Becker County, Minnesota - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read), 1907 (part 5 of 16)

A few years afterwards congress passed a law allowing all citizens of the United States to homestead one hundred and sixty acres inside the land grants of the railroads. The Northern Pacific railroad company in the course of time received patents from the United States Government, and a deed from them is considered as good as a patent from the government. A small part of the land in Becker County was located with Sioux half-breed scrij^t. a kind of ingenious device for getting hold of valuable lands before they were surveyed, and without settling on the same. This script was issued to mixed bloods for one hundred and sixty acres, in consideration of relinquishing all rights or claims on the general government for annuities or other means of support in the future. This script was transferable, and any government land could be taken with it, whether surveyed or not, and frequently after any one tract of land had been held for a while, the script would be lifted and laid on another tract of greater value. Two hundred and eighty acres of land, including the grove of pine timber on a part of Sections 22, 23 and 26, in the town of Erie, a little west of the Otter Tail River, where the old pine stumps now are standing at the present time along the Shell Prairie road, was taken bv this

The only other class of lands in Becker County is the state land. As everyone knows all of sections numbered 16 and 36 were granted to the state for school purposes. Any person, however, with a pre-emption right, could before the repeal of that law hold one hundred and sixty acres of land on either of these sections, provided they settled on such land before the government section lines were established.

Congress, also many years ago, granted to the several states, including Minnesota every forty acre tract or fraction which by the government surveys was shown to be more than half swamp. This grant was made to the several states with the understanding that the land so granted should be improved by ditching or otherwise, but by far the best and largest part of the state lands in Minnesota w'ere given away with little or no profit to the state, before any such improvements were made. The first list of state swamp land ever transferred in Becker County was a three thousand acre list, granted to the Canon River Improvement Association, and sold to E. G. Holmes and A. H. Wilcox, in 1882.

Lists of state swamp lands was also selected in Becker County by the Northern Pacific railroad company, the Great Northern and the Wisconsin and Minnesota roads.

After these corporations had finished making selections of land under their grants, the refuse of this magnificent original state swamp land grant to Minnesota was appraised, and is now being sold by the state to private parties by the same method that school land is sold.

The First Inhaiitants

The first occupants of the territory, of ^vhat is now Becker County, of which we have any definite knowledge, were the Indians known as the Otter Tail band of Pillagers. They ranged over a considerable extent of country, but their favorite resort was the Otter Tail River, and the country adjacent thereto. This range of country was an ideal home, and a veritable paradise for the Indians. The time was when buffalo were numerous, and men are still living who have killed them in Becker County. Still later, when the elk was very abundant, and not more than fifty or sixty }ears ago, elk meat was the principal source of food throughout northwestern Alinnesota, and later still u]) to the present time, venison was to be had in considerable quantity, but what was of far more value to them than all these were the numerous lakes stocked with countless numbers of fish of the finest quality, and the abundant supplies of wild rice that could be obtained around the borders of these lakes. Game might sometimes become scarce, and once in a long time the wild rice might fail, but the supply of fish was inexhaustible and never failing. Where is the Indian that would starve in the vicinity of any of these lakes before they were depleted of fish by the white man?

Alexander Mackenzie, who explored Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean, in 1789, and who also led the first expedition across the North American Continent to the Pacific in 1793, and who was in those days the leading spirit of the northwestern fur trade, in writing of this country more than one hundred years ago said: "There is not. perhaps, a finer country in the world for the residence of uncivilized man, than that which occupies the space betwen the Red River of the North and Lake Superior. It abounds in everything necessar}- to the wants and comfort of such a people. Fish, venison and fowl, with wild rice are in great plenty, while at the same time, their subsistence recpiires that bodily exercise so necessary to health and vigor."

eastern Dakotas. the Chippewas in this vicinity were hable to frequent .raids from these Indians, and bloody battles were fought in some of the adjoining counties. Many years ago the Sioux held possession of the Otter Tail River country for some time, and the numerous mounds along the river, and in other parts of the country are said by the Chippewas to have been built by the Sioux. Some of these mounds are of considerable size, especially those near the outlet of Height of Land Lake, some of them being ten or twelve feet high with a base of thirty or forty feet in breadth. There are others quite prominent on the farm of L J. Collins, near Frazee, also three or four a little west of the bridge across the Otter Tail River on Section 2^,, in Erie Township, some near Round Lake on the White Earth Reservation, some at Shell Lake, and two or three near Detroit Lake on the little prairie a few rods west of where the Pelican River flows into the lake.

A\'hen the Sioux left Becker County as a place of abode, no one appears to be able to tell, but it must have been more than one hundred years ago. The date of their final relinquishment is the 19th of August, 1825.

The ( )tter Tail band occupied the country as individuals and families, but I can find no trace of anything resembling the appearance of a village, or ])ermanent headquarters for the habitations of the people anywhere in the county, previous to the settlement of the Indians at ^^d'lite Earth in 1868. There were, however, occasional temporary gatherings, and the outlet of Height of Land Lake was the most frequent place of rendezvous. This, by the way, was the most beautiful and romantic spot in Becker County and would have been an admirable place for a white man's village. Aside from its natural loveliness and ease of access there had been a fish trap built across the Otter Tail River, a short distance below the outlet, a long time ago, where fish could be secured in abundance at all seasons of the year. At the upper end of Height of Land Lake and the two lakes first above mentioned were the most extensive and valuable wild rice beds in the whole region of country ; all of which made the vicinity of Height of Land Lake a kind of wigAvam metropolis for the Otter Tail Indians on various occasions.

While there was constant warfare between the Sioux and Chippewas, and the Chippewas living in Becker County were kept in a state of perpetual dread and anxiety from fear of the Sioux, there is no record or remembrance on the part of any of the older people of any actual fighting', of any importance in Becker County.

Wars and battles, which are so largely interwoven into the history of nearly all the nations of the earth, and of which it is largely made up, have no place in its history or traditions. Not a trace or scent of the smoke of battle can be found through all the dim and hazy recollections of the past. The white-winged dove of peace has faithfully and successfully watched and hovered over the destinies of Becker County, as far back as the memory and knowledge of the red man can reach.

In the meantime many bloody tragedies were enacted in Utter Tail and other neighboring counties. A terrible battle was fought between the Sioux and Chippewas at Battle Lake in Otter Tail County, more than one hundred years ago. W. W. Warren, the historian of the Chippewa Nation, in giving an account of this battle in 1851 says, that it was fought fifty-seven years ago. This w^ould place the date of the battle in the year 1794.

A war party of forty-five Chippewas, belonging to the Misissippi band, recklessly attacked a camp of three or four hundred Sioux, who were partly concealed in a grove of timber on the snores of one of these lakes. Soon after the fighting began the Chippewas retreated to a patch of tall grass which afforded them a temporary protection, but the Sioux swarmed around them, and outnumbering them eight to one. the little band was nearlv annihilated, two-thirds of their number leaving their bones on the battlefield. The Sioux also sufi'ered terribly ; losing a far greater number of warriors than the Chippewas.

Basswood, a Chippewa Lidian, belonging to the original band of the Otter Tail Pillagers, and who is now seventy-four years old, still resides at the south end of Basswood Lake. His land is in Sections 34 and 35, Township 142, Range 37. His father lived there before him and there is where he died. Basswood's home has been in the same place all his lifetime, although he and his father have been away frequently on hunting" excursions, some of which were of considerable length.

There is a good sized island in the lake covered with a heavy growth of Basswood timber, which in years gone by served as an asylum of retreat and seclusion for the Basswood family, whenever a war party of Sioux invaded the neighborhood.

I questioned him regarding the relations of the Chippewas toward the Sioux in his younger days, and he stated that while there was much fighting between the two nations from fifty to seventy-five years ago, he never knew of any battles being fought in what is now Becker County, but that when a boy, there was a battle fought between the Sioux and the Chippewas at Grave Lake in Otter Tail County. I told him I had never heard of Grave Lake. He replied that it was not more than fifteen miles from Frazee, and lay directly west from Rvish Lake only a few miles. I told him it must be Dead Lake, and he said I was right ; the proper name was the Lake of the Dead. He was not present at the battle, but referred me to another Indian by the name of Ma-king who was there on that fatal occasion. Ma-king lives about four miles north of Pine Point, and I looked him up. He is now (1905) about seventy years old and in poor health. He stated that he was born on the north side of Detroit Lake, where the village by that name now stands, and his home has been within the limits of what is now Becker County ever since. \A hen he was a boy, somewhere between the age of five and ten years, and as near as we could figure it out, with the help of Frank Smith, our interpreter, about the year 1843 or 1844, there was a terrible slaughter at Dead Lake. It was not much of a battle, but was coldl)loode(l murder, a veritable massacre of old men, women and children. The able-bodied men of the Chippewa camp had gone away either on a hunting excursion or warlike expedition, and had left their old men and their own families, to the number of about fifty people, in the seclusion of a heavily timbered point of land on the east shore of Dead Lake. This place is fifteen miles from the Becker County line and is nearly due south from Frazee.

in from the east on the land side and fired upon the defenceless camp without a moment's warning. Nearly half of the party were shot down at the first fire, includint;" nearly every man in the camp.

