The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1853-04-02
sam T P AU L.
Situation.

0Nu0tlous
St. Paul occupies perhaps the most eligible
and commanding and also one Of the most
beautiful locations on the Upper Mississippi
Commercially, it is the key to all the vast
region north Of 1t, and by the Minnesota river
to the immense valley drained through that
important tributary to the Father Of Waters
The approach to it by the river from below is
grand and imposing. The traveller, after leav-
ing Dubuque, more than three hundred miles
below, sees nothing to remind him Of city, or
even q prosperous business town, until he
rounds the bend in the river below st. Paul,
and her tall spires, substantial business houses
and neat dwellings burst upon his view.
By the general course of the river, st. Paul
is situated upon the east bank of the Mississip-
nj. The local course of the river, however, at
this particular point is from southwest to
northeast, This circumstance often confuses
strangers in casting about for the points of the
compass. The site of the town is elevated, and
rests upon two benches running at right an
giles with the rivcr-onc rising from thirty to
forty feet above high water mark, the other
about sixty feet. 1t is irregularly laid out,
and extends along the river the distance of a
mile and half The channel the whole dis
lance in front of the town is deep-affording
ample means for the purposes Of steamboat
navigation in seasons of the lowest water.
Early Historical Incidents.
without going so far back as the early part
Of ls47, to note the few rude trading cabins of
tamarac logs which marked the present site of
st. Paul, then fiourishing under the unpoetic
so6riquet of Pigs Eye,D we will commence
picking up our incidents about the middle of
that year. Then it was that the 'squatters'
upon the public lands which mark the site of
ST. Paul proper, conceived the idea of laying
out O town thereupon. The names of those
who were then sole proprictors,' barring Uncle
Sans prior lien, are Vetal Guerrin, Alex. r.
Mcleod, Henry Jackson, Hartshorn & Randall,
Louis Roberts, Benjamin Gervais David Farri-
bault, A. L. Larpenteur, ]. w. Simpson and J.
Demarrais. These worthy pioneers are all yet
living-living in exemplifcation of the old
truism, that the first settlers of new country
generally live and die the poorest men in it,
One or two Of them who appear likely to escape
this apparently predestined fate, only stand as
monuments of exception to prove the verify of
the rule. All had an unequal interest in that
portion of the present Capital of Minnesota, en-
braccd in the area extending from about half
way between Sibley and Jackson streets up to
st. Peters street, and from the river back to
Eighth street. This they employed Ira B.
Brunson, of Prairie du Chen, to lay of into
town lots during the month of July, ISL
little dreaming that in less than five years it
would prove the nucleus around which would
concentrate the future commercial and political
metropolis of mighty Commonwealth-the
heart of that northwestern emporium which is
to give pulsation and life-blood to the northern
giant Of the Mississippi Valley.
st. Paul it was named from the parish name
Of the Catholic Church which had been organ
lied six years previous. No visible signs of its
future greatness became manifest during that
or the succeeding year, if we except the land
sales at the Falls of st. Croix, in August of AS
at which time the proprietors proved up their
prescriptions and procured titles from the Gov
eminent. This year the old warehouse at the
Lower Landing, now occupied by Constans &
Burbank, was erected, and the building at the
corner of Jackson and Third, now occupied by
George Wells, rc-modelled from rude cabin
into what was then considered spacious and
commodious hotel. Mr.. Bass made the i'm
provement, and was the first landlord. We
believe Mr.. Larpcnteurs dwelling house, on
the opposite corner, was built the same wear :
also Mr.. Hopkins store, on the southwest cor
ner of the same streets.
John X. Irvine held and entered the :claim'
on the river Immediately above the town plat.
He had not thought much of it-merely occu-
plying it as residence, with few acres ada
cent to his dwelling under cultivation, which
supplied the wants of his family. The keen
speculative eye of Henry N. Rice first conceiv.
ed the idea of laying off the extensive plateau
embraced in the claim of Irvine, and immcdi.
ately adjacent to st. Paul, into an addition
thereto. Rice bought in with Irvine: and in
the winter Of ls4s-49-just before the passage
OF the act by Congress organizing the Terrific
ry-their Addition was divided into lots The
mere fact that man of the known energy and
enterprise of Rice, had taken hold of st. Paul
Unused new life into the place, and it soon had
name, even beyond the limits of the neighbor
ing regions This name was sent far and wide
over the country when, through the patriotic
perseverance and devoted zeal of Henry IL.
Sibley, the organic act, naming St. Paul as the
temporary capital, passed both houses of Con-
gress. and was approved by the President on
the third of March 1910
= OIner additions rapidly multiplied. Smith
d "hitney's (Hon. Robert Smith, of Alton, ILL.,.
at this time supposed by some to be our new
Governor-and Cornelius S. Whitney. at the
time Land Office Receiver at st. Croix Falls
long since gone to California, and no relative
of the present Whitneys of st. Paul,) was laid
of in April of the same year, and Hoyt's in
May. Sam'l Leech, Land Office Register at st
Croix Falls under Polk, not to be outdone by
his fellow-oficer, had laid off in August of that
year, the addition which bears his name