Jackson County, Minnesota - Aboriginal Days - 1834-1855, 1910

IT WAS only a few hundred years ago that Christopher Columbus discovered America. That was a modem event in the history of the world - and Jackson county - according to the measurements of time employed by the archaeologists and geologists. We can, in imagery, go back to that time and let our fancy tell us what the Jackson county of that day was like. Its topography was practically the same as we find it today. There were the same broad, rolling prairios, stretching as fjir as the eye might reach, presenting in summer a perfect paradise of verdure, with its vjiriegated hues of flowers and vegetation ; in winter a drearv and snow-mantled desert. The rivers and creeks flowed in the same courses as now; the lakes occupied the same banks.

But to get at the beginning of the history of Jackson county we must consider events that antedate the discovery of America by periods of time measured in eons - events which the most vivid imagination cannot conceive, events which were never witnessed by mortal eye. We are informed that ages before man was made our earth was a mass of molten, seething fire; that in time this huge ball of fire cooled and the earth's crust was formed. This transformation occurred, so geologists estimate, 100,000,000 or more years ago during the Archean or Beginning era, which extended over a period of time roughly estimated at 50,000,000 or more years. The early part of this period is termed Azoic, from the absence of any evidence that the earth or the sea had either plant or animal life. Following this came tlie Paleozoic time, covering a period of something like 36,000,000 years, an era cliaracterized by ancient types of life, unknown today.

The next period of time is known as the Mesozoic time, covering the comparatively short period of 9,000,000 years. Our county was land area, during the greater part of this time. The floras and faunas of this age were gradually changing from tlieir primitive and ancient character of the Paleozoic time, but had not yet attained the comparatively modem forms of the succeeding era. In late Mesozoic days the greater part of Minnesota was again depressed beneath the sea, as it had been in ages past.

The Cenozoic time, some 3,000,000 }ears in length, followed, during which tliat part of the earth's surface now known as ^linnesota was lifted from the sea, and it has ever since remained above tlie water. During thj«« time there came into existence the present types of life,

Most wonderful and most recent of the wonders occurring in the making of our earth was the Ice age, which began some 75,000 or 100,000 years ago and ceased only from 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. Prior to the beginning of this time the earth had been uniformly warm or temperate, but about the time mentioned the northern half of North America and northern Slurope became enveloped with thick sheets of snow and ice, probably caused by the uplifting of the land (the surface was then from 2,000 to 3,000 feet higher than now) into extensive plateaus, which received snowfall throughout the year. The lower latitudes retained the temperate climate, thus permitting the plant and animal life to survive until the melting of the ice sheets again permitted the occupancy of the northern latitudes. Under the weight of the vast glaciers the land sank to its present level, the surface was ground down and evened off and made practically as we find it today. With the sinking of the land came the rapid melting of the glaciers, though with numerous pauses and probably slight readvances.

During these millions of years many interesting things happened in Jackson county. From a part of the seething, molten mass that composed the earth during the millions of years about which even the geologist dare not venture a guess it became a part of the earth's surface in the process of cooling. Thereafter it was successivelv covered with the waters of the sea, was raised from the depths to a high altitude, and was crushed back by the weight of the vast ice sheets. During these various periods its topographical features were formed, many changes resulting before nature had them fashioned to her liking. Bidges and hills were formed by the action of the ice ; depressions were left in which are now lakes; the water from the melting ice sought avenues of escape and formed the rivers and creeks; soils, rocks and minerals were spread over the surface; plant and animal life came into existence.

When Jackson county was first inhabited by the human species is unknown. Archaeologists caunot even hazard a guess when the American continent was first inhabited. There has been discovered evidence that man lived upon North American soil during the decline and closing scenes of the Ice age,^ some 6,000 to 10,- 000 years ago, and probably had done so for a nnu-h longer period. Concerning the original peopling of North America, Warren Upham, A. M., D. Sc, in Minnesota in Three Centuries, says :

The original peopling of America appears to liHve taken place far longer ago by migration Irom northeastern A.*ia during the early Quaternary of Ozarkian epoch of general uplift of northern regions which immediately piH?ceded the Ice age, and wh\ch continued through the early and probably the greater part of that age. Then land undoubtedly extended across the present area of Bering sea.

