William H. C. Folsom

“ No one who has ever lived in Maine can forget its dark pine forests, its rugged hills, its rushing streams, cold and clear as crystal, its broad lakes, the abundant game of its forests and the fish in its waters. The Minnesota and Wisconsin pioneers, who with the author of this book claim Maine as an early home, will not object to the insertion in this chapter of a few of these reminiscences. ”

“ We have the transition from barbarism to civilization; we have the subjugation of the wilderness by the first settlers; the organization of territorial and state [Pg vi] governments; an era of progress from the rude habits of the pioneer and trapper, to the culture and refinement of civilized states; from the wilderness, yet unmapped, and traversed only by the hardy pioneer in birch barks or dog sledges, to the cultivated fields, cobwebbed by railways and streams furrowed by steamers. ”

“ If this Union must be dissolved, whether by peaceable process or through fire and blood or civil war, we shall have the consolation of knowing that when the conflict is over those who survive will be what they never have been—inhabitants of a free country. ”

“ With his long, narrow head, small eyes, donkey-like ears, pendant lips, the upper one curling like a small proboscis, with his high shoulders and giraffe-like hips, with his short, round body, long and clumsy legs, he is as distinguished for his want of grace and comeliness as the red deer is for its presence. No animal is better adapted for its own home and mode of life. ”

“ On the east bank, below the mouth of Willow river, where Hudson is now situated, were three log houses owned by Peter Bouchea, Joseph Manesse, and Louis Massey. On the high hill west, nearly opposite Willow river, stood the farm house of Elam Greely, and on the same side, on the point, in full view of Stillwater, stood the farm house of John Allen. With the exception of these few dwellings, the shores of the lake were untouched by the hand of man, and spread before us in all their primitive beauty. ”

“ Ramsey is a hale, hearty, and well preserved gentleman, who is passing gracefully into what with many is the season of the sere and yellow leaf. He is genial and pleasant in his manners, and would impress the ordinary observer as one whose "lines have fallen in pleasant places," and who is the happy possessor of a good digestion, a serene temper and a clear conscience. ”

“ No government agent ever troubles him, or questions his right to fell the royal trees and dispose of them as he may choose. He is earning by his strong right arm his title to the trees. He endures much, accomplishes much and is the advance courier of civilization. He spends long months away from the common haunts of men. He is cut off from the mails and from home pleasure. He lives an industrious life. Cold is the day when the stroke of his axe is not heard. ”

“ In the midst of this solitude, and on the banks once covered by a sparse growth of trees, one of the finest cities in the West has sprung up as if by magic, and the scene is one of busy life. This marvelous change has occurred within a space of fifty years. ”

“ Resolved, That in establishing the present boundary, our known and acknowledged wishes and interests are invaded by the might of a majority; that as the boundary is now established, so great is the distance and obstacles intervening, severing us, together with the people of Lake Superior, from the seat of government, that we can not enjoy a prompt and equitable share in representation, and we would respectfully admonish our brethren that equal representation involves a principle which is deeply and peculiarly American. ”

“ But firms change; from a score the number of lumber firms increased to hundreds. A record of ownership of log marks is necessary, and a law has been enacted protecting the ownership of a mark as thoroughly as a trade mark is protected. This system of marks in the process of time has become a language in itself deep and intricate to the average mind, but as plain as the alphabet to every man having to do with the manufacture of logs. It is the aim of every lumberman originating a mark to make it simple, containing as many straight lines as possible, so that it can be put on the log speedily. ”

“ Once a man becomes thoroughly familiar with the marks on a river where lumbering is so extensively carried on as on the St. Croix, he becomes invaluable in the surveyor general's office, or in the booms, identified in some capacity with the scaling process. The fact that some particular character runs through the varied marks of all the leading firms is a key to the readiest understanding, just as the twenty-six characters in the alphabet are necessarily understood before one can read readily or intelligently. ”

“ Before we saw white man we dressed in skins and cooked with stones. You found our land on the map and come—since then you have clothed and provided for us. Why should we send you away? We only should be the sufferers—all of us tell you to stay—again we say, stay. We do not wish you to go; no, no—we say to you all, stay; you may plant and build, but the land is ours. ”

