  expedition  started  from 
St.  Paul  and  traveled  to  the  present  sites  of  Sauk  Rapids  and  St.  Qoud, 
and  by  White  Bear  (now  Minnewaska)  and  Elbow  lakes,  to  the  Bois 
des  Sioux  river,  thus  passing  near  the  northeast  corner  of  this  county. 
Stevens  was  bom  in.Andover,  Mass.,  March  28,  1818;  was  graduated  at 
West  Point  in  1839 ;  served  in  the  Mexican  war ;  was  governor  of  Wash- 
ington Territory,  1853-57 ;  was  a  delegate  to  Congress,  1857-61 ;  and  was 
a  gallant  leader  for  the  Union  in  the  civil  war,  entering  it  as  colonel 
of  the  79th  Regiment  of  New  York  Volunteers,  known  as  the  Highlanders ; 
attained  the  rank  of  major  general,  July  4,  1862;  and  lost  his  life  in  the 
battle  of  Chantilly,  in  Virginia,  on  the  first  day  of  September  in  the 
same  year.  An  earlier  attempt  to  give  his  name  to  a  county  of  Minnesota, 
in  1855,  was  frustrated  by  a  clerical  error  in  the  enrollment  of  the  legis- 
lative act,  which  changed  it  to  Stearns  county. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  for  the  origins  and  meanings  of  names  has  been  received 
from  a  pamphlet,  "Stevens  County,  Minnesota,  Its  Villages,  History," 
etc.,  22  pages,  published  in  1879  by  the  Board  of  Trade  of  Morris ;  "Illus- 
trated Album  of  Biography  of  Pope  and  Stevens  Counties,"  1888,  having 
pages  367-530  for  this  county;  and  from  Edwin  J.  Jones,  a  life  member 
of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  who  has  resided  in  Morris  since 
1878,  and  A.  L.  Stenger,  judge  of  probate,  each  being  interviewed  at 
Morris,  the  county  seat,  during  a  visit  there  in  May,  1916. 

Alberta,  a  railway  village  in  Scott  township,  formerly  called  Wheeler, 
was  renamed  in  honor  of  the  wife  of  E.  B.  Lindsey,  a  farmer  there. 

Baker  township,  originally  called  Potsdam,  has  a  common  personal 
surname,  which  is  also  borne  by  counties  in  Georgia  and  Florida,  a 
county  and  city  in  Oregon,  and  villages  in  eight  other  states. 

Chokio  (accented  on  the  second  syllable,  like  Ohio)  is  a  railway 
village  in  Baker.  This  name  is  a  Dakota  or  Sioux  word,  meaning  the 
middle. 

Darnen  township,  first  settled  at  a  stage  station  in  section  12  by  Henry 
Gager  in  1866,  has  many  immigrants  from  Ireland,  who  may  have  pro- 
posed this  name,  but  its  use  elsewhere  as  either  a  geographic  or  personal 
name  has  not  been  ascertained.  The  site  of  Gager's  station,  at  the  crossing 
of  the  Pomme  dc  TerJ*c  river  on  a  state  road  from  Glen  wood  to  Brown's 

535 


536  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Valley,  was  later  occupied  by  the  Riverside  mill,  owned  by  Hon.  H.  W. 
Stone  and  Company. 

Donnelly  township,  and  its  railway  village,  founded  in  1872  and  at 
first  called  Douglas,  are  named  in  honor  of  Ignatius  Donnelly,  the  dis- 
tinguished politician  and  author,  who  owned  a  farm  in  section  31,  Rends- 
ville,  about  a  mile  east  of  this  village.  He  is  also  honored  by  the  name 
of  a  township  in  Marshall  county,  for  whidi  a  biographic  sketch  has  been 
presented. 

Eldorado  township  has  a  Spanish  name,  meaning  literally  "the  gilded/' 
which  is  borne  by  a  county  in  California,  a  city  in  Kansas,  and  villages  in 
ten  other  states. 

Everglade  township,  originally  called  Potsdam,  bears  a  unique  name, 
received  from  the  Everglades  in  southern  Florida,  a  large  marshy  region 
which  has  much  area  of  water  from  1  to  10  feet  deep,  inclosing  "thou- 
sands of  little  islands,  covered  with  dense  thickets  of  palmetto,  cypress, 
oaks,  vines,  and  shrubs,  and  in  part  inhabited  by  remnants  of  the  Semi- 
nole tribe  of  Indians." 

Framnas  township  is  settled  mostly  by  Scandinavians,  who  selected 
this  name.  It  is  only  used  elsewhere,  as  a  geographic  name,  for  a  cape 
near  the  Antartic  circle  in  West  Antartica. 

Hancock,  a  village  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  in  the  north  edge 
of  Moore  township,  founded  in  1871  when  this  railway  line  was  com- 
pleted to  Morris,  received  its  name  in  honor  of  Joseph  Woods  Hancock, 
who  was  born  in  Or  ford,  N.  H.,  April  4,  1816,  and  died  in  Minneapolis, 
October  24,  1907.  He  came  to  Red  Wing  in  1849,  as  a  missionary  teacher 
among  the  Indians;  organized  a  Presbyterian  church  there  in  1855,  and 
was  its  pastor  until  1861 ;  was  superintendent  of  schools  for  Goodhue 
county,  1864-1881 ;  author  of  "Goodhue  County  .  .  .  Past  and  Present, 
by  an  Old  Settler,"  349  pages,  published  in  1893.  He  continued  to  reside 
in  Red  Wing  until  about  a  week  before  his  death. 

Hodges  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Leonard  Bacon  Hodges, 
tree  planter  for  the  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Manitoba  (now  the  Great 
Northern)  railway,  who  set  out  trees  in  many  villages  along  this  railway, 
including  the  hundred  evergreen  trees,  or  more,  of  the  Court  House 
square  in  Morris.  He  was  born  in  West  Bloomfleld,  N.  Y.,  July  15,  1823, 
and  died  in  St.  Paul,  April  14,  1883.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1854, 
opened  a  farm  in  Olmsted  county,  and  founded  the  town  of  Oronoco; 
was  a  state  senator  in  1871 ;  removed  to  St.  Paul  in  1872 ;  and  afterward 
was  much  engaged  in  forestry. 

HoRTON  township  was  named  in  honor  of  William  T.  Horton,  its 
earliest  settler,  who  was  a  farmer  in  section  14.  He  was  born  in  Ulster 
county,  N.  Y.,  in  1825;  came  to  Minnesota,  and  engaged  in  farming  in 
Fillmore  and  Mower  counties;  served  in  the  Eleventh  Minnesota  regi- 
ment, 1863-64;  removed  to  this  township  in  1878,  and  here  gave  attention 
largely  to  stockraising. 


STEVENS  COUNTY  537 

Moore  township  was  named  for  a  family  of  its  pioneer  settlers. 

Moose  Island,  a  railway  station  in  the  north  edge  of  Donnelly,  was 
named  for  the  former  Moose  Island  lake,  noted  in  the  list  of  lakes,  5 
to  8  miles  distant  southward,  which  now  is  mostly  drained. 

Morris,  the  county  seat,  platted  in  1869,  incorporated  as  a  village  Feb- 
ruary 21,  1878,  and  as  a  city  in  19Q2,  was  named  in  honor  of  Charles  A. 
F.  Morris,  who  was  born  in  Ireland  in  1827,  and  died  in  Excelsior,  Minn., 
June  2,  1903.  He  came  to  the  United  States  in  1849,  and  to  St.  Paul, 
in  1854;  was  connected  with  the  engineering  departments  of  several  rail- 
roads, among  them  being  the  Manitoba  and  the  Northern  Pacific;  re- 
moved to  Oregon,  but  a  few  years  later  returned  to  Minnesota,  and  re- 
sided in  Excelsior.    Morris  township  was  organized  in  1871. 

Pepperton  township  was  named  for  Charles  A.  Pepper,  its  first  settler, 
who  in  the  fall  of  1875  took  a  soldier's  homestead  claim  in  section  34. 
He  was  born  in  Burlington,  Iowa,  June  1,  1845;  served  in  the  Seventh 
Iowa  Cavalry,  1863-6;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1871,  first  settling  in  Wash- 
ington county;  removed  to  his  homestead  in  this  township,  1875,  and  to 
Morris  in  1883,  where  he  was  a  dealer  in  farm  machinery,  and  also  in 
grain;  is  now  a  resident  of  St.  Paul. 

Rendsville  township  has  a  name  not  elsewhere  found,  and  its  origin 
and  meaning  remain  to  be  ascertained. 

Scott  township  had  settlers  from  southern  Minnesota,  and  may  thence 
have  received  this  name  from  Scott  county. 

Stevens  township  was  named  like  this  county. 

Swan  Lake  township,  formerly  called  Sahlmark,  was  renamed  for  its 
fine  lake  in  sections  26  and  35.  ' 

Synnes  township  has  a  Scandinavian  name,  derived  from  a  group  of 
farms  whence  some  of  its  settlers  came. 

Streams  and  Lakes. 

Pomme  de  Terre  river,  flowing  across  this  county,  has  been  noticed  in 
the  first  chapter,  and  also  in  the  chapter  for  Grant  county,  where  this  river 
flows  through  the  upper  Pomme  de  Terre  lake  and  gives  its  name  to  a 
township. 

The  Chippewa  river,  flowing  through  the  east  edge  of  Swan  Lake 
township,  was  a  route  of  travel  for  Chippewa  or  O  jib  way  war  parties,  in 
coming  from  their  wooded  northern  country  to  the  prairie  region  of  the 
Sioux  in  the  Minnesota  valley. 

Mud  creek  is  a  western  tributary  of  the  Pomme  de  Terre  river,  and 
Twelve  Mile  creek,  flowing  from  Echo  or  Fish  lake  through  Eldorado, 
joins  the  West  branch  of  Mustinka  river  in  Traverse  county. 

The  following  lakes  are  found  in  Stevens  county,  bearing  names  on 
maps,  in  the  order  of  townships  from  south  to  north  and  of  ranges  from 
east  to  west. 

Page  lake,  in  Hodges,  was  named  for  the  late  William  H.  Page,  who 
owned  a  farm  beside  it. 


538  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Scott  township  has  Frog  and  Little  Frog  lakes,  Lake  Hattie,  and  Qear 
and  Mud  lakes. 

Baker  township  has  Clark  and  Gravel  lakes,  the  first  being  named 
for  a  pioneer  farmer  who  lived  near  Chokio. 

Framnas  has  Long  lake,  formerly  called  Morse  lake,  crossed  by  its 
south  line ;  Cyrus  lake,  in  sections  25  and  36 ;  Olson,  Hanse,  and  Hanson 
lakes,  Lake  Moore,  and  Scandia  lake,  forming  a  very  noteworthy  group 
in  the  east  part  of  this  township ;  and  Foss  lake,  in  sections  8  and  17. 

Crystal  lake  lies  in  the  southwest  part  of  the  city  of  Morris;  Gould's 
lake  is  a  mile  farther  west,  in  sections  4  and  5,  Darnen,  named  for  John 
L.  Gould,  an  adjoining  farmer;  and  Maughan  lake,  named  similarly  for 
George  W.  Maughan,  was  two  miles  north  of  Morris,  mostly  in  section 
22,  but  it  has  been  drained. 

Wintermute  lake,  in  sections  1  and  12,  Morris,  the  largest  lake  of  this 
township,  was  a  favorite  resort  of  the  Sioux  for  fishing  and  hunting. 
It  was  named  in  honor  of  Charles  Wintermute,  one  of  the  earliest  set- 
tlers of  the  county,  who  came  in  1871,  purchased  the  Gager  stage  station, 
before  mentioned,  and  also  took  a  homestead  and  bought  other  land.  He 
was  born  in  Chemung  county,  N.  Y.,  March  14,  1834 ;  came  to  Minnesota 
in  1861;  served  against  the  Sioux,  after  their  outbreak,  1862-3;  was  a 
trader  at  Fort  Wadsworth,  S.  D.,  1865-71 ;  was  a  farmer  beside  this  lake, 
1871  to  1885,  when  he  removed  to  Morris;  and  later  continued  in  farm- 
ing, with  interests  in  mercantile  business  and  in  the  lumber  trade.  In 
1875-77  he  was  chairman  of  the  board  of  county  commissioners. 

Moose  Island  lake,  branched  like  the  horns  of  a  moose,  lying  in  Pep- 
perton  and  Donnelly,  remains  now  only  in  part,  as  a  large  marsh;  and 
Fish  lake,  formerly  also  called  Echo  lake,  is  mostly  in  sections  6  and  7 
of  this  township. 

.  Swan  Lake  township,  with  the  lake  so  named,  has  two  Pomme  de 
Terre  lakes,  on  the  course  of  that  river. 

Harstad  lake,  in  the  southwest  part  of  Rendsville,  commemorates 
Lars  £.  Harstad,  an  early  settler  there. 

Cottonwood  lake,  crossed  by  the  north  line  of  section  1,  Donnelly,  lies 
for  its  greater  part  in  Grant  county. 


SWIFT  COUNTY 

Established  February  18,  1870,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of 
Henry  Adoniram  Swift,  governor  of  Minnesota  in  1863.  He  was  born 
in  Ravenna,  Ohio,  March  23,  1823;  was  graduated  at  Western  Reserve 
College ;  was  admitted  to  the  practice  of  law  in  1845 ;  came  to  Minnesota 
in  1853,  first  settling  in  St.  Paul,  but  removing  in  1856  to  St.  Peter ;  and 
was  a  member  of  the  state  senate,  1862  to  1865.  For  the  latter  half  of 
the  year  1863,  having  been  elected  lieutenant  governor  in  place  of  Hon. 
Ignatius  Donnelly,  who  resigned  in  consequence  of  his  election  as  a 
representative  in  Congress,  Swift  succeeded  to  the  governorship  when 
Governor  Ramsey  had  resigned  to  take  his  seat  in  the  U.  S.  Senate.  In 
1865,  Governor  Swift  was  appointed  register  of  the  U.  S.  land  office  in 
St.  Peter, 'and  held  this  office  until  his  death,  February  25,  1869. 

A  memoir  of  Governor  Swift,  by  John  Fletcher  Williams,  secretary  of 
the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  is  in  its  Volume  III,  pages  91-98,  pub- 
lished in  1870.  Gen.  James  H.  Baker,  in  the  "Lives  of  the  Governors  of 
Minnesota''  (M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  XIII,  1908),  presented  his  biogra- 
phy in  pages  109-127,  with  his  portrait.  In  the  closing  pages  of  this 
sketch  General  Baker  wrote :  "The  memory  of  Governor  Swift  will  ever 
be  held  in  the  highest  regard  by  the  people  of  this  state.  The  integrity 
of  his  character,  his  fidelity  to  public  duty,  his  exemplary  and  spotless  life 
as  a  citizen,  and  his  devotion  to  family  ties,  made  him  a  model  worthy  of 
the  regard  and  admiration  of  the  youth  of  Minnesota." 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  geographic  names  has  been  gathered  in  "History  of 
the  Minnesota  Valley,"  1882,  having  pages  955-972  for  Swift  county;  and 
from  J.  N.  Edwards,  judge  of  probate,  H.  C.  Odney,  register  of  deeds, 
and  the  late  Ernest  R.  Aldrich,  ^ch  of  Benson,  the  county  seat,  the  two 
former  being  interviewed  during  a  visit  there  in  May,  1916,  and  the  last 
at  later  visits  by  him  in  St.  Paul. 

Appleton  township,  organized  in  1870,  was  at  first  called  Phelps,  in 
honor  of  its  first  settler,  Addison  Phelps,  who  came  in  the  autumn  of 
1868.  Appleton  village,  named  for  the  city  of  Appleton  in  eastern  Wis- 
consin, was  founded  in  1871-2;  the  railway  was  built  there  in  1879;  and 
the  village  was  incorporated  in  the  spring  of  1881.  The  township  was  re- 
named Appleton,  on  request  of  Mr.  Phelps,  who  was  one  of  the  county 
commissioners,  September  4,  1872.  In  Wisconsin  this  name  commemo- 
rates Samuel  Appleton,  one  of  the  founders  of  Lawrence  University, 
located  there. 

Benson,  the  county  seat,  platted  for  the  railway  company  by  Charles 
A.  F.  Morris,  for  whom  Morris  in  Stevens  county  was  named,  in  the 

539 


540  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

spring  of  1870,  was  incorporated  as  a  village  February  14,  1877,  and  as  a 
city  in  1908.  Benson  township,  first  settled  in  1867,  was  organized  in 
April,  1871.  The  name  was  adopted  in  honor  of  Ben.  H.  Benson,  who 
was  born  in  Norway  in  1846,  came  to  the  United  States  in  1861,  and  set- 
tled in  this  township  in  1869,  engaging  in  mercantile  business.  After 
1875  he  owned  a  farm  in  Hantho,  Lac  qui  Parle  county.  (History,  Min- 
nesota Valley,  p.  950.)    Later  he  removed  to  Duluth. 

Others  have  regarded  this  name  as  chosen  in  honor  of  Jared  Benson, 
of  Anoka,  who  at  that  time  and  during  many  years  was  a  prominent 
citizen  and  a  political  leader.  He  was  born  in  Mendon,  Mass.,  November 
8,  1821 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1856,  settling  at  Anoka,  and  engaged  in 
farming  and  cattle  raising;  was  a  member  and  speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  in  the  state  legislature  in  1861-2  and  1864,  and  was  again 
a  representative  in  1879  and  1889 ;  and  died  in  St.  Paul,  May  18,  1894. 

Camp  Lake  township,  first  settled  in  1866,  was  named  from  its  lake, 
which  was  the  site  of  the  camp  of  government  surveyors  for  this  and 
adjoining  townships. 

Cashel  township,  settled  in  1873  and  organized  March  23,  1878,  re- 
ceived its  name  from  the  ancient  city  of  Cashel  in  Tipperary  county, 
southern  Ireland. 

Clontarf  township,  which  received  its  first  settler  in  June,  1876,  was 
organized  January  16,  1877.  "The  town  was  named  by  Bishop  Ireland. 
The  inhabitants  are  mostly  Irish,  a  colony  having  settled  here  in  1878." 
(History,  Minnesota  Valley,  p.  969.)  The  village  of  Contarf  was  platted 
in  1876.  This  name  is  from  the  town  and  watering  place  in  Ireland,  a 
suburb  of  Dublin. 

Danvers,  a  railway  village  in  the  east  edge  of  Marysland,  bears  the 
name  of  a  township  and  villages  in  Massachusetts  and  of  a  village  in 
Illinois. 

Db  Graff,  a  railway  village  in  Kildare,  founded  in  1875,  was  incorpo- 
rated February  18,  1881,  being  named  in  honor  of  Andrew  De  Graff,  of 
St  Paul.  He  was  born  near  Amsterdam,  N.  Y.,  October  21,  1811;  came 
to  Minnesota  in  1857,  and  built  many  railroads  in  this  state,  including 
the  Great  Northern  line  through  this  county;  died  in  St.  Paul,  November 
7,  1894. 

Dublin  township,  organized  February  14,  1878,  having  chiefly  Irish 
settlers,  is  named  for  the  capital  and  largest  city  of  Ireland. 

Edison  township,  settled  in  1872  and  organized  March  23,  1878,  was 
originally  called  New  Posen,  for  a  Polish  city  and  province  of  Prussia, 
but  was  renamed  in  honor  of  Thomas  Alva  Edison,  the  great  inventor. 
He  was  born  in  Milan,  Ohio,  February  11,  1847;  was  a  newsboy,  and 
afterward  a  telegraph  operator;  removed  to  New  York  city,  1871,  to 
Menlo  Park,  N.  J.,  1876,  and  later  to  West  Orange,  N.  J.  Among  his 
inventions  are  the  duplex  telegraph,  the  phonograph,  and  the  incandescent 
electric  lamp. 


SWIFT  COUNTY  541 

Fairfield  township,  settled  in  1867,  organized  April  16,  1872,  has  a 
name  borne  by  counties  in  Connecticut,  Ohio,  and  South  Carolina,  and  by 
townships  and  villages  or  cities  in  twenty-nine  states  of  the  Union. 

Hayes  township,  settled  in  1868  and  organized  in  1877,  was  named  in 
honor  of  Rutherford  Birchard  Hayes,  nineteenth  president  of  the  United 
States.  He  was  bom  in  Delaware,  Ohio,  October  4,  1822;  served  in  the 
Union  army  during  the  civil  war,  and  was  brevetted  major  general  of 
volunteers  in  1865;  was  a  member  of  Congress,  1865-7;  governor  of 
Ohio,  1868-72  and  1876-7 ;  was  president,  1877-81 ;  died  at  Fremont,  Ohio, 
January  17,  1893. 

Hegbert  township  was  first  settled  by  Ole  Hegstad,  in  1869,  and  was 
organized  in  a  meeting  at  his  house,  April  8,  1876. 

HoLLowAY  is  a  railway  village  in  Moyer,  named  by  officers  of  the 
Great  Northern  railway  in  honor  of  an  adjacent  pioneer  farmer. 

Kerkhoven  township,  first  settled  in  1865,  and  the  railway  village  of 
this  name,  in  Pillsbury  township,  platted  in  1870  and  incorporated  in  Jan- 
uary, 1881,  received  this  Scottish  name  in  honor  of  a  stockholder  of  the 
Great  Northern  railway  company. 

KiLDARE  township,  settled  in  1868  and  organized  April  20,  1875,  was 
named  for  a  county  and  a  town  in  Ireland. 

Marysland  township,  organized  March  11,  1879,  was  settled  and  named 
by  Catholic  immigrants  from  Ireland. 

MoYER  township  was  first  settled  in  June,  1869,  by  William  Moyer,  in 
whose  honor  it  received  this  name  at  its  organization,  January  25,  1879. 

MuRDOCK,  a  railway  village  in  Dublin,  was  platted  by  S.  S.  Murdock 
in  1878  and  was  incorporated  in  1881.    He  removed  to  Phoenix,  Arizona. 

Pillsbury  township,  settled  in  1869,  organized  January  29,  1876,  was 
named  in  honor  of  John  Sargent  Pillsbury,  who  was  born  in  Sutton,  N. 
H.,  July  29,  1827,  and  died  in  Minneapolis,  October  18,  1901.  He  came  to 
Minnesota  in  1855,  settling  in  St.  Anthony,  now  the  east  part  of  Minne- 
apolis, engaged  in  the  hardware  business  until  1875,  and  afterward  in 
lumbering  and  flour  milling;  was  a  state  senator,  1864-8,  and  1871-5; 
and  governor,  1876-82.  He  was  greatly  interested  in  upbuilding  the  state 
university;  one  of  its  chief  buildings  was  donated  by  him,  and  is  named 
in  his  honor;  and  he  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Regents  from  1863 
until  his  death,  being  president  of  the  board  after  1891.  His  biography 
and  portrait  are  in  "Lives  of  the  Governors  of  Minnesota,"  by  General 
Baker  (M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  XIII,  1908,  pages  225-250). 

Shible  township,  organized  July  8,  1876,  was  named  for  Albert  Shible, 
its  earliest  settler,  who  came  here  in  August,  1869,  but  removed  in  1870. 

Six  Mile  Grove  township,  settled  in  April,  1866,  and  organized  Novem- 
ber 1,  1877,  is  named  for  its  grove,  six  miles  distant  from  Benson. 

SwENODA  township,  first  settled  in  the  spring  of  1869,  organized  April 
7,  1873,  has  a  composite  name,  in  compliment  to  its  Swede,  Norwegian, 
and  Dane  settlers.  The  same  name  is  borne  by  a  lake  about  25  miles  dis- 
tant northeastward,  in  Pope  county. 


542  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Swift  Falls  is  a  hamlet  on  the  East  branch  of  the  Chippewa  river,  in 
Camp  Lake  township. 

Tara  township,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1877,  organized  December  21, 
1878,  is  named  for  a  hill  in  County  Meath,  Ireland,  about  20  miles  north- 
west of  Dublin.  "It  was  in  antiquity  a  chief  seat  of  the  Irish  monarchs, 
and  is  regarded  with  patriotic  veneration  by  the  Irish  people." 

ToRNiNG  township,  organized  April  5,  1879,  bearing  the  name  of  a 
village  in  central  Denmark,  had  previously  been  the  south  part  of  Benson 
township.    It  has  the  city  of  Benson  in  its  northwest  comer. 

West  Bank  township,  settled  in  1868  and  organized  March  11,  1879, 
lies  at  the  west  side  of  the  Chippewa  river. 

Streams  and  Lakes. 

The  Minnesota  river,  forming  a  part  of  the  south  boundary  of  Apple- 
ton,  and  the  Chippewa  and  Pomme  de  Terre  rivers,  which  cross  this 
county,  are  considered  in  the  first  chapter;  and  the  second  and  third  are 
also  noticed  in  chapters  for  Chippewa,  Grant,  and  Stevens  counties. 

Mud  creek  is  tributary  to  the  East  branch  of  Chippewa  river;  Shako- 
pee  creek,  flowing  through  Shakopee  lake  in  Chippewa  county,  joins  the 
Chippewa  river  in  Swenoda;  and  it  also  receives  Cottonwood  creek,  from 
West  Bank  township. 

This  county  has  relatively  few  lakes,  of  which  only  the  following  are 
named  on  maps. 

Lake  Manson  and  Frank  lake  are  crossed  by  the  line  between  Hayes 
and  Kerkhoven.  The  former  was  named  for  Andrew  Manson,  a  pioneer 
farmer  from  Norway, 

Lake  Mollerberg,  in  Kildare,  was  likewise  named  for  a  pioneer  farmer 
beside  it. 

Shible  township  has  Lake  Hart,  in  section  20;  but  its  former  Lake 
Shible  and  Pelican  lake  are  now  dry.  The  first  was  named  for  Isaac 
Hart,  an  early  settler ;  and  the  second  for  Albert  Shible,  like  the  township. 

Camp  lake  has  been  before  noticed,  for  the  township  so  named. 

In  Benson  township  are  Lakes  Hassel,  Moore,  Frovold,  and  Johnson. 
The  first  is  a  Norwegian  name,  meaning  the  hazel;  and  the  third  is  in 
honor  of  Knut  P.  Frovold,  one  of  the  earliest  settlers,  who  was  county 
auditor  and  removed  to  Benson. 

Hegbert  has  Lakes  Oliver  and  Henry  in  its  southern  part,  and  Lake 
Griffin  at  the  northwest,  which  is  more  commonly  called  Dry  Wood  lake, 
with  outflow  in  rainy  seasons  by  Dry  Wood  creek  to  the  Pomme  de  Terre 
river.  The  names  Oliver  and  Griffin  are  derived  from  the  plat  of  the  gov- 
ernment survey  of  this  township.  In  its  southwestern  edge  Artichoke  creek, 
flowing  only  in  wet  years,  runs  northwesterly  to  the  now  drained  bed 
of  Artichoke  lake,  in  the  township  of  this  name  in  Big  Stone  county. 
The  name  refers  to  a  species  of  wild  sunflower  having  tuberous  roots, 
much  used  by  both  the  Sioux  and  Ojibways  for  food. 


TODD  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  February  20,  1855,  and  organized  January  1, 
1867,  was  named  for  John  Blair  Smith  Todd,  commander  of  Fort  Rip- 
ley (at  first  called  Fort  Gaines),  1849  to  1856,  which  was  in  the  part 
taken  from  Todd  county  in  1856  to  form  a  part  of  Morrison  county. 
Todd  was  born  in  Lexington,  Ky.,  April  4,  1814;  was  graduated  at  the 
U.  S.  Military  Academy,  West  Point,  1837 ;  served  in  the  second  Seminole 
war  and  the  Mexican  war ;  resigned  from  the  army  in  1856 ;  was  an  Indian 
trader  at  Fort  Randall,  Dakota,  till  1861 ;  was  a  brigadier  general  in  the 
civil  war;  was  delegate  in  Congress  for  Dakota,  1861  and  1863-65,  and 
governor  of  that  territory,  1869-71.  He  died  in  Yankton,  Dakota,  Jan- 
uary 5,  1872. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  has  been  received  from-  ''History  of  Morrison 
and  Todd  Counties,"  by  Qara  K.  Fuller,  two  volumes,  1915,  having 
pages  211-307  on  the  history  of  this  county;  from  E.  M.  Berg,  county 
auditor,  Otis  B.  De  Laurier,  Hon.  William  £.  Lee,  John  H.  Sheets,  and 
Mrs.  John  D.  Jones,  each  of  Long  Prairie,  the  county  seat,  interviewed 
during  a  visit  there  in  May,  1916;  and  from  Wilfred  J.  Whiteiield,  the 
oldest  resident  of  Sauk  Center,  in  Stearns  county,  also  interviewed  at  . 
his  home  in  May,  1016. 

Bartlett  township,  organized  March  22,  1883,  was  named  for  a  family 
of  pioneer  homesteaders. 

Bertha  township,  organized  January  4,  1878,  and  its  railway  village, 
platted  in  August,  1891,  and  incorporated  in  1897,  commemorate  Mrs. 
Bertha  Ristan,  the  first  white  woman  settler  there. 

BiRCHDALB  township,  organized  March  24,  1869,  was  named  from  its 
Birch  lakes,  to  be  more  fully  noticed  on  a  later  page,  and  its  morainic 
hills  and  dales. 

Browerville,  a  railway  village  in  Hartford,  platted  in  1882,  when  the 
Sauk  Center  branch  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  was  built,  commem- 
orates Abraham  D.  Brower,  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  this  county,  who 
came  in  1860,  settled  in  Round  Prairie  township,  and  was  chairman  of  the 
first  board  of  county  commissioners,  in  1867;  his  fourth  son,  Jacob  Vra- 
denberg  Brower  (b.  1844,  d.  1905),  who  was  the  first  auditor  of  this  county, 
1867;  and  a  younger  son,  Walter  C.  Brower  (b.  1852),  who  was  editor  of 
the  Stearns  County  Tribune,  Sauk  Center.  These  sons  were  proprietors 
of  the  townsite.  The  biography  of  Hon.  Jacob  V.  Brower  is  presented 
by  Josiah  B.  Chaney  in  the  M.  H.  S.  Collections  (vol.  XII,  1908,  pages 

543 


544  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

769-774),  and  by  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell  in  "The  Aborigines  of  Minne- 
sota/' 1911,  pages  x-xiv,  with  his  portrait  and  autograph. 

Bruce  township  was  named  by  George  Balmer,  a  Scotch  pioneer  farm- 
er there,  who  was  a  county  commissioner,  in  honor  of  Robert  Bruce 
(b.  1274,  d.  1329),  a  famous  king  and  national  hero  of  Scotland. 

BuRLEENE  township,  organized  in  1888,  has  a  unique  name,  for  which 
further  inquiry  is  needed  to  learn  its  origin  and  significance. 

BuRNHAMViLLE  towuship,  organized  September  8,  1870,  and  its  rail- 
way village,  platted  in  February,  1883,  are  named  in  honor  of  David 
Bumham,  who  was  a  blacksmith  for  the  Winnebago  Indians  at  Long 
Prairie,  and  settled  as  a  homestead  farmer  here  soon  after  the  civil  war. 

BuRTRUH  is  a  railway  village  in  Burnhamville,  platted  in  April,  1884, 
and  incorporated  in  April,  1901. 

Clarissa,  a  railway  village  in  Eagle  Valley  township,  "was  platted  in 
1877  by  Lewis  Bischoffsheim  and  wife,  of  London,  England.  The  place 
was  named  in  honor  of  the  wife."  (History,  1915,  p.  298.)  It  was  in- 
corporated in  1897. 

Eagle  Bend,  a  railway  village  in  Wykeham  township,  received  this 
name  from  its  location  at  a  notable  bend  of  Eagle  creek. 

Eagle  Valley  township,  organized  March  17,  1880,  is  crossed  by  Eagle 
creek,  which  was  named  for  the  bald  or  white-headed  eagle,  "the  bird 
of  freedom,"  emblem  of  the  United  States,  formerly  frequent  through- 
out Minnesota. 

Fawn  Lake  township,  organized  July  28,  1881,  bears  the  name  early 
given  to  a  lake  in  the  east  part  of  its  section  30. 

Germania  township,  organized  March  17,  1880,  was  named  by  its  Ger- 
man settlers,  this  name  being  proposed  by  Paul  Steinbach,  from  the  ship 
Germania  in  which  he  came  to  America. 

Gordon  township,  organized  in  January,  1869,  was  named  in  honor  of 
J.  M.  Gordon,  a  pioneer  farmer,  who  was  a  member  of  the  first  board 
of  county  commissioners. 

Grev  Eagle  township,  organized  September  15,  1873,  and  its  railway 
village,  platted  in  September,  1882,  were  named  from  an  eagle  shot  here 
in  1868  by  A.  M.  Crowell,  who  many  years  afterward  removed  to  Bemid- 
ji  and  was  its  municipal  judge. 

Hartford  township,  organized  March  12,  1867,  has  a  name  that  is 
borne  by  a  city  and  county  in  Connecticut,  and  by  townships  and  villages 
or  cities  in  Maine,  Vermont,  New  York,  Wisconsin,  and  twelve  other 
states. 

Hewitt,  a  railway  village  in  Stowe  Prairie  township,  platted  in  April, 
1891,  was  named  in  honor  of  Henry  Hewitt,  an  adjacent  farmer. 

Ion  A  township,  at  first  called  Odessa,  organized  January  6,  1881,  has 
the  name  of  a  historic  island  of  the  Hebrides,  which  also  is  borne  by  a 
railway  village  in  Murray  county. 


TODD  COUNTY  545 

KAin)OTA  township,  organized  in  April,  1870,  took  the  name  of  a  pro- 
posed townsite  platted  here  in  1856,  on  the  shore  of  Fairy  lake,  by  Edwin 
Whitefield,  an  artist  from  Massachusetts.  This  name,  derived  by  him 
from  the  Dakota  or  the  Ojibway  language,  is  said  to  mean  "Here  we 
rest" 

Lee's  Siding,  a  railway  station  three  miles  north  of  Long  Prairie,  is 
named  for  Hon.  William  E.  Lee,  who  was  born  in  Alton,  111.,  January 
8,  1852;  came  to  Minnesota  with  his  parents  in  1856;  organized  the  Bank 
of  Long  Prairie  in  1882,  was  its  cashier,  and  in  1896  was  elected  its  presi- 
dent ;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature,  1885-7  and  1893,  being  speak- 
er of  the  House  in  1893;  was  a  member  of  the  state  board  of  control, 
1901-03;  was  Republican  candidate  for  governor  in  1914. 

Leslie  township,  organized  in  September,  1876,  and  its  railway  village, 
platted  in  May,  1898,  were  named  in  honor  of  John  B.  Leslie,  a  pioneer 
settler  from  Kentucky. 

Little  Elk  township  is  crossed  in  its  northeast  part  by  the  head 
stream  of  the  South  fork  of  the  Little  Elk  river,  flowing  east  into  Morri- 
son county. 

Little  Sauk  township,  organized  in  the  spring  of  1870,  and  its  rail- 
way village,  on  the  Sauk  river  at  the  mouth  of  the  Little  Sauk  lake,  refer 
to  a  band  of  five  Sauk  Indians  formerly  living  at  Lake  Osakis,  as  previ- 
ously noted  for  the  cities  of  Sauk  Rapids  and  Sauk  Center. 

Long  Prairie  township,  organized  March  12,  1867,  had  been  occupied 
1848-55  by  the  agency  of  a  reservation  for  the  Winnebago  Indians.  Long 
Prairie  village,  the  county  seat,  was  platted  in  May,  1867,  and  was  incor- 
porated in  1883.  The  name  is  received  from  the  Long  Prairie  river, 
flowing  through  this  county  to  the  Crow  Wing  river;  and  the  stream 
was  named  for  a  long  and  relatively  narrow  prairie,  from  a  half  mile 
to  one  mile  wide,  bordering  its  east  side  for  about  twenty  miles,  from 
Lake  Charlotte  and  Long  Prairie  village  northward  to  the  west  line  of 
Fawn  Lake  township. 

MoRAN  township,  organized  March  27,  1877,  is  crossed  by  Moran 
brook,  here  joining  the  Long  Prairie  river,  named  for  an  early  lumber- 
matti 

Oak  Hill  is  a  hamlet  in  Leslie  township,  named  for  its  plentiful  oak 
trees  and  morainic  drift  hills. 

Osakis,  a  village  lying  mainly  in  Douglas  county,  but  also  extending 
into  Gordon  township,  on  the  south  shore  of  Osakis  lake,  received  its 
name,  like  the  lake  and  its  outflowing  Sauk  river,  from  a  small  band  of 
Sauk  Indians,  before  noted  for  Little  Sauk  township. 

Philbrook,  a  railway  village  in  Villard  and  Fawn  Lake  townships, 
platted  November  10,  1^,  was  named  by  oflicers  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
railway. 

Reynolds  township  has-  a  name  that  is  borne  by  a  county  in  Missouri 
and  by  villages  in  Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  seven  other  states. 


546  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Round  Praiioe  township,  having  one  of  t^e  earliest  settlements  in 
this  county,  was  named  for  the  Round  prairie,  so  called,  about  five  miles 
long  from  north  to  south  and  two  miles  wide,  in  the  western  third  of  this 
township  and  the  east  edge  of  Little  Sauk.  The  railway  village  of  this 
name  was  platted  in  October,  1903. 

*  Staples  township,  organized  January  5,  1882,  and  the  city  of  this 
name  on  the  Northern  Pacific  railway,  founded  in  1885,  platted  as  a  vil- 
lage called  Staples  Mill  in  June,  1889,  and  incorporated  as  a  city  in  1906, 
commemorate  Stillwater  lumbermen  named  Staples,  who  had  logging 
and  manufacturing  interests  here.  Two  prominent  pioneer  lumbermen 
of  this  family,  coming  to  Stillwater  in  1853-54  from  Topsham,  Maine, 
were  Samuel  Staples  (b.  1805,  d.  1887),  and  Isaac  Staples  (b.  1816,  d. 
1898). 

Stowe  Prairie,  the  most  northwestern  township,  organized  March  27, 
1877,  was  named  for  three  brothers,  Amos,  Isaac,  and  James  Stowe, 
who  were  early  settlers  on  and  near  a  prairie  area  in  the  north  part  of 
this  township,  continuing  also  northward  into  Wadena  county. 

Turtle  Creek  township,  organized  in  July,  1890,  has  Turtle  creek, 
flowing  through  its  west  edge,  and  Turtle  lake  at  its  northwest  comer. 

ViLLARD  township,  organized  July  28,  1882,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Henry  Villard  (b.  1835,  d.  1900),  president  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
railroad  company  in  1881^,  when  its  transcontinental  line  was  com- 
pleted. This  name  is  also  borne  by  a  village  in  Pope  county,  for  which 
a  biographic  notice  has  been  presented. 

Ward  township,  organized  in  July,  1877,  was  named  for  a  township  in 
Randolph  county,  Indiana,  by  settlers  who  had  come  from  there. 

Ward  Springs,  a  railway  village  in  Birchdale  township,  platted  by  J. 
W.  and  Martha  J.  Ward,  was  previously  called  Birch  Lake  City,  from 
its  location  beside  Little  Birch  lake. 

West  Union  township  was  organized  March  12,  1867;  and  its  railway 
village,  platted  in  June,  1881,  was  incorporated  in  1900. 

Whiteville  was  the  name  commonly  given  to  an  early  settlement  in 
1865-6,  about  five  miles  west  of  Long  Prairie,  for  three  sisters,  wives  of 
L.  S.  Hoadley,  Albert  Madison,  and  Horace  Pierce,  "whose  maiden 
name  was  White."    (History,  1915,  p.  225.) 

Wykeham  township,  originally  called  Eden,  organized  January  10, 
1880,  has  a  unique  name,  received  from  England. 

Streams  and  Lakes. 

Crow  Wing  river  has  been  fully  noticed  in  the  chapter  of  Crow  Wing 
county.  Long  Prairie  river  is  a  translation  of  its  Ojibway  name,  given 
by  Gilfillan  as  ''Ga-shagoshkodeia  zibi,  Long-narrow-Prairie  river." 
These  streams  were  described  by  Schoolcraft  as  "the  war  road  between 
the  Chippewas  and  Sioux,"  the  country  through  which  they  flow  being 
found  by  him  in  1832  quite  uninhabited.     No  dwelling  place,  "even  a 


TODD  COUNTY  547 

temporary  wigwam/'  was  observed  in  his  canoe  journey  from  the  head 
of  the  Crow  Wing  along  all  its  course  to  the  Mississippi.  (Summary 
Narrative,  1855,  p.  267.) 

Gilfillan  wrote  of  Ojibway  names  in  this  county,  with  their  transla- 
tions, as  follows: 

'Osakis  lake  is  Osagi  sagaiigun,  the  Sauk's  lake." 

'Sauk  lake"  [in  Kandota  and  extending  south  to  Sauk  Center]  "is 
Kitchi-osagi  sagaiigun,  the  great  lake  of  the  Sauks." 

"Birch  Bark  Fort  lake"  [called  Big  Birch  lake  on  recent  maps],  "Ga- 
wigwassensikag  sagaiigun,  the-place-of-little-birches  lake." 

"Sauk  river,  Osagi  zibi,  the  river  of  the  Sauks." 

Wing  river  flows  northeastward  through  Bertha  and  Stowe  Prairie, 
being  tributary  to  the  Leaf  river  in  Wadena  county. 

Bear  creek,  Little  Partridge  creek,  and  Egly  creek,  are  tributary  to 
Partridge  river  in  Bartlett,  which  runs  northeast  to  Crow  Wing  river. 

From  its  north  and  west  side,  Long  Prairie  river  receives  Dismal 
creek,  Freeman's  creek,  Dick's  creek.  Eagle  creek,  to  which  Harris  creek 
is  tributary,  Moran  brook,  and  Stony  brook;  and  from  the  east  this  river 
receives  Turtle  creek  and  Fish  Trap  brook. 

In  the  southeastern  borders  of  the  county  are  Prairie  brook,  flowing 
into  Little  Birch  lake;  Swan  river,  having  Manley  creek  tributary  to  it 
from  the  south,  and  Little  Swan  creek  from  the  north ;  and  head  streams 
of  both  the  South  and  North  forks  of  Little  Elk  river. 

The  south  boundary  of  Todd  county  crosses  Crooked  lake.  Big  and 
Little  Birch  lakes  (formerly  called  respectively  Birch  Bark  Fort  lake 
and  Middle  Birch  Bark  lake),  and  the  large  and  long  Sauk  lake,  through 
which  the  river  of  this  name  flows. 

Grey  Eagle  township,  besides  the  Crooked  and  Big  Birch  lakes,  on  its 
south  line,  has  also  Goose,  Mound,  Buck  Head,  Bass,  Twin,  and  Trace 
lakes,  the  last  being  named  for  Ferdinand  Trace,  a  homesteader  beside  it. 
Twin  lake  has  two  wide  parts,  united  by  a  strait. 

Birchdale  has  Long  lake,  mostly  in  section  19,  and  a  second  Twin  lake 
in  section  25. 

Fairy  lake,  in  Kandota,  was  thus  fancifully  named  by  Edwin  White- 
field,  mentioned  in  connection  with  this  township. 

Lake  William  is  at  the  east  side  of  section  12  and  13,  West  Union ;  and 
in  section  1  the  Sauk  river  flows  through  Lake  Guernsey. 

In  Burnhamville  are  Buck  and  Moose  lakes.  Lady  lake,  named  for  its 
plentiful  flowers  of  the  lady's  slipper.  Big  Swan  lake,  Looney  or  Long 
lake,  Bass,  Mons,  and  Little  Swan  lakes. 

In  Round  Prairie  township  are  Felix,  Hansman,  and  Center  lakes,  and 
Lakes  Latimer  and  Lashier.  The  largest  is  named  for  Alfred  Eugene 
Latimer,  of  South  Carolina,  who,  being  a  lieutenant  in  the  U.  S.  army,  was 
in  service  at  Fort  Ripley.  In  the  winter  of  1859-60  he  was  detailed,  with 
his  company,  to  be  stationed  at  Long  Prairie,  as  is  noted  by  Mrs.  Van 
Qeve  ("Three  Score  Years  and  Ten,"  p.  158). 


548  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Little  Sauk  township  has  Cedar  lake,  in  section  35,  reaching  south 
into  Kandota.  The  northwest  part  of  Little  Sauk  has  Mud  lake  and 
Maple  lake.  The  last,  extending  west  into  Gordon,  is  also  ofteh  called 
Henry  lake,  for  Lewis  Henry,  a  pioneer  farmer  beside  it 

Gordon  has  Slawson  and  Stallcopp  lakes,  named  for  William  Slawson 
and  Levi  £.  Stallcopp,  early  settlers  there,  and  Faille  lake,  adjoining  the 
east  edge  of  Osakis  village. 

Bruce  has  Little  Rice  lake  and  Lake  Beauty. 

In  Long  Prairie  township  are  Lake  Giarlotte  and  Meyer's  lake,  the 
former  being  named  in  honor  of  Mrs.  Charlotte  O.  Van  Cleve,  who, 
with  her  husband,  Gen.  Horatio  P.  Van  Qeve,  and  their  family,  lived  at 
Long  Prairie  from  1856  to  1861.  Charlotte  Ouisconsin  Qark  Van  Qeve 
was  born  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  Wis.,  July  1,  1819,  and  died  in  Minneapolis, 
April  1,  1907.  Her  parents,  Lieut,  and  Mrs.  Gark,  accompanied  the  troops 
who  came  to  the  present  state  of  Minnesota  to  establish  the  first  mili- 
tary post,  afterward  named  Fort  Snelling.  Their  destination  was  reached 
when  she  was  a  few  weeks  old,  and  her  childhood  was  passed  there  and 
at  other  army  posts.  She  was  married,  March  22,  1836,  to  Lieut  (after- 
ward General)  Van  Qeve.  After  resignation  of  his  commission,  they 
lived  a  few  years  in  other  states,  but  in  1856  returned  to  Minnesota,  set- 
tling at  Long  Prairie,  and  five  years  later  removed  to  Minneapolis,  where 
Mrs.  Van  Qeve  afterward  resided,  greatly  honored  and  beloved.  She 
wrote  an  autobiography,  "Three  Score  Years  and  Ten,"  176  pages,  pub- 
lished in  1888.  Two  chapters  in  this  book  narrate  remembrances  of  her 
life  at  Long  Prairie. 

Two  miles  west  of  Lake  Charlotte  is  McCarrahan  lake,  in  Reynolds, 
named  for  the  late  William  McCarrahan,  a  Scotch-Irish  farmer. 

Leslie  has  Little  Osakis  lake,  through  which  the  Sauk  river  flows. 
On  the  long  northeastern  arm  of  Lake  Osakis,  which  projects  into  this 
township,  are  Long  point,  Gutches,  Coon,  Buck,  and  Babbett  points. 

Little  Elk  township  has  Mill  lake,  Coal  lake,  named  from  the  frequent 
fragments  of  lignite  coal  in  its  glacial  dri^t,  and  Long  and  Round  lakes. 

Burleene  has  Lake  Gray,  Lowe's  lake,  and  Lake  Eli.  The  second  was 
named  for  Lewis  Lowe,  a  farmer  there,  who  removed  to  Long  Prairie; 
and  the  third  for  Isaac  N.  Eli,  who  lived  in  Reynolds,  several  miles  south- 
east from  that  lake. 

In  Turtle  Creek  township  are  Big  lake,  Pine  Island,  and  Thunder 
lakes;  Mud  lake,  on  the  course  of  Turtle  creek;  Rice  and  Little  Rice 
lakes,  having  wild  rice;  Star,  Cranberry,  and  Long  lakes,  the  last  reach- 
ing north  into  Fawn  Lake  township;  and  Peat  and  Turtle  lakes,  in  sec- 
tion 6. 

Horseshoe  lake,  named  from  its  curved  outline,  is  in  sections  27  and 
34,  Ward,  near  the  Long  Prairie  river. 

Pendergast  lake  is  in  sections  7  and  8,  Wykeham. 

Bertha  has  Deer  lake,  in  the  east  edge  of  section  5. 


TODD  COUNTY  549 

In  Fawn  Lake  township,  with  the  lake  so  named,  are  also  a  second 
Pine  Island  lake,  Little  Fish  Trap  lake  and  creek  (or  brook),  and  Mud 
lake. 

Villard  has  Nelson  lake,  in  section  36,  and  Hayden  lake  and  brook, 
flowing  north  to  the  Crow  Wing  river. 

In  Staples  township  are  Rice  lake,  named  from  the  wild  rice,  in  sec- 
tions 25  and  26,  and  Dower  lake,  about  two  miles  west  of  the  city,  named 
in  honor  of  a  prominent  pioneer  settler,  Sampson  Dower,  who  came  from 
England. 

Hills  and  Prairies. 

Though  Todd  county  is  traversed  by  several  belts  or  series  of  morainic 
drift  hills,  mostly  from  50  to  100  feet  high,  only  two  localities  of  these 
hills  have  received  names  on  maps.  The  Dromedary  hills,  rising  with 
rounded  outlines  like  a  camel's  hump,  are  in  the  northwest  part  of  section 
28,  Little  Elk;  and  Mount  Nebo,  in  sections  4  and  9,  Stowe  Prairie,  is 
named  for  the  peak  east  of  the  north  end  of  the  Dead  Sea,  whence 
Moses  viewed  the  Promised  Land. 

With  the  Long  and  Round  prairies  and  Stowe  prairie,  which  gave  their 
names  to  townships.  Pleasant  prairie  is  also  to  be  noticed,  a  mile  in 
diameter,  in  the  south  edge  of  Round  Prairie  township,  at  the  east  side 
of   Prairie  brook. 

The  northeast  boundary  of  the  great  prairie  region  of  southwestern 
Minnesota  crosses  the  southwest  comer  of  this  county,  and  includes  sec- 
tions 31  and  32^  and  parts  of  adjoining  sections  in  Gordon,  nearly  all  of 
West  Union,  and  the  south  edge  of  Kandota.  From  the  higher  parts  of 
West  Union,  an  extensive  view  of  limitless  prairie  is  seen  toward  the 
south  and  southwest. 


TRAVERSE  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  February  20,  1862,  organized  March  8,  1881, 
received  its  name  from  Lake  Traverse  (Lac  Travers  in  French),  a 
translation  of  the  Sioux  name.  Keating  wrote  of  its  significance:  "The 
lake  has  received  its  present  appellation  from  the  circumstance  that  it 
is  in  a  direction  nearly  transverse  to  that  of  the  Big  Stone  and  Lac  qui 
Parle  lakes,  these  being  directly  to  the  northwest,  while  Lake  Travers 
points  to  the  northeast."  Williamson  gave  its  Sioux  name  and  meaning: 
"Mdehdakinyan,  lake  lying  crosswise." 

By  the  way  of  Lakes  Traverse  and  Big  Stone^  whence  two  counties  arc 
named,  and  by  the  Minnesota  river  valley,  whence  this  state  is  named, 
the  River  Warren  outflowed  from  the  Glacial  Lake  Agassiz,  which  in 
the  closing  part  of  the  Ice  Age  filled  the  basin  of  the  Red  river  and  Lake 
Winnipeg.  The  Ojibways  have  given  quite  another  name  to  Lake  Traverse, 
referring  to  this  deeply  channeled  ancient  watercourse  of  the  continental 
divide,  noted  by  Gilfillan  as  follows:  "Lake  Travers  is  Ga-edawaii- 
mamiwung  sagaiigun,  the  lake  with  a  breast  or  pap  (like  a  woman's) 
on  either  end;  one  on  the  northern,  and  one  on  the  southern  (flowing 
into  Big  Stone  lake  in  high  water)  ;  so  flowing  either  way." 

In  exceptionally  high  flood  stages  of  the  upper  Minnesota  river,  flow- 
ing into  this  channel  of  the  Glacial  River  Warren  at  the  village  of  Brown's 
Valley,  a  part  of  its  water  goes  northward  into  Lake  Traverse,  so  that 
canoes  or  boats  can  then  have  a  continuous  water  passage  from  Big 
Stone  lake  to  Lake  Traverse;  but  probably  no  flood  conditions  in  recent 
time  have  permitted. any  southward  outflow  from  Lake  Traverse. 

At  the  east  side  of  the  southwest  end  of  Lake  Traverse,  Major  Long 
apd  his  party  in  1823  were  entertained  by  Wanotan,  chief  of  the  Yankton 
Sioux,  for  whom,  with  changed  spelling,  Wahnata  county  of  Minnesota 
Territory  in  1849  was  named,  including  the  present  Traverse  county. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origin  and  meaning  of  names  has  been  gathered 
in  "History  of  Traverse  County,  Brown's  Valley  and  its  Environs,"  by 
J.  O.  Barrett,  1881,  32  pages;  "History  of  the  Minnesota  Valley,"  1882, 
having  pages  986-990  for  this  county;  and  from  £.  J.  Fortune,  judge  of 
probate,  Patrick  H.  Leonard,  sheriff,  George  G.  Allanson,  postmaster, 
James  H.  Flood,  and  Ole  Odenborg,  all  of  Wheaton,  the  county  seat, 
interviewed  during  a  visit  there  in  September,  1916. 

Arthur  township,  organizd  in  1881,  originally  called  HofiF  in  honor 
of  Abel  Hoff,  its  first  settler,  was  renamed  on  the  suggestion  of  James 
H.  Flood  for  Arthur  village,  Ontario,  about  70  miles  west  of  Toronto. 

550 


TRAVERSE  COUNTY  551 

BoiSBESG,  a  village  site  platted  in  the  northwest  corner  of  Monson,  is 
named  from  the  Bois  des  Sioux  river,  to  be  noticed  on  a  later  page, 
and  from  the  large  granite  boulder  (berg)  on  the  opposite  or  South  Da- 
kota side  of  this  river  in  the  village  of  White  Rock,  whence  that  village 
derived  its  name. 

Bkown's  Valley,  in  Folsom  township,  a  village  founded  in  1866-7  by 
Joseph  R.  Brown,  platted  in  1878,  was  the  first  county  seat,  being  suc- 
ceeded by  Wheaton  in  1886.  The  settlement  and  post  office,  established 
in  1867,  were  at  first  called  Lake  Traverse,  but  were  renamed  Brown's 
Valley  after  the  death  of  the  founder  in  1870.  Biographic  notes  of  him 
are  presented  in  the  chapter  of  Brown  county,  which  also  was  named 
in  his  honor.  His  son,  Samuel  J.  Brown,  who  during  fifty  years  has  been 
a  resident  of  this  village,  was  its  first  postmaster,  1867-1878.  A  vivid 
sketch  of  Joseph  Renshaw  Brown  was  given  in  the  pamphlet  history  of 
this  county  by  J.  O.  Barrett  in  1881. 

Clifton  township,  the  latest  organized  in  this  county,  was  named  for 
a  township  in  Monroe  county,  Wisconsin,  about  40  miles  east  of  La 
Crosse,  as  proposed  by  Bartlett  Ashbough,  a  former  settler  here,  who 
removed  to  Saskatchewan. 

CoLLis,  a  railway  village  in  Tara,  comes  from  the  Latin  word,  collis, 
a  hill,  this  name  being  proposed  by  a  priest,  with  reference  to  the  hill 
Tara  in  Ireland,  whence  the  township  was  named 

Ceoke  township,  organized  in  1881,  was  named,  on  the  suggestion  of 
P.  D.  O'Phelan,  a  homestead  farmer  in  Tara,  who  was  a  member  of 
the  board  of  county  commissioners,  in  honor  of  Thomas  William  Croke, 
who  was  born  in  County  Cork,  Ireland,  May  24,  1824,  and  died  at 
Thurles,  Ireland,  July  22,  1902.  He  was  a  Catholic  bishop  m  Australia, 
1870-74,  and  afterward  was  archbishop  of  Cashel  in  Ireland  taking  an 
active  interest  in  political  affairs  and  in  support  of  the  Home  Rule  move- 
ment. In  1876  the  Cadiolic  Colonization  Bureau  was  organized,  with 
Bishop  Ireland  as  president  and  Dillon  O'Brien,  secretary,  each  of  St  Paul, 
through  whose  efforts  many  Irish  colonists  were  brought  to  this  county, 
and  to  Swift,  Murray,  and  other  counties  in  southwestern  Minnesota. 

Dolly  MONT  township,  organized  in  1881,  bears  the  name  of  a  seaside 
suburb  of  Dublin,  Ireland,  about  four  miles  northeast  from  the  center 
of  that  city.  It  was  chosen  also  partly  or  mainly  in  honor  of  Anthony 
Doll,  who  was  a  pioneer  settler  here. 

Dumont,  a  railway  village  in  Croke,  was  named  by  officers  of  the 
Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St  Paul  railway  company.  The  same  name  is 
borne  by  villages  in  New  Jersey,  Iowa,  and  Colorado. 

Folsom  township,  organized  September  2,  1880,  was  named  in  honor 
of  Major  George  P.  Folsom,  who  came  from  New  Hampshire  and  was 
one  of  the  first  merchants  of  Brown's  Valley.  In  the  north  part  of  this 
township,  adjoining  the  shore  of  Lake  Traverse  in  sections  2  and  10,  a 
trading  post  for  the  Indians  was  established  about  the  year  1815  by 
Robert  Dickson,  "a  red-haired   Scotchman,"  whom  the  British  govern- 


552  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

ment  had  appointed  "superintendent  of  the  western  tribes."  In  1823,  the 
expedition  of  Long  and  Keating  found  the  Columbia  Fur  Com- 
pany  occupying  this  post  (or  another  location  near  it),  under  the  super- 
intendence of  "Mr.  Moore/'  probably  Hazen  Mooers  (b.  1789,  d.  1858). 
He  was  also  trading  here  in  1835  when  Joseph  R.  Brown  first  came  to 
this  post;  and  a  few  years  later,  in  1838-39,  Mooers  and  Brown  were 
associated  at  Gray  Qoud  island,  below  St.  Paul,  in  trading  and  fanning. 

Lake  Valley  township,  organized  in  1881,  is  named  for  the  northern 
part  of  Lake  Traverse  bordering  its  west  side.  This  part  of  the  lake^ 
northward  from  its  marshy  tract  at  the  mouth  of  Mustinka  river,  is  called 
Buffalo  lake  on  the  map  of  Long's  expedition,  and  Nicollet's  map  called 
it  Intpah  lake,  a  Sioux  name  meaning  the  end.  It  has  an  extent  of  eight 
or  ten  miles  from  south  to  north,  being  at  the  ordinary  stage  of  low 
water  an  area  of  marsh  one  to  two  miles  wide,  in  which  are  several 
spaces  of  open  water  a  mile  or  two  in  length. 

Leonardsville  township,  organized  in  1881,  commemorates  Patrick 
Leonard,  who  came  from  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  settled  in  Hastings,  Minn., 
1855,  removed  to  this  township  as  a  homestead  farmer  in  May,  1878^  and 
died  here  in  1900. 

Maudaoa,  a  townsite  platted  in  1881  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Traverse 
close  south  of  the  mouth  of  Mustinka  river,  was  designated  in  the  first 
county  election,  November  8,  1881,  to  be  the  county  seat;  but  business  of 
the  new  county  had  been  earlier  transacted  at  Brown's  Valley,  from  which 
its  offices  were  not  removed  until  in  1886  they  were  transferred  to 
Wheaton.  The  name  Maudada  was  in  honor  of  Maud  and  Ada,  daugh- 
ters of  A.  C.  Earsley  and  Charles  F.  Washburn,  of  Herman,  the  origi- 
nal proprietors  of  the  townsite.  This  proposed  village,  though  mani- 
festing much  vigor  in  its  first  year,  had  only  a  brief  existence. 

MoNSON  township,  organized  in  1881,  was  named  for  Peter  Monson,  a 
Swedish  pioneer  homesteader.  -* 

Parnell  township,  also  organized  in  1881,  was  named,  like  Croke  and 
Tara,  by  P.  D.  OThelan,  one  of  the  county  commissioners,  in  honor  of 
Charles  Stewart  Parnell  (b.  1846,  d.  1891),  the  prominent  Irish  statesman, 
who  visited  the  United  States  in  1879-80. 

Redpath  towns-hip,  organized  in  1881,  was  named  by  its  Swedish  set- 
tlers for  a  trail  or  path  of  the  Sioux  there. 

Tara  township,  organized  in  1881,  received  this  name  on  recommenda- 
tion of  one  of  its  pioneer  settlers,  P.  D.  OThelan,  a  county  commissioner, 
for  the  renowned  hill  of  Tara  in  Ireland.  This  extensive  hill,  adjoining 
the  village  of  Tara,  has  a  height  of  about  500  feet.  Here  was  the 
"ancient  seat  of  sovereignty  in  Ireland  from  a  remote  period  to  the  mid- 
dle of  the  sixth  century." 

Taylor  township,  organized  in  1881,  was  named  for  one  of  its  pioneer 
homesteaders. 

TiNTAH  township,  organized  in  1881,  received  its  name  from  the  Da- 
kota or  Sioux  people,  this  being  their  common  word  meaning  a  prairie. 


TRAVERSE  COUNTY  553 

Hennepin  wrote  of  the  Sioux  as  "the  Nation  of  the  prairies,  who  are 
called  Tintonha/'  a  name  derived  from  tintah.  Later  it  has  been  written 
Tintonwans,  Titonwans,  or  Tetons,  comprising  many  Sioux  hands  rang- 
ing over  southern  and  western  Minnesota  and  onward  to  the  vast  country 
of  plains  west  of  the  Missouri. 

Shorelines  of  the  Glacial  Lake  Agassiz  extending  past  the  railway 
village  of  Tintah  are  therefrom  named  the  Tintah  beaches,  being  traced, 
like  other  shorelines  higher  and  lower,  along  great  distances  on  each  side 
of  the  Red  River  valley. 

Walls  township,  organized  in  1881,  was  named  for  three  brothers, 
William,  Robert,  and  George  Walls,  Scotchmen,  who  came  from  New 
Brunswick,  taking  homestead  claims  in  this  township. 

Wheaton,  which  succeeded  Brown's  Valley  in  1886  as  the  county  seat, 
is  a  railway  village  at  the  center  of  Lake  Valley  township,  named  in 
honor  of  Daniel  Thompson  Wheaton,  of  Morris,  a  surveyor  for  the 
Fargo  Southern  railway  company.  He  advised  that  this  new  village  be 
named  Swedenburg  in  compliment  to  the  Swedish  owners  of  its  site, 
Swan  C.  and  Ole  Odenborg,  but  they  preferred  to  give  it  this  name  of 
the  surveyor.  He  was  born  in  Barre,  Vt.,  January  21,  1845;  was  gradu- 
ated at  Dartmouth  College,  1869;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1871,  and  settled 
at  Morris  in  1876;  was  county  surveyor  of  Stevens  county,  1877-1910. 

Windsor  township,  first  settled  in  September,  1871,  organized  in  1881, 
was  named  by  one  of  its  pioneer  farmers,  William  J.  Smith,  who  came 
here  from  Hastings,  Minn.  This  name  is  borne  by  an  ancient  borough  on 
the  River  Thames  in  England,  a  seaport  town  of  Nova  Scotia,  a  city  in 
Ontario,  and  townships  and  villages  or  cities  in  nineteen  other  states  of 
the  Union.  

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Lake  Traverse,  whence  the  county  is  named,  has  been  noticed  at  the 
beginning  of  this  chapter.  Its  northern  part,  often  called  Mud  lake,  is 
more  definitely  described,  with  comments  on  its  nomenclature,  under  Lake 
Valley  township. 

The  most  southern  island  of  Lake  Traverse,  about  halfway  across 
the  lake  opposite  to  the  former  trading  post,  which  has  been  noticed  for 
Folsom  township,  is  called  Snake  island,  "covering  about  20  acres,  once 
the  village  home  of  the  Indians." 

Battle  point,  in  section  29,  Windsor,  commemorates  a  battle  between 
the  Ojibways  and  the  Sioux,  about  the  year  1830,  narrated  by  Barrett 
(History  of  this  county,  1881,  p.  8). 

Two  other  islands,  nearer  to  the  South  Dakota  shore,  lie  about  one  to 
two  miles  north  of  Battle  point,  the  more  southern  being  Plum  island  and 
the  other  North  island.  The  former  translates  a  Sioux  name,  Kanta 
Wita,  which  is  placed  farther  north  on  Nicollet's  map,  in  the  extreme 
northern  end  of  this  lake. 


554  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Bois  des  Sioux  river,  outflowing  from  Lake  Traverse  to  the  Red  river, 
has  an  early  French  name,  meaning  Woods  of  the  Sioux,  with  reference 
to  the  woods  or  narrow  groves  by  which  it  is  bordered  along  its  lowest 
five  miles,  next  to  Breckenridge  and  Wahpeton.  On  the  map  of  Long's 
expedition,  in  1823,  it  is  called  Sioux  river;  and  in  the  Narrative  by 
Keating,  as  also  in  the  description  of  the  country  by  Long,  it  is  mentioned 
as  the  Sioux  river  or  Swan  river.  The  name  Bois  des  Sioux  was  used  by 
Keating  to  note  only  its  fringe  of  timber.  On  Nicollet's  map,  1843,  it  is 
named  Sioux  Wood  river. 

Keating's  Narrative  spells  the  name  of  the  Mustinka  river,  tributary 
to  Lake  Traverse,  with  a  more  correct  rendering  of  its  Sioux  pronuncia- 
tion, Mushtincha,  meaning  Rabbit.  The  main  stream  receives  in  this 
county  South  and  West  branches  or  forks,  and  the  latter  has  an  affluent 
named  Twelve  Mile  creek. 

Hills. 

Pelican  hill,  two  miles  northeast  of  Brown's  Valley,  is  a  knoll  on  the 
crest  of  the  bluff  of  Lake  Traverse,  about  25  feet  higher  than  the  adjoin- 
ing portions  of  the  bluff. 

Similar  knolls  or  hillocks  on  or  near  the  lake  bluff  close  south  of  the 
Mustinka  river  were  mapped  by  Nicollet  with  Sioux  names,  Plan  Kara 
and  Manstitsa  Kara.  One  of  these  is  now  called  Round  Mound,  from 
which,  as  noted  by  Barrett,  very  impressive  views  are  obtained,  espe- 
cially when  the  effects  of  mirage  bring  Herman  and  the  Tokua  lakes  into 
sight. 


WABASHA  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  October  2J^  1849,  commemorates  a  line  of 
Dakota  or  Sioux  chiefs,  whose  history  is  told  by  Hon.  Charles  C.  Willson 
in  the  M.  H.  S.  Collections  (vol.  XII,  1908*  pages  503-512).  Wapashaw 
(variously  spelled)  was  the  name,  in  three  successive  generations,  of  the 
hereditary  chiefs  having  greatest  influence  among  the  Mississippi  bands 
of  the  Sioux.  McKenney  and  Hall,  in  the  first  volume  of  their  "History 
of  the  Indian  Tribes  of  North  America"  (1836),  gave  a  portrait  of  the 
second  chief  bearing  this  name,  who  wore  a  covering  over  his  left  eye. 
The  third  Wapashaw's  band  occupied  the  country  below  Lake  Pepin,  his 
principal  village  being  on  the  Rolling  Stone  creek,  near  the  site  of  Min- 
nesota City.  A  beautiful  prairie  in  the  Mississippi  valley  three  to  five 
miles  southeast  of  this  village,  commonly  called  Wapashaw's  prairie  60 
to  80  years  ago,  became  the  site  of  the  city  of  Winona. 

The  town  (now  a  city)  of  Wabasha,  which  was  named  in  1843  for  the 
last  of  these  three  chiefs,  is  situated  at  a  distance  of  thirty  miles  up  the 
Mississippi  from  his  village.  It  was  at  first  called  Cratte's  Landing,  for 
the  earliest  white  man  to  build  his  home  there,  in  1838. 

From  this  town  the  county  containing  it,  which  was  later  established, 
received  its  name  The  more  remote  origin  of  the  name,  which  means 
"red  leaf,"  and  thence  "red  hat  or  cap,"  and  "red  battle-standard,"  as 
applied  to  the  first  chief  named  Wapashaw,  was  on  the  occasion  of  his 
return,  as  tradition  relates,  from  a  visit  to  Quebec,  at  some  time  after 
tiie  cession  of  (Canada  to  Great  Britain  in  1763.  He  had  received  from 
the  English  governor  presents  of  a  soldier's  uniform,  with  its  red  cap, 
and  an  English  flag,  which,  being  displayed  triumphantly  on  his  arrival 
among  his  own  people,  led  to  their  hailing  him  as  Wapashaw  (History  of 
Winona  County,  1883,  page  31). 

This  name  is  widely  different,  as  to  its  origin  and  meaning,  from  the 
Wabash  river,  which  is  said  to  signify  in  its  original  Algonquian,  '*a 
cloud  blown  forward  by  an  equinoctial  wind."  In  pronunciation,  Waba- 
sha should  have  the  vowel  of  its  accented  first  syllable  (formerly  spelled 
Waa  and  WaK)  sounded  like  the  familiar  word,  ah;  and  its  final  a, 
like  ozc^e.  There  is,  however,  a  tendency  or  a  prevalence  of  usage  de- 
parting from  the  aboriginal  pronunciation  for  each  of  the  four  names  of 
Wabasha,  Wadena,  Waseca,  and  Watonwan,  by  giving  to  the  first  a  its 
broad  sound  as  in  awe  or  jail. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  has  been  collected  from  the  "Geographical  and 
Statistical  Sketch  of  the  Past  and  Present  of  Wabasha  County,"  by  W. 

555 


556  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

H.  Mitchell  and  U.  Curtis,  1870,  164  pages;  "History  of  Winona  and 
Wabasha  Counties/'  1884,  having  pages  561-1314  for  this  county;  and 
from  Joseph  Buisson,  Jr.,  and  David  Cratte,  sons  of  founders  of  Waba- 
sha, the  county  seat,  interviewed  during  a  visit  there  in  April,  1916. 

Bear  Valley,  a  hamlet  in  Chester,  is  in  a  valley  tributary  to  the 
Zumbro  river.  "Through  this  valley  a  bear  was  pursued  by  the  early 
settlers." 

Belle  Chester,  a  village  in  the  north  t^gt  of  Chester,  founded  in 
1877,  prefixes  to  the  township  name  the  French  word  meaning  beautiful. 

Chester  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  has  a  name  borne  also  by 
a  city  and  county  of  England,  counties  in  Pennsylvania,  South  Carolina, 
and  Tennessee,  and  townships  and  villages  or  cities  in  twenty-six  states 
of  the  Union. 

Dumfries,  a  railway  station  in  Glasgow  township,  received  its  name 
from  a  town  and  county  of  Scotland,  the  town  being  the  former  home 
and  now  tlie  burial  place  of  Robert  Bums. 

Elgin  township,  first  settled  in  Aj>ril,  1855,  organized  May  11,  18S8, 
likewise  bears  the  name  of  an  ancient  town  and  its  county  in  Scotland. 
It  is  also  the  name  of  a  city  in  Illinois,  having  important  manufactures 
of  watches,  and  of  villages  in  ten  other  states.  Elgin  village  was  founded 
in  November,  1878,  when  the  railway  branch  from  Eyota  to  this  place 
and  Plainview  was  completed. 

GnxFORD  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  for  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Gill  from  Illinois.  He  came  here  and  took  a  homestead  claim  in 
the  summer  of  1855,  returned  to  Illinois,  and  soon  died  there.  "His 
widow,  in  order  to  carry  out  her  husband's  wishes,  removed  to  the  daim 
he  had  selected,  and  entered  upon  the  toils  and  privations  of  a  frontier 
life.  In  honor  of  her  energy  and  perseverance,  and  in  memory  of  her 
husband,  the  town  was  called  Gill  ford."  This  uniquely  spelled  name 
has  the  same  pronunciation  as  Guilford,  which  is  the  name  of  town- 
ships and  villages  in  Maine,  Vermont,  New  York,  and  nine  other  states. 

Glasgow  township,  settled  in  1855  and  organized  in  1858,  "was  named 
in  honor  of  the  city  of  Glasgow,  Scotland,  there  being  several  Scotch- 
men in  the  township,  and  the  first  settler  was  a  Scotchman." 

Greenfield  township,  settled  in  1854,  organized  May  11,  1858,  has  a 
name  borne  by  townships  and  villages  or  cities  in  fourteen  other  states. 

Hammond,  a  railway  village  in  Zumbrota,  was  named  for  Joseph 
Hanmiond,  the  farmer  on  whose  land  it  was  platted.  He  was  born  in 
New  Hampshire,  March  28,  1816,  and  came  to  Minnesota,  settling  here, 
in  1856. 

Highland  township,  organized  May  13,  1858,  was  at  first  called  Smith- 
field,  but  soon  "the  more  euphonious  title  of  Highland  was  substituted,, 
which  also  truthfully  implies  the  fact  of  its  elevated  surface." 

Hyde  Park  township,  organized  in  1858,  was  at  first  called  Troy  and 
later  Zumbro,  but  received  its  present  name  in  1862,  in  accord  with  the 
suggestion  of  an  Englishman,  *'so  that  the  township  is  named  after  one 


\ 


\ 


WABASHA  CO  UNTY  557 

of  the  most  famous  places  in  London."  (History  of  the  county,  1884, 
p.  788.)  The  choice  of  this  name  was  decided  mainly  in  compliment  for 
John  £.  Hyde,  of  Mazeppa.  He  was  born  in  Portland,  Maine,  in  1819; 
came  to  Platteville,  Wis.,  in  1849,  and  to  this  state  in  1855,  settling  in 
Mazeppa,  where  he  was  a  merchant  ten  years;  served  in  the  156th  Illi- 
nois regiment,  1865,  receiving  a  sunstroke,  after  which  he  never  regained 
good  health;  but  his  mercantile  business  was  continued  by  his  wife 
until  1872.  He  was  the  first  postmaster  of  Mazeppa,  1856,  and  was  one 
of  its  most  useful,  citizens. 

Jasbstt,  a  railway  hamlet  in  Hyde  Park,  is  near  a  former  crossing  oi 
Zumbro  river,  called  Jarrett's  Ford,  for  the  nearest  original  settler. 

Keegan,  another  railway  hamlet,  in  the  north  edge  of  Oakwood,  was 
named  for  an  Irish  settler  there. 

Kellogg,  a  railway  village  in  Greenfield,  founded  in  1870,  incorporated 
February  14,  1877,  was  named  by  officers  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee 
and  St.  Paul  railroad  company,  "in  honor  of  a  Milwaukee  gentleman  who 
furnished  the  depot  signs."     (History,  1884,  p.  885.) 

King's  Coolby,  a  railway  station  in  Pepin  township,  bears  the  name 
of  a  cooley  or  ravine  there,  on  the  farm  of  a  settler  named  King. 

In  Lake  township,  beside  Lake  Pepin,  first  settled  in  1853-54,  the  vil- 
lage named  Lake  City  was  platted  in  1856;  and  on  May  13,  1858,  this 
township  was  "named  Lake  City  by  a  vote  of  the  people."  The  city  was 
incorporated  February  26,  1872,  and  the  remaining  part  of  the  township 
"one  year  thereafter  received  by  legislative  enactment  the  curtailed  name 
of  'Lake,'  as  it  now  is."     (History,  1884,  p.  796.) 

Mazeppa  township,  settled  in  1855,  organized  May  11,  1858,  and  its 
village,  platted  in  1855  and  incorporated  in  1877,  are  named  for  Ivan 
Mazeppa  (b.  1644,  d.  1709),  a  Cossack  chief,  commemorated  in  a  poem 
by  Byron. 

McGracken,  a  railway  station  in  Glasgow,  is  named  in  honor  of  Wil- 
liam McCracken,  from  Scotland,  the  first  settler  in  that  township.  He 
was  born  August  15,  1815 ;  came  to  New  Brunswick  in  1841,  and  to  Min- 
nesota in  1855,  settling  here. 

Midland  Junction  is  a  railway  station  in  Greenfield,  one  mile  north 
of  Kellogg. 

Millville,  a  railway  village  in  the  west  edge  of  Oakwood,  has  a  fine 
water  power  of  Zumbro  river,  falling  14  feet. 

MiNNEiSKA  township,  settled  in  1851,  organized  April  5,  1859,  and  its 
village,  platted  in  1854,  are  named  from  the  White  Water  river,  which 
is  a  translation  of  its  Dakota  or  Sioux  name  (Minne  or  Mini,  water,  ska, 
white). 

Mount  Pleasant  township,  first  settled  in  June,  1854,  was  organized 
May  11,  1858.  "The  appropriate  name  was  suggested  by  the  magnificent 
view  presented  to  an  observer  from  the  tops  of  some  of  the  elevations 
in  the  south  central  part,  and  from  the  summit  of  Lone  Mound  the  sight 
is  truly  grand."    (History,  1884,  p.  752.) 


558  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Oak  Center  is  a  hamlet  in  Gillford,  named  "on  account  of  the  abun- 
dance of  oak  trees  in  that  vicinity/' 

Oakwood  township,  similarly  named  as  the  preceding,  was  settled  in 
1855  and  organized  in  1859.  It  was  at  first  called  Fell,  in  honor  of  John 
H.  Pell,  an  early  settler,  who  was  a  state  senator  in  1861  and  later  was 
captain  of  Company  I  in  the  First  Minnesota  regiment,  1861-63;  was  re- 
named Sherman  in  1868;  but,  because  another  Minnesota  township  had 
earlier  received  that  name,  it  was  finally  changed  to  Oakwood  in  1872. 

Pauselim,  for  which  the  origin  and  meaning  need  further  inquiry, 
'was  an  early  village  in  Greenfield,  platted  in  1863,  which  was  superseded 
by  Kellogg. 

Fepin  township,  organized  May  11^  1858,  is  named  from  Lake  Pepin, 
receiving  thus  an  ancient  and  honored  French  name,  as  noticed  in  the 
first  chapter. 

Plainview  township,  settled  in  1854  and  organized  May  11,  1858,  took 
the  name  of  its  village,  platted  in  the  summer  of  1857  and  incorporated 
in  1875.  The  village  was  at  first  called  Centerville,  but  was  changed  be- 
cause another  place  in  this  state  had  been  earlier  so  named.  "In  view 
of  location,  it  being  the  watershed  of  the  Zumbro  and  White  Water  rivers, 
and  in  plain  view  of  a  large  tract  of  surrounding  country,  the  name  was 
changed  to  Plainview."  (Mitchell  and  Curtis,  1870,  p.  140.)  Villages 
in  Illinois,  Nebraska,  and  four  other  states,  also  bear  this  name. 

Read's  Landing,  a  village  in  the  east  part  of  Pepin,  adjoining  the 
city  of  Wabasha,  is  on  the  site  occupied  as  a  Sioux  trading  post  by 
Augustine  Rocque  from  about  1810  to  1825  or  1830;  by  his  son  bearing 
the  same  name,  from  1835  till  his  death,  about  1860;  by  an  Englishman 
named  Hudson,  from  1840  till  he  died,  in  1845 ;  and  by  Charles  R.  Read, 
who  came  here  in  1847.  Read  was  born  about  1820  in  England ;  came  to 
the  United  States  when  ten  years  old;  served  in  the  American  army  in 
the  Canadian  rebellion  1837-8,  was  captured  by  the  British  and  sentenced 
to  be  hung;  was  pardoned  and  returned  to  the  United  States;  in  1847 
took  charge  of  this  trading  post ;  died  at  Millville  in  this  county,  October 
9,  1900.  The  village  of  Read's  Landing  was  platted  in  1856  and  incor- 
porated March  5,  1868,  and  during  ten  to  fifteen  years  later  had  flourish- 
ing  commercial  and  transportation  business,  but  afterward  was  super- 
seded by  Wabasha. 

SMrrHFiELD,  a  hamlet  in  Highland,  retains  the  original  name  of  that 
township. 

Tepeeota,  an  early  village  in  Greenfield,  was  founded  in  1856  on  an 
island  of  the  Mississippi,  a  former  camping  ground  of  Wapashaw's  band ; 
but  its  hopes  came  to  naught  by  the  financial  panic  of  1857.  On  a  March 
night  in  1859,  its  deserted  steam  sawmill,  three-story  hotel,  stores,  etc, 
mostly  then  empty,  were  burned  by  incendiarism.  This  Sioux  name 
means  *'many  houses."     (Mitchell  and  Curtis,  1870,  pages  93-96.) 

Theilman,  a  railway  village  in  the  southeast  comer  of  West  Albany, 
was  named  for  Henry  Theilman,  on  whose  land  this  village  was  platted. 


WABASHA  CO  UNTY  559 

Wabasha^  the  county  seat,  founded  and  named  in  1843,  as  related  at 
the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  was  platted  in  1854  and  was  incorporated 
as  a  city  March  20,  1858. 

Watopa  township,  settled  in  1855  and  organized  May  11,  1858,  has 
a  Dakota  or  Sioux  name,  being  a  verb,  ''to  paddle  a  canoe." 

Weaver,  a  railway  village  in  Minneiska,  platted  in  1871,  was  named 
in  honor  of  William  Weaver,  a  pioneer  settler,  who  came  from  the  state 
of  New  York  in  1857  and  was  one  of  the  proprietors  of  this  village  site. 

West  Albany  township,  first  settled  in  June,  1855,  organized  May  3, 
1858,  took  this  name  from  its  village,  which  was  platted  in  the  spring  of 
1857  by  settlers  from  Albany,  N.  Y. 

ZuMBRO  township,  settled  in  1855,  was  originally  a  part  of  Mazeppa 
and  Troy  townships,  which  were  organized  in  1858,  and  had  for  each 
the  area  of  a  township  of  the  government  survey.  The  inconvenience 
of  crossing  the  Zumbro  river,  flowing  through  these  townships,  led  to  the 
organization  of  Zumbro,  March  19,  1861,  comprising  the  area  east  and 
south  of  the  river;  and  the  north  part  of  Troy  was  renamed  Hyde  Park. 

Zumbro  Falls  is  a  railway  village  at  falls  of  the  Zumbro  river  in  the 
southwest  comer  of  Gill  ford. 

Rivers  and  Creeks. 

Zumbro  river  is  derived,  by  changes  of  pronunciation  and  greater  change 
of  spelling,  from  the  early  French  name,  Riviere  des  Embarras,  meaning 
River  of  DifHculties  or  Encumbrances,  that  is,  a  stream  on  which  canoe- 
ing was  hindered  by  driftwood.  On  Nicollet's  map,  1843,  this  stream 
is  named  Wazi  Oju,  "Place  of  Pines,"  referring  to  its  grove  of  large 
white  pines  at  Pine  Island,  in  Goodhue  county.  The  North  and  South 
branches  of  the  Zumbro  unite  at  the  east  side  of  Mazeppa. 

From  the  north  the  Zumbro  receives  Skillman  brook.  West  Albany' 
credc,  and  Trout  creek;  and  from  the  south  its  tributaries  are  Long, 
Middle,  and  West  Indian  creeks.  Skillman  brook,  previously  called 
Trout  brook,  was  named  from  its  mill  in  section  19,  Chester,  built  by 
brothers  of  this  name.  Francis  M.  Skillman  was  born  at  Riverhead,  Long 
Island,  N.  Y.,  November  23,  1812;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1856,  settling 
on  a  farm  in  this  county;  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature  in  1859- 
60.  Evander  Skillman,  born  in  German,  N.  Y.,  May  12,' 1838,  came  to  this 
county  in  1856 ;  served  as  first  lieutenant  in  the  Third  Minnesota  regiment 
in  the  civil  war;  engaged  in  mercantile  business  in  Mazeppa,  and  in  1873 
with  his  brother  built  this  mill. 

White  Water  river,  before  noticed  for  Minneiska  township,  flows 
through  the  southern  edge  of  this  county. 

Lake  Pepin,  whence  Lake  City  and  Lake  and  Pepin  townships  are 
named,  receives  Gilbert  Valley  creek  and  Collins  and  King's  creeks. 

The  Zumbro  river  in  its  southward  course,  after  coming  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi bottomland,  receives  Dady's  creek,  flowing  from  Cook's  Valley, 
Snake  creek,  and  Indian  creek. 


WADENA  COUNTY 

Established  June  11,  1858,  and  organized  February  21,  1873,  this  coun- 
ty took  its  name  from  the  Wadena  trading  post  of  the  old  trail  from 
Crow  Wing  to  Otter  Tail  City  and  Pembina,  situated  on  the  west  bluff 
of  the  Crow  Wing  river  at  its  crossing  in  the  present  township  of  Thorn- 
astown.  The  former  ferry  and  trading  post  were  between  the  mouths  of 
the  Leaf  and  Partridge  rivers.  Hon.  J.  V.  Brower,  who  visited  the  place 
in  1863  and  again  examined  it  in  May,  1899,  stated  that  in  its  most  popu- 
lous period,  about  the  years  1855  to  1860,  more  than  a  hundred  people 
lived  at  this  trading  post ;  but  that  in  1899,  like  Crow  Wing  and  the  orig- 
inal Otter  Tail  City,  its  buildings  had  disappeared,  and  only  their  cellar 
holes  remained  to  mark  the  spot,  the  trail  or  road  having  been  long 
previously  abandoned.  Soon  after  the  building  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
railroad,  the  county  seat  was  located  on  this  railroad,  in  1872,  fifteen 
miles  west  of  the  original  Wadena  trading  post,  from  which  its  name  was 
transferred. 

This  name,  an  archaic  Ojibway  word,  signifies  "a  little  round  hill," 
according  to  Rev.  J.  A.  Gilfillan.  It  probably  had  reference,  as  Mr.  Brow- 
er thought,  to  the  rounded  outlines  of  the  Crow  Wing  bluffs  at  the  old 
Wadena  ferry.  It  is  also  a  somewhat  frequent  personal  name  among 
the  Ojibways.  One  of  this  name,  the  eldest  son  of  Bad  Boy,  the  last 
Gull  Lake  chief,  was  living  in  1899,  an  old  man,  on  the  White  Earth 
reservation.  Prof.  N.  H.  Winchell  defined  his  name  as  "Sloping  Hill," 
with  notation  that  he  signed  treaties  in  1857  and  1889  (Aborigines  of  Min- 
nesota, 1911,  p.  729).  Asher  Murray,  of  Wadena,  has  a  portrait  of  him. 
The  name  accents  the  middle  syllable,  and  sounds  each  a  as  in  father. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  origins  and  meaning  of  geographic  names  was  received 
from  Eugene  Boss,  county  auditor  since  1903,  and  Asher  Murray,  each 
of  Wadena,  the  county  seat,  interviewed  during  a  visit  there  in  May, 
1916.  Mr.  Murray  came  to  Minnesota  in  1880,  and  has  since  resided  in 
Wadena,  being  the  county  judge  of  probate  in  1889-1902. 

Aldrich  township  received  the  name  of  the  railway  village,  given  by 
officers  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad  company,  in  honor  of  C3rrus  Al- 
drich, who  was  bom  in  Smithfield,  R.  I.,  June  18,  1808,  and  died  in  Min- 
neapolis, October  5,  1871.  He  came  to  this  state  in  1855,  settling  in  Min- 
neapolis, and  engaged  in  real  estate  business;  was  a  representative  in 
Congress,  1859-63;  a  member  of  the  state  legislature,  1865;  and  post- 
master of  Minneapolis,  1867-71. 

560 


WADENA  COUNTY  561 

Bluebekry  township  has  Blueberry  river  and  lake,  which  are  trans- 
lated from  their  Ojibway  name.  The  low  blueberry,  suppl3ring  abundant 
berries  much  prized  as  food  by  both  red  and  white  people,  is  common 
in  northern  Minnesota,  extending  somewhat  farther  south  and  west  than 
our  species  of  pine,  spruce,  and  fir. 

BuLLARD  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Clarence  Eugene  BuUard, 
who  was  born  at  Fort  Madison,  Iowa,  in  1843 ;  served  in  the  Sixth  Wis- 
consin regiment  in  the  civil  war,  attaining  the  rank  of  first  lieutenant; 
came  to  Minnesota  in  1864;  settled  in  Verndale  in  1878;  was  clerk  of  the 
district  court  of  this  county,  1881-6;  removed  to  Wadena,  and  during 
many  years  was  the  county  attorney;  died  at  his  home  in  Wadena  in 
April,  1916. 

HuNTEBSvnxE  township  was  named  for  its  being  a  "hunters'  para- 
dise." 

Leaf  River  township,  crossed  by  the  river  of  this  name,  and  its  rail- 
way village  are  a  translation  from  the  Ojibway  name  of  the  Leaf  hills 
or  "mountains"  and  the  Leaf  lakes  and  river,  before  noted  in  the  chap- 
ter of  Otter  Tail  county.  It  is  written  by  Gilfillan  as  "Gasldbugwudjiwe, 
Rustling  Leaf  mountain,"  the  same  name  being  also  applied  to  the  lakes 
and  river. 

Lyons  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Harrison  Lyons,  of  Vern- 
dale, who  for  many  years  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  county  com- 
missioners. 

Meadow  township  was  named  for  its  relatively  small  tracts  of  prairie, 
natural  grassland,  inclosed  in  the  general  woodland. 

Menahga,  a  railway  village  in  Blueberry  township,  platted  in  1891, 
very  appropriately  bears  the  Ojibway  name  of  the  blueberry,  spelled 
Meenahga  by  Longfellow  in  "The  Song  of  Hiawatha." 

Metz  was  a  post  office  in  North  Germany  township,  now  discontin- 
ued, bearing  the  name  of  the  chief  city  of  Lorraine,  which  on  October 
27,  1870,  after  a  siege  of  two  months,  was  surrendered  to  the  Germans. 

NiMROD,  a  post  office  and  hamlet  in  Orton,  is  named  for  the  grandson 
of  Ham,  called,  in  Genesis,  "a  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord,"  who  is 
reputed  to  have  directed  the  construction  of  the  Tower  of  Babel. 

North  Germany  township  was  named  by  its  many  German  settlers. 

Orton  township  was  named  in  honor  of  one  of  its  pioneer  farmers. 

Oye  and  Oylen  were  post  offices,  lately  discontinued,  in  Lyons. 

Red  Eye  township  is  traversed  by  Red  Eye  river,  named,  in  transla- 
tion from  the  Ojibway s,  for  its  red-eye  fish,  a  species  that  is  also  called 
•*blue-spotted  sunfish"  or  "green  sunfish"  (G)x,  "Fishes  of  Minnesota," 
1897,  p.  67)  ;  but  a  later  manual  ("American  Food  and  Game  Fishes," 
by  Jordan  and  Evermann,  1902)  places  this  name,  red-eye,  as  a  synonym 
for  the  rock  bass.  The  two  species  are  nearly  allied,  and  the  latter  is 
stated  by  Cox  to  be  "a  very  common  and  valuable  food  fish  in  all  the 
lakes  and  streams  of  the  state."  (p.  56). 


562  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

RocKwooD  township  is  thought  to  have  been  named  from  its  glacial 
drift  boulders  and  hardwood  timber. 

Seseka,  a  railway  village  in  Red  Eye  and  Rockwood  townships,  beside 
the  Red  Eye  river,  founded  in  1891,  was  named,  like  Menahga,  by  Col. 
William  Crooks,  chief  engineer  of  the  Manitoba  (now  Great  Northern) 
railway.  Like  Menahga,  this  is  a  name  of  Ojibway  derivation,  from  sibi 
or  zibi,  a  river,  meaning  "the  village  or  town  beside  the  river." 

Shell  City  is  a  hamlet  in  Shell  River  township,  each  of  these  names 
being  from  the  mussel  or  clam  shells  of  this  river  and  of  Shell  lake,  at  its 
source  in  Becker  county.  The  Ojibways,  according  to  Gilfillan,  call  the 
lake  by  a  different  name,  meaning  "the  lake  lying  near  the  mountain," 
that  is,  near  a  portage  crossing  the  water  divide  between  the  Crow  Wing 
and  Otter  Tail  rivers.    Thence  they  also  give  that  name  to  the  Shell  river. 

Thomastown,  the  most  southeastern  township  of  this  county,  was 
named  in  honor  of  Thomas  Scott,  a  pioneer  homesteader,  who  was  a 
lumberman  and  farmer;  but  he  removed  about  the  year  1875  to  the  state 
of  Washington. 

Vernpale,  a  railway  village  in  the  west  part  of  Aldrich,  was  named  in 
honor  of  Vemie  Smith,  a  granddaughter  of  Lucas  W.  Smith,  one  of  its 
pioneers.  He  was  born  in  Caledonia  county,  Vt,  September  IS,  1816; 
settled  on  a  homestead  claim  near  the  site  of  this  village,  which  he 
named;  built  the  first  house  here,  and  engaged  in  mercantile  business. 

Wadena  township,  and  its  railway  village,  the  county  seat,  first  set- 
tled in  the  fall  of  1871,  incorporated  February  14,  1881,  are  named,  like 
this  county,  from  the  old  trading  post. 

In  Wing  River  township  the  stream  of  this  name,  flowing  from  Otter 
Tail  and  Todd  counties,  joins  the  Leaf  river.  Its  name  probably  was 
translated  from  the  Ojibways,  like  the  Crow  Wing  river. 

.Streams  and  Lakes. 

On  the  map  of  Long's  expedition,  in  1823,  the  Crow  Wing  river  is 
named  "R.  de  Corbeau,"  meaning  River  of  the  Raven,  the  Leaf  river 
is  called  its  '*West  Fork,"  and  the  other  streams  of  this  county  are  un- 
named, being  indeed  mostly  without  delineation.  Nicollet's  map,  pub- 
lished in  1843,  names  the  Crow  Wing,  Leaf,  Red  Eye,  and  Shell  rivers ; 
and  the  Partridge  river  bears  its  equivalent  French  name,  "Riv.  aux  Per- 
drix."  The  early  state  map  of  1860  adds  Union  creek  and  Wing  and 
Partridge  rivers. 

Blueberry  river  and  lake,  and  Leaf,  Red  Eye,  Shell,  and  Wing  rivers, 
from  which  townships  are  named,  have  been  noticed  in  the  preceding 
pages;  and  the  French  and  English  names  of  Partridge  river  are  trans- 
lations of  its  Ojibway  name.  The  origin  of  the  name  of  Union  creek 
remains  to  be  learned. 

The  Twin  lakes,  on  the  course  of  the  Shell  river,  are  crossed  by  the 
north  line  of  this  county. 

Kettle  creek  is  a  tributary  of  Blueberry  river. 


WADENA  COUNTY  563 

Stocking  lake,  named  from  its  shape,  outflows  by  Stocking  creek  to 
the  Shell  river. 

Spirit  lake,  without  outlet,  adjoins  Menahga. 

Jim  Cook  lake  was  named  for*  an  early  farmer,  who  cut  logs  there. 

Finn  lake  has  several  adjacent  settlers  from  Finland. 

In  Meadow  township,  Yaeger  lake  was  named  for  an  early  German 
or  Swiss  homesteader  beside  it;  Mud  lake  lies  close  west,  and  Rice  lake 
close  south,  the  latter  being  named  for  its  wild  rice. 

Cat  river,  flowing  to  the  Crow  Wing,  was  named  for  wildcats  en- 
countered by  the  pioneer  settlers.  This  species,  also  called  the  lynx,  was 
formerly  frequent  throughout  Minnesota. 

This  county  has  two  Hay  creeks,  one  a  tributary  of  Red  Eye  river, 
the  other  of  Leaf  river,  each  being  named  for  their  small  tracts  of  nat- 
ural hay  meadows. 

Lovejoy  lake,  in  section  16,  Thomastown,  was  named  for  Charles  O. 
Lovejoy,  a  homesteader  beside  it;  Hayden  creek,  also  named  for  a  pioneer, 
flows  through  the  southeast  comer  of  this  township;  and  Simon  lake  is 
in  its  section  12. 

From  its  east  side,  the  Crow  Wing  river  receives  Big  and  Little 
Swamp  creeks,  Beaver  creek,  and  Farnham  brook,  the  last  being  named 
in  honor  of  Sumner  W.  Farnham,  a  Minneapolis  lumberman.  He  was 
bom  in  Calais,  Maine,  April  2,  1820;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1848,  and  en- 
gaged in  logging  and  lumber  manufacturing;  opened  the  first  bank  at 
St  Anthony  Falls  in  1854;  was  a  member  of  the  territorial  legislature 
in  1852  and  1856;  died  in  Minneapolis,  April  2,  1900.  A  lake  crossed 
by  tiie  east  line  of  Bullard,  about  a  mile  east  from  the  mouth  of  Fam- 
ham  brook,  is  also  named  for  him;  and  Sand  lak^  is  in  section  1  of  this 
township. 


WASECA  COUNTY 

This  county  was  established  February  27,  1857.  Its  name  is  a  Da- 
kota or  Sioux  word,  which  has  been  explained  by  Prof.  A.  W.  William- 
son, as  follows:  "Waseca  (wasecha),  — rich,  especially  in  provisions. 
I  was  informed  in  1855  by  a  gentleman  who  was  a  stranger  to  me,  who 
professed  to  be  one  of  the  first  settlers,  that  this  name  was  given  in  re- 
sponse to  inquiries  as  to  the  Indian  word  for  fertile,  and  adopted  as  a 
name.  In  Dakota  writing  and  books  the  word  vuaseca  is  spelled  as  we 
spell  the  name,  and  is  a  word  likely  to  be  given  in  answer  to  such  a 
question.  The  soil  is  also  very  fertile."  The  name  was  first  applied  to 
the  earliest  farming  settlement  in  1855,  near  the  present  city  of  this  name. 

The  county  seat,  originally  located  in  Wilton,  which  became  an  im- 
portant village,  was  removed  to  Waseca  in  1870,  soon  after  the  building  of 
the  Winona  and  St.  Peter  railroad. 

The  Dictionary  of  the  Dakota  language,  by  Rev.  S.  R.  Riggs,  pub- 
lished in  1852,  shows  that  this  word  was  pronounced  as  if  written  tcMi- 
shecha.    It  has  the  same  accent  and  vowel  sounds  as  Wadena. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  has  been  derived  from  "History  of  Steele  and 
Waseca  Counties,"  1887,  having  pages  413-733  for  this  county;  "History 
of  Waseca  G>unty,"  by  James  £.  Child,  1905,  848  pages ;  from  Edward  A. 
Everett  and  John  F.  Murphy,  each  of  Waseca,  the  county  seat,  who  came 
here  respectively  in  1867  and  1857,  interviewed  during  a  visit  at  Waseca 
in  October,  1915;  and  from  later  letters  of  Mr.  Everett,  giving  testi- 
mony from  D.  J.  Dodge,  the  county  clerk  of  the  court,  Edward  Hayden, 
of  Alton,  ^d  Mrs.  A.  C.  Qeland. 

Alma  City^  a  village  in  Alton  and  Freedom,  platted  in  1865,  was 
named  in  honor  of  Alma  Hills,  daughter  of  Elijah  Hills,  one  of  the  first 
settlers  in  Alton.  Alma  is  also  the  name  of  a  city  in  Wisconsin,  and  of 
townships  and  villages  or  cities  in  eighteen  other  states. 

Alton  township,  .organized  April  27,  1866,  was  named  for  the  city 
of  Alton,  Illinois,  by  James  Hayden  and  William  Stewart,  pioneers. 

The  origin  of  the  name  of  Blooming  Grove  township,  organized  April 
5,  1858,  is  told  by  Mrs.  A.  C.  Qeland,  whose  father,  E.  R.  Connor,  was 
one  of  the  committee  for  selecting  the  township  name.  "A  meeting  was 
held  at  the  residence  of  a  Mr.  Isaacs,  .  .  .  one  mile  north  of  Rice  lake. 
This  section  of  the  township  is  a  series  of  hills,  like  large  and  small 
islands  surrounded  biy  meadows  and  sloughs,  which  give  the  appearance 
of  groves  rather  than  a  solid  forest;  and  on  all  edges  of  these  groves 
grew  great  plum  thickets,  and  at  the  time  the  name  was  suggested  by 
Mr.  Isaacs  the  plums  were  in  bloom,  which  gave  them  their  idea  of  call- 

564 


WASECA  COUNTY  565 

ing  the  township  Blooming  Grove."  Townships  and  villages  in  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  and  Texas,  bear  this  name. 

Byron  township,  organized  November  1,  1858,  was  named  for  Byron 
F.  Qark,  then  a  resident  of  Wilton.  He  was  a  money  lender,  accepting 
six  per  cent  monthly  interest,  even  from  this  county,  during  the  financial 
depression  after  the  panic  of  1857.    (County  History,  1905,  pages  95-96.) 

Freedom  township,  organized  in  March,  1864,  was  named  by  Fletcher 
D.  Seaman,  one  of  its  homestead  farmers,  who  settled  there  in  the 
spring  of  that  year.  Ten  other  states  have  townships  and  villages  so 
named. 

Iosco  township,  organized  April  5,  1858,  has  a  rare  name,  borne  else- 
where only  by  a  county  and  village  in  Michigan.  It  is  from  Algonquian 
derivation,  coined  by  Schoolcraft  in  his  book,  "The  Myth  of  Hiawatha 
and  other  Oral  Legends  ...  of  the  North  American  Indians,"  pub- 
lished in  1856.  Gannett  defined  the  word  as  meaning  "water  of  light," 
or  "shining  water." 

Janesville  township,  organized  May  17,  1858,  received  the  earlier 
name  of  its  village.  The  original  village  was  called  Empire,  but  an  ad- 
dition was  platted  in  1856  by  J.  W.  Hosmer,  who  "named  it  Jane  for 
Mrs.  Jane  Sprague,  and  then,  by  general  consent  of  the  villagers,  the 
'Jane'  was  enlarged  by  adding  to  it  Ville,'  and  Janesville  resulted  and 
was  accepted  as  the  name  of  the  whole  village"  (Stennett,  Place  Names 
of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railways,  1908,  p.  87).  During  the 
winter  of  1869-70  nearly  all  the  buildings  of  the  previous  townsite  were 
removed  to  the  new  railway  village  site,  called  East  Janesville,  platted 
in  August,  1869,  for  the  Winona  and  St.  Peter  railroad  company.  May 
10,  1870,  the  new  village  was  incorporated  as  Janesville.  (History  of  the 
county,  1887,  pages  616,  617,  622.) 

Matawan,  a  railway  village  in  the  southwest  corner  of  Byron,  bears 
the  name  of  a  village  and  township  in  New  Jersey. 

New  Richland  township,  first  settled  by  a  colony  from  Wisconsin  in 
June,  1856,  organized  November  2,  1858,  and  its  railway  village,  platted 
in  August,  1877,  received  this  name  from  the  township  and  county  of 
Richland  in  Wisconsin. 

Okaman,  a  former  village  on  the  northeast  shore  of  Lake  Elysian,  in 
section  1,  Janesville,  platted  in  May,  1857,  extended  also  north  into  the 
edge  of  Le  Sueur  county.  This  Sioux  name  has  nearly  the  same  mean- 
ing as  Okabena  in  Jackson  and  Nobles  counties,  each  being  from  hokah, 
a  heron,  having  reference  to  these  localities  as  nesting  places  of  herons. 

Otisco  township,  settled  in  1856  and  organized  April  5,  1858,  had  a 
village  so  named  which  was  platted  in  July,  1857;  but  its  railway  village 
dates  only  from  the  building  of  the  Minneapolis  and  St  Louis  railway 
in  1877.  This  is  the  name  of  a  lake  and  a  township  in  Onondaga  county. 
New  York,  and  of  villages  in  Indiana  and  Michigan. 

Palmer^  an  early  railway  station  in  Iosco,  was  platted  as  a  village  in 
September,  1915. 


