Anoka County, Minnesota - Chapter 5: Naming the Town, 1905

Chapter 5: Naming the Town

Congress appropriated $40,000 for the construction of military roads in the territory of Minnesota, and of this amount $10,000 was to be applied in the construction of a road beginning at Point Douglas, at the mouth of the St. Croix river, and extending up the east bank of the ?^Iississippi to Fort Ripley. Charles L. Emerson had charge of the survey for this road, and it soon became apparent that his line would strike Rum river neither at the old trading post nor at the ford of the Red river trail, but at some point between the two. The crossing was finally made where the Main street bridge at Anoka is still located. Sealed proposals for the construction of this road were advertised for in June, 1852, and during the summer bridges were built across Rice and Coon creeks and the road constructed to some point northward from the latter stream. As soon as the exact location of the proposed Rum river bridge became known measures were taken looking toward the location of a town site near it. In September Xeal D. Shaw hunted up Antoine Robert and obtained from him a deed to 154 acres of land situated partly east of Rum river and south of the proposed military road (now Main street) and partly on the west side South of Park street. Later Dr. S. W. Shaw bought from Henry M. Rice 160 acres on the west side touching the Mississippi, part of which was afterward platted as Shaw's Addition to Anoka. Caleb and William Henry Woodbury, brothers, came from the East with money to invest in improvements, and joined hands with William L. Lamed, Sumner W. Farnham, George W. Branch, Neal D. Shaw, and his sons. Dr. S. Wheeler Shaw and Jndson B. Shaw, in laying out the new town. Some surveying was done in 1852, but no plats were filed until two years later. Meanwhile the boundary line between Ramsey and Benton counties had been moved to Rum river, and consequently the new town was partly in each. Anoka is a Dakota word or a part of a Dakota word signifying "on both sides." The Dakota Dictionary, published by the Smithsonian Institution, contains these definitions :

A-no'ka-tan-han, adv. On both sides, from both sides. Anoka is also a Chippeway word, meaning "work." "labor." Joseph Belanger, the first white resident of the place translated the word, "river that works." Inasmuch as the harnessing of the water power was a main factor in causing the location and growth of the city, the Chippeway word would seem to be even more appropriate than the Dakota word.

The writer submitted Mr. Belanger's translation to J. B. Bottineau and his uncle, Charles Bottineau, both well versed in the Chippeway language. Their conclusion was that while the ordinary meaning is "labor," the word might also be made to bear the interpretation which Belanger gave it. There are two^ Chippeway words closely resembling Anoka.

There was a tradition among the Chippeways that the main river commanded its tributaries to flow toward it. An-o-keh=:they are commanded to flow. The river therefore works and commands its tributaries to work. This is the foundation for Mr. Belanger's translation.

However, it would seem that those who were instrumental in giving the new town its name were quite unaware of its meaning in the Chippeway tongue.

In the St. Paul Press of Jw'y 31. ^873. appears an article bearing on this matter, written by L. W. Ford, who was at that time associate editor of the Press. Mr. Ford wrote :

"Some twenty years ago, while passing down Third street I was invited into the crockery store of Richard Marvin, and introduced to an elderly looking stranger from the state of Maine. Mr. Shaw, the new comer,' and myself were soon on good terms, as he bore a letter to me from relatives in Troy, N. Y., where he had been to visit one of his sons, who was a physician and a resident of that city. * *

"After .spending some time in St. Paul and St. Anthony, which with the old town of Stillwater constituted the major portion of Minnesota in those days, Mr. Shaw visited the country about Rum river, and soon arrangements were made to secure the site for his new Lowell.

"During the next winter I was not infrequently a guest at the temporary home of the Shaws at St. Anthony. The name for the new town was a topic of no little interest, and the writer had something to do in its selection. It was decided to give it an Indian nnme.

The Dakota Lexicon, just published, and of which I was the owner of a copy, was not infrequently consulted, and at length the euphonious name Anoka was decided upon for the second New England town in Minnesota. It was said to mean 'on both sides,' when rendered into less musical English, and to this day the name is by no means inappropriate, as the. town is growing up and extending on either side of the beautiful but badly named river."

