Minneapolis City (part 51 of 80)

Not until December, 1854, was an}' formal fire organization effected. It was formed at Cummings & Pratt's office and named Cataract Engine Company No. 1. G. D. Hubbard was elected fore¬ man, R. W. Cummings, first assistant; S. M. Ricker, second assistant; D. S. Moore, secretary, and J. H. Murphy, treasurer. Its equipment consisted of a number of leather buckets, some rope, chains and a la-dder or two. The services of the firemen were rarely called into requisition, and it became more social than a working organization. The uni¬ form adopted consisted of red shirt, with blue flannel collar and cuffs, white pan¬ taloons with black stripe, glazed cap with company name inscribed, and black belts.

In the early part of the year 1858, three fire companies were formed. Cata¬ ract Engine Company No. 1, composed of residents of lower town about the falls, and Independent Hook and .Lad¬ der Company No. 1, and Minnesota En¬ gine Company, composed of residents of upper town. Of the former, J. E. Spen¬ cer was elected foreman, Edgar Nash, first assistant foreman ; Damon Greenleaf, second assistant foreman; M. L.

Selkreg, treasurer, and G. A. Pomeroy, secretary. Of the second, Henry Curran was foreman, L. P. Foster, secretary. An order was given to a wagon maker of St. Anthony for a fire truck, and on October 1st of the same year it was fin¬ ished. The equipment consisted of 7 ladders, 125 buckets, 9 hooks and 20 axes. The company purchased its own apparatus and erected a house on Fifth avenue northeast, between Ramsey atid Main streets. A Button & Blake engine was procured for the Minnesota Engine Company in 1859 with funds raised by a firemen's ball.

Germania Engine Company No. 2 was organized Nov. 3, 1858, in the Sec¬ ond ward where a number of Germans had settled. Joseph Meyer was the first foreman, Charles Meyer, first assistant; Peter Thelan, second assistant, and Francis Kittel, Steward. Thirty-three names were placed on the roll at the first meeting. The uniform adopted consisted principal^ of a red shirt with black velvet collar and facings. The city council of St. Anthon3^ gave to T. C. Dane a contract for furnishing two fire engines, and they were con¬ structed at the shop of Scott & Morgan. The first machine was finished Ma3" 30, 1859, and was assigned to the Cataract Company. The tub was of black walnut inlaid with white birch, and with its brass trimmings, polished bark poles and handsome fittings, was a beautiful machine. Upon the suction pipe was printed the motto of the Cataract Company, " alwa3"S ready." Six months afterwards its exact counterpart was finished and delivered to Germania Company No. 3.

About this time citizens of upper St. Anthony who were dissatisfied with the council for furnishing engines through Mr. Dane organized a new compan3' called Minnesota Engine Company No. 2, and appointed John H. Dunham foreman, who raised a private subscription for the purchase of an engine, and N. H. Heming went to Lansingburg, N. Y., and negotiated with Bittton & Blake for a first-class engine, which arrived June 28, 1889, It was a ten inch cylinder with three hundred feet of copper rivited leather hose. The subscription proving inadequate the City Council re-organized the company and made an appro¬ priation to pay the balance due for the apparatus. July 4, 1859, was made an occasion for Cataract Engine Company to parade, and partake of a banquet at the Winslow House. As the company appeared upon the main street in bright uniforms and garlended engine, there appeared from the direction of Cheevertown, about two hundred stalwart citizens, masked and clad in c dd gar¬ ments, tugging at a rope to which was attached a nondescript apparatus, evi¬ dently intended to burlesque a fire engine, and on which was printed the inscrip¬ tion, "Thunderbolt No. 4." Upon the arrival of the two companies at the Winslow House, Cataract marched to the banquet hall carrying with them one of the wheels of their engine, while the tatterdemalions took possession of the ball room above. There they resolved themselves into a city council, and with mock gravit3^ discuss d and duly re¬ pealed some obnoxious city ordinances. The genuine city council took the hint and soon afterwards ratified the act. About this time an extemporized fire company calling themselves the "Deluge" had held m3'sterious meetings at A1 Stone's shop, the parade being the out¬ come. Hon. J. B. Gilfillan, Dr. J. H. Murph3^ and Major Geo. A. Camp, were supposed to be leaders of the burlesquers, while I. P. Hill acted as marshal and led the procession. It was their first and last public appearance.

The first fire organization on the west side of the Mississippi river was the Miller's fire association in 1865. It was a private arrangement for the pro¬ tection of the milling district at the falls, and owed its formation to W. M. Brack¬ ett, then a bookkeeper for Eastman, Gibson & Co. A force pump was put into the basement of the Cataract mill; a hose cart, 500 feet of hose, nozzles, spanners, etc., were provided. This com¬ pany existed itntil the re-organization of the fire department in 1867.

The splendid organization of the vol¬ unteer department, the partially paid department that followed, and the full paid department which the city now boasts, are due in a large measure to W. M. Brackett, who, besides being a good fireman, was a splendid organizer.

The Game well fire alarm s^'stem was introduced in September, 1874. In 1875 horses were purchased and the engineers, stokers and drivers were permantly hired and stationed with the apparatus. In 1876 the alarm system was extended to the East Side of the river, and in 1878 the two divisions were consolidated in one.

In the fall of 1867 the Holly system of water works was introduced, but not completed until the spring of 1868. It at first served only the West Division. The East Division had twelve cisterns and four platforms on the river bank so arranged as to take water from the river.

The formal organization of the fire department was in January, 1868, em¬ bracing the following companies : Alinneapolis Hose Company No. 1, Mutual Hose Company No. 2, and Minneapolis Hook and Ladder Company No. 1. Its strength was 150 volunteers. George A. Brackett chief engineer; R. B. Langdon, first assistant, and Paris Gibson, second assistant.

The fire department of the East and West sides of the river were consolidated in 1878. W. AI. Brackett was chief en¬ gineer; W. C. Stetson, formerly chief of the East Division, was first assistant,- and C. Fredericks, formerly foreman of Hook and Ladder Company No. 1, sec¬ ond assistant.

The rapid growth of the city and the corresponding increase in the duties of the fire department soon became too great for a volunteer organization, and in 1879 the city assumed the support of the department.

The Minneapolis Fire Company and the Minneapolis Hose Company No. 1 perfected their organizations Jan. 24, 1868. Of the former, Ed. Lippencott was foreman; Dan. A. Da3'', first assist¬ ant; H. G. Hicks, second assistand ; R. H. Conwell, secretary, and W.AI. Brack¬ ett, treasurer. Mutual hose companj-. No. 2, John Noble was foreman; AI. AI. Cruickshank, first assistant; A.H. Beal, second assistant; Geo. W. Shuman, secre¬ tary, and E. M. Alarshall, treasurer.

The three companies alread}' organ¬ ized met Jan. 29, 1868, and elected Geo. A. Brackett chief engineer; R. B. Lang¬ don, first assistant and Paris Gibson, second assistant.

Germania Hose Companv' No. 3 was organized Oct. 25, 1870. John Weinard was foreman; Chas. Goehringer, first assistant; William Gehle, second assis¬ tant; Fritz F'riederick, third assistant; J. G. Hubor, secretar}', and A. Knob¬ lauch, treasurer.

Minnehaha Hose Company No. 5, or¬ ganized June 7, 1879. B. F. Cole was foreman; D. Wylie, first assistant; D. Winkler, second assistant; John Hale, third assistant ; E. P. Hedderly, secretary and H. D. Blood, treasurer.

The first steamer, "City of Minneapo¬ lis No. 1," was put in service about the beginning of the year 1875, and was as¬ signed to Hose Company No. 1, although Cataract Engine Company No. 1 on the East Side had been in possession of a steamer since July, 1873.

The several chief engineers of the West Side department and their terms of service have been - George A. Brackett, four years; David Wylie, one year; W. M. Brackett, nine years; Frank L. Stet¬ son, eight years; August H. Runge, the present incumbent, one year.

Cataract Company had one steamer, two two-wheel hose carts, 1,700 feet hose. Germania Company had one hand engine, one two-wheel hose cart, and 300 feet hose. Fire limits were estab¬ lished for the West Division by ordinance of the city council, September 10, 1873, and they were extended and established in both divisions January 2, 1878.

The Volunteer Fire Department form¬ ally disbanded July 1, 1879. The occa¬ sion was made memorable by a parade of the department, with speeches by Ex- Mayors Brackett, De Laittre, Wilson, Merriman and Ames, and Mayor Rand, and by Chief W. M. Brackett. The paid department was organized, and con¬ sisted of:

The new force numbered fifty -nine offi¬ cers and members, who took the place of three hundred and four volunteers dis¬ banded. The apparatus consisted of two steam fire engines, five hose car¬ riages (two horse), and horse cart (one horse), one hook and ladder truck (two horse), one single truck chemical (two horse). There were twenty horses in service, and ten thousand feet of rubber hose. The expenditures were $41,136.10. The salaries paid were : Chief engineer, $2,000; assistant engineers, $1,400; en-

- of call men, was put upon a basis similar to that in force in Chicago, being full paid. The roster numbered ninety-six men, who were constantl3" on duty and received stipulated salaries.

The need of efficient fire protection has been taught in Minneapolis, by a number of serious conflagrations, involv¬ ing loss of life, and the bold and adven¬ turous firemen have often periled and in some instances lost their lives. On the night of June 18, 1860, the most serious fire which had yet occurred swept away eighteen buildings on Bridge Square. The five St. Anthony companies were on the ground, but arriving after the fire was well under way and with scarce suppU" of water, which had to be taken from the river, and pumped from one engine into another, were not able to arrest the progress of the flames, until the entire West side of the block from First to Sec¬ ond street was in ruins, save only the stone building of the State Bank, on the corner of First street, which was saved.

The great explosion and fire at the flouringmills, which occurred on the eve¬ ning of May 2, 1 878, will be long remem¬ bered. It was occasioned by the igni¬ tion of dust in the Washburn "A" mill, which produced the force of an explosion, blowing off the roof and bursting the walls. The following mills were destro^^ed:

Alore lamentable than the destruction of property" was the loss of life, for eigh¬ teen emploj^es of the mills were over¬ whelmed and perished.