566  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Ross  is  a  station  of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  railway,  two  miles 
east  of  Janesville,  "named  for  Ross  Redfidd,  who  lived  nearby." 

St.  Mary  township,  organized  April  5,  1858^  was  named  from  its 
Catholic  church,  which  was  organized  in  1856. 

Smith's  Mnx^  a  railway  village  on  the  west  line  of  Janesville,  'Vas 
named  for  Peter  Smith,  the  earliest  settler  here,  who  owned  a  mill  here 
before  the  railroad  reached  the  place."    (Stennett,  p.  125.) 

Vivian  township,  settled  in  tiie  summer  of  1856,  organized  April  5, 
1858,  has  a  name  borne  by  villages  in  West  Virginia  and  Louisiana. 

Waldorf,  a  railway  village  in  the  north  edge  of  Vivian,  has  the  name 
of  a  village  in  Maryland. 

Waseca,  the  county  seat,  in  Woodville  township,  platted  in  July, 
1867,  on  the  line  of  the  Winona  and  St  Peter  railroad,  was  incorporated 
as  a  village  March  2,  1868,  and  as  a  city  February  23,  1881.  It  succeeded 
Wilton  as  the  county  seat  in  1870. 

Wilton  township,  first  settled  in  August,  1854,  and  organized  May 
11,  1858,  took  the  name  of  its  village,  platted  in  the  autumn  of  1855, 
which  was  the  county  seat  from  the  date  of  the  county  organization  in 
1857  until  1870,  when  the  county  offices  were  removed  to  Waseca.  Wil- 
ton is  the  name  of  a  town  in  Wiltshire,  England,  famous  for  its  manu- 
facture of  carpets,  and  of  townships  and  villages  in  Maine,  New  Hamp- 
shire, Connecticut,  New  York,  Wisconsin,  and  seven  other  states. 

Woodville  township,  organized  April  5,  1858,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Eri  G.  and  Loren  Qark  Wood,  brothers,  who  were  pioneer  settlers  here 
in  1856.  Eri  G.  Wood  was  bom  in  Franklin  county,  N.  Y.,  March  17, 
1832,  and  died  at  his  home  in  this  township,  February  10,  1903.  The  first 
township  meeting,  May  11,  1858,  was  held  at  his  house. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  map  of  Minnesota  Territory  in  1855  has  the  Le  Sueur  and  Cobb 
rivers,  the  latter  being  named  by  the  government  surveyors,  and  the  for- 
mer in  honor  of  Pierre  Charles  Le  Sueur  (b.  1657,  d.  before  1712),  of 
whom  biographic  notice  is  given  in  the  chapter  for  Le  Sueur  county. 

Boot  creek  is  a  western  tributary  of  the  Le  Sueur  river,  and  it  re- 
ceives the  Little  Le  Sueur  river  and  McDougal  creek  from  the  east  The 
last  is  named  for  Robert  McDougal,  who  was  born  in  Scotland,  March 
26,  1821;  came  to  Canada  in  boyhood  with  his  parents,  and  to  Minne- 
sota in  1855,  taking  a  homestead  claim  in  section  6,  Otisco,  beside  this 
creek  and  the  Le  Sueur  river;  traveled  in  1858-60  td  the  gold  mines  of 
the  Saskatchewan  river  and  to  the  Pacific  coast;  returned  to  Minnesota 
in  1861,  but  soon  went  back  to  Canada ;  came  again  to  this  state  in  1866, 
and  was  a  farmer  in  Otisco  until  his  death,  January  15,  1887. 

Little  Cobb  river  and  Bull  run,  the  outlet  of  Silver  lake,  flow  west 
into  Blue  Earth  county. 

Iosco  creek,  to  which  Silver  creek  is  tributary,  flows  into  Lake  Elys- 
ian ;  and  Crane  creek  has  its  source  in  Rice  lake,  named  for  its  wild  rice. 


WASECA  COUNTY  567 

Other  lakes  of  this  county  include  Trenton  lake,  crossed  by  the  south 
line  of  Byron;  Thompson  lake,  in  section  13,  New  Richland,  which  on 
recent  maps  is  named  Norwegian  lake,  but  also  is  often  called  St  Olaf's 
lake;  Wheeler  lake,  in  section  5,  Vivian,  named  for  John  A.  Wheeler, 
who  took  a  claim  on  section  4  in  1858^  served  in  the  Tenth  Minnesota 
regiment,  1862-4,  afterward  was  first  lieutenant  in  the  66th  U.  S.  Colored 
Infantry,  and  died  about  1876;  Lake  Canfield,  in  the  northeast  corner  of 
Otisco,  named  in  honor  of  Job  A.  Canfield,  who  was  born  in  Ohio,  set- 
tled here  in  1856,  was  county  judge  of  probate,  1857-60  and  1870-77,  served 
in  the  Tenth  Minnesota  regiment,  1862-65,  and  died  January  28,  1884; 
Mott  lake,  in  sections  23  and  26,  Freedom;  Goose  and  Watkins  lakes  in 
the  northeast  part  of  Woodville,  the  latter  named  for  Henry  Watkins, 
who  came  here  in  1856  and  took  a  claim  on  the  banks  of  the  lake,  but 
about  fifteen  years  later  removed  to  Iowa;  Clear  lake,  remarkable  for  the 
clearness  of  its  water,  close  northeast  of  Waseca;  Gaiter  lake,  named  for 
its  shape,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  south  of  Gear  lake,  and  Loon  lake,  adjoin- 
ing the  northwest  side  of  this  city;  Buffalo  lake,  in  Alton;  Hayes,  Re- 
mund,  Everson,  and  Knutsen  lakes,  in  Blooming  Grove  township;  Ton- 
er's, Reed's,  and  Lily  lakes,  the  last  having  many  white  water-lilies,  in 
the  northwest  part  of  Iosco;  Helena  lake,  in  section  31,  Iosco,  and  section 
36j  Janesville;  and  Rice  lake,  having  wild  rice,  Willis,  Lilly,  and  Fish 
lakes,  in  the  northwest  part  of  Janesville. 

Lake  Elysian,  extending  nearly  across  Janesville  township,  is  the 
largest  and  most  beautiful  in  this  county,  extending  also  north  into 
Le  Sueur  county,  where  a  township  and  village  bear  this  name. 

Samuel  Remund,  for  whom  a  lake  in  Blooming  Grove  is  named, 
was  bom  in  Canton  Berne,  Switzerland,  January  26,  1833;  came  to  the 
United  States  in  1855,  and  in  1856  settled  on  section  9  in  this  township; 
died  February  8,  1903. 

Gullick  Knutsen,  commemorated  by  another  lake,  was  born  in  Roldat, 
Norway,  May  25,  1840;  came  to  the  United  States  in  1851  with  his  parents, 
who  settled  in  Dane  county,  Wisconsin,  and  removed  to  Blooming  Grove 
in.  June,  1856;  he  served  against  the  Sioux  in  1862-3,  in  Company  B, 
First  Minnesota  Mounted  Rangers;  was  township  treasurer  and  later 
township  clerk;  died  at  his  home,  August  11,  1901. 

Richard  Toner,  a  blacksmith,  for  whom  Toner's  lake  was  named,  set- 
tled in  Iosco  in  1856,  and  was  burned  to  death  in  a  fire  that  destroyed  his 
house,  August  27,  1878. 

Reed's  lake  was  named  for  John  Reed,  a  veteran  of  the  War  of  1812, 
who  settled  in  Iosco  in  1856. 

Willis  lake  was  named  for  Abner  Willis,  who  was  born  in  Connecti- 
cut, August  15,  1816,  and  was  a  farmer  in  section  8,  Janesville. 

Lilly  lake,  a  mile  west  of  Willis  lake,  commemorates  Terrence  Lilly, 
a  cooper,  who  was  born  in  1808  at  Enniskillen,  Ireland,  came  to  the 
United  States  in  1849,  and  to  this  state  in  1857,  settling  in  St.  Mary  town- 
ship, and  died  May  15,  1891. 


WASHINGTON  COUNTY 

Established  October  27,  1849,  this  county  was  named  for  George 
Washington,  ''first  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his 
countrsrmen."  He  was  born  in  Westmoreland  county,  Va.,  February  22, 
1732;  was  commander-in-chief  during  the  Revolutionary  War,  1775-83; 
was  the  first  president  of  the  United  States,  1789-97;  and  died  at  his 
home.  Mount  Vernon,  Va.,  December  14,  1799.  Thirty-two  counties  in  as 
many  states  bear  his  name.  This  is  one  of  the  nine  original  counties 
into  which  Minnesota  Territory  was  divided  in  1849.  Five  others  of 
these  counties  yet  remain,  namely,  Benton,  Dakota,  Itasca,  Ramsey,  and 
Wabasha,  each,  like  Washington  county,  being  much  reduced  from  its 
original  area. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  has  been  gathered  from  "History  of  Washing- 
ton County  and  the  St.  Croix  Valley,"  1881,  636  pages;  "Fifty  Years  in 
the  Northwest,"  by  William  H.  C.  Folsom,  1888,  having  pages  355-431 
for  this  county;  "History  of  the  St.  Croix  Valley,"  edited  by  Augustus 
B.  Easton,  1909,  two  volumes,  paged  continuously,  1290  pages;  and  from 
Nicholas  A.  Nelson,  county  auditor,  and  Alpheus  E.  Doe,  judge  of  pro- 
bate, each  of  Stillwater,  the  county  seat,  interviewed  during  a  visit  there 
in   October,   1916. 

Afton  township,  first  settled  in  1837,  organized  in  May,  1858,  has  an 
early  village,  platted  in  May,  1855,  named  by  C.  S.  Getchell,  "from  Burns' 
poem,  'Afton  Water,'  which  gives  a  fine  description  of  the  'neighboring 
hills,  and  the  clear  winding  rills.' "    (History  of  the  county,  1881,  p.  402.) 

Arcola,  a  former  village  of  sawmills  on  the  St.  Croix  about  four 
miles  south  of  Marine  Mills,  was  founded  in  1846-47.  Its  name  is  borne 
by  an  ancient  town  of  Italy,  and  by  villages  in  Pennsylvania,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  Georgia,  and  seven  other  states. 

Baytown,  a  small  township  on  the  south  side  of  Stillwater,  organized 
in  May,  1858,  was  named  by  Socrates  Nelson  for  the  adjoining  bay  of 
Lake  St.  Croix,  divided  from  the  main  lake  by  Mulve/s  point. 

CopAS,  a  village  of  the  Soo  railway,  adjoins  the  former  site  of  Vasa. 
It  has  a  unique  name,  not  known  elsewhere. 

Cottage  Grove  township  was  settled  in  1844  and  organized  in  May, 
1858;  and  its  village,  bearing  the  same  name,  in  allusion  to  the  mingled 
tracts  of  groves  and  prairies,  was  platted  in  April,  1871. 

Dell  WOOD,  a  railway  village  of  euphonious  name,  having  many  sum- 
mer homes  beside  White  Bear  lake,  was  platted  in  September,  1882. 

Denmark  township,  the  most  southern  of  this  county,  was  first  set- 
tled in  1839,  and  was  organized  October  20,  1858.    Maine  and  New  York 

S68 


WASHINGTON  COUNTY  569 

have  townships  and  villages  of  this  name,  which  also  is  borne  by  villages 
or  hamlets  in  thirteen  other  states. 

Forest  Lake  township,  organized  March  11,  1874,  took  the  name  of 
its  railway  village,  which  was  platted  in  1868,  at  the  west  end  of  a  large 
lake  so  named  from  the  heavy  timber  skirting  its  shores. 

Grant  township,  organized  in  May,  1858,  was  then  named  Greenfield 
by  Socrates  Nelson,  for  his  former  home  in  Massachusetts;  but,  because 
that  name  had  been  previously  given  to  another  Minnesota  township,  it 
was  renamed  in  1864,  in  honor  of  General  Ulysses  S.  Grant  (b.  1822,  d. 
1885),  whose  biography  is  presented  in  the  chapter  of  Grant  county. 

Hugo,  a  village  of  the  St  Paul  and  Duluth  railroad  (now  a  branch 
of  the  Northern  Pacific  system)  in  Oneka  township,  was  formerly  called 
Centerville,  for  the  adjacent  township  and  village  of  Anoka  county;  but 
was  renamed  in  honor  of  Trevanion  William  Hugo,  of  Duluth.  He  was 
born  in  Cornwall,  England,  July  29,  1848,  came  to  America  in  1852,  with 
his  parents  who  settled  in  Kingston,  Ontario;  was  a  marine  engineer  on 
the  Great  Lakes,  1869-1881 ;  settled  in  Duluth,  1882,  and  has  since  been 
chief  engineer  of  the  Consolidated  Elevator  Company,  the  largest  such 
company  in  the  United  States ;  was  mayor  of  Duluth,  1900-1904. 

Lake  Elmo,  a  railway  village  in  Oakdale,  was  named  for  the  adjoin- 
ing lake,  which  was  formerly  called  Bass  lake  but  was  renamed  Lake 
Elmo  in  1879  by  Alpheus  B.  Stickney,  of  St.  Paul,  "from  the  novel, 
*St.  Elmo.'"  (Stennett,  Place  Names,  C.  and  N.  W.  Railways,  1908,  p.  180.) 

Lakeland  township,  settled  in  1859  and  organized  October  20,  1858, 
received  the  name  of  its  village,  platted  in  1849  beside  Lake  St.  Croix. 

Lakeview  is  a  village  site  platted  in  sections  20  and  29,  Lincoln. 

Langdon,  a  railway  village  in  Cottage  Grove  township,  platted  in 
1871,  was  named  in  honor  of  Robert  Bruce  Langdon,  who  was  born  in 
New  Haven,  Vt.,  November  24,  1826,  and  died  in  Minneapolis,  July  24, 
1895.  He  came  to  St.  Paul  in  1858,  and  removed  to  Minneapolis  in  1866; 
was  prominently  engaged  in  the  construction  of  r  railroads  in  Minnesota 
and  other  northwestern  states,  and  in  Manitoba  and  westward,  besides 
the  construction  of  canals,  bridges,  and  many  city  blocks  and  flouring 
mills  in  Minneapolis  and  elsewhere.  He  was  a  state  senator,  1873-8  and 
1881-5;  and  was  a  member  of  the  Republican  national  conventions  of 
1876,  1884,  1888  and  1892. 

LiNa».N  township,  named  in  honor  of  President  Lincoln,  formerly 
the  western  third  of  Grant,  was  organized  December  7,  1918,  having  been 
established  by  the  board  of  county  commissioners  November  19.  It  in- 
cludes the  villages  of  Dellwood,  Mahtomedi,  and  Wildwood,  with  the 
east  half  of  White  Bear  lake. 

Mahtomedi,  a  village  consisting  mostly  of  summer  homes,  on  the 
northeast  shore  of  White  Bear  lake,  was  platted  in  July,  1883,  by  the 
Mahtomedi  Assembly  of  the  Chautauqua  Association.  This  is  "the  Da- 
kota name  of  White  Bear  lake"  (from  mato,  the  white  or  polar  bear,  or 
matohota,  the  grizzly  bear,  with  mde,  a  lake). 


570  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Marine  township,  which  was  organized  October  20,  1858,  comprised 
from  1860  to  1893  the  present  townships  of  May  and  New  Scandia.  It 
received  this  name  from  the  Marine  Lumber  Company,  coming  from 
Marine,  a  village  in  Madison  county,  Illinois,  who  in  1838-9  began  lum- 
ber manufacturing  here.  The  village  of  Marine  Mills,  platted  in  1853 
and  incorporated  in  1875,  is  included  in  the  present  Marine  township, 
which  since  1893  has  an  area  of  only  about  five  square  miles.  The  Illi- 
nois village  was  "so  named  because  settled  by  several  sea  captains  from 
the  east"     (Gannett,  Place  Names  in  the  U.  S.,  1908,  p.  199.) 

May  township,  organized  in  1893,  having  previously  been  the  south 
part  of  Marine,  was  named  in  honor  of  Morgan  May,  a  farmer  here  and 
owner  of  much  land,  who  was  a  native  of  England. 

MiDVALE^  a  railway  village  in  the  west  edge  of  Oakdale,  was  formerly 
called  Castle,  in  honor  of  Captain  Henry  A.  Castle  (b.  1841,  d.  1916),  of 
St.  Paul,  author  of  a  History  of  St.  Paul  (1912)  and  History  of  Minne- 
sota (1915),  each  in  three  volumes. 

New  Scandia  township,  organized  in  January,  1893,  was  formerly 
the  north  part  of  Marine.  The  first  Swedish  settlement  in  Minnesota 
was  made  in  this  township  in  October,  1850,  whence  this  name  was  chos- 
en, in  allusion  to  the  ancient  name  of  the  Scandinavian  peninsula. 

Newport  township,  organized  in  May,  1858,  received  the  name  of  its 
village,  platted  in  1857,  which  was  so  named  by  Mrs.  James  H.  Hugunin. 
This  is  also  the  name  of  cities  in  Rhode. Island  and  Kentucky,  and  of 
villages  and  townships  in  thirty  other  states. 

Oak  Park  was  a  village  site,  platted  in  May,  1857,  in  the  present  sec- 
tion 3  of   Ba3rtown. 

Oakdale  township,  settled  in  1848  and  organized  in  May  and  Novem- 
ber 1,  1858,  "originally  was  covered  with  white,  black,  and  bur  oak  tim- 
ber."    (Folsom,  Fifty  Years,  p.  21^.) 

Oneka  township,  organized  September  9,  1870,  bears  the  name  of  its 
principal  lake,  in  sections  9  and  16,  of  Dakota  or  Sioux  origin,  but  of 
undetermined  meaning. 

Point  Douglas,  a  former  village  near  the  point  so  named,  at  the  west 
side  of  the  mouth  of  Lake  St.  Croix,  was  platted  August  18,  1849,  com- 
memorating Stephen  A.  Douglas  (b.  1813,  d.  1861). 

Red  Rock,  a  railway  village  one  mile  north  of  Newport,  is  near  the 
site  of  a  mission  for  the  Sioux  in  1837-42.  Since  1869  it  has  been  the 
place  of  summer  sessions  of  the  Red  Rock  Camp  Meeting  Association, 
organized  in  that  year  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  churches  of  this  state. 
The  name  is  from  an  ovally  rounded  boulder  of  granite,  about  five  feet 
long,  which  originally  lay  on  the  neighboring  bank  of  the  Mississippi, 
but  it  has  been  removed  recently  to  the  west  side  of  the  railroad  at  the 
station.  This  rock  was  held  in  great  veneration  by  the  Sioux,  who  often 
visited  it  till  1862,  and  less  frequently  afterward,  bringing  offerings  and 
renewing  its  vermilion  paint.  Folsom  wrote  of  it  in  1888:  "It  is  painted 
in  stripes,  twelve  in  number,  two  inches  wide  and  from  two  to  six  inches 


WASHINGTON  COUNTY  571 

apart  The  north  end  has  a  rudely  drawn  picture  of  the  sun,  and  a  rude 
face  with  fifteen  rays." 

St.  Paul  Park  is  a  railway  village  in  Newport  and  Cottage  Grove. 

ScANDiA  is  a  hamlet  in  New  Scandia  township. 

South  Stillwater  is  a  village  in  Bajrtown,  platted  in  1S52  and  origi- 
nally named  Baytown,  like  this  township,  for  the  adjoining  bay  of  the 
Lake  St  Croix.  It  is  about  a  mile  south  of  the  New  State  Prison,  which 
is  built  on  a  part  of  the  former  Oak  Park  village  site. 

Stillwater,  the  county  seat,  was  founded  in  1843,  and  on  October  26 
of  that  year  its  name,  "proposed  by  John  McKusick,  was  adopted.  This 
name  was  suggested  by  the  stillness  of  the  water  in  the  lake,  the  anomaly 
of  -building  a  mill  beside  still  water,  and  by  fond  recollections  of  Still- 
water, Maine."  (History  of  the  county,  1881,  p.  500.)  The  city  was  in- 
corporated on  the  same  date  as  St  Paul,  March  4,  1854;  and  the  town- 
ship was  organized  in  May,  1858.  The  earliest  settlement  here  was  by 
Joseph  R.  Brown,  1838-41,  platting  a  townsite  which  he  named  Dahkotah, 
on  the  north  part  of  the  present  city  area. 

Vasa  township,  organized  or  at  least  named  in  1858,  was  united 
with  Marine  on  September  7,  1860.  Its  former  village,  named  to  honor 
Gustavus  Vasa  (b.  1496,  d.  1560),  king  of  Sweden,  was  platted  in  1856. 

WiLDwooD,  a  village  site  having  many  summer  homes  and  noted  as  a 
place  of  picnics  and  amusements,  at  the  southeast  corner  of  White  Bear 
lake  and  extending  also  north  to  Mahtomedi,  was  partly  platted  in  1883, 
with  additions  at  later  dates. 

Woodbury  township,  organized  in  1858,  was  then  called  Red  Rock, 
but  was  renamed  in  1859,  in  honor  of  Judge  Levi  Woodbury  of  New 
Hampshire,  a  special  friend  of  John  Colby,  who  was  chairman  of  the 
board  of  county  commissioners.  The  fractional  area  which  has  the  "Red 
Rock,"  before  noticed,  at  first  forming  a  part  of  this  township,  was 
annexed  to  Newport  in  1861.  Levi  Woodbury  was  born  in  Francestown, 
N.  H.,  December  2,  1789;  was  graduated  at  Dartmouth  College,  1809,  and 
was  admitted  to  practice  law 'in  1812;  was  a  judge  of  the  state  supreme 
court,  1817;  removed  to  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  1819;  was  governor  of  the 
state,  1823-4;  U.  S.  senator,  1825-31 ;  secretary  of  the  navy,  1831-4,  and  of 
the  treasury,  1834-41;  again  U.  S.  senator,  1841-45;  and  was  a  justice  of 
the  U.  S.  supreme  court,  1846-51 ;  died  in  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  September 
4,  1851. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Lake  St.  Croix  and  the  River  St.  Croix,  bearing  their  early  French 
name,  are  noticed  in  the  first  chapter.  A  minor  feature  of  the  St.  Croix 
lake  is  the  Catfish  bar,  near  the  middle  of  the  length  of  the  lake,  reaching 
into  it  from  the  east  shore,  named  in  allusion  to  a  legend  of  the  Ojibways, 
whence  their  name  for. this  lake  is  "Gigo-shugumot,  Floating  Fish  lake," 
as  noted  by  Gilfillan. 


572  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Painted  Rock,  a  ledge  of  sandstone  rising  about  JO  feet  above  the  St. 
Croix  river  in  the  east  part  of  secti<Mi  15,  Stillwater,  has  ancient  Sioux 
pictographs,  of  which  sixteen  are  reproduced  on  a  scale  of  one  eighth  by 
Winchell  in  "The  Aborigines  of  Minnesota,"  pages  567-8. 

Cedar  bend,  a  southeastward  curve  in  the  St  Croix  river  about  a  half 
mile  sou^west  from  the  northeast  corner  of  this  county,  marked  the 
boundary  between  the  country  of  the  Sioux  on  the  south  and  that  of  the 
Ojibways  on  the  north,  named  for  "an  old  cedar  tree  standing  on  a 
high  bluff,"  and  also  for  other  "cedars  that  lined  the  banks  of  the  stream 
at  this  turn  in  its  course."  (History  of  the  county,  1881,  p.  185.)  This 
boundary  was  agreed  to  in  a  treaty  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  August  19,  1825, 
defining  its  course  across  the  area  of  Minnesota,  and  referring  to  this 
place  as  "the  Standing  Cedar,  about  a  day's  paddle  in  a  canoe  above  the 
lake." 

Battle  Hollow,  in  the  city  of  Stillwater,  tributary  to  the  St.  Croix 
lake  at  the  site  of  the  old  State  Prison,  is  named  from  a  battle  there,  July 
3,  1839,  between  the  Sioux  and  the  Ojibways.     (History,  1881,  p.  103.) 

From  changes  in  the  ownership  of  the  point  east  of  the  bay  in  Baytown,^ 
it  is  now  known  as  Mulve/s  point,  for  James  Mulvey,  a  lumber  manu- 
facturer, but  was  formerly  called  Kittson's  point. 

Belonging  to  the  townships  of  Newport  and  Cottage  (jrove  are  the  large 
Gray  Cloud  and  Freeborn  islands  of  the  Mississippi,  separated  from  the 
main  land  by  small  but  permanent  channels.  Gray  Qoud  island  was 
named  for  Mahkpia-hoto-win,  in  translation  Gray  Cloud,  a  noted  Sioux 
woman,  who  lived  on  this  island.  She  was  first  married  to  a  white  trader 
named  Anderson,  and  after  his  death  to  the  more  widely  known  trader, 
Hazen  P.  Mooers.  (M.  H.  S,  Collections,  vol.  IX,  1901,  p.  427.)  Free- 
bom  island,  formerly  called  Kemp's  island,  commemorates  William  Free- 
born, more  fully  noticed  in  the  chapter  for  the  county  bearing  his  name. 
The  minor  rivercourse  along  the  north  side  of  Gray  Qoud  island  is  com- 
monly called  "Gray  Qoud  slough." 

Medicine  Wood,  a  translation  from  the  Sioux,  was  a  camping  place  on 
or  near  the  western  end  of  Gray  Qoud  island,  occupied  for  a  night  by 
Leavenworth,  Forsyth,  and  the  first  troops  coming  in  1819  for  building 
the  fort  later  named  Fort  Snelling.  Forsyth  wrote  of  it  in  his  journal: 
''Medicine  Wood  takes  its  name  from  a  large  beech  tree,  which  kind  of 
wood  the  Sioux  are  not  acquainted  with,  and  supposing  that  the  Grezt 
Spirit  has  placed  it  there  as  a  genii  to  protect  or  punish  them  according  to 
their  merits  qr  demerits."    (M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  HI,  pages  153,  156.) 

Bolles  creek,  in  Lakeland  and  Afton,  outflowing  from  Lake  Elmo  and 
Horseshoe  lake,  is  renowned  as  the  stream  on  which  the  first  flouring 
mill  in  Minnesota  was  built  in  the  winter  of  1845-6  by  Lemuel  Bolles,  a 
farmer  in  Afton,  where  he  also  owned  a  grindstone  quarry.  He  was  a 
native  of  New  York  state,  and  died  in  Stillwater  in  1875. 

Other  lakes  and  streams  are  noted  in  the  following  list,  in  the  num- 
erical order  of  the  townships  from  south  to  north. 


WASHINGTON  COUNTY  573 

In  Denmark  are  Allibone  lake  and  creek  and  Trout  brook,  flowing 
to  Lake  St  Croix.  The  former  were  named  for  John  Allibone,  coming 
in  1851,  whose  farm  included  this  lake. 

Two  lakes  on  the  west  part  of  Gray  Cloud  island  were  mapped  by 
Hon.  J.  V.  Brower  as  Baldwin  and  Moore  lakes  (Memoirs,  vol.  VI,  Min- 
nesota, 1903,  p.  42)  ;  but  the  latter  was  named  for  the  early  fur  trader 
of  this  island,  Hazen  P.  Mooers,  and  it  should  therefore  be  spelled  as 
Mooers  lake. 

Pine  cooley,  named  for  its  tall  and  old  white  pines,  twenty  or  more, 
is  a  ravine  joining  the  Mississippi  a  half  mile  east  of  Freeborn  island. 

In  Woodbury  are  Colby's  lake,  named  for  John  Colby,  an  adjacent 
farmer,  who  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  county  commissioners.  Pow- 
ers, Wilmes,  Carver,  and  Mud  lakes.  The  next  to  the  last  was  named  for 
a  farmer  beside  it,  a  descendant  of  Captain  Jonathan  Carver. 

In  Oakdale,  with  horseshoe  lake,  named  for  its  shape,  and  Lake  Elmo, 
before  noticed,  are  Eagle  Point  lake,  having  a  peninsula  on  its  east  side, 
where  eagles  nested,  Gear  lake.  Lake  Jane,  Lake  De  Montreville  (for- 
merly mapped  as  Emma  lake),  and  Long  lake.  De  Montreville  honors 
a  dentist  of  St.  Paul,  whose  country  home  was  beside  this  lake. 

The  city  area  of  Stillwater  has  McKusick's  lake  and  Lily  lake,  the 
latter  having  white  water-lilies.  The  former  was  named  in  honor  of 
John  McKusick,  who  was  born  in  Cornish,  Maine,  December  18,  1815, 
and  died  in  Stillwater,  October  '26,  1900.  He  came  to  Minnesota  in  1840, 
settling  in  this  county ;  built  its  first  sawmill,  was  a  state  senator,  1863-66. 

In  Stillwater  township  are  the  southern  Carnelian  lake,  having  many 
carnelian  pebbles  on  its  shores,  and  a  half  dozen  smaller  lakes,  unnamed 
on  maps.  Brown's  creek,  named  in  honor  of  Joseph  R.  Brown,  before 
mentioned  as  sponsor  of  a  townsite  named  Dahkotah,  flows  into  Lake 
St  Croix  at  the  north  edge  of  the  city. 

Grant  township  has  Ben's  lake,  Man  lake.  Pine  Tree  lake,  and  Echo, 
Long,  and  Hamline  lakes,  the  last  three  being  near  Mahtomedi. 

White  Bear  lake  has  been  noticed  for  Mahtomedi  village,  and  more 
fully  in  the  chapter  of  Ramsey  county. 

May  township  has  the  northern  and  larger  Carnelian  lake;  Twin 
lake,  shaped  somewhat  like  a  dumb-bell;  Square  lake,  named  from  its 
shape ;  Terrapin  lake,  named  for  its  turtles ;  Clear  lake.  Boot  lake,  having 
a  bootlike  outline,  Bass  lake,  and  Mud  and  Long  lakes.  Carnelian  creek 
flows  from  Big  lake  southward  across  this  township. 

Oneka  lake,  before  noticed,  a  second  Horseshoe  lake.  Egg  lake, 
Rice  lake,  having  wild  rice,  Sunset  and  School  Section  lakes,  the  last  lying 
partly  in  the  school  section  36,  are  in  Oneka  township. 

New  Scandia  has  Big  lake  (formerly  called  Big  Marine  lake),  Long, 
Hay,  and  Sand  lakes,  and  Fish,  Goose,  and  Bonny  lakes. 

With  the  large  Forest  lake,  the  township  named  from  it  has  also 
,  Gear  and  Mud  lakes,  whereby  the  list  comprises  three  Gear  lakes  in  this 
county,  and  also  three  named  for  their  muddy  shores  and  beds. 


WATONWAN  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  February  25,  1860,  was  named  from  the 
Watonwan  river,  whose  head  streams  flow  through  it.  Prof.  A.  W.  Wil- 
liamson, in  his  paper  on  our  Dakota  or  Sioux  geographic  names,  wrote: 
"This  word  might  mean  'I  see,'  or  *he  sees,'  intransitive;  it  may  have 
been  applied  to  this  branch  of  the  Blue  Earth  as  being  a  prairie  country 
and  presenting  a  good  prospect,  but  it  is  uncertain  whether  this  is  the 
meaning  on  which  the  appellation  was  given."  Rev.  M.  N.  Adams  later 
stated  the  significance  of  this  name  without  doubt,  that  in  being  angli- 
cized it  was  misspelled,  and  that  it  should  be  Watanwan,  meaning  fish 
bait,  or  where  fish  bait  abounds,  as  he  had  been  informed  by  the  Dako- 
tas.  Our  earliest  knowledge  of  the  Watonwan  river  is  supplied  by 
Nicollet's  report  and  map,  published  in  1843.  Its  accent  is  on  the  first 
syllable ;  and  the  first  a  has  its  sound  as  in  father,  the  last  as  in  fall. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  the  origins  and  meanings  of  geographic  names  has 
been  gathered  from  "History  of  Cottonwood  and  Watonwan  Counties," 
John  A.  Brown,  editor,  1916,  two  volumes,  pages  595,  486;  and  from 
Fred  Church,  register  of  deeds,  and  Elwin  Zillora  Rasey,  a  resident  of 
this  county  since  1871,-  each  of  St  James,  the  county  seat,  interviewed 
during  a  visit  there  in  July,  1916.  Mr.  Rasey  was  chairman  of  the  local 
committee  of  Watonwan  county  for  compilation  of  its  history  in  the  work 
here  cited,  which  was  published  in  October  of  that  year. 

Adrian  township,  organized  in  June,  1871,  has  a  name  that  is  borne 
also  by  a  city  in  Michigan,  villages  in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Georgia, 
and  other  states,  and  also  a  village  in  Nobles  county  of  this  state. 

Antrim  township,  organized  in  January,  1867,  has  the  name  of  the 
most  northeastern  county  in  Ireland,  a  county  in  Michigan,  and  town- 
ships and  villages  in  New  Hampshire,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  Louisiana. 

BuTTERFiELD  towuship,  organized  in  January,  1872,  and  its  railway 
village,  which  was  platted  September  13,  1880,  and  was  incorporated  April 
5,  1895,  were  named  "for  William  Butterfield,  the  owner  of  the  townsite 
and  its  first  settler."  (Stennctt,  Place  Names  of  the  Chicago  and  North- 
western Railways,  1908,  p.  SO.) 

Darfur,  a  railway  village  in  Adrian,  platted  in  April,  1899,  and  in- 
corporated in  1904,  was  named  from  a  country  of  Egyptian  Sudan. 

Echols,  a  railway  village  in  the  north  part  of  Long  Lake  township, 
was  named  by  officers  of  the  Minneapolis  and  St.  Louis  railway  com- 
pany. It  is  a  rare  geographic  name,  borne  elsewhere  only  by  a  county  in 
Georgia  and  a  village  in  Kentucky. 

574 


WATONWAN  COUNTY  575 

FiELDON  township,  organized  in  March,  1868,  was  then  named  Wake- 
field, but  was  renamed  Fieldon  in  September  of  that  year.  Like  the  fore- 
going, it  is  a  rare  name,  found  elsewhere  only  for  a  village  in  Illinois. 

Grogan,  a  railway  village  five  miles  northeast  of  St.  James,  "was 
named  in  1890  for  Matthew  J.  Grogan,  an  early  settler."  (Stennett,  p. 
177.) 

La  Salle,  a  railway  village  in  Riverdale,  platted  October  12,  1899,  is 
named  like  a  county  and  city  of  Illinois,  a  county  in  Texas,  and  a  village 
on  the  Niagara  river  in  New  York,  for  the  renowned  French  explorer, 
Robert  Cavelier,  Sieur  de  La  Salle  (b.  1643,  d.  1687). 

Lewisville,  a  railway  village  in  Antrim,  platted  May  3,  1899,  and  in- 
corporated in  1902,  was  named  in  honor  of  Richard,  James  and  Nelson 
Lewis,  adjacent  farmers,  whose  father,  Thomas  Lewis,  a  native  of  Ire- 
land, came  here  from  Ontario,  Canada,  in  1869,  taking  a  homestead  claim 
which  included  the  site  of  this  village.  Richard  Lewis  was  its  first  post- 
-master,  and  James  Lewis  is  president  of  its  Merchants'  State  Bank. 

Long  Lake  township,  settled  in  1857,  organized  in  March,  1868,  bears 
the  name  of  one  of  its  three  principal  lakes. 

Maixelia  township,  organized  in  1858,  before  this  county  was  estab- 
lished, took  the  name  of  its  village,  platted  in  July,  1857,  and  incorpo- 
rated in  1872.  The  name  was  chosen  in  honor  of  the  daughter  of  Gen- 
eral Hartshorn,  one  of  the  townsite  proprietors.  It  is  "an  elision  and 
reconstruction  of  the  name  Madeline."  This  village  was  the  first  county 
seat,  from  1860  until  it  was  succeeded  by  St.  James  in  1878. 

Nelson  township,  organized  in  September,  1870,  had  among  its  pioneer 
settlers  several  Swedish  families  of  this  name. 

Odin  township,  settled  in  1868,  organized  in  January,  1872,  and  its 
railway  village,  platted  in  March,  1899,  and  incorporated  in  1902,  bear 
the  name  of  one  of  the  chief  gods  in  the  ancient  Norse  mythology,  called 
Woden  by  the  Anglo-Saxons,  for  whom  Wednesday  (Woden's  day) 
was  named.  "He  is  the  source  of  wisdom,  and  the  patron  of  culture  and 
of  heroes." 

Ormsby,  a  railway  village  on  the  south  line  of  Long  Lake  township, 
platted  October  14,  1899,  .and  incorporated  in  1902,  was  named  in  honor 
of  G>lonel  Ormsby,  of  £mmetsburg[,  Iowa. 

Riverdale  township,  organized  in  November,  1869,  was  named  for  the 
Watonwan  river,  which  flows  through  it. 

Rosendale  township,  organized  in  March,  1871,  was  named  by  Mrs. 
Samuel  W.  Sargeant,  who  had  formerly  lived  in  the  township  of  this 
name  in  Fond  du  Lac  county,  Wisconsin. 

St.  James  township,  first  settled  in  the  spring  of  1869,  organized  in 
March,  1870,  received  the  name  of  its  railway  village,  which  was  platted 
July  13,  1870.  The  St.  Paul  and  Sioux  City  railway  was  so  far  construct- 
ed in  that  year  that  its  first  passenger  train  arrived  here  on  November 
22,  bringing  an  excursion  party  from  St.  Paul,  which  included  General 


576  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Henry  H.  Sibley,  one  of  the  directors  of  the  railway,  and  Hon.  Elias  F. 
Drake,  its  president.  The  name  had  been  selected  for  the  village  about 
three  years  previously,  when  it  was  designated  to  be  the  end  of  the  first 
division  of  the  railway.  President  Drake  then  requested  Sibley  to  name 
the  proposed  division  point,  for  which  Sibley  accordingly  recommended 
a  long  Dakota  or  Sioux  name.  On  the  next  day,  however,  neither  of 
them  could  remember  the  proposed  name,  and  Sibley  said  that  he  would 
consult  papers  at  his  home,  "which  will  help  me  to  think  of  it  again." 

"  'Never  mind.  General,  never  mind,'  said  the  President,  *we  will  have 
a  name  for  that  town  that  we  can  think  of.  I  propose  that  we  call  it 
St  James.'  Whereupon,  by  common  consent,  the  point  was  called  St. 
James  by  the  railroad  men  some  three  years  before  it  had  any  local  ex- 
istence."    (Andreas'  Atlas  of  Minnesota,  1874,  p.  229.) 

The  village  was  incorporated  in  1871,  succeeded  Madelia  as  the  county 
seat  in  1878,  and  received  a  city  charter  April  27,  1899.  It  is  the  largest 
place  of  this  name,  surpassing  villages  so  named    in  eight  other  states. 

South  Branch  township,  organized  in  March,  1869,  is  crossed  by  the 
South  branch  or  fork  of  the  Watonwan  river. 

SvEADAHL^  the  name  of  a  hamlet  on  the  boundary  between  Adrian 
and  Nelson,  means  ''Sweden  valley  or  dale."  Svealand  is  one  of  the  three 
great  divisions  of  Sweden,  having  its  chief  city  and  capital,  Stockholm. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Nearly  all  of  this  county  is  drained  by  the  Watonwan  river  and  its 
South  branch,  from  each  of  which  a  township  is  named ;  and  the  minor 
streams  tributary  to  these  are  unnamed  on  maps. 

Perch  creek  flows  from  Perch  lake  in  Martin  county,  crossing  Antrim, 
and  joining  the  Watonwan  river  in  Blue  Earth  county. 

With  Long  lake,  the  township  named  from  it  has  also  Mary  lake  and 
Kansas  lake.  "John  Kensie  was  a  scholarly  gentleman  and  of  a  well- 
to-do  family  in  England.  He  had  a  wife  and  three  or  four  children  and 
built  a  log  hut  on  the  south  side  of  the  grove  by  the  lake,  which  still  bears 
his  name,  though  in  a  distorted  form,  'Kansas  lake.'  The  original  and  his- 
toric name  is  Kensie's  lake."     (History  of  the  county,  1916,  p.  436.) 

In  Odin  are  Irish  lake  and  School  lake  (partly  in  the  school  section 
16),  and  Sulem  lake.  Beside  the  last  are  farmers  named  Sulheim.  An- 
other family,  named  Sulem,  immigrants  from  Norway  in  1873,  live  in 
Long  Lake  township  and  in  Butterfield  village. 

Rosendale  has  Bullhead  lake,  named  for  its  small  species  of  catfish. 

Beside  the  city  of  St.  James  is  a  fine  lake  bearing  this  name. 

Madelia  has  Hopkins,  Fedje,  and  Lau  lakes,  a  group  one  to  two  miles 
northeast  from  the  village,  and  School  lake,  partly  in  section  16.  Emer- 
son lake,  formerly  on  the  north  line  of  Madelia,  extending  into  Brown 
county,  has  been  drained. 

Adrian  has  Cottonwood  lake,  in  section  25,  and  Wood  lake,  named  for 
its  adjacent  groves. 


WILKIN  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  with  its  present  name  March  6,  1868,  com- 
memorates Colonel  Alexander  Wilkin,  who  in  the  civil  war  gave  his  life 
for  the  Union,  being  shot  and  instantly  killed  in  the  battle  of  Tupelo, 
Mississippi,  July  14,  1864.  He  was  born  in  Orange  county,  N.  Y.,  Decem- 
ber, 1820;  served  as  a  captain  in  the  Mexican  war;  came  to  St.  Paul  in 
1849,  and  entered  the  practice  of  law;  was  United  States  marshal  for 
Minnesota,  and  also  secretary  ofi  the  territory,  1851  to  1853;  went  to 
Europe  in  1855,  and  studied  the  art  of  war  before  Sebastopol  in  the 
Crimea;  afterward  again  was  engaged  in  law  practice  in  St.  Paul;  re- 
cruited the  first  company  of  the  First  Minnesota  regiment  for  the  dvil 
war;  served  also  in  the  second  regiment,  and  was  colonel  of  the  ninth 
regiment.  Physically  he  was  of  small  size  and  stature;  but  he  stood 
very  high  in  courage  and  skill  for  military  leadership. 

An  earlier  county,  somewhat  corresponding  to  this  in  area  and  like- 
wise having  Breckenridge  as  its  county  seat,  but  named  Toombs  county, 
was  established  March  8,  1858.  It  was  named  for  Robert  Toombs 
(b,  1810,  d.  1885),  of  Georgia,  who  had  been  a  member  of  Congress  in 
1845-53,  and  was  U.  S.  senator,  1853-61.  He  became  a  leading  disunion- 
ist,  was  Confederate  secretary  of  state,  1861,  and  later  was  a  Confed- 
erate general.  His  disloyalty  against  the  Union  so  displeased  the  people 
of  the  county  that  in  1862  they  petitioned  the  legislature  to  change  its 
name.  "In  1863  the  act  changing  the  name  from  Toombs  to  Andy  John- 
son became  a  law.  But  the  subsequent  political  attitude  of  Andrew 
Johnson  [succeeding  Lincoln  as  president  of  the  United  States]  was  no 
less  displeasing  to  the  people,  and  in  1868  the  law  was  again  amended 
and  the  name  changed  from  Andy  Johnson  to  Wilkin."  (History  of  the 
Red  River  Valley,  1909,  pages  908-9.) 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  was  learned  from  "History  of  the  Red  River 
Valley,"  1909,  two  volumes,  continuously  paged,  1165  pages;  and  from 
John  T.  Wells,  clerk  of  the  court,  and  Halvor  L.  Shirley,  president  of 
the  First  National  Bank,  each  of  Breckenridge,  the  county  seat,  inter- 
viewed during  a  visit  there  in  September,  1916. 

Akron  township  has  a  name  that  is  borne  by  a  city  in  Ohio  and  vil- 
lages in  nine  other  states.  It  is  received  from  the  ancient  Greek  language, 
meaning  the  extreme,  hence  a  summit  or  hilltop. 

Andrea  township  is  named  in  honor  of  Mrs.  Andrea  Heider,  wife 
of  Philip  Heider,  a  pioneer  homesteader  here.  He  died  in  1915,  and  she 
in   1916. 

577 


578  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Atherton  township  was  named  for  a  former  extensive  landowner 
of  this  township,  but  not  a  resident. 

Bradford  township  was  similarly  named  for  an  owner  of  lands  along 
the  Red  river  north   of   Breckenridge. 

Brandrup  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Andrew  Brandrup,  one 
of  its  pioneer  farmers,  who  became  clerk  of  the  court. 

Breckenridge  township,  organized  May  23,  1857,  and  its  village,  the 
county  seat,  platted  in  the  spring  of  1857,  incorporated  as  a  city  in  1908, 
are  in  honor  of  John  Cabell  Breckenridge,  who  was  bom  near  Lexing- 
ton, Ky.,  January  21,  1821,  and  died  in  that  city  May  17,  1875.  He  was 
a  member  of  Congress,  1851-55;  vice-president  of  the  United  States, 
1857-61;  general  in  the  Confederate  army,  1861-4;  and  Confederate  secre- 
tary of  state,  January  to  April,  1865. 

Brushvale,  a  railway  village  in  the  southwest  corner  of  Nordick, 
was  named  for  Joseph  Brush,  on  whose  farm  it  was  located. 

Campbell  railway  village,  founded  in  1871,  and  the  township,  organ- 
ized in  the  fall  of  1879,  were  named  by  the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  (now  the 
Great  Northern)  railway  company.  This  Scotch  name  is  borne  by  coun- 
ties in  five  states,  and  by  villages  of  fourteen  states. 

Champion  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Henry  Champion,  a  pio- 
neer homesteader,  who  during  several  terms  was  the  county  auditor. 

Childs,  a  railway  village  in  the  west  part  of  Campbell,  was  named  for 
Job  W.  Childs,  an  adjoining  farmer,  who-  was  a  member  of  the  board  of 
county  commissioners,  but  later  removed  to  California. 

Connelly  township  was  earliest  settled  by  Edward  Connelly,  a  home- 
stead farmer,  who  came  in  1868  and  was  a  county  commissioner. 

Deerhorn  township  was  named  for  the  creek  flowing  through  its 
northeast  part 

DoRAN,  a  railway  village  in  Brandrup,  was  named  in  honor  of  Michael 
Doran,  of  St.  Paul,  who  was  born  in  County  Meath,  Ireland,  November 
1,  1829,  and  died  in  St.  Paul,  February  20,  1915.  He.  came  to  the  United 
States  in  1850,  and  in  1856  to  Le  Sueur  county  in  this  state,  where  he 
engaged  in  farming  and  banking;  removed  to  St.  Paul  in  1877;  was  a 
state  senator,   1875-9. 

Everdell,  a  railway  village  in  Sunnyside  township,  was  named  in 
honor  of  Lyman  B.  Everdell,  an  early  lawyer  in  Breckenridge. 

Fox  HOME  township  received  the  name  of  its  railway  village,  from 
Robert  A.  Fox,  a  real  estate  dealer,  who  was  proprietor  of  this  town  site, 
but  removed  to  Oklahoma. 

Kent,  a  railway  village  in  McCauleyville,  was  named  by  officers  of  the 
Great  Northern  railway  company.  This  is  the  name  of  a  county  in  Eng- 
land, counties  in  five  states  of  the  Union,  and  villages  in  twelve  states. 

Lawndale  is  a  railway  village,  euphoniously  named,  in  Prairie  View. 

McCauleyville  township,  and  its  village  on  the  Red  river  opposite 
to  the  site  of  Fort  Abercrombie,  were  named  in  honor  of  David  Mc- 
Cauley,  sutler  of  the  fort,  who  later  founded  this  village  and  was  county 


WILKIN  COUNTY  579 

superintendent  of  schools  many  years.  He  was  born  in  Merrimack,  N. 
H.,  July  27,  1825;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1858;  opened  a  store  here  in  1864, 
which  was  the  beginning  of  the  village. 

Manston  township  received  the  name  of  its  former  railway  village, 
given  by  officers  of  the  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  and  Manitoba  (now  the 
Great  Northern)  railway.    It  is  the  only  place  known  bearing  this  name. 

Meadows  township  was  named  for  its  being  a  part  of  a  vast  area  of 
prairie,  natural  hayland. 

Mitchell  township  was  named  in  compliment  to  Charles  Mitchell  Cor- 
liss, a  homestead  farmer  here,  a  brother  of  the  late  Hon.  Eben  E.  Cor- 
liss, of  Fergus  Falls  and  St.  Paul. 

Nashua,  a  railway  village  in  Champion,  was  named  for  its  Nash 
families,  but  took  the  spelling  of  a  city  and  river  in  New  Hampshire,  and 
of  a  village  in  Iowa. 

NiLSEN  township,  the  latest  organized  in  this  county,  has  the  name 
of  one  of  its  early  settlers. 

NoRDiCK  township  was  named  for  Barney  and  Gerhard  Nordick,  Ger- 
man farmers,  who  came  here  from  Iowa. 

Prairie  View^  the  most  northeastern  township,  has  from  its  high 
eastern  part  a  very  extensive  view  over  the  flat  Red  River  valley. 

Roberts  township  was  named  in  honor  of  Michel  Roberts,  a  French 
homesteader  here,  who  was  a  cousin  of  the  widely  known  Captain  Louis 
Robert,  of  St.  Paul.  The  old  French  surname  is  anglicized  by  the  addi- 
tion of  s. 

Roth  SAY,  a  railway  village  in  the  east  edge  of  Tanberg,  was  named  by 
officers  of  the  railway  company,  for  Rothesay,  a  seaport  and  watering 
place  about  thirty  miles  west  of  Glasgow,  Scotland.  This  is  the  only  use 
of  the  name  in  the  United  States. 

SuNNYsiDE  township,  crossed  by  the  Red  river,  was  at  first  called  Riv- 
erside; but,  because  that  name  had  been  elsewhere  used  in  this  state,  it 
was  changed,  taking  this  euphonious  name.  It  is  borne  also  by  villages 
and  post  offices  in  sixteen  other  states. 

Tanberg,  township  "was  named  in  honor  of  Christian  Tanberg,  a  Nor- 
wegian pioneer  settler,  who  was  proprietor  of  its  Rothsay  townsitc. 

Tenney,  a  railway  village  in  the  south  part  of  Campbell,  was  named 
for  the  owner  of  its  site. 

Wolverton,  the  most  northwestern  township,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Dr.  W.  D.  Wolverton,  physician  of  Fort  Abercrombie,  who  owned  much 
land  in  this  township,  but  removed  to  the  Pacific  coast. 

It  seems  desirable  to  add  two  names  in  North  Dakota. 

Wahpeton,  the  county  seat  of  Richland  county,  on  the  west  side  of 
the  Red  river  opposite  to  the  city  of  Breckenridge,  was  settled  in  1869, 
and  was  reached  by  the  construction  of  the  railway  crossing  the  river  in 
1880.  It  bears  the  name  of  a  large  division  of  the  Dakota  or  Sioux  peo- 
ple, meaning  "leaf  dwellers,"  so  named  when  they  lived  in  the  wooded 


580  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

country  of  Mille  Lacs  and  farther  north  and  east  (from  IVakhpe,  leaf, 
tonwan,  a  village). 

Fort  Abercrombie,  on  the  west  side  of  the  Red  river  opposite  to  Mc- 
Cauleyville,  was  established  in  1858,  and  was  abandoned  and  dismantled 
in  1877-78,  its  buildings  being  sold  and  removed  or  torn  down,  to  be  used 
by  settlers  for  making  their  homes  on  the  surrounding  prairie.  It  was 
named  in  honor  of  John  Joseph  Abercrombie,  its  first  commander,  who 
was  born  in  Tennessee  in  1802,  and  died  in  Rosl3m,  N.  Y.,  January  3, 
1877.  He  was  graduated  at  West  Point,  1822;  served-  in  the  Florida  and 
Mexican  wars,  and  was  breveted  lieutenant  colonel;  was  in  this  state 
when  the  civil  war  began,  through  which  he  served,  being  breveted 
brigadier  general  at  its  close. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  only  lake  of  this  county,  now  drained,  was  crossed  by  its  east 
boundary  two  miles  east  of  Foxhome  village.  It  is  mapped  as  Lake  Alice, 
but  was  more  commonly  known  as  Shaw  lake,  for  Thomas  Shaw,  an 
adjoining  farmer. 

The  Red  river  has  been  noticed  in  the  first  chapter,  and  again  in  part 
under  Red  Lake  county;  and  the  Bois  des  Sioux  was  noted  in  the  chap- 
ter of  Traverse  county. 

Deerhorn  creek,  for  which  a  township  is  named,  flows  northward  in- 
to Qay  county,  to  the  South  branch  of  Buffalo  river.  Mushroom  creek  is 
tributary  to  the  Deerhorn  from  the  south. 

Whiskey  creek  flows  ten  miles  nearly  parallel  with  the  Red  river,  to 
which  it  is  tributary  a  mile  north  of  McCauleyville.  It  was  named 
from  unlawful  sales  of  whiskey  in  dugout  huts  beside  this  stream  to 
soldiers  of  Fort  Abercrombie. 

Rabbit  river,  crosing  the  southern  end  of  the  county,  is  named  for  its 
rabbits,  like  the  larger  Mustinka  river  in  Traverse  county,  which  is  a 
Dakota  word  having  the  same  meaning. 

Campbell  and  McCauleyville  Beaches. 

While  the  Glacial  Lake  Agassiz  flowed  south  along  the  valley  of  Lakes 
Traverse  and  Big  Stone,  its  outlet  stream,  named  the  River  Warren, 
eroded  that  remarkable  valley,  with  gradual  reduction  of  the  lake  level. 
Five  stages  of  the  ancient  lake  during  its  southward  outflow  are  shown 
by  so  many  distinct  beaches,  each  lower  than  the  preceding.  In  their 
descending  order  they  are  named,  from  places  where  they  are  well  de- 
veloped and  were  first  recognized  and  mapped,  being  the  Herman  and 
Norcross  beaches,  for  villages  in  Grant  county,  the  Tintah  beach  for  a 
village  in  Traverse  county,  and  the  Campbell  and  McCauleyville  beaches 
in  this  county.  Thence  each  of  these  old  lake  levels,  recorded  by  the 
successive  low  beach  ridges  of  sand  and  gravel,  are  traced  far  along 
each  side  of  the  Red  river  valley,  in  Minnesota  and  North  Dakota  and 
onward  in  Manitoba. 


WINONA  COUNTY 

Established  February  23,  1854,  this  county  was  named  for  a  Dakota 
woman,  Winona,  cousin  of  the  last  chief  named  Wabasha,  both  of  whom 
were  prominent  in  the  events  attending  the  removal  in  1848,  of  the  Win- 
nebago Indians  from  Iowa  to  Wabasha's  prairie  (the  site  of  the  city  of 
Winona)  and  thence  to  Long  Prairie  in  Todd  county.  This  name  be- 
longed, says  Prof.  A.  W.  Williamson,  in  any  Dakota  or  Sioux  family,  to 
the  "first  born,  if  a  daughter,  diminutive  of  wino,  woman;"  and  similar- 
ly the  name  of  the  "first  born  child,  if  a  son,"  was  Chaska.  In  pronun- 
ciation, Winona  is  accented  on  the  middle  syllable,  and  the  first  and  last 
syllables' have  the  short  vowel  sounds.  The  first,  however,  is  often  in- 
correctly given  the  long  sound,  as  in  ivine;  it  should  be  short,  as  in  vnn, 
or  may  be  quite  rightly  given  the  sound  of  long  e,  as  we. 

Keating  gave  an  impressive  narration  of  the  death  of  a  Dakota  maiden 
named  Winona,  who  threw  herself  to  death  from  the  precipice  known 
as  "the  Maiden's  Rock,"  on  the  east  shore  of  Lake  Pepin,  in  preference 
to  being  married,  as  her  parents  requested,  to  one  whom  she  did  not 
love.  (Narrative  of  Long's  Expedition,  1823,  vol.  I,  pages  289-295.)  With 
much  amplification,  including  change  of  the  home  of  the  maiden  from 
Wabasha's  village  of  Keoxa  to  a  Dakota  village  represented  to  have  been 
near  St.  Anthony  Falls,  Hon.  Han  ford  L.  Gordon  retold  this  tragedy  in 
a  poem  bearing  her  name,  "Winona,"  published  in  1881,  reprinted  in  his 
collected  writings  ("Indian  Legends  and  Other  Poems,"  1910,  pages  43-74). 

This  name  was  first  applied,  about  a  year  before  the  establishment 
of  the  county,  to  the  village  of  Winona,  which  became  the  county  seat. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  has  been  gathered  from  "History  of  Winona 
County,"  by  Dr.  L.  H.  Bunnell  and  others,  1883,  966  pages;  "Winona 
(We-no-nah)  and  its  Environs  on  the  Mississippi,"  by  Lafayette  Hough- 
ton Bunnell,  M.  D.,  1897,  694  pages ;  "The  History  of  Winona  County," 
compiled  by  Franklyn  Curtiss-Wedge,  editor,  assisted  by  William  Jay 
Whipple,  1913,  two  volumes,  continuously  paged,  1125  pages;  and  from 
interviews  with  the  late  Mr.  Whipple  and  ,Prof.  John  M.  Holzinger,  of 
the  State  Normal  School,  each  of  Winona,  during  a  visit  there  in  April, 
1916. 

Altura,  a  railway  village  in  Norton,  is  named  for  a  town  in  Valen- 
cia, Spain. 

Beaver,  a  hamlet  in  Whitewater  township,  platted  in  1856,  is  on  the 
Beaver  creek  near  its  mouth,  where  it  was  found  obstructed  by  a  beaver 
dam  when  the  first  white  settlers  came, 

581 


582  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Bethany,  a  railway  village  in  the  south  edge  of  Norton,  bears  the 
name  of  a  village  in  Palestine.  It  is  the  name  of  villages  or  townships 
in  twelve  states,  and  of  a  city  in  Missouri. 

Centerville  is  the  name  of  a  hamlet  in  the  southeast  part  of  Wilson. 

Dakota  is  a  railway  village  beside  the  Mississippi  on  the  line  between 
Dresbach  and  New  Hartford. 

Dresbach  township  and  its  railway  village,  platted  an  September,  1857, 
were  named  in  honor  of  George  B.  Dresbach,  who  was  bom  in  Pick- 
away county,  Ohio,  August  27,  1827,  came  to  Minnesota  in  1857,  founded 
this  village,  owned  a  farm  and  stone  quarries,  and  was  a  representative 
in  the  legislature  in  1868  and  1878. 

Elba  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  and  its  village,  founded  in 
1856,  bear  the  name  of  an  island  of  Italy,  famed  for  its  rich  deposits  of 
iron  ore.    Napoleon  had  his  residence  there  in  1814-15. 

Enterprise  is  a  hamlet  in  the  southeast  edge  of  Utica. 

Fremont  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  in  honor  of 
John  Charles  Fremont  (b.  1813,  d.  1890),  who  assisted  Nicollet  in  his 
expedition  through  southwestern  Minnesota  in  1838,  and  was  the  first 
Republican  candidate  for  president  of  the  United  States,  1856. 

Hart  township  was  also  organized  May  11,  1858.  It  bears  a  personal 
surname,  but  for  whom  should  be  learned  by  further  inquiry. 

Hillsdale  township,  likewise  organized  May  11,  1858,  was  named  for 
its  hills  or  stream  bluffs,  inclosing  dales  or  valleys. 

Homer  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  and  its  village,  previously 
platted  in  1855,  were  named  by  Willard  B.  Bunnell,  a  brother  of  the 
historian  of  this  county,  for  **his  birthplace,  the  village  of  Homer,  New 
York  state."  Fourteen  states  of  the  Union  have  villages  and  townships 
bearing  this  name  of  the  early  Greek  epic  poet. 

Lamoille,  a  village  on  the  Mississippi  in  the  north  corner  of  Rich- 
n\ond,  platted  in  May,  1860,  has  the  name  of  a  river  and  county  in  north- 
ern Vermont. 

Lewiston,  a  railway  village  in  Utica,  incorporated  February  23,  1875, 
"was  named  in  1873  for  S.  J.  Lewis,  an  early  settler."  (Stennett,  Place 
Names  of  the  Qiicago  and  Northwestern  Railways,  1908,  p.  94.) 

Minnesota  Crrv,  a  village  in  Rollingstone  township,  was  platted  in 
March  1852,  for  the  Western  Farm  and  Village  Association,  a  colony  of 
settlers  from  New  York,  this  place  being  named  by  Robert  Pike  for  the 
Territory.  The  association  warf  organized  in  New  York  city  in  October, 
1851. 

Mount  Vernon  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  is  named  from  the 
home  of  Washington  in  Virginia,  on  the  Potomac  river,  commemorating 
Admiral  Edward  Vernon  (b.  1684,  d.  1757).  Twenty-one  other  states 
have  townships  and  villages  or  cities  of  this  name. 

New  Hartford  township,  organized  in  1858,  and  its  earlier  village, 
platted  in  August,  1857,  were  named  by  settlers  from  Connecticut. 


IV I  NONA  COUNTY  583 

Norton  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  at  first  called  Sumner,  and 
latefr  Jefferson,  bears  an  honored  name  of  this  county.  James  L.  Norton 
(b.  1825,  d.  1904)  and  Matthew  George  Norton  (b.  1831,  d.  1917),  broth- 
ers who  came  from  Pennsylvania  in  1856,  were  members  of  the  widely 
known  lumber  firm  of  Laird,  Norton  and  Co.,  in  Winona.  Daniel  S. 
Norton  was  born  in  Mount  Vernon,  Ohio,  April,  1829,  and  died  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  July  14,  1870.  He  received  his  education  at  Kenyon  Col- 
lege, Gambier,  Ohio;  served  in  the  Mexican  war,  and  afterward  studied 
law.  In  1855,  in  company  with  Hon.  William  Windom,  he  came  to  Min- 
nesota, and  settled  in  Winona,  where  he  practiced  law  ten  years.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  state  senate  in  1857,  1861,  and  1864;  and  of  the  United 
States  senate  from  1866  until  his  death. 

Oak  Ridge  is  a  hamlet  in  the  south  part  of  Mount  Vernon. 

Pickwick,  a  village  in  Homer,  platted  in  1857,  was  named  from  the 
"Pickwick  Papers,"  published  serially  by  Charles  Dickens  in  1836-7. 

Pleasant  Hill  township  has  many  bluffs  and  ridges,  200  to  300  feet 
high.  Its  name  originated  with  the  first  permanent  settler,  Joseph  Cooper, 
who,  coming  in  December,  1854,  "to  the  ridge  at  the  h^ad  of  the  south 
branch  of  Pine  creek,"  exclaimed  "What  a  pleasant  hill  1"  He  immediately 
took  "a  claim  of  160  acres  of  land,  lying  on  the  ridge  and  embracing  the 
heads  of  South  Branch  and  Money  Creek  valleys."  (History  of  the 
county,  1883,  p.  582.) 

Richmond  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  took  the  name  of  its 
village,  platted  in  1855.  "In  1850,  a  Frenchman  named  Richmond  estab- 
lished a  wood-yard  on  the  site  of  the  landing  where  George  Catlin,  the 
noted  artist,  was  forced  by  obstructing  ice  to  winter  his  boat,  when  he 
was  painting  his  celebrated  Indian  portraits  and  pursuing  his  voyage  up 
the  Mississippi  in  early  days.  For  years,  on  a  conspicuous  sand  rock  in 
a  cove  where  his  boat  lay  out  of  danger  from  running  ice,  the  name  of 
George  Catlin  could  be  seen  in  glaring  red,  and  the  landing  was  well 
known  to  steamboat  men  and  pioneers  as  'Catlin's  Rocks.'  Finally,  the 
name  of- Catlin  disappeared  by  t)ie  action  of  frost  and  rain,  and  Rich- 
mond's name  was  given  to  the  landing  and  perpetuated  in  village  and 
township."     (Bunnell,  Winona  and  its  Environs,  1897,  p.  473.) 

RoLLiNGSTONE  towuship  and  its  village  are  named  from  their  river  or 
creek.  Its  Dakota  name  is  "Eyan-omen-man-met-pah,  the  literal  transla- 
tion of  which  is  *the  stream  where  the  stone  rolls.'"  (History  of  the 
county,  1883,  p.  144.)  The  journal  of  Forsyth,  with  Leavenworth  and 
the  troops  who  came  in  1819  for  building  the  fort  that  in  1825  was  named 
Fort  Snelling,  called  this  stream  "the  Tumbling  Rock." 

St.  Charles  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  and  its  village,  found- 
ed in  1854,  incorporated  as  a  city  February  28,  1870,  were  named  "for  St. 
Charles  of  Italy,  who  was  born  in  1538  and  who  became  cardinal  of  Milan 
and  secretary  to  Pope  Pius  IV."     (History  of  the  county,  1913,  p.  597.) 

Saratoga  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  and  the  village  in  its  west 
edge,  were  named  by  settlers  from  New  York,  where  this  is  the  name  of 


584  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

a  lake,  a  county,  and  a  town  having  famous  medicinal  springs.  It  is  an 
Indian  word,  said  to  mean  "place  of  miraculous  water  in  a  rock/'  (Gan- 
nett, Place  Names  in  the  U.  S.,  1905,  p.  275.) 

Stxktkton^  a  village  in  Hillsdale,  platted  in  1856,  was  named  in  .honor 
of  J.  B.  Stockton,  who  was  the  proprietor  of  this  townsite. 

Troy,  a  village  in  Saratoga,  was  named  from  the  city  in  New  York, 
which  took  this  name  from  the  ancient  city  in  Asia  Minor,  the  scene  of 
the  Trojan  war,  narrated  by  Homer  in  the  Iliad. 

UncA  township,  organized  May  11,  1858,  and  its  railway  village,  platted 
in  1866,  are  named,  like  Troy,  from  a  city  in  New  York,  which,  with  vil- 
lages and  townships  in  fourteen  other  states,  derived  this  name  from  the 
ancient  city  of  Utica,  founded  by  the  Phoenicians  in  North  Africa. 

Wassen  and  Wilson  townships,  side  by  side,  each  organized  May  11, 
1858,  and  the  village  of  Wilson,  are  thought  to  have  been  named  in  com- 
pliment for  Warren  Wilson,  a  prominent  early  settler. 

Whitewater  township  and  its  village  of  Whitewater  Falls  bear 
the  name  of  the  river  flowing  through  them  northward  to  the  Mississippi, 
derived  in  translation  from  two  Dakota  words,  mini,  water,  ska,  white. 
In  Wabasha  county  this  stream  has  a  township  and  village  named  Min- 
neiska. 

Winona,  the  county  seat,  platted  June  19,  1852,  was  at  first  named 
Montezuma  by  Ervin  H.  Johnson,  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  site,  for 
the  Aztec  war  chief  of  Mexico  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest,  who 
was  bom  in  1477  and  died  June  50,  1520.  It  was  changed  to  Winona 
through  request  of  Henry  P.  Huff^  who  in  1853  bought  an  interest  in 
the  townsite  and  platted  an  addition.  This  Dakota  name  has  been  fully 
noticed  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter.  A  sobriquet  recently  coming 
into  use  is  "the  Gate  City." 

"The  site  of  Winona  was  known  to  the  French  as  La  Prairie  aux  Ailes 
(pronounced  O'Zell)  or  the  Wing's  prairie,  presumably  because  of  Its 
having  been  occupied  by  members  of  Red  Wing's  band."  It  was  latest 
occupied  by  Wabasha,  the  last  of  the  Dakota  chiefs  for  whom  the  county 
next  northward  was  named,  whose  village  here  was  called  Keoxa,  "dif- 
ficult of  translation,  but  it  may  be  rendered  as  'The  Homestead,'  because 
in  the  springtime  there  was  here  a  family  reunion  to  honor  the  dead  and 
invoke  their  blessings  upon  the  land."  (History  of  the  county,  1883,  p. 
25.)  Prof.  A.  W.  Williamson  spelled  and  defined  this  name  more  cor- 
rectly, that  "the  name  of  the  band  was  Kiyuksan,  breakers  in  two,  or 
violators,  so  called  because  they  violated  the  custom  forbidding  relatives, 
however  distant,  to  marry." 

Winona  township,  at  first  having  a  much  larger  extent  than  now,  was 
established  as  an  electoral  precinct  April  29,  1854.  The  city  was  incor- 
porated March  6,  1857. 

WiscbY  township  bears  the  name  of  a  creek  and  a  village  in  Alle- 
gany county,  New  York,  "an  Indian  word  meaning  'under  the  banks,' 


WINONA  COUNTY  585 

or,  according  to  another  authority,  'many  fall  creek/"     (Gannett,  Place 
Names  in  the  U.  S.) 

WiTOKA,  a  hamlet  in  the  north  edge  of  Wiscoy,  platted  in  1855,  was 
named  for  "the  daughter  of  the  war  chief  of  Wabasha's  band.  Witoka 
was  captured  by  the  Sacs  (Sauks)  near  the  present  site  of  Witoka,  and 
was  rescued  by  her  father's  daring  dash.*'  (History  of  the  county,  1913, 
p.  549.) 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

Beaver  creek  and  the  Rollingstone  and  Whitewater  rivers  are  noticed 
in  the  foregoing  list,  for  a  village  or  hamlet  and  two  townships  named 
from  them. 

West,  Middle,  and  South  branches  of  Rollingstone  creek  unite  in  the 
township  of  this  name;  and  similarly  the  North,  Middle  and  South 
branches  of  Whitewater  river  unite  in  Elba. 

The  presence  of  brook  trout  is  noted  by  Trout  creek  in  Mount  Ver- 
non, a  second  creek  so  named  in  Saratoga,  and  Big  Trout  creek  in 
Homer  and  Richmond. 

White  pine  and  red  cedar  trees,  growing  sparingly  on  stream  bluffs, 
are  the  source  of  names  of  Pine  creek  in  Pleasant  Hill  and  New  Hart- 
ford townships,  a  second  Pine  creek  in  the  southwest  part  of  Fremont, 
and  Cedar  creek  in  Homer. 

Rush  and  Money  creeks  flow  south  into  Fillmore  and  Houston  coun- 
ties, there  giving  names  to  Rush  ford  and  Money  Creek  townships. 

Other  small  streams,  directly  tributary  to  the  Mississippi  here,  are 
Gilmore  creek.  West  and  East  Bums  creeks,  Pleasant  Valley  creek,  and 
Dakota  creek,  the  last  having  its  mouth  near  Dakota  village. 

Relatively  narrow  channels  of  the  Mississippi  between  its  large  allu- 
vial islands  and  the  west  shore,  within  a  few  miles  northwest  from  the 
city  of  Winona,  are  named  Crooked  slough  and  Straight  slough. 

Lake  Winona,  about  two  miles  long,  adjoining  this  city,  occupies  a 
part  of  a  former  rivercourse,  which  also  was  the  character  of  a  similarly 
long  but  shallow  lake  formerly  mapped  three  to  five  miles  northwest  of 
the  city. 

Above  the  river  bottomlands,  this  county  has  no  lakes,  like  several 
other  counties  in  southeastern  Minnesota,  which  belong  wholly  or  partly 
to  an  extensive  area  that  was  exempt  from  glaciation.  The  greater  part 
of.  this  tract  lies  in  Wisconsin,  so  that  it  is  commonly  called  by  geologists 
the  Wisconsin  driftless  area. 

Sugar  loaf  bluff,  south  of  Lake  Winona,  rises  about  550  feet  above 
the  lake  and  river;  Minneowah  bluff,  in  Homer,  and  Gwinn's  bluff,  also 
called  Queen  bluff,  in  Richmond,  have  nearly  the  same  height;  and  the 
bluffs  adjoining  the  village  of  Dresbach,  including  Mineral  bluff,  rise 
600  feet  above  the  river,  or  about  1230  feet  above  the  sea. 


WRIGHT  COUNTY 

Established  February  20,  1855,  this  county  was  named  in  honor  of  a 
statesman  of  New  York,  Silas  Wright,  who  was  bom  in  Amherst,  Mass., 
May  24,  1795,  and  died  in  Canton,  St  Lawrence  county,  N.  Y.,  August 
2!J^  1847.  It  is  said  that  the  name  *'was  adopted  as  a  compromise  after 
a  somewhat  animated  discussion."  Wright  had  been  a  personal  friend 
of  W.  G.  McCrory,  who  was  a  member  of  the  committee  chosen  by 
the  citizens  of  Monticello  to  go  before  the  territorial  legislature  and 
urge  the  establishment  and  organization  of  the  county.  On  their  journey 
to  St.  Paul  the  committee  discussed  several  proposed  names  for  it,  but 
were  unable  to  agree.  Finally,  at  the  suggestion  of  this  member,  the 
name  of  Wright  was  adopted.  He  was  graduated  at  Middlebury  College, 
1815;  studied  law,  and  settled  for  its  practice  at  Canton,  N.  Y.,  1819;  was 
a  member  of  Congress,  1827-29;  was  comptroller  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  1829-33;  was  a  United  States  senator,  1833-44;  and  was  governor 
of  New  York,  1845-47.  "He  refused  several  offers  of  cabinet  offices  and 
foreign  missions.  After  his  term  as  governor  he  retired  to  his  farm  in 
Canton,  which  he  cultivated  with  his  own  hands."  Biographies  of  Gov- 
ernor Wright  have  been  published  in  1847,  1848,  1852,  1874,  and  1913. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  names  has  been  gathered  from  "History  of  the  Upper 
Mississippi  Valley,"  1881,  having  pages  483-585  for  this  county;  a  series 
of  thirty-five  newspaper  articles  on  the  county  history,  by  Daniel  R. 
Farnham,  published  in  the  Delano  Eagle,  Jan.  6  to  Sept.  22,  1881 ;  '^His- 
tory of  Wright  County,"  by  Franklyn  Curtiss-Wedge,  1915,  two  volumes, 
continuously  paged,  1111  pages;  and  from  Oscar  J.  Peterson,  register  of 
deeds,  Hon.  John  T.  Alley,  formerly  county  surveyor  and  judge  of  pro- 
bate, and  William  H.  Cutting,  attorney,  each  of  Buffalo,  the  county  seat, 
interviewed  during  a  visit  there  in  October,  1916. 

.  Albertville  is  a  village  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  in  the  north 
edge  of  Frankfort.  Its  railway  station  name  during  many  years  was  St. 
Michael,  for  the  village  of  that  name  two  miles  distant  to  the  south. 

Albion  township,  settled  in  1855,  organized  May  11,  1858,  bears  an 
ancient  name  of  England,  meaning  "white  land^"  in  allusion  to  the  white 
chalk  cliffs  of  its  south  coast. 

Annandale,  a  Soo  railway  village  in  Corinna,  platted  in  October, 
1886,  was  incorporated  April  21,  1888.  It  was  named  for  tlie  Annan 
river  and  the  seaport  of  Annan  at  its  mouth  on  the  Solway  firth,  in 
southern  Scotiand.  Five  other  states  of  the  Union  have  villages  of  this 
name. 

686 


WRIGHT  COUNTY  587 

Buffalo  village,  the  county  seat,  platted  in  1856,  incorporated  May 
24,  1887,  took  its  name,  given  also  to  the  township,  which  was  first  settled 
in  April,  1855,  and  organized  May  11,  1858^  from  their  Buffalo  lake, 
"named'  by  the  Indian  traders  on  account  of  the  large  numbers  of  buffalo 
fish  found  in  its  waters."  For  Kandiyohi  county,  also  named  from  these 
species  of  fish,  they  are  more  fully  noticed. 

Chatham  township,  settled  in  1855,  organized  March  2,  1868,  com- 
memorates, with  townships  and  villages  so  named  in  twelve  other  states, 
the  distinguished  English  statesman,  William  Pitt  (b.  1708,  d.  1778),  first 
earl  of  Chatham,  who  was  a  friend  of  the  American  colonies  and  an  op- 
ponent of  the  British  policy  which  brought  on  the  Revolutionary  War. 

Clearwater  township,  settled  in  1854,  organized  May  11,  1858,  and  its 
earlier  village,  platted  in  the  spring  of  1856,  received  this  name  from  the 
Gearwater  lake  and  river,  there  tributary  to  the  Mississippi. 

CoKATo  township,  settled  in  the  early  spring  of  1856,  was  organized 
August  4,  1868.  Since  1861  this  township  had  been  >called  Mooers  Prairie, 
being  united  in  administration  with  Stockholm.  Josiah  P.  Mooers,  the 
first  settler,  was  born  in  Deerfield,  N.  H.,  December  27,  1804;  came  to 
Minnesota  in  1852,  and  settled  here  in  1856;  was  the  first  postmaster,  the 
post  office  being  named  like  the  township  in  his  honor.  The  Dakota  or 
Sioux  name,  Cokato,  adopted  in  1868,  which  had  been  previously  borne 
by  the  largest  lake  of  the  township,  signifies  ^'at  the  middle."  The  rail- 
road was  built  to  this  place  in  1869,  the  village  of  Cokato  was  then  found- 
ed, and  it  was  incorporated  February  16,  1878. 

CoRiNNA  township,  settled  in  August,  1856,  by  several  families  from 
Maine,  was  organized  May  11,  1858.  'The  name  is  said  by  the  late  Levi 
M.  Stewart,  of  Minneapolis,  to  have  been  given  to  the  township  by  Elder 
Robinson,  a  Baptist  preacher,  who  was  a  boyhood  chum  of  Stewart's, 
and,  like  him,  a  native  of  Corinna,  Maine."  (History  of  the  county, 
1915,  p.  708.) 

Dayton  village,  lying  mainly  in  Hennepin  county,  for  which  its  name 
has  been  explained,  reaches  also  across  the  Crow  river  into  the  most 
eastern  corner  of  Otsego. 

Delano,  a  railway  village  in  Franklin,  platted  in  1868  and  incorpo- 
rated February  11,  1876,  was  at  first  called  Crow  River,  but  was  renamed 
in  honor  of  Francis  Roach  Delano,  who  was  born  in  New  Braintree, 
Mass.,  November  20,  1823,  and  died  in  St.  Paul,  February  6,  1887.  He 
came  to  Minnesota  in  1853,  and  engaged  in  lumbering  in  the  St.  Croix 
valley;  was  the  first  warden  of  the  Minnesota  state  prison;  settled  in  St. 
Paul  in  1860,  and  became  general  superintendent  of  the  St.  Paul  and 
Pacific  railroad;  was  largely  interested  in  railroad  construction  in  the 
state,  and  during  the  later  years  of  his  life  was  right  of  way  agent  for  the 
Manitoba,  (now  the  Great  Northern)  railway.  In  1875  he  was  a  repre- 
sentative in  the  legislature. 


588       •      MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Dickinson,  a  Soo  railway  station  in  Rockford  township,  was  named 
in  honor  of  A.  C.  Dickinson,  on  whose  farm  it  was  located. 

Frankfort  township,  settled  in  the  summer  of  1854,  organized  May 
11,  1858,  took  the  name  of  its  earlier  village,  platted  in  January,  1857. 
Many  of  its  pioneer  settlers  came  from  Germany,  whence  they  chose  this 
name  of  an  ancient  city  in  Prussia,  one  of  the  most  important  banking 
cities  of  the  world. 

Franklin  township,  settled  in  1855  and  organized  in  1858,  was  then 
called  Newport ;  but,  because  that  name  had  been  early  given  to  a  town- 
ship in  Washington  county,  it  was  renamed  September  14,  1858,  in  honor 
of  Benjamin  Franklin  (b.  1706,  d.  1790),  the  American  philosopher,  states- 
man, diplomatist,  and  author. 

French  Lake  township,  settled  in  October,  1856,  organized  June  9, 
1865,  bears  the  name  of  its  largest  lake  and  of  the  outflowing  creek,  given 
in  compliment  for  French  Canadian  settlers. 

Hanover,  a  village  in  Frankfort  on  the  Crow  river,  founded  in 
1877  by  Vollbrecht  brothers,  was  named  "in  honor  of  their  birthplace  in 
Germany.*'    It  was  incorporated  October  9,  1891. 

Hasty,  a  railway  village  on  the  boundary  dividing  Clearwater  and 
Silver  Cl'eek  townships,  was  platted  about  1895  on  the  farm  of  Warren 
Hasty,  who  later  removed  to  Minneapolis. 

Howard  Lake,  a  railway  village  in  the  north  edge  of  Victor,  platted 
in  the  spring  of  1869,  incorporated  in  1879,  "takes  its  name  from  the 
beautiful  sheet  of  water,  on  the  south  of  which  it  is  located,  and  which, 
tradition  informs  us,  was  named  by  the  first  surveyors  who  visited  this 
region,  in  honor  of  John  Howard,  the  English  philanthropist"  (History 
of  the  Upper  Mi.  Valley,  1881,  p.  575.)  He  was  bom,  probably  at  Hack- 
ney, London,  Sept.  2,  1726;  died'  at  Kherson,  Russia,  Jan.  20,  1790;  was 
celebrated  for  his  exertions  in  behalf  of  prison  reform. 

Maple  Lake  township,  first  settled  in  1856  and  organized  in  1858,  re- 
ceived the  name  of  its  largest  lake,  which  is  bordered  by  woodlands  of 
the  sugar  maple.  The  railway  village  on  the  Soo  line,  bearing  the 
township  name,  was  founded  in  1886  and  was  incorporated  December  2i, 

1890. 

Marysville  township,  settled  in  1855,  organized  May  14,  1866,  was 
named  by  its  early  Roman  Catholic  settlers. 

MiDDLEViLLE  towuship,  Settled  in  1856,  organized  in  1858»  was  named  by 
M.  V.  Cochran,  "from  his  old  home  in  Virginia." 

MoNTicELLo  township,  settled  in  1852,  organized  May  11,  1858,  and  its 
village,  platted  in  the  autumn  of  1854  and  incorporated  in  1856,  were 
named  by  Thomas  Creighton,  one  of  the  towns ite  proprietors,  "from 
the  'Little  Mountain,'  a  hill  of  modest  proportions,  about  two  miles  from 
the  village  to  the  southeast.  Previous  to  this  in  September  [1854]  Ash- 
ley C.  Riggs  and  Moritzious  Weissberger  laid  out  the  town  of  Moritzious.** 
These  were  respectively  the  upper  and  lower  parts  of  the  present  village 


WRIGHT  COUNTY  589 

of  MonticellOi  being  rivals  during  many  years.  "Monticello  was  first  in- 
corporated by  an  act  of  the  Territorial  Legislature  approved  March  1st, 
1856.  .  .  .  Moritzious  was  also  incorporated  by  an  act  of  the  State  Legis- 
lature approved  August  13th,  1858  ...  In  after  years,  difficulties  relat- 
ing to  titles  led  to  some  change  in  the  corporation  of  Monticello,  and  on 
the  27th  of  April, .  1861,  the  present  organization  was  consummated." 
(History  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley,  1881,  pages  537-9.)  The  home 
of  Thomas  Jefferson,  in  Virginia,  three  miles  southeast  of  Charlottes- 
ville, bore  this  name,  which  thence  *has  been  given  to  townships,  villages, 
and  cities,  in  twenty-two  other  states  of  the  Union. 

Montrose,  a  railway  village  in  the  southeast  edge  of  Marysville,  was 
platted  in  1878  and  was  incorporated  in  1881,  being  named,  like  villages 
in  fifteen  other  states,  from  a  royal  burgh  and  seaport  of  Scotland. 

Otsego  township,  first  settled  in  October,  1852,  organized  in  1858,  and 
its  village  on  the  Mississippi,  were  named  for  a  lake,  a  township,  and  a 
county  in  New  York.  Gannett  notes  this  name  as  an  Indian  word, 
meaning  "welcome  water,"  or  "place  where  meetings  are  held." 

RocKFORD  township,  settled  in  1855,  organized  in  1858,  received  the 
name  of  its  village,  founded  in  1856  at  a  rocky  ford  of  the  Crow  river, 
having  its  bed  strewn  with  boulders,  where  a  sawmill  was  built.  The 
village  was  platted  in  the  spring  of  1857,  and  was  incorporated  October 
21,  1881.  Near  the  millsite  the  Winnebago  Indians  had  a  village  during 
the  years  1850-54. 

St.  Michael,  a  village  in  Frankfort,  incorporated  February  10,  1890, 
was  named  from  its  Catholic  church,  which  was  built  in  1856. 

Silver  Creek  township,  named  for  its  creek,  was  settled  in  1854  and 
organized  in  1858. 

Smith  Lake,  a  railway  village  in  Middleville,  platted  in  July,  1869« 
bears  the  name  of  the  adjoining  lake,  beside  which  Eugene  Smith  settled 
in  1858. 

South  Haven  village,  on  the  Soo  railway  in  Southside  township,  had 
its  first  trains  in  1887,  was  platted  in  1888,  and  was  incorporated  in  1902. 
This  name  is  derived  from  its  township  and  from  Fair  Haven  township 
and  village  on  the  north  in  Stearns  county. 

Southside  township,  named  from  its  relation  to  the  Clearwater  river 
and  the  series  of  lakes  through  which  that  stream  flows,  was  settled  in 
1857  and  was  organized  March  9,  1868. 

Stockholm  township,  first  settled  in  1856,  received  its  first  Swede 
settlers  in  1862  and  many  more  in  1866.  It  was  organized  August  15, 
1868,  being  named  in  compliment  to  these  immigrants. 

Victor  township,  settled  in  1855,  organized  January  24,  1866,  was 
named  at  the  suggestion  of  Mark  Fosket,  an  early  settler,  "in  honor  of 
Victor  in  Ontario  county,  New  Yor"k." 

Waverly,  a  railway  village  on  the  south  line  of  Marysville,  was  found- 
ed in  1869,  when  the  building  of  the  St  Paul  and  Pacific  railroad  reached 


590  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

this  site,  and  it  was  incorporated  in  1881.  Its  name  was  received  from 
the  adjacent  Big  and  Little  Waver ly  lakes,  and  from  an  earlier  Waverly 
village,  having  a  sawmill  and  gristmill,  platted  in  1856  at  the  outlet  of  the 
Little  ^yaverly  lake.  The  name  was  originally  given  by  the  Colwell 
brothers,  who  with  others  were  proprietors  of  that  earlier  townsite,  for 
Waverly  in  Tioga  county,  N.  Y.,  their  former  home,  which  derived  it 
from  Scott's  Waverley  novels,  published  in  1814-28. 

Woodland  township,  settled  in  1855,  organized  in  1858,  was  named  for 
its  originally  heavily  forested  condition,  being  in  the  central  part  of  *'the 
Big  Woods,"  a  large  area  noticed  in  the  first  chapter. 

Lakes  and  Streams. 

The  origin  and  meaning  of  the  names  of  the  Crow  and  Clearwater 
rivers  have  been  considered  in  the  chapters  for  Crow  Wing  and  Qear- 
water  counties.  The  North  and  South  branches  of  Crow  river  unite  on 
the  east  side  of  Rockford. 

Buffalo,  Qearwater,  and  Cokato  lakes,  French  lake  and  creek,  Howard 
lake.  Maple  lake,  Silver  creek,  Smith  lake,  and  the  Waverly  lakes,  are 
noticed  for  the  townships  and  villages  named  from  them  in  the  preceding 
list. 

Other  lakes  and  creeks  are  arranged  as  follows,  in  the  numerical  order 
of  the  ranges  from  east  to  west,  and  of  the  townships  from  south  to  north. 

Fountain,  Cedar,  and  Rice  lakes,  in  Franklin,  are  named  respectively 
for  their  springs,  red  cedar  trees,  and  wild  rice. 

Woodland  has  Carrigan,  Ruckle's,  and  Lauzer's  lakes,  with  two  or  three 
others  unnamed. 

Victor  has  the  southern  end  of  Howard  lake,  Mud  and'  Dutch  lakes, 
close  southeastward,  and  Lakes  Ann,  Emma,  and  Mary.  Tuey  and  Little 
Rice  lakes  and  Spring  hAnt^  in  the  northwest  part  of  this  township,  are 
scarcely  more  than  n^ifsnes  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year. 

Big  Rice  lake  or  slough  and  Shakopee  lake,  in  Stockholm,  have  been 
mostly  drained.  Butternut  lake,  at  the  south  side  of  Stockholm,  reaches 
into  McLeod  county;  and  Collinwood  lake  on  the  west  extends  into 
Meeker  county,  where  a  township  bears  this  name. 

Rockford  has  Moore,  Wagner,  Charlotte,  and  Mary  lakes,  crossed  by 
its  north  line,  named  for  pioneers.  Frederick  creek,  outflowing  from  Mary 
lake,  and  Dean,  Crawford,  and  Ilstrup  lakes,  are  also  similarly  named. 
Mink  and  Tamarack  lakes  are  crossed  by  the  west  line  of  sections  6  and  7. 

Marysville  has  Deer  lake,  close  southwest  of  Buffalo  lake,  and  the 
Waverly  lakes,  adjoining  its  south  line.  Twelve  Mile  creek  is  the  outlet 
of  Little  Waverly  lake,  and  of  Lake  Ann  in  Victor  and  Rice  lake  in 
Stockholm. 

In  Middleville,  besides  Howard  and  Smith  lakes,  are  also  Doerfler 
and  Junkins  lakes. 

With  Cokato  lake,  the  township  of  this  name  has  Brooks  and  Skif  strom 
lakes,  named  in  honor  of  early  settlers.    Beaver  Dam  and  Swan  lakes, 


WRIGHT  COUNTY  591 

on  the  west  line  of  this  township,  are  now  mainly  dry.     Sucker  creek, 
named  for  its  fish,  flows  into  Cokato  lake. 

Frankfort  has  Lake  Foster  in  its  eastern  section  3;  Goose,  Mud,  and 
School  lakes,  the  last  named  for  its  situation  in  the  school  section  16; 
EuU's  lake,  Williams  lake,  Wagner,  Beebe,  and  Schmidt  lakes,  each  com- 
memorating a  pioneer  farmer;  and  the  southeastern  part  of  Pelican  lake, 
the  largest  of  this  county. 

The  west  part  of  Schmidt  lake,  extending  into  Buffalo  township, 
but  now  mostly  drained,  had  Crane  island,  of  13  acres.  This  towns-hip 
includes  also,  with  large  parts  of  Pelican  and  Buffalo  lakes,  the  beauti- 
ful Lake  Pulaski,  named  for  the  Polish  patriot  and  friend  of  Washing- 
ton in  our  Revolutionary  War;  Green  Mountain  lake,  named  by  settlers 
from  Vermont;  Washington  lake,  and  Constance  and  Gilchrist  lakes, 
the  last  reaching  north  into  Monticello. 

In  Chatham,  with  about  half  of  Buffalo  lake,  are  Birch  lake,  Lakes 
Abbie  and  Albert,  Cochrane  lake,  small  Twin  lakes  in  the  northeast 
quarter  of  section  22,  Lake  Mary  in  section  19,  and  Rock  lake,  on  the 
west  line,  named  from  it  boulders. 

Albion  comprises  Camp,  Granite,  Maxim,  White,  Henshaw,  Albion, 
Edward,  and  Swartwatts  lakes.  The  former  William  and'  Henry  lakes, 
on  the  south  sides  of  sections  5  and  6,  have  been  lately  drained. 

In  French  Lake  township,  with  its  lake  and  creek  so  named,  are  Dan's 
lake  and  Lake  Francis,  the  latter  now  renamed  Hutchins  lake,  which 
extends  west  into  Meeker  county. 

Otsego  has  School  lake,  in  the  western  school  section  36. 

Monticello,  having  the  northern  part  of  Pelican  lake,  includes  also  the 
north  part  of  Gilchrist  lake;  and  farther  west  it  has  the  series  of  Black, 
Cedar,  North,  Burch,  Bertram,  and  Long  lakes,  outflowing  by  Otter  creek 
to  the  Mississippi.  With  these  are  to  be  noted  the  little  Twin  lakes,  in 
the  west  edge  of  this  township. 

In  Maple  Lake  township  are  Maple  and  Ramsey  lakes,  the  second  be- 
ing named  for  Governor  Ramsey,  Lightfoot  and  Angus  lakes,  and  Lake 
Mary. 

Silver  Creek  township  comprises  Eagle  and  Ida  lakes,  near  its  south- 
east corner;  Silver,  Marie,  and  Locke  lakes,  on  Silver  creek;  and  Ember, 
Limestone,  and  Mill  Stone  lakes.  The  former  Melrose  lake,  in  the  north 
part  of  section  36,  is  now  a  marsh. 

Corinna  has  Sugar  lake,  named  for  its  sugar  maples,  Indian  and  Mink 
lakes,  Cedar  and  Pleasant  lakes,  Bass  lake,  and  the  greater  part  of  Clear- 
water lake,  with  its  Eagle  island. 

Southside  has  Lake  John,  Goose  lake,  crossed  by  its  south  line,  Lake 
Sylvia  and  Twin  lake,  connected  by  a  strait,  and,  along  the  course  of 
the  Clearwater  river,  forming  the  northern  boundary  of  this  township 
and  of  the  county,  Lakes  Louisa,  Maria,  Caroline,  and  Augusta. 


592  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

On  the  west  boundary  of  Clearwater  township  are  Grass  and  Wiegand 
lakes,  through  which  the  Qearwater  river  flows;  Nixon  and  Connelly 
lakes,  named  for  early  settlers,  are  on  the  east  side  of  sections  22  and  27 ; 
Sheldon  lake  or  marsh  is  in  section  24;  Fish  lake  has  its  outlet  by  Fish 
creek  at  the  south  end  of  an  ox-bow  of  the  Mississippi,  which  flows 
around  Boyington  island;  and  Rice  lake,  having  wild  rice,  lies  a  mile 
farther  east 

Prairies. 

Relatively  small  areas  of  prairie,  noteworthy  for  their  occurrence  in 
this  mainly  well  wooded  county,  were  Qearwater  prairie,  nearly  adjoin- 
ing the  Mississippi  eastward  from  the  Clearwater  river;  Sanborn  prairie, 
named  for  a  pioneer  farmer,  in  Silver  Creek  township ;  Monticello  prairie, 
one  to  two  miles  southwest  of  the  village  of  this  name ;  Winneshiek  prai- 
rie, near  the  Crow  river  in  Frankfort,  named  "in  honor  of  the  Winne- 
bago chief  who  spent  several  years  in  this  vicinity,"  for  whom  a  county 
in  northeastern  Iowa  is  named;  and  Mooers  prairie,  in  Cokato,  for  which 
township  it  has  been  more  fully  noticed. 

Winneshiek,  previously  chief  of  a  band  of  the  Winnebagoes,  was 
appointed  in  1845  by  the  United  States  War  Department  to  be  head  chief 
of  this  tribe,  which  had  been  removed  from  Wisconsin  to  northeastern 
Iowa  in  1840.  He  was  thus  the  head  chief  while  the  Winnebagoes  were 
in  Minnesota,  from  1848  to  1855  on  the  Long  Prairie  reservation,  and  later 
in  Blue  Earth  county  until  1863,  being  then  removed  to  a  reservation  in 
Dakota.  He  died  after  1880,  while  making  a  canoe  journey  down  the 
Missouri  river. 


YELLOW  MEDICINE  COUNTY 

This  county,  established  March  6,  1871,  is  crossed  by  the  Yellow  Medi- 
cine river,  whence  the  name  is  derived.  It  is  a  translation  of  the  Dako- 
ta or  Sioux  name,  which  Prof.  A.  W.  Williamson  spelled  and  defined 
thus:  "Pajutazee  (Pezhihutazi,  abbreviated  from  Pezhihutazizi  kapi), — 
peji,  generic  name,  including  grasses  and  all  other  erect  plants  without 
wood  stems;  huta,  root;  si,  yellow;  kapi,  they  dig;  diggings  of  yellow 
plant  root,  or  yellow  medicine  diggings;  the  Dakota  name  of  the  Yellow 
Medicine  river,  written  by  Nicollet  Pejuta  zizi.  The  name  as  first  spelled 
was  given  by  Dr.  T.  S.  Williamson  to  his  station,  and  is  found  in  this 
form  on  a  number  of  maps/' 

The  late  Dr.  Thomas  M.  Young,  who  was  during  several  years  in 
charge  of  the  government  school  for  Indian  children  at  the  Sisseton 
Agency,  South  Dakota,  stated  that  the  "yellow  medicine"  is  the  long, 
slender,  bitter,  yellow  root  of  the  moonseed  (Menispermum  Canadense), 
which  grows  abundantly  in  thickets  in  this  region.  From  the  root  of 
this  plant  came  thus  the  name  of  the  river  and  the  county. 

It  was  proposed  in  1878-9  to  establish  a  new  county,  named  like  the 
village  and  city  of  Canby,  in  honor  of  General  £.  R.  S.  Canby,  whose 
biography  is  presented  in  the  notice  of  that  city.  The  legislative  act 
passed  for  this  purpose,  subject  to  ratification  by  the  people,  received  the 
governor's  approval  February  27,  1879.  The  proposed  county  was  to 
comprise  the  western  six  townships  of  Yellow  Medicine  county,  the  three 
most  northern  of  Lincolir  county,  and  three  from  southwestern  Lac  qui 
Parle  county.  The  vote  in  Yellow  Medicine  county  was  463  yes,  370  no ; 
but  the  vote  in  Lincoln  county  defeated  it. 

Townships  and  Villages. 

Information  of  geographic  names  here,  with  their  meanings,  has 
been  gathered  from  "History  of  the  Minnesota  Valley,"  1882,  having 
pages  882-912  for  this  county;  "An  Illustrated  History  of  Yellow  Medi- 
cine County,"  by  Arthur  P.  Rose,  1914,  562  pages ;  and  from  George  H. 
Wilson,  county  auditor,  Charles  F.  Hall,  judge  of  probate,  Hon.  Ole  O. 
Lende,  and  Frederic  W.  Pearsall,  each  of  Granite  Falls,  the  county  seat, 
interviewed  during  a  visit  there  in  July,  1916. 

Burr,  a  village  of  the  Northwestern  railway  in  Florida  township, 
founded  in  1886,  was  called  Stanley  until  its  post  office  was  established 
in  1895.  Because  the  name  Stanley  had  been  given  to  an  earlier  post- 
office  in  this  state,  the  name  Burr  was  adopted  at  the  suggestion  of  Alfred 
Froberg,  the  merchant  and  grain-buyer  here,  "that  being  a  Froberg  fami- 
ly name."    (History  of  the  county,  1914,  p.  247.) 

503 


594  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Burton  township,  settled  in  1877  and  organized  May  20,  1879,  was 
named  "in  honor  of  Burton  French,  the  father  of  Palmer  O.  French,  a 
pioneer   settler." 

Canby,  a  city  in  Norman  township,  was  platted  in  the  summer  of 
1876,  three  years  after  the  building  of  this  line  of  the  Northwestern  rail- 
way, was  incorporated  as  a  village  in  1879,  and  as  a  city  March  1,  19Q5. 
It  was  named  in  honor  of  Edward  Richard  Sprigg  Canby,  as  before  noted 
in  relation  to  a  proposed  county  bearing  his  name.  He  was  bom  in  Ken- 
tucky in  1819 ;  was  graduated  at  the  U.  S.  Military  Academy,  1839 ;  served 
during  the  Mexican  war,  1846-8,  and  the  civil  war,  1861-5 ;  was  command- 
er in  Louisiana,  and  of  the  U.  S.  army  departments  west  of  the  Mississip^ 
pi,  in  1864;  captured  Mobile,  April  12,  1865;  was  promoted  to  major 
general  of  volunteers,  and  in  1866  became  a  brigadier  general  in  the 
regular  army;  was  treacherously  killed  by  the  Modoc  Indians  during  a 
conference  in  Siskiyou  county,  northern  California,  April  11,  1873. 

Clarkfield,  a  village  of  the  Minneapolis  and  St.  Louis  railway  in 
Friendship,  platted  October  7,  1884,  incorporated  October  10,  1887,  was 
''named  in  honor  of  Mr.  Clark,  who  was  connected  with  the  railroad  com- 
pany." 

Echo  township,  first  settled  in  1869,  was  organized  March  31,  1874, 
being  then  named  Empire,  which  was  changed  in  the  next  month  to  Rose, 
"and  on  July  17,  1874,  the  name  Echo  was  bestowed  upon  it.  .  .  .  The 
difficulties  encountered  in  selecting  a  name  not  borne  by  some  other 
township  suggested  the  final  name.  This  was  one  case  where  echo 
answered."  (Arthur  P.  Rose,  History  of  the  county,  p.  95.)  The  rail- 
way village,  bearing  the  township  name,  was  founded  in  August,  1884, 
and  was  incorporated  May  31,  1892. 

Florida  township,  organized  January  27,  1879,  is  crossed  by  Florida 
creek,  which  was  named  for  a  railway  contractor,  whose  camp  was  there 
in  1873,  when  the  railway  was  built. 

Forties  township,  settled  in  the  fall  of  1873,  was  the  latest  organized 
in  this  county.  May  30,  1881.  **The  name  of  Lc  Roy  was  first  given  to 
it,  but,  as  there  was  already  a  town  of  that  name,  Fortier  was  substituted 
in  honor  of  Joseph  Fortier."  He  was  born  in  Napierville,  Canada,  April 
12,  1835 ;  came  to  Minnesota  in  1854,  and  from  1855  to  1862  was  employed 
at  the  Upper  Sioux  Agency;  was  in  the  battle  of  New  Ulm,  the  defence 
of  Fort  Ridgely,  and  the  battle  of  Wood  Lake,  1862;  served  also  in  Sib- 
ley's and  Sully's  expeditions,  1863  and  '64 ;  later  was  a  merchant  in  Yellow 
Medicine  City,  and  after  1874  at  Granite  Falls ;  was  sheriff  of  this  coun- 
ty, 1877-87 ;  died  at  Granite  Falls,  March  27,  1898. 

Friendship,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1872,  organized  March  11,  1879, 
was  named  in  the  petition  of  its  people  to  the  county  commissioners  for 
organization. 

Granite  Falls,  the  county  seat,  platted  May  7,  1872,  incorporated  as 
a  village  March  17,  1879,  and  as  a  city  in  April,  1889,  received  its  name 


YELLOW  MEDICINE  COUNTY  595 

from  the  granite  and  gneiss  outcrops  of  the  Minnesota  river  here,  over 
which  and  on  boulders  in  the  river  bed  it  falls  38  feet. 

Hammer  township,  settled  in  June,  1872,  organized  July  2,  1877,  has  a 
name  that  is  borne  by  villages  in  Bavaria  and  Prussia,  and  also  by  a  vil- 
lage in  Tennessee. 

Hanley  Falls,  a  railway  junction  village  on  the  Yellow  Medicine  riv- 
er, was  founded  in  the  summer  of  1884,  the  Minneapolis  and  St.  Louis 
track  being  laid  to  this  place  on  August  19,  and  it  was  incorporated  Jan- 
uary 8,  1892.  The  name  was  given  in  honor  of  an  officer  of  that  rail- 
way company. 

Hazel  Run  township,  settled  in  1871  and  organized  in  1877,  bears 
the  name  of  its  creek,  tributary  to  the  Minnesota  river.  The  railway  vil- 
lage, named  like  the  township,  was  platted  in  September,  1884,  and  was 
incorporated  May  16,  1902. 

Hazelwood,  a  mission  station  of  Revs.  T.  S.  Williamson  and  S.  R. 
Riggs  during  the  years  1854  to  1862,  was  in  section  15,  Minnesota  Falls. 
Here  were  a  mission  school  and  numerous  families  of  Christian  Sioux, 
who  were  organized  under  a  plan  of  self  government,  called  the  Hazel- 
wood  Republic. 

Lisbon  township,  settled  in  June,  1871,  organized  September  20,  1873, 
has  the  name  of  the  capital  of  Portugal,  borne  also  by  townships  and 
villages  in  nineteen  other  states. 