There was great consternation and excitement among' the Chippewas and they undertook to scatter away into the woods for shelter, but every avenue of retreat was cut oft' in that direction, and their only recourse was to take to their canoes, three or four of wdiich were soon loaded down with women and children. Many of them were shot while fleeing across the water. Only one of the old men and thirteen women and children escaped. All the others, between thirty and forty were killed. Ala-king, his mother and a small brother escaped. His father had been killed the winter before by the Sioux in the vicinity of Red River.

This tragedy is corroborated by Henry Way, who settled in Otter Tail County more than forty years ago, and who heard it related frequently by the Indians as having occurred something like twenty years before that time. He says that the lake went by the name of the Lake of the Dead in those days.

Birch Bark Canoes And Canoe Travel

The most common method of travel by the Indians originally, in what is now Becker County, was by water, by means of birchbark canoes. There were formerly plain, well beaten canoe or portage trails between all the principal lakes of the country. The Otter Tail, Pelican, Buffalo and Shell Rivers were navigable for canoes, in many pices of considerable length, and these added to the many lakes in the county, made travel by water much easier and more feasible than by land. It is true that portages had to be made quite frequently, but their loads of freight were light, and as one person could easily carry a canoe over his head from one lake to another, the time and labor required to make one of these portages was but little more than a sort of recreation, or rest from the monotony of paddling the canoe.

"In the summer of 1826, General Lewis Cass, after concluding a treaty with the Indians at the head of Lake Superior, determined to return in a birch bark canoe.

Stakes were driven into the ground the desired length of the canoe, and then rolls of birch bark, stripped from the tree unbroken and stitched together with the fine roots of the tamarack, were placed within the enclosure and secured to the stakes. Cross pieces of cedar were then inserted, producing the desired form, and constituting the ribs or framework.

After the birch bark was properly sewed to the frame, the stakes were pulled from the ground, the seams covered with pine pitch that the water could not enter."

After awhile ponies came into use, and still later the Red River cart was introduced, the first of which I have any knowledge being made by Alexander Henry in the fall of 1802, and in which goods were brought from Red River to Red Lake.

The Old Red River Road

When the whites first came to Becker county they found an old, well-beaten road running" across the county. There were three distinct trails in the road, showing that it had been extensively used for vehicles drawn by a single animal. The road entered Becker County on the south, between the two lakes on the south line of Section 36, of Burlington Township, nearly a mile east of where the Northern Pacific Railroad crosses the county line. It crossed the Otter Tail River a little below the lower Frazee dam, and a little above the present bridge on the Silver Leaf road and passed up through the town of Burlington very near where the Northern Pacific Railroad has since been located, reaching Detroit Lake at the mouth of Sucker Creek, half a mile south of the club house. A little before reaching the present site of the club house the road took to the gravelly beach of the lake, which it followed for some distance, and again took to the water's edge where it crossed the Pelican River in Detroit Township. It then passed up by the old Tyler House, wound around into the southeast corner of the original townsite of Detroit, then back around by F. B. Chapin's house, thence northeasterly about half way between the Richwood road and the Pelican River, thence around nearly to where John O. French now resides, thence west along the south shore of Floyd Lake, then to the nortH shore of Oak Lake.

From there it wound its way northwest, and then north through the west part of Sections 7 and 6 of Detroit, then up through the western tier of sections in Richwood. then crossed the Buffalo River at the old bridge, and thence in a northerly direction across the White Earth Reservation to Pembina.

All efforts to ascertain the date of the first travel over this road have been fruitless. My opinion is that the road was opened up soon after the dividing line was agreed upon by the Sioux and Chippewas between their respective territories, which was on the 19th of August, 1825. The only road connecting the settlements of Pembina on the lower Red River and Fort Snelling and other points on the Mississippi lower down, before that time, passed through where St. Cloud, Alexandria and McCauleyville have since been located, 1)}' \vhich all traYel to and from the Red River coiintrv was oljlii;e(l to go through the heart of the Sioux country, Avhereas a road through by the new route would pass through a section of country owned altogether by the Chippewas, and would be considered much safer, as the Sioux even in that day were considered a nation of cut-throats, and were called the ''cut-throat Sioux," further west, by the French a long time ago. The most remote date of the use of this road which I have been able to obtain is given in an extract from a letter from Hon. R. j\I. Probsfield of Moorhead. He says :

I do not know when the old road was first established, but was told by Norman W. Kittson that he used that trail in the late thirties, say between 1837 and 1840, on his way to and from Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin and Pembina and Ft. Gary, now Winnipeg.

Anson Northup

The Anson Northup expedition with the machinery of the old North Star steamboat passed over this same route. The North Star was dismantled at the mouth of Gull River, on the Mississippi and from there it was all hauled on sleds to the Red River, opposite the mouth of the Sheyenne, where it empties into Red River.

I left St. Paul on February 26th, 1859, and arrived at Sauk Rapids on the 28th, with a span of horses and wagon. There was no snow on the ground so far, but I was here informed that I could go no further than Piatt River with a wagon, so I bought a light sled and loaded my wagon onto it. We stopped at Luther's, about half way between Piatt River and Swan River that night, where I left my wagon, and loaded our truck onto the sled and made Crow Wing the following night. We arrived at Otter Tail City on the fourth or fifth of ^Nlarch and stopped with old ^McDonald where we found a part of the Northup expedition. Another part of the expedition had gone ahead to build a bridge across the Otter Tail River at one of the upper crossings, as the river was not frozen over. The snow was deep, some sixteen or eighteen inches. The bridge was built for the boiler and other heavy machinery. Arriving in tlie woods that surround Detroit Lake on the southeast side we struck the farthest advanced camp where some of the lightest of the freight had been hauled to. Listead of following the old trail around Detroit Lake, we crossed it on the ice straight over to a point of prairie, probably a little less than a mile east of where the court house now stands. There was a log cabin there, a claim shanty of old McDonald's, where I suppose he had traded with the Indians at intervals, but no one was there at the time when we arrived.

Heavy snow fell after that, making the rest of our journey long, tedious and perilous, getting out of forage for our teams, and the last day also out of provisions for the men.

The Northup Expedition left the old road about a mile west of Oak Lake and about three miles east of where Audubon is now and traveled by compass in a northwesterly direction to a point on the Red River opposite the mouth of the Sheyenne. a place called Lafayette, abotit five miles from where Georgetown is now. The details of that trip would fill a good volume.

The trail made by Mr. r*rol)stield and his party, from the old road a mile west of Oak Lake, to Lafayette on the Red RiYer, afterwards became a well traYeled road, and was nuich used by the Indians, half-breeds and fur traders, after that time. It crossed the Buffalo River near the corners of Sections y, 10, 15 and 16 in the township of Cuba.

In the summer of 1868, the L^nited States Government opened up a road between Leech Lake and White Earth. This road in t^oini;- west, passed through what is now Osage and Carsonville. not far from where the main road passing through Park Rapids.

Osage and Ponsforcl now runs, only it cut straight across the country instead of following section lines ; and on the Reservation it ran, most of the way, in the same location as the old road now in use.

First Settlement By White People

The first occupation of the soil of Becker County by white people, of which we have knowledge, was in October 1802, when a small trading post was established at White Earth by men in the employ of the Northwest Fur Company. They, however, remained there but a short time. This post was run by a man by the name of Duford. During that same month, October 1802, a small trading post was established at Shell Lake, in what is now Shell Lake Township, by William Morrison, the man who first discovered Lake Itasca and the extreme head waters of the Mississippi River a year later.

In 1854, Donald McDonald, of Otter Tail Lake, built a loghouse on the northeast shore of Detroit Lake, on the little prairie a few rods west of where the Pelican River enters the lake. After trading there with the Indians about two years he returned to Otter Tail.

In the year 1867 a treaty was made at Washington by which various tribes of Indians, residing along the Mississippi River, were to be removed to White Earth the ensuing year. Arrangements were accordingly made that fall by which one million feet of pine logs were cut and banked on the east side of White Earth Lake during the winter of 1867-8 to be sawed into lumber for the use of the Indians the ensuing year. These logs were cut by men in the employ of Wm. Thompson and Fred Peake. who had been awarded the contract for banking" the logs, and they all returned to their homes below with the advent of spring. This was the first party of men to begin operations at White Earth.