Another explosion at one of the mills on the 4th of December, 1881 , was fatal to two of the firemen. First Assistant Engineer Cornelius Fredericks, and John Toole}^ of Hook and Ladder Company No. 3.' -

The year 1880 was signalized by ser¬ ious fires. The Brackett Block on Sec¬ ond street, the Westfall Block on Wash¬ ington avenue, the Pacific mills of Camp & Walker and the Jacob\^ Block on Nic¬ ollet avenue. Again in 1887 the fire fiend seemed to be unloosed. The greatest loss was the St. Anthony elevator, which, however, was outside the fire limits. The total loss was $950,000. The East side block of saw mills at the falls were tot¬ ally consumed. The Morrison Block at the corner of Washington avenue and Second street fed the flames, also the Mortimer Apartment House on Thir¬ teenth street, and the stately and beauti¬ ful Church of the Redeemer. The latter occurred on one of the coldest nights of the winter, and in the morning the ruined walls presented a weird appearance, incrusted and infolded with one sheet of glistening ice.

Another most disastrous fire, distress¬ ing b}^ the sacrifice of human life, oc¬ curred Nov. 30, 1889. The elegant pressed brick and stone building of the Tribune Companjq corner of first avenue and Fourth street, succumbed to the fire fiend. Seven persons were killed while attempting to eseape, and twenty-seven were rescued b\" the fearless and intrejjid firemen.

buildings, were eonsumed. C. W. Mit¬ chell, of Hook and Ladder Co. No. 1, lost his life falling with twenty-one comrades from the I'oof. The Crown Roller mill caught fire among the machinery of the elevator and was saved by the prompt exertions of the department. On this occasion the fire tower was first brought into use and demonstrated its utility by pouring a flood of water upon the high¬ est part of the tall structure. Later, the fine building of the North Star Boot & Shoe Company was consumed with its contents, involving a loss of near half a million dollars, but the fire was controlled and did not spread to adjacent property.

In closing this inadequate review of the Minneapolis fire department, the writer feels that the eulogium contained in "History of the department," pub¬ lished by A. E. Costello, last year, to which he is indebted for most of the facts herein contained, is fully justified when he says: "Probably no where in the present city of Minneapolis is its phenominal growth more noticeable than in the brief study of the growth and progress of the fire department, which to-day affords to the citizens of the Flour City a protection second to none in the land, and certainly exceeding that of any other fire service of its age."

Hon. Philip Winston. To the thoughtful student there is a valuable les^>on to be gleaned from the lives of those men whose courage and brains en¬ abled them to build the foundations upon which Minneapolis now stands - the first city of the Northwest.

Philip B. Winston was born near Han¬ over Court House, Hanover county, Vir¬ ginia, August 12, 1845. His parents were William O. and Sarah A. (Gregory) Winston, both natives of Virginia, and descended from those sturd3^ colonists who came from England during the sev¬ enteenth century. His great-grandfather fought in the Revolutionary war, and his grandfather served in the war of 1812. On both sides the ancestors were prominent people in the State, and Mr. Winston's father and grandfather held successively the office of clerk of the county court of Hanover county. On his mother's side this lineal prominence was also marked, as the professions bear valuable testimony to the name of Greg¬ ory throughout the State of Virginia. His early boyhood was passed in his native village, where he acquired his preioaratory education under the direc¬ tion of a private tutor. He spent a year at the academy in Caroline county, and when the Civil war broke out, though only a bo^' of seventeen, he espoused the cause of the Confederacy and enlisted as private in the Fifth Virginia Cavalry. After eight months' hard service, during which time he participated in many of the most memorable battles of those days, he was promoted for gallant and meritorious conduct to the staff and assigned as aid-de-camp to General Thos. L. Rosser, who was in command of a division of cavalry under General Lee. He remained at his post till the last gun was fired, and when the fortunes of war were determined at Appomattox he laid aside his arms and returned to the old homestead. He saw much service and was in the battles of Kelley's Ford, Brandy Stati on , Aldee, Get ty sburg, Ced ar Creek, Tom's Brook, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Mine Run, Tryvilhan's Station, Hewes' Shop, Ream's Station, Amelia Court House, Bossoux Cross Roads, Five Forks, High Bridge, and was in Stewart's Raid, in Pennsyl¬ vania.

Leaving the sad scenes of war he re¬ turned to his home, and began farming. Here he remained till the spring of 1872, when, with less than a hundred dollars, he set out for the Northwest. Traveling was a luxury in those clays, and when he arrived in IMinneapolis he had barely enough to pay for a week's board. The Northern Pacific railroad was then stretching its iron arms into the far North, and young Winston secured a position in the engineering department as rodrnan.

The opportunities of the Northwest had begun to attract the attention of many of the most enterprising and con¬ servative financiers of the countr}'. Thoroughh' alive to the possibilities of the times, Mr. Winston returned to Min¬ neapolis after two 3'ears' experience with the Northern Pacific, and associating with his brother, F. G. Winston, estab¬ lished the firm of Winston Brothers, now one of the largest railroad contracting firms in the United States. Enjoying the confidence of the large railroad corpora¬ tions, this firm gradually rose from an infant industiw to a business command¬ ing a capital of over a million dollars. Most of the track and bridge work on the Northern Pacific, from Bismarck west, was built b\^ this firm ; one thous¬ and miles of this road being their fiist large contract. Since then the3' have completed large contracts for nian3' other corporations operating in Illinois, In¬ diana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dako¬ tas, Iowa, Nebraska and Virginia. This firm is very strong financialh', and is eminentl3' woi'thy of the honorable posi¬ tion it has earned b3' strict observance of the highest principles of business integ¬ rity.

In 1888, Mr. Winston was nominated for ma3'or of Minneapolis. It was the presidential 3'ear, and although his great popularit3" carried him three thousand votes ahead of his ticket, he was de¬ feated. He was re-nominated 1)3' accla¬ mation in 1890, and, unhampered 1)3' party issue, was elected by over six thousand pluralit3'. He was warml3' supported 1)3' the business interests; and merchants and laboring men alike recog¬ nized his special abilities as a conserva¬ tive, wise and devoted official. How well he merited the confidence of his friends and guarded the interests of the cit3' is full3' attested in the records of his ad¬ ministration. A staunch Democrat, im¬ bued with all the best principles of Democrac3', he was chairman of the Minne¬ sota delegation at the last National Convention held in St. Louis, Missouri. He is also a member of the State and local Democratic organizations. His great popularity is due to his sterling cpialities of heart and mind, his fund of good humor and marked courtes3'to all. In person he is large, S3'mmetricall3' formed, and of prepossessing and enjo3'- ing presence. He is a good speaker, forcible, clear and versatile, and gracefull3' presides on all public occasions in honor of home or visiting organizations.

He is a stockholder in the Securit3^ Bank of Minneapolis. With Mr. F. G. Winston, his brother, he is engaged in extensive mining operations in Montana. He is a stockholder in the Syndicate Building Compan3', the S3'ndicate Insur¬ ance Compan3', the Minneapolis Globe Building Compan3^, a member of the Business Men's Union, the Minnesota Club, of St. Paul, and the West More¬ land Ckd), of Richmond, Virginia, where he still enjo3'S a few months each year on the old homestead, having recenth' made costh' improvements to it.

In 1876 hemarried Miss KatharineS. Stevens, of Minneapolis, daughter of Colonel John A. Stevens, one of the most prominent and resi)ected of Minne¬ sota's pioneers. Two children were born of this marriage. Mrs. Winston is a h'uU' of refinement and education; a member and prominent in the charitable work of the Presb3'terian church. She

Charles P. Lovell was born at H3'de Park, Vermont, on November 2d, 1837. He comes of an old New England family, whose ancestors emigrated from England at an early period in the settle¬ ment of America. The name can be traced back in exactl^^ its present form for maiw generations. Randall Lovell, Mr. Lovell's father, was proprietor of a tannery at Hyde Park. In 1844, when his son Charles was seven j-ears old, he moved to Waukesha Count}", Wisconsin, and engaged in farming. Two years later he died, leaving a family of ten the death of his father, were spent in Dodge and Waukesha counties. When he was nineteen he came to Minnesota and spent three months in Steele county mowing hay. Mr. Lovell enjoys refering to this experience as an evidence of the questionable benefits of the free trade times of the fifties, for the farmer still owes him for a large part of what he earned in the hayfields. The next seven¬ teen months were spent with his brother at Nevada, Store}" County, Iowa.

On March 1,1859, Mr. Lovell started for Pike's Peak, in search of fortune in the newly discovered mines of Colorado. The journey to Denver, across the then almost trackless plains, occupied just forty -five days, being the first of six trips made across the plains. But still he was too early for the open¬ ing of the season in the mountains. By the middle of June the snow was off, and in company with others Mr. Lovell went about forty miles in¬ to the mountains to Idaho Springs and commenced prospecting. After a few weeks news came of a great discovery of gold at Black Hawk, and the miners hastened to the new location. Mr. Lovell was young and healthy, and worked with the utmost enthusiasm, making light of hardships and exposure. As a result his health failed and he was obliged to leave the miners and return to Iowa. Recovei'iug his health he worked for a few months on one of the early Iowa rail¬ roads, receiving a free trade compensation of eighty cents a day. When he left the employ of the contractor he had saved just $12, and with this amount in his pocket he started again for Colorado, de¬ termining to make the journey afoot and to come back with a fortune if it were to be had. On the way he fell in with a wagon train, where drivers were needed and secured employment for the rest of the trip as a "bull whacker." Hereached Denver with $4 more on hand than when he started. Regarding this as a good omen he went to work with varying for¬ tunes until after two years when he had saved $1,000, with which he invested in a mine in partnership with a friend. In twenty months they sold the property, taking out $20,000 for each $1,000 put in. The purchaser was the New York Gunnell Gold Co. Mr. Lovell was made temporary superintendent of the mines, and was superseded after a time by the famous Major General Fitz John Porter, who offered him a salary of $5,000 a year to remain as assistant. But eight years in the West had satisfied Mr. Lov¬ ell, and he returned to Iowa, and travel¬ led in the East for a few years. A couple of years were spent in Milwattkee, and then he gratified a natural taste for farm¬ ing by purchasing and operating a farm in Dodge County, Wisconsin. For twelve or thirteen years Mr. Lovell spent the spring and autumn on his farm, the win¬ ters in Milwaukee and the summers in Minneapolis. In 1880 he was one of the presidential electors on the Garfield and

Mr. Lovell's business since coming here has been almost exclusively buying and selling real estate on his own ac¬ count. In this he has been remarkably successful. In company with Mr. E. S. Corser and Mr. W. A. B.arnes he became the owner of Oak Park addition, which has proved to be a particularly fortunate investment. The syndicate paid $32,- 000 for the property in 1880. It is now valued at about $750,000. Mr. Lovell also owns several farms and is continu¬ ally buying, improving and selliiig other real estate. He was actively interested in the formation of the Alinneapolis Threshing Alachine Co., of which he has been vice-president and an influential di¬ rector from the first. He is also vicepresident of the Pioneer Savings & Loan Association, and a director in the Alinne¬ apolis Plow Works, the Northern Car Co. and the Esterly Harvester Co.