LoRNE,  a  station  of  the  Great  Northern  railway  five  miles  south  of 
Granite  Falls,  established  in  1898,  was  named  in  honor  of  the  Marquis 
of  Lome,  a  British  statesman,  the  eldest  son  of  the  eighth  Duke  of  Ar- 
gyll. He  was  born  in  London,  August  6,  1845;  represented  Argyllshire 
in  Parliament,  1868-78;  was  governor  general  of  Canada,  1878-83;  and 
succeeded  to  the  dukedom  in  April,  1900.  He  married  the  Princess  Louise, 
fourth  daughter  of  Queen  Victoria,  in  1871. 

Minnesota  Falls  township,  settled  in  October,  1865,  organized  April 
5,  1873,  and  its  former  village,  platted  in  1871,  which  flourished  during 
a  few  years,  but  whose  buildings  were  partly  burned  and  the  others  re- 
moved before  the  end  of  1882,  derived  their  name  from  the  falls  of  the 
Minnesota  river.  At  the  sawmill  and  flour  mill  of  Governor  Austin  and 
Park  Worden,  the  utilized  fall  was  10  feet. 

Norman^  settled  in  1870,  was  organized  April  7,  1874.  "The  first  set- 
tlers of  this  township  were  Norwegians  exclusively,  and  the  name  was 
given  in  consequence.  In  Norway  a  native  is  referred  to  as  a  Norsk  or 
Norman."     (History  of  the  county,  1914,  p.  94.) 

NoRMANiA  township,  settled  in  1867-8,  was  organized  March  12,  1872, 
being  then  named  Ree,  for  "a  prominent  group  of  farms  in  Norway," 
which  was  changed  in  1874  to  the  present  name,  of  the  same  significance 
as  the  last  preceding. 

Omro  township,  settled  in  April,  1878,  organized  January  29,  1880,  was 
named  on  suggestion  of  Robert  North,  the  first  chairman  of  the  board 


596  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

of  supervisors,  "after  a  town  in  Mr.  North's  old  home  county'  [Winne- 
bago]  in  Wisconsin."     (History  of  the  county,  p.  102.) 

OsHKOSH  township,  settled  in  the  spring  of  1877  and  organized  July  19, 
1879,  was  named  for  the  city  of  Oshkosh  in  Wisconsin,  the  county  seat 
of  Winnebago  county,  which  commemorates  the  head  chief  of  the 
Menominee  Indians. 

Ons,  formerly  a  small  fractional  township  at  the  west  side  of  Gran- 
ite Falls,  organized  October  16,  1873,  "named  in  honor  of  its  first  settler, 
John  D.  Otis,"  has  been  annexed  to  Stony  Run. 

Porter,  a  village  of  the  Northwestern  railway  in  the  south  edge  of 
Wergeland,  platted  in  October,  1881,  and  incorporated  February  10,  1898, 
was  named  for  the  L.  C.  Porter  Milling  Company,  by  whom  its  first 
grain  warehouse  was  erected. 

PosEN  township,  settled  in  1868,  organized  May  17,  1879,  received  its 
name  "from  the  province  of  Posen,  formerly  belonging  to  Poland,  but 
now  a  part  of  the  German  Empire,  from  whence  most  of  the  settlers 
came."     (History  of  the  Minnesota  Valley,  p.  90&) 

St.  Leo,  a  village  on  the  line  between  Omro  and  Burton,  "was  named 
after  the  church,  and  the  church  was  so  christened  in  honor  of  Pope  Leo." 
(History  of  the  county,  p.  247.)  The  church,  built  in  1896,  is  commem- 
orative of  Saint  Leo,  the  first  Pope  of  this  name,  A.  D.  440-461,  who  is 
surnamed  "the  Great." 

Sandnes  township,  settled  in  1866,  mostly  from  Norway,  and  organ- 
ized March  12,  1872,  bears  the  name  (with  slight  change  in  spelling)  of 
Sandnaes,  a  seaport  town  of  southwestern  Norway,  adjoining  the  Sta- 
vanger  fjord. 

Sioux  Agency  township,  first  permanently  settled  in  1865,  "was  set 
apart  for  organization  September  4,  1866,"  being  named  Yellow  Medi- 
cine, and  its  first  township  meeting  was  held  April  2,  1867.  "In  March, 
1877,  the  present  boundaries  were  fixed  and  the  name  changed  to 
Sioux  Agency."  (History  of  the  Minnesota  Valley,  p.  892.)  The  Upper 
Sioux  Agency  was  on  the  north  side  of  the  Yellow  Medicine  river  and 
about  a  mile  west  of  its  mouth,  in  the  northern  part  of  this  township.  It 
was  occupied  from  1854  to  1862,  and,  as  noted  by  Rose,  "became  a  place 
of  considerable  importance  and  was  virtually  the  capital  of  the  Indian 
country." 

SoRLiEN  Mills,  a  hamlet  of  much  business  in  the  pioneer  days,  had  a 
gristmill  and  post  office  on  the  Yellow  Medicine  river  in  the  southeast 
part  of  Minnesota  Falls  township.  E.  H.  Sorlien  and  brothers  erected 
the  mill  in  1872.  The  post  office  was  established  in  July,  1878,  and  E.  H. 
Sorlien  was  postmaster  till  it  was  discontinued  in  July,  1896.  (History  of 
the  county,  p.  249.) 

Stavancer  post  office  named  from  the  fjord,  city,  and  district  of  this 
name  in  southern  Norway,  was  established  about  1870  in  section  27,  Rec 


YELLOW  MEDICINE  COUNTY  597 

(afterward  Normania),  and  was  discontinued  by  a  rural  free  delivery 
route  in  November,   1903. 

Stony  Run  township,  settled  in  1869,  organized  September  26,  1871, 
"is  named  for  the  creek  that  courses  through  it,"  in  many  places  flowing 
over  drift  boulders. 

Swede  Prairie  township,  settled  in  1870,  was  organized  January  19, 

1878.  'The  name  first  given  to  the  town  was  Green  Prairie,  but  was 
changed  March  12,  1878,  to  Swede  Prairie,"  in  compliment  to  its  many 
immigrants  from  Sweden. 

Tyro  township,  settled  in  August,  1872,  was  organized  October  25, 

1879.  This  name,  meaning  a  beginner,  is  borne  also  by  villages  or  ham- 
lets  in  Virginia,  Mississippi,  Arkansas,  and  Kansas. 

Wergeland  township,  organized  April  5,  1879,  was  then  named  Union, 
which  was  changed  on  May  1  of  that  year,  by  request  of  the  many  Nor- 
wegian settlers,  "in  honor  of  one  of  their  native  country's  poets,  Henrik 
Wergeland."  He  was  born  at  Christiansand,  June  17,  1808,  and  died  at 
Christiania,  July  12,  1845. 

Wood  Lake  township,  settled  in  1868,  organized  November  1,  1873, 
was  named  for  its  largest  lake,  fringed  with  timber,  whence  the  battle 
fought  under  General  Sibley  against  the  Sioux,  about  four  miles  east  of 
this  lake,  September  23,  1862,  has  been  called  the  battle  of  Wood  Lake. 
That  battle  ground  is  marked  by  a  monument,  on  the  northwest  quarter 
of  section  9,  Sioux  Agency.  The  battle  was  followed  by  the  flight  of  the 
hostile  Sioux  to  Dakota  and  the  release  of  the  white  captives,  Septem- 
ber 26,  at  Camp  Release  in  Lac  qui  Parle  county,  opposite  to  Monte- 
video, likewise  marked  by  a  monument  The  railway  village  of  Wood 
Lake,  established  in  the  summer  of  1884,  before  the  first  passenger  train 
came  on  August  18,  was  incorporated  November  28,  1891. 

Yellow  Medicine  City,  founded  in  1866  and  platted  June  10,  1869, 
was  on  the  south  side  of  the  river  of  this  name,  about  a  mile  west  of  the 
site  of  the  former  Yellow  Medicine  or  Upper  Sioux  Agency.  This  village 
was  designated  as  the  county  seat  early  in  1872,  but  in  accordance  with 
the  vote  of  the  people  in  1874  the  county  offices  were  removed  in  Decem- 
ber of  that  year  to  Granite  Falls,  which  has  since  been  the  county  seat 
During  1875-80  the  area  of  the  Yellow  Medicine  village  site  reverted  to 
farming  land. 

The  mission  station  bearing  this  name,  also  called  Pajutazee,  occupied 
from  1853  to  1862,  was  in  section  24  of  the  present  Minnesota  Falls  town- 
ship, being  nearly  two  miles  southeast  of  the  Hazelwood  mission  school 
and  its  Sioux  community. 

Streams  and  Lakes. 

Yellow  Medicine  river  bears  this  name  on  the  map  of  Long's  expedi- 
tion in  1823  and  on  Nicollet's  map,  1843.  The  latter  has  also  the  Dako- 
ta name,  noted  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter. 


598  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Florida  creek,  Hazel  Run,  and  Stony  Run,  giving  their  names  to  town- 
ships, and  Wood  lake,  whence  another  township  is  named,  are  noticed  in 
the  preceding  pages. 

Canby  creek,  named  from  the  city,  and  the  East  branch  of  Lac  qui 
Parle  river,  crossing  the  west  part  of  this  county,  flow  northward  into  Lac 
qui  Parle  county. 

Mud  creek,  flowing  eastward  across  Wergeland  and  Burton,  and 
Spring  creek,  crossing  Swede  Prairie  and  the  north  edge  of  Normania, 
are  tributary  to  the  Yellow  Medicine  river. 

The  lakes  of  this  county,  occurring  only  in  its  southeastern  part,  in- 
clude, with  Wood  lake,  before  noted.  Sand  and  House  lakes  in  the  same 
township,  the  last  being  named  for  a  pioneer ;  three  small  lakes  in  sections 
8  and  17,  Sioux  Agency,  \ym%  a  half  mile  to  one  and  a  half  miles  south 
of  the  Wood  Lake  battle  ground  and  monument,  the  two  northern  being 
named  High  Bank  and  Battle  lakes;  a  former  Lake  of  the  Woods  and 
another  long  lake  or  marsh  in  Echo  township,  both  now  drained ;  Tyson 
lake  or  marsh,  and  an  adjoining  Twin  lake,  in  Posen,  the  flrst  being  named 
for  Joseph  Tyson,  an  early  homesteader  on  its  south  side;  and  a  group 
of  three  lakes  in  Normania,  of  which  the  nriddle  one  is  called  GuUickson 
lake,  for  a  pioneer  Norwegian  farmer  beside  it 


MINNEAPOLIS 

Information  of  the  origin  and  meanings  of  names  of  streets  and  ave- 
nues in  Minneapolis,  and  of  its  boulevards,  parks,  and  other  public  grounds, 
has  been  gathered  from  "History  of  the  City  of  Minneapolis,"  by  Isaac  At- 
water,  1893,  two  volumes,  1010  pages;  "Personal  Recollections  of  Minne- 
sota and  its  People,  and  Early  History  ol  Minneapolis,"  by  John  H. 
Stevens,  1890,  433  pages;  "A  Half  Century  of  Minneapolis,"  edited  by 
Horace  B.  Hudson,  1908,  569  pages;  from  interviews,  mostly  in  the 
autumn  of  1916,  with  Prof.  William  W.  Folwell,  Dr.  Lysander  P.  Foster 
and  Edwin  Clark,  respectively  president  and  secretary  of  the  Hennepin 
County  Territorial  Association,  Harlow  S.  Gale  and  John  R.  Gray,  of  the 
City  Engineer  Department,  Andrew  Rinker,  former  city  engineer,  Por- 
tms  C.  Deming  and  James  A.  Ridgway,  respectively  president  and  secre- 
tary of  the  Board  of  Park  Commissioners,  and  David  G.  Gorham,  depu- 
ty register  of  deeds  of  Hennepin  county,  president  of  the  Native  Sons 
of  Minnesota;  from  the  map  of  St.  Anthony  and  Minneapolis  in  1856, 
published  by  Chapman  and  Curtis,  civil  engineers ;  Books  A  to  I,  1849  to 
1885,  city  and  county  plats  of  surveys,  in  the  office  of  the  county  register 
of  deeds;  and  "The  City  Charter,  Ordinances,  Standing  Rules  and  Or- 
ders of  the  City  Council  of  the  City  of  Minneapolis,"  revised  and  com- 
piled by  A.  N.  Merrick,  city  attorney,  1873,  174  pages,  in  which  is  an 
ordinance  (pages  115-125),  passed  August  12,  1873,  "changing  the  names 
and  designations  of  streets,"  subsequent  to  the  union  of  St.  Anthony  and 
Minneapolis  as  one  city,  enacted  mainly  for  avoidance  of  duplication 
and  confusion  in  the  names  of  streets  and  avenues  in  the  previously  two 
municipalities,  respectively  east  and  west  of  the  river. 

In  the  chapter  of  Hennepin  county,  the  names  of  St.  Anthony  and 
Minneapolis  (with  the  earlier  names  suggested  and  somewhat  used  for 
the  latter),  of  the  Mississippi  river  and  its  islands,  of  St.  Anthony  falls, 
Minnehaha  falls  and  creek,  and  of  the  several  lakes  and  other  creeks 
within  the  city  area,  have  been  duly  noticed. 

Streets  and  Avenues. 

The  extensive  changes  made  in  the  systems  of  street  names  soon 
after  the  union  of  the  former  two  cities,  as  above  cited,  are  very  con- 
cisely and  definitely  catalogued  by  Dr.  William  E.  Leonard,  as  follows, 
in  a  paper  entitled  "Early  Days  in  Minneapolis,"  published  in  the  Minne- 
sota Historical  Society  Collections,  volume  XV,  1915,  pages  497-514. 

"This  paper  may  well  be  concluded  by  noting  the  names  formerly 
borne  by  the  streets  (now  called  avenues)  which  run  transverse  to  the 
course  of  the  Mississippi.    These  were  renamed  numerically  as  avenues 

609 


600  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES  ' 

within  the  first  year  after  the  union  in  1872  of  St.  Anthony  and  Minne- 
apolis, to  distinguish  them  conveniently  from  the  streets  which  are  paral- 
lel with  the  river,  being  therefore  intersected  by  the  avenues.  Washing- 
ton and  University  avenues  are  exceptional,  being  parallel  with  the 
Mississippi,  so  that  more  properly  they  should  be  called  streets. 

^'Under  dates  of  1873  and  1874,  maps  of  the  enlarged  city  show  in  their 
order  southeastward  from  Nicollet  avenue  and  parallel  therewith,  run- 
ning thus  transverse  to  the  river  the  following  streets :  Minnetonka, 
Helen,  Oregon,  California,  Marshall,  Cataract,  Russell,  Ames,  Rice,  Smith, 
Pearl,  Huy,  Hanson,  Lake,  Vine,  Clay,  Avon,  and  Lane  streets,  these 
being  respectively  the  First  to  the  Eighteenth  avenues  south,  lying  be- 
tween Nicollet  and  Cedar  avenues.  Both  the  old  names  as  streets  and  tlie 
new  names  as  avenues  are  given  on  these  maps,  which  belong  to  the 
time  of  transition  from  the  old  to  the  new. 

"East  of  Cedar  avenue  on  these  maps  are  Aspen,  Oak,  Walnut,  Elm, 
Maple,  Pine,  Spruce,  Willow,  Birch,  and  Orange  streets,  being  respectively 
the  present  Nineteenth  to  the  Twenty-eighth  avenues  south. 

"In  the  order  from  Hennepin  avenue  to  the  northwest  and  north  were 
Utah,  Kansas,  Itasca,  Dakota,  Nebraska,  Harrison,  Lewis,  Seward,  Marcy, 
Benton,  the  next  unnamed,  then  Moore,  Fremont,  Qayton,  Bingham, 
Breckenridge,  Cass,  Douglas,  Buchanan,  Christmas,  Howard,  Clay,  Mary 
Ann,  and  King  streets,  these  being  renamed  respectively  as  the  First  to 
the  Twenty- fourth  avenues  north. 

"On  the  St.  Anthony  side.  Central  avenue  had  been  earlier  called  Bay 
street ;  and  thence  southeastward  were  Mill,  Pine,  Cedar,  Spruce,"  Spring, 
Maple,  Walnut,  Aspen,  Birch,  Willow,  Elm,  and  A,  B,  etc.,  to  G  and  H 
streets,  now  respectively  the  First  to  Nineteenth  avenues  southeast 

"Passing  northwest  and  north  from  Central  avenue,  in  the  northeast 
part  of  the  city,  were  in  succession  Linden,  Oak,  Dakota,  Todd,  Dana, 
Wood,  St.  Paul,  St.  Anthony,  St.  Peter's,  St  Martin,  St  Genevieve, 
Prairie,  Grove,  and  Lake  streets,  which  now  are,  in  the  same  order, 
the  First  to  the  Fourteenth  avenues  northeast 

"Evidently  the  confusion  arising  after  the  two  municipalities  were 
united  as  the  new  and  greater  Minneapolis,  through  the  several  duplica-' 
tions  of  street  names  west  and  east  of  the  river,  was  one  of  the  chief 
reasons  for  their  renaming  as  avenues  and  under  numbers  for  the  four 
main  divisions  of  the  city.  What  was  lost  in  the  historic  origins  of  the 
former  names,  dating  from  the  first  surveys  and  plats,  seems  to  have 
been  more  than  offset  by  the  increased  convenience,  local  significance, 
and  systematic  definiteness  of  the  present  nomenclature." 

Among  the  personal  names  in  the  foregoing  lists  of  former  street 
names  are  Helen,  in  honor  of  Frances  Helen  Miller,  wife  of  Col.  John 
H.  Steven s,t  the  first  pioneer  resident  of  Minneapolis  on  the  west  side 
of  the  Mississippi;  Marshall,   in  honor  of  William  R.  Marshall,t  sur- 


tFor  biographic  notes,  see  M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  XIV,  published  in  1012. 


MINNEAPOLIS  601 

veyor  of  the  first  plat  of  St.  Anthony  Falls,  October  9,  1849,  and  plats  of 
Minneapolis  in  1855-6,  between  Helen  and  Cedar  streets,  who  became  a 
colonel  and  general  in  the  civil  war,  and  later  was  governor  of  Minne- 
sota, for  whom  a  county  is  named;  Russell  for  Roswell  P.  Russell,t  a 
prominent  pioneer  of  Minneapolis,  who  in  the  years  1854-60  resided  on 
this  street,  now  Seventh  avenue  S. ;  Ames,  for  Dr.  Alfred  E.  Ames,t 
who  came  here  in  1851,  settling  on  a  tract  of  80  acres ;  Rice,  for  Henry 
M.f  and  Edmund  Rice,t  of  St.  Paul,  owners  of  real  estate  platted  for 
St.  Anthony  and  Minneapolis ;  Huy,  for  George  E.  Huy,t  who  settled  in 
Minneapolis  in  1852,  succeeded  Stevens  as  precinct  clerk  of  Minneapo- 
lis in  1855,  and  was  also  the  county  register  of  deeds;  Hanson,  for 
Dominicus  M.f  and  Gilbert  S.  Hanson,  each  receiving  a  patent  for  80 
acres,  April  23,  1855,  crossed  by  the  former  Hanson  street,  now  Thirteenth 
avenue  S. ;  Lane,  probably  for  Silas  and  Isaac  E.  Lane,  pioneers  of  St. 
Anthony  in  1849;  Harrison,  Lewis,  Seward,  Marcy,  Benton,  Fremont, 
Gay  ton,  Bingham,  Breckenridge,  Cass,  Douglas,  Buchanan,  Howard, 
Clay,  and  King,  for  prominent  citizens  and  statesmen  in  other  parts  of 
the  United  States;  Moore,  for  a  pioneer  family,  who  in  the  name  of 
Rachel  Moore  received  a  patent  September  7,  1855,  for  a  tract  crossed 
by  Moore  street,  now  Twelfth  avenue  N. ;  Christmas,  in  honor  of  Charles 
W.  Christmas,t  a  land  surveyor,  who  settled  in  St.  Anthony  in  1850  and 
a  few  years  afterward  took  a  claim  extending  a  mile  from  south  to  north 
along  the  west  side  of  the  Mississippi,  from  the  present  Plymouth  ave- 
nue to  Twenty-sixth  avenue  N. ;  Todd,  for  Captain  John  B.  S.  Todd,t 
commandant  of  Fort  Ripley  in  1849-56,  brigadier  general  of  volimteers 
in  the  civil  war,  and  governor  of  Dakota  Territory,  1869-71,  for  whom 
Todd  county  is  named;  Dana,  in  honor  of  Napoleon  J.  T.  Dana,t  for 
a  few  months  colonel  of  the  First  Minnesota  regiment,  and  after  1862  a 
major  general  of  volunteers;  and  Wood,  for  Thomas  John  Wood,  who 
was  graduated .  at  West  Point,  1845,  served  during  the  Mexican  and 
civil  wars,  and  was  promoted  to  major  general  in  1865. 

Hennepin  and  Nicollet  avenues,  the  first  following  nearly  the  course 
of  an  earlier  Territorial  Road,  commemorate  Father  Hennepin,  like  this 
county,  and  Joseph  N.  Nicollet,  for  whom  Nicollet  county  is  named.  In 
1916  the  most  southern  part  of  Central  avenue.  Division  street,  and  a  new 
street,  laid  out  to  unite  these,  were  renamed  East  Hennepin  avenue,  be- 
ing a  continuation  of  Hennepin  avenue  from  the  west  side  of  the  river 
northeast  and  east  to  the  boundary  of  the  city. 

Lyndale  avenue  was  named  from  the  Lyndale  farm  of  1400  acres 
owned  by  Hon.  William  S.  King,  adjoining  Lakes  Harriet  and  Calhoun, 
which  also  was  the  source  of  the  names  of  Lyndale  Park  and  Lyndale 
Farmstead.  The  original  adoption  of  this  name  for  the  farm  was  in 
honor  of  Mr.  King's  father,  Rev.  Lyndon  King,  an  itinerant  Methodist 
minister  of  northern  New  York,  who  was  named  for  Josiah  Lyndon, 
colonial  governor  of  Rhode  Island  in  1768-9.  "His  administration  was 
marked  by  signs  of  growing  hostility  to  the  British  government,  and 


602  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

especially  by  a  correspondence  between  the  governor  and  the  Earl  of 
Hillsborough,  in  which  the  former  protested  against  the  arbitrary  acts 
of  the  home  government."  (Applcton's  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biogra- 
phy.) 

East  from  Lyndale  avenue  and  parallel  with  it,  running  from  north 
to  south,  is  the  following  series  of  avenues:  Garfield,  named  for  the 
martyr  president  of  the  United  States;  Harriet,  named  for  the  adjacent 
lake;  Grand  avenue,  the  French  word  for  great,  hence  noble,  excellent; 
Pleasant  avenue;  Pillsbury  avenue,  named  in  honor  of  Governor  Pills- 
buryt  and  others  of  this  prominent  Minneapolis  family;  Blaisdell,  in 
honor  of  Robert  Blaisdell,  Sr.,  and  his  three  sons,  pioneers  here,  and 
lumbermen  on  the  upper  Mississippi;  Nicollet  avenue,  before  noticed; 
Marquette  avenue,  originally  called  Minnetonka  street,  later  First  ave- 
nue S.,  but  renamed  in  1916  for  the  renowned  Jacques  Marquette,  a  zeal- 
ous Christian  missionary  to  the  Indians  of  the  Great  Lakes,  a  voyager 
with  Joliet  down  the  Mississippi  from  the  Wisconsin  to  the  Arkansas 
river  in  1673;  Stevens,  in  honor  of  Col.  John  H.  Stevens,t  before  men- 
tioned, whose  statue  is  at  the  intersection  of  Portland  avenue  and 
Eleventh  street ;  Second  and  Third  avenues  S. ;  Clinton  avenue,  in  honor 
of  Qinton  Morrison,t  a  prominent  business  man  of  this  city,  and  during 
nearly  thirty  years  a  bank  president;  Fourth  and  Fifth  avenues;  Port- 
land, Oakland,  Park,  Columbus,  and  Chicago  avenues,  the  last  being  also 
known  as  Eighth  avenue  S. ;  Elliot  avenue,  running  south  from  the  west 
side  of  Elliot  park,  which  was  partly  donated  to  the  city  July  14,  1883, 
by  Dr.  Jacob  S.  Elliott  and  wife;  Tenth  to  Fifteenth  avenues;  Blooming- 
ton  avenue,  named  for  Bloomington  township,  toward  which  it  extends; 
Sixteenth,  Seventeenth,  and  Eighteenth  avenues;  Cedar  avenue,  named 
for  red  cedars  formerly  on  the  Mississippi  bluffs  at  its  north  end ;  Long- 
fellow avenue  for  the  beloved  American  poet,  who  wrote  of  Minnehaha 
and  the  Pipestone  Quarry,  in  this  state,  also  for  a  respected  family 
founded  in  this  county  and  city  by  Jacob  Longfellow,  who  came  in  1852 
to  Getchell  prairie  in  Brooklyn;  and  Nineteenth  to  Forty-ninth  avenues, 
occupying  a  width  of  more  than  two  miles  in  the  southeast  part  of  the 
city  west  of  the  river. 

With  the  foregoing,  eastward  from  Cedar  avenue,  are  to  be  also 
noted  four  avenues,  crossing  these  diagonally  from  northwest  to  south- 
east, named  Hiawatha,  Railroad,  Snelling,  and  Minnehaha  avenues,  the 
last  being  the  most  northeastern.  They  run  in  parallelism  with  the  Chi- 
cago, Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  railroad,  and  lead  toward  Minnehaha  falls 
and  Fort  Snelling,  whence,  and  also  from  Longfellow's  "Song  of  Hia- 
watha," celebrating  the  beauties  of  these  falls,  the  four  names  are  de- 
rived. 

Riverside  avenue.  Riverside  park  and  terrace,  and  their  continuation 
southeastward  by  the  West  River  Bank  Parkway,  are  successively  near 
and  beside  the  great  river,  whence  came  these  names. 


MINNEAPOLIS  603 

Next  may  be  noted  Washington  and  Franklin  avenues  and  Lake 
street.  In  accordance  with  the  generalization  before  mentioned,  that  ave- 
nues are  transverse  to  the  course  of  the  river,  while  streets  are  parallel 
with  it,  each  of  these  should  consistently  be  called  a  street.  Washington 
avenue,  commemorates  George  Washington.  Franklin  avenue,  which  in 
the  numerical  system  would  be  Twentieth  street,  similarly  honors  Ben- 
jamin Franklin,  but  it  also  recalls  the  memory  of  Samuel  Franklin,  whose 
land  patent  for  eighty  acres,  April  23,  1855,  bordered  the  south  side  of 
this  avenue.  Furthermore,  it  likewise  may  recall  Franklin  Steele,t  a 
very  early  and  prominent  citizen,  and  Franklin  Cookf,  who  was  an  early 
county  surveyor.  Lake  street,  or  Thirtieth  street  in  the  system  of  num- 
erical nomenclature,  in  its  western  continuation  skirts  the  north  shore 
of  Lake  Calhoun,  passing  between  that  lake  and  the  Lake  of  the  Isles. 

West  from  Lyndale  avenue,  in  north  to  south  parallelism  with  it,  is 
a  very  interesting  alphabetic  series  of  avenues,  named  alike  in  the  south- 
western, and  the  northern  parts  of  the  city  west  of  the  river,  although 
their  midway  course  is  interrupted  by  railway  tracks  and  yards.  These 
avenues  are  Aldrich,  named  for  Thomas  Bajley  Aldrich,  poet  and  editor, 
also  in  honor  of  Cyrus  Aldrichf,  of  this  city,  member  of  Congress  in 
1859-63,  and  postmaster  of  Minneapolis,  1867-71 ;  Bryant,  for  the  earlier 
poet  and  editor;  Colfax,  for  the  vice-president  of  the  United  States; 
Dupont,  for  the  naval  commander  in  the  Mexican  and  civil  wars;  Emer- 
son, for  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  essayist  and  poet;  Fremont,  for  "the 
Pathfinder ;"  Girard,  for  the  merchant  and  philanthropist  in  Philadelphia, 
founder  of  Girard  College;  Humboldt,  for  the  German  scientist  and 
author,  who  traveled  through  South  America  and  Mexico  in  1799-1804; 
Irving,  for  the  well  known  author,  Washington  Irving ;  James,  for  George 
P.  R.  James,  an  English  novelist  and  historical  writer;  Knox,  for  Henry 
Knox,  an  artillery  general  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  later  United  States 
secretary  of  war,  1785-95;  Logan,  for  John  A.  Logan,  general  and  states- 
man ;  Morgan,  in  honor  of  George  N.  Morgan,!  colonel  of  the  First  Min- 
nesota regiment,  September,  1862,  to  May,  1863,  brevetted  brigadier  gen- 
eral in  1865;  Newton,  for  Sir  Isaac  Newton;  Oliver,  for  Deacon  A.  M. 
Oliver,  a  pioneer  who  came  here  from  Missouri,  platted  his  claim  as 
Oliver's  Park  addition,  and  whose  widow  was  a  generous  donor  to  the 
Oliver  Presbjrterian  church  and  to  Macalester  College;  Penn,  for  the 
founder  of  Pennsylvania;  Queen  avenue;  Russell,  for  Roswell  P.  Rus- 
sell,t  before  noticed  as  an  honored  pioneer,  who  came  to  Fort  Snelling 
in  1839,  and  opened  the  first  store  in  St.  Anthony  in  1847;  Sheridan  and 
Thomas  avenues,  for  generals  in  the  civil  war ;  Upton,  for  Emory  Upton, 
also  a  general  in  that  war,  afterward  commandant  of  cadets  at  West 
Point,  1870-75;  Vincent,  for  Thomas  M.  Vincent,  who  was  graduated  at 
West  Point  in  1853,  and  was  assistant  adjutant  general  of  the  United 
States  through  the  civil  war;  Washburn  avenue,  in  honor  of  Governor 
C.  C.  Washburn,t  of  Wisconsin,  builder  of  a  very  large  flouring  mill  in 
Minneapolis  in  1876,  and  of  his  brother,  William  D.  Washburn,t  of  this 


604  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

city,  United  States  senator;  and  Xerxes,  York,  and  Zenith  avenues,  these 
names  being  chosen  simply  to  fill  their  alphabetic  places. 

Next  westward  a  second  alphabetic  series  of  avenue  names  is  begun, 
reaching  to  the  city  boundary.  This  short  list  comprises  Abbott  avenue, 
in  honor  of  £.  T.  Abbott,  Minneapolis  surveyor  and  civil  engineer,  and 
of  Seth  Abbott,t  who  in  18S3  platted  an  addition  of  this  city,  and  whose 
daughter  Emmaf  was  a  famous  singer;  Beard  avenue  for  Henry 
Beach  Beard,  who  donated  to  the  city  the  greater  part  of  the  Lake  Har- 
riet boulevard;  Chowen  avenue,  for  George  W.  Chowen.t  of  this  city, 
county  register  of  deeds,  and  later  clerk  of  the  district  court;  and  Drew, 
Ewing,  and  France  avenues,  the  last  being  on  the  west  line  of  the  city. 

Crossing  the  central  and  north  part  of  the  area  of  the  alphabetic  ave- 
nues, are  several  east  to  west  avenues  bearing  distinctive  names  other 
than  the  numerical  avenues  north,  which  latter  begin  with  the  first  north 
of  Chestnut  avenue.  The  list  of  these  mostly  short  avenues,  in  the  order 
from  south  to  north,  includes  Lagoon  avenue,  close  northeast  of  Lake 
Calhoun;  Franklin  avenue,  continuing  east  through  the  city;  Lincoln, 
Summit,  Douglas,  Superior, •Erie,  Ontario,  Laurel,  Hawthorne,  Linden, 
Chestnut,  Western,  Plymouth,  and  Mississippi  avenues. 

The  tract  containing  the  last  named  avenues  is  also  crossed  by  Cedar 
Lake  road,  running  from  southwest  to  northeast,  and  by  Farwell  avenue, 
quite  short,  and  the  longer  Crystal  Lake'  road,  each  running  northwest. 

On  the  north  the  series  of  numerical  avenues  reaches  to  Fifty-third 
avenue  N.,  on  the  city  boundary  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  to  Thirty- 
seventh  avenue  N.  E.,  on  the  east  side  of  the  river.  But  beyond  the  cit>' 
limit  the  latter  series  has  been  platted  to  Forty-fifth  avenue  N.  E.,  or 
beyond  this,  in  Fridley  township,  Anoka  county,  forming  there  the  suburb 
named  Columbia  Heights. 

Between  Hennepin  and  Nicollet  avenues,  in  an  addition  platted  by 
Allen  Harmon,  July  23,  1856,  was  Harmon  street,  later  renamed  as  Har- 
mon place.  Next  southeastward  are  Yale  place  and  Mary  place,  the  lat- 
ter when  first  platted  in  1858  being  named  Mary  street.  These  streets, 
each  called  a  "place,"  run  northeastward.  Near  them,  but  running  due 
east,  as  the  most  northern  in  the  large  series  of  east  to  west  streets,  is 
Grant  street,  named  for  President  Grant. 

Nearly  all  the  blocks  are  rectangular,  and  the  streets  and  avenues 
straight.  Notable  exceptions  to  this  general  rule  are  several  additions 
that  occupy  somewhat  hilly  ground,  diversified  by  low  ridges  and  hill- 
ocks or  knolls  of  morainic  drift.  Such  is  a  tract  called  Washburn  Park, 
in  the  south  edge  of  the  city,  surrounding  the  Washburn  Home,  an 
orphanage,  bounded  on  the  south  by  the  Minnehaha  creek  and  parkway; 
and  other  tracts  of  short,  curving  streets  and  avenues  are  the  Oak  Lake, 
Oak  Park,  Ridgewood,  Lake  View,  Kenwood,  Bryn  Mawr,  and  Grove- 
land  additions. 

In  the  vicinity  of  the  Washburn  Home  are  Rustic  Lodge  avenue, 
Prospect,  Lynn,  Belmont,  and  Luverne  avenues,  and  Elmwood  place. 


MINNEAPOLIS  605 

In  the  district  of  Loring  Park,  Lowry  hill,  and  Kenwood  Park,  are 
Spruce  place,  Willow  street,  Oak  Grove  avenue,  Clifton  place  and  avenue, 
Groveland  avenue,  Dell  place.  Forest  and  Ridgewood  avenues,  Vineland 
place.  Summit  place,  and  Mount  Curve  avenue,  names  suggested  by  their 
forest  trees  and  the  irregular  topography. 

Adjoining  Cedar  Lake  road  and  westward  are  Elm  and  Ash  streets, 
Madeira,  Antoinette,  Wilton,  Myrtle,  Eden,  and  Lakeview  avenues. 

In  Oak  Lake  addition  are  Lakeside  avenue,  Border,  Highland,  and 
Royalston  avenues,  and  Holden  street.  This  addition  was  platted  in 
1873  by  Samuel  C.  Galef  and  Chauncey  W.  Griggs,t  of  whom  the  former 
was  born  in  Royalston,  Mass.    Holden,  Mass.,  was  his  wife's  native  town. 

Elwood  avenue  and  Thomas  place  are  in  Oak  Park  addition,  the  first 
being  named  in  honor  of  Elwood  S.  Corser.f  who  was  in  real  estate 
business  here  during  forty  years. 

In  the  hilly  tract  north  of  the  North  Commons  are  Ilion,  Hillside,  Wil- 
low, and  Crystal  Lake  avenues,  with  McNair  avenue  extending  thence 
southwest  and  west.  The  first  bears  the  Greek  name  of  ancient  Troy,  and 
the  last  honors  William  W.  McNair,t  a  distinguished  lawyer  of  this  city. 

Nicollet  Island  is  nearly  encircled  by  Island  avenue,  and  is  crossed  by 
Merriam  street.  East  Hennepin  and  Eastman  avenues,  Grove  street,  and 
Maple  place,  the  last  two  being  joined  by  Nicollet  street.  Eastman  ave- 
nue honors  William  W.  Eastman,t  who  settled  in  St.  Anthony  in  1854  and 
purchased  this  island;  and  Merriam  street  is  named  for  John  L.  Mer- 
riamt,  of  St.  Paul. 

Continuing  the  catalogue  to  the  east  side  of  the  Mississippi,  which 
was  the  village  and  later  the  city  of  St.  Anthony,  until  1872,  we  may  first 
note  that  University  avenue,  passing  the  north  side  of  the  campus  and 
building  area  of  the  University  of  Minnesota,  and  East  Hennepin  avenue, 
of  which  the  greater  part,  as  before  noted  was  originally  called  Division 
street  and  Central  avenue,  are  in  the  groups  of  streets,  being  transverse 
to  the  groups  of  avenues. 

University  avenue  also  extends  east  in  St.  Paul,  past  the  north  side  of 
the  capitol,  having  a  total  length  of  twelve  miles,  and  being  the  longest 
street  under  a  single  name  in  the  Twin  Cities. 

Aside  from  the  numerical  systems  of  streets  and  avenues,  this  east 
side,  often  called  East  Minneapolis,  has  a  very  noteworthy  group  of 
streets  named  for  the  presidents  of  the  United  States.  These  streets 
running  south  and  north,  in  chronologic  sequence,  are  Washington,  Adams, 
Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe,  Quincy  (for  John  Quincy  Adams),  Jackson, 
Van  Buren,  Harrison,  Tyler,  Polk,  Taylor,  Fillmore,  Pierce,  Buchanan, 
Lincoln,  Johnson,  Ulysses  (for  Ulysses  Simpson  Grant,  in  whose  honor 
Grant  street  on  the  west  side  was  earlier  named),  Hayes,  Garfield,  Arthur, 
Cleveland,  Benjamin  (for  Benjamin  Harrison),  McKinley,  Roosevelt, 
and  Taft. 

A  less  extended  alphabetic  series  of  short  west  to  east  streets,  south- 
east of  the  University  campus,  has  Arlington  and  Beacon  streets,  names 


606  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

received  from  Boston,  Mass.;  the  next  for  C  is  omitted,  its  place  being 
taken  by  Washington  avenue;  and  thence  southward  are  Delaware,  Essex, 
and  Fulton  streets.  Next  southward,  in  parallelism  with  the  foregoing, 
are  Dartmouth,  Yale,  and  Hamline  avenues,  named  for  Dartmouth 
College  and  Yale  and  Hamline  Universities. 

Crossing  the  campus  from  north  to  south  are  Pleasant  and  Church 
streets;  and  next  eastward  are  Union,  Harvard,  Walnut,  Oak,  Ontario. 
Erie,  Huron,  and  Superior  streets,  the  last  four  being  named  from  the 
Great  Lakes  between  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

Southward  from  East  Hennepin  avenue  and  in  parallelism  with  it,  are 
Talmage,  Como,  Brook,  Fairmount,  and  Rollins  avenues,  and  Elm  street 
The  first,  with  change  in  spelling,  is  named  in  honor  of  Tallmadge  Til- 
well,  a  pioneer  resident,  whose  sons  are  prominent  citizens;  the  second, 
for  Lake  Como  in  St.  Paul,  passed  in  its  eastern  continuation;  the  third, 
for  a  small  brook  crossed  by  it ;  and  the  fifth,  in  honor  of  John  Rollins,t 
who  came  to  St.  Anthony  in  1848,  being  one  of  its  earliest  settlers,  en- 
gaged in  lumbering,  and  built  a  steamboat,  "Governor  Ramsey,"  to  ply 
on  the  Mississippi  above  the  falls. 

North  of  East  Hennepin  avenue,  parallel  therewith  and  crossing  the 
presidential  series  of  streets,  are  Winter,  Spring,  and  Summer  streets, 
and  Broadway,  the  last,  like  a  street  of  St.  Paul,  being  named  from  the 
widely  known  street  of  this  name  in  New  York  City. 

Adjoining  the  east  side  of  the  river  and  parallel  with  it,  extending 
northwest  and  north,  are  Water  street,  Sibley,  Ramsey,  and  Marshall 
streets,  named  for  three  early  Minnesota  governors,  Grand,  California, 
and  Main  streets,  the  last  being  the  longest  and  at  the  beginning  of  the 
systems  of  streets  for  the  northeast  and  southeast  divisions  of  the  city. 

Bank  street,  near  the  river,  next  southeast  of  East  Hennepin  avenue, 
is  named  for  its  ascent  of  the  river  bank. 

Only  one  area  in  East  Minneapolis  has  broken  topography  of  morainic 
drift  hills  and  ridges.  This  residential  tract,  commonly  known  as  Pros- 
pect Park,  is  at  the  south  side  of  University  avenue  in  the  east  edge  of 
the  city.  Its  curving  and  short  streets  or  avenues,  in  their  order  from 
northwest  to  southeast,  are  St.  Mary  avenue,  Williams  and  Arthur  ave- 
nues, Sidney  place,  and  Malcolm,  Barton,  Seymour,  Orlin,  Clarence,  and 
Melbourne  avenues.  Adjacent  southward  are  the  short  and  straight 
Thornton  street.  Chandler  street,  Sharon  avenue,  and  Warwick,  Cecil, 
Bedford,  and  Emerald  streets. 

Thirty-second  avenue  N.,  in  the  northwest  division  of  the  city,  and  its 
direct  continuation  east,  by  a  bridge  over  the  Mississippi  and  by  Twenty- 
fifth  avenue  N.  E.,  were  renamed  in  1915  as  Lowry  avenue,  extending  thus 
in  a  west  to  east  course  across  the  city,  honoring  the  late  Thomas  Low- 
ry ,t  founder  of  the  street  railway  system  of  the  Twin  Cities.  His  statue, 
at  the  junction  of  Hennepin  and  Lyndale  avenues,  near  his  former  home, 
was  unveiled  August  18,  1915. 


MINNEAPOLIS  607 

Boulevards  and  Parkways. 

Nearly  the  entire  area  of  this  city  is  encircled  by  pleasure  driveways. 

Beginning  with  the  River  Road  East,  and  crossing  thence  by  the 
Franklin  Avenue  or  Lake  Street  bridges  to  the  River  Road  West,  each 
of  these  roads  being  named  for  their  following  the  shores  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, the  "Grand  Rounds"  continue  by  Minnehaha  park,  named  from 
its  falls,  and  the  Minnehaha  parkway,  with  Lake  Nokomis  park,  named 
respectively  for  the  Minnehaha  creek  and  the  lake,  to  the  outlet  of  Lake 
Harriet.  In  Longfellow's  grand  poem,  Nokomis  was  the  grandmother 
of  Hiawatha. 

Thence  the  circuit  includes  the  Lake  Harriet  boulevard,  surrounding 
this  lake,  with  Lyndale  park  and  farmstead  and  King's  highway,  named 
for  its  donor,  Hon.  William  S.  King,  from  whose  large  Lyndale  farm 
came  the  names  of  the  park  and  farmstead,  as  also  of  L3mdale  avenue. 

Next  are  Linden  Hills  boulevard,  named  from  the  residential  district 
adjoining  it  on  the  west,  William  Berry  park,  formerly  called  Interlachen 
from  its  position  between  Lakes  Harriet  and  Calhoun,  renamed  in  1916 
in  honor  of  William  Morse  Berry.f  formerly  superintendent  of  the  park 
system,  1885-1906,  and  the  Lake  Calhoun  parkway,  passing  around  this 
largest  lake  in  the  western  lake  chain  or  series  of  this  city. 

Minikahda,  a  club  ground  west  of  Lake  Calhoun  means  "Beside  waiter." 

Northward  this  circuit  of  driveways  comprises  Dean  boulevard,  named 
in  honor  of  A.  J.  Dean,  one  of  its  donors  in  1892,  the  Lake  of  the  Isles 
park,  Cedar  Lake  boulevard,  and  the  large  Glen  wood  park,  586  acres, 
named  from  its  glens  and  woods.  In  this  park  are  Hillside  Harbor, 
formerly  called  Brownie  lake,  connected  with  Cedar  lake,  Birch  and  Lily 
ponds,  Glenwood  lake,  and  the  South  and  North  Lagoons,  throygh  which 
Bassett  creek  runs,  receiving  also  the  outflow  of  this  lake. 

Memorial  Drive,  the  part  of  the  Grand  Rounds  west  of  Glenwood 
park  and  east  to  Camden  park,  three  miles  long,  to  be  shaded  with  rows 
of  elms  given  by  Charles  M.  Loring,  planned  in  October,  1919,  com- 
memorates Minneapolis  soldiers  of  the  World  War. 

Camden  park  and  the  adjacent  residence  area,  to  the  Mississippi,  are 
named  from  the  city  of  Camden,  N.  J.,  opposite  to  Philadelphia. 

After  crossing  the  river,  the  northeastern  part  of  the  circuit  is  named 
Saint  Antl\ony  boulevard,  passing  through  Columbia  park,  185  acres,  and 
thence  southeast  and  south  to  the  Stinson  boulevard  and  Van  Cleve 
park,  and  onward  to  the  northern  end  of  the  River  Road  East,  with 
which  this  description  began.  James  Stinson  donated  the  boulevard 
to  the  city  in  1885,  and  the  last  named  park  honors  Gen.  Horatio  P.  Van 
Clevet  and  his  wife,  Charlotte  Ouisconsin  Van  Cleve.f 

The  Winchell  Trail. 

In  recognition  of  the  public  service  of  the  late  Professor  Winchell,t 
state  geologist  nearly  thirty  years,  from  1872  to  1901,  and  a  resident  of 
this  city  forty-two  years,  until  his  death  May  2,  1914,  a  footpath  along 


608  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

the  west  shore  of  the  Mississippi  river  was  named  later  in  that  year  as 
the  Winchell  Trail,  lying  between  the  River  Road  West  and  the  river, 
and  reaching  from  Franklin  avenue  south  to  Minnehaha  Park, 

At  its  north  entrance,  a  large  boulder  which  was  brought  from  the 
Mesabi  Iron  Range  by  his  eldest  son,  Horace  V.  Winchell,t  bears  a 
bronze  tablet,  noting  that  the  trail  "was  named  in  honor  of  the  eminent 
geologist,  Newton  Horace  Winchell,  whose  scientific  studies  along  this 
river  provided  a  measure  for  the  time  since  the  Glacial  period." 

Parks  and  other  Public  Grounds. 

An  interesting  history  of  the  inception  and  development  of  the  park 
system  of  Minneapolis,  by  Charles  M.  Lx)ring,  with  a  postscript  by  Wil- 
liam W.  Folwell,  is  published  in  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  Collec- 
tions, volume  XV,  1915,  pages  599-608. 

In  addition  to  the  numerous  parks  already  noted  on  the  "Grand 
Rounds"  series  of  driveways,  a  group  of  parks  and  public  grounds  is 
connected  with  that  circuit  at  the  Lake  of  the  Isles  by  Kenwood  park- 
way, including  Kenwood  park,  Bryn  Mawr  Meadows,  which  received  the 
name  of  an  adjoining  residential  area  (Welsh  words  meaning  "great  hill," 
adopted  from  a  town  in  Wales  and  a  village  near  Philadelphia),  the 
Parade  grounds,  68  acres,  and  Loring  park,  36  acres,  named  in  honor  of 
Cbarles  M.  Loring,t  "Father  of  the  Park  System." 

The  many  other  parks  and  small  open  spaces  owned  by  this  city  may 
be  conveniently  listed  for  reference  in  the  following  alphabetic  order. 

Audubon  park,  named  for  the  renowned  American  ornithologist; 
Barnes  place,  for  William  A.  Barnes,t  who,  with  El  wood  S.  Corserf  and 
others,  platted  the  Oak  Park  addition,  having  this  place;  Barton  and 
Bedford  triangles;  Bottineau  field,  named  for  Pierre  Bottineauf  and 
others  of  his  family;  Bridge  square,  the  junction  of  Hennepin  and  Nicollet 
avenues,  between  Gateway  park  and  the  bridge  of  the  Mississippi;  Bryant 
square,  adjoining  Bryant  avenue;  Caleb  Dorrf  circle,  for  a  prominent 
pioneer  lumberman;  Cedar  Avenue  triangle,  and  Chowen,  Qarence,  and 
Clifton  triangles ;  Cottage  park.  Crystal  Lake  triangle,  Dell  park  and  Dell 
place,  and  Douglas  triangle. 

Dorilus  Morrisont  park,  comprising  eight  acres,  was  named  by  its 
donor,  Clinton  Morrison,t  in  honor  of  his  father,  pioneer  lumberman, 
state  senator  in  1864-5,  and  the  first  mayor  of  this  city  in  1867.  The 
Minneapolis  Art  Institute  is  on  the  northwest  part  of  this  park. 

Elliot  park,  seven  acres,  was  partly  deeded  to  the  city  as  a  donation  in 
1883  by  Dr.  Jacob  S.  Elliott  and  his  wife. 

Elm  wood  and  Euclid  triangles  adjoin  short  streets,  called  places,  which 
bear  these  names. 

Farview  park,  nearly  21  acres,  purchased  in  1883,  on  a  hilltop  in  the 
northwest  part  of  the  city,  was  named  by  Dr.  Folwell  for  its  extensive 
panoramic  outlook. 

Farwell  park  adjoins  Farwell  avenue. 


MINNEAPOLIS  609 

Franklin  Steelef  square  was  donated  to  the  city  in  1883  by  three 
daughters  of  the  prominent  pioneer  of  this  name,  who  came  to  Minnesota 
in  1837  and  built  a  suspension  bridge  in  1854,  connecting  Minneapolis  and 
St.  Anthony,  the  first  bridge  spanning  the  Mississippi  in  all  its  course. 

The  Gateway,  a  public  ground  of  about  one  acre,  between  Hennepin, 
Nicollet,  and  Washington  avenues,  welcomes  visitors  and  immigrants. 

Glen  Gale  commemorates  Samuel  C.  Gale,t  in  whose  honor,  and  for 
his .  wife,  as  before  noted,  Royalston  avenue  and  Holden  street  were 
named. 

Groveland  and  Hiawatha  triangles.  Highland  oval,  Hillside,  Hum- 
boldt,  and  lagoo  triangles,  are  mostly  named  from  adjoining  avenues,  ex- 
cepting the  last,  which  is  from  the  Shakespearean  tragedy  of  "Othello." 

Irving  triangle,  Jackson  square,  Kenwood  triangle,  Lakeside  oval,  and 
Laurel  triangle,  are  named  from  avenues  or  streets. 

Logan  park,  ten  acres  in  East  Minneapolis,  purchased  in  1883,  com- 
memorates Gen.  John  A.  Logan,  for  whom  also  an  avenue  in  the  west 
part  of  the  city  is  named. 

Longfellow  Gardens,  a  privately  owned  zoological  garden,  at  the 
west  side  of  Hiawatha  avenue,  opposite  to  the  Minnehaha  park,  is  open 
to  the  public  by  paying  for  admission. 

Lovell  square  was  donated  to  the  city  in  1889,  by  Corser,  Barnes,  and 
Lovell,  who  platted  the  Oak  Park  addition. 

Maple  Hill  park,  eight  acres,  is  in  the  northeast  division  of  the  city, 
purchased  in  1908. 

Marshall  terrace,  nearly  eight  acres  beside  the  Mississippi,  adjoins 
Marshall  street  N.  £.,  named  for  William  R.  Marshall,!  governor  of 
Minnesota  in  1866-70. 

Monroe  place  and  Mount  Curve  triangle  adjoin  the  street  and  avenue 
of  these  names. 

Murphy  square,  three  acres,  was  donated  by  Captain  Edward  Mur- 
phyt  in  1857,  being  the  earliest  park  of  this  city.  He  was  master  of  the 
steamboat  "Falls  City,"  which  made  regular  trips  to  St.  Anthony  and 
Minneapolis. 

Newton  triangle  adjoins  Newton  avenue  N. 

Nor  mania  triangle  was  named  through  suggestion  of  Dr.  Folwell,  in 
compliment  for  the  many  Norwegian  people  living  near  it. 

North  Commons,  a  park  of  nearly  26  acres,  was  purchased  in  1907. 

Oak  Lake  parks,  comprising  two  acres,  were  donated  in  the  plat  of 
that  addition  in  1873. 

Oliver  and  Orlin  triangles  adjoin  the  avenues  so  named. 

Osseo  triangle,  beside  Hiawatha  avenue,  was  named,  like  Osseo  vil- 
lage in  this  county,  meaning  "Son  of  the  Evening  Star,"  in  Longfellow's 
"Song  of  Hiawatha." 

Powderhorn  Lake  park,  alludes  to  the  original  outline  of  its  lake, 
shown  remarkably  like  a  powderhorn  and  so  named  by  the  survey  and 


610  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

plat  of  the  Military  Reservation  for  Fort  Snelling,  made  under  an  order 
of  Major  Plympton  for  the  War  Department  in  1839. 

Prospect  Field,  five  acres,  is  in  the  residential  district  called  Prospect 
Park. 

Rauen  triangle  commemorates  Peter  Rauen,  an  earty  German  settler. 

Richard  Chutef  square,  one  acre,  is  named  in  honor  of  a  prominent 
pioneer  who  settled  in  St.  Anthony  in  1854.  Its  house,  the  museum  of 
the  Hennepin  County  Territorial  Pioneers  Association,  was  built  by  Ard 
Godfreyt  in  1848,  being  the  first  frame  house  of  this  city. 

Riverside  park,  42  acres  beside  the  Mississippi,  purchased  in  1883  and 
1910,  is  at  the  northern  end  of  the  parkway  named  River  Road  West ' 

Royalston,  Russell,  a)id  Rustic  Lodge  triangles  are  beside  avenues  so 
named,  each  being  a  donation  to  the  city. 

"Seven  Corners"  is  the  well  known  name  of  the  wide  intersection 
space  of  Washington  and  Cedar  Avenues,  with  other  streets,  where 
seven  street  corners  are  seen  in  one  view.  A  similar  locality  in  St.  Paul 
bears  the  same  name. 

Sheridan  field,  like  the  adjacent  Logan  park,  honors  a  general  of  the 
civil  war,  for  whom  also  Sheridan  avenue  is  named. 

Snyder  triangle  was  named  for  a  distinguished  Minneapolis  family; 
Stevens  square,  in  honor  of  Col.  John  H.  Stevens,t  for  whom  the  adjoin- 
ing avenue  is  named:  Stewart  field,  nearly  four  acres,  for  Levi  M. 
Stewartt  after  his  death,  by  whose  brother  it  was  partly  donated:  and 
Sumner  field,  nearly  four  acres,  with  the  adjacent  Sumner  place,  honors 
the  well  known  statesman,  Charles  Sumner. 

Svea  triangle  is  in  honor  of  Sweden  and  its  immigrants. 

Tower  Hill,  a  park  area  of  nearly  fivt  acres,  comprising  the  highest 
hilltop  in  the  Prospect  Park  residential  district,  is  named  for  its  water 
tower  or  reservoir  for  high  pressure  service. 

Vineland  triangle  and  place  bear  the  ancient  name  given  by  the 
Northmen,  almost  fi'v^  centuries  before  Columbus,  to  the  northeastern 
coast  of  our  continent. 

Virginia  triangle  in  the  southern  angle  of  intersection  of  Hennepin 
and  Lyndale  avenues,  has  the  statue  of  Thomas  Lowry.f  for  whom  also 
Lowry  avenue  is  named,  as  before  noted. 

Washburn  Fair  Oaks,  a  park  of  seven  acres  and  a  half,  was  a  part 
of  the  home  estate,  named  Fair  Oaks,  of  the  late  Senator  William  D. 
Washburn.f  It  adjoins  the  north  side  of  the  Dorilus  Morrison  park, 
with  Twenty-fourth  street  passing  between  these  parks. 

Washburn  Park  is  a  residence  district,  previously  noticed. 

Wilson  park,  about  an  acre,  commemorates  Eugene  M.  Wilson,t  who 
settled  here  as  a  lawyer  in  1857  and  was  a  member  of  Congress,  1869-71. 

Windom  park,  nearly  nine  acres,  on  the  south  side  of  Lowry  avenue, 
in  the  northeast  division  of  the  city,  is  named  in  honor  of  the  states- 
man, William  Windom,t  of  Winona,  who  was  United  States  senator  and 
secretary  of  the  treasury. 


SAINT  PAUL 

Several  residential  districts  in  the  city  of  St  Paul  have  been  pre- 
viously noticed  by  the  chapter  for  Ramsey  county,  these  being  Mer- 
riam  Park,  Riverview  or  West  St.  Paul,  St.  Anthony  Park,  Hazel  Park 
and  Highwood,  Dayton's  bluff,  Arlington  Hills,  Phalen  Park,  Como, 
Lexington,  Macalester,  and  'Groveland  Parks,  Hamline,  St  Anthony 
Hill,  also  called  the  Hill  district,  and  Seven  Corners.  Other  residence 
areas  having  similar  distinctive  names  are  noted  in  the  following  pages. 

The  Mississippi  river,  its  islands,  the  lakes  of  the  city  area,  and 
Carver's  cave  and  Fountain  cave,  have  likewise  received  consideration 
in  the  Ramsey  county  chapter. 

Information  of  the  significance  of  names  of  streets,  avenues,  boule- 
vards, and  parks,  as  -here  recorded,  has  been  derived  from  "History  of 
the  City  of  Saint  Paul  and  of  the  County  of  Ramse3r"  (M.  H.  S.  Col- 
lections, vol.  IV),  by  John  Fletcher  Williams,  1876,  475  pages;  "History 
of  St.  Paul,"  edited  by  Gen.  C.  C.  Andrews,  1890,  603  and  244  pages; 
"Pen  Pictures  of  St.  Paul,"  by  Major  T.  M.  Newson,  1886,  746  pages; 
*Past  and  Present  of  St.  Paul,"  by  W.  B.  Hennessy,  1906,  814  pages; 
"History  of  St.  Paul  and  Vicinity,"  by  Captain  Henry  A.  Castle,  1912, 
three  volumes;  from  George  H.  Hazzard,  secretary  of  the  Minnesota 
Territorial  Pioneers  Association,  Edmund  W.  Bazille,  since  1898  judge 
of  the  probate  court,  the  late  Henry  S.  Fairchild  and  Auguste  L.  Lar- 
penteur,  Lloyd  Peabody,  Cornelius  M.  Crowley,  Edward  C.  Hall,  William 
T.  McMurran,  Benjamin  F.  Meek,  Duval  F.  Polk,  William  H.  Wood, 
and  many  other  citizens  of  St.  Paul;  and  from  early  plats,  maps,  and 
views  of  St.  Paul,  in  the  Library  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society, 
and  in  offices  of  the  city  engineer,  the  Board  of  Park  Commissioners, 
and  the  Ramsey  county  register  of  deeds. 

Streets  and  Avenues. 
Maps  of  1851  and  1857. 

The  oldest  part  of  this  city,  called  "St.  Paul  Proper"  on  the  earliest 
map,  compiled  by  George  C.  Nichols  and  published  in  1851,  as  noted  by 
Williams  (page  316),  was  surveyed  in  the  fall  of  1847  by  Ira  B.  and  Ben- 
jamin W.  Brunson,t  and  was  placed  on  record  April  28,  1849.  This  area 
is  mapped  with  St.  Peter's  street,  Wabashaw,  Cedar,  Minnesota,  Robert, 
Jackson,  and  Sibley  streets,  which  cross  it  north-northwesterly;  while 
Water  and  Bench  streets  run  eastward,  adjoining  the  river  and  in  paral- 
lelism with  it,  and  Third,  Fourth,  Fifth,  Sixth  and  Seventh  streets  run 


tSee  notes  of  biocrraphles  In  the  M.  H.  S.  Collections,  vol.  XIV,  1912. 

611 


612  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

east-northeastward,  at  right  angles  with  the  streets  first  named.  All 
these  streets,  excepting  Water  street,  since  occupied  by  railways,  remain 
today  with  the  same  names,  comprising  the  central  and  most  important 
business  portion  of  the  city. 

St.  Peter  street,  as  now  spelled,  was  named  for  the  St  Peter  or 
Minnesota  river;  Wabasha,t  as  now  spelled,  was  for  the  hereditary  Sioux 
or  Dakota  chiefs  of  this  name,  borne  also  by  a  county;  Cedar  street  had 
red  cedar  trees  on  the  Mississippi  bluff  at  its  southern  end;  Minnesota 
street  bears  the  Sioux  name  of  the  river,  and  of  the  territory  and  state; 
Louis  Robertt  was  a  trader  here  and  a  steamboat  captain  on  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  was  the  first  signer  and  proprietor  of  this  plat;  Henry  Jack- 
sont  came  to  St.  Paul  in  1842,  was  its  first  merchant,  having  his  store  on 
the  river  bank  near  the  street  that  was  named  in  his  honor,  and  was  the 
first  postmaster;  Henry  Hastings  Sibley,t  coming  to  the  area  of  Minne- 
sota in  1834,  was  delegate  in  Congress,  1849-53,  and  was  the  first  governor 
of  this  state,  in  1858-60;  and  Bench  street  was  named  for  its  ascent  from 
near  the  river  levee,  at  Jackson's  store,  to  the  crest  edge  of  the  bluff  near 
Minnesota  street. 

The  map  of  1851  includes  also  additions  on  the  east,  platted  by  Whitney 
and  Smith  in  1849,  and  by  Norman  W.  Kittsonf  in  1851 ;  on  the  northeast, 
platted  by  Benjamin  F.  Hoytf  in  1850,  by  Vandenburgh  in  1851,  and  also 
by  Paterson  in  1851 ;  on  the  north,  by  Robert  and  Randall,  1851,  and 
Bazille  and  Guerin,  1850;  on  the  northwest  and  west,  by  Rice  and  Irvine, 
in  1849  and  1851,  by  Leech  in  1849,  and  Winslow  and  Willes  in  1851. 

By  these  additions,  up  to  1851,  the  platted  area  was  extended  to  a 
length  of  two  miles  and  a  half,  from  Trout  and  Phalen  creeks  (the  latter 
then  called  McCloud  creek)  at  the  northeast,  to  the  corner  of  St.  Qair 
and  Webster  streets  (the  latter  being  then  named  Huron  street)  toward 
the  west.  Its  greatest  width,  through  the  eastern  half,  was  two-thirds 
to  three-fourths  of  a  mile.  The  scale  of  this  map  is  350  feet  to  an  inch, 
a  mile  being  thus  nearly  sixteen  inches  on  the  map. 

New  street  names,  brought  in  at  the  east  by  the  added  plats,  were 
Waukuta  and  Rosabel  streets,  Broadway,  and  Pike,  Mill,  John,  Simpson, 
Charles,  Brunson,  and  William  street,  running  north-northwestward. 
Broadway  was  the  widest,  named  from  the  most  important  street  at  that 
time  in  New  York  City.  Wacouta  street,  as  now  spelled,  commemorates 
a  Sioux  chief,  for  whom  also  a  township  of  Goodhue  county  is  named. 
The  seven  streets  eastward  from  Broadway  have  been  renamed,  with  one 
exception,  being  now,  in  the  same  order,  Pine,  Olive,  John,  Locust,  Willius, 
Neill,  and  Kittson  streets.  A  steam  sawmill  stood  in  1851  at  the  foot  of 
Mill  street,  now  Olive,  and  the  pine  logs  sawn  there  suggested  the  name 
of  Pine  street;  Ferdinandf  and  Gustav  Willius,t  early  bankers  of  SL 
Paul,  are  commemorated  by  the  former  Charles  street,  which  name  is  now 
borne  by  another  and  longer  street;  and  Edward  D.  Neill,t  the  first 
historian  of  Minnesota,  and  Norman  W.  Kittson,t  sutler,  fur  trader,  and 


SAINT  PAUL  613 

founder  of  steamboat  transportation  on  the  Red  river,  are  honored  by 
the  two  most  eastern  streets  in  this  list. 

Northeastward  this  map  has  Grove  and  Somerset  streets  and  Missis- 
sippi street,  also  Canada  and  Temperance  streets,  names  that  yet  remain, 
which  need  no  explanation  for  their  origins.  From  near  the  northern 
end  of  Canada  street,  the  New  Canada  road,  since  renamed  Cortland 
street,  ran  to  the  principal  settlement  in  New  Canada  township. 

The  series  of  numerical  streets,  parallel  with  the  river,  is  continued 
by  the  map  to  Twelfth  street,  and  by  more  recent  names  to  Fourteenth 
street 

Westward,  nearly  parallel  with  St.  Peter  street,  the  1851  map  has  the 
southern  part  of  Rice  street,  named  for  Henry  M.  Rice,t  who  later  was 
U.  S.  senator,  for  whom  a  county  is  named;  Market  and  Washington 
streets,  between  which  was  "Market  Square,"  renamed  as  Rice  Park;  and 
Eagle,  Chestnut,  and  Walnut  streets.  Next  southwestward  in  this  series, 
the  Pine  street  of  1S51  has  been  renamed  Sherman  street,  in  honor  of 
William  Tecumseh  Sherman,  who  conducted  the  march  through  Georgia, 
"from  Atlanta  to  the  sea,"  in  1864.  Beyond  are  Elm  and  Wilkin  streets, 
the  last,  running  due  south,  being  named  in  honor  of  Alexander  Wilkin,t 
who  settled  here  in  1849,  was  secretary  of  the  territory,  1851-53,  and  was 
colonel  of  the  Ninth  Minnesota  regiment,  for  whom  Wilkin  county  was 
named. 

Crossing  that  series  and  in  parallelism  with  the  Mississippi,  this  map 
has  Spring  street,  the  southwestern  part  of  Washington  street,  Franklin 
street,  named  for  Benjamin  Franklin,  Exchange  street,  and  Fort  street, 
named  for  Fort  Snelling.  The  last,  westward  from  the  "Seven  Corners," 
has  become  a  part  of  the  extension  of  Seventh  street,  now  continuous  to 
Fort  Snelling ;  and  the  northeastern  part  of  the  original  Fort  street,  lead- 
ing northward  from  Seven  Comers,  has  been  renamed  Main  avenue.  Oak 
street,  next  westward  in  1851,  has  become  Smith  avenue,  in  honor  of 
Robert  A.  Smith,t  during  many  terms  mayor  of  this  city,  and  its  continu- 
ation crosses  the  High  Bridge  of  the.  Mississippi  and  thence  passes  south 
to  the  Dodd  road.  Yet  farther  westward,  this  series  of  streets  has 
Pleasant  street  (now  called  an  avenue)  and  the  College  avenue,  which 
derived  this  name  from  its  course  passing  the  Episcopal  mission  and 
school  of  Park  Place,  founded  by  Rev.  James  Lloyd  Breckf  and  others 
in  1850. 

Streets  farther  west  in  1851,  running  from  north  to  south,  parallel  with 
Wilkin  street,  were  Leech  street,  named  in  honor  of  Gen.  Samuel  Leech, 
receiver  of  the  United  States  land  office  established  at  St.  Croix  Falls, 
Wis.;  Forbes  street,  since  renamed  as  a  part  of  Seventh  avenue,  before 
noted;  Douglas  street,  named  for  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  who  in  the  U.  S. 
senate  in  1848-9  had  advocated  the  formation  of  this  Territory;  Dousman 
and  Ann  streets,  the  former  in  honor  of  Hercules  L.  Dousman  (b.  1800, 
d.  1868),  of  Prairie  du  Chien,  Wis.,  agent  of  the  American  Fur  Company 
for  Wisconsin,  who  first  urged  the  adoption  of  the  name  Minnesota  for 


614  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

the  new  Territory;  Green  street,  which  has  been  renamed  in  honor  of 
President  Garfield;  Blair  street,  now  a  part  of  Western  avenue;  Eric 
Mreet,  near  the  present  street  of  this  name;  and  Ontario  and  Huron 
itr^tlts,  names  that  have  since  disappeared  from  the  list  of  this  dty. 

Across  these  streets  and  extending  from  east  to  west,  the  year  1S51 
had  Ramsey  street,  in  honor  of  Governor  Ramseyf;  Smith  and  Prairie 
streets,  now  called  respectively  Forbes  and  Harrison  avenues,  in  honor 
of  William  H.  Forbes,t  pioneer  fur  trader,  general  merchant,  and  Indian 
agent,  and  of  President  William  Henry  Harrison;  McBoal  street,  named 
for  James  McQellan  Boal,t  adjutant  general  of  Minnesota  in  1851-53; 
Goodrich  street,  now  an  avenue,  in  honor  of  Aaron  Goodrich,!  chief 
justice  of  the  territorial  supreme  court,  1849-51;  Banfil  street,  for  John 
Banfil,  a  former  resident  of  New  Orleans,  who  came  to  St.  Paul  in  1846, 
but  after  a  few  years  removed  to  Manomin,  on  the  Rice  creek  above  St 
Anthony,  where  he  built  a  sawmill  and  a  steamboat,  "H.  M.  Rice,**  which 
ran  on  the  Mississippi  above  the  falls,  but  who  removed  in  1866  to  Bay- 
field, Wis.;  Grove  street,  renamed  Goodhue  street,  in  honor  of  James  M. 
Goodhue,t  the  first  editor  here,  commemorated  also  by  a  county ;  Superior, 
Michigan,  and  St  Gair  streets,  the  last  named  like  Lake  St  Gair,  be- 
tween Lakes  Huron  and  Erie,  for  Gen.  Arthur  St  Gair  (b.  1734,  d.  1818), 
who  was  governor  of  the  Northwest  Territory  in  1789-1802;  Yankee 
street,  for  a  steamboat  of  this  name,  which  plied  between  Galena  and  St 
Paul  in  the  autumn  of  1849  and  during  the  season  of  1850,  and  made  a 
very  notable  trip  with  excursionists  up  the  Minnesota  river,  July  22-26, 
1850;  and  Rice  street,  since  renamed  Von  Minden  street  in  honor  of 
Henning  Von  Minden,  captain  in  Brackett's  battalion  of  cavalry,  1861-4, 
and  major  of  Hatch's  battalion,  1864-6. 

In  the  early  part  of  1857  a  "Map  of  the  City  of  Saint  Paul,"  which 
had  been  so  incorporated  by  the  legislature  March  4,  1854,  was  published 
by  Goodrich  &  Somers,  on  the  scale  of  800  feet  to  an  inch.  Like  the  map 
of  1851,  it  has  Harriet,  Barnes,  Raspberry,  and  Boal  islands  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, in  this  descending  order ;  and  McGoud  creek  of  that  earliest  map 
is  Phalen's  creek  on  the  map  of  1857,  thus  taking  its  present  name. 

Northeastward  this  map  has  Woodward,  Patridge,  Hopkins,  North, 
and  G>llins  streets,  which  yet  remain,  each  short,  nmning  from  east  to 
west  and  lying  in  this  order  beyond  Grove  street  Yet  farther  north 
were  Vine  and  Mt.  Ida  streets,  the  former  having  been  since  renamed 
Beaumont  street  Herkimer  avenue  of  1857  is  the  present  Lafayette 
avenue.  The  north  to  south  streets  are  Bradley  and  Burr,  yet  bearing 
these  names;  Brook  street,  then  named  for  Trout  brook,  now  De  Soto 
street;  Otsego  and  Prospect  avenues,  the  latter  now  Rivoli  street;  and 
Arkwright  and  Westminster  streets,  which,  with  De  Soto  street,  are  now 
extended  north  to  the  city  boundary. 

Woodward  street,  named  after  a  principal  avenue  in  Detroit,  Mich., 
during  many  years  had  the  homes  of  several  prominent  citizens,  one  being 
General  Sibley,  whose  boyhood  home  was  in  Detroit 


SAINT  PAUL  615 

An  isolated  plat  added  on  the  north  part  of  the  map  has  names  of 
several  streets  and  avenues,  of  which  only  Viola  street  and  Park  avenue 
now  remain.  Northwestward  are  Irvine  and  Summit  avenues,  Selby, 
Dayton,  and  Nelson  avenues,  the  last  three  running  due  west;  and  cross- 
ing these  are  Farrington,  Virginia,  and  Western  avenues.  Citizens  com- 
memorated were  John  R.  Irvine,t  who  came  here  in  1843,  platted  several 
additions  of  the  city,  and  for  whom  Irvine  park  was  named;  Jeremiah 
W.  Selby,t  owner  of  a  farm  on  that  St  Anthony  hill;  Lyman  Dayton,t 
for  whom  Dayton's  bluff  was  named;  Rensselaer  R.  Nelson,t  territorial 
judge,  and  later  during  nearly  forty  years  U.  S.  district  judge  for  this 
state;  and  John  Farrington,t  merchant  and  banker. 

Summit  avenue,  the  finest  residence  street  of  this  city,  received  its  name 
from  its  location,  leading  westward  to  the  crest  of  the  valley  bluff,  oh 
which  it  lies  for  a  half  mile  from  the  Cathedral  to  the  University  Qub, 
thence  running  due  west  to  the  city  boundary  at  the  river. 

Virginia  avenue,  the  earliest  named  for  another  state,  was  in  compli- 
ment to  citizens  from  the  "Old  Dominion."  Among  these  Virginia  set- 
tlers, Henry  Jackson,t  for  whom  Jackson  street  was  named,  came  in 
1842;  his  cousin,  William  G.  Carter,  came  in  1845,  and  died  here  in  1852; 
and  James  W.  Simpsonf  came  to  St.  Paul  in  1843,  and  in  1849  was  elected 
the  first  county  treasurer. 

Michigan  and  Mississippi  streets  had  reference  to  the  lake  and  river, 
without  special  thought  of  the  states  so  named.  Later  other  streets  and 
avenues  in  St.  Paul  were  named  for  states  or  territories,  comprising 
Alabama,  Alaska,  California,  Colorado,  Dakota,  Delaware,  Florida,  Ida- 
ho, Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  Missouri,  Montana, 
Nebraska,  Nevada,  Ohio,  Oregon,  Pennsylvania,  Tennessee,  Texas,  Utah, 
Wisconsin,  and  Wyoming.  Thus,  with  Virginia  avenue,  came  twenty- 
eight  street  names. 

On  the  southwest,  adjoining  the  river  between  an  eighth  and  a  half 
of  a  mile  above  Harriet  island,  this  map  of  1857  adds  a  small  plat  having 
Commercial,  Merchants,  and  Railroad  streets,  running  from  north  to  south, 
of  which  only  one,  now  Merchants  avenue,  retains  its  original  name,  the 
others  now  being  Tile  street  and  Archer  avenue;  and  these  were  crossed 
from  east  to  west  by  streets  that  have  since  been  renamed  as  Banning, 
Parsons,  and  Alison  streets.  William  L.  Banning!  came  here  in  1855,  and 
engaged  in  banking  and  railroad  construction.  Rev.  J.  P.  Parsonsf  came 
in  1849,  and  was  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  church. 

The  most  western  plat  between  1851  and  1857  was  a  quarter  of  a  sec- 
tion next  beyond  Western  avenue  and  south  of  St.  Qair  street,  having 
Richmond,  Duke,  Oneida,  and  Toronto  streets,  which  run  from  north  to 
south ;  also,  in  the  intervals  between  these  and  parallel  with  them,  were 
an  unnamed  street  and  First  and  Second  streets,  which  now  are  Colborne, 
Erie,  and  Webster  streets.  Crossing  these  are  Jefferson  avenue  and  other 
streets  that  later  were  named  Grace,  Palace,  Cascade,  and  James  streets. 
Thomas  Langdon  Grace,t  commemorated  by  Grace  street,  came  here  in 


616  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

1^9,  as  the  second  Roman  Catholic  bishop  of  St  Paul,  which  position  he 
held  during  sixteen  years.  Jefferson  avenue,  in  honor  of  President  Jef- 
ferson, and  Palace  and  James  streets,  names  of  undetermined  origin,  have 
been  since  extended  to  the  west  boundary  of  the  city  at  the  Mississippi. 

West  St  Paul,  which  was  platted  in  1855,  being  then  a  part  of  Dakota 
county,  but  nineteen  years  later,  in  1874,  annexed  to  this  city,  and  to  Ram- 
sey county,  was  not  shown  on  the  forgoing  map  in  1857.  It  is  ddineated 
on  a  later  map  of  the  same  year  probably  preceding  the  great  financial 
panic  and  business  depression  which  came  in  the  autumn,  stopping  all 
real  estate  development  in  townsite  platting  and  building. 

The  later  map  of  1857,  showing  small  additional  plats  north  and  east 
of  the  river  and  the  large  area  on  the  opposite  side,  which  in  1874  was 
made  a  part  of  this  city,  is  entitled  "Map  of  St.  Paul,  West  St  Paul  and 
Brooklynd,  compiled  from  the  recorded  plots  by  Von  Minden  &  Wipper- 
mann,  architects  &  civil  engineers.  St  Paul,  M.  T.  1857."  The  scale  is 
350  feet  to  an  inch,  as  of  the  map  in  1851.  Brooklynd  was  a  plat  at  the 
south  side  of  the  river,  extending  from  a  point  opposite  to  the  mouth  of 
Phalen  creek  westward  about  2,000  feet  to  the  "Lower  Ferry."  Both  1857 
maps  show  the  Wabasha  street  bridge,  on  which  work  was  begun  in 
1856-7  but  was  not  completed,  as  related  by  Chaney  (M.  H.  S.  Collections, 
XII,  132-4),  till  June,  1859. 

Between  the  dates  of  the  earlier  and  later  maps  in  1857,  the  outskirts 
of  St  Paul  at  the  north  received  Williams  street,  Aurora  and  Sherburne 
avenues,  Valley,  Mt  Airy,  Glencoe,  and  Arch  streets,  and  Pennsylvania 
avenue,  running  in  general  from  east  to  west,  with  L'Orient  avenue  (now 
called  a  street),  Columbia,  Linden  and  Warren  streets,  running  across 
the  foregoing  from  south  to  north.  Fairview  street,  on  the  later  map,  is 
now  a  part  of  the  northward  extension  of  Jackson  street;  and  Westerlo 
street,  next  westward,  now  is  partly  Capitol  Heights  street  On  both  of 
the  1857  maps,  what  now  is  Capitol  boulevard  was  Brewster  avenue. 

Charles  H.  Williams,t  who  came  to  St  Paul  in  1853,  was  chief  engin- 
eer of  the  fire  department  in  1856-9  and  1863-4;  Moses  Sherbumef  was 
judge  of  the  United  States  district  court  for  this  territory,  1853-57,  re- 
siding in  St  Paul,  and  removed  in  1867  to  Sherburne  county,  which  was 
named  for  him;  and  John  Esaias  Warrenf  came  here  in  1852,  was  U.  S. 
district  attorney  for  the  territory,  and  was  mayor  of  this  city  in  1863. 

At  the  northwest,  the  later  map  adds  Marshall,  Iglehart,  and  Carroll 
streets,  now  called  avenues ;  Rondo  street ;  Jay  and  Martin  streets,  since 
respectively  renamed  as  St  Anthony  and  Central  avenues,  the  former 
being  continued  to  the  present  west  line  of  the  city,  adjoining  the  former 
municipality  of  St.  Anthony;  Fuller  street,  now  an  avenue;  Arnold 
street  and  Territorial  avenue,  (also  then  and  long  afterward  called  Mel- 
rose avenue),  since  renamed  respectively  as  Aurora  and  University  ave- 
nues, the  latter  being  extended  to  the  city  boundary,  and  onward  norths 
west  and  north  through  Minneapolis;  Ellen  street,  now  the  western  ex- 
tension of  Sherburne  avenue;  and  Charles,  Edmund,  and  Thomas  streets. 


'    •  SAINT  PAUL  617 

the  last  being  unnamed,  though  platted.  Crossing  the  foregoing,  which 
run  from  east  to  west,  are  Marion  and  Louis  streets;  Oak  street,  since 
renamed  Gaultier  street ;  Cadett  street,  now  Jay  street ;  and  Elf elt  street. 
The  present  northward  continuation  of  Western  avenue  was  then  An- 
napolis street,  a  name  now  used  in-  West  St.  Paul.  Next  westward  are 
Arundel,  Mackubin,  and  Kent  streets,  which  since  1857  have  been  con- 
tinued to  the  north  line  of  the  city,  though  with  interruptions  by  railway 
tracks  and  shops  and  by  other  spaces  that  have  not  yet  been  platted.  The 
west  line  of  this  map  it  at  the  present  Dale  street,  which  in  1857  was  only 
partly  platted  and  not  yet  named. 

Citizens  honored  in  these  names  were  Governor  Marshall,!  for  whom 
also  a  city  and  a  county  are  named ;  Harwood  Iglehart,t  from  Maryland, 
who  was  a  lawyer  and  dealer  in  real  estate  here  from  1854  to  1861,  but 
later  resided  chiefly  in  Maryland;  Charles  Carroll,  of  Maryland,  a  noted 
patriot  and  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence;  Joseph  Rondo,t 
who  came  from  the  Selkirk  settlement  in  1835,  was  a  farmer  on  the  Fort 
Snelling  reservation,  and  later  purchased  a  claim  crossed  by  the  present 
street  named  for  him  in  this  city;  Alpheus  G.  Fuller,!  who  came  from 
Connecticut,  and  in  1856  built  a  hotel  here,  called  the  Fuller  House,  after- 
ward known  as  the  International;  Edmund  Rice,t  for  whom  Edmund 
street  was  named,  afterward  mayor  of  the  city  and  a  member  of  Congress, 
who  settled  here  in  1849,  being  a  brother  of  the  U.  S.  senator,  Henry  M. 
Rice;  their  sister  Ellen,t  Mrs  William  Hollinshead,  of  this  city,  who  also 
came  in  1849;  their  brother,  Charles  Rodney  Rice  (b.  1821,  d.  1873),  com- 
memorated by  Charles  street,  who  during  the  territorial  period  was  a  mer- 
chant here,  but  afterward  lived  inthecity  of  Washington;  Thomas  Stinson, 
on  whose  plat  of  an  addition  in  July,  1856,  his  first  name  was  given  to  an 
eastern  part  of  Thomas  street;  Lucian  Galtier,t  builder  of  the  Catholic 
chapel  in  1841,  which  he  dedicated  to  St.  Paul,  thereby  also  naming  the 
infant  village  and  future  city;  the  El  felt  brothers,  Abram  S.f  and  Charles 
D.,t  and  Edwin,  pioneer  merchants  at  the  beginning  of  the  territorial 
period ;  and  Charlei:  N.  Mackubin,t  who'  came  from  Maryland  in  1854 
and  engaged  in  bankhig  and  real  estate,  bringing  also  'the  names  of 
Arundel  and  Kent  streets,  from  counties  in  Maryland. 

WEST  ST.   PAUL. 

The  area  of  West  St.  Paul  on  this  map  in  1857,  comprising  fifteen 
tracts  separately  platted,  has  many  street  names  that  are  yet  retained;  but 
its  several  groups  of  streets  that  originally  were  numerically  named, 
running  from  east  to  west  or  southwest,  approximately  in  parallelism  with 
the  river,  have  been  since  renamed.  Because  all  numerical  street  names  are 
now  superseded  by  names  of  personal  or  other  distinctive  derivations, 
the  task  of  cataloguing  them  and  noting  their  origin  is  greatly  increased. 
Much  of  the  renaming  followed  closely  on  the  annexation  of  this  area 
to  St.  Paul  as  its  sixth  ward,  in  1874;  but  many  changes  and  small  addi- 
tions have  been  made  in  the  later  years. 


618  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Water  street,  beside  the  river,  remains;  but  Mill  street  and  Fourth 
to  Ninth  streets  have  received  later  names.  This  series  is  now,  in  the  or- 
der outward  from  the  river,  Fillmore,  Fairfield,  Indiana,  Chicago,  and 
Plato  avenues,  the  Eighth  and  Ninth  streets  having  been  vacated  to  give 
space  for  railway  use.  Eastward  from  State  street,  which  was  A  street 
in  1857,  the  streets  running  east-northeast,  parallel  with  the  river,  which 
were  then  First  to  Ninth  streets,  are  now,  in  the  same  order,  Alabama, 
Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Texas,  St.  Lawrence,  Constans,  Florida,  Utah,  and 
Perry  streets.  A  little  farther  east,  beyond  a  narrow  tract  not  yet  platted, 
the  streets  in  the  course  of  continuation  of  the  four  last  named  are  now 
Bayfield,  Plymouth,  Brooklyn,  and  Perry  streets. 

Crossing  these  series  and  running  away  from  the  river,  to  the  south- 
east and  south,  are  now,  in  the  order  from  west  to  east,  Hyde,  Walter, 
and  Edward  streets,  each  renamed  since  1857;  South  Wabasha  street, 
then  platted  as  Bridge  street;  Starkey  and  Custer  streets,  renamed  from 
-Cedar  and  Gay  of  1857;  Livingston  avenue,  then  named  as*  now  in  its 
southern  and  longer  part,  but  near  the  river  then  called  Dugas  street; 
South  Robert  street,  which  in  1857  was  called  Main  street  in  its  northern 
part,  but  Washington  avenue  for  its  part  running  due  south;  Eaton  ave- 
nue and  Eva  street,  the  latter  being  Goodhue  street  in  1857;  Robertson 
street,  retaining  its  original  name;  and  State,  Fenton,  Minnetonka,  Ches- 
ter, Wyandotte,  and  Rutland  streets,  which  in  1857  were  simply  lettered 
from  A  to  F.  The  east  border  of  the  1857  map  was  at  Wisconsin  street,- 
which  yet  has  this  name  as  an  avenue ;  but  the  three  streets  next  parallel 
westward  are  renamed,  being  now  Lowell,  Court,  and  Missouri  streets. 

Personal  names  in  the  foregoing  groups  recall  William  Constans,t 
a  merchant,  who  settled  in  St.  Paul  in  1850;  Abrahamf  and  Charles  Per- 
ry,t  fa^er  and  son,  who  came  from  the  Selkirk  colony  to  Fort  Snelling 
in  1827,  and  were  farmers  near  Fountain  cave  after  1838;  James  Star- 
key,t  who  settled  here  in  1850,  engaged  in  milling  and  railroad  construc- 
tion, and  had  charge  of  the  first  sewerage  works  in  St.  Paul ;  Gen.  George 
A.  Custer,  who  was  killed  by  tfie  Sioux,  with  all  his  troops,  in  a  battle  in 
Montana,  June  25,  1876;  Crawford  Livingston,!  banker  and  railroad 
builder,  who  settled  here  in  1870 ;  William  Dugas,t  a  pioneer  hotel  owner 
and  ferryman,  who  came  to  St.  Paul  in  1844,  but  removed  two  years  after- 
ward to  St.  Anthony;  Samuel  S.  Eaton,  who  came  in  1855  and  engaged 
ill  insurance;  Daniel  A.  Robertson,!  lawyer,  editor,  and  founder  of  the 
State  Horticultural  Society,  who  settled  in  this  city  in  1850;  and  William 
Fcnton,t  who  came  in  1855,  was  the  surveyor  of  West  St  Paul,  in  asso- 
ciation with  Charles  A.  F.  Morris.f  lived  here  as  a  recluse,  was  a  street 
preacher  after  1880,  and  died  in  1903. 

In  the  plat  earliest  made  for  West  St.  Paul,  on  high  land  farther  back 
from  the  river,  the  sixteen  streets  running  east  and  west,  in  their  sequence 
from  north  to  south,  were  Wood  and  John  streets,  Delos,  Isabel,  Grove, 
Harriet,  and  Oak  streets,  George,  Caroline,  Greene,  Elisabeth,  Elm,  Rose, 
Charles,  Vine,  and  Mary  streets.    Of  these  names  only  five  now  remain, 


SAINT  PAUL  619 

Wood,  Delos;  Isabel,  George,  and  Elisabeth;  while  the  others,  in  their 
order,  have  been  changed  to  Colorado,  Congress,  Winifred,  Robie,  Dear- 
born, Louisa,  Augusta,  Morton,  Page,  Tyler,  and  Curtice  streets.  An  ad- 
dition on  the  same  map  in  1857,  continuing  southward,  extended  this 
series  of  east  to  west  streets  by  Gear,  Spring,  Grove,  Cottage,  Hill,  Has- . 
kell,  Dacotah,  and  Jackson  streets,  of  which  only  two,  Haskell  and  Dakota, 
yet  remain,  the  others  being  now  respectively  Belvidere,  Lucy,  Wyoming, 
Annapolis,  Brompton,  and  Bernard  streets.  The  most  noteworthy  per- 
sonal names  of  the  series  are  Wood,  for  Edward  H.  Wood,t  who  in  1856, 
as  related  by  Newson,  was  an  assistant  in  surveys  near  Lake  Como,  then 
first  so  named,  who  "in  1867  settled  in  West  St.  Paul,  where  he  taught 
school  several  terms  and  inaugurated  the  scheme  to  annex  the  West  Side 
to  the  city  of  St.  Paul;"  Delos,  in  honor  of  Delos  A.  Monfort,t  banker, 
who  settled  in  St.  Paul  in  1857;  Isabel,  whose  husband,  Eugenio  A.  John- 
son, a  surveyor  and  civil  engineer  of  this  city,  died  in  1888,  aged  69  years ; 
Winifred,  the  name  of  the  daughter  of  Hon.  William  P.  Murray,t  a 
pioneer  of  1849,  for  whom  Murray  county  was  named;  and  Curtice,  for 
David  L.  Curtice,t  who  came  here  in  1856  and  was  city  engineer,  1858- 
59  and  1869-74.  By  recommendation  of  Curtice,  the  Baptist  hill  was  re- 
moved, mostly  in  1876-80,  being  cut  down  to  the  adjoining  level,  and  in 
1887  he  published  an  excellent  atlas  of  St.  Paul. 

Extending  across  the  foregoing  were  avenues,  running  due  south, 
named  in  sequence  from  east  to  west  as  Mississippi,  Greenwood,  Clinton, 
Washington,  Livingston,  Gorman,  Gale,  Hall,  Stryker,  Winslow,  Myrtle, 
Bidwell,  Allen,  and  Brown  avenues.  Mississippi  avenue  is  now  a  part  of 
State  street;  the  next  two  names  are  yet  retained;  Washington  avenue, 
as  before  noted,  has  become  a  part  of  South  Robert  street ;  the  next  two 
remain;  Gale  avenue  is  renamed  Humboldt;  Hall,  Stryker,  and  Winslow 
avenues  remain;  Myrtle  and  Bidwell  avenues  have  been  changed  respec- 
tively to  Bidwell  and  Bellows  streets;  and  Allen  avenue  remains,  but 
Brown  of  1857  is  now  Schley  avenue. 

Among  the  persons  honored  in  these  names,  we  may  note  Willis  A. 
Gorman,t  territorial  governor  in  1853-57 ;  William  Sprigg  Hall,t  who  came 
here  in  1854,  was  territorial  superintendent  of  public  instruction,  a  state 
senator  in  1857-60,  and  after  1867  judge  of  the  court  of  common  pleas; 
John  L.  Stryker,  a  real  estate  owner;  James  M.  Winslow,t  who  settled 
here  in  1852,  erected  large  hotels  in  St  Paul,  St.  Anthony,  and  St.  Peter, 
and  introduced  telegraph  service  into  this  city;  Ira  Bidwell,  a  pioneer 
banker,  who  came  to  St.  Paul  in  1854,  whose  son  Henry  ''at  one  time 
owned  the  Prescott  place  in  West  St.  Paul,  where  he  cultivated  grapes  and 
raised  bees"  (Newson,  p.  708) ;  Alvaren  Allen,t  who  came  in  1851,  en- 
gaged in  livery  business,  owned  a  stage  line,  and  was  proprietor  of  the 
Merchants*  Hotel  from  1875  to  1902;  and  Winfield  Scott  Schley,  admiral 
in  the  U.  S.  navy,  hero  in  the  Spanish-American  war,  1898. 

Additional  names  on  the  west  part  of  this  map  of  West  St.  Paul  in 
1857,  remaining  to  the  present  time,  are  Seminole,  Manomin,  Mohawk, 


620  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Ottawa,  Cherokee,  Delaware,  Chippewa,  and  Winnebago  avenues,  running 
due  south  as  a  series  in  this  order  from  east  to  west.  Each  notes  a  tribe 
or  larger  division  of  the  American  Indians.  Each  retains  its  original 
name  as  an  avenue,  excepting  the  last,  now  called  Winnebago  street. 

Between  Bidwell  street,  before  noted,  and  Seminole  avenue,  the  map 
in  1857  had  Bellevue  avenue,  nearly  coinciding  with  the  present  Waseca 
street,  which  is  named  like  the  county;  a  long  unnamed  avenue,  now 
Charlton  street;  and  Randall  avenue,  now  represented  by  Ohio  street 
and  Whitall  avenue.  Northward,  between  Seminole  and  Manomin  ave- 
nues, was  Olivier  avenue,  now  Orleans  street. 

Across  the  avenues  and  streets  thus  listed,  which  run  north  and 
south,  the  series  of  streets  running  east  and  west,  which  in  1857  were 
named  numerically,  have  been  renamed,  including  several  before  noted 
that  extend  much  farther  east,  beyond  Bidwell  street,  and  also  Stevens, 
King,  Baker,  Sydney,  Belmont,  and  Winona  streets,  Minea  avenue,  and 
Hedge  street. 

Cottage  street  of  1857,  continuing  with  this  name,  became  the  south 
line  of  the  area  annexed  to  St.  Paul  in  1874;  but  it  has  since  been  re- 
named Annapolis  street,  as  before  noted,  for  the  capital  of  Maryland, 
the  native  city  of  Harwood  Iglehart,t  and  probably  of  other  early  set- 
tlers of  this  city. 

Dodd  road,  beginning  as  a  street  in  West  St.  Paul  and  extending 
southwest  and  south  to  Mankato,  was  laid  out  by  Captain  William  B. 
Dodd,t  who  was  bom  in  Montdair,  N.  J.,  in  1811,  came  to  this  state 
about  1851,  was  one  of  the  founders  of  St  Peter,  and  was  killed  in  the 
defence  of  New  Ulm,  August  23,  1862. 

Other  streets  south  and  west  of  the  river,  of  later  dates,  deserve 
mention,  as  follows. 

Lamprey  and  Jeanne  avenues,  adjoining  the  west  shore  south  of  Day- 
ton bluff,  were  named  in  honor  of  Uri  Locke  Lamprey  and  his  wife.  He 
was  born  in  Deerfield,  N.  H.,  April  7,  1842,  and  died  in  St.  Paul,  March 
22,  1906 ;  was  a  lawyer,  and  was  president  of  the  Minnesota  game  and  fish 
commission,  1901-^.  Mrs.  Jeannette  Robert  Lamprey  is  a  daughter  of 
Captain  Louis  Robert,!  who  named  one  of  his  steamboats  in  her  honor, 
which  plied  on  the  Minnesota  and  Mississippi  rivers  from  1857  till  1870. 

Brott  street  commemorates  George  F.  Brott,t  who  came  here  in  1850, 
was  sheriff  of  Ramsey  county  the  next  year,  and  later  founded  Sauk 
Rapids,  St.  Qoud,  and  Breckenridge. 

Stickney  street  is  named  in  honor  of  Alpheus  B.  Stickney,t  lawyer, 
builder  and  president  of  railways,  and  organizer  in  1882  of  the  St.  Paul 
Union  Stock  Yards. 

Concord  street  leads  to  South  St.  Paul,  the  site  of  the  stock  yards 
and  packing  houses. 

Prescott  street  honors  George  W.  Prescott,t  who  settled  in  St.  Paul 
in  1850,  was  clerk  of  the  territorial  supreme  court,  1854-57,  and  later 
was  clerk  of  the  U.  S.  district  court  in  this  state. 


SAINT  PAUL  621 

SOUTHEASTERN  PLATS. 

Suburbs  within  the  southeast  part  of  the  city  area  of  St.  Paul,  lying 
east  of  the  Mississippi,  opposite  to  West  St.  Paul  and  the  separately  or- 
ganized city  of  South  St.  Paul,  which  is  in  Dakota  county,  are  High  wood 
and  Oakland,  beside  the  Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  railway,  platted 
respectively  in  1887  and  1888,  and  Riverside  Park,  likewise  a  residence 
tract,  adjoining  the  Mississippi,  which  was  platted  in  the  spring  of  1889. 

High  wood,  on  the  ascending  slope  and  crest  of  the  valley  bluff,  has 
Burlington  avenue,  named  for  the  railway;  Upland,  Howard,  Brookline, 
Linwood,  Springfield,  Lenox,  Highwood,  and  Chester  avenues;  and  Mys- 
tic, Elmwood,  Bellevue,  Shawmut,  Weymouth,  Winthrop,  Hadley,  All- 
ston.  Temple,  Beacon,  and  Woodbine  streets.  Ten  of  these  names  come 
from  Massachusetts,  mostly  from  Boston  and  its  vicinity. 

Burlington  and  Newport  avenues,  the  latter  forming  the  west  border 
of  Highwood  and  leading  south  to  Newport  in  Washington  county,  ex- 
tend also  north  through  Oakland.  Other  streets  in  Oakland  are  the  Glen 
road,  Mystic,  Piedmont,  and  Pond  streets;  Woodlawn  avenue  and  place; 
Forest  Hill  avenue,  Edgewood  place,  and  Aftondale  and  Burke  streets. 

Riverside  Park  has  Water  street,  along  the  river,  Linda,  Merrimac, 
Salem,  and  Paris  streets,  crossed  by  Basswood,  Redwood,  Whitewood, 
Blackwood,  and  Boxwood  avenues. 

DAYTON  BLUFF  AND  EASTWARD. 

For  the  streets  and  avenues  in  the  principal  additions  to  this  city,  sur- 
rounding its  nucleal  area  already  noticed  as  shown  by  the  maps  of  1857, 
we  may  well  take  a  geographic  order,  from  its  eastern  portions  to  the 
northeast,  north,  northwest,  west,  and  southwest  Thus  we  shall  pass 
in  sequence  from  the  districts  of  Dayton  Bluff  and  Arlington  Hills  around 
by  Hazel  Park,  Lakes  Phalen  and  Como,  Hamline,  St.  Anthony  Park, 
Merriam  and  Roblyn  Parks,  Summit  and  Lexington  Parks,  and  the 
Macalester  and  Groveland  districts,  to  the  additions  along  West  Seventh 
street  and  opposite  Fort  Snelling. 

Dayton  Bluff  and  the  area  reaching  nearly  a  mile  eastward  were  plat- 
ted under  the  names  of  Suburban  Hills  and  Lyman  Dayton'sf  addition, 
respectively  in  September,  1856,  and  September,  1857,  the  latter  being  the 
more  northern  and  larger  tract.  On  or  adjoining  the  river  bluff,  a  series 
of  streets  running  from  northwest  to  southeast,  at  right  angles  with  East 
Seventh  street,  comprises  Commercial  street,  Hoffman  avenue  (at  first 
named  Dayton  avenue),  Maria  and  Bates  avenues,  in  honor  of  Mrs.  Day- 
ton, whose  maiden  name  was  Maria  Bates,  and  Maple  and  Hope  streets 
(originally  Grove  and  Hill  streets).  Mounds  boulevard,  now  occupying  a 
part  of  the  former  Hoffman  avenue,  and  Mound  street,  lead  to  the  group 
of  Indian  mounds  in  the  public  park  bearing  this  name. 

North  to  south  streets,  in  their  order  from  west  to  east,  are  Arcade 
street  (here  at  first  called  Olive  and  Willow  streets),  Mendota  (originally 


622  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

called  Oak)  street,  Forest  street.  Cypress  and  Earl  streets  (then  respec- 
tively called  Barton  and  East  streets),  the  later  being  the  east  line  of  Day- 
ton's addition,  Hiawatha,  Hester,  Martin,  Griffith,  Johnson,  and  English 
streets  (the  last,  at  the  east  end  of  Suburban  Hills,  having  originally  been 
called  East  street), 

James  K.  Hoffmanf  came  to  St  Paul  at  the  age  of  twenty  years,  in 
1851 ;  ran  the  sawmill  of  William  L.  Amesf  at  the  foot  of  Dayton  blnff  in 
I8S6;  was  later  a  grocer,  and  in  1873-80  was  state  inspector  of  oiL 

Gates  A.  Johnson,t  for  whom  a  street  here  was  named  in  1856,  came  the 
preceding  year,  was  surveyor  of  numerous  additions  to  the  city,  and  was 
chief  engineer  of  the  Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi  railroad,  running  from 
St.  Paul  to  Duluth.  The  place  of  the  southern  part  of  that  street  is  now 
occupied  by  Johnson  parkway,  named  in  honor  of  John  Albert  Jofanson,1 
governor  of  Minnesota  in  1905-09;  and  the  line  of  its  northward  continu- 
ation has  now  Atlantic  street 

Running  to  the  northeast,  across  the  first  of  the  foregoing  series,  in 
the  order  northward  from  Mounds  Park,  are  Germont  and  River  streets. 
Urban  place,  McLean  avenue.  Short  street.  Cherry  and  Plum  streets,  Hud- 
son avenue,  Euclid  street.  Van  Buren  place,  Conway  street  and  Third 
to  Sixth  streets,  which  last  are  continuous  from  the  streets  so  named  in 
the  earliest  and  central  plat  of  St  PauL  At  the  distance  of  a  few  blocks 
back  from  the  crest  of  the  blufiP,  several  of  these  streets  turn  to  a  due  east 
course,  and  others  are  parall^,  forming  a  series  transverse  to  the  second 
group  before  noted.  Thorn  street  borders  the  north  side  of  the  park, 
being  succeeded  northward  by  Bums  avenue.  Suburban  street,  McLean 
avenue.  Pacific  street,  Hastings  avenue,  Wakefield  and  Hudson  avenues, 
Euclid  and  Conway  streets,  Third  street,  Fremont  street,  Fourth,  Fifth, 
and  Sixth  streets,  and  Margaret,  Beech,  and  Minndiaha  streets. 

Bums  avenue  was  named  in  honor  of  John  Bums,  one  of  the  proprie- 
tors of  the  Suburban  Hills,  living,  like  Lyman  Dayton,t  on  this  bluff. 

McLean  avenue  commemorates  Nathaniel  McLean,t  who  was  agent  at 
Fort  Snelling  for  the  Indians  in  1849-53.  McLean  township,  likewise 
named  for  him,  adjoined  this  area  and  formed  the  southeast  part  of  Ram- 
sey county,  until  it  was  annexed  to  this  city.  Hester  street,  before  noted 
in  the  series  running  north  and  south,  has  the  Christian  name  of  his  wife. 

Hastings  and  Hudson  avenues  were  respectively  in  part  the  courses  of 
roads  to  Hastings  in  Dakota  county  and  Hudson  in  Wisconsin. 

William  Wakefield,  coming  from  Rhode  Island  in  1856,  purchased  in 
1860  a  tract  of  four  acres  on  this  bluff,  where  he  "adorned  his  place  with 
beautiful  trees,  .  .  .  one  of  the  finest  home  surroundings  in  the  city" 
(Newson,  page  612). 

Conway  street  was  named  for  Charles  R.  Conway,  of  whom  Newson 
gave  a  biographic  sketch  (page  143). 

Fremont  street  honors  John  C.  Fremont,  the  Republican  candidate  for 
the  presidency  in  1856.  It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  Van  Buren  place  (orig- 
inally called  Ravine  street)  and  its  public  school  are  named  for  President 


SAINT  PAUL  623 

Van  Buren,  who  likewise  is  commemorated  by  the  long  Van  Buren  street, 
lying  next  south  of  Minnehaha  street  in  the  west  part  of  the  city. 

Margaret  street  was  at  first  called  Pearl  street,  in  1857,  which  is  the 
meaning  of  this  personal  name;  and  Minnehaha  was  then  Lake  street. 

Lines  of  sections  in  the  U.  S.  government  surveys  are  followed  by  Burns 
avenue  and  Minnehaha  street,  lying  thus  exactly  a  mile  apart;  and  the 
latter  reaches  from  the  east  boundary  of  the  city  west  to  Prior  avenue, 
more  than  eight  miles,  but  interrupted  at  the  middle  by  railway  grounds. 

