Rice County, Minnesota - Early Jiissions A3iong the Ojibways and Dahkotahs of Mnsnitesota, 1882

Early Jiissions A3iong the Ojibways and Dahkotahs of Mnsnitesota

Jesuit Missions not permanpnt - Pipsliytr-ri.-in Mission at Mackinaw - Visit of Uev A. Coe an<! J D. Stevens to Foil Suellmg - JJotice of Ayers, Hall, antl Boutwell - formation of the word Itasca - The Brothers Pond - Arrival of Dr. Williamson-Presbj-terian Church at Fort Snelling - Mission at Lake Harriet - Mournins for the Dead - Church at Lac-qui parle- Father Ravoux - Mission at Lake Pokeginna - Attack by the Sioux - Chippeway attack at Pig's Eye - De.ith of Rev. Sherman Hall - Methodist Missions Rev. S. W. Pond prepares a Sioux Grammar and Dictionary Swiss Presbyterian Mission-

Bancroft the distinguished historian, catching the enthusiasm of tlie narratives of tlie early Jesuits, depicts, in language which glows, tlieir missions to the Northwest ; yet it is erroneous to suppose that the Jesuits exercised any permanent influeuce on the Ahorigines.

Shea, a devoted member of the Koman Cathohc Church, in his History of American Cathohc -Missions writes : " In KiSO Father Eugalran was apparently alone at Green Bay, and Pierson at Mackinaw. Of the other missions neither Le- Clerq nor Hennepin, the Recollect writers of the AVest at tliis time, make any mention, or m any way allude to their existence." He also says that "Father Menard had projected a Sioux mission ; Martjuette, Allouez, Druilletes, all entertained hopes of realizing it, and had some intercourse wdth that nation, but none of them ever succeeded in establishing a mission."

Father Hennepin wrote: '- Can it he possible, that, that pretended prodigious amoimt of savage converts could escape the sight of a midtitnde of French Canadians who travel every year? i. * * * How comes it to pass that these churches so devout and so numerous, should be invisible, when I passed through so many countries and nations V "

After the American Fur Company was formed. the island of Mackmaw became the residence of the principal agent for the Nin'thwest, Robert Stuart a Scotchman, and devoted Presbyterian.

In the mouth of June, 1820, the Rev. Dr. JSIorse, father of the distinguislied inventor of the telegraph, visited and preached at Mackuiaw, and in consequence of statements published by him, upon his return, a Presbyterian Missionary Society in the state of New 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 waves 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 policy, the Rev. Alvan Coe, and J. D. Stevens, then a licentiate who had been engaged in the Mackinaw Mission, made a tour of exploration, and arrived on September 1, 1829, at Fort Snelling. In the journal of Major LawTcnce Taliaferro, which is in possession of the Minnesota Historical Society, is the following entry : " The Rev. Mr. Coe and Stevens reported to be on their w^ay to this post, members of the Presbyterian church looking out for suitable places to make missionary establishment for the Sioux and Chippeways, found schools, and instruct in the arts and agriculture.''

The agent, althou.gh not at that time a communicant of the Cluu-ch, welcomed these visitors, and afforded them every facility in visiting the Indians. On Sunday, the 6th of September, the Rev. Iilr. Coe jireached twice in the fort, and the next night held a prayer meeting at the quarters of the commanding officer. On the next Sunday he preaciied again, and on the 14th, with Mr. Stevens and ;i hired guide, returned to Mackinaw by way of the St. Croix river. During this visit the agent offered fur a Presliyterian mission the mill which then stood on the site of ^liiuieapolis, and had been erected by the govenunent, as well as

Chippeway Missions

Upon the ;U)th day of August, 1831, a Mackinaw boat about forty feet lung arrived at La Pointe, bringing from :Mackinaw the principal trader, Mr. Warren, Rev.Shernian 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. ISOl, at "Wetliersfield, "Vermont, and in 1S2S graduated at Dartmouth College, and completed his theological studies at Andover. Massacliusetts, a few weeks before he journeyed to the Indian country.