During Ozarkian time and the long early part of the Glacial period, wandering tribes, migrating for better food supplies or to escape from enemies, could have crossed on land from Asia to Alaska, and could advance south to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, occupying all the ground (excepting the ice covered area) that is now, or was in pre-Columbian times, the home of the American race. It is not improbable, too, that another line of very ancient migration, in the same early Pleistocene or Quaternary time, passed from western Europe by the Faroe islands, Iceland, and Greenland, to our continent.

'Traccs of man's presence during: this period haVe been found in a fiood plain of the Mlssissipj>l river at Little Falls. Minnesota, and In ctlier parts of the United States.

on which archaeologists disagree.^ The only sources of information available concerning the early inhabitants are the implements of warfare and domestic use they made, found in burial places and elsewhere in the land. The Mississippi valley is prolific in mounds - the burial places of these* ancient peoples - many haying been found and excavated in Minnesota, Scattered through the Des Moines valley and around the lakes of the vicinity have been found many of these interesting works of prehistoric davs.

At least one such mound in Jackson oountv has been excavated. In 1871 a solid ^tone ball, about two inches in diameter, made round by primitive tools, was plowed out of the ground on the farm of Mr. Hans Chesterson, a short distance west of Jackson. A mound in the vicinity was excavated by Jackson people two vears later. The mound was semicircular and several feet high, the outer line of the embankment being broken in several places. In one of the larger mounds a part of a man's leg bone was found. The excavation was not pursued extensively and nothing else of interest was unearthed.^

Wliile we have little knowledge of the very early peoples who inhabited our state, from the middle of the seventeenth century, when white men first came to the northwest, we can trace the history quite accurately.

^"It was formerly thought by many archaeolo- ^8ts. twenty-flve to fifty years ago, that the mounds of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys were built by a prehistoric people, distinct from the Indians and further advanced in agriculture and the arts of civilization. To that ancient people the name of Mound Builders was given, and if was supposed that they were driven southward into Mexico by incursions of the Indian tribes that were found in our country at the first coming of white men. This view, however, has been generally given up. The researches of Powell and other specialists, including Wlnchell and Brower in Minnesota, have well referred the building of the mounds to the ancestors of the present Indians." - Warren Upham in Minnesota in Three Centuries.

Minnesota from the time of our firat knowledge of tlie country, until they were supplanted by white men, and whose hunting grounds long included all this area, until ceded by treaties, were the Ojibways, ranging tlirough the northern forest region, and the Sioux or Dakotas, who originally inhabited the southern and western prairie portions of the state. Bands from four other tribes of Indian peoples have temporarily lived in the state, these being the Ilurons, Ottawas, Winnebagos and Crees.

The Sioux tribe, which chiefly concerns us, came originally from the Atlantic coast, in Virginia and the Carolinas. Several centuries before the discovery of America they migrated from that eastern country, by way of the Ohio river, and eventually located on the prairies west of the Mississippi river. The name of this nation is a contraction of Nadouessis or Nadouesioux, which is the name used for the tribe by the very early explorers, and which was given to these people by the Ojibways and other Algonquins. The original name is a term of hatred, meaning snakes or enemies. Naturally the Sioux disliked this name, and they called themselves, collectively, Dakotas, which means confederates or allies.

When knowledge was first gained of the Sioux or Dakota Indians there wer^ three great tribal divisions, namely, the Isantis, residing about the he.idwaters of the Mississippi; the Yanktons, who occupied the TQ^ion north of the Minnesota river; and the Titonwans, who had their hunting grounds west of the Yanktons.

Wlien white men began making homes in tliis frontier country they gained more definite knowledge of the natives than had been secured by the infrequent explorers. We, being chiefly interested in that branch of the Sioux nation which partially inhabited and wholly claimed the southern part of the state, are fortunate that definite and reliable information of these bands was secured and has been preserved. General H. H. Sibley, who was an authority on Indian affairs because of his intimate relations with the natives in his capacity as head trader for one of the big fur companies, has described the Indian bands of this section a? he found them in 1834.

