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UN1ING  LIST  JAN  1     1922 


PUBLICATIONS  OF  THE 
MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

EDITED   BY 

SOLON  J.  BUCK 

SUPERINTENDENT    OF    THE    SOCIETY 


MINNESOTA  HISTORY  BULLETIN 

VOLUME    III 


MINNESOTA 
HISTORY  BULLETIN, 


VOLUME  III 
1919-1920 


PUBLISHED  QUARTERLY  BY  THE 

MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

SAINT  PAUL 


I 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  III 

NUMBER  1.     FEBRUARY,  1919 

AMERICA'S  FIGHT  FOR  PUBLIC  OPINION     Guy  Stanton  Ford  3 

REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  27 

MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  36 

NEWS  AND  COMMENT  44 

NUMBER  2.     MAY,  1919 

WILLIAM  GATES  LsDuc                                    Gideon  S.  Ives  57 

THE  BIRTH  NOTICES  OF  A  STATE                Herbert  C.  Varney  66 

NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS  82 

The  Pond  Papers 

REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  87 

MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  92 

NEWS  AND  COMMENT  98 

NUMBER  3.     AUGUST  1919 

HENRY  HASTINGS  SIBLEY  AND  THE  MINNESOTA  FRONTIER 

Wilson  P.  Shortridge  115 
WAR  HISTORY  WORK  IN  MINNESOTA 

Franklin  F.  Holbrook  126 

REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  137 

MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  141 

NEWS  AND  COMMENT  149 

NUMBER  4.     NOVEMBER,   1919 

BENJAMIN  DENSMORE'S  JOURNAL  OF  AN  EXPEDITION  ON 

THE  FRONTIER  167 

REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  210 

MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  221 

NEWS  AND  COMMENT  229 


VI 


CONTENTS 


NUMBER  5.     FEBRUARY,  1920 

AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  Carl  Ruessell  Fish_251 

THE  LAST  INDIAN  UPRISING  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Louis  H.  Roddis     273 
NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS  291 

The  Goodhue  Press 

REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  295 

MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES 
NEWS  AND  COMMENT  309 

NUMBER  6.     MAY,  1920 

RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  FOR  THE  WORLD  WAR  IN  MINNE- 
SOTA                                                     George  W.  McCree  331 
REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  360 
MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  365 
NEWS  AND  COMMENT  375 

NUMBER  7.     AUGUST,  1920 

MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY 

Frederick  J.  Turner  393 

EXERCISES  AT  THE  DEDICATION  OF  THE  MINNESOTA  HIS- 
TORICAL BUILDING  415 
NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS  438 

Delegates  at  the  Dedication ;    Felicitations  on  the  New  Home 

REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  448 

MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY   NOTES  456 

NEWS  AND  COMMENT  469 

NUMBER  8.     NOVEMBER  1920 

THE  FAMILY  TRAIL  THROUGH  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Cyril  A.  Herrick  489 
THE  EARLY  NORWEGIAN  PRESS  IN  AMERICA 

Theodore  C.  Blegen  506 

MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  519 

NEWS  AND  COMMENT  531 

INDEX  TO  VOLUME  3  551 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

WILLIAM  GATES  LEDuc  57 

BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  167- 

BUGONAYGESHIG,  CHIPPEWA  INDIAN  273  . 
MAPS   OF   THE   LOCALITY  OF   THE   LEECH    LAKE   INDIAN 

UPRISING                                           *u1^r.  282 
PART  OF  THE  LEECH  LAKE  BATTLE  GROUND  284- 
DETACHMENT  OF  THE  THIRD  UNITED  STATES  INFANTRY  289  . 
MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  BUILDING  393. 
AUDIENCE  AT  THE  DEDICATION  OF  THE  MINNESOTA  HIS- 
TORICAL BUILDING  41 5  - 
READING  ROOM,  MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  BUILDING  429- 


vii 


MINNESOTA 
HISTORY  BULLETIN 

1 


VOL.  3,  No.  1 
WHOLE  No.  17 
FEBRUARY,  1919 


AMERICA'S  FIGHT  FOR  PUBLIC  OPINION1 

It  is  for  me  a  pleasure  and  a  real  honor  to  be  asked  by  this 
society  to  give  the  annual  address.  I  appreciate  this  distinc- 
tion not  alone  because  as  a  member  of  the  society  and  of  its 
executive  council  I  am  deeply  interested  in  its  work,  but  more 
distinctly  because  it  gives  me  an  opportunity  to  talk  to  an  audi- 
ence interested  in  history  about  a  type  of  service  which  I  con- 
ceive will  have  a  unique  place  in  the  history  of  the  World  War. 
It  gives  me  an  opportunity  also  to  say  to  you,  my  friends  and 
neighbors,  that  while  doing  a  part  of  this  national  task  I  have 
been  able  to  maintain  the  same  standards  that  I  have  set  for 
myself  both  as  a  member  of  the  history  department  of  the 
University  of  Minnesota  and  as  a  member  of  this  society.  I 
am  pleased  not  the  less  that  it  gives  me  an  opportunity  also  to 
say  that  I  have  followed  your  work  even  during  the  busy  days 
in  Washington  and  have  seen  with  pleasure  that  the  Minne- 
sota Historical  Society  has  been  among  the  first  to  begin  gath- 
ering the  records  of  the  war  and  that  it  is  making  its  prepara- 
tions against  that  day  when  the  history  of  Minnesota's  part  in 
the  great  struggle  must  be  written. 

The  thing  that  has  most  engaged  men's  attention  and  im- 
pressed their  imaginations  in  this  world-wide  conflict  has  been 
the  massing  of  armies  and  the  accumulation  of  war  material  to 
an  extent  hitherto  unknown.  Their  minds  have  been  appalled 
as  they  have  seen  this  conflict  going  on  in  the  air,  on  the  earth, 
and  under  the  seas,  with  new  instruments  and  new  agencies, 
military  and  naval.  Most  of  us,  as  we  have  sought  to  measure 
the  reason  for  the  triumph  of  the  Allies  and  America,  have 
counted  upon  these  resources  and  have  pointed  out  that  victory 
came  when  they  far  exceeded  in  quantity  those  which  Germany 
was  able  to  mobilize  or  amass.  But  that  does  not  tell  the 

1  An  address  given  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Minnesota  Historical 
Society,  St.  Paul,  January  20,  1919.  Mr.  Ford  spoke  informally.  The 
address  as  printed  is  based  upon  a  stenographic  report  of  his  remarks. 


4  GUY  ST ANTON  FORD  FEB. 

whole  story.  Behind  the  men  and  the  guns,  behind  the  great 
armies  and  navies,  behind  the  great  munition  storehouses  and 
munition  factories,  there  has  been  waging  another  and  equally 
important  battle.  It  has  been  the  battle  for  men's  opinions 
and  for  the  conquest  of  their  convictions.  This  battle  fought 
in  the  second  lines  behind  the  trenches,  in  the  homes,  and  in 
the  shops,  has  been  as  significant  and  as  important  as  the  bloody 
engagements  which  have  filled  the  columns  of  the  press.  The 
thing  which  was  at  stake  was  to  make  the  people  in  the  demo- 
cratic nations  grasp  in  some  way  the  meaning  of  this  war  for 
them,  for  they  were  the  base  and  the  support  from  which  pro- 
ceeded the  most  essential  things  which  the  soldier  and  the 
sailor  must  have;  and  by  these  essentials  I  mean  not  only  the 
arms  to  fight  with  but  the  conviction  that  their  cause  was  a 
just  and  a  righteous  one.  The  thing  that  had  to  be  built  up 
was  the  morale  of  the  fighting  nations.  To  do  this  new  in- 
strumentalities, comparable  in  their  way  to  the  new  types  of 
armament,  were  brought  into  play — the  printing  press,  the 
platform,  the  public  schools,  the  advertising  columns,  the 
poster,  the  moving  picture,  the  telegraph,  the  cable,  and  the 
wireless.  All  these  had  to  be  mobilized,  directed,  and  inspired, 
so  that  the  common  man,  the  hope  and  support  of  self-govern- 
ment, felt  clearly  that  the  battle  line  of  democracy  ran  straight 
from  the  fields  of  Flanders  to  every  home  and  forge  and  farm. 
In  America  this  mobilization  and  inspiration  of  public  opinion, 
this  fight  to  create  and  sustain  morale  and  to  arouse  a  patriot- 
ism that  could  be  translated  into  action,  whether  such  action 
expressed  itself  in  buying  bonds  or  in  saving  food  or  in  send- 
ing our  sons  directly  to  the  front,  was  the  work  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Information.  The  committee  did  not  ac- 
complish its  task  alone,  for  no  agency  ever  had  directly  or  in- 
directly the  unselfish  cooperation  of  more  men  or  women  than 
did  this  much  misunderstood  organization. 

In  previous  wars  the  United  States  had  seen  no  similar 
organization.  In  the  dark  days  of  the  Revolution  Thomas 
Paine  was  a  one-man,  private  committee  on  public  informa- 


1919  FIGHT  FOR  PUBLIC  OPINION  5 

tion.  His  Common  Sense  and  The  Crisis  were  the  Red, 
White,  and  Blue  pamphlets  of  Washington's  day.  During  the 
Civil  War  the  education  of  public  opinion  was  more  often  the 
work  of  private  societies.  Frequently  it  was  most  effectively 
accomplished  by  songs,  by  the  spoken  word,  and  by  the  mes- 
sages of  President  Lincoln.  If  one  looked  for  educational 
work  of  an  organized  kind  in  the  way  of  pamphlets  and  pub- 
lications one  could  find  it  only  in  the  private  efforts  of  two 
patriotic  societies,  the  one  with  its  headquarters  in  Boston  and 
the  other  in  New  York.  The  same  thing  might  with  truth  be 
said  of  practically  every  one  of  the  other  belligerent  countries 
with  the  exception  of  Germany.  Here  for  a  generation, 
through  schools  and  universities,  through  the  press  and  the 
pulpit,  through  organizations  interested  in  colonial  expansion, 
in  the  building  of  a  greater  German  navy,  and  in  the  increase 
and  equipment  of  the  standing  army,  both  the  German  govern- 
ment and  the  great  industries  which  profited  by  war  and  im- 
perialism had  carried  on  a  concerted  program  which  brought 
a  once  idealistic  nation  to  a  thorough  devotion  to  the  purposes 
of  Prussia  and  Prussian  conquest.  For  England,  France,  and 
Italy  the  task  of  informing  their  people  and  sustaining  their 
morale  was  a  problem  almost  as  novel  as  it  was  for  us ;  each 
country  in  its  own  way  worked  out  a  method  of  solving  the 
problem,  at  the  same  time  combating  the  efficient  German  prop- 
aganda being  carried  on  within  its  borders.  For  France  the 
task  was  easier  than  for  any  of  the  other  countries,  a  condi- 
tion which  is  easily  explained.  A  Frenchman  needed  no  one 
to  tell  him  what  he  was  fighting  for.  He  had  lived  his  whole 
life  under  the  shadow  of  the  German  menace;  and  now  the 
enemy  was  on  the  soil  of  France,  her  villages  were  being  de- 
stroyed, her  homes  ravaged,  her  people  enslaved,  and  her  in- 
dustries crushed,  by  means  that  no  other  nation  had  ever  per- 
mitted itself  even  in  the  name  of  war.  Nevertheless,  the 
French  publicists  and  the  French  government  presented  to  their 
people  and  to  the  world  in  privately  printed  volumes  as  well 
as  in  the  official  Yellow  Book  some  of  the  best  material  on 


6  GUT  ST ANTON  FORD  FEB. 

the  background  and  essential  interests  of  the  struggle.  More- 
over, France  had  as  no  other  country  the  benefit  of  a  nationally 
centralized  school  system  by  which  the  word  of  the  govern- 
ment, whether  it  were  the  last  official  communique  from  the 
soldiers  fighting  at  the  front  or  the  call  for  new  financial  sup- 
port, could  be  transmitted  to  every  distant  village  and  hamlet 
through  the  agency  of  the  schoolmaster.  The  great  mass  of 
the  English  people,  on  the  other  hand,  were  astounded  by  the 
outbreak  of  the  war.  To  them  the  issues  were  less  clear  and 
less  certain.  The  first  official  appeals  to  public  opinion  re- 
lated almost  entirely  to  recruiting,  for  England  was  upon  the 
volunteer  basis.  The  history  of  early  English  governmental 
propaganda,  aside  from  the  Blue  Book,  can  be  followed  in 
the  posters  with  their  varying  appeals  which  changed  from 
time  to  time  as  an  attempt  was  made  to  strike  a  new  and  re- 
sponsive chord  that  would  stir  every  Englishman  to  take  his 
place  in  the  ranks.  Later  there  was  inaugurated  a  series  of 
publications  issued  not  as  a  government  agency  but  by  the 
direction  of  the  organization  at  Wellington  House  under  the 
chairmanship  of  Sir  Gilbert  Parker  and,  later,  of  Professor 
W.  Macneile  Dixon.  The  work  of  this  organization  was  most 
intelligent  and  effective,  although  a  great  deal  of  its  printed 
material  was  prepared  primarily  for  distribution  in  the  neutral 
countries,  chiefly  America,  where  the  need  of  making  English 
purposes  clear  was  felt  to  be  urgent.  Many  of  you  undoubt- 
edly profited  in  the  early  years  of  the  war  by  the  steady  flow 
of  pamphlets  and  books  which  came  from  this  source,  for  the 
committee  had  a  mailing  list  of  between  fifty  and  sixty  thou- 
sand names  of  individuals  who  were  most  likely  to  be  active  in 
the  formation  of  public  opinion. 

When  America  entered  the  war  she  faced,  so  far  as  public 
opinion  and  lack  of  organization  was  concerned,  a  situation 
more  comparable  to  that  of  England  than  to  that  of  France. 
We  were  a  nation  which  for  more  than  two  and  a  half  years 
had  been  subjected  to  the  opposing  lines  of  argument  presented 
by  the  Allies  upon  the  one  side  and  even  more  vigorously  and 


1919  FIGHT  FOR  PUBLIC  OPINION  7 

effectively  by  the  Central  Powers  through  the  German  propa- 
ganda upon  the  other.  Our  press  and  our  people  could  be 
divided  up  to  the  final  days  into  three  groups.  On  the  one 
hand,  there  was  a  group,  small  at  the  beginning  but  growing 
in  numbers,  very  actively  favoring  the  Entente,  and  supported 
silently  by  the  disfavor  which  Germany  had  drawn  upon  her- 
self by  her  conduct  in  Belgium  and  northern  France.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  were  the  skillful,  well-directed  pro-German 
groups,  who  were  financed  either  by  the  German  embassy  in 
Washington  or  by  the  contributions  of  misguided  German- 
Americans  in  this  country,  and  who  in  their  activities  stopped 
at  no  means  that  would  attain  their  end.  Between  these  two 
groups  stood  the  great  mass  of  the  American  people,  into  whose 
minds  there  came  only  gradually  a  perception  that  America 
was  no  longer  a  land  of  isolation  and  of  freedom  from  politi- 
cal interest  in  Europe ;  that  it  was  not  possible  for  America  to 
remain  neutral  in  this  great  struggle  which  had  been  carried 
to  her  very  shores,  nay  into  her  very  homes  and  workshops, 
demoralizing  her  political  life  and  threatening  the  safety  of  her 
workingmen  and  her  industries.  When  war  was  declared,  it 
was  vital  that  all  mists  should  be  swept  away,  all  doubts  re- 
solved, and  all  purposes  united.  Fortunately  America  had  on 
the  very  threshold  of  the  war  an  instrument  possessed  by  few 
of  the  other  countries.  It  was  President  Wilson's  war  mes- 
sage, which,  in  its  elevation  of  thought,  its  clarity  of  purpose, 
its  ringing  appeal  to  the  best  in  American  life,  gave  to  us  that 
sense  of  America's  entrance  into  a  great  struggle  as  if  it  were 
a  crusade  in  behalf  of  all  the  things  which  she  held  dear  for 
herself  and  which  she  cherished  as  a  common  heritage,  to  be 
passed  on  not  only  to  her  own  children  but  to  all  freedom-lov- 
ing lands. 

One  week  after  the  declaration  of  war  the  president  ap- 
pointed the  Committee  on  Public  Information,  and  I  think 
that  as  time  goes  on  and  as  the  history  of  this  committee's 
work  is  written  and  its  accomplishments  are  better  understood, 
the  executive  order  of  April  14  will  be  seen  as  one  of  the  most 


8  GUV  STANTON  FORD  FEB. 

perspicacious  things  that  was  done  in  preparation  for  the 
struggle.  The  creation  of  this  committee  was  largely  Mr. 
Wilson's  own  conception;  and  throughout  its  history  it  was 
only  through  his  unfailing  support  in  the  way  of  interest  and 
advice  and  necessary  funds  that  it  was  able  to  carry  out  the 
work  which  had  been  undertaken.  Formally  the  committee 
was  composed  of  the  secretaries  of  state,  of  war,  and  of  the 
navy,  with  Mr.  George  Creel  as  civilian  chairman.  The  group 
named  can  not  be  said  to  have  functioned  as  a  committee,  al- 
though there  was  individual  cooperation  between  Mr.  Creel 
and  the  departments,  and  in  important  things  it  was  reasonably 
close  and  effective.  More  and  more  as  other  duties  pressed 
upon  the  secretaries,  Mr.  Creel  had  to  assume  complete  leader- 
ship and  responsibility,  reporting  directly  to  the  president. 

No  other  war  agency  in  Washington,  be  it  committee,  com- 
mission, or  board,  ever  labored  under  such  initial  disadvan- 
tages and  such  persistent  misunderstanding  as  did  the  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Information.  This  was  due  in  large  part  to 
the  fact  that  the  great  public,  both  through  the  press  and  the 
discussions  in  Congress,  had  had  firmly  implanted  in  its  mind 
the  idea  that  the  organization  was  a  censorship,  which  in  some 
mysterious  way  controlled  or  was  to  control  the  press,  the 
cable,  and  all  other  means  of  communication  and  publicity. 
This  misapprehension  was  due  in  large  degree  to  the  fact  that 
practically  on  the  morrow  of  the  committee's  appointment 
there  was  introduced  into  Congress  an  amendment  to  the 
espionage  bill  establishing  a  censorship  of  the  press,  thereby 
bringing  newspaper  men  under  the  provisions  of  the  same  law 
which  had  for  its  object  the  punishment  of  traitors  and  dis- 
loyalists. Against  this  amended  bill  there  was  an  exceedingly 
vigorous  and  finally  victorious  fight.  Unfortunately  for  the 
committee,  however,  it  was  taken  for  granted  that  if  the  bill 
passed  we  were  to  be  its  executors;  naturally,  also,  the  op- 
ponents of  the  bill  found  that  they  could  make  their  arguments 
more  pointed  if  they  could  denounce  the  idea  of  censorship  as 
embodied  in  some  definite  individual.  Mr.  Creel  was  there- 


1919  FIGHT  FOR  PUBLIC  OPINION  9 

fore  labeled  day  in  and  day  out  as  Censor  Creel.  When  the 
bill  was  killed,  as  it  ought  to  have  been  killed,  there  was  no 
one  who  rejoiced  more  than  Mr.  Creel  and  the  men  who  were 
to  work  under  him.  Neither  he  nor  any  of  those  who  had 
joined  his  staff  approved  the  bill  either  in  spirit  or  in  form. 
Personally  Mr.  Creel  was  the  last  man  to  desire  to  exercise 
such  a  censorship.  From  the  beginning  the  functions  of  the 
Committee  on  Public  Information,  as  he  conceived  them,  were 
wholly  constructive :  to  find  and  to  give  the  truth  to  the  people 
of  this  nation;  to  furnish  or  to  urge  the  executive  departments 
to  furnish  all  the  information  that  could  possibly  be  given  out, 
consistent  with  safety,  about  the  movements  of  troops  and 
ships,  war  preparations,  battles,  and  naval  engagements,  with 
the  hope  that  publishers  would  have  no  excuse  for  filling  the 
columns  of  their  papers  with  wild  rumors  or  material  which 
would  benefit  our  enemies.  This  early,  unfortunate  distor- 
tion of  the  purpose  of  the  committee  followed  it  throughout  its 
activities.  Months  after  we  were  at  work  on  wholly  informa- 
tional and  educational  things  we  would  receive  letters  from 
authors  asking  us  to  censor  books  or  articles  before  they  were 
given  to  the  press.  During  the  summer  of  1918  a  consider- 
able number  of  these  communications  were  received  within  a 
few  weeks,  and  I  was  extremely  puzzled  to  know  how  this 
stream  of  inquiries  had  started.  The  question  was  solved 
when  a  colleague  of  mine,  who  was  teaching  that  summer  in 
Ann  Arbor,  sent  me  a  clipping  from  a  Detroit  paper,  contain- 
ing a  statement  copied  from  a  Chicago  paper,  which  in  turn 
had  taken  it  from  some  obscure  sheet  in  Indiana,  that  the 
Committee  on  Public  Information  desired  to  censor  every  book 
or  article  written  about  the  army  or  navy  or  the  prosecution 
of  the  war.  I  do  not  know  what  was  in  the  mind  of  the  Indi- 
ana journalist,  but  I  know  perfectly  well  that  the  Chicago  and 
Detroit  papers  which  reprinted  the  item  knew  absolutely  that 
it  was  false  at  the  time  they  reproduced  it.  I  may  add  that  of 
all  these  inquirers  the  one  who  was  most  insistent  on  having  his 


10  ,  GUV  STAN  TON  FORD 

book  censored  was  a  writer  who  had  a  new  religious  cult  to 
advocate. 

You  may  be  interested  in  knowing  that  the  only  censorship 
placed  upon  the  American  press  was  an  entirely  voluntary  one : 
newspapers  were  asked  to  cooperate  with  the  war-making  de- 
partments in  keeping  essential  information  away  from  the 
enemy  powers.  The  departments  of  state,  of  war,  and  of  the 
navy  formulated  their  requests,  and  after  they  were  reduced, 
through  Mr.  Creel's  efforts,  to  simpler  form,  allowing  greater 
freedom  of  information,  they  were  printed  and  circulated  by 
the  committee  as  an  appeal  of  the  departments  concerned  to 
the  honor  of  the  newspaper  men  to  observe  these  suggestions 
of  the  government.  Even  these  mild  admonitions,  then,  did 
not  originate  with  the  committee  but  with  the  departments ;  we 
only  acted  as  agents  in  circulating  them.  To  the  credit  of  the 
American  press  it  may  be  added  that  with  a  few  exceptions 
these  requests  were  loyally  observed.  It  was  usually  only  by 
inadvertence  that  any  newspaper  in  America  published  in- 
formation about  the  movements  of  troops  or  ships.  Curiously 
enough  it  was  quite  as  frequently  the  social  editor  who  sinned 
as  it  was  the  reporter.  The  social  editor  who  announced  that 
a  wedding  of  a  certain  captain  was  being  solemnized  because 
his  regiment  (name  and  number  given)  was  sailing  at  such  a 
time  forgot  the  existence  of  the  line  which  divides  weddings 
from  war.  Likewise,  the  country  editor  who,  like  everybody 
else  in  the  small  community,  was  down  at  the  station  to  see 
the  boys  off  and  who  saw  no  harm  in  reporting  what  every- 
body knew  forgot  that  a  spy  could  send  information  to  the 
border  for  transmission  much  more  easily  in  published  form 
than  by  means  of  the  telegraph  or  the  mails. 

To  avoid  a  possible  misunderstanding  it  should  be  mentioned 
that  later  in  the  war  a  committee  on  censorship  was  established 
to  supervise  outgoing  mails  and  cables.  Its  personnel,  as  de- 
fined by  congressional  enactment,  included  representatives  of 
the  war,  the  navy,  and  the  post-office  departments  and  of  the 
war  trade  board  and  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Public 


1919  FIGHT  FOR  PUBLIC  OPINION  11 

Information.  Any  activities  of  Mr.  Creel  in  this  capacity, 
however,  were  ex  officio  and  were  entirely  unconnected  with 
his  main  tasks. 

When  I  turn  to  describe  the  work  of  the  committee,  there 
arise  in  my  mind  two  scenes;  and  between  these  two  scenes, 
if  they  are  properly  understood,  lies  the  history  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information.  The  first 
was  on  the  occasion  of  my  arrival  in  Washington  in  the  first 
month  of  the  war.  I  found  Mr.  Creel  with  a  handful  of  asso- 
ciates struggling  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos  and  housed,  with- 
out equipment  of  desks  or  typewriters,  in  one  of  the  old  resi- 
dences which  had  not  been  occupied  since  the  days  of  Andrew 
Jackson.  The  house  was  being  overhauled;  painters  and  pa- 
perhangers  and  carpenters  were  everywhere ;  and  the  few  hab- 
itable rooms  were  crowded  with  newspaper  men  seeking  to 
find  out  what  their  status  would  be  if  the  censorship  law 
passed.  Mr.  Creel  himself  was  so  beset  by  these  and  other 
visitors  who  were  seeking  to  present  their  ideas  or  plans  for 
winning  the  war  that  he  could  hardly  turn  to  the  consideration 
of  his  chief  interest.  The  second  scene  was  about  one  year 
later.  I  was  in  Mr.  Creel's  office  and  the  telephone  rang.  It  was 
a  long  distance  call  from  Mr.  Rogers,  who  was  in  charge  of 
the  wireless  and  cable  office  of  the  committee  in  New  York 
City.  I  heard  of  course  only  Mr.  Creel's  end  of  the  conversa- 
tion. It  ran  something  like  this:  "Is  that  you,  Rogers?" 
"Are  they  relaying  our  material  from  Paris  to  Marion  in  Mad- 
rid?" "Is  communication  open  with  Cairo  yet?"  "What  do 
you  hear  from  Murray  in  Mexico  City?"  "Is  our  material 
being  sent  down  the  west  coast  of  South  America?"  "Have 
you  any  later  material  from  Bullard  in  Russia?"  In  the  few 
short  months  that  had  elapsed  between  the  first  scene  and  this 
conversation  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  had  ex- 
panded to  a  world-wide  organization,  with  its  representatives 
and  its  service  encircling  the  globe. 

It  seems  essential  that  I  recall  to  you  at  this  point  that  the    \ 
fight  for  public  opinion  had  to  be  made  not  only  in  the  United 


12  GUY  STAN  TON  FORD  FEB. 

States  but  abroad  in  every  neutral  country  and  even  in  those 
countries  which  were  associated  with  us  in  the  war.  This 
was  a  tremendous  task ;  and  it  was  in  the  accomplishment  of 
this  task  that  the  committee  performed  a  service  about  which 
the  public  is  least  informed.  When  we  closed  our  office  last 
month  in  Washington  we  had  representatives  in  Archangel, 
and  offices  in  Christiana,  in  Stockholm,  and  in  London.  Our 
largest  office  was  in  Paris,  our  next  representative  was  in 
Berne.  At  the  head  of  our  mission  in  Rome,  with  a  staff  of 
forty  or  fifty  men,  was  Captain  Charles  E.  Merriam,  better 
known  as  Professor  Merriam  of  the  University  of  Chicago, 
twice  republican  candidate  for  mayor  of  that  city,  who  did  a 
most  intelligent  and  effective  piece  of  educational  work  in  pre- 
senting America  and  her  purposes  to  the  Italian  people.  The 
next  large  office  was  in  Madrid,  from  which  center,  by  the  aid 
of  moving  pictures  and  press  work,  we  sought  to  combat  the 
German  propaganda,  which  was  more  highly  organized  in 
Spain  than  in  any  other  of  the  European  countries.  Some 
thousands  of  German  citizens  traveling  either  for  pleasure  or 
on  business  had  been  marooned  there,  and  each  one  apparently 
had  found  and  made  a  connection  with  the  German  embassy 
in  Madrid.  The  whole  country  was  covered  effectively  by  a 
network  of  German  spies  and  propagandists.  Our  next  center 
was  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  Mexico  City,  where  the  diffi- 
culties of  course  were  no  less  than  in  Spain,  for  to  a  higher 
degree  than  any  other  Spanish- American  country  was  Mexico 
distrustful  of  its  great  northern  neighbor.  When  our  films  were 
first  shown  in  moving-picture  houses,  you  may  be  sure  that 
"Pershing's  Crusaders"  created  no  great  enthusiasm,  for 
Pershing  was  not  a  name  to  conjure  with  south  of  the  Rio 
Grande.  Quite  the  contrary ;  and  these  earlier  Mexican  audi- 
ences booed  and  hissed  and  tore  up  the  benches  to  show  their 
disapproval.  Towards  the  end  of  the  war,  when  our  great 
preparations  and  real  adherence  to  a  disinterested  policy  were 
proved,  our  representatives  reported  that  there  were  faint 
cheers  when  the  American  flag  was  flashed  upon  the  screen. 


1919  FIGHT  FOR  PUBLIC  OPINION  13 

We  had  four  centers  in  South  America,  two  on  the  east  coast 
at  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  at  Buenos  Aires,  and  two  on  the  west 
coast.  I  can  not  refrain  from  adding  at  this  point  that  if  we 
had  not  been  able  to  put  forward  the  president's  words  in  re- 
gard to  Mexico  and,  more  important  still,  his  consistent  policy 
as  a  proof  we  should  never  have  had  a  hearing  from  the  Rio 
Grande  to  Cape  Horn.  If  America  had  followed  the  imperial- 
istic policy  urged  by  the  Hearst  newspapers  and  by  the  Chicago 
Tribune  we  should  not  only  have  entered  the  war  a  divided 
and  discredited  nation  hopelessly  frittering  away  our  forces, 
but  we  should  for  all  time  have  written  off  the  books  of  our 
friendship  and  good  will  every  Spanish- American  nation. 

Crossing  the  Pacific,  we  were  in  touch  with  our  representa- 
tives in  Harbin  and  Vladivostok,  and  these  in  turn  with  our 
representatives  four  thousand  miles  inland  in  Siberia.  These 
men  were  the  group  which  had  originally  started  in  at  Petro- 
grad  and  Moscow.  Behind  these  far-flung  outposts  there  was 
an  efficient  cable  and  wireless  service  carrying  more  material 
than  the  Associated  Press;  a  weekly  press  service  of  material 
for  distribution  to  the  newspapers  in  the  different  countries; 
and  an  insistent  flow  of  pictures,  posters,  and  pamphlets,  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  feet  of  educational  film  concerning 
America  and  American  life  and  American  war  preparations. 

Certain  features  of  this  foreign  work  represented  unusual 
difficulties.  One  has  already  been  alluded  to,  namely,  that  we 
had  to  face  everywhere  an  extremely  active  and  efficient  Ger- 
man propaganda,  which  had  thousands  of  dollars  to  our  one 
and  which  had  been  in  the  field  for  some  three  years.  Fur- 
thermore, these  representatives  of  the  Central  Powers  were  ut- 
terly unscrupulous  in  buying  and  bribing  newspapers  and 
speakers  and  journalists.  To  combat  them  we  adopted  the 
simple  rule  of  telling  the  truth.  Over  and  over  again  I  have 
heard  Mr.  Creel  say  to  men  leaving  for  the  foreign  field,  "Find 
out  what  the  Germans  are  doing  and  then  don't  do  it."  Our 
method  was  slower  but  it  was  more  certain  in  the  end,  and 
wherever  it  has  been  followed  I  am  sure  it  has  left  an  under- 


14  GUY  ST ANTON  FORD  FEB. 

standing  of  America  which  will  be  to  the  benefit  of  our  nation 
long  after  the  war.  Another  difficulty  was  the  fact  that 
America  was  practically  unknown  among  the  great  mass  of 
people  whom  we  desired  to  reach.  Any  of  you  who  have 
traveled  abroad  can  easily  understand  how  mistaken  their  slight 
knowledge  of  America  may  be  when  it  is  recalled  that  they 
have  had  to  depend  upon  the  newspapers  for  their  information. 
All  of  us  who  have  lived  abroad  have  been  amazed  to  find  that 
the  news  items  about  America  which  appeared  in  the  foreign 
press  were  concerned  with  cowboy  escapades  in  the  West  or 
lynchings  in  the  South  or  the  absurd  divorce  proceedings  of 
some  millionaire's  sons  or  daughters.  We  were  the  land  of 
dollar-hunting  Yankees,  of  great  trusts  and  monopolies.  Our 
democracy  was  a  myth ;  our  real  rulers  were  the  corporations. 
To  this  misunderstanding  of  America  we  had  been  carelessly 
indifferent  in  days  of  peace.  We  had  said  with  fine  scorn  that 
we  did  not  care  what  foreign  peoples  thought  of  us;  but  sud- 
denly we  were  faced  during  the  war  with  a  critical  situation 
in  which  it  was  vital  for  them  to  believe  in  the  reality  and 
efficiency  of  American  democratic  government.  What  our 
representatives  abroad  found  as  soon  as  we  entered  the  war 
was  that  the  German  propagandists  in  Italy  and  in  the  neutral 
countries  immediately  substituted  the  name  of  America  for 
Great  Britain.  We  were  a  great  selfish  power,  which  had 
stayed  out  of  the  war  until  we  thought  that  our  bonds  and  obli- 
gations were  in  danger,  but  which,  now  that  Europe  was  ex- 
hausted, was  coming  in  to  dictate  the  terms  of  peace  and  to 
enslave  the  Allies  in  bondage  to  us  in  order  to  collect  from 
them  the  debts  which  they  owed  us.  We,  instead  of  Great 
Britain,  were  now  pictured  as  the  power  which  was  to  domi- 
nate the  world  and  crush  the  commerce  and  industries  of  all 
the  war-exhausted  nations.  "Why  continue  longer,"  asked  the 
German  propagandist,  "a  war  which  in  the  end  will  profit  only 
America?"  To  meet  such  a  situation  one  needed  to  begin  al- 
most from  the  bottom  to  inculcate  and  foster  a  lively  and 
convincing  sense  of  America's  unselfish  purpose,  of  the  es- 


1919  FIGHT  FOR  PUBLIC  OPINION  15 

sential  service  of  her  government  to  the  great  masses  of  the 
people  through  schools,  books,  libraries,  museums,  forest  re- 
serves, roads,  public  health,  and  sanitation;  in  short,  to  show 
them  that  in  America  there  was  a  real  government  not  only  by 
the  people  but  for  them,  and  that  in  this  land  democracy 
worked  and  the  citizen  obtained  value  received  for  the  sup- 
port which  he  gave  in  taxes.  You  will  now  understand,  I 
think,  the  type  of  material  which  we  put  into  our  films  and 
into  our  press  service  and  into  our  cable  and  wireless  messages. 

It  was  a  picture  of  the  true  America,  not  perfect  nor  claim- 
ing perfection,  but  the  one  which  Europe  must  see  if  she  were 
to  cooperate  loyally  with  us  in  the  fight  to  "make  the  world 
safe  for  democracy."  Furthermore,  it  was  of  course  essential 
to  carry  to  our  associates  in  the  war  some  idea  of  the  whole- 
heartedness  with  which  the  nation  had  gone  into  the  war  and 
of  the  extent  to  which  all  other  interests  had  been  subordinated 
to  one  tremendous  effort  to  equip  and  drill  and  dispatch  an  j 
efficient  army  of  fighting  men. 

In  Russia,  which  at  the  time  we  entered  the  war  had  just 
thrown  off  the  bonds  of  despotism,  our  whole  effort  was  to  be 
helpful.  From  the  Kerensky  government  our  representatives 
received  a  warm  welcome  because  it  needed  our  assistance  in 
teaching  its  own  citizens  what  self-government  means  and 
what  democracy  does  for  a  people.  To  the  great  mass  of  the 
Russians  government  meant  only  oppression,  not  helpfulness 
and  cooperation.  The  Russian  press  also  was  in  general  un- 
informed about  actualities  in  America.  One  editor  of  a  prom- 
inent paper  in  Moscow  argued  with  one  of  our  group  about 
our  imperialistic  aims  because  we  had  annexed  Cuba.  Be- 
sides the  use  of  the  films,  to  which  I  have  already  alluded,  and 
of  pamphlets  and  posters,  there  was  distributed  to  the  press  of 
Russia  a  weekly  newsletter  containing  instructive  items  about 
American  life  and  institutions.  Several  hundred  newspapers 
received  this  material  and  used  a  considerable  part  of  it  in 
their  columns.  Conditions  were  entirely  changed,  however, 
when  the  Bolsheviki  came  into  power  in  November,  1917. 


16  GUY  ST ANTON  FORD  FEB. 

Many  of  the  most  ardent  among  their  supporters  had  returned 
from  America,  where  they  had  lived  chiefly  in  the  slums  of 
New  York;  for  them  America  meant  only  an  enlarged  East 
Side.  In  some  cases  they  have  enjoyed  advantages  in  Ameri- 
ca ;  as  one  instance  I  recall  that  a  Bolshevist  leader  in  Siberia 
revealed  himself  as  the  holder  of  a  master's  degree  from  a 
large  eastern  college.  In  the  case  of  others,  the  distorted  and 
inaccurate  idea  of  America  which  they  carried  back  was  not 
wholly  their  fault.  They  had  come  to  us  with  high  ideals 
and  great  hopes,  and  no  effort  had  been  made  on  our  part  to 
Americanize  them  or  to  save  them  from  sinking  into  sweatshop 
conditions  in  which  no  self-respecting  person  could  acquire  a 
sense  of  loyalty.  Too  often  in  America  we  have  forgotten 
that  we  can  not  expect  either  our  native  citizens  or  the  foreign- 
born  element  to  feel  like  Americans  unless  we  make  it  possible 
for  them  to  live  like  Americans.  One  of  the  committee's  chief 
difficulties  under  the  Bolsheviki  regime  was  due  to  the  sup- 
pression of  the  newspapers  which  did  not  support  the  new 
government.  To  this  degree  our  newsletter  service  was  ren- 
dered ineffective.  In  the  meantime,  however,  thousands  of  pri- 
vate citizens  in  Russia  had  asked  to  be  put  on  our  mailing  list. 
From  these  readers  and  their  friends  there  came  daily  to  the 
Moscow  office  of  the  committee  hundreds  of  letters  asking 
about  American  life  and  institutions;  at  least  one  third  of  the 
writers  were  seeking  information  about  American  educational 
institutions.  When  our  able  representatives,  Messrs.  Arthur 
Bullard  and  Edgar  Sisson  and  their  associates,  found  it  neces- 
sary to  withdraw  from  Moscow  and  Petrograd,  they  main- 
tained their  helpful  activities  in  Siberia.  As  a  result  of  the 
many  inquiries  about  educational  matters  they  sent  a  cable  call 
for  an  educational  expert  who  might  be  of  assistance  in  the 
reorganization  of  the  public  schools  in  Siberia.  Last  summer 
I  was  able  to  induce  Dean  William  Russell  of  the  University 
of  Iowa  to  go  out  to  Vladivostok.  His  story  of  his  confer- 
ences and  lectures  on  education  and  the  American  school 
system  is  one  which  would  hold  the  attention  of  an  interested 


1919  FIGHT  FOR  PUBLIC  OPINION  17 

audience  for  a  whole  evening.  He  penetrated  four  thousand 
miles  into  Siberia,  as  far  as  Omsk ;  everywhere  people  listened 
to  him  eagerly,  and  he  found  the  local  officials  anxious  to  dis- 
cuss their  problems  of  reorganization.  When  he  left,  the  city 
school  system  of  Vladivostok  had  been  reorganized  with  a  city 
superintendent,  a  school  board,  and,  the  unheard-of  thing,  a 
special  school  tax.  I  can  not  refrain  from  mentioning  this 
one  result  of  Dean  Russell's  work  in  passing  simply  because  it 
illustrates  what  I  feel  was  the  intelligent  and  helpful  approach 
the  committee  made  not  only  in  its  work  in  Russia  but  else-  . 
where. 

At  the  head  of  our  New  York  office,  sending  out  material 
to  the  foreign  representatives  of  the  committee,  was  Ernest 
Poole,  the  novelist.  He  and  his  associates  and  the  writers 
who  helped  them  may  safely  file  in  the  archives  every  " story" 
they  sent  out  and  know  that  the  future  student  of  America's 
part  in  the  war  will  have  nothing  to  conceal  or  condone. 

Quite  as  effective  as  our  attempt  to  carry  America  to  neutral 
countries  was  the  plan  to  bring  their  representative  editors  to 
see  America,  where  they  might  learn  at  first  hand  of  its  war 
preparations  and  its  real  war  purposes.  It  was  the  Committee 
on  Public  Information  that  brought  to  Washington  and  sent 
through  the  country  a  group  of  Mexican  editors.  This  mis- 
sion gave  President  Wilson  an  opportunity  to  say  directly  to 
the  makers  of  thought  in  Mexico  what  was  at  the  heart  of 
America's  attitude  toward  Mexico  and  thus  to  brush  away  the 
misunderstandings  that  had  arisen  from  the  imperialistic 
preachings  of  certain  powerful  and  selfish  newspapers.  Noth- 
ing that  has  been  done  in  the  relations  with  Mexico  contribut- 
ed more  toward  clarifying  the  situation  than  this  journey  of 
the  Mexican  editors.  The  result  was  shown  in  the  columns 
of  their  papers  when  they  returned  to  their  native  land.  Simi- 
lar groups  of  editors  were  brought  from  Switzerland  and  from 
Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark,  and  we  may  rest  assured  that 
as  a  result  of  this  intelligent  effort  to  make  America  known 


18  GVY  ST ANTON  FORD 

we  are  better  understood  in  all  these  countries  not  only  now 
?  but  for  all  future  time. 

Perhaps  I  have  dwelt  overlong  on  the  foreign  aspects  of  the 
committee's  work.  I  have  done  so  largely  because  it  is  that 
part  of  our  service  about  which  the  least  has  been  said,  and 
because  it  represents,  it  seems  to  me,  a  new  and  an  intelligent 
effort  to  make  the  peoples  of  the  world  understand  each  other; 
an  effort  which  ought  to  be  continued  if  we  are  to  have  com- 
munity of  thought  and  freedom  from  misunderstanding  in  a 
world  which  realizes  that  it  has  more  in  common  than  it  has 
in  conflict. 

The  domestic  work,  that  is,  the  educational  work  carried  on 
within  the  United  States,  was  organized  in  some  twenty  or 
more  divisions,  under  the  direct  supervision  of  Mr.  Creel  in 
Washington.  I  can  not  of  course  undertake  to  give  at  such 
length  a  survey  of  the  activities  of  all  these  divisions. 

The  earliest  division  established  was  the  news  division, 
which,  through  its  representatives  in  the  various  war-making 
divisions  and  departments,  sought  to  obtain  and  make  avail- 
able everything  that  was  vital  concerning  America's  participa- 
tion and  preparation.  It  was  hoped  that  through  this  division 
we  could  secure  more  information  than  the  military  or  naval 
mind  is  usually  willing  to  divulge  and  that  we  might  also  save 
the  time  of  hard-pressed  government  officials  who  could  not  be 
interviewed  by  fifty  or  seventy  different  reporters.  The  work 
of  this  division  was  always  difficult  and  delicate.  It  stood 
between  the  newspaper  press,  which  clamored  for  utter  revela- 
tion, and  the  military  organization,  which  was  inherently  hos- 
tile to  publicity.  On  the  whole  the  results  were  commendable. 
The  committee  secured  and  made  available  thousands  of  re- 
leases; only  three  were  ever  questioned  as  to  accuracy,  and  in 
only  one  case  was  the  division  shown  to  be  in  error  and  that 
was  largely  because  it  had  accepted  at  its  face  value  the  state- 
ment of  a  war-making  division  which  had  confused  legitimate 
publicity  with  press-agent  work.  It  would  be  a  misunder- 
standing of  course  if  any  one  were  to  think  that  newspaper 


1919  FIGHT  FOR  PUBLIC  OPINION  19 

men  in  Washington  were  limited  to  the  information  contained 
in  the  releases  that  were  mimeographed  and  laid  out  on  a  table 
in  our  press  room.  These  they  could  use  and  put  on  the  tele- 
graph wires  if  they  chose.  If  they  sought  more  information, 
they  could  go  to  our  representatives  in  the  various  depart- 
ments and  ask  further  questions.  If  the  person  questioned 
could  not  answer,  he  always  took  the  reporter  to  the  respons- 
ible naval  or  military  man,  who  would  give  or  withhold  the  de- 
sired information  upon  his  own  responsibility.  Every  effort 
of  this  division,  as  of  the  whole  committee,  was  to  open  and 
not  clog  the  avenues  of  information. 

Through  another  division  the  committee  published  the  daily 
Official  Bulletin,  which  had  no  elements  of  a  newspaper  but 
was  intended  as  an  official  chronicle  of  governmental  actions 
and  decisions  and  a  repository  of  executive  orders  and  depart- 
mental decrees.  The  complete  texts  of  these  documents  were 
essential  for  the  direction  of  all  war-making  agencies  and  were 
of  importance  to  all  people  doing  business  with  the  govern- 
ment upon  a  war  basis.  The  daily  Bulletin  was  distributed 
gratis  to  government  officials,  post  offices,  and  libraries ;  and  it 
was  sent  to  over  seven  thousand  business  houses  and  indi- 
viduals who  were  willing  to  pay  the  prohibitive  subscription 
of  five  dollars  a  year  in  order  to  have  the  files  of  the  only 
official  government  organ.  Every  other  government  has  had 
such  an  official  gazette  for  years;  France  has  published  one 
for  the  last  hundred  years,  and  even  Siam  issues  an  official 
bulletin.  With  the  conclusion  of  the  committee's  work  the 
United  States  will  again  be  without  such  an  official  repository 
of  information  concerning  the  government's  action,  and,  unless 
a  newspaper  happens  to  carry  the  text,  there  will  be  no  place 
except  by  direct  inquiry  at  Washington  where  the  citizen  can 
find  out  the  latest  administrative  regulations  concerning  busi- 
ness and  demobilization. 

Perhaps  the  most  novel  and  best  known  division  of  the  com- 
mittee was  that  concerned  with  the  organization  of  the  Four- 
Minute  Men,  and  I  may  add  that  for  the  purposes  for  which 


20 


GUY  ST ANTON  FORD  FEB- 


it  was  conceived  it  was  one  of  our  most  effective  agencies.  I 
recall  that  when  late  in  May,  1917,  Mr.  Donald  M.  Ryerson 
of  Chicago  came  down  to  Washington  with  the  idea,  which  he 
had  already  applied  in  some  of  the  Chicago  moving-picture 
theaters,  of  turning  loose  a  large  number  of  men  to  talk  in  the 
name  of  the  government  on  behalf  of  the  committee,  it  seemed 
exceedingly  venturesome.  Mr.  Creel,  however,  saw  the  pos- 
sibilities of  the  suggestion  and  was  characteristically  ready  to 
make  the  venture.  Mr.  Ryerson,  Mr.  William  McCormick 
Blair  also  of  Chicago,  and  Mr.  William  H.  Ingersoll  of  the 
Ingersoll  Watch  Company,  successively,  took  charge  of  this 
work.  At  the  end  of  the  war  there  were  somewhere  between 
thirty-five  and  fifty  thousand  men  who  were  entitled  to  wear 
the  bronze  button  of  the  Four-Minute  Men.  I  can  testify  as 
one  who  saw  the  work  both  in  Washington  and  in  the  field 
that  no  more  unselfish  service  was  performed  than  that  of  the 
ministers,  lawyers,  judges,  and  of  the  men,  also,  who  had  no 
previous  training  in  public  speaking,  who  labored  in  season  and 
out  of  season  to  help  the  government  put  over  its  various  pro- 
grams. Exceedingly  intelligent  work  was  done  by  this  di- 
vision in  the  Washington  office  in  the  preparation  of  the  bulle- 
tins and  budget  of  material  and  the  sample  speeches  which 
were  placed  in  the  hands  of  every  four-minute  man.  By  this 
device  unity  was  given  to  the  nation-wide  work  and  real  facts 
were  conveyed  to  audiences  literally  of  millions.  The  moving- 
picture  men  played  their  part  in  giving  free  entry  to  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  committee  and  in  turn  they  were  protected 
from  solicitation  of  the  same  privileges  by  other  types  of  in- 
terests and  organizations. 

Less  spectacular  but  equally  effective  within  a  more  limited 
field  was  the  speaking  division.  There  was  no  idea  of  carry- 
ing on  at  government  expense  a  formal  campaign  of  public  ad- 
dresses. The  chief  need  was  to  create  cooperation  and  pre- 
vent competition  on  the  part  of  many  agencies.  The  speaking 
division  not  only  accomplished  these  objects  but  it  supple- 
mented private  and  state  and  local  effort  by  sending  through- 


1919  FIGHT  FOR  PUBLIC  OPINION  21 

out  the  country  distinguished  men  in  Washington  and  foreign- 
ers who  came  to  us  from  Italy,  France,  and  England.  I  am 
glad  to  be  able  to  say  that  of  all  the  speakers  sent  out  by  the 
committee  under  its  own  direction  there  was  none  so  effective 
as  the  Reverend  Paul  Perigord  of  St.  Paul  Seminary,  St.  Paul. 
At  the  opening  of  the  war  he  gave  up  his  studies  and,  not  be- 
ing able  to  secure  a  chaplaincy  in  the  French  army,  he  entered 
the  ranks  and  fought  in  the  French  army  from  the  Marne  to 
Verdun,  attaining  the  grade  of  first  lieutenant.  With  all  this 
wonderful  experience  behind  him,  this  soldier-priest,  with  his 
perfect  command  of  English,  his  clear  grasp  of  the  issues  at 
stake,  and  his  high  and  idealistic  treatment  of  all  he  presented, 
made  an  appeal  that  could  not  be  equaled  by  any  other  speaker 
on  our  platform.  I  have  seen  him  talk  to  tens  of  thousands  in 
audiences  such  as  that  in  the  auditorium  at  Denver  or  with 
even  more  gripping  effect  to  ten  thousand  miners  at  Butte  in 
the  open  air.  At  the  close  of  that  last  meeting  a  committee 
of  the  miners  came  to  him,  and  said,  "Perhaps  you  think  we 
did  not  cheer  enough,  but  we  are  with  you,  heart  and  soul,  and 
we  could  not  cheer  because  our  throats  were  full."  Let  us 
hope  it  will  be  the  good  fortune  of  St.  Paul  and  of  the  North- 
west that  Lieutenant  Perigord  will  find  again  his  home  among 
us  and  aid  us  as  a  civilian  to  realize  the  high  ideals  of  America 
and  maintain  the  appreciation  of  France  to  which  we  have  ! 
been  stirred  by  his  words  as  a  warrior.  _* 

I  can  only  allude  in  passing  to  the  satisfaction  I  feel  as  I 
recall  what  was  done  in  the  score  of  divisions  which  directed 
the  committee's  work.  The  advertising  division  secured  some- 
thing like  three  million  dollars'  worth  of  free  advertising  for 
the  government  and  prepared  the  advertisements.  This  serv- 
ice was  really  performed  by  the  advertising  men  of  the  country 
and  the  committee's  modest  part  was  to  organize  them  and  put 
them  in  a  way  to  do  that  work  for  which  they  were  eminently 
fitted.  The  pictorial  art  division  in  its  preparation  of  posters 
lifted  the  government  out  of  the  hands  of  private  firms  who 
were  furnishing  drawings  and  plates  of  inferior  quality.  Men 


22  GUY  ST ANTON  FORD  ***• 

like  Charles  Dana  Gibson,  Joseph  Pennell,  and  others  gave 
without  return  services  which  no  money  could  have  bought. 

Our  largest  commercial  venture  was  the  film  division,  which, 
with  the  aid  of  the  signal  corps  of  the  army,  prepared  and 
distributed  through  the  moving-picture  industry,  patriotic  and 
educational  films  on  the  government's  war  preparations  and 
war  needs.  The  committee's  films,  such  as  "Pershing's  Cru- 
saders," "America's  Answer,"  and  "Under  Four  Flags,"  were 
shown  in  thousands  of  moving-picture  houses  in  this  country 
and  abroad.  The  film  division  also  managed  the  great  war 
exposition  which  visualized  war  and  its  implements  and  reali- 
ties to  a  quarter  of  a  million  in  San  Francisco,  as  many  more 
in  Los  Angeles,  and  to  over  two  million  on  the  lake  front  in 
Chicago.  As  the  division  was  put  upon  a  business  basis,  it 
was  enabled  to  turn  back  to  the  government  treasury  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  dollars.  This  money  was  then  available  for 
the  non-profitable  distribution  in  this  country  and  abroad  of 
those  films  which  were  essential  in  exemplifying  the  spirit  and 
character  of  America's  daily  life  as  a  democracy. 

In  its  domestic  work  the  committee  faced  at  once,  as  did 
every  agency  of  the  government,  the  question  of  arousing  to 
activity  and  self-expression  the  patriotic  groups  of  men  among 
the  foreign-born.  It  was  our  humble  service  to  have  made 
possible  for  these  thoroughly  appreciative  Americans  who  had 
gained  a  love  for  our  institutions  and  who  were  fired  with  a 
desire  to  do  their  part  in  protecting  them,  an  opportunity  to 
become  effective  agents  both  in  supporting  the  national  cause 
and  in  forwarding  the  work  of  Americanization.  Something 
like  a  dozen  different  foreign  language  groups,  aided  by  the 
committee,  formed  their  own  organizations,  had  their  own  sup- 
porters, and  their  own  contact  with  the  foreign  language  press. 
The  government  was  therefore  able  to  reach  with  patriotic 
messages  whole  sections  of  the  population  which  had  not  as  yet 
the  ability  to  read  the  English  language. 

To  each  one  of  these  divisions  and  to  others  that  I  have  not 
mentioned,  such  as  the  service  bureau  in  Washington,  the  di- 


1919  FIGHT  FOR  PUBLIC  OPINION  23 

vision  of  women's  work,  and  the  distribution  division,  could 
easily  be  given  space  equal  to  what  I  have  given  any  of  the  pre-^ 
ceding  divisions.     * 

In  conclusion  I  should  like  to  speak  especially  of  the  divi- 
sion of  civic  and  educational  publications  with  which  I  was 
most  intimately  connected  and  for  which  I  was  the  responsible 
director.  I  do  this  not  solely  because  of  my  own  connection 
with  the  division  but  because  in  its  work  so  much  was  contri- 
buted by  men  who  are  known  to  you  as  members  of  the  faculty 
of  the  University  of  Minnesota.  Through  this  division  there 
were  published  some  thirty-five  pamphlets  with  a  total  distri- 
bution of  over^tffirty^fiye  million  copies.  In  the  case  of  some 
single  pamphlets  the  circulation  ran  as  high  as  six  million 
copies.  Many  of  these  publications  were  translated  into  foreign 
languages,  both  for  readers  in  this  country  and  for  use  abroad. 
Our  first  venture  was  with  the  annotation  of  the  president's 
war  message,  an  idea  excellently  carried  out  by  Professors 
William  S.  Davis,  William  Anderson,  and  Cephas  D.  Allin. 
It  was  a  venture,  and  our  first  printing  was  only  twenty  thou- 
sand copies.  No  sooner  had  the  newspapers  given  publicity 
to  the  pamphlet  than  we  were  overwhelmed  with  requests  for 
this  and  like  material.  They  came  from  men  who  were  going 
into  the  officers'  training  camps,  from  their  parents  at  home, 
from  colleges  and  schools,  and  from  the  homes  both  of  the 
humble  and  of  the  well-to-do.  The  demand  for  it  immediately 
revealed  a  whole  field  of  work.  The  succeeding  publications 
were  divided  into  three  series:  the  Red,  White,  and  Blue 
Series,  the  War  Information  Series,  and  the  Loyalty  Leaflets. 
Possibly  the  most  effective  of  the  Red,  White,  and  Blue  Series 
was  the  President's  Flag  Day  Address,  which  was  annotated 
by  Professors  Wallace  Notestein,  Elmer  E.  Stoll,  August  C. 
Krey,  and  Williani  Anderson,  and  which  received  a  circula- 
tion of  over  five  million.  Of  all  the  pamphlets  published  by 
the  committee,  or  by  any  government  agency  for  that  matter, 
throughout  the  war,  the  most  far-reaching  in  its  effect  was  the 
one  entitled  Conquest  and  Kulture:  Aims  of  the  Germans  in 


24  ffUY  ST ANTON  FORD  FEB. 

Their  Own  Words  (Red,  White,  and  Blue  Series,  no.  4). 
Never  in  the  history  of  the  relations  of  one  government  to  an- 
other has  such  a  terrific  indictment  been  put  forth  under  gov- 
ernmental sanction.  Through  the  scholarship  and  skill  of 
Professors  Notestein  and  Stoll,  the  German  aims  and  plans 
were  revealed  in  a  way  beyond  dispute  or  cavil.  Conquest 
and  Kultur  had  a  circulation  well  over  one  million  copies  and 
was  published  and  republished  in  part  in  the  newspapers  thru- 
out  the  length  of  the  land.  Our  experience  with  this  as  with 
the  other  pamphlets  clearly  showed  that  the  man  in  the  street 
wanted  serious,  thoughtful,  truthful  presentation,  and  that 
when  he  had  it  he  would  read  it  and  believe  it.  It  showed  also 
that  the  common  man  was  doing  as  much  and  possibly  more 
thinking  about  this  war  than  the  man  who  sat  behind  a  glass- 
covered  desk  and  directed  large  affairs.  Professor  Krey  was 
a  contributor  to  German  War  Practices  (Red,  White,  and  Blue 
Series,  nos.  6  and  8),  and  Professor  Willis  M.  West  was 
one  of  the  joint  editors  of  German  Plots  and  Intrigues  (Red, 
White,  and  Blue  Series,  no.  10).  Professor  David  Swenson 
aided  in  the  preparation  of  Swedish  translations  of  some  of 
these  pamphlets  and  to  Professor  J.  M.  Thomas  I  am  indebted 
for  calling  to  my  attention  the  address  by  Stuart  P.  Sherman 
of  the  University  of  Illinois,  which  was  published  as  American 
and  Allied  Ideals  (War  Information  Series,  no.  12).  The 
poems  by  Dr.  Richard  Burton  of  the  University  of  Minnesota 
and  by  William  C.  Edgar,  editor  of  The  Bellman,  are  among 
the  most  inspiriting  in  our  anthology,  The  Battle  Line  of  De- 
mocracy (Red,  White,  and  Blue  Series,  no.  3).  Scores  of 
university  men  all  over  the  country  were  contributors  to  other 
pamphlets  and  to  the  War  Cyclopedia  (Red,  White,  and  Blue 
Scries,  no.  7),  of  which  the  first  edition  was  exhausted  and  the 
second  practically  ready  for  the  press  when  I  closed  my  work 
in  Washington.  To  all  the  contributors  I  said  very  simply  and 
directly  that  I  wanted  the  pamphlets  to  be  as  accurate  as 
scholarship  could  make  them;  that  I  wanted  them  to  be  the 
kind  of  work  which  they  would  not  be  ashamed  to  own  twenty 


1919  FIGHT  FOR  PUBLIC  OPINION  25 

years  after  the  war.     If  you  will  examine  those  pamphlets 
you  will  find  that  they  follow  two  lines:  first,  to  present  the 
aims  and  purposes  of  America,  to  make  it  clear  both  why 
America  was  fighting  and  what  America  stood  for  in  the  whole 
struggle;  second,  to  make  clear  to  our  own  people  and  to  all 
neutrals  the  aims  and  ideals  and  methods  of  the  enemy  we 
were  fighting.     We  drew  chiefly  from  two  lines  of  evidence 
that  were  indisputable:   from  the  words  and  deeds  of  the 
Germans  themselves,  and  from  the  testimony  of  our  own  citi- 
zens who  had  observed  or  studied  them  either  here  or  abroad. 
In  the  last  year  of  the  war  we  felt  so  distinctly  the  necessity  of 
reaching   the   whole  people   regularly   through   some   single 
agency  that  we  turned  to  the  public  schools  and  founded  a  bi- 
weekly magazine  called  National  School  Service,  which  was 
sent  free  of  charge  to  every  one  of  the  six  hundred  thousand 
public  school  teachers  of  the  United  States.     It  carried  into 
every  school  and  home  the  message  of  every  war-making 
agency  and  of  every  national  agency  which  was  helpful  in  any 
way  to  win  the  war — Liberty  Loan,  War  Savings,  Red  Cross, 
School  Garden,  and  Food  Administration  appeals.     For  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  America  the  voice  of  the  national 
government  was  carried  directly  and  regularly  into  the  schools 
of  the  whole  country.     All  this  material  was  presented  by  ex- 
pert educators  in  a  form  adapted  for  immediate  use  in  every 
type  of  school.     So  valuable  was  this  periodical  considered 
that  after  the  committee  ceased  its  work  President  Wilson  set 
aside  money  sufficient  to  ensure  its  continued  publication  under 
the  department  of  the  interior  with  the  same  staff  which  I 
brought  together  for  its  direction.     I  may  be  permitted  here 
to  pay  my  tribute  to  the  public  school  teachers  of  this  country. 
No  group  more  loyally  responded  to  the  call  from  Washington 
than  did  the  underpaid  and  overworked  school  people  of  the 
nation,  and  their  effort  was  no  small  part  in  the  unanimity  of 
national  feeling. 

You  may  be  interested  to  know  that  all  this  work  was  car-    / 
ried  on  during  the  first  year  at  a  total  cost  of  a  little  over 


26  GUY  STANTON  FORD  FEB. 

$1,600,000,  and  that  the  appropriation  for  the  domestic  work 
given  by  Congress  for  the  second  year  was  only  $1,250,000; 
that  is,  we  had  about  one  two-hundredth  of  one  per  cent  of  the 
total  war  expenditures  in  order  to  tell  the  people  what  it  was 
all  about.  I  submit  that  that  was  not  an  excessive  sum,  and 
that  to  carry  on  all  the  activities  which  the  committee  directed 
on  such  limited  support  was  a  real  achievement.  It  was  made 
possible  only  because  so  many  gave  their  aid  either  without 
salary  or  at  a  compensation  less  than  they  had  received  in 
civilian  life.  In  this  self-forgetting  service  and  sacrifice  no 
one  set  a  higher  example  than  did  the  chairman.  Had  Mr. 
Creel  been  the  "safe  and  sane"  type  that  certain  groups  clam- 
ored for  the  committee  would  have  died  of  inanition.  It  was 
far  better  to  have  his  fighting  spirit  and  leadership,  even  if  it 
kept  us  on  the  front  page.  That  was  better  than  having  the 
committee  and  its  work  in  the  obituary  column.  Willful  mis- 
statement  and  misinterpretation  have  had  a  very  long  day  and 
a  very  large  public;  but  Mr.  Creel,  like  the  committee  with 
which  his  name  is  associated,  can  safely  await  the  longer  per- 
spective and  the  day  of  dispassionate  understanding  for  a 
juster  apportionment  of  praise  and  blame. 

I  can  not  conclude  these  remarks  without  an  expression  of 
appreciation  for  the  tremendous  force  and  drive  which  was 
put  behind  the  war  efforts  of  the  nation  by  its  unanimity  of 
spirit.  If,  in  the  creation  of  that  unanimity  of  spirit,  that 
better  understanding  of  our  purposes  and  achievements  both 
in  war  and  peace,  the  Committee  on  Public  Information  con- 
tributed any  small  part,  I  am  well  satisfied  and  well  paid  with 
the  privilege  of  having  been  associated  with  it.  We  were,  let 
me  repeat,  only  one  of  the  agencies  through  which  this  una- 
nimity was  accomplished,  but  the  total  result  was  an  America 
\  which  was  invincible,  unconquerable,  and  triumphant. 

GUY  STANTON  FORD    - 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  MINNESOTA 
MINNEAPOLIS 


REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS 

The  Spirit  Lake  Massacre.     By  THOMAS  TEAKI^E.     (Iowa  City, 
the  State  Historical  Society  of  Iowa,  1918.     xii,  336  p.) 

Closely  allied  both  in  causes  and  results  with  Indian  disturb- 
ances in  Minnesota  is  the  Spirit  Lake  massacre  which  occurred 
in  northwestern  Iowa  in  1857.  So  close  to  the  Minnesota  border 
was  the  scene  of  this  outrage  that  many  incidents  connected  with 
it  were  enacted  upon  Minnesota  soil  and  were  only  too  well 
known  to  early  settlers  of  the  territory.  Not  only  was  Spring- 
field (now  Jackson,  Minnesota)  attacked  by  the  same  band  of 
marauding  Indians  on  their  way  north  from  the  Spirit  Lake  re- 
gion, but  troops  stationed  at  Fort  Ridgely  were  sent  in  pursuit  of 
the  band.  Money  was  also  appropriated  by  the  Minnesota  terri- 
torial legislature  for  the  rescue  of  the  white  captives  taken  during 
the  lake  massacres,  and  Charles  E.  Flandrau  of  the  Yellow  Medi- 
cine agency,  with  the  aid  of  friendly  Indians,  secured  their  safe 
return  by  the  way  of  Lac  qui  Parle  and  St.  Paul  to  friends  and 
relatives  in  Iowa,  Efforts  were  also  made  by  federal  authorities 
in  Minnesota  to  avenge  the  massacre,  but  they  met  with  little 
success. 

Beginning  with  the  most  remote  causes  and  concluding  with 
the  latest  memorial  tributes  Mr.  Teakle  has  traced  in  an  enter- 
taining manner  the  complete  history  of  this  frontier  tragedy.  Al- 
most one  hundred  pages  are  devoted  to  the  causes  and  incidents 
leading  up  to  the  massacre.  In  discussing  the  more  immediate 
of  these  the  author  has  taken  exception  to  the  commonly  accepted 
theory  that  Inkpaduta,  the  leader  of  the  Indian  band,  was  seeking 
blood  revenge  for  the  murder  of  his  brother,  Sidominadota,  who 
was  killed  several  years  before  by  Henry  Lott,  a  frontiersman  of 
unenviable  reputation.  In  support  of  this  exception  a  number  of 
facts  have  been  assembled  which  seem  to  justify  this  new  posi- 
tion. 

The  story  of  the  massacre  at  the  lakes  and  of  the  attack  on 
Springfield  is  followed  by  accounts  of  the  two  relief  expeditions 
dispatched  from  Fort  Dodge  and  Fort  Ridgely  as  soon  as  the 
news  of  the  outrage  reached  these  frontier  posts.  In  succeeding 


28  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  FER 

chapters  the  author  traces  the  flight  of  the  Indians  with  their 
four  woman  captives  across  Minnesota  to  the  Big  Sioux  and 
James  rivers  in  Dakota.  There  they  were  later  overtaken  by 
friendly  Indians,  who  succeeded  in  ransoming  two  of  the  captives, 
the  other  two  having,  in  the  meantime,  been  brutally  murdered. 
The  three  concluding  chapters  are  devoted,  respectively,  to  an 
account  of  the  futile  attempts  to  capture  and  punish  Inkpaduta 
and  his  band,  to  the  memorial  tributes  of  Iowa,  and  to  a  survey 
of  the  changes  in  the  frontiers  of  both  states  following  the  re- 
moval of  the  Indians  beyond  their  borders. 

The  author  has  drawn  his  information  from  a  wide  range  of 
original  and  secondary  material,  the  principal  source  being  the 
printed  narratives  of  Abigail  Gardner,  one  of  the  captives.  Ad- 
ditional source  material  on  this  subject  has  come  to  light  recently 
in  the  Minnesota  territorial  archives  of  the  governor's  office,  now 
in  the  custody  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society.  This  in- 
cludes a  report  of  Charles  E.  Flandrau,  dated  June  1,  1857,  re- 
garding the  ransom  nf  the  captives,  a  canceled  draft  for  $3,500 
drawn  by  Governor  Medary  on  the  territorial  treasury  for  ex- 
penses incurred  in  their  rescue,  and  letters  and  papers  concern- 
ing the  alarm  of  the  settlers  in  southern  Minnesota  and  the  pur- 
suit of  Inkpaduta  and  his  band. 

Mr.  Teakle's  volume  is  neatly  printed  and  attractively  bound, 
and  is  supplied  with  copious  notes  and  an  adequate  index.  It  is 
lacking,  however,  in  maps  and  other  illustrative  material  which 
would  add  to  the  lucidity  of  the  narrative.  The  absence  of  a 
bibliography  giving  critical  evaluations  of  the  authorities  con- 
sulted is  also  a  source  of  disappointment. 

ETHEI,  B.  VIRTUE. 

Preliminary  Report  on  the  Geology  of  East  Central  Minnesota 
including  the  Cuyuna  Iron-Ore  District  (Minnesota  Geologi- 
cal Survey,  Bulletins,  no.  15).  By  E.  C.  HARDER  and  A.  W. 
JOHNSTON.  (Minneapolis,  the  University  of  Minnesota, 
1918.  vi,  178  p.  Maps,  sections,  plates) 

Unlike  the  Vermilion  and  Mesabi  ore  ranges  of  northeastern 
Minnesota,  north  of  Lake  Superior,  which  rise  in  prominent 
ridges  and  hills  along  certain  stretches,  with  many  rock  outcrops, 


1919  GEOLOGY  OF  MINNESOTA  29 

the  Cuyuna  district  has  only  low  hills,  covered  generally  by  gla- 
cial and  modified  drift  deposits  with  no  exposures  of  ore-bearing 
rock  formations.  The  areas  known  by  strong  magnetic  attraction 
to  have  beds  of  iron  under  the  drift  are  comprised  within  a  radius 
of  about  sixty-five  miles,  from  near  the  center  of  Aitkin  County, 
west-southwest  across  Crow  Wing  County  to  the  northwest  part 
of  Morrison  County  and  the  east  edge  of  Todd  County. 

Preliminary  to  the  special  study  of  the  Cuyuna  district,  made 
possible  within  recent  years  through  the  operations  of  exploring 
and  mining  companies,  a  thorough  examination  of  the  major 
structure  of  the  rock  outcrops  lying  west,  south,  and  east  of  it  has 
been  made,  the  results  of  which  are  reported  in  pages  15  to  94  of 
the  present  study.  The  latter  half  of  the  Report  is  devoted  to  the 
Cuyuna  district.  The  first  indications  of  the  presence  of  iron 
ore  in  the  district  were  noted  during  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 
surveys  in  1867.  It  was  not  until  1890,  however,  that  magnetic 
surveys  were  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  mapping  the  area 
showing  the  presence  of  iron.  These  surveys  were  conducted  by 
Mr.  Cuyler  Adams  and  covered  a  period  of  thirteen  years.  By 
1903  Mr.  A^dams  succeeded  in  locating1  two  lines  of  maximum 
magnetic  attraction.  He  at  once  began  drilling  into  the  ore  be- 
neath the  drift  at  various  points  along  the  southern  line  and  in 
the  following  summer  exploration  work  was  started. 

The  history  of  the  rapid  development  of  mining  operations  in 
the  Cuyuna  area  is  given  in  pages  96  to  107  of  the  Report.  Dur- 
ing the  first  six  years  of  ore  production,  from  1911  to  1916, 
twenty-one  mines  were  opened,  all  in  Crow  Wing  County,  the 
most  eastern  being  near  Cuyuna  and  Deerwood  and  the  most 
western  at  Barrows,  four  miles  southwest  of  Brainerd.  From 
181,224  tons  of  ore  shipped  in  1911  by  the  Kennedy  mine,  the  an- 
nual production  gradually  increased  to  1,802,979  tons  in  1916,  the 
total  for  the  six  years  being  reported  as  5,116,358  tons.  Several 
of  the  northeastern  mines  have  iron  ores  containing  from  ten  to 
thirty  per  cent  manganese,  which  imparts  to  iron  and  steel  made 
therefrom  greatly  increased  elasticity  and  hardness.  The  first 
shipments  of  the  manganiferous  iron  ores  were  27,300  tons  in 
1913.  With  the  beginning  of  the  great  war  in  Europe,  the  supply 
of  manganese  ore  previously  imported  to  the  United  States  was 
no  longer  obtainable,  and  as  a  result  the  manganiferous  ore 


30  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  FEB. 

mined  here  from  1914  to  the  end  of  1916  amounted  to  369,090 
tons,  being  about  a  fourteenth  part  of  the  whole  ore  production 
of  the  district. 

A  general  discussion  of  the  geology  of  the  Cuyuna  area  fol- 
lowed by  detailed  studies  of  the  geology  of  the  principal  mines 
completes  the  Report.  As  its  title  indicates,  the  work  on  this 
region  of  the  state,  which  was  done  jointly  by  the  geological  sur- 
veys of  Minnesota  and  of  the  United  States,  is  preliminary  in 
character,  the  final  report  being  necessarily  delayed  until  further 
development  work  shall  furnish  more  complete  data  than  are  ob- 
tainable at  present. 

WARREN  UPHAM. 

South  Dakota  Historical  Collections.  Volume  9.  Compiled  by 
the  State  Department  of  History.  (Pierre,  Hippie  Print- 
ing Company,  1918.  616  p.  Illustrations) 

As  is  usual  in  the  series  to  which  it  belongs,  the  volume  con- 
tains the  proceedings  of  the  eighth  biennial  meeting  of  the  State 
Historical  Society  of  South  Dakota,  reviews  of  the  "Progress  of 
South  Dakota"  in  1916  and  1917,  including  vital  and  other  sta- 
tistics, and  a  number  of  historical  papers.  Among  the  latter  are 
several  closely  connected  with  Minnesota  history.  Of  especial 
interest  is  the  abstract  of  the  "Fort  Tecumseh  and  Fort  Pierre 
Journal  and  Letter  Books,"  for  the  period  from  1830  to  1848, 
which  chronicles  the  local  activities  of  the  American  Fur  Com- 
pany at  these  posts.  The  abstract  was  made  by  Charles  E.  De 
Land  from  the  original  manuscripts  in  the  possession  of  the  Mis- 
souri Historical  Society.  Annotations  for  the  documents  are 
supplied  by  Doane  Robinson.  The  probability  that  Le  Sueur 
penetrated  west  of  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin  River  as  far  as 
the  site  of  Sioux  Falls  on  the  Big  Sioux  River  in  1683  in  search 
of  furs  is  discussed  in  a  second  article  entitled  "The  Lesueur  Tra- 
dition" by  Doane  Robinson,  who  was  led  to  a  study  of  the  sub- 
ject by  data  supplied  him  in  1883  by  Dr.  Edward  D.  Neill,  at  that 
time  secretary  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society.  In  "Expedi- 
tions into  Dakota,"  C.  Stanley  Stevenson  traces  the  movements 
of  two  exploring  parties  in  South  Dakota  in  1844  and  1845 :  the 
expedition  under  Captain  James  Allen,  which  started  from  Fort 


1919   SOUTH  DAKOTA  HISTORICAL  COLLECTIONS   31 

Des  Moines  and  proceeded  "up  the  Des  Moines  river  and  to  the 
sources  of  the  Blue  Earth  river  of  the  St.  Peter's ;  [and]  thence  to 
the  waters  of  the  Missouri" ;  and  that  'commanded  by  Captain  E. 
V.  Sumner,  which  set  out  from  Fort  Atkinson  to  visit  the  Sioux 
on  the  St.  Peter's  and  the  half-breeds  of  the  Red  River  region. 
The  accounts  are  based  on  and  include  extracts  from  the  official 
reports  which  are  published  in  the  congressional  series  of  the 
United  States  public  documents.  Mr.  Stevenson  is  also  the  au- 
thor of  an  interesting  paper  entitled  "Buffalo  East  of  the  Missouri 
in  South  Dakota,"  reviewing  the  causes  which  were  operative 
in  the  disappearance  of  wild  buffalo  from  the  valleys  of  the  James 
and  Sioux  rivers,  the  coteaux  of  the  Missouri,  and  the  Coteau  des 
Prairies ;  within  the  latter  region  is  included  southwestern  Minne- 
sota. Dr.  Stephen  S.  Walker  devotes  a  part  of  his  article  on 
"The  Boundaries  of  South  Dakota"  to  a  consideration  of  the 
boundary  between  that  state  and  Minnesota.  Two  valuable  con- 
tributions to  the  literature  of  Sioux  life  and  customs  are :  "Nam- 
ing the  Child,"  an  account  of  the  proceedings  and  ceremonies  of 
the  Rosebud  Sioux  in  naming  a  son  born  in  1915  to  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  agency,  previously  published  in  the  Mitchell  Daily 
Republican;  and  "Sioux  Games,"  Dr.  James  R.  Walker,  giving 
descriptions  of  twenty-two  games  with  the  rules  for  playing.  Two 
articles  deal  with  the  Sioux  War  of  1862-65:  the  first,  entitled 
"Ending  the  Outbreak,"  is  a  history  of  the  treaties  negotiated  with 
the  Sioux  through  the  efforts  of  Governor  Newton  Edmunds  of 
Dakota  Territory,  based  on  letters  and  documents  found  in  The 
War  of  the  Rebellion:  A  Compilation  of  the  Official  Records  of 
the  Union  and  Confederate  Armies  and  the  Reports  of  the  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs;  the  second  contains  ex- 
tracts from  "The  Doud  Diary,"  a  journal  kept  by  George  W. 
Doud  of  Company  F,  Eighth  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infantry, 
which  participated  in  the  campaigns  against  the  Sioux  in  1862 
and  1863.  The  story  of  the  arrest  and  killing  of  Sitting  Bull  in 
South  Dakota  in  1890  and  of  the  connection  of  William  F.  Cody 
(Buffalo  Bill)  with  the  affair  is  told  by  Major  M.  F.  Steel  in 
"Buffalo  Bill's  Bluff."  The  volume  closes  with  a  review  by  Doane 
Robinson  of  the  explorations  of  the  Missouri  River  region  by  the 
Lewis  and  Clark  expedition  of  1804,  compiled  from  the  journals 
kept  by  various  members  of  the  party.  In  his  compilation  Mr. 


32  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  FEB. 

Robinson  has  had  the  great  advantage  of  having  a  personal 
knowledge  of  the  geography  and  topography  of  the  country  trav- 
ersed. 

Typographical  errors  such  as  "forbiding"  (p.  343),  "desribe" 
(p.  486),  and  "abscence"  (p.  391)  occur  somewhat  frequently 
throughout  the  volume;  and  the  employment  of  the  three  forms, 
"Le  Sueur,"  "LeSueur,"  "Lesueur"  (pp.  336,  340,  344),  for  Le 
Sueur's  name,  of  the  forms  "L'Hullier"  and  "L'Huilier"  (pp. 
339,  345), instead  of  the  generally  accepted  L'Huillier  for  the  name 
of  Le  Sueur's  post  on  the  Blue  Earth  River,  and  of  the  treaty  of 
"Buswick"  for  Ryswick  (p.  343),  furnishes  illustrations  of  care- 
less editing  and  proofreading.  The  index  is  inadequate;  the  en- 
tries under  the  various  divisions  of  the  alphabet  are  not  even  ar- 
ranged in  their  proper  alphabetical  order. 

F.  M.  P. 

The  Early  History  of  Grand  Forks,  North  Dakota.  By  H.  V. 
ARNOLD.  (Larimore,  North  Dakota,  H.  V.  Arnold,  1918. 
154  p.) 

Mr.  Arnold  has  for  several  years  been  writing  and  publishing 
studies  on  the  local  history  of  the  Red  River  district.  In  a  pam- 
phlet, brought  out  in  1900,  he  discussed  the  history  of  Grand 
Forks  County  "with  special  reference  to  the  first  ten  years  of 
Grand  Forks  City."  The  present  volume  supplements  the  earlier 
study.  To  furnish  the  requisite  historical  background  the  author 
has  wisely  devoted  the  first  six  chapters  to  accounts  of  "all  ex- 
peditions and  journeys  of  parties  of  whom  we  have  any  record, 
that  in  fur  trading  times,  either  came  near  or  crossed  the  site  of 
Grand  Forks,  or  passed  by  it  on  Red  river."  The  journal  of 
Captain  Alexander  Henry  supplies  a  large  amount  of  information 
upon  the  establishment  of  trading  posts  at  Grandes  Fourches  and 
other  points  along  the  Red  River;  use  has  also  been  made  of  the 
journals  of  the  expeditions  of  Major  Long  in  1823  and  of  Captain 
Pope  in  1849.  Unfortunately  Mr.  Arnold  has  not  always  had 
access  to  the  original  narratives ;  he  has  had  to  rely  largely  upon 
excerpts  in  various  secondary  works,  so  that  his  quotations  are 
not  always  entirely  correct.  A  large  part  of  chapter  6  is  devoted 
to  accounts  of  various  overland  trails  and  of  the  beginnings  of 


1919        CYRUS  FOSS  CHAMBERLAIN  LETTERS  33 

steamboat  navigation  on  the  Red  River.  The  remaining  chapters 
(7-10)  deal  with  the  history  of  Grand  Forks  from  the  date  of 
the  erection  of  the  first  log  cabin  in  1868  to  1882. 

Since  much  of  the  early  history  of  Minnesota  is  connected  with 
the  extension  of  trade  and  the  inflow  of  settlers  into  the  Red 
River  district,  the  book  has  much  of  interest  for  Minnesota  read- 
ers. It  is  not,  however,  free  from  inaccuracies;  for  example 
Jean  Nicollet  is  used  for  Joseph  N.  Nicollet  (p.  8),  and  the  date 
August  22  instead  of  August  17  is  given  for  the  beginning  of  the 
Sioux  outbreak  of  1862  (p.  80).  Nevertheless  the  study  is  dis- 
tinctly worth  while ;  and  it  demonstrates  some  of  the  possibilities 
in  the  field  of  local  history. 

M.  BABCOCK  JR. 


Letters  of  Cyrus  Foss  Chamberlain,  a  Member  of  the  Lafayette 
Flying  Corps.  (Minneapolis,  Francis  A.  and  Frances  T. 
Chamberlain,  1918.  For  private  distribution.  118  p.  Il- 
lustrations) 

On  June  13,  1917,  Cyrus  Foss  Chamberlain  enlisted  in  the 
Foreign  Legion  of  the  French  army  as  a  candidate  for  the  La- 
fayette Flying  Corps.  One  year  later  "he  fell  to  his  death  in 
combat,  having  gallantly  given  fight  to  a  group  of  enemy  fliers, 
by  whom  he  was  hopelessly  out-numbered."  His  parents  have 
published  his  letters  in  order  that  they  might  "not  only  tell  the 
story  of  the  thrilling  last  year  of  our  son's  life,  but  that  they  may 
reflect  and  interpret  the  personality  that  was  Cyrus."  The  date 
of  the  first  letter  is  March  31,  1917,  when  Chamberlain  first 
thought  of  going  to  France  to  fight.  The  succeeding  letters, 
written  principally  to  his  mother  and  father,  but  occasionally  to  a 
friend  or  another  member  of  the  family,  describe  his  experiences 
in  New  York  and  elsewhere,  while  trying  to  decide  where  to  en- 
list, and  his  life  in  the  training  camps  and  at  the  front  in  France. 
The  last  fourteen  pages  contain  letters  from  friends  and  official 
communications  relating  to  his  death  and  burial.  The  letters  are 
very  interestingly  written  and  reflect  the  author's  fine  qualities  of 
modesty,  straightforwardness,  cheerfulness  under  adverse  condi- 
tions, and  unassuming  courage.  Historically  they  are  valuable 
for  their  vivid  portrayal  of  the  entire  career  from  enlistment  to 


34  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  FEB. 

final  combat  of  a  pilot e  de  chasse.  They  also  furnish  interesting 
glimpses  of  the  activities  of  several  of  the  well-known  members 
of  the  Lafayette  Escadrille,  with  whom  Chamberlain  was  thrown 
into  intimate  contact. 

The  compilation  may  well  serve  as  an  example  for  other  par- 
ents to  follow  in  thus  preserving  in  printed  form  the  records  of 
their  sons'  experiences  in  the  World  War.  The  only  adverse 
criticism  offered  is  in  regard  to  the  total  lack  of  explanatory 
notes.  For  the  immediate  members  and  friends  of  the  family  for 
whom  the  book  was  intended,  these  may  not  have  been  necessary ; 
but  as  a  record  for  future  generations,  even  within  his  own  fam- 
ily, a  few  notes  here  and  there  would  have  cleared  up  several 
vague  points  and  made  the  sequence  of  Chamberlain's  activities 
better  understood. 

C.  E.  GRAVES. 

Soldiers  of  the  Legion.  Trench  etched  by  LEGIONNAIRE  BOWE, 
who  is  JOHN  BOWE  of  Canby,  Minnesota,  and  CHARLES  L. 
MACGREGOR,  collaborator.  (Chicago,  Peterson  Linotyping 
Company,  1918.  281  p.  Illustrations) 

The  reader  of  this  book  is  likely  to  feel  that  he  has  before  him 
a  series  of  vivid  and  disconnected  notes  on  the  war  as  the  foreign 
legion  saw  it  rather  than  a  book  on  the  subject.  Mr.  Bowe  and 
his  collaborator  do  not  pretend  that  the  book  is  in  finished  literary 
form.  Their  aim  is  apparently  to  put  before  the  public  matters 
of  popular  interest  connected  with  the  foreign  legion,  and  in  this 
they  have  succeeded.  There  is  much  material  at  the  end  of  the 
book  which  has  no  particular  bearing  upon  its  title — the  discus- 
sions of  the  heroism  of  the  French  women,  of  the  opposing 
theories  of  government  represented  in  the  conflict,  of  the  enemy's 
atrocities  in  Belgium  and  France.  More  germane  to  the  subject 
and  fresher  in  interest  are  the  earlier  chapters,  which  contain 
notes  on  the  history  of  the  foreign  legion,  the  training  and  life  of 
the  legionnaire,  and  his  experiences  at  the  front.  "I  have  tried 
to  make  you  see  war  as  I  know  it,"  writes  the  author,  "war  with 
no  footballs,  portable  bath-tubs,  victrolas,  nor  Red  Triangle  huts." 
It  is  grim  reading,  yet  enlivened  by  humorous  incidents  and  anec- 
dotes, many  of  which  have  real  historical  value.  Of  especial  in- 


1919  BOWE:    SOLDIERS  OF  THE  LEGION  35 

terest  to  Minnesotans  is  the  fact  that  the  writer  is  a  native  of 
Canby,  and  that  among  the  list  of  Americans  whose  exploits  are 
recounted  appear  the  names  of  Cyrus  Chamberlain  and  Eugene 
Galliard  of  Minneapolis,  and  the  fighting  priest,  Paul  Perigord  of 
St.  Paul  Seminary. 

E.  H. 


MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES 

Mr.  Cyril  A.  Herrick  of  the  University  of  Minnesota  read  an 
interesting  paper  on  "The  Family  Trail  through  American  His- 
tory" at  the  stated  meeting  of  the  executive  council  on  December 
9.  The  annual  meeting  of  the  society  was  held  on  the  evening  of 
January  20.  After  the  usual  reports  were  presented,  Dr.  Guy 
Stanton  Ford,  dean  of  the  graduate  school  and  professor  of  his- 
tory in  the  University  of  Minnesota,  delivered  the  annual  address 
on  "America's  Fight  for  Public  Opinion."  This  was  an  account 
of  the  work  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Information,  with  which 
Dr.  Ford  was  connected  as  chairman  of  the  division  of  civic  and 
educational  cooperation.  After  the  meeting  the  audience,  which 
numbered  about  175,  was  given  an  opportunity  to  make  a  tour 
through  the  entire  building. 

The  following  new  members,  all  active,  have  been  enrolled 
during  the  quarter  ending  January  31,  1919:  Joseph  H.  Arm- 
strong, Edwin  J.  Bishop,  Miss  Agnes  E.  Doherty,  Benjamin  C. 
Golling,  and  James  M.  McConnell  of  St.  Paul;  Miss  Madge 
Ytrehus  of  Cambridge;  and  Paul  Wallin  of  Roseau.  Deaths 
among  the  members  during  the  same  period  were  as  follows: 
Caleb  D.  Dorr  of  Minneapolis,  November  2;  Edgar  W.  Bass  of 
Bar  Harbor,  Maine,  November  6;  Constantine  J.  McConville  of 
St.  Paul,  November  15;  Edward  W.  Durant  of  Stillwater,  De- 
cember 9;  and  Theodore  Roosevelt  of  Oyster  Bay,  New  York, 
January  6. 

Governor  Burnquist  has  authorized  the  society  to  take  over 
for  the  present  some  of  the  older  archives  of  his  office  which  had 
been  stored  in  pasteboard  boxes  in  a  vault  in  the  sub-basement  of 
the  Capitol.  A  beginning  has  been  made  in  the  work  of  clean- 
ing, pressing,  and  classifying  this  material  which  is  invaluable  to 
the  student  of  Minnesota  history. 

The  newspaper  collection  of  the  society  has  again  proved  its 
value  to  the  people  of  the  state.  In  the  forest  fires  of  last  October 
the  minutes  of  the  Cloquet  Board  of  Education  from  January, 


1919  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  37 

1917,  to  October,  1918,  were  destroyed,  as  well  as  the  publisher's 
file  of  the  Pine  Knot,  the  town's  official  paper.  The  society  was 
able,  however,  to  supply  at  small  cost  from  its  file  of  the  Pine 
Knot  photostatic  copies  of  such  of  the  missing  records  as  were 
published  in  this  paper. 

In  cooperation  with  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission 
the  manuscript  division  has  begun  to  gather  material  relating  to 
the  World  War.  During  the  months  of  December  and  January 
three  collections  of  letters  were  received.  They  represent  the  ex- 
periences of  a  private  in  the  ordnance  department,  of  a  divisional 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretary  who  organized  a  hut  system  in  one  of  the 
training  camps  of  France,  and  of  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretary  who 
was  with  the  American  soldiers  in  the  front  line  trenches  at  St. 
Mihiel.  It  is  hoped  that  there  may  be  added  in  the  near  future, 
before  they  have  a  chance  to  be  lost  or  destroyed,  other  letters 
written  by  men  and  women  of  every  rank  in  all  branches  of 
service.  Housed  in  the  society's  new  fireproof  building,  the  let- 
ters will  not  only  be  safely  preserved  as  a  memorial,  so  to  speak, 
of  the  service  of  those  who  wrote  them,  but  they  will  also  in  time 
be  available  for  the  use  of  accredited  students  and  historians  of 
Minnesota's  part  in  the  World  War.  To  assemble  a  really  com- 
prehensive and  valuable  collection,  the  interest  and  support  of  all 
members  and  friends  of  the  society  will  be  needed.  Such  assis- 
tance either  in  the  form  of  donations  of  letters  and  diaries  in  their 
own  possession  or  of  suggestions  as  to  the  location  of  typical  and 
interesting  material  will  be  very  welcome. 

The  society  has  acquired  from  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society 
photostatic  copies  of  nineteen  letters,  written  by  Ramsay  Crooks, 
Henry  H.  Sibley,  Henry  M.  Rice,  Hercules  Dousman,  and  Pierre 
Chouteau  and  Company,  dealing  with  the  Indian  fur  trade  and 
allied  subjects,  and  covering  the  period  from  1838  to  1848;  also 
copies  of  six  letters  from  the  Tweedy  Papers  relating  to  the 
Minnesota- Wisconsin  boundary.  The  Tweedy  Papers  were  de- 
scribed briefly  in  the  November  issue  of  the  BULLETIN  (page  580). 

A  children's  history  hour  conducted  in  the  museum  on  the 
second  and  fourth  Saturdays  of  each  month  during  the  school 
year  was  inaugurated  on  December  21.  An  old-fashioned  Christ- 


• 

38  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY.  NOTES  FEB. 

% 

mas  tree,  a  primitive  fireside  with  homemade  stockings  hanging 
from  the  mantel,  and  a  display  of  early-day  Christmas  gifts,  were 
effective  illustrations  of  a  brief  talk  on  "Pioneer  Christmas  Days 
in  Minnesota."  The  subjects  for  the  history  hour  on  January 
11  and  25  were  "Famous  Minnesota  Pioneers"  and  "Minnesota's 
Historical  Flags,"  respectively.  At  these  two  meetings  the  mu- 
seum game  was  played  after  the  talk.  In  this  game  the  children 
are  given  conundrums  the  solutions  of  which  they  can  find  by 
examining  the  exhibits  and  labels  in  the  museum.  After  ten 
minutes  of  searching  they  reassemble  and  compare  their  answers 
under  the  direction  of  an  attendant.  The  history  hour  of  January 
25  was  attended  by  141  children. 

Special  exhibits  illustrating  subjects  of  current  interest  are 
constantly  being  made  in  the  museum  from  reserve  collections 
and  from  new  accessions.  Since  September,  fourteen  such  ex- 
hibits have  been  arranged,  including  those  of  ancient  coins,  his- 
torical medals,  Minnesota  seals,  and  historical  flags,  one  illustrat- 
ing Catholic  history  in  Minnesota,  and  the  Thanksgiving  and 
Christmas  exhibits.  Of  especial  interest  is  the  one  still  on  dis- 
play which  shows  the  types  of  material  being  collected  by  the 
Minnesota  War  Records  Commission. 

Teachers  in  the  schools  of  the  Twin  Cities  have  been  quick  to 
take  advantage  of  the  educational  opportunities  offered  by  the 
museum  in  its  new  quarters.  From  the  opening  of  the  school 
year  in  September  to  February  1,  twenty-one  such  classes  with 
a  total  of  four  hundred  and  eighty-five  pupils  were  brought  to  the 
Historical  Building  by  their  teachers. 

GIFTS 

From  the  family  of  the  late  General  William  G.  Le  Due  the 
society  has  received  a  gift  of  valuable  historical  material  cover- 
ing the  years  from  1838  to  1905.  The  manuscript  collection, 
though  small,  is  fairly  representative  of  the  various  activities  in 
which  General  Le  Due  was  engaged  throughout  his  long  and 
eventful  life.  Among  the  account  books  may  be  noted  that  of  his 
St.  Paul  stationery  store  for  the  years  1850  to  1852 ;  two  of  his 
Hastings  City  and  Vermillion  mills  for  the  years  1857  to  1859; 


1919  GIFTS  39 

and  one  giving  the  roll  of  pewholders  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  of  St.  Paul  of  1853.  Among  the  letters  are  many  from 
persons  of  note  in  Minnesota,  notably  William  Windom,  Henry 
H.  Sibley,  Henry  M.  Rice,  and  Bishop  H.  B.  Whipple.  Consular 
reports  on  the  agriculture  of  Norway  and  northern  Italy,  and  an 
account  of  his  tea-growing  project,  illustrate  Le  Due's  activities 
as  United  States  commissioner  of  agriculture  from  1877  to  1881. 
Among  the  papers  of  historical  interest  are  notes  of  an  expedi- 
tion to  Lake  Traverse  in  1844  to  capture  a  party  of  Indians  who 
killed  a  trader  named  Turner ;  and  a  description  of  a  Sioux-Chip^- 
pewa  fight  which  took  place  in  St.  Paul  in  1853.  The  museum 
items  include  the  uniform  worn  by  General  Le  Due  during  the 
Civil  War;  foreign  and  American  Christmas  cards;  an  old-fash- 
ioned wool  barege  gown  and  feminine  costume  accessories  in  use 
many  years  ago,  such  as  kerchiefs,  neck  ribbons,  feather  fans, 
and  sunshades ;  and  examples  of  textiles,  dating  between  1820 
and  1860,  such  as  chintz,  calico,  grenadine,  pique,  and  marquisette. 

Members  of  the  Le  Due  family  have  also  placed  on  deposit  in 
the  museum  a  valuable  miscellaneous  collection,  which  contains 
excellent  specimens  of  early  American  silverware,  pewter,  glass, 
and  porcelain,  old  shawls  and  dresses,  and  examples  of  needlework 
in  the  form  of  quilts,  embroidered  garments,  and  handmade  laces. 
General  Le  Due's  dress  sword  and  sword  sash  and  a  portrait  of  the 
general  on  the  battlefield  with  Lookout  Mountain  in  the  back- 
ground have  been  loaned  by  his  grandson,  Lieutenant  Augustine 
V.  Gardner. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Dr.  W.  W.  Folwell  the  society  has  re- 
ceived from  Mrs.  Frances  Pond  Titus  of  Boise,  Idaho,  two  small 
manuscript  volumes  containing  an  account  by  her  grandfather, 
the  Reverend  Samuel  W.  Pond,  of  experiences  as  a  missionary 
among  the  Dakota  Indians  in  Minnesota.  The  narrative  covers 
the  period  from  1831  to  about  1880.  A  collection  of  about  four 
hundred  letters  written  to  Pond  by  early  missionaries  and  pioneers 
and  dating  from  1833  to  1891  is  being  photostated  for  the  so- 
ciety's collection. 

Mrs.  Iva  E.  Tutt  of  Minneapolis  has  presented  a  manuscript 
diary  kept  by  John  Kinsley  Wood  of  Goodhue  County  during  the 


40  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  FEB. 

years  1862  to  1865  while  he  was  a  member  of  Company  F  of  the 
Sixth  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infantry.  Mr.  Wood  participated  in 
Sibley's  campaigns  against  the  Indians  in  1862  and  1863  and  then 
went  south  with  his  regiment  in  June,  1864.  The  diary  is  a 
valuable  supplement  to  the  records  of  this  company  kept  by  its 
captain,  Horace  B.  Wilson,  which  are  also  in  the  possession  of 
the  society. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Mrs.  George  E.  Tuttle  of  Minneapolis 
the  society  has  received  from  Mrs.  Lycurgus  R.  Moyer  of  Monte-- 
video a  file  of  a  manuscript  periodical  entitled  "The  Spring  Lake 
Clipper"  and  consisting  of  seven  numbers  dating  from  January 
20  to  July  27,  1855.  Each  number,  -it  appears,  was  carefully 
written  out  by  the  editor  and  then  read  at  a  meeting  of  a  liter- 
ary society  in  Spring  Lake,  Scott  County.  The  file  contains  not 
only  the  literary  efforts  of  the  community  in  both  poetry  and 
prose,  but  also  chronicles  of  weddings,  housewarmings,  a  stabbing 
affray  in  Shakopee,  the  activities  of  claim-jumpers,  and  similar 
local  news.  It  presents  a  very  interesting  contemporary  pic- 
ture of  pioneer  life  in  Minnesota. 

A  valuable  contribution  to  the  educational  history  of  Minne- 
sota has  been  received  from  the  state  department  of  education  in 
the  form  of  a  record  book  of  the  Minnesota  Educational  Associa- 
tion. The  volume  contains  the  minutes  of  the  annual  meetings 
of  the  association  from  1861  to  1892.  The  original  record  does 
not  begin  until  1867  and  omits  the  years  from  1876  to  1882. 
Through  the  efforts,  however,  of  Professor  Horace  Goodhue  of 
Carleton  College,  president  of  the  association  for  the  year  1891, 
the  minutes  for  the  missing  years  were  gathered  from  the  local 
newspapers  of  the  towns  where  the  meetings  were  held,  and  were 
inserted,  in  typewritten  form,  in  the  record  for  1891. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Dr.  Albina  V.  Wilson  the  society  has 
received  from  the  estate  of  the  late  Major  Thomas  Perry  Wilson 
of  St.  Paul  a  military  trunk,  a  powder  flask,  and  spurs  for  the 
museum,  and  a  collection  of  papers,  photographs,  and  miscellany. 
Among  the  papers  are  a  large  number  of  manuscript  records  kept 
by  Major  Wilson  during  the  years  1863,  1864,  and  1865  in  his 
capacity  as  first  lieutenant  and  regimental  quartermaster  of  the 


1919  GIFTS  41 

Eleventh  Louisiana  Volunteers  of  African  Descent  and  of  the 
Forty-ninth  United  States  Colored  Infantry,  including  monthly 
returns  of  clothing  and  camp  and  garrison  equipage  received, 
issued,  and  transferred ;  abstracts  and  vouchers  for  ordnance  and 
ordnance  stores;  and  special  requisitions  and  lists  of  articles  lost 
or  destroyed.  Included  among  the  photographs  is  one  of  Major 
Wilson  as  commissary  sergeant  of  the  Fourth  Minnesota  Volun- 
teer Infantry.  Major  Wilson  became  a  resident  of  Minnesota 
in  1856.  He  served  throughout  the  Civil  War,  and  after  his  re- 
tirement with  the  rank  of  brevet  major  in  1866,  he  returned  to 
St.  Paul. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Mrs.  George  B.  Ware  of  St.  Paul  the 
society  has  received  eleven  volumes  of  manuscript  records  of 
missionary  societies  connected  with  the  St.  Paul  Presbytery. 
These  volumes  contain  minutes  of  meetings,  accounts,  and  re- 
ports, dating  from  1871  to  1913. 

The  Minnesota  State  Library  has  turned  over  to  the  society 
thirteen  volumes  of  federal  census  records,  consisting  of  agri- 
cultural and  special  schedules  for  Minnesota  in  1860,  1870,  and 
1880.  These  volumes  are  part  of  a  lot  recently  distributed  among 
the  states  by  the  United  States  census  bureau,  and  they  contain 
valuable  material  for  students  of  history  and  economics. 

From  Mr.  R.  C.  McGill  of  St.  Paul  the  society  has  received 
a  bound  volume  made  up  of  pamphlets  containing  addresses  by 
General  Lucius  F.  Hubbard  and  the  tributes  offered  in  his  mem- 
ory at  a  meeting  of  the  Commandery  of  the  State  of  Minnesota, 
Military  Order  of  the  Loyal  Legion,  in  St.  Paul,  April  8,  1913, 
by  Henry  A.  Castle  and  Archbishop  Ireland.  The  volume  is 
especially  noteworthy  in  that  it  contains  the  autographs  of  General 
Hubbard,  General  Judson  W.  Bishop,  Mr.  Castle,  and  Archbishop 
Ireland. 

In  accordance  with  the  wish  of  her  husband,  the  late  Harold 
L.  Hoskinson  of  Minneapolis,  former  publisher  of  the  Progress, 
Mrs.  Louise  A.  Hoskinson  has  presented  to  the  society  files  of  a 
number  of  Minneapolis  publications,  including  fourteen  volumes 
of  the  Saturday  Evening  Spectator,  covering  the  years  from  1879 


42  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  FEB. 

to  1893 ;  nine  volumes  of  the  Progress,  from  1893  to  1901 ;  and 
three  volumes  of  the  Real  Estate  Review:  Building  and  Trade 
Reporter,  from  1884  to  1887.  Two  volumes  of  the  Saturday 
Evening  Post  (Grand  Rapids,  Michigan),  covering  the  years 
from  1876  to  1879,  are  also  included  in  the  gift. 

The  society  has  received  from  Major  E.  C.  Clemans,  the  busi- 
ness manager,  a  complete  file  of  the  Reveille,  a  paper  published 
weekly  from  October,  1917,  to  October,  1918,  by  the  men  of  the 
136th  Infantry  (formerly  the  Second  Minnesota),  at  Camp  Cody, 
New  Mexico,  and  at  Camp  Dix,  New  Jersey.  The  issue  of 
September  14,  1918,  contains  a  brief  history  of  the  regiment. 

Mr.  Charles  M.  Loring  of  Minneapolis  has  presented  to  the 
society  an  excellent  portrait  of  Dr.  William  W.  Folwell.  The 
picture  was  enlarged  by  an  artist  in  Detroit  from  a  photograph 
taken  in  June,  1911. 

Mrs.  W.  T.  Donaldson  Sr.  of  St.  Paul  has  presented  a  por- 
trait of  her  husband,  the  late  William  Taylor  Donaldson  Sr.  Mr. 
Donaldson  came  tto  St.  Paul  in  1851  and  organized  the  firm  known 
as  Pollock,  Donaldson,  and  Ogclen,  wholesalers  of  crockery  and 
glassware,  with  which  he  was  connected  until  his  withdrawal 
from  active  business  in  1892. 

Mr.  Frank  H.  McManigal  of  St.  Paul  has  deposited  with  the 
society  an  oil  painting  of  Fort  Snelling  made  about  1847  by 
Captain  Seth  Eastman,  who  was  commandant  at  the  fort  four 
times  during  the  period  from  1840  to  1848. 

The  society  is  indebted  to  Mr.  Edward  A.  Bromley  of  Minne- 
apolis for  a  picture  of  the  old  Fuller  House  of  St.  Paul,  which 
wias  built  in  1856  and  which  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1869;  and 
also  for  a  Bible  which  was  presented  to  the  Fuller  House  in  1857 
by  the  Minnesota  Bible  Society. 

An  interesting  addition  to  the  historical  picture  collection  in 
the  museum  is  a  picture  of  the  Episcopal  Church  built  in  Chan- 
hassen,  Carver  County,  in  1856,  and  moved  in  1867  to  Eden 
Prairie,  Hennepin  County.  The  photograph  was  the  gift  of  Mr. 
John  Cummins  of  Minneapolis,  who  also  donated  ,a  picture  of  the 
log  house  built  by  himself  in  Eden  Prairie  in  1854. 


1919  GIFTS  43 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  recent  acquisitions  of  the 
society  is  the  desk  used  by  Alexander  Ramsey  while  he  was  ter- 
ritorial governor  of  Minnesota.  The  desk  was  purchased  from 
him  by  the  Reverend  Benjamin  F.  Crary,  who  used  it  during  his 
term  of  service  as  president  of  Hamline  University  in  Red  Wing 
during  the  years  from  1857  to  1859.  From  him  the  desk  passed 
to  Edward  Eggleston,  who  came  to  Minnesota  in  1857  and  who 
spent  nine  years  here  as  a  minister  of  the  Methodist  Conference. 
On  his  removal  from  the  state  in  1866  he  sold  the  desk,  on  which 
he  is  said  to  have  written  the  Mystery  of  Metropolisville  and 
the  Hoosier  Schoolmaster,  to  the  Reverend  George  W.  Richard- 
son, who  succeeded  him  as  pastor  of  the  First  Methodist  Church 
in  Winona.  The  desk  remained  in  the  possession  of  the  Rich- 
ardson family  until  November,  1918,  when  it  was  presented  to 
the  society  by  the  Reverend  Mr.  Richardson's  son,  Diavid  F. 
Richardson  of  Sutherlin,  Oregon. 

Mr.  Cornelius  Fockens  of  St.  Paul  has  donated  for  the  museum 
a  pillow  slip  made  in  Holland  in  1703  from  hand-spun  and  hand- 
woven  linen,  and  a  quilted  cap  worn  by  a  Dutch  woman  about 
the  year  1900. 

Mrs.  George  E.  Tuttle  has  donated  for  the  museum  collections 
an  embroidered  lambrequin  of  the  year  1880,  an  ivory  fan  of  the 
year  1850,  a  memory  book  containing  old-fashioned  friendship 
cards  and  valentines,  an  old  sampler  bookmark,  a  postal  card  of 
the  year  1870,  and  various  pictures  of  historical  interest. 

Mr.  William  H.  Brink  of  St.  Paul  has  donated  the  level  which 
he  used  in  the  construction  of  the  St.  Paul  Union  Depot,  the  new 
Capitol,  and  other  buildings  in  St.  Paul  and  Duluth.  The  level 
is  an  important  addition  to  the  society's  collection  of  old  survey- 
ing instruments. 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT 

For  a  number  of  years  the  men  in  charge  of  state  historical 
activities  in  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Michigan,  Minnesota,  and 
Wisconsin  have  made  a  practice  of  getting  together  occasionally 
to  discuss  matters  of  common  interest  and  to  make  plans  for  co- 
operation. At  one  of  these  meetings  held  in  Chicago  on  Decem- 
ber 7,  1918,  it  was  decided  to  effect  an  informal  organization  un- 
der the  name  of  Conference  of  Directors  of  State  Historical  Work 
in  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley.  Milo  M.  Quaife  of  Wisconsin 
was  elected  chairman  and  Solon  J.  Buck  of  Minnesota,  secretary. 
Arrangements  were  made  for  continuing  the  cooperative  work  of 
calendaring  material  in  the  archives  of  the  national  government. 
The  conference  also  adopted  a  resolution  expressing  approval  of 
the  plans  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin  for  repro- 
ducing historical  records  for  other  institutions  and  for  individual 
scholars  by  the  phot osta tic  process  and  urging  owners  of  manu- 
scripts or  newspaper  files  to  permit  them  to  be  so  copied. 

An  interesting  movement  in  the  field  of  agricultural  history  is 
the  attempt  being  made  in  Montana  to  utilize  the  county  farm 
bureaus  for  the  collection  of  historical  material  and  the  marking 
of  sites  of  significance  in  connection  with  the  beginnings  of  agri- 
culture in  the  state.  Plans  for  this  work  are  outlined  in  a  "Re- 
port of  the  Committee  on  Agricultural  History,"  published  in  a 
pamphlet  issued  by  the  Montana  Extension  Service  in  Agriculture 
and  Home  Economics  under  the  title  A  Program  of  Work  for 
Montana  Farm  Bureaus  (January  1,  1919).  M.  L.  Wilson,  state 
leader  of  county  agents,  Bozeman,  is  chairman  of  the  committee. 

Volume  14  of  the  Collections  of  the  Kansas  State  Historical 
Society  (1918.  897  p.)  consists  mainly  of  the  addresses,  me- 
morials, and  miscellaneous  papers  accumulated  during  the  last 
four  years. 

The  history  and  work  of  "The  State  Tax  Commission  of 
Minnesota"  form  the  subject  of  a  chapter  of  about  forty  pages 


1919  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  45 

in  the  The  State  Tax  Commission:  A  Study  of  the  Development 
and  Results  of  State  Control  over  the  Assessment  of  Property  for 
Taxation,  by  Harley  L.  Lutz  (Cambridge,  1918.  673  p.).  The 
book  is  issued  as  volume  17  of  the  Harvard  Economic  Studies. 

The  Land  Grant  of  1862  and  the  Land-Grant  Colleges,  by 
Benjamin  F.  Andrews,  issued  as  number  13  of  the  Bulletins  of 
the  United  States  Bureau  of  Education  for  1918  (63  p.),  treats 
of  the  disposition  of  the  grant  by  the  various  states,  including 
Minnesota. 

Pleasing  humor  and  keen  observation  are  mingled  in  Meredith 
Nicholson's  The  Valley  of  Democracy  (New  York,  1918.  x,  210 
p.).  The  author,  himself  a  native  of  Indiana,  writing  from  the 
viewpoint  of  a  sympathetic  bystander,  gives  a  cross  section  of 
the  throbbing  life  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  as  contrasted  with 
the  conservative  East.  In  the  final  chapter  he  pays  a  tribute  to 
the  "gallant  company  of  scholars  who  have  established  Middle 
Western  history  upon  so  firm  a  foundation,"  and  reviews  the 
work  of  the  several  state  historical  societies  in  the  "valley." 

Bruce  Kinney's  Frontier  Missionary  Problems;  Their  Character 
and  Solution  (New  York,  etc.,  1918.  249  p.)  is  an  interesting 
study  of  religious  affairs  in  the  western  states.  Of  special  in- 
terest to  Minnesota  readers  is  the  portion  devoted  to  a  considera- 
tion of  the  relationship  between  the  Indians  and  the  whites  and 
of  the  wrongs  perpetrated  upon  the  savages  as  the  frontier  of 
civilization  moved  westward. 

In  his  autobiography  entitled  My  Story  (Washington,  1918. 
412  p.)  General  Anson  Mills,  U.  S.  A.,  relates  at  length  the  story 
of  General  Crook's  campaigns  of  1875  and  1876  against  the 
Sioux  Indians  in  the  territories  of  Dakota,  Wyoming,  and  Mon- 
tana (pages  152,  176,  394,  312).  General  Mills  in  command  of 
a  company  of  cavalry  was  in  several  of  the  engagements. 

A  paper  on  Les  Frangais  dans  I'ouest  en  1671,  read  by  Benja- 
min Suite  at  ithe  meeting  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada  in  May, 
1918,  which  will  appear  in  the  society's  Transactions,  series  3, 
volume  12,  section  1,  has  been  issued  in  pamphlet  form  (Ottawa, 
1918.  31  p.).  The  article  is  a  critical  study  of  the  locations  and 


46  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  FEB. 

of  the  relations  one  to  another  of  the  various  Indian  tribes  of 
the  Great  Lakes  and  upper  Mississippi  region  as  they  were  known 
to  the  French  in  1671.  The  material  is  taken  principally  from 
the  Relations  of  Fathers  Dablon,  Allouez,  and  Marquette,  and 
from  the  Memoire  of  Nicolas  Perrot,  who  traveled  there  in  the 
winter  of  1670-71.  Of  especial  interest  to  Minnesota  students 
is  the  account  of  the  Nadouessi  or  Sioux,  who  were  known  at 
this  time  to  be  dwelling  "on  the  banks  and  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
great  river  called  the  Mississippi."  Pages  13  to  17  are  devoted 
to  a  description  of  the  ceremonies  at  Sault  de  Ste.  Marie  in  June, 
1671,  when  St.  Lusson  formally  took  possession  of  this  territory 
in  the  name  of  the  French  king;  and  pages  18  to  21  to  sketches 
of  the  signatories  of  the  proems-verbal.  Suite  identifies  "le  sieur 
Jolliet"  as  Adrien  Jolliet,  differing  with  Justin  Winsor  and  Dr.' 
Thwaites,  who  are  of  the  opinion  that  he  was  the  younger  brother 
Louis,  whose  name  is  associated  with  the  discovery  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. 

An  article  on  "The  American  Occupation  of  Iowa,  1833  to 
1860,"  by  Cardinal  Goodwin,  in  the  January  number  of  the  Iowa 
Journal  of  History  and  Politics  will  be  useful,  for  purposes  of 
comparison,  to  students  of  the  early  settlement  of  Minnesota, 
which  took  place  during  this  same  period. 

An  "Analysis  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  Reports,"  by  Pearl  Rus- 
sell, in  the  January  number  of  the  Washington  Historical  Quar- 
terly, calls  attention  to  the  large  amount  of  valuable  material  in 
these  government  documents  for  the  history  of  the  region  from 
the  Mississippi  River  to  the  Pacific  Coast.  The  analysis  is  full- 
est for  the  reports  resulting  from  the  surveys  of  the  northern 
route  under  the  command  of  the  Honorable  Isaac  I.  Stevens, 
governor  of  Washington  Territory. 

The  account  of  the  "Ohio  State  Library  Centennial,"  in  the 
Ohio  Archaeological  and  Plistorical  Quarterly  for  January,  con- 
tains an  appreciative  sketch  of  James  W.  Taylor,  who  was  the 
librarian  from  1854  to  1856,  when  he  removed  to  St.  Paul.  The 
sketch,  which  is  part  of  an  address  by  the  Honorable  Daniel  J. 
Ryan,  is  accompanied  by  a  picture  of  Taylor. 


1919  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  47 

"The  Great  Lakes  Waterway  as  a  Civic  and  National  Asset," 
by  Eugene  Van  Cleef,  in  the  Journal  of  Geography  for  January, 
deals  briefly  with  the  evolution  of  commerce  on  the  Great  Lakes. 

"The  Indians  of  the  Great  Lakes  Region  and  Their  Environ- 
ment" is  the  title  of  a  suggestive  article  by  A.  E.  Parkins  in  the 
Geographical  Review  for  December. 

Numedalslaget  i  Amerika,  a  society  of  the  natives  of  Numedal, 
Norway,  issues  an  annual  publication  which  reviews  the  work  of 
the  society  and  "contains  biographies  and  historical  records  of 
the  Numed01s  of  America."  In  its  Aarbok  for  1918  are  sketches 
of  Ole  O.  Enestvedt  and  the  Bergan  family  of  Sacred  Heart,  of 
the  Holter  family  of  Oak  Park,  Marshall  County,  of  Charles 
Nelson  of  Climax,  Polk  County,  and  of  the  Holm  family  of  Clay 
County.  In  a  letter  to  the  editor  (pages  29-31)  Halvor  L.  Skav- 
lem  of  Janesville,  Wisconsin,  calls  attention  to  the  historical 
value  of  the  recently  published  translations  of  Ole  Rynning's 
Sandfardig  Beretning  om  Amerika  in  the  MINNESOTA  HISTORY 
BULLETIN  for  November,  1917,  and  of  Ole  K.  Nattestad's  Beskri- 
velse  over  en  Reise  til  Nordamerica  in  the  Wisconsin  Magazine  of 
History  for  December,  1917. 

Articles  and  notes  on  the  Kensington  runestone  have  appeared 
from  time  to  time  in  the  issues  of  Kvartalskrift,  a  quarterly  pub- 
lished at  Eau  Claire,  Wisconsin,  by  the  Norske  Selskab  i  Ameri- 
ka. The  most  recent  of  these  is  "Den  Sten  paa  vort  Hjerte,"  by 
an  anonymous  writer,  in  the  only  number  which  appeared  in  1918. 
In  this  article  the  story  of  the  stone  is  retold  and  arguments  are 
presented  in  favor  of  the  genuineness  of  the  inscription  upon  it. 

An  important  contribution  to  the  collection  of  Minnesota  local 
history  studies  is  the  Souvenir  and  History  of  Rochester,  Minne- 
sota, by  Mrs.  J.  R.  Willis  of  Rochester  (second  edition,  1918.  63 
p.).  The  first  thirty-four  pages  are  devoted  to  pictures  of  the 
principal  buildings  of  the  city.  In  a  section  entitled  "Rochester 
as  It  Was,"  following  a  brief  sketch  of  its  settlement,  are  gath- 
ered facts  and  traditions  relating  to  various  buildings  and  sites 
of  historic  interest.  The  last  fifteen  pages,  describing  "Rochester 
as  It  Is,"  contain  accounts  of  the  banks,  churches,  industries,  and 
the  various  buildings  and  hospitals  connected  with  the  Mayo 


48  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  FEB. 

Clinic,  as  well  as  short  biographies  of  prominent  business  and 
professional  men. 

The  first  installment  of  "Colonel  Hans  Christian  Heg:  Amer- 
ican," by  Theodore  C.  Blegen  of  Milwaukee,  appeared  in  the 
January  issue  of  the  North  Star  (K.  C.  Holter  Publishing  Com- 
pany, Minneapolis).  It  is  an  informing  study  in  Americaniza- 
tion as  typified  by  a  man  who  emigrated  to  the  United  States  at 
an  early  age  and  who  became  in  his  later  life  one  of  Wisconsin's 
most  distinguished  Norse-born  citizens. 

Everett  Lesher  began  an  interesting  series  of  frontier  sketches 
entitled  "Congregational  Pioneering  in  Northern  Minnesota"  in 
the  December  number  of  Congregational  Minnesota.  The  diffi- 
culties and  problems  of  the  missionaries  at  work  in  the  logging 
camps  and  thinly  settled  areas  near  the  Canadian  boundary  are 
especially  noted. 

Old  settlers  of  Richfield  held  a  reunion  at  the  Richfield  Baptist 
Church  on  November  23.  Plans  were  made  for  the  organization 
of  >a  Richfield  historical  society. 

The  Reverend  Eben  E.  Saunders  of  Fargo,  North  Dakota,  has 
for  several  months  been  contributing  to  the  Fargo  Courier-News 
an  interesting  series  of  sketches  of  North  Dakota  pioneers  entitled 
"North  Dakota  Builders"  and  "Those  Pioneers."  As  many  of 
these  men  emigrated  from  Minnesota,  some  material  for  Minne- 
sota history  is  given  in  connection  with  the  biographical  notes. 
Of  equal  interest  is  an  earlier  series  of  studies  in  North  Dakota 
local  history  by  the  same  writer,  which  under  the  title  "Historical 
Letters"  was  published  in  the  Fargo  Forum  and  Daily  Republi- 
can, the  first  letter  appearing  in  the  issue  of  September  5,  1914. 

Four  Minnesota  counties,  Pipestone,  Nobles,  Marshall,  an 
Cook,  were  honor  counties  in  the  Fourth  Liberty  Loan  distri- 
bution contest  and  are  entitled  to  name  a  ship  in  the  United 
States  navy.  Nobles  County  has  selected  the  name  "Nobles," 
after  a  St.  Paul  pioneer,  Colonel  William  H.  Nobles,  for  whom 
the  county  also  is  named.  A  brief  sketch  of  the  career  of  Colonel 
Nobles  appeared  in  the  January  19  issue  of  the  St.  Paul  Pionce: 
Press. 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  49 

The  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press  for  January  26  gives  an  amusing 
account  of  the  meeting  of  the  Wisconsin  Territorial  Legislature 
at  Madison  during  the  winter  of  1838-39.  The  part  of  Minne- 
sota east  of  the  Mississippi  River  was  at  this  time  a  part  of  Craw- 
ford County,  Wisconsin,  and  accordingly  was  represented  at  the 
session. 

A  brief  sketch  of  Louis  Kitzman  which  appeared  in  the  St. 
Paul  Pioneer  Press  for  December  22  contains  information  about 
the  killing  of  his  parents,  residents  of  Renville  County,  by  the 
Sioux  on  August  18,  1862,  and  about  his  release  from  captivity. 
A  picture  of  Mr.  Kitzman  accompanies  the  article. 

The  growth  of  the  Thomas  B.  Walker  art  collection  from  a 
few  engravings  and  chromos  which  were  hung  on  the  walls  of 
his  reception  room  in  1876  to  its  present  size  and  importance  is 
described  by  Harriet  S.  Flagg  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  of 
January  5.  The  collection  has  recently  been  presented  to  the 
city  of  Minneapolis. 

The  story  of  the  death  of  Decorah,  the  Winnebago  Chief,  at 
the  hands  of  a  Chippewa  brave,  as  told  by  Jim  Doville,  an  old 
trapper  and  a  cousin  of  Decorah,  living  in  Wisconsin,  just  across 
the  Mississippi  from  Dakota,  Minnesota,  together  with  a  brief 
sketch  of  Doville's  life,  is  published  in  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press 
of  November  24. 

The  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press  for  December  22  gives  a  brief 
sketch  of  Rising  Sun,  a  Turtle  Mountain  Chippewa,  who  died 
near  Dunseith,  North  Dakota,  December  10,  at  the  age  of  110 
years.  Rising  Sun  was  at  one  time  an  employee  of  the  American 
Fur  Company  and  made  frequent  trips  to  St.  Paul  through  hos- 
tile Sioux  country. 

WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES 

Since  the  United  States  entered  the  war  a  constantly  growing 
number  of  states  have  officially  recognized  the  importance  of  col- 
lecting and  preserving  state  and  local  war  records  and  have  in- 


50  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  Feb. 

augurated  state-wide  movements  for  the  attainment  of  that  end. 
In  the  states  of  Connecticut,  New  Hampshire,  North  Carolina, 
Maryland,  Kentucky,  Illinois,  Idaho,  and  California,  the  work  is 
an  integral  part  of  the  activities  of  the  state  council  of  defense  or 
corresponding  body.  In  Minnesota,  Pennsylvania,  and  Wiscon- 
sin, separate  commissions  have  been  established  under  authority 
of  the  state  councils  of  defense,  while  in  Ohio  a  special  commis- 
sion has  been  appointed  by  the  governor.  In  Texas,  the  state 
university,  and  in  New  York,  the  state  library  have  taken  the 
initiative  in  their  respective  fields.  Historical  commissions  and 
historical  societies  in  a  number  of  states,  including  South  Caro- 
lina, Georgia,  Mississippi,  Arkansas,  Illinois,  Nebraska,  Iowa, 
and  North  Dakota,  have  taken  up  the  work  as  a  natural  exten- 
sion of  their  normal  activities.  With  but  few  exceptions  the 
several  state  agencies  have  organized  the  work  on  a  state-wide 
basis  through  the  appointment  of  local  representatives  or  com- 
mittees who  cooperate  with  the  state  body  in  building  up  collec- 
tions of  war  history  material.  Plans  and  suggestions  for  a  work 
of  this  kind  have  been  outlined  by  a  number  of  the  state  war 
records  agencies  and  issued  in  the  form  of  leaflets  and  bulletins. 
Among  these  may  be  noted :  California  in  the  War,  by  the  War 
History  Committee  of  the  California  Council  of  Defense ;  Collec- 
tions and  Preservation  of  the  Materials  of  War  History  (Bulletin 
of  Information  Series,  no.  8)  and  Shall  the  Story  of  loivtfs  Part 
in  the  War  be  Preserved?  (loiva  and  War,  January,  1919),  by 
the  State  Historical  Society  of  Iowa;  The  Great  War  Veterans 
Association  of  Mississippi  (Bulletins,  no.  2)  by  the  Mississippi 
State  Department  of  Archives  and  History;  The  North  Carolina 
Council  of  Defense:  Historical  Committee,  by  the  body  of  that 
name;  What  are  You  Doing  to  Help  Ohio  Preserve  Her  War 
Records?,  by  the  Historical  Commission  of  Ohio ;  Directions  for 
Organizing  War  History  Committees  and  Collecting  Material 
(Bulletins,  no.  1),  by  the  University  of  Texas;  and  a  series  of 
three  bulletins  by  the  Wisconsin  War  History  Commission  entitled 
Collect  Material  for  Wisconsin's  War  History  Now,  Directions 
for  Organising  War  History  Committees  and  Collecting  Material, 
and  Some  Further  Suggestions  concerning  the  collection  of 
County  War  History  Material.  An  indication  of  what  may  be 
accomplished  by  war  records  collecting  agencies  appears  in  a  re- 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  51 

port  of  the  chairman  of  the  Historical  Commission  of  Ohio, 
which  was  published  in  the  Ohio  Archaeological  and  Historical 
Quarterly  for  October,  1918. 

A  Statewide  Movement  for  the  Collection  and  Preservation  of 
Minnesota's  War  Records  is  the  title  of  number  1  of  a  series  of 
Bulletins  inaugurated  by  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission 
(December,  1918.  18  p.).  It  contains  a  statement  of  the  character 
and  scope  of  the  commission's  plans  and  is  intended  primarily  for 
the  use  of  the  voluntary  auxiliary  committees  which  are  being  or- 
ganized in  the  counties  throughout  the  state.  Forty-one  such 
organizations,  known  generally  as  county  war  records  committees, 
are  now  at  work  under  the  direction  of  the  commission.  An  im- 
portant function  of  these  local  committees  is  the  compilation  of 
individual  service  records  of  men  from  their  respective  counties. 
To  facilitate  this  work  the  commission  has  prepared  and  distrib- 
uted a  printed  form,  which  is  to  be  filled  out  in  duplicate,  one 
copy  for  the  local  and  one  for  the  state  collection.  A  marked 
indication  that  the  work  is  meeting  with  general  favor  is  the  fact 
that  in  a  number  of  cases  the  committees  have  received  support 
from  local  residents,  county  boards,  and  city  councils,  in  amounts 
ranging  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  five  hundred  dollars. 

The  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission  at  a  meeting  on 
December  20  approved  a  plan  for  the  preparation  and  publication 
of  an  adequate  memorial  history  of  Minnesota  in  the  World 
War.  The  legislature  will  be  asked  to  enact  a  law  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  commission  and  to  provide  funds  for  the  prose- 
cution of  its  work. 

The  history  of  the  151st  United  States  Field  Artillery,  for- 
merly the  First  Minnesota  Field  Artillery,  to  the  time  when  this 
regiment  was  fighting  along  the  battleline  north  of  the  Argonne 
in  France,  is  sketched  in  an  article  which  appeared  in  the  Minne- 
apolis Journal,  November  3,  1918.  Individual  portraits  of  382 
members  of  the, regiment  accompany  the  article. 

The  board  of  regents  of  the  University  of  Minnesota  recently 
created  the  office  of  war  records  clerk  and  appointed  Miss  Helen 
Garrigues  to  the  position.  Miss  Garrigues'  work  is  to  collect 


52  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  FEB. 

material  and  compile  records  relating  to  the  war  activities  of  the 
university  and  of  its  individual  students  and  alumni.  She  will 
also  assemble  and  classify  material  of  this  character  already  avail- 
able in  the  university  archives.  From  this  and  other  sources  a 
card  index  containing  individual  records  of  all  university  students 
and  alumni  in  the  service,  giving  the  date  of  enlistment,  branch  of 
service,  address,  date  of  discharge,  casualties,  citations,  and  like 
information,  will  be  compiled.  These  card  records  will  be  sup- 
plemented by  photographs,  letters,  and  other  pertinent  material. 
A  similar  compilation  is  being  made  for  Minnesota  teachers  and 
schoolmen  in  the  service  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Shepard  of  Minneapolis, 
secretary  of  the  Minnesota  Educational  Asociation. 

The  Minnesota  Commission  of  Public  Safety  has  undertaken, 
through  its  county  and  township  representatives,  to  compile  in- 
formation about  all  Minnesota  men  who  lost  their  lives  in  the 
service,  with  the  object  of  sending  to  the  nearest  relative  of  each 
a  handsomely  engraved  memorial  certificate,  signed  by  the  gover- 
nor, as  a  "token  of  gratitude  and  sympathy." 

One  of  the  permanent  results  of  the  war  records  movement  is 
likely  to  be  an  awakening  of  interest  in  matters  relating  to  the 
whole  past  history  of  the  state  and  of  its  several  communities. 
An  indication  of  this  appears  in  a,  movement,  now  in  progress  in 
Houston  County,  to  organize  a  county  historical  association,  the 
first,  but  not  the  only,  work  of  which  will  be  to  collect  and  pre- 
serve the  records  of  the  county's  participation  in  the  late  war. 

A  valuable  addition  to  the  printed  record  of  Minnesota's  part 
in  the  World  War  appears  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Thirteenth 
Biennial  Report  (373  p.)  issued  by  the  state  adjutant  general  for 
the  years  1917  and  1918.  The  volume  contains  an  extended  ac- 
count of  the  operation  of  the  selective  draft  from  June,  1917, 
to  September  15,  1918;  tabulated  statistics  of  each  of  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty-one  local,  and  the  five  district  draft  boards  ; 
a  brief  account  of  the  federalization  and  departure  from  the 
state  of  units  of  the  old  National  Guard  and  Naval  Militia,  to- 
gether with  rosters  of  the  officers  and  men  of  these  organizations  ; 
the  history  and  commissioned  personnel  of  the  Home  Guard,  in- 
cluding the  Motor  Corps,  and  of  the  newly  organized  National 


1919  IV A R  PI J STORY  ACTIVITIES  53 

Guard  Infantry  regiments;  a  series  of  tables  showing  the  brigade 
strength  of  the  state  troops;  an  account  of  special  services  per- 
formed by  the  state  military,  notably  at  Tyler  and  in  the  fire-swept 
region  of  northern  Minnesota;  general  orders  issued  from  the 
adjutant  general's  office;  and  a  financial  report  covering  the 
biennium  ending  July  31,  1918. 

An  increasing  number  of  Minnesota  newspaper  publishers  are 
preparing  to  issue  special  editions  or  separate  books  descriptive 
and  illustrative  of  the  war  services  and  sacrifices  of  their  several 
communities.  One  of  the  earliest  of  these  resumes  of  local  war 
activities  to  appear  is  a  thirty-two-page  "Victory  Edition"  of  the 
Applet  on  Press,  issued  December  20.  The  war  services  of  the 
people  of  Appleton  and  its  vicinity  are  summarized  in  the  form 
of  reports  on  the  activities  of  various  local  war  organizations; 
tabulated  statistics  showing  more  or  less  specifically  the  extent 
and  variety  of  war  services  performed  in  the  home  community  by 
each  family,  business  firm,  and  organization ;  and  a  large  number 
of  portraits  and  biographical  sketches  of  local  men  and  women 
in  the  service.  The  county  war  history  in  book  form,  however, 
appears  to  be  the  consummation  toward  which  most  publishers 
interested  in  the  matter  are  working.  Such  volumes  are  now  in 
course  of  preparation  in  Anoka,  Pipestone,  Renville,  and  Waton- 
wan  counties  under  the  direction  of  the  publishers  of  the  Anoka 
Herald,  the  Pipestone  Leader,  the  Olivia  Times,  and  the  St.  James 
Plaindealer,  respectively.  The  Minnesota  War  Records  Com- 
mission recently  issued  a  request  that  copies  of  all  such  publica- 
tions be  sent  to  the  Historical  Building,  St.  Paul,  for  inclusion  in 
the  state  war  records  collection. 

In  compliance  with  a  request  recently  made  by  the  Minnesota 
War  Records  Commission,  Minnesota  draft  boards  have  begun 
sending  in  duplicate  copies  of  the  "Chronicles  of  the  Selective 
Draft" — stories  of  the  human  side  of  the  draft  as  distinguished 
from  summary  statistical  reports — which  have  been  recorded  by 
local  draft  officials  ,at  the  instance  of  Provost  Marshal  General  E. 
H.  Crowder.  Among  interesting  Minnesota  "Chronicles"  which 
have  thus  been  added  to  the  state  war  records  collection  are  those 
received  from  the  local  boards  of  Blue  Earth  County,  Division 
No.  10,  St.  Paul,  and  Division  No.  9,  Minneapolis. 


54  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  FEB. 

Through  an  arrangement  with  the  Western  Press  Clipping 
Exchange  of  Minneapolis,  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Commis- 
sion has  been  receiving  hundreds  of  newspaper  clippings  of  local 
war-time  interest,  including  many  letters  from  soldiers,  which 
are  taken  from  newspapers  from  all  parts  of  the  state. 

Numerous  plans  are  under  discussion  for  the  establishment  of 
state  and  local  memorials  in  honor  of  Minnesotans  who  partici- 
pated in  the  World  War.  Suggestions  for  a  state  memorial  are 
being  received  and  considered  by  a  body,  known  as  the  Minne- 
sota State  Memorial  Commission,  which  was  appointed  by  the 
governor  in  December  to  investigate  the  subject  and  make  recom- 
mendations. Among  suggestions  which  have  appeared  in  the 
press  is  one  advanced  by  the  University  of  Minnesota  Alumni 
Association  for  the  creation  of  a  beautiful  mall,  extending  north 
and  south  on  the  campus  of  the  university,  with  a  magnificent 
memorial  hall  at  the  northern  end,  and  a  stately  tower,  or  cam- 
panile, at  the  southern  end  of  the  bank  of  the  Mississippi.  A 
description  and  sketch  of  this  proposed  memorial  mall  appears  in 
the  Minneapolis  Journal  of  January  5.  Of  a  distinctly  different 
type  is  a  proposal  made  in  a  communication  to  the  Minneapolis 
Tribune,  January  6,  and  to  other  papers  by  the  Honorable  Gideon 
S.  Ives  of  St.  Paul,  president  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society, 
who  urges  that  the  state  memorial  take  the  form  of  a  compre- 
hensive history  of  Minnesota  in  the  World  War.  Local  move- 
ments looking  toward  the  erection  of  county  and  city  memorials 
are  reported  in  a  number  of  newspapers  of  the  state,  including 
the  St.  Paul  Dispatch,  November  21,  December  13,  January  11, 
the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press,  January  9,  21,  25,  the  Minneapolis 
Journal,  November  18,  the  Wendell  Tribune,  January  10,  the 
Thief  River  Falls  Times,  January  16,  the  Chisholm  Tribune- 
Herald,  January  20,  and  the  Le  Sueur  News,  January  23.  In 
most  cases  the  choice  of  type  of  memorial  appears  to  lie  between 
some  kind  of  community  building  and  a  monument  or  other  more 
strictly  aesthetic  memorial.  There  appears  to  be  a  commendable 
desire  on  the  part  of  not  a  few  of  those  interested  to  proceed 
with  deliberation,  knowing  that  the  results  of  their  choice  will  be 
permanent  and  a  constant  source,  either  of  pride  or  of  regret, 
to  their  communities,  according  as  their  decision  is  made  with 
wisdom  and  good  taste,  or  otherwise. 


MINNESOTA 
HISTORY  BULLETIN 


VOL.  3,  No.  2 
WHOLE  No.  18 
MAY,  1919 


WILLIAM  GATES  LE  DUC' 

General  William  Gates  Le  Due  was,  at  the  time  of  his  death 
on  October  30,  1917,  nearly  ninety-five  years  old — a  remark- 
able age;  and  his  was  a  remarkable  and  an  eventful  life,  during 
which  he  filled  many  positions  of  honor  and  importance  in  the 
service  of  his  country  and  of  his  fellow  men.  To  a  large  ex- 
tent the  story  of  his  life  is  contemporaneous  with  the  history 
of  Minnesota,  both  as  a  territory  and  as  a  state.  Participating 
actively  in  its  early  struggles  for  existence  and  for  admission 
to  the  great  family  of  states,  he  lived  to  witness  its  marvelous 
development  until  it  became  universally  recognized  as  one  of 
the  foremost  members  of  the  Union.  In  this  great  work  of 
development  he  took  an  active  and  prominent  part,  and  in  the 
future  annals  of  the  state  he  will  always  be  classed  among  its 
master  builders.  It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  memorial  to  do 
more  than  to  outline  the  salient  features  of  the  life  of  this  dis- 
tinguished citizen,  the  detailed  history  of  which  must  be  writ- 
ten later  by  one  who  can  give  to  the  subject  the  examination 
and  research  its  importance  demands. 

General  Le  Due,  a  grandson  of  Henri  Due,  who,  as  an 
officer  of  the  French  navy,  came  to  this  country  under  the  com- 
mand of  Count  D'Estaing  during  the  Revolutionary  War,  was 
born  in  Wilkesville,  Ohio,  March  29,  1823.  He  received  his 
early  education  in  the  Ohio  public  schools  and  at  Howe's  Acad- 
emy, Lancaster.  Intimate  school  companions  of  his  were 
WilKam  Tecumseh  Sherman  of  Civil  War  fame,  whom  he 
called  Cumph,  and  Sherman's  sister,  known  as  Betty.  Le  Due 
used  to  relate  an  amusing  incident  which  occurred  during 
their  school  days.  It  seems  that  at  the  close  of  a  term,  an  ex- 
hibition was  held  in  which  some  of  the  scholars,  including  Le 
Due  and  William  and  Betty  Sherman,  appeared  in  an  old 
drama — or  what  at  that  time  was  called  a  dialogue — entitled 

1A  memorial  read  at  the  stated  meeting  of  the  executive  council  of  the 
Minnesota  Historical  Society,  St.  Paul,  October  14,  1918. 

57 


* 

58  GIDEON  S.  IV ES  MAY 

• 

"Pizarro,"  founded  upon  events  connected  with  the  conquest 
of  Peru.  Le  Due  took  the  part  of  the  Spanish  soldier,  and,  to 
judge  from  his  stature  and  presence,  he  must  have  cut  a  very 
fine  figure.  In  fact,  he  admitted  that  his  appearance  upon  the 
stage  created  quite  a  sensation,  and  that,  because  of  the  ap- 
plause and  laughter  of  the  audience,  he  was  congratulating 
himself  upon  making  a  great  success  until  he  found  that  the 
cause  of  his  sudden  popularity  was  a  large  tag  which  Betty 
Sherman  had  pinned  upon  the  tail  of  his  coat,  and  which  was 
conspicuously  displayed  at  every  turn  he  made  upon  the  stage. 

In  1844  Le  Due  entered  Kenyon  College,  from  which  he 
graduated  in  1848.  He  then  studied  law  in  the  office  of  Co- 
lumbus Delano  of  Mount  Vernon,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  1849.  He  came  to  St.  Paul  in  1850  when  the  town  was  a 
mere  hamlet,  comprising  a  few  small  houses  scattered  along 
the  river  bank.  He  commenced  at  once  the  practice  of  law 
and  shortly  afterwards  opened  a  bookstore,  in  connection  with 
which  he  published  a  Minnesota  Year  Book  for  the  years  1851, 
1852,  and  1853.  In  1851  be  was  present  at  the  negotiation 
and  signing  of  the  celebrated  treaty  with  the  Sioux  at  Traverse 
des  Sioux,  a  very  interesting  account  of  which  appears  in  his 
Year  Book  for  1 852.  Sixty-three  years  later  he  attended  the 
unveiling  of  the  monument  erected  by  the  state  to  commemorate 
this  event,  and  in  the  course  of  an  address  to  the  audience -as- 
sembled on  that  occasion  he  gave  a  vivid  description  of  the 
Thunder  Bird  Dance,  one  of  the  ceremonial  rites  of  the  Sioux. 

In  1853  Le  Due  erected  the  first  brick  building  on  the  south 
side  of  Third  Street,  on  what  was  then  called  the  bluff.  It 
was  occupied  during  the  fifties  by  the  Times  and  the  Minne- 
sotian,  and  in  1861  the  first  issues  of  the  St.  Paul  Press  were 
printed  within  its  walls.  In  pursuance  of  a  resolution  of  the 
territorial  legislature,  approved  March  5  of  this  year,  Govern- 
or Ramsey  appointed  Le  Due  commissioner  for  Minnesota  to 
the  World's  Fair  held  in  New  York  City.  This  exposition 
will  be  remembered  as  the  one  for  which  the  celebrated  Crystal 


1919  WILLIAM  GATES  LE  DUG  59 

Palace  was  built.  At  this  time  Minnesota  was  a  veritable 
terra  incognita  to  the  people  of  the  East,  and  the  work  done 
by  the  commission  was  largely  influential  in  turning  attention 
to  this  part  of  the  country  and  to  the  unrivaled  opportunities  it 
afforded  settlers.2  Late  in  this  year  Le  Due  interested  sev- 
eral St.  Paul  men  in  the  construction  of  a  bridge  over  the 
Mississippi  River,  and  mainly  through  his  efforts  the  St.  Paul 
Bridge  Company,  which  built  the  Wabasha  Street  bridge,  was 
incorporated  by  the  territorial  legislature  of  1854.  About  this 
same  time  Le  Due,  who  had  acquired  some  land  on  the  west 
side  of  the  river,  laid  out  the  town  of  West  St.  Paul. 

In  the  latter  part  of  April,  1853,  a  Sioux-Chippewa  fight 
took  place  in  St.  Paul,  of  which  Le  Due  was  an  eye  witness. 
Sixteen  Chippewa  arrived  one  evening  and  concealed  them- 
selves in  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  hoping  for  a  chance  en- 
counter with  some  of  the  Sioux  from  Little  Crow's  village,  six 
miles  down  the  river.  Early  the  next  morning,  according  to 
Le  Due's  narrative,  they  caught  sight  of  a  canoe  containing 
three  Sioux,  a  man  and  two  women,  coming  up  stream.  As 
the  boat  turned  toward  the  Jackson  Street  landing,  the  Chip- 
pewa hurried  down  in  order  to  intercept  its  occupants  before 
they  could  get  ashore.  A  ravine  that  cut  through  the  town 
impeded  the  progress  of  the  Chippewa  and  the  Sioux  were 
able  to  reach  the  trading  house  of  the  Minnesota  Outfit.  As 
they  stepped  inside,  the  Chippewa  fired,  mortally  wounding 
one  of  the  squaws.  Citizens  who  were  in  the  building  im- 
mediately locked  the  door  and  concealed  the  other  two  Sioux 
in  a  back  room.  The  disappointed  Chippewa  turned  and  fled 
homeward.  Governor  Ramsey  hastily  called  together  mem- 
bers of  the  militia  for  the  purpose  of  pursuing  the  retreating 
Indians  who  had  had  the  audacity  to  pull  off  a  raid  of  this 
character  within  the  limits  of  the  village,  in  fact  at  the  seat  of 

2  General  Le  Due's  account  of  the  Minnesota  display  at  the  Crystal 
Palace  Exhibition  appeared  in  the  MINNESOTA  HISTORY  BULLETIN,  1:351- 
368  (August,  1916). 


. 

60  GIDEON  S.  IV ES 

% 

government  of  the  territory.  Le  Due  gives  a  very  amusing 
account  of  the  expedition,  in  which  he  was  a  volunteer.  It 
appears  that  the  party  followed  some  sort  of  trail  to  a. point 
near  White  Bear  Lake,  whence  no  trace  of  the  Indians  could 
be  found.  Partly  for  this  reason,  but  more  especially  on  ac- 
count of  a  failure  of  provisions,  liquid  and  otherwise,  the  pur- 
suit was  abandoned,  and  the  expedition  returned  in  "light 
marching  order." 

Soon  after  establishing  his  residence  in  St.  Paul,  Le  Due, 
with  a  number  of  other  prominent  citizens,  became  interested 
in  the  future  development  of  the  region  of  which  the  town 
was  the  center.  Among  other  projects  they  were  successful 
in  securing  the  passage  at  the  1853  session  of  the  territorial 
legislature  of  acts  incorporating  the  Mississippi  and  Lake  Su- 
perior Railroad  Company  and  the  Louisiana  and  Minnesota 
Railroad  Company  of  St.  Paul.  The  former  company  was 
authorized  to  construct  a  railroad  from  St.  Paul  to  Lake  Su- 
perior ;  the  latter,  to  build  from  St.  Paul  south  along  the  west 
side  of  the  Mississippi  River  to  intersect  with  the  Central 
Iowa  Railroad  on  the  northern  border  of  Iowa.  These  were 
among  the  first  railroad  companies  to  be  incorporated  in  the 
territory. 

After  1853  Le  Due's  interests  became  more  and  more  cen- 
tered in  the  village  of  Hastings.  Associated  with  Harrison 
H.  Graham,  he  erected  a  flouring  mill  at  the  falls  of  the  Ver- 
millipn  River.  In  1856  he  became  its  sole  owner  and  operator, 
and  he  was  the  first  miller  to  manufacture  and  introduce  upon 
the  markets  flour  made  from  Minnesota  spring  wheat.  In 
1854  he  purchased,  through  Henry  H.  Sibley,  Alexander  Fari- 
bault's  one-fourth  interest  in  the  townsite.  In  1857,  there- 
fore, disposing  of  his  St.  Paul  holdings,  he  removed  with  his 
family  to  Hastings,  which  he  made  his  home  until  his  death. 
To  secure  rail  connections  with  outside  points,  he  organized  in 
1856  the  Hastings,  Minnesota  River,  and  Red  River  of  the 
North  Railroad  Company,  which  was  incorporated  by  the  terri- 


1919  WILLIAM  GATES  LE  DUG  61 

torial  legislature  in  1857.  He  was  president  of  the  company 
until  1870,  and  had  charge  of  the  building  and  operation  of 
the  first  thirty  miles  of  the  road,  known  as  the  Hastings  and 
Dakota  Railroad. 

In  1862  Le  Due  entered  the  Union  army  and  was  at  once 
appointed  to  a  position  in  the  quartermaster's  department, 
with  the  rank  of  captain.  He  was  afterwards  promoted  to 
the  rank  of  lieutenant  colonel  and  at  the  close  of  the  war  was 
brevetted  brigadier  general  of  volunteers.  Although  he  was 
retained  in  the  quartermaster's  department  throughout  the 
war,  his  services  were  frequently  sought  in  other  departments, 
owing  to  his  wide  knowledge  and  varied  experiences  in  the 
practical  affairs  of  life.  He  served  first  in  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  rendering  efficient  aid  to  General  McClellan  in  the 
Peninsular  campaign,  and  especially  in  the  retreat  incident  to 
the  Seven  Days'  Battles,  during  which  his  assistance  in  build- 
ing corduroy  roads  probably  saved  a  considerable  portion  of 
the  artillery.  He  remained  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
until  after  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg,  when  he  was  transferred 
to  the  Western  Army  under  General  Hooker  and  participated 
in  the  campaign  to  relieve  General  Rosecrans'  command,  which 
was  penned  up  at  Chattanooga.  At  the  beginning  of  Hooker's 
forced  march  to  that  point  Le  Due  was  placed  in  charge  of  the 
base  of  supplies  at  Bridgeport,  Alabama.  It  soon  became  evi- 
dent, however,  that,  owing  to  the  condition  of  the  animals 
used  in  the  transportation  service  and  to  the  almost  impassable 
roads,  sufficient  subsistence  to  supply  the  needs  of  this  rapidly 
advancing  force  could  not  possibly  be  forwarded  overland; 
and  that,  unless  additional  means  of  conveyance  were  em- 
ployed, the  expedition  must  either  fail  or  be  greatly  retarded. 
Le  Due  thereupon  conceived  the  plan  of  building  a  steamboat, 
by  the  aid  of  which  barges  might  be  used  in  transporting  sup- 
plies up  the  Tennessee  River.  Because  of  the  lack  of  building 
materials  and  of  adequate  facilities,  however,  military  men 
strenuously  contended  that  the  project  could  not  be  accom- 


62  9   GIDEON  S.  IV ES  MAY 

plished  in  time  to  be  of  any  use  in  the  emergency.  Notwith- 
standing these  objections  Le  Due  called  together  and  impressed 
into  service  a  number  of  men  who  had  some  knowledge  of 
steamboats.  Through  his  wonderful  initiative,  his  inventive 
genius,  and  his  indomitable  energy,  in  a  very  short  time  a  boat 
was  actually  constructed  out  of  the  material  at  hand  and.  un- 
der his  personal  supervision,  was  successfully  employed  in 
towing  a  number  of  barges  up  the  tortuous  stream,  bringing 
to  Hooker's  army  in  the  time  of  its  greatest  need  the  supplies 
necessary  to  ensure  its  further  advance.  This  boat  was  after- 
wards of  great  service  in  opening  the  "cracker  line"  to  the  be- 
leaguered forces  at  Chattanooga. 

Le  Due  accompanied  General  Sherman's  army  to  Atlanta 
and  was  present  at  the  capture  of  the  city.  Immediately  prior 
to  his  departure  on  his  celebrated  march  to  the  sea  Sherman 
found  it  necessary  to  destroy  a  large  quantity  of  public  prop- 
erty and  a  number  of  buildings  in  order  that  the  city  might  not 
be  occupied  by  the  Confederate  General  Hood  after  the  de- 
parture of  the  Union  army.  Realizing  that  the  carrying-out  of 
his  orders  would  necessarily  involve  the  destruction  of  consid- 
erable private  property,  and  wishing  to  mitigate  as  much  as 
possible  the  severity  of  the  blow,  Sherman  placed  the  matter  of 
the  removal  of  the  people  affected  thereby  in  Le  Due's  hands. 
Le  Due  deplored  deeply  the  necessity  for  the  order,  but  he  con- 
ducted the  details  of  the  removal  with  such  care  and  humanity 
as  to  gain  for  himself  the  lasting  respect  and  gratitude  of 
those  who  suffered  through  its  operation.  Strong  evidence  of 
this  was  shown  when  Le  Due,  a  short  time  before  his  death, 
visited  Atlanta.  On  this  occasion  he  was  made  a  guest  of 
honor  by  the  old  residents,  and  many  incidents  of  his  thought- 
ful care  and  kindness  were  recalled  and  commended. 

After  the  performance  of  the  duty  to  which  he  was  detailed 
at  Atlanta  Le  Due  was  attached  to  the  command  of  General 
Thomas,  and  upon  the  retreat  of  the  Union  army  after  the 
Battle  of  Franklin  he  rendered  important  service  in  repairing 


1919  WILLIAM  GATES  LE  DUG  63 

the  bridge  across  the  river  at  that  place,  over  which  the  army 
was  able  to  pass  in  safety.  He  was  chief  quartermaster  under 
Thomas  during  the  siege  of  Nashville  by  the  Confederate 
army  under  Hood.  Great  credit  has  been  given  in  history  to 
Thomas  for  not  attempting  to  raise  the  siege  and  to  attack 
Hood  in  his  intrenchments  until  supplies  sufficient  to  ensure 
the  success  of  such  an  undertaking  had  been  obtained.  Very 
little  has  been  said,  however,  of  the  important  and  effective 
work  performed  by  Le  Due  in  securing  the  vast  amount  of 
needed  supplies. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  Le  Due  returned  to  his  family  at 
Hastings,  and  resumed  active  work  in  the  affairs  of  private 
life  and  in  promoting  the  welfare  and  best  interests  of  the 
state.  In  1877  President  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  who  had 
known  Le  Due  in  the  army  and  who  recognized  and  appre- 
ciated the  character  and  quality  of  his  services,  appointed  him 
commissioner  of  agriculture.  The  duties  pertaining  to  this 
office  he  performed  with  conspicuous  energy  and  ability.  He 
thoroughly  reorganized  the  department  and  placed  it  upon  a 
practical  basis.  The  division  of  forestry  was  established,  and 
the  investigational  work  which  has  since  grown  into  the  bureau 
of  animal  industry  was  developed  and  organized — phases  of 
the  department's  activities  \vhich  have  proved  of  inestimable 
value  to  the  country.  Le  Due  also  introduced  the  culture  of 
tea  in  several  of  the  southern  states  and  encouraged  the  manu- 
facture of  sugar  from  beets,  an  industry  of  great  importance 
to  the  country  at  the  present  time.  As  a  special  compliment 
to  him  and  as  a  recognition  of  his  splendid  work  in  this  field, 
he  was  elected  in  1881  a  member  of  the  Agricultural  Society 
of  France,  the  only  other  Americans  so  honored  up  to  that 
time  being  George  Washington,  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  Ben- 
jamin Thompson. 

General  Le  Due  left  many  warm  and  appreciative  friends  in 
this  state.  Few  men  have  lived  who  have  so  stamped  the  im- 
press of  their  imperial  nature  upon  the  memory  of  those  who 


64  %     GIDEON  S.  IV ES  MAY 

have  known  them  as  has  this  man.  His  life  and  his  long-con- 
tinued and  important  services  impress  one  with  what  may  be 
accomplished  through  a  disposition  to  work  and  through  the 
exercise  of  energy,  zeal,  and  devotion  in  the  performance  of 
duty  to  self,  family,  country,  and  fellow  men.  In  the  posi- 
tions of  trust  and  responsibility  with  which  he  was  so  fre- 
quently honored  he  stood  preeminently  untarnished  by  a  single 
reflection  upon  his  fidelity,  his  ability,  and  his  exalted  man- 
hood. In  his  Pen  Pictures  of  St.  Paul,  Minnesota,  written  in 
1886,  Major  Thomas  M.  Newson  thus  speaks  of  the  subject  of 
this  memorial :  "A  tall,  quick,  active  man,  with  positive  con- 
victions, fertile  in  expedients,  with  a  restless  brain  and  un- 
bounded energy,  are  the  peculiarities  which  marked  Gen.  Le 
Due  as  I  saw  him  in  1853,  and  even  later  in  life."  "I  little 
thought  at  this  time  that  this  same  active,  bustling,  energetic, 
wide-awake  man  would  be  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Agriculture  and  stand  at  the  head  in  Washington  of  the  great- 
est industry  of  the  nation,  and  yet  such  is  the  fact." 

General  Le  Due  became  a  member  of  the  Minnesota  His- 
toricarSociety  in  1850,  and  at  once  actively  interested  himself 
in  promoting  its  welfare,  shaping  its  policy,  and  advancing  its 
standard  of  usefulness.  He  assisted  largely  in  securing  the 
real  property  on  Wabasha  Street,  which  proved  so  valuable 
financially  to  this  association.  He  was  always  an  enthusias- 
tic worker  in  the  society,  and  for  many  years  he  served  as  a 
member  of  its  executive  council.  Even  in  the  later  years  of 
liis  life  he  would  come  from  his  home  at  Hastings  to  attend 
meetings  of  the  council,  when  many  of  the  members  residing  in 
vSt.  Paul  would  fail  to  be  present  on  account  of  inclement 
weather.  He  attended  such  a  meeting  a  very  short  time  be- 
fore his  death,  when  he  was  suffering  from  ,the  cold  which 
accelerated  that  event;  it  is  doubtful  if  he  would  have  refrained 
from  coming  even  had  he  kno\vn  that  the  journey  might  hasten 
his  demise,  as  he  had  often  expressed  the  desire  to  remain  in 
harness  to  the  last,  not  wishing  to  live  after  the  period  of  his 


WILLIAM  GATES  LE  DUC  65 

usefulness  had  expired.  lie  was  intensely  interested  in  the 
location  of  the  Historical  Building  upon  its  present  site,  at- 
tending every  meeting  when  the  question  of  a  location  was 
brought  up  and  being  strenuously  opposed  to  any  proposition 
that  in  any  manner  involved  the  possibility  of  a  location  else- 
where. 

A  record  of  nearly  sixty-eight  years  as  a  member  of  this 
society  is  certainly  worthy  of  recognition.  In  duration  of 
time  or  in  extent  of  service  this  record  never  has  been  and 
probably  never  will  be  surpassed.  It  is  highly  proper,  then, 
that  we  should  respect  his  memory,  recognize  his  worth,  and 
place  his  name  high  among  those  whom  this  organization  de- 
lights to  honor. 

GIDEON  S.  IVES 
ST.  PAUL,  MINNESOTA 


THE  BIRTH  NOTICES  OF  A  STATE1 

Nathaniel  Hawthorne,' in  his  delightful  description  in  Mosses 
of  a  rainy  afternoon's  delving  among  the  curiosities  of  the 
garret  of  the  old  manse  stored  "with  lumber  that  each  genera- 
tion had  left  behind  it  from  a  period  before  the  Revolution," 
relates  that  after  looking  over  many  ancient  volumes  of  di- 
vinity and  theology  and  in  weariness  throwing  them  aside,  he 
turned  to  a  pile  of  old  newspapers  and  almanacs,  which  repro- 
duced to  his  "mental  eye  the  epochs  when  they  had  issued  from 
the  press  with  a  distinctness  that  was  altogether  unaccount- 
able." It  was  as  if  he  "had  found  bits  of  magic  looking  glass 
among  the  books  with  the  images  of  a  vanished  century  in 
them."  It  is  with  some  of  these  same  bits  of  magic  looking- 
glass  that  we  will  take  ourselves  back  for  seventy  years  and  en- 
deavor to  image  something  of  the  life  and  events  uppermost 
in  the  minds  of  a  representative  portion  of  the  people  of  New 
England  in  the  year  1849,  at  the  time  when  the  first  steps  were 
being  taken  to  give  "1'Etoile  du  Nord"  a  place  in  the  new  con- 
stellation which  rose  on  the  fourth  of  July,  1776.  No  material 
will  be  drawn  on  other  than  that  found  in  the  columns  of  our 
newspaper,  the  New  Hampshire  Patriot  and  State  Gazette, 
published  by  Butterfield  and  Hill,  every  Thursday  morning, 
at  Concord,  the  capital  of  New  Hampshire.  Founded  in  1809 
by  Isaac  Hill,  afterward  governor  of  the  state  and  United 
States  senator,  a  politician  of  such  ability  and  influence  that 
he  was  said  to  carry  the  Granite  State  in  his  pocket,  the  Patriot 
was  for  many  years  the  leading  organ  of  Jacksonian  De- 
mocracy in  New  Hampshire. 

The  file  for  the  year  is  complete  and  comes  to  us  just  as  it 
was  found  in  the  garret  of  an  old  farmhouse  in  Stratham, 

1Read  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  executive  council  of  the  Minnesota 
Historical  Society,  St.  Paul,  February  24,  1919. 


1919  BIRTH  NOTICES  OF  A  STATE  67 

New  Hampshire,  eaeh  number  being  carefully  folded.2  The 
sheet  consists  of  four  pages  somewhat  larger  than  those  in  use 
at  the  present  time,  the  first  and  fourth  being  chiefly  devoted 
to  advertising  matter,  legal  notices,  and  the  proceedings  of  the 
state  and  national  legislatures.  On  the  second  page  lengthy 
editorials  and  contributions  from  subscribers  discuss  from  the 
Democratic  viewpoint  the  politics  of  state  and  nation  in  the 
violently  partisan  spirit  of  the  time ;  invective  and  ridicule  are 
employed  with  a  freedom  and  fluency  which  sound  a  little 
strange  to  us,  such  epithets  as  "liar,"  "hypocrite,"  "dough- 
face," and  "robber"  being  passed  back  and  forth  in  a  spirit 
seemingly  of  joyous  abandon.  While  much  of  this  must  not 
be  taken  too  seriously,  as  it  was  then  considered  part  of  the 
game,  yet  underneath  can  be  traced  something  of  the  bitter- 
ness which  culminated  in  the  Civil  War.  The  question  of 
slavery  had  become  a  party  issue.  The  northern  Democrats, 
jealous  of  the  increasing  prestige  of  the  South  in  national 
affairs,  were  opposing  its  extension  into  the  new  territories, 
but  in  so  far  as  the  wrongs  or  sufferings  of  the  slaves  are  con- 
cerned, little  is  said,  and  the  name  "abolitionist"  is  a  byword 
and  reproach. 

During  the  early  months  of  the  year  much  space  is  devoted 
to  the  county  conventions  and  the  coming  spring  elections  of 
state  and  county  officials.  In  one  of  the  January  issues  the 
editor  apologizes  for  the  omission  of  some  of  the  miscellaneous 
reading  on  the  fourth  page,  which  has  been  crowded  out  by 
the  great  length  of  the  legislative  reports,  and  writes  that  "for 
the  few  weeks  now  preceding  the  March  election,  our  space 
for  miscellany  may  be  limited,  but  after  that  time  we  will 
make  up  for  all  past  omissions."  As  election  time  approaches, 
all  loyal  Democrats  are  charged  to  look  well  to  the  check  lists, 
to  see  that  they  contain  no  names  of  illegal  voters,  and  to  be 

2 The  file  of  the  Patriot  covering  the  issues  from  January  4  to  Decem- 
ber 27,  1849,  has  been  donated  to  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  by  the 
writer  of  this  article. 


68  HERBERT  C.  VARNEY  MAY 

on  their  guard  against  the  tricks  of  the  unscrupulous  Whigs, 
who  "are  desperate  and  wicked  enough  for  any  fraud  upon 
the  ballot-box  by  which  their  mercenary  ends  may  be  pro- 
moted. Therefore  we  say — watch  them,  WATCH  THEM, 
WATCH  THEM." 

A  proudly  crowing  rooster  at  the  head  of  the  editorial  col- 
umn for  March  15,  accompanied  by  the  verse, 

Oh  take  your  time,  old  Rooster, 

My  gallant  bird  and  strong; 
Then    clap    your    wings,    old    Chapman, 

And  crow  out  loud  and  long. 

proclaims  the  triumph  of  Democracy  through  the  state,  the 
only  discordant  notes  in  the  psean  of  victory  being  the  reelec- 
tion of  Amos  Tuck  of  Exeter,  the  "mongrel,  whig-free  soil" 
candidate  for  Congress  from  the  first  district,  and  of  James 
Wilson,  whose  reelection  is  a  disgrace  to  the  Democrats  of 
the  district,  from  the  third. 

Far  different,  however,  was  the  situation  in  national  affairs. 
General  Zachary  Taylor  had  just  taken  his  seat  in  the  White 
House  and,  if  the  statements  of  our  editor  are  to  be  accepted 
unreservedly,  was  stalking  up  and  down  the  land  after  the 
manner  of  the  head-hunting  Igorrote,  seeking  out,  even  to  the 
most  remote  borders  of  the  nation,  virtuous  and  competent 
Democrats  whose  official  heads  he  might  remove.  Week 
after  week  under  such  captions  as  "The  Axe  in  Motion," 
"More  Spoilsmen  Rewarded,"  and  others  of  like  tenor,  are 
long  lists  of  deserving  Democrats  who  had  been  displaced  by 
Whigs  for  no  reason  other  than  that  they  had  not  supported 
General  Taylor,  the  man  who  had  "no  friends  to  reward  and 
no  enemies  to  punish."  Among  others  we  note  that  Nathaniel 
Hawthorne,  the  author,  has  been  removed  from  the  custom- 
house at  Salem,  Massachusetts,  and  even  the  appointments  of 
some  of  Minnesota's  territorial  officials  do  not  escape  our 
editor's  biting  sarcasm. 

In  February,  1848,  gold  had  been  found  at  Sutter's  Fort,  in 
California.  Stories  of  the  discovery  had  been  gradually  per- 


1919  BIRTH  NOTICES  OF  A  STATE  69 

colating  eastward.  Letters  were  beginning  to  come  through, 
and  a  few  of  the  hardy  Argonauts  were  returning  with  frag- 
ments of  the  golden  fleece.  During  the  winter  months  com- 
panies and  associations  for  the  purpose  of  going  to  the  gold 
regions  had  been  forming  in  nearly  every  community  and  had 
been  making  preparations  for  their  departure  in  the  spring. 
G.  W.  Simmons,  proprietor  of  the  celebrated  Oak  Hall  cloth- 
ing establishment  at  Boston,  advertises  California  outfits  in  his 
"immense  stock  of  spring  goods  for  1849,"  among  the  items 
enumerated  being  gold  bags  at  a  cost  of  fifty  cents  to  one 
dollar,  "thin  pants  adapted  to  that  climate,"  from  fifty  cents  to 
two  dollars  a  pair,  Bowie  knives  with  belts  for  pistols,  five  to 
six  dollars,  and  fancy  soap  at  three  to  twelve  and  a  half  cents  a 
cake.  Articles  both  serious  and  humorous  for  and  against 
going  to  California  appear  at  intervals,  and  the  advantages 
and  disadvantages  of  the  different  routes  are  discussed  at 
length.  A  rollicking  sketch,  entitled  "A  Few  Days  in  the  Dig- 
gings," by  a  "free  and  independent  Yankee,"  will  perhaps  tell 
more  vividly  the  story  than  will  a  more  sober  description :  "Off 
to  the  diggins  with  a  party;  mighty  small  potatoes  most  of 
'em;  all  sorts  and  colors,  and  everlastin  ragged — Bay-states- 
men, Backwoodsmen.  Buckeyes  from  Ohio,  Hosses  from  Ken- 
tuk,  Cape  Cod  Whalers,  St.  Francisco  Indians,  Leperos  from 
Santa  Cruz,  Texan  Volunteers,  Philadelphia  Quakers,  a  Lat- 
ter-Day Saint,  six  Irish  sympathizers,  twelve  Yankees,  us 
many  Britishers,  a  squad  of  Deserters,  a  Black  foot  Guide,  a 
Methodist  Parson,  and  a  Mormon  Elder.  A  tarnal  nigger 
tried  to  join  us,  but  got  cow-hided."  In  the  midst  of  the  ex- 
citement incident  to  the  early  days  of  the  gold  fever,  little 
chance  had  Minnesota,  with  only  a  promise  of  future  fortunes 
from  her  golden  fields  of  grain,  to  compete  with  the  golden 
sands  of  the  modern  Ophir. 

Although  the  fervid  politics  of  the  time  must  have  provided 
a  certain  amount  of  necessary  excitement,  other  entertain- 
ment was  occasionally  desirable,  but  overindulgence  in  amuse- 


70  HERBERT  C.  VARNEY  MAY 

ments  could  not  have  caused  a  serious  drain  on  grandfather's 
pocketbook.  By  going  to  Boston  the  "Remarkable  Fejee  Mer- 
maid" could  be  seen  at  the  Boston  Museum,  together  with  the 
"Wonders  of  Nature  and  Art  collected  from  all  the  quarters  of 
the  Globe''  and  the  "splendid  Theatrical  Performances,  of 
Tragedies,  Comedies,  Dramas,  Operas,  Spectacles,  Burlettas, 
Farces,  etc.,  for  the  unprecedented  small  charge  of  only 
twenty-five  cents.'''  There  was  no  extra  charge  to  see  the 
performance,  so  if  any  one  of  too  tender  conscience  by  chance 
dropped  in  to  view  this  unique  specimen  of  the  female  of  the 
species  and  should  inadvertently  witness  the  theatrical  per- 
formance, he  could  stifle  any  uneasy  qualms  with  the  thought 
that  all  he  wanted  to  see  was  the  mermaid.  Another  momen- 
tous occasion,  partaking  in  those  days  of  the  nature  of  a  holi- 
day, was  a  trip  to  Manchester  to  have  a  daguerreotype  taken 
for  one  dollar.  Those  who  stayed  at  home  had  to  be  content 
with  an  occasional  concert  or  lecture.  A  brief  editorial  notice 
on  January  18  announces  a  concert  in  a  few  wreeks  by  Mr.  J. 
C.  Dolloff,  "the  Green  Mountain  Vocalist,"  especially  recom- 
mended because  "he  repudiates  the  low  and  vulgar  negro  melo- 
dies, and  selects  only  pieces  of  correct  and  elevated  moral  tone 
and  pure  language."  In  the  issue  of  April  19  notice  is  given 
that  Ossian  E.  Dodge,  recently  of  the  "New  Branch  Hutchin- 
son  Family,"  is  to  give  one  of  his  "popular  and  fashionable 
entertainments  at  the  Depot  Hall,  at  //^  P.  M.,"  tickets  twelve 
and  a  half  cents.  There  are  no  more  entertainments  until  well 
along  into  June,  when  a  cut,  depicting  two  elephants  engaged 
in  a  performance  that  would  not  be  tolerated  in  a  dry  county, 
announces  the  coming  on  July  14  of  the  event  dear  to  the  small 
boy's  heart,  R.  Sands  and  Company's  Hippofersean  Arena, 
which  would  enter  town  preceded  by  the  "Sacred  Egyptian 
Dragon  Chariot  of  Isis  and  Osiris,  drawn  by  ten  Egyptian 
Camels,  containing  the  full  Band,"  with  the  "Fairy  Carriage, 
drawn  by  twenty  Liliputian  Ponies,"  bringing  up  the  rear. 
The  admission  was  twenty-five  cents,  without  distinction  of 
age.  If  any  boy  could  not  get  together  his  twenty-five  cents 


1919  BIRTH  NOTICES  OF  A  STATE  71 

in  time,  he  had  only  to  wait  until  August  17  for  the  coming  of 
Van  Ambtirgh's  Menagerie,  which,  if  the  boy  were  not  too 
big,  could  be  seen  for  half  price.  The  menagerie,  after  enter- 
ing town  "preceded  by  the  colossal  Tuba  Rheda  or  Grecian 
Carriage,  containing  Col.  Cobb's  celebrated  Military  Band," 
would  proceed  to  the  spacious  pavilion  erected  for  the  occasion, 
where  the  public  could  witness  the  thrilling  feats  of  Mr.  Van 
Amburgh  in  the  dens  of  his  wild  beasts,  "an  interesting  illus- 
tration of  the  ascendency  of  mind  over  matter."  The  read- 
ing of  this  advertisement  recalls  the  words  of  an  old  song: 

Van  Amburgh   snaps  his  whip, 

The   band   begins   to   play; 
Now    all    you    little   boys    and   girls, 

Had  better  keep  away. 

Time  will  not  permit  of  extended  consideration  of  the  ad- 
vertisements, which  then,  as  now,  were  a  conspicuous  feature, 
in  themselves  furnishing  material  enough  for  an  interesting 
paper.  One  class  of  advertising,  occupying  as  it  did  many 
columns  of  space,  was  becoming  a  source  of  no  small  revenue 
to  the  newspapers  of  the  day.  The  years  of  the  late  forties 
witnessed  the  rapid  rise  of  the  patent  medicine  business,  the 
Sarsaparilla  war  being  at  its  height  in  the  year  1849.  Nearly 
every  week  we  are  greeted  by  the  hearty,  rough  and  ready 
countenance  of  old  Dr.  Jacob  Town  send,  which  must  have 
been  as  familiar  in  our  grandfather's  day,  as  was  a  few  years 
since  the  serene  face  of  Lydia  Pinkham.  Dr.  Jacob  announces 
himself  as  the  discoverer  of  the  "Genuine  Original  Townsend 
Sarsaparilla,"  and  specially  w-arns  the  public  against  having 
anything  to  do  with  the  "sour,  fermenting,  bottle-bursting" 
preparation  put  up  by  an  ignorant  railroad  and  canal  laborer 
by  the  name  of  S.  P.  Townsend,  and  states  that  he,  Dr.  Jacob, 
was  making  Sarsaparilla  before  said  S.  P.  Townsend  was 
born.  In  an  adjoining  column  S.  P.  Townsend  denounces 
our  worthy  doctor  as  a  quack  and  an  old  fraud,  asserting  that 
he  had  been  hired  at  seven  dollars  a  week  for  the  use  of  his 
name  by  unscrupulous  parties  in  order  that  they  might  reap 


72  HERBERT  C.  VARNEY  MATT 

some  of  the  benefits  from  the  two  hundred  thousand  dollars 
which  had  been  spent  in  giving  the  only  original  and  genuine 
S.  P.  Townsend's  Sarsaparilla  "a  character  and  reputation 
throughout  the  United  States  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
world."  Evidently  the  sarsaparilla  market  was  good,  for  in 
June  a  rival  appears  in  the  form  of  Sands'  Sarsaparilla,  put 
up  in  quart  bottles,  the  advertisement  being  accompanied  by  a 
cut  of  a  quart  bottle,  life.size.  Abstaining  from  the  unseemly 
mud-flinging  of  the  Townsends,  the  Sands  concern  devotes  its 
space  to  the  reproduction  of  lengthy  testimonials  from  grate- 
ful individuals  who  had  been  snatched  from  the  verge  of  the 
grave  by  timely  and  frequent  use  of  this  particular  beverage. 
In  another  part  of  the  paper  Corbett's  Shaker  Sarsaparilla, 
which  for  many  years  enjoyed  considerable  local  reputation, 
more  modestly  states  its  virtues. 

As  one  by  one  we  have  been  turning  over  our  bits  of  magic 
looking-glass,  visualizing  pictures  of  the  life  of  nearly  three 
quarters  of  a  century  ago,  the  first  glimpse  we  have  of  the  new 
star  is  on  January  25.  In  the  miscellaneous  reading  on  the 
fourth  page  of  this  issue  is  the  following  extract  from  the 
Buffalo  Commercial  Advertiser :  "Minesota. — This  is  the 
euphonious  name  given  to  an  extensive  region  lying  north  of 
Wisconsin  and  Iowa,  in  which,  as  western  papers  advise  us, 
incipient  steps  have  been  taken  towards  the  formation  of  a 
Territorial  Government.  Several  promising  settlements  have 
already  been  made  within  the  bounds  of  the  new  Territory. 
The  soil,  for  the  most  part,  is  represented  to  be  very  good,  the 
country  is  finely  watered  and  timbered,  and  the  climate  is  mild- 
er and  more  congenial  than  the  corresponding  latitude  in 
New  England.  We  well  remember — it  was  but  a  few  years 
ago — when  flour,  pork  and  potatoes  were  sent  from  this  port 
for  the  supply  of  the  few  families  settled  where  now  is  the 
beautiful  and  flourishing  city  of  Milwaukie.  ...  In  a 
few  years  more,  Minesota,  whose  name  sounds  so  strangely, 
will  be  knocking  for  admission  into  the  Union  as  a  sovereign 
state." 


1919  BIRTH  NOTICES  OF  A  STATE  73 

In  the  congressional  proceedings  reported  in  the  March  1 
issue,  we  read  that  in  the  House,  on  February  22,  "Mr.  Sib- 
ley,  delegate  from  Wisconsin, :5  moved  to  suspend  the  rules  for 
the  committee  of  the  whole  to  be  discharged  from  the  con- 
sideration of  the  Minesota  territorial  bill,"  and  it  was  agreed 
that  the  bill  should  take  effect  March  10.  In  the  following 
issue  the  Minnesota  government  bill  is  reported  as  having  been 
taken  up  by  the  House  on  March  2 ;  while  the  members  were 
engaged  upon  it,  a  message  was  received  from  the  Senate, 
asking  a  conference  on  the  House  amendments  to  the  general 
appropriation  bill,  which  was  agreed  to,  and  the  House  then 
adjourned.  The  following  day  witnessed  scenes  of  wild  con- 
fusion in  both  branches  of  Congress.  In  the  Senate,  during 
the  debate  on  the  appropriation  bill,  Mr.  Foote  struck  Mr. 
Cameron,  while  in  the  House,  Ficklin  of  Illinois  was  knocked 
down  by  Johnson  of  Arkansas  and  carried  out  of  the  hall. 
Both  houses  adjourned  sine  die  well  after  daylight  Sunday 
morning.  The  final  passage  of  the  Minnesota  bijl  is  not  re- 
ported by  our  editor. 

For  the  next  few  weeks  local  politics  excludes  much  other 
matter,  and  not  until  March  29  is  there  again  mention  of 
Minnesota,  this  time  in  an  extract  from  the  New  York  Jour- 
nal of  Commerce:  "Minesota. — The  act  organizing  this  new 
Territory,  bounds  it  on  the  north  by  the  British  possessions, 
east  by  the  State  of  Wisconsin  and  the  Mississippi  River,  south 
by  Io\va,  and  west  by  the  Missouri  and  Whitearth  rivers." 
The  general  provisions  of  the  act  are  outlined.  "The  gover- 
nor's salary  is  fixed  at  $1500,  but  he  receives  $1000  additional 
as  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs.  The  salary  of  the  secre- 
tary and  of  each  of  the  judges  is  $1800.  The  legislature  is  to 
hold  its  first  session  at  St.  Paul."  Our  editor  somewhat  tes- 

3  By  Wisconsin  is  here  meant  that  part  of  the  original  Territory  of 
Wisconsin  included  between  the  St.  Croix  and  the  Mississippi  rivers 
which  was  cut  off  by  the  admission  of  Wisconsin  as  a  state,  May  29, 
1848.  Henry  H.  Sibley's  right  to  his  seat  as  a  delegate  from  this  section 
was  recognized  by  Congress,  January  15,  1849.  William  W.  Folwell, 
Minnesota,  the  North  Star  State,  88  (Boston,  1908). 


74  HERBERT  C.  VARNEY 

tily  adds:  "The  officers  for  this  new  Territory  have  been 
appointed  and  confirmed  by  the  Senate,  as  follows :  For  Gov- 
ernor, Ex-Gov.  Pennington4  of  New  Jersey,  commonly  called 
'Broad  Seal'  Pennington,  from  his  participation  in  the  New 
Jersey  election  fraud  in  1838;  for  Judges,  Aaron  Goodrich5  of 
Tennessee,  Chief  Justice,  David  Cooper8  of  Penn.,  and  Benj. 
B.  Meeker7  of  Kentucky,  Associates;  for  Secretary,  Charles 
K.  Smith8  of  Ohio;  Henry  L.  Moss,9  U.  S.  Attorney,  and 
Joshua  L.  Taylor,  '°  Marshall,  both  living  in  the  territory.  It 

4  William  S.  Pennington,  governor  of  New  Jersey  from  1837  to  1843, 
was  practicing  law   in   Newark  at   the  time  the   Minnesota  governorship 
was  offered  him.      The   Senate  confirmed  the  nomination  on  March  22, 
having  refused  three  days  before  to  consent  to  the  appointment  of  Edward 
G.  McGuaghey  of  Indiana,  who  was  President  Taylor's  first  choice.     Pen- 
nington declined  to  serve;  whereupon  the  president  on  April  2  issued  a 
recess   commission  to  Alexander   Ramsey  of    Pennsylvania.     The   Senate 
confirmed  the  appointment  on  January  9,  1850.    Senate  Executive  Journals, 
8:  84,  90,  93,  94,  98,  117. 

5  Aaron  Goodrich  was  a  native  of  New  York,  but  was  appointed  from 
Tennessee,  where  he  had  passed  the  greater  part  of  his  life.     He  became 
a  permanent  resident  of  St.  Paul  and  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  organi- 
zation  of  the  state  and   in   revising  the   laws   and  code   of   practice.    J. 
Fletcher  Williams,  History   of  the   City   of  Saint  Paul,  219    (Minnesota 
Historical  Collections,  vol.  4)  ;  Warren  Upham  and  Mrs.  Rose  B.  Dunlap, 
Minnesota  Biographies,  264  (Minnesota  Historical  Collections,  vol.  14). 

6  Judge   Cooper   retired   from  the  bench   in   1853,  but  he   continued   to 
practice  law  in  St.  Paul  until  his  removal  to  Nevada  in  1864.     Upham  and 
Dunlap,  Minnesota  Biographies,  141. 

7  The  correct  name  is  Bradley  B.  Meeker.    Judge  Meeker  was  assigned 
to  the  second  judicial  district  and  took  up  his  residence  at  St.  Anthony. 
After  leaving  the  bench  in  1853,  he  engaged  in  the  real  estate  business. 
Meeker    County   is    named    for   him.     Holcombe,    in   Minnesota   in    Three 
Centuries,   2:428    (New    York,    1908);    Upham    and    Dunlap,    Minnesota 
Biographies,  501. 

8  Charles  K.  Smith  resigned  the  secretaryship  in  1851  and  returned  to 
Ohio.     Upham  and  Dnnlap,  Minnesota  Biographies,  714. 

9  Henry  L.  Moss,  a  native  of  New  York,  who  settled  in  Stillwater  in 
1848,  served  as  district  attorney  until  1853.     He  held  the  same  office  a 
second  time  from  1863  to  1868,  after  which  he  engaged  in  the  insurance 
and   real   estate   business    in    St.    Paul.    Upham    and    Dunlap,    Minnesota 
Biographies,  529. 

10 Joshua  L.  Taylor,  who  came  to  Minnesota  from  Illinois  in  1840  and 
settled  at  Taylor's  Falls,  declined  the  appointment,  and  Colonel  Alexander 


1919  BIRTH  NOTICES  OF  A  STATE  75 

will  be  remarked  that  two  of  the  three  judges  are  from  slave 
States;  so  the  judiciary  is  in  the  hands  of  the  slave  power,  and 
thus  slavery  may  be  protected  there  in  open  violation  of  the 
express  prohibition  contained  in  the  law  creating  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Territory." 

The  term,  "Broad  Seal1'  Pennington,  had  its  origin  some 
ten  years  before,  in  the  closely  contested  congressional  election 
of  1838  in  New  Jersey.  Six  congressmen  were  to  be  chosen 
by  a  general  ticket.  Five  of  the  successful  Whig  candidates 
were  elected  by  very  small  margins,  the  votes  of  two  town- 
ships being  thrown  out  on  account  of  irregularities.  The 
Democratic  candidates  contested  the  election,  claiming  that  they 
had  received  a  majority  of  the  total  vote  cast.  It  became 
necessary  therefore  for  Governor  Pennington  and  the  council 
to  canvass  the  votes  and  decide  who  were  the  properly  elected 
representatives.  The  governor,  arbitrarily  ruling  that  no 
legal  election  had  been  held  in  the  townships  in  question, 
affixed  the  broad  seal  of  the  state  to  the  credentials  of  the 
Whig  candidates.  When  the  Twenty-sixth  Congress  assem- 
bled, it  developed  that  the  membership  of  the  House  was  about 
equally  divided  between  the  Whigs  and  the  Democrats;  the 
question  of  the  validity  of  the  election  of  the  New  Jersey 
congressmen  was  therefore  vital.  After  nearly  two  weeks  of 
stormy  debates  a  resolution  wras  adopted  that  only  members 
whose  seats  were  uncontested  could  participate  in  the  election 
of  a  speaker  and  in  the  organization  of  the  House.  This  re- 
sulted in  the  choice  of  a  Democrat  for  speaker  and,  later,  in 
the  seating  of  the  Democratic  candidates  from  New  Jersey. 

In  the  April  5  issue  of  the  Patriot  it  is  tersely  noted  that 
"'Broad  Seal'  Pennington,  lately  appointed  Governor  of  Mine- 
sota  Territory,  has  declined  to  accept  the  office,"  and  with  evi- 
dent pleasure  the  editor  writes :  "The  federal  papers  are 
making  Jacks  of  themselves  by  extolling  the  character  and 

M.  Mitchell  of  Cincinnati  was  named  in  his  place.  Colonel  Mitchell  re- 
signed in  1851  and  two  years  later  removed  to  Missouri.  Williams,  St. 
Paul,  221;  Holcombe,  in  Minnesota  in  Three  Centuries,  2:427. 


76  HERBERT  C.  VARNEY  MAY 

qualifications  of  'E.  B.  Washburne,11  Esq.  of  Galena,  Illinois, 
the  newly  appointed  Judge  of  Minesota  Territory.'  The  new- 
ly appointed  Judges  of  that  territory  are  Aaron  Goodrich,  of 
Tennessee;  David  Cooper,  of  Penn. ;  and  B.  B.  Meeker,  of 
Kentucky,  according  to  the  National  Intelligencer.  It  is  prob- 
able that  Mr.  Washburne  wanted  to  be  one  of  the  Judges,  and 
that  these  puffs  were  prepared  beforehand  in  expectation  that 
he  would  be  appointed."  A  week  passes  and  in  a  rather  ob- 
scurely placed  paragraph  it  is  stated  that  " Alexander  Ramsey, 
member  of  Congress  from  Pennsylvania,  has  been  appointed 
Governor  of  Minesota  Territory.'' 

During  the  spring  and  early  summer  months  notices  of 
Minnesota  become  more  frequent,  but  apparently  no  adventur- 
ers had  returned  to  New  Hampshire  from  the  far-away  bor- 
ders of  the  new  territory,  for  most  of  the  news  is  secondhand 
with  brief  comments  by  the  editor.  We  read  on  April  19 
that  ''the  seat  of  government  for  the  territory  of  Minesota  is 
St.  Paul's,"  and  that  "\V.  W.  Wyman  has  issued  a  prospectus 
for  a  newspaper  there."  A  week  later  the  politics  of  the  new 
administration  intrudes  itself :  "Some  of  the  Kentucky  federal 
papers  are  indignant  at  the  appointment  of  a  Mr.  Meeker  of 
that  State  to  the  office  of  Judge  of  Minesota  Territory.  Some 
of  them  don't  know  who  he  is,  and  others  declare  that  it  is  an 
appointment  'not  fit  to  be  made/  as  Webster  said  of  Taylor's 
nomination.  The  general  impression  there  appears  to  be  that 
Gen.  Taylor  was  imposed  upon  in  the  matter,  as  Meeker 
has  neither  the  legal,  mental  or  moral  qualifications  for  the 
office,  according  to  the  Kentucky  federal  papers.  So  little 
known  was  he  that  when  Mr.  Morehead12  was  asked  about 

11Elihu  B.  Washburne,  who  was  a  brother  of  William  D.  Washburn, 
a  prominent  miller  of  Minneapolis  and  United  States  senator  from  1889 
to  1895,  was  a  practicing  attorney  in  Galena,  Illinois,  in  1849.  He  was  a 
representative  from  Illinois  in  Congress  from  1853  to  1869  and  minister 
to  France  from  1869  to  1877. 

12  Probably  Charles  S.  Morehead,  who  was  a  representative  in  Con- 
gress from  Kentucky  from  1847  to  1851. 


1919  BIRTH  NOTICES  OF  A  STATE  77 

him,  he  replied  that  he  knew  no  such  man;  and  it  is  said  that 
nobody  in  Kentucky  asked  for  his  appointment.  Then  how 
happened  it  that  he  got  the  office?  He  is  Truman  Smith's'" 
nephew!  This  appears  to  have  been  the  sole  reason  for  his 
appointment.  This  is  truly  'the  era  of  new  men.'" 

The  first  general  account  of  the  new  territory,  taken  from 
the  Iowa  State  Gazette,  appears  in  the  issue  of  May  3.  After 
describing  the  boundaries,  the  writer  says :  "The  population 
is  at  present  very  limited,  and  is  almost  entirely  confined  to  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  north  bank  of  the  St. 
Croix.  The  town  of  St.  Pauls  on  the  former,  five  miles  below 
St.  Peters,  contains  some  four  or  five  hundred  inhabitants ;  and 
Stillwater,  on  the  St.  Croix,  is  somewhat  larger.  These,  we 
believe,  are  the  only  villages  worth  naming  in  Minnesota. 
The  principal  settlement  is  on  the  St.  Croix,  a  stream  possess- 
ing great  hydraulic  advantages,  and  the  banks  of  which  are 
covered  with  inexhaustible  supplies  of  pine.  A  large  number 
of  mills  are  in  active  operation  at  various  points,  running  sev- 
eral hundred  saws,  and  giving  employment  to  probaly  one  half 
of  the  entire  population  of  the  Territory.14  Indeed  we  are  led 
to  believe,  from  reliable  information,  that  the  country  lying  be- 
tween the  Mississippi  and  Lake  Superior  is  chiefly  valuable  for 
its  lumber,  and,  it  may  be,  mineral  resources.  For  farming 
purposes  it  is  of  but  little  value,  being  full  of  swamps,  lakes, 
and  marshes.  The  country  west  of  the  Mississippi  is  by  far 
the  best  portion  of  Minnesota;  but  unfortunately  the  lands  all 

13 Truman  Smith,  long  prominent  in  Connecticut  politics,  who  was  just 
entering  upon  a  term  in  the  United  States  Senate,  played  a  decisive  part 
in  the  nomination  of  Zachary  Taylor  for  president  in  1848  and  as  chair- 
man of  the  Whig  national  committee  conducted  the  following  presidential 
campaign. 

14 The  writer's  estimate  of  the  distribution  of  population  in  Minnesota 
is  not  borne  out  by  the  census  of  the  territory  taken  in  June,  1849.  The 
returns  show  that  St.  Paul  had  a  population  of  910,  and  Stillwater,  a 
population  of  6X39.  Lumbering  operations  in  the  St.  Croix  Valley  were 
undoubtedly  the  most  important  industry.  Captain  Edward  W.  Durant 
reports  that  seventy-five  million  feet  of  logs  were  scaled  through  the 


78  HERBERT  C.   VARNEY  MAY 

belong  to  the  Indians,  and  there  is  no  place  to  which  settlers 
can  at  present  be  invited.  No  time  should  be  lost  by  the  gov- 
ernment in  obtaining,  if  possible,  a  cession  of  a  portion  of  these 
lands.  There  is  a  beautiful  strip  of  country  lying  along  the 
shore  of  Lake  Pepin,  owned  by  the  Sioux  half  breeds,  which 
would  be  speedily  occupied  if  thrown  open  to  white  settle- 
ment.15 The  prosperity  of  Minnesota  demands  that  every 
exertion  be  made  to  induce  the  owners  of  these  lands  to  dispose 
of  them  to  the  government." 