It  should  be  observed  that  in  St.  Paul  no  definite  usage  distinguishes 
these  terms,  avenue  and  street,  either  in  respect  to  their  width  and  length 
or  the  directions  of  their  courses.  The  two  terms  are  here  employed  pro- 
miscuously, without  system  or  any  general  reasons  for  choice  in  their  appli- 
cations throughout  all  the  city  area. 

Adjoining  Dayton's  addition  on  its  east  side  is  Sigel's  addition,  plat- 
ted in  1880  and  1883,  named  in  honor  of  Franz  Sigel  (b.  1824,  d.  1902),  a 
distinguished  Union  general  of  the  civil  war,  who  is  also  honored  by  the 
name  of  a  township  in  Brown  county.  Several  years  previous  to  these 
plats  he  had  vfsited  in  that  county  and  in  St.  Paul,  and  his  name  is  borne 
by  a  street  extending  from  this  tract  nearly  to  the  east  line  of  the  city. 
Other  street  names  here  added  are  Tell,  Frank,  Atlantic,  and  English 
streets,  each  running  from  north  to  south,  and  Hancock,  Terry,  and  Got- 
zian  streets,  running  southeast.  The  last  three  are  in  honor  of  Gen.  Win- 
field  Scott  Hancock  and  Gen.  Alfred  Howe  Terry,  associates  with  Sigel 
in  the  civil  war,  and  Conradf  and  Adam  Gotzian,t  shoe  manufacturers 
and  wholesalers  in  this  city,  with  whom  Sigel  visited  here. 

Next  eastward  is  an  addition  platted  in  1887,  which  continues  the  fore- 
going names  of  streets  running  east.  Its  transverse  streets,  in  their  order 
from  west  to  east,  are  English  and  Clarence  streets,  Etna  (then  called  Ful- 
ton) street,  Birmingham  and  Barclay  streets  and  Hazelwood  avenue  (of 
which  the  last  two  were  then  respectively  Moore  and  Bock  streets). 

Thence  a  tract  named  Suburban  Homes  was  earlier  platted,  in  1878, 
bounded  on  the  west  by  the  present  Hazelwood  avenue,  with  which  Ger- 
main, Kennard,  and  Flandrau  streets,  and  White  Bear  avenue,  are  succes- 
sively parallel  in  this  order  from  west  to  east.  Kennard  street  was  named 
for  an  attorney,  Kennard  Buxton,  who  attended  to  the  official  records  of 
the  plat ;  the  next  street  was  later  named  in  honor  of  Charles  E.  Flandrau,t 
the  eminent  lawyer  and  justice  of  the  state  supreme  court,  author  of  a 
**History  of  Minnesota;"  and  White  Bear  avenue  leads  toward  the  lake 
and  village  so  named  in  the  northeast  corner  of  this  county. 

Farther  east  are  Hazel,  Ruth,  Winthrop,  and  East  avenues,  running 
north,  the  last  being  on  the  east  boundary  of  the  city  area. 

ARLINGTON  HILLS  AND  EASTWARD. 

North  of  Minnehaha  street  and  crossed  by  Phalen  creek,  a  large 
tract  called  Arlington  Hills  was  platted  in  1873,  receiving  its  name  from 
villages  near  the  cities  of  Boston  and  Washington.    Its  west  line  is  Edger- 


624  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

ton  street  (then  named  Gray  avenue),  with  which  Payne,  Greenbrier, 
Walsh  and  Weide  avenues,  and  Arcade  street  (then  Belle  avenue),  are 
parallel  in  thi^  order  eastward.  Running  due  east,  across  the  foregoing, 
in  succession  northward,  are  Minnehaha,  Reaney,  Fauquier,  Dorr,  Wells, 
York  (then  Searls),  Sims,  Case,  Jenks,  Lawson,  Cook,  and  Magnolia 
streets  (the  last,  on  the  north  line  of  this  addition,  being  then  Hall  street). 

Edgerton  street  commemorates  Erastus  S.  Edgerton,t  a  prominent 
banker  of  this  city;  Payne  and  Greenbrier  avenues  had  been  named  in 
1857,  for  their  southern  part,  in  a  plat  of  which  Rice  W.  Payne  was  one  of 
the  owners ;  Walsh  and  Weide  avenues  honor  Vincent  D.  Walsh,  an  orig- 
inal owner  of  the  Arlington  Hills  plat,  and  (Tharles  A.  B.  Weide,t  who  as 
a  real  estate  dealer  sold  many  of  its  lots;  Reaney  street  was  named  for 
Hon.  John  H.  Reaney,t  who  engaged  in  steamboating,  was  a  representative 
in  the  legislature  in  1878,  and  a  state  senator,  1879;  Fauquier  street,  like 
Payne  avenue,  was  named  in  1857,  for  a  county  of  Virginia,  commemorating 
Francis  Fauquier,  the  colonial  governor  in  1758-68 ;  Case  street  commemo- 
rates James  A.  C^se,t  bom  in  the  state  of  New  York  in  1823,  who  came  to 
St.  Paul  at  the  age  of  twenty  years  and  was  a  surveyor  and  civil  engineer ; 
Jenks  street  is  in  honor  of  J.  Ridgway  Jenks,  who  was  a  brother  of  the  wife 
of  Governor  Ramsey  and  during  several  years  was  a  partner  as  a  druggist 
with  Dr.  David  Day;t  and  Cook  street  was  named  in  honor  of  John  B. 
C6ok,t  president  of  the  St.  Paul  Omnibus  Company. 

Between  Trout  brook  and  Arlington  Hills,  a  plat  by  Edmund  Ricef  in 
1855  named  five  streets  crossing  it  from  south  to  north,  of  which  Qark  and 
Jessie  streets  retain  their  original  names,  but  the  others  have  been  renamed 
as  parts  of  De  Soto,  Burr,  and  Bradley  streets,  in  this  order  from  west  to 
east.  Qark  street  was  named  for  Martin  D.  Clark,  who  came  to  St.  Paul 
in  1851,  was  a  carpenter,  and  built  more  than  two  hundred  houses  here 
within  the  next  three  years  (Newson,  page  331)  ;  Jessie  street  is  in 
honor  of  a  daughter  of  Edmund  Rice;t  and  Whitall  street,  on  the  south 
line  of  this  plat  in  1855,  bears  the  family  name  of  the  wife  of  Henry  M. 
Rice,t  who  then  was  the  delegate  of  Minnesota  in  Congress.  The  first 
street  north  of  Whitall  was  then  called  Douglas  avenue,  to  honor  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  United  States  senator,  but  now  forms  a  part  of  York  street. 

Next  on  the  west,  an  addition  crossed  by  Trout  brook,  including  Cayu- 
ga, Genesee,  and  Acker  streets,  was  platted  by  Edmund  Ricef  in  1881. 
The  last  is  in  honor  of  his  wife's  brother.  Captain  William  H.  Acker,t  a 
native  of  New  York  state,  who  came  to  St.  Paul  in  1854,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-one  years,  was  adjutant  general  of  Minnesota  in  186(K^1,  enlisted 
in  the  First  Minnesota  regiment,  and  was  killed  in  battle  in  1862. 

Northeast  of  the  area  of  Arlington  Hills,  a  tract  of  160  acres  had 
been  platted  in  the  summer  of  1856  by  Harwood  Iglehart.f  William  Sprigg 
Hall,t  and  Charles  N.  Mackubin.f  Eight  of  its  nine  streets  running  east 
and  west  were  named  in  deference  or  compliment  to  the  second  of  these 
partner  proprietors,  for  whom  Hall  avenue  in  West  St.  Paul  had  been 
named  in  1855.    The  fifth  or  middle  street  in  the  series  is  Maryland,  for 


SAINT  PAUL  625 

the  native  state  of  the  three  partners;  but  all  others  may  be  considered 
as  sprigs  of  trees,  shrubs,  or  smaller  flowering  plants.  In  the  entire  order 
from  south  to  north,  they  are  Magnolia,  Jessamine,  Geranium,  Rose, 
Maryland,  Hawthorn,  Orange,  Hyacinth,  and  Ivy. 

All  these  early  street  names,  which  may  be  called«a  bouquet  of  flowers, 
are  yet  retained;  and  several  of  them  are  applied,  though  interruptedly, 
excepting  for  Maryland,  to  the  continuations  of  streets  on  the  same  due 
east  lines  to  the  city  boundary.  Likewise  westward  Geranium  and  Rose 
streets  continue  to  Western  avenue,  attaining  thus  an  extent  of  five  miles 
and  a  half,  while  Maryland  street  runs  nearly  a  mile  farther,  to  Lake 
Como.  On  the  east,  however,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  place  of  Magnolia 
street  is  named  Sanborn  avenue,  in  honor  of  Gen.  John  B.  Sanbom,t 
who  owned  land  at  its  north  side ;  and  in  the  place  of  Ivy  street  beyond 
Lake  Phalen  is  Autumn  street,  with  a  very  short  Lilac  avenue  next  north. 

Nearly  a  mile  south  of  Lake  Phalen  and  at  the  southeast  side  of  its 
outflowing  creek,  John  H.  Tracy  in  1874  platted  Phalen  ^and  Tracy  ave- 
nues (the  former  now  called  a  street).  Harvester  avenue,  and  Brand 
and  Kerwin  streets.  Here  was  a  large  manufactory,  the  St.  Paul  Har- 
vester Works,  of  which  Henry  Brandt  had  charge  until  1882.  John 
Kerwinf  came  to  Minnesota  in  1857,  engaged  in  farming  and  in  the  sale 
of  agricultural  implements,  and  during  several  years,  until  his  death  in 
1906,  was  chairman  of  the  Ramsey  County  Board  of  Control. 

Other  streets  adjoining  the  Harvester  Works,  on  the  north  side  of 
the  railway,  are  Stillwater  and  Prosperity  avenues,  with  the  short  Corn- 
ing avenue  and  Mechanic  street.  Within  a  half  mile  farther  east  are 
Powder  street.  Railroad  and  Hammer  avenues,  and  Herbert  and  Kiefer 
streets,  the  last  being  named  for  Andrew  R.  Kiefer,t  a  captain  in  the 
civil  war,  who  in  1893-97  was  a  member  of  Congress. 

Hazel  Park,  which  is  a  residence  district  with  a  tiny  public  park,  was 
platted  in  1886  by  William  L.  Ames,  Jr.f  New  street  names  on  this  plat 
are  Ames  and  La  Crosse  avenues.  Its  south  side  is  Harvester  avenue, 
and  next  on  the  south  is  Keogh  avenue. 

Several  additions  of  Hazel  Park  were  platted  during  the  next  eight 
years,  lying  within  the  distance  of  about  a  half  mile  east  and  northeast, 
including  Van  Dyke,  Hazel,  Luella,  and  Ruth  avenues. 

Yet  farther  east,  on  the  high  land  adjoining  East  avenue,  the  boun- 
dary of  the  city,  a  plat  in  1892  of  forty  acres  has  in  its  southeast  corner 
the  northern  part  of  Beaver  lake  and  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  Mary- 
land avenue.  Another  plat  in  1893,  of  equal  area,  a  quarter  to  a  half 
mile  farther  north,  named  Harvester  Heights,  is  traversed  from  west  to 
east  by  Autumn  street,  Prospect  avenue,  having  a  far  outlook  southwest- 
ward  over  the  city,  Helen  street,  named  for  the  wife  of  William  L.  Ames, 
Jr.,t  and  Sherwood  avenue,  for  George  W.  Sherwood,t  a  building 
contractor,  who  owned  a  large  stock  farm,  raising  thoroughbred  horses, 
on  the  road  to  Afton.  Crossing  these  additions  from  south  to  north  is 
Howard  avenue,  honoring  Thomas  Howard,t  municipal  judge  in  1869-72. 


626  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Latest  among  noteworthy  additions  to  this  city  is  a  tract  of  about  125 
acres,  named  Beaver  Lake  Heights,  platted  in  the  summer  of  1917,  lying 
between  a  quarter  of  a  mile  and  one  mile  southwest  of  Beaver  lake.  It 
is  bordered  on  the  northwest  by  the  electric  car  line  on  Hazel  avenue,  run- 
ning to  Wildwood  and  Stillwater,  the  carriage  road  to  Stillwater  forms  & 
part  of  its  north  line,  and  it  is  crossed  centrally  from  south  to  north  by 
Ruth  avenue.  The  other  avenues,  mostly  platted  in  curved  courses,  are  Al- 
gonquin, Jordan,  Iroquois,  Manitou,  Mohawk,  Nokomis,  Nortonia,  Huron, 
Pedersen,  and  Escanaba  avenues.  Several  of  these  names  are  received 
from  Indian  tribes;  Nortonia  is  in  compliment  to  John  W.  and  William 
W.  Norton,  real  estate  dealers  of  St.  Paul;  and  Escanaba  is  the  aborig- 
inal name  of  a  river  and  city  in  Michigan. 

Three  short  streets  in  this  addition  are  named  Wabasso,  Bena,  and 
Neche,  Ojibway  words,  respectively  meaning  rabbit,  partridge,  and  friend 
or  neighbor,  "one  like  myself."  The  last,  which  is  also  the  name  of  a 
railway  village  in  Pembina  county.  North  Dakota,  is  pronounced  in  two 
syllables,  and  is  a  common  word  of  greeting.  In  Baraga's  Dictionary  it 
is  spelled  nidji,  being  apparently  allied  with  nij  (two). 

VICINITY  OF  LAKE  PHALEN. 

East  of  Lake  Phalen,  the  avenues  and  streets  running  east,  beyond 
those  previously  noticed,  in'  the  order  northward,  are  Lake  Como  and 
Phalen  avenue.  Heron  and  Center  streets,  Mary  and  Vassar  avenues, 
Keller  street,  and  Larpenteur  avenue. 

Charles  E.  Keller,t  born  in  St.  Paul  in  1858,  has  engaged  in  lumber 
and  real  estate  business,  and  was  deputy  county  auditor  in  1901-06;  and 
his  brother,  Herbert  P.  Keller,t  was  mayor  of  this  city  in  1910-14.  Their 
father,  John  M.  Keller,  coming  to  St.  Paul  in  1856  from  Germany,  was  a 
lumber  dealer  and  had  a  sawmill  where  Third  street  crosses  Trout  brook. 

The  street  running  on  the  north  line  of  the  city  bore  originally  several 
different  names,  for  various  parts  of  its  extent;  but  in  1888  these  were 
superseded  by  Minneapolis  avenue,  for  its  entire  length,  and  in  1904,  this 
was  changed  to  Larpenteur  avenue,  in  honor  of  Auguste  Louis  Larpen- 
teur.t  He  came  here  in  1843,  at  the  age  of  twenty  years,  engaged  until 
1887  in  mercantile  business,  and  for  more  than  thirty  years  later  was  the 
most  esteemed  and  beloved  survivor  of  the  early  pioneers,  dying  Febru- 
ary 24,  1919. 

Streets  running  north,  transverse  with  the  foregoing,  in  the  order 
east  from  Lake  Phalen,  are  Overbrook,  Harvard,  Yale,  Oxford,  and  Phalen 
avenues,  McAfee,  Fisher,  and  Schwabe  streets,  Hager  avenue,  Manton, 
Duncan,  and  Dieter  streets,  with  others  at  the  east  before  noted.  Beside 
the  trolley  line  leading  to  White  Bear  are  Curve  and  Furness  avenues. 

VICINITY  OF  LAKE  COMO. 

On  the  area  from  Lake  Phalen  to  Lake  Como  and  its  vicinity,  for  a 
distance  of  five  miles  originally  in  New  Canada  and  Rose  townships,  the 


SAINT  PAUL  627 

second  and  third  tracts  placed  on  sale  for  house  lots  and  suburban  homes 
were  Lake  Como  Villas,  close  south  of  this  lake,  and  a  larger  plat  named 
simply  Como,  adjoining  the  northeast  side  of  the  lake.  Each  was  platted 
by  Henry  McKenty,t  respectively  hi  August,  1856,  and  August,  1857. 
The  former  tract  is  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  present  Grotto  street,  west 
by  Lexington  avenue,  north  by  Union  street,  and  south  by  Front  street. 
It  is  now  crossed  by  twice  as  many  streets  running  north  as  were  on  the 
original  plat,  namely,  in  order  from  east  to  west,  Jameson  and  Crowell 
avenues,  Como  Place,  Barrett  avenue,  Victoria  street,  and  Louth,  Colne, 
Ryde,  Kilburn,  Chatsworth,  Argyle,  and  Oxford  streets,  and  Churchill 
avenue.  None  of  these  names  appeared  on  the  plat  in  1856.  Its  streets 
running  west,  including  those  on  the  north  and  south  boundaries,  were 
named  by  McKenty  in  that  order  as  Chestnut,  Walnut,  Locust,  Prairie, 
and  Front  streets,  of  which  only  the  last  is  now  retained.  The  others 
have  been  changed  respectively  to  Union,  McKenty,  Orchard,  and  Hatch 
streets,  the  last  being  in  honor  of  Edwin  A.  C.  Hatch,t  pioneer  fur  trader 
and  Indian  agent. 

Henry  McKentyt  had  a  genius  for  platting  and  selling  "broad  acres," 
as  is  well  related  by  Newson  (pages  322-6),  and  he  deserves  to  be  grate- 
fully remembered  for  his  renaming  the  former  Sandy  lake  as  Como; 
but  all  his  street  names  given  in  1856  for  the  tract  of  his  Villas  have  been 
set  aside,  with  one  exception.  The  south  line  of  the  plat  he  called  Front 
street,  which  later,  with  Hatch  street,  has  been  extended  to  the  east. 

In  the  plat  of  1857,  named  Como,  McKenty  laid  out  eight  streets  run- 
ning north,  of  which  Ash  and  Shrub  streets  retain  their  original  names, 
the  full  series  and  present  names,  in  order  from  east  to  west,  being  Grot- 
to, Ash,  Logan,  Quincy,  Adams,  Shrub,  and  Niagara  streets  and  Lexing- 
ton avenue.  The  transverse  avenues  and  streets,  running  west,  in  order 
from  the  north  boundary  southward,  are  now  Larpenteur  avenue,  Idaho, 
Hoyt,  and  Nebraska  avenues,  Lake  Como  and  Phaten  avenue,  and  Cot- 
tage and  South  streets.  Only  the  last  has  the  original  name  .of  1857. 
Thus,  as  with  Front  street,  we  are  able  to  account  for  this  name,  on  the 
south  line  of  the  Como  plat,  though  its  present  position,  in  the  north  part 
of  the  city,  makes  it  seem  anomalous. 

Similarly  North  street,  now  in  an  eastern  central  position,  was  so 
named  when  it  was  the  north  border  of  Benjamin  W.  Brunson"st 
addition,  in  1852;  UOrient  street  (French  for  "the  east")  was  at  the 
east  side  of  an  addition  platted  in  1857;  and  Western  avenue,  one  of  the 
longest  in  the  city  and- far  east  from  its  west  border,  received  the  name 
of  its  part  first  platted,  in  1853,  at  the  west  side  of  an  addition  by  Lymzn 
Dayton,t  which  included  the  early  east  part  of  Dayton  avenue. 

Warrendale,  a  relatively  small  neighborhood  on  the  southwest  side  of 
Lake  Como,  was  platted  in  1885  by  Cary  I.  Warren,  who  came  from 
Louisville,  Kentucky,  and  returned  to  reside  there  in  1896.  This  plat  has 
Cross,  Horton,  and  Van  Slyke  avenues,  the  first  passing  across  it  from 
east  to  west.    The  second  was  named  for  Hiler  H.  Horton,t  a  lawyer  who 


628  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

settled  here  in  1S78,  commemorated  also  by  one  of  the  city  parks,  and  the 
third  for  William  A.  Van  Slyke,t  a  grain  merchant,  who  was  greatly  in- 
terested in  the  city  park  system,  and  especially  for  the  development  of 
Como  Park,  as  told  glowingly  by  Newson   (pages  487-490). 

Preceding  pages  have  presented  the  names  of  many  of  the  streets  and 
avenues  running  north  on  the  area  between  Lakes  Phalen  and  Como,  but 
many  also  remain  to.be  further  noted.  In  their  order  from  east  to  west, 
the  following  additional  names  in  that  series  deserve  special  mention. 

McMenemy  street  was  the  former  name,  until  1909,  of  a  part  of  the 
present  Westminster  street  for  a  mile  and  a  half,  between  Case  street 
and  Larpenteur  avenue.  It  commemorated  Robert  McMenemy,  an  im- 
migrant from  Ireland,  who  during  many  years  had  a  fine  farm  beside 
it,  raising  garden  produce  for  the  St.  Paul  markets. 

Edgemont  and  Sloan  streets  are  short,  lying  respectively  next  east 
and  west  of  Westminster,  the  second  honoring  a  pioneer  St.  Paul  family. 

After  Mississippi  street,  the  series  has  Adolphus,  Olivier,  Agate,  and 
Cortland  streets,  of  which  the  second  honors  Louis.  M.  Olivier,!  register 
of  deeds  in  this  county,  1853-7,  and  John  B.  Olivier, f  county  auditor  in 
1872-3,  and  judge  of  probate,  1891-5,  each  dealing  extensively  in  St  Paul 
lands  and  lots.  Until  1874  the  present  Cortland  street,  named  from  a 
county  and  city  in  New  York,  had  been  called  New  Canada  road,  for  the 
adjoining  township  and  village  of  French  Canadian  people. 

Next  are  Highland,  Abell,  and  Sylvan  streets.  Park  avenue,  and 
Hawley  and  Rice  streets,  of  which  the  fourth  and  the  last  have  been 
previously  noticed  for  their  southern  parts.  The  fifth  honors  Captain 
Alfred  C.  Hawley,t  who  was  adjutant  general  of  Minnesota  in  1882-4. 

Farther  westward  are  Albemarle,  Woodbridge,  Marion,  and  Gaultier 
streets,  and  Matilda,  Farrington,  Hand,  and  Western  avenues,  of  which 
previous  mention  has  been  made  for  the  third,  fourth,  sixth,  and  the  last. 
Matilda  avenue  bears  the  Christian  name  of  Mrs.  Henry  M.  Rice,f  and 
her  maiden  surname  is  borne  by  Whitall  street,  as  before  noted.  Dr. 
Daniel  W.  Hand,t  who  came  to  St.  Paul  in  1857,  was  surgeon  of  the 
First  Minnesota  regiment  in  the  civil  war,  and  in  1882-7  was  professor  of 
surgery  in  the  state  university. 

The  remaining  list  of  these  north  to  south  streets  includes  Cumber- 
land street,  Hazzard  avenue,  named  in  honor  of  George  H.  Hazzard,t 
during  recent  years  secretary  of  the  Minnesota  Territorial  Pioneers, 
Arundel  street,  already  noticed,  Norton,  Bernardine  and  Cohansey 
streets,  Mackubin  and  Kent  streets,  extending  with  Arundel  south  to 
Summit  avenue,  Loeb  street  and  Danforth  avenue,  and  Dale,  Coleman, 
St  Albans,  and  Langtry  streets,  the  next  being  Grotto  street,  on  the  east 
side  of  McKent/s  plats  of  the  Villas  and  Como.  The  last.  Grotto  street, 
received  its  name  in  1871  on  the  more  southern  plat  of  a  large  addition 
named  Summit  Park,  because  the  extension  of  its  course  south  to  the 
Mississippi  (there  named  Bay  street)  reaches  the  riverside  very  near  to 
Fountain  cave. 


SAINT  PAUL  629 

Cottage  Homes,  the  earliest  tract  platted  in  this  vicinity,  by  Henry 
McKentyt  in  the  summer  of  1855,  lying  a  half  mile  to, one  mile  and  a 
quarter  east  of  Lake  Como,  was  divided  into  lots  of  five  acres,  and  was 
crossed  only  by  Carbon  and  Cottage  streets,  names  which  yet  remain, 
running  east  and  west. 

Other  streets  parallel  with  these,  in  the  order  from  Maryland  street 
northward,  in  addition  to  Hawthorn,  Orange,  Hyacinth,  and  Ivy  streets, 
bef9re  noted,  include  Villard  avenue,  named  in  honor  of  Henry  Villard,t 
who  completed  the  building  of  the  transcontinental  Northern  Pacific  rail- 
way; Child  street.  South  street,  extended  east  from  the  Como  plat.  Clear 
street,  and  Denny  street,  named  for  Henry  R.  Denny,t  U.  S.  marshal  of 
this  state  in  1882-6,  and  secretary  of  the  Minnesota  Agricultural  Society 
in  1888-9;  Lake  Como  and  Phalen  avenue,  crossing  the  distance  between 
these  lakes  and  resuming  the  same  name  beyond  Lake  Phalen  to  the  east 
boundary  of  the  city;  and  a  series  of  six  avenues  named  for  states,  with- 
out alphabetic  or  geographic  system,  the  order  for  the  first  three  being 
Nevada,  Nebraska,  and  Montana,  then  Hoyt  avenue,  which  commemorates 
Benjamin  F.  Hoyt,t  a  pioneer  preacher  and  dealer  in  real  estate,  who 
platted  several  additions  of  this  city,  succeeded  northward  by  Iowa, 
Idaho,  and  California  avenues,  the  last  lying  next  to  Larpenteur  avenue, 
which  is  the  city  boundary.  With  these  are  to  be  added  the  short  Wood- 
land avenue  and  Nye  street 

South  of  Maryland  street  and  west  of  Trout  brook,  streets  running 
west  and  not  previously  listed,  in  their  order  from  south  to  north,  are 
Lafond,  Blair,  and  Van  Buren  streets,  Sycamore  street,  Lyton  place, 
Larch  and  Atwater  streets,  Winnipeg  and  Manitoba  avenues,  Litchfield 
street,  Milford  and  Wayzata  streets,  Topping,  Burgess,  and  Stinson 
streets,  and  Oliver,^ Rock,  and  Acorn  streets.  Benjamin  Lafond  platted 
an  addition  in  1857,  in  which  his  name  was  given  to  the  eastern  end  of 
that  street;  Herbert  W.  Topping  was  during  many  years  a  member  of 
the  board  of  park  commissioners;  and  Thomas  Stinson  has  been  before 
noticed  for  his  platting  the  addition  that  named  Thomas  street,  in  1856. 

HAMLINE  AND  VICINITY. 

On  the  plats  for  Hamline  University  and  its  vicinity,  added  to  the 
city  in  1880-83,  the  streets  and  avenues  running  north,  in  their  order 
westward  from  Lexington  avenue  or  parkway,  are  Dunlap  and  Griggs 
streets.  Syndicate,  Hamline,  Sheldon,  Albert,  Holton,  Pascal,  Simpson, 
Asbury,  and  Snelling  avenues,  Fry  street  and  Walker,  Charlotte,  Aldine, 
Wheeler,  and  Fairview  avenues. 

Crossing  this  series,  the  names  of  the  streets  passing  east  and  west 
have  been  already  noted,  for  their  eastern  parts,  from  University  avenue 
northward  to  Minnehaha  street.  Farther  north  are  Capitol  avenue,  Sem- 
inary and  Hubbard  streets,  and  Wesley,  Hewitt,  and  Taylor  avenues. 

Several  personal  names  in  these  lists  are  identified  with  the  progress 
of  religious  thought,  and  especially  with  the  foundation  and  growth  of 


630  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  and  of  this  university,  which  represents 
its  higher  educational  work  for  this  state.  Blaise  Pascal  (b.  1623,  d.  1662), 
of  France,  was  a  very  gifted  religious  author;  John  Wesley  (1703-1791), 
of  England,  was  the  founder  of  Methodism,  and  his  brother  Charles 
(1708-1788)  wrote  many  grand  hymns;  Francis  Asbury  (1745-1816),  also 
of  England,  came  as  a  missionary  to  the  American  colonies;  Leonidas 
L.  Hamline  (1797-1865),  of  Ohio,  for  whom  the  university  and  this  long 
avenue  were  named,  was  a  Methodist  bishop;  and  Matthew  Simpson 
(1810-84),  was  president  of  a  Methodist  university  in  Indiana,  1839-48^ 
and  after  1852  was  a  bi&hop. 

William  Dunlap  was  a  builder  and  real  estate  dealer  here  during 
the  last  fifteen  years  of  his  life,  dying  at  the  age  of  78  years  in  1901; 
Qiauncey  W.  Griggs,t  colonel  in  the  Third  Minnesota  regiment,  was  a 
prominent  merchant  and  banker  in  this  city,  and  removed  to  Tacoma, 
Wash.,  in  1888;  Lucius  F.  Hubbard,t  of  Red  Wing  and  later  of  St.  Paul, 
was  governor  of  Minnesota  in  1882-87,  for  whom  also  a  county  is  named ; 
Girart  Hewittf  was  a  dealer  in  real  estate  and  by  pamphlets  and  steam- 
boat excursions  greatly  promoted  immigration  to  this  state;  and  James 
W.  Taylor,t  who  came  to  St.  Paul  in  1856,  was  U.  S.  consul  in  Winnipeg 
from  1870  until  his  death  in  1893. 

Snelling  avenue  runs  on  a  section  line  from  near  Fort  Snelling  north 
six  miles  to  the  limit  of  the  city,  this  name  and  that  of  the  fort  being  in 
honor  of  Colonel  Josiah  Snelling,t  its  builder. 

Northwest  of  the  Hamline  district,  a  tract  called  Midway  Heights  was 
platted  in  1885,  having  Chelton,  Tallula,  and  Hilles  avenues,  and  Pennock 
street,  rtmning  from  east  to  west,  crossed  by  Qayland,  Tatum,  and  Pusey 
avenues,  with  about  a  third  of  a  mile  of  the  long  Prior  avenue  forming 
its  west  side.  The  proprietors,  Samuel  C.  Tatum  and  his  wife,  of  Cin- 
cinnati, with  Hannah  Tatum  of  Philadelphia,  gave  their  surname  to  an 
avenue;  and  another  avenue  and  a  street  honor  their  friend,  Pennock 
Pusey,t  who  came  to  St.  Paul  in  1854,  was  assistant  secretary  of  state, 
1862-72,  and  private  secretary  of  Crovernor  Pillsbury,  1876-82.  Chelton 
avenue,  with  a  slight  change  in  spelling,  is  derived  from  the  Chdten 
hills,  a  few  miles  north  of  Philadelphia;  and  Tallula  is  the  name  of  a 
creek  and  waterfall  in  Georgia. 

Beyond  the  lines  of  the  Great  Northern  and  Northern  Pacific  railwasrs, 
the  northward  continuations  of  the  south  to  north  avenues  on  the  Ham- 
line plats,  after  a  wide  interruption,  are  again  predominant  names  west 
of  Como  Park,  there  crossing  an  addition  of  120  acres,  platted  in  1913  by 
Hon.  Thomas  Frankson,t  who  three  years  later  was  elected  lieutenant 
governor  of  the  state.  An  added  avenue,  extending  through  his  plat 
from  the  earlier  plats  on  the  south  and  north,  is  named  Arona,  for  a 
town  in  northern  Italy,  about  30  miles  west  of  Como.  New  names  ap- 
plied by  Frankson  are  McKinley,  Frankson,  and  Bison  avenues,  the  first 
for  William  McKinley,  martyr  president  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
last  for  a  domesticated  herd  of  several  bisons,  the  American  buffalo, 


SAINT  PAUL  631 

brought  by  Frankson  from  his  former  home  in  Spring  Valley  and  placed 
in  an  inclosure  of  Como  Park.  Other  avenues  in  his  addition  and  at  the 
north,  running  from  east  to  west,  receive  their  names  from  the  corre- 
sponding avenues  east  of  Lake  Como;  but  at  the  south  a  new  series  of 
streets  includes  Wynne,  Breda,  Albany,  Almond,  and  Atlantis  streets, 
with  Como  avenue,  on  which  the  street  car  line  runs  west  from  the  park. 

ST.    ANTHONY   PARK. 

Southwest  and  west  of  the  State  Fair  Ground  and  Agricultural  Col- 
lege, St.  Anthony  Park,  in  the  northwest  edge  of  St.  Paul  and  adjoining 
the  former  township  and  city  of  St.  Anthony  (now  East  Minneapolis), 
was  platted  in  two  parts,  in  the  spring  and  late  autumn  of  1885.  The 
earlier  southern  part  was  owned  by  Charles  H.  Pratt,  of  Minneapolis, 
Nathaniel  P.  Langford.t  of  St.  Paul,  and  John  H.  Knapp,  Andrew 
Tainter,  and  Henry  Van  Reed,  of  Menomonie,  Wisconsin.  The  later 
part,  called  St.  Anthony  Park  North,  was  platted  for  J.  Royall  McMur- 
ran,  agent  of  a  syndicate  of  capitalists  living  in  Virginia,  namely,  Hill 
Carter  and  Major  James  H.  Dooley,-  of  Richmond,  Brooke  Doswell,  of 
Fredericksburg,  and  others.  Each  of  the  owners  thus  named,  excepting 
McMurran,  was  commemorated  by  an  avenue  or  street;  but  Pratt  street 
was  renamed  Alden  in  1903,  the  greater  part  of  Langford  avenue  (earlier 
extending  east  to  Como  Park)  was  renamed  as  a  part  of  Como  avenue 
in  1910,  and  Dooley  avenue  was  changed  in  1902,  on  request  of  Prof. 
Samuel  B.  Greenf  and  others,  to  Commonwealth  avenue,  taking  the  name 
of  a  -beautiful  parkway  in  Boston,  Mass.  A  part  of  Eustis  street  north 
of  the  present  Great  Northern  railway  was  originally  named  Folwell 
street,  in  honor  of  William  W.  Folwell,t  first  president  of  the  State 
University;  but  a  year  afterward,  in  1886,  it  was  changed,  sowthat  a  street 
now  two  miles  long  (except  interruptions  by  railways  crossing  it)  was 
named  continuously  Eustis,  in  honor  of  J.  Mage  Eustis,t  of  Minneapolis, 
an  adjacent  land  owner. 

Because  two  great  railways  break  the  courses  of  other  streets,  the 
principal  thoroughfare  joining  the  southern  and  northern  parts  of  St. 
Anthony  Park  is  Raymond  avenue,  named  in  honor  of  Bradford  Paul 
Raymond.t  a  student  of  Hamline  at  Red  Wing  in  1866-9,  many  years  be- 
fore its  removal  to  this  city.  He  was  president  of  Lawrence  University, 
Appleton,  Wis.,  in  1883-89,  and  during  the  next  nineteen  years  was  presi- 
dent of  Wesleyan  University,  Middletown,  Conn. 

Next  east  of  the  north  part  of  Ra3rmond  avenue  and  beside  the  State 
Agricultural  College  Campus  is  Gevcland  avenue,  at  first  named  for 
Heman  Gibbs,t  the  earliest  settler  of  the  adjacent  part  of  Rose  township, 
but  renamed  in  honor  of  Grover  Cleveland,  president  of  the  United  States, 
leaving  only  a  short  southern  part,  veering  westward,  which  yet  is  Gibbs 
avenfie.  On  the  southern  course  of  the  same  section  line,  Qeveland  ave- 
nue begins  again  and  runs  through  Merriam  Park  and  onward  more  than 
three  miles  to  the  Mississippi  above  Fort  Snelling. 


632  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Prior  avenue,  near  the  southeast  limit  of  St  Anthony  Park,  was  there 
at  first  called  Westwood  avenue,  as  also  later  in  the  same  year  1885  it 
was  named  at  the  west  side  of  Midway  Heights;  but  that  name  was 
changed  to  Prior  avenue  in  1886,  taking  thus  the  designation  given  in 
1882-3  to  its  more  southward  course  in  Merriam  Park.  It  is  in  honor 
of  Charles  H.  Prior,  of  Minneapolis,  who  is  commemorated  by  the  rail- 
way village  of  Prior  Lake,  in  Scott  county.  With  some  interruptions, 
Prior  avenue  reaches  south  to  the  verge  of  the  Mississippi  bluff  nearly 
opposite  the  fort 

In  the  vicinity  of  this  north  end  of  Prior  avenue  are  Sherwood,  Pack- 
ard, Eldred,  and  Eastman  streets;  Stella, ' Carter,  Fifield,  and  Raleigh 
streets;  and  Bushnell,  Alfred,  and  Pepperell  streets,  with  Beard  court 
All  these  streets  are  very  short 

Between  Gibbs  and  Raymond  avenues  are  Bartlett,  Marsh,  and  Ever- 
ett courts,  and  Standish,  Priscilla,  and  Alden  streets,  the  last  three  being 
for  pilgrims  who  came  to  Pl3rmouth,  Mass.,  in  1620  on  the  Mayflower. 

South  of.  the  railways  are  Hersey  avenue.  Turner,  Bradford,  Endicott, 
and  Wycliff  streets,  the  third  and  .fourth  being  names  from  early  New 
England  history,  and  the  last  from  the  dawn  before  the  Reformation  in 
old  England;  Hampden  and  Cromwell  avenues,  named  for  John  Hamp- 
den (1594-1643)  and  Oliver  Cromwell  (1599-1658),  great  figures  in  Eng- 
lish history;  Ellis,  Hunt,  and  Cudworth  streets,  the  last  two  named  for 
D.  H.  Hunt  and  Darius  A.  Cudworth,  local  residents ;  Pearl  street,  orig- 
inally named  Pym  street,  for  John  Pym  (1584-1643),  an  English  patriot; 
Bayless  avenue,  named  for  Vincent  W.  Bayless,  secretary  of  a  fuel,  com- 
pany in  Minneapolis;  and  Manvel  and  Robbins  streets,  for  Allen  Man- 
vel,t  of  St.  Paul,  an  official  of  the  Manitoba  (now  Great  Northern)  rail- 
way, and  D|miel  M.  Robbins,t  also  of  St  Paul,  president  of  a  grain 
elevator  company. 

Wheeler,  Lindley,  and  Van  Reed  streets,  running  east  and  west,  are 
between  the  two  railways,  the  first  being  named  in  honor  of  Everett  P. 
Wheeler,  a  prominent  attorney  of  New  York  city,  who  had  business  in- 
terests, here.  The  second  and  third  are  very  ^hort  streets,  the  latter  be- 
ing for  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  southern  plat 

North  of  the  railways,  in  addition  to  avenues  and  streets  already 
noticed,  are  Scudder  street,  honoring  Rev.  John  L.  Scudder,  in  1882-86 
pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  (Church  in  Minneapolis,  member  of  a 
family  distinguished  for  its  clergymen  and  missionaries;  Blake  and 
Gordon  avenues,  the  former  in  honor  of  Anson  Blake,  of  St  Paul,  uncle 
of  Mr.  Pratt,  who  was  a  principal  owner  and  agent  of  the  south  part 
of  St.  Anthony  Park ;  Bourne  avenue,  for  Walter  B.  Bourne,  a  clerk  for 
the  sale  of  lots;  Keston  street,  Chilcombe  and  Pierce  avenues,  and  Man- 
son  and  Patton  streets;  Brompton  street,  Hendon  avenue,  and  Fiilham, 
Chelmsford,  Grantham,  and  Hythe  streets,  the  first  three  named  for 
suburbs  or  parts  of  London,  the  second  three  for  towns  elsewhere  in 
England,  these  names  having  been  proposed  by  Mftnley  B.  Curry,  of 


SAINT  PAUL  633 

Richmond,  Va.,  a  partner  of  the  syndicate  owning  the  northern  plat; 
Buford  avenue,  in  honor  of  Col.  A.  S.  Buford,  of  Virginia,  who  served 
in  the  Confederate  army;  and  Dudley  avenue,  bearing  a  family  name 
long  ago  prominent  in  England,  and  later  in  American  history. 

This  district,  more  than  any  other  large  part  of  St.  Paul,  is  note- 
worthy for  its  streets  deviating  from  straight  and  rectangular  courses, 
on  account  of  the  diversities  of  the  contour,  which  is  formed  by  numer- 
ous irregular  hillocks,  ridges,  and  hollows,  being  a  part  of  a  morainic 
belt  of  the  glacial  drift  Thus  even  the  chief  streets,  as  the  middle 
course  of  Raymond  avenue,  Scudder  and  Knapp  streets,  and  Langford, 
Commonwealth  (at  first  named  Dooley),  Carter,  and  Doswell  avenues, 
in  this  order  from  southeast  to  northwest,  the  last  five  being  named  on 
(he  plats  in  honor  of  original  proprietors,  are  curved  to  conform  with 
the  slopes  and  inequalities  of  the  land  surface. 

MERRIAM  PARK  AND  VICINITY. 

Turning  next  south  to  Merriam  Park  and  other  plats  in  its  vicinity, 
and  thence  westward  to  the  city  boundary  and  the  Mississippi,  we  come 
to  the  tract  platted  by  John  L.  Merriamf  in  1882-S3,  for  which  his  son, 
William  R.  Merriam,t  later  governor  of  the  state  in  1889-93,  was  agent 
It  has  Wilder  and  Terrace  Park  avenues,  Moore,  Prior,  and  Howdl 
avenues,  the  same  on  the  early  plat  as  now;  but  its  Willius  street  and 
Laura  avenue  are  now  respectively  Ferdinand  street  and  Dewey  avenue. 
These  names  commemorate  Amherst  H.  Wilder,t  who  by  his  will,  with 
the  later  wills  of  his  widow  and  daughter,  founded  a  noble  charity  for 
this  city;  George  W.  Moore,t  who  came  to  St.  Paul  in  1850,  and  after 
1861  was  deputy  collector  of  customs;  Charles  H.  Prior,  previously 
noticed;  Ferdinand  Willius,t  banker,  who  settled  here  in  1855;  Laura 
£.  Hancock,  wife  of  William  R.  Merriam,t  niece  of  Gen.  Winfield  S. 
Hancock;  and  Admiral  George  Dewey,  hero  of  the  capture  of  Manila  in 
1898.  For  the  last,  the  change  from  the  original  name,  Laura  avenue, 
was  made  because  of  its  similarity  in  sound  with  Laurel  avenue,  which 
had  been  earlier  named,  in  its  eastern  part,  in  1870.  It  should  be  added 
that  the  second  wife  of  John  L.  Merriam,  step-mother  of  Governor  Mer- 
riam, was  Helen  M.  Wilder,  for  whose  brother,  as  also  for  herself,  Wilder 
avenue  was  named. 

The  group  of  avenues  running  west,  transverse  to  these  here  listed, 
had  been  previously  named  on  plats  farther  east.  Between  St  Anthony 
avenue  and  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  railway  are  Montague 
place  and  Milwaukee  and  Astoria  avenues,  each  very  short. 

Bordering  the  northeast  side  of  Merriam  Park,  a  smaller  residential 
area  called  Union  Park  was  platted  in  1884,  lying  between  the  railway 
and  University  avenue.  Its  east  part  is  crossed  by  Dewey  avenue;  the 
east  boundary  is  a  part  of  Fairview  avenue  (then  called  Pomona  ave- 
nue) ;  the  southern  boundary  is  Waltham  avenue ;  and  it  also  has  Fer- 
onia,  Lynnhurst,  and  Oakley  avenues. 


634  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Next  eastward,  other  small  plats  of  1885  and  1886  are  separated  by 
Shields  avenue,  named  in  honor  of  Gen.  James  Shields,t  one  of  the  first 
United  States  senators  of  Minnesota.  North  to  south  streets  crossing 
Shields  avenue,  in  their  order  from  east  to  west,  are  Roy,  Fry,  and 
Pierce  streets,  and  Aldine,  Herschel,  Wheeler,  and  Beacon  avenues. 

Toward  the  northwest,  a  plat  in  1881  by  the  widow  of  Girart  Hewitt 
and  other  owners,  between  the  Milwaukee  railway  and  University  avenue, 
has  Montgomery  and  Vandalia  streets,  Pillsbury  and  Hampden  avenues, 
and  La  Salle  and  Carleton  streets.  Running  from  southeast  to  northwest, 
across  the  foregoing,  are  Myrtle  and  Wabash  avenues. 

In  the  Fourth  and  Fifth  additions  to  Merriam  Park,  platted  in  1887, 
and  in  the  Capitol  addition  of  1890,  adjoining  the  northwest  corner  of 
Merriam  Park,  are  Gilbert  and  Qeora  avenues,  Corinne  street.  Temple 
court,  and  Ann  Arbor  street.  The  second  honors  a  daughter  of  Rush  B. 
Wheeler,  dealer  in  real  estate  here  since  1883 ;  the  third  is  named  for  his 
niece  in  Utica,  N.  Y. ;  and  the  last  bears  the  name  of  a  city  in  Michigan, 
where  the  university  of  that  state  was  founded  in  1837. 

Next  on  the  south,  at  the  west  side  of  Merriam  Park,  a  residential 
tract  of  forty  acres  was  platted  in  1907  and  named  Roblyn  Park  for 
Orlando  A.  Robertson  and  Frederick  B.  Lynch,t  its  original  owners. 
It  is  crossed  from  north  to  south  by  Finn  avenue,  named  earlier,  in  its 
parts  farther  south,  for  William  Finn,  the  first  permanent  settler  of 
Reserve  township  (now  the  southwest  part  of  St.  Paul) ;  and  its  north 
line  is  Roblyn  avenue,  as  the  western  extension  of  Rondo  street,  be- 
tween Pascal  and  Cretin  avenues,  was  renamed  in  1913. 

An  addition  in  1889  by  Daniel  A.  J.  Baker,t  lying  south  of  University 
avenue  and  between  Raymond  and  the  west  boundary  of  the  city,  has 
Glendale  avenue,  Pelham  street,  Cromwell  avenue,  Eustis  and  Clifford 
streets,  and  Curfew,  Berry,  and  Emerald  avenues,  the  last  being  on  the 
Minneapolis  line.  These  are  crossed  by  Bajrard  street,  with  Myrtle  and 
Wabash  avenues,  which  have  been  previously  noted. 

Desnoyer  Park,  a  large  residential  district  lying  south  of  the  Mil- 
waukee railway  and  bounded  southwestward  by  the  Mississippi,  platted 
in  1887,  was  named  for  Stephen  Desnoyer,t  who  settled  here  in  1843, 
kept  a  hotel,  and  traded  with  the  Indians.  Its  streets  running  west  and 
northwest,  in  their  order  from  northeast  to  southwest,  are  St.  Anthony 
avenue,  Doane  street,  Beverly,  Columbus,  Glenham,  Maplewood,  and 
Otis  avenues,  and  the  Mississippi  River  boulevard.  Transverse  are  the 
Como  and  River  boulevard,  Wentworth  street,  Medford,  Somerville,  and 
Glendale  avenues,  and  Join  street.  Medford  and  Somerville  are  cities 
adjoining  Boston,  Mass.;  and  Beverly  avenue  is  similarly  named  for  the 
township  and  city  next  north  of  Salem,  Mass. 

The  extensive  grounds  of  the  Town  and  Country  Qub,  acquired  in 
the  summer  of  1911,  were  formerly  a  part  of  the  Desnoyer  Park  district, 
which  southward,  beyond  Marshall  avenue,  has  Marlboro  and  Montrose 
avenues. 


SAINT  PAUL  635 

SUMMIT  PARK  AND  VICINITY. 

Passing  eastward  to  the  west  border  of  the  city  as  it  was  in  1857»  we 
have  the  large  addition  named  Summit  Park,  platted  in  1871  by  William 
S.  Wright,  John  Wann,  and  several  other  proprietors.  Its  streets  run- 
ning north  and  south  are  Dale,  St.  Albans  (then  called  Prairie  street), 
Grotto,  Avon  (then  Cayuga),  Victoria,  Milton,  Chatsworth,  and  Oxford 
(then  Linden)  streets,  and  Lexington  avenue,  in  this  order  from  east  to 
west.  The  avenues  running  west,  across  the  foregoing,  are  Laurel,  Ash- 
land, and  Portland,  then  named  respectively  Madison,  Washington,  and 
Leslie  avenues;  Summit,  Grand,  Lincoln,  and  Goodrich  avenues,  which 
retain  their  original  names;  Fairmount  avenue,  which  then  was  Owasco; 
and  Osceola  avenue,  named  then  as  now. 

Milton  and  Oxford  are  recognized  as  derived  from  England;  and 
Chatsworth  is  the  home  of  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  in  the  county  of 
Derby.  Osceola  was  a  famous  Seminole  warrior,  who  died  a  prisoner  in 
Fort  Moultrie,  South  Carolina,  in  1838. 

John  Wann,  who  lived  on  the  northwest  corner  of  Summit  avenue  and 
Victoria  street,  named  the  latter  from  his  admiration  of  the  Queen  of 
England,  and  in  contrast  his  wife,  to  testify  loyalty  to  the  United  States, 
named  Lexington  avenue  for  the  battle  on  April  19,  1775,  when  the  first 
shots  of  the  American  Revolution  were  "heard  round  the  world."  The 
present  Portland  avenue  was  named  Leslie  for  their  son,  Thomas  Leslie 
Wann,  and  after  twenty-one  years  it  was  renamed  as  now  in  1892. 

Terrace  Park,  a  smaller  residence  area,  adjoining  the  southeast  side 
of  Summit  Park,  was  platted  in  1871,  having  Oakland  street  (now  called 
an  avenue),  and  Floral  and  Lawton  streets.  Its  Heather  place  was  plat- 
ted later,  by  James  W.  Heather  in  1889,  so  that  this  name,  apparently 
of  Scotch  derivation,  came  as  a  personal  surname.  Oakland  is  a  most 
characteristic  term  referring  to  the  abundant  oak  trees  of  this  part  of 
Minnesota,  applied  also  to  a  large  cemetery  in  another  part  of  the  city, 
and  to  a  southeastern  suburb,  before  noticed. 

Crocus  Hill,  platted  in  1881-83  and  1889,  has  a  circuitous  street,  called 
Crocus  place,  and  a  small  public  park.  The  name  is  given  in  the  local 
flora,  to  our  earliest  spring  flower,  called  also  pasque  flower,  which  means 
Easter  flower.    It  is  abundant  through  all  the  prairie  portion  of  the  state. 

Kenwood  Terrace,  platted  for  residences  in  1888-89,  has  Kenwood 
parkway  and  the  east-  end  of  Linwood  place.  This  small  tract,  at  the 
verge  of  the  river  bluff,  and  the  similar  Crocus  Hill  area,  thence  receiv- 
ing its  name,  adjoin  the  southeast  corner  of  Summit  Park.  The  west- 
ward extension  of  Linwood  place,  formerly  called  Evergreen  avenue, 
was  thus  renamed  in  1895. 

Ridge  wood  Park,  a  residence  area  next  westward,  traversed  by  the 
Milwaukee  railway,  was  platted  in  1887,  comprising  Lombard  avenue, 
Crescent  court,  Ridgewood  avenue,  parts  of  Grace  street  and  Jefferson 
avenue,  Robie  street,  and  Baldwin  court,  the  last  two  being  very  short, 
with  other  streets  previously  noticed  farther  north. 


636  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

LEXINGTON  AND  MACALESTER  PARKS. 

From  a  mile  and  a  half  to  more  than  two  miles  south  of  the  Lexing- 
ton Athletic  Park,  much  used  for  playing  baseball,  on  the  southwest  cor- 
ner of  University  and  Lexington  avenues,  are  the  residence  areas  named 
Lexington  Park,  including  no  less  than  eleven  small  plats  of  1886-8S.  The 
streets  and  avenues  running  north  and  south,  parallel  with  Lexington 
avenue  and  in  the  order  westward  from  it,  are  Montcalm  place,  the 
west  part  of  Nettleton  avenue,  Edgcumbe  road,  Griggs  street,  and  Syn- 
dicate and  Hamline  avenues,  of  which  the  last  three  were  named  on 
earlier  plats  northward.  Montcalm,  a  French  general,  was  killed  in  the 
battle  of  Quebec,  1759;  William  Nettletonf  was  one  of  the  founders  of 
Superior,  Wis.,  and  of  Duluth,.  and  later  engaged  extensively  in  real 
estate  business  in  St.  Paul ;  and  Edgcumbe  road,  recently  improved  as  a 
parkway,  formerly  called  South  Summit  avenue,  was  thus  renamed  in 
1912,  for  a  road  along  the  high  shore  of  Plymouth  harbor,  England. 

'  Streets  running  west  in^  this  district,  southward  of  Osceola  avenue, 
before  noted  as  the  sout^  line  of  Summit  Park,  are  Sargent  avenue,  St. 
Gair  street,  and  Lydia  street;  Berkeley  and  Stanford  avenues,  named 
for  universities  of  California ;  Wellesley  avenue,  for  the  college  so  named 
near  Boston ;  Lansing  street ;  Jefferson  avenue,  for  President  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson, reaching  far  east  and  west;  Juliet,  Palace,  James,  Randolph, 
and  Juno  streets;  Niles,  Armstrong,  Watson,  Hartford,  and  Bayard  ave- 
nues; Scheffer  and  Eleanor  streets;  and  Otto  avenue,  lying  on  a  section 
line  about  two  miles  north  of  Fort  Snelling.  Several  of  these  streets 
and  avenues  continue  west  to  the  River  boulevard,  as  probably  others  will 
be  so  extended  when  the  region  shall  be  fully  occupied  by  homes. 

St.  Clair  street,  on  a  section  line,  is  named,  like  Lake  St.  Clair,  be- 
tween Huron  and  Erie,  for  Gen.  Arthur  St.  Clair,  who  was  governor  of 
the  Northwest  Territory  in  1789-1802;  Randolph  street,  on  a  quarter 
section  line,  commemorates  the  Virginia  family  distinguished  for  service 
in  the  Continental  Congress  and  in  the  early  U.  S.  Congress;  Bayard 
avenue  honors  a  similarly  eminent  family  of  Delaware;  Albert  Schef- 
fer,t  of  St.  Paul,  was  a  banker  and  a  state  senator;  and  Otto  avenue  is 
in  honor  of  a  German  family  bearing  this  surname,  who  held  official 
positions  in  Reserve  township.  In  1888  the  Otto  family  platted  40  acres 
at  the  south  side  of  this  avenue,  bounded  west  by  Qeveland  avenue. 

An  area  called  Kittsondale,  formerly  part  of  a'  farm  owned  by  Nor- 
man W.  Kittson,  for  whom  a  county  is  named,  was  platted  in  1902,  near- 
ly adjoining  the  Lexington  Athletic  Park.  Next  southward  are  Con- 
cordia College  and  the  Central  High  School. 

The  Macalester  College  grounds  and  the  residence  district  of  Macal- 
ester  Park,  named  like  this  college  in  honor  of  Charles  Macalester ,t  a 
merchant  of  Philadelphia,  platted  in  1883,  and  an  addition  southeast  of 
the  college,  called  Sylvan  Park,  platted  in  1886  by  William  E.  Brim- 
hall,t  a  resident  market  gardener  and  nurseryman,  are  traversed  from 


SAINT  PAUL  637 

north  to  south  by  Warwick,  Saratoga,  Brimhall,  Sndling,  Macalester, 
Vernon,  and  Cambridge  avenues,  and  Amherst  and  Baldwin  streets,  with 
Fairview  avenue  at  the  west  side  of  Macalester  Park.  The  order  of  the 
list  is  from  Pascal  avenue  westward.  Baldwin  street  was  named  for 
Matthias  W.  Baldwin,  of  Philadelphia,  inventor  and  builder  of  locomo- 
tives used  throughout  the  world,  principal  donor  for  erection  of  the  build- 
ing occupied  by  the  Baldwin  School,  dedicated  Dec.  29,  1853,  which  led 
to  the  organization  of  this  college,  opened  to  students  in  1885.  Walpole 
street  and  Princeton  avenue,  running  west,  are  in  the  south  part  of  the 
college  park  area,  the  former  very  short,  but  the  latter  continuing  west 
to  the  River  boulevard.  Princeton,  N.  J.,  has  the  largest  Presbyterian 
university  of  the  United  States,  with  which  this  college  is  in  close  de- 
nominational affiliation. 

GROVELAND  AND  VICINITY. 

Shadow  Falls  Park,  a  small  area  of  residences,  where  the  Mississippi 
receives  a  cascading  brook,  between  the  two  Catholic  institutions  of  St. 
Thomas  College  and  St.  Paul  Seminary,  was  platted  by  Archbishop  Ire- 
landf  in  1911.  The  River  boulevard  here  makes  a  detour  above  the  falls, 
and  the  several  other  streets,  excepting  Service  lane,  are  named  from  their 
more  southern  and  eastern  portions. 

Groveland,  the  name  of  a  plat  by  Archbishop  Ireland  in  1890,  then 
comprising  only  about  30  acres,  has  been  extended  to  a  considerably  lar- 
ger residential  area  bounded  on  the  west  by  Cretin  avenue,  beside  the 
Seminary,  named  in  honor  of  Joseph  Cretin, t  the  first  Bishop  of  St. 
Paul.  About  a  mile  distant  to  the  south  is  St.  Catherine's  College,  a 
Catholic  college  for  women. 

Between  Macalester  avenue  and  the  river,  numerous  streets  are  found 
south  of  Summit  avenue  that  have  not  been  previously  listed,  these  be- 
ing Underwood  and  Fredericka  avenues.  Sue  street,  Dustin  avenue,  very 
short,  Kenneth  avenue,  Sumner,  Norwich,  and  Woodville  avenues,  Mt. 
Curve  boulevard,  and  Woodlawn  avenue.  They  run  north  and  south,  in 
westward  order,  and  the  transverse  streets  have  been  noticed  eastward. 

Otto's  addition,  before  mentioned,  is  crossed  from  north  to  south  by 
Berta  street,  and  from  east  to  west  by  Schneider,  Moritz,  and  Dora 
avenues,  with  Boland  avenue  on  its  south  line.  The  last  was  named  in 
honor  of  Adamf  and  Peter  BohIand,t  immigrants  from  Germany,  who 
were  farmers  in  this  part  of  the  present  city  area,  the  latter  being  a 
member  of  the  legislature  in  1879-81. 

Hiawatha  Park,  a  residence  addition  near  the  Mississippi,  opposite 
to  the  mouth  of  Minnehaha  creek,  platted  in  1890,  has  Bowdoin  avenue, 
running  south,  with  Villard  street,  Magoffin  and  Coburn  avenues,  and 
Yale  street,  each  short,  running  west.  Longfellow,  author  of  "The 
Song  of  Hiawatha,*'  was  graduated  at  Bowdoin  College,  Maine.  Henry 
Villardt  completed  the  building  of  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad,  which 
was  grandly  celebrated  in  St.   Paul  and  Minneapolis  on   September  3, 


638  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

1883.  Beriah  Magoffin,t  a  farmer  in  this  vicinity,  was  a  representative  in 
the  l^islature  in  1877,  and  was  one  of  the  first  members  of  the  city  board 
of  park  commissioners,  1887-^. 

SOUTHWESTERN   ADDITIONS. 

Numerous  plats  along  the  course  of  West  Seventh  street,  between  the 
central  part  of  the  city  and  Fort  Snelling,  and  on  the  area  between  that 
street  and  the  river,  remain  to  be  noticed. 

On  the  valley  bottomland,  beneath  the  northern  part  of  the  High 
Bridge,  by  which  Smith  avenue  crosses  the  Mississippi,  are  a  western 
part  of  Washington  street.  Spring  and  Mill  streets,  the  east  end  of  St. 
Clair  street,  and  Banning,  Parsons,  and  Alison  streets. 

Near  the  north  end  of  the  bridge  of  the  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  Minne- 
apolis and  Omaha  railway  are  Omaha  and  Barton  streets. 

An  addition  in  1873,  at  the  west  side  of  the  Omaha  railway  shops, 
has  Audubon  street  and  Armstrong  and  Lee  avenues,  running  west 
Other  plats  next  southwestward,  of  1874  to  1883,  have  Logan  and  Forster 
streets,  and  the  east  ends  of  Scheffer  street  and  Otto  avenue,  with  Stew- 
art and  Butternut  avenues,  which  run  southwest.  Stewart  avenue,  con- 
tinuing to  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Snelling  bridge,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Dr.  Jacob  H.  Stewart,t  who  settled  in  St.  Paul  in  1855,  was  mayor  in 
1864,  postmaster  during  the  next  five  years,  and  a  member  of  Congress 
in  1877-9. 

Streets  running  from  north  to  south  in  this  part  of  the  city,  beyond 
Western  avenue,  remaining  to  be  listed,  are  the  short  Nugent  street, 
Daly,  Drake,  Warsaw,  Arbor,  Bay,  Vance,  View,  Fulton,  and  Qifton 
streets,  with  Orrin,  Canton,  and  Mercer  streets,  the  last  three  very  short. 

Avenues  and  streets  lying  farther  southwest,  which  run  mostly  south- 
eastward, in  courses  nearly  at  right  angles  to  West  Seventh  street,  are 
Rogers  and  Hathaway  avenues,  May  street,  Vista,  Alaska,  and  Albion 
avenues,  Elway,  Dealton,  and  Bee  streets,  very  short,  Glen  Terrace,  Par- 
mer street,  Pumell  and  Woolsey  avenues,  and  Rankin,  Springfield,  Madi- 
son, and  Alton  streets,  the  last  four  having  been  platted  in  1872. 

Parallel  with  West  Seventh  street  and  Stewart  avenue  are  Palmer 
street,  Middleton  avenue.  Race  and  Adrian  streets,  and  Benson,  Agnes, 
Rockwood,  Youngman,  and  Chapman  avenues. 

On  an  addition  in  1886  by  C.  W.  Youngman,  Stephen  Lamm,  William 
L.  Rosenberger,  and  John  Rentz,  a  series  of  very  short  streets,  each 
called  a  place,  is  platted  at  the  southeast  side  of  Youngman  avenue,  and 
running  southeast  to  the  verge  of  the  valley  bluff,  named  in  southwest- 
ward  order  as  Lamm,  Jackson,  Truman,  Irving,  Rosenberger,  Lincoln, 
and  Washington  places. 

Plats  of  1887  and  1891,  opposite  to  Fort  Snelling,  have  Leonard  ave- 
nue, St.  Paul  street,  a  part  of  Stewart  avenue,  and  Graham,  Munster, 
Wordsworth,  and  Sheridan  streets,  running  east  and  west,  in  this  order 
northward    from   the    Mississippi;   and  a   more   recent  plat,   continuing 


SAINT  PAUL  639 

north,  has  Field,  Caulfield,  Worcester,  and  Morgan  avenues.  Crossing 
these  are  Davern,  Bellevue,  and  Fairview  avenues,  and  southern  parts  of 
Sue  street  and  Prior  avenue,  of  which  the  last  three  have  been  earlier 
noted  northward.  Davern  avenue  commemorates  William  Davern,  who 
was  born  in  Ireland,  June  24,  1831,  and  died  in  this  city  June  50,  1913. 
He  came  to  America  in  1848,  and  to  St.  Paul  the  next  yjtds ;  was  a  farmer 
and  dairyman  in  Reserve  township  (now  the  southwest  part  of  the  city), 
living  on  this  avenue ;  was  a  member  of  the  legislature  in  1857-8. 

Parks,  Boulevards,  and  Parkways. 

The  History  of  St.  Paul,  edited  by  Gen.  C.  C.  Andrews,  published  in 
1890,  has  a  chapter  on  'The  Parks  of  the  City,"  in  pages  522-542,  in- 
cluding a  part  of  an  address  by  Horace  W.  S.  Cleveland,  then  land- 
scape architect  of  the  park  systems  of  the  Twin  Cities.  A  later  paper, 
"History  of  the  Parks  and  Public  Grounds  of  St.  Paul,"  by  Lloyd  Pea- 
body,  forms  pages  609-630  in  Volume  XV,  1915,  Minnesota  Historical 
Society  Collections.  The  following  notes  of  origins  of  names  hiive  been 
gathered  from  these  sources  and  from  the  annual  reports  of  the  Board 
of  Park  Commissioners,  beginning  in  1888,  supplemented  by  interviews 
in  the  summer  of  1918  with  Frederick  Nussbaumer,  who  since  1892  has 
been  the  city  superintendent  of  parks. 

Rice  and  Irvine  parks  were  donated  to  public  use  by  Henry  M.  Ricef 
and  John  R.  Irvinef  in  their  addition  to  St.  Paul,  platted  July  2,  1849, 
being  the  oldest  parks  of  the  city,  each  designated  as  a  "public  square.** 

Smith  pack  is  next  in  age,  having  been  included  by  the  plat  of  an  ad- 
dition dated  July  24,  1849,  by  Cornelius  S.  Whitney  and  Robfert  Smith, 
"who  were  both  Illinois  speculators,  and  never  residents  of  St.  Paul.  .  .  . 
It  was  named  for  the  junior  member  of  the  firm,  Hon.  Robert  Smith,  of 
Alton,  111."  He  was  born  in  Peterborough,  N.  H.,  June  12,  1802;  re- 
moved to  Illinois  in  1832,  and  was  a  member  of  Congress,  1843-49  and 
1857-59;  died  in  Alton,  111.,  December  21,  1867. 

The  area  of  Smith  park  was  the  central  part  of  a  plateau  of  stratified 
valley  drift,  outlined  on  the  maps  of  St.  Paul  in  1851  and  1857,  which 
was  cut  down  50  to  75  feet  in  the  years  1876  to  1890.  The  plateau,  ex- 
tending a  sixth  of  a  mile  both  in  length  and  width,  was  known  as  Bap- 
tist hill,  because  a  Baptist  church  was  built  on  its  summit. 

Como  park,  having  320  acres  of  land  and  107  acres  of  water,  which 
consists  of  Lake  Como  and  the  little  Cozy  lake,  connected  by  a  boat 
channel,  was  the  earliest  acquired  by  purchase,  in  1873,  with  later  addi- 
tions, being  the  largest  and  most  fully  developed  park  in  this  city.  Its  name, 
received  from  Italy,  was  conferred  on  the  lake  and  a  plat  for  suburban 
homes  by  Henry  McKentyf  in  1856,  as  before  noted. 

Phalen  park,  having  216  acres  of  land  and  222  of  water,  mainly  ac- 
quired in  1890-94,  is  named  from  its  lake  and  the  outflowing  creek.  Ed- 
ward Phelant  (or  Phalen)  owned  a  claim  at  the  falls  of  this  creek  in 
1840-44.     His  numerous  successive  land  claims  here,  and  his  probable 


640  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

crime  of  murder,  are  recorded  in  Williams'  History  of  St.  Paul  (M.  H, 
S.  Collections,  vol.  IV). 

Indian  Mounds  park,  purchased  in  1893-1902,  comprising  70  acres,  has 
a  fine  group  of  aboriginal  burial  mounds  on  the  verge  of  the  high  eastern 
bluff  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  whence  a  very  extensive  and  grand  pros- 
pect is  afforded,  looking  far  up  and  down  the  bending  course  of  the 
great  river,  and  over  the  central  and  greater  part  of  the  city.  A  de- 
scription of  these  mounds,  with  notes  of  excavations  in  them,  is  present- 
ed in  "Minnesota  in  Three  Centuries"  (vol.  I,  pages  85-90). 

The  other  parks  and  boulevards  may  be  noticed  advantageously  in 
similar  geographic  order  as  the  foregoing  lists  of  street  names,  first  con- 
sidering West  St.  Paul,  next  the  eastern,  northern,  northwestern,  central 
western,  and  southwestern  districts. 

Cherokee  Heights  in  West  St.  Paul  (or  Riverside,  as  this  part  of  the 
city  has  been  renamed)  is  a  park  acquired  in  1903  to  1906,  adjoining 
dierokee  avenue  for  a  half  mile  on  the  crest  of  the  river  bluff. 

Alice  park,  with  Alice  street  encircling  it,  honors  a  daughter  of  Wil- 
liam Dawson,t  who  platted  that  addition  in  1879. 

Prospect  Terrace,  close  east  of  the  preceding,  is  a  narrow  park  ground 
adjoining  the  street  so  named;  and  Terrace  park  lies  a  short  distance 
farther  east. 

Lamprey  park,  nearly  five  acres,  is  in  an  addition  by  Uri  L.  Lamprey 
in  1885,  on  the  wide  bottomland  bordering  the  river  at  the  east  side  of  this 
Riverview  district. 

Harriet  island  of  the  Mississippi,  having  an  area  of  28  acres,  near 
the  center  of  the  city,  early  named  in  honor  of  Harriet  E.  Bishop.f  the 
first  teacher  here  of  a  public  school  and  of  a  Sunday  school,  was  donated 
in  May,  1900,  by  Dr.  Justus  Ohage,t  commissioner  of  health,  for  use  as 
a  city  park  and  playground,  with  public  baths. 

Central  park,  two  and  a  third  acres,  was  acquired  in  1884,  partly  by 
donation  of  Williajn  Dawson  and  others. 

Lafayette  park,  a  space  of  one  acre,  at  the  south  end  of  Lafayette 
avenue,  purchased  in  1884-5,  commemorates  the  noble  French  marquis, 
who  came  to  aid  in  achieving  American  independence  as  a  special  friend 
and  associate  of  Washington  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 

Mounds  boulevard  is  planned  to  extend  from  East  Seventh  street, 
close  east  of  Phalen  creek,  southeastward  to  the  Indian  Mounds  park;, 
and  similarly  a  parkway  named  in  honor  of  Grovernor  John  A.  Johnsonf 
will  connect  that  park  with  Lake  Phalen  and  its  large  park.  Thence  the 
Wheelock  parkway,  commemorating  Joseph  A.  Wheelock,t  who  was 
very  active  for  establishing  the  present  system  of  city  parks  and  boule- 
vards, runs  four  miles  westward  to  the  south  end  of  Lake  Como,  which 
forms  the  east  part  of  Como  park.  A  biographic  sketch  of  Wheelock, 
with  his  portrait,  is  in  the  M.  H.  S.  Collections  (vol.  XII,  pages  787-790). 

Midway  parkway,  a  half  mile  long,  runs  from  the  west  side  of  Como 
park  to  the  State  Fair  Ground. 


SAINT  PAUL  641 

Lexington  parkway  is  the  enlargement  of  Lexington  avenue  for  more 
than  two  miles,  from  Como  park  to  Summit  avenue ;  and  thence  the  latter 
avenue  is  widened  and  beautified,  being  designated  as  Summit  parkways 
for  two  miles  and  a  half  between  Lexington  avenue  and  the  River  boule- 
vard, which  passes  along  the  verge  of  the  bluffs  at  the  east  side  of  the 
Mississippi  gorge  from  the  University  in  Minneapolis  for  about  seven 
miles  to  the  Fort  Snelling  bridge. 

In  the  eastern  part  of  the  city,  between  the  Johnson  parkway  and 
Trout  brook,  are  Skidmore  park,  a  third  of  an  acre,  platted  in  1883, 
named  for  a  realty  dealer  here,  Edwin  T.  Skidmore;  Hamm  park,  a 
fifth  of  an  acre,  beside  East  Seventh  street,  in  honor  of  Theodore  Hamm.f 
founder  of  a  brewery;  Lockwood  park,  three  fourths  of  an  acre,  in  an 
addition  platted  for  H.  H.  Lockwood  in  1883;  and  Stewart  park,  1.36 
acres,  platted  in  1884  and  named  for  Dr.  Jacob  H.  Stewart,t  former 
mayor,  postmaster,  and  member  of  Congress,  who  died  August  25,  1884. 

Between  Trout  brook  and  Lake  Como  are  Lyton  Place  park,  a  third 
of  an  acre,  named  in  1883  for  Michael  Lyton,  the  former  owner;  Lewis 
park,  nearly  an  acre,  named  likewise  in  1883  for  Robert  P.  Lewis.t  who 
came  to  St.  Paul  in  1859  and  has  ever  since  engaged  in  law  practice  and 
as  a  dealer  in  real  estate;  Foundry  park,  one  acre,  platted  in  1883,  near 
the  works  of  the  St.  Paul  Foundry  company;  Stinson  park,  1.2  acres,  in 
an  addition  platted  for  Thomas  Stinson  in  1884 ;  and  Rogers  park,  3  acres, 
named  in  1883  for  Josias  N.  Rogers,t  a  realty  dealer. 

In  the  plat  of  Warrendale,  beside  Lake  Como,  Cary  I.  Warren  set 
aside  three  small  park  spaces  at  the  intersections  of  streets,  which  he 
named  as  Sunshine,  LeRoy,  and  Van  Slyke  triangles,  the  last,  like  the 
adjacent  avenue,  being  named  in  honor  of  William  A.  Van  Slyke,t  who 
a  few  years  later  was  the  first  president  of  the  city  park  commission,  in 
1887-90. 

Horton  park,  3.48  acres,  and  Newel  park,  10.43  acres,  near  Hamline 
University,  are  in  honor  of  Hiler  H.  Horton,t  and  Stanford  Newcl,t 
who  were  early  members  of  the  board  of  park  commissioners.  Horton 
was  afterward  a  state  senator  in  1899-1905,  and  Newel  was  U.  S.  minis- 
ter to  the  Netherlands,  1897-1905. 

In  the  addition  named  Midway  Heights,  at  the  west  side  of  Newel 
park,  are  Tatum,  Clayland,  May,  and  Cato  parks,  each  having  less  than 
an  acre.  The  first,  like  an  avenue  crossing  this  addition,  bears  the  sur- 
name of  its  original  proprietors. 

The  large  residential  district  called  St.  Anthony  Park,  forming  the 
northwest  corner  of  this  city,  has  College  park,  three  acres,  nearly  ad- 
joining the  State  Agricultural  College  and  Experimental  Farm ;  Common- 
wealth park,  four  fifths  of  an  acre,  along  the  highest  part  of  the  ave- 
nue so  named ;  Langford  park,  9.65  acres,  commemorating  Nathaniel 
P.  Langford,  whose  biography  and  portrait  are  in  the  M.  H.  S.  Col- 
lections (vol.  XV,  1915,  pages  631-668) ;  Hampden  park,  3.09  acres, 
named  for  the  statesman,  John  Hampden,  of  England ;  and  several  very 


642  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

small  park  spaces  bounded  by  intersections  of  streets,  namely,  Cromwell 
park,  and  Alden,  Doris,  Gordon,  Kendrick,  Manvel,  Raymond,  and  Sid- 
ney squares. 

Merriam  Terrace  park,  platted  in  1882,  containing  7.62  acres,  was  named 
in  honor  of  John  L.  Merriamf  and  his  family. 

Lake  Iris  park,  nearly  two  acres,  named  for  its  inclosed  lakelet,  and 
the  little  Feronia  and  Oakley  squares,  named  from  adjacent  avenues,  are 
in  the  residence  tract  of  Union  Park,  at  the  south  side  of  University 
avenue. 

Summit  park,  four  fifths  of  an  acre,  near  the  Cathedral,  has  the 
monument  for  soldiers  of  the  Civil  War. 

About  half  a  mile  distant  to  the  southwest,  near  where  Summit  ave- 
nue turns  to  a  due  west  course,  are  the  Portland  Place,  Summit  Out- 
look, and  the  Point  of  View,  each  a  very  small  park.  The  first  has  a 
statue  of  Nathan  Hale,  hero  and  martyr  of  the  Revolutionary  War; 
and  the  second  and  third  look  far  away  eastward  an<i  southward  over  the 
city  and  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  Other  little  parks,  within  the  next 
half  mile  along  the  verge  or  slope  of  the  valley  bluff,  are  Oakland  park, 
between  Oakland  and  Pleasant  avenues,  Crocus  Hill  and  Webster  parks, 
beside  streets  bearing  these  names,  and  Kenwood  park,  inclosed  by  the 
Kenwood  parkway. 

Holcombe  park,  a  half  mile  north  from  the  last,  honors  William  Hol- 
combe,t  the  first  lieutenant  governor  of  the  state. 

Linwood  park,  sixteen  acres,  acquired  in  1909,  and  Haldeman  park,  an 
acre  and  a  half,  the  latter  being  included  in  the  residential  area  of  Ridge- 
wood  Park,  platted  in  1887,  lie  on  the  descending  slope  of  the  bluflF  be- 
yond Crocus  hill.  The  first  and  a  street  near  it,  called  Linwood  place, 
receive  their  name  from  the  basswood  tree,  the  American  linden ;  and  the 
second  commemorates  Benjamin  F.  Haldeman,  during  many  years  a  book- 
keeper in  this  city,  who  died  in  1909  at  the  age  of  58  years. 

Shadow  Falls  park,  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  River  boulevard, 
is  at  the  west  end  of  Summit  avenue. 

Fountain  park,  beside  Lexington  avenue  near  its  south  end,  has  an 
area  of  two-fifths  of  an  acre. 

Dawson  and  Walsh  parks,  respectively  containing  two  acres  and  three 
fourths  of  an  acre,  in  an  addition  named  West  End,  platted  in  1884  on  the 
north  side  of  West  Seventh  street  (then  called  Fort  street),  about  two 
miles  northeast  of  Fort  Snelling,  were  named  in  honor  of  William  Daw- 
sont  and  Vincent  D.  Walsh,  who,  with  Hon.  Robert  A.  Smith  and  others, 
were  original  proprietors  of  this  addition. 

A  few  other  small  park  spaces  remain  to  be  noticed,  including  Ram- 
sey triangle,  beside  the  street  of  this  name,  which  honors  Governor  Ram- 
sey ,t  Bay  triangle,  beside  Bay  street;  and  the  public  ground  in  Park 
Place  addition,  .45  of  an  acre,  near  the  center  of  the  city,  where  an  Epis- 
copal mission  was  founded  by  Rev.  James  Lloyd  Breck  in  1850.^. 


DULUTH 

Several  villages  that  became  parts  of  the  present  city  of  Duluth  have 
been  duly  noted,  with  the  dates  of  platting  and  derivation  of  their  names, 
in  the  chapter  of  St.  Louis  county,  these  being  Fond  du  Lac,  Oneota, 
Rice's  Point,  Portland,  Endion,  Lakeside,  and  Lakewood,  in  this  order 
from  west  to  east. 

In  addition  to  the  histories  of  Duluth  and  St.  Louis  county,  by  the 
late  Judge  Carey  and  by  Dwight  E.  Woodbridge  and  John  S.  Pardee, 
published  respectively  in  1901  and  1910,  which  were  cited  for  the  county, 
information  of  the  origins  of  names  of  streets,  avenues,  and  parks,  here 
presented,  was  gathered  from  plats  in  the  office  of  Charles  Calligan, 
county  register  of  .deeds,  and  from  Henry  Cleveland,  city  superintendent 
of  parks,  and  Charles  H.  Drew,  of  the  Department  of  Public  Works,  in- 
terviewed during  a  visit  at  Duluth  in  October,  1918. 

Streets  and  Avenues. 

The  earliest  of  the  plats  comprising  the  central  part  of  this  city  was 
named  Portland,  being  filed  for  record  September  8,  1856;  but  its  streets 
and  avenues,  running  respectively  from  east  to  west  and  from  north  to 
south,  in  parallelism  with  the  section  lines,  were  whotty  changed  to 
diagonal  courses  by  a  new  plat,  surveyed  by  George  R.  Stuntzf  in  1869, 
filed  April  23,  1870.  The  former  mostly  personal  names  of  each  series 
were  then  superseded  by  numerical  names,  East  Superior  street  and  First 
to  Ninth  streets,  nearly  parallel  with  the  shore  of  Lake  Superior,  being 
the  same  as  now,  with  Third  to  Fourteenth  avenues  east  as  now,  running 
across  the  streets. 

Oneota  had  an  earlier  plat,  surveyed  by  Henry  W.  Wheeler,t  filed 
April  16,  1856,  which  set  the  example  of  streets  running  northeast  to 
southwest,  like  the  shore  of  the  lake,  and  of  St.  Louis  bay,  crossed  by 
avenues  nearly  at  right  angles;  but  the  names  of  each  series  have  since 
been  changed,  excepting  St.  Anthony  street,  beside  the  bay  shore,  which 
thus  has  the  oldest  street  name  in  the  city.  Parallel  with  this  northwest- 
ward were  First  to  Ninth  streets,  which  now  are.  in  the  same  order, 
Oneota,  Michigan  (formerly  Magellan),  Superior  (formerly  Halifax), 
Rene,  and  Traverse  streets,  Grand  avenue,  and  Fourth,  Fifth  and  Sixth 
streets.  The  transverse  avenues,  coinciding  mainly  with  the  present  38th 
to  49th  avenues  west,  were  respectively  named  CliflF,  Collingwood,  Michi- 
gan, Huron,  Fond  du  Lac,  St.  Paul,  Brock,  Mountain,  St.  Croix,  Minne- 
sota, Mississippi,  Carver,  Le  Sueur,  and  Hennepin  avenues. 


tSee  biographic  notes  in  the  M.  H.  S.  CollectioDB.  yolume  XIV,  "Minnesotx 
Blogrnphlos."  published  In  1012. 

643 


644  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Next  after  Oneota  and  only  a  few  weeks  later,  the  original  Duluth 
plat,  surveyed  by  Richard  Relf  and  filed  May  29,  1856,  covered  a  length 
of  almost  three  miles  on  the  narrow  Minnesota  point,  which  separates 
the  Duluth  harbor  from  the  lake.  Running  along  the  southeastward  ex- 
tent of  this  sandbar  point  were  Lake,  Minnesota,  and  St.  Louts  avenues, 
names  that  yet  remain.  The  short  transverse  streets,  in  their  southward 
order,  are  Morse,  Portage  (at  the  site  of  the  ship  canal),  Fulton,  Oak 
(now  Marvin),  Olive,  Vine,  Astor,  Dundee,  Argyle,  Dunleith,  Qierry, 
Walnut,  Elm  (now  Sorenson),  Spruce,  Pine,  Pearl,  St.  John,  Duke,  St. 
James  (now  Montana),  Chambers,  Church,  State,  JeflFerson  (now  New 
York),  Randolph,  Park  (now  Erie),  Adams,  Monroe,  Murray,  Gark, 
Warren,  Williams,  St.  Paul  (now  St.  George),  St  Cloud,  and  St.  Charles 
streets,  the  last  being  at  the  site  of  the  wharf  of  Oatka  Beach. 

Superior  street,  named  for  the  lake,  is  the  most  noteworthy  in  these 
lists,  as  the  chief  arterial  business  street  of  the  city,  having  also  large 
parts  of  its  extent  of  more  than  ten  miles  occupied  by  residences.  Grand 
avenue,  originally  meaning  simply  great,  is  six  miles  long  in  its  course 
through  the  western  part  of  the  city;  thence  for  seven  miles  eastward  its 
place  is  mostly  represented  by  Third  street;  again  there  was  formerly 
an  eastern  Grand  avenue,  having  a  length  of  more  than  two  miles,  pass- 
ing by  the  district  of  Lester  Park,  but  this  is  now  a  part  of  East  Supe- 
rior street;  and  farther  northeast  for  three  miles,  to  the  end  of  the  city 
area,  its  continuation  is  called  the  North  Shore  road. 

Buchanan  street,  named  (before  his  election)  for  the  president  of 
the  United  States,  was  added  to  the  transverse  streets  of  the  northern 
basal  part  of  Minnesota  point  in  a  plat  by  William  G.  Cowell,  filed 
August  16,  1856.  Latest,  the  Industrial  division  of  Duluth,  platted  in 
1874,  has  Sutphin  street,  the  most  northern  in  this  series,  named  in  honor 
of  John  B.  Sutphin,t  who  settled  here  in  1870. 

Having  in  prospect  the  construction  of  the  ship  canal  where  the 
Ojibways  and  fur  traders  portaged  their  canoes  and  lading,  Fulton  street, 
the  first  south  of  the  portage,  was  very  appropriately  named  for  Robert 
Fulton,  whose  genius  began  in  1807  the  use  of  steamboats  for  travel  and 
traffic. 

Among  the  other  miscellaneously  selected  names  of  streets  crossing 
the  long  Minnesota  point,  Marvin  is  in  honor  of  Luke  Marvin,!  a  pioneer 
merchant  of  St.  Paul,  who  settled  at  Duluth  in  1861  as  register  of  the 
U.  S.  land  office;  Jefferson  street  honored  Robert  E.  JeflFerson.t  builder 
in  1855  of  the  first  house  on  this  point,  the  first  of  the  Duluth  village 
site,  pictured  in  Carey's  historical  paper;  and  Gark  street  commemorates 
Thomas  Clark,  surveyor  of  the  original  plat  of  Superior,  Wis.,  1854-6, 
and  later  of  Beaver  Bay,  Minn.,  whence  he  was  a  state  senator  in  1859-60. 
Gark  was  born  in  LeRay,  Jefferson  county,  N.  Y.,  January  6,  1814;  was 
an  assistant  in  geological  surveys  of  Minnesota,  1861  and  1864,  and  died 
in  Superior.  Wis.,  December  20,  1878. 


(^ 


DULUTH  645 

Fond  du  Lac,  at  the  head  of  navigation,  after  being  for  more  than 
sixty  years  an  important  post  for  trade  with  the  Indians,  was  platted  by 
Richard  Relf  in  the  autumn  of  1856,  "for  the  occupants  of  this  town." 
Its  present  avenues,  126  to  135  west,  were  all  designated  as  avenues  on 
this  plat,  but  with  mostly  personal  names,  being,  in  the  same  order,  Mc- 
Bean,  Cowell,  Perry,  Newton,  Thompson,  Paul,  Morrison,  Roussain,  Carl- 
ton, and  Superior  avenues.  The  present  Tecumseh  street,  on  the  water 
front,  was  called  Water  street  on  the  plat ;  and  the  streets  running  from 
east  to  west,  in  their  order  northward,  were  Winnipeg  and  Ontario  (re- 
named as  Oconomowoc  and  Seneca),  Pembina,  the  same  as  now,  Erie, 
Huron,  and  Cass  streets  (renamed  Bishop,  Mohawk,  and  Krumseig), 
Itasca  street,  as  now,  and  First  to  Ninth  streets  (now  respectively  Miles, 
Cherokee,  Gasper,  Glass,  Custer,  Hallenbeck,  Choctaw,  Callowhill,  and 
Algonquin  streets). 

Annexation  of  Fond  du  Lac  as  a  part  of  Duluth  required  much  renam- 
ing of  the  streets,  for  avoidance  of  duplication  and  confusion  with  streets 
elsewhere  in  the  city.  Some  of  the  present  names  are  seen  to  be 
derived,  like  earlier  names  displaced,  from  Indian  tribes,  and  from  deal- 
ings with  them  in  trade,  treaties,  and  wars. 

The  original  plat  of  Endion,  filed  for  record  January  14,  1857,  fol- 
lowed the  earliest  survey  of  Portland  in  having  its  streets  and  avenues 
parallel  with  section  lines.  November  23,  1870,  this  plat  was  superseded 
by  another  conforming  with  the  present  system  of  streets  parallel  with 
the  lake  shore  and  crossed  at  right  angles  by  avenues,  like  the  resurvey 
of  Portland,  before  noted.  In  the  1870  survey  the  present  East  Superior 
street  was  called  Bench  street.  Next  southeast,  in  the  north  edge  of  this 
Endion  plat,  is  Branch  street,  named  in  honor  of  William  Branch,t  one 
of  the  proprietors  of  the  plat,  who  was  a  director  and  builder  of  the 
first  railroad  between  St.  Paul  and  Duluth.  The  next  south,  named 
Center  street  in  1870  and  later  Dingwall  street,  for  James  D.  Dingwall, 
an  alderman  of  the  city,  has  been  renamed  Greysolon  road,  for  Daniel 
Greysolon  Du  Luth,t  who  is  more  highly  commemorated  by  the  city 
name.  Between  this  and  the  lake  are  Jefferson  street,  as  named  in  1870 
to  honor  Robert  Emmet  Jefferson.f  whose  home  built  in  1855  was  the 
first  in  Duluth;  London  road,  at  first  here  called  Superior  street,  but 
renamed  for  its  passing  northeastward  through  the  suburb  called  Lon- 
don; and  South  and  Water  streets,  which  were  named  in  1870  as  now. 
The  avenues,  in  their  series  from  southwest  to  northeast,  called  origin- 
ally New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Missouri,  Ore- 
gon, Montana,  Colorado,  Virginia,  and  Dakota  avenues,  have  been  re- 
named in  the  great  system  of  the  whole  city  as  the  15th  to  25th  avenues 
east. 

Rice's  Point  was  platted  in  the  autumn  of  1858  for  the  owner,  Orrin 
W.  Rice,  a  younger  brother  of  Henry  M.f  and  Edmund  Rice.t  Its 
avenues  running  across  the  point  from  northeast  to  southwest  were 
named   for  familiar  Minnesota  trees,  in  alphabetic  sequence  southward, 


646  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

being  Ash,  Birch,  Cedar  (since  renamed  Nelson),  Elm,  Lynn,  (alluding 
to  the  linn  or  basswood,  our  species  of  the  linden  tree),  Maple,  Oak 
(since  changed  to  Oie,  a  rare  Scandinavian  surname).  Pine,  and  Spruce 
avenues.  Farther  southward,  the  original  plat  had  Walnut,  Vine,  and 
Front  avenues,  the  first  being  at  the  present  southern  dock  line,  while 
the  former  land  extension  surveyed  for  the  second  and  third  has  been 
excavated  and  dredged  away,  its  place  being  now  a  part  of  the  passage 
from  Duluth  harbor  to  St.  Louis  bay.  Transverse  to  these  and  running 
southeastward,  the  plat  has  First  to  Fifteenth  streets,  which  now  in  the 
same  order,  up  to  the  Ninth,  are  Rice,  Garfield,  Cox,  and  Arthur  ave- 
nues, and  Culpeper,  Tintagel,  Marquette,  Raven,  and  Pendennis  streets, 
but  the  place  of  the  original  Tenth  to  Fifteenth  streets  is  a  part  of  the 
harbor.  On  the  southwest  side  Kittson  street,  adjoining  Rice  avenue,  has 
been  added  on  made  land  outside  the  former  shore  line. 

Among  these  names  two  presidents  of  the  United  States  are  honored, 
also  the  Rice  family,  distinguished  in  Minnesota  history,  Congressman 
Samuel  S.  Cox  (b.  1824,  d.  1889),  Thomas  Culpeper,  who  was  the  colon- 
ial governor  of  Virginia  in  1680-83,  for  whom  a  Virginia  county  is  named, 
Jacques  Marquette  (1637-75),  the  devoted  missionary  and  explorer  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  Norman  W.  Kittson.f  a  pioneer  of  Minnesota  commerce, 
whose  name  is  borne  by  the  most  northwestern  county  of  this  state.  Two 
other  names  in  the  list  are  received  from  localities  of  Cornwall,  Tinta- 
gel and  Pendennis  Castle. 

During  the  ten  years  next  after  the  survey  of  Rice's  Point  and  includ- 
ing the  period  of  the  Civil  War,  no  plats  within  the  area  of  Duluth  were 
placed  on  sale.  In  the  early  summer  of  1869,  the  First  division  of  Duluth 
Proper  was  platted  for  J.  B.  Culver,t  William  Nettleton,t  Luke  Mar- 
vin,t  and.  George  B.  Sargent,t  who,  with  their  wives,  and  with  Luther 
Mendenhall,t  agent  for  the  Western  Land  Association,  signed  the  plat 
as  proprietors,  which  was  filed  for  record  July  17.  It  had  just  the  same 
numbered  systems  of  streets  and  avenues  as  now,  and  also  Superior 
street  and  Lake  avenue.  The  latter  was  extended  northward  from  the 
original  plat  of  Duluth  in  1856  on  Minnesota  point,  and  became  on  this 
plat  in  1869  the  dividing  line  whence  the  avenues  are  numbered  east 
and  west.  The  series  of  avenues  eastward  in  this  First  division  reaches  to 
Sixth  avenue;  by  the  resurvey  of  the  Portland  division,  next  eastward, 
filed  for  record  in  April,  1870,  as  before  noted,  this  series  is  continued 
to  14th  avenue  east;  and  in  the  resurvey  of  Endion,  which  was  filed,  as 
also  previously  mentioned,  in  November,  1870,  the  series  of  avenues, 
afterward  there  numerically  named,  is  extended  to  the  25th.  By  later 
eastern  additions  of  the  city,  it  now  reaches  to  the  67th  avenue  east  at 
the  limit  of  Lester  Park,  distant  nearly  six  miles  and  a  half  from  Lake 
avenue. 

The  Second  division  was  filed  June  14,  1870,  and  the  Third  division 
August  18,  1870,  which,  with  the  First,  Portland  and  Endion  divisions, 
comprise  the  central  part  of  the  city  from  25th  avenue  east  to  28th  ave- 


DULUTH  (A7 

nue  west,  having  together  an  extent  of  nearly  five  miles  along  the  shore 
of  the  lake,  the  harbor,  and  St.  Louis  bay.  The  numerical  names  of  the 
avenues  and  streets,  the  former  running  at  right  angles  to  the  lake  and 
harbor  shore,  and  the  latter  in  parallelism  with  the  shore,  leave  little 
to  be  further  noted  for  this  central  area. 

Superior  street  is  the  starting  place  for  the  naming  of  the  streets  paral- 
lel with  it  and  the  lake,  from  First  up  to  Fifteenth  street  as  a  series, 
lying  above  Superior  street  on  the  ascent  from  the  lake  and  harbor.  On  the 
relatively  narrow  tract  between  Superior  street  and  the  lake,  the  parallel 
streets  bear  other  names,  not  numerical,  as  was  before  noted  for  Endion, 
where  this  tract  has  its  maximum  width. 

With  geographic  propriety,  Michigan  and  Huron  streets  lie  below 
and  southeast  of  Superior  in  the  division  of  "Duluth  proper;"  and  at 
the  southwest  side  of  the  Second  division  Huron  street  is  paralleled  by 
Helm,  Courtland,  and  Martin  streets,  each  short,  lying  in  this  order  south- 
eastward and  including  a  point  that  projects  into  St.  Louis  bay.  Helm 
street  commemorates  H.  C.  and  Joseph  Helm,  who,  with  others,  platted 
a  small  addition  there  in  1886;  and  Martin  street  similarly  honors  Wil- 
liam P.  and  James  M.  Martin,  proprietors  of  another  small  plat  in  1888, 
on  this  point. 

Through  the  Third  division  Mesaba  avenue,  named  for  the  iron  range, 
runs  north,  diagonally  ascending  the  highland,  and  thence  having  a  con- 
tinuation northwestward  on  the  Rice  Lake  road. 

For  the  many  plats  added  to  the  city  after  1870,  this  consideration  of 
names  of  streets  and  avenues  may  be  more  satisfactorily  continued  in 
the  geographic  order,  as  follows,  passing  from  northeast  to  southwest. 

Lester  Park,  principally  a  residence  district,  has  the  55th  to  67th  ave- 
nues cast,  which  are  crossed  near  the  lakeside  by  Superor  street,  Stearns 
avenue,  and  London  road.  Ozora  P.  Stearns,t  judge  of  this  Eleventh 
judicial  district  in  1875-94,  was  president  of  the  Lakeside  Land  Company, 
by  which  this  district  was  platted  in  four  divisions  in  1889  and  1890. 

Several  other  streets  here  are  continuations  from  the  adjacent  earlier 
plats  on  the  west,  London  Park  addition,  which  was  filed  June  6,  1888. 
and  Crosley  Park,  bearing  date  of  June  17,  1889,  only  three  days  earlier 
than  the  First  division  of  Lester  Park.  These  have  49th  to  54th  avenues 
east,  crossed  by  streets  which  are  named,  in  the  sequence  from  south  to 
north,  Tioga,  Otsego,  Oneida,  GlenWood,  Juniata,  Wyoming,  Avondale, 
Oakley,  Glendale,  Norwood,  Ivanhoe,  Idlewild,  Kingston,  and  Woodlawn 
streets.  The  first  three  are  aboriginal  names  from  the  state  of  New  York ; 
Juniata  is  another  Indian  name,  from  a  river  and  county  of  Pennsylvania ; 
and  Wyoming  is  from  a  Pennsylvania  mountain  range,  and  a  valley  be- 
side it,  along  which  flows  the  Susquehanna  river. 

London  addition,  surveyed  in  the  spring  of  1871  and  filed  September 
6  of  that  year,  has  the  40th  to  54th  avenues  east,  which  at  first  were 
otherwise  named,  in  the  same  order,  as  West,  Murray,  Moorhead,  Forbes, 
Sampson,    San  ford,    Portman,    Sargent,   Vail,    Spencer,   Lincoln,   Fahne- 


648  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

stpck,  Howard,  Finlay,  and  East  avenues,  the  first  and  last  having  refer- 
ence to  their  location.  The  transverse  streets,  listed  from  south  to  north, 
are  Quebec  avenue,  London  road,  Lombard  street,  and  Luverne  (formerly 
Puleston),  Gilliat,  Superior  (at  first  called  Oxford  and  later  Cambridge), 
Regent,  Robinson  (at  first  mapped  as  Robertson),  McCulloch,  Gladstone. 
Cooke,  Pitt,  Jay,  Dodge,  Peabody  and  Colorado  (originally  Summit) 
streets.  One  of  these  streets  commemorates  Hugh  McCulloch,  the  pro- 
prietor of  this  addition.  Not  only  the  name  of  this  large  plat,  extending 
a  mile  and  a  half  on  the  lake  shore,  but  several  of  its  avenue  and  street 
names,  came  from  England. 

East  Duluth,  platted  in  the  summer  of  1870  and  filed  for  record  Sep- 
tember 5,  less  than  three  weeks  after  the  Third  division  of  ''Duluth  prop- 
er," and  Harrison  division,  filed  September  9,  1887,  between  East  Du- 
luth and  Endion,  lie  mainly  south  of  Superior  street,  having  there  Branch 
street,  Greysolon  road,  Jefferson  street,  London  road,  and  South  street, 
the  last  adjoining  the  lake  shore,  all  previously  noticed  for  Endion,  which 
has  the  more  western  mile  of  their  extent. 

In  these  areas  are  the  23rd  to  39th  avenues  east,  which  on  the  original 
plats  were  named  respectively  Colorado,  Virginia,  Dakota,  Kentucky,  Mas- 
sachusetts, Connecticut,  Delaware,  and  Idaho  avenues,  for  the  Harrison 
division;  and  Vermilion,  St.  Louis,  Superior,  St.  Marie,  Michigan,  Mack- 
inac, Huron,  St.  Clair,  Erie,  Niagara,  Ontario,  and  St.  Lawrence  avenues, 
for  East  Duluth,  its  first  three  being  continuous,  under  different  names, 
with  the  last  three  in  the  other  series.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  twelve 
avenues  thus  named  in  1870  represent  the  entire  water  route  from  the 
north  boundary  of  Minnesota,  by  way  of  Vermilion  river  and  lake  and 
the  St.  Louis  river  to  and  through  the  Great  Lakes  and  down  the  river 
and  gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  to  the  ocean.  Somewhat  of  commendable 
geographic  and  poetic  sentiment  was  lost  when  this  series  was  displaced 
by  merely  numbered  avenues. 

Along  and  near  Tischer's  creek,  above  East  Duluth,  and  from  this 
creek  south  to  Endion,  are  a  goodly  array  of  relatively  small  additions, 
residential  plats  added  to  the  city,  named,  in  order  from  north  to  south. 
Woodland  Park,  Hunter's  Park,  Princeton  Place  addition.  Glen  Avon, 
Oakland  Park,  Motor  Line  and  Gover  Hill  divisions,  Willard's  addi- 
tion. East  Lawn  division.  Long  View,  Highland  Park,  and  New  Endion. 
Woodland  avenue  is  a  fine  driveway « leading  through  the  series  of  these 
plats  about  four  miles  from  Endion  north  past  Woodland  Park  to  the 
Vermilion  Lake  road.  The  name  of  the  avenue  and  district  refers  to  the 
originally  timbered  condition  of  all  this  region. 

Streets  of  Woodland  Park  are  named  Austin,  Red  Wing,  Faribault, 
Owatonna,  Winona,  Mankato,  Wabasha,  and  Anoka,  in  southward  order, 
with  Shakopee  and  Crescent  avenues,  all  named  for  towns  in  southern 
Minnesota,  the  last  being  for  La  Crescent. 

Hunter's  Park,  named  in  honor  of  a  prominent  Duluth  family,  and 
Princeton  Place,  named  for  the  town  and  university  in  New  Jersey,  have 


? 


DULUTH  649 

Roslyn,  Bute,  Carlisle,  Princeton,  Wilkyns,  Silcox,  and  Livingston  ave- 
nues, running  northward,  with  Sparkman  and  Spear  avenues,  Oxford 
street,  and  Mygatt  avenue,  running  from  cast  to  west 

Glen  Avon  has  Wallace,  Waverly,  Columbus,  Abbotsford,  Melrose, 
Harvard,  and  Dunedin  avenues,  running  north  and  south,  with  St.  An- 
drew's, Lewis,  Hardy,  Victoria,  and  Bruce  streets,  east  and  west,  mostly 
derived  from  Scotland  and  her  great  author.  Sir  Walter  Scott. 

Farther  south,  the  Motor  Line  division  has  St.  Marie,  Norton,  Marion, 
and  Elizabeth  streets,  and  Niagara  avenue,  running  west;  and  the  Clover 
Hill  area  has  Manitoba,  Jackson,  and  Cover  streets,  with  Allen  avenue, 
likewise  running  west. 

East  Lawn  has  Kent  and  Garden  streets,  running  west,  with  Fay, 
Cottage,  and  Snelling  avenues,  from  north  to  south. 

Highland  Park  and  the  adjacent  plats  of  Long  View  and  New  Endion 
are  parts  of  the  general  system  with  numbered  avenues  and  streets. 

Adjoining  the  Portland  division  and  the  three  central  plats  or  divisions 
called  Duluth  Proper,  are  numerous  additions,  "knd  others  lie  farther  west 
or  northwest,  which  all  may  be  next  listed  as  a  group. 

On  and  near  Chester  creek,  in  descending  order,  are  Kensington  Place, 
Arlington  Place,  and  Gifton  Heights;  additions  by  Charles  M.  Gray  and 
others,  by  Jeremiah  H.  Triggs,  Frank  E.  Kennedy  and  others,  and  by 
Clague  and  Prindle,  each  platted  in  1887;  an  addition  by  Myers  and  Whip- 
ple in  1889;  Kenwood  Park  and  Superior  View;  and  Chester  Park,  Lake 
View,  and  an  addition  by  George  W.  Norton  and  others,  these  three  ly- 
ing at  the  north  and  west  sides  of  the  Portland  division. 

Between  the  foregoing  and  Miller's  creek  are  several  additions  named 
as  divisions  of  Duluth  Heights,  the  earliest  being  platted  in  1890,  and 
relatively  small  residence  tracts  called  Maple  Grove,  Summit  Park,  and 
Park  View. 

Along  the  course  of  Miller's  creek  are  Murray  Hill  addition,  platted 
in  1888,  Willard  and  Piper's  division,  Brookdale,  platted  in  1889,  Mer- 
chant's Park,  a  residence  area,  and  additions  by  Spaulding.  Fairbanks,  and 
Walbank,  the  four  last  named  being  close  west  and  southwest  of  the 
beautiful  public  ground  named  Lincoln  Park. 

The  east  to  west  streets  of  Clifton  Heights  and  the  Kensington  and 
Arlington  plats  form  a  consecutive  series,  being,  in  southward  order,  Por- 
ter avenue,  Persons  and  St.  Marie  streets,  and  Pringle,  Niagara,  Mor- 
gan, and  Allen  avenues.  Transverse  to  these,  in  westward  order,  are 
Blackman,  Cramer,  Matthews,  Hemphill,  Sawyer,  Florence,  Backus, 
Bird,  Arlington,  Bryant,  Decker,  Wilson,  Stanford,  Lowndes,  Blodgett, 
Gadsden,  and  Pickens  avenues. 

