Blue Earth County, Minnesota - Chapter 1: Blue Eaeth County - Aborighsfal Days, 1901

Conspicuous upon the map of the Northwest is the great bend of the ilinnesota, and the fact that the Blue Earth river here empties its waters gives further prominence to the spot. Indeed, a map of this territory fifty years ago had but little delineated upon it, save rivers and lakes, and, as water then afforded the principal means of transportation and furnished the chief motive power for manufacture, it is no wonder the homeseeker of the period should have been attracted to so favorable a locality.

At this remarkable bend, in the very heart of Southern Minnesota lies the County of Blue Earth. Its name is derived from the noble stream which flows through its center, and which, with its many tributaries spreads like a branching tree covering the whole county with a net work of rivers and creeks, so that Nicollet, the French scholar and explorer, designated it the "Undine Eegion."

No county in the State has as many rivers as Blue Earth. With two exceptions only, each of its twenty-three townships has one or more rivers or good sized creeks within its borders. These streams comprise the Minnesota, Blue Earth, Watonwan, Le Sueur, Maple, Big C()bb, Little Cobb and Little Cottonwood, together with Minneopa, Cambria, Perch and Willow Creeks, and a great number of smaller brooks. Each of these water courses, as it meanders in its deep cut valley far out across the prairies, bears along its bluffs long strips of fine timber, which afforded the settlers in the early days abundant building material, fencing and fuel. On the edges of these timber belts the log cabins of the pioneers found shelter from the wintry blasts.

All these rivers, especially the Blue Bartli, Watonwan and the Le Sueur, were also well adapted for the development of water powers, and their banks were lined during the first two or three decades after the advent of the white man with sawmills and grist mills. These numerous water channels, also, drain the land, diversify the soil, and give the country a most picturesque appearance, thus ministering to both the physical and esthetic needs of man.

The Minnesota is the largest stream in the county and for over eighteen miles forms its northern boundary and for five miles further its western boundary after the river's abrupt northern bend at Mankato. It is one of the most ancient rivers of the state and traces of it? primeval bed, cut deep in the stratified rocks of "The ages before man" are pointed out by geolog-ists at Mankato and elsewhere. Then ctime the glacier period and buried this portion of our state - river and all - under from onehundred to one-hundred and fifty feet of silt. When the lofty mouutains of ice had retreated cur river began excavating through the debris in quest of its ancient bed. A great inland sea covering the Eed Eiver Valley and extending far into Canada, known to geologists as "Lake Agaisiz" became its source. A majestic stream it must have been in those days of old, as it swept on its course half a mile or more in width. Y^^^at we now call the "second iench" was then its ordinary bed. The bluffs of the Minnesota and the Mississippi at their union near St. Paul match, forming one continuous valley of like dimensions, while the channel of the Mississippi above, is wholly dissimilar and insignificant by comparison, showing that the main river once flowed by way of the Minnesota. In time Lake Agassiz broke through its northern barrier and was drained into Hudson ha}', and the new river then formed, we call today, "The Eed Eiver of the North." Thus deprived of its main source, the Minnesota, as well as that portion of the Mississippi, which formed its continuation as one great river, soon shrank to a fraction of its former size and grandeur, and we have our modern riparian system.

of the river, given it centuries ago by the warlike aborigines, who lived, hunted and fought along its banks. It is a compound word - "Minne" meaning "water" and "sota," generally translated "sky tinted.'' Scholars differ as to the real meaning of "sota." Eev. S. E. Eiggs, the great Sioux missionary and author of the "Dakota Dictionary" and the explorer Peathcrstonhaugh say the w^ord means "clear" and cite the word "Kasota" as proof, which they say means "Clearing-" or "to clear off" as where land is cleared of timber or brush.

