that the prevailing idea should be that lands would greatly increase in
value in the near future, and everybody became a speculator. Towns and
cities sprang into existence like mushrooms in a night. Scarcely anyone
was to be seen without a town-site map in his hands, the advantages and
beauties of which fictitious metropolis he was ready to present in the
most eloquent terms. Everything useful was neglected, and speculation
was rampant. There were no banks of issue, and all the money that was in
the country was borrowed in the East. In order to make borrowing easy,
the law placed no restrictions on the rate of interest, and the usual
terms were three per cent per month, with the condition that if the
principal was not paid at maturity, the interest should be increased to
five per cent per month. Everybody was in debt on these ruinous terms;
which, of course, could not last long before the inevitable explosion.
The price of lands, and especially town lots, increased rapidly, and
attained fabulous rates; in fact, some real property in St. Paul sold in
1856 for more money than it has ever since brought.
THE PANIC OF 1857.
The bubble burst by the announcement of the failure of the Ohio Life
Insurance and Trust Company, which reached St. Paul on Aug. 24, 1857.
The failure of this financial institution precipitated a panic all over
the country. It happened just on the recurrence of the twenty year
period which has marked the pecuniary disasters of the country,
beginning with 1837. Its effects on Minnesota were extremely disastrous.
The eastern creditors demanded their money, and the Minnesota debtors
paid as long as a dollar remained in the country, and all means of
borrowing more being cut off, a most remarkable condition of things
resulted. Cities like St. Paul and St. Anthony, having a population of
several thousands each, were absolutely without money to carry on the
necessary commercial functions. A temporary remedy was soon discovered,
by every merchant and shopkeeper issuing tickets marked "Good for one
dollar at my store," and every fractional part of a dollar, down to five
cents. This device tided the people for a while, but scarcely any
business establishment in the territory weathered the storm, and many
people who had considered themselves beyond the chance of disaster were
left without resources of any kind and hopelessly bankrupt. The distress
was great and universal, but it was bravely met, and finally overcome.
Dreadful as this affliction was to almost everyone in the territory, it
turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It compelled the people to
abandon speculation, and seek honest labor in the cultivation of the
soil and the development of the splendid resources that generous nature
had bestowed upon the country. Farms were opened by the thousands,
everybody went to work, and in ten or a dozen years, Minnesota had a
surplus of forty millions of bushels of wheat with which to supply the
hungry world.
LAND TITLES.
All the lands of Minnesota were the property of the United States, and
title to them could only be obtained through the regular methods of
preëmption, town-site entry, public sales, or private entries. One event
occurred on Aug. 14, 1848, which illustrates so clearly the way in which
western men protect their rights that I will relate it. The recognized
price of public lands was one dollar and a quarter per acre, and all
pioneer settlers were willing to pay that sum, but when a public sale
was made, any one could bid whatever he was willing to pay. Under the
administration of President Polk, a public sale of lands was ordered to
be made at the land office at St. Croix Falls, of lands lying partly in
Minnesota and partly in Wisconsin. The lands advertised for sale
included those embraced in St. Paul and St. Anthony. The settlers
selected Henry H. Sibley as their trustee, to buy their lands for them,
to be conveyed to them subsequently. It was a high offense under the
United States laws to do any act that would tend to prevent persons
bidding at the sales. Mr. Sibley appeared at the sale, and bid off every
tract of land that was occupied by an actual settler at the price of
$1.25 per acre. The general, in a paper he read before the Historical
Society, says of this affair:
"I was selected by the actual settlers to bid off portions of
the land for them, and when the hour for business arrived, my
seat was universally surrounded by a number of men with huge
bludgeons. What was meant by the proceeding, I could, of course,
only surmise, but I would not have envied the fate of the
individual who would have ventured to bid against me."