The  life  of  our  newly  born  territory  is  assured  when  we 
read  in  the  issue  of  June  28 :  "On  the  1st  of  June,  Mr.  Ram- 
say, the  Governor  of  this  new  Territory,  issued  his  proclama- 
tion from  St.  Paul,  the  capital,  for  the  organization  of  the 
Territorial  Government.  An  Iowa  paper  says  it  learns  from  a 
gentleman  just  from  there  that  this  place  is  the  theatre  of  al- 
most as  much  excitement  as  San  Francisco,  California.  The 
emigration  to  that  place  and  the  surrounding  country  is  im- 
mense. Hundreds  are  pouring  in  from  all  parts  daily.  Every 
thing  in  the  shape  of  a  house  is  filled  to  overflowing,  and  large 
numbers  are  encamped  in  tents  for  want  of  house  room.  He 
says  that  money  is  very  plenty,  and  prices  of  lots  and  other 
property  high.  A  large  amount  of  English  emigration  has 
come  in  this  spring,  bringing  with  them  plenty  of  funds. 
Minesota  bids  fair  for  a  speedy  settlement  and  rapid  improve- 
ment. Our  friend  was  highly  delighted  with  the  beautiful  ap- 

St.  Croix  booms  in  the  year  1849.  Scarcely  one  quarter  of  the  entire 
population  of  the  territory,  however,  resided  in  the  valley.  Minnesota 
Archives,  Executive  Registers,  no.  1,  pp.  15,  16  (in  the  custody  of  the 
Minnesota  Historical  Society)  ;  Edward  W.  Durant,  "Lumbering  and 
Steamboating  on  the  St.  Croix  River,"  in  Minnesota  Historical  Collections 
10:674  (part  2). 

15  This  is  the  tract  known  as  the  "Wabashaw  reservation,"  fifteen  miles 
wide,  running  thirty-two  miles  down  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi* 
River  from  Red  Wing,  which  the  Sioux  in  the  Treaty  of  Prairie  du  Chien 
of  1830  stipulated  should  be  reserved  for  their  half-blood  relatives  as  part 
of  the  compensation  they  were  to  receive  for  their  cession  to  the  United 
States  government  of  a  parcel  of  land  lying  between  the  Mississippi  and 


1919  BIRTH  NOTICES  OF  A  STATE  79 

pearance  of  the  country.''  A  brief  paragraph  late  in  August 
states  that  the  Honorable  Henry  H.  Sibley  has  been  elected 
delegate  from  Minnesota  Territory.16  With  this  notice  closes 
the  first  year  of  Minnesota's  history  as  recorded  in  the  columns 
of  our  newspaper.  Soon  the  snow  and  ice  of  winter  will  close 
the  routes  of  travel  to  the  new,,  far-away  settlements,  and 
Minnesota  will  quietly  sleep  away  the  first  winter  of  its  exist- 
ence. Other  matters  are  claiming  the  interest  of  the  readers 
of  our  paper.  The  cholera,  which  during  the  previous  winter 
had  been  prevalent  in  the  southern  cities,  had  gradually  spread 
northward  and  was  becoming  a  matter  of  serious  concern,  and 
as  the  year  closes,  the  murder  of  Dr.  Parkman  by  Professor 
Webster  in  Boston  is  on  everyone's  lips  and  is  set  forth  in  the 
paper  in  all  its  gruesome  details. 

Some  verses  on  the  beautiful  river  which  bears  our  state's 
name,  found  in  the  issue  of  September  6,  are  a  fitting  close  to' 
our  story.  These,  it  is  stated,  were  written  for  the  New 
Hampshire  Patriot  by  Mrs.  Mary  H.  Eastman,  "the  lady  of  an 
officer  of  the  army,  a  native  and  for  a  long  time  a  resident  of 
Concord.  They  are  dedicated  to  a  beautiful  river  in  the  youth- 
ful territory  of  Minesota,  which  from  the  impulse  of  Yankee 
emigration  'Westward  ho'  will  soon  be  seeking  admission  to 
the  Union.  The  stanzas  are  replete  with  finely  formed  ideas 
expressed  in  the  true  spirit  of  poesy."17 

the  Des  Moines  rivers.  Through  the  efforts  of  Henry  M.  Rice  it  was  sur- 
veyed and  thrown  open  to  settlement  by  the  act  of  Congress  of  July  17, 
1854.  Folwell,  Minnesota,  117;  United  States,  Statutes  at  Large,  7:328; 
10:304. 

16  The   election   was   held  August   1.     Sibley   was   chosen   without  any 
opposition. 

17  Mary  Henderson  Eastman  was  the  wife  of  Captain   Seth  Eastman, 
who  was  in  command  at  Fort  Snelling  at  different  times  from  1840  to 
1848.     Mrs.  Eastman  is  best  known  as  the  author  of  Dahcotah;  or,  Life 
and  Legends  of  the  Sioux  around  Fort  Snelling,  published  in  New  York 
in  1849.     Her  stanzas  on  the  Minnesota  River  were  printed  first  in  the 
Minnesota  Pioneer  of  August  9,  1849,  accompanied  by  a  statement  of  the 
editor  that  they  were  written  for  that  particular  publication. 


80  HERBERT  C.  VARNEY 

Fair  Minesota!  by  thy  shore 

No  longer  may  I  rest, 
Watching  the  sun's  bright  beams  that  dance 

And  sparkle  on  thy  breast; 
No  longer  may  I  see  the  glow 

Of    evening    fade   away, 
Or  the  morning  mists  that  gently  rise 

When  breaks  the  summer's  day. 

Full  often  have  I  gazed  on  thee 

And  thought  of  friends  and  home, 
And  prayed  that  blessings  on  them  all 

Like  the  dew  from  Heaven  might  come. 
And  when  at  night  the  stars  came  out 

To  gild  the  sky  and  thee, 
I  knew  that  God,  who  loveth  all, 

Watched  between  them  and  me. 

And  when  the  cares,  that  all  must  know, 

My  spirit  bowed  to  earth, 
When  sadly  o'er  my  heart  would  fall 

The  laugh  of  joy  and  mirth; 
I  watched  thy  waves  so  calm  and  bright 

And  peace  would  come  again 
Like  freshness  on  the  parched-up  hills 

When  falls  the  summer's  rain. 

Thy  valleys  green  will  be  a  home 

To  many  a  stirring  mind ; 
Sorrow  will  seek  thy  shores,  in  hopes 

A  hiding  place  to  find; 
Wealth,  too,  will  come,  and  in  its  track 

Beauty  and  luxury ; 
And  where  the  white  man  never  trod 

His  power  supreme  shall  be. 

But   tell   me,    Minesota, 

When  the  solemn  night  winds  sigh, 
Dost  thou  bear  on  to  ocean's  bed 

The   Indian's   mournful  cry? 
Thou   see'st  him  rudely  thrust  aside, 

Thou   see'st  th'   oppressor's   might, 
Crushing  his  liberty  of  soul, 

The  red  man's  sacred  right. 


BIRTH  NOTICES  OF  A  STATE  81 

Oh!   would  their  laws   were  equal, 

Like  brothers  they  might  live; 
That  white  men  for  the  lands  they  claim 

Would  truth  and  justice  give; 
That  the  Herald  of  the  Cross  might  bring 

His  holy  precepts  home, 
When  by  a  Christian  people's  course 

A  Christian's   faith  is  shown. 

Schools  will  rise  up — but  tell  me, 

Will  the  red  man's  sons  be  there? 
Churches — but  say,  will  hallow  them 

The  red  man's  humble  prayer? 
The  stars  and  stripes   will   wave  aloft — 

Witnesses  will  they  be, 
That  God  has  given  the  right  to  all, 

Of  life  and  liberty? 

So  may  it  prove,  fair  river! 

That  when  shall  flow  no  more 
Thy  waves  or  Time's — but  landed  on 

Eternity's  vast  shore; 
The  white  man  and  the  Indian 

Free  from  sorrow,  care  or  pain, 
May  together  drink  of  Life's  pure  stream 

And  never  thirst  again. 

All  this  from  a  bundle  of  old  newspapers ! 

HERBERT  C.  VARNEY 
ST.  PAUL,  MINNESOTA 


NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS 

THE  POND  PAPERS 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Mrs.  Frances  Pond-Titus  of  Boise, 
Idaho,  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  has  been  enabled  to 
make  photostatic  copies  of  about  two  hundred  letters  of  Sam- 
uel W.  and  Gideon  H.  Pond,  early  missionaries  to  the  Sioux  in 
Minnesota.  The  Pond  brothers  were  of  Puritan  ancestry, 
residents  of  Washington,  Connecticut,  when  it  was  swept  by 
an  old-fashioned  New  England  revival  about  the  year  1831. 
They  were  both  converted  at  that  time  and  determined  to  de- 
vote their  lives  to  the  cause  of  spreading  the  gospel  they  had 
so  recently  come  to  know.  Accordingly  the  older  brother, 
Samuel,  set  out  for  the  West  in  the  spring  of  1833  to  find  a 
suitable  field  for  missionary  labors.  He  followed  the  usual 
Ohio  route  westward  to  St.  Louis  and  then  went  up  the  Missis- 
sippi and  Fever  rivers  to  the  frontier  lead-mining  town  of 
Galena,  Illinois,  where  he  spent  the  winter  of  1833-34.  There, 
by  chance,  he  learned  of  a  wild  and  roving  tribe  of  Indians, 
who  dwelt  on  the  vast  prairies  to  the  northwest  in  total  ignor- 
ance of  the  true  faith.  He  decided  that  these  heathen  people 
would  be  the  goal  of  his  first  mission.  Accordingly  Gideon 
joined  him  at  Galena  in  the  spring  and  together  they  took 
passage  on  the  steamer  "Warrior"  for  the  upper  Mississippi, 
landing  at  Fort  Snelling  on  the  sixth  day  of  May. 

The  Pond  brothers  entered  the  Indian  country  without  the 
authority  of  the  government ;  nevertheless  they  were  kindly  re- 
ceived by  the  officials  at  the  fort  and  were  assigned  temporary 
quarters  there.  At  the  suggestion  of  Major  Lawrence  Talia- 
ferro,  the  Indian  agent,  they  built  their  first  mission  house 
near  an  Indian  village  on  the  east  shore  of  Lake  Calhoun. 
When  the  Reverend  Jedediah  Stevens  arrived  in  1835  he  per- 
suaded them  to  assist  him  in  establishing  a  mission  on  the 
shore  of  Lake  Harriet,  a  station  which  they  occupied  until  the 


1919  POND  PAPERS  83 

removal  of  the  Indians  from  the  lake  four  years  later.  Dur- 
ing this  period  Samuel  spent  the  greater  pa'rt  of  his  time  with 
the  Indians  for  the  purpose  of  learning  their  language.  He 
later  returned  to  Connecticut  to  study  for  the  ministry  and 
on  March,  1837,  was  ordained.  He  was  appointed  as  a  regular 
missionary  from  the  American  Board  and  upon  returning  to 
Lake  Harriet  station,  married  one  of  its  teachers,  Cordelia 
Eggleston,  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Stevens.  Gideon,  on  the  other 
hand,  joined  Dr.  Thomas  S.  Williamson  at  Lac  qui  Parle  in 
1836.  The  following  November  he  married  a  sister  of  Mrs. 
Williamson,  Sarah  Poage. 

The  year  1839  found  the  brothers  together  again  at  Lake 
Harriet.  This  was  the  year  which  marked  the  climax  in  the 
Chippewa-Sioux  warfare.  The  Sioux  about  the  lake  became 
so  fearful  of  their  enemies  to  the  north  and  the  officials  at  the 
fort  so  harassed  by  their  frequent  raids  that  the  government 
decided  to  remove  the  Indians  from  this  locality.  Although 
Stevens  resigned  from  the  American  Board  about  this  time, 
the  Ponds  remained  at  the  lake  several  months  after  the  re- 
moval of  the  Indians.  In  1840  they  rented  the  "Baker  House" 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  fort  where  they  resided  with  their  fami- 
lies until  1843  when  they  entered  the  station  at  Oak  Grove. 
During  this  interval,  however,  Samuel  Pond  went  to  Lac  qui 
Parle  to  relieve  Dr.  Stephen  R.  Riggs,  who  spent  the  year 
1842-43  in  the  East.  Upon  the  return  of  Riggs  he  took 
charge  of  affairs  at  Oak  Grove  while  Gideon  visited  relatives 
in  Connecticut  and  supervised  the  printing  of  the  Dakota 
catechism  prepared  by  his  brother. 

Meanwhile  the  station  at  Oak  Grove  had  become  so  well 
established  that  Samuel  Pond  began  to  look  about  for  the  site 
of  another  mission.  In  1846  he  was  invited  by  Chief  Little 
Six  or  Shakpe  to  live  with  his  band  at  Prairieville  or  Tintao- 
tonwe.  The  invitation  was  accepted  and  it  was  here  that  the 
older  Pond  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life,  first  as  missionary 
to  the  Sioux  until  their  removal  in  1852,  and  then  as  minister 


84  NOTpS   AND   DOCUMENTS  MAY 

to  the  white  settlers.  In  1866  he  resigned  his  charge  to  live  in 
quiet  retirement  until  his  death  in  1891. 

Gideon  remained  at  Oak  Grove  as  a  friend  of  both  the  In- 
dian and  the  white  man.  He  represented  his  district  in  the 
first  territorial  legislature  and  in  1850  became  the  editor  of  the 
Dakota  Friend,  a  periodical  printed  in  the  Dakota  and  English 
languages.  It  was  in  1873,  just  foiu*  years  before  his  death, 
that  he  retired. 

The  Pond  Papers  cover  the  entire  period  of  the  missionary 
activities  of  the  brothers.  Starting  with  the  letters  written  by 
Samuel  from  Galena  in  1833  urging  Gideon  to  join  him  in  the 
mission  to  the  Sioux,  the  final  paper  is  a  letter  from  Samuel 
to  his  son,  Samuel  Jr.,  written  late  in  his  life  and  telling  of  the 
first  Dakota  Indian  who  learned  to  read  and  write.  Most  of 
the  letters  were  written  during  the  period  1833-50  by  the 
brothers  to  each  other  and  to  their  relatives  in  the  East  or  by 
the  missionaries  at  Lac  qtii  Parle,  Traverse  des  Sioux,  Red 
Wing,  Leech  Lake,  and  Pokegarna  to  the  Ponds.  They  tell 
of  the  daily  life  and  the  activities  of  the  missions,  the  habits, 
customs,  and  beliefs  of  the  Indians,  the  progress  made  in  teach- 
ing reading,  writing,  and  farming  to  the  savages,  and  the 
difficulties  experienced  in  making  them  understand  the  tenets 
of  the  Christian  faith.  Much  of  the  time  of  the  early  mis- 
sionaries was  spent  in  learning  the  Dakota  language  and  re- 
ducing it  to  writing.  Nearly  every  one  of  the  early  letters 
tells  of  the  progress  made  in  this  task,  which  began  with  the 
formation  of  the  Pond  alphabet  in  the  summer  of  1834  and 
was  completed  by  the  compilation  of  the  Dakota  lexicon  finally 
published  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution  in  1852.  A  Sioux 
grammar  was  also  compiled  and  various  portions  of  the  Bible 
and  many  hymns  were  translated.  The  letters  from  William- 
son and  Riggs,  particularly,  deal  with  this  subject. 

The  correspondence  in  this  collection,  together  with  a 
narrative  of  the  missionary  activities  of  the  Ponds  written  by 
Samuel  in  later  life,  was  used  by  Samuel  Pond  Jr.,  in  writ- 


1919  POND  PAPERS  85 

ing  the  "Two  Volunteer  Missionaries  among  the  Dakotas." 
Considerable  material  remains,  however,  which  has  not  been 
used,  particularly  letters  describing  the  activities  of  missions 
other  than  those  of  the  Ponds  during  the  later  period  of  their 
activity  when  the  influence  of  the  encroaching  white  settle- 
ments, the  hostility  of  the  Indians,  and  the  payment  of  an- 
nuities by  the  government  did  so  much  to  counteract  the  efforts 
of  the  missionaries.  There  are  some  interesting  and  inform- 
ing comments  on  the  relation  of  the  fur  traders  to  the  mis- 
sions in  the  letters  from  the  missionaries.  A  letter  written  by 
Williamson  at  Kaposia  in  January  of  1849  suggests  the  possi- 
bility of  the  establishment  of  manual  labor  schools  for  the  na- 
tives and  the  development  of  temperance  societies  among  them. 
Mr.  Riggs,  writing  in  1850,  urged  an  educational  policy  for 
the  Sioux  and  was  hopeful  of  its  embodiment  in  a  treaty. 
A  series  of  letters  from  David  G.  Greene,  secretary  of  the 
American  Board  in  Boston,  covering  the  period  1837-48,  con- 
stantly advised  patience  and  economy  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
work.  The  exhortation  to  patience  was  doubtless  a  much 
needed  form  of  admonition  but  the  latter  would  hardly  seem 
necessary  when  Samuel  Pond  was  receiving  at  the  time  of  his 
marriage  an  annual  salary  of  two  hundred  dollars.  The  let- 
ters from  Alexander  Huggins  and  Jonas  Petti  John,  Indian 
farmers  and  assistants  at  Lac  qui  Parle,  give  a  less  religious 
and  more  secular  view  of  life  at  that  station  and  relate  many 
interesting  and  amusing  incidents.  A  few  letters  from  officials 
connected  with  the  fort  have  been  preserved.  Among  these 
are  two  from  Major  Taliaferro :  the  first,  addressed  to  Samuel 
Pond  when  he  was  on  leave  of  absence  in  Connecticut  in  1836, 
is  an  amusing  picture  of  the  Reverend  Stevens  at  the  Lake 
Harriet  mission ;  and  the  second,  is  a  letter  penned  years  later 
when  misfortune  had  overtaken  the  former  Indian  agent  at 
his  home  in  Bedford,  Pennsylvania. 

In  addition  to  the  narrative  of  Samuel  Pond,  which  is  writ- 
ten in  two  small  notebooks  and  relates  the  principal  events  in 


86  NOfES  AND  DOCUMENTS  MAY 

the  lives  of  the  brothers  from  1831  to  1881,  Mrs.  Titus  has 
donated  a  fragment  of  a  Sioux  grammar  compiled  by  Samuel 
as  well  as  a  considerable  portion  of  a  Hebrew-Dakota  lexicon. 
Almost  thirty  years  ago  the  two  original  volumes  of  the  Pond 
Dakota  lexicon  were  deposited  with  the  society. 

ETHEL  B.  VIRTUE 

MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 
ST.   PAUL 


REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS 

Brief  Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Loring  Park  Aspects;  Wherein  an 
Account  is  given  of  Interesting  and  Memorable  Events 
which  have  hapned  in  this  Valley,  with  Agreeable  Inquiren- 
does  into  the  lives  of  Certain  of  its  Pioneers  to  which  is  Ap- 
pended a  Chapter  of  More  Flippant  Sort  (Composed  for  the 
Lighter-Minded)  having  to  do  with  the  Pleasant  Adventures 
of  One  Dad  Houghton,  the  Whole  Most  Diverting  to  the 
Reader.  By  A.  J.  RUSSELL.  (Minneapolis,  Leonard  H. 
Wells,  1919.  181  p.  Illustrated) 

This  charming  little  book,  by  the  author  of  Fourth  Street1 
presents  an  entirely  new  picture  of  the  Lowry  Hill  district  of 
Minneapolis.  It  is  difficult  for  one  who  knows  the  Harmon  Place 
and  Loring  Park  of  to-day  to  conceive  of  them  as  having  once 
formed  part  of  a  wooded  valley  through  which  a  brook  made  its 
way  into  Bassett's  Creek.  "How  many  of  those  who  now  travel 
Hennepin  Avenue  in  ever  growing  numbers  look  down  and  see, 
twelve  or  fifteen  feet  under  the  present  surface  of  the  avenue,  the 
blue  waters  of  the  Lost  Brook  that  once  ran  there?" 

Starting  with  the  story  of  the  early  farming  operations  near 
Johnson's  Lake,  Mr.  Russell  recounts  the  changes  which  resulted 
as  more  settlers  took  up  land  in  that  vicinity.  He  construes  the 
phrase  "Loring  Park"  very  freely,  and  includes  all  the  valley  be- 
low the  "Lowry  Hill  Range."  A  reproduction  of  the  Pond  map 
of  the  Lake  Calhoun  district  illustrates  the  discussion  of  various 
Indian  trails  which  passed  through  the  valley.  It  is  suggested 
that  such  routes  might  well  be  marked  as  mementoes  of  an  his- 
toric past. 

"Accuracy  and  historical  research,  while  they  have  not  been 
avoided,  have  not  been  primarily  sought,  but  the  attempt  has 
been  made  to  obtain  old  time  flavors  and  aspects,"  and  in  this  the 
writer  has  been  successful.  There  is  a  freshness  about  these 
sketches  which  is  pleasing.  Nevertheless,  it  is  evident  that  time 
and  study  have  been  devoted  to  the  problem  of  the  early  settle- 

1  See  review  in  the  BULLETIN  for  November,  1917   (p.  274). 

87 


88  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  MAY 

• 

ment  of  the  district,  a  fact  which  makes  the  book  of  value  to  the 
student  of  the  history  of  Minneapolis.  It  is  attractively  bound, 
printed  on  good  paper,  and  is  illustrated  with  numerous  pictures 
of  such  early  settlers  as  Joseph  Johnson,  Oliver  Gray,  and  C.  M. 
Loring.  It  certainly  is  "Most  Diverting  to  the  Reader." 

WJLLOUGHBY  M.  BABCOCK  JR. 

John  P.  Williamson,  a  Brother  to  the  Sioux.  By  WINIFRED  W. 
BARTON.  (New  York,  etc.,  Fleming  H.  Revell  Company, 
1919.  269  p.  Illustrated) 

The  author  of  this  book  set  out  to  write  a  popular  biography 
of  an  heroic  figure  in  the  home  missionary  field,  and  she  has  suc- 
ceeded fairly  well.  The  Reverend  John  P.  Williamson  was  one 
of  a  number  of  devoted  men  who  undertook  to  carry  Christianity 
to  the  Sioux  beyond  the  frontier.  His  father,  Dr.  Thomas  S. 
Williamson,  the  Pond  brothers,  and  Stephen  R.  Riggs  labored  at 
the  task  for  years.  Results  were  slow  in  appearing,  however,  and 
it  was  not  until  after  the  Sioux  outbreak  of  1862  that  their  efforts 
began  to  bear  much  fruit.  John  P.  Williamson  and  his  friend, 
Alfred  L.  Riggs,  grew  to  manhood  among  the  Sioux  of  Minne- 
sota and  were  well  fitted  to  continue  the  work  of  the  Dakota  mis- 
sion. The  first  three  chapters  of  the  book  deal  with  Williamson's 
early  life  at  the  mission  stations,  his  struggle  for  an  education, 
and  the  beginning  of  his  ministry.  After  his  ordination  he  him- 
self became  a  missionary  at  Redwood,  near  the  Lower  Sioux 
Agency,  and  at  the  request  of  the  Indian  agent  interpreted  the 
rash  statement  of  the  trader  Myrick  at  a  council  shortly  before 
the  outbreak  of  August,  1862.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  au- 
thor has  not  indicated  the  source  of  her  information  about  this 
important  council.  The  remainder  of  the  book  is  devoted  to  an 
account  of  the  religious  and  educational  work  which  Williamson 
carried  on  at  various  Indian  reservations  in  the  Dakotas.  The 
biography  gives  an  interesting  view  of  the  progress  of  the  Indians 
from  barbarism  to  civilization  under  the  guidance  of  the  mis- 
sionaries. 

The  author  has  quoted  extensively  from  Stephen  R.  Riggs's 
Mary  and  I,  and  from  other  books,  but  failure  to  give  page  refer- 


1919     HOUGHTON:  OUR  DEBT  TO  THE  RED  MAN      89 

ences  makes  it  difficult  to  check  up  the  statements.  Selections 
from  numerous  letters  have  also  been  used,  but  without  indica- 
tion as  to  where  the  originals  are  to  be  found.  Many  sketches 
by  John  Redowl  and  a  number  of  photographs  add  to  the  attrac- 
tiveness of  the  book,  although  the  choice  of  subjects  for  the  draw- 
ings is  not  particularly  good.  Despite  the  fact  that  it  is  popular 
and  superficial  rather  than  scholarly,  this  biography  will  be  ot 
value  to  students  of  the  history  of  the  Northwest. 

WlLLOUGHBY   M.    BABCOCK   JR. 

Our  Debt  to  the  Red  Man;  the  French-Indians  in  the  Develop- 
ment of  the  United  States.  By  LOUISE  SEYMOUR  HOUGH- 
TON.  (Boston,  Stratford  Company,  1918.  xi,  210  p.  Il- 
lustrated) 

If  any  group  is  more  misjudged  than  the  American  Indian  it 
is  the  French-Indian  metis.  Mrs.  Houghton  has  attempted  to 
clear  up  some  of  the  misconceptions  in  regard  to  these  people  and 
has  dealt  with  their  contributions  and  not  those  of  the  full-blood 
Red  Man  as  the  main  title  suggests.  The  services  of  these  men  to 
the  United  States,  including  Minnesota,  are  varied.  As  a  whole 
they  have  been  intensely  loyal  to  the  government;  they  have 
served  ably  as  interpreters,  mediators,  traders,  explorers,  colon- 
izers, and  missionaries,  and  have  made  valuable  contributions  to 
the  literature  and  art  of  the  country.  Whether  descendants  of 
Choctaw,  Sioux,  or  Cherokee,  they  have  found  their  way  into  al- 
most every  field  of  industry  and  are  to-day  serving  as  chiefs  of 
police,  physicians,  teachers,  clerks,  and  stenographers.  It  has 
been  aptly  said  that  "the  educated  Indian  would  rather  work  with 
his  brain  than  his  hands  ...  if  this  be  true  of  the  full-blood 
Indian,  it  is  much  more  true  of  the  metis." 

Mrs.  Houghton  has  gathered  a  wide  variety  of  material  but 
she  has  not  used  it  with  discrimination.  The  text  contains  end- 
less details,  which  might  better  have  been  relegated  to  footnotes, 
and  the  inclusion  of  references  in  the  body  adds  to  the  confusion 
of  the  reader.  Nevertheless,  despite  its  crudities  of  form  and  a 
number  of  grammatical  and  typographical  errors,  the  book  is  di- 
stinctly worth  while.  It  suggests  numerous  opportunities  for  in- 


90  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  MAY 

vestigation  in  the  field  of  American  history,  more  especially  that 
of  the  Northwest.  The  illustrations  include  pictures  of  some  of 
the  finest  men  of  this  mixed  race,  such  as  Charles  E.  Dagenett, 
supervisor  of  Indian  employment,  a  French-Miami,  and  the  Hon- 
orable Gabe  E.  Parker,  superintendent  of  the  five  civilized  tribes, 
a  French-Choctaw. 

DOROTHY  A.  HEINEMANN 

Si'enska  Baptist ernas  i  Minnesota  Historia  fran  i8$o-talet  till 
1918.  Utarbetad  av  P.  RYDEN.  (Minneapolis,  Minnesota, 
Statskonferens,  1918.  275  p.  Illustrated) 

This  historical  survey  of  the  Swedish  Baptist  Church  in  Minne- 
sota from  1850  to  1918  was  published  in  response  to  a  resolution 
adopted  at  the  fifty-seventh  annual  conference  held  at  Cambridge, 
Minnesota,  June  16-20,  1915.  The  task  of  the  compilers  was 
rendered  difficult  owing  to  the  fact  that  prior  to  the  appointment 
of  the  committee  little  had  been  done  to  collect  and  preserve  ma- 
terial for  a  work  of  this  kind.  In  spite  of  this  serious  handicap, 
the  volume  contains  a  vast  amount  of  information,  enriched  by 
numerous  pictures  of  churches  and  of  leaders,  living  and  dead. 

The  conference  was  organized  at  Scandia,  September  19,  1858, 
under  the  name  Skandinaviska  konferenscn,  retaining  this  title 
until  1885,  when  it  assumed  the  present  one,  Svenska  baptist  ernas 
i  Minnesota  konferens.  The  greater  part  of  the  work  is  devoted 
to  brief  historical  sketches  containing,  for  each  congregation,  the 
names  of  prominent  members  and  pastors  and  the  dates  of  the 
organization  and  erection  of  churches.  There  are  also  chapters 
on  the  beginning  of  the  Baptist  movement  in  Sweden,  the  perse- 
cution to  which  the  dissenters  were  subjected,  the  hardships  of 
the  early  immigrants,  the  lives  of  pioneer  preachers  and  mission- 
aries, and  the  increase  of  membership  in  the  church.  No  doubt 
there  are,  as  the  compilers  admit,  errors  of  omission  and  com- 
mission; nevertheless  the  volume  is  a  valuable  addition  to  the 
available  material  for  the  history  of  Minnesota. 

GEORGE  M.  STEPHENSON 


1919  WEE  HAUGEANISM  91 

Haugeanism:  A  Brief  Sketch  of  the  Movement  and  some  of  its 
Chief  Exponents.  By  M.  O.  WEE.  (St.  Paul,  the  author, 
1919.  72  p.  Illustrated) 

The  writer  of  the  introduction,  Professor  O.  M.  Norlie,  has 
indicated  the  scope  of  the  book  in  the  statement  that  it  seeks  to  ex- 
plain what  Haugeanism  is  and  to  give  brief  sketches  of  some  of 
the  leaders  in  the  old  country  and  in  America.  An  examination 
of  the  work  indicates  that  these  purposes  have  been  accomplished 
in  a  fairly  satisfactory  manner.  The  author  reveals  a  strong  sym- 
pathy for  the  ideals  of  Haugeanism  without  overslaughing  its  dan- 
gers and  weaknesses  and  without  unduly  magnifying  the  abuses  in 
the  Norwegian  State  Church  which  gave  birth  to  the  movement  of 
dissent.  The  book  is  of  interest  to  the  student  who  desires  in- 
formation about  the  religious  background  of  Norwegian  emigra- 
tion and  the  religious  tendencies  of  the  Norwegian-Americans. 

G.  M.  S. 


MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES 

Mr.  Herbert  C.  Varney  addressed  the  society  on  "The  Birth 
Notices  of  a  State"  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  executive  coun- 
cil of  the  society,  held  as  an  open  session  on  February  24.  At 
the  stated  meeting  of  the  executive  council  April  14  two  papers 
were  read:  "The  Attitude  of  the  Swedish- Americans  toward  the 
World  War,"  by  Dr.  George  M.  Stephenson,  and  "Steamboating 
on  the  Upper  Mississippi  after  the  Civil  War,"  by  Professor 
Lester  B.  Shippee.  The  meeting  was  open  to  the  public  and  was 
attended  by  about  seventy-five. 

The  following  new  members,  all  active,  have  been  enrolled  dur- 
ing the  quarter  ending  April  30,  1919 :  Minnie  L.  Hills,  Henry 
A.  Merrill,  and  Ethel  B.  Virtue  of  St.  Paul;  Norman  S.  B.  Gras 
and  Mrs.  Charles  S.  Pillsbury  of  Minneapolis;  Peter  Broberg  of 
New  London;  Otis  B.  De  Laurier  of  Long  Prairie;  Orrin  Fruit 
Smith  of  Winona;  August  E.  Wentzel  of  Crookston;  and  Mrs. 
Anna  E.  Wilson  of  Janesville.  The  society  has  lost  four  mem- 
bers by  death  during  the  same  period:  Benjamin  L.  Goodkind 
of  St.  Paul,  February  17;  the  Honorable  Darwin  S.  Hall  of 
Olivia,  February  20;  Auguste  L.  Larpenteur  of  St.  Paul,  Febru- 
ary 24 :  and  William  White  of  St.  Paul,  April  2.  Mr.  White  and 
Mr.  Hall  were  both  members  of  the  executive  council.  Mr.  Lar- 
penteur was  the  last  survivor  of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
three  original  members  of  the  society  and  one  of  the  last  two  sur- 
vivors of  the  Minnesota  Old  Settlers'  Association,  membership 
in  which  was  confined  to  those  who  lived  in  Minnesota  before  it 
was  organized  as  a  separate  territory  in  1849. 

During  the  months  of  February,  March,  and  April  about  one 
hundred  pasteboard  boxes  of  the  early  records  of  the  governor's 
office  dating  from  1849  to  1865  were  taken  from  the  Capitol  and 
deposited  in  the  manuscript  division.  At  the  present  time  every- 
thing of  territorial  date,  from  1849  to  1858,  that  has  withstood 
the  ravages  of  later  years,  has  been  cleaned,  pressed,  and  arranged. 
By  far  the  larger  part  of  the  material  is  correspondence,  though 


1919  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  93 

some  other  papers  consisting  of  election  returns,  requisitions  and 
other  criminal  records,  and  a  few  scattering  commissions  and  re- 
ports of  territorial  officers  have  been  found. 

During  the  transfer  of  the  early  archives  from  the  govenor's 
office  to  the  Historical  Building  in  April,  the  records,  now  nearly 
a  century  old,  of  the  first  election  in  Minnesota  Territory  were 
again  brought  to  the  light.  This  election  was  held  pursuant  to 
the  proclamation  of  Governor  Ramsey  issued  on  July  7,  1849, 
which  divided  the  territory  into  seven  districts  and  ordered  an 
election  to  be  held  on  August  1  to  choose  a  delegate  to  Congress 
and  the  members  of  the  territorial  legislature.  The  records, 
which  are  in  excellent  condition,  contain  returns  from  all  but  the 
first  district.  It  is  interesting  to  note  the  number  of  voters  in  the 
various  precincts :  St.  Paul  had  191  names  on  the  poll  list,  Still- 
water,  115 ;  St.  Anthony  and  Mendota,  62  each ;  and  Long  Prairie, 
48.  There  were  14  voters  at  Lac  qui  Parle  and  28  at  Little  Cana- 
da, where  the  three  judges  of  election  made  their  marks  in  lieu 
of  signing  their  names.  The  elections  were  held  in  all  sorts  of 
places.  At  St.  Paul  the  voters  cast  their  ballots  in  the  house  of 
Henry  Jackson;  at  Stillwater  in  the  Minnesota  House;  at  Men- 
dota in  the  lower  warehouse  of  Henry  H.  Sibley;  the  mission 
school  house  was  used  in  the  Snake  River  precinct  and  the  trad- 
ing house  of  Olmstead  and  Rhodes  at  Long  Prairie ;  and  at  Tay- 
lors Falls  Joshua  L.  Taylor  set  up  the  polls  in  his  own  home. 
Henry  H.  Sibley  seems  to  have  been  the  only  candidate  for  dele- 
gate to  Congress,  but  the  abstracts  show  a  goodly  number  of 
candidates  for  seats  in  the  territorial  legislature.  One  of  these, 
William  Surgis  of  the  sixth  district,  was  so  popular  that  he  was 
elected  to  both  branches  of  the  legislature.  He  immediately  re- 
signed his  seat  in  the  lower  house  and  a  special  election  was 
called  to  fill  the  vacancy.  , 

In  this  the  centennial  anniversary  year  of  the  founding  of  Fort 
Snelling,  the  journals  of  Major  Lawrence  Taliaferro,  one  of  the 
society's  most  treasured  possessions,  are  of  renewed  interest  and 
value.  Major  Taliaferro  was  the  United  States  Indian  agent  at 
the  fort  from  the  time  of  its  establishment  in  1819  until  1841,  and 
during  most  of  those  years  he  kept  a  daily  account  of  the  happen- 


94  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  MAY 

ings  in  his  office.  One  of  these  journals  recounting  events  from 
May,  1833,  to  August  26,  1834,  was  so  badly  burned  when  the 
major's  home  was  destroyed  by  fire  that  students  have  been  un- 
able to  consult  it  without  parts  of  the  manuscript  falling  in  pieces. 
Recently  a  careful  typewritten  copy  has  been  made  of  this  journal 
so  that  its  contents  are  now  available  to  all  interested  persons. 

A  variety  of  topics  have  been  discussed  at  the  semimonthly 
children's  history  hour:  "Early  Steamboats  on  the  Upper  Missis- 
sippi," "Some  Famous  Minnesota  Pioneers,"  "The  History  of 
Fire  Arms,"  and  "Life  in  the  Ancient  Indian  Villages  of  MinneT 
sota."  After  these  talks,  as  at  previous  meetings,  the  children 
evinced  considerable  interest  in  playing  the  museum  game.  About 
eighty  children  attended  each  gathering. 

Special  exhibits  in  honor  of  Lincoln  and  Washington  and  of 
St.  Valentine  were  arranged  during  the  month  of  February  and 
a  permanent  exhibit  of  the  various  types  of  Indian  arrowpoints 
was  added  to  those  already  found  in  the  Indian  room  of  the 
museum. 

Since  February  school  teachers  have  brought  sixty-eight  class- 
es, including  2279  pupils,  to  the  museum.  Twenty  of  these 
classes  came  from  Minneapolis  and  seven,  with  a  total  of  331, 
came  from  schools  outside  the  Twin  Cities. 

A  program  in  honor  of  Washington  was  held  in  the  Historical 
Building  on  the  afternoon  of  February  22.  At  that  time  the  two 
hundred  and  sixty-three  visitors  were  shown  the  process  of  clean- 
ing and  repairing  manuscripts  as  well  as  the  special  exhibits  of 
relics,  pictures,  and  manuscripts  bearing  on  the  lives  of  Lincoln 
and  Washington. 

The  Historical  Building  was  the  scene  of  three  club  meetings 
during  the  last  quarter.  On  February  15  the  Minnesota  Chapter 
of  the  Colonial  Dames  of  America  met  in  the  auditorium.  Mrs. 
Marion  Furness  read  a  paper  on  the  diary  kept  by  her  father, 
Alexander  Ramsey,  during  the  territorial  period  of  Minnesota. 
On  April  4  the  Twin  City  History  Teachers'  Association  had  a 
supper  in  the  museum,  and  on  April  22  twenty-five  members  of 
the  Dome  Club  toured  the  building. 


1919  GIFTS  95 

GIFTS 

Mr.  William  L.  Darling  of  St.  Paul,  a  member  of  the  railway 
commission  from  the  United  States  to  Russia,  has  presented  the 
society  with  a  file  of  the  Russian  Daily  News,  from  March  15  to 
August  4,  1917,  a  few  numbers  of  which  are  missing.  This  in- 
teresting and  valuable  paper,  called  originally  the  Private  News 
Letter,  was  started  in  1915  as  a  mimeographed  sheet  containing 
translations  into  English  of  the  more  important  news  items  from 
the  Russian  papers.  On  April  25,  with  the  appearance  of  the 
first  printed  number,  the  name  was  changed  to  the  Russian  Daily 
News;  and  thereafter,  until  July  23,  one  printed  number  was 
issued  each  week,  the  other  numbers  being  mimeographed.  The 
editor  and  publisher  was  H.  Custis  Vezey  of  Petrograd,  and  the 
file  presented  to  the  society  was  purchased  by  Mr.  Darling  in  that 
city.  The  first  number  contains  an  account  of  the  acts  of  the 
executive  committee  of  the  Duma  immediately  after  the  revolu- 
tion was  accomplished.  The  interests  of  the  paper  are  world- 
wide, and  the  news  from  the  foreign  countries,  especially  Great 
Britain  and  America,  is  given  as  much  prominence  as  is  that  of 
Russia.  The  file  is  particularly  valuable,  for  it  gives  first-hand 
condensed  accounts  in  English  of  events  in  Russia  during  the 
troubled  times  closely  following  the  revolution. 

Professor  H.  E.  Whitney  of  the  Shattuck  School  has  donated 
to  the  society  a  group  of  sixteen  pictures  of  early  steamboats  on 
the  upper  Mississippi.  These  pictures  are  a  valuable  addition  to 
the  collections  illustrating  the  history  of  steamboating. 

From  Mr.  Arthur  Courtney  of  St.  Paul  the  society  has  received 
two  German  coins.  Mr.  Courtney  is  now  with  the  Army  of  Oc- 
cupation in  Germany. 

A  framed  photograph  of  Paul  C.  Davis,  the  first  boy  in  his 
home  community  to  die  in  France,  has  been  received  from  his 
father,  the  Honorable  Andrew  Davis  of  Elk  River,  Minnesota. 

Mr.  George  P.  Metcalf  of  St.  Paul  has  donated  a  collection  of 
unique  pictures  of  the  courthouse  of  St.  Paul  in  1857,  Carson's 
Trading  Post,  Bemidiji,  and  of  Chief  Bemidiji. 


96  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  MAY 


• 


Mrs.  A.  P.  Moss  of  St.  Paul  has  placed  on  deposit  in  the 
museum  several  old-fashioned  ribbons,  shoes,  card  cases,  and 
other  articles  of  early  American  costume.  These  are  interesting 
additions  to  the  museum  collections  illustrating  early  domestic 
life.  Mrs.  Moss  has  also  presented  to  the  society  a  few  letters 
of  H.  L.  Moss,  a  Minnesota  pioneer  and  United  States  district 
attorney.  These  papers  pertain  largely  to  annuity  claims  of  the 
loyal  Sioux  of  1862. 

From  Mr.  Arthur  Courtney  of  St.  Paul  the  society  has  received 
ceived  a  considerable  number  of  manuscripts  and  museum  ob- 
jects. The  collection  includes  seventeen  valuable  autograph  let- 
ters bearing  the  signatures  of  prominent  people,  such  as  Phillips 
Brooks  and  Andrew  Carnegie;  also  two  interesting  broadsides^ 
one  entitled  "Old  Abe's  Preliminary  Visit  to  the  White  House," 
and  the  other,  "An  Appeal  to  Liberty  Men  to  Vote  Early  on  Mon- 
day morning,  November  8,  1847." 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  R.  D.  Strong  of  Minneapolis  a 
copy  of  the  journal  kept  by  Dr.  William  D.  Dibb,  government 
physician  and  surgeon  with  the  famous  Fisk  expeditions  of  1862,. 
1863,  1864,  has  been  deposited  with  the  society.  The  journal 
contains  daily  accounts  of  the  movements  of  soldiers  and  emi- 
grants across  the  western  plains,  describing  buffalo  hunts,  fights 
with  grizzly  bears,  an  attack  by  Indians  and  the  rescue  by  United 
States  troops  from  Fort  Rice,  and  the  rinding  of  gold.  Extracts 
from  the  most  interesting  entries,  together  with  an  account  of  the 
history  of  the  manuscript,  appear  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  of 
March  2. 


ana 


The  Register  of  the  Twin  City  Municipal  Exhibit  of  the  Louisi- 
a  Purchase  Exposition,  presented  by  Dr.  Dawson  Johnston  of 

St.  Paul,  is  an  interesting  addition  to  the  society's  collection  of 

registers. 

An  interesting  and  valuable  acquisition  is  a  contemporary 
"Journal  of  Travel  to  California  in  1853,"  presented  by  W.  W. 
Gilbert  of  Minneapolis.  The  wagon  train  in  which  Mr.  Gilbert 
traveled  left  Milwaukee,  April  15,  1853,  wound  its  way  across 
Wisconsin,  Illinois,  and  Iowa,  and  thence  by  the  prairie  trail  to- 
Salt  Lake  City  and  across  the  desert  to  Placerville,  California. 


1919  GIFTS  97 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Orrin  F.  Smith  the  society  has  come 
into  the  possession  of  a  number  of  interesting  papers  relating  to 
the  early  history  of  Winona. 

The  society  is  indebted  to  Colonel  C.  B.  Humphrey  of  the 
805th  Pioneer  Infantry  (colored)  for  a  copy  of  the  official  his- 
tory of  the  regiment  written  by  Captain  Paul  S.  Bliss  of  St.  Paul. 

An  interesting  manuscript  account  of  the  first  balloon  ascen- 
sion in  St.  Paul  in  1857,  written  by  J.  O.  Donahower,  has  been 
presented  by  Mr.  William  F.  Markoe  of  White  Bear. 

A  manuscript  collection,  primarily  of  interest  for  the  auto- 
graphs, has  been  presented  by  Frank  D.  Willis  of  St.  Paul.  Most 
of  the  twenty-two  letters  in  the  collection  are  signed  by  prominent 
Minnesotans,  such  as  Cushman  K.  Davis,  John  Lind,  and  Knute 
Nelson. 

Mr.  Joseph  G.  Butler  of  Youngstown,  Ohio,  a  member  of  the 
American  Industrial  Commission  to  France  in  1916,  has  presented 
the  society  with  an  autographed  copy  of  his  book  describing  the 
journey  of  the  commission.  The  book  contains  excellent  illustra- 
tions. 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT 

The  record  of  Archbishop  Ireland's  opposition  to  the  Cahens- 
ley  plot  forms  one  of  the  most  interesting  chapters  of  Ten  Years 
near  the  German  Frontier  by  Maurice  Francis  Egan  (New  York, 
1919.  364  p.).  Because  of  his  successful  efforts  in  nullifying 
this  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  German  government  to  keep 
German  Catholic  immigrants  in  America  faithful  to  the  Father- 
land by  placing  them  under  the  exclusive  influence  of  German 
teachers  and  preachers,  Father  Ireland  increased  the  ill  will  held 
for  him  by  the  former  Kaiser ;  he  incurred  the  enmity  of  Wil- 
liam in  earlier  years  by  his  friendship  for  Cardinal  Rampolla  and 
the  assistance  he  lent  in  getting  Pope  Leo  to  recognize  the  French 
Republic.  To  the  Kaiser's  enmity  Mr.  Egan  attributes  the  late 
Archbishop's  failure  to  gain  the  cardinal's  hat,  for  Austria  and 
Bavaria,  backed  by  Prussia,  protested  against  every  attempt  on 
the  part  of  Rome  to  give  him  the  reward  he  so  eminently  deserved. 
It  was  as  United  States  minister  to  Denmark,  that  Mr.  Egan  had 
access  to  sources  which  gave  him  much  of  "the  inside  of  recent 
history." 

Two  sketches  of  Archbishop  Ireland  have  recently  been  pub- 
lished in  pamphlet  form ;  one  a  memoir  entitled  Archbishop  Ire- 
land, Prelate,  Patriot,  Publicist,  compiled  by  the  Reverend  James 
M.  Rearclon  and  published  by  the  Catholic  Bulletin  (St.  Paul, 
1919.  30  p.)  ;  the  other  a  tribute  of  the  Minnesota  Commandery 
Military  Order  of  the  Loyal  Legion  of  the  United  States  (St. 
Paul,  1919.  10  p.),  of  which  organization  the  Archbishop  was  a 
companion,  having  served  as  chaplain  of  the  Fifth  Regiment 
Minnesota  Volunteer  Infantry  in  1862.  Both  are  valuable  rec- 
ords of  the  activities  of  this  distinguished  man. 

The  Historical  Department  of  Iowa  has  brought  out  a  revised 
and  extended  edition  of  Iowa  Authors  and  Their  Works:  A  Con- 
tribution toward  a  Bibliography,  by  Alice  Marple  (Des  Moines, 
1918.  359  p.). 


1919  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  99 

A  report  on  The  Northeastern  Minnesota  Forest  Fires  of 
October  12,  1918,  by  H.  W.  Richardson  of  the  United  states 
weather  bureau,  Duluth,  Minnesota,  has  appeared  in  pamphlet 
form,  a  reprint  from  the  Geographical  Review  for  April.  It  con- 
tains a  description  of  the  climatic  conditions  preceding  the  fires 
and  a  discussion  of  the  devastation  wrought  during  that  day  in 
Duluth  and  its  immediate  vicinity. 

In  a  series  of  fifteen  sketches  of  Indian  Heroes  and  Chieftains 
(Boston,  1918.  241  p.),  Charles  A.  Eastman,  a  full-blood  Sioux, 
points  out  the  characteristics  of  certain  Indian  "chiefs"  who  came 
into  prominence  in  the  last  part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  He 
differentiates  these  men,  who  often  did  not  represent  their  tribes, 
from  the  earlier  leaders  and  spokesmen  of  the  Indians.  Among 
the  biographies  are  those  of  two  prominent  figures  in  Minnesota 
history,  Little  Crow  and  Hole-in-the-Day. 

Three  recent  publications  of  the  agricultural  experiment  station 
of  the  University  of  Minnesota  contain  material  of  value  to  the 
student  of  the  history  of  agriculture  in  Minnesota :  Farm  Ten- 
ancy and  Leases,  by  S.  H.  Benton  (December,  1918.  33  p.)  ; 
The  Cost  of  Producing  Minnesota  Field  Crops,  1913-1917,  by  F. 
W.  Peck  (November,  1918.  42  p.)  ;  and  Experiences  of  North- 
ern Minnesota  Settlers,  by  F.  W.  Peck  (December,  1918.  433 
p.).  The  pamphlets  comprise  numbers  178,  179,  and  180  of  the 
station's  Bulletins. 

"The  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  and  Some  of  Its  History"  is 
the  subject  of  a  brief  article  by  Hanford  W.  Fairweather  in  the 
Washington  Historical  Quarterly  for  April. 

In  Certain  American  Faces  (New  York,  1918.  239  p.)  the 
Reverend  Charles  Lewis  Slattery  of  Grace  Church,  New  York, 
has  brought  together  in  a  single  volume  sketches  of  fifteen  men 
and  women  either  leaders  of  America  or  of  such  striking  person- 
ality as  to  "inspire  others  to  attainment  and  to  action  while  they 
themselves  prefer  a  dimmer  light."  Four  Minnesotans  are  in- 
cluded in  the  book:  Bishop  Henry  Whipple;  his  sister-in-law, 
Mrs.  George  Whipple ;  his  cousin,  Miss  Mary  Webster  Whipple ; 


r 

100  NEWS  AND   COMMENT  MAY 

%• 

and  Dr.  Charles  N.  Hewitt  of  Red  Wing.     The  author  was  dean 
of  the  cathedral  at  Faribault  from  1896  to  1907. 

A  sketch  of  John  Sargent  Pillsbury,  eighth  governor  of  Minne- 
sota, appears  in  the  Western  Magazine  for  April.  It  is  number 
nine  in  the  series,  "State  Builders  of  the  West,"  which  is  being 
published  at  irregular  intervals. 

The  Path  on  the  Rainbow,  edited  by  George  W.  Cronyn,  is  an 
addition  to  anthologies  of  North  American  Indian  songs  and 
chants  (New  York,  1918.  347  p.).  The  striking  resemblance  of 
this  aboriginal  product  to  the  work  of  the  ver s  librists  and  Imag- 
ists  indicates  that  freedom  in  versification  is  not  of  such  recent 
origin  as  followers  of  these  schools  would  have  us  believe.  The 
section  devoted  to  "Songs  from  the  Eastern  Woodlands"  con- 
tains several  poems  of  the  Chippewa  (Ojibway)  translated  by 
Henry  H.  Schoolcraft,  Charles  F.  Hoffman,  W.  J.  Hoffman,  and 
Frances  Densmore;  and  among  the  "Songs  from  the  Great 
Plains"  are  two  "Hunting  Songs,"  translated  by  Stephen  R. 
Riggs. 

Two  sheets  of  the  great  topographic  map  being  published  by 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey  which  have  recently  ap- 
peared are  "Brainerd  Quadrangle"  in  Crow  Wing  County  and 
"White  Rock  Quadrangle,"  which  includes  the  region  about  the 
northern  end  of  Lake  Traverse  in  Minnesota  and  both  of  the 
Dakotas. 

The  University  of  Colorado  has  begun  the  publication  of  a 
series  of  Historical  Collections  consisting  "of  documents  and 
other  material  primarily  relating  to  the  history  of  Colorado." 
The  first  volume,  edited  by  Professor  James  F.  Willard,  is  en- 
tltled  The  Union  Colony  at  Greely,  Colorado,  1869-1871  and  is 
volume  one  of  the  Colony  Series  (Boulder,  1918.  xxxii,  412  p.). 

The  Structural  and  Ornamental  Stones  of  Minnesota,  by  Oliver 
Bowles,  has  been  issued  as  number  663  of  the  Bulletins  of  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey  (1918.  225  p.).  It  was  "pre- 
pared in  cooperation  with  the  Minnesota  State  Geological  Sur- 
vey" and  contains,  besides  much  strictly  geological  information, 


1919  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  101 

a  brief   account  of   the   development   of   the   stone   industry   in 
Minnesota  and  many  maps,  sketches,  and  illustrations. 

• 

Of  inestimable  value  to  the  student  of  Minnesota  history  is 
the  work  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  in  mapping  the 
state.  A  report  on  the  work  already  done  appears  in  Topographic 
Mapping  of  Minnesota,  by  E.  F.  Willard,  a  reprint  from  the 
Bulletin  of  the  Affiliated  Engineering  Societies  of  Minnesota  for 
February  (7  p.). 

A  separate  containing  an  interview  with  Horace  V.  Winchell, 
mining  geologist  of  Minnesota,  appears  as  a  reprint  from  the 
Mining  and  Scientific  Press  for  February  15  (16  p.).  The  ar- 
ticle includes  much  information  in  regard  to  the  work  which  he 
did  in  connection  with  the  geological  survey  made  by  his  father, 
N.  H.  WinchelL  in  northern  Minnesota. 

An  account  by  Charles  C.  Willson  of  the  military  expedition 
led  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Morgan  through  Olmsted  County  in 
July  of  1820  appears  in  the  Rochester  Daily  Post  and  Record  of 
April  24. 

The  discovery  of  the  Dibb  Journal  led  to  the  writing  of  a  letter 
by  D.  J.  Dodge,  one  of  the  members  of  the  Fort  Rice  rescuing 
party  of  1864,  to  the  Minneapolis  Journal  of  March  23.  Mr. 
Dodge  recounts  the  story  of  the  attempted  Indian  massacre  of 
July  and  August,  1864. 

The  decline  of  transportation  on  the  Mississippi  since  1879  is 
the  subject  of  an  article  in  the  Winona  Independent  for  March 
2,  extracts  of  which  appear  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  of  March 
9.  The  account  is  based  on  a  hydrograph  made  from  the  annual 
reports  recorded  at  the  Northwestern  railroad  drawbridge  at 
Winona. 

A  sketch  of  the  Honorable  Darwin  S.  Hall,  the  "grand  old 
settler"  of  Renville  County,  Minnesota,  appears  in  the  February 
27  issue  of  the  Olivia  Times.  The  article  contains  interesting 
comments  on  his  life  and  work. 

Volume  12  of  the  Minnesota  Patriot,  a  quarterly  newspaper 
issued  by  the  Prohibition  committee  of  Minnesota,  contains  a 


102  NEWS  AND   COMMENT  MAY 

QI 

series  of  articles  of  considerable  interest  and  value  on  the  history 
of  prohibition  and  especially  the  part  Minnesota  played  in  the 
movement  which  brought  about  the  ratification  of  the  federal 
amendment  on  January  16,  1919. 

A  resume  of  the  history  of  the  Church  of  St.  Anthony  of 
Padua,  Minneapolis,  based  on  material  found  in  the  Dibb  Papers 
appears  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  of  March  30.  Pictures  of 
the  church  in  1861  and  at  the  present  time  illustrate  the  article. 

A  survey  of  the  steps  in  the  development  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
in  Minneapolis  appears  in  the  February  2  issue  of  the  Minne- 
apolis Journal.  A  picture  of  the  new  building  illustrates  the 
discussion  of  the  dedication  exercises  held  the  following  week. 

WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES 

Definite  provision  has  been  made  by  the  Legislature  of  Minne- 
sota for  the  continuation  of  the  work  inaugurated  last  fall  by  the 
public  safety  commission  and  the  historical  society  through  the 
instrumentality  of  a  body  now  well  known  as  the  Minnesota  War 
Records  Commission.  By  the  terms  of  an  act  approved  April  17 
(Laws,  1919,  ch.  284)  this  commission  was  established  as  a 
statutory  body  with  a  membership  composed  of  the  president  of 
the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  the  chairman  of  the  department 
of  history  of  the  University  of  Minnesota,  the  adjutant  general, 
the  state  superintendent  of  education,  and  five  other  citizens  to 
be  appointed  by  the  governor.  The  principal  duties  of  the  com- 
mission are  to  provide  for  the  collection  and  preservation,  in 
state  and  local  war  records  collections,  of  all  available  material 
relating  to  Minnesota's  participation  in  the  World  War,  and 
further  to  provide  for  the  preparation,  publication,  and  distribu- 
tion of  a  comprehensive  documentary  and  narrative  history  of 
Minnesota's  part  in  the  war.  For  the  purpose  of  carrying  out 
the  provisions  of  the  act,  the  legislature  appropriated  five  thou- 
sand dollars  for  each  year  of  the  coming  biennium.  As  a  further 
aid  to  the  work  to  be  carried  on  under  the  direction  of  the  com- 
mission a  law  was  enacted  (Laws,  1919,  ch.  228)  authorizing 
counties  and  municipalities  of  the  state  to  appropriate  funds  for 
the  use  of  the  commission's  county  war  records  committees  in 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  103 

amounts  ranging  from  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  for  villages 
and  one  thousand  for  counties  to  five  thousand  for  large  cities. 
It  was  the  hope  of  the  authors  of  these  measures  that  the  state 
commission  would  be  provided  with  funds  sufficient  to  enable  it 
during  the  next  years  not  only  to  push  the  work  of  collecting 
records  but  also  to  commence  work  on  the  projected  history  along 
the  lines  indicated  in  a  bulletin  issued  by  the  original  commission 
under  the  title  Minnesota's  Part  in  the  War:  Shall  It  be  Ade- 
quately Recorded?  (27  p.).  As  matters  stand,  however,  it  will 
be  necessary  for  the  commission  to  postpone  the  preparation  of  a 
state  war  history  and  devote  itself  to  the  large  and  more  im- 
mediately important  task  of  collecting  material. 

Local  committees  organized  by  the  Minnesota  War  Records 
Commission  are  now  at  work  in  fifty-three  counties.  Reports  re- 
ceived at  headquarters  indicate  that  a  considerable  amount  of 
valuable  material  is  being  collected.  Almost  without  exception 
the  local  committees  are  applying  themselves  particularly  to  the 
compilation  of  individual  military  service  records,  for  which 
forms,  or  questionnaires,  calling  for  specific  information  about 
a  man's  military  or  naval  career  and  about  his  civil  status  before 
and  immediately  following  his  term  of  service,  have  been  sup- 
plied by  the  state  commission.  Attention  is  also  being  given  to 
the  collection  of  other  material,  particularly  soldiers'  photographs 
and  letters,  files  of  local  newspapers,  and  reports  on  the  activities 
of  the  several  local  war  agencies.  There  is  a  slight  tendency, 
however,  to  overlook  some  of  the  less  obviously  pertinent  ma- 
terial, especially  in  the  case  of  those  direct  products  of  actual  war 
conditions  which  may  be  called  " ready-made"  records  as  dis- 
tinguished from  "made-to-order"  compilations  and  reports. 

Interest  in  the  collection  and  preservation  of  records  relating 
to  Wilkin  County's  part  in  the  war  has  extended  to  matters  of 
general  local  history  and  has  resulted  in  the  organization  of  a 
body  known  as  the  Wilkin  County  Historical  Society.  The  ob- 
ject of  this  society,  as  stated  in  its  constitution,  is:  "to  collect 
'data  and  material  relating  to  the  history  of  Wilkin  County, 
Minnesota;  to  arrange  for  its  preservation;  to  encourage  persons 
to  donate  to  the  society  such  data,  articles,  or  materials  as  will 


104  NEJVS  AND   COMMENT  MAY 

illustrate  the  pioneer  and  later  life  in  the  county  and  vicinity;  to 
excite  and  stimulate  a  general  interest  in  the  history  of  Wilkin 
County;  and  to  co-operate  with  similar  organizations."  For  the 
present,  however,  the  society  will  devote  its  efforts  to  the  collec- 
tion of  local  war  history  material,  having  incorporated  the  county 
war  records  commission  as  one  of  its  active  committees. 

The  war  records  committees  of  Chisago  and  Rice  counties 
have  decided,  in  addition  to  the  building  up  of  collections  of 
source  material,  to  compile  and  publish  histories  of  the  part  played 
by  their  respective  counties  in  the  war.  A  similar  project  is 
under  consideration  by  the  Douglas  County  committee.  The  his- 
tories will  be  sold  at  cost;  in  Rice  County  it  is  planned  to  dis- 
tribute copies  among  local  soldiers,  sailors,  marines,  and  relatives 
of  those  who  died  in  the  service,  as  tokens  of  the  county's  grati- 
tude and  esteem. 

Among  recently  announced  projects  of  local  newspaper  pub- 
lishers and  other  agencies  for  the  publication  of  county  war  his- 
tories, the  following  have  been  noted :  Big  Stone  County,  Orton- 
ville  Journal;  Blue  Earth  County,  Mankato  Free  Press;  Carlton 
County,  Moose  Lake  Star-Gazette;  Chippewa  County,  Monte- 
video News;  Cottonwood  County,  Window  Reporter  and  Thomp- 
son Studio;  Dakota  County,  Red  Wing  Printing  Company;  Fari- 
bault  County,  Wells  Forum- Advocate;  Goodhue  County,  Red 
Wing  Republican;  Lyon  County,  Marshall  News-Messenger; 
Martin  County,  Fairmont  Sentinel;  Mower  County,  Austin  Her- 
ald; Nobles  and  Rock  Counties,  Pipcstone  Leader;  Ottertail 
County,  Lundcen  Publishing  Company,  Fergus  Falls ;  Waclena 
County,  Wadena  Pioneer  Journal;  and  Waseca  County,  Waseca 
Journal-Radical. 

One  of  the  most  successful  methods  used  in  the  collection  of 
photographs  of  soldiers  and  of  local  war-time  scenes  is  the  stag- 
ing of  well-advertised  photographic  exhibits  with  the  ultimate 
object  of  retaining  the  collections  as  permanent  records.  Such 
an  exhibit  was  held  at  the  St.  Paul  Public  Library  from  January 
30  to  February  10  under  the  auspices  of  a  number  of  local  or- 
ganizations including  the  Ramsey  County  War  Records  Com- 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  105 

mittee,  and  resulted  in  the  assembling  of  a  permanent  collection 
of  several  thousand  photographs,  which  has  since  been  installed 
provisionally  in  the  rooms  of  the  St.  Paul  Institute.  In  securing 
soldiers'  service  records  some  of  the  county  war  record  commit- 
tees depend  largely  upon  general  appeals,  while  others  are  making 
systematic  efforts  to  bring  the  matter  home  to  the  individual 
soldier.  The  latter  is  the  practice  followed  in  Nobles  County, 
for  instance,  where  the  committee  has  made  arrangements  where- 
by the  desired  data  will  be  gathered  by  local  assessors  in  the 
course  of  their  regular  rounds.  The  Rice  County  War  Records 
Committee  has  been  unusually  successful  in  originating  methods 
for  making  its  work  effective.  It  has  made  ingenious  use  of  ad- 
vertising mediums  such  as  the  local  newspapers,  posters,  hand- 
bills, and  films. 

While  the  cooperation  of  all  citizens  of  the  state,  both  individu- 
ally and  collectively,  is  sought  by  the  war  records  commission, 
there  are  indications  that  the  organizations  now  being  formed 
among  returned  soldiers,  sailors,  and  marines  will  be  of  marked 
assistance,  especially  in  the  compilation  and  collection  of  military 
data  and  records.  A  tentative  organization  of  service  men  in 
Traverse  County  has  indicated  upon  its  own  motion  a  desire  to 
share  in  the  work,  while  the  Polk  County  branch  of  the  World 
War  Veterans  has  taken  active  charge  of  a  large  part  of  the 
work  planned  by  the  war  records  committee  of  that  county. 

Among  county  records  committees  receiving  notable  financial 
support  are:  the  Morrison  County  Committee,  for  which  the 
county  board  and  the  city  council  of  Little  Falls  have  each  ap- 
propriated one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars;  the  Mower 
County  committee,  which  has  received  a  gift  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  from  Mr.  Oliver  W.  Shaw,  an  Austin  banker;  the 
Nicollet  County  committee,  to  which  the  sum  of  five  hundred 
dollars  has  been  granted  by  the  county  board;  and  the  Rice 
County  committee,  which  has  received  one  thousand  dollars  of 
the  county  funds.  The  committee  in  St.  Louis  County,  in  ex- 
pectation of  receiving  early  and  substantial  public  aid,  has  em- 
ployed a  paid  secretary  and  has  opened  its  headquarters  at  the 
courthouse  in  Duluth. 


106  NEWS  AND   COMMENT  MAY 

As  a  guide  for  the  collection  of  local  war  history  material  and 
for  the  preparation  of  county  war  histories  for  publication,  the 
Indiana  Historical  Commission  has  issued  a  County  War  History 
Prospectus  (1919.  13  p.),  which  gives  in  outline  form  a  com- 
prehensive survey  of  the  various  phases  of  local  activities  which 
are  obviously  or  properly  to  be  dealt  with  in  an  adequate  treat- 
ment of  the  subject,  together  with  a  few  concise  directions  bring- 
ing out  the  importance  and  uses  to  be  made  of  original  source 
material  and  the  best  methods  of  dealing  with  the  various  topics. 
Similar  in  purpose  and  form,  though  differing  somewhat  in  the 
choice  and  arrangement  of  topics,  is  a  Tentative  Outline  for  a 
County  War  History  (22  p.),  which  comprises  the  February  num- 
ber of  Iowa  and  War,  published  by  the  State  Historical  Society 
of  Iowa. 

A  convenient  method  of  preserving  a  record  of  the  war  services 
of  the  members  of  a  family  is  suggested  by  the  Story  of  the  War 
and  Family  War  Service  Record  (St.  Paul,  Mackey,  Smith,  and 
Stiles,  1919.  324  p.).  Following  a  general  account  of  military 
and  naval  operations  in  the  World  War,  blank  forms  and  blank 
pages  comprising  over  half  the  book  are  provided  for  records  of 
the  war  services  of  particular  persons.  To  each  of  the  follow- 
ing types  of  service  is  alloted  a  separate  section  with  space  for  a 
photograph,  a  form  suitable  for  the  particular  purpose,  and  from 
one  to  four  blank  pages  for  a  narrative  account  of  experiences: 
army,  navy,  marine  corps,  air  service,  Red  Cross,  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
Y.  W.  C.  A.,  Knights  of  Columbus,  Salvation  Army,  Jewish  Wel- 
fare Board,  War  Camp  Community  Service,  Home  Guards,  Boy 
Scouts,  and  Civilian  War  Service. 

Collecting  Local  War  Records,  by  C.  Edward  Graves,  is  an 
interesting  article  which  appears  in  the  Library  Journal  for 
February.  It  is  an  appeal  to  the  local  librarian  to  assume  the  re- 
sponsibility of  a  war  records  commission  if  such  a  committee  has 
not  been  provided  for  a  given  community. 

"Ohio's  Religious  Organizations  and  the  War,"  by  Martha  L. 
Edwards,  in  the  Ohio  Archaeological  and  Historical  Quarterly  for 
April,  is  suggestive  of  the  multitude  of  topics  which  will  have  to 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  107 

be  studied  before  the  sympathetic  historian  can  present  an  ade- 
quate treatment  of  a  state's  part  in  the  World  War. 

Under  plans  worked  out  by  the  committee  on  historical  records 
of  the  National  Catholic  War  Council,  diocesan  war  history  com- 
mittees are  being  organized  throughout  the  country  for  the  pur- 
pose of  gathering  all  available  material  for  a  history  of  the  part 
played  by  the  American  Catholics  in  the  war.  Detailed  direc- 
tions for  the  work,  which  appear  in  a  Handbook  of  the  National 
Catholic  War  Council  and  in  recent  numbers  of  the  Catholic  His-* 
torical  Review,  indicate  that  a  very  thorough  survey  is  to  be  made 
of  the  individual  and  collective  services  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
clergy  and  laity.  The  work  in  Minnesota  is  in  charge  of  the 
Very  Reverend  James  C.  Byrne  of  St.  Luke's  Church,  St.  Paul. 

The  War  Record  of  American  Jezvs  (New  York,  The  Ameri- 
can Jewish  Committee.  50  p.)  contains  the  first  report  of  the 
efforts  made  by  this  organization  "to  collect  and  record  as  much 
statistical  and  other  information  with  regard  to  the  participation 
of  the  Jews  in  the  military  and  civilian  activities  of  the  United 
States  in  connection  with  the  war  as  is  possible  to  procure."  The 
pamphlet  is  accompanied  by  tables,  based  upon  about  eighty  thou- 
sand of  the  one  hundred  thousand  individual  records  thus  far  se- 
cured, giving  provisional  figures  as  to  the  number  and  distribu- 
tion of  Jews  according  to  their  branch  of  the  service,  rank,  and 
place  of  origin.  These  preliminary  counts  show  that  six  hundred 
and  fifty-eight  are  from  Minnesota  and  that  of  these  two  hun- 
dred and  eighty-one  are  residents  of  Minneapolis. 

Of  preliminary  accounts  or  summaries  of  the  part  taken  by  the 
several  states  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  two  have  come  to 
hand:  one,  Wisconsin's  War  Record,  by  Fred  L.  Holmes  (Madi- 
son, Capitol  Historical  Publishing  Company,  1919.  191  p.)  ;  the 
other,  an  Official  Report  (54  p.)  of  the  Oklahoma  State  Council 
of  Defense,  covering  its  own  and  other  leading  war  activities  in 
that  state  during  the  period  from  May,  1917,  to  January  1,  1919, 
and  published  as  the  last  number  (March  17)  of  the  official  Bulle- 
tin issued  by  the  council  under  the  title  Sooners  in  the  War. 


108  NEWS  AND   COMMENT  MAY 

% 

An  important  contribution  to  the  literature  on  one  phase  of 
Minnesota's  part  in  the  war  appears  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  Re- 
sponsibility for  the  Movement  of  Anthracite  in  Minnesota  in  the 
Fuel  Year  April  i.  1918,  to  February  i,  1919,  by  John  F.  McGee 
(20  p.).  The  author  endeavors  to  correct  what  he  holds  to  be 
the  general  imipression  iamong  the  dealers  and  consumers  of  the 
state  that  he,  as  federal  fuel  administrator  for  Minnesota,  was 
responsible  for  the  failure  of  the  fuel  administration  to  see  that 
the  dealers  received  the  anthracite  necessary  to  fill  orders  filed 
early  in  the  season  at  the  urgent  request  of  the  fuel  administration 
itself.  Judge  McGee's  statement  is  accompanied  by  a  series  of 
letters  and  telegrams  dealing  with  the  subject  and,  for  the  most 
part,  directed  to  Mr.  William  H.  Groverman,  representative  of 
the  federal  fuel  administration  in  the  district  embracing  Wiscon- 
sin, Minnesota,  and  North  and  South  Dakota. 

The  February  15  issue  of  Minnesota  in  the  War;  Official  Bulle- 
tin of  the  Minnesota  Commission  of  Public  Safety  is  a  "special 
edition  for  the  woman's  committee"  and  contains  brief  surveys 
of  various  phases  of  the  war  work  of  Minnesota  \vomen. 

Copies  of  the  "Chronicles  of  the  Selective  Draft"  compiled  by 
the  local  draft  boards  of  Mille  Lacs  County  and  Division  No.  1 
of  St.  Paul  and  of  the  district  board  of  Division  No.  3,  St.  Paul, 
have  been  received  by  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission. 
The  chronicles  submitted  by  the  local  board  of  St.  Paul  were 
accompanied  by  a  typewritten  account  covering  such  subjects  as 
its  organization  and  personnel,  the  registration,  examination, 
classification,  and  entrainment  of  selective  service  men,  experi- 
ences with  "religious  objectors,"  draft  evaders,  and  delinquents, 
and  the  services  and  personnel  of  legal  and  medical  advisory 
boards  and  groups  of  volunteer  and  clerical  aides. 

A  recent  publication  of  considerable  value  is  the  Summary  and 
Report  of  War  Service  (Minneapolis  Division,  American  Pro- 
tective League.  27  p.).  It  contains  a  wealth  of  information 
about  the  activities  carried  on  by  the  Minneapolis  division  of  the 
American  Protective  League  in  the  apprehension  of  slackers,  de- 
linquents, deserters,  seditionists,  and  spies;  in  the  surveillance  of 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  109 

enemy  aliens  and  suspects:  in  the  investigation  of  propaganda; 
and  in  correcting  conditions  which  threatened  the  physical  and 
moral  well-beipg  of  men  in  the  service. 

How  Minnesota  Gave  to  the  United  States  the  First  Military 
Motor  Corps,  compiled  and  published  by  Ralph  H.  Bancroft 
(Minneapolis,  1919.  118  p.),  is  an  interesting  and  valuable  rec- 
ord of  the  work  of  the  First  Battalion,  Motor  Corps,  of  the 
Minnesota  Home  Guards.  The  book  contains  pictures  and  ros- 
ters of  the  officers  and  men  belonging  to  the  unit  and  depicts  the 
stages  in  its  development. 

Among  the  papers  and  magazines  published  in  the  interest  of 
soldiers,  sailors,  and  marines,  which  are  currently  received  by 
the  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission  are:  the  Watch  on  the 
Rhine,  issued  weekly,  beginning  February  27,  by  the  men  of  the 
Third  (Marne)  Division  from  the  headquarters  at  Andernach, 
Germany;  the  Ninth  Infantry  "Cootie,"  published  weekly,  begin- 
ning March  29,  by  men  of  the  Ninth  Regiment  United  States  In- 
fantry (Second  Division)  at  Bendorf  on  the  Rhine;  the  Loyal 
Worker,  published  semimonthly  at  Stillwater  by  the  Honor  Club 
of  Washington  County  soldiers,  sailors,  and  marines;  and  Re- 
veille, issued  weekly,  beginning  April  26,  as  the  official  publica- 
tion of  the  United  States  Army  General  Hospital  No.  29,  Fort 
Snelling.  While  devoted  in  large  part  to  articles,  news,  and 
comment  relating  to  present-day  activities  and  interests  of  units 
or  groups  of  men  now  or  formerly  in  the  service,  each  of  these 
publications  offers  many  contributions  to  the  history  of  active 
operations  in  which  the  various  units  or  individuals  took  part. 
For  example,  the  Watch  on  the  Rhine  is  running  a  series  of  ar- 
ticles covering  the  services  performed  by  the  Third  Division  dur- 
ing the  critical  period  preceding  the  armistice  and  later  as  a  part 
of  the  Army  of  Occupation ;  while  the  April  1  issue  of  the  Loyal 
Worker  contains  an  honor  roll  of  the  names,  in  a  few  cases  ac- 
companied by  photographs,  of  Washington  County  men  in  the 
service.  Special  interest  attaches  to  the  "Cootie"  by  reason  of 
the  fact  that  its  editor-in-chief,  Lieutenant  Claire  I.  Weikert,  is 
a  former  resident  of  St.  Paul. 


HO  NEWS  AND   COMMENT  MAY 

The  concluding  number  (volume  1,  number  28)  of  the  Pro- 
pellor,  published  by  the  Air  Service  Mechanics  School  in  St.  Paul, 
is  devoted  to  a  resume  of  the  work  done  at  the  school  from 
February,  1918,  to  January,  1919.  The  most  striking  feature  of 
the  number  is  the  numerous  photographic  reproductions  illustra- 
tive of  the  commissioned,  enlisted,  and  civilian  personnel,  of  the 
work  done  in  the  various  departments,  and  of  the  daily  life  at  the 
school. 

An  account  of  the  organization,  training,  and  camp  life  of  the 
Ninety-first  (Wild  West)  Division  at  Camp  Lewis,  Washington, 
appears  in  a  book  entitled  The  Ninety-first:  the  First  at  Camp 
Lewis,  by  Alice  P.  Henderson  (Tacoma,  John  C.  Barr,  1918. 
510  p.).  It  is  estimated  that  of  the  Minnesota  selective  service 
men  sent  to  Camp  Lewis  more  than  fifteen  hundred  were  assigned 
to  this  division. 

The  North  Star  (Minneapolis)  for  April  publishes  "The  Story 
of  the  'Lost  Battalion'  "  as  told  by  Private  Arthur  R.  Looker  of 
Viola,  Wisconsin,  who  was  with  that  famous  unit  when  it  was 
surrounded  by  the  Germans  in  the  Argonne  Forest  and  who  is 
one  of  the  few  survivors  of  the  ordeals  through  which  it  passed. 
A  sketch  of  the  battleground,  made  by  Mr.  Looker,  accompanies 
the  article. 

The  Minnesota  Memorial  Commission,  appointed  by  the 
governor  to  receive  suggestions  and  make  recommendations  for  a 
state  memorial,  submitted  a  report  in  February  recommending 
that  the  memorial  take  the  form  of  a  mall  on  the  campus  of  the 
University  of  Minnesota  with  a  large  auditorium  at  the  northern 
end  and  a  campanile,  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  in  height, 
at  the  southern  end  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi.  There  was 
also  submitted  a  minority  report  recommending  that  the  memorial 
take  the  form  of  a  building,  strictly  commemorative  in  character, 
to  be  located  on  or  near  the  grounds  of  the  Capitol  in  St.  Paul. 
These  reports,  which  appear  in  two  pamphlets  entitled  respec- 
tively Report  of  the  Minnesota  Memorial  Commission  (26  p.) 
and  A  Statement  of  Facts  Relating  to  the  Proposed  State  Me- 
morial (7  p.),  were  transmitted  by  the  governor  to  the  legislature 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  111 

without  recommendation.  Other  plans,  submitted  by  members, 
were  up  for  consideration  by  the  legislature.  The  session  closed, 
however,  without  any  decisive  action  being  taken  in  the  matter. 

Although  the  recent  legislature  took  no  action  toward  the  erec- 
tion of  a  state  memorial  to  veterans  of  the  World  War,  the  way 
was  opened  for  local  projects  of  this  character  when  it  provided 
that  "the  bonds  of  any  county  in  this  state  may  be  issued  and  sold 
in  an  amount  not  exceeding  $50,000,  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring 
a  site  at  county  seat  and  constructing  thereon  a  monument  or 
memorial  in  honor  of  the  soldiers  and  sailors  who  fought  in  the 
army,  marine  corps  and  navy  of  the  United  States  during  the 
recent  war"  (Laws,  1919,  ch.  438).  The  issuance  of  such 
bonds,  however,  is  contingent  first,  upon  the  favorable  •  decision 
of  the  county  board,  and,  finally,  upon  the  endorsement  of  a  ma- 
jority of  those  voting  on  the  proposition  when  submitted. 

Discussion  of  projects  for  the  erection  of  local  war  memorials 
is  active  throughout  the  state.  In  some  communities,  the  city  of 
St.  Paul  and  Winona  and  Red  Lake  counties,  for  example,  the 
matter  has  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  an  official  commission  or 
of  a  voluntary  association,  while  in  other  localities,  the  county 
board,  commercial  club,  or  other  organization  has  taken  the  ini- 
tiative. To  such  bodies  and  to  the  public  through  the  press  have 
come  a  great  variety  of  suggestions.  Among  the  types  of  me- 
morials considered  are  parks,  fountains,  bridges,  and  highways; 
symbolic  memorials,  in  all  gradations  and  variations  from  the 
most  elaborate  architectural  and  scenic  design  recommended  for 
the  large  civic  center  to  the  simple  shaft  or  sculptored  monument 
intended  for  the  rural  community;  and  memorial  halls  or  com- 
munity buildings  designed  for  the  living  as  well  as  for  the  dead 
and  embodying  one  or  more  such  features  as  an  auditorium,  a 
library,  a  club  room  for  veterans'  associations,  an  office  for  social 
and  civic  organizations,  a  gymnasium,  a  rest  room,  a  tablet  in- 
scribed with  the  names  of  service  men,  or  facilities  for  the  pre- 
servation of  war  relics  and  records.  While  the  subject  is  still 
under  discussion  in  most  communities,  the  general  trend  of  opin- 
ion appears  to  favor  the  community  building  type  of  memorial. 
Duluth  has  already  made  preliminary  arrangements  for  the  erec- 


112  NEWS  AND   COMMENT  MAY 

tion  of  a  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollar  marble  structure. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  provision  is  to  be  made  for  the  hous- 
ing of  relics  and  records  relating  to  the  war  services  of  Duluth 
citizens,  together  with  historical  records  of  the  development  of 

the  city. 

Valuable  suggestions  for  those  interested  in  war  memorials 
from  an  aesthetic  as  well  as  an  utilitarian  point  of  view  are  found 
in  the  following  publications  :  War  Memorials:  Suggestions  as  to 
the  Form  of  Obtaining  Designers  (Washington,  D.  C,  National 
Commission  of  Fine  Arts.  3  p.)  ;  four  Bulletins  (New  York, 
National  Committee  on  Memorial  Buildings),  which  advocate  the 
erection  of  community  buildings  as  ''living  tributes  to  those  who 
served  in  the  Great  War  for  liberty  and  democracy";  and  Con- 
cerning War  Memorials,  (Madison,  Wisconsin  War  History  Com- 
mittee. 6  p.),  a  pamphlet  which  warns  against  commercialism 
and  contains  a  statement  of  "certain  broad  general  principles  . 
.  .  to  which  every  community,  in  working  out  its  particular 
problem,  should  give  heed." 

War  Memorials  is  the  title  of  a  timely  pamphlet  issued  by  the 
Municipal  Art  Society  of  New  York  City  as  number  seventeen  of 
its  Bulletins.  In  it  those  who  may  be  charged  with  responsibility 
in  connection  with  soldier's  memorials  will  find  many  helpful  sug- 
gestions. 


MINNESOTA 
HISTORY  BULLETIN 


VOL.  3,  No.  3 
WHOLE  No.  19 
AUGUST,  1919 


HENRY  HASTINGS  S1BLEY  AND  THE 
MINNESOTA  FRONTIER1 

If  the  West  be  thought  of  as  a  period  rather  than  a  place 
then  the  study  of  a  limited  area  which  passed  through  the  suc- 
cessive stages  in  the  evolution  of  society  on  the  frontier  will 
be  typical  of  what  was  repeated  over  and  over  again  in  the 
conquest  and  settlement  of  the  continent.  And,  in  the  same 
way,  if  a  study  be  made  of  an  individual  who  lived  through 
and  participated  in  or  at  least  witnessed  the  various  steps,  vivid 
illustrations  of  the  significant  features  of  the  westward  move- 
ment may  be  found.  In  the  second  and  third  quarters  of  the 
nineteenth  century  these  conditions  were  present  in  that  part  of 
the  upper  Mississippi  Valley  which  became  Minnesota  and  in 
the  life  of  Henry  Hastings  Sibley,  fur-trader,  first  delegate  to 
Congress  from  Minnesota  Territory,  and  first  governor  of  the 
state  of  Minnesota. 

The  Sibley  family  furnishes  a  good  illustration  of  the  migra- 
tion of  the  New  England  element.2  The  story  of  this  family 
takes  its  beginning  in  old  England  back  almost,  if  not  quite,  to 
the  time  of  the  Norman  Conquest.3  The  Puritan  emigration 
during  the  period  of  the  personal  rule  of  Charles  I  brought  the 
first  Sibleys  to  the  shores  of  New  England,  to  what  may  be 
called  the  first  American  West.4  There,  in  the  second  genera- 
tion, some  of  the  family  helped  to  settle  one  of  the  several  new 
towns  then  being  formed  on  the  Indian  frontier,  and  in  the 

1  Read  at  the  twelfth  annual  meeting  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  His- 
torical Association,  St.  Louis,  May  8,  1919. 

2  See  Lois   K.   Mathews,   The  Expansion  of  New  England   (Boston, 
1909). 

3  William  A.  Benedict  and  Hiram  A.  Tracy,  History  of  the  Town  of 
Suit  on,    Massachusetts,    from    1704    to    1876,    718    (Worcester,    1878) ; 
Nathaniel  West,  The  Ancestry,  Life,  and  Times  of  Hon.  Henry  Hastings 
Sibley,  LL.  D.,  1-17  (St.  Paul,  1889). 

4  "The  oldest  West  was  the  Atlantic  coast."    Frederick  J.  Turner,  "The 
Old  West,"  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Society,  Proceedings,  1908,  p.  184. 

115 


116  WILSON  P.  SHORTRIDGE  AUG. 

process  they  began  to  take  on  some  of  the  characteristics  of 
frontiersmen.  For  three  generations  the  branch  under  consid- 
eration was  identified  with  the  town  of  Sutton,  Massachusetts. 
Finally  in  1795,  Solomon  Sibley,  a  young  lawyer,  began  a 
journey  along  the  trail  that  led  to  the  first  real  American  West, 
the  region  beyond  the  Alleghanies,  going  first  to  Marietta  and 
then  to  Detroit.5  This  paper  will  follow  the  fortunes  of  a 
younger  son  of  that  Solomon  Sibley,  from  his  boyhood  in 
Detroit  through  his  life  in  the  Indian  country  of  the  upper 
Mississippi,  where  he  saw  the  change  from  the  fur-traders' 
frontier  to  territorial  days  and  thence  to  statehood,  an  evolu- 
tion typical  in  the  advance  of  the  frontier  across  the  continent. 
Three  times  did  members  of  this  family  migrate  to  a  newer 
American  West  and  live  through  this  evolution  of  society. 
Sometimes  the  early  settlers  in  the  wilderness  formed  the  habit 
of  drifting  along  with  the  frontier ;  but  the  more  ambitious  of 
the  pioneers,  of  whom  Sibley  is  an  example,  went  farther  west 
in  order  to  get  a  start  in  life  and  then  waited  for  later  waves 
of  civilization  to  overtake  them.6 

Henry  Hastings  Sibley  was  born  in  Detroit,  Michigan,  Feb- 
ruary 20,  1811.  He  was  educated  in  the  schools  of  Detroit 
and  had  two  years  instruction  in  Greek  and  Latin  under  an 
Episcopalian  clergyman.  His  parents  intended  that  he  should 
be  a  lawyer,  and  he  studied  law  for  two  years.  But  the  pros- 
pects of  a  legal  career  did  not  appeal  to  a  young  man  in  whose 
veins  coursed  the  blood  of  several  generations  of  pioneers.7 

5  Solomon  Sibley  was  the  first  settler  to  go  to  Detroit  after  the  evacu- 
ation of  that  post  by  the  British  in  1796  as  provided  for  in  the  Jay  treaty. 
Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Collections,  6 :  488 ;  Mathews,  Expansion 
of  New  England,  230. 

6  A  good  description  of  the  waves  of  civilization  may  be  found  in  John 
M.  Peck,  A  New  Guide  for  Emigrants  to  the  West  (Boston,  1836). 

7  On  his  father's  side  Sibley's  ancestry  can  be  traced  without  break  to 
John   Sibley  who  came  to  Salem,  Massachusetts,  possibly  in  1629,  cer- 
tainly by  1634.     His  mother  was   Sarah  Whipple   Sproat,   daughter  of 
Colonel  Ebenezer  Sproat,  a  surveyor  who  worked  on  the  "seven  ranges"  in 
1786  and  helped  in  the  surveys  at  Marietta.     Colonel  Sproat's  wife  was 
Catherine    Whipple,    9,    daughter    of    Commodore    Whipple,    who    was 


1919  S1BLEY  AND  THE  FRONTIER  117 

Accordingly,  with  the  consent  of  his  parents,  he  gave  up  his 
legal  studies  and,  after  a  time,  secured  a  clerkship  with  the 
American  Fur  Company  at  Mackinac,  a  position  which  hie  held 
for  four  years.  The  fur  company  was  anxious  to  secure  young 
men  of  ability  and  promise  and  rapidly  advanced  those  who 
made  good.  Such  a  man  was  Sibley. 

In  1834  the  American  Fur  Company  was  reorganized.  John 
Jacob  Astor  retired  and  Ramsay  Crooks  became  president  of 
the  new  company  which  retained  the  old  name.  At  this  time 
Sibley  found  himself  at  a  turning  point  in  his  career.  He 
received  an  offer  of  a  position  as  cashier  of  a  bank  in  Detroit 
and  a  similar  offer  from  a  bank  in  Huron  and  had  almost 
decided  to  accept  one  of  them  when  the  way  was  opened  for 
him  to  become  a  partner  in  the  fur  company.  As  a  clerk  at 
Mackinac  he  had  become  acquainted  with  the  traders  who 
annually  reported  with  their  furs  at  the  company  headquarters. 
Two  of  these  traders,  Hercules  L.  Dousman  and  Joseph 
Rolette  Sr.,  had  been  engaged  in  the  fur  trade  for  many  years 
with  headquarters  at  Prairie  du  Chien.  They  now  proposed 
to  Sibley  that  he  join  them  in  making  an  agreement  with  the 
American  Fur  Company  by  which  the  company  would  advance 
the  goods  and  the  men  give  their  time  in  extending  operations 
on  the  upper  Mississippi  among  the  Sioux.  According  to  their 
plan,  Sibley  would  establish  new  headquarters  on  the  St. 
Peter's  River  and  have  charge  of  all  the  operations  in  that 
vicinity.  The  two  friends  pictured  the  wild  life  on  the  frontier 
in  such  glowing  terms  that  Sibley  was  influenced  to  decline  the 
bank  offers  and  to  link  his  fortunes  with  the  Indian  country 
destined  to  be  Minnesota.8 

descended  from  John  Whipple,  one  of  the  original  proprietors  of  Provi- 
dence Plantations  and  an  associate  of  Roger  Williams.  Samuel  P.  Hil- 
dreth,  Biograhical  and  Historical  Memoirs  of  the  Early  Pioneer  Settlers 
of  Ohio,  159-162,  230-237  (Cincinnati,  1852)  ;  Benedict  and  Tracy,  Suit  on, 
718;  West,  Sibley,  47. 

8  Sibley,  "Memoir  of  Hercules  L.  Dousman,"  in  Minnesota  Historical 
Collections,  3:192-194. 


' 
118  WILSON  P.  SHORTRIDGE  AUG. 

The  partnership  was  accordingly  formed  and  on  October  28, 
1834,  Sibley  arrived  at  Mendota,  across  the  St.  Peter's  River 
from  Fort  Snelling.9  Two  years  afterward  he  built  the  stone 
house  which  was  his  residence  until  1862  when  he  moved  to 
St.  Paul.  The  land  on  which  it  was  located  was  not  opened  for 
settlement  for  many  years,  in  fact,  not  until  the  time  when  he 
was  delegate  to  Congress  from  Minnesota  Territory.  During 
all  these  years,  therefore,  he  was  a  squatter  on  the  public 
domain.  Concerning  his  residence  here  in  different  political 
jurisdictions,  Sibley  wrote  some  time  later:  "It  may  seem 
paradoxical,  but  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  I  was  successively 
a  citizen  of  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and  Minnesota  Terri- 
tories, without  changing  my  residence  at  Mendota,"10  In  the 
short  period  of  fourteen  years  four  territories  had  exercised 
nominal  jurisdiction  over  the  site,  and  from  1846  to  1848  the 
region  west  of  the  Mississippi  in  which  Mendota  is  located  had 
been  without  territorial  organization.  Rapid  changes  of  this 
sort  were  one  of  the  significant  features  of  the  westward  move- 
ment. 

The  fur  trade  in  Minnesota  was  in  its  most  flourishing  con- 
dition immediately  preceding  1837.  That  year,  however, 
marks  the  turning  point  in  its  history.11  Up  to  that  time  all 
the  lands  within  the  limits  of  the  future  Minnesota  Territory, 
except  the  military  reservation  at  Fort  Snelling,  belonged  to 
the  Indians,  but  in  1837  a  delegation  of  Sioux  chiefs  was  taken 
to  Washington  and  a  treaty  was  negotiated  with  them  for  the 

9  Sibley  to  Ramsay  Crooks,  November  1,  1834,  Sibley  Papers.     These 
papers,  which  are  in  the  possession  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society, 
are  especially  valuable  for  studies  of  the  fur  trade  in  Minnesota  and  of 
territorial  politics  from  1848  to  1853. 

10  Sibley,  "Reminiscences  of  the  Early  Days  of  Minnesota,"  in  Minne- 
sota Historical  Collections,  3:265. 

11  Ramsay  Crooks  to  Sibley,  April  27,   1836,  Sibley  Papers.     A  com- 
parison of  the  prices  and  amounts  of  fur  collected  as  given  in  the  Sibley 
Papers  and  in  the  books  of  the  American  Fur  Company  for  the  years 
before  and  after  1837  shows  that  that  year  was  the  turning  point  in  the 

history  of  the  fur  trade. 


1919  SIB  LEY  AND  THE  FRONTIER  119 

cession  of  certain  lands  east  of  the  Mississippi.12  This  treaty 
was  made  primarily  to  open  up  the  pine  forests  of  the  St.  Croix 
Valley  to  pioneer  lumbermen,  the  advance  guard  of  the  second 
wave  of  civilization,  and  it  was  thereby  an  indication  that  the 
fur-traders'  frontier  would  soon  pass  away. 

After  the  steady  advance  of  the  white  settlers  made  neces- 
sary the  negotiation  of  treaties  for  the  cession  of  land,  the 
Indians  underwent  a  marked  transformation.  They  came  to 
rely  more  upon  annuities  from  the  government  and  less  upon 
the  collection  of  furs.  This  fact,  together  with  the  growing 
scarcity  of  fur-bearing  animals  in  the  region,  brought  about  a 
decline  in  the  fur  trade.  This  does  not  mean,  however,  that 
the  total  amount  of  trade  carried  on  with  the  Indians  neces- 
sarily decreased.  After  the  government  began  to  pay  the 
annuities,  the  Indians  could  pay  for  part  of  their  goods  in  cash, 
and  so  the  fur  company  began  a  retail  business.  With  the 
appearance  of  white  men  other  than  traders  this  business  was 
naturally  extended  to  them.  As  white  settlement  increased  still 
more  the  fur  company  undertook  banking  operations,  making 
loans,  cashing  drafts  brought  in  by  settlers,  and  selling 
exchange  on  the  New  York  office  to  those  who  wished  to  send 
money  out  of  the  region.13  This  transformation  of  a  fur- 
trading  enterprise  into  a  general  mercantile  and  financial  estab- 
lishment is  typical  of  the  evolution  of  institutions  in  a  frontier 
community. 

The  second  wave  of  civilization  to  come  up  the  Mississippi 
made  its  appearance  in  Minnesota  in  the  last  years  of  the 
decade  of  the  thirties.  Although  the  treaty  with  the  Indians 

12  United  States,  Statutes  at  Large,  7 : 538.     A  map  showing  the  ces- 
sions of  land  in  Minnesota  in  the  different  Indian  treaties  may  be  found 
in   William  W.  Folwell,  Minnesota,  the  North  Star  State,  frontispiece 
(Boston,  1908).     See  also  Charles  C.  Royce   (comp.),  Indian  Land  Ces- 
sions in  the  United  States,  766   (Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  Eigh- 
teenth Annual  Report,  part  2— Washington,  1899). 

13  Sydney  A.  Patchin,  'The  Development  of  Banking  in  Minnesota,"  in 
MINNESOTA  HISTORY  BULLETIN,  2:115-119   (August,  1917). 


120  WILSON  P.  SHORTRIDGE  Auc, 

was  made  in  1837,  the  lands  were  not  surveyed  and  sold  for 
many  years.  The  early  lumbermen,  as  well  as  the  pioneer 
farmers  and  even  town  promoters,  were,  therefore,  squatters 
upon  the  public  domain,  the  latter  classes  relying  upon  their 
land  claim  associations  to  secure  their  title.  The  first  regular 
"outfit"  of  lumbermen  was  established  in  1837  by  John  Boyce 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Kanabec  or  Snake  River.14  In  the  same 
year  Sibley,  with  two  partners,  made  a  contract  with  the  St. 
Croix  and  Sauk  River  bands  of  the  Chippewa  by  which  they 
secured  permission  to  cut  pine  for  a  period  of  ten  years.  The 
Indians  agreed  not  to  molest  the  contractors  or  their  lumber- 
men and  also  not  to  permit  anyone  else  to  cut  timber  in  the 
region.  In  return  for  these  concessions,  the  contractors  agreed 
to  furnish  to  the  Indians  a  specified  amount  of  goods,  includ- 
ing gunpowder,  lead,  scalping  knives,  and  tobacco,  every  year 
during  the  period  of  the  contract.15  Once  a  beginning  had 
been  made,  other  lumbermen  came  into  the  region,  sawmills 
were  established,  and  lumbering  towns  appeared. 

The  lumbering  industry  was  partly  responsible  for  the  com- 
ing of  the  next  class  of  white  settlers,  the  pioneer  farmers.  In 
the  period  of  beginnings,  the  lumbermen  secured  their  provi- 
sions and  supplies  from  the  settlements  down  the  Mississippi. 
It  was  not  long,  however,  before  some  of  the  settlers  recog- 
nized that  Minnesota  might  have  agricultural  possibilities  and 
that  farmers  would  find  a  ready  market  for  their  surplus  prod- 
ucts among  the  lumbermen.  The  census  of  1840  stated  that 
St.  Croix  County,  Wisconsin  Territory,  which  included  the 
region  between  the  St.  Croix  and  the  Mississippi  together  with 
a  part  of  the  present  state  of  Wisconsin,  produced  8,014  bushels 
of  potatoes  and  606  bushels  of  corn.  Agriculture  did  not  exist 
as  an  independent  occupation,  however,  until  between  1840  and 

14  Edward  W.  Durant,  "Lumbering  and  Steamboating  on  the  St.  Croix 
River,"  in  Minnesota  Historical  Collections,  10:648  (part  2). 

15  This    contract,    dated   March    13,    1837,   was    signed   by   forty-seven 
Chippewa  Indians  and  by  Sibley,  Warren,  and  Aitkin.    It  is  in  the  Sibley 
Papers. 


1919  SIB  LEY  AND  THE  FRONTIER  121 

1850.16  There  had  been  some  stock  raising  in  the  Minnesota 
region  in  the  thirties  when  Joseph  Renville,  at  Lac  qui  Parle 
owned,  as  Sibley  said,  "sheep  by  the  hundreds  and  cattle  by 
the  score."17  As  the  decade  of  the  thirties  was  the  heyday  of 
the  fur  trade  in  Minnesota,  so  the  decade  of  the  forties  brought 
lumbering  to  the  front  as  the  predominant  industry,  and  that 
of  the  fifties  marked  the  transition  to  agriculture. 

As  has  already  been  indicated,  the  early  settlers  in  Minne- 
sota were  dependent  upon  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi. 
The  first  steamboat  to  come  up  the  river  as  far  as  Fort  Snell- 
ing  was  the  "Virginia"  which  arrived  at  that  point  on  May 
10,  1823,  thus  demonstrating  that  it  was  practicable  for  steam- 
boats to  navigate  the  Mississippi  as  far  as  the  St.  Peter's 
River.  There  was  no  regular  steamboat  line  established,  how- 
ever, until  1847  when  a  company  was  formed,  with  Sibley  as 
a  member,  to  run  a  regular  line  of  packets  from  Galena  to 
Mendota.18 

Very  little  government  existed  before  1840  in  the  region 
which  became  Minnesota.  In  that  year  the  peninsula  between 
the  St.  Croix  and  the  Mississippi  rivers  was  included  in  the 
newly  organized  county  of  St.  Croix,  .Wisconsin  Territory. 
In  the  region  west  of  the  Mississippi,  Sibley  was  for  many 
years  the  sole  representative  of  the  law.  "It  was  my  fortune," 
he  wrote,  "to  be  the  first  to  introduce  the  machinery  of  the  law, 
into  what  our  legal  brethren  would  have  termed  a  benighted 
region,  having  received  a  commission  as  Justice  of  the  Peace 

16  Daniel   Stanchfield,   "History  of  Pioneer  Lumbering  on  the  Upper 
Mississippi  and  its  Tributaries,  with  Biographic  Sketches,"  in  Minnesota 
Historical  Collections,  9 : 344 ;  Edward  Van  Dyke  Robinson,  Early  Eco- 
nomic Conditions  and  the  Development  of  Agriculture  in  Minnesota,  40 
(University  of  Minnesota,  Studies  in  the  Social  Sciences,  no.  3 — Minne- 
apolis, 1903). 

17  Sibley,  "Reminiscences ;  Historical  and  Personal,"  in  Minnesota  His- 
torical Collections,  1:466  (1872  edition). 

18  Edward  D.  Neill,  "Occurrences  in  and  around  Fort  Snelling,  from 
1819  to    1840,"   in  Minnesota  Historical  Collections,  2:107;   J.   Fletcher 
Williams,  A  History  of  the  City  of  St.  Paul,  and  of  the  County  of  Ram- 
sey, Minnesota,  173  (M.  H.  C.,  vol.  4). 


122  WHSON  P.  SHORTRIDGE  AUG. 

from  the  Governor  of  Iowa  Territory,  for  the  County  of  Clay- 
ton. This  County  was  an  empire  in  itself  in  extent,  reaching 
from  a  line  some  twenty  miles  below  Prairie  du  Chien  on  the 
west  of  the  'Father  of  Waters'  to  Pembina,  and  across  to  the 
Missouri  river.  As  I  was  the  only  magistrate  in  this  region 
and  the  county  seat  was  some  three  hundred  miles  distant,  I 
had  matters  pretty  much  under  my  own  control,  there  being 
little  chance  of  an  appeal  from  my  decisions.  In  fact  some 
of  the  simple-minded  people  around  me  firmly  believed  that  I 
had  the  power  of  life  and  death."  Sibley  was  also  the  fore- 
man of  the  first  grand  jury  ever  empaneled  in  Minnesota  west 
of  the  Mississippi.19 

The  first  movement  in  Congress  for  the  organization  of  a 
territory  west  of  Wisconsin  was  during  the  session  of  1846-47 
when  the  enabling  act  for  Wisconsin  was  still  under  consider- 
ation. A  bill  "establishing  the  Territorial  government  of  Mine- 
sota  [JUT],"  introduced  by  Morgan  L.  Martin,  the  delegate 
from  Wisconsin  Territory,  passed  the  House  but  was  not 
passed  by  the  Senate,  the  chief  objections  being  the  scanty 
population,  the  fact  that  no  lands  had  been  surveyed  and  sold 
in  the  region,  and  the  fact  that  the  people  there  had  not 
requested  such  organization.  Another  attempt  was  made  dur- 
ing the  following  session  through  the  efforts  of  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  who  introduced  a  bill  into  the  Senate ;  but,  although 
it  received  some  consideration,  Congress  adjourned  without 
passing  it.20  In  the  meantime,  the  state  of  Wisconsin  had  been 
admitted  with  the  St.  Croix  as  its  western  boundary.  This 
situation  apparently  left  the  people  who  lived  between  the  St. 
Croix  and  the  Mississippi  without  political  organization,  and 
caused  these  pioneers  to  assert  what  they  regarded  as  their 
rights  to  political  organization  and  to  representation  in  Con- 

19  Minnesota  Historical  Collections,  3:265,  267.     Sibley's  commissions 
as  justice  of  peace,  dated  October  30,   1838,  January  19,  1839,  and  July 
17,  1840,  are  in  the  Sibley  Papers. 

20  The  progress  of  the  bills  may  be  traced  in  the  Congressional  Globe, 
29  Congress,  2  session,  71,  441,  445,  572;  30  Congress,  1  session,  656,  1052. 


1919  SIB  LEY  AND  THE  FRONTIER  123 

gress.  A  convention  was  held  at  Stillwater  on  August  26, 
1848;  petitions  were  sent  to  Congress  and  the  president  asking 
for  territorial  organization;  and  Sibley  was  elected  "delegate" 
from  what  the  convention  called  Minnesota  Territory  "to  rep- 
resent the  interests  of  the  Territory  at  Washington."21 
Shortly  after  this  convention  someone  conceived  the  idea  of 
regarding  the  region  as  Wisconsin  Territory,  after  the  part  of 
that  territory  east  of  the  St.  Croix  had  been  admitted  as  a 
state.  The  obliging  former  secretary  of  the  Territory  of  Wis- 
consin, John  Catlin,  came  to  Stillwater  and,  as  acting  gov- 
ernor, issued  writs  for  a  special  election  for  delegate  to  Con- 
gress from  Wisconsin  Territory.  Although  Sibley  lived  west 
of  the  Mississippi  and  therefore  outside  of  the  region  under 
consideration,  nevertheless  he  was  chosen  delegate  to  represent 
the  territory  in  Congress  and  to  secure  the  organization  of 
Minnesota  Territory.  This  plan  was  actually  carried  through ; 
Sibley  was  seated  and  secured  the  desired  organization  in 
1849.22 

Although  time  does  not  permit  us  to  trace  the  beginnings  of 
political  parties  in  Minnesota  or  to  sketch  the  story  of  the 
marvelous  growth  of  the  territory  after  the  negotiation  of 
the  Sioux  treaties  of  1851,  one  at  least,  of  the  foremost  ques- 
tions during  Sibley's  congressional  career,  which  extended 
from  1848  to  1852,  deserves  consideration  in  any  study  of  his 
work  or  of  the  frontier  problems.  That  is  the  question  of 
Indian  relations  on  the  frontier.  Sibley  lived  among  the 
Indians  for  fifteen  years  and  knew  the  working  of  the  Indian 
policy  of  the  government  better  than  any  other  man  then  in 
Congress.  He  made  eloquent  appeals  in  behalf  of  the  Indian ; 
and  his  proposed  solution  of  the  problem  foreshadows  the 
constructive  legislation  of  later  years.23  In  particular,  Sibley 

21  The  proceedings  of  this  convention  are  published  in  Minnesota  His- 
torical Collections,  1:55-59  (1872  edition). 

22  Minnesota  Historical  Collections,  1 :  61  (1872  edition)  ;  Congressional 
Globe,  30  Congress,  2  session,  137,  259,  485,  681. 

23  Congressional  Globe,  31  Congress,  1  session,  part  1,  p.  855;  Statutes 
at  Large,  16 :  566. 


124  WILSON  P.  SHORTRIDGE  AUG. 

warned  Congress  that  the  only  alternative  to  a  change  in  policy 
was  an  Indian  war.  "The  busy  hum  of  civilized  communi- 
ties," he  said,  "is  already  heard  far  beyond  the  mighty  Mis- 
sissippi. .  .  .  Your  pioneers  are  encircling  the  last  home  of 
the  red  man,  as  with  a  wall  of  fire.  Their  encroachments 
are  perceptible,  in  the  restlessness  and  belligerent  demonstra- 
tions of  the  powerful  bands  who  inhabit  your  remote  western 
plains.  You  must  approach  these  with  terms  of  conciliation 
and  of  real  friendship,  or  you  must  suffer  the  consequences  of 
a  bloody  and  remorseless  Indian  war.  .  .  .  The  time  is  not 
far  distant,  when  pent  in  on  all  sides  and  suffering  from  want, 
a  Philip  or  a  Tecumseh  will  arise  to  band  them  together  for 
a  last  and  desperate  onset  upon  their  white  foes.  .  .  .  We 
know  that  the  struggle  in  such  case,  would  be  unavailing  on  the 
part  of  the  Indians,  and  must  necessarily  end  in  their  extermi- 
nation."24 The  system  was  not  changed  at  that  time  and  the 
consequences  that  Sibley  had  so  accurately  foretold  came  in 
the  great  Sioux  uprising  of  1862.  It  was  Sibley  to  whom  the 
Minnesota  pioneers  in  their  hour  of  need  appealed  to  save  them 
from  the  horrors  of  this  Indian  war. 

Minnesota  was  admitted  into  the  Union  in  1858,  and  Sibley 
became  its  first  governor.  This  was  not  a  time  of  great  pros- 
perity because  of  the  panic  of  1857,  and  the  administration  was 
not  an  unqualified  success.  Sibley  was  made  a  good  deal  of  a 
scapegoat  over  the  "Five  Million  Dollar  Loan"  of  state  credit 
to  railways.25  This  fiasco,  together  with  the  fact  that  the 
Republican  party  had  had  a  very  rapid  growth  since  its  organ- 
ization in  the  territory  in  1855,  and  the  further  fact  that  Sibley 
was  a  Douglas  Democrat,  meant  that  the  days  of  his  political 
career  were  numbered.  He  commanded  expeditions  against 
the  Sioux  from  1862  to  1865  and  at  the  close  of  his  military 
career  retired  to  private  life  except  for  a  term  as  a  member  of 

24  Congressional  Globe,  31   Congress,   1   session,  part  2,  p.   1508.     See 
also  Sibley  to  H.  S.  Foote,  February  15,  1850,  in  Minnesota  Historical 
Collections,  1:38  (1872  edition). 

25  For  an  account  of  this  loan   see  William  W.   Folwell,  "The  Five 
Million  Loan,"  in  Minnesota  Historical  Collections,  15  :189-214. 


1919  SIB  LEY  AND  THE  FRONTIER  125 

the  state  legislature  many  years  later  and  for  service  as  a 
regent  of  the  University  of  Minnesota.26  He  died  on  February 
18,  1891,  universally  mourned  by  the  people  of  the  great  state 
for  which  he  had  labored  so  long  and  in  the  making  of  which 
he  had  taken  such  a  distinguished  part. 

The  aim  of  this  paper  has  been  not  only  to  sketch  the  life 
of  Sibley  as  a  type,  but  also  to  attempt  to  portray,  as  he  and 
other  pioneers  saw  it,  the  gradual  evolution  of  society  and 
industry  in  the  upper  Mississippi  country.  The  rapidity  with 
which  the  West  was  settled  is  most  vividly  appreciated  when 
viewed  in  terms  of  human  life.  In  1795,  when  Solomon  Sibley 
came  over  the  mountains  to  the  first  American  frontier  settle- 
ment northwest  of  the  Ohio,  the  history  of  the  great  West  was 
only  in  the  period  of  beginnings.  Before  his  son  died,  in  1891, 
the  frontier  had  disappeared.  When  Sibley,  in  1834,  made  his 
way  into  the  region  which  became  Minnesota,  it  was  a  typical 
fur-traders'  frontier ;  when  he  died,  Minnesota  was  a  state  with 
a  population  of  almost  one  and  one-half  millions.  The  settle- 
ment and  development  of  the  region  was  so  rapid  that  even 
those  who  witnessed  it  could  scarcely  realize  the  transforma- 
tion that  took  place  before  their  eyes.  Sibley  said  in  his  later 
years  that  this  transformation  seemed  to  him  "more  like  a 
pleasant  dream  than  a  reality."27  But  the  work  had  been 
done.  The  labors  of  the  pioneers  to  carve  out  of  the  wilder- 
ness a  great  state  had  been  rewarded  with  success  and  the 
pioneer  dreams  had  come  true. 

WILSON  P.  SHORTRIDGE 
UNIVERSITY  OF  LOUISVILLE 
LOUISVILLE,  KENTUCKY 

26  Much  source  material  on  the  Sioux  War  of  1862-65  may  be  found  in 
Minnesota  in  the  Civil  and  Indian  Wars,  vol.  2  (St.  Paul,  1899).    There 
is  a  good  secondary  account  in  Frederick  L.  Paxson,  The  Last  American 
Frontier  (New  York,  1910). 

27  Minnesota  Historical  Collections,  3  :  276. 


WAR  HISTORY  WORK  IN  MINNESOTA1 

When  the  United  States  entered  the  World  War,  the  Min- 
nesota Historical  Society,  in  common  with  other  historical 
agencies  the  country  over,  considered  ways  and  means  where- 
by it  might  be  of  special  service  to  the  state  and  the  nation. 
There  appeared  to  be  two  kinds  of  wartime  service  which 
would  come  appropriately  within  the  sphere  of  activity  of  such 
an  institution:  first,  the  dissemination  of  knowledge  of  the 
historical  background  of  the  war  in  order  that  the  people  of 
the  state  might  understand  more  fully  the  issues  at  stake  and 
that,  understanding,  they  might  contribute  more  vigorously  to 
the  winning  of  the  war ;  and  second,  the  collection  and  preser- 
vation of  the  materials  for  the  history  of  Minnesota's  contribu- 
tion toward  the  winning  of  the  war.  It  was  soon  recognized, 
however,  that  much  of  the  needed  educational  work  would  be 
done  by  other  agencies,  both  state  and  national,  and  that  the 
society  would  find  its  special  usefulness  in  the  field  of  war  his- 
tory. For  this  reason,  and  also  because  the  preservation  of 
current  material  is  one  of  its  normal  functions,  the  society, 
from  the  very  beginning  of  American  participation  in  the  con- 
flict, has  been  active  both  in  the  collection  of  local  war  history 
material  through  the  usual  channels  and  in  the  initiation  and 
direction  of  a  movement  to  prosecute  the  work  on  a  large  scale 
through  the  concerted  efforts  of  citizens  and  communities 
throughout  the  state. 

One  of  the  first  things  which  the  society  did  was  to  enlarge 
the  scope  of  its  newspaper  collection  with  special  reference  to 
war-time  conditions  and  to  provide  facilities  for  making  the 
war  material  in  the  papers  readily  available  to  investigators. 
To  the  long  list  of  Minnesota  newspapers  already  being 

1  A  paper  read  at  the  twelfth  annual  meeting  of  the  Mississippi  Valley 
Historical  Association,  St.  Louis,  May  9,  1919,  somewhat  revised  and 
brought  up  to  date. 


156 


1919         WAR  HISTORY  WORK  IN  MINNESOTA  127 

received  from  all  parts  of  the  state,  there  were  added  a  number 
of  publications  reflecting  war-time  opinions  and  conditions 
which  differed  from  those  set  forth  in  the  general  run  of 
papers.  Files  of  papers  published  at  the  training  camps  where 
Minnesota  men  were  gathered  in  numbers,  together  with  a  file 
of  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  the  official  organ  of  the  American 
Expeditionary  Force,  are  among  the  more  valued  of  the  spe- 
cial war-time  acquisitions  of  the  newspaper  department.  In 
order  that  the  great  mass  of  local  newspapers  received  and 
filed  by  the  society  during  the  period  might  be  more  readily 
usable  as  a  war  record,  work  was  begun  on  a  classified  card 
index  of  all  significant  matters  in  these  papers  relating  to  local 
war  activities  and  conditions. 

Other  departments  were  equally  active.  The  library  staff, 
normally  charged  as  it  is  with  the  duty  of  securing  copies  or 
files  of  all  Minnesota  publications,  other  than  newspapers, 
exercised  increased  vigilance  in  obtaining  those  books,  pam- 
phlets, and  periodicals  which  were  the  direct  product  of  war 
conditions.  The  manuscript  department  acquired  a  number  of 
interesting  collections  of  soldiers'  letters  and  miscellany  relat- 
ing to  the  experiences  of  individual  Minnesotans  in  the  serv- 
ice. Some  little  ephemeral  printed  matter,  including  several 
hundred  war  posters,  was  collected  by  members  of  the  staff  in 
their  comings  and  goings  about  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis  and 
by  the  field  agent  of  the  society  in  his  travels  about  the  state. 
Through  an  arrangement  with  a  photographer  at  Camp 
Dodge,  and  by  gifts  from  interested  persons,  the  society 
acquired  a  growing  collection  of  individual  and  group  photo- 
graphs of  Minnesota  service  men.  A  considerable  number  of 
souvenirs  and  trophies  from  the  battlefields  of  France,  in  large 
part  the  gift  of  a  World  War  veteran  who  is  a  member  of  the 
society,  formed  the  nucleus  of  a  permanent  collection  of  war 
relics.  As  far  as  possible,  these  collections,  or  selections  of 
representative  material  from  them,  were  displayed  in  the 
museum  both  as  interesting  in  themselves  and  as  conveying  to 


128  FRANKLIN  F.  HOLE  ROOK  AUG. 

the  visiting  public  an  idea  of  the  character  of  war  history 
material  and  of  the  importance  of  preserving  it. 

From  the  start  it  was  realized  that  many  of  the  state's  war 
records,  especially  those  of  an  ephemeral  nature  and  those  of 
purely  local  significance,  would  disappear  unless  the  interest 
and  cooperation  of  people  in  every  community  throughout  the 
state  were  secured.  The  field  agent  of  the  society,  therefore, 
in  the  course  of  visits  made  in  some  twenty  counties  during 
the  war,  undertook  through  articles  in  the  local  newspapers, 
by  personal  interviews  with  war  workers,  and  by  the  enlisting 
of  local  collectors  to  ensure  in  some  degree  at  least  the  preser- 
vation of  the  miscellaneous  war  records  of  these  communities. 
The  matter  was  also  brought  to  the  attention  of  widely  dis- 
tributed groups  of  people  through  papers  read  by  representa- 
tives of  the  society  at  librarians'  conventions  and  other  gather- 
ings. To  promote  the  preservation  of  the  records  of  the 
state's  leading  war  agency,  the  Minnesota  Commission  of 
Public  Safety,  the  society  in  July,  1917,  drew  up  a  list  of  sug- 
gestions, copies  of  which  the  commission  sent  to  all  its  county 
directors,  together  with  letters  asking  them  to  observe  the 
request  of  the  historical  society  as  an  instruction  from  the  com- 
mission. 

It  soon  became  evident,  however,  that  a  mere  extension  of 
the  society's  activities  would  not  suffice,  but  that  what  was 
needed  was  something  on  the  order  of  the  familiar  war-time 
"drive,"  conducted  by  a  state-wide  organization,  specially  cre- 
ated, named,  and  financed  for  the  purpose.  To  fill  this  need 
the  most  obviously  effective  method  of  procedure  was  to 
secure  the  further  cooperation  of  the  public  safety  commission. 
Accordingly,  after  a  thorough  canvass  of  the  local  situation, 
and  after  an  extended  investigation  of  the  work  being  done  in 
other  states,  a  plan  was  drawn  up  which  was  laid  before  the 
commission  on  August  27,  1918.  It  was  suggested  that  the 
commission  appoint  a  body  to  be  known  as  the  Minnesota  War 
Records  Commission;  that  this  body  effect  the  organization 
and  direct  the  activities  of  county  war  records  committees 


1919         W AR  HISTORY  WORK  IN  MINNESOTA  129 

through  the  appointment  and  instruction  of  a  local  representa- 
tive, or  county  chairman,  in  every  county  in  the  state;  and 
that  an  appropriation  of  one  thousand  dollars  be  made  by  the 
public  safety  commission  to  defray  the  expense  of  the  work. 
It  was  understood  that  the  society  would  permit  its  field  agent 
to  act  as  director  of  the  proposed  commission  and  would  place 
at  the  commission's  disposal  its  facilities  for  the  care  and  pres- 
ervation of  the  material  collected.  The  plan  was  adopted  and 
on  October  8  the  Governor  appointed  a  body  of  twelve  to  serve 
as  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission.2 

Having  met  and  organized  on  October  29  the  commission 
adopted  a  plan  of  action  which  was  shortly  afterward  elab- 
orated and  published  in  the  form  of  a  bulletin  entitled  A  State- 
wide Movement  for  the  Collection  and  Preservation  of  Min- 
nesota's War  Records.  Broadly  stated,  the  object  of  the  com- 
mission is  to  collect  and  preserve,  in  state  and  county  war 
records  collections,  all  available  material  relating  to  Minne- 
sota's part  in  the  World  War  and  to  the  altered  course  of  life 
in  Minnesota  communities  during  the  war  period.  The 
broadest  possible  interpretation  is  given  to  the  phrase  "war 
records" ;  no  pertinent  material,  of  whatever  variety  of  origin, 
content,  or  form,  is  overlooked.  Most  easily  recognized  as 
war  records,  of  course,  are  materials  relating  to  the  activities 
of  Minnesotans  in  the  service  or  associated  in  one  or  another 
capacity  with  the  armed  forces  of  the  nation.  Equal  impor- 
tance is  attached,  however,  to  records  which  show  the  part 
played  by  the  people  at  home  in  mobilizing  the  state's  resources 
in  support  of  the  war.  For  compiling  the  service  records  of 
all  Minnesota  soldiers,  sailors,  and  marines,  the  commission 
has  provided  blank  forms,  or  questionnaires,  calling  for  specific 
information  about  the  individual's  military  or  naval  career 
and  about  his  civil  status  before  and  immediately  following  his 
term  of  service.  For  the  history  both  of  individual  and  of 
group  services,  and  especially  of  the  innumerable  home  com- 

2  A  brief  account  of  the  establishment  of  the  commission  appeared 
in  the  November  BULLETIN  (2;  579), 


' 
130  FRANKLIN  F.  HOLE  ROOK  AUG. 

£ 

munity  war  activities,  the  commission  lays  great  stress  upon 
the  importance  of  collecting  "ready-made"  records,  that  is, 
material  which  was  produced  in  connection  with  the  actual 
conduct  of  the  various  war  activities  and  has  only  to  be  gath- 
ered and  preserved.  Not  all  this  material  is  commonly 
thought  of  as  "records"  but  many  of  the  facts  of  Minnesota's 
war  history  will  never  be  available  to  the  historian  except  as 
they  are  found  recorded  without  premeditation  in  such 
products  of  the  times  as  files  of  local  newspapers;  miscellane- 
ous printed  matter,  such  as  pamphlets,  programs,  and  posters ; 
manuscript  material,  such  as  minutes  of  proceedings,  corre- 
spondence files,  and  official  reports;  pictorial  records,  such  as 
photographs,  motion  picture  films,  sketches,  and  maps;  and 
mementoes  or  museum  material,  such  as  badges,  flags,  trophies, 
and  relics. 

The  better  to  accomplish  its  purpose  the  commission  has 
adopted  the  plan  followed  in  a  number  of  other  states  of  organ- 
izing local  auxiliary  committees,  as  a  general  rule  on  the  basis 
of  county  divisions.  In  a  given  county,  for  example,  a  local 
representative,  or  county  chairman,  is  appointed  by  the  com- 
mission upon  the  recommendations  of  local  residents.  The 
county  chairman,  in  turn,  appoints  a  county  war  records  com- 
mittee, and  further  extends  the  organization  of  his  county 
according  to  the  particular  needs  of  that  community.  On  the 
basis  of  instructions  then  or  later  to  be  given  by  the  commis- 
sion, the  county  organization  then  proceeds  with  the  work  of 
assembling  all  available  material  relating  to  the  part  taken  by 
that  county  in  the  war.  Both  in  the  work  of  organization  and 
in  that  of  collection  the  commission  aims  to  keep  in  close  touch 
with  the  county  committee,  offering  suggestions  and  encour- 
agement and  receiving  reports  from  time  to  time  on  the 
progress  of  the  work. 

The  general  plan  for  the  disposition  of  material  collected  by 
the  war  records  organization  contemplates  the  building  up  cnf 
both  county  and  state  collections.  County  committees  are 
encouraged  to  preserve  such  of  the  records  collected  by  them 


1919          WAR  HISTORY  WORK  IN  MINNESOTA  131 

as  are  chiefly  local  in  character  in  a  county  war  records  collec- 
tion housed  in  the  leading  county  library,  the  courthouse,  or 
other  suitable  local  depository.  On  the  other  hand,  to  the 
state  collection  would  naturally  come  all  records  of  state-wide 
significance,  including  those  emanating  from  the  state  head- 
quarters of  the  various  war  agencies,  together  with  such  dupli- 
cate local  material  as  may  be  received  from  the  county  com- 
mittees. All  records  acquired  by  the  commission  are  deposited, 
as  they  accumulate,  in  the  library  and  museum  of  the  Minne- 
sota Historical  Society. 

In  carrying  out  its  program  the  principal  effort  of  the  com- 
mission thus  far  has  been  to  extend  its  organization  to  all  parts 
of  the  state.  At  the  present  time  county  committees  have  been 
organized  and  are  at  work  in  sixty-eight  counties.  The 
movement  has  everywhere  met  with  a  gratifying  response. 
The  tone  and  content  of  replies  to  the  preliminary  inquiries 
from  the  commission  usually  indicate  a  general  recognition  of 
the  importance  of  the  work,  and  a  willingness,  in  some  cases 
even  amounting  to  eagerness,  to  cooperate  in  it.  The  com- 
mission has  experienced  little  difficulty  in  securing  the  services 
of  people  of  standing  and  ability  as  its  local  representatives; 
the  list  of  county  chairmen  includes  the  names  of  local  his- 
torians, school  men,  bankers,  county  officials,  military  men, 
editors,  merchants,  and  lawyers.  County  committees  aver- 
aging about  fifteen  members,  usually  leaders  in  war  work, 
from  all  parts  of  the  county,  have  been  organized  by  the  chair- 
men under  the  direction  of  the  commission.  A  number  of 
the  committees  have  received  from  local  residents,  organiza- 
tions, city  councils,  and  county  boards,  sums  of  money  ranging 
from  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  to  one  thousand  dollars  to 
cover  the  cost  of  stationery  and  postage,  clerk  hire,  binding, 
filing  equipment,  and  other  requirements  for  an  effective  con- 
duct of  the  work.  Various  local  organizations  and  institutions, 
including  schools,  churches,  newspapers,  and  of  late,  associa- 
tions of  returned  soldiers  have  shown  a  disposition  to  cooperate 
with  the  war  records  organization. 


132  FR4NKLIN  F.  HOLE  ROOK  AUG. 

Of  course  the  county  committees  attack  their  problems  with 
varying  degrees  of  vigor  and  resourcefulness.  Their  work, 
being  for  the  most  part  voluntary,  is  subject  to  interruptions 
and  delays,  and  as  a  rule,  proceeds  slowly.  A  great  deal  nat- 
urally depends  upon  the  chairman's  understanding  of  the 
problem  and  his  ability  and  determination  to  find  ways  and 
means  of  getting  the  work  done.  In  some  cases,  it  must  be 
admitted,  the  simplest  instructions  of  the  commission  appear 
to  have  been  but  partially  mastered  and  carried  into  effect, 
while  on  the  other  hand  a  number  of  chairmen  and  committees 
have  elaborated  the  commission's  necessarily  general  direc- 
tions in  ways  suggested  by  their  superior  knowledge  of  local 
possibilities  and  needs.  In  a  number  of  instances,  the  chair- 
man, recognizing  the  size  and  importance  of  the  task  to  be 
accomplished,  has  carried  the  organization  of  the  county  to  the 
remotest  townships  and  villages,  accomplishing  this  purpose 
either  in  person  or  by  means  of  letters  enclosing  printed 
instructions,  blank  forms,  and  other  matter  prepared  by  him  or 
by  his  committee.  There  are  instances  also  of  county  chair- 
men and  committees  collecting  certain  classes  of  material  not 
specifically  named  in  the  commission's  fairly  elaborate  exposi- 
tion of  what  is  meant  by  "war  records."  One  chairman  has 
been  unusually  successful  in  finding  ways  and  means  to  catch 
the  public  eye  and  give  the  movement  prestige :  he  has  made 
use  of  hand  bills  distributed  throughout  the  county  and  of 
motion  picture  advertisements  bearing  requests  for  war  history 
material;  he  has  published  appeals  through  the  local  news- 
papers and  has  addressed  public  gatherings  on  the  subject;  he 
has  secured  the  endorsement  of  the  board  of  county  commis- 
sioners for  the  work  of  his  committee  and  has  induced  that 
board  to  appropriate  one  thousand  dollars  for  its  support. 
That  he  has  been  successful  in  popularizing  the  work  is  indi- 
cated by  the  fact  that  the  county's  military  service  records  are 
not  being  typed,  as  is  often  the  practice  in  other  counties, 
because  the  citizens  desire  the  honor  of  compiling  these  records 
in  their  own  handwriting.  His  committee  is  also  one  of  sev- 


1919         WAR  HISTORY  WORK  IN  MINNESOTA  133 

eral  which  are  planning  to  publish  histories  of  the  parts  taken 
by  their  counties  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  It  is  the  pur- 
pose of  one  committee  to  make  of  its  county  war  records  col- 
lection a  permanent  memorial  of  the  war  services  performed 
by  that  community  in  lieu  of  a  monument  or  other  type  of 
memorial. 

The  local  committees,  almost  without  exception,  are  apply- 
ing themselves  particularly  to  the  compilation  of  the  individual 
military  service  records  for  which  printed  forms  have  been 
supplied  by  the  commission.  In  most  cases  these  records  are 
being  filled  out  in  duplicate,  one  set  for  the  state  war  records 
collection,  the  other,  for  the  county  collection.  Next  in  favor 
with  the  local  workers  appears  to  be  the  collection  of  soldiers' 
photographs  and  letters,  files  of  local  newspapers,  and  written 
reports  on  the  activities  of  the  several  local  war  agencies.  In 
the  case  of  photographs,  the  planning  and  staging  of  public 
exhibits  has  proved  an  especially  effective  method  of  assem- 
bling such  material  for  permanent  preservation,  a  collection  of 
about  four  thousand  photographs  of  soldiers  and  views  of  war- 
time scenes  having  been  acquired  in  this  manner  by  one  of  the 
city  committees  acting  in  cooperation  with  other  local  organ- 
izations. A  number  of  committees  have  been  very  successful 
in  their  efforts  to  secure  complete  files  of  all  local  newspapers 
published  during  the  war,  and  some  of  them  have  commenced 
the  work  of  indexing  the  files  or  of  making  up  scrapbooks  of 
clippings  taken  from  duplicate  files.  There  is  undoubtedly  a 
tendency  to  overlook  some  of  the  less  obviously  significant  or 
pertinent  material,  especially  among  the  so-called  ready-made 
records,  but  there  is  ample  evidence  that  a  considerable  amount 
of  valuable  materials  of  all  kinds  has  been  secured. 

Although  preoccupied,  especially  during  the  first  few 
months,  with  the  work  of  organizing  and  directing  its  local 
committees,  the  commission  has  given  attention  to  the  direct 
acquisition  of  material  which,  with  the  regular  and  special 
accumulations  of  the  historical  society,  is  to  form  the  state  war 


134  FRANKLIN  F.  HOLBROOK  AUG. 

records  collection.3  In  this  direction  the  most  notable  results 
of  late  weeks  have  been  accomplished  with  the  assistance  of  a 
field  agent  whose  services  were  loaned  to  the  commission  dur- 
ing May  and  June  by  the  historical  society  and  who  has  since 
been  employed  by  the  commission  as  its  permanent  field  repre- 
sentative. Through  him  the  commission  has  been  able  to 
follow  up  published  and  written  appeals  with  a  personal  can- 
vass of  the  state  headquarters  of  nearly  all  the  leading  national 
agencies  such  as  the  food  administration,  the  fuel  administra- 
tion, the  war  loan  organization,  the  United  States  Employment 
Bureau,  the  army,  navy,  and  marine  recruiting  stations,  the 
American  Red  Cross,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  War  Council,  the 
American  Protective  League,  and  the  Salvation  Army.  The 
offices  of  the  Minnesota  Commission  of  Public  Safety,  the 
Home  Guard  and  Motor  Corps,  the  University  of  Minnesota, 
and  the  William  Hood  Dunwoody  Industrial  Institute  have 
also  been  canvassed.  Among  other  significant  material  yielded 
by  this  preliminary  and  as  yet  uncompleted  survey  may  be 
noted :  a  quantity  of  pamphlets,  posters,  circular  letters,  blank 
forms,  and  other  publicity  material  and  working  parapher- 
nalia of  the  several  war  agencies ;  original  manuscript  records 
such  as  the  correspondence  files  of  the  Minnesota  branch  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  War  Council;  a  list  of  the  names  of  all 
marines  who  enlisted  in  Minnesota  in  1917  and  1918,  together 
with  the  dates  of  enlistment  and  names  and  addresses  of  the 
nearest  of  kin ;  a  collection  of  several  hundred  photographs  of 
men  who  enlisted  in  the  army  at  Minnesota  recruiting  sta- 
tions ;  and  copies  of  all  chapter  histories  prepared  by  the  county 
and  local  branches  of  the  Red  Cross  in  Minnesota  so  far  as 
these  histories  have  been  completed  and  filed  at  the  northern 
division  headquarters.  Unfortunately  for  local  historical 
interests  a  most  important  class  of  records,  the  original  files 
and  official  records  of  the  state  branches  of  federal  war 

3  The  general  character  of  this  phase  of  the  commission's  activities  is 
brought  out  in  the  notes  on  war  history  activities  which  have  appeared 
in  the  BULLETIN  beginning  with  the  February,  1919,  issue. 


1919          WAR  HISTORY  WORK  IN  MINNESOTA  135 

agencies  such  as  the  food  administration,  are  destined  tinder 
existing  laws  and  regulations  to  be  deposited  in  the  national 
archives,  and  a  great  many  of  them  have  already  been  sent  to 
Washington.  In  the  belief  that  such  records  would  be  more 
useful  if  left  in  the  custody  of  the  state  where  they  originated, 
the  commission  has  joined  with  similar  bodies  in  other  states 
in  a  movement  to  persuade  Congress  to  direct  their  return  to 
states  applying  for  them  and  in  a  position,  as  is  Minnesota,  to 
care  for  them  properly. 

The  magnitude  of  the  work  undertaken  by  the  commission 
and  the  desirability  of  placing  it  on  a  more  permanent  and 
substantial  footing  than  was  possible  at  the  start  early  became 
apparent.  The  sudden  ending  of  the  war  soon  after  the  com- 
mission was  established  opened  up  possibilities  and  created 
demands  with  which  this  provisional  body,  without  funds  of 
its  own,  could  not  deal  in  the  most  effective  manner.  As  the 
work  proceeded  it  appeared  desirable  not  only  that  the  collect- 
ing of  war  records  be  accelerated  and  expanded  but  also  that 
the  state  provide  for  the  preparation  and  publication  of  a  suit- 
able memorial  record  of  the  part  which  its  citizens  played, 
individually  and  collectively,  in  the  war.  In  January  the  public 
safety  commission  set  aside  another  thousand  dollars  for  the 
war  records  work,  but  only  that  it  might  be  carried  forward 
until  the  legislature,  then  recently  convened,  should  have  an 
opportunity  to  make  more  adequate  and  permanent  provision 
for  the  carrying  out  of  so  extensive  a  program.  During  the 
period  of  the  legislative  session,  therefore,  the  commission  was 
occupied  to  a  large  extent  with  measures  taken  to  secure  the 
enactment  of  laws  which,  as  already  noted  in  these  pages,4 
have  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  the  commission  as  a 
statutory  body  with  a  fund  of  ten  thousand  dollars  for  the 
work  of  this  biennium,  and  in  the  opening  up  of  local  sources 
of  revenue  to  the  county  committees  working  under  its  direc- 
tion. The  newly  established  commission  met  and  organized 

4  In  the  May  BULLETIN  (3:102). 


136  FRANKLIN  F.  HOLE  ROOK  AUG. 

on  July  19.5  Although  directed  among  other  things  to  prepare 
and  publish  a  comprehensive  state  war  history,  work  upon 
which  it  was  hoped  could  be  commenced  at  once,  the  commis- 
sion will  necessarily  devote  itself  during  the  next  two  years  to 
the  large  and  more  immediately  important  task  of  collecting 
material.  Whether  or  not  the  projected  history  will  be  pub- 
lished depends  upon  the  action  taken  by  future  legislatures. 

It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  the  commission  and  the  his- 
torical society  are  the  only  agencies  in  Minnesota  which  are 
active  in  the  field  of  local  war  history.  The  pictorial  section  of 
the  historical  branch  of  the  war  plans  division  of  the  general 
staff  of  the  United  States  Army,  for  example,  has  its  local  rep- 
resentatives in  Minnesota  and  other  states  who  are  collecting 
photographic  material  for  the  national  archives.  The  Uni- 
versity of  Minnesota  has  employed  a  clerk  to  compile  and 
collect  records  relating  to  war  services  of  the  university,  its 
teachers,  students,  and  alumni.  The  Minnesota  Educational 
Association  has  compiled  and  published  a  roster  of  school  men 
in  the  service.  The  Catholics  of  the  state  are  perfecting  an 
organization  for  war  history  work  under  the  direction  of  the 
National  Catholic  War  Council.  Some  twenty-four  local 
newspaper  publishers  are  known  to  have  issued  or  to  be  plan- 
ning the  publication  of  county  war  histories  as  private  ventures. 
These  are  but  a  few  instances  of  many  projects  which  have 
been  initiated  independently  of  the  war  records  organization. 
The  province  of  the  latter,  aiming  as  it  does  to  cover  all  phases 
of  Minnesota's  war  history,  is,  so  far  as  possible,  to  coordinate 
all  efforts  put  forth  in  this  field,  to  encourage  all  worthy 
projects  whatever  their  origin  and  management,  and  in  general 
to  see  that  all  the  possibilities  are  fully  realized. 

FRANKLIN  F.  HOLBROOK 

MINNESOTA  WAR  RECORDS  COMMISSION 
ST.  PAUL 

5  See  post,  p.  157. 


REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS 

A  Report  on  the  Public  Archives  (State  Historical  Society  of 
Wisconsin,  Bulletins  of  Information,  no.  94).  By  THEO- 
DORE C.  BLEGEN.  (Madison,  the  society,  November,  1918. 
115  p.) 

Although  designed  primarily  to  further  a  movement  for 
improving  the  archives  situation  in  Wisconsin,  this  report  is  a 
valuable  contribution  to  knowledge  of  archival  practices  and  prob- 
lems in  general.  About  half  of  the  space  is  devoted  to  a  survey 
of  European  and  American  practices  as  a  basis  for  conclusions 
with  reference  to  archival  administration.  The  scientific  care 
given  to  public  records  in  Europe  and  even  in  Canada  is  con- 
trasted with  the  haphazard  provision  or  lack  of  provision  for  them 
by  the  United  States  and  by  many  of  the  individual  states. 
Nevertheless  notable  progress  is  seen  in  some  states  during  the 
last  quarter  century.  Three  forms  of  procedure  with  reference  to 
archives  administration  in  the  American  states  are  distinguished : 
(1)  care  of  the  departmental  records  in  the  offices  in  which  they 
originate,  with  the  office  of  the  secretary  of  state  as  the  reposi- 
tory for  the  more  important  general  records;  (2)  centralization 
"in  the  custody  of  some  department  or  institution  of  the  state 
already  in  existence";  and  (3)  centralization  in  "an  entirely  dis- 
tinct and  separate  department  of  archives."  Examples  of  each 
of  these  methods  are  described  and  the  author  reaches  the  con- 
clusion that  the  third,  as  exemplified  by  the  archives  departments 
of  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Iowa,  is  the  most  satisfactory. 

The  second  part  of  the  report  is  "an  examination  of  the  situa- 
tion [in  Wisconsin]  and  a  proposed  solution."  The  author  finds 
that  Wisconsin's  state  archives  are  housed  in  the  main  in  thirty- 
nine  vaults  scattered  in  different  parts  of  the  already  crowded 
New  Capitol.  At  the  rate  of  current  accumulation  these  vaults 
will  soon  be  filled  up  and  additional  space  will  have  to  be  pro- 
vided. It  is  suggested,  moreover,  "that  it  would  be  better  to  use 
less  expensive  space  for  the  purpose  of  storing  the  archives  than 
that  of  this  most  expensive  of  Wisconsin's  public  buildings."  The 

137 


1 38  RE  VIEWS  OF  BOOKS  AUG. 

removal  of  the  older  archives  to  some  central  depository  would 
not  only  increase  the  space  available  for  records  in  daily  use,  but 
would  also  relieve  state  officials  of  the  problems  connected  with 
archives  administration  for  which  they  are  not  especially  fitted 
and  make  possible  the  solution  of  those  problems  by  trained  archi- 
vists. Among  the  evils  of  unscientific  management  which  are 
pointed  out  and  illustrated  by  examples  are  inadequate  classifica- 
tion and  arrangement,  lack  of  indexes,  lost  and  misplaced  docu- 
ments, intentional  destruction  of  non-current  records  which  have 
historical  value,  and  carelessness  in  allowing  access  to  material 
of  a  delicate  personal  character. 

Since  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin  is  also  in  need 
of  additional  space,  particularly  for  its  files  of  newspapers  and 
printed  documents,  the  report  advocates,  as  a  solution  of  both 
problems,  the  erection  of  a  plain,  economical,  but  fireproof  build- 
ing in  the  vicinity  of  the  library  and  the  housing  therein  of  a  state 
archives  department,  to  be  created,  and  the  newspaper  and  docu- 
ment departments  of  the  society's  library.  The  building  could  be 
so  designed  as  to  permit  of  almost  indefinite  expansion  to  care  for 
the  accumulations  of  the  future,  which  is  not  true  of  either  the 
society's  building  or  the  Capitol. 

For  the  administration  of  the  archives  it  is  proposed  that  use 
be  made  of  "the  professional  skill  and  training  of  the  superin- 
tendent and  staff  of  the  State  Historical  Society,"  but  no  sug- 
gestions are  made  as  to  what  should  be  the  exact  relations  between 
the  two  institutions.  If  it  is  contemplated  that  the  archives  be 
administered  as  a  branch  or  department  of  the  society's  activi- 
ties, which  would  seem  to  be  the  most  logical  method  of  coordi- 
nation, then  the  solution  would  be  of  the  second,  rather  than  the 
third  and  preferred  type  of  procedure  with  reference  to  archives, 
as  set  forth  in  the  first  part  of  the  report.  This,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  reviewer,  is  not  a  serious  objection  to  the  proposed  arrange- 
ment. It  seems  to  him  that  too  much  is  made  of  the  distinctions 
between  the  various  forms  of  archives  organization.  The  essen- 
tial things  are  that  there  be  an  archives  office,  bureau,  branch, 
department,  or  whatever  it  may  be  called,  that  the  non-current 
archives  of  the  various  departments  be  centralized  under  its  juris- 
diction, that  it  be  under  the  immediate  direction  of  a  competent 


1919   QUAIFE:  THE  MOVEMENT  FOR  STATEHOOD   139 

archivist,  and  that  it  have  adequate  quarters  and  sufficient  funds 
for  equipment  and  assistants.  It  is  not  difficult  to  conceive  of  a 
department  of  archives  in  a  state  library  or  historical  society  or 
even  in  the  office  of  a  secretary  of  state  which  would  fulfill  all 
reasonable  requirements,  and  it  is  very  easy  to  conceive  of  an 
entirely  independent  archives  bureau  which  would  be  utterly 
inadequate  for  the  task.  The  states  should  be  graded  according 
to  the  progress  which  they  have  made  in  centralization  and  scien- 
tific administration  of  archives  rather  with  reference  to  the  types 
of  organization  which  local  considerations  may  have  induced 
them  to  adopt.  In  Wisconsin,  and  also  in  Minnesota  where  the 
situation  is  much  the  same,  the  reviewer  believes  that  the  ultimate 
solution  of  the  problem  should  be  the  establishment  of  an  archives 
department  administered  by  the  state  historical  society. 

Mention  should  be  made  of  the  appendix  to  the  report,  which 
consists  of  the  most  comprehensive  bibliography  in  existence  of 
"printed  materials  on  the  archives  question." 

SOLON  J.  BUCK 

The  Movement  for  Statehood,  1845-1846  (State  Historical 
Society  of  Wisconsin,  Collections,  vol.  26,  Constitutional 
series,  vol.  1).  Edited  by  MILO  M.  QUAIFE.  (Madison, 
the  society,  1918.  545  p.) 

The  histories  of  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  down  to  1848  are 
so  inextricably  interwoven  and  since  that  date  the  two  common- 
wealths have  developed  so  largely  along  parallel  lines  that  many 
of  the  publications  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society  are  con- 
tributions to  the  history  of  Minnesota.  It  is  somewhat  surpris- 
ing, therefore,  that  there  is  so  little  of  specific  Minnesota  interest 
in  this  volume,  which  deals  with  a  period  when  all  Minnesota 
east  of  the  Mississippi  was  a  part  of  Wisconsin  Territory.  The 
problem  of  the  northwestern  boundary,  which  involved  so  much 
of  importance  for  the  future  Minnesota,  apparently  attracted 
very  little  attention  until  after  the  assembling  of  the  first  con- 
vention in  October,  1846.  In  later  volumes  of  the  series  this 
problem  will  unquestionably  occupy  a  more  prominent  position. 
It  is  primarily,  then,  as  an  example  of  a  collection  of  materials 


140  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  AUG. 

for  the  history  of  the  statehood  movement  in  a  typical  state  of 
the  upper  Mississippi  Valley  that  the  work  is  of  interest  to  stu- 
dents of  Minnesota  history. 

The  "Historical  Introduction"  consists  of  a  brief  statement 
by  the  editor,  a  chapter  on  "The  Admission  of  Wisconsin  to 
Statehood"  from  a  manuscript  history  of  Wisconsin  to  1848,  by 
Louise  Phelps  Kellogg,  and  a  reprint  from  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley Historical  Review  of  Frederic  L.  Paxson's  article  entitled 
"Wisconsin — A  Constitution  of  Democracy."  The  documents 
themselves  are  divided  into  two  parts:  "Official  Proceedings 
and  Debates,"  and  "Popular  Proceedings  and  Debates."  The 
first  part  is  again  divided  into  "Proceedings  in  Wisconsin"  and 
"Proceedings  in  Congress."  The  second  part  consists  entirely  of 
editorials  and  communications  reprinted  from  the  files  of  ten 
territorial  newspapers.  The  selections  are  grouped  by  papers 
and  arranged  chronologically  within  the  group. 

Editorial  apparatus  has  been  reduced  to  a  minimum.  Scarcely 
half  a  dozen  explanatory  footnotes  are  included  in  the  volume 
although  the  documents  contain  allusions  to  many  matters  about 
which  pertinent,  useful,  and  interesting  information  might  have 
been  supplied.  Since  only  the  date  and  not  the  name  of  the 
paper  is  given  at  the  head  of  each  selection  in  the  second  part, 
the  student  who  locates  matter  in  which  he  is  interested  by  means 
of  the  index  finds  it  necessary  to  hunt  for  the  beginning  of  the 
group  or  to  refer  to  the  table  of  contents  in  order  to  ascertain 
the  source.  The  reviewer  believes  that  the  volume  would  have 
been  both  more  convenient  for  students  and  more  interesting  to 
the  general  reader  if  the  documents  had  all  been  arranged  in  one 
chronological  order.  Without  such  arrangement  it  is  difficult 
to  get  a  clear  comprehension  of  the  relation  of  documents  to  each 
other  or  a  satisfactory  impression  of  the  progress  of  events.  Time 
is  after  all  the  warp  upon  which  the  fabric  of  history  is  woven. 

S.  J.  B. 


MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES 

The  failure  of  the  legislature  to  increase  the  appropriation  for 
the  society  made  it  impossible  for  the  executive  committee  to 
draw  up  a  satisfactory  budget  for  the  year  1919-20  without 
seriously  curtailing  the  society's  activities.  Nearly  everything 
for  which  the  money  is  spent  costs  more  than  it  did  two  years 
ago — printing,  supplies,  express,  books,  and  especially  services. 
Such  small  increases  in  salary  as  were  absolutely  necessary  to 
prevent  the  staff  from  disintegrating  were  made  possible  only 
by  dropping  the  position  of  field  agent,  by  reducing  the  already 
inadequate  allowance  for  the  purchase  of  books,  and  by  making 
the  assignments  for  other  expenses  so  low  as  to  necessitate  the 
most  rigid  economy. 

The  following  new  members  have  been  enrolled  during  the 
quarter  ending  July  31,  1919 :  Frederic  K.  Butters,  Archibald  A. 
Crane,  Miriam  M.  Davis,  and  Luth  Jaeger  of  Minneapolis; 
John  V.  Trembath  of  Duluth;  and  Mrs.  W.  J.  Morehart  of 
Mankato.  The  society  has  lost  two  members  by  death  during 
the  same  period:  Joseph  H.  Armstrong  of  St.  Paul,  May  30; 
and  the  Honorable  James  A.  Tawney  of  Winona,  June  12.  The 
death  of  another  member,  Patrick  Keigher  of  St.  Paul,  which 
occurred  on  January  31,  has  not  heretofore  been  noted  in  the 
BULLETIN. 

As  a  result  of  the  Archives  Act  of  1919,  which  is  printed  in 
full  in  the  appendix  to  the  society's  Twentieth  Biennial  Report 
(pp.  50-52),  the  society  now  has  the  official  custody  of  practically 
all  the  archives  of  the  governor's  office  from  the  organization 
of  the  territory  in  1849  to  about  1869.  This  material,  with  the 
exception  of  the  bound  volumes  of  executive  registers,  had  hith- 
erto been  packed  away  in  a  sub-basement  vault  in  the  Capitol 
where  it  was  practically  inaccessible.  The  manuscript  depart- 
ment, which  has  been  charged  with  the  care  of  archives  until 
such  time  as  a  separate  archives  department  can  be  established, 

141 


142  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  AUG. 

has  made  considerable  progress  in  the  work  of  cleaning,  press- 
ing, and  arranging  the  papers.  They  were  in  great  confusion 
when  received. 

Another  large  lot  of  archival  material  received  consists  of  the 
records  of  the  surveyors-general  of  logs  and  lumber  for  the  first 
and  second  districts.  These  offices  were  recently  abolished,  their 
functions  being  turned  over  to  the  state  forestry  service,  and  it 
is  doubtful  if  the  records,  which  had  been  stored  in  unsuitable 
places  in  Minneapolis  and  Stillwater,  would  have  been  preserved 
had  it  not  been  for  the  activity  of  the  society  in  the  matter. 
Since  their  acquisition  they  have  been  consulted  by  state  officials. 

The  centennial  of  the  establishment  of  Fort  Snelling  in  1819 
is  being  observed  in  the  museum  by  a  special  exhibit  of  pictures 
and  articles  illustrative  of  life  and  conditions  at  the  fort  during 
the  various  stages  of  its  history.  Other  special  exhibits  recently 
prepared  illustrate  the  customs  of  the  French  people,  the  work 
of  the  Minnesota  Motor  Corps,  and  the  artcraft  work  of  the 
wounded  soldiers  in  the  hospital  at  Fort  Snelling. 

"Indians  at  War  and  at  Play"  and  "Indian  Myths  and 
Legends"  were  the  subjects  of  the  talks  at  the  children's  history 
hours  in  May.  Pictures,  relics,  and  Indian  music  were  used  to 
illustrate  the  stories.  On  June  7  the  children  were  told  about 
the  history  of  Fort  Snelling  and  shown  the  centennial  exhibit. 

The  contract  has  been  let  for  the  printing  of  Dr.  Upham's 
work  on  "Minnesota  Geographic  Names,"  which  is  to  comprise 
volume  17  of  the  society's  Collections.  It  will  be  a  book  of  about 
seven  hundred  pages  and  will  be  ready  for  distribution  about 
the  end  of  the  year. 

Three  members  of  the  staff  left  the  service  of  the  society 
June  30,  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year.  Miss  Franc  M.  Potter, 
who  had  been  assistant  editor  since  1915,  resigned  to  accept  a 
position  in  the  registrar's  office  of  the  University  of  Minnesota, 
and  Mr.  Franklin  F.  Holbrook,  who  had  been  field  agent  for 
three  years,  resigned  to  become  the  secretary  of  the  Minnesota 
War  Records  Commission.  The  other  resignation  was  that  of 
Miss  Teresa  Fitzgerald  of  the  catalogue  department.  Appoint- 


1919  GIFTS  143 

ments  taking  effect  July  1  were  those  of  Miss  Dorothy  Heine- 
mann  as  editorial  assistant,  and  Miss  Ada  Liddell  as  catalogue 
apprentice. 

GIFTS 

When  the  editor  is  away,  the  printer  will  play.  The  first  line 
of  one  of  the  gift  notes  in  the  May  BULLETIN,  the  second  note 
on  page  96,  is  a  duplicate  of  a  line  on  the  preceding  page  which 
somehow  was  substituted  for  the  line  as  originally  set  up.  The 
first  sentence  of  this  note  should  be  corrected  to  read:  From 
Mr.  Fred  L.  Chapman  of  St.  Paul  the  society  has  received  a 
considerable  number  of  manuscripts  and  museum  objects. 

A  small  but  valuable  collection  of  archives  of  various  organiza- 
tions and  a  few  papers  of  Henry  L.  Moss,  who  was  the  first 
United  States  district  attorney  for  Minnesota  Territory,  have 
been  presented  recently  by  Mrs.  Albert  P.  Moss  of  St.  Paul.  The 
archives  consist  of  record  books  of  the  Babies'  Home  of  St.  Paul 
from  1890  to  1900,  of  the  St.  Paul  Red  Cross  aid  society  of  1898, 
and  of  the  Ladies'  Auxiliary  of  St.  Paul  from  1901  to  1907. 
The  last  named  society  was  organized  in  1898  through  the  efforts 
of  Mr.  Conde  Hamlin,  president  of  the  Commercial  Club,  with 
the  stated  purpose  of  increasing  municipal  patriotism  in  St.  Paul. 
Among  the  Moss  Papers  the  most  important  is  the  report  of  Wil- 
liam Holcombe,  chairman  of  a  committee  appointed  by  the  Still- 
water  convention  of  1848  to  report  to  Henry  H.  Sibley  the 
statistics  of  St.  Croix  County  for  that  year,  the  report  to  be 
used  by  Sibley  in  urging  upon  Congress  the  organization  of 
Minnesota  Territory.  Mrs.  Moss  has  also  deposited  in  the 
museum  a  number  of  handsome  specimens  of  old  fashioned  cos- 
tumes and  costume  accessories.  Examples  of  various  types  of 
fans,  several  quaint  bonnets  of  early  dates,  a  red  plush  dolman, 
and  a  pompadour  silk  dress  worn  about  1830,  are  some  of  the 
most  interesting  of  these  articles. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Charles  J.  P.  Young  of  St.  Paul, 
the  military  papers  of  Colonel  Josias  R.  King,  who  claimed  the 
distinction  of  being  the  first  volunteer  of  the  Civil  War,  have 
been  presented  by  his  widow,  Mrs.  Mary  Louisa  King.  These 


144  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  AUG. 

papers  consist  of  the  various  commissions  received  by  Colonel 
King,  a  summary  of  his  military  record,  a  manuscript  prepared 
in  1914  for  the  State  Historical  Society  of  North  Dakota  on  the 
Sully  expedition  of  1863,  and  a  number  of  miscellaneous  papers 
and  newspaper  clippings  regarding  incidents  in  his  personal 
career.  Mrs.  King  has  also  presented  two  pistols  and  a  uniform 
used  by  Colonel  King  in  the  Civil  War. 

From  Colonel  Jeremiah  C.  Donahower  of  St.  Paul  the  society 
has  received  a  three  volume  manuscript  narrative  of  the  Civil 
War  based  in  part  on  his  personal  experience  as  a  member  of 
the  Second  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infantry,  also  an  account  of 
the  march  of  companies  D  and  E  of  this  regiment  to  Yellow 
Medicine  in  July,  1861,  and  a  number  of  miscellaneous  papers, 
letters,  and  commissions.  Museum  material  presented  by 
Colonel  Donahower  includes  a  piece  of  Civil  War  hard  tack, 
numerous  badges,  stamps,  and  coins,  and  an  oil  painting  of  the 
battle  of  Chickamauga. 

Mr.  John  F.  Hayden  of  Minneapolis  has  presented  an  inter- 
esting manuscript  account  of  the  relief  expedition  sent  from 
St.  Peter  to  New  Ulm  at  the  time  of  the  Sioux  outbreak,  and 
of  the  subsequent  siege  of  that  town  by  the  Indians.  The 
account  was  written  in  1897  by  Mr.  Hayden's  father,  William  G. 
Hayden,  who  in  company  with  Acting  Lieutenant  Governor 
Swift  drove  to  New  Ulm  on  the  afternoon  of  August  22,  1862, 
and  remained  there  until  the  town  was  abandoned,  and  then 
accompanied  the  refugees  to  St.  Peter.  His  description  of  the 
siege  is  quite  detailed  and  very  realistic. 

Mrs.  Julius  E.  Miner  of  Minneapolis  has  presented  a  collection 
of  World  War  letters  written  by  her  brother  Brigadier  General 
Le  Roy  Upton  covering  nearly  two  years  of  service  in  France. 
General  Upton  was  awarded  the  distinguished  service  medal  by 
General  Pershing  for  conspicuous  ability  in  commanding  the 
Ninth  Infantry  before  Chateau  Thierry  and  the  Fifty-seventh 
Brigade  in  the  campaign  north  of  Verdun.  He  also  received 
the  distinguished  service  cross  and  the  croix  de  guerre.  His 
letters  are  intensely  interesting.  They  recount  his  experiences 


1919  GIFTS  145 

as  commander  in  the  trenches  and  give  many  entertaining 
sketches  of  both  the  usual  and  the  unusual  events  in  the  life  of 
an  officer  overseas. 

The  society  has  received  from  the  estate  of  Mrs.  Abbey  Fuller 
Abbe,  through  the  courtesy  of  her  niece,  Miss  Abby  Fuller,  the 
original  bids  and  contracts  for  the  erection  of  the  first  city  hall 
of  St.  Paul  in  1856.  Albert  Fuller,  a  brother  of  Mrs.  Abbe,  and 
George  Scott,  contractors,  were  the  successful  bidders  for  the 
building  and  the  contract  price,  seven  thousand  dollars,  was  to 
be  paid  in  city  bonds  running  from  ten  to  twenty  years  and  bear- 
ing twelve  per  cent  interest  payable  semiannually. 

From  Mr.  Victor  E.  Lawson  of  Willmar,  the  society  has 
received  a  blueprint  copy  of  an  interesting  article  entitled  "St. 
Anthony's  Falls  in  1866"  written  by  Mr.  Walter  Stone  Pardee 
for  the  reunion  of  the  Junior  Pioneers  of  St.  Anthony's  Falls  in 
1918.  In  this  article  Mr.  Pardee  has  drawn  a  vivid  pen  picture 
of  the  village  as  it  was  in  those  early  days,  bringing  out  such 
landmarks  as  the  Winslow  House,  the  white  schoolhouse,  the 
old  stone  store,  and  the  suspension  bridge.  He  has  brought  to 
life  again  the  leading  men  and  women  of  the  community  and 
has  told  of  the  various  activities  and  amusements  of  the  small 
boy  and  youth.  His  description  of  the  falls  in  high  water  is 
especially  noteworthy  and  helps  the  reader  of  this  generation  to 
appreciate  the  splendor  of  a  scene  that  has  long  since  dis- 
appeared. 

A  manuscript  map  of  a  portion  of  northeastern  Minnesota, 
covering  the  region  between  Leech  Lake  and  Mille  Lacs  and 
extending  eastward  to  the  vicinity  of  Duluth,  is  a  very  desirable 
gift  received  from  Mr.  Charles  H.  Baker  of  Zellwood,  Florida. 
This  map  was  made  by  Alfred  J.  Hill  in  1870  for  the  use  of 
Mr.  Baker,  who  was  employed  by  an  eastern  syndicate  to  explore 
northern  Minnesota  and  prospect  for  iron  ore.  At  that  time  the 
presence  of  iron  ore  in  the  state  was  only  rumored  and  the 
"Upper  Country"  was  the  wilderness  home  of  a  few  scattered 
Indian  families.  Its  geographic  features  were  little  known  to 
white  men  and  Mr.  Hill,  then  employed  in  the  surveyor  general's 


146  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  AUG. 

office,  was  one  of  the  few  men  capable  of  making  a  useful  sketch 
of  this  region. 

Mr.  Harry  Trevor  Drake  of  St.  Paul  has  presented  a  manu- 
script genealogy  of  the  Spining  family  compiled  by  himself  and 
the  Reverend  George  Laurence  Spining  of  South  Orange,  New 
Jersey.  The  work  is  in  twelve  volumes,  each  devoted  to  one 
branch  of  the  family.  Full  records  of  the  descendants  of 
Stephen  Wheeler,  Benjamin  Morris,  Jabez  Bruen,  Henry  Drake, 
Enos  Case,  Joseph  Watkins,  and  the  Reverends  Peter  and  David 
Monford  are  also  to  be  found  in  this  genealogy. 

A  crayon  portrait  of  the  late  Robert  C.  Dunn  of  Princeton  has 
been  transferred  from  the  office  of  the  state  auditor  to  the  portrait 
collection  of  the  society.  Mr.  Dunn  was  state  auditor  from  1895 
to  1903,  and  served  several  terms  as  a  representative  in  the  legis- 
lature. 

A  portrait  in  pastel  of  Colonel  Joseph  Bobleter  has  been 
received  from  Mrs.  Joseph  Bobleter  of  New  Ulm.  Colonel  Bob- 
leter was  born  in  Austria  in  1846,  came  to  America  in  1858,  and 
died  in  1909.  He  served  in  both  the  Civil  and  Spanish-American 
wars,  was  postmaster  at  New  Ulm  for  thirteen  years,  served  as  a 
representative  in  the  legislature  in  1884,  and  held  the  office  of 
state  treasurer  from  1887  to  1895.  The  encampment  of  the  Min- 
nesota National  Guard  at  Fort  Snelling  in  1916  preparatory  to 
service  on  the  Mexican  border  was  named  Camp  Bobleter  in  his 
honor. 

Miss  Helen  Castle  of  St.  Paul  has  presented  a  group  picture 
of  the  members  of  the  first  state  editorial  convention  held  in 
Minnesota  in  1867  and  a  set  of  individual  photographs  of  nine 
of  Minnesota's  governors. 

Three  hundred  and  eighty-three  photographs  of  scenes  and 
buildings  in  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis  have  been  received  from 
Mr.  Edward  A.  Bromley  of  Minneapolis.  These  pictures,  which 
were  taken  between  1908  and  the  present  time,  are  excellent  illus- 
trations of  the  growth  of  the  cities  during  that  period.  Other 
photographs  of  historical  interest  recently  presented  by  Mr. 


1919  GIFTS  147 

Bromley  include  a  picture  of  the  officers  of  the  third  battalion 
of  the  Thirteenth  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infantry,  one  of  the 
reunion  of  the  Eighth  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infantry  in  1891, 
and  a  view  of  St.  Paul  in  1868. 

Colonel  John  P.  Nicholson  of  Philadelphia  has  added  to  the 
numismatic  collection  in  the  museum  a  paper  ten  dollar  bill  and 
a  paper  one  dollar  bill  which  were  issued  in  New  York  in  1775 
and  1776. 

A  noteworthy  collection  of  World  War  specimens  has  been 
deposited  in  the  museum  by  Mr.  Alonzo  F.  Carlyle  of  St.  Paul, 
who  was  on  the  French  front  as  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretary  for  sev- 
eral months.  Among  the  very  interesting  German  items  are  a 
private's  helmet,  canteens  of  both  officers  and  privates,  an  offi- 
cer's field  glass,  a  Lugger,  an  automatic  32,  an  Iron  Cross,  a 'pri- 
vate's tassel  of  citation  for  bravery,  and  a  diary  of  a  German 
private.  A  French  pistol,  and  French  gas  mask,  a  Verdun  medal, 
and  works  of  art  made  by  French  soldiers  during  their  leisure 
near  the  front  lines,  are  some  of  the  interesting  French  pieces. 
The  collection  also  contains  a  trench  spade,  a  cartridge  belt,  and 
a  bayonet,  used  by  the  Americans.  Mr.  Carlyle  has  supplied 
information  about  the  specimens  which  adds  materially  to  their 
historical  value.  * 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Mrs.  Irene  G.  Crosby,  head  recon- 
struction aid  in  the  hospital  at  Fort  Snelling,  the  surgeon  general 
of  the  United  States  has  turned  over  to  the  society's  museum  a 
representative  collection  of  articles  made  by  wounded  soldiers 
while  in  the  hospital.  The  collection  includes  examples  of  various 
types  of  baskets,  bead  chains,  toys,  hammered  brass  and  copper 
jewelry,  knitted  scarfs  and  bags,  and  woven  table  runners  and 
rugs  with  the  looms  and  rakes  upon  which  they  were  made.  The 
articles  are  accompanied  by  the  names  and  service  records  of  the 
makers,  most  of  whom  are  Minnesota  boys. 

The  society  is  indebted  to  the  St.  Paul  Association  for  an 
immense  service  flag,  which  has  been  hung  on  the  stair  landing 
near  the  entrance  into  the  museum.  This  flag  bears  a  gold  star 
for  every  Minnesota  man  who  was  known  to  have  lost  his  life 


148 


HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES 


AUG. 


in  the  service  during  the  World  War  up  to  April  1,  1919— about 
twelve  hundred.  Twelve  banners  bearing  the  names  of  engage- 
ments in  which  Minnesota  men  took  part  during  the  war  have 
also  been  presented  by  the  association.  Both  the  banners  and  the 
flag  were  carried  in  a  parade  in  connection  with  the  Victory  Loan 
campaign  in  St.  Paul. 

Mr.  Raymon  Bowers  of  Gladstone,  Minnesota,  formerly  a 
member  of  the  society's  staff,  has  presented  to  the  museum  sev- 
eral pictures  and  specimens  relating  to  the  World  War.  A 
French  signal  pistol  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  items. 

Seven  valuable  French  war  posters  have  been  presented  to  the 
society  by  Mr.  John  C.  Brown  through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Wil- 
loughby  M.  Babcock  of  Minneapolis.  Mr.  Brown  was  with  the 
University  of  Minnesota  unit  in  Base  Hospital  No.  26  in  France. 

A  German  gas  mask  is  one  of  the  interesting  items  in  a  col- 
lection of  World  War  specimens  and  pictures  presented  by  Major 
James  C.  Ferguson  of  St.  Paul.  Major  Ferguson  was  with  the 
American  Expeditionary  Force  as  a  member  of  the  medical  corps. 

A  wooden  shoe  with  a  paper  fibre  top  and  a  coarse  shirt,  of 
the  kinds  provided  for  Italian  prisoners  in  Austria,  have  been 
added  to  the  war  exhibits  in^the  museum  by  Mr.  Paul  J.  Thomp- 
son of  Minneapolis.  Mr.  Thompson  was  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
service  in  Italy. 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT 

"The  War"  will  have  to  be  Minnesota's  excuse  for  failing  to 
stage  this  month  a  celebration  of  the  centennial  of  her  birth  as 
an  American  community.  Over  three  years  ago,  in  its  issue  for 
May,  1916,  the  MINNESOTA  HISTORY  BULLETIN  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  arrival  of  troops  for  the  establishment  of  a 
military  post  at  the  mouth  of  the  Minnesota  River  in  1819  was 
the  real  beginning  of  American  occupation  of  the  region  and  sug- 
gested that  if  a  centennial  celebration  was  to  be  undertaken,  plans 
should  be  worked  out  as  soon  as  possible.  Preoccupation  in  the 
problems  of  the  war  period,  however,  made  any  such  procedure 
impracticable,  and  nothing  more  was  heard  about  the  centennial 
until  after  the  armistice  was  signed. 

The  next  suggestion  for  a  celebration  came  from  the  Minne- 
apolis society  known  as  the  Native  Sons  of  Minnesota,  which, 
at  its  meeting  on  February  5,  1919,  arranged  for  a  committee  to 
promote  "a  movement  to  commemorate  the  centennial  of  the 
founding  of  Fort  Snelling  with  a  mammoth  military  pageant  and 
civic  celebration."  It  was  planned,  according  to  the  newspaper 
report,  "to  have  the  Legislature  appropriate  sufficient  funds  to 
insure  the  success  of  the  celebration."  The  committee  of  the 
Native  Sons  attended  a  meeting  of  the  council  of  the  Minnesota 
Historical  Society  on  February  24  and  requested  the  coopera- 
tion of  the  society  in  the  movement.  The  council  endorsed  the 
general  proposition  that  the  centennial  should  be  observed  and 
indicated  its  willingness  to  cooperate  in  any  feasible  way.  So 
far  as  is  known,  no  attempt  was  made  to  secure  an  appropriation 
from  the  legislature. 

The  idea  had  its  next  revival  on  June  2  when  the  St.  Paul 
Pioneer  Press  called  attention  editorially  to  the  rapidly  approach- 
ing centennial  and  suggested  a  celebration  postponed  for  a  year 
or  two  in  order  to  allow  a  reasonable  amount  of  time  for  prep- 
aration. For  a  week  or  more  both  the  Pioneer  Press  and  the 
Dispatch,  by  means  of  editorials  and  news  items,  strove  valiantly, 
though  not  always  with  historical  accuracy,  to  start  the  ball  of 


149 


150  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  AUG, 

public  interest  rolling  in  the  direction  of  a  celebration.  The  sub- 
ject  was  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  directors  of  the  St.  Paul 
Association  of  Public  and  Business  Affairs  by  the  newspaper 
men  and  by  a  letter  from  the  superintendent  of  the  Minnesota 
Historical  Society  setting  forth  arguments  in  favor  of  a  cele- 
bration. The  president  and  general  secretary  of  the  association 
were  appointed  a  committee  to  suggest  to  Governor  Burnquist 
the  creation  of  a  state  commission  to  arrange  for  a  state-wide 
celebration  in  1920  or  1921  and  to  inform  him  that  the  cooper- 
ation of  the  association  could  be  counted  upon.  The  whole  mat- 
ter was  thus  put  into  the  hands  of  the  Governor,  who  still  has  it 
under  advisement.  It  is  now  certain  that  there  will  be  no  cele- 
bration in  1919.  Whether  or  not  one  will  be  staged  in  1920  or 
1921  remains  to  be  seen. 

The  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Association  held  its  twelfth 
annual  meeting  in  St.  Louis,  May  8,  9,  and  10.  One  session  was 
devoted  to  World  War  history  and  consisted  of  a  paper  on  "The 
Attitude  of  Swedish- Americans  Toward  the  World  War,"  by 
George  M.  Stephenson  of  the  University  of  Minnesota,  and 
reports  on  the  war  history  activities  of  Iowa,  Texas,  Louisiana,, 
and  Minnesota.  Other  papers  of  special  interest  to  Minnesotans 
were  "Henry  Hastings  Sibley  and  the  Minnesota  Frontier,"  by 
Wilson  P.  Shortridge  of  the  University  of  Louisville,  and 
"Steamboating  on  the  Upper  Mississippi  After  the  Civil  War," 
by  Lester  B.  Shippee  of  the  University  of  Minnesota.  Milo  M. 
Quaife  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin  was  elected 
president  of  the  association  and  Royal  B.  Way  of  Beloit  College, 
Charles  M.  Ramsdell  of  the  University  of  Texas,  and  Solon  J. 
Buck  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  new  members  of  the 
executive  committee.  The  next  meeting  will  be  held  at  Green- 
castle,  Indiana,  under  the  auspices  of  De  Pauw  University. 

The  Thirty-first  Report  of  the  commissioner  of  public  records 
in  Massachusetts  (7  p.)  indicates  that  that  state  considers  it 
worth  while  to  spend  money  to  enforce  the  proper  care  and  pres- 
ervation of  local  archives.  "Inspection  of  the  care,  custody, 
condition,  and  protection  against  fire  of  the  public  records  of 
departments  and  offices  of  the  counties,  cities,  and  towns"  was 


1919  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  151 

made  in  187  places  during  1918.  Records  of  eighteen  towns  or 
counties  were  "repaired,  renovated,  restored,  or  bound"  by  the 
expensive  Emory  process  under  orders  of  the  commissioner. 
Three  fires  in  town  halls  occurred  during  the  year  but  no  records 
were  lost  because  they  were  in  fireproof  steel-fitted  vaults,  two 
of  which  had  been  provided  by  order  of  the  commissioner. 
When  the  western  states  are  as  old  as  Massachusetts  they  too 
may  begin  to  realize  the  importance  of  such  things. 

A  movement  has  been  started  looking  toward  greater  cooper- 
ation among  the  large  libraries  of  the  Twin  Cities.  Two  meetings 
have  been  held  of  those  in  charge  of  the  work  of  the  Minneapolis 
and  St.  Paul  public,  James  J.  Hill  Reference,  university,  state, 
and  historical  society  libraries,  and  of  the  library  division  of  the 
state  department  of  education,  which  has  taken  over  the  functions 
of  the  Minnesota  Public  Library  Commission.  The  first  of  these 
meetings  took  the  form  of  a  luncheon  and  the  second  was  held 
in  the  Historical  Building.  It  is  expected  that  they  will  be 
resumed  in  the  fall.  Many  subjects  of  mutual  interest  are  dis- 
cussed at  these  conferences  and  they  will  undoubtedly  be  valu- 
able to  the  institutions  concerned,  especially  in  preventing  unnec- 
essary duplication  of  collections.  There  is  so  much  material  to 
be  collected  and  preserved  that  the  libraries  must  to  a  certain 
extent  endeavor  to  divide  up  the  field. 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  Minnesota  Territorial  Pioneers' 
Association  was  held  this  year  on  May  10  since  May  11,  the 
anniversary  of  the  admission  of  the  state  to  the  Union,  fell  on 
Sunday.  About  sixty  members  of  the  organization  gathered  in 
the  Old  Capitol,  St.  Paul,  talked  over  old  times,  and  listened  to 
reminiscent  addresses. 

The  Hennepin  County  Territorial  Pioneers'  Association  held 
its  annual  meeting  at  the  Godfrey  House  on  May  31,  the  seven- 
tieth anniversary  of  the  organization  of  Minnesota  Territory. 
The  names  of  members  of  the  association  who  died  during  the 
year,  with  the  dates  of  their  arrival  in  Minnesota  are  published 
in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  of  May  26.  Both  the  Journal  and 
the  Minneapolis  Tribune  of  June  1  contain  accounts  of  the  meet- 
ing and  biographical  notes  about  a  few  of  the  older  members. 


152  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  AUG. 

The  forty-third  annual  reunion  of  the  Dodge  County  Old  Set- 
tlers' Association  was  held  in  Mantorville  on  June  17. '  A  feature 
of  the  meeting  was  the  reading  of  reminiscent  papers  contributed 
by  Mantorville  pioneers,  many  of  whom  now  reside  in  other 
parts  of  the  United  States.  These  papers,  together  with  a  sketch 
of  the  founding  and  early  history  of  Mantorville,  were  pub- 
lished in  the  Mantorville  Express  of  June  27.  Portraits  of  Petei 
and  Riley  Mantor,  for  whom  the  town  was  named,  and  pictures 
of  historic  buildings  in  the  town  illustrate  this  issue  of  the  paper, 

On  the  evening  of  June  9,  the  students  of  Hamline  University, 
St.  Paul,  presented  a  pageant  depicting  events  in  the  history  of 
the  university  from  its  foundation  at  Red  Wing  in  1854  to  the 
return  of  the  Hamline  World  War  veterans  in  1919.  The 
pageant  was  part  of  the  sixty-first  commencement  program. 

Two  notable  historical  pageants  were  presented  in  Minnesota 
during  the  week  of  July  27  to  August  2.  The  first,  "Swords  and 
Ploughshares,"  was  the  second  annual  midsummer  pageant  pro- 
duced by  the  Minneapolis  Civic  Players.  With  the  steps  of  the 
Minneapolis  Art  Institute  for  a  stage,  the  growth  of  human  free- 
dom from  primitive  times  until  its  culmination  in  the  victory  of 
democracy  at  the  close  of  the  World  War  was  traced.  The  second 
pageant  was  the  work  of  the  Lake  Minnetonka  Woman's  Club. 
Excelsior  Commons  and  the  lake  were  the  setting  for  a  series  of 
episodes  depicting  events  of  significance  in  the  history  of  this 
portion  of  Minnesota  from  the  coming  of  Father  Hennepin  to 
the  end  of  the  World  War.  The  proceeds  from  this  pageant  will 
be  used  in  the  erection  of  a  clubhouse  as  a  memorial  to  the  Min- 
netonka men  who  died  in  the  service. 

The  Minnesota  division  of  the  woman's  committee  of  the 
Council  of  National  Defense  has  issued  a  pamphlet  entitled  Two 
Pageants  (22  p.).  One  of  the  pageants,  "Minnesota  Trium- 
phant," arranged  by  Katherine  Evans  Blake,  portrays  ten  phases 
of  the  history  of  the  state,  starting  with  the  Indian  period  and 
concluding  with  the  "Defense  of  Democracy."  The  other, 
"America,"  by  Anna  Augusta  Helmholz-Phelan  and  C.  G. 
Stevens,  is  a  symbolic  representation  of  the  "ideas  for  which 
\ve  stand." 


1919  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  153 

The  eighty-fourth  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Minneapolis  was  celebrated  by  the  mem- 
bers on  June  8  at  Fort  Snelling,  where,  in  1835,  twenty-two 
pioneers  organized  this  first  Protestant  congregation  in  Minne- 
sota. A  list  of  the  first  members  taken  from  the  original  church 
records,  is  published  as  a  part  of  the  account  of  the  commemora- 
tion exercises  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  of  June  9.  It  includes 
the  names  of  such  famous  men  as  Henry  H.  Sibley,  who  was  the 
first  clerk,  Samuel  W.  and  Gideon  H.  Pond,  and  Thomas  S. 
Williamson. 

On  May  18  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  St.  Paul  celebrated 
the  seventieth  anniversary  of  the  erection  of  the  first  church  of 
this  denomination  in  Minnesota  and  the  arrival  of  its  minister 
in  St.  Paul.  This  furnished  the  occasion  for  an  article  in  the 
St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press  of  that  date  containing  historical  notes 
about  early  Protestant  churches  and  about  Harriet  E.  Bishop 
who  taught  the  first  school  in  St.  Paul. 

Surface  Formations  and  Agricultural  Conditions  of  the  South 
Half  of  Minnesota,  by  Frank  Leverett  and  Frederick  W.  Sarde- 
son  (Minnesota  Geological  Survey,  Bulletins,  no.  13.  147  p.),  is 
the  third  and  final  part  of  the  report  of  the  Minnesota  and  United 
States  geological  surveys,  the  first  two  parts  of  which  were 
reviewed  in  the  BULLETIN  for  May,  1915,  and  August,  1917 
(1:5^-61;  2:178-181).  It  treats  the  southern  portion  of  the 
state  in  much  the  same  way  as  the  northwestern  and  northeastern 
sections  were  treated  in  the  previous  parts  of  the  report. 

"The  Movement  of  American  Settlers  into  Wisconsin  and 
Minnesota,"  by  Cardinal  Goodwin,  in  the  July  number  of  the 
Iowa  Journal  of  History  and  Politics,  is  a  useful  but  by  no 
means  exhaustive  compilation  of  data. 

The  history  of  the  liquor  traffic  in  Minnesota  from  the  days 
of  the  first  fur-trader  to  the  present,  is  the  subject  of  an  inter- 
esting article  by  Thomas  J.  Malone  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune 
of  June  29.  The  title  of  the  article,  "Prohibition  to  Rule  in  Min- 
nesota 67  Years  after  Voted  by  its  People,"  is  a  reference  to  the 
so-called  "Maine  law"  enacted  by  the  territorial  legislature  in 


154  NEVYS  AND  COMMENT  AUG. 

1852  with  the  condition  that  it  must  be  ratified  by  the  people 
before  going  into  effect.  The  "drys"  carried  the  election,  but 
the  superior  court  of  the  territory  held  the  law  to  be  null  and 
void  on  the  ground  that  the  act  of  Congress  establishing  the  ter- 
ritory gave  the  legislature  no  power  to  delegate  its  authority  to 
the  people.  Mr.  Malone  touches  lightly  upon  many  phases  of 
his  subject :  the  use  of  liquor  by  the  Indians,  the  restrictive 
clauses  in  the  Chippewa  treaties  and  their  recent  enforcement, 
legislation  for  the  regulation  and  restriction  of  the  traffic,  instruc- 
tion in  schools  with  reference  to  the  effects  of  alcoholic  liquors 
on  the  human  system,  and  the  careers  of  the  various  temperance 
and  prohibition  organizations.  Pictures  of  early  road  houses 
and  hotels  noted  for  their  bars  and  portraits  of  Minnesota  pro- 
hibition leaders  illustrate  the  article. 

"Two  Guns  Paid  for  Nicollet  Island"  is  the  title  of  a  brief 
article  published  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  for  May  26.  It 
relates  how  the  late  Daniel  E.  Dow  of  Hopkins  acquired  in  1851 
not  only  a  claim  to  the  island  but  also  six  steel  traps  and  two 
frying  pans  in  exchange  for  a  shotgun  and  a  pistol. 

A  number  of  articles  by  Fred  A.  Bill  of  St.  Paul  appear  in 
recent  issues  of  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  of  Burlington,  Iowa, 
in  the  section  devoted  to  "The  Old  Boats."  The  deaths  of  Cap- 
tain Henry  F.  Slocum  of  Winona  and  Captain  William  H.  Simp- 
son of  Milwaukee,  are  the  occasions  for  the  publication  of 
sketches  of  the  river  experiences  of  these  men  in  the  issues  for 
May  10  and  July  26.  A  report  of  a  meeting  of  the  Pioneer 
Rivermen's  Association  in  St.  Paul  appears  in  the  number  for 
May  3. 

An  interesting  article  on  logging  on  the  Mississippi  River  is 
published  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  of  May  18.  It  is  illustrated 
with  pictures  of  logging  scenes  and  of  some  of  the  owner's  marks 
by  which  the  logs  were  identified. 

An  article  by  Judge  John  F.  McGee  entitled  "First  Minne- 
sota's Historic  Charge  at  Gettysburg,"  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal 
for  June  29,  commemorates  the  fifty-sixth  anniversary  of  that 
event. 


1919 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT 


155 


The  announcement  by  Harper  and  Brothers  that  they  are 
reprinting  Ignatius  Donnelly's  Atlantis,  the  first  edition  of  which 
was  published  in  1882,  furnished  the  occasion  for  a  sketch  of  his 
literary  and  political  career  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  of  June 
.8.  The  sketch  is  illustrated  with  a  portrait  of  Donnelly,  which  is 
reproduced  from  a  pastel  in  the  possession  of  the  Minnesota  His- 
torical Society. 

In  the  series  headed  "State  Builders  of  the  West,"  the  Western 
Magazine  for  July  contains  a  sketch  of  "Lucius  Frederick  Hub- 
bard,  Ninth  Governor  of  Minnesota." 

An  article  on,  "The  Fire  in  the  North  Woods,"  by  Henry  A. 
Bellows,  in  the  Bellman  for  June  14,  portrays  the  events  of  last 
October  in  a  vivid  and  illuminating  manner.  After  a  discussion 
of  "How  did  it  happen,"  Mr.  Bellows  describes  the  work  of  the 
Red  Cross  and  the  militia  whose  "courage  and  patience  and  cheer- 
fullness"  have  commended  those  organizations  to  the  world.  The 
article  is  illustrated  by  excellent  pictures  of  the  devastated  dis- 
trict. 

The  June  number  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Review 
contains  the  valuable  annual  survey  of  "Historical  Activities  in 
the  Old  Northwest,"  by  Arthur  B.  Cole. 

In  his  autobiography,  The  Iron  Hunter  (New  York,  1919. 
316  p.),  Chase  S.  Osborn,  governor  of  Michigan  from  1910  to 
1912,  presents  an  interesting  narrative  of  his  career  as  a  news- 
paper editor  and  politician,  and  of  his  travels  in  visiting  prac- 
tically all  the  great  iron  mines  of  the  world.  Scattered  through 
the  narrative  are  chapters  in  which  he  deals  with  the  develop- 
ment of  the  iron  industry  or  sketches  the  history  of  some  famous 
iron  region.  To  this  last  group  belongs  the  chapter  on  "The 
Mesaba  Range  in  Minnesota,  The  Greatest  Iron  Ore  District  the 
World  Has  Ever  Known."  In  a  brief  chronologically  arranged 
sketch,  the  author  traces  the  history  of  the  range  from  its  dis- 
covery by  the  Jesuits  to  the  tardy  realization  of  the  commercial 
value  of  its  ore  deposits  in  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. He  concludes  the  chapter  with  a  list  of  the  larger  inde- 
pendent mines  whose  owners  compete  with  the  United  States 


156  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  AUG. 

Steel  Corporation  and  with  figures  showing  the  extent  of  ore 
production  from  the  range  up  to  the  close  of  navigation  in  1918. 

Miss  Louise  Phelps  Kellogg  is  retelling  "The  Story  of  Wis- 
consin, 1634-1848"  in  the  Wisconsin  Magazine  of  History. 
Chapter  1  dealing  with  "Physical  and  Political  Geography"  and 
Chapter  2  entitled  "The  Red  Men  and  the  Fur  Trade"  are  in 
the  March  and  June  issues  respectively.  "Cyrus  Woodman:  A 
Character  Sketch,"  by  Ellis  B.  Usher,  is  another  article  in  the 
June  number. 

The  scope  of  Ruth  A.  Gallaher's  Legal  and  Political  Status  of 
Women  in  Iowa:  An  Historical  Account  of  the  Rights  of  Women 
in  Iowa  from  1838  to  1918,  published  by  the  State  Historical 
Society  of  Iowa  (1918.  xii,  300  p.),  is  well  indicated  in  the  title. 
It  deals  with  the  historical  development  of  woman's  status  as  a 
citizen,  as  distinguished  from  her  status  in  society,  in  a  state  typ- 
ical of  the  Northwest.  While  this  portion  of  the  United  States  has 
been  more  conservative  than  the  extreme  West  in  advancing  the 
position  of  women,  on  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  far  more  pro- 
gressive than  the  East  or  the  South.  Most  of  the  laws  and 
judicial  decisions  discussed  are  those  which  point  out  a  distinc- 
tion between  men  and  women,  rather  than  those  which  apply 
equally  to  men  and  to  women.  Miss  Gallaher  divides  her  book 
into  two  parts :  one  dealing  with  the  growth  of  civil  rights,  the 
other  with  the  development  of  the  political  rights  of  women. 
Civil  rights  are  treated  first,  since,  historically,  women  gained 
these  rights  first.  The  chapters  on  the  development  of  equal 
suffrage  are  necessarily  incomplete  in  a  book  published  in  1918. 
The  plan  of  the  book  is  clearly  defined,  logical,  and  easy  to 
follow.  The  notes,  which  form  a  separate  section  in  the  back  of 
the  book,  are  less  convenient  for  general  use  than  footnotes. 

The  legislature  of  North  Dakota  has  appropriated  the  sum  of 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  be  used  in  erecting  a  building 
for  the  State  Historical  Society  of  North  Dakota.  The  building 
will  be  located  on  the  Capitol  grounds  at  Bismark  and  will  be  so 
planned  that  additions  can  be  made  to  it  in  the  future. 

The  Fargo  Courier-News  is  publishing,  now  and  then,  a  series 
of  articles  entitled  "Pioneer  Stories  of  the  Northwest."  The 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  157 

issue  of  May  11  contains  an  account  of  the  naming  of  the  Red 
River  and  that  of  July  13  the  story  of  how  Thomas  H.  Canfield 
selected  the  site  of  Fargo. 

The  South  Dakota  legislature  has  authorized  the  erection  of  a 
building  on  the  Capitol  grounds  at  Pierre  as  a  memorial  to  the 
soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  state  in  the  World  War.  The  building 
is  to  be  financed  by  popular  subscription  and  the  governor,  the 
adjutant  general,  and  the  secretary  of  the  department  of  history 
are  constituted  a  committee  to  raise  the  money,  to  plan  the  build- 
ing, and  to  supervise  its  erection.  Nothing  is  said  in  the  act  as 
to  what  use  may  be  made  of  the  building  but  it  would  seem  to 
be  eminently  fitting  that  it  should  be  used  for  the  preservation 
of  the  state's  war  records  and  other  historical  material. 

A  Nevada  Applied  History  Series  has  been  inaugurated  by 
the  Nevada  Historical  Society  with  a  little  volume  entitled  Tax- 
ation in  Nevada,  A  History,  by  Romanzo  Adams  (Carson  City, 
1918.  199  p.) 

WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES 

The  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission  has  been  reorgan- 
ized in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the  law  establishing  it 
as  a  statutory  body  (Laws,  1919,  ch.  284) .  The  members  of  the 
new  commission  are  as  follows :  the  Honorable  Gideon  S.  Ives, 
St.  Paul,  president  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society;  Guy 
Stanton  Ford,  Minneapolis,  chairman  of  the  department  of  his- 
tory of  the  University  of  Minnesota;  Brigadier  General  Walter 
F.  Rhinow,  St.  Paul,  adjutant  general;  James  M.  McConnell, 
St.  Paul,  state  commissioner  of  education;  Solon  J.  Buck,  Min- 
neapolis, superintendent  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society;  O. 
J.  Larson,  attorney,  Duluth ;  Colonel  George  E.  Leach,  Minne- 
apolis, former  commander  of  the  151st  United  States  Field  Artil- 
lery; Henry  W.  Libby,  Winona,  secretary  of  the  Minnesota 
Commission  of  Public  Safety;  and  Colin  F.  Macdonald,  St. 
Cloud,  publisher  of  the  St.  Cloud  Times.  The  four  first  named 
are  members  ex  officio;  the  others  are  appointees  of  the  governor. 
At  its  organization  meeting,  July  19,  the  new  commission  elected 
officers  and  made  appointments  as  follows :  Solon  J.  Buck, 


158 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT 


AUG. 


chairman;  General  Rhinow,  vice-chairman;  Franklin  F.  Hoi- 
brook,  director  of  the  original  commission,  secretary;  and  Cecil 
W.  Shirk,  field  agent.  An  executive  committee,  consisting  of 
the  chairman  and  Messrs.  Leach,  Libby,  and  Ives  was  appointed 
to  supervise  the  work  of  the  commission  during  intervals  between 
sessions  of  the  main  body.  The  commission  authorized  its  agents 
to  continue  the  work  of  collecting  war  records  along  the  lines 
followed  by  the  original  commission,  making  use  of  and  extend- 
ing the  subsidiary  organization  of  county  chairmen  and  com- 
mittees already  effected  by  that  body. 

