greater transportation facilities, and the men to furnish them were not
wanting. John C. Burbank of St. Paul may be said to have been the
pioneer in that line, although several minor lines of stages and
ventures in the livery business preceded his efforts. Willoughby &
Powers, Allen & Chase, M. O. Walker & Company of Chicago, and others,
were early engaged in this work. In 1854 the Northwestern Express
Company was organized by Burbank & Whitney, and in 1856 Captain Russell
Blakeley succeeded Mr. Whitney, and the express business became well
established in Minnesota. In 1858-59 Mr. Burbank got the mail contract
down the river, and established an express line from St. Paul to Galena,
in connection with the American Express Company, whose lines extended to
Galena as its western terminus. Steamboats were used in summer and
stages in winter. In the fall of 1859 the Minnesota Stage Company was
formed by a consolidation of the Burbank interests with those of Allen &
Chase, and the line extended up the Mississippi to St. Anthony and Crow
Wing. Other lines and interests were purchased and united, and in the
spring of 1860 Col. John L. Merriam became a member of the firm, and
for more than seven years Messrs. Burbank, Blakeley & Merriam
constituted the firm and carried on the express and stage business in
Minnesota. This business increased rapidly, and in 1865 this firm worked
over seven hundred horses, and employed two hundred men.
During this staging period the railroads from the East centered in
Chicago, and gradually reached the Mississippi river from that point;
first at Rock Island, next at Dunleith, opposite Dubuque, then at
Prairie du Chien, next at Prairie La Crosse,--each advance carrying them
nearer Minnesota. The Prairie du Chien extension was continued across
the river at McGregor in Iowa, and thence up through Iowa and Southern
Minnesota to Minneapolis and St. Paul. In 1872 the St. Paul & Chicago
Railroad was finished from St. Paul down the west bank of the
Mississippi to Winona and was purchased by the Milwaukee & St. Paul
Company, and by that company was, in 1873, extended still further down
the river to La Crescent, opposite to La Crosse, which completed the
connection with the eastern trains. This road was popularly known as the
"River Road." Various other railroads were soon completed, covering the
needs of the settled part of the state, and the principal stage lines
either withdrew to the westward, or gave up their business.
The growth in the carrying line has since become immense throughout the
state, and may be judged when I say that there are now five strong daily
lines to Chicago, the Burlington, the Omaha, the Milwaukee, the
Wisconsin Central and the Chicago Great Western, and three
transcontinental lines departing daily for the Pacific Coast, the
Northern Pacific, the Great Northern and the Sault Ste. Marie
(connecting with the Canadian Pacific). Besides these prominent trains,
there are innumerable lesser ones connecting with nearly every part of
the state. More passenger trains arrive at, and depart from, the St.
Paul Union Depot than at any other point in the state. They aggregate
104 in, and the same number out every day. Many--perhaps the most--of
these trains go to Minneapolis. The freight trains passing these points
are, of course, less regular in their movements than the scheduled
passenger trains, but their number is great, and their cargoes of
incalculable value.
LUMBER.
A large portion of Minnesota is covered with exceptionally fine timber.
The northern section, traversed by the Mississippi and its numerous
branches, the St. Croix, the St. Louis, and other streams, was covered
with a growth of white and Norway pine of great value, and a large area
of its central western portion with hard timber. At a very early day in
the history of our state these forests attracted the attention of
lumbermen from different parts of the country, principally from Maine,
who erected sawmills at the Falls of St. Anthony, Stillwater and other
points, and began the cutting of logs to supply them. Nearly all the
streams were navigable for logs, or were easily made so, and thus one of
the great industries of the state had its beginning. Quite an amount of
lumber was manufactured at Minneapolis in the fifties, but no official
record of the amounts were kept until 1870. An estimate of the standing
pine in the state was made by the United States government for the
census of 1880, which was designed to include all the standing pine on
the streams leading into the Mississippi, the Rainy Lake river, the St.
Croix, and the head of Lake Superior; in fact, the whole state. The
estimate was 10,000,000,000 feet. When this estimate was made, it was
accepted by the best informed lumbermen as approximately correct. The
mills at Minneapolis and above, in the St. Croix valley, and in what was
called the Duluth district, were cutting about 500,000,000 feet a year.