It has always been assumed in the far West, and I think justly, that the
pioneers who first settle the land and give it value should enjoy every
advantage that flows from such priority, and the violation of laws that
impede such opportunity is a very venial offense. So universal was the
confidence reposed in Mr. Sibley, that many of the French settlers, the
title to whose lands became vested in him, by his purchase at this sale,
insisted that it should remain in him, and he found it quite difficult
in many cases to get them to accept deeds from him.
THE FIRST NEWSPAPER.
Although the first message of the governor went a great way in
introducing Minnesota to the world, she was particularly fortunate in
the establishment of her first newspapers. The Stillwater convention of
1848, of which I have spoken, first suggested to Dr. A. Randall, who was
an attache of Dr. Owen's geological corps, then engaged in a survey of
this region by order of the government, the necessity of a newspaper for
the new territory. He was possessed of the means and enterprise to
accomplish the then rather difficult undertaking, and was promised
ample support by leading men of the territory. He returned to his home
in Cincinnati in the fall of 1848, intending to purchase the plant and
start the paper that year, but the navigation of the rivers closed
earlier than usual, and he was foiled in his attempt. He, however, set
up his press in Cincinnati, and got out a number or two of his paper
there. It was then called the "_Minnesota Register_," and appeared as of
the date of April 27, 1849, and as printed in St. Paul. It was in fact
printed in Cincinnati about two weeks earlier. It contained valuable
articles from the pens of H. H. Sibley and Henry M. Rice. These
articles, added to Mr. Randall's extensive knowledge of the country,
made the first issue a great local success. It was the first Minnesota
paper ever published, and bears date just one day ahead of the
_Pioneer_, subsequently published by James M. Goodhue, which was
actually printed in the territory. Dr. Randall did not carry out his
intention, but was caught in the California vortex, and did not return
to Minnesota.
James M. Goodhue of Lancaster, Wis., who was editing the _Wisconsin
Herald_, when he heard of the organization of the new territory,
immediately decided to start a paper in St. Paul, and as soon as
navigation opened in the spring of 1849, he came up with his press and
type. He met with many difficulties and obstructions, necessarily
incident to a new place in a venture such as was his, but he succeeded
in issuing the first number of his paper on the twenty-eighth day of
April, 1849. His first inclination was to call his paper the "_Epistle
of St. Paul_," but on sober reflection he was convinced that the name
might shock the religious sensibilities of the community, especially as
he did not possess many of the attributes of our patron saint, and he
decided to call his paper "_The Minnesota Pioneer_."
In his first issue he speaks of his establishment of that day, as
follows:
"We print and issue this number of the _Pioneer_ in a building
through which out-of-doors is visible by more than five hundred
apertures; and as for our type, it is not safe from being _pied_
on the galleys by the wind." The rest can be imagined.
Mr. Goodhue was just the man to be the editor of the first paper of a
frontier territory. He was energetic, enterprising, brilliant, bold and
belligerent. He conducted the _Pioneer_ with great success and advantage
to the territory until the year 1851, when he published an article on
Judge Cooper, censuring him for absenteeism, which is a very good
specimen of the editorial style of that day. He called the judge "a
sot," "a brute," "an ass," "a profligate vagabond," and closed his
article in the following language:
"Feeling some resentment for the wrongs our territory has so
long suffered by these men, pressing upon us like a dispensation
of wrath,--a judgment--a curse--a plague, unequalled since Egypt
went lousy,--we sat down to write this article with some
bitterness, but our very gall is honey to what they deserve."
In those fighting days, such an article could not fail to produce a
personal collision. A brother of Judge Cooper resented the attack, and
in the encounter between them, Goodhue was badly stabbed and Cooper was
shot. Neither wound proved fatal at the time, but it was always asserted
by the friends of each combatant, and generally believed, that they both
died from the effects of these wounds.
The original _Minnesota Pioneer_ still lives in the _Pioneer Press_ of
to-day, which is published in St. Paul. It has been continued under
several names and edited by different men, but has never been
extinguished or lost its relation of lineal descendant from the original
_Pioneer_.