The French explorer J. W. jSTicollet, a very careful scholar gives 'loleared" as a more literal moaning and as his authority states that the I'rench voyagers, who were as familiar with the Dakota tongue as the Indians themselves, so rendered it, and that the Sioux word for 'T)leared eye" was "Ishta-sota." Schoolcraft claims that the word means '"bluish gray;" others declare it to mean "whitish, cloudy or turbid." Eev. G. H. Pond, a noted Sioux missionary and an excellent authority on the Sioux language, maintains that the word is best rendered, "sky tinted" and that it refers to that peculiar whitish tint of our Minnesota sky. Dr. J. P. Williamson, who was the first white boy born in our Minnesota valley and who has spent all his life as a missionary among our Sioux Indians and recently has published an English Dakota Dictionary in a recent letter says, "The Minnesota river they (The Sioux) called Wah-Kpa Minnesota "The River of Sky tinted water," and in his dictionary he renders the word "clear sky" as "Kasota." Evidently the name was given to the river by the Indians because of the minute particles of whitish clay found suspended in its waters, which therefore are not transparently pure nor yet muddy, but tinted like our clear skies.

The French, who were the first white people to discover the river and for nearly two centuries used it in their commerce with the natives, named it the St. Pierre, some think after Le Gardour De St. Pierre, one of their military officers and explorers, but others claim it was after Le Sueur, whose christian name was "Pierre." This name Anglicized as, "8t. Peters," was continued by us until 1854. In 1853 the Legislature of Minnesota at the instigation of Martin McLeod, then a member, sent a memorial to Congress praying that the ancient name of the river be restored to it. Moved by this ipquest and the personal solicitation of General Siljley, then our delegate in Congress, the Committee on Territories through its chairman, Stephen A. Douglas, recommended the change, and on May, 1854, the river was rechristened, the "Minnesota." As to the important part this ancient river played in the discovery and development of our county will appear elsewhere in this history.

The river next in importance as to size and value in the history of the County is the Blue Earth. Since steam has usurped the place for-' merly held by water in the transportation and manufacturing industries of our land, both rivers have lost much of their former prestige in the commercial world. Perhaps the historian of the future, when electricity has supplanted steam, will have to assign to this stream, with its magnificent water powers, the economic superiority. It is distinctively the river of our county, flowing through its very center, and fittingly bestows upon it its name. This appelation is a translation of the Indian name of the river, "Mahkato." "Mahka" is the Sioux for "earth", and "to" for "l^lue" or "green." Samuel J. Brown, the son of Major Joseph Brown, by a Sioux mother, who has been born and brought up among Sisseton Sioux of this locality, stoutly maintains that there is a nasal in the \vord and that the true pronunciation and spelling of the word is "Manka" and not "Mahka" and he is corroborated by three other educated Sioux half breeds: William M. Eobertson, Smiley Sheperd, and Thomas A. Robertson. Certainly no better authority on the Dakota than these four men. This difference may be due to dialectic peculiarities of the various tribes. The name was given to the river by the Indians because of a very peculiar bed of greenish clay, found in a limited quantity upon its banks, about four miles from its mouth. This clay was very highly p'rized by the Indians as a pigment with which to paint themselves. They imagined that it possessed a peculiar virtue to protect them from the missels of their foes. The French called the stream the '^'"erde" or "green" river. In view of the color of the clay this is a more accurate rendering of "To" than the English word "Blue," though both are techrically correct, as the Sioux language makes no distinction between the two colors.

The Blue Earth is a very crooked stream, almost doubling upon itself ever and anon. It also abounds in rapids and often has abrupt banks - "cut banks" the Indians called them.

Its main western tributary, the Watonwan, empties into it not far from the center of the county. This river has preserved its ancient Dakota name, the meaning of which now is somewhat uncertain. Some derive it from "Wata" (a canoe) "wan" (See), others say it comes from "Ton wan" (to see into or through) and may refer to the clearness of its water or to tlie outlook afforded by the great prairies which border it. Still others claim "Waton" (bait) "Wan" (where we get) is the true meaning.

Perch creek is a tributary of the Watonwan and flows into it from the south, after traversing about fifteen miles through the Townships of Pleasant Mound and Ceresco, in the southwest corner of Blue Earth County. It is the outlet of Perch Lake, which lies just beyond the county boundary. The origin of the name is unknown, possibly a translation of the Indian name. The lake and creek -appear with their present name on Nicollet's map, published in 1843.