An  increasing  number  of  county  war  records  committees  are 
taking  advantage  of  the  recently  enacted  law  whereby  county 
boards  and  other  local  governing  bodies  are  authorized  to  appro- 
priate funds  in  aid  of  the  war  records  work  in  their  several  com- 
munities (Laws,  1919,  ch.  228).  The  committees  of  Nobles  and 
Polk  counties  have  been  granted  seven  hundred  and  fifty  and  five 
hundred  dollars,  respectively,  of  the  county  funds.  The  Stevens 
County  board  has  appropriated  three  hundred  dollars  for  the  use 
of  the  local  committee  and,  it  is  understood,  will  grant  more  as 
needed.  The  committees  of  Marshall  and  St.  Louis  counties  have 
each  received  the  legal  maximum  from  the  county  board,  one 
thousand  dollars,  and  the  St.  Louis  committee  has  secured  from 
the  city  of  Duluth  an  additional  eight  hundred  and  fifty  dollars, 
to  be  expended  for  clerk  hire  at  the  rate  of  eighty-five  dollars  a 
month.  At  the  instance  of  the  war  records  committee  in  Rice 
County,  the  county  board  has  passed  a  resolution  inviting  the 
several  cities  and  villages  of  the  county  to  contribute  to  the  local 
war  records  work  the  full  amounts  authorized  by  law,  which 
would  make  a  total  of  two  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  dol- 
lars, in  addition  to  the  thousand  dollars  already  granted  by  the 
board  from  the  county  funds. 

Signs  of  increasing  activity  in  many  of  the  counties  organized 
for  the  collection  of  local  war  records  continue  to  appear.  The 
committees  of  Itasca,  Mower,  Rice,  St.  Louis,  Stevens,  and 
Yellow  Medicine  counties  in  their  correspondence  make  use  of 
specially  prepared  stationery,  the  Rice  County  committee,  for 
example,  using  two  letterheads;  one  showing  the  personnel, 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  159 

officers,  and  committees  of  the  county  organization,  and  the  other 
bearing  the  county  board  resolution  mentioned  above.  All  active 
committees  continue  to  stress  the  work  of  compiling  the  military 
service  records.  Recent  reports  from  Polk  and  Traverse  coun- 
ties indicate  that  an  important  share  in  this  phase  of  the  work 
is  being  taken  by  town  clerks  in  the  one  and  by  rural  school 
teachers  in  the  other.  Under  the  special  directions  from  the 
county  board,  given  when  the  board  granted  funds  to  the  county 
war  records  committee,  Marshall  County  is  to  have  a  permanent 
record,  typewritten  and  in  book  form,  of  the  individual  services 
of  the  soldiers,  sailors,  and  marines  from  that  county.  A  num- 
ber of  county  chairmen  are  giving  a  great  deal  of  their  own 
time  to  the  work :  the  chairman  of  the  Nobles  County  committee, 
for  example,  personally  conducts  the  work  from  the  headquarters 
in  the  county  courthouse  and  is  understood  to  have  made  great 
progress  in  his  efforts  to  compile  records  of  which  the  county 
may  be  proud.  The  Stevens  County  committee,  and  particularly 
its  chairman,  has  shown  unusual  ability  in  identifying  as  "war 
records"  relics  and  souvenirs  of  the  war  period  including  not 
only  the  more  obvious  kinds,  such  as  posters,  banners,  buttons, 
and  battlefield  relics,  but  also  such  articles  as  sugar  containers 
devised  to  facilitate  the  observance  in  public  eating  places  of  the 
government's  war-time  food  regulations.  The  Beltrami  County 
committee  has  followed  the  example  of  others  mentioned  in  the 
May  BULLETIN  (p.  104)  in  planning  to  prepare  and  publish  a 
county  war  history.  A  somewhat  similar  plan  has  been  formu- 
lated in  Polk  County  by  an  organization  closely  affiliated  with 
the  county  war  records  committee  there,  the  Nels  T.  Wold  post 
of  the  American  Legion  (known  before  its  absorption  by  that 
body  as  the  Polk  County  branch  of  the  World  War  Veterans). 

To  the  list  of  projects  for  the  publication  of  county  war  his- 
tories as  private  ventures,  as  noted  in  the  BULLETIN  for  February 
and  May  (pp.  52,  104),  the  following  may  be  added:  Crow 
Wing  County,  C.  E.  Barnes  of  Deerwood;  Fillmore  County, 
LeVang's  Weekly;  Isanti  County,  Cambridge  North  Star;  Kittson 
County,  Karlstad  Advocate;  Le  Sueur  County,  Le  Sueur  News; 
Nicollet  County,  St.  Peter  Herald;  Stevens  County,  Morris 
Tribune;  and  Washington  County,  Buckbee-Mears  Company,  St. 


160 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT  AUG. 


Paul.  In  this  connection  a  word  may  be  said  as  to  the  relation 
of  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission  to  such  projects, 
inasmuch  as  the  matter  became  the  subject  of  controversy 
between  the  Wells  Mirror  (June  11,  18,  25)  and  the  Wells 
Forum- Advocate  (June  12,  19,  26),  the  publisher  of  the  latter 
having  undertaken  to  prepare  and  publish  a  war  history  of  Fari- 
bault  County,  professedly  with  the  endorsement  of  the  commis- 
sion. The  attitude  and  policy  of  the  commission  as  then  formu- 
lated was  expressed  in  part  as  follows :  "It  is  in  the  work  of 
collecting  data  and  records,  only,  that  the  War  Records  Organi- 
zation finds  a  point  of  contact  with  the  many  private  projects  for 
the  publication  of  county  war  histories.  .  .  .  Both  agencies,  pub- 
lic and  private,  seek  much  the  same  kinds  of  material,  though 
from  different  motives  and  for  different  uses,  and  cooperation 
between  the  two  in  the  collection  of  this  material  may  result  to 
the  advantage  of  both  the  war  records  collections  and  the  his- 
tories, the  exact  course  to  be  followed  in  each  case  being  left  to 
the  discretion  of  the  local  committee.  But  the  preparation,  pub- 
lication, advertising,  and  sale  of  the  histories  in  question  remains 
the  private  enterprise  of  the  publishers  who  initiated  and  control 
these  undertakings.  ...  In  no  case  has  the  commission  author- 
ized the  use  of  its  name  in  promoting  any  of  these  projects, 
though  it  recognizes  that  undoubtedly  many  Minnesota  publishers 
have  undertaken  war  history  projects  as  much  in  the  public 
interest  as  for  the  sake  of  financial  profit  and  are  entitled  to  as 
much  assistance  as  citizens  in  their  private  capacity  can  give 
them." 

In  an  article  "On  the  Collection  of  State  War  History  Mate- 
rial," which  appeared  in  the  Wisconsin  Memorial  Day  Annual 
(Madison,  1919.  102  p.),  Albert  O.  Barton,  director  of  the  Wis- 
consin War  History  Commission,  elaborates  the  following  obser- 
vation upon  the  work  of  that  commission's  county  committees: 
"In  their  cultivation  of  the  local  historical  fields  the  committees 
have  discovered  many  striking  phenomena.  The  spirit  of  patri- 
otism which  has  animated  all  our  people  has  blossomed  forth  in 
original  and  inspiring  manifestations.  In  fact,  were  the  roll  of 
counties  called  each  could  step  forward,  so  to  speak,  and  claim 
some  peculiar  distinction."  One  inference  to  be  drawn  from 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  161 

this  observation,  which  ought  to  serve  as  a  stimulus  to  the  efforts 
of  similar  committees  everywhere,  is  that  such  distinctions  appear 
in  greater  number  and  with  greater  clearness  according  to  the 
thoroughness  with  which  the  several  county  agencies  cover  their 
respective  fields.  Until  all  the  facts  of  a  county's  war  history 
are  assembled,  who  knows  but  that  that  county  has  unwittingly 
led  all  the  others  in  one  or  more  forms  of  patriotic  service? 

New  publications  established  by  or  in  the  interests  of  returned 
service  men  which  are  currently  received  by  the  Minnesota  War 
Records  Commission  include  the  Northwestern  Appeal,  published 
semimonthly,  beginning  May  6,  at  Minneapolis;  the  Veteran, 
published  monthly,  beginning  in  May,  by  the  Bolo  Club  of  Min- 
neapolis; and  the  American  Legion  Weekly,  beginning  July  4, 
from  the  American  Legion  headquarters  in  New  York  City. 

The  first  forty-four  pages  of  the  Report  of  the  Minnesota 
Commission  of  Public  Safety  (St.  Paul,  1919.  319  pp.)  sets 
forth  in  summary  form  the  many  activities  in  which  the  com- 
mission engaged  as  the  state's  leading  war-time  agency.  The 
remainder  of  the  volume  is  made  up  of  documentary  and  statis- 
tical matter,  including  a  report  of  the  public  examiner  showing 
the  commission's  use  of  its  funds  during  the  period  from  April 
16,  1917,  to  December  31,  1918;  documents  relating  to  the  coal 
situation  in  the  Northwest  in  the  summer  of  1917;  the  law  creat- 
ing the  commission ;  injunctions  and  other  papers  connected  with 
the  question  of  the  constitutionality  of  this  law  as  tested  in  the 
courts;  the  by-laws,  orders,  and  excerpts  from  the  minutes  of 
the  commission;  and  lists  of  the  names  and  addresses  of  local 
representatives  showing  the  entire  personnel  and  manner  of 
organization  of  each  of  the  county  branches  of  the  commission. 

The  concluding  issue  of  the  Reveille  entitled  a  "Centennial 
Memorial  of  Fort  Snelling"  is  devoted  to  a  profusely  illustrated 
resume  of  the  activities  at  the  fort  during  the  period  from  its  con- 
version to  reconstruction  purposes,  September  22,  1918,  to  August 
1,  1919,  together  with  pictorial  and  descriptive  matter  relating 
to  its  earlier  history.  A  notable  feature  of  the  number  is  a  series 
of  drawings  symbolical  of  such  themes  as  "From  Gettysburg  to 
Flanders  Fields,"  "These  are  Times  That  Try  Men's  Souls,"  and 


162  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  AUG. 

"The  Call  to  the  New  Life,"  the  work  of  George  Ericson,  staff 
artist  of  the  magazine. 

An  official  account  of  the  services  of  a  regiment  made  up  in 
part  of  men  from  Minnesota  and  other  northwestern  states 
appears  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  History  Thirteenth  Engineers- 
(Railway)  U.  S.  Army  1917-1918-1919  (Headquarters,  Fleury- 
sur-Aire,  France.  74  p.).  Originally  organized  in  connection  with 
the  Mexican  trouble  in  1916  as  the  Third  Reserve  Engineers, 
this  regiment,  now  known  as  the  "Lucky  Thirteenth,"  was  among 
the  first  units  to  be  sent  to  France.  There,  for  over  two  years, 
frequently  under  shell  fire,  it  assisted  in  the  operation  of  military 
railways  along  the  western  front.  The  official  record  of  these 
services  is  followed  by  appendices  containing  statistics  of  losses, 
biographies  of  officers,  and  other  pertinent  matter. 

The  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission  has  received  a  copy 
of  a  regimental  history  entitled  The  Ninth  U.  S.  Infantry  in  the 
World  War  (Neuwied  am  Rhein.  235  p.),  through  the  kind- 
ness of  Captain  Claire  I.  Weikert  of  St.  Paul,  formerly  regi- 
mental intelligence  officer  of  that  organization.  The  Ninth 
Infantry  fought  with  the  Second  Division  from  Chateau  Thierry 
through  the  Meuse-Argonne  campaign.  The  narrative  of  its 
exploits  is  followed  by  a  series  of  orders  affecting  the  move- 
ments of  the  regiment  which  were  issued  from  general,  division, 
and  brigade  headquarters,  together  with  a  complete  roster,  by 
companies,  of  the  officers  and  enlisted  personnel.  Casualties 
also  are  shown,  but  unfortunately,  the  home  addresses  of  the 
members  of  the  regiment  do  not  appear. 

Battery  D,  337  F[ield]  A[rtillery],  1917-19  (80  p.)  is  a 
souvenir  history  of  a  unit  whose  personnel  origixally  was  made 
up  almost  entirely  of  Minnesota  men.  The  book  was  published 
by  the  battery  under  the  direction  of  its  captain,  Ceylon  A.  Lyman 
of  Minneapolis,  who  acted  as  editor-in-chief.  It  contains  an 
outline  sketch  of  the  battery's  history  supplemented  by  more 
intimate  accounts  of  "Our  Trip  'Acrossed',"  "La  Havre  to  Cler- 
mont-Ferrand," "The  Advance  Party,"  "Fighting  the  Enemy 
Behind  the  Lines,"  "The  Delouser,"  "Bordeaux  to  Camp  Dodge," 
and  "The  Farewell  Dinner,"  together  with  other  pertinent  mat- 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  163 

ter  in  both  light  and  serious  vein.  There  are,  of  course,  indi- 
vidual and  group  photographs  of  all  members  of  the  battery 
together  with  numerous  photographs  recalling  experiences  and 
scenes  through  which  this  unit  passed. 

A  brief  but  comprehensive  account  of  the  "History  of  Base 
Hospital  No.  26,"  written  by  its  commanding  officer,  Lieutenant 
Colonel  Arthur  A.  Law,  M.  C,  of  Minneapolis,  is  published  in 
the  June  number  of  Minnesota  Medicine  and  also  as  a  reprint 
(11  p.).  Base  Hospital  No.  26  was  one  of  the  few  distinctively 
Minnesota  units  participating  in  the  late  war,  having  been  organ- 
ized and  recruited  from  headquarters  at  the  University  of  Min- 
nesota. As  the  director  of  the  organization  and  equipment  of 
this  unit  preliminary  to  its  mobilization,  and  as  the  head  of  the 
organization  during  the  period  of  its  active  service  at  the  great 
base  hospital  center  near  Allery,  France,  Dr.  Law  has  been  able 
to  supply  an  invaluable  record  of  the  origin,  training,  and  achieve- 
ments of  this  group  of  Minnesota  men  and  women. 

The  "War  Service  Number"  of  the  Minnesota  Educational 
Association  News-Letter  (June,  1919.  84  p.)  is  devoted  in  large 
part  to  accounts  of  the  war  activities  of  various  institutions, 
organizations,  and  individuals  identified  with  the  state's  public 
school  system.  A  series  of  articles  on  "The  University  of  Min- 
nesota in  War  Service,"  "The  Teachers'  Patriotic  League,"  "The 
Junior  Red  Cross,"  and  other  similar  subjects  is  followed  by  a 
roster  of  Minnesota  teachers  in  war  service. 

A  book  of  local  interest,  in  part  because  it  was  conceived  and 
written  by  Minnesotans,  is  The  Psychology  of  Handling  Men  in 
the  Army,  by  Joseph  Peterson,  assistant  professor  of  psychology 
in  the  University  of  Minnesota,  and  Quentin  J.  David,  lieutenant 
in  the  American  Expeditionary  Force  (Minneapolis,  Perine 
Book  Company,  146  p.).  The  work  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  expe- 
rience of  the  junior  author,  Lieutenant  David  of  St.  Paul,  in  sev- 
eral training  camps  in  which  men  were  being  prepared  for  the 
various  duties  of  warfare.  Though  published,  as  it  happened, 
some  time  after  the  cessation  of  hostilities,  the  work  was  designed 
as  an  aid  to  the  large  numbers  of  new  officers  who  were  being 
suddenly  called  to  responsible  leadership  in  the  recent  crisis. 


MINNESOTA 
HISTORY  BULLETIN 


VOL.  3,  No.  4 
WHOLE  No.  20 
NOVEMBER,  1919 


BENJAMIN  DENSMORE'S  JOURNAL  OF  AN 
EXPEDITION  ON  THE  FRONTIER1 

RED  WING  Dec  20  1857 
DANIEL  DENSMORE  Esqr 

Dear  Brother — Your  epistle  of  the  22d  ult  seems  yet  to  be 
specially  answered  by  giving  in  detail  an  account  of  my  tour 
to  the  north-west  last  fall.  I  presume  you  are  aware  of  the 
fact  that  I  made  the  tour,  that  it  was  prolonged  into  the  wintry 
season,  that  though  begun  auspiciously  it  terminated  with  a  smack 

1  This  document  was  written  by  Benjamin  Densmore  shortly  after 
his  return  from  a  trip  to  Otter  Tail  Lake,  then  on  the  extreme  frontier 
of  settlement  in  Minnesota.  Although  in  the  form  of  a  letter,  most  of 
it  appears  to  have  been  copied  from  a  journal  kept  during  the  expedi- 
tion. The  original  manuscript  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Densmore's 
family  was  loaned  to  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  in  1918, 
through  the  courtesy  of  his  daughter,  Miss  Frances  Densmore,  and  a 
photostatic  copy  of  it  was  made  for  the  society's  manuscript  collec- 
tion. Additional  Densmore  Papers  including  three  survey  notebooks, 
maps  of  the  projected  towns  of  Newport,  Red  River  Falls,  and  Otter 
Tail  City,  and  many  plats  of  early  township  surveys  have  been  pre- 
sented to  the  society.  These  papers  and  especially  the  letter  here 
printed  convey  to  the  modern  reader  some  conception  of  the  hardships 
endured  by  the  men  who  literally  made  the  map  of  Minnesota.  Tech- 
nical knowledge  alone  was  insufficient  for  them;  this  had  to  be  supple- 
mented by  the  sturdy  qualities  of  the  pioneer.  Indeed,  the  surveyors 
who  located  so  many  Minnesota  towns,  permanent  and  ephemeral, 
were  the  forerunners  even  of  the  pioneer  settlers;  only  explorers  and 
fur-traders  preceded  them.  The  document  has  been  printed  verbatim 
et  literatim,  but  standard  punctuation  marks  have  been  substituted  for 
the  dashes  used  in  the  original.  The  notes  have  been  prepared  by 
Miss  Dorothy  A.  Heinemann  and  Miss  Bertha  L.  Heilbron  of  the  staff 
of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society. — Ed. 

Benjamin  Densmore  belonged  to  a  family  of  pioneers  who  moved 
toward  the  Mississippi  as  the  population  in  the  eastern  regions  became 
more  dense.  His  father,  Orrin  Densmore,  a  citizen  of  New  Hamp- 
shire by  birth,  settled  in  Riga,  New  York,  in  the  first  decade  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  It  was  here  that  he  married  Elizabeth  Fowle  and 
that  Benjamin  was  born  in  1831.  Sixteen  years  later  the  Densmores 
again  became  frontiersmen,  this  time  moving  onto  a  farm  near  Janes- 
ville,  Wisconsin.  Soon  thereafter  Benjamin  began  alternately  to  teach 


168  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

of  the  unromantic  and  unpoetical,  a  taste  of  the  trials  of  famine 
and  of  hardship.  Yet  you  have  not  had  an  account  giving  the 
full  gist  and  pith  of  the  tramp  with  its  exciting  events,  its  beau- 
tiful scenery,  the  novelties  which  were  constantly  met  with,  on  our 
way  and  the  "modus  operandi"  adopted  in  selecting  our  route 
through  a  region  hitherto  unexplored  by  us  and  through  which 
loaded  wagons  and  teams  had  not  been  known  to  pass. 

school  and  to  attend  Beloit  College  from  which  he  graduated  in  1852. 
Upon  his  return  to  Janesville  he  became  engaged  in  the  construction 
of  the  Janesville  and  Fond  du  Lac  Railroad.  His  father  was  one  of 
three  commissioners  appointed  by  the  governor  of  Wisconsin  to 
appraise  the  value  of  the  property  of  this  road.  This  was  Benjamin 
Densmore's  entrance  into  a  field  which  soon  led  him  to  Minnesota.  In 
1855  he  was  entrusted  by  the  Minnesota  and  Northwestern  Railroad 
Company  with  the  survey  of  that  part  of  the  road  extending  from 
St.  Paul  to 'St.  Anthony  and  thence  to  Stillwater  and  Taylor's  Falls, 
and  a  year  later  he  became  chief  engineer  for  the  survey  for  the  same 
company  of  the  region  from  St.  Anthony  to  Kettle  River  and  from 
that  point  northward  toward  Duluth.  Benjamin's  brother  Daniel 
accompanied  him  to  Minnesota  in  1855  and  in  1857  the  family  home 
was  moved  to  Red  Wing  in  Goodhue  County,  where  the  father 
engaged  in  the  lumber  business.  Benjamin,  however,  continued  his 
surveying  work  in  various  parts  of  Minnesota.  During  March  and 
April,  1857,  he  surveyed  the  site  of  Bloomington  on  the  Minnesota 
River,  and,  when  this  work  was  completed,  he  undertook  an  expedi- 
tion for  the  Echota  and  Marion  Land  Company,  one  of  the  numerous 
firms  operating  in  Minnesota  land  at  the  time.  During  the  month  of 
May  Densmore  marked  out  the  sites  of  Echota  and  Marion  in  Otter 
Tail  County  and  then  penetrated  as  far  as  Fergus  Falls  or,  as  he  called 
it,  "Red  River  Falls."  In  the  fall  of  the  same  year  he  returned  to  the 
Otter  Tail  region  with  Charles  W.  Iddings  of  St.  Paul  to  station  men 
on  the  town  sites  already  located  and  surveyed.  This  second  journey 
is  the  subject  of  the  letter  here  published.  Upon  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War  Densmore  enlisted  with  the  Third  Minnesota  Volunteer 
Infantry  and  at  the  close  of  the  war  he  was  serving  as  captain  of  the 
Fourth  United  States  Heavy  Artillery  (Colored).  Returning  to  Red 
Wing  in  1866  he  assisted  in  the  founding  of  the  Red  Wing  Iron  Works, 
with  which  he  was  connected  until  two  years  before  his  death  on 
January  26,  1913.  Densmore  Papers  in  the  possession  of  the  Dens- 
more family  and  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society;  Albert  N.  Marquis, 
Book  of  Minnesotans,  123  (Chicago,  1907)  ;  Franklyn  Curtis s- Wedge, 
History  of  Dakota  and  Goodhue  Counties,  Minnesota,  2:757  (Chi- 
cago, 1910);  Minnesota,  Special  Laws,  1858,  p.  431;  Red  Wing  Repub- 
lican (weekly),  January  29,  1913, 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  169 

Oct.  5/57.2  Leaving  Saint  Paul  our  route  for  an  hundred 
miles  lay  on  the  east  side  of  the  Mississippi  river  and  over  a 
comparatively  level  country.  As  the  upper  Mississippi  is  quite 
well  settled  we  have  been  passing  farm-houses  and  through 
towns  thus  far,  frequently,  selecting  our  camp-grounds  each 
night  at  some  place  where  wood  and  water  are  near  the  road.  At 
this  place  (Little  Falls)  we  cross  the  river  and  take  the  road  to 
Long  Prairie  twenty-eight  miles  west  of  Little  Falls.  West  of 
the  river  the  face  of  the  country  along  our  route  is  made  up  of 
very  high  ridges  bordering  the  flat  sandy  bottoms  of  Swan  River 
along  which  our  route  lays  for  several  miles. 

Oct  10  We  have  now  entered  an  unsettled  district  two  miles 
west  from  the  Mississippi,  on  our  right  forests  of  pine,  rugged 
and  hilly,  on  our  left  and  before  us,  the  sandy  plain  with  its 
scanty  herbage  yet  thickly  bedded  and  matted  in  places  with  wild 
strawberry  vines.  Still  farther  to  the  left  the  river  with  its  tortu- 
ous windings,  while  beyond  a  weary  waste  of  single  oaks,  fire 
brush,  poplar  wind- falls  and  a  blue  fall-sky  away  in  the  south. 
At  noon  reached  the  first  crossing  of  the  river.  Those  of  the 
party  in  advance  of  the  teams  have  already  lighted  the  fire  to  cook 
coffee  for  dinner,  and  while  we  are  waiting  for  the  others  to 
come  up  with  the  teams  I  will  relate  to  you  our  plans,  object  &c. 

The  main  object  of  this  expedition  is  to  station  men  on  the 
town-sites,  Echota  and  Marion,  which  I  surveyed  and  located  on 
the  Otter  Tail  Lake  and  River  last  Spring  (in  May).3  We  pro- 
pose to  reach  the  Lake  Via  of  Long  Prairie,  hoping  to  find  a 
feasible  and  direct  route  through  from  the  latter  place.  We  have 

2  This  date  and  the  one  at  the  beginning  of  the  following  paragraph 
have  been  inserted  in  pencil.     The  handwriting  appears  to  be  the  same 
as  that  of  the  rest  of  the  manuscript. 

3  MaFion  and  Echota  were  incorporated  as  towns  by  an  act  of  the 
legislature  of  June  11,  1858,  which  located  the  former  at  the  southwestern 
end  of  Otter  Tail  Lake  north  of  the  Otter  Tail  River  (Red  River)  and  the 
latter  at  the  foot  of  Truth  Lake.     The  first  town  officials  of  Marion  as 
prescribed  by  the  act  of  incorporation  included  B.  Densmore  as  president. 
This  probably  accounts  for  the  fact  that  his  name  is  found  in  the  census 
of  Otter  Tail  County  taken  in  1860.    Although  Densmore  left  members  of 
his  party  at  both  Echota  and  Marion  the  towns  failed  to  develop  beyond 
the  stage  of  incorporation.    Echota  is  shown  on  Sewall  and  Iddings  map 
of  1860;  Marion  seems  to  have  disappeared  even  at  that  early  date.   Prob- 


170  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

• 

two  teams  laden  with  supplies  and  outfits  for  the  expedition  and 
for  the  men  who  are  to  remain.  Six  of  our  number  will  compose 
the  two  parties,  one  to  be  stationed  at  each  town.  Two  team- 
sters, Mr  C.  W.  Iddings  of  Saint  Paul,  who  has  consented  to 
assist  in  exploring  the  route  through,  and  your  humble  scribe 
make  up  the  party.4 

Toward  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  we  recrossed  Swan  River, 
after  which  our  route  crossed  over  hills  and  through  valleys  irre- 
spective of  grade  or  direction.  The  wagons  being  heavily  loaded 
the  mules  became  exhausted  of  their  wonted  zeal  from  tugging 
at  the  steep  hills  and  through  stony  coolies  until  dusk  when  on 
reaching  a  last  summit  to  the  westward  of  which  lay  another 
valley-plain,  our  modern  jehus  signified  their  determination  to 
proceed  no  farther.  Thus  we  encamped  at  the  summit  of  a  high 
hill  with  this  inconvenience,  that  water  could  be  seen  to  the 
southward  at  Swan  Lake,  to  the  westward  in  the  valley,  but  in 
either  direction  the  intervening  distance  was  a  perfect  network 
of  brush  and  brambles;  by  using  great  patience  we  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  procuring  enough  from  the  valley  for  supper. 

During  the  evening  the  heavens  blackened  up  with  moist  look- 
ing clouds  which  seemed  each  to  wend  his  own  way  and  that 
quickly ;  the  men  sat  about  the  camp  fire  as  usual  but  evincing  a 
spirit  of  restlessness,  remarking  now  of  the  surrounding  coun- 
try, now  of  the  aspect  of  the  heavens  and  frequently  drawing 
nearer  the  fire  as  a  chilling  breeze  would  rise  from  the  valley 
and  sweep  the  exposed  summit  where  we  were  camped.  Again 
the  winds  had  gone  down,  the  clouds  ran  as  ever  disclosing  at 
intervals  an  opening  into  the  dark  blue  heavens  beyond.  Faintly 

ably  neither  town  ever  had  inhabitants  other  than  those  left  by  the  Dens- 
more  party.  John  W.  Mason,  History  of  Otter  Tail  County,  1 : 82-87 
(Indianapolis,  1916)  ;  Minnesota,  House  Journal,  1858,  p.  656;  Special 
Laws,  1858,  p.  431. 

4  Charles  W.  Iddings  was  a  surveyor  living  over  the  post  office  in 
St.  Paul  in  1856.  After  the  Densmore  expedition  he  was  associated  with 
Joseph  S.  Sewall  of  St.  Paul,  the  engineer  who  built  the  Wabasha  Street 
bridge.  During  this  connection  the  two  men  published  a  map  of  Minne- 
sota which  is  known  as  the  Sewall  and  Iddings  map  of  1860.  There  is 
some  evidence  that  Iddings  was  a  resident  of  Otter  Tail  County  for  a 
time,  for  he  too  is  listed  in  the  census  of  1860.  Andrew  Keiller,  St.  Paul 
City  Directory  for  1856-1857,  110;  Mason,  Otter  Tail  County,  1:82,  87. 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  171 

but  distinct  the  screech  owl  is  heard  over  the  valley  and  beyond 
what  seems  the  confines  of  darkness.  Then  all  is  still. 

Among  a  troop  of  adventurers  like  this  it  is  seldom  there  is 
not  one  who  is  deputied  chief  musician.  Silence  had  not  lasted 
long  when  ours  broke  forth  whistling  some  sweet  remembrance 
of  a  once  favorite  melody ;  he  was  followed  by  another  and  then 
another,  each  in  his  own  strain  and  after  his  own  thoughts  until 
the  whole  party  (save  one  of  the  jehus,  a  phragmatic  [sic]  dutch- 
man)  as  though  unmindful  each  of  what  the  other  did  were 
engaged  in  this  simple  passtime.  Soon  the  resonant  night  air  was 
filled  with  soft  notes  floating  as  softly  away  into  the  dusky 
thickets  when  "Boys  stop  whistling  or  you'll  bring  a  storm"  broke 
forth  from  the  lips  of  one  of  our  number,  a  sea  salt  in  years  past. 
A  few  thoughtful  moments  and  the  remaining  fire-brands  were 
thrown  together  and  each  selecting  a  spot  to  lie  wrapt  him  in 
his  blanket  and  lay  down  to  rest  a  few  short  moments  more 
and  we  thought  no  more  of  the  sailor's  warning  nor  of  the  world, 
but  slept  and  dreamed. 

Yet  the  clouds  thickened  and  betimes  assumed  a  more  direct 
move  and  ere  the  golden  hours  of  night  were  yet  announced,  a 
stray  drop  of  rain  dropped  among  the  dying  embers,  then  another 
and  another,  then  myriads,  and  the  storm  came  down,  wakening 
a  sleeper  from  his  couch  in  the  thicket,  one  from  the  hill-side, 
another  from  the  trench  in  the  wagon  path  where  his  posture 
had  too  effectually  checked  the  escape  of  the  rushing  flood  down 
to  the  valley  below.  A  general  melee  arose  throughout  the  camp 
of  surprised  sleepers.  Some  sought  shelter  under  the  wagons, 
others  were  striving  to  unfold  and  spread  the  mammoth  canvass. 
This  sheltered  us  for  a  time  though  we  had  to  endure  the 
remainder  of  the  night  in  wet  clothes  and  wet  blankets  despite 
our  best  endeavors  to  find  shelter,  such  was  the  copious  deluge 
of  rain  water. 

About  nine  oclock  the  next  morning  the  storm  beat  away  fol- 
lowed by  a  frizzling  rain  for  an  hour.  When  the  rain  had  fully 
abated  we  dried  our  outfits  as  well  as  could  be  and  at  noon  set 
out  for  Long  Prairie. 

Long  Prairie  River  and  Prairie  Lake  take  their  name  from 
the  prairie  which  is  long,  as  the  name  implies;  it  extends  along 


172  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

the  river  from  twenty  to  thirty  miles  and  is  quite  narrow,  averag- 
ing about  a  mile  in  width  at  its  widest  parts.  We  are  disap- 
pointed however  in  the  appearance  of  the  country  north-west  of 
here  and  toward  Otter  Tail  Lake  (the  direction  we  wish  to  go) 
for  it  seems  to  be  quite  densely  wooded  where,  from  the  best 
we  could  learn  from  Government  Surveyors,  we  had  supposed 
we  should  find  an  open  prairie  country. 

Long  Prairie,  some  two  years  since  was  the  Indian  Agency 
for  the  Winnebago  indians.  Since  then,  the  post  has  been  vaca- 
tant  [sic]  by  the  removal  of  the  indians  to  the  Blue  Earth  River 
and  has  been  quite  uninhabited  until  the  present  summer.5 

The  United  States  built  here  from  fifty  to  eighty  buildings, 
some  of  which  are  good  habitable  houses,  besides  mills,  store- 
houses, shops  &c  at  a  cost  in  all  of  about  $120,000.6 

Recently  the  improvements  and  lands  were  disposed  of  to  a 
private  company  and  people  have  begun  to  come  and  take  up 
their  residence.  Withal,  the  place  has  an  air  of  savage  life  about 
it  that  one  does  not  relish ;  those  blockade  houses,  those  picketed 
yards,  one  feels  fearful  lest  the  decaying  timbers  tell  a  tale  revolt- 
ing or  cheerless  or  startling. 

After  a  short  time  in  consultation,  Iddings  and  self  resolved  to 
make  up  our  packs  and  proceed  in  the  direction  of  Otter  Tail 
Lake  one  or  two  days'  travel  when  we  could  determine  whether 
it  would  be  practicable  to  attempt  getting  through  with  the  teams. 

5  The  treaty  of  1846  with  the  Winnebago  brought  about  the  removal 
of  that  tribe  from  Iowa  to  Long  Prairie  in  1848.    Neither  the  Indians  nor 
the  white  men  who  settled  near  the  reservation  were  content  with  this 
arrangement.    As  a  result  a  new  treaty  was  concluded  at  Washington  on 
February  27,  1855,  according  to  the  terms  of  which  the  Indians  gave  up 
this  reservation  for  one  on  the  Blue  Earth  River.    United  States  Commis- 
sioner of  Indian  Affairs,  "Report"   for  1848  in  30  Congress,  2  session, 
House  Executive  Documents,  no.   1,  p.  459   (serial  537);  United  States, 
Statutes  at  Large,  9:  878;  10:  1172. 

6  An  account  of  the  building  operations  in  this  region  during  the  years 
1849  to   1851   can   be   found   in  United   States   Commissioner  of   Indian 
Affairs,  "Report"  for  1850,  in  31  Congress,  2  session,  House  Executive 
Documents,  no.  1,  p.  101   (serial  595).     The  government  property  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  Long  Prairie  Land  Company  of  Cincinnati  soon  after 
the  removal  of  the  Indians.     Clara  K.  Fuller,  History  of  Morrison  and 
Todd  Counties,  Minnesota,  1:217  (Indianapolis,  1915). 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  173 

And  accordingly  started  out  following  up  the  river  until  night 
and  encamped.  The  next  day  at  nine  oclock  A  M  we  came  to  a 
bend  in  the  river  where  we  crossed,  the  river  coming  from  the 
south  and  our  course  being  north  of  west.  After  traveling 
through  two  miles  of  oak  and  maple  timber  began  to  find  tamarac 
swamp  and  open  marshes ;  at  noon  came  to  a  creek  which  crossed 
our  course  at  nearly  right  angles.  Continued  on  until  the  middle 
of  the  afternoon  and  the  tamarac  occurring  in  denser  and  larger 
bodies  we  determined  that  the  route  would  be  utterly  imprac- 
ticable and  turned  back,  reaching  the  creek  again  at  dusk  where 
we  camped  for  the  night  returning  to  Long  Prairie  the  next  day. 

Our  next  project  was  to  go  south  and  west  from  the  prairie, 
following  a  wagon  trail  which  leads  through  the  timber  from 
the  prairie  to  the  plains;  once  on  the  plains  our  object  will  be 
to  make  northward  fast  as  possible  &  at  the  first  opportunity. 

The  day  following  our  return,  then,  we  set  out  on  the  south- 
ern route,  having  left  part  of  our  supplies  in  charge  of  the  com- 
pany agent  at  Long  Prairie. 

During  our  sojourn  at  the  prairie  we  availed  ourselves  of  the 
kindness  of  a  Mr  Bauman,  an  old  indian  trader,  in  his  offer  of 
house  room  where  we  had  very  comfortable  quarters  for  men 
roughing  it  in  the  bush  as  we  were.  On  taking  our  departure 
from  the  prairie  the  old  gent  kept  our  company  as  guide  as  far 
as  Little  Sauk  Lake,  within  two  miles  of  the  plains,  where  he  has 
a  claim  and  has  during  the  last  summer  raised  a  crop  of  vege- 
tables./  Soon  as  we  entered  the  woods,  six  miles  f  rqm  the  agency 
the  route  became  rough,  with  sharp  pitches,  stumps  and  sideling 
and  crooked  places.  So  our  progress  was  slow  and  at  night  we 
were  yet  three  miles  from  the  little  lake. 

The  old  gentleman  shows  a  great  deal  of  anxiety  about  his 
vegetables  lest  the  indians  may  have  destroyed  them,  particularly 
his  onions ;  however  he  kept  his  patience  until  the  next  morning 
when  he  walked  through  to  his  claim,  firstly  admonishing  us  of 
several  springy  places  in  the  road  near  his  place.  The  first  of 
these  we  reached  without  difficulty.  Our  first  jehu,  probably 
elated  with  the  success  of  his  animals  over  the  others  insisted 
in  going  through  this  without  repairs  and  in  so  doing  upset  his 
load  completely.  Though  without  injury  other  than  breaking  a 
travelling  companion  pertaining  to  our  quasi  guide  the  incident 


174  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

was  a  sufficient  caution  for  further  procedure.  A  thorough 
repair  rendered  the  passage  of  the  second  load  safe;  by  cutting 
half  a  mile  of  new  road  through  the  brush  we  avoided  the  second 
spring-hole  and  at  noon  had  reached  the  claim. 

Oh !  who  that  wants  or  wishes  for  a  "lodge  in  the  vast  wilder- 
ness, ["]  let  him  come  here — here,  where  no  honest  yeoman  would 
ever  see  fit  to  pitch  his  tent  and  dig  his  well.  To  do  credit  to 
the  enterprise,  however,  we  must  say  that  the  old  gentleman  has 
as  fine  a  growth  of  vegetables  as  Minnesota  soil  is  capable  of 
producing,  mammoth,  of  first  quality  and  an  abundant  yield. 

It  is  two  miles  to  the  plains  from  here  and  we  have  to  cut 
at  least  an  hundred  rods  of  new  road  beyond  here  before  we  can 
get  along  with  the  teams.  After  dinner,  then,  all  forces  will  be 
sufficiently  employed  for  the  rest  of  the  day. 

At  evening,  after  a  palatable  dish  of  wild  duck  soup  and  other 
etceteras  of  camp  fare  our  host  Mr  Bauman  held  us  in  audience 
a  good  long  hour  upon  a  religious  discourse  wherein  he  set  forth 
ideas  peculiarly  native  and  stubborn  arguments;  how  long  he 
would  have  talked  had  we  remained  attentive  we  know  not  for 
sleep  seemed  a  sweeter  restorer  to  nature  than  a  surfeit  of  ribald 
sentiment  and  he  finally  wound  up  preaching  to  himself  for  want 
of  listeners. 

The  next  morning  and  we  left  the  old  man  with  his  peck  of 
onions,  his  monstrous  turnips,  his  undescribable  pipe  &  glory  & 
departed,  he  to  dig  his  roots,  we  to  steer  our  way  over  and 
through  a  district  of  country  hitherto  unexplored  by  us  and 
scarcely  by  civilized  man ;  at  10  oc  A.M  descended  into  the  wood- 
land valley,  crossed  Sauk  River  and  rising  from  the  valley  on  the 
western  side  came  out  on  the  broad  acres  of  the  unbounded 
plains;  to  the  right  and  north  distant  three  miles  to  five,  heavy 
timber,  the  head  waters  of  the  Long  Prairie,  &  Sauk  Rivers.  The 
timber  extending  away  to  the  western  horizon.  Westward,  "hills 
peep  o'er  hills"  and  abrupt  ridges  lift  thin  backs  while  south  west 
and  southward  the  plains  extend  away  to  the  limit  of  vision.  We 
soon  found  that  we  had  left  a  shelter  in  leaving  the  timber  for 
the  winds  of  the  prairie  were  in  high  glee  and  cold.  At  noon 
reached  a  small  lake  in  one  of  the  prairie  basins  where  we  halted 
to  refresh  the  mules. 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  175 

While  this  was  being  done  Iddings  and  self  went  in  advance 
to  look  out  the  route  and  in  due  time  the  party  followed  taking 
such  a  direction  as  we  were  able  to  indicate  to  them  by  known 
signs. 

In  this  manner  we  continued  selecting  the  route  for  two  or 
three  miles  in  advance  and  returning  motions  until  late  in  the 
afternoon,  when,  giving  the  party  directions  to  encamp  at  a 
point  of  timber  still  in  advance  we  struck  away  to  the  north  to 
discover  if  there  were  any  possibility  of  a  belt  of  prairie  extend- 
ing through  and  beyond  the  timber. 

Before  it  was  yet  dark  we  came  to  a  wide,  sluggish  and  muddy 
stream  coursing  eastwardly  through  the  prairie.  Thus  cut  off 
from  further  exploration  by  the  probability  of  miring  in  an 
attempt  to  cross  the  stream  and  the  stronger  possibility  of  its 
getting  pitch  dark  before  the  feat  of  crossing  could  be  accom- 
plished we  abandoned  the  idea  of  advancing  farther  and  resorted 
to  climbing  the  highest  tree  that  could  be  found  near  as  a  station 
from  which  to  finish  our  reconnoissance. 

From  the  altitude  thus  attained  sufficient  could  be  seen  to 
demonstrate  the  entire  impossibility  of  a  feasible  route  to  the 
northward  and  we  turned  about  and  sought  our  way  into  camp, 
skirting  timber  and  marshes,  wading  through  the  thick  and 
luxuriant  growth  of  prairie  grass  and  finally,  after  a  seasonable 
walk  in  the  thick  darkness,  spied  the  glimmer  of  the  campfire 
on  our  right  but  separated  from  us  by  a  watery  marsh — this  we 
waded  through  after  tracing  its  direction  some  distance,  and 
entered  camp  quite  to  the  joy  and  welcome  of  the  party  who 
as  yet  seem  uninitiated  in  the  wild  variety  of  camp-life  in  the 
wilds. 

What  is  man's  good  nature,  what  is  his  honest  heart,  what  he 
is,  he  himself  will  feel  and  know  when  his  tent  is  pitched  miles 
away  from  the  habitation  of  man,  when  darkness  of  night 
enwraps  his  vision,  when  his  sphere  of  life  and  life  influences 
is  limited  to  his  little  troupe  of  wanderers,  is  limited  to  himself. 

Such  reflex  cause  elicits  the  true,  the  beautiful  and  the  good 
of  man's  nature  and  works  to  the  exclusion  of  those  many  artful 
devices  and  designs  of  soul  and  heart  so  deeply  seated  in  the 
teachings  and  actuations,  the  sum  and  pith  of  civilized  life. 


176  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

Morning  came  and  with  it  renewed  journeyings;  found  it 
necessary  to  retrace  our  route  of  yesterday  nearly  two  miles  in 
order  to  get  round  the  southward  of  a  large  marsh,  an  unfor- 
seen  obstacle  which  detained  our  onward  progress  nearly  half 
the  forenoon.  This  surmounted  we  started  westward  again 
passing  the  point  of  timber  and  entering  a  broad  and  level  prairie, 
the  most  beautiful  expanse  of  level  prairie  I  ever  gazed  upon; 
it  extends  northward  to  the  woodlands,  westward  and  in  the 
distance  gives  place  again  to  the  high  rolling  surface,  southward 
and  diversified  with  groves,  doubtless  the  sylvan  surroundings 
of  some  prairie  embosomed  lake. 

We  had  not  ventured  far  on  this  field  when  the  wagons  began 
to  cut  the  sod  and  the  mules  began  to  mire.  We  seemed  to  be 
crossing  a  portion  of  the  prairie  which  acted  as  a  subweir  [?] 
from  the  south  to  the  north,  the  dip  of  the  prairie  being  in  that 
direction.  This  occasioned  us  some  trouble;  one  of  our  teams 
was  evidently  failing  under  their  work  and  for  want  of  proper 
care.  This  teamster  complained  that  he  had  the  heaviest  load 
to  draw.  When  we  had  reached  firm  ground  again  a  truce  was 
arranged  and  the  entire  loading  of  each  wagon  changed  to 
the  other. 

This  done  and  the  several  mules  refreshed  meantime  by  an 
allowance  of  grain  (our  stock  of  feed  was  small),  we  started 
on,  the  deportment  of  the  commissary  department  giving  evi- 
dence that  the  change  of  tonnage  had  been  to  some  purpose. 
About  the  middle  of  the  after  noon  our  wonted  equanimity  of 
wonderment  became  uncontrollable.  Thus  far  the  scenery  had 
been  that  of  the  monotonous  cast,  yet  beautiful  withal  and  of 
a  passive  grandeur.  As  we  approached  the  western  verge  of 
this  plateau  and  were  remarking  the  high  swells  of  land  beyond 
and  noticing  several  isolated  knobs  or  pinnacles  on  the  south 
west,  our  attention  was  attracted  by  the  noise  of  waves  dashing 
along  the  beach;  we  were  approaching  one  of  those  beautiful 
sheets  of  water  which  occur  so  plentifully  throughout  the  west. 
This  lake  must  measure  a  mile  across  its  narrowest  place;  it  is 
surrounded  by  prairie  and  lies  at  the  eastern  base  of  the  high 
rolling  land;  on  the  north  eastern  it  is  separated  from  another 
and  a  very  small  lake  by  a  narrow  ridge  or  bank  of  sand  & 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  177 

gravel.7  It  is  rare  we  find  a  lake  without  this  bourne  of  beach 
material  on  some  part  of  its  shore;  it  is  evident  this  ridge  is 
formed  by  the  upheaval  of  ice  in  the  spring  and  by  the  action 
of  wind  and  waves.  In  many  cases  this  ridge  affords  the  only 
feasible  passage  by  the  lake,  it  being  the  barrier  between  the 
lake  and  an  impassible  marsh  which  extends  away  to  some 
marshy  district  or  to  the  woodlands.  To-day  we  seem  travelling 
through  nature's  rural  districts,  a  district  having  all  the  elements 
of  thrift,  of  prosperity  and,  of  peace,  I  might  say,  still  being  as 
it  is  without  the  habitation  of  civilized  man. 

But  I  was  ambitious  to  get  a  view  beyond  the  highlands  .and 
sped  away  fast  as  legs  could  carry,  reaching  the  summit  of  what 
I  thought  might  be  the  ridge  but  to  find  a  valley  between  me 
and  another  summit  hill  higher;8  baffled  thus  several  times  I  at 
last  reached  the  real  summit — back  to  the  east  by  the  plateau 
we  had  been  traversing  during  the  day,  the  bottom  of  a  stupend- 
ous basin  upon  the  western  rim  of  which  I  was  now  standing, 
the  lake  hidden  from  view  by  the  intervening  minor  summits  I 
had  passed,  the  party  and  the  wagons,  a  mere  spot  near  the 
little  lake  on  the  prairie,  southward  the  view  extending  between 
two  groves  and  onward  and  southward  over  the  sweeping  plain 
to  infinity,  where  the  earth  and  sky  meet  in  one  undefined 
horizon.  Westward,  I  find  myself  standing  upon  the  eastern 
rim  of  another  huge  and  mammoth  basin  encircling  and  confin- 
ing in  its  base  another  large  expanded  lake,  descending  into  this 
basin  by  minor  summits  as  I  had  ascended  from  its  eastern  "con- 
temporary" I  at  length  obtained  a  fair  view,  to  northward  of  its 
lake.9  The  height  of  land  there  and  the  prairie  extending  back 
from  the  lake  seem  to  indicate  an  open  prairie  country  still  to 
the  north. 

The  party  and  the  wagons  crossed  the  summit  and  reached 
the  lake  a  few  minutes  before  dark.  While  they  were  preparing 
to  encamp  Iddings  and  self  followed  about  the  eastern  side  of 
the  lake  to  see  if  it  would  be  practicable  for  the  teams  to  pass 

7  Probably  Lake  Reno,  a  lake  of  considerable  size  on  the  boundary 
between  Pope  and  Douglas  counties. 

8  Northwest  of  Lake  Reno  an  elevation  of  1,400  feet  is  reached. 

9  Probably  Lake  Mary,  in  the  southern  portion  of  Douglas  County. 


178  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

that  way  the  next  morning  since  if  this  could  be  done  it  would 
make  our  route  several  miles  shorter  than  to  encircle  the  large 
body  of  the  lake  to  the  south  west  of  us.  At  the  North  East 
extremity  of  the  lake  found  one  of  these  ridges  (though  not 
wholly  perfected)  separating  the  larger  lake  from  a  very  small 
lake  as  before  mentioned. 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  state  that  where  the  lake  has  no  visible 
outlet  the  excess  of  water  oozes  through  or  under  these  ridges 
and  escapes  to  other  lakes,  that  these  lakes  in  turn  have  a  similar 
sub-outlet  or  until  the  discharge  of  water  is  sufficiently  great  to 
cut  through  the  ridge  and  form  a  running  stream.  Leaving  the 
lake  and  entering  the  wood  again  we  went  north  until  our  atten- 
tion was  arrested  by  the  loud  cackling  of  geese  and  ducks  and 
the  rushing  noise  as  they  sped  over  their  water  in  their  f rolicks ; 
this  convinced  us  that  the  opening  in  the  timber  which  we  were 
endeavoring  to  reach  was  a  lake  instead  of  prairie  and  abandon- 
ing further  exploration  we  turned  back  satisfied  that  there  was 
but  one  alternative — to  traverse  the  large  body  of  the  lake  to 
the  south  west  and  west  and  to  make  northward  from  the  west 
side  if  possible. 

Returning,  found  the  party  snugly  encamped,  the  huge  can- 
vass drawn  up  before  a  very  cheerful  fire  &  each  one  seemingly 
occupied  with  his  own  thoughts — but  what  bodes  this;  while  at 
our  supper,  numbers  of  green  frogs  rushed  hopping  through  the 
camp,  over  its  occupants,  camp-fire  and  all  and  reaching  the  lake 
plunged  beneath  its  waters;  perhaps  they  were  frightened  by 
the  camp-fire  and  by  our  intrusion,  but  more  probably  they  antic- 
ipated the  cold  and  stormy  night-wind  and  sought  the  water 
for  warmth. 

And  surely  the  night  was  dark  and  cold  &  blustering.  The 
cold  wind  came  from  out  the  north  west  across  the  lake  and 
poured  in  and  through  our  camp  most  unmercifully;  those  who 
suffered  most  however  were  the  poor  feeble  mules  pitiable  crea- 
tures, they  looked  more  in  the  morning  like  two  shrivelled  beets 
than  like  serviceable  animals. 

Note  We  camped  last  night  near  a  government  township 
corner  by  which  we  are  able  to  locate  ourselves ;  it  seems  that 
we  have  got  far  enough  west  to  be  quite  if  not  directly  south 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION      .  179 

of  Otter  Tail  Lake,  hence  we  should  make  to  northward  soon 
and  fast  as  possible. 

Despatching  the  teams  to  southward  around  the  lake  under 
charge  of  Iddings,  I  again  followed  round  to  northward  taking 
two  of  the  party  with  me  armed  for  hunting.  At  lloc  A.M 
joined  Iddings  who  was  in  advance  of  the  teams  and  had  reached 
the  North  west  side  of  the  lake  and  from  there  we  took  up  our 
north  course,  the  country  in  that  direction  bidding  fair  for  some 
time  in  travelling.  At  noon  we  reached  a  stream  which  it  was 
necessary  to  cross.  Jehu  N°  1  as  usual  preferred  to  cross  without 
a  bridge  and  to  use  an  appropriate  phrase  "pitched  in"  his  mules 
and  wagon  literally  "ploughing  the  muddy  deep"  hole.  N°  2 
somewhat  emulated,  would  risk  his  team  and  load  and  accordingly 
pitched  in  also  ditto  N°  1.  Finding  their  animals  would  become 
fixed  property  unless  detached  from  the  load  they  led  them  out 
and  after  severe  and  combined  efforts  at  the  extremity  of  tongue 
load  N°  2  succeeded  in  wading  it  out  to  the  hard  ground.  Their 
determination  to  draw  out  N°  1  in  the  same  manner  called  forth 
a  short,  brief,  concise  speech  of  the  pie-crust  order  enforcing 
the  practice  of  economy  of  horse-flesh  by  unloading  the  flound- 
ered wagon  before  drawing  upon  it.  This  soon  brought  forth 
the  party  rule  when  they  pitched  in  &  pitched  off  the  load  when 
a  comparatively  slight  effort  brought  the  wagon  out  on  terra 
firma.  While  the  mules  were  waiting  the  wagon  was  again 
loaded  and  we  began  the  afternoon  as  though  no  accident  had 
occurred. 

We  had  gone  but  a  mile  or  two  farther  when  having  reached 
the  northern  rim  of  the  grand  basin  we  saw  that  our  progress 
to  northward  was  again  cut  off  by  the  timbered  districts.  After 
consultation  with  Iddings  he  concluded  to  explore  a  short  dis- 
tance in  the  timber  while  I  piloted  a  route  skirting  westward 
along  the  timber.  Wagon  traces  were  numerous  and  had  drawn 
our  close  attention  since  entering  the  plains.  Soon  found  one 
of  these  tending  westward  which  I  followed  for  some  distance 
over  hills  and  down  ravines  and  across  marshes  until  at  length 
it  "brought  up["]  at  an  old  camp  ground.  Nonplussed  and  per- 
plexed at  this  sudden  termination  of  a  groundless  hope  I  left 
the  "desolate"  looking  ashes  and  by  dint  of  pulling  up  a  sharp 
ravine  we  reached  the  open  prairie  again;  half  a  mile  further 


180  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

on  made  an  encampment  of  the  party,  while  I  strolled  on  as 
usual  to  explore  the  route  in  advance ;  had  been  gone  but  a  few 
minutes  when  I  reached  a  road  leading  to  the  north.  This  gave 
renewed  hopes  of  finding  a  way  through  the  timber  and  I  fol- 
lowed the  road  until  dusk  but  not  long  enough  to  gain  any  defi- 
nite idea  of  its  purpose  nor  termination. 

Returning  to  camp  found  Iddings  there;  he  had  found  us 
again  after  considerable  exertion.  Upon  relating  my  discovery 
soon  concluded  that  the  road  is  one  spoken  of  by  a  Mr  Tuttle 
of  Long  Prairie  as  leading  north  to  some  city,  some  town  site.10 
After  a  long  and  deliberate  "council  of  war"  upon  the  subject 
before  the  camp-fire,  we  decided  it  would  be  prudent  to  explore 
the  road  at  least  as  far  as  "the  city"  before  taking  the  teams  on, 
and,  that  the  teams  should  not  be  hindered  by  such  an  explora- 
tion it  was  further  decided  to  make  it  in  the  morning  and  if 
possible  before  8OC. 

Morning  dawned  and  we  had  already  indian  like,  with  each 
our  blanket  wrapped  about  us  placed  many  miles  between  us 
and  the  place  where  we  had  slept. 

At  opening  twilight  after  following  the  winding  route  along 
a  hazel  valley  we  came  to  .the  "Twa  Roads"  and  being  inquisi- 
tive of  each  and  both  we  soon  decided  each  to  take  a  road  to  fol- 
low it  up  and  by  a  certain  time  to  return  again  and  meet  at  the 
forks.  By  the  right  hand  track  we  noticed  a  small  stake  stating 
the  distance  to  HOLMES  CITY  to  be  three  miles.11 

10  W.  W.  Tuttle  was  the  head  of  one  of  the  three  families  living  in 
Long  Prairie  in  1859.    During  that  year  or  the  year  following  he  moved 
to  West  Union.    Fuller,  Morrison  and  Todd  Counties,  1 : 218,  223. 

11  Holmes   City  was   founded  by  Thomas  Holmes,   Noah  Grant,  and 
W.  S.  San  ford,  all  of  whom  came  from  Shakopee.     As  Holmes  was  the 
leader  of  the  party  his  name  was  given  to  the  settlement.     Grant  proved 
his  title  to  a  claim;  the  others,  however,  were  not  so  successful.    Holmes 
remained  in  the  town  only  a  year  or  two  and  then  returned  to  Shakopee. 
That  he  was  not  in  Holmes  City  at  the  time  of  Densmore's  visit  is  indi- 
cated by  the  statement  of  the  latter  that  Holmes  had  moved  west  the 
previous  spring.    (See  post,  p.  182.)    Hence  the  two  men  found  there  by 
Densmore  were  probably  Grant  and  Sanford.     Although  Holmes  City  is 
undoubtedly  one  of  the  two  oldest  settlements  in  Douglas  County,  most 
pioneers  of  the  locality  and  writers  up  to  the  present  have  agreed  that 
Alexandria,  founded  by  the  Kinkead  brothers  in  the  summer  of  1858,  was 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  181 

Divesting  us  each  of  our  blankets  and  secreting  them  nearby 
in  the  bushes  we  set  out  upon  the  separate  roads  with  a  "much- 
before-breakfast  trot" ;  had  not  proceeded  far  however  when  we 
recognized  faces  somewhat  familiar  as  the  "Twa  Roads"  seem- 
ingly confused  and  afraid  to  go  alone  in  the  woods,  met,  mingled 
and  ran  on  as  of  yore,  as  one. 

Hill,  dale  and  wooded  slope  seemed  no  obstacle  to  our  onward 
tendency  and  at  length  a  mathematical  arrangement  of  stakes 
on  a  rugged  side  hill  inevitably  led  us  to  the  conclusion  that 
we  were  entering  the  suburbs  of  the  city,  the  stakes  indicating 
in  a  tangible  manner  those  pieces,  parts  or  parcels  of  land 
known  and  described  as  being  the  lot  or  corner  lot  of  block 
*  and  conveyed  in  consideration  of  dollars  per  foot  per  front. 

Yes  Indeed  we  were  entering  the  city  for  we  could  see  the 
"block  corners" ;  a  few  minutes'  walking  indiscriminately  through 
streets  and  blocks  brought  us  to  the  nucleus,  the  heart,  the  kernel 
of  Holmes  City.  A  good  hearty  serenade  of  raps  at  the  cabin 
door  soon  brought  a  response  from  the  sound  sleepers  within 
(8J^OC)  who  lifted  their  latch  and  bade  us  enter.  The  object 
of  our  early  tour  being  answered  by  the  prairie  which  opened 
out  north  of  the  city,  a  few  cursory  questions  as  to  its  extent 
in  that  direction  satisfied  us  as  to  the  route  and  we  were  on  our 
way  back  to  meet  and  order  the  teams. 

settled  first.  One  historical  sketch  of  the  county,  however,  does  contain 
the  statement  that  some  old  settlers  maintain  that  the  Holmes  City  party 
had  reached  its  destination  a  few  weeks  before  the  Kinkeads  and  that 
both  groups  were  living  on  their  respective  locations  by  August,  1858. 
Contrary  to  these  assertions,  the  dates  of  the  journal  here  published  lead 
to  the  conclusion  that  Holmes  City  was  founded  at  least  nine  or  ten 
months  before  Alexandria.  There  is  even  a  possibility  that  the  Holmes 
party  selected  the  site  in  the  spring  of  1857,  for  Densmore  later  mentions 
the  fact  that  its  members  explored  the  region  north  of  the  "city"  at  that 
time.  (See  post,  p.  182.)  On  the  other  hand,  in  October  Densmore  did 
not  seem  to  know  of  the  existence  of  Holmes  City  though  he  had  prob- 
ably passed  through  the  region  when  he  made  the  survey  o'f  the  previous 
May.  (See  ante,  p.  168,  n.  1.)  Thus  it  is  likely  that  the  town  was  founded 
sometime  between  May  and  October,  1857,  probably  in  the  early  summer 
of  that  year.  Constant  Larson,  History  of  Douglas  and  Grant  Counties, 
1 : 125,  132,  174,  325  (Indianapolis,  1916)  ;  Brown  and  Wright,  Plat  Book 
of  Douglas  County,  5  (Philadelphia,  1886). 


182  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

Found  they  had  but  just  halted  at  the  edge  of  the  prairie  when 
we  gave  them  the  halloo  to  come  on.  Thus  our  flying  reconnois- 
sance  was  made  and  our  route  determined  upon  while  no  time 
was  actually  lost  to  the  progress  of  the  teams.  At  noon  our 
small  cavalcade  reached  the  "city"  in  due  order  where  we  made 
a  liberal  halt.  Engaging  an  ox  team  and  two  men  (the  only 
civilized  and  domestic  inhabitants  of  the  city)  to  accompany  us 
two  days  on  our  route,  the  men  as  guides  and  the  oxen  to  take 
a  part  of  our  tonnage,  we  left  at  three  oc  Pm  and  struck  out  to 
north  upon  the  prairie. 

But  a  short  distance  from  the  cabin  is  a  high  swell  in  the 
prairie;  from  this  we  observed  on  the  northern  horizon  two 
prominent  points  or  knobs  distant  about  twelve  miles. 

When  night  came  we  had  by  dint  of  surrounding  marshy 
places  and  crossing  streams  made  a  northing  of  about  three  miles 
where  we  camped.  Our  reinforcement  of  men  from  the  "City" 
were  the  chief  attraction  of  the  evening  in  relating  their  yarns 
of  adventure  and  exploit. 

Our  days  service  had  been  uncommonly  long  and  as  soon  as 
quiet  was  the  order  about  the  camp-fire  we  dropped  off  in  deep 
slumbers. 

By  following  up  the  practice  of  exploring  in  advance  of  the 
teams  we  saved  a  great  deal  of  unnecessary  travel  the  next  day, 
though  from  the  nature  of  prairie  country  we  were  sometimes 
deceived  in  being  unable  to  judge  of  ground  until  having  reached 
it.  We  are  aided  much,  too,  by  the  information  of  our  guide 
from  the  city; — he  passed  through  this  same  section  of  country 
last  spring  in  company  with  Thos  Holmes  and  remembers,  the 
principal  features  of  timber,  prairie,  &c  when  passing.  It  seems 
that  Holmes's  object  was  to  reach  Otter  Tail  Lake,  but  that  after 
travelling  a  distance  of  forty  miles  in  a  northerly  direction  he 
came  to  a  rough  and  stony  country,  studded  with  small  lakes; 
one  lake  however,  he  discribed  as  being  very  large;  this  he 
thought  must  be  battle  Lake,  a  lake  situate  within  seven  miles 
of  Otter  Tail  Lake  &  South  East. 

The  character  of  the  country  being  uninviting  as  it  was,  he 
turned  back  (our  guide  informs)  on  his  route  until  within  seven 
miles  of  Holmes  City  and  then  bore  westward. 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  183 

This  information  at  first  non-plussed  our  calculations  as  we 
have  estimated  the  lake  to  be  not  more  than  25  miles  at  most, 
directly  north  from  the  city.  Canvassing  the  information  as  a 
whole  brought  us  to  decide  that  we  were  west  far  enough  to  be 
south  and  perhaps  west  of  south  from  the  lake  and  that  hence 
our  policy  to  reach  the  lake  must  be  to  go  north. 

About  the  middle  of  the  forenoon  while  Iddings  continued  in 
advance  I  followed  the  border  of  a  marsh  for  some  distance  and 
then  turned  toward  the  route  taken  by  the  teams;  had  reached 
the  top  of  a  hazel  brush  knoll  when  a  pair  of  monstrous  and  exces- 
sively fat  cows  started  from  the  burnt  hollow  of  an  oak  stub 
nearby.  Our  hunters  being  within  hailing  distance  were  soon 
on  hand  and  dispatched  one  of  the  animals  on  the  spot ;  the  other, 
frightened  by  the  tumult  of  the  dogs  and  hunters  in  pursuit,  kept 
beyond  reach  for  a  short  time  but  like  his  fellow  chum  finally 
took  passage  in  the  wagon  as  game.  At  noon  halted  near  a  small 
lake  and  while  dinner  was  being  prepared  the  men  "fell  to," 
skinned  the  game,  some  pronouncing  in  the  meantime  encomiums 
upon  the  virtues  of  cow's  oil,  some  the. warmth  of  cowskin  mit- 
tens and  shoes  and  others  upon  the  flavor  of  the  roast  in  prospect ; 
this  latter  however  they  did  not  relish,  the  animals  were  com- 
pletely enveloped  in  a  sheet  of  blubber  fat  which  would  measure 
at  least  two  inches  in  thickness  and  which  rendered  their  flesh 
insipid  for  culinary  purposes. 

Afternoon  our  route  lay  along  a  beautiful  belt  of  prairie  bor- 
dered on  either  side  by  groves  of  timber  and  woods ;  at  4  oc  P  M 
crossed  a  beautiful  stream  of  water  which  crosses  the  belt  of 
prairie;  half  a  mile  farther  north  brought  us  out  in  full  view  of 
the  knobs  we  had  noticed  from  Holmes  City. 

Since  first  noticing  these  knobs  we  had  marked  them  as  a 
kind  of  natural  observatory  whence  we  should  be  able  to  better 
shape  our  course  for  the  lake ;  it  was  now  about  half  after  three 
oclock  and  the  knobs  though  plain  to  be  seen  were  still  some 
distance  off,  but  Iddings  volunteered  to  visit  the  summit  and  gain 
a  view  before  dark  and  started  off  at  a  rapid  pace  accompanied 
by  the  guide. 

I  piloted  the  party  &  teams  along  the  timber  skirting  the  east- 
ern base  of  the  range  until  five  oc  and  encamped;  before  dusk 
attempted  a  short  reconnoissance  toward  the  mountains  for 


184  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

such  we  had  already  termed  the  high  knobs  as  they  seemed  to 
form  a  continuous  range.12  My  tour  was  brief,  however,  for  I 
soon  found  that  a  thickly  brushy  country  spanned  the  distance 
yet  between  me  and  the  nearest  summit  &  I  returned  to  the  camp, 
just  after  dark.  Supper  was  delayed  for  some  time,  owing  to 
the  poorness  of  the  wood  gathered  about  camp  and  with  the 
expectation  too,  that  Iddings  and  his  comrade  would  come  in 
in  time.  Yet  he  did  not  arrive  as  we  had  expected.  Fearing 
that  he  might  be  wandering  in  the  dark  two  men  were  despatched 
to  a  high  knoll  to  the  southward  to  start  a  brush-fire  for  a  light 
and  to  discharge  a  gun  at  intervals.  This  it  seems  met  his  atten- 
tion though  he  made  no  answer  to  the  signal  until  within  a  short 
distance.  As  they  approached  the  camp-fire  and  came  into  the 
broad  light  their  appearance  was  truly  comical  yet  partaking  of 
the  frightful  character.  Their  clothing  torn  in  places,  their  hats 
of  the  most  uncouth  shapes,  their  hair  clisshevelled  and  their 
faces  scratched  in  divers  ways  and  places,  Iddings  grasping  a 
hunting  knife  by  the  hilt  with  one  hand  while  the  other  was 
clenched  as  if  to  give  a  blow,  while  his  companion  carried  his 
gun  in  the  position  of  "make  ready." 

A  moment  of  astonishment  shown  by  those  in  camp  and  all 
burst  into  a  hearty  laugh  when  the  night  adventurers  confusedly 
gave  their  story. 

2  These  "mountains"  are  the  Leaf  Hills  in  the  southern  and  eastern 
portions  of  Otter  Tail  County.  Although  many  of  the  hills  are  only  1,500 
feet  above  the  sea  level,  at  one  point  they  reach  an  altitude  of  1,750  feet. 
From  their  highest  point  the  hills  gradually  slope  to  the  level  of  Otter 
Tail  Lake  which  is  about  1,300  feet  above  the  sea  level. 

On  the  whole  Dcnsmore  presents  an  accurate  description  of  the  country 
which  he  explored.  After  leaving  Long  Prairie  the  party  passed  through 
a  wilderness  of  forests  and  swamps  interspersed  with  patches  of  open 
prairie.  Lakes  were  frequently  encountered  since  this  district  is  in  the 
heart  of  the  lake  region  of  Minnesota.  Otter  Tail  County  alone  includes 
1,029  Lakes,  the  largest  being  Otter  Tail  Lake,  which  is  eight  miles  long 
and  two  and  a  half  miles  wide,  and  Battle  Lake.  The  Red  River,  often 
called  the  Otter  Tail  River  between  Otter  Tail  Lake  and  Breckenridge,  is 
the  largest  of  a  number  of  rivers  which  flow  through  or  have  their  sources 
in  this  county.  A  country  of  "mountains"  and  prairies,  lakes  and  rivers 
such  as  this,  is  obviously  a  land  of  great  beauty,  a  fact  which  Densmore 
seems  to  have  fully  appreciated.  Newton  H.  Winchell,  Geology  of  Minne- 
sota, 4:  plate  51  (St.  Paul,  1901). 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  185 

It  seems  that  after  they  had  left  the  top  of  the  mountains  & 
while  crossing  the  small  ridges  at  its  eastern  base  they  were 
brought  to  a  stand  by  what  they  thought  to  be  an  animal  of  the 
cat  kind. 

What  it  might  have  been  they  do  not  know ;  their  only  idea  of 
its  probable  size  is  from  the  noise  it  made  going  through  the  bush. 

The  animal  started  up  before  them  just  as  they  had  reached 
the  top  of  one  of  the  ridges,  and,  making  a  circuit  about  in  the 
brush  came  up  again  a  few  feet  in  front  of  them  and  stopped. 
Their  wits  were  now  at  work  as  to  what  course  they  would  take ; 
the  first  idea  was  to  Stay  there  till  morning.  A  night  spent  in 
camp  and  plenty  to  eat,  however  seemed  to  take  the  preference. 
At  this  resolve  Iddings  armed  himself  with  his  comrades  hunt- 
ing knife,  and,  making  a  track  to  leeward  they  left  their  unknown 
in  its  ambush  and  made  pell-mell  speed  in  direction  of  camp, 
encountering  alike  thickets  of  fire  oak,  marshes  and  ponds 
of  water. 

The  excitement  of  their  pseudo  Jonny  Gilpin  adventure  once 
over  and  Iddings  gave  an  account  of  his  observations  from  the 
top  of  the  mountains.  The  sun  had  just  touched  the  western 
horizon  as  he  reached  the  summit  hence  his  time  and  opportunity 
for  a  clear  and  extended  view  was  short;  he  describes  the  scen- 
ery however  as  equal  to  his  most  sanguine  expectations,  grand  & 
beautiful;  he  gained  the  impression  that  it  would  be  our  best 
plan  to  pass  over  the  mountains  but  did  not  feel  positive  enough 
of  the  expediency  of  the  move. 

Before  lying  down  we  had  arranged  for  a  second  visit  to  the 
mountains  in  the  morning  before  daylight,  appointed  a  time  for 
a  signal  to  cross  the  mountains  and  one  to  continue  on  the  east 
side,  selected  a  gun  from  our  armory  with  which  to  make  the 
signal  and  made  every  preparation  for  an  early  start. 

Hutchinson  (the  sailor)  volunteered  to  accompany  me  in  this 
trip,  Iddings  remaining  in  camp  to  act  in  concert  with  the 
appointed  signals. 

At  five  A.  M.  Hutchinson  and  self  set  out  for  the  mountain, 
skirting  along  the  prairie  to  southward  until  opposite  them  then 
entering  the  oak  openings  and  ridges  and  making  direct  for  the 
peak  visited  by  Iddings.  At  seven  A.  M  reached  the  summit, 
just  as  the  sun's  upper  limit  stood  above  the  eastern  horizon. 


186  BENJAMIN  DEttSMORE  Nov. 

Already  the  view  was  blurred  by  frosts  and  fogs  in  places  yet 
the  main  features  of  the  scene  stood  out  in  bold  relief.  Miles 
and  miles  away  in  either  direction,  groves,  slips  of  prairie,  lakes, 
valleys  and  hills  and  plains  and  woodlands  made  up  the  exqui- 
site beauty  of  the  scenery  and  the  sun  advanced  devouring  the 
jewelled  frosts  and  dissipating  the  night  fogs.  A  chilly  north 
west  wind  made  us  regret  having  left  our  blankets  as  we  did  at 
the  edge  of  the  prairie  and  we  were  obliged  to  use  considerable 
exertion  to  prevent  being  numbed. 

Ambitious  to  attain  as  great  an  altitude  as  possible  I  ascended 
a  scraggy  bur  oak  on  the  summit  but  soon  found  that  this  extra 
height  was  of  more  trouble  than  value. 

What,  with  running  from  one  part  of  the  summit  to  the  other, 
climbing  trees,  and  descending  now  and  then  a  short  distance 
on  the  leeward  side  of  the  peak  to  escape  the  chilly  blast  I  had 
become  convinced  that  our  only  route  was  to  cross  the  mountains 
before  proceeding  farther  and  accordingly  at  the  appointed  hour 
and  minute  instructed  Hutchinson  to  discharge  his  gun  having 
it  pointed  in  the  direction  of  the  camp ;  difficulty  in  getting  it  off 
delayed  us  a  few  moments  yet  the  signal  was  understood  and 
after  a  second  discharge  a  reply  signal  was  fired  by  Iddings. 
Feeling  now  that  the  teams  would  be  along  in  due  time  I  directed 
Hutchinson  to  return  and  get  the  blankets  while  I  visited  other 
peaks  of  the  mountains  and  selected  a  route  for  our  passage. 

Further  observation  more  thoroughly  convinced  me  that  to 
cross  the  mountains  is  our  only  and  hence  our  best  route  to 
the  lake. 

Although  the  mountains  are  very  prominent  in  their  principal 
outline  as  seen  from  a  distance,  a  good  feasible  wagon  road  can 
be  found  to  cross  them  on  our  route,  the  approach  from  either 
side  being  gradual  and  through  coulees  or  ravines  while  the  peaks 
or  knobs  rise  from  a  hundred  to  a  hundred  and  thirty  feet  above 
on  either  side. 

While  "waiting  for  the  wagon,"  made  a  delicious  repast  of 
hazel-nuts  which  grow  in  profuse  abundance  on  the  sides  of  the 
mountains.  They  were  so  abundant  that  they  gave  a  tinge  or 
color  of  their  own  to  the  scenery  wherever  they  were  found.  A 
fire  had  run  through  the  mountains  a  few  days  before  we  reached 
them  which  burned  the  brush  in  patches,  thus  we  had  hazel-nuts 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  187 

green,  raw,  toasted,  roasted,  browned  or  baked  as  we  chose.  In 
due  time  the  party  approached  in  charge  of  the  teams ;  the  men 
too  had  discovered  the  feast  of  nuts  so  bountifully  provided  & 
were  discussing  the  subject  with  a  zeal  not  to  be  outvied  by 
coon,  bear,  or  squirrel. 

Soon  after  we  had  passed  the  summit  several  indians  crossed 
our  Track;  from  one  of  them  we  gathered  the  idea,  though 
vague,  that  Otter  Tail  Lake  was  in  north  direction  but  could  get 
no  idea  of  how  far  it  was.  None  of  us  could  "talk  indian"  but 
Iddings,  and  he  was  on  the  side  of  a  distant  mountain  cracking 
hazel-nuts  and  looking  in  size  like  a  grasshopper  on  the  side  of 
a  Dutch  barn. 

After  reaching  the  western  part  of  the  slope  our  progress  was 
slow  and  tedious,  having  in  many  places  to  skirt  along  the  edge 
of  springy  marshes  and  in  many  places  to  cross  them.  In  this 
the  lightest  pair  of  mules  bolted  frequently,  one  of  them  seem- 
ing as  if  ready  to  go  by  the  board. 

About  the  middle  of  the  after-noon  we  came  to  a  very  large 
bog  with  a  stream  running  through  it.  Iddings  directed  the 
teams  to  go  round  to  the  right — the  party  crossed  the  bog  and 
began  gathering  nuts  on  a  bluff  beyond. 

I  endeavored  to  find  the  route  taken  by  Iddings  but  of  no 
avail  and  turned  back  to  see  where  the  teams  had  gone;  found 
they  had  halted  on  the  south  side  of  the  stream  where  it  enters 
the  bog.  My  best  teamster  had  been  very  surly  during  the  day 
and  extremely  unpleasant;  he  had  placed  his  wagon  along  side 
the  stream  at  a  little  distance.  As  I  approached  and  saw  him 
peering  across  from  behind  the  load  I  called  him  to  cross  & 
come  on,  supposing  at  the  same  time  that  he  had  examined  the 
stream  to  see  if  it  would  be  possible  to  cross.  He  turned  his 
team  and  as  they  were  approaching  the  stream  I  had  reached 
it  and  saw  that  though  narrow  it  was  without  bottom  and  imme- 
diately stopped  him,  saying  that  he  should  not  cross  before  hav- 
ing examined  the  stream  for  him-self,  but,  he  refused  to  look  for 
himself  and  bluntly  stated  that  he  could  cross.  So,  starting  up, 
the  mules  cautiously  felt  their  way  to  the  edge  of  the  sod  and 
gathered  their  feet  for  a  spring.  You  can  scarcely  imagine  the 
scene  that  followed :  the  animals  sprung  and  would  have  cleared 


188  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

the  opening  through  which  the  creek  found  its  way,  it  being 
not  over  twenty  inches  wide,  but  the  wagon  had  cut  down,  in 
the  boggy  sod  and  it  held  them  back,  the  left  mule  sinking  in 
the  mire  hind  feet  first  until  he  was  stopped  by  his  fore-feet 
catching  on  the  sod;  the  other  mule  fortunately  did  not  sink 
so  far. 

The  teamster  saw  in  a  moment  the  result  of  his  folly  and 
opened  his  wail  of  invective  upon  me,  hoping  that  "I  was  now 
satisfied."  He  had  been  murmuring  for  several  days  (since  the 
grain  had  all  been  fed)  and  thought  now  (that  his  mules  were 
not  much  better  than  dead  ones)  that  he  had  made  a  fix  on  me. 
And  had  it  not  been  that  the  party  was  in  hailing  distance  his 
animals  might  have  died  for  it  was  all  our  united  forces  could 
do  to  get  them  out.  The  next  move  was  to  bring  grass  and 
brush  and  logs  and  bridge  the  "muddy  abyss"  so  that  the  wagons 
and  the  other  teams  could  cross. 

In  a  short  time  they  were  all  across  safe  and  sound.  It 
required  some  legislation  to  get  the  unfortunate  teamster  into 
the  traces  again  and  on  the  route. 

The  whole  occurrence  would  have  been  avoided  by  building 
a  bridge  in  the  first  instance  but  I  felt  that  a  teamster  who 
thought  so  much  of  his  animals  would  certainly  have  care  not 
to  expose  them  to  such  imminent  danger. 

Had  he  refused  to  cross  unless  I  built  a  bridge  for  him  I 
should  have  cried  "bravo"  and  had  the  bridge  built  in  a  few 
moments.  As  it  was  I  could  feel  no  compassion  for  him  neither 
gratitude  though  he  harnessed  his  animals  and  followed. 

To  do  thus  seemed  his  only  alternative  for  he  frankly  told 
me  that  he  could  not  possibly  find  his  way  back  across  the 
mountains. 

We  followed  down  the  east  side  of  the  bog-marsh  some  dis- 
tance and  then  turning  eastwardly  entered  a  large  "canon"  at 
the  north  end  of  which  I  discovered  Iddings  beckoning  us  to 
come;  he  stood  on  the  very  summit  of  one  of  the  mountain 
peaks  which  head  the  "canon"  and  at  a  distance  of  half  a  mile 
gave  the  whole  valley  in  which  we  were  travelling  an  air  of 
wildness,  it  being  with  difficulty  that  I  could  at  first  but  recog- 
nize him  as  an  indian. 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  189 

The  ascent  out  of  the  canon  or  gorge  was  not  abrupt  and  the 
teams  found  no  difficulty  in  making  it. 

This  was  the  last  high  peak  we  had  to  cross ;  the  level  prairie 
could  be  seen  away  to  northward  for  several  miles  when  it  seemed 
diversified  with  groves.  North  by  north-east  the  mountainous 
range  could  be  seen  extending  to  the  horizon;  westwardly  the 
surface  of  the  country  seemed  extremely  broken,  marshes  and 
small  lakes  occupying  the  spaces  between  the  ridges.  The  descent 
from  this  last  peak  was  of  easy  grade  and  through  beautiful 
white  oak  openings.  At  5j^  P  M  we  reached  a  small  stream 
which  here  separates  the  timber  from  the  prairie ;  this  we  bridged 
and  finally  crossed  camping  near  it  on  the  north  side.  While  the 
party  were  preparing  the  encampment  Iddings  and  self  made  a 
short  tour  out  on  the  prairie  in  hopes  of  getting  another  view 
to  the  north  but  of  no  avail;  our  inferior  altitude  since  leaving 
the  mountain  had  placed  us  again  on  the  surface  of  the  earth 
where  a  very  few  feet  serve  to  fix  the  limits  of  our  vision. 

We  made  our  encampment  on  the  lee  side  of  a  clump  of  wil- 
low bushes ;  in  the  center  of  this  clump  or  grove  we  found  quite 
a  little  pasture  of  grass  which  had  escaped  the  fire  and  was  yet 
green.  Cutting  a  path  into  this  forage  lagoon  we  piloted  the 
mules  in  where  they  had  a  fine  repast. 

Not  twenty  feet  from  the  camp-fire  was  a  thrifty  growth  of 
hazel-brush  bearing  a  plenteous  crop  of  nuts ;  these  too  were  of 
the  "assorted  and  prepared"  being  in  all  stages  of  preparedness 
from  the  raw  fruit  to  the  "done  brown,"  all  by  the  same  fire 
which  had  swept  over  the  mountains  but  a  few  days  since. 

While  "filling  the  tea-kettle"  from  the  little  brook  the  boys 
discovered  the  skeleton  remains  of  a  buffalo  submerged  to  the 
sod  in  what  was  once  the  channel  of  the  stream,  the  water  hav- 
ing since  then  worn  a  channel  round  the  obstruction. 

Many  conjectures  were  made  as  to  how  the  poor  fellow 
became  thus  entrapped  yet  we  were  not  surprised  at  the  fact 
since  the  adventure  we  had  had  with  the  mules  that  afternoon. 

We  lingered  long  around  the  camp-fire  that  evening.  A  spirit 
of  despondency  evident  with  some;  Hutchinson  ever  the  same 
sea  brave  spirit  alike  in  sunshine  and  in  lowry  weather.  Others 
seemingly  indifferent  of  past  present  and  future,  rather  passive 
yet  ever  ready  at  the  word.  Our  reinforcement  from  "Holmes 


190  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

City"  give  notice  that  they  must  turn  back  to  southward  in  the 
morning,  their  anxiety  ever  increasing  for  the  safety  of  their 
cabin  and  their  stacks  of  hay  from  the  ravaging  prairie  fire ;  to 
engage  them  for  another  day  was  my  desire  yet  they  were  not 
inclined  to  make  the  agreement  and  finally  sought  their  saggy 
couch  and  slumbered,  leaving  the  question  still  undecided. 

The  party  was  in  a  full  chorus  of  8va  [octavo]  and  sub-chorus 
in  full  variation  interluded  by  the  heavy  breathing  and  monoton- 
ous cud-grinding  of  the  swarthy  bovines,  while  Iddings  and  your 
humble,  were  again  canvassing  the  prospects  of  the  morrow,  the 
ability  of  the  mules  to  take  the  additional  load  should  the  oxen  be 
discharged,  the  probable  distance  yet  to  Otter  Tail  Lake  and 
various  other  pertinent  subjects,  at  the  same  time  not  forgetting 
to  notice  the  varied  and  beautiful  scenery  we  had  passed  through 
during  the  day.  The  exquisite  beauty  of  the  rancho  where  we 
were  encamped,  the  interchange  of  meadow  along  the  brook,  with 
points  of  timber  reaching  down  from  the  wooded  slope,  the  light, 
sweet  twitter  of  the  tiny  streamlet  as  it  wended  its  crooked  way 
among  the  tussocks,  around  the  buffalo  bones  and  down  to  the 
little  lake  below. 

The  moon  adds  silver  to  the  crystal  star-light,  a  dense,  chill 
fog  rises  from  the  lake  reaching  up  along  the  meadow  toward 
our  camp.  A  fog,  also,  came  over  our  vision  both  optical  and 
mental,  and,  stupid  and  sleepy  we  crawled  beneath  the  blankets 
and  slept. 

Entreaty  seemed  of  no  avail,  yet  the  guides  from  the  "city" 
seemed  as  eager  to  proceed  as  to  return  feeling  that  a  game 
was  on  foot  for  demanding  increased  pay  for  any  further  service 
I  immediately  closed  the  question  by  ordering  their  wagon 
unloaded  and  paying  my  indebtedness  to  them. 

Supplying  them  with  a  due  ration  of  bread  for  their  return  & 
interchanging  well  wishes  each  for  a  speedy  and  satisfactory 
termination  of  the  others  tour  we  set  out  on  our  several  directions. 

The  additional  load  thus  given  the  mules  gave  the  teamsters 
a  dejected  air  yet  every  mile  of  our  progress  northward  over  the 
smooth  prairies  added  convincible  proffe  that  we  were  wise 
in  having  crossed  the  mountains  and  that  we  were  not  now  far 
from  the  lake. 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  191 

As  we  progressed  northward  the  mountains  seemed  to  sink 
down  to  southward,  a  phenomena  which  led  me  to  think  the 
country  north  of  the  mountains  higher  than  that  south.13 

At  noon  passed  a  large  lake  on  our  left ;  rising  from  the  valley 
of  this  lake  we  took  our  course  due  north  again  about  1  oc 
P  M  came  up  in  full  view  of  a  large  lake  extending  to  the  right 
and  left  "a  great  distance."14  So  soon  as  I  caught  a  full  view 
of  the  north  western  shore  and  the  land  beyond,  was  firmly 
impressed  that  it  was  a  lake  I  visited  while  at  Otter  Tail  Lake 
in  May  last,  and  which  lies  about  six  miles  southeast  of  Otter 
Tail  Lake.  It  being  doubtful  in  which  direction  to  surround  this 
lake  we  ordered  a  halt  and  made  a  rapid  tour  along  the  south 
shore  to  a  high  knob  about  two  miles  distant.  From  the  summit 
of  this  even  we  were  not  able  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  Otter  Tail 
yet  I  was  convinced  from  the  disposition  of  the  timber  in  that 
direction  that  my  supposition  was  correct. 

The  next  object  was  to  decide  which  was  the  best  route  to 
pass  the  lake,  which  was  soon  done. 

Iddings  volunteered  to  pilot  the  route  in  the  direction  we  had 
come  while  I  continued  around  to  the  west  end  of  the  lake  and 
thence  northward  to  obtain  more  satisfactory  information  if 
possible. 

On  the  most  southerly  point  of  the  beach  I  noticed  a  lake  to 
the  left  and  separated  from  the  large  lake  only  by  a  very  nar- 
row and  low  ridge  of  sand  and  gravel  supporting  a  scattered 
growth  of  rushes  or  reeds  and  in  places  clumps  of  willows ;  fur- 
ther I  noticed  a  place  where  there  were  no  reeds  and  the  water 
seemed  wetting  the  sand  on  the  side  next  the  small  lake.  The 

13  This  must  have  been  an  optical  illusion  since  the  country  slopes  con- 
tinuously northward  towards  the  lakes. 

14  The  lake  to  the  left  was  probably  Lake  Clitherall,  the  large  lake 
reached  at  one  o'clock,  Battle  Lake.     (See  post,  p.  199.)     From  the 
description  of  the  survey  of  the  southern  group  of  lakes  (page  193),  it 
seems  that  the  party  camped  on  East  Battle  Lake.     An  eminence  of 
1,500  feet  just  south  of  this  lake  was  probably  the  "high  knob"  from 
which  Densmore  and  his  followers  tried  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  Otter 
Tail  Lake.    A  small  lake  southwest  of  East  Battle  Lake  corresponds 
further   with    Densmore's    description.     The   party   probably   passed 
between  East  and  West  Battle  Lakes  on  the  last  lap  of  their  journey 
to  Otter  Tail  Lake. 


192  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

ridge  on  the  whole  seemed  to  be  formed  after  the  same  manner 
as  I  have  already  related. 

About  half  an  hour  before  sundown  I  had  reached  a  high  knoll 
of  land  about  four  miles  north  of  the  west  end  of  the  lake  and 
was  paid  for  my  labor  by  as  fine  a  view  of  lake  scenery  as  I 
have  ever  witnessed.  The  object  of  our  indefatigable  search 
peered  forth  from  the  forests  and  groves  lying  between  it  and 
the  prairie  over  which  I  had  been  tramping  for  the  last  two  hours. 

And,  I  stood  musing  over  the  scene,  the  low  murmur  of  Otter 
Tail  Lake  could  be  heard  as  its  tiny  waves  dashed  along  the 
beach  before  the  evening  breeze ;  it  made  the  same  low  murmur 
last  spring;  thus  it  murmured  before  the  evening  breeze  years 
ago  and  years  hence  it  will  murmur  on  the  same,  a  song  of  sweet 
music  ever  the  same  though  the  hopes  of  those  who  hear  it  now 
will  speed  away  and  ever  change  like  those  same  waves  and 
waters  never  to  know  life  again,  ever  the  same  though  time  may 
be  and  may  not  be,  though  the  world  move  up  or  down  and 
though  it  be  forever  a  wilderness  or  become  the  scene  of  civil- 
ization, ever  the  same. 

But  a  few  minutes  of  sunlight  yet  remained  &  I  had  several 
miles  of  walking  to  retrace  to  reach  camp.  Reached  the  west 
end  of  the  lake  soon  after  dark  and  began  carefully  picking  my 
way  along  the  shore.  About  an  hour  after  dark  heard  the  signal 
gun  from  the  camp  but  was  too  far  to  reply  by  a  halloo. 

As  I  approached  that  part  of  the  large  lake  separated  from 
the  small  one  as  already  related  I  heard  a  noise  indistinctly  as 
of  a  rapidly  running  stream.  At  first  I  conjectured  it  to  be  the 
wind  rattling  the  dry  reeds  in  the  little  lake  but  as  I  advanced 
along  the  beach  the  noise  became  more  clear  and  distinct  and 
soon  to  my  great  discomfort,  found  any  further  progress  barred 
by  a  wide  torrent-stream  pouring  from  the  small  lake  into  the 
large  one. 

To  go  round  the  small  lake  with  its  bordering  marshes  was 
unpromising  for  a  night  journey;  this  or  to  cross  the  stream 
were  the  only  alternatives  and  I  adopted  the  latter.  After  much 
trouble  a  suitable  stick  for  the  purpose  of  a  setting  pole  was 
found  and  I  ventured  in,  moved  with  caution  at  every  step  and 
gained  the  opposite  bank  in  safety.  The  current  was  stronger 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  193 

than  I  had  anticipated  while  the  depth  of  the  stream  was  less 
not  exceeding  two  feet. 

Another  hour  spent  between  hazel  brush  and  darkness  and 
guided  by  the  signal  gun  &  I  found  my  way  into  camp  much  to 
the  gratification  of  the  party  who  had  been  apprehensive  of  my 
return  before  morning  &  much  to  their  satisfaction  when  they 
heard  my  story. 

It  seems  they  had  looked  their  way  along  the  south  side  of  the 
timber  along  the  lake  until  they  reached  the  small  lake  I  have 
spoken  of  when  they  turned  southward,  a  marsh  and  stream  on 
their  right  (west)  making  it  impossible  to  go  in  that  direction. 
At  dusk  they  came  to  the  north  side  of  the  lake  we  passed  that 
day  at  noon  and  camped. 

Two  of  the  party  while  strolling  along  the  shore  of  the  large 
lake  noticed  the  place  where  the  water  was  lipping  over  the  sand 
from  the  small  lake,  and,  making  a  small  channel  in  the  sand 
with  their  feet  the  water  ran  freely  into  the  large  lake ;  this  had 
become  the  violent  stream  it  was  when  I  crossed  it  on  my  return. 
Content  with  seeing  the  little  rivulet  formed  they  strolled  on, 
making  the  circuit  of  the  small  lake,  and,  coming  up  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  marsh  from  where  the  teams  were  thought  their 
case  desperate.  It  was  now  near  dark  and  to  return  the  way  they 
came  was  not  to  be  thought  of,  so,  after  searching  in  vain  for  a 
feasible  crossing,  waded  the  marshy  stream  &  wended  their  way 
into  camp. 

Our  work  seemed  now  accomplished ;  a  few  hours  would  land 
everything  at  the  foot  of  Otter  Tail  Lake. 

The  next  morning  Iddings  took  charge  of  the  teams  "en  route" 
while  with  men  of  the  party  I  formed  a  surveying  troupe  and 
made  a  rapid  survey  of  the  lake  where  we  had  camped,  the  stream 
&  small  lake  between  it  and  the  large  one  and  finally  of  the  large 
one  &  connecting  the  work  by  survey  with  the  Otter  Tail  Lake 
at  its  outlet. 

We  reached  the  lake  with  our  survey  about  two  hours  after 
the  arrival  there  of  the  teams. 

Though  I  had  much  yet  to  do  before  turning  back  toward  the 
Mississippi  I  felt  that  the  great  burden  of  care  and  anxiety  was 
now  off  my  hands,  that  though  our  future  labor  would  incur 
fatigue  and  probably  hardships  they  would  be  incomparable  to 


• 

194  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

% 

those  of  plodding  over  an  unexplored  route  with  ill-fed  and  suf- 
fering animals.  The  party  stood  the  trip  heartily  and  were  more 
robust  at  the  end  than  when  they  set  out  on  the  journey. 

The  remainder  of  the  day  after  two  oclock  P  M  was  spent  in 
recruiting  the  teams,  in  maturing  plans  for  our  operations  upon 
the  town  sites  and  in  looking  over  the  town  of  "Marion."  The 
inland  lake  and  the  Otter  Tail  Lake  and  river  looked  summer 
old  and  seedy  yet  the  surroundings  woodlands  looked  as  beaute- 
ous in  the  autumn  as  they  did  in  their  spring  dress. 

Oct  25.  Today  is  Sunday  and  by  unanimous  wish  is  regarded 
by  all  the  men  as  a  day  of  rest;  for  twenty  days  our  energies 
have  been  under  constant  taxation  and  you  can  well  know  with 
what  joy  we  hail  this  furlough.  Iddings  started  for  the  head 
of  the  lake  to-day,  both  to  put  the  teams  on  their  homeward 
route  via  of  Leaf  River  &  Crow  Wing  &  to  get  an  ox  team  at 
Otter  Tail  City15  to  haul  our  supplies  for  the  party  going  to 
Echota  which  is  about  sixteen  miles  below  here  on  the  river. 

A  bath  and  an  afternoon  stroll  along  down  the  river  served 
me  an  agreeable  passtime  for  the  warm  sunny  afternoon. 

Monday  26.  As  my  work  in  the  Otter  Tail  River  country 
was  various  and  defined  I  will  copy  from  my  journal  for  the 
several  days  spent  there : 

All  hands  except  the  cook  are  out  in  the  woods  bordering  upon 
the  little  lake  putting  up  "the  first  house  in  Marion!' 

Iddings  returned  during  the  afternoon  with  a  yoke  of  oxen 
&  wagon.  The  weather  which  has  been  mild  for  fall  begins  to 
threaten  coldly. 

Tuesday  27.  Divided  the  supply  of  provisions  between  the 
two  parties  and  carried  that  for  Marion  across  the  river,  fording 
the  stream  just  below  the  lake ;  this  occupied  us  until  three  oclock 
P.  M.  A  cold  drizzly  rain  came  on  during  the  forenoon  &  was 

15  Otter  Tail  City  was  situated  on  the  northeastern  end  of  Otter  Tail 
Lake  adjoining  the  mouth  of  the  river  and  about  two  miles  west  of  the 
present  village  of  Otter  Tail.  During  the  fifties  it  was  a  trading  post  of 
considerable  importance ;  it  contained  the  United  States  land  office  for  the 
district  and  one  of  the  two  post  offices  in  the  county  and  was  the  county 
seat.  The  land  office,  however,  was  moved  to  Alexandria  in  1862,  and, 
after  the  county  seat  was  moved  to  Fergus  Falls  in  1872,  the  village 
was  soon  depopulated.  Mason,  Otter  Tail  County,  1:83,  86,  95,  103, 
109,  677. 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  195 

now  so  disagreeably  wet  and  cold  that  we  postponed  our  depart- 
ure for  Echota  until  morning. 

Wednes  28.  And  we  found  the  ground  white  with  snow, 
a  cheerless  prospect,  it  looked  so  wintry;  yet  we  got  as  early  a 
start  as  possible  "making  tracks"  for  the  south  to  intersect  the 
route  leading  down  the  river  from  Otter  Tail  Lake. 

As  the  sun  rose  the  snow  gradually  melted  away  and  by  ten 
oclock  the  whole  world  looked  brave  as  ever  in  its  sedate  autum- 
nal dress.  The  oxen  showed  a  backward  spirit  at  first  by  refus- 
ing to  draw  up  hill,  and  our  ingenuity  was  taxed  for  some  proper 
method  of  getting  them  along. 

It  seems  they  are  from  Red  River  and  are  accustomed  to  work- 
ing singly  at  a  cart,  hence  their  dislike  to  working  together  after 
a  more  civilized  manner. 

At  noon  we  came  to  the  foot  of  a  steep  hill  and  the  animals 
bolted ;  at  the  same  [time]  "our  man  Friday  &  his  dog"  way  laid 
a  coon.  So,  with  unloading  and  carrying  to  the  top  of  the  hill, 
killing  the  coon  which  was  done  in  a  primitive  manner  with  a 
club,  coaxing  the  hyperborean  bovines  to  take  the  empty  wagon 
up  &  piping  to  cold  lunch  generally  we  passed  the  small  hour 
of  day. 

While  the  oxen  were  yet  at  their  hay  Friday  &  Sam  bethought 
themselves  of  a  hunt  along  the  road  in  advance  and  started  off 
with  the  free  air  of  adventurers,  their  minds  full  of  the  idea  of 
encountering  &  being  privileged  to  kill  "sans  ceremonie"  Game, 
their  loud  talk  and  noisy  walk  precluding  all  possibility  of  com- 
ing within  gun  shot  of  any  Game. 

Betimes  we  started  on  with  the  team  and  crossed  ridge,  tra- 
versed vale  and  passed  lake  when  not  discovering  our  adventur- 
ous huntsmen's  tracks  along  the  Trail  became  alarmed  lest  they 
were  lost.  Loud  calls  were  of  no  avail  for  no  answer  came; 
again  the  trail  was  searched  but  no  tracks  of  them. 

Bidding  Iddings  go  on  with  the  load  I  turned  back  at  full 
speed,  hallooing  at  every  summit  I  crossed  but  no  reply.  At 
length  reached  the  top  of  the  hill  where  we  had  halted  and  heard 
Sam  &  Friday,  at  a  distance  talking  earnestly  of  where  the  road 
was  and  where  they  were.  After  repeated  efforts  I  succeeded 
in  making  them  hear  me  (they  were  going  east  fast  as  they  could) 
and  they  turned  about. 


196  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

A  few  words  were  sufficient  to  show  that  they  were  lost  of 
themselves  though — as  naturally — they  were  loth  to  admit  but 
that  "they  were  only  hunting  about.  ["] 

At  all  events  the  adventure  answered  a  good  lesson  for  them 
to  ruminate  over  when  finally  left  alone  at  Echota. 

In  about  an  hour  we  had  overtaken  the  team  and  finding  the 
road  obstructed  in  many  places  by  fallen  trees  we  "beat  to 
arms["]  to  remove  them.  Beyond,  we  entered  as  fine  a  vale  as 
one  ought  to  wish  for.  We  were  travelling  along  the  north  side 
of  a  clear  beautiful  lake  the  south  side  of  which  is  skirted  by 
heavy  timber;  the  north  side  is  bordered  by  clear  prairie  for  a 
few  rods  back,  when  white  oak  openings  begin  and  extend  north- 
ward up  the  slope  from  the  lake  to  the  summit  about  eighty  rods 
distant  which  is  crowned  by  heavy  timber.  Throughout  this  open 
woods  the  prairie  grass  grew  rank  and  thrifty. 

Indeed,  since  leaving  the  hilly  region  we  crossed  at  noon,  our 
route  lay  through  "pleasant  places"  and  through  peaceful  groves. 
At  night  we  encamped  in  a  ravine  near  the  edge  of  a  prairie  and 
convenient  to  dry  wood  and  a  foraging  spot  for  the  cattle.  Dur- 
ing the  evening  the  "coon"  was  duly  dressed  and  a  portion  of  the 
game  arranged  before  the  campfire  "a  la  cuisinier,"  and  gave 
forth  a  fragrance  pleasant  to  encounter  and  which  gave  promise 
of  a  delightful  breakfast  on  the  morrow. 

Thursday  29  Our  route  continues  beautiful  as  yesterday,  fre- 
quently passing  through  prairie  vales  which  embosom  many 
sparkling  crystal  lakes  and  are  crowned  with  woodland  groves 
and  slopes. 

Near  one  of  these  lakes  we  halted  at  noon  for  refreshment. 
About  three  oclock  P.  M  we  came  in  full  view  of  the  Otter 
Tail  River  valley  below  Echota. 

Whatever  scenery  we  have  viewed  since  leaving  the  Mississippi 
River,  be  it  as  it  may,  it  does  not  surpass  that  of  the  Otter  Tail 
River  from  the  point  whence  we  approached  it. 

Having  entered  the  valley  below  Echota  we  were  obliged  to 
leave  the  route  we  had  been  following  and  turn  up  the  valley. 
At  dusk  we  reached  the  south  side  of  a  large  meadow  which 
extends  back  from  the  river  and  encamped ;  the  oxen  were  very 
tired  and  the  prospect  of  crossing  the  meadow  after  dark  unfa- 
vorable. 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  197 

Friday  30.  At  noon  reached  the  heavy  poplar  woods  which 
border  the  river  at  Echota  on  each  side  and  began  "cutting  a 
road  leading  to  the  center  of  the  town" ;  this  occupied  nearly  all 
the  afternoon  and  at  night  we  had  camped  down  at  the  foot  of 
Sturgeon  rapids,  the  place  or  site  designed  for  the  "Echota 
mill  power." 

Sat  31.  The  woods  resounded  to  the  blows  from  our  axes 
as  we  wrought  a  rude  cabin  from  the  forest;  heavy  logs  and  a 
wet  drizzling  rain  were  no  obstacle  to  our  proceedings  though 
we  willingly  acknowledged  the  disagreeableness  of  the  latter.  At 
night  we  had  the  body  of  the  cabin  complete  arid  material  pre- 
pared for  the  roof.  A  bad  cold  followed  the  exposure  to  the 
wet  cold  rain,  an  event  not  very  encouraging  since  through  neglect 
my  supply  of  clothing  was  comparatively  light  for  the  season. 

Sunday,  Nov  1.  After  giving  the  party  instructions  with 
regard  to  their  work,  their  treatment  of  Indians  should  any  visit 
them,  the  course  they  should  pursue  in  case  the  company  should 
not  send  them  a  new  supply  of  provisions  in  time,  their  mode  of 
living  during  the  winter  &c,  &  wishing  them  each  a  goodbye, 
Iddings  and  self  started  down  the  river  to  visit  the  "Red  River 
Falls"  distant  about  ten  miles,  taking  the  cattle  with  us. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  give  in  detail  the  events  following  our 
departure  from  Echota  and  final  return  to  Otter  Tail  Lake  except 
the  object  of  our  visit  to  the  falls  as  nothing  else  of  note 
occurred  meantime. 

While  in  this  country  last  spring  I  made  a  survey  of  the  town 
of  "Red  River  Falls"  for  a  man  at  Otter  Tail  City;16  he  had 

16  Years  later  Densmore  dictated  some  brief  notes  on  this  spring  expe- 
dition in  which  he  states  that  in  February,  1857,  he  was  employed  by  a 
land  company,  that  he  took  a  party  of  men  on  an  exploring  expedition, 
located  the  town  of  Fergus  Falls  and  then  returned  to  St.  Paul  where  he 
made  a  map  of  the  town,  which  at  that  time  he  called  "Red  River  Falls." 
His  further  statement  that  in  November,  1857,  he  "took  out  party  and  left 
them  at  Fergus  Falls,"  contradicts  this  journal  and  is  obviously  a  mistake. 
The  man  who  in  all  probability  actually  founded  the  town  was  Joseph 
Whitford.  During  the  winter  of  1856-57  he  was  furnished  with  an  outfit 
for  an  expedition  to  the  falls  of  the  Red  River  by  James  Fergus  of  Little 
Falls.  The  result  was  the  staking  out  of  the  town  named  in  honor  of  the 
promoter.  Whitford  went  back  to  Little  Falls,  but  returned  in  the  spring 
of  1857  with  a  team  and  supplies  to  make  a  settlement.  Densmore's  sur- 


198  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

made  the  claim  last  April  under  instructions  from  Iddings  who 
had  an  equal  interest  in  the  same.  Our  object  now  was  to  visit 
the  claim  and  make  the  survey  more  definitely  and  also  make 
improvements  of  some  possible  sort. 

Arrived  at  the  place  just  after  sundown  and  much  to  my  sur- 
prise found  the  claim  had  been  jumped  and  extensive  improve- 
ments made  thereon,  several  tons  of  hay  cut,  a  cabin  built, 
breaking  done,  &c. 

After  looking  the  ground  over  south  of  the  river  and  about 
the  Falls  we  proceeded  to  find  a  place  for  fording. 

Before  we  had  found  a  safe  place  were  hailed  by  a  fellow  on 
the  opposite  side.  At  this  we  changed  our  tactics  (knowing  the 
cabin  was  inhabited)  and  taking  the  oxen  from  the  wagon  drove 
them  over  requesting  our  generous  patron,  as  he  proved,  to  cap- 
ture them  when  they  landed ;  this  done  he  lead  them  to  his  stack- 
yard and  again  returned  to  take  us  over  in  his  boat. 

Iddings  showed  evident  signs  of  disappointment  since  the 
claim  was  in  other  hands.  The  short  interim  before  the  boat 
was  brought  over  afforded  us  opportunity  of  concerting  our 
plans  of  action. 

Inasmuch  as  the  intent  of  our  visit  would  only  serve  to  irritate 
the  present  claimant  it  was  decided  not  to  make  it  known  to  him, 
while  at  the  same  time  we  would  gather  all  the  information  pos- 
sible relative  to  his  claim  title.  We  preserved  our  incognizance 
with  success  and  departed  the  next  morning  with  prostrate  hopes 
and  dejected  hopes  of  "Red  River  Falls." 

Wednesday  Nov.  4th  We  arrived  at  Marion  again  last  night 
and  this  morning  began  preparations  for  our  return  home.  Since 
we  failed  in  gaining  conclusive  information  in  regard  to  a  direct 
route  from  Long  Prairie  to  Otter  Tail  Lake  by  the  tour  we  made 
from  the  former  place  in  October  we  decided  to  make  the  com- 
plete tour  between  these  two  points  on  our  return  as  we  would 

vey  in  the  spring  seems  to  have  been  made  during  Whitford's  absence, 
and  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  man  found  there  by  Densmore  and 
Iddings  in  November  was  none  other  than  Joseph  Whitford.  Densmore 
Papers  including  a  manuscript  map  of  "Red  River  Falls"  in  the  library  of 
the  Minnesota  Historical  Society;  Mason,  Otter  Tail  County  1:91 
479-483. 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  199 

not  then  be  obliged  to  follow  a  route  suitable  for  wagons  & 
teams.  Accordingly  Iddings  went  to  work  making  up  bread  for 
the  journey  while  I  viewed  the  site  of  Marion  and  gave  specific 
orders  to  that  party  for  the  improvements  which  they  were 
to  make. 

At  4OC  P.  M.  we  were  all  in  readiness  with  packs  on  our  backs 
&  walking  sticks  in  our  hands,  and,  crossing  the  river  took  a  due 
south  east  course  over  the  prairies  toward  a  prominent  peak  of 
the  Leaf  Mountains.  At  dusk  struck  on  the  north  shore  of  the 
large  lake  already  in  our  outward  journey  as  lying  south  of  Otter 
Tail  Lake.  (We  learn  that  this  is  the  Battle  Lake  well  known 
in  Indian  tradition). 

About  two  miles  farther  on  came  to  a  fisherman's  lodge;  he 
was  a  french  halfbreed  named  Boulanger  &  as  is  not  unfrequently 
the  case  in  the  north  west  has  taken  the  other  side  of  the  house 
and  rears  a  three  quarter  family.17 

From  him  we  got  directions  to  Bongo's  lodge,  another  fisher- 
man still  farther  east  on  the  lake,  and  finally,  engaged  him  to 
convey  us  thither  in  his  birch  bark. 

A  pleasant  ride  of  an  hour  and  a  half  over  the  quiet  lake 
brought  us  to  Bongo's  lodge. 

Iddings  had  known  him  for  some  time  and  feeling  assured  of 
a  good  welcome,  tapped  rudely  at  the  bark  door  of  the  lodge  with 
his  walking  stick.  A  gruff  voice  replete  with  good  naturedness 
came  from  within  the  lodge  bidding  us  enter. 

Bongo  is  a  negro,  large  in  frame  and  heart,  is  intelligent  and 
an  agreeable  talker.  So  far  you  may  imagine  him  an  Uncle 
Tom  as  pictured  by  Mrs  Harriet  B.  Stowe;  beyond  this  he  has 
the  spirit  of  the  voyageur  &  pioneer  instead  of  that  of  the  saint.18 

17  One  white  and  four  half-breed  families  by  the  name  of  Bellanger 
are  enumerated  in  the  census  of  1860.    The  name  was  evidently  a  common 
one  in  this  region,  since  as  early  as  1838,  George  Bonga,  writing  from 
Leech  Lake  to  William  A.  Aitkin  and  the  Reverend  W.  T.  Boutwell,  men- 
tions the  theft  of  some  goods  by  a  certain  Bellenger.    Letters  dated  May 
18,  1838,  in  the  Sibley  Papers;  Mason,  Otter  Tail  County,  1:86. 

18  Bonga  was  the  name  of  a  family  of  negro  and  Indian  half-breeds 
living  in  the  district  between  Lake  Superior  and  the  Otter  Tail  region  dur- 
ing the  nineteenth  century.     They  were  the  descendants  of  two  negroes 
who  were  brought  to  Mackinaw  in  1782  as  the  slaves  of  Captain  Daniel 


200  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

Bongo  came  to  the  north  west  some  forty  years  since  under 
the  employ  of  the  American  Fur  Company ;  resided  several  years 
about  Lake  Superior  when  his  propensity  for  trapping  led  him 
into  the  Otter  Tail  Lake  country  where  he  has  lived  among  the 
Chippewa  indians  ever  since.  Like  the  fisherman  first  mentioned 
he  rears  a  family  from  the  indian  side  of  the  house. 

But  of  our  reception :  A  hearty  shake  of  the  hand  &  he  bade 
us  be  seated  upon  the  mat  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  fire;  he 
enquired  if  we  had  eaten  supper  and  finding  we  had  not  eaten 
since  leaving  the  lake,  directed  his  squaw  wife  to  prepare  some- 
thing. While  this  was  being  done  he  entertained  us  with  much 
interest  in  recounting  events  and  making  inquiries  about  elec- 
tions &  political  matters  in  general,  showing  an  active  thought; 
he  also  made  special  inquiry  for  Hon  H.  M.  Rice — Mr  Rice  & 
himself  were  more  or  less  coworkers  in  the  fur  trade.  The  sup- 
per was  spread  upon  a  clean  cloth  on  one  of  the  mats  and  con- 
Robertson,  the  British  commandant,  and  who  were  freed  upon  his  death. 
In  the  "Mackinac  Register"  for  June  25,  1794,  the  marriage  record  of 
"jean  Bouga  and  of  Jeanne,  the  former  a  negro  and  the  latter  a  negress, 
both  free,"  appears.  Perhaps  the  most  prominent  member  of  the  family 
was  George  Bonga,  a  fur-trader  who  lived  on  Leech  Lake. 

As  early  as  1838  he  was  actively  engaged  in  the  trade  with  William  A. 
Aitkin.  In  1853  the  Reverend  Solon  W.  Manney,  chaplain  of  Fort  Ripley, 
visited  him,  and  in  the  summer  of  that  year  Bonga  accompanied  him  on 
a  trip  to  Otter  Tail  Lake.  The  trader  returned  to  Leech  Lake,  however, 
for  in  1856  he  received  a  visit  at  that  place  from  Charles  E.  Flandrau. 
These  visitors  found  the  negro  an  excellent  host.  Flandrau  mentions  the 
fact  that  George  Bonga  and  his  brother  Jack  were  the  only  negroes  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Leech  Lake.  Thus  it  is  possible  that  the  latter  was 
Densmore's  host  at  Battle  Lake.  Whoever  he  was,  he  seems  to  have  had 
in  his  hospitality  and  knowledge  of  the  affairs  of  the  world,  some  of  the 
qualities  of  the  estimable  George.  Densmore  states  that  this  Bonga  also 
was  a  fur-trader;  hence  his  connection  with  Henry  M.  Rice  who  was  the 
agent  for  the  Chouteau  Fur  Company  during  the  early  years  of  his  resi- 
dence in  Minnesota.  In  1897  it  was  estimated  that  about  one  hundred 
descendants  of  Jean  Bonga  were  living  around  Leech  Lake.  Minnesota 
Historical  Collections,  5:488;  8:529;  9:56,  199;  10:191;  "The  Mackinac 
Register,"  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,  18:497;  and  the  following 
manuscripts  in  the  library  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society:  Manney 
Diary,  March  11,  13,  14,  June  1,  8,  1853;  Bonga  to  Boutwell,  April  1, 
May  18,  June  7,  1838,  and  Bonga  to  Aitkin,  May  18,  June  18,  1838,  in  the 
Sibley  Papers;  Bonga  to  H.  M.  Rice,  December,  1872,  an  autobiog- 
raphy, in  the  Minnesota  Miscellany. 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  201 

sisted  of  boiled  fish  &  tea,  or  more  simply  boiled  fish.  And  Oh ! 
ye  Epicures  who  would  know  what  is  good  of  the  genus  pisces 
must  make  a  pilgrimage  to  Bongo's  or  some  other  kindred  genius' 
fishing  lodge  and  submit  the  affair  of  preparing  a  member  of 
the  finny  tribe  for  the  table  to  the  supervision  of  his  dusky  better 
half.  We  were  not  yet  strangers  to  plenty — inured  to  hunger 
wherefore  the  dish  was  endowed  with  excellence — the  flavor  was 
inherent  in  the  viand  itself  and  we  take  pride  in  extolling  its 
sweetness.  We  took  our  meal  "a  la  Turc,"  reclining  or  sitting 
cross  legged  as  seemed  convenient. 

The  cloth  removed,  the  mat  next  served  as  our  couch;  our 
packs  untied  &  blankets  spread  out  &  we  were  soon  in  sound 
slumbers. 

Rain  began  falling  during  the  night  which  hindered  our 
departure  until  noon  of  the  next  day;  after  dinner  made  up  our 
packs  again  and  set  out  toward  the  peak  of  Leaf  Mountain 
noticed  from  Otter  Tail  Lake.  At  night  had  made  about  half 
the  distance  to  it  from  Bongo's  and  camped. 

The  wood  was  yet  wet  and  damp  from  the  rain  &  for  a  time 
it  seemed  quite  impossible  to  start  a  fire.  The  sky  threatened 
more  rain  &  our  time  until  late  in  the  evening  was  occupied  in 
constructing  a  kind  of  bower  for  shelter.  Then  to  preparing 
supper. 

Our  stock  of  provisions  consisted  as  follows  "to  wit"  Bread 
3  lbs  salt  pork  1  lb  and  a  small  packet  of  tea.  Sufficient  quantity, 
we  thought  for  the  journey  before  us  but  upon  inspection  that 
night  looked  scanty  indeed.  So  we  began  with  rigid  economy 
making  our  supper  upon  a  short  allowance. 

The  night  passed  and  the  day  dawned  without  a  storm.  As 
small  an  allowance  again  of  our  store  served  for  breakfast. 

At  10^2OC  reached  the  summit  of  the  peak,  in  Leaf  Moun- 
tains. In  every  direction  from  the  point  the  scenery  is  beautiful. 
South  West  a  mountainous  range  sweeping  round  to  west  and 
distant  a  days  travel  encircling  a  rich  plateau  of  prairie  and 
groves  of  timber  &  lakes;  North,  mountainous;  North  East,  a 
broad  expanse  of  prairie  bounded  beyond  by  timber ;  South  East, 
an  immense  grey  field  of  poplar  brush  &  fire  oak  with  an  occa- 
sional clump  of  trees.  At  the  farther  side  of  this  field  a  high 


202  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

knob  stands  alone  which  being  in  the  direction  we  wished  to  go 
served  as  a  landmark.  Again  we  viewed  the  scene  &  then  began 
descending  the  eastern  side  of  the  mountain,  fighting  our  way 
through  the  oak  fire  brush  on  the  ridges  &  wading  the  interven- 
ing marshes.  At  noon  indulged  in  eating,  each  a  small  biscuit. 
The  brush  seemed  interminable,  turn  which  way  we  would  to 
avoid  it.  When  a  marsh  occurred  in  our  way  and  led  the  direc- 
tion we  wished  to  go  we  waded  along  its  margin  in  preference 
to  warping  along  through  the  brush ;  .betimes  we  would  come  to 
a  lake  &  were  it  large  or  small  it  seemed  invariably  to  cross  our 
path  at  right  angles  &  we  were  obliged  to  traverse  round.  Dur- 
ing the  afternoon  came  to  a  soaking  water  way  where  we  found 
a  thorn  apple  tree  laden  with  fruit.  This  was  a  refreshment 
we  had  not  looked  for  &  you  may  picture  to  yourself  the  figure 
we  cut  for  the  next  quarter  hour;  Viz  two  bruins  (of  the  genus 
homo)  devouring  wild  fruit.  But  with  the  apples  came  thorns, 
prickly  ash  of  all  pretensions  meeting  and  embracing  us  at  every 
step  when  we  started  onward. 

The  sun  set  and  darkness  came  &  we  were  still  wandering 
along  in  search  of  some  lake  or  pond  to  encamp  by,  choosing 
rather  to  plod  along  in  the  dark  than  endure  thirst  over  night. 

By  keeping  close  watch  of  the  stars  we  were  able  to  maintain 
our  course;  after  travelling  thus  about  two  hours  we  came  to 
an  opening  in  the  dense  brush-wood  just  large  enough  for  a  small 
marshy  pond,  a  small  basin  of  not  more  than  three  rods  in  dia- 
meter where  the  prim  poplars  seemed  to  say  we  will  allow  but 
so  much  space,  there  are  so  many  of  us  here  that  we  are  already 
crowded  and  can  allow  no  more.  Yet  the  little  pool  seemed 
grateful;  it  reflected  back  the  light  of  as  many  stars  as  could 
get  a  peep  at  it  and  as  truthfully  as  the  broad  ocean.  That  night 
it  cast  reflections  which  I  trust  it  may  never  cast  again,  two 
ragged  explorers,  hungered  and  weary. 

But  of  what  use ;  we  were  now  in  the  heart  of  the  jungle  and 
a  retreat  was  equally  practicable  in  either  direction.  Excelsior 
might  have  been  our  motto  for  we  were  content  &  grateful  with 
what  we  had  &  nursed  a  strong  hope  for  the  morrow. 

This  little  pool  suited  us  and  we  went  gratefully  to  work  pre- 
paring a  dry  place  near  the  edge  of  the  marsh  for  our  bivouac  & 
collecting  wood  for  our  camp  fire  &  dry  grass  for  our  bed. 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  203 

We  "sat  up  late"  that  night  repairing  our  clothing  which  had 
become  sadly  torn  and  worn  coming  through  the  brush,  a  task 
made  doubly  tedious  by  the  loss  of  all  the  thread  we  had  been 
the  happy  possessors  of  when  we  made  our  halt  and  further  by 
the  loss  of  two  most  excellent  &  substantial  knee  patches  some 
time  since  dark. 

However,  we  managed  to  get  up  passable  amends  and  the 
evening  came  &  went  again  from  our  "Squatter  Sovereignty" 
temple  and  not  a  single  beam  of  gloominess. 

The  day  following  our  route  was  more  diversified  with  large 
trees  yet  the  undergrowth  presented  as  formidable  a  barrier  as 
the  day  before. 

Before  leaving  the  camp  fire  we  divided  the  remainder  of  our 
provisions  into  two  parts,  one  for  our  lunch  at  noon,  the  other 
for  our  supper,  supposing  that  night  would  bring  us  at  least 
within  twelve  miles  of  Long  Prairie.  At  lOj^00  we  gained  the 
summit  of  the  knob  we  had  viewed  the  day  before  from  Leaf 
Mountain. 

We  now  seemed  in  the  very  heart  of  a  creation  of  dense  brush- 
wood, North  west  the  Mountains  standing  in  relief  against  the 
sky,  the  limit  in  that  direction  of  the  mammoth  basin  we  had 
been  traversing;  Northward  and  distant  about  3  miles,  a  prairie 
which  extends  away  toward  Leaf  Lakes  &  nearly  parallel  with 
the  route  we  had  come ;  South  west  several  miles  distant  another 
prairie,  probably  the  one  we  had  passed  over  on  our  outward 
route.  Southward  and  distant  about  5  miles  a  large  lake  is  seen, 
apparently  surrounded  with  brush  wood  of  the  same  kind  we 
were  so  well  acquainted  with  of  late.  This  lake  is  probably  very 
extensive,  though  from  the  knob  it  appears  like  a  long  belt  of 
silver.  Every  point  of  the  compass  east  of  the  knob  is  alike,  one 
dreamy  expanse  of  indifferent  timber,  poplars  &  fire  brush.  To 
the  southeast  &  probably  another  day's  journey  a  high  comb  or 
point  of  grey  timber  stood  as  a  landmark,  a  mark  we  had 
observed,  we  thought,  on  our  tour  up  the  Long  Prairie  river  in 
October  but  in  this  we  were  disappointed.  Concluding  our  obser- 
vations from  the  knob  we  descended  its  southeastern  slope  with- 
out so  much  as  a  forlorn  hope  that  we  might  recognize  our 
whereabouts  in  the  next  twenty- four  hour's  travelling.  Of  only 
one  thing  we  were  at  all  times  certain,  that  the  direction  we  were 


204  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

going  would,  if  we  continued  in  it,  eventually  bring  us  to  the 
Mississippi  river  or  some  of  its  branches. 

For  an  hour  after  we  left  the  knob  our  road  was  brushy  as 
ever  but  more  interspersed  with  large  trees  than  before.  At  noon 
we  came  to  a  large  lake  in  the  woods.  This  gave  us  renewed 
courage  for  we  believed  we  had  at  last  reached  the  head  waters 
of  the  Long  Prairie  River,  the  heavy  timber  at  the  same  time 
indicating  a  route  ahead  less  obstructed  by  brush.19 

After  resting  a  while  on  the  bank  of  the  lake  and  quenching 
our  thirst  with  its  waters  we  started  Southward  along  the  shore 
(this  lake  is  quite  two  miles  long  &  like  the  small  pond  like  lakes 
of  the  poplar  field,  we  struck  it  at  about  the  same  distance  from 
either  extremity)  and  at  the  south  end  crossed  its  outlet.  Here 
our  "expectation  stood  on  stilts" ;  the  question  arose,  "Is  not  this 
the  little  stream  we  camped  upon  in  October?"  The  scenery 
appeared  familiar  to  us,  the  stream  was  of  the  same  volume  & 
general  appearance  &  even  the  points  of  tamarac  standing  out 
in  the  marsh  which  the  stream  ran  through  reminded  us  of  the 
camp  wood  we  cut  that  night.  Hope  led  our  fancy  in  picturing 
matters  thus  familiarly  &  had  everything  been  equally  true  we 
should  have  been  within  twelve  miles  of  our  journey's  end 
at  dark. 

The  remainder  of  the  day  was  spent  in  travelling  through  a 
desolate  waste  of  larch  windfalls  and  poplar  windfalls,  burnt 
districts,  tamarac  swamps  &  water  marshes. 

Toward  dusk  the  timber  began  to  assume  a  more  thrifty  & 
hardy  appearance,  the  ground  descending  gradually  as  we  went 
along  and  before  night  had  fallen  upon  us  we  came  to  the  river. 
A  few  minutes  served  to  determine  the  direction  of  its  sluggish 
current.  All  observation  confirmed  the  idea  that  it  was  the  Long 
Prairie  river  yet  we  were  now  lost  to  know  whether  we  were 
above  or  below  the  agency.  In  our  anxiety  to  solve  this  question 
we  started  down  the  river  but  had  not  gone  far  when  we  were 

9  The  head  waters  of  the  Long  Prairie  River  are  in  Lake  Carlos,  but 
it  is  hardly  possible  that  Densmore  and  Iddings  had  gone  that  far  south. 
The  lake  mentioned  is  probably  one  of  the  many  lakes  in  the  southeastern 
part  of  Otter  Tail  County  or  the  northeastern  part  of  Douglas,  possibly 
Lake  Irene.  From  here  they  doubtless  went  southeast  until  they  reached 
the  river. 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  205 

obliged  to  stop  and  prepare  for  the  night  again.  This  operation 
occupied  some  time  after  dark.  At  the  same  time  we  were  both 
deeply  absorbed  in  the  one  idea,  our  condition  &  prospects  of 
where  we  were,  exchanging  as  we  came  near  each  other  in  our 
"dark  work"  some  thought  or  some  important  fact  working 
strongly  upon  our  minds  as  they  recounted  the  last  few  days' 
journey. 

Three  pair  of  snowshoes  were  discovered  hanging  in  a  tree 
near  our  fire.  Eager  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  anything  which 
bespoke  the  white  man's  hand  we  strove  to  think  some  explorer 
had  here  left  his  snowshoes  and  gone  on  either  in  a  canoe  by 
river  or  by  land  as  we  had  done.  But  any  conclusion  to  the 
effect  that  a  civilized  hand  had  placed  them  there  was  unsatis- 
factory and  we  unanimously  attributed  to  the  red  man  his  just 
works,  confident  that  if  one  of  our  own  race  had  been  so  unfor- 
tunate as  to  visit  the  place  we  were  now  in  he  would  have  made 
speedy  preparations  to  remove  to  some  more  genial  scene. 

After  the  usual  time  spent  in  gathering  wood  &  kindling  a  fire 
we  arranged  ourselves  "a  la  cusmier  du  bois"  and  prepared  for 
supper,  each,  one  of  his  two  remaining  rations,  rations  to  which 
a  boston  cracker  &  half  a  small  herring  would  be  a  feast.  We 
also  had  a  brew  of  tea  which  by  the  way  was  very  gratefully 
accepted,  though  made  in  a  gill  can  &  sipped  from  an  half  gill 
cup,  our  only  cooking  and  table  ware. 

For  a  whole  hour  we  hung  round  the  camp  fire,  during  the 
most  of  which  time  we  had  in  question  our  route  for  the  mor- 
row; the  more  we  talked  over  the  matter  the  more  firmly  was 
the  idea  fixed  in  our  minds  that  our  route  was  to  follow  down 
the  stream. 

Sleep  was  sweet  that  night  for  we  were  wearied;  well  that 
it  was  so  for  the  following  morning  the  ground  was  covered 
with  snow  and  snow  was  still  falling.  You  may  be  able  to  pic- 
ture in  your  own  mind  our  condition  &  thoughts  at  that  time; 
we  had  consumed  the  last  remnant  of  food  from  our  packs  & 
made  them  up  ready  for  the  day's  journey.  Weapons  we  had 
none  except  a  small  hand  axe,  nor  fire-arm,  nor  knife  nor  fish- 
ing implements  we  had  none.  We  were  in  solitude  &  alone,  we 
knew  not  where,  save  that  the  stream  was  before  us,  the  wilder- 


206  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

ness  all  about  us,  the  snow  falling  noiselessly,  silence,  Sunday 
morning. 

We  could  make  but  one  resolve  &  that  was  to  travel  con- 
stantly &  as  fast  as  our  condition  would  permit  down  the  river. 

The  prickly  ash  &  brush  bordering  the  stream  foretold  the 
character  of  the  work  we  had  to  do ;  branches  of  the  main  river 
too  wide  for  us  to  leap  across,  we  waded ;  to  shorten  the  distance 
we  had  to  travel  we  waded  through  the  overflowed  marshes. 

Thus  with  the  varied  forms  of  wood  &  water  to  oppose  and 
famishing  bodies  to  support  we  contended  though  feebly  for 
our  way. 

To  be  thus  situated  was  far  from  being  desirable,  but  should 
we  by  any  means  become  separated  one  from  the  other,  one  or 
both,  I  felt,  might  surely  perish,  and  to  prevent  this  further  addi- 
tion to  our  miseries  I  allowed  Iddings  to  go  in  advance  &  fol- 
lowed him,  keeping  his  tracks. 

He  kept  in  advance  some  distance  until  about  10OC  A.  M. 
when  I  came  up  with  him  near  the  river  bank;  he  was  engaged 
tying  his  pack  &  soon  related  his  adventure.  He  discovered  an 
eagle  quietly  devouring  a  fish  upon  a  rock  by  the  water  side  & 
creeping  cautiously  up  near  the  bird  frightened  him  away  and 
secured  the  prize.  The  fish  weighed  perhaps  ten  ounces,  and 
Iddings  secured  it  carefully  as  though  it  had  been  a  thing  of 
fabulous  value. 

About  an  hour  afterward  we  were  brought  to  a  halt  by  a  very 
deep,  wide  &  sluggish  stream,  a  branch  of  the  main  river ;  after 
much  searching  for  a  place  to  ford  we  turned  about  and  forded 
the  main  stream  at  some  rapids.  At  the  junction  of  these  two 
streams  the  general  course  of  the  river  which  had  been  to  the 
N.E  by  E  becomes  quite  due  south  for  nearly  two  miles,  running 
through  a  kind  of  willow  prairie. 

Beyond  this  we  were  again  "blockaded"  by  another  deep  & 
muddy  stream  coming  from  the  South  west,  too  wide  to  leap 
across,  mud  bottom  of  unknown  depth.  We  followed  up  the 
right  bank  a  mile  or  more  &  finally  crossed  by  means  of  a  bridge 
of  tamarac  poles  laid  from  bank  to  bank.  Until  this  we  had  not 
felt  our  growing  weakness,  though  we  travelled  slowly  &  not 
without  considerable  exertion;  to  fell  the  small  trees  &  place 
them  across  the  stream  was  a  rigid  test  of  our  muscular  powers. 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  207 

Beyond  this  stream,  thickets  &  swamps  &  marshes  occurred 
quite  regularly  with  now  &  then,  but  far  between,  little  nooks 
of  prairie  a  few  rods  across. 

Midday  found  us  plodding  onward,  the  snow  still  falling,  our 
tattered  garments  leaving  mementoes  of  our  journey  upon  every 
thorn,  while  the  river,  seemingly  to  warn  us  that  we  had  no  gar- 
ments though  ragged  even  to  spare,  bore  upon  its  bosom  the 
first  trophies  of  winter,  large  flakes  of  anchor  ice. 

Frequently  in  crossing  the  little  prairies  we  would  find  rose 
buds  and  seldom  thorn  apples  and  haw  berries  of  all  of  which 
we  ate  as  we  desired. 

During  the  afternoon  we  came  to  a  small  cranberry  marsh; 
the  snow  had  not  yet  covered  the  vines,  so  with  our  bare  hands 
we  plucked  the  frozen  rubies  and  ate  of  them  until  hands  &  feet 
cried  out  with  pain  at  the  cold  work  &  prudence  started  us 
onward  again. 

Evening  came,  Sunday  evening  &  with  it  a  fog  which  with  the 
darkness  made  the  evening  gloomy.  Still  we  kept  our  course 
along  the  river  occasionally  leaving  its  bank  for  a  few  minutes 
but  to  return  again  &  follow.  About  nine  oclock  we  made  a 
halt  where  the  river  ran  close  by  some  timber. 

Here  our  energies  were  put  to  the  test  again  to  collect  mate- 
rial sufficiently  dry  to  start  a  fire;  having  found  a  large  tree 
which  had  fallen  down  we  collected  our  indifferent  fuel  about 
it  &  after  repeated  efforts  succeeded  in  getting  a  wet,  smoulder- 
ing fire  with  but  little  heat. 

Eleven  by  the  watch  found  us  a  little  refreshed  by  the  heat  & 
rest  but  weary  &  emaciated,  weary  for  rest  &  emaciate  beyond 
the  desire  for  food  even  had  we  any.  We  made  the  usual  couch 
of  brush  &  grass  before  the  fire  &  passed  the  night  watching  & 
sleeping  by  turns. 

Morning  discovered  to  us  our  position,  encamped  on  a  low 
knoll  of  hard  wood  timber  &  still  surrounded  on  all  sides  by 
the  wilderness  of  poplar  jungles,  tamarac  swamps,  huge  birches 
&  varieties  of  hard  wood.  The  air  still  hung  with  snowy  clouds 
illy  promising  for  the  day  &  coldly  bidding  us  to  be  active  or 
perhaps  perish.  Hope  never  ceased  with  us  &  we  engaged  cheer- 
fully in  our  morning  task  "to  wit"  patching  &  tying  up  our 


208  BENJAMIN  DENSMORE  Nov. 

clothing,  making  up  our  packs  &  dressing  &  cooking  "the  fish," 
the  only  morsel  of  food  we  had  tasted  for  twenty-four  hours 
and  though  scant  &  but  a  mere  fragment  it  was  no  mockery. 

We  now  seemed  to  take  a  more  sensible  view  than  ever  of 
our  "predicament."  I  had  noticed  Iddings  closely  since  the  yes- 
terday morning  &  thought  a  marked  change  was  working  upon 
him;  he  spoke  seldom,  indeed  we  exchanged  but  few  words  dur- 
ing the  day  &  then  only  to  decide  upon  some  choice  of  a  path. 
He  too  I  found  had  been  paying  me  the  same  vacant  though 
not  disinterested  compliment  and  I  was  somewhat  startled  at 
one  time  on  looking  up  to  find  him  "gazing  intently  upon  my 
features.  While  recounting  our  adventure  some  time  afterward 
I  referred  him  to  that  morning  &  he  said  he  was  in  fact  becom- 
ing alarmed  at  the  condition  we  were  in. 

But  we  did  not  linger  long  around  so  uncongenial  a  -camp  fire ; 
we  left  it  smouldering  and  smoking  on  the  bleak,  dismal  knoll, 
believing  that  the  mortal  who  might  ever  visit  that  place  in  his 
wanderings  would  say  "Whoso  that  was  here  was  here  but  for 
a  night." 

The  snow  was  now  nearly  four  inches  in  depth,  sufficient  to 
conceal  the  slippery  sticks  and  roots  beneath  and  every  unwary 
step  either  brought  us  prostrate  or  sent  us  headlong  our  packs 
flying  in  one  direction,  our  feet  in  another.  Intent  upon  getting 
hold  of  something  to  eat  we  made  divers  onslaughts  upon  ground 
mice  and  squirrels.  At  one  time  we  had  both  thrown  off  our 
packs  and  commenced  digging  after  one  of  the  aforesaid  quad- 
rupeds ;  Iddings  was  sure  he  saw  him  run  into  the  hole,  but  we 
were  not  successful  in  capturing  the  fellow.  Pheasants,  unac- 
customed to  the  sight  of  man  would  allow  us  to  approach  them 
near  enough  to  throw  a  club  but  all  our  attempts  to  capture 
game  were  fruitless  &  we  soon  relapsed  into  our  quiet  mode 
Iddings  taking  the  lead  in  preference  to  following. 

Thus  we  continued  until  about  eleven  oclock  when  he  sent  up 
a  shout  which  made  the  wilderness  ring  &  echo  again.  I  soon 
came  up  with  him  &  found  him  opening  his  pack  as  he  had  done 
the  day  before.  By  his  side  lay  a  rabbit  which  had  been. killed 
but  a  short  time  since  by  some  beast  of  prey ;  its  heart  had  been 
eaten  out  and  the  blood  drank,  otherwise  it  was  as  nice  as  it 
would  have  been,  right  from  johnny's  game-bag. 


1919  FRONTIER  EXPEDITION  209 

Think  you  that  two  famished  men  would  spurn  such  a  prize, 
just  from  dame  nature's  stalls  &  prepared  for  market  by  one  of 
her  daintiest  caterers  (a  timber  wolf,  no  doubt)  ? 

We  did  not  hesitate  a  moment  for  whim  or  prejudice,  but 
expressed  our  heartfelt  gratitude  for  the  prize — manna  as  it  was 
— and  believed  that  now  our  journey  would  terminate  with  suc- 
cess; we  certainly  could  not  be  more  than  another  day's  travel 
from  Long  Prairie. 

And  we  did  succeed.  At  three  oclock  in  the  afternoon  we 
reached  the  point  on  the  river  where  we  had  crossed  it  in  mak- 
ing our  reconnoissance  for  a  wagon  route  a  month  before. 

Our  trials  were  now  at  an  end,  though  it  was  twelve  miles 
yet  to  the  prairie,  to  know  where  we  were  with  reference  to  that 
place  inspired  courage  we  had  long  been  strangers  to. 

At  ten  oclock  we  roused  the  inmates  of  the  barricaded  house 
at  the  prairie  &  were  bade  thrice  thrice  welcome. 


REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS 

James  Baird  Weaver  (Iowa  Biographical  Series).  By  Fred 
Emory  Haynes.  (Iowa  City,  Iowa,  The  State  Historical 
Society,  1919.  xv,  494  p.  Portraits.) 

The  biography  of  any  man  who  represents  a  group,  large  or 
small,  or  who  typifies  a  movement  of  whatever  significance  in  the 
development  of  a  people,  adds  materially  to  available  information 
of  social  advance  in  its  more  comprehensive  aspects.  General 
Weaver  was  not  merely  representative  of  an  important  group; 
he  was  perhaps  its  most  outstanding  leader,  and  he  embodied  as 
did  no  other  single  individual  the  essence  of  a  movement  which 
has  manifested  itself  in  our  national  development  from  early 
colonial  days  down  to  the  present  moment.  A  study  of  the  life 
of  such  a  man  is  something  which  is  worth  doing  and  doing  well. 
Mr.  Haynes,  in  bringing  the  principal  facts  of  Weaver's  life  to 
the  attention  of  students  of  American  development,  has  added 
significantly  to  the  readily  available  material  on  the  agrarian 
unrest  and  its  causes,  as  well  as  on  that  period  which  has  as 
yet  been  inadequately  treated  by  those  who  have  attempted  to 
outline  the  story  of  national  progress  in  the  last  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  All  in  all,  Mr.  Haynes  has  performed  his 
task  intelligently  and  well. 

Two  rather  short  chapters  cover  Weaver's  career  down  to  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  three  more  chapters  outline  his  part 
in  that  great  struggle,  and  practically  all  the  remainder  of  the 
book  is  devoted  to  Weaver  as  a  factor  in  political  life.  Starting 
with  his  activities  in  the  ranks  of  the  Republican  party,  the  author 
traces  in  considerable  detail  General  Weaver's  career  as  a  political 
leader  in  his  own  state  of  Iowa,  his  three  terms  in  Congress,  and 
his  campaigns  for  the  presidency.  His  defection  from  the  older 
party  to  join  the  Greenbackers,  the  decline  of  their  movement, 
the  carrying  forward  of  certain  essential  planks  from  their  plat- 
form, and  the  merging  of  different  elements,  to  a  large  degree 
guided  by  General  Weaver,  into  the  People's  party  of  the  nineties 
are  presented  in  order  and  with  much  attention  to  what  at  times 
becomes  rather  wearisome  detail. 


210 


1919  HAYNES:  JAMES  BAIRD  WEAVER  211 

Mr.  Haynes  found  no  vast  body  of  source  material  for  the 
biography;  a  brief  sketch  of  his  earlier  life  written  by  the  gen- 
eral in  later  days,  a  scrapbook  of  newspaper  clippings,  and  a  small 
number  of  unprinted  letters  afforded  so  scanty  an  amount  of  first 
hand  evidence,  that  Weaver's  printed  speeches,  both  in  Congress 
and  out,  have  been  forced  into  an  undue  prominence.  The  very 
paucity  of  personal  material,  exclusive  of  such  speeches,  placed 
upon  the  author  a  heavy  task  which  he  met  by  making  long  and 
frequent  excerpts  from  sources  available  to  anyone  who  has 
access  to  the  Congressional  Record.  When  these  are  used  to 
exemplify  different  phases  of  General  Weaver's  activities,  ample 
justification  exists ;  but  when,  as  so  frequently  is  the  case,  little 
if  anything  new  is  developed,  such  prodigality  of  quotation  pro- 
duces a  feeling  of  monotony.  General  Weaver's  reaction  to  the 
various  monetary  issues  was  much  the  same  in  1886  as  it  had 
been  when  he  addressed  his  colleagues  in  the  United  States  House 
of  Representatives  in  1876. 

Since  Weaver  was  a  leader  of  a  cause  greater  than  himself,  it 
would  seem  not  out  of  place  to  devote  more  attention  to  the 
setting,  even  at  the  expense  of  some  pages  of  congressional  ora- 
tory. To  describe  at  greater  length  the  economic  depression  in 
the  Mississippi  Valley  in  the  eighties  and  the  reaction  of  the 
agrarian  element  to  that  condition  might  be  repetition  of  what 
has  been  written  elsewhere,  but  it  would  serve  to  heighten  the 
effect  of  the  leader's  attempt  to  voice  that  discontent  and  at  the 
same  time  would  bring  his  services  into  stronger  relief.  More 
of  the  story  of  farmers'  alliances,  agricultural  unions  and  wheels, 
labor  uneasiness,  and  their  mutual  interaction  might  be  told  with 
no  loss  to  the  treatment  of  the  central  theme.  Furthermore,  on 
the  broader  topic,  there  still  remains  a  mass  of  material  as  yet 
unused  which  would  have  enriched  a  biography  of  this  nature. 
The  Donnelly  Papers  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  for 
example,  contain  a  wealth  of  unexploited  material  bearing  directly 
on  this  issue.  Local  and  evanescent  publications,  of  which  the 
times  produced  so  ample  a  store,  form  a  treasury  on  which  the 
student  of  farmers'  economic  problems  and  their  political  conse- 
quences may  draw  without  fear  of  exhausting  the  supply. 

It  is  doubtless  of  no  avail  to  add  yet  another  protest  against 
an  editorial  policy  which  persists  in  relegating  to  certain  pages 


212  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  Nov. 

in  the  back  of  the  book  what  customarily  forms  the  footnotes  in 
other  publications.  The  careful  student  will  turn  to  these  pages 
to  ascertain  whence  the  writer  derived  certain  facts  on  which  he 
based  certain  conclusions,  but  he  will  do  so  reluctantly,  regretting 
that  all  the  world  cannot  see  eye  to  eye  with  himself. 

LESTER  BURRELL  SHIPPEE 

With  the  Colors  from  Anoka  County.  By  Roe  Chase.  (1919. 
175  p.  Illustrations.) 

Goodhue  County  in  the  World  War.  (Red  Wing,  Minnesota, 
Red  Wing  Printing  Company,  1919.  192,  55a  p.  Illustra- 
tions.) 

Waseca  County,  Minnesota,  in  the  World  War.  (Waseca,  Min- 
nesota, Journal  Radical,  1919.  224  p.  Illustrations.) 

In  the  World  War,  1917-1918-1919:  Watonwan  County,  Minne- 
sota. Edited  by  Will  Curtis.  (St.  James,  Minnesota,  St. 
James  Plaindealer.  Illustrations.) 

In  commemoration  of  the  services  rendered  by  the  people  of 
their  several  counties  in  the  prosecution  of  the  late  war,  local 
publishers  throughout  the  state  are  compiling  and  printing  county 
war  histories.  Among  the  first  of  these  to  appear  are  the  vol- 
umes which  contain  the  war  records  of  Anoka,  Goodhue,  Waseca, 
and  Watonwan  counties.  A  general  similarity  of  purpose  and 
content  naturally  characterizes  the  group.  Each  book  is  dedicated 
primarily  "to  the  memory  of  those  men  .  .  .  who  gave  their 
lives  that  this  world  might  be  a  better  place  in  which  to  live." 
A  major  part  of  each  volume  is  devoted  to  individual  photographs 
and  brief  statements  of  the  services  of  soldiers,  sailors,  marines, 
and  nurses  from  the  county.  In  another  main  section  is  given 
some  account  of  the  war  work  done  by  organizations  and  indi- 
viduals in  the  home  community,  accompanied  by  photographs  of 
local  leaders  and  committees  and  by  other  illustrative  material. 
Something  of  the  general  course  of  events  which  occasioned  these 
activities,  and  in  the  shaping  of  which  some  of  the  men  from  the 
county  directly  participated,  is  indicated  by  the  inclusion  of 
historical  resumes,  chronologies,  or  reports  relating  to  the  World 
War,  and  of  portraits  of  the  military  and  political  leaders  of  the 
United  States  and  of  the  allied  nations.  Somewhere  in  the  book 


1919        MINNESOTA  COUNTY  WAR  HISTORIES        213 

recognition  is  always  given  to  the  local  veterans  of  earlier  wars. 
The  numerous  photographic  reproductions  in  each  are  uniformly 
excellent. 

In  a  number  of  important  particulars  With  the  Colors  from 
Anoka  County  is  unique.  It  combines  a  maximum  of  historical 
fact  with  a  minimum  of  ornamentation.  An  unusual  amount  of 
space,  four-fifths  of  the  volume,  is  devoted  to  historical  narrative 
which  is  unusually  broad  in  scope.  This  opens  with  a  review  of 
the  military  participation  of  the  county  in  former  wars  and  of 
local  reactions  to  events  in  Europe  and  on  the  Mexican  border 
before  the  entrance  of  the  United  States  into  the  World  War. 
Then  follows  a  comprehensive  record  of  the  county's  activities 
during  the  period  of  the  war,  in  which  its  effects  on  the  life  of 
the  home  community  are  clearly  reflected.  Strictly  speaking,  the 
account  as  a  whole  is  not  a  historical  narrative  but  a  chronicle 
treating  of  events  in  a  single  series,  uninterrupted  except  by  the 
frequent  introduction  of  lists  of  names  of  selective  service  men, 
war  workers,  and  registered  aliens,  and  of  documentary  and 
graphic  material  such  as  official  ordinances,  soldiers'  letters,  and 
reproductions  of  patriotic  notices  and  appeals.  The  narrative 
portions  are  written  in  a  spirited  but  not  effusive  style ;  the 
emphasis  is  upon  the  presentation  of  facts  rather  than  upon  the 
bestowal  of  credit;  and  events  and  conditions  which,  from  a 
superficial  point  of  view,  might  be  thought  to  detract  from  the 
county's  record  of  loyal  service,  are  not  ignored.  Photographs 
distributed  throughout  the  text  are  relatively  small  in  size  and, 
so  far  as  they  represent  civilian  war  workers,  are  limited  to  por- 
traits of  state  and  local  leaders.  In  a  final  section  of  thirty-five 
pages,  the  usual  individual  recognition  is  accorded  to  the  service 
men.  Unfortunately,  especially  in  a  work  so  packed  with  useful 
information,  there  is  no  index. 

The  Goodhue,  Waseca,  and  Watonwan  histories  have  much 
in  common.  In  appearance,  at  least,  these  volumes  approximate 
the  "college  annual"  type  of  publication  with  its  handsome  bind- 
ing, glossy  paper,  varied  typography,  ornamental  borders,  decora- 
tive backgrounds,  symbolical  illustrations,  and  prominence  given 
to  photographs  of  participants  in  the  life  and  activities  repre- 
sented. In  the  last  named  respect  the  resemblance  is  perhaps 
most  marked  in  the  Waseca  history,  where  an  entire  page  is 


214  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  Nov. 

alloted  to  the  photographs  and  names  of  the  members  of  each  of 
some  forty  local  committees  and  groups.  There  is  no  table  of 
contents  in  any  of  the  books,  and  only  one,  the  Goodhue  history, 
has  an  index.  An  even  more  serious  fault  is  the  lack  of  a  title- 
page  and  of  pagination  in  the  Watonwan  history. 

About  half  of  each  volume  is  devoted  to  the  soldiers.  Those 
who  lost  their  lives  in  the  service  are  specially  honored  as  indi- 
viduals and  as  a  group.  In  the  Goodhue  and  Waseca  histories 
the  printed  records  of  other  service  men  average  two  or  three 
short  lines,  but  in  the  Watonwan  history  they  are  exceptionally 
full  and  are  supplemented  by  intimate  narratives  of  personal 
experiences  contained  in  a  section  entitled  "Stories  from  the  Bat- 
tle Front." 

The  record  of  local  war  activities  is  allowed  proportionally 
equal  space  in  two  of  the  books,  but  in  the  third,  Goodhue  County 
in  the  World  War,  only  one-sixth  of  the  volume  is  set  aside  for 
this  purpose.  All  three  present  this  phase  of  the  subject  in  a 
more  or  less  systematically  arranged  series  of  narratives  dealing 
severally  with  the  work  of  the  special  war  agencies  such  as  the 
draft  board,  the  American  Red  Cross,  the  War  Loan  Organiza- 
tion, and  the  Minnesota  Commission  of  Public  Safety,  and  with 
the  war  activities  of  established  institutions  such  as  churches, 
schools,  libraries,  and  newspapers.  In  the  Watonwan  history  a 
special  subdivision  is  devoted  to  individual  photographs  and 
records  of  some  five  hundred  local  civilian  war  workers.  Gener- 
ally speaking,  accounts  of  the  work  of  organizations  are  sum- 
mary in  character  and  are  accompanied  by  lists  of  names  of  the 
officers  and  members  of  war  organizations  and  tabulated  state- 
ments of  the  results  achieved.  No  important  organized  effort  in 
the  home  community  has  been  overlooked,  except  in  the  Good- 
hue  history  where  there  appears  to  be  no  mention  of  the  work 
of  food  or  of  fuel  conservation  beyond  a  ten  line  paragraph  on 
the  "Food  Conservation  Advertising  Committee."  The  amount 
of  space  alloted  to  the  several  kinds  of  war  service  varies  con- 
siderably and  is  not  always  a  criterion  of  their  relative  impor- 
tance. In  the  Waseca  history,  for  example,  a  total  of  seventy 
pages  is  devoted  to  accounts  of  "Liberty  Loans,"  "Red  Cross 
Activities,"  and  "United  War  Workers,"  and  only  one  or  two 
each  to  such  agencies  as  the  draft  board  and  the  public  safety 


1919       MINNESOTA  COUNTY  W AR  HISTORIES       215 

commission.  Credit  is  generously,  and  in  the  Waseca  history  lav- 
ishly, bestowed  upon  all  who  participated  in  patriotic  activities. 
There  appears  to  be  a  tendency,  least  marked  in  the  Watonwan 
history,  to  present  only  the  brighter  side  of  the  picture.  A  county 
is  indeed  unique  of  which  it  can  truthfully  be  said  that  "patriot- 
ism and  loyalty  were  the  two  lone  words  in  every  citizen's  vocab- 
ulary." 

It  is  not  surprising  that  none  of  the  four  pioneer  works  under 
review  is  altogether  without  defects  of  organization  which  impair 
its  clearness,  its  accuracy,  and  its  usefulness  as  a  book  of  refer- 
ence. The  general  nature  of  these  shortcomings  may  perhaps  be 
best  indicated  by  a  discussion  of  a  tentative  plan  for  a  county  war 
history  which  has  been  formulated  as  a  result  of  a  careful  study 
of  the  problem  as  presented  in  the  four  books  in  hand.  The 
reviewer  hopes  that  the  suggestions  contained  in  this  plan  may 
be  found  useful  by  compilers  of  similar  works.  To  facilitate 
description,  let  it  be  assumed  that  a  history  based  upon  this  plan 
has  actually  materialized  and  is  now  under  examination. 

This  imaginary  volume  is  divided  into  four  parts  as  follows : 
part  one  presents  in  narrative  form  the  story  of  the  war  services 
of  the  county  considered  primarily  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
county  as  a  whole ;  part  two  is  devoted  to  the  service  records  of 
individuals,  mostly  soldiers;  in  part  three  is  assembled  all  mate- 
rial of  a  documentary  or  purely  statistical  nature;  part  four  sets 
forth  the  personnel  and  organization  of  the  various  local  war 
agencies.  The  four  sections  are  clearly  distinguished  from  one 
another  by  dividing  pages  and  appropriate  subtitles. 

The  story  of  the  county's  collective  services  is  told  in  a  series 
of  chapters  covering  all  phases  of  the  subject.  Considerations 
of  chronological  order,  relative  significance,  and  logical  relation- 
ship govern  the  arrangement  of  the  series  and  of  the  contents  of 
the  several  chapters.  The  story  opens  with  a  survey  of  leading 
events  in  the  European  war  and  an  account  of  its  effects  upon 
the  sympathies  and  opinions  of  the  people  of  the  county  during 
the  period  of  American  neutrality.  Succeeding  chapters  entitled 
"The  Declaration  of  War,"  "The  Call  to  the  Colors,"  and  "County 
Men  and  Women  in  the  Service"  contain  accounts  of  the  com- 
munity's first  response  to  the  call  of  war,  of  the  recruiting  of 
volunteers  and  the  operation  of  the  selective  draft,  and  of  the 


216  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  Nov. 

men  and  women,  viewed  as  a  group,  who  represented  the  county 
with  the  armed  forces  of  the  nation.  The  work  of  three  of  the 
most  important  civilian  organizations  is  then  described  in  chap- 
.ters  on  "The  County  Branch  of  the  Public  Safety  Commission," 
"Financing  the  War,"  and  "The  Red  Cross."  The  next  chapter, 
entitled  "Army  and  Social  Welfare  Work,"  deals  with  the  sepa- 
rate and  united  efforts  put  forth  in  the  county  on  behalf  of  the 
service  men  by  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  Knights 
of  Columbus,  Salvation  Army,  and  other  leading  welfare  agencies. 
Similar  activities  designed  to  increase  the  morale  of  the  home 
community  are  also  discussed  in  this  chapter.  The  state  of  the 
public  mind  in  the  early  days  of  American  participation,  the 
educational  and  inspirational  work  of  newspapers,  churches, 
schools,  America  First  Association,  Four  Minute  Men,  and  other 
agencies,  the  loyalty  issue  in  politics,  the  suppression  of  disloy- 
alty, and  similar  topics  are  treated  in  a  chapter  on  "The  Mobiliza- 
tion of  Public  Opinion."  A  series  of  chapters  follow  which  dis- 
cuss at  length  the  economic,  agricultural,  industrial,  and  commer- 
cial aspects  of  the  county's  war  record,  under  the  titles,  "Food 
Conservation  and  Production,"  "The  Fuel  Administration,"  and 
"Industry  and  Commerce."  The  story  closes  with  "The  Return 
of  Peace,"  a  chapter  telling  of  the  local  celebration  of  the  signing 
of  the  armistice,  the  homecoming  of  the  service  men,  the  forma- 
tion of  veterans'  associations,  the  conversion  of  local  wartime 
agencies  to  the  uses  of  peace,  and  the  permanent  changes  wrought 
by  the  war  in  the  life  of  the  home  community.  The  photographs 
and  illustrations  which  accompany  the  narrative  throughout  are 
placed  so  far  as  possible  with  strict  regard  to  their  bearing  upon 
the  text.  In  part  two  of  the  book,  the  photographs  and  service 
records  of  individuals  appear  in  clearly  distinguished  groups 
corresponding  to  the  following  classes  of  service  men  and  war 
workers ;  men  who  lost  their  lives  in  the  service,  the  boys  who 
returned,  army  welfare  workers  and  others  associated  with  the 
armed  forces  of  the  country,  civilians  conspicuous  in  the  war 
work  of  the  home  community.  To  facilitate  the  location  of  the 
record  of  any  particular  individual,  the  order  of  arrangement  in 
each  group  is  strictly  alphabetical  in  accordance  with  the  names  of 
the  persons  recorded.  As  a  safeguard  against  mistakes  in  iden- 
tification the  photograph  and  service  record  of  each  individual 


1919  THE  88TH  DIVISION  IN  THE  WAR  217 

are  placed  in  exact  juxtaposition   or  are  given  corresponding 
numbers. 

Parts  three  and  four  of  the  volume  serve  to  relieve  the  histor- 
ical narrative,  in  part  one,  of  a  vast  amount  of  matter  which 
though  pertinent  and  instructive  would  by  reason  of  its  form  or 
nature  seriously  interrupt  the  thread  of  the  narrative  at  frequent 
intervals.  In  part  three  is  assembled  documentary  material  such 
as  soldiers'  letters,  citations,  programs  of  patriotic  meetings, 
proclamations,  and  resolutions,  and  statistical  matter  such  as 
financial  statements  of  war  agencies  and  tabulated  reports  of 
results  of  the  various  drives.  This  material  is  arranged  primarily 
with  reference  to  its  form.  Part  four  is  a  directory  of  names 
and  addresses  of  officers  and  members  of  committees  of  county 
and  local  branches  of  the  several  organizations  active  in  war 
work  in  the  county. 

The  volume  is  provided  with  a  table  of  contents  and  an  index. 
The  latter  is  broadly  analytical  and  for  the  most  part  topical  in 
character.  It  includes,  however,  names  of  individuals  except 
when  the  reference  would  be  to  the  main  alphabetical  rosters  of 
service  men  in  part  two. 

FRANKLIN  F.  HOLBROOK 

The  88th  Division  in  the  World  War  of  1914-1918.  (New  York, 
Wynkoop  Hallenbeck  Crawford  Company,  1919.  236  p. 
Illustrations.) 

The  Eighty-eighth  Division  contained  a  large  quota  of  drafted 
men  from  Minnesota  and  many  of  its  officers,  including  its  first 
assignment  of  junior  officers,  received  military  training  as  mem- 
bers of  the  first  two  reserve  officer's  training  camps  at  Fort  Snel- 
ling.  Consequently,  a  history  of  the  division  is  a  significant  addi- 
tion to  the  ever  increasing  printed  record  of  Minnesota's  part  in 
the  World  War.  The  arrangement  of  the  present  volume  follows 
a  form  which  has  already  become  conventional  in  the  writing  of 
such  histories.  After  all,  these  accounts  must  be  similar,  since 
the  experiences  of  nearly  every  division  or  unit  which  reached 
France  are  typical  of  the  story  of  the  entire  American  Expedi- 
tionary Force.  This  limitation  becomes  less  serious  when  viewed 
in  the  light  of  the  comparatively  small  number  of  readers  of  a 


218  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  Nov. 

history  of  any  one  unit.  Even  if  it  has  literary  merit,  such  a 
book  can  scarcely  be  of  general  interest;  it  is  significant  only  to 
the  members  of  that  unit,  to  their  acquaintances,  or,  as  is  here  the 
case,  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  locality  from  which  a  majority  of 
the  combatants  originally  came.  While  a  list  of  the  soldiers  of 
the  Eighty-eighth  Division  who  were  cited  for  bravery 
(pp.  68-75)  is  of  vital  interest  to  Minnesotans  it  can  have  but 
slight  meaning  for  the  inhabitants  of  Louisiana  or  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 

This  volume  is  divided  into  two  principal  parts,  the  first 
devoted  to  a  narrative  account  of  the  experiences  of  the  division, 
the  second  to  a  roster  or  "complete  list  of  every  officer  and  man 
who  served  with  the  88th  Division  in  the  A.  E.  F."  The  narra- 
tive, in  turn,  is  divided  into  three  parts,  each  of  which  deals  with 
one  of  the  broad  periods  in  the  history  of  the  division  as  fol- 
lows: (1)  organization  and  training  in  the  United  States,  (2) 
training  and  active  service  in  France,  (3)  events  subsequent  to 
the  signing  of  the  armistice.  The  scene  of  the  opening  period 
was  Camp  Dodge.  The  story  of  the  conversion  of  the  camping 
ground  of  the  Iowa  National  Guard  into  a  fully  equipped  canton- 
ment with  all  the  conveniences  and  facilities  of  a  city,  of  the 
organization  there  of  the  various  units  of  the  division  under  the 
direction  of  Major  General  Edward  H.  Plummer,  and  of  the 
arrival  at  the  post  of  thousands  of  drafted  men  from  Minnesota, 
Iowa,  North  Dakota,  and  Illinois,  is  one  that  is  typical  of  the 
occurrences  during  the  summer  of  1917  in  fifteen  similar  camps 
throughout  the  United  States.  The  brief  space  devoted  to  this 
tale  of  vast  achievement  perhaps  helps  to  impress  upon  the 
reader  the  speed  with  which  it  was  accomplished.  Training  the 
men  who  came  "from  their  comfortable  homes,  most  of  them 
without  any  conception  of  military  life,"  and  transporting  them 
to  France  was  a  longer  process;  therefore  this  portion  of  the 
division's  experience  is  described  at  greater  length.  The  most 
extensive  chapter  of  the  narrative  deals  with  the  few  weeks 
from  October  18  to  November  11,  1918,  the  time  when  the  events 
for  which  the  division  had  been  training  during  more  than  a 
year  took  place,  the  period  of  active  service  in  France.  This 
discussion  is  preceded  by  a  concise  outline  of  the  life  of  Major 
General  William  Weigel,  the  man  who  successfully  guided  the 


1919  GUTTERSEN:  GRANVILLE  219 

division  through  the  great  crisis  of  its  existence.  "After  the 
Armistice"  is  the  title  of  the  third  main  division.  Herein  the 
tale  of  the  dreary  months  of  waiting  to  return  to  the  United 
States,  which  has  been  told  by  thousands  of  Americans  who 
served  in  France,  is  repeated. 

The  cooperation  of  a  group  of  officers  in  the  preparation  of 
the  narrative  is  doubtless  responsible  for  the  publication  therein 
of  some  interesting  official  orders  and  records.  One  of  these, 
for  example,  is  the  secret  field  order  directing  "the  distribution 
of  troops  under  the  first  allotment  of  positions"  when  the  divi- 
sion made  its  initial  appearance  in  the  trenches  (p.  42).  The 
volume  is  attractively  bound  and  excellently  illustrated  with 
photographs  of  officers  and  men  and  of  the  localities  through 
which  they  passed  in  their  travels  here  and  abroad. 

BERTHA  L.  HEILBRON 

Granville:  Tales  and  Tail  Spins  from  a  Flyer's  Diary.  (New 
York  and  Cincinnati,  The  Abingdon  Press,  1919.  176  p. 
Illustrations.) 

Books  and  pamphlets  relating  to  the  World  War  are  now 
appearing  with  bewildering  rapidity.  There  are  histories  of  divi- 
sions and  of  smaller  units,  narratives  of  the  actual  experiences 
of  soldiers  and  newspaper  correspondents,  reports  of  the  several 
war  agencies,  and  stories  based  on  fact  or  fiction.  Among  these 
works  are  to  be  noted  the  compilations  of  letters  and  diaries  of 
soldiers.  To  this  latter  class  belongs  Granville.  Dedicated  to  the 
"memory  of  Granville  and  to  the  thousands  who  helped  to  win 
the  war  on  this  side"  it  is  a  record  of  the  service  rendered  to  his 
country  by  Granville  Guttersen,  son  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gilbert 
Guttersen  of  St.  Paul. 

Granville  was  a  member  of  the  Aviation  Corps  of  the  United 
States  Army.  Because  of  his  proficiency  he  was  commissioned 
a  second  lieutenant  and  sent  as  an  instructor  to  the  San  Leon 
Gunnery  School,  where,  much  to  his  regret,  he  spent  most  of  the 
period  of  the  war.  The  armistice  was  signed  just  as  he  was  about 
to  embark  from  New  York.  Shortly  afterward  he  returned  to 
Texas  where  he  succumbed  to  pneumonia. 

The  first  and  shorter  part  of  the  book  is  composed  of  a  part 
of  Granville's  letters  written  to  his  family  from  the  training  camp 


220  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  Nov. 

at  Austin,  Texas,  where  he  was  a  student,  and  from  Houston. 
These  letters  serve  as  an  introduction  to  his  diary,  which  does 
not  begin  until  August  31,  1918,  and  they  clearly  reveal  the 
character  of  the  writer.  That  they  are  not  as  detailed  as  others 
that  have  been  made  public,  can  probably  be  explained  by  the 
fact  that  the  writer  was  going  through  the  grilling  and  strenuous 
training  of  a  student  aviator  who  in  three  months  must  master 
the  work  of  one  year.  They  are  filled  with  short  scenes  of  camp 
life  and  experiences.  One  letter  in  particular  is  worthy  of  atten- 
tion. It  contains  advice  to  his  father  on  how  to  welcome  the 
stranger  in  khaki — advice  which  will  be  keenly  appreciated  by 
any  former  service  man. 

The  second  part,  the  diary,  is  especially  interesting.  Here  the 
reader  finds  the  "Granny"  so  well  liked  by  his  associates  emerg- 
ing from  the  account  of  his  experiences,  hopes,  and  disappoint- 
ments. Here,  too,  are  portrayed  the  work  and  play  in  the  life 
of  an  officer  in  camp  and  the  agreeable  and  disagreeable  sides  of 
an  instructor's  duties.  Written  in  a  simple,  straightforward 
manner,  the  diary  records  the  impressions  and  stray  thoughts  of 
the  moment  and  treats  of  the  serious  and  amusing  incidents  of 
a  soldier's  daily  life. 

The  greater  part  of  the  story  relates  to  the  writer's  hopes  and 
disappointments  with  reference  to  his  overwhelming  ambition  to 
reach  France  and  get  into  active  service.  There  is  hardly  a  letter 
or  a  notation  in  the  diary  which  does  not  have  some  allusion  to  his 
chance  to  "get  across."  His  comments  after  many  failures  to 
secure  the  coveted  overseas  assignment  are  typical:  "If  Uncle 
Sammy  won't  let  me  go  across,  I'll  have  to  get  married  to  make 
me  feel  right  about  it.  I'd  a  helluva  lot  rather  go  across  though." 
"Boy,  I  wouldn't  have  the  face  to  face  anyone  after  this  mess 
is  cleaned  up  and  admit  that  I.  a  single  man  with  no  one  depend- 
ent on  me,  had  been  an  instructor  .  .  .  while  married  men  or 
men  with  dependents  had  'gone  West,'  doing  my  work  in  France." 

The  value  of  this  book  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  contains  the  let- 
ters and  diary  of  a  soldier  who  typifies  the  highest  ideals  of 
American  manhood.  One  cannot  read  it  without  feeling  proud 
that  this  soldier  was  a  fellow  citizen. 

CECIL  W.  SHIRK 


MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES 

The  stated  meeting  of  the  executive  council  on  October  13, 
furnished  the  occasion  for  the  reading  of  two  interesting  papers 
on  comparatively  recent  subjects  in  Minnesota  history.  These 
were  "The  Last  Indian  Uprising  in  the  United  States  (Leech 
Lake,  Minnesota,  1898),"  by  Lieutenant  Commander  Louis  H. 
Roddis  of  the  medical  corps  of  the  United  States  Navy,  and 
"Recruiting  Engineers  for  the  World  War  in  Minnesota,"  by 
George  W.  McCree,  who  was  civilian  aid  to  the  adjutant  general 
of  the  United  States  during  the  war. 

Three  organizations  have  held  meetings  in  the  auditorium 
recently:  the  Minnesota  society,  Sons  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion, September  18;  the  Lyndale  Reading  Circle  of  Minneapolis, 
October  7;  and  the  Merriam  Park  Woman's  Club  of  St.  Paul, 
October  29.  At  the  last  two  of  these  meetings  the  work  of  the 
society's  museum  was  explained  by  the  curator,  Mr.  Babcock. 

The  following  new  members,  all  active,  have  been  enrolled 
during  the  quarter  ending  October  31,  1919:  Bertha  L.  Heilbron 
of  St.  Paul;  C.  Ernest  Lagerstrom  and  Andrew  J.  Lobb  of 
Minneapolis ;  J.  Anton  Ochs  and  Richard  Pf efferle  of  New  Ulm ; 
Frank  M.  Kaisersatt  of  Faribault;  Leland  S.  Stallings  of 
Breckenridge ;  Ida  A.  Kovisto  of  Wadena;  George  L.  Treat  of 
Alexandria;  and  William  K.  Coffin  of  Eau  Claire,  Wisconsin. 
Deaths  during  the  same  period  include  those  of  one  active  mem- 
ber, George  Reis  of  Los  Angeles,  California,  October  4;  and  one 
corresponding  member,  General  Philip  Reade  of  Boston,  Massa- 
chusetts, October  21.  The  deaths  of  the  Reverend  William 
DeLoss  Love  of  Hartford,  Connecticut,  April  8,  1918,  and 
Charles  Conrad  Abbott  of  Bristol,  Pennsylvania,  July  17,  1919, 
both  corresponding  members,  have  not  heretofore  been  noted  in 
the  BULLETIN. 


221 


222  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  Nov. 

An  instance  of  the  value  of  the  society's  library  to  the  state 
was  afforded  recently  in  connection  with  the  case  between  Minne- 
sota and  Wisconsin  in  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  over  the 
location  of  the  boundary  line  in  Duluth  Harbor.  This  case 
involved  historical  questions  as  to  what  had  been  looked  upon  in 
the  past  as  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Louis  River  and  also  what  had 
been  the  principal  route  of  navigation  through  the  waters  of 
St.  Louis  Bay.  The  Wisconsin  attorneys  included  in  their  brief 
a  very  elaborate  discussion  of  this  subject  with  references  to  a 
great  many  books  and  documents,  and  it  was  necessary  for  the 
Minnesota  attorneys  to  check  over  this  material  and  locate  addi- 
tional evidence  on  the  subject  if  possible.  Practically  all  the 
books  and  documents  needed  for  this  work  were  found  to  be 
available  in  the  library  of  the  society. 

Some  progress  was  made  during  the  summer  in  the  work  of 
sorting  and  disposing  of  duplicate  material  in  the  library.  About 
two  thousand  volumes  of  supposedly  duplicate  congressional 
documents  were  checked  over  with  a  view  to  replacing  imperfect 
copies  and  filling  in  gaps  in  the  classified  sets.  What  were  left 
were  then  offered  as  gifts  to  various  Minnesota  libraries  with  the 
result,  so  far,  that  617  volumes  have  been  taken  by  the  library 
of  Carleton  College,  65  by  the  Minneapolis  Public  Library,  33  by 
the  library  of  the  Macalester  College,  and  15  by  the  Minnesota 
State  Library.  Of  miscellaneous  duplicate  books  about  a  thou- 
sand were  sorted,  checked,  and  listed  so  that  they  can  now  be 
offered  to  other  libraries  in  exchange  for  their  duplicates.  Thou- 
sands of  documents  of  states  other  than  Minnesota  were  also 
sorted  and  checked  over  preliminary  to  classification,  and  about 
1 ,300  of  these  documents  which  proved  to  be  duplicates  or  outside 
the  society's  fields  of  collection  were  turned  over  to  the  state 
library  to  help  fill  in  its  incomplete  sets. 

Most  of  the  cases  in  the  east  hall  of  the  museum  are  being 
used  at  present  for  an  exhibition  of  World  War  objects.  The 
Backus  collection  illustrating  the  activities  of  an  aviator,  material 
brought  back  from  France  by  Colonel  Leach,  articles  made  by 
wounded  soldiers  at  Fort  Snelling,  and  military  badges  used  by 
various  British  regiments  are  included  in  the  exhibition. 


1919  GIFTS  223 

The  number  of  visitors  to  the  museum  during  fair  week  was 
2,846  by  actual  count.  This  is  an  average  of  569  a  day  for  five 
days,  for  the  building  was  closed  on  Monday — Labor  Day. 

From  the  opening  of  the  schools  in  September  until  Novem- 
ber 1,  the  museum  was  visited  by  nine  classes  totalling  343 
pupils. 

In  response  to  numerous  requests  the  history  hours  in  the 
museum,  which  were  suspended  during  the  summer,  have  been 
resumed.  On  Saturday,  October  11,  about  one  hundred  children 
listened  to  a  talk  on  the  Red  River  cart  as  an  aid  to  the  settlement 
of  the  Northwest.  One  hundred  and  eighty  children  from  thirty- 
five  schools,  including  a  delegation  from  the  Seward  School  in 
Minneapolis,  responded  to  the  second  invitation,  for  the  talk  on 
the  fur  trade  on  October  25.  These  history  hours  are  to  be  held 
throughout  the  winter  on  the  second  and  fourth  Saturdays  of 
the  month  at  three  o'clock.  They  are  intended  for  children  in 
the  grades  from  the  fourth  to  the  eighth,  inclusive. 

The  personnel  of  the  staff  changed  somewhat  during  the  quarter 
ending  October  31.  The  position  of  curator  of  the  museum, 
made  vacant  September  1  by  the  resignation  of  Miss  Ruth  O. 
Roberts,  was  filled  by  the  transfer  of  Mr.  Willoughby  M.  Bab- 
cock,  Jr.,  who  had  previously  held  the  position  of  editorial  assis- 
tant. The  vacancy  thus  created  in  the  editorial  division  was  filled 
by  the  appointment  of  Miss  Bertha  L.  Heilbron.  Miss  Emma  M. 
Larson  became  reference  assistant  September  24  in  the  place  of 
Miss  Dora  C.  Jett,  whose  resignation  took  effect  August  15;  and 
Miss  Olive  J.  Clark  succeeds  Mrs.  Rose  M.  Dunlap  as  museum 
assistant  November  1. 

GIFTS 

«*  • 

A  collection  of  about  twenty-five  letters  written,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  by  the  Reverend  Richard  Hall,  a  well-known  pioneer 
missionary  of  the  Congregational  church  in  Minnesota,  has  been 
presented  by  his  nephew,  Mr.  Grosvenor  Buck  of  St.  Paul.  Hall 
came  to  Minnesota  in  1850  and  for  a  number  of  years  served  as 


224  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  Nov. 

pastor  of  a  church  at  Point  Douglas  and  preached  in  various  sur- 
rounding communities.  From  1856  to  1874  he  was  superintend- 
ent of  the  American  Home  Missionary  Society  for  Minnesota. 
The  most  valuable  of  the  letters  are  those  written  in  Point 
Douglas  and  St.  Paul  in  the  fifties  and  sixties,  which  relate  inter- 
esting incidents  of  pioneer  days  and  contain  information  about 
frontier  living  conditions  and  the  early  history  of  Congregational 
missions  in  the  state.  A  trip  on  the  frozen  river  from  Point 
Douglas  to  St.  Paul  is  described  in  a  letter  of  1861,  and  the  mis- 
sionary complains  of  the  high  cost  of  living  in  a  letter  of  1864, 
when  wood  sold  for  between  six  and  seven  dollars  a  cord  and 
oats  for  eighty  cents  a  bushel.  Three  journals  of  Hall's  mission- 
ary correspondence  were  deposited  with  the  society  shortly  after 
his  death  in  1907. 

A  series  of  eight  account  books  kept  in  New  York  in  the  first 
decades  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  been  presented  by  Pro- 
fessor Thomas  G.  Lee  of  the  University  of  Minnesota.  The 
accounts  are  largely  those  of  the  general  store  of  Robert  T.  Shaw, 
though  one  appears  to  be  a  doctor's  ledger  with  entries  covering 
the  years  from  1828  to  1834,  when  doctors  made  calls  for  twenty- 
five  and  fifty  cents,  dispensed  "liniment"  at  fifteen  cents  a  bottle 
and  pills  for  one  cent  each,  and  extracted  teeth  at  the  bargain 
price  of  eighteen  and  three-fourths  cents.  A  set  of  apothecary's 
scales  of  the  type  used  in  pioneer  drug  stores,  two  foot  stoves, 
and  a  silver  caster  have  also  been  received  from  Dr.  Lee. 

Three  letters  of  special  interest  have  been  donated  by  Mrs. 
Fred  A.  Bill  of  St.  Paul.  Two  of  these  were  written  by  the 
brothers  Joseph  and  Thomas  McMaster  in  the  early  winter  of 
1856  from  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania,  and  Read's  Landing,  Minne- 
sota, respectively.  They  discuss,  aside  from  family  affairs,  a 
projected  printing  establishment  at  Read's  Landing  to  be  set  up 
by  Joseph  McMaster  with  the  help  of  William  R.  Marshall,  after- 
wards governor  of  the  state,  and  other  interested  parties.  The 
third  letter  was  written  by  Stuart  Cherry,  a  writing  master  in 
the  Collegiate  Institute  of  Liverpool,  to  Mrs.  William  C.  Mc- 
Master at  Read's  Landing  in  August,  1861,  and  discusses  the  atti- 
tude of  the  English  toward  the  Civil  War  in  America. 


1919  GIFTS  225 

Miss  Helen  Castle  has  recently  presented  some  papers  of  her 
father's,  the  late  Captain  Henry  A.  Castle  of  St.  Paul  and  expects 
to  turn  over  additional  papers  at  some  future  time. 

A  group  of  records  of  missionary  societies  of  the  Presbyterian 
church  in  Minnesota  presented  by  Mrs.  Julius  E.  Miner  of 
Minneapolis  includes  the  minutes  of  the  Woman's  Synodical 
Society  of  Home  Missions  of  Minnesota,  from  1900  to  1916,  and 
records  of  the  Home  Missionary  Society  of  Westminster  Church, 
Minneapolis,  from  1883  to  1895. 

A  small  collection  of  papers  and  two  record  books  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church  of  St.  Paul  covering  the  years  1872  to  1894 
has  been  deposited  in  the  society's  manuscript  collection  by 
Mr.  Benjamin  O.  Chapman,  an  official  of  the  House  of  Hope 
Church. 

Miss  Alta  H.  Merritt  of  St.  Paul  has  presented  a  series  of 
letters  written  by  her  brother,  Glenn  J.  Merritt  of  Duluth,  while 
he  was  on  duty  with  a  Harvard  ambulance  unit  in  the  World  War. 
The  letters  reflect  the  experiences  of  the  writer  in  the  training 
camp  in  this  country  and  in  the  work  of  relief  at  the  front  in 
France  and  Italy.  They  are  accompanied  by  a  very  fine  collec- 
tion of  pictures  taken  by  Mr.  Merritt,  which  illustrate  further 
this  branch  of  Red  Cross  service. 

A  United  States  land  patent  issued  to  William  Prichard  in 
1857  for  a  tract  of  land  in  the  Red  Wing  district,  Minnesota 
Territory,  has  been  received  from  Edward  A.  Bromley  of  Minne- 
apolis. This  patent  is  especially  interesting  because  it  illustrates 
the  time  honored  practice  of  drawing  upon  the  public  domain  for 
military  bounties.  It  was  issued  in  exchange  for  a  land  warrant 
in  favor  of  Levi  P.  Henry,  a  veteran  of  the  "Florida  War,"  the 
warrant  having  been  assigned  to  Prichard,  who  "located"  it  upon 
the  land  covered  by  the  patent. 

A  valuable  addition  to  the  material  concerning  the  Sully  expe- 
dition of  1864  has  recently  been  received  from  Mr.  D.  J.  Dodge 
of  Minneapolis.  This  is  a  blue  print  copy  of  a  manuscript  map 
showing  the  route  traveled  by  this  expedition  from  Fort  Ridgely 


226  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  Nov. 

to  the  Yellowstone  and  Missouri  rivers.  The  map  also  indicates 
the  point  where  Captain  Fiske's  company  was  rescued  from  an 
attack  by  the  Indians.  The  original  was  drawn  in  1864  by 
James  S.  Stoddard  of  Company  C,  Second  Minnesota  Cavalry. 

The  original  document  of  the  "Greetings  from  the  Norwegian 
Storting  to  the  Minnesota  Legislature,"  dated  July  15,  1919, 
which  was  delivered  by  the  Honorable  Edward  Indrehus  of  Foley 
to  the  Minnesota  House  of  Representatives,  September  15,  1919, 
has  been  turned  over  to  the  society  for  preservation. 

The  presidential  campaign  of  1912  is  the  subject  of  a  collec- 
tion of  newspaper  clippings  and  cartoons  recently  presented  to 
the  society  by  Mr.  William  W.  Cutler  of  St.  Paul.  The  collec- 
tion was  made  by  his  sister,  Miss  Ruth  Cutler,  who  died  in  Paris 
in  the  winter  of  1918,  while  in  the  service  of  the  American  Red 
Cross.  The  clippings,  which  have  been  taken  almost  exclusively 
from  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press,  are  arranged  under  the  four 
headings  of  candidates,  state  primaries,  campaign  issues,  and 
miscellaneous,  while  the  candidates  in  turn  are  grouped  by  polit- 
ical parties.  Of  special  interest  are  the  cartoons  included  in  the 
collection. 

Mrs.  Charles  P.  Noyes  has  presented  to  the  society  a  copy  of  a 
work  entitled  A  Family  History  in  Letters  and  Documents,  1667— 
1837  (St.  Paul,  1919.  2v.),  which  she  has  compiled  and  had 
printed  for  private  distribution.  It  is  concerned  with  the  fore- 
fathers of  Mrs.  Noyes's  parents,  Winthrop  Sargent  Gilman  and 
Abia  Swift  Lippincott,  and  contains  a  mass  of  carefully  edited 
material  of  great  value  to  the  student  of  social  and  economic  con- 
ditions. Photostatic  copies  of  the  original  manuscripts  of  some  of 
the  documents  printed  in  the  volume  have  also  been  presented 
by  Mrs.  Noyes. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Oliver  S.  Morris,  editor  of  the 
Nonpartisan  Leader,  the  society  has  received  a  back  file  of  this 
publication  from  its  beginning  on  September  23,  1915,  to  the  end 
of  1917,  from  which  time  copies  have  been  received  regularly  as 
issued.  The  file,  therefore,  is  now  complete  from  the  beginning. 


1919  GIFTS  227 

Many  of  the  back  numbers  are  exceedingly  scarce  and  Mr.  Morris 
went  to  considerable  trouble  and  expense  and  exhausted  almost 
every  resource  to  collect  them  all.  The  Nonpartisan  Leader  is 
the  official  organ  of  the  National  Nonpartisan  League,  with  head- 
quarters in  St.  Paul,  and  a  file  of  the  paper  will  be  indispensable 
to  the  future  students  of  the  history  of  the  Northwest  during 
recent  years. 

Gifts  of  books,  pamphlets,  and  periodical  files  received  during 
the  quarter  ending  October  31,  include,  besides  numerous  single 
items,  considerable  collections  from  Mr.  John  R.  Swan  of  Madi- 
son, Mrs.  Charles  W.  Bunn  of  St.  Paul,  the  Oakland  Cemetery 
Association  of  St.  Paul,  and  several  departments  of  the  state 
government. 

The  most  notable  collection  of  museum  material  relating  to  the 
World  War  as  yet  received  is  that  brought  back  from  France  by 
the  151st  United  States  Field  Artillery  and  recently  deposited 
with  the  society  by  Colonel  Leach,  the  commanding  officer  of 
the  regiment.  It  includes  a  German  anti-tank  gun,  German  body 
armor  which  is  strikingly  similar  to  that  worn  by  the  medieval 
knights,  machine  guns,  trench  catapults,  torpedo  flares,  helmets, 
mustard  gas  shells,  and  other  items  too  numerous  to  mention. 
Colonel  Leach  expects  to  add  to  the  collection  from  time  to  time. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Clinton  J.  Backus  of  St.  Paul  have  deposited 
in  the  museum  a  large  collection  of  World  War  specimens 
assembled  by  their  sons  Clinton  and  David,  both  of  whom  were 
aviators  with  the  American  Expeditionary  Force  in  France. 

Captain  George  R.  G.  Fisher  of  St.  Paul,  who  was  in  charge  of 
the  Red  Cross  work  in  Winchester,  England,  during  the  war,  has 
deposited  with  the  society  his  valuable  collection  of  the  badges 
and  insignia  worn  by  British  regiments  in  which  Americans 
served.  Coldstreams,  Grenadier  Guards,  Scots  Greys,  and  many 
other  famous  old  regiments  as  well  as  newer  special  organiza- 
tions are  represented. 

Mr.  Robert  L.  Schofield  of  Tacoma,  Washington,  has  deposited 
with  the  society  an  extensive  collection  of  museum  objects  illus- 


228  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  Nov. 

trating  early  American  domestic  life*  Mr.  Schofield's  grand- 
father, Dr.  John  L.  Schofield,  was  one  of  the  first  settlers  of 
Northfield,  Minnesota,  and  many  of  the  specimens  were  used  in 
the  old  home  there. 

Colonel  Jeremiah  C.  Donahower  of  St.  Paul  has  added  to  his 
many  gifts  to  the  society  an  interesting  old  photograph  of  a  train 
of  Red  River  carts,  taken  about  1857  at  the  corner  of  Third  and 
Washington  streets,  St.  Paul,  and  a  number  of  medals,  badges, 
and  coins  of  historic  interest. 

From  the  Honorable  Elmer  E.  Adams  of  Fergus  Falls,  the 
society  has  received  a  number  of  panorama  views  of  that  city 
taken  just  after  the  cyclone  of  last  June. 

A  war  club  said  to  have  been  used  by  Sitting  Bull  at  the  time 
of  the  Custer  massacre,  a  model  of  a  Sioux  tipi,  a  bead  chain, 
and  specimens  of  Indian  work  in  birchbark  are  recent  gifts  from 
Mr.  Charles  M.  Loring  of  Minneapolis. 

An  old-fashioned  clock,  manufactured  in  Worcester,  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1841,  is  a  gift  from  Mr.  Lee  E.  Edson  of  Austin. 

Portraits  in  pastel  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Eastman,  who  were 
pioneers  in  St.  Anthony,  have  been  added  to  the  society's  collec- 
tion of  pictures  of  the  early  settlers  by  Mrs.  Mary  Greenlaw  of 
Minneapolis. 

A  large  framed  lithograph  of  St.  Paul  in  1867  with  the  streets 
and  important  buildings  named  has  been  presented  to  the  society 
by  Mrs.  Sidora  A.  Bourne  of  St.  Paul. 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT 

When  the  first  American  expedition  to  Minnesota  was  making 
its  way  up  the  Mississippi  above  the  falls  of  St.  Anthony  in  Octo- 
ber, 1805,  and  had  reached  a  point  about  four  miles  below  the 
site  of  Little  Falls,  the  commander,  Lieutenant  Zebulon  M.  Pike, 
decided  to  leave  part  of  his  men  and  equipment  there  in  winter 
quarters.  Consequently  a  stockade  about  thirty-six  feet  square 
with  blockhouses  at  two  corners  was  erected  on  the  west  bank  of 
the  Mississippi  near  the  mouth  of  Swan  River.  Three  quarters 
of  a  century  later,  in  1880,  the  site  of  this  stockade  was  located 
by  Judge  Nathan  Richardson  of  Little  Falls,  who  was  writing  a 
history  of  the  county,  and  in  1894  the  location  was  verified  by 
Dr.  Elliot  Coues,  who  was  then  engaged  in  preparing  his  edition 
of  Pike's  Expeditions.  Dr.  Coues  urged  that  the  site  be  marked 
and  some  time  thereafter  this  was  done  by  means  of  the  inscrip- 
tion "Pike's  Fort  Built  1805"  carved  on  a  boulder.  Recently  the 
Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution  took  steps  to  secure  the 
erection  of  an  appropriate  monument  to  mark  the  site.  An  old 
fireplace  was  found  still  intact  and  this  together  with  the  old 
marker  was  incorporated  in  a  monument  in  the  shape  of  a  pyra- 
mid in  which  was  embedded  a  bronze  tablet  bearing  the  following 
inscription:  "These  assembled  stones  formed  the  chimney  of 
the  first  block  house  built  in  what  is  now  known  as  Minnesota, 
in  October,  1805,  by  Lieut.  Zebulon  Montgomery  Pike,  explorer 
and  surveyor  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  The  place  is  marked  by 
the  citizens  of  Little  Falls  and  by  the  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution  in  appreciation  of  this  service,  September  27th,  1919." 
At  the  dedication  exercises,  Mrs.  James  T.  Morris,  state  regent 
of  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution  told  the  story  of 
Pike's  expedition  and  Mr.  Lyman  Ayer  unveiled  the  monument. 
The  newspaper  articles  occasioned  by  the  erection  and  dedication 
of  this  monument  almost  invariably  state  that  the  structure 
erected  by  Pike  was  the  "first  house"  in  Minnesota  and  refer  to 
Mr.  Ayer  as  the  "first  white  child  born  in  Minnesota."  In  the 
interests  of  historical  accuracy  it  should  be  said  that  houses  had 

*29 


230  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

been  erected  in  Minnesota  by  French  and  British  fur  traders 
many  years  before  1805  and  that  a  number  of  white  children  had 
been  born  at  Fort  Snelling  prior  to  the  birth  of  Lyman  Ayer  at 
the  Pokegama  Mission  in  1834. 

