Blue Earth County, Minnesota - Chapter 6: Events at Mankato Is the Summee, 1901

Chapter 6: Events at Mankato Is the Summee

During the spring of 1852 most of the land lying in the valley of the Minnesota, between Mankato and Kasota, was staked out into 160 acre claims and occupied by settlers. On the first of June two young men of St. Paul named Josiah B. and Henry S. Gump had located on 160 acres next adjoining the townsite of Manki'.to on the northeast, where are now situated Mankato city and the stone quarries. Before they had hardly completed their log cabin, on the 26th of the same month the Gump boys sold their claim to a very prominent real estate man of St. Paul, named Henry McKenty. On the 8th of this same June the name of the river which heretofore had been the "St. Peter" was officially changed by act of Congress to the "Minnesota." The bill was introduced by Hon. Stephen A. Douglass as chairman of Committee on Territories, and was in response to a memorial for the change which the Legislature of Mianesota had sent to Congress. The real instigators of the change, it is claimed, were Martin McLeod and H. H. Sibley, who were familiar with the ancient Indian name, whose poetic meaning and euphony they admired.

The Tiger after her third trip, having withdrawn from the Minnesota trade, the Black Hawk was induced to enter it. She left St. Paul on her first trip on July 3rd, 1852, with forty passengers aboard, fifteen of whom were booked for Mankato. Among the latter was Colonel D. A. Eobertson. Near the Carver Eapids they passed a keel boat carrying up the machinery for J. W. Babeock's saw mill at Kasota. The boat reached Mankato on the morning of July 5th, Just as the young town was recovering from its first celebration of Independence Day.

There had been a large attendance at this jubilee of native Americans, from the villages of Sleepy Eye, Bed Iron and Suntu mahnaduta. P. K. Johnson mounted on a dry goods box had read the immortal Declaration, and made a spread eagle speech, all of which has been duly interpreted by Evans Goodrich to the copper hued democracy about them.

In those pioneer days, however, the arrival of a steamboat was a greater event than any Fourth of July, no matter how glorious. Though a thunder shower was in full swing, when the Black Hawk approached the Mankato levee and, the deep tones of her whistle startled the echoes far and near, it did not deter a single person v/ithin a radius of three miles from being present at the landing. The occupants of every shanty and every wigwam were there, a motley, eager throng.

Colonel Eobertson remained for some days at the new town exploring the country around it, and consulting with its resident proprietors as to ifc-i welfare.

One immediate need, to which attention was then particularly drawn, was a highway to the east over which emigrants might come into the country. Only a week or two before six emigrant families from Dubuque, Iowa, had come in their wagons, drawn by oxen across the country. They struck the Decoria prairie, but missed the old dragoon road and, in the bewilderment of people who are lost, took a westerly course, and after infinite trouble and vexation crossed the net work of deep ravines formed by the Big Cobb, the Maple and the Blue Earth rivers and reached the present site of South Bend, whence they were obliged to cross the Blue

History Op Blue Earth Cotjnty

Earth a second time to get to Mankato. The Kooky Mountains could hardly furnish a rougher, wilder bit of country than that which they traversed, and to say that they had a strenuous time is putting it mildly. The party spent a few days at Mankato recuperating and while there plowed a garden for P. K. Johnson and one or two others, probably the first plowing in Blue Earth county. They finally located upon claims near Kasota,

During his Mankato visit Colonel Robertson met there John M. Norecong, who, with two others, had been sent by the colony at Rolling Stone near Winona, to spy the land, with a view to locate a highway from there to a point on the Minnesota at or near the mouth of the Blue Earth. They met with no obstacle until they struck the Big Woods in the vicinity of Waseca. When they became hopelessly entangled in the labyrinth of swamps and lakes forming the headwaters of the Le Sueur and Cannon rivers, between Smith's Mill and Elysian. Mr. Norecong finally reached Mankato, while his two companions found themselves at Traverse des Sioux. Colonel Robertson now concluded to accompany Mr. Norecong in his quest for a feasible highway route in and out of Mankato to the east and south. One of the mules belonging to the townsite company had died, some claimed he had been carried away by the mosquitoes. So Robertson packed on the remaining mule a camping outfit and some provisions, and on July 10th started on foot with Norecong by the old dragoon road. Cfossing the Le Sueur they soon reached the Decoria prairie and, turning eastward by the way of McPherson and Wilton, discovered a very practicable wagon route to any point east or south. As Robertson wished to return to St. Paul, they followed the valley of the Cannon in a northeasterly direction and after eight days of adventure and hardship they reached St. Paul.

As a result of this exploration Messrs. Reed, Thompson and Kennedy about a month later, under a commission from the State Legislature granted the previous winter, with the aid of a corps of surveyors and assistants, laid out a public highway from Reed's Landing at the foot of Lake Pepin to Mankato along the route suggested by our explorers. A little later a road was established from Winona, which entered Mankato by the same route through Wilton and tlie present village of St. Clair, and for more than twenty years thereafter the principal travel to and from Mankato and Blue Earth County east was along this route. Speaking of this visit in the "Democrat" Robertson stated that he foimd some thirty settlers located upon claims around Manltato and that a number of Germans had settled in the timber back of the town.

On the 12th and again on the 21st of July, the Black Hawk left St. Paul for her second and third trips to Mankato, carrying thence each time many passengers and much freight. On the 20th of the same month the Tiger returned to the Minnesota and made her third trip to Mankato. With six boat arrivals at her wharf the very first season, Mankato and the country in her vicinity received quite a boom.