In  Gray's  addition  and  the  next  two  of  the  foregoing  list,  reaching  a 
mile  and  a  quarter  from  north  to  south,  the  streets  running  east  and  west, 
in  southward  order,  are  St.  Marie,  Cleveland,  Buffalo,  and  Toledo  streets, 
the  last  three  being  named  for  the  largest  cities  on  Lake  Erie;  Niagara, 
Ohio,  and  Allen  avenues ;  and  Cortez,  Robson,  Partridge,  Kelly,  Hawkins, 


650  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Howitz,  Davis,  and  Bayless  streets.  Running  south,  in  sequence  west- 
ward, are  Triggs,  Kennebec,  Kentucky,  Virginia,  Broadway,  Grant,  Madi- 
son, Connecticut,  and  Blackman  avenues. 

Superior  View,  Kenwood  Park,  and  Myers  and  Whipple's  addition, 
have  the  first  four  east  to  west  streets  and  Niagara  avenue,  as  in  Gray's 
addition,  with  Lyons  street;  and  their  avenues,  running  south,  in  west- 
ward series,  are  Junction,  Brainerd,  Mississippi,  Missouri,  Dodge,  Ken- 
wood, Humes,  Center,  Weber,  Myers,  and  Triggs  avenues.  Humes  and 
Center  are  names  adopted  in  compliment  for  E,  C.  Humes,  of  Bellefonte, 
Center  county,  Pennsylvania,  the  original  landowner  of  the  third  of  these 
plats. 

In  the  three  additions  noted  as  adjoining  the  Portland  plat,  the  streets 
and  avenues  are  numerically  numbered,  being  a  part  of  the  general 
system  for  the  city. 

Streets  running  west  through  the  northwestern  part  of  Duluth  Heights, 
in  sequence  from  north  to  south,  are  Willow,  Gilead,  Mulberry,  Locust. 
Linden,  Myrtle,  Palmetto,  Palm,  Orange,  Lemon,  and  Quince  streets, 
with  Alder  and  Balsam  streets,  running  southwest,  and  Banian  street, 
running  southeast,  all  being  names  of  trees.  Crossing  these  and  running 
south,  in  westward  sequence,  are  Arlington  avenue  and  Niagara  and 
Oregon  streets,  Highland  avenue,  Hugo  street,  and  Ebony  and  Teak  ave- 
nues, the  last  two  being  names  of  foreign  trees.  Trevanion  W.  Hugo,t 
mayor  of  the  city  in  1900-04,  and  his  younger  brother,  Nicholas  Fred- 
eric,! who  was  a  representative  in  the  legislature,  1903-08,  are  commem- 
orated by  the  street  bearing  their  surname. 

The  southeast  part  of  this  suburban  area,  known  as  the  First  divis- 
ion of  Duluth  Heights,  has  Trenton,  La  Salle,  Winter,  Bank,  Buena  Vis- 
ta, Denver,  and  Portland  streets,  running  west;  and  its  avenues,  running 
south,  are  named  Winona,  Beacon,  Summer,  Green,  Highland,  Bayfield, 
Como,  Winthrop,  Lewiston,  and  Lyon,  in  this  order  from  east  to  west. 

Brookdale  and  its  vicinity  have  Prospect,  Willard,  Piper,  Union,  and 
Viaduct  streets,  Warner,  Sylvan,  Sycamore,  and  Euclid  avenues.  Bay 
View  Terrace,  and  Forest,  Marks,  Cascade,  Richardson,  Piedmont,  and 
West  Diamond  avenues,  running  westward;  with  McKinnon  and  Boyn- 
ton  avenues.  Zenith,  Arch,  Voss,  East  Diamond,  and  Laurel  avenues,  and 
Marshall,  Henry,  Beltrami,  Dale,  and  Getty  streets,  running  southward. 
Piedmont  avenue  thence  passes  northwest  to  the  city  boundary,  beyond 
which  its  continuation  to  the  west  is  called  the  Hermantown  road. 

Walbank  addition  and  another  small  residence  area  at  its  south  side, 
named  West  Park,  have  Wellington,  Wicklow,  Exeter,  Devonshire,  Rc- 
stormel,  Vernon,  Chestnut,  Gilbert,  and  Carlton  streets,  running  west,  with 
Grand  Forks,  Winnipeg,  Michigan,  and  Pacific  avenues,  running  south. 

Adjoining  Oneota,  and  continuing  two  to  three  miles  west  and  south- 
west, are  numerous  additions  varying  in  size  from  20  to  160  acres,  which 
together  form  the  large  residential,  manufacturing,  and  commercial  dis- 
trict of   West  Duluth.  Under  this  district  name  are  seven  numbered  divis- 


DULUTH  651 

ions  and  a  Central  division,  the  series  having  been  platted  in  1887  to 
1889.  Other  tracts  are  named  Hazelwood,  Zenith  Park,  Whitman  Park, 
Hall's,  Dickerman's,  and  Stewart's  additions,  Belmont  and  Bellevue  Parks, 
Sharp's  addition,  Lloyd's  division,  Kimberly  and  Stryker's  additions, 
Oneota  Park,  Mineral  addition,  the  two  Bay  View  additions,  named  for 
their  outlook  across  St.  Louis  bay,  Dodge's,  Macfarlane's  and  Stowell's 
additions.  West  End,  Grassy  Point,  Carlton  Place,  Wilmington  addition, 
Stryker  and  Manley's  addition,  in  two  divisions,  and  Cremer's  addition. 

Notable  street  names  in  Zenith  and  Whitman  Parks  are  Ericsson, 
Osman,  Somerville,  Cass,  Tillinghast,  and  Lovell  streets,  CoUingwood 
Place,  and  Patterson,  Chestnut,  Gilbert,  and  Carlton  streets,  running 
westward,  with  Duluth  and  Lincoln  avenues,  Hughitt  avenue,  and  Galu- 
sha,  Tainter,  and  Hall  streets,  running  southward. 

In  Dickerman's  addition  and  others  at  its  west  side,  the  east  to  west 
streets,  in  southward  order,  are  Martin,  Gould,  Stewart,  Verndale,  Schuyl- 
kill, Hale,  and  Bellevue  streets,  Franklin  and  Columbia  avenues,  and 
Albion  and  Medina  streets.  Here  and  in  Bellevue  Park,  next  westward, 
the  avenues,  which  run  to  the  south  and  southeast,  are  numbered  from 
the  42nd  to  the  61st  west.  Additionally,  Stewart's  addition  has  Ella  and 
Edna  streets,  respectively  in  the  places  of  the  54th  and  56th  avenues ;  and 
Bellevue  Park  adds  Cottage  Grove  avenue  and  West  Park  avenue,  run- 
ning southwest. 

Oneota  Park  has  La  Salle,  Wayne,  and  Nimrod  streets,  Fowey,  High, 
Chippewa,  Mineral,  Balboa,  and  Mecca  streets,  running  east  and  south- 
east, which  are  crossed  by  Granite,  Tancred,  Kanabec,  and  Park  avenues, 
and  Beulah  street,  running  south  and  southwest. 

Mineral  addition,  next  south  westward,  has  Mineral  street  at  its  north 
side,  with  Rupley,  Cardigan,  Desota,  and  King  streets,  also  running  west, 
which  are  crossed  by  Hendrick  and  Bodmin  avenues. 

South  of  Oneota  Park  and  Cemetery  a  series  of  streets,  running  east 
and  west,  includes  Spencer,  Highland,  Huntington,  Olney,  Tacony,  Nashua, 
Lexington,  Elinor,  Petre,  Worden,  Pizarro,  Green,  Bristol,  Gosnold,  Nic- 
ollet, Main,  Polk,  Raleigh,.  Redruth,  Sherburne,  Waseca,  Fremont, 
Natchez,  La  Vaque,  Pulaski,  Thompson,  and  Milford  streets,  occupying 
a  tract  of  two  miles  between  the  cemetery  and  the  shore  of  the  St.  Louis 
river  west  of  Grassy  point.  A  small  cyclopaedia  of  biography  and  his- 
tory might  well  be  written  concerning  these  streets,  which  are  crossed, 
wholly  or  in  part,  by  the  50th  to  81st  avenues  west. 

Lying  a  little  farther  east  and  nearly  in  the  course  of  some  of  the 
foregoing  streets,  are  Cody,  Wadena,  and  Ramsey  streets. 

Bay  View,  of  which  the  first  division  was  platted  in  1888  and  the 
second  in  1890,  introduced  other  series  of  streets  running  west.  The  first 
plat  had  King,  Queen,  Prince,  Duke,  and  Earl  streets,  each  a  title  of 
royalty,  of  which  the  fourth,  duplicating  a  street  in  the  early  plat  of 
Duluth  on  Minnesota  point,  has  been  changed  to  Clay  street.  These  are 
crossed  by  the  69th,  71st,  73rd,  75th,  and  77th  avenues  west.    The  second 


652  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

division  continues  only  King  street,  on  its  north  boundary,  which  is  suc- 
ceeded in  southward  order  by  Zurah,  Oak,  Vinland,  Mitchell,  Goldsmith, 
Ash,  Godolphin,  and  Reed  streets.  Transverse  with  these  are  Fletcher, 
Simonds,  Irwin,  and  Purcell  avenues. 

Cremer's  addition,  platted  in  1889  by  William  J.  Cremer  and  others, 
has  Viking,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  Chicago  streets,  run- 
ning west,  crossed  by  Cremer  and  Hall  avenues. 

The  districts  farther  southwest,  to  -Fond  du  Lac,  which  was  earlier 
noticed,  have  been  named  Ironton,  Morgan  Park,  Gary,  and  New  Duluth. 
I  ronton,  platted  jn  the  years  1889  to  1893,  comprises  four  divisions  and 
Ironton  Park,  with  Lenroot's  addition  and  Minnewakan  and  Spirit  Lake 
additions,  the  last  two  being  named  from  the  adjacent  Spirit  lake  and 
island  of  the  St.  Louis  river.  New  Duluth  was  platted  in  1890.  The  in- 
termediate residence  areas  of  Morgan  Park  and  Gary,  with  the  contigu- 
ous immense  furnaces,  foundries,  and  other  workshops  of  the  Minnesota 
Sted  Company,  are  very  recent  additions  to  the  city.  In  February,  1916, 
iron  and  steel  manufacture  and  production  of  Portland  cement  were  be- 
gun here.  These  new  plats  are  named  for  distinguished  financial  lead- 
ers and  industrial  directors,  the  late  John  Pierpont  Morgan,  and  his  son 
of  the  same  name,  and  Judge  Elbert  Henry  Gary,  chief  executive  officer 
for  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation,  of  which  this  Minnesota  com- 
pany is  a  branch. 

Streets  in  Ironton  running  west,  are  named  Thompson,  Roe,  French, 
Warwick,  Bessemer,  Towne,  Mesaba,  Truelson,  and  Gogebic  streets, 
Lenroot  avenue,  Beaudry  street,  and  Swenson,  Keene,  Qyde,  Boyd,  Hulett, 
Kimberly,  and  Seaver  avenues.  These  are  crossed  by  the  82nd  to  the 
96th  avenues  west.  Other  avenues,  running  southwest,  are  Barrett,  Ter- 
race, Hematite,  Biwabik,  York,  Commonwealth,  Grand,  Industrial,  and 
Furnace  avenues.  Kinney  street  runs  south,  and  in  Ironton  Park  the 
next  four  avenues  beyond  the  93rd  were  formerly  named  Leon,  Lehigh, 
Carnegie,  and  Perry  avenues.  Transverse  to  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad 
and  the  St.  Louis  river,  Ironton,  Selwood,  Spring,  and  Matthews  streets, 
and  Traders  Court,  run  southeast. 

New  Duluth  has  Cartaret,  Fillmore,  Grand,  Bowser,  Goodhue,  Peary, 
Heard,  McCuen,  and  Prescott  streets,  running  west,  crossed  by  the  94th 
to  106th  avenues  west. 

Parks  and  Boulevards. 

In  the  original  plat  of  Duluth,  on  the  Minnesota  Point,  in  the  spring 
of  1856,  two  small  areas  were  reserved  as  public  squares  or  parks,  named 
Franklin  and  Lafayette  squares,  in  honor  of  Benjamin  Franklin  and  the 
Marquis  Lafayette.  July  4,  1868,  Dr.  Thomas  Foster,t  in  a  speech  at  a 
patriotic  celebration  in  one  of  these  parks,  called  the  prospective  Greater 
Duluth  "the  Zenith  City  of  the  Unsalted  Seas." 

Fond  du  Lac,  platted  in  the  late  part  of  the  same  year,  has  Mission 
park,  named  like  its  creek  tributary  to  the  St.  Louis  river,  for  the  early 


DULUTH  653 

mission  school  of  Ojibway  children  taught  there  by  Edmund  F.  Elyf 
in  1834-39. 

In  London  addition,  by  Hugh  McCulloch  in  1871,  he  designated  five 
blocks  or  squares  of  the  survey,  each  tneasuring  two  and  seven  tenths 
acres,  to  be  public  parks,  naming  them  as  Grosvenor,  Manchester,  Port- 
man,  Russell,  and  Washington  squares.  The  first  four  names,  like  Lon- 
don, are  derived  from  England. 

Lester  park,  32  acres,  is  singularly  grand  and  beautiful  for  its  pine 
woods  and  the  rock  gorge  and  falls  of  the  two  branches  of  Lester  river. 

North  Shore  park  is  a  narrow  strip  of  beach  and  grassy  bank,  ex- 
tending northeast  on  the  lake  two-thirds  of  a  mile  from  this  river. 

Congdon  park,  acquired  in  1908,  comprising,  with  its  approaches, 
about  40  acres  on  both  sides  of  Tischer's  creek,  was  named  in  honor  of 
Chester  Adgate  Congdon,t  the  principal  donor.  He  was  born  in  Roches- 
ter, N.  Y.,  June  12,  1853;  was  graduated  at  Syracuse  University,  1875; 
was  admitted  to  practice  law,  1877;  settled  in  St.  Paul,  1879;  was  assist- 
ant U.  S.  district  attorney,  1881-86;  removed  to  Duluth  in  1892;  was  a 
representative  in  the  legislature,  1909-11;  acquired  great  wealth  in  iron 
ore  lands;  died  in  St.  Paul,  November  21,  1916, 

Chester  park,  enlarged  to  43  acres  in  1905,  on  Chester  creek  above  the 
Portland  and  Endion  divisions*  of  the  city,  has  a  picturesque  stream 
gorge  between  perpendicular  rock  walls,  with  a  noble  forest  of  pine, 
spruce,  and  balsam  fir,  whose  dark  green  is  diversified  by  white  birches. 

Lake  Front  park,  extending  about  a  third  of  a  mile  southwest  from 
the  mouth  of  Chester  creek,  has  14  acres,  acquired  by  the  city  in  1907. 

Portland  square,  a  block  of  two  acres  and  a  half,  "dedicated  in  the 
original  townsite  of  Portland,  .  .  .  has  been  made  into  a  garden,  with 
cement  walks  appropriate  to  a  city  square,  a  fountain  with  benches  of 
concrete,  shrubs  and  flower  beds." 

Cascade  square,  at  First  avenue  west  and  Mesaba  avenue,  inclosed  by 
Cascade  street  around  its  four  sides,  "has  been  made  a  place  of  rare 
beauty,  with  more  elaborate  masonry  than  in  any  other  park."  Its  name 
refers  to  the  cascades  of  a  little  brook  which  flows  southeast  into  a  cor- 
ner of  the  harbor. 

Munger  park,  at  Fourth  street  and  Fourth  avenue  west,  "has  the  fin- 
est group  of  elms  in  the  city."  Its  name  commemorates  Roger  S.  Mun- 
ger ,t  for  whom  a  village  of  this  county  is  named. 

Hilltop  park  is  a  single  block  of  the  city  survey,  at  the  head  of  the 
inclined  railway  on  Seventh  avenue  west,  "affording  a  magnificent  out- 
look," acquired  for  the  park  system  in  1907. 

Central  park,  formerly  called  Zenith  park,  a  tract  of  20  acres,  "in- 
cludes a  mountainous  peak  in  the  center  of  the  boulevard  system,  en- 
circled by  the  branching  roadway  high  above  the  lake,  and  giving  a  beauti- 
ful view  of  the  city  and  harbor." 

Lincoln  park,  earlier  named  Garfield,  has  32  acres  along  the  ravine 
of  Miller's  creek.    It  honors  our  first  martyr  president. 


654  MINNESOTA  GEOGRAPHIC  NAMES 

Fairmont  park,  40  acres  on  Kingsbury  creek,  acquired  in  1901,  bears 
(with  slightly  changed  spelling)  the  name  of  a  very  large  park  on  the 
Schuylkill  river  in  Philadelphia. 

Numerous  additional  small  parks,  smaller  triangular  spaces  at  in- 
tersections of  streets,  and  large  playgrounds  adjoining  public  schools,  are 
included  in  the  list  of  the  city's  public  grounds. 

Duluth  is  widely  and  deservedly  renowned  for  its  far-viewing  boule- 
vard, which  extends  twelve  miles  on  an  ancient  beach  or  shoreline  hav- 
ing long  reaches  of  gravel  and  sand  roadbed,  470  to  475  feet  above  Lake 
Superior.  By  this  ancient  lake-graded  driveway,  the  city  park  system  is 
linked  with  the  period,  estimated  about  6,000  or  perhaps  10,000  years  ago, 
when  the  continental  i6^sheet  was  being  finally  melted  away. 

The  report  of  the  Board  of  Park  Commissioners  for  1911  names  this 
drive  the  Rogers  boulevard,  in  honor  of  William  K.  Rogers,  from  Colum- 
bus, Ohio,  who  became  president  of  a  bank  here,  was  greatly  interested  in 
city  improvements,  and  secured  the  construction  of  the  earliest  part  of 
this  boulevard,  opened  for  public  use  in  1890,  *'praised  as  excelling  any 
like  road  in  the  world."  A  short  part  of  its  course,  across  the  Bay  View 
addition,  has  been  called  the  Bay  View  boulevard. 

In  Lester  park  roads  leading  north,  toward  the  eastern  part  of  the 
high  boulevard,  have  been  called  the  Oriental  and  Occidental  boulevards, 
receiving  these  names  from  their  course  respectively  along  the  east  and 
west  sides  of  Lester  river;  and  their  continuation  is  mapped  as  Snively 
road,  in  honor  of  Samuel  F.  Snively,  a  lawyer  of  Duluth  and  dealer  in 
lands  and  city  lots,  who  owns  a  large  farm  north  of  this  park. 

If  the  reader  finds  surprise  in  the  length  of  time  ago  for  action  of 
storms  and  waves  on  the  Glacial  Lake  Duluth  in  providing  the  excellent 
roadbed  of  the  long  and  high  boulevard  here,  such  interest  will  be  in- 
creased by  the  very  great  extent  of  the  same  beach,  which  has  nearly 
the  same  development  along  all  the  northwest  side  of  Lake  Superior 
through  Minnesota.  On  Mount  Josephine,  close  east  of  Grand  Portage, 
140  miles  from  Duluth,  its  height  is'  510  feet  above  the  lake,  being  the 
most  conspicuous  of  the  several  shorelines  there.  Like  the  ancient  beaches 
of  Lake  Agassiz  in  the  Red  river  valley,  it  has  a  gradual  ascent  north- 
eastward. While  these  ice-dammed  lakes  were  being  reduced  to  lower 
levels,  the  land  was  gradually  uplifted  by  an  elevation  that  increases 
from  south  to  north  and  northeast. 

In  view  of  its  geologic  cause,  with  its  antiquity  and  great  length,  the 
name  High  Beach  boulevard  seems  more  desirable  than  a  personal  title. 

Lastly,  attention  may  be  directed  to  the  derivation  of  this  French 
word,  boulevard,  signifying  a  bulwark,  from  the  demolition  of  the  ancient 
lines  of  defensive  fortifications  that  surrounded  the  medieval  city  of 
Paris,  broad  roadways  being  constructed  in  their  place.  Thence  this 
name  is  now  frequently  applied  to  exceptionally  wide  avenues  or  streets, 
used  as  pleasure  driveways,  especially  when  they  are  partly  decorated 
with  flowers  or  belts  of  lawn. 


INDEX 


INDEX 

Abbreviations:  ad.,  addition;  b.,  biographic;  blvd.,  boulevard;  br., 
brook;  c,  city;  co.,  county;  cr.,  creek;  d.,  district;  div.,  division;  for, 
named  for,  or  in  honor  of;  gl.  1.,  glacial  lake;  h.,  hill;  id.,  island;  1.,  lake; 
mor.,  moraine;  mt,  mount,  or  mountain;  n.,  named  by;  p.  o.,  post  office; 
pk.,  park;  pky.,  parkway;  pt,  point;  q.,  quotation;  r.,  river;  ry.,  railroad, 
railway;  si.,  slough;  sq.,  square;  sta.,  station;  t,  township;  tr.,  triangle; 
v.,  village. 

Obsolete  names  are  inclosed  by  parentheses. 

For  Duluth,  Minneapolis,  and  St.  Paul,  the  names  of  their  streets, 
avenues,  parks,  etc.,  are  grouped  beneath  the  city  names. 


Aaron,  1.,  182 

Aastad  t,  for  Gilbert  Aastad,  391 

Abbey,  1.,  32 

Abbie.  1..  591 

Abbott,  E.  T.,  and  Seth,  for,  604 

Abbott,  Wilma,  for,  414 

Abercrombie,  Gen,  John  J.,  for,  b., 

580 
(Abert  r.,  for  John  J.  Abert,  511) 
(Abigail,  1..  168) 
Abita  1.,  145 

Accault  1..  131 ;  bay.  346 
Achman  1.,  530 

Acker,  Capt.  William  H.,   for,  624 
Acoma  t,  316 
Acorn  1.,  33 
Acton  t.,  338 
Ada  br.  and  1.,  99 
Ada  v.,  381 

Adams,   Cuyler.for,n.,l.,517;158,163 
Adams,  John,  for,  605 
Adams,  John  Quincy,  for,  605 
Adams,  Mabel,  for,  194 
Adams,  Rev.  Moses  N.,  22,  164,  288, 

574 
Adams  t.  and  v.,  359 
Addie,  1..  319 
(Adela  1.,  48) 
(Adkinsville  t.,  for  Thomas  Adkins, 

178) 
Adley,  R.  F.,  n.,  396 
Adley,  Warren,  n.,  525 ;  for,  b.,  529 
Adley,  L,  401 ;  cr.,  529 
Adney  1.,  162 
Adolph  v.,  477 
Adrian  v.,  376;  t,  574 
Aetna  t.,  417 
Africa,  names   from,  176,  456,  490. 

574 


Afton  t,  568 

Agamok  1.,  296 

Agassiz,  gl.  1..  7,  8,  56,  116.  120,  218, 

280,  289,  324,  331,  384,  405,  409, 

429,  447,  472,  475,  505,  550,  553, 

580,654. 
Agassiz  t,  289 
Agate  bay.  294,  295 ;  I.,  162 
Agder  t.,  327 
Agnes,  1.,  143,  181. 
Agram  t.,  350 
Ahkeek  1..  78 

Ahrens  h.,  for  Charles  Ahrens,  163 
(Aile  de  Corbeau,  r.,  154) 
Aiott  1.,  for  F.  Aiott,  356 
Airlie  v.,  (378),  417 
Aitkin,  William  A.,  for,  b.,  14 ;  19,  21 
Aitkin  co.,  14-21 ;  gl.  1.,  21 ;  1.,  17, 

19;  t  and  v.,  14,  21;  pt.  and  bay, 
.    Leech  1.,  95 

Aiton,  Mrs.  Mary  B..  372,  375 
Aiton  heights,  for  G.  B.  Aiton,  133 
Akeley  1.,  141 
Akeley  t.  and  v.,  for  H.  C.  Akeley, 

b.,  242 
Ako  or  Accault  1.,  131 
Akron  t.,  53,  577 
Alango  t.,  477 
Alaska  t.,  35 
Alba  p.  o.,  191 ;  t.,  261 
Albany  t.,  522 
Albert  1.,  65,  591 
(Albert  sta.,  477) 

Albert  Lea.,  c,  t.,  and  1.,  198,  203 
Alberta  t.,  49;  v.,  535 
Alberts  1.,  for  Ole  Alberts,  182 
Albertville  v.,  586 
Albin  t.,  68 
Albion  t,  586;  1.,  591 


657 


658 


INDEX 


Alborn  t.  and  sta.,  477 

Alden  t.  and  v.,  199 ;  I.,  477,  499 

(Alder  r.,  18) 

Aldrich,  Cyrus,  for,  b.,  560 ;  603 

Aldrich,  Thamas  Bailey,  for,  603 

Aldrich,  1.,  for  J.  D.  Aldrich,  181, 
182 

Aldrich  t.  and  v.,  560 

Alexander,  1.,  (48;)  for  T.  L.  Alex- 
ander, 356 

Alexandria  c.  and  t.,  2,  175 

Alexis  1.,  for  John  P.  Alexis,  110 

Alfred,  1..  404 

Alfsbofg  t,  518 

Alger  sta;,  for  R.  A.  Alger,  b.,  293 

Algoma  t.,  470 

Alice,  1.,  65,  (131,)  244,  296,  389, 
402,  435,  500,  580 

Alice  sta.,  477 

Alida  v.,  122 

Alkali  1.,  401,  521 

(All  Saints  c,  223) 

Allen,  Alvaren,  for,  619 

Allen,  Lieut.  James,  for,  b.,  42;  97, 
98;  for,  AZZ\  153;  for,  246;  n., 
367;  502,  503,  514 

Allen,  Lyman,  n.,  340 

Allen,  Mrs.  Saumel,  for,  233 

Allen,  William   P.,   for,  b.,  477 

Allen  t.,  155,  477;  sta.,  477 

Allen's  bay,  42,  96 ;  1.,  246,  320 

Alliance  t.,  114 

Allibone  1.  and  cr.,  for  John  Alli- 
bone,  573 

Allie  (or  Alley)  1..  460 

Allison,  Rebecca,  for,  169 

Alma  t,  327 

Alma  City  v.,  564 

Almelund  v.  and  p.  o.,  108 

Almond  t,  53 

Almora  v.,  391 

Alpha  v.,  261 ;  1.,  297 

Alpine  1.,  141 

Alta  Vista  t.  307 

Altamont  moraine,  309,  420 

Altermatt  1.,  for  J.  B.  Altermatt,  72 

Alton  t,  66,  564;  1.,  143,  337 

Altona,  (v.  399;)  t.,  417 

Altura  v.,  581 

Alvarado  v.,  227 

Alvin,  1.,  181 

Alvwood  t.,  253 

Alworth  1.,  296 

Amador  t.,  108 

Amber  1.,  336 

Amberger  1.,  295 

Amboy  v.,  58,  63;  t,  149 


Amelia,  1.,  26,  (231,)  435 

America  t,  470 

American  pt.,  45 

American  Fur  O),,  14,  95,  155,  455 

American  Revolution,  names  from, 

359.  360 
Ames,  Dr.  Alfred  E.,  for,  601 
Ames,  Mrs.  William  L.,  for,  625 
.Amherst  t.,   190 
Amiret  t.  and  v.,  311 
Amity  cr.,  493 
Amo  L,  149 
Amor  t,  391 
Amos  1.,  181 
Anchor  1.,  500 

Anderson,  Mrs.  Ann,  for,  150 
Anderson,  Mathias,  n.,  201 
Anderson  1.,  32,  143,  231,  434,  435 ; 

cr.,  428;  pt,  347;  sta.,  531 
(.Anderson    v.,    for    G.    Anderson, 

467) 
Andover  t.,  (359,)  421 
Andrea  t.,  577 

Andrews,  Gen.  C.  C,  101,  148 
Andrews,  William  H.,  155;  n.,  159 
Andrews,  1.,  180 
(Andrus  cr.,  134) 
Andrusia,  1.,  42 
(Andy  Johnson  co.,  577) 
Anka,  1.,  182 
Angle  t.,  35;  r.,  44 
Angora  t.  and  v.,  477 
Angus  t,  for  R.  B.  Angus,  b.,  421 ; 

1.,  591 
Ann  1.,  85,  265,  435,  516,  590 
Ann  r.,  265,  267 
Ann  t..  150 
Ann  Lake  t,  265 
Anna  1.,  157,  402,  530 
Annalaide  1.,  4(X) 
Annandale  v.,  586 
Annie.  1.,  404 
Annie  Battle  1.,  402 
Anoka  c.  and  t.,  22,  23 ;  co.,  22-26 
Ansel  t.  and  p.  o.,  87 
Ant  id.,  494 
Antelope    hills    and    moraine,    292. 

310;  valley,  292 
Anthony  t..  381 
Antlers  Park  sta.,  169 
Antoinette,  1.,  498 
Antrim  t.,  574 
Apostle  ids..  Wis.,  146 
Appleton  t  and  v.,  539 
Aquipaguetin  id.,  347 
Arago  t  and  1.,  for  D.  F.  Arago, 

b.,  243 


INDEX 


659 


Arbo  t,  for  John  Arbo,  253 

Arbutus  sta.,  477 

Arc  1..  141 

Arch  id.»  145 

Archibald,  E.  T.,  and  J.  M.,  n.,  462 

Arco  v.,  307 

(Areola  v.,  568) 

Arctandcr  t.,  for  J.  W.  Arctander, 

b..  269 
Ardenhurst  t,  253 
Arena  t.,  289 
Arendahl  t,  190 
Argyle  v.,  227 
Arken  1.,  401 

Arkkola,  Thomas,  n.»  490 
Arlington  t.  and  v.,  518 
Arlington  Hills  d.,  440,  443,  623 
Arlone  t..  410 

Armstrong,  Mrs.  Helen,  for,  317 
Armstrong,  Laura,  for,  104 
Armstrong  cr.,  286 ;  r.  and  bay,  494, 

495 
Armstrong    1.,    for    J.    Armstrong, 

65 ;  501 
Armstrong    sta.,    for    Thomas    H. 

Armstrong,  b.,  199 
Arna  t,  410 

Arnesen  v.,  for  B.  A.  Arnesen,  36 
Arnold's  1..  152 
Arrow  1.  and  r.,  Canada,  139 
Artesian  .wells,  116,  188 
Arthur,  Chester  A.,  for,  b.  265,  429, 

605,  646 
Arthur  t.,  265,  550;  1.,  429;  stji.,  477 
Artichoke  t.  and  1.,  53,  56;  r.  and 

1.,  499 ;  cr.  542 
Artlip  1.,  295 

Arveson  t.,  for  Arve  Arveson,  277 
Arvilla,  1.,  342 
Asbury,   Bishop   Francis,    for,    103, 

630 
Asbury  sta.,  103 

Ash  1.,  141,  218,  307,  337,  477,  502; 
cr.  466;  r.,  502 
Ash  Creek  v.,  466 
Ash  Lake  t.,  307;  sta.,  477 
Ashbough,  Bartlett,  n.,  551 
Ashby  v.,  for  Gunder  Ash,  213 
Ashland  t.  and  v.,  172 
Ashley,  Ossian  D.,  for,  b.,  522 
Ashley  cr.,  434,  522 ;  t.  522 
Asia,    names    from,   283,   333,   458, 

477.485 
Askov  v.,  410 
Asp  1.,  Ill 

Aspen  1..  140;   (br.,  447) 
Aspinwall  1.,  for  Henry  Aspinwall, 

324 


Assiniboine  bluff,  211:  Indians.  281, 

409 
Assumption  v.,  81 
Astor,  John  Jacob,  14 
Athens  t,  250;  sta.,  477 
Atherton  t.,  578 
Atkinson  t.,  for  J.  Atkinson,  7Z\  I., 

341 
Atlanta  t.,  27 

Atwater  v.,  for  V..  D.  Atwater,  269 
Auburn,  1.,  85 
Audubon,  John  J.,  for,  b.,  27,  608; 

t.  and  v.,  27 
Augelle,  Anthony,  for,  130 
Augsburg  t.,  327 
Augusta  sta.,  81 ;  t,  289;  1.,  133,  152. 

168,  401,  529,  591 
Aulnau,  Father,  45 
Ault  t,  477 
Aurdal  t.,  391 
Aurora  t.,  531 ;  v..  477 
Austin,  Gov.  Horace,  for,  b.,  363 
Austin  c.  and  t.,  359 ;  state  park,  363 
Austria,  names  from,  303,  350.  456, 

469,  524 
Automba  t.  and  sta.,  7Z 
Averill  v.,  for  John  T.  Averill,  b., 

115 
Avery,  Carlos,  275 
Avis  id.,  495 
Avoca  v.,  364 
Avon  t.  and  v.,  523 
Axe  1.,  145 
Ayotte,  Peter,  n.,  164 


Babbett  pt.,  548 

Babbitt,  Frances  E..  353 

Babcock  1.,  Z27 

Baby  1.,  99 

Bachelor  1.,  7Z 

Backus  v.,  for  Edward  W.  Backus, 

87 
Bacon,  D.  H.,  n..  490 
Bad  Axe  1..  248 
Bad  Water  1..  104,  106,  272 
Badger  cr.,  189,  241.  389,  422,  447. 

470,  475 ;  1.,  337,  369.  422 
Badger  state,  4 ;  189,  227 ;  t.,  422 ;  v., 

470 
Badoura  t.,  243 
Bagley  v.,   for   Sumner  C.   Bagley, 

122 
Bailey,  Thomas,  n..  54 
Bailey  sta.,  for  Orlando  Bailey,  b., 

513 
Bailly,  Alexis,  and  Isabel,  for,  168 
Bain  t.,  for  William  Bain,  14 


660 


INDEX 


Baker,  B.  F.,  fur  trader,  155 
Baker,  Charles  H.,  252 
Baker,  Daniel  A.  J.,  n.,  634 
Baker,  Gen.    Tames   H.,  quoted  or 

cited,  3,   1^,   129,   136,   179,  242. 

326,  518,  539,  541 
Baker,  Rev.  Peter,  for,  263 
Baker  1.,  143 
Baker's  1.,  for  A.  C.  Baker,  b.,  319; 

id.,  517 
Baker  t,  for  Lester  H.  Baker,  155; 

535 
Balaton  v.,  312 
Balch>  Foster  L.,  for,  54 
Bald  mt..  503 
Bald  Bluf!  1.,  19 
Bald  Eagle  1.,  296,  437;  v.,  437 
Baldus  t.,  282 

Baldwin,  Matthias  W.,  for,  637 
Baldwin  L,  25,  573 
Baldwin  t,  for  F.  E.  Baldwin,  b. 

514 
Balkan  t.,  478 
Baike  1.,  32 
Ball  BlufF  t,  14 
Bairs  bluff,  for  Ezra  Ball,  367 
Ball  Oub  1.  and  v.,  253,  259 
Ballantyne  1.,  for  J.  Ballantyne,  65 
Bally  cr.,  for  Samuel  Bally,  144 
Balm  of  Gilead,  3;  r.,  143 
Balmoral  v.,  391 
Balsam  t,  14,  253 
Banadad  1.,  141 
Bancroft  t,   for  George  Bancroft, 

199;  cr.,  204 
Bandon  t.,  455 
Banfil,  John,  23 ;  for,  614 
Bangor  t.,  430 
Banks'  Pine  1.,  139 
Banner  1.,  141 
Banning,  William   L.,   for,  b.,  410, 

615 
Banning  v.,  410 
Bannock  t,  282 
Baptism  r.,  295 
Baptist  hill,  619,  639 
Baraga,  Bishop  F.,  cited,  1,  22,  42, 

43,  87,  89,92, 107, 118. 142;  for,  b., 

143;  257,  296,  321,  324,  345,  356, 

411,  474,  479,  497,  504,  626 
Baraga's  r.,  142 
Barber  1.,  161,  320 
Barber  t.,  for  Chauncey  Barber,  b., 

183 
Barclay  t.,  87 

Barden  sta.,  for  J.  W.  Barden,  507 
Bardon,-  James,  q.,  7i ;  476 ;  for,  503 
Bardon's  peak,  503 


Bardwell  1.,  ^26 

Barker  1.,  143 

Barkhurst,  Enoch  G.,  n.,  60 

Bam  bluff,  206,  211 

Barnard,  W.  G.,  n.,  378 

Barnes,  William  A.,  for,  608 

Barnes  1.,   for  W.  Barnes,  85;  id., 

614 
Barnesville  t.  and  v.,  for  George  S. 

Barnes,  115 
Barnett  t.,  for  M.  E.  Barnett.  470 
Barnum  t,  for  George  G.  Barnum, 

74 
Barr's  1.,  499 

Barrett,  J.  O.,  cited,  550.  551,  554 
Barrett  v.  and  1.,  for  Gen.  T.  H. 

Barrett,  b.,  214 
Barrows  sta.  and  mine,  for  W.  A. 

Barrows,  Jr.,  155 ;  1.,  218 
Barry  t.,  for  Edward  Barry,  410;  v. 

54 
Barsness  1.,  for  A.  and  O.  Barsness, 

181 ;  t,  for  three  brothers,  431 
Bartlett  1..  286;  sta.,  478;  t.,  543 
Barto  t.,  470 
Bartsch,  John,  n.,  150 
Bartsch  1.,  for  Jacob  Bartsch.  152 
Bashaw  t,  for  Joseph  Baschor,  68 
Bashitanequeb  1.,  141 
Bass  br.,  253 
Bass  Is.,  20,  33  (2),  43,  100,  161,  162, 

(7),  189,  232,  247,  253,  267,  402, 

414,  442,  500,  547  (2),  573.  591 
Bass  Brook  t.,  253 
Bass  Lake  p.  o.,  189;  t.,  253 
Bassett  cr.,  for  Joel  B.  Bassett,  b., 

232,  607 ;  l,  500 
Basswood,  24 ;  1.,  32,  297 ;  id..  494 
Bat  1.,  141 
Bath  t.,  200 
Battle  t.  and  r.,  36,  46;   r.  and  1., 

286;  cr.,  342,  442;  br..  349,  516; 

Is.,  East,  and  West,  391 ;  1..  598 
Battle  hollow,  Stillwater,  572 
Battle  point.  Lake  Traverse,  553 
Battle  rapids,  Mississippi  r.,  517 
Battle  Lake  v.,  391 
Battle  Plain  t.,  466 
Baudette  t,  v.,  and  r.,  36,  42 
Baumbach  I.,  for  F.  von  Baumbach, 

b..  181 
Bavaria  1.,  85 
Baxter  t.,  for  Luther  L.  Baxter,  b., 

155;   for  H.  A.   Baxter,  289;   I., 

251 
Bay  Lake  t.  and  1.,  155 
Bayless,  Vincent  W.,  for,  632 
Baytown  t.,  568;  (v.,  571) 


INDEX 


661 


Bean  1.,  for  Joseph  F.  Bean,  152 

Bear,  Benjamin,  for,  389 

Bear  Is.,  78(2),  141,  202,  203,  253, 

274,  295.  319,  320,  369.  404;  r.,  99, 

253,  282,  501;  cr.,  122,  196,  319, 

362,  389,  415,  547;  id.,  94,  101,  142. 

493,  494,  517;  bay,  494-;  narrows, 

495 ;  pt.,  132 
Bear  Creek  t.  and  cr.,  122 
Bear's  Head  1.,  501 
Bear  Island  I..  501 
Bear  Park  t.,  382 
Bear  River  t.  and  r.,  282 
Bear  Skin  Is.,  E.  and  W.,  140,  142 
Bear  Trap  cr.,  494 
Bear  Valley,  a  hamlet,  556 
Beard,  Henry  B.,  for,  604 
(Beardsley  t.,  for  S.  A.  Beardsley, 

202) 
Beardsley  v.,  for  W.  W.  Beardsley, 

b.,  54 
Bearville  t.,  253 
Beasley,  Fanning  L.,  for.  103 
Beatty,  Hamilton,  n.,  519 
Beatty  1.,  for  Robert  Beatty,  b.  521 
Beatty  t.,  478 
Beauford  t,  58,  66 
Beauharnois,  Charles  de,  45 
Beaulieu,  Emma,  156 
Beaulieu  t.  and  v.,  for  Henry  and 

John  Beaulieu,  322;  1.,  for  A.  H. 

Beaulieu,  324 
Beauty  1.,  248,  257,  267.  369.  548 
Beauty  Shore  1.,  402 
Beaver,  former  abundance,  466 
Beaver  1.,  143,  443,  529,  534 ;  r..  293 

295,  499;  cr.,   191,   197,  241,  368, 

455,  459,  466,  501,  563,  581 
(Beaver  1.  and  r.,  32,  119;  cr.,  292; 

ids.,  517) 
Beaver  t,  14,  191,  282,  470;  hamlet, 

581 
Beaver  Bay  v.  and  t.,  146,  293.  295 
Beaver  Creek  t.,  466 ;  v.,  467 
Beaver  Dam  1.,  590 
Beaver  Falls  t.  and  v.,  455 
Becker,  Gen.  George  L.,  for,  b.,  27, 

514;  n.,  272 
Becker  co.,  27-33;  t.  and  v..  514;  1., 

530 
Becker  t.,  for  J.  A.  Becker,  87 
Beebe  1.,  591 
Beef  bay  and  1.,  494,  495 
Beers  1.,  403 
Bejou  t.  and  v..  Z2^ 
Belanger  id.,  169 
Belden  sta.,  411 
Belfast  t.,  364 


Belgium,  name  from,  312;  t.,  422 

Belgrade  t,  372;  v.,  523 

Bell  1.  and  cr.,  341 

Bella  1.,  258 

Belle  1.,  320,  341.  529;  r.,  176,  400 

Belle  Chester  sta.,  206;  v.,  556 

Belle  Creek  t.  and  cr.,  206 

Belle  Plaine  t.  and  v.,  507 

Belle  Prairie  t,  351,  353 

Belle  River  t,  176 

Belle  Rose  id.,  146 

Bellevue  t,  351 

Bellin,  map  by,  53 

Bellingham  v.,  for  Robert  Belling- 

ham,  289 
Bellissima  1.,  296 
(Bellville  v.,   for  E.  and  H.   Bell. 

191) 
(Bellwood  v.,  for  Joseph  Bell,  166) 
Belmont   t,,    for   Anders    Belmont, 

261 ;  1.,  401 
Beltrami,  J.  C,  4,  12,  18;  for,  b.,  34. 

35,  48,  422;  q.,  40;  41,  48.  97,  126. 

129,445;q.,  449;514,  517 
Beltrami  co.,  34-48 ;  v.,  422 
Beltrami  id.  of  gl.  1.  Agassiz,  48 
Belvidere  t..  206 
Belview  v.,  449 

Bemidji  c.  and  t.,  36;  1.,  36,  38.  41 
Ben  1.,  435 ;  Ben's  1.,  573 
Ben  Wade  t..  431 
Bena  v.,  87 

Benbow,  W.  H.,  n.,  149 
Benedict  sta.  and  1.,  243 
Bennett.  Mrs.  Adelaide  G.,  420 
Bennington  t.,  359 
Benson,  Jared,  for,  b.,  540 
Benson  c.  and  t,  for  B.  H.  Benson, 

b.,  539 
Benson,  1.,  434,  499 
Benton,  Thomas  H.,  for.  b.,  49,  81, 

308,601 
Benton  co.,  49-52 ;  1.  and  t.,  49,  81 ; 

v.,  81 ;  1.,  308,  310,  341 
Benville  t.,  36 
Bergen  t,  316 
Berglin's  1.,  180 
Bergman's  br.,  267 
Berlin  t,  (526,)  531 
Berliner  1.,  85 
Bern  p.  o.,  172 
Bernadotte  t.  372 
(Berne  t,  173) 
Beroun  v.,  411 
Berry,  William  M.,  for,  607 
Berry  1..  152 

Bertha  1.,  162,  274 ;  t.  and  v.,  543 
Bertram  1..  591 


4 


662 


INDEX 


Besemann  t.,  for  Ernst  Besemann, 

74 
(Bessel,  1..  for  F.  W.  Bessel,  90) 
Beta  1.,  297 
Beth  I.,  143 
Bethany  v.,  582 
Bethel  t.,  23 
Betty,  1.,  342 
Beulah  t.,  87 

Bevins  or  Sevens  cr.,  85,  520 
Bidwell.  Ira,  for.  619 
Big  bay,  Vermilion  1.,  495 
(Big  falls,  51) 

Big  fork  of  Rainy  r.,  253,  286 
Big  id.,  44,  235,  346,  357,  415.  495, 

498;  1.,  43,  75,  78,  143,  218,  500. 

514,  530,  548,  573 ;  pt.,  46.  94,  346 
Big  Bass  1.,  324,  443 
Big  Bend  t,  103 
Big  Bird  1.,  162 
Big  Cobb  r.,  64 
Big  Cormorant  1.,  28 
Big  Falls  t.,  282 
Big  Foot  cr.,  168 
Big  Fork  t.  and  v.,  253 
Big  Grass  t,  36 
Big  Lake  t.  and  v.,  514 
Big  Pine  1.,  19,  251 ;  id.,  498 
Big  Rat  1.,  32 
Big  Rice  1.,  99,  163,  501 
Big  Rock  cr.,  48 
Big  Rush  1.,  Z2 
(Big  Sand  Bar  cr.,  47) 
Big  Sioux  r.,  S.  D.  and  Iowa,  263 
Big  Spring  cr.,  72,  453 
Big  Stone  co.,  53-56;  1.,  7,  8,  53,  54, 

56;  t.,  54 
Big  Swan  1.,  339 
Big  Trout  1.,  162 
Big  Woods,  2 ;  t.,  ZZ7 
Bigelow  t.  and  v.,  for  C.  H.  Bige- 

low,  b.,  376 
BiggerstafT  cr.,  for  Samuel  Bigger- 
staff,  516 
Bigsby  1.,  143 

Bingham,  Kinsley  S.,  for,  b.,  150 
Bingham  Lake  v.,  and  1.,  150 
Birch  bay.  494,  495;   id..   146.  296. 

494;  r.,  295,  495;  cr.,  411,  459;  br., 

99;  pt.,  494;  pond,  607 
Birch  1.,  19,  99,  140,  141,  162,  246; 

Is.,  Upper,  and  Lower,  251 ;  296. 

297.  341,  443.  501,  516,  530.  543; 

Big,  and  Little,  547;  591 
Birch  t.,  36;  sta.,  for  C.  J.  Birch, 

478 
Birch  Bark  1..  530.  547  (2) 


Birch    Coolcy.    Sioux    mission.   60; 

t.  (and  v.).  456;  cr.,  459;  battle, 

460 
Birch  Creek  t..  411 
Birch  Island  t.,  36 
Birch  Lake  t.,  and  1.,  87 
(Birch  Lake  City,  v.,  546) 
Birchdale  1.,  162;  t.  543 
Bird  1..  181 ;  id.,  308 
Bird  Island  t..  v..  and  grove.  456 
Biscay  v.,  317 
Bischoffsheim,    L..    and    wife,    for, 

544 
Bishop,  Harriet  E..  for,  b.,  441,  640 
Bishop,  Gen.  Judson  W..  n.,  60,  151, 

509 
Bismarck  t,  518 
Bisson  1.,  ^2 

Biwabik  t.  and  v.,  478;  mines,  503 
Bixby,  Jacob  S.,  for,  b.,  532 
Bixby  v..  for  John  Bixby.  b.,  532 
Black  bay.  121,  285,  286.  495;  1.,  43, 

162,  401,  443,  501,  591 ;  r.,  286,  406, 

447;   br.,   349;   cr.,   501;   pt,   145 
Black  Bear  1.,  162 
Black  Dog  1.  and  v..  168 
Black  Duck  1.,  r.,  and  t.,  36,  46;  pt. 

and  bay,  494 ;  1.,  502 
Black  Hammer  t.,  238 
Elack  Hawk  1.,  168 
Black  Hoof  cr.  and  t.,  74;  1.,  162 
Black  Oak  1.,  106,  530 
Black  River  t,  and  r.,  406 
Black  Rush  1..  315 
Blackberry  t.^  1..  and  br..  253 
Blackbird  1.,  32 
Blackman  1.,  309 
Blackwell  1..  for  George  Blackwell. 

181 
Bladder  1.,  247 

Blaine  t.,  for  James  G.  Blaine,  b.,  23 
Blaisdell,  Robert,  Sr.,  for,  602 
Blake,  Anson,  for,  632 
Blakeley,  Capt.  Russell,  for,  b.,  507 ; 

509 
Blakeley  t.  and  v..  507 
Blanche,  1.,  402 
Bland  1.,  267 
Blind  1.,  19,  99 
Block  1.,  401,  529 
Bloody  1.,  369 
(Bloody  r.,  35;  1.,  48) 
Bloom  t.,  for  Peter  Bloom,  277 
Bloom's  1.,  for  Gustaf  Bloom,  111 
Bloomer  t.,  227 
Bloomfield  t.;  191 
Blooming  Grove  t.,   (398,)   564 
Blooming  Prairie  t.  and  v.,  532 


INDEX 


663 


Blooming  Valley  t,  470 

Bloomington  t,  220 

Blowers  t.,  for  A.  S.  Blowers,  391 

Blue  1.,  248,  251.  258,  512;  hills,  275 

Blue  Earth  co.,  57-66 

Blue  Earth  r.,  2,  57,  58,  60,  61 ;  t. 

and  c,  184 
Blue  Hill  t,  514 
Blue  Mounds,   hills,   153,  431,  435, 

514;  t,  431 
Blueberry  t,  r.,  and  1.,  561 
BluflF  creeks,  N.,  and  S..  391.  396 
Bluffton  t.,  391 

Boal,  James  McClellan,  for,  614 
(Boal  id.,  614) 
Bock  v.,  344 
Boedigheimer  1.,  403 
Bogus  Brook  t.,  and  br.,  344 
Bohall  1.,  for  Henry  Bohall,  132 
Bohemia,  names  from,  302,  427,  464, 

509 
Bohland,    Adam,    and    Peter,    for, 

637 
Bois  des  Sioux  r.,  7,  56,  554 
Bois  Fort  reservation,  286,  506 
Boisberg,  village  site,  551 
Bolles  cr.,  for  Lemuel  Bolles,  572 
Bondin  t.,  364 
Boneset  1.,  465 
Bonga,  Jean,  and  George,  88 
Bonny  1.,  573 
Boom  id.,  228,  517 
Boon  Lake  t.,  and  1.,  456 
(Boone,     1.,     for     Capt.      Nathan 

Boone,  203) 
Boot  1.,  25,  32,  43,  91(2),  296,  460, 

573;  id.,  296;  cr.,  566 
Booth,  Rev.  Charles,  n.,  250 
Borden  1.,  for  David  S.  Borden,  161 
Borer  1.,  for  Felix  A.  Borer,  304 
Borgholm  t.,  344 
Borup  v.,  for  C.  W.  W.  Borup,  b.. 

382 
Bossuot  1.,  304 
Bottineau,    Pierre,    218,    226,    608; 

prairie,  226 
Bottle  1.,  248;  portage.  496 
Boulder  1.,  296,  499;   cr.,  499;   pt., 

346 
Boulevard,  original  meaning,  654 
Boundary    between    Ojibways    and 

Sioux,  52;  see  also  International 

Boundary 
Bourne,  Walter  B.,  for.  632 
Boutwell,  Rev.  W.  T.,  4,  95;   for, 

98;   q.,    101;    126;   for,   13J,  246; 

252 
Boutwell  cr..  132 ;  1.,  246 


Bowcn,  Ama.sa,  n.,  334 

Bowling,  name  from,  40 

Bowlus  v.,  351 

Bowman,  George  D.,  n.,  223 

Bowstring  t,   1.,   and   r.,  253,   254, 

286 
Boxville  t.,  for    William     N.  Box, 

327 
Boy  1.  and  r.,  87,  88 ;  bay,  94 ;  Boy's 

1.,  72 
Boy  Lake  t.,  87 
Boy  River  t.,  87 
Boyd  v.,  289 
Boyer  1.,  32 
Boyington  id.,  592 
Boyn ton's  id.,  517 
Brackett,  George  A.,  n.,  225 
Bradbury  br.,  349 
Bradford  1.,  85;  t.,  250,  578 
Bradley  1.,  534;  sta.  and  ford,  58 
Bradshaw  1.,  511 
Braham  v.,  250 
Brainerd,  Lawrence,  b.,  156 
Brainerd  c,  156 
Branch,  William,  for,  645 
Branch  t„  108 
Brand,  Henry,  for,  625 
Brandon  1.,  for  John  Brandon,  181 
Braadon  t.  and  v.,  for  Ole  Bran- 
don, 176 
Brandrup  t.,  for  Andrew  Brandrup, 

578 
Brandsvold  t,  422 
Brandt   1.,   for   Lcroy   Brandt,   85; 

t.,  422 
Brandy  1.,  ZZ 

Branham,  Jesse  V.,  Jr.,  n.,  339 
Brant  1.,  141 
Bratsberg,  a  hamlet,  191 
Bray  t.,  for  D.  S.  Bray,  b.,  406 
Bread  and  Butter  state,  4 
Breck,   Rev.  James  Lloyd,   for,  b„ 

130;  613,  642 
(Breck  1.,  130) 
Breckenridge,  John  C,  for,  b.,  578, 

601 
Breckenridge  t.  and  v.,  578 
Breda  sta.,  478 
Bredeson  1.,  401 
Breezy  pt.,  233,  235 
Breitung  t.,  for  Edward  Breitung, 

b.,  478 
Bremen  t,  411 
Brenna,  Ole  O.,  n.,  314 
Brenner  1.,  for  A.  H.  Brenner,  275 
(Brentwood  v.,  508) 
Brevator  sta.,  478 
Brewery  cr.,  511 


664 


INDEX 


Brewster,  William,  for,  b.,  377 

Brewster  1.,  319;  v.,  377 

Brian  1.,  319 

Bricelyn  v.,  for  John  Brice,  184 

Brickton  v.,  344 

Bridgewater  t.,  461 

Bridgie  t..  282 

Briggs  1.,  516 

(Briggs  t,  for  Joshua  Briggs,  515) 

Bright  1.,  337 

Brighton  t.,  372 

Brimhall,  William  E.,  for,  636,  637 

Brimson  v.,   for  W.   H.    Brimson, 

478 
Brisbois,  Louis  G.,  458 
Brislet  t.,  422 
Bristol  t,  191 
Britt  sta.,  478 

Britton  sta.  and  junction,  293 
Broberg,  Peter,  275 
Brockway,  Volney  J.,  for,  304 
Brockway  t,  523;  (v.,  527;)  prairie, 

530 
Brodhead,  John  R.,  344 
Brofce's  cr.,  106 
Bronseth  1.,  401 

Bronson  v.,  for  Giles  Bronson,  277 
Brook,  creek,  of  same  meaning,  89 
Brook  Lake  t.,  36 
Brook  Park  t.  and  v.,  411 
Brookfield  t.,  456 
Brooklyn  t,  220;  sta.,  478 
Brooklyn  Center  v.,  220 
Brooks  v.,  446;  1.,  590 
Brookston  v.,  478 
Brookville  t..  449 
Broome  1.,  72 
Brooten  v.,  523 

Brother  of  the  Hole  in  the  Moun- 
tain, 310 
Brott,  George  F..  for,  620 
Brower,   Hon.   Jacob   V.,    122;   n.. 

127-134;    b.,    128;    249;    q.,    252; 

344,  346-8,  350,  353,  390,  543,  560, 

573 
Brower,  Josephine,  for,  131 
Brower  id.,  130 
Browerville  v.,   for  A.   D.  Brower 

and  his  sons,  b.,  543 
Brown,  Jos^h  R.,  for,  54,  67,  551, 

573;  b.,  67-68;   q.,  205;  224;  n., 

519;  552,  571 
Brown,  Oren  Delavan,  for,  b.,  184, 

185 
Brown,  Samuel  J.,  55,  551 
Brown  co.,  67-72;  1..  499 
Brown's  bay,  235;  id.,  517;  1.,  530; 

cr.,  573 


(Brown's  falls,  230,  236;  cr.,  236) 
Brown's  Creek  t,  and  cr.,  446 
Brown's  Valley,  7,  8,  54,  56,  550 
Brown's  Valley  t.,  54,  68 ;  v.,  68,  551 
Brownie  1..  232,  607 
Browning  cr.,  for  J.  W.  Browning, 

111 
(Browning,  1.,  233) 
Brownsdale  v.,  for  A.  D.  and  H.  A. 

Brown,  b.,  360 
Brownsville  t.,  for  J.  and  C.  Brown, 

238 
Brownton,  for  Capt.  A.  L.  Brown. 

b.,  317 
Bruce    sta.,    467;    t.,    for    Robert 

Bruce,  544 
Brule  bay,  145 ;  1.  and  r.,  143,  144 ; 
mt.,  145,  147;  narrows,  498 
Bruno  t.  and  v.,  411 
Brunson,    Benjamin    W.,    109,    611, 

n.,  627 
Brunswick  t,  265;   (v.,  266) 
Brush  id.,  44;  cr.,  184,  469;  bay  and 

r.,  494 
Brush  Creek  t,  184 
Brushvale  v..  for  Joseph  Brush,  578 
Bryant,    William   Cullen,    for,   233, 

603,  608 
(Bryant,  1.,  233;)  Bryant's  1.,  231 
Buache,  map  by,  53,  445,  476 
Buchanan,  Tames,  for,  172,  173,  402, 

478,  601,  605,  644;  1.,  402 
(Buchanan  v.,  172;  t.,   173;  town- 
site,  478) 
Buck  hill,  170;  pt,  548 

Buck  1.,  258;  for  Adam  Buck,  b., 
521  •  547 

Buck  Head  1.,  547 

(Buckeye  t,  201) 

Buckman,  Clarence  B.,  for,  b.,  351 

Buckman,  1.,  258;  t.,  351 

Budd  1.,  133 ;  for  W.  H.  Budd,  336 

Buffalo  cr.,  161,  459;  r.,  32.  119, 
120;  1.,  32,  106,  119,  336.  337,  369, 
456,  520,  (552,)  567,  587;  pt,  44; 
si.,  211;  ridge,  370 

Buffalo  t.  and  v.,  587 

Buffalo  delta  of  Lake  Agassi2,  120 

Buffalo  fish,  species,  268 

(Buffalo  plains,  163) 

Buffalo  Lake,  v.,  456 

Buflington  sta.,  422 

Buford,  Col.  A.  S.,  for,  633 

Bug  1.,  143 ;  cr.,  499 

Bun  t,  for  Joseph  F.  Buh,  b.,  351 

Buhl  v.,  for  Frank  H.  Buhl,  478 

Buhler,  John,  n.,  83 

Bull  I,  247 ;  run,  566 


INDEX 


665 


Bull  Dog  1..  161 

Bull  Moose  t,  88 

Bullard  cr.,  for  G.  W.  Bullard,  211 

Bullard  t,  for  C.  E.  Bullard,  b.,  561 

Bullhead  1.,  320.  401.  576 

Bullis  1.,  141 

Bungo  t.  and  br.,  88 

Bunker  1.,  for  Kendall  Bunker,  26 

Bunnell,  Willard  B.,  n..  582 

Bur  Oak  1.,  274 

Buran's  1.,  for  Adolph  Burandt,  85 

Burbank  t.,  for  H.  C.  Burbank,  b., 
269 

Burch  1..  591 

Burchard  sta.,  for  H.  M.  Burchard, 
312 

Burgan*s  1.,  for  William  P.  Burgan, 
180 

Burke  t,  for  Rev.  T.  N.  Burke.  417 

Burleene  t.,  544 

Burlington  t.,  28;  bay,  294,  295;  pt., 
295 

Burnett  sta.,  478 

Burnham  cr.,  428 

Burnhamville  t.  and  v.,  for  David 
Burnham,  544 

Burns,  John,  for,  622 

Burns,  Robert,  for,  23,  568 

Burns  t.,  23;  (v.,  71;)  creeks,  W., 
and  £.,  585 

Burnside  t,  for  Gen.  A.  E.  Burn- 
side,  b.,  206 

Burnstown  t,  for  J.  F.  Burns,  68 

Burnsville  t.,  for  William  Burns, 
164 

Burnt  1.,  143;  Burnt  Out  1.,  337; 
Burnt  Land  br.,  349 

Burntside  1.  and  r.,  501 ;  state  for- 
est, 506 

Burr  1.,  218;  v.,  593 

Burrows  1.,  181 

Burton  t.,  594 

Burtrum  v.,  544 

Buse  t.,  for  Ernest  Buse,  b.,  391 

Bush  1.,  231 

Bushnell,  David  I.,  346 

Busticogan  t.,  254 

Bustie's  1..  258 

Butler,  Nathan,  quoted,  43 

Butler  t.,  for  Stephen  Butler,  392 

Butter  1..  342 

Butterfield  1.,  163;  t.  and  v.,  for 
William  Butterfield.  574 

Butternut  1..  341,  590 

Butternut  Valley  t.,  58 

Buxton,  Kennard,  for    623 

Buyck  t.,  for  Charles  Buyck,  478 

Buzzle  t.  and  1.,  37^  43 


Bygland  sta..  422 
Byhre,  Iver  P.,  aid,  87 
Byron,  1.,  320,  341 
Byron  t.,  88,  565 ;  v.,  385 


Cable  1..  429 

(Cabotian  mts.,  502,  503) 

Cacaquabic  1.,  296 

Cadotte  1.,  500 

Cairo  t.,  456 

Calamus  cr.,  179 

Caldwell  t.  and  br.,  282 

Caledonia  t.  and  v..  238 

Calhoun.  1.,  for  John  C.  Calhoun, 

b.,  229 ;  236,  274 
California,  names  from,  84,  108,  174 
Calkins,  F.  W..  n.,  200 
Calkins  1.,  337 
Callaway  t.,  for  W.   R.,  Callawav, 

28 
Calumet  v.,  254 
Cambria  t.,  58 
Cambridge  t.  and  v.,  250 
Camden  t,  v.,  and  p.  o.,  81 
Camel  1.,  162 
Cameron,  Jesse,  for,  519 
Cameron  1.,  258;  for  Daniel  Camer- 
on, 429;  t.,  365 
Camp  1.,  161,  435,  540,  591 ;  cr.  196; 

t..  456 
Camp  Cold  Water.  228,  236 
Camp  Comfort,  189 
Camp  Lake  t.,  540 
Camp  Pope,  460 
Camp  Release.  72,  597 ;  t..  289 
Campbell,  Cyrus  A.,  n.,  176 
Campbell,  Patrick,  for,  85 
Campbell  1.,  32,  43,  85.  512;  (t.,  for 

James  Campbell,  187;)  v.  and  t., 

578 
Campbell   beach   of   Lake   Agassiz, 

580 
Canada,  names   from,  30,   158,  303, 

338,  373,  425.  447,  462.  550 
Canby,  Gen.  E.  R.  S.,  for,  593;  b. 

594 
Canby  c,  594;   (co.,  593;)  cr.,  292, 

598 
Candor  t.,  392 

Canestorp,  Ole  O.,  for,  b.,  214 
Canfield,  1.,  for  Job  A.  Canfield,  b.. 

567 
Canfield  v.,  and  cr.,  for  S.  G.  Can- 
field.  191,  1% 
Canisteo  t,  172 
Cannon   r.,   11,    134,   165.  206,  461; 

I.,  465 


i 


666 


INDEX 


Cannon    t.,    for    Thomas    Cannon, 

277 
Cannon  Ball  bay,  145 
Cannon  City  t  and  v.,  461 
Cannon  Falls  t  and  v.,  206 
(Cano  r.,  134) 
Canoes,  birch,  51 
Canosia  t.  and  1.,  479 
Canright  L,  356 

Canton  t.  and  v.,  191 ;  (t.,  313) 
Canyon,  a  hamlet,  479 
Cape  Bad  Luck  hill,  275 
Carey,  Harvey,  for,  152 
Carey,  John     R.^  476;  q.,  478,  479, 

480;  644 
Carey  1.,  for  Carey  brothers,  152; 

Caribou  1.,   140,  141,  142,  143,  258, 

498 ;  pt.,  145 ;  t.,  277 
Carimona  t.  and  v.,  191,  196 
Carl's  1.,  511 
Carlisle  t.  and  v.,  392 
Carlos  1.  and  t,  176,  180 
Carlston  t,  for  T.  L.  Carlston,  200 
Carlton,  Reuben  B.,  for,  b.,  7^  147 
Carlton  co.,  73-79;  v.,  7^,  74 
Carlton  peak,  1,  73,  14i5 
Carman's    bay,    for   John    Carman, 

235 
Carnelian  1.,  529,  573   (2) ;  cr.,  573 
Caroline,  1.,  529,  591 
Carp  1.,  162,  297;  (r.,  95) 
Carpenter   t,    for    Seth    Carpenter, 

Carriboo  1.,  258 

Carrie,  1.,  271 

Carrigan  I.,  590 

Carroll,  Charles,  for,  b.,  192.  617 

Carroll,  1.,  264 

Carrollton  t.,  192 

Carson,  Christopher  (Kit),  for,  150 

Carson  t.,  and  Carson   City,   Nev., 

150 
Carson's  bay,  234 ;  1.,  500 
Carsonville  t.,  for  G.  M.  Carson,  28 
Carter,  Hill,  for,  631 
Carter,  William  G.,  for,  615 
Carv'er,  Jonathan,  4,  D,  25,  53;  for, 

b.,  80 ;  land  grant,  80-81 ;  85 ;  for, 

229;  343,  348;  q.,  416;  for,  443; 

445,454;  q.,  475;  476,  514 
Carver  co.,  2,  80-85 ;  cr.,  81 ;  t.  and 

v.,  81 
Carver's  cave,  80,  443;  id.,  229;  I., 

444,  573 
Cascade  r.  and  Is.,  144;  cr.  and  t., 

386 
Casco  pt.,  235 


Case,  James  A.,  for,  624 

Case,  John  H.,  quoted,  165 

Casey  1.,  342 

Cashel  t.,  540 

Casperson  p.  o.,  471 

Cass,   Gen.   Lewis,  9;    for,  b.,  86; 

88.  97;  for,  96;  118,  126,  443,  444, 

601 
Cass  CO.,  86-101,  155 
Cass  CO.,  and  Casselton  c,  N.  D., 

for  Gen.  George  W.  Cass,  b.,  117, 

118 
Cass  1.,  9.  35,  86,  91 ;  ids.,  96 ;  100, 

101.  126 
Cass  Lake  v.,  88;  Indian  reserva- 
tion, 101.  259 
(Cassina  L,  86,  96) 
Castle,   Capt.   Henry  A.,  223;    for, 

437'  464  570 
(Castie  hiil,  170:  v.,  437,  570) 
Castle  Rock  t.,  11,  164;  the  Rock, 

165,  170;  ste..  167 
Caswell,  Ziba,  n.,  340 
Cat  r.,  563 
Cataract  id.,  229 
Catfish  bar.  Lake  St.  Croix,  571 
Cathedral  bay,  295 
Catholic  Colonization  Bureau,  551 
Catlin,  George,  416;  for,  583 
Catlin  1.,  516 

(Catlin's  Rocks,  a  landing.  583) 
Cazenovia  v.,  417 

Cedar  bay  and  id.,  346;  id..  494,  517 
Cedar  bend,  St.  Croix  r.,  572 
Cedar  cr.,  25,  162,  585;  r.,  13,  174, 

362 
Cedar  1.,  17,   19,  26,   143,  162,  229. 

320,  333,  337,  338.  341,  357,  414, 

465(2),  508,  511,  530(2),  548,  590, 

591(2),  607 
Cedar  pt,  234(2),  235,  346;  rapids, 

517 
Cedar  sta.,  25;  t.,  327,  333 
Cedar  Bend  t.,  471 
Cedar  Island  1„  233,  274,  500.  530 
Cedar  Lake  t.,  508 
Cedar  Mills  t.  and  v.,  338 
Cedar  Valley  t.,  479 
Celia,  1.,  435 

Center  cr.,  189,  335 ;  .1..  370,  529,  547 
(Center  t.,  367) 
Center  City  v.,  108 
Center  Creek  t..  and  cr.,  333 
Centerville  t.  and  v.,  23;  1..  25;  (v., 

558;)  hamlet,  582 
Central  L,  370 
Central   Chain   of   lakes,   333,   335, 

336 


LYDl-X 


667 


Central  Lakes  v.,  479 

Central  Point  t.,  206 

Ceresco  t.,  58 

Ccrro  Gordo  t.,  289 

Ceylon  v.,  333 

Ceynowa  1.,  403 

Chain  1.,  Ill 

Chains  of  lakes,  335-337 

Chamberlin,  Prof.  T.  C,  n..  309 

Chambers,  Julius,  n.,  129;  bay  and 

cr.,  131 
Champepadan  cr.,  368,  380,  469 
Champion  t.,  for  Henry  Champion, 

578 
Champlain,  Samuel  de,  8 
Champlin»  Ezra  T.,  b.,  220 
Champlin  t.  and  v.,  220 
Chanarambie  t.  and  cr.,  365,  370 
(Chanche,  1.,  161) 
Chandler  v.,  for  J.  A.  Chandler,  b., 

365 
Chaney,   Josiah   B.,    for,   132;   543, 

616 
Chaney  bay  and  pt.,  132 
Chanhassen  t.,  82 
Chankaska  cr.,  304 
(Chapeau  1.,  203) 
Chapman,  Silas,  map,  76 
Charles.  1.,  401,  442 
Charlestown  t,  449 
Charley  1.,  141,  180 
Charlotte,  1.,  168,  273,  336,  435,  548, 

590 
Chase,  Albert  S.,  for,  477 
Chase,  Jonathan,  for,  b.,  258,  349; 

Neh-emiah,  for,  349 
Chase,  Kelsey  D.,  for,  b.,  485 
Chase  1.,  258;  br.,  349(2) 
Chaska  t.,  c,  I.,  and  cr.,  82 
Chatfield,  A.  G.,  for,  b.,  192,  386; 

n.,  507 
Chatfield  v.,  192,  386 
Chatham  t.,  587 

Chaudiere  falls,  and  portage,  496 
(Cheevertown  v.,  for  W.  A.  Chee- 

ver,  226) 
(Chemaun  r.,  134) 
Cheney   h.,   530;    p.    o.,    for    B.    P. 

Cheney,  172 
Chengwatana  v.,  10,  413;  t.  and  v., 

411 
Ch«rokee  1.,  143;  heights,  443 
Cherry  1.,  296;  cr.,  3M 
Cherry   portages,    Big.   and   Little, 

138 
Cherry  Grove  t,  206 
Chesley  br.,  267 
Chester  cr..  493,  649,  653 


Chester  peak,  for  A.  H.  Chester,  b., 

503 
Chester  v.,  386 ;  t.,  422,  556 
Chetamba  cr.,  459 
Cheyenne,  Indian  tribe,  119;  r.,  S. 

D..  119 
Chicago  bay,  145 
Chief  t.  323 ;  I.,  324 
Chief's  pt.,  4iS 
Childs,  Mrs.  S.  B.,  n.,  177 
Childs  I.,  for  Edwin  R.  Childs.  180 
Childs  v..  for  Job  W.  Childs,  578 
Chilgren  t.,  for  Albert  Chilgren.  37 
Chilton  1.,  32 

Chimney  rock,  169,  170(2),  197 
Chippewa   co.,    102-106;    see    Ojib- 

ways 
Chippewa  L.  33,   102;   r.,   102,    105, 

431,  434,  537;  Indian  reservation, 

101,  259 
Chippewa  r.,  Wis.,  11,  102 
(Chippewa  t.,  176) 
(Chippewa  City  v.,  105) 
Chippewa  Falls  t.  and  v.,  431 
Chisago  CO.,  107-113;  1.,  107 
Chisago  City  v.,  108 
Chisago  Lake  t,  108 
CThisholm  v.,   for  A.  M.   Chisholm, 

b.,  479 
Choke  Cherry  1.,  64 
Chokio  v.,  535 

Chowen,  (jeorge  W.,  for,  604.  608 
(Thristensen  1.,  295 
Christiania  t.  261 
Christina,  1.,  182 
Christine,  1..  143 

Christmas,  Charles  W.,  for,  231,  601 
Christmas  1.,  231 
Chrysler  1..  161 
Chub  1.,  78,  141,  168;  r.,  141,  168; 

cr.,  168 
Church  L,  218,  274;  for  C.  Church, 

324 
Churnes  p.   o.,   for  Alex.   Churnes, 

122 
Chute,  Richard,  for,  610 
Cingmars   t.,    for   E.   F.   Cingmars, 

282 
Circle  1..  465 
Civil  War,  see  Rebellion 
Clam  1.,  143,  337 
Clara,  1.,  143 
Gara  City  v.,  103 
Qaremont  t.  and  v.,  172 
Clarence,  1.,  32 
Clarino  1.,  401 
Clarissa  v.,  544 
Gark.  Byron  F.,  for,  565 


668 


INDEX 


Qark,  Martin  D.,  for,  624 

Gark,  Mrs.  Mary  A.  (Moon),  for, 

54;  Mrs.  Nathan,  for,  168 
Clark,  Thomas,  n.,  142,  144,  146;  q., 

143;  for,  b.,  146,  644;  293,  497 
Clark,  Truman,  for,  335 
Qark  bay,  146;  L,  162,  295,  511,  538 
Qark  t,  14,  184 
Gark's  Grove  v.,  for  J.  M.  Gark, 

200 
Clarke,  Hopewell,  127;  cr.,  131 
Garkfield  v.,  594 
(Garksville  t,  for  D.  K.  J.  Clark, 

54) 
Gassen  1.,  232 
Gausen's  1.,  247 
Gay,  Henry,  for,  b.,  114,  601 
Clay  CO.,  114-120;  t,  243 
Gay  Bank  sta.,  and  Gay  Pits  sta., 

206 
Clayton,  John  M.,  for,  601 
Gayton  1.,  ZZ7 
Ga3rton  t.,  for  W.  Z.  Clayton,  b., 

360 
Clear  cr.,  77)  br.,  122 
Gear  1.,  19,  72,  150,  153.  162.  211, 

264,  304,  320,  336,  337,  342.  369(2). 

374,  380,  401,  502,  514,  520,  530, 

538,  567.  573(3) 
(Clear  Grit,  a  hamlet,  192) 
Clear  Lake  t.  and  v.,  514 
Clear  River  t.,  471 
Clearbrook  v.,  122,  123 
Clearwater  co.,  121-134 
Clearwater  1.,  43,  81,  82,  83.  84,  121 

(2).  140,  142.  144,  161,  162.  296. 

529,  587,  591 
Clearwater   r.,  9,  43,   121(3),   523. 

587,  591 
Clearwater  v.,  523;  t.  and  v.,  587; 

prairie,  S92 
Geary  1.,  511 
Clements  v.,  for  P.  O.  Clements,  b., 

449 
Clementson  v.,  for  H.  Clementson. 

y? 

Cleveland,  Esther,  for,  424 

Geveland,  Grover,  for,  605,  631 

Cleveland  t.  and  v.,  301 

GiflF  1.,  141 

Gifford  1.,  180 

Gifton  t.,  312,  551 ;  (townsite,  479) 

Gimax  v.,  422 

Ginch,  (Christine,  for,  143 

Ginton,  DeWitt,  r.,  134 

Ginton  v.,  54 ;  t.,  467,  479 

Ginton  'Falls  t.  and  v.,  532 

(Ginton  Lake  t,  516) 


Clitherall,  (Jcorge  B.,  for,  b.,  392 ; 

n.,  402 
Githerall  t.,  v.,  and  1.,  392 
Clontarf  t  and  v.,  540 
Goquet  id.,  74;  r.  and  c,  74.  498 
Gothespin  1.,  141 
Cloud  1.,  141 

Goudy  Weather,  an  Ojibway,  35 
Clough,  Gov.  D.  M.,  for,  b.,  351 
Gough  t,  351;  I.,  357;  id.,  493 
Cloustier  1.,  320 
Gove  1.,  139 
Clover  t.,  122,  243,  411 
Clover  Leaf  t.,  406 
Goverton  sta.,  411 
Clow   t.,  277 
Gubfoot  1.,  145 
Coal  1..  548 
Cobb  rs.,  Big,  and  Little.  64.  184; 

cr.,  292 
(Cobb  t,  184) 
Cobden  v.,  for  Richard  Cobdcn,  b.. 

68 
(Coburg  p.  o.,  for  William  Coburn. 

311) 
Cochran,  M.  V.,  n.,  588 
Cochrane  1.,  591 
Cody  1.,  for  Patrick  Cody,  465 
Coffee  1.,  78 

Coggswell,  Amos,  n.,  b.,  531 
Cohasset  v.,  254 
Cokato  t.  v.,  and  I.,  587 
Colby,  John,  n.,  571 ;  for.  573 
Colby  1.,  111.  141,  573;  sta.,  479 
(Colcaspi  id.,  96) 
Cold  Spring  v.,  523 
Cole,  (Tharles  Cameron,   for,  365 
Cole  1.,  for  James  Cole,  78 
Coleman  id.,  497 

Coleraine  v.,  for  T.  F.  Cole,  254 
Colfax,  Schuyler,  for,  269,  603 
Colfax  t.,  (27,)  269 
College  hill,  212,  389 
CoUegeville  t.  and  v.,  523 
Collett  1.,  32 

Colling,   William   K.,   n.,   533 
Collins,  Loren  W.,  quoted,  51 ;  167 
Collins  t,  317;  cr.,  559 
Collinwood  t.  and  v.,  338;  I.,  339. 

590 
Collis  v.,  551 
Cologne  v.,  82* 
Coloney,  Myron,  n..  177 
Colorado,  name  from,  467 
Colton,  Rev.  Calvin,  114 
Columbia  L,  25;  t.,  422;   (townsite. 

270;  CO.,  422) 
Columbia  Fur  Company,  post.  552 


INDEX 


669 


Columbia  Heights  v.,  23 

Columbus  t,  23 

Colvill,  Col.  William,  for,  b.,  135; 

q.  208;  211 
Colville  t„  135,  136 
Colvin  t.,  for  Frank  S.  Colvin,  479 
Comar,  James,  n.,  466 
Comber   bay   and   pt,    for   W.    G. 

Comber,  132;  id.,  133 
Comfort  1..  for  Dr.  J.  W.  Comfort, 

111;  t.  266 
Comfrey  v.,  69 

Como,  1.,  440,  639,  641 ;  t.,  327 
Como  Park  d.,  440,  626-9,  639 
Compton  t,  for  James  Compton,  b., 

392 
Comstock,  S.  G.,  for,  b.,  115,  327 
Comstock  v.,  115;  t,  327;  1.,  500 
Concord  t.  and  v.,  172 
Concordia  College,  636 
Coney  Island  v.,  and  id.,  82 
Congdon,  Chester  A.,  for,  b.,  653 
Conger  v.,  200 
Conie,  1.,  181 
Connecticut,  names  from,  159,  165, 

172,  201,  318,  387,  533,  582,  650 
Connection  1.,  429 
Connelly  t.,  for  E.  Connelly,  578 ;  1., 

592 
Constance  1.,  591 
Constans,   William,   for,   618 
Conway,  Charles  R.,  for,  622 
Cook,  Alfred  M.,  n.,  449 
Cook,  C.  P.,  n.,  62 
Cook,    Charles,   b.,   180;    for,    181; 

Mrs.  Cook,  n.,  181 
Cook,  Charlie,  and  Louise,  for,  180 
Cook,  Franklin,  for,  603 
Cook,  Henry,  for,  181 
Cook,  John,  135;  John  B.,  for,  624 
Cook,  Major  Michael,  for,  b.,  135 
Cook  CO.,  135-148 
Cook  ].,  for  Charles  Cook,  181 
Cook  v.,  for  Wirth  H.  Cook,  479 
Cook's  bay,  234;  1.,  404,  499;  valley, 

559 
Cooke,  Jay,  state  park,  for,  b.,  78; 

117 
Coombs    1.,    for    Vincent    Coombs, 

341 
Coon  cr.,  25,  189;  1.,  25,  258,  320; 

pt.,  548 
Coon  Creek  t.,  and  cr.,  312 
Cooper,  Joseph,  n.,  583 
Copas  v.,  568 
Copeland*s  1.,  296 

Copley  t.,  for  Lafayette  Copley,  122 
Copper  I.,  141 


Cora,  1.,  401 
Cora  Belle,  1.,  369 
Corbeau,  r.  de,  154 
Corbin,  James  P.,  for,  369 
Corcoran  t.,  for  P.  B.  Corcoran,  b., 

221 
Cordova  t.  and  v.,  301 
Corinna  L.  587 

Corliss,   Charles   Mitchell,   for,  579 
Corliss,  Eben  E.,  for,  b.,  392;  394 
Corliss  t.,  392 
Cormant  t.,  ^7 
Cormorant  Is.,  28,  31,  218;  r.,  46; 

rock,  44 
Cormorant  t.,  28.  {37) 
Cornell,  A.  B.,  n.,  188 
(Cornell  v.,  412) 
Cornfield  id.,  44 
Cornish   t.,    for   C.    E.   and   M.    F. 

Cornish,  14;  519 
Corona  sta.  and  t.,  74 
Correll  v.,  54 

Corser,  El  wood  S.,  for,  605,  608 
Cosmos  t.,  339 
Costin   townsite,    for   John   Costin, 

Jr.,  479 
Coteau    des    Prairies,   2,    310,    313, 

416,  420 
Cottage  Grove  t.  and  v.,  568 
Cottage  wood,  1.  Minnetonka,  234 
Cotter,  Lucy,  n.,  468 
Cotton  1.,  y2\  t,  for  J.  B.  Cotton, 

b.,  480 
Cottonwood  CO..  149-153 
Cottonwood    1.,    65,    150,   218,    309. 

312,  315,  521,  538,  576;  cr.,  106, 

542 ;  r.,  149,  453 
Cottonwood  t,  69;  v.,  312 
Coues,  Dr.  E.,  6,  17,  149,  343,  354, 

516 
(Council  1.,  203) 
Courage  bays,  N.  and  S.,  and  pt, 

346 
Courtland  t.  and  v.,  372 
Coutchiching    rock    formation,    287 
Cow  cr.,  475 
Cow  Tongue  pt.,  145 
Cowan's  br.,  19,  267;  1.,  375 
Cowdry,  1.,  for  Samuel  B.  Cowdry, 

180 
Cowhorn  1.,  257 
Cowley  1.,  233 
Cox,  Joseph,  n.,  271 
Cox,  Samuel  S.,  for,  646 
Cox,  Ulysses  O.,  95;  q.,  490,  561 
Cozy  1.,  441,  639 
Crab  1.,  141,  296,  501 
Craig  prairie,  for  H.  E.  Craig,  517 


670 


INDEX 


Cramer  t,  for  J.  N.  Cramer,  293 
Cranberry  1.,  45,  548;  bay,  498 
Cranberry  Marsh  r.,  140,  148 
Crane  id.,  235,  261,  591;   cr.,  319, 

320,  534,  566;  1.,  401,  502 
Crate  t,  103 
Crawford  1.,  590 
Cray   sta.,   for  Judge  Lor  in   Cray, 

58 
Credit  r,  508;  1.,  512  . 
Credit  River  t,  508 
Cree  language,  names  from,  8,  93, 

281.  294 
Creek  1.,  ZZ7 

Creek,  brook,  of  same  meaning,  89 
Creighton,  Thomas,  n.,  588 
Crellin,  1.,  502 
Cremer,  William  J.,  for,  652 
Crescent  springs,  133 
Cretin,  Bishop  Joseph,  for,  637 
Crocker  1.,  162 
Crocodile  1.,  140 
Croke   t,    for   Thomas   W.    Croke, 

b..  551 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  for.  115,  632,  642 
Cromwell  v.,  74;  t,  115 
Crook  1.,  274(2) 

Crooked  cr.,  238,  415;   slough,  585 
Crooked  1..  26,  88,  141,  157,  161.  162. 

180(2),  181(2),  244,  258,  295,  298, 

369,  402,  419,  496.  499,  501.  529, 

547 
Crooked  Creek  t.,  238 
Crooked  Lake  t.,  88 
Crooks,  Ramsay,  for,  b..  423 
Crooks,   William,   for,   b.,   423;   n., 

562 
Crooks  t,  for  H.  S.  Crooks,  456 
Crookston  c.  and  t.,  423 
Crosby  v.,  for  George  H.  Crosby, 

156;  t,  for  Ira  Crosby,  411 
Cross,  Judson  N.,  for,  b..  216 
Cross  1..  {72,)  140,  160,  414,  429;  r., 

142,  282 
Cross  River  t.  and  r.,  282 
Crow  r.,  9,  154,  523,  590;  cr.,  for 

Little  Crow,  453 ;  1..  523 
Crow  Lake  t.,  523 
Cfow  River  t,  523 
Crow  Wing  co.,  9,  154-163;  t..  157; 

trading  post  and  v.,  154,  155 
Crow  Wing  r.,  9,  154,  562;  1..  161; 

id.,  154,  155,  163 ;  series  of  lakes, 

246,247 
Crow  Wing  Lake  t..  243 
Crowcll.  A.  M.,  n.,  544 
Crystal  bay,  235,  293,  493 


Crystal,   1.,  60,    162,   168,  221.  258, 

403,  429,  465,  512,  538;  cr.,  241 
Crystal  v.,  1.,  and  prairie,  221,  232 
Crystal   Bay  t.,  and  bay,  293,  295 
Cuba  t.,  28;  sta..  89 
Cucumber  id.,  141 
Cudworth,  D.  A.,  for,  632 
Culdrum  t,  351 
Culkin,  William   E..  498 
Cullen  1..  162 

Culpeper,  Thomas,  for,  646 
Culver  t.  and  v.,  for  J.  B.  Culver, 

b.,  480 
Cummings  1.,  for  A.  Cummings,  521 
( Cummingsville  v.,  386) 
Curfman  1.,  32 
Curo,  James,  n.,  89 
Currant  1.,  296,  368 
Currie,  Archibald,  for,  b.,  365 
Currie,  Neil,  for,  b.,  365 
Currie  v.,  365 

Curry,  Manley  B.,  for,  632 
Curtain  portage.  496 
Curtice,  David  L.,  for,  619 
Cushing  t.  and  v.,  for  Caleb  Cush- 

ing,  351 
Cusson  v.,  480 
(luster.  Gen.  George  A.,  for,  b.,  312, 

618 
Custer  t.,  (290,)  312 
Cut  Face  r.,  144 
Cut  Foot  Sioux  1.,  258 
Cutler  p.  o.,  15 
Cuyuna  iron  range,  1,  157,  158,  163; 

v.,  157 
Cynthia  1.,  511 
Cyphers  sta.,  89 
Cypress  1..  297 
Cyrus  v.,  431 ;  1.,  435,  538 


Dackins  1.,  for  Edward  Dackins,  65 

Dady's  cr.,  559 

Daggett  L,  162 

Daggett  Brook  t.,  and  br.  (two), 
for  Benjamin  F.  Daggett,  b.,  157 

(Dahkotah  townsitc,  5/1) 

Dahl,  Ole  C,  for,  393 

Dahler  1.,  163 

Dahlgren,  Alma,  for,  327 

Dahlgren  t,  for  John  A.  B.  Dahl- 
gren, b.,  82 

Dahlquist,  Louis  P.,  n.,  473 

Dailey  t,  for  Asa  R.  Dailey,  344 

Daisy  bay,  495 

Dakota  co.,  164-170;  v.,  582;  cr. 
585;   see  Sioux 


INDEX 


671 


Daicotas,  names  from,  3,  12,  13,  22, 
53.  57,  58,  64,  66,  69,  75,  81-84, 
102,  105,  106,  124,  164,  168,  169, 
174,  187-9,  203,  207-210,  216,  222, 
224.  225.  227.  230-2.  238,  249.  250, 
262-4.  268,  273,  288,  301,  303,  308. 
310,  313,  315,  317,  334,  344,  346. 
365,  367,  368,  370,  374,  380,  386, 
389,  419,  455,  456.  466,  520.  533, 
535.  550.  552-4,  557-9,  564.  565. 
569.  570,  572.  583-5,  587 

Dalbo  t.,  250 

Dale  t,  150 

Dalka  1.,  499 

Dalles  of  St.  Louis  r.,  78,  493,  502 ; 
St.  Croix  r.,  112,  113,  Kettle  r., 
415 

Dalrymple,  Oliver,  118 

Dalton  v.,  393 

Dam  1.  and  br.,  19 

Dan  Patch  electric  ry..  168,  510 

Dan's  1..  591 

Dana,  Charles,  n..  206 

Dana,  Gen.  N.  J.  T.,  for,  600,  601 

Dane  1..  72.  401 

Dane  Prairie  t,  393 

Danforth  t,  for  N.  H.  Dan  forth. 
411 

(Danger  1.,  131) 

Daniels  1.,  140 

Danielson  t..  for  Daniel  and  Nels 
Danielson.  339 

Danube  v.,  456 

Danvers  v.,  540 

Danville  t..  59 

Darfur  v.,  574 

Darling.  1.,  for  Andrew  Darling, 
180 

Darling  t,  for  W.  L.  Darling,  b., 
351 

Darnen   t,   535 

Darwin  t.  and  v.,  339;  l.  342 
^  Dassel  t.  and  v..  for  B.  Dassel,  339 

(Davenport  1.,  157,  160) 

Davenport  t.,  for  Col.  William 
Davenport,  b..  157;  160 

Davcrn,  William,  for,  b..  639 

David.  1.,  525 

Davidson  1..  for  D.  J.  Davidson, 
182 

Davidson  t..  for  A.  D.  Davidson. 
15 

Daviess.  Joseph  Hamilton,  for,  b., 
186 

Davis,  Gov.  C.  K.,  125,  220 

Davis,  Jefferson,  n..  yjZ 

Davis  1..  141 :  id..  517 

Davis  t,  for  Edward  N.  Davis,  277 


Dawson,  Alice,  for,  640 

Dawson,  William,  for,  b.,  289,  642 

Dawson  c,  289 

Day  1.,  501,  529 

Dayton.   Lyman,   for,  b.,  221 ;   393, 

439.  517,  615.  621 
Dayton,  Mrs.  Maria  Bates,  for.  621 
Dayton  id.  and  rapids,  517 
Dayton  t.  and  v.,  221,  587;  (v.,  393) 
Dayton's    bluff,    170,   439,   443;    d., 

439,  621-3 
Dead  1.,  33,  248,  393,  403,  404;  r.. 

393 
Dead  Coon  1.,  309,  312 
Dead  Fish  1.,  78 
Dead  Horse  1..  258 
Dead  Lake  t.,  393 
Dead  Moose  r.,  77 
Dean,  A.  J.,  for.  607 
Dean,  L  N.,  n..  507 
Dean  p.  o.  and  v..  for  J.  W.  Dean. 

462 
Dean*s  1.,  for  Matthew  Dean,  512; 

590 
Dean  Lake  t.,  br.,  and  Is.,  for  Jos- 
eph Dean,  157 
Death  Rock,  110 
Debs,  Eugene  V.,  for,  27 
DeCarrie,  Sabrevoir,  59 
Decker  1..  304 
Decorah,  Iowa.  59 
Decor ia   t.,    for   Waukon    Decorah, 

b..  59 
Deep  1.,  442 
Deephaven   v.,  221 
Deer,  40,  89,  169,  170 
Deer  cr.,  77,  196.  204,  362,  393,  414 
Deer  1..  26,  43.  247.  257.  274.  400, 

402.  548.  590 ;  r..  257 ;  t.  471 
Deer  Creek  t.  and  v..  393 
Deer  Lake  t.,  254 
Deer  Park  t..  406 
Deer  River  t.  and  v.,  254 
Deerfield  t..  89,  532 
Deerhorn  cr.,  120,  580;  t,  578 
Deerwood  v.,  157 ;  t,,  277 
(De  Forest  v.,  378) 
De  Graff  v.,  for  Andrew  De  Graff, 

b.,  540 
Delafield  t..  261 

Delano  v.,  for  F.  R.  Delano,  b.,  587 
Delavan  t.  and  v.,  184 
Delaware  t.  214;  Indian  tribe,  172 
Delft  v.,  150 
Delhi  t.  and  v.;  449 
De  L'Isle.  G.,  map,  10.  12.  53,  343 
Dell  Grove  t..  411 
Dellwood  v..  568 


672 


INDEX 


Delorme  sta.,  for  A.  Dclorme,  446 

Delta  U  297 

Deltas  of  gl.  1.   Agaasiz,   120,  324. 

429 
Delton  t,  150 
Demaray   cr.,    for    Mrs.    Demaray. 

132 
Deming,  Fortius  C,  for,  131 
Deming  1.,  131 
De  Montreville,  L,  573 
Denhatn  v.,  411 

Denmark,  names  from,  542,  568 
Denmark  t.,  568 
Dennison  v.,  for  M.  P.  Dennison. 

206,462 
Denny,  Henry  R.,  for,  629 
De  Noyon,  Jacques,  281 
Densmore,  Frances,  47 
Dent  1.,  143 ;  v.,  393 
(Dent  v.,  for  Richard  Dent,  178) 
Dentaybow  t.,  282 
Denver  t,  467 
Derham,  Hugh,  n.,  166 
Deronda  bay,  145 
Derrynane  t.,  301 
Des   Moines   r.,    12,    150,    199,   261. 

Z^7]  t.,  261 
Des  Moines  River  t.,  365 
Desnoyer,  Stephen,  for,  634 
De  Soto,  Hernando,  1.  for,  130,  134 ; 

614 
(De  Soto  t,  62) 

Detroit  1.,  t.,  and  c,  28;  mt.,  ^Z 
Devil  cr.,  465 
Devil  Fish  1.,  140,  500 
Devil  Track  1.  and  r..  144 
Devil's  L,  181,  267,  402,  403,  414 
Dewald  t.,  for  A.  and  H.  Dewald. 

277 
Dewey,    Admiral    (jeorge,    for,    b., 

254,  471,  633 
Dewey  t,  254,  471 ;  1.,  501 
Dewey  Lake  sta.,  and  1.,  480 
Dexter  t.  and  v.,  360 
Diamond  1.,  20,  231,  233,  248,  273. 

275,  304,  307 
Diamond  Lake  t.,  307 
Diarrhoea  r.,  144 
Dick  t.,  for  Mildred  Dick.   15;  1.. 

258 
Dick's  cr.,  547 
Dickinson,  Leon,  for,  122 
Dickinson  sta.,   for   A.   C.   Dickin- 
son, 588 
Dickson,  Robert,  trading  post,  551 
Dieter  t.,  for  Martin  V.  Dieter,  471 
Dillman.  C,  n.,  312 
Dilworth  v..  115 


Dimick's   id.,  517 

Dingoshick  1.,  141 

Dingwall,  James  D.,  for,  645 

Dinham  Lake  sta.,  and  1..  480,  500 

Dinner  Creek  t.,  and  cr.,  282 

Disappointment  1.,  296;  h.,  298 

Dismal  cr.,  547 

Division  cr.,   133 

Dobbins   cr.,   362 

(Dobson     t,     for    James     Dobson, 

185) 
Doctor's  1.,  Ill 
Dodd,  Capt.  William  B..  37^  \   for. 

b..  620 
Dodd,  William  J.,  n.,  418 
Dodd  road,  620 
Dodge,  Augustus  C,  of  Iowa,  for, 

b..  171 
Dodge,  Gov.  Henry,  of  Wis.,   for. 

18. -b.,  171 
Dodge  CO.,  171-174;  (I.,  18) 
Dodge  Center  v.,  172 
(Doe  1.,  129) 
Doerfler  1..  590 
Dog  1.,  272,  304 
Dog  Una,  for,  1,  157 
Dolan,  Christopher,  n.,  519 
Doll,  Anthony,  for,  551 
(Dolly  Varden,  1.,  129) 
Dollymount  t,  551 
Dolney's   1.,    162 
Don  I..  141 
Donald's  1.,  402 

Donaldson  v.,  for  H.  W.  Donald- 
son, 277 
Donders  1.,  85 

Donnelly,  Ignatius,  for,  b.,  328,  536 
Donnelly  t.,  328;  t.  and  v.,  536 
Donovan  1.,  for  John  Donovan,  52 
Dooley,  James  H.,  for,  631 
Dopelius  v..  392 
Dora,  1.,  258,  304;  t.,  393 
Doran   v.,    for   Michael   Doran,  b.. 

578 
Dorothy  sta.,  446 
Dorr,  Caleb  D.,  for,  608 
Dorset  v.,  243 

Dosey  t.,  for  Julius  Dosey,  411 
Dos  well,  Brooke,  for,  631 
Dotson  sta.,  for  Enoch  Dotson.  69 
Doty,  Gov.  James  D.,  treaty,  375 
Double  bay,  145 ;  Is.,  152 
Doughnut  1.,  296 
Douglas,    Stephen   A.,   4;    b.,    175: 

for,  165,  175,  185,  570,  601,  608. 

613,  624 
Douglas  CO.,  175-182 


INDEX 


673 


Douglas  1.,  for  £.  Douglas,  20;  sta. 

for  James  Douglas,  b.,   115;    (t., 

185,  193,  536) 
Douglass  t,  165,(509;)  v.,  for  Har- 
rison Douglass,  386 
Dousman,  Hercules  L.,  for,  613 
(Dove  r.,  139) 

Dover  t.  and  v.,  386;  (t.,  467,  532) 
Dovray  t.  and  v.,  365 
Dovre   t.   and   hills,   269;    moraine, 

275 
(Dovre  Fjeld  t,  396) 
Dow's  1.,  for  William  Dow,  248 
Dower  1.,  for  Sampson  Dower,  549 
Downer  v.,   115 
^Downes  cr.,  259 
Drake,  Benjamin,  Sr.,  22Z 
Drake,  Elias  F.,   for,  468;  n.,  507, 

576 
(Drake  v.,  468) 
Drammen  t.,  307 
Draper,  Lyman  C,  81 
Dresbach  t  and  v.,  for  George  B. 

Dresbach,  b.,  582 
Driftless  area,  196,  240,  585 
(Driftwood  r..  11) 
Dromedary  hills,  549 
Drum  id.,  287 
Drummond  sta.,  294 
Dry  cr.,  Ill,  152,  454 
Dry  Weather  cr.,  106 
Dry  Wood  1.  and  cr.,  542 
Dryden  t.,  519 
Dryweed  id.,  284,  286,  498 
Dublin  t.,  540 
Duck  1..  65,  100,  143,  162,  231,  247, 

W,  356,  370,  419;  bay  and  id.,  95 
Dudley  id.,  for  John  Dudley,   169; 

1.,  465 
Dudley  t.,  for  F.  E.  Dudley,  b.,  122 ; 

sta.,  312 
Duelm,  a  hamlet,  49 
Duff  1.,  for  Bernard  Duff,  521 
Du  Forte  1.,  32 
Dugas,  William,  for,  618 
Dugdale  v.,  423 
Du    Luth,    Daniel    Greysolon,    219, 

344;  for,  b..  480,  481,  645 
Duluth  c,  480,  643-654 ;  t.,  481 
Duluth,  gl.  1.,  79,  148,  505,  654 
Duluth  and  Iron  Range  ry.,  503 
Duluth    districts,   divisions,   and 

ADDITIONS :     Arlington  Place  ad., 

649;   Bay    View    ads.,    651,    654; 

Bellevue  Park  ad.,  651 ;  Belmont 

Park  ad.,  651 ;  Brookdale  ad.,  649, 

650;     Carlton     Place     ad.,     651; 

Chester     Park    ad.,    649;  Clague 


and  Prindle  ad.,  649;  Clifton 
Heights  ad.,  649;  Clover  Hill 
div.,  648;  Cremer's  ad.,  651,  652; 
Crosley  Park  ad.,  647;  Dicker- 
man's  ad.,  651 ;  Dodge's  ad.,  651 ; 
Duluth  Heights  d.,  649,  650 ;  Du- 
luth Proper,  d.,  646,  647,  649; 
East  Duluth  d.,  648;  East  Lawn 
div.,  648,  649 ;  Endion  d.,  480,  482, 
643,  645-8;  Fairbanks  ad.,  649; 
Fond  du  Lac  d.,  480, 483,  493,  643. 

