Goodhue County, Minnesota - Chapter 6: First Impressions, 1893

The Old Settlers' Association held a meeting in March, 1882, in the city of Red Wing, and listened to a very interesting address delivered by Swante J. Willard, whose name appears frequently in connection with the early settlement of the town of Vasa.

Mr. Willard was elected county auditor in 1864 and continued to hold that office by succeeding elections sixteen years. He is at present the City Clerk of the city of Red Wing, an able and efficient officer to whose services the present prosperity of the city is in a measure attributed.

"After our arrival from Sweden we came to Moline, Illinois. From thence, on a trip up the Mississippi to St. Paul, our boat made a stop at Red Wing. The singular formation of the hill, (Barn bluff) attracted my attention. I knew not even the name of the place. I said to our company that I would like to settle there on account of its singular beauty and attractiveness. I then for the first time saw Indians. At St. Paul I met Peter Green and Abraham Peterson who had been in the country about a year. I learned soon after that a committee of our countrymen, having visited Red Wing and vicinity, strougly recommended the place as the desirable one for settlement. I came with my family in the fall of 1853. Leaving my family in Red Wing I went with Mattson to Spring Creek valley, thence on to where Roos and Kemp had begun to build but had not fiuished their house. They were camping in a tent near by. Mattson and I stopped over night with them. We heard the most hideous music of prairie wolves. Mr. Kemp being of rather nervous temperament, was disturbed by their close promixity. Several times he awakened Mr. Roos and whispered, Roos, Roos, they are trying to dig under the tent ! Mr. Roos being a good deal of a stoic finally blurted out, 'Let the wolves howl; they have not woiked as hard as I have during the day, or they would be willing to be quiet.'

"The next morning I selected and marked off my claim. One peculiarity about making claims: As the new settler could not carry surveying instruments, it was customary to pace out the lines and distances, which almost invariably resulted in large quarter sections. 1 was somewhat surprised to find by the government survey the next year, the claim I had paced off for my quarter section, held land enough for about two more. But foreigners have a faculty for profiting from the examples of others, and we have observed that our American friends selected those who Avere capable of taking long strides to do their measuring.

"Red Wing was then in its infancy. As is well known, it had been a mission station. The houses were few and as near as I can recollect as follows: An old log house occupied by Dr. Sweney; Calvin Potter lived jn a house near the river, one room of which was used as a store, where he kept Indian goods; Warren Hunt lived in a small new frame house a little in the rear of Potter's; James Akers in another small frame house further Avest, or beyond Jordan; Wm. Freeborn had built a good two-story frame house which stood near the spot now occupied by the La Grange mills; the Red Wing house, afterwards 'Teepetonka,' a good sized hotel and two log houses, formerly used by the first missionaries to the Indians here; Rev. M. Sorin was then building a house on what is now called the McSorley block and John Day had a log house nearly as far west as the stoneware factories. Mattson and myself engaged the following winter to chop wood for Mr. Freeborn. It was a new life for us to be out in the forest. Our house was a shanty 10x12 and combined sleeping apartments, dining hall, parlor and kitchen, circumstances common to all in those days. We were contented with a great deal less than is now deemed necessary. During our stay at this place Indians often visited us, but we were seldom annoyed or frightened by their presence. Their canoes were often moored on the river near ns. One day Mattson and I resolved to try our skill in one, but like many a bark on the financial sea, it upset a few rods from shore, and as we succeeded in reaching dry land we concluded to leave the Indian to paddle his own canoe. AVe left the wood chopping early in March, 1854, and moved out to our claims. Having built our house of logs we moved in and considered ourselves established as regular farmers. After a few week's labor, our provisions, which we had brought with us, gave out and Mr. Mattson went to Red Wing to procure more. No steamboat having yet come up the river, he found scarcity prevailed in town.

There were no provisions for sale, and Mattson remained in town waiting for the arrival of a boat. During his absence on this occasion, I and my little family experienced the hardest privation of our lives. For nine days we had only white beans, excepting one day I shot a few blackbirds. Before cnr stock of beans was exhausted Mattson returned with provisions. During that year several more families arrived in Vasa. Carl Carlson, Gustaf Carlson, Peter Nelson, Nels Peterson, Erick Erickson, and Samuel Johnson.