A marked talent for pushing enter¬ prises to a successful issue was recognized by Mr. Lovell's prompt election to the Board of Trade, and his call to a partici¬ pation in the organization of the Busi¬ ness Union. He was one of the principal subscribers to the exposition and a direc¬ tor from the start. In these enterprises, as in all other movements for the ad¬ vancement and welfare of thecit}', hehas been a leader. He is a director in the re¬ cently organized Real Estate Exchange. In 1888 Air. Lovell was elected alderman from the Fifth ward for the four 3'ears term, and has been chairman of the com¬ mittees on taxes and waj^s and means dui'ing this period. He has also been on numerous other committees. His con¬ spicuous services for the citj'in the coun¬ cil, led man\' of his friends to urge him to become a candidate for the maj^oralty nomination in the fall of 1892. In the interests of good government Air. Lovell consented, and though not nominated himself, the faction which he represented was successful in the convention.

Winslow AI. Brackett is a native of Alaine, born at Weston, July 14, 1843. His father, Luther Brackett, was a man of educational influence, and no lit¬ tle political prominence. He taugh school, was a minor judicial officer, prac¬ ticed law, and held for many ^xars the office of consul at one of the Canadian ports. He was a brother of Henry H. Brackett - the father of Geo. A. and H. H. Brackett, of Alinneapolis. Young Winslow received a fair education in the branches taught in the public schools. At the age of sixteen he showed his pre¬ dilection for the life of a fireman b}' join¬ ing the hose "annex" of Washington En¬ gine Compant" No. 1, in Calais. He was eighteen j'ears old at the bi'eakingout of the war, and joined the Sixth Regiment of Alaine Infantiw as a musician. He followed the standard of his regiment through its varied and tiding service un¬ til the fall of 18G2, when he was honorabh" discharged and returned to Calais. He was soon appointed paymaster's clerk with headcpiarters at Washington, D. C., serving until the close of the war. He came to Alinneapolis in 18G5, and ob¬ tained emploNinent as bookkeeper. He was employed in the office of Eastman, Gibson & Co., and Judd & Brackett.

for the protection of the mills and prop¬ erty at the falls, of which he became man¬ ager. A Holly pump was put in the basement of the Cataract mills, operated by water power from the mills, and hose and other apparatus provided. This was the beginning of the Fire Depart¬ ment of Minneapolis. The city water works were so far completed in the spring of 1 868 that a formal organiza¬ tion of a city fire department was made. In 1871 Mr. Brackett was appointed second assistant engineer of the depart¬ ment, and the following year he was made chief. The Fire Department of the two cities were consolidated in 1878, soon after which he was made chief of the new system. It was then a volun¬ teer service. Under his direction a paid service was gradually substituted and perfected. He remained chief of the de¬ partment until 1881, when he resigned to go into a private mercantile business. The perfection which the Minneapolis Fire Department has attained is largely dtie to his rare ability as an organizer and his firmness and tact as a disciplin¬ arian. During his connection with it some, conflagrations of extraordinary ferocity occurred , notably that attending the mill explosion, and the subsequent great fire in the milling district, the con¬ trol of which exemplified his ability as a fighter of the fire fiend.

he was called to take the head of the Po¬ lice Department, which position he oc¬ cupied during the entire term of service of Mayor E. C. Babb. In this difficult position he manifested no less tact and good judgment than as head of the Fire Department, and was only displaced when the Republicans again lost political control in the city.

Mr. Brackett was then selected as superintendent of the Minneapolis Indus¬ trial Exposition, in which capacity he arranged the very successful fair of 1891. He was again chosen to the same posi¬ tion and managed the fair which has just closed in the autumn of 1892.

This long series of employment in re¬ sponsible and difficult positions has in no sense been the result of self seeking or importunity. It has been thrust upon him by reason of peculiar adaptation to for such service. He is a quiet and unas¬ suming gentleman, of steady habits and examplary life. His popularity as a fire¬ man and police officer have come from firmness in the discharge of duty, with kindness and urbanity towards those who had relations with him.

Mr. and Mrs. Brackett have a home on Seventeenth street, where they have discharged their share in the social rela¬ tions of life. They are attached to the Second Congregational church, and con¬ spicuous in the charitable and mission work of that active church. They have had five children, only three of whom survive.

The pioneers of Minneapolis had an abundant supply of water in the Missis¬ sippi river flowing past their doors. They also found some flowing springs along the banks of the river, more or less im¬ pregnated with mineral solutions. As the residenees were built further from the river banks, it became inconvenient to transport these natural waters to the places where they were needed without mechanical means. Wells were sunk to furnish a nearer supply, and in eveiw house erected cisterns were provided to store the waters falling from the clouds in rains and showers. Sometimes iJublic or neighborhood wells were sunk, whence all the families of the vicinity could draw their supply of water. Such an one was located on Minnetonka street, now First avenue south. It was opposite the small residence of John Jackins, occupying the site of the present New England Furni¬ ture store. A curb surmounted by a windlass, raised a few feet above thesurface pointed out its location. The vicin¬ ity was thickly set with hazel bushes, and a faintly' mai'ked track, diverging around the well curb, served to conduct the sparse travel upon the little used thoroughfare. Water was abundantly

When the first fire comj^any was or¬ ganized in St. Anthony in December, 1855, a platform was built at the brink of the east channel of the river, where the engine could stand and draw water from the river. Several attempts were made to sink artesian wells at a short distance from the river on the East side, and al¬ though one was sunk many hundred feet it failed to reach a supply of water.

In the latter i^art of the sixties Wil¬ liam H. Lee, an enterprising gentleman from Hartford, Conn., who had estab¬ lished a machine shop at the falls, in company with Mr. C. H. Hardenburg, interested himself to introduce a public S3'stem of water supply'. He gave much stud3' and investigation to the subject, and continualh' agitated it in conversa¬ tion, and through the newspapers. Dif¬ ferent sources of supply were examined, and various methods of distribution were pi'oposed. That which received the greatest favor, was to take the water from Lake Calhoun, distributing it from a reservoir to be excavated upon the western bluff. Upon a topographical survey this method was found to be im¬ practicable. Then it was proposed to pump water from the river, and obtain pressure by the use of a stand pipe. This in turn was rejected. The result of the agitation of the subject was the adop¬ tion of a system of direct pressure, from pumps located at the falls and run by water power. This having received the authorization of the City Council, an act of the Legislature was procured, author¬ izing the appointment of a Board of Water Commissioners, in 1868.

The first water works which went in¬ to operation in 1871 were a crude and imperfect affair. They consisted of a ro¬ tary Holly pump, located in a small tene¬ ment just above the entrance of the Min¬ neapolis Mill Company's canal. The main extended to Washington avenue, and along it to Hennej)in avenue, and Bridge Square. It was of wood, banded, and surrouunded with cement, of ten inches diameter. Imperfect as it was, there was gi'eat satisfaction when on a public trial, five streams of water were simultaneously thrown from hydrants upon and over the Nicollet house. Ser¬ vice pipes were led into adjacent prem¬ ises, and during the first year of opera¬ tion a revenue of $2,406.82 was derived from water rents. Such was the origin of our present extensive and complete water works system. It has rapidly de¬ veloped as the city has grown, and the people learned the gi'eater convenience of city water. When the sewers began to be constructed they drew off the water in the soil so that many wells went dry, and forced their owners to resort to city water.

Not many years passed before the old wooden mains began to show weakness, and they were replaced with cast iron mains. About 1868 the people became seriously alarmed at the continued re¬ cession of the falls, which threatened to carry away the ledge. So great was this danger that the City Councils of the two cities appropriated $80,000 in bonds to aid in putting in the apron. In exchange the mill company granted the city a mill site and perpetual use of a number of mill powers. These were em¬ ployed in operating the water works, and proved to be a fortunate investment. The pump house was enlarged, and fur¬ nished with additional pumps, as the ex¬ tension of water mains required more power. Mr. James Waters, who was for a long time superintendent of water works, invented a new pump, the "Jum¬ bo," which was adopted, and proved to be very serviceable. It showed a capa¬ city of pumping 10,000,000 gallons of water per dajq and is still in use at the original house.

The East side was first supplied by mains laid across the river bed, just be¬ low the suspension bridge. Afterwards the Averill & Carpenter paper mill with its water rights on Hennepin island was purchased by the city and a pumping station established there.