Willow Creek is another stream, which drains the southwest part of the county. It flows a little east of north through the towns of Pleasant Mound and Shelby and empties into the BJue Earth. Its name was given it by one of the first settlers mainly because 'of the number of willows growing upon its bank, and probably in part, in memory of one of the many streams of the same name found in the Eastern States.

The main tributary of the Blue Earth from the east is the Le Sueur river, rising beyond the cast line of the County, it crosses that line near itf, center and flows westerly until it empties into the Blue Earth about two miles and a lialf above its mouth. Its "present name was given it by Nicollet and other early map makers in honor of the French explorer, Jean Le Sueur, who in irOO built a fort at its mouth. On the earliest French maps it is designated as the "St. Remy " and the "St. Henry." Its Indian name is unknown, except that its upper half is called the "Chankasna" (shaking wood) on Nicollet's map.

The jMaple river flows northward through the center of the county and empties into the Le Sueur about four miles above its mouth. The Sioux called it the "Tewapa-Tankiyan" (Big Water-lillyroot) river. It was first called "The JEaple" Ijy the United States surveyors in 1854.

The Big Cobb rises some distance beyond the southeast corner of the county and flowing northwesterly, mingles its waters with the Le Sueur about a mile above tlie mouth of the Maple. The Indians knew it as "Tewapadan" (Little Lilly root river). The earliest designation of the stream as "Big Cob," is on the plats made by the government surveyors in 1854. A branch of the Big Cobb, which unites with it in the northeast corner of Beauford Township, was christened on the same government plats, 'TJittle Cob." Later the spelling in case of both rivers was changed to "Cobb."

In the extreme northwest corner of the county two streams empty into the Minnesota within about eighty rods of each other, known as "Cambria Creek" and the 'Tjittle Cottonwood." The latter has its source in the northeast corner of Cottonwood County, and flows easterly clear across Brown County and a small corner of Blue Earth. Its name is a translation of the old Indian name "Waraju" as is also the Big Cottonwood. Near the mouth of the Big Cottonwood tliere used to be a very fine grove of large cottonwood trees and it is from this grove the Indian name was derived.

The Little Cottonwood, also, has groves of the same species of trees, but whether it was from this fact, or because the two rivers ran parallel, in near proximity, and were quite similar in many characteristics, that the Dakotas called tliem by the same name, cannot now be determined. Cambria Creek was so named by Henry Hughes in the latter part of the sixties after the town through which it flows. Its Indian

Minneopa Creek is the outlet of Lilly and Crystal lakes, and flows into the Minnesota a rriile or two above the Blue Earth. It is about six miles in length and has on it the famous waterfalls which are responsible for its name. It is the only body of water in the County besides the Minnesota and the Watonwan, which still retains its Indian name though a little abbreviated. The full Dakota name was Minne (water) inne (falls) nopa (two). As the name indicates there are two falls. The first or upper one is from six to eight feet in -height, and about six rods below this comes the main falls, about fifty feet high. These picturesque falls with the wild, romantic scenery about them, have each year for the past half century, attracted hundreds of sightseers, and, since the establishment here of a state park in 1905, the place has become a great resort for picnics and pleasure parties.

' The county also has a number of very fine lakes. None of them are large and yet the meandered lakes of the county occupy about 14,000 acres of its territory. Lake Madison is the largest and most important with an area of nearly two thousand acres. Lura and Jackson lakes in the south part of the county are next in size, comprising ten to twelve thousand acres apiece. Then comes Loon and Crystal lakes in the northwest part of the County.

