St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-20
Sketches Of the Moving Spirits of Establishments
Supplying the Wants Of Hundreds Of Thou
sands of People.

st. Paul. by reason of its situation,
GaS a "whOlesaling" point even before
it was a village; one might almost say
before the white man appeared upon
the scene in the Northwest: for the
very earliest information we have takes
us back TO period when the Indians met
here to trade with each other: and it
was here, also, they came together when
any unusual enterprise demanded their
combined action. The reason for this
was that it is here the great waters Of
tins region meet. The Mississippi, with
its numerOs continents. afforded OppOr
tunities of easy travel for the denizens
of The entire region north of the city,
almost 10 the international boundary,
for a distance of from fifty TO one humid
red miles in width on the west and
from twenty to fifty miles on the east
side of the river as far north as Red
Lake. Toward the west. the Minnesota
and its tributary streams covered wide
territory extending into Dakota, and
with few short portages as far north
as Winnipeg. or we might almost in
'clude the entire Saskatchewan and
Assinniboine valleys, while Oh the east,
they had, within accessible distance, the
st. CroiX and Wisconsin rivers and the
streams flowing into them. 1t must be
borne in mind that to an Indian, with
his light canoe, most Of the smaller
rivers which empty into any one of
these from principal streams, was a
channel OF navigation very little inferior
for the red mans purpose to the MissiS-
sippi itself
1t is no wonder. therefore. that when
white men came here they chose the To-
cality now occupied by St. Paul as the
most suitable for a commercial empOr-
ium. AS arly as 1884, when the late
Gen. IL. II. Sibley was an Indian trader,
this locality (AIinnesOta) was where he
stored his goods and from which they
were distributed among his savage Gus
toners; and it may be justly claimed
that the pioneer wholesalers of St. Paul
were Henry II. SIbley, Franklin Steele.
Joseph r. Brown and Henry NJ. Rice.
True, three of them were Indian trad
ers and the other a settler; but their
traffic was largely in the wholesale line.
as many of those who bought from
them took the goods to distant places
for distribution. Neither were they, at
that early day, located within the pres
ent site of the city, but at Mendoza. Fort
Smelling. st. Anthony and in the vicn-
ity OF Newport.
The first real mErchant located in st.
Paul was Henry jackson, who opened a
store on jackson street near the edge of
the bluff in 1912. While this can hardly
be called. within the present meaning
of tie word. a iobbing house. Mr.. Jack
on certainly did
4 Larger Wholesale
than retail business. for he supplied
many of the lumber camps on the east
side OF the Mississippi, and camps of
wood cutters engaged in the neighbor-
ing forests in obtaining supplies Of
fuel. lie was soon followed by others,
and before the territory was organized,
in 1919, st. Paul had a number of stores,
all Of which did more or less wn0lesal-
ing, and from which vast quantities of
goods were sold. The Indians were eX-
cellent customers. by the way. in those
early days, for they were then under
the control of the military. and not only
received their money regularly, accord
ing TO the promise made 10 them, but
received all that was due them, and got
rid of il afterwards as their own iudC-
mentS dictated. For few days after
every payment St. Paul StOrekeepers
had all they could do TO attend to the
dusky crowds which thrOnged their es-
adjustments. No better idea can be
obtained of the increase of the business
of this locality than by giving a short
history OF the steamboat business from
its beginning up 10 lS5G. The first
steamboat that ever came up tie Mis-
siSSippi river with a cargo of goods was
SteTn-Whceier known as the Virginia.
1t arrived here in May. 1928 Previous
10 that whatever commodities were
shipped by water were brought bV
barges, or keel boats. and sixty days
was the time required for the voyage
from ST. Louis. In 1S49the whole trade
Of the Mississippi above Galena was
done 10y little boats like the Argo, and
their trips we're by no means regular.
For a long time the ArEO was the only
boat regularly engaged in the
trade. and when another boat was
put on 1t was thought that
competition between them would be
ruinous 10 both. 1t is rue that, for
time. the Argos business suffered con-
siderable dimunitIOn in 1919 The SEN
atur, Capt. Smith, made weekly uips
hither from Galena; the Dr. Franklin.
No l. Capt. Lodwick, from st. Louis.
came once in two weeks; the Highland
Mary, No. .. Capt. Atkinson, also from
St Louis. once in two weeks. Toward
the close Of the season, The Union.
capt. Keelor Harris, came once week
from Galena. and occasionally there
were transient boats besides. In 1881
the local paper records that there were
eight steamboat arrivals in one week,
and dwells at considerable length upon
the fact. rs showing q wonderful i'll
crease of the trade. \ tabular state
nent published in 1856 gives the follow
Ing as the steamboat arrivals during the
period Of twelve years:
Number
of Boats
IA 80 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Il