Wabasha County, Minnesota - Chapter 52: Treaties with the Natives, 1884

Chapter 52: Treaties with the Natives

In 1830 steps were taken for a congress of tribes at Prairie du Chien, and at this council the M'dewakantonwan Dahkotahs made a treaty, and conveyed to their relatives of mixed blood that tract of land about Lake Pepin known as the " half breed tract." The tract of said treaty is described as follows: "Beginning at a place called the Barn, below and near the village of the Red Wing chief, and running back fifteen miles, thence in a parallel line with Lake Pepin and the Mississippi about thirty-two miles to a point opposite Au Boeuf river, thence fifteen miles to the Grand Encampment opposite the i-i ver aforesaid. " This is the tract upon which our annals are laid, and with which the history of the city of Wabasha is so closely connected. Oliver Cratte, of this place, asserts that he was present at that treaty, and that the above is a true rendition of it ; also that these lands were intended for the half-breeds of that generation only, and that no " scrip " should ever have been placed upon them. The chiefs present upon that occasion, according to Mr. Cratte, were Red Wing, Black Dog, Little Crow (the father of the great Crow of Sioux massacre notoriety), Waconta and Wapashaw. In 1831, during the month of April, the authorities at Washington instructed the Indian agent at Sault Ste. Marie, H. R. Schoolcraft, to proceed to the upper Mississippi, and use his influence to make peace between the contending tribes, Dakotahs and Ojibways, in which he partly succeeded, and in 1832 he was again instructed to visit the tribes toward the sources of the Mississippi. In June of tliat year he arrived, in company of a military escort commanded by Lieut. James Allen, at the Fond du Lac trading-house on the St. Louis river, and, slowly making their way, in July they arrived at Elk Lake, which Mr. Schoolcraft named Itasca. The party were sure they had reached the true source of the great river at last, and geographers still mark'Lake Itasca as the head and source of the Mississippi. The lake is about seven miles long, and varies from one to three miles broad, is of irregular shape, with no rock in place but some boulders on the shores.

The Indian trade of the northwest was found to be so completely in the hands of British subjects, that trade could not be carried on by the Americans without their assistance. The secretary of the treasury in consequence issued a circular allowing the agents to license interpreters and voyageurs, who might be employed by the American traders. Mr. Taliaferro was the first Indian agent in Minnesota, and he held the office twenty-one years, licensing traders at different points as occasion demanded at different times. In 1833 the licensed traders of Minnesota were : Alexis Bailly, Mendota ; J. K. Browne, mouth of the St. Croix ; J. B. Faribault, Little Rapids ; Joseph Renville, Lac qui Parle ; Louis Provencalle, Traverse des Sioux ; Hazen Moores, Lac Traverse, and B. F. Baker at Fort Snelling. In 1835 we find Joseph R. Brown at Lac Traverse, near the head of the Minnesota river, and Joseph Laframboise on the Coteau de Prairie, at the Lake of the Two Woods, and Alexander Faribault, son of J. B. Faribault, on the Cannon river. There were other prominent traders who came into the country in 1837, among whom were N. W. Kittson, Philander Prescott and Francois Labathe. Franklin Steele and Wm. H. Forbes also came to Minnesota in 1837, and II. M. Rice, who was at the head of an extensive trade with the Winnebagos and Chippewas, in 1839. In 1837 about twenty chiefs and traders, by direction of Gov. Dodge, proceeded to Washington to make a treaty ceding to the United States their lands east of the Mississippi. They were accompanied by Maj. Taliaferro, agent, and Scott Campbell as interpreter. The fur company was represented by H. H. Sibley, Alexis Bailly, Joseph La Framboise, Augustin Rocque, Labathe, the Faribaults, and others. Joel R. Poinsette, a special commissioner, represented the United States.

Chaptee Liii Business Begins

The first white man to resume trade in these parts after the old forts were abandoned, was Augustin Kocque, grandfather of the family by that name in Wabashaw. His first post was built about ISOO, where Keed's Landing now stands. Lieut. Pike makes no mention of him in his account of his explorations, and it is probable that Rocque had left the post before Pike jjassed up the river, as it appears that for some reason he abandoned this post and returned to Prairie du Chien. Mr. Rocque was a French Canadian, coming to these wilds when a very young man. He married a Dahkotah woman, by whom he had a large family, his son Augustin being the father of the family now at this place. About the year 1830 Augustin, who followed the business of his father as Indian trader, moved back to this point on the "half-breed'' land and erected a dwelling and trading-post on the site of old Fort Perrot. Being connected by marriage with the Sioux and Fox Indians, he traded through different parts of Minnesota and Iowa, one of his outposts being on the site of the present town of Cedar Rapids. Mr. Rocque's influence among the tribes with whom he traded was almost unbounded, and several outbreaks at different times were quelled by his sagacity and influence. So great was the respect of the Indians for him, they looked upon him almost as a father, and hence his influence. The portrait of Mr. Rocque hangs in the capitol at Washington, together with several of the Sioux chiefs. At the time of his return to this point, the present site of Wabashaw was covered with underbrush and trees. His place, when steamboats ran, was called Rocque's Landing. At that time Wapashaw Red Leaf) was living with his band where Winona now stands, the prairie being called Wapashaw prairie - by the old voyageurs, " La Prairie Oseilles" - that is, "Flag-root Prairie." The city of Winona was named for Wapashaw's sister Weenonah.