His classmate at Dartmouth and Aiidover, tlie Rev W. T. Boutwell still living near Stillwater. became his yoke-fellow, but remained for a time at jMackinaw, which they reached about the middle <.f July. In .June, 1832, Henry R. Schoolcraft, the head of an exploring expedition, invited Mr. Boutwell to accompany him to the sources of the Mississippi.

"When tlie expedition reached Lac la Biche or Elk Lake, on July 13, l«32, Mr. Schoolcraft, who was not a Latin scholar, asked the Latin word for tnith, and was told "veritas." He then wanted ..ij word which signified head, and was tokl To the astonishment of many, Schoolcraft struck off the first sylable, of the word ver-i-tas and the last sylable of ca-put, and thus coined the word Itasca, which he gave to the lake, and which some modern writers, with all gravity, tell us was the name of a maiden who once dwelt on its banks. Upon Mr. Boutwelfs return from this expedition he was at fust associated with Mr. Hall in the mission at La Pointe. In 1833 the mission band which had centered at La Pointe diffused their inlluence. In October Rev. Mr. Boutwell went to Leech Lake, Mr. Ayer opened a school at Yellow Lake, Wisconsin, and Mr. E. F. Ely, now in California, became a teacher at Aitkin's trading post at Sandy Lake.

sixth of May, 1834, happened to be on a visit to Fort Snclling. 'While there a steamboat arrived, and among the passengers w^ere U\o young men, brothers, natives of Washington, Connecticut, Sanniel W. and (iideon H. Pond, who had come, constrained liy th(^ love of Christ, and without conferring with llcsh and blood, to try to imiirove the Sioux.

Sanuiel, the older ))rother, the year before, had talked with a liqunr seller in (iaiena. Illinois, who had come from the Red River country, and the desire was awakened to help the Sioux; and he wrote t(i liis brother to go with him.

The l!cv. Samuel \\ . Pond still lives at Shakopee, Lu the old mission house, the lirst buihling of sawed lumber erecteil in the valley of the 2ilinnesota, above Fort Snelling.

About tliis jieriod, a native of South Carolina, a graduate of Jelferson College, Pennsylvania, the Rev. T. S. Williamson, M. D., who previous to Ins ordination had Ijcen a respectable jihysician in Ohio, was appointed by the American Board of Foreign Alissions to visit the Dahkotahs with the view of ascertaining what coidd be done to introduce Christian instruction. Having made inquiries at Prairie du Chieu and Fort Snelling, he reported the lield was favorable.

The Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, through their joint Missionary Society, appointed the following persons to labor in JNIinnesota : Rev. Thomas S. Williamson, yi. I)., missionary and physician; Rev. J. I). Stevens, missionary; Alexander Iluggins, farmer; and their wives; Miss Sarah Poage, and Lucy Stevens, teachers; who \\eie prevented during the year 1834, by the state of navigation, from entering upon their work.

During the winter of 1834-35, a pious officer of the array exercised a good inlluence on his fellow oflicers and soldiers mider his command. In the alisence 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 i\\iv.\- ters, and reason with them " of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come."

Iixplobers Akd Pioneers Of Minnesota

were hospitably received by the otfieers of the garrison, the Indian Agent, and JNIr. Sibley, Agent of the Company at Mendota, who had been in the country a few months.

On the twenty-seventh of this month the Rev. Dr. Williamson united in marriage at the Fort Lieutenant Edward A. Ogden to Eliza Edna, the daughter of Captain G. A. Loomis, the first marriage service in which a clergyman officiated in the present State of ^Minnesota.

