USS Minnesota

“ In Minnesota, the Germans outnumber any single group, although less numerous than the three Scandinavian groups put together, so the State is correctly thought of as Scandinavian. Considerably less than half of its population is of the old American stock, but the State is overwhelmingly Nordic, the 150,000 Slavs who have invaded it in recent decades being of little account in its 2,500,000 population. Since the days of its founding, Minnesota has drawn from Canada a desirable element, and has given freely in exchange. ”

“ Mills had gone out on the prairie that morning to look for his yoke of oxen that had strayed away during the night. Mrs. Mills left a note for him telling where she and the children had gone and gladly came to our home. About four o'clock our neighbor returned saying there was no ammunition to be had and that we must all leave our homes at once. It was not safe to stay. In those days every settler had hoops and canvas for his wagon, as those were what he had come into that part of the country with. So with all haste the "prairie schooners" were prepared. ”

“ Nature has been lavishly generous with Minnesota,—more so, perhaps, than with any state in the Union. Its surface is beautifully diversified between rolling prairies and immense forests of valuable timber. Rivers and lakes abound, and the soil is marvelous in its productive fertility. Its climate, taken the year round, surpasses in all attractive features that of any part of the North American continent. ”

“ For an inland state Minnesota is exceptionally well situated to play a chief part in the commercial life of the country, and various causes combine to make it important in respect to its interstate and foreign trade. It is the natural terminal of three great northern transcontinental railway lines—the Northern Pacific, the Great Northern, and the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound (the extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul system) ”

“ The bold invasion of the robbers proved our courage; the storms and fires proved our generosity to the distressed, and taught us lessons in the wisdom of prevention. Minnesota has as much to be thankful for and as little to regret as any state in the West, and our troubles only prove that we have a very robust vitality, difficult to permanently impair. ”

“ Arnold in his flagship, the galley Congress, had eight guns of which the bore was about three and a half inches in diameter, and the shot weighed six pounds. But when the Civil War came, the Minnesota was armed with forty-two guns of a nine-inch calibre and one of eleven inches, besides four3 rifles that threw elongated projectiles weighing 100 pounds and one rifle with a projectile weighing 150. Arnold’s Congress could throw at a broadside twenty-four pounds of metal over an effective range of perhaps 300 yards; the Minnesota could throw 1,861 pounds over an effective range of 1,600 yards. ”

“ All this was watched with keen anxiety on board the Minnesota, and the question her men asked themselves was,—
"Will the Merrimac be content with the damage she has already done, or will our ship share the same fate as the other two?"
They were not left long in uncertainty. Swinging slowly around, the huge ironclad, after pausing a few minutes as though to take breath, came down the channel heading straight for the Minnesota. Her day's work was evidently not yet done. She must have another victim before returning to her moorings. ”

“ The most lovely little lakes lie among the hills, like clear mirrors, in romantic peace and beauty. It is a perfectly Arcadian landscape; but there yet lack the shepherds and shepherdesses. The eastern shore of the Mississippi, within Minnesota only, belongs to the whites, and their number here does not as yet amount to more than seven thousand souls. The whole western portion of Minnesota is still Indian territory, inhabited principally by the two great nations, Sioux or Dacotahs, and Chippewas, who live in a continual state of hostility, as well as by some of the lesser Indian tribes. ”

“ The Mississippi affords continuous navigation to European ports during eight months of the year. From Duluth numerous lines of vessels traverse the chain of great lakes, and transport the products of the west to the eastern seaboard. Three great transcontinental railway lines are connected more or less directly with the railroad system of the State. Twelve lines of railway from every part of Minnesota converge at the contiguous cities of St Paul and Minneapolis, and three great trunk lines from these centres to Chicago secure the advantages of a lively competition. ”

“ I used to run the ferry with Captain Tapper. It was a large rowboat. Once I had eight men aboard. When I got out in the river, I saw the load was too heavy and thought we would sink. "Boys", I said, "don't move. If you do, we'll all go to the bottom." The water was within one inch of the top of the boat but we got across.
I graded some down town, on Hennepin Avenue when it was only a country road. There was a big pond on Bridge Square. The ducks used to fly around there like anything early in the morning. ”

“ But such as are too much contracted at home, and who desire to emigrate, should come to Minnesota. The climate, the situation, the character of the scenery, agrees with our people better than that of any other of the American States, and none of them appear to me to have a greater or a more beautiful future before them than Minnesota. Add to this that the rich soil of Minnesota is not yet bought up by speculators, but may everywhere be purchased at government prices.... ”

“ It was an explosion of a hundred-pound torpedo under the bottom of the Minnesota, which had been borne thither by a torpedo-boat manned by Confederates from somewhere up the James river. The officers and men on deck, in the gloom of the night, were discussing in a subdued but excited tone the possibility of capturing the torpedo-boat; but, owing to the fires in the picket-boats to the Minnesota being out, nothing could be done till the steam in them was raised; and in the meantime the torpedo-boat was allowed to return up the James river. ”

“ The Hopkins' and Huggins' had the mission station there then. It did seem good to get where I had a square meal. I had been living principally on a sweet biscuit my Aunt, Mrs. Williamson, the missionary's wife at Kaposia made. Don't ever take anything sweet to eat for any length of time."
Martin McLeod met the boat with a string of Red River carts. They were loaded with furs and were to take supplies back. It was very interesting to me to watch the loading and unloading of this boat. I was not yet familiar with those half breed drivers. ”

“ From the deep water at the southern tip of Grassy Point a vessel drawing less than 8 feet bound north of Big Island and beyond could have turned northwest and followed the narrow winding channel near the Minnesota shore with a ruling depth of 10, possibly 8, feet, or it could have proceeded westward, approximately one mile, over a more direct course with a depth of 8 feet or more, until it came to the deeper channel about seven-eighths of a mile northeast of Big Island. ”