The M^daywakantons, or People of the Leaf, comprised seven bands who could bring into the field about six hundred warriors. Their summer residences were in villages, the lodges being built of elm bark upon a frame work of poles. These villages were situated at Wabasha^rairie, where the citv of Winona now stands; at Eed Wing and Kaposia, on the Mississippi river; on the lower Minnesota, below Shakopee, where there were three bands; and on lake Calhoun, near Minneapolis. The Wahpakootas, or People of the Shot Leaf, were in villages on Cannon lake, a short distance from the present city of Faribault, and a few other points, and they numbered about one hundred fifty warriors. The lower Wahpatons were located at Little Bapids, Sand Prairie and on the banks of the Minnesota not far from Belle Plaine. The lower Sissetons occupied the regions around Traverse des Sioux (near St. Peter), Swan lake and the Cottonwood river, their possessions extending to the Coteani des Prairies of extreme southwestern Minnesota. It was this branch of the Sioux which claimed jurisdiction over and title to the present day Jackson county, although they did not have their permanent homes here. The upper Wahpaton tribe had its villages on the shores of the Lac qui Parle. The upper Sissetons were on Big Stone lake and Lake Traverse.

South Dakota. It was never entirely dear by what right the Sioux claimed this part of Iowa or even the extreme southwestern j)art of Minnesota. They had never made l)ermanent location thereon, and, indeed, the only occasions when they had visited these districts were at the times of their excursions against the Sacs and Foxes of the upper Des Moines, or when they were in search of buffalo in that region or about lake Shetek.* Their muniments of title were vague and imperfect. After having been driven from the country east of the Mississippi by the Chippewas, they had crossed to the west bank and driven a band of Iowa Indians from the country about Fort Snelling and established themselves along tlie Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.

In addition to the tribes of the Sioux nation mentioned above as inhabiting and claiming southern Minnesota was another small, outlawed band of Sisseton Sioux ancestry, under the leadership of Inkpaduta, with whom we shall become well acquainted before this history closes. Inkpaduta and his band occasionally visited southwestern Minnesota, his favorite Jiaunts during these visits being the Des Moines river country and the country about the Okoboji lakes. They were outlaws from the Sioux, were not participants in any treaty, and had no rights of possession to land in any part of the country more than a pack of wandering, ravenous wolves might have to the same land. The band had no permanent abiding place or home, but roamed over northwe.-stern Iowa and southwestern lilinnesota from the present location of Des Moines, Iowa, to that of Eedwood Falls, Minnesota.

ton Sioux. Sidominadota was known far and wide for his audacity, bravery and disregard of the restraints of the white man's law and the rights of the Indians. This reputation caused the discontented and lawless element of the other bands to flock to his standard, until at one time the band numbered three hundred. But when treaties were made with the United States and annuities were to be granted most of those who had forsaken the other bands returned to them, so as to be sure of their annuities, so that at the time of the settlement of north-western Iowa and southwestern Minnesota the band of outlaws did not exceed fifty warriors.**

The whole of the state of Minnesota west of the Mississippi river was in undisputed possession of the aborigines until 1851. The fine, fertile expanse of country of southern Minnesota was ground upon which the white man dare not locate. But the tide of immigration to the west set in and settlers were clamoring for admission to the rich lands west of the Mississippi. In time the legal barrier was removed.

In the spring of 1851 President Fillmore, at the solicitation of residents of Minnesota territory, directed that a treaty with the Sioux be made and named as commissioners to conduct the negotiations Governor Alexander Ramsey, ex-officio Indian commissioner for Minnesota, and Luke Lea, the national commissioner of Indian affairs. These commissioners completed a treaty with the Sisseton and Walipaton bands - the upper bands, as they were usually called - at Traverse des Sioux (near the present site of St. Peter) during the latter part of July, 1851. Immediately afterward the commissioners proceeded to Mendota (near St. Paul), where they were successful in making a treaty

The treaties were ratified, with important amendments, by congress in 1852. The amended articles were signed by the Indians in September, 1852, and in February of the next year President Fillmore proclaimed the treaties in force. By this important proceeding the future Jackson county passed from the ownership of the Sioux to the United States government, and the former owners took up their residence on the north side of the Minnesota river.