The County is exceptionally well timbered. The bulk of its northeast portion was embraced in that great forest area of the State known as the Big Woods. As already stated, each of the many rivers and creeks extend along belts of fine timber through all the prairie regions, while the lakes are enclosed in beautiful groves. When the white man first came to this undine region the great forests were unbroken. Cottonwoods, alms, black walnuts, butternuts, grew abundantly in the valleys - many of giant size. While the hillsides and uplands of the forest region were thickly covered with basswood, elm, oak, hickory, hackberry and soft and hard maple, often of lordly dimensions. Along the outskirts of the forest grew large groves of graceful poplars. In the openings along the valleys and here and there along the edges of the upland woods, were found the plum tree groves filling the air with sweet perfume in the spring and laden with luscious fruit, red, white, yellow and speckled, in the autumn. Two or three varieties of the wild gooseberry, raspberry, elderberry, currants, grapes and many other wild fruits were abundant. So rich was the native flora of the county that several chapters might be devoted to it. The natural fauna of the county, too, is too lui'ge a subject for me to more than barely mention.

Until little over a hundred years ago the bufi'alo for centuries unknown used to roam in vast herds over the county, and their bones even now are frequently found, buried in river sands or boggy swamps. Some ten or twelve years ago, when a period of unusual drought revealed the bottom of a part of Swan Lake, a few miles north of this county, the skulls and bones of several hundred of these animals discovered, victims doubtless of some great animal tragedy in the long ago. Perhaps the ice broke under their combined weight, or maybe they were crowded into the boggy lake in a great stampede from some prairie fire. When Le Sueur in 1700 established his fort at the mouth of the river, which now bears his name, his men were able to kill four hundred buffaloes in a short time and they constituted the main sustenance of the garrison. Before the advent of the white settlers these ancient herds of the western prairies had been driven by hunters far toward the setting sun. Only once or twice was a stray straggler seen in the county by the pioneer. The moose and the elk in the bygone centuries were common in the woods and valleys of the county, but they also had disappeared before the coming of the white man. Beavers, also, were numerous in all the lakes and streams and their dams may still be traced in many places. When Le Sueur was here building his frrt in the winter of 1700-1, he purchased of the Indians, of this locality three hundred beaver robes of nine skins each. Long before the arrival of the first immigi-ants these animals were also extinct. Deer, however, were quite plentiful long after the settlements of the whites had began, so also were the wolves and foxes. An occasional black bear was, also, found. The red and white squirrels, the raccoon, the mink, the muskrat and many other small animals were found here by the whites in great numbers. Jjucks, geese, prairie chickens, pheasants, pigeons and birds without number filled the forests, kkes and prairies, and remnants of the wild game of the country can still be found. No county in the state excelled Blue Earth in its abundance of animal or vegetable life.

The soil, with limited exceptions, is a ht,avy bla-ck loam with clay subsoil. There is very little sandy ground in the county and but small areas are flat and boggy. As a rule the land gently undulates affording excellent drainage. Inexhaustible quarries of stone, adapted for building and for lime and cement, are found ill the vicinity of Mankato, and beds of clay suitable for brick and pottery are abundant in the same locality. A ledge of brown magnesia stone is capable of a very high and beautiful polish and it was recently used in wainscoting the interior of the new magnificant State Capitol with charming effect.

The earliest inhabitants of the county known to the whites were the Sioux or Dakota Indians. These aborigines had a tradition that a few centuries ago the lowas and Omahas occupied all of the Minnesota Valley. They were constantly at war with them and bloody raids were common from time immemorial. The Sioux then lived around Mille Lac and Lake Superior. With the aid of firearms, which they obtained from the French traders, the Sioux finally succeeded, after a desperate struggle, in driving both lowas and Omahas out of the Minnesota and Blue Earth Valleys and occupied tliis wealthy region for their hunting grounds. The date of this occupation of the county by the Sioux was, as near as it can be fixed by tlieir traditions, about the first of the seventeenth century. When Le Sueur visited the county in 1700 he seems to have found the Sioux then in occupation.

The Sioux or Dakotas, who were the only aborigines known to the whites, were divided into roving bands of hunters. Most of those, who claimed Blue Earth County as their usual hunting ground, belonged to the Sisseton branch of the nation. When the white settlers first came to the County the Indians claimed Sleepy Lye, whose principal village was usually located on Swan Lake in Nicollet County, as their head chief.