"In the summer of 1856 we ran a breaking team. I managed the plow with Frank Carlson for driver. AVe were breaking for a man in Spring Creek valley, who, on account of bis anxiety to have us plow deep, used to follow the plow and weigh down the beam. One day we turned up a large snake, over six feet long, which was evidently as much disturbed as we were and in trying to escape chose as a retreat the pants of our employer, who, fearfully frightened, yelled, kicked and almost fainted. I jerked the snake out and killed it. This cured him from riding on the plow beam. If my team could not appreciate that snake's appearance, I could and did."

"In the month of June, 1854, I first set foot in Red Wing. I took dinner at the Red Wing house, then kept by Andrus Duraml. The most striking feature of Red Wing was then, as it is now, to one approaching the place on a steamer, tlie bold isolated Barn bluff. About the only things I remember doing on my first visit were: First, to climb the to summit of that bluff right up its precipitous nose aud take a view of the extended landscape, the winding river skirted with timber, the plateaus and bluffs in the distance, al] together making an enchanting picture.

"The next thing I did was to purchase about tAvo, or it may have been twelve, acres of land. The said land was described as being on the side of Sorin bluff and pointed out to me by a Avave of the hand while standing on Bush street near the Eed Wing hotel, said description being ap})arently satisfactory to the purchaser, who was bound to make an investment in the laud of promise. Suffice it to say, I have never heard where that laud lay, or that the seller had as much as the 'shadow of a title.' Yet there is no doubt of land being there on the sides of that bluff.

"On my next visit I came to stay - on the 3d of July the same year, having on board the steamboat from St. Louis a small stock of merchandise, which I persuaded the captain to leave on the upper side of the Jordan, the usual landing ^being a few rods below. A large number of the inhabitants Hocked down to the river as the boat drew to the shore. The goods were put into an unfinished store which stood at the foot of Broad street near the ground now occcupied by the Milwaukee depot. The doors not being yet hung I staid with the stuff that night, which was perhaps altogether unnecessary, as everybody was imbued with primitive honesty in those days. In fact everybody was bent on making money faster and easier than by stealing. The experience of that first night will never fade from my memory. I had no sooner composed my head for the enjoyment of sleep on a pile of mattresses than a whole battalion of mosquitoes presented their bills in fierce battle array, accompaniecl with wierd strains of masic, which awoke me to the necessity of immediate fortification. So I surrounded my couch with inverted chairs, barrels and boxes, spreading over the whole a web of mosquito netting. I then crawled into ray barrack, but my hope of safety was soon dispelled. My attempts at self-defense seemed to increase the energy and fierceness of the assailants; and if only a few found their way in, the hungry cry of the ten thousand without, and the possibility of all soon following the suit, forced me to arise, and grasping the netting scatter their ranks for a few moments. But the same attack and counter attack were enacted over and over during that longest of long nights; and I wonder to this day whether or no all the mosquitoes in the neighborhood were not notified that a fresh subject had arrived in town that day.

"Our communication with the rest of the world was by the Mississippi river in the summer, but in the winter this means was cut off most effectually by the ice. True, there was a post route by the river valley, but the mail was cariied by a one horse train. The great mail route from St. Paul to Galena passed through Oronoco, out back from the river some twenty or thirty miles. Hence the necessity arose for a better road, or rather some definite roadway should be made passable for teams to various points in the interior? which then were tributary to Red Wing for steamboat landing. To secure this desirable result a party was formed consisting of Wm. Colvill, Jr., wiio has since been the hero of more dangerous expeditions, T. J. Smith, Spencer Fellows, and one or two others, with myself, and a Mr. Hunt, a teamster. The only way out of B,ed Wing to the back country was then by the street now called Central avenue, and between the Twin blufPs. This was the starting point for Oronoco, Featherstone, Cannon Falls, Faribault, Owatonna and other places then known.

