The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1854-06-17
THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE Is, 1854.
Saint Paul.

Saint Paul.
We have it every day thrown at us by some
of our fogy fellow-citizens, 1--WE have few Of
them here) that we editors are OVERRIDING the
country in our praise of it-that we are raising
expectations too high here in St. Paul-that
property is already up to ruinous ratcs-that
we must soon have fall and crash, and all
that sort of thing. We can inform our good
and anxious friends that however high our
opinion is of the place and its future destiny,
people abroad who have sense, and know any
thing of st. Paul's history, position and enter
tcrprsing character, are fully up to the high
EST mark of the most enthusiastic citizen.
Many carefully calculating capitalists who
were among the cxcursionists last week.
were much surprised to find property so much
lower here than it is in Galena and Dubuque
cities which by the natural course OF events
must be far outstripped by st. Paul in a very
few years. We could name Eastern men not
unknown to fame as statesmen and leading bus
mess men of the country, who gave it as their
settled conviction that real estate at this time
is CT more intrinsic value in St. Paul than in
either of the places we have named.
AS a specimen of what strangers think of u.s.
VIC copy the following from the Metropolitan, a
new paper published at Washington City:
The capital of the Territory of Minnesota,
although unknown and unhcard of six years
! ago, is now attracting the attention of the mcr-
chant, the manufacturer, the capitalist, and the
! SPECTATOR. In the summer of 1918 it contain
cd sixteen houses and nearly one hundred and
! fifty inhabitants now the population is five
thousand. The orig inal settlers in and around
the city were Canadian French vOyagers. who
had been employed by the American Fur Com
! pany, and a few whiskey traders who had been
driven by the soldiers from the military rcscr-
walton at Fort Smelling. Indeed. SO far as Anne
rlcans were concerned, it seemed to be- except
to a very few, a land unknown. But what can
stop the Pioneer! He must get as far as pos
slblc from law and calOmel. and when they be-
gin to cncrOach upon him, he sells out, takes up
his staff, journeys westward, leaving his i'm
prOvcmcnts behind to his more social and more
civilized countrymcn. Attention was first at
tracted to this country by pleasure parties from
st. Louis and other cities on the Lower Missis-
sippi, who during the scorching heats of sum
mcr fed to the Upper Mississippi; to St. An
thony Falls, and to romantic Fort Smelling. to
escape the noise, confusion and dust of the city,
and inhalc the refreshing brccZes of the North
west The glowing accounts of the first plea
sure voyages regarding the beauty and grand
eur Of the scenery of the Upper Mississippi, at
tracted the attention of others, and parties be-
/ came so numerous that MS early as the summer
/ of 1871 one boat, the Highland Mary, employed
all her time in their accommodation sufficient
length of time at the principal landings to allow
strangers to obtain view Ct the country, and
having band on board to discourse sweet mu-
sic. and cnlircn those then drcary solituIcs.
But that which gave the first great impulse to
the growth of Minnesota and ST. Paul, was the
removal of the Winnebagocs from their old
homes in Wisconsin and Iowa to their newly
selected country about one hundred and fifty
miles above ST. Paul. These Indians were re-
moved in the spring and summer of 1913, I'M
der the superintendent of III. NJ. Rice. the pre-
sent delegate from the Territory. They re-
ceivcd semannual payments in goods provi-
sions, and money from the Government, and
those goods and provisions were, from the ne
cessity of the case, brought from below. Mr..
Rice had them landed at ST. Paul, and caused
the road to the Indian country to he located on
the east bank of the Mississippi. Thus st. Paul
grew at once into an important business. The
organization of the Territory was secured in
the winter of 1919, and in the spring of that
year, Rice and Irvinc's addition to ST. Paul,
Qarger than the original plat) was laid out and
two new warehouses built at the upper landing.
The proprietors of the new addition were very
liberal in regard to the terms for the sale of
their lots, gave to two Christian denominations
lots for Il parsonage and church, and the a1di-
ton soon began to rival the old town.
But both continued to grow with unparal-
lclled rapdity, and the two ends then nearly a
mile apart,are now connected by one continuous
row Of buildings. The only house of VOL ship
in 1878, was a one story log building eight by
twelve feet, through which thc.wind penetrated
in thousand places. Now st. Paul has three
frame and five brick churches. Excellent pro-
vision is made for educational purposes. The
city is divided into school districts, and coull-
ty tax levied to support the schools. II the
amount raised by the county is insufficient, the
Trustees of each district are empowered to
raise from their district an amount sufficient
to keep the school in operation. The future of
st. Paul can easily be forctold, situated as it
is at the head of navigation on the Mississippi,
it must command the trade of the whole coun-
try n'r.h and norhwcst oft The Minnesota
river flowing in to the Mississippi six miles
above st. Paul, is navi gable one hundred and
fifty miles but not for the large class ofboatS that
reach st Paul. st Paul then must be the point
of transllipmcnt for the future thousands who
are tOpcOplc the magnificent valley of the Min
ncsota. Is it difficult then to predict that in ten
years. it will be the largest city on the Mississ-
ippi north of st. Louis.
IMPORTANT TO wN-OwNEEs.-Mr Rice. in
correspondence with the Commissioner OF the
General Land Office, has drawn out of that