During the summer (185^) P. K. Johnson built for himself on lot 1 block 14 of Mankato a comfortable house of hewn logs, into which he removed his store. His stock of goods comprised as advertised in the "St. Paul Democrat," "clothing, crockery and groceries."

Later in the fall Henry Jackson erected a good house of hewn logs on lot 5 of block 14, which he occupied with his family the next spring. The same fall Colonel Robertson had a log store building put up on lot 4 block 15, the interior of which was finished by Hiram J. Puller on his arrival in November. Here Evans Goodrich presided over a stock of Indian goods furnished by Robertson, and performed besides the duties pertaining to his various avocations of real estate dealer, surveyor and Justice of the peace. Early in October of this same year, James Hanna, George Maxfield, Milton Hanna, James Maxfield and Wesley Maxfield located claims of IGO acres each near the Le Sueur on the highway just laid out by Messrs. Reed, 1'hompson and Kennedy, and then returned to tlicir homes in Licking County, Ohio, for their families. Besides those already named the year 1853 witnessed the settling at Mankato or immediate vicinity of M. H. Bergholz, John Sehroe- der, John Trenhauser, Ephraim Colej Lewis H. YVinsloWj Minard Mills, James Hanna and many others whose names we did not learn and others v/ho did not remain but a short time.

About December, 1853, the townsite company contracted with Windslow to build a large frame hotel, the same afterwards known as the "Mankato House." He sublet the contract to Minard Mills, who during the winter got ready most of the frame work, and on March 14th, 1853, moved with his wife (afterwards Mrs. J. LuUsdorf) to the new town and occupied the second claim shanty, recently vacated by James Rablin. In February, 1853, Eobert Wardlaw with his half brother, William Wood, arrived with a small stock of goods, having come upon the ice of the Mississippi and Minnesota all the way, in a two horse sled, from Dubuque. For a short time they occupied the first claim shanty, which M. H. Bergholz had purchased the previous July, but on the return of the owner in the spring, Mr. Wardlaw removed with his store to a claim shanty he had bought of Eablin below town, at the mouth of the ravine, which still bears his name. Connected with this removal occurred the first case of eviction in Blue Earth County. "WTien Wardlaw first arrived in Mankato he had letters of introduction from friends in St. Paul to Evans Goodrich, and the latter received him into his cabin. Soon thereafter Goodrich and Wood took Wardlaw's team to St. Paul after a load of goods, half for Goodrich and half for Wardlaw. Goodrich had left Wardlaw in charge of his store and left him a price list of the goods and of furs so he might trade with the Indians. A band of Indians happened to come down from the west with a lot of furs and instead of trading with Goodrich's goods, Wardlaw opened up his own stock and traded with them. When Goodrich returned and discovered this, a quarrel resulted between him and Wardlaw, and the latter had to seek new quarters. In the fall Bergholtz, owner of the lirst claim shanty, went to St. Paul for the vanter, leaving the key of his cabin with Mr. Johnson.

promise that he would vacate same at once when the owner returned. Bergholtz got back three or four weeks- later and found his cabin occupied by a stranger, who refused him admittance. He went to see Johnson about it, but Wardlaw declared he had no other place to go tu, and therefore could not vacate; that he was entitled to a reasonable notice before he could be forced out. Johnson reminded him on what condition he had been let into the building, and that he might have built a cabin of his own had lie made the effort. Wardlaw declared he intended to hold the fort and would fight if necessary, pointing to a couple of pistols in his belt. Johnson now went after Jim Eablin, a dare dtvil fellow, who enjoyed a fight better than anything else under the sun, unless it was a drink of whisky. Bergholtz, Johnson, Goodrich and Eablin now proceeded to evict Wardlaw. The latter saw them coming and locking the cabin door, stood in front with two revolvers to await the attack. Eablin picked up a fence rail, and, while the others were parleying with Wardlaw, he broke in the cabin door with a single blow. Seeing his bluff would not work, V.'ardlaw declared he did not wish to live among such lawless people, and he moved into a tent he had brought with him. A few days later he bought Jim Eablin's claim and moved upon it as before stated.

Another episode of that first winter will help to illustrate life in our new town. Minard Mills- had been up and down the river with a pony and sled trading with the Indians. One day in February, 1853, he drove up to the levee at jMankato with a load of goods, on top of which in plain view was a five gallon keg of whisky. The Indians soon caught sight of the keg and began gathering around the sled. Several of the savages had a desperate craving for liquor and when inflamed by it were wholly unmanageable and dangerous. Johnson saw there was trouble brewing and after a few words with Mills seized the keg, which fortunately was nearly empty, and took it to his shanty and hid it under the counter. It would have been wiser to have emptied the liquor on the ground, but perhaps the whites deemed it too precious for that. The Indians soon came to Johnson's cabin and demanded the liquor. Being refused two of them sprang over the counter and seized the keg and carried it off in triumph. Noah Armstrong, who was clerking for Johnson^ started to draw a knife, but was cautioned by Johnson to desist. Luckily there was not enough whisky to make any Indian drunk.

The Indian chiefs came to town to complain about the whites letting their young men have liquor, which was contrary to law. It cost the Mankato traders ten dollars worth of goods to pacify the chiefs, so they would not make complaint to the government.