St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-11-22

old home in Harrisburg, Ia, ana, after
a journey Of several weeks via the Hud-
son river, by rail over what is now the
New York Central, to the great lakes,
to Milwaukee, thence by stage, etc,
TO Prairie du Chen, where we took the
boat up the Mississippi. Finally, on the
9th OF May, 1919, We reached ST. PaG!,
the embryo capital OF the new terri
tory of Minnesota.
1t was about sunset on bright
spring morning that, following we'll
marked Indian trail, L plodded up the
high bank of the river and caught my
first glimpse OF st. Paul II presenteu
the ordinary p cture of a Western from
tier town in its earliest beginnings:
Some fifteen or twenty small houses OF
the most unpretentious character pullt
chiefly of rough boards and Struggling
along in rows, suggesting only streets.
Rumors having gone abroad that II
would probably be named as the seat
of government, the village had increas-
ed rapidly during the preceding months,
and at this time numbered possibly 80
or 800 people.
Later in the day might have been seen
a motley crowd of Indians, mixed blcods
and frontiersmen, but at that early
hour the village was yet asleep, and
undisturbed l was at liberty to indulge
my reflections, which were OF very
mingled character.
In the words of a traveller of that
early day: LAS l stood there and re
fiected Crn my long journey, on the dis
tance between that and the place of
my birth, on the prairies over Whlch L
had passed, the great river, the Father
of Waters, up which l had sailed into
this new and unsettled land where the
children of the forest still lived and
roamed, there came over my soul
realizing sense of the greatness and
VastnesS of my country winch no nS-
ures or description had ever conveyed
It'd hsa1 O.n a n I
in the crowded capitals and smiling
villages of the East, and how far away
they seemed.
But l queried Within myself, where
are the people, the people upon whom
l am to exerc Sc my inexperienced gu
bernatorial qualifications? l looked to
the north, looked to the south, to the
east and to the west, but all that met
the eye was the river as it flowed past,
and the wide eXpanse of prairie, the
only evidence of civilization the strag-
Cling little village by my side.
But by the census, which was taken
subsequently during the month of June,
l learned that already the white man
had found his way to this distant land
to dispute its possessions with his red
brother, and that there were between
1900 and 5000 already settled in the
new territory, but scattered over an
arae of 170,049 square miles-nearly
equal in extent to the republic OF
France-for you must remember that
the territory of Minnesota comprised
not only the present state, but the two
DakotaS as well, the Missouri river be-
ing the boundary line.
Far to the northwest, some 800 or 400
miles distant, was probably the most
considerable of all the settlements.
These people were chifiy descendants
of the settlers brought over by Lord
Selkirk in the beginning of the cen
tury, Scotch, Orkney men and some
Swiss, many of them since lntermar-
ried with the Indians. Chafing under
the really mild, but to their independ-
ent and turbulent nature seemingly Sc
we're rule of the Hudson Bay company,
and attracted also by the rich booty in
the shape of fresh meat, pemmican
and robes which the great buffalo
plains afforded them, they had with
their meager outfits of carts, horses
and dogs crossed over into the United
States territory, and 200 of them, per-
hapS, men, women and children, had
located on the west bank of the Red
River of the North.
Further to the south, along some OF
the smaller streams, tributary to the
Missouri and Mississippi, few retired
voyageurs had made their homes, hunt
ing, fishing and cultivating their small
patches of ground.
In the southeast, the present Wash
ington county, or as it then vast.
Croix, that fragment which had come
to the territory from Wisconsin upon
her organization as a State-Were set
tied possibly twenty or thiry farmers,
originally attracted to the country by
the numbering interests further to the
north. Maine men most of them. In
this section, the present fiouriShing city
of Saltwater, then in its infancy, was
being stirred by that spirit of enter
prise which still moves it and has made
it what it is.
In around ST. Paul, in what is now
known as Little Canada, were a few
Canadian French, at the most, 100 Our
beautiful sister city of Minneapolis had
not as yet seen the light, except that
portion of it on the east bank of the
river, then known as St. Anthony, and
where were grouped a few houses and
one saw mill.
Thus, throughout all this region, as
you see, the population was extremely
sparse. You will better realize this
when I tell you that in August of 1851,
two years later, when travelling to
Pembina, across the country from
Sauk Rapids by the Red river trail to
where the Bois de Sioux enters the
Red river, thence north, a, distance in
all of 400 miles, after crossing the Mis-
sissippi, with the exception of our own
party, We saw not one human being
white, red or black.
To ell who have at heart the interest
of this new country in which they
bilious for the development of its re-
sources, was at once manifest the i'm
portance, and, indeed, the necessity of
speedily opening all of the territory for
settlement.
For the title to all land west of the
Mississippi river was still in the Da-
kota and Chippewa Indians.
An agitation was at once begun to
induce the government to so far fur
1her this desire for expansion by au-
thorizing negotiations with the Da-
kotaS for the eXtinguiShment of their
title. 1t was the strong and universal
desire of the whole community.
Congress passed the necessary acts.
and in 1851 the treaties of Traverse de
Sioux and Mendoza accomplished this
were confirmed by the United States
senate in July, 1852 100000 acres were
acquired and opened to settlers, and
Immediately the stream of emigration
began to flow in the direction Of these
promised lands, though there were still
delays caused by the necessary pre-
liminaries of land surveys, etc.
Thus, it will be seen that the real
worth of Minnesota did not and could
not have begun until after July, 1852.
Now, what was the character of this
early immigration into Minnesota? 1t
consisted chiefly of movements from
the older Western states, from Wis
consin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and
Ohio, on the whole representing the
best elements of those states. AS some
one truly said, Minnesota has enjoyed
in her makeup that rare and excellent
process of selection and culling from
the older states, which has thrown into
the van of civilization the hardy lum-
herman and first settler of the wilds.''
1t was not until during the war and
the years following that foreigners be-
gan to come in in any large numbers,
the Germans first leading the way, but
afterwards outnumbered by the Scan
dinavians. This emigration was, of
course, much retarded by the atrocities
of the Indian massacre of 1852, which
naturally caused great apprehension
in the minds of foreigners.
In 1858 the condition of the territory
had so far advanced that congress felt
justified in admitting 1t into the Union
as a state, with, of course, more cir
cumscribed limits.
III 1850 the population of the new state
was 172, 023 in 1870, 439, 706; in 1880; $780,
773; in 1880, 1,301 1926, and, as we fird ny
the state census of 1895, 1t has risen 20
r-t mo