The  annual  convention  of  the  Society  of  American  Indians 
was  held  in  Minneapolis  on  October  2,  3,  and  4.  Representa- 
tives of  the  various  North  American  tribes  who  were  present 
included  Dr.  Charles  A.  Eastman,  a  Minnesota  Sioux  who  is  the 
author  of  numerous  books  relating  to  the  history  and  life  of  his 
race;  Dr.  Carlos  Montezuma,  a  Chicago  physician  of  note;  and 
Miss  Gertrude  Bonnin,  an  author  and  musician.  In  connection 
with  the  convention  Dr.  Eastman's  pageant,  "The  Conspiracy  of 
Pontiac,"  was  presented,  the  author  playing  the  part  of  Pontiac. 
In  an  article  entitled  "The  Melting  Pot  and  the  Indians,"  the 
Minneapolis  Journal  for  October  5,  points  out  the  Indians'  con- 
tributions to  American  life  and  the  distinguishing  characteristics 
of  members  of  the  various  tribes  who  attended  the  convention. 

On  October  7  the  Minnesota  Territorial  Pioneers  joined  with 
the  Pioneer  Rivermen's  Association,  the  St.  Croix  Valley  Old 
Settlers'  Association,  and  other  organizations  in  a  great  celebra- 
tion at  Taylor's  Falls.  The  occasion  was  the  one  hundredth 
birthday  of  John  Daubney  who  came  to  Minnesota  in  1845  and 
who  is  today  the  sole  surviving  member  of  the  Minnesota  Old 
Settlers'  Association,  an  organization  of  pioneers  who  were  of  age 
and  were  residents  of  Minnesota  on  January  1,  1850.  A  banquet 
served  at  the  Dalles  House,  one  of  the  oldest  structures  in  Taylor's 
Falls,  and  speeches  by  Minnesota  pioneers  recalling  incidents  of 
historical  interest  in  Mr.  Daubney's  long  career  as  a  Minnesotan 
were  features  of  the  celebration. 

The  forty-fifth  annual  meeting  of  the  St.  Croix  Valley  Old 
Settlers'  Association  was  held  in  Stillwater  on  September  17. 

The  articles  on  Minnesota,  Minneapolis,  St.  Paul,  and  Duluth 
in  the  new  edition  of  the  Encyclopedia  Americana,  now  in  process 
of  publication,  are  by  E.  Dudley  Parsons.  The  first  of  these, 
which  may  be  found  in  volume  19  (1919),  contains  a  surprisingly 


1919  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  231 

large  number  of  erroneous  and  misleading  statements.  The  point 
where  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  state  leaves  the  St.  Croix 
river  is  not  "the  western  bend"  of  that  stream,  and  the  line  does 
not  run  north  "until  it  strikes  the  extreme  western  end  of  Lake 
Superior."  The  statement  that  "With  the  exception  of  a  short 
portage  the  way  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Red  River  was  open 
along  the  northern  boundary"  would  be  nearer  the  truth  if  the 
Lake  of  the  Woods  were  substituted  for  the  Red  River.  The 
modest  statement  that  "There  are  over  a  thousand  lakes  in  the 
State"  ought  to  be  of  interest  to  the  Ten  Thousand  Lakes  Asso- 
ciation of  Minnesota.  The  reader's  surprise  at  learning  that  "the 
state  has  been  remarkably  free  from  destructive  storms"  becomes 
astonishment  when  he  discovers  that  "In  Minnesota  are  found 
all  the  plants  and  animals  of  the  north  temperate  zone."  After 
observing  that,  according  to  the  table  of  agricultural  statistics, 
the  number  of  farms  in  the  state  was  exactly  the  same  in  1917 
as  it  had  been  in  1910,  one  is  inclined  to  doubt  the  accuracy  of 
the  figures  which  show  that  from  1910  to  1917  the  number  of 
swine  declined  almost  fifty  per  cent  and  the  number  of  sheep 
over  60  per  cent. 

The  section  of  the  article  headed  "History"  opens  with  the 
unqualified  statement  that  Radisson  and  Grossileurs  [sic!]  "made 
treaties  with  the  Dakota  and  Chippewa  Indians  in  1656  and  1659." 
It  is  true  that  some  investigators  interpret  the  scanty  evidence  to 
indicate  that  these  men  were  in  the  upper  Mississippi  country  in 
1656,  but  one  wonders  on  whose  behalf  they  "made  treaties"  and 
what  were  the  terms  of  those  documents.  Carver's  journey  up 
the  Minnesota  did  not  extend  "nearly  to  its  source."  It  is 
stated  that  "Upon  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  which  included 
Minnesota  west  of  the  Mississippi,  the  eastern  part  belonging 
first  to  Michigan,  then  to  Wisconsin,  the  United  States  govern- 
ment determined  to  explore  the  territory."  The  difficulty  here 
may  be  lack  of  clearness  rather  than  actual  misstatement.  At 
any  rate,  the  facts  are  as  follows :  at  the  time  of  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana,  the  eastern  part  of  Minnesota  was  nominally  included 
within  Indiana  Territory,  having  previously  been  a  part  of  the 
Northwest  Territory.  Later  it  was  included  in  Illinois  Territory 
and  not  until  1818  did  it  become  a  part  of  Michigan.  The 
explorations  of  Beltrami  and  Long  occurred  in  1823,  and  not, 


232  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

therefore,  "a  little  later"  than  Schoolcraft's  discovery  of  Lake 
Itasca  in  1832. 

In  the  article  on  Minneapolis,  Minnehaha  is  translated  "Curling 
Water,"  although  the  unsigned  article  on  Minnehaha  Falls  on 
the  same  page  gives  the  translation  correctly  "laughing  water." 
The  date  of  the  government  sawmill  at  St.  Anthony  Falls  is 
given  as  1823,  although  the  correct  date,  1821,  appears  in  the 
article  on  Minnesota.  This  mill  was  not  used  for  grinding  flour, 
but  a  separate  flour  mill  was  erected  in  1823.  The  statistics  in 
the  article  on  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  are  very  much 
out  of  date,  having  been  gathered,  apparently,  about  six  years 
ago,  and  the  society's  new  building  is  not  mentioned.  An 
unsigned  article  on  the  Red  River  of  the  North  in  volume  23 
contains  the  surprising  statement  that  "The  Red  River  is  con- 
nected with  the  Mississippi  through  its  southern  branch,  Lake 
Traverse,  and  the  Minnesota  River.  At  high  water  small  steam- 
ers can  pass  from  the  Red  River  to  the  Mississippi."  The  only 
foundation  for  this  statement  is  the  fact  that  perhaps  once  in  a 
generation  a  flood  makes  it  possible  for  a  rowboat  to  pass  between 
the  two  water  systems. 

The  1918  number  of  A  eta  Et  Dicta,  the  publication  of  the 
Catholic  Historical  Society  of  St.  Paul,  which  has  just  appeared, 
is  accompanied  by  a  statement  that  the  1919  number  may  be 
expected  before  the  end  of  the  year.  From  the  viewpoint  of  the 
student  of  Minnesota  history,  "Notes  on  the  History  of  the  Dio- 
cese of  Duluth,"  by  the  Reverend  Patrick  J.  Lydon,  is  perhaps 
the  most  valuable  article  in  the  present  issue.  This  outline  of 
the  work  of  the  Catholic  church  in  northeastern  Minnesota 
includes  a  discussion  of  the  Catholic  missionaries  to  the  Indians 
beginning  with  1852;  the  story  of  the  establishment  of  the  dio- 
cese of  Duluth ;  the  brief  history  of  each  Catholic  parish,  society, 
and  institution  in  the  city  of  Duluth ;  and  brief  historical  sketches 
of  all  other  parishes  within  the  diocese.  Although  the  author 
presents  a  comprehensive  discussion  of  his  subject  in  convenient 
form,  he  is  not  always  historically  accurate,  for  he  makes  the 
statement  that  Father  Francis  Pirz  "was  the  only  Indian  mission- 
ary in  Minnesota"  in  1852  (p.  239).  Perhaps  the  author 
neglected  to  include  the  word  "Catholic,"  since  he  must  be  aware 


1919  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  233 

that  at  this  time  Protestant  missionaries  had  been  working  among 
the  Minnesota  Indians  for  nearly  twenty  years.  This  number  of 
A  eta  Et  Dicta  contains  the  third  installment  of  Archbishop  John 
Ireland's  "Life  of  the  Rt.  Rev.  Joseph  Cretin,  First  Bishop  of 
the  Diocese  of  St.  Paul."  The  chapters  herein  published  deal 
with  Cretin's  farewell  to  France,  his  voyage  from  Havre  to  New 
York,  and  his  trip  thence  by  railroad,  canal,  and  river  to  St.  Louis. 
They  are  based  upon  the  pioneer  bishop's  diary  of  his  journey 
which  is  in  the  form  of  letters  to  his  sister.  His  description  of 
traveling  conditions  and  detailed  records  of  his  first  impressions 
of  New  York  and  the  American  people  make  intensely  interesting 
reading.  "In  Memoriam — Right  Reverend  James  McGolrick,"  is 
a  valuable  supplement  to  the  notes  on  the  Duluth  diocese,  since 
the  subject  was  the  first  Bishop  of  Duluth.  An  article  on  "The 
Beginning  and  Growth  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  State  of 
Montana"  is  contributed  by  the  Reverend  Cyril  Pauwelyn,  and 
the  completion  of  half  a  century  of  good  work  is  commemorated 
in  "The  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd  in  St.  Paul,  A  Retrospect 
of  Fifty  Years."  "Contemporary  Items"  and  "Obituary  Notices" 
appear  as  formerly,  but  the  usual  section  devoted  to  documents 
is  omitted. 

The  North  Star,  a  monthly  magazine  published  in  Minneapolis, 
is  running  a  series  of  articles  by  Theodore  C.  Blegen  relating  to 
the  history  of  Norwegian  immigration  to  America.  The  October 
number  contains  the  first  installment  of  "Ole  Rynning  and  the 
America  Book,"  which  is  largely  based  on  the  translation,  with 
introduction,  by  Mr.  Blegen  of  Rynning's  work  in  the  BULLETIN 
for  November,  1917.  "There  are  some  new  matters  brought 
out,  especially  by  way  of  comment  and  interpretation,  and  in  the 
comparison  of  the  early  books  on  Norse  immigration." 

Two  accounts  of  the  activities  of  Mrs.  Eugenia  B.  Farmer  of 
St.  Paul  in  promoting  the  woman  suffrage  movement  during 
more  than  half  a  century  appear  in  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News  for 
August  31  and  November  16.  Since  1901  Mrs.  Farmer  has  had 
charge  of  the  press  work  for  the  Minnesota  Woman  Suffrage 
Association.  Although  now  eighty-four  years  of  age,  she  is  par- 
ticipating in  the  work  of  the  League  of  Women  Voters. 


234  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

The  history  of  the  lumber  milling  industry  in  Minneapolis  is 
well  outlined  in  an  article  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  for  October 
19.  Lumber  milling  has  been  a  phase  in  the  industrial  develop- 
ment of  most  American  communities  where  forests  and  water 
power  have  been  found  side  by  side.  As  the  forests  have  dis- 
appeared, however,  the  mills  have  been  removed  to  the  more 
remote,  unexploited  districts.  After  nearly  a  century  of  develop- 
ment, the  history  of  the  lumber  industry  around  St.  Anthony 
Falls  closed  in  September  when  the  last  Minneapolis  sawmill, 
that  of  the  Northland  Pine  Company,  ceased  to  operate.  The 
center  of  the  Minnesota  lumbering  business  has  shifted  to  the 
northern  part  of  the  state.  A  number  of  excellent  illustrations, 
one  of  which  shows  a  series  of  log  marks,  accompany  the  article. 

Captain  George  B.  Merrick's  "Steamboats  and  Steamboatmen 
of  the  Upper  Mississippi :  Descriptive,  Personal  and  Historical," 
the  greater  portion  of  which  is  published  in  the  issues  of  the 
Saturday  Evening  Post  of  Burlington,  Iowa,  from  September, 
1913  (see  ante,  1 :  72)  to  November,  1918,  is  now  being  concluded 
in  that  paper.  In  this  work  the  names  of  all  steamboats  that 
have  "floated  up  on  the  waters  of  the  upper  river"  are  listed  in 
alphabetical  order  and  each  name  is  accompanied  by  a  brief  his- 
torical sketch,  which  often  includes  interesting  anecdotes  and 
biographical  notes  on  old  rivermen.  Captain  Merrick,  who  had 
been  compiling  records  for  this  work  for  thirty  years,  had  nearly 
completed  the  accounts  of  the  boats  beginning  with  the  letter  t, 
when  he  was  stricken  with  an  illness  which  for  the  time  rendered 
him  incapable  of  continuing  the  task.  The  assistance  of  Captain 
Fred  A.  Bill  of  St.  Paul,  however,  has  enabled  the  author  to 
resume  the  work,  and  the  first  of  the  new  installments  appears 
in  the  Post  for  September  27.  Most  of  the  boats  listed  plied  the 
waters  of  the  Mississippi  within  the  area  of  Minnesota ;  thus  the 
record  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  history  of  the  state. 

The  "Reminiscences"  of  Dr.  Cyrus  Northrop,  president 
emeritus  of  the  University  of  Minnesota,  are  being  published 
serially  in  the  Minnesota  Alumni  Weekly.  The  first  installment, 
in  the  issue  of  October  27,  presents  an  interesting  picture  of  rural 
New  England  before  the  Civil  War  and  induces  anticipation  of 


1919 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT 


235 


valuable  contributions  to  Minnesota  history  in  later  installments. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  "Reminiscences"  will  ultimately  appear 
in  book  form. 

In  the  section  entitled  "State  Builders  of  the  West,"  the  issues 
of  the  Western  Magazine  for  August  and  September  contain 
sketches  of  "Andrew  Ryan  McGill,  Tenth  Governor  of  Minne- 
sota," and  of  "William  Rush  Merriam,  Eleventh  Governor  of 
Minnesota." 

Warren  Upham  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  staff  is 
the  author  of  a  series  of  nine  "brief  articles  dealing  with  the 
early  history  of  Minnesota,  covering  a  period  of  30  years  from 
1805."  They  are  published  weekly  under  the  heading,  "Little 
Journeys  Through  Early  Minnesota  History,"  in  the  Sunday  edi- 
tions of  the  Minneapolis  Journal  beginning  July  27  and  ending 
September  21.  Seven  of  the  papers  deal  with  the  explorations  of 
such  men  as  Pike,  Long,  and  Schoolcraft;  the  remaining  two 
treat  of  the  founding  of  Fort  Snelling.  Such  papers  are  of  very 
real  value  in  familiarizing  the  public  with  the  work  of  the  men 
who  first  ventured  into  the  unknown  wilds  of  what  is  today  the 
state  of  Minnesota.  Mr.  Upham  not  only  summarizes  the  explora- 
tions of  these  men  but  also  presents  sketches  of  their  lives  and 
extracts  from  their  journals  and  diaries.  A  basis  for  further 
study  on  the  part  of  the  interested  reader  is  provided  in  the  biblio- 
graphical material  contained  in  the  articles. 

An  article  entitled  "General  Zebulon  M.  Pike,  Somerset  Born," 
by  William  J.  Backes,  in  the  Somerset  County  [New  Jersey] 
Historical  Quarterly  for  October  contains  detailed  information 
about  the  family  of  this  leader  of  the  first  American  exploring 
expedition  in  Minnesota  and  discusses  at  length  the  question  of 
his  birthplace.  The  author  concludes  that  General  Pike  was 
born  at  Lamberton,  now  Lamington,  in  Somerset  County,  New 
Jersey,  and  not  in  the  Lamberton  which  is  now  a  part  of  the  city 
of  Trenton. 

Two  pages  of  the  Minneapolis  Journal  for  Sunday,  September 
21,  are  devoted  to  extracts  from  Mrs.  Elizabeth  F.  L.  Ellet's 
Summer  Rambles  in  the  West  descriptive  of  the  Twin  City  region 


236  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

in  1852.  The  extracts  are  sufficiently  interesting  in  themselves 
to  have  justified  their  reprinting  without  giving  the  impression 
that  the  work  from  which  they  are  taken  was  practically  unknown 
prior  to  the  recent  discovery  of  a  copy  in  a  distant  state  by  a 
resident  of  Minneapolis.  As  a  matter  of  fact  there  are  numer- 
ous copies  of  the  book  in  the  public  and  private  libraries  of 
the  Twin  Cities  and  it  is  well  known  to  bibliophiles  and  students 
of  western  history.  The  article  is  accompanied  by  illustrations 
which  purport  to  be  pictures  of  Minnehaha  Creek  in  1832,  St. 
Anthony  and  the  falls  about  1852,  a  Red  River  ox  cart,  Colonel 
John  H.  Stevens,  Joseph  R.  Brown,  and  the  house  in  which  the 
book  was  found.  The  px  cart  shown  in  the  picture  resembles 
only  remotely  the  genuine  Red  River  cart  in  the  museum  of  the 
Minnesota  Historical  Society. 

"When  Treadmill  Was  a  Marvel  Minnesota  Held  First  State 
Fair  at  Old  Fort  Snelling,"  is  the  title  of  an  interesting  article 
in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  for  August  31.  A  privately  planned 
and  managed  fair  had  been  held  in  1859  on  an  open  field  now 
within  the  city  limits  of  Minneapolis,  but  Minnesotans  first  exhib- 
ited the  fruits  of  their  labors  under  the  supervision  of  the  state 
at  Fort  Snelling  in  1860.  Those  visitors  who  resided  east  of  the 
Mississippi  reached  the  fair  grounds  by  means  of  a  ferry,  a  pic- 
ture of  which  accompanies  the  article.  Another  illustration 
shows  the  exhibition  grounds,  the  buildings,  and  the  crowd  in 
attendance. 

An  addition  to  the  ever  increasing  list  of  tales  of  the  Sioux 
massacre  is  "An  Interesting  Narrative  on  the  Reign  of  Terror 
During  1862,"  by  Hiram  E.  Hoard,  which  appears  in  the  Monte- 
video News  for  August  28.  The  account  of  the  way  in  which 
General  Sibley  secured  the  voluntary  surrender  of  the  hostile 
Indians  at  Camp  Release,  thereby  saving  the  lives  of  many  of  his 
men  and  of  the  captives  held  by  the  Indians,  is  based  on  state- 
ments made  by  Sibley  to  the  writer.  Mr.  Hoard  also  tells  how  a 
group  of  Montevideo  citizens,  of  which  he  was  a  member, 
obtained  from  the  state  legislature  the  funds  necessary  for  the 
purchase  of  Sibley's  old. camp  ground  at  Camp  Release  and  the 
erection  of  a  monument  thereon. 


1919  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  237 

A  reminiscent  narrative  of  unusual  interest  is  that  of  Ingeborg 
Monsen  published  in  the  October  issue  of  Lindberg's  National 
Farmer.  It  portrays  the  conditions  in  Norway  in  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century  which  furnished  the  background  for  much 
of  the  immigration  from  that  country  to  the  United  States,  and 
relates  the  author's  experiences  as  the  wife  of  a  homesteader  in 
Grant  County,  Minnesota.  These  experiences  throw  light  on 
economic  and  political  conditions  on  the  frontier  during  the 
Granger  and  Populist  periods. 

"A  Reporter's  Reminiscences  of  Roosevelt"  is  the  title  of  an 
interesting  article  by  George  E.  Akerson  in  the  Minneapolis  Trib- 
une for  October  26.  It  recounts  the  great  American's  visits  to 
Minnesota  from  the  fall  of  1910,  when  he  spoke  before  the  con- 
servation congress  then  in  session  in  the  St.  Paul  auditorium, 
to  his  last  address  in  Minneapolis  in  October,  1918,  only  three 
months  before  his  death. 

A  group  of  articles  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  for  October  12, 
call  attention  to  the  remarkable  manner  in  which  the  cities  of 
northern  Minnesota  were  rebuilt  during  the  year  following  the 
terrible  forest  fire  which  devastated  the  entire  region. 

The  Fort  Snelling  centenary  is  commemorated  in  an  article  by 
Warren  Upham  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  staff  in  the 
St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press  for  August  10.  It  consists  of  an  account 
of  the  founding  of  the  first  military  post  in  Minnesota  by  Colonel 
Henry  Leaven  worth  and  his  troops,  based  upon  the  journal 
of  Major  Thomas  Forsyth  the  Indian  agent  who  accompanied 
the  expedition,  and  of  a  resume  of  the  work  of  Colonel  Josiah 
Snelling  for  whom  the  fort  was  named.  An  excellent  group  of 
pictures  representing  early  structures  at  the  fort  and  portraits 
of  the  individuals  who  figured  in  the  first  years  of  its  history 
illustrate  the  article. 

Another  article  by  Mr.  Upham,  in  the  Pioneer  Press  for 
August  17,  has  for  its  subject  Kaposia,  the  village  of  Little  Crow, 
which  for  a  number  of  years  after  1820  "stood  on  the  site  of 
St.  Paul's  depot."  Quotations  from  the  writings  of  Lieutenant 
Zebulon  Pike,  Major  Thomas  Forsyth,  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft, 


238  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

William  H.  Keating,  and  Charles  J.  Latrobe,  all  of  whom  noted 
the  village  in  accounts  of  expeditions  to  the  upper  Mississippi, 
are  cited.  Although  the  situation  of  Kaposia  was  changed  several 
times  and  its  last  location  was  on  the  west  bank  of  the  river  near 
the  present  site  of  South  St.  Paul,  Mr.  Upham  takes  the  position 
that  "it  may  be  regarded  as  the  precusor  of  the  city  of  St.  Paul, 
having  been  placed  temporarily  near  the  center  of  this  city's 
area  at  the  time  of  the  1820  and  1823  expeditions." 

The  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press  of  October  19  contains  a  sketch 
of  the  movement  for  the  consolidation  of  the  various  organiza- 
tions representing  civic  and  business  interests  in  St.  Paul  which 
began  in  1910  and  culminated  in  1916  in  the  establishment  of 
the  St.  Paul  Association  of  Public  and  Business  Affairs. 

"Benjamin  Backnumber,"  whose  articles  on  "St.  Paul  Before 
This"  were  published  in  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News  for  about  two 
years  beginning  with  February  26,  1911,  has  reappeared  with  a 
second  series  in  the  Sunday  issues  of  the  same  paper  beginning 
September  14.  Some  of  these  reminiscences  of  early  life  in 
St.  Paul  are  of  value  to  the  student  of  local  history.  To  this 
category  belongs  the  paper  on  "  'Pig's  Eye'  and  Phalen  Creek" 
in  the  issue  for  September  21,  which  explains  the  origins  of  the 
names  of  these  localities.  The  work  of  Harriet  E.  Bishop,  who 
established  the  first  St.  Paul  school,  is  the  subject  of  the  article 
for  September  28.  A  discussion  of  "The  Palmy  Days  of  Steam- 
boating,"  in  which  the  development  of  river  transportation  and 
its  effect  on  the  city's  growth  is  treated,  appears  on  October  5, 
and  an  enumeration  of  "The  First  Storekeepers,"  on  October  26. 

A  pageant,  "The  Spirit  of  Democracy,"  was  presented  by  the 
St.  Paul  clubs  of  the  War  Camp  Community  Service  at  Phalen 
Park  on  August  28.  The  main  episodes  in  American  history 
were  depicted  on  the  bank  of  one  of  the  canals  which  connect 
the  chain  of  lakes.  The  scene  which  typified  the  life  of  the 
period  of  the  Revolution  was  staged  by  local  members  of  the 
Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution. 

An  article  reminiscent  of  the  early  days  of  Minneapolis 
appeared  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  for  September  21,  in  com- 


1919  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  239 

memoration  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Dr.  William  W.  Fol- 
well's  arrival  in  Minnesota  to  become  the  first  president  of  the 
university.  Dr.  Folwell  celebrated  the  occasion  by  locating  on 
the  present  university  campus  the  site  of  the  Cheever  tower, 
from  which  many  a  visitor  to  old  St.  Anthony  obtained  his  first 
view  of  the  falls.  A  picture  of  the  old  tower  accompanies  the 
article. 

The  history  of  the  Central  Baptist  Church  of  Minneapolis^ 
1870  to  1918,  is  briefly  recorded  in  a  booklet  which  appeared  "in 
connection  with  the  recent  merging  of  Central  church  with  Cal- 
vary church"  (Minneapolis,  1918.  30  p.).  The  booklet  is  illus- 
trated with  pictures  of  the  buildings  of  the  church  and  with 
portraits  of  its  pastors  and  leaders. 

The  Albert  Lea  Community  Magazine,  a  monthly,  the  first 
number  of  which  appeared  in  June,  is  an  interesting  experiment 
in  the  periodical  field.  That  the  cultivation  of  interest  in  and 
knowledge  of  local  history  is  an  effective  means  of  promoting 
communtiy  spirit,  which  is  one  of  the  objects  of  the  magazine, 
has  been  recognized,  to  some  extent,  by  the  editors.  The  August 
number  contains  an  article  by  Warren  Upham,  entitled  "Free- 
born  County  84  Years  Ago,"  which  tells  the  story  of  the  explor- 
ing expedition  of  1835,  of  which  Lieutenant  Colonel  Stephen  W. 
Kearney  was  the  commander  and  Lieutenant  Albert  M.  Lea  the 
chronicler,  and  also  gives  information  about  the  origin  of  place 
names  in  the  county.  Two  other  articles  which  should  be  noted 
are  "Some  Truths  about  the  '¥'  in  France,"  by  the  Reverend 
Mark  G.  Paulsen  of  Albert  Lea,  in  the  July  number,  and  "Red 
Cross  Home  Service,"  by  H.  S.  Spencer,  the  secretary  of  the 
Freeborn  County  chapter,  in  the  September  number.  It  is  to 
be  hoped  that  space  will  be  found  in  future  issues  for  the  publica- 
tion of  old  letters,  diaries,  reminiscences,  and  other  historical 
material  of  local  interest. 

The  history  of  White  Bear  village  is  the  subject  of  a  sketch  in 
the  St.  Paul  Daily  News  for  August  31. 

A  communication  urging  the  necessity  of  the  construction  of 
a  national  archives  building  was  sent  by  the  acting  secretary  of 


*  ' 
240  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

the  -treasury  of  the  United  States  to  the  speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  on  August  22.  From  this  letter,  which  has  been 
published  (66  Congress,  1  session,  House  Documents,  no.  200), 
it  appears  that  "papers  of  inestimable  value  are  now  stored  in 
numerous  out-of-the-way  and  inaccessible  places,  some  being  in 
Government  buildings  not  adequately  protected  from  fire  and 
others  stored  in  rented  quarters,  where  frequently  there  is  far  less 
security  from  fire  or  destruction  in  other  ways  than  in  the  attics 
of  Government  buildings."  A  tentative  location  for  the  building 
has  been  selected  and  appropriations  of  $486,000  for  the  site  and 
$1,500,000  for  the  building  are  recommended. 

The  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Review  for  September  con- 
tains three  papers  which  were  read  at  the  meeting  of  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley  Historical  Association  in  St.  Louis  in  May:  the 
presidential  address,  "Western  Travel,"  by  Harlow  Lindley ;  "The 
United  States  Factory  System  for  Trading  with  the  Indians, 
1798-1822,"  by  Royal  B.  Way;  and  "A  Frontier  Officer's  Mili- 
tary Order  Book,"  by  Louis  Pelzer.  The  last,  which  is  in  the 
"Notes  and  Documents"  section,  relates  to  the  military  orders  of 
Colonel  Henry  Dodge  from  1832  to  1836  and  presents  interest- 
ing sidelights  on  conditions  in  the  frontier  army  at  this  time. 
Other  articles  in  this  number  of  the  Review  are  "The  French 
Council  of  Commerce  in  Relation  to  American  Trade,"  by  Ella 
Lonn,  and  the  annual  sketch  of  "Historical  Activities  in  Canada, 
1918-1919,"  by  Lawrence  J.  Burpee. 

The  Quarterly  Journal  of  the  New  York  State  Historical  Asso- 
ciation is  the  latest  recruit  to  the  ranks  of  state  historical  peri- 
odicals, the  first  number  bearing  the  date,  October,  1919.  The 
editors  have  paid  a  high  compliment  to  the  MINNESOTA  HISTORY 
BULLETIN  by  modeling  their  publication  upon  it  to  a  consider- 
able extent. 

A  controversy  over  the  scope  of  the  publications  of  the  Wis- 
consin Historical  Society  and  other  matters  relating  to  the  con- 
duct of  that  institution  led  to  an  investigation  of  its  affairs  by 
a  special  joint  committee  of  the  last  legislature.  The  report  of 
the  committee  presented  in  June  contains  a  striking  apprecia- 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  241 

tion  of  the  society,  which  concludes  as  follows :  "The  commit- 
tee does  not  hesitate  to  say  that  every  member  thereof  was  not 
only  profoundly  impressed  but  actually  amazed  to  find  it  such  a 
big,  comprehensive,  serviceable,  and  helpful  institution  in  which 
the  state  may  take  intense  pride  and  the  committee  hopes  that 
every  citizen  of  the  state  may  find  opportunity  to  visit  the  library 
and  see  from  a  personal  inspection  what  a  wonderful  institution 
Wisconsin  possesses  in  its  State  Historical  Society."  It  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  at  the  conclusion  of  the  investigation  both  of 
the  senators  on  the  committee  took  out  memberships  in  the 
society. 

The  article  of  most  interest  to  Minnesotans  in  the  Wisconsin 
Magazine  of  History  for  September  is  one  entitled  "The  Compe- 
tition of  the  Northwestern  States  for  Emigrants,"  by  Theodore  C. 
Blegen.  This  deals  with  the  official  activities  of  Wisconsin  and 
more  briefly  of  the  neighboring  states  including  Minnesota  in  the 
period  after  1850. 

The  centennial  of  the  founding  of  Fort  Atkinson,  the  first  fort 
and  white  settlement  in  Nebraska,  was  celebrated  at  the  village 
of  Fort  Calhoun  near  Omaha,  on  October  11.  The  exercises 
consisted  of  a  number  of  addresses  in  the  forenoon,  a  basket 
picnic  dinner,  and  a  pageant  in  the  afternoon  and  were  attended 
by  about  six  thousand  people. 

WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES 

The  most  significant  recent  development  in  the  work  of  the 
Minnesota  War  Records  Commission  is  the  adoption  of  a  new 
and  more  effective  method  of  securing  for  the  state  collection 
records  of  the  individual  services  of  Minnesota  soldiers,  sailors, 
and  marines.  Under  the  original  plan,  such  records  were  being 
compiled  for  the  commission  by  its  county  committees.  While 
some  of  the  latter  were  making  notable  progress  with  this  big 
task,  in  many  counties  the  work  either  had  not  been  started  or 
did  not  give  promise  of  reasonably  early  and  complete  returns. 
Furthermore,  the  marked  predilection  of  nearly  all  the  local  com- 
mittees for  this  part  of  their  work  bade  fair  to  postpone  indefi- 


242  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

nitely  the  collection  of  other  important  classes  of  material.  When, 
therefore,  the  soldiers'  bonus  law  was  enacted  in  September 
(Laws,  Special  Session,  1919,  ch.  49),  the  commission  welcomed 
what  has  proved  to  be  an  exceptional  opportunity  for  compiling 
and  collecting  service  records  on  a  large  scale,  in  a  short  time, 
and  with  a  minimum  of  effort.  An  arrangement  was  made  with 
the  bonus  board  whereby  the  latter  has  included  the  commis- 
sion's military  service  record  form  among  the  papers  to  be  filled 
out  by  each  applicant  for  the  bonus.  As  a  result  the  commission 
is  beginning  to  receive  through  the  board  large  numbers  of  com- 
pleted service  records  accompanied  in  not  a  few  cases  by  soldiers' 
photographs,  letters,  and  other  personal  matter.  At  the  same 
time  the  county  committees  have  been  encouraged  to  take  advan^ 
tage  of  the  present  wholesale  filling  out  of  questionnaires  by 
service  men  to  compile  duplicate  records  for  the  county  collec- 
tions. There  is  every  prospect  that  the  new  method  will  result 
in  the  recording,  here  and  in  the  counties,  of  rather  complete  data 
on  the  careers  of  all  but  a  very  small  percentage  of  Minnesota 
men  in  the  service. 

Interest  in  the  compilation  of  service  records  in  connection 
with  the  distribution  of  state  bonuses  to  service  men  has  made 
possible  the  organization  of  war  records  committees  in  Clay, 
Cook,  Crow  Wing,  Lake,  Martin,  Murray,  Norman,  Red  Lake, 
Sibley,  and  Wabasha  counties,  in  all  but  one  instance  under  the 
leadership  of  a  local  representative  of  the  American  Legion. 
These  committees  were  organized  primarily  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  service  records  for  preservation  in  the  counties,  but  it 
is  hoped  that  they  will  shortly  develop  into  full-fledged  county 
organizations  engaged  in  the  building  up  of  county  collections  of 
records  relating  to  civilian,  as  well  as  to  military  activities.  Three 
of  the  committees  have  secured  local  appropriations:  Clay 
County,  a  provisional  appropriation  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  from  the  county  board ;  Lake  County,  two  hundred  dollars 
from  the  county  board  and  fifty  from  the  city  of  Two  Harbors ; 
Murray  County,  one  thousand  dollars  from  the  county  board. 

A  conference  of  county  chairmen  of  the  Minnesota  War 
Records  Commission  was  held  September  3  in  the  Historical 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  243 

Building,  St.  Paul.  The  Honorable  William  E.  Culkin  and 
Colonel  Roe  G.  Chase,  chairmen  in  St.  Louis  and  Anoka  coun- 
ties respectively,  told  of  the  work  done  by  their  committees.  Mr. 
Franklin  F.  Holbrook,  secretary  of  the  commission,  brought  out 
various  features  of  the  work  of  the  county  committees  in  gen- 
eral and  discussed  the  work  of  the  war  records  organization  in 
its  relation  to  that  of  private  agencies  engaged  in  the  prepara- 
tion and  publication  of  county  war  histories  as  business  ven- 
tures. The  objects  and  achievements  of  the  state  body  in  acquir- 
ing records  of  general  significance  for  the  state  war  records  col- 
lection were  set  forth  by  Mr.  Cecil  W.  Shirk,  field  agent  of  the 
•commission. 

The  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission  has  taken  an  active 
part  in  a  movement  for  the  cooperation  of  all  state  agencies 
engaged  in  collecting  and  compiling  the  records  of  the  participa- 
tion of  their  respective  states  in  the  World  War.  On  September 
9  and  10  the  secretary  of  the  commission  together  with  repre- 
sentatives of  similar  bodies  in  fifteen  other  states  met  in  confer- 
ence at  Washington  upon  the  call  of  Dr.  James  Sullivan,  state 
historian  of  New  York.  The  most  important  result  of  this  con- 
ference was  the  establishment  of  a  permanent  organization  known 
as  the  National  Association  of  State  War  History  Organizations. 
This  body  will  maintain,  at  joint  expense,  a  bureau  in  Washing- 
ton for  the  purpose  of  supplying  information  about  and  making 
transcripts  of  documents  in  the  governmental  archives  and  other 
central  depositories  which  bear  upon  the  war  activities  of  the 
several  states.  It  is  expected  that  the  bureau  will  also  serve  as  a 
clearing  house  for  information  pertaining  to  problems  encoun- 
tered, methods  followed,  and  results  achieved  by  the  member 
agencies  in  their  respective  fields.  The  officers  and  executive 
committee  of  the  association  for  the  first  year  are  as  follows: 
president,  James  Sullivan,  state  historian  of  New  York;  vice- 
president,  Arthur  K.  Davis,  chairman  of  the  Virginia  War  His- 
tory Commission;  secretary-treasurer,  Albert  E.  McKinley,  sec- 
retary of  the  Pennsylvania  War  History  Commission ;  additional 
members  of  the  executive  committee,  Franklin  F.  Holbrook,  sec- 
retary of  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission,  and  Benjamin 


244  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

F.  Shambaugh,  superintendent  of  the  State  Historical  Society 
of  Iowa. 

An  account  of  the  work  of  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Com- 
mission appeared  in  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News  for  August  31 
under  the  title,  "Records  of  Minnesota's  Part  in  the  World  War 
to  be  Preserved."  The  article  served  to  bring  this  work  to  the 
attention  of  many  former  service  men  who  were  assembling  in 
St.  Paul  at  that  time  for  the  first  annual  convention  of  the  Minne- 
sota branch  of  the  American  Legion. 

The  Proceedings  of  the  first  annual  convention  of  the  Minne- 
sota branch  of  the  American  Legion  (vii,  159  p.)  contains  a 
stenographic  report  of  the  sessions,  which  were  held  in  St.  Paul, 
September  2,  3,  and  4,  and  a  list  of  the  delegates  in  attendance 
from  all  parts  of  the  state.  One  of  the  purposes  of  the  organiza- 
tion, as  stated  in  its  constitution,  is  "to  preserve  the  memories 
and  incidents  of  our  association  in  the  Great  War" ;  hence  a  his- 
torian, Samuel  G.  Iverson  of  St.  Paul,  is  among  the  officers  elected 
during  the  meeting.  The  constitution  of  the  Minnesota  branch 
and  the  resolutions  adopted  during  the  convention  are  published 
in  a  separate  pamphlet  (23  p.). 

The  first  number  of  the  Northwest  Warriors  Magazine,  an 
illustrated  periodical  edited  and  printed  by  "men  who  fought  for 
democracy"  and  published  in  Minneapolis,  appeared  in  August. 
The  editors  announce  that  the  magazine  "will  give  the  history 
of  the  Northwest's  fighting  men  in  the  great  war  and  will  seek 
to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  the  deeds  of  valor  and  heroism 
of  her  sons."  In  the  three  issues  which  have  appeared  thus  far, 
this  promise  is  being  fulfilled.  Each  contains  an  installment  of 
a  history  of  the  151st  United  States  Field  Artillery  (the  Gopher 
Gunners),  and  sections  of  "A  Tribute  to  the  Red  Triangle"  by 
Edgar  J.  Couper,  president  of  the  Minneapolis  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
appear  in  the  August  and  October  numbers.  A  history  of  the 
88th  Division  and  the  story  of  "Base  Hospital  No.  26,"  by  Lieu- 
tenant Colonel  Arthur  A.  Law,  which  also  appears  in  the  June 
number  of  Minnesota  Medicine,  begin  in  the  September  issue 
and  are  continued  in  that  for  October,  while  the  latter  also  con- 
tains the  first  part  of  an  account  of  the  337th  United  States  Field 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  245 

Artillery  by  Lieutenant  Maugridge  S.  Robb.  The  value  of  these 
narratives  is  enhanced  by  the  fact  that,  in  most  cases,  the  authors 
are  men  who  actually  participated  in  the  events  which  they 
recount.  An  article  by  Cecil  W.  Shirk,  field  agent  of  the  Minne- 
sota War  Records  Commission,  explaining  the  origin  and  aims 
of  the  commission  appears  in  the  August  number  of  the  magazine. 

The  September  issue  of  The  Liberty  Bell,  the  publication  of  the 
War  Loan  Organization  of  the  Ninth  Federal  Reserve  District 
(52  p.),  is  a  "valedictory"  number,  since  the  work  which  the 
magazine  "was  created  to  aid  is  done."  The  war  is  over;  the 
problem  of  financing  it  by  means  of  Liberty  Loans  is  solved. 
The  methods  used  in  obtaining  this  result  in  the  six  states  of  the 
Ninth  Federal  Reserve  District,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota, 
North  and  South  Dakota,  and  Montana,  are  described  by  the 
leaders  of  the  various  phases  of  the  work.  From  the  general 
discussion  of  "The  Ninth  Federal  Reserve  District's  Accom- 
plishment" by  Arthur  R.  Rogers,  chairman  of  the  War  Loan 
Organization,  to  the  tale  of  the  fighting  tanks  and  the  flying  cir- 
cus as  factors  in  the  Victory  Loan  campaign,  the  story  is  one  of 
unique  advertising  and  unprecedented  response.  Three  fourths 
of  the  issue  is  devoted  to  a  statistical  table  in  which  is  presented 
the  record  of  each  of  the  three  hundred  and  three  counties  of  the 
district  for  each  loan,  together  with  the  names  of  the  state  and 
county  chairmen  in  charge  of  the  campaigns. 

A  recent  issue  of  the  Quarterly  published  by  the  Minnesota 
State  Board  of  Control  (vol.  19,  no.  3)  is  devoted  to  a  "Summary 
of  Activities  During  the  War  Period"  of  the  educational,  philan- 
thropic, correctional,  and  penal  institutions  under  its  supervision. 
The  data  contained  therein  indicates  the  scope  and  value  of  the 
war  work  accomplished  by  the  employes  and  inmates  of  these 
institutions  and  shows  that  even  some  of  the  most  unfortunate 
of  the  latter  were  of  material  assistance  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
war. 

The  Report  of  the  supreme  board  of  directors  of  the  Knights 
of  Columbus,  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1919,  on  "War 
Work  Activities"  (New  Haven,  1919.  55  p.),  contains  a  series 


246  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

of  charts  and  statistics  from  which  some  idea  of  the  work  of  this 
organization  in  Minnesota  and  of  the  number  of  Minnesotans  in 
its  overseas  service  may  be  gleaned. 

"The  Roll  of  Honor"  in  the  history  of  Phillips  Academy, 
Andover,  in  the  Great  War,  edited  by  Claude  M.  Fuess  (New 
Haven,  1919.  398  p.)  contains  biographical  sketches  of  three 
Minnesota  men  who  gave  their  lives  for  the  cause  of  democracy, 
Irving  T.  Moore  of  Duluth,  Perry  Dean  Gribben  of  St.  Paul,  and 
Kenneth  Rand  of  Minneapolis.  The  "War  Record"  of  the 
Andover  alumni  and  students,  which  occupies  nearly  half  of  the 
volume,  includes  the  military  experiences  of  a  number  of  Minne- 
sotans. 

One  chapter  of  Emerson  Hough's  The  Web  (Chicago,  1919. 
511  p.),  the  authorized  history  of  the  American  Protective 
League,  is  devoted  to  the  work  of  the  Minneapolis  division  of 
that  organization.  The  story  of  the  experiences,  exciting  and 
commonplace,  humorous  and  pathetic,  of  the  operations  of  the 
league  in  what  Mr.  Hough  erroneously  calls  "one  of  the  North- 
West's  Capitals"  makes  very  interesting  reading.  The  chapter 
is  obviously  a  condensation  of  the  Summary  and  Report  of  War 
Service  which  was  previously  issued  by  the  Minneapolis  divi- 
sion (see  ante,  3: 108). 

In  his  Brief  Story  of  the  Rainbow  Division  (New  York,  1919. 
61  p.),  Walter  B.  Wolf  informs  his  readers  that  this  "account 
of  the  42nd  Division  was  written  ...  in  order  that  it  might 
be  available  to  each  member  of  the  Division  upon  his  return  to 
the  United  States."  The  pamphlet,  however,  is  of  interest  to  all 
Minnesotans  who  take  pride  in  their  state's  contribution  to  the 
Rainbow  Division,  the  151st  United  States  Field  Artillery.  The 
experiences  of  the  Minnesota  unit  are  necessarily  but  lightly 
touched  upon  in  a  work  of  this  scope.  The  account  includes  the 
story,  concisely  told,  of  the  organization  and  composition  of  the 
division,  of  its  long  and  brilliant  period  of  service  in  France, 
and  of  the  tedious  months  of  waiting  for  home  during  the  winter 
of  1918-19  while  it  formed  a  part  of  the  Army  of  Occupation. 
One  convenient  appendix  is  composed  of  the  names  of  the  units 


1919  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  247 

of  the  division  with  their  original  designations  and  commanding 
officers ;  another  consists  of  a  list  of  the  sectors  occupied  by  the 
Rainbow  Division  during  the  various  periods  of  the  war.  A  map 
on  which  the  western  front  in  June,  1918,  is  indicated  and  the 
fronts  and  sectors  occupied  by  the  42nd  Division  are  located,  is  a 
valuable  addition  to  the  pamphlet.  The  author  assures  the  public 
that  "a  detailed  and  more  extended  record  of  the  Rainbow  is 
being  prepared  for  early  publication  .  .  .in  which  the  person- 
alties of  the  soldiers  and  leaders  .  .  .  will  be  dealt  with  at 
length." 

The  Rainbow  Highway  Association  has  been  formed  in  Iowa 
for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  memorial  to  the  men  of  the 
Rainbow  Division  in  the  form  of  a  highway  to  extend  from  St. 
Louis  on  the  south  to  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis  on  the  north. 

The  memory  of  the  Minneapolis  men  who  gave  their  lives  in 
the  World  War  is  to  be  perpetuated  in  an  unusual  manner.  Six- 
teen hundred  elms,  one  for  each  man  who  died  in  the  service,  are 
to  be  planted  in  six  rows  along  a  memorial  drive  which  is  now 
being  graded  and  prepared  between  Glenwood  Park  and  Camden 
Park.  The  income  from  a  fund  of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  pre- 
sented to  the  city  by  Charles  M.  Loring,  will  be  used  in  caring  for 
the  trees. 

The  McLeod  County  men  who  were  in  the  military  service 
during  the  World  War  were  welcomed  home  in  a  great  celebra- 
tion at  Hutchinson  on  August  19.  It  is  estimated  that  thirty 
thousand  people  thronged  the  streets  of  the  town  to  watch  the 
parade  composed  of  veterans  of  the  Civil,  Indian,  Spanish- Amer- 
ican, and  World  wars.  After  the  parade  eight  hundred  of  the 
eight  hundred  and  fifty  former  service  men  of  the  county  received 
bronze  medals.  In  the  evening  a  historical  pageant  was  presented 
on  the  main  street  of  the  town. 

The  national  and  regimental  colors  of  four  units  of  the  88th 
Division  which  were  made  up  largely  of  Minnesota  men  have 
been  turned  over  to  the  state  by  the  war  department.  The  colors 
are  those  of  the  351st  and  352nd  regiments  United  States  Infan- 
try, 313th  United  States  Engineers,  and  337th  United  States 


248  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

Field  Artillery.  They  have  been  added  to  the  display  of  Minne- 
sota Military  colors  in  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol.  The  colors 
of  two  units  outside  of  the  88th  Division,  the  125th  United 
States  Field  Artillery  and  the  55th  United  States  Engineers, 
have  also  been  received  and  included  in  the  collection. 

A  summary  account  of  what  the  various  states  are  doing  in 
the  collection  of  material  for  the  history  of  state  and  local  par- 
ticipation in  the  World  War  appears  in  the  October  number  of 
the  American  Historical  Review  in  an  article  entitled  'The 
Collection  of  State  War  Service  Records,"  by  Franklin  F.  Hoi- 
brook,  secretary  of  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission. 
Admittedly  but  a  preliminary  survey  of  developments  in  a  new 
and  broad  field,  the  article  reveals  the  fact  that  "central  govern- 
ments or  governmental  agencies  in  at  least  thirty-five  states  have 
made  special  and  more  or  less  adequate  provision  for  the  conduct 
...  of  systematic  and  state-wide  campaigns  for  the  acquisition 
of  all  available  records  of  the  war  services  performed  by  their 
several  commonwealths."  Minnesota  is  shown  to  compare  favor- 
ably with  other  states  except  that,  in  a  number  of  cases,  state  war 
records  agencies  elsewhere  receive  much  more  liberal  financial 
support. 

Wisconsin  in  the  World  War,  by  R.  B.  Pixley  (Milwaukee, 
1919.  400  p.)  is  a  compilation  consisting  mainly  of  names  and 
statistics.  It  seems  to  be  a  cross  between  the  state  blue  book  and 
the  commercial  county  history  types  of  literary  endeavor. 


MINNESOTA 
HISTORY  BULLETIN 


VOL.  3,  No.  5 
WHOLE  No.  21 
FEBRUARY,  1920 


AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY1 

Like  the  "blessed  word  Mesopotamia"  which  gave  so  much 
comfort  to  the  old  lady,  in  spite,  perhaps  because,  of  her  vague- 
ness as  to  its  meaning,  democracy  of  late  made  us  all  brothers. 
While  the  heat  of  the  struggle  persisted,  it  was  enough  that 
democracy  was  arrayed  against  autocracy,  but  with  the  victory 
of  our  cause,  there  was  a  moment  of  unquiet  at  the  obvious 
incongruities  in  the  family  we  had  adopted.  Scarcely  had  the 
world  been  made  safe  for  democracy  when  the  issue  arose  of 
making  democracy  safe  for  the  world.  There  seemed  to  be  a 
call  for  definition  or  at  least  a  classification  of  cousinry,  when 
the  situation  was  in  part  cleared,  and  the  analysis  of  democracy 
for  the  moment  stayed,  by  the  discovery  of  bolshevism.  The 
world  was  apparently  divided  not  into  sheep  and  goats  merely, 
but  a  third  element  existed — perhaps  wolves.  Enormously 
convenient  and  soothing  to  the  personal  consciousness  by  giv- 
ing us  the  means  of  denying  relationship  with  disagreeable 
persons  who  were  obviously  not  Germans,  this  discovery  never- 
theless caused  a  suspicion  that  things  were  not  so  simple  as 
they  seemed.  If  one  were  beset  upon  the  one  hand  and  upon 
the  other,  it  followed  that  one  was  following  the  middle  path 
which  the  Greeks  advocated  but  to  tread  which  requires  con- 
stant care  and  effort.  Democracy  as  a  middle  way  is  very 
different  from  those  Elysian  fields  which  many  supposed  to  be 
before  them  when  the  dragon  of  autocracy  should  be  over- 
come. Some  gain  there  is  in  realizing  the  gulf  that  exists  on 
one  side,  the  desert  on  the  other,  but  the  way  is  often  misty 
and  it  is  necessary  to  have  compass  as  well  as  landmarks,  some 
knowledge  of  the  essence  of  the  thing  we  seek,  some  test  to 
distinguish  it  from  the  ignis  fatuus  playing  through  the  air. 

*An  address  read  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Minnesota  Historical 
Society,  St.  Paul,  January  12,  1920. 

251 


252  CARL  R.  FISH  FEB. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  attempt  the  definition 
of  democracy  in  the  abstract,  nor  to  join  in  the  discussion  of 
the  working-  of  democracy;  but  merely  to  describe  what  the 
speaker  believes  to  be  the  conception  of  democracy  held  in  the 
United  States.  This  is  certainly  not  a  question  to  which  the 
hundred  million  voices  that  make  up  our  nation  would  return 
one  answer.  In  fact,  when  quite  recently  the  question  was 
asked  of  a  group  of  a  dozen  returned  heroes,  carefully  selected 
for  their  general  intelligence  and  scholastic  training,  it  evoked 
but  a  confused  dribble  of  answers,  offered  with  little  conviction. 
Some  thought  of  democracy  as  an  ideal  that  could  be  attained ; 
some,  as  an  ideal  that  could  not  be  attained;  some,  as  an 
extreme  to  be  avoided ;  practically  none  thought  of  democracy 
as  a  practical  working  system ;  few  thought  the  United  States 
government  democratic.  It  is  indeed  obvious  in  ordinary  con- 
versation that  the  United  States  is  not  democratic  in  the  sense 
that  a  lump  of  coal  is  coal,  but  rather  in  the  sense  that  a  lump 
of  coal  is  carboniferous.  On  the  fundamental  question  as  to 
whether  one  has  confidence  in  the  mass  of  the  people,  or  in  the 
few  like  Saul  higher  than  any  of  the  people,  the  world  is,  of 
course,  divided  eternally  and  everywhere,  and  in  the  United 
States  as  elsewhere.  This  difference  of  opinion  is  somewhat 
veiled  amongst  us  by  the  vogue  of  the  word  democracy  itself, 
and  ardent  believers  in  the  government  by  the  few  parade  as 
democrats,  reserving  to  themselves  the  definition  of  what 
democracy  is. 

Out  of  this  chaos,  the  speaker  claims  to  be  able  to  discern  a 
few  simplifying  facts.  First,  that,  leaving  aside  the  question 
of  ideals,  we  have  a  working  system  of  government  which,  as 
contrasted  with  some  other  governments,  may  be  called  demo- 
cratic. Second,  that,  as  contrasted  with  other  peoples,  those  of 
the  United  States  have  certain  almost  subconcious  instincts  as 
to  the  fundamental  principles  of  that  government,  which  were 
much  more  conscious  to  their  ancestors  during  the  period  of 
struggle  when  it  was  being  established,  and  which  constitute 
the  American  conception  of  democracy.  The  United  States, 


1920  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  .      253 

however,  is  a  country  large  for  its  age,  and  its  ideas  of  democ- 
racy, as  of  other  things,  do  not  analyze  alike  from  Maine  to 
Florida,  from  Virginia  to  Oregon.  On  democracy  there  have 
been  three  differing  conceptions,  drawn  from  different  sources, 
long  nourished  by  different  circumstances,  and  not  even  now 
completely  blended.  The  political  Puritanism  of  Sandys  and 
Hampden  expanded  in  the  vast  area  of  Virginia  into  an  indi- 
vidualism based  on  ample  elbow  room  and  disdaining  the 
parental  care  of  a  close-knit  state.  Religious  Puritanism,  held 
together  by  the  contracting  geography  of  the  New  England 
valleys  and  closing  its  ranks  to  fight  the  world,  the  flesh,  and 
the  devil,  found  in  union,  strength.  The  Frontier,  free  as  air, 
where  all  stood  equal,  confident,  was  restive  of  the  bridle,  but 
saw  no  limits  to  the  beneficent  power  of  a  state  which  it  could 
itself  control.  From  these  three  elements,  with  their  subdivi- 
sions, cross  currents,  and  reactions  has  developed  that  ideal 
of  political  relationships  which  the  word  democracy  brings  to 
the  mind  of  most  Americans. 

Probably  the  first  idea  which  one  associates  with  democracy 
is  liberty.  From  the  beginning  the  founders  of  America  em- 
phasized this  aspect,  it  has  been  the  inspiration  of  our  poets, 
it  has  been  the  incentive  of  our  immigrants.  The  mere  migra- 
tion to  America,  as  to  any  new  land,  freed  the  migrant  from 
many  things,  from  the  shackles  of  family  and  tradition  and 
status — the  dead  hand  of  the  past.  Necessity  freed  initiative 
from  the  inhibitions  of  custom  and  of  ridicule.  Liberty,  how- 
ever, is  nowhere  absolute,  it  is  always  a  matter  of  degree  and 
shades,  it  differs  from  place  to  place,  not  only  in  amount  but 
in  character. 

The  simplest  American  conception  of  liberty  was  that  which 
developed  in  Virginia  and  found  expression  in  the  philosophy 
of  Thomas  Jefferson.  To  him  the  only  object  of  government 
was  to  protect  liberty.  Government  was  not  to  lead  or  cul- 
tivate, but  merely  to  preserve  each  man  in  the  peaceful  enjoy- 
ment of  his  full  freedom,  and  to  mark  the  boundaries  where  the 
exercise  of  freedom  by  one  would  encroach  on  that  of  another ; 


254  CARL  R.  FISH  FEB. 

• 

the  functions  of  government  were  purely  judicial  and  police. 
This  simple  conception  left  out  of  view  many  of  the  com- 
plexities that  subtler  philosophies  entail,  and  it  was  not  incon- 
sistent with  a  social  situation  which  actually  gave  the  control 
to  a  rather  narrow  aristocracy.  It  was  indeed  inconsistent 
with  slavery,  but  this  its  leading  advocates  acknowledged, 
merely  leaving  the  eradication  of  that  evil  to  their  sons.  It 
would  not  prevent  the  retention  of  the  freed  slaves  as  an 
ignorant  and  helpless  peasantry.  Yet  in  one  respect  besides 
their  belief  in  liberty  were  the  Virginia  leaders  democrats. 
Recognizing  differences,  acquiesing  in  both  the  profits  and 
the  responsibilities  created  by  these  differences,  they  neverthe- 
less had  confidence  in  men  generally.  In  framing  their  gov- 
ernments they  did  not  so  much  show  a  fear  of  anarchy  as  of 
governmental  oppression.  Their  most  cherished  political 
instrument  was  the  "Bill  of  Rights,"  which  enumerates  those 
rights  of  the  individual  which  the  government  must  never 
invade.  This  device,  whereby  every  man  was  given  a  certain 
range  of  action  in  which  he  alone  was  sovereign,  was  not  only 
foreshadowed  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  incor- 
porated into  the  constitutions  of  the  various  states  of  the 
plantation  section,  but  became  a  part  of  all  other  state  consti- 
tutions, and,  though  not  logically  called  for,  was  inserted  into 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States  by  early  amendment. 

The  fighting  Frontier,  as  it  swept  westward,  was  not 
philosophic,  and  its  conceptions  were  expressed  in  action  rather 
than  in  words.  It  gave  some  lip  service  to  the  Virginians,  but 
it  was  more  virile,  having  no  fears  and  confident  that  men  once 
possessing  freedom  would  maintain  it.  It,  therefore,  reduced 
both  the  limitations  upon  government  and  the  governmental 
restrictions  upon  the  individual.  The  striking  difference,  how- 
ever, was  that  the  Frontier  democracy  really  included  everyone, 
and  with  this  went  a  spiritual  change.  Few  felt  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  Virginia  gentleman  for  those  who  were  actually 
inferior,  for  inferiority  was  considered  a  matter  of  fault. 
Instead  of  being  tinctured  by  a  gentle  sense  of  noblesse  oblige, 


1920  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  255 

society  rather  tended  toward  the  Calvinistic  ideal,  that  a  free 
man  is  responsible  for  his  own  welfare. 

The  New  England  conception  was  much  less  simple.  Man 
is  free,  said  Winthrop,  to  do  that  which  is  good.  This  applied, 
of  course,  to  moral  freedom,  but  in  the  early  New  England 
days  of  marriage  of  church  and  state,  it  was  the  obvious  duty 
of  the  latter  to  restrain  the  liberty  of  the  individual  not  only 
with  respect  to  the  rights  of  other  individuals  but  also  for  the 
purpose  of  keeping  him  within  the  path  of  right  conduct. 
What  was  right  conduct,  however,  was  on  the  whole  deter- 
mined by  the  majority;  which  meant  that  the  majority  were 
really  free.  Restraint  from  evil,  moreover,  must  be  distin- 
guished from  the  guidance  to  the  absolute  right,  to  which  the 
state  did  not  aspire. 

The  application  of  this  restrictive  ideal  of  liberty  was  always 
and  increasingly  modified  by  the  wide  variations  of  the  New 
England  type  and  by  sturdy  individualism.  Even  so  ardent  a 
predestinarian  as  Jonathan  Edwards  found  it  necessary  to 
temper  his  doctrine  by  magnifying  the  importance  of  the  act  of 
will  by  which  the  individual  accepts  his  fate.  Quakerism,  with 
its  individual  inspiration;  the  Baptists  and  Methodists,  who 
modified  logic  by  emotionalism;  the  growth  of  Unitarianism, 
in  its  first  negative  phase,  and  of  sheer  atheism,  gradually 
loosened  the  hold  of  Calvinistic  doctrine,  first  on  the  institu- 
tions of  the  state,  and  then  on  the  minds  of  the  community. 
The  limits  of  freedom  in  New  England,  therefore,  grew,  not 
by  revolution  but  by  evolution,  and  by  the  early  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century  the  area  of  freedom  for  the  individual  was 
relatively  wide. 

The  early  New  England  conception  of  liberty,  however, 
lacked  the  element  of  appeal  to  the  American  spirit,  for  it 
rested  upon  the  belief  that  man  was  born  in  sin,  the  natural 
man  a  thing  of  evil,  and  hence  to  be  restrained  for  his  own 
good.  The  influence  of  Americanism  was  revealed  by  the 
philosophy  of  Emerson,  who  dwelt  upon  the  divine  spark  in 
every  individual  and  the  possibility  that  any  individual  might 


256  C-ARLR.FISH  FEB. 

expel  the  base  element  and  render  himself  all  divine,  not  in  the 
Buddhist  sense  of  merger  with  the  godhead,  but  still  retaining 
his  individual  consciousness.  While  the  theology  of  Emerson 
had  small  acceptance,  his  philosophy,  embodying  as  it  did  the 
optimism  and  self-reliance  of  the  peopfe,  affected  broadly  the 
American  attitude  towards  life. 

This  exaltation  of  the  individual  naturally  resulted  in 
increased  emphasis  on  liberty  and  received  added  force  from 
the  economic  liberalism  of  John  Stuart  Mill.  In  spite  of  the 
discredit  cast  upon  the  Virginia  school  of  thought  by  the  Civil 
War,  the  period  that  followed  marked  the  apex  of  individual- 
ism. The  chief  activity  of  government  was  the  breaking  of 
shackles,  not  those  imposed  by  slavery  alone  but  by  all  institu- 
tions which  limited  the  freedom  of  the  free,  and  by  ignorance 
which  veiled  the  light.  With  an  irrefragable  belief  in  the 
goodness  and  the  possibilities  of  man,  freedom  seemed  enough 
to  guarantee  the  millenium,  or  freedom  made  dynamic  by  the 
preaching  of  the  purged, 

Although  the  need  for  state  activity  was  temporarily  lost 
sight  of,  the  dominant  conception  of  liberty  in  New  England 
remained  restrictive.  When,  therefore,  the  millenium  failed  to 
arrive  and  new  call  for  state  activity  arose,  it  encountered  no 
philosophic  opposition  but  only  that  of  those  affected  by  the 
proposed  measures,  and,  the  old  order  having  been  swept  away 
by  the  generation  of  the  Civil  War,  the  last  thirty  years  have 
seen  decided  progress  in  hedging  in  the  antisocial  impulses  of 
the  individual  by  new  codes. 

One  must,  therefore,  repeat  that  while  liberty  is  an  essential 
element  in  the  American  conception  of  democracy,  it  is  not 
unrestricted  liberty,  but  one  modified  and  complex.  On  the 
whole  the  lines  of  differences  between  the  sections  are  less 
marked  than  they  were  in  1800.  The  South  has  recognized  an 
increased  field  for  government,  New  England  has  turned  its 
thoughts  somewhat  from  restrictions  upon  the  natural  evil 
tendencies  of  man  to  assistance  in  his  struggle  to  rise,  and 
generally  over  America  the  basis  of  liberty  has  come  to  be  the 


1920  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  257 

Frontier  confidence  in  the  strength  and  the  good  will  of  the 
individual. 

Although  one's  first  thought  in  connection  with  democracy 
is  freedom,  it  was  obviously  not  what  was  in  the  minds  of 
those  who  made  the  word.  Not  the  liberty  of  the  individual, 
but  the  power  of  the  people  was  what  they  emphasized,  and  this 
aspect  has  always  been  prominent  in  the  minds  of  American 
thinkers,  and  instinct  in  those  who  have  not  troubled  to  think. 
The  extent  of  the  power  of  the  people  is  measured  in  part  by 
the  restrictions  on  the  liberty  of  the  individual,  but  the  dividing 
line  acquires  character  by  viewing  it  from  the  opposite  side, 
and  the  uplifting  power  of  the  state  does  not  entirely  depend 
on  restriction, 

Jefferson  himself  when  his  reelection  as  president  seemed 
to  him  to  confirm  the  wisdom  and  stability  of  the  people,  began 
to  toy  with  the  ideas  which  his  fertile  brain  offered  him  as  to 
the  benefits  which  a  beneficent  state  might  confer.  Individual 
liberty  was  not  to  be  restrained,  but  rather  broadened  by  the 
exercise  of  new  functions.  By  smoothing  the  paths  of  travel 
and  commerce,  freedom  of  movement  would  be  increased,  by 
multiplying  the  means  of  education,  the  area  of  mental  activity 
would  be  extended.  Jefferson  failed  to  carry  his  own  genera- 
tion in  the  South;  but  the  exigencies  of  a  community  with 
large  credit  but  little  cash  led  to  large  state  grants  for  trans- 
portation in  the  forties  and  fifties,  the  influence  of  the  other 
sections  led  to  generous  provision  for  education,  and  in  the 
first  part  of  the  twentieth  century  the  ever  present  fear  of  the 
negro  led  the  most  individualistic  section  of  the  country  to 
adopt,  more  generally  than  any  other,  that  striking  encroach- 
ment upon  the  individual's  freedom,  that  emphatic  assertion 
of  the  power  of  the  people,  the  prohibition  of  alcoholic  bever- 
ages. 

Much  less  hesitating  and  limited  was  the  New  England  view 
of  the  functions  which  the  power  of  the  people  should  exert 
through  the  state.  Historians  still  dispute  as  to  whether  the 
original  New  England  communities  were  more  political  or 


258  CARL  R.  FISH  FEB. 

business  institutions.  Certainly  they  conducted  business;  they 
were  the  organs  for  common  ownership  of  lands,  and  cattle, 
and  even  ships.  While  communism  was  tried  and  failed,  the 
joint-stock  method  of  managing  many  public  concerns  was  well 
fixed  and  even  today  one  finds  many  towns  engaged  in  some 
business  enterprise  which  is  not  the  product  of  the  modern 
movement  for  public  ownership  but  a  lingering  survival  of 
old  days  of  common  dependence.  Even  the  Civil  War  genera- 
tion, while  convinced  of  the  wisdom  of  restricting  state  activity 
in  many  lines,  still  clung  to  and  in  fact  extended  the  economic 
theory  of  a  protective  tariff,  which  linked  the  whole  economic 
life  with  the  policy  of  the  state.  New  England,  therefore,  has 
always  regarded  the  state  as  an  instrument  to  be  used,  as  the 
power  of  the  people  dictated,  for  the  people. 

To  the  practical  mind  of  the  Frontier  the  activity  of  the 
state  was  a  matter  not  of  philosophy  but  of  convenience. 
Restive  of  self-restraint,  the  frontiersman,  nevertheless,  saw 
no  danger  in  calling  in  the  aid  of  the  state  when  he  desired 
assistance.  Moreover,  as  he  had  the  unlimited  confidence  in 
himself  bred  of  visible  accomplishment,  so  he  saw  no  limits  to 
what  the  state,  uniting  his  power  with  that  of  his  fellows, 
could  do.  Thus  one  sees  rough  individualistic  farmers  brush- 
ing aside  laws  hoary  with  centuries  of  acceptance,  but  at  the 
same  time  uniting  in  visions  of  the  printing  press  as  an  unfail- 
ing fountain  of  money  and  in  plans  of  uplift  which  tame  city 
dwellers  abhor  as  dreams  of  the  wildest  socialism.  Every  sea- 
son of  poor  crops  produces  fresh  avalanches  of  plans,  and  not 
by  argument,  but  by  experiment,  the  possible  are  gradually 
sifted  from  the  fantastic.  It  is  perhaps  inexact  to  say  that 
the  Frontier,  or  its  grandchild,  the  Middle  West,  has  a  theory 
of  it  all,  but  its  practice  has  combined  the  wide  range  of  free- 
dom advocated  by  the  South  with  the  belief  in  an  active  sta.te 
contributed  by  New  England,  but  whose  activities  are  directed 
rather  to  clearing  the  road  of  progress  than  to  keeping  step 
among  those  advancing  upon  it. 


1920  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  259 

The  idea  of  the  power  of  the  people,  however,  raises  two 
important  and  difficult  questions.  In  the  first  place,  who  are 
the  people?  The  usual  answer  in  America  is  "We  are  the 
people";  but  as  no  great  or  representative  body  is  usually 
gathered  together  when  the  statement  is  made,  it  does  not 
bring  us  very  far  towards  our  conclusion.  In  fact,  the  chase 
after  the  people  is  something  like  that  after  God,  and  even  the 
believing  mind,  which  feels  the  existence  all  about,  finds  diffi- 
culty in  producing  the  desired  materialization.  Nor  is  there 
complete  unity  in  the  form  of  materialization  desired. 

To  the  original  Puritans  "the  people"  were  distinctly  the 
"elect";  and  they  had  their  methods  of  revealing  upon  this 
earth  those  whose  names  were  written  in  that  angelic  book. 
This  simplicity  was,  however,  marred  by  a  theory  vaguely  held 
that  the  elect  would  of  necessity  think  alike,  and  that  the  only 
true  basis  of  action  was  unanimity.  It  was  marred  also  by 
the  worldly  importance  of  some  who  did  not  have  evidence  of 
election,  and  who  gradually  forced  their  way  in,  differentiating 
the  elect  from  the  electors.  Altogether  without  were  the  non- 
electors.  To  the  average  Virginian,  unfortified  by  such  clear 
cut  division,  "the  people"  generally  signified  the  people  who 
counted,  the  people  whom,  if  one  had  not  encountered  at 
dinner,  one  might  meet  at  that  somewhat  select  board.  Every- 
body who  was  anybody,  was  somebody,  in  Virginia.  Even  on 
the  Frontier  one  thought  of  the  people  as  of  those  like-minded 
with  oneself.  In  fact,  how  could  the  simple,  honest  wielder 
of  the  axe,  with  his  confidence  in  human  nature,  fail  to  believe 
that  his  fellows,  if  honest,  would  believe  as  he  did,  and  hesitate 
to  apply  that  sacred  name  to  the  obdurate  and  obviously  dis- 
honest capitalists  of  Wall  Street  ?  Of  late  there  has  been  some 
tendency  to  give  this  doubt  expression,  and  many  of  those 
powerful  wielders  of  public  opinion,  the  cartoonists,  make  the 
hero  of  politics  not  "the  people,"  but  "the  common  people." 
Thus  the  essential  element  of  bolshevism,  the  belief  in  the 
divine  right  of  some  class  to  control,  is  old  in  America,  and  the 
worthies  of  Beacon  Street,  the  planters  of  the  South,  the 


260  CARL  R.  FISH  FEB. 

barons  of  banking  and  industry,  the  farmers  of  the  West,  and 
the  laborers  of  the  great  cities,  have  all,  from  time  to  time, 
sought  the  seat  which  Lenine  and  Trotsky  so  precariously 
occupy. 

In  America,  however,  none  of  them  have  ever  quite  suc- 
ceeded in  occupying  it,  and  even  while  one  cynically  dissects 
the  people,  one  becomes  convinced  that  something  exists,  and 
as  one  studies  the  manifestations  of  its  presence  there  seems  to 
have  been  a  gradual  change  in  its  character,  not  variable,  as 
would  result  from  the  seizing  of  the  reins  first  by  one  self- 
conscious  class  and  then  another,  but  constant.  Still  analysis 
reveals  not  one  simple  conception  of  the  people,  but  three, 
each  of  which  comes  unconsciously  to  the  mind  as  the  subject 
under  discussion  changes. 

When  the  people  who  shall  enjoy  liberty  or  be  guided  or 
restrained  in  their  actions  are  concerned,  there  has  been  a 
growing  tendency  to  identify  them  with  the  inhabitants. 
When  the  people  who  have  power  is  in  question,  there  has  been 
an  undoubted  tendency  to  regard  them  as  those  who  can  oper- 
ate the  political  machinery  as  it  exists  from  time  to  time. 
Often  this  has  been  a  very  queerly  selected  lot;  a  citizen  of 
one  state,  or  town,  or  county,  weighing  many  times  as  heavy 
as  one  of  another.  Even  today  a  citizen  of  Delaware  or 
Nevada  is  about  one  hundred  times  as  powerful  in  choosing  a 
United  States  senator  as  one  from  New  York.  Nevertheless 
the  incongruities  of  this  legal  people  do  not  excite  the  public 
mind  as  they  would  among  a  population  devoted  to  logic,  and 
its  will  has  been,  and  is,  accepted.  Yet  there  has  been  a  grow- 
ing feeling  that  for  purposes  of  action  the  real  people  is  the 
majority  of  citizens.  Bitterly  disappointed  that  fellow  citizens 
even  of  so  glorious  a  country  could  not  be  brought  to  think 
alike,  the  statesmen  who  framed  the  earlier  constitutions 
attempted  compromise  after  compromise,  by  fixing  special 
majorities,  as  of  two-thirds  or  three-quarters,  which  should 
be  requisite  for  specified  action.  While  some  of  these  still  exist 
and  operate,  they  grow  fewer,  and  experience  intensifies  the 


1920  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  261 

identification  of  the  power  of  the  people  with  the  power  of  the 
majority,  and  there  is  a  progressive  attempt  to  make  the  legal 
people  and  the  majority  identical. 

The  second  difficulty  arises  out  of  the  distinction  between 
the  whole  people  who  are  to  enjoy  liberty,  and  the  majority, 
who  are  to  possess  power,  and  accounts  in  large  measure  for 
the  tolerance  of  the  incongruous  middle  group  who  actually 
operate  the  political  machinery.  America  has  recognized  that 
the  tyranny  of  the  majority  may  be  as  painful  in  quality, 
though  not  in  quantity,  as  the  tyranny  of  a  single  person  or 
a  class.  Confidence  in  mankind  as  a  body  of  equals  has  not 
extended  to  the  few  or  many  exalted  above  the  crowd.  Our 
democratic  philosophers  have  been  keenly  aware  of  the  diffi- 
culty of  reconciling  freedom  for  the  individual  with  freedom 
of  the  body  politic  to  move.  Obviously  matter  for  com- 
promise, the  fluidity  of  American  life  has  resented  any  form 
of  static  compromise.  The  solution  was  early  sought  and  con- 
tinues to  be  found  in  institutions  that  automatically  operate  to 
allow  the  necessities  of  the  time,  and  the  desires  of  the  majority, 
to  find  expression,  while  protecting  the  minority  in  its,  or 
rather  in  certain  rights,  and  the  individual  in  the  enjoyment  of 
an  area  of  liberty. 

The  American  method  of  meeting  this  difficulty  has  been  by 
written  constitutions,  the  essential  element  of  which  has  not 
been  their  mandates  and  prohibitions,  but  the  principle  of 
division  of  power  or,  more  broadly,  of  checks  and  balances. 
The  fantastic  lengths  to  which  analyzers  like  John  Adams 
drew  out  these  balancing  features  must  not  be  allowed  to  carry 
away  in  a  general  ridicule  the  fact  that  balance  is  the  basic 
element  of  American  institutions ;  a  balance  not  dead,  but  kept 
erect  by  motion.  Thus  length  of  term  in  the  senates  balances 
the  quick  response  to  popular  desires  in  the  houses  of  represen- 
tation; thus  the  independent  power  of  the  executives  balances 
the  independent  power  of  the  legislatures,  yet  the  veto  gives 
the  executives  some  check  upon  the  legislatures,  the  necessity 
of  senatorial  confirmation  checks  the  license  of  the  executives 


262  CARL  R.  FISH  FEB. 

in  the  making  of  appointments  and,  in  the  case  of  the  United 
States,  of  treaties.  Again  the  acts  of  both  legislatures  and 
executives  are  not  checked  by  the  supreme  courts,  but  squared 
with  the  written  constitutions,  and,  if  found  inconsistent  there- 
with, are  held  of  no  legal  validity.  It  is  not  my  purpose  to 
discuss  the  wisdom  of  the  division  of  power,  which  is  at 
present  rather  unpopular  among  political  scientists.  I  merely 
point  out  that  it  is  the  system  by  which  American  democracy 
has  sought  to  preserve  equipoise  between  the  liberty  of  the 
individual  and  the  power  of  the  majority,  both  of  which  it 
considers  essential  elements  of  democracy.  Nor  is  it  merely 
the  theory  upon  which  the  constitutions  were  framed,  but  it 
has  actually  survived  operation.  At  any  time  in  the  United 
States  one  will  find  a  strong  opinion  that  it  has  failed,  but  if 
one  follows  American  opinion  for  any  length  of  time  one  will 
find  a  constantly  varying  opinion  as  to  which  of  the  elements 
is  in  the  ascendancy. 

It  is  upon  this  question  of  checks  and  balances,  which  is 
now  referred  to  almost  solely  as  one  of  checks,  that  the  chief 
disputes  as  to  the  differences  and  relative  democracy  of  the 
American  and  British  systems  are  based.  Many  maintain  that 
the  English  system,  which  now  gives  practically  complete 
authority  to  the  House  of  Commons,  is,  therefore,  the  more 
democratic,  because  it  gives  the  majority  more  immediate  con- 
trol. Setting  aside  all  questions  as  to  superior  merit  as  a 
governmental  system,  it  can  be  positively  stated  that  did  the 
majority  in  England  have  complete  and  immediate  control, 
neither  our  ancestors,  nor  the  average  American  of  today 
would  regard  it  as  more  democratic,  for  in  that  case  the 
minority  and  the  individual  would  be  absolutely  at  the  mercy 
of  the  majority,  and  the  fact  that  the  majority  respected  in 
some  measure  their  wishes  would  not  make  it  a  democracy, 
for  not  respect  for  the  desires  of  others  limited  only  by  one's 
own  will,  nor  the  mercy  of  the  majority,  constitute  to  the 
American  mind  democracy,  but  only  the  observance  of 


1920  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  263 

acknowledged  rights.  American  democracy  consists  not  of 
liberty  alone,  nor  of  power  alone,  but  fundamentally  of  system. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  House  of  Commons  is  very  far  from 
having  absolute  power,  and  British  government  is  actually 
replete  in  checks,  which  are  supplied  by  an  inherent  respect 
for  law  and  established  institutions,  and  render  the  path  of 
the  promoter  of  new  ideas  quite  as  thorny  and  at  times  as 
seemingly  hopeless  as  with  us.  In  fact,  the  ordinary  English- 
man regards  the  defect  in  American  democracy  as  consisting 
not  in  the  absence  of  power  on  the  part  of  the  majority,  but  in 
the  restrictions  placed  upon  the  individual,  and  considers 
national  prohibition  the  final  word  in  the  definition  of  the  anti- 
democratic. 

Here  again,  however,  the  difference  is  not  that  which  is 
commented  upon.  Englishmen  are  also  restricted  by  the  laws, 
but  the  limits  of  personal  freedom  differ  in  each  country  accord- 
ing to  the  character  of  the  population.  In  America  restric- 
tions are  along  the  line  of  moral  conduct,  owing  to  the  strength 
of  what  in  Great  Britain  is  called  "non-conformist"  thought; 
in  Great  Britain,  they  are  along  the  line  of  economic  activity, 
owing  to  the  greater  pressure  of  congested  social  conditions. 

To  approach  our  definition  by  comparison,  therefore,  we  may 
say  that  democracy  in  America  is  more  a  matter  of  system,  in 
Great  Britain,  of  instinct,  that  America  has  gone  farther  in 
restricting  moral  evils,  Great  Britain,  in  directing  economic 
conditions;  but  that  both  countries  recognize  that  both  power 
by  the  majority  and  liberty  of  the  individual  are  essential 
elements  of  democracy,  and  that  a  government  to  be  demo- 
cratic must  reconcile  the  two,  must  be  complex. 

In  addition  to  personal  liberty  and  majority  power,  kept  in 
equipoise  by  a  system  of  checks  and  balances,  there  is  one 
further  essential  element  in  the  American  conception  of  democ- 
racy— equality.  The  first  phrase  of  the  first  declaration  of  the 
American  nation,  states  that  all  men  are  created  equal.  It  is 
easy  to  point  out  that  when  that  statement  was  made  Ameri- 
cans were  not  equal,  that  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  discover 


264  CARL  R.  FISH  FEB. 

any  single  respect  in  which  they  were  equal.  Nor  did  the 
Declaration  itself  create  an  equality.  It  is,  however,  unfair  to 
Jefferson  who  wrote  the  phrase  and  to  the  men  wise  and 
unwise  who  adopted  it,  to  charge  them  with  ignorance  or 
hyperbole.  For  some  of  them  it  was  a  basis  of  philosophic 
theory,  for  some  an  ideal,  for  some  a  declaration  of  purpose. 
Very  pathetic  and  inspiring  were  the  attempts  of  some  of  them 
to  subdue  their  prejudices  to  their  purpose,  and  very  lively 
has  been  the  influence  of  that  phrase  in  American  history. 

Equality  is  an  ideal,  and  its  strength  may  be  calculated  by 
the  tendency  toward  its  realization.  It  must  be  kept  in  mind, 
moreover,  that  an  ideal  need  not  be  absolute  and  it  is,  there- 
fore, important  to>  test  it  for  limitations,  not  to  throw  it  out 
of  court  because  exceptions  can  be  discovered.  The  claims 
of  refined  ladies  who  amuse  themselves  with  genealogy,  and 
limit  their  circle  to  descendants  of  colonial  governors  or  of 
the  scalpees  of  King  Philip's  War,  must  be  checked  against 
the  effect  those  claims  make  upon  the  people  who  are  excluded 
from  the  sacred  circle;  and  it  is  profitable  to  point  out  that 
American  ancestry  has  no  weight  in  the  matrimonial  market, 
and  a  substantial  English  title  of  the  day  before  yesterday,  can 
outbid  the  inheritor  of  a  much  longer  and  more  distinguished 
inheritance  of  American  culture.  The  exclusiveness  that  fails 
to  excite  jealousy  may  well  be  classified  as  an  aberration  of 
personal  freedom.  I  am  not  sure,  however,  that  there  is  not 
in  a  democracy  an  element  of  greater  exclusiveness  than  in  an 
aristocracy.  Regardless  of  equality,  it  remains  true  that  one 
does  not  want  to  marry  or  to  dine  with  anyone ;  that  equality 
is  not  sameness.  The  less  artificial  ties  bring  the  uncongenial 
together,  the  more  the  congenial  tend  to  flock  together.  I 
believe  that  a  foreigner  once  launched  into  a  social  set  in 
America,  is  apt  to  find,  as  he  goes  from  city  to  city,  a  greater 
uniformity  of  thought  and  manner  than  would  an  American  in 
Europe.  He  must  be  on  his  guard,  as  must  the  members  of  the 
set,  against  supposing  that  the  dinner  talk  represents  Ameri- 
can thought,  and  he  must  remember  that  his  associates,  no 


1920  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  265 

matter  how  highly  placed,  represent  not  a  society  toward  which 
all  the  successful  are  struggling  but  merely  a  congenial  group 
among  many  other  congenial  groups.  Equality  has  taken  the 
form,  not  of  association  regardless  of  opinion  and  status,  but 
rather  of  association  of  equals  in  opinion  and  status.  The 
forms  of  social  intercourse  have  a  profound  influence  on  the 
life  of  a  nation,  and  undoubtedly  one  of  the  serious  problems 
we  have  to  confront  is  the  fact  that  most  people  who  meet  at 
dinner  in  America  agree,  and  that  those  who  do  not  agree 
choose  not  to  meet. 

Sets  would  seem  to  be  an  inevitable  concomitant  of  democ- 
racy ;  whether  or  not  classes  are  equally  so  is  a  question ;  cer- 
tainly they  have  continued  to  exist.  The  cultured,  the  educated, 
the  straight-laced,  the  irresponsible,  farmers,  merchants,  em- 
ployers, and  the  employed,  have  always  existed;  and  at  the 
present  time,  when  the  arrival  of  different  nationalities  at  dif- 
ferent periods  have  left  the  later  waves  in  layers,  each  succes- 
sive one  enabling  the  one  before  it  to  climb  out  of  the  least 
desirable  occupation,  the  element  of  difference  of  origin  has  to 
some  degree  strengthened  the  lines  of  demarcation.  Classes 
struggle  for  their  interests  and  tend  to  become  important 
factors  in  politics.  It  is  worth  noting,  however,  that  up  to 
the  present  classes  have  not  become  the  basis  of  politics.  No 
attempt  to  form  a  party  of  labor  has  as  yet  succeeded  in  the 
United  States;  representatives  represent  their  districts,  not 
their  class,  although  their  action  may,  of  course,  be  influenced 
by  class  consciousness.  This  distinction  between  class  divisions 
and  party  divisions  is  illustrated  by  the  tendency  of  classes  to 
shift  their  political  views  with  the  situation.  In  the  first  days 
of  the  republic,  the  supporters  of  personal  freedom  as  against 
the  power  of  the  state  were  the  classes  who  had  the  least  to 
defend  and  feared  the  Biblical  aphorism  "from  him  that  hath 
not  shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which  he  hath."  The  late 
Mr.  Harriman,  a  man  of  exceptional  insight,  realized  that  the 
balance  of  power  had  changed  hands,  and  was  leader  in  bring- 
ing the  great  capitalists  of  the  country  to  school  to  Jefferson 


266  CARL  R.  FISH  FEB. 

and  Andrew  Jackson,  to  seek  safety,  not  in  power,  but  behind 
the  restrictions  of  the  Constitution.  Classes  have,  therefore, 
existed  independent  of  political  theory. 

Turning  from  the  negative  to  the  positive  method  of  seeking 
the  American  conception  of  equality,  it  is  in  New  England  that 
we  find,  amid  the  most  complex  social  structure  America  has 
developed,  the  germ  of  that  innate  sense  of  equality  which  has 
become  American.  At  first  it  was  not  the  exhilarating  con- 
viction it  subsequently  became,  but  a  sense  of  the  triviality  of 
all  worldly  differences  between  men,  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
all  would  stand  equal  in  the  great  and  awful  day  of  the  Lord. 
Scorched  into  their  consciousness  by  an  almost  universal  belief, 
intensified  by  at  least  five  hours  of  preaching  a  week,  with 
many  an  exhortation  besides,  and  dwelling  continually  with 
them  in  the  most  secret  chambers  of  their  home  and  soul,  it 
revealed  a  picture  of  mankind  standing  naked,  as  in  Michael 
Angelo's  "Last  Judgment,"  subject  to  a  universal  law  and  a 
single  judge. 

It  was  in  this  burning  heat  that  the  fripperies  of  earthly 
rank  gradually  withered  away.  First  went  hereditary  titles. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  an  American  considers  the 
inheritance  of  an  inescapable  title  as  quite  a  different  thing 
from  the  inheritance  of  millions  of  dollars  which  may  fly  away. 
Still  more  grating  to  their  sense  of  equality,  because  they 
cannot  divorce  it  from  the  idea  of  cruelty,  is  the  institution  of 
primogeniture.  In  early  Massachusetts  the  eldest  son  received 
the  Biblical  double  share,  and  in  Virginia,  the  full  English 
portion;  but  both  his  advantage  and  the  responsibility  and 
family  leadership  on  which  the  practice  rested  went  against 
the  grain  and  vanished  completely  after  the  Revolution  by  the 
separate  action  of  every  state.  The  final  accomplishment  of  the 
New  England  sense  of  equality  was  the  harmonizing,  at  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War,  of  conditions  human  and  divine  by 
bringing  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  native  and  foreign, 
under  one  law  and  one  system  of  courts.  This  is  undoubtedly 
one  of  the  basic  conceptions,  not  indeed  distinguishing,  but 


1920  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  267 

characterizing  American  democracy,  applied  often  with  relent- 
less logic,  where  distinction  of  treatment  would  be  more  merci- 
ful, if  less  just.  For  a  time  equality  before  the  same  law 
seemed  sufficient.  At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  "No  taxation 
without  representation"  had  a  very  definite  significance,  but  it 
was  quite  obviously  not  that  one  should  not  be  taxed  unless 
allowed  a  vote.  So  long  as  the  power  to  vote  was  determined 
by  a  law  that  applied  equally  to  all,  and  the  taxes  were  based 
on  a  general  law,  the  views  of  the  political  theorists  were 
satisfied. 

Equality  on  the  Frontier,  however,  was  something  very  dif- 
ferent. Probably  no  so  large  a  population  had  ever  before  so 
closely  approached  actual  equality  of  condition  and  experience. 
It  was  not  a  theory  but  a  condition.  Assumption  of  superiority 
was  laughed  down  with  good  nature,  it  meant  so  little;  and 
artificial  inequalities  were  blown  away  by  the  clean,  fresh  air 
of  an  agreeable  actuality.  Equal  law  was  no  longer  enough, 
the  demand  that  all  men  share  in  the  making  of  the  law  swept 
all  counter  arguments  before  it.  Today  no  view  is  more 
widely  and  confidently  held  in  the  United  States  than  that  a 
vote  is  as  inherently  attached  to  a  man  as  his  nose,  while  the 
idea  that  no  man  can  possess  more  than  one  vote  is  as  strong  as 
that  he  should  not  be  allowed  two  wives.  The  strongest  argu- 
ment for  woman  suffrage  is  that  of  right  and  not  of  expediency. 
You  may  find  Americans  who  doubt  the  desirability  of  univer- 
sal male  suffrage;  I  have  known  at  least  one  who  believed 
that  a  large  hole  ran  connecting  the  North  Pole  with  the  South. 

The  frontier  itself  did  not  consider  that  political  rights  ended 
with  the  vote.  If  all  men  were  equal,  why  be  content  with 
electing  officers,  why  not  hold  office?  Andrew  Jackson  said 
that  the  duties  of  all  public  offices  were  or  admitted  of  being 
made  so  simple  that  any  citizen  could  hold  them.  Other  leaders 
advocated  rotation  in  all  offices,  administrative  as  well  as 
elective,  in  order  that  they*  might  be  shared  round  the  more 
rapidly.  Wicked  New  York  made  service  to  the  party  the  basis 
for  appointment,  and  the  Spoils  System  was  set  going,  of  which 


268  CARL  R.  FISH  FEB. 

you  probably  know,  without  my  saying,  a  great  deal  more  evil 
than  was  true.  For  it  was  not  without  compensations,  one  of 
which  was  that  it  created  a  sense  among  the  people  that  the 
government  was  theirs  and  not  a  thing  apart. 

In  addition  to  equality  before  the  law  and  equality  in  making 
the  law,  there  is  a  third  element  in  the  American  idea  of 
equality,  that  of  opportunity.  Not  without  truth,  and  in  the 
beginning  without  any  especial  merit,  America  has  been  known 
as  the  land  of  opportunity.  An  area  suitable  for  cultivation 
of  every  kind,  that  seemed  until  recently  boundless,  covered  by 
forests  that  the  most  unthinking  '  prodigality  has  not  yet 
exhausted,  with  mineral  resources  not  even  yet  measured,  gave 
and  yet  gives  to  enterprise,  and  under  conditions  of  protection 
and  of  market  facilities  always  possible  and  increasingly  facile, 
a  field  for  endeavor  never  rivalled.  The  United  States  has 
never  seriously  feared  proletarian  government,  because  no  man 
with  sufficient  energy  to  revolt  need  or  can  remain  proletarian. 
Gigantic  differences  in  fortunes  and  in  expenditures  have 
existed,  but  differences  in  the  actual  consumption  of  the  neces- 
sities of  food  and  clothing  have  been  relatively  small.  No 
whole  class  has  been  pressed  below  the  limit  of  comfortable 
existence,  and  enough  has  remained,  with  cleverness,  for 
almost  the  poorest  of  the  great  cities  to  put  on  in  appearance 
a  passable  imitation  of  the  rich. 

In  the  past  this  has  been  a  fruit  of  the  freedom  of  institu- 
tions added  to  the  accident  of  a  land  too  large  for  its  people. 
With  the  passing  of  the  era  of  exploitation,  this  latter  condi- 
tion is  undoubtedly  threatened,  will  undoubtedly  vanish  unless 
steps  be  taken  to  preserve  it.  On  no  point  has  American 
opinion  been  more  determined  than  that  it  shall  not  come  to 
an  end,  and  thus  the  belief  in  equality  has  become  constructive. 
As  is  true  of  most  American  conceptions  which  have  been 
strongly  and  widely  held,  the  plans  for  preserving  equality  of 
opportunity  are  simple. 

First  is  education,  compulsory  for  all  to  a  certain  point,  and 
open  to  all  to  any  point — an  education  contrived  to  leave  the 


1920  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  269 

freedom  of  choice  as  to  direction  open  to  the  last  possible 
moment,  that  all  may  find  satisfaction ;  an  education  which,  by 
taking  cognizance  of  every  trade,  shall  render  all  occupations 
to  some  degree  learned  professions  and  those  engaged  in  each 
fit  for  association  with  those  in  the  others,  that  the  good  fellow- 
ship of  the  frontier  days  may  be  preserved. 

Second  is  the  attempt  to  preserve  to  some  degree  the  condi- 
tions of  the  Frontier,  by  pressing  forward  the  boundaries  of 
knowledge.  Every  state  and  the  nation  maintain  scientific  com- 
missions and  subsidize  research  in  universities  and  colleges, 
to  learn  how  three  blades  of  grass  may  grow  where  one  grew 
before,  how  a  greater  proportion  of  the  same  may  be  converted 
into  milk,  how  families  may  be  raised  comfortably  on  the 
by-products  of  pigs'  tails,  how  new  sources  of  power  may 
strengthen  each  arm  and  brain,  in  order  that  the  rare  luxuries 
of  our  ancestors  may  become  the  universal  necessities  of  our 
children,  in  order  that  the  manual  laborer  may  enjoy  leisure  for 
the  cultivation  of  his  tastes  and  his  wisdom.  Each  year  is 
revealing  unsuspected  resources,  and  one  may  well  doubt 
whether  with  proper  effort  the  Frontier  will  ever  cease  to  afford 
opportunity,  though  its  exploitation  is  becoming  the  work  of 
the  specialist,  dependent  for"  his  whole  existence  upon  the 
organized  assistance  of  his  fellows,  and  no  longer  that  of  the 
Jack  of  all  trades,  independent  of  any  man's  aid. 

Equality  of  opportunity  has  a  chance  to  survive,  it  does  not 
require  great  optimism  to  believe  that  it  will  survive  and 
become  more  general ;  but  it  is  plain  that  the  method  of  main- 
taining it  involves  a  great  change  in  the  character  of  American 
life.  No  longer  can  the  functions  of  public  offices  be  made  so 
simple  that  any  citizen  can  exercise  them,  no  longer  can  gov- 
ernment be  reduced  to  a  minimum ;  the  power  of  the  state  must 
expand  to  regulate  the  individual,  the  expert  must  be  trusted 
with  affairs  of  state.  Democracy  must  become  efficient;  and 
many,  not  only  of  the  cynical,  but  of  the  lovers  of  democracy, 
doubt  whether  it  can  become  efficient,  and  retain  the  char- 
acteristics which  have  endeared  it  to  its  believers. 


270  CARL  R.  FISH  FEB. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  expert  must  play  a  larger  and 
larger  part,  and  it  is  equally  true  that  the  expert,  confident  of 
the  superiority  of  his  own  subject  and  of  his  authority  in  his 
subject,  tends  to  become  an  autocrat.  For  thirty  years  we 
have  been  organizing  commission  after  commission  for  special 
purposes,  and  we  are  gradually  getting  men  specially  trained 
for  the  work  to  serve  upon  them,  the  formation  of  the  work 
gradually  attracting  the  best  brains  of  the  country. 

This  drain  of  talent,  added  to  that  of  private  business,  has 
been  depleting  the  legislatures.  It  is  rare  indeed  at  present  to 
find  real  leadership  in  our  state  legislatures,  and,  if  it  appears, 
it  is  promptly  snatched  away  for  executive  purposes,  or  into 
the  courts.  How  indeed  can  one  lead  when  a  single  session 
combines  topics  ranging  from  bee  raising  and  eugenics,  through 
water  power  and  butter  marketing,  to  theories  of  education 
and  the  ethnological  study  of  the  Indian  tribes,  especially  as 
the  calendar  is  so  full  that  one  has  scarcely  the  time  to  "read 
up"  each  subject  in  the  pocket  edition  of  the  Encyclopedia 
Britannicaf  Do  not  the  experts  loom  imminent  overshadow- 
ing the  legislatures  of  our  ancestors,  autocrats  whom  one  can- 
not roughly  jostle  out  of  office,  because  their  special  knowledge 
is  so  intricately  tied  up  in  the  whole  mesh  of  government 
activity,  which  more  and  more  closely  draws  the  net  about 
one's  private  life? 

I  think  few  will  deny  that  this  is  a  problem  of  immense 
moment  at  the  present  time.  While  American,  it  is  not 
uniquely  American,  and  the  same  problem  is  causing  the  British 
Parliament  to  discuss  devolution,  or  an  approach  to  American 
federalism.  In  America  I  seem  to  have  observed  a  gradual 
adaptation,  without  changes  in  the  fundamental  law,  to  this 
condition.  Less  and  less  have  the  discussions  in  the  legislature 
attracted  attention,  more  and  more  has  interest  concentrated 
in  the  various  committee  rooms,  where  groups  of  legislators 
have  listened  to  the  findings  of  the  experts  of  the  government 
commissions  and  to  the  counter  cases  presented  by  the  prin- 
cipals or  attorneys  of  the  interests  affected  by  the  proposed 


1920  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY  271 

laws.  Through  ten,  twenty,  thirty,  forty  sittings,  the  com- 
mittees attend,  questioning  but  not  much  arguing,  and  at  the 
end  they  give  their  decision  like  a  jury  after  listening  to 
evidence  and  arguments.  In  this  way  the  legislature  represent- 
ing the  public  makes  the  decisions  as  to  policy,  the  administra- 
tion of  the  legislation  is  left  in  the  hands  of  experts,  checked 
by  the  executive  and  the  courts.  It  is  worth  consideration 
whether  this  adaptation  of  the  jury  method  may  not  reconcile 
the  efficiency  demanded  of  the  modern  state  with  the  freedom 
of  the  individual,  while  the  political  system  and  education 
afford  to  all  an  equal  opportunity  to  become  expert  or  juryman. 
It  is  significant  in  this  connection  that  the  legislatures  are  more 
honest  than  they  were. 

To  the  American,  therefore,  democracy  means  liberty  for  the 
individual,  limited  by  the  power  of  the  state,  the  one  protected 
within  a  certain  minimum  by  a  constitution,  the  limits  of  the 
other  determined  from  time  to  time  by  the  will  of  the  people, 
subject  to  the  same  constitution,  and  exercised  by  a  majority; 
the  two  kept  in  equipoise  by  the  mandates  of  the  constitution 
and  by  the  system  of  checks  and  balances  upon  which  govern- 
ment is  formed.  In  addition  it  means  the  equality  of  all 
before  the  law,  the  equal  share  of  all  in  wielding  the  power 
of  the  state,  and  an  equality  of  opportunity,  which  has  so  far 
placed  no  limits  to  the  possibilities  of  individual  accomplish- 
ment, but  which  tends  to  insist  that  each  receive  a  minimum 
share  of  the  common  income.  ^ 

To  us  democracy  is  not  a  logical  conclusion  or  a  final  » 
determination,  but  a  middle  road,  an  equipoise  kept  in  balance 
by  continual  effort ;  it  is  not  based  upon  the  perfection  of  man 
but  takes  account  of  his  weaknesses.  It  is  neither  a  simple 
thing,  nor  an  easy  thing,  but  something  worth  having.  Few, 
however,  would  say  that  this  is  the  whole  of  democracy.  The 
struggle  to  maintain  it  would  certainly  fail  if  the  will  to 
maintain  it  were  not  strong,  if  the  people  as  a  whole  were  not 
inspired  by  the  spirit  of  democracy.  First  is  necessary  the 
faith  that,  though  all  the  people  may  be  fooled  some  of  the 


272 


CARL  R.  FISH 


FEB. 


time,  and  therefore  the  decisions  of  the  majority  cannot  be 
trusted  from  moment  to  moment,  the  mature  decisions  of  the 
majority  will  be  right,  the  vo^_c>fjthepeople  will  be  the 
vojce  of  God.  Secondly  is  necessary  hope,  for  a  democratic 
government  cannot  provide  for  the  contingencies  of  the  future, 
but  must  learn  by  an  experience  which  all  feel,  and  therefore 
one  must  have  confidence  that  the  truer  wisdom  that  comes 
from  universal  understanding  is  worth  the  struggle  and  suffer- 
ing it  entails.  Finally  without  charity,  without  a  pre- 
ponderance of  love  for  one's  fellow  man,  no  democracy  can 
long  exist.  One  cannot  claim  that  the  spirit  of  Lincoln  is 
typical  of  American  democracy,  but  in  the  Platonic  sense  it 
is  the  reality,  of  which,  what  appears  to  the  eye  is  the  dim 
i  shadow. 


CARL  RUSSELL  FISH 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  WISCONSIN 
MADISON 


BUGONAYGESHIG 

[From  a  photograph  belonging-  to  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society, 
which  was  taken  by  James  S.  Drysdale  of  Walker  on  April  7,  1899,  at 
l.oy  Lake,  on  the  Leech  Lake  Reservation.  Bugonaygeshig  is  wearing 
a  necklace  made  of  Krag-Jorgensen  shells,  picked  up  after  the  bat- 
tle. At  the  time  when  the  picture  was  taken  he  was  still  a  fugitive 
from  justice.] 


THE    LAST    INDIAN     UPRISING*   IN    THE 
UNITED    STATES1 

During  the  month  of  October,  1898,  there  occurred  at  Leech 
Lake,  in  northern  Minnesota,  an  Indian  uprising  which  may 
well  be  called  the  last  of  the  long  series  of  bloody  encounters 
in  which  the  red  man  and  the  white  man  have  clashed  in  the 
struggle  for  a  continent.  The  war  with  Spain  was  then  occu- 
pying the  attention  of  everyone  and  a  skirmish  in  the  woods  in 
an  obscure  corner  of  Minnesota  passed  with  little  notice.  The 
incident  is  really  of  considerable  historical  interest,  however, 
not  only  because  of  its  local  significance,  but  also  because  the 
causes  were  typical  of  those  of  many  similar  Indian  uprisings 
and  because  it  was  the  last  time  that  a  band  of  Indians  actually 
engaged  United  States  troops  in  battle  and  inflicted  consider- 
able loss  upon  them. 

The  fighting  which  took  place  between  a  disaffected  band  of 
Chippewa  and  a  detachment  of  the  Third  Regiment  United 
States  Infantry2  was  of  so  hot  a  character  that  it  recalls  some 
of  the  encounters  of  Custer's  day  against  the  warlike  Sioux. 
The  shores  of  Leech  Lake  were  the  scene  of  the  affair.  This 
lake  is  a  good  sized  body  of  water  in  the  north  central  part  of 
the  state,  the  very  heart  of  the  lake  region.  About  sixty  miles 
west  is  Lake  Itasca  celebrated  as  one  of  the  sources  of  the 
Mississippi  River,  and  north  about  forty  miles  are  Cass  Lake 
ind  Lake  Winnibigoshish.  The  Chippewa  reservation  prac- 

1  Read  at  a  stated  meeting  of  the  executive  council  of  the  Minnesota 
Historical  Society,  St.  Paul,  October  13,  1919.    Dr.  Roddis,  the  author  of 
this  paper,  is  a  lieutenant  commander  in  the  medical  corps  of  the  United 
States  Navy.    The  footnotes  have  been  supplied  by  Miss  Dorothy  Heine- 
mann,  editorial  assistant  on  the  staff  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Soci- 
ety, in  consultation  with  the  author. — Ed. 

2  The   Indians  living  on  the  Leech   Lake   Reservation  belong  to  the 
Pillager  band  of  the  Chippewa.     They  were  often  considered  rather  dis- 
orderly and  degraded  but  the  reports  of  the  Indian  agent  of  the  White 
Earth  Reservation,  under  whose  jurisdiction  they  were  until  March   1, 

873 


274 


LOUIS  H.  RODDIS 


FEB. 


tically  surrounds  Leech  Lake,  on  the  southwestern  shore  of 
which  is  the  town  of  Walker,  at  the  time  of  the  uprising  a 
place  of  about  five  hundred  inhabitants.3  The  country  was 
covered  with  pine  woods  with  occasional  patches  of  hardwood 
timber,  and  was  very  sparsely  settled.  The  lumberjack,  the 
squaw  man,  and  the  backwoods  farmer  were  the  builders  of 
most  of  the  log  cabins  and  little  frame  dwellings  on  the  edge 
of  "clearings"  studded  with  stumps  and  girdled  trees.  It  was 
one  of  our  last  frontiers  and  the  men  of  those  backwoods  clear- 
ings were,  for  the  most  part,  of  that  rough  but  picturesque  type 
of  pioneer  which  has  filled  so  large  a  place  in  the  American 
conquest  of  a  continent. 

Anyone  who  is  familiar  with  the  history  of  our  Indian  wars 
is  struck  by  the  almost  monotonous  sameness  of  their  causes 
and  yet  it  is  surprising  how  little  insight  into  their  real  origin 
is  displayed  by  most  of  the  writers  on  the  subject.  The  reason 
appears  to  be  that  a  certain  distance  in  time  is  an  almost 
necessary  element  in  the  development  of  a  proper  historical 
perspective.  It  is  rare  that  the  participant  and  contemporary 
has  correctly  judged  the  causes  of  historical  events  in  which  he 
was  an  actor  or  a  spectator.  There  are  exceptions  to  this  but, 
in  general,  it  may  be  said  that  Gibbon,  for  example,  more  cor- 
rectly stated  the  causes  of  the  decline  of  Roman  power  than 

1899,  indicate  that  in  general  the  reverse  was  true.  With  the  help  gained 
from  annuities  they  made  their  living  largely  from  the  profit  of  the  sale 
of  fallen  timber,  by  hunting  and  fishing,  and  by  the  gathering  of  wild 
rice  and  berries.  At  the  time  of  the  outbreak  they  numbered  about  eleven 
hundred.  The  Indians  immediately  concerned  in  the  uprising  were  popu- 
larly known  as  "Bear  Islanders"  from  their  residence  on  Bear  Island  in 
Leech  Lake.  There  were  in  all,  probably,  not  more  than  one  hundred 
men  and  boys  capable  of  bearing  arms  among  them.  The  fighting  took 
place  on  the  shore  just  opposite  the  island.  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Indian  Affairs,  Annual  Reports,  1893,  p.  165;  18%,  pp.  168,  172;  1898, 
p.  181;  1899,  part  1,  p.  209;  "Report  of  the  Major  General  Commanding 
the  Army,"  in  United  States  War  Department,  Annual  Reports,  1 :  part  3, 
pp.  23-25;  Frank  R.  Holmes,  in  Minnesota  in  Three  Centuries,  4:245 
(New  York,  1908). 

3  United  States  Census,  1900,  Population,  216. 


1920  LAST  INDIAN  UPRISING  275 

any  Roman  could  have  done  and  it  is  most  probable  that  the 
best  history  of  the  Great  War  will  be  written  one  hundred 
years  hence. 

Most  of  the  writers  on  the  Indian  wars  can  be  divided  into 
two  classes :  those  who  clothed  the  red  man  in  all  the  virtues 
and  the  white  man  in  all  the  vices;  and  those  who  did  just  the 
reverse  and  described  the  Indian  as  a  ruthless  barbarian  who 
should  be  exterminated.  Both  views  are  wide  enough  of  the 
mark.  The  first  group  of  sentimentalists,  of  whom  Helen  Hunt 
Jackson4  is  a  good  example,  portrayed  the  Indian  as  the  noble 
savage  who  was  being  robbed  of  his  patrimony  by  a  callous 
government  and  an  avaricious  race.  Now  nobility  of  soul  is 
not  a  thing  peculiar  to  any  race.  There  are  individuals  who 
are  upright  and  virtuous  and  there  are  scoundrels,  murderers, 
and  thieves  among  any  people.  To  say  that  the  Indians  were 
by  right  the  owners  of  the  North  American  continent  is 
ridiculous.  That  such  a  land  was  by  right  the  exclusive  prop- 
erty of  a  few  hundred  thousand  seminomadic  hunters  is  a  pre- 
posterous proposition;  yet  this  was  not  only  solemnly  asserted 
by  many  writers,  but  was  tacitly  admitted  by  our  government 
in  many  instances  by  the  purchase  of  land  from  the  various 
tribes.5 

Opposed  to  this  sentimental  vein  was  the  general  opinion 
held  by  the  frontiersmen  and  settlers  that  "the  only  good 
Indian  is  a  dead  Indian."  This  was  a  natural  attitude  for  men 
to  take  who  had  seen  their  homes  burned,  their  families  and 
neighbors  tortured  and  scalped  by  a  fierce,  barbarous,  and  cruel 
enemy.  The  frontiersmen  heard  with  contempt  not  unmixed 
with  hatred  the  sickly  sentimentality  indulged  in  by  those  who 
sat  in  safety  at  their  firesides  a  thousand  miles  from  danger. 
Yet  this  attitude  of  the  borderer  was  almost  as  erroneous, 
although  it  is  too  much  to  expect  that  a  man  who  has  perhaps 

4  A  Century  of  Dishonor:  A  Sketch  of  the  United  States  Government's 
Dealings  with  Some  of  the  North  American  Tribes  (London,  1881). 

5  Theodore    Roosevelt,   The   Winning   of   the    West,   1:80-88,   331-335 
(New  York  and  London,  1889). 


276 


LOUIS  H.  RODDIS 


FEB. 


found  his  home  in  ashes  and  the  mutilated  remains  of  his  wife 
and  children  in  his  front  yard  could  make  an  imparital  estimate 
of  those  who  committed  such  outrages.  The  harsh  judgment 
of  the  border  settler  was  as  incorrect  as  the  sentimental  atti- 
tude of  those  who  apostrophized  the  Indian  as  the  "Noble 
Red  Man." 

The  truth  is  that  the  Indian  was  not  a  bad  man  judged 
according  to  his  lights  but  that  those  lights  were  not  such  as 
were  shed  by  the  torch  of  civilization,  and  hence  his  ideas  of 
conduct  and  that  of  civilized  man  were  too  far  apart  to  be 
easily  reconciled.  The  Indian  was  trained  from  childhood 
through  many  generations  to  look  upon  the  use  of  the  scalping 
knife  and  torture  stake  as  righteous  and  honorable  ways  of 
making  war,  just  as  he  was  trained  to  view  horse-stealing  as  a 
creditable  pursuit  and  all  work  but  that  of  war  or  the  chase  as 
demeaning.  To  the  white  man,  although  war  had  some  ameni- 
ties, industry  was  honorable.  It  was  these  fundamental  dif- 
ferences which  were  the  real  or,  as  one  may  say,  the  predispos- 
ing causes  of  our  Indian  wars.  The  actual  inciting  causes  of 
the  clashes  between  the  two  races  were  as  various  as  the  predis- 
posing causes  were  unvarying.  A  horse-stealing  expedition,  a 
settler  murdered  by  a  drunken  brave,  the  injustice  and  pecula- 
tions of  an  Indian  agent,  the  desire  to  possess  a  particular  piece 
of  land,  or  a  few  bottles  of  bad  whiskey  are  some  of  the  more 
common  ones. 

In  the  case  of  the  Leech  Lake  uprising  one  of  the  inciting 
causes  was,  apparently,  certain  irregularities  in  regard  to  the 
disposal  of  the  dead  and  fallen  timber  on  the  Leech  Lake 
Reservation.  The  Indians  complained  bitterly  that  they  were 
being  defrauded  by  white  speculators,  and  it  seems  that  on 
account  of  these  complaints  the  cutting  of  dead  and  fallen 
timber  was  stopped  shortly  after  the  outbreak,  pending  an 
investigation  by  the  department  of  the  interior.6  If  the  petition 

6  Correspondence  Relating  to  Timber  on  the  Chippewa  Indian  Reserva- 
tions, 23  (55  Congress,  3  session,  Senate  Miscellaneous  Documents,  no. 


1920  LAST  INDIAN  UPRISING  277 

of  October  22,  signed  by  fifteen  Pillager  chiefs  and  one  hun- 
dred and  twelve  of  their  tribesmen,  is  an  index  to  the  sentiment 
of  the  band,  this  action,  also,  incensed  them,  for  in  this 
petition  they  stated  that  they  depended  on  the  continuance  of 

70 — serial  3731)  ;  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Reports,  1898,  pp.  xxxi-xxxvi. 
The  Indians'  side  of  the  case  is  stated  in  the  following  petition,  which  was 
published  in  the  Cass  County  Pioneer  (Walker),  October  6,  1898. 

Leech  Lake  Indian  Reservation,  Minn.,  Sept.  25,  1898. — To  the  Great 
Father:  We,  the  undersigned  chiefs  and  headmen  of  the  Pillager  band 
of  Chippewa  Indians  of  Minnesota,  in  council  assembled,  respectfully 
represent  that  our  people  are  carrying  a  heavy  burden,  and  in  order  that 
they  may  not  be  crushed  by  it,  we  humbly  petition  you  to  send  a  com- 
mission, consisting  of  men  who  are  honest  and  cannot  be  controlled  by 
lumbermen,  to  investigate  the  existing  troubles  here. 

The  great  trouble  that  we  have  feared  for  many  years  has  finally 
reached  us,  and  if  you  do  not  reach  out  your  strong  arm  and  correct 
the  existing  evils  by  removing  from  among  us  the  persons  who  have 
caused  them,  we  will  be  destroyed. 

The  Chippewa  Indians  of  Minnesota  have  always  been  loyal  to  the 
United  States  and  friendly  to  the  whites,  and  they  desire  this  friendship 
to  be  perpetual. 

We  are  reluctant  about  taking  such  forcible  measures  to  protect  our 
tribal  property  from  spoliation,  as  existing  circumstances  warrant  us  in 
doing,  but  we  trust  that  you  will  protect  us  when  the  truth  reaches  you, 
which  we  think  could  be  only  through  a  commission. 

We  now  have  only  the  pine  lands  of  our  reservations  for  our  future 
subsistence  and  support,  but  the  manner  in  which  we  are  being  defrauded 
out  of  these  has  alarmed  us.  These  lands  are  now,  as  heretofore,  being 
underestimated  by  the  appraisers,  the  pine  thereon  is  being  destroyed  by 
fires  in  order  to  create  that  class  of  timber  known  as  dead  and  down 
timber,  so  as  to  enable  a  few  squaw  men  and  mixed  bloods  to  cut  and 
sell  the  same  for  their  own  benefit. 

We  are  not  opposed  to  cutting  and  selling  the  dead  and  down  timber 
of  our  reservation,  but  we  desire  it  to  be  conducted  in  such  a  manner 
that  the  benefits  therefrom  will  accrue  to  all  instead  of  a  few,  and  that 
squaw  men  will  be  excluded  from  operating  under  the  names  of  their 
wives  and  others,  and  that  the  rules  shall  be  strictly  enforced  in  relation 
to  white  labor. 

We  further  ask  that  no  one  shall  be  allowed  who  has  the  right  to 
cut  and  sell  the  said  dead  and  down  timber,  to  take  a  tract  of  more  than 
160  acres  to  cut  and  sell,  instead  of  from  20  to  30  sections,  as  many  have 
done,  to  the  complete  exclusion  of  many  of  the  Indians. 

Until  two  years  ago  only  one  person  was  employed  to  superintend  the 
cutting  of  dead  and  down  timber  on  our  reservation,  at  a  salary  of  $200 
per  month  and  actual  expenses  during  logging  seasons  only,  but  now 
six  men  are  unnecessarily  employed  to  do  this  work,  and  each  one  peceives 
$7.50  per  day  every  day  in  the  year.  We  protest  against  this  wanton  and 
unnecessary  expenditure  of  our  tribal  funds,  while  so  many  of  our  people 
are  suffering  from  the  want  of  the  necessaries  of  life. 

Finally,  we  ask  that  a  searching  investigation  shall  be  made  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  pine  lands  of  our -reservation  are  being  appraised 
and  sold,  and  also  the  manner  in  which  our  tribal  funds  are  being 
expended. 


278  'LOUIS  H.  RODDIS  FEB. 

the  logging  operations  during  the  winter  to  supply  their  fami- 
lies with  groceries  and  clothing.7 

Much  resentment  and  bitter  feeling  had  also  been  occasioned 
by  the  rather  indiscriminate  arrests  of  Indians  by  United 
States  marshals,  and  the  trouble  at  Leech  Lake  was  really 
precipitated  by  the  attempt  of  a  deputy  marshal  to  arrest  cer- 
tain Indians  concerned  in  whiskey-selling  practices  on  the 
reservation.  On  September  15  two  Indians  were  arrested  by 
deputy  marshals  and  were  rescued  by  their  comrades.  This 
was  an  open  violation  of  the  authority  of  the  United  States  and 
warrants  were  issued  for  the  arrest  of  more  than  twenty 
Indians  who  had  taken  part  in  the  rescue.8  As  the  Indians 
assumed  a  rather  threatening  attitude  the  marshals  asked  for 
troops  to  assist  them.  It  was  believed  that  a  show  of  force  in 
the  form  of  a  detachment  of  regular  troops  would  induce  sub- 

7  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press,  October  29,  1898,  p.  2. 

8  Conflicting  stories   of  the  hardships   which  Indians  were  forced  to 
undergo  when  subpoenas  were  issued  against  them  appeared  in  the  news- 
papers of  the  time.    It  was  rumored  that  when  Bugonaygeshig  was  sum- 
moned to  appear  in  Duluth  to  testify  against  an  Indian  accused  of  selling 
liquor  his  testimony  was  so  unsatisfactory  that  he  was  dismissed  without 
being  paid  the  usual  fee  and  as  a  result  was  forced  to  make  his  way  back 
to  Leech  Lake  as  best  he  could  without  any  funds.     The  official  reports, 
however,   present   another   account.     In   April,   1895,   Bugonaygeshig  was 
arrested  by  a  deputy  marshal  for  disposing  of  whiskey  to  an  Indian,  but 
was  discharged  for  lack  of  evidence.    In  June  he  and  several  other  Indians 
were  subpoenaed  to  appear  as  witnesses  in  a  case  against  an  Indian  accused 
of  assault.    When  none  of  them  appeared  writs  were  issued  and  Bugonay- 
geshig was  again  arrested  but  was  rescued  by  friends.     Subsequently  most 
of  the  Indians  concerned  surrendered.     Three  held  out,  however,  among 
them  Bugonaygeshig  and  Shobondayshkung.     It  was  these  two  who  were 
arrested  on  September  15.     In  commenting  on  the  wholesale  arrests  of 
the  Chippewa  the  commissioner  of  Indian  affairs  admitted,  however,  that, 
"Often  wholesale  arrests  have  been  made  solely  for  the  sake  of  the  fees 
which  would  accrue  to  the  officials.     Indians  have  been  helped  to  obtain 
whiskey  by  the  very  ones  who  arrested  them  for  using  it.    In  some  cases 
Indians  carried  off  to  court  have  been  left  to  get  back  as  best  they  could. 
The  whole  matter  of  arrests  by  deputy  marshals  had  come  to  be  a  farce, 
a  fraud,  and  a  hardship  to  the  Chippewas  and  a  disgrace  to  the  com- 
munity."   Pioneer  Press,  October  2,  1898 ;  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs, 
Reports,  1899,  part  1,  pp.  133,  135. 


1920  LAST  INDIAN  UPRISING  279 

mission.  Twenty  men  of  the  Third  Regiment  United  States 
Infantry  were  dispatched  to  Walker,  but  as  the  Indians  showed 
no  signs  of  yielding  a  request  by  telegraph  was  made  for  more 
troops  and  on  October  4  eighty  additional  men  of  the  Third 
Infantry  left  Fort  Snelling  for  the  scene  of  the  trouble.9  They 
were  commanded  by  Captain  and  Brevet  Major  Melville  C. 
Wilkinson  and  were  accompanied  by  Brigadier  General  John 
M.  Bacon,  commanding  officer  of  the  department  of  Dakota.10 
Two  days  later  the  war  and  interior  departments  in  Wash- 
ington received  a  bombshell  in  the  shape  of  the  following 
telegram  from  the  assistant  adjutant  general  at  St.  Paul.11 

In  answer  to  a  telegram  to  your  marshal  at  Walker,  Minn., 
have  received  reply  giving  location  of  Gen.  Bacon  on  mainland, 
southwest  corner  of  Leech  Lake  and  saying : 

'Commenced  righting  at  1 1 :  30  yesterday.  Indians  seem  to  have 
best  position.  Not  moving.  Maj.  Wilkinson,  five  soldiers  and 
two  Indian  police  killed;  awaiting  reinforcements/ 

Press  dispatches  and  private  Western  Union  dispatches  seem 
to  support  these  statements.  Reinforcements  will  doubtless  reach 
the  command  this  evening.  Reliable  information  indicates  Indians 

9  The   first   detachment,    under   the   command    of    Second    Lieutenant 
Chauncey  B.  Humphreys,  left  Fort  Snelling  on  September  30  and  arrived 
at  Walker  in  the  evening  of  the  same  day.     Two  representatives  of  the 
Indian  office,  John  H.  Sutherland,  agent  at  White  Earth,  and  Inspector 
Arthur  M.  Tinker,  also  arrived  at  Walker  on  September  30.    On  the  fol- 
lowing day,  October  1,  a  call  was  sent  out  for  a  council  to  be  held  on 
October  3.     None  of  the  Bear  Islanders  attended  this  council,  but  the 
other  Indians  claimed  that  their   failure  to  appear  was  due  to  the  bad 
weather  which  made  it  impossible  for  them  to  cross  the  lake.    The  council 
was  adjourned,  therefore,  until  the  following  day.     The  next  morning 
Marshal  O'Connor  and  Inspector  Tinker  went  to  Bear  Island  unarmed 
and  held  a  conference  with  the  Indians  but  failed  to  persuade  them  to 
surrender.    The  second  detachment  of  troops  arrived  in  Walker  late  in  the 
afternoon  of  October  4.     Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  Report,  1899, 
part,  1,  p.  132;  Pioneer  Press,  September  29  to  October  5,  1898. 

10  General  Bacon  was  attached  to  the  Eighth  Regiment  United  States 
Cavalry  but  had  temporarily  relieved  Brigadier  General  James  F.  Wade. 
Headquarters  Department  of  Dakota,  Special  Orders,  no.  136,  October  3, 
1898;  Secretary  of  War,  Reports,  1899,  pp.  23,  24;  Army  Register,  1898. 

11  Pioneer  Press,  October  7,  1898,  p.  1. 


280  LOUIS  H.  RODDIS  FEB. 

quiet  in  vicinity  of  engineer  dams  to  the  northeast.  No  report 
yet  from  Gen.  Bacon.  No  need  for  further  reinforcements  unless 
to  send  to  vicinity  of  Leech  lake  dam  to  cut  off  escape  of  Indians. 
Would  suggest  authority  be  given  to  utilize  one  battalion  of 
Minnesota  volunteers  in  case  of  need.  Report  just  received  of 
arrival  of  Col.  Harbach's  command  at  Walker  about  4  o'clock. 

The  events  which  occasioned  such  a  telegram  had  not  been 
anticipated  by  the  military.  According  to  one  of  the  newspaper 
correspondents  who  accompanied  the  expedition,  General  Bacon 
did  not  believe  that  there  was  likely  to  be  serious  trouble.  The 
correspondents  and  United  States  Marshal  O'Connor,  however, 
did  not  agree  with  him  and  thought  that  an  Indian  outbreak 
was  inevitable.  It  was  fully  decided  that  in  any  event  a  force 
should  go  to  a  point  on  the  northwest  side  of  the  lake  where 
Bngonaygeshig,  one  of  the  two  Indians  rescued  from  the  mar- 
shals on  September  15,  and  a  number  of  his  rescuers  were 
known  to  be  living.12 

The  force  consisted  of  seventy-seven  men  from  the  Third 
Infantry  under  Captain  Wilkinson  and  Second  Lieutenant 
Tenny  Ross,  General  Bacon,  Acting  Assistant  Surgeon  Henry 
S.  T.  Harris,  Marshal  Richard  T.  O'Connor,  six  deputy  mar- 
shals, a  few  Indian  policemen,  and  four  newspaper  correspond- 
ents, K.  C.  Beaton  of  the  Minneapolis  Tribune,  Harry  L. 
Knappen  of  the  Minneapolis  Times,  A.  F.  Morton  of  the  St. 
Paul  Globe,  and  William  H.  Brill  of  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer 
Press.  The  plan  was  to  embark  the  troops  in  two  small  lake 
steamers,  the  "Chief"  and  the  "Flora,"  and  a  barge  which  was 
to  be  taken  in  tow.  The  start  was  to  be  made  at  four  o'clock 
Wednesday  morning,  October  5,  but  it  was  about  six  o'clock 
when  the  boats  shoved  off  from  the  clock  at  Walker.  General 
Bacon,  Marshal  O'Connor,  several  deputy  marshals  and 

12  The  narrative  of  the  encounter  at  Sugar  Point  is  based  on  the 
accounts  written  by  William  H.  Brill  and  published  in  the  Pioneer  Press 
for  October  8  and  12,  1898,  and  on  General  Bacon's  report  to  Adjutant 
General  Corbin,  dated  November  1,  which  is  published  in  part  in  the 
Pioneer  Press  for  November  2,  1898. 


1920  LAST  INDIAN  UPRISING  281 

twenty-five  troops  under  Lieutenant  Ross  were  on  board  the 
"Chief."  On  the  "Flora"  and  the  barge  towed  by  her  were 
Captain  Wilkinson  with  the  remainder  of  the  troops,  Dr. 
Harris,  Deputy  Marshal  Sheehan,13  the  Indian  policemen,  and 
the  newspaper  correspondents. 

A  trip  of  about  three  hours  brought  them  to  their  destination, 
a  peninsula  jutting  into  the  lake  from  its  north  shore  and  about 
opposite  a  wooded  island  known  as  Bear  Island.  Here  was  a 
little  clearing  of  fifteen  or  twenty  acres  and  a  log  house,  the 
home  of  Bugonaygeshig.  The  point  of  land  was  about  eight 
or  ten  feet  above  the  level  of  the  lake,  with  a  gradual  slope 
covered  with  shrubs  and  boulders.  There  were  half  a  dozen 
Indians  to  be  seen  standing  about  the  hut  and  as  the  boats  drew 
near  the  shore  one  of  these,  wrapped  in  the  traditional  red 
blanket,  came  down  the  path  to  the  landing  in  the  most  friendly 
manner. 

The  water  shoaled  so  gradually  off  the  point  that  the 
steamer  "Chief"  went  aground  about  fifty  yards  from  the  shore 
and  the  "Flora,"  the  smaller  of  the  two  vessels,  was  able  to  get 
only  a  few  yards  nearer.  The  barge  was  then  poled  into  the 
beach  and  Captain  Wilkinson,  the  four  correspondents,  the 
deputy  marshals,  and  the  soldiers  from  the  "Flora"  and  the 
barge  landed.  The  troops  were  formed  near  the  landing  and 
a  third  of  them  marched  up  and  halted  in  front  of  the  log 
house.  The  deputy  marshals  had  already  preceded  them.  One 
of  the  Indians  near  the  hut,  Mahqua,  was  identified  by  Deputy 
Marshal  Sheehan  as  a  dangerous  member  of  the  Pillager  band 
who  had  taken  a  leading  part  in  the  rescue  of  the  two  Indians 
from  the  officers.  Mahqua  resisted  arrest  most  vigorously, 
twisting  the  handcuffs  from  the  hands  of  the  marshal  and 
attempting  to  hit  him  on  the  head  with  them.  The  marshal 

13  Colonel  Timothy  J.  Sheehan  had  served  in  the  Fifth  Minnesota  Vol- 
unteer Infantry  in  the  Civil  War  and  in  the  Sioux  Massacre  of  1862. 
Minnesota  in  the  Civil  and  Indian  Wars,  1861-1865,  1 : 245-251,  734  (2d 
edition,  St.  Paul,  1891). 


LANDING 


MAP  OF  THE  BATTLE  GROUND  OPPOSITE  BEAR  ISLAND 


MAP  OF  THE  LOCALITY  OF  THE  INDIAN  HOSTILITIES 
[Redrawn  from  sketches  in  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press,  October  6,  8,  1898.] 


1920  LAST  INDIAN  UPRISING  283 

parried  the  blow,  the  irons  bruising  his  right  hand.  Sheehan 
and  the  Indian  grappled,  several  of  the  soldiers  and  deputy 
marshals  joined  the  fray,  and  the  Indian  was  overpowered, 
handcuffed,  and  sent  on  board  the  "Flora"  under  guard.  While 
the  arrest  was  being  made  five  Indians  armed  with  Winchesters 
left  the  house  and  made  their  way  to  the  nearby  woods,  but,  as 
none  of  them  were  recognized  as  persons  wanted  by  the 
authorities,  they  were  allowed  to  leave  unmolested. 

In  the  meantime  General  Bacon,  Marshal  O'Connor,  and  the 
remainder  of  the  expedition  landed  and  the  clearing  and  its 
surroundings  were  examined.  This  clearing,  which  contained 
about  twenty  acres,  was  nearly  square  and  was  bounded  on  one 
side  by  the  lake  and  on  the  other  three  sides  by  dense  woods 
of  maple  and  ash  beneath  which  was  a  thick  underbrush.  The 
cleared  land  was  overgrown  with  grass  and  weeds  and  dotted 
with  stumps  and  a  number  of  large  maples,  some  girdled  and 
others  in  leaf.  To  the  south  of  the  log  house  which  stood  in 
the  center  of  the  clearing  was  a  patch  of  turnips  and  to  the 
east  side  was  a  small  field  of  potatoes.  A  rail  fence  covered 
with  wild  cucumber  and  other  vines  extended  from  the  edge  of 
the  lake  along  the  east  and  about  three-fourths  of  the  north 
side  of  the  clearing.  The  green  of  the  forest  was  already 
turning  to  the  somber  hues  of  autumn  save  that  here  and  there 
the  leaves  of  the  soft  maple  and  the  sumac  glowed  like  tongues 
of  flame  against  the  dark  background  of  the  forest. 

After  a  brief  consultation  it  was  decided  to  scour  the 
adjacent  woods  for  Indians  and  a  skirmish  line  of  twenty-five 
men  was  sent  out  across  the  clearing  and  a  short  distance  into 
the  woods  with  orders  to  bring  in  any  Indians  seen.  This 
searching  party  returned  in  about  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes, 
having  seen  two  armed  Indians,  and  those  running  along  the 
shore  at  such  a  distance  as  to  make  their  capture  impossible. 

There  were  three  small  Indian  villages  on  the  point  and  the 
next  step  was  to  visit  these  and  see  if  any  of  the  men  wanted 
by  the  marshals  might  not  be  apprehended  there  or  in  the 


284  LOUIS  H.  RODDIS  FEB. 

nearby  woods.  Lieutenant  Ross  with  about  sixty  men  was  left 
to  guard  the  landing  while  the  detachment  of  twenty-five  sol- 
diers, General  Bacon,  Captain  Wilkinson,  Marshal  O'Connor, 
three  of  the  deputy  marshals,  and  the  four  newspaper  corre- 
spondents set  off  on  a  "hike"  across  the  point.  They  followed 
a  path  which,  leading  out  from  the  west  side  of  the  clearing 
and  along  the  shore  of  the  lake,  came  to  an  inlet  about  fifty 
feet  wide  and  two  or  three  feet  deep.  This  had  to  be  forded. 
They  all  waded  through  with  the  exception  of  Deputy  Marshal 
Sheehan  who  was  strongly  opposed  to  a  wet-feet  campaign  and 
who  turned  back  to  the  clearing.  The  others  followed  the  path, 
which  meandered  through  the  woods  for  about  two  miles. 
Three  Indian  villages  were  passed  and  although  numbers  of 
old  men,  women,  and  children  clustered  about  the  log  and  birch 
bark  huts  looking  at  the  soldiers,  no  young  men  and  no  arms 
were  seen.  After  a  short  halt  at  the  last  village  the  party 
returned  to  the  clearing. 

Here  nothing  of  any  importance  had  taken  place  except 
that  a  brave  who  had  taken  part  in  the  rescue  of  Bugonaygeshig 
had  given  himself  up.  He  was  sent  on  board  the  "Flora" 
under  guard  together  with  two  sick  men,  a  hospital  steward, 
and  Marshal  O'Connor.  Morton,  the  correspondent  of  the 
Globe,  also  returned  to  the  "Flora." 

It  was  now  about  11:30  and  the  men  were  drawn  up  near 
the  house  and  ordered  to  stack  arms  preparatory  to  dismissal 
for  dinner.  As  nearly  as  can  be  made  out,  one  of  the  recruit's 
rifles  was  fired  accidently  as  the  men  were  stacking  arms.  This, 
according  to  most  of  the  witnesses,  was  followed  by  two  shots 
from  the  woods,  evidently  fired  as  a  signal  and  then  by  a 
volley  from  the  three  sides  of  the  clearing.  The  men  without 
waiting  for  orders  snatched  their  guns  from  the  stacks  and 
jumped  for  the  cover  afforded  by  the  house,  the  stumps,  and 
the  irregularities  of  the  ground.  A  soldier  who  was  present 
told  the  writer  that  in  half  a  minute  after  the  first  fire  from  the 
Indians  there  was  not  a  man  in  sight.  There  were  only 


**« 


1920  LAST  INDIAN  UPRISING  285 

nineteen  veterans  in  the  detachment,  the  remainder  being  raw 
recruits  who  had  never  been  under  fire  before  and  some  of 
whom  scarcely  knew  how  to  load  and  fire  their  own  rifles. 
That  there  was  a  sort  of  panic  for  a  few  minutes  as  stated 
by  some  of  the  eyewitnesses  is  not  strange.  The  suddenness 
of  the  attack  from  the  concealed  foe  would  have  shaken  the 
courage  of  veterans.  Encouraged,  however,  by  the  shouts  and 
example  of  their  officers  and  by  the  old  soldiers  in  the  force, 
the  men  quickly  recovered  themselves  and  formed  a  rough 
skirmish  line  in  the  shape  of  an  irregular  crescent,  facing 
toward  the  wooded  sides  of  the  clearing  and  with  their  backs 
to  the  lake.  Here  from  the  best  cover  they  could  obtain  they 
vigorously  returned  the  Indians'  fire.  General  Bacon  with 
Captain  Wilkinson  took  charge  of  the  center  of  the  line, 
Lieutenant  Ross  the  left,  and  Deputy  Marshal  Sheehan,  who 
was  an  old  soldier,  the  right.  General  Bacon,  rifle  in  hand, 
fought  like  a  common  soldier,  while  he  continued  with  the 
other  officers  to  encourage  the  men  by  word  and  example.  All 
the  officers  exposed  themselves  freely  to  the  Indians'  fire, 
walking  up  and  down  the  line  to  see  to  the  disposition  of  the 
troops.  Captain  Wilkinson  proved  himself  true  to  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  brave  though  profane  old  army  as  he  walked  along 
the  line  shouting :  "Give  it  to  them  boys ;  give  'em  hell !  We've 
got  'em  licked !  Give  'em  hell."  He  was  in  the  full  uniform 
of  his  rank  and  evidently  drew  the  fire  of  the  Indians  for  he 
soon  received  a  slight  flesh  wound  in  the  right  arm  and  a  few 
minutes  later  a  bullet  struck  his  left  thigh  just  above  the  knee. 
He  fell  to  the  ground  saying  to  Lieutenant  Ross :  "I'm  hit, 
Ross,  but  not  badly.  Keep  'em  at  it."  He  was  carried  behind 
the  log  house  where  the  hospital  steward  dressed  his  wound 
as  the  captain  sat  propped  up  against  the  wall.  But  nothing 
could  keep  him  out  of  the  fight  and  as  soon  as  his  wound  was 
dressed  he  was  back  on  the  firing  line.  He  had  scarcely 
returned  when  a  bullet  struck  him  in  the  right  side  passing 
completely  through  the  abdomen  and- he  fell  mortally  wounded. 


286  LOUIS  H.  RODDIS  FEB. 

"Give  'em  hell,"  he  shouted  to  General  Bacon  as  he  breathed 
his  last  a  few  minutes  after  being  hit.14 

For  a  time  both  Indians  and  soldiers  kept  up  a  hot  fire 
although  neither  side  had  much  to  aim  at  save  the  puffs  of 
smoke.  By  the  volume  of  fire  from  the  woods  it  appeared  that 
the  braves  were  about  equal  in  number  to  the  soldiers.  It  was 
very  easy  to  distinguish  the  rifle  fire  of  the  Indians  for  most  of 
them  were  armed  with  Winchesters  whose  duller  reports  were 
punctuated  by  the  sharp  staccato  crack  of  the  soldiers5  Krag- 
Jorgensens. 

At  the  end  of  about  half  an  hour  the  fusilade  from  the 
woods  slackened  and  there  was  a  short  respite  after  which  it 
broke  out  again  more  fiercely  than  before.  Altogether  there 
were  six  separate  attacks  or  rather  bursts  of  fire  from  the 
woods  with  short  intervals  between  until  about  three  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  when  apparently  the  main  body  of  the  Indians 
withdrew.  Occasionally  a  few  shots  would  come  from  the 
woods  but  the  main  attack  was  over.  It  had  lasted  for  three 
hours  and  a  half  and  had  resulted  for  the  troops  in  the  loss  of 
one  officer  and  five  men  killed  and  ten  men  wounded.15  There 
were  plenty  of  narrow  escapes  among  the  remainder.  A  num- 

14  The  Pioneer  Press  of  October  7,  1898,  contains  a  brief  sketch  of 
Captain  Wilkinson. 

15  Those  killed  were:     Captain  Melville  C.  Wilkinson,  Sergeant  Wil- 
liam S.  Butler,  and  Privates  John  Onstead,  Albert  Ziebel,  Edward  J.  Lowe, 
and  Daniel  F.  Schwallenstocker.    The  wounded  were:     Sergeant  Le  Roy 
Ayres,  and  Privates  Charles  Turner,  John  Daly,  George  Wicker,  Edward 
Brown,  Jess  S.  Jensen,  Gottfried  Ziegler,  Ermenigildo  Antonelli,  Charley 
Francone,  and  Julius  A.  Boucher.    Adjutant  general's  records  in  the  war 
department,    Washington.      See    also    Commissioner    of    Indian    Affairs, 
Reports,  1899,  part  1,  p.  134;  and  Secretary  of  War,  Reports,  1899,  p.  24. 

The  civilian  losses  were:  one  killed,  an  Indian  policeman;  and  six 
wounded,  among  whom  were  Deputy  Marshal  Sheehan  and  Indian 
Inspector  Tinker.  At  first  it  was  believed  and  reported  that  the  Indians 
suffered  heavily,  but  as  they  carried  away  their  dead  and  wounded  none 
were  seen.  The  Indians  were  very  uncommunicative  in  regard  to  their 
casualities  long  after  the  engagement  and  what  statements  they  did  make 
were  so  conflicting  that  their  actual  loss  is  still  problematical.  According 
to  some  of  the  chiefs  no  Indians  were  killed  and  only  two  were  wounded. 
Colonel  Sheehan,  however,  considered  the  fact  that  six  Winchesters  were 


1920  LAST  INDIAN  UPRISING  287 

her  had  bullet  holes  in  their  clothing,  one  man  had  a  bullet 
graze  his  chin,  and  another  had  a  bullet  take  a  piece  of  skin 
from  the  bridge  of  his  nose.  A  bullet  went  through  General 
Bacon's  hat  passing  within  an  inch  of  his  head.  All  from  the 
general  to  the  last  recruit  fought  well  and  instances  of  indi- 
vidual gallantry  were  common.  General  Bacon,  Lieutenant 
Ross,  and  Marshal  Sheehan  as  well  as  Captain  Wilkinson  all 
showed  great  coolness  and  resolution,  as  did  the  noncommis- 
sioned officers,  particularly  First  Sergeant  Kelly  who  took 
charge  of  the  center  of  the  line  after  the  fall  of  Captain  Wilkin- 
son. Sergeant  Butler  was  killed  by  a  bullet  through  the  head 
while  exposing  himself  in  the  carrying  of  a  message.  The 
hospital  steward,  Burkhard,  distinguished  himself  by  his  dis- 
regard of  danger  while  bringing  in  wounded  and  by  rendering 
first  aid  to  the  wounded  under  fire.  The  surgeon,  Dr.  Harris, 
was  equally  devoted  to  his  duty.  He  was  on  board  one  of 
the  steamers  when  action  began,  having  accompanied  one  of 
the  sick  sent  to  the  steamer.  He  returned  to  the  command 
again  by  rowing  ashore  under  fire  in  a  small  skiff.  Together 
with  his  hospital  steward  he  upheld  the  highest  traditions  of 
his  department  for  matter  of  fact  courage  and  efficient  per- 
formance of  duty  in  the  face  of  danger  and  difficulties. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  firing  the  steamers  lying  off 
the  point  were  exposed  to  a  sharp  rifle  fire  from  the  Indians 
and  in  a  short  time  they  stood  out  from  the  shore  and  returned 
to  Walker  where  no  little  excitement  and  consternation  was 
caused  by  the  report  which  they  brought.  Indian  Inspector 
Tinker,  Marshal  O'Connor,  and  several  of  the  deputy  marshals 
were  aboard,  and  their  rather  hurried  return  to  Walker,  leav- 
ing the  soldiers  to  fight  it  out  or  be  driven  into  the  lake,  caused 
a  great  deal  of  unfavorable  comment  and  a  good  many  broad 
hints  that  the  courage  of  those  aboard  was  rather  questionable. 

found  after  the  engagement  sufficient  evidence  that  six  Indians  were 
killed.  He  believed  that  an  Indian  never  dropped  his  gun  until  he  was 
dead.  Pioneer  Press,  October  6,  8,  9,  11,  12,  1898;  Cass  County  Pioneer, 
October  13,  1898. 


288  LOUIS  H.  RODDIS  FEB. 

It  seems,  however,  that  both  Inspector  Tinker  and  the  marshal 
were  desirous  of  getting  to  town  to  hurry  up  reinforcements  as 
well  as  to  send  food  and  blankets  to  General  Bacon's  detach- 
ment. The  boats  themselves  were  quite  unable  to  render  any 
material  assistance  as  their  sides  and  pilot  houses  were  readily 
pierced  by  rifle  bullets. 

The  night  was  an  anxious  one  for  General  Bacon's  men. 
The  wounded  were  made  as  comfortable  as  possible  and  a 
trench  and  some  rifle  pits  were  dug  and  pickets  posted.  Sev- 
eral alarms  took  place  and  an  Indian  policeman  was  killed  by 
a  sentry  who  mistook  him  for  one  of  the  hostiles.  The  pro- 
visions were  scanty  and  the  men  did  not  have  their  blankets. 
When  morning  came  the  little  force  was  well  intrenched  and 
felt  confident  that  it  could  easily  repulse  the  Indians  if  again 
attacked.  Most  of  the  enemy  had  apparently  left  the  peninsula 
but  occasional  shots  from  the  woods  proved  that  some  of  the 
Indians  were  still  lurking  there.  A  chance  shot  killed  a  soldier 
digging  potatoes  in  the  neighboring  field,  and  the  situation 
was  hardly  a  pleasant  one,  particularly  for  the  wounded.  The 
arrival  of  a  steamer  from  Walker  with  blankets  and  a  quantity 
of  food  greatly  cheered  the  men.  The  steamer  was  fired  upon 
and  consequently  was  able  to  take  off  only  one  of  the  wounded. 

About  3  :  30  p.  M.,  October  6,  Lieutenant  Colonel  Abram  A. 
Harbach  with  a  force  of  two  hundred  and  fourteen  men  and  a 
Catling  gim  arrived  at  Walker  to  reinforce  the  detachment  at 
Sugar  Point.16  About  two  hours  later  the  steamer  "Flora," 
returning  with  the  dead  and  wounded  of  General  Bacon's 
party,  brought  the  report  that  fighting  had  practically  ceased 
and  that  the  steamer  had  established  satisfactory  communica- 
tion with  the  shore.  Indeed  from  about  noon  on  the  sixth  no 
Indians  were  seen  and  only  one  or  two  shots  were  fired.  The 
wounded  were  sent  to  the  Walker  hospital  and  the  bodies  of 
the  dead  were  taken  to  Bailey's  warehouse  near  the  dock.17 

16  Secretary  of  War,  Reports,  1899,  p.  24. 

17  Pioneer  Press,  October  7,  1898;   Cass  Comity  Pioneer,  October  13, 
1898. 


•rt 
3ft 


5  §' 


1920  LAST  INDIAN  UPRISING  289 

About  noon  on  Friday,  October  7,  General  Bacon's  force 
embarked  on  the  steamer  "Leila  D."  arriving  about  five-thirty 
in  the  afternoon  at  the  Walker  dock  where  they  were  warmly 
greeted  by  the  citizens  and  by  the  men  of  Colonel  Harbach's 
command.  The  next  morning  the  latter  force  went  to  the 
Indian  agency  five  miles  north  of  Walker  -where  they  pitched 
tents  and  went  into  camp.  Runners  were  sent  out  inviting  the 
Indians  to  come  to  the  agency  for  a  council  to  discuss  the 
surrender  of  the  braves  for  whom  warrants  had  been  issued 
and  to  investigate  and  settle  the  complaints  in  regard  to  the 
disposal  of  the  dead  and  fallen  timber.  The  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  W.  A.  Jones,  arrived  from 
Washington,  October  10,  and  the  next  morning  he  and  Father 
Aloysius,  a  priest  who  had  great  influence  over  the  Indians, 
went  to  Bear  Island,  where  they  had  a  long  and  friendly  con- 
ference with  those  chiefs  of  the  Pillager  band  who  were  prin- 
cipally concerned  in  the  outbreak.18 

The  news  of  the  clash  between  the  troops  and  the  Indians 
spread  like  wildfire  and  resulted  in  a  general  alarm  throughout 
the  northern  villages.  The  settlers  and  timber  cruisers  poured 
into  the  towns  for  protection  and  telegrams  were  sent  to  the 
adjutant  general  of  the  department  requesting  that  troops  be 
sent  to  Walker,  Bemidji,  Farris,  Cass  Lake,  Deer  River,  and 
Aitken,  while,  at  the  same  time  the  citizens  of  these  towns 
armed  and  organized  for  the  defense  of  their  homes.  At 
Bemidji  something  like  a  panic  took  place.  The  women  were 
collected  in  the  court  house  and  two  hundred  armed  citizens 
kept  watch  and  ward.  The  arrival  of  detachments  of  troops  in 
the  villages  soon  quieted  the  alarm  and  caused  the  excitement 
to  subside.19 

18  Cass  County  Pioneer,  October  13,  1898. 

19  Pioneer  Press,  October  7-11,  1898.    One  hundred  men  of  the  Duluth 
Battalion,  Fourteenth  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infantry,  were  sent  to  Bemidji 
on  October  9,  1898.    Headquarters  Department  of  Dakota,  Special  Orders, 
no.  138. 


290  LOUIS  H.  RODDIS  FEB. 

Troops  were  poured  into  the  Indian  country,  not  only  for  the 
sake  of  actual  protection  in  case  of  an  extensive  uprising,  but 
also  to  impress  the  Indians  with  the  fact  that  recourse  to 
arms  was  hopeless  and  that  the  government  was  determined  to 
suppress  any  armed  resistance  to  its  authority.  At  the  same 
time  a  thorough  investigation  of  the  Indians'  complaints  in 
regard  to  the  disposal  of  the  dead  timber  on  their  land  was 
promised.  Influenced  by  the  tact  of  the  Indian  commissioner, 
persuaded  by  the  chiefs  and  leading  men  of  the  tribe,  which  has 
always  been  conspicuously  friendly  to  the  whites,  and  also, 
probably,  impressed  by  the  military  force  brought  to  the  scene, 
the  Bear  Islanders  gradually  acceded  to  the  demands  of  the 
marshals  and  by  the  middle  of  October  practically  all  the  men 
for  whom  warrants  had  been  issued  were  in  the  hands  of  the 
authorities.  They  were  transferred  to  Duluth  for  trial.  When 
their  cases  came  up  before  Judge  Lochren  on  October  21,  all 
were  found  guilty  and  were  given  sentences  varying  from  sixty 
days  imprisonment  and  a  fine  of  twenty-five  dollars  to  ten 
months  and  one  hundred  dollars.  On  December  13,  the  Indian 
office  recommended  that  the  term  of  imprisonment  be  com- 
muted to  two  months  and  that  the  fines  be  remitted,  and  finally 
on  June  3,  1899,  the  pardons  were  granted.20 


Louis  H.  RODDIS 


U.  S.  S.  VERMONT 
PACIFIC  FLEET 


20  Commissioner    of    Indian    Affairs,    Reports,    1899,    part    1,    p.    134 
Pioneer  Press,  October  12,  23,  1898. 


NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS 

THE  GOODHUE  PRESS 

In  two  articles  published  November  8  and  November  17, 
1919,  in  the  Daily  Argus-Leader  of  Sioux  Falls,  South  Dakota, 
the  authenticity  of  the  historic  press  which  is  preserved  in  the 
museum  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  is  attacked.  In 
the  second  of  these  articles,  Doane  Robinson,  secretary  of  the 
South  Dakota  Historical  Society,  is  quoted  as  saying  "that  the 
authorities  of  the  state  of  Minnesota  have  no  claim  to  posses- 
sion of  the  old  Washington  handpress  which  was  used  to  print 
the  first  newspaper  in  three  different  states — Iowa,  Minnesota, 
and  South  Dakota/'  Robinson  alleges  that  the  original  Good- 
hue  press  used  in  the  publication  of  the  Minnesota  Pioneer  was 
purchased  by  Samuel  J.  Albright  in  1858  and  taken  to  Sioux 
Falls,  where  it  was  partially  destroyed  by  the  Indians  in  1862. 
In  support  of  his  contention,  he  quotes  a  letter  from  Governor 
Albright,  dated  December  14,  1899,  as  follows: 

The  press  was  a  Washington,  of  the  Smith  pattern,  manu- 
factured in  Cincinnati,  O.,  by  Charles  Mallett.  It  was  purchased 
from  the  manufacturer  in  1834  by  John  King.  In  the  spring  of 
1836  be  brought  it  to  Dubuque,  la.,  and  the  Visitor,  the  first 
paper  in  Iowa,  was  printed  upon  it.  In  1842  General  H.  A.  Wiltse 
bought  it  and  removed  it  to  Lancaster,  Wis.,  where  he  established 
the  Grant  County  Herald.  There  it  was  sold  to  J.  M.  Goodhue, 
who,  in  the  spring  of  1849,  removed  it  to  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  and 
established  upon  it  the  Minnesota  Pioneer,  the  first  newspaper 
in  that  state.  In  1858  I  bought  it  and  brought  it  to  Sioux  Falls, 
where  July  2,  1859,  I  established  the  Dakota  Democrat  and 
printed  it  upon  it ;  the  first  paper  in  Dakota. 

There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  the  old  hand  press  which 
Albright  bought  in  1858  and  took  west  published  the  first  news- 
paper in  South  Dakota,  and  probably  the  remnants  now  pre- 


291 


292  NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS  FEB. 

served  in  the  Masonic  Museum  at  Sioux  Falls — said  to  have 
been  rescued  from  a  rock  pile  some  eight  years  after  the  Sioux 
Outbreak  of  1862 — belong  to  the  Albright  press.  Unfortu- 
nately Governor  Albright  does  not  tell  where  he  bought  his 
press,  but  leads  one  to  assume  from  his  letter  that  he  pur- 
chased it  in  St.  Paul.  Robinson  explains  that  "Samuel  J.  Al- 
bright, squatter  governor  of  Dakota  who  brought  the  press  to 
Dakota  and  established  the  Dakota  Democrat  at  Sioux  Falls 
on  July  2,  1859,  settled  in  St.  Paul  in  1853  and  soon  after 
became  associate  editor  of  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer;  in  1856  he 
left  the  Pioneer  and  established  the  St.  Paul  Press,  so  that  he 
was  intimately  acquainted  with  the  affairs  of  both  papers  which 
subsequently  were  consolidated." 

The  available  evidence  seems  to  indicate  that  the  Goodhue 
press  was  not  in  St.  Paul  during  the  greater  part  of  the  time 
that  Albright  was  there,  and  the  weakness  of  the  South  Dakota 
claim  to  the  possession  of  the  remnants  of  this  press  lies  in  the 
failure  to  explain  its  whereabouts  during  the  years  1854  to 
1858.  Shortly  after  Earle  S.  Goodrich  purchased  the  Pioneer 
from  Joseph  R.  Brown  in  March,  1854,  he  installed  a  power 
press  and  began  the  publication  of  the  Daily  Pioneer.1  The 
Goodhue  hand  press  was  sold  to  Jeremiah  Russell  and  taken 
to  Sank  Rapids  early  in  1855.  In  May  of  that  year  Russell 
issued  the  first  number  of  the  Sauk  Rapids  Frontiersman,  with 
the  assistance  of  William  H.  Wood.  In  December,  1859,  the 
press  and  equipment  of  the  Frontiersman  were  sold  to  Wood, 
and  in  its  place  another  paper,  the  New  Era,  appeared  on  Janu- 
ary 12,  1860.  The  following  year  the  Goodhue  press  was  pur- 
chased by  C.  C.  Andrews  of  St.  Cloud  who  used  it  in  the  pub- 

1  The  Minnesota  Pioneer,  March  16,  1854,  p.  2,  carries  a  statement 
signed  by  Joseph  R.  Brown,  dated  March  13,  announcing  the  sale  of  the 
paper  to  Earle  S.  Goodrich  and  Company  and  also  an  announcement  by 
the  new  proprietor  that  the  Daily  Pioneer  was  to  begin  on  May  1  and 
was  to  be  printed  on  a  power  press.  The  Daily  Pioneer  for  December 
16,  1854  announces  that  it  was  "Printed  by  Steam  on  Taylor's  Cylinder 
Printing  Machine." 


1920  THE  GOODHUE  PRESS  293 

lication  of  the  Minnesota  Union,  the  first  number  of  which  was 
issued  June  14,  1861.  Andrews  joined  the  Third  Minnesota 
Volunteer  Infantry  in  October,  and  shortly  afterward  Spafford 
and  Simonton  took  over  the  press  for  the  St.  Cloud  Union.  In 
1868  it  was  again  sold,  this  time  to  the  publishers  of  the  Sank 
Center  Herald,  and  it  continued  to  be  used  in  that  region  for 
some  years.  In  1897  the  historic  press  was  moved  to  Lind- 
strom,  where  it  was  used  by  the  publishers  of  Medborgaren 
(The  Citizen),  a  Swedish  newspaper,  until  August  1,  1899. 
Finally  in  1905  the  Pioneer  Press  Company  of  St.  Paul  pur- 
chased the  old  press  and  presented  it  to  the  Minnesota  Histor- 
ical Society.2 

A  letter  to  the  writer,  dated  January  22,  1920,  from  Frank 
Moore,  now  of  Oregon  City,  Oregon,  who  was  for  many  years 
foreman  of  the  press  roorp  of  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press,  not 
only  corroborates  these  conclusions,  but  furnishes  what  is  prob- 
ably the  correct  identification  of  the  press  now  preserved  at 
Sioux  Falls.  "Your  version  of  the  history  of  the  Goodhue 
press,"  he  writes,  "is  correct  as  far  as  I  know.  As  I  remember 
it  the  Weekly  Pioneer  was  printed  on  the  Goodhue  Press  until 
the  Daily  Pioneer  was  started  sometime  in  1854,  I  think,  and 
was  then  discarded  for  a  power  press  and  sold  to  a  Sauk  Rapids 
party.  When  the  Pioneer  and  Democrat  consolidated  two  or 
three  years  later  the  hand  press  they  used  was  discarded,  and 

2  "The  Presses  of  Half  a  Century,"  in  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press,  Novem- 
ber 9,  1899,  p.  39;  Daniel  S.  B.  Johnston,  "Minnesota  Journalism  in  the 
Territorial  Period,"  in  Minnesota  Historical  Collections,  10:279  (part  1)  ; 
"Newspapers  of  Minnesota  during  the  Territorial  Period,"  in  Minnesota 
Territorial  Pioneers'  Association,  Proceedings  and  Addresses  at  the  Sec- 
ond Annual  Mid-Winter  Reunion,  1 :  47  (St.  Paul,  1899) ;  partial  files  of  the 
Sauk  Rapids  Frontiersman,  1856-1859,  New  Era  (Sauk  Rapids),  January 
26,  1860-November  29,  1860,  Minnesota  Union  (St.  Cloud),  1861,  and 
St.  Cloud  Union,  1864,  in  the  possession  of  the  Minnesota  Historical 
Society;  statements  of  Major  Edwin  Clark,  former  publisher  of  the 
Falls  Evening  News  (St.  Anthony),  and  of  General  C.  C.  Andrews; 
Warren  Upham  to  Conde  Hamlin,  general  manager  of  the  Pioneer  Press 
Company,  September  12,  1905,  in  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  Letter 
Books,  BIO. 


294  NOTES 'AND  DOCUMENTS  FEB. 

that  is  the  press  I  think  Sam  Albright  took  to  Dakota  with 
him.  Albright  was  a  compositor  on  the  Pioneer  and  left  St. 
Paul  for  Dakota  shortly  after  I  arrived  there."  If  this  state- 
ment is  correct,  then  Albright  took  out  to  Dakota  the  press 
used  by  the  Minnesota  Democrat  and  not  the  one  used  by  Good- 
hue  on  the  Minnesota  Pioneer.  From  the  evidence  presented 
it  seems  clear  that  the  Goodhue  press  never  left  Minnesota  but 
continued  in  active  service  down  to  1899  and  was  still  in  good 
condition  when  it  reached  its  resting  place  in  the  museum  of 
the  Minnesota  Historical  Society. 

WlLLOUGHBY    M.    BABCOCK    JR. 

MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 
ST.   PAUL 


REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS 

Handbook  of  Aboriginal  American  Antiquities;  The  Lithic 
Industries  (Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  Bulletins,  no. 
60,  parti).  By  W.  H.  HOLMES.  (Washington,  Government 
Printing  Office,  1919.  xvii,  380  p.  Illustrations.) 

In  the  preface  the  author  states  that  this  handbook  is  the  second 
of  a  series  of  treatises  which  will  systematically  cover  a  number 
of  the  subjects  briefly  discussed  in  the  Handbook  of  American 
Indians  (Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  Bulletins,  no.  30).  It 
"is  not  designed  as  a  formal  presentation  of  American  archaeology 
in  which  the  antiquities  are  described  and  discussed  country  by 
country,  or  region  by  region,  in  geographical  sequence,  but  rather 
as  a  reference  manual,  the  principal  purpose  of  which  is  to 
assemble  and  present  the  antiquities  of  the  continent  in  such  a 
manner  and  order  as  to  make  them  readily  available  to  the  student 
who  shall  undertake  to  present  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  evo- 
lution of  culture  among  men." 

With  this  purpose  in  mind,  the  first  152  pages  are  devoted  to 
a  discussion  of  the  problems  involved  in  archeological  work, 
questions  of  tribal  migrations,  trade  relations,  cultural  areas,  the 
antiquity  of  man,  and  similar  preliminary  considerations.  Here 
too  the  classification  of  archeological  matter  is  discussed,  and 
various  systems  are  compared.  In  chapter  8  Dr.  Holmes  takes  up 
the  evidence  which  has  been  adduced  to  prove  the  existence  of 
man  in  America  in  the  preglacial  epoch  and  concludes  "that  the 
continent  was  probably  not  reached  and  occupied  until  the  final 
retreat  of  the  glacial  ice  from  middle  North  America."  Of  partic- 
ular interest  to  Minnesota  readers  in  this  connection  is  his  dis- 
cussion of  the  problem  of  the  Little  Falls  quartzes. 

The  remainder  of  the  volume  deals  with  two  main  topics,  first, 
the  occurrence  and  production  of  the  raw  materials,  and  second, 
the  methods  of  fashioning  the  material  into  the  finished  stone 
product.  "The  second  volume  is  to  be  devoted  exclusively  to 
the  implements,  utensils,  and  other  minor  artifacts  of  stone." 
Sketches  and  pictures  of  aboriginal  quarries  and  workshops, 
numerous  photographs  of  implements  in  various  stages  of  manu- 


296  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  FEB. 

facture,  and  pictures  of  life-size  groups  in  the  National  Museum 
enable  the  reader  to  appreciate  the  difficulties  of  production  in  the 
Stone  Age.  Among  the  substances  quarried  by  the  aborigines  was 
catlinite,  or  red  pipestone,  which  was  extensively  used  in  making 
tobacco  pipes  and  ceremonial  articles.  This  material  was  obtained 
principally  at  the  famous  quarry  near  Pipestone  in  southwestern 
Minnesota,  and  the  author  devotes  his  twenty- fourth  chapter  to 
a  discussion  of  the  conditions  and  methods  of  working  it.  A 
number  of  pictures  add  to  the  interest  of  the  section. 

The  book  is  profusely  illustrated  with  pictures  which  help  to 
give  a  working  knowledge  of  the  subject.  It  is  carefully  indexed, 
equipped  with  a  table  of  contents  and  a  list  of  illustrations,  and 
supplied  with  a  bibliography.  It  is,  indeed,  what  it  purports  to 
be,  a  Handbook  of  Aboriginal  American  Antiquities. 

WlLLOUGHBY   M.   BABCOCK   JR. 

The  North  West  Company  (University  of  California,  Publications 
in  History,  vol.  7).  By  GORDON  CHARLES  DAVIDSON,  Ph.  D., 
first  lieutenant,  Canadian  Mounted  Rifles.  (Berkley,  Uni- 
versity of  California  Press,  1918.  xi,  349  p.  Illustrations.) 

Since  the  great  Canadian  fur-trading  organization  known  as 
the  Northwest  Company  was  the  virtual  ruler  of  the  most  of 
Minnesota  from  the  close  of  the  American  Revolution  until  after 
the  War  of  1812,  and  since  the  company's  principal  entrepot  for 
the  trade  west  of  the  Great  Lakes  was  at  Grand  Portage,  within 
the  present  boundaries  of  the  state,  a  history  of  that  company 
should  be  of  considerable  interest  to  Minnesota  readers.  The 
character  of  this  volume  is  well  set  forth  in  the  following  extract 
from  a  review  by  Wayne  E.  Stevens,  which  appeared  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Review  for  December,  1919.  Dr. 
Stevens  has  made  special  studies  of  several  phases  of  the  subject 
of  the  book  and  is  in  a  position  to  speak  with  authority  about  it. 

So  few  books  of  real  worth  have  been  written  concerning  the  fur 
trade  of  North  America  that  the  appearance  of  a  new  volume  in  this 
field  may  be  regarded  as  an  event,  particularly  when  it  deals  with  so 
important  and  little-known  a  phase  of  the  subject  as  the  history  of  the 
North  West  company.  Mr.  Davidson's  volume  is  the  most  pretentious 
study  of  the  sort  which  has  appeared  since  the  publication  of  Chittenden's 
American  fur  trade  of  the  far  west.  An  examination  of  the  bibliography 


1920          DAVIDSON:  NORTH  WEST  COMPANY          297 

reveals  that  the  writer  has  searched  the  field  with  the  most  painstaking 
care  in  an  effort  to  obtain  all  the  material  available.  He  has  personally 
investigated  the  principal  British  and  Canadian  archives  and  has  brought 
to  light  considerable  manuscript  and  some  printed  material  which  has 
never  before  been  used.  After  studying  the  bibliography,  however,  one 
can  not  but  be  impressed  by  the  scarcity  of  information  which  is  available 
concerning  the  business  operations  of  the  North  West  Company.  There 
is  very  little  material  in  the  form  of  accounts  and  other  business  papers 
which  throws  light  upon  the  history  of  the  concern  as  an  economic  enter- 
prise. There  is  likewise  an  almost  entire  absence  of  correspondence  or 
letter  books  of  the  partners  of  the  concern,  which  if  available  would  be 
of  the  utmost  value.  The  various  agreements  between  the  partners  which 
formed  the  basis  of  the  organization  of  the  company  at  various  times 
have  been  preserved  and  likewise  copies  of  the  journal  kept  by  the 
bourgeois.  The  latter,  however,  are  for  the  most  part  concerned  with 
descriptions  of  the  country  in  the  interior  and  contain  all  too  little 
information  concerning  the  conduct  of  the  business.  In  making  any 
critical  estimate  of  Mr.  Davidson's  work,  then,  it  must  be  constantly 
born  in  mind  that  he  has  been  greatly  handicapped  owing  to  the  fact 
that  the  records  of  the  North  West  company  itself  have  not  been  ob- 
tainable. After  all  is  said,  one  can  not  but  feel  satisfied  that  the  vol- 
ume contains  nearly  all  of  the  available  facts  concerning  the  history 
of  the  company,  from  its  origin  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century  down  through  the  turbulent  years  of  strife  with  rival  fur 
companies  and  Lord  Selkirk  and  the  Red  River  colony,  until  its  ab- 
sorption by  the  Hudson's  Bay  company  in  1821.  There  is  one  valu- 
able manuscript,  however,  which  the  writer  does  not  mention.  It  is 
in  the  form  of  a  folio  of  some  eighty  closely-written  pages  and  is 
preserved  in  the  Baby  collection  at  the  Bibliotheque  St.  Sulpice, 
Montreal.  This  folio  contains  the  minutes  of  meetings  of  the  North 
West  partners  held  at  Grand  Portage  and  later  at  Kamanistiquia 
between  the  years  1801  and  1806.  These  minutes,  which  have  never  been 
published,  contain  a  great  deal  of  information  relative  to  the  administra- 
tion of  the  departments  in  the  interior,  the  allotment  of  shares,  and 
negotiations  with  the  Hudson's  Bay,  Michillimackinac,  and  American  fur 
companies,  while  they  also  throw  interesting  sidelights  upon  the  life  of 
the  interior.  In  some  respects  they  constitute  as  valuable  a  source  as  any 
which  the  author  has  used. 

After  due  allowance  has  been  made  for  the  scarcity  of  material,  how- 
ever, Mr.  Davidson's  treatment  of  his  subject  leaves  much  to  be  desired. 
First  of  all,  his  method  is  extremely  labored  and  the  reader  cannot  avoid 
a  feeling  that  the  author  has  been  obsessed  with  the  fear  of  omitting  a 
single  fact  regardless  of  how  essential  it  may  be  for  the  purpose  of 
explaining  what  the  North  West  company  was  and  how  it  conducted  its 
operations.  The  outlines  of  the  story  are  obscured  by  the  mass  of  detail 
which,  if  necessary  at  all,  should  have  been  relegated  to  the  footnotes — 
although  they  are  already  overburdened — or  to  one  of  the  nineteen 
appendices. 


298  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  FEB. 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  noted  that  the  volume  contains  several 
photographic  reproductions  of  manuscript  maps  made  by  Peter 
Pond,  on  one  of  which  is  indicated  the  place  on  the  St.  Peter's 
(Minnesota)  River  where  he  spent  the  winter  of  1773-74,  also 
that  the  chapter  on  "The  Struggle  with  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany" tells  the  story  of  the  Selkirk  settlement  in  the  Red  River 
Valley. 

S.  J.  B. 

Portland  Prairie  in  Present  Times,  Including  a  Treatise  on  the 
Physical  Formation  of  Houston  County.  (Larimore,  North 
Dakota,  H.  V.  Arnold,  1919.  1.22,  xl  p.) 

Mr.  Arnold  is  the  author,  editor,  publisher  and  printer  of  a 
series  of  volumes  on  the  history  of  small  communities,  familiar 
to  him,  in  various  parts  of  the  Northwest.  His  most  recent  con- 
tribution to  the  field  of  local  history  supplements  an  earlier  vol- 
ume, Old  Times  on  Portland  Prairie  (1911.  120  p.).  The  scene 
of  both  these  narratives  is  an  agricultural  community  embracing 
portions  of  two  townships,  Winnebago  and  Wilmington,  in  the 
southern  part  of  Houston  County,  Minnesota,  and  a  small  section 
of  northern  Iowa.  In  the  earlier  volume  the  author  presents  the 
history  of  this  locality  to  the  year  1880;  in  the  later  volume,  in 
which  that  history  is  continued  to  the  present,  he  emphasizes  an 
aspect  of  his  subject  too  often  ignored  by  writers  of  local  history, 
the  economic  and  social  development  of  the  community  in  ques- 
tion. He  repeats  at  times,  in  so  doing,  material  published  in  the 
first  narrative,  but  this  is  usually  greatly  condensed. 

The  first  three  chapters  of  the  present  volume  contain  a  general 
account  of  the  development  of  Portland  Prairie  into  a  modern 
stock-raising  and  dairying  community  and  of  the  consequent  alter- 
ations in  the  life  of  the  people.  The  opening  chapter  describes 
conditions  in  the  pioneer  period,  from  1851  to  1865,  for  the  sake 
of  contrasting  the  "days  of  straw  barns  and  generally  indifferent 
houses"  when  the  settler  depended  upon  wheat  raising  for  a  liveli- 
hood with  the  more  prosperous  and  improved  aspect  of  the  prairie 
farms  in  present  times.  A  brief  chapter  on  "An  Intermediate 
Stage"  treats  of  the  transitional  period  between  1865  and  1900, 


1920          COLLINS:  STORY  OF  A  MINNESOTAN         299 

when  living  conditions  were  rapidly  improving  and  the  radical 
industrial  change  was  taking  place.  A  community  transformed 
by  these  altered  conditions  is  pictured  in  a  third  chapter  on  "Pres- 
ent Times."  Today  the  inhabitants  of  the  region,  in  marked  con- 
trast to  those  of  half  a  century  ago,  have  all  the  comforts  and 
conveniences  possible  for  the  modern  farmer;  today  the  district 
is  a  leading  butter-producing  section  of  the  "Bread  and  Butter 
State."  Specific  examples  of  the  industrial  evolution  of  the 
locality,  consisting  of  sketches  of  "Some  of  the  Prairies  Farms," 
are  presented  in  chapter  5.  Whenever  possible,  the  author  begins 
the  history  of  a  farm  with  the  original  acquisition  of  the  land 
from  the  government;  he  then  proceeds  to  discuss  succeeding 
owners  and  their  family  records  and  to  enumerate  improvements 
on  the  property.  The  geography  and  geology  of  the  region  are 
treated  in  chapter  4  and  in  the  appendix,  respectively. 

Mr.  Arnold  has  based  his  work  upon  information  acquired  by 
long  residence  in  Portland  Prairie  and  by  personal  acquaintance 
with  its  inhabitants.  The  book  is  somewhat  crudely  printed  and, 
since  the  author  is  "accustomed  to  put  whole  pages  in  type  with-' 
out  using  any  written  copy,"  it  is  not  surprising  that  numerous 
typographical  errors  appear.  This  is  a  minor  matter,  however, 
compared  to  the  service  which  Mr.  Arnold  has  rendered  not  only 
to  the  community  whose  history  is  thus  preserved,  but  to  the 
cause  of  history  in  general,  for  the  conditions  and  transforma- 
tions which  he  describes  in  detail  are  typical  of  agricultural  com- 
munities throughout  the  Northwest. 

BERTHA  L.  HEILBRON 

The  Story  of  a  Minnesotan.  By  LOREN  WARREN  COLLINS,  former 
associate  justice  of  the  Minnesota  Supreme  Court.  (N.  p., 
n.  d.  86  p.  Portrait.) 

This  autobiographical  sketch,  written  by  Judge  Collins  after 
his  retirement  from  the  supreme  bench  in  1904,  was  found  among 
his  papers  after  his  death  in  1912  and  has  just  been  published  by 
his  sons  for  private  circulation.  It  is  a  narrative  of  considerable 
historical  interest,  not  so  much  for  the  few  striking  experiences 
related  as  for  its  vivid  portrayal  of  frontier  life  and  conditions. 


300  REVIEW  OF  BOOKS  FEB. 

The  first  chapter  covers  the  author's  boyhood  days  in  Massa- 
chusetts, where  he  was  born  in  1838,  and  gives  an  account  of  a 
"Minnesota  Colony"  organized  at  Springfield  in  1852,  of  which 
Judge  Collins's  father  was  a  member.  The  next  chapter  tells  of 
the  family's  trip  to  Minnesota  in  the  winter  and  spring  of  1854, 
of  pioneer  farming  on  Eden  Prairie,  and  of  the  activities  of  a 
claim  association.  The  father  sold  his  claim  in  the  fall  of  1855 
and  took  his  family  back  to  Massachusetts,  but  the  Minnesota 
fever  was  too  strong  for  him  and  the  following  year  found  him 
keeping  a  hotel  at  a  boom  town  named  Lewiston,  on  the  Cannon 
River,  near  Northfield.  The  future  jurist  took  up  a  claim  in 
Goodhue  County,  but  his  "ambition  to  till  the  soil  was  washed 
out"  by  a  terrific  hail  storm  and  cloud-burst  and  in  1858  he  turned 
to  school  teaching.  The  following  year  he  commenced  the  study 
of  law  at  Hastings,  and  he  was  soon  taking  a  lively  interest  in 
politics. 

One  chapter  tells  of  Collins's  experiences  as  a  member  of  the 
Seventh  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infantry  in  the  campaign  against 
the  Sioux  in  1862,  of  guarding  the  Indian  prisoners  after  the 
outbreak  was  over,  and  of  the  hanging  of  the  condemned  Indians 
at  Mankato,  which  he  witnessed.  Another  chapter  is  devoted  to 
his  Civil  War  services,  which  included  commanding  the  military 
police  of  St.  Louis  for  several  months  in  1864,  and  campaigning 
in  Missouri,  Tennessee,  and  Alabama. 

In  May,  1866,  Collins  began  the  practice  of  law  at  St.  Cloud. 
He  tells  many  interesting  incidents  of  life  in  this  frontier  com- 
munity and  of  his  political  career,  which  started  with  his  election 
as  county  attorney  in  the  fall  of  1866  and  culminated  in  his  ap- 
pointment to  the  supreme  court  of  the  state  in  1887.  The  famous 
contest  between  him  and  Robert  C.  Dunn  for  the  Republican 
nomination  for  governor  is  treated  only  briefly. 

To  the  student  of  history  Judge  Collins's  autobiography  is 
more  valuable  than  most  reminiscent  narratives.  In  preparing  it 
he  evidently  did  not  rely  wholly  on  his  memory  but  consulted 
letters  and  diaries  and  in  some  cases  even  searched  through 
archives  and  newspaper  files  in  the  endeavor  to  secure  all  available 
information.  The  book  is  a  distinct  contribution  to  Minnesota 
history. 

SOLON  J.  BUCK 


MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES 

The  fifty-odd  members  and  friends  of  the  society  who  braved 
the  elements  on  the  night  of  December  8  to  attend  the  .open  meet- 
ing of  the  executive  council  were  rewarded  with  hearing  a  very 
interesting  talk  by  Colonel  George  E.  Leach  on  "The  151st  United 
States  Field  Artillery  in  the  World  War."  The  annual  meeting 
of  the  society  was  held  on  January  12  and  included  an  open  ses- 
sion in  the  auditorium,  which  was  filled  to  overflowing  with  an 
audience  of  about  225  people.  The  annual  address,  by  Dr.  Carl 
Russell  Fish,  professor  of  American  history  at  the  University 
of  Wisconsin,  was  a  brilliant  analysis  of  "American  Democracy." 
The  museum  was  open  to  the  public  both  before  and  after  the 
meeting,  and  most  of  those  in  attendance  took  advantage  of  the 
opportunity  to  inspect  the  exhibits. 

The  following  new  members,  all  active,  have  been  enrolled,  dur- 
ing the  quarter  ending  January  31,  1920:  Arthur  T.  Adams, 
Willoughby  1VL  Babcock  Jr.,  David  P.  Jones,  and  Frederick  W. 
Sardeson  of  Minneapolis ;  Grover  H.  Wilsey  of  St.  Paul;  Edward 
C.  Congdon  of  Duluth;  John  H.  Hill  of  Ironton;  Martin  C.  F. 
Schumann  of  Litchfield;  Helen  Benn  Morse  of  East  Grand 
Forks;  J.  E.  Haycraft  of  Fairmont;  and  Royal  H.  Holbrook  of 
Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa.  Deaths  during  the  same  period  include 
those  of  one  honorary  member,  Charles  H.  Hitchcock  of  Hono- 
lulu, November  5 ;  and  of  three  active  members,  George  Bertram 
Ware  of  St.  Paul,  December  23 ;  the  Reverend  John  Wright  of 
St.  Paul,  December  24 ;  and  Dr.  Caryl  B.  Storrs  of  Minneapolis, 
January  18.  The  death  of  Samuel  A.  Green  of  Boston,  an  hon- 
orary member,  which  occurred  December  5,  1918,  has  not  here- 
tofore been  noted  in  the  BULLETIN. 

The  total  number  of  members  on  the  rolls  of  the  society  Janu- 
ary 1,  1920,  was  514,  of  whom  16  are  honorary,  68  corresponding, 
and  430  active  members.  The  active  members  are  further  classi- 
fied as  293  life,  41  sustaining,  and  96  annual.  Thirty-seven  new 
members  were  enrolled  during  the  year,  all  active.  Sixteen  mem- 

801 


302  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  FEB. 

bars  were  dropped  for  non-payment  of  dues,  and  fourteen  died 
during  the  year,  making  a  total  loss  of  thirty.  Of  these  twenty- 
six  belonged  to  the  class  of  active  members,  two  were  corre- 
sponding, and  two  were  honorary  members.  It  will  be  seen,  there- 
fore, that  there  has  been  a  net  increase  of  eleven  in  the  active 
membership  and  seven  in  the  total  membership.  The  society 
needs  more  active  members,  not  for  the  dues,  which  on  the  aver- 
age do  not  equal  the  cost  of  the  publications  supplied  to  the  mem- 
bers, but  to  enable  it  to  keep  in  touch  with  a  larger  number  of 
people  and  to  bring  about  a  more  general  appreciation  of  its  serv- 
ices to  the  state  and  of  the  greater  services  which  it  might  render 
under  more  favorable  circumstances. 

The  additions  to  the  library  in  1919  number  2,474  books  and 
891  pamphlets,  a  total  of  3,365.  This  total  compares  favorably 
with  the  acquisitions  of  recent  years,  but  an  analysis  of  the  figures 
shows  that  only  twenty-nine  per  cent  of  these  items  were  acquired 
by  purchase  as  compared  with  forty  per  cent  of  the  accessions  so 
acquired  in  1918;  the  percentages  of  gifts  rose  from  twenty  to 
thirty-three  and  of  exchanges  from  fourteen  to  nineteen.  The 
decline  in  the  number  of  purchased  books  and  pamphlets  reflects, 
of  course,  the  increased  prices,  but  it  reflects  also  an  actual 
decrease  in  the  amount  of  money  available  for  purchasing  books. 
The  increase  in  gifts  and  exchanges  is  a  result  of  the  activity 
of  the  librarian  in  soliciting  material,  as  is  also  the  increase  in  the 
number  of  serials,  including  magazines  but  not  newspapers,  cur- 
rently received.  This  rose  from  1,461  to  2,040  during  the  year 
and  practically  all  the  new  items  come  as  gifts  or  exchanges. 

The  year  1919  was  marked  by  an  increase  over  1918  of  about 
thirty-five  per  cent  in  the  number  of  readers  in  the  main  library, 
and  an  increase  of  over  seventy  per  cent  in  the  number  of  books 
supplied  to  readers  at  the  desk.  Should  the  increase  continue  at 
this  rate  it  will  soon  be  necessary  to  employ  an  additional  desk 
assistant  if  satisfactory  service  is  to  be  maintained. 

The  society  has  recently  prepared  two  lists  of  its  duplicate 
books  and  pamphlets,  one  of  which  is  offered  on  priced  and  the 
other  on  unpriced  exchange  account.  These  lists  will  be  sent  to 


1920  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  303 

any  institution  having  duplicate  material  on  historical  or  allied 
subjects  that  can  be  sent  in  exchange  for  these  duplicates. 

A  special  exhibit  of  some  of  the  oldest  and  most  interesting  of 
the  single  manuscripts  belonging  to  the  society  was  on  display 
in  the  manuscript  room  for  the  first  time  in  connection  with  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  society.  Among  the  documents  included 
was  a  commission  issued  by  Governor  William  Clark  of  Missouri 
in  1816  to  "Tar-mah-hah,"  a  Sioux  of  the  Red  Wing  band,  who, 
when  most  of  his  tribe  supported  the  British  in  the  War  cf  1812, 
made  his  way  to  St.  Louis  and  entered  the  American  service  as 
a  scout.  In  recognition  of  his  services  and  his  loyalty  the  gover- 
nor gave  him  this  commission  commending  him  as  a  chief  to  the 
Indians  and  to  the  officers  and  men  of  the  army  of  the  United 
States.  Soiled  and  worn,  mended  and  mounted  and  remounted 
on  every  kind  of  paper,  even  wall  paper,  the  old  commission  was 
carried  by  Tamahaw  and  exhibited  by  him  with  unbounded  pride 
on  every  possible  occasion  until  the  time  of  his  death  about  1865. 
It  then  passed  into  the  hands  of  other  Indians  but  finally,  in  1884, 
was  secured  by  Francis  Talbot  of  Wabasha,  who  sent  it  to  the 
Minnesota  Historical  Society.  Another  item  in  the  exhibit  of 
equal  if  not  greater  popular  interest  was  an  old  account  book 
kept  by  a  fur-trader  from  1836  to  1840  in  which  the  articles  sold 
are  indicated  by  various  symbols  such,  for  example,  as  a  rectangle 
for  a  blanket.  Occasionally  the  trader  went  so  far  as  to  repre- 
sent his  debtors  by  crude  drawings  such  as  the  figure  of  a  bird  for 
Gray  Eagle  and  that  of  a  four-footed  creature  for  Red  Dog.  The 
science  of  numbers  seems  to  have  been  known  to  him  and  his 
figures  are  carefully  and  accurately  made.  Two  documents  of 
colonial  date  in  the  exhibit  were  an  original  letter  written  by 
George  Washington,  August  12,  1754,  dealing  with  events  of  the 
French  and  Indian  War,  and  a  commission  signed  by  Patrick 
Henry  in  1777.  A  Lincoln  manuscript,  one  of  the  society's  most 
priceless  possessions,  was  also  on  display.  Dated  December  6, 
1862,  it  recalls  the  culminating  event  of  the  Sioux  massacre  when 
thirty-eight  Indians  were  executed  at  Mankato.  The  manuscript 
is  the  original  order,  in  Lincoln's  own  hand,  issued  to  Brigadier 
General  Henry  H.  Sibley,  for  the  execution  of  these  Indians.  It 
gives  the  name  of  each  Indian  in  full  and  his  number  in  the 


304 


HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES 


FEB. 


record  and  is  signed  "Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United 
States."  Special  exhibits  of  interesting  documents  are  always 
on  display  on  the  tables  in  the  manuscript  room  (209)  and  all 
persons  interested  are  invited  to  come  in  and  see  them. 

Six  history  hours  for  children  have  been  held  in  the  museum 
during  the  last  three  months,  with  talks  by  members  of  the 
society's  staff  as  follows:  "Pioneer  Newspaper  Editors,"  by 
Dorothy  A.  Heinemann,  November  8 ;  "A  Pioneer  Thanksgiving," 
by  Bertha  L.  Heilbron,  November  22;  "A  Hundred  Years  of 
Travel,"  by  Mary  B.  Kimball,  December  6 ;  "Christmas  in  Many 
Lands,"  by  Ilona  B.  Schmidt,  December  20 ;  "The  Indian  on  the 
Warpath,"  by  Willoughby  M.  Babcock  Jr.,  January  10;  and 
"Life  in  an  Indian  Village,"  also  by  Mr.  Babcock,  January  24. 
The  attendance  at  these  meetings  sometimes  runs  as  high  as  185. 
Seventeen  classes  with  a  total  of  387  students  visited  the  museum 
during  the  same  period. 

Mr.  Babcock,  the  curator  of  the  museum,  spent  ten  days  in 
December  visiting  the  museum  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of 
Wisconsin  and  the  Milwaukee  Public  Museum  for  the  purpose 
of  studying  their  methods  of  handling  museum  problems. 


GIFTS 

The  society  has  recently  received  from  Mrs.  Abigail  Gardner 
Sharp  of  Arnolds  Park,  Lake  Okoboji,  Iowa,  an  autographed 
copy  of  the  seventh  revised  edition  of  her  book,  History  of  the 
Spirit  Lake  Massacre  and  Captivity  of  Miss  Abbie  Gardner. 
The  first  edition  of  this  book,  a  copy  of  which  is  in  the  possession 
of  this  society,  was  copyrighted  in  1885  and  the  last  edition,  just 
received,  in  1918.  The  autographed  inscription  reads  as  follows : 
"Presented  to  Minnesota  Historical  Society  by  the  author  in 
grateful  remembrance  of  the  action  taken  by  Minnesota  for  my 
release  from  captivity  among  the  Sioux  Indians  in  1857." 

Mr.  Howard  S.  Abbott  of  Minneapolis  has  presented  to  the 
society  a  collection  of  pamphlets,  443  in  number,  dealing  with 
the  legal  and  financial  affairs  of  the  Union  Pacific  and  several 
other  railroads  of  the  country. 


1920  GIFTS  305 

What  it  cost  to  live  in  Minnesota  in  1856,  as  shown  by  the 
account  book  of  Benjamin  C.  Baldwin,  recently  presented  to  the 
society  by  his  daughter,  Miss  Clara  Baldwin  of  St.  Paul,  is  an 
interesting  study  in  these  days  of  soaring  prices.  Mr.  Baldwin, 
a  civil  engineer,  came  to  Minnesota  in  December,  1855,  settling 
first  at  Lake  City,  where  he  engaged  in  land  surveying  and  in 
preparing  and  recording  legal  papers. 

To  a  son  of  one  of  the  early  fur-traders,  now  a  man  nearing 
ninety  years  of  age,  the  Reverend  Clement  H.  Beaulieu  of  Le 
Sueur,  the  society  is  indebted  for  a  number  of  pictures  and  news- 
paper clippings  and  a  few  manuscripts  concerning  the  old  Crow 
Wing  settlement  and  the  Beaulieu  family.  His  father,  also 
Clement  H.,  was  born  at  Lac  du  Flambeau,  Wisconsin  Territory, 
in  1810  and  for  many  years  was  a  prominent  trader  among  the 
Chippewa  both  in  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota.  Unfortunately  his 
papers  and  journals  were  practically  all  destroyed  by  fire  in  recent 
years.  A  mere  fragment  of  these  consisting  of  three  promissory 
notes,  two  letters,  and  one  sheet  of  accounts  have  been  included. 
The  letters  were  written  in  1856  by  Julius  A.  Fay,  principal  of  a 
private  school  at  Elizabethtown,  New  Jersey,  to  Dr.  Charles  W. 
Borup  and  give  reports  of  the  progress  of  Dr.  Borup's  son  and 
his  nephews,  Charles  and  Clement  Beaulieu.  The  sheet  of 
accounts  is  rendered  to  C.  H.  Beaulieu  for  the  expenses  of  his 
sons  at  this  school.  The  three  papers  are  a  most  interesting  com- 
mentary on  the  efforts  made  by  these  early  pioneers  to  give  their 
children  the  advantages  of  an  eastern  education. 

A  list  of  Civil  War  volunteers  credited  to  Little  Falls,  Mor- 
rison County,  and  certified  by  Oscar  Malmros,  adjutant  general, 
August  11,  1864,  is  an  interesting  addition  to  our  records  of  that 
war.  The  list  was  found  among  the  papers  of  Miss  Sadie  Fuller, 
deceased,  and  was  presented  to  the  society  by  the  Transcript  Pub- 
lishing Company  of  Little  Falls,  through  the  courtesy  of  E.  M. 
La  Fond,  manager. 

Two  unique  manuscripts  relating  to  Chippewa  Indians  have 
recently  been  received  through  the  courtesy  of  Dr.  Folwell  from 
Mr.  Arthur  G.  Douglass  of  Minneapolis.  One  of  the  papers  is  a 


306  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  FEB. 

receipt  of  nine  Chippewa  chiefs  for  flour  and  pork  distributed  at 
Long  Lake,  May  30,  1874,  by  Ebenezer  Douglass,  United  States 
Indian  agent;  the  other  is  a  pictorial  roll  of  Mille  Lac  Indians  of 
"Man-zo-maunay's  band  at  Sole's  payment,  October  29,  1873." 
The  receipt  also  contains  the  mark  of  a  chief  "Monsomannay." 
This  name  recalls  a  spirited  controversy  which  arose  in  August, 
1914,  when,  in  accordance  with  legislative  action,  a  monument 
was  erected  at  Fort  Ridgely  bearing  the  following  inscription: 
"Erected  by  the  State  of  Minnesota  in  Recognition  of  and  to 
Commemorate  the  Loyal  and  Efficient  Services  Rendered  to  the 
State  by  Chief  Mon-zoo-man-nee  and  the  Chippewa  Indians  Dur- 
ing the  Sioux  Outbreak  and  the  Civil  War."  Although  it  was 
proved  at  that  time  there  had  been  an  Indian  by  that  name 
among  the  Chippewa,  just  what  he  had  done  to  deserve  such 
special  recognition  by  the  state  was  not  made  clear.  In  the  pic- 
torial roll  presented  each  family  is  represented  by  a  grotesque 
figure  and  the  members  of  the  family  are  denoted  by  straight 
lines  which  resemble  sticks.  No  names  whatever  appear  on  the 
roll,  but  the  number  of  persons  thus  pictured  totals  one  hundred 
and  eight. 