On tlie eleventh of June a meeting was held at the Fort to organize a Presbyterian Church, sixteen persons who had been communicants, and six who made a profession 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 prejiaratory to administering the communion, was delivered, and on Smiday, the 1-tth, the first organized church in the Valley of the Upper Mississippi asi^embled for the first time in one of the Company rooms of the Fort. The services in the morning were conducted by Dr. AMlliamson. Tlie afternoon service commenced at 2 o'clock. The sermon of Mr. Stevens was upon a most appropriate text, 1st Peter, ii:25 ; " For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." After the discourse, 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 pohits were selected by the missionaries as proper spheres of labor. Mr. Stevens and family proceeded to Lake Harriet, and Dr. Williamson and family, in Jime, proceeded to Lac qui Parle.

As there liad never been a chaplain at Fort Snelling, the Rev. J. D. Stevens, the missionary at Lake Harriet, preached on Sundays to the Presbyterian chiu'cli, there, recently organizetl.

" Yesterday a portion of this band of Indians, who had been some time absent from this village, returned. One of the number (a woman) was informed that a brother of hers had died during her absence. He 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, w^hich continued, with some little cessations, during the night. The sister of the deceased brotherwould repeat, times Vv'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 performing the ceremony of cutting their flesh, in order to give relief to their grief of mind. The snow was removed from the frozen ground over about as large a space as would be required 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, who repaired to the place prepared. They were all barefooted, and nearly naked. Here they set up a most bitter lamentation and crying, mingling their wailings with the words before mentioned. The principal mourner commenced gashing or ciitting her ankles and legs up to the knees with a sharp stone, until her legs were covered with gore and Jlowing 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 woman 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 flesh. She ayipeared frantic with grief. Through the pain of her wounds, the loss of blood, exhaustion of strength by fasting, loud and long-tontinue<l and bitter groans, or the extreme cold upon her almost naked and lacerated body, she soon sunk upon 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 beguis to manifest something of a missionary spirit Their contributions are considerable for so small a nmnlier. I hope they will not only be willing to contrilnite liberally of their substance, but will give themselves, at least some of them, to the missionary work.

" The surgeon of the military post, IJr. Jarvis, has been very assiduous in his attentions to us in our sickness, and has very generousl\- made a donation to our board of twenly-tive 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 in 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-five. 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, 1.S3G, 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 Poman Catholic priest, but claimed the right of private judgment. ]SIr. Renville's wife was the first pure Dahkotah of whom we have any record that ever joined the Church of Christ. This church has never become extinct, although its members have been necessarily nomadic. After the treaty of Traverse des Sioux, it was removed to Hazlewood. Driven from thence by the outbreak of lS(i2, it has became the p.irent of other churches, in the valley of the upper Missouri, over one of which John Renville, a descendant of the elder at Lac-qul- Parle, is the pastor.

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

IJisho]) Loras, of Dubuque, w rote the next year of his visit as follows : " Our young missionary, M. Ravoux, passed the winter on the banks of Lac-qui-Parle, without any other sup])ort than Providence, without any other means of eonversion than a birming zeal, he has wrought in the space of six months, a hayipy revolution among the Sioux. From the time of his arrival he has been occupied night and day in the study of their language. * * * * * "When he mstnu'ts the savages, he speaks to them with so much lire widlst showing them a large copper crucifix wiiich he carries on his breast, that he makes the strongest impression upon them."

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

Pokegmna is one of the " Mille Lacs," or thousand beautiful lakes for wiiich 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 built on the east side of the lake ; but the Indian village w^as 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 witii some skill m cutting large trees, the size of wiiich, two years ago, would have afforded them a sufficient reason wiiy they should not meddle with them."

In May, 1841, .leremiali Russell, who was Indian farmer, sent two Chippeways, accompanied by Elam Greeley, of Stillwater, to the Falls of Saint Croix foi- .supplies. On Saturday, the fifteenth of the month they arrived there, and the next day a steamboat came up with the goods. The captam said a war party of Sioux, headed by Little Crow, was advancing, and tlie two Cliippeways prepared to go bacli and were their friends.