Nothing tends to show the phenomenal growth of Minnesota more than the
fact that this first newspaper, issued in 1849, has been followed by the
publication of 579 papers, which is the number now issued in the state
according to the last official list obtainable. They appear daily,
weekly and monthly, in nearly all written languages, English, French,
German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Bohemian, and one in Icelandic,
published in Lyon county.
BANKS.
With the first great increase in immigration business was necessarily
enlarged, and banking facilities became a necessity. Dr. Charles W.
Borup, a Danish gentleman, who was engaged in the fur trade at Lake
Superior as an agent for the American Fur Company, and Mr. Charles H.
Oakes, a native of Vermont, came to St. Paul, and established a bank in
1853. They were brothers-in-law, having married sisters. They did a
private banking business, under the name of Borup & Oakes, which adapted
itself to the needs of the community, including real estate, and almost
any other kind of venture that offered. The house of Borup & Oakes was
the first banking establishment in Minnesota, and weathered all the
financial storms that swept over the territory in its early history.
They were followed by Truman M. Smith, but he went down in the panic of
1857-58. Then came Bidwell's Exchange Bank, followed by C. H. Parker and
A. Vance Brown. Mackubin & Edgerton opened a bank in 1854, which was the
ancestor of the present Second National Bank, and always legitimate. I
think Erastus S. Edgerton may justly be said to have been the most
successful banker of all that were early engaged in the business. An
enumeration of the banks and bankers which succeeded each other in these
early times would be more appropriate in a narrative of the localities
where they operated than in a general history of the state. It is
sufficient to say that nearly all, if not all, of them succumbed to the
financial disasters in 1857-58, and there was no banking worthy of the
name until the passage of the banking law of July 26, 1858. But this act
was a mere makeshift to meet a financial emergency, and it was not based
upon sound financial principles. It allowed the organization of banks
and the issue of circulating bank notes upon securities that were
capable of being fraudulently overvalued by misrepresentation, and, as a
matter of course, advantage was taken of the laxity of the provisions of
the law, and securities which had no intrinsic value in fact were made
available as the foundation of bank issues, with the inevitable result
of disaster.
Another method of furnishing the community with a circulating medium was
resorted to by a law of July 23, 1858. The state auditor was authorized
to issue his warrants for any indebtedness which the state owed to any
person in small sums, and the warrants were made to resemble bank notes,
and bore twelve per cent interest. The credit of the state was not
sufficiently well established in the public confidence to make these
warrants, which were known as "state scrip," worth much over sixty-five
or seventy cents on the dollar. They were taken by the money changers at
that valuation, and when the state made its first loan of $250,000, they
were all redeemed in gold at par, with interest at twelve per cent.
In this uncertain way, the financial interests of the territory were
cared for until the breaking out of the Civil War, and the establishment
of the national and state systems which still exist.
Another evidence of the growth of the state may be found in the fact
that at the present time the state has within its limits banks in good
standing as follows: State banks, 172 in number, with a paid-in capital
stock of $6,736,800, and sixty-seven national banks, with a capital
stock paid in of $11,220,000. This statement does not include either the
surplus or the undivided profits of these banks, nor the capital
employed by private banking concerns which do not fall under the
supervision of the state, which latter item can safely be estimated at
$2,000,000.
THE FUR TRADE.
The first legitimate business of the territory was the fur trade, and
the carrying business resulting therefrom. Prior to the year 1842 the
Northwestern Fur Company occupied the territory which is now Minnesota.
In 1842 it sold out to, and was merged into, the American Fur Company,
which was owned by P. Choteau & Company. This company had trading
stations at Prairie du Chien and Mendota, Henry H. Sibley being their
chief factor at the latter. The goods imported into the Red river
settlements and the furs exported therefrom all came and went through
the difficult and circuitous route by way of Hudson Bay. This route was
only navigable for about two months in the year, on account of the ice.
