Goodhue County, Minnesota - Earliest County History, 1893

Goodhue county was named in honor of James M. Goodhue, the pioneer editor and printer of the State. Minnesota was organized by act of Congress, as a Territory of the United States, March 8, 184'.). Nine days from that date Mr. Goodhue had arrived in St. Paul with press, type, etc., ready to commence the publication of a weekly newspaper. This paper was called The Minnesoia Pioneer, which he edited with marked ability until his early death in 1852.

Dr. E. D. Neill, iu his History of Minnesota, thus describes the pioneer editor: "The editor of the Pioneer was unlike other men. Every action and every line he wrote marked great individuality. He could imitate no man iu his manners, nor in his style; neither could any man imitate him. Attempts were sometimes made but the failure was always very great. Impetuous as the whirlwind, with perceptive powers that gave to his mind the eye of a lynx; with a vivid imagination that made the very stones of Minnesota speak her praise; with an intellect as vigorous and elastic as a Damascus blade, he penned editorials which the people of this territory can never blot out from memory."

This county lies along the west side of tlie Mississippi river the distance of about thirty miles, which includes half the southwest border of Lake Pepin, and from Wabasha county on the south to Dakota county on the north. It is bounded on the east and south by the Mississippi river, Wabasha, Olmsted and Dodge counties; on the w-est, by Rice county and a part of Dakota county; on the north, by Dakota county.

The surface is chiefly rolling prairie, but is divided by streams and lowlands which furnish excellent drainage and abundance of pure water.

The principal streams of water are: The Mississippi river, the Cannon river, and the north and middle branches of the Zumbro river. The smaller streams lying w^holly within the county are: Prairie creek, Little Cannon river. Belle creek. Spring creek, Hay creek and Wells creek. The water power on all the last named streams has been utilized to a greater or less extent for mills.

Lake Pepin is a wide and deep section of the Mississippi ; there is no other lake in the county. Numerous springs abound in all parts, furnishing constant supply of water for the use of the people and to till the streams.

With the exception of a few drifts of sand in the northern part of the county, the soil is of the very best quality for purposes of agriculture. All, kinds of grain and vegetables adapted to this latitude are easily grown in abundance. For many years in the early history of this state, Goodhue was the banner county in the production of wheat. The raising of this cereal for some fifteen years after the settlement, was the chief end and aim of the farmer. Other crops were raised but only as was sufficient for home coDSumption. Wheat was the only product which would bring in money. From thirty to forty bushels per acre of the best quality was then a common yield. In the year 1873 the wheat buyers of Red Wing made the statement that they had paid out for wheat in the aggregate the sum of two million dollars. During the same year much wheat grown in the county had been sold in Cannon Falls, L^ke City and Hastings. The whole crop raised within the county that year could not have been less than three million bushels. From that year the chinch-bug began its depredations. Two other causes tended to diminish the amount of wheat raised about the same time, the price of wheat falling and the amount that could be raised per acre on the same land, decreasing. The wheat producing elements of the soil were becoming slowly exhausted, and a change of crops or the use of fertilizers was found to be a necessity. Diversified farming has since taken the place of wheat raising alone.

The raising of beef, mutton and pork for market; the improvement of stock of all kinds; and dairy farming, are now claiming the attention of farmers generally throughout the county. The past two years have proved that wheat can be still produced here of a superior quality in the absence of the chinch-bugs.

Timber for building purposes was not plenty at the first settlement, being found only in small groves and along the banks of the larger streams of water. Consequently, the lands first claimed were along the borders of those wooded streams. Among the forest trees more abundant were the red, black and burr oaks, white birch, maple, elm, poplar, box elder and ash. There were a few groves of white pine, and also black walnut and butternut trees on the Cannon and Zumbro rivers, but the demand for building materials was so great when the white settlers first came that all these finest of trees were soon removed. Since that time lumber for building and manufacturing purposes has been obtained from the northern part of the state, and from Wisconsin. Where groves of maple, poplar and box elder have been planted for a few years on prairie farms they afford great protection for stock during the cold storms of winter, and valuable shade for protection from the heat of summer. These groves now surround the buildings of nearly all the farms in this county; many are now so large as to furnish the wood for the family use. Where twenty or thirty years ago there was nothing but prairie grass, may now be seen fine houses and barns surrounded by beautiful groves. Since annual prairie fires have ceased, natural groves have sprung up in uncultivated portions to such extent that timber for fencing and firewood is more plenty than formerly.