The first steamboat upon these waters was the Virginia, which ascended the Mississippi as far as Fort Snelling in 1823. Fort Snelling was first named Fort St. Anthony, but in 1824, at the suggestion of Gen. Scott, it was changed to Fort Snelling. As Col.

Leavenworth and troops, en route for Fort St. Anthony in 1S19, stopped at Prairie du Chien, a child was born to Lieut. N. Clark, whose fii-st baptismal name was Charlotte, after its mother, and the second was Ouisconsin, given it by the officers in view of the fact that she was born at the junction of that stream with the Mississippi. In course of time Miss Clark married a graduate of "West Point, who afterward became Gen. H. P. Van Cleve, U. S. A., and this very worthy couple still reside in Minneapolis, Mrs. Van Cleve being the oldest resident of Minnesota. In 1820 Mrs. Col. Snelling gave birth to a daughter, which was the tirst white child born in Minnesota.

Before the advent of steamboats upon these rivers commerce and na'S'igation had been carried on by means of keel-boats and canoes, and for a long time after it was found that steamboats could ascend the upper Mississippi, commerce being unequal to the support of steamboat navigation, the keel and canoe were used as before. The British and American fur companies always used the canoe for shallow waters and rapids, and the keel-boat for transportation, until the volume of business warranted their supersedure by the steamer. The keel was built much like an ordinary barge, but shallower, and provided with running-boards on each side, their carrying capacity varying from seven to twenty tons. The largest were usually manned by fourteen men, six on a side with poles for propelling the boat, and a cook, with sometimes a trader or agent on board. These men were Canadian-French halt-breeds, called voyageurs, under the supervision of some active trader or agent.

Business Begins

The lirst white man who built on the present site of Wabasha was Oliver Cratte,* who came here from Fort Snelling in 1838. About the same time came Joseph Buisson, who, for some time, carried the mails on foot from Fort Snelling to Prairie du Chien, a distance of two hundred and four miles, accomplishing the round trip in fourteen days. Mr. Cratte was sent to this ]ilace bj the government and located as blacksmith for the Wapashaw band. He was born in Liverpool, England, in 1801. He was early left an orphan, and he and his sister came to Canada when he was a mere boy. He learned the blacksmitk's trade at Montreal, and after completing it he came west as far as Mackinaw, where he remained about a year. He then went to Prairie du Chien in company with some ti-aders, and was there employed by the United States government. In 1828 he was sent to Fort Snelling, where he remained until he came to "Wabasha in 1838. Mr. Cratte has been married three times. His first wife was a daughter of Alexander Graham, by whom he had live children, and his present wife is a daughter of Scott Campbell, who acted as interpreter for the chiefs and braves who visited Washington in 1837 for the purpose of ceding their lands east of the Mississippi to the United States. Mr. Cratte is still living and is the oldest living white man of his time. He is entirely blind, yet his memory is good, and it is like reading history to hear him recount the scenes of his long and varied experience. The old man is poor, which renders his blindness still more pitiable. He has, in his day, been far beyond want ; but loaning gold and, in his own honesty of purpose and heart, trusting the word of those who came to him in need, taking no proper security, he has thus, in his old age, become reduced to poverty and sorrow. Coming here in the fall of 1838, he built a shop of logs on the levee, chinking it with mud and sand, and occupying it that winter for shop and dwelling. In the spring following he added a "lean-to" and sent for his family, they having remained at Fort SneUing during the winter. This dwelling was the first ever built by white man at this place. Mr. Joseph Buisson built a small house the same season and brought his family here also, which house was the second one erected on the site of Wabasha.

largely in the early annals of the place. In 185i he was sent by H. S. Allen's agent at this place with dispatches to Chippewa Falls, where Mr. Allen resided. Young Cratte carried them tin t'oot, and upon his return, just after leaving Eau Claire, he noticed a party of Chippewas lurking around in ambush for a party of Sioux, who were on their way to St. Paul. The Chippewas, knowing the surroundings far better than the Sioux, waited for and surrounded them, capturing and killing every one of them. Cratte, learning what was going on, and fearing for his own life, took to his heels and ran all the way to Wabasha, arriv-ing at nine o'clock in the evening, a distance of fifty miles in nine hours.

The enmity existing between the Ojibways (Chippewas) and Dahkotahs (Sioux), owing to their frequent encroachments upon each other's hunting-grounds, was very bitter, and was the cause of constant leuds among them.

Mr. J. Buisson was a trader of some ability, remaining at this place until his death, in 1857. Pie had quite a family of sons and daughters, most of them still residents of Wabasha.