About the last of April 1868 a small party of men was sent to White Earth from Crow Wing, by Major J. B. Bassett, the Indian agent, to begin farming operations. A contract was made with Joseph W. Wakefield to break 240 acres of land for the Indians, and about the 25th of April a small party of white men was sent to White Earth with teams to do this work. Paul H. Beaulieu was the leader of this party. He had been recently appointed to the position of Government farmer at the agency about to be established and was sent with this advance party to select and survey out the land to be plowed and to take charge of afifairs generally until such time as the agent himself should arrive. They arrived at White Earth about the loth of May, and Paul remained in the county, and as he was the only one of the party that did remain he is entitled to the honor of being the first pioneer settler with white blood in his veins to settle permanently in Becker County. The first white person to settle in Becker County, outside the reservation, was Patrick Ouinlan, who settled on the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 35, of Burlington Township, a few rods north of the county line, on the 28th of May 1868. He supposed at the time that he had located in Otter Tail County, but none of the county or township lines had been established at that time. When the Chippewa Indians passed by his place, a few days afterwards, on their way to their new homes at White Earth, and also when the Henry Way party passed a few days still later, he told them all that he was living in Otter Tail County, which led Way and Sherman to belive they were the first white settlers in Becker County, but after the line between Becker and Otter Tail counties was run by W. W. Howard in the summer of 1870, Ouinlan found himself living in Becker County.

Quinlan's wife was a full-blooded Chippewa and this circumstance leaves the ^^"ay-Sherman party entitled to the honor of being the first party of "simon-pure" white people to settle in Becker County.

On the 14th day of June, 1868, the first installment of Indians, about 150 in number, came to White Earth under the direction of Maj. J. B. Bassett, then Indian Agent, and under the guidance of Truman A. Warren; and another large party came in 1S69, making several hundred who had gone to White Earth during those two years.

On the 28th day of June, 1868, Henry Way, Almon A\'. Sherman and L. D. Sperry took up claims near Oak Lake in what is now Detroit Township. They put up hay and returned to their families at Clitheral. Sherman moved to Oak Lake that same fall and they and Ouinlan were all the wdiite people to winter in Becker County during" the winter of 1868 and 1869 outside the reservation. In the spring of 1869 Way and Sperry came back from Clitheral with their famiUes, and in the month of June, following, three Norwegians, John F. Beaver, Chris. Anderson and Fred Johnson, located in the western part of what is now Audubon Township.

A little later on another party, mostly relatives of Way and Sherman, came and located a little south of the three Xorwegians in the same township. This party consisted of Buckly B. Anderson, wife and seven children, Jackson Burdick, a son-in-law of B. B. Anderson, wife and three children and Harvev Jones, a single man who took land on Section 18.

Along in October of that same year. Dr. David Pyle, who had been appointed government physician at AA^hite Earth, came and located in the same vicinit}' and remained there the most of the winter. Two other men came with him, whose names were M. L. Devereaux and David lieveridge. The three men brought a shingle mill with them, and made bass wood shingles during the winter of 1869 and 1870, on what is now Section 18 of Audubon Township. Mark AA'arren wintered somewhere in the county, and also another man by the name of Talmage, who lived in a dug-out ; on what is now Section 20, of Audubon Township.

We are now able to make a pretty accurate list of all the people, who wintered in Becker Count\- during tlu' winter of 1869 and 1870, outside the White Earth Reser^-ation.

Mrs. John F. Beaver. (Died in the spring of 1870). Frederick Johnson. Buckley B. Anderson. Mrs. B. B. Anderson. Jedediah Anderson, son of B. B. Anderson. Edward Anderson, son of B. B. Anderson. Richard Anderson, son of B. B. Anderson. Elva Anderson, daughter of B. B. Anderson. Freeman Anderson, son of B. B. Anderson. Miron Anderson, son of B. B. Anderson. Andrew Anderson, son of B. B. Anderson. Jackson Burdick, son-in-law of B. B. Anderson. Mrs. Jackson Burdick.

Ida Burdick, daughter of Jackson Burdick. Eunice Eurdick, daughter of Jackson Burdick. Oren Burdick, son of Jackson Burdick. Harvey Jones. David Pyle. M. L. Devereaux. David Beveridge. Mark Warren. Talmage.

The census of 1870 gives the population of Becker County as 308. These figures are misleading, as to my certain knowledge there were not more than sixty people in the county on the first day of June of that year outside the White Earth Reservation, so

In the summer of 1869, a party sent out to explore a route for the Northern Pacific Railroad, passed through the county from the west, and among them was John ( ). French, now of Detroit Township, who was connected with the party.

In the summer of 1870, the probability that the Northern Pacific Railroad would pass through the county brought quite an influx of settlers, too many to mention in detail at the present time, but they will be accounted for under the heading of the different townships.

At the beginning of the year 1879, there was not a single settler in the whole region of country east of the Otter Tail River, which includes rather more than the eastern half of the county. That summer J. F. Siegford, his son, Frank Siegford, George M. Carson, A. W. Sanderson, and C. E. Bullock, opened the wa}' and led the van-guard of pioneers to the beautiful prairies of Osage and Carsonville, that have since developed into one of the most thriving and ])rosperous communities in the county.

The timbered to\vnshi])s were somewhat slower to settle, but at the present time (1905) there is scarcely a cjuarter section of government land in the count}- without a settler.

The first white girl born in the county was Clara D. W'ay, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Way, who were then living at Oak Lake in I^etroit Township. She was Ijorn on the 20th of July 1870. The first white boy born in Becker County was Olaus Reep, son of Mr. and Mrs. Sevald Reep, who was born on the 29th day of July 1871 and recorded January 20th, 1872.

The first white people to g"et married in the county were L J. Hanson and Annis Mix, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Mix, who were married by Rev. J. E. Wood on the 22d day of October 1871.

The first deed of conveyance for land in Becker County was made by Christen Anderson to the Northern Pacific Railroad Companv, for the west half of the southwest road of Section 8. in

The first mortgage in Becker County was made by Ole Peterson to Knute Nelson, present United States senator. The mortgage was for $200, and was on the east half of the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter, and lot 5 of Section 4, in the present township of Audubon.

The first school in Becker County, outside the reservation was taught by Miss Nancy M. Comstock, in the fall of 1871, in a house belonging to Henry Way, in what is now school district number three in Audubon Township. The first school taught in Becker Count}^ in a legally organized school district, was in district number one in the village of Detroit, by Miss Lottie Frank, beginning on the second day of July 1872.

The first religious service in Becker County, outside the reservation, was held by the Rev. Dr. Lord on the shore of Floyd Lake on the 22d of August 1869, at the camp of the Northern Pacific Railroad exploring expedition.

The first religious service ever held in Becker County with a full audience of Becker County people, and by a minister residing in this part of Minnesota, was conducted by the Rev. T. Watleson at the house of John F. Beaver in what is now Audubon Township, on the sixth of November 1870.

Father Gurley was the first resid'ent minister in Becker County, outside the reservation, coming here as missionary for the Ncirthern Pacific Railroad, under the auspices of the Methodist churcli in July 187 1.

William Morrison

His father was a Scotch immigrant named Allan Morrison, a native of Stornoway, on the Lewis, one of the Hebrides or western Isles, forming part of Scotland, and his mother a Canadian French lady named Jane for Jessie) Wadin.

Montreal was at that time the home and general headquarters of the British and Canadian fur traders, who came down the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers, in mackinaw boats and birchbark canoes, every summer, with their winter's collection of furs, and returned the same season, to the far Northwest, with a new supply of goods for the next winter's business.

The few avenues to fortunes presented to the ambitious young men by the Canada of that day, coupled with the tales of adventures, and stories of the large profits made in the fur trade, fired young Morrison's ambition, and he at the early age of sixteen, was apprenticed by his father with the Northwest Fur Company, then the great rival of the more ancient Hudson's Bay Company, and started for old Grand Portage on Lake Superior, the Company's western headquarters, with the returning boats.

The next year, in 1802, he was sent to Leech Lake and thence to an outpost on the headwaters of one of the streams tributary to the Crow Wing River, from which point they collected furs from their Indian hunters scattered through what is now Becker and Otter Tail Counties. These Indians were Pillager Chippewas, and from information gathered from some of the old Indians I knew at Leech Lake in 1870, and who remembered well "Sha-gahnansh-eence," the "Little Englishman," as he was called by the Chippewas, I would locate this outpost at Shell Lake.

In 1803-4 Morrison wintered at Upper Rice Lake on the headwaters of the \\^ild Rice River, and it was during that winter and the spring of 1804 that he visited Lake Itasca and the various smaller lakes which form part of the source of the Mississippi River. No white man had ever visited that country before Morrison, and he rightfully claimed to be the discoverer of the source of this great river, although Nicollet, Beltrami and Schoolcraft all claimed this honor several years later.

It being the policy of the Northwest Fur Company not to allow any of its traders to remain more than one or two years at the same outpost, Morrison was, in this manner, enabled to visit many places, and became well acquainted with the fur resources of a vast territory ; the knowledge so acquired soon proved of great value to him.

His industrious habits and natural shrewdness, coupled witli his ability to handle the rough "Yoyageurs" and his po])ularit}- among the Indians, soon attracted the notice of his employers, and after several years spent in managing various trading posts in Minnesota, he was placed in charge of a number of them, with headquarters at Sandy Lake, on the upper ]\Iississi])pi River. It was while stationed there that an incident occurred, illustrating his popularity with, and influence over the Indians.