It was expected that there would be a gradual increase in the
consumption of lumber made by Minnesota mills, and it was therefore
estimated that in about fifteen years, all the white pine in the state
would be cut into lumber and sold; but such has not proved to be the
case, although the production has rapidly increased as was expected. But
this difference between the estimate and the result is not of much
consequence, as there is nothing more unreliable than an estimate of
standing timber, and especially is such the case when covering a large
area of country. Since 1880 the production of lumber in the state has
increased from year to year, until it is at the present time fully
1,629,110,000 feet of pine logs every year. The cut made by the
Minneapolis mills alone in 1898 was 469,701,000 feet, with a
corresponding amount of laths and shingles. But this pace cannot be kept
up much longer, and apprehensions of the entire destruction of the
forests of the state are becoming quite prevalent among the people.
These fears are taking the shape of associations for the promotion of
scientific forestry, and the establishment of large forest reserves near
the headwaters of our streams, which are to serve also the purpose of
national parks. In assigning a cause for the lowering of our streams,
and the drying up of many of our lakes, in a former part of this work, I
attribute it to the plowing up of their valleys and watersheds, and not
to the destruction of the forests, because I do not think that the
latter reason has sufficiently progressed to produce the result,
although it is well known that the destruction of growing timber about
the head waters of streams operates disastrously upon the volume of
their waters and the regularity of its flow. Minnesota is the best
watered state in the Union, and every precaution should be taken to
maintain this advantage. From the extent of the interest displayed in
the direction of forest reserves and their scientific administration, we
have every reason to hope for speedy and final success. The state and
interstate parks already established will be noticed hereafter.
RELIGION.
The growth of the religious element of a new country is always one of
its interesting features, and I will endeavor to give a short account of
the progress made in this line in Minnesota from the mission period,
which was directed more particularly to the Christianizing of the
Indians. I will begin with the first structure ever erected in the
state, designed for religious purposes. It was a very small beginning
for the prodigious results that have followed it. I speak of the little
log "Chapel of Saint Paul," built by the Rev. Lucian Galtier, in
October, 1841, in what is now the city of St. Paul.
Father Galtier was a French priest of the Church of Rome. He was sent by
the ecclesiastic authorities of Dubuque to the Upper Mississippi
country, and arrived at Fort Snelling in April, 1840, and settled at St.
Peters (now Mendota), where he soon tired of inaction, and sought a
larger field among the settlers who had found homes further down the
river, in the neighborhood of the present St. Paul. He decided that he
could facilitate his labors by erecting a church at some point
accessible to his parishioners. Here he found Joseph Rondo, Edward
Phalen, Vetal Guerin, Pierre Bottineau, the Gervais Brothers, and a few
others. The settlers encouraged the idea of building a church, and a
question of much importance arose as to where it should be placed. I
will let the good father tell his own story as to the selection of a
site. In an account of this matter, which he prepared for Bishop Grace
in 1864, he says:
"Three different points were offered, one called La Pointe
Basse, or Pointe La Claire (now Pig's Eye); but I objected
because that locality was the very extreme end of the new
settlement, and in high water, was exposed to inundation. The
idea of building a church which might at any day be swept down
the river to St. Louis did not please me. Two miles and a half
further up, on his elevated claim (now the southern point of
Dayton's Bluff), Mr. Charles Mouseau offered me an acre of his
ground, but the place did not suit my purpose. I was truly
looking ahead, thinking of the future as well as the present.
Steamboats could not stop there; the bank was too steep, the
place on the summit of the hill too restricted, and
communication difficult with the other parts of the settlement
up and down the river.
"After mature reflection, I resolved to put up the church at the
nearest possible point to the cave, because it would be more
convenient for me to cross the river there when coming from St.
Peters, and because it would be also the nearest point to the
head of navigation, outside of the reservation line. Mr. B.
Gervais and Mr. Vetal Guerin, two good, quiet farmers, had the
only spot which appeared likely to answer the purpose. They
consented jointly to give me the ground necessary for a church
site, a garden and a small graveyard. I accepted the extreme
eastern part of Mr. Vetal's claim, and the extreme west of Mr.
