The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-09-29
Notable Gathering at Home Of
Soldiers, Saturday.
Brilliant Address Delivered by
Gen. James n. Baker.
RepIete With Historical Facts
and Interesting incidents.


the following address at Fort Smelling
on Saturday afternoon. 1t was on the
occasion of the celebration of the pur.
chase of the site one hundred years
ago:
The region denominated Minnesota is
not land wholly devoid of ancient an
mails. 1t is true we have no venerable
ruins or broken temples, no turretel
castles, no specters of dead empires, to
salute the eye. But there are some leg
acies of the immemorial past which may
fill the soul of the antiquary with re
spect for our elder days. In some re.
mote age the mound builders were here
and left traces of pottery, stone anc
copper. which battle our archaeological
friends. In the twilight of our recorded
history came the intrepid lie Sueur
with his bronzed followers, passing this
very point more than two hundred years
ago, with the daring spirit of Cortez OF
Pizarro in quest of tabled gold.
The Jesuit Fathers also appear upol
the scene-Allouez and Marquette, ant
other heroic and devoted missionaries
who planted the banner of the cross
amid our northern solitudes. They i'm
printed their early presence as nomen
clators, calling rivers, lakes and islands,
for their patron saints. The people of
the Northwest are yet to build mon
ument-t to the memory of these immortal
followers of Loyoa.
with these came the great fur com
panies, lords of the North, who exer-
cised dominion and power far away
from the eye of civilization, with won
derful stories of despotism and adven
ture. Violence, bloodshed and open wal
marked the career of conflicting inter
ests.
Following these was the advent of
American influence, and Astor, Crooks
Stewart, Oaks, Borup and other bol6
and adventurous spirits raised the Am.
erican flag on our northern confines.
"What a panorama of wonderful life
was here enacted Religious enthusi,
asm first gave our Northern regions tC
the world and the great fur companies
afterward held them with baronnial pow
er, These were the scenes of the lon.
ago, which may yet fill pages of oul
history with all the fascination of TO,
nance.
"Such was the grand prelude to ouI
own day, when John c. Calhom's mem,
orable order to Lieut.. Col. Leavenwortf
flung open the gates of the Northwes'
on the golden hinges of opportunity
and thence came that stream of progress
sive changes, the end of which no pro
phet can foresee
One Hundred Years Ago.
Zone hundred years ago this day
Lieut.. Zebulon NJ. Pike. in behalf OF
the United States, and certain chiefs of
the Sioux nation. at council duly
held, purchased all that tract of land
from below the confluence of the Mis-
sissippi and st. Peters up the Mississip-
pi, to include the Falls of st. Anthony.
extending nine miles on each side of the
river. For this grant of land 5000 in
sundry presents and sixty gallons of
whisky We're paid in hand and $4,000
more in cash at later period Whisky
then, as later, seemed to be necessary to
baptize an Indian bargain
Subsequently, in 1917, Maj. Stephen
II. Long of the United States army, in a
report to the war department, recon
mended the point at the confluence of
the Mississippi and st. Peters rivers as
suitable site for a permanent fort
There it rested till events in the North
west revived the subject. The treaty
of 1918 with England, fixing our north
western boundary, was treated lightly
by our English neighbors, and the trad
were not withdrawn, though Lieut..
Pike with a fearless hand. had torn
down the British flag wherever dis
played A tide of white settlers was
setting toward the Northwest, and the
savages of the country, yet under Brit
ish influence. were to be repressed.
"John c. Calhoun was then secretary
of war under President Monroe. The
patriotism of the secretary was as wide
as the country Two generations have
csrped at Calhoun, subsequently the
great apostle of human slavery; but at
that hour he was our friend, and issued
the momentous order which opened the
doors of Minnesota to settlement and
civilization. He directed Lieut. Col.
Henry Leavenworth of the Fifth United
States infantry to transfer the bulk of
his regiment, then rendezvoused at De-