All their lands in the state of Iowa and also all their lands in the territory of Minnesota lying east of the following line, to- wit: Beginning at the junction of the Buffalo river with the Red River of the North [about twelve miles north of Moorhead, in Cl&j county] ; thence along the western bank of said Red River of the North to the mouth of the Sioux Wood river; thence along the western bank of said Sioux Wood river to Lake Traverse; thence along the western shore of said lake to the southern extremity thereof; thence in a direct line to the juncture of Kampeska lake with the Tehan-ka-sna-du-ta, or Sioux River; thence along the western bank of said river to its point of intersection with the northern line of the state of Iowa; including all islands in said rivers and lakes.

The territory purchased from the four Sioux hands was estimated to comprise about 33,750,000 acres, according to Mr. Thomas Iluglies' computation, of which more than nineteen millions acres were in Minnesota, nearly three million acres in Iowa, and more than one million, seven hundred fiftv thousand acres in what is now South Dakota. The ceded lands in Iowa were north of Bock river, and also included the country around Estherville, Emmetsburg and Algona, extending eastward by the town of Osage almost to Cresco, tlio county seat of Howard county. The aggregate price paid was about twelve and one-half cents per acre.

nesota in the middle of the seventeenth century (1655-56). In 1683 the first map on which physical features of Minnesota are pictured was published in connection with Hennepin^s writings. This map is very vague and demonstrates that very little was known of the northwest country. Five years later, in 1688, J. B. Franquelin, a Canadian French geographer, drafted for King Louis XVI. of France a more detailed map of North America, making use of information gathered by Joliet and Marquette, LaSalle, Hennepin, DuLuth and others. Some of the principal streams and lakes are marked and more or less accurately located, among others the B. des Moingene (Des Moines). There is no evidence to show that any of these had visited the upper Des Moines river country, and the data for the greater part of the map were doubtless secured from the Indians.

A few French explorers, named above, had penetrated to several points within the present boundaries of our state, but none of them had explored the southwestern portion. In 1700 LeSueur ascended the Minnesota river and furnished data for a more or less authentic map of southwestern Minnesota, so far as the larger and more important physical features are concerned. This mop was made by William DeUisle, royal geographer of France, in 1703. For the first time the Minnesota river appeared upon a map, being labeled R. St. Pierre of Mini-Sota. The Des Moines also has a place on the map, being marked Des Moines or le Moingona R., and its source was definitely located. There is nothing in the writings of Le Sueur,, however, to lead to the belief that he had visited the Des Moines river country, his explorations having been confined to the country along the Minnesota. Another map, made by Buache in 1754, was compiled from data furnished Sieur

After LeSueur had penetrated to the southwestern part of the state in 1700 that portion of the country was not again visited by white men until QQ years later, so far as we know. In November, 1766, Jonathan Carver ascended the Minnesota river and spent the winter among the Sioux in the vicinity of the present city of New Ulm. He remained with the Indians until April, 17G7, and learned their language. It is possible, but not probable, that Carver during this time may have visited the country which is now included within the boundaries of Jackson county, for he hunted with the Indians over some of the great plains of southwestern Minnesota which, '^according to their account [the Indians], are unbounded and probably terminate on the coast of the Pacific ocean.'^

From the very earliest days wandering and adventurous white traders, bartering weapons and trinkets of civilized manufacture for the prized beaver furs of the Indian hunters, had penetrated to the wilds of the northwest, closely following the explorers. So early as 1700-01 when TjeSueur was on the Minnesota river a number of these adventurers were reported as having been encountered. It seems highly probable that some of these reckless frontiersmen had penetrated to the upper De? Moines region before the country was known to the world through the published reports of the explorers of this region. But these men were trappers and traders, not historians, and left no records of their doings. What wonderful tales of adventure could be recorded of the early history of Jackson county if the lives of these men could be learned!

mentioned having found evidence, or having been informed by the Indians, that the fur traders of an earlier dav, after having wintered on the upper Des Moines, had departed from a point within the limits of the present Jackson county with their furs. It was their custom to leave the Des Moines near the northern line of Jackson county and strike the headwaters of the Watonwan, follow down that s-lream, the Blue Earth and tlie Minnesota to the Mississippi.'^ When the first permanent settlers came to Jackson county in 185G there was verv little evidence of the operxitions of these former day trappers and traders.^