Having purchased the Orin Rice house, Neal D. Shaw moved into it in the spring of 1853. Up to that time the few people who claimed the new town site as their home were content to answer "Rum River," when questioned as to their place of residence. M'ay 25th, 1853, Edward P. Shaw stopped at the old St. Charles hotel in St. Anthony, and registered as usual : E. P. Shaw, Rum River. Three days later, on the 28th of May, Neal D. Shaw arrived at the same hotel with a party of nine, and when he laid aside his pen the infant town had been christened. The entry on the register was like this :

The contract for the government bridge was awarded to Orin W. Rice and he began work on the abutments in July, 18=^3. The bridge was built of wood, was single arched and only 140 feet in length. Repeated washouts of the dam have widened the river considerably since that time. Three other bridges - one of wood and two of iron and steel - have successively spanned Rum river at this ixjint. The present bridge (1905), is 200 feet in length.

About the first of August, 1853, the owners of the town site began the construction of the first dam on Rum river at the point where the present dam is located, and an immense amount of timber was consumed. Work was also begun on a saw mill, which was to be run by water power. The company built a boarding house on Van Ijuren street between Second and Third avenues for the accommodation of the men working on the dam. This was the fourth house in Anoka. Tamarac logs for piling were cut in swamps near Round lake, hauled to solid groinid by means of long ropes and then conveyed to the river to be floated down to the phice where the dam was building. The first superintendent of construction proved unsatisfactory and was summarily discharged by Mr. Larned, the companv's agent, and a Mr. Getchell was then employed. Jacob Alilliman helped to get out the piling. In August came among others Joseph C. \'arney to work on the dam. Sept. 4 brought James C. Frost, who was found to l:)e a valuable acquisition. Mr. Varney built the fifth house on the northeast corner of Van Buren street and Third avenue (lot 7, block 11). After being remodeled and enlarged it was the home of Mrs. Whitney for many years and is still standing on its original site. Mr; Frost built the sixth house. The seventh was probably the new company boarding house, built on the present site of the Anoka National Bank. Robert B. Porter also found employment on the dam that fall. William E. Cundv arrived after the dam was

Joseph B. and Augustus Holt made claims where the village of Champlin now is in 1853, the latter of whom built the first frame house on that side of the Mississippi during the summer. John K. Pike and Richard M. Lowell located above the present village on the river. Rev. Lewis Atkinson, Benjamin E. Messer, Mr. Stevens, Job Keniston, Robert H. Miller, Hiram Smith, Stephen Howes, Colby Emer\' and William Milhollin made claims in the vicinity. John Shumway, finding his farm in Ramsey reduced to a small fraction by the survey, sold out tO' Moses Brown and joined the Elm creek settlement.

In 1850 a group of speculators and politicians possessed themselves of a considerable body O'f land below Elk River and largely in the present town of Ramsey. A towm site was platted and named Itaska. A substantial hotel was built in 1852 and J. C. Bowers secured as landlord. A postofifice was established in May, 1852, with Mr. Bowers as postmaster, a position which he held for twenty-five years. The proprietors of the town site, Ramsey, Wilkinson, Beatty and Hatch, and others who owned land in the vicinity made a determined effort to remove the state capitatl from St. Paul to this point ; and the bill at one time seemed likely to pass, but by a piece of sharp practice the bill is said to have been placed in hiding by its enemies until the legislature had adio'Urned.

Thr First The First Store

As early as August, 1853. Edward P. Shaw began to deal in merchandise in a small way at his father's house (the Orin Rice house) in Anoka," among his sales being some nails for J. C. Varney's house. Although the incipient village was bustling with activity, few of the men had brought families with them, and only four children played among the oak trees that stood in the square where the fountain now is, or hid in the hazel brush which ran along Main street where McCaulev's flouring mill laid. Edward 1'. Shaw built the first store. It stood on Main street near the corner of Ferry street, where it still stands. It was afterward enlarged and became known as the "Shuler building." That part of it next to the Baptist church is the original store. After its enlargement it was used as a court house, and it was in this building that the first enlistments for the Civil War were made.