Fruit as well as forest trees are easily grown. Apple orchards seem to decay after bearing abundant fruit a few years. This is thought to be owing to the rapid growth of the trees. Crab-apples, plums, grapes, gooseberries, strawberries and blackberries are indigenous, and by the aid of proper cultivation all these fruits are produced in abundance.

There were settlements begun here in several places before the county was organized. Very soon after the Indian title had been extinguished by treaty in 1852, settlers began to come and mark off their claims. Townsites were selected along the Mississippi at all points where it was supposed steamboats could conveniently make a landing.

James Wells, an Indian trader, had been living for several years on the shore of Lake Pepin. At the head of the same lake, George W. Bullard, another Indian trader, had established himself for t)ie ostensible purpose of dealing with the Indians as early as 1850. Mr. Wells sold his improvements and left with the removal of the Indians.

Mr. Bullard remained and laid out a town around his trading post, naming it Wacouta. The charming summer retreat at the head of the lake now occupies the same locality, and bears the same name.

The only Indian village witliin the limits of what is now Goodhue county, was Red Wing's village, the site now occupied by the city of Red Wing. Several families came and began work, anticipating a future town at this place, in the autumn of 1852. The first towns laid out along the river were Red AVing, Wacouta and Central Point.

The Dakota Indians had for some time occupied the southern part of the now State of Minnesota, when the whites began to settle here. This tribe are often called Sioux, a name given them by their first traders, the French. The northern portion of the state had been claimed by the Chipi)e\va tribe. These tribes were deadly enemies to each other. For a long series of years, their numbers had doubtless diminished rather than otherwise, on account of the frequent raids made by war parties into each others' dominions. So abundant were fish and all kinds of game found in the country, that this people indulged in war as a pastime. In the whole tract of land now called Goodhue county, there was only one village of Dakotas, and the population of this village was about three hundred. Such small vil- lages, from forty to fifty miles apart, left large room for wild animals, and afforded ample sustenance to the few inhabitants, who lived chiefly by hunting and fishing.

But there are evidences that these savage tribes had been preceded by a more peaceful people. A dense population had once occupied this part of the county; perhaps up to the first landing of Columbus, or a few years later. The numerous earthworks and mounds which were found here furnish these evidences. As the farmer's plow has nearly obliterated these mounds and other marks of human tribes now passed away, a description of some, which were found in this county, will be given.

These earthworks were quite numerous in the vicinity of Red Wing's village, but the Dakotas professed they knew nothing of their origin. When we came in 1849 there were several mounds enclosed in the Indian cornfield, and the plat where West End Driving Park now is was pretty generally covered with them.

Dr. W. W. Sweney, who came in 1852, made some investigations of these artificial remains, the results of which are substantially as follows:

Evidences of the occupation of the country by a race of people, whose habits in some respects differed from the Dakotas, were numerous. On the sharp hill points in the vicinity of the Cannon river and Spring creek, were a number of cairns or stone mounds. These were on the highest points where shell rock outcropped and always overlooked the lower plateaus or valleys, on which were situated large groups of earthen tumuli. The cairns were of various sizes, ranging from six to twelve feet in diameter at the base. Their shape was conical, and some of those in the best state of preserva- tion had an elevation of from eight to ten feet. The base was on the bare rock and all the loose stones in the vicinity had evidently been gathered to complete the structure. The first layer was in the form of a circle, and by inlapping towards the centre in every succeeding layer an apex was finally reached. A majority of these structures had fallen in, leaving a circle of rude masonry from three to four feet high, while the remains of the upper portion laid in a mass inside the wall, showing very conclusively they had been built hollow. Being very desirous of ascertaining the purpose for which they had been built, I selected two uf the most perfect for a minute examination. The larger cairn was at least twelve feet in diameter and nine feet high. It had settled considerably, pressing upon the cavity. After an hour's hard work we were in a situation to observe the condition of its foundatiou. A few handfuls of black mould scattered over the bare rock base, a fragment of bone, three inches long, a muscle shell nearly in powder, and two remnants of wood distant from each other about six feet, in the east and west direction of the cairn, was all it contained. Of the bone there was hardly enough left to determine conclusively as to the species of animal to which it belonged; but I think it was a portion of the upper armbone of an adult human being. When found, the wooden fragments were standing upright as stakes supported by rock and were dryrotted to points. AVith a knife I cut ofp all the decayed wood, the centre being a mere splinter, but enough to distinguish it to be swamp, or blue oak. The other mound did not yield the same amount of discoveries; a little mould and traces of what were supposed to be decayed bones or shells was all that repaid our labor. I searched very thoroughly for teeth, as my opinion was and is that these cairns were burial places, but no teeth were to be found. I think these cairns were the burial places of distinguished personages. The material of which they were composed secured them against the depredations of wild animals. Their numbi^r, however, would lead to the conclusion that it was not the common mode of sepulture. The groups of earth mounds overlooked by these cairns were counted by liundreds, and I think were once human habitations, and if my conjectures are in the right direction, these isolated cemeteries could not alone contain the mortuary remains of as numei'ous a people as the evidences then to be observed indicated. These rock structures were found nowhere else in this county but on those blufPs between Hay creek and Cannon river, overlooking the valley of the Mississippi. And nowhere else in our state have 1 seen remains of a similar character. On breaking up the laud where the earth mounds existed, large quantities of broken pottery and muscle shells were found. The fragments of pottery appeared to be a combination of tenacious clay and pulverized shells. It had a thickness of about one-fourth of an inch, and on the outside were rudely delineated figares of men, animals, foliage and other objects. The representation of a weapon of war or the chase was not to be found; which would have been different had the habits of the makers been similar to those of the modern Dakotas. This earthenware appeared to have been sun dried as there was no trace of the action of heat to redden the clay. In digging into several of these hillocks I have invariably found in the centre of the base charcoal and earth reddened by the action of heat. On the Wisconsin shore, opposite Red Wing, there were vast numbers of mounds dotting the plain between the river and the bluifs. Some of these deviated from the regular circular form, being composed of a main bodj^ of an oblong shape Avith wings, resembling the prostrate form of a bird with wings outstretched.