The catch of furs and buffalo robes in that region was practically
monopolized by the Hudson Bay Company. The American Fur Company soon
became well established in the Northwest. In 1844 this company sent Mr.
Norman W. Kittson from the Mendota outfit to establish a trading post at
Pembina, just south of the British possessions, with the design of
diverting some of the fur trade of that region in the direction of the
navigable waters of the Mississippi. The company, through Mr. Kittson,
invested some $2,000 in furs at Pembina, and had them transported to
Mendota in six Pembina carts, which returned loaded with merchandise of
the character needed by the people of that distant region. This venture
was the beginning of the fur trade with the Red river country, but did
not prove a financial success. It entailed a loss of about $600, and
similar results attended the next two years' operations, but the trade
increased, notwithstanding the desperate efforts of the Hudson Bay
Company to obstruct it. This company had enjoyed a monopoly of the trade
without any outside interference for so long that it looked upon this
new enterprise as a direct attack on its vested rights. But Mr. Kittson
had faith in being able in the near future to work up a paying trade,
and he persevered. By the year 1850 the business had so far increased as
to involve a consumption of goods to the extent of $10,000, with a
return of furs to the amount of $15,000. Five years later the goods sent
to Pembina amounted in value to $24,000, and the return of furs to
$40,000. In 1851 the firm of Forbes & Kittson was organized, and also
"The St. Paul Outfit," to carry on the supply business. When St. Paul
became of some importance in 1849 the terminus and supply depot was
removed to that point, and the trade rapidly increased in magnitude, and
made St. Paul one of the largest fur markets in America, second only to
St. Louis, the trade of which city consisted mostly of buffalo robes,
which was always regarded as a distinct branch of the business, in
contrast with that of fine furs. In the early days the Indians and a
few professional trappers were about all who caught fur animals, but as
the country became more settled the squatters added to their incomes by
such trapping as their environments afforded, which increased the market
at St. Paul by the addition of all Minnesota, which then included both
of the Dakotas, and northern Wisconsin.
The extent and value of this trade can better be understood by a
statement of the increase of the number of carts engaged in it between
1844 and 1858. In the first year mentioned six carts performed all the
required service, and in 1858 six hundred carts came from Pembina to St.
Paul. After the year 1858 the number of carts engaged in the traffic
fell off, as a steamer had been put in operation on the Red river, which
reduced the land transportation to 216 miles, which had formerly been
448 miles, J. C. & H. C. Burbank having established a line of freight
trains connecting with the steamer. In 1867, when the St. Paul & Pacific
Railroad reached St. Cloud, the caravans of carts ceased their annual
visits to St. Paul. St. Cloud then became the terminus of the traffic,
until the increase of freight lines and the completion of the Northern
Pacific Railroad to the Red river drove these most primitive of all
transportation vehicles out of business. Another cause of the decrease
in the fur trade was the imposition of a duty of twenty-five per cent on
all dressed skins, which included buffalo robes, and from that time on
robes that formerly came to St. Paul from the British possessions were
diverted to Montreal.
The extent and value of this trade to Minnesota, which was then in its
infancy, can easily be judged by a brief statement of its growth. In
1844 it amounted to $1,400 and in 1863 to $250,000. All the money paid
out for these furs, and large sums besides, would be expended in St.
Paul for merchandise, in the shape of groceries, liquors, dry goods,
blankets, household utensils, guns and ammunition, and, in fact every
article demanded by the needs of a primitive people. Even threshers and
mowers were included, which were taken apart and loaded on the return
carts. This trade was the pioneer of the great commercial activity which
now prevails.
I cannot permit this opportunity to pass without describing the Red
river cart, and the picturesque people who used it, as their like will
never be seen again. The inhabitants of the Pembina country were
principally Chippewa half breeds, with an occasional white man,
prominently Joseph Rolette, of whom I shall hereafter speak as the man
who vetoed the capital removal bill, by running away with it, in 1857.