The First Store

In the latter part of May, 1854, water worked its way under the dam, and in a few hours the whole river was pouring through the opening. The river bed was gullied out to the depth of thirty feet or more, and into this chasm the longest logs plunged and reappeared

James C. Frost

James C. Frost and A. P. Lane (who arrived in May) took the contract of repairing the dam. The timl^ers were cut away over the (>])ening, and great loads of brush and timbers weighted with stones were graduallv low-

In August the saw mill began running, with one up-and-down saw and the demand for lumber was so great that the proprietors did not succeed in getting the roof boards of the mill itself in place until some time in October. Nobody waited for lumber to dry, and the man who could get green boards or slabs enough to build a shanty before cold weather set in counted himself lucky. One of the most substantial houses erected at this time was that of Frank B. Dunn, built on the corner of Park and Branch streets. It now forms a part of the residence of F. L. Pinney.

A school was started in the old company boarding house. The teacher was Miss Julia \\'oodman ( Mrs. Hamm). This was the first school in Anoka county.

The new company boarding house was turned into a hotel, which was kept by W. B. Fairbanks. In August came Robert H. Miller, and the following month D. W. McLaughlin, both of whom settled later near Elm creek.

October 31, 1854, Dr. A. W. Giddings, at that time fresh from a medical college, arrived from Ohio and began his half century of practice in the new town. A week later he wrote his impressions of the place to his 1/rother Aranda, who was then at Williamsfield, Ohio. An extract from the letter reads as follows :

"The city was owned and laid out by a company from Maine - energetic men who have laid out $40,000 erecting saw and grist mills, planing machine, lath factory, &c., &c. Now we have two public houses, one larger and furnished as well as any in Williamsfield [The Farnham House]. The other accommodates fifteen boarders and two families of six each. The landlad\- is a half breed.

Axotjikk Indian I'.Attle

One boarding house, sixteen dwelling houses, one stable, all in the short space of three months. There are about three families in .each house. This is pioneering - move the family onto the ground and build the house around them as lumber can be procured. But for my own part

I am as pleasantly situated as I could wish. I am boarding at Mr. Shaw's - very kind New Englanders. The old gent is a very refined, inquisitive old Yankee. His son and wife, two men and one maid servant compose the family. The house is made of logs hewed, two storys hig'h, with a dining room and kitchen back. ])arlor in front. All the rooms except the kitchen are papered and carpeted. There is a nice piano in the parlor ; indeed the house is as richly furnished as any in your own town. But a very different state of things exists from what one might suppose. All are getting rich. People make nothing of doubling their property once in five or six months. Everything is very high here - enough to frighten one at first ; but I have become accustomed to the charges, which are equal to those in any of our eastern cities. One dollar per day for board at the hotel - horse three dollars per week."

Another Indian Battle

About this time (1854) another battle between the Sioux and Chippeway tribes took place. The Mille Laco Chippeways planned a formidable expedition against the Sioux. Kegwadosia, a Atille Lacs chief, said there were 300 canoes that came down Rum river. After making due allowance for Indian exaggeration, there is no doubt that there was a large body of warriors. They expected to strike the Sioux at their encampments beyond the Mississippi. But by some means their enemies were warned of the approaching danger, and took measures to avert it. The Sioux cautiously assembled a determined band in what is now the northern part of Oak Grove and threw up earthworks on the river bank upon what is now the farm of H. E. Seelye. The position was admirably chosen. Rapids in tlie river would prevent their enemies from turning back when once within range, wliile the steep bank niade the place safe from assault from that direction. The Chippeways were routed with great slaughter. Less than a dozen Sioux skeletons were found on the top of the hill by the white settlers who came there the next summer.

Silas C. Robbins

ball, afterward proprietor of the Kimball House at Anoka. John Goodspeed was in charge of a ferry at this point, and the Indians crowded upon the boat in such numbers that it began to sink and the ferryman ordered them ashore. They obeyed without protest, taking up their march to St. Anthony. Each warrior was decked with a rosette of cotton batting on the top of his head,

Although there was such enmity between the Indian tribes, that any chance meeting between Siuox and Chippeways meant a battle to the death, they were not disposed to pick any quarrel with white people, and rarely did them any harm except to steal from them. Chickens and pigs and any article of food they seemed to consider lawful plunder, to be begged or bartered for if convenient, but otherwise to be taken without leave.