While a number of explorers had visited other parts of Minnesota, and a few settlements had been established, during the early part of the nineteenth century, none of them penetrated to the southwest corner. In 1835 a government expedition, commanded by Lieutenant Albert Miller I^a, of the regular army, traversed the area of what is now the state of Iowa and advanced into the south edge of Minnesota, although he did not visit Jackson county. With him were three companies of infantrv, five four-mule teams, and several pack horses. Lieutenant Lea traveled northward along the divide between the tributaries of the Des Moines and Mississippi rivers, passed the site of the Minnesota city which now bears his name, and continued to lake Peppin. From there he started on the return trip, going in a southwesterly direction across the headwaters of the Cedar and Blue Earth riVers to the Des Moines "river, which he came to south of the Jackson count v line. Lieutenant Lea proceeded down the river in a canoe to ascertain if it were practicable

-Report Minnesota Geoloerlcal Survey, 1884, 'The Jackson RepubUc of March 19, 1870. stated that when the first settlers came there was evidence to be found of an old French trading post, located about six miles up the river from Jackson, but I have been unable to find other sources of information to confirm * this statement.

to bring supplies up that stream for a fort. He sounded, meandered and platted the river, and after his return to winter quarters published a book and map, giving the history of the journey. His trip led to the improvements that were afterward made in the Des Moines river by the government.

It was not until the late thirties that our immediate vicinity became known and was mapped. Catlin, Schoolcraft, Featherstonhaugh, Allen, Keating and Long were early explorers to the wilds of Minnesota, but they confined themselves to the ready routes of travel, passing through the country in a single season. But in 1836 appeared one who crossed the upper Mississippi country in all directions, spending several years, winters included, in preparing data for his map, which was published after his death in 1843. This was Joseph Nicolas Nicollet,^ who was the first white man, of record, to set foot on the soil of Jackson county.® The principal aid of Mr. Nicollet in his explorations in Minnesota was Lieutenant John C. Fremont, later the nominee of the republican party for president of the United States.

Nicollet gave names to many lakes, streams and other physical features or adopted those which were current, and the map shows the scope of his explorations. The countrv' of which Jackson county forms a part was labeled "Sisseton Country/' he finding that branch of the Sioux in possession. He specially mentions a visit to the red pipestone quarries, which he made in July, 1838. He found that the region west of the Mississippi had

'It is possible that Kicollet did not In person visit Jackson county, but certainly some of his party did. Owing: to his premature death much of a historical nature concerning this region WPS lo««t. He had notes for a work of several volumes, relating principally to what is now Minnesota, and he had only fairly started the work when he died.

several plateaus, or elevated prairies, which marked the limits of the various river basins. The most remarkable of these he called Plateau du Coteau des Prairies (plateau of prairie heights) and Coteau du Orand Bois (wooded heights). Nicollet described the Coteau des Prairies as a vast plain, elevated 1916 feet above the level of the ocean and 890 feet above Big Stone lake, lying between latitudes 43 and 46 degrees, extending from northwest to southeast for a distance of two hundred miles, its width varying from fifteen to forty miles. On the map he marks it as extending from a point a short distance northwest of lake Traverse in a southeasterly direction into Iowa, and including the western part of the present Jackson county. The explorer described it as a beautiful country, from whose summit grand views were afforded, said that at the eastern border particularly, the prospect was magnificent beyond descrfption, extending over the immense green turf that forms the basin of the Red River of the North, the forest clad summit of the Hauteurs des Terres that surround the sources of the Mississippi, the gigantic valley of the upper Minnesota, and the depressions in which are lakes Traverse and Big Stone.

That Nicollet or some of his party visited Jackson county is evidenced by the *fact that several natural features of the county with which we are familiar were given names and quite accurately located. That he did not visit all parts of the countv is also evident from his failure to find Heron lake, that big body of water in the northwest part. His map locates quite accurately the ^foingona (Des Moines) river and locates the source of that stream.* He gives prominence to a lake which he calls Tchan-Shetcha, or Dry Wood lake (undoubtedly Fish lake),

Mr. Nicollet calls attentioli to the hydrographical relation of the Des Moines river with the Blue Earth, the Minnesota and the Mississippi. He stated that the Blue Earth, by means of its tributary, the Watonwan, had one of its sources in lake Tchan-Shetcha and that the land separating this lake from the Des Moines was not more than a mile or a mile and a half in width.^^ Thus, he stated, a short canal would bring the Des Moines into communication with the Minnesota. He learned that this interesting fact had formerly been taken advantage of by the fur traders, who, after wintering on the headwaters of the Des Moines, found it convenient to bring their peltries by water communication through the Watonwan vallev and the Blue Earth to the Minnesota and thence to the mouth of that river. On the map the space between the river and the lake is marked "portage."

