The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-07-20
HIS FATHERS
WORK LAUDED
SON or FIRST MINNESOTA
scHooLHoUsE BUILDER LIVING
IN NORTH DAKOTA Is EvARTs
STEVENS, NOW LIVING AT
ToWNER, N. D.

Minneapolis Journal: The dedica-
ton Of the tablet commemorating the
first schoolhouse in Minnesota, built
in 1885 by Rev. ]. D. Stevens at Lake
Harriet. has caused Mrs. Evarts c.
stevens of Towner, N. D., wife OF
Evarts G. Stevens, son OF the founder
TO write to DR.. w. B. Leonard, chair
man OF the committee of Native Sons
OF Minnesota, who gave the tablet, ex-
pressing the appreciation of the family
for the work
Mrs. Stevens tells of the present
whereabouts OF many persons closely
connected with the early history of
Minneapolis. Mr.. Stevens remembers
the erection of the school and the work
his father did there. The school was
established for the Sioux Indians and
was maintained about four years. II
was at the present site of the street
railway platform at Queen avenue
and Forty-second street. The Native
Sons gave the tablet to the park board.
A similar tablet marks the site OF
the first mission in Hennepin county,
established by S. w. and Gideon Pond
in 1885, at Lake Calhoun.
Mrs. Stevens Letter.
Mrs. Stevens letter follows:
My husband and / have read with
much interest in The Journal of July
5, the account Of the presentation of
the tablet marking the site of the
school opened by Rev. J. D. Stevens on
the shore of Lake Harriet.
my husband is Evarts Stevens, sec
ond son Of Rev. ]. D. Stevens, and he
remembers well the early life at Lake
Harriet. He rejoices to see his
fathers work remembered and honor
ed. His sister, Julia Stevens, was
born at Lake Harriet, Sept. 80, 1884.
She is a widow and is living at pres
ent in Viola, Idaho, with her daughter,
Mrs. Shields. Both migrated recently
from Minnewaukan, N. D., where they
had lived for nearly thirty years.
"Mr. Stevens brother Henry was
born at Lake Harriet, Sept 8, 1887.
He went out in the Third Illinois cav
airy but did not come back. He was
named Henry Gustavus for Henry HI.
Sibley, afterward governor of Mime
sofa.
''My comrade recalls the past by
telling how his father wintered in
Fort Crawford in 1888 with Colonel
Zachary Taylor, and how in the spring
when the ice broke up they went up
the Mississippi to Fort Smelling and
how he went to work with the brothers
Pond, to help civilize the Sioux, or
Dakotahs, as they were called.
Started Eighty Years Ago.
"Rev. ]. D. Stevens had come out
from New York by way Of the lakes
to Fort Mackinaw as missionary sent
by the American Board Of missions
The church he built there is still in
use and has been kept in repair by
the summer residents. There his son
Dwight was born in 1880. He laid
down his life in the civil war and left
his widow and four boys to live for
his country. Then the missionary
went to Fort Howard, Green Bay, Wis,
and there Evarts Stevens was born in
1881.
"At the close of the Black Hawk
war General Taylor was sent up the
river and he took his acting chaplain,
Rev. J. d. Stevens with him.
"At Lake Harriet Rev. Mr.. Stevens
sister, Miss Cornelia Stevens, busted
herself trying to reduce the sounds Of
the Sioux language to written form.
1--WE have a copy of the primer so
prepared, and one of the grandsons
amused himself in the nineties by
studying the book until he could speak
the language.
miss Cordelia Eggleston, sister Of
Mrs. ]. d. Stevens, married one Of the
Pond brothers and their descendants
still live in Minneapolis.
I'm 1881 my husband visited those
historic scenes with DR.. Neil, dean of
the University of Minnesota history
department. AT that time they saw
Mrs. Hiram Gibbs, who was the foster
sister of the Stevens children. Yours
truly.
MRS. Jean McNaughton Stevens"