Tecumseh's brother, "The I'rophet," had sent out his tobacco to all the western and northwestern tribes, with a secret message to the Indians to join him in a general massacre of the whites in the Indian country.

Such was the reputation and influence of this famous grand medicine man, the prophet, over the Indians, that although the Chippewas were of a peaceful disposition and had no great cause of complaint against their traders, they dared not refuse the invitation. The tobacco sent was smoked in secret council, the Indians withdrew away from the trading posts, and generally assumed an unfriendly attitude.

Morrison had left Sandy Lake and gone on a business trip to Fond du Lac, to meet with the other chief traders and the managing board of the Northwest Company. While there, messengers came in from Sandy Lake and a number of other trading posts, with reports, that the Indians were acting in an unfriendly manner, and that their actions indicated there was mischief a brewing, but none of the traders' employes could find out what the trouble was.

The assembled traders decided that Morrison was the only one able to get the secret out of the Indians, and he started at once for Sandy Lake, his own post, with the messenger who had brought die report. They had a light l)irch canoe and traveled rapidly, so that on the forenoon of the third day they paddled out of Prairie River into Sandy Lake.

Some young Indians, wdio were returning from a deer hunt, recognizing him. hurried home to spread the news, that the "Little Englishman" was coming home. From stray hints heard while at Fond du Lac, Morrison had made up his mind that "The Prophet" was at the bottom of the trouble, and he soon decided on his plan of action. Paddling close to the shore he was soon opposite the wigwams of the Indians, but contrary to custom he never stopped to enquire about the news and kept on as if in a great hurry. This nettled the suspicious Indians, and one of them was sent on to intercept Morrison above one of the small portages which cut across the points formed by the long bends of the Mississippi River, below the mouth of the Sandy Lake River. His face was painted black, and as Morrison did not seem to notice him, the Indian hailed the canoe, when the paddlers stopped. "You seem to be in great hurry," said the Indian, "what news where you come from?" "Xothing," answered Morrison, "and what is going on here?" "Nothing here either." Then Morrison slowly began paddling away ; stopping suddenly, he half turned around saying: "Oh yes, there is some news I was forgetting. The great medicine man, "The Prophet." has been killed by the Long Knives, (the Americans). Then he resumed paddling and soon reached his stockade, a short distance down the Mississippi. The next day the Indians flocked in and resumed friendly relations, without showing the least sign of ill feeling.

As luck would have it, messengers came a few days afterwards from Lake Superior, confirming his report of the death of "The Prophet," and all circumstances connected with the plot came out.

It was a lucky hit. Morrison had calculated that if he could get the Indians to come around, he would succeed in getting them started out deer hunting, birch-bark raising, etc., and get them scattered, so they could not spend their days of idleness in plotting more mischief.

William Morrison stayed with the Northwest Fur Company until in 1816, when being oiYered better inducements, he joined the American Fur Company (John Jacob Astor's), and was placed in charge of the department of Fond du Lac, with headquarters at Old Superior. Wisconsin. This department embracing within its territory. Lake Vermillion, Red Lake, Sandy Lake. Leech Lake, Lake Winnebagoshish, Cass Lake, Otter Tail Lake, Crow \Wihg on the Mississippi, and Grand Portage on Lake Superior. He remained in charge of John Jacob Astor's business there until 1826, when having acquired what was called a competency for those days, he retired from the fur trade and returned to Canada. There he purchased a large island, since known as Morrison's Island, in the St. Lawrence River, between Old Fort William Henry, now Sorel, on the south shore, and Berthier-en-Haut, on the north shore of the river.

years spent on the farm, he settled in Berthier, where for many years he carried on a mercantile business, and was also judge of the county court.

While trading in the upper [Mississippi country, he married a Pillager Chippewa woman, by whom he had two boys and a girl. His wife dying soon after the birth of the last born, the children were, according to Indian custom, taken care of by the wife's mother, who always thereafter followed and lived with her grandchildren. When Morrison left the Indian country in 1826, he made arrangements to take his three children with him, but on the eve of the day set for the departure of the boats, from Superior for Mackinoe, the grandmother stole the children and disappeared during the night. Search for them was made for several days, but without success, and they were necessarily left behind. They returned eventually to Leech Lake, and in course of time the two boys grew to be great hunters and warriors, and many Sioux scalps dangled from their belts whenever they went out with a war party.

In spite of their Indian bringing up, and thanks to the good advice given them by their uncle, Allan Morrison, they never forgot that they were of white blood, and always exercised their influence over their reckless tribesmen to keep them from molesting the whites, and but for the stand taken by Joseph, (or Ay-gans as the Indians called him), at Leech Lake during the outbreak of 1862, there would have been a massacre of the em]:)lo}es and traders at the agency.

Hole-in-the-day, head chief of the Mississippi Chippewas, had stirred up the Pillagers to such a pitch that they had robbed the stores and made the whites prisoners. They had met in several councils and the most reckless of them had decided that the whites must die the next morning. Ay-gans had taken an active part in the councils, but had always taken the part of the prisoners. At last, when he saw that all his efforts had been in vain, he got up and spoke about their comradeship in war and in the hunts, and also on their relationship to one another and of that law of nature which binds kin to kin, and then he bared his arm, displaying his light skin, saying: "You are talking of killing our white friends, and you say they must die tomorrow. Look at this arm ; it is light colored, the blood that runs through it is white man's blood, and when you kill our white friends you will kill me also." That last part of the speech was telling. Ay-gans was a brave man, and his last words, were to Indian ears, both defiant and threatening. The next morning other brave men took sides with the whites and their Hves were spared. They were marched down to Gull Lake as prisoners, and turned over to the care of the Gull Lake Indians, and afterwards liberated.

Descendants of this Jos. !AIorrison are now settled on the Wild Rice River in Norman County, but formerly were a part of the first contingent of Otter Tail Chippewas, who removed with their father to Becker County in 1872, and settled around the present agency and the Old Trading Post.

The daughter was taken into the family of one of the missionaries and followed them to Stillwater, where she married a German farmer, and died several years ago. Joseph died at Beaulieu, Minn., in January, 1889. His older brother Richard, or Dekaince, died at Otter Tail Lake about 1870.

AA'illiam ^lorrison's second wife was a Miss Ronssain, daughter of a Fond du Lac, Minn., Indian trader. She was the mother of two sons and two daughters, and went with her husband to Canada, where she died a few years afterwards. William, the oldest of the two boys, left Canada for the west and eventually joining one of Col. Fremont's expeditions to the Pacific coast, went to California, where he settled and died about 1850.

The younger son, Donald George, left Canada before he was twenty years of age, and worked his way through Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin to Minnesota, where he settled in the Red River valley near the boundary line, and became a member of the Territorial Legislature of Minnesota. A few years later he settled in Old Superior, Wisconsin, where he was elected register of deeds of Douglas County, an office he held for years afterwards. He died in Superior, in 1898.

After the death of his second wife, William Morrison found himself with four young children, with none but hired help to manage and care for them, so after a couple years of this kind of existence, he married Miss Elizabeth Ann Kittson, an elder sister oi the late Commodore N. W. Kittson of St. Paul, Minnesota. Four daughters were born of that union.

Mrs. Morrison died in February, 1864, and her husband, who had been blind for several years, could not bear up long under the blow. He aged rapidly after this, and although surrounded by kind friends who endeavored by their attentions and company, to keep his mind interested in the events of the day, he lost all interest

In religion he was an Episcopalian, and in politics a Conservative, and a strong supporter of the Canadian government in the troublesome years of 1837-38, and possessed of much influence with the authorities. This he used to good advantage after the rebellion, and was instrumental in saving the lives and liberty of many of his patriotic friends.

The first man I ever saw in Becker County was Mark Warren. He was one of those eccentric characters, always found on the frontier, whose occupation can best be defined as fur trader and wild rover, and who usually disappeared with the advent of civilization.

I found him near the southw'est corner of what is now Cormorant Township, in October 1870. I asked him where he lived, and he pointed to an old Red River cart that was standing near by and said that was all the home he possessed. He did not remain in the county more than a year or two longer, but I afterwards frequently camped with him both in Minnesota and Dakota, learning something of his history, which had been very eventful. He was about forty years of age, a native of Vermont, well educated, and started out in life intending to become a lawyer. His life, however, about that time became blighted, the particulars of which he never gave me in full, but from occasional hints it was easy to surmise the cause that changed the whole future course of his life. He had been for many years engaged in buying furs from the Indians and frontier settlers, and for the last ten or fifteen years had been a rambler in this region of country. Sometime in the year 1865, he had gathered up a cart-load of furs and taken them to St. Paul, disposing of them at good prices, and returning by the Old Red River trail, camped at night near the Buffaki River. His camp was a little way off from the trail, and sometime in the night, someone entered his tent, struck him on the head with a club, then stabbed him in the breast with a knife and robbed him of $400 and left him for dead, ^^'hether the robber was a white man or an Indian was not known, as Warren did not see the vilhiin. When he l)ecame conscions, it was noon the following' day and he was scarcely able to move hand or foot, and lay in that condition until the second day, when he mustered up strength to crawl out to the cart trail, where he lay all that day and the next night. About noon of the third day, he was picked up by some Red River halfbreeds, who took him to the nearest trading post, where he ho\- ered between life and death for a whole month, and it was a year before he fully recovered from the effects of this foul deed.