They had hardly left the Falls, on their return, lief ore they saw a party of Dahkotahs. The sentinel of the enemy had not noticed the approach of the young men. In the twinkling of an eye, these two young Ojibways raised their guns, fired, and killed two of Little Crow'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 chief's sons were dressed, and then set np with their faces towards the country of their ancient enemies. The wounded Ojibway was liorribly mangled by the uifuriated party, and his limbs strewn about in every direction. His scalped head was i)laced in a kettle, and suspended in front of the two Dahkotah corpses.

It was not till Friday, tlie twentj'-flrst of May, that the death of one of the young Ojibways sent by Jlr. Kussell, to the Falls or Saint Croix, was known at Pokeguma.

Mr. llusi-ell on the next Simday, accompanied by Captain AVilliam Ilolconib and a half-breed, went to tlie mission station to attend a religious service, and while crossing the lake in returning, the half-breed said that it ^mis rumored that the - Sioux were approaching. On Monday, the twenty-fourth, three young men left in a canoe to go to the west shore of the lake, and from thence to Mille Lacs, to give intelligence to the Ojibways there, of the skirmish that had already occurred. They took witli 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 behind the trees, and fired into the canoe. The young men instantly spranginto the water, which

The little girls, in their fright, waded into the lake ; but were pursued. Their parents upon the island, heard the death cries of their children. Some of the Indians around the mission-house jumped into their canoes and gained the island. Others went into some f(n-tified 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, imtil the party stationed in the Avoods near the mission began.

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

The fathers of the murdered girls, burning for revenge, left the island in a canoe, and drawing it up on the !;hore, hid behind it, and fired upon the Dahkotahs and killed one. The Dahkotahs 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 Dahkotahs, infuriated at their escape, fired volley after volley at the swimmer, but he escaped the balls by putting his head luider water whenever he saw them take aim, and waiting till he heard the discharge, he woidd then look up and breathe.

After a fight of two hcmrs, the Dahkotahs retreated, with a loss of two men. At the request of the parents, Jlr. E. F. Ely, from whose notes the writer has obtained these facts, being at that time a teacher at the mission, went across the lake, with two of his friends, to gather the remains of his murdered pupils. He foiuid 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 lireast, and the right arm of one was taken a\\'ay. Removing the tomahawks, the bodies were brought back to the island, and ui the afteoioon were buried in accordance with the simple but solemn rites of the Chm'ch of Christ, by members of the mission.

Sioux Missionaries Befobe Tee Tbeatlks

The sequel to this story is soou told. The Indians of I'okeguma, after the light, deserted their village, and went to reside with their couutrymen near Lake Superior.

In July of the following year, 1842. a war party n'as formed at Fond dii Lac, al)iint lorty in ninuber, and proceeded towards the Dalikotah country. Sneaking, as none but Indians can, they arrived unnoticed at the little settlement below Saint Paul, commonly called "Pig's Eye," which is opposite to what Tvas 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 lier; also another woman, with her infant, whose head was oit off. The Dahkotahs, on the opposite side, were mostly intoxicated ; and, living across in their canoes but half prepared, they were worsted in the encounter. They lost thu-teen warriors, and one of their number, knowii as the Dancer, the Ojibways are said to have skinneil.

In a little while Rev. Mr. Bontwell removed to the vicinity of Stillwater, and the missionaries, Ayer and Spencer, went to Red Lake and other points in Minnesota.

Methodist Missions

la 1S37 the Rev. A. Bnmson commenced a Methodist mission at Kaposia, about four miles below, and opposite Samt Paul. It was afterwards removed across the river to Red Rock. He was assisted by the Rev. Thomas W. Pope, aud the latter was succeeded by the Rev. J. Holton.

Peesbtterian Missions Contintted

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

Steadily the numl)er 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 baud, and the first white man who lived where the city of Winona has been built. Another missionary from Switzerland, the Rev. Mr. Denton, married a iliss Skinner, formerly of the Mackinaw mission. During a portion of the year 1839 these Swiss missionaries lived with the American missionaries at camp Cold "Water near Fort SnelUug, but their chief field of labor was at Red Wing.