Their principal business was hunting the buffalo, in connection with
small farming, and defending themselves against the invasions of their
hereditary enemies, the Sioux. They were a bold, free race, skilled in
the arts of Indian war, fine horsemen, and good fighters.
The Red river cart was a home invention. It was made entirely of wood
and rawhide. It moved upon two wheels, of about a diameter of five feet
six inches, with shafts for one animal, horse or ox,--generally the
latter. The wheels were without tires, and their tread about three and a
half or four inches wide. They would carry a load of six to eight
hundred pounds, which would be protected by canvas covers. They were
especially adapted to the condition of the country, which was largely
interspersed with swamps and sloughs, which were impassable for any
other character of vehicle. Their lightness, the width of the surface
presented by the tread of the wheel and the careful steps of the
educated animal which drew them, enabled them to go where anything else
would flounder. The trail which they left upon the prairie was deeply
cut, and remained for many years after they were disused.
When a brigade of them was ready to leave from Pembina for St. Paul, it
would be manned by one driver for four carts, the train being arranged
in single file with the animals hitched to the cart before them, so that
one driver could attend to that number of carts. Their speed was about
fifteen miles a day, which made the voyage last about a month. When
night overtook them they formed a circular corral with their carts, the
shafts pointing inward, with the camp in the center, which made a strong
fort in case of attack. The animals were allowed to graze on the
outside, but were carefully watched to prevent a stampede. When they
reached St. Paul they went into camp near some lake, and were a great
source of interest to all the newcomers. During their stay the town
would be thronged with the men, who were dressed in vari-colored
costumes, always including the sash of Pembina, a beautiful girdle,
giving them a most picturesque appearance. The only truthful
representation of these curious people that has been preserved is found
in two full length portraits of Joe Rollette, one in the gallery of the
Minnesota Historical Society and the other on the walls of the Minnesota
Club, in St. Paul, both of which are the gift of a very dear friend of
the original.
During the progress of this peculiar traffic many people not connected
with the established fur companies, engaged in the Indian trade,
prominently Culver and Farrington, Louis Roberts, and Nathan Myrick. I
remember that Mr. John Farrington made an improvement in the
construction of the Red river cart, by putting an iron box in the hub of
the wheel, which prevented the loud squeaking noise they formerly made,
and so facilitated their movements that they carried a thousand pounds
as easily as they had before carried eight hundred.
The early fur trade in the Northwest, carried on by canoes and these
carts, was very appropriately called by one of our first historians of
Minnesota, "The heroic age of American commerce."
PEMMICAN.
One of the principal sources of subsistence of these frontier people in
their long journeys through uninhabited regions was pemmican. This food
was especially adapted to extreme northern countries, where in the
winter it was sometimes impossible to make fires to cook with, and the
means of transportation was by dog-trains, as it was equally good for
man and beast. It was invented among the Hudson Bay people, many years
ago, and undoubtedly from necessity. It was made in this way: The meat
of the buffalo, without the fat, was thoroughly boiled, and then picked
into shreds or very small pieces. A sack was made of buffalo skin, with
the hair on the outside, which would hold about ninety pounds of meat. A
hole was then dug in the ground of sufficient size to hold the sack. It
was filled with the meat thus prepared, which was packed and pounded
until it was as hard as it could be made. A kettle of boiling hot
buffalo fat, in a fluid state, was then poured into it, until it was
thoroughly permeated, every interstice from center to circumference
being filled, until it became a solid mass, perfectly impervious to the
air, and as well preserved against decomposition as if it had been
enclosed in an hermetically sealed glass jar. Here you had a most
nutritious preparation of animal food, all ready for use for both man
and dog. An analysis of this compound proved it to possess more
nutriment to the pound weight than any other substance ever
manufactured, and with a winter camp appetite, it was a very palatable
dish. Its great superiority over any other kind of food was its not
requiring preparation and its portability.
TRANSPORTATION AND EXPRESS.