“ No other State contains so large a number of Swedes and Norwegians. In 1900 the foreign-born population numbered 505,318. The colored population numbered only 14,358, of whom 4959 were negroes, 7414 Indians taxed, and 1768 Indians not taxed. As is common in newly settled States, there is a large excess of the male sex. At the last census there were 22.1 inhabitants to the square mile. The State contains the two large metropolises of the Upper Mississippi Valley—Minneapolis and Saint Paul—and the per cent. of urban population is therefore high for so new a State. ”

“ It is certain that neither crew was whipped, whatever happened to the ships. The bravery on both sides must excite the pride of every American. But the one point of the battle that is of practical consideration is the gunnery.
Says Lieutenant Wood: “The Monitor was well handled, and saved the Minnesota and the remainder of the fleet at Fortress Monroe. But her gunnery was poor. Not a single shot struck us at the water-line, where the ship was utterly unprotected, and where one would have been fatal. ”

“ All this seems worth telling only because it shows that the ideas of armament which prevailed among the English and the Americans before the War of 1812 were still held by the two nations in 1859. Indeed, the disproportion between the Minnesota’s armament and that of the Diadem was very much greater than that between the United States and the Macedonian.
In short, all things considered, the American people had just the fleet they needed for that day to resist foreign aggression. ”

“ With the melting of the ice-sheet which once overspread Minnesota its innumerable lakes came into existence; and the gentle acclivity of its slopes, precluding rapid erosive action, has tended to give permanence to the depressions constituting their basins. The census returns give 4160 square miles of water surface within the State. Most of the lakes are exceedingly picturesque in their surroundings. Forests skirt their shores, which are seldom marshy ”

“ The pioneers were brave souls, able to cope with emergencies of many kinds. In them, the adage was verified, "As thy days so shall thy strength be." In 1854 I left Wisconsin, a bride, with my husband, to begin life on a government claim in Minnesota. As we passed through what is now the beautiful city of Faribault, there was only one frame house, which belonged to a half breed from whom the town was named. We settled eight miles beyond in the township of Medford in a small log cabin with bark floors, as there were at that time no saw mills in that locality. ”

“ Speaker, I ask the gentleman, when he returns to his home, to tell his fellow-citizens of the East what he has seen during his visit to this great State; and, sir, we also wish him to tell them that Minnesota and the great Northwest will no longer consent to be trodden under the feet of the East. The strength of the United States and the future center of American greatness is here in Minnesota. ”

“ The trend of immigration toward Minnesota encouraged the organization of transportation companies, by boat and stage, for passengers and freight, and by 1856 it was one of the liveliest communities to be found anywhere, and, curious as it may seem, this era of prosperity was the cause of Minnesota's first great calamity. ”

“ The Red River carts used to come down from Fort Garry loaded with furs. There had been a white population in that part of the country and around Pembina long before there was any settlement in what is now Minnesota. The drivers were half breeds, sons of the traders and hunters. They always looked more Indian than white. In the early days, in remote places, where a white man lived with the Indians, his safety was assured if he took an Indian woman for his wife. These cart drivers generally wore buckskin clothes, tricked out so as to make them gay. ”

“ It was Thursday morning before all the freight was stowed away and we could leave the landing—or "Fisher's," as habitués of the road call it. The Minnesota is a very comfortable boat, and with the exception of one or two farmers and their families, and an old Frenchwoman, we had her to ourselves. The captain was a genial, large-hearted Yankee, the steward and pretty little maid were very attentive ”

“ The rank of the State has risen every decade, standing nineteenth in 1900. The largest absolute gain was in the decade 1880-90. From 1890 to 1900 the increase amounted to 34.5 per cent., as compared with 20.7 for the United States. During that decade every county in the State shared in the increase, but it was generally greatest throughout the northern ones, where the population is still very sparse. The movement of the population turned toward Minnesota at a period when the German immigration was still great and the Scandinavian peoples were just beginning to come in large numbers. ”

“ Far and near over the Roads were many small craft. The Minnesota, a large ship, lay halfway between Old Point and Newport News. At the latter place there is a large Federal garrison, and almost in the shadow of its batteries rode at anchor the frigate Congress and the sloop Cumberland. The first had fifty guns, the second thirty. The Virginia, or the Merrimac, or the turtle, creeping out from the Elizabeth, crept slowly and puffing black smoke into the South Channel. The pilot, in his iron-clad pilot-house no bigger than a hickory nut, put her head to the northwest. ”

“ The state was admitted to the Union with its present boundaries on the 12th of May 1858, and the federal census of 1860 showed that the population had increased to 172,023, despite the fact that the financial panic of 1857 had severely checked the state’s growth. Minnesota furnished more than 25,000 troops for the Federal armies during the Civil War. But even more pressing than the call of the nation was the need of defending her own homes against the uprisings of the Indians within her borders. ”

“ The Mississippi River alone is used for navigation; the Minnesota and the Red River are reported ‘navigable,’ but are little used. The direction of the rivers, as well as the position and formation of the innumerable lakes dotting the surface of the State, have been determined by glacial action. In the north the lakes are usually cut out of the old rock and display bold tortuous shores. In the south the lakes are often broad and shallow. ”

“ In the fall of 1886 I was for the second time elected secretary of state by the citizens of Minnesota, re-elected in 1888, and thus made for the third time the head of the state department.
In the fall of 1887 the citizens of Minneapolis were honored by a visit from a large number of Swedish, Norwegian and Danish military officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers. They arrived by an express train from Chicago, and were met at the union depot by thousands of people. The Swedish Guard, Normanna Infantry, and the society Dania were paraded outside the depot building. ”