Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-12-31


of money for the several purposes desig-
mated:
Purchase Of animals. .............$ 1923, 720
Purchase of grounds ................ 5000
Erection of stables. ................ $4,000
Fencing, etc.. 5000
ssa6, 72o
In the above no account is taken Of
freight paid for transportation Of
horses from the place where brought
to St. Paul, railroad fares
and expenses of himself and his purchas-
ing agent, Mr.. D. W. Woodmansee, or
of the cost of conducting the farm, which
added, would swell Mr.. Kitson's expen-
ditures in this line since March first last
to at least $3.50, 900. And yet Mr.. Kilt
son has not reached the point where he
proposes to cry halt in the purchase of an
imals, or in the improvement of his breed
ing and training grounds. An item in this
latter direction, is an elegant club house,
and still another is large modern resi-
dence for the occupancy of his manager
and family, both of which will probably
he built the coming season. From the
character of many of Mr.. Kittson's pur-
chases, it is his evident intention to be
represented On the turf, both with trot-
tiers and runners, though to what extent
can only be learned as his plans are de-
developed.
NORMAN W. KTTTsON,
the man whose public spirit and love for
the horse, has impelled him to this large
expenditure, was born in the town of
Ford, Borough of William Henry, Lower
Canada, on the 5th day of March, 1914.
His family was highly respectable and
socially prominent, his father holding q
responsible position in the employ of the
Great Hudson Bay company or of the
Northwest company. His grandmother
married for her second husband Alexan-
der Henry, an historical character in the
Northwest, who was noted as one of the
early traders with the Indians, and was
only saved from the general massacre
when the British military post at old
Michilimackinac was taken by combined
tribes some years previous to the Revolu-
tiion, by the Intervention in his behalf
of some warm friends among them, by
whom he was for many days secreted in
cave on the Island of Mackinac, until
the danger was past.
Mr.. Kittson was a lively youth and
fond of adventure. He attended school
until he arrived at the age of 16, when,
with the consent of his parents, he and
an older brother, John, entered the SER
vice of the American Fur company, at
the head of which was John Jacob
Astor, and were dispatched in Mackinac
boats from Montreal by river and lake to
Mackinac. From that point John was
assigned to trading post at Green Bay,
on Lake Michigan, and Norman was
sent, in company with others, to the
portage of the Wisconsin, at which post
he remained for two years. In 1882 he
first came to what is now Minnesota,
spending some months at Lake Traverse,
near the source of the Minnesota river.
FromIthence he was ordered to Prairie
du Chen, where he spent the summer of
1888. and at the close of the season he
was placed in charge of trading station
on the Red Cedar. branch of the Lower
Iowa river. The following year he was
in the suffers store at Fort
Smelling, and remained there until the
fall of 1888, when he went to visit his
friends in Canada, and among whom he
passed the winter In the spring of 1889
he returned to Fort Smelling, and bought
out the establishment of Benjamin F.
Baker, a trader in the vicinity Of the
post, and continued in business until
lS43, when his stock in trade was sold by
him to e. b. Sibley, and transferred to
the main depot at Mendoza. From this
time forward he was made the partner of
Sibley and others of the American Fur
Company, in the trade of the Red river,
in opposition to the Hudson Bay COM
pany, and he proceeded to establish an
important trading post at Pembina, on
the British boundary line. From this en-
terprise sprang the extensive commerce
between the Selkirk colony and St. Paul,
which has continued to increase in i'm
portance to the present day.
Mr.. Kittson has necessarily lived life |
of danger and exposure His adventures
would, if written, form large and most |
interesting volume. 1t is not surprising
that the intercourse of so many years |
has closely cemented the friendship be-
tween himself and Gen. Shibley Mr.
Kittson in his declining age has come leg
and honestly into possession of |
handsome fortune, and he has always
acted upon the principle that it is ''more
blessed to give than to receive" and
many, very many of Gods poor have
been made secretly and unostentatiously |
the recipient of his bounty. His mag
niicent investment at Kittsondale bids |
fair to eliminate in great advantage to |
the state, in the importation and breed |
ing of blooded horses.
Mr.. Kittson is extensively known in
the northwest, and his nobility of charac-
ter and perfect integrity are household |