645,  652 ;  Gary  d.,  652 ;  Glen  Avon 
ad.,  648,  649;  Grassy  Point  ad., 
651 ;  Gray  and  others,  ad.,  649, 
650;  Hall's  ad.,  651;  Harrison 
div.,  648;  Hazelwood  ad.,  651; 
Highland  Park  ad.,  648,  649; 
Hunter's  Park  ad.,  648;  Indus- 
trial div.<  644;  Ironton  d.,  652; 
Ironton  Park  ad.,  652;  Kensing- 
ton Place  ad.,  649;  Kenwood 
Park  ad.,  649,  650;  Kimberly  and 
Stryker,  ad.-,  651 ;  Lake  View  ad., 
649;  Lakeside  d.,  480,  485,  643; 
Lakewood  d.,  480;  Lenroot's  ad., 
652 ;  Lester  Park  d.,  485,  493,  644, 

646,  647,  653,  654;  Lloyd's  div., 
651 ;  London  ad.,  647, 653 ;  London 
Park  ad.,  647;  Long  View  ad., 
648,  649;  Macfarlane's  ad.,  651; 
Maple  Grove  ad.,  64?;  Merchant's 
Park  ad.,  649;  Mineral  ad.,  651; 
Minnesota  Point  d.,  493,  644,  652 ;  ' 
Minnewakan  ad.,  652;  Morgan 
Park  d.,  652;  Motor  Line  div., 
648,  649;  Murray  Hill  ad.,  649; 
Myers  and  Whipple,  ad.,  649,  650 ; 
New  Duluth  d.,  652;  New  Endion 
ad.,  648,  649;  Norton  and  others, 
ad.,  649;  Oakland  Park  ad.,  648; 
Oneota  d.,  480,  487,  643,  650; 
Oaeota  Park  ad.,  651 ;  Park 
View  ad.,  649;  Portland  div.,  480, 
488,  643,  646,  649,  653;  Prince- 
ton Place  ad.,  648;  Rice's  Point 
d.,  480,  489,  643,  645,  646 ;  Sharp's 
ad.,  651;  Spaulding  ad.,  649; 
Spirit  Lake  ad.,  652;  Stewart's 
ad.,  651 ;  Stowell's  ad.,  651 ;  Stry- 
ker and  Manley,  ad.,  651 ;  Sum- 
mit Park  ad.,  649;  Superior  View 
ad.,  649,  650;  Triggs,  Kennedy, 
and  others,  ad.,  649;  Walbank 
ad.,  649,  650;  West  Duluth  d., 
650;  West  End  ad.,  651;  West 
Park  ad.,  650;  Whitman  Park 
ad.,  651 ;  Willard  and  Piper,  div., 
649;  Willard's  ad.,  648;  Wilming- 


674 


INDEX 


ton  ad.,  651 ;  Woodland  Park  ad., 
648;  Zenith  Park  ad.,  651 
DuLUTH  streets:  Adams,  644; 
Albion,  651 ;  Alder,  650 ;  Algon- 
quin, 645;  Anoka,  648;  Argyle, 
644;  Ash,  652;  Astor,  644;  Aus- 
tin, 648;  Avondale,  647;  Balboa, 
651;  Balsam,  650;  Baltimore, 
652;  Banian,  650;  Bank,  650; 
Bayless,  650;  Beaudry,  652; 
Bellevue,  651;  Beltrami,  650; 
(Bench,  645;)  Bessemer,  652; 
Beulah,  651;  Bishop,  645;  Bos- 
ton, 652;  Bowser,  652;  Branch, 
645,  648;  Bristol,  651;  Bruce, 
649;  Buchanan,  644;  Buena  Vis- 
ta, 650;  Buffalo,  649,  650;  Cal- 
lowhill,  645;  (Cambridge,  648;) 
C:ardigan,  651 ;  Carlton,  650,  651 ; 
Cartaret,  652;  Cascade,  653; 
Cass,  (645,)  651;  (Center,  645;) 
Chambers,  644;  CHierokee,  645; 
Cherry,  644;  Chestnut,  650,  651; 
Chicago,  652;  Chippewa,  651; 
CHioctaw,  645;  C^wirch,  644; 
Qark,  644;  Clay,  651;  Cleve- 
land, 649,  650 ;  Qover,  644 ;  Cody, 
651 ;  Collingwood  place,  651 ; 
Colorado,  64S;  Cooke,  648;  Cor- 
tez,  649;  Courtland,  647;  Culpep- 
er,  646;  Custer,  645;  Dale,  650; 
Davis,  650;  Denver,  650;  Deso- 
ta,  651;  Devonshire,  650;  (Ding- 
wall, 645;)  Dodge.  648;  Duke, 
644,  (651;)  Dundee,  644;  Dun- 
leith,  644;  Earl,  651;  Edna,  651; 
Eighth,  643,  647;  Eleventh,  647; 
Elinor,  651 ;  Elizabeth,  649 ;  Ella, 
651;  (Elm,  644;)  Ericsson,  651; 
Erie,  644,  (645;)  Exeter,  650; 
Faribault,  648;  Fifteenth.  647; 
Fifth,  643,  647;  Fillmore.  652; 
First,  643,  647;  Fourteenth,  647; 
Fourth,  643,  647,  653;  Fowey, 
651;  Fremont,  651;  French,  652; 
Fulton,  644 ;  Galusha,  651 ;  Gar- 
den, 649;  Gasper,  645;  Getty,  650; 
Gilbert,  650.  651 ;  Gilead,  650;  Gil- 
liat.  648;  Gladstone,  648;  Glass, 
645;  Glendale.  647;  Glenwood, 
647;  Godolphin,  652;  Gogebic, 
652;  Goldsmith,  652;  Goodhue, 
652 ;  Gosnold.  651 ;  Gould,  651 ; 
Grand,  652;  (ireen,  651;  Greyso- 
lon  road,  645,  648;  Hale,  651; 
(Halifax,  643;)  Hall,  651;  Hal- 
lenbeck,  645;  Hardy,  649;  Haw- 
kins,   649;    Heard,    652;    Helm, 


647;  Henry,  650;  Hermantown 
road,  650;  High,  651;  Highland, 
651;  Howitz,  650;  Hugo,  .650; 
Huntington,  651 ;  Huron,  (645,) 
647;  Idlewild,  647;  Ironton,  652; 
Itasca,  645;  Ivanhoe,  647;  Jack- 
son, 649;  Jay,  648;  Jefferson. 
(644,)  645,  648;  Juniata,  647; 
Kelly.  649;  Kent,  649;  King,  651, 
652;  Kingston,  647;  Kinney,  652; 
Kittson,  646;  Krumseig,  645;  La 
Salle,  650.  651;  La  Vaque,  651; 
Lemon,  650;  Lewis,  649;  Lexing- 
ton, 651;  Linden,  650;  Locust. 
650;  Lombard,  648;  London 
road,  645,  647,  648;  Lovell,  651  i 
Luverne,  648;  Lyons,  650;  Mc- 
Cuen,  652;  McCullodis  648; 
(Magellan,  643;)  Main,  651; 
Manitoba,  649;  Mankato,  648; 
Marion,  649;  Marquette,  646; 
Marshall,  650;  Martin,  647,  651; 
Marvin,  644;  Matthews,  652; 
Mecca,  651 ;  Medina,  651 ;  Mesa- 
ba,  652;  Michigan,  643,  647; 
Miles,  645 ;  Mil  ford,  651 ;  Mineral, 
651;  Mitchell,  652;  Mohawk,  645; 
Monroe,  644;  Mohtana,  644; 
Morse,  644;  Mulberry,  650; 
Murray,  644;  Myrtle,  650;  Nash- 
ua, 651 ;  Natchez,  651 ;  New 
York,  644;  Niagara,  650;  Nicol- 
let, 651;  Nimrod,  651;  Ninth, 
643,  647;  North  Shore  road,  644; 
Norton,  649 ;  Norwood,  647 ;  Oak, 
(644,)  652;  Oakley,  647;  Ocono- 
mowoc,  645;  Olive,  644;  Olney, 
651;  Oneida,  647;.  Oneota,  643; 
(Ontario,  645;)  Orange,  650; 
Oregon,  650 ;  Osman.  6Sl ;  Otse- 
go. 647;  Owatonna,  648;  Oxford, 
(648,)  649;  Palm,  650;  Palmet- 
to, 650;  (Park,  644;)  Partridge, 
649;  Patterson.  651;  Peabody, 
648;  Pearl,  644;  Peary,  652; 
Pembina,  645;  Pendennis,  646; 
Persons,  649;  Petre,  651;  Phila- 
delphia, 652;  Pine,  644;  Piper, 
650;  Pitt,  648;  Pizarro,  651; 
Polk,  651;  Portage,  644;  Port- 
land, 650;  Prescott,  652;  Prince, 
651 ;  Prospect,  650 ;  Pulaski,  651 ; 
(Puleston,  648;)  Queen,  651; 
Quince,  650;  Raleigh,  651 ;  Ram- 
sey, 651 ;  Randolph,  644 ;  Raven. 
646;  Red  Wing,  648;  Redruth, 
651;  Reed,  652;  Regent,  648; 
Rene,  643;  Restormel,  650;  Rice 


INDEX 


675 


Lake  road,  647;  (Robertson, 
648 ; )  Robinson.  648 ;  Robson,  649 ; 
Roe,  652 ;  Rupley,  651 ;  St.  An- 
drews, 649;  St.  Anthony,  643; 
St.  Charles,  644;  St.  Cloud,  644; 
St.  George,  644;  (St.  James, 
644;)  St.  John,  644;  St.  Marie. 
649,  650;  (St.  Paul,  644;)  Schuyl- 
kill, 651;  Second,  643,  647; 
Seneca,  645;  Seventh,  643,  647; 
Sherburne,  651;  Sixth,  643,  647; 
.  Snively  road,  654 ;  Somerville, 
651 ;  Sorenson,  644 ;  South,  645, 
648;  Spencer,  651;  Spring,  652; 
Spruce,  644;  State,  644;  Stewart, 
651;  (Summit,  648;)  Superior, 
643,  644,  645,  (645,)  646-8;  Sut- 
phin,  644;  Tacony.  651;  Tainter, 
651;  Tecumseh,  645;  Tenth,  647; 
Third,  643,  644,  647;  Thirteenth, 
647;  Thompson,  651,  652;  Till- 
inghast,  651;  Tintagel,  646;  Tio- 
ga, 647 ;  Toledo,  649,  650 ;  Towne. 
657;  Traders  court,  652;  Tra- 
verse, 643;  Trenton,  650;  Truel- 
son,  652;  Twelfth,  647;  Union, 
650;  Vermilion  Lake  road,  648; 
Verndale,  651 ;  Vernon,  650 ;  Via- 
duct, 650;  Victoria,  649;  Viking, 
652;  Vine,  644;  Vinland,  652; 
Wabasha,  648;  Wadena,  651; 
Walnut,  644;  Warren,  644;  War- 
wick, 652 ;  Waseca.  651 ;  Water, 
(645,)  645 ;  Wayne,  651 ;  Welling- 
ton, 650;  Wicklow,  650;  Willard, 
650;  Williams.  644;  Willow,  650; 
(Winnipeg,  645;)  Winona,  648; 
Winter,  650;  Woodlawn,  647; 
Worden,  651;  Wyoming,  647; 
Zurah,  652 
DuLUTH  AVENUES,  mostly  trans- 
verse to  streets  and  to  the  shore 
of  the  lake,  the  harbor,  and  St. 
Louis  bay  and  river,  643,  645,  646, 
647:  Abbots  ford,  649;  Allen, 
649;  Arch,  650;  Arlington,  649, 
650;  Arthur,  646;  Ash,  646; 
Backus,  649;  Barrett,  652;  Bay 
View  Terrace,  650 ;  Bayfield,  650 ; 
Beacon,  650 ;  Birch,  646 ;  Bird,  649 ; 
Biwabik,  652 ;  Blackman,  649,  650 ; 
Blodgett,  649;  Bodmin,  651 ;  Boyd, 
652;  Boynton,  650;  Brainerd, 
650;  Broadway,  650;  (Brock., 
643;)  Bryant,  649;  Bute;  649; 
Carlisle,  649;  (Carlton,  645;) 
(Carnegie,  652;)  (Carver,  643;) 
Cascade,     650;      (Cedar,     646;) 


Center,  650;  (Qiff,  643;)  Qyde, 
652;  (Collingwood,  643;)  (Col- 
orado, 645,  648;)  Columbia,  651; 
Columbus,  649 ;  Commonwealth, 
652;  Como,  650;  Connecticut, 
(648,)  650;  Cottage,  649;  Cot- 
tage Grove,  651;  (Cowell,  645;) 
Cox,  646;  Cramer,  649;  (3remer, 
652;  Crescent,  648;  (Dakota, 
645,  648;)  Decker,  649;  (Dela- 
ware, 648;)  Diamond,  East,  and 
West,  650;  Dodge,  650;  Duluth. 
651;  Dunedin,  649;  (East,  648;) 
East  Diamond,  650;  Ebony,  650; 
Elm,  646;  (Erie,  648;)  Euclid, 
650;(Fahnestock,  647;)  Fay,  649; 
(Finlay,  648;)  First  to  25th  E., 
643,  645,  646;  to  67th  E.,  646, 
647.  648 ;  First  to  28th  W.,  646-7 ; 
to  81st  W.,  651 ;  to  106th  W.,  652; 
to  135th  W.,  645;  Fletcher,  652; 
Florence,  649;  (Fond  du  Lac, 
643;)  (Forbes,  647;)  Forest,  650; 
Franklin,  651;  (Front,  646;) 
Furnace,  652;  Gradsden,  649;  Gar- 
field, 646;  Grand.  643.  644,  (644,) 
652;  Grand  Forks,  650;  Granite, 
651;  Grant,  650;  Green,  650; 
Hall,  652;  Harvard,  649;  Hema- 
tite, 652;  Hemphill,  649;  Hen- 
drick,  651;  (Hennepin,  643;) 
Highland,  650;  (Howard,  648;) 
Hughitt,  651;  Hulett,  652; 
Humes,  650;  (Huron,  643,  648;) 
(Idaho,  648;)  (Indiana,  645;) 
Industrial,  652;  Irwin,  652; 
Junction,  650 ;  Kanabec,  651 ; 
Keene,  652;  Kennebec,  650;  Ken- 
tucky, (648,)  650;  Kenwood, 
650;  Kimberly,  652;  Lake,  644, 
646;  Laurel,  650;  (Lehigh,  652;) 
Lenroot,  652;  (Leon,  652;)  (Lc 
Sueur,  643;)  Lewiston,  650;  Lin- 
coln, (647,)  fel ;  Livingston,  649 ; 
Lowndes,  649;  Lynn,  646;  Lyon, 
650;  (McBean,  645;)  McKinnon, 
650;  (Mackinac.  648;)  Madison, 
650;  Maple,  646;  Marks,  650; 
(Maryland,  645;)  Matthews,  649; 
(Massachusetts,  648;)  Melrose, 
649;  Mesaba,  647,  653;  Michigan, 
(643,  648,)650;  Minnesota,  (643,) 
644;  Mississippi,  (643,)  650;  Mis- 
souri, (645,)  650;  (Montana, 
645;)  (Moorhead,  647;)  Morgan, 
649;  (Morrison,  645;)  (Moun- 
tain, 643;)  (Murray,  647;)  My- 
ers,   650;    Mygatt,    649;    Nelson, 


676 


INDEX 


646;  rXcw  York,  645;)  (Xcw- 
tofi,  645;)  Niagara,  (648,)  649, 
650;  (fpalc  646;)  Ohio.  (645.) 
649;  Oic,  646;  (Ontario,  648;) 
(Oregon,  645;)  Pacific,  650; 
Park,  651;  (Paul,  645;)  (Penn- 
sylvania, 645 ; )  (  Perry,  645,  652 ;) 
Pickens,  (A9\  Piedmont,  650; 
Pine.  646;  Porter.  649;  (Port- 
man,  647;)  Princeton,  649;  Prin- 
gle.  649;  Purcell.  652;  Quebec, 
648;  Rice.  646;  Richardson,  650; 
Roslyn,  649;  (Roussain.  645;) 
(St.  Qair,  648;)  (St.  Croix, 
643;)  (St.  Lawrence,  648;)  St. 
Louis.  644;  (648;)  (St.  Marie, 
648;)  (St  Paul.  643;)  (Samp- 
son, 647;)  (San  ford,  647;) 
(Sargent,  647;)  Sawyer,  649; 
Seaver,  652;  Shakopee,  648;  Sil- 
cox,  649;  Simonds.  652;  Snelling, 
649;  Sparkman,  649;  Spear,  649; 
(Spencer,  647;)  Spruce,  646; 
Stanford,  649 ;  Steams,  647 ;  Sum- 
mer, 650;  (Superior,  645,  648;) 
S  wen  son,  652 ;  Sycamore.  650 ;  Syl- 
van, 650;  Tancred.  651 ;  Teak,  650; 
Terrace,  652;  (Thompson,  645;) 
Triggs.  650;  (Vail.  647;)  (Ver- 
milion, 648;)  (Vine.  646;)  Vir- 
ginia, (645.  648,)  650;  Voss.  650: 
Wallace,  649;  (Walnut,  646;) 
Warner,  650;  Waverly,  649; 
Weber,  650;  (West,  647;)  West 
Diamond,  650;  West  Park,  651; 
Wilkyns.  649;  Wilson,  649;  Win- 
nipeg, 650;  VVinona,  650;  Win- 
throp,  650 ;  Woodland,  648 ;  York, 
652;  Zenith.  650 

DULUTH      PARKS      AND     BOULEVARDS  I 

Bay  View  blvd.,  654;  Cascade  sq. 
653;  Central  pk.,  653;  Chester 
pk.,  653;  Congdon  pk.,  .653; 
Fairmont  pk.,  654;  Franklin  sq., 
652;  (Garfield  pk.,  653;)  Gros- 
venor  sq.,  653;  High  Beach  blvd., 
654;  Hilltop  pk.,  653;  Lafayette 
sq.,  652;  Lake  Front  pk.,  653 
Lester  pk.,  653;  Lincoln  pk.,  649 
653;  Manchester  sq.,  653;  Mis- 
sion pk.,  652;  Munger  pk.,  653 
North  Shore  pk.,  653;  Occiden- 
tal blvd^  654 ;  Oriental  blvd.,  654 
Portland  sq.,  653;  Portman  sq. 
653;  Rogers  blvd..  654;  Russell 
sq.,  653;  Washington  sq.,  653 
(Zenith  pk.,  653) 


Dumfries  sta..  556 

Dumont  v^  551 

Dunbar  t,  for  W.  F.  Dunbar,  b..  185 

Duncan's  L,  140 

Dundas  v.,  462 

Dundee  v..  377 

Dunka  sta..  and  r.,  482 

Dunlap,  William,   for,  629.  630 

Dunn  1.,  141,  342 

Ehmn  t,  for  (ieorge  W.  Dunn.  393 

Dunnell,  Mark  H.,  for,  b.,  ZZ^\  n., 

532 
Dunnell  v.,  Z^ 
(Duponceau,  1.,  92) 
Duquette   v.,  411 

Durand  t,  for  (Tharles  Durand.  37 
Durfee  cr.,  for  G.  H.  Durfee,  144 
Durrie,  Daniel  S.,  81 
Du  Siens,  1.,  124 
Dutch  1.,  231.  590 
Dutch   Charley's  cr.,   152,  454 
Dutchman  1.,  140 
Duxbury  cr.,  197 
Duxby  p.  o..  471 
Dyer,  Rev.  John  L..  n.,  194 
Dyer,  Lucius,  for,  59 


Eagan  t.,  for  Patrick  Eagan.  165 
Eagle  cr.,  (131,)  508,  544.  547;  id., 

235   591 
Eagle  1.,  ZX  59,  74,  85,  144.  147!  152. 

157,  162,  163.  2ZX  248,  258.  274, 

275,  309.  320,  W,  380,  39J,  499. 

516,  591 
Eagle  t,  74;  mt.,  147;  rocks,  197 
Eagle  Bend  v.,  544 
Eagle  Creek  t.,  508 
Eagle  Lake  v.,J9;  t.,  393 
Eagle  Nest  Is.,  501 
Eagle  Point  t.,  328 ;  1.,  573 
Eagle  Valley  t.,  544 
Eames,  Henry  H.,  504 
Earley,  1.,  for  William  Earley,  168 
( Earth  Fort  r..  267) 
East  1.,  258,  295 
East  and  West  1.,  141 
(East  Battle  Lake  t.,  395) 
East  (Thain  t.,  ZZZ\   of  lakes,  335, 

East  fork,  Des  Moines  r.,  ZZ7 
East  Grand  Forks  c.  423 
East  Greenwood  1.,  142 
East  Gull  Lake  t,  89 
East  Henderson  v.,  301 
East  Lake  Lillian  t.,  269 
East  Minneapolis,  605,  606,  631 


\ 


INDEX 


677 


East   Palisades,  1.   Superior,   146 

East  Park  t.,  328 

(East  Richwood  t.,  29) 

East  St.  Cloud,  49 

East  St.  Peter  v.,  301 

East   Side  t.,  344 

East  Valley  t,  328 

Eastern  t.,  393 

Eastman.    Mrs.    Mary    H.,    quoted, 

230;  252 
Eastman,  William  W..   for,  605 
Easton,  Elijahs  n.,  532 
Easton  v.,  for  Jason  C.  Easton,  b., 

185 
Eaton,  Eber  D.,  n.,  239 
Eaton,   Samuel   S.,   for,  618 
Eau  Claire  r.,  Wis.,  9 
Ebro  sta.,  122 
Echo  1.,  20,  78,   145,  181,  295,  320, 

502,  537,  538,  573 ;  t.  and  v.,  594 
Echols  v.,  574 
Eckles  t.,  27 
Eckloff,  H.  J.,  for,  375 
Eckvoll  t.  and  p.  o.,  328 
Eddy,  E.  P.,  n.,  190 
Eddy   t.,    for    Frank   M.    Eddy,   b., 

122 ;  p.  o.,  471 
Eden  t,  69,  417,  423;  v.,  172;  1.,  523 
Eden  Lake  t.,  523 
Eden  Prairie  t.,  221 
Eden  Valley  v.,  339,  523 
Edgar  cr.,  233 

Edgerton,  Erastus  S.,  for,  624 
Edgerton  v.,  for  A.  J.  Edgerton,  b., 

417 
Edgewood  sta.,  64 
Edina  v.,  221 
Edison  t,   for  Thomas  A.    Edison, 

b.,  540 
Edna  t.,  393;  1.,  404 
Edward  1.,  591 
Edwards,  Henry,  n.,  369 
Edwards,  J.  N.,  aid,  539 
Edwards    t.,    for    S.    S.    Edwards, 

269;  1.,  435 
Effie  sta.,  254 
Effington  t.,  394 
Egg  Is.  and  r.,  32;  1.,  573 
Eggert  1.,  305 
Eggleston,  Edward,  461 
Eggleston  sta.,  206 
Egley  cr.,  547 
Eglon  t.  115 
Eide  1.,  218 
Eidsvold  t,  312 
Eight,  1..  274 
Eight  Mile  cr.,  374 
Eitzen  v..  238 


Eland  t.,  y? 

Elba  t.  and  v.,  582 

Elbow  1.,  31,  143,  144,  214.  217,  247. 

295,  402,  404,  414,  500,  502 ;  r.,  502 
Elbow  Lake  t.  and  v.,  214 
Eldorado  t,  536 

Eldred  v.,  for  N.  B.  Eldred,  b.,  423 
Eleanor,  1.,  319 
(Eleonora  1.,  48) 
Elephant  1.,  145.  502 
Eleven,  1.,  267 
Eleven  towns,  406 
Elfelt,  A.  S.,  C  D.,  and  E.,  for,  617 
Elftman,   Arthur   H.,   n.,   148;   for, 

gl.  1.,  299 
Elgin  t.  and  v.,  556 
Eli,  1.,  for  Isaac  N.  Eli,  548 
Eliot,  George,  145 
Elizabeth,  1.,   181,  251,  271;  t.  and 

v.,  394 
(Elk  1.,  now  Little  Rock  1.,  52) 
Elk  1.,   126-131,   138,   180,   181,  204, 

214.    514(2);    cr.,    131,    377    (2), 

469;  r.,  514 
(Elk  portage  and  1.,  138) 
Elk  springs,  133;  Elk  t.,  277 
Elk  Horn  1.,  273 
Elk  Lake  t,  and  1.,  214 
Elk  River  t.  and  v.,  514 
Elko  v..  508 
Elkton  t.,  116;  v.,  360 
Elkwood  t.,  471 
Ella  1.,  143.  271 
Ellen  1.,  Ill,  435 
Ellendale  v.,  532 
(Ellenora.  1.,  182,  216) 
Ellering  1.,  530 
Ellet,    Mrs.    Elizabeth    P.,    n.,    221, 

233 
EUingson,  Knut,  for,  365 
Ellingson  1.,  218 
Ellington  t.,  172 

Elliot,  Dr.  Jacob  S.,  for,  602,  608 
(Elliota  v.,  for  Capt.  J.  W.  Elliott, 

b.,  192) 
Elliott  1.,  500 
Ellsborough  t,  365 
Ellsburg  t.,  482 
Ellsmere  sta.,  482 
Ellsworth,  Eugene,  for,  277 
Ellsworth    t,    for    Col.    Ellsworth, 

399*  V    277 
Elm  cr.,*'l89.  233,  263,  333,  335;  1., 

331 
Elm  pt,  46 ;  id.,  19,  96 
Elm  Creek  t.,  333 
Elm  Dale  t..  352 
Elm  Island  1.,  19 


678 


INDEX 


Elmer  t,  417 

Elmira  t,   (206,)  386 

Elmo  t,  394;  1.,  569,  572 

Elmore  t.,  for  Andrew  E.  Elmore, 
b.,  185 

Elmwood  t.  116;  id.,  259 

Elrosa  v.,  524 

Elsdon  sta.,  482 

Elsie,  1.,  369 

(Elvira,  1.,  244) 

Elwell,  Tailmadge,  352 ;  for,  606 

Ely,  Rev.  Edmund  P..  b.,  482,  653 

Ely  c,  for  Arthur  Ely,  482;  id., 
494;  1.,  500 

(Elyria  t.,  191) 

Elysian  t.,  v.,  and  1.,  301 ;  mor.,  305 ; 
1..  567 

Emardville,  for  Pierre  Emard,  b., 
446 

Embarrass  r.,  11,  (199.)  482,  (483,) 
500;  t.  and  sta.,  482;  1.,  500 

Ember  1.,  591 

Emerald  t,  185 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  for,  603 

Emerson,  1.,  72,  576 

Emily  t.  and  1.,  157;  cr.,  292;  1., 
157,  304(2),  320,  434,  435 

Emma,  1.,  141,  342,  402,  404,  (573,) 
590 

Emmet  t.,  for  Robert  Emmet,  456 

Emmons  v.,  for  Henry  G.  Emmons, 
b.,  200 

Empire  t.,  165 ;  (v.,  565 ;  t,  594) 

Encampment  r.  and  id.,  295 

Enchanted  id.,  235 

(Endion  v.,  482,  645,  646) 

Eng  1.,  for  Erick  P.  Eng,  181 

Engebretson,  Sander,   for,  408 

Engelwood  t.,  282 

England,  names  from,  39,  103,  115, 
201,  250(2),  414,  417,  632,  635, 
646,  648,  650.  653 

English  Grove  1.,  for  W.  T.  Eng- 
lish, 180 

(Enke,  1.,  161) 

Ensign,  Josiah  D.,  for,  296 

Ensign  1.,  296 

Enstrom  t.,  for  Louis  Enstrom,  471 

Enterprise  t.,  261;  hamlet,  582 

Epple  1.,  106 

Epsilon  1.,  297 

Equality  t.,  446 

Erdahl,  Rev.  Gullik  M.,  b.,  214 

Erdahl  t.  and  v.,  214 

Erhard  v.,  394 

Erhard's  Grove  t.,  for  A.  E.  Er- 
hard, 394 

Erick,  1.,  43 


Erickson,  Mandus,  for,  473 

Ericsburg  v.,  282 

Ericson,  Leif,  428 

Ericson  t,  for  Eric  Ericson,  456 

Erie  t.,  28 ;  1.,  324,  341 ;  p.  o.,  406 

Erin  t.,  462 ;  1.,  519,  521 

Erskine  1.,  161 ;  v.,  for  J.  Q.  Erskine, 

b.,  423 
Erwin  1.,  for  George  Erwin,  182 
Eshkebugecoshe,  Ojibway  chief,  95 
Eshquaguma  1.,  500 
Espelee  t,  328 
Esquagamah  t.  and  1.,  15 
Essig  v.,  for  John  Essig,  b.,  69 
Estes  br.,  for  Jonathan  Estes,  349 
Esther  t.,  424 
Ethel,  1.,  402 
Etna,  a  hamlet,  192 
Eton  sta.,  417 

Etter  sta.,  for  Alex.  Etter,  167 
Euclid  t.  and  v.,  424 
Eugene  t,  27 
Eull's  1.,  591 
Eunice,  1.,  29,  ZZ 
Eureka  t,  165 
Eustis  J.  Mage,  for,  631 
Evan  v.,  69 

Evans,  David  C,  n.,  63 
Evans,  Matthew,  n.,  394 
Evansville  t.  and  v.,  176 
Eveleth  c,  482 
Even's  1..  274 
Evenson  1.,  341 
Everson  1.,  567 
(Everard  1.,  48) 
Everglade  t,  536 
Evergreen  t..  29,  283 
Everton,  Pred,  n.,  187 
Everts  t.,  for  R.  and  E.  A.  Everts, 

b..  394 
Ewington  t.,  for  T.  C.  Ewing,  261 
Excel  t.,  328 
Excelsior  t.  and  v.,  221 
Eyota  t.  and  v.,  386 


Paddet;  L,  for  James  Fadden,  521 

Pahlun  t.,  269 

Paille  1.,  548 

Pair  Haven  t.  and  v.,  524 

Pairbank,  D.  C^n.,  172 

Fairbanks,  Charles  W..  for,  b.,  482 

Fairbanks  1.,  22  \  v.,  482 

Fairfax  t.,  424;  v.,  457 

Fairfield    cr.,    for    Edwin,    George, 

and  L.  D.  Fairfield,  179 
Fairfield  t.,  157,  541 ;  (v.,  167) 
Fairmont  c.  and  t.,  333 


INDEX 


679 


Fairpoint  v.,  206 

Fairview  t,  89,  254.  312,  (378) 

Fairy  1,  404,  545,  547 

Fall  r.   137   144 

Fall  Lake  t.,  and  1.,  294,  296 

Fallan  L,  341 

Falls  cr.,  465 

False  Poplar  r.,  144 

Falun  t.,  471 

Fancher,  A.  N.,  ZZ2 

Fanny,  1.,  140,  251,  27Z\  t.,  424 

Farden  t.,  for  Ole  J.  Farden,  243 

Fargo  c,  N.  D.,  for  W.  G.  Fargo, 

b.,  117 
Faribault,   Alexander,   for,   183,  b., 

462 
Faribault,  Jean  Baptiste,  for,  b.,  183 
Faribault    co.,    183-189;    c.    and    t, 

462 
Farley  sta.,  37)  t.,  for  J.  P.  Farley, 

b..  424 
Farm  1.,  296;  id.,  15,  495 
Farm  Island  t.  and  1.,  15.  20 
Farmers*  Alliance,  114,  115 
Farming  t.,  524 
(Farmington  t.,  84) 
Farmington  v.,  167;  t,  386 
Farnham   br.    and    1.,    for    Sumner 

W.  Farnham,  b.,  563 
Farquhar   peak,   147;   1.,    for   John 

Farquhar,  168 
Farrington,  John,  for,  615 
Farris  v.,  243 
Farwell  v.,  431 
Fauquier,  Francis,  for,  624 
Fawn  1.,  162(2).  248,  544 
Fawn  Lake  t.,  544 
Faxon  t.  (and  v.),  519 
Fay  1..  141 

Fayal  t,  and  iron  mine,  482 
Featherstone  t.,  for  William  Feath- 

erstone,  206 
Featherstonhaugh,    G.    W.,   4,   443, 

448 
Feathery  1.,  267 
Federal  Dam  v.,  89 
Fedje  1.,  576 

Feeley  t.,  for  Thomas  J.  Feeley,  254 
Feldman  t,  283 
Felix  1..  547 

Felton  t,  for  S.  M.  Felton,  116 
Fenley  shore,  for  W.  E.  Fenley,  347 
Fensted  1.,  502 
Fenton,  William,  for,  618 
Fen  ton  t.,  for  P.  H.  Fenton,  365 
Fergus,  James,  for,  b.,  394,  -395 
Fergus  Falls,  2;  c,  77,  394;  t,  394 
Fergus  Falls  moraine,  404 


Fermoy  sta.,  483 

Fern  1.,  43,  141 

Fern  t.,  for  Richard  Fern,  243;  483 

Ferndale,  1.  Minnetonka,  235 

Ferrel  1.,  320 

Fertile  v.,  424 

(Fever  r.,  510) 

Field,  Ira,  for,  308 

Field,  Ira  Stratton.  for,  b.,  463 

Field  1.,  218;  t.,  483 

Fieldon  t,  575 

Fig  1.,  500 

Fillmore,  Millard,  for,  b.,  190,  605 

Fillmore  co.,  190-197;  t.,  192,  196 

Fine  Lakes  t,  483 

Finkle  sta.,   for   Henry  G.   Finkle, 

116 
Finland,  names   from,   16,   74,  294, 

490,  491.  492 
Finland  v.,  294 
Finlayson  t.^  and  v.,  for  David  Fin- 

layson,  411 
Finn,  William,  for,  441,  634 
Finn's  glen,  441 ;  Finn  1.,  141,  563 
First  1..  112 
Fischer  1.,  512 
Fish,  Judge  Daniel,  306 
Fish  cr.,  56,  108,  592;  id.,  494 
Fish  1..  26,  108,  151,  180,  233,  264, 

267(2),  304.  324,  337(2).  357(2), 

401,  402,  415,  512,  530,  537,  538, 

567.  573.  592 
Fish  Hook  r.  and  1.,  30,  32,  244,  247 ; 

pt,  145 
Fish  Lake  t,  108 

Fish  Trap  1.,  162,  356 ;  br.,  356,  547 
Fisher,  Ada  N.,  for,  381 
Fisher,  William  H.,  381 ;  for,  b.,  424 
Fisher  t..  424 
(Fisher's  Landing  v.,  424) 
Fiske  1..  401 
Fitzhugh  1.,  442 
Fitzpatrick  sta.,  514 
Fitzsimmons,     Thomas,     n.,     202; 

Patrick,  n,,  202 
Five  1.,  404 
Five  Mile  cr.,  56 
Flacon  portage,  496 
Flag  id.,  44 
Flaherty,  1.,  264 
Flaming  v.,  382 
Flandrau,    Charles    E.,   4,   94;    for, 

b..  419.  623 
Flandrcau  cr.,  419 
Flat  1.,  32 

Flat  Mouth,  v.,  Ojibway  chief,  95 
Flea  pt.,  95 
Fleming  1.,  20;  t.,  15,  411 


660 


INDEX 


Flensburg  v.,  352 

Fletcher  Boundary  cr.,  357 

Floating  Bog  cr.  and  bay,  132 

Floating  Moss  1.,   130 

Flom  t,  for  Erik  Flom,  382 

Flood,  James  H.,  n.,  550 

Flood  bay,  295 

Flood  wood   r.,   11,  483;   t.  and  v., 

483;  1.,  499 
Flora  of  Minnesota,  106;  Flora  t, 

457 
Florence  1.,  251,  389 
Florence  t.,  (84,). 206;  v.,  312 
Florer  1.,  465 
Florida,  names  from,  274,  292,  536, 

594 
Florida,   1.,.  274;    cr.,   292,    594;    t., 

594 
Florida  Slough  1.,  274 
Flour  1.,  140,  142 
(Flower  1.,  142) 
Flowing  t.,  116 
Floyd  Is.,  32 
Flute  Reed  r.,  145 
Fogg  1.,  for  F.  A.  Fogg.  349 
Foldahl  t,  328 
Folden  t,  395 

Foley  v.,  for  John  Foley,  b.,  50 
(Folle  Avoine  r.,  18;  country,  321) 
Folsom,  Simeon  P.,  n.,  59 
Folsom,    William    H.    C,    n.,    107, 

265;  q.,  109,  110,  411,  441,  570 
Folsom  t,  for  George  P.   Folsom, 

551 
Folwell,  Dr.  W.  W.,  3,  236 ;  n.,  608, 

609;  for,  631 
Fond  du  Lac  reservation,  79,  506 
Fond  du  Lac  trading  post  and  v., 

n,  76;  483,  645,  652 
Fool's  1.,  162 
Foot  1.,   for   Solomon   R:   Foot,  b., 

Forada  v.,  176 

Forbes,  William  H.,  for,  613,  614 

Forbes  v.,  483 ;  I.,  500 

Ford,  L.  M.,  quoted,  22 

Ford  br.,  25;  t.,   for  Henry  Ford, 

266 
Forest  1.,  232;  t.,  462 
Forest  and  Prairie  cr.,  302 
Forest  area  of  Minnesota,  2,  118 
Forests,    state    and    national,    1(X), 

148,  299,  506 
Forest  City  t.,  339 
Forest  (jrove  t.,  283 
Forest  Lake  t.  and  v.,  569 
Forest  Prairie  t.,  339 
Foreston  v.,  344 


Forestville  t.  and  v.,  193 

Forget-me-not,  1.,  ZZ 

Fork  L,  328 

Forsytby    Major    Thomas,    11;    q., 

572,  583 
Fort  cr.,  374,  459 
Fort  Abercrombie,  N.  D.,  580 
Fort  Charlotte,  136 
Fort  Frances  v..  Ont.,  283 
(Fort  Gaines,  355) 
Fort  L'Huillier.  57 
Fort  Ridgely.  27Z 
Fort  Ripley.  157,  b.,  355;  v.,  157 
Fort    St.    Anthony,    34,    67;    map. 

168;  170,  507 
Fort  St.  Antoine,  Wis.,  3 
Fort  St.  Charles,  45 
Fort    Snelling,   227,   228.   226,   602; 

military  reservation,  236 
Fortier   t.,    for   Joseph    Fortier,   b., 

594 
Fosket,  Mark,  n.,  589 
Foss  1.,  538 
Fossen  1.,  401 

Fosston  v.,  for  Louis  Foss,  424 
Fossum  t.,  382 

Foster,  Dr.  Thomas,  n.,  481,  652 
Foster,  William,  n.,  84 
Foster  1.,  591 
Foster  t,  for  Dr.  R.  R.  Foster,  b., 

185  ^ 

Foster  v.,  54 
Fountain  cave,  444,' 628 
Fountain  t.  and  v.,  193 ;  1.,  203,  204, 

590 
Fountain  Prairie  t.,  417 
Fouque.  Friedrich,  65 
Four  Mile  bay,  44;  1.,  98,  143,  218; 

cr.,  469 
Four  Towns  1.,  258 
Four-legged  1.  and  cr.,   125 
Fourteen  Mile  1.,  87,  98 ;  cr.,  99 
Fowl  portage  and  Is.,  138,  140 
Fowler,  George  S.,  Z32,  ZZZ 
Fox   1.,   23,  43,   65;   Is.,    East,   and 

West,   163;    (203.)   232,  258,  272, 

ZZ3,  337.  369,  375,  460,  465 
Fox  v.,  471 
Fox  Lake  t.,  333 
Foxhome  t.  and  v.,  for  R.  A.  Fox. 

578 
Framnas  t,  536 

France,  names  from,  279,  425,  433 
Frances,  1.,  90,  98 
Francis,  1.,  251,  304,  342,  591 
Franconia  t.  and  v.,  108,  113 
Frank  1.,  542 
Frankford  t.  and  v.,  360 


INDEX 


681 


Frankfort  t.  and  v.,  588 

Franklin,    Benjamin,    for,    b.,    254; 

603.  613,  652 
Franklin,   Samuel,   for,  603 
Franklin  1.,  404;  t.,  254,  588;  v.,  457 
Frankson,  Thomas,  for,  n.,  630 
Franquelin,  J.   B.,  map  by,   10,   12, 

79,  476 
Franson,  Eric,  for,  282 
Fraser  1.,  for  John  Fraser,  296 
Fraser  t.,  for  A.  N.  Fraser,  Z^i 
Frazee  v.,  for  R.  L.  Frazee,  b.,  28 
Frazer  bay,  494,  495 
Frazier  1.,  132 
Frear  1.,  143,  295 
Fredenberg   t,    for   Jacob    Freden- 

berg,  483 
(Frederica  1.,  48) 
Frederick  cr.,  590 
Frederick's  1.,  for  F.  Ohland,  85 
Freeborn,  William,  for,  b.,  198.  572 
Freeborn   co.,   19&-204;   t,  200;   id.. 

572 
Freeborn   1.,     for     John   Freeborn, 

181 ;  203 
Freeburg  v.  238 
Freedom  t.,  66,  565 
Freeland  t.,  for  J.  P.  Free,  289 
Freeman    t.,     for    John    Freeman, 

200;  cr.,  547 
Freeport  v.,  524 
Fremont,  John  C,  for,  59,  b.,  334, 

369,   515,  582,   601,  603,  622;   n., 

60,  308 
Fremont,  1.,  369;  515;  t.,  582;   (v., 

59) 
French,  Burton,  for,  594 
French,  Leonard,  for,  123 
French  cr.,  for  G.  H.  French,  132; 

588 
French  1.,  20,  141,  232,  233,  465,  588; 

rapids,  163 ;  r.,  483,  492 
French    sta.,    395;    t.,    for    W.    A. 

French,  483 
French  Lake  t.,  588 
French  River  v.,  483 
Frenchman's  bluff,  384 
Frevel's  1.,  530 
Friberg  t,  395 
Friday  1.,  296 

Fridley  t.,  for  A.  M.  Fridley,  b.,  23 
.  Friendship  t.,  594 
Friesland  sta.,  411 
Froberg,  Alfred,  n.,  593 
Frog  and  Little  Frog  Is.,  538 
f'rog  Rock  1.,  141 
Frohn  t.,  27 
Frontenac  v.,  207,  212 


Frost  1.,   141 ;  v.,   for  C.   S.  Frost, 

186 
Frovold,  1.,  for  K.  P.  Frovold,  542 
Fulda  v.,  366 

Fuller,  Alpheus  G.,  for,  617 
Fulton,  Robert,  for,  644 
Funkley  t,  for  Henry  Funkley,  Z7  \ 

1.,  43 
Fur  trade,  14,  135,  136,  423 


Gabbro  1.,  296 
Gabimichigama  1.,  141,  296 
(Gager's    sta.,    for    Henry    Gager, 

535,  538) 
Gaines,  Gen.  E.  P.,  for,  b.,  355 
Gaiter  1.,  567 

Gale,  Samuel  C,  for,  605,  609 
Gale  id.,  for  Harlow  A.  Gale,  235 
Galena  t.,  ZZ2 
Gales  t,  for  A.  L.  and  S.  S.  Gale, 

449 
Galloway,  Dr.  Hector,  n.,  387 
Galpin's  1.,  for  Rev.  Charles  Galpin. 

231 
Galtier,   Father  Lucian,  n.,  quoted, 

438;  b.,  439;  for,  617 
Games  1.,  274 
Gamma  1.,  297 
Gannett,  Henry,  quoted  or  cited.  6. 

10,  202,  251,  254.  256,  258,  263,  270, 

y?2,  565,  570,  584,  585,  589 
Ganon  id.,  for  Peter  Ganon,  146 
Gansey  1.,  501 
Garden  id.,  44,  96;  1.,  162,  294,  296; 

t.,  424 
Garden  City,  t.  and  v.,  59 
Gardner    1.,    for    Charles    Gardner, 

324 
Garfield,  James  A.,  for,  b.,  176,  247, 

290,  424,  602,  605,  614,  646.  653 
Garfield  v.,  176:  1.,  247;  t.,  290,  424 
Games  t.,  for  E.  K.  Games.  446 
Garrard    bluff,    for    Louis    H.    and 

Israel  Garrard,  b.,  212 
Garrison,  Oscar  E.,  for,  132,   158; 

n.,  040,  Oto 
Garrison  pt.,  132;  t.,   158 
Garvin  v.,  for  H.  C.  Garvin,  312 
Gary,  Elbert  H.,  for,  652 
Gary  moraine,  309;  v.,  382;  d.,  652 
Gaskan  1.,  140 
"Gate  City,"  584 
Gates,  Albert,  n.,  58 
Gault,  Z.  S.,  aid,  372 
(Gauss,  1.,  89) 

Gaylord  v.,  for  E.  W.  Gaylord,  519 
Geis  1.,  512 


682 


.  INDEX 


Gem  1.,  501 

Gemmell  v.,   for  W.   H.   Gemmell, 

283 
General     features,     geography     of 

Minnesota,  1-13 
Geneva,  1.,  177,  180;  t.  and  v.,  200 
Geneva  Beach  v.,  177 
Gennessee  t.,  270 
Genoa  v.,  386 
Genola  v.,  352,  354 
Gentilly  t,  425 

George,  Capt.  Sylvester  A.,  for,  72 
George,  1.,  26.  65,  72,  99,  141,  204, 

274,  336,  401,  524.  530 
George  Watch  1.,  25 
Georgetown    trading    post    and    t., 

116 
Georgeville  v.,  524 
Georgia,  name  from,  630 
German  1.,  251,  304,  401 
German ia  t.,  544 
Germantown  t.,  150 
Germany,   names   from,   50,   70,  82 

(2),  83(2),  105,  108,  117,  136,  167, 

238(2),   263,   301,   327,   366,   2%7, 

395,  411,  484,  518,  520   525,  526, 

531,  540,  588,  596 
Gervais   1.,    for   Benjamin   Gervais, 

b..  442 
Gervais   t.,   for   Isaiah  Gervais,  b., 

446 
Getchell,  C.  S.,  n.,  568 
Getchell  cr.,  for  Nathaniel  Getchell, 

b.,  529;  1.,  530 
Getty  t.,  for  John  J.  Getty,  b.,  524 
Gheen  v.,  for  Edward  H.  Gheen,  b., 

483 
Ghent  v.,  312 
(Giant  mt,  1,  147) 
Giants'  Kettles,  Interstate  pk.,  113 
Gibbon  v.,  for  Gen.  John  Gibbon, 

519 
Gibbs,  Heman,  for,  631 
Gibson  1.,  499 
Gideon's  bay,  for  P.  M.  Gideon,  b., 

234 
Gifford  1.,  512 
Gilbert  1.,  162,  163,  181 
Gilbert  v.,  for  E.  A.  Gilbert,  483 
Gilbert  Valley  cr.,  559 
Gilbertson,  1.,  435 
Gilchrist  t.,  and  1.,  431 ;  1.,  591 
Gilfillan,   Charles   D.,   for,  443,  b., 

449'  460 
Gilfillan,  John  B.,  220,  224 
Gilfillan,   Rev.  Joseph   A.,   for,   b., 

132;  quoted  or  cited,  1,  6,  9,  17, 

18.  28,  29,  31-3,  36,  48.  52,  87-90, 


93,  96,  97,  99,  102,  119,  121,  124, 
125,  129,  130,  132,  136-8,  140,  142- 
4,  146,  147,  154,  156,  159,  160,  161, 
247,  256-8,  280,  281,  286,  293,  295- 
8,  322,  331,  343,  348,  356,  367,  390, 
393,  400,  408,  412,  425.  428,  429, 
445,  470,  488,  489,  493,  496-500, 
504,  546.  547,  550,  560,  561,  571 

Gilfillan  1.,  132,  443 ;  sta..  449 

Gilfillin  1.,  for  Joseph  Gilfillin,  b.,  65 

Gill  1.,  126 ;  Gill's  I..  141 

Gillespie  br.,  77 

Gillford  t.  and  v.,  for  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Gill.  556 

Gilman,  Charles  A.,  49,  522;  for,  b., 
50 

Gilmanton  t.,  50 

Gilmore  1.,  248 ;  cr.,  585 

Gilsted  1.,  43 

Girard,  Stephen,  for,  395,  603 

Girard  t,  395 ;  sta.*  425 

Girl  L,  99 

Glacial  lakes,  7,  21.  56.  66.  79,  134. 
148,  189,  218,  299,  444,  504-5,  654 

Glacier  Garden,  113 

Gladstone  1.,  162;  v.,  for  W.  E. 
Gladstone,  437 

Glasgow  t.,  556 

Glazier,  Alice,  for,  244;  Elvira,  for, 
244;  George,  for,  244 

Glazier.  Willard,  126;  b.,  127;  134; 
n.,  244,  246 

(Glazier,  1.,  127,  128) 

Gleason  1.,  232 

Glen  t,  15;  1.,  152,231 

Glencoe  c.  and  t.,  317 

Glendale  sta.,  483;  t.  508 

Glendorado  t,  50 

(Glengarry  t.,  24) 

Glenville  v.,  201 

Glenwood  c.  and  t,  2,  431 

Glen  wood  1.  and  park,  232,  607 

Glesne  1.,  for  Even  O.  Glesne,  274 

Gluek's  pt,  234 

Glyndon  v.,  116 

Gnat  1.,  43 

Gneiss  1.,  139 

Gnesen  t,  483 

Godfrey,  Ard,  n..  515 

Godfrey.  John,  and  Josephine,  for, 
147 

Godfrey  t.,  for  W.  N.  Godfrey.  425 

Gold  washing,  174 

(Gold  Fish  cr.,  45) 

Golden  1.,  for  John  Goldien,  25 

Golden  Valley,  suburb  of  Minne- 
apolis, 221 ;  t.,  471 

Goldschmidt  1.,  85 


INDEX 


683 


Goldsmith  1.,  304 

Gonvick  v.,  for  M.  O.  Gonvick,  122 

Good  Harbor  bay,  145;  hill,  147 

Good  Hope  t.,  254,  382 

Good  Ridge  t.,  406 

Good  Road,  Sioux  v.,  220 

Good    Thunder   v.,   and    ford,    for 

Winnebago     chief,     59;      Sioux 

scout,  60 
Goodhue,   James    M.,    67  \    for,   b., 

205;  207;  q„  224;   for,  614 
Goodhue  co.,  205-212;  t.  and  v.,  207 
Gooding,  Mrs.  George,  lor,  168,  231 
Goodland  t.,  254 
Goodner's  1.,  529 
Goodrich,  Aaron,  for,  614 
Goodrich  1.,  162 
Goose  cr..  Ill,  203;  id.,  95 
Goose  1.,  26,  85,  99,  111.   189,  204, 

211,  2ZZ,  303,  304,  315,  337,  341. 

357,  375,  434,  454,  511,  547,  567, 

573,  591(2) 
Goose  Prairie  t.,  116 
Gooseberry  r.,  (138,)  295 
(k>pher  state,  4 
Gordon,  Han  ford  L.,  235,  581 
Gordon  t.,  for  J.  M.  Gordon,  544 
Gordonsville  v.,  for  T.  J.  Gordon, 

201 
Gorman,    Gov.    Willis    A.,    for,    b., 

304,  619 
Gorman  1.,  304 
Gorman  t.,   for  John   O.   Gorman, 

395 
Gorman's  1.,   for   Patrick  Gorman, 

189 
Gorton  t,  215 

Goslee,  W.  N.,  and  J.  H.,  n.,  201 
•Gotaholm  neighborhood,  85 
Gotha  v.,  82 
Gotzian,    Conrad,   and    Adam,    for, 

623 
Gould,  Helen,  for,  96. 
Gould  t,  for  M..  I.  Gould,  89 
Gould's  1.,  for  John  L.  Gould,  538 
Gourd  L,  402 
Governor's  id.,  146 
Gowdy  t.,  283 
Grace,  Bishop  Thomas  L.,  for,  b., 

54,  615 
Grace  1.,  43,  143,  248 
Grace  t.,  103 
Graceville  t  and  v.,  54 
Grafton  t,  519 

Graham,  Judge  C.  C,  b.,  206,  207 
Xxraham^  Florence,  for,  206 
Graham,  James  D.,  for,  153,  b.,  277 
Graham  1.,  218,  305,  Z77,  404 


Graham  t,  50 

Graham  Lakes  t.,  Z77 

Grainwood  sta.  and  v.,  508 

Gran  t.,  254 

Granada  v.,  ZZZ 

Granby  t.,  Z72 

Grand  id.,  96,  517;  1.,  483,  498,  530 

(Grand  Bois,  2) 

Grand  Falls  t,  283 

Grand  Forks  t,  425 

Grand  Lake  t.  and  sta.,  483 ;  r.,  498 

Grand  Marais,  1;  t.  and  v.,  136 

Grand  Marais,  marsh,  170,  442;  r., 
428 

Grand  Meadow  t.  and  v.,  360 

Grand  Park  t,  29 

Grand  Plain  t,  328 

Grand  Portage  v.  and  trading  post, 
136,  148;  bay  and  id.,  146 

Grand  Prairie  t,  277 

(Grand  Rapids,  51) 

Grand  Rapids  t.  and  v.,  254 

Grandmother  hill,  503 

Grandrud  1.,  403 

Grandview  t.,  313 

Grandy  v.,  250 

Grange,  the,  Barn  bluff,  211;  t,  417 

Granger  v.,  193 

Granite  bay,  139;  1.,  140,  591;  pt., 
295,  493 ;  t.,  352 

"Granite  City,"  (v.,  352;)  527 

Granite  Falls  t.  and  c,  103;  c,  594 

Granite  Ledge  t.,  50 

Granite  Rock  t.,  450 

Grant,  U.  S.,  geologist,  282,  298,  498 

Grant,  Gen.  Ulysses  S.,  for,  b.,  213; 
498,  569,  604,  605 

Grant  co.,  213-218;  t.    569 

Grant  1.  and  cr.,  27  \  (t,  187,  209, 
378) 

Grant's  lake,  for  Noah  Grant,  181 

Grant  Valley  t.,  27 

Granville  t.,  277 

Grass  1.,  26,  43,  111,  162,  204,  231, 
233,  266,  273(2),  320,  402,  415,  443, 
529,  530,  592 

Grass  Lake  t.,  266 

Grasston  v.,  266 

Grassy  1.,  181 ;  id.,  286 ;  narrows, 
286;  pt.,  493 

(Gratiot,  1.,  for  Gen.  Charles  Gra- 
tiot, 160) 

Grattan  t.,  for  Henrv  Grattan,  255 

Grave  1.,  99,  162,  258 

Gravel  1.,  530,  538;  (r.,  34,  48) 

(Gravelville  v.,  for  C  and  N.  Gra- 
vel, 352) 

Gray,  Royal  C,  for,  413 


684 


INDEX 


Gray  1.,  404,  548 ;  t.,  for  A.  O.  Gray, 

418 
Gray's  1.  or  bay,  233 
Gray  Cloud  id.,  552,  572,  573;  si., 

572 
Greaney   v.,    for    Patrick    Greaney, 

484 
Great  Bend  t.,  150 
Great  Lakes,  8 

Great  Northern  ry.,  25,  540;  1.,  530 
Great  Oasis  I.,  369 
Great  Portage,  41 ;  (r.,  46) 
Great  Scott  t.,  484 
Greece,  names  from,   105,  250,  477 
Green,  Prof.  Samuel  B.,  n.,  631 
Green  1.,  48,  111,  112,  133,  251,  270; 
.    (r.,  57) 

Green  Isle  t.  and  v.,  519 
Green  Lake  t,  270 
Green  Leaf  t.,  304 
Green  Meadow  t.,  382 
Green  Mountain  1.,  591 
Green  Prairie  t,  for  C  H.  Green, 

352;  (597) 
Green  Stump  1.,  331 
Green  Valley  t.,  29;  v.,  313 
Green  Water  1.,  32 
Greenbush  t,  344;  v.,  471 
Greenfield  t,  556,  (569) 
Greenfield,  William  H.,  for,  b.,  339; 

341 
Greenleafton,   a  hamlet,   for  Mary 

Greenleaf,  193 
Green  vale  t,  165 
Greenwald  v.,  524 
Greenway  t.,  for  J.   C.   Greenway, 

255 
Greenwood,  George  C,  for,  296 
Greenwood  t.,  122,  222 ;  1.,  140,  145, 

296 ;  r.,  145 ;  mt.,  298 
Greenwood  Island  1.,   141,   142 
Greer  1.,  162 
Gregory    park,    Brainerd,    156;    v., 

156,  352 
Gregory   t.,    for     Joseph    Gregory, 

32Z,    324;    (for   H.    G.    Gregory, 

468) 
Grey,  Col.  Alfred,  466 
Grey  Eagle  t.  and  v.,  544 
Griffin,  1.,  542 
Griffith,  May,  for,  90 
Griggs,  Chaunccy  W.,  n.,  605;  for, 

630  [ 

Grimstad    t.,    for    John    Grimstad, 

472 
Grindstone  id.,  286;  r.  and  1.,  414 
Grogan  v.,  for  M.  J.  Grogan,  575 
Groningen  sta.,  412 


Grotto  1.,  401 

Groseilliers  L,  130,  134 

Ground    House    r.,    267 

Grove  1.,  120,  217,  272,  404,  431,  434 

Grove  t.,  524 

Grove  City  v.,  340 

Grove  Lake  t.,  431 

Grove  Park  t,  425 

Groveland  Park  d.,  440,  637 

Grow  t.,  for  Galusha  A.  Grow,  b., 

24 
Grubb  1.,  181 
Gruenhagen's  1.,  85 
Grummons,  Martin,  for,  457 
Grunard  I.,  403 
Gudrid  t.,  37 
Guernsey,  1.,  547 

Gull  1.  and  r.,  43,  89,  100,  142,  296 
Gull  species,  142;  id.,  142 
Gull  River  sta.,  89 
Gullickson  1.,   598 
Gully  t,  425 

Gun  1.,  20;  Gunn  1.,  258 
Gunder  p.  o.,  122 
Gunffint  1.,   139 

Gust  1.,  for  Gust  Hagberg,  143 
Gutches  pt,  548 
Guthrie   t,   for   Archibald  Guthrie. 

243 
X Guthrie    t.,    for    Sterrit    Guthrie, 

184) 
Gwinn's  bluff,  585 


Haam  1.,  512 

Haberstead  1.,  143 

Hackberry  1.,  454 

Hackensack  v.,  89 

Hadler  v.,  for  Jacob  Hadler,  382 

Hadley  v.,  366 

Hafften  1.,  233 

Hagali  t.,  37 

Hagen  t,  116 

Hahn  1.,  for  William  Hahn,  b.,  521 

Haldeman,    Benjamin    F.,    for,   642 

Halden  t.,  for  Odin  Halden,  b.,  484 

Hale  1.,  for  James  T.  Hale,  258 

Hale  t,  for  John  P.  Hale,  b.,  317 

Haley  sta.,  484 

Half  Moon  1.,  232,  342;  id.,  347 

Halfway  br.,  52;  pt.,  46,  346 

Hall,  William  S.,  for,  619;  n.,  624, 
625 

Hall  I.,  for  Edwin  S.  Hall.  131 ;  for 
E.  B.  Hall,  336;  (454) 

Hallock  t.  and  v.,  for  Charles  Hal- 
lock,  b.,  277 

Halma  v.,  278 


INDEX 


685 


Halstad  t.  and  v.,  for  Ole  Halstad, 

b    382 
Haisted's  bay,  for  F.  W.  and  G.  B. 

Halsted,  b.,  234 
Halvorson  1.,  530 
Ham  1.,  141,  247,  356 
Ham  Lake  t.  and  1.,  24 
Hamburg  v.,  83 
Hamden  t.,  29 
Hamel  v.,  for  J.  O.  and  W.  Hamel, 

222 
Hamilton  v.,  193,  360,   (510) 
Hamlet  1.,  162 

Hamlin,  Lois  Arlone,  for,  410 
Hamliin,  W.  H.,  n.,  410 
Hamlin  t,  for  John  R.  Hamlin,  290 
Hamline,  Bishop  L.  L.,  for,  630 
Hamline  d.,  440,  629-631 ;  gl.  1.,  444 ; 

1.,  573 
Hamline  University,  440,  629,  631 
Hamm,  Theodore,  for,  641 
Hammer  t.,  595 
Hammond   1.,   174;   t..  425;  v.    for 

Joseph  Hammond,  556 
Hampden,  John,  for,  278,  632,  641 
Hampden  t.,  278 
Hampton  t.,  165;  v.,  167 
Hamre  t,  27 

Hanchett,  Dr.  Augustus  H.,  n.,  146 
Hancock,  Rev.  J.  W.,  quoted,  207, 

208,  209;  for,  b.,  536 
Hancock,  Gen.  W.   S.,   for,  b.,  83, 

623 
Hancock  t,  83,   (527;)   v.,  536 
Hand,  Dr.  Daniel  W.,  for,  628 
Hand  1.,  404 
Hanford  1.,  181 
Hangaard  t.,  for  G.  G.  Hangaard, 

122 
Hanging  Horn  1.,  78 
Hanging  Kettle  1.,  20 
Hanks  1.,  162 
Hanley  Falls  v.,   595 
Hanover  v.,  588 

Hanrahan  1.,  for  £.  Hanrahan,  512 
Hanse  1.,  538 
Hansel  1.,  401 

Hansen,  Rev.  Hans  P.,  n.,  330 
Hanska  v.,  69 
Hansman  1.,  547 

Hanson,  D.  M.,  and  G.  S.,  for,  601 
Hanson,  Mrs.  Hilda,  for,  407 
Hanson,    Timothy,    160 
Hanson  br.,  for  G.  S.  Hanson,  349 
Hanson  1.,  402,  434,  538 
(Hanson   sta.,    for    Nels    Hanson, 

69) 


Hansonville  t,  for  John  Hanson, 
307 

Hantho  t.,  for  H.»H.  Hantho,  290 

Harbaugh,  Springer,  n.,  424 

Hard  Scrabble  pt.,  234 

Harder's  1.,  152 

Harding  1.,  for  Rev.  W.  C.  Har- 
ding, 340 

Hardwick  v.,  for  J.  L.  Hardwick, 
467 

Hare  1.,  and  Nowthen  p.  o.,  for 
James  U.  Hare,  26 

Harkcom  cr.,  174 

Harlis  sta.,  412 

Harmon,  Allen,  for,  604 

Harmony  t.,  193 

Harold,  1.,  342 

Harper,  C.  H.,  n.,  255 

Harriet,  1.,  229,  236,  295;  id.,  441, 
614 

Harrigan  t.,  283 

Harrington,  1.,  for  Lewis  Harring- 
ton, b.,  319,  320 

Harris  t.  and  v.,  for  P.  S.  Harris, 
108;  t.,  for  Duncan  Harris,  255; 
cr.,  547 

Harris  Lake  sta.  and  1.,  484 

Harrison,  Benjamin,   for,  605 

Harrison,  William  Henry,  for,  601, 
605,    614 

Harrison,  1.,  404;  t,  for  J.  D.  Har- 
ris, 270 

Harrison's  bay,  235 

Harry,  1.,  233 

Harstad  1.,  for  Lars  E.  Harstad, 
538 

Hart,  D.  A.,  n.,  469 

Hart  1.,  for  John  and  George  Hart, 
189;  243,  257;  for  Isaac  Hart, 
542;  t.,  582 

Hart  Lake  t.,  243 

Hartford  t,  544 

Hartland  t.  and  v.,  201 

Hartley  1.,  162 

Hartshorn,  Madelia,  for,  575 

Harvey  cr.,  152 

Harvey  t.,  for  James  Harvey,  340 

Haslerud,  Peter  Peterson,  for,  b., 
194 

Hassan  t.,  222 

Hassan  Valley  t  (and  r.),  317,  319 

Hassel,  1.,  542 

(Hassler,  1.,  for  F.  R.  Hassler,  88) 

Hastings  c,  165 

Hasty  v.,  for  Warren  Hasty,  588 

Hat  pt,  146 

Hatch,  Edwin  A.  C,  for,  627 


686 


INDEX 


Hatch,  Dr.  P.  L.,  notes  of  birds, 
154 

Hatch  1.,  for  Zenas  Y.  Hatch,  465 

Hatfield  v.,  418 

Hattie,  1.,  99,  538 

Haug  p.  o.,  for  T.  E.  Hau^,  472 

Haugen  t.,  for  C.  G.  Haugen,  15 

Haughey  1.,  232 

Hausmann  L,  232 

Havana  t.  and  v.,  532 

Havelock  t.,  for  Sir.  H.  Havelock, 
b.,  103 

Haven  t.,  for  John  O.  Haven,  b., 
515 

Haverhill  t.  386 

Hawes,   Eva  Luverne,   for,  b.,  467 

Hawes,  Philo,  for,  b.,  468;  n.,  468 

Hawk  cr..  106,  273,  457,  459;  1.,  369 

Hawk  Bill  pt.,  346 

Hawk  Creek  t.,  457 

Hawkinson  cr.,  502 

Hawley,  Alfred  C,  for,  628 

Hawley  v.,  for  Gen.  J.  R.  Hawley, 
b.,  116 

Hay  cr.,  46,  77,  111,  120(2),  207. 
357(2),  414,  415,  475,  529.  563 
(2)  ;  1.,  78,  247,  573 ;  Is.,  Upper, 
and  Lower,  162 

Hay  Brook  t,  and  br.,  266,  267 

Hay  Creek  t.,  and  cr.,  207 

Hayden,  James,  n.,  564 

Hayden  1.  and  br.,  549;  cr.,  563 

Haydcn's  1.,  233 

Haydenville  sta.,  for  H.  L.  Hay- 
den, 290 

Hayes,  Rutherford  B.,  for,  b.,  541; 
605 

Hayes,  Rev.  S.  M.,  quoted,  513 

Hayes  t.,  541 ;  J.,  567 

Hayfield  t.  and  v.,  173 

Hayland  t.,  344 

Hays  1.,  132 

Hayward  t.  and  v.,  for  D.  Hay- 
ward.  201 

Hazel  v.,  406 

(Hazel  Dell  v.,  397) 

Hazel  Park  sta.,  4i7 

Hazel  Run  t.  and  v.,  595 

Hazeltine,  Susan,  for,  85 

Hazelton  1.,  20 

Hazelton  t.,  for  C.  J.  Hazelton,  15; 
278 

Hazelwood,  mission  station,  595 

Hazzard,  (^eorge  H.,  112,  611;  for, 
628 

Head,  George,  n.,  388 

Head  1.,  403 

Heart  1.,  126 


Heath,  Charles,  n.,  417 

Heath  cr.,  465 

Heather,  James  W.,  for,  635 

(Hebbard  t.,  for  W.  F.  Hebbard, 

37%) 
Hebron  t.,  15 
Heckman  sta.,  313 
Hector  t.  and  v.,  457 
Hefta,  1.  of,  for  Mrs.  Marie  Hefta, 

274 
Hegbert  t.,  541 

Hegg  1.,   for  Erick  HeF*',  181 
Hegne   t.,   for  Andrew   E.   Hegne, 

382 
Heiberg  v.,  for  J.  F.  Heiberg,  382 
Heidelberg  v.,  301 
Heider,   Mrs.   Andrea,   for,  577 
Heier  t.,   for  Frank  Heier,  Z2Z 
Height  of  Land  t.  and  I.,  29,  30 
(Height  of  Land  1.,  124,  139) 
Heim's   1.,    for   Conrad   Heim,   111 
Helen,  1.,  96,  257;  t.  317 
Helena  t.  and  sta.,  508;  1.,  567 
Helga  t.,  243;  1.,  342 
Helge,  1.,  434 
Helgeland  t.,  425 

Helm,  H.  C,  and  Joseph,  for,  647 
(Helvetia  v.,  83) 
Hen  1.,  162 

Henderson,   Andrew,    for,   519 
Henderson,   c.   and  t.,  68,   519;   1., 

273 
Hendricks  1.,  t.,  and  v.,  for  T.  A. 

Hendricks,  b.,  307;  310 
Hendrickson  t.,  for  John  C.  Hen- 

drickson,  243 
Hendrum  t.  and  v.,  382 
Henn  L,  530 
Hennepin,  Father  Louis,  5,  10,  25, 

130;    quoted,   209;    for,   b.,   219; 

343,  348,  553,  601 
Hennepin  co..     219-236;     id,    229, 

347;  (v.,  222;)   1.  and  r.,  246 
Henning  t.,  for  John  O.  Henning, 

395 
Henrietta  t,  243 ;  1.,  251 
Henriette  v.,  412 
Henry,    Alexander,    the    elder,    91, 

138;  the  younger,  149 
Henry,  Forest,  for,  193 
Henry,  1.,   181.  304,  524,  525.  542; 
for  Lewis  Henry,  548;  591 
Henry  t,  283 
Henrytown,  a  hamlet,  193 
Henryville  t,  for  Peter  Henry,  457 
Henshaw  1.,  591 
Henson  1.,  140 
Hereford  v.,  215 


INDEX 


687 


Hereim  t.,  for  Ole  Hercim,  472 
Herman  t.,  4«4.  650 ;  1.,  85,  502 
Herman  v.,  215 
Herman  beach,  Lake  Agassiz,   120, 

218.  505    • 
Hernando  de  Soto,  1.,  130,  134 
Heron  Lake  t.,  and  1.,  261 
Herrick,  Prof.  C.  L.,  quoted,  292; 

297 
Hersey  t.  (and  v.),  for  S.  F.  Her- 

sey,  b.,  377 
Hewitt,  Girart,  for,  630;  634 
Hewitt  v.,   for  Henry  Hewitt,  544 
Heycr's  1.,  for  Louis  Heyer,  85 
Hiawatha,  Song  of,  cited,  ^,  39,  43, 

75,  87,  90,  118,  134,  159,  226,  230, 

231,  235,  255,  258,  293,  321,  324, 

367,  397,  416.  453,  561,  602,  607, 

609;  Myth  of,  565 
Hibbing  c,  for  Frank  Hibbing,  b., 

484 
Hickey's  1.,  511 
Hickory  1.,  20;  t.,  407 
Hicks,  Henry  G.,  224 
Hidatsa  Indians,  Minnesota,  267 
Higbie,  Albert  E.,  n.,  31 
Higdem  t,  for  A.  O.  Higdem,  425 
Higgins  sta.,  294;  1.,  320 
High  id,  146;  1.,  336 
High  Bank  1.,  598 
High  Beach  blvd.,  654 
High  Forest  t.  and  v.,  386 
High  Island  cr.  and  I.,  319,  520 
High  Landing  t.,  407 
Highland,  a  hamlet,  193;  sta.,  294; 

1..  295 ;  t,  556 
Highland  Grove  t.,  116 
High  water  cr.  and  t,  150,  152 
Highwood  sta.,  437 
Hilda  p.  o.,  407 
Hill,  Alfred  J.,  35,  57,  128;  n.,  130; 

for,  132 
Hill,  James  J.,  for,  b.,  278 
Hill  1.,  15,  138;  pt,  132;  r.,  425,  428, 

t    278 
Hill  City,  v.,  15 
Hill  Lake  t.,  15,  16 
Hill  River  t,  425 
Hillman    t,    for    W.    F.    Hillman, 

266;  t,  v.,  and  br.,  352 
Hills,  Alma,  for,  564 
Hills,  Sylvester,  n.,  361 
Hills,  1.  of  the,  315 
Hills  v.,  for  F.  C.  Hills,  467 
Hillsdale  id.,  495;  t,  582 
Hillside  Harbor  l,  607 
(Hilo  t.,  372) 


(Hilton  v.,  for  Aaron  Hilton,  62) 
Hinckley,  Isaac,  for,  b.,  412 
Hinckley  t.  and  v.,  410,  412 
Hind,  Henry  Y.,  cited,  97    ■ 
Hinds   1.,    for    Edward   R.    Hinds, 

2r47 
Hines  sta.,  for  William  Hines,  37 
Hingeley,  Rev.  J.  B.,  400 
Hinman,  Kelsey,  n.,  222 
Hinsdale  sta.,  484 
Hiram  t,  for  Hiram  Wilson,  89 
Hitchcock,  George,  n.,  172 
Hitterdal  v.,  117 
Hoag,    Addie,    for,    319;    Marion, 

for,  319 
Hoag,  Charles,  n.,  223,  319 
Hobart  id.,  35/;  t.  and  v.,  395 
Hobson  1.,  501 
Hockridge  1.,  304 
Hodge,  F.  W.,  30,  59,  71 
Hodges   t.,   for   L.   B.   Hodges,   b., 

536 
Hodgson  1.,  460   • 
Hoeffken's  1.,  85 
Hoff    L,    341;    t.,    431,    (for    Abel 

HoflF,  550) 
Hoffman,  James  K.,  for,  621,  622 
Hoffman  1.,  251 
Hoffman   v.,    for    R.   C.    Hoffman, 

215 
Hokah  t.  and  v.,  12,  238 
Holcombe,   R.   I.,  22,  81,  94,  260; 

q.,  421 ;  460 
Holcombe,  William,  for,  642 
Holden  t.,  207 

Holding,  Randolph,  for,  b.,  524 
Holding  t,  524 
Holding's  Ford  v.,  524 
Hole-in-the-Day*s  bluff,  357 
Hole  in  the  Mountain,  310 
Holes,  Andrew,  n.,  270 
Holland,  names  from,  150,  270,  412, 

418 
Holland  t,  270 ;  v.,  418 
Holleque  1.,  181 
HoUey,   Henry   W.,   and    wife,   n., 

184,  185 
Hollinshead,    Mrs.    Ellen,    for,   617 
Hollow  Rock  cr.,  145 
Holloway  v.,  541 
Holly  t.,  for  John  Z.  Holly,  366 
Hollywood  t.,  83 
Hblman's  1.,  529 
Holmes,  Thomas  A.,  for,  b.,  177; 

222,  508;  n.,  510 
Holmes,  William,  n.,  508 
Holmes  1.,  337 


688 


INDEX 


Holmes  City,  t,  177;  1.,  181 
Holmesville  t.,   for   E.   G.   Holmes, 

b.,  29 
Hoist  t,  for  H.  J.  Hoist,  122 
Hiolt,  Cyrus,  n.,  388 
Holt  1..   161;   t.,   for  Gilbert  Holt, 

193;  t.  and  v..  328 
Holy  Cross  t.,  117 
Holyoke  sta.  and  t.,  74 
Home  t.,  70;  br.,  89,  100;  1.,  382 
Home  Brook  t.  and  p.  o.,  89 
Home  Lake  t.,  382 
Homelvig,  John,  for,  382 
Homer  1.,  145 ;  t  and  v.,  582 
Homestead  laws,  24;  t.,  395 
Homolka   p.    o.,    for   A.    Homolka, 

472 
Homstad  1.,  Z2 
Honner  t,  for  J.  S.  G.  Honner,  b., 

450 
Hoodoo  pt.,  494 

Hook  1.,  for  Isaac  Hook,  320;  404 
Hoop  1.,  342 
Hoosier  1.,  341 
Hoot  1.,  402 

Hope  t.,  307;   (1.,  342;)   sta.,  533 
Hopkins  v.,  for  H.  H.  Hopkins,  b., 

222;   1.,   576 
Horace  Austin  state  park,  363 
Horn  1.,  78;  the  Horn,  Pigeon  r., 

138 
Hornby  sta.,  for  H.  C.  Hornby,  b., 

484 
Hornet  t.,  37 

Horse  1.,  296;  Horse  Leg  1.,  251 
Horsehead  1.,  401 
Horse-race  rapids,  415 
Horseshoe  bay,  145;  cr.,  Ill;  1.,  20, 

111,   140,  162,   179,   182,  218.  251, 

258,  303,  342,  375,  401,  402,  454, 

530,  548,  572,  573(2) 
Horton,  Hiler  H.,  for,  627,  641 
Horton    sta.,    for    E.    H.    Horton, 

244;  for  Charles  Horton,  b.,  387; 

t.,  for  W.  T.  Horton,  b.,  536 
Hosmer,  J.  W.,  n.,  565 
Hotchkiss,  F.  V.,  for,  and  n.,  452 
H^oug  1.,  32 
Houghton,   Dr.   Douglass,  91 ;    for, 

98;  q.,  321 
(Houlton  t,  457) 
Houlton  sta.,  for  W.  H.  Houlton, 

b.,  515 
House  1.,  598 

HoustoHi  Samuel,  for,  b.,  237,  238 
Houston  CO.,  237-241;  t..  238 
Hovland  t,  136;  v.,  145 


Howard,    Mrs.    Jane    Schoolcraft, 

for,  132 
Howard,  John,  for,  b.,  588 
Howard,  Thomas,  for,  625 
Howard   cr.,   132;   1.,  25.   141,   512, 

588 
Howard's  pt.,  234 
Howard  Lake  v.,  588 
Howe  1.,  32 

Hoyt,   Benjamin  F.,  612;    for,  629 
Hoyt,  Daniel,  n.,  339 
Hub  r.,  141 
Hubbard,  Gov.  L.  F.,  for,  b.,  242, 

244,  425,  630 
Hubbar4  co.,  131,  242-248 
Hubbard  t.  and  prairie,  244;  t,  425 
Hubert  1.,  for  St.  Hubert,  161,  162 
Hubred  1.,  for  Oliver  Hubred,  182 
Hudson  t,  177 
Hudson  Bay  Co.,  76,  116 
Huey,  George  E.,  for,  601 
Huff,  Henry  D.,  n.,  584 
Hughes,  Robert  H.,  n.,  58 
Hughes,  Thomas,  57,  58;  q.,  61,  63; 

64,  375 
Hugo,  Trevanion  W.,  for,  b.,  569, 

650 
Hugo  v.,  569 

Hugunin,  Mrs.  James  H.,  n.,  570 
Hulbert,  D.  B.,  n.,  166 
Hull's  Narrows,  for  Rev.  S.  Hull, 

234 
Hultgren.  Nels,  n.,  278 
Humbertson,   Capt.    Samuel,  63 
Humboldt,  Alexander,  for,  b.,  117; 

603,  609 
Humboldt  t.,  117;  v.,  278,  (514) 
Humes,  E.  C,  for,  650 
Humiston,  Ransom  F.,  for,  b.,  379 
Hummel,  1.,  72 

Hungary,  names  from,  312,  350 
Hungry  1.,  Z^ 
Hungry  Jack  1.,  140 
Hunt,  D.  H.,  for,  632 
Hunt,  W.  G.,  n.,  408 
Hunt  1.,  for  Joseph  Hunt,  181.  182; 

304,  465 
Hunter  t.,   for  James  W.   Hunter, 

b.,  261 
Hunter's  Island.  298,  497,  505;  pt, 

346 
Huntersville  t,  561 
Huntington,  Henry  M.,  for,  b.,  186 
Huntington  pt.,  235 
Huntley  v.,  186;  t,  328 
Huntsville  t,  for  Bena  Hunt,  425 
Huot  v.,  and  Louisville  t,  for  Louis 

Huot,  446 


INDEX 


689 


Hurley  1.,  341 

Hurricane  I.,  152 

Huset  1.,  218 

Huss  t,  for  John  Huss,  472 

Hutchins,  Lyle,  145 

Hutchins  1.,  591 

Hutchinson  c.  and  t.,  for  Asa,  Jud- 

son,  and     John     Hutchinson,  b., 

317,  318 
Hutter  sta.,  for  H.  A.  Hutter,  484 
Hyde,  John  E.,  for,  b.,  557     ^ 
Hyde  1.,  for  Ernst  Heyd,  85 
Hyde  Park  t.,  556 
Hyland  I.,  231 
Hystad  1.,  for  A.  O.  Hystad,  274 


Iberia  hamlet  and  p.  o.,  70 

Iberville,  governor  of  Louisiana,  57 

Ice  1.,  112 

Ice  Cracking  1.,  ^2 

(Iceland  t.,  62) 

Ida,  1.,  ^Z,  65,  141,  177,  180,  383,  591 ; 

t,  177 
Ida  Belle,  1.,  for  Mrs.  H.  V.  Win- 

chell,   143 
Ideal  t.,  158 
Idington  sta.,  484 
Idun  t.,  15 
Igl chart,   Harwood,    for,   617,   620; 

n.,  624 
Ihlen  v.,  for  Carl  Ihlen.  418 
Illinois,  names   from,  58,  201,  202. 

208,   216,   220,   ZZ:^,   378(2),    388, 

419.  524,  532,  570 
Illinois  1.,  264 
Illusion  1.,  296 
Ilstrup  I.,  590 
Ima  1.,  296 

Imogen  v.,  333;  Imogene,  1.,  336 
Ina,  1.,  182 

Independence  t.,  222 ;  1.,  264 ;  v.,  484 
Indian  cr.,  559;  grove,  174;  hill,  405 
Indian  1.,  64,  378,  401,  404,  415,  521, 

591 
Indian  legends,  235,  420,  433,  440, 

441,  581 
Indian  reservations,  31,  66,  79,  101, 

148,  259,  286,  325,  349.  506,  545 
Indian  Camp  r.,  144 
Indian  Jack  1.,  162 
Indian  Lake  t.,  378 
Indian  Sioux  r.,  502 
(Indian  Spring  cr.,  241) 
Indiana,  names  from,  63,  546 
Indus  t.,  283 
Industrial  t,  484 
Inger  t.,  255 


Inguadona  t.  and  1.,  89,  99 

Inlet  1.,  ZZ7 

Inman  t.,  for  Thomas  Inman,  395 

Interlachen  Park  v.,  177 

International    Boundary,    Cook   co., 

137-140;   Lake  co.,  297.  298;   St. 

Louis   CO.,     496-8;     Koochiching 

CO.,    286;     Beltrami    co.,    42-45; 

Roseau  co.,  475;  Kittson  co.,  280 
International  Falls  c,  283 
Interstate  park,  112 
Inver  Grove  t.,  166;  v.,  167 
lona  t.  and  v.,  366 ;  t.,  544 
Iosco  t.,  565;  cr.,  566 
Iowa,    Indian   tribe,    in    Minnesota, 

13.  119 
Iowa,  names  from,  29,  383.  384,  424 
Iowa  1.,  264,  336;  state,  13,  199,  203 
Ireland,  Archbishop,  219,  220,  313; 

n.,  364 ;  376,  464,  540,  551,  637 
Ireland,    names    from,    16,    166(2), 

185.  202,  301(2),  303,  351,  364(2), 

378,   450,   455.   462.   519,   540(3), 

541.542,551(2),  552(2) 
Irene,  1.,  180 
Iris,  1.,  642 
Irish  1.,  141,  576 
Iron  I..  141,  142,  368,  501 
Iron  Corner  1.,  133 
Iron  Junction  v.,  484 
Iron  Mountain  v.,  160 
Iron  ore  ranges,  1 ;  Iron  Range  t, 

255 
I  ronton  v.,  158 
Irvine,  John  R.,  for,  615,  639 
Irving,  Mrs.  A,  J.,  for,  165 
Irving,    Washington,    for,    41,    270, 

603 
Irving.  1..  41 ;  t,  270 ;  id.,  497 
Isabel,  1.,  for  Isabel  Bailly,  168 
Isabella  r.,  295 ;  1.,  296,  369 
Isabelle,  1.,  530 

Isanti  CO.,  249-251 ;  t.  an  J  v.,  250 
Iselin,  Adrian,  for,  376 
Isinours  sta.,  for  George  Isenhour, 

193 
Island  cr.,  132;  1.  of  the,  98;  sta., 

484 
Island  1.,  20.  25,  ZZ,  37,  64,  78,  100. 

144,  162(2),  218(2),  248,  258(2), 

259,  296,  415,  443.  499,  501.  529. 

530 
Island  Lake  t..  (253),  313,  323 
Island  Lake  v.,  37;  (sta..  78) 
Isle  v.,  344 ;  Isle  Harbor  t,  344 
Isles.  Lake  of  the.  229 
Italy,  names  from.  104,  188.  222,  352, 

361,  386.  440.  568.  582.  630,  639 


690 


INDEX 


Itasca  CO.,   101,  252-259;  1.,  4,  126, 

252 
Itasca  moraine,  129 
Itasca  state  park,  122,  126-134,  253 
Itasca  t,  122 ;  v.  and  1.,  201 
(Itasca  townsite  and  sta.,  24;  1.,  25) 
Iva  Delle,  L,  369 
Ivanhoe  v.,  307 
Iverson  1.,  401 

Iverson  sta.,  for  Ole  Iverson,  74 
Ives,  Mrs.  Ellen  Dale,  for,  532 
Ives,  Frank,  n.,  408 
Izatys  v.,  344,  348 


Jack  1.,  143 ;  cr.,  264,  380 
Jack  pines,  52,  140 
Jack  Pine  Is.,  100,  500 
Jackfish  id.  and  bay,  286;  1.,  296 
Jackson,     Andrew,     for,    42,     260, 

605,  609 
Jackson,   Henry,   61;    for,  b.,  260; 

612,  615 
Jackson,  Mrs.  Henry,  n.,  61 
Jackson,    Isaac,   n.,    190 
Jackson  co.,   260-264;   v.,   260,   262 
Jackson   1.,    for   Norman    L.   Jack- 
son   64 
Jackson  t,   (59,)   508,   (509) 
Jacob,  1.,  404,  499 
Jadis  t.,  for  Edward  W.  Jadis,  b., 

472 
Jale  1.,  163 

James,  George  P.  R.,  for,  603 
James  1.,  369 
Jameson    t.,    for    C.    S.    Jameson, 

283;  id.,  517 
Jamestown  t.,  60 
Jane,  1.,  573 

Janesville  t.  and  v.,  565 
Jap  1.,   141 

Jarrett   sta.    (and   ford),   557 
Jasper   1.,    141,   296;    v.,   418,   467; 

peak,  503 
(Jasper  t.,  397) 
Java  1.,  143 

Jay  1.,  141 ;  t,  for  John  Jay,  b.,  334 
Jay    Cooke    state   park,    78 
Jeannette,  1.,  502 

Jcffers  v.,  for  George  JeflFers,  150 
Jefferson,  Robert  E.,  for,  644,  645 
JefForson,    Thomas,    for,    64,    589, 

605,  616,  636 
Jefferson,    L    64,    303;    t    and    v., 

239;   (t,  583) 
Jefferys,  map  by,  445 
Jenkins  1.,  20;  t.  and  v.,  for  George 

W.  Jenkins,  158 


Tenks,   Prof.  Albert  E.,  321 
Jenks,  J.  Ridgway,  for,  624 
Jennie  1.,  182,  341 
Jessenland   t,   for   Jesse   Cameron, 

519 
Jessie,  I.,  180,  255,  273,  401 
Jesuit   Relations,   quoted,   5 
Jevne  t.,  15 
Jewett   t,    for   D.    M.   Jewett,    15; 

cr.,  342;  L,  402 
Jim  1.,  404;  Jim  Cook  1.,  563 
Jo  Daviess  t,  186 
Joe  r.,  279,  280 
Johanna,  1.,  431,  443 
Johannes,  1.,  401 
John  1.,   140,  402,  435,  591 
Johnson,  Aetna,    for,  417 
Johnson,    Amos,    for,    181 
Johnson,  Andrew,  for,  577,  605 
Johnson,  Ervin  H.,  n.,  584 
Johnson,  Gates  A.,  for,  622 
Johnson,   Mrs.   Isabel,   for,  619 
Johnson,    Gov.    John    Albert,   for, 

622,  640 
Johnson,  John  L.,  n.,  361 
Johnson,   Joseph,  406;   n.,  408 
Johnson,   Parsons   K.,  61 
Johnson,  Mrs.  P.  K.,  n.,  61 
Johnson  1.,   140,  218,  258,  Z^Z,  401 

(3),   434,   502,   542 
(Johnson  t.,   for  J.  and  A.  John- 
son, 186) 
Johnson  t,  for  J.  O.  Johnson,  425 
Johnson's  cr.,    for   L.   P.   Johnson, 

529 
Johnsonville  t.,  450 
Johnsrud,  Reinhart,  for,  407 
Johnston,  D.  S.  B.,  217 
Johnston,  George,  for,  98,  246 
Johnston's  1.,  246 
Jolly  Ann,  1.,  401 

Jones  cr.,  189;  bay,  494;  L,  26,  218 
Jones    t,    38;    sta.,    for    John    T. 

Jones,  484. 
Jordan  bluff  and  cr.,  212 
Jordan  c,  508;  t,  193,   (510) 
Jordan  crs.,  N.  and  S.,  193,  196;  1., 

296 
Jorgenson,  1.,  435 
Josephine  1.,  131,  443,  516 
Josephine,   mt.,    147,    148.   503,   654 
Jubert's  1.,  233 
Judd,  Mrs.  B.  S.,  and  Mrs.  W.  S., 

for,  85 
Judge  sta.,  for  Edward  Judge,  387 
Judson  l,  318,  320 
Judson   t,    for   Adoniram   Judson, 

b.,  60 


INDEX 


691 


Juggler  1.,  32 

Julia.  1.,  34,  35,  41,  516 

Julian  sources  of  Red  Lake  r.  and 

the  Mississippi,  41,  126 
Juneberry  p.  o.,  472 
Juni,  Benedict,  68,  71 ;  for,  b.,  72 
Juni,  1.,  72 
Junkins  1.,  590 
Juno  1.,  145 
Jupiter  t,  278 
Justus,  Daniel,  n.,  85 


Kabekona  1.  and  r.,  247 

Kabetogama  1.,  496,  498 

Kaercher,  John,  for,  192;  n.,  194 

Kaginogumag  1.,  246 

Kahra,   see    Kara 

Kakabikans  rapids,  133 

Kakigo  1..  141 

Kalberg,  Frederick  S.,  121 ;  n.,  123 

Kalevala  t.,   for  poem  of  Finland, 

74 
Kalmar  t,  387 

Kanabec  co.,  10,  265-7 ;  t..  266 
Kanaranzi  cr.,  380,  467;  t.  and  v., 

467 
Kandiyohi  co.,  268-275;  Is.,  268;  t. 

and  v.,  270;   (townsite,  270) 
Kandota  t,  545 
Kane  1.,  295,  512 
Kansas  1.,  for  John  Kensie,  576 
Kaposia,  Sioux  v.,  170,  442 
Kara  or  Kahra  band  of  Sioux,  55 
Karl  1.,  141 
Karlstad  v.,  278 
Kasota  L,  273;  t.  and  v.,  301 
Kasson  v.,  for  Jabez  H.  Kasson,  b., 

173 
Kathio  t,  344,  348 
Katrina,  1.,  218,  232 
Kaufit  1.,  499 
Kawasachong  1.,  294,  296 
Kawimbash  r.,  143 
Kawishiwi  r.,  296 
Kearny,   Stephen  W.,   11,   198,  363 
Keating,    W.    H.,    cited,    4,    7,    12, 

39,  53,  55,  58,  97,   102,   149;   q., 

170;  206,  209,  224,  276,  291,  292, 

374,  443,  448,  455,  550,  552,  554, 

581 
Kedron,  br.,  196 

Keegan,  Andrew,  n.,  166;  for,  168 
Keegan,  1.,  168;  sta.,  557 
Keenan  sta.,  for  C.  J.  Keenan,  485 
Keene  t.,  117;  cr.,  493 
Keewatin,  iron  mining  v.,  255 
Keewaydin,  Hotel,  234 


Kego  t.,  89;  1.,  163 

Keil  t.,  38 

Kekequabic  1.,  296 

Keller,  C.  E.,  and  Herbert  P.,  for, 

626 
Kelley,  Oliver  H.,  418 
Kelliher  t.,  for  A.  O.  Kelliber,  38 
Kellogg  v.,  557 
Kelly,  Matthew,  n.,  83 
Kelly  1..  143,  342,  485,  500 
Kelly's  1.,  for  Patrick  Kelly.  182 
Kelly  Lake  v.,  485 
Kelsey,  James,  n.,  23 
Kelsey  t.  and  v.,  485 
Kelso  1.,  143 ;  t.,  519 
(Kemp's   id.,   572) 
Kennedy,  Dr.  V.  P.,  n.,  316 
Kennedy    v.,    for    J.    S.    Kennedy, 

b.,  278 
Kenneth  v.,  467 
Kennison   1.,   319 
Keno   I.,   145 
Kenora,  Ont,  285 
Kensie's  1.,  for  John  Kensie,  576 
Kensington    v.,    177;    rune    stone, 

177 
Kent,  Myron  R.,  n.,  266;   for,  267 
Kent  1.,  267;  v.,  (312,)   578 
Kentucky,  name  from,  508 
Kenyon,  Dr.  Thomas,  n.,  534 
Kenyon  t.  and  v.,  207 
Keoxa,  Wabasha's  village,  584 
Kepper  1..  530 
Kerkhoven  t.  and  v.,  541 
Kerrick  t,  and  v.,  for  C.  M.  Kcr- 

rick,  b.,  412 
Kerry  1.,  521 
Kertsonville  t.,  425 
Kerwin,  John,  for,  625 
Kettle   1.,    78;    r.,   75,   412;    Upper 

and     Lower     falls,     415;     falls. 

Rainy  1.,  498;  cr.,  562 
Kettle  River  v.,  75;  t.,  412;  rapids, 

415 
Key  id.,  494 

Keyes,  Dr.  (Charles  R-,  cited,  13 
Keyes  1.,  404 

Keystone  t.,  and  farm,  425 
Kichi  1.,  43 
Kid  id.,  494 

Kiefer,   Andrew   R.,   for,  625 
Kiester,  Jacob  A.,   for,  b.,   186 
Kiester  t,  186;  hills  and  moraine. 

189 
Kilby  1.,  for  Benj.  E.  Kilby,  65 
Kildare  t,  541 
Kilkenny  t.  and  v.,  301 
Kilpatrick,   1.,    100 


692 


INDEX 


Kimball  cr.  and  1.,  for  Charles  G. 
Kimball,  144;  1.,  162 

Kimball  t,  for  W.  S.  Kimball,  b., 
262 

Kimball  Prairie  v.,  for  Frye  Kim- 
ball, 524 

Kimberly  t.,  for  M.  C.  Kimberly, 
b.,    15 

Kinbrae  v.,  378 

King,  Glendy,  n.,  176 

King,  Rev.  Lyndon,  for.  601 

King,  William  S.,  for,  341,  601, 
607 

King  1.,  258,  274,  319,  341,  530;  cr., 
341,  559 

King  t.,  for  Ephraim  King,  426 

King's  Cooley  sta.,  557 

Kinghurst  t,  for  C.  M.  King,  255 

Kingman  t.,   for  W.  H.  Kingman, 

Kingsbury  cr.,   for  W.   W.   Kings- 
bury, b.,  493,  654 
Kingsdale  v.,  412 
Kingston  id.,  286;  t.  and  v.,  340 
Kinkaid,    Alexander    and    William, 

for,  b.,  175,   176;  181;  Mary  A., 

for,  178 
Kinmount  sta.,  485 
Kinney  v.,  for  O.  D.  Kinney,  485 
Kinniicinnick,  448 
Kintire  t.,  450 

Kirby  1.,  for  J.  P.  Kirby,  b..  521 
Kirk  1.,  for  Thomas  H.  Kirk,  132 
Kiskadinna  1.,  141,  142 
Kitihi  1.,  43 
Kittson,  Norman  W.,  for,  b.,  276; 

381,  426,  612,  636,  646 
Kittson  CO..  276-280;  sta.,  426 
Kittson's   pt.,   Stillwater,   572 
Kitzville  v.,  485 
Kjorstad  1.,  502 
Kline  t.,  283 
Klondike  t,   158 

Klossner  v.,  for  J.  Klossner,  b.,  372 
Kn&PPf  John  H.,  for,  631,  633 
Knaus  1.,  530 
Knife   falls,   75;   I.,  249,  266,  297, 

505;   r.,  266,  295,  492;  pt,  295; 

id.,  295,  493 
Knife  Falls  t,  and  portage,  75 
Knife  Lake  t,  266 
Knife  River  v.,  294 
Knight,  Byron,  n,,  451 
Knobel,  1.,  403 
Knott,  James  Proctor,  481;  for,  b., 

488 
Knowles  I.,  465 
Knowlton's  cr.,  493 


Knox,  Mrs.  Daniel  J.,  n.,  17 
Knox,  Gen.  Henry,  for,  603 
Knute  t.,  for  Knute  Nelson,  426 
Knutsen  1.,  for  G.  Knutsen,  b.,  567 
Koch,  Mrs.  Theodor  F.,  for,.  103 
Kohlman  1.,  442 
Konig  t.,  38 
Koniska  v.,  318 
Koochiching    co.,    281-287 
Koochiching  r.,  8,  281,  294;  t.,  283; 

(v..  283) 
Koronis,  1.,  342,  530 
Kost    v.,    for   Ferdinand    A.    Kost, 

108 
Kraemer,  George,  for,  524 
Kraemer  1.,  530 
Kraetz  1.,  232 
Kragero  t,  for  Hans  H.  Kragero, 

b.,  104 
Kragnes  t.,  for  A.  O.  Kr agues,  117 
Krain  t.,  524 
Kratka  t.  and  v.,  for  F.  H.  Krat- 

ka,  b.,  407 
Kray's  1.,  530 
Kreighl  1..  530 

Kroschel  t.,  for  H.  Kroschel,  266 
Kruger  1.,  for  Louis  Kruger,  72 
Kugler  t.,  for  Fred  Kugler,  485 
Kurtz,  Col.  John  D.,  117 
Kurtz  t.,  for  Thomas  C.  Kurtz,  117 
Kuzel  1.,  304 


Labelle,  1.,  32 

(La  Biche,  1.,  129) 

Lac  qui  Parle  co.,  288-292 

Lac  qui  Parle,  1.,  11,  104.  288,  455: 

mission,  104;  r.,  292,  598;  t.,  290 
La  Crescent  t.  and  v.,  239 
(La  Croix  cr.,  456) 
La  Croix  1.,  and  portage.  496,  497 
La    Crosse    c.    Wis.,    and    prairie, 

239,  253 
La  Crosse  t.,  262 
Lacy,  1.,  401 
La  Due's  bluff,  for  A.  D.  La  Due, 

174 
Udy  1.,  547 
Lady   Shoe  and   Lady   Slipper  Is., 

315 
Lafayette  bay,  235;  t.  and  v.,  372 
(La  Fayette  townsite,  119;  t,  532) 
La  Fond,  Benjamin,  for,  629 
La   France,  Joseph,   8,  9;   q.,   124, 

281,  321 
Lagarde    t.,    for    Moses  Lagarde» 

323 
La  Grand  t,  177 


INDEX 


693 


La  Harpe,  Bernard  de.,  q.,  10,  343 

Lahontan,  Baron  de,  11 

Uird  sta.,  for  W.  H.  Uird,  b.,  387 

Lake  CO.,  8,  293-299 

(Lake  r.,  now  Little  Rock  cr.,  52) 

Lake  t.,   (61,  186,)   557 

Lake  Alice  t.,  244 

Lake  Andrew  t.,  and  1.,  270 

Lake  Belt  t.,  334,  336 

Lake  Benton  t.  and  v.,  308 

Lake  City,  c,  557 

Lake  Crystal  v.,  and  I.,  60 

Lake  Edward  t,  and  L,  158 

Lake  Elizabeth  t.,  and  1.,  271 

Lake  Elmo  v.,  569 

Lake  Emma  t.,  244 

Lake  Eunice  t.,  and  1.,  29 

Lake  Fremont  t,  334;  v.,  515 

Lake  George  t.,  244,  524 

Lake  Grove  t,  323 

Lake  Hanska  t,  and  1.,  69,  70 

Lake  Hattie  t.,  244 

Lake  Henry  t.,  525 

Lake  Ida  t.,  383 

Lake  Jessie  t.,  255 

I^ke  Johanna  t.,  431 

Lake  Lillian  t,  269,  271 

Lake  Marshall  t,  313 

I-ake  Mary  t.,  178 

Lake  Park  t.,  29 

Lake  Pleasant  t.,  446 

Lake  Prairie  t,  373 

Lake  Sarah  t.,  366 

Lake  Shore  t.,  290 

Lake  Stay  t.,  308 

(Lake    Traverse   v.,    551) 

Lake  Valley  t.,  552 

Lake  View  t.,  29,  75 

Lake  Wilson  t„  366 

Lakefield  v.,  262 

Lakeland  t.,  569 

Lakeport    t.,    244 

Lakeside  t.,   16,  150;  d.,  485 

Lakeside  Park  v.,  426 

Laketown  t.,  83 

Lakeview  v.,  569 

Lakeville  t.,  166;  v.,  167 

Lakewood  t.,  38,  485 

Lakin  t,  for  F.  H.  Lakin,  352 

Lambert    1.,    for    Louis    Lambert, 

442 
Lambert    t.,    for    F.    Lambert,    b., 

446 
Lamberton   t.   and   v.,   for   H.   W. 

Lamberton,  b.^  450 
Lambs  sta.,  for  John  and  Patrick 

H.  Lamb,  117 


Lammers  t.,  for  G.  A.  and  A.  J. 

Lammers,  38 
Lamoille  v.,  582 

Lamphere,  George  N.,  114;  q.,  119 
Lamprey,    Mrs.    Jeannette    R.,    for, 

620 
Lamprey,  Uri  L.,   for,  620,  640 
Lancaster  v.,  279 
Land  t.,  215 

Land's  End,  near  Ft.  Snelling,  236 
Lane,  Silas  and  Isaac  E.,  for,  601 
Lane's  id.,  517, 
Lanesboro  v.,  193 

Lanesburg  t.,  for  C.  L.  Lane,  302 
Langdon,   1.,    for    R.    V.    Langdon, 

2Z2 
Langdon    v.,    for    R.    B.    Langdon, 

b.,  569 
Langford,    Nathaniel    P.,    for,   631, 

633,  641 
Langhei  t.,  431;  hill,  435 
Langola  t.,  50 

Langor  t.,  for  H.  A.  Langord,  38 
Lanman,   Charles,  quoted,  230 
Lansing  t.  and  v.,  360 
Laona  t.,  472 
(Laplace,  r.,  246) 
La  Pointe,  Wis.,  treaty,  506 
Laporte  v.,  244 
La  Prairie  v.,  255 
Larch-  1.,   141 

Larkin  t.,  for  John  Larkin.  378 
Larpenteur,   Auguste   L.,  611;   for, 

b.,  626 
Larsmont  sta.,  294 
Larson,   Louis,  n.,  271 ;   Larson   1., 

401 
La  Salle,  Robert  Cavelier  de,  5,  6; 

for,  126,  134,  246,  248,  575 

La  Salle  Is.  and  r.,   126,   134,  246. 

■    248;   v.,  575 

Lashier,  1.,  547 

Last  cr.,  48 

Latimer,  1.,  for  A.  E.  Latimer,  547 

Latimore,  Alex  F.,  n.,  406 

Latoka,  1.,  181 

Latona  p.  o.,  244 

Latrobe,    Charles    J.,    quoted,   230; 
443 

Lau  1.,  576 . 

Laura,  1.,  and  br.,  99 

Lauzer's  1.,  590 

Lavell  t.,  485 

(Lavinius  1.,  48) 

Lawndale  v.,  5/8 

Lawrence,    1.,   99,   404;    for    Hugh 

Lawrence,  258;  t.,  215 
Lawson,  Prof.  Andrew  C,  148 


694 


INDEX 


Lawson,    Victor    E.,    q.,   268;   269, 

275 
Lax  Lake  sta.,  and  1.,  294,  295 
Lazarus  cr.,  292 
Lea,  Albert  M.,  cited,  11,  13;   for, 

b.,  198;  199,  203,  204,  210,  363 
Lea,  Luke  and  Pryor,  199,  375 
Leaf  hills,  or  mts.,  1,  396,  405,  561; 

Is.  and  r.,  396,  561,  562 
Leaf  Hills  moraine,  404,  405 
Leaf  Lake  t.,  396 
Leaf  Mountain  t,  396 
Leaf  River  t.  and  v.,  561 
Leaf  Valley  t.,  178 
Leaks  sta.,  for  John  Leaks,  158 
Leander  sta.,  485 
Leaping  rock,  420 
Leavenworth,      Col.      Henry,      70, 

227;  b.,  229;  572;  Mrs.  Harriet, 

for,  b.,  229,  602 
Leavenworth  t.,  70 
Leavitt,   1.,   99 
Lebanon   t,    166 
Le  Due,  Gen.  William  G.,  168,  169, 

231 
Lee,  O.  K.,  for,  446 
Lee,  William  E.,  543;   for,  b.,  545 
Lee  1.,  120 
Lee  t,  for  Olaf  Lee.,  16;  another, 

38;  for  Ole  Lee,  383 
Lee's  Siding  sta.,  545 
Leech,  Gen.  Samuel,  for,  613 
Leech    L,    1,   35,   90;   bays,   points, 

and  islands,  94-96;   100,   101 
Leech  1.,  Chisago  co.,  11 
Leech  Lake  r.,  35;  t..  90,  100,  101 
Leech   Lake   Agency,  95,   101 ;   In- 
dian reservation,   101 
Leeds  t,  366 
Leek  1.,  404 
Leenthrop  t.,  104 
Left  Hand  r.,  75 
Le  Hommedieu,  1.,  176,  177,  iSo 
Leading  t.,  485 

Leigh  t,  for  Joseph  P.  Leigh,  352 
Le  May  t,  for  Frank  Le  May,  16; 

].,  168 
Lemond  t.,  533 
Lena  1.,  356,  415 
Lengby  v.,  426 

Lenhart's  1.,  for  J.  F.  Lenhart,  152 
Lennofi  1.,  511 
Lenora  v.,   194 

Lent  t.,  for  Harvey  Lent,  108 
Leo  1.,  140;  p.  o.,  472 
Leon  L,  402 
Leon  t.,  122,  207 
Leonard,  Dr.  William  E.,  599,  600 


AW 


Leonard  v.,   123 

Leonardsville  t.,   for   Patrick  Leo- 
nard, b.,  552 
Leora  1.,  499 
Leota  t.,  378 
Le  Ray  t,  61 

Le  Roy  t.  and  v.,  360;   (t,  594) 
Le  Sauk  t.,  51,  525 
Leslie  t.  and  v.,   for  J.   B.   Leslie, 

545 
Lessor  t.,  426 
Lester  r.,  492,  653.  654 
Lester  Park  d.,  485,  493,  647,  654 
Lester  Prairie  v.,  for  J.  N.  Lester, 

318 
Le  Sueur,   Pierre  Charles,   for,  3; 

13,  57,  164;   for,  b.,  300;  343 
Le  Sueur  co.,  2,  300-305;  c  and  t, 

302 
Le  Sueur  1.,  204;  cr.  or  r.,  302 
Le  Sueur  Center  v.,  302 
Lettsom,  Dr.  John  C,  80 
Levasseur,  Emile,  128 
Leven  t,  432;  1.,  435 
Leverett,   Frank,  21,  505 
Lewis,  Edwin  Ray,  for,  285 
Lewis,  Eli  F.,  n.,  319 
Lewis,  Robert  P.,  for,  641 
Lewis,  Theodore  H.,  128,  370 
Lewis  I.,  267 

Lewiston  v.,  for  S.  J.  Lewis,  582 
Lewisville,     for     R.,     J.,     and     N. 