An Indian chief, however, has very little authority. Government and law with them are in the most rudementary state. For the most part in our Sioux communities each person was a law unto himself. They seldom congregated in large villages, but usually went in small groups of four or five families, associated together for mutual protection, each group having some person, who seemed better adapted than the rest to take the lead and was therefore made a sort of sub-chief. The real power, however, remained in the hands of the warriors, and no important move could be taken without a council of all the braves.

They had no fixed habitation, but lived in conical tents or teepees, which during the summer, they constantly moved from place to place as they wandered far and near in quest of game. The winters were spent in some wooded valley, \i'here there was shelter and fuel. The bottom of the teepee would be banked about a foot to keep out the wind and frost. A fire was kept burning in tlie center and a hole was left open at the apex, where some of the smoke escaped. C'ccasionally a bark hut would be erected. Owing to their utter improvidence in making provision for the morrow, the Indians often sufficed from hunger during the long cold months of winter. Sometimes a few bushels of wild rice and roots would be laid aside against such evil days. During the summer months, however, when berries, roots and game were abundant, they led a free and happy life.

They were not at all particular as to their food. They ate all kinds of animals and every part of them. Muskrats, wolves, a dead horse or cow, and no matter how putrid the flesh might be, they ate all with a relish. A fat dog was considered a great delicacy and formed the principal dish at their great feasts. The buffaloes were the principal game of the prairie Indians, and it was the custom of the Blue Earth County tribes to go on one or more buffalo hunts each year. In the spring they flocked into the great hard maple groves of Maakato and vicinity and gorged themselves sick on maple sugar, of which they were very fond. They were not over cleanly in its manufacture and frequently tossed their muskrats, and turtles, and ducks just as they were killed into the boiling sap to cook.

The Dakotas, however, were not devoid of many virtues. As a rule they did but little injury to the settler or his property. Wholly unaccustomed, as they were, to any restraint of law, and feeling aggrieved by the aggressions of the white men upon their ancient domain, it is to their credit that they were seldom guilty of any special crimes. They were hospitable but expected everybody else to be the same. I'hey had very little conception of the right of personal property. If anyone had anything more than he needed to satisfy his present wants, it was considered the proper thing to divide it with any who lacked.

In their religious views, like all ignorant and heathen people, they were quite superstitious. Every tree and stone and grassy knoll, and river and lake they imagined to be the abode of some spirit.

An Indian would come across a stone or tree in his path, and would decorate it with a fillet of grass, and would offer a little tobacco or perhaps a bird or dog to the spirit, which lie supposed lived there. The mounds at the mouth of the Blue Earth they regarded as the habitations of some gods, and they were called "Wauk-en-teepee," "The houses of the gods."

Their method of burial was to wrap the body in a robe or blanket and lay it on the lower branches of some spreading tree, or on a scaffold constructed by laying a few poles on some forked posts. After the flesh had decayed, tJie bones would be gathered, and a mound would be erected by the squaws carrying earth in baskets and piling it over them. These m.ounds often attained to the height of eight or ten feet, and were usually put in prominent places, on the top of a hill, or on the crest of some high bluff. This was done that the friends of the departed might have his grave in sight, as it was supposed every deceased person had two souls, one of which tarried in the vicinity of the grave, while the other departed to the happy hunting ground.

Although the Indians made their homes in this county for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, yet within a year after their departure no trace of their long occupation could be found, save an occasional burial mound, a flint arrow head or stone hammer head picked up at rare intervals from the soil. Their wigwam architecture they carried away with them, their agriculture never exceeded a few hills of com planted by the squaws in some river bottom. Their transportation facilities consisted simply of a dug out canoe on water, and, on land, two slender poles, the front ends of which were fastened one on each side of a wolflsh looking dog or shaggy pony, while the rear ends dragged upon the ground, carrying bundles of household goods and the smaller papooses. Their literature was confined wholly to oral traditions and wigwam stories, but without the written page, these all perished with the telling, save an occasional fragment picked up by some white trader or missionary. Some of these bits of Indian lore, which have specially to do with Blue Earth County, we shall consider in our next chapter.