AX'arren went from here to the A\'ild Rice River, and in the autumn of 1874, I found him on the l)ank.s of the Missouri, a little above Bismarck, in Dakota, and again in 1878, I found him further up the Missouri in a snug cabin, herding cattle and reading Blackstone. The last I heard of him was in the year 1895, when he had found a final resting place among the mountains of A\^voming.

Northern Pacific Explorations

The first route proposed for the Northern Pacific Railroad was to run from Duluth to St. Cloud and from thence to Breckenridge, as a feasible route was known to exist along that course, whereas most people had their doubts as to the practicability of building a railroad farther north. The first exploring expedition was fitted out in June, 1869, under the direction and management of George A. Bracket, of Minneapolis. Their first camp was pitched at Small Lake, a little w^est of St. Cloud on the 9th day of July, 1869.

Accompanying the expedition was J. Gregory Smith, at that time governor of \'ermont, and also president of the X'orthern Pacific Railroad Company, Eugene M. Wilson, of Minneapolis, member of Congress from the third Minnesota district. Senator William Windom, the Rev. Dr. Lord of Chicago, Charles Carlton Coffin, correspondent of the Boston Journal, and among several others the financial agent of Jay Cook, a man whose name was Holmes.

Pierre Bottineau, a Red River half-breed, and one of the most noted frontiersmen of the Northwest, was the guide of the party, and John C). French, now of Detroit Township, was his assistant.

The party consisted of about seventy men, fifty-five of whom were teamsters ; twenty-five light wagons and buggies, and about thirty heavy wagons, loaded with provisions, baggage and general camping outfit. As they left St. Cloud, they made a very imposing procession, stretching out along the road for nearly half a mile in extent. They moved by easy stages, following the old Alexandria and Red River road, and in the course of about a week reached Fort Abercrombie, a frontier post occupied by United States troops. The party here divided, about one-half of them remaining behind to explore the Red River Valley and the country adjacent thereto in a direction north from Ft. Abercrombie.

The other half of the expedition now procured the ser\'ices of a squad of twenty-five or thirty soldiers from Ft. Abercrombie, under the command of a lieutenant to serve as an escort, and then, under the leadership of Bottineau and French, proceeded to explore the country across the Dakota plains to the Missouri River. They

At their camp near the James River they were fired upon, in the night, by a party of Sioux Indians and skirmishing with the pickets was quite hvely for a couple of hours, and was only brought to a close by the dawning of day. One soldier was slightly wounded.

x\fter examining the approaches to the Missouri, and ascertaining the feasibility of a crossing, the party started back by a new route a little north of their outward trail, and about the 15th of August reached the Red River a little north of where Fargo now stands. Here they met the party which they had left at Ft. Abercrombie a few weeks before.

After a short rest, the united expedition crossed the Red River and started on their homeward journey in an easterly direction across the Red River flats, and on the 21st of August, 1869, camped for the night on the shores of Floyd Lake, in what is now Detroit Township. The next day being Sunday, the expedition rested from their journeying and the Rev. Dr. Lord held religious services at the camp, and preached the first sermon ever preached in Becker County by a white man of which we have any knowledge.

At this camp at the southwest corner of Floyd Lake, Charles Carleton Coffin wrote a letter to the Boston Journal, giving a description of the country in the western part of Becker County, and appropriately naming it the Park Region of Minnesota.

On our second day's march from Red River, we came to a section of country that might with propriety be called the Park Region of Minnesota. It lies amid the uplands of the divide. It is more beautiful even than the country around White Bear Lake in the vicinity of Glenwood. Throughout the day we rode amid such rural scenery as can only be found in the most lovely spots in New England. Think of an undulating country, gently rounded elevations with green slopes, of lawns and parks and countless lakes; calm waters reposing amid the low hills, skirted by forests, fringed with rushes, perfumed by lilies; or of the waves rippling on gravelly beaches, of wild geese, ducks, loons, pelicans and innumerable waterfowl building their nests amid the reeds and rushes; think of lawns blooming with flowers, of elk and deer browsing amid the meadows. This is their haunt. We see their tracks along the sandy beach, but they keep beyond the range of our rifles.

So wonderfully has nature adorned this section of country, that it seems as if we were riding through a country that had long been under cultivation, and that beyond yonder hillock we shall find a mansion or at least a farm house.

I do not forget that I am seeing this country at its best season, that it is midsummer, and that the winters are as long as in New England; but I can say without reservation that nowhere in the wide world, not even in England, the most finished of all lands; not in la belle France, or sunny Italy, or in the valley of the Ganges, or the Yangtze, or the slopes of the Sierra Nevadas in California have I beheld anything approaching this region of natural beauty.

It was a pleasure, after three days' travel over trackless wilds, to come suddenly and unexpectedly upon a hayficld. There were the swathes newly mown. There was no farm-house in sight, no fenced fields, but the haymakers had been at work in the vicinity. We were approaching civilization. Ascending the hill we came in sight of a settler, a pioneer. One of our party had already come up with him. and he informed us that we should find the old trail about a mile ahead. He had a long beard hanging to his breast; long, matted hair and a pale wrinkled countenance. He had come from Ohio in his youth and had always been a skirmisher on the advancing line of civilization.

We struck the old trail about a mile west of Oak Lake. This trail was formerly traveled by the French and Indian traders, between the Mississippi River and Pembina, and had not been used much of late years. Striking that, we should have no trouble in reaching the settlements at Otter Tail forty miles southeast.

Emigration travels fast. Four families have just made a beginning at Oak Lake on the old Red River trail. We reached the settlement on Saturday night. August 21st. and pitched our tent on the shore of Floyd Lake for the Sabbath. It was a rare treat for these people to come to our camp and hear a sermon from the Rev. Dr. Lord. The oldest person in the colony is a woman, now in her eightieth year, with eye undiminished, a countenance remarkably free from the marks of age. who walks with a firm step after three-score years of labor. Sixty years ago she left Lebanon, New Hampshire, a young wife, leaving her native hills for a home in the state of New York, then moving with the great army of emigrants to Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa in succession, and at last b'^ginning again in Minnesota.

Last year her hair, which had been as white as the purest snov,% began to take on its original color, and is now <|uite dark. There are but few instances on record of such a renewal of youth.

The women and children of these four families lived here all alone for six weeks while the men were away after the stock. On the fourth of July all hands traveled forty miles, to Rush Lake to celebrate the day. Store, church, school and post office are forty miles away and the nearest mills are fully as distant."

The expedition then proceeded on its way to the east, the route followed by them being- very nearly identical with that now occupied by the Northern Pacific Railroad itself. This expedition settled the location of the Northern Pacific between Duluth and Moorhead, but another expedition was sent out the next year to make a farther examination of the country between the Red River and the Missouri. John (). French was also a member of this expedition, and to him I am indebted for a large part of the information contained in this article.

The Northern Pacific Railroad was just a little more than one year in being built through Becker County. Grading began in the vicinity of the Otter Tail County line and in the Detroit Woods, about the middle of October, 1870, and was finished in the western part of the county about the middle of November, 1871. By the first of December, trains were making regular trips to Oak Lake Cut, which were continued through the winter, but only two trains were run through to ]\Ioorehead that fall, as the road was blockaded with snow until the middle of the next April, although a large crew of men shoveled snow all winter at an expense of $30,000.

General Rosser was chief engineer of this part of the railroad. An engineer by the name of Keith had charge of the work from the second crossing of the Otter Tail to Chris. Anderson's place on Section 8, in Audubon Township, and Reno, a relative of Major Reno of Custer Massacre fame, had charge from there to where Hawley, in Clay County, is now. In 1870 and 1871 an engineer by the name of McClellan, a cousin of General McClellan, surveyed a line from Floyd Lake, in Detroit Township to Pembina. Fred. Brackett had the contract of grading the road from the crossing of the Otter Tail River near the county line to Detroit Lake, and George M. C. Brackett graded the road from Detroit Lake a distance of ten miles to the west.

