At the time of the appearance of the communications relating to
Webster’s western investments in the first and second numbers of this
magazine I chanced to see in the _Personal Recollections_ of Robert S.
Rantoul (Cambridge, Mass., Privately Printed, 1916) a reference to the
same subject which seems worth calling to the attention of those
interested in western history.
The author of the _Recollections_ says that the early death of his
father, Robert Rantoul, was in part due to the financial disaster
which overtook him--he died at forty-seven--and proceeds to explain
the circumstances. He had known that his father spent much time in the
Middle West between 1845 and 1850 and that he had a high estimate of
the economic and political possibilities of the upper Mississippi
Valley; but it was not until long after his father’s death that he
learned something of the speculations and reverses in that region
which hastened it.
The facts were as follows: Rantoul, Rufus Choate, and Caleb Cushing
were trustees in a scheme, in which Webster, Cass, and a few others
were also concerned, to get control of the headwaters of the
Mississippi, saw the lumber, and float it down to markets in the
rapidly growing cities and towns of the Middle West. Cass had shown
that such a plan was practicable; but the associates knew, also, that
there was mineral wealth in the region of Fort Snelling. Indian
implements of that vicinity were inlaid with lead and copper. They had
ill-timed, if not over-sanguine, hopes of great gain therefrom. The
trustees managed everything and issued stock certificates in December,
1845. They had received a charter the preceding August as the St.
Croix and Lake Superior Mineral Company. Nothing but trouble followed.
After a dam had been built at St. Anthony’s Falls their land titles
were attacked and their logs were carried away by a spring flood.
Cushing, who was to have been governor of the new territory, went to
the Mexican War. Choate was too absorbed in his profession and too
indifferent to business matters to pay attention to the management of
the undertaking. The whole burden fell upon Rantoul and was too great
for him to bear. After his death in 1852 Cushing gave some attention
to the business but Rantoul’s executors would not coöperate and his
interest in the project lapsed with loss of the money and labor which
he had devoted to the enterprise.
The son also remarks on the fact that his father was one of the
incorporators of the Illinois Central Railroad, wrote its charter, and
passed it through the legislature, where--as is well known--Abraham
Lincoln was the opposing counsel.
Yours truly,
ASA CURRIER TILTON.
Madison, Wisconsin.