On this remarkable map of 1843 Spirit lake is shown with its present name. One or two of the lakes in Minneota township are shown but are not named. Other lakes in the vicinity which are shown and named are Okebene '(Okabena), Ocheyedan, Talcot and Shetek. Nicollet's work was of inestimable value to Minnesota, by reason of the thoroughness of his exploration and the reasonable accuracy of his map, which became the official map of the country.

Tlie next record we have of white men visiting Jackson county was in 1844, when Captain J. Allen passed through it, up the Des Moines river. Upon approaching the region of the line separating Iowa from Minnesota Captain Allen speaks of becom-

"The location of this lake as given by Mr. Nicollet is latitude 43 degrrees, 45 minutes, and longitude 95 deuces. 12 minutes, which is the location of Heron lake according: to the surveys. However, he could, by no possibility, have meant Heron lake.

ing penned among numerous lakes and of being compelled to cross a narrow strait by swimming two hundred yards. This place was probably a narrow spot in Swan lake, in Emmet county, Iowa. From there he sent a party to examine the country to the east, and they proceeded to Iowa lake, on the'boundan' line, and explored its outlet toward the east and into the east chain of lakes in Martin county. They reached the conclusion that the water of these lakes was tributary to the Blue Earth.

Allen and his part}' continued north tlirough Jackson county, camping at Eagle lake and at Independence lake. When he reached what is now Christiania township, near Windom, he described the country as a "wonderfully broken surface, i*ising and falling in high knobs and deep ravines, with numerous little lakes in the deep valleys, some of them clear and pretty and others grassy .'' A party visited the Blue Mounds and found an artificial mound of stone on the highest peak.

At lake Talcott Captain Allen left his men in camp for a rest while he himself visited lake Shetek, which he named lake of the Oaks. By observation of the sxm with a small sextant he located this lake in latitude 43 degrees, 57 minutes, 32 seconds, but as a matter of fact it is somewhat above latitude 44 degrees. He described the lake as being remarkable for a singular arrangement of the peninsulas running into it from all sides and for a heavy growth of timber that covered these peninsulas and the borders of the lake. AUen pronounced lake of the Oaks to be the highest source of the Des Moines worth noticing as such, though he also mentions an inlet coming in from the north, *^ut of no size or character.'* rivers, and then proceeded eastward to the St. Peter's (Minnesota) river. From the mouth of the Redwood the southern shore of the St. Peter's was explored for a distance of several miles each way. Returning to lake Shetek^ the expedition set out for the west, reached the Big Sioux river and proceeded down that stream to its mouth.

From Lizard creek of the Des Moines to the source of the Des Moines, and tHence east to the St. Peter's, is a range for elk and common deer, but principally elk. We saw a great manv of the elk: thev were sometimes seen , in droves of hundreds, but were always difficult to approach and very difficult to overtake in chase, except with a Heet horse and over good ground. No dependence could be placed upon this game in this country for the subsistence of troops marching through it.

Twenty-five miles west of the source of the Des Moines we struck the range of the buffalo and continued in it to the Big Sioux river and down that river about eighty-six miles. Below that we could not see any recent signs of them. We found antelope in the same range with the buffale, but no elk and very seldom a common deer. While among the buffalo we killed as many as we wanted and without trouble.