Gervais'. Accordingly, in the month of October, 1841, logs were
prepared and a church erected, so poor that it well reminded one
of the stable of Bethlehem. It was destined, however, to be the
nucleus of a great city. On the first day of November, in the
same year, I blessed the new _basilica_, and dedicated it to
Saint Paul, the apostle of nations. I expressed a wish, at the
same time, that the settlement would be known by the same name,
and my desire was obtained. I had, previously to this time,
fixed my residence at St. Peters, and as the name of _Paul_ is
generally connected with that of _Peter_, and the Gentiles being
well represented at the new place in the persons of Indians, I
called it St. Paul. The name "Saint Paul," applied to a town or
city seemed appropriate. The monosyllable is short, sounds well,
and is understood by all denominations of Christians. When Mr.
Vetal was married, I published the banns as those of a resident
of St. Paul. A Mr. Jackson put up a store, and a grocery was
opened at the foot of Gervais' claim. This soon brought
steamboats to land there. Thenceforth the place was known as
'Saint Paul Landing,' and later on as Saint Paul."
The chapel was a small log structure--one story high, one door, and no
windows in front, with two windows on each side, and one in the rear
end. It had on the front gable end a large wooden cross, which projected
above the peak of the roof some six or eight feet. It occupied a
conspicuous position, on the top of the high bluff overlooking the
Mississippi, some six or eight hundred feet below the point where the
Wabasha street bridge now spans the river, I think, between Minnesota
and Cedar streets.
The region thus named was formerly known by the appellation of "Pig's
Eye." The state owes Father Galtier a debt of gratitude for having
changed it, as it seems impossible that the capital city could ever have
attained its present majestic proportions, numerous and cultivated
population, and many other advantages and attractions, under the
handicap of such a name.
In the first New Year's address ever printed in Minnesota, on Jan. 1,
1850, supposed to be by Editor Goodhue, the following lines appeared:
"Pig's Eye, converted thou shall be, like Saul:
Arise, and be, henceforth, SAINT PAUL."
Father Galtier died Feb. 21, 1866.
The chapel of Saint Paul, after having been the first to greet all
newcomers by way of the Mississippi for fifteen years, was taken down in
1856.
The next representative of the Catholic church to come to Minnesota was
the Rev. Augustin Ravoux, who arrived in the fall of 1841. He went up
the St. Peter's river to Traverse des Sioux, where he commenced the
study of the Sioux language. Soon after he went to Little Rock, on the
St. Peters, and thence to Lac qui Parle. After the removal of Father
Galtier to Keokuk, in Iowa, he had under his charge, Mendota, St. Paul,
Lake Pepin and St. Croix, until the second day of July, 1851, when the
Right Reverend Bishop Cretin came to St. Paul, and assumed charge of
church matters in Minnesota. Father Ravoux is still living in St. Paul
at the advanced age of eighty-five years. His venerable and priestly
form may often be seen upon the streets, in excellent health.
At the time of the coming of Father Galtier the country on the east side
of the Mississippi, in what is now Minnesota, was under the direct
jurisdiction of the Bishop of Milwaukee, and the part lying west of the
river was in the diocese of Dubuque.
The growth of the church kept up with the rapid settlement of the
country. In August, 1859, the Right Reverend Thomas L. Grace succeeded
Bishop Cretin as bishop of St. Paul, and was himself succeeded by the
Right Reverend John Ireland, in July, 1884. So important had Minnesota
become to the Catholic Church in America that, in May of 1888, the see
of St. Paul was raised to metropolitan dignity and Archbishop Ireland
was made its first Archbishop, which high office he now holds.
I will not attempt even a short biography of Archbishop Ireland. His
fame is world-wide; he is a churchman, statesman, diplomat, orator,
citizen and patriot,--in each of which capacities he excels. He has
carried the fame of Minnesota to all parts of the world where the Church
is known, and has demonstrated to the Pope in Rome, to the Catholics in
France, and to the Protestants in America that there can be perfect
consistency and harmony between Catholicism and republican government. A
history of Minnesota without a fitting tribute to Archbishop John
Ireland would be incomplete indeed.