I will begin the history of White Earth with a letter from Major J._D, Bassett, who was Indian agent for the Mississippi Band of Chippewas at the time of their removal to White Earth in 1868:

WoLFBORO, N. H., August 10, 1906. Yours of the 27th ult. reached me a few days since, forwarded from Minneapolis. I have delayed answering it in order to consult with Mr. James Bean, who now lives in California, but was expected here, and who was my clerk during my incumbency of the Indian agency and could have given me much help in answering your letter. These answers are from memory, which is not as clear as they would have been if I had some diaries kept at that time, which I have in Minneapolis. I find that forty years dims my memory of events that transpired that length of time ago. When the treaty was made in Washington in 1867, the party that went with me consisted of George Bonga (interpreter), Head Chief Hole-in-theday, Peter Bottineau and five or six other Chiefs and Headmen; all fullblooded Indians. We were there over two months before the treaty was made and ratified. Paul H. Beaulieu was sent by me to White Earth in the spring of 1868, before the removal to explore the country and meet me on my arrival there, which was to precede the arrival of the Indians. Truman Warren was employed as an interpreter and collected the Indians at the old agency, near Crow Wing, superintended collecting the outfit and accompanied them on their journey. I followed them a few days after and overtook them at Otter Tail Lake, where they were met by a delegation of Sioux Indians and were holding a friendly council. Paul Beaulieu met me, before I arrived at the point afterwards selected for the agency, and accompanied me back to the reservation, and together with him the agency was located, also a road to White Earth Lake, and a site for the sawmill selected.

I do not recollect now of sending any one to the reservation to do any work except what was done by Paul Beaulieu, in exploring on the reservation. As soon as the site for buildings was selected and the location of the land to be broken was marked out, I employed Joseph Wakefield to break the land for an Indian farm and to break land separately, for such Indians as desired to occupy it. I do not recollect the exact date when the breaking commenced or ended, but there is no question about Paul Beaulieu being the first settler. He was there before the first colony arrived and I think his family was there also, and he was employed as a farmer from the time of the first arrival of Indians at White Earth Reservation, until I left the agency. There were Indians and half-breeds constantly going and coming, but the number there was constantly in creasing. I think, when the Indians arrived near the Reservation, Paul went out to meet them and piloted them to the ground. I think he met me at some point and came back with me before the arrival of the Indians. I left the Indians at Otter Tail Lake and did not see them again until their arrival. Truman Warren stayed with the Indians until their arrival at their destination. Truman was the Moses from the start, and true and faithful. ]\Iost of the Indians that went that year, went together with Warren. No band or body of them went together after that time during that year. Several ox teams went with the Indians, and I think the same teams were put to work breaking land. There were some pine logs cut as you suggest, and it was done by Joseph Wakefield the next winter. I do not recollect how many, but enough to build many houses for Indians and store-houses.

My experience with the Indian Department shows to my mind the most incomprehensible absurdity that a civilized people ever attempted to impose upon an uncivilized race. To attempt to civilize a people and at the same time prevent them from adopting any of the arts or advantages of civilization, is to my mind absolutely absurd and ridiculous. Give the benefit of law and the work is done at once. Abrogate law amongst the white people and we would soon relapse into barbarism.

In the fall of 1862, I passed through Becker County with the Indian agent, on our way to Clearwater, where he made payment to the Otter Tail, Pembina and Red Lake Indians. We followed the old Red River Trail, and camped at Detroit Lake on our way out. Edwin Clark was the agent at that time. It was a wild trip. The Sioux were all over the country, and were very hostile; it being soon after the beginning of the terrible massacre in southern Minnesota. The Otter Tail Indians escorted us through to the Clearwater. I broke 240 acres of land for the Indians at White Earth, in the summer of 1868, and the winter following cut one million feet of pine logs to be sawed into lumber and to be used in the construction of the agency buildings.

I started my teams from old Crow Wing in the latter part <>f .Kpril. 1868, and Paul H Beaulieu was the leader of the party, because he knew better how to manage the fording of the rivers, but William Thompson took charge of the work. Paul was employed by the government as farmer and surveyor. After locating my teams at breaking, he returned to accompany Major Bassett. I commenced breaking about the middle of May, with two six-ox teams and four two-horse teams. I think Paul Beaulieu's first trip to White Earth was when he went with my teams, arriving there early in May, 1868. James Warren and George Van Valken- burg came to White Earth later on. I opened up a store there, as I was the only licensed trader in the country at the time. Robert Fairbanks was my clerk. E. B. Lowell took charge of my logging camp that next winter. I think our making the trip through that country in the fall of 1862, was the cause of White Earth being chosen for a reservation, for we all recommended it to the government as the Garden of Eden, and we were not much mistaken.

I have been trying to refresh my memory as to the names of those of my party who went to White Earth to do the breaking of land. There were, besides Beaulieu, four men and one woman. The woman was Wm. Thompson's wife, a white woman, and the entire party were white men, but for my life I cannot remember their names, except Wm. Thompson and Simeon Weaver. As to Paul H. Beaulieu, he went back to Crow Wing and brought his family back, and so did Robert Fairbanks. The following winter I cut one million feet of logs to build the Agency. Again Paul Beaulieu returned to Crow Wing and piloted my teams and crew through. They left Crow Wing the early part of January, i86g. This party was, P. H. Beaulieu, E. B. Lowell, John B. Wakefield and True Moores. Somewhere in the vicinity of Detroit, they experienced a snow storm. So much snow fell with the heavy wind, the men got discouraged and all agreed to turn back, when True Moores with a four-horse team hitched up and said he was going to White Earth, as he had hired out to do and started out alone. Paul Beaulieu soon followed and after some time they all pulled out, and with much difficulty, with snow and cold, made their way by following the ridges and high land, for the valleys were ten to twenty feet deep with snow. It was quite an undertaking to haul our supplies so far without roads or bridges. I got $13.00 per acre for breaking and $10.00 per one thousand feet banking logs and it was not too much either.

The William Thompson referred to took a claim the next year two or three miles south of where Frazee now stands and lived there for several years. The place is now owned and occupied by Thomas Keyes. His wife referred to afterwards became the wife of C. H. Whipple and lived in Detroit for several years and died there on the 13th day of March, 1888.

I have your favor of the 2nd inst., asking about my trip to White Earth in the spring of 1868, and in reply will say I went there at that time to build a saw mill for the Indians, under contract with Major J. B. Bassett, then Indian agent.

We loaded the engine, boiler and mill machinery into a flatboat at the old village of Crow Wing and poled the boat up the Crow Wing River to the mouth of Leaf River and up that river to Leaf Lake. The party

Cabe, of Minneapolis, Minn., Mr. Jerry Bartrum and a brother of his, whose name I have forgotten, and myself, with about half a dozen Indians who helped pole the boat.

We found the water very low that spring and in many places were obliged to build wing dams to raise the water sufficiently to enable us to get up over the rapids; when we got into Leaf River we found it so crooked that our boat, which was seventy feet long, could scarcely make the turns and we were greatly delayed and did not reach Rufifee's Landing on Leaf Lake as soon as we expected; we ran short of provisions and the last few days lived on fish which we caught in the river. We left the boat at Rufifee's Landing, and the cargo was afterwards loaded onto wagons and hauled through to White Earth Lake. After leaving our boat, we went to Otter Tail Lake where Charley Peake had a trading store, only to find he had nothing to eat except fish and potatoes, and for four days, while we were waiting for the teams which started from the Crow Wing Agency the day after we did and which were greatly delayed by bad roads, we shared his generous hospitality and scant bill of fare. At Otter Tail Lake was also located Mr. Van Norse, to whom we were indebted for many courtesies.

When we reached Buffalo River we were obliged to bridge that stream before we could get our teams across, and while there Major Bassett overtook us and went ahead to White Earth and sent back Mr. Paul Beaulieu to pilot us in to our destination.

Upon our arrival we immediately commenced work on the saw-mill, and soon had it running. It was located about two miles east of the present village on the bank of White Earth Lake.

Thompson & Peake had banked a lot of pine logs across the lake the winter before, and from these we sawed quite a lot of lumber and shingles and then left the mill in charge of Anton St. Germain, who ran it for some time.

The following winter I built a saw-mill at Red Lake for the Indians of that agency; the mill was located at the outlet of the lake and was run by water power.

The firm of Thompson & Peake, who did the lumbering at White Earth the winter before I went there, was composed of Mr. William Thompson, whom you mention, and Fred Peake. Giles Peake and Charley Peake were at Otter Tail at the time.

There were no Indians with Major Bassett, they came later and arrived while I was there during the early summer. Paul Beaulieu was at White Earth ahead of us and before Major Bassett went there, he must have gone there very early in the spring.

Truman Warren was at the old Crow Wing Agency at the time and did not reach White Earth until the middle of June. It is difficult for me to give the exact date when my party left Crow Wing m the spring, but my best recollection is that it was about the middle of May.

I regret that I am unable to go more into detail or be more definite as to dates, but the fact is I am now eighty-four years old and my memory is not as good as it was some years ago. I came to Minnesota in 1856 and settled at Little Falls, have lived in this part of the state ever since, and am interested in the history of the state and am pleased to contribute anything I can, to make the history that I have had anything to do with making a matter of record.

Nathan Butler, an old U. S. government surveyor, who was with the first party of Indians when they went through to White Earth in the month of June 1868, says:

It was in June 1868 that I first went into Becker County. It was the time Major Bassett moved the Indians to White Earth Reservation. I joined him near Otter Tail Lake and went to White Earth with him.