An  interesting  old  panorama  depicting  the  Sioux  Outbreak  of 
1862  in  all  its  horrors  has  been  given  to  the  society  by  Mr.  Burt 
W.  Eaton  of  Rochester.  It  was  painted  by  John  Stephens  of 
Rochester  in  1867,  and  consists  of  thirty-one  scenes  many  of 
which  were  composed  under  the  direction  of  persons  who  had 
gone  through  the  massacre.  The  separate  canvasses  are  fastened 
together  so  as  to  make  a  continuous  series.  This  panorama  was 
exhibited  in  various  parts  of  the  state  for  a  time  and  then  dis- 
appeared until  Mr.  Eaton  discovered  it  in  Winona  in  1917. 

A  large  pastel  portrait  of  the  late  Archbishop  Ireland  has  been 
presented  to  the  society  by  Mrs.  Julius  R.  Hilgedick  of  Saint 
Paul,  through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Cannon.  The 
portrait  was  made  in  the  early  nineties  by  the  Sisters  of  Saint 
Agatha's  Conservatory  and  represents  the  prelate  in  the  prime 
of  life. 

An  excellent  oil  painting  of  James  M.  Goodhue,  editor  of  the 
Minnesota  Pioneer,  the  first  newspaper  printed  in  Minnesota 


1920  GIFTS  307 

Territory,  has  been  presented  to  the  society  by  his  daughter, 
Mrs.  Eve  Goodhue  Tarbox  of  Saint  Paul,  through  the  courtesy 
of  Mrs.  A.  C.  Heath  and  Miss  Amelia  Ames. 

Two  copies  of  a  large  photographic  reproduction  of  pictures 
of  322  "Pioneer  Residents  of  Mantorville,"  Minnesota,  have  been 
presented  by  Messrs.  Samuel  A.  Lord,  George  B.  Edgerton,  and 
Cordenio  A.  Severance,  of  St.  Paul  but  natives  of  Mantorville. 
The  pictures  were  collected  in  connection  with  the  home-coming 
celebration  held  there  last  summer. 

From  Mrs.  Victoria  A.  Law  of  Minneapolis  the  society  has 
received  three  interesting  additions  to  its  collection  of  pictures  of 
early  settlers.  These  are  a  photograph  of  Captain  Jedediah  Caleff 
who  came  to  Nininger,  Minnesota,  from  New  Brunswick  in  the 
early  fifties ;  a  crayon  portrait  of  Mrs.  Susan  Caleff  who  came  to 
Nininger  in  1856;  and  a  pastel  portrait  of  Mrs.  Lizzie  S.  Bowler, 
the  mother  of  the  donor  and  widow  of  James  M.  Bowler. 

Mr.  Harold  Dose  of  St.  Paul  has  presented  framed  pastel 
portraits  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  B.  Cook.  Mr.  Cook  came  to  St. 
Paul  in  1855  and  was  the  founder  of  the  St.  Paul  Omnibus 
Company. 

A  photograph  of  Winona  in  1868  and  a  photographic  reproduc- 
tion of  a  painting  of  the  river  front  at  Winona  in  1870  are  gifts 
of  Mr.  Orrin  F.  Smith  of  Winona. 

Major  James  C.  Ferguson  of  St.  Paul  has  presented  several 
interesting  relics  which  recall  the  life  of  the  Indians  on  the 
plains  and  the  hardships  of  the  soldiers  in  the  remote  frontier 
military  posts.  A  beaded  saddle  of  Sioux  workmanship,  used 
at  Fort  Totten  in  1875,  beaded  knife  sheathes  of  Indian  manu- 
facture, and  a  pair  of  beaded  buckskin  trousers,  which  were 
made  for  his  father,  James  B.  Ferguson,  at  Fort  Yates  by  an 
Indian  woman,  for  use  in  the  campaign  of  1877,  are  among  the 
specimens. 

A  silver  Presidential  medal  bearing  the  bust,  of  Franklin  Pierce 
and  the  date  1853,  which  was  presented  to  the  famous  Chippewa 
chief,  Hole-in-the-Day,  has  been  deposited  with  the  society  by 


308  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  FEB. 

Mrs.  Charles  L.  Spencer  of  Saint  Paul.  Mrs.  Spencer  has  also 
presented  a  fine  pair  of  beaded  buckskin  leggins,  two  small 
turtles  made  of  deerskin  and  beads,  and  several  other  interesting 
Indian  articles. 

An  interesting  addition  to  the  collection  of  specimens  in  the 
museum  illustrating  the  religious  history  of  the  state,  is  the 
shofer  or  ceremonial  horn  which  was  used  in  the  Jewish  syna- 
gogue at  St.  Paul  in  1856.  The  instrument  is  made  from  a  ram's 
horn,  and  it  was  sounded  on  the  Day  of  Atonement  and  the 
Jewish  New  Year's  Day.  It  was  presented  by  Mrs.  Levi  Herz  of 
Paynesville,  Minnesota.  Mrs.  Herz  has  also  loaned  for  a  special 
exhibit  in  the  museum  a  collection  of  antique  ceremonial  articles 
connected  with  the  Jewish  Passover  Eve  festival. 

Mrs.  Albert  R.  Hall  of  St.  Paul  has  presented  an  interesting 
collection  of  old  china  and  pressed  glass  including  several  pieces 
of  blue  Staffordshire  ware,  also  two  powder  horns  which  were 
carried  by  her  grandfather,  Joseph  Parvin,  before  1820. 

On  behalf  of  the  Danish  Red  Cross  unit  of  Saint  Paul,  Mrs. 
Victor  Ingemann  has  presented  to  the  society  the  silk  Red  Cross 
banner  used  by  the  organization.  The  unit  was  formed  in  April, 
1918,  and  demobilized  in  December  of  the  following  year. 

Brigadier  General  Arthur  Johnson  of  Camp  Custer,  Michigan, 
has  presented  to  the  society  the  gas  mask  which  was  used  by  him 
while  in  France,  and  also  a  German  gas  mask  in  its  tin  container, 
which  was  picked  up  on  the  Argonne  battlefield. 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT 

The  1919  meeting  of  the  American  Historical  Association  was 
held  at  Cleveland,  December  29-31,  with  the  recently  founded 
American  Agricultural  History  Society,  the  American  Associa- 
tion of  University  Professors,  the  American  Political  Science 
Association,  the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Association,  and  the 
National  Municipal  League  holding  sessions  at  the  same  time 
and  place.  Two  papers  read  at  the  sessions  of  the  American 
Agricultural  History  Society  should  be  of  interest  to  students  of 
Minnesota  history:  "Possibilities  of  Intensive  Research  in 
Agricultural  History,"  by  R.  W.  Kelsey ;  and  "The  Internal 
Grain  Trade  of  the  United  States  During  the  Civil  War,"  by 
Louis  B.  Schmidt.  The  only  representative  of  Minnesota  on  the 
historical  programs  was  Norman  S.  B.  Gras,  professor  of  history 
in  the  University  of  Minnesota,  who  read  a  paper  on  "The 
Present  Condition  of  Economic  History." 

The  survey  of  "Historical  Activities  in  the  Trans-Mississippi 
Northwest,  1917-1919,"  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical 
Review  for  December,  is  by  John  C.  Parish  of  the  State  His- 
torical Society  of  Iowa. 

The  careers  of  twelve  men,  typical  of  as  many  fields  of  activity 
in  the  history  of  the  state,  are  being  dealt  with  in  a  series  of 
articles  by  E.  Dudley  Parsons  which  are  appearing  under  the 
heading  "Leaders  of  Minnesota  Progress"  in  the  Sunday  issues 
of  the  Minneapolis  Journal  beginning  January  18.  The  life  of 
James  Shields,  the  Irish  boy  who  crossed  the  sea  in  1826  and  in 
the*  course  of  half  a  century  became  famous  as  a  soldier  and 
statesman  on  three  frontiers,  is  sketched  in  the  first  article;  the 
career  of  Minnesota's  most  notable  frontiersman,  "Henry  Sibley, 
Trader,"  is  the  subject  of  the  second  article. 

Clays  and  Shales  of  Minnesota,  by  Frank  F.  Grout,  with  con- 
tributions by  Edgar  K.  Soper,  has  been  issued  by  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey  as  number  678  of  its  Bulletins  (1919. 

309 


310  NEWS  AND  COMMENTS  FEB. 

259  p.).  The  volume  "comprises  a  discussion  of  the  distribution, 
origin,  properties,  classification,  and  adaptability  of  the  clays  and 
shales"  of  the  state,  with  emphasis  upon  the  possible  economic 
value  of  the  more  important  deposits. 

The  "Herman-Morris  Folio"  containing  maps  of  the  Herman, 
Barrett,  Chokio,  and  Morris  Quadrangles  in  Grant,  Stevens, 
Douglas,  and  Pope  counties,  Minnesota,  is  a  recent  addition  to 
the  Geologic  Atlas  of  the  United  States  which  is  being  compiled 
by  the  United  States  Geological  Survey. 

In  an  article  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  for  January  11,  Eliza- 
beth McLeod  Jones  discusses  the  history  of  the  fur  trade  in 
Minnesota  and  the  Northwest.  The  present  popularity  of  fur 
garments  has  caused  her  to  recall  the  days  when  furs  were  seen 
here  only  as  pelts  and  "trading  posts  were  scattered  throughout 
this  Northwestern  territory."  Beginning  with  Groseilliers  and 
Radisson,  the  first  traders  to  enter  the  territory  of  the  state,  the 
author  traces  step  by  step  the  growth  of  this  industry,  stopping 
now  and  then  to  compare  modern  with  pioneer  methods  and 
conditions.  The  French,  British,  and  American  periods  are 
all  briefly  discussed.  The  greater  part  of  the  narrative,  how- 
ever, is  devoted  to  an  account  of  the  American  trade  since  the 
establishment  of  Fort  Snelling  in  1819.  Certain  interesting 
phases  of  that  trade  such  as  reckoning  values  in  terms  of  musk- 
rat  skins,  the  use  of  a  pictorial  code  by  illiterate  traders  in 
keeping  accounts,  and  the  employment  of  Red  River  carts  as  a 
means  of  transportation  receive  special  attention.  The  careers  of 
early  traders  furnish  material  for  other  substantial  portions  of 
the  narrative  in  which,  among  others,  the  experiences  of  Joseph 
R.  Brown,  Henry  H.  Sibley,  Joseph  Renville,  Henry  M.  Rice, 
and  Pierre  Bottineau  are  sketched.  Although  not  always  strictly 
accurate  in  her  statements,  Mrs.  Jones  has  collected  her  material 
with  much  skill.  She  has  not  depended  merely  upon  secondary 
sources  but  has  drawn  from  original  narratives,  such  as  that  of 
Penicaut,  and  has  made  extensive  use  of  manuscripts  in  the 
possession  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  notably  of  the 
Sibley  Papers.  The  illustrations  accompanying  the  article  include 
portraits  of  traders,  two  views  of  the  Sibley  house  at  Mendota, 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  311 

and  reproductions  of  pages  from  traders'  account  books  and  of 
the  traders'  license  issued  to  Sibley  in  1835. 

The  concluding  chapter  of  Captain  George  B.  Merrick's 
"Steamboats  and  Steamboatmen  of  the  Upper  Mississippi : 
Descriptive,  Personal  and  Historical,"  is  published  in  the  Satur- 
day Evening  Post  of  Burlington,  Iowa,  for  December  6  and 
another  chapter,  previously  omitted,  appears  in  the  same  paper 
for  December  20.  The  author  has  surmounted  many  obstacles 
(see  ante,  3:234)  in  publishing  this  work,  which  "has  fixed 
securely  in  our  recorded  history  the  story  of  navigation  on  the 
upper  Mississippi,  from  its  beginning  in  1823,  down  to  the 
present."  "The  Old  Boats,"  a  section  of  the  Post  devoted  to 
"Valuable  Contributions  to  River  History,  Supplementary  to 
Captain  Merrick's  narrative,"  includes  two  articles  of  Minnesota 
interest  in  the  issues  for  November  1  and  January  10.  The 
first  is  an  account  by  Samuel  R.  Van  Sant  of  the  "Second  Vir- 
ginia, Built  at  Wabasha  in  1910" ;  the  second  is  an  obituary  by 
George  H.  Hazzard,  of  Captain  Oscar  F.  Knapp,  "the  last  of 
the  early  upper  St.  Croix  steamboat  captains,"  who  died  in  St. 
Paul  on  January  1. 

The  biography  and  reminiscences  of  William  Cairncross,  "dean 
of  boatmen,"  are  published  in  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press  for 
December  21,  in  an  article  entitled  "Old  Thrills  of  Life  on  River 
Craft  Recalled  by  Pioneer."  His  adventures  as  a  riverman  from 
1847  to  1856  are  described  at  length.  Of  special  interest  to 
Minnesotans  is  that  portion  of  the  narrative  which  deals  with 
his  experiences  after  1861  as  a  pioneer  farmer  residing  near 
Henderson,  Minnesota. 

"Famous  Iowa  Town  Sees  'Second  Opportunity*  in  River 
Traffic  Revival"  is  the  title  of  an  article  in  the  Minneapolis 
Journal  for  November  9,  dealing  with  that  period  in  the  history 
of  McGregor,  Iowa  when  the  town  was  the  "greatest  primary 
wheat  market  north  of  Dubuque"  and  the  trade  center  to  which 
the  farmers  of  northeastern  Iowa  and  southeastern  Minnesota 
brought  their  produce.  The  use  of  steamboats  on  the  Mississippi 
River  for  commercial  purposes  and  the  growth  of  railroad  trans- 


312  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  FEB. 

portation,  the  two  elements  which,  in  turn,  caused  and  destroyed 
the  prosperity  of  McGregor,  are  dealt  with  at  some  length. 

The  "History  of  the  Labor  Movement  in  Minnesota,"  instal- 
ments of  which  have  appeared  in  the  Year  Books  of  the  Minne- 
sota State  Federation  of  Labor  for  some  years  past,  is  continued 
in  the  1919  number.  One  chapter  in  this  issue  deals  with  the 
general  trend  of  the  movement  throughout  the  state  during  the 
decade  beginning  in  1885,  another  is  confined  in  scope  to  the 
city  of  Duluth.  The  history  and  aims  of  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor,  which  held  its  annual  convention  in  St.  Paul  in 
1918,  are  dealt  with  in  a  third  chapter.  Accounts  of  the  war 
activities  and  the  reconstruction  program  of  the  national  organi- 
zation appear  in  other  parts  of  the  volume.  A  valuable  addition 
to  the  present  number  is  a  "Directory  of  Trade  and  Labor 
Unions"  in  Minnesota. 

The  semicentennial  of  an  important  incident  in  the  state's 
history,  Dr.  William  W.  Folwell's  formal  induction  into  the 
presidency  of  the  University  of  Minnesota,  is  commemorated  in 
an  article  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  for  December  21.  A 
description  of  the  university  as  its  first  president  found  it  upon 
his  arrival  in  Minnesota  is  followed  by  an  account  of  his  work 
in  building  up  the  institution  and  in  creating  a  student  body  for 
it  by  establishing  a  system  of  free  secondary  schools.  The 
article  is  illustrated  with  portraits  of  Dr.  Folwell  and  a  picture 
of  the  "Old  Main." 

Mr.  Theodore  C.  Blegen's  contribution  to  the  history  of  Nor- 
wegian immigration  in  the  December  and  January  numbers  of 
the  North  Star  consists  of  the  story  of  "Two  Norse  Argonauts : 
Ole  and  Austen  Nattestad,"  who  came  to  America  in  1837, 
located  finally  in  Wisconsin,  and  were  influential  in  promoting 
immigration.  The  article  concludes  with  an  analysis  of  Ole 
Nattestad's  Description  of  a  Journey  to  North  America,  which 
was  published  at  Drammen,  Norway,  in  1839. 

A  journal  of  proceedings  with  the  Indians  kept  by  Major 
Robert  Rogers  from  September  21,  1766,  to  July  26,  1767,  while 
he  was  commandant  at  Michillimackinac,  is  published  in  part  2 


1920 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT 


313 


of  volume  28  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Antiquarian 
Society  (1919).  It  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  knowledge 
of  fur-trading  activities  and  Indian  affairs  in  the  whole  region 
of  the  upper  Great  Lakes  and  upper  Mississippi  Valley  during 
the  years  covered.  Students  of  Minnesota  history  will  be 
especially  interested  in  accounts  of  conflicts  between  the  Sioux 
and  the  Chippewa.  The  document  is  edited,  with  an  introduction, 
by  William  L.  Clements. 

An  article  by  the  Reverend  John  Rothensteiner  entitled  "The 
Northeastern  Part  of  the  Diocese  of  St.  Louis  under  Bishop 
Rosati,"  is  published  in  two  instalments  in  the  October  and 
January  issues  of  the  Illinois  Catholic  Historical  Review.  Organ- 
ized in  1826,  the  St.  Louis  diocese,  according  to  the  author, 
"comprised  all  of  Arkansas,  Missouri  and  Iowa  and  the  Indian 
territories  beyond  the  Missouri  line"  to  which  was  added  the 
"spiritual  care"  and,  in  1834,  the  actual  territory  of  northern, 
Illinois.  The  present  article  is  especially  concerned  with  this 
later  district,  extended,  however,  in  its  "geographical  limits  so 
as  to  include  the  adjoining  counties  of  Missouri,  Iowa  and  Wis- 
consin." This  territory  "in  the  early  days  of  Bishop  Rosati, 
really  formed  .  .  .  one  single,  distinct  missionary  field,  sepa- 
rated from  other  parts  of  the  diocese  by  miles  and  miles  of  path- 
less wilderness."  The  major  part  of  the  account  is  devoted  to 
a  discussion  of  "how  the  Catholic  religion  was  carried  from  St. 
Louis"  to  the  three  frontier  settlements  of  Galena,  Prairie  du 
Chien,  and  Dubuque.  The  article,  which  is  based  almost 
entirely  upon  the  papers  of  Bishop  Rosati  and  his  subordinates, 
contains  many  documents  in  full.  One  of  these  of  special  interest 
is  a  letter  from  the  Reverend  Samuel  Mazzuchelli,  "missionary 
of  the  Northwest  Territory,"  dated  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  Septem- 
ber 29,  1832,  in  which  the  writer  discusses  the  state  of  religion 
and  missionary  activity  among  both  Indians  and  whites  at  Green 
Bay,  around  Lake  Superior,  and  in  the  upper  Mississippi  country. 

The  taking  of  the  fourteenth  census  of  the  United  States  has 
aroused  interest  in  the  first  Minnesota  census  taken  in  1849,  the 
original  returns  of  which  are  in  the  manuscript  collections  of 
the  Minnesota  Historical  Society.  The  methods  used  by  enu- 


314  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  FEB. 

merators  in  taking  this  census  are  described  and  extracts  from  the 
returns  are  included  in  articles  appearing  in  the  St.  Paul  Dispatch 
for  January  14  and  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News  for  January  18. 

Articles  about  the  first  Thanksgiving  day  in  Minnesota  are  pub- 
lished in  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News  and  the  Minneapolis  Journal 
for  November  23.  The  News  article  reproduces  in  full  a  letter 
in  the  possession  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  which  was 
written  December  3,  1850,  by  a  group  of  clergymen,  including 
the  Reverend  Edward  D.  Neill,  to  Governor  Ramsey  and 
requested  him  to  proclaim  Thursday,  December  26,  a  day  of 
worship  and  thanksgiving.  It  also  quotes  extensively  from  the 
resulting  proclamation  taken  from  the  original  "Executive 
Journal"  in  the  society's  collection  of  state  archives.  The  article 
in  the  Journal  presents  Governor  Ramsey's  proclamation  of 
December  6,  1850,  in  full,  followed  by  a  brief  account  of  the 
*  way  in  which  the  day  was  celebrated.  Extracts  from  a  prophetic 
sermon  delivered  by  Dr.  Neill  in  St.  Paul  on  that  day  are  included 
in  the  account. 

An  Authentic  List  of  the  Victims  of  the  Indian  Massacre  and 
War  1862  to  1865,  by  Marion  P.  Satterlee  (Minneapolis,  1919. 
8  p.)  is  the  "latest  revision  of  the  list  filed  with  the  State  His- 
torical Society"  in  1916  (see  ante,  2:  399).  The  present  list  has 
been  not  only  verified  and  augmented,  but  it  has  been  greatly 
improved  by  rearrangement.  The  total  of  "Citizens  and  Citizen- 
Soldiers  killed  or  died"  is  placed  at  411  and  the  total  of  "Enlisted 
Soldiers  killed  by  Indians,"  at  77.  Mr.  Satterlee  has  also  com- 
piled a  list  of  the  Indians  who  participated  in  the  massacre 
(10  p.).  This  includes  the  names  of  38  "Dakota  Indians  Hanged 
at  Mankato,  Dec.  26,  1862";  of  177  "Imprisoned  at  Rock  Island, 
111.,  in  1863";  and  of  30  "Killed  in  the  Outbreak  of  1862." 

The  Minnesota  department  of  the  United  Spanish  War  Vet- 
erans has  recently  published  a  Roster  (1919.  194  p.),  which 
contains  a  general  "History  of  the  Department  of  Minnesota, 
U.  S.  W.  V.,"  by  Hugo  V.  Koch,  and  special  histories  of  the 
individual  camps.  The  book  is  illustrated  with  portraits  of 
officers  of  the  organization. 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  315 

The  issues  of  the  Western  Magazine  for  December  and  Jan- 
uary contain  sketches  of  the  careers  of  "Knute  Nelson,  Twelfth 
Governor  of  Minnesota  and  U.  S.  Senator"  and  of  "David  Mars- 
ton  Clough,  Thirteenth  Governor  of  Minnesota,"  in  the  section 
entitled  "State  Builders  of  the  West." 

The  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  establishment  of  Augsburg 
Seminary,  a  Minneapolis  theological  college,  was  celebrated  by 
the  faculty,  alumni,  and  students  of  the  school  on  November  28, 
29,  and  30.  The  history  of  the  institution  is  well  outlined  in  the 
Minneapolis  Tribune  for  November  23.  The  narrative  includes 
sketches  of  the  life  and  work  of  the  founders  of  the  school  and 
of  the  more  prominent  members  of  the  faculty  and  alumni. 
The  influence  of  the  school  upon  the  development  of  the  educa- 
tional system  of  Minneapolis  is  also  pointed  out.  Portraits  of 
the  founders  and  promoters  of  the  growth  of  the  college  accom- 
pany the  article. 

The  semicentennial  of  Our  Savior's  Norwegian  Lutheran 
Church  of  Minneapolis  was  celebrated  during  the  week  of  Decem- 
ber 7.  An  article  appears  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  for  that 
date  in  which  the  history  of  the  church  is  sketched. 

Sixty  surviving  members  of  the  Minneapolis  Veteran  Volun- 
teer Firemen's  Association  attended  the  fifty-second  annual  meet- 
ing of  that  organization  on  January  24.  Such  events  as  the 
"organization  of  the  St.  Anthony  hook  and  ladder  company  in 
1857"  and  the  first  "general  alarm  fire"  in  1860  were  recalled 
by  the  pioneer  guardians  of  the  city's  safety. 

The  tardy,  redemption  of  a  one  dollar  bill  of  the  "wild  cat" 
type  of  currency  issued  in  1864  by  the  Minneapolis  Bank,  is  the 
occasion  for  an  interesting  article  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal 
for  November  9  dealing  with  the  financial  history  of  the  city 
during  the  fifty-five  years  of  the  note's  circulation.  A  portion  of 
the  narrative  sketches  the  history  of  the  Minneapolis  Bank,  which 
was  founded  by  Jacob  K.  Sidle  and  Peter  Wolford  in  1857  and 
from  which  the  First  and  Security  National  Bank  of  the  present 
is  a  lineal  descendant.  Biographical  notes  on  early  officials,  stock- 
holders and  directors  of  the  bank  are  included  in  the  account. 


316  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  FEB. 

Pictures  of  the  old  bank  note,  which  is  being  preserved  by  the 
First  and  Security  National  Bank  as  a  "souvenir  of  pioneer 
banking  days  in  Minneapolis,"  and  of  the  building  occupied  by 
the  "old  First  National  bank,  the  successor  of  the  Minneapolis 
bank,"  are  reproduced  with  the  article. 

Pioneer  banking  days  in  Minneapolis  were  again  recalled  when 
the  chief  clerk  of  the  First  and  Security  National  Bank  discov- 
ered the  ledger  of  the  Sidle  and  Wolford  Company  in  a  basement 
vault.  The  book,  in  which  entries  were  first  made  in  April, 
1861,  is  described  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  for  November  30. 
It  contains  the  "entire  records  of  the  old  bank,  including  individ- 
ual accounts";  it  reveals  "an  itemized  expense  account  of  early 
Minneapolis  men" ;  and  it  discloses  the  comparatively  small  scale 
on  which  business  was  transacted  at  the  time.  The  description 
is  accompanied  by  a  photograph  of  the  page  of  the  ledger  con- 
taining the  expense  account  of  the  bank  for  the  year  1861. 

"When  the  'Phone  was  Young  in  Minneapolis"  is  the  title  of 
an  interesting  article  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  for  January  11. 
The  growth  of  the  present  telephone  system  is  "so  closely  related 
with  the  whole  city's  advancement  that  the  men  who  help[ed] 
build  the  early  lines  have  compiled  a  history  of  the  work."  Herein 
the  inconveniences  cheerfully  tolerated  by  telephone  subscribers 
in  the  years  following  1877,  when  the  first  instrument  was 
installed  by  Richard  H.  Hankinson,  are  dwelt  upon.  Of  greater 
value  is  the  portion  of  the  narrative  dealing  with  the  organization 
of  the  Northwestern  Telephone  Company  in  ,1878  and  with  the 
personnel  of  the  first  officers  of  the  company,  of  the  first  general 
staff,  and  of  the  first  ten  subscribers.  The  later  experiences  of 
some  of  the  individuals  "who  installed  the  switchboards,  built 
the  lines,  and  kept  the  system  going"  as  members  of  that  first 
staff  are  also  discussed.  Portraits  of  Mr.  Hankinson  and  some 
of  his  coworkers  and  a  picture  of  the  old  Minneapolis  City 
Hall,  where  the  city's  first  telephone  exchange  was  located,  illus- 
trate the  article. 

Extracts  from  a  paper  recently  prepared  by  Mrs.  Sophie 
Krueger  of  Minneapolis  describing  personal  incidents  in  the  early 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  317 

days  of  the  city's  transportation  system  are  published  in  an 
article  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  for  December  7.  Herein  the 
humble  origin  of  what  has  become  an  established  institution  is 
discussed  and  the  discomfort  endured  by  passengers  on  the  horse 
cars  of  1879  is  contrasted  with  the  ease  enjoyed  by  travelers  on 
the  comparatively  luxurious  electric  cars  of  the  present. 

Some  information  about  the  use  of  school  buildings  in  Minne- 
apolis for  singing  schools  and  other  community  affairs  half  a 
century  ago,  derived  from  the  records  of  the  school  board,  is 
contained  in  an  interview  with  Dr.  Charles  M.  Jordan,  superin- 
tendent emeritus  of  the  Minneapolis  schools,  in  the  Minneapolis 
Journal  for  December  7.  Dr.  Jordan  considers  the  community 
singing  which  has  been  so  popular  recently  to  be  merely  "a 
revival  of  an  old  custom." 

The  days  when  the  sport  of  horse  racing  was  in  its  prime  are 
recalled  in  an  article  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  for  November 
23,  entitled  "Minneapolis  Horsemen  Get  Out  Earmuffs  for  Ice 
Sport  but  Sigh  for  Old  Track  Days."  The  article  is  illustrated 
with  a  portrait  of  Colonel  William  S.  King  and  a  photograph 
showing  a  crowd  watching  a  race  at  one  of  his  fairs. 

The  history  of  the  bronze  figure  representing  the  Angel  Gabriel 
which  was  brought  to  St.  Anthony  in  1857  by  James  M.  Winslow 
and  mounted  on  the  flagstaff  of  his  hotel,  the  Winslow  House, 
and  which  is  now  on  the  flagstaff  of  the  Minneapolis  Exposition 
Building  is  sketched  in  an  article  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  for 
December  7. 

The  services  conducted  by  the  Christ  Lutheran  Church  of  St. 
Paul  on  December  7  commemorated  two  important  events  in  its 
history,  the  incorporation  of  the  congregation  fifty  years  ago  and 
the  dedication  of  the  present  church  building  four  years  ago. 

Articles  on  the  early  history  of  St.  Paul  are  appearing  from 
time  to  time  in  the  magazine  section  accompanying  the  Sunday 
issue  of  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News.  That  for  December  7  contains 
an  account  of  the  beginnings  of  real  estate  advertising  in  Minne- 
sota under  the  title  "Col.  Hewitt,  Pioneer  St.  Paul  Booster."  The 
reminiscent  narratives  of  "St.  Paul  Before  This,"  contributed 


318  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  FEB. 

weekly  by  Benjamin  Backnumber,  also  appear  in  the  magazine 
section.  The  story  of  the  "Ups  and  Downs  of  the  St.  Paul  Globe" 
is  the  subject  of  the  number  for  November  30.  The  one  for  De- 
cember 7  entitled  "That  Indian  'Battle'  in  Our  Streets,"  includes 
a  history  of  the. old  Pioneer  Building,  where  the  three  Sioux  who 
were  attacked  by  eighteen  Chippewa  on  April  9,  1853,  took 
refuge.  The  Reverend  Edward  D.  Neill's  lifelong  activities  in 
promoting  the  welfare  of  Minnesota;  the  career  of  Louis  E. 
Fisher,  a  pioneer  St.  Paul  editor ;  and  the  belligerent  character 
of  Aaron  Goodrich,  "Minnesota's  First  Chief  Justice,"  are  dis- 
cussed in  the  numbers  of  this  series  for  December  21,  28,  and 
January  4,  respectively. 

The  history  of  a  representatitve  St.  Paul  wholesale  concern  is 
outlined  in  65  Years  of  Service  (St.  Paul,  1919.  34  p.),  a 
pamphlet  published  by  Foley  Brothers'  Grocery  Company  for  the 
purpose  of  presenting  to  their  employees  a  brief  sketch  of  the 
organization  from  its  beginning.  The  narrative  opens  with  a 
sketch  of  the  city  of  St.  Paul  as  it  appeared  in  1855,  the  year  in 
which  the  firm  was  founded  as  the  "unpretentious  general  mer- 
chandise establishment  of  Temple  and  Beaupre."  The  changes 
since  that  time  in  the  scope  of  the  stock  handled  by  the  concern, 
in  the  methods  used  in  reaching  its  trade  and  delivering  its 
goods,  and  in  the  location  and  size  of  its  buildings,  as  set  forth 
in  the  pamphlet,  are  typical  of  the  industrial  development  of 
the  city  as  a  whole.  Changes  in  the  personnel  of  members  and 
employees  of  the  firm  are  also  noted  in  the  narrative.  The 
pamphlet  is  attractively  illustrated  with  portraits  of  the  men  who 
are  responsible  for  the  present  prosperity  of  the  business  and 
with  reproductions  of  pages  from  the  early  accounts  of  the 
concern. 

Some  of  the  successive  changes  on  the  staff  of  the  St.  Paul 
Pioneer  Press  during  the  past  forty  years  are  noted  and  a  few 
outstanding  personalities  and  careers  are  sketched  in  an  article 
reminiscent  of  the  early  days  of  that  paper  written  by  John  Tal- 
man,  newspaper  librarian  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society, 
and  published  in  the  St.  Paul  Dispatch  and  St.  Paul  Pioneer 
Press  American  for  January.  The  author  is  loud  in  his  praises  . 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  319 

of  Frank  Moore,  for  many  years  "foreman  of  the  Pioneer  Press 
newsroom." 

The  origin  of  the  names  of  St.  Paul  streets,  parks,  playgrounds, 
and  other  public  places  is  discussed  in  an  article  in  the  St.  Paul 
Daily  News  for  December  14. 

When  Blue  Earth  County  Was  Young,  by  George  W.  Allyn, 
published  as  a  reprint  from  the  Madison  Lake  Times  (1919. 
40  p.),  is  a  reminiscent  narrative  of  the  personal  experiences  of 
the  author  and  his  associates  in  the  northeastern  portion  of  that 
county.  The  account  opens  in  1855  when  the  author  and  his 
parents  with  four  other  families  settled  in  the  Plum  Valley  near 
the  border  line  between  Blue  Earth  and  Waseca  counties.  This 
little  group  of  pioneers  was  the  nucleus  of  the  town  of  Madison 
Lake.  Their  experiences,  surroundings,  means  of  communica- 
tion, the  conditions  of  their  life,  and  their  relations  with  the 
Indians  before  and  during  the  Sioux  massacre,  are  subjects  dealt 
with  at  length.  Considerable  information  about  the  enonomic 
development  of  the  region  is  included  in  the  account.  Emphasis 
is  placed  upon  the  growth  of  the  industry  in  which  the  author  was 
engaged,  the  cordwood  business;  and  perhaps  the  most  valuable 
portion  of  the  volume  deals  with  the  effect  of  the  coming  of  the 
railroads  upon  this  industry  (pp.  10-14). 

The  purchase  of  the  Mankato  Review  by  the  Mankato  Free 
Press  is  the  occasion  for  the  publication  of  a  history  of  the 
newspapers  of  Mankato  in  the  weekly  issue  of  the  former  paper 
for  November  11,  of  the  latter  for  November  14,  and  the  daily 
issues  of  both  for  November  8.  The  predominating  subject  of 
the  article  is  the  career  of  John  C.  Wise  Sr.,  who,  in  1858r 
founded  the  Mankato  Record,  one  of  the  two  papers  which  were 
later  merged  to  form  the  Free  Press,  and,  in  1869,  established 
the  Review.  In  the  Free  Press  the  article  is  accompanied  by 
portraits  of  Mr.  Wise  and  his  sons,  who  were  associated  with 
him  and  who  continued  the  publication  of  the  Review  to  the 
present ;  in  the  Review  the  illustrations  consist  of  portraits  of 
Mr.  Wise  and  of  some  of  the  proprietors  and  editors  of  the  Free 
Press. 


320  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  FEB. 

"The  Kensington  Rune  Stone,  Is  It  the  Oldest  Native  Docu- 
ment of  American  History?"  by  Hjalmar  R.  Holand,  in  the 
December  number  of  the  Wisconsin  Magazine  of  History,  is  a 
presentation  of  the  case  for  the  authenticity  of  the  inscription 
on  the  stone  by  its  foremost  advocate.  The  principal  contribution 
of  the  article  is  contained  in  Mr.  Roland's  interpretation  of  the 
expression  "day's  journey,"  as  used  in  the  inscription,  to  mean 
a  "recognized  unit  of  distance,"  based  on  the  usual  rate  of 
progress  of  a  sailing  vessel  along  the  shore,  that  is,  about  eighty 
miles. 

Other  articles  in  the  December  number  of  the  Wisconsin  Maga- 
zine of  History  are :  "A  Forgotten  Trail,"  by  James  H. 
McManus,  in  which  an  attempt  is  made  to  trace  the  route  of  a 
party  which  included  the  Reverend  Alfred  Brunson  and  some 
English  miners  on  an  overland  trip  from  Prairie  du  Chien  to 
Lake  Superior  in  1842 ;  "Portage,  the  Break  in  a  Historic  Water- 
way," by  W.  A.  Titus  ("Historic  Spots  in  Wisconsin"  series), 
which  is  accompanied  by  two  pictures  of  Fort  Winnebago ;  and 
chapter  4  of  "The  Story  of  Wisconsin,  1634-1848,"  by  Louise 
P.  Kellogg,  which  deals  with  "Territorial  Foundations  and  Devel- 
opments." An  excellent  picture  of  Mayzhuckegeshig,  a  Chippewa 
chief  who  died  at  Beaulieu,  Minnesota,  August  29,  1919,  forms 
the  frontispiece  of  this  issue,  and  a  sketch  of  his  career  is  pre- 
sented in  the  section  devoted  to  a  "Survey  of  Historical 
Activities"  (p.  263). 

"The  Nonpartisan  League  in  North  Dakota;  The  Story  of 
America's  Most  Remarkable  Farmers'  Political  Movement,"  is 
the  title  of  an  article  by  Rasmus  B.  Saby  of  Cornell  University 
in  the  North  Star  for  January.  The  author  attempts  to  give  an 
objective  treatment  of  this  highly  controversial  subject. 

An  historical  anniversary  of  marked  interest  will  be  celebrated 
in  western  Canada  on  May  2  by  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company. 
On  this  date  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  Charles  II  issued 
a  charter  founding  the  company  and  granting  to  it  an  enormous 
tract  of  land.  This  great  organization  continues  to  thrive  despite 
its  age;  it  is  still  a  powerful  factor  in  the  commercial  life  of 
Canada  and  many  of  its  early  forts  and  trading  posts  are  now 


1920  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  321 

prosperous  municipalities.  Four  of  these,  Winnipeg,  Vancouver, 
Calgary,  and  Edmonton,  have  been  chosen  as  the  principal  cities 
for  the  celebration  of  next  May. 

A  hitherto  unpublished  document  written  about  1763  by  an 
unknown  author  and  entitled  "Memoire  sur  la  partie  occidentale 
du  Canada,  depuis  Michillimakinac  jusqu'au  fleuve  du  Missis- 
sipi,"  appears  in  the  January  and  February  numbers  of  Le 
Bulletin  des  Recherches  Historiques,  published  by  La  Societe  des 
fitudes  Historiques  at  Beauceville,  Quebec.  The  document  con- 
sists of  descriptions  of  the  two  canoe  routes  most  frequently 
used  by  French  traders  in  making  the  trip  from  Mackinac  and 
the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Mississippi  River — that  by  way  of  the  Fox 
and  Wisconsin  rivers  and  that  by  way  of  the  Chicago  and  Illinois 
rivers. 

The  Annual  Report  of  the  Thunder  Bay  Historical  Society  for 
1919  (Fort  William,  Ontario.  29  p.)  contains  a  paper  on  "The 
Founding  of  Fort  William  Mission  and  the  Jesuit  Missionaries," 
by  Eugenie  Robin,  and  an  interesting  study  of  "The  Ojibway 
Indian,"  by  P.  H.  Godsell.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  is 
the  tenth  report  published  by  this  society,  which  has  its  home  on 
the  northern  shore  of  Lake  Superior  only  a  short  distance  from 
the  international  boundary. 

WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES 

Through  an  arrangement  with  the  Soldiers'  Bonus  Board, 
already  noted,  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission  has 
received  over  eighty  thousand  service  records  of  Minnesota 
soldiers,  sailors,  and  marines.  Similar  records,  on  special  forms, 
have  been  secured  directly  from  large  numbers  of  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
secretaries,  Red  Cross  nurses,  and  other  army  welfare  workers. 
In  many  cases  these  summary  records  are  accompanied  by  illus- 
trative and  documentary  material  which  adds  greatly  to  their 
value  as  personal  records. 

A  number  of  important  additions  have  been  made  to  the  state 
collection  of  reports  and  narratives,  in  manuscript  form,  covering 
the  activities  of  leading  state  and  local  war  agencies.  Among 


322  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  FEB. 

these  may  be  noted  a  complete  set  of  concise  statements  relating 
to  the  personnel  and  activities  of  the  state  and  county  branches 
of  the  food  administration;  the  final  report  of  the  federal  fuel 
administrator  for  Minnesota;  reports  on  the  war  activities  of 
the  Minneapolis  Civic  and  Commerce  Association ;  an  account  of 
the  recruiting  of  engineers  in  St.  Paul ;  and  a  "Record  of  the  War 
and  Civil  Service  of  the  Members  of  the  Minnesota  Society  of 
the  Sons  of  the  Revolution,"  compiled  by  Harry  T.  Drake  of 
St.  Paul. 

Although  the  official  records  of  most  branches  of  federal 
agencies  and  national  organizations  engaged  in  war  work  in 
Minnesota  have  either  been  sent  to  Washington  or  retained  by 
the  local  branches  under  orders  from  national  headquarters,  the 
Minnesota  War  Records  Commission  has  been  successful  in  ac- 
quiring custody  of  files  of  official  correspondence  and  papers  of 
a  number  of  important  war  agencies.  The  director  of  the  United 
States  Employment  Service  in  Minnesota  has  turned  over  to  the 
commission  for  safe-keeping  the  original  files  of  the  branch 
offices  of  the  service  at  Bemidji,  St.  Cloud,  Mankato,  and  Albert 
Lea.  These  records  consist  of  applications  for  employment,  voca- 
tional cards,  employers'  requisitions,  official  orders,  daily  reports, 
and  correspondence.  From  the  department^  home  economics  of 
the  state  agricultural  college,  which  was  closely  associated  with 
the  food  administration  and  other  agencies  in  the  campaign  for 
food  conservation,  the  commission  has  received  complete  files  of 
official  correspondence,  reports,  and  records  of  experiments.  The 
correspondence  conducted  in  connection  with  the  state  manage- 
ment of  the  United  War  Work  Campaign,  and  the  1918  official 
file  of  the  Minnesota  branch  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  War  Council 
are  other  notable  acquisitions.  Newly  acquired  records  of  strictly 
local  agencies  include  the  correspondence  and  papers  of  the 
Americanization  Committee,  an  auxiliary  of  the  Minnesota  Com- 
mission of  Public  Safety,  and  a  roster  and  records  of  the  recruit- 
ing, in  Minneapolis,  of  the  famous  "Roosevelt  regiment." 

The  commission  has  received  from  individuals  a  number  of 
noteworthy  collections  of  printed,  manuscript,  and  graphic 


1920  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  323 

material  which  bears  upon  the  various  war  activities  in  which 
the  several  donors  participated.  Such  collections  have  been 
contributed  by  Sergeant  Richard  S.  Stone,  Minneapolis,  who  was 
engaged  in  army  personnel  work  at  Camp  Grant ;  Hugo  V.  Koch, 
St.  Paul,  former  director  of  the  United  States  Employment  Serv- 
ice in  Minnesota ;  Donald  R.  Cotton,  St.  Paul,  regional  advisor  for 
the  United  States  War  Industries  Board  and  leader  in  various  local 
war  activities ;  Lieutenant  James  P.  Dudley,  St.  Paul,  former 
commanding  officer  of  Company  G,  350th  Infantry,  88th  Division, 
which  saw  service  in  France;  George  W.  McCree,  St.  Paul, 
civilian  aide,  in  the  recruiting  of  railway  engineers,  to  the  adjutant 
general  of  the  United  States  Army ;  and  Mrs.  Edward  Feldhauser, 
St.  Paul,  regent  of  the  local  chapter  of  the  Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution  and  chairman  of  the  woman's  division  of 
the  Patriotic  League  of  St.  Paul. 

County  committees  of  the  war  records  commission  are  working 
along  the  lines  of  up-to-date  and  detailed  suggestions  contained 
in  the  commission's  Bulletin,  no.  3  (mimeographed)  which  was 
issued  in  January  under  the  title  County  War  History  Prospectus 
and  Guide  to  the  Collection  of  Material  (27  p.).  This  bulletin 
contains  a  tentative  outline  for  a  county  war  history,  general 
and  specific  instructions  for  the  collection  and  preservation  of 
material,  a  series  of  model  questionnaires  for  gathering  data, 
and  definite  suggestions  about  organizing  and  financing  county 
war  records  committees.  Though  intended  primarily  as  a  guide 
to  the  collection  of  material,  the  bulletin  may  also  be  of  use  to 
such  county  committees  or  other  agencies  as  are  preparing  county 
war  histories  for  publication. 

A  detailed  report  of  the  work  of  the  Rice  County  War  Records 
Committee  shows  that  organization  to  have  been  unusually  suc- 
cessful in  the  building  up  of  a  county  collection  of  service  records, 
photographs,  draft  records,  reports  of  war  organizations,  and 
other  material  for  a  county  war  history.  Recent  appropriations 
for  the  work  of  similar  county  committees  include  five  thousand 
dollars  granted  to  the  Ramsey  County  committee  by  the  city  of 
St.  Paul  and  two  hundred  dollars  set  aside  for  the  Kandiyohi 
County  committee  by  the  county  board.  The  Kandiyohi  and 


324  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  FEB. 

Le  Sueur  committees,  among  others  already  noted,  plan  to  publish 
county  war  histories  in  book  form. 

Minnesota  had  the  honor  of  entertaining  the  first  national  con- 
vention of  the  American  Legion,  which  was  held  at  Minneapolis, 
November  10,  11,  and  12,  1919.  An  "unofficial  summary"  of 
Committee  Reports  and  Resolution  adopted  on  that  occasion 
has  been  issued  in  handbook  form  (67  p.)  for  immediate  use 
pending  the  publication  of  an  official  report  of  the  proceedings. 
To  those  interested  in  the  history  of  state  and  national  participa- 
tion in  the  World  War,  it  is  encouraging  to  note  that  the  national 
body  of  the  Legion,  like  its  Minnesota  branch,  has  adopted  as 
one  of  its  fundamental  aims  the  perpetuation  of  legionaries' 
memories  of  life  in  the  service.  In  fulfillment  of  this  aim,  the 
national  headquarters  of  the  Legion  has  since  evolved  a  plan  of 
state  organization  including  state  historians,  who,  it  is  planned, 
in  addition  to  the  usual  duties  of  such  officers,  will  serve  as  con- 
necting links  between  the  organization  and  the  state  historical 
societies  or  commissions  engaged  in  the  collection  of  material 
relating  to  state  and  local  war  history. 

The  following  recent  additions  have  been  made  to  the  state 
collection  of  souvenir  histories  of  military  units  including  Minne- 
sotans:  33$th  U.  S.  Field  Artillery:  Our  Book  of  Memories, 
Corporal  Jerome  R.  Forbes  of  Nebraska,  editor  (148  p.)  ;  Com- 
pany History,  "D",  55th  Engineers,  American  Expeditionary 
Forces,  by  William  L.  Peterson  of  Iowa  assisted  by  Ralph  S. 
Underwood  of  Minneapolis  (72  p.)  ;  History  of  the  So^th  Pioneer 
Infantry  [colored],  American  Expeditionary  Forces,  by  Major 
Paul  S.  Bliss  of  St.  Paul  (223  p.)  ;  and  a  history  in  mimeo- 
graphed form  of  "Company  'B',  328th  Infantry,  82nd  Division, 
U.  S.  Army,"  by  Lieutenant  Charles  M.  Day  of  Alabama  (24  p.). 
The  History  of  the  8o$th  Pioneer  Infantry,  in  all  respects  admir- 
ably suited  to  its  purpose,  contains  an  exceptionally  varied  and 
interesting  series  of  photographic  reproductions  illustrative  of 
the  experiences  of  the  American  soldier  overseas. 

In  a  pamphlet  entitled  A  Y.  M.C.  A.  Secretary  in  Italy  During 
Wartime  (25  p.),  Paul  J.  Thompson  of  Minneapolis  gives  an 


1920  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  325 

interesting  account  of  his  own  experiences  and  impressions  dur- 
ing a  year's  active  service  as  an  army  welfare  worker  overseas. 
In  the  latter  part  of  his  stay  in  Italy,  Mr.  Thompson  was  placed 
in  charge  of  the  work  of  arranging  entertainments  for  the  Italian 
soldiers  in  hospitals,  barracks,  and  aviation  camps  in  and  near 
Rome.  The  account  of  this  and  of  other  aspects  of  the  work  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  Italy,  though  published  primarily  for  distribu- 
tion among  the  author's  friends,  is  of  general  interest  especially 
as  a  contribution  to  the  history  of  Minnesota's  participation  in 
the  war.  Since  that  history,  particularly  as-  it  concerns  activities 
carried  on  outside  the  state,  will  be  for  the  most  part  a  record  of 
the  services  of  individuals,  other  Minnesotans  who  were  in  active 
war  service  would  do  well  to  follow  Mr.  Thompson's  example, 
at  least  to  the  extent  of  making  their  experiences  a  matter  of 
permanent  record. 

"Logging  with  the  A.  E.  F."  is  the  subject  of  an  article  which 
begins  in  the  December  number  of  The  North  Woods,  monthly 
bulletin  of  the  Minnesota  Forestry  Association  and  the  Minne- 
sota Forest  Service.  The  author  of  the  article,  Shirley  C.  Bray- 
ton,  a  graduate  student  at  the  University  of  Minnesota,  who 
served  with  the  Twentieth  Engineers,  here  gives  a  very  interest- 
ing and  informing  account  of  that  portion  of  the  operations  of 
the  regiment  which  centered  at  the  village  of  Chatinois  in  Loraine. 
Of  Minnesota  men  in  the  companies  stationed  there,  special  men- 
tion is  made  of  "Sergeant  Hugh  Martin,  an  old  time  Minnesota 
lumber  jack  from  Grand  Rapids."  The  article  will  conclude  in 
the  February  number. 

Though  not  primarily  a  war  record,  the  Report  of  the  president 
of  the  University  of  Minnesota  for  the  year  1918-19  (Bulletins, 
vol.  22,  no.  52)  contains  much  information  about  the  ways  in 
which  the  university  as  an  institution  participated  in  and  was 
effected  by  the  war-time  activities  and  conditions  of  the  period 
covered.  In  the  announcements  of  faculty  resignations  and 
leaves  of  absence,  some  indication  is  given  of  the  individual 
services  of  men  who  left  the  university  to  engage  in  war  work. 

Contributions  of  men  to  the  winning  of  the  war  made  by  one 
of  Minnesota's  military  schools  are  recorded  in  a  pamphlet 


326  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  FEB. 

entitled,  War  Service  Record  of  Shattuck  Men  (31  p.),  compiled 
by  Harry  E.  Whitney,  an  instructor  at  the  Shattuck  School,  Fari- 
bault.  The  record  comprises  rosters  and  brief  statements  of 
service  of  Shattuck  men  who  lost  their  lives  in  the  service,  those 
who  suffered  casualties,  those  who  were  decorated  or  cited  in 
orders,  all  those  who  were  in  the  service,  those  engaged  in  gov- 
ernment or  army  welfare  work,  those  participating  in  civilian 
war  activities  at  home,  and  those  whose  positions  or  services  were 
for  one  reason  or  another  distingushed.  The  main  roster  of 
service  men  is  arranged  according  to  the  classes  to  which  the 
men  belonged  when  at  Shattuck.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  of 
the  616  Shattuck  men  with  the  colors,  336  were  commissioned 
officers. 

The  Montevideo  News  has  published  a  county  war  history 
entitled  With  the  Colors  from  Chippewa  County,  1917,  1918, 
i pip  (208  p.).  The  volume  is  comparable  in  most  respects  to  the 
war  histories  of  Goodhue,  Waseca,  and  Watonwan  counties  which 
were  reviewed  in  the  November  number  of  the  BULLETIN.  It  dif- 
fers somewhat  on  the  pictorial  side  in  its  variations  of  the  con- 
ventional group  picture  with  respect  to  setting  and  pose  and  in 
its  relatively  large  number  of  photographic  illustrations  in  which 
activities  and  conditions,  rather  than  persons,  are  the  prominent 
features. 

The  October  number  of  the  Quarterly  Journal  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  North  Dakota  is  devoted  to  a  series  of  articles  by  compe- 
tent local  authorities  on  the  subject  of  North  Dakota's 
contribution  to  the  winning  of  the  war.  Under  such  titles  as 
"North  Dakota's  Contribution  of  Men,"  "The  Work  of  the  Wel- 
fare Organizations,"  "The  Work  of  the  Red  Cross,"  and  "Sec- 
ondary War  Activities,"  are  summed  up  all  of  the  more  important 
of  that  state's  war  services.  The  January  number  of  the  same 
periodical  contains  a  "Service  List  of  the  University  of  North 
Dakota"  giving  the  names  and  details  of  service  of  members  of 
the  university  faculty,  alumni,  former  students,  undergraduates, 
members  of  the  Students'  Army  Training  Corps,  and  students  of 
the  university  high  school.  The  main  roster  is  preceded  by  photo- 


1920 


WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES 


327 


graphs  and  biographical  sketches  of  the  university  men  who  lost 
their  lives  in  the  service. 

The  North  Dakota  branch  of  the  American  Legion  in  January 
commenced  the  publication,  at  Bismarck,  of  an  official  organ 
known  as  The  Legionaire  which  appears  on  the  first  and  fifteenth 
of  every  month. 

Recent  pamphlets  and  bulletins  issued  by  agencies  in  other 
states  similar  to  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission  are: 
The  Collection  and  Preservation  of  County  War  Records,  by  the 
war  records  section  of  the  Illinois  State  Historical  Library 
(10  p.)  ;  Michigan  War  Records,  by  the  Michigan  Historical  Com- 
mission as  number  10  of  its  Bulletins  (30  p.)  ;  and  Pennsylvania's 
Participation  in  the  World  War,  by  the  Pennsylvania  War  His- 
tory Commission  (22  p.).  Tentative  outlines  for  state  or  county 
war  histories  appear  in  all  and  are  the  principal  features  of  the 
Michigan  and  Pennsylvania  bulletins.  In  Virginia  the  state  war 
records  agency  issues  a  monthly  periodical  in  newspaper  form 
under  the  title,  War  History  Commission  News  Letter. 


MINNESOTA 
HISTORY  BULLETIN 


VOL.  3,  No.  6 
WHOLE  No.  22 
MAY,  1920 


RECRUITING    ENGINEERS   FOR  THE 
WORLD  WAR  IN  MINNESOTA1 

On  May  21,  1917,  Mr.  George  T.  Slade,  vice  president  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  called  me  in  to  assist 
Captain  Samuel  S.  Magoffin  of  St.  Paul,  who  had  received  a 
commission  and  was  delegated  to  organize  as  many  men  as  he 
could  procure  for  the  Sixteenth  United  States  Engineers, 
which  was  and  is  a  construction  regiment.  Captain  Magoffin 
is  a  bright  young  fellow,  who  is  now  lieutenant  colonel  of  his 
regiment.  He  had  had  large  contracts  for  railroad  building 
in  Canada  and  was  well  qualified  to  "carry  on"  the  work  given 
to  him.  The  headquarters  of  the  Sixteenth  Engineers  was  in 
Detroit,  Michigan  and  we  made  our  reports  to  Colonel  Harry 
Burgess.  The  work  was  difficult  at  first  because  no  one 
seemed  to  know  exactly  what  was  wanted.  Captain  Magoffin 
thought  that  the  only  men  we  required  were  men  who  were 
accustomed  to  use  a  "number-two"  shovel;  but  most  of  the 
young  red-blooded  fellows  who  came  to  the  office  at  first 
were  lawyers,  teachers,  or  university  students  who  had  never 
handled  a  shovel,  but  were  lively  up-on-their-toes  good  Ameri- 
can young  men  willing  and  able  to  learn  how  to  overcome  the 
intricacies  of  a  spike  maul,  a  cross  cut  saw,  a  spike  bar,  and  a 
good  "number-two."  We  soon  commenced  to  accept  men  of 

1  This  narrative  of  personal  experiences  was  written  by  Mr.  George 
W.  McCree  shortly  after  the  armistice  brought  the  World  War  to  a  close, 
for  the  purpose  of  supplying  his  children  with  a  record  of  the  part  which 
he  played  in  that  conflict.  When,  somewhat  later,  his  files  of  war  papers, 
consisting  principally  of  official  correspondence  and  sample  induction 
blanks,  were  turned  over  to  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission,  a 
copy  of  the  article  was  included.  This  resulted  in  its  being  brought  to 
the  attention  of  the  superintendent  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society, 
and  at  his  request  the  author  read  the  paper  at  the  stated  meeting  of  the 
exectuive  council  of  the  society  on  October  13,  1919. 

Mr.  McCree  was  born  in  Edinburgh,  Scotland,  February  10,  1858.  He 
received  his  elementary  education  in  the  day  schools  and  his  secondary 

331 


332  GEORGE  W.  McCREE  MAY 

this  type.  In  this  regiment  we  required  a  certain  number  of 
locomotive  engineers  and  firemen  for  train  work,  conductors 
and  trainmen  for  the  same  work,  machinists,  boiler  makers, 
car  repairers,  and  men  accustomed  to  running  repairs  on 
locomotives  and  cars.  Bridge  builders,  concrete  mixers,  form 
builders,  blacksmiths,  stenographers,  timekeepers,  material 
clerks,  surveyors,  draftsmen,  instrument  men,  and  all  other 
classes  of  men  needed  to.  build  and  maintain  a  railroad  were 
also  required. 

The  procedure  we  followed  was  this:  we  asked  the  appli- 
cant what  he  was  accustomed  to  do  and  if  he  was  a  tradesman 
we  accepted  him  at  once.  If  the  young  fellow  was  an  engi- 
neering student  we  told  him  what  the  work  would  be ;  what  a 
great  asset  it  would  be  for  him  to  have  a  part  in  the  lightning 
moves  that  would  take  place  in  France  where  the  very  best 
minds  in  the  engineering  world  would  be  centered;  and  that, 
if  he  would  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  he  should  finish  his 
educational  course  when  he  returned,  then  this  was  the  depart- 
ment of  the  army  where  he  could  perform  most  closely  to  one 
hundred  per  cent  of  efficient  work. 

education  in  the  night  schools  of  his  native  city,  and  later,  while  in 
northern  England,  attended  extension  courses  conducted  by  Cambridge 
University.  He  came  to  America  in  1886,  and,  after  spending  a  year  in 
various  parts  of  Canada,  settled  in  St.  Paul,  where  he  has  since  made  his 
home.  During  the  first  nine  years  of  his  residence  in  St.  Paul  he  was 
employed  by  the  Great  Northern  Railroad  Company  as  a  machinist;  after- 
wards he  served  as  state  boiler  inspector  under  Governor  David  M. 
Clough ;  and,  in  1900,  when  the  government  lock  and  dam  was  constructed 
in  the  Mississippi  River  above  the  Marshall  Avenue  Bridge,  under  the 
direction  of  Major  Frederic  V.  Abbot  and  Captain  Archibald  O.  Powell 
(sec  post,  p.  358),  Mr.  McCree  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  steam  ma- 
chinery used  in  the  enterprise.  He  has  since  been  employed  by  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  first  as  machinist,  then  as  foreman, 
and  finally  as  mechanical  inspector.  To  Mr.  McCree  belongs  the  credit 
for  the  first  establishment  in  St.  Paul  of  night  schools  similar  to  those  he 
attended  in  Scotland,  for  upon  his  suggestion  George  N.  Carman,  prin- 
cipal of  the  St.  Paul  High  School  in  the  early  nineties,  opened  evening 
classes  in  that  school.  The  present  article  is  a  sufficient  account  of  his 
service  in  the  World  War,  a  service  for  which  he  was  peculiarly  adapted 
by  long  years  of  engineering  experience. — Ed. 


1920  RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  333 

When  we  were  satisfied  that  a  man  could  be  used,  he  was 
sent  to  Lieutenant  Colonel  Edward  H.  Schultz,  the  head  of 
the  United  States  Corps  of  Engineers  in  Minnesota,  whose 
office  was  in  the  Federal  Building,  St.  Paul.  Then  the  appli- 
cant was  put  through  a  thorough  physical  examination  accord- 
ing to  government  regulations.  If  he  passed,  his  joy  knew  no 
bounds ;  if  rejected,  he  was  disconsolate.  It  was  truly  pathetic 
to  see  the  anxiety  displayed  by  some  of  the  young  fellows  who 
were  turned  down  because  of  some  physical  defect.  I  know 
of  a  great  number  who  went  into  hospitals  and  underwent 
operations  for  hernia,  hammertoes,  and  other  ailments  which 
would  have  kept  them  out  of  the  army. 

Before  Captain  Magoffin  got  the  regiment  completed  I 
received  word  from  Major  General  William  M.  Black,  the 
chief  of  engineers,  to  proceed  to  help  to  enlist  another  con- 
struction regiment,  the  Seventeenth  Engineers,  mobilizing  at 
Atlanta,  Georgia.  Shortly  after  this  time  the  captain  went  to 
join  his  regiment  and  I  was  left  to  my  own  resources.  Very 
soon  I  got  word  from  Washington  to  recruit  for  the  Twen- 
tieth Engineers,  a  forestry  regiment,  which  included  all  classes 
of  men  accustomed  to  work  in  the  woods — men  with  sawmill 
experience,  blacksmiths,  machinists,  gas  engine  men,  narrow 
guage  railroad  builders,  et  cetera.  This  regiment  is  supposed 
to  have  been  the  largest  regiment  ever  formed  in  any  country. 
Its  members  were  to  go  into  the  forests  in  southern  France 
and  get  out  bridge  timbers,  ties,  poles,  and  lumber  of  all  sizes 
and  grades  for  building  purposes.  I  got  a  splendid  lot  of  fel- 
lows for  this  unit — young  men  from  Stillwater,  Thief  River 
Falls,  International  Falls,  Bemidji,  and  Crookston  in  Minne- 
sota, and  from  Eau  Claire,  River  Falls,  and  other  lumbering 
centers  in  Wisconsin.  Whenever  I  saw  a  long,  sinewy,  bash- 
ful fellow  come  into  the  office,  I  knew  he  had  swung  an  axe 
and  that  he  was  for  the  Twentieth  Engineers.  This  regiment 
was  mobilized  at  American  University,  in  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington. During  one  of  my  visits  to  the  capital,  a  young  pri- 


334  GEORGE  W.  McCREE  MAY 

vate  accosted  me  on  the  street  and  asked  me  if  I  was  McCree 
from  St.  Paul.  He  was  one  of  the  men  from  Thief  River 
Falls.  The  following  day  I  rode  out  to  the  camp  and  saw 
quite  a  number  of  the  boys  who  had  gone  through  the  office. 

Before  August  12,  when  the  men  between  the  ages  of 
twenty-one  and  thirty-one  had  to  register  for  the  selective 
draft,  I  could  enlist  all  men  from  eighteen  to  forty-five  years 
of  age,  and  even  to  December  20,  1917,  I  could  pass  vocation- 
ally upon  men  between  the  minimum  and  maximum  ages  and 
send  them  to  a  United  States  Army  recruiting  station  either 
in  the  Baltimore  Block  in  St.  Paul  or  in  the  Federal  Building 
in  Minneapolis,  where  they  received  their  preliminary  physical 
examination.  If  they  passed  this  they  were  then  sent  on  to 
Fort  Snelling  for  their  final  physical  examination.  The  quar- 
termaster department  at  the  fort  would  then  swear  the  suc- 
cessful applicants  into  the  army  and  give  them  transportation 
to  the  camps  where  the  regiments,  previously  designated  by 
me  as  the  ones  into  which  they  should  be  admitted,  were  sta- 
tioned. 

The  chief  recruiting  officer  for  Minnesota  was  Major  John 
D.  Yost.  His  headquarters  were  in  Minneapolis,  and  I  re- 
ceived all  the  assistance  from  him  that  it  was  possible  for  him 
to  give.  Lieutenant  S.  Stephen  Da  Costa,  his  assistant,  was 
a  very  live  wire  and  consumed  with  a  desire  to  get  to  France, 
but  because  of  a  physical  defect,  contracted  while  in  active 
service  in  the  Philippines,  he  was  unable  to  get  his  wish.  My 
association  with  these  gentlemen  was  of  the  happiest  kind,  and 
it  is  one  of  the  pleasures  of  my  life  to  have  met  them  in  this 
work. 

Sometime  in  November,  1917,  General  Crowder's  office 
issued  an  order  that  after  twelve  o'clock,  December  20,  no 
man  of  draft  age,  twenty-one  to  thirty-one,  could  get  into  the 
army  except  by  induction.  Then  my  busy  time  began,  be- 
cause so  many  men  had  the  erroneous  idea  that  being  drafted 
cast  a  reflection  upon  their  patriotism  and  were  determined  to 


1920  RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  335 

enlist  voluntarily.  The  government  even  encouraged  the  idea 
that  it  was  more  honorable  to  enlist  voluntarily  than  to  be 
inducted,  for  those  who  enlisted  were  allowed  to  wear  but- 
tons on  their  coat  collars  with  the  letters  "U.  S.,"  while  the 
buttons  worn  by  drafted  men  had  two  additional  letters,  "N. 
A.,"  meaning  National  Army.  Ultimately,  however,  the 
United  States  had  only  one  army,  the  United  States  Army, 
while  before  there  had  been  the  United  States  Regular  Army, 
the  United  States  National  Army,  and  the  National  Guard. 
After  I  was  in  the  game  for  a  short  while  I  found  that  all 
such  distinctions  were  unfair.  Indeed  thousands  of  men  were 
just  as  patriotic  winning  the  war  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic 
as  in  France.  At  no  time  was  the  war  three  thousand  miles 
away ;  it  was  right  at  our  own  door.  Many  men  with  tears  in 
their  eyes  have  pleaded  with  me  to  get  them  into  the  army 
only  to  be  refused  because  the  operating  branch  of  the  army 
in  France  had  more  men  to  perform  its  work  than  the  rail- 
roads in  this  country  had  to  do  the  necessary  work  here. 
It  was  not  everyone  who  understood  conditions  properly. 
After  the  war  industries  board  had  said  which  firms  could 
receive  raw  and  finished  material  for  their  wrork,  after  the 
fuel  administration  had  decided  who  could  get  fuel,  and  in 
fact  every  man,  woman,  and  child  had  been  put  under  gov- 
ernment control  in  some  form,  then  the  men  who  were  per- 
forming transportation  duties  at  home,  from  the  call  boys, 
engine  wipers,  and  the  men  knocking  the  fires,  upwards 
through  the  mechanics  and  the  men  operating  the  trains  to  the 
federal  managers,  were  doing  work  as  patriotic  as  that  of  any 
man  in  France.  I  tried  every  means  in  my  power  to  get  a  dis- 
tinctive badge  for  all  railroad  men  to  wear,  showing  that  they 
were  performing  "Win  the  War"  work  right  here  and  were 
not  .slackers.  I  have  known  many  engineers,  firemen,  and 
trainmen  who  were  cut  to  the  quick  by  being  called  slackers 
when  they  were  on  the  street  between  runs.  I  know  one 
young  railroad  official  in  St.  Paul  occupying  a  very  onerous 


336  GEORGE  W.  McCREE  MAY 

position,  who  pleaded  with  his  managers  that  he  might  be 
released  so  that  he  could  go  into  the  service,  because  he  said 
he  was  ashamed  and  humiliated  when  he  entered  his  clubs  and 
heard  his  elderly  friends  naturally  telling  with  great  pride 
about  the  valorous  deeds  of  their  sons.  Yet  this  man  was 
personally  responsible  for  the  proper  Handling  of  thousands 
of  soldiers. 

On  December  18  I  reached  my  high- water  mark  up  to  that 
time:  that  day  I  passed  upon  eighty-two  men.  I  became  so 
nervous  at  that  time  I  could  hardly  sleep  at  night.  Some  of 
the  men  were  easily  placed,  because  I  have  been  associated 
with  railway  men  so  long  that  I  can  tell  one  almost  as  soon  as 
I  see  him.  I  would  merely  ask  to  see  such  a  man's  brother- 
hood card  and  then  tell  the  stenographer  what  regiment  to  put 
him  into.  Some  of  the  men  coming  before  me  at  that  time 
were  very  amusing.  I  remember  one  man  came  in  who  evi- 
dently was  a  farmer.  I  said,  "Well  young  man  what  are 
you?"  He  said  he  was  an  engineer.  I  asked  him  what  kind 
of  an  engineer  and  he  replied,  "Well  I'm  an  engineer."  I  then 
asked  him,  "Are  you  a  civil?"  He  said  "What?"  Again  I 
asked  him  if  he  was  a  civil  and  then  he  replied,  "Oh !  Yes  I'm 
civil."  So  then  I  asked  him  if  he  was  a  civil  engineer,  a  min- 
ing engineer,  a  hydraulic  engineer,  an  electrical  engineer,  a 
consulting  engineer,  a  stationary  engineer,  a  locomotive  engi- 
neer or  if  the  fact  of  the  matter  was  that  the  only  engineering 
that  he  had  done  was  to  handle  a  thirty  horse  power  threshing 
engine.  When  he  got  over  his  surprise  at  the  many  kinds  of 
engineers  I  mentioned  he  said  that  a  twenty-five  horse  power 
traction  engine  was  the  heaviest  he  had  handled.  I  put  him 
into  the  Twenty-third  Regiment,  a  road-building  unit,  because 
nearly  all  farm  boys  know  something  about  road  building  and 
again  experience  of  this  kind  makes  them  better  citizens  when 
they  leave  the  army. 

The  following  telegram  from  Major  E.  N.  Sanctuary  in 
Washington  gives  an  idea  of  the  diversified  types  of  men 
required. 


1920  RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  337 

Have  urgent  call  for  following:  fifty  blacksmiths,  sixteen 
men  experienced  with  small  boats,  forty  radio  operators,  one 
hundred  telegraph  operators,  twenty  cable  splicers-  two  hun- 
dred competent  truck  or  auto  chauffeurs,  twenty  map  makers, 
ten  topographical  draftsmen,  one  hundred  electricians  of  all 
kinds,  thirty-five  marine  enginemen,  twenty-five  high  voltage 
linemen,  thirty  longshoremen,  fifty  band  musicians,  ten  sta- 
tionary engine  oilers,  twenty  structural  steel  workers,  ten 
switchboard  erectors,  two  telephone  wire  chiefs,  five  tele- 
phone wiremen.  These  are  in  addition  to  list  already  sent 
you.  All  men  for  induction  or  enlistment  as  privates.  Des- 
ignate whether  in  or  out  of  draft  when  sending  names.  De- 
tailed list  of  all  needs  following  by  letter. 

At- this  point  I  want  to  pay  the  highest  tribute  I  can  to  the 
newspapers  of  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  and  Duluth.  They  gave 
me  all  the  space  that  was  necessary  to  bring  the  government's 
needs  before  their  readers.  The  Associated  Press  also  did 
valiant  work  and  sent  my  stuff  everywhere,  with  the  result 
that  I  had  induction  papers  sent  to  all  the  western  states  from 
the  Canadian  line  to  Mexico.  I  know  it  is  on  the  point  of 
the  reader's  tongue  to  ask  how  I  could  examine  a  man  in 
Arizona  to  put  him  in  the  army.  Well  I  had  a  little  form 
mimeographed  asking  wrhat  branch  of  railway  service  a  man 
was  in,  how  long  he  had  been  in  such  service,  what  roads  he 
had  worked  on,  and  so  forth ;  and  from  his  answers  I  figured 
where  he  should  go.  Of  course,  no  doubt,  lots  of  times  I  was 
fooled ;  but  the  fellows  found  that  they  had  fooled  themselves, 
not  me,  when  they  went  to  the  regiments  to  which  I  sent  them 
on  the  strength  of  their  statements  and  could  not  perform  the 
necessary  work.  In  such  cases  they  were  assigned  to  "K.  P." 
duty  or  were  transferred  to  infantry  regiments,  so  the  laugh 
was  finally  on  them  and  not  on  me. 

That  puts  me  in  mind  of  a  big  strapping  fellow  who  came 
into  the  office  one  morning  about  seven  o'clock — at  that  time 
I  used  to  get  to  the  office  about  five  o'clock,  never  later  than 
six.  I  asked  him  to  come  back  at  nine,  as  I  was  busy  with  my 
mail.  I  asked  his  trade  and  he  said  he  was  a  railway  black- 


338  GEORGE  W.  McCREE  MAY 

smith,  and  just  as  he  was  going  out  of  the  door  he  added,  "I 
am  also  a  machinist."  Now  in  all  my  experience  at  the  ma- 
chinist trade  I  have  never  seen  a  man  who  has  these  two 
trades.  When  he  came  in  about  ten  o'clock  I  said,  "Well! 
you're  the  blacksmith.  Have  you  been  accustomed  to  a  big 
fire  or  a  small  one  ?"  He  said  he  was  familiar  with  all  classes 
of  work.  I  asked  him  if  he  could  shorten  an  eccentric  blade  by 
shrinking.  I  saw  he  did  not  know  what  I  was  talking  about. 
I  then  asked  him  if  he  could  weld  a  bar,  and  quite  blithely  he 
said  he  could.  I  asked  him  if  he  could  weld  a  drawbar  and 
he  answered  me  again,  "Yes,"  but  in  such  a  way  that  I  knew 
he  had  never  done  so.  I  then  asked  him  the  size  of  a  draw- 
bar and  he  had  no  idea  about  it.  I  then  said,  "You  also  said 
you  are  a  machinist,"  and  he  answered  that  he  was  a  first  class 
locomotive  machinist,  having  worked  for  the  "Soo"  Railway 
Company.  I  asked  him  to  tell  me  in  a  few  words  how  he 
would  set  the  valves  on  a  locomotive.  He  answered  that  he 
would  first  set  up  the  balls  of  the  governor.  I  then  asked 
him  if  he  had  ever  seen  governor  balls  on  a  locomotive  and  he 
answered,  "Oh!  damn  it;  there's  no  use  trying  to  fool  you," 
and  out  he  went. 

While  the  object  of  the  government  was  to  get  men  into 
the  different  units  who  were  familiar  with  the  work  that  the 
regiment  had  to  perform,  a  great  number  of  fellows  thought 
the  army  a  fine  place  to  learn  to  be  locomotive  engineers, 
blacksmiths,  or  machinists.  Instead  of  going  into  the  army 
and  performing  one  hundred  per  cent  service  at  what  they 
could  do  properly,  they  wanted  the  government  to  teach  them 
trades.  In  time  of  the  stress  of  war  men  have  to  do  what  they 
are  fit  to  do,  not  what  they  want  to  do. 

Very  many  high  class  men  who  were  authorities  in  their 
lines  went  into  the  service  as  privates.  I  had  one  man  who 
gave  up  a  position  which  paid  him  upwards  of  three  hundred 
dollars  a  month  to  go  into  the  Twenty-eighth  Engineers,  a 
quarry  regiment,  for  the  munificent  sum  of  thirty  dollars  a 
month.  He  was  thirty-five  years  of  age  and  at  the  time  there 


1920  RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  339 

was  not  the  least  idea  of  extending  the  draft  to  include  that 
age.  But  he  had  to  go;  it  was  in  his  blood,  so  he  went.  I 
also  enlisted  a  building  contractor  from  Minneapolis  who  had 
been  a  building  superintendent  on  the  university  buildings. 
He  was  married  and  had  five  or  six  children,  so  I  advised  him 
to  stay  on  this  side.  He  had  made  up  his  mind  to  enlist,  how- 
ever, and  he  is  now  in  France. 

Here  I  am  going  to  sandwich  in  a  story  of  the  yellowest 
cur  in  Minnesota.  He  received  through  me  induction  papers 
to  enter  the  Twentieth  Engineers,  a  forestry  unit.  Soon 
thereafter  the  Tuscania  was  torpedoed  off  the  coast  of  Ireland. 
The  reader  will  remember  that  a  large  number  of  members  of 
the  Twentieth  were  aboard  that  vessel  and  it  was  reported 
that  quite  a  number  of  St.  Paul  boys  were  drowned.  On  the 
Saturday  morning  when  the  news  came  here,  at  about  nine 
o'clock  this  cowardly  fellow  came  in  to  ask  me  if  the  papers 
which  he  had  were  binding  on  him.  At  once  I  thought  that 
this  fellow  wished  to  back  out,  and  sure  enough  that  was  his 
object.  He  said  he  had  no  objection  to  fighting,  but  he  was 
not  going  to  be  drowned  like  a  rat  while  going  across.  Then 
I  opened  up  on  him.  I  called  him  everything  that  I  could 
think  of,  and  even  at  that  his  cowardly  action  wasn't  properly 
labeled.  The  thing  that  nettled  me  was  that  only  he  and  I 
were  in  my  office  and  I  wanted  all  St.  Paul  to  know  that  here 
was  the  only  cowardly  man  in  the  whole  state.  When  he  went 
out  to  go  to  the  street  through  our  main  office,  I  followed  him 
and  there  I  got  a  gallery  and  I  started  in  on  him  again  and 
gave  him  all  I  had.  He  came  back  threateningly  asking  me  if 
I  was  talking  about  him.  I  told  him  the  greatest  satisfaction 
I  had  was  the  fact  that  there  was  not  another  man  in  the  city 
of  St.  Paul  to  whom  my  language  would  apply  except  him- 
self. When  I  called  him  a  "yellow  cowardly  cur"  I  told  him 
I  insulted  the  dog  in  making  the  comparison.  I  also  told  him 
that  instead  of  withdrawing  from  the  regiment  because  of  that 
accident,  the  red-blooded  fellows  would  crowd  in  to  enlist. 
Now  here  is  the  other  part  of  the  sandwich.  Within  ten 


340  GEORGE  W.  McCREE  MAY 

minutes  after  the  coward  left,  a  young  man  came  in  asking  if 
he  could  join  the  Twentieth  Engineers.  I  asked  him  why  he 
wanted  to  join.  He  answered  that  someone  had  to  replace  the 
poor  fellows  who  had  gone  down.  I  told  him  about  the  ac- 
tion of  the  previous  fellow  and  assured  him  that  he  was  a 
tonic  to  my  soul.  That  Saturday  I  got  upwards  of  twenty 
men  for  this  regiment. 

About  that  time — I  believe  it  was  the  same  Saturday  after- 
noon— a  lady  with  four  children  (I  think  she  borrowed  some 
of  them)  came  into  my  office  and  handed  me  a  comfort  kit. 
She  said  her  husband  had  enlisted  through  my  office  but  she 
would  not  allow  him  to  go  so  I  could  keep  my  comfort  kit. 

Speaking  of  comfort  kits,  I  gave  away  many  thousands  of 
them  and  the  boys  were  delighted  with  them.  The  continuous 
requests  I  made  at  Red  Cross  headquarters,  where  the  com- 
fort kits  were  made  up,  brought  immediate  action.  Mrs. 
Archibald  MacLaren  and  Mrs.  Ernest  Leighton  were  con- 
tinually looking  out  that  I  had  the  proper  supply.  Quite  a 
number  of  ladies  followed  the  example  of  Mrs.  William  Dean 
and  knitted  socks  for  "Mr.  McCree's  boys."  I  told  the  boys 
when  they  got  their  kits  that  the  Red  Cross  women  worked 
without  any  remuneration  except  the  thought  that  the  load 
might  be  lightened  a  little  in  France  and  that  the  boys  would 
know  that  the  women  on  this  side  were  thinking,  working, 
and  praying  for  them  "over  there."  A  great  many  of  the  boys 
wrote  to  me  from  the  different  camps  expressing  their  appre- 
ciation of  the  good  and  necessary  things  contained  in  the  kit. 
I  sent  most  of  the  notes  to  Mrs.  MacLaren. 

I  wonder  if  it  is  necessary  here  for  me  to  pay  a  tribute  to 
the  Red  Cross.  I  have  not  the  ability,  for  to  praise  it  prop- 
erly would  call  for  an  epic  poem  written  by  no  less  a  master 
than  Tennyson.  Everyone  who  had  anything  to  do  with  the 
Red  Cross  women  admired  them;  the  women  who  sewed,  the 
women  who  planned,  the  women  who  knitted,  and  the  women 
who  worked  on  surgical  dressings.  Some  of  them  sometimes 


1920  RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  341 

had  sore  hearts  and  many  a  mother  wondered  if  the  very 
bandage  she  folded  with  such  care  might  not  perhaps  bind  up 
the  wound  of  her  own  son.  Frequently  I  have  taken  visitors 
up  to  the  second  floor  of  the  Railroad  Building  to  see  the 
department  presided  over  by  Miss  Helen  Bunn.  It  was  here 
that  the  dressings  were  received,  pressed  into  bundles,  packed, 
and  made  ready  for  shipment.  It  appeared  to  me  that  this 
was  work  more  fit  for  some  two  hundred  pound  man ;  never- 
theless Miss  Bunn  and  her  slips  of  girls  were  doing  it.  I 
know  that  this  has  nothing  to  do  with  enlisting,  but  I  was 
brought  into  very  close  contact  with  the  work  of  the  women, 
and  I  am  sure  that  their  work  will  never  be  sufficiently  under- 
stood or  appreciated.  Night  work  was  performed  in  our 
building  by  the  men  and  women  of  our  offices,  from  the  Mis- 
sissippi Street  round  house  and  car  yards,  from  the  Como 
shops,  and  from  all  our  freight  offices.  The  most  democratic 
feeling  prevailed;  Mrs.  Hannaford,  Mrs.  Slade,  and  Mrs. 
Woodworth,  the  wives  of  our  executive  officers,  fraternized 
with  women  who  were  patriotically  wiping  engines  and  work- 
ing as  helpers  in  our  stores  department  during  the  day. 

The  part  played  by  woman  during  the  war  will  never  be 
measured;  the  cruel  uncertainty  was  most  heart-rending  for 
her.  When  reports  of  great  victories  came  to  us  and  our  boys 
had  been  in  the  fray,  we  men  clapped  each  other  on  the  back 
and  hurrahed,  but  the  mothers  and  wives  of  the  boys  could 
only  wonder,  and  wonder,  and  wonder.  A  very  distressing 
case  came  up  in  the  office.  A  young  man  well-fitted  to  go  into 
the  Thirty-sixth  Engineers  came  to  me  to  enlist;  among  other 
questions  I  asked  him  whom  he  supported.  He  told  me  his 
mother  and  invalid  father.  I  advised  him  to  stay  at  home, 
telling  him  that  the  pool  halls  were  filled  with  young  fellows 
who  could  be  much  more  easily  spared  than  he  could,  that  he 
had  a  duty  to  perform  to  the  good  old  U.  S.  A.^  by  support- 
ing his  father  and  mother;  but  he  would  not  listen  to  me,  so 
I  gave  him  the  necessary  papers  to  go  and  be  examined. 


342  GEORGE  W.  McCREE  MAY 

After  a  time  he  came  back  saying  that  he  had  been  rejected. 
I  was  really  glad,  and  he  was  glad  that  he  had  made  the  effort. 
I  gave  him  a  letter  stating  the  facts,  so  that  no  one  could 
charge  him  with  being  a  slacker.  After  a  few  months  the 
local  draft  board  sent  for  him,  and  because  of  the  laxity  of 
the  draft  physical  requirements  compared  with  the  rigidity  of 
the  regular  army  requirements,  he  was  accepted  and  sent  into 
an  infantry  regiment,  whereas  he  would  have  been  a  great 
asset  to  the  engineering  unit  into  which  I  desired  to  put  him. 
On  November  13,  1918,  his  mother  came  to  see  me,  happy  in 
the  prospect  of  soon  seeing  her  boy  'and  of  being  able  to  give 
up  her  outside  work  in  a  laundry,  with  which  she  helped  to 
provide  for  her  sick  husband.  I  was  so  pleased  for  her  sake 
that  the  armistice  was  signed.  Two  days  later  she  came  into 
the  office,  dressed  in  partial  mourning,  to  inform  me  that  she 
had  just  got  word  that  her  son  had  been  killed  in  action  on 
October  22.  Her  son  has  gone  to  his  everlasting  reward  as 
one  of  those  who  did  not  consider  his  life  too  precious  to  be 
sacrificedTm.  the  altar  for  our  freedom  and  security,  but  his 
poor  mother  works  every  day  supporting  her  husband,  while 
everything  she  sees  at  home  reminds  her  of  her  dead  son. 

One  day  a  man  about  forty  years  of  age  came  in  and  very 
vociferously  said,  "I  want  to  enlist."  At  once  I  said  to  my- 
self, "Here's  some  family  trouble."  I  asked  him  why  he  was 
so  anxious  to  enlist;  he  said  he  had  some  trouble  at  home 
about  religious  matters,  that  his  wife  was  a  member  of  the 
Salvation  Army,  that  when  he  came  home  his  wife  was  out 
on  the  street  beating  a  drum,  his  supper  was  not  made,  and  his 
children  were  out  among  the  neighbors.  I  advised  him  to 
see  his  wife  and  talk  things  over  with  her,  but  he  was  obdu- 
rate, and  nothing  would  do  but  he  would  enlist.  He  had  been 
in  the  service  before,  and  I  told  him  it  was  necessary  for  him 
to  have  his  discharge  papers.  This  stumped  him  because  the 
papers  were  at  home  and  he  had  said  he  would  never  darken 
the  door  again.  So  I  told  him  that  he  had  better  climb 


1920  RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  343 

through  the  window  because  it  was  absolutely  necessary  for 
him  to  get  his  papers.  Well  he  got  them  and  joined  his  regi- 
ment. About  two  weeks  afterwards  a  Salvation  Army  lassie 
came  into  the  office  and  asked  if  I  had  enlisted  a  man  of  a 
certain  name.  At  the  time  I  did  not  trace  the  connection  but 
thought  that  she  was  seeking  the  information  for  some  one 
who  was  asking  the  assistance  of  an  organization  which  re- 
quired this  world  catastrophe  to  prove  its  most  estimable 
worth.  In  a  little  while  she  told  me  that  her  husband  had 
enlisted,  and  that  as  she  had  four  children  whom  she  could 
not  keep  on  thirty  dollars  per  month  she  wanted  me  to  secure 
her  husband's  discharge.  I  told  her  this  was  impossible,  but 
that  she  would  get  much  more  than  thirty  dollars  per  month. 
I  explained  that  her  husband  would  have  to  give  her  fifteen 
dollars  per  month,  that  the  government  would  add  fifteen  dol- 
lars for  her  plus  ten  for  their  oldest  child,  seven  fifty  for  the 
next  child,  and  five  dollars  each  for  the  other  two  children; 
therefore  she  would  get  at  least  fifty-seven  fifty  per  month. 
Furthermore  I  knew  that  her  husband  was  a  noncommissioned 
officer;  thus  he  could  increase  his  allotment  to  perhaps  thirty 
dollars,  and  she  would  likely  get  about  seventy  dollars  per 
month.  Then  she  said,  "If  I  get  seventy  dollars  per  month 
I  do  not  care  if  he  never  comes  back."  I  am  glad  to  say  that 
I  wrote  to  him  and  arranged  a  reconciliation  between  them, 
and  when  he  comes  back  I  know  this  will  be  a  very  happy 
family.  One  of  the  most  distressing  things  to  me  was  the 
continued  evidence  of  the  apparent  lightness  in  which  the  maf- 
riage  vow  was  held.  I  do  not  exaggerate  when  I  say  that  over 
fifty  per  cent  of  the  married  men  whom  I  enlisted  informed 
me  that  they  were  not  living  with  their  wives;  in  fact  it  was 
odd  and  noticeable  when  a  man  answered  that  his  wife  would 
live  with  his  or  her  parents  or  that  he  had  some  other  arrange- 
ment made  for  her  protection. 

Some  of  the  correspondence  I  have  had  with  Washington 
concerning  the  assignments  and  allotments  were  also  full  of 


344  GEORGE  W.  McCREE  MAY 

interest.  When  I  was  in  Washington  I  called  upon  Mr. 
Charles  F.  Nesbit,  commissioner  of  war  risk  insurance  in  the 
treasury  department.  I  found  the  main  office  of  that  depart- 
ment housed  in  the  new  National  Museum.  The  exhibits  had 
been  crated  away,  and  a  large  part  of  the  eleven  thousand 
clerks  were  located  in  this  building;  the  others  were  scattered 
all  over  Washington.  I  was  informed  that  they  were  receiv- 
ing upwards  of  forty  thousand  pieces  of  mail  per  day.  It  was 
very  hard  to  get  anywhere  near  perfect  results  from  so  many 
girls  who  were  drawn  from  all  parts  of  the  country  and  were 
doing  work  that  not  one  of  them  had  had  any  experience 
with  and  which  was  new  even  to  the  director  and  his  chief 
assistants.  It  is  no  wonder  that  errors  crept  in. 

It  was  rather  displeasing  to  a  person  who  was  buying  lib- 
erty bonds  to  find  out  how  anxious  some  parents  were  that 
the  government  should  send  them  the  monthly  allowance  for 
their  sons  who  were  in  the  army,  when  the  husband  was 
working  every  day  and  really  the  family  was  in  no  way  de- 
pendent on  the  soldier's  money.  When  I  got  back  from 
Washington  I  informed  these  individuals  that  the  government 
was  sending  out  inspectors  to  investigate  every  case,  and  that 
those  who  were  receiving  money,  as  it  were,  under  false  pre- 
tenses, would  be  forced  to  refund  it  and  would  be  exposed  and 
possibly  prosecuted.  From  that  time  forward,  there  were  no 
more  inquiries  made. 

I  have  had  a  very  large  correspondence  with  Mr.  Nesbit's 
office  and  many  women  are  even  yet  applying  to  me  for  aid 
when  their  allotment  does  not  come  upon  the  exact  day  when 
they  expect  it.  Other  complaints  are  founded  upon  a  more 
reasonable  basis.  A  little  while  ago  a  young  woman  appeared 
before  me  and  showed  me  a  letter  from  the  bureau  of  war 
risk  insurance  wherein  it  was  stated  that  her  husband  was 
reported  as  having  deserted  November  27,  1918,  and  that, 
•therefore,  she  must  at  once  return  the  check  issued  to  her 
for  $52.25.  It  so  happened  the  young  woman  had  not  cashed 


1920  RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  345 

the  check  but  was  holding  it  to  help  pay  for  her  liberty  bonds. 
The  check  was  made  out  for  only  $47.50.  I  at  once  wrote  to 
the  adjutant  general's  office,  explaining  the  error  and  the  in- 
justice that  had  been  done  to  this  soldier,  for  while  he  had 
been  certified  as  a  deserter  on  November  27,  1918,  his  wife 
was  still  receiving  letters  from  him  each  week  and  these  let- 
ters bore  the  name  of  the  officer  who  censored  them.  I  en- 
closed an  envelope  properly  censored,  dated  April  12,  1919.  I 
have  since  had  a  letter  from  my  sheet  anchor  in  Washington, 
Brigadier  General  James  T.  Kerr,  saying  that  he  has  had  a 
cablegram  from  General  Pershing  stating  that  this  soldier  was 
present  for  duty  with  his  organization  on  March  31. 

A  man  just  bordering  on  the  age  limit  came  to  the  office. 
I  sent  him  to  be  examined  and  he  was  rejected ;  he  came  back 
to  the  office  very  downcast  and  casually  remarked  to  me,  "I 
would  give  $5,000  if  I  could  get  in."  There  happened  to  be  a 
newspaper  man  in  the  office  who  overheard  the  remark  and 
got  into  conversation  with  the  man.  Consequently  one  of  the 
evening  papers  had  on  its  front  page  an  item  headed,  "McCree 
is  offered  $5,000  to  get  a  man  into  the  Army."  Then  fol- 
lowed the  news  item,  which  one  of  the  press  associations  sent 
out  broadcast,  giving  the  man's  name,  where  he  came  from, 
and  all  about  him.  When  I  afterwards  met  him  on  the  street 
he  told  me  he  felt  like  suing  me  for  libel. 

One  peculiar  case  was  that  of  a  man  who  came  into  the 
office  stating  that  he  was  a  railroad  switchman.  At  that  time 
the  railroads  were  so  short  of  men  to  transport  the  crops  and 
do  other  necessary  work  that  I  was  refusing  to  take  any  more 
railroad  workers,  and  I  told  him  that  he  would  be  performing 
a  more  patriotic  duty  by  staying  in  this  country  and  doing  the 
essential  work  here.  Then  a  friend  of  his  spoke  up  and  said 
this  was  a  very  peculiar  case;  that  this  man's  wife  was  very 
anxious  that  he  should  enlist  because  he  had  fallen  into  bad 
company  here  and  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  break  the  con- 
nection otherwise.  I  called  his  wife  to  me  and  she  confirmed 


346  GEORGE  W.  McCREE  MAY 

this  statement.  Of  course  I  agreed  at  once  to  help  him  and 
sent  him  to  the  recruiting  station  for  his  physical  examination. 
In  a  short  time  he  returned  with  a  letter  from  the  recruiting 
officer  saying  he  could  not  be  accepted  because  his  arm  was 
full  of  needle  marks,  where  he  had  been  injecting  drugs.  I 
at  once  wrote  to  Major  Yost  at  Minneapolis  stating  how 
anxious  I  was  that  this  man  should  be  saved  from  himself  for 
his  own  and  his  wife's  sakes.  Major  Yost  in  his  usual  kind 
manner  acceded  to  my  request  and  passed  him.  Two  days 
afterwards,  when  I  telephoned  to  Fort  Snelling  concerning 
the  recruit,  I  found  Major  Yost  had  forwarded  my  letter  to 
the  authorities  there,  that  on  the  strength  of  it  they  also  had 
passed  the  man,  and  that  he  was  then  on  the  way  to  his  regi- 
ment. 

The  case  of  a  young  man  from  White  Bear  was  very  inter- 
esting. This  came  up  after  the  order  was  issued  that  men 
over  twenty-one  years  of  age  could  get  into  the  army  only  by 
induction.  A  young  fellow  appeared  before  me  and  before  I 
spoke  to  him  I  thought  that  he  was  about  twenty-two  and 
there  would  be  some  difficulty  in  taking  him  in.  I  was  rather 
astonished  when  he  told  me  he  was  between  eighteen  and  nine- 
teen. When  a  young  man  under  twenty-one  years  came  to  me 
to  enlist  I  was  especially  careful  to  ask  him  whether  he  had 
spoken  to  his  parents  about  his  anticipated  move;  some  of 
them  brought  letters  from  their  parents  but  I  did  not  demand 
that.  I  usually  put  the  young  fellow  on  his  honor  to  tell  me 
the  truth,  and  he  usually  did.  I  put  the  question  to  this  young 
man  and  he  assured  me  that  he  had  consulted  his  parents.  I 
put  him  through  as  usual  and  he  passed  his  preliminary.  Two 
days  afterwards  an  elderly  gentleman  came  in  asking  if  I  had 
enlisted  a  boy  of  a  certain  name.  I  told  him  I  had;  then  the 
gentleman  astounded  me  by  informing  me  that  the  boy  was 
only  seventeen  years  of  age.  I  at  once  offered  to  telephone  to 
Fort  Snelling  and  hinder  the  young  man  from  getting  his  final 
examination,  but  the  father  was  afraid  that  his  son  would 


1920  RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  347 

enlist  under  another  name,  and  then  he  would  not  be  able  to 
keep  track  of  him.  I  told  the  father  to  think  it  over  and  I 
would  do  as  he  wanted.  In  a  little  while  my  stenographer 
told  me  that  the  father  and  son  were  talking  to  each  other  in 
another  part  of  the  office.  When  they  had  conversed  for 
about  ten  minutes  I  went  across  and  said,  "Well,  what  are  you 
fellows  going  to  do  about  it?"  The  father  said  they  had 
agreed  to  put  it  up  to  me  and  that  I  should  decide  whether 
the  boy  should  go.  Of  course  I  refused  the  responsibility  but 
added  that  if  it  was  my  son,  under  the  circumstances  I  would 
allow  him  to  go.  When  I  said  that  I  thought  the  young  fellow 
would  jump  out  of  his  skin  he  was  so  pleased.  He  said,  "Now 
dad,  Mr.  McCree  says  I  can  go."  I  cautioned  the  son  that  in 
the  future  he  should  absolutely  tell  the  truth.  I  told  him  that 
some  lies  were  told  to  do  harm  to  others  and  that  they,  like 
their  authors,  were  despicable,  but  that  there  might  be  patriotic 
untruths  sometimes  told,  which  I  thought  would  be  easily  for- 
given. At  least  I  hope  this  is  the  case,  for  I  have  often  certi- 
fied that  men  were  forty-four  years  of  age  when  they  were 
actually  forty-six  and  thus  over  the  age  limit,  which  was 
forty-five.  The  father  told  me  that  this  boy  represented  the 
fifth  generation  in  his  family  of  men  who  had  fought  in 
American  wars'  and  that  one  of  his  forebears  had  signed  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  I  advised  him  to  exhume  his 
great-grandfather  and  blame  him  for  his  son's  action,  if  any 
blame  had  to  be  imposed.  In  two  months  from  that  date  the 
young  man  stepped  onto  French  soil. 

A  lady  came  into  the  office  one  day  saying  that  I  had  sent 
her  son  home  to  get  her  permission  to  enlist  and  that  she  had 
given  it  lightly  thinking  that  nothing  would  come  of  it,  but 
that  now  her  son  had  enlisted  and  she  was  afraid  of  the  class 
of  men  with  whom  he  would  associate.  Just  at  that  time  some 
Northern  Pacific  employees  came  in  from  a  surveying  party, 
every  one  of  them  filled  with  the  exuberance  of  the  anticipa- 
tion of  going  into  the  army.  I  excused  myself  to  the  mother 


348  GEORGE  W.  McCREE  MAY 

and  spoke  to  the  young  fellows  in  such  a  way  that  she  could 
hear  both  sides  of  the  conversation.  They  were  such  whole- 
hearted fellows,  so  full  of  youthful  vigor  and  ambition,  that 
after  I  had  enlisted  them  all  into  the  regiment  her  son  was 
going  into  the  mother  told  me,  "Mr.  McCree,  I  came  into  your 
office  in  tears ;  now  I  am  going  out  with  joy  in  my  heart  that 
my  son  can  go  with  such  fine  young  men  to  take  some  part  for 
our  dear  country." 

Another  similar  case  was  that  of  an  Irish  woman  who  came 
in  demanding  to  know  why  I  had  taken  her  son  away  from 
her  and  insisting  that  I  get  him  back  to  her  at  once.  Of 
course  I  told  her  that  this  was  impossible,  that  she  could  not 
get  him  out,  and  that  since  he  was  over  twenty-one  years  of 
age  I  was  justified  in  taking  him.  She  sat  at  one  end  of  my 
table  and  listened  to  my  conversation  with  the  men  who  were 
going  into  the  army.  Then  in  her  rich  Irish  brogue  she  said 
to  a  young  man  with  an  Irish  name,  "Go  to  it  my  boy,  I  hope 
you  will  meet  my  Patsy  and  you  will  make  a  good  pair."  She 
left  the  office  in  a  very  different  frame  of  mind  from  when 
she  came  in. 

Many  fellows  came  into  the  office  to  ask  me  how  far  they 
would  be  from  the  front.  I  told  them  it  all  depended  on  what 
regiment  they  got  into;  that  the  forestry  regiment  would  be 
working  in  southern  France,  that  the  construction  regiments 
would  be  working  between  the  points  of  debarkation  and  the 
front,  but  that  the  shop  regiments  would  be  working  a  long 
way  from  the  front  line.  This  was  necessary  because  we  had 
sent  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  machinery  across  there  and 
if  we  had  some  serious  reverse  we  did  not  want  to  lose  the 
machinery  which  was  required  for  the  absolutely  necessary 
repair  work  on  our  locomotives,  motor  trucks,  ordinance,  et 
cetera.  Some  applicants  would  impatiently  ask  if  I  didn't 
have  some  regiments  that  would  be  right  up  at  the  front,  and 
I  would  put  these  into  the  road-building  or  the  search-light 
regiments.  One  young  man  was  very  cocky;  he  had  all  the 


1920  RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  349 

assurance  in  the  world.  I  told  him  that  it  would  not  be  a  very 
safe  thing  to  put  him  into  the  army  because  the  American 
people  had  great  confidence  in  General  Pershing  and  I  would 
not  like  to  see  the  General  "bumped"  and  I  was  afraid  he 
would  try  to  do  that.  He  said,  "Give  me  a  chance,  even  at 
Pershing's  job,  and  I'll  make  good." 

Some  of  the  men  knew  little  or  nothing  of  the  new  life 
they  were  entering.  Some  of  the  limited  service  men  who 
were  assigned  to  work  with  the  draft  boards  did  not  get  a  fair 
chance ;  I  know  of  one  young  man  who  did  not  even  know  the 
difference  in  seniority  of  officers  and  was  totally  ignorant  as 
to  the  distinctive  emblems  of  different  ranks.  The  connun- 
drum  of  whether  he  would  rather  be  a  colonel  with  an  eagle 
on  his  shoulder  or  a  private  with  a  chicken  on  his  knee  was 
completely  lost  on  him.  One  evening  on  a  train  going  to 
Chicago,  I  saw  a  soldier  whose  face  seemed  familiar.  I  spoke 
to  him  and  found  I  had  enlisted  him  three  days  before  and 
that  he  was  on  his  way  to  Camp  Grant,  Illinois.  The  poor 
fellow  was  like  a  fish  out  of  water  riding  in  that  Pullman  car. 
First  of  all  he  was  in  the  wrong  seat ;  I  knew  that  because  an 
old  dowager  duchess  kind  of  lady  was  hovering  around,  but 
she  did  not  like  to  ask  the  man  to  get  out,  I  suppose  because 
of  his  uniform.  I  asked  to  see  his  ticket  and  found  he  had 
upper  two,  so  I  took  him  to  his  proper  seat.  He  told  me  that 
he  would  like  to  smoke  but  hated  to  walk  way  ahead  to  the 
smoking  car,  so  I  took  him  into  the  smoking  compartment  and 
he  said  with  a  sigh,  "Gosh!  if  I  had  known  this  place  was 
here  I  would  have  been  here  all  the  time."  He  asked  me 
whether  he  had  his  gaiters  on  right  and  I  was  amused  to  see 
that  he  had  one  laced  down  the  front  and  the  other  down  the 
right  side  of  his  left  leg.  When  we  came  near  Winona  he 
asked  where  we  were ;  when  I  told  him  he  said,  "The  last  time 
I  came  over  this  road  I  was  traveling  in  a  box  car."  I  will 
wager  that  when  he  got  into  his  upper  berth  he  had  the  same 
pajamas  on  that  he  wore  in  the  box  car,  namely,  his  whole 
suit  of  clothes. 


350  GEORGE  W.  McCREE  MAY 

One  day  a  man  came  into  the  office  very  excited.  He  was 
an  artist,  a  scene  painter  in  one  of  our  theatres,  and  he  was 
very  anxious  to  get  into  Company  C  of  the  Twenty-fifth  Engi- 
neers. This  was  a  company  made  up  of  camouflage  artists. 
This  fellow  was  a  dandy  man  for  that  organization  but  he  was 
an  inveterate  cigarette  smoker  and  had  one  hundred  per  cent 
of  artistic  temperament.  Before  he  went  up  for  his  prelimi- 
nary physical  examination,  I  spoke  to  him  quietly  because  I 
knew  his  heart  was  beating  about  a  thousand  times  a  minute 
and  that  he  would  never  pass  in  that  condition.  When  I 
thought  he  was  all  right  I  let  him  go  and  then  telephoned  to 
the  noncommissioned  officer  in  charge  at  the  recruiting  station, 
telling  him  what  kind  of  a  man  was  coming  to  see  him  and 
that  if  there  was  nothing  organically  wrong  to  let  him  pass 
because  he  was  a  very  desirable  man  for  the  camouflage  unit. 
About  three  minutes  after  the  man  left  he  came  back  and  said, 
"Oh!  Mr.  McCree  pray  that  I  may  be  passed."  He  was 
passed  and  he  was  so  elated  that  it  was  about  four  days  be- 
fore he  could  get  his  feet  back  to  earth  so  that  he  could  go  to 
Snelling  for  his  final  examination.  After  his  elation  he  be- 
came tremendously  depressed;  every  little  while  he  would 
come  in  to  ask  me  if  I  thought  he  would  pass  and  each  time 
I  was  requested  to  pray  for  him.  At  last  I  got  him  off  to 
Snelling  and  sent  him  on  his  way  assuring  him  that  I  would 
pray  for  him.  When  he  was  changing  cars  at  Seven  Corners 
he  went  to  a  telephone  and  called  me  up  to  remind  me  that  I 
should  continue  to  pray  for  him.  Believing  that  in  this  case 
work  was  more  efficacious  than  faith,  I  telephoned  to  Snell- 
ing and  told  the  authorities  how  anxious  I  was  to  have  this 
man  accepted.  Soon  thereafter  he  left  for  American  Uni- 
versity to  join  his  regiment. 

The  man  referred  to  above  was  tremendously  anxious  to 
enter  the  service ;  now  for  a  fellow  who  said  he  was  but  was 
not.  This  young  man  would  often  come  into  the  office  and 
make  inquiries  about  different  regiments  and  the  necessary 


1920  RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  351 

qualifications  for  entering  them.  I  soon  divined  that  he  had  a 
streak  of  yellow.  He  was  employed  at  the  munitions  plant  at 
Stillwater  and  was  registered  at  Anoka.  He  told  my  stenog- 
rapher that  he  had  been  put  in  deferred  classification  by  his 
board  after  telling  them  that  he  was  supporting  his  nephew 
and  niece,  but  that  his  father  was  actually  supporting  them 
and  he  merely  gave  them  a  dollar  occasionally.  This  dis- 
pleased me  very  much  so  I  telephoned  to  the  Anoka  draft 
board  and  suggested  that  he  be  sent  away  with  the  next  con- 
tingent. They  sent  for  him  to  appear  and  during  the  conver- 
sation said  that  I  had  written  to  them  and  told  them  of  his 
false  statements.  He  came  in  and  charged  me  with  doing  so 
and  I  told  him  he  was  in  complete  error ;  that  I  did  not  write 
to  his  board,  but,  fearing  that  a  letter  might  be  misunder- 
stood and  wishing  them  to  have  the  information  at  once,  I  had 
telephoned  to  them.  I  am  glad  to  say  he  was  put  into  the 
army. 

Very  often  men  "dressed  in  a  little  brief  authority"  abused 
their  privileges.  I  sent  some  locomotive  engineers  to  Fort 
Snelling,  and  in  about  an  hour  they  came  back  saying  they 
would  not  go  into  the  army  for  any  price,  that,  if  the  treat- 
ment they  might  expect  in  France  from  the  higher  officers 
was  to  be  more  harsh  than  that  dealt  out  to  them  by  some  of 
the  noncommissioned  fellows  at  Snelling,  they  would  just  go 
back  onto  their  engines  and  let  the  army  go  hang.  I  called 
up  the  major  at  Fort  Snelling  and  told  him  that  the  class  of 
mechanics  that  I  was  sending  to  him  were  conferring  quite  as 
great  a  favor  on  the  army  as  the  army  was  conferring  on  them. 
I  told  him  these  men  had  something  that  the  army  required 
and  they  were  willing  to  give  it  but  that  there  was  no  reason 
why  some  young  fellow  with  three  stripes  on  his  arm  should 
try  to  lord  it  over  them.  Of  course  the  engineers  heard  my 
side  of  the  conversation  so  I  added,  "I  have  two  men  listening 
to  me  who  say  they  won't  go  into  the  army  because  of  the 
treatment  received  at  the  fort,  but  I  know  better — I  know  they 


352  GEORGE  W.  McCREE  MAY 

will  go  in  and  they  will  be  at  Snelling  in  thirty  minutes." 
They  were  and  they  left  St.  Paul  that  evening  for  Camp 
Upton. 

A  very  amusing  thing  happened  when  I  was  making  a  drive 
for  the  Motor  Transport  Corps.  When  I  examined  the  boys 
I  asked  them  what  class  of  cars  they  had  driven,  whether  they 
were  accustomed  to  driving  in  busy  streets,  and  what  experi- 
ence they  had  had  in  driving  trucks.  One  of  the  items  to  be 
filled  out  on  the  enlistment  form  was  labeled  "color."  When 
one  boy  answered  "green,"  I  said,  "You  are  not  green,"  and 
he  replied,  "Oh !  I  thought  that  meant  the  color  of  the  car  I 
had  driven."  A  short  time  afterwards  another  man  made  the 
same  answer  and  when  I  asked  him  why,  he  said,  "I  thought 
that  meant  the  color  of  the  card  I  got  from  the  draft  board." 

When  I  was  recruiting  in  Duluth  a  young  man  came  into 
the  office,  tremendously  anxious  to  get  in.  He  kept  saying 
"I  want  to  carry  on."  He  had  come  across  from  Canada  to 
enlist  so  that  he  could  "carry  on."  I  found  out  that  he  had 
been  in  the  Canadian  Army  for  six  months,  four  of  which 
the  poor  fellow  had  spent  in  the  hospital  ill  wTith  inflammatory 
rheumatism,  and  during  this  time  the  poor  boy  had  to  be  car- 
ried instead  of  being  able  to  "carry  on."  At  last  he  was  dis- 
charged because  of  physical  disability.  When  he  got  back  into 
his  "civics"  he  met  an  elderly  lady  dressed  in  mourning  who 
said  to  him,  "Young  man,  I  have  just  got  word  of  the  death 
of  one  of  my  sons  and  I  have  still  got  two  over  there;  why  are 
you  not  in  uniform?"  The  boy  could  not  answer  her  but 
broke  away  from  her  on  a  run  and  took  the  train  to  the  United 
States.  Of  course  I  could  not  take  him  in  because  he  would 
not  have  passed  the  physical  examination;  but  I  will  never 
forget  the  incisiveness  of  his  last  remark,  "My  God,  man,  I 
must  carry  on." 

I  had  a  great  number  of  men  come  to  the  office  whom  I 
thought  should  not  enlist.  Many  young  men  who  were  in 
schools  or  universities  I  advised  to  remain  where  they  were. 


1920  RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  353 

In  a  few  years  the  inroads  which  the  war  has  made  on  our 
technical  men  will  be  felt,  and  as  long  as  our  pool  rooms  were 
overcrowded,  I  strove  to  keep  our  schools  and  universities 
supplied.  Towards  the  close  of  the  war  I  went  into  a  large 
pool  room  in  St.  Paul  one  Sunday  afternoon  and  counted  252 
men  who  appeared  to  be  of  draft  age.  Of  course,  some  of 
these  men  may  have  tried  to  get  into  the  service  and  some  may 
have  had  physical  disabilities,  but  still  it  was  a  depressing 
sight  to  me,  especially  when  I  thought  that  so  many  of  our 
brightest  young  fellows  desired  to  leave  their  studies  for  the 
army. 

It  took  men  with  a  big  vision  and  without  prejudice  to  be 
in  the  recruiting  game.  There  were  different  camps  to  which 
the  men  had  to  be  sent  to  take  their  final  physical  examina- 
tions for  the  different  regiments,  and  frequently  the  local  re- 
cruiting officers  would  send  a  man  back  to  me  asking  if  I  would 
not  alter  the  regiment  because  they  were  afraid  the  man's 
heart  would  cause  him  to  be  rejected  at  the  headquarters  of 
the  regiment. I  had  designated  but  that  he  would  be  passed  at 
another  camp.  Again  I  would  be  asked  to  alter  the  number 
of  the  regiment  because  the  examining  medical  officer  of  that 
camp  was  a  crank  on  teeth  and  they  doubted  whether  the  man 
would  be  admitted  there.  And  so  it  went — the  individual 
idiosyncrasies  of  the  different  officers  would  cause  them  to 
reject  or  admit  the  same  man.  I  had  two  very  fine  civil  engi- 
neers apply  for  admittance  into  the  army  at  the  same  time. 
They  both  had  very  expensive  bridge  work  done  on  their 
teeth  but  they  were  both  rejected  by  a  new  officer  at  Fort 
Snelling;  the  previous  medical  examiner  would  have  accepted 
both  of  them.  I  wired  to  Washington  asking  for  a  waiver  for 
each  of  these  men.  My  messages  were  identical  in  both  cases, 
except  of  course  for  the  names,  and  they  were  sent  the  same 
day ;  but  one  waiver  was  granted,  the  other  was  refused. 

I  think  I  have  already  mentioned  that  the  war  office  for- 
warded to  me  the  induction  papers  and  that  I  would  distribute 


354  GEORGE  W.  McCREE  MAY 

them  to  the  boys  and  thereby  make  them  very  happy.  If  I 
did  not  get  them  from  Washington  in  a  reasonable  time  I 
would  wire  down  and  hurry  them  up ;  then  sometimes  I  would 
get  as  many  as  one  hundred  in  a  day.  But  I  presume  my  mes- 
sages got  too  insistent,  so  they  changed  the  system  and  sent 
the  induction  papers  to  the  boys'  addresses  direct,  and  then  I 
did  not  personally  know  how  long  they  were  taking  to  come 
through,  and  that  freed  Washington  from  my  importunities. 

Just  before  the  armistice  was  signed  an  order  was  issued 
that  recruiting  for  special  units  would  discontinue  except  in 
special  cases  for  such  units  as  the  Tank  Corps  or  the  Motor 
Transport  Corps.  The  system  worked  out  this  way:  every 
man  would  be  sent  to  the  army  through  his  draft  board  and 
placed  according  to  his  statements  to  that  board.  Selective 
committees  of  officers  were  to  be  placed  in  each  camp  to  repre- 
sent each  department  of  the  army,  and  they  were  to  pick  out 
the  proper  number  of  men  who  would  fit  into  their  units.  For 
example,  the  representative  of  the  transportation  units  would 
pick  out  the  railroad  men,  the  officer  of  the  construction  and 
maintenance  units  would  choose  all  the  civil  engineers  and 
men  having  track  and  building  experience,  and  the  medical 
representatives  would  claim  men  suitable  for  male  nurses  and 
for  veterinary  work  and  the  care  of  horses.  In  short,  the 
work  I  had  been  doing  in  St.  Paul,  was  turned  over  to  the 
officers  at  the  mobilization  camps. 

One  of  the  most  exhilarating  things  displayed  during  my 
whole  work  was  the  team  work;  the  railroads  did  not  raise  a 
whimper  when  I  took  away  hundreds  of  their  men.  I  do  not 
know  how  many  men  left  Enderlin,  North  Dakota,  on  the 
"Soo"  Railway  to  go  into  the  army.  I  must  have  partially 
depopulated  the  place,  and  from  Jamestown  on  the  Northern 
Pacific  I  think  I  got  all  the  male  clerks  from  the  division 
offices  as  well  as  dozens  of  trainmen  and  enginemen.  The 
Northern  Pacific  topped  the  list  among  the  roads  of  the 
Northwest  for  enlistment;  each  month  I  made  out  a  report  of 


1920  RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  355 

the  men  of  various  crafts  from  the  different  roads  and  in  each 
month  the  Northern  Pacific  was  ahead  of  the  others.  Quite  a 
number  of  our  men  gained  positions  of  high  rank. 

I  desire  here  to  pay  a  tribute  to  my  stenographer,  Miss  Anna 
Zimmerman.  No  girl  could  have  been  more  conscientious  in 
her  work  than  she  was  and  I  think  I  am  not  exaggerating 
when  I  say  she  laid  down  her  life  for  her  country.  She  de- 
veloped a  cold  but  would  not  remain  away  from  her  work  and 
at  last  it  got  such  a  hold  on  her  that  she  took  pneumonia  and 
died.  She  wrote  to  dozens  of  soldiers  both  in  this  country  and 
in  France;  she  learned  to  knit  so  that  she  could  help  supply 
their  needs.  She  took  almost  complete  control  of  the  corre- 
spondence with  the  bureau  of  war  risk  insurance,  and  dozens 
of  women  in  St.  Paul  testify  to  the  kindly  sympathy  that  she 
showed  in  each  particular  case.  When  I  saw  the  Sixteenth 
Engineers  in  Camp  Upton  after  their  return,  most  of  the  men 
told  me  how  sorry  they  were  that  she  did  not  live  until  their 
return  because  they  wanted  to  give  her  some  token  of  their 
appreciation.  She  was  a  wonderful  woman. 

The  influence  of  the  army  had  a  most  elevating  effect  upon 
the  men,  mentally,  physically,  and  socially.  Of  course  some 
of  them  came  out  a  little  worse  than  they  went  in;  but  the 
majority  of  the  men  were  mentally  and  physically  benefited  by 
the  regularity  of  their  hours  and  their  meals,  by  the  exercises 
which  squared  their  shoulders,  and  by  the  necessity  for  im- 
mediate response  to  commands.  Thus  many  minds  were 
developed  and  men  were  taught  to  think  quickly  who  in  the 
past  had  not  been  accustomed  to  think  at  all.  The  army 
scientifically  fed  the  men  with  bone-making  and  strength- 
ening food  so  that  almost  without  exception  men  lost  flesh 
and  gained  weight.  One  man  who  came  in  to  see  me  after  he 
got  home  said  he  was  twenty-two  pounds  heavier  and  two 
inches  taller  than  he  had  been  before. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  cases  I  had  was  left  until  almost 
the  last  day  of  my  work.  I  was  in  Duluth  on  November  7, 


356  'GEORGE  w.  MCCREE  MAY 

1918,  which  was  the  date  of  the  false  news  of  the  signing  of 
the  armistice.  I  was  very  busy  all  day,  and  I  put  an  item  in 
the  evening  paper  stating  that  I  would  meet  any  men  who 
wanted  to  enlist  at  the  Lenox  Hotel  after  8:00  P.  M.  When 
I  got  to  the  hotel  I  found  the  lobby  filled  with  waiting  men,  so 
I  took  them  to  my  room  in  relays.  About  eleven-thirty  I 
thought  I  was  through,  but  there  appeared  a  tall  red-headed 
boy  before  me.  I  was  at  once  struck  with  his  appearance. 
At  that  time  I  was  getting  truckmen  for  the  Motor  Transport 
Corps  and  for  the  Tank  Corps.  I  asked  the  young  fellow 
what  he  was  doing  and  he  answered  that  he  was  still  attend- 
ing high  school.  I  learned  from  him  that  he  wanted  to  go  to 
the  University  of  Minnesota  and  take  up  mining  engineering, 
as  he  thought  there  was  great  opportunity  for  men  of  that 
profession  on  the  iron  range.  All  the  time  I  was  talking  to 
him  I  thought  what  a  shame  it  would  be  to  take  this  young 
man  from  school  and  send  him  to  France  to  drive  a  motor 
truck,  when  I  knew  that  when  he  came  home  again,  ninety- 
nine  chances  to  one  he  would  not  take  up  his  studies  where  he 
left  off.  I  told  him  at  last  that  I  could  not  accept  him,  that 
the  price  he  was  going  to  pay  was  too  high.  I  told  him  to  keep 
on  with  his  studies,  that  this  war  would  not  last  forever  and 
that  his  country  would  need  men  after  the  war  to  do  certain 
work  as  much  as  they  required  them  now  for  war  work.  He 
pleaded  with  me  and  cried  when  I  was  obdurate.  He  told  me 
that  I  was  taking  other  men  into  the  unit  and  that  he  was  as 
well  qualified  to  drive  a  truck  as  any  one  of  them.  I  con- 
ceded that,  but  informed  him  that  the  other  men,  even  if  they 
lived  to  be  sixty  years  of  age,  would  still  remain  truck  drivers ; 
but  that  if  he  took  my  advice  and  continued  uninterruptedly 
with  his  studies,  he  might  be  an  international  authority  on 
mining  when  he  was  sixty ;  and  that  when  he  gained  the  pin- 
nacle, I  hoped  he  would,  in  some  moment  of  leisure,  remember 
the  conversation  in  the  Lenox  Hotel  in  Duluth  with  the  gray- 
haired  elderly  man  who  gave  him  the  best  advice  he  could 
under  the  circumstances.  About  a  week  afterwards  my  heart 


1920  RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  357 

was  gladdened  by  receiving  a  letter  from  the  boy's  father 
thanking  me  for  the  advice  I  gave  and  stating  that  his  son 
had  had  the  good  sense  to  accept  it.  This  letter  did  me  a  lot 
of  good.  I  do  not  know  why  but  I  was  pleased. 

The  quality  of  the  men  who  left  the  Northwest  to  go  into 
the  army  was  of  the  very  finest.  I  have  met  many  officers  of 
different  units  since  the  war  closed,  and  they  are  unanimous 
in  paying  tribute  to  the  readiness,  headiness,  resourcefulness, 
and  indefatigability  of  the  men  from  this  district.  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  meeting  the  Sixteenth  Engineers  at  Camp  Upton 
on  their  return  from  France  and  I  met  their  commanding 
officer,  Colonel  Burgess,  who  is  a  Detroit  man.  He  enlarged 
on  the  quality  of  the  men  who  had  gone  through  my  office  and 
closed  his  remarks  by  saying  "Mr.  McCree,  the  men  you  sent 
down  were  the  finest  men — well,  I  won't  put  it  that  way — I 
had  the  finest  men  in  the  American  army  and  the  men  who 
passed  through  your  office  were  the  most  excellent  men  of  the 
finest  regiment.  Look  at  the  number  of  promotions  which 
were  made  in  the  regiment,  and  with  few  exceptions  they  were 
earned  by  men  from  the  Northwest."  I  visited  Camp  Dodge 
when  the  men  from  the  Northwest  in  the  Twenty-fifth  Engi- 
neers were  there.  I  met  the  officer  who  brought  the  contin- 
gent from  Camp  Merritt  and  he  told  me  that  better  men  could 
not  be  gathered  together  than  the  men  who  came  from  Min- 
nesota. I  enlisted  upwards  of  five  hundred  men  for  that  regi- 
ment, and,  when  I  told  the  officer  that  it  contained  that  many 
men  from  the  Northwest,  he  remarked  that  they  were  the 
backbone  of  the  regiment. 

I  wish  to  say  in  closing  that  my  work  was  delightful.  I 
was  brought  in  contact  with  an  ever-changing  class  of  indi- 
viduals; my  work  was  kaleidoscopic;  the  vast  majority  of 
the  men  were  strong,  virile,  wide-awake,  splendid  specimens 
of  young  Americans.  Sometimes  when  I  was  bidding  them 
good-by  and  good  luck,  I  wanted  to  bid  my  stenographer 
good-by  and  go  along  with  the  boys.  No  wonder  I  feel  young 


358  GEORGE  W.  McCREE  MAY 

after  training  for  eighteen  months  with  that  exhilarating 
bunch  of  fellows.  I  had  the  high  honor  of  enlisting  7,421 
men  into  the  army.  This  was  more  than  any  other  individual 
in  America.  The  highest  number  I  enlisted  in  one  day  was 
86.  I  never  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  Major  General 
Henry  P.  McCain  of  the  adjutant  general's  office,  but  he  be- 
stowed on  me  a  very  high  honor.  He  issued  a  small  number 
of  certificates  to  civilians  who  had  been  of  help  to  the  army  in 
various  ways,  and  I  understand  from  Washington  that  I  was 
the  first  man  to  be  titled  "Civilian  Aide  to  The  Adjutant 
General  of  the  United  States."  I  prize  the  honor  very  highly. 

I  corresponded  with  and  met  some  very  excellent  men  in 
official  life  on  my  trips  to  Washington.  Brigadier  General 
Kerr  was  very  courteous  to  me,  and  I  shall  long  remember 
the  poor  game  of  golf  I  played  and  the  good  game  he  played 
on  the  links  at  the  Soldiers'  Home,  Washington.  I  was  also 
glad  to  renew  an  old  acquaintanceship  with  Brigadier  General 
Frederic  V.  Abbot  and  Lieutenant  Colonel  Archibald  O. 
Powell,  associated  with  Major  General  Black,  the  chief  of 
engineers.  One  of  the  most  delightful  men  whom  I  met  was 
Lieutenant  Colonel  Sanctuary,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the 
war  service  exchange.  He  and  I  got  on  like  brothers ;  he  was 
never  weary  of  acceding  to  my  many  requests  and  never  re- 
plied in  like  terms  when  I  wrote  or  wired  some  complaint  con- 
cerning some  apparent  delinquency.  If  I  had  only  known  of 
the  great  stress  under  which  the  men  in  Washington  worked, 
I  would  have  been  less  insistent ;  but  I  had  a  host  of  deliriously 
patriotic  boys  prodding  me,  and  I  was  infected  with  the  virus 
and  was  sometimes  very  impatient. 

Sometimes  my  work  was  very  trying;  but  my  recompense 
for  doing  something  for  the  good  old  U.  S.  A.  was  sufficient 
in  meeting  so  many  delightful  men  in  official  life,  in  getting 
the  whole-hearted  support  of  the  entire  body  of  the  officials 
of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  in  the  letters 
which  I  received  from  different  officers  in  the  army  and 


1920  RECRUITING  ENGINEERS  359 

officials  in  Washington  praising  not  only  the  quantity  but  the 
quality  of  men  from  Minnesota,  and  especially  in  meeting 
face  to  face  young  men  whose  one  and  consuming  idea  was 
to  do  their  bit  and  carry  on.  I  wish  I  had  command  of  lan- 
guage fully  to  express  my  appreciation  of  the  quiet,  incisive 
patriotism  that  radiated  from  those  young  men  that  appeared 
before  me;  even  while  I  sit  and  contemplate  it,  I  am  exhila- 
rated. 

GEORGE  W.  McCREE 
ST.  PAUL,  MINNESOTA 


REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS 

The  Agrarian  Crusade:  A  Chronicle  of  the  Farmer  in  Politics 
(The  Chronicles  of  America  Series,  vol.  45).  BY  SOLON  J. 
BUCK.  (New  Haven,  Yale  University  Press,  1920.  xi, 
215  p.) 

In  the  Chronicles  of  America  Series,  of  which  Dr.  Buck's 
book  is  volume  45,  real  progress  has  been  made  in  the  art  of 
history  writing.  Earlier  efforts  at  collaboration  have  generally 
suffered  from  an  undue  deference  to  the  chronological  method. 
Each  author  would  be  assigned  a  definite  period  of  years  to  cover, 
and  with  his  own  sense  of  values  he  would  work  out  his  field  in 
his  own  peculiar  way.  Incidents  would  be  opened  by  one  writer 
never  to  be  closed  by  another.  Contradictions  in  point  of  view 
and  even  in  matters  of  fact  could  not  always  be  corrected  by  the 
most  careful  editing.  And  the  reader  of  a  single  volume  was  apt 
to  have  much  the  feeling  of  the  casual  attendant  at  the  "movies" 
who  happens  in  on  the  twelfth  episode  of  the  "Perils  of  Pauline." 

The  editors  of  the  fifty  volumes  of  the  Chronicles  of  America 
have  avoided  many  of  these  shortcomings  by  adopting  the  topical 
rather  than  the  chronological  method  of  treatment.  Each  writer 
has  been  given  some  particular  phase  of  the  nation's  development 
to  trace  through  from  beginning  to  end,  with  the  result  that  each 
volume  is  a  unit  in  itself  and  may  be  read  and  enjoyed  entirely 
apart  from  the  rest.  None  the  less,  the  editors  have  seen  to  it 
that  the  units  are  "all  articulated,  and  so  related"  that,  taken 
together,  they  present  a  real  vision  of  the  development  of  this 
country  from  the  beginning  to  the  present.  The  old  plan  gave 
to  the  reader  a  set  of  short  strings  of  assorted  sizes,  which  he 
laboriously  tied  together  to  form  a  badly-knotted,  unsymmetrical 
"thread  of  history" ;  the  new  plan  provides  many  slender  strands 
ready  to  be  rolled  together  into  one  unbroken  and  harmonious 
cord. 

Another  departure,  equally  noteworthy,  is  the  attempt  to 
make  the  narratives  sufficiently  spirited  to  attract  "those  of  our 
citizens  who  are  not  in  the  habit  of  reading  history."  The  editors 


1920  BUCK:  AGRARIAN  CRUSADE  361 

rightly  feel  that  not  the  few  alone,  but  rather  the  many,  "need 
to  know  the  experiences  of  our  nation  in  times  past"  if  we  as 
a  people  may  hope  to  "interpret  aright  the  great  social  and 
economic  forces  of  our  own  times."  Writers  have  been  selected, 
therefore,  as  much  for  their  literary  ability  as  for  their  scholarly 
attainments;  the  length  of  each  narrative  has  been  rigorously 
limited  to  about  two  hundred  pages;  and  matters  of  interest 
solely  to  the  technical  historian  have  been  waived.  Viewed  as 
a  whole,  the  result  is  fairly  satisfactory,  although  it  seems  unfor- 
tunate that  the  price  of  the  edition  should  be  so  high  that  even 
well-established  libraries  hesitate  to  buy  it,  while  the  ordinary 
reader,  whom  the  editors  profess  to  be  so  anxious  to  reach,  can 
never  hope  to  own  the  set.  Beautifully  bound  and  printed  as 
this  edition  is,  to  achieve  the  purpose  of  the  editors  another 
edition  less  expensive  should  certainly  be  provided. 

With  the  battle  cry  of  the  Nonpartisan  League  resounding 
throughout  the  state  today,  citizens  of  Minnesota  can  hardly  be 
surprised  at  the  inclusion  in  this  series  of  "a  chronicle  of  the 
farmer  in  politics."  Nor  can  they  wonder  at  the  selection  of  a 
Minnesotan  to  write  the  narrative,  for  Minnesota  has  been  in  the 
forefront  of  every  agrarian  movement  since  the  Civil  War.  As 
the  author  of  a  scholarly  monograph  on  The  Granger  Movement, 
published  in  1913,  and  as  superintendent  of  the  Minnesota  His- 
torical Society,  Dr.  Buck  has  necessarily  come  into  constant 
contact  with  the  chief  sources  of  the  subject  upon  which  he 
writes.  In  fact  it  was  well-nigh  inevitable  that  he  should  be 
assigned  the  task  of  narrating  "that  phase  of  political  history 
which  began  with  the  Grange,  passed  through  Greenbackism 
and  Populism,  and  finally  culminated  in  the  battle  for  free  silver 
and  the  rise  of  William  Jennings  Bryan  in  1896." 

While  Dr.  Buck  makes  little  pretense  of  contributing  any- 
thing new  in  this  volume,  he  has  brought  together  in  readable 
fashion  the  essential  facts  of  the  whole  agrarian  movement  in 
the  Northwest.  If  the  outline  here  presented  had  been  more 
widely  understood  by  the  reading  public  of  a  few  years  ago,  the 
emergence  of  the  Nonpartisan  League  might  not  have  been 
viewed  as  so  extraordinary  a  phenomenon.  The  reader  of  these 
pages  can  scarcely  avoid  the  generalization  that  once  every  so 
often,  in  a  period  of  hard  times,  the  farmers  unite  to  avenge 


362  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  MAY 

their  wrongs,  take  a  hand  in  politics,  and  make  their  influence 
felt ;  then,  when  their  efforts  miscarry  or  the  fat  years  succeed 
the  lean,  they  permit  their  sentiment  for  cooperation  to  disappear, 
their  organizations  to  die  down  or  die  out,  and  once  again  the 
old  order  reigns.  The  granges  of  the  seventies  waxed  strong  on 
the  argument  that  the  lack  of  agricultural  prosperity  was  mainly 
due  to  the  railroads,  and  that  their  shortcomings  must  be  rem- 
edied by  the  state.  The  movement,  however,  soon  collapsed, 
though  not  until  it  had  taught  the  farmers  the  value  of  combina- 
tion, and  not  until  it  had  won  notable  decisions  from  the  courts 
affirming  the  "right  of  States  to  fix  maximum  charges  for  any 
business  which  is  public  in  its  nature  or  which  has  been  clothed 
with  public  interest"  (p.  59).  Next  after  the  Granger  movement 
followed  the  rise  and  fall  of  Greenbackism,  with  its  contention 
that  through  currency  inflation  the  farmer  might  increase  the 
price  of  the  things  he  had  to  sell,  and  at  the  same  time  prevent 
the  appreciation  of  his  debts.  The  Greenbackers  yielded  in  their 
turn  to  the  founders  of  the  farmers'  alliances,  who  endorsed 
every  good  thing,  and  finally  in  conjunction  with  the  forces  of 
labor  blossomed  forth  as  the  People's  Party.  Carried  away  by 
the  free  silver  fetish,  this  movement,  too,  met  disaster,  going 
down  to  defeat  with  Bryan  in  1896.  The  reviewer  is  sorry, 
though  doubtless  Dr.  Buck  is  not,  that  the  editors  saw  fit  to 
exclude  any  detailed  treatment  of  the  twentieth  century  farmers' 
activities  in  politics.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  the  author's 
speculations  on  the  probabalities  of  history  repeating  itself. 

In  spite  of  the  popular  manner  of  presentation  employed,  this 
book  has  the  earmarks  of  scholarly  workmanship.  The  biblio- 
graphical note  at  the  close  shows  the  author's  wide  familiarity 
with  the  sources,  and  the  methods  of  the  trained  historian  are  by 
no  means  obscured  by  the  scarcity  of  footnotes  in  the  body  of 
the  work.  Chapter  5,  for  example,  which  explains  why  the 
Granger  movement  collapsed,  could  never  have  been  written  by 
the  merely  casual  investigator.  The  author,  moreover,  maintains 
an  attitude  of  complete  impartiality.  The  wrongs  of  the  farmers 
are  recognized,  but  so  also  are  their  excesses.  At  no  time'  does 
he  lay  himself  open  to  the  charge  of  special  pleading. 

The  book  is  undeniably  entertaining.  It  ought  to  be  of  some 
interest  even  to  the  "dry-as-dust  historian"  to  note  how  this  end 


1920  JOHNSON:  MICHIGAN  FUR  TRADE  363 

is  achieved.  In  the  first  place,  the  thread  of  the  story  is  never 
lost.  In  spite  of  many  incidental  analyses  of  causes  and  effects, 
the  reader  generally  has  his  attention  fixed  upon  a  narrative. 
Again,  much  is  made  of  the  many  extraordinary  individuals  who 
adorn  the  pathway  of  the  agrarian  crusade.  Four  pages,  for 
example,  are  devoted  to  a  presentation  of  our  own  Ignatius 
Donnelly,  and  two  to  "Sockless  Jerry  Simpson"  of  Kansas.  Sev- 
eral lively  episodes  such  as  the  meeting  of  the  Kansas  legislature 
of  1893  have  also  been  fortunate  enough  to  escape  an  undeserved 
proscription.  Finally  the  author  has  a  ready  and  graceful  flow 
of  English.  The  volume  merits  and  doubtless  will  obtain  a  wide 
popularity,  especially  in  Minnesota  and  the  Northwest. 

JOHN  D.  HICKS 

The  Michigan  Fur  Trade  (Michigan  Historical  Publications, 
University  Series,  vol.  5,  pp.  i-xii,  1-201 ) .  By  IDA  AMANDA 
JOHNSON.  (Lansing,  Michigan  Historical  Commission, 
1919.) 

This  volume  is  made  up  of  two  monographs,  one  on  the  fur 
trade  and  the  other  a  history  of  The  Pere  Marquette  Railroad 
Company.  Since  the  latter  study  has  no  special  interest  for 
Minnesota  readers  it  will  not  be  reviewed  here.  It  might  be  in 
place,  however,  to  criticise  the  policy  of  binding  in  the  same 
volume  two  monographs  as  different  in  character  as  these  two  are. 
Each  has  its  own  title-page  and  index,  and  there  is  no  title-page 
for  the  volume  as  a  whole,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  is  paged 
consecutively  throughout. 

The  monograph  on  the  fur  trade  comprises  a  survey,  in  nine 
short  chapters,  of  the  French,  British,  and  American  periods  of 
the  trade  in  Michigan,  with  an  additional  chapter  on  "The 
Trader's  Life."  The  first  chapter,  "Pioneer  Trade,"  deals  with 
the  French  policy  and  introduces  such  characters  as  Nicolet, 
Groseilliers  and  Radisson,  La  Salle,  and  the  Jesuits.  With  chap- 
ter 2  the  scene  shifts  to  Detroit  and  an  account  is  given  of  the 
work  of  Cadillac  and  his  successors,  while  chapter^  3  deals  with 
the  rivalry  of  Michilimackinac  and  other  posts  with  Detroit. 
Chapters  4  and  5  take  up  the  British  policy  and  early  trade, 
bringing  the  story  down  to  1796,  when  the  posts  were  surren- 


364  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  MAY 

dered  under  the  provision  of  Jay's  treaty.  American  traders 
then  appear  upon  the  scene,  and  an  account  is  given  of  the 
rivalry  between  British  and  American  trading  interests,  which 
continued  until  after  the  War  of  1812.  The  fur  trade  was  at 
its  height  between  1815  and  1834,  after  which  came  a  rather 
rapid  decline  as  the  fur-trader's  frontier  passed  into  Wisconsin 
and  Minnesota.  Five  maps  at  the  close  of  the  study  give  the 
location  of  the  principal  posts  during  the  different  periods, 
together  with  land  cessions  under  Indian  treaties  and  the  amount 
of  the  fur  trade  in  different  counties  in  1840.  There  is  a  use- 
ful bibliography,  but  the  index  is  distinctly  inadequate. 

The  monograph  appears  to  be  carefully  done,  but  there  is  not 
very  much  in  it  of  special  interest  to  a  Minnesota  reader.  The 
names  of  Groseilliers  and  Radisson,  Du  Luth,  and  Joseph  Rol- 
lette  are  about  the  only  ones  suggestive  of  Minnesota.  Perhaps 
the  chief  interest  of  the  study  to  Minnesotans  lies  in  the  fact 
that  the  fur  trade  in  Michigan  is  a  type  of  what  took  place  in 
their  own  region  when  the  fur-trader's  frontier  passed  over  the 
upper  Mississippi  country ;  and  it  is  of  special  interest  to  remem- 
ber that  the  two  frontiers  were  linked  together  in  the  person  of 
Henry  Hastings  Sibley,  who  was  born  in  Detroit,  passed  through 
the  apprenticeship  stage  in  the  fur  trade  at  Mackinac  under 
Robert  Stuart,  and  became  a  partner  in  the  American  Fur  Com- 
pany in  1834,  when  Ramsay  Crooks  became  president  of  the 
reorganized  company  after  the  retirement  of  John  Jacob  Astor. 

WILSON  P.  SHORTRIDGE 


MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES 

The  executive  council  of  the  society  at  its  stated  meeting  on 
April  12  adopted  a  resolution  authorizing  the  executive  com- 
mittee "to  make  arrangements  for  annual  summer  meetings  for 
the  reading  of  papers  and  other  exercises  of  a  social  or  educa- 
tional character,  at  such  time  and  place  as  the  committee  may 
determine."  In  many  states,  as  for  example  Illinois  and  Michi- 
gan, such  meetings,  lasting  one  or  two  days,  are  held  annually 
in  different  cities  and  are  attended  by  members  from  all  parts 
of  the  state.  The  programs  often  include,  besides  papers  and 
addresses,  such  things  as  luncheons  or  receptions  to  visiting 
members,  pageants,  and  trips  to  historic  sites.  Whether  or  not 
such  a  meeting  will  be  held  in  Minnesota  the  coming  summer 
has  not  been  decided  as  yet. 

Amendments  to  the  by-laws  adopted  by  the  council  at  the 
same  meeting,  reduce  the  number  of  stated  meetings  of  the 
council  from  four  to  two  a  year,  on  the  second  Mondays  in 
April  and  October.  The  annual  meeting  of  the  society  will  be 
held  in  January  as  heretofore,  and  each  new  council  will  meet, 
primarily  for  the  election  of  officers,  as  soon  as  may  be  after 
the  adjournment  of  the  triennial  meeting  of  the  society  at  which 
the  members  of  the  council  are  elected. 

The  following  papers  were  read  at  the  open  session  held  in 
connection  with  the  April  meeting  of  the  council:  "Jane  Grey 
Swisshelm,  Reformer,"  by  Lester  B.  Shippee,  of  the  University 
of  Minnesota,  and  "The  Introspections  of  a  Belated  Puritan," 
by  Solon  J.  Buck,  superintendent  of  the  society. 

Six  new  members,  all  active,  were  enrolled  during  the  months 
of  February  and  March,  1920:  Mrs.  Julia  Bassett  Friday  of 
Hawley,  the  Honorable  Olai  A.  Lende  of  Canby,  Foster  Hanna- 
ford  of  Minneapolis,  Margaret  McFetridge  of  St.  Paul,  Rudolf 
Herz  of  Eagle  Butte,  South  Dakota,  and  Joseph  McAloon  of 
Harris,  Kansas.  The  only  loss  recorded  in  the  membership 
ranks  during  the  same  period  was  that  of  the  Honorable  Thomas 

365 


366  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  MAY 

M.  Owen  of  Montgomery,  Alabama,  whose  death  occurred 
March  25.  Mr.  Owen  had  been  director  of  the  Alabama  State 
Department  of  Archives  and  History  since  1901. 

The  "practical"  value  of  certain  phases  of  the  work  of  the 
society  has  recently  been  demonstrated  by  the  special  services 
rendered  to  several  business  establishments  which  have  sought 
assistance:  the  large  collection  of  historical  pictures  has  fur- 
nished illustrative  material  for  a  number  of  advertising  book- 
lets; sketches  of  the  Red  River  cart  and  other  museum 
specimens  have  supplied  motives  for  use  in  wall  decoration;  and 
a  producer  of  historical  pageants  has  derived  suggestions  as  to 
scenes,  incidents,  and  costumes  from  the  society's  library  and 
museum. 

The  society  has  recently  had  an  opportunity  to  be  of  service 
to  the  farmers  of  the  Northwest.  In  its  issue  for  February  28, 
The  Farmer  informed  one  of  its  readers  who  desired  "a  list  of 
farm  names,  preferably  Indian  names,"  that  the  "Minnesota  His- 
torical Library,  St.  Paul,  will  furnish  you  a  list  of  Indian  names 
from  which  to  choose."  The  society  was  not  aware  that  this 
item  had  been  published  until  a  deluge  of  letters  inquiring  for 
such  a  list  poured  in  from  farmers  throughout  Minnesota, 
Wisconsin,  and  South  Dakota,  who  had  evidently  decided  to 
avail  themselves  of  an  opportunity  to  secure  appropriate  names 
for  their  farms.  In  response  to  this  demand  a  list  of  some  eighty 
Sioux,  Chippewa,  and  Algonquian  names  with  their  English 
translations  was  immediately  prepared  and  a  copy  was  sent  to 
each  person  who  asked  for  it.  Copies  of  the  list  are  still  avail- 
able, and  anyone  interested  will  be  supplied  with  one  upon 
request. 

The  society  has  just  published  a  Handbook  of  forty-six  pages 
descriptive  of  its  organization  and  activities.  The  booklet  is 
intended  for  free  distribution  and  a  copy  will  be  sent  to  any- 
one interested  upon  request. 

Mr.  C.  Edward  Graves,  librarian  of  the  society  since  Novem- 
ber, 1917,  has  resigned,  and  Mr.  Robert  W.  G.  Vail  has  been 
appointed  to  the  position.  Mr.  Graves's  faithful  and  efficient 


1920  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  367 

service  covered  the  trying  period  of  the  removal  of  the  library 
to  the  new  building  and  its  rearrangement  therein;  and  it  was 
with  sincere  regret  that  his  resignation,  to  engage  in  what  he 
hopes  will  be  more  remunerative  work,  was  accepted.  Mr.  Vail 
comes  to  the  society  from  the  New  York  Public  Library,  with 
which  he  has  been  connected  since  1914.  During  the  war  he  was 
manager  of  the  New  York  dispatch  office  of  the  American 
Library  Association  for  five  months,  after  which  he  enlisted 
in  the  coast  artillery. 

The  position  of  reference  assistant,  in  charge  of  the  desk  in 
the  reading  room,  which  had  been  vacant  since  January,  was 
finally  filled  early  in  April  by  the  appointment  of  Miss  Hazel 
E.  Ohman,  formerly  on  the  St.  Paul  Public  Library  staff.  Mem- 
bers of  the  catalogue  and  accessions  departments  took  turns 
serving  at  the  desk  in  the  interval,  much  to  the  detriment,  how- 
ever, of  the  work  in  those  departments. 

A  brief  article  entitled  "Attic  Dust  and  Treasures,"  written 
by  Mr.  Vail,  the  new  librarian,  was  published  in  the  March  num- 
ber of  Library  Notes  and  News,  the  magazine  issued  by  the 
department  of  education  for  distribution  to  all  librarians  in  the 
state.  As  the  title  suggests,  the  article  was  a  plea  for  the  preser- 
vation of  the  historical  material  to  be  found  in  every  attic,  which 
all  too  often  is  destroyed  at  house-cleaning  time.  Reissued  in 
mimeographed  form,  this  article  was  mailed  to  several  hundred 
members  of  the  society  and  others  who  might  be  interested,  with 
very  gratifying  results  in  the  shape  of  contributions  of  books, 
magazines,  newspaper  files,  museum  objects,  and  manuscript 
letters,  diaries,  and  account  books. 

A  catalogue  of  Minnesota  imprints  has  recently  been  begun 
by  the  library.  When  it  is  completed  cards  for  all  books, 
pamphlets,  and  newspapers  printed  in  Minnesota  from  the  intro- 
duction of  the  first  press  in  1849  to  1880  will  be  filed  not  only 
in  the  general  catalogue,  where  the  arrangement  is  alphabetical 
by  authors,  titles,  and  subjects,  and  in  the  shelf  list,  where  the 
arrangement  follows  the  classification  of  the  books  themselves, 
but  also  in  an  imprint  catalogue  where  they  will  be  grouped  first 
by  the  places  in  which  they  were  printed  and  then  according 


368  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  MAY 

to  the  dates  of  printing.  In  the  cases  of  Minneapolis,  St.  Paul, 
and  Duluth  the  cards  will  be  grouped  by  printers  before  the 
chronological  arrangement  is  applied.  Newspapers  will  be  entered 
under  the  date  of  publication  of  the  first  issue.  This  catalogue, 
besides  being  a  valuable  bibliographical  tool,  will  facilitate  the 
study  of  the  history  of  printing  .in  any  given  town  or  the  work 
of  a  particular  press. 

Mr.  Willoughby  M.  Babcock  Jr.,  curator  of  the  museum, 
spoke  on  "The  Fur  Trade"  at  a  meeting  of  the  Mutual  Aid  Blind 
Society  of  St.  Paul  on  the  evening  of  February  28. 

"How  the  First  Settlers  Came  to  St.  Paul,"  "The  Indian 
Medicine  Man,"  and  "The  History  of  Fire  Arms"  were  the 
subjects  of  talks  by  the  curator  at  the  children's  history  hours 
in  the  museum  on  February  28  and  March  13  and  27.  The  one 
scheduled  for  February  14  was  canceled  on  account  of  the 
influenza  epidemic.  Credit  for  attendance  at  these  meetings 
and  notes  on  the  lectures  is  given  in  some  of  the  schools.  The 
visits  of  classes  or  other  special  groups  during  these  two  months 
was  unusually  large,  twenty-four  such  groups,  with  a  total  of 
753  students,  being  recorded.  Two  of  the  classes,  by  prearrange- 
ment,  were  given  special  lectures  by  the  curator  on  "The  Settle- 
ment of  Minnesota." 

The  increased  attendance  of  classes  in  the  museum  was  doubt- 
less due  in  part  to  a  circular  letter,  signed  by  the  curator,  which, 
under  date  of  February  16,  was  sent  to  the  principals  of  745 
schools  in  the  state.  This  letter  called  attention  to  "the  oppor- 
tunities for  visualizing  and  making  real  the  teaching  of  history 
through  the  exhibits  and  work  of  the  museum,"  and  pointed  out 
that  the  facilities  offered  are  useful  in  connection  with  the 
teaching,  not  only  of  history,  but  also  of  political  science,  geog- 
raphy, domestic  science,  and  other  subjects.  The  state  depart- 
ment of  education  and  the  superintendents  of  schools  of  the 
Twin  Cities  cooperated  with  the  society  in  bringing  this  letter  to 
the  attention  of  principals  and  teachers. 

A  number  of  boys  interested  in  stamp  collecting  have  organ- 
ized a  club  which  meets  twice  a  month  in  the  museum. 


1920  ACCESSIONS  369 

A  special  exhibit  of  a  group  pf  pictures  illustrating  lumber- 
ing in  Minnesota,  designed  as  the  first  of  a  series  of  exhibits 
relating  to  the  various  industries  of  the  state,  has  been  arranged 
in  the  museum.  Displays  of  Washington  and  Lincoln  material 
were  made  during  February  by  both  the  museum  and  the  manu- 
.script  division. 

% 

ACCESSIONS 

Under  this  heading  will  be  published  in  each  issue  of  the 
BULLETIN  notes  on  the  most  important  additions  to  the  collec- 
tions of  the  society  during  the  preceding  quarter,  whether 
received  as  gifts,  deposits,  exchanges,  or  purchases.  Attention 
should  also  be  directed  to  the  notes  on  "War  History  Activities"  in 
the  "News  and  Comment"  section,  where  the  principal  acquisi- 
tions of  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission  are  described. 
The  society  is  designated  by  law  as  the  custodian  of  the  material 
being  assembled  by  the  commission. 

A  few  months  ago  Mr.  Edson  Gaylord  of  Minneapolis,  a  life 
member  of  the  society,  acquired  from  a  dealer  in  old  books  in 
St.  Louis  a  journal  of  Major  Lawrence  Taliaferro,  Indian  agent 
at  Fort  Snelling,  which  covers  the  years  1827  to  1829.  Recently 
Mr.  Gaylord  loaned  this  journal  to  the  society  and  upon  exam- 
ination it  was  found  to  be  a  missing  number  of  the  series  of 
Taliaferro  Journals  in  the  manuscript  collection.  This  series 
was  acquired  from  Taliaferro  himself,  through  Dr.  Neill,  in  the 
sixties ;  and  a  letter  from  the  major,  found  in  the  Neill  Papers, 
refers  to  his  having  sent  one  of  the  journals  to  an  editor 
in  St.  Louis.  This  is  undoubtedly  the  volume  in  question.  Mr. 
Gaylord  intends  ultimately  to  give  the  original  journal  to  the 
society.  In  the  meantime,  carefully  collated  typewritten  copies 
of  it  are  being  made  at  his  expense,  one  of  which  is  intended 
for  the  -society.  A  full  page  article  about  this  journal  and  the 
career  of  Major  Taliaferro  in  Minnesota  appeared  in  the  Minne- 
apolis Journal  of  April  11.  The  volume  itself  formed  the  central 
feature  of  a  special  Taliaferro  exhibit,  which  was  installed  in 
the  museum  just  before  the  April  meeting  of  the  council. 


370  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  MAY 

Through  the  courtesy  of  the  library  of  Oberlin  College,  which 
owns  the  original  manuscript,  the  society  has  been  permitted  to 
make  a  typewritten  copy  of  the  "Reminiscences  of  the  Early 
Oberlin  Missionaries  and  Their  Work  in  Northwestern  Minne- 
sota, as  Dictated  ...  by  Rev.  S.  G.  Wright,  Missionary, 
1890."  The  writer  of  this  document  served  as  a  missionary  to  . 
the  Chippewa  at  Red  Lake  from  1843  to  1859  and  was  employed 
in  government  service  among  them  from  1859  to  1862,  from 
1867  to  1873,  and  from  1875  to  1881.  The  reminiscences  are  a 
valuable  source  for  the  history  of  northern  Minnesota  and  it  is 
probable  that  they  will  be  published  in  some  future  number  of 
the  BULLETIN. 

A  small  but  valuable  collection  of  papers  of  Governor  Henry 
A.  Swift  has  been  presented  by  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Gideon  S. 
Ives.  Of  special  interest  in  this  collection  is  a  letter  from  Gov- 
ernor Gorman,  dated  January  31,  1857,  concerning  the  attempt 
to  remove  the  capital  of  the  territory  to  St.  Peter.  A  copy  of 
the  removal  bill  and  a  roll  call  giving  the  probable  vote  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  accompanied  the  letter.  Other  items 
of  historical  value  are  a  letter  from  Elias  F.  Drake,  dated  June 
26,  1862,  claiming  the  credit  for  the  construction  of  the  first 
railroad  in  Minnesota,  between  St.  Paul  and  St.  Anthony,  and 
one  from  Senator  Benjamin  F.  Wade  of  Ohio,  dated  January 
6,  1863,  concerning  the  attitude  of  Senator  Rice  in  the  slavery 
controversy  and  his  cordial  cooperation  with  the  Republicans 
after  the  attack  upon  Fort  Sumter. 

A  small  but  interesting  group  of  autographs  has  been  received 
from  Mrs.  John  W.  Friday  of  Hawley,  Minnesota.  Among  the 
celebrities  represented  are  Edward  Everett  Hale  and  John  Bur- 
roughs, the  latter  by  a  two  page  letter  written  to  Mrs.  Friday 
from  West  Park,  New  York,  January  24,  1912,  in  which  he 
says,  "I  should  like  to  be  set  down  for  a  week  at  your  plantation 
in  that  interesting  country  [Minnesota}.  There  must  be  a  lot 
of  live  natural  history  there  for  the  gathering." 

Mrs.  Charles  M.  Neely  of  St.  Paul,  has  enriched  the  society's 
collections  by  the  gift  of  a  number  of  manuscripts  of  colonial  and 
mid-western  interest,  Among  them  are  three  letters  of  her 


ACCESSIONS  371 

great  aunt,  Matilda  Hoffman,  the  fiancee  of  Washington  Irving, 
and  copies  of  two  unpublished  letters  written  by  Irving  himself 
to  her  grandmother,  Anne  Hoffman.  One  of  the  letters  of  Irving, 
dated  August  10,  1807,  gives  "as  accurate  a  return  as  was  ever  fur- 
nished by  a  health  committee"  of  the  bodily  health  of  the  Hoffman 
family,  which  had  been  considerably  impaired  by  the  "flu."  Irv- 
ing's  description  of  the  ailment,  in  spite  of  its  humorous  tone, 
touches  a  responsive  chord  in  present  day  readers.  The  papers 
of  mid-western  interest  are  land  grants  of  1841  and  1843  issued 
to  Mrs.  Neely's  father,  the  Honorable  Richard  S.  Molony,  and 
a  letter  written  by  Mr.  Molony  from  the  Democratic  convention 
at  Baltimore  in  1852,  bewailing  and  explaining  the  defeat  of 
Lewis  Cass  and  announcing  the  nomination  of  Franklin  Pierce 
for  the  presidency. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Theodore  C.  Blegen,  the  society 
has  received  two  valuable  Norwegian  manuscripts  from  Mr. 
Alfred  Adsem  of  Minneapolis.  One  of  these — a  letter  written 
by  Thorwald  Nadland  at  Stavanger,  Norway,  June  28,  1825 — is 
especially  significant  because  it  embodies  a  copy  of  a  letter  writ- 
ten by  Kleng  Peerson  at  New  York  in  December,  1824,  to  rela- 
tives and  friends  in  Norway.  Peerson  was  the  advance  agent 
of  early  Norwegian  immigration  to  the  United  States,  and  his 
letter  clears  up  a  number  of  disputed  points  in  regard  to  his  con- 
nection with  that  movement.  The  other  document  is  a  joint 
letter  written  August  6,  1850,  by  a  group  of  immigrants  just 
arrived  in  New  York.  Mr.  Blegen  has  also  been  instrumental 
in  enabling  the  society  to  make  a  photostatic  copy  for  its  collec- 
tion of  another  manuscript  pertaining  to  early  Norwegian  immi- 
gration to  the  United  States.  This  is  a  journal  left  by  Ole  Tro- 
vatten,  an  immigrant,  in  which  he  recounts  his  trip  from  Norway 
to  Wisconsin  in  the  early  forties  and  describes  the  Norwegian 
settlements  in  Wisconsin.  The  original  of  this  valuable  docu- 
ment belongs  to  Mr.  Halvor  Skavlem  of  Janesville,  Wisconsin. 

From  the  T.  Guldbrandsen  Publishing  Company,  publishers  of 
the  Minneapolis  Tidende,  through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Carl  Han- 
sen  and  Mr.  Theodore  C.  Blegen,  the  society  has  received  a  file 
of  Emigranten,  a  Norwegian  newspaper  published  at  Madison, 
Wisconsin,  for  June  to  December,  1857,  and  for  all  of  1859, 


372  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  MAY 

1862,  1864,  and  1865.  This  file  is  a  mine  of  valuable  material 
for  the  student  of  immigration,  politics,  and  similar  topics  in  the 
history  of  the  Northwest  during  this  period.  The  issues  from 
October  10  to  November  1,  1859,  for  example,  contain  a  hitherto 
unknown  account  of  a  contemporary  trip  through  Minnesota. 

A  valuable  scource  for  the  religious  history  of  the  Middle 
West  recently  acquired  by  the  library  is  a  file  of  the  North- 
western Christian  Advocate  (Chicago),  one  of  the  oldest  and 
best  known  religious  papers  of  the  region.  This  file,  which  was 
secured  from  the  Garrett  Biblical  Institute  of  Evanston,  Illinois, 
in  exchange  for  some  of  the  society's  duplicate  material,  consists 
of  forty-eight  volumes  beginning  in  1858  and  ending  in  1901. 
There  are  a  good  many  large  gaps  in  the  file,  but  it  is  hoped  that 
other  files  which  will  contribute  to  the  filling  of  the  gaps  may  be 
picked  up  from  time  to  time. 

A  booklet  entitled  Proceedings  on  the  Occasion  of  the  Pres- 
entation to  Mr.  Charles  W .  Ames  of  the  Cross  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor  by  Dr.  Marcel  Knecht  .  .  .  Representing  Ambassador 
Jules  J.  Jesscrand,  at  St.  Paul,  Minnesota,  November  the  Twelfth, 
ip/p,  has  been  presented  to  the  society  by  Mr.  Ames.  It  contains 
an  account  of  the  ceremony,  including  a  report  of  the  addresses 
of  Governor  Burnquist,  Dr.  Knecht,  and  Mr.  Ames,  by  which 
the  French  government  conferred  upon  the  donor,  in  appreciation 
of  his  services  in  the  World  War,  the  "title  Chevalier  de  la 
Legion  d'Honneur,  with  the  Cross  of  the  Order." 

The  writing  of  local  history  is  a  thankless  task  ami  is  not 
only  unremunerative  but  the  author  is  indeed  fortunate  if  he 
can  find  friends  and  subscribers  to  pay  the  bare  cost  of  printing. 
Many  a  historian  is  not  even  so  fortunate  and  needs  must  content 
himself  with  a  brief  appearance  in  the  columns  of  his  local 
paper,  where  the  history  which  has  been  years  in  the  making  is 
read  from  week  to  week  and  then  scattered  and  forgotten.  A 
valuable  record  of  this  sort  is  sometimes  rescued  from  oblivion, 
however,  finds  its  way  into  the  permanent  form  of  a  scrapbook, 
and  eventually  reaches  the  local  history  shelf  of  a  reference 
library,  where  it  elbows  a  place  among  the  subscription  histories 
with  their  steel  engravings,  ponderous  bindings,  and  doubtful 


1920 


ACCESSIONS 


373 


historical  value.  Such  a  scrapbook  history,  modest  but  interest- 
ing and  valuable,  has  recently  been  put  together  and  presented 
to  the  society  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Herbert  C.  Varney  of  St.  Paul. 
It  is  a  fifty  page,  double  column,  quarto  volume,  with  a  type- 
written title  page,  which  reads :  "Sketches  of  Kensington 
History,  Rockingham  County,  New  Hampshire.  By  Rev.  Roland 
D.  Sawyer.  Published  in  the  Exeter,  N.  H.  News  Letter.  1918- 
1919." 

Twenty- four  bronze  replicas  of  medals  in  the  presidential 
series  have  been  presented  to  the  society  by  Senator  Frank  B. 
Kellogg.  These,  together  with  the  three  original  silver  or  pewter 
medals  which  are  among  the  museum  specimens,  form  a  com- 
plete set  beginning  with  the  administration  of  President  Wash- 
ington and  continuing  down  through  that  of  President  Wilson. 
The  earlier  medals  of  this  group  are  known  as  the  "Peace  and 
Friendship"  series,  because-  of  the  clasped-hands  design  and 
the  inscription  "Peace  and  Friendship"  on  the  reverse  side.  Each 
medal  bears  on  the  obverse  the  effigy  head  of  the  president  in 
whose  administration  it  was  issued.  A  medal  of  this  sort  was 
valued  by  the  Indian  as  a  decoration  and  also  as  a  mark  of 
distinction  which  indicated  his  friendship  for  and  loyalty  to  the 
government  issuing  it.  When  the  United  States  began  to  deal 
with  the  Indian  tribes  after  the  Revolution,  it  found  them  in 
possession  of  British  flags  and  medals  as  symbols  of  their 
allegiance  to  King  George.  The  representatives  of  the  American 
government  collected  the  English  tokens  and  issued  American 
medals  and  flags  to  take  their  places.  The  later  medals  in  the 
collection  belong  to  the  presidential  series,  but  are  not  of  the 
"Peace  and  Friendship"  type.  The  design  on  the  reverse  side 
commemorates  the  presidency  of  the  man  whose  effigy  appears 
on  the  face  of  the  medal.  The  three  original  medals  in  the 
possession  of  the  society  of  those  for  Thomas  Jefferson,  John 
Quincy  Adams,  and  Franklin  Pierce. 

The  Honorable  John  T.  Johnson  of  Fergus  Falls,  formerly 
a  member  of  the  legislature,  and  his  mother,  Mrs.  Thomas 
Johnson,  have  recently  presented  a  fine  collection  of  articles 
from  their  old  homestead  near  Waseca,  which  illustrate  pioneer 


374  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  MAY 

life  in  Minnesota.  A  hand  loom  for  weaving  cloth,  a  Saxony 
spinning  wheel,  skein  reels,  a  broadax  for  hewing  timbers,  hand- 
made carpenter  tools,  a  wooden  chest  made  in  1798,  and  other 
interesting  domestic  articles  are  included  among  the  specimens. 
The  Johnsons  came  from  Norway  in  the  early  fifties  and  settled 
near  Waseca.  Some  of  the  articles  appear  to  have  been  brought 
from  the  old  country;  others,  such  as  the  loom,  were  probably 
made  in  Minnesota,  although  they  are  naturally  similar  in  design 
to  implements  with  which  the  makers  were  familiar  in  Norway. 

A  Sioux  cradle  or  bag  for  a  papoose  and  a  long  trunk  strap, 
both  decorated  with  beads,  a  buckskin  game  bag,  a  hunting  knife, 
and  several  other  Indian  articles,  all  from  Montana,  are  valuable 
museum  items  recently  received  from  Robert  Somerville  of  Chi- 
cago, Illinois. 

Arthur  Graves  Douglass  and  his  son,  Ralph  E.  Douglass, 
both  of  Minneapolis,  have  given  to  the  society  a  fowling  piece 
which  was  presented  to  their  ancestor,  Benjamin  Graves,  by  Gen- 
eral Washington  at  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  Graves 
served  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  regiments  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  war  and  is  said  to  have  acted  as  body  servant 
for  Washington  for  several  years.  The  gun  was  given  to  him 
in  recognition  of  his  fidelity. 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT 

A  valuable  collection  of  manuscripts  bearing  upon  the  history 
of  the  fur  trade  and  early  steamboating  in  the  upper  Mississippi 
Valley  has  recently  been  purchased  by  the  Wisconsin  Historical 
Society.  It  consists  of  material  collected  by  Captain  Joe  Buisson, 
a  steamboat  pilot  and  master,  who  died  recently  at  Wabasha, 
Minnesota,  where  he  was  born  in  1846,  and  whose  father  and 
grandfather  were  well-known  fur-traders.  Of  special  value  in 
the  collection  are  some  140  papers  acquired  from  Alexis  Bailly, 
the  noted  fur-trader,  which  cover  the  period  from  1821  to  1850. 
Numerous  photographs  of  steamboats  and  pilots  are  also 
included.  Students  of  western  history  will  rejoice  that  this 
collection  has  found  a  depository  where  its  preservation  is 
assured  and  where  it  may  be  freely  consulted. 

The  Pioneer  Rivermen's  Association  held  its  annual  meeting 
in  St.  Paul  on  March  12,  with  an  attendance  of  forty  members 
and  their  families.  A  feature  of  the  meeting  was  the  exhibition, 
by  means  of  a  stereopticon,  of  pictures  of  river  steamboats 
formerly  piloted  by  those  in  attendance  and  other  views  recalling 
the  days  when  river  transportation  was  in  its  prime.  The  account 
of  this  meeting  in  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press  for  March  13  and 
an  editorial  on  "Ye  Old  Time  Steamboat"  in  the  same  paper  for 
March  15  called  forth  a  communication  from  Mr.  Fred  A.  Bill 
thanking  the  Pioneer  Press  for  the  attention  accorded  to  the 
association  and  describing  the  old-time  river  traffic  between  St. 
Paul  and  St.  Louis.  This  is  published  in  the  March  20  issues  of 
both  the  St.  Paul  Dispatch  and  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  of 
Burlington,  Iowa. 

The  Read's  Landing  Association,  an  organization  composed 
of  former  residents  of  what  was  once  a  prosperous  river  town, 
held  its  annual  meeting  in  St.  Paul  on  February  20.  Members 
recalled  the  days  when  Read's  Landing  was  a  busy  commercial 
center,  while  they  viewed  familiar  scenes  of  the  town's  prosper- 
ous period,  which  were  projected  on  a  screen.  Mr.  Fred  A.  Bill, 

875 


376  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  MAY 

president  of  the  association,  furnished  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News 
with  an  interesting  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  town  from  the 
first  establishment  of  a  trading  post  on  its  site  by  Augustine 
Roque  about  1810  to  its  decline  when  the  railroads  began  to 
supersede  the  river  for  transportation  purposes  about  1870.  This 
sketch  and  some  excellent  pictures,  including  a  view  of  the  wharf 
at  Read's  Landing  as  it  appeared  in  1867,  a  portrait  of  Charles 
R.  Read  for  whom  the  town  was  named,  and  portraits  of  Mr. 
Bill,  are  published  in  the  issue  of  the  News  for  February  22. 

The  Winona  County  Old  Settlers'  Association  held  its  annual 
meeting  at  Winona  on  February  21.  In  an  address  delivered 
before  the  gathering  the  Reverend  Patrick  R.  Heffron  contrasted 
modern  with  pioneer  conditions.  The  names  of  members  of  the 
association  who  died  during  the  year  with  the  dates  of  their 
arrival  in  the  county  are  published  in  connection  with  a  detailed 
account  of  the  meeting  in  the  Winona  Republican-Herald  for 
February  21. 

Pageants  depicting  the  chief  events  in  the  history  of  Minnesota 
and,  especially,  of  the  particular  communities  in  which  they  are 
produced  will  be  staged  in  a  number  of  places  in  the  state  during 
the  summer.  The  feature  of  the  home-coming  celebration  to  be 
held  in  Marshall,  Lyon  County,  on  June  17  and  18,  in  observa- 
tion of  the  semicentennial  of  the  founding  of  the  town,  will  be 
such  a  pageant;  another  will  be  presented  in  Red  Wing  on 
August  5  and  6. 

"The  Rhythm  of  Sioux  and  Chippewa  Music,"  by  Frances 
Densmore,  in  the  February  number  of  Art  and  Archaeology,  is  a 
study  of  the  significance  of  the  rhythmic  qualities  of  Indian  songs 
and  their  drummed  accompaniments,  by  the  author  of  several 
books  on  the  subject  of  Indian  music  (see  ante,  2:  583).  In  this 
paper  Miss  Densmore  maintains  "first  that  the  rhythm  of  Sioux 
and  Chippewa  songs  expresses  the  idea  of  the  songs,  and,  second, 
that  the  relation  of  the  rhythm  of  voice  and  drum  expresses  in  a 
measure  the  cultural  development  of  the  race." 

In  "Further  Discoveries  Concerning  the  Kensington  Rune 
Stone,"  in  the  Wisconsin  Magazine  of  History  for  March,  Mr. 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  377 

Hjalmar  R.  Holand  presents  the  results  of  his  search,  in  October, 
1919,  for  the  "two  skerries"  mentioned  in  the  inscription  as  "one 
day's  journey  north  from  this  stone."  Applying  his  theory  that 
the  expression  "day's  journey"  is  a  "recognized  unit  of  distance" 
of  about  eighty  miles,  Mr.  Holand  locates  the  skerries  in  Cor- 
morant Lake  of  Becker  County,  Minnesota.  Two  holes,  appar- 
ently made  with  a  chisel,  in  boulders  on  the  shore  of  the  lake 
and  a  number  of  depressions  or  "sunken  graves"  on  a  knoll 
near-by  are  adduced  as  evidence.  An  interview  with  Mr.  Holand, 
published  in  the  magazine  section  of  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News  for 
February  22  under  the  title  "Did  White  Men  Visit  Minnesota 
Before  Time  of  Columbus?"  covers  about  the  same  ground. 

"The  Early  History  of  Jonathan  Carver,"  by  William  Brown- 
ing, in  the  Wisconsin  Magazine  of  History  for  March,  is  based 
largely  on  the  local  archives  of  Canterbury,  Connecticut,  and 
Weymouth,  Massachusetts,  and  appears  to  establish  conclusively 
that  the  explorer  was  born  in  Weymouth,  April  17,  1710,  and 
"came  of  able  stock  on  both  sides."  The  evidence  indicates, 
also,  that  he  was  descended  from  Robert  Carver,  brother  of  the 
first  governor  of  Plymouth  Colony.  Another  item  of  Carver 
interest  in  the  same  number  is  the  first  installment  of  "A  Journal 
of  Life  in  Wisconsin  One  Hundred  Years  Ago,  Kept  by  Willard 
Keyes  of  Newfane,  Vermont."  Keyes  came  to  Prairie  du  Chien 
in  1817  in  company  with  the  Reverend  Samuel  Peters  and  others 
who  were  trying  to  substantiate  a  claim  to  the  famous  grant  of 
land  supposed  to  have  been  made  to  Carver  by  the  Sioux  Indians 
at  Carver's  Cave  near  St.  Paul  in  1767.  In  addition  to  throw- 
ing light  on  that  abortive  project,  this  installment  of  the  journal 
contains  incidental  references  to  Lord  Selkirk  and  his  settle- 
ment on  the  Red  River  and  to  Robert  Dickson  and  other  "Indian 
traders  returning  from  St.  Peters  river."  It  presents  an  inter- 
esting day  by  day  narrative  of  the  trip  by  way  of  Mackinac  and 
the  Fox- Wisconsin  route  to  Prairie  du  Chien  and  of  life  at  this 
frontier  outpost  during  the  winter  of  1817-18.  It  might  be  noted 
in  passing  that  the  expression,  "the  Carver  Grant  in  western 
Wisconsin,"  used  in  a  footnote  (p.  340)  is  misleading,  as  the 
boundaries  described  in  the  reputed  deed  cover  a  section  of  Minne- 


378  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  MAY 

sota,  including  most  of   St.   Paul  and  a   considerable   part   of 
Minneapolis. 

An  article  entitled  "Fur  Famine  Stalks  the  Trails  of  Old  Red 
River  Carts  and  Prices  Soar  Aloft,"  in  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press 
for  February  8,  sketches  the  history  of  the  fur  trade  in  Minne- 
sota and  the  Northwest.  The  development  of  St.  Paul  as  a 
market  for  furs  from  the  pioneer  period  to  the  present  receives 
special  attention. 

The  Northwestern  Miller  for  February  18  publishes  an  article 
entitled  "From  White  Pine  Forest  to  Farm  Land,"  by  Rollin 
E.  Smith.  It  recalls  the  "first  invasion  of  the  north  woods  of 
Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  .  .  .  for  the  sole  purpose  of  taking 
out  the  white  pine,"  which  produced  a  district  dotted  with  lumber 
camps  and  sawmill  towns  and  inhabited  by  lumberjacks.  How 
the  "cut-over  lands,"  which  were  considered  useless  following 
the  depletion  of  the  forests,  may  be  used  for  purposes  of  agri- 
culture is  demonstrated  by  the  author.  Photographs  illustrative 
of  the  life  of  the  lumberjack  accompany  the  article. 

The  sketches  of  "Leaders  of  Minnesota  Progress,"  by  E.  Dud- 
ley Parsons,  which  have  been  running  in  the  Sunday  issues  of 
the  Minneapolis  Journal  (see  ante,  p.  309),  ceased  to  appear 
after  March  21,  despite  the  fact  that  two  of  the  twelve  originally 
announced  had  not  been  published.  The  subjects  of  the  sketches 
in  the  issues  from  February  1  to  March  21  are  Edward  D.  Neill, 
Henry  Whipple,  James  J.  Hill,  Ignatius  Donnelly,  Dr.  William 
W.  Mayo,  Newton  H.  Winchell,  Frederick  W.  Weyerhaeuser, 
and  Cushman  K.  Davis. 

An  interview  with  Dr.  William  W.  Folwell  on  the  occasion 
of  his  eighty-seventh  birthday,  published  in  the  Minneapolis 
Journal  for  February  15,  contains  some  interesting  reminiscences 
of  his  life  and  activities.  The  pioneer  educator  tells  about  his 
own  education,  his  Civil  War  experiences,  the  circumstances 
which  brought  him  to  Minnesota,  and  conditions  as  he  found 
them  at  the  University  of  Minnesota  upon  his  arrival;  he 
describes  the  growth  of  that  institution  between  1873,  when  de- 
grees were  conferred  upon  two  graduates,  and  the  early  nineties, 
when  his  work  of  promoting  secondary  education  began  to  bear 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  379 

fruit  in  the  enormously  increased  size  of  the  student  body;  and 
he  expresses  his  desire  to  see  "elementary  college  work  in  every 
community." 

Installments  of  Dr.  Cyrus  Northrop's  "  'Reminiscences' "  con- 
tinue to  appear  from  time  to  time  in  the  Minnesota  Alumni 
Weekly  (see  ante,  p.  234).  In  the  chapter  published  November 
24,  headed  "Coming  to  Minnesota,"  Dr.  Northrop  tells  how  a 
group  of  regents  persuaded  him  to  accept  the  presidency  of  the 
University  of  Minnesota  in  1884  and  describes  the  commence- 
ment of  his  new  life  and  new  duties  in  the  West.  The  three 
chapters  which  have  since  appeared,  on  December  22,  February 
2,  and  March  1,  are  concerned  with  what  is  perhaps  the  greatest 
formative  period  in  the  development  of  the  university,  the  four 
years  from  1888  to  1892,  when  "the  institution  acquired  a  momen- 
tum that  has  never  ceased"  and  Dr.  Northrop  succeeded  in  put- 
ting into  operation  his  twofold  policy  of  organizing  new  colleges 
and  erecting  additional  buildings.  Considerable  space  is  devoted 
to  the  movement,  which  gained  formidable  support  from  mem- 
bers of  the  legislature  in  the  late  eighties,  "to  take  the  college  of 
agriculture  out  of  the  hands  of  the  regents,  separate  it  from 
the  University,  [and]  make  it  a  college  directed  by  farmers." 
The  author  gives  a  dramatic  account  of  how  John  S.  Pillsbury 
prevented  such  division  by  offering  to  the  legislature  the  funds 
needed  for  the  completion  of  a  science  building  (Pillsbury  Hall) 
for  the  university,  asking  in  return  only  the  "assurance  of  the 
future  safety  of  the  University  from  dismemberment."  Now 
and  then  Dr.  Northrop  pauses  to  pay  tribute  to  notable  persons 
who  have  served  the  university  or  the  cause  of  education  in 
Minnesota.  Among  them  are  Henry  H.  Sibley,  president  of 
the  board  of  regents  from  1876  to  1891 ;  Ignatius  Donnelly,  "an 
ex-officio  member  of  the  board  of  regents  1860-1863  (Lieutenant- 
Governor)  and  later  ...  an  influential  force  in  the  legisla- 
ture"; Dr.  George  H.  Bridgeman,  president  of  Hamline 
University;  and  numerous  members  of  the  university  faculty. 

A  valuable  addition  to  the  available  material  on  the  subject 
of  Norwegian  immigration  is  Utvandringshistorie  fra  Ringerikes- 
bygderne,  by  O.  S.  Johnson  of  Spring  Grove,  Minnesota  (Minne- 


380  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  MAY 

apolis,  1919.  416  p.).  This  history  of  immigration  to  Wisconsin, 
Iowa,  Minnesota,  and  other  states  of  the  Northwest  from  the 
Ringerike  district  in  Norway  has  been  published  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Ringer ikeslaget,  a  society  organized  at  Albert 
Lea  in  1916  by  former  residents  of  Ringerike  who  now  live  in 
the  United  States.  The  opening  chapter  is  devoted  to  a  history 
and  description  of  the  home  district  in  Norway,  and  individual 
sketches  of  the  five  communities  of  which  it  is  composed  are 
scattered  throughout  the  volume.  In  a  brief  section  at  the  end 
recent  events  in  Norway  of  interest  to  the  members  of  the  society 
are  recounted  and  the  names  and  addresses  of  members  of  the 
organization  are  published.  The  bulk  of  the  volume,  however, 
is  made  up  of  family  histories  and  records  of  the  immigration 
of  "Utvandrede  fra  Ringerike,"  or  individuals  who  have  come 
to  the  Northwest  from  that  district.  Since  a  large  per  cent  of 
these  people  have  settled  in  Minnesota,  the  work  is  of  decided 
interest  in  this  state.  It  has  also  been  published  serially,  begin- 
ning in  August,  1916,  in  Samband,  a  Norwegian  magazine  of 
Minneapolis,  designated  by  the  Ringerikeslaget  as  its  official 
organ. 

In  the  February  and  March  issues  of  the  North  Star,  Mr. 
Theodore  C.  Blegen  writes  about  "The  America  Letters"  written 
by  pioneer  immigrants  from  Norway  to  their  relatives  and 
friends  in  the  old  country,  which  had  a  very  important  part  in 
stimulating  immigration  to  the  United  States.  The  article  is 
based  in  part  on  hitherto  unused  material  and  contains  transla- 
tions of  some  of  the  letters. 

The  growth  of  a  little  Swedish  community  centered  about  a 
Lutheran  church,  Beckville  in  Meeker  County,  is  traced  and  the 
golden  jubilee  of  its  church  is  commemorated  in  a  volume  entitled 
Minnesalbum  med  en  Illustrerad  Historik  utgifen  af  Svenska 
Evangeliskt  Lutherska  Beckville-Forsamlingen  I  Meeker  County, 
Minn.,  med  anledning  af  dess  Femtiodrs-Jubileum,  Den  28-30 
Juni  ipip  (Rock  Island,  Illinois,  1919.  120  p.).  The  illustra- 
tions consist  of  portraits  of  pastors  and  members  of  the  congre- 
gation and  of  photographs  of  the  exterior  and  interior  of  their 
place  of  worship. 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  381 

The  controversy  between  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin  over  the 
location  of  the  boundary  line  in  the  harbor  at  Duluth  (see  ante, 
p.  222),  was  settled  on  March  8  by  a  unanimous  decision  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court  favorable  to  Minnesota.  As  a  by- 
product of  this  case  a  large  amount  of  interesting  and  valuable 
data  relating  to  the  Duluth-Superior  region  and  especially  to  the 
navigation  of  the  bays  at  the  head  of  Lake  Superior  has  been  put 
in  the  way  of  preservation  by  being  printed.  The  Transcript  of 
Record,  which  contains  the  testimony  taken  by  the  court  com- 
missioner, comprises  two  volumes  of  1,074  pages  numbered  con- 
secutively. Other  documents  printed  in  connection  with  this 
case  are  the  Brief  for  State  of  Minnesota  (283  p.),  the  Brief 
for  the  State  of  Wisconsin  (xviii,  377  p.,  maps),  the  Reply  Brief 
for  State  of  Minnesota  (90  p.),  and  the  decision  of  the  court 
(10  p.).  The  first  128  pages  of  the  Wisconsin  brief  are  devoted 
to  an  elaborate  historical  discussion,  with  many  quotations  from 
sources,  designed  to  establish  the  meaning  of  the  term  "the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Louis  River." 

"St.  Paul  Northwest  Bank  Center  for  70  Years"  is  the  title 
of  an  excellent  outline  of  the  financial  history  of  Minnesota's 
capital  in  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News  for  March  21.  The  numerous 
private  banks  established  between  1854,  when  Charles  W.  W. 
Borup  and  Charles  H.  Oakes  founded  the  first  bank  in  the  terri- 
tory, and  the  Panic  of  1857,  which  was  survived  by  only  two 
banks,  are  listed;  the  effects  of  the  Civil  War  are  noted;  the 
development  of  two  of  the  city's  leading  financial  institutions, 
the  First  National  Bank  and  the  Merchant's  National  Bank,  is 
traced ;  and  the  work  of  such  leaders  as  Henry  P.  Upham,  Horace 
Thompson,  and  Maurice  Auerbach  is  evaluated.  Portraits  of  six 
pioneer  bankers  of  St.  Paul  and  a  picture  of  a  dollar  bill  issued 
by  an  early  private  bank  appear  with  the  article. 

With  the  exception  of  a  description  and  history  of  "Carver's 
Cave,"  published  March  21,  Benjamin  Backnumber's  articles  on 
"St.  Paul  Before  This"  in  the  Sunday  issues  of  the  St.  Paul 
Daily  News  during  February  and  March  have  consisted  entirely 
of  biographical  sketches  of  persons  who  figured  in  the  early 
history  of  Minnesota,  and,  especially,  of  St.  Paul.  The  subjects 
of  the  sketches  and  the  dates  on  which  they  appeared  are  as 


382 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT 


MAY 


follows :  "Tod'  Cowles,  Editor  and  Sportsman,"  February  1 ; 
"The  First  White  Child"  born  in  St.  Paul,  an  examination  of  the 
relative  claims  of  Basil  Gervais  and  David  Guerin  to  the  honor, 
February  8 ;  "Seneca  E.  Truesdell,  Printer  and  Cynic,"  February 
15;  "Jane  Grey  Swisshelm,"  February  22;  "David  Olmstead, 
First  and  Youngest  Mayor"  of  St.  Paul,  February  29;  "Two 
Journalistic  Fire-Eaters,"  Daniel  A.  Robertson  and  Dr.  Thomas 
Foster,  March  7;  and  "Vital  Guerin,  Early  Settler  and  Liberal 
Giver,"  March  14. 

An  entire  section  of  the  St.  Paul  Dispatch  for  March  30  is 
devoted  to  the  announcement  that  Noyes  Brothers  and  Cutler, 
wholesale  druggists  of  St.  Paul,  have  achieved  the  "half  century 
mark  in  business  progress."  Although  most  of  this  space  is 
occupied  by  accounts  of  the  present  activities  of  the  firm,  a  brief 
sketch  of  its  history  is  included.  Outstanding  events  in  the 
growth  of  the  business  are  noted,  such  as  its  establishment  as 
"a  drug  and  paint  business  .  .  .  under  the  name  Sims,  Vawter 
and  Rose,"  its  purchase  by  Daniel  R.  and  Charles  P.  Noyes, 
the  entrance  into  the  firm  of  Edward  H.  Cutler,  and  the  four 
moves  to  larger  quarters  necessitated  by  increased  business.  The 
early  days  of  the  business,  when  the  Indians  "brought  medicinal 
roots  to  the  store  and  exchanged  them  for  merchandise  or  cash" 
and  the  wares  handled  by  the  concern  were  "distributed  by  rail- 
road, boat  and  ox-cart  as  far  as  transportation  reached,  and  as 
fast  as  it  extended,"  receive  special  attention.  Pioneer  methods 
of  distribution  are  also  treated  in  an  article  on  Frank  E.  Noble, 
"dean  of  Noyes  Bros.  &  Cutler's  sales  force,"  who  has  spent 
"forty  years  on  the  road."  Pictures  published  in  the  section  con- 
sist of  portraits  of  officers,  buyers,  and  salesmen  of  the  firm 
and  photographs  of  buildings  occupied  by  it. 

Pioneer  methods  of  handling  and  distributing  mail  are 
recounted  in  the  reminiscences  of  "Pat  O'Brien,  for  50  years  a 
postal  clerk,  and  John  J.  McGuire,  nearly  40  years  a  city  carrier," 
published,  with  their  portraits,  in  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News  for 
March  14  under  the  heading,  "Old  Timers  Recall  St.  Paul  in 
Stage  Coach  Days." 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  383 

Portraits  of  twenty  St.  Paul  mayors  appear  in  the  St.  Paul 
Daily  News  for  February  8  under  the  heading  "Men  Who  Have 
Piloted  the  Good  Ship  St.  Paul."  The  caption  of  each  picture 
includes  the  mayor's  name,  the  dates  of  his  term  of  service,  and 
the  name  of  the  political  party  with  which  he  was  affiliated. 

An  article  on  "The  Sacajaweans"  in  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News 
for  March  21,  recounts  the  history  of  the  society  which  later 
became  the  St.  Paul  Political  Equality  Club.  Portraits  of  the 
leaders  of  the  organization  accompany  the  article. 

An  article  entitled  "Minneapolis  History  Told  in  Bronze  and 
Marble,  with  Statues  for  Chapters,"  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal 
for  March  28,  enumerates  the  memorial  and  decorative  monu- 
ments which  have  been  erected  in  Minneapolis  from  time  to 
time  and  notes  the  sculptor  and  location  of  each.  Photographs 
of  six  of  the  statues  are  reproduced  with  the  article. 

"Pioneer  Drug  Stores  Pictured  by  City's  Oldest  Apothecary," 
is  the  title  of  an  article  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  for  March  7 
by  Frank  G.  O'Brien,  who  claims  to  be  "the  oldest  surviving 
druggist  in  Minneapolis."  The  author's  portrait  accompanies  the 
article. 

A  story  of  "When  Minneapolis  Flashed  as  a  Film  Making 
Possibility"  in  the  pioneer  period  of  the  motion  picture  industry 
is  narrated  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  for  February  29.  From 
the  very  incoherent  account  it  appears  that  "Hiawatha,"  the  first 
dramatic  production  of  "the  independents/'  was  filmed  in  Minne- 
haha  Glen  in  1909,  with  such  present  day  stars  as  Mary  Pickford 
and  Thomas  Ince  in  the  company. 

The  life  of  John  T.  Blaisdell,  a  pioneer  lumberman  and  land- 
owner of  Minneapolis,  is  sketched  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune 
for  March  7  under  the  heading  "Talk  of  Renaming  Blaisdell 
Avenue  Calls  to  Mind  Sturdy  Pioneer  Who  Helped  Build  Up 
Minneapolis."  Mr.  Blaisdell's  activities  in  providing  a  school  for 
his  neighborhood,  first  in  the  parlor  of  his  own  dwelling,  then 
in  a  separate  building  of  but  one  room,  and  finally  in  the  brick 
structure  which  today  is  known  as  the  Whittier  School,  are 
recalled  by  his  daughter,  Miss  Mary  A.  Blaisdell.  A  portrait  of 


384  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  MAY 

the  pioneer  Minneapolitan  and  a  picture  of  his  early  home  accom- 
pany the  article. 

The  Minneapolis  Journal  for  February  8  contains  a  collection 
of  stories  about  Lincoln  recalled  by  local  people  who  knew  or 
came  in  contact  with  him.  Interesting  incidents  in  the  domestic 
life  of  the  great  president  are  supplied  by  Dana  Todd,  whose 
father,  General  John  B.  S.  Todd,  was  Mrs.  Lincoln's  cousin. 
The  bereavement  of  the  nation  at  the  time  of  Lincoln's  assassina- 
tion is  described  by  Judge  Ell  Torrance,  a  member  of  the  guard 
of  honor  which  watched  the  body  while  it  lay  in  state  in  Balti- 
more. The  illustrations  include  portraits  of  President  and  Mrs. 
Lincoln  and  of  members  of  the  Todd  family. 

Fete  Sale,  1894-1920,  an  advertising  pamphlet  issued  by  The 
Young-Qumlan  Company  of  Minneapolis,  contains  a  pictorial 
record  of  the  growth  of  Minneapolis  to  1874  "made  through  the 
courtesy  of  and  from  photographs  taken  by  E.  A.  Bromley  and 
from  original  pictures  held  by  The  State  Historical  Society." 

An  article  by  "The  Rambler"  in  the  Shakopee  Argus  for 
March  5  is  an  example  of  what  a  single  copy  of  an  old  news- 
paper can  reveal  about  the  pioneer  life  of  a  community.  Items 
and  advertisements  and  a  partisan  editorial  in  the  earliest  copy 
of  the  Argus  in  the  library  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society, 
that  for  July  4,  1863,  furnish  most  of  the  material  for  the 
article.  The  locations  in  the  present  town  of  business  houses  of 
the  Civil  War  period  are  noted,  frequently  with  information  con- 
cerning the  subsequent  activities  of  the  owners ;  and  incidently 
the  reader  may  learn  something  of  the  economic  needs  of  the 
pioneer.  Data  on  the  early  history  of  the  Argus  are  also 
included. 

A  history  of  the  St.  Peter  Tribune,  which  was  established 
February  15,  1860,  and  ceased  publication  January  21,  1920, 
appears  in  the  St.  Peter  Free  Press  for  January  24.  The  various 
owners  and  editors  of  the  Tribune  are  noted,  but  special  atten- 
tion is  given  to  Joseph  K.  Moore,  who  founded  the  paper,  and 
Andrew  R.  McGill,  who  subsequently  became  governor  of  Minne- 
sota. 


1920 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT 


385 


Articles  of  Minnesota  or  general  interest  in  the  Wisconsin 
Magazine  of  History  for  March  are,  besides  those  already  men- 
tioned, "An  Experiment  of  the  Fathers  in  State  Socialism,"  by 
Milo  M.  Quaife,  which  deals  with  the  history  of  the  Indian 
trading  houses  operated  by  the  United  States  government  during 
the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century;  chapter  5  of  Miss 
Kellogg's  "Story  of  Wisconsin,"  treating  of  "Foreign  Immigra- 
tion in  Territorial  Times" ;  and  "Recollections  of  Chief  May- 
zhuc-ke-ge-shig,"  by  John  Thomas  Lee. 