Lewis,  575 
Lexington  t.  and  v.,  302 
Lexington  Park  d.,  440,  636 
L'Huillier,  assayer,  and  Fort,  57 
Liards,  Rivere  aux,  two,  149 
Libby  t.,   for   Mark  Libby,   16 
Libby's  pt.,  Mitle  Lacs,  347 
Liberty  t.,  38,  426 
(Liberty  t,  29,  82,  83,  201,  396) 
Lida,  1.,  and  t.,  396 
Lieberg  1.,  for  Ole  P.  Lieberg,  65 
Lien  t.,  for  Ole  E.  Lien,  b.,  215 
Lienau  1.,  499 
Lightfoot  1.,  591 
Lightning  1.,  217,  401;   Is.,  434 
Lillian,  L,  271 

Lilly  1.,  for  Terrence  Lilly,  b.,  567 
Lily  cr.,  337;  pond,  607 
Lily  1.,  65;  Is.,  Lower,  and  Upper, 

138;  258,  567,  573 
Lima  t.,  90 

Lime  cr.,  203,  204,  366;  1.,  366 
Lime  t.,  61 
(Lime  t,  207) 
Lime  Creek  v.,  366 
Lime  Lake  t.,  366 


INDEX 


695 


Limestone  t.,  308;  1.,  591 
Lincoln,    Abraham,    for,    61 ;    175 ; 

b.,  306;  328,  352,  569,  605,  635, 

653 
Lincoln  co.,  306-310 
Lincoln  t,  61,  328,  569;  v.,  352;  1., 

435 
Lind,  Gov.  John,  n.,  122;  for,  133, 

b,  472 
Lind  sa<klle  trail,   133;  t.,  472 
Linden  t.  and  1.,  70 
Linden  Grove  t.,  485 
Linderman  1.,  251 
Lindford   t.,    for    L.    A.    Lindwall, 

284 
Lindgren  1.,  274 
Lindquist,  Peter,  n.,  271 
Lindsey,  Mrs.  Alberta,  for,  535 
Lindstrom    v.,    for    D.    Lindstrom, 

b.,  108 
Linka,    1.,   434 
Linn  1.,  Ill 
Linneman  1.,  530 
Linnwood  1.,  500 
Linsell  t.,  329 
Linwood  t.  and  1.,  24,  25 
Lisbon  t,  (313,)  595 
Lismore  t.  and  v.,  378 
Litchfield.  E.  Darwin,  for,  339,  340 
Litchfield  t.  and  v.,  340 
Little  1.,  45,  112,  375,  402 
Little  Bass  1.,  43 
Little  Beaver  cr.,  469 
(Little  Bemidji  1.,  31.  42) 
Little  Bowstring  I.,  258 
Little  Boy  1.,  88 
Little  Brick  id.,  .146 
Little  Brule  r.,  145 
Little  Cannon  r.,  211,  304 
Little  Cedar  r.,  363 
Little  Chippewa  r.,  434 
Little  Cobb  r.,  64,  566 
Little  Coon  1.,  25 
Little  Cormorant  1.,  31 
Little  Cottonwood  r.,  152 
Little  Crow,  Sioux  chief,  v.,  170 
Little  Duck  1.,  Ill 
Little  Elbow  1.,  324 
Little  Elk  1.,  130 ;  r.  and  rapids,  353, 

357  545;  t.,  545 
Little  Falls  c!  and  t,  352,  353,  394 
Little  Fish  Trap  1.  and  cr.,  549 
Little  Floyd  1.,  Z2 
Little  fork  of  Rainy  r.,  286,  505 
Little  Fork  v.,  284 
Little  Horseshoe  1.,  Ill 
Little  Hubert  1.,  162 
Little  Jessie  1.,  255 


Little  Le  Sueur  r.,  566 
Little  Long  1.,  98,  258 
Little  Man  Trap  1..  132,  248 
Little  Marais  v.,  294 
Little  Mesabi  1.,  501 
Little   Mississippi  r.,   125 
Little  Moose  1.,  38 
Little  Norway  1.,  99 
Little  Osakis  1.,  548 
Little  Oyster  Is.,  203 
Little  Partridge  cr.,  547 
Little  Pine  t.,  1.,  and  r.,  158;  r.,  415 
Little  Rabbit  1.,  160,  162 
Little  rapids,  84,  511 
Little  Rock  cr.  and  1.,  52,  374 
Little  Rock  r.,  34,  374,  378;  cr.  and 
pt,  48 ;  cr.,  459 
Little   Rock   t.,   378;   trading  post, 

459 
(Little  Sack  r.,  51) 
Little  Saganaga  1.,  141 
Little  Sand  1.,  99,  162 
Little  Sauk  t.,  51 ;  t.,  v.,  and  1.,  545 
Little  Sioux  r.,  263 
Little  Snake  r.,  19,  267 
Little  Spirit  1.,  264 
Little  Stony  1.,  247 
Little  Swan  cr.,  547 
Little  Thunder  1.,  99 
Little  Turtle  1.,  258 
Little  Vermilion  1.,  246,  496;  r.,  496 
Little  Whitefish  1.,  99 
Little  Willow  r.,  17,  18 
Livingston,  Crawford,   for,  618 
Livonia  t,  515 
Lizard  1.,  162,  460 
Lizzie,  1.,  400,  530 
Lobster  1.,  180 
Lobstick  pt,  498 
Lock's  pt.,  234 
Locke  1.,  591 
Lockhart  t.  and  v.,  383 
Lockwood,  H.  H.,  for,  641 
Lockwood,  Samuel  D.,  n.,  261 
L«di  t,  361 
Logan,  Gen.  John  A.,  for,  b.,  215; 

603,  609 
Logan  t.,   for  lakes    (logans),   16; 

215 
Logue  1.,  465 
Lomond,  1.,  125 
London  t.  and  v.,  201 
Lone  1.,  20,  324;  fock,  170;  mound, 

389,  557 
Lone  Pine  I.,  26 
Lone  Tree  1.,  and  p.  o.,  69;  72,  104, 

106,  315,  336;  t.,  104 
Lonergan  1.,  534    . 


696 


INDEX 


Long,  Major  S.  H.,  3,  4,  7,  11,  12, 
^9,  53,  55,  58,  74,  97,  121,  125,  206, 
209,  210;  quoted,  211;  224,  276, 
291,  295,  331,  348,  373,  374,  408, 
428,  442,  444,  455,  470,  495,  496, 
498,  508,  514,  550,  552,  554,  562, 
581,  597 

Long  bay,  495;  cr.,  559 

Long  1.,  20,  ZZ,  43,  65,  83,  84.  100, 
126;  of  Pigeon  r.,  137;  140,  143, 
152(2),  158.  162(4),  180,  181(3), 
182,  217,  222,  231(2),  232,  247, 
248,  251(4),  255,  264,  267,  274 
(2),  295,  304,  315,  ZZl,  341(3), 
342,  357,  369(2),  384,  400,  401(2). 
402(3),  404,  442,  443,  460,  500(2), 
501(3),  502,  512,  516,  529,  530(3), 
538,  547(2),  548(2),  573(4).  575, 
576,  591 

Long  pt,  44,  548;  prairie,  545,  549 

Long  siding,  for  E.  C.  Long,  345 

Long  Island  1.,  141,  142 

Long  Lake  t,  158,  255,  575;  v.,  222 

Long  Prairie,  59,  66,  545;  r.,  176, 
180,  545,  546;  t.  and  v.,  545 

Long  Rice  1.,  246 

Long  Sault  rapids,  Rainy  r.,  285 

Long  Water  1.,  98,  246 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  6.  75.  87,  90, 
118,  134,  159,  221,  226,  231,  293, 
321.  324,  367,  397,  416,  451,  453, 
561,  607;  for,  602,  609,  637;  also 
see  Hiawatha 

Longfellow,  Jacob,  for,  602 

Longworth  sta.,  for  N.  Longworth, 
b.,  472 

Longyear  1.,  501 

Lonnrot,  Elias,  74 

Lonsdale  v.,  462 

Lookout  pt.,  235 

Loon  1.,  ZX  43.  65.  90,  141,  247,  264, 
267,  402.  403,  496,  497,  502,  567; 
r.,  496,  502 

Loon  Lake  t.,  SW 

Looney  1.,  547  • 

Lorain  t.,  378 

Loretto  v.,  222 

Loring,  Charles  M.,  for,  232;  607, 
608 

Loring  Park  1.,  232 

Lome  sta.,  for  Marquis  of  Lome, 
b.,  595 

Lorsung  1.,  for  Joseph  Lorsung, 
182 

Lory  1.,  for  H.  A.  Lory,  251 

Lost  r.,  123,  125,  428,  447;  1.,  295, 
495,  501;  Is.,  East,  and  West, 
400;  cr..  196,  502 


Lottie  1.,  180 

Loughnan's  1.,  320 

Louisa,  1.,  370,  529,  591 

Louisburg  v.,  290 

Louise,  1.,  141,  180 

Louisville  t,  446,  508;  (v.,  509) 

Louriston  t.,  104 

Love  I.,  162,  384 

Lovejoy  1.,  for  C.  O.  Lovejoy,  563 

Lover's  1.,  180;  pt.  and  bay,  145 

Low's  1.,  162 

Lowe's  1.,  for  Lewis  Lowe,  548 

Lowell  t.,  426 

(Lower  Red  Cedar  1.,  17-) 

Lower  Sioux  Agency,  450,  453,  460 

Lower  Trout  1.,  145,  147 

Lower's  1.,  264 

Lowry,  Thomas,  n.,  23 ;  for.  b.,  432, 

606,  610;  statue,  606,  610 
Lowry  v.,  432 
Lowville  t.,   for  J.  H.  and  B.   M. 

Low,  b.,  366 
Lucan  v.,  450,-  (473) 
Lucas  t,  313 
Luce  v.,  396 
Lucille  id.,  146 
Lucknow  sta.,  485 
Lucy,  I.,  85,  (168) 
Lum  I.,  141 
Lumbering,  2,  22,  121,  123,  125,  137, 

242,  251,  293,  410 
Lund  t.,  178 ;  1..  342 
Lundeberg,  1.,  401 
Lura,  1.,  64,  233,  529;  t,  187 
Lutsen  t,  136 

Luveme  c,  467;  t.,  468  v 

Luxemburg  t.  and  v.,  525 
Lydiard  1.,  232 
Lye  I.,  401 
Lyendecker  1.,   133 
Lyle  t.  and  v.,  for  Robert  Lyle,  361 
L3mch,  Frederick  B.,  for,  634 
Lynd  t.  and  v.,  for  James  W.  Lynd, 

b.,  313 
Lynden  t.,  525 
Lyndon,  Gov.  Josiah,   for,  b.,  525, 

601 
Lynn  t.,  318 
Lynwood  sta.,  485 
Lyon,  Gen.  Nathaniel,  for,  b..  311 
Lyon  CO.,  311-315 
(Lyons  cr..  66) 
Lyons  t.,  313;  for  Harrison  Lyons. 

561 
Lyra  t,  61,  (i6 
Lysne  v.,  531 
Lyton,  Michael,  for,  641 


INDEX 


697 


Mabel  v,  194;  1.,  304 
Macalester,   Qiarles,   for,  636 
Macalester  College,  440,  636 
Macalester  Park  d.,  440,  636 
McArthur's  id.,  163 
McCain,  Gen.  Henry  P.,  quoted,  228 
McCarrahan   1.,    for   W.    McCarra- 

han,  548 
McCarron  1.,  for  J.  E.  McCarron, 

b.,  442 
McCauleyville  t.  and  v.,  for  David 

McCauley,  b.,  578;  beach  of  Lake 

Agassiz.  580 
(McClellan  t.,  for  Gen.  G.  B.  Mc- 

Clellan,  61) 

McClelland,    Mrs.    Eunice,    for,   29, 
33 

(McCloud  cr.,  612,  614) 

McCloud's  1„  217,  434 

McCormick  t.,  255 ;  1.,  530 

McCracken  sta.,  for  W.  McCrack- 
en,  557 

McCrea  t.,  for  Andrew  McCrea,  b., 
329 

McCrery,  James  L.,  n.,  186 

McCrory,  W.  G.,  n.,  586 

McCulloch,  Hugh,  for,  648;  n.,  653 

McDavitt  t,  for  J.  A.  McDavitt, 
485 

McDonald  1.,  356;  Is.,  Big,  and  Lit- 
tle, 403 

McDonaldsville  t,  for  Finnen  Mc- 
Donald, 383 

McDougal  cr.,  for  R.  McDougal,  b., 
566 

McDougald  t,  for  J.  McDougald, 
38 

McFarland  I.,  140 

McGowan  1.,  for  Daniel  McGowan, 
337 

McGregor  t.,  16 

McGroarty,  John,  n.,  166 

Mcintosh  v.,  426 

Mclntyre,  George,  for,  51 

McKay  1.,  for  Rev.  S.  A.  McKay, 
133 

McKenty,  Henry,  n.,  b.,  440;  443, 
627,  629,  639 

McKenty,    Mrs.   Johanna,    for,   443 

McKenty,  Josephine,   for,  443 

Mackenzie,  Alexander,  138,  139.  140, 
297,  496 

Mackenzie's  cr.,  465 

McKenzie,  Roderick,  45 

McKinley,  William,  for,  b.,  90,  279 ; 
605,  630 

McKinley  t.,  90.  279 

McKinley  v.,  for  brothers,  485 


McKinstry  1.,  32 

Mackubin,  Charles  N.,  for,  617;  n., 

624-5 
McKusick,   John,   n.,   571 ;    for,    b., 

573 
McKusick's  1.,  573 
McLaughlin,  Andrew  C,  87 
McLean,   Mrs.  Hester,   for,  622 
McLean,  Nathaniel,  for,  b.,  437,  622 
McLean,  Robert  B.,  145 
(McLean  t,  437,  622) 
McLeod,  Martin,  n.,  220,  317;  for, 

b..  316 
McLeod,  W.  W.,  30 
McLeod  CO..  316-320;  t.,  255 
McMahon  1.,  511 
McMenemy,  Robert,  for,  628 
McMullen  1.,  for  W.  McMullen,  133 
McNabb,   Francis,  and  others,   for, 

215 
McNair,  William  W.,  for,  605 
McPhail,  Samuel,  n.,  238,  289,  307; 

451 
McPherson  t.,  for  Gen.  J.  B.  Mc- 

Pherson,  b.,  61,  66 
McQuade  1.,  500 
Macsville  t.,  2K 
McVeigh  sta.,  255 
Macville  t.,  16 
Madaline,  1.,  357 
Madelia  t.  and  v..  575 
Madison,  James,  for,  61,  605 
Madison  1.,  61 ;     t.     and     v.,  290 ; 

(t.,  311) 
Madison  Lake  t.,  61 
Magdalena  1.,  48 
Magnet  id.,  146;  Magnetic  1.,  139 
Magnolia  t.  and  v.,  468 
Magoffin,  Beriah,  for,  637,  638 
(Mahkahta  co.,  58) 
Mahla  1.,  for  M.  H.  Mahla,  182 
Mahnomen  co.,  321-325;  t.,  323 
Mah-nu-sa-tia,    Ojibway    name    for 
northern  Minnesota,  3 
Mahtomedi  v.,  441,  569 
Mahtowa  t.,  75 
Maiden  1.,  152 

Maiden's  Rock,  Lake  Pepin,  581 
Maine,  John,  n.,  193 
Maine,  names  from,  23,  89,  225,  250 

(2),  265,  327,  329,  344,  345,  372, 

396,  430,  451,  515,  525,  571,  650 
Maine  t,  396 

Maine  Prairie  t.  and  v.,  525 
Mainites,  344 

Mallard  1.,  20,  123;  v.,  123 
Mallmann's   peak,    for   John   Mall- 

mann,  298 


698 


INDEX 


Mallory  v.,  for  C.  P.  Mallory,  b., 

426 
Malmedard,  1.,  435 
Malmo  t,  16 

Malone  id.,  for  Giarles  Malone/346 
Malta  t,  54 
Malung  t.  and  v.,  473 
Mamre  t.  and  I,  271 
Man  1.,  573 

Manannah  t.  and  v.,  340 
Manchester  1.,  174;  t,  201 
Mandall  1.,  for  Lars  Mandril,  til 
Mandt  t.,  for  E.  T.  Mandt.  104 
Mandus  sta.,  473 

Maney  sta.,  for  E.  J.  Maney,  485 
Manfred  t,  290 
Manganese  v.,  158,  160 
Manganika  1.,  501 
Manido  r.,  160 
Manitou  id.,  441 ;  r.,  295 
Manitou   t.,  and   rapids,    Fiainy   r., 

284 
Mankato  c.  and  t.,  58,  61 
Manley   sta.,    for    W.    P.    Manley, 

468;  cr.,  547 
(Manomin  co.,  23;  r.,  18;  1.,  20;  cr., 

47) 
Manomin  1.,  43.  162,  296 
Mansfield   t.,  201 
Manson,    1.,    for   Andrew    Manson, 

542 
Manston  t.  (and  v.),  579 
Mantor,   Peter,    Riley,   and   Frank, 

for,  b.,  173 
Mantorville  t.  and  v.,  173 
Man  Trap  1.,  132,  244;  Mantrap  t, 

244 
Manuella  1.,  341 
Manvel,  Allen,  for,  632 
Many  Point  1..  32 
Manyaska  t,  334;  1.,  ZZ7 
Maple  I.,  180,  181,  188,  341 ;  Is,  N. 

and  S.,  400;  426,  429,  548,  588 
Maple  r.,  62,  64,  188;  cr.,  534;  pt, 

347 ;  t,  90 
Maple  Bay  v.,  426 
Maple  Grove  t.,  158,  222 
Maple  Hill  t.,  137 
Maple  Lake  t.  and  v.,  588 
Maple  Plain  v.,  222 
Maple  Ridge  t.,  38,  250;  hill.  259 
Maple   sugar,    made   by   Ojibwavs, 

40,  90,  497 
Mapleton  t.  and  v.,  62;  (t.,  63) 
Maplewood  t.,  396 
Maraboeuf  1.,  139 
Marble  1.,  296;  t.,  308 
Marcell  t,  for  Andrew  Marcell,  255 


Marcy,  William  L.,  for,  601 

Marget  1.,  251 

Marguerite  1.,  315 

Maria  1.,  85,  366,  529(2),  530,  591 

Marie  1.,  591 

Marietta  v.,  290 

Marinda,  1.,  140 

Marine  t,  570;  Big  Marine  1.,  573 

Marine  Mills  v.,  570 

Marion,  1.,  166,  168,  319;  397,  403, 

502 
Marion  t.,  for  Gen.  Francis  Marion, 

387 
(Marion  Lake  t,  397) 
Mark  1.,  143 ;  Markee  1.,  162 
Markell,  Qinton,  for,  479 
Markham  p.  o.,  486;  1.,  500 
Markley  1.,  512 
Marks,  F.  O.,  n.,  62 
Markville  v.,  412 
(Marples   t,   for   CHiarles   Marples, 

187) 
Marquette,  Father  J.,  5,  6,  8;  for, 

42,  602,  646 
Marquette,  1.,  42,  126 
Marschner  t.,  457 
l^arsden  1.    443 
Marsh  1.,  56,  85,  143,  162,  290;  cr. 

323,  384;  r.,  384,  428 
Marsh  Creek  t,  323 
Marsh  Grove  t.  329 
Marshall,    Goy,    W.    R.,   270;    for, 

313,   b.,   326,   361,   600,  606,  609, 

617 
Marshall  c,  313;   co.,  326-331;  t., 

361 
Marshall,  1.,  32,  313,  315 
Marshan  1.,  25;     t.,     for   Michael 

Marsh  and  wife  Ann,  166 
Marshfield   t.,    for    Charles    Marsh 

and  Ira  Field,  308 
Marten  portage,  139 
Martha  1.,  Ill 
Martin,  Henry,  for,  b.,  332 
Martin,  Hon.  Morgan  L.,  n.,  3,  4; 

for,  b.,  332 
Martin,  Nathaniel,  n.,  165 
Martin,  W.  K.,  and  wife,  for,  243 
Martin,  William  P.,  and  J.  M.,  for, 

647 
Martin  co.,  332-337;  1.,  25.  332.  336 
Martin  t,   {27;)   for  John  Martin, 

468 
Martinsburg  t.,  457 
Marvin,  Luke,  for,  644 
Mary  cr.  and  1.,  131 


INDEX 


699 


Mary  1.,  157,  178,  180,  273,  274,  304. 

320,  342,  400,  435,  530,  576,  590 

(2),  591(2) 
Mary  t.,  383 

Maryland,  names  from,  443,  625 
Maryland  1.,  443 
Marysburg  v.,  302 
Marysland  t.,  541 
Marysville  t,  588 
Mashkenode  1.,  501 
Mason   1.,   402(2);    t.,    for    M.    D. 

Mason,  367 
Massachusetts,    names    from,    105, 

254,  302,  312,  314,  318,  362,  m, 

386,  426,  437.  440,  621 
Massacre  id.,  45 

Maston's  branch,  Zumbrb  r.,  174 
Matawan  v.,  565 
Matthews,  James  W.,  for,  369 
Matthews,   Martin   I.,  53,  54 
Mattocks,  Rev.  John,  80 
Mattson  1.,  for  John  Mattson,  181 
Maud  1.,  Z^ 
(Maudada  v.,   552) 
Maughan  1.,   for  G.  W.   Maughan, 

538 
Mavie  v.,  407 
Maxim  1.,  591 
Maxwell    bay,    235;    t.,    for   J.    H. 

Maxwell,  b.,  291 
May  t,  and  L  90,  98;  t,  for  Mor- 
gan May,  5/0 
Mayer  v.,  83 

Mayfield  t.,  for  A.  C  Mayfield,  407 
Mayhew  cr.,  1.,  and  Mayhew  Lake 

t..  for  George  V.  Mayhew,  b.,  50, 

51 
Mayhew    1.,    for    Henry    Mayhew, 

141,  143 
Maynard  v.,  104;  Is.,  342 
Mayville  t.,  239 
Maywood  t.,  50 
Mazaska  1.,  465 
Mazeppa  t.  and  v.,  557 
Mead,  Mike,  n.,  469 
Meadow  cr.,  315;  t,  561 
Meadow  Brook  t,  and  br.,  90,  284 
Meadow  Land  t.,  21^ 
Meadowlands  t,  486 
Meadows  p.  o.,  123;  t.,  579 
Meagher,  John  L.,  n.,  302 
M^dford  t.  and  v..  533 
Medicine  1.,  43,  232 
Medicine  Wood  (a  beech  tree),  572 
Medina  t.,  223 ;  1.,  232 
Meding  t.,  for  Paul  Meding.  284 
Medo  t.,  for  wild  potato,  62,  66 


Meeds    1.,    for   Alonzo    D.    Meeds, 

141,  145 
Meeker,  Bradley  B.,  for,  229,  235, 

b.,  338 
Meeker  co.,  338-342 
Meeker  id.,  229,  235,  236,  338 
Mehurin  t,  for  Amasa  and  Lucre- 

tia  S.  Mehurin,  b.  291 
Meire  Grove  v.,  525 
Melby  v.,  178 
Melissa,  1.,  ZZ 
Melon  1.,  297 

Melrose  t.  and  c,  525;  1.,  591 
Melville  t.,  457 

Memorial    Drive,    Minneapolis,   607 
Menahga  v.,  561 
Menan  id.,  494 
Mendota  v.   and   t.,   166,   167,   183, 

236,  518 
Menominee  Indians,  321,  596 
Mentor  v.,  426 
Meriden  t.  and  v.,  533 
Mcrriam,  John  L.,  for,  b.,  437,  509, 

605,  633,  642 
Merriam,  Mrs.  Laura,   for,  633 
Merriam,    Gov.     W.     R.,     for,    b., 

437,  633 
Merriam  Junction  sta.,  509 
Merriam  Park  d.,  437,  633-4 
Merrick,  A.  N.,  599 
Merrick,  George  B.,  374 
Merrick,  Rev.  John  A.,  quoted,  231 
Merrifield  v.,  158 

Merritt,  Leonidas,  476;  for,  b.,  486 
Merritt    townsite,    for    Alfred    and 

L.  Merritt,  486 
Merton  t.,  533 
Mesaba  t.  and  v.,  486,  504 
Mesabi  iron  range,  1,  147,  298,  492, 

500,  503,  504 
Mesabi   1.,   141,   143,   147;   moraine, 

504 
Metoswa  rapids,  42 
"Metropolisville,"  461 
(Metz  p.  o.,  561) 

Mexico,  names  from,  289,  327,  334 
Meyer  1.,  401,  548 
Michigan  state,  4;  territory,  86 
Michigan,  names  from,  220,  626 
Mickinock  t,  473,  474 
Micmac  1.,  295 
Middle  1.,  274,   375;   r.,   329,  331; 

cr.,  459,  559 
Middle  River  t,  v.,  and  r.,  329 
Middletown  t.,  262 
Middleville  t.,  588 
Midge  1..  248 
Midland  Junction  sta.,  557 


700 


INDEX 


Midvale  v.,  570 

Midway  en,  77,  486;  t.  151,  486 

Miesville  v.,  for  John  Mies,  167 

Mike  Drew  br.,  349 

Mikenna  1.,  130 

Milaca  v.  and  t.,  345 

Milan  v.  104 

Mildred  v.,  90 

Milford  t,  70 

Mill  cr.,  45,  529;  1.,  180,  548;  id., 
357 

Mill  Stone  1.,  591 

Mille  Lacs  co.,  343-349 

Mille  Ucs,  L,  1,  6.  10,  17.  249.  343 ; 
bays,  points,  and  islands,  346-8; 
reservation,  349 

Miller,  Dr.  and  Mrs,  A.  P„  for, 
379,  380 

Miller,  John,  n.,  272 

Miller,  Gov.  Stephen,  for,  146,  246 

Miller  cr.,  for  Robert  P.  Miller, 
493,  649,  653 

Miller,  1.,  161,  246 

Miller's  1.,  for  Herman  Mueller.  85 

Millersburg  v.,  for  G.  W.  Miller, 
462 

Millerville  t.  and  v.,  for  John  Mill- 
er, 178 

Milliken  cr.,  174 

Mills  1.,  for  Titus  Mills,  65 

Millville  v..  557 

Millward  t.,  16 

Millwood  t,  525 

Milo  t,  345 

Miloma  sta.,  262 

Milrov  v.,  for  Gen.  R.  H.  Milroy, 
b.,  450 

Milton  t,  173  (206;)  L,  2:?Z 

Miltona,  1.,  and  t.,  178,  179 

Mina  L,  180,  182 

Minard  1.,  26 

M  in  den  t,  50 

Mine  cr.,  72 

Mineral  1.,  401 ;  bluff,  585 

Minerva  t.  and  1.,  123 

Minikabda  Club  ground,  607 

Minister  ].,  181 

Mink  1.,  78,  403,  590,  591 

Minneapolis  c,  223,  227,  599-610 

Minneapolis  districts,  divisions, 
AND  additions:  North  and  South 
divisions,  west  of  the  Mississip- 
pi, 600,  602,  604;  Northeast  and 
Southeast  divisions,  600,  604; 
Bryn  Mawr  ad.,  604,  608;  Cam- 
den Park  d.,  607;  (Cheevertown, 
226;)  East  Minneapolis.  605,  606, 
631 ;    Groveland    ad.,    6(34 ;    Ken- 


wood ad.,  604,  605,  608;  Lake 
View  ad.,  604;  Linden  Hills  d.. 
607;  Nicollet  Island,  605;  Oak 
Lake  ad,  604,  605;  Oak  Park 
ad.,  604,  605,  608;  Prospect  Park 
d.,  606,  610;  Ridgewood  ad.,  604; 
(St.  Anthony,  226.  326,  600, 
605;)  Washburn  park  d.,  604, 
610 

MiNNEAFOus  streets:  (A  to  H, 
6(X);)  Adams,  605;  (.'\mes,  600. 
601;)  Arlington,  605;  Arthur, 
605;  Ash,  fi)5;  (Aspen,  two, 
600;)  (Avon,  600;)  Bank,  606; 
(Bay,  600;)  Beacon,  605;  Bed- 
ford, 606;  Benjamin,  605;  (Ben- 
ton, 600,  601;)  (Bingham,  600, 
601;)  (Birch,  two,  600;)  (Breck- 
enridge,  6(X),  601 ;)  Broadway, 
606;  Buchanan,  (600,  601),  605; 
California,  (600,)  606;  (Cass, 
600,  601;)  (Cataract,  600;)  Ce- 
cil. 606;  (Cedar,  600;)  Cedar 
Lake  road,  604;  (^handler,  606; 
(Christmas,  600,  601;)  Church. 
606;  (Qay,  two,  600,  601;) 
(Qayton,  600,  601;)  Cleveland, 
605;  Qifton  place,  605;  Crystal 
Lake  road,  604;  (Dakota,  two, 
600;)  (Dana,  600,  601;)  Dela- 
ware, 606;  Dell  place,  605;  (Di- 
vision, 601,  605;)  (Douglas,  600. 
601;)  Elm  (two,  600,)  605,  606; 
Elmwood  place,  604;  Emerald, 
606;  Erie,  606;  Essex,  606;  Fill- 
more, 605;  (Fremont,  600,  601;) 
Fulton,  606 ;  Garfield,  605 ;  Grand, 
606;  Grant,  604;  Grove,  (600,) 
605;  (Hanson,  600,  601;)  (Har- 
mon, 604;)  Harmon  place,  604; 
Harrison,  (600,  601.)  605;  Har- 
vard, 606;  Hayes,  605;  (Helen, 
600;)  Holden,  605;  (Howard. 
600,  601 ;)  (Huey,  600,  601 ;)  Hu- 
ron, 606;  (Itasca,  600;)  Jackson, 
605;  Jefferson.  605;  Johnson, 
605;  (Kansas,  600;)  (King,  600. 
601;)  Lake,  (two,  600,)  603; 
(Lane,  600,  601;)  (Lewis.  600. 
601;)  Lincoln,  605;  (Linden, 
6(X);)  McKinley,  605;  Madison. 
605;  Main.  6()6;  (Maple,  two, 
600;)  Maple  place,  605;  (Marcy, 
600,  601;)  Marshall,  (600,)  606; 
(Mary,  604;)  Mary  place,  604; 
(Mary  Ann,  6(X);)  Merriam,  605; 

'    (Mill,    600;)     (Minnetonka,    600. 
602;)   Monroe,  605;  (Moore,  600. 


INDEX 


701 


601;)  (Nebraska,  600;)  Nicollet, 
605;  Oak,  (two,  600,)  606;  On- 
tario, 606;  (Orange,  600;)  (Ore- 
gon, 600;)  (Pearl,  600;)  Pierce, 
605;  (Pine,  two,  600;)  Pleasant, 
606;  Polk,  605;  (Prairie,  600;) 
Quincy,  605;  Ramsey,  606;  (Rice, 
600,  601;)  Roosevelt,  605;  (Rus- 
sell, 600,  601;)  (St.  Anthony, 
600;)  (St.  Genevieve,  600;)  (St. 
Martin,  600;)  (St,  Paul,  600;) 
(St.  Peter's,  600;)  (Seward,  600, 
601;)  Sibley,  606;  Sidney  place. 
606;  (Smith,  600;)  Spring,  (600,) 
606;  (Spruce,  two,  600;)  Spruce 
place,  605;  Summer,  606;  Sum- 
mit place,  605;  Superior,  606; 
Taft,  605;  Taylor,  605;  Thomas 
place,  605;  Thornton,  60(5;  (Todd, 
600,  601;)  Tyler,  605;  Ulysses, 
605;  Union,  606;  (Utah,  600;) 
Van  Buren,  605;  (Vine,  600;) 
Vineland  place,  605;  Walnut, 
(two,  600,)  606;  Warwick,  606; 
Washington,  605;  Water,  606; 
(Willow,  two,  600;)  Winter,  606; 
(Wood,  600,  601;)  Yale  place, 
604 
Minneapolis  avenues,  transverse, 
with  a  few  exceptions,  to  streets 
and  the  river,  600-603;  Abbott, 
604;  Aldrich,  603;  Antoinette, 
605;  Arthur,  606;  Barton,  606; 
Beard,  604;  Belmont,  604;  Blais- 
dell,  602;  Bloomington,  602;  Bor- 
der, 605;  Brook,  606;  Bryant, 
603;  Cedar,  600,  602;  Central.  601, 
605 ;  Chestnut,  604 ;  Chicago,  602 ; 
Chowen,  604;  Clarence.  606; 
Clifton,  605;  Ginton,  602;  Col- 
fax, 603;  Columbus,  602;  Como, 
606;  Crystal  Lake,  605;  Douglas. 
604;  Drew,  604;  Dupont,  603; 
East  Hennepin,  601,  605 ;  East- 
man, 605 ;  Eden.  605 ;  Elliot,  602 ; 
Elwood,  605 ;  Emerson,  603 ;  Erie, 
604;  Ewing,  604;  Fairmount, 
606;  Farwell, '  604;  First  to 
Twenty- fourth,  N.,  600;  to  Fifty- 
third.  N.,  604;  First  to  Twenty- 
eighth,  S.,  600,  602;  to  Forty- 
ninth,  S.,  602;  First  to  Four- 
teenth, N.  E..  600;  to  Thirty- 
seventh,  N.  E.,  604;  First  to 
Nineteenth,  S.  E.,  600;  Forest, 
605;  France,  604;  Franklin,  603, 
604 ;  Fremont,  603 ;  Garfield.  602 ; 
Girard,  603;  Grand,  602;  Grove- 


land,  605;  Harriet,  602;  Haw- 
thorne, 604 ;  Hennepin,  600,  601 ; 
Hiawatha,  602;  Highland,  605; 
Hillside,  605;  Humboldt,  603; 
Ilion,  605;  Irving,  603;  Island, 
605 ;  James,  603 ;  Knox,  603 ; 
Lagoon,  604;  Lakeside,  605; 
Lakeview,  605;  Laurel,  604;  Lin- 
coln, 604;  Linden,  604;  Logan, 
603;  Longfellow,  602;  Lowry, 
606;  Luverne,  604;  Lyndale,  601, 
602,  603;  Lynn,  604;  McNair, 
605 ;  Madeira.  605 ;  Malcolm,  606 ; 
Marquette,  602;  Melbourne,  606; 
Minnehaha.  602 ;  Mississippi,  604 ; 
Morgan,  603;  Mount  Curve.  605; 
Myrtle,  605 ;  Newton,  603 ;  Nicol- 
let, 600,  601,  602;  Oak  Grove. 
605;  Oakland,  602;  Oliver,  603; 
Ontario,  604;  Orlin.  606;  Park, 
602;  Penn,  603;  Pillsbury,  602; 
Pleasant,  602;  Plymouth,  604; 
Portland,  602;  Prospect,  604; 
Queen.  603;  Railroad,  602; 
Ridgewood.  605;  Riverside,  602; 
Rollins,  606 ;  Royalston,  605 ; 
Russell,  603;  Rustic  Lodge,  604; 
St.  Mary,  606;  Seymour,  606; 
Sharon,  606;  Sheridan,  603; 
Snelling,  602;  Stevens.  602; 
Summit,  604;  Superior,  604;  Tal- 
mage,  606;  Thomas,  603;  Uni- 
versity, 60O.  605 ;  Upton,  603 ; 
Vincent,  603;  Washburn,  603; 
Washington,  600.  603;  Western, 
604 ;  Williams,  606 ;  Willow.  605 ; 
Wilton,  605;  Xerxes,  604;  York, 
604 ;  Zenith,  604 

Minneapolis  boulevards  and  park- 
ways: Cedar  Lake  blvd..  607; 
Dean  blvd..  607;  Grand  Rounds, 
607,  608;  Kenwood  pky.,  608; 
King's  highway,  607;  Lake  Cal-- 
houn  pky.,  607;  Lake  Harriet 
blvd..  607;  Linden  Hills  blvd., 
607;  Memorial  Drive,  607;  Min- 
nehaha pky.,  607;  River  Road 
East,  607;  River  Road  West, 
607;  St.  Anthony  blvd.,  607; 
Stinson  blvd..  607;  West  River 
Bank  pky.,  602 

Minneapolis  parks  and  other 
PUBLIC  grounds  :  Audubon  pk., 
Barnes  place.  Barton  and  Bed- 
ford trs.,  Bottineau  field.  Bridge 
sq.,  Bryant,  sq.,  Bryn  Mawr 
Meadows  pk.,  and  Caleb  Dorr 
circle,    608;    Camden    pk.,    607; 


702 


INDEX 


Cedar  Avenue  tr.,  and  Chowen, 
Qarence,  and  Clifton  trs.,  608; 
Columbia  pk.,  607;  Cottage  pk., 
Crystal  Lake  tr.,  Dell  pk.,  and 
Dell  place,  Douglas  tr.,  608; 
Dorilus  Morrison  pk.,  608,  610; 
Elliot  pk.,  Elm  wood  and  Euclid 
trs.,  Farview  and  Farwell  pks., 
608;  Franklin  Steele  sq.,  609; 
Gateway  pk.,  608,  609;  Glen  Gkle, 
609;  Glenwood  pk.,  607;  Grove- 
land  and  Hiawatha  trs..  High- 
land oval.  Hillside,  Humboldt, 
and  lagoo  trs.,  609;  (Interlachen 
pic,  60/;)  Irving  tr.  and  Jack- 
son sq.,  609;  Kenwood  pk.,  608. 
and  tr.,  609;  Lakeside  oval,  and 
Laurel  tr.,  609;  Lake  of  the  Isles 
pk.,  and  Lake  Nokomis  pk.,  607; 
Logan  pic,  and  Longfellow  Gar- 
dens, 609;  Loring  pk.,  608;  Lo- 
vell  sq.,  609;  Lyndale  pk.  and 
farmstead,  607;  Maple  Hill  pk., 
and  Marshall  terrace,  609;  Mini- 
kahda  Club  ground,  607;  Minne- 
haha pk.,  607;  Monroe  place, 
Mount  Curve  tr..  Murphy  sq., 
Newton  and  Normania  trs.. 
North  Commons  pk..  Oak  Lake 
pks.,  Oliver,  Orlin,  and  Osseo 
trs.,  609;  Parade  grounds,  608; 
Powderhorn  Lake  pk.,  609;  Pro- 
spect field,  Rauen  tr.,  Richard 
Chute  sq.,  610 ;  Riverside  pk.,  602, 
610;  Riverside  terrace,  602;  Roy- 
alston,  Russell,  and  Rustic  Lodge 
trs.,  "Seven  Corners,"  Sheridan 
field,  and  Snyder  tr.,  610;  statues, 
of  Thomas  Lowry,  610.  and  John 
H.  Stevens.  602;  Stevens  sq., 
Stewart  field,  Sumner  field  and 
place,  Svea  tr.,  and  Tower  Hill 
pk.,  610;  Van  Qeve  pk.,  607; 
Vineland  tr.  and  place,  Virginia 
tr.,  Washburn  Fair  Oaks  pk., 
610;  William  Berry  pk.,  607; 
Wilson  pk.,  610;  Winchell  trail, 
607 ;  Windom  pk.,  610 

Minnehaha,  39,  231 ;  cr.,  67,  607 ; 
falls,  230,  231,  602,  607 

Minneiska  t.  and  v.,  557 

Minneola  t.,  207 

Minneopa  cr.,  falls,  park,  and  sta.. 
64,65,  66 

Minneota  t,  262;  v.,  313 

Minneowah  bluff,  585 

Minneseka  1.,  264 


Minnesota  state,  2-4;  r.,  2-4,  7,  8, 
53,  56,  80,  374,  520;  pt.,  44,  493, 
644,  652 

Minnesota,  gl.  1.,  66,  189 

Minnesota  City  v.,  582 

Minnesota  Falls  t.  and  sta.,  104;  t 
(and  v.),  595 

Minnesota  Lake,  t.,  v.,  and  1.,  187 

Minnesota  Valley  Historical  Socie- 
ty, 450,  460 

Minnetaga  1.,  273 

Minnetonka,  1.,  67, 224 ;  bays,  points, 
and  islands,  233-5 

Minnetonka  t.,  224 

Miiinetonka  Beach  v.,  225 

Minnetrista  t/,  225 

Minnewashta  v.  and  1.,  83;  (v.» 
303) 

Minnewaska  1.,  431,  435;  t,  432 

Minnie  t.,  38;  1.,  530 

Minnie  Belle.  1.,  341 

Minnow  1.,  125 

Mirage  1.,  248 

Mirbat  sta.,  486 

Misquah  1.,  140;  hills.  147 

(Missabay  Heights,  1,  147) 

Missabe  Mountain  t.,  486,  504 

Mission  cr.,  412,  493,  652;  bay,  494; 
1.,  32,  158(2),  162;  t.,  158 

Mission  Creek  t.,  sta.,  and  cr.,  412 

Mississippi  r.,  1,  4-6,  35;  sources, 
126-134;  rapids  and  islands,  Sher- 
burne CO.,  516,  517 

Missouri  territory  and  state.  86 

Mitchell,  Rev.  Edward  C,  326 

Mitchell,  John,  map,  137 

Mitchell,  W.  H.,  quoted,  207,  212 

Mitchell  1.,  157,  163,  231 

Mitchell  sta.,  for  Pentteost  Mit- 
chell, 486 ;  t,  579 

Mitten  1.,  99 

Mizpah  v.,  284 

Moccasin  br.,  267;  Bower,  315 

Moe,  C.  P.,  n.,  290 

Moe  1.,  for  Nels  R.  Moe,  120 

Moe  t.,  178,  (313) 

Moenkedick  1.,  403 

Moland  t,  117 

Molberg  1.,  for  Erick  Molberg,  111 

Mollerberg,  1.,  542 

Mollie  1..  162 ;  MoUie  Stark  1..  402 

Moltke  t.,  520 

Momb's  1.,  32 

Money  cr.,  196 (2\  239,  585 

Money  Creek  t.  and  v.,  239 

Monfort,  Delos  A.,  for,  619 

Monker  1.,  for  Claus  C.  Monker, 
144 


INDEX 


703 


(Monongalia  co.,  268) 

Monroe,  James,  for,  314,  605,  609 

Monroe  t,  314 

Mons  1.,  547 

Monson  1.,  32;  t,  for  Peter  Mon- 

son,  552 
Monterey  v.,  334 
Montevideo  c,  104  ;(t.,  63) 
(Montezuma  v.,  584) 
Montgomery,  Gen.  R.,  for,  302 
Montgomery  c.  and  t,  302 
Monticello  t.  and  v.,  588;  prairie, 

592 
Montrose  v.,  589 
Monuments  of  the  Sioux  war,  1862, 

460 
Mooers,  Hazen,  trading  posts,  552, 

573;  1.,  573 
(Mooers     Prairie    t,     for    J.     P. 

Mooers,  b.,  587) 
Moon  1.,  32,  141,  179,  181 
Moonlight  p.  o.,  124 
Moonshine  1.  and  t.,  54,  56 
Moore,  George  W.,  for,  633 
Moore,    Thomas,    from    his    poem, 

364 
Moore  1,  143,  538,  542;  t.,  537,  573, 

590 
Moorhead   c.   and   t.,    for   William 

G.  Moorhead,  b.,  117 
Moose  1.,  18.  38,  43,  75,  138,  258,  295, 

296,   502(2).  547;   mt,   138,   147; 

portage,  138 
Moose  r.,  18,  77,  Z29,  415,  502;  t., 

473 
Moose  Creek  t.  and  cr.,  123 
Moose  Head  1.,  75;  (Moosehead  r., 

18) 
Moose  Horn  r.,  77 
Moose  Island  sta.  and  1.,  537,  538 
Moose  Lake  t,  38.  75,  90 
Moose  Park  t,  255 
Moose  River  t.,  and  r.,  329 
Mora  v.,  266 ;  1.,  267 
Moraines,  1,  ZZ,  129,  153,  170,  189, 

275,  292,  305,  309,  404,  420,  504 
Moran  1.,  for  H.  P.  Moran,  78;  231, 

247,  501 
Moran  t.  and  br.,  545,  547 
Moranville   t.,    for   P.   W.    Moran, 

473 
Morcom  t.,  for  Elisha  Morcom,  486 
Morgan,  Gen.  George  N.,  for,  603 
.    Morgan,  John  Pierpont,  for.  652 
Morgan   cr..  for .  Richard  Morgan, 

65;  1.,  140 
Morgan  t.  and  v.,  for  L.  H.  Mor- 
gan, b.,  451 


(Moritzious  townsite,  588,  589) 
Morken  t,  for  T.  O.  Morken,  118 
Mormon  1.,  465 

Morrill  t.,  for  A.  C.  Morrill,  b.,  353 
Morris,  Charles  A.  F.,  for,  b.,  537; 

618 
Morris,  Mrs.  James  T.,  358 
Morris  v.  and  t.,  537 
Morrison,  Allan,   for,  b.,  350 
Morrison,  Clinton,  for,  602;  n.,  608 
Morrison,  Dorilus,  for,  608 
Morrison,   William,    130,   132;    for, 

133,  b.,  350 
Morrison  co.,  350-358 
Morrison  1.,  22,  99;  hill,  133;  bay, 

146 
Morrison    t,    for    Edward    Morri^ 

son,  16 
Morristown  v.,  for  Jonathan  Mor- 
ris, b.,  462 ;  1.,  465 
Morrow,  Levi,  n.,  93 
Morrow  heights,   for   A.   T.   Mor- 
row, 133 
Morse  t.,  for  J.  C.  Morse,  486;  I., 

538 
Morton  v.,  451,  457,  460 
Moscow  t.,  201 
Moses,  1.,   182,  218 
Mosquito  br.,  100;  cr.,  125;  rapids, 

517 
Moss  1.,  98,  140 
Mother  1.,  231 
Motley  t.  and  v.,  353 
Motordale  v.,  83 
Mott  1.,  567 
Moulton  1.,  162;  t.^  for  J.  P.  Moul- 

ton,  b.,  367 
Mound,  hill  in  Rock  co.,  466,  468; 

1.,  547 
Mound  t..  12,  468;  cr.,  72,  152;  v., 

225,  235 
Mound  Prairie  t,  239 
Mounds  (hills),  170,  443 
Mounds  View  t.,  437;  hills,  443 
Mount  Morris  t.,  353 
Mount  Pleasant  t.,  557 
Mount  Vernon  t,  582 
Mountain  1.,  138,(139.)   147,  151 
Mountain,  1.  of  the,  98 
Mountain   Iron   v.   and   mine,  486, 

503 
Mountain  Lake  t.,  and  1.,  151 ;  v., 

151 
Movil  1.,  43 

Mow,  Mrs.  Mary  Badoura,  for,  243 
Mower,  John  E.,  for,  b.,  359 
Mower,  Martin,  b.,  359 
Mower  co.,  359-363 


704 


INDEX 


Moyer,  Lycurgus  R.,  103,  104,  106, 

288 
Moyer  t.,  for  William  Moyer,  541 
Moylan  t,  for  Patrick  Moylan,  329 
Mo-zo-ma-na  pt,  347 
Mud  cr.,  77,  267,  330,  374,  434.  456, 

459,  465,  469,  475,  537,  M2,  598 
Mud  1.,  17,  20,  21(4),  25,  26(2),  33 

(3),  39,  41,  43,  65(2),  85,  90,  99, 
112,  125,  139,  161(2),  162(4),  181 
(2),  189,  231,  232,  233,  248  (2), 
251(2),  257,  267,  274,  304(5),  305, 
320(2),  329,  336.  Zy7{2),  341(2), 
342(3),  349,  356,  369.  400,  401(2), 
402(2),  403,     404,     435(2),   456, 

460,  465.  475,  493,  501,  511, 
516(2),  521(3).  530,(3),  534,  538. 
548(2),  549,  553,  563,  573(3),  590, 
591 

Mud  r.,  17,  20,  39,  41,  46,  99,  330, 

501 
Mud  Hen  I.  and  cr.,  500 
Mud  Lake  t.,  90,  329,  (456) 
(Muddy  Is.  and  r.,   17) 
Mudgett  t.,  for  I.  S.  Mudgett,  345 
Mule  1.,  99,  204 
Mulligan  t..  70 

Mullin,  J.  C,  and  A.  J.,  n.,  103 
Mulvey  id.,  347;  pt.,  572 
Munch   t.,    for   Adolph,    Emil,   and 

Paul  Munch,  b.,  412,  413 
Munger,  Roger  S..  for,  b.,  486,  653 
Munger  1.,  for  Perry  Munger,  Z2>7 
Munson  t,  525 

Murdock  v.,  for  S.  S.  Murdock,  541 
Murphy,  Capt.   Edward,  for,  609 
Murphy  t.,  284;  1.,   for  John  Mur- 
phy, 336;  500,  511 
Murray,   William   P.,  260;    for,   b., 

364,  367,  619 ' 
Murray  co.,  364-370;  t.,   (Z7,)  367*; 

sta..  487 
Muscovado  1.,  141 
Mushroom  1.,  93;  cr.,  580 
Muskeg  bay,  44 
Muskoda  sta.,  118,  120 
Muskrat  1.,  267 
Muskrats.  20,  64,  133,  152,  285 
Musquash  1.,  133 
Mustinka  r.,  217.  400,  554 
Myer's  1.,  180 

Myhre  t.,  for  L.  O.  Myhre,  38 
Myrtle  1.,  43,  502 ;  v.,  202 
Mythology,  names  from,  40,  61,  75, 

227,  287.  301,  391,  440,  452,  565, 

575 


Nagonab    sta.,    for   Ojibway   chief, 

b.,  487 
Namekan    (or   Namaycan),  1.,  496, 

498;  r.,  497,  502 
Narrows,  of  Red  1.,  46,  47;  Leech 

L,  94;   1.   Minnetonka,  234;   Ver- 
milion 1.,  494 
Nary  sta.,  for  Thomas  J.  Nary,  244 
Nashua  v.,  579 

Nashville  t.,  for  A.  M.  Nash,  334 
Nashwauk  t.,  255 
Nassau  v.,  291 
National  forests  of  Minnesota,  100, 

148,  299,  506 
Neander  1.,    for   Nels   P.   Neander, 

111 
Nebish  t.  and  1.,  2& 
Nebo,  mt,  549 
Nebogigig  1.,  141 
Neche  v.,  N.  D.,  626 
(Neenah  t.,  526) 
Neill,   Rev.    E.    D.,   3.    88;    quoted, 

249,  276;  300,  345,  455;  for.  612 
Neill  1.,  231 
Neimackl  1.,  218 
Nekuk  id.,  493 
Nelson,  Carl  A.  A.,  n.,  136 
Nelson,  Cornelius  J.,  n.,   104 
Nelson,  Hon.  Knute,  for,  b.,  178 
Nelson,  Nels  K.,  n.,  328 
Nelson,  Rensselaer  R.,  for,  615 
Nelson,  Socrates,  n.,  568,  569 
Nelson   1.,   for  M.   Nelson.  20;   for 

H.  M.  Nelson,  162;  another,  162; 

for  O.  W.  Nelson,  181 ;  for  John 

Nelson.    181,    182;   218,   401,  402, 

435,  549 
Nelson  t.,  178,  575 
Nelson  Park  t.,  for  James  Nelson, 

329 
Nemadji,  gl.  I.,  79,  505;  sta.  and  r., 

75,  505 
Nemeukan  1.,  496 
Nequawkaun  1.,  497 
Neresen  t.,  for  Knut  Neresen,  473 
Ner strand  v.,  463 
Nesbit  t.,  for     James     and   Robert 

Nesbit,  426 
(Ness  t.,  for  Ole  H.  Ness,  340) 
Nessawae  1.,  348 

Nessel  t.,  for  Robert  Nessel,  b.,  108 
Nest  1.   274  275 
Net  1.,"'284, '286,  415,  502(2)  ;  rs.  or 

crs.,  77,  284,  415 
Net  Lake  t.,  284;  reservation,  284, 

286,  506 
Net  River  t.,  and  r.,  284 
Nets  for  fishing,  77,  100,  126 


INDEX 


705 


Netta,  1.,  25 

Nettiewjmnt  1.,  454 

Nettleton,  George  E.,  n.,  481 

Nettleton,  William,  for,  636 

Nevada  1.,  274;  t.,  361 

Neving  p.  o.,   for   Robert  Neving, 

123 
Nevis  t.  and  v.,  244 
New  Auburn  t.  and  v.,  520 
New  Avon  t.,  451 
New  Brighton  v.,  437 
^    New  Brunswick,  name  from,  255 
New  Canada  t.,  437,  613 
New  Duluth  d.,  487,  652 
New  Folden  t,  329 
New  Germany  v.,  83 
New  Hampshire!  names  from,  108, 

166,  172(2),  386,  519 
New  Hartford  t.  and  v.,  582 
New  Haven  t.,  :iS7 
New  Hope,  cantonment,  227 
New  Independence  t,  487 
New  Jersey,  names  from,  89,  637, 

648 
New  London  t.  and  v.,  271 
New  Maine  t.,  329 
New  Market  t.,  509 
New  Mexico,  name  from,  316 
New  Munich  v.,  526 
(New  Pajmesville  v.,  526) 
(New  Posen  t.,  540) 
New  Prague  c,  302,  509 
New  Prairie  t,  432 
New  Richland  t.  and  v.,  565 
New  3candia  t,  570 
New  Solum  t,  329 
New  Sweden  t.,  373 
New  Trier  v.,  167 
New  Ulm  c,  70,  80 
(New  Virginia  t.,  338) 
New  York,  names  from,  28(2),  58, 

82,  165,  172.  187,  200(2),  202,  215, 

239(2),   270,   314,   335,   361,   372, 

386(2),   388,   417.  419,   457,  464, 

467,   469,   520,   582,   583,   584(3), 

589(2).  590,  647 
New  York  Mills  v.  (and  t.),  396 
Newberg  t.  and  v..  194 
Newel,  Stanford,  for,  641 
Newfound  1.,  296 
Newfoundland  id.,  494 
Newport  t.  and  v.,  570;  (t,  588) 
Newry  t,  202;  1.,  204 
Newson,  Thomas     M.,     quoted  or 

cited,  198,  229,  235,  619,  622,  624, 

628 
Newton,  Isaac,  for,  603 
Newton,  James,  for,  374 


Newton  1.,  296;  id.,  357;  t,  396 

Nicado  1.,  295 

Nichols,  Austin  R.,  for,  15 ;  n.,  202 ; 
for,  b.,  359 

Nichols,  Rev.  H.  M.,  n.,  81 

Nichols,  James  A.,  for,  487;  503 

Nichols  p.  o.,  15;  t,  487;  1.,  499 

Nickerson  t.  and  v.,  for  j.  Q.  A. 
Nickerson,  b.,  413;  id.,  517 

Nicolet,  Jean,  5,  371 

Nicollet,  Joseph  N.,  for,  130,  133, 
229,  b.,  371,  373,  601;  quoted  or 
cited,  1,  2,  4,  10-13.  17,  41,  43,  49, 
55,  60,  61,  64,  65,  74,  81,  88,  90, 
92,  95-97,  102,  106,  119,  121,  125- 
130,  134,  147,  149,  153,  154,  157, 
159,  160-4,  169,  170,  174,  198,  203, 
204,  206,  208,  210,  212,  224,  229, 
243,  268.  292,  298,  303,  308,  334, 
336^,  342,  343,  348,  357,  362.  365- 
371,  374,  380,  389,  406,  408,  416, 
420,  432,  448,  455-7,  466,  467,  483, 
495,  503,  508,  510,  514,  520,  529, 
552,  554,  559,  562,  574,  597 

Nicollet  CO.,  371-375;  t.  and  v.,  373 

Nicollet  cr..  Is.,  and  valley,  130; 
springs,  133;  cr.,  374 

Nicollet  id.,  229,  605 

Nicols  sta.,  for  John  Nicols,  167 

Nidaros  t.,  396 

Nielsville  v.,  426 

Ni-e-ma-da  1.,  131 

Niggler,  Mrs.  Elizabeth,  for,  394 

Niles  bay,  495 

Nilsen  t.,  579 

Nilson,  1.,  434 

Nimrod,  p.  o.  and  hamlet,  561 

Nine  Mile  cr.,  231 ;  1.,  295 

Nininger  v.  and  t,  for  John  Nin- 
inger,  166,  167 

Nipissiquit  1.,  295 

Nixon  1.,  592 

Nobles,  William  H.,  for,  b.,  376 

Nobles  CO.,  376-380 

Nobles  1.,  for  three  brothers,  320 

Nokay,  Ojibway  chief,  for,  158,  159 

Nokay  Lake  t,  1.,  and  r.,  158,  159, 
161 

Nokomis,  1.,  231 

Nomenclature  of  Itasca  State  Park, 
129-134 

No  Name  1.,  141 

Noon  Day  pt.,  96 

No-point,  pt.,  212 

Nora  t,  for  Knut  Nora,  123;  for 
Norway,  432 

Norberg  1.,  106 

Norcross  v.,  216 


;^ 


INDEX 


Norcross  beach,  Lake  Agassiz,  218 
Nord  1.,  20 

Norden  t.  and  p.  o.,  284,  407 
Nardick  t.,  for  B.  and  G.  Nordick, 

579 
Nordland  t,  16,  314 
Nore  t,  for  K.  S.  and  S.  K.  Nohre, 

255 
Norfolk  t.,  457 
Norland  t,  473 
Norman  co.,  381-384;  t,  (383,)  413, 

595 
Norman  p.  o.,  for  Peter  Norman, 

487 
Normania  t.,  595 
Normanna  t,  487 
Norris  1.,  for  Grafton  Norris,  26 
Norsetb,  Martin,  n.,  69;  Mrs.  Eva, 

for,  69 
(Norsk  t.,  151) 
Norstedt  1.,  274 
North,  John  W.,  for,  b.,  463 
North,  Robert,  n.,  595 
North  1.,    139,  211,  ZZl,  530,  591; 

ridge,  503;  prairie,  530;  id.,  553; 

t.  407   . 
North  branch.  Sunrise  r.,  108,  250 
North  Branch  t.  250;  v.,  (68,)  109 
North  Fork  t.,  526 
North  Germany  t,  561 
North  Hero  t,  451 
North  Mankato  v.,  37^ 
North  Narrows,  94,  95 
North  Ottawa  t.,  216 
North  Prairie  v.,  353 
North  Redwood  v.,  451 
North  St.  Paul  v.,  437 
North   Star  state,  4,  70,  280,  408; 

t,  70 
Northcote  v.,  for  S.  H.  Northcote, 

279 
Northern  t.,  38 
Northern  Light  1.,  145 
(Northern  Pacific  Junction,  74) 
Northern  Pacific  ry.,  15,  16,  77,  78, 

79,   116,   117,   156,  397,  433,  535, 

569 
Northfield    c.    and    t,    for    J.    W. 

North,  b.,  463 
Northland  t.,  426,  487 
Northome  v.,  284 
Northrop,  Pres.  Cyrus,  for,  299,  b., 

334 
Northrop,  mt,  299;  v.,  334 
Northup,  Anson,-  119 
Northwest  Angle  and  inlet,  35,  44, 

45 
Northwest  Fur  Co.,  18,  76,  95.  136 


Northwestern  1.,  296 

Northwood  t,  38 

Norton,  Albert  T.,  n.,  166 

Norton,  Daniel  S.,  n.,  172;  for,  b., 
583 

Norton,  Henry  A.,  for  b.,  216 

Norton,  James  L.,  and  Matthew 
G.,  for,  b.,  583 

Norton,  John  W.,  and  Wm.  W., 
for,  626 

Norton  t,  583 

Norway,  names  from,  16,  27^  40, 
104,  105,  117,  136,  137,  173,  178» 
179(2),  190,  191,  194,  214,  238. 
261,  269,  274,  279.  307,  312,  314, 
316,  327,  328,  329(3),  365,  382 
(2),  384,  391,  395,  396,  399,  407, 
422,  425,  426,  427,  428,  431,  432, 
459,  463,  474,  595,  596(2) 

Norway  br.  and  1.,  100;  1.,  271,  274, 
402 

Norway  t,  194,  279 

Norway  Lake  t,  271 

Norwegian  Grove,  Z73\  bay,  495;  L, 
567 

Norwegian  Grove  t.,  396 

Norwood,  Joseph  G.,  138,  139,  143, 
144,  295,  357,  503 

Norwood  v.,  83 

Nourse,  George  A.,  n.,  340 

Nouvelle  portage,  496 

Nova,  1.,  309 

Nowthen  p.  o.,  26 

Ndyes  sta.,  for  J.  A.  Noyes,  279 

Noyon,  Jacques  de,  8 

Numedal  t.,  407 

Nunda  t,  202 

Nushka  sta.,  90 

Nymore  v.,  for  Martin  Nye,  38 


Oak  cr.,  47,  396;  id..  44,  495;  1., 
27,  28,  ZZ,  85.  415,  429;  pt,  44;  t, 
526 

Oak  species,  bur  and  black,  106 

Oak  Center,  a  hamlet,  558 

(Oak  City  v.,  345) 

Oak  Glen  Is.,  three,  534 

(Oak  Glen  v.  and  t,  532,  533) 

Oak  Grove  t.,  24,  (524,  526) 

Oak  Hill,  a  hamlet,  545 

(Oak  Lake  t,  27.  28) 

Oak  Lawn  t.,  159 

Oak  Leaf  t,  375 

Oak  Park  v.,  50,  (570;)  t,  329 

Oak  Point  1.,  296 

Oak  Ridge,  a  hamlet,  583 

Oak  Valley  t.,  396 


INDEX 


707 


Oakdale  t,  570 

Oakland  t,  202 

Oakport  t,  118 

Oaks  l.|  and  1.  of  the,  153,  267 

Oaks  t,  for  Charles  Oaks,  473 

Oakwood  t.,  (353,)  558 

Oasis,  Great,  1.,  369;  (grove,  366, 
369) 

Oatka  beach,  Duluth,  644 

O'Brien,  Dillon.  551 

O'Brien  1.,  162 

O'Brien  t.,  for  William  O'Brien,  39 

Observe,  pt.,  498 

Ocano  springs,  133;  r.,  134 

Ochagach,  map  by,  8,  137,  282 

Ocheeda,  1.,  368,  380 

Ocheyedan  cr.,  or  r.,  368,  380 

Ockerson  heights,  for  J.  A.  Ockcr- 
son,  133 

O'Connell,  Richard,  n.,  417 

O'Connor's  1.,  511 

Odd  1.,  143 

Odenborg,  Ole,  550,  553 

Odessa  t.  and  v.,  55;   (t.,  544) 

Odin  t.  and  v.,  575 

O'Dowd  1.,  512 

Ogechie  1.,  348 

Ogema  v.,  31 ;  t.,  413 

Ogilvie  v.,  266 

Ogishke  Muncie  1.,  296 

Ogren's  1.,  for  Andrew  Ogren,  111 

Ohage,  Dr.  Justus,  donor,  640 

Ohio,  names  from,  53,  63,  90,  105, 
166,  167,  190,  191,  201,  291,  301, 
424,  426,  449,  649 

Ojibway  pt.,  346;  see  Chippewa 

Ojibways,  names  from,  1,  2,  3,  4, 
6,  8,  9,  13,  15-20,  22,  28-33,  36-40, 
42-48,  51,  52.  75,  77,  78,  86-90, 
93-97,  99,  107,  110,  118-121,  124, 
125,  129,  137-140,  142-7,  154,  156- 
160,  245,  247,  248,  256-8,  265,  266, 
281,  286,  293-5,  321,  323,  331,  342, 
343,  348,  367,  384,  390,  393,  397, 
398,  405,  408-413.  425,  428,  429, 
433,  441,  445,  447,  453,  470,  473, 
474,  478,  482,  487-9,  492,  496-501, 
504.  514,  529,  560-562,  571,  626 

Okabena  sta..  262 ;  cr.;  264,  380 ;  Is., 
379,  380 

(Okaman  v.,  303,  565) 

(Okcheeda  t.,  367) 

Oklee  v.,  for  O.  K.  Lee,  446 

Okshida  cr.,  368,  380 

Olaf  1.,  181,  404 

Olberg  1.,  181,  404 

Olberg  v.,  for  Anton  Olberg,  123 

Oldenburg,  Henry,  73 


Olds,  Mrs.  Beukh,  for,  87 

Ole,  1.,  274 

Olive  1.,  502 

Oliver,  A.  M.,  for,  603 

Oliver,  L,  54i 

(Oliver's  Grove,  for  W.  G.  Oliver, 
165) 

Olivia  v.,  458 

Olivier,  L.  M.,  and  J.  B.,  for,  628 

Olmstead,  S.  Baldwin,  b.,  385 

Olmsted.  David,  for,  b.,  385 

Olmsted  co.,  385-389 

Olney  t.  378 

Olson,  Erik,  n.,  215 

Olson  1.,  218,  273,  331,  499,  538 

Olstrud  1.,.  218 

Omimi,  gl.  1.,  148 

Omro  t.,  595 

Omsrud  1.,  72 

Omushkos,  1.,  129 

Onamia  t.  and  1.,  345,  348 

One  Mile  1.,  401 

One  Pine  l,  501 

Onega  1.,  141 

O'Neil  pt,  for  John  H.  O'Neil,  132 

O'Neill  br.,  349 

Oncka  t.,  570;  1.,  570,  573 

(Oneota  v.,  482,  487,  643) 

Onstad,  1.,  402;  t,  for  O.  P.  On- 
stad',  426 

Onstine,  Henry,  for,  193 ' 

Ontonagon  r.,  Mich.,  256 

O'Phelan,  P.  D.,  n.,  551,  552(2) 

Opperman  1.,  402 

Opstead  p.  o.,  345 

Oange  t,  179 

Orchard  1.,  168,  499;  cr.,  363 

Org  sta.,  378 

Orion  t,  ^7,  (533) 

Orieans  v.,  279 

Ormsby  v.,  334,  575 

Orono  t.  and  pt.,  225,  235 ;  (v.,  515) 

Oronoco  t.,  2%7 

Orr  v.,  for  William  Orr.,  488 

Orrock  t.,  for  Robert  Orrock,  b., 
515 

Orth  v.,  256 

Orton  t.,  561 

Ortonville  t.  and  v.,  for  C.  K.  Or- 
ton, b.,  55 

Orwell  t,  396 

Osage  t.  and  Osage  Indians,  29 

Osakis  1.  and  v.,  51,  179;  t,  179;  1., 
545,  547,  548 

Osauka  ad.,  51 

Osborne  t.,  for  J.  C.  Osborne,  418 


708 


INDEX 


Oscar  I.,   for   King  Oscar   I,   181, 

182;  368;  t,  for  Oscar  II,  397;  1., 

402.  403 
Osceola  t.,  458 
Oshawa  t,  ZJ^ 
Oshkosh  t.,  596 

Oslo  hamlet  and  p.  o.,  173;  v.,  329 
Osmund  Osmundson,  n.,  463 
Osseo  v.,  226 
Ossowa  1.,  246 

Ostlund's  h.,  for  Lars  Ostlund,  275 
Ostrander     v.,     for     W.     and     C 

Ostrander,  194 
Oteneagen  t.,  256 
(Otis  t,  for  John  D.Otis,  596) 
Otisco  t.  and  v.,  565 
Otrey  t.,  for  T.  and  W:  Otrey,  55 
Otsego,  (t  62;)  t.  and  v.,  589 
Ottawa  Indians,  44 
Ottawa  t.  and  v.,  303 
Otter   cr.,    77,   319,    320,   Z6Z,   591; 

(br.,  77) 
Otter  1.,  21,  26,  140,  273,  274,  319, 

404,  442,  499,  529 
Otter  Tail  co.,  390-405;  t.  and  v., 

397 
Otter  Tail  1.,  31.  390 
Otter  Tail  r.,  29,  31,  390;  pt.,  94, 

95 
(Otter  Tail  City,  trading  i>ost,  390, 

397) 
Otter  Track  1.,  297,  298,  505 
Otto  t,  397 
(Ouchichiq  r.,  8) 
Outing  v.,  159 
Outlet  bay,  347  495;  cr.,  434 
Owanka  v.,  36/ 
Owasso,  1.,  443 

Owatonna  c.  and  t.,  533;  (r.,  533) 
Owen,  David  D.,  geological  survey, 

62,   143,   144,   147,  267,  495,  496, 

499,  502,  504 
Owens,  John  Algernon,  127 
Owens  t.,  for  three  brothers,  b.,  488 
Owings  1.,  180 
Ox  1..   162;  Ox  Hide  1.,  258;  Ox 

Yoke  1.,  225 
Oxford  t.,  250,  (398) 
(Oye  and  Oylen  post  offices,  561) 
Ozahtanka  1..  189 
Ozawindib,  Ojibway  guide,  96;  pt., 

132 


Paddock  t.,  for  L.  A.  Paddock,  397 
Page  I.,  for  William  H.  Page,  537 
Page  t,  for  C.  H.  and  E.  S.  Page, 
345 


Paine,  1.,  for  Barrett  C  Paine,  247 
Painted  rock,  St.  Croix  r.,  572 
Pajutazee,   Sioux   mission,  597 
Pale  Face  r.,  500 
Palestine,  names  from,  15,  115,  182, 

193,  196,  271,  284,  303,  508,  528. 

549,  582 
Palisades,  Great,  295 
Palmer  cr.,  for  Frank  Palmer,  106 
Palmer  1.,  232,  247 
Palmer   t,    for    B.    R.    Palmer,   b., 

516;  v.,  565 
Palmer's,  p.  o.  and  hamlet,  488 
Palmville  t..  for  Louis  Palm,  473 
Palmyra  t,  458 
Palo,  a  hamlet,  488 
Panasa  1.,  258 
Papoose  1.,  163 
Paradise  prairie,  204 
(ParAllel  r.,  514) 
Parent  1.,  296 

Parent  v.,   for  Auguste  Parent,  50 
Park  L,  78,  530;  Park  Region,  2 
Park  Rapids  v.,  244 
Parkdale  v.,  397 
Parke  t,  118 
Parker   t,   for   Georc^e   L.    Parker, 

329;    for   George   F.   Parker,   b., 

353 
Parker's  1.,  232 
Parker's  Prairie  t.,  397 
Parks,  John  S.,  n.,  62 
Parkton  sta.,  397 
Parley  1.,  85 
Parncll   t,    for   C.    S.    Parnell,   b., 

426,  552 
Parrant,   Pierre,   for,  442 
Parritt,  Dexter,  for,  360 
Parry,   Dr.  C.   C,  quoted,  62;  448 
Parslow's  1.,   for  S.   Parslow,  233 
Parsons,  Rev.  J.  P.,  for,  615 
Partridge,  Tfiomas  C,  n.,  524 
Partridge,  87;  bay  and  r.,  495;  cr., 

197,  389 ;  t.,  413 ;  r.,  500.  547,  562 
Partridge  falls,  138;  1.,  140,  500 
Pascal,  Blase,  for.  630 
Pat's  1.,  465 
Patchen  1.,  218 

Patrons  of  Husbandry,  for,  417 
Patten  1.,  Zyj 

Patterson,   Charles,  trader,  458 
Patterson,  Robert,  n.,  60 
Patterson  1.,  for  W.  Patterson,  85 
Patterson's  rapids,  458,  459 
Paul  1.,  403 
Paulson,  Ida,  for,  383 
Paulson  1.,  141 
Paupori  v.,  488 


INDEX 


709 


(Pauselim  v.,  558) 

Paxton  L,  for  James  W.  Paxton,  b., 

451 
Pay  1.,  273 

Payne,  Edwin  E.,  for,  526 
Payne,  Rice  W.,  for,  624 
Payne  sta.,  488 
Paynesville  t.  and  v.,  526 
Peabody,  Lloyd,  611,  639 
Peace  rock,  52;  t.,  266 
Peake,  Mrs.  E.  Steele,  quoted,  154 
Pearce  1.,  32 
Pearl  1.,  33,- 231,  264,  526 
Pearl  Lake  v.,  526 
Peary    sta.,    for   Robert    E.    Peary, 

b.,  488 
Pease  v.,  345 
Peat   bogs,- 121,   125,  406,  447;   1., 

548 
Pebble  1.,  401 
Pederson,  A.  W.,  n.,  69 
Pelan  t.,  for  Charles  H.  Pelan,  279 
Pelee,  Isle,  169 
Pelican  1.,   159,  182,  216,  400,  404, 

435,  460,  502,  530,  534,  542,  591; 

cr.,  400;  hill,  554 
Pelican  pt.,  46,  235 ;  id.,  94,  97,  347 ; 

r.,  31,  397,  404,  502 
Pelican  t.,  159,  397 
Pelican  Lake  t.,  216 
Pelican  Rapids  v.,  397         , 
Pelican  Rock  bay,  494 
Pelkey  1.,  357 

(Pell  t.,*for  John  H.  Pell,  558) 
Pelland  v.,  for  Joseph  Pelland,  284 
Pelt  cr.,  454 
Peltier  1.,  for  C,  P.,  and  O.  Peltier, 

25 
(Pembina  co.,  276) 
Pembina  co.  and  r.,  N.  D.,  276,  323 
Pembina  t,  323 
Pencer  p.  o.,  473 
Pendergast  1.,  548 
Penicaut,  Relation  by,  10,  57 
Peninsula,  the,  and  1.,  94;  (1.,  224) 
Penn,  William,  for,  318,  603 
Penn  t,  318 

Pennington,   Edmund,    for,   b.,  406 
Pennington  CO.,  406-409 
Pennington  1.,  for  James  Penning- 
ton, 267 
Pennock  v.,   for    George   Pennock, 

271 
Pennsylvania,  names  from,  110,  173, 

318,  406,  417,  425,  489,  647,  650 
Penny  1.,  204 


Pepin,  1.,  5,  10;  in  Le  Sueur  co., 

305;  t.,  558 
Peppermint  cr.,  43 
Pepperton  t,  for  C.  A.  Pepper,  b., 

537 
Pequaywan  1.,  499 
Pequot  v.,  159 
Perch  cr.,  65,  335,  336,  576 
Perch  1.,  33,  65,  75,  120,  162(3),  309, 

336,  429,  576 
Perch  portage,  139 
Perch  Lake  t.,  75 
Percy  t.,  for  Howard  Percy,  279 
Perham  t.  and  v.,  for  Josiah  Per- 

ham,  b.,  397 
Perley   v.,    for    George   E.    Perley, 

b.,  383 
Perrault  sta.,  for  C.  Perrault,  447 
Perrot,  N.,  3,  5,  10,  300 
Perry,  Abraham  and  Charles,   for, 

618 
Perry  t,  for  O.  H.  Perry,  291 
Perry  Lake  t.,  and  1.,  159 
Perth  sta.,  62 

Pete  1.,  404;  Peter  1.,  141,  232 
Peter  Lund  cr.,  204 
Petersburg  t.,  263 
Peterson  1.,  43;  for  Nels  M.  Peter- 
son, 125;  143,  204,  218,  342,  402, 

465 
Peterson  v.,  194 

Peyla,  hamlet,  for  Peter  Peyla,  488 
Peysenski  1.,  247 
Pfaender,  William,  70 
Phalen  1.  and  cr.,  440,  442,  612,  614 
Phalen  Park  d.,  440,  626,  639 
Phare  1.,  460 

Phelan,  Edward,   for,  440,  639 
Phelps    bay    and     id.,     for     E.    J. 

Phelps,  b.,  234 
Phelps  1.,   162,  465 
(Phelps  t,  for  Addison  Phelps,  539) 
Philbrook  v.,  545 
Phoebe  1..  143 
Pickard  Is.,  130 
Pickerel  1.,  21,  26,  33,  144,  162,  169, 

202,  203,  248,  296,  402(2),  403,  516 
Pickerel  Lake  t.,  202 
Pickering    bay,    92,    96;    for    John 

Pickering,  b.,  96 
Pickle  1.,  296 
Pickwick  v.,  583  . 

Picture  id.,  287 
Pie  1.,  143 

Pierce,  Franklin,  for,  605 
Pierce  1.,  337 
Pierson  1.,  for  John  Pierson,  85 


710 


INDEX 


Pierz  t.,  for  F.  X.  Pierz,  b.,  354 

Pig  1.,  162;  Pig's  Eye  1.,  442 

Pigeon  1.,  341,  342 

Pigeon  r.,  137,  139,  148,  259;  falls, 
ISB;  bay  and  [xt.,  146 

Pigeon  River  lodian  reservation, 
140  148 

Pike,  Robert,  n.,  582 

Pike,  Zebulon  M.,  11,  12,  17,  18,  51, 
52 ;  for,  b.,  91 ;  95,  96,  154 ;  for, 
169;  206,  208,  209,  210,  343,  348, 
353 ;  for,  b.,  354 ;  wintering  place, 
358 ;  for,  441 ;  442,  514,  516,  517 

Pike  bay,  91,  495;  cr.,  45,  354;  r., 
488,  495 

Pike  id,  169,  441 ;  t,  488 

Pike  Is.,  East  and  West,  140;  1., 
143,  161,  267,  435,  479,  508,  512 

Pike  Bay  t,  91 ;  Pike  Creek  t.,  354 

Pillager  cr.,  1.,  and  v.,  91 

Pillager  Ojibways,  35,  51,  91,  101 

Pillsbury,  Gov.  John  S.,  100;  for, 
b.,  541;  602 

Pillsbury  state  forest,   100;  t,  541 

Pilot  knob  (or  hill),  170 

Pilot  Grove  t.  and  1.,  187 

Pilot  Mound  t,  194 

Pimushe  1.,  43 

Pine  CO.,  10,  410-415 

Pine  cr.,  196,  210,  241 ;  cooley,  442, 
573;  475,  585(2) 

Pine  id.,  347,  494(2),  498 

Pine  1.,  10,  19.  20,  32,  91,  111(2), 
123,  139,  140,  142,  143,  145,  162 
(2),  296,  357,  398;  Big,  and  Lit- 
tle, 4(X);  Big,  Upper,  and  Lower, 
413,  415;  500,  501.  530 

Pine  r.,  10,  19,  91,  99,  100,  123,  161, 
163,  413 

Pine  species  in  Minnesota,  2,  410, 
529 

Pine  Bend  sta.,  167 

Pine  City  t.  and  v.,  413 

Pine  Island  t.  and  v.,  11,  207;  1., 
548,  549 

Pine  Lake  t.,  91,  123,  398,  413;  br., 
100 

Pine  Mountain  1.,  99,  100 

Pine  Point  1.,  32 ;  pt.,  95 

Pine  River  t.,  91 

Pine  Top  t.,  284 

Pine  Tree  1.,  573 

(Piniddiwn  r.,  125) 

Pioneer  t,  39;  cr.,  232 

Pipe  I,  143,  341 

Pipestone  co.,  416-420;  c,  418 

Pipestone  quarry,  12,  416;  cr.  and 
1.,  419;  reservation,  101,  416 


(Piquadinaw  t.,  16) 
Pirz  L,  530 
Pither's  pt,  286 
Pitts  1.,  530 
Pittsburg  L,  141 
Plainview  t  and  v.,  558 
Plantagenet,  1.,  246 
Plantagenian    fork   of   the   Missis- 
sippi, 42,  246 
Plato  v.,  318 
Platte  t  and  r.,  354,  357 
Platte  I^ke  t,  1.,  and  r.,  159 
Plaza,  1.,  304 
(Pie,  1.,  246) 
Pleasant  1.,  402,  442,  446,  447,  511, 

530,  591 ;  prairie,  334,  549 
Pleasant  Grove,  (t,  172),  t.  and  v., 

387 
Pleasant  Hill  t.,  583    " 
,  Pleasant  Mound  t  and  p.  o.,  62 
Pleasant  Prairie  t,  334 
Pleasant  Valley  t.,  361 ;  cr.,  585 
Pleasant  View  v.,  83;  t,  383 
Pliny  t,  16 
Plum  1..  296,  342 ;  cr.,  284,  368,  454. 

529;  id.,  264,  553 
Plum  Creek  t,  284 
Plum  Island  1.,  264 
Plummer  v.,   for  C.   A.   Plummer, 

447 
Plymouth  t.,  226 

(Plympton   1.,     for     Capt.   Joseph 
.  Plympton,  160,  161) 
Poe  1.,  143 
Pohlitz  t.,  473 
Point  L,  274 
Point  Douglas  v.,  570 
Pointon  1.,  162 
Pokegama,  1.,  129,  413 ;  t.,  256,  413 ; 

falls,  256;  cr.,  413 
Poland,  names  from,  209,  464,  473, 

483,  540 
Polk,'  James  K..  for,  b.,  421 ;  605 
Polk  CO.,  421-429 
Polk  Center  t.,  407 
Polly,  1.,  296 
Polonia  t.,  473 
Pomerleau  1.,  232 
Pomme    de    Terre,    the    plant,    62, 

216;   t,   L,   and   r.,  216;   r.,  400, 

537 ;  Is.,  538 
Pomroy  t.  and  1.,  for  John   Pom- 

roy,  266 
Pond,  Rev.  Gideon  H.,  3,  220,  230, 

252 
Pond,  Rev.  Samuel  W.,  508,  510 
Pond,  Samuel  W.,  Jr.,  quoted,  230, 

510 


INDEX 


711 


Ponemah  v.,  39 

Ponto  Lake  t,  and  1.,  91 

Pontoria  p.  o.,  91 

Pony  L,  43 

Poole's  1.,  465 

Pope,   Mrs.   Douglas,   for,   168 

Pope,  Gen.  John,  214,  217;  for,  b., 

430;  434,  460 
Pope  CO.,  43(M35;  1.,  141 
Poplar  cr.,  47;  r.,  140,  143,  428,  447 
Poplar  1.,  140,  145,  443;  t.  and  p.  o., 

91 
Poplar  Grove  t.,  473 
Poplar  River  t,  447 
Poplars,  silvery  leaved,  30 
Popple  t,  123,  (255) 
Popple  Grove  t.,  323 
PoppletoD  t.,  279 
Populist  party,  115 
Poquodenaw  mt,  15 
Porcupine  id.,  14iS;  bay  and  id.,  494 
Pork  bay,  295 
Port  Hope  t,  39 
Portage   bay,   347;   1.,   20,   100(2), 

141,  162(3),  248,  258,  402;  r.,  77; 

br.,  140 
Portage  Lake  sta.,  1.,  and  bay,  91, 

96 
Porter,  Charles,  for,  449 
Porter  cr.,  for  George  Porter,  511 
Porter,  (t,  200;)  v.,  for  L.  C.  Por- 
ter, 596 
Portland  d.,  Duluth,  488,  643,  653 
Portugal,  name  from,  595 
Posen  t.,  596 

Possum  crs.,  Big  and  Little,  511 
Post  bluff,  for  A.  W.  and  George 

Post,  212 
Potamo  t,  39 
Potato  1.,  248,  258,  297 
Potholes,  Interstate  pk.,  113 
Potsdam  v.,  387;  (t.,  535,  536) 
Poupore  p.  o.  and  v.,  488 
Powderhorn  1.,  133,  232,  609 
Powell,  Byron,  for,  88 
Powell,  Rev.  John  W.,  n.,  63 
Powers  1.,  233,  342,  573 
Powers  t.,  for  (jorham  Powers,  b., 

92 
Prairie  area  of  Minnesota,  2,  118 
Prairie  cr.,  211,  286,  465;  br.,  349, 

547,  549;  r.,  17,  19,  255,  488 
Prairie  1.,   166,   168,  204,  255,  274, 

337,  403,  488;  id.,  169,  211;  pt, 

Leech  1.,  95 
Prairie  Uke  t,  488 
Prairie  View  t.,  579 


Prairieville  t,    70;     (v.  of  Sioux, 

510) 
Pratt,  Charles  H.,  for,  631 
Pratt  sta.,  for  W.  A.  Pratt,  533 
Preble  t.,  for  Edward  Preble,  194 
Predmore    sta.,    for    J.    W.    Pred- 

more,  387 
Prescott,  George  W.,  for,  620 
Prescott  t,  187 
Preston,  James,  n.,  383 
Preston  t.,  for  Lusher  Preston,  194 
Preston  Lake  t.,  and  1.,  458 
Priest's  bay,  234 
Prince  1.,  174 
Princeton  v.   and   t.,   for  John   S. 

Prince,  b.,  345 
Prinsburg  v.,  for  Martin  Prins,  271 
Prior,  CTharles  H.,  for,  55,  b.,  509, 

632 
Prior  t.,  55 ;  1.,  509,  512 
Prior  Lake  v.,  509 
Prisoner's  id.,  347 
Proctor  Knott  v.,  488 
Progress  t,  75 
Prospect  mt.,  147 
Pcosper  t,  39;  v.,  194 
Providence  t.,  291,   (360) 
Pseudo-Messer  1.,  297 
Pulaski  t.,  for  C.  Pulaski,  b.,  354; 

1.,  591 
Pullman   1.,   for   Charles   Pullman. 

218 
Puposky,  1.,  34,  41,  46;  1.  and  v.,  39 
Pusey,  Pennock,  for,  630 
Putnam  1.,  501 
Pyle,  Joseph  G.,  278 
Pym,  John,  for,  632 


Quadna  t,  16 

Quam  1.,  for  P.  J.  Quam,  181 

Quamba  v.,  266 

(Quarry  sta.,  63) 

Queen  t,  427;  bluff,  585 

"Queen  City,"  387 

Quincy  t.,  387 

Quiring  t,  39 


Rabbit  1.,  20;  pt,  46;  r.,  217,  580; 

id.,  498 
Rabbit  Lake  t.,  1.,  and  r.,  159 
Raccoons,  25 
Rachel,  1.,  181,  502 
Racine  t,  (and  t.),  12;  t,  ?ind  v., 

361 
Radisson,   Pierre  Esprit,  for,   130; 

164,  169 


712 


INDEX 


Radisson  1.,  130,  134;  bay,  «546 

Radium  v.,  330 

Rail  Prairie  t.,  for  Case  Rail,  354 

Rainbow  id.,  347 

Rainy  1.,  1,  8,  281,  287,  401.  497; 
islands,  bays,  and  points,  286,  498 

Rainy  r.,  1,  8,  44,  281,  285 

(Rainy  Lake  c,  284) 

Ramsey,  Gov.  Alexander,  for,  24; 
166,  192,  220;  n.,  24,-224;  361, 
375;  for,  b.,  436,  453,  454.  591, 
606,  614,  642 

Ramsey,  Justus  C.  61 

Ramsey  co.,  436-444 ;  t.,  24 ;  v.,  361 ; 
cr.  and  l,  453,  454 ;  1.,  591 

Ramsey  staite  park,  454 

Randall,  Major  B.  H.,  quoted,  374 

Randall  v.,  for  John  H.  Randall,  b., 
355;  (t.,  351,  355) 

Randeau  1.,  25 

Randolph  t.  and  v.,  for  John  Ran- 
dolph, 166 

Ranges,  iron  ore,  1,  157,  163,  502- 
504 

Ranier  v.,  284 

Ranklev,  1.,  404 

Ransom  t.,  378  • 

Rapid  r.,  39,  40,  42,  284,  (498) 

Rapid  River  t.,  39,  284 

Rapidan  t.  and  v.,  62,  66 

Rapids  1.,  84 

Rasmusson,  1.,  434 

Raspberry  id.,  441,  614 

Rat  1..  20,  152 ;  Rat  House  1.,  20 

Rat  Portage,  Ontario,  285 

Rat  Root  r.  and  bay.  121 ;  t.  and 
1.,  284,  285 

Rattle  1,  141 

Raven  stream,  511 

(Raven's  Wing,  r.,  154) 

Ravenna  t.,  166 

Ray  I.,  141 ;  t.,  285 

Ray's  bay  and  pt.,  for  Fred  G. 
Ray,  132 

Ra/s  1.,  for  George  E.  Ray,  304 

Raymond,  Bradford  P.,  for,  631 

Raymond  v.,  271 ;  t.,  for  L.  B.  Ray- 
mond. 526 

Read's  Landing  v.,  for  C.  R.  Read, 
b.,  558 

Reading  v.,  for  Henry  H.  Read, 
379 

Ready's  1..  511 

Reagan,  Albert  B.,  287 

Reaney,  John  H.,   for,  624 

Rebecca,  1.,  165,  169,  233 

Rebellion.  War  of,  1861-5,  62,  114, 
135,  136,  156 


Red  1.,  1,  6,  34,  36,  48,  445;  tribu- 
taries and  points,  45-48 
Red  pt,  Lake  Superior,  145 
Red  r.,  1,  6,  29,  56,   119.  390,  394, 

445 
(Red  Cedar  1.,  9,  17,  35,  86) 
Red  Cedar  r.,  13;  id.,  96 
Red  Qover  L,  75 
Red  Eye  t.  and  r.,  561,  562 
Red  Lake  co.,  445-447 
Red  Lake  r.,  34,  35,  41,  46,  48,  407, 

408,  445 
Red  Lake  Agency,  v.,  45 
Red  Lake  Falls,  c.  and  t,  447 
Red  Lake  Indian  reservation,  45 
Red  River  t,  279 
Red  River  Valley,  2,  6,  116.  118 
Red  Rock  bay.  Lake  Superior,  145 
Red  Rock  1.,  141.  179,  181,  231 
Red  Rock  t,  (179,)  361,  (571;)  v., 

570 
Red  Sand  r.,  140,  145,  148;  L,  162 
Red  Sucker  id.,  286 
Red  Water  cr.,  48 
Red  Wing  c,  for  Sioux  chiefs,  207, 

208 
Redby  v.,  39 
Redfield,  Ross,  for,  566 
Redpath  t.,  552 
Redstone  v.,  2)7Z 

Redwood  co.,  448-454;  r.,  448,  451 
Redwood  Falls  c.  and  t,  451 
(Ree  t.,  595) 
Reed  1.,  72,  402 
Reed's  1.,  for  John  Reed,  567 
(Reed-grass  r.,  470) 
Reedy  t.,  for  David  Reedy,  285 
Reep  1.,  32 
Reeves  1.,  32 
Reilly  cr.,  286 
Reindeer,  142 
Reiner  t.,  407 

Reis  t.,  for  Greorge  Reis,  427 
Reitz  1.,  for  Frederick  Reitz,  85 
Relf,  Richard,  481,  644,  645 
Remer  t.  and  v.,  for  •£.  N.  and  W. 

P.  Remer,  92 
Remund  t.,  for  Samuel  Remund,  b., 

567 
Rendsville  t.,  537 
Reno,   Gen.  Jesse  L.,   for,   162,  b., 

239  432 
Reno'l.,  162;  v.,  239;  t.,  432;  sta., 

489 
Renova  v.,  361 
Renville,  Joseph,  104;   for,  b.,  455, 

458 
Renville  co.,  455-460 ;  v.,  458 


INDEX 


713 


Ren  wick,  James,  153 

Reque,  Mrs.  Linka,  for,  434 

Reservation  r.,  140,  145,  148;  (1., 
180) 

(Reserve  t.,  236,  437) 

Reshanau  1.,  25 

Resser  1.,  401 

Rest  Island,  211 

Retzhoff  1.,  218 

Reunion,  mt.,   147 

Revere  v.,  for  Paul  Revere,  b.,  451 

Reynolds  t.,  545 

Rezac  1.,  for  Frank  Rezac,  465 

Rheiderland  t.,  105 

Rhemnicha,  Sioux  name  of  Red 
Wing,  208 

Rhinehart  t.,  for  A.  C.  Rhinehart, 
427 

Rhode  Island,  name  from,  291 

Rhodes  hill,  for  D.  C.  Rhodes,  133 

Rialson,  Louis,  and  Ole,  n.,  314 

Rice,  Charles  R.,  for,  617 

Rice,  Edmund,  for,  601,  617,  624 

Rice,  Frank  C,  n.,  244,  245 

Rice,  Henry  M.,  n.,  23,  25 ;  for,  239, 
441,  b.,  461,  601,  613,  624,  639 

Rice,  Mrs.  Henry  M.,  for,  624,  628 

Rice,  Orrin  W.,  22 ;  for,  b.,  489,  645 

Rice  CO.,  461-465;  t,  123 

Rice  cr.,  25,  267,  441,  453,  516;  bay, 
94 

Rice  1.,  16,  18,  20,  25,  26,  33(4), 
43(2),  65,  72.  85(2),  124,  143,  162 
(4),  169,  188(2),  202,  231(2),  2ZZ, 
248;  Upper,  and  Lower,  251;  257, 
304(3),  305,  319,  ZZ7,  342,  348, 
349,  357,  400(2),  403(2),  404,  435, 
465,  489,  494,  502(2),  511(2),  512 
(2),  516(2),  529,  530(3),  534,  548 
(3),  549,  563,  566,  567,  573,  590 
(3),  592 

Rice  r.,  16,  18,  501 ;  v.  and  prairie, 
for  George  T.  Rice,  50 

Rice's  1.,  for  Andrew  Rice,  521 

Rice  Lake  t,  (61,)  489;  v.,  173 

Rice  River  t,  16 

Rice's  Point,  d.,  Duluth,  489,  493, 
645 

Riceford  v.,  239;  or.,  240,  241 

Riceland  t,  202 

Riceville  t.,  30 

Rich,  W.  W.,  for,  b.,  398 

Rich  prairie,  357 

Rich  Valley  v.,  167;  t.,  318 

Richardson,  Harris,  n.,  284 

Richardson,  Nathan,  350;  for,  b., 
355 

Richardson,  Robert,  n.,  58 


Richardson  L,  342;  t,  355 
Richardville   t,    for   George   Rich- 
ards, 279 
Richdale  v.,  398 
Richfield  t,  (61,)  226 
Richland  t.,   (226,)  463 
Richmond,  (t.,  for  John  Richmond, 

166;)  v.,  526;  t.  and  v.,  583 
Richville  v.,  398 
Richwood  t,  30 
Rickert  I.,  534 

Ridgely,  H.,  R.,  and  T.  P.,  for,  ZJZ 
Rfdgely  t.,  and  fort,  27^ 
Rieff  1.,  273 
Riggs,   Rev.   Stephen  R.,  cited,   13, 

55,  71,  82,  97,  104,  217,  227,  238, 

368,  386,  564,  595 
Riley,  1.,  231 
Rima,  Mrs.  S.,  n.,  68 
Ringo  1.,  274 
Ripley,  Gen.  Eleazar  W.,  for,  157, 

b.,  355 
Ripley,  1.,  for  Dr.  F.  N.  Ripley,  342 
Ripley  t,  173,  355 ;  fort,  355 
Ristan,  Mrs.  Bertha,  for,  543 
River  t.,  447 
River  Falls  t.,  407 
Riverdale  t.,  (176,)  575 
Riverside  t,  291,  (466,  579) 
Rivers  sta.,  489 
Riverton  t.,  118;  v.,  160 
Riverview  d.  (West  St.  Paul),  438. 

439,  440,  611,  617-620 
Roach  1.,  320 
Roadruck,   Mrs.   Florence   Miltona, 

for,  178;  Irene,  for,  180 
Robbins,  Daniel  M.,  for,  632 
Robbins    bay   and    id.,    for    D.    H. 

Robbins,  347 
Robbinsdale  v.,  for  A.  B.  Robbins, 

226 
Roberds  1.,  for  Wm.  Roberds,  465 
Robert,  Capt.  Louis,  for,  511,  612, 

620 
Robert  cr.,  511 
Roberts,  Dr.  T.  S.,  notes  of  birds, 

36,  261 
Roberts  t.,  for  Michel  Roberts,  579 
Robertson,  Col;  D.  A.,  n.,  61 ;  for, 

618 
Robertson,  Orlando  A.,  for,  634 
Robideau  1.,  43 

Robinson,  Doane,  quotcxl,  71,  208 
Robinson,  sta.  and  1.,  489 
Robinson's  bay,  234 
Roche,  O.  H.,  n.,  379 
Rochester  c  and  t.,  387 
Rock  CO.,  466-9;  t,  418 


714 


INDEX 


> 


Rock  cr.,  Ill,  413;  r.,  12,  378,  418, 

466 
Rock  I.,  33,  161,  314,  414,  415,  501, 

591 
Rock  Creek  t.  and  v.,  413 
Rock  Dell  t,  388 
Rock  Lake  t,  314 
Rockford  t.  and  v.,  589 
Rocksbury  t.  (and  Rockstad  p.  o.). 
Rock\'ille  t.  and  v.,  526 
Rockwell  1.   (and    t),     for  C.  H. 

for  Martin  Rockstad,  407 

Rockwell,  244 
Rockwell  t.,  383 
Rockwood  t,  244,  562 
Rocky  1.,  78;  pt.,  36,  44 
Rodman,  John,  n.,  271 
Roe,  Anders,  n.,  261 
Rogers,  Albert  B.,  n.,  458 
Rogers,  Henry  C,  n.,  362 
Rogers,  Josias  N.,  for,  641 
Rogers,  William  K,  for,  654 
Rogers  1.,  162,  375 ;  for  J.  E.,  R.  H., 

and  J.  Rogers,    65;     for    E.  G. 

Rogers,  169 
Rogers  shore,  for  O.  S.  Rogers,  347 
Rogers  t,  for  Wnx  A.  Rogers,  92; 

v.,  226 
Roland  1.,  for  John  Roland,  181 
Rolette  v.,  for  Joe  Rolette,  383 
Rolling  Forks  t,  433 
Rolling  Green  t.,  334 
Rolling  Stone  t.  and  v.,  583 ;  r.,  583, 

585 
Rollins,  Jphn,  for,  606 
Rollins  sta.,  489 
Rollis  t,  for  Otto  Rollis,  330 
Rome  t,  187 
Rondo,  Joseph,  for,  617 
Ronneby  v.,  51 
Roome  t.,  427 
iRoosevelt,  Theodore,  for,  39,  49,  88, 

148,  160 ;  b.,  473 ;  605 
Roosevelt,  1.,  88,  161 
Roosevelt  t.,  39,  160,  (330,  472;)  v., 

39  473 
Root  r.,  11,  12,  196,  362.  389 
Rosabel  1.,  292 

Rosby  sta.,  for  Ole  Rosby,  245 
Roscoe  t,  208;  v.,  526 
Rose,  Arthur  P.,  311;  quoted,  466 
Rose  1.,  for  Fred  Rose,  72 ;  139,  336, 

401,  404 
Rose  t,   for  Isaac  Rose,  b.,  438; 

(594) 
Rose  Creek  v.,  and  cr.,  361 
Rose  Dell  t,  469 
Rose  Hill  t,  151 


Roseau  co.,  48,  47(M75 ;  v.,  473 

Roseau  1.  and  r.,  36,  470 

Rosebud  t.,  427 

Rosebush  t.  and  r.,  136,  144 

Rosedale  t,  323 

Rofieland  t.,  271 

Rosemount  t.  and  v.,  166,  168 

Rosendale  t.,  575 

Roseville  t,  216,  271 

Rosewood  t,  105;  sta.,  330 

Rosing  t,  for  L.  A.  Rosing,  b.,  355 

Ross  1.,  141,  160;  .t,  473;  sta.,  566 

Ross  Lake  t.  and  1.,  160 

Ross's  Landing,  for  John  and  Sam- 
uel Ross,  239 

Rost  t.,  for  Frederick  Rost,  263 

Rosvold  1.,  401 

Rothsay  v.,  579 

Round  Is.,  21(4),  26,  32,  33,  141, 
16K2),  168,  218(2),  231,  256(3), 
264,  296,  304,  337,  342,  356,  357, 
369,  379,  402(2),  403,  435,  443, 
548 

Round  Grove  t  and  I.,  318,  521 

Round  Lake  r.,  32;  t  and  sta.,  256, 
263 ;  v.,  379 

Round  Mound,  a  hill,  554 

Round  Prairie  t,  and  v.,  546 

Rove  1.,  139 

Rowena  v.,  452 

Roy,  Simon,  for,  324 

Roy  1.,  162 

Royal  1.,  140 ;  t,  308 

Royalton  v.,  355;  t.,  413 

Ruble,  George  S.,  n.,  201 

Ruby  1.,  258 

Ruckle's  1.,  590 

Ruffee  cr.,  for  Charles  A.  Ruffee, 
125 

Rulien  t,  for  William  Rulien,  39 

Rum  r.,  343,  348,  349 

Rune  stone,  Kensington,  177 

Runeberg  t,  for  J.  L.  Runeberg, 
b.,  30 

(Rush  bay.  Leech  1.,  96) 

Rush  cr.,  195,  233,  465,  534,  585; 
r.,  109,  520 

Rush  1.,  65;  109,  141,  160,  161.  162, 
264(2),  309,  342,  369(2),  398,  402, 
454,  489,  516 

Rush  species  in  Minnesota,  109 

Rush  City  v.,  109 

Rush  Lake  t,  398;  sta.,  489 

Rushford  c.  and  t,  194.  195 

Rushmore  v.,  for  S.  M.  Rushmore. 
379 

Rushseba  t.,  109 


INDEX 


715 


Russell,  RoswcU  P.,  n.,  84 ;  for,  601, 

603,  610 
Rnssell,  William,  n.,  63 
Russell  1.,  for  T.  P.  Russell,  161 
Russell  v.,  314 

Russia,  names  from,  55,  202,  427 
Russia  t.,  427 

Rustad  v.,  for  Samuel  Rustad,  118 
Ruth  1.,  157 
Ruthrup  sta.,  118 
Ruthton  v.,  418 
Rutiand  t.,  334 
Rutledge  v.,  414 
Rutz  1.,  for  Peter  Rutz,  85 
Ryder,  Eben,  n.,  457 


Sabe  L,  125 ;  Saber  1.,  304 

Sabin  v.,  for  D.  M.  Sabin,  b.,  118; 

1.,  500 
Sable  id.,  44 
Sac  Indians,  9,  140 
(Sack  r.,  51) 
Saco  sta.,  534 
(Sacramento  v.,  174) 
Sacred  Heart  t,  458;  v.,  and  cr., 

459 
Saganaga  falls  and  1.,  139,  140 
Sager  1.,  336 

Saginaw  v.,  489;  bay,  498 
Saginaw,  Mich.,   140 
Sago  t,  256 
Sah-ging  pt,  347 
(Sahlmark  t,  537) 
(St.  Agnes  t.,  396) 
St.  Alban's  bay  and  v.,  234 
St.  Albans,  Vt.,  156 
St.  Anna,  1.,  530 
(St.  Anthony  c,  226,  326,  600,  605, 

606) 
St.  Anthony,     (fort,     34,    67,  228, 

229;)   falls,  219,  230 
.  (St.  Anthony  Falls  v.,  226,  326)  . 
St.  Anthony  Hill  d.,  440,  443 
St.  Anthony  Park  d.,  438,  631-3,  641 
St.  Augusta  t  and  v.,  526;  cr.,  529 
St.  Bonifacius  v.,  227 
St.  Catherine's  1.,  511 
St.  Catherine's  College,  440,  637 
St  Charles  t.  and  v.,  583 
Sl  Clair,  Gen.  Arthur,  for,  614,  636 
St.  Clair  Is.,  two,  33 ;  v.,  62 
St.  Goud  c,  52,  516,  526;  b.,  527; 

t.,  527 
St.  Columba  mission,  162 
St.  Croix  1.,  10,  11,  571 
St.  Croix  r.,  1,  3,  10,  572;  Interstate 

pk.,  112,  113 


St.  Croix  River  sta.,  109 

St  Francis  t  and  r.,  25,  514 ;  1.,  251, 
(516) 

St.  George  t,  51 ;  hamlet,  318 

St  Hilaire  v.,  408 

St  Hubert,  patron  of  hunters,  161 

St.  Hubert's  Lodge,  212 

St  James  t  and  c,  575;  1.,  576 

St  John's  t,  271 ;  I.,  272 

St.  John's  University,  523 

St  Josetph  t,  279;  t  and  v.,  527 

St  Lawrence  t  (and  v.),  509 

St  Leo  v.,  596 

St  Louis  CO.,  476-506;  b.,  476;  t, 
489;  bay,  493,  643;  L  530 

St.  Louis,  gl.  1.,  79,  505 

St  Louis  r.,  1,  9,  75,  78,  79,  476, 
493,  502,  648,  652 

St  Louis  Park  v.,  227 

St  Martin  t  and  v.,  527 

St  Mary  1.,  500,  530;  t,  (509,)  566 

St  Mathias  t,  160 

St.  Michael  v.,  586,  589 

(St  Nicholas  v.,  202) 

St  Olaf  t,  398 ;  St  Olaf 's  1.,  567 

St  Paul  c,  438,  611-642;  maps  of 
1851  and  1857,  611-617 

St  Paul  Park  v.,  571 

St  Paul  Seminary,  440,  637 

St.  Paul  and  Duluth  railroad,  108, 
110,  569  ,       . 