Paul Beaulieu was living at White Earth with his family when Major Bassett and I arrived there. He met us two or three miles this side of the agency. He was hunting along the road, and had killed a lynx and some other game. He returned to the agency with us, and we took dinner with him, which his wife had prepared, apparently in anticipation of our arrival. I recollect very distinctly that she had bear meat and a turtle cooked. I noticed that Bassett ate pretty freely of the bear meat, but not of the turtle. When we were out after dinner, inspecting the breaking that Jos. Wakefield was doing for the government, Bassett remarked, that he did not think his wife would put a turtle on the table more than once with the feet on it. That accounted for his eating bear instead of turtle. I ate the turtle and preferred it to the bear meat.

We were there nearly a week on account of one of the mules being lame, and while we were there I recollect Bassett talking with Lee about putting up a saw mill by contract, but could not make any bargain to do it.

When we got back to the outlet of Rush Lake the heaviest of the saw mill machinery was there loaded on wagons waiting for Bassett. We gave them information about the road, and gave them three weeks to get to White Earth Lake. In seven days they had the mill there ready to set up; the best job of handling ox teams I ever saw.

On our return I met three or four men from Clitheral, Otter Tail County, looking for good land on which to locate and I pursuaded them to go through the Detroit Woods to the vicinity of Oak Lake. They were delighted with the land in that vicinity and made claims there to which they afterwards moved their families. One of them, Henry Way, was living in the vicinity the last I heard of him. These, at the time were supposed to be the first white men who ever settled in Becker County. Patrick Quinlan was living on the river bank just south of where Frazee is now, but he thought he was living in Otter Tail County until after the county line was run two years afterwards.

As there was a good road already located to White Earth Agency and from there to the Wild Rice River, I adopted the old road that far, and the road from there north did not vary two miles at any one point from a straight line.

In July, 187 1, I went to Oak Lake, then the end of the railroad, and outfitted three parties to examine land for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and in the fall of that year took a party into the woods east of Richwood and examined the towns of Grand Park and Carsonville.

Mr. lUitler is now living- at Minneapolis, bnt was back here in Jnly 1906, at the age of 74 years, making a survey of some land in the woods a few miles south of Frazee, about as nimble as ever.

In 1867 my home was at the old Chippewa Agency near Crow ^^'ing-, Minnesota. A widow, with three children, I was employed as government day teacher, and rememher very well the events which occurred at that time. J. B. Bassett was Indian agent, and the same year went to with the head chief Hole-inthe-day, and other chiefs of the Mississippi band of Chippewas, to make a treaty with the government in the exchange of their old reservation for a new- one which was to be selected for them in northern Minnesota. It was a year after the treaty, before all the Indians could be pursuaded to leave their old home, and when at last they were willing and ready to move, Hole-in-the-day became dissatisfied and unruly. He demanded much for himself as head chief which was refused by the government. He then began to oppose the removal and made much trouble by trying to prevent the other chiefs and braves from starting, telling them to wait until next spring" as he would not be ready until then ; that he was going to Washington again to demand of the government that improvements be made at the new reservation before removal, including a saw-mill, houses for the Indians, and a large house for himself like the one that was destroyed by fire during the Indian raid in 1862. He told them that when all these improvements were made he would be ready to go, and they and the Agency would all move together. He urged them to wait, but they would not listen to him and were determined to go. The agent had received orders from the department to have the Indians removed to their new home early that spring, and they were all ready to start. Hole-in-the-day was very angry when he found that he could not prevent them from moving, and threatened to kill the first to go. Some of his braves supported him in his stand. Finally, after much trouble, they were ready to start on the 4th day of June, 1868.

T. A. Warren was appointed by the government to superintend the transfer of the Indians to their new reservation at White Earth. He collected together men, women and children, about two hundred in all. at the old agency. I saw them when they started, with a longtrain of ox teams, Mr. Warren in a light buggy with his wife and child. My friend, Reverend Fred Smith, now rector of Saint Colum- bia church at White Earth, accompanied them. He was then a very young man. He has given me some information of the first two years of the settlement at White Earth, including the following narrative of the removal written by himself :

In the morning of June 4, 1868, Truman Warreji started with the Indians for their new home, White Earth, with eleven ox teams, moving the Mississippi band of Chippewas, under the chiefs White Cloud, Wahbon-ah-quod, Nay-bon-ash-kung and Mun-ne-do-wab. It was a trying time. Hole-in-the-day had told his braves that whoever went first would surely be killed on the spot. Nay-bon-ash-kung, who was a brave as well as a chief, took his gun and told the party to follow him, saying: "Now, follow me; whoever will come in my way to stop me from going, he will be killed on the spot." All the Indians went along with him, having their guns ready for business, and nobody dared to come in his way. T. A. Warren was their leader, having charge of the removal. In coming through to Otter Tail Lake we saw few houses, but after leaving the lake we saw none. It was a vast wilderness. The Indians arrived at White Earth at noon, June 14, 1868. We camped near the present site of the agency buildings, and lived in tents and wigwams until houses were built. Eew were ready by cold weather, and some of the Indians built little log huts for their first winter. T. A. Warren had charge of the Indians after they reached their new home. He built a log store house for the flour, pork, groceries and other supplies, and distributed weekly rations to the Indians for one year.

Air. Paul Beaulieu, at the request of the Indians, was their first farmer. He came from Crow Wing with his family and four wdiite men and they arrived a short time in advance of the Indians and settled at a place four miles from A\'hite Earth Lake, now known as the "Old Trading Post." This was their first village here.

James W^arren, government saw^yer and carpenter, and George Van A'alkenberg, government l)lacksmith, came with Paul Beaulieu on one of his trips.

Samuel Lee and a party of men left Crow AA'ing about the middle of Alay with the machinery for a sawmill wdiich he afterwards built at AA'hite Earth Lake and he had hard time getting through with the mill. The government farm was located, farmhouse and stables built, as also a dwelling house for T. A. Warren and several small houses for the Indians - all log buildings. There were no gardens the first year, as they arrived too late in the season, but there was plenty of wild rice in the lakes, and ducks, geese and prairie chickens were also plentiful. The lakes were filled with many varieties of fish, including catfish, pickerel, muskallonge, black and rock bass, suckers, red-horse and wall-eyed pike. Sturgeon were also cauL;ht in W hite F'artli Lake. The first two years deer were quite plentiful, and also elk, moose, bear, muskrats and rabbits. Nay-bon-ash-kung', one of the chiefs, who died in 1873, killed the first elk. The Indians did not hunt much the first year, those who were able to work being- hired by the government to help build their own houses. In the fall of the same year (1868) Rev. Mr. John Johnson (En-meg-ah-bowh) sent word he was coming to \\niite Earth with his family, bringing with him a few Indians from IMille Lacs. He requested a party of Indians to meet him at Otter Tail Lake as it was not safe for a small party to travel alone through the wilderness, the Sioux being feared at that time. That winter a little log church was built. Rev. Johnson was sent by Bishop Whipp\e to convert and civilize the Indians, in which work he was very successful. He \\as an eloquent preacher and very popular with the Indians. In September, 1868, Julius Brown, ( Alamuckkawange) the first male child, was born. Jane Parker, daughter of Bahbewob (Peter Parker), was the first girl born.

The first death occurred September i, 1868, Gin-gion-cumig-oke, mother-in-law of T. A. Warren. x\h-zhe-day-gi-shig and wife were the first couple married, on January 12, 1869, in Saint Columbia church, where they were also baptized.

R. P. Fairbanks, who was a big boy ar this time, says he remembers well that Joseph Wakefield came here before the Indians arrived and built a small store at the old trading post. The name of the members of the firm were Joseph Wakefield and Fred Peake. His father, Robert Fairbanks ran the store for them. This was the first store at White Earth in recent years.

The 14th day of June of each year has always been observed by the people and Indians as the anniversary of the day when the first Indians arrived at White Earth. They named their new home Gahwah-bah-bi-gon-i-kah, or White Earth, from the white clay found under the black soil.

On April i, 1869, Mr. Bassett resigned his office as Indian Agent, and an army officer was then appointed by the government to fill the vacancy, during whose term two annuity payments were made to the Indians.

also a number of mixed-blood families from Crow Wing and Leech Lake. In that year a Roman Catholic priest. Father Tomazine, arrived and his first church was a small building built of logs and located about three miles south of the agency.

