St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-02-23
A NoTABLE Ca FIR.
Rev. William Wilkinson on the
Life of Gen. Sibley.

Rev. William Wilkinson on the
Life of Gen. Sibley.
QRev. William Wilkinson, the chaplain
of the house of representatives,
preached a memo ,ial sermon for Gen.
Sibley yesterday morning, at st. An
drew's church, of which he is rector
The general was lifelong Episco
paIian. The text was taken from
SAM, /, v. 7-12: Then Samuel took a
stone and set it up between Mizpah and
Shen." The preacher said man is so
apt to let even important providences,
great deliverances, signal victories and
the impress of heroic and noble lives
slip out of view that wise men in all
lands and time of which we have any
knowledge have placed enduring mon
uments of cOmmemOration that great
facts might be frequently brought to re-
membrance. 1t would be wise, a
most Seemly thing, for this state
to erect monument to Gen. Sibley
as one of the most illustrious founders
of it. So much is there in the principle
am now laying down, that in our own
midst, before the last OF the generation
has passed away. which knew the be-
ginnings. much is lost which would be,
in historic point of view, of priceless
value. A most careful inquiry at the
10 answer to many fascinating queS-
tions. Many photos and things of value
to the man who desires to know the
genesis of Minnesota; in truth, have
been lost by fire and cannot be re-
placed We live in a fast age: things
move quickly. 1t is hardly believable
that Gen. Sibley never faw Chicago.
An old stockake. rev stores and
a waste of sand; that, in the life
time of Sibley, the present state
of Minnesota was unsurveyed; and
that it was part of the new territory
of Wisconsin, That in the place of the
now happy villages, fruitful farms and
stately cities. In 1884 the buffalo, deer,
elk, moose, bear, wolf. fox and game of
different sorts, with the native Indian,
divided the region. Amongst them, in
their native haunts and natural ways,
they followed natures plan. The white
man had never set foot upon most of
this wide domain, and only here and
there had an adventurous soul seen a
glimpse of small part of it; Mnneap-
Oils was not; ST. Paul hardly had begun
to be. Sibley, for nine years, lived at
Mendoza in single blessedness. He
knew we'll the Indian; bought furs
from him, sold goods to him. He built
the first house of prayer west of the
Mississippi river. In those days he
was a man of good presence, strong and
athletic; he did not know fear; the
fierceness of winters cold: the swarm
ing Indians near him had no terror for
him: he braved dangers which would
have frightened timid man to death or
out of the country. But in it all he
stood calm, placid and serene, with q
true confidence in his own reserve force.
which is ever the sign of great and
noble mind. In the early years of Sib-
ley's residence here emigration set in,
and with it came as heroic, sturdy, hard
working, far-seeing, God-fearlng men
as ever took up homes in new lands.
The religioniSts of those days, and the
days Immediately following, left records
which will long remain in honor of the
now sainted dead, Revs. Messrs, Will
hanson, Patterson, Cretin, Gere, Brock
and others. They had different
forms of faith, but one purpose
was evident in the lives of all.
With such laymen as I'll. NJ. Rice.
Franklin Steele, Stevens and host of
others whose names are familiar to the
the readers of pen sketches, early
days of Minnesota and its people, and
history OF Minnesota; but no loftier
soul, no more patriotic spirit was III the
whole list of afterwards distinguished
men than Henry Hastings Sibley. This
man came west, but he did not leave be-