Over  250  new  members  have  been  added  to  the  rolls  of  the 
Wisconsin  Historical  Society  during  the  last  year  and  a  half  as 
a  result  of  a  vigorous  drive  conducted  by  a  special  membership 
committee  with  an  enthusiastic  chairman.  A  large  increase  in 
membership  is  also  reported  by  the  State  Historical  Society  of 
Iowa.  Obviously  there  are  many  people  in  the  western  states 
sufficiently  interested  in  history  to  help  support  their  state 
societies  if  the  matter  is  adequately  brought  to  their  attention. 

A  noteworthy  plan  for  marking  historic  sites  is  being  worked 
out  in  North  Dakota.  The  locations  of  forts,  trading  posts, 
battles,  and  points  along  famous  trails,  such  as  that  followed  by 
Lewis  and  Clark,  are  accurately  ascertained;  the  sites  are  then 
purchased  by  the  communities  in  which  they  are  located,  con- 
verted into  parks,  and  placed  in  the  trusteeship  of  the  state 
historical  society.  Eventually  the  local  chapters  of  the  Daughters 
of  the  American  Revolution  expect  to  erect  appropriately  marked 
stone  tablets  in  these  parks. 

The  Canadian  Historical  Review  is  the  latest  recruit  to  the 
ranks  of  American  historical  magazines,  the  first  number  appear- 
ing under  date  of  March,  1920.  While  new  in  this  form,  it  is  in 
a  sense  a  continuation  of  the  former  annual  Review  of  Historical 
Publications  Relating  to  Canada.  The  format  is  similar  to  that 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Review,  but  a  larger  pro- 
portion of  the  space  is  devoted  to  book  reviews  and,  in  addition, 
each  number  contains  a  comprehensive  and  classified  "List  of 
Present  Publications  Relating  to  Canada."  The  managing  editor 
is  W.  S.  Wallace,  University  of  Toronto  Library,  Toronto, 
Ontario. 


386  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  MAY 

WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES 

Work  of  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Commission  on  the  com- 
pilation of  individual  records  of  Minnesota  soldiers,  sailors,  and 
marines  now  centers  in  efforts  to  arrange  as  rapidly  as  possible 
the  thousands  of  service  records  which  have  been  and  are  still 
being  secured  with  the  cooperation  of  the  soldiers'  bonus  board. 
Only  when  this  is  done  and  the  results  are  compared  with  those 
obtained  by  the  county  committees  and  other  agencies  can  omis- 
sions be  discovered  and  supplied  on  a  large  scale.  The  first  step 
in  the  process,  sorting  the  records  by  counties,  is  nearly  com- 
pleted, and  work  will  soon  commence  upon  the  larger  task  of 
arranging  the  records  of  each  county  in  alphabetical  order  and 
of  making  up  check  lists  for  use  in  the  completion  of  both  state 
and  local  files.  In  the  meantime  the  St.  Louis  County  branch  of 
the  commission,  under  the  direction  of  the  Honorable  William  E. 
Culkin  of  Duluth,  chairman,  is  making  a  direct  comparison 
between  the  state  and  local  files  for  that  county  with  the  primary 
object  of  supplying  omissions  in  the  latter. 

On  the  basis  of  lists  compiled  in  connection  with  its  presenta- 
tion of  memorial  certificates  to  the  next  of  kin  of  Minnesota 
gold  star  men,  the  Minnesota  Commission  of  Public  Safety  is 
cooperating  with  the  war  records  commission  in  the  collection 
of  records  and  portraits  of  all  Minnesotans  who  lost  their  lives 
in  the  service.  The  former  organization  has  prepared  and  com- 
menced the  distribution  of  printed  forms  designed  to  elicit  from 
relatives  and  friends  the  biographical  material  required  for  a 
complete  Minnesota  "Gold  Star  Roll."  These  records  when 
completed  will  be  turned  over  to  the  war  records  commission. 

A  number  of  notable  additions  have  been  made  to  the  com- 
mission's growing  collection  of  original  records  of  Minnesota  war 
agencies.  The  Minnesota  branch  of  the  woman's  committee  of 
the  Council  of  National  Defense  has  turned  over  to  the  commis- 
sion for  permanent  preservation  its  entire  state  headquarters  file 
of  correspondence,  records,  and  papers  evolved  in  the  actual 
conduct  of  its  many  and  important  war  activities.  The  Minne- 
apolis branch  of  this  organization  has  done  the  same  with  its 
local  file  and  from  the  corresponding  St.  Paul  organization,  the 


1920  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  387 

Council  of  Home  Defense,  the  commission  has  received  impor- 
tant material,  including  the  records  of  an  intensive  survey  of  the 
city  made  early  in  1919  for  Americanization  purposes.  Other 
considerable  bodies  of  organization  records  have  been  received 
from  the  Minnesota  branches  of  the  Jewish  Welfare  Board  and 
the  American  Library  Association.  Also,  under  special  authori- 
zation from  national  headquarters  of  the  War  Camp  Community 
Service,  the  commission  has  taken  over  the  greater  part  of  the 
war-time  files  of  its  Minneapolis  branch  and  will  shortly  receive 
those  of  the  St.  Paul  branch.  Not  the  least  of  the  new  acquisi- 
tions is  a  complete  file  of  the  headquarters  records  of  the  St.  Paul 
council  of  the  Boy  Scouts  of  America  covering  the  years  1914 
to  1918. 

A  manuscript  roster  and  record  of  Minnesota  Jews  in  the 
service,  which  was  used  in  preparing  a  similar  roster  for  publi- 
cation in  the  American  Jewish  World  (Minneapolis)  of  Septem- 
ber 26,  1919,  has  been  filed  with  the  commission  by  Mr.  L.  H. 
Frisch,  managing  editor  of  the  World.  The  manuscript  record 
was  compiled  by  the  office  of  war  statistics  of  the  American 
Jewish  Committee,  New  York,  and  contains  detailed  information 
about  individuals  which  is  not  included  in  the  published  roster. 

The.  commission  has  been  unusually  fortunate  of  late  in  secur- 
ing war  records  in  the  form  of  motion  picture  films.  From 
Mrs.  Arthur  A.  Law  of  Minneapolis  has  been  received  the  eight 
reel  film  known  to  thousands  of  Minnesotans  as  the  "Miles  of 
Smiles"  film.  This  picture,  it  will  be  remembered,  represents, 
among  other  things,  the  war-time  life  and  activities  of  Minne- 
apolis ;  it  was  produced  through  the  instrumentality  of  Mrs.  Law 
and  others  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  cheer  to  members  of 
Base  Hospital  No.  26,  the  151st  United  States  Field  Artillery, 
and  other  groups  of  Minnesotans  at  the  front.  Through  the 
kindness  of  Mr.  Merton  E.  Harrison  of  Minneapolis,  former 
director  of  the  war  savings  organization  of  the  Ninth  Federal 
Reserve  District,  the  commission  has  received  a  print  of  "The 
Price  of  Victory"  film,  a  picture  illustrative  of  reconstruction 
work  done  at  the  United  States  Army  General  Hospital  No.  29, 
Fort  Snelling,  and  used  extensively  throughout  the  Northwest 
in  connection  with  the  Victory  Loan  campaign.  Mr.  Glen  S. 


388  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  MAY 

Locker  of  Two  Harbors,  leader  of  the  U.  S.  S.  Iowa  band  when 
in  the  service,  has  presented  a  three  hundred  foot  reel  showing 
this  band  giving  a  noonday  concert  aboard  the  Iowa  while  the 
ship  was  at  target  practice  in  Chesapeake  Bay. 

Under  the  chairmanship  of  Colonel  Hay  den  S.  Cole  of  St. 
Paul,  the  Ramsey  County  War  Records  Committee  has  evolved 
into  a  strong  organization  with  funds  sufficient  for  an  aggressive 
conduct  of  the  work  on  a  scale  in  some  degree  commensurate 
with  the  possibilities  in  view.  Mr.  Harry  W.  Oehler,  a  young 
St.  Paul  attorney,  serves  as  executive  secretary  and  conducts  the 
work  of  the  committee  from  his  office  at  712  Commerce  Building. 
Special  attention  is  now  being  given  to  the  completion  of  the  St. 
Paul  and  Ramsey  County  "Gold  Star  Roll"  started  some  months 
ago  by  Mayor  Hodgson,  and  to  the  collection  of  biographical 
sketches  and  portraits  of  the  men  there  enrolled. 

Through  the  efforts  of  the  chairman,  Dr.  V.  T.  McHale  of 
Henderson,  the  Sibley  County  War  Records  Committee  has 
received  an  appropriation  of  three  hundred  dollars  from  the 
county  board.  The  committee  has  opened  headquarters, 
employed  a  secretary,  and  prepared  a  military  service  record  form 
for  local  use,  which  is  in  some  respects  an  improvement  upon 
the  state  form  after  which  it  is  modelled. 

A  trio  of  souvenir  illustrated  histories  setting  forth  the  parts 
played  by  the  citizens  of  Pipestone,  Nobles,  and  Rock  counties 
In  the  World  War:  1917,  1918,  1919,  has  been  filed  with  similar 
works  in  the  state  war  records  collection,  through  the  kindness 
of  Mr.  Edward  R.  Trebon  of  the  Leader  Publishing  Company  of 
Pipestone,  the  publishers.  An  interesting  feature,  not  included 
in  other  county  war  histories  previously  noted  in  these  pages,  is 
the  appearance  in  the  Pipestone  and  Nobles  histories  of  sections 
dealing  with  the  organization  of  such  local  posts  of  the  American 
Legion  as  had  been  established  at  the  time  of  publication. 

Among  other  material  recently  received  by  the  state  commis- 
sion from  Mr.  Glen  S.  Locker  of  Two  Harbors,  chairman  of  the 
Lake  County  War  Records  Committee,  is  a  copy  of  the  "Victory 
Number"  of  the  Agate  published  by  the  senior  class  of  Two 


1920  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  389 

Harbors  High  School  in  1919.  Instead  of  an  annual  com- 
memorating the  war  services  of  teachers,  alumni,  and  students 
of  the  local  high  school  only,  as  might  be  expected,  one  finds 
what  amounts  to  a  record,  and  a  very  creditable  record,  of  the 
parts  played  by  the  citizens  of  Two  Harbors  and  Lake  County 
in  the  war.  In  it  appear  rosters,  records,  and  portraits  of  Lake 
County  soldiers,  sailors,  marines,  and  civilian  war  work  leaders, 
together  with  brief  accounts  of  the  personnel  and  activities  of 
local  war  organizations.  Among  unique  illustrative  features  may 
be  noted  a  large  number  of  facsimiles  of  war  posters  and  car- 
toons and  of  Duluth  and  Two  Harbors  newspapers  bearing 
announcements  of  the  declaration  of  war,  of  the  signing  of  the 
armistice,  and  of  important  intermediate  events.  According  to 
an  explanatory  note  by  the  publishers,  much  of  the  credit  for 
the  work  is  due  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Steichen,  principal  of  the 
high  school. 

Among  publications  of  service  men's  organizations  which  may 
be  expected  to  supply  material  and  open  up  important  sources  of 
information  for  the  military  phases  of  Minnesota's  war  history, 
the  latest  to  appear  are  Semper  Fidelis,  official  organ  of  the 
Minnesota  Marine  Club,  published  bimonthly  beginning  January 
26,  in  Minneapolis ;  the  Post  News,  official  organ  of  the  David 
Wisted  Post  No.  28  of  the  American  Legion,  Duluth,  published 
bimonthly  beginning  January  24,  and  the  Minnesota  Home 
Guard  Legion  Magazine,  published  monthly  in  Minneapolis. 

Former  marines  and  others  will  welcome  the  appearance  of  a 
brief  official  history,  in  pamphlet  form,  of  The  United  States 
Marine  Corps  in  the  World  War  (108  p.).  The  account  was 
prepared  by  Major  Edwin  N.  McClellan,  officer  in  charge  of  the 
Marine  Corps  department  of  the  historical  division  of  the  army, 
for  the  information  of  marines  and  the  public  pending  the  publi- 
cation of  a  detailed  and  final  history  now  in  the  course  of 
preparation. 


MINNESOTA 
HISTORY  BULLETIN 


VOL.  3,  No.  7 
WHOLE  No.  23 
AUGUST,  1920 


MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY1 

In  time  of  war,  when  all  that  this  nation  has  stood  for,  all 
the  things  in  which  it  passionately  believes,  are  at  stake,  we 
have  met  to  dedicate  this  beautiful  home  for  history. 

There  is  a  fitness  in  the  occasion.  It  is  for  historic  ideals 
that  we  are  fighting.  If  this  nation  is  one  for  which  we  should 
pour  out  our  savings,  postpone  our  differences,  go  hungry, 
and  even  give  up  life  itself,  it  is  not  because  it  is  a  rich,  exten- 
sive, well-fed,  and  populous  nation ;  it  is  because  from  its  early 
days  America  has  pressed  onward  toward  a  goal  of  its  own; 
because  it  has  followed  an  ideal,  the  ideal  of  a  democracy 
developing  under  conditions  unlike  those  of  any  other  age  or 
country. 

We  are  fighting  not  for  an  Old  World  ideal,  not  for  an 
abstraction,  not  for  a  philosophical  revolution.  Broad  and 
generous  as  are  our  sympathies,  widely  scattered  in  origin  as 
are  our  people,  keenly  as  we  feel  the  call  of  kinship,  the  thrill 
of  sympathy  with  the  stricken  nations  across  the  Atlantic,  we 
are  fighting  for  the  historic  ideals  of  the  United  States,  for 
the  continued  existence  of  the  type  of  society  in  which  we 
believe  because  we  have  proved  it  good,  for  the  things  which 
drew  European  exiles  to  our  shores  and  which  inspired  the 
hopes  of  the  pioneers. 

We  are  at  war  that  the  history  of  the  United  States,  rich 
with  the  record  of  high  human  purposes  and  of  faith  in  the 
destiny  of  the  common  man  under  freedom,  filled  with  the 
promises  of  a  better  world,  may  not  become  the  lost  and  tragic 
story  of  a  futile  dream.  Yes,  it  is  an  American  ideal  and  an 
American  example  for  which  we  fight;  but  in  that  ideal  and 
example  lies  medicine  for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  It  is 
the  best  we  have  to  give  to  Europe,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  vital 

1  Address  delivered  at  the  dedication  of  the  Minnesota  Historical 
Society  building,  St.  Paul,  May  11,  1918. 


394  FREDERICK  J.  TURNER  AUG. 

import  that  we  shall  safeguard  and  preserve  our  power  to 
serve  the  world,  and  not  be  overwhelmed  in  the  flood  of  impe- 
rialistic force  that  wills  the  death  of  democracy  and  would 
send  the  freeman  under  the  yoke.  Essential  as  are  our  con- 
tributions of  wealth,  the  work  of  our  scientists,  the  toil  of  our 
farmers  and  our  workmen  in  factory  and  shipyard,  priceless 
as  is  the  stream  of  young  American  manhood  which  we  pour 
forth  to  stop  the  flood  which  flows  like  moulten  lava  across 
the  green  fields  and  peaceful  hamlets  of  Europe  toward  the 
sea  and  turns  to  ashes  and  death  all  that  it  covers,  these  con- 
tributions have  their  deeper  meaning  in  the  American  spirit; 
they  are  born  of  the  love  of  democracy. 

Long  ago  in  prophetic  words  Walt  Whitman  voiced  the 
meaning  of  our  present  sacrifices: 

Sail,  sail  thy  best,  ship  of  Democracy, 

Of  value  is  thy  freight,  'tis  not  the  Present  only, 

The  Past  is  also  stored  in  thee, 

Thou  holdest  not  the  venture  of  thyself  alone,  not  of  the  Western 

continent  alone, 
Earth's  resume  entire  floats  on  thy  keel,  O  ship,  is  steadied  by 

thy  spars, 
With  thee  Time  voyages  in  trust,  the  antecedent  nations  sink  or 

swim  with  thee, 
With  all  their  ancient  struggles,   martyrs,  heroes,   epics,  wars, 

thou  bear'st  the  other  continents, 
Theirs,  theirs  as  much  as  thine,  the  destination-port  triumphant. 

Shortly  before  the  Civil  War,  a  great  German,  exiled  from 
his  native  land  for  his  love  of  freedom,  came  from  his  new 
home  among  the  pioneers  of  the  Middle  West  to  set  forth  in 
Faneuil  Hall,  the  "cradle  of  liberty,"  in  Boston,  his  vision  of 
the  young  America  that  was  forming  in  the  West,  "the  last 
depository  of  the  hopes  of  all  true  friends  of  humanity." 
Speaking  of  the  contrast  between  the  migrations  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  and  those  of  the  Old  World  in  other  centuries, 
he  said: 


1920    MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY    395 

It  is  now  not  a  barbarous  multitude  pouncing  upon  old  and 
decrepit  empires ;  not  a  violent  concussion  of  tribes  accompanied 
by  all  the  horrors  of  general  destruction ;  but  we  see  the  vigorous 
elements  of  all  nations  .  .  .  peaceably  congregating  and  min- 
gling together  on  virgin  soil  .  .  .  led  together  by  the  irresistible 
attraction  of  free  and  broad  principles ;  undertaking  to  commence 
a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the  world,  without  first  destroying 
the  results  of  the  progress  of  past  periods ;  undertaking  to  found 
a  new  cosmopolitan  nation  without  marching  over  the  dead  bodies 
of  slain  millions. 

If  Carl  Schurz  had  lived  to  see  the  outcome  of  that  Ger- 
many from  which  he  was  sent  as  an  exile,  in  the  days  when 
Prussian  bayonets  dispersed  the  legislatures  and  stamped  out 
the  beginnings  of  democratic  rule  in  his  former  country,  could 
he  have  better  pictured  the  contrasts  between  the  Prussian  and 
the  American  spirit?  He  went  on  to  say: 

Thus  was  founded  the  great  colony  of  free  humanity,  which 
has  not  old  England  alone,  but  the  world,  for  its  mother-country. 
.  .  .  And  in  the  colony  of  free  humanity,  whose  mother-country 
is  the  world,  they  establish  the  Republic  of  equal  rights,  where 
the  title  of  manhood  is  the  title  to  citizenship.  My  friends,  if  I 
had  a  thousand  tongues,  and  a  voice  strong  as  the  thunder  of 
heaven,  they  would  not  be  sufficient  to  impress  upon  your  minds 
forcibly  enough  the  greatness  of  this  idea,  the  overshadowing 
glory  of  this  result.  This  was  the  dream  of  the  truest  friends 
of  man  from  the  beginning ;  for  this  the  noblest  blood  of  martyrs 
has  been  shed;  for  this  has  mankind  waded  through  seas  of 
blood  and  tears.  There  it  is  now ;  there  it  stands,  the  noble  fabric 
in  all  the  splendor  of  reality. 

It  is  in  a  solemn  and  inspiring  time,  therefore,  that  we  meet 
to  dedicate  this  building,  and  the  occasion  is  fitting  to  the 
time.  We  may  now  see,  as  never  before,  the  deeper  signifi- 
cance, the  larger  meaning  of  these  pioneers,  whose  plain  lives 
and  homely  annals  are  glorified  as  a  part  of  the  story  of  the 
building  of  a  better  system  of  social  justice  under  freedom,  a 
broader,  and  as  we  fervently  hope,  a  more  enduring  founda- 
tion for  the  welfare  and  progress  under  liberty  of  the  com- 


396  FREDERICK  J.  TURNER  AUG. 

mon  man,  an  example  of  federation,  of  peaceful  adjustments 
by  compromise  and  concession  under  the  system  of  self-gov- 
ernment, in  which  sections  replace  nations  over  a  union  as 
large  as  Europe,  party  discussions  take  the  place  of  warring 
countries,  and  the  Pax  Americana  furnishes  an  example  for  a 
better  world. 

As  our  forefathers,  the  pioneers,  gathered  in  their  neigh- 
borhood to  raise  the  log  cabin,  and  sanctified  it  by  the  name 
of  home,  the  dwelling  place  of  pioneer  ideals,  so  we  meet  to 
celebrate  the  raising  of  this  home,  this  shrine  of  Minnesota's 
historic  life.  It  symbolizes  the  conviction  that  the  past  and 
the  future  of  this  people  are  tied  together;  that  this  historical 
society  is  the  keeper  of  the  records  of  a  noteworthy  movement 
in  the  progress  of  mankind;  that  these  records  are  not  un- 
meaning and  antiquarian,  but  even  in  their  details  are  worthy 
of  preservation  for  their  revelation  of  the  beginnings  of  so- 
ciety in  the  midst  of  a  nation  caught  by  the  vision  of  a  better 
future  for  the  world. 

Harriet  Martineau,  the  English  traveller,  who  portrayed  the 
America  of  the  thirties  exclaimed: 

I  regard  the  American  people  as  a  great  embryo  poet,  now 
moody,  now  wild,  but  bringing  out  results  of  absolute  good  sense ; 
restless  and  wayward  in  action,  but  with  deep  peace  at  his  heart ; 
exulting  that  he  has  caught  the  true  aspect  of  things  past  and 
the  depth  of  futurity  which  lies  before  him,  wherein  to  create 
something  so  magnificent  as  the  world  has  scarcely  begun  to 
dream  of.  There  is  the  strongest  hope  of  a  nation  that  is  capable 
of  being  possessed  with  an  idea. 

And  she  appealed  to  the  American  people  to  "cherish  their 
high  democratic  hope,  their  faith  in  man.  The  older  they 
grow  the  more  they  must  reverence  the  dreams  of  their 
youth." 

The  dreams  of  their  youth !  Here  they  shall  be  preserved, 
together  with  the  achievements  as  well  as  the  aspirations  of 
the  men  who  made  the  state,  the  men  who  built  on  their  foun- 


1920    MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY    397 

dations,  the  men  with  large  vision  and  power  of  action,  the 
lesser  men  in  the  mass,  the  leaders  who  served  the  state  and 
nation  with  devotion  to  the  cause,  the  men  who  failed  to  see 
the  larger  vision  and  worked  impatiently  with  narrow  or  sel- 
fish or  class  ends  as  well  as  those  who  worked  with  patience 
and  sympathy  and  mutual  concession,  with  readiness  to  make 
adjustments  and  to  subordinate  their  immediate  interests  to 
the  larger  good  and  the  immediate  safety  of  the  nation. 

In  the  archives  of  such  an  old  institution  as  that  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  whose  treasures  run  to  the 
beginnings  of  Puritan  colonization,  the  student  cannot  fail  to 
find  the  evidence  that  a  state  historical  society  is  a  Book  of 
Judgment  wherein  is  made  up  the  record  of  a  people  and  its 
leaders;  and  so  as  time  unfolds  shall  be  the  collections  of  this 
society,  the  depository  of  the  material  that  shall  preserve  the 
memory  of  this  people.  Each  section  of  this  widely  extended 
and  varied  nation  has  its  own  peculiar  past,  its  special  form 
of  society,  its  traits  and  its  leaders.  It  were  a  pity  if  any 
section  left  its  annals  solely  to  the  collectors  of  a  remote  re- 
gion, and  it  were  a  pity  if  its  collections  were  not  transformed 
into  printed  documents  and  monographic  studies  which  can  go 
to  the  libraries  of  all  parts  of  the  union  and  thus  enable  the 
student  to  see  the  nation  as  a  whole  in  its  past  as  well  as  in 
its  present. 

This  society  finds  its  special  field  of  activity  in  a  great  state 
of  the  Middle  West,  so  new,  as  history  reckons  time,  that  its 
annals  are  still  predominantly  those  of  the  pioneers,  but  so 
rapidly  growing  that  already  the  era  of  the  pioneers  is  one  that 
is  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  past,  capable  of  being  handled 
objectively,  seen  in  a  perspective  that  is  not  possible  to  the 
observer  of  present  conditions. 

Because  of  these  facts  I  have  taken  as  the  special  theme  of 
this  address  "Middle  Western  Pioneer  Democracy,"  which  I 
would  sketch  in  some  of  its  outstanding  aspects  in  the  large, 
and  chiefly  in  the  generation  before  the  Civil  War,  for  it  was 
from  the  pioneers  of  that  period  that  the  later  colonizers  to 


398  FREDERICK  J.  TURNER  AUG. 

the  newer  parts  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  derived  many  of 
their  traits  and  drew  a  large  proportion  of  their  ranks. 

The  North  Central  states  as  a  whole  occupy  a  region  com- 
parable to  all  of  Central  Europe.  Of  these  states,  a  large 
part  of  the  Old  Northwest,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan, 
and  Wisconsin,  and  their  sisters  beyond  the  Mississippi,  Mis- 
souri, Iowa,  and  Minnesota  were  still,  in  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  home  of  an  essentially  pioneer  society. 
Within  the  lifetime  of  many  living  men,  Wisconsin  was  called 
the  "Far  West,"  and  Minnesota  was  a  land  of  the  Indian  and 
the  fur-trader,  a  wilderness  of  forest  and  prairie  beyond  the 
"edge  of  cultivation."  That  portion  of  this  great  region  which 
was  still  in  the  pioneering  period  of  settlement  by  1850  was 
alone  about  as  extensive  as  the  old  thirteen  states,  or  Germany 
and  Austria-Hungary  combined.  The  region  was  a  huge  geo- 
graphic mould  for  a  new  society,  modeled  by  nature  on  the 
scale  of  the  Great  Lakes,  the  Ohio  Valley,  the  upper  Missis- 
sippi and  the  Missouri.  Simple  and  majestic  in  its  vast  out- 
lines it  was  graven  into  a  variety  that  in  its  details  also  had  a 
largeness  of  design.  From  the  Great  Lakes  extended  the 
massive  glacial  sheet  which  covered  that  mighty  basin  and 
laid  down  treasures  of  soil.  Vast  forests  of  pine  shrouded  its 
upper  zone,  breaking  into  hardwood  and  oak  openings  as  they 
neared  the  ocean-like  expanses  of  the  prairies.  Forests  again 
along  the  Ohio  Valley,  and  beyond  lay  the  levels  of  the  Great 
Plains.  Within  the  earth  were  unexploited  treasures  of  coal 
and  lead  and  iron  in  such  form  and  quantity  as  were  to  revolu- 
tionize the  industrial  processes  of  the  world.  But  nature's 
revelations  are  progressive,  and  it  was  rather  the  marvelous 
adaptation  of  the  soil  to  the  raising  of  corn  and  wheat  that 
drew  the  first  pioneers  to  this  land  of  promise  and  made  a 
new  era  of  colonization.  In  the  unity  with  variety  of  this 
pioneer  empire  and  in  its  broad  levels  we  have  a  promise  of 
its  society. 


1920    MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY    399 

First  had  come  the  children  of  the  interior  of  the  South, 
and  with  ax  and  rifle  in  hand  had  cut  their  clearings  in  the 
forest,  raised  their  log  cabins,  fought  the  Indians,  and  by  1830 
had  pushed  their  way  to  the  very  edge  of  the  prairies  along 
the  Ohio  and  Missouri  valleys,  leaving  unoccupied  most  of 
the  basin  of  the  Great  Lakes. 

These  slashers  of  the  forest,  these  self-sufficing  pioneers, 
raising  the  corn  and  livestock  for  their  own  need,  living  scat- 
tered and  apart,  had  at  first  small  interest  in  town  life  or  in 
markets.  They  were  individualists,  to  whom  government  was 
a  necessary  evil,  to  be  held  to  its  narrowest  bounds  in  order 
that  the  pioneer  might  do  his  work  with  the  minimum  of 
restraint.  They  were  passionately  devoted  to  the  ideal  ot 
equality,  but  it  was  an  ideal  which  assumed  that  under  free 
conditions  in  the  midst  of  unlimited  resources,  the  homogene- 
ous society  of  the  pioneers  must  result  in  equality.  What 
they  objected  to  was  arbitrary  obstacles,  artificial  limitations 
upon  the  freedom  of  each  member  of  this  frontier  folk  to 
work  out  his  own  career  without  fear  or  favor.  What  they 
instinctively  opposed  was  the  crystallization  of  differences,  the 
monopolization  of  opportunity  and  the  fixing  of  that  monopoly 
by  government  or  by  social  customs.  The  road  must  be  open. 
The  game  must  be  played  according  to  the  rules.  There  must 
be  no  artificial  stifling  of  equality  of  opportunity,  no  closed 
doors  to  the  able,  no  stopping  the  game  before  it  was  played 
to  the  end.  More  than  that,  there  was  an  unformulated,  per- 
haps, but  very  real  feeling,  that  mere  success  in  the  game,  by 
which  the  abler  men  were  able  to  achieve  preeminence,  gave 
to  the  successful  ones  no  right  to  look  down  upon  their  neigh- 
bors, no  vested  title  to  assert  superiority  as  a  matter  of  pride 
and  to  the  diminution  of  the  equal  right  and  dignity  of  the 
less  successful. 

If  this  democracy  of  southern  pioneers,  this  Jacksonian 
democracy,  was,  as  its  socialist  critics  have  called  it,  in  reality 
a  democracy  of  "expectant  capitalists,"  it  was  not  one  which 
expected  or  acknowledged  on  the  part  of  the  successful  ones 


400  FREDERICK  J.  TURNER  AUG. 

the  right  to  harden  their  triumphs  into  the  rule  of  a  privileged 
class.  In  short,  if  it  is  indeed  true  that  the  backwoods  democ- 
racy was  based  upon  equality  of  opportunity  it  is  also  true 
that  it  resented  the  conception  that  opportunity  under  com- 
petition should  result  in  hopeless  inequality  or  rule  of  class. 
Ever  a  new  clearing  must  be  possible.  And  because  the 
wilderness  seemed  so  unending,  the  menace  to  the  enjoyment 
of  this  ideal  seemed  rather  to  be  feared  from  government, 
within  or  without,  than  from  the  operations  of  internal  evolu- 
tion. 

From  the  first,  it  became  evident  that  these  men  had  means 
of  supplementing  their  individual  activity  by  informal  com- 
binations. One  of  the  things  that  impressed  all  early  trav- 
elers in  the  United  States  was  the  capacity  for  extralegal, 
voluntary  association.  This  was  natural  enough.  In  all 
America  we  can  study  the  process  by  which  in  a  new  land 
social  customs  form  and  crystallize  into  law.  We  can  even 
see  how  the  personal  leader  becomes  the  governmental  official. 
This  power  of  the  pioneers  to  join  together  for  a  common  end 
without  the  intervention  of  governmental  institutions  was  one 
of  their  marked  characteristics.  The  logrolling,  the  house 
raising,  the  husking  bee,  the  apple  paring,  the  camp  meeting, 
and  the  association  of  squatters  whereby  they  protected  them- 
selves against  the  speculators  in  securing  title  to  their  clearings 
on  the  public  domain,  are  a  few  of  the  indications  of  this 
attitude.  It  is  well  to  emphasize  this  American  trait,  because 
in  a  modified  way  it  has  come  to  be  one  of  the  most  character- 
istic and  important  features  of  the  United  States  of  today. 
America  does  through  informal  association  and  understand- 
ings on  the  part  of  the  people  many  of  the  things  which  in  the 
Old  World  are  and  can  be  done  only  by  governmental  inter- 
vention and  compulsion. 

The  actions  of  these  associations  had  an  authority  akin  to 
that  of  law.  They  were  usually  not  so  much  evidences  of  a 
disrespect  for  law  and  order  as  the  only  means  by  which  real 
law  and  order  were  possible  in  a  region  where  settlement  and 


1920    MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY    401 

society  had  gone  in  advance  of  the  institutions  and  instru- 
mentalities of  organized  society. 

Because  of  these  elements  of  individualistic  competition  and 
the  power  of  spontaneous  association,  the  backwoodsmen  were 
responsive  to  leadership.  They  knew  that  under  the  free 
opportunities  of  his  life  the  abler  man  would  reveal  himself 
and  show  them  the  way.  By  free  choice  and  not  by  compul- 
sion, by  spontaneous  impulse,  and  not  by  the  domination  of  a 
caste,  they  rallied  around  a  cause,  they  supported  an  issue. 
They  yielded  to  the  principle  of  government  by  agreement, 
and  they  hated  the  doctrine  of  autocracy  even  before  it  gained 
a  name.  They  looked  forward  to  the  extension  of  their 
American  principles  to  the  Old  World  and  their  keenest  ap- 
prehensions came  from  the  possibility  of  the  extension  of  the 
Old  World's  system  of  arbitrary  rule,  its  class  wars  and  rival- 
ries and  interventions  to  the  destruction  of  the  free  states  and 
democratic  institutions  which  they  were  building  in  the  forests 
of  America.  They  were  of  a  stock  which  sought  new  trails 
and  were  ready  to  follow  where  the  trail  led,  innovators  in 
society  as  well  as  finders  of  new  lands. 

If  we  add  to  these  aspects  of  early  backwoods  democracy, 
its  spiritual  qualities,  we  shall  more  easily  understand  them. 
These  men  were  emotional.  As  they  wrested  their  clearings 
from  the  woods  and  from  the  savages  who  surrounded  them, 
as  they  expanded  these  clearings  and  saw  the  beginnings  of 
commonwealths  where  only  little  communities  had  been,  and 
as  they  saw  these  commonwealths  touch  hands  with  each  other 
along  the  great  course  of  the  Mississippi  River,  they  became 
enthusiastically  optimistic  and  confident  of  the  continued  ex- 
pansion of  this  democracy.  They  had  faith  in  themselves  and 
their  destiny.  And  that  optimistic  faith  was  responsible  both 
for  their  confidence  in  their  own  ability  to  rule  and  for  the 
passion  for  expansion.  They  looked  to  the  future.  "Others 
appeal  to  history :  an  American  appeals  to  prophecy ;  and  with 
Malthus  in  one  hand  and  a  map  of  the  back  country  in  the 
other,  he  boldly  defies  us  to  a  comparison  with  America  as  she 


402  FREDERICK  J.  TURNER  AUG. 

is  to  be,"  said  a  London  periodical  in  1821.  Just  because, 
perhaps,  of  the  usual  isolation  of  their  lives,  when  they  came 
together  in  associations  whether  of  the  camp  meeting  or  of  the 
political  gathering,  they  felt  the  influence  of  a  common  emo- 
tion and  enthusiasm.  Mr.  Bryce  has  aptly  said  that  the 
Southern  upland  folk  have  a  "high  religious  voltage." 
Whether  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterian,  Baptist,  or  Methodist, 
these  people  saturated  their  religion  and  their  politics  with 
feeling.  Both  the  stump  and  the  pulpit  were  centers  of  energy, 
electric  cells  capable  of  starting  widespreading  fires.  They 
felt  both  their  religion  and  their  democracy,  and  were  ready 
to  fight  for  them. 

This  democracy  was  one  that  involved  a  real  feeling  of 
social  comradeship  among  its  widespread  members.  Justice 
Catron  who  came  from  Arkansas  to  the  Supreme  Court  in 
the  presidency  of  Jackson  said:  "The  people  of  New  Orleans 
and  St.  Louis  are  next  neighbors — if  we  desire  to  know  a 
man  in  any  quarter  of  the  union  we  inquire  of  our  next  neigh- 
bor who  but  the  other  day  lived  by  him."  Exaggerated  as  this 
is,  it  nevertheless  had  a  surprising  measure  of  truth  for  the 
Middle  West  as  well.  For  the  Mississippi  River  was  the  great 
highway  down  which  groups  of  pioneers  like  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, on  their  rafts  and  flat  boats,  brought  the  little  neighbor- 
hood surplus.  After  the  steamboat  came  to  the  western  waters 
the  voyages  up  and  down,  by  merchants  and  by  farmers  shift- 
ing their  homes,  brought  people  into  contact  with  each  other 
over  wide  areas.  This  enlarged  neighborhood  democracy  was 
not  determined  by  a  reluctant  admission  that  under  the  law 
one  man  was  as  good  as  another;  it  was  based  upon  "good 
fellowship,"  sympathy,  and  understanding. 

By  1830  the  southern  inundation  ebbed  and  a  different  tide 
flowed  in  from  the  Northeast  by  way  of  the  Erie  Canal  and 
steam  navigation  on  the  Great  Lakes  to  occupy  the  zone  un- 
reached  by  southern  settlement.  This  new  tide  spread  along 
the  margins  of  the  Great  Lakes,  found  the  oak  openings  and 
small  prairie  islands  of  southern  Michigan  and  Wisconsin, 


1920    MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY    403 

followed  the  fertile  forested  ribbons  along  the  river  courses 
far  into  the  prairie  lands,  and  by  the  end  of  the  forties  began 
to  venture  into  the  margin  of  the  open  prairie. 

In  1830  the  Middle  West  contained  a  little  over  one  and  a 
half  million  people;  in  1840,  over  three  and  a  third  million; 
in  1850,  nearly  five  and  a  half  million.  Although  in  1830  the 
North  Atlantic  states  numbered  between  three  and  four  times 
as  many  people  as  the  Middle  West,  yet  in  those  two  decades 
the  Middle  West  made  an  actual  gain  of  several  hundred 
thousand  more  than  did  the  old  section.  Counties  in  the 
newer  states  rose  from  a  few  hundred  to  ten  or  fifteen  thou- 
sand people  in  the  space  of  less  than  five  years.  Suddenly, 
with  astonishing  rapidity  and  volume,  a  new  people  was  form- 
ing with  varied  elements,  ideals,  and  institutions  drawn  from 
all  over  this  nation  and  from  Europe.  They  were  confronted 
with  the  problem  of  adjusting  different  stocks,  varied  social 
customs  and  habits,  to  their  new  home. 

In  comparison  with  the  Ohio  Valley,  the  peculiarity  of  the 
occupation  of  the  northern  zone  of  the  Middle  West  lay  in 
the  fact  that  the  native  element  was  predominantly  from  the 
older  settlements  of  the  Middle  West  itself  and  from  New 
York  and  New  England.  But  it  was  from  the  central  and 
western  counties  of  New  York  and  from  the  western  and 
northern  parts  of  New  England,  the  rural  regions  of  declin- 
ing agricultural  prosperity,  that  the  bulk  of  this  element  came. 
That  is,  it  was  a  migration  of  Yankees,  in  different  degrees 
removed  from  the  original  Purifan  stock,  according  as  the 
original  stock  had  been  modified  by  settlement  in  (1)  New 
England's  back  country,  (2)  New  York,  or  (3)  the  older 
Middle  West  itself.  Each  of  these  modified  Puritan  areas 
contributed  its  own  characteristics. 

Thus  the  influence  of  the  Middle  West  stretched  into  the 
Northeast  and  attracted  a  farming  population  already  suffer- 
ing from  western  competition.  The  advantages  of  abundant, 
fertile,  and  cheap  land,  the  richer  agricultural  returns,  and 


404  FREDERICK  J.  TURNER  AUG. 

especially  the  opportunities  for  youth  to  rise  in  all  the  trades 
and  professions  gave  strength  to  this  competition. 

This  Yankee  stock  carried  with  it  a  habit  of  the  community 
life,  in  contrast  with  the  individualistic  democracy  of  the 
southern  element.  The  colonizing  land  companies,  the  town, 
the  school,  the  church,  the  feeling  of  local  unity,  furnished 
the  evidences  of  this  instinct  for  communities.  This  instinct 
was  accompanied  by  the  feeling  for  industrial  development. 
It  was  accompanied  by  the  creation  of  cities,  the  production 
of  a  surplus  for  market,  the  reaching  out  to  connections  with 
the  trading  centers  of  the  East,  the  evolution  of  a  more  com- 
plex and  at  the  same  time  a  more  integrated  industrial  society 
than  that  of  the  southern  pioneer. 

But  the  Yankees  did  not  carry  with  them  the  unmodified 
New  England  institutions  and  traits.  They  came  from  the 
people  who  were  less  satisfied  with  the  old  order  than  were 
their  neighbors  in  the  East.  They  were  the  young  men  with 
initiative,  with  discontent;  and  the  New  York  element  espe- 
cially was  affected  by  the  radicalism  of  Locofoco  Democracy, 
which  was  in  itself  a  protest  against  the  established  order. 

The  winds  of  the  prairies  swept  away  almost  at  once  a  mass 
of  old  habits  and  prepossessions.  Said  one  of  these  pioneers 
in  a  letter  to  friends  in  the  East: 

If  you  value  ease  more  than  money  or  prosperity,  don't  come. 
.  .  .  Hands  are  too  few  for  the  work,  houses  for  the  inhabitants, 
and  days  for  the  day's  work  to  be  done.  .  .  .  Next,  if  you  can't 
stand  seeing  your  old  New*England  ideas,  ways  of  doing,  and 
living  and  in  fact,  all  of  the  good  old  Yankee  fashions  knocked 
out  of  shape  and  altered,  or  thrown  by  as  unsuited  to  the  climate, 
don't  be  caught  out  here.  But  if  you  can  bear  grief  with  a  smile, 
can  put  up  with  a  scale  of  accommodations  ranging  from  the  soft 
side  of  a  plank  before  the  fire  (and  perhaps  three  in  a  bed  at 
that)  down  through  the  middling  and  inferior  grades;  if  you 
are  never  at  a  loss  for  ways  to  do  the  most  unpracticable  things 
without  tools ;  if  you  can  do  all  this  and  some  more  come  on. 
.  .  .  It  is  a  universal  rule  here  to  help  one  another,  each  one 
keeping  an  eye  single  to  his  own  interest. 


1920    MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY    405 

These  pioneers  knew  that  they  were  leaving  many  dear  as- 
sociations of  the  old  home,  giving  up  many  of  the  comforts 
of  life,  sacrificing  things  which  those  who  remained  thought 
too  vital  to  civilization  to  be  left.  But  they  were  not  mere 
materialists  ready  to  surrender  all  that  life  is  worth  for  im- 
mediate gain.  They  were  idealists  themselves,  sacrificing  the 
ease  of  the  immediate  future  for  the  welfare  of  their  children, 
and  convinced  of  the  possibility  of  helping  to  bring  about  a 
better  social  order  and  a  freer  life.  They  were  social  idealists. 
But  they  based  their  ideals  on  trust  in  the  common  man  and 
their  readiness  to  make  adjustments,  not  on  the  rule  of  a 
benevolent  despot  or  a  controlling  class. 

The  attraction  of  this  new  home  reached  also  into  the  Old 
World  and  gave  new  hopes  and  new  impulses  to  the  people  of 
Germany,  of  England,  of  Ireland,  and  of  Scandinavia.  Both 
economic  influences  and  revolutionary  discontent  promoted 
German  migration  at  this  time;  economic  causes  brought  the 
larger  volume,  but  the  quest  for  liberty  brought  the  leaders, 
many  of  whom  were  German  political  exiles.  While  the  latter 
urged,  with  varying,  degrees  of  emphasis,  that  their  own  con- 
tribution should  be  preserved  in  their  new  surroundings,  and 
a  few  visionaries  even  talked  of  a  German  state  in  the  federal 
system,  what  was  noteworthy  was  the  adjustment  of  the  im- 
migrants of  the  thirties  and  forties  to  middle  western  condi- 
tions, the  response  to  the  opportunity  to  create  a  new  type  of 
society  in  which  all  gave  and  all  received  and  no  element  re- 
mained isolated.  Society  was  plastic.  In  the  midst  of  more 
or  less  antagonism  between  "bowie  knife  Southerners,"  "cow- 
milking  Yankee  Puritans,"  "beer-drinking  Germans,"  and 
"wild  Irishmen,"  a  process  of  mutual  education,  a  giving  and 
taking,  was  at  work.  In  the  outcome,  in  spite  of  slowness  of 
assimilation  where  different  groups  were  compact  and  isolated 
from  the  others,  and  a  certain  persistence  of  inherited  morale, 
there  was  the  creation  of  a  new  type,  which  was  neither  the 
sum  of  all  its  elements  nor  a  complete  fusion  in  a  melting  pot. 


406  FREDERICK  J.  TURNER  AUG. 

The  people  of  the  Middle  West  were  American  pioneers,  not 
outlying  fragments  of  New  England  or  Germany  or  Norway. 

The  Germans  were  most  strongly  represented  in  the  Mis- 
souri Valley,  in  St.  Louis,  in  Illinois  opposite  that  city,  and  in 
the  lake  shore  counties  of  eastern  Wisconsin  north  from  Mil- 
waukee. In  Cincinnati  and  Cleveland  there  were  many  Ger- 
mans, while  in  nearly  half  the  counties  of  Ohio  the  German 
immigrants  and  the  Pennsylvania  Germans  held  nearly  or 
quite  a  balance  of  political  power.  The  Irish  came  primarily 
as  workers  on  turnpikes,  canals,  and  railroads,  and  tended  to 
remain  along  such  lines,  or  to  gather  in  the  growing  cities. 
The  Scandinavians,  of  whom  the  largest  proportion  were  Nor- 
wegians, founded  their  colonies  in  northern  Illinois  and  in 
southern  Wisconsin  about  the  Fox  and  the  headwaters  of  the 
Rock  River,  whence  in  later  years  they  spread  into  Iowa, 
Minnesota,  and  North  Dakota. 

By  1850  about  one-sixth  of  the  people  of  the  Middle  West 
were  of  North-Atlantic  birth,  about  one-eighth  of  southern 
birth,  and  a  like  fraction  of  foreign  birth,  of  whom  the  Ger- 
mans were  twice  as  numerous  as  the  Irish,  and  the  Scandi- 
navians only  slightly  more  numerous  than  the  Welsh  and 
fewer  than  the  Scotch.  There  were  only  a  dozen  Scandi- 
navians in  Minnesota.  The  natives  of  the  British  Isles,  to- 
gether with  the  natives  of  British  North  America  in  the  Mid- 
dle West,  numbered  nearly  as  many  as  the  natives  of  German 
lands.  But  in  1850  almost  three-fifths  of  the  population  were 
natives  of  the  Middle  West  itself,  and  over  a  third  of  the 
population  lived  in  Ohio.  The  cities  were  especially  a  mix- 
ture of  peoples.  In  the  five  larger  cities  of  the  section  natives 
and  foreigners  were  nearly  balanced.  In  Chicago  the  Irish, 
Germans,  and  natives  of  the  North  Atlantic  states  about 
equalled  each  other.  But  in  all  the  other  cities,  the  Germans 
exceeded  the  Irish  in  varying  proportions.  There  were  nearly 
three  to  one  in  Milwaukee. 

It  is  not  merely  that  the  section  was  growing  rapidly  and 
was  made  up  of  various  stocks  with  many  different  cultures, 


1920    MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY    407 

sectional  and  European ;  what  is  more  significant  is  that  these 
elements  did  not  remain  as  separate  strata  underneath  an 
established  ruling  order,  as  was  the  case  particularly  in  New 
England.  All  were  accepted  as  intermingling  components  of 
a  forming  society,  plastic  and  absorptive.  This  characteristic 
of  the  section  as  a  "good  mixer"  became  fixed  before  the 
large  immigrations  of  the  eighties.  The  foundations  of  the 
section  were  laid  firmly  in  a  period  when  the  foreign  elements 
were  particularly  free  and  eager  to  contribute  to  a  new  society 
and  to  receive  an  impress  from  the  country  which  offered  them 
a  liberty  denied  abroad.  Significant  as  is  this  fact,  and  influ- 
ential in  the  solution  of  America's  present  problems,  it  is  no 
more  important  than  the  fact  that  in  the  decade  before  the 
Civil  War  the  southern  element  in  the  Middle  West  had  also 
had  nearly  two  generations  of  direct  association  with  the 
northern,  and  had  finally  been  engulfed  in  a  tide  of  north- 
eastern and  Old  World  settlers. 

In  this  society  of  pioneers  men  learned  to  drop  their  old 
national  animosities.  One  of  the  immigrant  guides  of  the 
fifties  urged  the  newcomers  to  abandon  their  racial  animosi- 
ties. "The  American  laughs  at  these  steerage  quarrels,"  said 
the  author. 

Thus  the  Middle  West  was  teaching  the  lesson  of  national 
cross-fertilization  instead  of  national  enmities,  the  possibility 
of  a  newer  and  richer  civilization  attained,  not  by  preserving 
unmodified  or  isolated  the  old  component  elements,  but  by 
breaking  down  the  line  fences,  by  merging  the  individual  life 
in  the  common  product — a  new  product,  which  held  the  prom- 
ise of  world  brotherhood.  If  the  pioneers  divided  their 
allegiance  between  various  parties,  Whig,  Democrat,  Free 
Soil,  or  Republican,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  western  Whig 
was  like  the  eastern  Whig.  There  was  an  infiltration  of  a 
western  quality  into  all  of  these.  The  western  Whig  sup- 
ported Harrison  even  more  because  he  was  a  pioneer  than 
because  he  was  a  Whig.  He  saw  in  him  a  legitimate  successor 
of  Andrew  Jackson.  The  campaign  of  1840  was  a  middle 


408  FREDERICK  J.  TURNER  AUG. 

western  camp  meeting  on  a  huge  scale.  The  log  cabins,  the 
cider,  and  the  coonskins  were  the  symbols  of  the  triumph  of 
middle  western  ideas,  and  were  carried  with  misgivings  by 
the  merchants,  the  bankers,  and  the  manufacturers  of  the  East. 
In  like  fashion,  the  middle  western  wing  of  the  Democratic 
party  was  as  different  from  the  southern  wing,  wherein  lay  its 
strength,  as  Douglas  was  from  Calhoun.  It  had  little  in  com- 
mon with  the  slaveholding  classes  of  the  South,  even  though 
it  felt  the  kinship  "of  the  pioneer  with  the  people  of  the 
southern  upland  stock  from  which  so  many  westerners  were 
descended. 

In  the  later  forties  and  early  fifties  most  of  the  middle 
western  states  made  constitutions.  The  debates  in  their  con- 
ventions and  the  results  embodied  in  the  constitutions  them- 
selves tell  the  story  of  their  political  ideals.  Of  course,  they 
based  the  franchise  on  the  principle  of  manhood  suffrage. 
But  they  also  provided  for  an  elective  judiciary,  for  restric- 
tions on  the  borrowing  power  of  the  state  lest  it  fall  under 
the  control  of  what  they  feared  as  the  money  power,  and  sev- 
eral of  them  either  provided  for  the  extinguishment  of  banks 
of  issue  or  rigidly  restrained  them.  Some  of  them  exempted 
the  homestead  from  forced  sale  for  debt;  married  women's 
legal  rights  were  prominent  topics  in  the  debates  of  the  con- 
ventions; and  Wisconsin  led  off  by  permitting  the  alien  to 
vote  after  a  year's  residence.  The  newcomer  was  welcomed 
to  the  freedom  and  to  the  obligations  of  American  citizenship. 

Although  this  pioneer  society  was  preponderantly  an  agri- 
cultural society  it  was  rapidly  learning  that  agriculture  alone 
was  not  sufficient  for  its  life.  It  was  developing  manufac- 
tures, trade,  mining,  the  professions,  and  was  becoming  con- 
scious that  in  a  progressive  modern  state  it  was  possible  to 
pass  from  one  industry  to  another  and  that  all  were  bound  by 
common  ties.  But  it  is  significant  that  in  the  census  of  1850, 
Ohio,  out  of  a  population  of  two  millions,  reported  only  a 
thousand  servants,  Iowa  only  ten  in  two  hundred  thousand, 
and  Minnesota  fifteen  in  its  six  thousand. 


1920    MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY    409 

In  the  intellectual  life  of  this  new  democracy  there  was 
already  the  promise  of  original  contributions  even  in  the  midst 
of  the  engrossing  toil  and  hard  life  of  the  pioneer. 

The  country  editor  was  a  leader  of  his  people,  not  a  patent- 
insides  recorder  of  social  functions  but  a  vigorous  and  inde- 
pendent thinker  and  writer.  The  subscribers  to  the  newspaper 
published  in  the  section  were  higher  in  proportion  to  popula- 
tion than  in  the  state  of  New  York  and  not  greatly  inferior  to 
those  of  New  England,  although  such  eastern  papers  as  the 
New  York  Tribune  had  an  extensive  circulation  throughout 
the  Middle  West.  The  agricultural  press  presupposed  in  its 
articles  and  contributions  a  level  of  general  intelligence  and 
interest  above  that  of  the  later  farmers  of  the  section,  at  least 
before  the  present  day. 

Farmer  boys  walked  behind  the  plow  with  book  in  hand 
and  sometimes  forgot  to  turn  at  the  end  of  the  furrow ;  boys 
like  the  young  Howells,  who  "limped  barefoot  by  his  father's 
side  with  his  eyes  on  the  cow  and  his  mind  on  Cervantes  and 
Shakespeare." 

Periodicals  flourished  and  faded  like  the  prairie  flowers. 
Some  of  Emerson's  best  poems  first  appeared  in  one  of  these 
magazines,  published  in  the  Ohio  Valley.  But  for  the  most 
part  the  literature  of  the  region  and  the  period  was  imitative 
or  reflective  of  the  common  things  in  a  not  uncommon  way. 
It  was  to  its  children  that  the  Middle  West  had  to  look  for  an 
expression  of  its  life  and  its  ideals  rather  than  to  the  busy 
pioneer  who  was  breaking  a  prairie  farm  or  building  up  a  new 
community.  Illiteracy  was  least  among  the  Yankee  pioneers 
and  highest  among  the  southern  element. 

The  influence  of  New  England  men  was  strong  in  the  Yan- 
kee regions  of  the  Middle  West.  Home  missionaries  and 
representatives  of  societies  for  the  promotion  of  education  in 
the  West,  both  in  the  common  schools  and  the  denominational 
colleges,  scattered  themselves  throughout  the  region  and  left  a 
deep  impress  in  all  these  states.  The  conception  was  firmly 
fixed  in  the  thirties  and  forties  that  the  West  was  the  coming 


410  FREDERICK  J.  TURNER  AUG. 

power  in  the  Union,  that  the  fate  of  civilization  was  in  its 
hands,  and,  therefore,  rival  sects  and  rival  sections  strove  to 
influence  it  to  their  own  types.  But  the  Middle  West  shaped 
all  these  educational  contributions  according  to  its  own  needs 
and  ideals. 

The  state  universities  were  for  the  most  part  the  results 
of  agitation  and  proposals  of  men  of  New  England  origin; 
but  they  became  characteristic  products  of  middle  western 
society,  with  the  community  as  a  whole  rather  than  wealthy 
benefactors  supporting  them  and,  in  the  end,  determining  their 
directions  in  accord  with  popular  ideals.  They  reached  down 
more  deeply  into  the  ranks  of  the  common  people  than  did  the 
New  England  or  middle  state  colleges;  they  laid  more  em- 
phasis upon  the  obviously  useful  and  became  coeducational  at 
an  early  date. 

Challenging  the  vast  spaces  of  the  West,  struck  by  the 
rapidity  with  which  a  new  society  was  unfolding  under  their 
gaze,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  pioneers  dealt  in  the  superlative 
and,,saw  their  destiny  with  optimistic  eyes.  The  meadow  lot 
of  the  small  intervale  had  become  the  prairie  stretching  far- 
ther than  their  gaze  could  reach. 

All  was  motion  and  change.  A  restlessness  was  universal. 
Men  moved,  in  their  single  lives,  from  Vermont  to  New  York, 
from  New  York  to  Ohio,  from  Ohio  to  Wisconsin,  from  Wis- 
consin to  California,  and  then  longed  for  the  Hawaiian 
Islands.  \¥hen  the  bark  started  from  their  fence  rails,  they 
felt  the  call  to  change.  They  were  conscious  of  the  mobility 
of  their  society  and  gloried  in  it.  They  broke  with  the  past 
and  thought  to  create  something  finer,  more  fitting  for  human- 
ity, more  beneficial  for  the  average  man  than  the  world  had 
ever  seen. 

"With  the  Past  we  have  literally  nothing  to  do,"  said  B. 
Gratz  Brown  in  a  Missouri  Fourth  of  July  oration  in  1850, 
"save  to  dream  of  it.  Its  lessons  are  lost  and  its  tongue  is 
silent.  We  are  ourselves  at  the  head  and  front  of  all  political 
experience.  Precedents  have  lost  their  virtue  and  all  their 


1920    MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY    411 

authority  is  gone.  .  .  .  Experience  .  .  .  can  profit  us 
only  to  guard  from  antequated  delusions." 

"The  yoke  of  opinion,"  wrote  Channing  to  a  western  friend, 
speaking  of  New  England,  "is  a  heavy  one,  often  crushing 
individuality  of  judgment  and  action,"  and  he  added  that  the 
habits,  rules,  and  criticisms  under  which  he  had  grown  up  had 
not  left  him  the  freedom  and  courage  which  are  needed  in  the 
style  of  address  best  suited  to  the  western  people.  Channing 
no  doubt  unduly  stressed  the  freedom  of  the  West  in  this 
respect.  The  frontier  had  its  own  conventions  and  prejudices, 
and  New  England  was  breaking  its  own  cake  of  custom  and 
proclaiming  a  new  liberty  at  the  very  time  he  wrote.  But 
there  was  truth  in  the  eastern  thought  of  the  West  as  a  land 
of  intellectual  toleration,  one  which  questioned  the  old  order 
of  things  and  made  innovation  its  very  creed. 

The  West  laid  emphasis  upon  the  practical  and  demanded 
that  ideals  should  be  put  to  work  for  useful  ends ;  ideals  were 
tested  by  their  direct  contributions  to  the  betterment  of  the 
average  man,  rather  than  by  the  production  of  the  man  of 
exceptional  genius  and  distinction. 

For,  in  fine,  this  was  the  goal  of  the  Middle  West:  the  wel- 
fare of  the  average  man ;  not  only  the  man  of  the  South  or  of 
the  East,  the  Yankee  or  the  Irishman  or  the  German,  but  all 
men  in  one  common  fellowship.  This  was  the  hope  of  their 
youth,  of  that  youth  when  Abraham  Lincoln  rose  from  rail- 
splitter  to  country  lawyer,  from  Illinois  legislator  to  congress- 
man, and  from  congressman  to  president. 

His  was  no  lonely  mountain  peak  of  mind, 

Thrusting  to  thin  air  o'er  our  cloudy  bars, 

A  sea  mark  now,  now  lost  in  vapor  blind; 

Broad  prairie  rather,  genial,  level  lined, 

Fruitful  and  friendly  for  all  human  kind, 

Yet  also  nigh  to  heaven  and  loved  of  loftiest  stars 

Nothing  of  Europe  here, 

Or,  then,  of  Europe  fronting  mornward  still, 

Ere  any  names  of  serf  and  peer 


412  FREDERICK  J.  TURNER  AUG. 

Could  Nature's  equal  scheme  deface 
And  thwart  her  genial  will ; 

New  birth  of  our  new  soil,  the  first  American. 

It  is  not  strange  that  in  all  this  flux  and  freedom  and  nov- 
elty and  vast  spaces,  the  pioneers  did  not  sufficiently  consider 
the  need  of  disciplined  devotion  to  the  government  which  they 
themselves  created  and  operated.  But  the  name  of  Lincoln 
and  the  response  of  the  pioneers  to  the  duties  of  the  Civil  War, 
to  the  sacrifices  and  the  restraints  on  freedom  which  it  en- 
tailed under  his  presidency,  reminds  us  that  they  knew  how  to 
take  part  in  a  common  cause,  even  while  they  knew  that  war's 
conditions  were  destructive  of  many  of  the  things  for  which 
they  worked. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  governmental  discipline:  that  which 
proceeds  from  free  choice  in  the  conviction  that  restraint  of 
individual  or  class  interests  is  necessary  for  the  common  good, 
and  that  which  is  imposed  by  a  dominant  class  upon  a  sub- 
jected and  helpless  people.  The  latter  is  Prussian  discipline, 
the  discipline  of  a  harsh,  machine-like,  logical  organization, 
based  on  the  rule  of  a  military  autocracy.  It  assumes  that  if 
you  do  not  crush  your  opponent  first,  he  will  crush  you.  It  is 
the  discipline  of  a  nation  ruled  by  its  general  staff,  assuming 
war  as  the  normal  condition  of  peoples,  and  attempting  with 
remorseless  logic  to  extend  its  operations  to  the  destruction  of 
freedom  everywhere.  It  can  only  be  met  by  the  discipline  of 
a  people  who  use  their  own  government  for  worthy  ends,  who 
preserve  individuality  and  mobility  in  society  and  respect  the 
rights  of  others,  who  follow  the  dictates  of  humanity  and  fair 
play,  the  principles  of  give  and  take.  The  Prussian  discipline 
is  the  discipline  of  Thor,  the  war  god,  against  the  discipline  of 
the  white  Christ. 

Pioneer  democracy  has  had  to  learn  lessons  by  experience: 
the  lesson  that  government  on  principles  of  free  democracy 
can  accomplish  many  things  which  the  men  of  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century  did  not  realize  as  even  possible.  They 


1920    MIDDLE  WESTERN  PIONEER  DEMOCRACY    413 

have  had  to  sacrifice  something  of  their  passion  for  individual 
unrestraint;  they  have  had  to  learn  that  the  specially  trained 
man,  the  man  fitted  for  his  calling  by  education  and  experi- 
ence, whether  in  the  field  of  science  or  of  industry,  has  a  place 
in  government;  that  the  rule  of  the  people  is  effective  and 
enduring  only  as  it  incorporates  the  trained  specialist  into  the 
organization  of  that  government,  whether  as  umpire  between 
contending  interests  or  as  the  efficient  instrument  in  the  hands 
of  democracy.  Organized  democracy  after  the  era  of  free 
land  has  learned  not  only  that  popular  government  to  be  suc- 
cessful must  be  legitimately  the  choice  of  the  whole  people, 
not  only  that  the  offices  of  that  government  must  be  open  to 
all,  but  that  in  the  fierce  struggle  of  nations  in  the  field  of 
economic  competition  and  in  the  field  of  war  the  salvation  and 
perpetuity  of  the  Republic  depend  upon  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  the  specialization  of  the  organs  of  the  government,  the 
choice  of  the  fit  and  the  capable  for  office,  is  quite  as  impor- 
tant as  the  extension  of  popular  control.  When  we  lost  our 
free  lands  and  our  isolation  from  the  Old  World,  we  lost  our 
immunity  from  the  results  of  mistakes,  of  waste,  of  ineffi- 
ciency, and  of  inexperience  in  our  government. 

But  in  the  present  day  we  are  also  learning  another  lesson 
which  was  better  known  to  the  pioneers  than  to  their  imme- 
diate successors.  We  are  learning  that  the  distinction  arising 
from  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  commonwealth  is  a 
higher  distinction  than  mere  success  in  economic  competition. 
America  is  now  awarding  laurels  to  the  men  who  sacrifice 
their  triumphs  in  the  rivalry  of  business  in  order  to  give  their 
service  to  the  cause  of  a  liberty-loving  nation,  their  wealth  and 
their  genius  to  the  success  of  her  ideals.  That  craving  for 
distinction  which  once  drew  men  to  pile  up  wealth  and  exhibit 
power  over  the  industrial  processes  of  the  nation,  is  now  find- 
ing a  new  outlet  in  the  craving  for  distinction  that  comes  from 
service  to  the  Union,  in  satisfaction  in  the  use  of  great  talent 
for  the  good  of  the  Republic. 


414  FREDERICK  J.  TURNER  AUG. 

And  all  over  the  nation  in  voluntary  organizations  for  aid 
to  the  government  is  being  shown  the  pioneer  principle  of 
association  that  was  expressed  in  the  pioneers'  "raising."  It 
is  shown  in  the  Red  Cross,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the  Knights  of 
Columbus,  the  councils  and  boards  of  science,  commerce,  labor, 
agriculture;  and  in  all  the  countless  other  types,  from  the 
association  of  women,  who  in  their  kitchens  carry  out  the 
recommendations  of  the  food  director  and  revive  the  plain 
living  of  the  pioneer,  to  the  Boy  Scouts,  who  are  laying  the 
foundations  for  a  self-disciplined  and  virile  generation  worthy 
to  follow  the  trail  of  the  backwoodsmen.  It  is  an  inspiring 
prophesy  of  the  revival  of  the  old  pioneer  conception  of  the 
obligations  and  opportunities  of  neighborliness  broadening  to 
a  national  and  even  to  an  international  scope,  a  promise  of 
what  that  wise  and  lamented  philosopher,  Josiah  Royce,  called 
"the  beloved  community."  In  the  spirit  of  the  pioneer's  house 
raising  lies  the  salvation  of  the  Republic. 

This,  then,  is  the  heritage  of  pioneer  experience — a  pas- 
sionate belief  that  a  democracy  was  possible  which  should  leave 
the  individual  a  part  to  play  in  free  society  and  not  make  him 
a  cog  in  a  machine  operated  from  above;  which  trusted  in  the 
common  man,  in  his  tolerance,  his  ability  to  adjust  differences 
with  good  humor  and  to  work  out  an  American  type  from  the 
contributions  of  all  nations,  a  type  for  which  he  would  fight 
against  those  who  challenged  it  in  arms,  and  for  which  in  time 
of  war  he  would  make  sacrifices,  even  the  temporary  sacrifice  of 
his  individual  freedom,  lest  that  freedom  be  lost  forever. 

FREDERICK  J.  TURNER 

HARVARD  UNIVERSITY 
CAMBRIDGE,  MASSACHUSETTS 


EXERCISES  AT  THE  DEDICATION  OF  THE 
MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  BUILDING 

The  arrangements  for  the  dedication  of  the  building  erected 
by  the  state  of  Minnesota  for  the  use  of  the  Minnesota  His- 
torical Society  were  initiated  at  a  meeting  of  the  council  of 
the  society  on  December  10,  1917,  by  the  appointment  of  a 
special  committee  on  dedication.  This  committee  was  com- 
posed of  Messrs.  Charles  P.  Noyes,  chairman,  Everett  H. 
Bailey,  Solon  J.  Buck,  Frederic  A.  Fogg,  and  Frederick  G. 
Ingersoll,  who,  as  members  of  the  executive  committee  for  the 
triennium  1915-18,  had  had  charge  of  the  society's  interests 
in  connection  with  the  erection  of  the  building.  Since  the 
Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Association  was  to  hold  its  annual 
meeting  in  St.  Paul  on  May  9,  10,  and  11,  1918,  the  com- 
mittee decided  to  arrange  for  the  dedication  exercises  to  be 
held  on  Saturday,  May  11,  in  conjunction  with  that  meeting. 
The  date  selected  was  peculiarly  appropriate  as  it  was  the  six- 
tieth anniversary  of  the  admission  of  the  state  of  Minnesota 
to  the  Union. 

The  pioneer  associations,  hereditary  patriotic  societies,  and 
leading  educational  institutions  of  Minnesota  and  all  the  prom- 
inent historical  societies  of  the  country  were  invited  to  be  rep- 
resented by  delegates  at  the  dedication ;  and  special  invitations 
were  sent  to  a  number  of  citizens  and  relatives  of  citizens  who 
had  played  a  prominent  part  in  the  history  of  the  state  or  had 
rendered  special  services  to  the  society.  The  presence  of  many 
such  delegates  and  specially  invited  people  together  with 
that  of  the  members  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  As- 
sociation resulted  in  a  notable  gathering  of  distinguished  men 
and  women. 

The  sessions  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Associa- 
tion, most  of  which  were  held  in  the  Historical  Building, 
closed  with  a  luncheon  on  Saturday  noon;  and  the  first  ses- 


415 


416  DEDICATION  EXERCIS'ES  AUG. 

sion  of  the  dedicatory  exercises  began  at  three  o'clock  in  the 
reading  room,  the  tables  having  been  removed  and  a  platform 
erected  at  the  east  end.  This  room  was  selected  because  it  is 
the  largest  in  the  building,  but  it  was  filled  to  overflowing  in 
a  very  few  minutes  after  the  doors  were  opened.  The  ses- 
sion was  presided  over  by  Mr.  Charles  P.  Noyes,  president  of 
the  society  from  1915  to  1918  and  chairman  of  the  building 
and  dedication  committees.  He  opened  the  program  with  the 
following  remarks: 

The  date  for  this  celebration  of  the  opening  of  our  new 
building  seems  to  have  been  happily  chosen,  as  it  is  the  sixtieth 
anniversary  of  Minnesota's  admission  to  the  Union  as  a  state,  and 
it  coincides  with  the  meeting  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical 
Association,  whose  members  are  our  guests.  It  is  a  pleasure  to 
have  them  with  us  today,  and  also  to  have  many  state  and  local 
historical  societies,  the  Minnesota  Territorial  Pioneers,  and  other 
societies  and  institutions  represented  by  delegates. 

The  Minnesota  Historical  Society  was  organized  in  1849,  under 
territorial  charter,  and  for  many  years  has  looked  forward  to 
having  a  building  of  its  own.  A  fund  was  gradually  accumulated 
for  the  purchase  of  such  a  building,  in  the  event  of  the  society 
having  to  build  for  itself.  This,  however,  was  not  a  large  sum, 
and  it  would  have  been  many  years  before  the  society  itself  could 
have  built  a  proper  home.  When  the  present  Capitol  was  built, 
rooms  were  provided  for  the  society  in  the  basement  and  these 
served  our  purpose  for  some  years.  In  1913  the  legislature, 
recognizing  the  need,  made  a  very  generous  provision,  an  appro- 
priation of  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  for  the  building,  the 
society  agreeing  to  pay  seventy-five  thousand  dollars  for  the  pur- 
chase of  a  site  and  for  furnishing  the  building.  The  site  first 
selected  by  the  board  of  control,  and  approved  by  the  society,  was 
purchased  from  this  fund  at  a  cost  of  thirty-five  thousand  dollars. 
The  title  was  acquired  by  the  state,  and  the  state  still  owns  the 
property.  Before  plans  for  the  building  had  been  perfected,  it 
was  recognized  by  the  board  of  control  and  the  society  that  a 
mistake  had  been  made  in  the  selection  of  the  first  site,  and  the 
legislature  was  asked  to,  and  did,  amend  the  bill,  so  as  to  provide 


1920  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  417 

for  the  erection  of  a  building  upon  a  site  to  be  selected  by  the 
society.  We  chose  the  site  upon  which  this  building  stands  and 
paid  for  it  out  of  our  fund  above  referred  to.  The  amount  avail- 
able for  furnishing  and  equipping  the  building  was  thereby 
materially  reduced;  but  in  view  of  the  fact  that,  at  the  request 
of  Governor  Hammond,  we  relinquished  a  very  substantial  part 
of  our  building  to  the  state  department  of  education  we  were 
relieved  from  the  necessity  of  furnishing  the  entire  building.  If 
the  society  is  to  accomplish  in  full  measure  the  purpose  for 
which  it  was  organized  and  is  to  be  permitted  to  carry  out  its 
plans  for  serving  the  people  of  the  state,  it  will  soon  need  the 
space  in  this  building  occupied  by  the  department  of  education. 
In  the  meantime,  we  expect  that  the  state  will  sell,  or  devote  to 
other  uses,  the  old  site  purchased  with  thirty-five  thousand  dollars 
of  our  money,  and  will  turn  that  sum  back  to  us  to  be  used  for 
furnishing  and  equipping  those  quarters,  when  they  become  avail- 
able, and  for  extending  the  work  of  the  society. 

We  wish  to  express  our  appreciation  to  many  of  the  members 
of  the  legislature  for  the  efficient  service  they  rendered  in  procur- 
ing this  appropriation,  as  without  their  aid  it  could  not  have  been 
accomplished.  We  are  also  gratified  that  the  use  of  Minnesota 
granite  and  other  Minnesota  material  was  required,  as  the  result 
has  been  most  satisfactory. 

Mr.  Clarence  Johnston,  the  state  architect,  was  the  natural 
choice  in  our  selection  of  an  architect,  and  the  choice  has  proved 
most  fortunate.  Mr.  Johnston  undoubtedly  congratulates  himself 
on  the  fact  that  he  was  not  hampered  in  his  design  of  the  building 
by  either  the  board  or  the  committee,  so  that  he  had  a  free  hand, 
limited  only  by  the  amount  of  the  appropriation.  Credit  for  the 
beauty  and  symmetry  of  the  building  is  entirely  due  to  him. 
Your  committee  congratulate  themselves  that  their  architect  was 
in  full  sympathy  with  them,  and  especially  with  our  superin- 
tendent, to  whom  also  we  owe  our  grateful  acknowledgment  for 
the  careful  preparation  of  the  plans  and  provisions  required  in 
adapting  the  building  to  our  uses.  As  a  result  we  have  one  of 
the  best  public  buildings  in  the  state,  and  probably  the  best 
designed  for  utility. 

I  have  heard  it  said  that  if,  when  your  house  is  finished,  you 
and  your  architect  are  on  speaking  terms,  it  speaks  well  for  both. 


418  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  AUG. 

We  are  happy  to  say  that  our  relations  have  never  been  strained, 
and  perfect  harmony  has  prevailed  in  our  conferences.  The  same 
may  be  said  with  respect  to  all  our  dealings  with  the  board  of 
control,  which  has  shown  us  every  consideration  and  courtesy. 
These  are  matters  of  real  importance,  and  should  be  recognized, 
as  they  have  had  such  a  marked  effect  upon  the  success  of  the 
work. 

At  the  conclusion  of  his  remarks  Mr.  Noyes  introduced  the 
Honorable  Ralph  Wheelock,  chairman  of  the  state  board  of 
control,  which  had  charge  of  the  erection  of  the  building.  Mr. 
Wheelock  spoke  as  follows : 

It  is  particularly  significant  that  the  dedication  of  this 
splendid  building  should  occur  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest  history- 
making  epoch  since  the  world  began.  The  history  of  a  state  or  a 
nation  is  not  made  up  of  disconnected  incidents,  but  constitutes  a 
series  of  related  events  which,  to  be  read  aright  and  thoroughly 
understood,  must  be  accurately  set  down  and  intelligently  dis- 
cussed ;  and  an  organization  like  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society 
affords  the  most  effective  means  for  such  an  undertaking.  The 
history  of  Minnesota,  as  brought  up  to  date,  develops  the  ideals 
and  purposes  of  its  citizenship  and  furnishes  inspiration  and 
practical  encouragement  for  its  future  successful  growth.  To  the 
extent,  therefore,  of  having  been  the  agency  through  which  this 
building  has  been  erected,  the  board  of  control  feels  a  justifiable 
pride  in  its  construction  and  joins  today  with  all  the  other  agen- 
cies interested  in  this,  its  formal  dedication. 

A  brief  resume  of  the  legislative  action  out  of  which  this 
edifice  became  possible,  may  be  of  interest.  On  March  19,  1913, 
Representative  Orr,  of  St.  Paul,  introduced  the  original  bill  for 
"An  Act  to  provide  for  the  erection  of  and  the  acquiring  of  a 
site  for  a  building  for  the  use  of  the  Minnesota  historical  society 
and  the  supreme  court  and  the  state  library  of  the  state  of 
Minnesota  and  for  purposes  connected  with  the  said  society, 
court  and  library."  This  bill  passed  the  House  by  a  vote  of 
seventy-nine  to  twenty  and  the  Senate  by  a  vote  of  forty  to  five. 
It  was  finally  approved  and  signed  by  the  governor  on  April  25, 
1913. 


1920  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  419 

The  sum  of  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  was  appropriated 
for  the  building,  to  be  raised  by  the  sale  of  building  certificates, 
the  state  treasury  to  be  reimbursed  by  a  special  tax  levied  and 
collected  with  other  state  taxes  sufficient  to  provide  a  sum  of 
fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year  on  account  of  the  principal  and  the 
interest  on  the  unpaid  building  certificates  until  all  certificates 
were  paid  up.  The  bill  also  provided  that  the  building  should  be 
made  to  harmonize,  so  far  as  practicable,  with  the  present 
Capitol,  and  that  Minnesota  building  stone  should  be  used  exclu- 
sively unless  it  appeared  that  a  combination  existed  to  raise  prices 
of  said  building  material;  also  that  Minnesota  labor  (including 
the  architect)  should  be  employed.  One  section  provided  for  the 
acceptance  by  the  state  of  the  seventy-five  thousand  dollars 
offered  by  the  historical  society,  said  donation  to  be  used  solely 
in  securing  a  proper  site  for  the  building,  in  equipping  and  fur- 
nishing that  portion  of  it  to  be  used  by  the  society,  and  in 
installing  its  library,  museum,  and  other  departments  and  exhibits. 
This  section  also  provided  for  the  acceptance  by  the  state  of 
future  donations  for  the  same  purpose. 

To  carry  into  effect  certain  desired  changes  in  the  law,  a  bill 
was  introduced  at  the  session  of  the  legislature  in  1915  by  Senator 
Duxbury,  of  Houston  County.  This  bill  went  through  both 
houses  by  large  majorities,  with  no  unnecessary  delay,  and  on 
April  19  was  finally  approved  and  signed  by  the  governor. 

The  changes  effected  in  the  original  law  by  this  act  are  briefly 
as  follows.  Section  1  was  amended  to  provide  that  the  building 
should  be  "for  and  adapted  to  the  use  of  the  Minnesota  historical 
society  and  for  the  care,  preservation  and  protection  of  the  State 
Archives.  Provided  that  any  part  of  said  building  not  in  use  or 
actually  needed  for  purposes  of  said  society  may  be  used  for 
other  state  purposes  under  the  direction  of  the  Governor."  To 
section  3,  which  empowered  the  board  of  control  to  condemn 
lands  for  the  building,  was  added  a  clause  providing  that  in  the 
event  the  society  should  "purchase  and  convey  or  cause  to  be 
conveyed  to  the  state  ...  a  site  for  such  building,  located  near 
the  present  capitol  building,"  then  the  building  should  be  erected 
upon  that  site.  To  section  8,  which  provided  for  acceptance  by 
the  state  of  the  donation  by  the  society,  was  added  an  amend- 
ment which  recited  the  fact  that  the  society  had  already  paid 


420  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  AUG. 

thirty-five  thousand  dollars  into  the  state  treasury  for  the  pur- 
chase of  the  site  originally  selected,  and  declared  that  if  the 
society  should  provide  and  present  to  the  state  other  grounds  for 
the  location  of  the  building,  the  amount  actually  paid  therefor 
should  be  credited  to  the  society  upon  its  donation. 

Following  this  legislation  the  present  site  was  secured,  the 
plans  were  drawn  by  the  state  architect,  Mr.  Clarence  H. 
Johnston,  of  St.  Paul;  and  after  they  had  been  approved  by  the 
executive  committee  of  the  society,  the  contract  for  construction 
was  let  by  the  board  of  control  on  November  30,  1915.  Within 
two  years  from  that  date  the  building  was  virtually  completed 
and  ready  for  occupancy,  making  a  record  in  the  history  of 
public  building  construction  in  the  state. 

As  the  building  now  stands,  it  is  a  monument :  first,  to  the 
intelligent  and  indefatigable  efforts  of  the  officers  and  members 
of  the  society  in  creating  the  necessary  public  spirit  to  induce 
legislative  action ;  second,  to  the  patriotism  and  public  spirit  of 
Minnesota's  citizenship,  as  expressed  by  the  prompt  and  practical 
action  of  two  successive  legislatures,  as  already  noted ;  and  third, 
to  the  artistic  skill  of  the  state  architect,  to  the  effective  super- 
vision by  the  architectural  and  engineering  departments,  and  to 
the  hearty  and  harmonious  cooperation  of  the  board  of  control 
and  the  executive  committee  of  the  historical  society  through  the 
entire  period  of  the  construction  of  the  building. 

Today  the  practical  responsibility  of  the  board  of  control 
comes  to  an  end,  although  as  a  component  part  of  the  state 
administration  it  will  continue  to  have  a  live  interest  in  the  pur- 
poses for  which  this  structure  stands.  Therefore,  on  behalf  of 
the  state  board  of  control,  I  have  the  honor  to  turn  over  this 
building  to  the  Governor  of  the  state,  through  his  representative, 
Mr.  C.  G.  Schulz,  for  ten  years  or  more  the  head  of  the  depart- 
ment of  education,  itself  one  of  the  most  vital  history-making 
branches  of  the  state  government.  I  have  the  honor  to  introduce 
Mr.  Schulz,  who  will  accept  the  building  on  behalf  of  Governor 
Burnquist. 

Governor  Burnquist  had  expected  to  be  present  and  partici- 
pate in  the  exercises,  but  almost  at  the  last  moment  he  was 
called  out  of  the  city  on  important  business.  He  therefore 


1920  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  421 

designated  Mr.  Schulz  as  his  representative  for  the  occasion, 
and  in  this  capacity  Mr.  Schulz  accepted  the  building  on  behalf 
of  the  state  and  formally  intrusted  the  Minnesota  Historical 
Society  with  its  use.  The  trust  was  accepted  on  behalf  of 
the  society  by  its  president,  the  Honorable  Gideon  S.  Ives,  who 
spoke  as  follows : 

The  organization,  upbuilding,  and  maintenance  of  a  society  of 
this  character,  even  in  this  day  and  age  of  the  world  is  beset  with 
many  difficulties.  We  have  happily  surmounted  a  great  number 
of  these  and  may  well  congratulate  ourselves  that,  after  many 
tribulations  and  the  exercise  of  a  great  deal  of  energy  and  per- 
severance, we  have  finally  climbed  over  the  top  and  the  road  to 
future  success  and  usefulness  is  well  within  our  view. 

In  a  time  like  this  it  is  customary  and  proper  to  look  back 
and  see  what  forces  have  united  in  bringing  about  this  result. 
In  a  retrospect  of  this  character  we  are  inclined  to  give  too  much 
credit  for  the  work  done  within  our  immediate  knowledge,  and 
not  enough  for  what  has  been  done  in  the  past.  The  fact  is  that 
all  the  efforts  recently  made  to  secure  a  permanent  home  for  the 
society  would  have  been  absolutely  fruitless  had  it  not  been  for 
the  sagacity,  foresight,  and  perseverance  of  those  men  who 
organized  it,  who  kept  it  up  during  its  early  struggles  for 
existence,  and  who  laid  broad  and  deep  the  foundations  for  its 
future  success. 

This  society  was  incorporated  by  an  act  of  the  legislature  of 
Minnesota  Territory,  approved  by  Alexander  Ramsey,  the  gov- 
ernor, on  October  20,  1849.  In  examining  the  acts  passed  by  this 
legislature  one  is  impressed  with  the  facts  that  no  other  act  of 
any  particular  importance  either  to  the  territory  or  to  the  future 
state,  except  laws  of  a  general  nature,  was  passed,  and  that  this 
was  one  of  the  first — in  fact  the  very  first — enactment  of  any 
importance  to  be  approved  by  the  governor.  This  is  a  remark- 
able proof  of  the  wisdom  of  the  early  pioneers,  and  of  their  full 
understanding  and  appreciation  of  the  importance  and  necessity 
of  providing  means  for  gathering  and  recording  the  history  of 
the  new  country  conterminous  with  the  inauguration  of  its 
government.  If  we  follow  the  proceedings  of  this  society  through 
the  early  period  of  its  existence  we  are  more  and  more  impressed 


422  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  AUG. 

with  the  determination,  self-denial,  and  persistence  of  these  men, 
not  only  in  keeping  it  alive  and  building  it  up,  but  also  in  gather- 
ing material  for  its  various  departments.  For  a  long  period  little 
aid  was  furnished  by  the  legislature,  and  in  those  early  days, 
when  money  was  scarce  and  times  were  hard,  it  was  not  an  easy 
matter  to  keep  up  a  society  of  this  character  and  provide  for  its 
efficiency.  The  work  of  the  society  at  that  time  was  somewhat 
limited,  but  at  the  same  time  quite  important.  The  country  was 
new  and  undeveloped,  and  an  inquiry  as  to  its  minerals  and  its 
geological  conditions  was  essential.  The  Indian  tribes  still 
remained  in  many  localities,  and  a  study  of  their  history,  habits, 
and  traditions,  and  the  gathering  and  preservation  of  the  evi- 
dences of  their  occupation  of  the  country  before  these  indications 
were  swept  away  by  the  advancing^fkie  of  immigration  was  of 
the  utmost  importance. 

While  we  rejoice  today  over  what  has  been  accomplished  by 
this  society  in  the  past,  we  should  realize  that  this  is  not  a  time 
to  relinquish  our  efforts,  or  to  consider  merely  the  preservation 
of  what  has  already  been  secured.  There  is  no  question  but  that 
in  the  next  few  years,  the  success  of  this  organization  will  largely 
depend  upon  the  active  and  energetic  support  of  its  members.  A 
large  amount  of  work  will  be  necessary  in  organizing  and  prop- 
erly assembling  the  accumulations  of  the  various  departments,  in 
classifying  and  preserving  the  official  records  of  the  state  to  be 
entrusted  to  our  charge,  and  in  bringing  up  to  the  present  time 
the  collections  of  material  for  the  different  phases  of  the  state's 
history. 

Much  additional  work  will  also  be  required  in  the  immediate 
future  for  obtaining  material  in  reference  to  the  participation  of 
Minnesota  troops  in  the  greatest  war  the  world  has  ever  known. 
Our  boys  are  going  across  the  ocean  in  great  numbers  and  offering 
their  lives  in  the  cause  of  human  liberty,  and  no  effort  should  be 
neglected  in  gathering  and  preserving  the  record  of  their  achieve- 
ments. In  order  to  accomplish  these  things  an  extra  effort  should 
be  made  at  once  to  increase  our  membership  in  every  county  in 
the  state.  Now  is  the  time  to  accomplish  this  work,  and  each 
member  of  the  society  will  be  expected  to  consider  himself  a 
committee  of  one  in  his  locality  to  secure  new  members.  This 
will  not  only  increase  our  revenue  but  it  will  also  strengthen  our 
hands  in  the  future  exigencies  of  the  society. 


1920  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  423 

An  extra  effort  should  be  made  to  acquaint  and  interest  the 
public  with  the  facilities  and  objects  of  the  society.  Heretofore 
we  have  been  burrowing  in  the  basement  with  our  departments  in 
such  condition  that  they  have  afforded  very  little  attraction  to 
the  public.  From  time  immemorial,  ignorance,  superstition,  and 
indifference  have  been  the  chief  obstacles  to  the  progress  of 
organizations  of  this  character.  At  the  time  when  the  legislature 
was  asked  for  the  appropriation  with  which  this  building  was 
erected,  considerable  opposition  was  manifest  among  the  members 
chiefly  because  of  dense  ignorance  of  the  objects  to  be  accom- 
plished and  the  importance  of  keeping  up  this  society  and  pro- 
viding for  its  future  usefulness.  Indeed,  one  of  the  very  active 
opponents  contemptuously  referred  to  the  accumulations  of  this 
society  as  "a  lot  of  old  junk  of  no  importance  to  anybody."  We 
are  very  happy  to  say,  however,  that  this  was  not  the  prevailing 
idea,  or  this  building  would  not  have  been  completed.  The  "old 
junk"  to  which  he  referred  consisted  of  one  of  the  finest  and 
largest  historical  libraries  in  the  West  and  a  splendid  museum  of 
archeological  and  historical  objects.  They  had  been  collected 
over  a  period  of  more  than  sixty-five  years,  and  their  loss  would 
have  been  irreparable. 

I  sincerely  and  heartily  congratulate  the  members  of  this 
society  and  the  people  of  the  state  upon  the  auspicious  opening 
and  dedication  of  this  beautiful  and  commodious  building  to  the 
great  purposes  for  which  it  was  designed ;  and  I  bespeak  for  the 
society,  and  for  every  member  thereof,  renewed  efforts  in  the 
future  to  maintain  and  advance  the  high  standard  of  service  and 
usefulness  that  has  always  existed  in  the  past. 

The  presiding  officer  then  introduced  Dr.  Benjamin  F. 
Shambaugh,  superintendent  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of 
Iowa,  who  spoke  as  follows  on  behalf  of  the  sister  historical 
societies  of  the  country. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  OFFICERS  AND  MEMBERS  OF  THE  MINNESOTA 
HISTORICAL  SOCIETY,  AND  PIONEERS  OF  MINNESOTA:  From  the 
historical  societies  of  the  United  States  of  America,  I  bring 
you  greetings.  We  appreciate  your  gracious  invitation  to 
participate  in  this  program ;  and  we  respond  with  the  feeling  that 


424  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  AUG. 

it  is  fitting  that  we  should  rejoice  with  you  today  in  the  dedica- 
tion of  this  magnificent  building.  For  somehow  we  feel  that  your 
home  is  our  home,  and  that  this  building  and  its  store  of  historical 
treasures  will  always  be  open  not  alone  to  the  members  of  the 
Minnesota  Historical  Society  and  to  Minnesota  students  of  .his- 
tory, but  to  all  students  of  history  who  call  themselves  American. 
We  feel — today  more  than  ever  before,  perhaps — that  our  tradi- 
tions and  our  inheritances  are  one,  and  that  in  the  cultivation  of 
our  several  fields  we  should  never  lose  the  larger  vision  of  a 
common  country,  a  common  history,  and  a  common  destiny. 

Today  we  are  all  of  us  profoundly  impressed  with  the  mag- 
nificence of  this  structure.  But  more  impressive  to  my  mind 
than  the  building  itself  is  the  fact  that  the  Minnesota  Historical 
Society  was  founded  more  than  three  score  and  ten  years  ago 
by  pioneers — men  of  the  frontier.  In  these  days  of  scholarly 
research  and  monographic  publication  it  is  well  to  remind  our- 
selves of  the  fact  that  the  foundations  of  the  state  historical 
societies  of  the  West  were  laid  not  by  trained  historians  but  by 
the  pathfinders  of  American  democracy — men  who  in  their  day 
had  a  vision  of  a  new  life  and  the  courage  and  capacity  to 
realize  it. 

Early  in  life  these  pioneers  enlisted  in  a  great  cause — the 
winning  of  the  West.  Armed  with  axes  and  plows  they  pushed 
forward  into  this  northwest  country,  bent  upon  the  conquest  of 
forest  and  prairie.  And  when  they  had  won  the  battles  of  the 
frontier  and  had  organized  a  new  territory,  which  they  called 
Minnesota,  they  began  to  reflect  upon  their  experiences.  The 
marvelous  transformation  which  they  had  witnessed  stirred  their 
imaginations.  They  felt  that  somehow  the  vision  by  which  they 
had  been  inspired  and  the  struggles  through  which  they  had 
passed  would  some  day  form  the  opening  chapter  in  the  history 
of  a  great  democratic  commonwealth.  And  so  they  resolved, 
while  it  was  yet  time,  "to  rescue  from  oblivion  the  memory  of  the 
early  pioneers"  by  establishing  a  state  historical  society. 

Thus  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  pioneers  of 
Minnesota  sowed  the  seeds  of  a  state  and  local  history  which 
have  grown  and  matured  into  ripened  grain.  To  gather  the 
harvest,  and  withal  to  sift  the  grain,  is  the  duty  of  the  present 
hour. 


1920  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  425 

Moreover,  the  organization  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society 
as  a  state  institution  was  in  itself  a  pioneer  movement  in  history. 
To  be  sure  there  had  always  been  an  interest  in  local  tradition  in 
the  older  communities  of  the  East;  but  it  remained  for  the 
pioneers  of  the  western  commonwealths  to  provide  for  the  preser- 
vation and  promotion  of  state  and  local  history  through  the 
organization  of  state  historical  societies. 

Indeed,  many  of  the  older  American  historians  did  not  regard 
state  and  local  history  as  especially  important.  While  they  were 
ambitious  to  discover  the  origin  and  trace  the  progress  of  Ameri- 
can democracy,  they  failed  to  appreciate  the  fact  that,  before 
the  real  import  of  American  democracy  could  be  divined,  the 
forest  of  state  and  local  history  must  be  explored.  Interested  in 
the  story  of  the  nation,  they  began  at  the  top  and  seldom  if  ever 
reached  the  bottom.  It  remained  for  the  unschooled  pioneers  of 
the  West  to  discover  the  truth  that  American  history  should  be 
studied  from  the  bottom  up  rather  than  from  the  top  down. 

The  pioneer  origin  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  is  one 
of  its  most  valuable  assets:  it  should  remain  its  most  revered 
tradition,  its  most  cherished  inheritance.  In  stressing  the  impor- 
tance of  state  and  local  history  the  pioneers  pointed  the  way.  Let 
us  keep  the  faith. 

But  why?  Has  not  the  frontier  disappeared,  the  West  van- 
ished, and  the  epoch  of  pioneering  passed?  Let  the  student  of 
western,  frontier,  pioneer  history  answer. 

The  West  is  not  any  particular  area  in  history,  nor  the  frontier 
a  certain  geographical  line.  The  West  is  preeminently  a  state  of 
mind ;  the  frontier,  a  condition ;  pioneering,  an  attitude  toward 
life.  Behold  in  America  today  a  new-born  West,  a  new  frontier, 
a  new  view  of  pioneering!  War!  Democracy!  Citizenship! 
Never  were  the  opportunities  of  the  West  more  alluring.  Never 
was  the  frontier  more  inviting.  Never  was  the  call  for  pioneers 
more  urgent  than  at  this  very  hour. 

Then  as  children  of  this  new  West,  this  new  frontier,  this  new 
epoch  of  pioneering,  let  us  cherish  the  memory  of  our  pioneer 
fathers  and  forefathers  of  the  old-time  West  and  the  old-time 
frontiers.  Let  us  in  our  day  face  the  problems  of  war,  and  of 
democracy,  and  of  citizenship  with  the  courage  and  in  the  spirit 
of  pioneers. 


426  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  AUG. 

Dr.  ,Warren  Upham,  archeologist  of  the  society  and  its 
secretary  from  1895  to  1914,  then  read  the  following  paper: 

FORMER   HOMES   AND   ADMINISTRATION    OF   THE 
MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

By  an  act  of  the  first  legislature  of  Minnesota  Territory,  this 
society  was  incorporated  October  20,  1849.  In  the  next  month, 
on  November  15,  it  was  formally  organized  in  the  office  of  Charles 
K.  Smith,  the  territorial  secretary,  to  whose  efforts,  chiefly,  the 
passage  of  the  act  and  the  earliest  work  of  the  society  in  promot- 
ing immigration  and  other  interests  of  the  new  territory  were 
due.  In  the  first  meeting,  Governor  Alexander  Ramsey  was 
elected  president ;  David  Olmsted  and  Martin  McLeod,  vice  presi- 
dents ;  William  H.  Forbes,  treasurer ;  and  C.  K.  Smith,  secretary. 
Governor  Ramsey  continued  as  president  fourteen  years,  until  in 
1863  he  went  to  Washington  as  senator,  and  he  was  again  the 
president  during  the  last  twelve  years  of  his  life,  from  1891  to 
1903. 

Meeting  today  for  the  dedication  of  this  new  building  as  the 
home  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  we  may  well  look  back 
to  its  first  effort  to  provide  such  a  permanent  home.  In  the  annual 
meeting  of  January  15,  1856,  Colonel  D.  A.  Robertson  reported 
the  sale  of  sixty-two  life  memberships  at  twenty-five  dollars 
each,  the  proceeds  of  which  were  applied  to  payment  on  two  lots 
at  the  northwest  corner  of  Tenth  and  Wabasha  streets  in  St. 
Paul,  purchased  from  Vital  Guerin  for  fifteen  hundred  dollars. 

The  corner  stone  of  the  projected  building  there  for  the  use 
of  this  society  was  laid  June  24,  1856,  with  a  grand  celebration 
and  Masonic  ceremonies.  A  procession  was  formed  at  the  Wins- 
low  House,  on  the  corner  of  Fort  and  Eagle  streets,  and  marched 
to  the  grounds,  preceded  by  a  band  and  accompanied  by  Sher- 
man's Battery  from  Fort  Snelling,  which  had  won  distinction  in 
the  Mexican  War  under  the  name  of  the  "Flying  Artillery."  An 
address  was  delivered  by  the  mayor,  the  Honorable  George  L. 
Becker,  followed  by  an  address  from  Lieutenant  M.  F.  Maury  of 
the  United  States  Coast  Survey.  The  expense  for  excavation 
and  a  part  of  the  foundation  wall  having  absorbed  the  available 


1920  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  427 

funds  of  the  society,  further  prosecution  of  the  work  was  shortly 
afterward  abandoned. 

The  earliest  occupancy  of  a  room  in  the  Capitol  was  on  Novem- 
ber 27,  1855,  when  the  record  states  that  the  society  "met  for 
the  first  time  in  the  hall  set  apart  in  the  Capitol  for  their  use, 
and  properly  furnished  with  shelves  for  the  reception  of  books 
and  other  donations."  In  the  summer  of  1859  this  room  was 
required  for  use  by  the  state  auditor,  and  it  became  necessary  to 
remove  the  society's  property  into  a  smaller  room  suitable  only 
for  storage. 

Few  meetings  of  this  society  were  held  during  the  troubled 
period  of  the  Civil  War.  One  is  recorded  as  held  on  April  11, 
1864,  when  it  was  voted  to  rent  a  small  room  adjoining  the  St. 
Paul  Library  room  in  Ingersoll's  Block,  and  to  move  to  the  new 
quarters  such  portion  of  the  collection  as  was  thought  desirable 
for  exhibition.  This  was  accordingly  done,  and  the  society  con- 
tinued to  occupy  this  room  for  about  four  years. 

More  commodious  rooms  in  the  basement  of  the  Capitol  were 
the  next  home  of  this  society,  with  space  for  the  growth  of  the 
library  and  museum,  and  the  first  meeting  there  was  held 
November  9,  1868. 

When  the  Capitol  was  burned,  March  1,  1881,  the  greater  part 
of  the  museum  was  destroyed,  but  most  of  the  library  was  saved. 
On  March  3,  in  a  special  meeting  at  the  office  of  the  president, 
General  Sibley,  it  was  voted  to  remove  the  property  saved  to  a 
room  in  the  southeast  corner  of  the  Market  House  basement. 
The  society  occupied  this  room  for  the  library  and  for  meetings 
during  two  years. 

With  the  completion  of  the  second  Capitol,  rooms  were  pro- 
vided for  this  society  in  the  basement  of  its  west  wing,  where  the 
council  first  met  on  April  9,  1883.  These  rooms  were  the  society's 
home  through  twenty-two  years,  until  its  removal  in  the  summer 
of  1905  to  larger  rooms  in  the  east  half  of  the  basement  of  the 
New  Capitol.  After  more  than  twelve  years  there,  the  library 
and  other  collections  were  again  removed,  a  few  months  ago,  to 
this  beautiful  and  spacious  building. 

On  this  great  day  of  thankfulness  and  new  hopes  for  the  wel- 
fare of  this  historical  society,  and  of  renewed  consecration  for 
continuance  and  increase  of  its  usefulness,  we  remember  espe- 


428  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  AUG. 

cially  in  love  and  gratitude  its  past  workers  who  have  received 
the  fulfillment  of  the  promise,  "Be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and 
I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life." 

Following  Governor  Ramsey,  who  was  the  first  president  from 
1849  to  1863,  as  before  noted,  the  list  of  presidents,  with  their 
successive  terms  of  service,  comprises  the  Honorable  Henry  M. 
Rice,  1864  to  1866;  General  Henry  H.  Sibley,  1867;  Governor 
William  R.  Marshall,  1868;  George  A.  Hamilton,  1869;  the  Rev- 
erend John  Mattocks,  1870;  Captain  Russell  Blakeley,  1871; 
Charles  E.  Mayo,  1872;  the  Honorable  Elias  F.  Drake,  1873;  the 
Honorable  George  L.  Becker,  1874;  Dr.  Robert  O.  Sweeny, 
1875;  General  Sibley,  1876;  Archbishop  John  Ireland,  1877  and 
1878;  General  Sibley  again  for  twelve  years,  from  1879  until  his 
death  in  1891 ;  Governor  Ramsey  again,  1891  to  1903 ;  General 
John  B.  Sanborn,  from  May,  1903,  until  his  death  on  May  16, 
1904;  the  Honorable  Greenleaf  Clark,  in  the  latter  part  of  1904, 
until  his  death  on  December  7  of  that  year ;  Nathaniel  P.  Lang- 
ford,  from  1905  until  his  death  on  October  18,  1911 ;  William  H. 
Lightner,  1912  to  1915;  Charles  P.  Noyes,  1915  to  1918;  and  the 
recently  elected  president,  the  Honorable  Gideon  S.  Ives. 

The  first  secretary,  Charles  K.  Smith,  removed  in  1851  to  his 
former  home  in  Iowa;  and  on  November  18,  1851,  the  Reverend 
Edward  D.  Neill  was  elected  secretary.  This  position  he  held 
twelve  years,  meanwhile  publishing  in  1858  the  first  edition  of 
his  History  of  Minnesota.  After  Dr.  Neill's  long  service,  this 
office  was  held  for  a  short  time  by  William  H.  Kelley ;  during  the 
next  three  years,  1864  to  1867,  by  Charles  E.  Mayo;  during  the 
following  twenty-six  years,  to  September,  1893,  by  John  Fletcher 
Williams ;  from  October,  1893,  to  March,  1895,  by  Governor 
Marshall;  from  November,  1895,  through  nineteen  years  by 
Warren  Upham;  and  since  November,  1914,  by  Solon  J.  Buck, 
the  present  secretary  and  superintendent. 

During  thirty-three  years,  from  1876  until  his  death,  May  1, 
1909,  Henry  P.  Upham  was  the  treasurer  of  this  society. 

James  J.  Hill  gave  the  longest  service  as  a  member  of  the 
council,  from  December  14,  1868,  until  his  death,  on  May  29, 
1916;  and  in  1872  he  held  the  office  of  vice  president. 

Many  other  names  of  generous  donors  and  workers  for  the 
society  deserve  grateful  remembrance  in  our  dedication  of  this 


1920  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  429 

building.  From  my  association  with  five  members  of  the  council 
to  whom  the  museum  and  library  are  much  indebted  for  their 
gifts  and  service,  this  brief  address  may  fittingly  end  with  my 
personal  tribute  to  the  Reverend  Edward  C.  Mitchell  and  the 
Honorable  Jacob  V.  B rower,  from  whom  the  museum  received 
donations  of  very  extensive  archeologic  collections;  Professor 
Newton  H.  Winchell,  who  during  his  last  eight  years  served  the 
society  in  its  department  of  archeology,  preparing  large  and 
valuable  publications ;  Josiah  B.  Chaney,  who  for  twenty-one 
years  had  charge  of  the  newspaper  department  in  the  library, 
being  succeeded  by  John  Talman  during  the  last  ten  years ;  and 
David  L.  Kingsbury  who  was  the  assistant  librarian  through 
eighteen  years.  Their  hearty  devotion  to  this  society  in  its  work 
for  the  state,  and  the  similar  fidelity  and  good  service  of  others 
who  preceded  them,  are  an  enduring  inspiration  for  us,  their 
successors,  to  "make  our  lives  sublime,"  as  Longfellow  wrote,  by 
being  useful  to  our  fellow  citizens,  to  all  the  people  of  Minnesota. 

The  afternoon  session  was  then  concluded  with  the  reading 
of  the  following  paper  by  Dr.  Solon  J.  Buck,  superintendent  of 
the  society: 

THE  FUNCTIONS  AND  IDEALS  OF  THE  MINNESOTA 
HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

In  every  one  of  the  states  of  the  American  Union  there  is  a 
society  or  similar  institution  devoted  to  the  preservation  of  the 
record  of  the  state's  past ;  and  the  majority  of  these  institutions 
are  state  supported,  at  least  in  part.  Why  is  it  that  the  American 
people  have  seen  fit  thus  to  put  history  on  a  different  plane  from 
other  branches  of  human  knowledge,  to  regard  it  as  a  matter  of 
public  interest  and  worthy  of  public  support?  The  answer  is 
simple.  History  is  of  community,  rather  than  merely  individual 
importance  because  history  is  to  the  community  what  memory  is 
to  the  individual.  It  is  the  foundation  upon  which  everything 
of  the  present  rests  and  upon  which  everything  of  the  future 
must  be  built.  A  nation,  without  knowledge  of  its  history,  like  a 
man  without  memory,  would  be  helpless. 


430  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  AUG. 

But  why,  it  may  be  asked,  do  we  concern  ourselves  so  much 
with  state  and  local  history ;  is  it  not  sufficient  to  know  thoroughly 
the  history  of  the  nation  as  a  whole  ?  Again  the  answer  is  fairly 
obvious.  A  thorough  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the  nation  as  a 
whole  is  impossible  without  an  adequate  conception  of  the  history 
of  the  parts  which  go  to  make  up  that  whole.  The  past  of 
Minnesota  is  just  as  much  a  part  of  American  history,  as  the 
record  of  a  presidential  administration  or  the  story  of  the  Pilgrim 
fathers. 

There  are  other  reasons  why  local  history  has  special  impor- 
tance in  this  country.  One  of  these  is  that,  essentially,  the  Ameri- 
can nation  is  a  democracy,  and  therefore  its  history  must  be  the 
history  of  the  people.  The  most  important  thing  to  know  in  con- 
nection with  any  problem  in  this  country,  either  past  or  present, 
is  not  the  action  of  the  government  with  reference  to  it  but  the 
attitude  of  the  people  toward  it,  and  not  merely  the  attitude  of 
a  majority  of  the  people  as  a  whole  but  that  of  the  people  of  each 
section  of  the  country  and  of  each  class  of  the  population.  This 
knowledge  can  be  obtained  only  by  a  study  of  local  history  and 
conditions. 

Even  if  we  accept  Freeman's  definition  of  history  as  "past 
politics,"  it  is  apparent,  therefore,  that  we  cannot  confine  it  to 
developments  at  the  seat  of  government.  But  few  historical 
workers  today  restrict  their  field  to  past  politics,  and  those  who 
do  interpret  politics  broadly  and  recognize  that,  in  modern  times 
at  least,  politics  is  greatly  influenced  by  social  and  economic 
forces.  The  student  of  social  and  economic  history  must  study 
the  past  of  the  people  in  their  local  communities,  their  homes, 
farms,  and  factories,  if  he  would  achieve  an  adequate  under- 
standing of  the  subject,  if  he  would  know  how  things  came  to  be 
as  they  are  and  whither  they  are  tending. 

Largely  as  a  result  of  the  work  of  Professor  Turner,  who  is 
to  speak  to  us  this  evening,  it  is  now  generally  recognized  that 
one  of  the  most  significant  and  influential  phases  of  American 
history  is  the  westward  movement,  the  advance  of  settlement 
across  the  country,  the  occupation  of  a  continent  by  civilized 
people.  Every  community  in  the  United  States  has  its  place  in 
that  movement,  has  passed  or  is  passing  through  the  various 
stages  from  a  wilderness  inhabited  by  savages  to  a  highly  organ- 


1920  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  431 

ized  society ;  and  it  is  only  by  an  intensive  and  comparative  study 
of  the  settlement  and  development  of  the  separate  communities, 
with  their  special  circumstances  and  conditions,  that  this  west- 
ward movement  and  its  influence  upon  national  development  as  a 
whole  can  be  understood. 

The  importance  of  history  naturally  receives,  as  a  rule,  greater 
recognition  in  those  countries  or  states  whose  development 
extends  over  a  long  period  of  time.  Thus  it  happens  that  the 
nations  of  Europe  preserve  their  archives  much  more  carefully 
and  subsidize  historical  work  much  more  liberally  than  do  either 
the  United  States  or  most  of  the  individual  states  of  the  Union. 
Thus  it  happens,  also,  that  the  oldest  historical  society  in  the 
country  is  that  of  Massachusetts,  established  in  1791.  This  date, 
however,  is  171  years  after  the  first  settlement  at  Plymouth.  Had 
Minnesota  waited  a  similar  length  of  time,  the  establishment  of 
this  society  would  still  be  several  generations  in  the  future.  For- 
tunately the  men  who  laid  the  foundations  of  this  commonwealth 
had  not  only  vision  for  the  future  but  appreciation  of  the  past. 
Perhaps  they  realized  also,  that  the  best  time  to  collect  the 
materials  for  the  history  of  a  period  is  during  that  period  itself. 
However  that  may  be,  only  thirty  years  after  the  beginning  of 
American  occupation,  in  the  year  in  which  Minnesota  became  a 
political  entity,  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  was  chartered 
by  the  first  territorial  legislature.  I  know  of  no  other  state  in 
which  an  historical  society  was  organized  so  early  in  its  career. 
The  distinguished  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin,  which 
has  outdistanced  us  in  so  many  respects,  in  part  because  of  the 
more  adequate  support  to  be  expected  from  an  older  community, 
was  organized  in  the  same  year  as  our  own,  but  this  was  thirteen 
years  after  the  establishment  of  Wisconsin  Territory  and  one  year 
after  the  state  was  admitted  to  the  Union.  In  the  still  older, 
richer,  and  more  populous  state  of  Illinois,  state  historical  activity 
did  not  begin  until  1889. 

Other  speakers  this  afternoon  have  told  you  something  about 
the  work  of  this  society  in  the  past  and  have  given  credit  to  the 
men  who  have  made  it  what  it  is.  As  the  superintendent  of  the 
society,  charged  with  the  administration  of  its  affairs  under  the 
direction  of  the  executive  committee  and  council,  it  is  fitting  that 
I  should  say  something  of  its  functions  and  ideals. 


432  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  AUG. 

The  Minnesota  Historical  Society  is  distinctly  a  state  institu- 
tion, an  association  of  people  banded  together  for  the  purpose  of 
assisting  the  state  to  perform  its  recognized  duties  in  the  field  of 
history.  Its  library  and  other  possessions  are  public  property 
available  to  all  for  consultation  and  examination  under  such 
restrictions  as  are  necessary  to  ensure  their  preservation.  It  is 
also  a  popular  institution,  in  the  sense  that  membership  is  open  to 
all  who  are  sufficiently  interested  in  the  work  of  helping  the  state 
preserve  the  record  of  its  past  to  pay  the  nominal  dues.  It  is 
dependent  upon  the  people,  not  only  indirectly  for  legislative 
appropriations,  but  directly  for  invaluable  assistance  in  preserving 
material  of  the  greatest  importance  which  cannot  be  obtained  by 
purchase  in  the  regular  way.  The  people  are  therefore  entitled 
to  know  what  the  society  is  doing  and  what  are  its  plans  for  the 
future. 

It  is  impossible  in  the  limited  time  available  this  afternoon  to 
present  anything  more  than  an  outline  of  the  functions  of  the 
society.  The  first  of  these  is  the  accumulation  of  material. 
Since  there  are  five  other  large  and  growing  libraries  in  the  Twin 
Cities,  two  of  which  are  also  state  supported,  it  would  be  unwise 
for  us  to  duplicate  their  work  by  attempting  to  build  up  a  com- 
prehensive general  or  miscellaneous  library.  We  should  rather 
cultivate  intensively  a  special  field,  and  that  field  should  be  Ameri- 
can history.  Even  here  it  is  necessary  to  make  a  selection  of  the 
more  important  things ;  but  in  the  restricted  field  of  Minnesota 
material,  we  should  procure  everything  available.  This  means  not 
merely  strictly  historical  material  but  everything  bearing  in  any 
way  upon  the  state  or  any  of  its  subdivisions,  institutions,  or 
inhabitants.  An  attempt  is  made  to  procure  not  only  all  official 
publications,  however  insignificant,  but  also  the  publications  of 
semipublic  or  private  institutions,  including  churches,  societies, 
and  business  houses.  The  ephemeral  printed  matter  of  the  pres- 
ent day  is  enormous,  but  it  is  possible  to  make  a  representative 
collection  of  such  things  as  handbills,  posters,  programs  and 
advertising  literature,  which  will  be  valuable  to  the  social  historian 
in  the  future.  The  newspaper,  though  in  some  respects  notori- 
ously unreliable,  is  nevertheless  the  best  mirror  of  community 
life,  and  the  society  now  receives  every  issue  of  over  half  the 
papers  published  in  the  state.  The  files  are  contributed  by  the 


DEDICATION  EXERCISES  433 

publishers  but  the  society  bears  the  not  inconsiderable  expense  of 
binding  them. 

Much  of  the  most  valuable  material  of  history  is  in  the  form 
of  manuscripts,  and  of  these  the  state  archives  are  especially 
important.  A  survey  made  a  few  years  ago  under  the  joint 
auspices  of  the  society  and  the  public  archives  commission  of 
the  American  Historical  Association  disclosed  the  fact  that  these 
fundamental  records  of  the  activities  of  the  state  and  its  various 
departments  are  not  receiving  and  cannot  under  present  condi- 
tions receive  proper  care.  The  law  under  which  this  building  was 
erected  provided  that  it  should  be  for  the  "use  of  the  Minnesota 
historical  society  and  for  the  care,  preservation  and  protection  of 
the  State  Archives."  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  a  future  legislature 
will  empower  and,  by  adequate  appropriations,  enable  the  society 
to  take  over  the  custody  of  the  mass  of  noncurrent  records  in  the 
Capitol,  to  provide  for  their  proper  care  and  classification,  and 
to  make  them  accessible  to  historical  investigators.  Of  private 
manuscript  material  the  society  already  possesses  a  priceless  col- 
lection, particularly  in  the  papers  of  men  who  laid  the  foundations 
of  the  commonwealth.  But  we  should  acquire  much  more 
material  of  this  sort,  especially  material  illustrating  social  and 
economic  conditions  and  development,  such  as  the  records  of 
lumbering  companies,  the  files  of  manufacturing  establishments, 
and  the  papers  of  ordinary  men  in  the  ordinary  pursuits  of  life. 

With  reference  to  illustrative  material  it  is  possible  to  say  only 
a  word.  Museum  articles  which  help  to  visualize  the  life  of  the 
past  are  essential,  and  additions  must  be  made  to  the  society's 
already  large  collection  of  portraits  and  photographs.  Even 
motion  picture  films  and  phonograph  records  are  not  to  be 
scorned. 

Great  as  is  the  task  of  assembling  the  sources  of  history,  the 
task  of  arranging  and  caring  for  them  is  still  greater.  Books  and 
pamphlets  fall  within  the  ordinary  domain  of  library  science, 
requiring  only  an  adequate  staff  of  professionally  trained  assist- 
ants to  classify  and  catalogue  them  and  make  them  available  to 
the  public.  Manuscripts,  however,  require  special  treatment. 
Usually  they  must  be  cleaned,  pressed,  and  arranged  in  a  logical 
or  chronological  order,  and  then  inventories  and  calendars  are 
needed  to  enable  the  student  to  use  them  with  facility.  The 


434  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  AUG. 

administration  of  the  museum  and  picture  collections  presents 
special  problems  which  still  await  solution. 

Another  activity,  long  recognized  as  one  of  the  important  func- 
tions of  an  historical  society,  is  publication;  and  this  should  not 
be  confined  to  reminiscences,  addresses,  and  miscellaneous  articles. 
The  time  has  come  when  we  should  make  a  comprehensive  plan 
for  the  publication  of  the  significant  sources  for  the  history  of 
Minnesota,  in  order  that  their  preservation  may  be  assured  and 
that  they  may  be  available  to  students  all  over  the  world.  This 
means  the  printing  of  a  long  series  of  volumes  of  Collections, 
arranged  to  cover  all  periods  and  phases  of  the  history  of  the 
state.  It  will  involve  the  search  for  pertinent  documents  in  many 
libraries,  archive  depositories  and  private  collections  throughout 
the  country  and  even  in  Europe,  as  well  as  the  assembling  of 
material  from  our  own  files  and  from  the  state  and  local  archives 
of  Minnesota.  If  the  work  is  done  thoroughly  and  critically  it 
will  be  a  slow  process,  extending  over  an  indefinite  period  of 
time,  but  the  results  will  be  permanent  and  increasingly  valuable. 

If  history  is  to  fulfill  its  mission  in  a  democracy,  it  must  serve 
not  only  the  student  but  also  the  general  public.  Not  everyone 
has  the  time  or  inclination  for  historical  research  but  everyone 
should  have  some  knowledge  of  and  interest  in  the  history  of  his 
community.  Without  such  knowledge  and  interest,  good  citizen- 
ship is  impossible.  It  is  a  proper  function  of  a  state  historical 
society,  therefore,  to  popularize  the  results  of  scientific  investiga- 
tion, to  present  history  to  the  people  in  a  form  in  which  they  can 
and  will  assimilate  it.  There  are  many  ways  of  doing  this  :  books 
and  pamphlets  in  popular  and  attractive  form  may  be  prepared 
and  given  wide  distribution ;  illustrated  lectures  may  be  presented 
not  only  here  in  the  building  but  throughout  the  state;  special 
exhibits  may  from  time  to  time  be  arranged  in  the  museum ;  and 
the  organization  and  activity  of  local  historical  societies  may  be 
encouraged  and  directed.  The  time  will  come,  we  hope,  when  all 
these  methods  will  be  in  use  by  our  society. 

The  completion  and  dedication  of  this  building  means  increased 
opportunity  for  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  to  serve  the 
state.  Increased  opportunity  involves  increased  responsibility  and 
this  in  turn  necessitates  increased  expenditures.  The  annual 
appropriation  for  the  maintenance  of  the  society  was  increased  by 


1920  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  435 

the  last  legislature  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  thousand  dollars. 
Everyone  knows,  however,  that  the  purchasing  power  of  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars  is  less  today  than  that  of  twenty  thousand 
four  years  ago  and  very  much  less  than  that  of  twenty  thousand 
in  1905  when  the  society's  appropriation  first  reached  that  point. 
Only  by  the  most  rigid  economy,  particularly  in  the  matter  of 
salaries,  and  by  drawing  upon  the  income  from  the  permanent 
funds  of  the  society,  has  it  been  possible  to  meet  the  increased 
expenses  resulting  from  the  occupation  of  this  building.  When 
the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society  dedicated  its  building  in  1901, 
its  annual  appropriation  from  the  state  was  twenty  thousand  dol- 
lars. Today  it  is  over  three  times  that  sum.  Now  that  Minnesota 
has  invested  half  a  million  dollars  in  an  historical  building,  it  is 
confidently  believed  that  the  legislature  will  see  the  wisdom  of 
maintenance  appropriations  such  as  will  result  in  the  greatest 
possible  return  to  the  people  of  the  state. 

Though  it  is  upon  state  appropriations  that  the  society  relies 
and  should  rely  for  the  greater  part  of  its  support,  there  is  no 
reason  why  it  should  not  receive  private  contributions.  As  has 
been  pointed  out  by  our  president,  our  predecessors  of  an  earlier 
generation  gave  liberally  to  the  society ;  and  we  are  now  living  in 
part  on  the  fruits  of  their  generosity.  No  donations  or  bequests 
of  money  have  been  received  in  recent  years,  however,  partly 
perhaps,  because  the  opportunity  which  the  society  offers  for 
service  of  this  sort  has  not  been  sufficiently  emphasized.  The 
opportunities  are  unlimited,  however.  A  form  of  donation  of 
especial  value  would  be  a  fund  the  income  from  which  should  be 
devoted  to  collection,  research,  and  publication  in  some  field  of 
special  interest  to  the  donor,  such  as  the  history  of  a  religious 
organization,  an  element  of  the  population,  a  profession,  an 
industry,  or  even  the  history  of  Minnesota's  participation  in  the 
great  World  War.  What  finer  or  more  enduring  memorial  can 
be  conceived  than  a  unified  series  of  publications,  each  bearing 
the  name  of  the  fund  which  made  it  possible.  Some  of  the 
neighboring  historical  societies  have  received  large  endowment 
funds  recently,  one  of  them  receiving  over  a  quarter  of  a  million 
dollars  from  a  single  donor.  Contributions  of  this  sort,  whether 
large  or  small  and  whether  for  general  or  for  special  purposes, 


436  DEDICATION  EXERCISES  AUG. 

will  be  welcomed  by  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  and  will  be 
scrupulously  used  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  donor. 

In  the  hope  and  expectation  that  the  citizens  of  the  state  will 
give  to  the  society  the  loyal  support  so  necessary  if  it  is  to  make 
the  fullest  use  of  its  new  opportunities,  we  are  now  dedicating 
the  building  which  will  undoubtedly  be  its  home  for  many  years 
to  come.  This  day  will  long  be  remembered  in  the  annals  of  our 
society.  It  marks,  however,  not  a  culmination,  but  a  beginning. 
We  are  standing  on  the  threshold  of  a  new  epoch  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  an  epoch  in  which  democracy,  having  demonstrated 
by  force  its  right  to  exist,  will  open  the  way  for  renewed  progress 
in  all  the  fields  of  human  activity.  The  Minnesota  Historical 
Society  stands  ready  to  play  its  part  in  the  new  epoch,  to  preserve 
the  record  of  the  past  and  of  the  ever  advancing  present,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  future.  This  occasion  is  not  merely  the  dedication 
of  a  building,  it  is  also  a  rededication  of  the  society  and  the 
state  to  the  service  of  history,  and  through  history,  to  the  service 
of  mankind. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  afternoon  exercises  the  entire 
building  was  thrown  open  for  inspection,  and  hundreds  of 
members  and  friends  of  the  society,  guided  by  members  of  the 
staff,  made  the  tour  through  the  offices,  workrooms,  book- 
stacks,  reading  rooms,  museum  and  galleries.  The  delegates 
and  invited  guests  were  then  entertained  at  a  supper  served  in 
the  museum.  Since  the  reading  room  proved  too  small  to 
accommodate  the  audience  in  the  afternoon,  the  evening  session 
was  transferred  to  the  House  Chamber  in  the  Capitol.  Here 
a  large  audience  heard  the  inspiring  dedicatory  address  by  Dr. 
Frederick  J.  Turner,  professor  of  history  in  Harvard  Univer- 
sity, which  is  printed  elsewhere  in  this  number  of  the 
BULLETIN. 

In  concluding  this  account  of  the  dedication  exercises  it  is 
fitting  that  acknowledgment  be  made  to  the  St.  Paul  Associa- 
tion of  Public  and  Business  Affairs  and  to  Mr.  Charles  P. 
Noyes  for  their  generosity  in  sharing  with  the  society  the 
expenses  of  the  occasion.  The  arrangements  for  the  supper 


1920 


DEDICATION  EXERCISES 


437 


were  handled  by  a  committee  of  St.  Paul  women  composed  of 
Mrs.  George  R.  Metcalf,  chairman,  Mesdames  Charles  E. 
Furness,  Frederick  G.  Ingersoll,  Gideon  S.  Ives,  William  H. 
Lightner,  Charles  P.  Noyes,  and  Charles  W.  Williams,  and 
Misses  Lydia  Ickler  and  Hester  Pollock.  The  flowers  were 
contributed  by  Mrs.  Furness,  whose  father,  the  Honorable 
Alexander  Ramsey,  as  governor  of  the  territory,  signed  the  bill 
establishing  the  society,  and  later  served  for  many  years  as 
its  president. 


NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS 

DELEGATES  AT  THE  DEDICATION 

Thirty-eight  societies  and  institutions  are  represented  in  the 
following  list  of  officially  appointed  delegates  in  attendance 
at  the  exercises  for  the  dedication  of  the  Minnesota  Historical 
Society  building,  May  11,  1918.  The  list  has  been  compiled 
from  the  registration  cards  and  probably  is  not  complete,  as 
it  is  believed  that  some  delegates  who  were  present  failed  to 
register. 

MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  HISTORICAL  ASSOCIATION 

Dr.  St.  George  L.  Sioussat,  president 

Mrs.  Clara  Paine,  secretary 
NEW  ENGLAND  HISTORIC  GENEALOGICAL  SOCIETY 

Dr.  James  Kendall  Hosmer 
AMERICAN  JEWISH  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Mr.  Emanuel  Cohen 
AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN  FOUNDATION 

Dr.  John  E.  Granrud 
KANSAS  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Mr.  William  E.  Connelly,  secretary 
STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  OF  IOWA 

Dr.  Benjamin  F.  Shambaugh,  superintendent 
MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Dr.  Frederick  J.  Turner 

Dr.  William  Stearns  Davis 
MICHIGAN  HISTORICAL  COMMISSION 

Dr.  George  N.  Fuller,  secretary 
NEBRASKA  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Mrs.  Clara  Paine,  librarian 
STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  OF  NORTH  DAKOTA 

Dr.  Orin  G.  Libby,  secretary 

Dr.  Melvin  R.  Gilmore,  curator 
RHODE  ISLAND  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Dr.  St.  George  L.  Sioussat 

43* 


1920  DELEGATES  AT  THE  DEDICATION  439 


TEXAS  STATE  HISTORICAL  ASSOCIATION 

Dr.  August  C.  Krey 
WASHINGTON  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Mr.  Frank  B.  Cole 
STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  OF  WISCONSIN 

Dr.  Milo  M.  Quaife,  superintendent 
MINNESOTA  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCE 

Dr.  Frederick  J.  Wulling,  first  vice  president 
UNIVERSITY  OF  MINNESOTA 

Mr.  James  T.  Gerould,  librarian 

Dr.  Lotus  D.  Coffman,  dean  of  the  college  of  education 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL,  MANKATO 

Mr.  Charles  H.  Cooper,  president 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL,  ST.  CLOUD 

Mr.  Russell  G.  Booth,  instructor  in  history 

Mr.  Darius  Steward,  instructor  in  history 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL,  WINONA 

Mr.  Wilson  P.  Shortridge,  instructor  in  history 
AUGSBURG  SEMINARY,  MINNEAPOLIS 

Dr.  John  O.  Evjen,  professor  of  church  history 
CARLETON  COLLEGE,  NORTHFIELD  ' 

Dr.  Donald  J.  Cowling,  president 
HAMLINE  UNIVERSITY,  ST.  PAUL 

Dr.  Samuel  F.  Kerfoot,  president 
SEABURY  DIVINITY  SCHOOL,  FARIBAULT 

Rev.  Francis  L.  Palmer 
MINNESOTA  DAUGHTERS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION 

Mrs.  James  T.  Morris,  state  regent 
MINNESOTA  SOCIETY,  DAUGHTERS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

Mrs.  John  A.  Schlener,  state  regent 

SOCIETY  OF  COLONIAL  DAMES  OF  AMERICA  IN  THE  STATE  OF 
MINNESOTA 

Mrs.  Charles  J.  A.  Morris,  first  vice  president 
SOCIETY  OF  COLONIAL  WARS  IN  THE  STATE  OF  MINNESOTA 

Mr.  William  Gardner  White 
SONS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  IN  THE  STATE  OF  MINNESOTA 

Dr.  C.  Eugene  Riggs 
GRAND  ARMY  OF  THE  REPUBLIC,  DEPARTMENT  OF  MINNESOTA 

Colonel  William  H.  Harries 


440  NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS  AUG. 

LADIES  OF  THE  GRAND  ARMY  OF  THE  REPUBLIC,  DEPARTMENT  OF 
MINNESOTA 

Mrs.  Ida  A.  Crisp 

Mrs.  Sarah  E.  Mathews 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  D.  Slater 

Mrs.  Carrie  H.  Smith 

Mrs.  Anna  Taylor 

MILITARY  ORDER  OF  THE  LOYAL  LEGION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 
MINNESOTA  COMMANDERY 

Captain  Jeremiah  C.  Donahower,  commander 
PATTERSON  POST  No.  7,  VETERANS  OF  FOREIGN  WARS 

Mr.  Andrew  Hawkins 
NATIVE  SONS  OF  MINNESOTA 

Dr.  Arthur  M.  Eastman 

Dr.  William  E.  Leonard 
VERMILLION  RANGE  OLD  SETTLERS'  ASSOCIATION 

Mr.  John  Owens 
RED  RIVER  VALLEY  OLD  SETTLERS'  ASSOCIATION 

Mr.  Edmund  M.  Walsh 
JUNIOR  PIONEERS'  ASSOCIATION  OF  ST.  ANTHONY  FALLS 

Dr.  Arthur  M.  Eastman,  president 
HENNEPIN  COUNTY  TERRITORIAL  PIONEERS'  ASSOCIATION 

Major  Edwin  Clark,  secretary 

Mr.  George  A.  Brackett 

Mr.  Nathan  Butler 

Mr.  Caleb  D.  Dorr 

Mr.  Lysander  P.  Foster 

Hon.  John  B.  Gilfillan 

Mr.  Moses  P.  Hayes 

Mr.  Milton  C.  Stubbs 
PIPESTONE  COUNTY  OLD  SETTLERS'  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Hon.  Edward  W.  Davies,  president 

Mr.  Frank  Pearson,  secretary 

FELICITATIONS  ON  THE  NEW  HOME 

Many  of  the  societies  and  institutions  invited  to  be  repre- 
sented by  delegates  at  the  dedication  of  the  new  building  of 
the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  were  naturally  unable  to 


FELICITATIONS  ON  THE  NEW  HOME         441 

accept  the  invitation.  Most  of  them  responded,  however,  with 
letters  of  congratulation  and  expressions  of  appreciation  of 
the  work  of  the  society.  The  following  selections  from  these 
letters  illustrate  the  community  of  interests  in  the  field  of 
historical  endeavor  and  the  attitude  of  other  institutions 
toward  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society. 

AMERICAN  BAPTIST  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Your  kind  invitation  for  us  to  be  represented  at  the  dedication 
of  your  historical  building  has  been  referred  to  me  for  reply. 

We  are  very  grateful  for  the  kindness  and  regret  only  that  it 
seems  impossible  for  us  to  be  represented  as  you  request.  Please 
accept  our  sincere  interest  in  the  work  and  our  good  wishes  in  lieu 
of  our  presence  with  you  on  this  delightful  occasion. 

Respectfully  yours, 

FRANK  G.  LEWIS 

Librarian 

AMERICAN  CATHOLIC  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

On  behalf  of  the  American  Catholic  Historical  Society  of 
Philadelphia  I  beg  to  thank  you  for  your  kind  invitation  to  be 
represented  at  the  dedication  of  your  Building.  The  program 
that  you  enclosed  is  very  interesting  and  the  print  of  your  Build- 
ing shows  that  you  are  to  be  congratulated  on  having  obtained 
such  appropriate  and  artistic  results.  It  is  with  regret  that  we 
must  decline  your  invitation  due  to  the  long  distance  that  separates 
us.  We  know  however  that  our  aims  are  identical  in  seeking  the 
collation  and  perpetuation  of  the  records  of  American  history  and 
ideals ;  liberty,  equality,  fraternity  and  religious  tolerance. 

Yours  truly, 
JAMES  M.  WILLCOX 

President 

AMERICAN  JEWISH  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

It  gives  us  great  pleasure  to  extend  the  congratulations  of  the 
American  Jewish  Historical  Society  to  The  Minnesota  Historical 
Society  on  this  auspicious  event  in  its  career.  Your  society  has 


442  NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS  AUG. 

rendered  history  considerable  service  through  its  many  and  excel- 
lent publications  which  -reveal  the  rich  share  your  state  and  its 
people  have  in  the  common  development  of  our  country.  In  your 
new  building  you  should  be  able  to  extend  your  activities  and 
thereby  increase  the  measure  of  the  debt  all  students  of  American 
history  owe  you  for  your  work. 

Very  truly  yours, 

On  behalf  of  the  American  Jewish  Historical  Society, 
CYRUS  ABLER  ALBERT  M.  FRIEDENBERG 

President  Corresponding  Secretary 

AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN  FOUNDATION 

We  wish  to  congratulate  the  Society  upon  this  beautiful  new 
home  and,  more  particularly,  upon  what  you  are  doing  to  pre- 
serve the  literature  of  the  Scandinavian  settlements  in  the  North- 
west. 

We  trust  that  this  undertaking  will  inspire  and  correlate  similar 
efforts  in  various  parts  of  the  country. 

Very  truly  yours, 
HENRY  GODDARD  LEACH 

Secretary 

BUFFALO  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

The  Buffalo  Historical  Society  acknowledges  with  thanks  the 
receipt  of  your  courteous  invitation  to  be  represented  at  the  dedi- 
cation of  your  new  historical  building.  I  regret  that  it  is  not  con- 
venient to  send  a  delegate  for  that  occasion,  but  take  pleasure  in 
extending  to  you,  as  a  sister  institution,  the  hearty  congratulations 
and  best  wishes  of  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society. 
I  have  the  honor  to  remain 

Very  truly  yours, 
FRANK  H.  SEVERANCE 

Sec'y. 

CONNECTICUT  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

This  Society  finds  it  impracticable  to  send  a  representative  to 
be  present  at  the  dedication  of  your  Historical  Building  on  May 
eleventh. 


1920         FELICITATIONS  ON  THE  NEW  HOME         443 

I  am,  however,  directed  by  vote  of  the  Society  to  extend  to 
you  our  hearty  felicitations  on  that  occasion,  and  to  wish  you 
increased  usefulness  and  prosperity  in  your  new  building. 

Very  truly  yours, 

ALBERT  C.  BATES 
Recording  Secretary 

GEORGIA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Please  accept  our  sincere  thanks  for  the  honor  implied  in  your 
kind  invitation  to  be  represented  at  the  dedication  of  your  his- 
torical building  on  May  llth. 

While  it  will  be  impracticable  for  us  to  send  a  personal  repre- 
sentative to  this  important  meeting,  allow  us  to  congratulate  you 
upon  the  event,  and  to  wish  for  your  Society  that  great  degree  of 
usefulness  which  its  high  purposes  so  richly  deserve.  We  send 
you  our  greetings  and  best  wishes  from  the  empire  State  of  the 
South. 

Very  respectfully, 

OTIS  ASHMORE 
Corresponding  Secretary 

MASSACHUSETTS  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Let  me  congratulate  your  Society  on  possessing  these  spacious 
new  quarters  and  wish  it  continued  and  increasing  activity. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 
WILLIAM  ROSCOE  THAYER 
Corresponding  Secretary 

STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL,  ST.  CLOUD,  MINNESOTA 

I  wish  to  thank  you  for  the  invitation  to  have  a  representative 
of  the  school  present  at  the  dedication  of  the  historical  building 
on  May  llth. 

I  assure  you  that  the  school  will  probably  be  represented  on  this 
occasion.  We  rejoice  with  the  members  of  your  Society  upon 
the  completion  of  this  excellent  building. 

Sincerely  yours, 

J.  C.  BROWN 

President 


444  NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS  AUG. 

MISSOURI  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

The  Missouri  Historical  Society  acknowledges  the  kind  invita- 
tion of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  to  be  represented  at  the 
dedication  of  the  new  historical  building,  and  expresses  its  thanks 
and  appreciation  of  this  courtesy.  It  regrets  very  much  its  inabil- 
ity to  send  a  representative,  and  takes  this  occasion  to  congratu- 
late the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  on  the  splendid  progress  it 
has  made  and  wishes  to  extend  its  best  wishes  for  its  continued 
success. 

Missouri  Historical  Society 

STELLA  M.  DRUMM 

Librarian 

NEW  JERSEY  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

I  wish,  ori  behalf  of  our  Society,  to  congratulate  you  on  the 
building,  the  picture  of  which  shows  that  it  is  in  every  wise 
worthy  of  your  very  important  position  as  a  Society.  We  are  well 
aware  that  you  are  doing  good  work. 

Yours  very  truly, 
A.  V.  D.  HONEYMAN 
Corresponding  Secretary 

NEW  YORK  GENEALOGICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY 

The  New  York  Genealogical  and  Biographical  Society  acknowl- 
edges with  thanks  the  courteous  invitation  of  the  Minnesota  His- 
torical Society  to  be  present  at  the  dedication  of  their  new  build- 
ing on  the  occasion  of  the  Sixtieth  Anniversary  of  the  admission 
of  Minnesota  to  the  Union,  May  llth,  1918,  and  regrets  that 
remoteness  from  the  centre  of  its  activity  will  prevent  represen- 
tatives of  our  Society  being  officially  present  at  the  dedication. 

The  New  York  Genealogical  and  Biographical  Society  is  actu- 
ated by  sentiments  of  legitimate  envy  in  viewing  the  pictorial 
presentation  of  your  new  home,  and  is  living  in  the  hope  that  in 
the  near  future  it  may  be  able  to  emulate  the  example  of  your 
active  and  energetic  society  and  to  welcome  you  to  its  new  build- 
ing in  New  York  City  the  site  for  which  is  already  provided 
and  paid  for. 


1920          FELICITATIONS  ON  THE  NEW  HOME          445 

Trusting  that  all  success  may  attend  this  important  dedication 
ceremony  and  assuring  you,  our  sister  Society,  of  our  sympathy 
and  congratulations,  I  beg  to  subscribe  myself  in  the  name  of  the 
New  York  Genealogical  and  Biographical  Society. 

Very  truly  yours, 

JOHN  R.  TOTTEN 
Chairman  Executive  Committee 

RHODE  ISLAND  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

I  very  greatly  regret  that  I  cannot  myself  attend  the  exercises 
in  connection  with  the  dedication  of  your  new  building.  Happily 
however  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society  will  be  ably  repre- 
sented by  one  of  its  distinguished  members,  Professor  St.  George 
L.  Sioussat,  President  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Asso- 
ciation. 

Felicitating  you  upon  the  completion  of  your  new  building  and 
wishing  for  your  Society  continued  success  in  the  historical  work 
it  is  carrying  on  I  am  Very  tmly  yours> 

WILFRED  H.  MUNRO 

President 

TENNESSEE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

It  is  with  regret  that  we  must  decline  personal  representation 
on  this  interesting  occasion.  However,  we  are  very  appreciative 
of  recognition  and  desire  to  express  our  congratulations  on  the 
attainment  of  the  much  desired  new  building  by  your  society. 
You  have  our  continued  good  wishes  for  further  prosperity  and 

Pr°£ress-  Very  truly  yours, 

W.  A.  PROVINE 
Corresponding  Secretary 

TEXAS  STATE  HISTORICAL  ASSOCIATION 

We  congratulate  you  upon  the  completion  of  this  excellent 
building  and  trust  that  it  will  make  it  possible  for  your  Society 
to  even  further  enlarge  its  effective  and  useful  work  in  behalf  of 

history-  Very  truly  yours, 

CHAS.  W.  RAMSDELL 

Cor.  Secretary 


446  NOTES  AND  DOCUMENTS  AUG. 

VIRGINIA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

Please  accept  the  sincere  thanks  of  this  Society  for  your  invi- 
tation to  be  represented  at  the  dedication  of  your  new  building. 
There  is  no  organization  in  the  country  which  can  [more]  appre- 
ciate the  need  of  a  new  and  convenient  building  in  which  to  do  its 
work  and  house  its  collection.  Therefore  we  can,  with  especial 
heartiness,  congratulate  you  on  your  new  home.  I  regret  that 
we  cannot,  except  in  spirit,  be  present  on  such  a  pleasant  occasion. 
With  best  wishes  from  our  Society — 

Yours  truly, 
W.  G.  STANARD 

Cor.  Secty. 

WASHINGTON  STATE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

On  behalf  of  the  Officers  and  members  of  the  Washington 
State  Historical  Society,  we  congratulate  you  on  this  auspicious 
occasion.  The  privilege  of  dedicating  an  Historical  Building  is 
a  happy  one. 

Complying  with  your  couretous  request,  that  our  society  be 
represented  at  the  Dedication,  we  have  the  honor  of  naming  Mr. 
Frank  B.  Cole,  of  Tacoma,  Washington — a  life  member  of  our 
society — as  our  delegate,  and  ask  that  he  may  have  the  privilege 
of  presenting  to  you  our  felicitations. 

Respectfully  Yours, 

W.    P.    BONNEY 

Secretary 

WYOMING  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

I  wish  to  congratulate  you  upon  your  splendid  success  in  build- 
ing this  fine  new  home  for  your  Society.  It  would  have  given 
me  great  pleasure  to  have  represented  the  Wyoming  Historical 
Society  at  your  celebration. 

Very  sincerely, 
AGNES  R.  WRIGHT 

Custodian 


1920          FELICITATIONS  ON  THE  NEW  HOME          447 
MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY  HISTORICAL  ASSOCIATION 


, 

Resolution  adopted  at  its  meeting  in  St.  Paul,  May  9,  10,  n,  1918 
RESOLVED  :  That  we  express  our  pleasure  and  our  congratula- 
tions to  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  upon  the  occasion  of  the 
dedication  of  its  new  historical  building,  the  use  of  which  has 
added  to  the  pleasures  and  profit  of  this  gathering. 


REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS 

Minnesota  Geographic  Names;  Their  Origin  and  Historic  Sig- 
nificance (Minnesota  Historical  Collections,  vol.  17).  By 
WARREN  UPHAM.  (St.  Paul,  Minnesota  Historical  Society, 
1920.  viii,  735  p.) 

The  subject  of  the  origin  and  significance  of  names,  either 
personal  and  family  names  or  names  of  places,  is  one  of  unending 
and  alluring  interest.  Every  name  carries  a  volume  of  history. 
Place  names  often  have  come  from  aboriginal  sources.  Some- 
times they  have  passed  down  through  time  in  almost  perfect 
original  form,  but  many  times  they  can  scarcely  be  recognized, 
so  mutilated  have  they  been  by  alien  tongues,  sometimes  even  by 
a  succession  of  tongues  alien  to  each  other  and  to  the  original; 
as,  for  instance,  a  place  name  which  came  originally  from  one  or 
another  of  the  Indian  languages,  then  was  either  corrupted  in 
pronunciation  or  translated,  and  finally  was  corrupted  by  the 
English  from  the  French. 

But  every  name  carries  its  story  of  wonder,  of  beauty,  of 
romance,  or  of  devotion  and  sacrifice  and  heroism ;  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  name  may  tell  of  sordidness,  meanness,  grasping 
avarice,  or  vulgar  vacuity  of  mind  in  those  who  first  affixed  it. 
Place  names  may  even  sometimes  originate  in  the  most  frivolous 
aggregation  of  mutilated  fractions  of  real  words.  The  name  of 
the  Cayuna  Iron  Range,  for  example,  was  made  by  sticking 
together  fractions  of  the  names  of  a  certain  man  and  his  dog; 
others  have  been  made  by  fragmenting  two  meaningful  words 
and  then  putting  two  unrelated  fragments  together  to  form  a 
meaningless  vocable  like  Itasca,  on  a  par  with  such  devices  as 
the  well-known  trade  names  "kodak,"  "uneeda,"  and  "takoma." 

Whoever  undertakes  and  faithfully  carries  out  the  task  of  com- 
piling the  place  names  of  a  state,  with  their  derivation  and  sig- 
nificance, performs  a  praiseworthy  accomplishment  and  does  a 
distinct  public  service.  Such  a  work  has  been  produced  for  the 
state  of  Minnesota  by  Dr.  Warren  Upham  in  his  Minnesota  Geo- 
graphic Names.  This  is  a  careful,  painstaking,  and  conscientious 


1920   SKARSTEDT:  SWEDISH-AMERICAN  PEOPLE   449 

study  of  the  origin  and,  so  far  as  possible,  an  exposition  of  the 
meaning  of  the  names  of  all  the  natural  features,  as  lakes,  streams, 
hills,  and  valleys,  and  of  the  political  divisions,  as  counties,  towns, 
and  cities  of  the  state.  This  is  a  most  noteworthy  work,  the 
result  of  a  vast  amount  of  diligent,  persistent,  and  painstaking 
labor.  It  is  one  more  monument  to  the  indefatigable  labors  of 
Dr.  Upham.  The  Minnesota  Historical  Society  is  to  be  con- 
gratulated upon  the  issuance  of  this  work.  It  is  to  be  wished  that 
every  state  might  have  wrought  out  for  it  as  good  and  full  an 
account  of  its  place  names  as  this  which  has  been  written  for 
Minnesota. 

MELVIN  RANDOLPH  GILMORE 

Vagabond  och  redaktor:  lefnadsoden  och  tidsbilder.  By  ERNST 
SKARSTEDT.  (Seattle,  Washington  Printing  Company,  1914. 
410  p.  Illustrations.) 

Svensk-amerikanska  folket  i  helg  och  sock  en:  strodda  blad  ur 
svensk-amerikanernas  historia,  deras  oden  och  bedrifter, 
nederlag  och  segrar,  livsintressen  och  forstroelser,  j'dmte 
biografiska  uppgifter  om  ett  antal  mdrkesmdn.  By  ERNST 
SKARSTEDT.  (Stockholm,  Bjorck  and  Borjesson,  1917. 
450  p.  Illustrations.) 

The  reader  of  Ernst  Skarstedt's  Vagabond  och  redaktor  would 
hardly  expect  to  find  in  the  same  author's  Svensk-amerikanska 
folket  i  helg  och  so'cken  the  most  comprehensive  and  in  many 
respects  the  best  balanced  and  most  sympathetic  account  of  the 
Swedish-Americans  yet  written.  Journalist,  musician,  carpenter, 
farmer,  book  agent,  tramp,  truckman,  photographer,  essayist, 
skeptic,  humorist,  and  philistine,  Mr.  Skarstedt  can  scarcely  be 
said  to  embody  the  essential  qualifications  of  an  historian;  but 
his  delightful  style,  insatiable  appetite  for  reading,  wide  acquaint- 
ance, extensive  traveling,  and  keen  understanding  of  human 
nature  more  than  make  up  for  his  shortcomings.  The  translator 
who  can  do  justice  to  the  sparkling  pages  of  these  two  books, 
which  contribute  so  much  to  our  knowledge  of  the  emigration, 
settlement,  and  progress  of  the  Swedish  people  in  America,  will 
be  welcomed. 


450  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  AUG. 

Chapters  of  the  experiences  of  the  eccentric  "vagabond  and 
editor"  appeared  first  in  a  New  York  magazine,  Valkyr ian,  in  the 
spring  of  1899  under  the  title  "A  Dog's  Life  for  Eighteen 
Months."  His  earlier  volume  is  an  autobiography,  which  begins 
with  his  arrival  in  the  United  States,  January  4,  1879,  and  ends 
with  the  date  January  20,  1889,  thus  constituting  a  chapter  in  the 
history  of  the  Swedish-Americans  in  the  decade  of  the  eighties, 
when  the  migration  from  Sweden  was  at  flood  tide.  Like  thou- 
sands of  his  countrymen  the  author  was  dissatisfied  with  condi- 
tions in  the  old  country  and  determined  to  cast  his  lot  with  the 
citizens  of  the  exuberant  republic  in  the  New  World.  Arriving 
at  Litchfield,  Minnesota,  his  first  job  consisted  in  caring  for 
horses  and  a  cow,  sawing  wood,  and  attending  to  the  duties 
usually  incumbent  on  a  hand.  Not  finding  the  extreme  Minnesota 
winter  to  his  liking,  after  a  few  weeks  he  left  for  the  pioneer 
Swedish  settlements  around  Salina,  Lindsborg,  and  Marquette, 
Kansas,  where  he  found  employment  as  a  farmer,  carpenter,  and 
journalist.  The  monotonous  Kansas  prairies  and  the  provincialism 
of  the  puritan  Lindsborg  colony  could  not  for  long  satisfy  the 
restless  lad  of  twenty-two,  and  after  about  a  year  he  found  him- 
self in  a  box  car  in  company  with  a  half  dozen  tramps  bound  for 
Denver,  where  he  was  immediately  taken  into  custody  by  a  special 
railway  police.  Here  he  undertook  the  strenuous  life  of  a  truck- 
man in  a  freight  depot,  which  was  speedily  succeeded  by  more 
congenial  employment  in  the  office  of  a  Swedish  newspaper  in 
Chicago.  Mr.  Skarstedt's  residence  in  this  city  was  interrupted 
by  a  trip  to  Missouri  in  the  interest  of  his  paper  and  a  sojourn 
in  Minnesota,  prompted  by  the  failing  health  of  his  wife. 

In  March,  1885,  the  Skarstedt  family  moved  to  Portland,  and 
the  last  part  of  the  book  is  concerned  with  experiences  and  occu- 
pations in  the  Puget  Sound  country  and  a  trip  to  Sweden,  in 
1885-86.  Mr.  Skarstedt  writes: 

Somehow  or  other,  America  appeared  to  us  to  be  far  ahead  of 
Sweden  in  most  respects,  and  for  this  reason  nothing-  irritated  me 
more  than  to  hear  persons  who  had  not  the  least  knowledge  of 
America  pronounce  hostile  judgments  about  the  civilization  and  state 
of  affairs  in  that  country,  pity  the  emigrants,  and  belittle  and  profane 
the  opportunities  they  enjoyed.  .  .  .  And  there  were  many  other 


1920   SKARSTEDT:  SWEDISH-AMERICAN  PEOPLE   451 

things  that  went  against  the  grain.  There  was  a  touchiness  on 
matters  of  precedence,  an  overbearingness  on  the  one  side  and  a 
cringing  on  the  other,  an  obvious  contempt  for  manual  labor,  a 
disposition  to  put  on  airs,  a  superficiality  and  an  emptiness,  which 
was  most  irritating.  In  America  the  idea  would  be  ridiculed  that 
anybody  could  consider  himself  too  good  or  too  fine  or  too  aristo- 
cratic to  carry  a  traveling  bag  or  a  package.  But  there  a  member 
of  the  upper  classes  could  not  carry  anything  or  perform  manual 
labor  in  public. 

Naturally,  Mr.  Skarstedt's  reminiscences  are  concerned  mainly 
with  events  and  incidents  in  which  he  played  a  part;  but  his 
pages  abound  in  character  sketches  of  pioneers  and  descriptions 
of  conditions  in  communities  of  which  he  was  a  member,  and  in 
these  his  humor  and  sarcasm  are  allowed  free  rein. 

In  writing  his  book  on  the  Swedish- Americans  Mr.  Skarstedt 
has  reaped  the  results  of  extensive  travel  in  this  country  and  in 
Sweden  and  of  the  collection  of  material  extending  over  a  long 
period  of  time.  He  has  marshalled  a  formidable  amount  of 
information,  and  has  presented  it  in  a  fashion  very  much  out  of 
the  ordinary.  The  fact  that  it  was  written  for  readers  in  Sweden 
lends  additional  value  to  the  book.  The  author  has  sought  to 
correct  the  erroneous  conception  of  the  problems  and  achieve- 
ments of  Swedish- Americans  prevalent  in  his  native  land — a  task 
accomplished  without  offense  to  the  most  sensitive.  He  argues 
that  the  great  exodus  from  Sweden  has  worked  to  the  benefit  of 
the  mother  country,  the  adopted  country,  and  the  emigrants. 
The  seriousness  of  the  loss  of  thousands  of  enterprising  farmers 
and  laborers  is  balanced  by  the  relief  of  economic  pressure  in  the 
homeland  and  the  inflow  of  millions  of  dollars  sent  there  by 
prosperous  American  farmers  and  artisans.  The  citizen  of 
Sweden  who  revels  in  the  glorious  traditions  and  history  of  his 
country  may  not  welcome  the  assertion  that  the  average  Swedish- 
American  does  not  cherish  the  attachment  to  the  mother  country 
attributed  to  the  German-American,  the  Norwegian-American, 
and  the  people  of  certain  other  nationalities.  The  memory  of  his 
birthplace  and  friends  and  relatives  left  behind  lingers,  but  pride 
in  Swedish  citizenship  vanishes  like  the  rainbow.  The  author 
liberally  discounts  the  sentiments  expressed  by  Swedish-Ameri- 
can speakers  on  occasions  when  distinguished  visitors  from 


452  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  AUG. 

Sweden  are  honored;  he  doubts  that  they  voice  the  sentiments 
of  the  multitude.  "Sometimes  it  seems  that  the  most  recent 
Americans  are  the  most  patriotic,"  writes  a  Swedish-American, 
"just  as  the  religious  convert  is  the  most  zealous."  The  Swedes, 
according  to  Mr.  Skarstedt,  deem  it  an  unusual  honor  to  be 
counted  among  the  Americans.  Their  homes  are  furnished  in 
true  American  style ;  with  few  exceptions  their  books  are  English ; 
the  pictures  which  adorn  their  homes  are  of  American  work- 
manship. When  children  are  asked  what  part  of  Sweden  claims 
the  parental  home  of  their  parents,  ninety-nine  times  out  of  a 
hundred  the  reply  is,  "I  don't  know."  To  find  the  children  of 
immigrants  proficient  in  the  use  of  Swedish  is  most  rare.  Mr. 
Skarstedt  sees  no  probability  of  success  in  any  effort  to  induce 
immigrants  to  return  to  their  former  homes.  Their  attachment 
to  America,  especially  that  of  the  women  and  children,  is  too 
deep-seated  ;  to  convince  them  that  in  Sweden  the  doors  of  oppor- 
tunity swing  open  as  wide  as  in  America  is  impossible. 

Mr.  Skarstedt  does  not  claim  to  have  written  a  history,  but 
rather  a  book  of  reference  for  those  seeking  enlightenment  on  the 
experiences  of  immigrants — their  interests,  ways  of  thinking, 
aspirations,  and  economic  circumstances ;  their  estimates  of  them- 
selves as  well  as  what  others  have  said  about  them.  He  has, 
however,  drawn  liberally  on  the  works  of  standard  historians 
like  Erik  Norelius,  Olof  N.  Nelson,  Alfred  Soderstrom,  and 
Ernst  W.  Olson,  as  well  as  on  those  of  Swedish  and  Swedish- 
American  authors,  and  on  church  publications,  souvenir  albums, 
statistics,  and  compilations.  His  two  chapters  on  the  history  of 
Swedish  settlements,  churches,  and  educational  institutions  are 
compact,  full  of  facts,  and  well  written.  He  has  apportioned  an 
appropriate  amount  of  space  to  the  various  religious  denomina- 
tions— Methodists,  Episcopalians,  Lutherans,  Baptists,  and  Mis- 
sion Friends — and  he  has  dealt  with  each  in  a  sympathetic  spirit. 

No  other  work  approaches  the  present  volume  in  the  compre- 
hensive treatment  of  the  cultural  development  of  the  Swedish- 
Americans.  One  chapter  is  given  to  a  discussion  of  Swedish 
societies  and  the  part  that  Swedish-Americans  have  played  in  the 
realm  of  music.  The  author's  interest  in  art,  journalism,  and 
literature,  and  his  wide  acquaintance  with  prominent  men  in  these 
fields  is  revealed  in  a  long  chapter,  consisting  of  a  general  survey 


1920     OSBORN:   HAMLINE  IN  THE  WORLD  WAR    453 

of  these  subjects  and  excellent  biographical  sketches.  In  com- 
piling a  chronological  history  of  Swedish-American  newspapers 
and  listing  many  productions  of  Swedish-American  authors,  pub- 
lications of  churches,  publication  houses,  newspapers,  business 
concerns,  and  other  organizations,  the  author  has  rendered  a 
service  for  which  scholars  may  be  duly  grateful.  "Swedish- 
Americans  among  Americans"  is  the  rather  unusual  title  of  a 
chapter  which  sets  forth  the  work  of  men  of  Swedish  parentage 
who  have  attained  prominence  in  fields  of  endeavor  not  directly 
connected  with  the  progress  of  their  own  nationality.  In  some 
respects  the  author  is  at  his  best  in  the  three  last  chapters: 
"Swedish-American  Types,  Characteristics  and  Eccentricities," 
"Pictures  and  Episodes  in  Swedish- American  Life,"  and  "The 
So-called  Swedish-American  Language."  The  reviewer  laments 
the  fact  that  only  those  who  understand  the  Swedish  language 
and  have  heard  at  first  hand  the  ludicrous  combination  of  Swedish 
and  English  so  common  in  pioneer  communities  can  appreciate 
the  mirth-provoking  perversion  of  the  mother  tongue. 

The  work  of  Mr.  Skarstedt  is  of  such  a  high  order,  the 
numerous  illustrations  so  excellent,  and  the  general  make-up  of 
the  book  so  satisfactory,  that  one  can  find  little  incentive  to  look 
for  flaws.  A  good  index,  a  classified  bibliography,  and  greater 
care  in  the  spelling  of  proper  names  would  have  disarmed  the 
most  carping  critic. 

GEORGE  M.  STEPHENSON 

Hamline  University  in  the  World  War.  By  HENRY  L.  OSBORN, 
professor  of  biology  and  dean  of  the  faculty.  (St.  Paul, 
1920.  64  p.) 

In  this  little  book  Professor  Osborn  gives  permanent  form 
to  an  historical  record  the  value  of  which,  both  to  Hamline  Uni- 
versity and  to  the  community  at  large,  will  become  increasingly 
apparent  as  the  years  go  by.  After  paying  tribute,  in  a  series  of 
short  biographical  sketches,  to  the  Hamline  men  who  lost  their 
lives  in  the  service,  the  author  tells  the  story  of  Hamline's  war 
services  and  of  the  effects  of  the  war  upon  the  life  of  the  institu- 
tion. Every  phase  of  the  subject,  such  as  the  training  of  young 
men  for  military  service,  the  women's  work  of  mercy,  the  institu- 


454  REVIEWS  OF  BOOKS  AUG. 

tion  of  special  war  courses,  the  early  formation  and  subsequent 
history  of  the  famous  Hamline  Ambulance  Unit,  is  set  forth  in 
dignified  language  with  a  minimum  of  rhetoric  and  a  maximum 
of  inspiring  fact. 

Part  two  of  the  book  is  devoted  to  lists  of  names,  with  brief 
records,  of  Hamline  professsors,  alumni,  and  undergraduates  in 
the  service,  followed  by  a  roster  showing  the  organization  and 
personnel  of  the  Hamline  Students'  Army  Training  Corps.  The 
summary  given  shows  a  total  of  five  hundred  and  fifty-eight, 
including  members  of  the  Students'  Army  Training  Corps,  in  the 
service.  Of  these  eighty-two  were  commissioned  officers,  two 
won  the  Distinguished  Service  Cross,  nine  were  awarded  the 
Croix  de  Guerre,  and  eight  never  came  back. 

In  getting  this  information  together  Professor  Osborn  has 
rendered  a  service  to  the  community  as  well  as  to  Hamline  Uni- 
versity. His  book  will  be  particularly  useful  in  connection  with 
the  compilation  of  the  war  history  of  St.  Paul  and  Ramsey  County 
which  is  now  under  way.  The  example  set  should  be  followed 
by  every  local  institution  or  organization,  in  this  or  any  other 
community,  which  rendered  important  patriotic  services  during 
the  great  conflict  and  which  has  any  pride  in  its  achievements. 

FRANKLIN  F.  HOLBROOK 

Memoirs  of  France  and  the  Eighty-eighth  Division:  Being  a 
Review  Without  Official  Character  of  the  Experiences  of 
the  "Cloverleaf"  Division  in  the  Great  World  War  from 
ip/7  to  1919,  with  Special  Histories  of  the  3$2d  Inf.,  337th 
F.  A.  and  33$th  F.  A.  Compiled  by  EDGAR  J.  D.  LARSON, 
captain  infantry,  Eighty-eighth  Division  headquarters. 
(Minneapolis,  1920.  173  p.  Illustrations.) 

This  unofficial  history  supplements  in  a  number  of  ways  the 
more  authoritative  account  of  the  Eighty-eighth  Division  reviewed 
in  a  previous  number  of  the  BULLETIN  (see  ante,  pp.  217-219). 
The  earlier  volume  was  prepared  to  furnish  those  who  seek  an 
account  of  the  activities  and  accomplishments  of  the  division 
with  a  reference  book;  the  present  volume  was  written  for  the 
individuals  who  made  those  accomplishments  possible,  who  par- 
ticipated in  the  events  recounted,  who  were  members  of  the 


1920          LARSON:   EIGHTY-EIGHTH  DIVISION          455 

Eighty-eighth  Division.  Its  appeal  is  to  the  wearer  of  the 
cloverleaf  insignia  rather  than  to  the  student  of  history ;  it  was 
published  "to  preserve  in  permanent  form,  memories  of  a  trying 
period  .  .  .  for  the  benefit  of  the  members  of  the  Eighty-eighth 
Division,"  and  to  supply  the  need  for  a  "book  containing  the 
story  of  the  individual  American  soldier,"  rather  than  to  present 
a  general  history  of  the  division.  Thus  only  a  brief  resume  of 
the  story  of  the  division  is  contained,  and  an  extended  section  is 
devoted  to  "Personal  Narratives  and  Reminiscences,"  including 
the  stories  of  a  number  of  Minnesotans.  Conspicuous  among 
these  is  a  "recital  of  the  adventures"  of  Captain  Orren  E.  Safford 
of  Minneapolis  and  Captain  Henry  A.  House,  formerly  of  Duluth, 
who  were  captured  by  the  enemy  and  confined  in  a  German 
prison  from  which  they  later  escaped  (pp.  25-31). 

The  distinct  contribution  of  the  volume  to  the  recorded  history 
of  the  division  consists,  however,  of  special  accounts  of  four 
units :  the  352nd  United  States  Infantry,  the  163rd  United 
States  Field  Artillery  Brigade,  and  the  337th  and  339th  regiments 
United  States  Field  Artillery.  The  two  latter  narratives  are 
supplemented  by  rosters,  which  appear  in  the  appendix  (pp. 
163-172).  The  value  of  this  material  is  enhanced  by  the  fact 
that  both  accounts  and  rosters  of  field  artillery  units  are  missing 
in  the  earlier  history  of  The  88th  Division  m  the  World  War. 

Considerable  space  is  devoted  to  an  "Album  Section"  similar 
to  those  contained  in  most  county  war  histories;  and  numerous 
other  excellent  illustrations  are  scattered  throughout  the  volume, 
some  of  which  are  reproduced  from  photographs  in  the  "battery 
books"  of  officers.  A  map  showing  the  "Travels  of  Main  Units 
of  88th  Div."  forms  the  frontispiece;  several  interesting  charts 
comparing  the  records  of  the  Eighty-eighth  and  other  divisions 
appear  (p.  6)  ;  and  "Facsimile  Copies  of  Armistice  Editions  of 
U.  S.  Newspapers  and  88th  Division  Publications"  make  up  a 
novel  portion  of  the  appendix  (pp.  152-156). 

BERTHA  L.  HEILBRON 


MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES 

At  no  time  since  the  dedication  of  the  society's  building  has 
it  seemed  feasible,  in  view  of  the  expense  involved,  to  bring  out 
the  volume  which  was  planned  to  serve  as  a  commemorative 
record  of  that  occasion.  It  has  seemed  best,  therefore,  rather 
than  delay  longer,  to  give  up  the  larger  plan  and  to  publish  part 
of  the  material  intended  for  that  volume  in  this  "Dedication 
Number"  of  the  BULLETIN. 

The  long  awaited  work  on  Minnesota  Geographic  Names  by 
Dr.  Upham,  the  society's  archeologist,  was  finally  received  from 
the  printer  in  May  and  has  been  distributed.  Because  of  the 
increased  costs  of  printing  and  binding  only  a  small  edition  was 
issued  and  copies  have  been  sent,  as  a  rule,  only  to  such  of  the 
active  members  as  filled  out  and  returned  a  request  card  sent  to 
them  for  that  purpose.  Copies  will  now  be  sent,  as  long  as  the 
supply  holds  out,  to  any  members,  whether  active,  corresponding, 
or  honorary,  upon  receipt  of  a  request.  A  few  copies  are  avail- 
able for  sale  to  nonmembers  at  $3.50  each. 

Fifteen  new  members,  all  active,  were  enrolled  during  the 
quarter  ending  June  30 :  Frederic  M.  Fogg,  Allan  L.  Firestone, 
Hiram  D.  Frankel,  Harriet  W.  Sewall,  and  Glen  R.  Townsend  of 
St.  Paul ;  Mrs.  Mary  P.  Allen,  Edward  J.  Brown,  Mrs.  Jeannette 
M.  Daniel,  Julius  E.  Miner,  Mrs.  Maria  H.  Miner,  and  Elsa  R. 
Nordin  of  Minneapolis;  William  L.  Hilliard  of  Lengby; 
Trevanion  W.  Hugo  of  Duluth;  Adolph  Sucker  of  Lewisville; 
and  Dr.  Louis  H.  Roddis  of  the  United  States  Medical  Corps, 
now  stationed  at  San  Diego,  California.  The  society  has  lost  dur- 
ing the  same  period  one  active  member,  Robert  B.  C.  Bement  of 
St.  Paul,  who  died  May  7,  1920. 

Two  important  positions  on  the  staff  became  vacant  in  May  as 
the  results  of  the  resignations  of  Miss  Dorothy  A.  Heinemann, 
editorial  assistant,  and  Miss  Ilona  B.  Schmidt,  head  cataloguer. 
The  editorial  position  has  been  filled  by  the  appointment  of  Miss 

456 


HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  457 

Mary  E.  Wheelhouse,  of  the  staff  of  the  Illinois  State  Historical 
Library,  who  took  up  the  work  July  1 ;  but  so  far  no  competent 
person  has  been  found  who  will  accept  the  position  of  head 
cataloguer  at  the  salary  available. 

The  society's  building  was  inspected  recently  by  the  state 
architect  of  North  Dakota  with  a  view  to  getting  suggestions  for 
the  Memorial  Building  to  be  erected  at  Bismarck  for  the  use  of 
the  State  Historical  Society  of  North  Dakota.  He  expressed 
himself  as  being  much  pleased  with  the  design  and  plan  of  the 
Minnesota  building. 

The  manuscript  collections  of  the  society  are  rapidly  becoming 
more  and  more  useful  not  only  to  research  students  but  also  to 
all  persons  and  organizations  interested  in  various  phases  of  local 
history.  During  the  past  quarter  two  talks  have  been  given  by 
the  curator  to  high  school  history  classes  on  the  use  of  manuscript 
material  in  the  writing  of  history,  and  the  system  of  filing  and 
caring  for  manuscripts  was  quite  fully  explained  to  a  visiting 
class  from  the  summer  school  for  librarians  at  the  university. 
One  study  club  of  Minneapolis  has  sent  its  program  committee 
to  look  through  the  collections  for  material  for  a  course  in  local 
history  which  that  club  will  pursue  during  the  winter.  A  repre- 
sentative from  the  United  States  Weather  Bureau  has  consulted 
old  meteorological  records  kept  at  Fort  Snelling  and  in  St.  Paul 
in  the  early  days  for  statistics  to  be  used  in  a  study  of  changes 
in  Minnesota  weather  during  the  last  half  century.  A  mission 
field  agent  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  has  consulted 
original  records  and  accounts  of  early  missions  among  the  Indians 
of  Minnesota.  A  local  novelist  has  used  an  old  diary  of  frontier 
days  in  his  latest  novel.  A  student  of  the  history  of  Methodism 
in  Minnesota  has  spent  considerable  time  in  the  manuscript  room, 
and  two  university  professors,  one  from  Minnesota  and  the  other 
from  Chicago,  have  made  use  of  valuable  source  material  in  the 
collections.  Reporters  and  feature  writers  for  the  local  news- 
papers are  regular  visitors  to  the  manuscript  division,  where  they 
frequently  find  material  for  special  articles  for  the  Sunday  edi- 
tions of  their  papers. 


458  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  AUG. 

The  receipt  of  the  seven  new  table  cases,  purchased  with  the 
remnant  of  the  building  equipment  fund,  has  considerably  in- 
creased the  facilities  for  the  display  of  special  exhibits  in  the 
museum.  Such  exhibits  recently  installed  include  an  Indian  scout 
costume,  O  jib  way  clothing,  Indian  ceremonial  stones,  Mandan 
bone  implements,  a  group  of  Minnesota  immigration  pamphlets, 
a  collection  of  rare  postage  stamps  loaned  by  Dr.  John  M.  Arm- 
strong of  St.  Paul,  and  selections  from  the  autograph  collection 
of  Mr.  Joseph  G.  Heyn  of  Minneapolis. 

During  April  and  May  the  museum  was  visited  by  55  different 
classes  or  groups  from  schools  with  a  total  of  1,336  pupils  accom- 
panied by  64  teachers.  Over  half  of  these  classes  came  from 
schools  outside  of  St.  Paul,  many  of  them  located  thirty  or  forty 
miles  from  the  building.  Reports  from  teachers  indicate  that 
these  visits  are  of  considerable  educational  value. 

The  children's  history  hours  in  the  museum  were  brought  to  a 
close  for  the  season  with  two  talks  by  the  curator,  on  "Minnesota 
Pioneers,"  April  10,  and  on  "Pioneer  Life  in  Minnesota,"  April 
24.  Thirteen  of  these  meetings  were  held  during  the  year  with 
a  total  attendance  of  1,281. 

A  series  of  historic  trips  to  places  around  the  Twin  Cities, 
which  was  begun  on  May  29  by  an  excursion  to  old  Fort  Snelling 
and  Mendota,  has  proved  to  be  a  big  success,  and  much  interest 
has  been  aroused  in  the  historic  past  of  the  localities  visited. 
Strangers  in  the  Twin  Cities  have  taken  advantage  of  the  trips 
to  learn  more  about  the  region,  and  teachers  from  the  high  schools 
appear  to  have  found  them  of  value.  Sixty-five  persons  went 
on  the  excursion  to  Indian  Mounds  Park  and  Battle  Creek,  June 
12,  and  twenty-six  on  the  trip  to  the  site  of  the  Pond  Mission  at 
Lake  Calhoun,  June  26.  The  many  questions  asked  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  parties  showed  the  interest  in  the  subjects  discussed 
by  the  curator. 

The  St.  Paul  chapter  of  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution held  a  meeting  in  the  society's  auditorium  on  the  afternoon 
of  April  13,  at  which  the  curator  of  the  museum  spoke  on  the 
possibilities  of  cooperation  between  the  Daughters  and  the  Minne- 


1920  ACCESSIONS  459 

sola  Historical  Society.  Following  the  meeting  tea  was  served 
in  the  west  hall.  A  special  historical  committee  was  appointed 
at  a  later  meeting  of  the  chapter,  and  a  number  of  the  members 
have  been  serving  from  time  to  time  as  volunteer  workers  in  the 
museum,  assisting  in  the  cataloguing  of  the  collections. 

A  picnic  of  the  Twin  City  History  Teachers'  Club,  scheduled 
to  be  held  at  Battle  Creek,  near  St.  Paul,  May  22,  was  transferred 
to  the  museum  rooms  at  the  last  moment  because  of  rain.  Mr. 
Babcock  ga\t  a  talk  on  the  history  of  Battle  Creek  and  Kaposia. 

ACCESSIONS 

Learning  that  a  pamphlet  of  thirty-two  pages  entitled  Wander- 
ings in  Minnesota  during  the  Indian  Troubles  of  1862,  by  Thomas 
Scantlebury,  which  was  hitherto  unknown  to  the  society,  had  been 
published  in  Chicago  in  1867,  Mr.  Vail,  the  society's  librarian, 
succeeded,  after  considerable  correspondence,  in  getting  in  touch 
with  a  sister  of  the  author,  Mrs.  Joseph  W.  Hambleton  of  Pater- 
son,  New  Jersey,  with  the  result  that  she  has  presented  to  the 
society  not  only  a  copy  of  the  pamphlet  but  also  the  original 
manuscript  from  which  it  was  printed.  The  narrative  is  in  the 
form  of  a  diary  and  records  the  daily  experiences  and  impressions 
of  a  young  soldier  who  participated  in  the  campaign  against  the 
Indians.  Enlisting  for  service  with  the  Union  Army  just  three 
days  before  the  beginning  of  the  Indian  outbreak,  Scantlebury 
was  placed  in  Company  H,  Seventh  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infan- 
try, and  within  a  few  weeks  he  was  ordered  to  join  Colonel 
Sibley's  forces  at  Fort  Ridgely.  He  fought  in  the  Battle  of 
Wood  Lake,  helped  to  care  for  refugees  and  guard  Indian  pris- 
oners at  Camp  Release,  and  witnessed  the  execution  of  thirty- 
eight  Indians  at  Mankato.  In  the  fall  of  1863  he  was  sent  south 
to  recruit  Negroes  for  the  Union  Army.  He  became  ill  the  fol- 
lowing spring,  was  granted  sick  leave,  and  died  on  board  a  boat 
while  on  his  way  up  the  Mississippi  River  to  visit  friends  and 
relatives  in  Illinois.  The  pamphlet  is  of  considerable  interest  to 
bibliophiles  as  well  as  to  historians,  for  it  is  doubtful  whether 
more  than  one  or  two  other  copies  are  in  existence. 


460  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  AUG. 

A  valuable  collection  of  over  a  hundred  books,  including  many 
expensive  works  in  fine  bindings,  has  been  presented  by  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Edwin  P.  Capen  of  Minneapolis.  The  books  are  mainly 
from  the  library  of  Mrs.  Capen's  father,  the  late  Joseph  H. 
Thompson,  who  came  to  Minnesota  in  1856  and  who  conducted 
the  first  express  office  in  Minneapolis.  Included  in  the  gift  are 
a  portfolio  of  pictures  and  a  box  of  stereoscopic  views,  some  of 
which  are  of  Minnesota  scenes. 

Three  other  large  lots  of  books  received  during  the  last  quarter 
are:  about  two  hundred  volumes  and  one  hundred  pamphlets, 
including  regimental  histories,  geological  reports,  and  publications 
of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada  which  were  transferred  from  the 
Minnesota  State  Library;  over  six  hundred  books  and  about 
twenty  pamphlets,  consisting  largely  of  old  text  books  valuable 
for  the  history  of  education,  which  were  transferred  from  the  St. 
Paul  Public  Library ;  and  over  five  hundred  books  selected  from 
Minnesota's  quota  of  the  surplus  from  the  great  collection  of 
books  assembled  by  the  American  Library  Association  for  the  use 
of  soldiers  and  sailors  in  the  war. 

A  collection  of  pamphlets  of  unusual  interest  has  been  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  D.  M.  Frederiksen  of  Minneapolis,  president  of 
the  Scandinavian  Canadian  Land  Company.  It  consists  of 
immigrant  guides,  land  maps,  and  prospectuses  relating  prin- 
cipally to  southern  Minnesota  and  issued  or  used  during  the 
eighties  by  land  firms  of  which  Mr.  Frederiksen  was  a  proprietor. 
The  claims  made  in  the  pamphlets  regarding  the  merits  of  this 
region,  which  certainly  have  been  amply  justified,  led  several 
thousand  families  to  buy  land  in  the  two  southern  tiers  of  coun- 
ties of  Minnesota  from  these  companies  at  prices  ranging  from 
six  to  fifteen  dollars  an  acre.  Four  different  languages,  English, 
Norwegian,  Swedish,  and  German,  are  represented  in  this  litera- 
ture. All  except  two  of  the  items  are  new  to  the  library.  Per- 
haps the  most  interesting  of  them  is  a  pamphlet  entitled  Catholic 
Colonisation  in  Minnesota,  "published  by  the  Catholic  Coloniza- 
tion Bureau  of  Minnesota,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Right 
Reverend  John  Ireland,  coadjutor  bishop  of  St.  Paul,"  in  1879. 


1920  ACCESSIONS  461 

The  latest  number  of  a  financial  manual  is  the  only  one  of 
much  value  to  a  business  house  but  the  old  files  are  often  needed 
in  an  historical  or  reference  library.  Consequently  the  gift  from 
the  First  National  Bank  of  St.  Paul  of  forty-six  volumes  of 
Poore's  and  Moody's  manuals  and  of  various  banker's  encyclo- 
pedias, registers,  and  directories,  extending  from  1909  to  1918, 
is  much  appreciated. 

A  valuable  run  of  the  New  York  Tribune  for  the  important 
period  from  1850  to  1866  has  been  received  from  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Charles  E.  Faulkner  of  Minneapolis.  The  files  for  the  Civil  War 
years  are  complete  and  bound. 

Recent  important  additions  to  the  society's  collection  of 
material  relating  to  the  Scandinavian  element  include  partial  files 
of  a  number  of  Swedish  Baptist  periodicals  and  reports,  sermons, 
and  other  religious  literature  presented  by  the  Reverend  G.  Arvid 
Hagstrom,  president  of  Bethel  Academy  of  St.  Paul ;  a  collection 
of  nearly  two  hundred  Swedish  books  and  pamphlets  presented  by 
Miss  Elsa  R.  Nordin  of  the  library  staff;  and  a  number  of 
valuable  historical  books  presented  by  Professor  Andrew  A. 
Stomberg  of  the  University  of  Minnesota. 

An  increasing  number  of  friends  of  the  society  are  turning 
over  to  it  their  accumulations  of  old  magazines,  books,  and 
pamphlets,  which  are  often  very  useful  for  filling  in  the  files  in 
the  society's  library.  The  largest  recent  gifts  of  this  sort  have 
come  from  Mrs.  Charles  L.  Spencer,  Mrs.  Charles  W.  Bunn,  the 
estate  of  Mrs.  Julius  M.  Goldsmith  of  St.  Paul,  and  the  estate  of 
Mr.  Lycurgus  R.  Moyer  of  Montevideo.  There  are  still  many 
gaps  in  the  periodical  files,  and  copies  of  the  Home  Sector,  the 
American  Legion  Weekly,  and  the  Great  Lakes  Recruit  are  par- 
ticularly desired. 

The  state  department  of  labor  and  industries  now  located  in 
the  Old  Capitol  has  taken  advantage  of  the  new  archives  law  to 
transfer  to  the  custody  of  the  society  some  of  its  noncurrent 
files.  The  material  thus  far  received  consists  largely  of  inspect- 
ors' orders  and  reports,  reports  of  special  investigations,  and 
back  files  of  correspondence. 


462  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  AUG. 

The  records  and  collections  of  the  Historical  Society  of  the 
Minnesota  Annual  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  an  organization  which  was  in  existence  from  1857  to 
about  1895,  have  been  transferred  from  Hamline  University  to 
the  custody  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society.  The  manuscript 
material  includes:  minutes  of  the  society  itself,  of  the  Winona 
District  Ministerial  Association  from  1860  to  1871,  and  of  the 
district  conferences  of  St.  Paul,  1881  to  1886,  and  St.  Cloud, 
1873  to  1876;  records  of  early  missions  and  classes  from  1840  to 
1866;  correspondence  and  papers  of  the  Reverend  Chauncey 
Hobart  and  other  pioneer  ministers,  dating  back  to  1849;  and  a 
large  number  of  reminiscent  letters,  papers,  and  sermons.  It  is 
fitting  that  this  invaluable  collection  of  sources  for  the  early 
history  of  Methodism  in  Minnesota  should  be  preserved  along- 
side of  similar  collections  relating  to  other  denominations  where 
it  will  be  of  the  greatest  use  to  students  of  the  religious  history 
of  the  state. 

The  Minnesota  Woman  Suffrage  Association,  through  the 
courtesy  of  Mrs.  Andreas  Ueland  of  Minneapolis,  has  recently 
turned  over  the  records  of  that  organization  to  the  society. 
While  by  no  means  complete,  they  contain  a  great  deal  of  source 
material  of  value  to  the  student  of  the  suffrage  movement  in 
Minnesota.  The  official  records,  consisting  of  minutes  and  pro- 
ceedings of  the  executive  board,  cover  the  years  1912  to  1914; 
but  the  correspondence  file,  which  is  made  up  largely  of  letters 
of  politicians  defining  their  positions  on  woman  suffrage,  covers 
only  the  year  1916.  There  are  also  a  few  synopses  of  suffrage 
legislation  in  other  states,  letters  to  the  Minnesota  legislature 
regarding  suffrage  matters,  and  written  opinions  of  lawyers  on 
the  constitutionality  of  certain  suffrage  measures  before  the  legis- 
lature. Accompanying  these  records  is  a  series  of  five  scrapbooks 
containing  clippings  from  local  and  national  newspapers  and  other 
publications  regarding  suffrage  for  the  period  from  1911  to  1918. 
One  especially  entertaining  volume  is  made  up  of  posters,  hand- 
bills, maps,  and  various  small  booklets  issued  by  the  National 
Woman  Suffrage  Publishing  Company  and  by  different  state 
organizations.  The  two  pens  used  by  Governor  Burnquist  in 


1920  ACCESSIONS  463 

signing  the  presidential  suffrage  bill  and  the  suffrage  ratification 
bill  in  1919  have  also  been  presented  by  Mrs.  Ueland. 

An  original  letter  of  David  Golden,  son  of  Cadwallader 
Golden,  lieutenant-governor  of  New  York  from  1761  to  1776, 
and  father  of  Cadwallader  Golden,  the  eminent  lawyer  and 
mayor  of  New  York  City,  has  recently  been  added  to  the  society's 
collection  of  colonial  manuscripts  by  Mrs.  Charles  Neely  of  St. 
Paul,  a  descendant  of  David  Golden.  The  letter  was  written  by 
Golden  to  his  wife,  June  27,  1784,  from  London,  whither  he  had 
gone  to  retrieve  his  losses  in  the  Revolutionary  War  by  claiming 
from  the  British  government  a  reward  for  his  loyalty  to  the 
crown.  He  was  in  poor  health  at  the  time  and  he  died  on  July  10, 
1784,  a  little  less  than  two  weeks  after  the  date  of  this  letter. 
The  contents  of  the  letter  are  not  only  full  of  human  interest  but 
they  are  also  of  historic  value,  for  the  writer  mentions  intimately 
a  number  of  very  prominent  loyalists  who  were  in  London  on  a 
mission  like  his  own  and  discusses  at  length  their  success  in 
securing  the  payment  of  their  claims.  He  holds  out  to  his  wife 
the  hope  of  a  new  home  the  following  spring  in  Canada  or  Nova 
Scotia,  the  common  refuge  of  loyalists  at  this  time.  Only  once, 
and  then  in  a  postscript  added  after  hearing  bad  news  concerning 
one  member  of  his  family,  does  he  give  expression  to  his  bitter- 
ness toward  the  "Cursed,  cursed  Tyrants  who  drive  me  from  my 
Wife  &  Children,  &  put  it  out  of  my  Power  to  assist  or  com- 
fort them." 

In  1856  Edwin  Whitefield,  an  eastern  artist  and  promoter, 
traveled  through  the  southern  part  of  what  is  now  Kandiyohi 
County  in  the  interests  of  one  of  the  numerous  town-site  com- 
panies of  that  period  and  assisted  in  selecting  town  sites  and  in 
naming  the  lakes  and  future  towns  of  that  region.  He  also  made 
numerous  water-color  sketches  of  the  scenic  attractions,  which 
were  used  the  following  winter  on  a  lecture  tour  of  the  eastern 
states,  where  he  set  forth  in  alluring  terms  the  wonderful  oppor- 
tunities which  Minnesota  offered  to  home  seekers  from  the  East. 
Mr.  Whitefield  wrote  numerous  articles  on  the  same  subject  for 
the  eastern  papers  and  was  in  general  an  active  promoter  of 
immigration  to  the  territory  in  the  late  fifties.  By  a  happy 


464  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  AUG. 

chance  a  number  of  his  letters  and  papers  and  a  representative 
collection  of  his  water-color  sketches  of  the  lakes  and  other 
natural  beauties  of  the  young  territory,  particularly  those  in 
Kandiyohi  County,  have  been  preserved  by  his  son,  Mr.  Wilfred 
C.  Whitefield  of  Sauk  Center,  and  have  now,  through  the  courtesy 
of  Mr.  Victor  E.  Lawson  of  Willmar,  been  presented  to  the 
society. 

An  old  daybook  of  the  retail  firm  of  Whitmore  and  Reed  of 
Steamboat  Rock,  Iowa,  for  the  years  1870  and  1871  was  included 
in  material  sent  to  the  library  by  the  Reverend  Francis  L.  Palmer 
of  Stillwater.  According  to  the  accounts  of  this  firm  sugar 
retailed  in  1870  at  seven  pounds  for  a  dollar,  raisins  at  twenty- 
five  cents  a  pound,  and  potatoes  at  seventy-five  cents  a  bushel; 
but  rubber  boots  were  three  dollars  and  a  half  a  pair  and  shoes 
only  one  dollar  and  a  half. 

Three  record  books  of  the  St.  Paul  Reading  Circle,  organized 
for  social  and  literary  purposes  in  1872,  recently  have  been  pre- 
sented to  the  society  by  Mrs.  Charles  L.  Spencer.  This  circle 
was  limited  to  thirty  active  members  and  met  every  other  Monday 
evening  from  October  until  April  in  the  homes  of  its  members. 
The  evenings  were  spent  in  reading  the  writings  of  Dickens, 
Shakespeare,  Thackeray,  Coleridge,  and  other  authors  of  equal 
rank.  Many  names  of  prominent  citizens  appear  on  the  member- 
ship rolls.  The  records  presented  cover  the  period  from  1872  to 
1880. 

From  the  Thursday  Musical  of  Minneapolis,  through  the 
courtesy  of  Mrs.  George  L.  Lang,  corresponding  secretary,  the 
society  has  received  a  manuscript  history  of  the  club  during  the 
first  eight  years  of  its  existence,  prepared  by  Mrs.  Herbert  W. 
Gleason,  its  president  from  1893  to  1900.  The  history  is  a 
valuable  record  of  musical  activities  in  Minneapolis  during  these 
years,  for  Mrs.  Gleason  notes  events  of  general  interest  in  the 
world  of  music  as  well  as  the  actual  proceedings  of  the  Thursday 
Musical.  Of  special  interest  are  the  accounts  of  a  concert  and 
reception  in  1896  and  a  "Home  Composers'  Concert"  in  1899,  for 
the  programs  on  both  of  these  occasions  "consisted  exclusively  of 
compositions  by  local  musicians."  A  greatly  condensed  version 


1920  ACCESSIONS  465 

of  Mrs.  Gleason's  history  is  published  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal 
for  November  23. 

"The  Condition  of  Reservation  Indians"  is  the  .title  of  a 
manuscript  prepared  at  the  request  of  the  United  States  Board 
of  Indian  Commissioners  by  William  M.  Camp  of  Chicago,  editor 
of  the  Railway  Review,  and  presented  by  him  to  the  society. 
The  author's  knowledge  of  the  Indians  was  gained  from  periodic 
visits  to  their  reservations  covering  about  seventeen  years.  The 
reservations  visited  lie  principally  in  the  states  of  North  and 
South  Dakota,  Montana,  Wyoming,  and  Idaho,  but  occasional 
trips  were  made  to  the  homes  of  the  southern  Cheyenne,  Arapa- 
hoe,  Kiowa,  and  Pawnee  in  Oklahoma. 

A  collection  of  twelve  autograph  letters  from  prominent 
lecturers  of  the  decade  of  the  sixties  has  been  received  from  Mr. 
Arthur  G.  Douglass  of  Minneapolis.  The  letters  were  originally 
written  to  his  father,  the  Reverend  Ebenezer  Douglass,  while  he 
was  arranging  for  a  lecture  course  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Congregational  church  of  Woonsocket,  Rhode  Island.  Schuyler 
Colfax,  George  William  Curtis,  Charles  Sumner,  Frederick 
Douglass,  Anna  E.  Dickinson,  Louis  Agassiz,  and  Josiah  G. 
Holland  are  the  most  prominent  people  represented.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  the  terms  ranged  from  fifty  to  one  hundred 
dollars  a  lecture  and  that  the  Reverend  Josiah  P.  Thompson  of 
Broadway  Tabernacle,  New  York,  stated  his  fee  as  payable  in 
"  'legal  tender/  without  regard  to  General  Butler's  theories  of  a 
convertible  currency." 

The  society  has  received  from  the  compilers  typewritten  copies 
of  two  useful  bibliographies  of  Minnesota  interest  prepared  for 
the  library  school  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin.  They  are 
entitled:  "Mesabi  Iron  Range  of  Minnesota,"  by  Signa  Niemie 
(19  p.),  and  "Ojibway  Indians  in  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,"  by 
EvaAlford  (13  p.). 

A  typewritten  copy  of  the  "Industrial  Survey  of  Minneapolis, 
Prepared  by  Minneapolis  Civic  &  Commerce  Association"  (15  p.) 
was  recently  presented  by  the  association.  The  survey  is  prac- 
tically a  sketch  of  the  economic  history  of  the  city. 


466  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  AUG. 

Mrs.  Edwin  W.  Osborne  of  St.  Paul  has  deposited  a  part  of 
her  extensive  collection  of  articles  illustrating  early  American 
domestic  life  with  the  society.  Fine  specimens  of  Bohemian 
glassware,  old-fashioned  china,  a  pearl-handled  bouquet  holder, 
three  spinning  wheels  of  various  types,  skein  reels,  a  pair  of 
wool  carders,  an  old  blower  or  bellows,  dresses,  and  many  other 
interesting  articles  are  included  in  this  valuable  collection. 

Two  old  iron  broilers  of  the  type  common  in  pioneer  days  and 
an  old-fashioned  spinning  wheel  are  gifts  of  Mr.  Oliver  Pepin  of 
Minneapolis,  from  his  old  homestead  near  Bloomington. 

A  small  walnut  melodeon,  which  was  carried  on  concert  tours 
throughout  Minnesota  in  the  late  sixties  by  the  Andrews  Opera 
Company,  is  the  gift  of  Mrs.  Fred  W.  Clayton  of  St.  Paul. 

A  large  wooden  inkwell  and  penholder,  said  to  have  been  used 
by  the  first  territorial  legislature  of  Minnesota,  is  a  gift  of  Mrs. 
Charles  M.  Power  of  St.  Paul. 

