The Irish standard., 1897-06-12
THE old SETTLERS
PIONEERS OF THE NORTH STAR
STATE IN ST. CLOUD.
c. T. MAcDoHAtD's REc0LlecTIoAs
AN INTERESTING ADDRESS ON
STATE HISTORY.
FATHERS MARQUETTE AND HENNEPIN

INDIAN TRADERS AND PIONEERS. OF
MINNESOTA.
At the annual melting of the Stearns
County Old Settlers Association held
last week in st. Cloud, Mr.. G. F. Mac
donald, the veteran Democratic editor
of the st. Cloud Times, delivered most
interesting address on the early history
of Minnesota, from which we make a
few selections as follows:
AS near as has been determined, it is
now nearly $50 years since the first
whites explored a portion of what is
now Minnesota. In an address before
the Minnesota Historical Society, in
1856, the late Gen. H. H. Sibley stated
that long years before Father Louis
Hennepin had visited St. Anthony Falls;
two Frenchmen had reached the region
of lakes westward of Lake Superior.
In 1868, Father Pierre Marquette, after
whom Marquette, Mich, was named, car
ried his missionary work into the wilds
in the vicinity of Lake Superior, and,
in 1873, with six companions, left Green
Bay, journeyed to the Mississippi river,
and f1oated down the Father of Waters
1,100 miles
The first white man who ever gazed
upon the waterfall which he christened
St. Anthony Falls, was Father Louis
Hennepin, a Franciscan priest, who
reached it July 8, 1880. The historian
Bancroft, in speaking of the work of the
many missionaries who, thus early in
the country's history, penetrated thous-
sands Of miles into regions inhabited
only by the red man, said: "Thus did
the religious zeal of the French beaf
the Cross to the banks Of the st. Mary,
and to the confines Of Lake Superior,
and look wistfully toward the home Of
the Sioux in the Valley of the =Missis-
. sippi five years before the apostle Elliott
had addressed the Indians that dwelt
within six miles, of Boston Harbor.''
But the tide of immigration did not
at once follow those avant-coureurs of
civilization. It was more than $50 years
subsequent to Father Hennepin's dis
covery of the falls which now turn the
wheels of the great mills and factories
of Minneapolis, before there was any ap-
preciable appearance of settlement .of
f1o k1o ir%c 80,
adventurous spirits and Indian traders
explored what is now Minnesota.
The opening of the fur trade of the
Northwest, under the patronage of
bring into existence peculiar race of
men, known in the annals of early days
as "Coureur des bois.' Many of the
wild and adventurous spirits of France,
tempted by the stories of the New World
| which came to them, fastened across
/ the ocean and penetrated to the farther
most frontier. As early as 1860 some of
these traders explored what is now
known as Minnesota and looked over
the plains of the Dakotas.
Joseph Renville, one of our counties
bears his name, was born near the pres
| ent site of St. Paul, in 1879, of French
! and Indian parents. In 1897, one hun
dred years ago, with companion nam
| ed Perlier, he wintered at what is now
Sauk Rapids. He was the first stock
raiser in Minnesota, for IS years later.
| at his home near Lac qui Parle, he
raised hundreds of sheep and scores of
| cattle.
Jean Baptiste Faribault, Minnesota
city and county bears his name, estab-
lished trading post near the present
| site Of Fort Smelling, in 1905, and con-
tinued it for so years.
Joseph r. Brown, as near as have
been able to ascertain, arrived early in
the 'thirties." ! He was trader, and
later took prominent part in the organi-
zatiou Of the territory. He RATED the
| first logs on the river st. Croix.
Henry H. Sibley arrived in 1884, at
the age Of %, and for years was in
control of the affairs of the American
Fur Company.
In 1887, Franklin Steele, William III.
Forbes and Martin Mcleod, all leading
men in later days, reached Minnesota.
The same year, jeremiah Russell, late
of Sauk Rapids, Joined the pioneers. He
engaged in various enterprises, and in
1849 he settled at that place.
In 1889, Henry M. Rice was among
| those to arrive, and in 1910, John Nc
Kusick, who built the first mill in Min
nesota, settled at what is now Still
water.
Philip Beupre, who still lives among
| us, arrived In 1841, and engaged with a
fur company. . In 1843 he located at
Sauk Rapids. Z:
In 1S48, II. G.. Fillmore, David Gil
man and James Beatty, arrived and lo-
Gated in Benton county, as did James
Keough in 1850.
! John L. Wilson, the "Father Of St.
Cloud reached st. Anthony Falls in
| 1851. moved to Sank Rapids in 1852, and