On the island just opposite the present city of Wabasha stood a trading-post in 1849, erected by one Eobar. Mr. La Bathe, a French trader, built and, in 1841, occupied the log house on the levee, just below the residence of W. T. Duganne, as a trading-post. In 1844 he sold this post to Alexis Bailly, who occupied it for store and dwelling for many years. A part of said house is still standing, and in good repair, being occupied as a dwelling. * Mr. Bailly added to the building, living in it until after his second marriage, in 1857, when he built the substantial residence which, since his death, has been known as "Riverside" to all travelers.

In 1841 another post was built upon the same island, about midway between Wabasha and Read's Landing, by a Mr. Nelson, which point is familiarly known as Nelson's Landing. These posts were built expressly for trade with the Chippewas.

The history of the early days of our western homes has been so obliterated by the march of improvement in a quarter of a century, and traces of first beginnings so lost that a comparison of the present times with those of the past is hardly possible, and young people of the present day emigrating frona their luxurious eastern homes should bear in patience the slight ills to which they may be subjected, being, as they are, so small in comparison with the trials, privations and hardships of the early settlers. It is, no doubt, difficult' for them to realize how very primitive were all these beginnings, and history itself cannot portray them as they really were. Again, the settler on any of our western prairies, and the axman who enters upon the primeval forest, must often be the subject of strange reflections as he follows his plough, throwing the rich alluvial soil that through all the ages has remained undistui'bed, or hews down the lofty pine that for thousands of years has flourished and grown unnoticed and uncared for, and the majestic oak in all its strength ; he must wonder how it should occur that he, of all the people that have lived, and still live on the earth, should be the first to appropriate to his own comfort these blessings so long held in nature's vast storehouse ; and wonder, too, why his race should require all the resources of earth, the productions of forests, mines, rivers, lakesi oceans and seas, - of the soil planted, cultured and garnered; the flocks and herds feeding and gamboling in undisturbed freedom upon a thousand hills, for his subsistence and convenience, while other races have remained from generation to generation in all the untamed wildness of the deer and elk upon which they subsist. What ot the race that but yesterday was here ? Have these rivers, plains and forests, now so peaceful, always been so calm and still? Or have they been the scene of sanguinary savage conflict? We speculate in vain upon the long-ago dwellers upon the banks of these lovely streams. Then savage yells may have been the only sound that ever waked the stillness of these hills ; or a race long since gone may have builded and worshiped, and cultivated all the amenities of civilized life, and the records of their virtues and deeds have become obliterated by time's relentless fingers.

Until 18i9 the territory now comprising Minnesota was included in six counties, namely, Ramsey, Washington, Benton, Dakota, Wabasha, Pembinaw ; total population in 1849 being four thousand nine hundred and forty. The first white man who built within the precincts of the county was Augustin Rocque ; upon his return to his post, at or near the site of old Fort Perrot, in 1830, and when steamboats began to navigate these waters, his place was called Kocque's Landing. Gov. Sibley makes mention of his place in his memoranda of first coming to Minnesota, and says: "Some idea can be formed of the great changes which have occurred since 1834 wheu I state that when I performed the journey from Prairie du Chien to St. Peters, now Mendota, in the autumn of that year, a distance of nearly three hundred miles, there was but one house between these points, and that was a log cabin, occupied by a trader named Eocque, situated below Lake Pepin, near the present town of Wabasha. " Mr. Cratte, as has been stated, was the first white man who built upon the present site.

The city of Wabasha was not named until 1843, when it was called Wabashaw, after the old chief. The ceremony of christening was performed in the following manner : A hole was dug in the ground on the levee, and a bottle containing a paper giving an account of the event was placed in the hole ; then a post was set up over it with a board nailed thereon, upon which was printed or wi'itten the name " Wabashaw" in large letters. A bottle of whisky was broken to celebrate the christening, and everyone became jubilant. In 1853, ten years later, the old sign-post was still standing. It is difficult now to locate just the place where the post stood ; but Mr. Cratte informs us that it was on the levee between Alleghany and Pembroke streets. Mr. Francis Talbot saw it when he landed here in 1853 from the steamer Nominee. At the time of this christening, Wabasha was nothing more than a trading-post and stoppingplace for traders and voyageurs. It had been a stopping-place for the American traders for a long time as they passed up and down the river, trafficking with the diffiarent bands of Indians on both sides of the river and around the lakes, their headquarters being at Pi'airie du Chien, so that "the Prairie " seemed like home to them, particularly so to the pioneer Frenchman. After the town was organized Mr. Bailly was appointed justice of the peace by the governor, and was thereby made the first civil officer of the county. Before that time the manner of living had been quite patriarchal in its way, and no better illustration can be given of it than to quote Mr. Rocque's advice to his sons, which gives his opinion of the law. It says: "Mes fils, ce faut que vous engardez bien a ce moment parceque la loi c'est venue en ville. La loi c'est le diable, et Monsieur Bailly il est la loi." Intei-preted : "My sons, it is necessary that you be very careful now, because the law has come to town. The law is the devil, and Mr. Bailly is the law."