Much dissatisfaction with the purity of the water pumped from among the logs lying in the river, and supposed to be contaminated with the sewage of the city, arising among the users of city water, the City Council determined to establish a new and permanent pumping station above the city, where the water would be as free as possible from impur¬ ities. This was located near the mouth of Shingle creek, four miles above the older stations. It was built in a most substantial manner, and furnished with two Worthington pumps, operated by steam, of a daily pumping capacity of 12,000,000 gallons. The main conduct¬ ing water to the city is of thirty-six inches diameter, and over four miles in

Water Works

The city has issued $1,245,000 of cit^' bonds for water works, bearing an aver¬ age rate of interest of 4.37 per cent, per annum. The cost of mains for distribu¬ tion of water is defrayed Iw special as¬ sessment upon the abutting 2iropert3'.

The revenue is raised Iw a moderate scale of rates for each specific use of wat¬ er. The consumer has the xirivilcge of putting in a meter and patdng a hundred gallon rate for the use of water.

Many people have a prejudice against using the cit\' water for drinking and culinary' uses, and a considerable busi¬ ness is done in supplying such with siiring water brought in jugs and tanks from several natural springs in the northerly' part of the cit3'. The Ingleyvood, Glenyy'ood and Big Medicine springs are the sources of this suppl3'. An artesian yvell has been sunk in Loring Park, which at a depth of a little less than four hundred feet, furnishes sixt3' gallons of yvater per minute through a tyvo inch pipe. The yvater has a distinct flay'or of iron. In Br3'n Mayy'r a number of artesian yy'ells hay'e been sunk, yvhich furnish abundant supplies of floyving yvater.

In point of fact the river yy'ater is as free from deleterious equalities as ain' yvater commonl3' emqyloyed for culinai'y qiurposes. Man3' anal3'ses of it hay'e been made at diffei'ent times, and at all sea¬ sons. Its purit3' is greater than that of yvater taken from the neighboring lakes, and much freer than that of the sqirings from mineral solutions. One of these anah'ses, taken from the geological rejDorts of the state, shoyvs the folloyving ingredients :

Says Prof. Dodge: "The results of the determination of free ammonia and albumonoid ammonia place the yvater under the head of good drinking yy'ater."

Thomas Frances ANDKEyvs. In the autumn of 1855 a iiart3' of 3'oung men arrived in St. Anthoin' yvho yvere des¬ tined to become influential members of the community, and to make their im¬ press for good on the institutions and interests of the growing city. They were the brothers Thomas F.and George H. Andrews, JohnS. Pillsbury and Wood¬ bury Fisk. Thej^ all came from Memimac county. New Hampshire, where they had been closely associated in social and business life, and sought in the growing West a broader field of enterprise than was offered among the hills of their native State. Later they became more closely united by marriage, Messrs. Pills¬ bury and T. F. Andrews, already cousins, taking sisters of Mr. Fisk for wives.

Thomas F. Andrews was born in Sut¬ ton, N. H., March 31st, 1830, and was the oldest son of Nathan Andrews, Jr., and DollySargent Pillsbur3^ Nathan And¬ rews was a direct descendant of Thomas Andrews, who landed in America and settled at Cambridge, Mass.

Dolly Sargent Pillsbury was a direct descendant of William Pillsbury, who landed at Dorchester, in the colony of Massachusetts bay, in 1640. All of the ancestors were of hardy New England stock, and devoted their lives to develop¬ ing and improving what was then a new countr\^

Until his twentieth year his life was passed in his native town, where he at¬ tended the neighborhood school and as¬ sisted his father in the work of the farm. There were eight children in the famil^^, whose support taxed the re¬ sources of the farm, and left little to be expended for luxuries or superfluities. His first venture in independent life was at Concord, N. H., where he engaged as clerk with John P. Gass, original pro¬ prietor of the American house, in general merchandizing at sixty-five dollars per year and his board. Upon the death of Mr. Gass, he became associated with John S. Pillsbury, as successor to Mr. Gass. After a time he left that business and was head clerk for several years with the firm of Bullock & Sargent and J. Frank Hoit, of the same city, both leading merchants of Concord.

In the autumn of 1855 he sought a larger field of business at St. Anthony Falls, then a frontier settlement in the Territor3'' of Minnesota, reached in sum¬ mer by steamboat from the nearest rail¬ way station at Galena, Ill., four hundred miles away, and in winter by the slow stage coach. The hardships which the early settlers had at that time to endure, when there were at hand but few of the model'll comforts of the present great city, is best illustrated in an incident re¬ lated in one of the city papers of recent date :

A part3'^ of 5^oung men, who were fellow board¬ ers at Mrs. E. B. West's, consisting of Mr. Thomas Andrews, J. S. I'illsbnry, Woodbury Fisk, Geo. S. Rowell, John Bailer' and a Mr. Morrill, started in December, 1855, with a team on their way East, for Dubuque, a distance of some five hundred miles. Thej' encountered severe weather, and once thought the}' were lost in a storm on one of the trackless prairies. One night they stopped in a lone log house on the site of the pi'esent city of Rochester.

On the night of their arrival at Dubuque the mercury fell to forty degrees below zero, covering the river with a coating of ice, too strong for boating, but too weak to bear their weight. Push¬ ing their trunks before them, they followed, one at a time, on a footing of boards. Having safel}' gained the eastern bank, the part}' imrsued their way East, except Messrs. Pillsbury and Fisk, who went to Guttenburg and packed pork, which they shipxied to St. Anthony in the spring.

Merchandizing was a very different thing in those days from what it has be¬ come under competition and specializa¬ tion . Mr. Andrews frequently made trips down the river buying produce in Iowa and bringing it here for sale.

In 1856, the Andrews brothers joined with H. M. Carpenter in stocking and opening a general supply store, under the style of Carpenter, Andrews & Co. Two years later the store was destroyed by fire, with the greater part of the stock, sweeping away their entire capi¬ tal and leaving a considerable debt. Soon afterwards the Andrews brothers, established themselves in business with a fresh stock of goods, having settled the indebtedness of the former firm with mone}' borrowed for the purpose. Dur¬ ing the period of dullness at the beginning of the war, they made trips through the adjacent country making collections for goods sold ; the\" were often obliged to take produce, lumber and furs in payment of debts, and at one time made a raft at T/ittle F alls of the collections and brought them down to St. Anthony. They occupied a store on Alain street, where the Pillsbury " A " mill now stands. It was a stone building known as the Edwards block. Here they continued to carr3^ on their business for about ten years, when they removed to the West Side, continuing the business under the same style in a store on Nicollet avenue, next the office of the Gale Brothers, the stock being confined to drj' goods and clothing.

In 1875, the fiimi of Andrews Broth¬ ers was dissolved, since which time Air. T. F. Andrews has been engaged in at¬ tending to his private business, devoting much time and labor to public affairs. He never sought political promotion, but accepted office at the solicitation of his fellow citizens, who appreciated his ability, integrity and practical good sense. He was first elected alderman from St. Anthony in 1862, and from Alinneapolis in 1875, serving at different times thirteen j^ears. In 1882 was presi¬ dent of the city council, and at times acting maj^or. He gave careful and laborous attention to city affairs during his years in the city council, as is shown by the important committees upon which he served. As chairman of the commit¬ tee of Ways and Aleans, through his faithful efforts and thorough understand¬ ing of the resources of the city, he saved much money to the taxpai'ers of the city. He was chairman of the commit¬ tee of Wai'S and Aleans, and of Printing, and was a member of the committee of Public Grounds and Buildings, Street Grades, Sewarage, Alarkets, Taxes, Claims, Water Works and Bethan^^ Home, and was one of the Supervisors of the Poor. In 1884 he was appointed by Alaj'or Geo. A. Pillsbury- one of the Board of Water Commissioners. After his retirement from official life, his famil¬ iarity with city" affairs, together with his good judgment and conservative views, caused him to be appointed upon numer¬ ous commissions in the course of proceed¬ ings, for the condemnation of private property for the public use, such as the lajdng out of streets and the appraising of damages for the same; a most diffi¬ cult task, which work he performed to the entire satisfaction of the public. The same qualities caused him to be sought as an arbitrator in the settlement of private differences, and he was many times appointed administrator ofestates, among whom were those of the late Judge John AI. Bei'r^" and Woodbur^^ Fisk. No other citizen of Alinneapolis was so often emplo3^ed in these unobtru¬ sive but useful services as he.

He married on October 20th, 1859, at Faribault, Alinn., Aliss Lizzie Fisk, formerh" of Warner, N. H., who died June 3d, 1866, leaving one son, George Cutler, born Alay 10th, 1863, who graduated at the high school in 1882, and at the Uni¬ versity' of Alinnesota in 1887, and is now a member of the firm of W. F. Porter & Co., large contractors and manufactur¬ ers of steam heating apparatus. Air. Andrews afterwards married AIar3^ A. Fisk, formerlv of Warner, Alay 31st, 1871. To them were born Frank Fisk, Alay 7th, 1876, and Uolty Sarah, AIa3'

23d, 1882. Mr. Andrews occupied for a period of twenty -two years his fine home¬ like residence on the corner of Fifth street and Sixth avenue southeast, up to the time of his death, where on July 14th, 1892, after a long and painful illness, which baffled the skill of many phj'siscians, Mr. Andrews passed away full of hope and trust in his Heavenly Father.

Mr. Andrews was pre-eminently a business man, careful, industrious, econ¬ omical, possessed of superior judgment of men and affairs, but just and honor¬ able in all his transactions. He was pleasant and courteous in his personal intercourse. In his public relations he was diligent and conscientous. In his family he was kind, indulgent and affec¬ tionate, and in the large social circle in which he moved, he was respected and beloved.

The poor of this community, who fre¬ quently came to him for aid and counsel, found him always ready to listen to their wants, and obtained from him good advice and the help they needed, and in his death lost a true friend. Coming to the city in its infancy, for nearly forty years he has always contidbuted to the advancement of all its interests and lived to see it grow from a population of one thousand to more than two hundred thousand souls. He erected several sub¬ stantial business blocks, among which stands the one built in 1876, and now occupied by S. E. Olson, on Nicollet ave¬ nue. He also dealt extensively in real estate, of which he was a large owner.

tention anywhere - has been a familiar presence upon our streets through all that wonderful gen¬ eration in which this goodly cit3^ of ours has been attaining its form and compass, and in it all he has had an honorable and consistent part.