“ Here Amable Moreau, a French Upper Mississippi pilot, came on board. Squads of Indians were hanging around begging for whisky and tobacco. Resuming our way, stemming the current of the river we pass other scenes, other birch canoes gliding over the waves, other tepees and Indian villages along the shore. At La Crosse we find a few whites and lots of Indians on an unimproved prairie, with a background of high bluffs. We pass Trempeleau and then Winona prairie, on which we find an old Indian village, dating back to unknown time. ”

“ Whisky hardens the heart and blinds the eyes to what is right, and the sale of whisky on the frontier, authorized or unauthorized, in nearly all cases the latter, is the bartering of the human life for gold. The money received for it is the price of blood, although in some instances the seller himself may be the victim. It is whisky that does the work.
Jack Drake, a whisky seller at Wood Lake, whose outfit was supplied by Samuels & Partridge, naturally of a quarrelsome disposition, was especially so when under the influence of liquor. ”

“ They may not be an essential part of his own life history, but still they have found a place in his mind and seem a part of himself, and he recurs to them again and again with ever increasing delight. ”

“ Minnesota as a state is just in the age of development. She is rising to power and influence. Much depends upon our legislature, more than depended upon the legislature of New York when, actuated by good counsels it connected the waters of the [Pg 678] Hudson with those of Lake Erie by the 'Clinton Ditch,' so called in derision by the enemies of the measure. But the wisdom of Dewitt Clinton, the originator of that famous waterway, advanced the settlement of the great West at least a quarter of a century. ”

“ Windom has been quite prominent in the politics of the State and county, having served in the United States senate two terms, from 1871 to 1883. He was also a representative in Congress from 1859 to 1869. He served as secretary of the treasury to fill a vacancy. During his congressional career he was an ardent supporter of the Union, and won the respect of the nation for his unswerving firmness in upholding his principles. He is a man of great executive ability, and has used his talents and his wealth, of which he has accumulated a considerable share, in the interests of the public. ”

“ The soil is diversified. There is black sandy loam in the plains and a black vegetable mould in the timber, with clay subsoils. It is a fair agricultural district, having groves of pine and hardwood in the east and natural meadows, prairies and oak openings in the central and western portions. It is well watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries, Elk, Little Rock and Platte rivers. It has some fine lakes, of which Mayhew, Briggs and Little Rock are the largest. A granite formation underlies most of this county and crops out in many places, furnishing valuable quarries. ”

“ The builders of the ancient mounds certainly exercised great taste in their location, as they are generally found in pleasant localities, on grassy plateaus or elevated lands, and by the shores of lakes and streams. Some, originally built on plains, have since been overgrown with trees. In some cases trees of immense size have been found growing even on the summit of the mounds. The most notable mounds of the St. Croix valley are at Vasa village, in Marine township, Washington county, Minnesota, and in the neighborhood of Osceola Mills, Polk county, Wisconsin. ”

“ They knew that not many years since we received Detroit, Michilmackinac, and all the ports on the lakes from the English, and now but the other day, Louisiana from the Spanish; so that we put one foot on the sea at the east, and the other on the sea at the west, and if once children are now men; yet I think that the traders who come from Canada are bad birds amongst the Chippewas, and instigate them to make war on their red brothers, the Sioux, in order to prevent our traders from going high up the Mississippi. ”

“ The hardwood ridges and flats offer good farming lands, and the wild meadows, scattered over the county, excellent hay and pasturage.
Mille Lacs lake, the largest inland lake in Minnesota, is a beautiful and picturesque sheet of water, with receding wooded shores, with but little low land adjoining. The waters are deep and clear and abundantly supplied with fish. This lake, when reached by railways, will be one of the most pleasant summer resorts in the Northwest. It already attracts the attention of the tourist. A steamer built in 1885 floats upon its waters. ”

“ In 1872 he was the first settler at Clam Falls, where he built a saw mill with but one man to assist, and around that mill has sprung up a flourishing settlement. Dan Smith, with undaunted perseverance, has battled his way through life, and has come out victorious over difficulties and opposition that would have discouraged and turned back other men. Mr. Smith is a plain, direct, outspoken man; a man of energy and ability. He has ably and satisfactorily filled many places of trust. For many years he has been a commissioner of Polk county. ”