A  "notable  pictorial  record"  of  the  early  days  of  the  flour- 
milling  industry  at  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  which  was  displayed 
at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Minnesota  Territorial  Pioneers' 
Association  in  May,  has  been  presented  to  the  society  by  Dr. 
Arthur  M.  Eastman  of  Minneapolis.  It  consists  of  views  of  the 
buildings  of  the  Minnesota  Flouring  Mills,  later  known  as  the 
Island  Mills,  together  with  portraits  of  the  founders  and  succes- 
sive owners,  including  the  donor's  father,  John  W.  Eastman — all 
mounted  with  explanatory  captions  and  a  brief  typewritten  "His- 
tory of  Island  Mills,"  and  in  a  single  frame.  The  exhibit  is 
reproduced  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  for  May  16. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Mrs.  Orlando  R.  Manners  of  St. 
Paul,  Mrs.  C.  D.  Fisher  of  Tonka  Bay  has  added  a  framed  tinted 
photograph  of  her  brother-in-law,  Captain  John  King  of  the 
Fifth  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infantry,  to  the  portrait  collection 
of  the  society.  She  has  given  also  a  sabre  and  several  military 
papers  of  Captain  King. 

A  crayon  portrait  of  the  late  Dr.  John  Wright  of  St.  Paul,  a 
mounted  group  of  pictures  of  early  St.  Paul,  a  large  English 


1920  ACCESSIONS  467 

Bible  of   1860,  and  several  other  interesting  relics  have  been 
presented  by  Mrs.  Frank  Jerrard  of  St.  Paul. 

In  the  name  of  her  late  husband  Mrs.  Charles  N.  Akers  of  St. 
Paul  has  presented  a  small  framed  print  of  Colonel  William  Col- 
vill,  commander  of  the  First  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infantry. 

Mr.  Hugo  V.  Koch  of  St.  Paul,  past  department  commander 
for  Minnesota  of  the  United  Spanish  War  Veterans,  has  recently 
presented  a  Mexican  flag  which  was  taken  from  San  Juan  prison 
in  Vera  Cruz  at  the  time  of  the  American  occupation  of  that  port 
in  April,  1914. 

An  interesting  collection  of  objects  illustrative  of  life  and 
customs  in  Cuba,  which  was  gathered  during  the  period  of  Ameri- 
can occupation,  from  1900  to  1902,  has  been  presented  to  the 
museum  by  Miss  Mary  Folwell  of  Minneapolis.  The  collection 
includes  three  musical  instruments,  a  native  Cuban  drum  made 
out  of  a  log  of  wood,  a  guira  or  gourd  instrument  for  making  a 
sound  like  that  of  pieces  of  sandpaper  rubbed  together,  and  a 
bomba  or  pottery  jar  for  the  deep  bass  notes  of  the  modern  trom- 
bone. These  instruments  constitute  a  full  orchestra  and  give 
weird  effects.  Among  the  other  objects  are  baskets  for  all  sorts 
of  purposes,  native  pottery,  a  sieve  of  yucca  for  sifting  grain,  a 
broom  of  palm  leaves,  a  platter  with  the  bull-fight  pattern,  two 
small  silver  coins  used  as  presents  to  the  guests  at  christenings, 
two  small  rag  dolls,  tiny  figurines  from  the  Chinese  bazaar  in 
Havana,  and  a  fine  Spanish  olla. 

Chief  Justice  Calvin  L.  Brown  of  the  supreme  court  has 
deposited  in  the  custody  of  the  society  a  wig  of  the  type  worn  by 
English  justices  on  the  bench.  The  wig  was  purchased  in  London 
by  the  Honorable  Charley  C.  Willson  of  Rochester  and  was 
recently  presented  by  him  to  Justice  Brown. 

A  three-quarter  length  coat  of  mail  composed  of  overlapping 
plates  of  horn  or  prepared  leather,  joined  together  with  strips  of 
brass-linked  chain  mail,  and  a  fine  brass  helmet  have  recently 
been  presented  by  Mr.  Charles  A.  Dunham  of  St.  Paul  and  Mr. 
G.  M.  Knisely  of  Mount  Vernon,  Washington.  The  helmet  is  of 
the  type  generally  worn  in  southern  Europe  during  the  sixteenth 


468  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  AUG. 

century,  without  special  protection  for  the  face,  and  shows  evi- 
dence of  hard  usage. 

Mrs.  Charles  L.  Spencer  of  St.  Paul  has  presented  a  fine 
beaded  papoose  carrier  of  Sioux  workmanship,  a  leather  belt 
heavily  decorated  with  silver  disks  and  flash  metal  ornaments,  a 
claw  necklace,  and  several  other  Indian  articles. 

The  Misses  Lydia  and  Bertha  Burkh^rd  of  White  Bear  have 
deposited  with  the  society  a  large,  heavily  beaded  table  cover,  said 
to  have  been  made  by  an  Indian  princess  in  Canada. 

Dr.  James  C.  Ferguson  of  St.  Paul  has  deposited  with  the 
society  three  beautiful  beaded  bags  of  Sioux  workmanship  and  a 
collection  of  five  handsome  pipestone  pipes  which  were  obtained 
from  Sioux  warriors  in  the  late  seventies  and  early  eighties.  He 
has  also  presented  a  fine  silk  dress  of  the  early  nineteenth  century 
period,  a  queer  little  bonnet,  and  several  other  interesting  articles 
of  by-gone  days. 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT 

The  study  of  western  history  in  Minnesota  will  undoubtedly 
receive  a  considerable  stimulus  as  a  result  of  the  appointment  of 
Dr.  Clarence  W.  Alvord  to  a  professorship  in  the  University  of 
Minnesota.  Dr.  Alvord,  who  is  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of 
American  historians,  has  been  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  the 
University  of  Illinois  since  1901.  Besides  teaching,  he  has  edited 
the  Illinois  Historical  Collections,  a  set  of  fourteen  volumes  pub- 
lished by  the  Illinois  State  Historical  Library,  and  the  recently 
published  Centennial  History  of  Illinois  in  five  volumes.  He  is 
also  the  author  of  the  first  volume  of  this  history  covering  the 
period  to  the  admission  of  the  state  in  1818.  His  most  notable 
contribution  to  history,  a  work  in  two  volumes  entitled  The 
Mississippi  Valley  in  British  Politics,  is  "a  study  of  trade,  land 
speculation,  and  experiments  in  imperialism  culminating  in  the 
American  Revolution."  This  was  published  in  1916  and,  in  the 
following  year,  was  awarded  the  Loubat  prize  of  a  thousand 
dollars  for  the  best  work  in  American  history  published  during 
the  five  years  ending  with  1917.  Dr.  Alvord  has  been  the  editor 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Review  since  its  foundation 
in  1914  and  will  continue  to  serve  in  that  capacity,  the  editorial 
office  being  moved  from  Urbana  to  Minneapolis.  The  facilities 
afforded  by  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  for  research  in 
western  history  were  influential  in  inducing  him  to  make  the 
change. 

The  thirteenth  annual  meeting  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  His- 
torical Association  was  held  at  Greencastle,  Indiana,  April  23,  30, 
and  May  1.  The  excellent  program,  the  unusually  large  attend- 
ance, and  the  hospitality  of  De  Pauw  University,  all  contributed 
to  make  a  very  successful  meeting.  Chauncey  S.  Boucher  of 
Ohio  State  University  was  elected  president  for  the  ensuing  year. 
Lester  B.  Shippee  of  the  University  of  Minnesota  was  chosen  as 
one  of  the  new  members  of  the  board  of  editors.  The  next  meet- 
ing will  be  held  at  Madison,  Wisconsin. 


470 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT 


AUG. 


The  Minnesota  Territorial  Pioneers'  Association  held  its  annual 
meeting  at  the  Old  Capitol,  St.  Paul,  on  May  11,  the  sixty-second 
anniversary  of  the  admission  of  Minnesota  to  the  Union.  The 
gathering  was  attended  by  old  settlers  from  all  parts  of  the  state, 
who  exchanged  tales  of  pioneer  experiences  and  listened  to  the 
address  of  Governor  Burnquist. 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  Hennepin  County  Pioneers'  Asso- 
ciation was  held  at  the  Godfrey  House,  Minneapolis,  on  June  1. 
The  exercises  and  addresses  commemorated  the  fact  that  on  this 
date,  seventy-one  years  ago,  Governor  Ramsey  issued  the 
proclamation  declaring  Minnesota  Territory  "to  be  organized  and 
established." 

"The  Indian  of  Yesterday,"  a  pageant  of  Indian  forest  life 
prepared  by  an  Indian,  De  Witt  Hare  of  Minneapolis,  was  pre- 
sented by  the  Minneapolis  chapter  of  the  Society  of  American 
Indians  at  the  West  High  School  on  June  4.  The  program 
included  a  lecture  on  "The  Indian  of  Today,"  by  Dr.  Carlos 
Montezuma  of  Chicago. 

The  Kandiyohi  County  Old  Settlers'  Association  held  its 
annual  meeting  in  connection  with  the  dedicatory  exercises  for 
Sibley  State  Park  at  Lake  Andrew  on  June  26. 

The  people  of  Lyon  County  gathered  at  Marshall,  the  county 
seat,  on  June  17  and  18,  to  participate  in  a  home-coming  celebra- 
tion and  to  witness  an  historical  pageant,  which  marked  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  their  county.  The  chief 
events  in  the  history  of  the  state,  county,  and  town  were  depicted 
in  the  pageant. 

A  brief  but  interesting  article  on  "O  jib  way  Habitations  and 
Other  Structures,"  by  David  I.  Bushnell  Jr.,  appears  in  the 
Annual  Report  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  for  1917  (Wash- 
ington, 1919) .  The  article  is  illustrated  with  six  plates  of  Ojib- 
way  wigwams  photographed  in  the  lake  region  of  northern 
Minnesota. 

Some  of  the  results  of  the  survey  of  Minnesota  Indians  made 
by  Mr.  Rudolf  Hertz,  field  director  of  the  American  Indian  sur- 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  471 

vey  for  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  in  Minnesota, 
Nebraska,  North  Dakota,  and  South  Dakota,  appear  in  an  article 
in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  for  April  18.  Mr.  Hertz  asserts  that 
he  found  "1,000  pagan  Indians  practicing  religion  of  their  fore- 
fathers" in  the  state  and  he  points  out  the  need  for  and  the 
civilizing  influence  of  missionaries  on  the  reservations. 

In  "Another  View  of  the  Kensington  Rune  Stone,"  by  Rasmus 
B.  Anderson,  in  the  Wisconsin  Magazine  of  History  for  June,  the 
inscription  is  declared  to  be  a  fraud  and  the  author  tells  how  and 
by  whom  he  believes  it  to  have  been  perpetrated. 

A  group  of  notable  French-Canadian  historians  recently  have 
engaged  in  a  controversy  concerning  the  identity  of  the  four  sons 
of  the  Sieur  de  la  Verendrye,  the  substance  of  which  appears  in 
Le  Canada  Francais,  a  monthly  magazine  published  by  Laval 
University  at  Quebec.  In  the  first  of  these  articles  (2 : 109-117) 
Auguste  H.  de  Tremaudan  presents  evidence  to  prove  that  the 
explorer's  second  son,  Pierre,  has  been  erroneously  known  as  the 
Chevalier ;  that  his  two  younger  sons,  Francois  and  Louis-Joseph 
accompanied  him  on  his  most  important  expeditions;  and  that 
"Francois  is  the  one  who  has  become  famous  under  the  name  of 
'Chevalier  de  la  Verendrye.' "  A  reply  in  which  the  Abbe 
Ivanhoe  Caron  contends  that  Louis- Joseph  was  the  Chevalier 
(2:  170-182),  is  supported  by  Pierre-Georges  Roy  (3:294)  ;  and 
M.  de  Tremaudan  refutes  this  criticism  in  a  second  article 
(3:286-293).  An  excellent  outline  of  the  controversy  appears 
in  the  June  number  of  the  Canadian  Historical  Review  (p.  133). 
M.  de  Tremaudan  also  presents  his  arguments  in  an  article, 
written  in  English,  which  is  published  in  the  Manitoba  Free  Press 
of  Winnipeg  for  April  10  (p.  45). 

"Jonathan  Carver  and  the  Carver  Grant,"  by  Milo  M.  Quaife, 
the  presidential  address  at  the  1920  meeting  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  Historical  Association,  is  the  leading  article  in  the  June 
number  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Review.  The  career 
of  the  explorer  is  sketched  in  the  light  of  the  new  evidence  on 
the  subject  discovered  by  recent  investigators,  but  the  greater 
part  of  the  paper  is  devoted  to  a  detailed  study  of  the  involved 
history  of  the  famous  Carver  grant.  In  this  the  author  has  made 


472  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  AUG. 

use  of  transcripts  of  manuscripts  of  the  Reverend  Hugh  Peters, 
the  principal  promoter  of  the  projects  based  upon  the  alleged 
grant.  These  transcripts  are  in  the  possession  of  the  State  His- 
torical Society  of  Wisconsin. 

A  history  of  Congregationalism  in  Minnesota,  edited  by  Dr. 
Warren  Upham,  will  be  brought  out  by  the  Congregational  Con- 
ference of  Minnesota  in  the  near  future.  It  is  to  be  a  cooperative 
work  with  contributions  from  twenty-two  different  writers. 

A  paper  entitled  "Steamboating  on  the  Upper  Mississippi 
After  the  Civil  War:  A  Mississippi  Magnate,"  by  Lester  B. 
Shippee  of  the  University  of  Minnesota,  which  was  read  at  the 
1919  meeting  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Association,  is 
published  in  the  March  number  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  Histori- 
cal Review.  This  valuable  contribution  to  the  history  of  Minne- 
sota is  based  largely  on  material  in  newspaper  files  preserved  in 
the  library  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society.  The  "magnate" 
whose  career  is  sketched  was  Commodore  William  F.  Davidson 
of  St.  Paul. 

"A  Tourist's  Manual  and  Guide  to  the  Scenes,  Legends  and 
Cities  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  River  as  Known  and  Enjoyed  by 
Patrons  of  the  Diamond  Jo  Line  Steamers.  Originally  Compiled 
for  and  Now  Edited  by  Capt.  Fred  A.  Bill,"  is  being  published 
serially  in  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  of  Burlington,  Iowa,  begin- 
ning April  17.  In  his  introduction  Mr.  Bill  explains  that  this 
"Manual"  was  prepared  during  the  late  eighties,  but  that  its  pub- 
lication, which  was  intended  to  advertise  the  passenger  service  of 
the  Diamond  Jo  Line,  was  indefinitely  postponed  when  Joseph 
Reynolds  died  in  1891.  The  manuscript  has  since  been  in  the 
possession  of  Mr.  Bill,  and  it  is  now  being  printed  for  the  first 
time.  It  consists  of  a  description  of  the  route  from  St.  Louis  to 
St.  Paul,  with  legends  and  "reliable  information  concerning  the 
scenes  and  cities"  passed  on  this  "pilgrimage  of  pleasure."  In 
addition  to  presenting  an  interesting  picture  of  the  upper  Missis- 
sippi Valley  during  the  period  when  river  transportation  was  in 
its  prime,  the  "Manual"  casts  illuminating  side  lights  on  the  social 
life  and  advertising  methods  of  the  time. 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  473 

A  recently  inaugurated  movement  to  mark  the  old  Red  River 
trail  and  to  make  it  attractive  to  tourists,  inspired  a  writer  for 
the  Minneapolis  Tribune  with  the  idea  of  helping  to  arouse  inter- 
est therein  by  publishing  extracts  from  two  curious  articles  on 
"The  People  of  the  Red  River"  and  "The  Red  River  Trail/' 
which  first  appeared  in  the  issues  of  Harper's  New  Monthly 
Magazine  for  January,  April,  and  June,  1859.  Selections  from 
these  accounts  of  Minnesota  and  of  the  trip  from  St.  Paul  to 
Pembina  via  the  famous  route  in  the  late  fifties,  written  by  a 
New  Yorker  for  eastern  readers,  make  up  the  greater  part  of  an 
article  in  the  Tribune  for  May  23.  It  is  introduced  by  a  brief 
historical  sketch  of  the  trail  and  of  the  trade  which  passed  over 
it  in  Red  River  carts.  The  illustrations  add  distinctly  to  the 
interest  of  the  article.  They  include  two  early  views,  reproduced 
from  photographs  in  the  possession  of  the  Minnesota  Historical 
Society,  of  Red  River  traders  in  St.  Paul,  and  copies  of  some  of 
the  original  drawings  which  appeared  with  the  articles  in 
Harper's. 

The  continuation  of  Willard  Reyes's  "Journal  of  Life  in  Wis- 
consin One  Hundred  Years  Ago,"  in  the  Wisconsin  Magazine  of 
History  for  June,  contains  a  number  of  references  to  the  fur  trade 
in  Minnesota  and  an  interesting  account  of  a  pioneer  logging 
expedition  to  the  Black  River  in  Wisconsin.  The  installment  of 
Miss  Kellogg's  "Story  of  Wisconsin"  in  this  issue  deals  with 
"Politics  and  Statehood." 

A  disconnected  accumulation  of  information  about  the  fur 
trade  in  Minnesota  and  Canada  is  brought  together  in  the 
Minneapolis  Journal  for  June  20  under  the  heading  "Minnesota's 
.International  Trade  War."  The  title  refers  to  the  rivalry 
between  the  American  Fur  Company  and  the  Canadian  com- 
panies ;  but  the  article  contains  data  on  such  remote  and  scattered 
subjects  as  Pike's  expedition,  the  Red  River  trail,  and  the  found- 
ing of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  Pictures  of  a  Red  River 
train,  of  old  Fort  Snelling,  and  of  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  in 
their  original  state  are  among  the  illustrations. 

In  "Boundary  Controversies  between  States  Bordering  on  a 
Navigable  River — The  Minnesota- Wisconsin  Case,"  in  the  Minne- 


474  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  AUG. 

sota  Law  Review  for  June,  Harvey  Hoshour  discusses  both  the 
legal  and  the  historical  aspects  of  the  dispute  over  the  location 
of  the  boundary  in  the  harbor  at  Duluth  (see  ante,  pp.  222,  381). 

The  University  of  Minnesota  has  published,  as  the  first  part 
of  the  Report  of  its  survey  commission,  a  pamphlet  entitled  The 
Growth  of  the  University  in  the  Next  Quarter  Century  (Bulletins, 
vol.  23,  no.  25.  June  21,  1920.  50  p.).  Although  the  purpose 
of  the  work  is  prophecy,  its  conclusions  are  necessarily  based 
largely  upon  a  study  of  the  past,  and  it  contains  a  wealth  of  data 
which  will  be  valuable  to  students  of  the  history  of  both  secondary 
and  higher  education  in  the  state.  The  report  is  the  work  of 
Rodney  M.  West  and  Leonard  V.  Koos  of  the  University  faculty. 

"Maria  San  ford's  Uncompleted  Autobiography,"  the  writing 
of  which  was  brought  to  a  close  by  her  death  on  April  21,  is  pub- 
lished in  the  Sunday  issues  of  the  Minneapolis  Journal  beginning 
on  May  2  and  ending  on  June  6.  Miss  Sanford  wrote  only  six 
chapters  of  her  life-story,  and  these  deal  with  her  childhood  in 
New  England.  Had  she  been  able  to  complete  this  work,  undoubt- 
edly the  later  chapters  would  have  contained  much  interesting 
information  concerning  the  development  of  Minnesota's  greatest 
educational  institution.  A  less  extensive  but  more  complete  story 
of  Miss  San  ford's  life  appears  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  for 
April  25,  in  the  form  of  an  interview,  by  the  late  Caryl  B.  Storrs, 
reprinted  from  the  Tribune  of  December  17,  1916.  In  this  inter- 
view Miss  Sanford  touches  upon  the  circumstances  which  led  her 
to  come  to  Minnesota  in  1880  and  tells  something  of  the  nature  of 
her  university  work. 

The  life  and  work  of  a  prominent  Minnesota  jurist,  Judge 
William  Mitchell,  are  discussed  in  an  article  by  Edward  Lees, 
commissioner  of  the  supreme  court  of  Minnesota,  in  the  Minne- 
sota Law  Review  for  May.  The  introductory  pages  include  a 
sketch  of  Judge  Mitchell's  early  life  and  education  to  1857,  when 
he  came  to  Minnesota  and  settled  in  Winona ;  an  account  of  his 
career  as  a  member  of  the  Winona  bar;  and  a  discussion  of  his 
juristic  achievements  as  judge  of  the  district  court  of  the  third 
judicial  district  from  1874  to  1881,  and  as  associate  justice  of 
the  state  supreme  court  from  1881  to  1898.  Since  "his  opinions 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  47 S 

while  a  member  of  that  [the  supreme]  court  are  the  principal 
source  of  his  great  reputation,"  the  author  devotes  the  greater 
part  of  the  article  to  a  technical  analysis  of  those  opinions.  A 
portrait  of  Judge  Mitchell  forms  the  frontispiece  of  this  issue 
of  the  Review. 

"The  Man  Who  Linked  Minnesota's  Past  With  Present," 
Lyman  W.  Ayer,  is  the  subject  of  a  biographical  sketch  in  the 
St.  Paul  Daily  News  for  May  23.  Mr.  Ayer  was  born  near  Pine 
City,  Minnesota,  in  1834,  and  he  lived  in  the  state  almost  con- 
tinuously until  his  death  a  few  months  ago  at  Little  Falls ;  thus 
this  story  of  his  life  reflects  in  a  sense  the  story  of  the  growth 
and  development  of  Minnesota.  A  portrait  of  Mr.  Ayer  is  pub- 
lished with  the  sketch. 

The  scope  of  the  records  of  Hennepin  County,  which  are  pre- 
served in  the  court  house  at  Minneapolis,  is  set  forth  in  an 
article  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  for  June  27.  The  first  mar- 
riage record  is  described  and  the  circumstances  of  the  first  civil, 
criminal,  and  juvenile  cases  tried  in  the  county  are  stated. 

The  "razing  of  Col.  King's  summer  home"  is  the  occasion  for 
an  article  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  for  April  4,  reminiscent  of 
the  days  when  Colonel  William  S.  King  lived  on  his  farm  on  the 
outskirts  of  Minneapolis  and  raised  blooded  stock.  The  illustra- 
tions consist  of  pictures  of  the  old  house  and  some  of  its  antique 
furnishings. 

How  it  happened  that  "John  W.  Brown's  Family,  Portland 
Avenue  Pioneers,  Lived  in  Minneapolis  Several  Months  Before 
They  Discovered  the  Fact,"  is  explained  by  a  son,  H.  N.  Brown 
of  Minneapolis,  in  an  interview  published  in  the  Minneapolis 
Tribune  for  May  30.  He  also  describes  the  business  section  and 
stores  of  early  Minneapolis  and  tells  how,  when  supplies  were 
needed,  it  meant  "a  day's  work  to  make  the  trip"  to  town  from 
the  homestead  on  Minnehaha  Creek.  A  painting  of  his  father's 
homestead,  now  in  Mr.  Brown's  possession,  is  reproduced  with 
the  article. 

An  article  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  for  April  18,  inspired 
by  the  passing  of  the  first  building  erected  by  the  Young  Men's 


476  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  AUG. 

Christian  Association  in  Minneapolis,  relates  some  anecdotes  in 
the  history  of  that  organization.  Among  the  illustrations  is  a 
reproduction  of  an  interesting  old  poster,  evidently  used  by  the 
organization  in  a  membership  drive. 

The  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Minneapolis,  the  oldest 
church  of  that  denomination  in  Minnesota,  celebrated  its  eighty- 
fifth  anniversary  on  June  13  at  Fort  Snelling,  where  the  congrega- 
tion was  organized  in  1835.  The  history  of  the  church  was  traced 
by  its  present  pastor,  the  Reverend  John  T.  Bergen,  and  pictures 
illustrative  of  its  development  were  exhibited.  A  somewhat 
detailed  account  of  the  beginnings  of  Presbyter ianism  in  Minne- 
sota and,  especially,  of  the  establishment  and  growth  of  this 
church  is  published  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  for  June  13. 

St.  Mark's  Outlook,  the  weekly  magazine  published  by  St. 
Mark's  Church  of  Minneapolis,  issued  a  "Consecration  Number," 
on  May  15,  commemorating  the  consecration  of  the  church  edifice 
and  reviewing  the  history  of  the  parish.  The  consecration  ser- 
mon of  the  rector,  the  Reverend  James  E.  Freeman,  printed 
therein,  contains  a  brief  historical  sketch  of  the  parish.  "Remi- 
niscences of  Early  St.  Mark's,"  describing  the  "inception  and 
early  days"  of  the  parish  from  1858  to  about  1872,  are  supplied  by 
Mr.  Albee  Smith,  "the  only  living  member  of  the  original  St. 
Mark's  Vestry."  The  greater  part  of  this  article  is  also  published 
in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  for  May  16.  In  a  more  complete 
"Historical  Sketch  of  St.  Mark's  Church,"  the  late  Bishop  Samuel 
C.  Edsall  records  the  story  of  the  parish  from  its  establishment 
to  the  formal  opening  of  the  present  church  in  1910.  His  nar- 
rative consists  of  descriptions  of  the  successive  churches  used  by 
the  growing  congregation,  biographical  notes  about  the  various 
rectors  and  officers,  and  an  account  of  the  Wells'  Memorial 
House.  The  volume  is  illustrated  with  exterior  and  interior  views 
of  the  two  most  recent  churches  of  St.  Mark's  and  with  portraits 
of  some  of  the  men  who  have  contributed  towards  its  welfare  and 

growth. 

• 

Perhaps  it  is  to  be  expected  that  Benjamin  Backnumber,  who 
is  an  old  newspaper  man,  should  include  a  large  number  of  stories 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  477 

about  early  newspapers  and  their  editors  in  his  reminiscences  of 
"St.  Paul  Before  This,"  published  each  week  in  the  magazine 
section  of  the  Sunday  issue  of  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News.  Among 
his  recent  articles  of  this  nature  are  an  account  of  the  rivalry  of 
two  St.  Paul  editors  of  the  early  sixties,  Dr.  Thomas  Foster  and 
Thomas  M.  Newson,  May  9 ;  a  character  sketch  of  "Dick"  Steele, 
a  figure  in  St.  Paul's  journalistic  world  in  the  late  eighties  and 
early  nineties,  May  23 ;  a  report  of  the  meeting,  a  half  century 
ago,  of  the  Minnesota  Editorial  Association,  with  a  list  of  the 
editors  who  attended,  June  20 ;  and  outlines  of  the  editorial  work 
of  three  "Men  of  Fifty  Years  Ago,"  Frederick  Driscoll,  J. 
Fletcher  Williams,  and  James  H.  Davidson,  June  27.  Several  of 
the  other  articles  in  this  series  which  have  appeared  during  the 
past  three  months  are  of  considerable  historical  interest.  For 
example,  the  number  for  April  4  describes  the  reception  accorded 
to  a  group  of  notable  easterners  who  came  to  St.  Paul  in  June, 
1854,  on  a  river  steamer,  the  War  Eagle,  as  the  guests  of  the  Rock 
Island  Railroad  Company,  and  estimates  the  value  of  the  pub- 
licity which  the  visitors  gave  to  the  booming  territory  upon  their 
return  to  the  East.  Equally  interesting  are  the  accounts,  pub- 
lished April  11  and  May  16,  of  the  review  of  a  body  of  troops  at 
Fort  Snelling  on  July  9,  1855,  which  was  witnessed  by  Senator 
Charles  Sumner  and  throngs  of  people  from  surrounding  com- 
munities, and  of  "The  First  Balloon  Ascensions"  in  Minnesota, 
those  made  by  William  Markoe  in  1857. 

The  April  number  of  The  Gleam,  the  publication  of  the  John 
A.  Johnson  High  School,  formerly  the  Cleveland  High  School, 
of  St.  Paul,  is  an  "Historical  Number,"  issued  to  record  the  work 
of  the  recently  organized  Cleveland-Johnson  Historical  Associa- 
tion. The  aims  of  this  organization  are  "to  preserve  all  items 
of  value  in  the  life  of  the  school,"  to  note  its  expansion,  to  record 
faculty  changes,  "to  collect  books,  lectures,  pictures  by  ... 
distinguished  graduates,  and  to  keep  an  accurate  alumni  roll." 
Judging  from  the  material  published  in  this  number  of  The 
Gleam,  the  society  seems  to  have  passed  a  fairly  successful  initial 
year.  Sixteen  pages  are  devoted  to  a  history  of  the  school  and 
its  activities  and  two  and  a  half  pages  to  a  special  history  of 
athletics;  a  "Roll  of  Highest  Honors"  from  1897  to  1919  and 


478  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  AUG. 

letters  from  former  faculty  members  and  alumni  also  are  included. 
Illustrations  of  historical  interest  consist  of  portraits  of  prin- 
cipals and  photographs  of  the  buildings  of  the  school. 

The  St.  Paul  Daily  News  for  June  27  publishes  an  article  on 
the  services  of  Alpheus  B.  Stickney  to  Minnesota  and  especially 
to  St.  Paul.  Since  he  was  responsible  for  the  building  of  the 
union  stockyards  at  South  St.  Paul,  their  history  is  briefly  out- 
lined. 

Topographic  maps  of  three  portions  of  Minnesota,  the  St. 
Francis  Quadrangle  in  Anoka  and  Isanti  counties,  the  Pillager 
Quadrangle  in  Cass  and  Morrison  counties,  and  the  Beardsley 
Quadrangle  in  Traverse  and  Big  Stone  counties  have  been  issued 
recently  by  the  United  States  Geological  Survey.  Eventually 
these  maps  will  be  included  in  a  topographic  atlas  of  the  United 
States. 

An  article  entitled  "Ramsey  State  Park  Scenes  Recall  Days 
When  Red  Men  Slew  and  Burned,"  appears  in  the  St.  Paul 
Pioneer  Press  for  April  25.  It  sketches  the  history  of  the  famous 
log  cabin,  the  nucleus  of  the  town  of  Redwood  Falls,  which  was 
erected  by  Colonel  Samuel  McPhail  on  the  site  he  had  selected 
for  the  first  settlement  in  Redwood  County.  The  cabin  has  been 
moved  to  Ramsey  State  Park  near  the  town,  where  it  will  be 
preserved.  A  photograph  of  the  cabin  accompanies  the  article. 

The  history  of  the  old  Dalles  House  at  Taylor's  Falls,  recently 
condemned  as  unfit  for  housing  purposes,  is  outlined  in  an  article 
in  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press  for  June  6.  In  the  early  days  the 
building  was  used  as  a  court  house  as  well  as  a  hotel;  conse- 
quently a  number  of  interesting  incidents  in  the  early  history  of 
Chisago  County  are  included.  A  picture  of  the  Dalles  House 
accompanies  the  article. 

Minnesalbum  svenska  ev.  lutherska  Tripolis-forsamlingen, 
Kandiyohi  County,  Minnesota,  1868-1918  (64  p.)  is  the  title  of 
a  volume  published  in  commemoration  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary 
of  this  rural  church  in  Kandiyohi  township  and  county.  The 
credit  for  fashioning  a  consecutive  narrative  out  of  such  meager 
records  of  the  church  as  have  not  been  lost  or  destroyed  by  fire 
belongs  to  the  pastor,  the  Reverend  Hjalmar  Tillman.  Copies  of 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  479 

the  programs  which  marked  the  celebrations  of  the  thirtieth, 
fortieth,  and  fiftieth  anniversaries  of  the  organization  of  the 
congregation  are  included  in  the  volume.  The  illustrations  con- 
sist of  portraits  of  pastors  and  members  of  the  congregation  and 
of  the  various  buildings  of  the  church. 

The  July  issue  of  the  American-Scandinavian  Review  is  an 
"Historical  Number"  and  contains  articles  on  "Kleng  Peerson, 
the  Father  of  Norwegian  Immigration  to  America,"  by  Rasmus 
B.  Anderson ;  "Zachariah  Poulson,"  by  M.  Atherton  Leach ;  and 
"John  Hanson,  American  Patriot,"  by  George  H.  Ryden  and 
Adolph  B.  Benson. 

The  Constitutional  History  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase, 
1803-1812,  by  Everett  Sdmerville  Brown,  has  recently  appeared 
as  volume  10  of  the  Publications  in  History  of  the  University 
of  California.  It  deals  with  the  constitutional  aspects  of  the  pur- 
chase itself  and  with  the  organization  and  government  of  Orleans 
Territory,  which  became  the  state  of  Louisiana  in  1812. 

The  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin  has  begun  the  com- 
pilation of  a  "Domesday  Book"  of  the  state,  which  is  to  consist 
of  plats  of  all  the  townships  showing  the  first  settlers  on  each 
tract  of  land,  supplemented  with  information  about  them.  The 
records  of  the  United  States  Land  Office  furnish  the  starting 
point  for  the  work  and  additional  data  is  gathered  by  means  of 
questionnaires  distributed  to  schools  and  individuals  in  the 
localities. 

H.  V.  Arnold's  latest  venture  in  the  field  of  local  history  is 
The  Early  History  of  the  Devil's  Lake  Country,  Including  the 
Period  of  the  Early  Settlements  (Larimore,  North  Dakota,  1920. 
106  p.).  The  first  two  chapters,  which  deal  with  the  earliest 
explorers,  the  Indians,  and  the  fur  trade,  apply  almost  equally  to 
Minnesota  and  to  North  Dakota.  The  "Expedition  of  Jean  N. 
Nicollet"  and  that  portion  of  his  map  which  depicts  the  Devils 
Lake  region  are  discussed  in  chapter  4.  In  the  appendix  Mr. 
Arnold  explains  that  "Nicollet's  first  name  was  Joseph,  instead 
of  Jean,"  and  that  "Chapter  IV  was  printed  last  year  at  which 
time  the  error  was  not  known  to  the  publisher."  Aside  from 


480  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  AUG. 

a  brief  paragraph  on  the  extension  of  the  Sioux  Massacre  into 
North  Dakota  (p.  43),  little  more  of  Minnesota  interest  is  noted 
in  the  volume.  The  annals  of  the  settlements  around  Stump 
Lake  and  Devils  Lake  during  the  early  eighties  when  the  region 
was  booming  form  by  far  the  most  interesting  and  valuable  part 
of  the  narrative  and  make  up  the  three  concluding  chapters.  The 
information  contained  in  them  has  been  gleaned  almost  entirely 
from  two  early  newspapers,  the  Larimore  Pioneer  and  the  Devils 
Lake  Pioneer  Press. 

"The  First  Organized  Government  of  Dakota,"  by  Governor 
Samuel  Albright,  in  the  Western  Magazine  for  April  and  May, 
is  a  reprint,  without  acknowledgment,  of  an  article  in  volume  8 
of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Collections.  The  May  issue  contains 
also  an  historical  sketch  of  "The  Minnesota  National  Forests," 
which  was  compiled  recently  by  Bertha  L.  Heilbron  of  the  staff 
of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  in  response  to  a  request  from 
the  United  States  Forest  Service. 

The  passing  of  250  years  since  the  charter  which  established 
the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  was  granted  to  Prince  Rupert  was 
marked  by  a  series  of  historical  celebrations  and  pageants  con- 
ducted by  the  company  during  the  month  of  May  in  Winnipeg, 
Edmonton,  Calgary,  Vancouver,  Victoria,  and  numerous  trading 
posts  scattered  throughout  western  Canada.  The  festivities  were 
opened  in  and  about  Winnipeg  on  May  3.  The  company  extended 
its  hospitality  to  hosts  of  Indians  who  came,  dressed  in  their 
native  costumes,  from  remote  posts  of  the  Canadian  Northwest 
to  participate  in  the  celebration  and  to  join  officials  and  employees 
of  the  company  and  the  people  of  Winnipeg  in  witnessing  repro- 
ductions of  scenes  of  the  company's  early  activities,  which  were 
enacted  in  an  historical  pageant  at  Lower  Fort  Garry  and  in  a 
flotilla  of  eighteen  canoes  and  two  York  boats  manned  by  Indians 
on  the  Red  River.  A  detailed  account  of  this  celebration 
appeared  in  the  Manitoba  Free  Press  for  May  4.  The  issue  of  the 
same  paper  for  June  5  contained  a  description  of  one  of  the  last 
fetes  connected  with  the  company's  anniversary  celebration,  that 
held  on  May  24  at  Fort  Alexander,  a  frontier  post,  where  a  thou- 
sand Indians  were  entertained.  The  anniversary  and  its  com- 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  481 

memoration  are  of  marked  interest  to  Minnesotans,  not  only 
because  the  scenes  reproduced  in  the  pageants  were  characteristic 
of  fur-trading  days  in  this  state  as  well  as  in  Canada,  but  because 
the  story  of  Lord  Selkirk  and  his  Red  River  Colony  forms  an 
intimate  link  between  the  history  of  Minnesota  and  that  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company. 

The  "Veterans  of  1866-70  and  1885  and  the  Old  Settlers  of 
the  Red  River  Valley"  of  Canada  held  their  annual  reunion  in 
Winnipeg  on  May  4,  in  connection  with  the  celebration  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company.  The  names  of  persons  who  attended 
the  meeting,  arranged  chronologically  according  to  dates  of 
arrival  in  the  region,  are  published  with  an  account  of  the  reunion 
in  the  Manitoba  Free  Press  for  May  5. 

Empire  Day,  1920,  a  pamphlet  issued  by  the  department  of 
education  of  the  Province  of  Manitoba  at  Winnipeg  (28  p.), 
commemorates  the  anniversaries  of  three  important  events  in  the 
history  of  the  province :  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary 
of  the  founding  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  the  one  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  death  of  Lord  Selkirk,  and  the  fiftieth  anni- 
versary of  the  organization  of  Manitoba  as  a  "Province  of  the 
Dominion  of  Canada."  The  story  of  their  northern  neighbor  is 
naturally  of  interest  to  Minnesotans.  Furthermore,  the  histories 
of  the  state  and  of  the  province  overlap  in  a  number  of  instances; 
and  even  in  so  brief  a  sketch  as  that  contained  in  the  present 
pamphlet,  events  of  significance  in  Minnesota  history  are  in- 
cluded. For  example,  two  pages  are  devoted  to  the  "Selkirk 
Settlers"  and  their  tragic  struggle  with  the  Northwest  Company ; 
and  mention  is  made  of  the  annual  arrival  of  a  packet  of  mail 
at  Fort  Garry  "overland  from  the  States  in  the  winter"  until 
1853  when  "a  monthly  service  was  started  from  Fort  Ripley," 
and  of  the  first  steamboat  "to  ply  between  Fort  Abercrombie  on 
the  Red  River  in  Minnesota,  and  Fort  Garry,  in  1861"  (p.  15). 
Since  the  pamphlet  was  prepared  for  distribution  among  the 
school  children  of  Manitoba,  the  narrative,  which  is  written  in  an 
extremely  simple  style,  takes  in  only  outstanding  events  and  char- 
acters, and  the  illustrations  are  given  decided  prominence.  The 
pictures  of  greatest  Minnesota  interest  are  those  of  Lord  Selkirk, 


482  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  AUG. 

of  a  Red  River  cart,  and  of  a  buffalo  hunt.  The  pamphlet  is 
to  be  commended  as  an  excellent  means  of  familiarizing  the 
growing  citizens  of  Manitoba  with  the  history  of  their  province 
and  with  the  activities  of  the  men  who  laid  its  foundations.  Such 
a  pamphlet  might  well  be  published  in  Minnesota  to  acquaint 
the  youth  of  the  state  with  the  salient  points  in  its  history  and 
to  commemorate  the  Fort  Snelling  centenary. 

WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES 

The  thousands  of  service  records  received  by  the  Minnesota 
War  Records  Commission  in  connection  with  applications  for 
the  state  bonus  have  been  sorted  by  counties  and  work  has  been 
commenced  upon  the  drawing  up  of  check  lists  for  use  in  the 
completion  of  these  files.  The  importance  of  this  work  was 
enhanced  when  it  became  apparent  that  applicants  for  the  bonus 
had  not  filled  out  the  commission's  questionnaire  in  all  cases,  and 
that  a  few  thousand  must  be  reached,  as  originally  planned, 
through  the  medium  of  the  county  war  records  committees. 

Among  recent  acquisitions  by  the  commission  of  material 
relating  to  group  activities  may  be  noted :  the  headquarters  files 
of  correspondence  and  records  relating  to  the  war  activities  of 
the  Minnesota  branch  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, typewritten  summaries  of  the  work  of  the  Red  Cross  chap- 
ters of  Morrison  and  Winona  counties,  and  a  card  index  record 
of  women  student  volunteer  workers  organized  by  the  depart- 
ment of  home  economics  of  the  agricultural  college  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Minnesota  for  the  purpose  of  arranging  exhibits  and 
giving  demonstrations  in  the  work  of  food  conservation. 

From  James  P.  Dudley  of  St.  Paul,  formerly  first  lieutenant 
and,  for  a  time  commanding  officer  of  Company  G,  350th  United 
States  Infantry,  88th  Division,  the  commission  has  received  a 
valuable  collection  of  original  documents  relating  to  the  history 
of  his  company  and  covering  the  entire  period  of  its  training  at 
Camp  Dodge  and  of  its  activities  in  France,  where  it  saw  action 
in  so-called  "quiet"  sectors  at  the  front.  Among  other  things  in 
the  collection  may  be  noted:  a  set  of  rosters  of  the  company, 


1920  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  483 

showing  changes  in  personnel  from  month  to  month;  several 
series  of  orders,  bulletins,  circulars,  and  memoranda  received  by 
the  company  commander  from  divisional,  brigade,  and  regimental 
headquarters;  copies  of  field  messages  sent  during  the  progress 
of  the  fighting ;  and  individual  service  records  of  a  few  members 
of  the  company.  \  number  of  bulletins  received  from  corps 
headquarters  contain  matter  designed  for  use  by  the  company's 
officers  in  counteracting  the  effects  of  various  kinds  of  propa- 
ganda detrimental  to  the  morale  of  the  army.  Special  mention 
should  be  made  of  a  series  of  detailed  topographical  maps,  sup- 
plied for  use  in  the  field,  of  the  regions  about  St.  Mihiel,  Wassy, 
Nancy,  Gondecourt,  Mulhouse,  Metz,  and  Mort  Mare,  and  of 
large  military  maps  illustrative  of  the  St.  Mihiel  and  Meuse- 
Argonne  offensives.  Group  photographs  of  Company  G  and 
Company  H  and  the  supply  company  of  the  350th  Infantry  are 
among  numerous  other  items  included  in  the  collection. 

War  histories  of  Becker,  Freeborn,  and  Mower  counties  have 
been  placed  in  the  historical  library  through  the  kindness  of  the 
publishers,  Daniel  Nelson  of  Detroit,  the  Albert  Lea  Publishing 
Company  (C.  E.  Wood,  compiler),  and  the  Austin  Herald  (John 
H.  and  Gertrude  E.  Skinner,  editors).  Valuable  supplementary 
material,  consisting  of  originals  of  soldiers'  portraits  reproduced 
in  the  book,  accompanied  the  Becker  County  history.  While  all 
three  of  these  histories  conform  more  or  less  to  the  type  that  is 
becoming  conventional,  each  has  its  unique  features;  and  the 
Mower  County  volume,  particularly,  appears  to  have  covered  its 
field  in  an  unusually  thorough,  and  certainly  in  an  interesting, 
manner.  It  is  encouraging,  also,  to  note  in  each  case  some  trace 
of  the  influence  of  suggestions  made  by  the  war  records  com- 
mission. 

The  Ramsey  County  branch  of  the  Minnesota  War  Records 
Commission,  Colonel  Haydn  S.  Cole  of  St.  Paul,  chairman,  has 
undertaken  to  prepare  and  publish  a  history  of  St.  Paul  and 
Ramsey  County  in  the  World  War.  According  to  present  plans 
about  half  of  the  volume  will  be  devoted  to  an  historical  narra- 
tive, moderately  illustrated,  covering  the  essential  features  of 
all  phases  of  the  community's  contribution  to  the  winning  of  the 


484  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  AUG. 

war ;  the  remainder  to  a  roster,  with  brief  records  of  the  services, 
of  all  Ramsey  County  soldiers,  sailors,  marines,  and  army  wel- 
fare workers.  Franklin  F.  Holbrook,  secretary  of  the  state  com- 
mission, has  been  placed  in  charge  of  the  work  as  director  of 
the  Ramsey  County  War  Records  Commission  and  editor  of  the 
projected  history. 

Brief  biographical  sketches  of  the  seventeen  former  students 
of  the  agricultural  college  of  the  University  of  Minnesota,  who 
lost  their  lives  in  the  service,  and  whose  names  appear  on  the 
bronze  tablet  recently  placed  in  the  auditorium  at  the  University 
Farm,  will  be  kept  in  a  permanent  file  at  the  college,  according 
to  an  article  which  appeared  in  the  Minnesota  Farm  Review  of 
May  6.  Seven  of  the  sketches  already  on  file  are  summarized 
in  the  article. 

In  the  publication  of  a  History  of  Buffalo  and  Erie  County, 
1914-1919  (733  p.),  prepared  under  the  auspices  of  a  committee 
of  one  hundred  citizens,  the  city  of  Buffalo,  New  York,  has  set  an 
example  which  may  well  be  followed  by  other  large  cities  of  the 
country  in  compiling  records  of  patriotic  achievement  during  the 
late  war.  The  book  furnishes  an  admirable  account,  handsomely 
illustrated  and  well  supplied  with  maps  and  charts,  of  the  various 
ways  in  which  the  people  of  that  community  contributed  to  the 
winning  of  the  war,  and  concludes  with  a  two  hundred  and  forty 
page  roster  of  the  names  and  some  indication  of  the  services  of 
all  Buffalo  and  Erie  County  men  and  women  who  served  as  mem- 
bers or  associates  of  the  armed  forces  of  the  nation. 

Occasional  bits  of  news  from  other  state  war  records  agencies 
show  that  the  work  of  collecting  records  of  state  and  local  par- 
ticipation in  the  World  War  is  going  forward  slowly  but  per- 
sistently in  communities  throughout  the  country.  One  of  the 
notable  developments  in  the  work  appears  to  be  the  increasing 
reliance  placed  by  official  state  agencies  upon  the  efforts  of  their 
local  volunteer  committees.  An  evidence  of  this  is  the  periodical 
issuance  in  many  cases  of  circulars  or  bulletins  for  the  guidance 
of  such  committees.  For  example,  the  war  records  section  of 
the  Illinois  State  Historical  Library  issues  monthly  a  War  Rec- 


1920 


WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES 


485 


ords  Bulletin,  and  the  war  history  department  of  the  California 
Historical  Survey  Commission  stimulates  and  directs  local  activ- 
ity through  the  medium  of  an  occasional  Information  Circular. 
Also,  as  in  a  number  of  states,  the  California  commission  has 
issued  a  printed  pamphlet  containing  a  Suggested  Outline  for  a 
State  or  County  War  History  together  with  other  matter  designed 
to  arouse  and  give  definite  direction  to  public  interest  in  the 
subject. 


MINNESOTA 
HISTORY  BULLETIN 


VOL.  3,  No.  8 
WHOLE  No.  24 
NOVEMBER,  1920 


THE   FAMILY  TRAIL  THROUGH 
AMERICAN   HISTORY1 

Where  were  you  in  1718?  There  is  a  pleasant  question. 
Try  it  upon  some  friend  tomorrow  and  watch  his  face  as  it 
reveals,  first,  his  wonder  whether  you  are  quite  sane ;  next,  his 
perception  that  you  really  mean  something  by  the  question; 
and  at  last,  his  interested  but  curiously  uncertain  realization 
that  the  question  is  entertaining  and  important. 

In  1818?  You  were  somewhat  scattered,  possibly.  In 
1718  you  were  rather  thoroughly  dispersed,  and  in  1618 
fairly  well  mingled  with  humanity. 

In  1818  you  were  walking  abroad,  probably,  in  the  guise  of 
four  grandparents.  In  1718  you  were  looking  at  the  world 
out  of,  say,  thirty-two  pairs  of  eyes;  whereas  very  likely  in 
1618  some  ten  hundred  and  twenty-four  individuals,  all  un- 
witting, had  the  honor  of  being  directly  your  ancestors.  Some 
of  the  younger  ones  here  had  many  more  in  that  year;  I  see 
some  others,  however,  who  had  not  more  than  two  hundred 
and  fifty-six.  Even  so  many  makes  a  goodly  gathering. 

1  This  paper  is  printed  as  read  at  an  open  meeting  of  the  executive 
council  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  on  December  9,  1918,  by 
Cyril  Allyn  Herrick. 

Mr.  Herrick  was  born  May  28,  1885,  at  Ashburnham,  Massachusetts, 
the  son  of  the  Reverend  Austin  Henrie  and  Sarah  Leonora  (Prouty) 
Herrick.  Through  his  mother  his  ancestry  runs  back  to  the  "Mayflower," 
the  English  lines  subsequently  blending  with  Huguenot  and  Ulster-Irish 
strains,  while  on  his  father's  side  he  was  descended  from  Ephriam  Hereck 
of  Beverly,  Massachusetts,  son  of  Henerie  Hericke,  fifth  son  of  Sir  Wil- 
liam Heyricke,  who  was  born  in  1557,  the  eleventh  of  the  twelve  children 
of  John  Eyrick  or  Heyrick  of  Leicester,  of  the  eleventh  recorded  genera- 
tion of  Herricks,  who  first  prefixed  an  H  to  the  family  name,  and  who 
died  in  1589. 

But  the  tracing  of  his  ancestry  did  not  occupy  the  author's  attention 
until  the  last  years  of  his  life.  Learning  to  read  by  incessantly  question- 
ing his  parents  before  they  thought  it  time  to  teach  him  his  letters,  Mr. 
Herrick  was  ever  after  an  eager  student.  His  health  was  always  frail 
and  his  work  at  school,  to  which  he  was  first  sent  at  the  age  of  eight, 


489 


$ 

490  CYRIL  A.  HERRICK  Nov. 

Now  it's  not  merely  pretty  poetry,  it  is  also  adequate 
biology,  that  in  some  sense  we  existed  in  our  forbears,  saw 
what  they  saw,  did  what  they  did,  felt  what  they  felt.  Hence 
a  just  curiosity  to  know  what  it  was  that  we  saw,  did,  and 
felt  at  any  given  period  of  the  past.  Almost  anybody,  I  find, 
will  presently  rise  to  the  question  with  which  I  began:  Where 
were  you  in  1718?  All  people  seem  to  have  this  instinctive 
interest  in  ancestry;  many  of  them  are  at  first  unaware  of 
their  own  curiosity  in  the  matter;  many  a  person  cannot  re- 
call the  given  names  of  all  four  of  his  grandparents,  or  the 
maiden  names  of  his  two  grandmothers.  Few  indeed  are 
those  who  can  tell  right  off  the  names  of  their  eight  great- 
grandparents.  Very  much  more  rare,  however,  is  he  who, 
once  his  attention  is  called  to  his  ignorance  at  this  point,  does 
not  keep  on  uneasily  asking  questions  and  writing  letters  until 
he  finds  out  not  only  who  these  great-grandparents  were,  but 
likewise  what  they  did  for  a  living,  where  they  dwelt,  and  if 
possible  what  they  were  like. 

The  man  thus  aroused  is  in  a  fair  way  to  become  a  student 
of  history,  for  where  now  can  his  curiosity  stop?  Desire  to 

frequently  interrupted.  In  1904  he  graduated  at  the  head  of  his  class  in 
the  high  school  at  Hudson,  Massachusetts.  His  college  course  was  begun 
at  Ohio  Wesleyan  University,  Delaware,  Ohio,  interrupted  by  illness,  and 
completed  by  three  years'  work  at  Harvard,  where  he  took  his  degree, 
summa  cum  laude,  in  1910,  with  highest  honors  in  English. 

For  two  years  he  was  instructor,  then  assistant  professor,  of  English 
literature  at  Ohio  Wesleyan  University.  In  1914,  after  serious  illness,  he 
went  to  the  University  of  Wisconsin  as  instructor  in  rhetoric,  only  to 
have  his  work  again  interrupted  for  a  year  by  ill  health.  In  1915  he  came 
to  the  University  of  Minnesota  as  instructor  in  rhetoric,  and  was  made 
assistant  professor  in  1919.  He  died  January  2,  1920,  at  Tucson,  Arizona, 
where  he  had  gone  hoping  to  recover  from  the  effects  of  an  attack  of 
influenza  in  the  year  before. 

Originally  taken  up  as  a  diversion  during  tedious  months  of  convales- 
cence, possibly  in  search  of  the  answer  to  the  query  whimsically  expressed 
to  his  brother  in  1909,  as  to  "where  we  got  these  various  traits,  anyway," 
the  study  of  genealogy  had  become  for  him  a  very  real  and  living  joy; 
and  this  paper  reveals  his  unfailing  interest  in  the  human  aspects  of  every 
subject  he  investigated.— Asbury  H.  Herrick 


1920  THE  FAMILY  TRAIL  491 

know  about  great-grandfather,  any  one  of  the  four,  creates 
even  keener  curiosity  about  his  parents,  and  the  investigator 
ever  enlarges  the  circle  of  his  interests  until  the  study  of  his 
ancestry  merges  imperceptibly  into  the  study  of  local,  state, 
and  national  history.  Presently  this  student  of  family  his- 
tory has  a  comprehension  of  the  kinship  of  men;  he  is  likely  to 
have  a  keener  social  zeal ;  he  is  sure  to  have  an  ever-widening 
knowledge  of  history.  He  has  luckily  lost  his  old  feeling 
that  he  is  just  John  Smith,  latest  of  a  long  line  of  Smiths.  He 
has  become  as  much  interested  in  his  mother's  maternal  grand- 
mother, Mary  Jones,  as  in  his  father's  paternal  grandfather, 
Thomas  Smith.  He  no  longer  thinks  of  himself  as  the  end  of 
a  long  straight  line;  he  now  more  intelligently  sees  himself 
the  center  of  a  circle  without  circumference  (as  the  symbolical 
circular  chart  of  the  modern  genealogist  reveals) ;  he  has 
melted  into  all  history.  Keen,  at  the  outset,  only  for  facts 
concerning  immediate  ancestry,  he  has  soon  acquired  a  good 
working  knowledge  of  the  history  of  his  state  and  of  his  coun- 
try. And  he  will  never  stop  with  that. 

It  is  an  interesting  process,  that  started  by  the  question  I 
began  with.  "Where  was  I  in  1718?"  To  me  that  is  as  inter- 
esting as,  "Where  shall  I  be  in  21 18  ?"  It  is  a  sort  of  reversed 
immortality  I  speak  for  tonight. 

Some  of  you  may  be  professional  students  of  history,  and 
have  perhaps  from  the  beginning  been  by  the  grace  of  God 
enabled  to  contemplate  history  in  a  large,  philosophical  way. 
Will  such  of  you  please  listen  with  forbearance  as  I  put  in  my 
word  for  those  who,  having  in  the  first  place  small  enthusiasm 
for  history,  must  come  to  their  enjoyment  of  it  by  humble 
approaches  and  insensible  degrees. 

In  addressing  you  who  are  experts  in  history  I  need  not 
labor  to  drive  home  the  fact  that  most  people  know,  and  wish 
to  know,  nothing  of  history.  From  a  class  of  thirty  normally 
intelligent  students  at  the  University  of  Minnesota  one  day 
last  week  I  drew  the  information  that  Hannibal  (some  of 
them  spelt  him  Cannibal)  was  a  Roman  author,  that  Bismarck 


492  CYRIL  A.  HERRI CK  Nov. 

% 

was  an  American  writer  and  ambassador  to  England,  that 
Buddha  was  a  Turkish  god,  Alexander  the  Great  an  Egyptian 
admiral,  and  John  Paul  Jones  an  English  pirate  (which  he 
may  have  been).  Two  out  of  thirty  attached  some  meaning 
to  the  name  of  Von  Moltke,  and  not  one  had  ever  heard  of 
Algernon  Sidney.  In  another  class,  of  thirty-three,  three  had 
some  notion,  and  that  very  hazy,  as  to  the  significance  of  the 
name  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.  I'm  not  scolding  nor  wan- 
dering from  my  subject.  The  point  is  clear:  people,  even 
those  above  the  average  in  education  and  opportunity,  know 
little,  as  things  are,  about  history.  We  will  probably  agree 
that  they  might  well  know  more.  I  am  suggesting  tonight  a 
way  in  which  they  can  know  more,  a  way  by  which  the  average 
person  can  be  lured,  all  unwitting,  into  a  reasonable  knowl- 
edge of  and  liking  for  the  history  of  his  own  state  and  coun- 
try, and  perhaps  of  others. 

Now  there  are  in  the  world  a  great  many  people  who  are 
interested  most  of  all  in  themselves  and  their  own  kin.  For- 
merly moralists  used  to  deplore  this  fact;  nowadays,  more 
opportunist  in  spirit,  they  see  in  this  "enlightened  self-inter- 
est" a  prime  cause  of  worthy  human  endeavor.  In  any  case, 
since  it  exists,  why  not  utilize  it?  This  interest  in  self  leads 
a  man  to  get  shelter  and  food  for  himself  and  his  own  people 
first — leads  him  to  strive  unceasingly  for  necessities  and  pres- 
ently for  comforts.  As  students  of  history  we  should  bless 
the  selfish  instincts  which  stirred  him  to  all  this  endeavor,  for 
that  labor  was  prerequisite  to  any  material  for  historical  inter- 
est and  study. 

Bradford  could  not  sit  down  to  write  his  history  of 
Plymouth  Colony  until  his  huts  were  built,  his  crops  sown  and 
harvested,  his  courts  established,  all  his  transplanted  civiliza- 
tion under  way.  A  generation  of  zealous,  and  in  one  sense 
selfish,  toil  came  between  the  landing  in  1620  and  the  pen- 
ning of  the  first  adequate  history  of  the  Great  Experiment. 
And  after  Bradford  wrote,  a  century  more  had  to  pass  before 
many  people  had  leisure  to  read  what  he  had  written. 


1920  THE  FAMILY  TRAIL  493 

A  good  deal  of  apparently  selfish  interest  and  activity  is 
then  prerequisite  if  historians  are  to  write  or  students  study. 
Happily,  this  self-interest  almost  invariably  exists,  for  doing 
things,  for  recording  them,  and  for  studying  the  records.  It 
is  easy  to  utilize  this  interest  in  self  for  winning  people  to 
historical  interests. 

A  baby  is  interested  first  in  himself,  his  immediate  sensa- 
tions. Gradually  he  comes  to  notice  his  parents,  the  room  in 
which  he  finds  himself,  the  house,  the  green  world  revealed 
through  the  windows  of  the  house,  people  walking  around, 
many  of  them,  outside  the  original  line  of  his  perception.  His 
life  is  to  consist  in  an  eternal  enlarging  of  the  circle  of  his 
sensations,  attention,  interests. 

This  is  logical;  this  is  properly  evolutionary.  Why  not  take 
advantage  of  this  scheme  of  nature's  in  furthering  the  study 
of  history? 

How  then  does  all  this  apply? 

There  is  much  pleasure  in  talking  with  people.  You  meet 
Mr.  John  Green  in  the  lobby  of  The  Saint  Paul.  You  know 
that  he  is  an  old  Philistine,  remarkably  material  and  imme- 
diate in  his  interests,  not  at  all  the  sort  of  man  you'd  expect 
to  talk  history  with  you. 

"Have  you  lived  long  in  this  state,  Mr.  Green?"  you  inno- 
cently ask. 

"All  my  life,  sir,  and  most  of  it  in  St.  Paul."  And  with 
considerable  gusto,  he  begins  a  half-hour's  monologue  as  to 
his  life  and  career  in  Minnesota.  He  brings  in  a  good  bit  of 
general  local  history  along  with  the  numerous,  and  quite  pos- 
sibly wearisome,  personal  details. 

Presently  he  lets  fall  the  fact  that  his  father  was  a  pioneer 
here  in  the  Northwest  country.  Spurred  this  way  and  that  by 
an  occasional  judicious  question,  the  hard-headed  old  gentle- 
man reveals  some  little  pride  in  the  fact  that  his  father  and 
he  were  out  here  during  the  various  Indian  disturbances,  inter- 
esting stories  of  which  he  can  pour  forth  galore.  A  few  mo- 
ments ago  Mr.  Green  would  indignantly  have  repudiated  any 


' 
494  .CYRIL  A.  HERRI CK  Nov. 

suggestion  that  he  might  be  interested  in  history ;  yet  lo !  here 
he  is,  telling  with  zest  some  sort  of  early  Minnesota  terri- 
torial and  state  history.  To  be  sure,  it  is  territorial  and  state 
history  as  relating  to  his  father  and  family ;  unquestionably  it 
is  a  history  marvelously  mingled  with  a  tradition  frequently 
lurid  and  partly  incredible.  It  is  history,  nevertheless,  and  of 
a  sort  far  less  personal  and  petty  than  that  with  which  Mr. 
Green  began  his  talk  half  an  hour  ago.  You  have  gleaned 
many  an  interesting  anecdote  as  your  reward. 

As  you  leave  him,  you  guilefully  ask:  "How  did  your 
father  happen  out  into  this  part  of  the  world?"  Mr.  Green 
very  possibly  is  by  no  means  sure  what  it  was  that  drew  his 
father  hither.  "Land  hungry,  probably." 

"And  where  did  your  father  come  from?" 

"Western  Reserve  somewhere.  Don't  remember  the  place 
exactly.  Grandfather  died  out  there." 

(Don't  be  surprised  at  such  indefiniteness  as  to  geography. 
People  innumerable  have  no  precise  notion  as  to  where  their 
own  parents  have  lived.) 

"How  did  your  grandfather  happen  to  be  there?" 

"Haven't  the  least  idea.     I  wonder  though  .  .  ." 

Yesterday  Mr.  Green  would  not  have  thought  twice  of  the 
matter.  Today,  having  been  properly  led  on,  he  feels  stirring, 
germinating,  that  curiosity  which  is  to  be  so  fruitful. 

You  run  across  the  practical,  matter-of-fact  Mr.  Green  a 
fortnight  later.  After  talking  a  while  about  the  war  and  the 
weather,  presently  in  a  casual  and  semi-apologetic  fashion: 

"By  the  way,"  he  says,  "you  remember  we  were  talking 
about  my  grandfather  the  other  day?"  (We  were  talking, — 
much  talking  he  would  have  done  on  his  own  initiative.) 
"Well,"  he  goes  on,  "I  looked  him  up  a  little.  Got  rather 
interested  when  you  asked  about  him  and  thought  you  might 
like  to  know." 

(That's  your  penalty;  they'll  always  say,  these  Mr.  Greens, 
they  are  gratifying  your  curiosity.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they 


1920  THE  FAMILY  TRAIL  495 

are  by  now  keen  on  the  scent  for  their  own  sakes,  and  tickled 
to  pieces  to  get  someone  to  hear  them  maunder  on.) 

"My  old  cousin  back  East  writes  me  that  grandfather's 
name  was  Epaphroditus  Green." 

(You'd  have  expected  him  to  have  remembered  a  name  like 
that.  But  no.  Only  a  few  days  ago  I  found  a  man  who  had 
forgotten  that  his  grandfather  was  named  Ichabod,  and  a 
woman  who  had  never  heard  the  name  of  a  grandfather  called 
Orange. ) 

"His  name  was  Epaphroditus  Green,  and  he  lived  in  Con- 
neaut,  Ohio,  in  the  Western  Reserve,  as  they  called  it.  He 
owned  quite  a  lot  of  land  out  there.  Interesting  old  fellow, 
too,  from  some  things  my  cousin  writes."  And  he  chuckles  at 
reminiscence  of  certain  quaint  anecdotes  in  the  letter. 

You  have  landed  Mr.  Green  now.  Before  he  knows  it,  he 
will  have  learned  something  of  United  States  history,  and  this 
is  how  it  will  happen.  Properly  prodded  by  an  apt,  occasional 
query,  he  will  burst  out:  "Say  now,  I  wonder  how  old  Epa- 
phroditus happened  to  be  out  there  in  the  Reserve.  I've 
always  understood  that  way  back  my  folks  came  from  New 
England — from  Connecticut,  I  think  they  used  to  tell  me. 
How'd  he  come  to  be  in  the  Reserve?  What  is  the  Western 
Reserve,  anyway?" 

A  perfectly  natural  process,  you  see.  Here  is  Mr.  Green 
asking,  or  about  to  ask,  all  kinds  of  large,  general  historical 
questions.  He  had  merely  a  very  personal  toehold  back  there 
a  fortnight  ago,  and  already,  in  two  weeks,  he  has  jumped  into 
the  midst  of  some  valuable  American  history.  Now  is  your 
chance. 

You  tell  Mr.  Green  that  right  here  in  St.  Paul,  up  on  the  hill 
by  the  Capitol,  he  can  find  a  highly  serviceable  historical  so- 
ciety that  will  put  him  on  the  track  of  what  he  wants.  He 
has  always  supposed  the  historical  library  was  a  somewhat 
expensive,  possibly  extravagant,  architectural  gem  set  up  there 
to  delight  the  souls  of  an  elect  few  of  whom  he  zvas  not.  Now 
he  gets  the  notion  that  there  is  something  for  him  there.  His 


496  ^CYRIL  A.  HERRICK  Nov. 

self-interest  is  still  working,  but  in  a  less  directly  personal 
way  now. 

Some  day,  pretty  soon  too,  he  will  drop  into  the  reading 
room  and  ask  for  the  history  of  the  Ohio  county  in  which 
Conneaut  is.  He  never  knew  before  that  county  histories  were 
so  numerous  as  they  are  here  to  be  found;  still  less  had  he 
suspected  that  away  out  here  in  the  West  there  was  any  such 
collection.  What  is  his  delight  to  find  in  his  newly  discovered 
treasure  portraits  of  Epaphroditus  Green,  of  great-uncle  Eras- 
tus  Green,  and  not  impossibly  of  great-grandfather  Pliny 
Green.  I've  seen  more  than  one  or  two  people  filled  with  de- 
light at  finding  in  our  library,  hundreds  of  miles  from  their 
ancestral  homes,  portraits  in  the  local  histories  of  their  an- 
cestors and  other  relatives,  pictures  they  had  never  seen  and 
never  knew  to  exist.  Hereafter  they  can  remark  casually: 
"Over  in  the  state  historical  society  there  is  a  portrait  of  my 
grandfather."  It  sounds  well  and  inevitably  suggests  a  large 
oil  canvas  hanging  in  our  stately  halls  here.  Coming  back  to 
Mr.  Green.  He  finds  the  afternoon  too  brief  for  the  content- 
ing of  his  continually  whetted  spirit  of  inquiry.  He  has  now 
learned  in  a  by-the-way  fashion,  what  the  Western  Reserve 
was,  how  it  happened  to  fall  to  Connecticut,  and  how  the 
Connecticut  folks  emigrated  in  great  numbers  to  the  Lake 
Shore  region  in  the  early  years  of  the  last  century.  With  no 
conscious  effort,  Mr.  Green  has  soaked  in  a  good  amount  of 
exceedingly  vital  American  history. 

He  has  been  led  beycnd  the  history  of  Ohio.  The  book 
about  Conneaut  remarked  in  a  footnote  that  Pliny  Green  had 
come  to  the  Reserve  from  Wethersfield,  Connecticut,  and  was 
the  son  of  Henry  Green  of  that  place.  Somewhat  hesitantly, 
our  friend  thereupon  asks  the  attendant  if  she  can  provide  him 
with  anything  to  enlighten  him  as  to  Wethersfield  and  Henry 
Green.  At  once  he  is  swamped.  Laden  with  the  History  and 
Genealogies  of  Wethers  field,  and  with  the  thick  Green  gene- 
alogy which  she  brings,  he  staggers  back  to  his  table,  catches 
his  breath,  resumes  work,  and  before  long  has  traced  the 


1920  THE  FAMILY  TRAIL  497 

Greens  clearly  back  to  the  year  1635,  when  Zebulon  Green  the 
first  came  from  England,  took  up  his  abode  for  a  time  in  Cam- 
bridge, only  to  remove  presently  in  the  company  of  Hooker  to 
the  wilderness  out  by  the  "Conecticot"  River. 

It  is  with  a  real  pleasure  that  Mr.  Green  reaches  this  goal. 
In  order  properly  to  comprehend  what  he  has  read  about  his 
ancestors  in  their  various  wanderings  and  residences  he  has 
had,  of  necessity,  to  learn  much  about  the  original  settlements 
in  New  England,  about  the  migrations  from  colony  to  colony, 
about  the  steady  westward  urge  from  the  later  colonial  period 
on.  He's  learned  it  in  reverse  fashion,  surely,  but  chronology 
is  equally  serviceable  by  whichever  end  you  get  hold  of  it. 

But  Green  feels  some  chagrin  at  learning  that  his  particular 
lineage  gleams  with  no  bright  stars.  Uniformly  his  progeni- 
tors have  been  plain  husbandmen,  obscure  pioneers  entirely 
undistinguished  in  career.  Not  until  some  weeks  later,  when 
he  has  studied  out  several  more  of  his  ancestral  lines  and 
found  them  predominantly  of  this  humdrum  element,  will  he 
develop  a  wholesome  proletarian  pride  in  the  great  mass  of 
mankind  of  whom  he  is  so  unmistakably  one.  At  the  moment 
he  is  disappointed,  and  looks  around  for  some  more  striking 
star  for  his  crown.  No  direct  Green  ancestor  was  so  thought- 
ful as  even  to  figure  in  the  lists  of  Revolutionary  soldiers. 
But  hold  on ;  now  he  can  vaguely  remember  that  Grandmother 
Carter,  his  mother's  mother,  used  to  talk  about  her  father's 
gun  that  he  had  at  Valley  Forge.  There  follows  a  search 
through  Carter  ancestry  that  gratifyingly  reveals  a  daring 
Revolutionist,  and  likewise  a  famous  Carter  soldier,  a  direct 
ancestor,  who  fought  in  several  Indian  wars. 

Snared  as  he  now  is,  Mr.  Green  isn't  going  to  trace  out  these 
militant  forefathers  without  gaining  at  the  same  time  a  pretty 
detailed  knowledge  of  the  various  colonial  wars  and  of  the 
great  war  with  England.  Better  yet,  in  his  efforts  to  discover 
why  some  ancestral  family,  just  after  the  Revolution,  appeared 
unexpectedly  in  an  obscure  corner  of  the  Berkshires,  he  will 
get  some  notion  of  the  difficult  economic  and  social  conditions 


498  'CYRIL  A.  HERRI CK  Nov. 

which  for  a  time  led  our  forefathers  to  question  the  wisdom 
and  desirability  of  the  Revolution  itself,  conditions  which 
drove  the  harassed  farmers,  say  from  the  fertile  fields  of 
southern  Connecticut  into  the  relentless  forests  to  the  north- 
ward. He  will  learn  of  the  continued  economic  pressure  which 
sent  the  next  generation  into  the  woods  of  western  New  York, 
across  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  and  on,  and  on.  He  will  read 
how  land  grants  to  the  veterans  of  1812  lured  settlers  into  the 
Illinois  country,  where  the  Virginia  strain  was  brought  into 
the  Green  stock — for  Mr.  Green's  father  had  spent  a  couple 
of  seasons  in  Illinois  on  his  way  from  the  Reserve  to  the 
Northwest. 

In  short,  ranging  thus  backwards  and  forwards  through  the 
history  of  his  country,  Mr.  Green  will  come  to  understand 
what  economic  and  social  chances  brought  it  about  that  he,  the 
eminent  and  highly  respectable  John  Green,  was  brought  into 
being  out  here  in  the  northwest  prairies.  That's  a  pleasant 
thing  to  know.  He  is  going  to  have  a  completer  conception  orf 
human  life;  more  important,  he  is  going  to  have  an  acuter 
sense  of  his  personal  relation  to  the  past  and  present,  than  in 
any  other  way  he  could  possibly  have.  A  thousand  general- 
izations about  history  do  not  so  truly  constitute  knowledge 
thereof  as  some  sudden,  intimate,  personal,  revealing  apprecia- 
tion of  one's  own  connection  with  history,  any  history,  all 
history. 

The  study  of  one's  family  leads  insensibly  and  alluringly  to 
a  genuine,  because  personal  and  immediate,  interest  in  history, 
an  interest  which  is  essential  if  history  is  ever  to  be  to  us  more 
than  perfunctory,  useless  information.  Tell  me  that  this  coun- 
try was  agitated  by  serious  internal  disturbances  shortly  after 
the  Revolution  and  I  have  learned  a  bit  of  general  historical 
knowledge,  but  am  not  particularly  impressed  therewith.  Tell 
me  that  Grandfather  Darius  Jenkins  was  hanged  ignomini- 
ously  for  his  part  in  the  Whiskey  Rebellion,  and  all  of  a  sud- 
den I  have  realized  a  bit  of  history.  That  first  and  generalized 


1920  THE  FAMILY  TRAIL  499 

historical  statement  henceforth  is  a  vitalized  and  productive 
part  of  my  historical  equipment. 

Will  you  permit  me  now  a  few  random  illustrations  of  the 
felicities  of  this  method  of  historical  approach. 

I  see  among  you  a  lady  who  cannot  search  very  far  into  her 
ancestry  without  getting  a  good  hold  of  American  history.  A 
certain  gentleman  whom  I  take  to  have  been  either  in  her 
direct  ancestry  or  of  close  collateral  connection  was  an  agent 
in  old  Virginia  for  certain  large  planters  in  that  colony.  To 
follow  the  fortunes  of  that  ancestor,  she  must  understand  in 
some  detail  the  peculiar  Virginia  system  of  colonization.  She 
can  hardly  learn  about  that  without  at  the  same  time  hearing 
something  of  the  contrasting  systems  of  other  colonies.  Be- 
fore she  knows  it,  she  will  have  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  our 
early  American  institutions. 

I  know  another  woman  whose  grandfather  had  been  in  Con- 
gress in  the  period  between  Abraham  Lincoln's  election  and 
his  inauguration.  This  gentleman  had  championed  a  com- 
promise measure  to  avert  civil  war.  As  a  result  his  political 
career  was  ruined.  He  soon  died,  and  his  political  reputation 
suffered  in  popular  memory.  This  woman,  having  certain 
matters  of  family  tradition  in  her  knowledge,  undertook  to 
clear  her  grandfather's  memory  of  all  stain.  To  make  her 
efforts  more  effective,  she  had  perforce  to  learn  more  partic- 
ularly about  that  strange  tumultuous  period  just  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  war.  Inevitably  she  was  soon  studying  what 
preceded  the  war,  as  well  as  the  reconstruction  period  follow- 
ing. To  have  the  seal  of  authenticity  stamped  upon  her 
knowledge  she  took  certain  courses  at  the  university  and  ex- 
tended her  researches  fore  and  aft.  A  striking  instance  this 
of  the  way  in  which  interest  in  one  point  of  family  history  can 
lead  one  into  a  thorough-going  survey  of  all  American  history. 

History  so  learned,  sticks,  largely  because  it  is  learned  inci- 
dentally and  not  for  its  own  sake. 

Again:  Last  week  I  was  dogging  the  traces  of  an  ancestor 
of  my  own,  one  Captain  Gorham,  who  fell  in  the  Narragansett 


i 

500  CYRIL  A.  HERRI CK  Nov. 

^ 

swamp  in  King  Philip's  War  of  1676.  I  came  upon  a  copy  of 
a  letter  written  to  the  military  authorities  of  the  Massachusetts 
Colony  by  a  certain  Lieutenant  Phinehas  Upham.  Now  I 
happen  to  know  that  this  Lieutenant  Upham  was  an  ancestor 
of  our  eminent  geologist  and  archeologist,  Mr.  Warren  Up- 
ham. It  gives  rather  an  edge  to  my  admiration  and  respect 
for  Mr.  Upham  to  know  that  back  there  in  1676  his  grand- 
father had  to  kotow  to  my  grandfather.  That  is  a  delight 
by-the-way.  Here  is  the  main  point.  In  homely  phrase, 
quaint  and  affecting,  the  letter  tells  how,  in  the  campaign  in 
pursuit  of  the  Indian  enemy,  food  has  become  scarce,  horses 
weary,  men  worn,  and  eager  to  get  home.  The  letter  conveys 
a  lively,  and  what  I  call  immediate,  sense,  feeling,  apprecia- 
tion of  the  hardships  endured  in  that  war  by  Captain  Gorham 
and  Lieutenant  Upham,  men  in  whom  I  feel  an  especial  and, 
in  one  sense,  personal  interest.  They  were  there  in  that  strug- 
gle— that  is,  I  was  there — and  this  letter  renews  a  sort  of  an- 
cestral memory  of  what  I  there  saw  and  endured.  At  once 
the  period  of  King  Philip's  War  becomes  genuinely' alive,  vivid 
to  my  apprehension. 

As  a  scholar  in  the  high  school,  when  I  read  that  during  the 
war  of  1676  the  settlers  endured  great  hardships,  I  possibly 
had  added  an  item  to  my  knowledge  of  history,  but  I  certainly 
yawned.  That  was  an  academic  statement,  too  remote  in  ap- 
peal to  linger  in  my  memory  to  any  effect. 

Some  day  you  learn  that  an  ancestor  of  yours  was  in  the 
Revolution.  Writing  to  the  record  office  in  Washington,  you 
get  a  statement  of  his  service.  He  was  perhaps  in  the  roman- 
tic attempt  of  Arnold  to  capture  Quebec.  You  tell  your  boy, 
when  the  lad  reaches  the  story  age,  how  Grandfather  William 
was  in  that  strange  northward  push  through  the  wilderness  to 
the  Canadian  stronghold,  how  he  was  captured  and  shut  up 
for  loathsome  weeks  in  the  hateful  prison,  and  so  on.  That 
boy  has  now  a  realizing  sense  of  the  Revolutionary  War  which 
a  school  course  in  history  will  never  give  him,  in  the  very 
nature  of  things  can't  give  him.  And  with  no  prompting,  that 


1920 


THE  FAMILY  TRAIL 


501 


boy  will  sometime  pick  up  a  volume  telling  of  the  expedition 
to  Quebec.  To  understand  that  book  more  fully,  he  will  have 
to  read  about  other  phases  of  the  Revolutionary  War ;  and  in 
no  time,  impelled  by  immediate  interest,  he  will  have  a  good 
usable  knowledge  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Very  seldom  will  people  sit  down  to  learn  history,  just  like 
that,  for  its  own  sake.  Personal  interest,  however,  family 
pride,  curiosity  as  to  this  person  and  that  event,  can  tempt  one 
into  a  knowledge  of  any  period  of  history. 

I  know  a  man  who  has  an  unusually  realistic  feeling  of  the 
Revolutionary  War  because  his  grandmother  used  to  tell  him 
how  she  had  seen  a  mob  of  British  redcoats,  prisoners,  herded 
past  her  father's  house  under  the  guard  of  ragged  but  hilarious 
"rough-neck"  Continentals.  That  bit  of  family  tradition  did 
more  for  him  than  all  the  conventional  history  of  the  text- 
books— that  and  the  added  fact  that  his  grandmother's  father 
was  forced  to  abandon  his  farm  and  take  to  a  distant  locality, 
because  of  the  depredations  and  rascalities  of  the  American 
Continentals.  Nor  was  he  any  Tory  at  that. 

Recently  a  friend  of  mine  became  rather  piqued  at  being 
unable  to  find  proof  that  any  ancestor  of  his  in  the  name  line 
had  ever  taken  part  in  any  war  from  1640  down  to  the  pres- 
ent. Not  that  my  friend  wished  to  join  any  patriotic  society. 
He  distinctly  did  not.  But  he  did  covet  some  sign  of  belliger- 
ency on  the  part  of  at  least  one  of  his  name  ancestors.  I 
looked  into  the  matter,  and  one  day  found  a  record  like  this 
(the  name  is  changed) : 

"Pay  Roll  of  Capt.  John  Wheatley's  company  in  the  first 
Conn.  Regt.  Last  Campaign  1762. 

"Jonathan  Williams.  Enlisted  Ma  25.  Deserted  before 
Mar  30."  That  was  all  of  it.  That  was  the  complete  military 
record  of  one  line  of  Americans  during  the  entire  period  of 
American  history. 

At  first  blush  my  friend  was  not  overwhelmingly  enthusi- 
astic at  my  discovery.  But  now  followed  a  genuine  enlarge- 
ment of  our  knowledge  of  history.  We  naturally  wished  to 


502  *  CYRIL  A.  HERRI  CK  Nov. 

know  why  Jonathan  deserted.  Was  there  any  means  of  re- 
storing him  to  the  respect  and  esteem  that  we  instinctively 
wish  to  bestow  upon  an  ancestor? 

We  learned  that  in  this  year  1762,  near  the  close  of  one  of 
the  eternally  recurring  colonial  wars  which  merely  reflected 
the  conflicts  in  Europe  of  rival  powers,  King  George  III, 
newly  come  to  the  throne,  decided  to  send  his  American  troops 
against  Spain's  colony  at  Havana,  Cuba.  (How  many  knew 
about  this  long-ago  war  with  Spain?  It  was  relatively  much 
more  noteworthy  than  our  skirmish  in  '98.)  One  thousand 
men  were  to  be  sent  from  Connecticut.  Now  it  was  not  a 
popular  war.  Furthermore,  the  odds  against  a  man's  return- 
ing were  tremendous.  Connecticut  men  were  enlisted  by 
methods  smacking  of  coercion.  Of  the  company  into  which 
Jonathan  was  enlisted,  some  dozen  deserted.  Lucky  for  them, 
for  the  merest  handful  of  that  company,  or  indeed  of  the 
entire  regiment,  ever  returned  from  the  West  Indian  seas. 
One  of  the  most  lamentable  disasters  it  was  that  ever  befell 
American  troops.  In  no  subsequent  war  have  we  known  any- 
thing more  strikingly  tragic.  Yet  the  affair  is  forgotten  now. 

That  was  one  unique  and  attractive  item  of  historical 
knowledge  added  to  our  store.  Further  investigation  led  us  to 
doubt  there  being  any  especial  wisdom  or  justice  in  England's 
whole  policy  at  that  time.  Finally  my  friend  and  I  asked  each 
other  this  question:  If  it  is  a  matter  of  glorious  pride  to  have 
an  ancestor  who  fought  King  George  III  in  1776,  why  may 
we  not  be  equally  proud  of  one  who  deserted  King  George's 
unworthy  cause  in  1762? 

\Vas  this  deserting  Jonathan  a  coward?  Two  months  after 
he  deserted  he  married.  That  was  brave.  Soon  with  wife  and 
small  children  he  made  his  way  to  a  seemingly  hopeless  wild 
in  a  most  inhospitable  part  of  a  distant  state,  and  there  among 
hardships  innumerable  brought  up  a  sturdy  family,  made  for 
himself  a  goodly  home,  and  won  honorable  position  among  the 
neighbors  who  soon  followed  and  surrounded  him  in  the  new 
home. 


1920  THE  FAMILY  TRAIL  503 

Cowardly  Jonathan !    And  characteristic  American  history ! 

Thus  does  the  study  of  one's  ancestry  lead  to  a  more 
minute  knowledge  of  history,  and  to  a  largely  modified  and 
humanized  interpretation  thereof. 

In  all  seriousness,  then,  I  urge  the  study  of  one's  own  family 
as  an  unwontedly  pleasant,  effective,  feasible  means  of  learn- 
ing the  history  of  one's  own  town,  state,  and  nation. 

If  you  say  that  not  every  one  has  leisure  for  such  study  I 
reply:  There  is  no  particular  reason  why  everyone  should 
know  history.  Certainly  many  know  nothing  of  it  now. 
However,  most  of  us  find  leisure,  in  some  fashion,  for  what 
interests  us.  If  we  can  study  history  at  all,  we  certainly  can 
go  about  its  study  in  the  way  I  advocate,  no  greater  leisure 
being  required  for  that  than  for  any  other  method.  And  the 
results  are  more  sure  and  gratifying. 

If  you  say  that  this  method  of  approaching  history  isn't 
adapted  to  be  of  service  in  schools  and  colleges,  I  answer: 
Heaven  forbid.  Nobody  ever  learns  anything  in  school — at 
least  not  of  value  or  for  long.  Education  begins  after  we 
escape  from  school.  As  for  colleges,  each  history  department 
ought  to  have  a  chair  of  genealogy — but  that's  a  subject  for 
another  paper. 

Do  you  say:  But  material  for  the  study  of  family  history 
isn't  everywhere  accessible?  In  any  case,  such  objection  has 
small  weight  here  in  Minnesota.  As  one  practical  application 
of  my  talk  tonight,  why  not  with  renewed  zeal  advertise  the 
fact  that  in  our  historical  library  we  have  one  of  the  finest 
collections  of  family  and  local  history  in  existence — only  three 
or  four  others  to  rank  with  it  here  in  America?  The  thou- 
sands of  us  who  have  access  to  this  library  are,  then,  in  a  posi- 
tion to  take  every  advantage  of  this  curiosity,  which  I  stead- 
fastly maintain  is  instinct  in  most  of  us— the  curiosity  as  to 
ancestry  which  is  the  properest  stimulus  to  the  gaining  of  a 
general  knowledge  of  history. 

That  this  is  learning  history  backwards,  is  a  last  feeble  ob- 
jection. To  be  sure  it  is.  That's  the  way  we  learn  most  things 


504  CYRIL  A.  HERRICK  Nov. 

in  this  world.  Forget  for  a  moment  your  theoretical  knowl- 
edge learned  in  school.  Think  of  the  larger  amount  of  infor- 
mation that  you  have  picked  up  by  chance,  incidentally,  or 
sporadically,  things  you  have  learned  because  of  some  mo- 
mentary interest,  or  as  means  to  some  ulterior  end.  Isn't  this 
last  the  body  of  information  that  is  of  real  value  and  service 
to  you  in  your  living? 

It  is  later,  it  is  after  whim  and  chance  interest  have  put  us 
in  possession  of  the  facts — only  then  can  we  rearrange  our 
learnings  chronologically  and  contemplate  the  results  philo- 
sophically. Then  is  the  time  for  the  conventional  historical 
treatise,  which  is  highly  serviceable  for  the  organizing  of  the 
information  we  have  previously  gained.  But  to  get  that  in- 
formation is  the  first  task,  to  get  it  sidewise,  backwards,  or 
however  it  may  chance.  I  have  tried  tonight  to  point  out  a 
delightsome  and  eminently  human  method  of  getting  our  his- 
tory in  the  first  place. 

If  my  subject  were  other  than  it  is,  I  should  love  to  cele- 
brate the  way  in  which  genealogy  leads  inevitably  into  biology 
and  eugenics,  into  sociology,  into  economics.  It  does  so,  more 
directly  and  efficiently  than  you  can  believe  if  you  haven't 
looked  into  the  matter.  But  most  striking  of  all  is  the  service 
of  genealogy  as  an  interpreter  of  the  boundless  dream  of 
American  history. 

And  what  an  inspiring  history  it  is — none  more  so!  I  am 
humbly  grateful  to  the  science  that  revealed  the  vision  to  me 
—the  comprehensive  vision  of  these  yeomen  and  cavaliers 
and  peasants,  gathering  there  between  the  Appalachians  and 
the  sea,  toiling  and  swarming  into  existence  a  new  civilization; 
then  dauntlessly  streaming  across  the  mountains,  pushing  their 
relentless  way  through  the  plains  of  the  middle  west,  north- 
erners and  southerners  jostling,  clashing,  mingling  endlessly; 
not  balked  in  their  westerward  way  even  by  the  'Thou  shalt 
not"  of  the  Rockies;  pouring  across  the  last  obstacle  until 
they  stand  upon  America's  sunset  shore,  conquerors  of  the 
continent. 


1920  THE  FAMILY  TRAIL 


505 


Have  the  elder  races  halted? 

Do  they  droop  and  end  their  lesson,  wearied  over  there  beyond  the  seas? 
We  take  up  the  task  eternal,  and  the  burden  and  the  lesson, 

Pioneers!    O  pioneers! 

All  the  past  we  leave  behind, 

We  debouch  upon  a  newer  mightier  world,  varied  world, 
Fresh  and  strong  the  world  we  seize,  world  of  labor  and  the  march, 

Pioneers!     O  pioneers! 

We  detachments  steady  throwing, 

Down  the  edges,  through  the  passes,  up  the  mountains  steep, 
Conquering,  holding,  daring,  venturing  as  we  go  to  the  unknown  ways, 

Pioneers!    O  pioneers! 

We  primeval  forests  felling, 

We  the  rivers  stemming,  vexing  we  and  piercing  deep  the  mines  within, 
We  the  surface  broad  surveying,  we  the  virgin  soil  upheaving, 

Pioneers!     O  pioneers! 


See  my  children,  resolute  children, 

By  those  swarms  upon  our  rear  we  must  never  yield  or  falter, 
Ages  back  in  ghostly  millions  frowning  there  behind  us  urging, 

Pioneers!    O  pioneers! 

Yes,  I  see  this  mighty  westward  moving  mass  of  Whit- 
man's. But  it  isn't  only  as  a  vague  and  indeterminate  crowd- 
ing of  mankind  that  I  vision  it.  I  see  and  recognize  indi- 
viduals here  and  there,  my  grandfathers  marching  with  their 
fellows,  welcome  faces  of  known  kin,  through  whom,  because 
of  whom,  I  feel  myself  a  part  of  American  history,  truly  at 
home  wherever  I  may  be  in  this  vast  western  world. 

CYRIL  A.  HERRICK 


THE  EARLY  NORWEGIAN  PRESS 
IN  AMERICA* 

The  history  of  the  early  Norwegian  press  in  the  United 
States  and  the  related  problem  of  the  early  political  affiliations 
of  the  Scandinavians  in  the  Northwest  have  received  serious 
attention  recently  at  the  hands  of  several  writers.1  Handi- 
capped by  the  absence  of  adequate  files  of  the  earlier  news- 
papers of  which  they  have  written,  these  writers  have,  per- 
haps unavoidably,  been  guilty  of  many  inaccuracies.  One 
wonders  not  that  errors  have  crept  into  their  accounts,  but 
rather  that  no  earnest  effort  has  been  made  to  collect  files  of 
the  newspapers  in  question  and  make  them  available  for  re^ 
search  in  some  centrally  located  depository. 

Students  of  the  Scandinavian  element  and  its  part  in  the 
history  of  the  American  West  have  utilized  very  slightly  the 
newspapers  and  periodicals  issued  by  the  Scandinavian  press 
in  this  country.  Unquestionably,  however,  these  materials 

*  Read  at  the  stated  meeting  of  the  executive  council  of  the  Minnesota 
Historical  Society,  St.  Paul,  October  11,  1920. 

i  Particularly  noteworthy  is  the  careful  article  by  Mr.  Carl  Hansen, 
"Pressen  til  Borgerkrigens  slutning,"  in  Johannes  B.  Wist,  Norsk-Ameri- 
kanernes  Festskrift  1914,  1-40  (Decorah,  Iowa,  1914).  Mr.  Hansen  pre- 
sents a  detailed  study  of  the  Norwegian  press  to  the  close  of  the  Civil 
War.  The  same  author  issued  two  preliminary  studies  of  the  subject  in 
1907  and  1908,  which  may  be  found  in  Symra,  4:25^4  (1908)  and  Kvar- 
talskrift,  3:14-28  (January,  1907).  Much  of  Mr.  Hansen's  information 
on  the  newspapers  issued  from  1847  to  1853  is  derived  from  a  sketch 
which  appeared  in  Emigranten  (Inmansville,  Wisconsin)  as  early  as  May 
20,  1853.  Mr.  Albert  O.  Barton  contributes  some  significent  new  facts  in 
his  article  "The  Beginnings  of  the  Norwegian  Press  in  America,"  in  Wis- 
consin Historical  Society,  Proceedings,  1916,  pp.  186-212;  also  issued  as 
separate  number  174.  An  excellent  general  survey  of  the  Norwegian 
press  in  America  is  given  in  Juul  Dieserud,  "Den  norske  presse  i  Amerika. 
En  historisk  Oversigt,"  in  Normands-Forbundet,  5:153-176  (April,  1912). 
Wist  in  his  article  "Pressen  efter  borgerkrigen,"  in  Norsk- Amerikanernes 
Festskrift  1914,  40-203,  deals  exhaustively  with  the  history  of  the  Nor- 
wegian-American press  after  the  Civil  War. 

508 


1920  NORWEGIAN  PRESS  IN  AMERICA  507 

constitute  the  most  important  sources  of  information  in  exist- 
ence on  that  particular  phase  of  American  history.  It  is  not 
generally  known,  for  example,  that  the  Norwegian  element  in 
the  United  States  has  not  been  without  a  newspaper  of  its  own, 
regularly  issued,  since  1847.2  Most  of  the  time  since  that  date 
it  has  in  fact  possessed  not  one,  but  many ;  and  in  recent  years, 
scores.  Only  in  the  forties  and  the  fifties  was  the  number 
limited  to  a  handful.  Thereafter  the  Norwegian  press  ex- 
panded with  great  rapidity,  especially  during  the  period  of  the 
great  wave  of  immigration  from  the  seventies  onward..  A 
complete  bibliography  of  these  newspapers  and  periodicals, 
covering  the  last  seventy-three  years,  would  include  probably 
more  than  five  hundred  titles,  and  certainly  more  than  four 
hundred.3 

Comparatively  few  of  the  earlier  newspapers  have  been  pre- 
served. Most  of  those  that  have  escaped  destruction  are  not 
at  present  very  accessible.  Although  files  of  the  later  news- 
papers are  not  so  difficult  to  find,  there  is  no  library  where  a 
student  can  use  many  of  even  the  more  important  ones.  This 
situation,  coupled  with  a  failure  on  the  part  of  some  writers 
to  understand  the  historical  value  of  newspapers,  partly  ex- 
plains the  absence  of  a  comprehensive  and  accurate  study  of 
the  Norwegian  element  in  our  population. 

The  purpose  of  the  present  brief  paper  is  merely  to  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that  files  of  some  of  the  early  Norwegian- 
American  newspapers  are  in  existence ;  to  tell  where  these  are 
and  how  complete  they  are ;  and  incidentally  to  bring  out  some 
new  facts  which  an  examination  of  these  files  has  revealed. 
The  writer  has  urged,  as  a  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  his- 

2  There  were  one  or  two  brief  intervals  of  a  few  weeks  in  the  very 
early  period  when  no  newspapers  were  being  published  by  Norwegian- 
Americans.    But  with  these  exceptions  the  general  statement  holds. 

3  The   index    of    Norsk- Amerikanernes    Festkrift    1914,    contains    the 
names  of  394  Norwegian- American  newspapers  and  periodicals,  most  of 
them  Norwegian  language  publications.     A  considerable  number  of  titles 
are  omitted,  however.     In  the  book  referred  to  no  attempt  is  made  to 
locate  files  of  the  newspapers  mentioned. 


508  THEODORE  C.  BLEGEN  Nov. 

torical  records  of  the  Scandinavians  in  the  United  States,  the 
concentration  of  these  materials  in  the  library  of  the  Minne- 
sota Historical  Society.4  He  takes  the  liberty  to  suggest  that 
the  particular  materials  referred  to  in  this  article,  and  similar 
records  now  rather  inaccessible  and  in  danger  of  destruction, 
might  properly  be  entrusted  to  this  society  for  permanent 
preservation. 

As  early  as  1845  a  prominent  member  of  the  pioneer  Nor- 
wegian settlement  at  Muskego,  Wisconsin,  proposed  that  a 
Norwegian  newspaper  should  be  established  in  the  community. 
Two  years  later  Nordlyset  (The  Northern  Light)  began  to  be 
issued.  Accounts  of  this  publication,  which  served  as  the  Nor- 
wegian organ  of  the  Free  Soil  party,  describing  its  nature  and 
political  influence,  may  be  found  elsewhere.5  Here  attention 
is  merely  directed  to  the  existence  of  a  partial  file  of  Nordlyset 
in  the  library  of  Luther  Theological  Seminary,  in  St.  Anthony 
Park,  St.  Paul,  Minnesota.  An  examination  of  this  file,  which 
is  bound  in  a  volume  together  with  some  other  newspapers 
that  will  be  mentioned  below,  shows  that  Nordlyset  made  its 
first  appearance  on  July  29,  1847.  The  last  number  to  be 
issued  was  dated  May  18,  1850.  There  were  at  least  103  reg- 
ular issues  of  the  newspaper,  in  addition  to  a  few  extra  num- 
bers. The  first  editor,  James  D.  Reymert,6  dropped  out  at  the 

4  A  brief  argument  for  this  plan,  prepared  by  the  writer,  appears  under 
the  title  "The  Historical  Records  of  the   Scandinavians  in  America,"  in 
MINNESOTA  HISTORY  BULLETIN,  2 : 413-418. 

5  See  Hansen,  in  Norsk- Amerikanernes  Festskrift  1914,   10-12.     The 
newspaper  was  first  printed  in  Even  Heg's  log  cabin,  later  in  James  D. 
Reymert's  house,  and  finally  at  Racine,  Wisconsin. 

6  For  information  concerning  Reymert  see  Barton,  in  Wisconsin  His- 
torical  Society,  Proceedings,   1916,  p.   194.     To  the  account  there  given 
might  be  added  the  interesting  fact  that  Reymert  was  identified  with  the 
early  American  press  of  northern  Wisconsin.     For  two  months  in  1857  he 
edited  the  North  Star  (Hudson,  Wisconsin),  and  in  December,  1860,  to- 
gether with  Junius  A.  Bartlett,  he  founded  the  St.  Croixian,  later  known 
as  the  Polk  County  Press.     Ada  T.  Griswold,  Annotated  Catalogue  of 
Newspaper  Files  in  the  Library  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wis- 
consin, 339,  411  (Madison,  1911). 


1920  NORWEGIAN  PRESS  IN  AMERICA  509 

end  of  the  year  1848,  and  Nordlyset  then  appeared  under  the 
management  of  Heg  and  Company.  The  press  was  sold  late 
in  the  fall  of  1849  and  was  moved  from  Muskego  to  Racine, 
Wisconsin.  The  last  ten  issues  appeared  there,  edited  by 
Knud  Langeland.7  These  ten  issues  appeared  between  March 
9  and  May  18,  1850.  For  a  period  of  over  three  months  in 
the  winter  of  1849-50  publication  was  suspended.  The  file  of 
Nordlyset  in  the  possession  of  Luther  Theological  Seminary 
is  by  no  means  complete.  It  comprises  twenty-six  regular  and 
two  extra  numbers  of  volume  one,  and  forty-one  regular  num- 
bers of  volume  two.8  These  sixty-nine  issues  of  the  first  Nor- 
wegian newspaper  published  in  America  are  extremely  val- 
uable as  an  historical  source.  Nordlyset  is  the  rarest  of  all 
the  early  Norwegian-American  newspapers.  So  far  as  the 
writer's  knowledge  goes,  the  file  at  St.  Anthony  Park  is 
unique. 

7  Langeland  played  a  very  prominent  part  in  the  development  of  the 
Norwegian-American  press,  becoming  eventually  the  editor  of  the  power- 
ful Skandinaven  of  Chicago.    He  published  in  1889,  at  Chicago,  his  book 
Nordmaendene  i  Amerika;  nogle  optegnelscr  om  de  norskes  udvandring 
til  Amerika. 

8  Of  volume  1,  twenty-eight  numbers  are  present  and  twenty-five  miss- 
ing.   A  fragment  of  number  1  (July  29,  1847),  a  badly  damaged  copy  of 
number  14  (November  4),  and  a  fragment  of  number  17  (November  26) 
are  not  in  the  book  referred  to,  but  are  kept  in  envelopes.    Bound  in  the 
book  are :  a  perfect  copy  of  number  1 ;  number  20   (January  6,  1848)  ; 
numbers  23-37   (January  27-May  4)   with  the  exception  of  numbers  26, 
30,  31,  34,  and  35;  numbers  38-40  (May  11-25)  each  incomplete;  numbers 
41-44  (June  1-22)  ;  extra  number  (July  20)  ;  number  45  (July  27)  ;  num- 
bers 48-51  (August  17-September  7)  ;  extra  number  (September  14).    Of 
volume  2,  forty-one  numbers  are  present  and  eleven  missing.    Those  in- 
cluded in  the  file  are :  numbers  3,  4   (October  19,  26,  1848)  ;  number  5 
(November  2)    incomplete;  numbers  6-11    (November  9-December  14); 
numbers  14-20   (January  4-February  15,   1849)  ;  numbers  22-25    (March 
8-March  29)  ;  numbers  26,  28  (April  12,  26)  ;  numbers  29,  30  (May  10, 
17)  ;   numbers  32,  33    (June  7,  28)  ;   number  34    (July  19)  ;  number  35 
(August  2)  ;    numbers  36-38  (October  4,  11,  25)  ;    number  39  (November 
8)  ;  numbers  42-17  (March  9-April  13,  1850)  ;  numbers  50-52  (May  4-18). 
The  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin  possesses  one  number  only  of 
Nordlyset,  and  this  happens  to  be  an  issue  not  included  in  the  above  col- 
lection—that for  September  9,  1847,  number  6  of  volume  1. 


510  THEODORE  c.  BLEGEN  NOV. 

The  same  volume  that  contains  the  issues  of  Nordlyset 
brings  to  light  the  fact,  hitherto  unknown,  that  Langeland's 
Democraten  f  begun  at  Racine,  June  8,  1850,  was  not  the  second 
Norwegian  newspaper  to  be  published  in  America.  It  was  in 
fact  the  third.  A  newspaper  called  Democraten,  published  and 
edited  by  James  D.  Reymert,  and  put  out  at  Norway,  Racine 
County,  Wisconsin,  was  being  issued  in  the  spring  of  1848, 
more  than  two  years  before  Langeland's  Democraten  began  to 
appear.  Reymert's  paper  of  this  name,  Democratic  in  politics, 
was  offered  to  subscribers  for  three  months  at  twenty-five 
cents.  Only  one  number  is  included  in  the  collection  at  Luther 
Theological  Seminary,  the  issue  of  April  27,  1848. 

Bound  with  the  newspapers  in  the  volume  referred  to  is  an 
extremely  interesting  little  pamphlet  written  by  an  anonymous 
member  of  the  Free  Soil  party  in  Illinois.  Its  title,  in  trans- 
lation, is  Slavery  Causes  Hard  Times.  The  four  pages  of  the 
pamphlet  are  packed  with  statistics  and  arguments  showing 
the  economic  fallacies  involved  in  the  slavery  system  and  the 
menace  of  that  system  to  free  labor;  the  date  of  issuance  is 
1848.9 

Democraten  (The  Democrat),10  established  by  Langeland 
at  Racine  in  June,  1850,  did  not  disappear  after  six  months, 
as  some  writers  have  asserted.  The  volume  at  Luther  The- 
ological Seminary  includes  forty-eight  numbers  of  this  news- 
paper. The  dates  of  the  first  and  last  issues  are  June  8,  1850, 
and  October  29,  1851.  At  least  fifty  numbers  of  volume  1 
were  put  out,  and  all  but  five  of  the  numbers  of  that  volume 
are  preserved  at  St.  Anthony  Park.  The  first  forty-seven 
numbers  were  published  at  Racine,  Wisconsin,  the  last  issue 
to  appear  there  being  volume  1,  number  47,  May  3,  1851. 

9  The    Norwegian   title   is   Slaveriet   foraarsager   haarde    tider.      It   is 
signed :  "En  sandheds  forkynder."    Its  origin  is  indicated  in  the  following 
words:     "Forfattet  af  et  medlem  af  Friheds  partiet  i  Illinois;  trykt  og 
uddcclt  paa  bekostning  af  flerc  Norske." 

10  Note  the  spelling  Democraten.    The  letter  c,  not  k,  is  used. 


1920  NORWEGIAN  PRESS  IN  AMERICA  511 

Number  48  is  dated  June  18,  1851,  Janesville,  Wisconsin. 
The  volume  at  Luther  Theological  Seminary  contains  six  of 
the  numbers  issued  at  Janesville,  three  of  these  representing 
volume  2  of  the  paper.  The  writer  knows  of  no  other  file  of 
Democrat  en  in  existence.11 

Democraten  supported  the  political  principles  of  the  Dem- 
ocratic party,  and  carried  on  a  spirited  controversy  with  a 
rival  called  De  Norskes  Ven  (The  Friend  of  the  Norwe- 
gians), which  began  to  appear  under  the  editorship  of  Ole 
Torgersen  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  in  the  summer  of  1850. 
De  Norskes  Ven  supported  the  Whig  party ;  it  was  short-lived 
and  seems  to  have  exerted  very  little  influence  upon  the  po- 
litical views  of  the  Norwegian-Americans.  The  Whig  party 
held  few  attractions  for  the  foreign  element  in  the  Northwest. 
The  Norwegians  were  strongly  attracted  by  the  name  and 
traditions  of  the  Democratic  party,  but  were  deeply  anti- 
slavery  in  their  views,  as  is  illustrated  by  the  support  given  to 
the  Free  Soil  party  and  later  to  the  Republican  party.  Two 
numbers  of  De  Norskes  Ven  are  preserved  in  the  volume  at 
Luther  Theological  Seminary,  and  these  two,  numbers  22  and 
24,  for  January  14  and  28,  1851,  complete  the  volume.12 

Many  rare  files  of  old  newspapers,  often  obtainable  nowhere 
else,  may  be  found  in  the  vaults  of  present-day  newspaper 
offices.  Most  newspapers  have  preserved  files  of  their  own 
issues.  Often  a  newspaper  of  the  present  represents  mergers 
or  coalitions  of  several  rival  papers,  and,  where  such  a  process 

"A  complete  list  of  the  numbers  of  Democraten  in  the  file  referred 
to  follows.  Volume  1 :  numbers  1-21  (June  8-October  26,  1850)  with  the 
exception  of  numbers  15  and  20;  number  22  (November  3);  numbers 
23-39  (November  9-December  21)  with  the  exception  of  number  26; 
numbers  30-47  (January  4-May  3,  1851)  with  the  exception  of  numbers 
33  and  38;  numbers  48-50  (June  18,  25,  July  17)  each  badly  torn.  Volume 
2:  number  1  (August  4,  1851)  torn  and  incomplete;  extra  number  (Sep- 
tember 18)  incomplete;  extra  number  (October  29). 

12  A  brief  account  of  De  Norskes  Ven  is  given  by  Hansen,  in  Norsk- 
Amerikanernes  Festskrift  1914,  13. 


512  THEODORE  C.  BLEGEN  Nov. 

has  taken  place,  frequently  files  of  the  merged  paper  are  trans- 
ferred. Some  newspaper  editors  are  glad  to  allow  their  files 
to  be  used  by  historical  students,  though  very  few  students  ap- 
pear to  recognize  the  possibilities  of  such  depositories.  Often 
these  files  are  not  readily  accessible,  however,  and  perhaps 
more  often  they  are  ill  cared  for,  with  the  result  that  the  news- 
papers become  torn  or  otherwise  damaged,  if  not  destroyed. 
The  Minneapolis  Tidende,  the  leading  Norwegian  daily  in  the 
Northwest,  possesses  partial  files  of  three  of  the  important 
ante  bellum  Norwegian-American  newspapers:  Den  Norske 
Anicrikaner,  Nordstjernen,  and  Emigranten.  All  three  of 
these  papers  are  ancestors  of  the  present  Minneapolis  Tidende. 
On  the  whole  these  files  are  more  valuable  historically  than 
those  at  Luther  Theological  Seminary,  and,  like  the  latter,  they 
are,  so  far  as  is  known,  unique.  Through  the  courtesy  of  Mr. 
Carl  Hansen,  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Tidende,  the  writer  was 
permitted  to  examine  and  make  lists  of  the  materials  kept  in 
the  Tidende  vaults.  The  results  of  this  examination  are  here 
presented,  together  with  brief  data  concerning  the  three  news- 
papers under  discussion.13 

Den  Norske  Anicrikaner:  Et  Blad  for  Folket  (The  Nor- 
wegian-American: A  Newspaper  for  the  People)  was  estab- 
lished at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  about  the  month  of  January, 
1855,  by  Elias  Stangeland.  It  appeared  weekly,  and  was 
issued  up  to  May  27,  1857.  The  editorial  management  was 
soon  taken  over  by  Charles  M.  Reese,  a  former  editor  of 
Emigranten,  and  on  April  18,  1857,  the  name  was  modified  to 
Den  Norske  Anierikaner:  Et  National  Demokratisk  Blad  (A 
National  Democratic  Newspaper)  and  the  Scandinavian  Dem- 
ocratic Press  Association  assumed  financial  responsibility  for 

13  For  a  general  account  of  the  part  played  by  Den  Norske  Amerikaner, 
Nordstjernen,  and  Emigranten  in  the  history  of  the  Norwegian-American 
press,  see  Hansen,  in  Norsk- Amerikanernes  Festskrift  1914,  17-40.  In 
preparing  his  article  Mr.  Hansen  made  use  of  the  files  kept  by  the 
Tidende.  See  also  Barton,  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Society,  Proceedings, 
1916,  pp.  200-208. 


1920  NORWEGIAN  PRESS  IN  AMERICA  513 

the  undertaking.14  The  newspaper  was  belligerently  Demo- 
cratic in  policy.  Persistent  attacks  were  made  on  Emigrantcn 
in  its  editorial  columns,  for  Emigranten,  though  Democratic 
in  name,  supported  the  new  Republican  party  and  stood  firmly 
on  a  radical  antislavery — not  merely  anti-extension — basis. 
Den  Nor  she  Amerikaner  bitterly  charged  that  the  Know-Noth- 
ing element  had  gained  the  upper  hand  in  the  Wisconsin  Re- 
publican organization  and  that  Norwegian-Americans  should 
therefore  shun  that  party.  Emigranten  was  attacked,  fur- 
thermore, on  the  ground  that  it  was  virtually  a  church  organ, 
and  also  because  it  had  given  publicity  to  an  immigration 
scandal  in  which  Stangeland  was  involved.  The  Minneapolis 
Tidende  possesses  an  incomplete  file  of  the  two  volumes  of 
Den  Norske  Amerikaner.  A  few  years  ago,  unfortunately,  a 
member  of  the  Tidende  staff,  in  search  for  material  of  histor- 
ical interest,  went  through  volume  1  armed  with  a  pair  of 
scissors  and  clipped  out  such  items,  articles,  or  pages  as  seemed 
of  value  to  him.  These  clippings  are  presumely  now  pre- 
served, in  scattered  form,  in  the  editorial  "morgue" — but  they 
can  never  be  assembled  again,  and  the  damage  to  the  volume 
is  irreparable.  Number  42  of  volume  1  is  the  first  whole 
number  in  the  file,  and  from  that  point  on  the  issues  have 
almost  but  not  quite  escaped  the  merciless  shears.  A  merely 
casual  examination  suffices  to  show  that  Den  Norske  Ameri- 
kaner contains  a  wealth  of  unused  material  on  the  political, 
social,  and  economic  situation  in  the  Northwest  in  the  decade 
of  1850-60 — especially  with  reference  to  the  Scandinavian 
element15 

14  Hansen,  in  Norsk- Amerikancrnes  Festskrift  1914,  23-26. 

15  A  list  of  the  numbers  of  Den  Norske  Amerikaner  in  possession  of 
the  Minneapolis  Tidende  follows.    Every  issue  up  to  number  42  has  been 
mutilated;  in  some  cases  the  numbers,  and  in  others  the  dates,  cannot  be 
ascertained.     Volume  1:  issue  dating  before  January  26,  1855;  issue  of 
January  26,  1855;  number  6  (February  2);  issue  of  March  2;  numbers 
13-14  (March  21-April  4)  ;  numbers  15-18;  numbers  19,  20  (May  19,  26)  ; 
numbers  21,  22;  number  23   (July  7);  numbers  24,  25;  number  26  (July 


514  THEODORE  C.  BLEGEN  Nov. 

Nordstjernen:  Et  National  Denwkratisk  Blad  (The  North 
Star:  A  National  Democratic  Newspaper)  edited  by  Charles 
M.  Reese,  and  supported  by  the  Scandinavian  Democratic 
Press  Association,  succeeded  Den  Norske  Amerikaner.  Its 
first  issue  appeared  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  June  10,  1857. 
Its  avowed  policy  was  to  "tear  the  mask  from  Black  Repub- 
licanism." It  continued  the  attacks  of  Den  Norske  Ameri- 
kaner upon  Emigranten,  which  now  boldly  proclaimed  as  its 
motto:  "No  Slavery  for  Black  or  White."  Nordstjernen 
supported  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  and  criticized  severely  the 
hostile  attitude  of  Emigranten  toward  the  enforcement  of  that 
act.  So  warm  did  the  controversy  become  that  in  the  fall  of 
1857  an  effort  was  made  to  arrange  a  public  debate  between 
the  two  editors.  Nordstjernen  gained  little  support  from  the 
Norwegian  element  in  its  political  stand,  however,  and  after  a 
half  year  it  began  to  appear  irregularly.  Hans  Borchenius 
became  its  editor  after  about  a  year,  and  the  paper  continued 
to  be  issued,  at  irregular  intervals,  according  to  Hansen,  until 
1860,  when  it  was  bought  by  the  editor  of  Emigranten  and 
united  with  the  latter  publication.16  The  truth  is  that  Nord- 
stjernen was  advocating  a  cause  that  could  not  win  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  Norwegian  element  in  Wisconsin.  The  Norwe- 
gians were  rapidly  joining  the  Republican  ranks  and  could  not 
be  induced  to  give  their  support  in  the  late  fifties  to  any  po- 
litical movement  that  did  not  take  a  firm  antislavery  stand.17 

28)  ;  issues  from  July  28  to  November  17,   represented  by  ten  pages  of 
advertisements;    numbers   36-38;    numbers   42-52    (January   5-March    15, 

1856)  with  the  exception  of  numbers  44,  46,  and  51.     Volume  2:  number 
1;    (March  29,  1856)    mutilated;  numbers  2-19    (April  5-August  2)   with 
the  exception  of  number  9;  numbers  21-35   (September  20-December  27) 
with  the  exception  of  numbers  22  and  33;  numbers  36-39  (January  3-24, 

1857)  ;  numbers  40,  41  (February  7,  21)  ;  number  43  (March  7)  ;  numbers 
46-48  (April  4,  18,  25)  ;  number  49  (May.  2)  ;  numbers  50-52  (May  13-27). 

!6  Hansen,  in  Norsk- Amerikanernes  Festskrift  1914,  28. 
!7  The  Minneapolis  Tidcnde  possesses  the  following  numbers  of  Nord- 
stjernen.    Volume  1:  numbers  1-18   (June  10-October  7,  1857)   with  the 


NORWEGIAN  PRESS  IN  AMERICA  515 

The  most  important  of  all  the  early  Norwegian  newspapers 
in  the  United  States  was  Emigranten  (The  Emigrant). 
This  is  true  not  merely  because  it  outlived  its  rivals — it  was, 
in  fact,  issued  regularly  from  1852  to  1868 — but  also  because, 
as  a  Republican  organ,  it  reflected  accurately  the  views  of  the 
great  majority  of  the  Norwegians  in  the  Northwest.  It  was, 
moreover,  very  ably  edited,  and  its  news  policy  was  compre- 
hensive. It  may  rightly  be  regarded  as  a  newspaper  for  the 
Scandinavian  element  in  the  entire  Northwest.  Emigranten 
was  founded  in  January,  1852,  by  the  Scandinavian  Printing 
Association,  an  organization  composed  mainly  of  Norwegian 
Lutheran  clergymen  in  Wisconsin  who  desired  a  political  or- 
gan in  addition  to  the  church  publication  which  they  had  estab- 
lished in  March,  185 1.18  The  first  editor  was  the  Reverend 
Claus  L.  Clausen,  one  of  the  leading  pioneer  preachers  in  the 
West.19  The  paper  appeared  weekly  and  was  first  published 
near  Inmansville,  Rock  County,  Wisconsin.  It  was  announced 
that  the  general  policy  of  the  paper  would  be  democratic,  but 
this  did  not  mean  that  it  would  necessarily  support  the  Demo- 
cratic party.  Rather  it  would  assume  an  independent  attitude 
and  would  support  good  men  irrespective  of  party  affiliation. 
In  general,  however,  the  paper  did  support  the  Democratic 
party  from  1852  to  1854.  Clausen  withdrew  on  August  27, 
1852,  and  was  succeeded  by  Charles  M.  Reese,  who  held  the 
position  until  1854.  He  was  followed  by  Knud  J.  Fleischer, 

exception  of  numbers  8,  11,  and  16;  numbers  19-21  (October  11,  21,  28)  ; 
number  22  (December  19)  ;  numbers  23,  24  (January  16,  27,  1858)  ;  num- 
ber 25  (February  13)  ;  number  26  (March  20)  ;  extra  number  (May  27). 
In  the  issue  of  February  13,  1858,  the  editor  comes  out  for  Douglas  for 
president  in  1860. 

is  This  church  paper  was  called  Maanedstidende  for  den  norsk-evange- 
lisk  lutherske  kirke  i  Amerlka.  Edited  by  the  Reverend  Claus  L.  Clausen 
and  the  Reverend  Hans  A.  Stub,  it  appeared  monthly  at  Inmansville,  Rock 
County,  Wisconsin. 

19  See  Svein  Strand,  "Pastor  C  L.  Clausen,"  in  Symra,  9:204-223 
(1913). 


516  THEODORE  C.  BLEGEN  Nov. 

who  edited  the  paper  from  1854  to  1857.  Though  Emigran- 
ten  exhibited  a  temporary  leaning  toward  the  decadent  Whig 
party  in  1854,20  it  soon  became  definitely  Republican  in  its 
views.  It  was  removed  to  Madison,  Wisconsin,  in  the  spring 
of  1857,  and  C.  Fr.  Solberg  became  its  editor.21  He  edited  the 
paper  from  1857  to  1868,  with  some  temporary  absences,  as 
for  example  when  he  went  to  the  South  with  the  Fifteenth 
Wisconsin  Infantry  as  a  war  correspondent.  In  1860  Solberg 
consolidated  Nordstjernen  with  Emigranten.  In  1868  Emi- 
granten,  in  turn,  was  consolidated  with  Faedrelandet  and  was 
moved  to  La  Crosse,  Wisconsin,  the  name  of  the  new  paper 
being  Faedrelandet  og  Emigranten.  This  latter  paper  was 
eventually  consolidated  with  the  Minneapolis  Tidende — now  a 
very  powerful  daily  and  weekly  with  a  large  circulation. 

The  religious,  political,  social,  and  economic  tendencies  of 
the  Norwegians — and,  in  fact,  of  the  Scandinavians  generally 
— in  the  decade  preceding  the  Civil  War,  and  the  nature  of 
the  Scandinavian  attitude  toward  and  participation  in  the  Civil 
War,  are  faithfully  reflected  in  the  columns  of  Emigranten 
during  these  periods.  Emigranten  is  a  source  of  first  impor- 
tance not  only  for  the  light  it  throws  upon  the  history  of  the 
Scandinavians  in  the  United  States  but  also  for  its  materials 
on  Wisconsin  political  and  economic  development,  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Northwest,  and  many  other  factors  entering  into 
the  history  of  the  United  States  from  1852  to  1868.  It  is  not 
within  the  scope  of  this  article  to  present  a  detailed  account  of 
this  newspaper,  its  policies,  and  its  influence.22  Attention  is 
here  called  to  the  existence  of  files  of  Emigranten,  now  kept 
in  Minneapolis,  covering  eight  years  of  its  existence.  Files  for 
these  years  are  not  accessible  elsewhere.  They  are  therefore 
perhaps  almost  as  unique  and  valuable  as  would  be  an  elabo- 

20  Barton,  in  Wisconsin  Historical  Society,  Proceedings,  1916,  p.  201. 

21  Han  sen,  in  Norsk- Amerikanernes  Festskrift  1914,  28. 

22  Such  an  account  by  Hansen  may  be  found  in  Norsk- Amerikanernes 
Festskrift  1914,  15-40. 


NORWEGIAN  PRESS  IN  AMERICA  517 

rate  manuscript  diary  covering  the  same  period  and  viewing 
the  important  (and  unimportant)  questions  of  the  day  from 
the  standpoint  of  a  foreign-born  citizen  living  in  a  western 
state. 

The  files  of  Emigranten  in  the  possession  of  the  Minneapolis 
Tidende  do  not,  unfortunately,  include  any  of  the  first  five 
volumes  published  at  Inmansville  during  the  years  1852-57. 
But  they  do  include  issues  covering  the  period  from  June  3, 
1857,  to  December  25,  1865,  with  the  exception  of  one  num- 
ber in  June,  1858,  all  the  numbers  of  the  year  1861,  and  thir- 
teen numbers  of  the  volume  for  1863. 23  The  years  1857  and 
1859  are  represented  by  two  complete  volumes  each.  For 
1862  there  are  three  complete  volumes;  and  for  1864  and 
1865,  six.  The  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin  owns 
one  volume  of  Emigranten  (volume  10),  and  this  volume— 
for  1860 — is  not  included  in  the  Tidende  collection.  All  in  all 
we  can  now  locate  files  of  Emigranten  from  1857  through 
1865  with  the  exception  of  only  fourteen  issues. 

Though  the  chief  value  of  the  newspapers  discussed  in  this 
paper  is  in  connection  with  the  history  of  the  Scandinavian 
and  particularly  the  Norwegian  element  in  our  population,  yet 
the  student  familiar  with  the  Scandinavian  languages  would 
find,  upon  examining  sources  of  this  kind,  much  material  upon 
other  phases  of  American  history.  That  historical  documents 
of  this  kind  may  eventually  be  centralized  at  the  Minnesota 

23  The  Tidende  possesses  two  files  of  volume  6,  numbers  1—30  (June 
3-December  23,  1857)  published  at  Madison;  one  file  of  volume  7,  numbers 
1-52  (January  6-December  27,  1858)  except  number  23,  June  9;  two  files 
of  volume  8,  numbers  1-52  (January  7-December  26,  1859)  ;  one  file  of 
volume  9,  numbers  1-52  (January  2-December  24,  I860)  ;  three  files  prac- 
tically complete  of  volume  11,  numbers  1-52  (January  6-December  29, 
1862)  ;  one  incomplete  file  of  volume  12,  numbers  14-52  (April  6-Decem- 
ber 28,  1863) — the  first  thirteen  numbers  were  originally  included  in  the 
volume  but  were  later  torn  out,  with  the  exception  of  a  fragment  of  the 
issue  of  March  23 ;  six  files  of  volume  13,  numbers  1-52  (January  4-De- 
cember  26,  1864)  ;  and  six  files  of  volume  14,  numbers  1-52  (January  2-- 
December 25,  1865). 


518  THEODORE  C.  BLEGEN  Nov. 

Historical  Society  building,  thus  augmenting  the  Scandinavian 
collection  already  deposited  in  that  place,  is  earnestly  to  be 
hoped  by  students  interested  in  the  problem  of  the  population 
elements  in  the  history  of  the  Northwest.24 

THEODORE  C  BLEGEN 

HAMLINE  UNIVERSITY 
ST.  PAUL 

24  Since  the  foregoing  article  was  written,  the  publishers  of  the  Minne- 
apolis Tidende,  the  T.  Guldbrandsen  Publishing  Company,  have  presented 
to  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  volumes  of  Emigranten  covering  the 
years  1857  (June-December),  1859,  1862,  1864,  and  1865. 


MINNESOTA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES 

In  connection  with  the  stated  meeting  of  the  executive  council 
on  October  11,  an  open  session  was  held  in  the  auditorium,  at 
which  papers  were  read  on  "The  Early  Norwegian  Press  in 
America,"  by  Theodore  C.  Blegen,  assistant  professor  of  history 
in  Hamline  University,  and  on  "Charlie  Reynolds  and  the  Cus- 
ter  Campaign,"  by  Olin  D.  Wheeler,  of  the  society's  council. 

An  illustrated  lecture  on  "The  Past  and  Present  of  South 
Africa,"  by  Mr.  C.  Graham  Botha,  chief  archivist  for  the  Union 
of  South  Africa,  was  given  under  the  auspices  of  the  society  in 
its  auditorium  on  the  evening  of  July  21.  The  lecture  was  open 
to  the  public,  and,  in  spite  of  very  short  notice,  the  room  was 
filled  to  overflowing  by  an  appreciative  audience.  The  museum 
was  open  for  an  hour  before  the  lecture  and  several  hundred 
people  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  see  the  exhibits. 
Mr.  Botha  had  been  sent  by  his  government  on  an  extended  tour 
of  the  United  States,  Canada,  and  the  principal  European  coun- 
tries to  study  methods  of  organizing  and  administering  archives. 
It  would  appear  that  considerably  more  attention  is  given  to 
archives  in  South  Africa  than  in  the  United  States,  where  the 
importance  of  making  any  special  provision  for  the  care  of  public 
records  has  not  yet,  as  a  rule,  been  recognized. 

Nine  new  members,  all  active,  were  enrolled  during  July,  Au- 
gust, and  September :  Louis  J.  Ahlstrom,  Theodore  W.  Anderson, 
Mrs.  Willoughby  M.  Babcock,  Gertrude  A.  Jacobsen,  Anna  M. 
Ostgaard,  Rudolph  J.  Schultz,  and  Carl  E.  Van  Cleve  of  Min- 
neapolis; Julius  A.  Schmahl  of  St.  Paul;  and  Augustus  H. 
Shearer  of  Buffalo,  New  York.  Two  former  members  were 
reinstated  during  the  quarter.  The  society  lost  by  death  during 
the  same  period  two  active  members,  David  C.  Shepard  of 
St.  Paul,  August  7,  and  Frank  G.  O'Brien  of  Minneapolis, 
August  16. 

The  position  of  head  cataloguer  on  the  society's  staff,  which 
had  been  vacant  since  May,  was  finally  filled  by  the  appointment 


519 


520  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  Nov. 

of  Miss  Wilhelmina  E.  Carothers,  formerly  head  cataloguer  of 
the  Library  Association  of  Portland,  Oregon,  who  took  up  the 
work  on  September  1.  Miss  Mary  B.  Kimball  resigned  her 
position  as  accessions  assistant,  to  take  effect  July  31,  and  was 
succeeded  by  Miss  Carolyn  A.  Johnson  of  St.  Paul.  Miss 
Kimball  has  taken  the  position  of  librarian  of  the  public  schools 
of  South  St.  Paul. 

Among  investigators  from  outside  the  state  who  made  exten- 
sive use  of  the  society's  collections  during  the  summer  was  Mr. 
Hermann  Hagedorn,  author  of  a  Boy's  Life  of  Theodore  Roose- 
velt, and  secretary  of  the  Roosevelt  Memorial  Association.  Mr. 
Hagedorn  was  searching  for  material  for  a  book  on  Colonel 
Roosevelt's  career  as  a  ranchman  in  Dakota  and  reported  that 
he  "was  able  to  secure  some  very  valuable  data"  on  the  subject 
in  the  society's  library.  Members  and  friends  of  the  society  will 
be  interested  in  the  following  extracts  from  a  letter  received  from 
Air.  Hagedorn. 

"You  have  an  extraordinarily  fine  plant,  and  if  you  are  able 
to  secure  the  necessary  financial  assistance,  which  legislatures 
in  other  states  have  unfortunately  occasionally  been  too  short- 
sighted to  give  until  it  was  too  late,  you  should  be  able  to  do 
work  of  such  immense  value  that  it  cannot  be  computed  in  terms 
of  dollars  and  cents.  We  Americans  are  so  young  as  a  nation 
that  we  have  barely  come  to  recognize  that  we  have  a  past  whose 
records  are  scant  and  whose  great  landmarks  have  in  part  already 
been  overwhelmed  by  the  swift  waters  of  time.  The  story  of  the 
exploration  and  settlement  of  the  Northwest  is  one  of  the  most 
romantic  stories  in  history.  It  has  never  yet  been  half  told. 
There  is  no  historian  and  no  novelist  among  us  to-day  great 
enough  perhaps  to  tell  it.  But  some  day  in  the  course  of  this 
century  or  the  next  that  historian  or  that  novelist  will  arise 
and  delve  avidly  among  your  treasures  for  those  details  of  speech 
and  dress  and  custom  that  seem  so  unimportant,  yet,  in  the  hands 
of  a  man  of  imagination  and  purpose,  serve  to  give  the  glow  of 
life  to  the  picture  he  is  painting.  It  is  the  part  of  organizations 
like  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  to  see  that  the  great  his- 
torian when  he  comes  will  not  search  for  his  essential  facts  in 
vain. 


1920  ACCESSIONS  521 

"I  have  been  stirred  in  traveling  through  the  Northwest  to  see 
the  wealth  of  valuable  historical  material  on  all  sides  merely 
waiting  to  be  gathered  from  the  lips  of  men  and  women  still 
surviving  from  the  pioneer  days ;  and  yet  saddened  at  the  same 
time  to  think  how  much  of  the  gorgeous,  irrecoverable  stuff  was 
going  to  waste,  slipping  every  week,  every  month,  every  year 
into  oblivion  as  this  man  here  and  that  woman  there  sinks  into 
that  silence  from  which  no  voice  is  raised  to  tell  of  golden  deeds. 
Is  there  no  way  for  you  to  send  out  harvesters  of  reminiscences  ?" 

The  resources  of  the  society's  library  were  also  drawn  upon 
quite  extensively  by  Dr.  William  O.  Scroggs  of  the  editorial 
staff  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post  in  connection  with  a  study 
of  the  Nonpartisan  League.  The  results  of  this  study  were  set 
forth  in  a  series  of  articles  in  the  Post. 

Favorable  reviews  of  volume  17  of  the  society's  Collections — 
Dr.  Upham's  Minnesota  Geographic  Names — have  been  noted 
in  the  following  magazines  and  papers:  the  Minneapolis  Jour- 
nal, June  4;  the  Minneapolis  Sontag  Tidende,  July  4;  the  Min- 
neapolis Tribune,  June  6 ;  the  Nonpartisan  Leader,  July  5 ;  the 
St.  Paul  Daily  News,  August  8;  the  Washington  Historical 
Quarterly  for  July;  and  the  Western  Magazine  for  September. 
It  is  also  noted  briefly  in  the  Nation  for  August  7.  From  it  is 
derived  most  of  the  historical  information  in  a  guide  to  the 
Jefferson  Highway  in  Minnesota  recently  published  in  pamphlet 
form  by  the  Ten  Thousand  Lakes  of  Minnesota  Association. 

ACCESSIONS 

A  notable  addition  to  the  collections  of  state  archives  in  the 
custody  of  the  society  was  received  in  August  from  the  office  of 
the  secretary  of  state.  All  the  legislative  bills  and  the  original 
journals  of  the  legislature  from  1849  to  1880,  together  with  a 
number  of  miscellaneous  papers  of  the  same  period,  were  trans- 
ferred to  the  Historical  Building.  These  important  state  docu- 
ments, which  had  been  stored  in  sub-basement  vaults  of  the 
Capitol,  are  now  accessible  to  students  of  history  and  others  who 
may  be  interested  in  consulting  them.  Among  the  miscellaneous 
papers,  which  had  been  reposing  for  years  in  an  old  gunny  sack, 


522  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  Nov. 

were  found  the  original  certified  returns  of  the  first  census  of 
the  Territory  of  Minnesota,  taken  in  1849.  Despite  this  sum- 
mary treatment  the  papers  were  in  good  condition,  save  for 
innumerable  wrinkles,  and  they  have  served  to  correct  a  number 
of  errors  in  the  census  as  printed  in  the  appendix  to  the  Council 
Journal  of  1849. 

A  voluminous  addition  to  the  archives  of  the  surveyors-general 
of  logs,  comprising  the  records  of  the  fifth  district,  of  which  the 
office  was  located  at  Duluth,  was  also  received  during  the  summer. 
(See  ante,  p.  142).  They  consist  almost  entirely  of  tally  books 
kept  by  the  sealers,  though  there  are  a  few  log  ledgers  and 
journals,  a  short  file  of  books  of  liens,  and  other  record  books. 
The  period  covered  is  approximately  the  thirty  years  from  1883 
to  1913.  The  practical  importance  of  the  preservation  of  such 
apparently  obsolete  records  as  these  was  well  illustrated  recently 
when  two  attorneys  representing  opposing  sides  in  a  lawsuit 
involving  thousands  of  dollars,  together  with  a  court  reporter, 
spent  three  days  in  the  basement  of  the  unfinished  stack  room  of 
the  Historical  Building  gathering  evidence  from  the  archives  of 
the  surveyors-general  of  logs  for  the  second  district.  This 
material  had  been  stored  here  because  of  lack  of  room  for  it  in 
the  finished  parts  of  the  building. 

The  papers  of  the  Reverend  Moses  N.  Adams,  missionary, 
pastor,  Indian  agent,  army  chaplain,  and  missionary  again,  have 
been  presented  by  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  Newton  R.  Frost,  of  St. 
Paul.  Adams  came  to  Minnesota  in  1848  to  serve  as  a  member  of 
the  Dakota  Mission  at  Lac  qui  Parle.  Later  he  was  appointed 
state  agent  of  the  American  Bible  Society  and  traveled  con- 
stantly through  wild  and  unopened  country  under  all  sorts  of 
conditions  and  in  all  seasons  of  the  year.  During  the  eight  years 
of  President  Grant's  administration,  he  served  as  agent  to  the 
Sisseton  Sioux  in  South  Dakota,  after  which  he  was  commis- 
sioned as  an  army  chaplain  and  was  stationed  at  various  western 
posts.  Upon  reaching  the  age  of  retirement,  he  returned  to  the 
missionary  field  and  was  made  superintendent  of  the  Good  Will 
Mission  at  the  Sisseton  Agency.  In  1892  he  resigned  because  of 
failing  health  and  removed  to  St.  Paul,  where  he  completed  his 


1920  ACCESSIONS  523 

cycle  of  three  score  years  and  ten  in  1902.  Most  of  the  papers 
relate  to  the  Indian  agency ;  and  the  records  of  reports,  returns 
of  supplies,  contracts,  bonds,  and  vouchers  seem  to  be  very  com- 
plete. Especially  interesting  are  several  rolls  of  minutes  of  coun- 
cils held  with  the  Indians  at  various  times.  A  noteworthy  item 
which  illustrates  the  labors  of  the  early  missionaries  is  a  manu- 
script copy  of  the  Dakota  Lexicon. 

A  large  and  very  valuable  collection  of  the  papers  of  the  late 
Captain  Henry  A.  Castle  have  been  presented  by  his  daughters, 
the  Misses  Helen  and  Mary  Castle  of  St.  Paul.  Captain  Castle 
served  with  Illinois  regiments  in  the  Civil  War.  He  came  to 
Minnesota  in  1866,  was  a  member  of  the  state  legislature  in 
1873,  adjutant  general  in  1875-76,  editor  of  the  St.  Paul  Dis- 
patch from  1876  to  1885,  state  oil  inspector  from  1883  to  1886, 
postmaster  of  St.  Paul  from  1892  to  1896,  and  auditor  of  the 
United  States  post-office  department  from  1897  to  1903.  He  was 
also  the  author  of  two  historical  works,  Minnesota,  Its  Story  and 
Biography  and  a  History  of  St.  Paul  and  Vicinity.  The  papers 
are  voluminous  and  varied,  consisting  of  some  fifty  letter  files 
of  correspondence,  ten  letter-press  books,  about  thirty  scrap- 
books,  and  a  large  collection  of  newspaper  clippings  on  various 
subjects,  principally,  however,  relating  to  post-office  matters. 
There  is  also  a  group  of  letters  written  by  Captain  Castle's  son, 
Colonel  Charles  W.  Castle  of  Leavenworth,  Kansas,  while  a 
cadet  at  West  Point  and  while  serving  in  the  Philippine  Islands 
during  the  Spanish-American  War.  In  addition  to  the  manu- 
script material,  several  files  of  early  Minnesota  newspapers  and 
a  collection  of  111  books  and  652  pamphlets,  including  a  number 
of  rare  railroad  and  Minnesota  items,  were  received  from  the 
same  source. 

Another  large  contribution  to  the  society's  collections  has  been 
received  from  the  family  of  the  late  General  William  G.  Le  Due 
of  Hastings.  Among  the  manuscript  papers  of  the  general 
included  in  the  collection  are  a  considerable  group  on  agricul- 
tural subjects,  accumulated  while  he  held  the  office  of  United 
States  commissioner  of  agriculture;  a  volume  of  quartermaster's 
circulars  and  general  orders,  dating  from  1861  to  1863;  a  record 


524  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  Nov. 

book  of  the  Hastings,  Minnesota,  and  Red  River  Railroad  Com- 
pany, 1862-66;  and  account  books  of  his  stationery  store  in  St. 
Paul,  1852,  of  the  Hastings  Ferry  Company,  1856-57,  of  the 
Vermillion  Mills  at  Hastings,  1855-60,  and  of  a  general  store  in 
Hastings,  1863.  The  printed  material,  consisting  of  about  two 
thousand  books  and  pamphlets  and  long  runs  of  many  important 
periodicals  covering  half  a  century,  will  be  very  valuable  in 
filling  in  gaps  in  the  society's  library.  The  museum  is  enriched 
by  the  deposit  of  numerous  additional  objects.  Old  Staffordshire 
china,  Bohemian  and  cut  glass  wine  sets,  and  fine  dresses,  silk 
shawls,  and  lace  mantillas  help  to  reproduce  the  social  life  of  the 
past ;  a  flail,  a  cradle  for  cutting  grain,  a  corn-planter,  and  other 
implements  illustrate  pioneer  agricultural  operations;  and  a 
"Betty"  lamp,  a  candle  lantern,  a  bootjack,  a  dinner  horn,  a  cop- 
per teakettle,  iron  cooking  pots,  a  child's  cradle,  and,  last  but  not 
least,  a  "little  brown  jug"  recall  the  conditions  of  domestic  life 
in  pioneer  days. 

A  little  worn  leather  notebook  containing  daily  entries  made 
by  Lieutenant  Colonel  George  A.  Custer's  favorite  scout,  Charles 
Reynolds,  during  Custer's  last  campaign,  has  been  presented 
recently  by  Mr.  Olin  D.  Wheeler.  The  little  book  was  given 
to  Mr.  Wheeler  some  twenty  years  ago  by  the  custodian  of  old 
Fort  Abraham  Lincoln,  Walter  C.  Gooding,  who  some  twenty 
years  earlier — on  May  14,  1876,  to  be  exact — had  given  it  to 
Reynolds  as  the  Yellowstone  expedition  was  preparing  to  leave 
that  post,  with  the  request  that  "he  make  a  few  notes  in  the  book, 
of  the  sights  and  scenes  he  saw."  This  Reynolds  did  faithfully 
from  May  17,  the  day  the  troops  left  the  fort,  until  June  22,  when 
they  struck  the  trail  of  the  Indians  they  were  pursuing.  At  this 
point  his  entries  end,  probably  because  the  heavy  marches  of  the 
next  two  days  and  the  excitement  due  to  the  proximity  of  the 
Indians  left  no  time  or  inclination  for  writing.  Reynolds  was 
killed  on  the  twenty-fifth,  but  the  journal  of  the  return  expedi- 
tion was  taken  up  July  1  by  Sergeant  Alexander  Brown,  who 
recorded  the  daily  movements  of  the  troops  until  September  10, 
when  they  arrived  at  Wolf  Point  on  the  Missouri  River,  whence 
they  were  ordered  to  return  to  Fort  Abraham  Lincoln.  A  written 
statement  containing  additional  information  on  this  expedition, 


1920  ACCESSIONS  525 

given  by  word  of  mouth  by  Francis  Kennedy  of  St.  Paul,  a 
participant,  to  Mr.  Wheeler  about  1900,  has  been  presented  with 
the  journal. 

Incidents  and  events  in  the  history  of  the  First  Minnesota 
Volunteer  Infantry  in  the  Civil  War  are  vividly  recalled  by  the 
diaries  and  papers  of  Samuel  Bloomer,  which  have  recently  been 
presented  to  the  society  by  his  widow.  Mr.  Bloomer,  who  was 
a  Stillwater  boy,  enlisted  in  Company  B  of  the  First  Minnesota, 
April  29,  1861,  was  wounded  in  the  battles  of  Bull  Run  and  Antie- 
tam,  and  was  discharged  December  6,  1862.  From  1863  to  1865 
he  was  a  member  of  the  invalid  corps,  stationed  at  Evansville, 
Indiana,  and  other  places,  and  had  charge  of  quartermaster's 
stores.  His  diaries  follow  the  history  of  the  First  Minnesota 
from  May,  1861,  until  September,  1862,  and  a  series  of  letters 
from  his  cousin,  Adam  Marty,  of  the  same  company,  continue 
the  narrative  of  events  concerning  that  regiment  to  March,  1864. 
Of  special  value  is  a  roll  of  the  members  of  the  company,  dated 
June,  1861,  and  corrected  to  March,  1863.  A  number  of  letters 
from  relatives  and  friends  in  Stillwater  and  Fort  Snelling  chron- 
icle events  at  home  and  at  the  fort  during  the  war.  Noteworthy 
among  these  are  several  referring  to  the  Sioux  Massacre  of  1862, 
one  describing  methods  of  punishing  soldiers  at  Fort  Snelling, 
and  another  decrying  the  high  wages  and  soaring  prices  of  the 
winter  of  1864.  A  collection  of  quartermaster's  returns  and 
other  reports  illustrate  the  work  done  by  Lieutenant  Bloomer  with 
the  invalid  corps. 

Some  papers  of  Jerome  Big  Eagle,  a  chief  of  the  Mdewakan- 
ton  Sioux,  have  been  presented  by  his  nephew  through  the 
courtesy  of  Judge  Charles  F.  Hall  of  Granite  Falls.  Jerome 
Big  Eagle  or  Wamditanka  (Great  War  Eagle),  who  died  at 
Granite  Falls,  January  5,  1916,  was  a  son  of  Chief  Gray  Iron 
and  a  grandson  of  Chief  Black  Dog.  He  was  born  in  1827  near 
Mendota  and  upon  the  death  of  his  father  became  chief  of  the 
band.  He  visited  Washington  in  1858  and  signed  the  treaty 
negotiated  with  the  Sioux  on  that  occasion.  He  was  involved 
in  the  Sioux  Outbreak  of  1862  but  claimed  to  have  taken  no 
part  in  the  massacre.  Nevertheless,  he  was  confined  in  prison  at 


526  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  Nov. 

Davenport,  Iowa,  until  1864.  Among  the  papers  is  a  statement 
given  by  Major  Lawrence  Taliaferro  to  "Wah  ma  de  tunk  ah 
Chief  of  the  River  St  Peters"  (Black  Dog)  on  June  24,  1833, 
just  as  he  and  his  band  were  starting  for  a  hunt  on  the  Des 
Moines  River.  The  statement  bears  testimony  to  the  peaceful 
intent  of  these  Indians  and  their  determination  no  longer  to  fight 
with  the  Sauk  and  Foxes.  Several  of  the  other  papers  are  state- 
ments of  a  similar  nature  issued  to  "Mah  zah  hoh  tah"  (Gray 
Iron)  by  Major  Taliaferro  and  Henry  H.  Sibley.  A  souvenir 
of  the  Washington  visit  is  a  recommendation  of  conduct  and 
character  given  to  "Wamindeetonkee"  (Jerome  Big  Eagle)  by 
Charles  E.  Mix,  commissioner  of  Indian  affairs.  The  papers  all 
bear  testimony  to  the  good  character  and  high  standing  which 
Jerome  Big  Eagle  and  his  ancestors  maintained  with  the  United 
States  officials  and  other  men  of  prominence. 

To  Mr.  Orrin  F.  Smith  of  Winona  the  society  is  indebted  for 
copies  of  extracts  from  the  "Notes  of  an  Old  Settler"  by  Elder 
Ely,  which  were  published  in  the  Winona  Daily  Republican  for 
1867.  Elder  Ely  was  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Winona  and 
served  as  the  first  postmaster  of  that  city,  when  the  post  office 
was  nothing  but  the  elder's  hat,  from  which  he  distributed  the 
mail.  Mr.  Smith  has  also  presented  a  letter  of  Henry  H.  Sibley, 
delegate  to  Congress,  regarding  the  appointemnt  of  Abner  S. 
Goddard  as  postmaster  of  the  Winona  office  in  1852. 

A  letter  written  by  Silas  Doud  at  Red  Wing  in  October,  1857, 
which  recounts  the  financial  difficulties  of  the  late  territorial 
days,  when  money  could  be  loaned  at  four  or  five  per  cent  per 
month,  but  with  doubtful  security,  has  been  presented  by  Mr. 
Charles  C.  Thach,  Jr.,  of  Baltimore,  through  the  courtesy  of  Pro- 
fessor William  Anderson  of  the  University  of  Minnesota. 

The  future  student  of  the  labor  situation  of  the  present  day 
will  be  much  interested  in  the  copies  of  a  report  and  other  papers 
concerning  the  labor  disturbances  in  northern  Minnesota  in 
December,  1919,  recently  presented  by  the  author  of  the  report, 
Mr.  Hiram  D.  Frankel  of  St.  Paul.  Mr.  Frankel  accompanied 
the  Minnesota  National  Guard  to  International  Falls  on 


1920  ACCESSIONS  $27 

December  12,  as  General  Rhinow's  adjutant;  hence  his  report  is 
written   from  first-hand  knowledge  of  the  events. 

Mr.  Arthur  Graves  Douglass  of  Minneapolis  has  presented  a 
manuscript  genealogy  of  the  Arthur  and  Graves  families  and 
the  commission  of  his  father,  Ebenezer  Douglass,  as  Indian 
agent.  The  commission  bears  the  signature  of  President  Grant. 

A  carbon  copy  of  a  thesis  on  "The  Development  of  Flour 
Milling  in  Minneapolis,"  by  Charles  B.  Kuhlmann,  the  original  of 
which  was  submitted  in  partial  fulfillment  of  the  requirements 
for  the  degree  of  master  of  arts  at  the  University  of  Minnesota 
in  June,  1920,  has  been  presented  by  the  author.  It  consists  of 
258  typewritten  pages  with  a  number  of  maps  and  charts.  In 
the  preparation  of  this  work  Mr.  Kuhlman  made  extensive  use 
of  the  Hale  Papers — correspondence  of  Major  William  D. 
Hale — in  the  manuscript  collections  of  the  Minnesota  Historical 
Society. 

The  Honorable  Asher  Howard  of  Minneapolis  has  presented 
to  the  society  a  collection  of  original  letters,  photographic  repro- 
ductions of  letters,  newspapers,  magazines,  books,  and  pamphlets 
which  formed  the  basis  of  a  recent  campaign  publication  relating 
to  the  Nonpartisan  League.  In  accord  with  its  policy  of 
accumulating  all  available  material  on  all  sides  of  current  issues, 
for  the  use  of  the  impartial  historian  of  the  future,  the  society 
has  accepted  this  addition  to  its  already  extensive  collection  of 
material  relating  to  the  league. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Samuel  T.  Painter  of  St.  Paul, 
the  society  has  recently  received  three  very  interesting  scrap- 
books  on  river  transportation,  compiled  by  his  brother,  the  late 
Frank  M.  Painter,  who  was  a  steamboat  clerk  on  the  Mississippi 
and  Red  Rivers  from  1870  to  1876.  The  books  are  made  up 
largely  of  newspaper  clippings  of  the  articles  by  George  B. 
Merrick  published  in  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  of  Burlington, 
Iowa;  but  they  contain  also  a  series  of  sketches  contributed  by 
Mr.  Painter  himself  to  the  Sunday  Courier  News  of  Fargo, 
North  Dakota,  and  miscellaneous  clippings  relating  events  of  the 
early  steamboat  days.  A  few  pictures  of  old-time  steamboats, 


528  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  Nov. 

hotels,  and  bridges  along  the  rivers  have  been  included,  as  well 
as  a  number  of  steamboat  and  railroad  tickets,  checks,  passes, 
and  bills  of  lading. 

A  typewritten  copy  of  the  program  for  the  Fort  Snelling  cen- 
tennial celebration  (see  post,  p.  534)  has  been  received  from  Mr. 
George  H.  Hazzard ;  and  the  following  manuscripts  of  addresses 
delivered  at  the  gatherings  have  been  presented  by  the  authors : 
"Colonel  Leavenworth  and  His  Command,"  by  Lucy  Leaven- 
worth  Wilder  Morris ;  "Reminiscences,"  by  Levi  Longfellow ; 
"Time  and  Change,"  by  Frank  Eddy;  and  "Harriet  E.  Bishop, 
Founder  of  Baptist  Work  in  Minnesota,"  by  Alary  E.  Randall. 

Mrs.  Andrew  R.  McGill  of  St.  Paul  has  presented  a  large 
collection  of  books,  pamphlets,  and  magazine  files,  together  with 
some  valuable  manuscript  material  and  museum  objects.  The 
manuscripts  consist  of  papers  and  records  accumulated  by  her 
husband,  the  late  Governor  McGill,  from  1874  to  1886  and  relate 
largely  to  his  work  as  state  insurance  commissioner  during  those 
years.  The  museum  material  includes  the  full-dress  uniform 
worn  by  Mrs.  McGill's  son,  Captain  Charles  H.  McGill,  in 
the  Minnesota  National  Guard  about  the  time  of  the  Spanish- 
American  War — a  valuable  addition  to  the  society's  collection 
of  American  military  uniforms. 

A  file  of  the  Minneapolis  Times  for  the  years  from  1892  to 
1904,  consisting  of  110  bound  volumes,  has  been  presented  by 
the  publishers  of  the  Minneapolis  Tribune.  The  file  is  duplicated 
in  the  society's  collection,  but  it  can  be  exchanged  advantageously 
with  some  other  library. 

A  Sioux  war  club  and  a  beaded  buckskin  gun  case  are  gifts  of 
Dr.  James  C.  Ferguson  of  St.  Paul,  who  has  presented  many 
other  Indian  specimens  to  the  museum  during  the  past  year. 

Two  guns  which  saw  service  in  the  defence  of  New  Ulm  dur- 
ing the  Sioux  Outbreak  have  been  received  through  the  courtesy 
of  Mr.  Arthur  T.  Adams  of  Minneapolis.  One  of  them,  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  Julius  Krause  of  New  Ulm,  was  used  by  Captain 
Louis  Buggaert  in  the  battle;  the  other,  a  gift  of  Mr.  William 


1920  ACCESSIONS  $29 

Skinner  of  New  Ulm,  is  a  heavy  gun  of  a  special  make  designed 
for  buffalo  hunting  and  has  two  barrels,  of  which  one  is  rifled 
and  the  other,  of  somewhat  larger  caliber,  has  a  smooth  bore. 

From  Mr.  Max  Diestel  of  Le  Sueur  the  society  has  received  a 
heavy  breech-loading  Sharp's  carbine  of  the  model  of  1848,  a 
gun  wrench  of  the  type  issued  to  soldiers  in  the  Civil  War,  an 
interesting  old  pepperbox  pistol  of  heavy  caliber,  a  brass  flatiron 
bearing  the  date  1846  and  arranged  to  contain  hot  coals,  two 
heavy  ax  heads  of  unusual  form,  and  several  other  interesting 
specimens  for  the  museum. 

Mr.  Frederick  R.  Volk  of  Eagle  Lake  has  presented  a  heavy 
stone  ax  and  several  arrowheads  which  were  found  on  his  farm 
near  Lake  Washington  in  Blue  Earth  County. 

Mrs.  James  J.  Hill  has  presented  a  number  of  Confederate 
notes  and  bonds  of  various  issues,  some  of  which  had  been  pre- 
sented to  Mr.  Hill  by  Henry  M.  Rice.  These  are  interesting  addi- 
tions to  the  society's  numismatic  collection. 

A  unique  addition  to  the  World  War  collection  of  the  museum 
is  a  large  Red  Cross  quilt,  the  work  of  Mrs.  Mary  Parker,  which 
contains  the  names  and  service  stars  of  the  men  from  the  Frazee 
district  who  served  in  the  war.  The  quilt  was  presented  to  the 
society  by  Mrs.  Samuel  S.  Jones  in  the  name  of  the  Frazee 
chapter  of  the  Red  Cross. 

Mr.  Alonzo  F.  Carlyle  of  St.  Paul,  who  brought  back  many 
World  War  relics  and  placed  some  of  them  in  the  care  of  the 
society,  has  recently  deposited  an  elaborately  camouflaged 
American  steel  helmet.  It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  pro- 
tective coloring  used  on  this  specimen  with  that  painted  on  a 
captured  German  steel  helmet  in  the  museum. 

A  large  oil  portrait  of  General  James  H.  Baker,  painted  by 
Theodore  Kaufmann  in  1875,  is  the  gift  of  Mrs.  Baker  of  Man- 
kato.  General  Baker  was  for  many  years  a  member  of  the 
council  of  the  society  and  was  the  author  of  the  Lives  of  the 
Governors,  published  in  1908  as  volume  13  of  the  society's  Col- 
lections. 


530  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  NOTES  Nov. 

From  Mr.  Andrew  A.  Veblen,  formerly  of  Minneapolis  but 
now  living  in  California,  the  society  has  received  an  interesting 
wooden  drinking  bowl,  bearing  the  date  1839,  which  came  from 
West  Slidre  Parish,  Valdres,  Norway. 

To  Judge  and  Mrs.  John  W.  Willis  of  St.  Paul,  the  society  is 
indebted  for  a  beautiful  old  punch  bowl  of  Meissen  ware,  which 
was  made  in  the  royal  potteries  of  Dresden,  Saxony,  over  two 
hundred  years  ago.  A  number  of  other  interesting  specimens  for 
the  museum  have  been  received  from  them,  including  a  hand- 
some pair  of  brass-mounted  percussion  cap  duelling  pistols  pre- 
sented in  the  name  of  Mr.  Francis  Fitzgerald. 

Miss  Abby  A.  Fuller  of  St.  Paul  has  presented  a  sketch  of 
the  Sibley  House  at  Mendota,  painted  by  Mrs.  John  M.  Arm- 
strong, interesting  old  photographs  of  Hole-in-the-Day  and  Little 
Crow,  and  several  other  articles  of  value  for  the  museum  col- 
lections. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Edwin  P.  Capen  of  Minneapolis  have  presented 
to  the  museum  a  small  but  finely  decorated  Mexican  water  jug 
and  several  other  pieces  of  pottery. 


NEWS    AND    COMMENT 

A  paper  entitled  "The  Significance  for  Canadian  History  of 
the  Work  of  the  Board  of  Historical  Publications,"  by  Adam 
Shortt,  in  the  1919  volume  of  the  Proceedings  and  Transactions 
of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada  (section  2)  contains  an  unusually 
cogent  exposition  of  the  value  of  history  as  a  basis  for  under- 
standing the  present  and  planning  for  the  future.  Since  it  is 
desirable  "that  there  may  be  as  little  dispute  as  possible  as  to 
what  it  is  that  history  teaches,"  it  is  necessary,  the  author  con- 
tends, "not  only  to  set  forth  a  conscientious  view  of  historical 
facts,  but,  as  far  as  possible,  the  actual  documents,  or  at  least 
the  most  important  of  them,  arranged  in  such  a  manner  that 
they  may  be  the  most  readily  accessible,  not  only  at  large,  but 
in  their  natural  historical  relations  with  each  other,  in  point  of 
time,  place,  and  similar  interests."  The  plans  of  the  board  for 
meeting  this  need,  so  far  as  Canada  is  concerned,  are  described, 
and  an  outline  is  presented  of  its  proposed  documentary  publi- 
cations. 

The  Historical  Department  of  Iowa  has  resumed  publication 
of  the  Annals  of  Iowa  with  a  number  dated  April,  1920,  the 
principal  feature  of  which  is  a  document  of  very  considerable 
importance  to  Minnesota  history.  It  is  "Major  William  Wil- 
liams' Journal  of  a  Trip  to  Iowa  in  1849."  The  title  is  some- 
what of  a  misnomer,  for  the  trip  extended  to  Marine  Mills  on 
the  St.  Croix  and  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  on  the  Mississippi. 
Williams  traveled  on  the  "Dr.  Franklin"  and  recorded  day  by 
day  his  impressions  of  the  country,  the  Indian  villages,  the 
embryo  settlements,  economic  conditions,  and  the  "people  push- 
ing up  for  the  new  territory."  Of  special  interest  are  the  some- 
what detailed  descriptions  of  Stillwater,  St.  Paul,  and  Mendota. 
The  journal  adds  materially  to  the  available  information  about 
Minnesota  in  the  year  in  which  it  became  a  separate  territory. 

The  Palimpsest  is  the  title  of  a  little  monthly  magazine  recently 
started  by  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Iowa,  the  purpose  of 


531 


532  flEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

which  is  to  present  bits  of  Iowa  history  in  popular  form,  "as 
we  would  write  romance — with  life,  action,  and  color — that  the 
story  of  this  land  and  its  people  may  live."  The  second  issue, 
for  August,  contains  an  article  by  the  editor,  John  C.  Parish, 
entitled  "Three  Men  and  a  Press,"  which  is  of  special  Minnesota 
interest  because  the  press  referred  to  is  the  one  on  which  the 
first  paper  in  Minnesota  was  printed.  The  article  recounts  the 
history  of  this  press  in  Iowa,  where  it  was  used  to  print  the 
Ditbuque  Visitor,  the  first  paper  in  that  territory;  tells  of  its 
removal  to  Lancaster,  Wisconsin,  and  to  St.  Paul ;  and  then  gives 
the  two  versions  of  its  subsequent  history  (see  ante,  pp.  292-294) 
without  attempting  to  decide  between  them.  Two  minor  errors 
in  the  article  should  be  noted.  Editor  Goodhue's  initials 
were  J.  M.,  not  "J.  N." ;  and  he  brought  the  press  to  St.  Paul, 
not  "by  ox  team  up  the  Mississippi  on  the  ice,"  but  by  steam- 
boat. In  the  first  issue  of  the  Pioneer,  for  April  28,  1849,  the 
editor  says :  "But  little  more  than  one  week  ago,  we  landed  at 
St.  Paul,  amidst  a  crowd  of  strangers,  with  the  first  printing 
press  that  has  ever  rested  on  the  soil  of  Minnesota."  The  first 
steamer  of  that  season  arrived  at  St.  Paul  on  the  ninth  of  April. 

The  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin  has  announced  the 
acquisition  of  the  papers  of  General  Jeremiah  M.  Rusk,  who 
played  a  prominent  part  in  Wisconsin  and  national  politics  from 
1871  to  1893,  being  successively  congressman,  governor  of  the 
state,  and  the  first  secretary  of  the  national  department  of  agri- 
culture. "The  Rusk  papers,"  says  the  announcement,  "will  do 
much  to  put  the  layman  in  touch  with  the  spirit  of  politics  as  it 
was  in  the  eighties  and  nineties  of  the  last  century,  and  they 
will  enable  historical  students  to  do  justice  to  a  distinguished 
state  leader  of  the  generation  immediately  preceding  our  own." 

An  account  of  the  plans  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of 
Wisconsin  for  the  intensive  cultivation  of  local  history  is  pub- 
lished in  the  Wisconsin  Magazine  of  History  for  September. 
The  article  is  by  Joseph  Schafer,  the  new  superintendent  of  the 
society. 

The  Fergus  County  (Montana)  High  School  has  published, 
as  the  second  of  its  Bulletins,  a  pamphlet  entitled  Geography  and 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  533 

Geology  of  Fergus  County,  by  B.  O.  Freeman  (Lewiston,  Mon- 
tana, 1919.  71  p.).  It  contains  considerable  material  of  local 
history  interest,  including  a  chapter  on  the  origin  of  geographic 
names  in  the  county.  Announcement  is  made  that  other  bulletins, 
including  one  on  the  "History  and  Civics  of  Fergus  County" 
are  planned  for  the  future  and  that  it  is  hoped  to  make  the  high 
school  "a  clearing  house  of  accurate  information  about  the 
county."  The  example  set  by  this  series  should  be  followed  by 
other  schools,  for  such  activities  not  only  furnish  valuable  infor- 
mation to  the  community  but  also  offer  an  outlet  for  the  energies 
of  high  school  teachers  who  desire  to  engage  in  research  and 
make  contributions  to  knowledge. 

The  Manitoba  Free  Press  of  Winnipeg  for  July  15,  in  com- 
memoration of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  province,  contains 
a  "Special  Supplement"  of  twenty-two  pages,  which  "aims  to 
give  to  its  readers  some  approximate  idea  of  the  growth  and 
development  of  the  Province  of  Manitoba  since  it  came  into  cor- 
porate existence  on  July  15,  1870."  The  varied  phases  of  social 
and  industrial  activity  in  the  province,  their  development  and 
present  state,  are  discussed  in  a  series  of  twenty-one  articles 
written  by  the  members  of  the  editorial  staff  of  the  Free  Press. 
The  opening  article  presents  in  chronological  sequence  the  main 
events  in  the  history  of  Manitoba  "from  Hudson  the  discoverer 
to  Confederation  Day" ;  succeeding  narratives  treat  of  the 
economic,  political,  spiritual,  and  cultural  progress  of  the  prov- 
ince and  of  its  chief  city,  Winnipeg.  The  July  16  issue  of  the 
Free  Press  includes  an  addition  to  the  previous  record  in  an 
eight-page  history  of  athletics.  Each  of  the  articles  is  appro- 
priately illustrated  with  pioneer  and  modern  views  and  with 
portraits  of  prominent  men.  The  two  sections  constitute  a 
remarkably  satisfactory  account  of  the  growth  of  Manitoba  from 
a  frontier  fur-trading  region  to  a  prosperous  district  of  peaceful 
farms  and  busy  cities.  Few  newspapers  of  the  continent  have 
mustered  an  editorial  force  capable  of  producing  so  excellent  a 
series  of  articles;  the  fact  that  Manitoba  can  boast  of  such  a 
newspaper  is  in  itself  an  evidence  of  the  rapid  progress  of  the 
province. 


534  $EWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

The  centennial  of  the  laying  of  the  corner  store  of  old  Fort 
Snelling,  on  September  10,  1820,  was  celebrated  by  a  series  of 
meetings  under  the  auspices  of  the  Minnesota  Territorial 
Pioneers'  Association.  With  the  exception  of  the  final  meeting 
at  Fort  Snelling  on  Sunday,  September  12,  the  sessions  were 
held  in  the  Pioneer  Portrait  Hall  on  the  state  fair  grounds  during 
the  week  of  the  fair.  The  programs  consisted  of  reunions, 
addresses,  reminiscent  papers,  and  music.  Among  the  papers 
was  one  entitled  "Early  Home  Life  at  Fort  Snelling,"  by  Warren 
Upham,  which  is  published  in  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press  for 
September  12.  A  Centennial  History  of  Fort  Snelling, 
1820-1920,  published  by  the  post  exchange  of  the  Forty-ninth 
Infantry,  located  at  the  fort,  as  a  souvenir  of  the  celebration, 
consists  of  twenty  pages  of  text  and  illustrations,  and  sixty 
pages  of  advertisements.  Most  of  the  text  is  reprinted  from 
articles  in  the  "Centennial  Memorial"  number  of  the  Reveille, 
published  in  1919,  which  in  turn  are  taken  bodily  from  Marcus 
L.  Hansen's  Old  Fort  Snelling  (see  ante,  2 :  569;  3  :  161).  Brief 
illustrated  articles  on  the  history  of  the  fort  are  published  in  the 
St.  Paul  Daily  News  for  August  29  and  the  Minneapolis  Tribune 
for  September  5. 

The  growing  interest  in  local  history  has  manifested  itself  in 
a  number  of  historical  pageants  presented  in  various  communities 
of  Minnesota  and  neighboring  states  during  the  summer.  One  of 
these  was  staged  at  Red  WTing  as  part  of  the  "Home- Coming" 
festivities  of  August  5  and  6.  To  quote  an  announcement  in  the 
published  program,  it  aimed  "to  visualize  in  outline  the  story  of 
this  locality."  In  Duluth  a  pageant  commemorating  the  "golden 
jubilee"  of  the  incorporation  of  the  city  and  depicting  the  history 
of  the  region  during  more  than  two  hundred  years  was  presented 
on  August  18,  19,  20,  and  21,  in  connection  with  the  state  con- 
vention of  the  American  Legion.  The  history  of  that  part  of 
northwestern  Wisconsin  which  borders  on  Chequamegon  Bay 
was  reviewed  in  a  similar  manner  at  Ashland  on  August  26  and 
27.  Other  pageants  were  presented  at  St.  Cloud,  Detroit,  and 
Marshall;  and  at  Rice  Lake,  Wisconsin;  Sioux  Falls,  South 
Dakota;  and  Le  Mars,  Iowa. 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  535 

Forty  members  of  the  Pioneer  Rivermen's  Association 
exchanged  tales  of  their  river  experiences  at  a  picnic  at  Minne- 
haha  Falls  on  July  31.  The  gathering  was  held  in  honor  of 
Captain  E.  E.  Heerman  of  Devil's  Lake,  North  Dakota.  An 
account  of  the  picnic  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  for  August  1 
is  accompanied  by  a  picture  of  a  group  of  steamers  at  Read's 
Landing  in  1872  and  by  portraits  of  three  pilots  of  upper  Missis- 
sippi River  fame — Captain  Heerman,  Captain  John  Trudo  of 
Wabasha,  and  Captain  Joseph  Gardepi  of  Prairie  du  Chien, 
Wisconsin.  The  Minneapolis  Journal,  in  its  issue  for  August  1, 
also  describes  the  festivities  of  the  pioneer  rivermen  and  pub- 
lishes some  of  their  reminiscences  and  a  photograph  of  a  group 
of  men  who  attended  the  picnic. 

A  novel  piece  of  historical  field  work  was  done  during  the 
past  summer  by  Mr.  Arthur  T.  Adams,  a  Minneapolis  high 
school  teacher,  by  means  of  an  automobile  trip  through  the 
Minnesota  River  Valley  and  the  region  of  the  Sioux  Outbreak 
of  1862.  Mr.  Adams  visited  the  principal  towns  which  were 
attacked  by  the  Indians  and  the  sites  of  Fort  Ridgely,  the  upper 
and  lower  Sioux  agencies,  the  battle  of  Wood  Lake,  and  Camp 
Release;  he  interviewed  old  settlers  and  obtained  some  inter- 
esting reminiscences  of  the  massacre;  and  he  took  more  than 
a  hundred  photographs  of  sites  and  scenes  of  the  outbreak  and 
of  monuments  which  have  been  erected  to  commemorate  that 
event. 

An  incoherent  and  inaccurate  account  of  the  discovery  and 
subsequent  study  of  the  Kensington  rune  stone  appears  in  the 
Minneapolis  Journal  for  August  28  under  the  heading  "Is  the 
Runestone  Mystery  Solved?"  The  unearthing  of  thirteen  skulls 
and  other  bones  at  Barrett  is  presented  as  additional  evidence  for 
the  authenticity  of  the  stone,  since  here,  it  is  suggested,  might 
be  the  remains  of  the  Norsemen  who,  according  to  the  inscrip- 
tion on  the  stone,  were  killed  by  Indians. 

"Au  Lac  Winnipeg,  1734,"  by  Benjamin  Suite,  in  the  Bulle- 
tin of  the  Geographical  Society  of  Quebec  for  May-August,  1920, 
treats  of  the  explorations  of  La  Verendrye  along  the  northern 
border  of  Minnesota. 


536  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

An  article  in  the  Minneapolis  Journal  for  August  15  reminds 
the  reader  that  "August  18  marks  anniversary  of  Sioux  Mas- 
sacre." The  causes  and  chief  events  of  the  Indian  outbreak  are 
treated ;  the  extent  of  the  casualties,  especially  in  Renville  County, 
is  noted;  and  the  means  used  to  punish  the  Indians  are  stated. 
Although  the  date  of  the  outbreak  is  given  incorrectly  in  the 
heading,  a  statement  that  "the  first  killing  occurred  on  the  17th 
at  the  Acton  settlement"  appears  in  the  article.  The 
illustrations  consist  of  pictures  of  old  Fort  Ridgely  and  the  site 
of  the  Redwood  ferry,  and  of  portraits  of  Henry  H.  Sibley  and 
Little  Crow. 

The  Brown  County  Journal  of  New  Ulm  for  August  21  com- 
memorates the  attack  on  New  Ulm  in  a  lengthy  article  on  the 
causes,  main  events,  and  consequences  of  the  Sioux  Outbreak. 

The  first  installment  of  "The  Letters  of  Chauncey  H.  Cooke," 
which  is  published  in  the  Wisconsin  Magazine  of  History  for 
September,  is  an  important  addition  to  the  sources  of  Minnesota 
history.  Cooke,  whose  home  was  in  Buffalo  County,  Wisconsin, 
enlisted  in  Company  G  of  the  Twenty-fifth  Wisconsin  Volunteer 
Infantry  in  September,  1862,  when  he  was  only  sixteen  years  old. 
Soon  after  his  regiment  was  sent  to  Minnesota  to  take  part  in  Gen- 
eral Pope's  campaign  against  the  Sioux.  After  a  short  stop  at  Fort 
Snelling,  part  of  the  regiment,  including  Company  G,  was  sent 
north  to  keep  the  Chippewa  in  order;  and  the  boy  spent  about 
two  months  in  the  vicinities  of  St.  Cloud  and  New  Richmond. 
The  most  interesting  features  of  the  letters  are  the  information 
which  they  contain  about  camp  life  and  frontier  conditions  and 
the  comments  of  the  writer  on  the  Indian  situation.  Influenced 
by  his  acquaintance  with  Indians  in  Wisconsin  and  by  Bishop 
Whipple's  Dakota  Friend,  he  reached  the  conclusion  that  the 
blame  for  the  Sioux  Outbreak  should  rest  not  on  the  Indians 
but  on  "the  traders,  the  contractors,  the  trappers,  and  the  Indian 
agents."  This  opinion  was  not  shared  by  his  comrades,  how- 
ever. 

Water  Birds  of  Minnesota,  Past  and  Present  (Minneapolis, 
1919)  is  the  title  of  a  pamphlet  by  Dr.  Thomas  S.  Roberts,  the 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  537 

curator  of  the  zoological  museum  of  the  University  of  Minne- 
sota, which  has  been  published  as  a  separate  from  the  1916-18 
Biennial  Report  of  the  state  game  and  fish  commissioner  of 
Minnesota.  The  first  section,  entitled  "A  Retrospect,"  is  based 
in  part  on  the  narratives  of  explorers. 

An  article  by  Fred  L.  Holmes,  entitled  "A  Modern  Arrow- 
Maker,"  in  the  American-Scandinavian  Review  for  August,  is 
of  interest  to  archeologists.  Its  subject  is  the  revival,  by  Mr. 
Halvor  L.  Skavlem  of  Janesville,  Wisconsin,  of  "the  lost  art  of 
making  stone  implements,  particularly  arrowheads,  in  what  he 
believes  to  be  the  identical  fashion  and  with  the  identical  tools 
that  the  aborigines  of  all  time  have  employed." 

Recent  issues  of  the  Anthropological  Papers  of  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History  contain  three  items  relating  to  the 
Dakota  Indians.  "The  Sun  Dance  of  the  Canadian  Dakota,"  by 
W.  D.  Wallis,  and  "Notes  on  the  Sun  Dance  of  the  Sisseton 
Dakota,"  by  Alanson  Skinner,  are  in  volume  16,  part  4;  and 
"Anthropometry  of  the  Siouan  Tribes,"  by  Louis  R.  Sullivan, 
comprises  volume  23,  part  3. 

An  article  on  "Past  and  Present  Trade  Routes  to  the  Canadian 
Northwest,"  by  Frederick  J.  Alcock,  in  the  Geographical  Review 
for  August  furnishes  an  excellent  illustration  of  the  influences 
of  geography  upon  history.  Not  only  the  routes,  but  also  the 
organizations,  methods  of  operation,  and  means  of  transporta- 
tion by  which  the  Indians  of  the  region  have  been  supplied  with 
white  man's  goods  in  exchange  for  furs  for  250  years  are  dealt 
with  in  the  article.  Of  special  Minnesota  interest  is  the  account 
of  the  development  of  the  trade  between  St.  Paul  and  the  Red 
River  Valley  and  the  influence  of  this  trade  upon  western  Can- 
ada. A  picture  of  a  "Red  River  cart  brigade"  is  one  of  the  many 
excellent  photographs  with  which  the  article  is  illustrated. 

The  St.  Paul  Daily  News  for  July  11  contains  an  article,  in 
its  magazine  section,  entitled  "Last  of  the  Diamond  Jo  Line." 
It  notes  the  fact  that  packet  and  passenger  service  on  the  upper 
Mississippi  River  have  been  discontinued  and  tells  something  of 
the  history  of  the  famous  line.  A  number  of  anecdotes  about 


538  tiEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

Joseph  Reynolds,  the  owner,  are  included;  boats  operating  dur- 
ing given  years  are  named;  and  the  picturesque  atmosphere  of 
river  travel  is  described.  The  illustrations  consist  of  a  portrait 
of  "Diamond  Jo"  Reynolds,  an  early  view  of  three  boats  at  the 
Jackson  Street  dock  in  St.  Paul,  and  a  picture  of  a  raft  of  logs 
on  the  river. 

The  story  of  "the  first  Minnesota  locomotive,"  the  William 
Crooks,  from  its  initial  trip  from  St.  Paul  to  St.  Anthony  in 
July,  1862,  to  its  final  trip  to  the  Alaska- Yukon-Pacific  Exposi- 
tion of  Seattle  in  1909  is  told  in  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News  for 
September  26.  Pictures  of  the  old  locomotive,  which  is  still  pre- 
served in  a  roundhouse  in  St.  Paul,  accompany  the  article. 

In  anticipation  of  the  arrival  in  St.  Paul  on  August  10,  of  the 
first  aeroplane  to  bring  mail  from  Chicago,  the  St.  Paul  Daily 
News  devoted  a  section  of  its  issue  for  August  8  to  the  subject 
of  aviation.  A  number  of  the  articles  included  therein  contain 
information  about  the  development  in  Minnesota  of  this  most 
modern  means  of  transportation. 

A  note  on  "Some  Sources  for  Mississippi  Valley  Agricultural 
History,"  by  Raymond  G.  Taylor,  in  the  September  number  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Review,  calls  attention  to  the 
material  on  this  subject  contained  in  books  by  foreign  observers 
and  especially  in  those  of  James  P.  Caird  and  Finley  Dun,  two 
Scots  who  traveled  in  the  United  States  in  1858  and  1879  respec- 
tively. Both  of  these  men  visited  Minnesota  and  wrote  about 
conditions  in  the  state. 

A  valuable  study  of  The  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Min- 
nesota Juvenile  Court  has  been  published  as  a  pamphlet  by  the 
Minnesota  State  Board  of  Control  (1920.  20  p.).  It  consists 
of  an  "Address  Before  the  Minnesota  Association  of  Probate 
Judges,  January  15,  1920,"  by  Judge  Edward  F.  Waite  of  Min- 
neapolis. 

With  the  accomplishment  of  the  purpose  for  which  they  were 
organized,  the  associations  in  Minnesota  which  have  worked  for 
the  enfranchisement  of  women  have  passed  off  the  stage.  The 
history  of  these  organizations  and  of  the  movement  which  gave 


1920  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  539 

rise  to  them  is  reviewed  in  two  articles  in  the  issues  of  the 
Minneapolis  Journal  for  September  5  and  12.  The  first  article 
is  a  valuable  account  of  the  equal  suffrage  movement  in  the 
state  from  1847,  when  Harriet  E.  Bishop,  "the  first  woman  in 
Minnesota  to  do  any  special  work  for  woman  suffrage,"  came 
to  St.  Paul,  to  1920.  The  steps  by  which  the  civil  status  of  the 
women  of  the  state  has  been  advanced  are  reflected  in  a  list,  with 
brief  accounts,  of  the  bills  relating  to  the  subject  which  have 
come  before  the  legislature  during  the  past  half  century.  Other 
important  lists  included  are  those  of  the  charter  members  and 
successive  presidents  of  the  Minnesota  Woman  Suffrage  Asso- 
ciation. The  second  article  consists  merely  of  an  account  of  the 
disbanding  of  the  Minneapolis  Political  Equality  Club  and  a 
brief  resume  of  its  work. 

The  "progress  made  during  the  past  20  years"  by  the  Minne- 
sota Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  is  described  in  the  St.  Paul 
Daily  News  for  August  29.  The  article  consists  chiefly  of  a 
paper  read  by  Mrs.  G.  S.  Chesterman  of  Crookston  at  the  1920 
meeting  of  the  organization  at  Warren. 

A  history  of  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  is  published  in  the  issue 
of  that  paper  for  July  11  under  the  heading,  "A  Daily  Diary 
of  Happenings  Since  City  Was  Founded,  1867."  Two  periods 
in  the  advancement  and  growth  of  the  paper  are  treated — the 
first  from  1867  to  1891,  characterized  by  frequent  change;  the 
second,  dominated  by  the  personality  and  policy  of  a  single  man, 
William  J.  Murphy,  who  purchased  the  paper  in  1891  and,  after 
1893,  was  its  sole  owner  to  his  death  in  1918. 

A  brief  article  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  for  July  4  notes 
the  passing  of  the  "town  home,  built  by  Colonel  William  S.  King 
in  the  early  seventies  on  Nicollet  Island,"  Minneapolis.  A  pic- 
ture of  the  house  and  portraits  of  Colonel  and  Mrs.  King  accom- 
pany the  article. 

"Memories  of  60  Years  in  Minneapolis  Recounted  by  Charles 
Loring,  87"  is  the  title  of  an  interview  in  the  Minneapolis  Jour- 
nal for  September  16.  Mr.  Loring  recalls  the  humble  beginnings 
in  Minneapolis  of  a  number  of  public  utilities,  such  as  electric 


540  ftEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

lights  and  the  telegraph,  and  tells  something  of  the  origin  of  the 
city's  park  system.  Early  incidents  connected  with  the  planting 
and  destruction  of  trees  in  that  city  are  also  related  by  Mr.  Lor- 
ing  in  an  appeal  for  the  preservation  of  trees  published  in  the 
Minneapolis  Tribune  of  September  19. 

Mr.  A.  O.  Hoyt,  who  served  for  two  years  as  a  conductor  on 
the  "first  power-driven  street  cars  used  in  Minneapolis,"  tells 
some  incidents  connected  with  the  early  years  of  the  line  built 
by  Colonel  William  McCrory  in  1879,  in  the  Minneapolis  Trib- 
une for  August  8.  Mr.  Hoyt  also  describes  the  route,  which  at 
first  reached  only  to  Lake  Calhoun  but  was  later  extended  to 
Lake  Harriet  and  then  to  Excelsior  on  Lake  Minnetonka ;  he 
explains  that  the  cars  were  propelled  by  means  of  steam  motors ; 
and  he  notes  the  "first  attempt  to  run  electric  cars  in  Minneapo- 
lis." A  picture  of  the  cars  used  on  Colonel  McCrory's  line  is 
published  with  the  article. 

An  article  in  the  Minneapolis  Tribune  for  August  1,  entitled 
"Where  Are  the  Gates  Mansions  of  Yesteryear?"  calls  attention 
to  the  present  dilapidated  condition  of  what  was  the  fashionable 
residence  district  of  Minneapolis  fifty  years  ago.  A  number  of 
the  once  stately  homes  of  prominent  families,  now  used  as  lodg- 
ing houses  or  storehouses,  are  described,  and  incidents  about 
their  former  occupants  are  related.  The  illustrations  consist  of 
recent  pictures  of  these  formerly  handsome  residences. 

Pioneer  St.  Paul  institutions  and  their  growth  have  been 
occupying  the  attention  recently  of  Benjamin  Backnumber  in 
some  of  his  recollections  about  "St.  Paul  Before  This,"  in  the 
Sunday  issues  of  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News.  In  his  article  for 
August  15  he  describes  the  "box  of  pigeonholes  which  was  used 
in  the  first  post-office"  in  St.  Paul,  now  in  the  museum  of  the 
Minnesota  Historical  Society,  and  notes  the  stages  in  the  expan- 
sion of  the  post  office ;  on  August  1  he  depicts  "The  Saint's 
First  Hotel,"  a  log  structure  erected  in  1847  on  the  site  of  the 
present  Merchant's  Hotel.  Interesting  accounts  of  the  "First 
Independence  Day  Celebration"  and  of  the  "First  Amusement 
Halls"  and  notable  attractions  which  appeared  in  them  are  the 


NEWS  AND  COMMENT  541 

contributions  for  July  4  and  September  19,  and  that  for  Septem- 
ber 5  gives  a  brief  history  of  the  city's  fire  department.  Other 
articles  of  interest  deal  with  the  difficulties  encountered  by 
pioneer  journalists  in  obtaining  eastern  news,  August  22,  and 
with  Indian  legends  about  and  stories  of  early  settlement  at 
White  Bear  Lake,  August  29. 

The  stages  in  the  growth  of  the  business  of  Michaud  Brothers, 
retail  grocers  of  St.  Paul  during  fifty  years,  are  noted  in  a  series 
of  articles  which  appear  in  the  St.  Paul  Dispatch  for  September 
18  and  in  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press  for  September  20.  Por- 
traits of  two  of  the  founders  of  the  business,  Charles  and  Achille 
Michaud,  are  included  among  the  illustrations. 

The  "20th  Annual  Commercial  Industrial  and  Financial  Edi- 
tion" of  the  St.  Paul  Daily  News,  published  August  29,  contains 
several  articles  of  historical  interest.  One  deals  with  the  growth 
of  St.  Paul  from  a  "trading  post  city"  to  a  "famed  national 
market";  another  shows  the  importance  of  the  city  as  a  "fur 
manufacturing  center  for  more  than  half  a  century." 

The  services  on  September  19  at  the  Trinity  Lutheran  Church 
of  St.  Paul  commemorated  the  sixty-fifth  anniversary  of  its 
organization.  An  account  of  the  program  for  the  celebration 
with  a  brief  history  of  the  church  appear  in  the  St.  Paul  Daily 
News  for  September  19. 

The  first  Fourth  of  July  celebration  in  Faribault,  that  held  in 
1856,  is  the  subject  of  an  interesting  article  in  the  Faribault  Daily 
News  for  July  2.  It  is  based  upon  the  manuscript  minutes  of 
the  meeting  at  which  the  celebration  was  planned,  found  among 
the  papers  of  Dr.  Nathan  M.  Bemis  and  now  in  the  possession  of 
his  daughter,  Mrs.  Henry  C.  Prescott  of  Faribault,  and  upon 
the  reminiscences  of  Mrs.  Prescott.  The  minutes,  which  are 
printed  with  the  article,  include  the  names  of  persons  who  were 
appointed  to  serve  on  committees  and  of  those  who  were  invited 
to  participate  in  the  program. 

The  Western  Magazine  for  August  contains  sketches  of  four 
Minnesota  cities,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  South  St.  Paul,  and 


542  TSfEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

Rochester.  The  sketch  of  St.  Paul  includes  the  story  of  how 
that  city  was  named  and  a  reproduction  of  the  painting,  in  the 
museum  of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  of  Father  Galtier's 
Chapel  of  St.  Paul.  A  brief  outline  of  the  origin  and  growth  of 
Rochester  forms  a  part  of  the  article  on  that  city,  and  one  of 
the  accompanying  illustrations  is  a  photograph  of  a  busy  street 
scene  of  pioneer  days,  when  ox  teams  were  the  chief  means  of 
transportation. 

The  Fairmont  Daily  Sentinel  for  September  24  contains  a 
brief  but  interesting  sketch  of  the  early  history  of  Martin  County. 
It  is  followed  by  a  series  of  news  items  from  copies  of  the 
Sentinel  issued  during  the  early  seventies. 

"Proposed  Mississippi  Park  Rich  in  Historic  Interest"  is  the 
title  of  an  article  dealing  with  the  plans  for  a  national  park 
around  McGregor,  Iowa,  and  Prairie  du  Chien,  Wisconsin,  and 
with  the  history  of  the  region  under  consideration,  in  the  Min- 
neapolis Tribune  for  July  18.  Romantic  incidents  in  the  annals 
of  Prairie  du  Chien  make  up  the  greater  part  of  the  narrative. 
The  article  is  illustrated  with  photographs  of  scenes  in  the  pro- 
posed park. 

WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES 

Among  gratifying  acknowledgements  of  the  purposes  of  the 
Minnesota  War  Records  Commission,  none  has  given  more  encour- 
agement than  a  resolution  adopted  at  the  annual  convention  of 
the  Minnesota  department  of  the  American  Legion,  held  at 
Duluth,  August  16-18.  The  resolution  expresses  the  feeling  of  the 
service  men  that  a  complete  and  official  roster  of  all  Minnesota 
men  and  women  who  served  in  the  World  War  and  a  narrative 
history  of  Minnesota's  part  in  the  war  should  be  prepared  and 
published  without  unnecessary  delay,  and  it  concludes  with  an 
urgent  appeal  to  the  legislature  to  grant  the  commission  funds 
sufficient  for  that  purpose.  Attention  is  called  to  the  fact  that 
though  established  to  do  this  work  the  commission  has  hitherto 
found  it  possible  only  to  collect  material,  and  that,  too,  on  a  scale 
altogether  incommensurate  with  the  needs  of  the  situation.  Chief 


1920  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  543 

emphasis  is  properly  laid  upon  the  necessity  for  immediate  action. 
With  each  year  memories  fade,  experiences  grow  less  vivid,  and 
valuable  material  becomes  scattered.  If  Minnesota  is  to  show 
an  appreciation  of  her  part  in  the  struggle  equal  to  that  of  other 
states,  she  must  realize  her  present  opportunity. 

No  branch  of  the  work  of  the  Minnesota  War  Records  Com- 
mission holds  more  intimate  appeal  than  that  of  the  collection 
of  material  on  Minnesota's  "Gold  Stars."  More  than  three  thou- 
sand Minnesota  boys  heard  "taps"  in  camps  and  on  foreign  fields. 
Relatives  of  more  than  two  thousand  of  these  have  been  written 
to,  and  something  over  six  hundred  records  have  been  completed. 
Citizens  in  all  parts  of  the  state  will  be  appealed  to  for  help 
in  this  work  of  locating  and  canvassing  families  of  deceased  sol- 
diers in  order  that  Minnesota's  "Gold  Star  Roll"  may  be  as 
accurate  and  as  complete  as  possible. 

The  commission's  thousands  of  records  of  living  service  men 
are  now  approaching  a  state  of  order  long  striven  for  as  a  neces- 
sary preliminary  to  the  completion  of  the  collection.  Grouped 
in  the  first  instance  by  counties,  the  records  from  fifty-eight  of 
the  eighty-six  counties  have  been  arranged  in  alphabetical  order, 
and  lists  of  the  names  and  addresses  of  men  from  fourteen  of 
these  counties  have  been  compiled  for  the  use  of  the  commis- 
sion's local  collaborators.  Owing  to  the  immense  amount  of 
work  entailed  the  commission  is  obliged  to  limit  the  issuance  of 
such  lists  to  those  committees  or  other  local  agencies  which  may 
be  expected  to  make  effective  use  of  them. 

A  card  record  of  casualties  among  Minnesota,  North  Dakota, 
South  Dakota,  and  Montana  service  men,  compiled  by  the  Red 
Cross  on  the  basis  of  the  daily  official  bulletins  issued  by  the 
government  during  and  immediately  following  the  World  War, 
has  been  deposited  with  the  commission  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  Mr.  David  H.  Holbrook,  assistant  manager  of  the 
northern  division  of  the  American  Red  Cross  in  Minneapolis. 
While  it  is  recognized  that  the  data  here  given  is  not  final  in 
every  instance,  the  record  will  be  of  value,  at  least  as  a  working 
basis,  to  the  war  records  agencies  of  the  states  covered. 


544  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

From  the  north  central  field  committee  of  the  Young  Women's 
Christian  Association  the  commission  has  received  files  of  origi- 
nal records  covering  the  war  activities  of  that  organization  from 
November,  1917,  through  the  period  of  cooperation  with  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  and  other  agencies  in  the 
United  War  Work  Campaign.  The  correspondence  between 
leaders  in  this  and  allied  activities  included  in  the  files  gives  a 
definite  view  of  the  work  planned  and  accomplished.  The 
attempt  of  this  strictly  women's  organization  to  assume  its  share 
in  the  direction  of  the  combined  drive  is  one  of  the  interesting 
presentations  in  the  reports  that  make  up  part  of  the  files. 

The  state  headquarters  file  of  official  records  of  the  work  of 
the  Minnesota  branch  of  the  United  States  Employment  Service 
during  the  war  have  been  deposited  with  the  commission  for 
safe-keeping  along  with  similar  files  received  earlier,  as  already 
noted  here  (p.  322),  from  the  branch  offices  of  the  service  at 
Bemidji,  St.  Cloud,  Mankato,  and  Albert  Lea. 