On the farm of Charles Spates, near Cannon river, was the largest collection of tumuli in a given space I ever saw, rendering it difficult to bring the ground into proper shape for cultivation. I could fancy when I first saw this locality, on which were some throe hundred mounds, that a little ravine running down to the water's edge had been worn to that condition, by the constant tread of a busy multitude, and the appearance really indicated the fact without calling on the imagination to assist in forming conclusions.

I have as yet not found the first trace of a warlike people in the remains above described; not even an arrowhead of flint, which would be imperishable. The Dakotas used them; but I have never seen one taken from a mound, or from close proximity thereto.

These earth works have been found in all parts of our country, west of the Alleghany mountains, and have been the subject of much speculation as to their origin.

We frequently find in books and papers the expression, "mound builders," conveying the idea that the country had formerly been inhabited by a race of people whose occupation was to build mounds. It is my opiiiion that these conical hillocks, once so numerous on the upper Mississippi and its branches, are the sites of ancient towns and villages of a race who lived and built tl eir shelters in very much the same manner as

These mounds were always found in clusters of from tliirty up to hundreds in a single locality, in distances apart about the same as the Dakota bark houses were in their villages. Tiiey were generally of a uniform size, being al).)ut twenty feet in diameter at the base and rising to eight or ten feet high in the centre.

It donbtless seems strange to some that the present tribes did not pretend to give account of the origin of tliese mounds. Bat when we consider that the different tribes of barbarous men were almost constantly at war with each other ; that whole tribes were often driven from their former homes, or perished by pestilence, it does not appear so wonderful.

I noticed that there was seldom any depression in the surface of the ground immediately surrounding those mounds, which proves, I think, that they were not thrown up by human hands. When entirely removed it is seldom anything is found except a few traces of ashes at the bottom on a level with the surrounding ground. A partly decayed bone has sometimes been found.

Those who have observed ihe spot where a house once stood and was left to rot down, the ground not having been disturbed for many years, will remember there is a depression which marks where the cellar was. Yet around this cellar hollow is a ridge several feet higher than the land adjacent. The material of the building, if of wood, is all decayed ; if of brick or stone, it is covered with earth, grass and shrubs ; and the cellar is also nearly filled. Now whence all this accumulation of earth? It is evidently the result of time and natural causes.

When an old house is left to decay it soon becomes a ruinous heap. A thick growth of tall, rank weeds spring up eveiy summer. Among this luxuriant growth the floating sands and dry leaves of autumn are lodged from year to year by the driving winds. After a few scores of years the weeds will have run out and grass, shrubs or trees grow up in their ])lace. Apply this work to dwellings once occupied by a people who never have any cellars and we have a solution of the problem, "Whence came these mounds?

There were occasionally found mounds of a different shape and size from those describetl. which were the remains of rude fortifications or burial places for the dead.