St.   Paul  and  Pacific  railroad,  27, 
423 

St.  Paul  and  Sioux  City  ry.,  575, 
576 

St.  Paul  districts  and  additions: 
Arlington  Hills,  440,  623,  624; 
Baker,  ad.  in  1889,  634;  Bazille 
and  Guerin,  ad.  in  1850,  612;  Bea- 
ver Lake  Heights,  626;  Brook- 
lynd,616 ;  Brunson,ad.  in  1852,627; 
Cherokee  Heights,  443 ;  Como,  627; 
Como  Park,  440,  626-9,  631 ;  Con- 
cordia College,  636;  Cottage 
Homes,  629;  Crocus  Hill,  635; 
Dayton,  ad  in  1853,  627;  Dayton 
Bluff,  439,  621,  623;  Desnoyer 
Park,  634;  Frankson,  ad.  in  1913, 
630;  Groveland,  440,  637;  Ham- 
line,  440,  629;  Harvester  Heighta 
625;  Hazel  Park,  437,  625;  Hia- 
watha Park,  637;  Highwood,  437, 
621;  Hill  district,  440;  Hoyt,  ad. 
in  1850,  612;  Iglehart,  Hall,  and 
Mackubin,  ad.  in  1856,  624;  Ken- 
wood Terrace,  635;  Kittson,  ad. 
in  1851,  612;  Kittsondale,  636; 
Lake   Como   Villas,   627;   Leech, 


716 


INDEX 


ad.  in  1849,  612;  Lexington  Park, 
440,  636;  Macalester  Park,  440, 
636;  (McLean  t.,  437,  622;)  Mer- 
riam  Park,  437,  633-4;  Midway 
Heights,  630,  641 ;  Oakland,  621 ; 
Otto,  ad.,  in  1888,  636,  637 ;  Park 
Place  ad.,  613,  642;  Patterson,  ad. 
in  1851,  612;  Phalen  Park,  440, 
626;  (Reserve  t,  236,  437;)  Rice 
and  Irvine,  ads.,  1849  and  1851, 
612;  Rice,  Edmund,  ads.,  1855 
and  1881,  624;  Ridgewood  Park, 
635 ;  Riverside  Park,  621 ;  River- 
view,'  438,  640;  Robert  and  Ran- 
dall, ad.in  1851, 612 ;Roblyn  Park, 
634;  St.  Anthony  Hill,  440;  St. 
Anthony  Park,  438,  631-3,  641 ;  St. 
Paul  Proper,  61 1 ;  Seven  Corners, 
440,  613;  Shadow  Falls  Park, 
637;  Sigel,  ad.  in  1880  and  1883, 
623;  Stinson,  ad.  in  1856,  617, 
629 ;  Suburban  Hills,  621 ;  Su- 
burban Homes,  623;  Summit 
Park,  635;  Sylvan  Park,  636; 
Terrace  Park,  635;  Town  and 
Country  Club  grounds,  634; 
Tracy,  ad.  in  1874,  625;  Union 
Park,  633,  642;  Vandenburgh,  ad. 
in  1851,  612;  Warrendale,  627, 
641 ;  West  St  Paul,  438,  440,  616, 
617-620;  Whitney  and  Smith,  ad. 
in  1849,  612;  Winslow  and  Willes, 
ad.  in  1851,  612;  Youngman  and 
others,  ad.  in  1886,  638 
St.  Paul  streets:  (A,  618;)  Abell, 
628;  Acker,  624;  Acorn,  629; 
Adams,  627;  Adolphus,  628; 
Adrian,  638 ;  Af  tondale,  621 ; 
Agate,  628;  Alabama,  615,  618; 
Albany,  631;  Albemarle,  628;  Al- 
den,  631,  632;  Alfred,  632;  Alice, 
640;  Alison,  615,  638;  Allston, 
621 ;  Almond,  631 ;  Alton,  638 ; 
Amherst,  637;  Ann,  613;  Ann 
Arbor,  634;  Annapolis,  (617,) 
619,  620;  Arbor,  638;  Arcade, 
621,  624;  Arch,  616;  Argyle,  627; 
Arkwright,  614;  (Arnold,  616;) 
Arundel,  617,  628;  Ash,  627;  At- 
lantic, 622,  623 ;  Atlantis,  631 ; 
Atwater,  629;  Audubon,  638; 
Augusta,  619;  Autumn,  625; 
Avon,  635;  (B,  618;)  Baker,  620; 
Baldwin,  637;  Baldwin  court, 
635;  Banfil,  614;  Banning,  615, 
638;  Barclay,  623;  Bartlett  court, 
632;  Barton,  (622,)  638;  Bay, 
(628,)    638;    Bayard,   634;    Bay- 


field, 618;  Beacon,  621;  Beard 
court,  632;  Bee,  638;  Beech,  622; 
Bellevue,  621;  Bellows,  619;  Bel- 
mont, 620;  Belvidere,  619;  Bena, 
626;  Bench,  611,  612;  Bernard, 
619;  Bernardine,  628;  Berta,  637; 
Bidwell,  619,  620;  Birmingham, 
623;  Blair,  (614,)  629;  (Bock. 
623;)  Bradford,  632;  Bradley, 
614,  624;  Brand,  625;  Breda,  631 ; 
(Bridge,  618;)  Broadway,  612; 
Brompton,  619,  632;  (Brook, 
614;)  Brooklyn,  618;  Brott,  620; 
(Brunson,  612;)  Burgess,  629; 
Burke,  621 ;  Burr,  614,  624 ;  Bush- 
nell,  632;  (C,  618;)  (Cadett, 
617;)  Canada,  613;  Canton,  638; 
Capitol  Heights,  616;  Carbon, 
629;  Carleton,  634;  (Caroline, 
618;)  Carter,  632;  Cascade,  615; 
Case,  624,  628;  Ca3ruga,  624, 
(635;)  Cedar,  611,  612,  (618;) 
Center,  626;  Charles,  (612,)  616, 
(618;)  Charlton,  620;  Chats- 
worth,  627,  635 ;  Chelmsford,  632 ; 
Cherry,  622;  Chester,  618;  C,*hest- 
nut,  613,  (627;)  Child,  629;  Qar- 
ence,  623;  CHark,  624;  (Qay, 
618;)  Clear,  (619,)  629;  Cler- 
mont, 622;  (Clifford,  634;  Clifton, 
638;  Cohansey,  628;  (3<^bome, 
615;  Coleman,  628;  (lollins,  614; 
Colne,  627;  Colorado,  615,  619; 
Columbia,616;  Commercial, (615,) 
621 ;  Como  place,  627 ;  Concord, 
620;  Congress,  619;  Constans, 
618;  Conway,  622;  Cook,  624; 
Corinne,  634;  Cortland,  613,  628; 
Cottage,  (619,  620,)  627,  629; 
Court,  618;  Crescent  court,  635; 
Crocus  place,  635;  Cudworth, 
632;  Cumberland,  628;  Curtice, 
619;  Custer,  618;  Cypress,  622; 
(D,  618;)  Dakota,  615,  619;  Dale, 
617,  628,  635;  Daly.  638;  Dcalton, 
638;  Dearborn,  619;  Delos,  618; 
Denny,  629;  De  Soto,  614,  624; 
Dieter,  626;  Doane,  634;  Dodd 
road,  613,  620;  Dorr,  624;  Doug- 
las, 613;  Dousman,  613;  Drake, 
638;  (Dugas,  618;)  Duke,  615; 
Duncan,  626;  Dunlap,  629;  (E, 
618;)  Eagle,  613;  Earl,  622; 
(East,  622;)  Eastman,  632; 
Edgcumbe  road,  636;  Edgemont, 
628;  Edgerton,  624;  Edgewood 
place,  ^1;  Edmund,  616;  Ed- 
ward, 618;   Eighth,  613,    (618;) 


INDEX 


717 


Eldred,  632;  Eleanor,  626  \  Elev- 
enth, 613;  Elfelt,  617;  Elisabeth, 
618;  (Ellen,  616;)  Ellis,  632; 
Elm,  613,  (618;)  Eln]wbod,  621; 
Elway,  638;  Endicott,  632;  Eng- 
lish, 622,  623;  Erie,  614,  615; 
Etna,  623;  Euclid,  622;  Eustis, 
631,  634;  Eva,  618;  Everett  court, 
632;  Exchange,  613;  (F,  618;) 
(Fairview,  616;)  Fauquier,  624; 
Fenton,  618;  Ferdinand,  633;  Fi- 
field,  632;  Fifth,  611,  (618,)  622; 
(First,  615,  618;)  Fisher,  626; 
Flandrau,  623 ;  Floral,  635 ;  Flori- 
da, 615,  618;  (Folwell,  631;) 
(Forbes,  613;)  Forest,  622;  For- 
ster,  638;  (Fort,  613,  642;) 
Fourteenth,  613;  Fourth,  611, 
(618,)  622;  Frank,  623;  Frank- 
lin, 613;  Fremont,  622;  Front, 
627;  Fry,  629,  634;  Fulham,  632; 
Fulton,  (623,)  638;  (Garfield,  614; 
Gaultier,  617,  628;  Genesee,  624; 
George,  618;  Geranium,  625;  Ger- 
main, 623 ;  Glen  road,  621 ;  Glen 
terrace,  638;  (Jlencoe,  616;  (Sood- 
hue,  614,  (618;)  Gotzian,  623; 
Grace,  615,  635;  Graham,  638; 
Grantham,  632;  (Green,  614;) 
(Greene,  618;)  Griffith,  622; 
Griggs,  629,  636 ;  Grotto,  627,  628, 
635;  Gro^e,  613,  614,  (614,  618, 
619,  621;)  Hadley.  621;  (Hall, 
624;)  Hancock,  623;  (Harriet, 
618;)  Haskell,  619;  Hatch,  627; 
Hawley,  628;  Hawthorn,  625, 
629;  Heather  place,  635;  Hedge, 
620;  Helen,  625;  Herbert,  625; 
Herpn,  626;  Hester,  622;  Hia- 
watha, 622;  Highland.  628;  (Hill, 
619,  621;)  Hope,  621;  Hopkins, 
614;  Hubbard,  629;  Hunt,  632; 
(Huron,  612;)  Hyacinth,  625, 
629;  Hyde,  618;  Hythe,  632; 
Irving  place,  638;  Isabel,  618; 
Ivy,  625,  629:  Jackson,  611,  612, 
616,  (619;)  Jackson  place,  638; 
James,  615,  636;  Jay,  (616.)  617; 
Jenks,  624;  Jessamine,  625;  Jes- 
sie, 624;  John,  612,  (618;)  John- 
son, 622;  Join,  634;  Juliet,  636; 
Juno,  636;  Keller,  626;  Kennard, 
623;  Kent,  617,  628;  Kentucky, 
615,  618;  Kerwin,  625;  Keston, 
632;  Kiefer,  625;  Kilburn,  627; 
King,  620;  Kittson,  612;  Knapp, 
631,  633;  Lafond,  629;  (Lake, 
623-^)    Lamm   place,   638;    Lang- 


try,  628;  Lansing,  636;  Larch, 
629;  La  Salle,  634;  Lawson,  624; 
Lawton,  635;  Leech,  613;  Lin- 
coln place,  638 ;  Linda,  621 ;  Lin- 
den, 616,  (635;)  Lindley,  632; 
Linwood  place,  635;  Litchfield, 
629;  Locust,  612,  (627;)  Loeb, 
628;  Logan,  627,  638;  L'Orient, 
616,  627;  Louis,  617;  Louisa,  619; 
Louth,  627;  Lowell,  618;  Lucy, 
619;  Lydia,  636;  Lyton  place, 
629;  McAfee,  626;  McBoal,  614; 
Macubin,  617,  628;  McKenty, 
627;  McMenemy,  628;  Madison, 
638;  Magnolia,  624,  625;  (Main, 
618;)  Manson,  632;  Manton,  626; 
Manvel,  632;  Maple,  621;  Mar- 
garet, 622,  623 ;  Marion,  617,  628 ; 
Market,  613;  Marsh  court,  632; 
Martin,  (616,)  622;  (Mary, 
618;)  Maryland,  615,  624,  625, 
629;  May,  638;  Mechanic,  625; 
Mendota,  621 ;  Mercer,  638 ;  Mer- 
rimac,  621 ;  Michigan,  614,  615 ; 
Milford,  629;  Mill,  (612,  618,) 
638;  Milton,  635;  Minnehaha, 
622,  623,  624,  629;  Minnesota, 
611,  612;  Minnetonka,  618;  Mis- 
sissippi, 613,  615;  Missouri,  615, 
618;  Montague  place,  633;  Mont- 
calm place,  635;  Montgomi^y, 
634;  (Moore,  623;)  Morton,  619; 
Mound,  621;  Mt.  Airy,  616;  Mt. 
Ida,  614;  Munster,  638;  Mystic, 
621;  Neche,  626;  Neill,  612; 
(Mew  Canada  roadi,  613,  628;) 
Niagara,  627;  Ninth,  613,  (618;) 
North,  614,  627;  Norton,  628; 
Nugent,  638;  Nye,  629;  (Oak, 
613,  617,  618,  622;)  Ohio,  615, 
620;  Olive,  612,  (621;)  Oliver, 
629;  Olivier,  628;  Omaha,  638; 
Oneida,  615;  (Ontario,  614;) 
Orange,  625,  629:  Orchard,  627; 
Oregon,  615;  Orleans,  620;  Or- 
rin,  638;  Oxford,  627,  635;  Paci- 
fic, 622;  Packard,  632;  Page,  619; 
Palace,  615,  636;  Palmer,  638; 
Paris,  621 ;  Parmer,  638 ;  Par- 
sons, 615,  638;  Patridge,  614; 
Patton,  632;  Pearl,  (623,)  632; 
Pelham,  634;  Pennock,  630;  Pep- 
perell,  632;  Perry,  618;  Phalen, 
625 ;  Piedmont,  621 ;  Pierce,  634 ; 
(Pike,  612;)  Pine,  612,  (613;) 
Plum,  622 ;  Plymouth,  618 ;  Pond, 
621;  Powder,  625;  (Prairie,  614, 
627,  635;)  (Pratt,  631;)  Prescott. 


718 


INDEX 


620;  Priscilla,  632;  (Pym,  632;) 
,  Quincy^ .  627 ;  Race,  638 ;  ( Rail- 
road, 615;)  Raleigrhy  632;  Ram- 
sey, 614;  Randolph,  636;  Rankin, 
638;  (Ravine,  622;)  Reaney,  624; 
Rice,  613,  (614,)  628;  Richmond, 
615;  River,  622;  Rivoli,  614; 
Robbins,  632;  Robert,  611,  612; 
Robertson,  618;  Robie,  619,  635; 
Rock,  629;  Rondo,  616,  634; 
Rosabel,  612;  Rose,  (618,)  625; 
Rosenberger  place,  638;  Roy, 
634;  Rutland,  618;  Ryde,  627;  St 
Albans,  628,  635;  St.  Qair,  612, 

614,  615,  636,  638;  St  Lawrence, 
618;  St.  Paul,  638;  St.  Peter,  611, 
612;  Salem,  621;  Scheffer,  636, 
638;  Schwabe,  626;  Scudder,  632, 
633;  (Searls,  624;)  (Second,  615, 
618;)  Seminary,  629;  Service 
lane,  637;  Seventh,  611,  613 
(618,)  621,  638,  642;  Shawmut, 
621 ;  Sheridan,  638 ;  Sherman, 
613;  Sherwood,  632;  Short,  622; 
Shrub,  627;  Sibley,  611,  612; 
Sigel,  623;  (Simpson,  612;) 
Sims,  624;  Sixth,  611,  (618,)  622; 
Sloan,  628;  (Smith,  614;)  Som- 
erset, 613 ;  Soutii,  627,  629 ;  South 
Rob^,  618;  South  Wabasha, 
618;  Spring,  613,  (618,  619,)  638; 
Springfield,  638;  Standish,  632; 
Starkey,  618;  State,  618;  Stella, 
632;  Stevens,  620;  Stickney,  620; 
Stinson,  629;  Suburban,  622; 
Sue,  637,  639;  Superior,  614; 
Sjrcamore,  629;  Sydney,  620; 
Sylvan,  628;  Tell,  623;  Temper- 
ance, 613;  Temple,  621;  Temple 
court,  634;  Tennessee,  615,  618; 
Tenth,  613;   Terry,  623;   Texas, 

615,  618;  Third,  611,  (618,)  622; 
Thirteenth,  613;  Thomas,  616; 
Thorn,  622;  Tile,  615;  TcH>ping, 
629 ;  Toronto,  615 ;  Truman  place, 
638;  Turner,  632;  Twelfth,  613; 
Tyler,  619;  Union,  627;  Urban 
place,  622;  Utah,  615,  618;  Val- 
Iqt,  616;  Van  Buren,  623,  629; 
Van  Buren  place,  622;  Van  Reed, 
632;  Vance,  638;  Vandalia,  634; 
Victoria,  627,  635;  View,  638; 
Villard,  637;  (Vine,  614,  618;) 
Viola,  615;  Von  Minden,  614; 
Wabasha,  611,  612,  616;  Wabas- 
so,  626;  Wacouta,  612;  Walnut, 
613,  (627;)  Walpole,  637;  Wal- 
ter, 618;  Warren,  616;  Warsaw, 


638;   Waseca,  620;  Washington, 

613,  638;  Washington  place,  638; 
Water,  611,  612,  618,  621;  Way- 
zata,  629;  Webster,  612,  615; 
Wells,  624;  Wentworth,  634; 
(Westcrlo,     616;)     Westminster, 

614,  628 ;  Weymouth,  621 ;  Wheel- 
er, 632;  Whitall,  624;  Wilkin, 
613;  (William^  612;)  Williams, 
616;  Willius,  612,  (633;)  (Wil- 
low, 621;)  Winifred,  619;  Win- 
nebago, 620;  Winona,  620;  Win- 
throp,  621;  Wisconsin,  615; 
Wood,  618;  Woodbine,  621; 
Woodbridge,  628 ;  Woodlawn 
place,  621;  Woodward,  614; 
Wordsworth,  638 ;  Wyandotte, 
618;  Wycliff,  632;  Wynne,  631; 
Wyoming,  615,  619;  Yale,  637; 
Yankee,  614 ;  York,  624 

St.  Paul  avenues,  so  named  indis- 
criminately with  streets,  623; 
Agnes,  638;  Alaska,  615,  638;  Al- 
bert, 629;  Albion,  638;  Aldine. 
629,  634;  Algonquin,  626;  Allen, 
619;  Ames,  625;  Archer,  615; 
Armstrong,  636,  638;  Arona,  630; 
Asbury,  629;  Ashland,  635;  As- 
toria, 633;  Aurora,  616;  Barrett, 
627;  Basswood,  621;  Bates,  621; 
Bayard,  636;  Bayless,  632;  Bea- 
con, 634;  (Belle,  624;)  Bellevue, 
(620,)  639;  Benson,  638;  Ber- 
keley,  636;  Berry,  634;  Beverly, 
634;  (Bidwell,  619;)  Bison,  630; 
Blackwood,  621 ;  Blake,  632 ;  Bo- 
land,  637]  Bourne,  632;  Bowdoin, 
637;  Boxwood,  621;  (Brewster, 
616;)  Brimhall,  637;  Brookline, 
621;  (Brown,  619;)  Buford,  633; 
Burlington,  621 ;  Burns,  622 ;  But- 
ternut, 638;  California,  615,  629; 
Cambridge,  637;  Capitol,  629; 
Carroll,  616;  Carter,  631,  633; 
Caulfield,  639;  Central,  616; 
Chapman,  638;  Charlotte,  629; 
Chelton,  630;  Cherokee,  620; 
Chester,  621 ;  Chicago,  618 ;  Chip- 
pewa, 620;  Churchill,  627;  Cle- 
ora,  634 ; ;  Qeveland,  631 ;  Qin- 
ton,  619;  Coburn,  637;  (College, 
613;  Columbus,  634;  Common- 
wealth, 631,  633;  Como,  631; 
Coming,  625;  Cretin,  634,  637; 
Cronnwell,  632,  634;  Cross,  627; 
Crowell,  627;  Curfew,  634; 
Curve,  626;  Danforth,  628;  Dav- 
em,  639;  Dayton,  615,  (621,)  627; 


INDEX 


719 


Delaware,  615,  620;  Dewey,  633; 
(Dooley,  631,  633;)  Dora,  637; 
Doswell,  631,  633;  (Douglas, 
624;)  Dudley,  633;  Dustin,  637; 
East,  623,  625;  Eaton,  618; 
Emerald,  634;  Escanaba,  626; 
(Evergreen,  635;)  Fairfield,  618; 
Fairmount,  635;  Fairview,  629, 
633,  637,  639;  Farringfton,  615, 
628;  I^'eronia,  633;  Field,  639; 
Fillmore,  618;  Finn,  634;  Forbes, 
614 ;  Forest  Hill,  621 ;  Frankson, 
630;  Fredericka,  637;  Fuller,  616; 
Furness,  626;  (Gale,  619;)  Gibbs, 
631,  632;  Gilbert,  634;  Glendale, 
634;  Glenha,m,  634;  Goodrich, 
614;  Gordon,  632;  Gorman,  619; 
Grand,  635;  (Gray,  624;)  (Green- 
brier, 624;  Greenwood,  619;  Ha- 
ger,  626;  Hall,  619,  624;  Hamline, 
629,  636;  Hammer,  625;  Hamp- 
den, 63?,  634;  Hand,  628;  Harri- 
son, 614;  Hartford,  636;  Har- 
vard, 626;  Harvester,  625;  Has- 
tings, 622;  Hathaway,  638;  Hazel, 
623,  625,  626;  Hazelwood,  623; 
Hazzard,  628;  Hendon,  632; 
(Herkimer,  614;)  Herschel,  634; 
Hersey,  632;  Hewitt,  629;  High- 
wood,  621 ;  Hoffman,  621 ;  Hol- 
ton,  629;  Horton,  627;  Howard, 
621,  625 ;  Howell,  633 ;  Hoyt,  627, 
629;  Hudson,  622;  Huron,  626; 
Idaho,  615,  627^  629;  Iglehart, 
616;  Indiana,  615,  618;  Iowa,  615, 
629;  Iroquois,  626;  Irvine,  615; 
Jameson,  627;  Jeanne;  620;  Jef- 
ferson, 615,  616,635,636;  Jordan, 
626;  Kansas,  615;  Kenneth,  637; 
Keogh,  625;  LaCrosse,  625;  La- 
fayette, 614;  Lake  Como  and 
Phalen,  626,  627,  629;  Lamprey, 
620;  Ungford,  (631,)  633;  Lar- 
penteur,  626,  627,  628,  629;  (Lau- 
ra, 633:)  Laurel,  635;  Lee,  638; 
Lenox,  621;  Leonard,  638;  (Les- 
lie, 635;)  Lexington,  627,  629, 
635,  636 ;  Lilac,  625 ;  Lincoln,  635 ; 
Linwood,  621 ;  Livingston,  618, 
619;  Lombard,  635;  Luella,  625; 
Lynnhurst,  633;  McKinley,  630; 
McLean,  622;  Macalester,  637; 
(Madison,  635;)  Magoffin,  637; 
Main,  613;  Manitoba,  629;  Mani- 
tou,  626;  Manomin,  619,  620; 
Maplewood,  634;  Mfiria,  621; 
Marlboro,  634;  Marshall,  616, 
634;  Mary,    626;     Matilda,  628; 


Medford,  634;  (Melrose,  616;) 
Merchants,  615;  Middleton,  638; 
Milwaukee,  633;  Minea,  620; 
(Minneapolis,  626;)  (Mississippi, 
619;)  Mohawk,  619,  626-;  Mon- 
tana, 615,  629;  Montrose,  634; 
Moore,  633;  Morgan,  639;  Mor- 
itz,  6^7;  Myrtle,  (619,)  634;  Ne- 
braska, 615,  627,  629;  Nelson, 
615;  Nettleton,  636;  Nevada,  615 
629;  Newport,  621;  Niles,  636 
Nokomis,  626;  Nortonia,  626 
Norwidi',  637;  Oakland,  635 
Oakley,  633;  (Ojiver,  620;)  Os 
ceola,  635,  636;  Otis,  634;  Otsego^ 
614;  Ottawa,  620;  Otto,  636,  638; 
Overbroc^c,  626;  (Owasco,'635;) 
Oxford,  626;  Park,  615,  628;  Pas- 
cal, 629,  634,  637;  Payne,  624; 
Pedersen,  626;  Pennsylvania,  615, 
616;  Phalen,  626;  Pillsbury,  634; 
Plato,  618;  Pleasant,  613;  (Po- 
mona, 633 ;)  Portland,  635 ;  Prince- 
ton, 6Z7\  Prior,  632,  633,  639; 
Prospect,  (614,)  625;  Prosperi- 
ty, 625;  Purnell,  638;  Railroad 
625;  (Randall,  620;)  Raymond 
631,  632,  633,  634;  Redwood,  621 
Ridgewood,  635;  Roblyn,  634 
Rockwood,  638;  Rogers,  638 
Ruth,  623,  625,  626 ;  St.  Anthony 
616,  633,  634;  Sanborn,  625; 
Saratoga,  637;  Sargent,  636 
Schley^  619;  Schneider,  63t7\  Sel- 
by,  615;  Seminole,  619,  620;  Shel- 
don, 629;  Sherburne,  616;  Sher- 
wood, 625;  Shields,  634;  Simp- 
son, 629;  Smith,  638;  Snelling, 
629,  630,  637;  Somerville,  634; 
(South  Summit,  636;)  Spring- 
field, 621;  Stanford,  636;  Stew- 
art, 638 ;  Stillwater,  625 ;  Stryker, 
619 ;  Summit,  615,  628,  635 ;  Sum- 
ner, 637;  Syndicate,  629,  636; 
Tallula,  630;  Taylor,  629;  Ter- 
race Park,  633:  (Territorial, 
616;)  Tracy,  625;  Underwood, 
637;  University,  616,  629,  634, 
636;  Upland  621;  Van  Dyke, 
625;  Van  Slyke,  627;  Vassar, 
626;  Vernon,  637;  Villard,  629; 
Virginia,  615;  Vista,  638;  Wa- 
bash, 634;  Wakefidd,  622;  Walk- 
er, 629;  Walsh,  624;  Waltham, 
633;  Warwick,  637;  (Wasbing- 
ton;  618,  619,  635;)  Watson,  636; 
Weide,  624;  Wellcsley,  636;  Wes- 
ley, 629;  Western,  614,  615,  617, 


720 


INDEX 


625,  628,  638;  (West wood,  632;) 
Wheeler,  629,  634;  Whitall,  620; 
White  Bear,  623;  Whitewood, 
621;  Wilder,  633;  Winnipeg,  629; 
Winsiow,  619;  Winthrop,  623; 
Wisconsin,  615,  618;  Woodland, 
629;  Woodlawn„621,  637;  Wood- 
ville,  637;  Woolsey,  638;  Wor- 
cester, 639;  Yale,  626;  Young- 
man,  638 

St.  Paul  boulevards  and  park- 
ways: Capitol  blvd.,  616;  Como 
and  River  blvd.,  634;  Exlgcumbe 
pky.,  636;  Johnson  pky.,  622,  640, 
641 ;  Kenwood  pky.,  635,  642 ; 
Lexington  pky.,  629,  641 ;  Mid- 
way pky.,  640;  Mississippi  River 
blvd.,  634,  636,  637,  641,  642; 
Mounds  blvd.,  621,  640;  Mt. 
Curve  blvd.,  637;  Summit  pky., 
641 ;  Wheelock  pky.,  640 

St.  Paul  parks  and  other  public 
grounds:  Alden  sq.,  642;  Alice 
pk.,  640;  Bay  tr.,.642;  Cato  pk., 
641 ;  Central  pk.,  640 ;  Cherokee 
Heights  pk.,  640;  Qayland  pk., 
641 ;  College  pk.,  641 ;  Common- 
wealth pk.,  641 ;  Como  pk.,  440, 
628,  639,  640,  641 ;  Crocus  Hill 
pk.,  642;  Cromwell  pk.,  642; 
Dawson  pk.,  642;  Doris  sq.,  642; 
Feronia  sq.,  642;  Foundry  pk., 
641 ;   Fountain  pk.,  642 ;   Gordon 

>  sq.,  642;  Haldeman  pk.,  642; 
Hamm  pk.,  641 ;  Hampden  pk., 
641;  Harriet  Island,  640;  Hazel 
pk.,  625;  Holcombe  pk.,  642; 
Horton  pk.,  641;  Indian  Mounds 
pk.,  621,  640;  Irvine  pk.,  615,  639; 
Kendrick  sq.,  642;  Kenwood  pk., 
642;  Lafayet|e  pk.,  640;  Lake  Iris 
pk.,  642 ;  Lamprev  pk.,  640 ;  Lang- 
ford  pk.,  641;  Le  Roy  tr.,  641; 
Lewis  pk.,  641 ;  Linwood  pk.,  642 ; 
Lockwood  pk.,  641 ;  Lyton  Place 
pk.,  641;  Manvel  sq.,  642;  (Mar- 
ket sq.,  613;)  May  pk.,  641 ;  Mer- 
riam  Terrace  pk.,  642;  monu- 
ment for  soldiers  of  the  Qvil 
War,  642 ;  Newel  pk.,  641 ;  Oak- 
land pk.,  642;  Oakley  sq.,  642; 
Park  place,  642 ;  Phalen  pk.,  639 ; 
Point  of  View  pk.,  642 ;  Portland 
Place  pk.,  642;  Prospect  Terrace 
pk.,  640;  Ramsey  tr..  642;  Ray- 
mond sq.,  642;  Rice  pk.,  613,  639; 
Rogers  pk.,  641 ;  Shadow  Falls 
pk.,    637^   642;    Sidney   sq.,   642; 


Skidmore  pk.,  641 ;  Smith  pk., 
639;  statue  of  Nathan  Hale,  6^2  \ 
Stewart  pk.,  641 ;  Stinson  pk., 
641 ;  Summit  pk.,  642 ;  Summit 
Outlook  pk.,  642;  Sunshine  tr., 
641 ;  Tatum  pk.,  641 ;  Terrace 
pk.,  640;  Van  Slyke  tr.,  641; 
Walsh  pk.,  642 ;  Webster  pk.,  642 

St.  Peter  c,  yjZ;  (r.,  Z7Z) 

St.  Peter's  cantonment,  227 

(St.  Peter's  r.,  3;  trading  post,  166) 

(St.  Pierre  r.,  3,  80) 

St.  Stephen  v.,  527 

St  Thomas  College,  440,  637 

St.  Vincent  t,  for  St.  Vincent  de 
Paul,  279 

St.  Wendel  t.,  527 

Sakata,  1.,  303 

Salem  t.,  92,  388 

Sallie,  1.,  ZZ 

Salo  t,  16;  Salol  v.,  473 

Salt  1.,  292 

Salter,  John,  n.,  83;  Salter,  S.  T., 
n.,  457 

Samson  1.,  401 

San  Francisco  t.  (and  v.),  84 

Sanborn,  Gen.  John  B.,  for,  625 

Sanborn^  1.,  92 ;  for  Edwin  Sanborn, 
305 

Sanborn   prairie,   592 

Sanborn  v.,  for  Sherburn  Sanborn, 
452 

Sand  bay.  Rainy  1.,  286 

Sand  cr.,  41,  162,  465,  499,  510;  r., 
415 

Sand  id.,  L.  of  the  Woods,  44 

Sand  1.,  78,  99,  120 ;  Big  and  Little. 
248;  256, 274(2), 296, 369, 404,  489. 
501,  521,  530(3),  563,  573,  598 

Sand  pt.,  212;  narrows,  498;  prai- 
rie, 512     • 

Sand  Bar  crs.,  47;  1.,  162 

Sand  Cliff  pt.,  46 

Sand  Creek  t.,  509 

(Sand  Hill  1.,  9,  44) 

Sand  Hill  r.,  324.  428 

Sand  Lake  t,  256 

Sand  Point  1.,  496;  (r.,  212) 

Sandberg  1.,  403 

Sanders  t.,  408 

Sandnes  t,  596 

Sands  1.,  32 

Sandstone  t.  and  v.,  414 

Sandsville  t,  for  C.  and  M.  Sand, 
427 

Sandwick  1.,  for  J.  A.  Sandwick, 
258 


INDEX 


721 


Sandy  1.,  M,  17.  18,  232,  324,  489, 

516,  (627) 
•  Sandy  r..  19,  48 ;  t,  489 
San  ford  t.,  for  H.  F.  San  ford,  b., 

216 
Sangsue,  1.,  94 

Santiago  sta.,  92 ;  t.  and  v.,  516 
Sanwick  p.  o.,  for  Aven  Sanwick, 

474 
Sarah,  1.,  238,  366,  429 
Saratoga,  (townsitc,  311;)  t.  and  v., 

583 
Sardeson,  F.  W„  21,  505 
Sargeant,  Mrs.  S.  W.,  n.,  575 
Sargeant  t.  and  v.,   for  Harry  N. 

Sargeant,  b.,  361 
(Sargent  t,  464) 
Sargent's  cr.,  493 
Sartell  v.,  for  Joseph  B.  Sartell,  b., 

51,  527 
Sasse  1.,  for  W.  and  F.  Sasse,  304 
Saturday  1.,  296 
Sauer's  1.,  32,  404 
Sauk  Indians,  9,  51,  179,  525,  545 
Sauk  Is.,  51;  530,  547;  r.,  9,  51,  525, 

547 
Sauk  Center  c.  and  t.,  51,  528 
Sauk  Rapids  v.,  9,  10;  v.  and  t.,  51 
Sault  t.,  285 

Saulteurs,  Ojibways,  102 
Savage,  Marion  W.,  for,  168,  b.,  SIO 
Savage  1.,  443;  v.,  510 
Savidge  1.,  304 
Savanna  lakes,  19;  rivers.  East  and 

West,  17-19,  499;  t,  30 
Saw  Bill  lakes,  143 
Sawteeth  mts.,  1,  146,  503 
Sawyer  sta.,  75 

Saxe  sta.,  for  Solomon  Saxe,  489 
.   (Saxton  v.,  .for  Comniodore   Sax- 
ton,  145) 
Sayers,  William,  45 
Scalp  1.,  404 
Scambler  t.,  for  Robert  Scambler, 

398 
Scandia  d.,  83;  t,  427;  1.,  538;  v., 

571 
•  Scandia  Valley  t.,  355 
Scandinavian  ].,  434 
Scanlon  v.,  for  M.  J.  Scanlon,  b., 

75 
Scarlett  t,  285 

Schaefer,  Rev.  Francis  J.,  45 
SchaflF's  1.,  295 
Schaffer  1.,  162 
Schauer  1.,  233 
Scheie,  Rev.  Andreas  A.,  and  An- 

tiiony,  for,  b.,  381 


Scheffer,  Albert,  for,  636 

Schelin's  1.,  499 

Schendel  1.,  233 

Schilling  1.,  for  John  Schilling,  521 

Schley,  Admiral  W.  S.,  for,  89,  b., 

92,  619 
Schley  sta.,  89,  92 
Schmidt  1.,  591 
Schnappauf  1.,  233 
Schneider  Lake  t,  and  1.,  for  Frank 

Schneider,  323 
School  1.,  44,  72,  112,  232,  305,  529. 

576(2),  591(2) 
School  Grove  1.,  315 
School  Section  1.,  573 
Schoolcraft,  H.  R.,  n.,  4;  q.,  6;  9, 

18;  n.,  41,  42,  52,  86;  91,  95;  n., 

96,  97,  98;  101,  125;  n„  126;  for, 

130;   132,  134,  154;  q.,  163;  230; 

for,  b.,  245 ;  246,  247 ;  q.,  252,  256 ; 

443,  444,  470;   q.,  487;   502,  514. 

546,  565 
Schoolcraft    r.,    42,    126,   248;    id., 

130 ;  1.,  248 ;  t.,  245 
Schram  1.,  404 
Schroeder   t.     and     v.,     for  John 

Schroeder,  137;  1.,  530 
Schultz  1.,  273,  342,  499 
Schur^,  Carl,  quoted,  114 
Schutz  1.,  for  Matthias  Schuetz,  85 
Sciota  t.,  167 

Scofield.  Mrs.  Mildred,  for,  90 
Scotch  1.,  304 
Scotland,  names  from,  24,  39,  62,  63, 

125,  221,  238,  244,  282,  317,  366. 

377,  378,  391,  432.  450,  452,  489, 

520,  544,  556(3),  568,  579,  586,  589, 

649 
Scott,    Andrew    Jackson,   for,    141, 

145 
Scott,  Thomas,  for,  562 
Scott,  W.  A.,  n.,  378 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  for,  307,  647,  649 
Scott,    Gen.    Winfield,    n.,    quoted, 

228;  for,  459,  b.,  507 
Scott  CO.,  2,  507-512;  t.,  537 
Scott's  pt,  145 ;  1.,  218 
Scribner,  Aaron,  n.,  525 
Scudder,  Rev.  John  L.,  for,  632 
Scull  1.,  280 

Sea  Gull  1.,  141,  142,  501 
Sea  forth  v.,  452 
Seaman,  Fletcher  D.,  n.,  565 
Searles  v.,  70 
Seavey  t,  16 
Sebeka  v.,  562 
Sebie  1.,  161 
Second  1.,  112 


722 


INDEX 


Sedan  v.,  433 

Seed  1.,  297 

Sceley  br.,  25 

Seely  t,  for  P.  C.  Seely,  b.,  187 

Seelye  cr.,  for  Moses  Seely e,  251 

Seig  I.,  232 

Selby,  J.  W.,  for,  615 

Sellards   1.,   for   Tliomas   Sellards, 

341 
Selma  t,  151 
Semmen,  John,  n.,  194 
Serbia,  names  from,  372,  523 
Seven  Beaver  1.,  500 
Seven  Corners,  St.  Paul,  440 
Seven  Mile  1.,  370 
Severance,  Mrs.  C.  A.,  420 
Severance,  Martin  J.,  for,  b.,  520, 

521 
Severance  t,  520;  L,  521 
Seward,  William  H.,   for,  b.,  379, 

601 
Seward  t.,  379 
Sewell,  1.,  401 

Seymour  1.,  for  W.  S.  Seymour,  ZZ7 
Sha-bosh-kung  bay  and  pt,  347,  349 
Shadow  1.,  181 
Shadow  Falls  cr.,  441 
Shady  id.,  235 ;  1.,  389 
Shady  Oak  L,  231 
Shafer  t,  for  Jacob  Shafer,  109 
Shakopee   c,   for    Sioux  chief,  b., 

510;  (t,  508;)  prairie,  512 
Shakopee  cr. .  and  1.,  106,  272,  542 ; 

1.,  590 
Shallow  1.,  32,  247;  Shallow  Lake 

r.,  32 
Sham  1.,  315 
Shamano  1.,  356 

Shambaugh,  Prof.  B.  F.,  cited,  13 
Shamrock  t,  16 
Shaokatan  1.  and  t.,  308,  310 
Sharon  t,  303 
Shasha  pt,  286 
(Shaska  t,  82) 
Shauer  1.,  218 
Shaw,  Neal  D.,  22 
Shaw,  Col.  Samuel  D.,  n.,  58 
Shaw  sta.,     489;     1.,  for  Thomas 

Shaw,  580 
Sha-wun-uk-u-mig  cr.,  132 
Shea,  John  Gilmary,  219 
Shea's  L,  for  Timothy  Shea,  305 
Shelburne  t,  314 

Shelby  t,  for  Isaac  Shelby,  b.,  63 
(Shelbyville  v.,  63) 
Sheldon,  Mrs.  O.,  n.,  201 
Sheldon  t.,  for  J.  C.  Sheldon,  240; 

1.,  592 


Shell  cr.,  48;  r.,  29,  562;  1.,  29,  48, 

502,  562 
Shell  Cihr,  a  hamlet,  562 
Shell  Lake  t,  and  1.,  30 
Shell  River  t,  562 
Shell  Rock  t  (and  v.),  202;  r.,  202. 

203 
Shelly  t.  and  v.,  for  John  Shelly,  383 
Shenango  sta.,  489      i 
Shc^ard  1.,  530 
Sherburn  v.,  334 

Sherburne,  Moses,  for,  b.,  513,  516 
Sherburne  co.,  513-517 
Sheridan,  Gen.  Philip  H.,  for,  247, 

452,  603,  610 
Sheridan,  1.,  247 ;  t,  452 
Sherman,  Florence,  for,  312 
Sherman,  Mrs.  W.  H.,  for,  418 
Sherman,  Gen.  W.  T.,  for,  452,  613 
Sherman  t,  (for  I.  Sherman,  62;) 

452,  (558) 
Sherwood,  George  W.,  for,  625 
Shetek  t.  and  1.,  d67 
Shevlin  t.  and  v.,  for  T.  H.  Shev- 

lin,  b.,  123 
Sheyenne  Indians,  Minnesota,  119 
Sheyenne  r.,  N.  D.,  119 
Shiba  1.,  98 
Shible  t,  for  Albert  Shible,  541 ;  1., 

542 
Shields,   Gen.  James,   for,  b.,  463, 

465,  634 
Shields  1.,  465 
Shieldsville  t.,  463;  v.,  464 
Shine  1.,  162,  258 
Shingle  cr.,  232 ;  br.,  357 
Shingob  1.,  248 
Shingobee  t.  and  cr.,  92,  248 
Shirley  sta.,  427 
Shirt  1.,  162 
Shoal  1.,  258 
Shoemaker  1.,  274 
Sho^ack  1.,  295 

Shooks  t,  for  Edward  Shooks,  39 
Short  portage,  494 
Shordss  id.,  497 
Shotley  t.  and  br.,  39,  47 
Shotwell,  Walter  Scott,  n.,  177 
Shovel  Lake  t,  and  1.,  16 
Sibilant  U  131 
Sibley,  (jov.  Henry  H.,  n.,  3,  4;  27, 

60;  for,  160,  165,  275,  b..  518,  520; 

quoted,  183;  camp,  1863,  460;  576, 

606,  612,  614 
Sibley  co.,  518-521 ;  t,  160,  520 
Sibley  1.,  160,  246;  state  park,  275 
Sibvl,  1.,  403 
Sickle  bay,  145 


INDEX 


723 


Side  1.,  501 

Sieber's  cr.,  for  Rudolph  Siebcr,  120 

Siegfried  cr.,  for  A.  H.  Siegfried, 

130 
Sigel,  Gen.  Franz,  for,  b.,  71;  315, 

623 
Sigel  t,  71 ;  1.,  315 
Signalness    cr.,    for    Olaus   Signal-" 

ness,  b.,  434 
Silent  lakes,  two,  403 
Silver  cr.,  76,  78,  241.  295,  319,  389, 

529,  566,  589,  591 ;  id.,  494 
Silver  1.,  120,  162,  204,  210,  218,  304 

(2),  319;    Is.,   South  and  North, 

334;   336,  349,  402(2),  404,  443. 

(2),  501,  521,  591 
Silver  t  and  cr.,  76^  77^  78 
Silver  Creek  t.,  294,  589 
Silver  Lake  v.,  318;  t.,  334 
Silver  Leaf  t.,  30 
Silverton  t,  408 
Simon  1.,  324,  434,  563 
Simpson,  Sir  George,  and  wife,  for, 

283 
Simpson,  James  W.,  for,  615 
Sin^)son,  Bishop  Matthew,  for,  630 
Simpson  v.,  for  Thomas  Simpson, 

D.,  3oo 
Sina,  L,  182 
Sinclair  t.,  123 
Sinnott  t.,  for  J.  P.  and  P.  J.  Sin- 

nott,  330 
Sioux  1.,  341 

Sioux,  Prairie,  45,  53;  see  Dakotas 
Sioux  treaty,  1851,  375 
Sioux  war,   1862,  60,  72,  176,  525; 

monuments,  460 
Sioux  Agency  t.,  596 
Sioux  Valley  t.  and  rivers,  263 
(Sioux  Wood  r.,  554) 
Sisabagama  1.,  and  cr.  or  r.,  18;  1., 

156 
Siseebakwet,  1.,  257 
Sisseton,  1.,  336 
Sisseton  Sioux,  57,  149,  336 
Siverson  1.,  401 
Six  1.,  404;  Six  Mile  1.,  98 
Six  Mile  Grove  t.,  106,  541 
Skagen  t,  for  A.  O.  Skagen,  474 
Skandia  t,  367 
Skane  t,  279 
Skataas  1.,  274 
Skelton  t.,  for  J.  and  H.  E.  Skelton, 

76 
Skibo  sta.,  489 
Skidmore,  Edwin  T.,  for,  641 
Ski  f Strom  1.,  590 


Skillman  br.,  for  two  brothers,  b., 

559 
Skogman's  1.,  251 
Skow  L,  369 

Skree  t,  for  Mikkel  Skree,  118 
Skull  1.,  274 
Skunk  cr.,  77,  414,  529 ;  1.,  248,  264, 

357,  529;  r.,  357,  529 
Slate  1.,  296 

Slater  t,  for  David  H.  Slater,  92 
Slawson   1.,  for   William   Slawson, 

Sla3rton  t.  and  v.,  for  C.  W.  Slay- 
ton,  b.,  368 
Sleepy    Eye   c,    for    Sleepy    Eyes, 

Sioux  chief,  b.,  71 
Sleepy  Eye  1.  and  cr.,  72,  304,  454 
Sletten  t.,  for  Paul  C.  Sletten,  427 
Sloan  1.,  for  John  Sloan.  248 
Slocum,  banker,  n.,  83 
Slocum,  Isaac,  n.,  58 
(Slough  cr.,  197) 
Smalley,  Eugene  V.,  quoted,  79;  397, 

433 
Smiler's  rapids,  517 
Smiley  t,  160;  for  W.  C.  Smiley, 

408 
Smith,  Mrs.  Ann  Eliza  (Brainerd), 

for,  156 
Smith,  Ansel,  107;  n.,  108 
Smith,  (3ol.  Benjamin  F.,  n.,  63 
Smith,  Cliarles  W.,  28 
Smith,  Donald  A.,  278 
Smith,  Rev.  F.  W.,  45,  52 
Smith,  Henry  W.,  for,  369 
Smith,  John  Gregory,   for,  b.,  156, 

352 
Smith,  Mrs.  John  G.,  for,  b.,  156 
Smith,  Myron,  n.,  87  ' 
Smith,  Robert,  for,  639 
Smith,  Robert  A.,  for,  613 
Smith,  Vemie,  and  L.  W.,  for,  b., 

562 
Smith,  William  J.,  n.,  553 
Smith  1.,  181,  232,  258,  337,  369,  589 
Smith'5  bay,  235 
Smith  Lake  v.,  for  Eugene  Smith, 

589 
Smith's   Mill  v.,   for   Peter  Smith, 

566 
Smithfield,   (t,  556;)  a  hamlet,  558 
Smoke  1.,  143 
Smoky  hill,  33 
Smoky  Hollow  t.,  93 
Smootz,  Rev.  M.  F.,  n.,  283 
Snail  1.,  443 
Snake  id..  Lake  Traverse,  553 


724 


INDEX 


Snake  r.,  10,  19,  265,  267,  331 ;  cr.» 

559 
Snelling,   Col.   Josiah,   34;   for,  b., 
228,  630;  Mrs.  Snelling.  for,  168 
Snelling,  William  J.,  67,  224 
Snelling,   Fort,    227,    228;    military 

reservation,  236 
Snipe  1.,  141 

Snively,  Samuel  F.,  for,  654 
Snow  Shoe  br.,  267 
Snowball  1.,  258 
Snowbank  I.,  296 
Snustad,  Helga,  for,  243 
Snyder  1.,  454 

Sobriquets    of    Minnesota,    4;    St. 
Paul  and  Minneapolis,  439;  Du- 
luth,  481,  652;  St.  Cloud,  527;  Ro- 
chester, 387;  Winona,  584 
Sodus  t,  314 
Solberg  1.,  for  Olens  Solberg,  65; 

for  A.  H.  Solberg,  182 
Solberg's  pt.,  234 
Solem  t.,  179 
Soler  t.,  474 
Solomon  1.,  for  Solomon  R.  Foot, 

274 
Solum  1.,  for  H.  H.  Solum,  120 
Solway  v.,  for  Solway  firth,  39;  t., 

489 
Somerset  t,  534 
Sonmer  1.,  401 
Sorin's  bluff,  for  Rev.  M.  Sorin,  b., 

212 
(Sorlien   Mills,  hamlet,   for  E.   H. 

Sorlien,  596) 
Soudan  v.  and  mine,  490 
South    cr.,    189,   335;   1.,   139.   320; 

ridge,  503 
South  America,     names  from,  105, 

387 
South  Bend  t.,  63 
South  Branch  t.,  576 
South  Fork  t.  266 
South  Harbor  t.,  345 
South  Haven  v.,  589 
South  Oscar  1.,  181 
South  St.  Paul  c,  167 
South  Stillwater  v.,  571 
Southbrook  t,  151 
Southside  t.,  589 
Spain,  names   from,     70,   122,  207, 

301,  333,  581 
Spalding  t,  for  J.  L.  Spalding,  17 
Spang  t,   for  Matthew  A.   Spang, 

256 
Spanish-American  war,  89,  92,  254 
Sparta  t,  105;  v.,  490 
Spaulding  townsite,  490 


Spear-fish  bay,  146 
Spearhead  lakes,  248 
Spectacle  1.,  251 
Spencer,  H.  H.,  n.,  508 
Spencer,  John  C,  for,  473 
Spencer  1.,  341 ;  t.,  for  W.  Spencer, 

17 
Spencer  Brook  t.,  and  br.,  250 
Sperry  I.,  273 

Spicer,  John  M.,  104.  271,  272,  314 
Spicer,  Russell,  for,  314 
Spicer  1.,  204;  v.,  272 
Spider   1.,   100,    112,   162,   244,   258, 

499;  id.,  347 
Spirit  hill,  512 

Spirit  id.,  229,  347,  440.  493,  652 
Spirit  1.,  20,    (343,)    403,  493,  563, 

652;  r.,  160 
Spirit  1.,  Iowa,  10,  262.  264 
(Spirit  Mountain  cr.,  291) 
Spitser*s  1..  401 
Split  Hand  t,  L,  and  cr.,  256 
Split   Rock  t.   and   r.,  76;  canyon, 

138;  r.  and  pt,  295;  cr.,  420 
Spoon  L,  296,  442 

Spooner  t,  for  M.  A.  Spooner,  40 
Sprague  1.,  465 
Spray  id.,  235 
Spring  cr.,  30,  106,  111,  120,  211,  304. 

383,  384,  598;  br.,  280 
Spring  1.,  112,  169,  182.  204(2),  218, 

258.  267,  341,  402,  494,  502,  511, 

512,  590 
Spring  Branch  cr.,  72 
Spring  Brook  t.,  280 
Spring  Creek  t.,  30,  383 
Spring  Grove  t.,  240 
Spring  Hill  t.,  528 
Spring  Lake  t.,  511 
Spring  Park  bay,  235 
Spring  Prairie  t,  118 
Spring  Ridge  cr.,  132 
Spring  Valley  t.  and  v.,  195,  631 ; 

cr.,  196 
Springdale  t,  452 
Springfield    v.,   71,    (262;)    t.,    151, 

(382,  386) 
Springvale  t.,  250 
Springwater  t.,  and  cr.,  469 
Spruce  r.,  144,  415;  cr.,  179;  1.,  295; 

t.,  474 
Spruce  Grove  t,  30,  40 
Spruce  Hill  t,  179 
Spruce  Valley  t,  330 
Spunk  br.,  529,  Is.,  three,  530 
Square  1.,  573 
(Squaw  1.,  133) 
Stacy,  Edwin  C.,  n.,  200 


INDEX 


725 


Stacy  v.,  for  Dr.  Stacy  B.  Collins, 

109 
Stafford  t.,  for  W.  Stafford,  474 
Stag  cr.,  342 

Stahl's  I.,  for  Charles  Stahl,  320 
Stakke  1.,  32 
Stalker  1.,  401 

Stallcopp  1.,  for  L.  E.  Stallcopp,  548 
Stanchfield,  Daniel,  for,  b.,  250;  n., 

Stanchfield  t.,  brs.,  and  Is.,  250;  1., 

356 
(Standing  rock,  164) 
Stanford  t,  251 
Stang  1.,  401 
Stanley  t.,  314;  v.,  593 
Stannard,  George,  n.,  61 
(Stanton  t,  for  Elias  Stanton,  200) 
Stanton    t,    for    William    Stanton, 

208 
Staples  t  and"  c,   for  Samuel  and 

Isaac  Staples,  546 
Star  id.,  96;  1.,   145,  162,  341,  370, 

398,  403,  548 ;  t.,  408 
Star  Lake  t.,  398 
Starbuck  v.,  433 
Staring  1.,  231 

Stark,  Edward  W.,  107;  b.,  109 
Stark,  Mrs.  H.  L.,  375 
Stark  1.,  162 ;  t.,  for  August  Starck, 

71 ;  v.,  for  Lars  J.  Stark,  b.,  109 
Starkey,  James,  for,  618 
Starlight  p.  o.,  124 
Starting  pt.,  47 
(Starvation  pt.,  225,  235) 
State  fair  ground,  631 
State  forests,  100,  506 
State   parks,   65,   78,    112,    126-134; 

275,  363,  454 
State  Agricultural  College,  631 
State  Line  1.,  264,  380 
State  University,  226,  605 
Stately  t,  71 
Statues,  National  Statuary  Hall,  49, 

86,  237,  436,  461,  464 
Stauffer  1.,  274 
(Stavanger  p.  o.,  596) 
Stay  1.,  for  Frank  Stay,  b.,  308,  309 
Steamboat,     Anson     Northu^p,  119; 

North  Star,  353 
Steamboat  r.,  95,  98,  247 ;  1.,  98,  247 
Stearns,  Charles  T.,  for,  b.,  522 
Stearns,  Ozora  P.,  for,  647 
Stearns  co.,  522-530 
Steele,   Franklin,   for,  b.,  531,  603, 

609 
Steele  co.,  531-534;  1.,  304 


Steen  v.,  for  J.  P.  and  O.  P.  Steen, 

469 
Steenerson,  Leif,  for,  427 
Steenerson  t.,  for  H.  Steenerson,  40 
Steffes  t,  285 
Stein,  John,  n.,  335 
Steinbach,  Paul,  n.,  544 
Stella.  1.,  280,  341 
Stemmer  1.,  401 

Stene  1.,  for  Mons  L.  Stene,  384 
Stenerson,  1.,  435 
Stennett,   W.   H.,   quoted   or   cited, 

58,  59,  60,  63,  69,  71,  149,  186,  366, 

386,  437,  450,  453,  507,  508.  534, 

565,  566,  569,  574,  582 
Stephen  v.,  for  George  Stephen,  b., 

330 
Stephens,  F.  J.,  n.,  533 
Sterling  t,  63 

Stevens,  Gen.  Isaac  I.,  for,  b.,  535 
Stevens,    Col.    John    H.,   220,   223; 

for  602,  610;  statue,  602 
Stevens,  Mrs.  John  H.,  for,  600 
Stevens  co.,  535-8;  t,  537 
Stevens  1.,  273,  342 
Stevenson  v.,  490 
Steward's   cr.,   for  H.  J.   Steward, 

b.,  204 
Stewart,  A.  T.,  59 
Stewart,  Jacob  H.,  for,  638,  641 
Stewart,  Levi  M.,  587;  for,  610 
Stewart,  William,  n.,  564 
Stewart    1.,    for    Charles    Stewart, 

161 ;  r.  and  1.,  for  John  Stewart, 

295;  v.,  for  Dr.  D.  A.   Stewart, 

318;  cr.,  493 
Stei^'artville  v.,  for   Charles   Stew- 
art, 388 
Stickney,  Alpheus  B.,  n.,  569;  for, 

620 
Stieger  1.,  for  Carl  Stieger,  85 
Stiles  sta.,  for  A.  M.  Stiles,  b.,  528 
Stillwater  c.  and  t.,  571 
Stillwater  convention,  1848,  4,  67 
Stinson,  James,  for,  607 
Stinson,  Thomas,  for,  617,  629,  641 
Stockhaven  1.,  182 
Stockholm  t.,  589 
Stockhousen   1.,   for   Hans   G.   von 

Stackhausen,  182 
Stocking  1.,  248,  563;  cr.,  563 
Stockton  v.,  for  J.  B.  Stockton,  584 
Stokes  t.,  for  George  Stokes,  474 
Stone,  Hammet,  for,  105 
Stone  1.,  180,  342,  499,  500(2),  516; 

sta.,  63 
Stoneham  t,  105 


726 


INDEX 


Stony  br.,  77,  100,  217,  349,  547;  cr., 

100,   120,  529,   597;  1.,  217,  218, 

247;  r.,  295 
Stony  run,  56,  597;  ridge,  292;  pt, 

493 
Stony  Brook  t,  217,  218 
Stony  Run  t.,  597 
Stop  id.,  286 
Storden  t.  and  v.,  for  Nels  Storden, 

151 
Storer  cr.,  241 
Stormy  cr.,  179 
Stowe's  1.,  for  Martin  Stowe,  181, 

182 
Stowe  Prairie  t.,  for  brothers,  546 
Straight  1.  and  r.,  32,  245;  r.,  465, 

533,  534;  slough,  585 
Straight  River  t.,  245 
Strand  t,  383 
Strandquist  v.,   for  J.   £.   Strand- 

quist,  330 
Strathcona,  Lord,  278;  for,  b.,  474 
Strathcona  v.,  474 
Stratton  1.,  251 
Strawberry  1.,  Z2 
Stray  1.,  141 
String  Is.,  153 
Stringtown  v.,  195 
Strom  1.,  for  Andrew  Strom,  65 
Strong  cr.,  516 
Stroud  sta.,  490 

Strunk's  1.,  for  H.  H.  Strunk,  512 
Stryker,  John  L.,  for,  619 
Stuart  1.,  401 
Stubbs  bay,  235 
Stump  r.,  140;  L,  530 
Stuntz,  George  R.,  for,  b.,  490,  494, 

501,  643 
Stuntz  t,  490;  id.  and  bay,  494;  1., 

501 
Sturgeon  1.,  211,  414,  501,  (47;)  r., 

285,  490,  501 ;  t.,  490 ;  portage,  495 
Sturgeon,  shovel-nosed,  211;   rock, 

490 
Sturgeon  Lake  t.  and  v.,  414 
Sturgeon  River  t.,  285 
Sturgis  br.,  357 
Sturtevant,  Mrs.  C.  G.    n.,  29 
Sucker,   Charley,   for,   141 
Sucker  cr.,  46,   133,  591 ;  bay  and 

br.,  95,  493,  494;  1.,  126,  143,  296, 

297,  443,  475 ;  r.,  492 ;  pt,  494 
Sugar  cr.,  196 ;  1.,  20,  204,  401,  591 
Sugar  maple,  40,  82;  pt..  battle,  94 
Sugar  Bush  Is.,  32,  324 ;  t.,  40 
Sugar   Loaf     pt,     145;   hill,  275; 

mound,  389;  bluff,  585 
Sugar  Tree  ridge,  259 


Sulem  1.,  576 

Sullivan  1.,  357,  499;  t,  for  Timo- 

thy  Sullivan,  427 
Sumac  id.,  347 
Summerville  t,  285 
Summit  t,  40,   (452,)   534;  1.,  152. 

246.  273.  336,  369,  379 
Summit  Lake  t  379 
Sumner,  Charles,  for,  195,  583,  610 
Sumner  t.,  195,  (583) 
Sumter  t,  for  Fort  Sumter,  318 
Sunbeam  p.  o.,  408 
Sundahl  t,  384 
Sundown  t,  452 
Sunfish  1.,  169,  304,  500 
Sunn^side  t,  579 
Sunrise  t.,  prairie,  1.,  and  r.,   109, 

251;  branches  of  r.,  Ill 
Sunset  pt,  234;  L,  498,  573;  peak, 

503 
Superior  c,  Wis.,  7Z 
Superior,  L,  1,  8,  7Z,  29Z,  643,  644, 

654 ;  pts.,  bays,  and  ids.,  Cook  co., 

145,  146 ;  Lake  co.,  295 ;  St.  Louis 

CO.,  492-3 
Superior  National  Forest  148,  299, 

506 
Susan,  L,  85,  ZZ7,  502 
Susie  id.,  145 
Sutphin,  John  B.,  for,  644 
Sutton  L,  512 
Svea  t,  280 

Sveadahl,  a  hamlet,  576 
Sverdrup  t,  for  Greorge  Sverdrup, 

b.,  398 
Swamp  1.,  100,   112,  140,  144,  500, 

530;  r.,  140,  145;  cr.,  144,  (331;) 

crs..  Big,  and  Little,  563 
Swan  cr.,  1(X);  r.,  256,  355,  547;  r.. 

East,  and  West,  500 
Swan  1.,  26,  85,   145,   152,   189(2), 

256,   273,   274(3),   309,   315,   319. 

320,  337,  339,  356,  374,  401,  434, 

435,  454,  521,  534,  537;  Big,  and 

Little,  547;  590 
Swan  Lake  t.,  (339,)  537 
Swan  River  v.,  256;  t,  355 
Swanville  t  and  v.,  356 
Swartwatts  1.,  591 
Swede  1.,  85,  163 
Swede  Grove  t,  340 
Swede  Prairie  t,  597 
Swede's  Forest  t.,  452 
Sweden,  names  from,  15,  16,  51,  178, 

250,  266,  269,  278,  279,  280,  329, 

344,  356,  367,  387.  471,  473,  482, 

518,  589 
Sweeney  1.,  232 


INDEX 


727 


Sweet  t,  for  Daniel  £.  Sweet,  b., 

418 
Swenoda  1.,  435;  t,  541 
Swenson  L,  43,  273,  274 
Swetland,  Melissa,  for,  ^ 
Swietzer  1.,  247 
Swift,  Gov.  Henry  A.,  for,  246,  b., 

539 
Swift  CO.,  539-542 
Swift  L,  99,  246,  342 ;  r.,  99 
Swift  Falls,  a  hamlet,  542 
Swift  Water  t,  40 
Swims  1.,  180 
Switzerland,     names      from,      177 

(two) 
Syenite  id.,  146;  1.,  296 
Sykes,  Mrs.  Amifetta,  for,  311 
Sylvan  1.,  93,  218,  233 ;  t,  93 
Sylvia  1.,   for  Mrs.   A.   Townsend, 

530;  591 
Sjmnes  t.,  537 
Syre  v.,  384 


T  lake,  404 

Taarud,  Nels  S.,  n.,  365 

Taber  sta.,  490 

Tabor  t.  427 

Taft,  William  H.,  for,  b.,  490,  605 

Taft  sta.,  490 

Tainter,  Andrew,  for,  631 

Tart  1.,  143,  273 

(Ta  Kara  Is.,  55) 

Talcott  I.,  for  Andrew  Talcott,  b., 

153,  370 
Taliaferro,  Major  Lawrence,  34,  35, 

155,  159,  171 
(Taliaferro,  1.,  159) 
Talmadge  r.,  for  Josiah  Talmadge, 

492 
Tamarac  t.  and  r.,  330,  331 
Tamarack  id.,  for  John  Tamarack, 

144 
Tamarack  1.,  25,  32,  75,   126,  251, 

324,  356,  401,  402,  404,  529,  590; 

pt,  132 
Tamarack  r.,   19,  47,  77,  286,  330, 

415 ;  t.,  17 
Tanberg  t,  for  Christian  Tanberg, 

579 
Tanner,  George,  for,  336 
Tanner,  John,  captive  of  Ojibways, 

44 
Tanner's  hill,  357 
Tansem  t,  for  John  O.  Tansem,  b., 

118 
Taopi  v.,  362 


Tara  t,  542,  552 

Target  1.,  240 

Tatum,  S.  C.,  and  Hannah,  for,  630, 

641 
Taunton  v.,  314 

Taylor,  Frank  B.,  geologist,  79,  148 
Taylor,  James  W.,  for,  630 
Taylor,  Jesse,  for,  b.,  110 
Taylor,  Joshua  L.,  for,  b.,  110 
Taylor,  Robert,  n.,  63 
Taylor,  Zachary,  for,  605 
Taylor  t,   for   James   Taylor,  40; 

552 
Taylor's  Falls  v.,  107,  110,  112,  113; 

(t,  109) 
Teal  1.,  140 
(Tears,  1.  of,  10) 
(Tecumseh  t.,  61) 
Tegner    t.,    for    Elias    Tegner,    b., 

280 
Teien  t,  for  Andrew  C.  Teicn,  280 
Temperance  r.  and  1.,   143;   1.,  ZZl 
Ten  Mile  1.,  45,  98,  291,  401 
Ten  Mile  Lake  t,  291 
Tenhassen  t,  334 
Tenney  v.,  579 
Tennis,  L.  L.,  n.,  458 
Tennyson  1.,  251 
Tenstrike  v.,  40 
(Tepeeota  v.,  Z67,  558) 
Terrace  pt,  145 ;  v.,  433 
Terrapin  1.,  573 
Terrebonne  t.,  447 
Terrell  1.,  231 

Terry,  Gen.  Alfred  H.,  for,  623 
Terry,  Rev.  C.  M.,  180 
(Terry  v.,  312) 
Tetonka,  1.,  303 

Theilman  v.,  for  H.  Thcilman,  558 
Thevot  1.,  501 
Thief  1.,  9,  330,  409 ;  r.,  9,  330,  408, 

409 
Thief  Lake  t.,  330 
Thief  River  Falls  c,  408 
Third  1.,  112;  r.,  256,  259 
Third  River  t.,  256 
Thoeny  1.,  for  Mathias  Thoeny,  b., 

319 
Thole's  1.,  512 

Thomas,  Gen,  George  H.,  for,  603 
Thomas,  Mrs.  Mary,  for,  383 
Thomas  1.,  248,  Z7Z,  295 ;  for  Mau- 
rice Thomas,  296;  530 
Thomastown  t,  for  Thomas  Scott, 

562 
Thompson,  Clark  W.,  for,  b.,  184; 

Mrs.  Thompson,  for,  188 


728 


INDEX 


Thompson,  David,  18,  40,  42,  74;  b., 

76;  96,  119,  121,  125,  139,  140,  276, 

297,  445,  447,  470,  496,  497,  498 
Thompson  1.,  218,  274,  341,  499,  516, 

567;  cr.,  241 
Thompson  t,   (184;)    for  brothers, 

280 
Thomson  t.,  for  David  Thompson, 

b.,  76 
Thoreau,  Henry  D.,  93,  433 
Thorpe,  Garrett  L.,  for,  382 
Thorpe  t,  for  Joseph  Thorpe,  245 
Thorson,  Alice  O.,  433 
Thorson  1.,  181 
Thorstad  1.,  181 
Thousand  Islands,  517 
Three  Island  1.,  43 
Three  Lakes  t.,  452 
Three  Maidens,  Pipestone,  420 
Three  Mile  1..  98,  501 ;  cr.,  291,  315, 

459 
Thunder  I.,  93,  99,  161,  548 
Thunder  Lake  t.,  93 
Thurston,  Rev.  J.  M.,  n.,  61 
Tibbetts  br.,  349;  for  four  brothers, 

516 ;  1.,  369 
Tidd  br.,  357 
Tiger  1.,  85,  454 
Tilde,  1.,  32 

Tilden  t.,  for  S.  J.  Tiiden,  b.,  427 
Timber  1.,  264,  274,  337,  375 
Timothy  grass,  for  Timothy  Han- 
son, 160 
Timothy  t.,  160 

Tintah  t,  552;  v.,  and  beaches,  553 
Tintons,  1.  of  the,  53 
(Tintonwan,  v.  of  Sioux,  510) 
Tischer's  cr.,  493,  648,  653 
Tftlow  1.,  521 
(Tivoli  t,  61) 
Toad  1.,  30 ;  mt.,  30,  ^ ;  Toad  Lake 

t.,  30 
Todd,  Gen.  John  B.  S.,  for,  b.,  543 ; 

600,  601 
Todd  CO.,  543-9;  t.  for  Smith  Todd, 

245 
Todd  I.,  for  Daniel  S.  Todd,  320; 

341 
.Tofte  t  and  v.,  137 
Toivola  t,  490 
Tokua  Is.,  and  Tokua  Brothers  Is., 

55,56 
Tom  1.,  140,  401 ;  mt,  241,  275 
Toner's  1.,  for  Richard  Toner,  567 
Tonka  Bay  v.,  227 :  bay,  234 
Toombs,  Thomas  H.,  n.,  216 
(Toombs  CO.,  for  Robert  Toombs, 

b.,  577) 


Topographic  names,  1,  2 
Topping,  Herbert  W.,  for,  629 
Toqua  Is.  and  t,  55 
Tordenskjold  t,  for  Peder  Torden- 

skjold,  b.,  398 
Torfin  p.  o.,  for  Iver  Torfin,  474 
Torgerson  p.  o.,  for  M.  Torgerson, 

409 
Torning  t,  542 
Tor^tenson  1.,  218 
Tower,  Charlemagne,   Sr.,  and  Jr., 

for,  b.,  490,  491 
Tower  c,  490;  1.,  342 
Towle,  J.  S.,  and  J.  P.,  for,  451 
Town  and  Country  Club  grounds, 

634 
Townsend,  Mrs.  Sylvia,  for,  530 
Township  Corner  1..  100 
Trace  1.,  for  Ferdinand  Trace,  547 
Tracy,  John  H.,  for,  625 
Tracy  v.,  for  John  F.  Tracy,  314 
Trail  (1.,  203;)  v.,  427 
"Trail  City,"  195 
Trails  of  fur  traders,  217 
Transit  t.,  520 
Trap  1.,  141 
Traverse  co.,  550-554;  1.,  7,  8,  550; 

t,  Z7Z 
Traverse  1.,  for  F.  W.  Traverse,  25 
Traverse  des  Sioux,  Z7Z,  375,  treaty 

in  1851,  199,  375 
Treat,  George  L.,  letter,  178 
Treaties  with   Ojibways,   171,  506; 

with  Sioux,  171,  199,  375 
Tree  id.,  494 

Trelipe  t.,  for  tullibee  fish,  93 
Trenton  1.,  204,  567;  (t.,  55) 
Iriangle  1.,  296 
Triggs,  J.  H.,  for,  649,  650 
Triplet  Is.,  130 

Tripp  L,  for  Charles  Tripp,  247 
Triumph  v.,  335 
Trondhjem  t,  399 
Troolin  1.,  .251 
Trosky  v.,  418 
Trotochaud  1.,  32 
Trott,  Herman,  for,  b.,  215 
Trott  cr.,  25 ;  for  Joseph  Trott,  516 
Trout   cr.,    196,    559,    585(3),   612; 

br.,  442,  (559,)  573,  614;  r.,  494 
Trout  1.,  143 ;  Is.,  Lower,  and  Little, 

145 ;  162,  257.  494 
Trout  Lake  t,  257 
Troy  t.,  419,  459,  (556,  559;)  v.,  584 
Truedell  slough,  169 
Truman  v.,  335 
Tucker  1.  and  r.,  141 
Tuey  1.,  590 


INDEX 


729 


Tulaby  1.,   for  tullibee  fish,  32,  93 

Tumuli  t,  399 

Tunsberg  t,  105 

TurnbuU,  Peter,  n..  and  Mrs.  Mary 

Turnbull,  for,  131 
TurnbuU  pt,  132 
Turner  t.,  for  L.  E.  Turner^  17 
Turtle  cr.,  204,  363,  534,  546,  547 
Turtle  1.,  33,  40,  43,  93,  99,  120,  180, 

181,  218,  232,  258;  Is.,  South,  and 

North,  402 ;  429,  443,  546,  548 
Turtle  r.,  35,  40,  126;  mt,  N.  D., 

102 
Turtle  Creek  t.,  546 
Turtle  Lake  t.,  40,  93 
Turtle  River  t.  and  1.,  40 
Tuscarora  1.,  141 
Tustin,  1.,  304 

Tuttle  1.,  for  Calvin  Tuttle,  336,  337 
Twelve  Mile  cr.,  537,  554,  590 
Twenty  1.,  20,  274 
Twenty-four  Mile  cr.,  99,  100 
Twig  v.,  491 
Twin  bays,  346;  bluffs,  212;  peaks, 

299 

Twin  Is.,  26.  33,  43,  76.  131,  143,  145, 
152,  162(3),  202,  203,  221,  232 
(2),  251,  273,  280,  295,  309,  315. 
323,  336,  337,  402,  403,  516,  547, 
562,  573,  591(3),  598 

Twin  Cities,  220,  439 

Twin  Lakes  t.,  76,  323 ;  v.,  203 

Twin  Ports,  481,  493 

Twin  Valley  v.,  384 

Twitchell,  Moses,  n.,  23 

Two  pts..  Leech  1.,  96 

Two  rivers,  of  Red  1.,  36,  47 ;  Kitt- 
son CO.,  280;  Morrison  co.,  356; 
St  Louis  CO.,  489,  500,  501; 
Stearns  co.,  529 

Two  Harbor  bay,  295 

Two  Harbors  c.  and  t.,  294 

Two  Inlets  t.  and  1.,  30 

Two  Island  r.,  142 

Two  River  1.,  530 

Two  Rivers  t.  and  v.,  356 

Twohey  1.,  143 

Tyler,  John,  for,  605 

Tyler  1.,  for  William  L.  Tyler,  304 

Tyler  v.,  for  C.  B.  Tyler,  b.,  309 

Tynsid  t.,  427 

Typo  1.,  25,  251 

Tyro  t.,  597 

Tyrone  t.,  303;  prairie,  342 

Tyrrell,  J.  B.,  geologist,  8,  76,  96, 
119 

Tyson  1.,  for  Joseph  Tyson,  598 


Udolpho  t,  362 

Uhlenkott's  L,  530 

Ulen  t.  and  v.,  for  Ole  Ulen,  b.,  119 

Una,  dog,  for,  1,  157 

Underwood  v.,  for  A.  J.  Under- 
wood, 399;  t,  452 

Undine  region,  2,  62,  65 ;  gl.  1.,  66 

Uninhabited  pt.,  46 

Union  1.,  180  (2).  429,  465;  cr„  562; 
t.,  (206,)  240,  (399) 

Union  Grove  t,  340 

(Union  Prairie  t.,  533) 

Upham,  Warren,  quoted,  113,  170, 
224;  for,  505 

Upham,  gl.  1.,  505 

Upper  Cullen  1.,  162 

Upper  Dean  1.,  162 

Upper  Hay  1.,  160 

Upper  Iowa  r.,  13,  197,  362 

Upper  Lightning  1.,  217,  401 

Upper  Rice  1.,  124 

Upper  Sioux  Agency,  596 

Upper  Twin  1.,  247 

Upsala  v.,  356 

Upton,  Gen.  Emory,  for,  603 

Urn  1.,  296 

Urness  t,  179 

Ushkabwahka  r.,  499 

Utica,  Ot.,  240;)  t.  and  v.,  584 


Vadnais  1.,  for  John  Vadnais,  442 

Vail,  Tames  N.,  n.,  122 

Vail  t.,  452 

Valder,  Hans,  n.,  194 

Valentine  1.,  443 

Valhalla,  of  Norse  mythology,  40 

Vallers  t,  314 

Valley,  Lake  of  the,  32 

Valley  t,  330 

Van  Buren,  Mrs.  John,  n.,  172 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  for,  b.,  491,  605, 

622 
Van  Buren  t,  491 
Van  Cleve,  Mrs.  Charlotte  O.,  510, 

547;  for,  b.,  548,  607 
Van   Qeve,   C^en.   Horatio   P.,   for, 

548,  607 
Van  Dusen,  G.  W.,  n.,  385 
Van  Dyke,  Mrs.  James  H.,  1/5,  181 
Van    Loon's    1.,    for    Miner    Van 

Loon,  181 
Van  Reed,  Henry,  for,  631 
Van   Slyke,  William   A.,   for,   628, 

641 
Vance  1.,  145 

Vanoss  1.,  for  Francis  Vanoss,  324 
Varco  sta.,  for  Thomas  Varco,  362 


730 


INDEX 


Vasa  t.,  for  Gustavus  Vasa,  king 
of  Sweden,  b.,  209;  (t.  and  v., 
571) 

Vaughan,  A.  B.,  for,  b.,  360 

Vaugondy,  map  by,  79,  476 

Vawter  v.,  356 

Vega  t.,  330 

Veldt  t.,  330 

Venoah  1.,  78 

Venus  L,  181 

Verdale  t.,  or  d.,  528 

Verdi  t,.  309 

Verdon  t,  17 

Verendrye,  Sieur  de  la,  8,  45;  pro- 
posed for,  135;  282,  445,  470;  b., 
476 

Vergas  v.,  399 

Vermilion  iron  range,  1,  296,  503 

Vermilion  1.,  6,  169,  491,  648;  bays, 
pts.,  and  ids.,  4S>4"5;  505,  511;  r., 
99,  169,  211,  648 

Vermilion  Is.,  Big,  Little,  and  Up- 
per, 99;  slough,  169,  211 

Vermilion  moraine,  504 

Vermillion  t.  and  v.,  167,  168 

Vermilion  Grove  v.,  491 

Vermilion  Lake  t.,  491 ;  reservation, 
506 

Vermont,  names  from,  28,  59,  182, 
201,  334,  355,  359,  396,  419,  451, 
453,  582,  591 

Vermont  1.,  182 

Vern  1.,  143 

Verndale  v.,  562 

Vernon,  Edward,  admiral,  for,  b., 
64;  174,  582 

Vernon  1.,  145 ;  t,  174 

Vernon  Center  t.  (earlier  Vernon), 
63 

Verona  t.,  and  p.  o..  188 

Verrill,  Charles,  ana  H.  J.,  n.,  166 

Verwyst,  Father  Gbrysostom,  9,  18, 
140;  q.  142,  293 ;  342,  367,  504 

Veseli  v.,  464 

Vespucci,  Amerigo,  134 

Vesta  t.  and  v.,  452 

Vick  1.,  27Z 

Vickerman,  W.  T.,  n.,  469 

(Vicksburg  v.,  459) 

Victor  t,  589 

Victoria,  Queen,  for,  84,  177 

Victoria  v.,  84;  L,  177,  180 

Viding  t.,  119 

Vienna  t.,  469 

Vieux  Desert,  1.,  246 

Viking  t.,  330 

Villard,  Henry,  for,  b.,  433,  546,  629, 
637 


Villard  v.,  433 ;  1.,  435 ;  t,  546 

Vincent,  Thomas  M.,  for,  603 

Vindand  v.,  345;  bay,  347;  t.,  427 

Vinge  1.,  401 

Vining  v.,  399 

Vinland  v.,  84 

Viola  t.  and  v.,  388 

Vira,  1.,  296 

Virginia,  names  from,  60,  62,  174, 

457,  491,  582,  588.  589,  624,  650 
Virginia  c.  491;  1.,   (48,)   85,  232. 

501 
Vivian,  George  H.,  476,  491 
Vivian  t,  566 
Vladimirof  1.,  20 
Vlasaty  sta.,  174 
Volen  L,  401 
Volney,  L,  304 

Von  Baumbach,  for,  b.,  181 
Von  Minden,  Henning,  for,  614 ;  616 
Vondel  br.,  349 
Vos  1.,  530 


Waasa  t.,  491 

Wabacing  v.,  of  Ojibways,  47 

Wabanica  t,  40 

Wabano  Is.,  258 

Wabasha,  name  of  hereditary  Sioux 

chiefs,  555,  612;   v.  and  prairie, 

555 
Wabasha  co.,  555-9;  c,  555,  559 
Wabasha  cr.,  453 
Wabasso  v.,  452 
Wabedo  t  and  1.,  93 
Waboose  1.,  248 
(Waconda  1.,  273) 
Waconia  bluff,  212;  moraine,  275 
Waconia  1.,  81,  84;  t.  and  v.,  84 
Wacouta   t.   and   v.,    for  a   Sioux 

chief,  209 
Wade,  Benjamin  F.,  for,  431 
Wadena  co.,  560-563;  t.  and  v.,  563 
Wadena  pt.,  346;  trading  post,  560 
Wagner  1.,  590,  591 
Wagner  t,  for  Bessie  Wagner,  17 
Wagoner  p.  o.,  491 
Wagonga  1.,  273 
Wahkon  v.,  and  bay,  346,  347 
Wahlsten   sta.,   for  August  Wahl- 

sten,  491 
(Wahnahta    co.,    Minn.    Territory, 

550) 
Wahnena  t,  93 
Wahpeton  c,  N.  D.,  579 
Waite  Park  v.,  for  H.  C  Waite,  b., 

528 
Wakan  id,  343,  347 


INDEX 


731 


Wakefidd,  J.  B.,  n.,  519 

Wakefield,  William,  for,  622 

Wakefield  t.,  for  S.  Wakefield,  528; 
(S7S) 

Wakemup,  an  Ojibway,  v.  and  bay, 
495 

Wakon,  pt,  233 

Walcott  t,  for  Samuel  Walcott,  464 

Waldcn  t,  93,  433 

Waldo  t.  and  sta.,  294 

Waldorf  v.,  566 

Wales,  name  from,  58 

Walhalla  t.,  40 

Walker,  A.  P..  n.,  519 

Walker,  J.  W.,  n.,  340 

Walker,  Thomas  B.,  for,  b.,  93 ;  122, 
125 

Walker  v.,  and  br.,  93,  125 ;  1.,  320, 
402 

Walker  Brook  1.,  125 

Wall  Lake  sta..  and  1.,  399 

Wallace  sta.,  491 

Walls  t.,  for  three  brothers,  553 

Walnut  Grove  v.,  453 

Walnut  Lake  t,  and  1.,  188 

Walsh,  Vincent  D.,  for.  624,  642 

Walter  1,  for  Henry  Walter,  291 

Walters  v.,  188 

Waltham  t,  and  v.,  362 

Walworth  t,  31 

Wanamingo  t.,  209 

Wanan  1.,  501 

Wanda  v.,  453 

Wang  t.,  459 

Wangcr  t,  331 

Wann.  Tohn,  n.,  635;  Mrs.  Wann, 
n.,  635 

Wann.  Thomas  Leslie,  for,  635 

Wannaska,  a  hamlet.  474 

War,  names  from,  American  Revo- 
lution, 359,  360;  of  1812,  291; 
Mexican,  289.  334;  of  the  Re- 
bellion, 1861-65,  62.  114,  135.  136. 
156;  Spanish-American.  1898,  89, 
92.  254;  World,  1914-18,  83,  376 
607 

War  Club  1.,  100 

War  road,  102,  176,  475 ;  see  War- 
road 

(Waraju  r..  149) 

Warba  v.,  257 

Ward's  1.,  319,  521:  Ward   t.,  546 

Ward  Springs  v..  for  J.  W.  and 
Martha  J.  Ward.  546 

rWardeville  v.,  524) 

Warman  v.,  for  S.  M.  Warman, 
266 

Warner  1.,  529" 


(Warpool,  a  lake,  98) 

Warren,  Gary  I.,  for,  n.,  627,  641 

Warren,  Gen.  G.  K.,  /,  8,  56   . 

Warren,  John  E.,  for,  616 

Warren,  Jos^h,  285 

Warren,   William   W.,   quoted,   88, 

90;  91,  93,  97;  q.,  100;  102,  159, 

258,  330,  391 ;  q.,  408-9,  517 
Warren  c,  for  Charles  H.  Warren, 

331 
Warren,  gl.  r.,  7,  8,  56,  550,  580 
Warren  1.,  for  Budd  Warren,  324 
Warren  t.,  285,  584 
Warrenton  t,  331 
Warroad  t.,  v.,  and  r.,  474 
Warsaw  t,  209,  464 
(Waseata  p.  o.,  393) 
Waseca  co.,  564-7;  c,  566 
Washburn,    Gov.    C.    C,    for.    603, 

604 
Washburn,  Hon.  Israel,  Jr.,  9;  226 
Washburn,  Hon.  William  D.,  177; 

for,  603,  610 
Washburn,  1.,  and  br.,  99,  161 
Washington,   George,   for,  b.,   568; 

603,  605,  613,  618,  6.^8,  653 
Washington  co.,  568-573 
Washington,  1.,  64,  303,  324,  342,  520, 

591 ;  cr.,  342 ;  t,  303,  (388) 
Washington  Lake  t.,  520 
Washkish  t,  40 
Wasioja  t.  and  v.,  174 
Wasuk  1    500 
Watab  ri;  51,  52,  138.  527,  529;  1., 

139,  530(2)  ;  Is.,  Big,  and  Little, 

530 
Watab  t.,  and  trading  post,  51,  52 
Watap  portage,  138 
Water  Hen  r.,  500 
Waterbury  t.,  453 
Waterford  t.  and  v.,  167,  168 
Watermann's    1.,    for    L.    Wasser- 

mann,  85 
Watertown  t.,  (24,)  160;  v.,  84 
Waterville  t.  and  v.,  303 
Watkins,  F.  A..  73.  78 
Watkins  1.,  ZZ7)   for  Henry  Wat- 
kins,  567;  (t.,  173;)  v.,  340 
Watonwan  co.,  574-6;  (t.,  59) 
Watonwan     r.,     12,     574;     South 

branch,  576 
Watopa  t.,  559 

Watrous  t,  for  C.  B.  Watrous,  285 
Watson   v.,    105;   cr.,   for   Thomas 

and  James  Watson,  196 
Waubun  v.,  324 
Waukenabo  1.  and  t,  17 
Waukon  t.,  384 


732 


INDEX 


Waukon  Decorah,  Winnebago  chief, 
b.,  59 

(Waukopee,  a  hamlet,  195) 

Waus-wau-goning  bay,    146 

Waverly  t.,  335;  v.,  589,  590;  Is., 
Big,  and  Little,  590 

Wawatasso   id.,  235 

Wawina  t.,  257 

Waxlax,  John,  for,  294 

Wayburne  sta.,  453  . 

Wayzata  bay  and  v.,  227 

Wealth  wood  t.  and  v.,  17 

Weaver  1.,  233;  v.,  for  Wm.  Wea- 
ver, 559 

Webster  t.,  for  Ferris  Webster,  b., 
464 

Wedell  1    402 

Wegdahl'v.,  for  H.  A.  Wegdahl, 
105 

Weide,  Charles  A.  B..  for,  624 

Weimer  t.,  263 

Weisel  cr.,   for  David  Weisel,   197 

Weissberger,   Moritzious,   for,   588 

Welch,  William  H.,  b.,  210 

Welch  t.,  for  Abraham  E.  Welch, 
b.,  209 

Welcome  v.,  for  Alfred  M.  Wel- 
come, 335 

Weller's  Spur  v.,  257 

Wellington  t,  459 

Wells,  James,  for,  211,  b.,  464,  465 

Wells,  Verdon,  for,  17 

Wells  cr.,  211 ;  1.,  and  t.,  464,  465 

Wells  v.,  188 

Weme  v.,  for  Hans  Weme,  123 

Wenaus,  Effie.  for,  254 

Wendell  v.,  217 

Wendt  1.,  403 

Wergeland  t.,  for  H.  Wergeland. 
b..  597 

Wescott  sta.,  for  James  Wescott, 
b.,  168 

Wesley,  John  and  Charles,  for,  630 

West  bay,  Leech  1.,  95,  98;  1.,  274 

West  Albany  t.  v.,  and  cr.,  559 

West  Bank  t,  542 

West  Chain  of  lakes.  335-7 

West  Concord  v.,  174 

West  Duluth,  650 

West  Greenwood  1.,  296 

West  Heron  Lake  t..  263 

West  Indian  cr.,  559 

West  Newton  t.,  and  steamboat,  374 

West  Saint  Paul  t.  and  c,  167 

West  Saint  Paul  d.,  renamed  River- 
view.  439.  440.  611,  616,  617-620 

West  Sea  Gull  1.,  141 

West  Side  t.,  379 


West  Union  t.  and  v.,  546,  549 

West  V^ley  t,  331 

West    Virginia,    names    from,    268, 

464 
W«stbrook  t  and  v.,  151 
Westerheim  t.,  314 
Western  t.,  399 
Western  Superior  gl.  1.,  148 
Westfield  t,  174 
Westford  t.,  335 
Westline  t,  453 
Westport  t.  and  v.,  433;  1.,  434 
Wetmore,  Irwin  N.,  n.,  388 
Wetzel,  Captain  William,  n.,  39 
Whalan   v.,    for   John   Whaalahan, 

195 
Whale  Tail  1.,  225 
Wheatland  t,  (383,)  464 
Wheaton  v.,  for  D.  T.  Wheaton,  b., 

553 
Wheatville  v.,  384 
Wheeler,  C.  C,  n.,  69,  314 
Wheeler,    Everett   P.,    for,   632 
Wheeler,  Rush  B.,  for,  634 
Wheeler  1.,  273 ;  for  J.  A.  Wheeler. 

b.,  567 
Wheeler  t,  for  Alonzo  Wheeler,  41 
Wheeling  t,  464 

Wheelock,  Joseph  A.,  68;  for,  640 
Whetstone  r.,  292 
Whigam,  Daniel  B.,  n.,  419 
Whipple,  Bishop  Henry  B.,  60,  103. 

130,   162;   for,  432 
Whipple  1.,  130.  162,  432 
Whiskey  cr.,   120(2),  580;  br.,  349 
Whiskey  1.,  181 ;  id.,  494 
Whitcomb,  G.  F.,  n.,  327 
White,  A.  B.,  n.,  318 
White,  Almon  A.,  n.,  40 
White  1.,  for  Capt.  A.  W.  White, 

203;  499,  591;  t.  491. 
White  Bear,  Ojibway  chief,  432.  433 
White  Bear  1.,    (432.)   440,  569;  t 

and  v.,  440,  623 
White  Bear  Lake  t.,  433 
White  Birch  t..  285 
White  Earth  t.  and  1.,  31 ;  r.,  321 
White  Earth  reservation,  31,  325 
White  Elk  br.,  or  cr.,  18 
White  Elk  1.  and  t.,  17 
White  Face  r.,  499 
White  Fish   1.,  43(2),   78,  99,   143, 

161(2),  258,  348,  429;  (t.  158) 
White  Iron  1.,  296,  501 
White  Lily  1.,  267 
White  Oak  t.,  245 ;  pt.,  1.,  and  reser- 
vation. 258,  259  . 
White  Pine  cr.,  498 


INDEX 


733 


White  Rock  v.,  S.  D.,  551 

White  Sand  L,  162 

White  Stone  1.,  112 

White  Water  cr.,  303;  r.,  389,  557, 

559,  584 
Whited  -t.,  and  Ogilvie  v.,  for  Oric 

O.  Whited,  b.,  266 
Whitefield,   Edwin,   and   wife,    for, 

271,  272  \  n.,  522,  545,  547 
Whitefield  t.,  272 
Whiteford  t,  331 
Whitehead  1.,  419 
Whitely  cr.,  and  1.,  162;  id.,  163 
(Whiteville  settlement,  546) 
Whitewater  r.,  389,  584;  t.,   (386,) 

584 
Whitewater  Falls  v.,  584 
Whitford,  Joseph,  394,  395 
Whitney,  1.,  320;  br.,  349 
Whittemore,  Grace,  for,  103 
Whittlesey,  Charles,  n.  and  q.,  142; 

n.,  147,  504 
Wicker  t,  for  Harry  Wicker,  285 
Wickham,  mt,  292 
Widness,  Hans  C,  for,  124 
Wieb,  Henry,  n.,  150 
Wiegand  1.,  592 
Wigwam  bay,  347 
Wilcox.  Alvin  H.,  27;  n.,  28 
Wild  Cat  cr.  and  bluflF,  241 
Wild  Goose  id,  235 
(Wild  Oats  r.,  18) 
Wild  rice,  harvest,  124,  125,  321,  322 
Wild  Rice  Is.,  46,  47,  492,  499 
Wild  Rice  r.,  9,  47,  120 ;  another  in 

N.  D..  120;  123.  124,  125,  321,  384 
Wild  Rice  t,  384 
Wilder,   Am-herst   H.,    for,   b.,  263, 

633 
Wilder  1.,  296 ;  v.,  263 
Wilderness  I.,  99 
Wildwood  t,  285 ;  v.,  571 
(Wilhelmine  v.,  150) 
Wilken  1..  for  J.  and  W.  Wilken, 

182 
Wilker  1.,  534 
Wilkin,  Col.  Alexander,  for,  b.,  577, 

613 
Wilkin  CO.,  577-580 
Wilkins  1..  20 

Wilkinson,  Randolph  A.,  n.,  125 
Wilkinson  1.,  for  R.  Wilkinson,  442 
Wilkinson  t.,  for  Major  Melville  C. 

Wilkinson,  b.,  94 
Willborg  p.  o.,  for  M.  E.  Willborg, 

123 
Willert  1.,  534 
William,  1.,  181,  547,  591 


Williams,  Charles  £.,  n.,  265 
Williams,  Charles  H.,  for,  616 
Williams,  John  Fletcher,  q.,  67-68; 

80,  192,  219.  260.  518,  539 
Williams  1.,  247,  304,  499,  591 
Williams  t.',  for  G.  T.  Williams,  17; 

for  James  Williams,  285 
Williamson,  Prof.  A.  W.,  quoted  or 

cited,  22,  53,  249,  261,  268,  288. 

301,  303,  313,  379,  439,  443,  448, 

550,  564,  574,  581,  584,  593 
Williamson,  John  P.,  217,  238 
Williamson,  Rev.   Thomas   S.,   104, 

119,  455,  593,  595 
(Williamstown  t,  519) 
Willie    1.,    for    U.    S.    Willie    (or 

Wiley),  341 
Willis  1.,  for  Abner  Willis.  567 
Willius,  F.,  and  G.,  for,  612,  633 
Willmar  c.   and   t.,   for   Leon  and 

Paul  Willmar.  272;  1.,  273 
Willmont  t,  379 
Willow  cr.,  62,   120.   196,  286,  389, 

400,  475;  r.,  17,  18,  99,  414,  501; 

1.,  103,  106.  151,  453,  529 
Willow  species  in  Minnesota,  106 
(Willow  Creek  t,  62) 
Willow  Lake  t.,  (103,)  453 
Willow  River  v.,  414 
Willow  Valley  t.,  491 
Wilma  t,  414 
Wilmert  1.,  Z26 
Wilmes  1.,  573 
Wilmington  t.  240 
Wilmont  v.,  379 
Wilpen  v.,  492 
Wilson,  Eugene  M.,  for.  610 
Wilson,  Hiram,  for,  89 
Wilson,  John  L.,  n.,  526 
Wilson,  Jonathan  E.,  for,  366 
Wilson,  Rev.  Joseph  G.,  n.,  480,  481 
Wilson,  Thomas,  n.,  172 
Wilson,  Warren,  for.  584 
Wilson,  Woodrow,  for,  41,  b.,  94 
Wilson  id.,  for  Guy  G.  Wilson,  347; 

517 
Wilson  1.,  295.  266,  369 
Wilson's  1.,  for  Samuel  Wilson,  152 
Wilson  t.,  584 

Wilton  v.,  41 ;  t.  and  v.,  564,  566 
Wimer  1.,  404 
Winchell,     Prof.     Alexander,     138, 

143,  296,  297,  501 
Wincjiell.  Alexander  N.,  498 
Winchell,  Horace  V.,  143,  282,  371, 

498.  503,  608 
Winchell.  Mrs.  H.  V.,  for,  143 


I! 


734 


INDEX 


Wmchell,  Prof.  N.  H.,  7,  57,  66; 

q..  75;  79,  128,  130;  for,  b.,  134; 

139,  140;   for,   141,  296;  n.,   145, 

146;  q.,   147;  165,  225.  267,  294; 

q.,  297 ;  298,  299 ;  q.,  322, 323 ;  419 ; 

q.,  432;  433,  494,  496,  505,  517, 

529,  544,  560,  572,  607 
Winchell,   gl.   1.,   134;   1.,   134,   140, 

145,  147 
Winchell  trail,  Minneapolis,  607 
Winchester  t.,  384 
Wind  1.,  143,  296 
Windemere  t,  414 
Windom,  William,  for.  b.,  151,  362, 

610;  n.,  172 
Windom  v.,  151 ;  t,  (27,)  362 
Windsor  t.,  553 
Windy  1.,  295 
Wine  1.,  500 
Winfield  t,  459 
Wing  r.,  400,  547,  562 
Wing  River  1.,  401 ;  t.,  562 
Winger  t,  428 

Winkler's  1.,  for  Ignatz  Winkler,  85 
Winnebago  t.  and  v.  (former  City), 

188;  t.  and  cr.,  240;    (t.,  523;) 

prairie,  530 
(Winnebago  Agency,  62) 
Winnebago  Indians,  59,  60,  66,  191, 

192;  names  from,  59,  191;  reser- 
vation, 58,  66,  545 
Winnebagoshish,    1.,    1,    96-98,    100, 

101,  257,  259;  Indian  reservation, 

101,259;  t.,  257 
Winneshiek,  chief,  240;  for,  b.,  592 
Winneshiek  co.,  Iowa,  59;    (t..  58, 

61 ;)  prairie,  592 
Winnewissa  falls,  419 
Winona  co.,  581-5 ;  c.  and  t,  584 
Winona,  1.,  178,  181,  585 
Winslow,  James  M.,  for,  619 
Winsor,  Justin,  300 
Winsor  t.,   for  Hans   C.  Widness, 

124 
Winsted  t,  v.,  and  1.,  318 
Winter  Road  r.,  42,  43,  47;  I.,  43 
Wintermute  1.,  for  C.  Wintermute. 

b..  538 
Winthrop  c,  520 

Winton  v.,  for  W.  C.  Winton,  492 
Winzer,  Charles,  n.,  263 
Wirt  t„  for  William  Wirt,  257 
Wisacode  r.,  144 
Wisconsin,  names  from,  31,  58.  81, 

105,    177,  215,   262,   271,   289(2), 

290,  291,  314,  Z27,  266,  372;  387, 

388,  417,   431,   458(2),   468.   490. 

531,  533,  539,  551,  565,  575,  596(2) 


Wisconsin  pt,  44;  t,  263 
Wisconsin  state,  3,  4,  112,  263;  His- 
torical Society  Collections,  81 
Wiscoy  t.,  584 
Wita  1.,  64 
Witchel  1.,  499 
(Withington  v.,  157) 
Witoka,  a  hamlet,  585 
Wolf  cr.,  362,  465;  sta.,  492 
Wolf   1..  31,  42,   151,   162.  247(2), 

248,  258,  341.  403,  500,  501,  530 
Wolf  Lake  t,  31 
Wolford   t,    for   Robert  Wolford, 

160 
Wolsfeld  1..  232 
Wolverine  state,  4 
Wolverton  t,  for  Dr.  W.  D.  Wol- 

verton,  579 
Wood,  Edward  H.,  for,  619 
Wood,   Gen.   Thomas  J.,   for,  600, 

601 
Wood  1.,  72,  182,  231,  236,  296,  315. 

576,  597 
Wood  Lake  t.  and  v.,  597;  battle 

ground,  597 
Woodbury  1.,  78 ;  cr.,  204.  363 
Woodbury  t.,  for  Levi  Woodbury, 

b.,  571 
Woodcock  1.,  for  E,  T.  Woodcock, 

274 
Woodland  t.,  590 
(Woodpecker  1.,  434) 
Woodrow  t.,  41,  94 
Woods,    Major    Samuel,   214,    217, 

430  432  434 

Woods,  Lake  of  the,  1,  8,  9,  35,  41 ; 

points    and    islands,    44-45;    137, 

516,  598 
Woods  t,  for  William  W.  Woods, 

106 
Woodside  t.,  399,  428 
Woodstock  v.,  419 
Woodville  t.,  for  E.  G.  and  L.  C. 

Wood,  566  . 
Woolley,  John  G.,  founder  of  Rest 

Island,  211 
Workman,  John,  n.,  351 
Workman  t,  17 

World  War,  1914-18,  83,  376,  607 
Worm  1.,  217 

Worthington  c,  379 ;  t.,  380 
Wrenshall  sta.,  v.,  and  t.,  for  C.  C. 

Wre^shall,  77 
Wright,  Charles  B.,  for,  b.,  77 
Wright,  Charles  D.,  for,  b.,  396 
Wright,  Mrs.  E.  L.,  n.,  28 
Wright,  George  B.,  for,  b.,  77 
Wright,  Silas,  for,  b.,  586 


INDEX 


735 


Wright  CO.,  2,  586-592 ;  t,  331 
Wright  v.,   for   C.    B.   and   G.    B. 

Wrigbt,  b.,  77 
Wrightstown   v.,   399 
Wuori  t,  492,  504 
Wyandotte  t.,  409 
Wyanett  t,  251 
Wykeham  t,  546 
Wykoff  v.,  for  Cyrus  G.  Wykoff, 

195 
Wylie  t  and  v.,  447 
Wyman,   ry.   junction,   for  George 

Wynian,  492 
Wyoming  t.  and  v.,  110;  state,  110 


Yaeger  1.,  563 

Yankton,  1.,  315' 

Yellow  Bank  t   and   r.,  291,  292; 

hills,  292 
(Yellow  Earth  r.,  291) 
Yellow  Head  r.,  for  Ojibway  guide. 

42,  126,  246 ;  v.,  96 ;  pt.,  132 
Yellow  Medicine  co.,  593-8;  r.,  593, 

597;  (t.,  596;)  mission,  597 
(Yellow  Medicine  City,  v.,  597) 


York  t,  195,  (206,  361) 
Young,  Dr.  Thomas  M.,  593 
Young  1.,  500 

Young  America  t.,  v.,  and  1.,  84 
Yucatan  t,  240 


Zemple  v.,  257 

(Zenith  t,  408) 

"Zenith  City,"  Duluth,  481,  652 

Zeta  1.,  297 

Zierke,  Charles,  for,  152 

Zim  v.,  492 

Zimmerman  1.,  402;  v.,  for  Moses 

Zimmerman,  515,  516 
Zion  t.  (and  v.)*  528 
Zippel  t.,  for  William  M.  Zippel,  41 
Zippel's  cr.,  41 
Zoo  1.,  144 

Zumbra  1.,  85 ;  Heights,  234 
Zumbro  r.,   11,   174,   199,  207,  210, 

388  559 
Zumbro  t,  (386,)  559 
Zumbro  Falls  v.,  559 
Zumbrota  t  and  v.,  210 


MIMJ  f17> 


AJKMSt? 


3  2044  043  439  462 


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