Exploberis And Pioneers Of Minnesota

Origin of the name Saint Croix - Dii Lnth, first Explorer - Fri'ncli I'ost on the St. Croix - Pitt, an early pioneer - Early settlers at Saint Croix Falls - First women there - Marine Settlement - Joseph R. Brown's town site - Saint Croix County organized - Pinprieturs of Stillwater - A dead Negro woman - Pig's Eye, origin of name - Rise of Saint Paul - Pr. Williamson secures first school teacher for Saint Paul - Description of first school room - Saint Croix County reK}rganized - Rev. W. T. lioutwell, pioneer clergyman.

The Saint Croix river, acconliiig to Le Sueur, named after a Prencliman who was drowned at its mouth, was one of tlie earliest througlifares from Lake Superior to tlie Mississippi. The first white man who directed canoes upon its waters was Du Luth, wlio had in 1()79 explored ilinuesota. He thus describes liis tour in a letter, first pnblislied by Harrisse : " In June^ 1680, not being satisfied, with having made my discovery by land, I took two canoes, with an Indian wlio was my interiireter, and four Frenchmen, to seek means to make it by water. With tliis 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, rind then I made a portage of half a league to reach a lake, tho outlet which fell into a very fine river, which took i. e down into the Mississippi. There I learned from eight cabins of Nadouecioux that the Hev. Father Louis Henne]iin, Itecollect, now at the convent of Saint (iermain, with two oUier Frenchmen had been robbed, and carried oil as slaves for more than three hundred leagues by the Nadouecioux themselves."

He then relates how h^ left two Frenchmen with his goods, and went with his interpreter and two Frenchmen in a canoe down the Mississiiipi, and after two days and two nights, found ncniiepin, 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 stejis, manifesting to them [the Sioux] tlio just indignation I felt agfiinst them, rather than to remain after the violence tliey had done

After this, the Saint Croix river became a chan nel for commerce, and Bellin writes, that before 1755, 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 Mr. 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 bvit 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 for the Falls of Saint Croix in a birch bark canoe paddled by eight men, and re.iched that point about noon on Monday and corijnienced a log cabin. Steele and Maginnis remained here, while the others, dividing into two parties, one luider Fitcli. and the other under Russell, searched for pine land. The first stopped at Sun Rise, while Russel went on to the Snake River. About the same time Robbinet and Jesse B. Taylor came to the Falls in the mterest of B. F. Baker who had a stone trading house near Fort Snelling, since destroyed by fire. On the fifteenth of July, 1S38, the Palmyra, Capt. Holland, arrived at the Fort, with the oflicial notice of the ratification of the treaties ceding the Lands between the Saint Croix and Mississippi.

She had on board C. A. Tuttle, L. W. Stratton and others, with the machinery for the projected mills of the Northwest Lumber Compciny at the Falls of Saint Croix, and reached thcit point on the se\'entpeiith, the first steamVioat to disturb the waters aliove Lake Saint Croix. The steamer Gypsy came to the fort on the twenty-first of

October, with goods for the Chippeways, and was chai-tered for foui' lumdred and fifty dollars, to carry them up to the Falls of Saint CroLx. In passing through the lake, the boat grounded near a projected called Stambaughville, after S. C. Stambaugh, the sutler at the fort. On the afternoon of the 26th, the goods were landed, as stipulated.

The agent of the Improvement Company at the falls was Washington Libbey, who left in the fall of IS.SS, and was succeeded by Jeremiah Eussell, Stratton acting as millwright in place of Calvin Tuttle. On the twelfth of December, Kussell and Stratton walked down the river, ciit the first tree and built a cabin at Marine, 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. Young. During the winter of lSoS-0, Jeremiah Russell married a daughter of a respectable and gentlemanly trader, Charles H. Oakes.