Born and trained in the simplicity and serious truthfulness of a New England home, where one of God's saints thought it an abundance to fill life, to make a home and train a household into habits of truth and sobriety and carefulness into the fear of God and the love of their kind, he lived the years of his active life here, and so exhibited the fruits of that mother's praj^erful endeavor that he was known and trusted as a man just and fair, kindly and humane; who despised meanness and trickery and was transparently honest ; whose word was as good as his bond, and who could be trusted to care for what belonged to others as for what was his own. It is no small testimony to the sturdy and substantial worth of his character and the confi¬ dence that was felt in his judgment that conflicting interests were so often referred to him, and that concerns of the widow and orphan were deemed so secure in his hands. He was known in the eommunity as a man interested in all good things, walk¬ ing blamelessly himself and anxious that others should so walk.

All his life he has been a respector of religion in his own household, and an admirer of it when truly illustrated by his fellow men. His regard for it found, as we know, ready and generous expres¬ sion of a pecuniary sort, which was not a matter of calculation on his part, but of principal and genuine interest. He was a religious man by in¬ heritance and training, and by his own choice of the things that are of good report.

Of New England training, there was a peculiar reticence on spiritual things which was not asso¬ ciated with unbelief or indifference. We were the more grateful when some weeks ago our frinnd broke his reserve, and first, as was fit, to the lov¬ ing wife, the desire of whose heart had been for years to hear what she now heard, and then to his household, what we had thought must be so; that he believed in the only Saviour of men, Jesus Christ; that he had personal trust in him, and a good hope that rested on the mercy of God re¬ vealed in him. After these eonfessions there was rest and peace assured, a blessed homesickness, a readiness to depart, and a strong desire to be let go and join the company of whose invisible pres¬ ence he seemed at times conscious. When the end came it was as peaceful as sleep to the tired laborer whose days work is finished, who has no further care; and so, without pain or fear, or shame, wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams.

Source changes here: from Compendium of History and Biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, by Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), published 1914; 456,952 words in this source stream.

Minneapolis City

Prior to the year 1837 every foot of land in what is now the State of Minnesota - except the little reservation about Fort Snelling - was in primeval condition and barbaric ownership. The country was red-peopled and virgin, and a white man might not make his home anywhere in all that great expanse w-ithout permission of the Indians. These people held the land solely by the right of conquest and the rule of might, having taken it by force from weaker brethren and defended it against stronger. It was theirs, therefore, under Rob Roy's rule:

The mighty resources of the counti-y, the iron, the granite, the soil, the water-power, were as they had been for thousands of 3-ears. The great water-power at St. Anthon.v's Falls was unharnessed and undiverted and the ^Mississippi flowed "unvexed to the sea." But in 1837 a breach was made in the barriers that had shut out the forces of civilization, and through the gap soon came the advance guard of the great army of progress whose many battalions were not far to the rear. A foothold was obtained whereon white men eould stand and from whence they could not be driven. It was made possible and lawful to take away the great Falls of St. Anthony of Padua from the Oiiktayhee or Indian gods that controlled them and make them subserve the uses of mankind, and the way was clear to found a great city at their site. Two treaties were made with the Chippewa and Sioux which opened the lands east of the Jlississippi in this quarter to white settlement. It would follow that the lands west of the river would soon pass under the same control.

In July, 1837, Governor Ilcnry Dodge, of Wisconsin Territory, - to which division of the national domain the country east of the IMississippi and now in southeastern Minnesota then belonged - made a treaty with the Chippewa Indians at Fort Snelling for the cession of their lands in southeastern Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin. The treaty was signed July 29, but was not ratified by the Senate until June 15 of the following year. It was a great occasion. Maj. Taliaferro's journal says there were 1,200 Chippewas present. They came from all their villages between Lake Superior and the Mille Lacs, and this was the largest convocation of the tribe ever assembled in ilinnesota.

Under present conditions the boundary line of the ceded territory ran from the mouth of the Crow Wing River ("Kah-gee .Wugwan Sebe" in Chippewa) almost directly east to the Upper Lake St. Croix, about 30 miles southeast of Duluth ; thoice, generally east, to within 30 miles of the jMichigan line ; thence south about 60 miles, or due w^est of Menomonie, Wisconsin ; thence, in a general direction south, by way of Plover Portage to a point twelve miles south of Chippewa Falls ; thence, northwesterly, to the mouth of the Watab River, eight miles above St. Cloud, and thence to the mouth of the Crow Wing, the place of beginning.

Within what is now ]\Iinnesota the boundary line included the southern part of the counties of Crow Wing, Aitkin, and Pine ; all of Morrison east of the Jlississippi : all of Mille Lacs, Kanabec, Benton, Isanti, Chisago, Sherburne, Anoka, Washington, and Ramsey. It also included the greater part of northern and western Wisconsin, practically confining the Chippewas of that then Territoi-y to the comparatively narrow strip along the southern shore of Lake Superior.

In consideration of the cession of this vast expanse of country, amounting to fully 60,000,000 acres, the Indians were to receive less tlwn two cents an acre, or $810,000 in goods and money, payable in twenty annual installments to the members of the tribe: and the further sum of .$200,000 to be divided, - $100,000 to the half breeds of the Chippewa nation, and $100,000 for debts due by members of the nation to traders and other whites. Of this latter $100,000, there was to be paid to Wm. A. Aitkin, $25,000; to Lyman JI. Warren, $25,000; to Hercules L. Dousman, $5,000. Aitkin and Warren were married to Chippewa women. Many of Warren's descendants are yet prominent members of the Chippewas of Min- nesota. Not until June 15, 1838, however, did the U. S. Senate ratify and confirm the provisions of this treaty, so that it did not become effective until that date.

The treaty was signed by Gov. Henry Dodge, as the U. S. Commissioner, and by the following named Chippewas of ^Minnesota - Wisconsin Chippewas not named :

From Leech Lake - Chiefs: Flat Mouth and Elder Brother. AVarriors: Young Buffalo, The Trap, Chief of the Eartii, Big Cloud, Rabbit, Sounding Sky, and Yellow Robe.

Among the white witnesses to the signatures were Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro, Capt. Martin Scott, Surgeon Dr. John Emerson, H. H. Sibley, H. L. Dousman, Lyman M. Warren. Wm. H. Forbes, J. N. Nicollet, Rev. D. P. Bushnell, Peter Quiuu, and Scott Campbell. The last two, with Stephen Bonga and Baptiste Dubay, were Indian interpreters.

By this treaty the United States secured the most valuable pine lands in southeastern ilinnesota and western Wisconsin from the Chippewas, who claimed them. The timber districts then obtained were not entirely cut over in forty years, and not until the.v had yielded many millions of dollars in as good lumber as was ever cut.

This treaty, also, - in connection with the treaty with the Sioux, made two months later, - opened the whole of what are now AVashington and Ramsey Counties and the small part of Hennepin County which is east of the Alississippi, but which was large enough to contain St. Anthony, now tbat part of Jlinneapolis on that side of the river. And of course this included the land at the east end of St. Anthony's Falls where the first iiTiprovements of the Falls were to be made by civilians. The vast cession contained pine timber enough to supply the entire country of Minnesota as well as many other markets, and the mills at the east end of St. Anthony's Falls would reduce this timber to lumber.

The xvny teas oprnrd, therefore, for the building of a great citu at the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua, and when the foundations of that city were fairly laid it was called Minneapolis.

the first settlements were really made, viz. : at Gray Cloud Island, at Stillwater, at St. Paul, and at East or North Jliuneapolis. Therefore these treaties are important to be considered among the incidents pertaining to the foundation of Minneapolis. They were the first authoritative measures and proceedings which made the city possible. All information about them, therefore, ought to be of interest to every Minneapolitan.

The Sioux Treaty

Notwithstanding that, by the treaty of Prairie du Chien, of 1824, the Sioux apparently ceded away all their lands in ^Minnesota east of the Mississippi for the benefit of the Chippewas, yet the Government recognized and admitted that they still held a sort of title to them. So in 18;57 there was made with them another treaty, which in effect was a sort of quit-claim deed from them to the land east of the river.

In September, pursuant to orders from the Indian Department, a delegation of about 20 chiefs and "head men'' of the Medawakanton band of Sioux, in charge of the agent, Maj. Taliaferro, left Fort Snelling on the steamboat Pavilion, Captain Lafferty, for Washington to nmke the ti-eaty referred to. At Kaposia village, below St. Paul, the chief of the band. Big Thunder, (or Little Crow IV.) and his ()ii)e-bcarer (Wind That Upsets) came aboard; at Red Wing the Walking Buffalo and his head soldier, and at Winona Chief AVabasha and his head soldier, took passage, making in all a delegation of 26.

A number of white men, chiefly fur traders, interested in the treaty, accompanied the delegation. The American Fur Company sent H. H. Sibley, its chief factor; also Alexis Bailly, Joseph La Framboise, Alex. Rocque, Francois La Bathe, Alexander and Oliver Faribault, and other traders. They wanted to secure a provision in the treaty that about .$100,000 should be paid them out of the money allowed the Indians in discharge of the debts due them from said Indians for goods had and obtained.

The treaty was concluded and signed September 29, (1837) "by Joel R. Poinsett, then Secretary of AA^ar, who was, by special appointment, the Commissioner on the part of the Government. None but Indians of the Aledawakanton band signed, for they were the only ones interested. The cession included "all their land east of the Mississippi River and all their islands in said river." The land east of the river was a strip varying from a mile to a few miles in width from the mouth of the Bad Ax (opposite the extreme southeastern corner of Alinnesota) up to the mouth of the AA^atab. It was an indefinite extent of country and there was no possible way of computing its area. It could not be said that the Indians had a good title to the country, since they had already surrendered it to other Indians and had abandoned it twelve years before. Under all tiie circumstances, therefore they were fairly well paid for it, receiving, and to receive, the following sums: for their mixed blood relatives and friends, $110,000; to pay their debts to the ti-aders, $90,000 ; an annuity for twenty years of $10,000 in goods, or $200,000; for the purchase for themselves of medicines, farming implements, and live stock, and the support of a physician, farmers, and blacksmiths, etc., $8,250 annually for twenty years; for a supply of useful articles, to be furnished immediately, $10,000; for the purchase of provisions, to be delivered free by the United States, $5,500 a year for twenty years; "for the chiefs and braves signing this treaty, $6,000 in goods upon their arrival in St. Louis." The Sioux received for the laud which they virtually only quitclaimed at this time far more, in proportion to its area, than they obtained for any other land that they ever released to the United States.