This completes the record of early exploration of our county, and we find that when Minnesota territorv was created in 1849 the southwestern portion of the territory was a \'ferital)le terra incognita. The land was still in undisputed ownership of the Sioux bands, and white men had no rights whatever in the country. Return I. Holcombe, in Minnesota in Three Centuries, tells of the conditions in southern Minnesota at the time the territory was formed:

Westward of the Mississippi river the country was unexplored and virgin. There were wide expanses of wild and trackless prairie, never traversed by a white man, which are row the highly developed counties of southern and southwestern Minnesota, with their fine and flourishing cities and towns and the otVer institutions that make for a state's eminence and greatness. Catlin had passed from Little Rock to the pipestone quarry; Nicollet and his surveying party had gone over the same route and hail traveled along tlie Minnesota. Siblev and Fremont had cliased elk over the prairies in what are now Steele, Dodge, Freeborn and Mower counties; the Missouri cattle drovers had led tlieir herds to Fort Snelling and up to the Ked river regions, but in all, not fifty white men had passed over the tract of territory now comprising southern and southwestern Minnesota when the territory was organized in 1849.

The treaty with the Sioux Indians, made in 1851, ratified in 18r)2, and proclaimed early in 1853, threw open to settlement the whole of eouthem Minnesota, and soon thereafter settlements bepan to make their appearance in the eastern portion, although it was some years later when white settlers penetrated to the future Jackson countv.

The line between the state of Iowa and the territory of ^linnesota was surveyed in 1852. Tlie engineers began at the southwest corner of Minnesota about the first of August and ran their line eastward, reaching the southwest corner of Jackson county on August 8.'^ They located the line along the southern boundary of Jackson county, and proceeded on their way eastward.

In 1853 Captain J. L. Keno executed a survey for a military wagon road from the mouth of the Big Sioux river, at Sioux City, to Mendota, at the mouth of the Minnesota, but the map of his survey was not published. He crossed the Des Moines river in Iowa and after traveling ten miles farther entered Minnesota and ])(>ssibly touched Jackson county. He crossed branches of the Watonwan and Blue Earth rivers and laid out his road along the wast bank of the Blue Earth to its union with the Minnesota, thence to Mankato and on to Mendota.

The vears 1854, 1855 and 185G, were remarkable ones in Minnesota territory bv reason of the immense tide of immigration pouring in and the consequent activity and legitimate and "wild cat" real estate operations. So early as 1852 the real estate speculative era had commenced in St. Paul and the older settlements along the eastern border of the territory. Illustrative of the times in St. Paul at that early date is tiie following, which was written by a correspondent of the Pittsburgh Token who was in St. Paul in the

My etirs at every turn are saluted with everlasting din. Land! Land! Money! Speculation! Saw mills! Town lots! etc., etc. I turn away sick and disgusted; land at breakfast, land at dinner, land at supper, and until eleven o'clock, land; then land in bed until their vocal organs are exhausted, then they dream and groan out land, land! Everything is artificial, floating, the excitement of trade, speculation and expectation is now running high, and will perhaps for a year or so, but it must have a reaction.

During 1853 and 1854 there were large accessions of population to the eastern part of the territory ; roads were constructed ; farms were opened in the wilderness ; villages sprang into existence in many pai-ts of the frontier. During these years the settlements did not extend to the western and southwestern parts of the territory, but during the next few years the human flow poured in and spread out in- . to nearly all parts of Minnesota. The fever of real estate speculation, which had been only feebly developed before, now attacked all clashes. Enormous and rapid profits were made hy speculators who had the fora^ight and courage to venture. Thousands of acres of Minnesota lands which had been secured from the government in 1854 for $1.25 per acre sold the following year for $5.00.

Not only to Minnesota, but to all parts of the upper Mississippi valley, came the grand rush of homeseekers, who spread out over the rich lands of Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas and Nebraska. These hordes of immigrants did not take all the lands as they went along but were constantly pushing out onto the frontier. The reason of this is easily understood. Nearly all who were coining out to the northwest country were from the eastern and central states, where timber was abundant, and they were loth to settle on the prairie very far from timber and water. In fact, so discriminating were they that few were willing to settle where they could not have timber and prairie land adjoining! In consequence the settlements in the new countrv were confined to narrow belts along the streams and around the lakes, where groves of timber were usually found. So soon as the desirable claims were taken in one locality some adventurous immigrant would strike out across the trackless prairie in search of a place where he could have first choice of claims. He would soon be followed by others and a new settlement would be founded. By reason of this the settlements were oftai thirty or forty miles apart, while the different inhabited portions of the same stream were often ten or fifteen miles apart. In this way settlers were constantly pushing out onto the extreme frontier in search of suitable places to build homes for themselves and their families, many times not waiting for the Indians to leave, but moving among them.