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

On the sixteenth of August, JNIr. Steele, Livingston, and others, left the Falls of Saint Croix in a barge, and went around to Fort Snelling.

The steamboat Fayette about the middle of May, 1839, lauded sutlers' stores at Fort Snelling and then proceeded with several persons of intelligence to the Saint Croix river, who s tiled 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 in the Saint Croix Valley. The mOl at Marine commenced to saw lumber, on August 24, 1839, the first in Minnesota.

Joseph E. Brown, who since 1838, had lived at Chan AVakan, on the west side of Grey Cloud Island, this year made a claim near the upper end of the city of Stillwater, which he called Dahkotah, and was the first to raft lumber down the Sauit Croix, as well as the first to represent the citizens of the valley in the legislature of Wisconsin.

Until the year 1841, the jurisdiction of Crawford county, Wisconsin, extended over the delta of country between the Saint Croix iind jMississippi. Joseph R. BrowTi having been elected as representative of the county, in the territorial legislature of Wisconsin, succeeded in obtaining tlie passage of an act on November twentieth, 1841, organizing the county of Saint Croix, with Dahkotah designated as the county seat.

At the time V)rescnl)ed 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, lie never came again, and judicial proceedings for Saint Croix county ended for several years. Pliineas Lawrence was the first sheriff of this county.

On the tenth of October, 1S43. was commenced a settlement which has become the town of Stillwater. The names of the iiroiiri^tors were John McKusick from Maine, Calvin Leach from Vermont, Elam Greeley from Maine, and Elias McKean from Pennsylvania. Tliey immediately commenced the erection of a sawmill.

John II. 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 proceeded 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 tlien at. Fort Crafli'ord. The body was cruelly cut and bruised, but no one appearing to recognise it, a verdict of " Foimd dead," was rendered, and the corpse was buried. Soon after, it came to light that the woman was wliiiiped 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 Parraut, 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"

Explobers And Pioneers Of Minnesota

" Edmiuid Brisette, a clerldy Frenchman for tliose days, who lives, or did live a little while ago, on Lake Harriet, was one day seated at a table in Parrant's cabin, with pen and paper abont 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 ; wliere should he date a letter from a place without a name ? He looked up inquiringly to Parrant, and met the dead, cold glare of the Pig's Eye fixed upon htui, with an irresistible suggestiveness 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 titiding shops. In 1846, the site of Saint Paul was chiefly occupied by a few shanties owned by " certain lewd fellows of the baser sort," who sold rum to the soldier and Indian. It was despised Viy all decent white men, and linown to the Dahkotahs by an expression in their tongue which means, the place where they sell minne-wakan [supernatural water].

The chief of t!ie Kaposiaband in 1846, was shot by his own brother in a drunken revel, but surviving the woimd, and apparently al.armed at the deterioration under the influence of the modern harpies at Saint Paul, went to Mr. Bruce, Indian Agent, at Fort Snelling, and requested a missionary. The Indian Agent in his report to government, says :

" The chief of the Little Crow's band, who resides below this place (Fort Snelling) about nine miles, in the immediate neighbourhood of the whiskey 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 whites 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 Saint 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 National Popular Education Society, in relation to the condition of what has subsequently become the capital of the state.

In accordance with his request. Miss H. 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 Brick Presliyterian church, corner of Sauit 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. This was for visitors. A rickety cross-legged table in the centre, and a hen's nest in one corner, completed the furniture."

Saint Croix comity, in the year 1847, was detached from Crawford coimly, Wisconsin, and reorganized for judicial purposes, and Stillwater made the county seat. In the month of June the United States District Court held its session in the store-room of ilr. John McKusick ; Judge Charles Dnmi presiding. A large number of lumbermen had been attracted by the pineries in the upper portion of the valley of Saint Croix, and Stillwater was looked upon as the center of the lumbering interest.

Tlie 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 spealdng 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."