On the part of the Indians the treaty was signed by the following chiefs and "head men" of the Jledawakanton liaud: Chiefs - Big Thunder, Grey Iron, Walking Buffalo, CtOocI Road, Cloud Man, Eagle Head, and Bad Hail. Head Men - Standing Cloud. Upsetting Wind, Afloat, Iron Cloud, Conies Last, Iron with Pleasant Voice, Dancer, Big Iron, Shakes the Earth, Red Road, Runs After Clouds, Walking Circle, Stands on Both Sides, and Red Lodge. These were all of the upper sub-bands of the Medawakantous.

For some reason which cannot here be explained neither Wabasha or any of his sub-band signed the treat.v, although he was present and he was head chief of the entire Medawakanton band. A considerable portion of the ceded country along the Wisconsin shore of the Mississippi was only immediately across the river, from the Minnesota lands of Wabasha and his people, and they nnist have had an interest in its disposition ; but their signatures to the treaty do not appear in the printed copj'.*

In 1820 the Sioux bands about Mendota gave, or attempted to give, the island in the ilississippi opposite Fort Snelling, and commonly called Pike's Island, to their kinswoman, Mrs. Pelagic Faribault, the mixed-blood wife of old Jean Baptiste Faribault, the trader that lived on the island. At this treaty of 1837 Alexis Bailly, her son-in-law, presented the deed given Mrs. Faribault by the Indians and sought to have it acknowledged in one of the treaty provisions, but the demand was refused. Following is an extract from the deed itself, which is dated August 9, 1820, and fully signed :

"Also, we do hereby reserve, give, grant, and convey to Pelagic Farribault, wife of John Baptist Farribault, and to her heirs forever, the island at the mouth of the River St. Pierre, being the large island containing by estimation 320 acres - * * the said Pelagic Farribault being the daughter of Francois Kinie, by a woman of our nation."

At one time Pike's Island - or Faribault's Islaiul, as it came to be called, - was considered valuable. John B. Faribault lived on it in a somewhat pretentious establishment, and had the greater part of it under cultivation. It was thought that, from its situation, it was destined to be a great ti'ading site. Samuel C. Stambaugh, at one time post sutler of Fort Snelling, and later a trader, oifered $10,000 for it, but the otfer was refused. But in 1838 came a Mississippi River Hood which submerged the island and well nigh swept away everything upon it, Faribault's buildings included; in 1839 came another which completed the destruction and nearly every vestige of improvement was washed off. Mrs. Faribault 's ownership was refused in the treaty ; the Government finally decided that the island belonged to the United States, under the Pike treaty ; the Faribaults were refused anything for their improvements, and not long afterward, in indignation and disgust, and mortified because they had refused Stambaugh 's offer of $10,000 for it, they abandoned it permanently, leaving if in the ownership of the Government and at the mei'cy of the Great Father of Waters when he indulges in his customary sprees in the spring.

Gov. Dodge's treaty with the Chippewas at Fort Snelling for the cession of the St. Croix country was signed July 29, or practically August 1, 1837. Hardly was the ink of the signatures dry on the paper when Franklin Steele, Dr. Fitch. Jeremiah Russell, and a man named Maginnis and eight laborers set out from Fort Snelling to make claims commanding the water-power of the river at the St. Croix Falls. In advance of them, however, was the alei't and sagacious Joseph R. Brown, who had come over from Gray Cloud Island, established a trading house, and begun cutting pine at the present site of Taylor's Palls. These men were what are now called ' ' sooners ; ' ' they went upon the country and made claims "sooner" than anybody else and before it was legally open for filing claims and making entries.

Franklin Steele was born in Chester County, Pa., May 12, 1813. He came of a good family, was fairly well educated, and early in life he manifested the traits of character which afterwards so distinguished him. His father. Dr. John H. Steele, was a prominent Democratic politician, and President Andrew Jackson became the friend and adviser of young Frank and urged him to go to the St. Peter's country and make his fortune. He came to Port Snelling as the post sutler in the spring of 1837, when he was but 24 years of age. After a brief study of the situation he saw that the country had large advantages and possibilities, and he determined to nuike if his home. In 1837, even after the treaty was signed, the St. Croix Falls seemed a better site for business operations than the Falls of St. Anthony, for at the St. Croix site both sides of the river were open to occupation, while at St. Anthony only the east side could be settled upon by the whites. Of his venture and 0])erations on the St. Croix at this time, Mr. Steele has left us a good account, (Vol. 2 Minn, in 3 Cents., P. 137) as follows:

"In September f ?] 1837, immediately after the treaty was made ceding the St. Croix Valley to the Government, I with Dr. Fitch, of Bloomiugton, [now

Muscatiuo] Iowa, started from Fort Siielling in a bai'k canoe, aeeonipauied by a scow loaded with tools, supplies, and laborers. We descended tbe IMississippi to tlie nioutli of the St. Croix, and thence ascended the St. Croix to the Dalles. We clambered over tlie rocks to the Fid Is. where we made two large claims, eovering the Falls on the east side and the ajjproach in the Dalles. We built a log cabin at the Falls and a second log house we built in the Dalles, at the head of navigation. While we were building, four other parties arrived to make claims to the water power.

'"I found the veritable Joe Brown on the west side, cutting tind)er and trading with the Indians, where now stands the town of Taylor's P^dls. His were the first pine logs cut in the St. Croix Valley, and they were used mostly in building a mill."

Steele and ^lagiunis remained at the Falls with the laborers. Two cruising parties, under Russell and Dr. Fitch, were sent out to search for good pine lands. Jesse U. Taylor and a man named Robinette came over to the site in the interest of B. F. Baker, who was often called "Blue Beard," the old time trader of Fort Snelling and the head of '"Baker's settlement." The foundations of a milling industry were laid, but for some time no town was pro.iected - none was needed, none was wanted. Of operations the following year Mr. Steele, in his account referred to, says :

"In February, 1838, I made a trip from Fort Snelling to Snake River, (via St. Croix Falls) where I had a crew of men cutting logs. While I was there Peshig, the local Chippewa chief, came to me and said : ' We have received no money for our lands and these logs can't go until we do.' He further said that, if trouble arose between the whites and the Indians over the matter, he could not control his young men, and he would not be responsible for their acts. The treaty was ratified, however, in time for the logs to be moved. ' '

But as payment for the Chippewa lands was not made for nearly two years after the ratification of the treaty. Chief Peshig, and his warriors nuisT have been placated in some other way if they allowed the logs to be moved in 1838. Joseph R. Brown, however, rafted a lot of his logs down the river in the fall of 1837. and the Indians did not try to stop him.

The dissatisfaction of Chief Peshig and his warriors with the delay in the payment under the treat.v and his covert threats to l\Ir. Steele seem to have constituted the beginning of Ihe long series of troubles, not yet (>nded, betwt'eii the Chippewas on one side and the Uunber cutters and the Government on the other over the Indian pine timber. Millions of dollars' worth of pine timber have been taken from the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota illegally and without proper compensation.

Mr. Steele further states that in the spring of 1838 "we" descended the Mississippi to St. liOuis, where he and others organized the St. Croix Falls Lundiei'- ing Company. The co-i)artners were Mr. Steele, Dr. Fitch, of ^^uscatine ; Washington Libby, of Alton ; W. S. Hungerford and James Livingston, of St. Louis; Hill and Wm. Ilolcombe (afterwards Lieutenant Governor) of Quiney.

While at St. Louis the parties heard of the ratification of the treaties. At once they chartered the steamer Palmyra, (owned in and named for Palmyra, i\Io.,) loaded her with materials for building a sawmill, took on l)oard 3G laborers, and set out for the St. Croix and St. Peter's. What Mr. Steele did when he reached the latter port, at Fort Snelling is told on subse<iuent pages.

Later Visitors To St. A.Vtiio.V V Falls

Perhaps a brief statement of later visits to Fort Snelling and St. Anthony's Falls by scientific men, who came pi-ior to 1840, is propi'r in this history.

Ill September and October, 1835, a geological examination of certain parts of Southwestern Minnesota was made, under Government authority, by an English geologist named Geo. W. Featherstonhaugh (pronounced in England "Frestonhaw") and his assistant, Prof. W. W. Mather, an American, and a graduate of West Point. Featherstonhaugh had made a somewhat extensive .journe.y. He left Washington July 8, (1837) by canal, and went to Cumberland, Md.. thence by land to Pitt.sburg and Detroit ; thence by lake to Mackinaw and Green Bay; thence, over the old route of Joliet, ^Marquette, Carver, and others, by canoe, via F'ox River and its Portage, to the Wisconsin, then down the Wisconsin to Prairie du Chien and up the river from the Prairie to Fort Snelling.

The results of Featherstonhaugh and Mather's 1i-ii> are preserved in the former's two volumes which he brought out in London in 1847, and entitled, "A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor. " The volumes contain some singular statements. The author's si>i'lliiigs of Indian names are invariabl.v incorrect and without authority. lie sa.\-s he plainly heard the roaring of the Falls of St. Anthony when he was at Lake Pepin ; he was the only explorer to say that he believed in Carver's "extensive ancient fortifications," west of Lake Pepin, which he sa.vs he visited and studied. He thought the ridges and other elevations and the depressions which he saw were not foiMiied by the action of the strong jirairie winds upon the loose, sandy soil. He denounced, and ridiculed the missionaries. He criticised nearly everybody that did not ab.stain from the use of tobacco in his presence, and did not furnish him all the good wines and li(|Uors he desii-ed. At the same time. chieH.v from what his guide, Henry Jlilord (an intelligent half-blood in Trader Sible.v's employ) told him, he put on record some interesting items of historv, espeeiall.v concerning the "IMinnay Sotor" and its valle.v. Of St. Anthony's Falls, in addition to what has been already quoted, he says :

"They perhaps look best at a distance; for although upon drawing near to them they present a very pleasing object still, from their average height, which does not exceed perhaps 16 feet, they appeared less interesting tiuin any other of the great cascades I had seen in North Aniei-ica.''