On the morning of Sept. 9, 1870, I started with m_\- three children from Little Falls, Minnesota, in company with my sister, Mrs. James Warren, and family of seven children, on our journey to White Earth. Mr. La Chance and Mr. Mouchamp were hired with their tw() tw'd-hcrse teams and one ox team. We went to Crow W ing and to()k the Leech Lake road as far as Twenty-four-mile Creek, so named from being 24 miles from I^eech Lake, where a road had just been completed by the government across the country to White Earth. Here we met an Indian with an ox team who had been sent by my brother, Truman, to guide us to White Earth. Mr. La Chance went back to Little Falls, while Mr. Mouchamp continued with us. We traveled very slowly as the teams were heavily loaded. It was a desolate country, but wa saw large numbers of ducks, geese, prairie chickens and partridges. My sister and I walked nearly the entire distance. When we reached Pine Point we met Rev. Johnson with his family, on their way to visit Bishop Whipple, and taking his two daughters to Saint Mary's Hall, Faribault, where they were to attend school. W'e camped together that night and had a pleasant visit with them. Mr. Johnson informed us that the roads were in a very bad condition and that we were yet one and a half day's journey from White Earth, which proved true. Ten days after leaving Little Falls we arrived at our new home, where we were warmly welcomed by relatives antl friends. We were much pleased with the country, the fruitful gardens and the tall oak trees which were so green and beautiful, there having been no frost. I was much surprised to see the great improvement in my Indian friends whom I had known at the "Old Agency" and who had come with the first removal. When they left there they were heathens and wore blankets, long hair, feathers, and painted their faces, and now when they came to shake hands and welcome me they were dressed like white men, wdth short hair and unpainted faces. This was the result of the good work of their missionary, who had converted most of these Indians. They were now trying to live Christian lives and had taken their lands near each other. The government had houses built for them and they all appeared contented and happy. I never heard any of them express regret at having come to White Earth, their only complaint being; the lack of schools for their children. Mr. John Cook had been appointed by the government to be their farmer and overseer, having arrived with his family from Leech Lake earl\- in the spring of 1870, where he had filled a similar position for a nnmber of years. I was very glad to renew their ac- (piaintance, as I had known them at Leech Lake where we first met. Mrs. Cook was the first white woman who came to White ]£arth. They had three beautiful children, two boys and one girl. They were good Christian people, Mr. Cook being an honest, upright man, and the Indians had great respect for him. For his home he had selected another place near a lake two miles from the village, where a new farm-house and other government buildings were being erected. AAdien completed in the fall he moved there with his famil}^ and kindly offered me the house he had vacated for a day school and residence, which I gladly accepted. There were about forty children in attendance and I taught all winter. it being the first school on the reservation.

In the fall of 1870 there was a new blacksmith appointed, a Mr. Cochran who had been there only a few weeks. Early one morning he went out in a boat to shoot ducks, and in reaching over the side of the boat to pick up a duck, which he had killed, the boat upset and before assistance could reach him he was drowned. His body was not recovered until the following spring. He was the first white man Ijuried at AMiite Earth.

The removals, including ourselves, were: Alfred Warren and familw Madeline Warren, Tyler Warren and Mrs. Delia Winters. These were all the children of W. AV. W^arren the historian. They have since all passed away except Madeline, who is now Airs. George ITran. There were also Mr. Tim. Moore and wife and mother-in-law, Mrs. Fountain, Mr. Frank M. Campbell, wife and four children, Mr. Robert Fairbanks, wife, four sons and one daughter, and Mr. Frank Roy, wife and family, all from Crow \¥ing. Besides these there were two traders, George Fairbanks and Wm. McArthur, the last named coming several years later. I remember the Indians secured quantities of furs in the fall and early spring, such as bear, timber wolves, coyotes, red fox, mink, lynx, wild-cat, coon, muskrat, skunk, weasel, marten, fisher, otter and badger. The four last mentioned animals are now very rare.

annuity being paid during his term. In that year Bishop Whipple came to visit the Indians. He held services and confirmed a large number of Indians in the little log church, on this his first visit to White Earth. All the Indians loved and respected their good Bishop and he was their best friend. With his influence with the Department at Washington he did much to help them when in trouble and want during the grasshopper plague.

In the spring of 1871 E. P. Smith was appointed Indian agent with headquarters at White Earth, bringing his own employes, most of them coming from Ripon, Wisconsin. This being the first agency at White Earth, their names are here given: Mr. Chittenden, tnimarried, head clerk and overseer ; Mrs. Minnie Cook, niece of E. P. Smith, assistant clerk ; Mr. M. V. Nichols, farmer ; Mr Bardwell, blacksmith ; Mr. A. K. Murray, engineer in charge of the government sawmill at White Earth Lake ; Mr. J. E. Haven, carpenter ; Dr. Bodle, physician. All had families. Dr. Bodle and Mr. Haven were employed for a number of years at White Earth. Several government houses for employees were built, including the Indian boarding school, the only school building ready for use that fall. The first superintendent and teachers were Mr. and Mrs. Armour, from Iowa. There was room for only fifty pupils, and twenty-five boys and as many girls were taken, none under fifteen years of age. The pupils were taught to do all the work in the boarding school.

Eastern churchmen assisted the Episcopal mission and a new church and parsonage were built. The new church was consecrated l)y Bishoji \\'hipple in August. 1872, when he visited WHiite Earth accompanied by quite a party of the clergy and laity.

In the spring of 1871, John Cook and family moved from W^hite Earth to their new home and farm near Audubon, where all the members of this unfortunate family were cruelly murdered a year afterwards by three Chippewa Indians, Bobolink and Boanece being the principal actors in the tragedy. They were both arrested soon after the crime and taken to prison, but Boanece was released for want of evidence. He was quite ill when he returned home, but recovered partially and was able to walk about, always with a loaded gun as if he expected to be retaken. In February, 1873, Mr. James Whitehead came to White Earth to arrest him again. The Indians became very much excited and quickly held a council and all agreed to stop the arrest. They were determined not to allow Mr. Whitehead to take Boanece from the reservation, although knowing him to be guilty. Tlie fear of an Indian ()utl)reak was tlieir reason for resisting the arrest. The Leech Lake Pillagers had several times sent word to the White Earth hidians that if they permitted him to be taken off the reservation to prison again, where he would be hung by the whites, there would be trouble and they would C(.mmence killing the white ])eo])le. P)oanece and his wife were related to S(Mne of the worst Indians at Bear Lsland, Leech Lake. This was the last attempt made to arrest him, and he died soon after at his home on Rice River. The west half of White Earth Reservation was surveyed by George P. Stuntz and Shaw of Duluth and St. Paul, in the summer of 1871. During the year 1873 all the government buildings were completed, including the large school-house and boys' building, also the industrial hall where the Lidian women were taught house-work, including cooking, sewing, knitting, carpetweaving, etc. Miss Hattie Cook, niece of E. P. Smith, the agent, was the matron in charge.

In the spring of 1873 a }oung Indian woman was murdered in a sugar camp. She was one of two sisters who had l)een left to watch the camp during the night. An Indian assaulted them and killed the elder one with a hatchet after she had tried to defend herself. The younger sister escaped and reported the tragedy. The murderer attempted to run away, but was caught and taken to Fort Ripley, where he was held a prisoner for some months in the guard house, the only punishment he received for the crime. He is still living.

One night during the same year an Indian was shot while returning home from the village and his body found by the roadside the next morning. He was supposed to have been murdered by a Leech Lake Indian to avenge the killing of a relative.

In 1H73, Rev. J. A. Gilfillan, a young Episcopal clergman, came to White Earth to assist Rev. Mr. Johnson in mission work. He very soon learned to speak the Ojibwa language, and with his kindly ways, won the love and respect of the Indians, who found in him a sincere friend. He instructed a class of young Indian luen and prepared them to become clergymen and deacons for the dififerent churches and missions, which through his influence were erected for the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota. In this work he was very successful. Most of his pupils are still living, having charge of the churches and missions, and are preaching the gospel to their own people.

E. P. Smith completed his term as agent in 1872. During the short time he was Indian agent he made a great many improvements at White Earth. He was a Christian man and one of the best agents ever on the reservation. Mr. Douglas, from [Minneapolis, succeeded him, and remained in office one year.

During 1873 some of the prominent mixed-blood families and traders from Crow Wing, Minnesota, moved to White Earth. They included Mr. Clement Beaulieu, wife, four sons and one daughter ; Albert Fairl)anks and family ; A\'illiam Fairbanks and family ; George Donald and family. A son of ^ir. Scandrett, and grandson of Bishop \\'hipple, was the first white child born at White Earth, in the fall of 1874.

Truman A. Warren was born at La Pointe, Madeline Island. Lake Superior, April 19th, 1827. and was the second son of Lyman M. Warren, the first permanent American settler on Lake Superior. The father was for many years connected in business with the American Fur Company, making his residence on Madeline Island, its most westerly headquarters along the chain of the Great Lakes. He was a direct descendant of Richard Warren, one of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Mayflower. Gen. Joseph Warren who fell at Bunker Hill, was also a member of a collateral branch of this same family.

The mother of Truman Warren was Mary Cadotte, the daughter of Michel Cadotte, an old time fur trader of Lake Superior and the great Northwest and was himself the son of Jean Baptiste Cadotte, who was in partnership with Alexander Henry, the Englishman, noted for his journeys and writings. The wife of Michel Cadotte, and mother of Mary Cadotte was an Ojibwa woman, daughter of Waub-ije-Jauk (White Crane) hereditary chief of the La Pointe band of Ojibwas, wdiich was closely related to the bands of the Mississippi. Truman W^arren was the younger brother of W^ W. Warren, the historian of the Ojibwa nation.