The representatives of the Protestant faith have not been behind their
Catholic brethren in providing religious facilities for their
adherents. They followed immigration closely, and sometimes accompanied
it. Scarcely would an aggregation of people congregate at any one
point in sufficient numbers to gain the name of a village, or a
settlement, before a minister would be called and a church erected.
The church went hand in hand with the schoolhouse, and in many instances
one building answered for both purposes. There came Lutherans from
Germany and Scandinavia, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians,
Congregationalists, Calvinists, Universalists, Unitarians, and every
sect into which Protestantism is divided, from New England and other
Eastern States. They all found room and encouragement, and dwelt in
harmony. I can safely say, that few Western States have been peopled by
such law-abiding, industrious, moral and religious inhabitants as were
the first settlers of Minnesota. There was nothing to attract the
ruffianly element,--no gold, silver, or other mines; the chief industry
being peaceful agriculture. So free from all disturbing or dangerous
elements did we consider our territory that I have on several occasions
taken a wagon loaded with specie, amounting to nearly one hundred
thousand dollars, from St. Paul to the Indian agencies at the Redwood
and Yellow Medicine rivers, a distance of two hundred miles, through a
very sparsely settled country, without any guard except myself and
driver, with possibly an Indian picked up on the road, when I was
entitled to a squad of dragoons for the asking.
In the early days the Episcopal Church in Minnesota was within the
diocese of Wisconsin, and its functions administered by the venerable
Bishop Kemper, who occasionally made us a visit, but in 1859 the church
had expanded to such an extent that the state was organized into a
separate diocese, and the Rev. Henry B. Whipple, then rector of a church
in Chicago, was elected bishop of Minnesota, and still retains that high
office. Bishop Whipple, by his energy, learning, goodness and universal
popularity, has built up his church in this state to a standard
surpassed by none in the respect in which it is held and the influence
for good which it exerts. The official duties of the bishop have been so
enlarged by the growth of his church as to necessitate the appointment
of a bishop coadjutor to assist him in their performance, which latter
office is filled by the Rev. Mahlon N. Gilbert, who is especially well
qualified for the position.[1]
It would be impossible in a brief history like this to go very deeply or
particularly into the growth of the religious element of the state. A
general presentation of the subject in two grand divisions, Catholic and
Protestant, is enough. Suffice it to say, that every sect and
subdivision of the latter has its representative in the state, with the
one exception of Mormonism, if that can be classified as a Protestant
church. There are enough of them to recall the answer of the French
traveler in America, when asked of his opinion of the Americans. He
said: "They are a most remarkable people; they have invented three
hundred religions and only one sauce." No matter how their creeds may be
criticised, their joint efforts, Catholic and Protestant, have filled
the state with religious, charitable, benevolent and educational
institutions to an extent rarely witnessed out of it, so that if a
Minnesotan goes wrong, he can blame no one but himself.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Bishop Gilbert died within a few months.
RAILROADS.
In the year 1857, on the third day of March, the congress of the United
States made an extensive grant of lands to the territory to aid in the
construction of railroads. It consisted of every alternate section of
land, designated by odd numbers, for six sections in width, on each side
of the roads specified, and their branches. The grant mapped out a
complete system of roads for the territory, and provided that the land
granted for each road should be applied exclusively to such road, and no
other purpose whatever. The lines designated in the granting act were as
follows:
From Stillwater, by the way of St. Paul and St. Anthony to a point
between the foot of Big Stone lake and the mouth of the Sioux Wood
river, with a branch via St. Cloud and Crow Wing to the navigable waters
of the Red River of the North, at such point as the legislature of the
territory may determine.
From St. Paul and from St. Anthony via Minneapolis to a convenient point
of junction west of the Mississippi to the southern boundary of the
territory, in the direction of the mouth of the Big Sioux river, with a
branch via Faribault to the north line of the state of Iowa, west of
range 16.
From Winona via St. Peter to a point on the Big Sioux river, south of
the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude.
Also from La Crescent via Target lake up the valley of the Root river,
to a point east of range 17.