"Our object in this expedition was to find the shortest practicable route to Oronoco, including a place to ford the north branch of the Iliver Zumbro. We were to be met by another party from the other eud of the route, supposed to be as much interested as ourselves. About six miles out we struck the bend in Hay creek, and some five miles beyond on the prairie we passed a large burr oak tree, and not far from it a kind of basin, which seemed to be a receptacle for the surface water. These landmarks have since been obliterated to some extent.

"Tha first night we encamped on a little level spot of prairie near the banks of the Zumbro. On the opposite bank from our camp was an extensive piece of woods which came down to the border of the river.

"This ford was somewhere betAveen the two places since settled and named Zumbrota and Mazeppa. We drove the pins to our tent in a drenching rain and thunder storm. Our beds that night not being conducive to sleep we had an early breakfast. While some were employed in grading the banks of the stream others crossed and make an attack on such trees in the woods as would interfere with the passage of a team. We spent several days in clearing a way through these woods. Returning to Hay creek on Friday we put up our tent near the bend. This creek had not then been fished dry of trout, and as Mr. Colvill took more to tiie department of commissary and cook than the handling of axe, shovel or crowbar, he supplied us with a nice mess of speckled trout for dinner, while the rest of the party worked with a will upon the ravines that led down to the creek. We tented on that spot for the night followiug. My ardent fiiends, the mosquitoes, were plentiful and hungry. Choosiog the least of two evils, we provided a smudge in an iron kettle and tried sleeping in a smoke house. It was not loug before a suspicious smell of burnt leather greeted us and aroused us to the fact that we Avere in danger of a conflagration. One rushed out of the tent with the kettle, and on examination we found a hole burned in one of the bufPalo robes about the size of the bottom of the kettle.

"Saturday noon fouud us within fifteen minutes reach of a dinner at Red Wing's first-class hotel. But the romance of the trip still lingered with us till Ave had finished up the last delicacies of piairie chicken and trout under some shady oaks near the base of Twin blufPs. Those oaks have been since cut down by some utilitarian hand, Avho had no respect for the spot of the last dinner of that road improvement party from Red Wing.

"Some later settlers may Avish to kuoAV Avhat Ave found to do during the long winters and winter evenings, cut off as we were from the rest of the Avorld. We had lyceums, lectures and a literary society paper, instead of the opera. We had regular church sei vices, singing schools, and occasional merry makings. The young folks enjoyed sleigh rid( s in primitive style. I will give a short account of one.

"Early in the spring of 18^5, as the snoAV Avas fast melting aAvay, one afternoon, we thought it Avould be the last chance of the season for a sleigh ride, so a party Avas arranged for that evening and the girls invited. A sleighing party then meant a lot of girls and boys piled iuto a lumber wagon box placed on runners. But in this case, before it was time to start, it commenced to rain and we spent some time in deciding whether t) go on runners or wheels, or whether to go at all. Finally we decided to go on wheels, and by the time we had got the box back on the wheels and driven around and collected our load, it was nine o'clock and pitch dark. Dr. F. F. Hoyt and his brother Frank were holding a claim and occupying a shanty near where Mr. Danforth now lives on the road to the county poor farm. Dr. William Brown and W. S. Grow were living with their families in shanties three-fourths of a mile beyond. The party were destined for Mr. Grow's. We had Rev. Mr. Sorin's team and his hired man for driver. Coming to Hay creek bottom, we fonnd the road and bridges submerged with at least a foot of water; we crossed one bridge safely, but when we got to where the other one ought to be, we could not find it and our driver refused to go a step further. To go forward to be sure was presumptuous, to attempt to turn around on that narrow pike was pretty certain to spill us all out into the overflowing stream; so we sat there coaxing and threatening until at last the driver was induced to move on. We got safely over, went on calling at the Hoyt shanty, routed the boys up and took them aboard. AVhen we got to Mr. Grow's and Brown's both families had retired, but after all our troubles we could not be cheated out of the expected social enjoyment. So they were all routed out and seemed to enjoy the fun as well as we, until the wee small hours came on, and the light of the moon sent us home."