“ Philander Prescott was born in 1801, at Phelpstown, Ontario county, New York. Late in the year 1819 he came to Fort Snelling and remained there, or in the vicinity, the greater part of his life. From his constant association with the Indians, especially with the Sioux, he learned to speak their language. He was also related to them by his marriage with a Sioux woman. This fact, added to his influence among them, and being a man not only of a high character for integrity, but well educated and intelligent, he was able to render the officers of the Fort much service. ”

“ A history of the Northwest that would omit any mention of the war of the Rebellion would be an unfinished work. It was the original intention of the author of this work to add a military history in which should be placed upon record not only some statistics as to the number of troops contributed to the United States service from the parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin lying along the Mississippi river, but some account of incidents connected with the war, which the citizens of the valley would take pride in perusing. ”

“ It stands on the slope formed by the debris of a precipice that rises here about 120 feet above the river. Its base is about 40 feet above low water mark; the column itself reaches 45 feet higher. It is composed of many angular pieces of trap, the upper portion bearing a rude resemblance to a chair. It is considered quite a feat to climb to the summit. The face of the rocks is disfigured by the names of ambitious and undeserving persons. The nuisance of names and advertisements painted upon the most prominent rocks in the Dalles is one that every lover of Nature will wish to have abated. ”

“ The hunter must be an expert, and it requires years of practice to become skillful. He must build his camp in the wilderness, packing thither his food, blankets, camp utensils and gun. With his pack of dogs he starts out in search of a moose yard. This is generally in some well timbered district. The snow in winter is generally from three to six feet deep, but the moose has broken paths through this to facilitate his movements through the forest, and here he roams about in fancied security, browsing on the young shrubs, but the hunter finds his hiding place. ”

“ Few villages are more beautifully situated. It contains two hotels, three stores, a saw and feed mill, two church buildings, a Swedish Lutheran and Swedish Methodist, a school house and many pleasant residences. The court house was built in 1876, at a cost of $5,000, on a promontory commanding a fine view of the lake. The depot of the branch of the St. Paul & Duluth railroad is located half a mile south of the village. Summer excursionists assemble here in goodly numbers, and the location bids fair to become very attractive as a summer resort. ”

“ The progress of civilization involving the building of railways, the transformation of the wilderness into cultivated fields, the growth of villages and cities, the increased facilities for manufacturing and the bringing the forest domain under law, has created such changes in the business of lumbering as to justify the insertion of a chapter relating to the life and surroundings of the early lumberman. Let us go back to the year 1845. The country, save a few sparse settlements on the navigable streams, is as yet an unbroken wilderness, and tenanted only by wild beasts and roving Indians. ”

“ Louis finds an outlet into Superior bay between Rice's Point and a tongue of land a mile or more in length, projecting from the Wisconsin main land. Minnesota Point, which separates Superior bay from Superior lake, is a strip of land seven miles in length, with an average width of seven hundred feet, beautifully fringed with pines. At the outlet of Superior bay two piers have been constructed, extending into the lake three-fourths of a mile. On one of these piers is a forty-day lighthouse, constructed by the government. The bay forms one of the finest harbors in the world. ”

“ The county has a fine location on the east bank of the Mississippi. Its boundaries on the north are Isanti county, on the east Chisago and Washington counties, on the south Ramsey county, and on the west Sherburne county and the Mississippi river. Rum river flows in a southeasterly direction through the county, and by this river, its tributaries and those of the Mississippi and St. Croix, the county is well watered and drained. The valleys of these streams furnish many fine natural meadows. The soil is a black sandy loam with clay subsoil. ”

“ I was not a little puzzled with the arrangement of the hotel tables and the printed bills of fare, but closely watched the deportment of others and came through without any serious or mortifying blunder. Next morning I left New York on the steamer Robert L. Stevens for Albany, and on the evening of the same day went to Schenectady by railroad. Some of the way cars were hauled by horses up hills and inclined planes. There were then only three short lines of railroad in the United States, and I had traveled on two of them. At Schenectady I took passage on a canal boat to Buffalo. ”