The territory or future state was authorized to sell one hundred and
twenty sections of this land whenever twenty continuous miles of any of
the roads or branches was completed,--the land so sold to be contiguous
to the completed road. The right of way or road bed of any of the
subsidized roads was also granted through any of the government lands.
The roads were all to be completed within ten years, and if any of them
were not finished by that time the lands applicable to the unfinished
portions were to revert to the government. The lands granted by this act
amounted to about 4,500,000 acres. An act was subsequently passed on
March 2, 1865, increasing the grant to ten sections to the mile. Various
other grants were made at different times, but they do not bear upon the
subject I am about to present.
This grant came at a time of great financial depression, and when the
territory was about to change its dependent condition for that of a
sovereign state in the Union. It was greeted as a means of relief that
might lift the territory out of its financial troubles, and insure its
immediate prosperity. The people did not take into consideration the
fact that the lands embraced in the grant, although as good as any in
the world, were remote from the habitation of man, lying in a country
absolutely bankrupt, and possessing no present value whatever. Nor did
they consider that the whole country was laboring under such financial
depression that all public enterprises were paralyzed; but such was,
unfortunately, the monetary and business condition.
On the twenty-third of February, 1857, an act had passed the congress of
the United States authorizing the people of Minnesota to form a
constitution preparatory to becoming a state in the Union. Gen. Willis
A. Gorman, who was then governor of the territory, called a special
session of the legislature to take into consideration measures to carry
out the land grant and enabling acts. The extra session convened on
April 27th. In the meantime Governor Gorman's term of office had
expired, and Samuel Medary of Ohio had been appointed as his successor,
and had assumed the duties of his office. He opened the extra session
with an appropriate message. The extra session adjourned on the 23d of
May, and in accordance with the provisions of the enabling act of
congress, an election was held on the first Monday in June for delegates
to a constitutional convention, which was to assemble at the capitol on
the second Monday in July. The constitutional convention is an event in
the history of Minnesota sufficiently important and unique to entitle it
to special treatment, which will be given hereafter.
An act was passed at the extra session, on the 19th day of May, 1857, by
which the grant of lands made to the territory was formally accepted,
"upon the terms, conditions and restrictions" contained in the granting
act.
On the twenty-second day of May, at the extra session, an act was passed
to execute the trust created by the land grant act, by which a number of
railroad companies were incorporated to construct roads on the lines
indicated by the act of congress, and to aid in the building of these
roads, and the lands applicable to each were granted to it. The
companies were to receive title to the lands as the construction
progressed, as provided in the granting act. They also had conferred
upon them powers to issue bonds, in the discretion of the directors, and
to mortgage their roads and franchise to secure them.
These railroad companies were organized upon the hope that the aid
extended to them by the grants of land would enable them to raise money
sufficient to build their several roads. They had nothing of their own,
and no security but the roads and lands upon which to negotiate loans.
The times, and the novel idea of building railroads in unpeopled
countries, were all against them, and, of course, nothing could be done.
The constitutional convention met and framed an instrument for the
fundamental law of the new state which was very conservative, and, among
other things, contained the following clause, which was enacted in
section 5 of article IX.:
"For the purpose of defraying extraordinary expenses the state may
contract debts, but such debts shall never in the aggregate exceed two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars." And another clause found in section
10, which is as follows: "The credit of the state shall never be given
or loaned in aid of any individual, association or corporation."
It was the intention of the framers of the constitution to prevent the
legislature from ever using the credit or funds of the state in aid of
any private enterprise, and these provisions effectually accomplished
that end.
The people were deeply disappointed when they became convinced that the
roads could not be built with the aid that congress had extended, and as
this work was also looked upon as the only hope of financial relief, the
case became a desperate one, which could only be remedied by the most
extreme measures. The promoters of the railroads soon discovered one, in
an amendment of the section of the constitution which prohibited the
credit of the state being given or loaned to anyone, and at the first
session of the first legislature, which convened on Dec. 3, 1857, an act
was passed proposing such amendment, to be submitted to the people for
ratification. The importance of this amendment, and its effect and
consequences upon the future of the state, demands that I give it nearly
in full. It changed section 10 as it was originally passed, and made it
read as follows: