Freeborn County, Minnesota - Chapter 19: Eakly Biissions Among the Ojibways and Darkotahs of Jtlnlfesota, 1882

Chapter 19: Eakly Biissions Among the Ojibways and Darkotahs of Jtlnlfesota

jMuit Minions not jwrmantnt - Presbjrterian Minion at Mackinaw - Visit of Rev A. Coc an<! J D. Stevens to Fort Suelliug - Notice of Ayrpi. Hall, and Boutwell - Formation of the won! Itasca - The Brothers Pond - Arrival of Dr. Williamson-Pre8b>*teri;mChiircl> at Fort Sneliing- Mission at Lake Harriet - Mourn. ing for the Dead - Church at Lac-qui parte - Father lUvoux - Mission at Uke PokeRunia - Attack by the Sioux - Chippewoy att.ick at Pig's Eye - Death of Rev. Sherman Hall - Methodist Missions Rev. S. W. Pond prepares a Sioux Grammar and Dictionary Swiss Presbyterian Ui&sion.

Bancroft the distinguished historian, catching the enthusiasm of the narratives of the early Jesuits, depicts, in language which glows, tiieir missions to the Xortlnvest; yet it is erroneous to suppose that the Jesuits exercised any permanent influence on the Aborigines.

Shea, a devoted memlter of the Koman Catholic Clnirch. in his History of American CatlioUc Missions writes : " In 1680 Father Engalrau was apparently alone at Green Bay, and Pierson at Mackinaw. Of the other missions neither Le- Clerq nor Ilenuepin, the Recollect writers of the West at this time, make any mention, or in any way allude to their existence." lie also says that "Father .Menard had projected a Sioux mission ; Marqiiette, Allouez, Druilletes, all entertained hopes of lealizing it, and had some intercourse with that nation, but none of them ever succeeded in establishing a mission."

Father Hemiejiin wrote: " Can it be possible, that, that pretended prodigious amount of savage converts could escape the sight of a multitude of French Canadians who travel every year? * * * * How comes it to pass that these churches so devout and so mimerous, should be invisible, when I passed through so many countries and nations V "

After the American Fur Company was formed, the island of Mackinaw became the residence of the princijial agent for the Northwest, Robert Stuart a Scotchman, and devoted Presbyterian. In the month of June, 1820, the Rev. Dr. Morse, father of the distinguished inventor of the telegraph, visited and pi-eached at Mackinaw, and in consequence of statements published by j him, upon his return, a Presbyterian ^Missionary Society in the state of Xew York sent a graduate of Union College, the Rev. W. M. Ferry, father of the present United States Senator from Michigan, to explore the field. In 1823 he had established a large boarding school composed of children of various tribes, and here some were educated who became wives of men of intelligence and influence at the capital of Minnesota. After a few years, it was determined by the Mission Board to modify its plans, and in the place of a great central station, to send missionaries among the several tribes to teach and to preach.

In pursuance of this ])olicy, the Rev. Alvan Coe, and J. D. Stevens, then a licentiate who had been engaged in the Mackinaw- ilission, made a tour of exploration, and arrived on September 1, 1829, at Fort Snelling. In the journal of Major Lawrence Taliafeno, wliich is in possession of the Jliiniesota Historical Society, is the following entry : " The Rev. Mr. Coe and Steveus reported to he on their way to this post, members of the Presbyterian church looking out for suitable places to make missionary establishment for the Sioux and Chippeways, found scliools, and instruct in the arts and agricultTU'e.''

The agent, although not at that time a communicant of the Church, welcomed these visitors, and afforded them every facility in visiting the " Indians. Oii Sunday, the Gth of Septemlier, the Rev. Mr. Coe preached twice in the fort, and the next night hcUl a prayer meeting at the quartere of the commimiling oilicer. On the next Sunday he preached again, and on the 14th, with Mr. Stevens and a hired guide, returned to Mackinaw by way of the St. Croix river. Duruig this visit the agent offered for a Presbyterian mission the mill which then stood on the site of Minneapolis, and had been erected by the government, as well as

Formation Of The Word Ita8Ka Chippewat Missions

Upon the 30th day of August, 1831, a Mackinaw boat about forty feet long arrived at La Pointe, bringing from INIackinaw the principal trader, Mr. Warren, Rev. Sherman Hall and wife, and !Mr. Frederick Ayer, a catechist and teacher.

Mrs. Hall attracted great attention, as she was the first white woman who had visited that region. Sherman Hall was born on April 30, 1801, at "Wethersfield, Vermont, and in 1828 graduated at Dartmouth College, and completed his theological studies at Andover, Massachusetts, a few weeks before he journeyed to the Indian country.

His classmate at Dartmouth and Andover, the Eev W. T. Boutwell still living near Stillwater, became his yoke-fellow-, but remained for a time at Mackinaw, which they reached about the middle of July. In June, 1832, Henry E. Schoolcraft, the head of an explorhig expedition. Invited ilr. Boutwell to accompany him to the sources of the Mississippi.

Wlien the expedition reached Lac la Biche or Elk Lake, on 5\\\y 13, 1832, ilr. Schoolcraft, who was not a Latin scholar, asked the Latin word for <riith, and was told "Veritas." He then wanted .iK ^vord wliich signified head, and was told "caput." To the astonishment of many, Schoolcraft struck off tlie fh-st sylable, of the word ver-i-tas and tlie last sylable of ca-put, and thus coined the word Itasca, which he gave to the lake, and which some modem writers, with all gravity, tell us was the name of a maiden who once dwelt on its banks. ITpon Mr. BoutweU's return from tins expedition he was at first associated with Mr. Hall in the mission at La Pointe.

In 1833 the mission band which had centered at La Pointe diffused their influence. In October Rev. Mr. Boutwell went to Leech Lake, Mr. Ayer opened a school at Yellow Lake, Wisconsin, and ilr. E. F. Ely, now in California, became a teacher at Aitkin's trading post at Sandy Lake.

Sioux Missionaiues

sixtli of May, 1834, happened to be on a visit to Fort SnelUng. While there a steamboat arrived, and among the passengers were two young men, brothers, natives of Waslungtoii, Connecticut, Samuel W. and Gideon H. Pond, who had come, constrained by the love of Christ, and without conferring with flesh and blood, to try to improve the Sioux.

Samuel, the older brother, the year before, had talked with a liquor seller in Galena, Illinois, who had come from the Red River country, and the desire was awakened to help the Sioux ; and he wrote to his brother to go with him.

The Rev. Samuel AV. Pond still lives at Shakopee, in the old mission house, the first building of sawed lumber erected in the vaUey of the Minnesota, above Fort Suelling.

Missions Among The Sioux A. D.

About this period, a native of South Carolina, a graduate of .Jeilerson CoUege, Pennsylvania, the Rev. T. S. Williamson, M. D., who previous to his ordination had been a respectaljle physician in Ohio, was appointed by the American Board of Foreign Missions to \dsit the Dahkotahs with the view of ascertaining what could be done to introduce Christian instruction. Having made inquiries at Prairie du Chien and Fort Snelling, he reported tlie field was favorable.

The Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, through their joint Missionary Society, appointed the following persons to labor in Minnesota : Rev. Thomas S. Williamson, M. D., missionary and physician ; Rev. J. D. Stevens, missionary ; ^Vlexander Huggins, farmer ; and their wives ; Miss Sarah Poage, and Lucy Stevens, teacliers; who were prevented during the year 1834, by the state of navigation, from entering upon their W'Ork.

During the winter of 1834-3.5, a pious oflicer of the army exercised a good influence on his fellow oflicers and soldiers under his command. In the absence of a chaplain of ordained minister, he, like General Ilavelock, of the British army in India, was accustomed not only to drill the soldiers, but to meet them in bis own quarters, and reason with them " of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come."

Explorers And Pioneers Of Minnesota

were hospitably received by tlie ollicers of tlie garrison, tlie Indian Agent, and Mr. Sibley, Agent of the Company at Mendota, who had been in the country a few mnnlbs.

On tlie twenty-seventh of this month the T?ev. Dr. AN'illiamson united in marriage at the Fort Lieutenant Edward A. Ogden to Eliza Edna, the daughter of Captain G. A. Looniis, the tirst marriage service in which a clergyman officiated in the present State of Minnesota.

On the eleventh of June a meeting was held at the Fort to organize a Presbj'terian Church, sixteen persons who had been communicants, and six who made a i)rofcssion of faith, one of whom was Lieutenant Ogden, were enrolled as members.

Four elders were elected, among whom were Capt. Gustavus Loomis and Samuel W. Pond. The next day a lecture preparatory to administering the communion, was delivered, and on Sunday, the 14th, the first organized church in the Valley of the Upper Mississippi assembled for the first time in one of the Comi>any rooms of the Fort. Theservicesin the morning were conducted by Dr. AVilliamson. The afternoon service commenced at 2 o'clock. The sermon of Mr. Stevens was upon a most appropriate text, 1st Peter, ii:2o ; "For ye were as slveep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." Afterthediscourse, the sacrament of the Lord's supper was administered.

At a meeting of the Session on the thirty-first of July, Rev. J. D. Stevens, missionary, was invited to preach to the church, " so long as the duties of his mission will permit, and also to preside at all the meetings of the Session." Captain Gustavus Loomis was elected Stated Clerk of the Session, and they resolved to observe the monthly concert of prayer on the first Monday of each month, for the conversion of the world.

Two points were selected by the missionaries as proper spheres of labor. Mr. Stevens and family proceeded to Lake Harriet, and Dr. \\'i\- liamson and family, in June, proceeded to Lac qui Parle.

As there had never been a chaplain at Fort Snelhng, the Rev. J. D. Stevens, the missionary at Lake Harriet, preaclied on Sundays to tlie Presbyterian chiirch, there, recently organized.

" Yesterday a portion of this band of Indians, who had been some time absent from this village, returneil. One of the niiinber (a woman) was informed that a brollier nl' liers had died during her absence. lie was not at this village, but with another band, and the information had just reached here. In the evening they set up a most piteous crying, or rather wailing, which continued, with some little cessations, during the night. The sister of the deceased brotlierwould repeat, times Vi'ithout number, words which may be thus translated into English : ' Come, my brother, I shall see you no more for ever.' The night was extremely cold, the thermometer standing from ten to twenty below zero. About sunrise, next morning, preparation was made for lierfonniiig the ceremony of cutting their llesh, in (uder to give relief to their grief of mind. The snow was removed from the frozen ground over about as large a space as would lie recjuired to place a small Indian lodge or wigwam. In the centre a very small fire was kindled up, not to give warmth, apparently, but to cause a smoke. The sister of the deceased, who was the chief mourner, came out of her lodge followed by three other women, \\ho repaired to the place jirepared. They were all b.irefooted, and nearly naked. Here they set up a most bitter lamentiition and crying, mingling their waitings with the words before mentioned. The principal mourner commenced gashing or cutting her ankles and legs up to the knees with a sharp stone, until her legs were covered with gore and tlowuig blood ; then in like manner her arms, shoulders, and breast. The others cut themselves in the same way, but not so severely. On this poor infatuated A\-oman I presume there were more than a hundred long deep gashes in the flesh. I saw the operation, and the blood instantly followed the instrument, and flowed down upon the fiesh. She ajijieared frantic with grief. Through the pain of her wounds, the loss of blood, exhaustion of strength by fasting, loud and long-continued and bitter groans, or the extreme cold upon her almost naked and lacerated body, she soon sunk ujion the frozen ground, shaking as with a violent fit of the ague, and writhing in apparent agony. 'Surely,' I exclaimed, as I beheld the bloody

The Uttle church at the fort hegms to manifest sometliing of a missionary spirit Their contributions are considerable for so small a number. I hope they wiW not only be willmg to contribute liberally of their substance, but will give themselves, at least some of them, to the missionary work.

" The surgeon of the military post, Dr. Jarvis, has been very assiiluous in his attentions to )is in our sickness, and has very generously made a donation to our board of twenty-five dollars, being the amount of his medical services in our family.

"On the nineteenth instant we commenced a school with six full Indian children, at least so m all their habits, dress, etc.; not one could speak a word of any language but Sioux. The school has since increased to the number of twenty-tive. I am now collecting and arranging words for a dictionary. Mr. Pond is assiduously employed in preparing a small spelling-book, which we may forward next mail for printing.

On the fifteenth of September, 1836, a Presbyterian church was organized at Lac-qui-Parle, a branch of that in and near Fort Snelling, and Joseph Renville, a mixed blood of great influence, became a communicant. He had been trained in Canada by a Roman Catholic priest, liut claimed the right of private judgment. Mr. Renville's wife was the lirst pure Dahkotiih of whom we have any record that ever joined the Church of Christ. This church has never become extinct, although its menibei's have been necessarily nomadic. After the treaty of Traverse des Sioux, it was removed to Ilazlewood. Driven from thence by the outln'eak of ISiii;, it has became the parent of other churches, in the valley of the upper Missouri, over one of which John Renville, a descendant of the elder at Lac-qui- Parle, is the T)astor.

Eoman Catholic Hipsion Atte3Ipted

Father Ravoux, recently from France, a sincere and earnest priest of the Church of Rome, came to Mendota in the autumn of 1841, and after a brief sojourn with the Rev. L. Galtier, who iiad erected Saint Paul's chapel, which has given the name of Saint Paul to the capital of Mimiesota, he ascended the Minnesota River and visited Lac-qui-Parle.

Bishop Loras, of Dubuque, wrote the next year of his visit as follows : " Our yomig missionary, M. Ravoux, passed the winter on the banks of Lac-qui-Parle, vslthout any other support than Providence, without any other means of conversion than a burning zeal, he has wrought in the space of six months, a happy revolution among the Sioux. From the time of his arrival he has been occupied night and day in tlie study of tlieir language. ***** "When he instructs the savages, he speaks to them with so much fire whilst showing them a large copper crucifix which he carries on his breast, that he makes the strongest impression upon them."

The impression, however was evanescent, and he soon retired from the field, and no more efforts were made in this direction by the Churcli of Rome. This young Mr. Ravoux is now the highly respected vicar of the Roman Catholic diocese of JMinnesota, and justly esteemed for his simpUcity and unobtrusiveness.

Chippeway Missions At Pokegttma

Pokegnma is one of the " ISIille Lacs," or thousand beautiful lakes for which Minnesota is remarkable. It is about four or five miles In extent , and a mile or more in width.

In the year 1836, missionaries came to reside among the Ojibways and Pokeguma, to promote their temporal and spiritual welfare. Their mission house was biult on the east side of the lake ; but the Indian village was on an island not far from the shore.

In a letter written in 1837, we find the following: "The young women and girls now make, mend, wash, and iron after our manner. The men have learned to build log houses, drive team, plough, hoe, and handle an American axe with some skill ui cutting large trees, the size of which, two years ago, W(jnld have afforded them a sufficient reason why they should not meddle with them."

In May, 1841, Jeremiah Russell, who was Indian farmer, sent two Chippeways, accompanied by Elam Greeley, of Stillwater, to the Falls of Saint Croix for supplies. On Saturday, the fifteenth of the month they arrived there, and the next day a steamboat came up with the goods. The captain said a war party of Sioux, headed by Little Crow, was advancinj;, and the two Chippeways prepared to go back and were their friends.

They had hardly left the Falls, on their return, before they saw a party of Dalikotahs. The sentinel of the enemy liad not noticed the ai> proach of tlie young men. lu the twinkling of an eye, these two young Ojibways raised their guns, fired, and killed two of Little t'row"s sons. The discharge of the guns revealed to a sentinel, that an enemy was near, and as the Ojibways were retreating, he fired, and mortally wounded one of the two.

According to custom, the corpses of the chiefs sons were dressed, and then set up with their faces towards the coimtry of their ancient enemies. Tlie woiuided Ojibway was horribly mangled by the infuriated party, and his limbs strewn about in every direction. His scalped head was placed in a kettle, and suspended in front of the two Dahkotah corpses.

It was not till Friday, the twenty-first of May, that the death of one of the young Ojiliways sent by Mr. Russell, to the Falls oi Saint Croix. was knowni at Pokeguma.

Mr. Russell on the next Sunday, accompanied by Captain AVilliam Ilolcoml) and a half-breed, went to the mission station to attend a religious service, and while crossing the lake in returning, the half-breed said that it was rumored that tlie Sioux were approaching. On jSIonday, the twenty-fourth, three young men left in a canoe to go to the west shore of the lake, and from tlience to Mille l^acs, to give intelligence to the Ojibways there, of the .skirmish that had already occm-red. They took with them two Indian girls, about twelve years of age, who were pupils of the mission school, for the purpose of bringing the canoe back to the island. Just as the three were landing, twenty or thirty Dahkotah warriors, with a war whoop emerged from their concealment beliiud the trees, and fired into the canoe. The young men instantly siirang into the water, which

The little girls, in their fright, waded into the lake ; but- were pursued. Tlieir i)arents upon the i.sland, heard the death cries of their children. Some of tlie Indians around the mission-house jumped into their canoes and gained the islaml. Others went into some fortified log huts. The attack upon the canoe, it was afterwards learned, was premature. The party upon that side of the lake were ordered not to fire, until the party stationed in the woods near the mission began.

There were in all one hundred and eleven Dahkotah warriors, and all the fight was in the vicinity of tlie mission-house, and the Ojibways mostly engaged in it were those who had been under religious uistniction. The rest were upon the island.

Tlie fiUhers of the nuuxlered girls, burning for revenge, left the island in a canoe, and drawing it up on the shore, hid behind it, and fired upon the Dalikotahs and killed one. The Dalikotahs advancing upon them, they were obliged to escape. The canoe was now launched. One lay on his back in the bottom; the other plunged into the water, and, holding the canoe with one hand, and swimming with the other, he towed his friend out of danger. The Dalikotahs, infuriated at their escajie, fired volley after volley at the swimmer, but he escaped tlie balls by putting his head under water whenever he Siiw them take aim, and waiting till he heard the discharge, he would then look up and breathe.

After a fight of two hours, the Dalikotahs retreated, with a loss of two men. At the request of the parents, ^Ir. E. F. Ely, from whose notes the writer ha? obtained these facts, being at that time a teaclier at the mission, went across the lake, with two of his friends, to gather the remains of his murdered pupils. lie found the corpses on the shore. The heads cut off and scalped, with a tomahawk buried in the brains of each, were set up in the sand near the bodies. The bodies were pierced in the breast, and tUe right arm of one was taken away. Removing the tomahawks, the bodies were brought back to the i.sland, and in the afternoon were buried in accordance with the simple but solemn riles of the Church of Christ, by members of the

Sioux Missionabies Befobe The Tbeaties

The sequel to this stoiy is soon told. The Indians of Pokeguma, after the fight, deserted their vilhige, and went to reside with their coimtrymen near Lake Superior.

In July of tlie following year, 1842, a war party was formed at Fond du Lac, about forty in number, and proceeded towards the Dahkotah country. Sneaking, as none but Indians can, they arrived luuioticed at the httle settlement below Saint Paul, commonly called "Pig's Eye," which is opposite to what was Kaposia, or Little Crow's village. Finding an Indian woman at work in the garden of her husband, a Canadian, by the name of Gamelle, they killed her ; also another woman, with her infant, whose head was cut off. The Dahkotalis, on the opposite side, were mostly intoxicated ; and, flying across in their canoes but half prepared, they were worsted in the encoimter. They lost thirteen warriors, and one of their number, known as the Dancer, the O jibways are said to have skinned.

In a little while Rev. Mr. Boutwell removed to the vicinity of Stillwater, and the missionaries, Ayer and Spencer, went to Bed Lake and other points in ^linnesota.

Methodist Missions

la 1837 the Rev. A. Bnmson commenced a Methodist mission at Kaposia, about four miles below, and opposite Saint Paul. It was afterwards removed across the river to Red Rock. He was assisted by the Rev. Thomas W. Pope, and the latter was succeeded by the Rev. J. Ilolton.

At ihe stations the Dahkotah language was diligently studied. Rev. S. W. Pond had prepared a dictionary of three thousand words, and also a small grammar. The Rev. S. R. Riggs, who joined the mission in 1837, in a letter dated February 24, 1841, wiites : " Last summer after returnuig from Fort SneUtng, 1 spent five weeks in copying again the Sioux vocabulary which \vc had collected and arranged at this station. It contained then about 5500 words, not includmg the various forms of the verbs. Since that time, the words collected by Dr. Williamson and myself, have, I presume, increased the number to sis thousand. ***** In this connection, I may mention that during the winter of 1839-40, Mrs. Riggs, with some assistance, wrote an English and Sioux vocabulary containing about three thousand words. One of Mr. Renville's sons and three of his daughters are engaged in copying. In committing the grammatical principles of the language to we have done something at this station, but more has been done by Mr. S. W. Pond."

Steadily the numlier of Indian missionaries increased, and in 1851, before the lands of the Dahkotahs west of the Mississippi were ceded to the whites, they were disposed as follows by the Dahkotah Presbytery.

The Rev. Daniel Gavin, the Swiss Presbyterian Missionary, spent the winter of 1839 in Lacqui-Parle and was afterwards married to a niece of the Rev. J. D. Stevens, of the Lake Harriet Mission. Mr. Stevens became the farmer and teacher of the Wapashaw band, and the tirtt white man who lived where the city of Winona has been built. Another missionary from Switzerland, the Rev. Mr. Denton, manied a iliss Skiinier, formerly of the Mackinaw mission. During a portion of the year 1839 these Swiss missionaries lived wth the American missionaries at camp Cold Water near Fort Snelling, but their chief field of labor was at Red Wing.

Oriifiu of the name Saint Croix - Dii Luth, (Iret Explorer - Frendi Post on the Si. Croix - Pitt, un cm-iy pioneer - Early Kettlent at Saint Croix Falli - First women there - Marine Settlement - Joseph R. Brown's town site - Saint Croix County orKanized - Proprietors of Stillwater - A dead Negro woman - Pig's Eye. orintn of name -Kise of Saint Paul -Dr. Williamson seeures llr^t school leather for Saint Paul - Detcription of first sehool r>K>m - Saint Croix County re.organized - Rev. W. T. Boutwell, pioneer clergyman.

The Saint Croix river, according to Le Sueur, named after a Frencliman who was drowned at its mouth, was one of tlie earliest throughfares from Lake Superior to tlie ^Mississippi. The first wliite man who directed canoes upon its waters was Du Lutli, who had in 1679 explored Minnesota. He thus describes liis tour in a letter, first published by Harrisse : " In June, 1680, not being satisfied, with having made my discovery by land, I took two canoes, with an Indian who was my inteiiJieter, and four Frenelimen, to seek means to make it by water. With this view I entered a river which empties eight leagues from the extremity of Lake Superior, on the south side, where, after having cut some trees and broken about a hundred beaver dams, I reached the upper waters of the said river, r.nd then I made a portage of half a league to reach a lake, the outlet which fell into a very fine river, which took l e down into the Mississippi. Tliere I learned from eight cabins of Xadouecioux that the Kev. Father Louis lleiine))iu, Uecollect, now at the convent of Saint (Jermain, with two other Frenchmen had been robbed, and carried off as slaves for' more than three hundred leagues by the I>radouecioux themselves."

He then relates how he left two Frenchmen with his goods, and went with his interpreter and two Frenchmen in a canoe down the Mississippi, and after two days and two nights, found Hennepin, Accault and Augelle. He told Hennepin that he must return with him through the country of the Fox tribe, and writes : "I preferred to retrace my steps, manifesting to them [the Sioux] the just indignation I felt against them, rather than to remain after the violence they had done

After this, the Saint Croix river became a chan nel for commerce, and ]5ellin writes, that lieforo 17.5-5, the French had erected a fort forty leagues from its mouth and twenty from Lake Superior.

The pine forests between the Saint Croix and Minnesota had been for several years a temptation to energetic men. As early as November, 1836, a >Ir. Pitt went with a boat and a party of men to the Falls of Saint Croix to cut pine timber, with the consent of the Chippeways but the dissent of the United States authorities.

In 1837 while the treaty was being made by Commissioners Dodge and Smith at Fort Snelling, on one Sunday Franklin Steele, Dr. Fitch, Jeremiah Russell, and.a Mr. Maginnis left Fort Snelling f(U' the Falls of Saint Croix in a birch bark canoe paddled by eight men, and reached that point about noon on Monday aud comincuced a log cabin. Steele and Jlajfiunis remained here, while the others, dividing into two parties, one under Fitch, and the other under Russell, searched for pine land. The first stopped at Sun Rise, while Russel went on to the Snake Iliver. About the same time Rol)binet and Jesse B. Taylor came to the Falls in the interest of B. F. Baker who had a stone trading house near Fort Snelling, since destro) ed by fire. On the fifteenth of July, 1838, the Palmyra, Capt. Holland, arrived at the Fort, with the official notice of the ratification of the treaties ceding the lands between the Saint Croix and Mississippi.

She had on board C. A. Tuttle, L. AV. Stratton and others, with the machinery for the projected mills of the Northwest Lumlier Company at the Falls of Saint Croix, and reached that point on the seventeenth, the first steamboat to disturb the waters above Lake Saint Croix. The steamer Gypsy came to the fort on the twenty-first of

October, with goods for the Chippeways, and was chartered for four hundred and fifty dollars, to carry them up to the Falls of Saint Croix. In passuig througli the lake, the boat grounded near a projected town called Stambaughville, after S. C. Stambaugh, the sutler at the fort. On the afternoon of the 26th, the goods were landed, as stipulated.

Tlie agent of the Improvement Company at the falls was Washington Libbey, who left in the fall of 1838, and was succeeded by Jeremiah Russell, Stiatton acting as millwright in place of Calvin Tuttle. On the twelfth of December, Eussell and Strattoii walked down the river, cut the first tree and built a cabin at ilariue, and sold their claim.

The first women at the Falls of Saint Croix were a Mrs. Orr, Mrs. Sackett, and the daughter of a Mr. Yoimg. During the winter of ls:'>.S-9, Jeremiah Russell married a daughter of a respectable and gentlemanly trader, Charles II. Oakes.

Among the first preachers were the Rev. W. T. Boutwell and ilr. Seymour, of the Chippeway Mission at Pokeguma. The Rev. A. Brunson, of Prairie du Chieu, who visited this region in 1838, wrote that at the mouth of Snake River he four.d Franklin Steele, with twenty-five or thirty men, cutting timber for a mill, and when he offered to preach Mr. Steele gave a cordial assent.

The steamboat Fayette about the middle of May, 1839, lauded sutlers' stores at i^ort Snell- 'ng and then proceeded with several persons of intelligence to the Saint Croix river, who S-4tled at Marine.

The place was called after Marine in Madison county, Illinois, where the company, consisting of Judd, Hone and others, was formed to build a saw mill m the Saint Croix Valley. The mUl at Marine commenced to saw lumber, on August 24, 1839, the first in Minnesota.

Until the year 1841, the jurisdiction of Crawford county, Wiscousm, extended over the delta of country between the Saint Croix and JMississippi. Joseph R. Brown having been elected as representative of the comity, in the territorial legislature of Wisconsin, succeeded in obtaining the passage of an act on Novemljer twentieth, 1841, organizing the county of Saint Croix, with Dahkotah designated as the comity seat.

At the time prescribed for holding a court in the new county, it is said that the judge of the district arrived, and to his surprise, found a claim cabin occupied by a Frenchman. Speedily retreating, he never came again, and judicial proceedings for Saint Croix county ended for several years. Phineas Lawrence was the first sheriff of tliis county.

On the tenth of October, 1843, was commenced a settlement which has become the town of Stillwater. The names of the proprietors were John McKusick from Maine, Calvin Leach from Vermont, Elam Greeley from Maine, and Elias McKean from Pennsylvania. They immediately commenced the erection of a sawmill.

John IT. Fonda, elected on the twenty-second of September, as coroner of Crawford county, Wisconsin, asserts that he was once notified that a dead body was lying in the water opposite Pig's Eye slough, and immediately jjroceeded to the spot, and on taking it out, recognized it as the body of a negro woman belonging to a certain captain of the United States army then at Fort Crawford. The body was cruelly cut and bruised, but no one appearing to recognise it, a verdict of " Found dead," was rendered, and the corpse was buried. Soon after, it came to light that the woman was whipped to death, and thrown into the river during the night.

The year that the Dahkotahs ceded their lands east of the Mississippi, a Canadian Frenchman by the name of Parrant, the ideal of an Indian whisky seller, erected a shanty in what is now the city of Saint Paul. Ignorant and overbearing he loved money more than his own soul. Destitute of one eye, and the other resembling that of a pig, he was a good representative of Caliban. Some one writing from his groggery designated it as " Pig's Eye." The reply to the letter was directed in good faith to" Pig's Eye"

Explorebs And Pioheers Of Minnesota

" Edmiuid Brisette, a clerkly Frenchman for those days, who lives, or did live a Uttle while ago, on Lake Harriet, was one day seated at a table in Parranfs cabin, V!\i\\ pen and paper about to write a letter for Parrant (for Parrant, like Charlemagre, could not write) to a friend' of the latter in Canada. The question of geography puzzled Brissette at the outset of the epistle ; where should he date a letter from a place without a name ? He looked up inquiringly to PaiTant, and met the dead, cold glare of the Pig's Eye lixed upon him, with an irresistible suggestiveuess that was inspiration to Brisette."

In 1842, the late Henry Jackson, of Mahkahto, settled at the same spot, and erected the first store on the height just above the lower landing, Eoberts and Simpson followed, and opened small Indian trading shops. In 1846. the site of Saint I'aul was chielly occupied liy a few shanties owned by '' certain lewd fellows of the baser sort," who sold rum to the soldier and Indian. It was despised by all decent white men, and known to the Dahkotahs by an expression in their tongue which means, the place where they sell mimie-wakan [superna;;ural water].

The chief of the Kaposiabaud in 1846, was shot by his own brother in a drunken revel, but surviving the wound, and apparently alarmed at the deterioration under the influence of the modern harpies at Saint Paul, went to Mr. Bmce, Indian Agent, at Port Snelling, and requested a missionary. The Indian Agent in his report to government, says :

" The chief of the Little ("row's band, who resides below this place (Fort Snelling) about nine miles, in the immediate neighbourhood of the wluskey dealers, has requested to have a school established at his village. He says they are determined to reform, and for the future, will try to do better. I wrote to Doctor WilUamson soon after the request was made, desiring him to take charge of the school. He has had charge of the mission school at Lac qui Parle for some years ; is well qualified, and is an excellent physician."

practices, he felt a kindly interest in the wliites of Pig's Eye, which place was now beginning to be called, after a little log chapel which had been erected at the suggestion of Rev. L. Galtier, and called Sauit Paul's. Though a missionary among the Dahkotahs, he was the first to take steps to promote the education of the whites and halfbreeds of Minnesota. In the year 1847, he wrote to ex-Governor Slade, President of the Xational Popular Education Society, in relation to the condition of what has subseipiently becc)me the capital of the state.

In accordance with liis request, Miss II. E. Bishop came to his mission-house at Kaposia, and, after a short time, was introduced by him to the citizens of Saint Paul. The first schoolhouse in Minnesota besides those connected with the Indian missions, stood near the site of the old Briik Presbyterian church, corner of Saint Peter and Third street, and is thus described by the teacher :

-'The school was commenced in a little log hovel, covered with bark, and chinked with mud, previously used as a blacksmith shop. On three sides of the interior of this humble log cabin, pegs were driven into the logs, upon which boards were laid for seats. Another seat was made by placing one end of a plank between the cracks of the logs, and the other upon a chair. Tliis was for visitors. A rickety cross-legged table in the centre, and a hen's nest in one corner, completed the furniture."

Saint Croix county, in the year 1847, was detached from Crawford county, Wisconsin, and reorganized for judicial purposes, and Stillwater made the county seat. In the month of Jime the United States District Court held its session in the store-room of Mr. John McKusick ; Judge Charles' Dunn presiding. A large nuuilier of lumbermen had been attracted by the pineries in the up|)er portion of the valley of Saint Croix, and Stillwater was looked upon as the center of the lumbering interest.

The Rev. Mr. Boutwell, feeling that he could be more useful, left the Ojibways. and took up his residence near Stillwater, preaching to the lumbermen at the Falls of Saint Croix. Marine Mills, Stillwater, and Cottage Grove. In a letter speaking of Stillwater, he says, " Here is a little village sprung up like a gourd, but whether it is to perish as soon, God only knows."