The  field  agent  of  the  commission  brings  an  encouraging 
report  of  the  work  of  the  St.  Louis  County  branch.  Exception- 
ally whole-hearted  support  appears  to  have  been  accorded  by  the 
board  of  county  commissioners,  which  has  granted  funds  to  the 
extent  authorized  by  law,  has  provided  office  space  in  the  new 
courthouse  at  Duluth,  and  has  generally  stood  back  of  the  com- 
mittee in  all  its  efforts.  Through  the  medium  of  a  county-wide 
organization  based  on  commissioners'  districts,  through  the  coop- 
eration of  the  American  Legion  and  other  auxiliary  agencies, 
and  through  the  wide  publicity  given  by  its  newspaper  friends, 
the  committee  has  made  beginnings  which  have  yielded,  and 
give  promise  of  continuing  to  yield,  substantial  results.  Over 
nine  thousand  service  records  have  been  compiled  and  filed  in 
the  local  archives,  together  with  a  number  of  soldiers'  photo- 
graphs and  personal  narratives.  Direct  appeals  have  been  made 
to  representatives  of  all  local  war  agencies  for  contributions  to 
the  narrative  portion  of  the  community's  war  records,  and  not 
without  results.  An  intensive  campaign  for  material  and  for 
funds  needed  to  continue  the  work  will  be  staged  in  the  near 
future,  with  the  field  agent  of  the  state  commission  on  the  ground 


1920  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  545 

and  assisting.  Special  efforts  will  be  made  at  that  time  to  com- 
plete the  county's  "Gold  Star  Roll"  and  to  encourage  the  produc- 
tion of  historical  narratives  covering  all  phases  of  community 
effort,  and  especially  the  more  distinctive  phases  such  as  the 
war  record  of  the  county's  foreign  element  and  the  war-time  his- 
tory of  the  lumbering,  shipping,  shipbuilding,  and  mining  indus- 
tries of  that  region.  While  all  this  is  planned  with  publication 
as  the  ultimate  object,  no  attempt  will  be  made  to  anticipate  a 
satisfactory  completion  of  the  work  of  collection.  The  Honor- 
able William  E.  Culkin  of  Duluth,  chairman  of  the  committee, 
regards  the  work  as  one  which  should  have  a  wide  appeal 
throughout  the  county  and  the  state  at  large,  and  he  is  prepared 
to  devote  much  of  his  time  to  it  through  as  many  months  or 
years  as  may  be  necessary  to  its  accomplishment. 

Substantial  progress  has  been  made  by  the  Ramsey  County 
War  Records  Commission  in  the  preparation  of  a  roster  and 
history  of  St.  Paul  and  Ramsey  County  in  the  World  War.  A 
roster  comprising  the  names  of  over  twelve  thousand  local  serv- 
ice men  has  been  compiled  on  the  basis  of  service  records  on 
file  with  the  state  commission,  and  every  effort  is  being  made  to 
discover  and  supply  the  omissions,  roughly  estimated  at  a  few 
hundreds.  In  addition  to  names  the  roster  supplies  condensed 
information  as  to  dates  of  entry  and  discharge,  rank,  unit,  over- 
sea service,  battles,  casualties,  and  honors.  Preliminary  work  on 
the  war  history  of  the  community  as  a  whole  includes  a  survey, 
now  nearly  completed,  of  local  newspapers  and  publications  of 
the  war  period.  The  collection  of  reports,  official  records,  and 
contributed  articles  on  the  various  phases  of  the  subject  pro- 
ceeds, though  more  slowly.  An  encouraging  feature  of  this 
work  is  the  cooperation  promised  by  a  group  of  Hamline  women 
who  have  organized  for  an  intensive  canvass  of  the  Hamline 
district  under  the  leadership  of  Mrs.  Charles  N.  Akers.  From 
this  and  any  other  local  organizations  or  individuals,  the  com- 
mission is  most  anxious  to  receive  anything  in  the  way  of  letters, 
diaries,  narratives  of  personal  experiences,  or  accounts  of  com- 
munity efforts  which  would  help  to  give  substance  and  color  to 
an  otherwise  pithless  recital  of  the  commonplaces  of  the  war 
experiences  of  the  people  of  Ramsey  County. 


546  NEWS  AND  COMMENT  Nov. 

Some  of  the  possibilities  in  a  study  of  a  group  of  service  rec- 
ords in  the  mass  may  be  indicated  by  various  provisional  analyses 
already  made  of  the  records  for  St.  Paul — analyses  the  results  of 
which  were  reported  in  detail  in  the  Pioneer  Press  for  August 
22  and  September  19  and  the  Daily  News  for  August  22.  Com- 
missioned officers  thus  far  recorded  number  893.  Of  these,  793 
were  in  the  army,  59  in  the  navy,  23  in  the  coast  artillery,  15  in 
the  marines,  and  3  in  the  Canadian  army;  all  ranks  are  repre- 
sented from  second  lieutenant  to  colonel  in  the  army  and  from 
ensign  to  lieutenant  commander  in  the  navy.  At  least  eighty-nine 
local  service  men  were  specially  honored,  many  of  them  having 
won  the  Distinguished  Service  Cross  or  the  Croix  de  Guerre. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  five  members  of  this  group  of  speci- 
ally honored  defenders  of  American  ideals  are  men  of  foreign 
birth,  and  that  in  the  cases  of  thirty-eight  others,  one  or  both 
parents  came  from  other  countries,  including  Germany. 

A  record  of  the  achievements  of  Ramsey  County  men  and 
units  in  protecting  the  health  and  lives  of  the  fighting  men  in 
training  camps  and  in  camps  and  hospitals  behind  the  lines  over- 
seas, which  is  to  be  used  in  the  history  of  St.  Paul  and  Ramsey 
County  in  the  World  War,  is  being  compiled  by  Major  Willmar 
C.  Rutherford,  who  served  as  director  of  field  hospitals  with 
the  109th  Sanitary  Train,  34th  Division. 

Through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Harold  S.  Johnson  of  St.  Paul, 
who  served  as  a  lieutenant  in  the  151st  United  States  Field  Artil- 
lery, a  copy  of  the  Rosier  of  the  Rainbow  Division  compiled  and 
edited  by  him  (New  York,  1917.  543  p.)  is  now  among  the 
permanent  records  of  Minesota's  part  in  the  war.  The  long 
list  of  names  and  addresses  here  given  is  full  of  interest  and 
capturing  to  the  imagination  as  one  visualizes  the  unusual  per- 
sonnel of  this  organization.  Twenty-six  states  were  represented 
in  the  division,  and  only  those  units  were  selected  for  it  which 
had  already  shown  marked  ability,  the  majority  having  seen 
service  in  the  Spanish-American  War  or  upon  the  Mexican  bor- 
der. For  Minnesotans  the  chief  interest  of  the  book  lies,  naturally, 
in  the  roster  of  the  151st  United  States  Field  Artillery,  formerly 
the  First  Minnesota  Field  Artillery. 


1920  WAR  HISTORY  ACTIVITIES  547 

September  23  saw  the  launching  in  Minneapolis  of  a  weekly 
publication  known  as  the  Hennepin  County  Legionnaire,  official 
organ  of  the  American  Legion  posts  of  that  county.  It  is  a 
non-political,  eight-page  newspaper  filled  with  items  of  interest  to 
former  service  men  and  particularly  with  news  of  the  doings  of 
the  local  posts. 

The  Knights  of  Columbus  in  Peace  and  War,  by  Maurice  F. 
Egan  and  John  B.  Kennedy  (New  Haven,  Connecticut,  1920.  2 
vols.,  403,  405  p.)  is  a  diversely  interesting  book,  which  chron- 
icles the  emergence  of  a  society  from  comparative  obscurity  to 
a  large  place  in  a  tremendous  crisis.  The  first  chapters  of  the 
book  recount  the  beginnings  of  the  order  and  describe  its  relief 
work  in  time  of  peace.  Subsequent  chapters  tell  how,  when  the 
call  came  to  American  manhood  to  take  its  part  in  the  great 
conflict,  the  red  cross  of  Malta  appeared  over  religious  head- 
quarters and  recreational  centers  in  England  and  Belgium,  in 
France  and  Italy  and  Siberian  wastes,  and  later  in  the  camps  of 
the  Army  of  Occupation  in  Germany.  The  reconstruction  pro- 
gram of  the  organization,  which  ranged  through  all  forms  of 
service  from  locating  lost  baggage  to  finding  a  job  for  the  return- 
ing soldier,  is  also  discussed.  Volume  2  contains  the  "Knights 
of  Columbus  Honor  Roll,"  a  section  of  which  is  devoted  to  Min- 
nesota names  (pp.  172-180).  The  illustrations  are  numerous  and 
evocative  of  the  scenes  represented. 

Soldiers  of  the  Church,  by  John  W.  Pritchard,  editor  of  the 
Christian  Nation  (New  York,  1919.  190  p.)  tells  "The  Story 
of  What  the  Reformed  Presbyterians  (Covenanters)  of  North 
America,  Canada,  and  the  British  Isles,  Did  to  Win  the  World 
War  of  1914-1918."  The  book  contains  a  roster  of  American 
Covenanters  in  the  war,  lists  of  casualties  and  honors,  accounts 
of  various  women's  activities,  and  a  discussion  of  the  church's 
attitude  toward  the  civil  government  and  toward  participation  in 
the  war.  The  roster  contains  the  names  of  two  Minnesota  boys. 


INDEX 

TO    THE 

MINNESOTA  HISTORY  BULLETIN 

VOLUME   III 
1919-1920 


INDEX 

The  names  of  contributors  to  the  MINNESOTA  HISTORY  BULLETIN  are 
printed  in  small  capitals.  The  titles  of  all  books,  periodicals,  articles,  and 
papers  noted  are  inclosed  in  quotation  marks.  (R)  indicates  that  the  con- 
tribution is  a  review. 


Abbe,  Mrs.  Abby  F.,  145 

Abbot,  Gen.  F.  V.,  332  n.  1,  358 

Abbott,  H.  S.,  304 

Aborigines  of  North  America,  book 
reviewed,  295 

"Acta  et  Dicta,"  articles  noted,  232 

Adams,  A.  T.,  528,  535 

Adams,  Cuyler,  29 

Adams,  E.  E,  228 

Adams,  John,  261 

Adams,  J.  Q.,  373 

Adams,  Rev.  M.  N.,  papers  ac- 
quired, 522 

Adams,  Romanzo,  book  by,  noted, 
157 

Adler,  Cyrus,  letter  by,  442 

Adsem,  Alfred,  371 

Affiliated  Engineering  Societies  of 
Minnesota,  "Bulletin,"  article  not- 
ed, 101 

Agassiz,  Louis,  letter  acquired,  465 

"Agate,"  victory  number  noted, 
388 

Agrarian  movement,  books  re- 
viewed, 360-363,  210-212 

Agriculture,  beet  sugar,  63;  begin- 
nings in  Minnesota,  120 ;  pioneer, 
174,  283,  408,  409;  U.  S.  bureau 
of,  63 ;  books  and  articles  noted, 
44,  99,  153,  231,  309,  378;  source 
material  acquired,  523. 

Agricultural  history,  paper  noted, 
309;  Mississippi  Valley,  article 
noted,  538 

Agricultural  Society  of  France,  63 

Air  Service  Mechanics  School  (St. 
Paul),  account  and  pictures  not- 
ed, 110 

Aitkin,  W.  A.,  120,  199  n.  17,  200  n. 
18 

Aitkin,  289 

Aitkin  County,  iron  deposits,  29 

Akers,  Mrs.  C.  N.,  467,  545 

Akerson,  G.  E.,  article  by,  noted, 
237 


Alabama,  archives  department,  137 

"Albert  Lea  Community  Maga- 
zine," articles  noted,  239 

Albert  Lea  Publishing  Company, 
483 

Albright,  S.  J.,  292,  294;  article  by, 
noted,  480 ;  letter  on  Goodhue 
press,  291 

Alcock,  F.  J.,  article  by,  noted,  537 

Alexandria,  180  n.  11,  194  n.  15 

Alford,  Eva,  bibliography  by,  ac- 
quired, 465 

Allen,  Capt.  James,  account  of  Da- 
kota expedition  noted,  30 

Allery  (France),  163 

Allies,  propaganda  in  U.  S.,  6,  8 

Allin,  C.  D.,  23 

Allouez,  Father  Claude,  narrative 
noted,  46 

Allyn,  G.  W.,  book  by,  noted,  319 

Aloysius,  Father  —     — ,  239 

Alvord,  C.  W.,  sketch,  469 

American  Agricultural  History  So- 
ciety, 309 

American  Antiquarian  Society,  pub- 
lication noted,  313 

American  Association  of  University 
Professors,  309 

American  Baptist  Historical  So- 
ciety, 441 

American  Bible  Society,  522 

American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions.  83,  85 

American  Catholic  Historical  So- 
ciety, 441 

American  Expeditionary  Force,  217 

American  Federation  of  Labor, 
book  noted,  312 

American  Fur  Company,  30,  49,  117, 
200,  297,  364,  473 

American  Historical  Association, 
309-  public  archives  commission, 
433 

"American  Historical  Review,'  ar- 
ticle noted,  248 


551 


552 


INDEX 


American  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety, 224 

American  Industrial  Commission  to 
France,  1916,  book  noted,  97 

American  Jewish  Committee,  387 ; 
publication  noted,  107 

American  Jewish  Historical  Socie- 
ty, 438,  441 

"American  Jewish  World,"  article 
noted,  387 

American  Legion,  242,  388,  534, 
544 ;  conventions,  324,  542 ;  David 
Wisted  Post,  389;  Hennepin 
County  posts,  publication  noted, 
547;  Nels  T.  Wold  Post,  159; 
Minnesota  branch,  publication 
noted,  244;  North  Dakota  branch, 
publication  noted,  327 ;  publication 
noted,  324 

"American  Legion  Weekly,"  161, 
461 

American  Library  Association,  460; 
Minnesota  branch,  records  ac- 
quired, 387 

American  Museum  of  Natural  His- 
tory, publications  noted,  537 

American  Political  Science  Associa- 
tion, 309 

American  Protective  League,  134 ; 
history  noted,  246;  Minneapolis 
division,  "Report"  noted,  108, 
246 

American  Red  Cross,  106,  134,  155, 
216,  326,  340,  414,  529;  county 
summaries  of  war  work  acquired, 
482;  Danish  unit  of  St.  Paul,  308; 
northern  division,  card  record  of 
World  War  casualties,  acquired, 
543 ;  accounts  and  articles  noted, 
214,  239 

American  Revolution.  Sec  Revolu- 
tionary War 

American-Scandinavian  Foundation 

(<  438,  442 

"American-Scandinavian  Review," 
articles  noted,  479,  537 

American  University  (Washington, 
D.  C.\  33,  350 

Americanization,  16:  work  of  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Information, 
22  ;  _  article  noted,  48 

Americanization  Committee.  Minne- 
sota Commission  of  Public  Safe- 
ty, papers  acquired,  322 

Ames,  Amelia,  307 

Ames,  C.  W.,  372 

Anderson,  R.  P,.,  article  by,  noted 
479 


Anderson,  William,  23,  526 

Andrews,  B.  F.,  book  noted,  45 

Andrews,  C.  C.,  292 

Andrews  Opera  Company,  melo- 
deon  acquired,  466 

"Annals  of  Iowa,"  article  noted, 
531 

Anoka  County,  map  noted,  478 ;  war 
history:  planned,  53;  reviewed, 
212-217 

"Anoka  Herald,"  S3 

Antonelli,  Ermenigildo,  286  n.   15 

Appleton,  local  war  activities,  arti- 
cles noted,  53 

"Appleton  Press,"  victory  edition 
noted,  53 

Archeology,  book  reviewed,  295 

Archangel  (Russia),  12 

Archives,  bibliography  noted,  139; 
Canada,  137,  297;  Europe,  137, 
431;  Great  Britain,  297;  Massa- 
chusetts commissioner  of,  "Re- 
port" noted,  150;  South  Africa, 
519;  U.  S.,  44,  135,  239;  Wiscon- 
sin, book  reviewed,  137-139 

Archives,  Minnesota.  See  Minne- 
sota archives 

Argonne  Forest,  sketch  of  battle 
ground,  noted,  110 

Arkansas,  313;  collection  of  war 
records,  50 

Armstrong,  Dr.  J.  M.,  458 

Armstrong,  Mrs.  J.  M.,  530 

Army  of  Occupation,  109,  246 

Arnold,  H.  V.,  books  by,  noted,  298, 
479;  "Early  History  of  Grand 
Forks,  North  Dakota,"  reviewed, 
32 ;  "Portland  Prairie  in  Present 
Times,"  reviewed,  298 

"Art  and  Archeologv,"  article  noted, 
376 

Arthur  family,  manuscript  geneol- 
ogy  acquired,  527 

Ashland  (Wis.),  pageant,  534 

Ashmore,  Otis,  letter  by,  443 

Associated  Press,  13,  337 

Astor,  J.  J.,  117,  364 

Atlanta    (Ga.),  62 

Auerbach,  Maurice,  381 

Augsburg  Seminary  (Minneapolis), 
439:  sketch  noted,  315 

"Austin   Herald,"    104,   483 

Aviation,  articles  noted,  110,  538; 
book  reviewed,  33  ;  source  material 
noted,  97,  219 

Ayer,  L.  W.,  229,  230;  sketch  noted, 
475 

Ayres,   Sgt.  LeRoy,  286  n.   15 


INDEX 


553 


Babcock,  W.  M.  Jr.,  148,  221,  223, 
304;  address  by,  noted,  368 

BABCOCK,  W.  M.,  JR.,  The  Goodhue 
Press,  291-294;  (R)  Arnold's 
"Early  History  of  Grand  Forks," 
32;  (R)  Barton's  "John  P.  Wil- 
liamson, a  Brother  to  the  Sioux," 
88;  (R)  Holme's  "Handbook  of 
American  Antiquities;  the  Lithic 
Industries,"  295;  (R)  Russel's 
"Brief  Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar 
Loring  Park  Aspects,"  87 

Babies'  Home  of  St.  Paul,  143 

Baby  collection,  297 

Backes,  W.  J.,  article  by,  noted,  235 

Backus,  Clinton,  222,  225 

Backus,  David,  222,  225 

Backus,  C.  J.,  227 

Backus,  Mrs.  C.  J.,  227 

Bacon,  Gen.  J.  M.,  in  Leech  Lake 
Indian  uprising,  279-289 

Bailey,  E.  H.,  415 

Bailly,  Alexis,  papers  noted,  375 

Baker,  C.  H.,  145 

Baker,  Gen.  J.  H.,  529 

Baker,  Mrs.  J.  H.,  529 

Baldwin,  B.  C.,  account  book  ac- 
quired, 305 

Baldwin,  Clara,  305 

Bancroft,  R.  H.,  book  by,  noted, 
109 

Banks  and  banking,  315 ;  article 
noted,  381 ;  source  material  noted, 
316 

Baptist  Church,  255,  402 ;  beginnings 
in  Minnesota,  paper  on,  noted, 
528;  Calvary,  Minneapolis,  239; 
Central,  Minneapolis,  history  not- 
ed, 239;  First,  St.  Paul,  153.  Sec 
also  Swedish  Baptist  Church 

Barnes,  C.  E.,  159 

Barr,  J.  C.,  publication  noted,  110 

Barrett  Quadrangle,  map  rioted,  310 

Barrows,  iron  mines,  29 

Bartlett,  J.  A.,  508  n.  6 

Barton,  A.  O.,  160,  506  n.  1 

Barton,  Winifred  W.,  "John  P. 
Williamson,  a  Brother  to  the 
Sioux,"  reviewed,  88 

Base  Hospital  No.  26,  148,  387;  ac- 
counts noted,  163,  244 

Bassett    Creek     (Minneapolis),    87 

Bates,  A.  C.,  letter  by,  443 

Battery  D,  ^j/th  U.  S.  Field  Artil- 
lery, history  noted,  162 

Battle  Creek,  458,  459 

Battle  Lake,  182,  184  n.  12,  191  n. 
13,  199 


Bauman, ,  Indian  trader,  173, 

174 
Bear  Island,  274  n.  2,  279  n.  9,  281, 

289 
"Bear  Islanders,"  Chippewa  Indians, 

274  n.  2,  290 
Beardsley  Quadrangle,  map  noted, 

Beaton,  K.  C.,  280,  281,  284 

Beaulieu,  Charles,  305 

Beaulieu,  C.  H.,  305 

Beaulieu,  Rev.  C.  H.,  305 

Becker,  G.  L.,  426,  428 

Becker  County,  war  history  ac- 
quired, 483 

Beckville,  sketch  noted,  380 

Bellanger  (Bellenger)  family,  199 
n.  17 

"Bellman,"  article  noted,  155 

Bellows,  H.  A.,  article  by,  noted, 
155 

Beloit  College,  168  n.  1 

Beltrami,  G.  C,  231 

Beltrami  County,  158 

Bemidji,  Chippewa  chief,  95 

Bemidji,  95,  289,  333 

Bemis,  Dr.  N.  M.,  541 

"Benjamin  Backnumber."  articles 
by,  noted,  238,  318,  381,  471,  540 

Benson,  A.  B.,  article  03^,  noted,  479 

Benton,  S.  H.,  article  by,  noted,  99 

Bergan  family,  sketch  noted,  47 

Bergen,  Rev.  J.  T.,  address  noted, 
476 

Berne    (Switzerland),   12 

Bethel  Academy  (St.^Paul),  461 

Bibliographies,  acquired :  Mesabi 
Range,  465 ;  Chippewa  in  Wiscon- 
sin and  Minnesota,  465— noted: 
aboriginal  American  antiquities, 
296;  historical  activities  in  Cana- 
da, 1918-19,  240;  historical  activi- 
ties in  trans-Mississippi  north- 
west, 7917-19,  309;  printed  ma- 
terials on  archives  question,  139; 
writings  of  Iowa  authors,  98; 
Norwegian  newspapers  and  peri- 
odicals, 507  n.  3;  publications  re- 
lating to  Canada,  385 

Bibliotheque  St.  Sulpice,  collection 
noted,  297 

Big  Eagle,  Jerome,  Sioux  chief.  See 
Wamditanka 

Big  Stone  County,  map  noted,  478; 
war  history  planned,  104 

Bill,  Capt.  F.  A.,  234,  376;  articles 
by,  noted,  154,  375,  472 

Bill,  Mrs.  F.  A.,  224 


554 


INDEX 


Bill  of  Rights,  254 

Bishop,  Harriet  E.,  539,  articles 
noted,  153,  238;  paper  on,  acquired, 
528 

Bishop,  Gen.  J.  W.,  autograph  ac- 
quired, 41 

Black,  Gen.  W-  M.,  333,  358 

Black  Dog,  Sioux  chief.  See 
Wamditanka 

Black  River  (Wis.),  473 

Blair,  W.  M.,  20 

Blaisdell,  J.  T.,  sketch  noted,  383 

Blaisdell,  Mary  A.,  383 

Blake,  Katherine  E.,  pageant  by, 
noted,  152 

Blakeley,  Capt.   Russell,  428 

Blegen,  T.  C,  371;  "A  Report  on 
the  Public  Archives,"  reviewed, 
137-139;  articles  by,  noted,  48, 
233,  241,  312,  380;  paper  by,  noted, 
519 

BLEGEN,  T.  C.,  The  Early  Nonve- 
gian  Press  in  America,  506-518 

Bliss,  Maj.  P.  S.,  book  by,  noted, 
y / ,  o^T* 

Bloomer,    Samuel,   papers   acquired, 

Bloomer,  Mrs.  Samuel,  525 
Bloomington,  site  surveyed,  168  n.  1 
Blue    Earth    County,    early   history, 

book   noted,   319;    "Chronicles   of 

the  Selective  Draft"  acquired,  53; 

war  history  planned,   104 
Blue  Earth  River,  172 
Bobleter,  Col.  Joseph,  146 
Bobleter,  Mrs.  Joseph,  146 
Bolsheviki,   government   established 

in  Russia,  15 
Bolshevism,  251,  259 
Bonga,   George,   199  n.    17;    sketch, 

200  n.  18 

Bonga,  Jack  (?),  199,  200  n.  18 
Bonga,  Jean,  200  n.  18 
Bonga  family,  199  n.  18 
Bonney,  W.  P.,  letter  by,  446 
Bonnin,  Gertrude,  230 
Bonus  board,  242,  321 
Bonus  law,  Minnesota  soldiers    242 
Booth,  R.  G.,  439 
Borchenius,  Hans,  514 
Borup,  C.  W.  W.,  305,  381 
Boston  Museum,  70 
Botha,  C.  G.,  lecture  by,  noted,  519 
Bottineau,  Pierre,  310 
Boucher,   C.   S.,   469 
Boucher,  J.  A.,  286  n.  15 

Boulanger,  ,  199 

Bourne,  Mrs.  Sidora  A.,  228 


Boutwell,  Rev.  W.  T.,  199  n.  17 

Bowe,  John  (Legionnaire  Bowe), 
"Soldiers  of  the  Legion,"  reviewed, 
34 

Bowers,  R.  B.,  148 

Bowler,  J.  M.,  307 

Bowler,  Mrs.  Lizzie  S.,  307 

Boy  Scouts  of  America,  414;  St. 
Paul  Council,  records  acquired, 
387;  World  War  activities,  106 

Boyce,  John,  120 

Brackett,  G.  A.,  440 

Bradford,  Gov.  Wrilliam,  492 

Brainerd  Quadrangle,  map  noted, 
100 

Brayton,  S.  C.,  article  by,  noted,  325 

Breckenridge,  184  n.  12 

Bridegport   (Ala.),  61 

Bridgeman,  G.  H.,  379 

Brill,  W.  H.,  280,  281,  284 

Brink,  W.  H.,  43 

Bromley,  E.  A.,  42,  146,  225,  384 

Brooks,  Phillips,  letter  acquired,  96 

Brower,  J.  V.,  429 

Brown,   Sgt.  Alexander,  524 

Brown,  B.  G.,  quoted,  410 

Brown,  C.  L.,  467 

Brown,  Edward,  286  n.  15 

Brown,   E.  S.,  book  by,  noted,  479 

Brown,  H.  N.,  475 

Brown,  J.  C.,  443 

Brown,  John  C.,  148 

Brown,  J.  R.,  236,  292,  310 

Brown,  J.  W.,  475 

"Brown  County  Journal,"  article 
noted,  536 

Browning,  William,  article  by,  not- 
ed, 377 

Bruen,  Jabez,  146 

Brunson,  Rev.  Alfred,  320 

Bryan,  W.  J.,  sketch  noted,  361 

Bryce,  James,  quoted,  402 

Buck,   Grosvenor,  223 

Buck,  S.  J.,  44,  150,  157,  415,  428; 
address  by,  noted,  365 ;  "The 
Agrarian  Crusade,"  reviewed,  360- 
363 

BUCK,  S.  J.,  The  Functions  and 
Ideals  of  the  Minnesota  Historical 
Society,  429-436;  (R)  Blegen's 
"Report  on  the  Public  Archives," 
137-139;  (R)  Collins'  "Story  of  a 
Minnesotan,"  299;  (R)  David- 
son's "North  West  Company," 
296-298;  (R)  Quaife's  "Move- 
ment for  Statehood,"  139 

Buckbee-Mears   Company,    159 

Buggaert,  Capt.  Louis,  528 


INDEX 


555 


Btigonaygeshig,    Chippewa    Indian, 
278  n.  8,  280,  281,  284;  photograph 

£/ O 

Buenos  Aires   (Argentina),  13 
Buffalo  (N.  Y.),  war  history  noted, 

484 
Buffalo  (bison),  482;  article  noted, 

31 
"Buffalo    Commercial    Advertiser," 

quoted,  72 

Buffalo  Historical  Society,  442 
Buisson,  Capt.  Joe,  375 
Bullard,  Arthur,  11,  16 
"Bulletin     des     Recherches     Histo- 

riques,"  article  noted,  321 
Bunn,  Mrs.  C.  W.,  227,  461 
Bunn,  Helen,  340 
Bureau     of     American     Ethnology, 

publication  reviewed,  295 
Burgess,  Col.  Harry,  331,  357 
Burkhard,  Bertha,  468 
Burkhard,   Lydia,   468 
Burkhard,  Oscar,  287 
Burnquist,  Gov.  J.  A.  A.,  36,   150, 

372,  420,  462,  470 

Burpee,  L.  J.,  article  by,  noted,  240 
Burroughs,    John,    letter    acquired, 

370 

Burton,  Richard,  24 
Bushnell,  D.  I.  Jr.,  article  by,  noted, 

470 

Butler,  Gen.  B.  F.,  465 
Butler,  J.  G.,  book  by,  noted,  97 
Butler,  Nathan,  440 
Butler,  Sgt.  W.  S.,  286  n.  15,  287 
Byrne,  Rev.  J.  C,  107 


Cadillac,  Antoine  la  Mothe,  sieur 
de,  363 

Cahensly  plot,  98 

Caird,  J.  P.,  538 

Cairncross,  William,  reminiscences 
noted,  311 

Caleff,  Capt.  Jedediah,  307 

Caleff,  Mrs.  Susan,  307 

Calgary    (Canada),   321,  480 

Calhoun,  J.  C.,  408 

California,  68;  source  material  ac- 
quired, 96 

California  Council  of  Defense,  war 
history  committee,  "Bulletin" 
noted,  50 

California  Historical  Survey  Com- 
mission, publication  noted,  485 

California  University,  publications : 
noted,  479;  reviewed,  296-298 

"Cambridge  North  Star,"  159 


»  W.   M.,  paper  by,  acquired, 

Camp  Bobleter  (Fort  Snelling, 
1916),  146 

Camp  Dodge,  127,  218 

Camp  Lewis,  110 

Camp  Release,  236,  459,  535 

Canada,  137,  481;  fur  trade:  arti- 
cle noted,  473;  book  reviewed, 
296-298 — historical  activities,  ar- 
ticle noted,  240;  list  of  publica- 
tions relating  to,  noted,  385; 
Minnesota  boundary,  48;  Royal 
Society  publications :  acquired, 

4<  460;  noted,  45,  531 

"Canada   Francais,"  articles   noted, 

"Canadian  Historical  Review,"  385; 

article  noted,  471 
Canfield,  T.  H.,  157 
Cannon,  John,  306 
Cannon,  Mrs.  John,  306 
Cannon  River,  300 
Canterbury   (Conn.),  377 
Capen,  E.  P.,  460,  530 
Capen,  Mrs.  E.  P.,  460,  530 
Carleton  College,  222,  439 
Carlton  County,  war  history  planned, 

104 

Carlyle,  A.  F.,  147,  529 
Carman,  G.  N.,  332  n.  1 
Carnegie,  Andrew,  letter  acquired, 

96 
Caron,    Abbe    Ivanhoe,    article    by, 

noted,  471 

Carothers,  Wilhelmina  E.,  520 
Carson's    Trading     Post,     Bemidji, 

95 
Carver,  Jonathan,  231 ;  article  noted, 

471 ;    sketch  noted,  377 
Carver,  Robert,  377 
Carver  grant,  article  noted,  471 
Carver's    Cave,   377;   sketch   noted, 

381 

Case,  Enos,  146 
Castle,  Col.  C.  W.,  523 
Castle,  Capt.  H.  A.,  autograph  ac- 
quired, 41;  papers  acquired,  225, 

523 

Castle,  Helen,  146,  225,  523 
Castle,  Mary,  523 
Cass,  Lewis,  371 
Cass  County,  map  noted,  478 
Cass  Lake,  273,  289 
"Catholic    Bulletin,"    article    noted, 

98 
Catholic     Church,    House    of     the 

Good  Shepherd,  St.  Paul,  233;  in 


556 


INDEX 


Montana,  article  noted,  233;  mis- 
sionary activities,  articles  noted, 
233,  313,  321;  St.  Anthony  of 
Padua,  Minneapolis,  102;  war 
service  of  members,  collection  of 
material,  107,  136 

Catholic  Colonization  Bureau  of 
Minnesota,  publication  acquired, 
460 

"Catholic  Historical  Review,"  arti- 
cle noted,  107  _ 

Catholic  Historical  Society  of  St. 
Paul,  publication  noted,  232 

Catlin,  John,   123 

Catron,  John,  quoted,  402 

Census,  first  in  Minnesota,  313 

Central  Iowa  Railroad,  60 

Chamberlain,  C.  F.,  "Letters,"  re- 
viewed, 33 

Chamberlain,  F.  A.  and  F.  T. 
(eds.),  "Letters  of  Cyrus  Foss 
Chamberlain,"  reviewed,  33 

Chancy,  J.  B.,  429 

Channing,  W.  E.,  quoted,  411 

Chapman,  B.  O.,  225 

Chapman,  F.  L.,  96,  143,  590 

Chase,  Col.  R.  G.,  243;  "With  the 
Colors  from  Anoka  County,"  re- 
viewed, 212-217 

Chateau  Thierry  (France),  144,  162 

Chattanooga  (Tenn.),  61 

Cheever  tower  (Minneapolis),  arti- 
cle noted,  239 

Chequamegon  Bay,  history  of  re- 
gion, pageant,  534 

Cherry,  Stuart,  224 

Chesterman,  Mrs.  G.   S.,  539 

Chicago  (111.),  406,  450 

Chicago  River,  321 

"Chicago  Tribune,"  13 

"Chief,"  steamboat,  280,  281 

Chippewa  County,  war  history; 
planned,  104;  noted,  326 

Chippewa  Indians,  49,  231,  370;  bib- 
liography acquired,  465;  contract 
with  lumbermen,  120;  Leech  Lake 
uprising,  2,73-290;  poems  noted, 
100;  articles  noted,  321,  376,  470; 
source  material  acquired,  305 

Chippewa- Sioux  warfare,  59,  83, 
318;  source  material  noted,  313 

Chisago  County,  478;  war  history 
planned,  104 

"Chisholm  Tribune-Herald,"  arti- 
cle noted,  54 

Chittendcn,  H.  M.,  book  by,  noted, 
296 

Chokio  Quadrangle,  map  noted,  310 


Chouteau  Fur  Company,  200  n.  18; 
letters  acquired,  37 

"Christian  Nation/'  547 

Christiania   (Norway),  12 

Chronicles  of  America  Series,  Yale 
University  Press,  volume  re- 
viewed, 360-363 

Cincinnati   (Ohio),  406 

Civil  War,  210,  256,  258,  300;  Con- 
federate notes  and  bonds  ac- 
quired, 529;  education  of  public 
opinion,  5 ;  effect  on  St.  Paul  fi- 
nance, 381 ;  internal  grain  trade 
during,  paper  noted,  309;  Scandi- 
navian attitude  towards,  516; 
source  material :  acquired,  144,  224, 
305;  noted,  378 

Clark,  Maj.  Edwin,  440 

Clark,  Greenleaf,  428 

Clark,  Olive  J.,  223 

Clark,  Gov.  W.  C.,  303 

Clausen,  Rev.  C.  L.,  515 

Clay  County,  242 

Clayton,  Mrs.  F.  W.,  466 

Clemans,  Maj.  E.  C.,  42 

Clements,  W.  L.,  313 

Cleveland  (Ohio),  406 

Cleveland  High  School  (St.  Paul), 
477 

Cleveland-Johnson  Historical  As- 
sociation, 477 

Clough,  Gov.  D.  M.,  sketch  noted, 
315 

Cloquet,  board  of  education,  minutes 
destroyed,  36 

Coal  shortage,  108,  161 

Cody,  W.  F.  (Buffalo  Bill),  article 
noted,  31 

Coffman,  L.  D.,  439 

Cohen,  Emanuel,  438 

Colden,  Cadwallader,  463 

Colden,  David,  letter  acquired,  463 

Cole,  A.  B.,  article  by,  noted,  155 

Cole,  F.  B.,  439,  446 

Cole,  Col.  H.  S.,  388,  483 

Colfax,  Schuyler,  letter  acquired, 
465 

Colleges  and  schools,  land-grants 
to,  book  noted,  45;  war  propa- 
ganda in,  25 

Collins,  L.  W,  "The  Story  of  a 
Minnesotan,"  reviewed,  299 

Colonial  Dames  of  America,  Minne- 
sota chapter,  94 

Colorado,  book  noted,  100 

Colorado  University,  publication 
noted,  100 

Colvill,  Col.  William,  467 


INDEX 


557 


Commercial  Club  of  St.  Paul,  143 

Committee  on  Public  Information, 
3-26;  appointment,  7;  member- 
ship, 8 ;  functions,  9 ;  foreign  serv- 
ice, 11-18;  divisions,  18-26;  do- 
mestic educational  service,  18-21 ; 
expenditures,  26 

Company  D,  55th  U.  S.  Engineers, 
history  acquired,  324 

Company  F,  8th  Minnesota  Volun- 
teer Infantry,  31 

Company  F,  dth  Minnesota  Volun- 
teer Infantry,  source  material  ac- 
quired, 40 

Company  G,  550th  U.  S.  Infantry, 
88th  Division,  documents  acquired, 
482 

Congregational  Conference  of  Min- 
nesota, 472 

"Congregational  Minnesota,"  arti- 
cle noted,  48 

Congregational  Church  in  Minneso- 
ta, proposed  history  noted,  472 

Congregational  missions,  source  ma- 
terial acquired,  224 

"Congressional  Record,"  excerpts 
noted,  211 

Connecticut,  collection  of  war  rec- 
ords, 50 

Connecticut  Historical  Society,  442 

Connelley,  W.  E,  438 

Cook,  J.  B.,  307 

Cook,  Mrs.  J.  B.,  307 

Cook  County,  242;  record  in  Fourth 
Liberty  Loan,  48 

Cooke,  C.  H.,  letters  noted,  536 

Cooper,  C.  H.,  439 

Cooper,  David,  74,  76 

Cordwood  business,  Blue  Earth 
County,  article  noted,  319 

Coteau  des  Prairies,  31 

Cotton,  D.  R.,  323 

Cottonwood  County,  war  history 
planned,  104 

Coues,  Dr.  Elliot,  229 

Council  of  Home  Defense,  St.  Paul, 
records  acquired,  386 

Council  of  National  Defense,  Minne- 
sota branch  of  women's  commit- 
tee:  386;  publication  noted,  152 — 
Minneapolis  branch,  records  ac- 
quired, 386 

Couper,  E.  J.,  articles  by,  noted,  244 

"Courier  News"  (Fargo,  N.  D.), 
clippings  acquired,  527 

Courtney,  Arthur,  95,  590 

Covenanters,  war  history  noted,  547 

Cowles,  "Tod,"  sketch  noted,  382 


Cowling,  D.  J.,  439 
Crary,  Rev.  B.  F,  42 
Crawford  County  (Wis.),  49 
Creel,  George,  8,  9,  10,  11,  13,  18, 

20,  26 
Cretin,  Bishop  Joseph,  sketch  noted, 

WWW 

Crisp,  Mrs.  Ida,  440 

Cronyn,    G.    W.,    book    edited    by, 

noted,  100 
Crook,    Gen.    George,    account     of 

campaigns  noted,  45 
Crooks,    Ramsay,    117,   364;    letters 

acquired,  37 
Crookston.   333 
Crosby,  Mrs.  Irene  G.,  147 
Crow  Wing,   194 
Crow   Wing  County,  29,   159,   242; 

map  noted,  100 
Crow  Wing  settlement,  305 
Crowder,  Gen.  E.  H.,  53,  334 
Crystal  Palace,  58,  59  n.  1 
Cuba,  15 

Culkin,  W.  E.,  243,  386,  545 
Cummins,    John,    42 
Curtis,   G.  W.,  letter  acquired,  465 
Curtis,  Will   (ed.),  "In  the  World 

War,   1917-1918-1919:  Watpnwan 

County,    Minnesota,"      reviewed, 

212-217 
Custer,   Col.   G.  A.,  last  campaign: 

paper  noted,  519;  scout's  diary  ac- 
quired,  524 

Custer  massacre,  22$,  524 
Cutler,  E.  H.,  382 
Cutler,  Ruth,  226 
Cutler,  W.  W.,  226 
Cuyuna  Range,  448;  geology,  book 

reviewed,   28-30;   ore   production, 

account   noted,  29 

Dablon,  Rev.  J.  C.,  narrative  noted, 

46 

DaCosta,  Lt.  S.  S.,  334 
Dagenett,  C.  E,  90 
"Daily  Argus-Leader"  (Sioux  Falls, 

S.  D.),  articles  noted,  291 
"Daily  Pioneer,"  292,  293 
Dakota,     first  government,     article 

noted,  4SO 
Dakota  County,  war  history  planned, 

104 
Dakota  catechism,  of  S.  W.  Pond, 

83 

"Dakota  Democrat,"  291,  292 
"Dakota  Friend,"  84 
Dakota  Indians.    See  Sioux  Indians 


558 


INDEX 


Dakota  lexicon,  523 

Dalles  House  (Taylor's  Falls),  230; 
sketch  noted,  478 

Daly,  John,  286  n.  15 

Danish  Red  Cross  unit  of  St.  Paul, 
308 

Darling,  W.  L,  95 

Daubney,  John,  centenary,  230 

Daughters  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion, 229,  238,  323,  385 ;  in  Minne- 
sota, 439;  St.  Paul  chapter,  458 

Daughters  of  the  Revolution,  Minne- 
sota society  of,  439 

David,  Lt.  Q.  J.,  book  by,  noted, 
163 

David  Wisted  Post,  American  Le- 
gion, 389 

Davidson,  G.  C,  "The  North  West 
Company,"  reviewed,  296-298 

Davidson,  J.  H.,  477 

Davidson,  Commodore  W.  F.,  sketch 
noted,  472 

Davies,  E.  W.,  440 

Davis,  Andrew,  95 

Davis,  A.  K.,  243 

Davis,  C.  K.,  letter  acquired,  97 ; 
sketch  noted,  378 

Davis,  P.  C.,  95 

Davis,  W.  S.,  23,  438 

Day,  Lt.  C.  M.,  book  by,  noted,  324 

Dean,  Mrs.  Willliam,  340 

Declaration  of  Independence,  254, 
263 

Decorah,  Winnebago  chief,  account 
noted,  49 

Deer  River,  289 

Deerwood,  iron  mines,  29 

DeLand,  C.  E.,  article  by,  noted,  30 

Democracy,  American:  251-272; 
contrasted  with  English,  262; 
middle-western  pioneer  type,  393- 
414 — necessity  for  experts  in  gov- 
ernment, 269-271,  413 

"Democraten,"  510 

Democratic  Party,  407 

Denmark,  visit  of  editors  to  U.  S., 
17;  book  noted,  98 

Densmore,  Benjamin,  papers  of,  167 
n.  1,  168  n.  1 ;  portrait,  167;  sketch, 
167  n.  1 

DI-:NSMORE,  BENJAMIN,  Journal  of 
an  Expedition  on  the  Frontier 
(doc.),  167-209 

Densmore,  Daniel,  167,  168  n.  1 

Densmore,  Frances,  100,  167  n.  1 ; 
article  by,  noted,  376 

Densmore,  Orrin,   167  n.  1 

Denver    (Col.),   450 


DePauw  University,  469 

Description  and  travel,  Densmore's 
journal,  167-209;  books  and  arti- 
cles noted,  240,  312,  320,  479; 
source  material:  acquired,  372; 
noted,  321,  377 

De  Tremaudan,  A.  H.,  article  by, 
noted,  471 

Detroit,  pageant,  534 

Detroit  (Mich.),  363 

"Devil's  Lake    Pioneer   Press,"  480 

Devil's  Lake  region  (N.  D.),  book 
noted,  479 

Diamond  Jo  Line  steamboats,  472; 
article  noted,  537 

Dibb,  Dr.  W.  D.,  journal:  acquired, 
96;  noted,  101 — papers  noted,  102 

Dickinson,  Anna  E.,  letter  acquired, 
465 

Dickson,  Robert,  377 

Dieserud,  Juul,  506  n.  1 

Diestel,  Max,  529 

Dixon,  W.  M.,  6 

"Dr.  Franklin,"  steamboat,  531 

Dodge,  D.  J.,  225 ;  letter  noted,  101 

Dodge,  Col.  Henry,  240 

Dodge  County  Old  Settlers'  Asso- 
ciation, 152 

Dome  Club,  94 

"Domesday  Book,"  Wisconsin  State 
Historical  Society,  479 

Donahower,  Col.  J."  C.,  144,  228,  440 

Donahower,  J.  O-,  97 

Donaldson,  W.  T.  Sr.,  42 

Donaldson,  Mrs.  W.  T.  Sr.,  42 

Donnelly,  Ignatius,  379:  papers  of, 
211 ;  reprinting  of  book  by,  noted, 
155;  sketches  noted,  363,  378 

Dorr,  C.  D.,  440 

Dose,  Harold,  307 

Doud,  G.  W.,  extracts  from  diary 
noted,  31 

Doud,    Silas,    letter    acquired,    526 

Douglas,  S.  A.,  122,  408 

Douglas  County,  177  n.  7,  180  n.  11 ; 
map  noted,  310;  war  history 
planned,  104 

Douglass,  A.  G.,  305,  374,  465,  527 

Douglass,  Ebenezer,  306,  527 

Douglass,   Rev.   Ebenezer,  465 

Douglass,  Frederick,  letter  acquired, 
465 

Douglass,  R.  E.,  374 

Dousman,  Hercules,  117;  letters  ac- 
quired, 37 

Doville,  Jim,  narrative  noted,  49 

Dow,  D.  E.,  154 

Draft.   Sec  Selective  Draft 


INDEX 


559 


Drake,  E.  R,  370,  428 

Drake,  Henry,  146 

Drake,  H.  T.,  146 ;  compilation  by, 
acquired,  322 

Driscoll,  Frederick,  477 

Drumm,  Stella  M.,  letter  by,  444 

Dubuque  (la.)  Catholic  activities 
in,  313 

"Dubuque  Visitor,"  532 

Due,  Henri,  57 

Dudley,  J.  P.,  323,  482 

Du  Luth,  Daniel  Greysolon,  sieur, 
364 

Duluth,  99,  145,  158,  381,  474,  544; 
pageant,  534;  World  War  memor- 
ial proposed,  111;  books  and 
articles  noted,  230,  312 

Duluth  Battalion,  /^th  Minnesota 
Volunteer  Infantry,  289  n.  19 

Duluth -diocese,  sketch  noted,  232 

Duluth  Harbor,  222 

Dun,  Finley,  538 

Dunham,  C.  A.,  467     • 

Dunlap,  Mrs.  Rose  M.,  223 

Dunn,  R.  G.,  146,  300 

Durant,  E.  W.,  77  n.  14 

Dunwoody  Industrial  Institute 
(Minneapolis),  134 

Duxbury,  F.  A.,  419 


East  Battle  Lake,  191  n.  14 

Eastman,  Dr.  A.  M.,  440,  466 

Eastman,  Dr.  C.  A.,  book  by,  noted, 
99 ;  pageant  by,  noted,  230 

Eastman,  J.  W.,  228,  466 

Eastman,  Mrs.  J.  W.,  228 

Eastman,   Capt.   Seth,  42,   79  n.   17 

Eastman,  Mrs.  Mary  H.,  79;  book 
by,  noted,  79  n.  17;  poem  by,  quot- 
ed, 80 

Eaton,  B.  W.,  306 

Eau  Claire  (Wis.),  333 

Echota,  town  site,  169,  194,  197 ;  sur- 
veyed, 168  n.  1 

Echota  and  Marion  Land  Company, 
168  n.  1 

Economic  conditions,  Blue  Earth 
County,  319 ;  middle-western  pio- 
neers, 404,  408 ;  Minneapolis,  465 ; 
Portland  Prairie,  book  reviewed, 
298;  articles  noted,  381,  382,  384; 
source  material  noted,  316 

Economic  history,  paper  noted,  309 

Eddy,  Frank,  paper  by,  acquired, 
528 

Eden  Prairie,  300 

Edgar,  W.  C.,  24 


Edgerton,  G.  B.,  307 

Edmonton  (Canada),  321,  480 

Edmunds,  Gov.  Newton,  31 

Edsall,  Bishop  S.  C.,  article  by,  noted, 
476 

Edson,  L.  E.,  228 

Education,  American  system  ex- 
plained in  Siberia,  16;  early  mid- 
dle-western, 409;  land-grants,  45; 
Minneapolis,  article  noted,  317; 
St.  Paul,  night-schools  established, 
322  n.  1 ;  Minnesota,  source  ma- 
terial:  acquired,  460;  noted,  474 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  255 

Edwards,  Martha  L.,  article  by, 
noted,  106 

Egan,  M.  F.,  books  by,  noted,  98, 
547 

Eggleston,  Cordelia,  83 

Eggleston,  Edward,  books  by,  not- 
ed, 43 

Eight  Hundred  and  Fifth  Pioneer 
U.  S.  Infantry  (colored),  manu- 
script history  acquired,  97;  his- 
tory acquired,  324 

Eighth  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infan- 
try, 31,  147 

Eighty-eighth  Division,  U.  S.  Army, 
247;  list  of  soldiers  cited  for 
bravery  noted,  218;  roster  noted, 
218;  unofficial  history  reviewed, 
454;  war  history  reviewed,  217- 
219 

Ellet,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  F.  L.,  235 

Eleventh  Louisiana  Volunteers  of 
African  Descent,  manuscript  rec- 
ords, 1863-65,  acquired,  41 

Ely,  Elder  Edward,  526 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  255,  409 

"Emigranten,"  file  acquired,  371  ; 
sketch,  512-516 

"Encyclopedia  Americana,"  articles 
noted,  230 

Enderlin   (N.  D.),  354 

Enestvedt,  O.  O.,  47 

England.     See  Great  Britain 

Ericson,  George,  162 

Erie  Canal,  402 

Erie  County  (N.  Y.),  war  history 
noted,  484 

Evjen,  J.  O.,  439 

"Exeter  \N.  H.]  News  Letter,"  clip- 
pings acquired,  373 

Eyrick,  John,  489  n.  1 

"Faedrelandet,"  516 
"Fairmont  Daily  Sentinel,"  104;  ar- 
ticle noted,  542 


560 


INDEX 


Fairweather,  H.  W.,  article  by,  not- 
ed, 99 

Falls  of  St.  Anthony.  See  St.  An- 
thony Falls 

Fargo  (N.  D.)  account  of  choosing 
site  noted,  157 

"Fargo  Courier  News,"  articles 
noted,  48,  156 

"Fargo  Forum  and  Daily  Republic- 
an," articles  noted,  48 

Faribault,  Alexander,  60 

Faribault,  first  Fourth  of  July  cele- 
bration, article  noted,  541 

Faribault  County,  160;  war  history 
planned,  104 

"Faribault  Daily  News,"  article  not- 
ed, 541 

Farmer,  Mrs.  Eugenia  B.,  sketch 
noted,  233 

"Farmer,"  366 

Farmers'  movement,  books  reviewed, 
210-212,  360-363 

Farris,  289 

Fay,  J.  A.,  305 

Faulkner,   Mrs.   C.   E.,  461 

Faulkner,  Mrs.  C.  E.,  461 

Feldhauser,   Mrs.   Edward,   323 

Fergus,  James,  197  n.  16 

Fergus  County  (Mont.)  geography 
and  geology,  pamphlet  noted,  533 

Fergus  County  (Mont.)  High 
School,  "Bulletin,"  noted,  532 

Fergus  Falls  ("Red  River  Falls"), 
168  n.  1,  194  n.  15,  197,  198;  pano- 
rama views  after  cyclone  acquired, 
228 

Ferguson,  J.  B.,  307 

Ferguson,  Dr.  J.  C.,  148,  307,  468, 
528 

Fifth  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infan- 
try, 98,  281  n.  13 

Fifty-fifth  U.  S.  Engineers,  248; 
Company  D,  history  acquired,  324 

Fillmore   County,   159 

First  and  Security  National  Bank, 
Minneapolis,  315 

First  Minnesota  Field  Artillery.  Sec 
One  Hundred  and  Fifty-first  U. 
S.  Field  Artillery 

First  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infan- 
try, 154;  source  material  noted, 
525 

First  National  Bank,  St.  Paul,  461 ; 
sketch  noted,  381 

Fish,  C.  R.,  address  by,  noted,  301 

FISH,  C.   R.,  American  Democracy, 

251-272 
Fisher,  Mrs.  C.  D.,  466 


Fisher,  Capt.  G.  R.  G.,  227 

Fisher,  L.  E.,  sketch  noted,  318 

Fisk,  Capt.  J.  L.,  expeditions:  226; 
source  material  acquiredl,  96 

Fitzgerald,  Francis,  530 

Fitzgerald,  Teresa,  142 

Flagg,  Harriet  S.,  article  by,  noted', 
49 

Flandrau,  C.  E.,  27,  28,  200  n.  18 

Fleischer,  K.  J.,  515 

"Flora,"  steamboat,  280,  281,  283, 
2,84,  288 

Flour-milling,  60,  466 ;  in  Minneapo- 
lis, account  acquired,  527 

"Flying  Artillery,"  426 

Fockens,  Cornelius,  43 

Fogg,  F.  A.,  415 

Foley  Brothers  Grocery  Company 
(St.  Paul),  history  noted,  318 

Folwell,   Mary,  467 

Folwell,  W.  W.,  39,  239,  305 ;  article 
noted,  312;  portrait  acquired,  42; 
reminiscences  noted,  378 

"Food  Conservation  Advertising 
Committee,"  Goodhue  County,  214 

Forbes,  Corp.  J.  R.,  324 

Forbes,  W.  H.,  426 

Ford,  G.  S.,  157 

FORD,  G.  S.,  America's  Fight  for 
Public  Opinion,  3-26 

Foreign  Legion,  French  army,  33 ; 
book  reviewed,  34 

Forest  fires,  October,  1918;  Cloquet, 
37;  accounts  and  articles  noted, 
53,  99,  237  ^ 

Forsyth,  Maj.  Thomas,  237 

Fort  Abercrombie,  481 

Fort  Alexander,  480 

Fort   Atkinson,   31 ;   centennial,  241 

Fort  Calhoun,  241 

Fort  Des  Moines,  31 

Fort  Dodge    (la.),  27 

Fort  Garry,  481 

Fort  Pierre,  account  noted,  30 

Fort  Rice,  96,   101 

Fort  Ridgely,  27,  225,  459,  535 

Fort  Ripley,  481 

Fort  Snelling,  109,  118,  146,  153,  217, 
230,  279,  310,  334,  346,  350,  351, 
426,  458,  476,  477;  centennial:  93, 
142,  149,  161,  482,  534;  "Centenni- 
al History"  noted,  534;  copies  of 
program  and  addresses  acquired, 
528— first  state  fair,  236;  mete- 
orological records,  457;  painting 
acquired,  42;  picture  noted,  473; 
articles  noted,  235,  237;  source 
material  noted,  85 


INDEX 


561 


Fort  Snelling  hospital.  See  U.  S. 
Army  General  Hospital  No.  29 

Fort  Sumter,  370 

Fort  Tecumseh,  account  noted,  30 

Fort  William  mission,  articles  not- 
ed, 321 

Fort  Winnebago,  320 

Forty-ninth  U.  S.  Colored  Infantry, 
manuscript  records,  1863-65,  ac- 
quired, 41 

Forty-second  Division,  U.  S.  Army, 
roster  noted,  546;  books  noted, 
246,  546.  See  also  One  Hundred 
and  Fifty-first  U.  S.  Field  Artil- 
lery 

Foster,  L.  P.,  440 

Foster,  Dr.  Thomas,  477;  sketch 
noted,  382 

Four-Minute  Men,  19,  216 

Fourteenth  Minnesota  Volunteer 
Infantry,  Duluth  Battalion,  289 
n.  19 

Fourth  U.  S.  Heavy  Artillery  (col- 
ored), 168  n.  1 

Fowle,  Elizabeth,  167  n.  1 

Fox  River  (Wis.),  321,  406 

France,  war  propaganda,  5,  6,  621 ; 
official  gazette,  19.  See  also  For- 
eign Legion 

Fran  cone,  Charley,  286  n.  15 

Frankel,  H.  D.,  report  and  collec- 
tion of  papers  on  labor  disturb- 
ances acquired,  526 

Frazee  Chapter,  American  Red 
Cross,  529 

Frederiksen,  D.  M.,  460 

Free  Soil  Party,  407,  508;  relation 
to  Norwegian  press,  510,  511 

Freeborn  County,  war  history  ac- 
quired, 483;  article  noted,  239 

Freeman,  B.  O.,  pamphlet  by,  noted, 
533 

Freeman,  E.  A.,  430 

Freeman,  Rev.  J.  E.,  sermon  noted, 
476 

French  and  Indian  War,  303 

French-Indians,  book  reviewed,  89 

Friday,  Mrs.  J.  W.,  370 

Friedenberg,  A.  M.,  letter  by,  442 

Frisch,  L.  H.,  387 

Frontier,  attitude  towards  Indians, 
275 ;  conception  of  democracy, 
253-258,  267,  425;  in  Minnesota, 
115-125;  types  of  democracy,  393- 
414;  life  and  conditions,  book  re- 
viewed, 299 

Frost,  N.  R.,  522 

Fuess,  C.  M.,  book  edited  by,  not- 
ed, 246 


Fugitive  Slave  Law,  controversy  in 
Norwegian  press,  514 

Fuller,  Miss  Abby,  145,  530 

Fuller,  Albert,   145 

Fuller,  G.  N.,  438 

Fuller,  Sadie,  305 

Fuller  House  (St.  Paul),  42 

Fur  trade,  117,  118,  223,  480;  bibliog- 
raphy noted,  296;  decline  of, 
119;  books  reviewed,  296-298,  363; 
books  and  articles  noted,  156,  310, 
378,  473,  479 ;  source  material :  ac- 
quired, 37,  303;  noted,  85,  297, 
313,  375,  473.  See  also  Traders 
and  trading  posts 

Furness,  Mrs.  C.  E.,  437;  address 
by,  noted,  94 


Galena  (111.),  82,  84,  121;  Catholic 
activities  in,  313 

Gallaher,  Ruth  A.,  book  by,  noted, 
156 

Galliard,  Eugene,  35 

Gardepi,  Capt.  Joseph,  535 

Gardner,  Abigail,  304;  narrative 
noted,  2.8 

Gardner,  Lt.  A.  V.,  39 

Garrett  Biblical  Institute  (Evanston, 
111.),  372 

Garrigues,  Helen,  51 

Gaylord,  Edson,  369 

Genealogy,  address  noted,  36;  incen- 
tive to  study  of,  489-505;  manu- 
script genealogies  acquired:  Ar- 
thur family,  527;  Graves  family, 
527;  Spining  family,  146 

Geographic  names,  Fergus  County 
(Mont),  account  noted,  533; 
Minnesota ;  book  noted,  142,  456 ; 
book  reviewed,  448 

"Geographical  Review,"  articles 
noted,  47,  99,  537 

Geographical  Society  of  Quebec, 
"Bulletin"  noted,  535 

Geography,  Portland  Prairie,  book 
reviewed,  298 

"Geologic  Atlas  of  the  United 
States,"  folio  noted,  310 

Geology,  422;  books  reviewed,  28- 
30,  298;  books  and  articles  noted, 
100,^101,  153,  309 

Georgia,  collection  of  war  records, 
50 

Georgia  Historical   Society,  443 

Germany,  emigration,  98,  405,  406; 
war  aims  and  practices,  23-25 ; 
war  propaganda,  5,  7,  12-14 

Gerould,  J.  T.,  439 


562 


INDEX 


Gervais,  Basil,  382 

Gettysburg,  battle  of,  154 

Gibson,  C.  D.,  22 

Gilbert,  W.  W.,  journal  acquired, 
96 

Gilfillan,  J.  B.,  440 

Gilman,  W.   S.,  226 

Gilmore,  M.  R.,  438 

GILMORE,  M.  R.,  (R)  Upham's^ 
"Minnesota  Geographic  Names," 
448 

"Gleam,"  articles  noted,  477 

Gleason,  Mrs.  H.  W.,  464 

Goddard,  A.  S.,  526 

Godfrey  House   (Minneapolis),  151 

Godsell,  P.  H.,  article  by,  noted,  321 

Gondecourt  (France),  map  of  vicin- 
ity acquired,  483 

Goldsmith,  Mrs.  J.  M.,  estate  of, 
461 

Good  Will  Mission,  522 

Goodhue,  Horace,  40 

Goodhue,  J.  M.,  291,  306,  532 

Goodhue  County,  300 ;  war  history : 
planned,  104;  reviewed,  212-217 

Goodhue  press,  291-294;  article 
noted,  532 

Gooding,  W.   C.,  524 

Goodrich,  Aaron,  74,  76;  sketch 
noted,  318 

Goodrich,  E.  S.,  292 

Goodwin,  Cardinal,  articles  by, 
noted,  46,  153 

"Gopher  gunners."  See  One  Hun- 
dred and  Fifty-first  U.  S.  Field 
Artillery 

Gorman,  Gov.  W.  A.,  370 

Graham,  H.  H.,  60 

Grain  trade,  during  Civil  War,  pa- 
per noted,  309 

Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  De- 
partment of  Minnesota,  439 ; 
Ladies  of,  440 

Grand  Forks  (N.  D.),  book  re- 
viewed, 32 

Grand  Portage,  296,  297 

Granger  movement,  article  noted, 
237;  book  noted,  361 

Granrud,  J.  E.,  438 

Grant,  Noah,  180  n.  11 

Grant  County,  map  noted,  310 

"Grant  County  [Wis.]  Herald,"  291 

Gras,  N.  S.  B.,  paper  by,  noted,  309 

Graves,    Benjamin,   374 

Graves,  C.  E.,  366;  article  by,  not- 
ed, 106 

GRAVES,  C.  E.,  (R)  "Letters  of  Cy- 
rus Foss  Chamberlain,"  33 


Graves  family,  manuscript  geneol- 
ogy  acquired,  527 

Gray,  Oliver,  88 

Gray  Eagle,  Sioux  Indian,  303 

Gray  Iron,  Sioux  chief.  See  Maz- 
ohota 

Great  Britain,  care  of  archives, 
297;  government  contrasted  with 
U.  S.,  262;  war  propaganda,  5,  6 

Great  Lakes,  commerce  and  navi- 
gation, 47;  immigration,  402; 
Indians,  46,  47 

"Great  Lakes  Recruit,"  461 

Great  Northern  Railroad  Company, 
332  n.  1 

Great  War  Eagle,  Sioux  chief.  See 
Wamditanka 

Green  Bay,  Catholic  activities  at, 
313 

Greenback  movement,  accounts  not- 
ed, 210,  361 

Greene,  D.  G.,  85 

Greenlaw,  Mrs.  Mary,  228 

Groseilliers,  Medard  Chouart,  sieur 
de,  231,  310,  363,  364 

Grout,  F.  F.,  book  by,  noted,  309 

Groverman,  W.  H.,  108 

Gribben,  P.  D.,  246 

Guerin,  David,  382 

Guerin,  Vital,  426;  sketch  noted, 
382 

Gulbrandsen,  T.,  Publishing  Com- 
pany, 371,  518  n.  24 

Guttersen,  Gilbert,  219 

Guttersen,  Mrs.  Gilbert,  219 

Guttersen,  Granville,  letters  and 
diary  reviewed,  219 


Hagedorn,  Hermann,  excerpt  from 
letter  by,  520 

Hagstrom,  Rev.  G.  A.,  461 

Hale,  E.  E.,  autograph  acquired,  370 

Hale,  Maj.  W.  D.,  527 

Hall,  Mrs.  A.  R.,  308 

Hall,  C.  F.,  525 

Hall,  D.  S.,  sketch  noted,  101 

Hall,  Rev.  Richard,  letters  acquired, 
223 

Hambleton,  Mrs.  J.  W.,  459 

Hamilton,  G.  A.,  428 

Hamlin,  Conde,   143 

Hamline  University,  439,  462;  am- 
bulance unit,  454;  pageant,  152; 
Students'  Army  Training  Corps, 
roster  noted,  454;  war  history 
reviewed,  453 

Hammond,  Gov.  W.  S.,  417 


INDEX 


563 


Hampden,   John,   253 

Hankinson,  R.  H.,  316 

Hannaford,  Mrs.  J.  M.,  341 

Hansen,  Carl,  371,  506  n.  1,  512 

Hansen,  M.  L.,  book  by,  noted,  534 

Hanson,  John,  sketch  noted,  479 

Harbach,  Col.  A.  A.,  280,  288 

Harbin    (Manchuria),  13 

Harder,  E.  C,  and  Johnston,  A.  W., 
"Preliminary  Report  on  the  Ge- 
ology of  East  Central  Minnesota, 
including  the  Cuyuna  Iron-Ore 
District,"  reviewed,  28-30 

Hare,  DeWitt,  pageant  by,  noted, 
470 

Harmon  Place  (Minneapolis),  87 

Harper  and  Brothers,  book  published 
by,  noted,  155 

"Harper's  New  Monthly  Maga- 
zine," 473 

Harries,  Col.  W.  H.,  439 

Harriman,  E.  H.,  265 

Harris,  Dr.  H.  S.  T.,  280,  281,  287 

Harrison,  M.  E.,  387 

Harrison,  W.  H.,  407 

Harvard  University,  "Economic 
Studies,"  noted,  45 

Hastings,  60,  300 

Hastings  and  Dakota  Railroad,  60 

Hastings  Ferry  Company,  account 
books  acquired,  524 

Hastings,  Minnesota,  and  Red  Riv- 
er of  the  North  Railroad  Com- 
pany, 60 

Haugeanism,  book  reviewed,  91 

Hawkins,  Andrew,  440 

HAWTHORN,  ELIZABETH,  (R)  Bowe's 
"Soldiers  of  the  Legion,"  34 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  68;    quoted, 

Hayden,  J.  R,  144 

Hayden,  W.  G.,  144 

Hayes,  M.  P.,  440 

Hayes,  R.  B.,  63 

Haynes,  F.  E.,  "James  Baird  Weav- 
er," reviewed,  210-212 

Hazzard,  G.  H.,  527;  article  by, 
noted,  311 

Hearst  newspapers,  13 

Heath,  Mrs.  A.  C,  307 

Hebrew-Dakota  lexicon,  86 

Heerman,  Capt.  E.  E.,  535 

Heffron,  Rev.  P.  R.,  address  by, 
noted,  376 

Heg,  Even,  508  n.  5 

Heg,  Col.  H.  C.,  article  noted,  48 

Heilbron,  Bertha  L.,  167  n.  1,  223, 
304;  article  by,  noted,  480 


HEILBRON,  BERTHA  L.,  (R)  "The 
88th  Division  in  the  World  War 
of  1914-1918:'  217-219;  (R)  Arn- 
old's "Portland  Prairie  in  Pres- 
ent Times,"  298;  (R)  Larson's 
'  Memoirs  of  France  and  the 
Eighty-Eighth  Division,"  454 
Heinemann,  Dorothy  A.,  143  167 

n.  1,  273  n.  1,  304,  456 
HEINEMANN,     DOROTHY     A.,     (R) 
Houghton's    "Our    Debt    to    the 
Red  Man,"  89 

Henderson,  Alice  P.,  book  by,  not- 
ed, 110 

Hennepin,  Father  Louis,  152 
Hennepin  Avenue  (Minneapolis),  87 
Hennepin    County,    American    Le- 
gion posts  in,  publication  noted, 
547;    records,  article  noted,  475 
"Hennepin     County     Legionnaire," 

547 

Hennepin    County    Territorial    Pio- 
neers'  Association,    151,  440,  470 
Henry,  Capt.  Alexander,  32 
Henry,  L.  P.,  225 
Henry,  Patrick,  303 
Hereck,  Ephriam,  489  n.  1 
"Herman-Morris  Folio,"  noted,  310 
Herman    Quadrangle,    map    noted, 

Hericke,  Henerie,  489  n.  1 
Herrick,  Rev.  A.  H.,  489  n.  1 
Herrick,  A.  H.,  note  by,  489  n.  1 
Herrick,  C.   A.,  address   by,  noted, 

36 ;    sketch,  489  n.  1 
HERRICK,  C.  A.,    The  Family  Trail 

through  American  History,  489- 

505 

Herrick,  Mrs.  Sarah  L.,  489  n.  1 
Hertz,    Rudolph,   article   by,   noted, 

471 

Herz,  Mrs.  Levi,  308 
Hewitt,  Girart,  317 
Hewitt,  Dr.  C.  N.,  sketch  noted,  100 
Heyn,  J.  G.,  458 
Heyrick,  John,  489  n.  1 
Heyricke,  Sir  William,  489  n.  1 
"Hiawatha,"  motion  picture,  383 
HICKS,    J.    D.,    (R)     Buck's    "The 

Agrarian  Crusade,"  360-363 
Hilgedick,  Mrs.  J.  R.,  306 
Hill,  A.  J.,  145 
Hill,  Isaac,  66 

Hill,  J.  J.,  428;    sketch  noted,  378 
Hill,  Mrs.  J.  J.,  529 
Historical  branch,  war  plans   divi- 
sion, general   staff,  U.   S.  Army, 

136 


564 


INDEX 


Historical  societies,  collection  of 
war  records,  50;  in  Mississippi 
Valley,  45 ;  organization  of  di- 
rectors, 44;  proceedings  of  1918 
conference  noted,  44 

Hoard,  H.  E.,  article  by,  noted,  236 

Hobart,  Rev.  Chauncey,  papers  ac- 
quired, 462 

Hodgson,  L.  C,  388 

Hoffman,  Anne,  371 

Hoffman,  C.  F.,   100 

Hoffman,  Matilda,  370 

Hoffman,  W.  J.,  100 

Holand,  H.  R.,  articles  by,  noted, 
320,  377 

Holbrook,  D.  H.,  543 

Holbrook,  F.  F.,  142,  158,  243,  484; 
article  by,  noted,  248 

HOLBROOK,  F.  F.,  War  History 
Work  in  Minnesota,  126-136; 
(R)  Chase's  "With  the  Colors 
from  Anoka  County,"  "Goodhue 
County  in  the  World  War/;  "Wa- 
seca  County,  Minnesota,  in  the 
World  War,"  Curtis'  "In  the 
World  War,"  1917-18-19;  Waton- 
wan  County,  Minnesota,"  212-217; 
(R)  Osborn's  "Hamline  Univer- 
sity in  the  World  War,"  453 

Holcombe,  Wrilliam,  143 

Hole-in-the-Day,  Chippewa  chief, 
307,  530;  sketch  noted,  99 

Holland,  J.  G.,  letter  acquired,  465 

Holm  family,  47 

Holmes,  F.  L.,  article  by,  noted, 
537;  book  by,  noted,  107 

Holmes,  Thomas,  180  n.  11,  182 

Holmes,  W.  H.,  "Handbook  of  Ab- 
original American  Antiquities ; 
The  Lithic  Industries,"  reviewed, 
295 

Holmes    City,    180 

Holter   family,   sketch  noted,  47 

"Home  Sector,"  461 

Honeyman,  A.  V.  D.,  letter  by,  444 

Honor  Club,  Washington  County, 
publication  noted,  109 

Hood,  Gen.  J.  B.,  63 

Hooker,  Gen.  Joseph,  61 

Hoshour,  Harvey,  article  by,  noted, 
474^ 

Hoskinson,  H.  L.,  41 

Hoskinson,  Mrs.  L.  A.,  41 

Hosmer,  J.  K.,  438 

Hough,  Emerson,  book  by,  noted, 
246 

Houghton,  Louise  S.,  "Our  Debt  to 
the  Red  Man,"  reviewed,  89 


Houghton,  W.  G.,  account  noted,  87 
House,  Capt.  H.  A.,  455 
House  of  Commons,  262 
House  of  Hope  Church  (St.  Paul), 

££d 

House  of  the  Good  Shepherd   (St. 

Paul),  sketch  noted,  233 
Houston    County,    book    reviewed, 
298 ;   historical  association  organ- 
ized, 52;  war  records,  52 
Howard,  Asher,   527 
Howells,  W.  D.,  409 
Hoyt,  A.   O.,  article  by,  noted,  540 
Hubbard,  Gov.  L.  F.,  sketch  noted, 
155 ;    memorial    volume    acquired, 
41 

Hudson's  Bay  Company,  297,  298, 
473,  481 ;  <?50th  anniversary,  320, 
480 

Huggins,  Alexander,  85 
Humphrey,   Col.   C.  B.,  97 
Humphreys,  Lt.  C.  B.,  279  n.  9 

Hutchinson,  ,  sailor,  185,  189 

Hutchinson,  celebration  for  returned 
soldiers,  247 

Ickler,  Lydia,  437 

Idaho,  collection  of  war  records,  50 

Iddings,  C.  W.,  168  n.  1,  170,  184, 
187,  194,  198;  map  by,  noted,  169 
n.  3,  170  n.  4;  member  of  Den- 
more's  expedition,  167-209;  sketch, 
170  n.  4 

Illinois,  218,  313,  406;  centennial 
history,  469;  collection  of  war 
records,  50 ;  historical  activities,  44 

Illinois  River,  321 

"Illinois  Catholic  Historical  Re- 
view," article  noted,  313 

"Illinois  Historical  Collections,"  469 

Illinois  State  Historical  Library, 
469;  publications  noted,  327,  484; 
war  records  section,  484 

Illinois  State  Historical  Society,  431 

Illinois   Territory,   231 

Immigration  and  emigration,  Mid- 
dle West:  naturalization,  408; 
racial  stocks,  394-406;  rapidity, 
125;  of  typical  New  England 
family,  115— Minnesota :  78,  120, 
172;  effect  on  Indians,  119,  124; 
attention  of  settlers  attracted,  59, 
477 — books  and  articles  noted,  47, 
48,  153,  241,  385;  books  reviewed, 
299,  449-453 ;  source  material : 
acquired,  463;  noted,  479.  See 
also  Scandinavian  element,  and 
the  various  nationalities 


INDEX 


565 


Ince,  Thomas,  383 
Indian  affairs,  source  material  not- 
ed, 312 
Indian    Mounds    Park    (St.    Paul), 

458 
Indian     reservations,      Winnebago, 

172;  account  acquired,  465 
Indian    wars,    account    noted,    45; 
general    causes,    274-276;    source 
material   acquired,   39.     See  also 
Inkpaduta   massacre,    Sioux   War 
Indiana,  historical  activities,  44 
Indiana      Historical      Commission, 

publication  noted,  106 
Indiana  Territory,  231 
Indians  of  North  America,  anthol- 
ogy of    songs   and  chants   noted, 
100;    Interchurch    World    Move- 
ment survey  noted,  471 ;  pageant 
noted,   450;    U.    S.    medals,   373; 
books  and  articles  noted,  46,  47, 
99,  240,  295,  385,  479.     See  also 
Missions,    French-Indians 
Indrehus,  Edward,  227 
"Information    Circular,"    California 
Historical     Survey     Commission, 
485 

Ingemann,   Mrs.   Victor,  308 
Ingersoll,  F.  G.,  415 
Ingersoll,  Mrs.  F.  G.,  437 
Ingersoll,  W.  H.,  20 
Inkpaduta,  Sioux  chief,  28,  29 
Inkpaduta    massacre    of    1857,    304; 
book  reviewed,  27 ;   source  materi- 
al acquired,  28 

Interchurch  World  Movement,  457; 
American  Indian  survey,  article 
noted,  471 

International  Falls,  333 
Iowa,  archives,  137;   bibliography  of 
authors    and    works    noted,    98; 
Camp  Dodge,  218 ;    historical  ac- 
tivities, 44;  period  of  settlement, 
46;  printing  press  for  first  news- 
paper, 291,  532;  Scandinavian  im- 
migration,   406;    war    history   ac- 
tivities,   report    on,    noted,    150; 
book  noted,  156 
"Iowa,"  U.  S.  S.,  338 
"Iowa  and  War,"  articles  noted,  50, 

106 

Iowa    Historical    Department,    pub- 
lication noted,  98,  531 
Iowa  National  Guard,  218 
"Iowa  Journal  of  History  and  Pol- 
itics,"  articles   noted,  46,   153 
"Iowa  State  Gazette,"  quoted,  77 


?S  Srtate  Historical  Society,  423, 
438,  531;  membership  drive,  385; 
publications:  noted,  50,  106  156- 
reviewed,  27,  210-212 

Ireland,  Archbishop  John,  428,  460  • 
articles  by,  noted,  41,  223;  auto- 
graph acquired,  41 ;  opposition  to 
Cahensly  plot,  98;  portrait  ac- 
quired, 307;  sketches  noted,  98 

Irish  immigration,  406 

Iron  mining,  145;  Cuyuna  Range, 
account  noted,  29;  Mcsabi  Range 
account  noted,  155 

Irving,  Washington,  letters  acquired, 
o/l 

Isanti     County,    159;    map    noted, 

Island  Mills  (Minneapolis),  466 

Italy,  consular  reports  on  agricul- 
ture acquired,  39;  war  propagan- 
da, 5 

Itasca  County,  158 

Iverson,  S.  G.,  244 

Ives,  G.  S.,  157,  158,  428;  address 
by,  421-423;  article  by,  noted,  54 

IVKS,  G.  S.,  William  Gates  LcDuc 
57-65 

Ives,  Mrs.  G.  S.,  370,  437 


Jackson,  Andrew,  11,  266,  267,  399, 
407 

Jackson,  Helen  H.,  275 

Jackson,  Henry,  93 

Jackson,  27 

James  J.  Hill  Reference  Librarv, 
(St.  Paul),  151 

Jamestown   (N.  D.),  354 

Janesville  and  Fond  du  Lac  Rail- 
road, 168  n.  1 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  63,  253,  257,  264, 
265,  373 

Jefferson  Highway,  521 

Jensen,  J.  S.,  286  n.  15 

Jerrard,  Mrs.  Frank,  467 

Jesuits,  363;  missionaries,  article 
noted,  321 

Jett,  Dora  C,  223 

Jewish  Welfare  Board,  106;  Minne- 
sota branch,  records  acquired,  387 

Jews  in  the  World  War,  collection 
of  war  records,  107;  Minnesota 
roster  and  record  acquired,  387 

John  A.  Johnson  High  School  (St. 
Paul),  477 

Johnson,  Gen.  Arthur,  308 

Johnson,  Carolyn  A.,  520 


566 


INDEX 


Johnson,  Dawson,  96 

Johnson,  H.  S.,  546 

Johnson,  Ida  A.,  "The  Michigan 
Fur  Trade,"  reviewed,  363 

Johnson,  Joseph,  portrait  noted,  88 

Johnson,  J.  T.,  373 

Johnson,  O.  S.,  book  by,  noted,  379 

Johnson,  Mrs.  Thomas,  373 

Johnson's  Lake,  87 

Johnston,  A.  W.,  and  Harder,  E. 
C.,  "Preliminary  Report  on  the 
Geology  of  East  Central  Minne- 
sota including  the  Cuyuna  Iron- 
Ore  District,"  reviewed,  28-30 

Johnston,  Clarence,  417,  420 

Jolliet,  Adrien,  46 

Jolliet,  Louis,  46 

Jones,  Elizabeth  McL.,  article  by, 
noted,  310 

Jones,  Mrs.  S.  S.,  529 

Jones,  W.  A.,  289 

Jordan,  Dr.  C.  M.,  317 

"Journal  of  Geography,"  article 
noted,  47 

"Journal-Radical"  (Waseca),  "Wa- 
seca  County,  Minnesota,  in  the 
World  War,"  reviewed,  212-217 

Junior  Pioneers'  Association  of  St. 
Anthony  Falls,  145,  440 

Junior  Red  Cross,  article  noted,  163 

Jusserand,  J.  J.,  372 


Kamanistiquia    (Canada),  297 

Kandiyohi  County,  war  records  com- 
mittee, 323 ;  water  color  sketches 
acquired,  463 

Kandiyohi  County  Old  Settlers'  As- 
sociation, 470 

Kansas  State  Historical  Society, 
438;  publication  noted,  44 

Kaposia,  Sioux  village,  article  not- 
ed, 237 

"Karlstad  Advocate,"    159 

Kaufmann,   Theodore    529 

Kearney,  Col.  S.  W.,  239 

Keating,  W.  H.,  238 

Kelley,   W.   H.,  428 

Kellog,  F.  B.,  373 

Kellogg,  Louise  P.,  articles  by,  not- 
ed, 156,  320,  385,  473;  manuscript 
history  by,  noted,  140 

Kelly,    Sgt.   Thomas,   287 

Kelsey,  R.  W.,  paper  by,  noted,  309 

Kennedy,  Francis,  525 

Kennedy,  J.  B.,  book  by,  noted,  547 

Kennedy  mine,  29 


Kensington  (N.  H.),  scrapbook  his- 
tory acquired,  373 

Kensington  Rune  Stone,  articles 
noted,  47,  320,  376,  535 

Kentucky,  collection  of  war  rec- 
ords, 50 

Kenyon  College,  58 

Kerensky  government,  Russia,  at- 
titude towards  U.  S.  Committee 
on  Public  Information,  15 

Kerfoot,  S.  F.,  439 

Kerr,  Gen.  J.  T.,  '345,  358 

Kettle  River,  168  n.  1 

Keyes,  Willard,  journal  noted,  377, 
473 

Kimball,  Mary  B.,  304,  520 

King,  John,  291 

King,  Capt.  John,  466 

King,  Col.  J.  R.,  papers  acquired, 
143 

King,  Mrs.  Mary  L.,  143,  144 

King,  Col.  W.  S.,  317,  475,  539 

King,  Mrs.  W.   S.,  539 

Kingsbury,  D.  L.,  429 

Kinkead,  Alexander,  180  n.  11 

Kinkead,  William,  180  n.  11 

Kinney,  Bruce,  book  noted,  45 

Kittson  County,  159 

Kitzman,  Louis,   sketch  noted,  49 

Knapp,  Capt.  O.  F.,  obituary  noted, 
311 

Knappen,  H.  L.,  280,  281,  284 

Knecht,   Dr.   Marcel,   371 

Knights  of  Columbus,  414;  direc- 
tors' report  noted,  245 ;  war  ac- 
tivities, 106,  216;  book  noted,  547 

Knisely,  G.  M.,  467 

Know-Nothing  element,  Republican 
Party,  513 

Koch,  H.  V.,  323,  467;  book  by, 
noted,  314 

Koos,  L.  V.,  474 

Krause,  Julius,  528 

Krey,  A.  C.,  23,  24,  439 

Krueger,  Mrs.  Sophie,  article  by, 
noted,  316 

Kuhlmann,  C.  B.,  527 

"Kvartalskrift,"  articles  noted,  47 


Labor  unions  in  Minnesota,  direc- 
tory noted,  312;  book  noted,  312; 
source  material  acquired,  526 

Lac  qui  Parle,  121 ;  first  poll  list 
noted,  93 

Lac  qui  Parle  mission,  83,  84,  85, 
522 


INDEX 


567 


Ladies'  Auxiliary  of  St.   Paul,  143 

Lafayette  Escadrille,  33,  34 

LaFond,   E.  M.,  305 

Lake  Andrew,  470 

Lake  Calhoun,  458 ;  map  noted,  87 

Lake   Calhoun  mission,  82 

Lake  Carlos,  204  n.  19 

Lake  City,  305 

Lake  Clitherall,  191  n.  14 

Lake  Cormorant,  377 

Lake  County,  242,  389 

Lake  Harriet  mission,  82,  83,  85 

Lake  Irene,  204  n.  19 

Lake  Itasca,  232,  273,  448 

Lake  Mary,  177  n.  8 

Lake  Minnetonka  Women's  Club, 
pageant,  152 

Lake  Pepin,  78 

Lake  Reno,  177  n.  7 

Lake  Superior,  28,  60,  320;  Catho- 
lic missionary  activity  near,  313 

Lake   Traverse,   100,  232 

Lake   Winnibigoshish,  273 

Lang,  Mrs.  G.  L.,  464 

Langeland,   Knud,   509,  510 

Langford,  N.  P.,  428 

"Larimore   Pioneer,"  480 

Larson,  Capt.  E.  J.  D.  (comp.), 
"Memoirs  of  France  and  the 
Eighty-eighth  Division,"  reviewed, 
454 

Larson,  Emma  M.,  223 

Larson,  O.  J.,  157 

LaSalle,  Robert  Cavalier,  sicur  de, 
363 

Latrobe,  C.  J.,  238 

Law,  Lt.  Col.  A.  A.,  articles  by, 
noted,  163,  244 

Law,  Mrs.  A.  A.,  387 

Law,  Mrs.  Victoria  A.,  307 

Lawson,  V.  E.,  145,  464 

Lea,  Lt.  A.  M.,  239 

Leach,  Col.  G.  E.,  157,  158,  222,  227; 
address  by,  noted,  301 

Leach,  H.  G.,  letter  by,  442 

Leach,  M.  A.,  article  by,  noted,  479 

Leader  Publishing  Company  (Pipe- 
stone),  388 

Leaf  Hills,  184  n.  12,  199,  201 

Leaf  River,  194 

League  of  Women  Voters,  233 

Leavenworth,  Col.  Henry,  237;  pa- 
per on,  acquired,  528 

LeDuc,  Gen.  W.  G.,  papers  ac- 
quired, 39,  523;  portrait,  57; 
sketch,  57-65 

LeDuc  family,  38,  39 

Lee,  J.  T.,  article  by,  noted,  385 


Lee,  T.  G.,  224 

Leech  Lake,  145,  200  n.  18,  279;  In- 
dian uprising,  i8y8;  273-290; 
paper  noted,  221 

Leech  Lake  mission,  84 

Lees,  Edward,  article  by,  noted, 
474 

Legion  of  Honor,  cross  conferred 
on  C.  W.  Ames,  372 

"Legionaire,"  327 

Leighton,   Mrs.   Ernest,   340 

"Leila  D.,"  steamboat,  289 

LeMars    (la.),   pageant,   534 

Leonard,  Dr.  W.  E.,  440 

Lesher,  Everett,  articles  by,  noted, 

LeSueur,  P.  C,  article  noted,  30 

LeSueur  County,  159;  war  records 
committee,  324 

"LeSueur  News,"  159,  articles  not- 
ed, 54 

"LeVang's  Weekly,"  159 

Leverett,  Frank,  book  by,  noted, 
153 

Lewis,   F.  G.,  letter  by,  441 

Lewis  and  Clark  expedition,  arti- 
cle noted,  31 

Lewiston,  300 

Libby,  H.  W.,  157,  158 

Libby,  O.  G.,  438 

"Liberty  Bell,"  245 

Libraries,  collection  of  war  records, 
article  noted,  106 

"Library  Journal,"  article  noted, 
106 

"Library  Notes  and  News,"  article 
noted,  367 

Liddell,  Ada,  143 

Lightner,  W.  H.,  428 

Lightner,  Mrs.  W.  H.,  437 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  5,  272,  303,  410; 
article  noted,  384;  broadside  ac- 
quired, 96;  exhibits  of  relics  and 
manuscripts  noted,  94 

Lind,  John,  letter  acquired,  97 

"Lindberg's  National  Farmer,"  ar- 
ticle noted,  237 

Lindley,  Harlow,  article  by,  noted, 
240 

Lindsborg  (Kan.),  450 

Lippincott,  A.   S.,  226 

Liquor  traffic  in  Minnesota,  article 
noted,  153 

Litchfield,  450 

Little  Canada,  first  poll  list  noted, 
93 

Little  Crow,  Sioux  chief,  59,  237, 
530,  536;  sketch  noted,  99 


568 


INDEX 


Little  Falls,  169,  305;  quartzes, 
book  noted,  295 

Little  Sauk  Lake,  173 

Little  Six.     See  Shakopee 

Lochren,  William,  290 

Locker,.  G.  S.,  388 

Locofoco  democracy,  404 

London  (England),  12 

Long,  Maj.  S.  H,  32,  231,  235 

Long  Prairie,  169,  171,  172,  180  n. 
10;  first  poll  list  noted,  93 

Long  Prairie  Land  Company,  172 
n.  6 

Long  Prairie  River,  171,   174,  204 

Longfellow,  Leir,  paper  by,  ac- 
quired, 528 

Lonn,   Ella,   article   noted,   240 

Looker,  A.  R.,  article  by,  noted, 
110 

Lord,  S.  A,  307 

Loring,  C.  M.,  42,  228,  247;  por- 
trait noted,  88 ;  reminiscences 
noted,  539 

Loring  Park  (Minneapolis),  book 
reviewed,  87 

Lost  Battalion.  See  Three  Hun- 
dred and  Eighth  U.  S-  Infantry, 
First  Battalion 

Lott,  Henry,  27 

Loubat  prize,  469 

Louisiana,  war  history  activities, 
report  on,  noted,  150 

Louisiana  and  Minnesota  Railroad 
Company,  60 

Louisiana  purchase,  231 ;  book  not- 
ed, 479 

Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition, 
"Register"  of  Twin  City  munici- 
pal exhibit  acquired,  96 

Lower    Fort    Garry,    pageant,    480 

Lower  Sioux  agency,  88 

Loyal  Legion  of  the  U.  S.,  Minne- 
sota Commandery,  41,  440;  pub- 
lication noted,  98 

"Loyal  Worker,"  file  acquired,   109 

Lowe,  E.  J.,  286  n.  15 

Lowry  Hill    (Minneapolis),   87 

"Loyalty   Leaflets,"   23 

Lumber  industry,  276-278,  369; 
camps  near  Canadian  border,  48; 
Duluth  region,  522 ;  men  contrib- 
uted to  engineering  regiments, 
333;  St.  Croix  valley:  77,  119; 
first  regular  "outfit,"  120;  ar- 
chives acquired,  142 — books  and 
articles  noted,  154,  234,  319; 
source  material :  acquired,  522 ; 
noted,  473 


Lundeen  Publishing  Company 
(Fergus  Falls),  104 

Luther  Theological  Seminary  (St. 
Paul),  file  of  Norwegian  news- 
papers, 508-511 

Lutheran  Church,  452 ;  Christ,  St. 
Paul,  317;  Trinity,  St.  Paul,  an- 
niversary noted,  541 

Lutz,  H.  L.,  book  by,  noted,  45 

Lydon,  Rev.  P.  J.,  article  by,  noted, 
232 

Lyman,  Capt.  C.  A.,  162 

Lyndale  Reading  Circle,  Minneap- 
olis, 221 

Lyon  County,  war  history  planned, 
104 


"Maanedstidende  for  den  norsk- 
evangelisk  lutherske  kirke  i  A- 
merika,"  515  n.  18 

Macalester  College,  222 

McCain,  Gen.  H.  P.,  358 

McClellan,  Maj.  E.  N.,  389 

McClellan,  Gen.  G.  B.,  61 

McConnell,  J.   M.,   157 

McCree,  G.  W.,  323,  address  by, 
noted,  221 ;  sketch,  331  n.  1 

McCREE,  G.  W.,  Recruiting  Engi- 
neers for  the  World  War  in 
Minnesota,  331-359 

McCrory,   Col.   William,   540 

Macdonald,   C.  F,,  157 

McGee,  J.  F.,  articles  by,  noted,  108, 
154 

McGill,  Gov.  A.  R.,  384;  papers  ac- 
quired, 528 ;  sketch  noted,  235 

McGill,  Mrs.  A.  R.,  528 

McGill,  Capt.  H.  C,  528 

McGill,  R.  C.,  41 

McGolrick,  Bishop  James,  sketch 
noted,  233 

MacGregor,  C.  L,,  collaborator, 
Bowe's  "Soldiers  of  the  Legion," 
reviewed,  34 

McGregor  (la.),  542;  article  noted, 
311 

McGuaghey,  E.  G.,  74  n.  4 

McGuire,  J.  J.,  reminiscences  not- 
ed, 382 

McHale,  Dr.  V.  T.,  388 

Mackinac,  117,  364,  377.  See  also 
Michilimackinac 

McKinley,  A.  E.,  243 

MacLaren,   Mrs.   Archibald,  340 

McLeod,  Martin,  426 

McLeod  County,  247 

McMaster,  Joseph,  224 


INDEX 


569 


McMaster,  Thomas,  224 

McMaster,  Mrs.  W.  C,  224 

Mackey,  Smith  and  Stiles,  publica- 
tion noted,  106 

McManigal,  F.  H.,  42 

McManus,  J.  H.,  article  by,  noted, 
320 

McPhail,  Col.  Samuel,  478 

Madison  Lake,  319 

"Madison  Lake  Times,"  reprint  of 
article  noted,  319 

Madrid   (Spain),  12 

Magoffin,  Capt.  S.  S.,  331,  333 

Mahqua,   Chippewa   Indian,  281 

Mahzahhohtah,  Sioux  chief.  Sec 
Mazahota 

Mail  service,  pioneer,  article  noted, 
382 

Mallett,  Charles,  291 

Malmros,  Oscar,  305 

Malone,  T.  J.,  article  by,  noted,  153 

Manitoba,  department  of  education, 
publication  noted,  481 

"Manitoba  Free  Press,"  articles 
noted,  471,  480,  481,  533 

Mankato,  300 

"Mankato  Free  Press,"  104,  319 

"Mankato  Record,"  319 

"Mankato  Review,"  article  noted, 
319 

Mankato  State  Normal  School,  439 

Manners,  Mrs.  O.  R.,  466 

Manney,  Rev.  S.  W.,  200  n.  18 

Mantor,  Peter,  152 

Mantor,  Riley,  152 

Mantorville,  152,  307 

"Mantorville  Express,"  article  not- 
ed. 152 

Manzomaunay,  Chippewa  Indian. 
See  Monsomannay 

Maps,  acquired,  145,  225,  483;  not- 
ed, 100,  167  n.  1,  169  n.  3,  170  n. 
4,  198  n.  16,  298,  310,  478 

Marion,  town  site,  169,  194;  sur- 
veyed, 168  n.  1 

Market  House  (St.  Paul),  427 

Markoe,  W.  F.,  97,  477 

Marietta  (Ohio),  116  n.  7 

Marple,  Alice,  book  by,  noted,  98 

Marquette,  Father  Jacques,  narra- 
tive noted,  46 

Marquette    (Kan.),  450 

Marshall,  Gov.  W.  R.,  224,  428 

Marshall,  pageant,  376,  470,  534 

Marshall  County,  158,  159;  Fourth 
Liberty  Loan,  48 

"Marshall    News-Messenger,"    104 

Martin,  Sgt.  Hugh,  325 


Martin,  M.  L.,  122 

Martin  County,  242 ;  sketch  noted, 
542;  war  history  planned,  104 

Martinjeau,  Harriet,  quoted,  396 

Marty,    Adam,    525 

Maryland,  collection  of  war  records, 
50 

Masonic  Museum  (Sioux  Falls,  S. 
D.),  292 

Massachusetts,  300;  commissioner 
of  public  records,  "Report"  not- 
ed, 150 

Massachusetts  Historical  Society, 
431,  438,  443;  archives,  397 

Mathews,  Mrs.  Sarah  E.,  440 

Mattocks,  Rev.  John,  428 

Maury,  Lt.  M.  F.,  426 

Mayo,  C.  E.,  428 

Mayo,  Dr.  W.  M.,  sketch  noted, 
378 

Mayo  Clinic,  account  noted,  47 

Mayzhuckegeshig,  Chippewa  chief, 
sketches  noted,  320,  385  . 

Mazahota  (Gray  Iron,  Mahzahhoh- 
tah), Sioux  chief,  526 

Mazzuchelli,  Rev.  Samuel,  letter 
noted,  313 

Medary,  Gov.  Samuel,  28 

"Medborgaren,"  293 

Meeker,  B.  B.,  74,  76 

Mendota,  118,  121,  458;  description 
noted,  531 ;  first  poll  list  noted, 
93 

Merchants'  Hotel  (St.  Paul),  540 

Merchants'  National  Bank,  St.  Paul, 
sketch  noted,  381 

Merriam,  Capt.  C.  E.,  12 

Merriam,  Gov.  W.  R.,  sketch  not- 
ed, 235 

Merriam  Park  Women's  Club,  221 

Merrick,  Capt.  G.  B.,  articles  by, 
noted,  234,  311;  clippings  of  ar- 
ticles by,  acquired,  527 

Merritt,  Alta  H,  225 

Merritt,  G.  J.,  letters  acquired,  225 

Mesabi  (Mesaba)  Range,  28;  bibli- 
ography acquired,  465  ;  sketch  of 
mining  industry  noted,  155 

Metcalf,  G.  P,  95 

Metcalf,  Mrs.  G.  R.,  437 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  255, 
402,  452;  First,  Winona,  43;  in 
Minnesota,  source  material  ac- 
quired, 462 

Metz  (France),  map  of  vicinity  ac- 
quired, 483 

Meuse-Argonne  offensive,  military 
map  acquired,  483 


570 


INDEX 


Mexican  War,  426 

Mexico,  visit  of  editors  to  U.  S., 
17 

Mexico  City,  12 

Michaud,  Achilla,  541 

Michaud,   Charles,  541 

Michaud  Brothers,  grocery  com- 
pany, accounts  noted,  541 

Michigan,  231 ;  fur  trade,  book  re- 
viewed, 363;  historical  activities, 
44 

Michigan  Historical  Commission, 
438;  "Bulletin"  noted,  327 

Michilimackinac,  312,  321,  363.  See 
also  Mackinac 

Michilimackinac  Fur  Company,  297 

Middle  West,  conception  of  democ- 
racy, 258 ;  education,  409 ;  im- 
migration :  Southern,  399-402 ; 
New  England,  402-405;  New 
York,  403,  404 ;  German,  405,  406 ; 
Irish,  406;  Scandinavian,  406 — 
pioneer  democracy :  393-414 ;  af- 
fected by  South,  399-402;  affect- 
ed by  New  England  element,  404, 
409-411— population:  1830,  403; 
1840,  403  ;  1850,  403,  406  ' 

"Miles  of  Smiles"  film,  acquired, 
387 

Military  Order  of  the  Loyal  Legion 
of  the  U.  S.  See  Loyal  Legion 

Military  training  camps,  33.  See 
also  the  various  camps 

Mill,  J.  S.,  256 

Mille  Lacs,  145 

Mille  Lacs  County,  "Chronicles  of 
the  Selective  Draft,"  acquired, 
108 

Mills,  Gen.  Anson,  book  by.  noted, 
45 

Milwaukee,  406 

Miner,  Mrs.  J.  E.,  144,  225 

Minneapolis,  American  Protective 
League,  108;  biographies  of  pio- 
neers noted,  87,  378;  "Chronicles 
of  the  Selective  Draft"  acquired, 
53 ;  flour-milling,  account  noted, 
527;  industrial  survey  acquired, 
465;  Jews  in  war  service,  107; 
memorial  drive,  247 ;  school  board 
records,  317;  sketch  noted,  541; 
book  reviewed,  87;  article  noted, 
230 

Minneapolis   Bank,   315 

Minneapolis  Civic  and  Commerce 
Association,  publication  acquired, 
465;  reports  on  war  activities  ac- 
quired, 322 


Minneapolis  Civic  Players,  pageant, 

Minneapolis  Exposition  Building, 
317 

"Minneapolis  Journal,"  articles  not- 
ed, 49,  51,  54,  96,  101,  102,  151,  153, 

154,  230,  234,  235,  236,  237,  309, 
311,  314,  315,  316,  317,  369,  378, 
383,  384,  465,  473,  474,  475,  476, 
521,  535,  536,  539 

Minneapolis  Political  Equality  Club, 
539 

Minneapolis  Public  Library,  151, 
222 

Minneapolis,  St.  Paul  and  Sault 
Ste.  Marie  Railroad,  354 

"Minneapolis  Sontag  Tidende,"  ar- 
ticle noted,  52.1 

"Minneapolis  Tidende,"  371 ;  file  of 
Norwegian  newspapers,  512-517 

"Minneapolis  Times,"  280;  file  ac- 
quired, 528 

"Minneapolis  Tribune,"  280,  528; 
articles  noted,  54,  102,  151,  153, 

155,  237,  238,  310,  312,  315,  316, 
383,  466,  471,  473,  474,  475,  476, 
521,  534,  535,  539,  540,  542;  sketch 
noted,  539 

Minneapolis  Veteran  Volunteer 
Firemen's  Association,  315 

Minnehaha  Creek,  236 

Minnehaha  Falls,  232 

Minnesota,  adjutant  general:  102; 
financial  report,  53,  general  or- 
ders, 1917-18,  53;  "Report"  for 
1917-18,  52— boundaries,  31,  37, 
48,  139,  222,  231,  381,  473;  Cath- 
olic colonization,  pamphlet  ac- 
quired, 460;  census:  313;  records 
acquired,  41 — first  printing  press, 
291;  frontier,  115-125;  geography, 
298;  geology,  28-30,  100,  101,  153; 
school  lands,  45  ;  Sewall  and  Id- 
dings  map  noted,  169  n.  3,  170  n. 
4;  soldiers'  bonus  law,  242;  stone 
industry,  101 ;  topographic  map- 
ping, 101 ;  books  and  articles  not- 
ed, 230,  231,  428,  456,  480,  _536. 
See  also  Minnesota  archives, 
Minnesota  in  the  World  War 

Minnesota  Academy  of  Science, 
439 

"Minnesota  Alumni  Weekly,"  arti- 
cles noted,  234,  379 

Minnesota  and  Northwestern  Rail- 
road Company,  168  n.  1 

Minnesota  archives,  139,  419,  433; 
act  of  1919,  141 ;  department  of 


INDEX 


571 


labor  and  industries,  461 ;  election 
records,  1849,  93 ;  governor,  28, 
36,  92,  93,  141;  secretary  of 
state,  521,  522;  surveyor  general 
of  logs,  142,  522 

Minnesota  Association  of  Probate 
Judges,  538 

Minnesota  Bible  Society,  42 

Minnesota  Commission  of  Public 
Safety,  102,  128,  129,  134,  135, 
157,  216,  386;  accounts  noted,  214; 
Americanization  Committee,  pa- 
pers acquired,  322;  "Bulletin" 
noted,  108;  plan  for  memorial 
certificates,  52;  "Report"  noted, 
161 

"Minnesota   Democrat,"  294 

Minnesota  division  of  the  women's 
committee  of  the  Council  of  Na- 
tional Defense,  publication  not- 
ed, 152 

Minnesota  Educational  Association 
477;  publication  noted,  163;  rec- 
ord book  acquired,  40;  war  ac- 
tivities of  teachers  recorded,  52, 
136 

"Minnesota  Farm  Review,"  article 
noted,  484 

Minnesota  Federation  of  Women's 
Clubs,  sketch  noted,  539 

Minnesota  Flouring  Mills,  466 

Minnesota  geographic  names,  book : 
noted,  456;  reviewed,  488;  re- 
views noted,  521 

Minnesota  Geological  Survey,  100; 
"Bulletins,"  noted,  153 ;  reviewed, 
28-30 

Minnesota  Historical  Building,  65, 
93,  94,  151,  242;  building  fund, 
416;  dedication  exercises,  415- 
437;  delegates  at  dedication,  438- 
440;  congratulations  on  dedica- 
tion, 440-447 ;  legislative  action, 
418-420;  picture,  393 

"Minnesota  Historical  Collections," 
480,  529;  volume  17:  142;  re- 
viewed, 448;  reviews  noted,  521 

Minnesota  Historical  Society,  28. 
30,  54,  64,  67  n.  1,  82,  102,  157 
293,  384,  416,  418,  425,  441,  459, 
469,  480,  520 ;  annual  meetings,  36, 
301 ;  archives  acquired,  36,  41,  92, 
93,  141,  142,  143,  461,  521;  by- 
laws amended,  365;  changes  in 
staff,  141,  142,  223,  366,  367,  456, 
519;  deceased  members,  36,  92, 
141,  221,  301,  365,  456,  519;  execu- 


tive council:    415,  420;  meetings, 

36,  92,   149,  221,  301,   365,  5l£- 
field  agent,  141,  127,  128,  129;  li- 
brary, 127,  131,  151,  222,  302,  367, 
384,  423,  433,  472 ;  manuscript  col- 
lections, 93,  94,  168,  198  n.  16,  211, 
310,  313,  314,  433,  457,  527;  man- 
uscript division,   37,  92,  94,    141, 
303,    369;    manuscripts    acquired, 

37,  38,  39,  40,  41,  96,  97,  127,  143, 
144,   145,   146,  223,  224,  225,  226, 
305,  369,  370,  371,  459,  462,  463, 
464,  465,  522,  523,  524,  525,  526, 
527,  528;    new  members,  36,  92, 
141,  221,  301,  365,  456,  519;  news- 
paper  collection,   36,    126;    news- 
paper   division,   429;    newspapers 
acquired,  41,  42,  95,  127,  226,  371, 
372,  461,  523;  papers  read,  36,  92, 
221,    301,   365,    519;     publications 
noted,  366,  456 ;  publications  pro- 
posed, 434;    Scandinavian   collec- 
tion, 442,  508,  518;    sketches,  426- 
429,  429-436;    article  noted,  232, 
See  also  Minnesota  War  Records 
Commission 

Minnesota  Historical  Society  Mu- 
seum, 127,  131,  223,  291,  301,  423, 
429,  433 ;  children's  history  hours, 

37,  94,  142,  223,  304,  368,  458;   ob- 
jects acquired,  39,  40,  42,  43,  95, 
96,   143.    144,    147,   148,  224,  227, 
228,  307,  308,  373,  374,  462,  466, 
467,  468,  524,  528,  529,  530 ;  pictures 
acquired,  39,  40,  41,   42,  95,   146, 
225,  228,  306,  307,  460,  463,  466, 
467,  527,  529,  530;  special  exhibits, 

38,  94,   102,  222,   369,  458;   visit- 
ing classes,  38,  94,  223,  368,  457, 
458 

MINNESOTA  HISTORY  BULLETIN,  37, 
59  n.   1,   149,   153,  233,  240,  456; 
review  of  article  noted.  47 
Minnesota  Home   Guard,   134;   ac- 
count noted,  52;     Motor  Corps: 
142;  book  noted,  109 
"Minnesota    Home    Guard    Legion 

Magazine,"  389 

Minnesota  House    (Stillwater),  93 
"Minnesota  in  the  War,"  108,  221 
Minnesota  in  the  World  War,  52, 
107,  108,  110,  147,  217,  422;  casual- 
ties,   52,   543;   collecting   of   pic- 
tures,   104,  133 ;  county  histories : 
53,    104,    106,    159,    160,  215,  326, 
388,  483;    model   suggested,  215; 
reviewed,  212-217— memorials,  54, 


572 


INDEX 


110,  111,  133,  135,  152,  247,  484; 
motion  pictures  acquired,  387; 
pageants,  152;  pictures  acquired, 
127;  preservation  of  records,  3, 
51,  52,,  126-135,  158;  production 
of  manganese,  29;  recruiting  of 
engineers,  331-359 ;  books  and 
articles  noted,  51,  52,  53.  54,  108, 
109,  110,  162,  163,  221,  245,  246, 
324,  326,  387,  388,  389,  483; 
books  reviewed,  453,  454;  source 
material  acquired,  37,  42,  53,  54, 
108,  109,  126,  161,  162,  321,  322, 
386,  387,  388,  389,  482,  483,  529, 
543,  544.  See  also  Minnesota  War 
Records  Commission,  World 
War 

Minnesota  Juvenile  Court,  account 
noted,  538 

"Minnesota  Law  Review,"  article 
noted,  474 

Minnesota  Marine  Club,  389 

"Minnesota  Medicine,"  articles  not- 
ed, 163,  244 

Minnesota  Motor  Corps.  See 
Minnesota  Home  Guard 

Minnesota  National  Guard,  526 ;  ac- 
count noted,  52 

Minnesota  Naval  Militia,  account 
noted,  52 

Minnesota  Old  Settlers'  Association, 
230 

Minnesota  Outfit,  59 

"Minnesota  Patriot,"  articles  noted, 
101 

"Minnesota  Pioneer,"  79  n.  17,  291, 
294,  306;  article  noted,  532 

Minnesota  Prohibition  Committee, 
publication  noted,  101 

Minnesota  Public  Library  Commis- 
sion, 151 

Minnesota  River,  117,  121,  168  n.  1, 
231,  232,  298,  377 

Minnesota  State  Board  of  Control, 
416,  417,  420;  publications  noted, 
245,  538 

Minnesota  State  Capitol,  43,  248, 
416,  427 

Minnesota  State  Department  of 
Education,  40,  417,  420;  library 
division,  151 

Minnesota  State  Federation  of  La- 
bor, publication  noted,  312 

Minnesota  state  game  and  fish 
commissioner,  "Biennial  Report" 
noted,  537 

Minnesota  State  Library,  41.  151, 
222,  418,  460 


Minnesota  State  Memorial  Commis- 
sion, 54;  "Report"  noted,  110 

Minnesota  state  superintendent  of 
education,  102 

Minnesota  State  Supreme  Court, 
299,  418 

Minnesota  Tax  Commission,  ac- 
count noted,  44 

Minnesota  Territorial  Pioneers'  As- 
sociation, 151,  230,  416,  423,  466, 
470,  534 

Minnesota  Territory,  143,  421,  426; 
election  of  1849,  source  material 
noted,  93 ;  first  census,  certified 
returns  acquired,  522 ;  governor's 
archives  acquired,  28,  92 ;  legis- 
lature, 27,  84;  seventieth  anniver- 
sary of  organization,  151 

"Minnesota  Union,"  293 

Minnesota  University,  102,  125,  134, 
157,  439,  469;  "Bulletins"  noted, 
99,  325,  474;  library,  151;  publica- 
tion reviewed,  28-30 ;  articles 
noted,  312,  378,  379 

Minnesota  University  in  the  World 
War,  148,  163;  agricultural  col- 
lege :  record  of  women  student 
war  workers  acquired,  482 ;  de- 
partment of  home  economics,  files 
of  war  activities  acquired,  322 — 
faculty  members,  23 ;  memorial 
mall  suggested,  54,  110,  136;  war 
records  clerk  appointed,  51 ; 
war  records  compiled,  52 

Minnesota  War  Records  Commis- 
sion, 37,  38,  50,  51,  105,  109,  142, 
160,  162,  241,  243,  248,  331  n.  1, 
483;  account  noted,  244;  "Bulle- 
tins," 51,  103,  129,  323;  indorsed 
by  American  Legion,  542;  local 
committees,  51,  102,  103,  104,  105, 
128,  130-133,  158,  159,  160,  241,  242, 
323,  386,  388,  544,  545;  memorial 
history  planned,  51,  102,  135,  542; 
reorganization,  157;  service  rec- 
ords, 51,  103,  105,  159,  241,  321, 
386,  482,  543,  544,  546;  sketches, 
102,  128-136.  See  also  World 
War,  Minnesota  in  the  World 
War 

Minnesota-Wisconsin  boundary  dis- 
pute, 222;  books  and  articles  not- 
ed, 381,  473 

Minnesota  Woman  Suffrage  Asso- 
ciation, 233,  462,  539 

"Minnesota  Year  Book,"  published 
by  LeDuc,  1851-53,  58 

"Minnesotian,"   58 


INDEX 


573 


"Mining  and  Scientific  Press,"  arti- 
cle noted,  101 

Missions  and  missionaries,  Catholic, 
232,  313;  Congregational,  48; 
Fort  William,  321;  Good  Will, 
522;  Lac  qui  Parle,  83,  84,  85, 
522;  Lake  Calhoun,  82;  Lake 
Harriet,  82,  83,  85;  Leech  Lake, 
84;  Oak  Grove,  83;  Pokegama, 

84,  230;    Red   Lake,  370;     Red 
Wing,   84;    Traverse   des    Sioux, 
84;  books  and  articles  noted,  45, 

85,  232;     book     reviewed,     88; 
source  material :    acquired,  39,  82, 
224,  225,  370,  462;  noted,  313 

Mississippi  and  Lake  Superior  Rail- 
road Company,  60 

Mississippi,  archives,  137 

Mississippi  River,  60,  154,  169,  229, 
231,  232,  321,  332  n.  1,  402,  472; 
discovery,  46 ;  steamboating  on  : 
311;  articles  noted,  154,  234;  pa- 
per noted,  150 — transportation, 
101 

Mississippi  State  'Department  of 
Archives  and  History,  publica- 
tions noted,  50 

Mississippi  Valley,  140,  211,  394.  398, 
472;  Indians,  46;  Indian  affairs 
in,  source  material  noted,  313;  in 
British  politics,  book  noted,  469; 
life  in,  45;  upper,  115 

Mississippi  Valley  Historical  As- 
sociation, 126  n.  1,  150,  240,  309, 
415,^  438,  445,  447,  469,  471,  472 

"Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Re- 
view," 385,  469;  articles  noted,  155, 
240,  296,  309,  471,  472,  538;  re- 
print of  article  noted,  140 

Missouri,  313,  450 

Missouri  Historical  Society,  444; 
manuscripts  noted,  30 

Missouri  River,  Lewis  and  Clark 
Expedition,  article  noted,  31 

Missouri  Valley,  406 

Mitchell,  Col.  A.  M.,  74  n.  10 

Mitchell,   Rev.    E.   C,  429 

Mitchell,  William,  475;  sketch  not- 
ed, 474 

Mix,  C.  E.,  526 

"Mitchell  Daily  Republican,"  article 
noted,  31 

Molony,  R.  S.,  371 

Monford,  Rev.  David,  146 

Monford,  Rev.  Peter,  146 

Monsomannay  (Manzomaunay, 

Monzoomannee),  Chippewa  Indi- 
an, 306 


Montana,  Catholic  Church  in,  arti- 
cle noted,  233;  county  farm  bu- 
reaus, 44 

"Montevideo  News."  104;  article 
noted,  236;  war  history  by,  noted, 
326 

Montezuma,  Dr.  Carlos,  230;  ad- 
dress by,  noted,  470 

Montreal   (Canada),  297 

Monsen,  Ingeborg,  article  by,  not- 
ed, 237 

Monzoomannee,  Chippewa  Indian. 
See  Monsomannay 

Moore,  Frank,  319 ;  "letter  on  Good- 
hue  press,  293 

Moore,  I.  T.,  246 

Moore,  J.  K,  384 

"Moose  Lake  Star-Gazette,"  104 

Morgan,  Col.  — ,  101 

Morris,  Benjamin,  146 

Morris,  Mrs.  C.  J.  A.,  439 

Morris,  Mrs.  J.  T.,  229,  439;  paper 
by,  acquired,  528 

Morris,  O.  S.,  226 

"Morris  Tribune,"  159 

Morris  Quadrangle,  map  noted,  310 

Morrison  County,  iron  deposits,  29; 
map  noted,  478;  war  records 
committee  financed,  105 

Mort  Mare  (France),  map  of  vi- 
cinity acquired,  483 

Morton,  A.  K,  280,  281,  284 

Moscow    (Russia),   13,   15,  16 

Moss,  Mrs.  A.  P.,  96,  143 

Moss,  H.  L.,  74;  papers  acquired, 
96,  143 

Motion  pictures,  383 ;  used  by  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Information,  12, 
13,  20,  22;  acquired  by  War  Rec- 
ords Commission,  387 

Motor  Corps.  See  Minnesota  Home 
Guard 

Mower  County,  158;  war  history: 
planned,  104;  acquired,  423— war 
records  committee  financed, 
105 

Moyer,  L.  R.,  estate  of,  461 

Moyer,  Mrs.  L.  R.,  40 

Municipal  Art  Society,  "Bulletin" 
noted,  112 

Mulhotisc  (France),  map  of  vicin- 
ity acquired,  483 

Munro,  W.  H.,  letter  by,  445 

Murphy,  W.  J.,  539 

Murray  County,  242 

Music,  Minnesota,  source  material 
acquired,  464 

Muskego  (Wis.),  508 


574 


INDEX 


Mutual   Aid   Blind    Society   of    St. 

Paul,  368 
Myrick,  Nathan,  88 


Nadland,  Thorvald,  letter  acquired, 
371 

Nadouessi  Indians.  See  Sioux 
Indians 

Nancy  (France),  map  of  vicinity 
acquired,  483 

Nashville  (Tenn.),  63 

"Nation,"  article   noted,   521 

National  Association  of  State  War 
History  Organizations,  243 

National  Catholic  War  Council, 
"Handbook"  noted,  107 

National  Commission  of  Fine  Arts, 
publication  noted,  112 

National  Committee  on  Memorial 
Buildings,  "Bulletins"  noted,  112 

National  Municipal  League,  309 

National  Museum,  headquarters  of 
war  risk  insurance  staff,  344; 
pictures  of  groups  noted,  296 

National  Nonpartisan  League.  See 
Nonpartisan  League 

"National    School    Service,"   25 

National  Woman  Suffrage  Publish- 
ing Company,  publications  ac- 
quired, 462 

Native  Sons  of  Minnesota,  149,  440 

Nattestad,  Austen,  sketch  noted, 
312 

Nattestad,  O.  K.,  sketch  noted,  312; 
translation  of  paper  by,  noted,  47 

Nebraska,  collection  of  war  records, 
50 

Nebraska  State  Historical  Society, 
438 

Neely,  Mrs.  C.  M.,  370,  463 

Negro  problem,  257 

Neill,  Rev.  E.  D.,  30,  369,  428 ;  letter 
noted,  314;  sketches  noted,  318, 
378 

Ncls  T.  Wold  Post,  American  Le- 
gion, 159 

Nelson,    Charles,   47 

Nelson,  Daniel,  483 

Nelson,  Senator  Knute,  97;  sketch 
noted,  315 

Nelson,  O.  N.,  452 

Nesbit,  C.  F.,  344 

Nevada,  history  of  taxation  in, 
noted,  157 

Nevada  Historical  Society,  publica- 
tion noted,  157 


New  England,  conception  of  democ- 
racy, 253,  255,  257,  266  _ 

New  England  element,  in  Middle 
West,  115,  403 

New  England  Historic  Genealogi- 
cal Society,  438 

"New  Era"   (Sauk  Rapids),  292 

New  Hampshire,  collection  of  war 
records,  50 

"New  Hampshire  Patriot  and  State 
Gazette,"  extracts  from,  66-81 

New  Jersey,  congressional  election 
of  1838,  75 

New  Jersey  Historical  Society,  444 

New  Ulm,  144 

New  York,  emigration  to  Middle 
West,  403 

"New  York  Evening  Post,"  articles 
noted,  521 

New  York  Genealogical  and  Bio- 
graphical Society,  444 

"New  York  Journal  of  Commerce," 
quoted,  73 

New  York  State  Historical  Associ- 
ation, publication  noted,  240 

New  York  State  Library,  collection 
of  war  records,  50 

"New  York  Tribune,"  409;  file 
acquired,  461 

Newport,  town  site,  map  noted,  167 
n.  1 

"News-Letter"  (Minnesota  Edu- 
cational Association),  articles 
noted,  163 

Newson,  Maj.  T.  M.,  477;  book  by, 
noted,  64 

Newspapers.  See  Minnesota  His- 
torical Society:  newspaper  collec- 
tion 

Nicholson,  Col.  J.  P.,  147 

Nicholson,  Meredith,  book  by, 
noted,  45 

Nicolet,  Jean,  363 

Nicollet,  J.  N.,  33;  account  noted, 
479 

Nicollet  County,  159;  war  records 
committee  financed,  105 

Nieme,  Signe,  bibliography  by, 
acquired,  465 

Ninety-first  (Wild  West)  Division, 
U.  S.  Army,  book  noted,  110 

Ninth  Federal  Reserve  District,  387 

"Ninth  Infantry  'Cootie',"  file  ac- 
quired, 109 

Ninth  U.  S.  Infantry,  history  noted, 
162;  publication  noted,  109 

Noble,  F.  E.,  382 


INDEX 


575 


Nobles,  Col.  W.  H.,  sketch  noted, 
48 

Nobles  County,  158,  159;  Fourth 
Liberty  Loan,  48;  war  history: 
planned,  104;  acquired,  388 — war 
records  committee,  105 

"Nonpartisan  Leader,"  file  ac- 
quired, 226 ;  article  noted,  521 

Nonpartisan  League,  227,  361 ; 
articles  noted,  320,  521 ;  source 
material  acquired,  527 

Nordin,  Elsa  R.,  461 

"Nordlyset,"  508,  510;  file  at  Luther 
Theological  Seminary  described, 
509 

"Nordstjernen,"  512,  514,  516 

Norelius,  Erik,  452 

Norlie,  O.  M.,  article  by,  noted  91 

Norman  County,  242 

"Norske  Amerikaner,"  512,  513,  514 

"Norskes-Ven,"  511 

Norske  Selskab  i  Amerika,  publica- 
tion noted,  47 

North  Carolina  Council  of  De- 
fense :  Historical  Committee, 
publication  noted,  50 

North  Dakota,  218,  406;  collection 
of  war  records,  50;  articles  noted, 
48,  320,  326 

North  Dakota  State  Historical 
Society,  144,  385,  438;  building, 
156,  457 

North  Dakota  State  University, 
publication  noted,  326 

"North  Star,"  508  n.  6;  articles 
noted,  48,  110,  233,  312,  320,  380 

"North  Woods,"  article  noted,  325 

Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Com- 
pany, surveys  noted,  29 ;  war 
work  of  employees  and  officials, 
341,  347,  354,  358;  article  noted, 
99.  See  also  Pacific  Railroad 

Northfield,  300 

Northland  Pine  Company,  234 

Northrup,  Cyrus,  articles  by,  noted, 
234,  379 

Northwest,  agrarian  movement  in, 
account  noted,  361 ;  Trans-Mis- 
sissippi, historical  activities,  sur- 
vey noted,  309 

Northwest  Company,  481 ;  book  re- 
viewed, 296-298 

Northwest   Territory,    231 

"Northwest    Warriors     Magazine," 

244 

"Northwestern  Appeal,"  161 
"Northwestern      Christian      Advo- 
cate," file  required,  372 


"Northwestern  Miller,"  article 
noted,  378 

Northwestern  Telephone  Company, 
sketch  noted,  316 

Norway,  consular  reports  on  agri- 
culture acquired,  39;  visit  of 
editors  to  U.  S.,  17 

Norwegian  element,  48;  immigra- 
tion :  406 ;  effect  on  Norwegian 
press,  507;  articles  noted,  47,  48, 
233,  237,  312,  380,  479;  source 
material  acquired,  371 ;  source  ma- 
terial noted,  379 — in  slavery  con- 
troversy, 510-516;  articles  noted, 
47 ;  book  reviewed,  91 ;  source 
material  in  early  press,  506-518 

Norwegian  Lutheran  Church,  Our 
Savior's,  Minneapolis,  sketch 
noted,  315 

Norwegian  press,  in  America,  506- 
518;  paper  noted,  519 

Norwegian  Storting,  greetings  to 
Minnesota  legislature,  document 
acquired,  226 

Notestein,  Wallace,  23,  24 

Noyes,  C.  P.,  382,  415,  428,  436;  ad- 
dress by,  416-418 

Noyes,  Mrs.  C.  P.,  437;  book  by, 
noted,  226 

Noyes,  D.  R.,  382 

Noyes  Brothers  and  Cutler,  sketch 
noted,  382 

Numedal  (Norway),  emigration 
from,  47 

Numedalslaget  i  Amerika,  "Aarbok" 
noted,  47 

Oak  Grove  mission,  83,  84 

Oakes,  C.  H.,  381 

Oakland    Cemetery   Association    of 

St.  Paul,  227 

Oberlin  College  library,  370 
Oberlin     missionaries,    account    of 

work  in  northwestern  Minnesota, 

acquired,  370 

O'Brien,  F.  G.,  article  by,  noted,  383 
O'Brien,       Patrick,       reminiscences 

O'Connor38!.  T.,  279  n.  9,  280,  283, 
284,  287 

Oehler,  H.  W.,  388 

"Official  Bulletin,"  publication  of 
Committee  on  Public  Informa- 
tion, 19 

Ohio,  German  element,  406 

"Ohio  Archaeological  and  Histori- 
cal Quarterly,"  articles  noted,  46, 
51,  106 


576 


INDEX 


Ohio  Historical  Commission,  pub- 
lication noted,  50;  report  of 
chairman  noted,  51 

Ohio  State  Library,  46 

Ohman,  Hazel  E.,  367 

Ojibway.     See  Chippewa 

Oklahoma,  in  the  World  War, 
book  noted,  107 

Oklahoma  State  Council  of  De- 
fense, "Bulletin,"  noted,  107 

"Olivia  Times,"  53;  articles  noted, 
101 

Olmstead,  David,  93,  426;  sketch 
noted,  382 

Olmsted  County,  military  expedi- 
tion of  1820,  article  noted,  101 

Olson,  E.  W.,  452 

One  Hundred  and  Fifty-first  U.  S. 
Field  _  Artillery,  227,  301,  387; 
portraits  of  members  noted,  51 ; 
roster  noted,  546 ;  books  and 
articles  noted,  51,  244,  246 

One  Hundred  and  Sixty-third  U.  S. 
Field  Artillery  Brigade,  account 
noted,  455 

One  Hundred  and  Twenty-fifth 
U.  S.  Field  Artillery,  248 

One  Hundred  and  Thirty-sixth 
U.  S.  Infantry,  file  of  newspaper 
acquired,  42 ;  history  noted,  42 

Onstead,  John,  286  n.  15 

Orleans  Territory,  479 

Orr,  C.  N.,  418 

"Ortonville   Journal,"   104 

Osborn,  C.  S.,  autobiography  noted, 
155 

Osborn,  H.  L.,  "Hamline  University 
in  the  World  War,"  reviewed, 
453 

Osborne,  Mrs.  E.  W.,  466 

Otter  Tail,  194  n.  15 

Otter  Tail  City,  town  site,  194;  map 
noted,  167  n.  1 

Otter  Tail  County,  169  n.  3,  170  n. 
4;  early  surveys  in,  168  n.  1; 
geography,  184  n.  12,  191  n.  13; 
war  history  planned,  104 

Otter  Tail  Lake,  169,  184  n.  12, 
192,  195;  journal  of  Densmore's 
expedition  to,  18*7,  167-209 

Otter  Tail  River,  169,  184  n    12 

Otter  Tail  River  Valley,  196 

Our  Savior's  Norwegian  Lutheran 
Church,  Minneapolis,  sketch 
noted,  315 

Owens,  John,  440 


Pacific  Railroad,  analysis  of  "Re- 
ports" noted,  46 

Pageants,  Ashland  (Wis.),  534; 
Detroit,  534;  Duluth,  534;  Fort 
Atkinson  centennial,  241 ;  Ham- 
line  University,  152;  Hudson's 
Bay  Company,  480;  Lake  Min- 
netonka  Women's  Club,  152;  Le 
Mars,  534;  Marshall,  376,  470, 
534;  Minneapolis  Civic  Players, 
152;  Minnesota  division  of  wom- 
en's committee,  Council  of  Na- 
tional Defense,  152;  Red  Wing, 
376,  534;  Rice  Lake  (Wis.), 
534 ;  St.  Cloud,  534 ;  St.  Paul  clubs 
of  War  Camp  Community  Serv- 
ice, 238;  ^  Sioux  Falls  (S.  D.), 
534;  Society  of  American  Indi- 
ans, 230,  470 

Paine,  Mrs.   Clara,  438 

Paine,  Thomas,  5 

Painter,  F.  M.,  scrapbooks  acquired, 
527 

Painter,  S.  T.,  527 

"Palimpsest,"  531 ;  article  noted, 
532 

Palmer,  Rev.  F.  L.,  439,  464 

Panic  of  1857,  124,  381 

Pardee,  W.  S.,  paper  by,  acquired, 
145 

Paris   (France),  12 

Parish,  J.  C.,  articles  by,  noted, 
309,  532 

Parker,  Sir  Gilbert,  6 

Parker,  G.  E.,  90 

Parker,  Mrs.  Mary,  529 

Parkins,  A.  E.,  article  by,  noted,  47 

Parsons,  E.  D.,  articles  by,  noted, 
230,  309,  378 

Parvin,  Joseph,  308 

Patriotic  League  of  St.  Paul,  323 

Patterson  Post  No.  7,  Veterans  of 
Foreign  Wars,  440 

Paulsen,  Rev.  M.  G.,  article  by, 
noted,  239 

Pauwelyn,  Rev.  Cyril,  article  by, 
noted,  233 

Paxson,  F.  L.,  reprint  of  article  by, 
noted,  140 

Pearson,  Frank,  440 

Peck,  F.  W.,  articles  by,  noted,  99 

Peerson,  Kleng,  article  noted,  479; 
copy  of  letter  acquired,  371 

Pelzer,  Louis,  article  by,  noted,  240 

Pembina  (Selkirk  settlement),  297, 
298,  377,  473,  481 


INDEX 


577 


Fennel,  Joseph,  21 
Penicaut,  Jean,  310 
Pennington,  W.  S.,  74,  75 
Pennsylvania,     collection     of     war 

records,  50 

Pennsylvania  Germans,  406 
Pennsylvania    War    History    Com- 
mission, publication  noted,  327 
People's  Party,  accounts  noted,  210, 

237,  361 

Pepin,  Oliver,  466 
Pere  Marquette  Railroad  Company, 

account  noted,  363 
Perigord,  Rev.  Paul,  21,  35 
Perrot,   Nicolas,   "Memoire"   noted, 

46 

Pershing,  Gen.  John,  12,  144 
"Pershing's       Crusaders,"       motion 

picture,  12 

Peters,  Rev.  Samuel,  377,  472 
Peterson,   Joseph,  book  by,   noted, 

163 
Peterson,  W.  L.,  book  by,  acquired, 

324 

Pettijohn,  Jonas,  letters  noted,  85 
Phalen  Creek,  article  noted,  238 
Phalen  Park  (St.  Paul),  238 
Phelan,  Mrs.  Anna  A.  H.,  pageant 

by,  noted,  152 
Phillips         Academy         (Andover, 

Mass.),  war  history  noted,  246 
Pickford,  Mary,  383 
Pig's  Eye,  article  noted,  238 
Pierce,  Franklin,  307,  371,  373 
Pike,    Lt.    Z.    M.,    229,    237,    473; 

article  noted,  2.35 
Pillager    band,    Chippewa    Indians, 

273  n.  2,  279  n.  9,  289;  in  Leech 

Lake  uprising,  273-290 
Pillager    Quadrangle,    map    noted, 

478 
Pillsbury,  J.  S.,  379;  sketch  noted, 

100 

"Pine  Knot,"  37 

Pioneer  Building  (St.  Paul),  318 
Pioneer  Press  Company,  293 
Pioneer     Rivermen's     Association, 

154,  230,  375,  535 
Pipestone,    catlinite    quarry,     book 

noted,  296 
Pipestone    County,    Fourth    Liberty 

Loan,  48;   war  history:  planned, 

53 ;    acquired,  388 
Pipestone     County     Old     Settlers' 

Historical  Society,  440 
"Pipestone  Leader,"  53,  104 
Pirz,  Rev.  Francis,  232 
Pixley,  R.  B.,  book  by,  noted,  248 


Placerville    (Cal.),  source  material 

acquired,  96 
Plum  Valley,  319 
Plummer,  Gen.  E.  H.,  218 
Poage,  Sarah,  83 
Point  Douglas,  224 
Pokegama  mission,  84,  230 
Polk  County,  158,  159 
Polk   County   branch,  World   War 

Veterans,  105,  159 
"Polk  County  [Wis.]  Press,"  508 
Pollock,  Donalson,  and  Ogden,  42 
Pollock,  Hester,  437 
Pond,  Rev.  G.  H.,  88,  153;  papers 

described,  82,  84-86;   photostatic 

copies    of    letters    acquired,    82; 

sketch,  82-84 
Pond,  Mrs.  G.  H.,  83 
Pond,  Peter,  reproductions  of  maps 

by,  noted,  298 

Pond,  Rev.  S.  W.,  88,  153;  narra- 
tive, 1831-80:  acquired,  39;  noted, 

84,  85— papers  described,  82,  84- 

86;    photostatic  copies  of  letters 

acquired,  39,  82;    reproduction  of 

map  by,  noted,  87;    sketch,  82-84 
Pond,  Mrs.  S.  W.,  83 
Pond,  S.  W.  Jr.,  book  by,  noted,  84 
Pond  mission,  site  visited,  458 
Pontiac,  pageant  presented,  230 
Poole,  Ernest,  17 
Pope,  Gen.  John,  32,  536 
Pope  County,  177  n.  7;  map  noted, 

310 
Population,     Middle     West:      1830, 

403;  1840,  403;    7*50,  403,  406 
Populist  Party,  accounts  noted,  210, 

237,  361 

Portage    (Wis.),  article  noted,   320 
Portland  (Ore.),  450 
Portland    Prairie,    book    reviewed, 

298 
"Post  News,"  publication  of  David 

Wisted    Post,    American    Legion, 

389 

Potomac,  Army  of,  61 
Potter,  Franc  M.,  142 
POTTER,  FRANC  M.,  (R)  "South 

Dakota     Historical     Collections," 

vol.  9,  30-32 
Poulson,    Zacharia,    sketch    noted, 

479 

Powell,  Col.  A.  O.,  332  n.  1,  358 
Power,  Mrs.  C.  M.,  466 
Prairie  du  Chien   (Wis.),  117,  320, 

377,    542;    Catholic   activities    in, 

313:  treaty  of,  78  n.  15 
Prairie  Lake,  171 


578 


INDEX 


Prairieville,  83 

Presbyterian  Church,  402 ;  First, 
Minneapolis,  153,  476;  First,  St. 
Paul:  225;  roll  of  pew-holders, 
1853,  acquired,  39 — House  of 
Hope,  St.  Paul,  225;  missionary 
societies,  records  acquired,  41, 
225 ;  war  history  noted,  547 

Prescott,  Mrs.  H.  C,  541 

Press  censorship  during  World 
War,  8-11 

"Price  of  Victory"  film,  print  of, 
acquired,  387 

Prichard,  William,  225 

Primogeniture,  in  U.  S.,  266 

Pritchard,  J.  W.,  book  by,  noted, 
547 

"Private  News  Letter."  See 
"Russian  Daily  News" 

"Progress,"  files,  1893-1901,  ac- 
quired, 42 

Prohibition,  257,  263 ;  articles  noted, 
102 

"Propeller,"   number   noted,   110 

Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  452; 
Chauhassen,  1816,  and  Kden 
Prairie,  1867,  42;  St.  Mark's, 
Minneapolis,  history  noted,  476 

Provine,  W.  A.,  letter  by,  445 

Psychology,  book  noted,   163 

Public  lands,  book  noted,  45 

Puget  Sound,  450 

Puritanism,  253,  259;  influence  in 
Middle  West,  403-405 


Quaife,  M.  M.,  44,  150,  439 ;  articles 
by,  noted,  385,  471;  (ed.)  "The 
Movement  for  Statehood,"  re- 
viewed, 139 

Quaker  Church,  255 

"Quarterly  Journal,"  New  York 
State  Historical  Association,  240 

Radisson,  Pierre  d'Esprit,  sieur  de, 
231,  310,  363,  364 

Railroads,  in  Northwest :  168  n.  1 ; 
Granger  agitation  against,  362; 
influence  on  immigration,  477; 
World  War  services,  322,  335, 
354 — in  Minnesota:  early  roads 
incorporated,  60;  early  surveys, 
168  n.  1 ;  state  loan  to,  124;  books 
and  articles  noted,  319,  538; 
source  material  acquired,  304,  370, 
523.  See  also  Transportation,  and 
the  several  railroad  companies 


"Railway  Review,"  465 

Rainbow  Division.  See  Forty-sec- 
ond Division,  U.  S.  Army 

Rainbow  Highway  Association,  247 

"Rambler,"  article  by,  noted,  384 

Ramsdell,  C.  W.,  150;  letter  by,  445 

Ramsey,  Gov.  Alexander,  58,  59,  74 
n.  4,  76,  78,  93,  314,  421,  426,  428, 
437,  470 ;  desk  acquired,  43 ;  diary 
noted,  94 

Ramsey  County,  war  history  pro- 
posed, 454,  483;  War  Records 
Commission:  105,  323,  388;  prog- 
ress on  roster  and  war  history 
noted,  545,  546 

Ramsey  State  Park,  sketch  noted, 
478 

Rand,  Kenneth,  246 

Randall,  Mary  E.,  paper  by,  ac- 
quired, 528 

Read,   C.   R.,  376 

Read's  Landing,  224 ;  account  noted, 
376 

Read's  Landing  Association,  375 

"Real  Estate  Review :  Building  and 
Trade  Reporter,"  files,  1884-87, 
acquired,  42 

Reardon,  Rev.  J.  M.,  article  by, 
noted,  98 

Red  Cross.  See  American  Red 
Cross 

Red  Dog,  Indian,  303 

Red  Lake  County,  242 ;  World  War 
memorial  suggested,  111 

Red  Lake  mission,  370 

Red  River,  184  n.  12,  377,  480,  481 ; 
articles  noted,  33,  157,  232 

Red  River  cart,  195,  223,  236,  310, 
473;  article  noted,  377;  pictures: 
acquired,  228;  noted,  377,  473,  482, 

Red  River  Falls.  See  Fergus  Falls 
Red  River  Falls,  town  site,  map 

noted,  167  n.  1 

Red  River  settlement.  See  Pembina 
Red  River  trade,  account  noted,  32 
Red  River  Trails,  articles  noted,  32, 

473 

Red  River  Valley,  298;  book  re- 
viewed, 32 

Red  River  Valley  Old  Settlers'  As- 
sociation, 440 

"Red,  White,  and  Blue  Series,"  pub- 
lications of  Committee  on  Public 
Information,  23 

Red  Wing,  152;    pageant,  376,  534 
Red  Wing  Iron  Works,  168  n.  1 
Red  Wing  mission,  84 


INDEX 


579 


Red  Wing  Printing  Company,  104; 
"Goodhue   County  in   the  World 
War,"  reviewed,  212-217 
"Red  Wing  Republican,"  104 
Redowl,  John,  sketches  noted,  89 
Redwood  agency,  88 
Redwood  Falls,  478 
Reese,  C.  M.,  512,  514,  515 
Religion,    effect   on    middle-western 
democracy,  402.    See  also  the  va- 
rious denominations 
Religious  history  of  Middle  West, 

source  material  acquired,  372 
Renville,  Joseph,  121,  310 
Renville       County,       war       history 

planned,  53 

Republican  Party,  210,  407,  511 
"Reveille,"     publication     of     i.?6th 

U.  S.  Infantry,  file  acquired,  42 
"Reveille,"  publication  of  U.  S-  Ar- 
my General  Hospital  No.  29,  ar- 
ticle   noted,     161 ;    file    acquired, 
109;   number  noted,  534 
Revell,  F.  H.,  Company,  publication 

noted,  88 
"Review  of  Historical  Publications 

Relating  to  Canada,"  385 
Revolutionary  War,  296,  463,  469; 

education  of  public  opinion,  4 
Reymert,  J.   D.,   508,  510 
Reynolds,  Charles,  journal  of  Cus- 
ter's  last  campaign  acquired,  524; 
sketch  noted,   519 
Reynolds,  Joseph,  472,  538 
Rhinow,  Gen.  W.  F.,  157,  158 
Rhode     Island    Historical     Society, 

438,  445 

Rice,  H.  M.,  78  n.  15,  200,  310,  370, 
428,  529;  letters  acquired,  37,  39 
Rice  County,  158;  war  history 
planned,  104;  war  records  com- 
mittee: financed,  105;  "Report" 
noted,  323 

Rice  Lake   (Wis.),  pageant,  534 
Richardson,  D.  F.,  43 
Richardson,  Rev.  G.  W.,  43 
Richardson,  H.  W.,  article  by,  not- 
ed, 99 

Richardson,  Nathan,  229 
Richfield,  historical  society  planned, 

48 

Riggs,  A.  L.,  88 
Riggs,  Dr.  C.  K,  439 
Riggs,  Rev.  S.  R.,  83,  100;  book  by, 

noted,  88;  letters  noted,  84,  85 
Ringerikeslaget,  380 
Rio  de  Janeiro  (Brazil),  13 


Rising  Sun,  Chippewa  Indian, 
sketch  noted,  49 

River  Falls   (Wis.),  333 

Robb,  Lt.  M.  S.,  article  noted,  245 

Roberts,  Ruth  O.,  223 

Roberts,  Dr.  T.  S.,  pamphlet  by, 
noted,  536 

Robertson,  Capt.  Daniel,  200  n.   18 

Robertson,  Col.  D.  A.,  426;  sketch 
noted,  382 

Robin,  Eugenie,  article  by,  noted, 
321 

Robinson,  Doane,  articles  by,  noted, 
30,  31,  291 

Rochester,  book  noted,  47 ;  sketch 
noted,  541 

"Rochester  Daily  Post  and  Record," 
article  noted,  101 

Rock  County,  war  history :  planned, 
104;  acquired,  388 

Rock  Island  Railroad  Company,  477 

Rock  River,  406 

Roddis,  Lt.  Com.  L.  H.,  address 
by,  noted,  221 

RODDIS,  LT.  COM.  L.  H.,  The  Last 
Indian  Uprising  in  the  United 
States,  273-290 

Rogers,  A.  R.,  article  by,  noted,  245 

Rogers,  Maj.  Robert,  journal  noted, 
312 

Rolctte,  Joseph   Sr.,  117,  364 

Rome   (Italy),  12 

Roosevelt,  Col.  Theodore,  books 
and  articles  noted,  237,  520 

Roosevelt  Memorial  Association, 
520 

"Roosevelt  regiment,"  322 

Roque,  Augustine,  376 

Rosati,  Bishop  Joseph,  sketch  not- 
ed, 313 

Rosebud,  Sioux  Indians,  article 
noted,  31 

Rosecrans,  Gen.  W.  S.,  61 

Ross,  Lt.  Tenny,  280,  281,  284,  285, 

287 

Rothensteiner,  Rev.  John,  article 
by,  noted,  313 

Roy,  Pierre-Georges,  article  by, 
noted,  471 

Royal  Society  of  Canada^  publica- 
tions acquired,  460;  "Proceed- 
ings" noted,  531 

Royce,  Josiah,  quoted,  414 

Rusk,  Gen.  J.  M.,  papers  noted,  532 

Russel,  A.  J.,  "Brief  Glimpses  of 
Unfamiliar  Loring  Park  As- 
pects," reviewed,  87 


580 


INDEX 


Russel,  Pearl,  article  by,  noted,  46 

Russel,  William,  16 

Russell,  Jeremiah,  292 

"Russian  Daily  News,"  file  ac- 
quired, 95 

Russian  Revolution,  attitude  of  suc- 
ceeding governments  towards  U. 
S-,  15-17;  acts  of  Duma,  account 
noted,  95 

Rutherford,  Maj.  W.  C,  546 

Ryan,  D.  J.,  address  noted,  46 

Ryden,  G.  H.,  article  by,  noted,  479 

Ryden,  P.  (comp.),  "Svenska  Bap- 
tisternas  i  Minnesota  historia 
fron  i#50-talet  till  1918"  re- 
viewed, 90 

Ryerson,  D.  M.,  20 

Rynning,  Ole,  article  noted,  233; 
translation  of  paper  by,  noted, 
47 

Saby,  R.  B.,  article  by,  noted,  320 

"Sacajaweans,"    sketch    noted,    383 

Safford,  Capt.  O.  E.,  455 

Saint  Agatha's  Conservatory  (St. 
Paul),  306 

St.  Anthony,  168  n.  1,  239,  317; 
first  poll  lists  noted,  93 ;  pic- 
ture noted,  236 

St.  Anthony  Falls,  232;  description 
of,  acquired,  145 ;  flour  milling, 
pictures  acquired,  466;  lumber- 
ing, article  noted,  234;  picture 
noted,  473 

St.  Anthony  hook  and  ladder  com- 
pany, 315 

St.  Anthony  of  Padua,  church  of, 
Minneapolis,  article  noted,  102 

St.   Cloud,   300;  pageant,   534 

St.  Cloud  district,  conferences  of 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
1873-^6,  minutes  acquired,  462 

St.  Cloud  state  normal  school,  439, 
443 

"St.  Cloud  Times,"   157 

"St.  Cloud  Union,"  293 

St.  Croix  County,   143 

St.    Croix    County     (Wis.    Terr.), 

St.  Croix  Valley,  77,  119 

St.  Croix  Valley  Old  Settlers'  As- 
sociation, 230 

"St.  Croixian,"  508 

St.  Francis  Quadrangle,  map  not- 
ed, 478 

"St.  James  Plaindealer,"  53;  pub- 
lication reviewed,  212-217 

St.  Louis  (Mo.),  369,  406 


St.  Louis  (Mo.)  diocese,  account 
noted,  313 

St.  Louis  Bay,  222 

St.  Louis  County,  war  records  com- 
mittee, 105,  158,  386,  544 

St.  Louis  River,  222,  381 

St.  Lusson,  Simon  Frangios  Dau- 
mont,  sieur  de,  46 

St.  Mark's  Church,  Minneapolis, 
476 

"St.  Mark's  Outlook,"  article  not- 
ed, 476 

St.  Mihiel  (France),  maps  of  vicin- 
ity acquired,  483;  offensive:  bat- 
tle line,  37;  military  map  ac- 
quired, 483 

St.  Paul,  76,  77;  contracts  for  erec- 
tion of  first  city  hall  acquired, 
145 ;  description  noted,  531 ;  first 
brick  building  on  south  side  of 
Third  Street,  58;  first  poll  list 
noted,  93 ;  night  schools,  332  n.  1 ; 
pictures  acquired,  95,  147;  Union 
Depot,  43;  articles  noted,  230, 
238,  317,  319,  340,  341,  381.  See 
also  St.  Paul  in  the  World  War 

St.  Paul  and  Ramsey  County  war 
history,  454 

St.  Paul  Association  of  Public  and 
Business  Affairs,  147,  150,  436; 
sketch  noted,  238 

St.  Paul  Bridge  Company,  59 

St.  Paul  clubs  of  the  War  Camp 
Community  Service,  pageant,  238 

"St.  Paul  Daily  News,"  articles 
noted,  233,  238,  239,  244,  314,  317, 
319,  376,  377,  381,  382,  383,  475, 
477,  478,  521,  534,  537,  538,  539, 
540,  541,  546 

"St.  Paul  Dispatch,"  523;  articles 
noted,  54,  149,  314,  375,  382,  541 

"St.  Paul  Dispatch  and  St.  Paul 
Pioneer  Press  American,"  article 
noted,  318 

St.  Paul  district,  conferences  of 
Methodist  _  Episcopal  Church, 
1881-86,  minutes  acquired,  462 

"St.  Paul  Globe,"  280;  sketch  not- 
ed, 318 

St.  ^  Paul  in  the  World  War,  divi- 
sions No.  I,  3,  and  10,  "Chroni- 
cles of  the  Selective  Draft,"  ac- 
quired, 53,  108;  draft  board,  ac- 
count noted,  108;  memorial  sug- 
gested, 111;  War  Camp  Commu- 
nity Service,  pageant,  238;  war 
history:  454;  progress  noted,  545, 
546 


INDEX 


581 


St.  Paul  Institute,  105 

St.  Paul  Omnibus  Company,  307 

"St.  Paul  Pioneer,"  292,  294 

"St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press,"  280,  293 ; 
articles  noted,  48,  49,  54,  149,  153, 
238,  311,  375,  378,  478,  534,  541, 
546,  article  on  changes  in  staff 
noted,  318 

St.  Paul  Political  Equality  Club, 
sketch  noted,  383 

"St.  Paul  Press,"  58,  292 

St.  Paul  Public  Library,  104,  151, 
427,  460 

St.  Paul  Reading  Circle,  record 
books,  1872-80,  acquired,  464 

St.  Paul  Red  Cross  Aid  Society  of 
1898,  143 

"St.  Paul  Times,"  58 

St.  Peter,  144,  370 

"St.  Peter  Free  Press,"  article  not- 
ed, 384 

"St.  Peter  Herald,"  159 

"St.  Peter  Tribune,"  sketch  noted, 
384 

St.  Peter's  River.  Sec  Minne- 
esota  River 

St.  Sulpice,  Bibliotheque,  collection 
noted,  297 

Salina    (Kan.),  450 

Salvation  Army,  134,  342;  war  ac- 
tivities, 106,  216 

"Samband."  articles  noted,  380 

Sanborn,  Gen.  J.   B.,  428 

Sanctuary,  Col.  E.  N.,  336,  358 

Sandys,   Sir   Edwin,  253 

Sanford,  Maria,  autobiography  not- 
ed. 474 

Sanford,  W.  S.,  180  n.  11 

San  Leon  Gunnery  School,  219 

Sardeson,  F.  W.,  book  by,  noted, 
153 

Sarsaparilla  war,   71 

Satterlee,  M.  P.,  pamphlet  by,  not- 
ed, 314 

"Saturday  Evening  Post"  (Burling- 
ton, la.),  articles  noted,  154,  234, 
311,  375,  472,  527 

"Saturday  Evening  Post"  (Grand 
Rapids,  Mich.),  files,  1876-79, 
acquired,  42 

"Saturday  Evening  Spectator,"  files, 
1879-93,  acquired,  41 

Sauk  River,  174 

"Sauk  Center  Herald,"  293 

"Sauk    Rapids    Frontiersman,"    292 

Sault  de  Ste.  Marie,  46 

Saunders,  Rev.  E.  E.,  articles  by, 
noted,  48 


Sawyer,  Rev.  R.  D.,  book  by,  ac- 
quired, 373 

Scandinavian  Canadian  Land  Com- 
pany, 460 

Scandinavian  Democratic  Press  As- 
sociation, 512,  514 

Scandinavian  element,  380;  immi- 
gration, 406;  article  noted,  479; 
books  reviewed,  449-453 ;  source 
material  acquired,  461.  See  also 
Norwegian  element,  Swedish  ele- 
ment, Minnesota  Historical  So- 
ciety: Scandinavian  collection 

Scandinavian  Printing  Association, 
515 

Scantlebury,  Thomas,  diary  ac- 
quired, 459 

Schafer,  Joseph,  article  by,  noted, 
532 

Schlener,  Mrs.  J.  A.,  439 

Schmidt,   Ilona  B.,  304,  456 

Schmidt,  L.  B.,  paper  by,  noted,  309 

Schofield,  Dr.  J.  L.,  228 

Schofield,  R.  L.,  227 

Schoolcraft,  H.  R.,  100,  232,  235, 
237 

Schulz,  C.  G.,  420,  421 

Schulz,  Col.  E.  H.,  333 

Schurz,  Carl,  quoted,  395 

Schwallenstocker,  D.  F,  286  n.   15 

Scotch-Irish,  402 

Scott,  George,  145 

Scroggs,  W.  O.,  521 

Seabury  Divinity  School  (Fari- 
bault),  439 

Second  Minnesota  Infantry.  See 
One  Hundred  and  Thirty-sixth 
U.  S.  Infantry 

Second  Minnesota  Volunteer  In- 
fantry, 144 

"Second  Virginia,"  steamboat,  ac- 
count noted,  311 

Selective    draft,    334;    "Chronicles 
acquired,   53,    108;    accounts   and 
statistics  noted,  52 

Selkirk,  Thomas  Douglas,  Earl  of, 
297,  377,  481 

Selkirk    settlement.      See    Pembma 
"Semper    Fidelis,"    publication    of 
Minnesota  Marine  Club,  389 

Service  flag  for  Minnesota,  ac- 
quired, 147 

Seventeenth   U.    S-    Engineers,   333 

Seventh  Minnesota  Volunteer  In- 
fantry, campaign  against  Sioux, 
account  noted,  300 

Severance,  C.  A.,  307 

Severance,  F.  H.,  letter  by,  442 


582 


INDEX 


Sewall,  J.  S.,  170  n.  4;  map  by,  not- 
ed, 169  n.  3,  170  n.  4 

Sewall  and  Iddings  map,  noted, 
169  n.  3,  170  n.  4 

Seward   School    (Minneapolis),  223 

Shakpe.    See  Shakopee 

Shakopee  (Shakpe),  Sioux  chief, 
83 

Shakopee,  180  n.  11 

"Shakopee  Argus,"  article  noted, 
384 

Shambaugh,  B.  F,  244,  438;  ad- 
dress by,  423-425 

Sharp,   Mrs.  Abigail  G.,  304 

Shattuck  School  (Faribault),  war 
history  noted,  326 

Shaw,  O.  W.,  105 

Shaw,  R.  T.,  224 

Shcehan,  Col.  T.  J.,  2,81,  283,  284, 
285,  286  n.  15,  287;  in  Leech  Lake 
uprising,  273-290 

Shepard,  W.  H.,  52 

Sherman,   Betty,  57,  58 

Sherman,  Gen.  W.  T.,  57,  62 

Sherman,   S.  P.,  24 

Sherman's  Battery,  426 

Shields,    James,    sketch    noted,    309 

Shippee,  L.  B.,  469 ;  addresses  by, 
noted,  92,  365 ;  papers  by,  noted, 
150,  472 

SHIPPEE,  L.  B.,  (R)  Haynes's 
"James  Baird  Weaver,"  210- 
212 

Shirk,  C.  W.,  158,  243;  article  by, 
noted,  245 

SHIRK,  C.  W.,  (R)  "Granville : 
Tales  and  Tail  Spins  from  a 
Flyer's  Diary,"  219 

Shobondayshkung,  Chippewa  In- 
dian, 278  n.  8 

Shortridge,  W.  P.,  439;  paper  by, 
noted,  150 

SHORTRIDGE,  W.  P.,  Henry  Hast- 
ings Siblcy  and  the  Minnesota 
Frontier,  115-125;  (R)  Johnson's 
"The  Michigan  Fur  Trade,"  363 

Shortt,  Adam,  article  by,  noted,  531 

Siam,  government  publication  not- 
ed, 19 

Siberia,  representatives  of  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Information,  13, 
16;  reorganization  of  school  sys- 
tem, 17 

Sibley,  H.  H.,  60,  73,  79,  93  143 
153,  236,  303,  310,  379,  427,  428, 
459,  536;  letters  acquired,  37,  39 
526;  sketch,  115-125;  sketches 
noted,  150,  309,  364 


Sibley,  John,  116  n.  7 

Sibley,  Solomon,  116 

Sibley  County,  242;  war  records 
committee,  388 

Sibley  family,  115 

Sibley  House,   118,  310,  530 

Sibley  Papers,  310 

Sibley  State  Park,  470 

Sidle,  J.  K.,  315 

Sidle  and  Wolford  Company,  ledg- 
er, 316 

Sidominadota,   Sioux   Indian,  27 

Simmons,  G.  W.,  69 

Simpson,  Jerry,  sketch  noted,  363 

Simpson,  Capt.  W.  H.,  sketch  not- 
ed, 154 

Sims,  Vawter,  and  Rose  Company, 
382 

Sioussat,  St.  G.  L.,  438,  445 

Sioux  Falls  (S.  D.),  30,  291;  pag- 
eant, 534 

Sioux  Indians,  31,  49,  58,  117,  231; 
Carver  grant,  377 ;  Pond  brothers' 
missions,  82-86;  Sibley's  attitude 
toward,  123;  treaties:  1837,  118; 
1851,  123— book  reviewed,  88; 
books  and  articles  noted,  31,  46, 
85,  537 

Sioux  language,  83-86;  work  of 
Pond  brothers:  alphabet,  84; 
grammar,  84-86;  English-Da- 
kota lexicon,  84-86;  Hebrew- 
Dakota  lexicon,  86;  translations, 
83-84 

Sioux  social  and  economic  life,  af- 
fected by  white  settlement,  118, 
124;  sun  dance,  articles  noted, 
537 ;  thunder  bird  dance,  58 ; 
articles  noted,  31,  376 

Sioux  War,  1862-6^,  27,  33,  88.  123, 
124,  281  n.  13,  303,  306,  525/535; 
list  of  dead  noted,  314;  books 
and  articles  noted,  31,  49,  236, 
300,  319,  480;  source  material:  ac- 
quired, 40,  96,  144,  459,  528;  not- 
ed, 525,  536 

"Somerset   County   [N.  /.]    Histor- 
ical Quarterly,"  article  noted,  235 
Sisson,  Edgar,  16 
Sitting  Bull,  Sioux  chief,  31,  228  ^ 
Sixteenth  U.  S.  Engineers,  331,  355, 

357 

Sixth   Minnesota  Volunteer   Infan- 
try,  source  material  acquired,  40 
"Skandinaven,"  509  n.  7 

Skarstedt,  Ernst,  "Vagabond  och 
redaktor:  lefnadsoden  och  tids- 
bilder,"  reviewed,  449-453 ; 


INDEX 


583 


"Svensk-amerikanska  folket  i 
helg  och  socken,"  reviewed,  449- 
453 

Skavlem,  H.  L.,  371,  537;  article 
by,  noted,  47 

Skinner,  Alanson,  article  by,  not- 
ed, 537 

Skinner,  Gertrude  E.,  483 

Skinner,  J.  H.,  483 

Skinner,  William,  529 

Slade,  G.  T.,  331 

Slade,  Mrs.  G.  T.,  341 

Slater,    Mrs.    Elizabeth    D.,   440 

Slattery,  Rev.  C.  L.,  book  by,  not- 
ed, 99 

Slavery,  as  party  issue,  67;  Nor- 
wegian pamphlet  against,  510; 
Rice's  attitude,  370 

Slocum,  Capt.  H.  F.,  sketch  noted, 
154 

Smith,  Albee,  476 

Smith,   Mrs.   Carrie   H.,  440 

Smith,  C.  K.,  74,  426,  428 

Smith,  O.  F.,  97,  307,  526 

Smith,  R.  E.,  article  by,  noted,  378 

Smith,  Truman,  77 

Smithsonian  Institution,  "Annual 
Report,"  article  noted,  470;  publi- 
cation noted,  84 

Snake  River  precinct,  93 

Snelling,   Col.  Josiah,  237 

Social  life  and  conditions,  early 
New  England,  266;  Middle  West, 
400,  404,  408-411;  present  U.  S., 
264 

Societe  des  fitudes  Historiques, 
publication  noted,  321 

Society  of  American  Indians,  230; 
Minneapolis  chapter,  470 

Society  of  Colonial  Dames  of 
America  in  the  State  of  Minne- 
sota, 439 

Society  of  Colonial  Wars  in  the 
State  of  Minnesota,  439 

Soderstrom,   Alfred,  452 

Solberg,  C.  Fr.,  516 

Soldiers'  bonus  board,  242,  321 

Soldiers'  bonus  law  (Minnesota), 
242 

Somerville,  Robert,  374 

Sons  of  the  American  Revolution, 
Minnesota  society,  221 

Sons  of  the  Revolution  in  the 
State  of  Minnesota,  439;  account 
of  war  activities  acquired,  322 

"Soo"   railway,   354 

Soper,   E.  K.,  book  by,  noted,  309 

South  Africa,  lecture  noted,  519 


South  America,  work  of  Commit- 
tee on  Public  Information,  13 

South  Carolina,  collection  of. war 
records,  50 

South  Dakota,  boundaries,  article 
noted,  31 ;  printing  press  for 
first  newspaper,  291 ;  statistics  on 
progress,  /Q/6-/7,  noted,  30; 
World  War  memorial  building, 
157;  book  reviewed,  30-32 

South  Dakota  State  Department  of 
History,  "Collections,"  vol.  9,  re- 
viewed, 30-32 

South  Dakota  State  Historical  So- 
ciety, proceedings  noted,  30 

South   St.   Paul,  sketch  noted,  541 

Southern  element,  in  middle-west- 
ern democracy,  399-402,  407,  408 

Spafford  and  Simonton,  publishers, 
293 

Spain,  work  of  Committee  on  Pub- 
lic Information,  12 

Spanish-American  war,  273;  vet- 
erans, history  noted,  314 

Spencer,  Mrs.  C.  L.,  308,  461,  464, 
468 

Spencer,  H.  S.,  article  by,  noted, 
239 

Spining,  Rev.  G.  L.,  146 

Spining  family,  146 

Spirit  Lake  massacre.  See  Inkpa- 
duta  massacre 

Spoils  System,  267 

"Spring  Lake  Clipper,"  7^55,  manu- 
script numbers  acquired,  40 

Springfield,  attacked  by  Inkpaduta's 
band,  27 

Springfield    (Mass.),  300 

Sproat,  Col.  Ebenezer,  116  n.  7 

Sproat,  Sarah  W.,  116  n.  7 

Stanard,  W.  G.,  letter  by,  446 

Stangeland,   Elias,   512 

"Stars  and  Stripes,"  file  acquired, 
127 

Steamboats  and  steamboating,  boat 
built  by  LeDuc  for  Hooker's  ar- 
my, 62;  Mississippi  River:  121, 
402;  newspaper  clippings  ac- 
quired, 527 — pictures  acquired, 
95;  articles  noted,  150,  154,  234, 
238,  311,  375,  472,  531,  535,  537 

Steel,  Maj.  M.  F.,  article  by,  noted, 

Steele,  "Dick,"  sketch  noted,  477 
Steichen,  Elizabeth,  389 
Stephens,  John,  306 
Stephenson,  G.   M.,  address  noted, 
92;    paper  by,  noted,   150 


584 


INDEX 


STEPHENSON,  G.  M.,  (R)  Ryden's 
"Svenska  Baptisternas  i  Minne- 
sota historia,"  90;  (R)  Skar- 
stedt's  "Vagabond  och  redaktor : 
lefnadsoden  och  tidsbilder"  and 
"Svensk-amerikanska  folket  i 
helg  och  socken,"  449-453;  (R) 
Wee's  "Haugeanism,"  91 

Stevens,  C.  G.,  pageant  by,  noted, 
152 

Stevens,  I.  L,  46 

Stevens,  Col.  J.  H.,  236 

Stevens,  Rev.  Jedediah,  82,  83,  85 

Stevens,  W.  E.,  article  by,  noted, 
296 

Stevens  County,  158,  159;  map  not- 
ed, 310 

Stevenson,  C.  S.,  articles  by,  noted, 
30,  31 

Steward,  Darius,  439 

Stillwater,  77,  123,  168  n.  1,  230,  333; 
convention  of  1848,  143 ;  descrip- 
tion noted,  531 ;  first  poll  list  not- 
ed, 93 

Stock-raising,  121 

Stockholm    (Sweden),    12 

Stoddard,  J.  S.,  226 

Stoll,  E.  E.,  23,  24 

Stomberg,  A.  A.,  461 

Stone,  Sgt.  R.  S.,  323 

Stone  age,  book  reviewed,  295 

Storrs,  C.  B.,  474 

Stubbs,  M.  C,  440 

Stuart,  Robert,  364 

Stub,  Rev.  H.  A.,  515  n.  18 

Sturgeon  rapids,  Ottertail  River, 
197 

Sugar  Point,  Leech  Lake,  Indian 
battle,  280-289 

Strong,  R.  D.,  96 

Stump  Lake  (N.  D.),  settlements, 
book  noted,  480 

Sullivan,  James,  243 

Sullivan,  L.  R.,  article  by,  noted,  537 

Sully  expeditions :  1863,  account  ac- 
quired, 144;  1864,  source  material 
acquired,  225 

Suite,  Benjamin,  articles  by,  not- 
ed, 45,  535 

Sumner,  Charles,  477;  letter  ac- 
quired, 465 

Sumner,  Capt.  E.  V.,  account  of 
Dakota  expedition  noted,  31 

Supreme  courts,  262.  See  also 
United  States  Supreme  Court 

Surgis,  William,  93 

Sutherland,  J.  H.,  279  n.  9 

Swan,  J.  R.,  227 


Swan  Lake,  170 

Swan  River,  169,  170,  229 

Swedish  Baptist  Church,  452; 
Minnesota  conference,  book  re- 
viewed, 90;  literature  acquired, 
461 

Swedish  element,  attitude  toward 
World  War,  paper  noted,  150;  re- 
ligious affiliations,  account  not- 
ed, 452;  books  reviewed,  90,  449- 
453 

Swedish-Lutheran  Church,  Tripolis, 
Kandiyohi  township,  memorial 
volume  noted,  478 

Sweeny,  Dr.  R.  O.,  428 

Swenson,  David,  translations  by, 
24 

Swift,  Gov.  H.  A.,  144;  papers  ac- 
quired, 370 

Swisshelm,  Mrs.  Jane  G.,  365; 
sketch  noted,  382 

Switzerland,  visit  of  editors  to 
U.  S.,  17 


Talbot,  Francis,  303 

Taliaferro,  Maj.  Lawrence,  82,  526; 
copy  of  journal  acquired,  369; 
journals  noted,  93;  letters  noted, 
85 

Talman,  John,  articles  by,  noted, 
318,  429 

Tamahaw  (Tarmahah),  Sioux  In- 
dian, 303 

Tank  Corps,  354,  356 

Tarbox,  Mrs.  Eve  G.,  307 

Tarmahah,  Sioux  Indian.  See  Ta- 
mahaw 

Taxation,  book  noted,  45 

Taylor,  J.  L.,  74,  93 

Taylor,  J.  W.,  sketch  noted,  46 

Taylor,  R.  G.,  article  by,  noted, 
538 

Taylor,  Gen.  Zachary,  68,  76,  77 
n.  13 

Taylor's  Falls,  74  n.  10,  93,  168  n. 
1 ;  John  Daubney  centenary,  230 

Teachers'  Patriotic  League,  article 
noted,  163 

Teakle,  Thomas,  "The  Spirit  Lake 
Massacre,"  reviewed,  27 

Temple  and  Beaupre  Company, 
318 

Telephone,  history  in  Minneapolis, 
noted,  316 

Ten  Thousand  Lakes  of  Minneso- 
ta Association,  231,  521 

Tennessee    Historical    Society,    445 


INDEX 


585 


Texas,  war  history  activities:  50; 
report  on,  noted,  150 

Texas  State  Historical  Association, 
439,  445 

Texas  University,  publication  not- 
ed, 50 

Thach,  C.  C  Jr.,  526 

Thanksgiving  day,  first  in  Minne- 
sota, article  noted,  314 

Thayer,  W.  R.,  letter  by,  443 

Thief  River  Falls,  333,  334 

"Thief  River  Falls  Times,"  articles 
noted,  54 

Third  Minnesota  Volunteer  Infan- 
try, 168  n.  1,  293 

Third  (Marne)  Division,  U.  S. 
Army,  publication  noted,  109 

Third  U.  S.  Infantry,  273,  279, 
280 

Thirteenth  Minnesota  Volunteer 
Infantry,  147 

Thirteenth  U.  S.  (Railway)  Engi- 
neers, history  noted,  162 

Thirty-sixth   U.    S.   Engineers.   341 

Thomas,  Gen.  G.  H.,  62 

Thomas,  J.  M.,  24 

Thompson,  Benjamin,  63 

Thompson,  Horace,  381 

Thompson,  J.  H.,  460 

Thompson,  Rev.  J.  P.,  letter  ac- 
quired, 465 

Thompson,  P.  J.,  148;  pamphlet  by, 
acquired,  324 

Three  Hundred  and  Eighth  U.  S. 
Infantry,  First  Battalion,  arti- 
cle noted,  110 

Three  Hundred  and  Fifty-second 
Infantry,  Company  G,  source  ma- 
terial acquired,  482 

Three  Hundred  and  Fifty-first 
U.  S.  Infantry,  247 

Three  Hundred  and  Fifty-second 
U.  S.  Infantry,  247;  account  not- 
ed, 455 

Three  Hundred  and  Thirteenth 
U.  S.  Engineers,  247 

Three  Hundred  and  Thirty-eighth 
U.  S.  Field  Artillery,  history  ac- 
quired, 324 

Three  Hundred  and  Thirty-ninth 
U.  S.  Field  Artillery,  account 
noted,  455 

Three  Hundred  and  Thirty- seventh 
U.  S.  Field  Artillery,  247;  ac- 
counts noted,  244,  455 

Three  Hundred  and  Twenty-eighth 
U.  S.  Infantry,  Company  B,  his- 
tory acquired,  324 


Thunder  Bay  Historical  Society, 
"Report"  noted,  321 

Thursday  Musical,  Minneapolis, 
manuscript  history,  /<?9J-oo,  ac- 
quired, 464 

Thwaites,  R.  G.,  46 

Tillman,  Rev.  Hjalmar,  book  edited 
by,  noted,  478 

Tinker,  A.  M.,  279,  286  n.  15,  287 

1  intaotonwe.    See  Prairieville 

Titus,  Mrs.  F.  P.,  39,  82,  86 

Titus,  W.  A.,  article  by,  noted,  320 

Todd,  Dana,  384 

Todd,  Gen.  J.  B.  S.,  384 

Todd  County,  iron  deposits,  29 

Torgersen,  Ole,  511 

Torrance,  Ell,  384 

Totten,  J.  R.,  letter  by,  445 

Traders  and  trading  posts,  32,  173, 
194  n.  15,  199,  200,  375,  376,  377, 
473,  480;  articles  noted,  481,  537; 
source  material  acquired,  305.  See 
also  Fur  trade 

Trade  and  labor  unions  in  Minne- 
sota, directory  noted,  312 

Transcript  Publishing  Company 
(Little  Falls),  305 

Transportation,  257,  310,  472,  473; 
in  U.  S.  during  World  War,  335 ; 
articles  noted,  234,  238,  317,  375, 
376.  See  also  Description  and 
travel,  Minnesota  River,  Missis- 
sippi River,  Railroads,  Red  River, 
Steamboats  and  steamboating,  the 
various  railroads 

Travel.    See  Description  and  travel 

Traverse  County,  159;  association 
of  World  War  veterans,  105 ;  map 
noted,  478 

Traverse  des  Sioux  mission,  84 

Treaties,  Sioux  Indians,  1837,  118; 
Winnebago  Indians,  172  n.  5.  See 
also  Treaty  of  Traverse  des 
Sioux 

Treaty  of  Traverse  des  Sioux,  123; 
account  noted,  58 

Trebon,  E.  R.,  188 

Triple  Entente.    See  Allies 

Tripolis  Swedish-Lutheran  Church, 
Kandiyohi  County,  memorial  vol- 
ume noted,  478 

Trovatten,  Ole,  photostatic  copy  of 
journal  acquired,  371 

Trudo,  Capt.  John,  535 

Truesdell,  S.  E.,  sketch  noted,  382 

Truth  Lake,  169 

Tuck,  Amos,  68 

Turner,  Charles,  286  n.  15 


586 


INDEX 


Turner,  F.  J.,  430,  436,  438 
TURNER,    F.    J.,    Middle     Western 

Pioneer  Democracy,  393-414 
"Tuscania,"     steamship,     effect     of 

sinking  on  enlistment,  339 
Tutt,  Mrs.  I.  E.,  39 
Tuttle,  Mrs.  G.  E.,  40,  43 
Tuttle,  W.  W.,  180  n.  10 
Tweedy,  J.  H.,  papers  acquired,  37 
Twentieth    U.    S.    Engineers,    325, 

333,  338,  339,  340 
Twenty-fifth   U.    S.   Engineers,   350 
Twenty-third  U-  S.   Engineers,  336 
Twin   Cities,   "Register"   of   exhibit 

at  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition 

acquired,  96 
Twin   City  History  Teachers'   Club 

459;   meeting  noted,  94 
Two  Harbors,  242,  388,  389 
Tyler,  relieved  by  Home  Guard,  53 

Ueland,  Airs.  Andreas,  462 

Underwood,  R.  S.,  book  by,  ac- 
quired, 324 

Union  Colony  (Greely,  Col.),  book 
noted,  100 

Union  Pacific  railroad,  304 

Unitarian   Church,   255 

United  Spanish  War  Veterans, 
Minnesota  department,  history 
noted,  314 

United  States  Army.  See  individual 
units 

United  States  Army  General  Hos- 
pital No.  29  (Fort  Snelling),  82, 
147,  161,  222,  387;  publication 
noted,  109 

United  States  Board  of  Indian 
Commissioners,  465 

United  States  Bureau  of  Agricul- 
ture, 63 

United  States  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion, "Bulletins"  noted,  45 

United  States  Bureau  of  War  Risk 
Insurance,  344,  355 

United  States  Census  Bureau,  41 

United  States  Constitution,  254 

United  States  Department  of  the 
Interior,  276,  279 

United  States  Employment  Service, 
in  Minnesota,  134,  323;  office  files 
acquired,  322,  544 

United  States  Food  Administration, 

United   States   Forest    Service,   480 

United  States  Fuel  Administration, 

134,  216,  335;  article  noted,  107; 


report  of  administrator  for 
Minnesota  acquired,  322 

United  States  Geological  Survey, 
101;  "Atlas"  noted,  100,  310,  478- 
"Bulletins"  noted,  100,  153,  309; 
work  on  Cuyuna  Iron  Range, 
book  reviewed,  28-30 

United  States  in  the  World  War. 
See  United  States  Army,  Navy, 
etc.,  and  World  War 

United  States  Land  Office,  records, 
479 

United  States  land  patents  ac- 
quired, 225,  371 

United  States  Marine  Corps,  war 
history  noted,  389 

United  States  Motor  Transport 
Corps,  352,  354,  356 

United  States  Navy,  48 

United  States  Steel  Corporation, 
155 

United  States  Supreme  Court,  222; 
Minnesota-Wisconsin  boundary 
case,  381 

United  States  War  Department,  279 

United  States  War  Industries 
Board,  323,  335 

United  States  Weather  Bureau,  99, 
457 

United  War  Work  Campaign,  214, 
322,  544 

Upham,  H.  P.,  381,  428 

Upham,   Lt.   Phinehas,  500 

Upham,  Warren,  142,  428,  472,  500; 
articles  by,  noted,  235,  237,  239; 
book  by,  noted,  456;  "Minnesota 
Geographic  Names ;  their  Origin 
and  Historic  Significance":  re- 
viewed, 448;  reviews  noted,  521— 
paper  by,  noted,  534 

UPHAM,  WARREN,  Former  Homes 
and  Administration  of  the  Min- 
nesota Historical  Society,  426- 
429;  (R)  Harder  and  Johnston's 
'Preliminary  Report  on  the  Ge- 
ology of  East  Central  Minnesota 
including  the  Cuyuna  Iron-Ore 
District,"  28-30 

Upton,  Gen.  LeRoy,  letters  ac- 
quired, 144 

Usher,  E.  B.,  article  by,  noted,  156 


Vail,  R.  W.  G.,  366,  459;  article  by, 

noted,  367 

"Valkyrian,"    articles    noted,    450 
Van  Cleef,  Eugene,  article  by,  not- 
ed, 47 


INDEX 


587 


Vancouver  (Canada),  321,  480 

Van  Sant,  S.  R.f  article  by,  noted, 
311 

Varney,  H.  C,  67  n.  1,  373;  ad- 
dress noted,  92 

VARNEY,  H.  C.,  Birth  Notices  of 
a  State,  66-81 

Varney,  Mrs.  H.  C.,  373 

Veblen,  A.  A.,  530 

Verdun   (France),  144 

Verendrye,  Francois,  471 

Verendrye,  Louis-Joseph,  471 

Verendrye,   Pierre,  471 

Verendrye,  Pierre  Gaultier  de  Va- 
rennes,  sieur  de  la,  471 ;  article 
noted,  535 

Vermillion  Mills  (Hastings),  ac- 
count books  acquired,  524 

Vermillion  Range,  28 

Vermillion  Range  Old  Settlers'  As- 
sociation, 440 

Vermillion  River,  60 

"Veteran,"  161 

Veterans,  161 ;  cooperation  with 
Minnesota  War  Records  Commis- 
sion, 105.  See  also  American  Le- 
gion, World  War  Veterans 

Veterans  of  1866-70  and  1885  and 
the  Old  Settlers  of  the  Red  Riv- 
er Valley,  481 

Vezey,  H.  C,  95 

Victoria  (Canada),  480 

Virginia,  266;  conception  of  de- 
mocracy, 253,  256,  259 

Virginia  Historical  Society,  446 

Virginia  War  History  Commission, 
publication  noted,  327 

"Virginia,"    steamboat,   121 

"Virginia,"  second,  steamboat,  ac- 
count noted,  311 

VIRTUE,  ETHEL  B.,  The  Pond  Pa- 
pers, 82-86;  (R)  Teakle's  "Spirit 
Lake  Massacre,"  27 

Visher,  S.  S.,  590;  article  by,  noted, 
31 

"Visitor,"  first  paper  in  Iowa,  291 

Vladivostok    (Siberia),    13,    16 

Volk,  F.  R.,  529 


Wabasha  County,  242 

Wabasha    Street    (St.    Paul),    64; 

bridge,  59,  170  n.  4 
"Wabashaw  reservati9n,"  78  n.   15 
Wade,  B.  F.,  370 
Wade,  Gen.  J.  F.,  279  n.  10 
Wadena      County,      war      history 

planned,  104 


Wadena  Pioneer  Journal,"  104 
Wahmadetunkah,  Sioux  chief.  See 

Wamditanka 

Waite,  E.  F.,  address  by,  noted,  538 
Walker,  J.  R.,  articles  by,  noted,  31 
Walker,  T.  B.,  art  collection,  arti- 
cle noted,  49 

Walker,  274,  279,  280,  287,  288,  289 
Wallace,  W.  S.,  385 
Wallis,    W.    D.,   article    by,    noted, 

Walsh,  E.  M.,  440 

Wamditanka  (Great  War  Eagle, 
Jerome  Big  Eagle,  Wamindeeton- 
kee),  Sioux  chief,  papers  ac- 
quired, 525,  526 

Wamditanka  (Black  Dog,  Wahma- 
detunkah), Sioux  chief,  525,  526 

Wamindeetonkee,  Sioux  chief.  See 
Wamditanka 

War  Camp  Community  Service,  106, 
238;  records  acquired,  387 

"War  Eagle,"  steamboat,  477 

War  history,  national  association 
of  state  organizations,  243 

"War  Information  Series,"  publica- 
tion of  Committee  on  Public  In- 
formation, 23 

War  Loan  Organization,  accounts 
noted,  214;  Ninth  Federal  Re- 
serve District,  publication  noted, 
245 

War  of  1812,  296 

"War  Records  Bulletin"  (Illinois), 
484 

Ware,  Mrs.  G.  B.,  41 

Warren,  L.  M.,  120  n.  15 

"Warrior,"  steamboat,  82 

Waseca  County,  319;  war  history: 
planned,  104;  reviewed,  212-217 

"Waseca  Journal-Radical,"  104 

Washburn,  W.  D.,  76  n.  11 

Washburne,  E.  B,  76 

Washington,  George,  63,  303,  374; 
exhibits  noted,  94 

Washington  (Conn.),  82 

Washington  County,  159;  roster 
and  portraits  of  service  men  not- 
ed, 109 

"Washington  Historical  Quarterly, 
articles  noted,  46,  99,  521 

Washington  State  Historical  So- 
ciety, 439,  446 

Washington  Territory,  46 

Wassy  (France),  map  of  vicinity 
acquired,  483 

"Watch  on  the  Rhine,"  articles  not- 
ed, 109;  file  acquired,  109 


588 


INDEX 


Watkins,  Joseph,   146 

Watonwan     County,    war    history: 

planned,  53;  reviewed,  212-217 
Way,  R.  B.,  150;  article  by,  noted, 
240  ' 

Weaver,  Gen.  J.  B.,  biography  re- 
viewed, 210-212 

Webster,  Daniel,  quoted,  76 
Wee,    M.    O.,    "Haugeanism :      A 
Brief    Sketch    of    the    Movement 
and    Some   of   its   Chief    Expon- 
ents," reviewed,  91 

"Weekly  Pioneer,"  293 

Weigel,  Gen.  William,  sketch  not- 
ed, 218 

Weikert,  Capt.  C.  L.,  109,  162 

"Wells  Forum-Advocate,"   104,   160 

Wells'  Memorial  House  (Minneap- 
olis), sketch  noted,  476 

"Wells  Mirror,"  160 

"Wendell  Tribune,"  articles  noted, 
54 

West,  R.  M.,  474 

West  Battle  Lake,  191  n.  14 

West  High  School  (Minneapolis), 
pageant,  470 

West  St.  Paul,  59 

West  Union,  180  n.  10 

"Western  Magazine,"  articles  not- 
ed, 100,  155,  235,  315,  480,  521, 
541 

Western  Press  Clipping  Exchange, 
54 

Westminster  Church  (Minneapo- 
lis), 225 

Westward  movement,  115 

Weyerhauser,  F.  W.,  sketch  noted, 
378 

Weymouth    (Mass.),   377 

Wheeler,  O.  D.,  524;  paper  by,  not- 
ed, 519 

Wheeler,  Stephen,  146 

Wheelhouse,  Mary  E.,  457 

Wheelock,  Ralph,  address  by,  418- 
420 

Whig  Party,  68,  407,  511,  516 

Whipple,  Commodore  Abraham, 
116  n.  17 

Whipple,  Catherine,  116  n.  7 

Whipple,  Mrs.  George,  sketch  not- 
ed, 99 

Whipple,  Bishop  H.  B.,  letters  ac- 
quired, 39;  sketches  noted,  99, 
378 

Whipple,  John,  117  n.  7 

Whipple,  Mary  W.,  sketch  noted, 
99 


White,  W.  G.,  439 

White  Bear  Lake,  60,  541 

White  Bear  village,  sketch  noted, 
239 

White  Earth  Reservation,  273  n.  2, 
279  n.  9 

White  Rock  Quadrangle,  map  not- 
ed, 100 

Whitefield,  Edwin,  papers  and 
sketches  acquired,  463 

Whitefield,  W.  C.,  464 

Whitman,  Walt,  quoted,  505 

Whitmore  and  Reed,  retailers,  day- 
book, 1870-71,  acquired,  464 

Whitney,  H.  E.,  95;  pamphlet  by, 
noted,  326 

Whittier  School  (Minneapolis),  383 

Wicker,  George,  286  n.  15 

Wilkin  County  Historical  Society, 
organized,  103;  collection  of  war 
records,  104 

Wilkinson,  Capt.  M.  C.,  279,  280, 
281,  284,  285,  287;  sketch  noted, 
286  n.  14 

Willard,  E.  F.,  article  by,  noted,  101 

Willard,  J.  F.,  book  edited  by,  not- 
ed, 100 

Willcpx,  J.  M.,  letter  by,  441 

"William  Crooks,"  locomotive, 
sketch  noted,  538 

Williams,  Mrs.  C.  W.,  437 

Williams,  J.  F.,  428,  477 

Williams,  Maj.  William,  journal 
noted,  531 

Williamson,  Rev.  J.  P.,  biography 
reviewed,  88 

Williamson,  Rev.  T.  S.,  83,  88,  153; 
letters  noted,  84,  85 

Willis,  F.  D.,  97 

Willis,  Mrs.  J.  R.,  book  noted,  47 

Willis,  J.  W.,  530 

Willis,  Mrs.  J.  W.,  530 

Willson,  C.  C.,  467;  article  by,  not- 
ed, 101 

Wilmington  Township,  Houston 
County,  book  reviewed,  298 

Wilson,  Dr.  A.  V.,  40 

Wilson,  H.  B.,  diary  noted,  40 

Wilson,  James,  68 

Wilson,  M.  L.,  44 

Wilson,  Maj.  T.  P.,  papers  ac- 
quired, 40,  41 

Wilson,  Woodrow,  addresses,  23, 
25;  Mexican  policy,  13,  17;  war 
message,  7;  annotation  of  war 
message,  23 

Wiltse,  Gen.  H.  A.,  291 


INDEX 


589 


Winchell,    H.   V..    interview   noted, 

101 
Winchell,   N.   H.,   101,  429;   sketch 

noted,  378 

Windom,    William,    letters    by,   ac- 
quired, 39 

"Windom  Reporter,"   104 
Winnebago    Indians,    49;    reserva- 
tion, 172;  treaties,  1846,  1851,  172 
n.  5 
Winnebago      Township,      Houston 

County,  book  reviewed,  298 
Winnipeg   (Canada),  321,  480,  481 
Winona,   307;    source   material   ac- 
quired, 97 

Winona  County,  war  memorial  sug- 
gested, 111 

Winona   County  Old   Settlers'  As- 
sociation, 376 

"Winona    Daily    Republican,"    cop- 
ies of  articles  acquired,  526 
Winona   District   Ministerial  Asso- 
ciation   (Methodist),  minutes  ac- 
quired, 462 
"Winona      Independent,"      articles 

noted,  101 

"Winona  Republican-Herald,"  arti- 
cle noted,  376 

Winona  state  normal  school,  439 
Winslow,  J.  M.,  317 
Winslow  House  (St.  Anthony),  145, 

317 

Winslow  House  (St.  Paul),  426 
Winsor,  Justin,  46 
Winthrop,  Gov.  John,  255 
Wisconsin,   139,  231,  313,  406,  408; 
boundary  dispute  with  Minnesota, 
222,  381 ;  source  material  on  west- 
ern   boundary    noted,    37 ;     early 
history,    manuscript    noted,    140; 
historical  activities,  44;    immigra- 
tion, article  noted,  153 ;  territorial 
legislature,  1838-39,  49 
Wisconsin  in  the  World  War,  books 
noted,   107,  248.     See  also   Wis- 
consin War  History  Commission 
"Wisconsin  Magazine  of  History," 
536;  articles  noted,  47,   156,  241, 
320,  376,  377,  385,  471,  473,  532 
"Wisconsin  Memorial  Day  Annual," 

article  noted,  160 
Wisconsin  River,  321 
Wisconsin  State  Historical  Society, 
138,  431,  435,  439,  472,  517,  532; 
"Domesday    book,"    479;    legisla- 
tive    investigation,     240;     manu- 
script   material    noted,    37,    375; 
membership  drive,  385 ;  photostat- 


ing of  historical  records,  44;  pub- 
lications reviewed,  137,  139 

Wisconsin  Territory,  book  re- 
viewed, 139 

Wisconsin  War  History  Commis- 
sion, 160;  publications  noted,  50, 

Wise,  J.  C,  sketch  noted,  319 
Wold,  Nels  T.,  159 

Wolf,  W.  B.,  book  by,  noted,  246 

Wolford,  Peter,  315 

Woman  suffrage  movement  in 
Minnesota,  article  noted,  539; 
source  material  acquired,  462 

Women's  Synodical  Society  of 
Home  Missions  of  Minnesota,  225 

Wood,  C.  E.,  483 

Wood,  J.  K.,  diary  acquired,  39 

Wood,  W.  H.,  292 

Wood  Lake,  battle  of,  459,  535 

Woodman,  Cyrus,  sketch  noted,  156 

Woodworth,  Mrs.  J.  G.,  341 

World  War,  149,  212,  213,  222,  301 ; 
casualties,  162;  Committee  on 
Public  Information,  3-26;  maps 
acquired,  483;  memorials,  28,  157; 
museum  objects  acquired,  147, 
148,  227;  pictures  acquired,  148, 
483;  preservation  of  records,  49- 
51,  106,  160,  243,  248,  327,  484; 
recruiting,  221,  322,  331-359;  vet- 
erans' associations,  105 ;  books  and 
articles  noted,  19,  23,  24,  50,  106, 
107,  110,  112,  150,  162,  163,  245, 
246,  248,  324,  325,  326,  484,  485; 
books  reviewed,  33,  34,  217,  219; 
source  material  acquired,  108,  109, 
126,  144.  See  also  American  Le- 
gion, Minnesota  in  the  World 
War,  Minnesota  War  Records 
Commission,  Selective  Draft,  va- 
rious divisions,  regiments,  and 
companies ;  various  states,  vari- 
ous training  camps,  World  War 
Veterans 

World  War  Veterans,  159 

World's  Fair,   New  York  City,  58 

Wright,  Agnes  R.,  letter  by,  446 

Wright,  Dr.  John,  466 

Wright,  Rev.  S.  G.,  370 

Wulling,  F.  J.,  439 

Wyman,  W.  W,  76 

Wyoming    Historical    Society,    446 


Yellow   Medicine,   144 
Yellow  Medicine  agency,  27 
Yellow  Medicine  County,  158 


590 


INDEX 


Yost,  Maj.  J.  D.,  334,  346 

Young,  C.  J.  P.,  143 

Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
324,  414,  544;  Minneapolis:  ar- 
ticles noted,  102,  475 ;  picture  of 
building  noted,  102 — in  the  World 
War:  106,  216;  Minnesota  branch, 
1918  official  file  acquired,  322; 
war  council,  134;  articles  noted, 
239,  244;  source  material  ac- 
quired, 37 


Young-Qumlan  Company  (Minne- 
apolis), publication  noted,  384 

Young  Women's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, in  the  World  War,  106; 
Minnesota  branch,  war  records  ac- 
quired, 482;  north  central  field 
committee,  war  records  acquired, 
544 

Ziebel,  Albert,  286  n.  15 
Ziegler,  Gottfried,  286  n.  15 
Zimmerman,  Anna,  355 


ERRATA 

Page     30,  line  33,  for  at  that  time,  read  previously. 

•  31,  line  14,  for  Dr.  Stephen  S.  Walker,  read  Dr.  Stephen  S.  Visher. 

•  96,  line  9,  for  Mr.  Arthur  Courtney,  read  Mr.  Fred  L.  Chapman. 
102,  line  34,  for  ch.  228,  read  ch.  288. 

-  145,  line  4,  for  Abbey,  read  Abby. 

-  150,  line  28,  for  Charles  M.  Ramsdell,  read  Charles  W.  Ramsdell. 

-  158,  line  15,  for  ch.  228,  read  ch.  288. 
—  226,  line  2,  for  Fiske,  read  Fisk. 

-  314,  line  22,   for  2:399,  read  1:399. 

-  371,  line  9,  for  land  grants,  read  land  patents. 
372,  line  19,  for  Jcsserand,  read  Jusserand. 

-  428,  line  22,  for  Iowa,  read  Ohio. 

-  472,  line  1,  for  Hugh,  read  Samuel. 


d 


F 
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