' ' In its details this is a cascade of very great beauty. Its incessant liveliness contrasts pleasingly with the sombre appearance of the densely wooded island, and presents to the observer that element in motion which has so much modified the whole channel of the ]\Iississippi. The current above the cascade is very strong and comes dashing over the fractured limestone of this irregular curvature, where it recedes and advances with a great variety of plays, etc., etc."

Featherstonhaugh and Mather, with Henry Milord for a guide and a crew of mixed-blood boatmen, set out in a big canoe from Fort Snelling on the 16th and after a month's paddling reached Lake Traverse and were entertained at Joseph R. Brown's trading post. Returning he reached Fort Snelling in a cold snap, with ice forming in the Minnesota. October 23, he left Fort Snelling and descended the Mississippi in a boat to Galena. He took with him a young lad of 14, John Bliss, Jr., the son of Major John Bliss, the commandant of Fort Snelling at the time. The boy's parents desired and sent him to attend school in the Eastern States. At Galena they took the steamboat Warrior for St. Louis. From St. Louis Featherstouhaugli made an overland journey through Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia to Washington City, where he arrived October 9, 1S86.

Featherstonhaugh 's survey was not of much advantage to Minnesota wlien it was made. His description of the country was not printed in time. Not appearing until in 1847, it came too late to be of much advantage as an advertisement of the new land of promise.

"Mr. Frestonhaw," as his countrymen called him, did not conduct himself seemingly when he was in Minnesota. Sibley assisted and befriended him greatly, and in return he abused Sibley and all other traders severely. Joseph R. Brown entertained him and gratuitously furnished him with goods and supplies, and in return he slandered Brown outrageously.

George Catlin, The Painter, Comes

In the summers of 1835 and 1836 George Catlin, the noted American painter of Indian and frontier scenes, came to Fort Snelling. He painted the portraits of several Indian chiefs of the vicinity, and he made the first pretentious painting of St. Anthony's Falls. Previously many little imperfect sketches of the Falls had been made, chiefly by officers' wives at the Fort, but his painting was of valuable character and of fair proportions.

Catlin came first to Fort Snelling in June, 1835, by a steamer from St. Louis ; he returned in a canoe. The next year in the early summer he came again, traveling in a birch canoe from Green Bay to Prairie du Chien and thence up the Mississippi to Fort Snelling. In the autunni he returned in a dug-out canoe to Rock Island and from thence went east. He spent several years in touring among the American Indians, painted hundreds of pictures illustrating them and the lives they led, and finally took a delegation of them to Europe. He also published several books describing his travels, Indian life, the country, etc. His pictures are in a collection called "the George Catlin Indian Gallery," and are hung in the U. S. Museum at Washington. D. C.

While in Minnesota Catlin 's greatest single piece of work was his journey on horseback, via Traverse des Sioux and Little Rock, to the Red Pipestone Quarries, and his accurate sketch of that remarkable natural formation. His printed description of the country and of his experience en route is of value and great interest. He rode a horse given him by Gen. Sibley. Joseph La Framboise, Jr., son of the old trader at Little Rock, was his guide and his main guard. From the Rock, on the Minnesota, four miles below Fort Ridgely, to the Quarry the route was over a prairie trail never before followed by a white man of full blood. Joe La Framboise (who died but a few years since) was a mixed-blood Sioux. Catlin was the first white man to visit and describe the noted Quarry with pen and pencil. The peculiar red s.venitic stone was and still is called catlinite.

Catlin 's ^Minnesota pictures are still in the U. S. National ]\Iuseum at Washington. They include views of Fort Snelling, St. Anthony's Falls, the "Little Falls," (Minnehaha) Cloud Man's village at Lake Calhoun in 1835, and portraits of old Great War Eagle, Chief of the Black Dog band; Toe Wahkon Dah-pe (or Blue Sacred Clay) the medicine man of Shakopee's band; Tah-tonka ]\Ianue (or Walking Buffalo) of Red Wing's band, etc. Copies of these sketches ought to be in the State's public halls and galleries.

In his printed reports Catlin gives a bright and interesting description of Minnesota country generally ))ut makes very brief mention of St. Anthony's Falls, saying:

"The Falls of St. Anthony, which are 900 miles above St. Louis, are the natural curiosity of this country. They are nine miles above the mouth of the St. Peter's, where I am now writing. The Falls are also about nine miles above this fort (Snelling) and the junction of the two rivers, (ilississippi and ^linnesota) and although the fall is a picturesque and spirited scene, it is but a pygmy in size to Niagara. The actual pei-pendicular fall is but 18 feet, though of half a mile or so in extent, which is the width of the river, with brisk and leaping rapids above and below, giving life and spirit to the scene. * * *

"To him or her of too little relish for Nature's rude works, there will be found a redeeming pleasure at the mouth of St. Peter's and the Fall of St. Anthony. These scenes have often been described, and I leave them for the world to come and gaze upon for themselves. At the same time, I recommend to all people to make their next 'fashionable tour' a trip to St. Louis; thence by steamer to Rock Island, Galena, Dubuque, Prairie du Chien, Lake Pepin, the St. Peter's, Falls of St. Anthony; then back to Prairie du Chien, etc."

Catlin, too, was ungrateful for favors. He could not have made the trip to Pipestone Quarry without the help of Sibley and La Framboise, and yet in his report he denounced them unjustly and shamefully.

The first large and almost exactly correct map of nearly all of the area of Jlinnesota and of much other portions of the western and northwestern parts of the United States was drafted by Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, a French astronomer and civil engineer, and published by the U. S. Government a short time after his death, in 1843, in connection with his rejjort of his extensive ofHeial surveys. Nicollet was born in Savoy, France, in 1786. He came to the United States in 1832 and not long afterward entered the engineering service of the regular army.

In 1S3() he came first to Fort Snelling and ascended the Mississippi to its sources, surveying the country en route. He passed the winter of 1836-37 at Fort Snelling, and he says, "was a witness that $15 was paid for a barrel of tlour and $25 for barreled pork at St. Peter, which had probably cost respectively $5 and $8 at St. Louis."

In 1838 he surveyed the valley of the Minnesota and much adjoining territory, ascended that river to Lake Traverse and then went south by way of Lake Shetek to the Red Pipestone Quarry. Here on the crest of the "leaping rock," on July 1, he carved his name ; the other members of his party, including the afterwards distinguished John C. Fremont (who then wrote his name Charles Fremont simply) cut their initials. In the almost adamantine jasper rock the carved letters are as plain to-day as when made.

In 1839 he ascended the Missouri as high as to Fort Pierre Chouteau. This place was then a trading post owned by the American Fur Company, of which Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis, was a prominent member. The name of the fort was afterwards contracted to Fort Pierre ; now there stands opposite the site of the old fort the city of Pierre, the capital of South Dakota.

He surveyed the country as far north as to Devil's Lake, and then came back across the prairies to the Minnesota, or St. Peter's, as it was then called.- His maji of the country over which he passed was by all odds the best made up to that time. His descriptions of the lands are accurate, his spelling of Indian names uniformly correct, or so that they can be distinctly and rightly pronounced, and altogether his report is in certain respects invaluable. Of the; locality called "St. Peter's," which included the trading houses then on the Mendota side of the Minnesota, Fort Snelling, and the ])lateau upon which it is situated, Nicollet says spiritedly :

"St. Peter's is, in ray opinion, the finest site on the Mississippi River. 'The natural beauties of its environs add to its importance and grandeur. Upon reaching this place, the traveler is already premonished of the magnificent scenery which he will enjoy in ascending the river tlirough its long, narrow, and deej) valley. At the confluence of the St. Peter's and the Mississippi there is an extensive and fertile platt»au. This reaches far to the west and presents to the delighted gaze a level country, interrupted by moderate undulations of the surface and beautified by intervening prairies, tracts of woodland and lakes."

"Three miles from Fort Snelling, and on the right bank of the Mississippi, there is a very pretty cascade." Of St. Anthony's Falls he makes but brief mention, viz. :

"Four miles further up from the Little Falls we reach the celebrated Falls of St. Anthony. This fall - examined in detail, with the noi.sy boiling of its waters, rebounding in jets from the accumulated debris at its foot, its ascending vapors, and the long and verdant island that separates the two portions of the falls, with the solitary rocky island that stands in front - altogether form a grand and imposing si)cctacle."

The possibilities and the probabilities of the utilization of the tremendous power of St. Anthony's Falls, and of the necessary and resultant foundation of a great city at their site, are not even hinted at by Nicollet, or indeed by any other of the; distinguished early visitors to the great cataract. The Falls, in their entirety, seem to have impressed them only as a natural beauty, a thing of picturesqueness and charm, worth traveling hundreds of miles to see.

Nor did the country of jMinuesota impress them as a promising future seat of a great civilization. They gave favorable descriptions thereof, wrote rhapsodical delineations of its topogi-aphy, its scenery, its rich soil, its beautiful lakes and streams, but said no word of recommendation concerning its fitness as a site for future permanent white settlement, occupation, and development. Only the pine timber was mentioned as the resource of the country likely to become of some, but not of great, importance. They seemed to be keeping back or withholding some information and ideas; doubtless they were, and these ideas were probably those given them by certain white men to the efi'ect, that, owing to its high latitude and extremely cold seasons, the country would not, because it could not, even be a valuable agricultural region or attain to a high state of civilization and development.

