Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-09-03
S. B. Watrous of Ashtabula, 0.
A. NJ. Sayers of New York city.
d AGnlnu &C Mn-r Xc.I


u. Dallas Hemphill of West Chester, Pa
FL. A. Douglas and Fl. Ell. Douglas Of
Milwaukee.
| L. j. Burbank of Iowa.
| Richard Starkey of Anoka county, MINI
| M. Heisler, of Prairie du CHEN, Wis.
| Gilbert Graham and 2. Roche of Mime
apolis.
Mrs. John Dunphy, Miss Annie Bardon
Miss Philomina Mccormick and John
Dunphy of Twin Lakes, MINI.
This party, including the only
ladies present, came six miles
on the old military road and had to walk
a good part of the way.
Hiram Hayes, THOMPSON Ritchie, Ed.
ingalls,, Mr.. Grant and several others, came
from Superior.
Richard Marvin, E. G. Belote, D. D.
Scott, Sam S. Sloan and Capt. R. G. Terry
of st. Paul. Capt. Terry, who was a
younger brother of Br. Gen. Terry, q. s..
A., was then practicing law in st. Paul.
From Fond du Lac-Wm. R. Durfee,
Webb NJ. Carlton, L. F. MacLauren,
George E. Wheeler, Walter Wheeler, w.
E. WEIGH, Dennis Stack, Z. Fl. Pratt, L. B.
Coffee and V. P. RedfeId.
From Duluth - William Nettleton,
James D. Ray, Sidney Luce, j. B. Culver,
Luke Marvin, Thomas Foster,J. G. Hunter,
J. J. Egan, Charles B. Newcomb.
Rev. Mason Gallagher, Clinton
Markell, Edgar Nash, Geo. S. Barrager,
A. N. Seip, Charles Northup, James
Northup, John f. McLaren, j. G. Sawyer,
DR.. E. E. Collins, A. s. Thompson, Thos.
G. Cain, I. W. Litchfeld, Henry F. Leo
pold, Jr., j. G. Parker, Alfonso Gates, Seth
G. Tennis, Charles Stewart, Elias Williams,
Fl. L. Collins and others.a
THE FIRST EARTH.
Chief Engineer Spauldipg having grace
fully yielded to the desire of his visitors
that there should be more demonstrative
beginning than he had contemplated, the
assemblage was organized on motion of
j. B. Culver, by electing DR.. Thos. Foster,
of Duluth, as president of the day, and
Hiram Hayes, of Superior, and Albert N.
Seip, of Duluth, as secretaries. DR.. Foster,
taking his stand upon a nillock
of earth and stone where the first earth
was to be moved, remarked upon the pro-
prietY of beginning with an invocation of
Gods blessing and called upon Rev.
George Senter, of st. Louis to ask the
blessing. In his short prayer Mr.. Sluter
said: 'And we now invoke thy blessing
upon the great enterprise inauguy ated this
day and beseech thee to prosper it, to
bring it to a speedy and successful con-
clusion, to fulfill the most cherished plans
and anticipations of its found
ers lin the Iromo'i of
the prosperity of our common country.
May it prove blessing not only to this
land but the world"
On suggestion of Chief Engineer Spauld
ing, ]. B. Culver, Of Duluth, was appointed
to fill the first wheelbarrow and Hiram
Hayes, of Wisconsin, to wheel it..
Capt. Starkey and others piled the
pickaxes vigorously for q few minutes and
loosened the pile of frozen earth, which
Mr.. Culver loaded into the barrow, when
Mr.. Hayes started with the barrow in the
direction of Superior. The chairman was
excited and furious in minute and ali
Duluth would have backed him at the mo-
ment in declaring war upon Superior. But
the railroad men interfered, and Hayes
was easily persuaded to deposit the barrow
load on the spot indicated by Mr.. Spauld-
ing, in the direction of the Pacific. The
spot where this ceremony took place was
designated by Mr.. Hungerford as at a
point near the line of the L. S. & NJ,
about two miles south of the Dalles. 1t
was on the main line grade of the North
ern Pacific, little west of its present
junction with the main line Of the st. Paul
& Duluth road.
THE SACRED" IMPLEMENTS.
Capt. Starkey having placed the first
pick, the first shovel and the first wheel
barrow used on the road at the disposal of
the assemblage, it was first proposed to
give the wheelbarrow to the Minnesota
Historical society, the shovel to the Duluth
Library association, and the pick to the
Fond du Lac society; but it was finally
agreed that the sacred implements" as
they were called by one of the speakers,
should be sent to Jay Cooke, which was
done. But before the wheelbarrow was
sent away considerable part of its wood
work had been cut away for mamentoes of
the occasion. One of its chips was sent to
the State Historical society
and was carefully preserved
until 1t was lost in the capitol fire which
consumed many other relics belonging to
the society.
It may be remarked here that this
''breaking ground" Feb. Is, 1870, was
merely formal compliance with the re-
auirement of the amended charter of the
company and the construction work from
that time for nearly five months was mere
ly formal. In dply the work was begun
in earnest by the sub contractors uEsder the
construction company to which the build
iny Of the road WAS cOmmitted
After the ceremony of Feb. Is Capt.
Starkey and Gen. Rosser proceeded direct
ly on foot on the proposed line of road to
the Mississippi river. They had
most difficult journey through
the winter-clad wilderness, and when they
were climbing through the many windfalls
covered with snow drifts which they en-
countered, it may be imagined that Capt.
Starkey envied his companion the long
limbs which enabled him to go over the
distractions with ease as compared to the
short limbed captains labors.
THE SPEECHES.
On such an occasion, with DR.. Foster as
chairman. and many present who felt the
full significance of the event, speechmak-
ing was in order. DR.. Foster led off and
Messrs. Spaulding, Gallagher, Hayes,
Shields, Culver, Starkey, Hungerford, Luke
Marvin, Adamson, Richard Marvin, Owen,
Seip, Sluter, Egan and Newcomb we're
successfully called out. DR.. Foster glori-
g. T,r o-J en01,a Of tho 4