Nicollet's descriptions of the country and his map were embodied in a little volume printed and widely circulated by the Government in 1843. His map became a standard one; it was often cited in treaties, State and Territorial boundaries, etc., and "according to Nicollet's map" appeared frequently in the printed documents connected with such matters. His descriptions of the country hardly induced immigration to it. He made no reference to a future city of the proportions of Minneapolis at the Falls, and all he said of the country aliout the great cataract was:

"From St. Antliony's Falls may be visited the Lake of the Isles, Lake Calhoun. Lake Harriet, and other lakes. Then, crossing the St. Peter's near its mouth, the traveler ascends the Pilot Knob, from the summit of which he enjoys a magnificent view, embracing the whole surrounding horizon; and if he will conclude his excursion by going to two natural grottoes [Carver's and the Fountain Cave, St. Paul] in the vicinity, he may flatter himself that it has been most actively and pleasurably performed."

Of the more remote country on the prairies, he thought none of it liardly worth settling upon save at "the oases of timber" dispersed here and there. He thought Traverse des Sioux eligible to become a place of importance, but the only other available sites for villages in the JMinnesota country which impressed him favorably were the shores of Lac qui Parle, Lake Benton, Lake Shetek, Lake Tetouka, Spirit Lake (now in Iowa) and two or three other lakes. Tetonka was then the site of Alexander Faribault's trading jjost which he afterwards removed to Lake Sakatah, near

Moreover tlie accomplislied engineer favored and recommended the proposed establishment of the northern boundarj' of the forthcoming State of Iowa as the parallel of latitude passing through the present site of the village of Hanska, Brown County, and the mouth of the Blue Earth and extending eastward to the Mississippi above ^linnesota Citj% in the northern part of Winona County. He preferred that the western boundary of Iowa be a meridian running due south of the mouth of the Blue Earth.

In 18-44 a proper convention of the people of the Territorj' submitted a constitution to Congress for the proposed new State of Iowa, with boundaries detined, etc. March 3, 1845, Congress rejected these proposed boundaries, and substituted others embodying the Nicollet ielea regarding the northern and western, save that the latter should be the meridian of Hanska, a few miles south of New Ulm. The constitution as amended had to be adopted by the voters of Iowa Territory and at the election in the fall of 1845 they rejected it, but by the narrow margin of 596 votes. Had oUO electors who voted against it cast their ballots in its favor, it would have been adopted. Then all of the present part of Minnesota east of the meridian of Hanska and south of the parallel between ilankato and "Whitman City would now be in Iowa ! Our State would not include the eleven fine counties of Southeastern Minnesota - Houston, Winona, Fillmore, Olmsted, Dodge, ilower, Fi-eeborn, Steele, Waseca, Faribault, and Blue Earth, nor all of Brown, Watonwan, and Martin. Just to what extent Nicollet's declared preference infiuenced Congress to fix the boundaries as it did cannot be said ; but as other points were described in the act as "according to Nicollet's map," it may be presumed that his opinions were at least given consideration.

Nicollet's proposition would have been a good thing for Iowa, but bad for ^Minnesota, Minneapolis included. That he did not carefully forecast the future of the country is evidenced. He was an accomplislied engineer and his surveys of the country were accurate almost to a dot ; but the adapta))ility of a country to civilization is not computed by theodolitic measurements or calculations by sines and tangents.

The great surveyor failed to note the importance of the St. Peter's country; failed to conceive that white men would invade it ; failed to discern that a conllict between the forces of civilization and of barbai'ism for the permanent possession of this and the vast regions surrounding was certain to ensue, and that civilizalion would win : and failed to discover that in this conflict the Falls of St. Anthony would constitute th(> key-point of the battlefield.

Minnesota Passes Perilous Crises

ilinnesota passed many crises in early days. The Iowa boundary proposition was only one. The northern boundary proposed first by the Iowa people, and which Congress rejected for the one they rejected in 1845, was worse for Minnesota than the latter. It was fixed as a line from the mouth of the Big Sioux to the mouth of the Blue Earth then down the JMinnesota to the Mississippi and thence down that river to the Missouri line. If this bouudai-y had been adopted by Congress - and it came near adoption - and ratified by the people, Jlendota and all of the present Southeastern Minnesota south of the Minnesota and west of the i\Iississippi would be now a part of Iowa.

Another crisis was the Doty treaty of 1841, made at Traverse des Sioux between Gov. James D. Doty, then Governor of Wisconsin Territory, and the Sioux chiefs of Mimiesota. The Sioux agi-eed to sell all their lands in what are now Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Northwestern Iowa, except some small reservations. The country acquired was to be made a Northern Indian Territory, the equivalent of the Southern Indian Territory, (now Oklahoma) and used as a dumping gi-ound for all the Indian tribes and fragments of tribes east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio. The Democratic Senators in Congress killed this treaty, because they considered it a Whig measure authorized and promoted by Jolm Bell, of Tennessee, then Secretary of War. Had they ratified it, ^Minneapolis and Minnesota would not have come into existence when and as they did. Indian occupation might have held them in the clutches of barbarism until in 1!)07, when Oklahoma became a State in the Union.

Men Who Laid Them

The now distinguished men that visited the site of Minneapolis advertised it. The Indian treaties of 1837 opened the country on the eastern side of the ilississippi to white occupation, and as soon as the news of their ratification reached the St. Peter 's country that occupation began. In the case of Minneapolis that beginning had to be confined for a considerable time to the east side of the river. The Fort Snelling reservation and the Indian title to the Trans- Mississippi country forbade settlement on that side. The boundaries of the reservation were not well defined, but when Lieut. Pike treated for it the reser\'e itself was described merely as nine miles square about an indefinite point somewhere "below the mouth of the St. Peter's." However, this was sufficient to keep off settlers from the vicinity of the west end of St. Anthony's Falls, unless the military authorities permitted them to come.

The U. S. Senate ratified the Indian treaties of 1837 on June 15. 1838, but not until a month later did the authentic news reach ?"'ort Snelling per the steamboat Palmyra. Capt. John Holland master, nine days up from St. Louis. The boat first carried the news up the St. Croix to the Falls, whither it went with .some mill machinery and other supplies for

Frank Sttule's lumbering company, with something of the same sort for Joseph K. Brown, who, foreseeing that tile treaties would soon be ratilied, had already begun the cutting of pine timber to be sawed in a mill already in process of erection.

The Palmyra witli her good news came to Fort Suelling a few ilays later, or July 15, 183S, and soon afterward Franklin Steele, the new sutler at Fort Snelliug, and more justly entitled to be called the foiiiidir of Minneapolis than any other person, began preparations for building a city at the great tumultuous Falls of St. Anthony of Padua. On the eastern shore of the river, at the north end of the ledge over which rolled the cataract he made a "claim" to 160 acres of land. All he could do was to "claim" the laud and occupy it ; it was not then subject to regular entry ami ditl not become so until in 18-17. The particulars of Mr. Steele's "claim" of the laud are given on subsequent pages.

The Critical Yeabs Of 1838-39

The year 1837 was a memorable one in Minnesota and Minneapolis history, for during that year were made tiie important treaties before described; also, during that year something occurred which had an important bearing upon the founding and future destiny of Minneapolis. This something was the action taken by the military authorities of Fort Snelliug to eject and evict the settlers on the reservation in the vicinity of the Fort.

JMaj. Joseph Plymjjton, a Massachusetts man, took comnuiud of Fort Snelliug in the summer of this year, and it was he who instituted the action. The ilajor was an anomalous character. The descendant of Puritans and himself a psalm-singing Presbyterian from the Bay State, he desired to own slaves, purchased two from brother otifieers, but failed to buy a woman from Agent Taliaferro. An officei' of the U. S. army, with a sworn duty to i)rotect American citizens and settlers, he was especially hostile to those about Fort Snelliug. He -had arrested and confined in the guard-house those well-meaning and God-fearing men, Abraham Perret, the Frent^h-Swiss watchnuiki'i-, and Louis Massie, the Canadian farmer, and I'onlined them in the guard-house because their cattle broke into the enclosures of the Fort. Maj. Plymi)ton was typical of the then' commanders of the Fort, of whom Col. John II. Stevens, in an address before the Miinieapolis Lyceum, iu 1856, said:

"At that time, as often before and since, the commanding officers at tiie Fort were 'the Lords of the North.' They ruled supreme. The citizens iu the neighborhood of the Fort were at any time liable to be thrust into the guard-hous<'. While the commander of the Fort w-as the King, the officers were the princes, and persons were deprivd of their liberty and impi'isoned by these tyrants for the most trivial wrong, or even for some imaginai'y ofTense."

It was perhaps not best that ^laj. Plympton should have been in couunand at Fort Snelliug at any time; it cei'taiidy was not well that he had that authority in 1837-38-30 and that he inaugurated and enforced a particularly unjust and hai-mful policy.

In October, 1837, by order of Major Plympton, a survey was made by Lieutenant Ephraim Kirby Smith.* The white inhabitants iu the vicinity of the Fort were found to number 157. On the Fort Snelliug side, in what was called Baker's settlemeul, (around the old Camp Coldwater) and at Massie 's Landing, (three or four cabins strung along under the blull) there were 82 people; on the south side of the Jliunesota, including those at the Fur Company 's establishments presided over by Sibley, Alex. Faribault, and Antoine Le Claire, there were 75. Seven families were living opposite the Fort, on the east bank of the Slississippi, and the head of one of them was Francois Desire, alias Francois Fronchet, who had been a soldier under Napoleon and also of the American army, mustered out from the latter service at Fort Suelling. He was iu the service of Nicollet when the latter made his explorations in this quarter. Lieut. Smith further reported that the settlers had "nearly 200 horses and cattle.''

In transmitting Lieut. Smith's report to the War Department Maj. Plympton indicated his determination to eject the settlers from the reserve, alleging that they were cousinning the wood on the tract which was needed by the garrison. The Secretary thought Plympton must know best, ami directed him to mark over on a map an area of land necessary to be reserved. In IMarch, 1838, he traaismitted such a map and upon it was marked an extensive tract, embracing a considerable quantity of land on the east side - now- the St. Paul side - of the Mississipjii.